Chapter 3: A Walk in the Woods
(Age six.)
I have been living here in this small mansion with my mother for quite a while now, and during this time I have never felt more at peace.
As far as I can tell, it has been about six years since I have arrived here, and I have learned quite a lot in that time. I can now walk, talk, and have even been trying to help my mother around the house.
There isn't any school to go to, any homework to do, and mom doesn't go to work like I would expect. Instead, she stays home with me doing her best to teach me all of the things she believes I should know.
History, math, and science were a few big ones, though the topics were drastically different then what I could glean from my former memories. Some of the science teachings involved physics a lot more than biology, and the mention of gravity was almost always present. Considering the society I found myself in uses gravity manipulation to entertain children, it made sense.
While I still don't know how I ended up where I am, or why I have these memories, the simple fact I have come to accept is that life will go on no matter what I do… so I should try to enjoy it while I can.
Which is what I'm doing now.
"Get back here!
"You will never catch me alive!"
Sprinting as fast as I could around the large yard, I gracefully weave in between large trees and hanging vines in an attempt to keep ahead of the larger t'vaoan behind me. My mother was trying her best to catch me in our impromptu game of tag, but her injury slows her down enough to where I could just barely keep ahead of her even though my legs are half the size.
Something I quickly noticed once I started to walk was how quick my natural movement was. Even while walking, I am far faster than I thought I should be, but just by looking at how my legs are shaped, I quickly realized that I was meant for speed.
Something which my wounded mother was finding out, much to her annoyance.
I found out over the years that her injury was because she used to be a Covenant soldier, and was wounded in battle. She put on a strong face and told me when I asked about it but the conversation was short and I could tell it still bothered her.
It has been some time since I have bothered to even think about the Covenant, or the upcoming war as the problems that directly face me in my day to day life have taken priority. I know I should be trying as hard as I could to stop what is undoubtedly a catastrophic war, but when I am only half the size of my mother, what am I to do?
I would only get myself killed… or worse.
"Got you!"
Getting yanked off my feet, I began to laugh as I felt my small mane of feathers getting ruffled by a large three clawed hand. I squirmed around until I was facing my mom, before giving her the biggest hug I could muster.
Hugging me back, she nuzzles me affectionately, the two of us enjoying the moment while we could.
After a moment nestled in her embrace, she sets me down, and gestures for me to come back inside with her. I know that it is about time to start my daily lessons once more.
I am absolutely convinced that I have the best mom ever, and I wouldn't trade her for the world. As time went on though, I began to notice a few things about her that I managed to overlooked while growing up.
For example, where is my dad?
The entire time I have spent growing up and learning from my mother, no one has visited us. No friends of the family, no extended family members, and no father.
Even the placement of our home and outside of our home was surrounded by a dense forest and a large wall to keep others from stumbling upon us. The only easy way to tell that the house even existed was from the air.
At times I could see my mother look up towards the sky with scowl on her face, but the moment she notices me watching her, it changes back into the loving smile I have come to appreciate.
After we arrived in the main living area, we both sat down on large plush cushions on the floor and she began her lessons once more.
"Forty eight solar cycles ago, the unggoy rebellion began when…"
(\(*v*)/)
(Age eight.)
Taking another bite out of the seasoned meats I have recently prepared for lunch, I hum in satisfaction. It still feels weird to have meat for breakfast, but considering it made up almost all of my diet now, I was slowly getting used to it.
Thankfully we have never gone hungry, somehow always having enough money to feed ourselves. It was yet another question to add onto the growing pile, but just like the others, I was patient and willing to wait to get the answer.
"Sohm, please meet me in the garden sweetling."
Hearing my mother's voice coming from outside, I quickly made my way to the garden, finding the main door open.
Walking outside, I was expecting another lesson out in the forest area, but instead I was met with six moms standing in the clearing directly outside of the house, all of which are smiling at me expectantly.
Thoroughly confused at this point, and unsure as to which one I was supposed to be talking to, I slow my movement and cautiously begin examining them all.
