Author's Note:

Disclaimer: StarCraft and Warhammer 40000 belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and Games Workshop respectively; please support the official release. Credits to VexMaster and his story Swarm of War & to Betapike and his story Emergence for the inspiration for this story, and to Ligoya and his Accelerator Junior Getting Thrown Around in Gensokyo for the Pioneer of the Universe Program concept and the permission to use it.

26 Follows and 33 Favorites right at the beginning... that's easily twice (or thrice, I can't remember) the amount of people doing the same for my other two stories. Heh. I guess I did improve, somewhat.

This is likely the part with the biggest copy-pasting involved, though I am 90% sure this is the only chapter in this story to be like that. On another note, I found myself at an impasse here; how do I build Protoss? There's literally like, no Minerals or Vespene available in 40K. Because of this issue that I decided to "make up" a piece of tech to fix the Mineral issue. How do I replace Vespene, though? Make Void/Warp energy-based engines or something?

I know this chapter isn't quite up to snuff. If there's something wrong, please point them out. But if you could, please don't be brutally blunt? I... don't exactly have thick skin.

Review Reply Section:

1) wolffang 2015 (Apr 12, c1): Very interesting story cant wait to see where it goes keep it up.

Reply: Thank you.

2) Saurian96 (Apr 12, c1): Fascinating, I'm gonna follow this and though I'm wondering if "Antaris" can directly fight in the battlefield himself

Reply: Thanks! As for your question, yes, Antaris can take to the battlefield himself; though he has to psychically project himself out of his crystal cocoon if he wants to fight like this:

Khornate Berzerker: "1v1 me bro!"

Antaris: "You're on!"

Otherwise, he can just screw shit up by learning how to spam Storms. With his newfound status as a Xel'Naga, I don't think brute-forcing it would be too much of an issue.

3) Guest [#1] (Apr 15, c1): It is time. To break ZA WARUDO OVA ARU !
The World Over All.

Reply: I'm sorry, but I think you got the wrong address.

4) Someone (Apr 24, c1): Looks like our other protag has a very brief cameo here and it looks like he was just a replacement candidate at that

Reply: Yes. My plan is for him to feature in more chapters after the GoP event. The reason why? I'm sorry, but spoilers and all that.

5) Guest [#2] (Apr 28, c1): Than he should redesign all units he has because the starcraft universum is pathetic in its interpretation of what a war unit should be equipped with. Mainly the units have pathetic ammounts of dakka and even worse they can not shoot everything(for idiotic balance purposes, why a fkng laser that shoots ground can not shoot up? and so on and so forth)

Guest: Even more it would be idiotic if you would place the MC in the 40th millenium, it would be more logical to place him in the time when earth was primitive couse that was the time even if eldars were hedonistic they were not straying so much from their territories couse they were not so much hedonistic to tour the galaxy and murder fk everything and anything they see. The Orks were not such a blight on the galaxy and most importantly there were no million worlds full of humans, MC needs time to grow and expand to be something more than a mental frt for the various factions

Reply: Thank you good sir, you raise up some good points. Yes, I agree that the Protoss units would need some retooling, but not to the point where the entire faction needs an overhaul. Oh, and we also have a Xel'Naga on hand, and a Xel'Naga is just plain bullshit in StarCraft. I will say that Antaris is NOT on the level of any 40k deity, but power-wise I believe he's psychically stronger than most Greater Daemons individually. Skill-wise? Well...

And sorry if I sound confrontational, but I think the more idiotic choice is to throw him into the realms of the Pre-Fall Eldar. Pre-Fall Eldar have more workable Old One tech than their future counterparts, an entire pantheon of gods to evoke, and a vastly larger population. Piss off any Eldar (because I am informed that even during those times they HATE any one of them being even slightly hurt by the so-called "lesser races"), whether by accident or mens rea, and Antaris is beyond fucked. The Orks, on the other hand, are always a blight on the galaxy. The mere fact that the Eldar hasn't truly removed the greenskins shows how numerous and adaptable they are. Because really, who'd want any of those shits on their galactic lawn?

