I am crossposting this story from other sites, but I suggest hopping on Questionable Questing if you would like to see some character portraits. Or join me on Discord, server code is vN7sTYhEp6

  I will be posting four chapters daily on this site until it catches up with other sites.

  The Fairy of Wind and Sass,

  She was in her element. The wind her ally, the Grimm her enemy. Once she saw the swarm of Sulfur Fish attacking the soldiers, she didn’t hesitate to drag their attention by removing all sembnce of control over her raging emotions. With an explosive burst of movement, Fie lunged into the midst of the swarm. Her every step was a testament to her deadly skill and precise control – she was a blur of motion, a phantom bde that struck and retreated before her adversaries could react. Her daggers danced like a whirlwind, sshing through the air with a symphony of deadly grace; Even as she dodged fming tails and deadly pincers with an almost supernatural agility, her body a blur as she evaded each attack by the narrowest of margins.

  Her Sembnce was not strong in the traditional sense. She could control the wind, that’s true to an extent, but she couldn’t summon storms, or change the weather. At most, she could barely create a breeze with it, let alone a gust of wind strong enough to knock down an assaint. Instead, she could move extremely fast by negating the effect of wind friction, or even hide her presence by eliminating her scent and hiding behind a mirage. Using the same method, she was able to create a sort of vacuum of space around her bdes, or limbs, for extra damage when attacking.

  Hers was a subtle Sembnce. High affinity with Wind Dust, brutal training, and sheer ingenuity combined with her lithe and agile form had always been enough to get her through most combat situations. Sylphid provided other uses for her, but mostly utilitarian in nature. For pure combat, however, she was proud to say that it was all grit and skill from her part… and other things that infmed the negativity she consciously exuded to drag the Grimm’s attention.

  The Grimm fell with each heartbeat, their bodies quickly disintegrating leaving nothing but the smell of death and decay. Fie’s attacks were a choreography of calcuted strikes, each one delivered with a surgical precision that left no room for error. Any time she risked being swarmed, she retreated while leaving a primed grenade as a parting gift. Her reserve of bombs was running low, but nothing created a distraction better than an explosion.

  As the sun set in the sky, its st lights cast a gleam upon her bdes, turning them into twin fshes of brilliance. Fie’s movements became more fluid, more intuitive, as if she and the wind were inextricably intertwined. She moved like a gust of air, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving behind a trail of fallen foes.

  Finally, with a slice of her dagger, she finished off the st of the Sulfur Fish in this sector of the battlefield. The rest of the swarm was getting mowed down by the troops, with many of them confused on whether to attack the troops or the one who was releasing so much negativity.

  Fie was getting close to her limit. Her Aura was down to a fifth and her breathing was harsh. It took a lot out of her to maintain this trance she was in; where she drowns herself in those negative feelings when she was just a little girl trying to survive the depredations of those scum, without losing control and breaking down into hysterics.

  Even the mere mention of the term Grimm Bait was enough to fill her with Fear. Anger. Hatred!

  She shook her head, and emptied her guns at a crowd of Grimm. It was a good thing the Sulfur Fish were so weak, as even her low caliber guns could kill them in one shot. As she reloaded, she noticed that the surviving swarm were combining into one mass of darkness. It was too te to stop them now, and she curiously wondered; what form will they take?

  She looked back to beyond the gorge as she saw a fsh of light then heard the crashing of thunder, Sara must be going all out.

  Regardless, there wasn’t any other Grimm nearby, so she carefully controlled her emotions. Speaking of Sara, she had told her multiple times that shoving all those bad memories into the back of her mind wasn’t a practical solution to her problem, but it had worked for her so far.

  Fie felt her body rex, as her scowling face slowly lost all tension and returned to her normal impassive look, and silently contempted on her life.

  She didn’t have many friends. In fact, the list of people she liked was tiny, with Sara being on the top of that list. She liked Sara, loved her even, for she was the big sister she never had, but she wasn’t her mother. Fie didn’t even remember her own mother, nor her st name. She didn’t remember much of her early life, before that incident at least. Sara would never understand what Fie had endured, yet she loved the attention and pampering the older adventurer gave her, even if Sara kept insisting on her making more friends and having fun.

