World Tree MUSH

    When Rydia and Cecil left Kaipo the previous night , they said they wouldn't be too long. When they returned with YUMI in tow, there was blood everywhere, and Rydia promptly locked herself in her room and absolutely refused to come out.
    Come morning time she finally emerged, and proceeded to deal with important things. Like making herself as busy as possible to try and push the events of the evening out of her mind, and she set to her chores with the zeal of a child possessed. There is always a lot to do in a backwater desert oasis town's inn. Dust to sweep, beds to make, triage to deal with. The last one is a little out of the ordinary, but after stopping in to check on Yumi and tending to her as best she could with the minimal White Magic Rydia knows, the small Summoner finally seemed to have calmed down enough from the events in this 'Tokyo' place. That is why there comes a knock-knock upon the door to the Queen-Regent's room, as Rydia decides to stop by and check up on the Hylian princess.

  Having spent long enough with her, the Summoner has by now probably discovered that her royal charge is a frequent sufferer of nightmares. There is no screaming and no dramatics; nothing at all to indicate this fact beyond the shadows under her eyes.

  Link might notice how lightly she sleeps. She might not kick him, necessarily, but he might feel her shudder in her sleep.

  The princess carries on as though she hadn't spent half the night sleepless. In fact, she had finally fallen back asleep again when the knock sounds at the door. For yet another time through the night, Zelda jerks awake -- pulling a knife from under her pillow, one red-rimmed eye snapping open. She's not even awake enough to see if Link is still at the foot of her bed.

  Slowly pulling herself up to a sitting position, she stares intently at the door, tightening her grip on the knife. When she calls out, her voice is apprehensive and suspicious. "Who is there--?"

The Divine Beast stirs awake the moment that footsteps pause at the door to the room. He didn't sleep like a stone the way he used to, having spent too much time roaming around and sleeping in places where he couldn't afford to be too unawares of his surroundings. His head rises, focusing on the door. When the person standing there doesn't leave, he rises and circles 'round to the edge of where the door would swing inwards. He can't actually open it.

Or he could, but it would take forever and involve a lot of uncomfortable manipulation of the doorknob. Link finds himself hating round doorknobs more and more these days. The rare occasion upon which he encounters bar doorknobs seem almost like a tiny miracle.

And windows! Nothing at all he can do with windows, but to break them. It's never worth it. A stale scent of blood lingers on the surrounding air. It's not Zelda's.

Link turns his head to observe Zelda bolting awake with that knife again. He looks back at the door. Boy, he wishes he had hands. Already too impatient to bother waiting, and knowing for a fact that the door isn't bolted, Link BARKS at the door.

He is exceptionally loud.

    Unaware of knives and wolves, the girl on the other side of the door waits patiently. Just to be sure Zelda is awake before entering. The suspicious tone of voice in the princess however puts Rydia on edge for reasons she's not quite certain, hand halting on the doorknob.
    "It's just me, Zelda." The girl replies through the door, keeping her own tone neutral as though nothing were wrong. "I'm coming in alri-"
    Rydia was already in the process of opening the door and announcing herself at the same time when she hears the bark. That's... New. She was utterly unaware of any dogs present at the Kaipo inn.
    The issue comes when Rydia gets the door open just enough to see the scene inside the room.
    Zelda in bed, holding a knife.
    A massive wolf right there in the room.
    She can't quite be faulted, when presented with such a sight, for jumping to the conclusion that she does.
    In her hands, she had been holding a basket of medical supplies. Balms, bandages, clean water. ... As calm as can be, the child sets them on the stand by the door and slowly reaches for the coiled whip resting at the belt of her tunic, tugging it free and letting it uncoil to the floor.
    "Zelda." She says. "Don't make any sudden movements. Don't look it in the eyes. Get out of the bed, and without turning your back to it, back away from the wolf slowly."
    This is not exactly a normal wakeup call anymore.

The Divine Beast doesn't give Zelda time to actually respond to all of this. He heaves a great, annoyed sigh and -- having sat just to the side of where the door would swing open in case whoever was out there had malicious intent -- headbutts the door closed in Rydia's face.

He meanders back to the foot of the bed, lays back down, and rests his head on the floor.

