game: majora's mask
notes: just a little something. it's pretty cliché, so sorry.
Emerge
"Ah! A-Amazing! Truly, absolutely amazing!"
The old biologist ran over to the gargantuan tank and spread his wrinkled hands on the cold glass. His eyes sparkled in awe at the unusual sight taking place before the two adults.
"What are they doing? They are not moving at all – in such an organized manner, too…it almost looks as if they are – like they're forming a – you there!" he cut himself off and pointed to the confused Zora standing some yards away. His fins gave a twitch in response, and he blinked. "Yes, yes you! Quick now, don't you have some kind of instrument?" the old man demanded as his fists shook about excitedly.
Link paused for a moment, looking at the professor with unease. Well, he sure was quick to make commands…Nonetheless; the faux Zora reached over behind his back and drew out the familiar fish-bone guitar, slinging it over his front.
"Yes, yes, that's it! Now play!" He motioned over to the lined up hatchlings, "Hurry, before they scatter!"
The guitar player stood motionless, eyes skimming over the picture that the small Zoras had made with their infant bodies. After studying for a few airless moments, making sure that he knew the precise note to start on, he lowered his fingers and began to pluck.
"Yes, yes! Oh, truly amazing! What could have caused this phenomenon? Is it programmed into their brains – instinctive? Or could something have happened while they were all lost – something exterior? Does it happen to all Zora young, or are these special because they are Lulu's…?"
At that point the biologist's ramblings had merged into incoherent blabber buzzing against Link's ears. As he continued playing out the message he lifted his head and gazed into the aquarium tank...and then musings started bouncing around in his head.
He had never seen Zora hatchlings before. The youngest he had ever seen was Ruto, all the way back in Hyrule – and that already felt like a long time ago. No, never newly born, not like this.
They were so much different than the babies he'd seen. They looked more like the tadpoles that came from frogs. But at the same time they also really looked like people, at least when they grew older. What exactly were Zoras?
Several moments later, the song was completed. Listening to the piece concluding, the hatchlings all swam about happily, as if congratulating Link on being able to figure out their message. He took a step closer to the glass, watching their fins flapping about, and a smile started tugging at his lips.
Actually…they were kind of cute.
And the first thing they did when they were born was give him a score, so well-organized too…Were they going to remember this moment after they grew up? Or would they forget all about it instead, living a life of traveling with Lulu and the rest of the band, growing up like a rock star…
"So," the professor's voice dragged Link back down from his thoughts, "I'm going to suppose that you are the father, Mikau?"
Suddenly Link's fins fiercely twitched and he gave a wide-eyed look of horror, his mouth slightly agape at the unexpected out-of-the-blue question. Father? What? Wait, what?
The old man raised his eyebrow. "No? Well, not that it matters anyway," he turned his attention back to the swimming hatchlings, darting through their siblings this way and that. "Watching the birth of something like this, it is a very wonderful thing."
The adult Zora blinked, and then relaxed. Giving a slight smile, he looked back to the tank, and as one of the little newborns flapped over to him, he couldn't help but feel that the scientist was absolutely right.
End