Italics indicate where Fox's telepathic semblance is being used as described in the EC Myers books.

Velvet and Yatsuhashi were patrolling the streets of the large village with some of the LGDF personnel.

This was the third time they had been on a mission with the Professor Port, but the first time they had seen the veteran hunter with people he had not met previously. On the trips within Vale, he had told the locals what he intended to do, how he was going to do it and what they could do to help apart from keeping out of his way.

Here he was in an area which he did not know dealing with people who knew the area better than he did and might well be sensitive to a foreigner coming in and telling them their business. It had been interesting to see how Port had prepared for the mission and how he dealt with the locals.

He had spent a few minutes at Ansel talking to the fox Faunus Reynard and had also had a quick word with the professor from Haven. Reynard had been going for eight hours rest having monitored the situation overnight and reported to Chief Claire Arc.

Port had told the Vale contingent using Fox's semblance, "Reynard told me that the hunter team led by Darren Marine are regular contractors with the Ansel LGDF. They are both competent and excellent value for money. Just because they have not competed at the Vytal Festival does not mean that they are not the right people for protecting villages from the Grimm. They have been assigned here because the locals in both villages trust them and they know the area. While I agree with Miss Adel's views on the use of Miss Scarlatina and Mr. Daichi, we will consult with them first."

On arrival at the village, he had shaken Marine's hand enthusiastically and had said, "Hunter Marine, my name is Peter Port. I am delighted to meet you and your team. Deputy Reynard and Prof Pink tell me that I am in good hands with you and that what you don't know about the area and the personalities here is not worth knowing. Let me know what needs doing and I will tell you which of this motley crew are best placed to help."

Marine had said, "It's an honour to meet you in person sir. Right now, the rest of my team mostly need some sleep and I will join them once I have introduced you to the locals. Basically, it should be just patrolling, redirecting refugees to the next village and morale boosting this afternoon."

It clearly helped that Professor Port was a celebrity from commentating on every Vytal Festival for about twenty years and regularly commenting on the final rounds of the Mistral regionals. While he clearly came from Vale, he was not an archetypal uptight Valean in the same way as say Professor Goodwitch came across. He as seen as an eccentric larger than life celebrity who was an honorary citizen of the rest of Remnant.

Anyway, it ended up with the assignments playing to the secondees strengths. Ruby and Coco were in the bullhead nearer the border trying to spot refugees and Grimm and warning about incoming refugees in advance or dealing with the Grimm if necessary.

An advantage of if being daytime and having the bullhead meant that it was possible to spot concentrations of Grimm at a distance from civilians and deal with them then and there without worrying about casualties.

Coco's Gianduju could take them out from the air provided she took care to anchor herself and Ruby's Crescent Rose was good for sniper shots and for massacring Beowolfs and similar low-level Grimm in quantity.

Coco and Ruby had first dropped off Port and a member of the LGDF in the human village a few miles down the road to deliver tents and rations for the refugees and liaise with the hunters and LGDF members based there. The team of hunters there were refugees themselves but had been prepaid by the LGDF in the next province which had now fallen to the Branwen tribe.

Taiyang and two LGDF members were dealing with the refugees who came in on the main road which ran from the northwest to the southeast of the village. They were placed half a mile outside the village so that any problems could be dealt with at a fair distance, As the refugees were all humans the decision had been made to send them southeast and discourage them from stopping in the village other than to buy petrol and supplies. There was a shuttle bus service for those who had come in on foot.

So far there had been no problems. The refugees coming through the Faunus village did not want to stay in a predominantly Faunus village and the sight of Yatsuhashi had dissuaded any one from taking out their frustrations on the inhabitants.

Fox was patrolling the outskirts of the village with another LGDF member. In part, he was also practicing the limits of his semblance. He was encouraged to find that it was able to reach two miles provided he concentrated and had a good idea in what direction the people he was trying to think at where.

It had been decided that it was best to start with Coco and patrolling outside the settlement. The locals had been puzzled by both. Coco was an exotic creature even in Vale let alone in a rural district in Mistral while there was an understandable element of disbelief that a blind man from the Vacuoan desert had qualified for Beacon. Fox's semblance at least allowed Velvet to reassure her teammates that the inhabitants were puzzled in a good way about them rather than fearful.