  She did have fun; Killing Grimm was fun, helping people was fun, shooting bandits was fun, teasing authority figures was fun, blowing stuff up was the most fun! And she did make a new friend; Jaune was kind, smelled nice, and getting up on that list of people she liked, despite only knowing him for barely two days. Fie could have even sworn that they formed some sort of connection when they were fighting, as she could instinctively know where he was as well as his thoughts during the fight earlier. She must have imagined it, though, as she couldn’t feel a thing now.

  A quick dash and she was next to the troops, who had stopped firing as they stared at the forming mass in morbid fascination. She noticed the Guard Captain staring at her while having his wounded hand treated. Deciding to have some fun, she fshed a peace sign while raising her voice.

  “You guys do know that you could still hurt that thing before it finishes forming, right? I can see limbs bursting out, so it's probably the golem form.”

  The soldiers jumped at her voice, not even noticing her presence. When they didn’t do anything but stare, Fie stared back impassively at the nearest man, one of the gunners if she wasn’t mistaken, “Oh no. The tiny little monsters are going to turn into big bad monsters, what are we going to do? If only we had a big cannon that went boom on them.”

  The men flinched heavily at the extremely bnd tone she used. Montgomery was the first to react, “Cannons! Fire the damn guns, curse you.”

  T*A*M*S

  Fie stared out impassively as the st of the Sulfur Fish succumbed to the unrelenting salvos of the machine guns and cannons. No matter how tough a Grimm was, nor how rge, you can always count on the explosive option to get rid of them. The soldiers did well enough, she supposed. She looked on as the men recovered the bodies of their fallen comrades and tuned out the moans of the wounded and the dying. The casualties were disheartening, but she had seen and heard worse. Far worse. They should be gd, she thought with an internal shrug; they could all have been sughtered to a man.

  She could hear galloping horses from behind them, and turned to see a squad of battered Dragoons rushing towards their position, leading a dozen horses. She recognized Rory, who had befriended Jaune, along with that other older man. What was his name? Dinkley?

  Hey, that’s her horse! She moved swiftly to take his reins from one of the Dragoons, who seemingly didn’t even notice her. Looks like her horse had made a friend, she thought, as she looked at the sparrow perched on her horse’s head.

  “Seems we missed most of the action.” The older Dragoon was saying as he beheld the carnage of the previous half-hour.

  “Sergeant. How is the camp?” The guard captain greeted from his seat on a crate of munitions. Ah, she remembered his name now, Duncan.

  “Secure, for now. It was the cssical Wolfbird onsught. Packs of Beowulfs supported by a flock of Nevermores. We managed to beat them off, but not without casualties of our own.”

  The men stayed silent as they acknowledged the losses they have both suffered, “anyway, we heard plenty of explosions, so the Lieutenant bid me to check on you. He will be sending an ACP with medical personnel shortly. I also believe these horses are yours.”

  It was then that he finally noticed her sitting on her horse while also taking hold of Jaune’s and Sara’s horses. If he was surprised, he hid it well. Rory stifled a ugh as the rest of his squad jerked at her presence.

  “…Sup.”

  Before more could be said, Fie felt something from the quarry. She nudged her horse forward to get a better look, and it seemed the Dragoons had also noticed something as they looked straight ahead. Duncan brought out a pair of binocurs and looked through them.

  There was a figure running towards them at high speed and with her superior vision, Fie could tell it was Jaune, but she felt a spike of worry as she noticed a clearly injured Sara in his arms. At the same time, that imaginary connection from earlier reconnected, and she could tell that Jaune was annoyed by something and only had his mind on one thing right now.

  Cannons.

  “What the devil is that?”

  Surprised by the sergeant’s shout, Fie looked behind Jaune to find a golem made of cooling molten rock chasing them in a fury. It was quite far behind them, and clearly slow on its feet, but even she could feel the sheer malice and hatred it emitted from its being. That expins it.

  “Captain, maybe we should load the cannons and have the gunners aim for that thing? If Jaune and Sara are running from it, then clearly they needed a lot more firepower to take it down.”

  Montgomery didn’t need to be told twice and quickly called for the gunners to load the cannons with the high-explosive munitions. At the same time, Jaune had arrived with Sara and gingerly set her down on an empty cot where the triage was set. Fie took one look at Sara’s condition, and her ruined attire, and sighed.

  “How much?”

  Sara giggled, “Is that the first thing you could think about?”

  At her bnd expression, Sara shrugged, “A few thousand Lien, no biggie.”

