{ Hi! Brain running on empty, but still kickin'. Gonna try and get some momentum on writing, though; hope it's cool if I screw around and lurk a bit! }
All the while Aluhk is trying to rationalize the relentless screaming, as if that were the only shield he could find. Trying to make sense of the howling, even as it tugs at his sympathies. Wehqalamuhsuhke. Is it focusing on that because of the precarious position the hylian himself is in? It cannot breath. It suffocates.
Surely it'd drown Aluhk given the chance. Kat-op pomawsuwin kisawsiw skat nehsewon. There must be a better solution, there must be a key to shutting this down and shutting it out. In the act of finding it however the man has no clue where to begin.
Instead he focuses on what he can do, quickly making his way to the zora prince. There's some sense of relief that finds him in seeing Sidon is in fact not dead. Only for the most fleeting of moments; as just as soon as the zora comes back to life, Aluhk watches him struggle and rip into himself.
Calm, he tells himself, 'sankewitahatomon. Be still. If he panics it'd only encourage the voices begging at the corners of his mind. Dark eyes watch the gold seep into the water from his companion's body, and some understanding finds him.
Aluhk's gaze finds Sidon's, sees the way he reaches for the white blade, and the hylian draws it for him. Points it in a way that allows the zora to direct him where it's needed, and when that choice is made Aluhk plunges the sword in one motion.
Sidon asked—voicelessly begged, clawing stiffly as his every sinew resisted—that Aluhk split him at his forearm. Aluhk granted it.
The voice screamed in the soundless realm of the mind, horrible and strangled, a man's and a woman's and a child's all at once. It rattled the skull.
STOP STOP STOP LET ME—
Sidon arched. It was like bleeding thick grease; it polluted and pushed aside every inch of water it met as it oozed from his wounded flesh, his blood trapped within it, as the gold would not mix with it nor free it into the depths. Pain surged through his arm, into his shoulder and everywhere within him—but it worked, oh, it worked, because as it drained his vision cleared to the Brightbloom's glow. Now he could swallow the clot of noise that tried to steal his throat, now he could move, now he could feel the crisp current and the faint warmth of Aluhk in the water beside him.
Aluhk, his saving grace twice over now. Aluhk, who he could now aid in kind. That constant steady presence, that promise, steeled his focus.
Ignoring the ringing in his ears, the burn of his arm, the sedative gleam of the smearing colors, he seized Aluhk by the wrist. The water around them was heavy, the slave of something else. But Sidon's will wrenched it away, and he bent it to thrust them onward through the tunnel at the speed of a wavebounder fleeing the maw of a starving predator. The tunnel kept going, and it kept going, and it kept going, and for a maddening second Sidon thought it might stretch forever—but their light caught a glimpse of a shimmering end. The water's end.
He lurched upward, pulling Aluhk close to him, for they would not emerge gently; Sidon willed desperately that land catch them when they fell again.
They shattered the surface and rose in height, and rose, and rose, and fell towards the stone below. Sidon twisted to curl around Aluhk as a sheet of water pulled around them, a protective barrier formed just quickly enough to prevent breaking their bodies; it burst the moment they landed, the shock absorbed, Sidon splayed painfully upon his back.
It was silent, now. Themselves, the sound of trickling, and a puddle were all that remained.
A trip to the Domain! How exciting! She had yet to make this trek, but she really wanted to see it. See the glistening waters she always heard about. Maybe she would even get to meet King Dorephan or Prince Sidon and ask them questions about the Domain. She maneuvered her horse around the trails. Keeping an eye out for monsters, but she luckily didn't have much trouble as she made it to the long bridge.
Her eyes sparkled brightly as she caught sight of the large infrastructure in front of her. "Absolutely gorgeous!" she marveled before getting off her horse and making the trek towards the main area. She looked around as she walked. Seeing the beautiful flowing waterfalls and the water glistening off the rocks. It wasn't long before she could see the Zoras walking around.
A smile was planted upon her features as she made her way towards the nearby shop to see if she could get some supplies. A hum left her as she bought some fish and some other ingredients. She wrapped them appropriately and stuck them in her pack before putting it upon her back once more.