But then again, the Protoss could rebuild their Daelaam without raising much issue provided Antaris is savvy enough. At least until the Men of Iron came along, then Slaanesh, and then the Great Crusade, and Chaos before all of that, you know the stuff. He's also a teenager before he became a Xel'Naga, so there's that.

Excuse me, my arguments are kinda all over the place.

With that said, let's get right into it, and for me to bid you adieu for the time being.

Auricolor Glimmer in Utter Darkness

Chapter 2
New Horizons

Take a deep breath in. Count to ten. One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... ten. Breathe out. Count to ten. Inhale. Count. Exhale. Count. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

I exhaled loudly though it would've been more accurate to call it a sigh. "I... I think... I think I'm calm enough." Inhale. Exhale. "Yes. Calm." I muttered.

Alright, alright. Let's think. "So, I was displaced from my cozy Earth in another universe, into the, pardon my French, shit-ridden galaxy known as Warhammer 40K, which is the very maker of the term 'Grimdark' itself. And on top of that, I am now in control of a Purifier force for starters, of the Protoss race from StarCraft, as a Xel'Naga. The purpose of my existence here is to please a god's morbid curiosity and equally horrible sense of humor. Am I correct so far?" I listed off what I can summarize from my situation.

[Yes, yes, and yes. Though, to be fair, the Creator also wants to; quote, "unfuck the fucked-up galaxy", end quote.]

If I had fingers, I'd be kneading my temples right now. And even though I've got no lungs with which to hold air, no nose to ventilate, no ear to listen, and no vocal chords in order to make a noise, I can hear myself groan in pure. Fucking. Frustration. Fucking gods, man. No wonder Emps wanted them gone so badly.

"Should've thought twice about that contract..." I muttered dejectedly. Hindsight, ever so 20/20. "Alright. I've got to stop whining like a child. I got myself into this mess, now I hafta reap what I sow. It's not like I could do anything else, anyway." I sighed in resignation.

I start to list off my obligations in my head.

#1: Unfuck Warhammer 40K. This one is a no-brainer; if I want to live, I've got to do whatever I can to unfuck the galaxy. I can't stand idly by like some hermit and not get my ass handed to me later down the line.

I groaned again as I realized I've got to be way more proactive than I usually do. Dammit all.

#2: Build up my faction to fulfill Objective #1. Because there's no way in hell I can fix the galaxy without literal armies backing me up.

#3: . . .

'Okay, what to do with number three? What should I do here?' I thought long and hard about what I should do.

Approximately a minute has passed until I've reached something close to an objective.

#3: Gather resources to accommodate Objective #2. Rinse and repeat.

Alright, now that my admittedly-simple plan on what-to-do-next is complete, I'm going to...

I imagined myself burying my face in my hands, because I've got literally no idea on how to proceed with any of those goals. I don't think 40K have capital-M Minerals, Vespene, Terrazine, or even Solarite.

I've remembered several fan fiction I've once read where things from StarCraft gets stranded on different universes that don't share similar stuff with their own. But those were mostly Zerg, or Terran, not Protoss! I could count on one hand where Protoss had no support, and these stories usually have something that negates that drawback. In several SI stories, the MC usually have some sort of power that bypasses that issue. In Reigns of War, Azeroth was literally several star systems away from the Protoss main forces, allowing warp-ins.

Wait, hold that thought. If I remember my lore correctly, warp-ins are generally limited to interstellar use. How did that Probe warp a Pylon in here then...?

...

That was a Deus ex Machina event, wasn't it?

...

...Not going to answer, System?

...

Sigh. 'I guess I won't get anything else from that, then.' I grumbled silently. I ordered the Probe with the Gateway to cancel and put the Minerals back, the act replenishing my Mineral count back to 400. I sent my Probes scouting the area since I don't think I'll find anything that comes even close.

I waited until the Pylon was up, which took up nearly an hour. Patience isn't my strong suit, but when you actually have literally nothing to do and know that you can't do jack about it, I found myself in a fugue-like state of complete and utter apathy.

[Summoning is complete.]