  Before Fie could give a scathing reply about how money was tight and that Sara needed to be serious about their funds, the gunners gave warning shouts for everyone to cover their ears. Being a faunus, Fie would definitely take that warning extra seriously as she produced a pair of ear plugs from her pocket and put them on, and put another pair on Sara’s ears. Soldiers were covering their ears with their hands, but curiously, Jaune unsheathed his sword instead and moved to the frontline all the while it gradually shined to a brilliant sheen. She might not be able to sense Aura, at least normally she couldn’t, but from that vague…link… she had with Jaune, Fie could sense an absurd amount of Aura being channeled to that sword. More than what she has right now.

  It certainly put into perspective how she was touted out to be this once in a generation genius due to her Aura reserves. To think Jaune still hadn’t even recovered his full strength yet.

  The Geist, for that’s what the golem was, was still blindly charging at them. It was staring right at Sara, and Fie curiously looked back at her friend only to see her struggling to sit upright as one of the medics treated her wounds. She cheekily winked and stuck her tongue out at the Grimm, causing it to unleash a roar of rage that sounded like a rock slide.

  The cannons roared back in reply. The twenty-foot tall walking rock formation was blown to smithereens, barely a hundred yards from their position…an ignoble end to such a dangerous threat. Fie kept a close eye on the dust and smoke, for there was a chance the Geist could survive such damage.

  Her vigince proved justified as a bck cloaked figure dazedly flew away from the explosion. Before Fie could move to intercept it, a shout from Jaune caught her attention.

  “Not this time!”

  With a twist of his arms, he unleashed a spiraling bolt of pure Aura from his bde, in the form of a thrust, at the airborne Grimm. It was so fast that the Geist didn’t even know what killed it when it hit it in an explosion.

  Everyone around them looked at Jaune in awe, especially the Aura using Dragoons. The mere idea that someone had so much Aura that they could channel it into a sword and waste it in a fshy but devastating attack like this was anathema to them. Fie could understand their shock, even she wouldn’t dare waste her Aura like this.

  As the dust settled, Jaune resheathed his sword and released a sigh. “I think that’s it.”

  “Looks like it.” Fie stared at the darkening skies, “We should start packing up and head back to base.”

  The troops around her continued their earlier chores, while Jaune moved around helping them. She, however, stared curiously at the sparrow that flew off her horse’s head. Shame, she thought she had made a new friend.

  T*A*M*S

  It was te evening and Fie had just finished a debrief with the Captain and the Lieutenant. The camp was surrounded by makeshift barricades to deter wild animals and act as warning to any approaching Grimm, but there were also many sentries on watch. She carried a bucket of water and towels as she made her way back to the small enclosure where she, Sara and Jaune had pitched one rge tent to sleep in. Fie couldn’t find Jaune, so she checked on Sara’s sleeping form. She had lost consciousness shortly after the Geist was defeated, but the medics stated it was simply exhaustion from the restless past few days combined with her injuries and shattered Aura.

  Jaune had briefed her on what happened after she left, and felt a little bad for not being there to help. Then again, without her, the soldiers would have been overrun. Fie used a wet towel to wipe Sara down, making sure she was clean by removing the dried blood and grime on her. It was more for her, as Fie would rather sleep in a clean tent with no smell of death from her sister in all by blood.

  After making sure Sara was comfy, Fie stretched her arms and thought about going to sleep herself. She hummed, but then decided to find Jaune first. Tracking his scent was doable, but she could still feel him through that connection they had. Making her way to a solitary campfire where she could hear low voices and chuckles sounding out, she twitched her nose as the smell of tobacco and other lung killers permeated the air.

  Jaune was sitting with his Dragoon friends, who had managed to convince him to try a cigar. Before he could take a drag from it, however, she intervened and grabbed it from his hands.

  “No smoking for you.”

  A bark of ughter sounded out from one of the Dragoons, “Oh man, you are so whipped Jauney boy.”

  Jaune scowled at the men’s ribbing, “Give me a break, Fie. I’ve had a long day, and it’s all recreational stuff. All the negatives are negated by Aura, you know. Gotta keep morale high and all that jazz, ain’t that right guys?”

  “Hear, hear. Its only tobacco, Sylphid. I haven’t even brought out my supply of weed. I might even have some catnip if you want?”

  She mock gred at Rory, not even sure if he was joking or not. Although, catnip sounds like a good– she shook her head fervently and seriously gred at the man this time, only for him to burst out ughing. Even Jaune joined in the fun, the traitor. She threw the cigar right at Rory’s forehead, the lit tip causing him to flinch even through his Aura and fall off his log, much to the ughter of the other Dragoons.