As far as I could tell, they were all carbon copies of my mother, which just set up even more alarm bells in my head.
What is going on?
"Little one, you are getting older now, and I think it's about time I taught you how to defend yourself." The voice of my mother sounded out from all of them, confusing me even more.
Deciding to voice my thoughts, I speak up. "Um... mom? What's going on?"
Suddenly, five of the copies all fizzle out of existence, and a small blue ball falls to the grass beneath where each of them were standing, leaving only one mom left who laughs softly and slowly walks over to me.
Placing her hand on my shoulder, she squeezes it comfortingly. "They are holograms sweetling, don't be afraid."
Looking around the area around me, I could see a few things quite out of place. There were large crates and metal panels leaning against trees in seemingly random positions.
Turning back over to my mother, I repeated my earlier question, a bit more hesitation in my voice. "W-What's going on?"
She looks up from the small glowing blue ball she has in her hand to fix me with a stern gaze. The love in her eyes is still clearly visible, but there is an undercurrent of sadness that easily makes itself known.
"You are growing older my young, and as sad as I am to admit it… I will not always be around to protect you." Pressing a button on the device, the hologram bursts into light before the easily recognizable form of a grunt appears.
I have not seen a grunt in person before, so while my memories ping it immediately as pushover cannon fodder. I was not ready to see the hologram nearly tower over my young form with large imposing arms as it snarls a challenge.
"The galaxy around us is a very dangerous place Sohm." The tone of my mother's voice is sad, but she continues. "I would not be doing a very good job of raising you if I didn't at least teach you how to defend yourself. Covenant history and mathematics will not give you very much practical use if someone is attacking you."
My eyes widen as I soon realize exactly what my mother is proposing.
Moving around to each of the fallen orbs, she tinkers with each one of them before a different alien pops out, causing the small clearing to become slightly crowded.
Standing in a half circle around me is an unggoy, a jiralhanae, a sangheili, a ruuhtian jackal, and a yanme'e, all standing there unmoving.
I notice right about now how small I am compared to every single one of them.
"Worry not sweetling, they are just holograms… though they are programmed to act like the average one of their representative races, they can't harm you. Now, I need you to stand over here." She gestures to a small line in the grass.
Slowly walking over to the spot, I was confused as to what my mother had planned for me, but those thoughts immediately died when she pulled out her plasma pistol.
"The first thing I want you to do is to just practice shooting, just to get used to the weapons you will be using. Try and hit a few of the stationary targets I have set up." She gestures to a few large purple circles scattered around the yard with her hand. "Once you are able to hit some of the targets I have set up, I will have the holograms scatter into the garden and attempt to avoid you."
With that, she unclips her plasma pistol and carefully hands it to me.
Wrapping my three fingered hand around the handle of the weapon, I carefully examined the green glowing device as if it was a bomb that would explode in my hand at any moment.
Feeling a gentle hand on my arm, I look up to see my mother, her gentle gold eyes looking down on me from above. "Don't worry my daughter, you have a warrior's spirit, I know you will do fine."
"How do you know? I have never used a weapon in my entire life…"
Little did she know I was speaking about more than the short eight or so years since I was reborn. My memories are getting harder to focus on the longer I remain here, but one thing was clear.
The closest I ever got to actually fighting someone was playing video games, and that did not exactly fill me with confidence that I could actually do the real thing.
"I know for one simple reason, my young." She says, kneeling down into the grass and nuzzling me, "You are my daughter. I can easily see it in your eyes the same way I saw it in mine that you are destined for much more than this small nest sweetling, the same that I was all those cycles ago."
Feeling the emotion in her voice, my eyes began watering as the feeling of love and care came through from her words.
The image of a molten glassed landscape flashed before me as I blinked, the burned out remains of a world turned to ash as purple bulbous ships hovered in the sky.
If she can believe in me so readily, then the least I can do is believe in myself as well. I just have to take it one step at a time.