  Those summer-blue eyes flick to Link when the wolf pushes himself to his feet and circles to the door. She can sense that air of impatience about him, or maybe it's anticipation, like herself. Something cold turns in the pit of her stomach. Has she finally been found? Has Copen come back?

  "Oh." The sound is a breath of relief, and Zelda is about to set the knife aside when Rydia reaches quietly for her whip. "I--"

  Back away from the wolf slowly, Rydia says. Zelda laughs softly, shaking her head. "No, please, put up your weapon. This is no monster, Rydia. He--"

  Link sighs, headbutts the door closed, and it slams shut before dropping back to the floor at the foot of the bed.

  Zelda stares a little.

  Just a little.

  Rydia might hear the princess' voice, muffled from being on the other side of the door.

  "Link!" It's a little aggrieved. Then, she pitches her voice higher so Rydia can hear clearly. "Rydia! Come in, please!"

    The door shuts in Rydia's face. And for a long beat she's left just staring at the wood. "Buh..."
    Okay so the wolf that has invaded the inn is a smartass. Rydia is already plotting several attempts to rescue Zelda from the jaws of the beast, before she actually *listens* to the voice on the other side of the door.
    'Link' is the name Zelda calls out before bidding Rydia to enter.
    The door opens again, this time just a crack at first. Not out of fear nor caution, but curiosity as jade eyes seek to meet the wolf's- an act that should normally not be attempted with a wild beast, lest it be taken as challenge. She's seeking out signs of intelligence. ... Even though shutting the door in her face was enough of a bite in its own way.
    "This is Link?" She asks, more genuinely curious than shocked. "Zelda, I know you're hard pressed for a hero but uh. I was expecting more of... Well you know. A man."

The Divine Beast issues a rolling series of low barks that must be his take on laughing. It's awkward, because his body really isn't meant for this kind of vocalization, but the general gist of what he's doing is comprehensible if you sit there and think of it a minute. If he'd been a fox, he thinks, he could laugh properly, if a little high-pitched. Idly, he wonders if Zelda is listening in on his thoughts just now. If that's so, he decides, it's probably a little rude to use it too much.

The door thing, that wasn't rude. It was just funny.

A faint shiver runs across Link's body as a presence enters the edge of his consciousness, lingering just above his ear without becoming plainly visible. Rydia could, perhaps for a moment, discern the outline of a phantasmal golden wolf, with one eye put out and the other a brilliant red. A ghostly growl echoes fainlty, and then the shape and the sound both are gone.

Link lifts his head and meets Rydia's eyes, but although he has absolutely met such gestures from others with hostility before, something seems to prompt him to remain level-headed now. It almost certainly has to do with the golden wolf's presence. He barks when she asks if he's Link, and huffs at her confusion about his form.

  Somewhat nonplussed, the princess arches a brow when Rydia expresses her thorough skepticism. It's easy to see how an outside perspective might think she's a lunatic. Eventually she sighs, though, in the manner of one feeling a little guilty.

  "When did I tell you this?" Zelda's brow furrows, and the princess shakes her head. "I only just learned his name last night. I knew him only as the prophesised hero..."

  She hesitates, and seems to stop and think for a moment, brow furrowing. It's not a very confident or princessly expression, but she can't help it; the details are right in front of her, something urgent in its importance--

  An image reaches her, just a fleeting impression, of a green-clad young man riding a great bird, crouched low over the sweep of its crimson wings; he dives after a young woman in a dress, riding an enormous blue bird of her own. They spiral down past a timeworn statue of the Goddess Hylia; their laughter trails in the air behind them.

  Zelda tilts her head, eyeing Link curiously, just in time to see the a murky flicker of gold over the shoulder of the Divine Beast. She frowns more deeply. It isn't so much the vision of gold that nags at her, but the feeling behind it--

  Zelda blanches, eyes slipping out of focus for just a heartbeat.

  A young man clad in green walks down a broken path, the defaced stone columns of the Temple of Time behind him. Clutched in his hand is the Blade of Evil's Bane, and in his other, something blue and glassy. It's an ocarina, his gloved hand wrapped loosely around it, and he faces the ruins before him with apprehensive anticipation.

