Agent of The Nine

CHAPTER VI: SEEKER

The wind grew stronger, the campfire slowly calmed, the light of the fire grew dimmer, and the gloomy clouds collided together and snowed, covering the entire ground of the campsite cliff with it. All while the body of the dark one lay on the ground like a puddle of tar. As soon as it started snowing, all it took was one single snowflake, a fate-determining flake, to drop on Xur's hand for him to slowly open his yellow eyes. His eyes widened and his bodily tentacles started to swirl when he noticed the singular snowflake on his hand to which he said " Snow..." in his rusted, tiresome voice; relieved that he was finally out of his nightmare.

Xur put his hand on his knee to boost him up on his feet, leaving an abnormal, slender handprint on the snow. He exhaled an extensive cloud of fog from his face, which seemed that his mouth was hiding behind all of the wavy tentacles around his head. As he finally stood up, relieved, one of his tentacles from the side of his head stopped its quivering and froze still like a whisker, clearly pointing to something from above. Xur felt the halted tentacle, as he turned his head to the snowy sky to see the presence that alerts it. A patrol vessel with a large body and rather small wings from each side flies from above, swerving the snow in circles from the hefty wind generated by the ship's thrusters. As it flies away, Xur took a closer look onto the vessel, squinting his eyes with focus. He couldn't distinguish the ship from any other, until he noticed a symbol marked onto its right wing, a yellow symbol with a green background that seemed to look like a standard badge with parallelogram wings extended from it. Xur remembers that same exact symbol during the invasion, when a large Cabal legionnaire charged with brute force, bearing the insignia of the Dust Cabal with a banner, and beneath that banner were hundreds of cabal legionnaires run to hunt their prey with their cold and unflinching eyes. Natural born killers.

As soon as Xur remembered the insignia, he remained focused onto the ship, letting out a big grunt and clenching his fists tightly from anger. As the ship flew away, Xur noticed its thrusters slightly reduced in volume and the vessel seemed to be lowering to the ground. His eyes slightly widened yet still in focus, as he came to the realization that the vessel could be his path to Primus Kalris. A formidable starting point for the Jovian. Xur knew that if he ever wanted to seek his quarrel with the general then he had to act hastily to catch up with the vessel. He rubbed his face with his icy fingers and grabbed his torn, hooded garb that he had since the hunting session back in Arroyo and whirled it around his neck, putting on the hood.

Before Xur's leave, he noticed Raluk still sleeping on the log beside the fire, covered with his hand-made, grayish blanket with his arm dragged down on the floor and his fingers barely touching the surface of the snow. Xur thought it would be best to let him know that he's leaving. "Old man.. I am leaving." said Xur aloud to the sleeping hunter, but no response followed. Xur gave out a slight grunt and walked to Raluk to wake him up. "Wake up, old man." he said, as he shook his frail body, but he wouldn't wake up, not even a single breath out. Xur slowed down the shaking until he completely stopped and looked down to Raluk's hand on the ground, knowing that the old man's life gave out. After a few seconds, He puts his slithery hands on Raluk's forehead and says "You'll be remembered." in a whispering voice. He wrapped up Raluk's frail body with the blanket and tore a small part of his hooded garb to make a blindfold and applied it onto the Awoken. Xur slowly rose from his knees and looked at Raluk's dead body once more, seeming to be in frustration and anger for not being able to know the severity of the Awoken's condition. For once, ever since his transformation, all he wanted to do was doing the right thing for someone. Instead, all he was getting were corpses lying around wherever he set his foot. However, Xur couldn't afford being too emotional anymore, saving every bit of it to the Primus. He walked to the exit of the campsite and right before he set his foot outside, he looked back at Raluk's wrapped body once more and said "I bid you farewell, Raluk... May the Light guide your soul to greatness." He turned his head back to the road as a strong breeze finally waves.