Velvet did not mind the fact that she was being used to reassure the children, teenagers, and their mothers that things would be OK. She recognised that for them seeing a Faunus as part of an academy team and treated with respect by her human teammates distracted them from being worried about possible attacks from Grimm and from humans.

It helped that Yatsuhashi knew how to play his part by being seen to consult with her and to treat her as an equal. Also, while his imposing size was reassuring in that he looked capable of dealing with any Grimm which got through the rest of the hunters and trainee hunters, he had a good line in winking at the children which ensured that they were relaxed around him.

Admittedly she would not have believed it if anyone had told her a year and a half ago that a hunter in training's duties included doing a giant version of the hokey-cokey with the children, teachers, and grandmothers of the village in the primary school playground during the lunch playtime. Still, that was what she and Yatsuhashi were currently doing to the sound of much laughter

The fact that it was a Faunus village meant that she could improvise an extra couple of verses whereby the participants could "put their left ear in, their left ear out, in, out, in, out, shake if all about." In her case she was well qualified to demonstrate and Yatsuhashi had understood that the more serious he seemed while tugging at his ears, the funnier the civilians found it.

Earlier they had visited a middle school where some of the younger teenagers came and asked questions about releasing their aura and how she had got into combat school and to Beacon. Velvet knew her own story was a little odd in that her father was human and came from a wealthier family than her mother. She stressed that her Faunus background was not privileged and did not speak about her father. She also told them a little about Anne Harker who had come from the poorest area of Vale.

It did slightly upset her that it was clear that the Faunus here feared humans in a way which she did not see in Vale or indeed in Mantle. Even Coco who was used to being deferred to had needed reassurance that the locals were not extracting the urine when they bowed and curtsied to her on her first arrival.

Once Ruby and Coco were out of range, she, Fox and Yatsuhashi had discussed Ruby and Taiyang. Velvet still found it hard to accept that Yang and Ruby were half-sisters and Yang obviously had inherited more from her father than Ruby had. They all knew that Ruby's mother had been a huntress who had died fighting and had been a teammate of Taiyang at Beacon.

They did not know much about Yang's mother. Yang did not talk about her save to say that Summer Rose was her real mother and Ruby said that it was Yang's story to tell. They also knew that Taiyang had been a member of a two times Vytal festival winning team and that Ruby's mother had been an outright winner.

Father and daughter were clearly close and were at ease which each other. While Velvet got on well with both her parents, she was careful in what subjects she brought up with them since the separation.

Taiyang had obviously spent time in Mistral in the past and he and Port had been cracking jokes with each other on the flight here, but unlike most senior hunters Taiyang had tried to disappear into the background on arrival as far as the locals were concerned.

Play time had finished and her and Yatsuhashi resumed their patrol of the village. Coco had radioed in to ask if Velvet could see if she could buy some dust. Coco and Ruby had dealt with a pack of Ursas and a pack of teenage death stalkers ten miles closer to the border and Coco had learnt by bitter experience that every opportunity to top up dust supplies had to be taken.

Before going to the neighbouring village, Port had passed on a message from deputy chief Reynard that there was a general store in the village where dust could be bought at a reasonable price. He had also chuckled and said that Velvet would be the best person to do the buying. Apparently, she should ask for the gentlemen's stock and it would help if she paid as much as she could in cash. Coco had insisted on emptying her wallet of lien and handing it to Velvet.

Velvet thought she understood the implications from stories which her Mistralian Grandmother used to tell and said to Yatsuhashi that he should wait outside the store. Yatsuhashi, who had learnt not to take it personally when such requests were made, had used Fox's semblance to say, "Fair enough, but I would like to understand why."

Velvet had quoted back another saying of her grandmother's." Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie, watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by."

There was a snort from Fox who thought at them, "Is that a quote from old Redyard? Coco would approve of buying dust on the black market. Perhaps we should not mention to it to Weiss when we get back to Beacon."

Yatsuhashi laughed, "OK, I can take a hint, Sister Rabbit."

Velvet gave him a pass on that joke. He was referring to the old Faunus folk stories whereby Brother Rabbit made fools out of Brother Bear and Brother Fox, who were thinly disguised parodies of the mine or plantation owner and the policeman.

