Into The Depths Chapter 24- The Champion's Oldest Friend
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“I’ve been expecting you, my friend,” the giant red Zora exclaimed happily, grabbing Wild in his arms and lifting him into a hug. “It’s so good to see you again.”
Wild laughed, hugging him back. “It’s good to see you, too, Sidon,” he said happily as he was being set down.
The Hero turned around and gestured to the Zora beside him. “This is Sidon, Prince- no, King- of the Zora and a close friend of mine,” Wild explained, a fond smile on his lips.
“Good afternoon, Your Highness,” Time said, stepping forward and starting to bow before the Zora king setting a hand on his shoulder.
“You’ve no need to bow to me, my friend,” Sidon said quickly, with a kind smile. “Any friend of Link’s is a friend of mine,” he added, dropping his hand on Wild’s shoulder after stepping back to his side.
When they stood side-by-side as they were, Sidon absolutely dwarfed Wild. Wild was barely taller than the King’s waist. He had a white front, though his arms, back, and head fins were a brilliant shade of red that seemed almost iridescent in the luminous stone of the architecture. He wore several pieces of striking, intricate jewelry made with delicate metalwork and gems. The most prominent was the crown on his head creating a halo over him. It had five points, each with a shimmering stone inlaid in the pointed tips. This blended seamlessly with the collar around his shoulders and choker around his neck with the same motifs. These matched the cuff bracelets around his wrists, which connected to rings on his fingers.
Twilight, standing beside Time, felt his eyes drawn to the the massive, pearlescent stone on the back of his hand. It reminded him of the Tears of Light he gathered during his adventures. It seemed different than the others stones in his jewelry- including the large one set into the necklace hanging in front of his chest.
“Come, my friends. We have much to discuss. I have had some of my attendants prepare a meal in anticipation of your arrival,” Sidon told them, stepping aside and gesturing broadly toward his throne room.
“How did you know when we would be arriving?” asked Twilight, head tilted curiously. He had been at Wild’s side non-stop, so it was a mystery to him how Sidon could have known about their arrival ahead of time.
Sidon looked down at Wild in surprise. “Have you not yet informed them of the avatars?” Sidon asked, earning a confused look from the group.
“The avatars?” asked Time, his eyebrow raised.
Wild waved his hand in front of his face. “I wanted to ask you if you were okay with it before I did,” he said, looking up at Sidon. “Here, let’s go sit and I’ll explain,” he said, waving at them to follow.
He brought them up to a large, open throne room. A table had been brought in for them, loaded with local specialties of fish and crab dishes and enough seats for all of them. Sidon took his place at the head of the table, with Wild sitting to his direct right. Once they were all settled and served, Wild started to explain the Sage’s Avatars to the Chain.
He apologized for not saying anything sooner, but he had to consider what the Sages would want for their people. He trusted the Heroes implicitly, but he understood if the Sages wanted to keep secrets from the strangers. Much of the information he learned through these quests contained secrets kept by the leaders of each race. To Wild, the decision to tell his new companions these secrets wasn’t up to him. Tulin, Riju, Yunobo, and Sidon were the only ones who could make the decision to tell these men the veiled history of their peoples.
Wild explained that, despite not being visible to others, the Sages have the ability to see the world through their avatars eyes, which is how Sidon knew to expect them and when. Wild also explained that they aren’t around at all times- he always dismissed them before he entered a town, or if he needed a moment of privacy. He told them the avatars had certain abilities and that Sidon’s allows him to surround himself in a bubble of water and use it either in an attack, as a shield, or simply to cool himself down.
The others sat quietly as Wild explained everything to them- the Sages, the Avatars, the Regional Phenomena that had occurred during the Upheaval. For now he stuck to just explaining what happened with Sidon and the Zora. They would visit each of the other Sages and learn their stories from them. Wild felt he had to admit to his amnesia and that it was still hard for him to form memories, so despite having a log of his quests he didn’t want to speak for the Sages and what happened while he was missing. This would also give the Chain time to digest all that had happened just on this adventure. In between each Sage visit he would tell them more about the Calamity.
That was going to be harder to talk about.
The other Heroes sat quietly as he told them his story. It struck them all yet again how much Wild had gone through. They still didn’t know much about this “Calamity” they mentioned so frequently, but just since the Upheaval he lost Princess Zelda, his arm, and the Master Sword, went missing for several months, woke up with a stranger’s arm, observed the memories of Princess Zelda from thousands of years ago, pulled the Master Sword from her draconic forehead, and saved each of the four races from some curse impacting their entire region, and Hylia knows what else. They knew he was keeping secrets, that there were things they didn’t know- things he kept locked tight in his heart.
Things he couldn’t even admit to himself.
When all was said and done, several hours had passed. The sun was sinking low on the horizon, casting an orange-red glow over the shimmering blue stone the Domain was built from.
The Chain had a lot to digest after hearing more of Wild’s story. Twilight, sitting to Wild’s right, could see the way Wild’s ears dipped down as he spoke. He set his hand over his cub’s, feeling the trembling ease at the reassurance from his brother. A few times Twilight found himself looking over towards the others, seeing the pinched looks on their faces as Wild talked about the more difficult parts of his journey- which, admittedly, was most of it.
A few times, however, they could see the bond between Wild and Sidon. They shared memories of more amusing, lighthearted moments from their quest together. Sidon spoke highly of Wild, which turned the Hylian’s ears bright pink on several occasions. Anytime Wild tried to downplay his actions, Sidon was there to praise him. If he mentioned figuring something out, Sidon complimented how smart he was, or how strong he was he battle. Sidon mentioned his wife a few times, but if it wasn’t for that they would think Sidon was in love with Wild. Twilight was glad that his cub had Sidon, but he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of their time spent together- time that was robbed from Twilight, or so he felt.
Now that they had finished explaining the important parts of the story, the conversation became more lighthearted. It was hard for it to stay dreary when Sidon was so enthusiastic. He gestured erratically, often clapping Wild on the shoulder with enough strength to knock him forward. After how strong Wild had so far proven to be, the others didn’t want to know how strong Sidon had to be to knock the feral Hero off balance.
“Ah! Did you see the statue in the square? Our best craftsman carved that from the highest quality Luminous Stones in the kingdom,” King Sidon said proudly, once again clapping Wild on the shoulder.
Twilight looked down at Wild with a raised eyebrow. “Wild rushed us passed it, actually,” he said, looking up toward Sidon.
“You must take a look once we’re finished with our discussion! It is a recreation of the heroic moment Link defeated Vah Ruta! I commissioned it personally to honor the legacy the Champion Link, my dearest friend,” Sidon praised, smiling broadly down at the tiny Hylian beside him.
Wild buried his face in his hand, blushing from cheek to ear tip. “Sidon, you speak too highly of me,” he groaned.
“Nonsense, my friend! You’re simply too humble, so someone must brag on your behalf, and I’m grateful for the role falling to me!” Sidon replied, a teasing twinkle in his bright yellow eyes.
“I don’t need bragging about,” Wild replied with playful exasperation.
Sidon laughed heartily, unable to resist pulling his dearest friend into a hug, and Twilight let go of the jealousy in his chest.
He was glad that, in his absence, at least his cub had someone like Sidon at his side.
