Zelda Fanfic: Skye Cloudgate (2/10/12)
This is a one-shot, involving one of my characters and Link. I came up with Sarah, when I still role played a lot online, when I was about 17. I hope you enjoy, and comment on this please. If I get enough positive comments, I'll post another one-shot. But all that aside, here's my first Fanfic.
All is silent in the forest, save for the sound of rustling leaves and snapping twigs as a young girl races through the trees. She appears to be perfectly human, wearing what any other woman might; a white blouse, grey pants, and a pair of lace-up sandals. Her rusty brown hair cropped to her neck, and her emerald green eyes darting around her surroundings, looking for a place to hide. Perfectly normal, except for the pair of fur-covered fox ears protruding through her skull, only to be matched by the pair of twin fox tails sprouting from her lower back.
This is Sarah. Or the 'Fox Child' as the village people of Gerudo Valley called her. Sarah is running from a band of Gerudo hunters. The pelt of her animal form could fetch a small fortune in Hylia, and they'd been chasing her for a few days now. As her pursuers close in on her trail, there is a break in the trees, and she enters a village; Ordon village, home of the fairy people.
She climbs a tree and enters the house at its middle. The house stood out, even in this village with houses made of wood, and stone. Shutting the wooden door behind her, she gasps for breath as she looks around the residence. She soon finds the place to be furnished with a bed, a book shelf, a few drawers, and a sword and Hylian shield hanging on the back wall. Her ears perk up to the sound of the approaching hunters.
They are Gerudo men. A set of triplets; Gerudo males are only born every fifty years. The brothers had hunted poor Sarah up until now. Just before the brothers attempt to enter the tree-top home, the owner shows up, appearing from farther into town.
"What's going on?" The blond, past-hero Link asks, seeing their collective glare.
The eldest of the three steps forward. "My brothers and I are hunting, friend." He explains with a sickening smirk. "Our prey has escaped into this house." He motions toward Links home, his voice dripping with malice.
"My house." Link concludes, before climbing up the ladder, and opening the door, finding nothing out of the ordinary. He turns back to the three Gerudo's. "Nothing here." He shrugs his broad shoulders.
"But we saw her-err, it go inside!" one of the younger brothers exclaimed. The eldest turned to his brother, glaring, silencing him before turning back to Link. "Very well, then we'll leave. But let us know if there is anything strange going on around your village. Ok friend?"
"Yeah, sure." Link dismisses them, before shutting the door behind him. Making sure they had actually left, he casually makes his way over to a chest of drawers. He smirks. "You can come out—"He slams his fist into the top of the piece of furniture. "NOW!"
Sarah shrieks, as she leaps from her crouching position behind the chest. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Why are you here?" He asks, leaning forward, with his palms on the chest.
"Desperation," She replies shortly. "They chased me through the desert, and finally to these woods. When I found this village I went into the first house I saw." She explains, looking into the green-clad warrior's blue eyes. "They were going to sell me to the highest bidder…" She continues, as her gaze goes toward the ground.
Link nods. "Yeah, Gerudo's are pretty greedy. They're a race of thieves." He informs the fox girl. "So, what's your name?"
Her ears twitch slightly. "Sarah. And yours?"
"Link."
Sarah smiles softly. "Nice to meet you, Link." She offers her hand to him, and he takes it in a handshake. As he looks at her, she seems so harmless, so innocent. Her green eyes, matching Links clothes, shown brightly from her slightly sun tanned face. "So, I guess since they're gone I'll be on my way. Thanks for your help." She smiles softly, as she turns to leave.
"Wait!" She stops in her tracks, as Link calls out. "If you leave the village, the hunters will be waiting for you. Why don't you stay around for a while? At least until you know you're safe."
Her eyes widen just a bit. "I couldn't do that. They'd come after you!" She exclaims.
He shrugs. "I've faced worse." (Flashback: Diababa, Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly, Ganondorf…)
"But where will I sleep?"
"I'll ask around, I'm sure someone has room for one more." He smiles. "Meanwhile, are you hungry?"
"No, not really." Her stomach then growls causing her face to blush a light pink.