She went into the store and waited until the store was empty and then approached the Squirrel Faunus who was serving and probably owned the store.

"Hello, my name is Velvet Scarlatina. I am a trainee huntress from beacon," At that point she produced her student card. She then continued "I am looking to buy some dust and Deputy chief Reynard suggested that you may have some of the gentlemen stock for sale."

The squirrel Faunus laughed and said, "I know who you and your team are. I think I can assist."

She produced a reasonable stock of ordinary dust and was happy to accept an Adel credit card for it.

She looked at velvet and the cash in her wallet and said, "If you are looking for something special, come into the backroom with me."

After locking the door, she said, "Wait here until I call you." She went into the back of the shop and after two minutes called her in. There was an open trap door and on the floor were five shoe boxes of dust.

While so far nothing had taken Velvet by surprise, the quality and range of the dust on sale in the back room did. She was not expecting to find hard light dust on sale in rural Mistral and her eyes nearly bulged.

Velvet then engaged brain. Clearly the woman had emptied a cache, but she found it hard to believe that it had taken her so little time to bring it all upstairs. She smiled to herself and thought at her teammates, "This is straight out of my grandmother's stories. I bet the cache was not in the cellar but is under the open trap door. My great grandfather could rely on the human police throwing open the trap door and investigating the cellar. They never thought to close the trapdoor before they left."

The price negotiations did not take long, and the prices quoted clearly did not include sales tax or anything like the usual SDC wholesale profit margin. The main problem came when Velvet had exhausted her stock of cash. The storekeeper was not opposed to taking an Adel credit card for the excess, but this required an invoice to be produced which did not refer to anything on which customs duties were payable.

In the end, the solution had been to put a chunk down to a charitable donation by the Adel Corporation to local causes. Velvet had the suspicion that this simply allowed monies previously allocated to village improvements to be laundered. Still if it worked for the storekeeper it worked for her.

The other problem had been carrying and storing the quantity of dust involved. The shopkeeper agreed that Yatsuhashi could enter the shop and carry what he could. Even so, it was necessary to agree with her that she would keep some of the purchased dust until the bullhead arrived back in the village.

She checked with Fox that it was still only him and Yatsuhashi who were online and said, "Even allowing for the fact that tax was not been paid, the prices were very reasonable. I did check a random element of each type of dust I bought, and the quality was SDC compliant."

Fox thought, "Stolen goods? Perhaps that is what had happened to all the dust that was stolen last term in Vale?"

Yatsuhashi said, "Mistral City maybe, but not here. The transportation costs of getting it here would not be worth it and how often would anyone buy hard light dust here."

Velvet said, "I agree. White Fang perhaps as they are meant to have taken over some of the old smuggling operations amongst the Faunus. Perhaps the Branwen tribe captured a shipment of SDC dust and used the hard light dust as a loss leader."

Fox said, "Anyway, it is none of our business as the poem says."

Velvet thought about this a

Shortly afterwards Port returned, and Fox came back from his patrol. The four of them had a late lunch at a local pub. They watched the footage of Team JNPR plus two members of team VBES and one of Jaune's sisters slaughtering Grimm near Kulsa. Port then went to relieve Taiyang and talk to the LGDF members at the checkpoint.

The local LGDF representative passed on some reports from the bullhead. Ruby and Coco were about equal in the numbers of Grimm they had killed. The pilot had reported that they had cleared a ten-mile radius in front of them. Port however seemed concerned when they said that were not any incoming refugees they could see.

He contacted Taiyang using Fox's semblance. "Young man, I am told that there are no incoming refugees in sight of the bullhead. Does that square with what the latest arrivals said?"

"That surprises me, Pete – sorry Professor. The last lot said that there should be more on the way."

"You have earned the right to call me Pete. That does not go for the rest of you whippersnappers."

Port turned to the LGDF rep and said, "This is only a suggestion, but considering that they have cleaned house I think it may be worth following the road towards the border for about forty miles and report back to us."

The LGDF rep clearly equated the suggestion with an order and suggested that Port accompany him.

As they were now by themselves, she said to Fox aloud, "Can the three of us have a private talk?"

Fox nodded and let Port and Taiyang that they would be having a team talk, but if either of them needed to use his semblance they should any of the three of them know.

