[b]Chapter 2. 4 years later [/b] The sun beamed through the trees as birds sang from their perches on top of tree limbs. Leafs blew across the sky, and a gentle breeze ruffled the Exo's cloak. He stared at all the wonders of nature and took a deep breath, throwing out his arms as he stretched. "Isn't it beautiful, Ikora?" The Exo questioned as he placed his hands on his hips, "If it weren't for all those ugly saps known as Cabal, I'd probably set up a nice cabin here." "Focus, Cayde," admitted a feminine voice from his comm, "You're here searching for the lost guardian, not to sightsee." The Exo, Cayde, rolled his head before jumping off of the rock he stood on, "Hey, doesn't mean I can't do both," he began walking down the trail, so many Guardians had taken in the past, his arms swaying as he walked, "And you're sure this is the place?" The feminine voice known as Ikora hummed, "Are you questioning me, Cayde?" He could almost see her one eyebrow raised, "No, no, of course not! It's just the last couple of times you tried to locate this guardian; they've vanished. Maybe you should leave this to the professionals." "I am a professional, Cayde," she snapped, "If you think you could do a better job, then why don't you-" "No, no," he held up his hands in defense, "Forget I said anything." He could practically see the smirk she had on her face as she responded, "That's what I thought." Cayde rolled his optics as he made his way down the trail, taking in as much of the scenery before he was forced to head back to that god-forsaken tower. He did love the building, but being forced to stay there 24/7, was just tiring and, quite frankly, really boring. "The guardian should be around your location," Ikora spoke. "And if they're not, and this was a huge waste of time?" "Then return back to the tower immediately," she spoke in a severe tone, "Eris wants to have a word with the Vanguards; she says it's urgent." "Everything Eris says is "urgent,"" Cayde grumbled as he made quotation marks with his fingers. "I'm serious, Cayde. If you can't find the lost guardian within two hours, come straight back to the tower." He sighed in defeat, "Alright, fine." "Good; contact us if you need anything." The comm then went silent. Cayde stood still and looked around as he grumbled under his breath. "Stupid Eris, always gotta ruin everything," he kicked a pebble off the trail and down the rocky cliffside below. "I can't leave for one second without something bad happening," He walked down the path as he continued to mumble, "First thing I'm doing when I get back to the tower is, I'm taking her ball, let's see how she likes it when something personal is taken away from her." He froze as he heard a twig snap. The forest had gone quiet; no birds, no breeze, nothing. His hand hovered over his hand canon, which was safely tucked away in his hostler. His optics scanned over the area as he steadied his breathing. Heavy footsteps began approaching him, and his hunter instincts started to kick in. Heavy footsteps, too heavy to be a human, as this area is typical for Cabal, must be them. Multiple footsteps, more than three, maybe ten? No, more than that, maybe 30? His optics widened as he heard a fusion rifle powering up; he swung around and shot blindly. His aim was impeccable and hitting the Cabal square in its forehead. Cayde dove behind a nearby rock as the group of Cabal began to fire at him. He winced as particles of the rock shot off and fell at his feet. "Really, aren't playing around, huh?" He grumbled to himself before leaping behind from the rock. His body lit up in flames as he flew a set of knives at his enemies. The ones he hit fell to the ground but more kept coming. He began to fire his hand cannon, never missing any of his headshots. Cayde yelped as a searing pain shot through his shoulder; he looked to see a tear in his jacket and a wound on his arm. Cayde looked up and saw a Psion armed with a Cabal Headhunter. Cayde winced at the pain and aimed his weapon at the alien, but before he made a shot, another weapon rang off, and the Psion fell from the cliff's edge. The Cabal looked around to see where the other shot had come from, giving Cayde the perfect time to finish them. His hand canon began to glow as he took aim and fired at the remaining Cabal. Cayde sighed as the last Cabal was shot down by the mysterious sniper. He placed his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "I'm getting way too old for this," he panted, looking up at the cliffside. His gaze narrowed as he saw movement beside one of the bushes. "Hey!" He called out, quickly recovering and running up the hill. He jumped onto the nearest ledge and made his way up the cliff, using Hunter's abilities to help him. He groaned as he reached the top; he looked around and sighed in annoyance as he saw no one was there. It wasn't until his gaze fell to the ground that he saw footprints leading off into the woods. He knelt down and eyed the prints. "Sundance, scan this for me?" He held out his hand, and a red and white Ghost appeared, "Looks like footprints," said the Ghost in a smug and feminine voice. "Yeah, no -blam!-," Cayde snapped back, "Just scan them for me; it may be our disappearing guardian." Sundance sighed and scanned them, "Defiantly human, weighs about 120, female judging by the shoe size unless they're a kid. Shoes are worn down, either very old or used often, probably both. Definitely fresh, though," She looked up a shot her light into the darkened woods, the light revealing a trail of footsteps that led even deeper into the woods, "You might want to hurry; judging by how far the prints are, she's running." Sundance vanished as Cayde began to sprint at full speed into the woods. [i]"Not even a thank you? Rude." [/i] "Yeah, yeah, thank you," Cayde panted, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a guardian to catch." [i]"And if she's not a guardian?" [/i] "Well, then, I guess we'll just have to see, won't we?"