  “Fine, fine. I won’t smoke, but only because I don’t want my bedmate to murder me in my sleep. Come here, Fie.” Jaune finally stopped ughing and made space for her to sit next to him on the rge rock he used as a seat. Fie ignored him, and feeling mischievous, plopped on his p instead, much to his shock and the Dragoons amusement.

  “Uh, Fie? What are you doing?”

  “… Don’t mind me, just ciming the comfiest seat.”

  Jaune tried to object, but she was having none of it. This close to him, that link they had was much stronger, and she thought she could feel something that she attributed to be his Aura. She was never Aura sensitive, but if that’s how it was to feel the Aura of others, then she wouldn’t mind maintaining that connection for longer. She could tell he was flustered, yet ultimately resigned as he held her waist and allowed her to lean back on his chest, her tail sneaking behind his back to hold onto him.

  Duncan, the oldest one among their little group, took a deep drag from his cigar before blowing the smoke out into smokey circles. “You did well today, both of you. I hear that if it wasn’t for you, the good captain would have had a rout on his hand. We owe you a debt for keeping everyone safe, Sylphid. While most of the soldiers are deployed here from Vale proper, there are still quite a few of them who hailed from Celdic.”

  Fie looked impassively at the fire, “I wasn’t fast enough to save those who died though.” Her reminder brought a somber mood around the campfire. Jaune held her closer for comfort, and she appreciated it but, really, it was unnecessary. Death and destruction are old friends of hers.

  “It was tragic, but they knew what they signed up for. What’s important is that they didn’t die in vain. We will honor them for the brave and stout men that they were in life, and their families shall be told how they died in the line of duty fighting against the enemy of mankind and protecting their comrades. Thank you for helping with their burial, Arc.”

  “It was no problem. All that Aura I have could always be put to better use. If it means digging a hole through solid rock with my sword, then so be it. Will you send someone to retrieve the bodies for their families?”

  “It depends on what their families want. It’s become common for soldiers to be buried where they fall, from a purely pragmatic view as well as spiritual. They deserve to occupy the spot they fought and died in. However, if their kin request it, then we shall send an escort.”

  Rory took this chance to change the subject as the mood was not to his taste, “Say, Sylphid. Or should I call you Fie? Nah, Sylphid sounds cooler. Anyway, I’ve always wondered about this, but you are quite young to be in this line of business, aren’t you? How old are you again? Fourteen?”

  Normally, Fie would have cmmed up at such a discussion and even thought Rory was provoking her or something. Yet, for some reason, she could feel his intent through his Aura, and he was just curious and maybe a little bored.

  “I’ll have you know I’m almost sixteen and will be of age next month.”

  He guffawed, “almost? Well, I guess you’re old enough to make your own decisions at least. How did you become so strong though?”

  This time, Fie really did cm up and refused to answer, causing an awkward silence to permeate the clearing. Jaune, sensing her reluctance to speak, changed the topic instead.

  “I’m more interested in any news from Celdic. Didn’t Brocket mention that he had his people scouting out the neighboring bandit cns?”

  “He did. Last we’ve heard was that none of them could be found. It was like they all packed up and left, although there were the occasional signs of combat near their bases.”

  From there they all engaged in some more small talk, before one by one, the Dragoons excused themselves to sleep or for watch duty. Fie stayed with Jaune, as they enjoyed the comfortable silence between them. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her, and she asked him about that link they had.

  “You noticed, huh? Remember when I mentioned my Searching ability?” She nodded, “It has a sub ability called Pathfinder that allows me to keep track of people I know through their Aura. Although, I’m surprised that you could feel the link. I thought you said that you couldn’t feel Aura?”

  Fie shrugged, “I can feel your Aura now. If I had to put how it feels into words, it would be strong and stalwart with a hint of tingling that reminds me of static.”

  Jaune hummed in contemption, “Must be due to my lightning affinity.”

  They stared silently at the fire for a few more minutes.

  “I promised to teach you that ability, didn’t I?”

  Fie perked up in surprise. She had forgotten that he did, she nodded her head enthusiastically as she turned around his p to face him better, “You will?”

  “Sure, but are you sure you don’t want Storage instead? Think about it, you could store a lot of ammo and explosives in your own personal space. Who knows? If you’re skilled enough, you might incorporate it in your fighting style.”