"I have enjoyed today, but I do not understand why we are here. Coco and Ruby are doing a decent job of Grimm repression, but ten hunters and us four plus Ruby in two villages seems like overkill."

Fox said, "I was thinking the same myself."

Yatsuhashi sighed and said, "If we were not here, we would be needed. These two villages are separate communities and without Port having gone to the other one to lay the law down, this one would be fearing an attack. We have also made certain that the refugees have passed through the village without causing problems."

Fox said, "I don't understand Mistral. From what you have told me ever since we left Mistral City we have been flying over good farmland. There must be enough for everyone to have enough to eat and live peaceably/"

"There are reasons I came to Beacon rather than Haven. Everyone here remembers what their grandparents did to each other. The refugees will be attracting Grimm and the inhabitants of this village know that. If they stay in the village down the road then that will mean more people need a farm of their own and the law allows people to take over abandoned farms. Traditionally investigations are not carried out into the reasons for abandonment. If we were not here the fear levels would be higher."

Fox then said, "Velvet, there is a fairly strong unlocked aura about twenty yards behind me. ADA suggests that they are trying to hind behind a pillar."

Velvet looked and saw a young mole Faunus staring at them. She lifted her hand and waved at him to join them. The young Faunus blushed but decided to accept the implied invitation.

She tried to imagine what was going through his mind and what would put him at ease. "Hello, my name is Velvet and these my teammates Yatsuhashi and Fox."

"My name is Brian. It is good to meet you."

"Would you like to ask us a question. By the way, you have a strong aura, and it would be worth you learning how to make the best use of it."

The mole Faunus half grinned, "Well that dealt with my first four questions."

Fox thought at Velvet "Ask him when and how he unlocked it."

Velvet took the hint and said, "When did it become unlocked?"

"Two days ago."

Yatsuhashi psychically groaned, "I suspect I can guess the outlines of the how. He is probably scared of the comeback"

Velvet said, "Brian, I am from Vale, Fox here comes from Vacuo and Yatsuhashi is my partner and we have saved each other's lives. We all remember when our auras became unlocked, and we all needed guidance in how to deal with the consequences."

Fox said, "My aura was unlocked when my tribe was attacked by a herd of Jackelopes. It is usual in Vacuo for auras to be unlocked because your life is under threat."

Brian said, "Mr. Fox, you do know I am a Faunus?"

"Yes. You are not a Grimm and that is all that matters. No need to call me mister, just call me Fox"

Brian looked down at the ground again and said quietly "I hurt some humans who were two year older than me and who lived on a neighbouring farm."

Velvet said, "No one has mentioned that to us. I suspect they were too surprised to mention it to their parents."

Yatsuhashi said, "In my village, the jerks who bullied Faunus never mentioned it when the Faunus successfully fought back. I suspect that they have not told any adults about it."

Brian said, "I am worried that I am going to attract the Grimm to my parents farm."

Luckily, this was something which was covered early on at combat school and Velvet said, "Fear attracts them more than the aura of a brave Faunus. It does make sense to be trained so that you know how to use your aura against them, but do not worry that you are putting your family at risk because you unlocked your aura."

Fox thought, "Are you going to ask him about the incident? It is possible it impacts on our mission here."

Velvet said, "Brian, what happened two days ago? We will be back in Vale next week and apart from defending the two villages here we have no interest in talking to the authorities here. However, if there is trouble brewing between the villages we need to know."

"They threatened my mother and older sister. They told them that if hey thought that Sienna khan would hand over their best fields to us for a pittance and that there would be no repercussions. they had another thing coming. They waved their knives around and promised to slice our noses."

Yatsuhashi asked, "Was it only the sons or was the father involved as well?"

"Just the sons. They think their father is too weak. He is polite to us."

Yatsuhashi using Fox's semblance said, "My bet is that the sons know that their father will not be happy if they told them what they said. In my village those who lived through the Faunus wars or grew up immediately after them did not want a re-run."

Velvet said, "If you have fifteen minutes, I can teach you some basics about using your aura defensively." She paused and said, "One of our friends is the son of Chief Arc who sent us here. We can ask him to talk to his mother about what opportunities for further training is open to you."

