Well, Merry Christmas to you all from here in California once again, I hope that you are all spending this time with your family just as I am, I was just playing with my baby cousin yesterday and to be honest that was the most fun I had with someone who is younger than me in quite a while.

"Yeah, you two were so adorable playing together, never knew that you had a soft side for young kids. X}"

Yeah, when said kids aren't making my ears bleed with their infernal screeching.

"Agreed, now should we move on with the last chapter of 2019?"

Right, but before we do, stay until you have read my question at the end of this chapter, it's important.

Chapter 19: Storms Without

Janusar struggles to control his momentum as the large stream of water carries both him and Ares down it in a violent fashion. The younger of the two meanwhile holds on tightly like a scared infant, unwilling to loosen his grip despite the force of the tide against them.

They suddenly crash into the riverbed as they come upon a tight turn taking a chunk of land with them and causing considerable strain to the hybrid's mind as his shield took the blunt of the impact. As they continue on the shield gradually loses its strength despite his efforts to keep it up, and knowing this he forces his head out of the water to look for a vantage point. He searches for something among the trees and rocks that rush past them but couldn't find anything suitable for him to latch on to. That was until he sees a tree hanging over the river quickly coming towards them and with little hesitation he reaches for it, but not with his arm, rather with his psychic tendrils on his back as they extend out and wrap around the trunk of the hanging tree giving him a foothold against the rapids.

But unbeknownst to him the tree was leaning in loose ground caused by the flood and he quickly realized this as it starts to give under his weight. In an instant the tree is ripped from the ground and starts to flow down the river causing the hybrid to let go and succumb to the strength of the tides once more. Now with a new obstacle with them, the situation looks dire for the two, but the elder only sees this as a new opportunity as he once again have his tendrils wrap around the tree and start pulling them in. Once getting through the force of the waves, he climbs on top of the trunk and holds on tight with one arm, and with most of his energy spent on keeping his shield up this was a relieving moment within the storm.

This was cut short when he begins to hear a loud rumbling sound to his left and when he looks over to investigate he sees that some sort of landslide is pushing through the trees which add to its size. Seeing this as something to not be concerned about he looks back forward to navigate the tree off the river, but instead he sees a series of outcropping rocks that block their way. He starts to steer the tree with one of his tendrils in the hope of avoiding them, but he was too slow as before they could reach the edge the tree makes contact with the first rock causing the entire structure to jolt violently and interrupt his task. Right after that it hits another outcropping throwing it and the two brothers into a clockwise spin as they try their best to hold on. By the time they reach the furthest rock their momentum was at its peak and when the two objects collide the tree snapped in two and sending the brothers flying away from each other.

As they fly through the cold air, Janusar immediately reaches out to Ares with both of his tendrils but they never caught him as they reached their limit just a few feet away from him. The two continued on their unchosen courses as Ares lands in the water and he lands onto the river's edge, nearly taking a tree down in his landing. He gets back up and traces the path of of his brother to follow for a second. But before he could pursue his sibling he hears a familiar rumbling from behind him and just as his eyes locked with whatever was creating that noise all he feels is the pain-filled sensation of tons of earth enveloping him.

The hard and stinging sensation of crashing through the river's surface spreads across Ares' entire body before he was fully submerged within it, the air he was once breathing seconds ago now being replaced with suffocating water. He thrashes around with all the strength that he has but the wrath of the tide is overwhelming for the young hybrid to oppose as it continues to thrash him around. He gasps for air which only lets more water in causing him to panic even more and thrash around far more violently in a vain attempt to break free of the river's grasp but this only worsens the sensation of suffocation that he feels.

But if by fate or by blind luck, he was lurched up to the surface by the river's momentum giving his body much needed air as he takes a deep gasp of the cold and rain filled air and removing the constrictive sensation from his lungs. He was quickly submerged again, but with fresh air within his body he was a little calmer than before and looked around his surroundings as calmly as he could in such a situation, trying to think of a way to get himself out on his own as he can sense his own brother not being able to pursue him.

At first he tries to conjure up his energy in order to use it as propulsion through the water, but time after time he couldn't get the energy to travel through his body as his mind is still rather stressed enough to break his concentration. The booming sounds of thunder, bright flashes of lighting, and hard pleting of rain keeps overflowing his senses along with his constant need for air as he's repeatedly forced back into the water. All of this is bringing him to the point of exhaustion as he feels more weight in bringing himself to the surface each time and gulping in more water with each emergence.

With seemingly no hope to escape his fate his strength and resolve starts to wain which only increases the severity of these effects and bringing an ache across his body that he can nao feel through everything else.

Just as he was going to pass out from the sheer exhaustion he sees an object ahead of him which he quickly crashes into, his arms instinctively latch on to what is quickly figured as a rock with newfound energy. But this is not to last as he starts slipping seconds later with the strong tide speeding the process by lubricating the rock's semi-smooth surface and pushing against him.