Looking back down to the plasma pistol with a new confidence, I tighten my grip on it. "Alright mother, I won't let you down."
"Oh course you won't my sweetling. Now, to activate the holographic sights, you need to-"
(\(*v*)/)
(Age ten)
I am running around the house, bouncing off the walls.
Literally.
With the realization that sitting around waiting for the Covenant to discover humanity and initiate another disastrous first contact was an extremely poor use of my time, I began to start physically training my body.
The holograms that mom used to train my marksmanship have been a tremendous help over the last few cycles in perfecting my hand eye coordination, along with my marksmanship skills with the plasma pistol, but after a while of avoiding holographic sangheili swordsman trying to behead me and attempting to hunt down the stupid yanme'e that continues to fly around the forest canopy over our garden lead me to realize something.
I am not very athletic.
During those training sessions, I easily became extremely tired if I pushed myself even slightly farther than I was used to, leading me to realize that if it came to a fight between me and an elite, I would be squashed in less than a second because I was too slow or too tired continue fighting.
It wasn't that I thought I would ever be able to beat a jiralhanae in an arm wrestle or anything, that would be completely unrealistic. However, I quickly realized that my strength was in my speed, reflexes, finesse, and senses… Not my actual physical strength.
If I can't overpower them, I can dodge until I can find an opening.
So I decided to try and increase my endurance and speed in the mornings with a long and fast run around the house, jumping over, off of, and around the large wall that surrounds the building. My run was quickly followed by marksman training using the, now household, plasma pistol to try and gun down an evasive yanme'e while four skirmishers chased me down. My evening training was an attempt to survive and defeat a single member of all of the known Covenant species that were a part of the military.
Except for that one time I begged my mom to fight a hunter… that didn't end well.
Having me push to make the training harder was something my mother never saw coming, but her words that day two years ago really got to me. I was in a position that no one else was. I knew what was coming, and I was letting the opportunity to do something about it slip away because I wanted to play tag in the yard.
Almost there, just a little more!
The muffled sound of my clawed feet hitting the mossy damp ground in rapid succession filled the area around me as I sprinted as fast as I could, trying to beat my previous time set just a few days ago. Jumping, ducking, and sliding around an assortment of small obstacles I placed in my path to imitate a sort of parkour obstacle course, my lungs burning in my chest as I rounded the final corner, seeing the finish line drawn in the yard.
Pushing myself farther, the now defined muscles in my legs spring out, propelling me to the end. Swiftly crossing the finish line, I almost immediately flop over onto the ground gasping for air as my lungs desperately try their best to recover the oxygen I had lost.
My heart beating quickly in my ears, I look up to see my mother standing over me with a large glass of water in her hands and a smirk on her face.
"Would you like something to drink, Sohm?"
Nodding furiously, I sat up from my prone position, nearly spilling the water as I snatched it from her grasp, quickly gulping down the contents of the glass. In my haste, I could not prevent cold water spilling down my large muzzle.
The soft chirps of laughter from my mother as she watched me dump half of her glass onto the mossy ground below me was enough to get me to blush a bit, but not enough to get me to stop. I was far too thirsty for that.
Too exhausted to care, I fully drained my cup before flopping uselessly back down onto the ground, panting heavily. Closing my eyes, I carefully regained my breath as the burning in my legs ebbed and flowed with the soft thump of my heart.
"Sohm?"
Opening my eyes, I was greeted with the sight of four angry looking jackal holograms over me.
Suddenly, a gigantic insect flew down and landed on my chest, screeching loudly before flying off, prompting the fake jackals to let out battle cries of their own.
Realizing I didn't have enough time to rest, I got up and began sprinting after the insect, angry holograms hot on my heels.
"Sohm! You forgot the pistol!"
Glancing behind me, I saw the rapidly shrinking form of my mother holding up said weapon in the air as she smiled at me. At that moment, only one thought went through my mind as I realized I had to fully circle the house in order to get it without being caught by the holograms.
Not again!
(\(*v*)/)
(Age thirteen.)