  Zelda shakes her head as though to clear it, reaching up to rub at the bridge of her nose. The Goddesses are trying to tell her something, or perhaps even Her Grace. But what is it...? Yet try as she might, it's just beyond her, and so she puts it out of mind for the moment.

  She doesn't respond to Link, because she isn't actively listening. It doesn't work that way... and if it did, she would have learned to shut others' minds out long ago, for her own sanity's sake.

  Zelda sits up, letting the blanket pool in her lap. It's morning, so the desert is beginning to warm up and put the cold at bay. She doesn't feel the need to coccoon in blankets forever. "This is Link," the princess confirms softly. "But know this: What you see is not his natural form. He has been cursed by a malignant and terrible power into the form before you. But the heart that beats in his breast is the heart of a man," she adds, with soft but absolute conviction.

  Some things, you take on faith. And she has demonstrated before that her faith in her Goddesses is absolute.

  "He is from Ordon Village, a small village famous for its goat-herding, some days' ride south of Hyrule Castle." She glances back to Link, still looking somewhat concerned, as though she were trying to remember something.

  "Rydia, did you..." Zelda trails off, shaking her head. "Never mind. It was nothing. I suppose I'm only tired, still."

    "He's laughing at me, isn't he."
    The girl has a habit of calling things as she sees it, and that strange cadence of barks IS a pretty odd vocalization for a wolf. Rydia's cheeks puff right up, and for a beat she's looking ready to snap some bitey little comment; go on, Link, laugh it up furball.
    It doesn't come though. Just as she opens her mouth whatever she had in mind trails clean off and dies in her throat. She has to squint, and it's ever so brief, but a Summoner of Mist would not miss the sight of a spectral beast. The golden wolf spirit, even seen for just a glimpse, earns a curious stare of wonder, before she manages to peel her eyes from where it was and to meet Link's once again. Jade eyes find blue; vivid and intelligent, and the girl purses her lips. It's only when Zelda speaks again that Rydia's attention is pulled back upwards. "H-huh? But you said..." She stops herself short, deciding it better to not bring up the night she dragged Zelda all the way from Hyrule to Kaipo, bloody and on death's door.
    Not being privy to the visions the princess is, all Rydia sees is the way the Queen-Regent pales and zones out. "Did I what? Zelda are you feeling alright? ... You look a little um. Out of it." She ventures amid the explanation of the wolf's humble origins.
    "... You said the Twilight changed your people. Did it do this to him?"

The Divine Beast just snorts at the notion that Zelda knew his name before she quite knew that he was attached to it. Of course she did. Of course some weird witchy thing is racing through her head, letting her know all the things that she needs to know about him ahead of time, but not actually clueing her in on the context. Nearly every woman he's met in this mess has done bizarre witchy things, and the young girl visiting -- what did Zelda say she could do?

More witchy things, he recalls, but the particulars slip loose of his mind.

His head turns sideways to regard the position the golden wolf was just a moment ago. The old ghost wasn't subtle when he was getting something across, but usually he was better about the why. So, Link wonders, why does he think that putting trust in this girl in particular is a good idea?

Another bark answers Zelda's reaffirmations of who and what he is, but he doesn't press it this time. This land is strange and familiar enough that another witchy girl doesn't need to spend a lot of time questioning whether or not the magical wolf is indeed magical.

Fortunately, Rydia gives him another opportunity. When she asks of the twilight changing him, the great wolf nods in Rydia's direction. His ears perk up a little, and he begins to sniff the air insistently. Link tilts his head to one side, issuing a low whine.

Something concerns him, but it's not clear what.

  The princess slowly closes a fist and raises her clenched hand to her heart, as though she were pouring herself into the effort of remembering. The memories are are as elusive as a school of fish, though, and she lets the effort go with a disappointed sigh. Din, Farore, and Nayru choose not to speak to her. Hylia, the White Goddess, is silent.

  Zelda's brow furrows slightly as she release her hand, frowning subtly. That's going to trouble her until she can hit on the significance of all this. What are the Goddesses trying to tell her...? That nagging familiarity is troubling, if only because it seems strange not to remember something that obviously holds such significance.

  She has no choice but to let it go, though. The memories, or whatever they are, aren't forthcoming, beyond their haunting sense of familiarity. She knew every one of those past Heroes. She could remember a flicker of haunting familiarity -- she knew precisely the sound of their voices, or the specific blue of their eyes.

  Why...?

  "No... I'm sorry. It's nothing, I'm sure." The princess smiles, moving on briskly from her disquieted thoughts. "Please, don't worry. I... just didn't sleep well. That's all."

  Well, the first part of that statement is true. She didn't sleep very much, jerking awake every time the nightmares reached out to her. But unless the Summoner's checked in on the princess during the night, she wouldn't know how haunted the princess' sleep is. It does let her comfortably soothe her friend without lying about it, though.

  With some effort she turns her attention back to Link, watching the way he 'answers' Rydia. At least he can demonstrate that way that he isn't some monstrous brute. As she had told Rydia, the heart of a man, not a beast. "In any case, there are things he can do as he is now that might be helpful." Zelda glances to Rydia as she explains.

  "He managed to find my trail all the way back in Eldin Province, days ago, and has been following it since, even though by rights the trail should have run cold. I would be lying if I said I was not impressed. In the meantime, perhaps I can find a means to lift the curse." She rubs at her jaw, eyeing Link almost worriedly. "I wonder if my prayers to the Goddesses would be enough..." To go by how dubious her eyes are, probably not.

    Rydia gets the point fairly fast after a good enough look into Link's eyes. The magical wolf is magical, and the nod flat out confirms it when Link answers Rydia's question of wolves and Twilight.
    "You never sleep well." Rydia notes to the princess. "It's kind of hard not to worry."
    She's eyeing Link though, not quite all that surprised to hear of a wolf following a days old trail, but the girl purses her lips. "Zelda, I get the feeling that praying the problem away isn't going to work in this case."
    She's never seen a man morphed into a wolf. It must be some powerful magic to have done it, and Rydia's faith is currently on the lacking side to take stock in the will of goddesses that she knows nothing about. But it's in bringing up that trail from Eldin that raises another emotion in the girl. Rydia tenses, stiffening where she stands as memories are dredged up. Bad ones.
    "I met the man who did that to you." She says quietly. But her attention shifts back to Link at the whine, glad for the distraction from her own thoughts.
    "What's the matter?"

The Divine Beast rolls his eyes at Zelda's carrying on. This is probably the best sign yet that he isn't just a wolf. He rises and paces 'round the room restlessly. It's the first time in a while he's just sat still for this long. Unlike Zelda, he did sleep properly, though he suspects he's a little more used to going without than she is. The royal lifestyle is probably at least moderately permissive. If you want to do any farm work, some of it just /has/ to be done before sun-up.

He pauses his pacing to shake his head at Zelda's thoughts on restoring him to normality. If it were that easy, he's sure that it would already be done. Zelda's witchcraft might be strong, but it doesn't seem to be that strong. Link jerks his head towards Rydia ambiguously.

Link strides over next to Rydia, settling down at one side of her. He answers her question by nudging her arm with his nose. He turns his head slightly, sniffs at the air, and looks back at her.

He smells something on her. It might be what Rydia just said-- the stranger who hurt Zelda.

  "I've always slept lightly..." The protest sounds feeble even to Zelda's own pointed ears, and the princess seems to deflate just a little. "It will pass." But she sounds more quietly discouraged than convinced.

  Zelda shrugs, and looks even more bleak when Rydia says praying the problem away probably won't help. It's really all she has to fall back on right now.

  Rydia states she's met the man who inflicted those terrible wounds on her, and the blood seems to drain from the princess' face. For a fleeting instant, there is an expression of undisguised terror, and Zelda actually shudders. She masters herself in the next heartbeat, thinning her lips in an expression of grim displeasure.

  "I am sorry," she says instead, to Rydia. The apology is soft but heartfelt. "That man's eyes... they frighten me." As they should any sane person.

  "Link...?" She tilts her head as the wolf suddenly finds a plethora of attention to find in Rydia, poking at her with his nose and scenting the air near her. "What is it...?"

