Obligatory @link-posting moment. We've become silly together.
Or more specifically; Breaking news: A second skid has hit Hyrule.
[ A lot more heavy / Self deprecating then the starting idea that made this chapter ]
The way the moon illuminated the sky felt so oddly comforting at the oasis. It wasn’t always that their favourite place fell under days of moonlight, but those few days a year were in some ways the best.
It was called the Crescent Oasis, yet only under days of moonlight did the night get to come out and overtake the sky– with its moon and everlasting stars.
Dawn loved the moon, the night– How stars flooded the sky in clear visibility… It was why Starlight Desert was always a wonderful calming place to lay upon. To stare up and idle while letting the glow of distant stars ease their thoughts. To imagine each one a child in the world who watches over the skies above.
It could never be the Crescent Oasis. Specifically the giant tree placed in a hidden away spot through the clouds. That tree gloriously glowing blue, with leaves of yellow to cover strong branches. It brought memories of the Deer, a friend and one she learned her kindness off of. One she wishes every day that may return… as she lays aimlessly against the flowers. Water lapping at her legs, the grass a soft pillow around in a way.
The moon made it all, so much prettier. But it didn’t bring the deer back. It never would…
Days of moonlight had only just begun, but it had felt like it’d been a while since Dawn had ever properly wandered the area. Not just the Oasis– But the realms in general. She’d felt so disconnected for weeks, months even. She’d just been staying away in her nest. The last trip to Eden…
She wasn’t quite over it. Eden was never easy. It was even harder to know that was the first time she saw her own body–
After a while the thoughts that moments ago plagued her calmed to none.
Instead, she had other plans to follow. Sitting up, and focusing. She headed to those plans.
In seconds the flowers and grass vanished. Instead Dawn found footing on a familiar stone platform at that which she cherished, Home. She was considering following her normal path, from Prairie to Valley, and a quick jump to Vault. Skipping over Wasteland of course, was always important– But something else called to her. She wanted to go visit Dusk. Not even for a particular reason, just perhaps to follow along and provide each other with company like usual.
One Dawn would never admit to so easily.
Pulling out her candle, which burned softly as ever, she focused onto the constellation. There wasn’t ever much to focus on however, as things were the same as always. Five names, and only one with a star to it.
As they went to warp, there was that one fear in the back of their mind that crept out.
What if you joining bothers them?
The hesitation stayed longer than desired. No matter how many times Dusk assured her that it was okay, there will always be a part of nervousness, of worry and anxiety that follows Dawn in every choice and action she attempts to make. Though standing brave she pushes through those constant worries anyways. It’s been months since she’s seen anyone, months that she’s missed of events and gatherings. Months of blurred thoughts. Months of hesitation, of regret, of fear– Of pain.
She misses her friend more than she fears the possibility of nagging her.
So with one final assurance, and with the most strength and bravery she can muster– She warps to a friend.
The experience however is not quite what was remembered. A warp usually is quick, in seconds you spawn to a familiar mark in whichever realm nearby, and from there Dusk should be somewhere. Though Dawn didn’t get that. What she got was a warp not happening in seconds, but one that feels gruesomely long. Their entire identity fragmenting and splitting in shards of bright blinding aches. Their body, a star who breaks and tears all together at once. Yet reforms and grows even when breaking, into the overwhelmingly pure force. It’s dizzying and warmly painful. It’s wrong in every sense, but before they can truly react, it’s all over. Just an odd warp, because the seconds that fragmented into minutes were whole again.
At first, it wasn’t much of a concern. The feel of unfamiliar grass wasn’t too unsettling or enough to worry about. The sky being brighter full of fairly unfamiliar isles floating proudly across the horizon was fine. The sounds of life around… It was fine.. Right?
It didn’t take much change to cause concern. To bring panic. Dawn knew the realms because it was a constant path to follow. They’d been around and familiarized with every fragment of their world–Their home–But this wasn’t it.
It was hard to lie when the wind's soft breezes felt wrong. When the sky and even land wasn’t a memory they’d know and explore. When the water felt too clear, the sounds a buzzing wrongness. The constant and aching sharp pain that screamed inside them when nothing was familiar burned deeper and deeper in their chest. She wanted to cry, yet beings of light held no tears to fall.
She was too little, too lost. This wasn’t home.
