I apologies, but for this chapter and the next, maybe more, we will leave behind Tempestas and Thorondor for awhile. But I assure you we will return to it soon.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Nightmare

The nightmare always began the same way.

Rotting corpses, burning cities, devastated worlds would flash repeatedly one after the other. Then, visions of giants in armour marching through shattered cities, their heavy boots crunching on roads paved with the corpses of the young, the old, women and children.

And behind it all, a being of golden light, facing four entities whose shapes defy the mind, and tore the heart apart with terror.

And always, Hayreddin would wake at that point.

He would be breathing heavily as though he had just gone through a heavy exertion, beyond anything that he had ever done in his waking hours. He was trembling, and sick fear was clenching his heart.

But as always, the eventual sounds of his surroundings would trickle in, and his fear would slowly recede. He would get up from his cot, put on his tunic, bound his long hair back and exit the hut he shared with his parents.

XI XI XI

As always, when Hayreddin emerged from the hut, anyone who happened to be in the area at the time would find their gazes drawn to him.

He was only four, but already had the appearance of a beautiful youthful man. In a world full of olive and brown-skinned people, he stood out as having skin the colour of the pale sands of the desert that stretched out into the mainland. His hair was long, and a dark brown colour, and despite that no one had ever seen him treating it, remained shiny and glossy at all times. Dark shining brown eyes greeted people as warmly as the smile from the full lips that adorned the perfect face. Despite his height, he never seemed to diminish those around him; instead he seemed to bring out the best in them. And he was strong too; despite his slender and elegant build.

Hayreddin had always felt uncomfortable at the stares. Most of them were of awe, but he could read the raw desire in some of them that scared him at times. He had already turned down countless advances from women and (to his great distress) not a few men as well.

As impossible as it seemed, he was simply unaware of how beautiful he was. He walked as quickly as he could to escape the stares, towards a fortress that extended down to the rocky beaches that lined the jagged cliffs that were ubiquitous on Baybar.

Nuba had grown from a small backwater village to a respectable trading port in the four years since Hayreddin's arrival. Though he had often protested otherwise, much of the credit lay with him. He had grown swiftly, much to the wonder of his parents and the villagers, and his intelligence and wisdom had quickly outstripped the elders had tutored him.

It was Hayreddin who had proposed the building of a small, fortified wall across the natural, sandy 'ramp' the led up from the rocky coastlines. The jagged cliffs stretched for leagues in either direction, and the 'ramp' was the only natural path that led up the cliffs, making it ideal for traders to dock nearby so that they may bring their goods to the city of Kolumpu, which had no docks due to its location on the cliffs. Indeed, the village of Nuba had originally been founded by early traders as a sort of supply point for them before they moved on to the great city of Kolumpu.

Of course, the ramp had also been the ideal point from which to launch their attacks.

Hayreddin had advocated building the wall, and with his charisma, many of the villagers had agreed with him. They had toiled for months on end, with Hayreddin among them, and the wall had been finished, built from stone brought from nearby quarries. Hayreddin had then overseen the training for the villagers to man the wall, stating that 'walls were useless without men of courage to man them'.

It had been a tremendous success, pirate raid after pirate raid were repulsed by the people of Nuba, often with Hayreddin fighting alongside them. Eventually, the people of Nuba would no longer have to flee to the desert, instead many more of them joining the militia to fight off the pirates or being able to focus on more stable trades.

Whether foreseen by Hayreddin or not, the safety provided by the strong defences of Nuba had also attracted traders, craftsmen and so forth from other cities. Nuba would flourish and expand as a trading point for many cities along the coastlines. The wall had been developed further into a fortress, and the people of Nuba, despite Hayreddin's embarrassed protests, had named it Hayreddin's Wall.

XI XI XI

Hayreddin walked along the path leading towards his hut, humming contentedly. It had been a productive day; he had secured more trade agreements for Nuba and had finally been able to distribute the new armour and weapons for the fortress guards.

Night had fallen and the moons of Nuba had come out, giving his pale skin an ethereal glow. He increased his pace, eager to reach home to talk to his parents.

Many of Nuba's people had wanted to build Hayreddin a lavish home for everything he had done, but he had refused, insisting that the hut he and his parents shared were more than enough. He smiled as he thought of the meal that his mother, Ani would no doubt be preparing.

"Boy."

Hayreddin's smile vanished instantly when he heard the familiar voice. Sighing inwardly, he turned to see Beduin, the old spirit-speaker. The old man had a scowl on his face as always.

"Elder," greeted Hayreddin, inclining his head respectfully.

"Have you offended the spirits further today?" spat the old man.

Hayreddin sighed.

Beduin had never liked Hayreddin; always claiming that he was an abomination. Where people had been awed by Hayreddin's rapid growth and maturity, Beduin had been horrified. When Hayreddin had proposed the building of the Wall, Beduin had been the loudest voice of opposition, claiming that such a thing was an offense to the spirits. There had been originally some people who had agreed with the spirit-speaker, but with Nuba flourishing since the building of the Wall, Beduin had found himself increasingly alone in his opposition to Hayreddin.

Hayreddin pitied the old man; everything Beduin had known was changing. He had once been the voice of authority, the source of strength and comfort whenever the pirate raids came. With the threat of the pirates gone, Beduin had been rendered obsolete, a voice constantly bleating of the spirits.

It always came down to the spirits for Beduin. Sometimes Hayreddin thought that the old man cared too much about what the absent spirits wanted as opposed to what the people of Nuba needed.

Quietly murmuring his goodbyes, Hayreddin turned and left, leaving the old man fuming behind him.

All thoughts of angry old men and spirits vanished from Hayreddin's mind when he arrived at his hut and found his mother turning a haunch of meat over the fire outside and his father Babar sitting beside it, puffing away from his pipe.

"There you are, boy," boomed Babar. "If you had been a little longer, we would have started without you!"

"My apologies, Atta," said Hayreddin, smiling as he sat down beside the fire, folding his legs neatly beneath him.

"What took you so long, love?" asked Ani as she cut a piece of meat for Babar.

"The meeting at the fortress took longer than I thought it would, Um," answered Hayreddin. "And I ran into elder Beduin on the way back."

"Has the old fool been bothering you again?" growled Babar.

Hayreddin shook his head, smiling. "Things are just changing too much for him I suppose."

"Hmph," snorted Babar. "That they are, and for the better I might add. The old man should just learn to enjoy it and stop worrying about what the spirits want. I tell you, if the spirits were angry, things wouldn't be this good!"

Hayreddin smiled. He didn't really believe in the spirits, but out of respect to his mother and father, he had never voiced such thoughts aloud.

In any case, it didn't matter to him, as long his family and the people of Nuba were safe and happy.

But always, the nightmare would be nagging at the back of his mind, whispering, unsettling him. Always it would whisper in Beduin's angry voice.

I hoped you liked that. I felt it was time for Primarch XI to makes his appearance...I'm sorry if I disappointed anyway who was hoping for an account of the Unification War of Tempestas. But I will get to that in part eventually, I promise.