The sound jolted me awake. I did not yelp like a little girl. No, really, I didn't. Shut up. I looked to and fro, trying to understand where the voice came from, before realizing it came from the System. I looked over to the finished Pylon, which provided "power" to the Archive building. I attempted to connect and interface with the thing on my own, before deciding that I don't know jack about it and that I'd rather not damage the building by brute-forcing it, thus commanding the nearby Probe as a relay.

It took some time, but I finally managed to crack into the database. I made an image of myself clapping and swiping both of my hands within my mind. "All right, let's see what can I do with Protoss technology for gathering resources..."

~o0o~

It took some time, but finally... finally! Finally, I have a solution to my fiscal problem.

Apparently the Protoss have access to nanotechnology, and furthermore, knows how to utilize mass-energy equivalence! Yes, I can use energy to make material, like in Supreme Commander! Stetmann was right; how the hell did the Protoss have these technologies and not control the universe? Why do they even have trouble against Amon, even?

However... the only issue with my new plan is that I need to make the nanites and the "Mass Fabricators" and the "Mass Extractors", and I've got nothing to make them from. And that's not to mention that there weren't any blueprint for those and how I'm not a phase-smith to begin with. How frustrating.

I made another purely-mental sigh. I decided that, screw it, I'm going to build a Forge regardless of the impossibility that is warping in structures here, and the likely possibility that the DeM won't occur again for my Forge.

[Mineral: 250]

...

...Hm? What's this?

I found a set of grey dots in the nearby forest, awfully close to one of my scouting Probes. Not counting the Probe, there are five characters present; four green-skinned goblins, 'Gretchins,' My mind helpfully supplied, and an absolutely-terrified human girl around eight years old. I commanded that Probe to stop and hide in a nearby bush as I watched the situation unfold.

{Earlier that day...}

[Date: Unknown, Approx. M41]
[Location: Feudal World "NEON GENESIS" – Unknown Star System; Beyond Segmentum Star Charts]

In a small, cozy room lit by the pale light of the twin moons, the 8-year-old girl Alena awoke with a start, her face―no, entire body―awash with cold sweat.

'The nightmares are happening again...' She thought sourly as she silently snuck out of her bed, tiptoeing over to a loose floorboard and gently pulled it out, revealing a small wooden chest hidden under. The girl picked up the chest and opened it to uncover a small stack of parchment which she took, scribbled letters and brushpaint drawings recognizable under the illumination provided by the moonlight. These paintings, however, were of things which would cause fear and concern to anyone who knew that a child drew them, and Alena wouldn't blame them to suffer exactly that.

These drawings are depictions of bloody wars that raged across the stars, of battlefields full of smoke and death, and of horrible creatures any sane man would hope to never face―nor even see or think about, for that matter. These were the physical visualization of the nightmares that Alena had been suffering ever since she was five, nightmares that were becoming terrifyingly more and more frequent these past few weeks―most of them shockingly clear and clean for someone her age.

Alena didn't know how or why she was having these nightmares, and when she had first shown her first picture she had scared one of her friends, and before the child could possibly tell anyone she ripped apart the paper and never again revealed that she was having these nightmares, yet she felt like they were important even if they were scary. 'Maybe because they were scary?' She mused idly.

Some the things within were recognizable even to the isolated people of her homeworld, but even if they weren't Alena somehow understood almost all of what she had drew.

The savage Orks were one of the most prevalent, their logic-defying implements and warmachines of crudely-assembled scrap and fecal matter (and was that a disgusting thought?) complementing their barbaric nature perfectly. A fittingly crude picture of an Ork skull with horns on its sides decorated the sky.

Next were the drawings of the ruthless Imperium of Man with their legions of Imperial Guard and great knights in various decorated armour―'Space Marines', her memory supplied―marching in front of their massive machines. The Imperial Aquila can be seen above them.

Afterwards were the oddly-blurred depictions of the forces of "Chaos"; of corrupted "Space Marines" and Imperial soldiers with their twisted and utterly grotesque bodies fighting alongside the "Daemons" hailing from the nightmarish realm of the Aether. Like the two pictures before, up there was a circle as its heart with eight arrows in varying sizes protruding from it at different angles.

