(Joining of Hearts)
"Little souls find their way to you, whether they're from your womb or someone else's." -Sheryl Crow
The creature's head bobs as it rhythmically trots across the plains of Central Hyrule. The warmth of the sun makes Zelda sigh happily, her hand weaving through the mane of the white stallion that Link presented to her quite enthusiastically the moment that they stepped into the vicinity of a stable. Being mobile again still required adjusting after a century and then some of being trapped. A Hyrule free of Ganon's blight eased the pain throbbing through her back from the hours of horseback riding.
Link casts a mixture of concerned amusement when the princess halts her horse and slides off. The blond rubs at her sore back and glances ruefully at the hero turning his horse around to check up on her. Epona knickers at the white stallion with a swing of her head and Regalia snorts in response.
"At least they're getting along," The princess breathes out and kneels into the grass. "We can take a break?"
The hero nods and unmounts his own steed. He gives the mare a hearty pat on the neck before dropping his pack of supplies onto the ground. With only his Master Sword strapped across his back and a quiver of arrows, Link grabs his Knights bow (no use wasting a higher quality bow) to go terrorize the woodland critters and possibly find a korok.
Zelda grabs the reins of the two horses and brings the duo to the river. She breathes the fresh air in as the horses dip their heads to drink and looks out to the Dueling Peaks. They were to rest at the stables before heading to Kakariko Village bearing the good news of the Calamity's fall, although both travelers believed the news to already be known if the drunken stupor of the previous stable meant anything. Her eyes start to rotate back to Regalia as the horse snorts beside her, but a patch of black draws her attention. She takes the Shekia plate off her hip and uses the camera feature to zoom in, the device clatters to the ground as the princess starts running.
"Epona, get Link!" Zelda calls out as she splashes into the river. Water weighs down the riding pants she's wearing and slows her advance towards the figure.
One arm wraps around the girl's waist and Zelda hefts the child out of the river. The bearer of wisdom startles at the weight as she shuffles the way up the bank. Her brows furrow at the red marks surrounding one wrist and her blue eyes widen in horror when a glance at her other wrist and ankles show rocks strapped to the child as drowning weights. The sound of hoofbeats forces her attention on a panicked Link galloping through the water.
"Link, I need a fairy potion, any health potion," Zelda rushes out. "What happened to you, you poor child?"
…
Mist had never been to Rito Village despite the plumage that sprouted throughout her body. Her black feathers, speckled in white like a snowy mountain, ruffles as she pads her way up the pathway. Her travel pack weighs down her body and the guard at the entrance casts her a wayward look at the carry on that would hinder the young Rito from flying. The rito's gold eyes drop to the ground as she passes the guard and a slight shiver crawls up her back as a cold wind flows through her preliminary outer feathers and penetrates the down that she carelessly groomed.
Music could already be heard from where the young fledgling made her way up the pillar. Her beak drops slightly at the sparkle of torches that lit the village aglow with dancing red light. The steady beat of the music causes Mist's talons to tap against the ground and her tail feathers to sway in time as she encounters the main square of the village.
"Where are your parent's little one?"
Mist's feathers burst outward at the noise and she pivots with a heaving chest. Her breathing slows at the black and turquoise blue Rito looking at her. The Rito's light blue beak twitches in a smile and her head twists curiously at the fledgling before her.
"You are still very young," The older female notes with an amused tone. "Why your flight feathers have just developed." The Rito's feathers graze Mist's own, "They're firm though; you have fantastic flight feathers."
"T-thanks?" Mist gulps and fiddles with said feathers as she folds her wings back to her body. "What's- what's goin' on?"
"Are you not from around here?" The silver eyes blink with clarification. "That would explain it. Don't see Rito like you around here. That's a unique feather pattern."
"I'm from mountains," Mist squeaks nervously. "J-just stopping for night."
"Tonight's a good night for a traveling Rito. We're celebrating the end of the Calamity. Where is your mother?"
"I'm alone…"
"My Love here you are!"
Mist's golden eyes flash to the male Rito flapping down to meet the duo. Bright feathers tinted bronze gold descents. His eyes, a darker hue of gold then Mist's own, glance at her as the male lands.
"And who are you, little bird?"
"A traveler all on her lonesome," The female at his side answers with a peculiar look that made Mist think perhaps she should scurry off before something happened.
"Alone on the biggest party of the year?" Long opposable feathers scoop the young Rito up and Mist squawks as she's propelled forward. "That won't do! Come, my Love, it is time for us to meet paradise."
"Kama! Put her down!"
"My darling Gema, it is fine. Come little one, tonight we make the stars dance!"
