[spoiler]This is a sort of sequel to Redemption, found here: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/213489658/0/0[/spoiler] In a clearing amongst the trees, there knelt a strange pair engaged in a familiar task. One was a little girl, not but seven winters old, a look of intense concentration on her face. She wore simple clothes, a shirt and pants, covered by a cloak just right for her size. The other, a far stranger creature: four arms, four eyes, with only three fingers to a hand, an odd set of armor mostly covered by a similar cloak to the girl's. Before them lay a deer, it's heart pierced by a single bullet. Currently, the two were in the age-old process off cleaning their kill. Soon enough, the two were done, the unneeded scraps left for the scavengers. The larger and stranger of the two lifted the carcass up, placing it on his shoulders and beckoning his young charge to follow. The two walked in silence for a time, neither feeling the need to speak. A thought, however, wormed itself into the child's mind, quickly becoming a question that could not remain unanswered. She turned to her guardian, hood framing her face. "Why did you leave you home?" This gave her companion pause, before he continued his pace. Instead of answering immediately, he asked a question of his own. "Have you ever been so angry with someone that you couldn't think straight? That you did something you normally never would?" The girl thought about this for a moment. She understood why he had responded with a question: he had done so many times before. With that in mind, she thought about it, long and hard. Even when she did remember, she turned the memory over I her head a moment before answering. "Yes. There was this one time - I don't remember what he did - but I was so mad, I just... I punched him." She winced. "I got in a lot of trouble for that." Her guardian could not contain the chuckle that escaped as he patted her head with a free hand. "I'm sure that, if he angered you that much, then he likely deserved it." He sighed, his hand falling back to his side. "What if you had not stopped at one, though? What if you were so mad you had kept punching him?" She didn't respond to that, not meeting his eye when he looked down. He shook his head before he continued. "That's how my people think - or don't, as the case may be. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the basics. When I realized that they couldn't see past their anger, and did so myself, I saw that they were - and still are - hurting themselves far more than they are their enemies. They are fighting when they don't have to." "Then why don't you tell them?" He looked down at his charge, seeing the determination in her eyes. "Tell them they're hurting themselves. If they know, then then they'll calm down, stop, and think, right?" "If only it were that simple. I did try, once, to talk to another, make them see. I failed, and lost faith that any of them could be convinced." "You can't just try once and give up, silly. You have to keep trying, until you find someone who will listen." That gave her the stranger one even more pause, followed by a quick chuckle. "As right as ever, little one. Someday I believe I shall do just that. For now, however, we have a kill to preserve," he said, shifting the carcass on his shoulders for emphasis. When his charge beamed up at him, he found he could not resist the smile that found its way onto his own face - not that he wanted to, either way. With a ruffle of the younger's hair, they continued on, one with a sated curiosity, the other with newfound resolve.