The "Tyranids" were in the next bundle of pictures with their hordes of oversized bugs and locusts devouring all in their path. The symbol on top of their pictures were of two lizardlike or serpentine creatures standing back to back seemingly almost eating their own tails.

Images of the "Necrons" in their relentless march made up a few of the following pictures, mechanical horrors of steel and viridian energy that brought death and utter destruction to all things living, and left nothing in their wake. Their banner, for what else those symbols could be, looked like a coffin with a bizarre crucifix etched upon it. Fitting, as they seem to be dead men walking.

Then there were the "Eldar", which by far had the second least amount of pictures attributed, whose forces were divided in twain. These two armies can be easily separated from each other; one army, the "Asuryani", are identified with their colorful garment and armament, whilst the other, the "Drukhari", had skimpy outfits barely classifiable as armor―or even anything remotely decent nor sensible―and generously decorated with spikes like the Chaos Space Marines'. A spear's head and a very sharp abstract picture were their respective symbols.

After she finished looking through them she finally came to her last drawing, the one that was new. It was a picture of machines and men, covered head-to-toe in silver-and-orange armor as sleek as the Eldar. The upper-right corner was adorned with a symbol consisting of a circle surrounded by four tails, evoking the image of a golden fire. Below, the word "Seraphim" was writ large.

She was about to look through the unfinished drawings underneath, but a sudden sound had interrupted her. In a panicked reflex, she hastily put the parchments back into the wooden chest, hid it back in its hiding spot and reassembled the loose floorboard back to where they were and promptly turned around... to find that no one was truly present, just an unlit candle on her bedpost which had fallen off for some reason.

Alena quickly and quietly got back into bed, after putting back the candle to where it belonged, and once she was there she made a hand gesture that she was taught was meant to ward off unwelcome spectres and ghosts. Once she had calmed down enough to gather her thoughts, which were now returning to her drawings and the panic that came over her when she thought her father had entered.

The pictures are going to get her in trouble, she knew it. But she still knew, deep within her heart, they should be kept safe rather than destroyed, no matter if no one would accept them. She spent the rest of her time awake thinking about what she should do before she finally fell asleep.

~o0o~

She had a flash of inspiration after waking up the next morning; she knew full well her paintings couldn't possibly stay here, in her home, so they had to be moved somewhere safe. The woods seemed like a good place to her. Her father and the other men from the village would occasionally go to get lumber from the forest, but no one would look for a chest that could be buried anywhere within it. It was the perfect plan, and Alena wondered why she hadn't thought of such a thing before. It would have spared her many restless nights.

Moreover, every time her father went into the woods he would come home completely exhausted. Of course, he would still try to tell her stories like he did every night, about the God-Emperor, the Imperium, the Covenant, the King, her mother, her older brother who went to become a soldier at the Baron's castle and so much more. But as much as she loved them, he would fall asleep too quickly after the day of the Wood Harvest, and she would tuck him in just as he did for her every other night. She smiled at the memories for a while before returning to the plan to bury the pictures. Today was the Wood Harvest Day; the day when a party is assembled to gather lumber from the forest, giving her the chance to get them out of the house without worrying about her father. The perfect day.

So when her father said goodbye to her and went with the other men, she took the picnic basket she and her father sometimes used, and placed the wooden chest at the bottom of the basket and covered them with a blanket. On top of the blanket she placed two loaves of bread; a small loaf she sliced for herself and a bigger loaf for her father. Then she took a small jar of jam and put it in the basket. She did this just in case she ran into the party while looking for a place to keep the pictures. If that happened she could claim to have come to bring her father lunch, with the pictures in the wooden chest under the blanket, and with her carrying the basket no one would know what she was really doing. It would also help her if she was caught sneaking back into the village after hiding the pictures as she could claim exactly the same and there wouldn't be anything but the bread and jam in the basket to suggest otherwise.

She then walked over to her wardrobe for her gardening cloak because the small shovel stored in its pocket would be needed for digging and it would also serve as a traveling cloak, which was good because she didn't know how far she would have to travel to bury the chest. She closed the wardrobe and began to leave, just before she left her room she noticed her reflection in the mirror.

In the mirror, she saw a girl with green eyes and sandy blonde hair with her favorite ribbon in it. She was wearing a yellowish white blouse tied up with a leather belt around her waist. Her skirt was colored a nice purple, but it hadn't been washed since yesterday. Like the skirt, the cloak was notably dirty, but since it was mostly used for gardening it was only beaten to get the dirt out of it after use, and properly washed once a week.

Satisfied, she put the cloak over her head and shoulders and motioned to leave her home, but just before she opened the door, doubt came preying upon her mind. 'Do I really need to do this? Or should I burn the pictures in the fireplace? Or even simply keep the pictures where they were?' After a few minutes of silent rumination, she shook her head and made up her mind. "No." She decided. She knew the pictures to be important even if she couldn't understand why, so they couldn't be burned. And she remembered how terrified she was when the candle fell last night. She didn't feel comfortable leaving the pictures where they were.

With her decision finalized, she opened the door and cautiously moved about the village. It was rather early in the morning and most went back to bed after the men had left. She wandered out, sneaked past the guards at the village and made her way into the forest. She passed the farm of young trees behind the village which was planted by the fathers of her grandfathers. It was well on its way to becoming a good source of wood for the village, but not for many years to come. So, until this particular plantation was ready to be cut down, the villagers would gather once or twice a month to go into the forest and gather lumber.

She continued on her way into the forest, noticing the easily recognizable trail you would expect a village's worth of men, horses and wagons to leave. Alena wondered if her story about wanting to bring her father a picnic basket would actually hold up to scrutiny, seeing how easy it would be to simply follow the trail heading west. She decided she would claim she took a detour and got lost, with that she headed southwest into the forest.

After a long journey and finally getting to the point where she found a good place to bury the chest, she unloaded the picnic basket, took the chest out and reached for the gardening shovel in her cloak. She looked around and paid careful attention to the land around her, before proceeding to bury the chest as swiftly as she could. After she was done she stood up, dusted herself off, and started to head back to the village. But then she heard a strange noise, like a whisper in a silent wind, causing her to freeze.

She craned her head rightward and saw some trees that seemed perfectly ordinary, but she could have sworn the noises came from them. Locking her eyes towards the trees, she called out in both fear and curiosity. "Hello? Is someone there?" When nothing had answered her, she shrugged and continued on her trek homeward. Yet just after three steps she definitely heard something right behind her.

"Wots dis? A humie Gretchin! Yum yum!"

"Da Boss wud luv to eat it up!"

She turned around, and saw four green creatures. They were unsightly with big heads, their skins were green, and although they were only slightly bigger than her, they looked menacing, which worsened as she realized that each of them held a tiny metal knife with a crude handle.

"I wanna get its leg!"

"Yu's gonna eat Squigs not humie Gretchin! Da humie Gretchin is for da Boss."

"Which Boss? Da Big Boss or da us Boss?"

"Da Big Boss, yu idjit! Da Warboss luv eating humies!"

Alena trembled as she recognized the Gretchins that the village elders spoke of in their stories, the smaller but equally vicious cousins of the Orks. 'Father said the Kingdom fought off the Orks 10 years ago and they wouldn't return for at least 5 more years, why would they return so soon?!' She panicked internally, sewing her jaws shut in fear.

While the four Gretchins argued among themselves as to who should deliver this tasty morsel to the "Warboss", who she had absolutely no intention of knowing, Alena used their moment of distraction and slowly walked away, carefully trying to avoid stepping on anything that would make a noise. She had almost successfully walked away in silence, if the four hadn't abruptly stopped their bickering.

"Oi, did we orda dis dinna ta go?"

"Yes yu idiot, it's gonna go to the Big Boss, why yu's asking stupid questions?"

"Cozz dere it goes! Not to da Big Boss!"

Alena abandoned all attempts at stealth and ran. The Gretchins let out a howl of frustration and ran after her. "Somebody help!" She cried out in desperation, afraid of being Ork food. She wanted to live!

After minutes of her frantic escapade to God-Emperor-knows-where, Alena had started to tire and her throat was going dry, which allowed the Gretchins to catch up to her. During this moment of weakness, she spotted a shining, floating, bizarre sphere seemingly made from silver nearby, which took off deeper into the forest. Normally she would be suspicious of an unknown thing in the middle of the forest, but as it stands she couldn't bother herself with such.

Banking on the desperate―and if she was in a better and healthier mindset, utterly stupid―hope that it might lead to somewhere safe, she forced herself to run faster as her legs wailed in protest.

After what felt like an eternity of chasing the metallic sphere, she found herself on a relatively flat plateau, looking at a massive pyramid made of pure silver which shone a bright orange hue. She would've spent some time admiring the building's stunning majesty, but the looming threat of Gretchins forced her to keep running, towards the floating metal sphere and the pyramid. The sphere swerved into an opening on the pyramid's side, and she followed it in.

The opening closed behind her with a resounding clang, shaking her out of her stupor born of fear and survival instincts. Alena fell down on her knees as her legs suddenly collapsed under her, causing her to grunt in pain. The girl shifted to sit down on the cold silver floor as she took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down her rapidly thumping heart. She felt her teeth clacking loudly against each other and the lower parts of her body suffering the biggest pain imaginable.

'Oh- oh, God-Emperor... where am I?' She thought, after finally getting enough time for her brain to work properly. The girl moved her head left and right nervously, trying to find if there was someone―anyone―inside. "H-hello? Is anyone here?" She stuttered, the reality of her situation starting to dawn on her mind. However, she hadn't yet realized where she actually were.

The sphere from before came back again, making odd sounds. Alena stared at the somehow floating hunk of silver. 'It's... kind of cute.' It made some more noise before turning over the side and floating further inward. She looked over the now-closed entryway, and then towards where the sphere had gone. Curious, Alena decided to stand up―after determining that, yes, she could stand up―and follow its path. 'Maybe it knows where I could get out of this place?' Finding where it had gone was surprisingly quite easy, and so did tailing it. As she did so, she looked around the building, silently admiring its architecture and wondering how something this beautiful had never been known.

It had stopped when it entered a massive, ornate chamber, which held an opaque and monolithic sapphire-like crystal in the middle by no visible means; there wasn't a rope, chains, or anything resembling a support beam. Like the sphere before her, the crystal simply... floated, somehow. 'It's so beautiful...' Alena walked closer to the crystal, enraptured by its beauty. She raised a hand outwards, to touch the beautiful crystal-

"Greetings."

The sudden unexpectedness, and the booming quality, of the voice made Alena jump in fright. The girl looked towards the source of it, finding a relatively young man with a slicked-back whitish hair and clad in a very well-kept red suit and white cloak from whence the voice came from. Alena quickly put two-and-two together and determined that whoever the young man is, he is the owner of the pyramid she had now found herself in. "U-um, he-hello, s-sir." She blushed and stuttered, feeling out of her element. She was trespassing, after all, even if it was to escape a bunch of Gretchins...

Speaking of Gretchins- The man grinned and chuckled, finding her attempt amusing. "At ease, child. There is nothing to worry about, though I certainly wasn't expecting to find someone going around here out of the blue."

"I-I'm sorry for tres-t-trespassing on your pro-propriety- property, sir. I-I was being chased by-" Her hurried excuse and apology was interrupted by the man waving his right hand as he started to talk.

"As I said, there is nothing to worry about. You can rest easy, I've made sure the Gretchins are struck dead." At this, she relaxed. Slightly. "And I understand where you're coming from, what you are talking about. I won't punish you for trying to save your life." At this, Alena truly relaxed, though she still felt embarrassed and jittery.

"Thank you, sir. For saving my life." She replied as she made a polite gesture taught to her by her father.

The man waved his hand again. "It's nothing really. And please, call me Arta- Antaris. Calling me by sir or mister makes me feel quite old." Alena squeaked as she thought she had made a social faux-pas, though judging from his mirthful chuckling it doesn't seem that she's in trouble...? "So cute." He muttered.

Alena can practically feel her blush from the compliment. "Thank you, for the compliment, si- Antaris."

The man blinked owlishly as his shoulders twitch. "You heard that?" He asked with an expression of surprised disbelief (and embarrassed annoyance?). Alena nodded in response, to which she was answered with laughter. "Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to say that, but I wasn't quite lying. You do look charming, in a rugged sort of way. Anyhow," He was waving his right hand again, though this time it seemed more forced. "Please forgive me if I sound rude, how did a child like you came by my place?"

Wasn't it obvious...? "Um... I was being chased by Gretchins in the forest, then I found your... shiny metal sphere thingy near the bushes and followed it here. All the way."

Antaris nodded, his smile twitching upwards. "I see, I see. Why, may I ask, would a little, adorable child like you be prancing in the woods without company when beasts prowl?"

It was time to check if her excuse was believable. "Uh... I was bringing lunch for me and my father, who is off gathering wood for our village." Alena quickly presented her excuse. It was fool-proof, nobody have any evidence that can say otherwise.

"I see." Although he says that... her instincts told her that Antaris didn't quite believe her story. The young, immaculate man nodded and thanked her regardless. "Well, thank you for answering to my questions, miss."

It was at this point that Alena finally realized she had forgotten to extend the same courtesy Antaris did; sharing one's name. She inwardly cringed at herself for the even worse faux-pas, and immediately tried to rectify that mistake. "My name is Alena, sir. Please forgive me for forgetting to give you my name." She said with utmost sincerity, and embarrassment.

"It's all right, Alena. We all make mistakes." He replied softly, with a reassuring smile. She jerkily nodded, not quite past the shame yet. "Oh dear, it's quite late. It is not my place to hold you back. Your father must be worried for you." Her eyes shot wide. Oh no, how much time did she spend here chattering? If her father didn't see her at home, he would be suspicious and worried! Making him worry needlessly is definitely not one of the things she wanted. Antaris noticed her expression and extended his right hand. "Here, let me escort you back home." He offered.

She slowly raised her own to grab his. "Um... thanks." The Orks weren't supposed to return for another five years or so, but the Gretchins are already out and about, as she had experienced for herself. If the Orks proper are about to return into the realms, then any help available would be much preferable.

He clicked his left hand's fingers, an act so sudden it surprised her. "Oh! I have a question; you said you brought lunch for your father, yes?" She affirmed it with a nod. "Then... where is your lunch carriage, if I may ask?"

It was at this moment, that Alena wished she could bury her head into the ground to hide her shame.

"Well, I suppose here we are. This is your village, correct?" Antaris asked her, his face twisted in concern.

Alena nodded. "Yes, this is Moonbright."

Antaris' hand left her grip and took hold on her left shoulder as he gave her another one of those smiles. "I guess this is the place where we part ways." He seemed to notice the discontent that welled up in her as he said those words, as the young man swiftly spoke up again. "This doesn't mean we won't see each other again however. You, and anyone else to be honest, can visit me up in the plateau if you want to." He shrugged.

She nodded in gratitude. "I'll remember to. But before you return," She said as she rummaged through the now-dirtied basket, finding a white flower. "This is a Pond Lotus Flower, we often use it as a sign of friendship." She explained, offering the flower.

He copied her earlier movement and slowly took it out of her hand, seemingly examining the flower. "Thank you. And it's quite beautiful as well." He replied, with a larger smile this time. "Well, I suppose I should be off. Good bye, Alena!" The man said, waving his hand as he disappeared into the forest's depths.

"Good bye to you as well, Antaris!" She reciprocated alongside a wave of her own.

Alena faced the village once more, and took a deep breath to calm herself. "I hope father won't be angry with me..." She scratched her cheek nervously as she trudged closer to the crowd―one that was formed because of her little stroll through the woods.

"Hey! Look who's that!" One of the crowd called out, pointing at her.

"ALENA!" Her father crashed through the crowd, causing a few people to fall to their backs, and hugged her tightly. "Alena, where have you been? W-when I had found you missing, I-I was worried!" He cried out, tears falling from his eyes.

Her face turned sheepish, as she tried her hardest to murder the grin that threatened to break free. 'Well, a-at least he's not angry... hopefully.' Taking a deep breath, she began recounting her story.

With a few embellishment of her own, of course.