Link pulls out a back pack from the top drawer, and takes out a few pieces of dried meat, offering her some.
She takes the snack, and chomps down on it, as it had been the first thing she'd eaten in about a day. "Thank you."
"No problem. So, where are you from? I haven't seen you around, when I was traveling."
She swallows the meat. "Gerudo Valley; I'm the last of my pack." Her ears lay back, the tips pointing behind her.
"And how old are you?"
"Fourteen." She answers, sitting on the floor.
As the conversation continues, night falls on Ordon Village and Link turns in for the night. Yawning, he offers; "You can sleep in my bed tonight. I'll sleep in the loft." He climbs to the second floor. "Good night, Sarah."
"Good night." Sarah replies, before waiting until Link was totally 'out-of-it' asleep, and sneaks out of the house. She jumps from the platform, landing gracefully on her feet, walking deeper into the tiny village.
One of the shop keepers, locking up for the night spots her, walking along the river banks, looking up to the stars. He gasps, whispering "Demon!"
Sarah's ears perk up, twitching at the word, but she ignores it as she makes her way to a more secluded area. Making sure she wasn't followed, she un-laces her sandals, kicking them off into a grassy area by the water, as she pulls at the string on her blouse. When her clothes are neatly folded on the ground, next to the stream, she enters the cool water, allowing it to wash away the sweat and dirt of the day. She sighs softly, as a few white clouds pass over the glowing crescent moon. She closes her eyes, completely relaxed, as she listens to the wind as it blows through the trees, and around the houses as nightfall overshadowed everything. She sinks down, letting her back lean against the rocks that separated the water from the grass.
She soon hears the grass rustling, and looks up to see two men approaching the water hole. She hides behind the boulder, which was planted in the middle of the water, as they come closer. "See, I told you I saw something!" One man's voice whispers.
"You're insane." The other man accuses. "There's nothing here but a few grubs and some fish." He complains. "Why did you wake me up for this?" He asks, annoyed.
"I saw a demon, and it went this way!" He argues, as they approached ever closer to Sarah's clothes. They spot the discarded garments, and the first man, the shop keeper, picks up the blouse. "It was wearing this." He exclaims to the other man.
"Are you sure you didn't see a woman going to bathe?" He smirks, still half-asleep. "You're liable to get your face clawed off."
The shop keeper shakes his head. "I know what I saw…" His voice trails off.
"Yeah, yeah…" the other man groans, as he walks back to the rest of the village.
"Well, I'm keeping this blouse. It doesn't look like anyone's using it right now." He smirks, as he walks off with it in hand.
"Excuse me." Sarah's voice calls out timidly. The men jump, one drawing a short sword.
"Whose there? Show yourself!" He demanded.
"Well I would sir, but your friend has my blouse. May I have it back?" She asks, in the same timid tone of voice.
The shop keeper throws it back where he found it. "Thank you. Now could you kindly leave so that I may finish my bath and get dressed?" She asks from behind the rock.
"See, I told you; a woman bathing. You old pervert..." As the shop keeper blushes cherry red, they walk away, so the young girl could get her clothes back on.
As soon as they were gone, Sarah got out of the water and lay on the grass to air dry. "Men." She sighs, folding her arms behind her head as she watched the stars in the black night sky.
Meanwhile, as the two men walk back to the village, the shop keeper stops. "Wait! I want to see this woman." He quirked an eyebrow.
The other man sighs, shaking his head. "Leave me out of this."
"Oh, come on. She wouldn't even show her face. That doesn't seem suspicious to you?"
"Perhaps she's just shy. Ever think of that?" He asks, sheathing his sword.
"Well, I'm going back, with or without you."
"Well, good luck with that. I'm going to bed!" The man walks away in a huff, being woken up to see a so called 'demon'.
As the shop keeper made his way back to the river's end, Sarah was coming back, fully clothed. As the man approached, her ears perked up to his foot steps. "Oh no; There's nowhere to hide! Oh well, he'll just have to see me like this." She shrugs, as she walks on.
As he presses on, he can see Sarah, fox ears and tails showing proudly. "I KNEW I WASN'T CRAZY!" His thoughts rang out. "You, Demon girl!"