…
Link threw another log into the fire, the red sparks blending with the stars of the sky before flickering out of existence. His blue eyes flash over to Zelda. The princess unwinds the bandages that were knotted to the girl's ankles and wrists. Harsh red rope burns inches in diameter wound around the child's skin as the fabric unfurls into piles onto the ground. The woman's face contorts at the sight as she rubs a healing salve from one of Link's visits of Kakariko onto the damaged flesh before wrapping the injury with a clean bandage.
She hadn't woken, at least not long enough for importance. While Zelda gave her chest compression CPR, the ravenette had coughed up water in cacophonous gags and green eyes tinted an odd glassy sheen were visible more only a moment before they closed. The girl fell asleep shortly after, despite Zelda's plead that she stay awake. Said princess did manage to drip a fairy potion down her throat during those waking moments.
"You never met her by any chance have you?" Zelda asks in a whisper, even though their guest was dead to the world and even the horses getting spooked by a traveling fox and made enough rukus to scare off the majority of critters.
The hero's head shakes regretfully. People not centralized at the villages were few and far between, ones with children more so, and Link had socialized with every child in the settlements of Hyrule. This girl, unfortunately, had never been one of them.
"I see. Well, surely someone is looking for her, right?"
Link just nodded and allowed Zelda to return to her fussing. Children weren't just found almost dead in rivers with weights sinking them beneath the water. No one, in probability, was looking for her, at least not alive.
Zelda knew that reality in her rational, but her heart wouldn't acknowledge it. Who would do such a thing to a little girl? She had checked the child's vitals as best she could. Nothing could be heard with Hylian ears sloshing around in her lungs and her pulse pumped steadily against Zelda's fingers. The child should be alright, but Zelda wanted her examined thoroughly. However, night has fallen and, even though monsters have waned, waiting 'til morning made the probability of getting to Kakariko unscathed increase exponentially.
The princess' fingers freeze as she finishes off wrapping the last bandage as the girl's face furrows and her eyes blink open lazily. Eyes reminiscent of actinolite green cat's eye, an odd glassy, foggy spring grass green, meet Zelda's and the princess smiles.
"Hey… You're okay. We'll fix you up alright? You'll be okay little one. I promise."
The stranger blinks in response, her lungs still heavy with breath. Air stutters out of her mouth, but words stay stuck in her throat as she coughs. Lips tremble as she tries again, but words are sandpaper in her mouth. Her dollesque eyes meet hers apologetically, glimmering with guilt.
"It's alright. You don't have to speak. You can go back to sleep," Zelda reassures at the girl's droopy eyelids. "Go to sleep, little one." The princess grabs one of the blankets from her travel bag and drapes it over her. "Dream of happiness."
…
Mist grasps the metal circle with a talon to inspect the item without stiff feathers interfering. It shines in the torchlight and the small gemstones lining the circumference reflect back starlight.
"It was a gift for my previous birthday. A gift from Kama," Gema explains as the ring is slipped back onto one of her talons. The blue Rito's mercury eyes catch sight of a pair of females, sisters from the same brood if the matching feather patterns accounted for anything. "Jezma, Mariell!"
The two Rito pause and they flashed each other confused looks as they approached the sky blue Rito. The pink one starts hesitantly.
"You're up and about?"
"Of course, Jezma. Why wouldn't I be? It's a celebration!" Gema chirps and Mist fiddles with the flaps of her travel bag, pretending to look for an elusive item in its depths.
"Gema," The purple sister started. "You lost your clutch just a few weeks ago."
Mist's gold eyes flash up to the Rito sitting beside her as the blue creature sighs through her pale tinted beak.
"It can't be helped. There were only two, and both didn't make it. Things- things like this happens, no matter how unfortunate."
"What did the doctors say?" Mariell asks with a ruffle of her radiant feathers.
"There's a lack of nutrients in the shell that prevents proper development. It's not dangerous to me, but any eggs are at a higher risk," Gema explains. "It's saddening, but Kama has accepted it and we agreed to figure it out our own way… Girls, this is a guest. Her name's Mist, a traveler hailing from the mountains."
Mist feels the conversation shift as the two sisters turn their attention to the stranger amongst the flock. Mist parts her beak to gain fresh air nervously and her tongue smacks against the hard shell as she bows her head in greeting.
"Why is a fledgling like you traveling by yourself?" Jezma asks suspiciously with a hiss in her beak that has the speckled Rito feathers ruffling in a nervous twitch.
"J-just wandering… I'm from the Gerudo Highlands. I just wanted to see what your village looked like…" Mist trails off meekly.
"The Highlands? That place is barren except for the monsters. You came all the way here by yourself? What's a Rito family doing there anyway?" Jezma continues.
"Uncle Rother found my egg in the area by the desert. Once I hatched he brought me to the Highlands… he grew too old. He did not make it through the winter. