5. Blade in the mist

It had been almost a decade since Aeoran had fallen to Solaero and much had changed about the little village he grew up in. The small settlement had grown so much that it had gained a name, being called Aldra after the village's great hero, Aldean. More and more people were coming to the village from further and further flung peaks. Since his injury in the battle against the monster of the Forgotten veil Aldean had risen to become the village chief and helped train the novice mist walkers. But Aeoran had changed as well, he was a grown man now, young and beautiful, the prophesied saviour stood twice the height of most men in the village and was stronger than all the men in the village, combined, every available woman in the village was after him but the young man seemed content to remain unmarried for now.

Aeoran walked through the village, greeting the many familiar faces as he went, his destination was a cliff at the very edge of the village. As he approached he could see someone standing on the edge of the cliff and looking down in to the swirling mist below.

"You gonna jump Alrean?" the giant asked as he joined the man, who he could now see was pissing over the cliff

Alrean was young with the typical pale skin and shoulder length black hair although he was quite muscular for someone for Solaero, he looked like he was in his late teens and seeing them together most would think that Aeoran was the elder even though he was actually younger by almost a decade.

"I'll be down there soon enough, no need to rush"

Alrean and Aeoran had been friends for years, the latter seeing the former as a big brother when he was younger although the primarch's accelerated aging had allowed him to become the older brother pretty quickly. The two were preparing to descend in to the mist for the first time, something they had been talking about since they were young.

"Are you sure about going down?" Alrean asked, "Do you really want your last pack to be made by your mother?"

"If anyone is gonna die down there it's you" Aeoran looked down at his friend

Despite being quite young Alrean had recently gotten married, it was what made boys men and girls women on Solaero and it was traditional that married men were the ones hunting in the mists, it is believed that they fight harder than unmarried men although Aeoran didn't concern himself with that superstition.

"I'll just stick close and let you kill all the beasts"

"Or I could just watch as they kill you"

The two laughed as they moved over to the group of men gathering and heading to the peak of the mountain. The climb wasn't difficult, especially for Aeoran, but it took all the men about an hour to reach the peak. Sitting alone, above the cloud blanket in a sun bleached world, was a small alter inscribed with swirling runes and surrounded by the skulls of several great beasts. Aeoran got to his knees and bowed his head as he prayed for safety and bounty; he prayed to the wrathful god of battle to give them courage, the fatherly god of life and decay to watch over them and spare them from death, the generous god of excess to give the a plentiful hunt and the mysterious god of the mists to guide them on the right path. Once the prayers had been said and offerings burned the group climbed back down to their village.

Aeoran went over to where his parents stood, his father holding a sheathed sword and using a cane to support himself, "You're almost a man" his father said as they shared a smile

"Be careful" his mother warned as she handed him his father's pack, "I made you extra rations and packed extra water, you're a big boy after all"

"Remember always keep your ear sharp" his father gave him a pat on the arm, he was clearly worried but was masking it for his son's sake

"I'll be fine" he bent down and embraced his parents

Aeoran looked at the ancient bag for a second, watching the myriad charms sway in the light breeze, focusing on the new one his mother carved for him, he shouldered the bag and took the sword from his father. He unsheathed the sword, Mist cutter, watching the polished blade ripple and reflect the dull sun light, the long sword looked more like a short sword in his giant hands but it would serve him well. Aeoran sheathed the blade. The plasma pistol Fen's wrath was too small for him and had been given to the leader of their expedition, an experienced mist walker named Solodiel.

The group of mist walkers gathered by the village gate and their leader led them through and in to the mist. They descended in silence, none of the men seemed to be particularly nervous or sacred of their first expedition, most likely due to the presence of the giant Aeoran; he was stronger, faster and more skilled than any mist walker in the village and probably the planet.

The expedition soon found themselves in the mist and went about their work. They spent weeks hunting the docile mammals and avoiding the common hunting grounds of the beasts but their fortune had to run out eventually.

The fog was particularly thick as the group waded through a field of knee height grass, Solodiel planned to lead them to a wooded area he knew was nearby and set some traps so they could wake up to breakfast. They had been wandering for hours, night would be soon and many were getting worried they were lost, something that could become a death sentence in the mist.

"We're gonna die" Alrean muttered as he swept his weapon across the mist

They all had beast forged weapons so fighting off beast wasn't a problem but if they were lost then they would eventually be worn down, surviving in the mist was impossible.

Alrean felt his foot brush against something that wasn't the grass, "Hey!" he got the groups attention as he knelt down to investigate, "Check this out"

Alrean was smiling as he pulled up an unassuming green plant, it's roots were thick and covered in dirt, "Sweetroot" he identified it as he pulled out and cut the thick brown skin away from one of the roots to reveal a fleshy white inside, Alrean bit down on the root and started sucking, "Definitely sweetroot"

Sweetroot was a plant that only grew in the mist, its roots were used to sweeten foods and make some sweet delicacies that were rare treats for their village and its leaves were useful in making medicines, in 10 years of life Aeoran has only tasted sweetroot once. Alrean grinned like an idiot as he found a few other plants nearby, sweetroot was worth three times its weight in gold, it would fetch a fortune if the village didn't use it all up first.