"Mother?"
Glancing up from a circular datapad she was using, my mother looks over to me and tilts her head. "Yes?"
"Why have I never seen my father?"
This question has been bothering me for quite some time now. I thought maybe eventually I would get an answer from observation, but I decided to just ask.
Sighing deeply, my mother put the device away before fully turning her attention to me. "What brings this on?"
Shrugging, I responded with what immediately came to my mind. "Curiosity I suppose. I've never met him, so I just wanted to know I guess."
Shaking her head, she collects herself for a moment before she begins to speak. "Your father… isn't exactly the most safe person to be around sweetling. His occupation keeps him a bit at odds with the Covenant."
Surprised by the admission, my eyes widened. At this point, I fully expected him to be dead, but apparently he was still out there somewhere.
"His… Occupation?"
Closing her eyes, she begins to speak in an almost dreamy tone. "I met your father when I was still a part of the Covenant. My assault lance was dispatched to a small asteroid colony of Kig Yar pirates operating a black market in the area. I and a group of sangheili rangers were armed with jump packs and heavy weapons as we descended from our ships to clear the area out." She opened her eyes and looked at me, laughing softly for a moment before she continued. "That one routine mission led to a lot of sneaking around my commanders let me tell you."
"Dad's a… pirate?"
I couldn't help myself from imagining a large red feathered skirmisher with a peg leg and an eye patch for a moment, I tried to hold in my giggles, but to no avail.
Confused by my laughter, she waited a moment for me to compose myself before she continued. "During the raid on the black market, a large explosion trapped both your father and I in a cave. At first we continued to try and fight each other, but eventually after fighting each other to a stalemate and taking a full account of the situation, we soon realized that we couldn't get out of the cave alone. We began to reluctantly work together, the both of us required to move some of the larger rubble out of the cave entrance. It took us nearly a full day to clear out the rubble and during that time we began to talk to each other. By the time we escaped, both the pirates of his black market and my assault lance were gone."
"If you were both left there, how did you get off the asteroid?" I asked, now fully interested in the story.
Smiling at my question, she got up and walked over to a small frame on the wall. I have seen the strange item before, but until now I never questioned what it was.
Pulling the item off the wall, she opened the back and pulled out a chain that has a strangely shaped orange stone attached to it. It honestly just looked like a lump of rock, but it obviously had some sort of special meaning to her.
"Your father stashed a phantom in a hidden alcove a few units away from the main base in case he needed to flee at any point, but by then we had already bonded… if only a little bit." Holding up the small necklace, she scowled, angrily gesturing to the small orange stone. "He picked up a rock off of the dusty asteroid surface and gave it to me, telling me it was a token to remember him by… before he pushed me down a hill and flew off without me."
Tilting my head in confusion, "But then how did you survive?"
"The idiot forgot I had a jump pack."
A moment of silence filled the room before the both of us began laughing hysterically, taking in large breaths as we attempted to regain our bearings.
After the two of us regained our breath, I decided to ask a few more questions, unconsciously wringing my hands in nervousness. "What is his name? Does he love me? Does he even know I exist?"
Carefully placing the rock back in its display, my mother makes her way over to me, pulling me into a deep embrace. "Of course he does sweetling. While he can't be here, it is only because it would put you in grave danger if he was." Pulling away, she looks me deep into my eyes, showing the truth of the words. "While I may not agree with a lot of the decisions that Moruun makes, over time I grew to love him deeply. I know he would be here if he could, and he helps in his own way. After all, as much as I made while I was still in the Covenant, my wages would never have been able to afford this house!"
My eyes widened comically in disbelief before I shook my head, the explanation as to why we had more money than most of the people around us clicking into place.
(\(*v*)/)
(Age fourteen.)
I'm not sure why I woke up, but the moment consciousness returned to me, I could easily feel that something was wrong.
Glancing around my room, my sharp eyesight picking up nothing out of the ordinary, I decided to investigate anyway. Gut feelings were something that should be listened to, and with the adrenaline pumping through me at the moment, I was not willing to ignore it.
