Agent of The Nine

CHAPTER III: LONE WANDERING

The dead trees that were once the blossom of hope and beauty for the Arroyians, the corpses of both the people and the Cabal that lie around the destroyed metal pieces and smashed rubble of the tribe, the unforgiving cold breeze that flows heavily within the area, and the complete silence of the world, nothing to hear but the wind of the season. The fall of the bastion has left the Arroyian region in ruins, a battleground wasteland. There was nothing left for Xur to do in Arroyo other than to pay his respects to his family, and so he ventured out from the tribe that was once his safe haven and into the trails between the mountains. Once more, The Arroyian was on a hunt.

They called it the Forbidden Masses. When Xur was a child, he would always hear stories from the great hunters. They claimed that no one dares journeys there ever unless they were either an outcast, or asking for a death wish, and whoever went there never returned. With Xur's case, it seemed like he was both of these kinds of people, but it didn't matter to him. After more than a few miles, The mists had cleared a little and he could see the Forbidden Mountains from the horizon. While he was gazing at the mountains, his headache emerged again, he cramped, fell on his knees, and his tentacles on his face swirled faster. "We know what you're thinking... you cannot abandon your mission, emissary... get back on track." Said the voices in his head in whispers. Xur cried out in pain, the voices repeated the same sentence over and over again, but it all stopped all of a sudden; they come and they go every so often. Xur's headache had vanished, got up on his feet, and walked tiringly.

"Remember your worth, Jovian." Said one of the voices in an angry tone.

"Get... out of my head." replied Xur.

The journey was long and tiring for Xur, especially with his metamorphosis occurring in his body, but all was well for him when he finally reached his destination to the Forbidden Masses. As he walked longer into the trails between the mountains, the snow and mists got thicker, and the wind grew stronger, but Xur remained determined to find any sign of Cabal. He had wandered between the snowy mountains aimlessly for so long in the unforgiving weather, had no one around him, no one to listen to, and no one to speak to but the voices in his head and the breezy wind that brushes his hood with snow, the overwhelming change he had gone through that happened all so sudden, the death of his family; the wanderer was dealing with many conflicted feelings: sadness, anger, loneliness... looking down on his black, unusual feet pressing down on the snow. The Jovian grunts and shakes his head and looks upon the road, not wanting to dwell on these thoughts for long and continues onward.

After what seemed like quite a distance of miles, Xur had noticed a large pole with a cloth strapped on it, waving from the top, resembled a lot like a flag. He couldn't make anything out of it so he got closer to it. As he moved closer slowly, the flag appeared to have a minimalistic art of a battleship and a triangle right below it. The flag left Xur confused, it looked familiar to him, but he couldn't make much sense out of it. While he got closer, the thick mists cleared a little and a small base appeared behind the pole flag, and he saw two legionaries walking around in guard with two captives from Arroyo. Xur was feeling a bit nauseous from all the familiarity.

"Woeful beings... woeful beings." whispered the voices in Xur's head. Then it struck him, he had encountered a Cabal outpost in the stormy blizzard of the Forbidden Mountains. He quickly hid behind a rock and shook his head a couple of times. "What is wrong with me? Why couldn't I remember them all of a sudden?" asked Xur to himself, baffled over the confusion of memory.

He had to put that confusion aside and focus on what was more important. Xur was on a mission to know who is the degenerate that is responsible for the assault on Arroyo, the one who killed his loved ones. He wanted to find a way to know more from the legionaries, but it would be too risky for him to walk in there since he did not know what his new form was capable of. "Kill the woeful... speak to the woeful. Leave the extinct." Whispered the voices repeatedly, contradicting one another. Xur gets another mild headache and grunts. He was over with the voices' circling, so he had come up with the decision, he stood up with all courage and went to speak to the legionaries. The legionaries were on their duty, patrolling around the outpost and remained guard for the Arroyian captives. The legionaries were alert when they heard footsteps from afar, but couldn't see who was approaching due to the thick mists. In the eyes of the legionaries, they could only see a dark, hooded creature with tentacles coming out of its face. A creature that only they hear about in stories or legends. The Cabal legionaries were intimidated but remained guard.