Earth, Locatin, what is known to the 21st century's Wood Buffalo National Park , Canada. . .

The wanderer makes his way down the dry dirt path, looking to the right of him, the sun sets in it's massive aglow. Purples, oranges, reds, and yellows trace across the sky, the air cools making it easier to breathe from the day's harsh heat. Stumbling over a rock his travel companion falls off his shoulder, falling down towards the dusty trail, hands quickly fetch the horned mammal, placing him over Xumarz' shoulder once again. He comes across a little farm town, it was still early in the year for crops to be planted so the plows weren't in motion, watching a farmer push his stubborn bulls into the barn house, he chuckles to himself. Gazing over the land, large crystals shards were posted in 4 corners, it was common for little farm settlements to have these Craytul Shards protecting the farmland from tiny rodents or even predators.

Xumarz enters the small farm settlement in search for food to trade or buy. Beams of shadows stretched over the dusty trails along with orange painting the land. He steps towards a trading home. "It looks like its about to close..." as he mumbles to himself, the tiny Threcian lets out a small sigh to acknowledge Xumarz' comment. "Lets try it anyway..." as he confidentially steps towards the house a woman, with 2 little girls makes their way past the window. The first to notice the hooded figure was the mother, a tiny plump; lady with a beautiful glow in her cheeks, her eyes were filled with awe, then suddenly filled with fear as she screamed! "Shes probably never seen anything like me before." thinking to himself. The woman's scream is so loud it even lets the next 6 homes know shes in distress, as she panicked the woman withdrew the curtains from the open window and slammed the door.

The rest of the townsfolk exited their homes to see what was wrong, mothers and fathers, and children all left standing outside their homes with puzzled looks and fear. Xumarz slowly makes a move towards the little bag of stale bread on his belt to hold them up, not even half way into the motion everyone quickly runs into their homes, the sounds of locks hitting the door hinge echoed after each house. The figure stands puzzled watching the sun no longer illuminate the land with an orange glow, and all the shadows danced away as the dark sky approached, the orc half-ling withdrew his hood, wiping the sweat buildup over his face and a deep sigh exited his lips, "What a nice welcoming...". He looked around for any open homes but the only light he was seeing was the one illuminating from the farm shards. His stomach rumbles as he decides to head into the forest patch to set camp there, under the shelter of the Craytul Shards...

Earth [The Farming Community]

Night arose as the wonderer laid himself in a patch of grass, under the stars with Roh. Setting aside his things, his hand digs in the light bag of and pulls a piece stale bread he found and to mention, stole from a cart on the way to the little farm town. His hand hovers over his mouth with the stale piece while the other lowers the cloth uncovering his maturing tusks hanging outside his mouth. Until an abrupt squeak comes out of Roh, glaring at the stale bread "No!~" as Xumarz talks back to the tiny creature laying on his chest.  

Roh lifts his head trying to set authority on who has the bread, he begins to bark tiny squeaks but this time it was more sincere, Xumarz interrupts "Arr arr, okay!" Giving in he tosses the bread onto his chest to the tiny barking annoyance, snatching it away with his tiny paws. Bear, lays his head back down staring at the night sky, thoughts about the UNSC and news about the Nypherians? It just all raced through his head, a war was going on and he wanted nothing part of it. Memories of his previous travels raced through his head seeing what the war has done, tearing families and friends apart a conflict stuck out to him it's when he first found Roh.

[1 Year Ago]

Xumarz was heading east after his 16th birthday, his feet crunched through the snow, shivering as he trailed behind a caravan. The odd part about it is that no one in the small group noticed the wanderer trailing behind them. The only reason why he followed the people, is because they had food and warmth, so when they didn't notice, the cub would quickly snatch food scraps and blankets. Parting his mask aside, he quickly wrapped himself in a couple wool sheets and balled up sackcloth over his lap to set the bones and cake scraps on. 

The men in the caravan were having a very hard time because of the weather and they had just got back from a small local quarters of the UNSC, to complain about who knows what. Standing outside were two off duty guards, Xumarz has never seen a building like it before, as lights trailed the entrance of the building and the words United Nations Space Command, hung over the entrance doors. 

He did his best to hide in the snow with what he had on. Xumarz watches as the two men playfully kick what had looked like rodents, but what were actually Threcians, creatures brought off world through cargo shipments. The monk who raised Xumarz taught the young boy many things when he was much younger, and showed the importance of the foreign creatures. The boy quickly kneeled down into the snow, learning this from the other children, and balled up a clump of snow and struck one of the soliders in the face! "What the hell!?" the man cried out and quickly stood up looking around the dark area, they both turn on their flashlights in the direction the snowball was thrown.

Xumarz quickly trails around as the men are distracted, picking up one of 2 Threcians laying in the snow, he poked at the other noticing it was dead, he sighed heavily and quickly darted off stumbling to the traveling caravan, stuffing the tiny pup inside his heavy cloak...