Sarah stops to face him. "Are you addressing me?" She raises a narrow eyebrow.
"Yes. Who else has the features of a fox?" He scowls.
"My parents, for one," She replies, tilting her head slightly to the side. "But that's a different story. What do you want?"
"I want you to come with me, to prove to my friend you do exist."
Sarah sighs. "I really should get back to my friends house. He may be worried about me."
The expression fell on his face. "Well, you're going with me anyway." He grabs her arm, dragging her with him.
"Stop, you're hurting me!" She cries out, but he doesn't stop until they're at the door of the other man's house. He knocks loudly on the door. "Hey, Boris! I got something for you to see!"
The door flies open. "What do you want now?" He shouts, before seeing Sarah's frightened expression.
The man throws Sarah to the ground, causing her to groan in slight pain. "This…" He says pointing to the bruised fox child. "Is what I was talking about!" He exclaims, looking at the still groggy man.
The man, Boris, looks at Sarah, seeing her face and noticing her bruised arm. "A fox child? This is no demon, you idiot!" He yells to the shop keeper. "They're mischievous, yes. But not dangerous." He offers his hand to Sarah to help her up. "I'm sorry for my friend's ignorance, miss."
Sarah shakes her head, as she rises from the ground. "It's not your fault." She smiles softly, showing the tips of her fangs. "I'm used to it."She admitted. "But I really should get back to my friends house. If he's awake, he may be worried about me." She turns to leave, bowing at her waits. "Bye."
Sarah runs to Link's house, climbing up the ladder. She opens the door to find a dark house, and a snoring Link. She then kicks off her sandals, and plops onto the bed Link said she could have that night, falling into a peaceful sleep.
A few hours later, Sarah awakens with the sun rising above the treetops, yawning softly as she pulls the covers away from herself, swinging her feet off the bed. She then climbs the ladder to the loft, to find a still sleeping Link, and smiles, whispering. "Good morning, Link." The hero rises sleepily, yawning as the sun shines into the upper room. "Good morning, Sarah. How was your night?"
Sarah rubs her arm, where the man had grabbed her. "It was… interesting." She answers. "I didn't know some people in your village are so superstitious." She laughs softly.
"What do you mean," Link replies, sitting up in the bed to reveal his bare upper body.
"Last night, after you had gone to sleep, I left to explore the rest of your village. When I came to the stream, one of the people called me a 'demon', but I didn't acknowledge it, and instead I went to the end of the stream, in that patch of tall grass. You know, where that large rock is in the center of the water. Well, I decided to bathe, and apparently I was followed by that same man, and a friend of his. I heard them coming, and hid behind that big rock, but they found my clothes, and the man took my blouse," She says, grabbing the now retrieved clothing. "I called out from behind the shadow of the rock, which accidently frightened them, and asked for it back, which they did, and left. But a few moments later, after I had finished my bath and had gotten dressed again, the man came back alone, and asked me to come back with him. I refused, as I wanted to come back here, in case you had woken up, and found me gone. But he grabbed me," and here, Sarah shows the slight mark on her arm. "And insisted that I come see his friend, and prove that I exist." He dragged me to a house, and threw me onto the porch. When the other man answered his door, he dismissed me as a 'Fox Child', and helped me up from the ground, before apologizing for the man's behavior."
Upon hearing Sarah's story, Link chuckles. Sarah raises an eyebrow, wondering what could be so funny. "Boris and Cleatus." He shakes his head. "Cleatus is very superstitious, as you've found out. But Boris, he's not so much." He explains. "Cleatus is probably the one who called you a 'demon'. Boris is the one who helped you. "He smiles, still kind of half asleep.
"Boris and Cleatus," She repeats. "I'm sure I'll run into them both today." She concludes, as I plan on taking a walk around the village, after breakfast." She smiles.
"By the way, this village is called Ordon village. " Link replies.
And so endeth this one-shot. What happens next? Will Sarah stay in Ordon Village? Will the Gerudo's eventually find her, skin her, and sell her pelt? Will her animal form eat them all alive?
Comment to find out. ;-)