Just as he's about to lose grip of his only hope of salvation something catches his arm, but at that moment his sight is severely weakened so he couldn't see who or what caught him. Before everything went dark for Ares, he feels himself get pulled out of the torrent and onto land, then just like a soothing wave the feeling of rest washes over him as his eyelids finally close and everything was drowned out by a pleasant silence.

20 Minutes Earlier

Within the forests of Agria, Issac has quietly transverses through the foliage for the past 30 minutes, his hood up, rifle in hand, and watching out for any big game that he can take down. But for now he's on his way to one of the sites where he had set up one of his traps a few days prior. He has been through two of these traps already but they came up empty, which brought a hint of frustration to his mind, he wanted to be self sufficient in order to keep her daughter from having to rely on open society as much as possible to keep her secret safe. He never wanted to see her daughter taken away from him as he did with his son, the pain of that was almost too much on it's own. But he can't dwell in such memories, he needs to be on the lookout for any potential food to catch.

But so far everything has been quiet, a little too quiet for his taste, could it be that what caused that psionic dustribence a couple days ago? He doesn't know and to be honest he would rather not find out what it is, something that would create such an event would no doubt kill him in an instant even if he got a good shot in, he had already heard the stories of the Protoss and experience the horrors of the Zerg first-hand. He just prays that no such threat had landed on Agria, he never wants him nor his daughter to experience such traumatic events ever again.

This was when he comes across one of his traps next to the base of a tree, but to his relief there was something caught in it, a small furry brown creature with a long fluffy tail and black and white stripes running down its back was caught within the cage with its neck snapped by a clamp inside. He kneels down and opens the trap to get the animal out and this is when he got a good look at its length, it's about a foot long and looks plump with fat and meat, a perfect catch to lighten up his day. He puts it into his backpack and takes a piece of bait out of a side pocket which consists of a blend of meat and plant material he made himself. Next he carefully rearms his trap and puts the bait in before moving on in search of his next trap.

A few more minutes of trekking through the woods leads him to a rather sizeable river that is about ten feet wide and is looking too deep for him to just walk through. He looks down the river to look for anything that can help him get across it and to his luck he finds a few rocky platforms that are just close enough. to each other for him to get across. He quickly walks towards this natural bridge, surveying it along the way to make sure that it is stable enough for him to travel across. By the time he made it he was confident that he can cross these rocks.

He hopped on the first platform with ease and was going to jump to the next when he sees a little twinkle of green light reflecting off the rock he's standing on. Remembering the list that Isabel had given her before he left, he took out his knife and looked for the right angle to start chipping out the little sparkling rock. He eventually does and starts chipping away at the surrounding rock keeping what he wants inside the boulder with some difficulty due to the knife not designed for this purpose. After a minute or two of digging the little rock out he wedges it out onto an awaiting hand.

Looking at the rock itself he sees it twinkling a beautiful green light as the sunlight reflects off its surface, he's sure that both Isabel and May will appreciate it. He puts it into his backpack and continues to hop on to the next rocks easily until he made it to the other side. He feels a small chill of the wind come across his body, but that's probably just a sudden wind gust he feels from time to time so he doesn't pay mind to it and moves on into the forest.

After some more time with moving through the strangely barren trees and shrubbery, Issac eventually comes upon a sizable pond within a clearing that is just big enough to leave only grass at its edges. But what caught his attention is a large, four legged creature with green and dark green patterns with large antlers is drinking from the water, this is what the hunter was dreaming to find. He unholsters his rifle, silently takes roost in the foliage, and takes aim, slowing his breathing to an unnatural degree as his past as a Tarsonis militia sniper takes hold. The sight slowly moves to the unsuspecting animal like a predator focusing on its prey from the shadows. The head finally comes into focus and he puts his finger on the trigger to ready himself to swiftly put down the creature, his heartbeat remains low despite the anticipation as his discipline takes over.

His finger was about to pull the trigger before a loud boom filled the air, startling the two before they both jolt up and look towards the direction of the noise. What they both see is a distant but large dark cloud hanging in the sky, flashes from within it signals another thunderous roar from the cloud seconds later. He also notices that the cold winds have picked up and is gradually getting stronger.

He looks back at his original target only to see that it's gone, it most likely ran away in response to the titanic storm. Deciding to follow its lead, he holsters his rifle and was about to move from his nesting spot before he felt some vibrating in one of his cargo pockets. Knowing that only May and Isabel are able to call him he immediately takes it out and to his confirmation it is may who is calling him right now.

"Hello May." Issac responds but he only hears static on the other side, no doubt being caused by the storm that is growing nearer, followed by snippets of her voice cutting through.

