Author's Note: He, everyone. It's me. I got this chapter out faster than usual( and I was lucky to do so). Due to the complaints about spacing, I've gone back and edited the previous chapters into paragraphs (some are still fairly large, but there are no massive text chunks). On with the story.

Black Speech Translations: "Oi greaav rifav ro worlduk, embracnik alnej shal your lighav agh avake alnej votar." translates to "Oh great rift of worlds, embrace me in your light and take me home."

Chapter Eight: The Attack

It had been about a month since Dâgalûr's eventful nap during the Battle for the Citadel, and he was still trying to understand what happened while he was asleep. From what he had been told, a Reaper attacked the Citadel with the "Saren" fellow they'd been hunting down. The Council, which was the governing body, was saved from death's clutches. Anderson, who Dâgalûr had met on the Citadel, now represented humans within the Council.

Shepard was now performing the cleanup of the Geth that had allied themselves with Saren. Dâgalûr wasn't thrilled at the idea, but it gave him something to do. He'd also been getting closer to the squad, especially Garrus and Tali, with whom he would start kill contests while on missions with them.

Just as Dâgalûr was getting up, he fell backwards as the ship violently spun around. Red lights began to blink, and alarms began to sound. He ran to his storage locker to grab all of his possessions, which he stuffed into a large sack he had found on an uncharted world during cleanup. He had to leave the armor sets behind, but he managed to snatch a few of the helmets and put them into his sack while he was running, however.

Dâgalûr then went over to Garrus, who had ran to Engineering to get everyone out, while Wrex got the elevator ready. "Everyone in!" He said as Garrus, Dâgalûr, Tali, and the Rest of the crew boarded the elevator. They sprinted up the stairs to get to the escape pods, and Dâgalûr boarded one with Kaidan, Tali, and a few other crew members, throwing the sack into the aisle of the pod.

Once everyone buckled up and the escape pod launched, they got to see the full extent of the damage to the Normandy. The ship was in pieces thanks to the laser beam protruding from the mysterious ship in the distance. Kaidan was worried if the Commander had gotten out in time. He was starting to turn pale. Dâgalûr tried to comfort him, but it didn't ease the pain. The pod suddenly began descending to the planet the ship was orbiting, and everyone had to brace for impact.

The pod had finally landed, and everyone got out to try and figure out where they were. Dâgalûr grabbed the sack that had been thrown about during the landing and joined them. The ground was covered in snow and ice, and violent gusts of wind blew snow straight at them. They saw a massive cave in the distance, but the whiteout conditions made it hard to make out. The crew decided to try to get to it in order to take shelter from the snowstorm, and, once they reached the mouth, they began to descend into its depths.

Kaidan wasn't sure it was a good idea to continue further into the cave. "I've got a bad feeling about this. What if we lose someone in here?" Dâgalûr didn't want to hear it. "It's either this or the snowstorm. If you want to freeze out there, be my guest." Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the cave. "I'll take my chances with the storm." Dâgalûr picked up a rock, wrapped it in dry leaves that were scattered on the cave floor, and lit it up to use as a torch with his pyromancy. "Go ahead, but I'll take my chances with whatever's in there." Most of the crew members, including Tali, stayed outside the cave, but two crew members, who would rather take their chances with an animal than with a snowstorm, followed Dâgalûr.

As Dâgalûr progressed further into the cave, the roaring became louder and louder, and was accompanied by squealing and snorting. When the three reached the end of the cave, a small opening in the back wall was illuminated by bright purple light. Dâgalûr handed the rock torch to one of the crew members, dropped the sack, and began to tear and claw at the rock wall, hoping to make an opening big enough to fit through.

When he reached the other side of the wall, he found a massive area of the cave that had been virtually untouched, and at the far back, he found the source of the light. A portal to Mordor lay before him, the purple light emitting from it blindingly bright, and its frame of bones intimidating to the other crew members. Dâgalûr also found the source of the noises. A Great-Beast was stomping about, trying to escape the cave, its two horns breaking through rock as it flailed around. It was of the Udun breed, and was almost as big as a Mûmak of the South, as opposed to its Gorgoroth-bred cousin.

Dâgalûr looked over to one of the crew members. "Get Kaidan and Tali in here. I'll handle the Great-Beast." "I'm on it!" He said, sprinting to the cave's mouth. Dâgalûr drew Pargijakunquiin and his quiver, and fired an arrow at the monstrous behemoth, piercing through the hide on the beast's stomach, causing it to start charging towards one of the walls, which it crashed into, resulting in a rockslide. The monster was pinned down underneath the rocks, and tried pulling itself up.

Kaidan, Tali, and the rest of the crew showed up at that moment, and saw the creature roaring and snorting. They also saw the portal, with its blinding light and frame of bones. Kaidan was confused whether the creature was a native species or not. "Did that thing stumble out of that portal?" "It did, I recognize it from my homelands. That doesn't matter, though, because I'm still gonna kill it."

Dâgalûr pulled out his sword and charged straight at the beast, cleaving and hacking at its legs. This only enraged the titan further, and it started swinging its head at Dâgalûr. He grabbed onto a small horn on its head-crest while it swung its head around, and dropped down on its neck. Dâgalûr stabbed right through the monster's jugular, causing it to die.

Kaidan and Tali met up with him, and took a closer look at the Great-Beast, while the rest of the crew was in shock and awe as they gazed upon the rift between worlds. Dâgalûr retrieved his sack and joined Tali and Kaidan, now facing the choice of whether to stay in this galaxy or go home. "I do think that this is the end of my journey in these lands. This portal beckons for me to return home."

Tali dropped her head. "Oh… I understand. If you have to go, then go. I'll-" She paused, "I'll be fine. You need to be with your people. It was nice getting to know you, Dâgalûr." Kaidan put his arms behind his back. "If this is it, then so long, Dâgalûr. I'm proud to consider you a friend."

"So long, you two. But who knows? The journey may not end here. Take these-" He took two barbed arrows out of his quiver, placing one in Tali's hand and the other in Kaidan's hand, "to remember me by." Tali placed a firm grip on the arrow shaft and took out an old pistol that she hadn't used since the beginning of the mission. "Here. Take this to remember me, Kaidan, Shepard, and the rest of the squad by."

"Thank you, Tali." He said as he placed the pistol into the sack. Dâgalûr then put the sack over his shoulder, being careful not to tear it on the blades on his shoulder armor, and made his way to the portal. When he got within a few inches of the portal, he held his free arm out and said, "Oi greaav rifav ro worlduk, embracnik alnej shal your lighav agh avake alnej votar." as he stepped into the purple void.

Author's Note: For reference, the Great Beast in the cave is a cross between the one seen in Shadow of Mordor's appendices, and the sketch by Torvin in the Lord of the Hunt DLC.