A Journey

[gantzgun74]

We see the desert of Shifting sands; far-reaching, ever moving... One could easily get lost in this unforgiving wasteland, known for it's heat and the distance it covers...



Suddenly, from the distance, a white mountain could be seen far far to the north... And from it's peak, a mysterious power apeared, floating just over the top of it... From this light, a small star seperated from the main sphere and seemed to traverse the landscape, winding over the forests, the cities, and everything else inbetween. From the far north to the far west, this light traveled...

Until it settled down in the desert.

As the light settled down in the desert, the mysterious glow slowly settled until it revealed a mysterious figure... Clad in a rust red robe, with golden runic trims circling it's body and it's face hidden by a hood, with white circles hidden in the shadows to serve as eyes....

Slowly... Steadily... With Purpose... The figure rose to his feet...

The Vagabond had awakened...

And almost immediately he could tell something was off.

Unlike the last few times he had come through here, when he looked up to the nearest hill, he didn't see the slightest sign of the tombstones he had come to know from his previous adventures through his wide expansive land. The figure tilted it's head in curiosity a moment before he took off running towards the hill. Upon reaching it, he took a few moments more to climb it with effort, though one could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew something was off...

When he reached the top he had thought he would see the ruins of the ancient city that his people had once traversed, and on the outskirts nearest the hill, he would see a few acres of tombstones for the people that had fallen....

Instead, he found nothing but desert, stretching ahead of him as far as the eye could see...

Vagabond then knew right then with absolute certainty...

Something had happened... But what?

[Heffy]

Farther on down the mountain, through the ancient shifting sands, a lone, towering figure trudged along, its silhouette plain as day in the stark wasteland and dancing like a mirage within the shimmering heat waves.

Samus hadn't the slightest idea how she had ended up here - she merely awoke, and found herself in this vast, empty desert. Awoke... from what? Had she been knocked out? The galactic bounty hunter's mind was wracked with confusion and dizzying thoughts on what could have happened, why she was here - and what she was to do now. All efforts to establish contact with her ship had failed - she must have simply been too far away...

The huntress lifted her head sky high to stare up at the cloudless atmosphere above, almost golden due to the dominating sun. She sighed deeply - what a fine mess she was in, now. But there was little time to linger over the connotations of her circumstances. She had to keep moving - that was all she could do. Samus was, at the very least, highly thankful she was able to summon her Varia Suit, here - its temperature-regulating capabilities were all that were keeping her from perishing in this intense desert heat.

Solemnly and silently, Samus marched on through the shimmering sands. The sheer, vast emptiness of this terrain was actually rather breathtaking... but Samus was in little mood to admire her surroundings. After about forty minutes or so of walking, however, she, at last, had found some sort of landmark in this featureless desert - a single hill. At the very least, she could survey some of the surrounding area from atop it - and it could serve as a useful landmark, the coordinates of which she quickly entered into her scan log before drawing closer to it. As she approached it, however... a striking dark silhouette became visible. A sign of life - a person.

Samus's mind went into overdrive at this sudden revelation. What could this mean? Was there a civilization, here? Or... was this person lost, as well? Samus wondered, for a moment, if this stranger could aid her in some way, or at least inform her of her whereabouts - but, if they had been here even longer than she had, they were probably more in need of help than she was. Samus felt regret at the knowledge she would be unable to do anything other than accompany the lost stranger - but that was better than nothing. Swiftly, she drew closer to the hill, scaling it with brisk, elevating steps. Her gait grew slower the closer she came to the figure, and she found herself gazing at it in surprise, her blue eyes wide behind her suit's green visor. Even when seen from behind, the figure clearly wasn't human - which came as little surprise, as humans were far from the only sentient race in the galaxy - but Samus couldn't ascertain what species this stranger was. She could only hope it could understand human speech.

"... Excuse me," the huntress softly spoke up towards the stranger - even from within her suit, her voice was projected clearly, albeit filtered. She kept her distance and outstretched a hand as a sign of harmlessness towards the figure, understanding that her current appearance might be somewhat alarming. "Do you... live here?" A rather awkward thing to say, so soon after coming across this stranger and before even introducing herself - but Samus simply had to ascertain this, and where she was, before anything else.

[gantzgun74]

The Vagabond looked around at his surroundings, trying to figure out where... Well... Where ANYTHING was. Had his reincarnation this time around taken him further out into the desert then normal? That seemed to be the logical case. There was the mountain in the distance just as always, that cold unforgivable wasteland...

