[i][b]Luan Fields[/b][/i]

When the eagle reared back, it took Cas’s lance with it, leaving him unarmed. More SOLDIERs were joining the fray every passing moment, but he suddenly felt useless. The heat inside him continued to mount; he felt like he would burst into flame any second.

[color=a0410d][i]Consider the possibilities, lad.[/i][/color]

The voice was low and lilting, both soft and firm, intimidating and simultaneously comforting. Cas immediately knew it wasn’t any external voice, but something deep inside him surfacing for the first time.

[color=a0410d][i]Expand yer thinking. Yeh feel the potential. Let it grow, let it change yeh[/i][/color]

His surroundings dimmed out to hollow background noises and distant shifting shapes. He didn’t worry about the voice, it was a friend, at least to him. Consider possibilities...potential...change. He let the heat raging inside him flow outwards over his skin. He abandoned rationality. Reclaim the lance. Strike the eagle on his flank. Reposition himself with the other Guardians. They were not mutually exclusive actions, why should they be. They wouldn’t be sequential either, but simultaneous. It seemed so obvious now.

[color=a0410d][i]Yeh’ve been given all the tools. Now fight![/i][/color]

The heat washing over him abruptly reached its flashpoint, erupting in flames all over his body. Cas began to move...and was abruptly thrown backwards by the maelstrom of wind blasting from one of the eagles. He landed hard, and in a single instant the fire and the voice were gone. The impact left him winded, and he tore off his helmet to breathe easier as he sat up. The battle was dying down around him. It seemed the eagles had decimated the newly arrived support infantry, but the various SOLDIERs across the field seemed barely harmed at all. Odd flashes of light and dark died out, faint disruptions in natural order of things, focused on some of the other SOLDIERs. They were awakening.

Everyone knew SOLDIERs were special. The superhuman strength and speed, that was common knowledge. There was more though, more the subject of stories than actual fact. SOLDIERs had talents, strange and inexplicable and unique. There was no training for them, no lectures from instructors, but suddenly so much of what he’d been told came together and made sense. There would be a moment, he’d always been told, where things just...changed. The SOLDIERs on the Archadia mission had said the same thing, refusing to be any less cryptic than his academy instructors. There would be a moment, and after the moment, things would be different. He got the sense it was something of an initiation, and veterans wouldn’t discuss it with those who hadn’t experienced it.

Looking around the field, Cas could guess that some of his companions, new and old, had experienced something during the battle that might well have been that [i]moment[/i]. Cas himself had been on the threshold, he was certain, before being knocked away by the eagle’s attack.
Cas reclaimed his lance from the fallen eagle and headed towards the behemoths. He curtly acknowledged the instructions of an officious lieutenant. He knew there would be questions, but right now, he wanted nothing more than some time to think.


[b][i]Behemoth - Zalera Checkpoint[/i][/b]

There were introductions of course. There had to be. In the aftermath of the battle though, they were rather more subdued than they might have been. Evangeline seemed to be nominally in charge, or perhaps she was just the most charismatic, but even she seemed subdued and quiet.

This all worked fine for Cas. After thanking the others for saving his bacon, he tried to find something approximating privacy. The Behemoth was big, but not THAT big. Cas settled down in a relatively secluded corner and dozed off. Even in sleep though, questions raced through his mind. One of the other guardians had somehow ignited a rock. A ravager had smashed an eagle’s brain into pulp with his bare hands and come away laughing. Cas himself had been ablaze for a half second, he was sure of it. Was this what all the veteran SOLDIERs knew about but didn’t discuss? Would things ever be the same? The questions chased eachother endlessly through Cas’ mind, and when he woke up, he felt even more tired than before his nap.


[i][b]Zalera tundra - Mrihl[/b][/i]

The baron seemed nice enough, though something about the man was faintly off-putting. Cas eventually decided it was his stature; lanky to the point of absurdity, the baron looked disturbingly skeletal.

The SOLDIER heading up his security was much easier on the eyes, and extremely professional; Cas had to make a point of not letting his eyes linger. At the mention of food, his stomach growled, and Cas suddenly realized he hadn’t had a meal in almost 24 hours.

“Luc?” he drew the guardian’s attention, and extended a hand. “I’m Cas. You mentioned food?”