The Dawn
"Son, can you hear me? I'm here!" the voice called out again from somewhere in the fog, sounding a little relieved.
Niko jumped to his feet so quickly that he almost dropped the hatchets. He definitely recognized that voice, it jogged his memory with flashes of his late father.
The man had gone missing along with a few others during one of the missions when Niko was just a young boy. That was almost 17 standard years ago and they were all presumed dead, for obvious reasons.
"Father...is that really you?"
"Of course it is me, little oak. Who else could it be?"
Niko's eyes widened from disbelief. "Little Oak" was the nickname his father had for him because of his sturdy physique. No one other than his mother knew, no one else.
"But how....are you here?"
"I don't know. My memory is a little hazy and I can't remember much. The last thing I remember is leaving for that mission to the ancestor's resting place..."