Making my way to the door, I peer down the hallway, looking for any sign of something wrong, only to smell the strange scent of rancid body odor and rotten meat wafting down the passageway nearly causing me to gag. Glancing toward the source of the smell, I immediately saw that the light leading into the kitchen was on.
With silent movements, I crept along the hallway. Slowly, I peek my head around the corner, only to see the large walk-in fridge that we use to store all of our food was wide open, and two voices loudly whispering from inside it… ones I did not recognize.
"Hey, Thurx, look at all this food! They have to be hoarding half the cities rations in here!"
"Yeah, just wait until we tell the boss about this… maybe we will all get a share this time, eh?"
Burglars? In the house?
Looking back down the darkened hallway, I realized the main living room was the opposite direction from the intruders, where the plasma pistol was.
Cautiously making my way down the hallway, away from the trespassers. I crossed the doorway into the living area and looked toward the wall mounted display, only to see that the spot where the gun was, was empty!
It's gone! Did they take it? Where could it have-
Suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by the familiar sound of two plasma discharges, immediately after which the sound of two dull thumps impacting the floor sounded from down the hall.
My blood running cold at the sounds, I swiftly ran back into my room, sliding into my bed once more. I knew what those sounds meant, and while I have been training my best to become a good warrior when I grow up a bit more, I knew actually killing someone would be a whole different step entirely.
Slowly walking through the entryway was the figure of my mother, plasma pistol in hand. "Are you alright Sohm?"
Something was different about her tone, it had an edge to it I have never heard before, and yet it was bland, as if the normal undercurrent of love and affection was deadened.
"Y-Yes mom."
The moment the words left my mouth, her shoulders sagged, as if a great weight had just been lifted. She slowly made her way to my bed before she nuzzled me, causing me to relax my muscles for the first time since I woke up.
"Good… that's good. Maybe you should sleep in today sweetling. Training can wait for a bit."
It wasn't a suggestion.
"Yes mom."
Giving me a last little nuzzle, she made her way out of the room… towards the kitchen.
I wasn't planning on getting sleep anyway.
(\(*v*)/)
(Age fifteen.)
Standing in the garden, the flickering images of the five enemies before me fade into the small blue spheres they actually were as I stand victorious before them, very proud of myself.
Sadly I knew that the only reason I won was because I knew the terrain around my house extremely well, using the environment around me to my advantage on several occasions, but even so, the victory was an achievement nonetheless.
"Fantastic work Sohm! You managed to get them all!" My mother's proud voice sounded from behind me, causing my already large grin to grow exponentially.
"Yeah, I got lucky… The sangheili got caught on some vines, and the jiralhanae got his foot stuck in a hole."
"Don't be so modest my young, you have earned your victory today through hard work and smart planning. This was a challenge that many kig-yar would be easily defeated by, and through your determination you succeeded." She praised, the pride in her voice easily showing through.
Blushing furiously, I walk over to her and hand the plasma pistol over, the battery almost completely depleted.
Sometime in the last year, I hit a massive growth spurt, causing me to grow to match my mother's size, something she was very excited to point out. All the physical training sessions I had been doing up to this point showing as I finally matured and the lanky limbs I had before made way for firm coiled muscles.
It still amazed me how fast I could run. The shape of my legs made it extremely easy to run very quickly, enough to where I don't think very many would be able to keep up with me.
My upper body is rather strong as well. All of the time spent climbing obstacles, jumping over walls, and pulling myself onto things lead me to have a well rounded physique.
"I believe you are ready for the last thing I can teach you my young, wait here."
Confused, I watched my mother slowly make her way back into the house.
Forced to wait outside, I look over the large wall that surrounds our house. Ever since that day nearly a full solar cycle ago, mom had bought some automatic turrets to guard against intruders. The small devices scanning constantly for any form of enemy to attack.
I thought she was overreacting, but there have been a few… incidents where I have heard them go off in the night.