She then made her way up one flight higher to see the large royal chamber she heard. In the shape of a fish. "How interesting!" she chimed out. "It's so beautiful here," she commented to herself.
The royal chamber had become alarmingly full for an evening that had previously seemed so amicable; what could before be mistaken for a simply lively audience of Zora in waiting was far more turbulent and fretting up close, like a rainbow school of trout swarming for safety. A healthy smattering of them were metal-clad and armed, spots of silver tangled in the crowd.
Her voice silenced all of them at once. One by one, each finned head turned. Each pair of eyes locked upon her. The silence held.
Several different voices break it.
"Hylian!"
"The Hylian, though? I don't think...!"
"Two pink-haired Hylians in one day? She has to be—!"
"Maybe she's turning herself in!"
"What, within the hour? You're daft if you—"
"Er, should someone grab her?"
"I'll do it."
"Calm! Calm, everyone!"
The last voice was warm and strong and resonant, and at its insistence every Zora fell quiet. From the back of the crowd and within the chamber, Sidon rose to his feet. So much taller was he than all of them at his full height, the only way he could have been hidden before was that he had been seated. This did not seem to make his path through the crowd any more difficult; he weaved past the shoulders and spears of his kin with a mindful grace that he did not nudge a single one of them.
The first thing Sidon fixed sternly upon were her eyes. That would give it away—those serpent-green and furious eyes that had seethed inches from his own. But hers were red and gem-like, vibrant. His shoulders relaxed at once; enough enabling of the nasty swirl of trepidation in his gut. This woman was not its target. He would make amends for the hasty judgement.
"Ah, forgive me for this outburst. Welcome to our Domain!" Sidon said, grinning. He only regretted that the fresh and bleeding wound that cleaved from the side of his neck to just below his eye was still so unsightly, and mindfully he brushed away a trail of trickling blood before it could reach his mouth. "If only you'd come at a more peaceful hour."
Anonymous asked: If you could be born into any of the other peoples of Hyrule besides your own, which would you choose?
"I'd be a proud son of any one of them! To take upon myself at birth the might of the Gorons, the versatility of the Hylians, the ingenuity of the Sheikah, the tenacity of the Gerudo—you see, you ask a challenging question!
Ah, but I nonetheless know my choice; the Rito are an incredible nation. Their infectious music, their peerless marksmanship, their magnificent plumage—and above all, their mastery of the heavens! It is the one gift I—nay, any Zora might trade his gills for.
Should you encounter their camps along the shore, watch one fly—truly watch. See how they weave and drift as if the air were water! Imagine their freedom! Then you will understand my esteem!"
"I know it isn't your usual style, but it will keep you out of the path of lighting." Urbosa presented the prince with a longbow appropriate to his stature, ornamented in the usual Gerudo style but, for his own safety, with wooden handles instead of metal.
"Wow! A resplendent weapon!"
It may as well have been of precious metal, the way he glowed as he turned it in his hands. The ribbon-like curves and rich redwood were in such dazzling contrast to the steely, cleaving prongs of bowcraft he knew from home. "My Lady, you are generous. If I could only do it justice—wait!"
He dashed off to the nearest camp tent and returned with a steel arrow. He reigned his stance with a breath, fixed the placement of his grasp upon the string and the grip—no, no, not like that—turned quickly on his heel, and aimed it at a nearby stone pillar. Oh, this was pliable. "I'm more of a spearman, of course," he said, beaming at her across his shoulder. "But I've had my spell of training for—"
Twack!
"Oh!"
His grasp slipped, and the arrow launched without him. It lodged into a stack of bound boxes, split a rope at its belly, and sent it toppling in a racket of splitting wood and bruising fruit.
Sidon looked as if he'd been caught in his own fishing net. "Ah ha—quite a short spell, it seems!"
Link tilted his head back to look up at Sidon, one of his gentle smiles on his lips as he caught sight of the excitement in the young King's eyes. As Sidon moved to pace, Link couldn't help letting his smile tilt to a sly little grin.
"You know - you're welcome to join me for a few days, if you can work it out with Yona. The Domain will be more than safe in her capable hands." Link had seen just how capable Yona was as a queen, admired the way she protected and cared for the Zora while Dorephan was recovering and Sidon was purifying the water. "She could probably run circles around the council if she wanted."
He'd seen how excitable Sidon could get while exploring - he'd caught how fascinated he'd been up in the Water Temple, eyes wide in wonder and a boisterous tone in his voice that hadn't been matched since. If he could somehow get Sidon the opportunity to see more of Hyrule, not only would it ease Link's own loneliness, but it could be great for Zora's Domain, for their king to see the world and make connections they wouldn't get otherwise.
"I bet even the council couldn't disagree if you phrase it as a diplomatic mission. Zelda used to do that all the time - especially when we were seeking the other Champions. Her father knew she was doing it for other reasons, but let her get away with it for diplomacy."
It was such a bald-faced nudge of temptation that it made Sidon laugh again. He could refute none of what Link said, of course—the first was undoubtedly true of his lovely Yona, and the second would certainly work for his advisors, if only begrudgingly. But overwhelmingly, his heart leapt at the opportunity not to bother digging for refutation at all, to simply accept these as his reasons and run off. Do away, for a time, with sending a mere avatar in his stead, and vanish with Link over the crests of sun-wreathed and distant hills.
“I could!” He said, and that was almost the long and short of it. He shook his head, as if the tickle of zeal would clear like a cloud. It did not. “But I musn't, truly. No, here, I'm more…!“
Useful. Useful? That was hardly true, lately. Sure, he'd sent parties to fruitlessly comb the lengths of Lanayru, even led a number himself—when he wasn't stuck greasing the cogs of cautious bureaucracy, or hearing with vicarious anticipation the plans of honest visitors bearing blades and intentions of courageous benevolence within Zora territories. And it was the faces of those few that stayed with him; they understood so much more, were far braver, were capable of so much more good than a king on a throne.
Yes, faces like Link's stayed with him, horizon-eyed and noble—Link's most of all. And in that playful and astute smile, he betrayed how well he already knew what Sidon wanted.
”Oh, why not? Why not?" he said with a laugh that bounded boldly off the domed crystal ceiling. The notion had taken him, invigorating his every limb; he'd nothing better to do with it all but seize Link by the arms and pull him into an exuberant spin, a dance that brought them right to the throne room's edge. "We'll go together, and see what we make of it! An expedition of two!"
The Zora people play host to a number of domesticated species. Regarding those used for transport and labor, which animals a visitor might see most often in daily life depends on the domain and their needs.
The seafaring domains are particularly spoiled for choice; the Ocean Domain of the Wave, for instance, favor sleek mounts that can keep pace with their constantly moving homeland. This includes the long-necked and loch ness-like Orngi, with its long, highly opposable flippers and beaked snouts, as well as the domestic orca cousin known as the Wavebounder, a spotted creature with a winding horn that can jump to heights of over 20 feet.
The Ocean Domain of the Reef value colorful and precise creatures, and are therefore proud of their dazzlingly-finned and elaborately patterned Coako—a popular species often compared to giant sea horses, save for the prehensile proboscis on their faces and mane-esque fins that wreathe their heads.
From the Deep Domain come alien, bioluminescent mounts that rely on echolocation and sensitive sensory appendages to navigate the trenches, such as the Enst; a soft, long-bodied and iridescent-skinned creature with a curved neck. Its tendril-covered belly and tail is reminiscent of a jellyfish, and is capable of stinging and stunning threats—or its rider—at will.
The Ocean Domain of the Ice, meanwhile, prefers large, more mammalian companions; the Kibow resemble bison, with long fur, saber-tusks, bear-like flippers, and rarely a standing height below that of an elephant.
While The River Domain has access to many of these mounts (particularly along the coast, should they need to embark on voyages), they make the least frequent use of them inland, as the various winding river channels vary in conditions as well as ease of passage and may not lend well to the more demanding undersea beasts. However, they are masters of "net shoaling", a practice in which a Zora will gather a number of large fish, corral them into a net, and use their natural watercraft to steer as they pull them through the water. This net can be used without attachments, but may also be tied to an apparatus designed for pulling and is therefore useful for various transporting needs.
A special breed of fish is reared for this task; if one were to reach the fishery below the domain, they may find a submerged, aquarium-like enclosure in which a large domestic species suited for this task are bred and cared for, known as Streamweavers. Streamweavers are typically selected for size (about the length of an arm), for their signature silver and white swirl patterns, and for their thick, blunt heads that aren't likely to get tangled in or damaged by the finely-woven nets used for shoaling.
River Zora are also accustomed to land mounts, and though not often kept on a permanent basis near the domain, they have been known to use horses and cattle on occasion. It is usually an expectation—though not always practical or feasible—that Zora diplomats and royalty from any domain be trained to handle land-based mounts.
Something is wrong. Aluhk senses it long before he can see it, some twist in his gut sending alarm bells through his body. Sidon is too far ahead for the man to understand, the hylian only quickens his pace when he sees the abrupt struggle.
The water's too dark, Aluhk can't see the gold until it comes into the light of the brightbloom, and if it weren't for the sheer mass of whatever it is that's approaching him the hylian might not have cared. Reflexively he kicks, sends himself backwards, but it's just not quite enough. All he can see is the bloom of colour, and then Sidon, lifeless up ahead. Don't panic. He tells himself through the noise.
A thousand voices pull themselves from his memory to reply.
'The knight. Kinapiyiw Aluhk.'
'Ntahcuwi-iywannuk motapekuwinuwok, Aluhk.'
'Komac kinapiyiw Aluhk.'
'Aluhk- ENOUGH!'
His inner voice cuts through the cacophony in his mind, booming. If he had been able to surely Aluhk's voice would have left him in a shout. It commands attention.
'Let go. Do not grab me. I am coming to you.'
Whether or not the gold parts for him the hylian presses on, intent on at least making it over to the zora prince. He needs to check him over - make sure whether or not he's as dead as he appears. There's no way that the swordsman could carry Sidon out of here, he knows this, knows the only option is to press on.
Though the gold current found no familiar footholds in Aluhk, it did not relent; its amorphous force groped blindly at his every orifice as if it were the limbs of a desperate and drowning creature. It cried at him. It begged.
It knew his name, now.
ALUHK
CAN'T BREATHE--
But it knew the Zora well. It sunk easily into Sidon's blood, dragging him deeper. The tunnel was gone to him; now he drifted in a distorting void of sickly and wriggling bands of mucousy rainbow pulsing out of the dark in waves. Each beat rolled through his veins like an alien heartbeat grafted to his nerves.
He still heard the lullaby. Some spark deep in his memory recalled where he'd first heard it—long ago, in an endless trench far beyond the shore and deep beneath the ocean. The songs of The Deep droned endlessly; where one voice stopped, another would take its place, seamless, as if transformed between notes. They had to sing, The Warden said. To keep singing. A single moment of silence could wake it. Wake him. Wake them.
Mipha's voice sounded strange. Distorted. A dissonant harmony. Like catching a mask slip from an insidious beast from the corner of his eye, a sliver of his senses came free. It knew something was wrong.
SidOn-
Help me, it's dark, help me
WAKE ME—
Sidon's head snapped back, his jaw and eyes wrenching open. A tumor of searing power surged at the back of his throat, stretching his flesh until it threatened to burst. It was a scream, one that was not his own. It must not escape. He would not allow it. But to resist was to let it burn and thrash inside. It grew, it kept growing, and it would tear from his neck, it would rip through his ears, it would push out his scales, it would find some other gruesome escape if it did not stop—!
Out of the hazy peripherals of his vision, something living moved. In the depths of the haze, one sane thought emerged; Aluhk.
The muscles in Sidon's arm finally obeyed him. He jerked his hand to his own shoulder to tear at his fins, fingers digging until his claws split skin. It bled gold, but not enough. His grip peeled agonizingly open, and when he could not reach his own trident, he grasped weakly for Aluhk's sword instead. He forced his eyes to try and meet Aluhk's dark gaze in the shroud of muted consciousness. A plea for aid.
