My cloak billowed behind me in the wind as I made my way through the mountains. The ground crunched under my footsteps as I trudged into the gap.
The hawk we had followed led us here.
My anger for the cabal grew as I walked through a camp of slaughtered guardians. My fellow hunters, titans and warlocks, trying to survive after the only place they called home was destroyed. They're lightless bodies strewn about all over. Some were half eaten, and others were mutilated.
"They're all dead. Murdered." Ghost's voice tittered with pure sadness. However, my anger and guilt only grew. This was all my fault, if only I was better. If only-
The hawk screeched in the air. As if telling us to follow.
"Their sacrifice will not be forgotten." My anger seeped into my voice, as I walked through the camp, equipping myself with a fallen Sorrow SMG. Fitting. My sorrow will be a conduit for this weapon.
A howl pierced the air. Looks like I'll be able to get revenge. A feral smile graced my face, unseen through my cracked helmet.
My rage. My sorrow. My regret, will be poured into this fight. I steady my aim as a war hound bounds into the clearing straight for me. My war cry carries my hatred while I run into the fray, with my sorrow running down as teardrops, filling my vision. Each hound I kill fills me with more emptiness, more rage. My knife cuts the throat of a hound master, the laceration spewing the black oil of their pressure liquid and the blue blood of a cabal. Each thrust of my knife, each bullet I fire, fills my eyes with tears. A slug almost catches me in the chest, but my light wasn't what made me a hunter, it was my superior agility that allowed me to weave in and out of fire.
I fall to my knees as rain falls, the bodies of cabal war dogs and cabal soldiers are around me and my tears continue to fall.
"Guardian... I'm so sorry." Her voice fills me with the strength to get up. I need to do something before we keep moving. Something in memory of my fallen brothers and sisters.
"Ghost, do you have any red dye?"
Ghost materializes what she has, it's not much, just some left over from the crimson days.
"Here's what we have, it's not much, but it should be enough."
She knows what I'm thinking of course. She's a hunters ghost.
I open the container and begin painting my vermilion stripes. In memory of those fallen.
I finish shortly after, and we continue following the hawk.
The hawk led us for days, up the mountain, and letting us know when there were cabal war parties.
I had no idea why I was following him, but it was the only thing I could depend on for now.
The snow squeaked as I walked, the only good thing about my ruined armor was it was still air conditioned so I could last in the freezing weather. As I walked we reached a sheer cliff face and came to full view of a cabal dreadnaught flying over us toward my captured city and imprisoned traveler.
"Guardian, look at the traveler. What do you think they're doing?"
Ghost sounded worried as she looked on, her small crumpled frame looking minuscule in the vastness of the valley.
"Nothing good." I grunted in response. "Let's keep moving."
We followed the hawk for a few more days, each day getting harder then the last. The frigid valley opened up to Forrest. The hawk was leading us somewhere, and I'm determined to find out what.
That thought was cut short as I missed a rock while climbing and fell. Is this how I die? Not in a cacophony of gunfire, but by falling? Was this what the traveler had planned as punishment for my failure? I closed my eyes and accepted my death, for it's what I deserve.
I awoke to the sound of a voice. Female.
"What's a guardian doing all the way out here?"
I fell into unconsciousness soon after.
AN:Sorry about the long wait, life and stuff got in the way of writing. Remember to review if you liked it!
