Serene Red

" What do you mean you lost her?!"

Leonardo Lionheart asked team SAFR (sapphire) in a panicked tone over his scroll on video chat. He was a middle-aged lion Faunus with a lion tail for his animal feature with gray hair, dark brown eyes, and tanned skin. Leonardo was wearing a white dress shirt with a brown vest over it and dark brown slacks. He had a western necktie on and held his pocket watch with a lion head on it to calm himself. Arrastra Skye continued her report to Lionheart calmly.

" We managed to track Kazehana to Kuchinashi, but at some point, she slipped through the cracks and left no trace for us to follow. Pyke tried to use his Semblance, Fate's Hand, to influence the situation after not finding any trace of her after a few weeks in Kuchinashi."

Arrastra gestured to her teammate Pyke Rite, a young man with tan skin, green eyes, and light brown hair in a bowl cut. He was wearing a yellow tank top with a brown leather coat missing its right sleeve and green cargo pants. His Semblance is a unique one where he leaves things to destiny and chance to either improve a situation, nothing at all, or make things worse. And when he used it to try and help the search for Vernal Kazehana, there was no effect, or he dragged his team into trouble. Pyke then assured Lionheart.

" Don't worry, Leonardo, we will find her no matter what!"

Pyke's teammates groaned at his never-ending optimism. Another member of team SAFR, Asher Mora, a pale-skinned man with black hair and a goatee with bright orange eyes, retorted at Pyke's assurance.

" Says the guy that led us into a large chicken coop and got us covered with feathers and... other stuff."

Asher looked green from remembering that, along with the rest of his team. Asher wore gray metal armor over his black long-sleeved shirt and matching dark pants. The scars on his face told how much combat experience he had and that he survived near-death incidents. The final member of team SAFR, Fenix Nemean, another lion Faunus but with lion ears instead of a tail, with an olive complexion, dull red hair, and amber eyes, also assured Lionheart.

" Our word is our bond Leonardo; we said we would find Vernal Kazehana, and we will."

Fenix was wearing a simple sleeveless brown shirt with a red cape with fur and yellow accents over it and a tasset over his black pants and yellow metal greaves over them. Lionheart did not look assured in the slightest, so he told them then hung up.

" Qrow recommended your team for a reason. Just find her as soon as possible!"

After hanging up, Leonardo got up from his desk and opened a secret passage from his office. He soon saw a door and started to break out in a cold sweat as he shakily opened it revealing a jellyfish-like Grimm known as a Seer. He went and kneeled in front of the Grimm and spoke to it in a fearful tone.

" Your Majesty, there has not been any new information on the Spring Maiden as team SAFR has reportedly lost her in Kuchinashi."

A regal female spoke through the Grimm; it was Salem; she resided in her fortress in the Land of Darkness with her pale white skin almost glowed in the dark background with dark veins spread around her body. Her white hair was hanging loose and touched her long black dress. Her red irises glowed against her black sclerae as she let her displeasure be known to her newest pawn.

" Dear Leo, you lost the Spring Maiden long before you were "enlightened" on which side you should be on, and you continue to let her slip through your fingers. It seems I need to remind you that incompetence will not be tolerated."

" No, wait I-."

Leonardo did not get to finish his sentence as he experienced agony at Salem's displeasure from the Grimm. Lionheart became a whipped and broken man when Salem decided to visit him just a year ago to "convince" him to join her, all the while right under her ex-husband's nose. After "reminding" Lionheart of what he should be doing, she gave him new orders.

" If I recall correctly, this team SAFR has some things I want of a magical nature; send them somewhere isolated, won't you, Leo? An I will send someone to deal with them and acquire the items."

" Yes..."

Leonardo Lionheart's raspy reply displayed his obedience and submission towards Salem despite knowing he is likely sending team SAFR to their deaths.

***

I, Silva, am now sparring against Vernal Kazehana under Raven's watch. Vernal is a young adult with long brown, lightly tanned skin and bright blue eyes. She is wearing a sleeveless blue and green shirt and light brown jeans with a multi-colored sash around them. Her weapon of choice was a pair of crescent-shaped blades with a ring-like handle with Dust beam guns. This is not my first time sparring with Vernal, as Raven has tried to train her in the last two months since she joined the tribe.