    Rydia is... Unsure how to handle Link's approach, at first. He has the heart of a man, yes, but currently he's in the body of a wolf that is far larger than she is. The girl keeps still when he draws near, a healthy wariness of wild animals preventing her from making any sudden movements as he noses at her arm, in spite of the intelligence she can clearly see in those blue eyes.
    Yet all Zelda has to do though is mention Copen's eyes. Those eyes burning red with a hate so bright it could put a sun to shame. It's not the right thing to bring up around the girl.
    Rydia stares at Zelda in a long moment of silence. Like a victim of shellshock the child's gaze seems to pass clean through the Queen-Regent. She pulls herself from her stunned state, barely even realizing that her hand has migrated upwards, fingers finding their way to slowly brush along the Divine Beast's snout and neck in an almost completely automatic motion; all prior caution forgotten in a momentary need for comfort.
    "I saw his eyes." Is all she says on the subject. "And if Whyt hadn't pushed me out of the way, at the time, I don't think I'd be standing here, right now.

Link heaves another great sigh. He looks at Zelda intently, who can probably tell she should use her psychic powers to get the full picture. Very simply, he thinks: 'Smells like the other one along your trail, and blood. None fresh.'

He doesn't react to Rydia's touch with the same agitation he expressed towards Zelda. It may well be that she's just too small for him to be bothered with recognizing her as a physical threat, but more likely it has something to do with what the golden wolf said to him. The Divine Beast leans vaguely in Rydia's direction.

This isn't the sort of thing a girl her age should be dealing with. She's not so different from his own villagers, if deceptively capable of coping with whatever it is that has transpired in her life to bring her here.

  Zelda's eyes flick to the side, and she seems to note the way that Rydia's own eyes slip out of focus, much as hers had done. Wordlessly, she reaches out to lay a hand on the girl's shoulder; squeezes gently in a silent offer of strength. She understands. That lunatic had almost killed the princess. She more than understands Rydia's horror.

  She seems to wilt a little at Rydia's last explanation. At least Rydia had Whyt to push her out of the way, to protect her; even if on some small level it galls the Hylian that she couldn't be there to protect the girl. It's in her nature to want to protect people, especially those who seem to have some need of it. Not that Rydia can't survive -- she's tough as nails -- but because she shouldn't have to endure the kind of trauma that she has in her short life.

  All she can do is sigh, a little dismayed. There's nothing comforting she can say that the girl would hear right now, regardless of how much she wants to.

  The princess' eyes skirt back to Link, and the pointed stare he's giving her. Her mouth sets in an expression of uncertainty. She closes her eyes for a moment, and though her mouth never moves, her mental 'voice' to him is soft but clear. 'So I did wound him.' There is an undercurrent of hesitant but grim satisfaction.

  At the time, the best she could have hoped for was to make him pay dearly for his last blow. It's gratifying to know her efforts to defend herself weren't completely in vain.

  She huddles into the blankets, her body language that of discouragement. So many threats to Hyrule, not only within, but also without.

  "Then we move forward." She glances back up to the others, warily, summer-blue eyes settling on both Link and Rydia in turn. "When I'm strong enough, I have an idea of what to do next. We need a base of operations, one where he cannot find it."

  Her eyes linger near Rydia but don't quite meet the girl's eyes. "And if he knows about your involvement with me, or knows you're some manner of magic-user... I don't know how safe you are here. Not any longer." She glances to Link. "Alternatively, we move on Faron Wood, if we can find a safe place we can establish as forward camp. I have heard rumour that Faron is badly afflicted by the Twilight, but that's all the more reason to move there."

  She studies the wolf for a moment, a little uncertainly. "What do you think...?"

    Whatever the great golden wolf had said to the giant green one, Rydia quietly takes advantage of the fact that Link leans toward her. Slowly her hand repeats the motion, again and then one last time, just a slow stroke of fur here and there before she pulls her hand away, looking sheepish. "-I'm sorry." She says, remembering 'this is a man, not a beast'. It can still be a hard distinction to make due to the form the Hylian hero is locked in.
    Moving forward. A place where that Demon of God can't trace them easily. Rydia shudders anyway.
    "He knows." She says. "He was there. Watching. He knows we were both in Eldin Province, Zelda. He knows."
    As for the planning, though, the lay of Hyrule's land is not anything the Summoner is familiar with. She'll leave it to Zelda and Link as she makes for the door. Though she leaves the medical supplies she had brought on the endtable. "I just came to check up on you and see if you needed anything. So I'll just excuse myself now. I'll be around the inn doing my chores if you need me- either of you. ... And I should probably explain to the innkeeper about Link. He might take it easier if it comes from me."
    Maybe she can pass him off as an Eidolon or something...

