I've been following WH40K for the past few years, in particular the Horus Heresy, and I've always been fascinated by the tantalising hints about the Second and Eleventh Primarch. So I'll try giving this fic a shot. I hope I'll be able to do it justice.

Please note, according to Black Library, the Second Primarch was the third to be discovered after Horus and Leman Russ. And I'll be drawing on some materials from various mythologies like they do in WH40K, including Tolkein's Legenderium...though only a small bit in that regard.

I hope you enjoy this.

The people of Tempestas knew nothing but the Eternal Storm that covered their world. It was said by the eldest of them that the goddess Tempestas had created a beautiful world, an Eden for her chosen people. But the daemons of the Underworld were jealous, and had sought to take the land for themselves. To protect her people, Tempestas had unleashed the Eternal Storm to drown the daemons and keep them trapped in the Underworld forever.

She had wept at the destruction of her garden, but her chosen people had persevered throughout the millennia of hardships. With the world all but drowned in the floods, the people of Tempestas had built their refuges in the tallest mountains where water could not reach them. The violent oceans and winds prevented them from sailing, so they befriended the mighty Storm Eagles so that they may brave the violent skies. They hunted the beasts of the oceans for food, and grew what they could on the surface and the deeps of the mountains. Some made war on each other to take what they could survive.

And so they had lived for as far as they could remember.

Until a day had come when the Eternal Storm was breached for the first time in living memory. There was a great boom, and suddenly, light streamed through a breach in the Storm. The people of Trident's Peak had looked up and wept as the light touched them, warming their bones ever so briefly from the cold wet embrace of Tempestas.

Then they saw it, the falling star. It streaked towards them through the breach even as the Storm healed its wound. Lightning assailed it from all sides, as though Tempestas herself was outraged by the offense it had caused. With a mighty crash, the star embedded itself onto the side the Left Peak, just out of reach of the violent ocean.

As the breach closed, the dim greyness of Tempestas returned.

II II II

Firiel made her way down the treacherously slippery paths carved into the side of Left Peak. Her friend, Iona followed her from a distance, reluctant to get too close to the ocean. Firiel's garments were soaked through despite their resistance to water, as the rain and spray of the ocean pelted her relentlessly.

Since the Breach, as it is now being called, the Storm had become even more violent, as though offended. Firiel had seen the star fall and wondered what it was. Her curiosity had been too much to bear, and now she found herself drawing closer to where it had fallen. Smoke was still rising from where it had crashed.

She made her way to it, despite Iona's protests.

"Fi! Come back before the sea gets you!" cried Iona.

Firiel ignored her and finally reach the crash site. The force of the star's fall had created a small cave, which was already starting to fill with water. Firiel entered it, taking care not to slip. The cave did not extend very far, and Firiel soon found the star.

Only it was not a star.

It was a strange metal box that was cylindrical in shape. On one side is what appeared to be a lid. Firiel made her way around to get a closer look and spotted what seemed to be numerals positioned below the lid.

II

Her curiosity piqued, Firiel tried to remove the lid. After several minutes of struggling, the lid the finally fell away and Firiel beheld what was inside at last.

A child.

A child of such perfection that Firiel nearly wept at the sight of him. He lay on his side, sleeping peacefully as though unbothered by the howls of the Storm. Firiel had seen the star being struck by lightning as it had fell, but the child was completely unscathed.

He was even smiling as he dreamed.

II II II

There was a great commotion as Firiel carried the child to main gate of Left Peak. The people gathered around her to get a closer look at the Child of the Stars or as some had even started to call him, the Son of the Storm.

The child slept on, smiling sweetly in Firiel's arms.

"What will you do with him?" asked Iona.

Firiel looked at her as though startled by the question. "Do you have to ask that? I will raise him of course."

Iona and the other women around her gasped with shock while the men looked on with amusement.

"An unmarried woman raising a child by herself?" cried Iona. "That's madness!"

"Nevertheless, I will do so," answered Firiel, raising her chin stubbornly.

"What will you call him, then?" asked one of the men.

Firiel paused thoughtfully as she considered. As she did, a great cry rose over the howls of the Storm and the roars of the ocean. Everyone turned to see a great shape disappearing into the Storm.

"Garuda…" whispered one of the men in awe.

"The mightiest of the Storm Eagles," said another. "Most people go their whole lives without even glimpsing the Lord of the Eagles, and he appears so soon after this child's arrival? Truly, this is a good omen!"

"The Lord of Eagles," mused Firiel. "That is what I will name him."

She looked down at the sleeping child.

"The Lord of Eagles," she said to him. "Thorondor."