From the two months I have known her, I can say with complete confidence that Vernal is not bandit material, period. She is pacifistic and does not want to fight anyone if she can help, which makes Raven pull her hair out in frustration. Plus, I repeat the words Raven told Vernal when she tried to convince her to come to the tribe to tease the tea addict. Putting that aside right now, I need to fight Vernal, and it's surprisingly easy to beat her. I just need to be really aggressive in combat.

I wielded my two glaves and started to circle Vernal as she had her guard up against me. I then charged at her as I swung my longer polearm at her, and she blocked it. I thrust with my shorter polearm, but she caught it with her weapon. I hate when she does this, she tries not to hurt me in our spars, but it just gets on my nerves. Seeing this, I let go of my weapons and went past Vernal's guard and slashed at her with my claws. I made her stagger with my assault then performed a sweeping kick that knocked her down.

I quickly retrieved my glaves and thrust both of them at the downed Vernal, but she evaded with a rapid dance-like movement and put some distance between us. Raven called out, sounding annoyed with Vernal as usual.

" Vernal, stop playing around and fight!"

Vernal just gave her a reluctant look which made me sigh. All that power, and yet she does not want to use it, even though it's just a sparring match. I put aside my thought and charged at her, and swung my glaves violently at her. As I continuously attacked with aggression and fury, Vernal just blocked, deflected, and parried my attacks to wait for me to run out of steam. Unfortunately for her, I am done playing nice.

I focused my Aura from covering my body in a protective film to enhance my physical abilities further. The two most common uses of Aura are using to clad one's body in a repulsive forcefield that greatly dampens any attacks while also protecting the body like armor and enhancing physical abilities. I am basically sacrificing defense for offense, and I am successively putting pressure on the Maiden. Vernal found it more and more difficult to keep up as I chipped at her Aura, protecting her.

I finally won, but it gave me no satisfaction as Vernal practically lets me win the spar. Vernal then compliments me with a gentle smile.

" Great fight Silva; you're getting better."

" Don't patronize me..."

I coldly retorted at Vernal, then left to either pick a fight with a couple of bandits in the tribe or go out and hunt some Grimm. Raven was massaging her temples as I left at Vernal, being Vernal. I would not be surprised if she felt regret at taking in the Spring Maiden since there is no way Vernal will use magic in a raid. I head out of the camp to find something hit and deal with the annoyance I feel for Vernal's overly nice attitude. I don't mind it most days, but in sparring and training, it is detrimental and wastes time.

***

I took out another Beowolf by thrusting into it's exposed neck, then twist my glave, making a slight crunch noise. As I felt myself calm down after my spar with Vernal, I head back to camp for lunch. As I went through the gate towards my tent to get out my grill for some deer meat, I hunted the other as it should be finished marinading in the sauce I made to go with it. I saw Vernal hosting one of her "classes." She is trying to teach the other kids of the tribe but with limited luck as they would rather go out hunting with some adults or play around. Raven allows these "classes" to make Vernal feel like she belongs to the Branwen tribe.

" Okay, class, let's start with world history today!"

I sighed as none of the kids were paying attention, but Vernal continued regardless as she tried to be interesting to them.

" Did you know that the kingdom of Mistral was originally divided into a bunch of feudal states that developed into several different cultures?"

The bandit whelps just ignored her as Vernal tried to get them to at least try to listen to her.

" Well, early on, the largest feudal states were Akatsuki of the far east, Shen Tian of the center, and Roma of the west. These three regularly fought each other for supremacy over the continent we live on, Anima, until something amazing happened. You see, Shen Tian had a very beautiful princess named Yue Tian that sneaked out of her and, by chance, met with the prince of Akatsuki, Itachi Akatsuki, and fell in love with one another."

Vernal got wrapped up in her own little world, not even caring that the other kids weren't listening as she continued with her history lesson.

" Itachi and Yue managed to get their families and homes to accept their feelings and got married. Uniting the two states but Roma was not going to accept this quietly and offered a marriage alliance with Itachi and Yue's daughter, that was born not long after, to Ceasar Roma, and when this successfully went through, the kingdom of Mistral was born after the other feudal states submitted."

I may not have held any interest in the history of Remnant, but I feel fairly certain that Vernal missed a few if not dozen of key points from that point in time. Well, whatever, just another day in the Branwen tribe.