The woman's body was still concealed, large dress heavy and concealing her entire lower half. Even when Sidon approached, she did not move... Just bending her upper body to better reach the large creature down in the water.
For just a moment, displeasure seemed to flash across her face. As if she hadn't expected such a man to appear for her cries. But that could also be explained by the panic of a mother desperate for her child's safety.
"My baby, my poor, poor baby..." She wept, gesturing with her arms still grasping the bundle of wet fabric. "Please, Sakana-san*..."
Holding the child out in her shaking, thin hands, she tried to hand the bundle off to Sidon.
"He's sick. My baby is sick, and the water has given him a cold. Please, I cannot run to the doctor in this heavy dress. Hold him, just for a moment, I need to remove myself from these shackles so I may take him to the doctor!"
Beneath the ear-pounding pulse of anxious dread, a strange unease crawled up the back of his neck. There was no one thing that summoned it; it was the briefest flash of ice in her eyes, how still she was, a stale air. Don't. Don't.
Oh, but the weeping, the heartrending weeping. Would he truly choose to be cold, just so he might feel safe?
"If you're wounded," Sidon said, and as he reached to accept the child he rose even further from the water to set his hand on her shoulder. "You ought not leave on your own. Let me help you—!"
Like or Reblog if you would like to interact with a sideblog multimuse featuring Lin.k from Bot.W/Tot.K and Ak.ira Kuru.su from Pers.ona 5/Pers.ona 5 Ro.yal! Additional characters on this blog include M.arinette from Mirac.ulous Lab.ybug, Will So.lace from Pe.rcy Jackso.n and the O.lympians, Mim.ir from God of War 2018/God of War Ragn.arok, and Duck from Prin.cess T.utu!
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"Sidon, I need you to remain here." Mipha refused once more. "I need you to stay alive...! Why can you not understand I am only trying to protect you?! I cannot live with myself if something happens to you!"
She tried to side step her sibling, why couldn't he listen to her just this one time?? "Please, Sidon. I must depart now. I will not ask you again."
Sidon stopped as if he'd met a wall. The silver gildings they both wore chimed weakly in the swelling and humid wind, disturbed when she passed him.
That was the snag, their shared nightmare; two children of the Zora plunged into the iron and the screams and the bloodshed, and only one came out. To assuage her pain, her fear, he could suppress his yearning and the clench of worry that seized him each time she crossed the bridge with her spear in hand. He could obey.
Or he could slay her doubt today, and she'd never fear for him again.
"Then I will no longer beg."
Sidon slid his spear off his back, twirled it smoothly over into to his grip, braced—
The conviction in his companion's voice is so sudden it pulls the hylian's attention back to him, blinking in surprise. Some part of him can't help but wonder if it's a ruse, all too familiar with feigning bravery himself. Murky, his eyes are clouded with so many emotions it's hard to discern where the brunet stands right now. After a moment of studying Sidon's face however he nods.
Despite everything Aluhk wants something to believe in. If Sidon is determined to carry on, then likewise, he must get his head on straight. Duty calls him at every turn.
"Right."
Diving after the zora, he follows as closely as a hylian can, still keeping a good pace despite the difference in ability. Aluhk's focus remained on Sidon, as well as blocking out the voices making his ears itch, as they swam deeper into the caverns.
For 15 minutes more, it wailed. Another bead burst at Aluhk's throat.
Five beads left. They had an hour. Sidon pushed back the urge to clutch at the burn in his chest, to call out. It was Mipha's voice, still Mipha's voice, but it had never hurt in this way that it snared his senses, in this way that it pulled him...pulling him...
The water was changing.
'I know you...'
They'd brought him to the maze with a blindfold of black around his eyes. The Warden had sickly grey scales and pure, pearl white eyes. Her hand pressed against his back, urging him gently forward. 'Go. We will come for you.'
Changing.