Brian said, "My mother says that Chief Arc is a good human. That would be appreciated."

In the end Velvet spent nearer an hour with the young Faunus. They attracted a bit of an audience. Fox commented at the end, "I expect that he will be passing on the lessons to his friends. About thirty per cent of the village has unlocked auras, but most are very weak. A little less than my tribe where 40% have unlocked auras."

Velvet returned to the earlier conversation, "I know Coco and I are volunteers and that neither of us are designed to appeal to rural Mistralians so sending us to a Faunus village makes sense, but I am still puzzled as to why Ruby and Taiyang are here."

At that point Fox's scroll beeped and suddenly Ruby, Coco, Taiyang and Port were all one line. Coco said, "Please all put on your game faces and show utter confidence to the civilians. There was a reason we could not spot any incoming refugees. They are all dead. What is really worrying is that most of them were not killed by the Grimm."

Ruby then butted in, "It looks as though someone killed most of the refugee groups, but left enough people half dead and terrified to attract the Grimm in this direction,"

Port asked, "Where there any survivors?"

Coco said," No one who made any sense before they died. They seemed to have been infected with some form of hallucinogenic poison. Besides which Professor Port, me and Ruby believe that we have proof that your theory that Grimm are not carrion feeders is correct. The majority of the dead had bullet wounds and slit throats, but the Grimm did not touch them."

Rwby said, "We are coming back to town. What we thought was a storm cloud seems to be a flock of Nevermore. We do not want to fight them on board a bullhead."

Port said, "I will contact Chief Arc. She needs to know that someone is trying to attract Grimm in this direction. Perhaps the Branwen tribe and the White Fang are going for broke."

Velvet thought to herself that she should have known better than to complain about a lack of action and responsibility.

Thirty minutes later the bullhead was back, and Darren Marine and his team had been awoken a couple of hours than expected and introduced to the Fox telepathic semblance. There was a heated debate on how much they should tell the locals which resolved itself in a compromise of imposing a curfew and recommending that they all headed to the shelters.

After another discussion within the team, Velvet distributed replicas of Coco's sunglasses with what Coco referred to as the Bunny vision enhancement for seeing late at night. Velvet thought it was just as well that Coco had applied for patent protection on her behalf.

Ruby had joined her father at the check point and Fox was with them. The bet was that even though there was plenty of tree cover, the likelihood was that it was a small team of commandos which had attacked the convoys and some small farms near the road. They probably had unlocked auras and so the Fox early warning system was needed on the way into the village.

Port had already had to politely decline a request from Ansel to redeploy some of the forces to Kulsa where clearly something was going on. On being pressed he volunteered the human team in the human village five miles down. His reasoning was "If we can't stop what's coming, they certainly won't, and they may be of help in Kulsa."

Suddenly velvet heard an alarmed reaction from Fox, "Taiyang, Ruby, a strong aura has appeared one hundred yards away about twenty yards off the ground. It feels familiar."

Ruby said, "All I can see is a rather grumpy looking black bird."

Taiyang replied, "Please, no one try to intervene. I think I know who it is and if she had wanted to kill me or Ruby, she has had 16 years to do it. I am the only one here who has the remotest chance of giving her a decent fight. Ruby, it's time you met my old teammate and my wife, Raven."

Professor Port said," Team Coffee, please follow Taiyang's advice. None of you are equipped to take her on and she is a ruthless fighter. Do not interfere. It is unlikely she wishes to hurt Ruby or Taiyang – at least physically."

/-/

Ruby stood next to her father and looked round at Fox. The man had raised his hands in the air and was doing his best to look like no threat. She then looked again at the black bird which she presumed must be a raven who was looking even more disgruntled than previously.

She suddenly felt Fox's voice in her brain, "She turned up on your first day at Beacon in her bird form. I sensed her aura them and Professor Goodwitch persuaded her to go away. If it helps, she did not seem interested in making trouble then."

Dad said, "Thanks, that helps."

He said aloud, "Hello Raven. Long time no see. Any chance of reverting to human form?"

The bird started to land and as it did so transformed into a human woman. The woman looked like a dark-haired version of Yang and was wearing a mask which clearly was designed to intimidate. What was really impressive was the sword.

"Salutations, husband. I assume this is Summer's child. Don't worry I do not mean her any harm unless she makes a move against me. As you will recall I respected her mother more than I did you or Qrow. I am more puzzled why you did not marry her rather than me in the first place."

She saw dad taking a few deep breaths before saying, "I am rather surprised to see you here, Raven. I can assure you that I am not here as part of a plot to capture you. I am just accompanying Ruby on her first foreign mission."

The woman replied, "I do not care enough about you to bear you any ill-will. However, I never had chance to save Summer's life. Although I brought her body back to you, I still owe her a debt and I will try and repay it to her daughter. Your daughter as well, although it is obvious who she takes after."

She stared at Ruby, "I do hope that you have inherited the ability to run away from your father. Your mother was too much of a hero."

Ruby said, "That's a really good sword. How many dust chambers does it have?"

"You really are your mother's child. Seven and all are fully loaded."

Raven turned again to dad. "I am here to give you a warning. Something wicked this way comes. Tyrian Callows is heading in your direction. I do not want him here and I can assure you that he is not here on behalf of the White Fang. He merely creates chaos and mayhem on behalf of the queen he worships."

Ruby said, "We have six hunters and five hunters in training here. We can stop one man."

Raven laughed bitterly, "I rather doubt it. He has a semblance which allows him to make aura meaningless. Therefore, anyone who fights him up close is dead. Besides which he has a certain skill with Grimm. He knows how to attract them to a place and he knows how to frighten them."

Ruby heard her father say, "Pete, do you know anyone called Tyrian Callows?"

Port could somehow boom telepathically "Frack, yes. Children, this is not a battle you are qualified to fight. You will die unnecessarily if you try to combat him."

Her father then said, "Why are you telling me this, Raven?"

"I bear you no ill-will and I have obligations towards Summer's child. I prefer that you live."

She turned and stared at Ruby said, "While Tyrian Callows did not kill your mother, his blow allowed her to be killed by another. Ozpin knows who was responsible."

Ruby said, "Why do you not kill him yourself?"

"That would involve taking sides in a war which I have promised both sides I will not get involved in. This is as much as I can do without causing problems for the tribe. Ozpin's opponent understands a limited degree of family feeling."

"Why did you not save her yourself if you loved my mother so much?"

"I arrived too late to save her and I did not have the power to fight her killers and survive. The best I could do was to persuade them to leave her body."

The woman waved her impressive sword at the dark, opened a portal and walked through it.

Fox, presumably in a rash attempt to lighten the atmosphere, thought, "Well that explains a lot about Yang."

Port said, "Seriously, Yatsuhashi and Fox, you will be of more use in Kulsa. If Callows arrives here, you two will be very vulnerable to him and if we only get Grimm, Taiyang, me, Ruby and Coco plus Darren's team will see them off."

Ruby said, "What do we tell the villagers?"

Port thought, "We tell them that Grimm are on the way and that we can deal with them. However, it will be safest for them and avoid distracting us if they hide in the shelters and the cellars."

He paused, "Taiyang, I will join you, Ruby and Fox at the checkpoint and we will fight off the Grimm there together with two of Darren Marine's team. The other two will patrol the area on either side of the road and let us know if any Grimm are coming from that direction. Coco and Velvet, you two have the best weapons to fight the Nevermore with and I suggest that you head for the roof of the town hall. Fox, let us know if you sense a new aura."

Ruby was taken aback. While she had after a bad first impression began to respect the old huntsman a little more, seeing him in the field made sense of something Coco had said during the flight in the Adel aircraft. "I know he can be a much at time, but you know the old joke about being a bold huntsman or an old huntsman, but not both. He is both and can back it up in the field."

She also wondering what weapon Velvet could have which was useful against Nevermore.

Taiyang asked, "What do we do if Tyrian Callows arrives?"

"If he arrives, we try and keep him at a distance and wear him down. Coco, load Gianduja with Miss Scarlatina's special bullets and be ready to use your semblance. Whatever you do don't get close to him. Ruby, use the sniper attachment on Crescent Rose but do not use the scythe. Your uncle Qrow might be able to take him on, but you definitely can't."

Ruby said, "Do you think you can stop him?"

"I am counting on this being an unimportant mission for him and for him to withdraw on meeting serious resistance."