Waking up from his dream, he hears a group in the direction of the farming community. "I remember seeing it go over here! as a man's voice echos in the distance. The boy quickly pokes at Roh trying to wake him up. He turns in the direction of the voices seeing flashlight beams cut through through the trees, quickly getting up he grabs his cloak, tossing it over his body and sets forth, sprinting from the so called 'witch-hunt'. Soon enough, he runs into one of the men that were part of the group looking for him. The slender silhouette quickly twists his body, tightly gripping a metal rod and smacks the traveler clean against the head! "I've found em! Ees ov'r here...!" as the voice begins to muffle, slow down and distort; the light begins to swirl into a quiet darkness. Leaving him unconscious.

Luther hated shore leave with a burning passion. There was no real point to sending out a squad of perfectly good marines and a spartan to do some farm village's chores. He had no family to speak of and taking him away from the command room ultimately proved detrimental to whatever front the UNSC was fighting on that day. Nonetheless, command found some way to waste Luther's time in some backwater town doing community work. It changed nothing in the long run, though his therapist said that honest legwork helped build the spirit and "public relations". Luther scoffed at the idea, ONI pulled enough shit behind the scenes that he knew no amount of building "public relations" would save face. Either way, he was always treated like an outsider. No matter what he was sent out to do.

Beds were made way too soft, Luther tossed and turned while trying to find sleep. The least the UNSC could have done was send him with a cot. He sighed, at least they let him bring his trusty M6C magnum along. There was a kind of comfort of having cold steel at one's hip that no amount of feathers in a bed could match.

"I've found em! Ee's ov'r here!" Luther heard someone shout in the distance, Muffled by the aluminum walls of the little motel he was sleeping in. He peered out the window, noting a group of five or six men with flashlights and single-fire rifles fanned out towards the forest, apparently chasing some kind of cloaked figure.

Luther's instincts kicked in and he jumped out the second story window, landing with a rough, but effective roll and broke into a jog towards the group of men.

"What's going on here," He demanded, his voice booming with the authority only a seasoned commander could call upon.

"There's some creature stalking in our fields," the nearest man growled, "You stay out of it, Spartan."

How typical, locals never liked the military, as glorified as it was on earth. 

"No," Luther responded, as he drew his magnum and chambered a round. "I insist on helping."

The search continued, Luther using a spare flashlight reluctantly handed to him by one of the men. Luther distastefully noted how poorly the men handled their weapons. He guessed they couldn't even hit a tree from ten paces. All the better for whatever critter they saw in their fields. Hell, they couldn't even track the clear footprints of a kid running around in the middle of the night. Odds were, it was some teenager pulling a prank from a neighboring village.

Before long, Luther came across a teenager wearing an extremely concealing cloak. It looked like a costume made out of cloths any kid could find in a barn.

"Hey kid," Luther said, engaging the safety on his magnum "Knock off the ghoul act, these villagers are ready to shoot you."

Words echoed through Xumarz's head. The mixed conversation among the men, and a distinctive voice obviously made it clear to the boy that someone serious was standing right in front of him. Luther spoke once again, "Knock off the ghoul act!" as a swift but a light hit from his back hand hit the boy's chest and continued "--these villagers are ready to shoot you." The words became more apparent and understandable as he regained his contentiousness, the two farmers dropped Xumarz as he began to move, quickly falling to the dusty ground. Holding his hands up against his head groaning in pain still trying to collect his thoughts, on a side, trying to buy time in thinking of ways to run away.

By the time the farmers figured out where Luther had found their 'critter', the cloaked kid hadn't responded, much to Luther's dismay. It would have been a lot easier to defend him if he said something.

"It's just a kid, let him be," Luther grumbled, standing up to face the men. They didn't respond and roughly grabbed the prankster, muscling him along with them. The kid raised his hands in the air and then placed them behind his head, showing his peaceful intentions, although that didn't change their treatment.

"This isn't justice, son," Luther stated, "Get your hands off that kid and let him explain himself."

The farmers shoved the cloaked kid to the ground.

"It's not your place to tell us what justice is or isn't, spartan." One of the farmers spat at Luther, who growled in response. Another farmer proceeded to stick a rifle in the kid's face.

Luther couldn't take it any longer, he whipped out his pistol and disengaged the safety. Pointing it at the farmer with a rifle in the poor boy's face.

"Fine then," Luther growled, "As Warrant Officer Luther-A029, I order you to stand down and listen to what this boy has to say."

The other farmers immediately turned their weapons on Luther, almost forgetting about the kid. He frowned internally. Five men with rifles, trained or not, could certainly injure an unarmored spartan. If he moved quickly, he could easily subdue all five men, maybe taking a bullet in the back. A minor injury considering the low caliber of their rifles.He waited for the right moment to strike.

Bear dropped his hands to his side as he looked down growling at the man with the rifle. The farmer rudely used the barrel of the gun to take the cloth off over Xumarz's head. The golden yellow of his eyes stares back at the farmer, reveling the face nobody has seen. Deep dark palmed lines ran across his light gray skin; under his eyes and over his nose, and two lines paralleled from each other split down curving off his cheeks, not as a tattoo or a scar, but it was the symbol of the Sunstruck. Short black coarse hair covered the top of his dome, along with a light scruff covered the sides of his face and chin, and two miniature sized white tusks poke out between his lips from there, two lines continue down his chin.