"Iss...st...ge..." He hears her voice continues to cut through the buzzing static but it was still indescribable for him, but considering its timing it must be about the storm.

"Look, if you can hear me, I'm on my way back! I repeat, I'm on my way back!" He hangs up right after, hoping that enough of his message has gone through and starts to head back to his home at great pace.

By the time he reached the river that he crossed earlier the wind has become harsh and frigid with the rain coming down hard on him which quickly soaked the majority of his gear and weighing him down heavily. But it's of little hindrance for him throughout his trek, but what lies in front of him will. The bridge of rocks that he used to cross the river has parts of it submerged in fast moving water that can easily sweep his feet if they were caught in it, he'll need to be careful this time.

He started with the first rock which was farther away due to the one after it being low enough to be submerged in the water, but when he landed on it he nearly slipped as the rain had made it dangerously slippery for him. He corrected himself with the utmost care due to his equipment making him top-heavy and got ready to move to the next one which was around the same distance away. He takes the second leap towards the next platform but the moment he landed lightning struck nearby letting a bright light and thunderous boom coincide together to rattle his senses causing him to have one of his feet slip into the water, this nearly made him fall off completely but he quickly got his foot out of the forceful waves.

The chilling cold of the water nearly rendered his foot entirely numb but he ignores this senseless feeling and steadies himself once more to make the leap to the last rock available, he takes this jump and landed on the rock with little incident. He was about to take the final leap when he started to hear the sound of rushing water to his right and looked over to investigate only to see a large wave of water coming right towards him. Without taking any preparations to jump his legs launched his body towards the edge, narrowly avoiding a grisly fate at the hands of the river's wrath.

He looks up, now covered in mud, and turns his head towards the river in a sense of relief for making it through the most grueling part of his journey, and he was about to get up to walk away until something else caught his eye. He saw something traveling down the river but he couldn't get a good look at what it is, he let his curiosity make him stay to find out what this thing is. It was when it reached the rocks is when he found out what it is: a boy. And the kid is hanging on desperately as he's fighting a losing battle against the raging rapids.

Not pondering as to why a kid is out here in the first place Issac immediately moves in to save the kid who is now on the verge of slipping off the rock. He reaches out as far as he can while calling out to the boy, but he doesn't seem to respond to his calls, this doesn't stop him from trying to extend his hand just far enough to catch him. The kid's hand inevitably loses its grip on the rock sending the kid back to the mercy of the tide, but to his luck Issac lunged his body with all his strength and grabbed the kids arm. Despite the resistance that was put up by the river he was able to pull both himself and the boy out onto land. After recovering some of his energy he gets a good look of the kid despite the rain. As far as he can see he has short black hair, looks like he's just younger than Isabel, and wearing some sort of attire that he can't identify due to it being so bloodied and battered. Though to his surprise he sees little to no cuts on him compared the the amount blood on him.

"Hey, kid, are you alright?" He didn't answer. "Kid?" He tries to communicate with him further but the child remained silent causing him to turn the boy over and see that he's knocked out cold. This is no doubt because of his experience in the river.

Not willing to leave him behind he picks up the child and carries him into the forest to bring him to his home, completely unaware of what he's truly holding in his arms.

Alright now for that question, considering how long this portion of the story is taking, because we're just over halfway through this "Agria" segment, do you people think that it's a good idea for me to divide this story into parts similar to how the StarCraft II campaign was to keep things easier to digest? It will be coinciding with the events of the canon and it will not change the events that I have planned for this story. I was thinking of this while writing this chapter in light of the amount of chapters that this first arc is taking and I don't want it to be overwhelming for newer readers.

If no one responds to this then I will keep on the current course, if people do then I will end this segment where Wings Of Liberty ended and start a new story segment that takes place just before the events of Heart of the Swarm campaign and so on with Legacy of the Void to finish it off. It's just a thought though and I won't force you all into it if you don't want it, plus I like to read the opinions of others. You have until the end of the WoL arc to make this decision which is about a half a year or so depending on when I publish these chapters.

Now with that news out of the way let's get to the Fact of the Day segment:

"A typical thunderstorm is about 15 miles in radius and lasts for approximately half an hour. Lightning from a thunderstorm can be witnessed as far as 10 miles away outside its radius." (Ranjan Shandilya) (htt ps / / : sciencestruck / thunderstorm- facts)

Yeah, I remember the last time I've seen a thunderstorm, I've been seeing the lighting even before the clouds were over me, and that boom from them, it shows that you shouldn't dismiss mother nature.

"Definitely, remember that time we were stuck in a dimension that was basically comprised of thunderstorms?"

Vividly, I could barely sleep throughout the entire venture -_-.

But with this all said and done, thank you all for reading this chapter and the story across the year and we hope that you all have a great day or night…

"And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all wherever you may be! =D"

See ya all next year. :)