"Good find" Solodiel gave Alrean a pat on his back, "Seems we're getting lucky this expedition"

"I think all the beasts are just afraid of Aeoran" one of the men joked

"I would be" another said as everyone laughed

They started to head out when the voice in the back of Aeoran's head whispered to him.

Stop him

The primarch grabbed the back of his friend's collar and pulled him back just as a razor-sharp needle flew past, "NEEDLE TAIL!" Solodiel shouted as everyone readied their weapons and searched the mist for the beast

Kordiel

Aeoran felt it, "KORDIEL DUCK!" he shouted at one of the men but he didn't listen and a needle flew through the man's chest

"SOLODIEL!" their leader heeded the warning and rolled out of the way as another needle whizzed past from a different direction, the beast was circling them

They pulled together in to a circle with Aeoran in the centre, "If I say your name shoot, you'll know what at" Aeoran focused as he raised mist cutter

"ALREAN!" a needle flew straight at the mist walker but he didn't flinch, he ignored it and shot where he estimated the beast to be and before the needle hit him a blade swept across his vision and knocked it away

The screech of an injured beast was heard as more needles flew at the group but Aeoran was faster, knocking away the needles with inhuman speed as the other mist walkers shot at the beast. It must have realised its needles weren't working and so it changed to a direct attack, the Needle tail charged out of the mist towards the mist walkers with frightening speed. Needle tails looked like large felines, slightly smaller than a horse, with white fur that had swirls of dark blue or black in it, large razor-sharp needles ran down their spines and covered their tails, that they would whip around to throw said needles at prey.

Aeoran jumped over his fellow mist walkers and blocked the Needle tail's claws as it swung at them, he ducked as the needle filled tail whipped around to take his head off. The primarch dodged and blocked the beast's every attack without even looking.

Duck

Block

Parry

The voice guided him, his gut told him where the attacks would come from, with his super natural speed Aeoran soon found an opening and just as quickly slashed the beast's throat.

"That was fucking crazy" Alrean walked over to check out the Needle tail's body, "You were fucking crazy"

Aeoran didn't say anything as he knelt down and took off the beast's head, "Can't leave without a trophy"

After claiming the beast's head he went over to the body of Kordiel, he was still alive, the needle had ripped through the right side of his chest but they didn't have the means to heal or take care of him in the village and especially not in the mist. His breathing was short and quite ragged, he knew he was going to die.

He looked at Aeoran as the primarch knelt beside him, knife at the ready, "I thought the beasts were afraid of you" he laughed and started coughing up blood

Aeoran knew Kordiel well, the man had taught him how to climb when they were younger and was always the first to take up a dare no matter how stupid. His wife was pregnant with their first and now only child but widows were nothing new in this line of work.

"I guess this beast was particularly brave" the two laughed

"Your gonna tell them right" he was obviously referring to his unborn child, "That their father was brave and how awesome I was"

"I'm gonna tell them their father was an idiot who couldn't duck to save his life" Kordiel practically burst out laughing right before Aeoran stuck the knife in his throat, right through his jugular and severing his spine, he still had a smile on his face as he died

The expedition took what they could from his body, taking the charms off his bag and laying them around his body, they didn't bury bodies on Solaero, no space or time to, they closed his eyes and left him laying in the middle of the field.

They continued hunting in the mist, occasionally coming across a beast or two and losing a few more men but Aeoran was always able to best them. His moves were fluid and instinctive, moving like he knew exactly where the attacks would come from and he did. It was a whisper in his ear and a feeling in his gut that he had to do this or that to stay alive or gain victory.

The expedition was moving through the thick fog of a forest when their leader stopped them all, he could see something through the mist and it didn't look like a tree. Aeoran walked up behind Solodiel as the older man was trying to discern what the shadow was, it wasn't moving so it probably wasn't a beast but some of the beasts were tricky and there were things in the mist they had yet to learn about.

"I think it's a house" Aeoran's superior sight easily cut though the mist and he could see it was a house

Solodiel allowed the group to advance and they found themselves in a village, the houses were ruined and overgrown with weeds but some of the houses still stood. It was a lost village, a settlement used by their ancestors when they lived on the surface of the planet, they were always treasure troves of lost tech that could be sold or repurposed.

The villages were the first to be abandoned when the mist fell and pretty much everything they used was left behind. The spread out and started to search the houses, Aeoran easily pushed down a rotting door and squeezed his bulk through the door frame, the house stood alone with multiple small rooms on the first floor and more probably on the second floor, Aeoran moved in to a room with a few collapsed and rotted couches and several faded pictures on the walls. It showed a family; a mother, father and their daughter, there were mostly pictures of the daughter showing her from an infant growing up in to a teenager, there were no more picture after that, they looked happy and the world looked peaceful. Aeoran turned away from the pictures and started tearing the room apart looking for anything of value but found nothing of any use and anything that might have been had long since worn out.

The group met regrouped in the village square but most of them didn't find anything, just a few rusted guns they could refurbish, with nothing of value in the village they moved on and continued their expedition.

Little else happened during the expedition and over half of them made it back to their village, better than most expeditions, although many of them were injured in some way and some wouldn't descend again. Aeoran was the only one who was completely unscathed after the months long expedition.