"I-I was here to trade..." looking towards Luther with a soft emotion.

"Everyone was just afraid of me, so shrugging it off I left. I thought I'd camp here between the Craytul Crystals for shelter, instead of sleeping in a tree from the bears and wolves... "

Silenced dawned upon everyone as the inner of his cloak began to move, the men started to aim their guns towards the young boy, as ears poked out from the open neck part of his rough garments. It was the Threcian pup taking a good and quick look at the situation and quickly crawling back into his clothing. Xumarz quickly grabbed the cloth hanging from his neck, covering his head, slowly standing up, holding his cloth wrapped hand against his head.

"I'm uh, just leaving now." Lowering his head, as he turns his back against Luther, walking away with a limp in his step.

Much to luther's surprise, the kid spoke, and the Farmer's rifles darted back towards the kid. Mighty feisty farmers, they were. Luther almost laughed to himself. Not one of them would last more than an hour on the battlefield.

When he finished explaining himself, the kid started to limp away. One of the farmers moved in to hit the kid in the back of the head, but Luther acted faster. He pulled the trigger on his magnum, a round whizzed passed the farmer, putting a small tear in the collar of his jacket.

"Leave the kid alone, he hasn't done anything." Luther ordered. He heard poorly concealed footsteps approach behind him. It took a lot of resolve to try and hold back his superhuman strength.

Luther spun around and planted a fist straight in the farmer's gut, launching him through the air and into a tree, where he collapsed and pain and hopefully not internal bleeding or a cracked spine. The other farmers were slow to react. Luther charged at the first one to raise his rifle, grabbed the farmer's gun, and pulled forward. Throwing the man off balance as Luther wrenched the rifle from his hands as he shoved a knee into the man's abdomen. Two down.

Wasting no more time, Luther flipped on the safety on the rifle and threw it at the nearest Farmer's feet, knocking a third man to the ground and probably breaking his ankle in the process. Two men left. They were smart and kept their distance, each waiting for the right moment to hit. Luther didn't. He fired his pistol twice in their general direction, hitting trees nearby and causing the other two to flinch just long enough for Luther to charge forward and swiftly sidekick one into the final man, launching them both against the trees.

"So much for community service," Luther muttered as he watched the kid limp further and further away.

The boy didn't even take three steps til the farmers made their move against him, turning around Xu sees Luther maneuver like nothing he's ever saw, as gunshots fired off echoing in the air, screams of men suddenly silenced. Xumarz slowly turns around as he glances back at Luther illuminated by the flashlight beams on the ground dusting himself off, "He's gonna come back after me..." wiping a tear from his left eye quickly, he outstretches his arm towards Luther's direction opening his palm, releasing a force unseen in the darkness.

The sounds of the trees crackled through the air, the force getting stronger with every distance as it reaches its destination, knocking the wind out of Luther, throwing his body violently to the ground. Xumarz's heart races, knowing hes made a great mistake. He tries to limp sprint away, noticing Roh was nowhere to be seen, Bear's body began to weaken from the eminence force and the beating he just received, collapsing on the ground.

Thoughts raced through his head quickly "I'm going to end up being in Burg." Trying to catch his breath, Bear lays exhausted on the cold dewy ground as he chuckled to himself, awaiting the future.

Luther let out a gasp of surprise as some kind of invisible, dark force collided with him and he tumbled to the ground.

"Heh," He muttered to himself, "So that's why the farmers were after him."

ONI regulations called for the immediate apprehension of any supernaturals to be taken into "protective custody". Or whatever they considered that to be. For all Luther knew, it was just a testing facility to so they could create Supernaturals like they had Spartans. But Luther also wasn't on duty, not to mention he didn't care much for ONI and their secretive actions. He thought the military, even the intelligence division, should be straight with the population when it regarded their own citizens. Hell, they had been angry enough when the UNSC made the Spartan programs public, no matter how much morale it boosted.

Luther stood up and collected all the Farmer's rifles, making sure to empty all their mags and pocket them. With any luck, the kid was far enough away that the idiots wouldn't be able to track him, and their lack of bullets enough so they simply decided to go home. With a yawn, Luther trudged back to the motel, pulled a blanket off the bed, and promptly fell asleep on the floor.

Arau laid quietly as he closed his eyes, pulling the cloth from over his head, rubbing the swollen wound.

It began to rain slowly over him, along with tiny legs leaped on top of him, making its way into his shirt, he sharply exclaims in a deep tone "Roh! ogg dajambat gris! Thr'akk fatofk lagat!" patting the outside bump of his chest. Scooting himself close to the base of a near by tree with a deep huff, he stares at the silhouette walking back to the town, then back to the unconscious men. "Who is that man?" he quietly mutters, wiping the water from his face.

[End]