Yeah, perhaps that was the case... Perhaps he was just further out in the desert... It might take a little longer running into a young one at this rate, but it wouldn't be impossible. He had traversed a far greater distance then this already, traversing a few extra miles wouldn't be-

be-be-be-be-be-!!!!!

He saw what appeared to be a metal creature ascending the hill, and instandly his mind traveled to everything he had seen from the metal beasts that he had witnessed on his journey. All of the times he crossed paths with one of them, all of those times he was... Hurt by them, wether by accident or to help save another...

He wanted to run, but as it ascended the hill he stood there frozen, his form in fear over what he was seeing. The comparison 'a deer in the headlights' would be a suitable comparison.

The metal creature... It didn't LOOK like one of the beasts he had seen... But he didn't want to take that chance... It didn't help that it spoke this odd dialect that it had no chance in understanding... Where had Vagabond landed?

When the beast held out it's hand, the Vagabond flinched and took a step back....

Then it spoke.

In a small series of musical notes, Vagabond uttered a prayer to the elders of his tribe. It was an odd language, but it was the one Vagabond grew up with.

'Ping-ping...' it pinged fearfully as it looked at the hands... It just seemed so.... UNNATURAL... Why would anyone in his tribe come up with machines with these... Extra limbs? It was so... Alien to him.

[Heffy]

Samus cringed inwardly at the reaction she got out of the cloaked stranger - it was absolutely terrified by her. Only when she had gotten close enough was she able to notice that it was effectively frozen in terror, its bright blue eyes gazing up at her as if it were pleading that she have mercy on him. Samus couldn't say she liked the feeling of being seen as some wanton killer... still, assuming this desert native (if it even was a native) had never seen anything like her suit before, it was a perfectly reasonable reaction. Not necessarily the reaction she wanted, though, if she were to converse with this person.

"D-don't be alarmed," she hastily spoke up, taking a step back to prove the point that she would not harm the cowering stranger. "I mean no-"

Then... the being, itself, spoke. In a most unorthodox method of speaking... in fact, it sounded more like... singing. It was almost mesmerizing... rather beautiful, actually. But, Samus quickly snapped out of her fascination with it to reach a disappointing realization - this being, whatever it was, couldn't understand a word of what Samus was saying. The woman's face grew somber beneath her helmet. Not only would this make communication between the two of them near impossible... but Samus still was in the dark about where she was, or even what planet she was in. This whole situation was surreal... almost dreamlike. Awakening in a barren desert, with no knowledge of how she ended up there...

Samus sighed silently. She could only hope that this creature was not lost and didn't require any assistance - for there was little she could do, with this monumental communication gap. She simply had no way of telling whether or not the being lived here. For a moment, Samus briefly considered removing her helmet to reveal her own humanity to the stranger in hopes of comforting it... but that was pointless, now. It seemed her only choice was to leave it be, and move on, on her own.

Without a word, the bounty hunter slowly raised a hand, as both apology and a signal of farewell. Then, she began to descend the hill, resuming her trek through the desert...

[gantzgun74]

...............................

Vagabond watched as the creature left, completely unsure of WHAT to make of this. Hell, he even checked his scarf to make sure the latter half of it was still there. Ever since his first quest he knew machines were thoughtless creatures, capable of only the destruction of his kind...

But at the very least, those beasts attacked him and any of his companions back home with no hesitation in the slightest... THIS machine on the other hand didn't even so much as touch him. In fact, the creatures motions (Which happened a little after he started praying to his elders for a mercifully painless death) surprised him to no end. If anything, the beast almost seemed... HURT.

That was just unheard of.

He took a few steps closer to the edge of the hill to watch the creature as it left, it's apparent weight doing little in actually hindering it's walk across the desert...

..................................

Curiosity ate away at that cloth head of his. While he was unsure if he was still at home or not... This creature was certainly new.

Finally after a moment, he slid down the sand covered hill after the creature. This was just too much to take. He needed answers and something deep inside told him following this creature would provide him with just that.

He followed in wordless silence, fascinated by her slightest movements. The extra limbs probably the most out of all of them. His robe sleeves provided excellent ways to use temporary flight, but those things, almost akin to legs on it's upperbody, didn't appear to be wings. As he followed, he couldn't help but smile with a child-like fascination. Even after all of the journeys he had been on, there was still so much more to discover! What a joy life was.