Destiny Christmas Fan Fiction Contest! (Destiny)

by mynameisbyf, Monday, December 23, 2013, 18:20 (3775 days ago) @ Ragashingo

A glimmer of hope

The glade was almost so silent that the only sound that one could distinguish was the sound of the two figures below the trees. The fairly spaced canopy of elm, ash and oak left only small gaps for the moonlight to peer through. In this time of great peril when Earth had been all but conquered and the races that bonded together under the traveller clung on for survival, there was still time for silence, contemplation and in the case of these two companionship. Even buried on the deep snows of winter, which now clung to the branches above them, the warm spirits of these two wanderers could not be chilled.
“It was here that I found you… Do you remember it? The time you nearly lost faith in the strength of the world?”
The words left Tarsonis’ throat with the same steady sureness that they always had, the cold wind clenching his throat did nothing to break his voice’s deep tones. His companion simply looked onwards, lost in memories both malicious and nostalgic. Her pale skin was unchanged by the cold. Silence had engulfed her and as she was clothed in the cold winds of winter she offered only a few words in response.
“Two years ago to the day and I was here, waiting for something.” She never turned to face him to say these words. Her eyes were searching the woods, slowly gazing over trunk and twig, looking for what she had never found.
“Do you remember what it was? You know you never told me.” She had never been so distant. She had both clung to him and struck out at life with her own independence and strength of will but she had never been so silent. It was unnerving and strange.
“Astrid?”
The word hung in the twilight with his misty breath, soon to fade into nothingness.
“I don’t know. But I know it wasn’t far.” This strange resolution to the sentence puzzled Tarsonis. The glade was vast and looked similar from all angles. But soon enough Astrid began to venture forward. Her soft steps crushing the snow topped leaf litter, each foot being placed as though trying to fill a footprint that someone else had left. Tarsonis was curious but he knew not to interrupt her search with another question. For her this search was something that bound meaning to her life, something that drove her to join him in the tower, to become a Warlock of the city.
They had come here now 2 years after he’d found her half dead from the cold harsh winds of the Scottish highlands that they now walked. 2 years after he’d scrambled to hide her from the Fallen who pursued her. He still remembered the day, scrambling under the foliage to hide them, clumsily administering adrenaline to his newfound companion, barely dodging the electric rapier of the Fallen captain and the deep roaring crack of the gun she fired that saved his life.
Astrid stopped as if having spotted a spot of black ice or a puddle. She crouched down examining the snow before lightly dusting away the upper layer, revealing the frozen ground and the grass that still held onto life. Her ghost Nymeria stuttered into life and lit the area revealing the one item that lay buried her. Tarsonis stooped and joined her, putting a single knee to the ground for stability.
At first he saw nothing, but then Tarsonis made out what was so important. A small stone talisman rested in the snow, smooth and cold to the touch. Astrid extended her delicate fingers and retrieved the trinket. It was held on a black string, which Astrid dangled below her hand.
“What is it?” Such a simple question, yet with so much relevance.
Now for the first time Astrid turned to Tarsonis. Her chestnut eyes found his for the first time in hours.
“Something from the past.” The statement floated in the air between the two of them for some time before Astrid decided to elaborate. “The day that you found me I was running from my home. The Fallen had killed my brother, his wife and their son. I was all that was left. I fell through the woods and as they chased me I lost the one thing I was able to take with me.”
Tarsonis’ eyes widened with the sudden realisation. This small smooth stone on a string was all that history had left to speak for Astrid’s old life, her home, her family and a generation lost to the invaders. This was all she had left of her past and it was little more than a pebble.
Almost instinctively Tarsonis reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder, turning his head to face her. She knelt, still frozen and unmoved by the cold hand that he had extended.
“It’s strange really,” she said in a wistful and distant manner. “This is a Celtic knot. They were meant to represent magical protection.” She paused looking down at the carved lines on the stones. “It’s strange… I always wanted to become something special.”
Tarsonis replied in a quiet and deliberately soft voice.
“You already are. You survived the cold harsh winters here for 2 decades before I found you and not everyone is blessed by the Traveller.”
Her calm and almost lost face turned to him. The unfrozen salty tears had left her eyes but were accompanied by no sound or expression. They stood out and called to Tarsonis like something and out of place in a world of order and peace. He moved his hand from her shoulder to her cheek and wiped the tears from her expressionless face.
She was strong, stronger then anyone else he’d met, but still a sight like this prompted her to release the emotions that she so often choose not to reveal to the world. She turned back to the ground where the talisman had been found but her gaze latched onto something else in the distance. She stood and began to walk, gently pushing aside branches and bushes till she reached what she saw. Tarsonis followed in her wake and was surprised when he found that it was nothing more than a small clearing but it was set ablaze by an eerie light above.
They both gazed towards the sky and marvelled at the beautiful green lights of the aurora. They both lost the will to speak as they marvelled at the lights that flickered and danced in the sky, forming patterns and shapes with no meaning or design. Silence overwhelmed the two of them and as they watched they saw some proof that there was still life in this frozen waste.
There was a slight rumble and a series of small booms could be heard in the sky. Moments later several trailing comet like shapes appeared in the sky. They blazed with a deep fiery red and shone out against the green in the sky. It reminded Tarsonis of the colours of the tower. It was adorned with red and green in the celebration of the holidays. The warm feeling resonated between the two of them as they stood on and watched.
“How many are there?” asked Tarsonis in reference to the numerous streaks of red the cut like bloody claw marks through the sky. “13” Astrid replied softly in her same wistful, far away voice. To a child the 13 trails in the sky would’ve appeared to be the appearance of a sleigh pulled by a dozen reindeer. But Astrid and Tarsonis knew that this was something that brought more hope than a gift delivered every 365 days. These were the trails of fire teams Valiant, Mountain and Grizzly. The guardians were returning to the lands that had been lost by the city centuries ago. This was a reclamation effort. The guardians were returning home.
“What a gift…”
“It’s not just a gift,” said Astrid. “It’s hope.”
As he stood in the cold snows standing next to his dearest friend Tarsonis could do nothing more then render his silent agreement and watch blissfully as the lights continued to play in the skies above.