Even the wastelands in their darkness felt more comforting than this land. Then this… Area.
It took a while until the fuzzy and staticed view of the land around cleared up. Took several moments to even regain footing on the land she never realized she’d fallen down to. The aching pain wasn’t going away, and so she just wanted to go home.
Just to sit back down, hands shaking as she focused and warped back home.
It would only take seconds for the land around to vanish, seconds that she counted with agonizing slowness. Seconds that felt longer than even the tolls of the familiar bells to Eden. Longer…
The land around was still unfamiliar and cold. Too big and daunting to her as it had been before. Too unwelcoming with its mystery.
The pain in Dawn however did change. It grew more cold and overwhelming. Swallowing her whole with the anxieties and fear of how her home, her comfort, has just been severed away. Locked away just like those final steps in Eden.
Yet unlike Eden, there was no release of death here. No path of rebirth to bring comforting warmness after the hurt. The pain that clung and spread wasn’t even physical. Just the expanding panic of what’s been lost. Of how everyone will forget her. Every bond, every spirit– She’s left and ripped away from them. Left for nothing…
She just wanted to see Dusk.. Just… Wait.
The panic, though still present, was ever so slightly eased as the remembrance kicked in.
Dusk had always been… Unexplainably fond of finding secrets. Leaving the proper and actual bounds of their reality, to find new and fun places. Flying out of the coliseum blindly just to drag Dawn along for the first time was of course terrifying at first, but the area with the Twins had become a comfort…
Dawn could be wary, and absolutely untrusting of leaving bounds especially breaking off her set path of wandering, yet she still had gained and become far more trusting of Dusk. They certainly had their differing views, but she was still Dawn’s first friend. The one who helped her find a name, helped her through Eden when going alone had become paralyzing. Helped her… Get up even when it was hard.
Dusk was like a family member to her, and if she warped to Dusk, then she’s not alone. She’s with Dusk. Dusk is somewhere–It was going to be okay.
The pain didn’t have to overwhelm anymore, the ache didn’t need to consume every thought and movement. She didn’t have to panic, this wasn’t the lonely isolation she’d grown to fear.
By the time she finally calmed down, then came the confusion.
What kind of “out of bounds” adventure did Dusk pull off to end up here.
She lets out a soft chirp before once more, hesitating. Fear that once subsided finds a way to creep back up again. Dawn could sense Dusk in that small flickering moment. Yet for a second, she hoped maybe Dusk didn’t hear her.
Their emotions were everywhere, head spinning in circles of confusion, fear, and the ever looming anxieties. Trying so hard to bravely continue was easily stunted. It wasn’t before, yet was now.
It was funny, really. How Dawn was such a mess. How someone as lonely as her feared and spiraled at the littlest of things. The confusion and calm could never last, not with the mess Dawn had become. How she wished they just had been abandoned to rot in the wasteland. That Eden never had been followed up by rebirth and warmth, how she–It, ached and withered in that one thought that maybe. Just maybe they should have–
The persistent yet faintly distant honks pulled them away from the spiraling. Dusk… Definitely heard them.
Dawn couldn’t keep the spiral of hurt and confusion up anymore. They’d been in circles ever since they warped here. No–They’d been out of it for a lot longer than that.
No matter how many times they drowned in misery and sorrow, Dusk was always there. Just… They came here for their friend, they will stay here for their friend.
They will stay alive for Dusk.
With a chirp–no, a honk– They steady their thoughts and warp to their friend.
The last thing they expected however, was ramming full force into some man carrying Dusk.
Or at least he was carrying her. The unexpected tumble set him off his feet, and well, when he went down from Dawn–
In simpler terms there was a sprawled out mess of three people, only one of them unfamiliar.
Unfamiliar he would stay for now, as Dawn had even more questions. Ones that needed answering. Now.
All that truly came from Link’s point of view, of course, was two little figures. Not Hylian in nature in the slightest. Though different they clearly recognized one another, and a similarity was they both wore strange capes! They… Also started both honking incessantly at another. It was just frantic chirps like little birds, though somehow more… He couldn’t quite put a word to the sound. It was similar to a bird, yet perhaps one he just wasn’t familiar with. One more happy, the other new one… So very confused.
Which, that, he could relate to.
What the fuck does the honking mean.