Long, oozing clouds of gold billowed out at them from the tunnel's throat, ignorant of the push of the current. Within them, writhing bands of distorted purple and orange and red and blue rolled out towards them in tendrils. It drifted into them like a shroud, and it was thick, and viscous, and warm on the skin.
'kNOw you...coME heRe...'
The gold was warm. It crawled into Sidon's gills. It slithered behind his eyes. It bled and hooked under his scales. It made breathing like inhaling mucus. With nauseating gentleness, it pulled. Pulled at everything.
He knew what this was.
Sidon barked, kicked, reached to urge Aluhk back with one arm—but it found him first.
Time blurred. Sound became song, a marvelous, mourning lullaby. Yes. It knew him. It would guide him. The light of the Brightbloom was a frivolity, and Aluhk would surely understand, once it was explained. It would explain.
He was engulfed in swirling bleeds of thin color. His body shuddered in resistance, then lost all intention, listless, as if drowned. The only thing that moved him forward now was the current. The current, and the pull.
The colors within the gold scraped Aluhk like curious, liquid fingers. It found ears, found hair, his eyes, his nose and mouth. A nightmarish cacophony of voices clawed around him in the water. It searched, even now, for the right one to use.
"Oh, I still get plenty lost, but that's part of the fun." Not that Link's travels were for fun - he still had a princess to find, a world to save, but with the shrines being the key to his recovery, and with them scattered all across Hyrule, Link found himself exploring all over the changed landscape of the kingdom.
It was worth it, he decided, to come back to Zora's Domain, to see his friend, and rejuvenate his energy by simply being in Sidon's presence. Traveling was a lonely business and he often wished he could spend more time with Sidon and the others, have their company on the road.
But they all had their respective responsibilities and Link couldn't be selfish.
"Most of these places, yeah." Link pointed to an area that was still unmapped, deep in the north - the Tabantha Frontier. "Haven't been here since before the Upheaval. Not sure yet what's changed there."
He flicked the screen with his finger, bringing up the secondary map of the Depths he'd been exploring. "Still a lot to uncover in the Depths, too. I've barely got half the map done."
Sidon often thought his admiration for Link was as strong as it would ever be; how could it not be for the man to whom he owed the survival of his home? And when even that had been superseded, how could it not finally be for a man who'd done so twice over?
But then he would say things such as this—'plenty lost, but that's part of the fun'—and his heart would swell with far more.
Sidon's eyes glittered eagerly between Link and the pad as they followed the path of his finger over the map. He leaned even further in, clutching the little miracle slab in both hands, as if hopeful it might pull him into some endless realm if he pressed his enthusiasm firmly enough upon it. "Oh, the freedom to be lost! Imagine what distant lands we'd reach! What people we might find!"
He couldn't stay put now; he had to stand and start pacing, crossing mindlessly in front of the throne once, twice, three times. "Perhaps even the wayward princess! If I could just—if I could only—!"
In the depths of her memory, she could recall Mipha's face. The sweetness of her smile, tiny painted lips held in serene gesture. She had been the very image of a princess, and yet her fight could easily be deadly to any dark foe.
It had been a moment of fear, of distraught refusal... To know that such a powerful woman (she was practically a child then- they almost all were) had fallen to the Calamity's mutiny of the Divine Beasts.
Maybe if Robin had been there, she could have helped. At least she could have saved at least one of them, to continue the fight.
That had been a century ago. Somehow, the wolf stood, staring at the grave of one of her friend's, as every ancient piece of the tomb was broken apart and buried.
"I should have been able to give my life for my people, as the Champions did. Yet here I am." Rubbing her arm awkwardly, the swordswoman sighed.
"I just hope I can repent somehow." A good first start would be to be there for the descendants and family of the Champions.
Sidon swallowed hard. Again, his words had slipped out from under him. But he'd meant them. He tried to smile at Robin again, but could feel the weight pulling at it. All he could do for it was stop trying to look her in the eye. To keep looking at Rutah.
Still no rain.
"You were there, back then." He was not sure why he'd felt the need to assert the well-established, beyond the prickling need to fill the silence. "Have you ever been up close with it?"
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