  Fie bit her lip as she thought deeply about his proposal. Search was certainly tempting, but she was already an excellent tracker. That, combined with her senses, allowed her to easily find any of her quarry. It would be nice, to be able to track targets like Jaune, but from her understanding, she needed to be able to sense Aura to use it the same way as him. Presently, she could feel Aura, but she wasn’t sure if it will be gone once Jaune severs that link.

  Storage, on the other hand, would be extremely useful to her. Just the thought of the number of explosions she could travel with and unleash in one go caused her to nearly drool in excitement.

  Still…she clutched his shirt in embarrassment and bit her lips while she hid her face on his chest.

  “…both.”

  “Sorry?”

  Fie looked at him abruptly, “Both! I want both. Could you give me both? Please? I’ll do anything!”

  Jaune burst out ughing at her pleading look, “Greedy, aren’t you? Why would you want both anyway? I mean, that was quite audacious of you, Fie. What would you even offer me?”

  “I can teach you stuff. How to make booby traps, or how to use explosions properly, or maybe tracking and woodcraft? You mentioned the ability only works on those with Aura, so tracking Grimm for you would have to be the old-fashioned way. What do you think?”

  “Hmm that all sounds good. I’m not bad at tracking Grimm, but I could use a touch up. I’m more interested in Dust weaving and that Aura technique you used to defy gravity. Still, explosions? You really do love blowing stuff up, huh?”

  Fie pouted, and jokingly pinched his sides, feeling satisfied at the pained grunt from the blonde man.

  “Okay, okay. I give. Sheesh, you’re a violent one. Ow!” Another pinch, this time on his thigh.

  “What’s wrong with being violent? I wouldn’t be in this profession if I didn’t like killing monsters, shooting bad guys and blowing stuff up.”

  “True that. Okay, seriously, though,” Fie could feel the sudden shift in Jaune’s tone. No more joking around, “If there’s one thing I want from you, it is to know more about you. Rory asked that same question earlier, but I figured you wouldn’t be too comfortable speaking about your past in front of so many people. You know just about everything about me anyway, so why not indulge me?”

  Fie cmmed up as she buried her face in his chest again. Her past? She would rather not tell anyone about it, let alone someone like Jaune. He was so kind and nice to her, she would rather not ruin what they had. She shook her head violently, this wasn’t like her! She would never have acted so spoiled and clingy to anyone. So…weak and vulnerable! Maybe with Sara, but certainly not with someone she had only known for two days. Regardless of how nice Jaune is, and how much she likes him, she had been acting extremely weird around him tely. Is it because she could feel his intentions so clearly? His emotions towards her? That he held no malice or any kind of bad intentions towards her? Heck, he didn’t even lust after her, which seriously hurt her ego.

  “Fie? Are you alright?”

  At his worried soft tone, she froze up and reverted to what she knew best in these situations. She completely withdrew inwards, bottling up her emotions and all her worries behind a powerful mental barrier, right where she keeps those memories of her past. Adopting a completely impassive face, she turned to him and–

  “I can feel your emotions, you know? Talk to me, Fie. Tell me what’s wrong?” Jaune held her cheeks and looked deeply into her eyes, “What happened to you, Fie?”

  Suddenly, all of her mental walls and barriers were shattered by that simple question. What happened to her? She nearly screamed in rage at that question, and had to bite her lips to avoid that knee-jerk reaction, instead allowing a choked sob to leave her mouth.

  “…what didn’t happen to me? It’s not a nice story… Are you sure you want to hear it?”

  Jaune nodded his head, “I hope to understand you better. Knowing your past seems like an important step towards that goal.”

  She lowered her head to his chest as she took a deep shuddering breath, before letting it out. Then, the dam seemingly broke as she shared a past she wanted to forget.

  No matter how dangerous a Grimm could be, it could never withstand the nemesis of all big and ugly monsters. Big guns and even bigger explosions. This ain’t an anime where the characters have to moronically fight monsters themselves. When there’s an alternative, they will take it.

  Fans of the games would realize the significance of the link Fie and Jaune mentioned. Yep, its the Arcus link. I wonder what Jaune will call it? ARC-US? badum-tsss

  Keep in mind that Jaune just had the jackpot in the for of Magic Points. It was always my pn for him to focus on spreading the magic rather than hoarding it with the gacha system.