Hey guys and gals! Happy to have you here, been getting back into destiny lately and had a stroke of inspiration for writing my guardians back story with a friend. That slowly but surely spitballed into actually writing a story!
My first one mind you so be honest and nice about it y'all, thanks for checking it out and hope you enjoy!
"...are you doing?! They'll tear you to pieces out there!" A disembodied voice screamed from far away through the inkyness, sounding muffled as though it's through a wall.
"Someone's got to lead 'em away, y'all be safe inside." Another voice came but this one seemed closer than the previous one and with a slight draw.
A loud clang and hiss follows shortly after, not allowing for a protest from the person the man thought with amusement. The sound of footfalls echo out for abit along with a second set of what sounds like a four footed animal?
A while passes before gunshots and growling join the flurry of movement then...
Pain
And nothing
It was peaceful for a while, time had no hold here but the man felt content in the space. It ebbed and flowed, chipping away slowly at his memory bit by bit, but his last remains with him. Refusing to leave him just as much as he refuses to releasing it to the void.
The rest he let go, his name, his life, everything. Well except for his... Well he couldn't remember the name of his companion that stayed with him but he felt thankfully none the less at not being alone in the end.
Light?
Light!
It came shooting at him just as fast as it took for him to notice the visitor in the darkness.
"Guardian? Guardian! Oh, by the traveler it worked!"
The man groans sitting up with his back against a tree as feeling comes back to him and his aching body. Like he's just finished running a marathon and thought it'd be a great idea to go to the gym afterwards.
"Eyes up guardian! We can't linger here for long, I will not lose you so shortly after just finding you" a slightly robotic female sounding voice comes from above him followed by some chimes "though, I don't sense anything nearby so...we might be safe for now."
Jolting him back to reality, the man feels something land softly in his lap. Something warm, but not to the touch, it's as if he's near a warm hearth at home relaxing with a friend.
Pulling his hands up from his side he cups the object in his lap gazing down at it...her? Stroking the edges of some sort of triangles caked with dirt that are around a dull gunmetal core.
"Are you alright hun? I hear from the other ghosts waking up for the first time can be a bit...disorienting at best. Talk to me" the oddly shaped thing in his lap turns its eye up to study him, the light on the front dimming slightly near the end in what he assumes to be worry? Nervousness?
"I'm...I'm alright I think. Just gathering my bearings is all" the same voice from his singular memory comes out of the man's mouth, bringing a smile to his face that the memory has stayed with him. Taking stock of himself, he's got on a light grey hoodie, what seems to be hiking boots possibly, and some thick dark blue denim pants. Looks like I'm all dressed for cold or winter possibly.
"Good! Good, for a moment there I was worried you'd be another silent guardian that doesn't speak! Had me worried there for a moment I'd have to do all the talking" the ball of warmth says with obvious mirth. She floats out of his lap lazily as the man stands, taking stock of their surroundings.
It appeared to be early morning as fog was still hanging about the wooded clearing he found himself in. "What is this about guardians? Where exactly are we? I don't remember much before I blacked out" The man looked around sheepishly like he was about to be scolded for getting drunk and getting lost in the woods.
"Oh hun, this isn't easy to break softly so... to put it bluntly, you were dead. For a long while, do you remember anything? Your name perhaps?" At hearing this, the man's thick eyebrows furrow in confusion. He tries to dig up that memory but no images come to mind, only the hollow sounds that echoed from it.
"I...I don't 'member much of anything, I recall getting someone, or some folk maybe, to a safe place and locking it. Then...leading what ever was chasing us away. Something was there with me, a dog perhaps? We went down fighting together nonetheless" as soon as the words escaped his lips he brought his large hands to his face, numbly scratching a beard that clung close to the man's face out of habit.
The ball of warmth darts over in a blink of an eye and rubs against the man's chest doing its best to console the man. Bring him back from the depths of his mind. "Oh sweetheart, you were a Titan well before I ever even found you. I couldn't have picked someone more deserving of the light."
A hearty chuckling emanates from the man patting the warmth burrowing into his chest "A titan huh? What does that mean exactly, and how does it relate to me being light? As far as I can tell you're more closer to being a lightbulb that I am little one!" The man continues chuckling as the little light flings itself from his chest and looks at him, its top fin lowering closer to what seemed to be an eye of the thing.
"Hey! I am more than a lightbulb I'll have you know! I'm a ghost, your ghost now. To answer what a Titan means is a long debated topic but I can tell you what it means to me at least, but only if you apologize for calling me a light bulb!" The ghost stares at the man for a few seconds before the man lets out a good natured huff of air.
"Okay okay! I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to strike a cord with ya. Could you find it in that floating heart of yours to forgive me and explain to me what being a Titan means to you?" As the man speaks with obvious mirth, he holds out his hands in a cup shape, which the ghost promptly proceeded to land in and look up at him, it's fins relaxing back to normal.
"My pleasure! To start with, Titans are the immovable object and unstoppable force. The sturdy wall protecting those they can with nothing but their fist, and strength of character. Those that came before, built the last city beneath the Traveler, brick by brick. Defending the wall that protects the last bastion of society from those who look to tear down what they built. And from your last stand, protecting those people, fighting till the end? You, my guardian, are one of them."
With every word the man looked apon the ghost with wonder and amazement at the achievements of the figures sounding larger than life itself. His ghost was proclaiming he was one of them? "Well now ya just pullin my leg. From what you have been feedin me, I've been here in this clearing well before the actions of these Titans, what makes you think I'm even one of them?!"
The man raises one of his bushy eyebrows at the ghost not wholly believing they're telling him the whole story "Being a Titan isn't a merit to be earned! It comes from who you were, who you are inside. The light gifted to me by the Traveler, the same light that brought you back, strengthened your body to match your strength of spirit and character. Some warlocks of the tower; that's the smart guardians, blessed by the traveler with a better memory and faster mind. Some of them think it's dormant genes or DNA that gets strengthened, but I believe it to be as I said, the body matching the strength of your will. The stronger your resolve, the stronger of a Titan you are."
A hum comes from the man as he drinks up the information like a sponge to water. Suppose that makes sense if I wasn't just dead a bit ago.
"So be it, I am a titan, I welcome the title with open arms and hope I can live up to the legend. This last city you mentioned, how far is it from us? Id like to learn more on what it means to be a guardian" still holding the ghost in his cupped hands, he looks around but notices nothing but trees and nothing past them, seeming to be pretty far into some forest.
"Oh! Well, we've got a way to travel and probably through some hostile territory so I think the first thing to do is get you a weapon! Which we're in luck! I'm getting a faint signal nearby, familiar, but different at the same time. If we're lucky it's a hunters' cache, sometimes they leave them hidden around for new guardians, usually nothing ever good but something is better than nothing."
The ghost flies out of the man's hands and into his jackets' front pocket, right where he'd put his hands if he was cold "The signal is coming from not too far away, just due west. No not that way! Ugh just look left and walk that way, I hope the hunter left a backpack I could use...it's a bit cramped in here"