Hey guys, here's part three of The Journey Home! Thanks for the positive response to this series so far; I'm glad that people like it! So, anyways, here's [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/1371758/222615148/0/0]part 2[/url] if you missed it, or, if you're looking for a different part, here's the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/222615264?showBanned=0&path=0]Table of Contents! [/url]If you like it, give it a bump, and I"ll get more out soon. Stay classy, Guardians! Later that night, Alesha and a bunch of the other villagers gathered around the campfire in the center of the village. Gustav’s father grinned at them, and then began to speak. “Back then,” he said, “centuries ago; before your great-great-great-great-great grandparents were even born - before the Fallen ravaged our land -“ gasps went up from the audience as he said this. “Yes, it’s true. There was a time when there were no Fallen on this world of ours. It used to be ours, and ours alone.” Gustav’s father gave the audience a toothless grin. “And then, it came.” “What came!” the audience asked. Gustav’s father paused, scanning the audience with his blue eyes. “They called it; the Traveler. A magnificent, giant orb, descended from the Heavens. And with it, came light.” The old man walked around the fire. “It brought us amazing things; a century of brilliance! We even turned our eyes upward to the stars!” Gustav pointed upwards at the sky. Alesha looked upwards at the sky, and saw it full of twinkling stars. We went there? she thought. It seemed impossible that humans could settle among the tiny points of light. How’d they even get up there in the first place? Maybe. . . a really tall ladder? “Our ships - our vessels through which we reached the stars - were numerous beyond count!” Gustav’s father said. “We thought we were the rulers of the galaxy!” Then, he turned his gaze downward. “And then. It came.” “A Darkness - deadlier than anything we’d ever seen - rushed down upon us, and killed our Traveler. And us as well. Our civilization was shattered.” The old man’s voice dropped to a whisper. “And so were we. “Soon, the Fallen came. They picked over the remains of our once - great cities, and killed all they encountered. And the Golden Age that our Traveler had brought was no more.” The old man looked around the circle. “However.” Alesha looked up. “Some say that the Traveler did not die - some say that it yet lives. Diminished, but alive, it hangs over the City - a place where the magic of the Traveler never died. And to this day, it sends out angels, who seek to bring more people to live under it’s shadow.” And with that, Gustav’s father walked off towards the truck. Alesha and Michael watched him go. “Do you think it’s true?” Alesha asked. “About the City?” “My dad says it’s all made-up,” Michael says. “He says that the Traveler is nothing but a bunch of hooey.” Alesha kept her eyes glued to the old man. “What do you think’s out there?” she asked. “Beyond the village, I mean?” “I dunno,” Michael said. “Fallen, maybe?” “But what about those ‘ships’ they talk about,” Alesha asked. “The flying things?” Michael shrugged. “My dad says they never existed,” he said. “And you believe him?” “I dunno. Have you you ever seen a ship?” “No,” Alesha admitted. “But I’ve never been that far from the village. And I bet your dad hasn’t either!” Michael looked out at the palisade of sharpened tree-trunks. “I dunno, Alesha,” he said. He stood up. “I’m gonna go to bed.” “Okay,” Alesha said. She watched as Michael walked off. Then, she saw some of the adults clustered around a nearby campfire. Among them where Old Man Kazinsky, Uncle Tom, Oren, and Gustav. Curious, she walked up to them. “- and it’s not just that,” Gustav said. “People have been disappearing - people that I trade with regularly.” “You said it yourself; it’s dangerous out there,” someone said. “Aye,” Gustav said, “but this is something else.” He leaned into the fire. “I came across a man a few days back. He’s a scavenger. Gets around plenty. He told me he saw a bunch of Fallen in the area - more than he’d ever seen in his entire life combined.” “How many?” Micheal's father, Albert, asked. “He didn’t say,” Gustav said. “Just that it was a lot - too many for you to deal with.” “We’ve dealt with Fallen before,” Oren scoffed. “What’s the most you’ve ever had at one time?” Gustav replied lamely. Oren frowned, and Tom answered. “Eighteen,” he said. “Ten years back.” He shook his head. “That’s when my brother died.” Gustav nodded. “Out in the wild, I’ve seen groups as big as thirty,” he said. “If that group was as large as the Scavenger said it was. . .” Gustav shook his head. “I don’t even want to think about it.” “What are we supposed to do?” someone else asked. “Pack up and leave?” “We’ve done it before,” Kazinsky said. “My grandfather talked about it - the whole village just up and left their old land, and came here.” “A lot of people died, if I recall that story correctly,” someone else said. Kazinsky frowned, but nodded. “You can stay if you like,” Gustav said. “But I’m not going to chance it. Tomorrow, I’m leaving this neck of the woods - for good, perhaps.” “Where will you go?” Tom asked. Gustav shrugged. “The City, maybe.” “The City’s a myth, Gustav,” Oren said. “A story we tell the children to make them feel better at night when they get nightmares about the Fallen.” “Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t,” Gustav said. “But I’ve seen enough to make me believe that there’s something out there - and I intend to find it.” He stood up. “It’s been my pleasure to know you all.” Uncle Tom nodded. “You’re a good man, Gustav,” he said. “I hope we’ll see you again someday.” Gustav smiled. “Perhaps we will.” And then, he walked off to his truck. Alesha blinked. Abandon the village? At first, the prospect filled her with excitement - she’d finally get to see the world beyond the palisade - like Gustav! But then, realization dawned on her. She’d be leaving behind the only home she’d ever known - everything and everyone she loved had always been within the wooden palisade. How could she face leaving it forever? Alesha walked along the edge of the palisade, and slipped in the mud. She sat up, and spat the foul-tasting dirt out of her mouth. Then, she looked to her side. There, she saw a hole in the bottom of the palisade, where two of the tree-trunks had partly rotted away, and the earth had slipped away. Alesha discovered that she could just barely squeeze through the gap in the palisade, and went through it. Before her were the fields which she tended to every day with uncle Tom - and beyond that, who knew what? She smiled. It was time for an adventure. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Clan/Post/1371758/222916379/0/0]Edit: Part 4[/url]