Hearing the soft steps of my mother making her way back over to me, I turn around and gasp.
The first thing I noticed was that in her hands is a large green rifle, one which I immediately recognize to be a carbine magnetically attached to her back. The second thing I noticed is that she seems to be carrying a large pack which she has slung over her shoulder and a large walking stick.
Walking over to the hologram spheres, she grabs two of them before she looks over to me.
"Follow me."
A bit confused but bothering to wait, I immediately begin to follow behind my mother as the two of us make our way to the gate leading to the forest that surrounds our house. I have learned that when my mother tells me to do something, I do it.
The two of us began a rather long hike through the foliage, ducking and weaving around vines and overgrown plant life.
The sheer density of the forest surprised me, and I began to wonder how anyone even found our house.
I could get lost in here and never find my way back!
Keeping a close eye on my mother in front of me, the two of us made our way through the forest until I began to hear the sound of falling water. The sound continued to grow louder and louder until we passed into a clearing and I saw…
Woah.
In front of me was one of the biggest waterfalls I have ever seen. It stretched out over an entire valley, a massive torrent of water billowed down from a cliff face before crashing into a valley below as a large plumes of mist swirl and billow over the canyon, blanketing the entire valley in a mist of white water droplets creating arcing rainbows that reflect the morning sun. The amazing scene caused me to feel a sense of wonder and detachment… almost as if I am now on a separate plane of existence from where I was only moments before. The fallen water violently leads into a large river which slowly tapers out into a massive lake, seemingly ending the violent fall with a peaceful resolution below.
It is so beautiful here.
Looking back over to my mother, who has set her pack onto the ground and is carefully examining the rifle, I feel a sense of confusion fill me.
"Mother, why are we here?"
Clicking the ammunition cell into place on the top of the rifle, she makes her way over to me and hands me the rifle. "You have become extremely competent with a plasma pistol, but in the end our greatest asset in any fight is our sight."
Fiddling with the holograms once more, she presses the activation runes, and two yanme'e pop out before flying directly into the thickest part of the mist. I could see that mother has set them to be intangible illusions this time, but she has a small device that would let her know if one was hit.
"The carbine is very different from the plasma pistol you are used to my young. It's projectile moves at near instantaneous speeds, but even at this distance, wind speed and gravity are a factor. Watch the afterglow of the shot." Standing behind me, she fired a shot seemingly at random. The shot bent upward and to the left a bit before impacting the side of the canyon in the distance.
Looking into the billowing droplets, I could see the minute differences in which way the wind was flowing. The visible water in the air created something that I could use to calculate how I would need to fire the shot.
Suddenly I saw the form of one of the holograms hovering still in the water, almost as if it was taunting me. Readying the holographic sight, I took aim. The crosshairs of the bright blue sight coming into view as I took in a deep breath and fired.
Sadly from this distance, I could immediately tell that the shot was going wide. I made the mistake of aiming directly at the drone, and the displacement of the air caused by the moving water shoved the projectile downward before it impacted harmlessly against the wall.
I heard a soft thump next to me and glanced over to see that mom had moved the pack she brought with her closer to me. She opens it and I can see it is absolutely overflowing with carbine ammo.
Looking down to the pack in horror, I immediately realized that this will take a lot longer than I thought.
"You didn't expect you would get it on the first try did you?"
Groaning, I took aim once more.
(\(*v*)/)
(Age seventeen.)
My mother and I sat down, relaxing in our living area together. While there have been a few bumps along the way, life in our house in the forest was good. The longer I lived here, the more I realized that this place will always be home for me now, the fond memories and time spent here will be something I remember fondly.
But I knew I could not stay. I was now fully mature, and soon I will have to branch out and make my own way in the wide galaxy around me.
Thankfully, my mother prepared me for this. I had gotten to the point where I could consistently defeat the training holograms, even when they were programmed to mimic the armor and average fighting style of the enemies they represented. Mom's advice and pointers over the years helped me tremendously, and quick tricks I remember from my time playing the games helped also.