Link makes a noncommittal noise. He can smell things other than blood, he has no idea if what he's smelling is just an ordinary impression or if it is that specific person's blood, or someone else's blood. But he can smell the faint impressions of old blood all the same. Concerning the matter of a base of operations, his ears slowly begin to shift back and flatten out. Ohh, he doesn't like where this is going.

He can remember what she told him about those possibilities and if he's not /much mistaken/ it sounds as if Zelda wants to go /live/ there until they clear the Twilight. Link isn't even certain if it would be safe if nothing else was endangering them up the mountain.

To the matter of Faron Woods, Link barks at a moderate volume. It makes as much sense as anyplace, and he hasn't the slightest idea where -else- to start.

He doesn't seem to really understand the ramifications of Rydia and Zelda's exchange. Maybe he will when they inevitably run into this Demon of God in the future. Or maybe he'll keep on being the kind of lunatic who just sort of quietly accepts that, yes, he has to do two impossible things so it may as well become three.

The Divine Beast nods to Rydia, and offers a passing thought to Zelda under the assumption she's still listening: Thirsty. Going out back.

He brushes past Rydia as she leaves.

It's too bad though. Tending to an inn /is/ something a girl like that should be doing, not worrying about murderous lunatics.

  The princess watches as Rydia slowly tries to pet the giant wolf, but she doesn't say anything to either of them. Let them work it out amongst themselves; it isn't her concern. They're still both largely strangers to her.

  The Summoner's next words sweep away anything else she might have been thinking about, anyway.

  Zelda blinks as though she hadn't initially registered what Rydia said.

  Then she pales, abruptly and severely. She shudders so hard that she has to pull the blanket over herself to hide her shaking. Cowardly? It might be seen that way, but Copen had scared her badly. 

  She watches Link go in numb silence, and when he passes out of the threshold, she slumps a little and fully gives herself over to the shakes, letting out a single silent, shuddering breath. Goddess have mercy on them all.

  Logically, there's nothing else to do but rest. The Summoner is hardly going to let Zelda bounce back to her feet and start doing things, and for her part, the princess knows she doesn't have it in her to try. Her suggestion of a new base of operations will have to wait until she's strong enough to travel.

  So she huddles into her blanket, turns to face the wall, and curls up in a ball tight enough to suggest the princess is quietly, stoically terrified. The hilt of her knife protrudes from beneath her pillow. It takes her some time, but eventually, Zelda finally does manage to drift, once she's alone; once she's conquered the shakes.

  If he wanders back into the princess' room, Link will find that the princess has left the foot of the bed clear for him.

It isn't all bad. It isn't precisely a voice that rumbles through Zelda's room when she finds herself alone. It is like the thoughts she can pick up on, or the heat haze of the visions she experiences, save that it is crystal clear. The skeletal figure that stands at the foot of Zelda's bed towers. Its elaborate armor is covered in tarnish, and strung with vines. It does not have a physical presence. A red eye gleams in one socket.

But the armor rattles as it turns, and it has the weight of something as large as that. Like its legend is so tremendous that, although it has no bearing on the here and the now, it cannot help but jangle and echo and reverberate. It faces the door, its back to the shaking Princess. It raises a hand to gesticulate as it 'speaks', I had a friend, once, who was very like her.

We cannot stand vigil. It is not our role. Rest and recover, and if the portents that stretch forth are more than mere shadows of my time, you've six more to gather. He rumbles, and fades.

The Divine Beast does return, periodically, through the day. He conducts himself as a dog might, annoying the men and women in the pub meandering for table scraps. But he's never farther than the shore of the oasis behind the inn.

Link stays out a little longer than might seem natural through the night. Strange, melodic howls echo across Kaipo before he does. What they mean, if anything at all, are a mystery. Perhaps Zelda could ask, when she stirrs in earnest.