Overcharge the plasma pistol to cripple the shields, then go for the kill becoming my go-to strategy.
My endurance and strength were far above where I expected, my morning runs and being chased down by a small angry mob of extremely fast pursuing skirmishers allowing me to run a considerable distance without becoming tired.
My marksmanship with both the plasma pistol and the carbine have improved to levels my mother has deemed exceptional, and since then she has made the training progressively harder and harder over time, some to the point of ridiculousness.
Shooting a drone out of the sky from a mile away, while it's moving in a cloud of thick billowing mist, making sure the shot hits the head… WHILE I'M RUNNING! Thanks mom, but I don't think I will ever need to do that consistently.
Nonetheless, the better I got, the harder the challenges my mother made me do. It was getting to the point where it was less about self defense and more like she was training me to be a soldier, something that I knew in the back of my mind I would need to become if I was ever to try and make a change.
We had just finished a meal, the two of us falling into a deep companionable quiet as the two of us prepared ourselves for the trek back to the waterfall. Slinging the carbine to my back, the metallic clank of it hitting the magnetic holster mom had bought for me, we made our way outside.
The moment we left however, the sound of a ship quickly approaching caught both of our attention. Looking to each other as a silent exchange came between us.
If both of us are here, and the ship is parked out back… who is that?
Suddenly, my mother unclips the plasma pistol from her hip and takes cover behind a large rock. Anxiously, I reach for my carbine, and rush to a position behind a tree. Falling back to my training, I shouldered the weapon and scanned the sky for any sign of movement, adrenaline beginning to fill my veins.
The two of us sat there for a moment as the sound of a rapidly approaching aircraft slowly became louder and louder.
Suddenly, a green and yellow colored phantom descended quickly from the sky, nearly crashing into some of the larger trees as the pilot hastily corrected his approach. Eventually the aircraft hovered gently over the main clearing in our backyard and the gravity lift began to emit the silvery blue light that signaled its activation.
Slowly descending from the ship was a single t'vaoan, who was carefully scanning his surroundings even before he hit the ground. He seemed to be wearing an extremely odd assortment of armor which seemed to be multiple different armor sets shoddily pieced together. I was sure his eyes locked onto mine for a moment before they continued on, but I had no way to know for sure.
Slowly landing on the ground with a soft thump, he began to yell, his voice resounding through the area.
"Syma 'Bir! I know you are out there, and most likely aiming a gun at me right now. I would appreciate it if you would stop fantasizing about shooting me and come out so we could talk!"
A few tense moments of silence filled the clearing before my mother got up from her position behind the rock and holstered her pistol. Taking that as a sign that the person wasn't a threat, I lowered my gun and began to slowly walk out of my hiding spot.
"Talk, is it? The last time you just wanted to talk to me, I ended up having to erase recordings of you infiltrating High Charity just to see me, Moruun." I hear my mother say, causing my heart to jump up into my throat.
Wasn't that-
Spinning around to face my mother, his face morphs into a gigantic smile, causing her to respond in kind. The two of them begin to rush towards the other before meeting in the middle in an embrace, the two of them nuzzling each other affectionately.
Almost stumbling towards the couple, I could hardly believe my eyes as the two of them continued their embrace, ignoring me.
"Father?"
—Author's Note—
Aaannnddd we are done with the growing up stuff! Onto the real plot we go!
The main issue I always see with fics that start with a character extremely young is that they spend far too much time with the fluff of how they grew up, and not nearly enough time with an actual plot development. I tried to do this in a way where it was entertaining enough to read, but not an excessive amount of chapters.
Please read and review. Considering the only review I have right now is a reminder from a friend that I haven't edited his other FanFiction yet is kinda a drag.
I'm writing the chapters as they come, and honestly, fully writing 3 chapters within 4 days of me even thinking of this idea was a bit of a surprise to me. Especially since this one ended up over 6000 words.
If ya like the fic, please favorite and follow too. :)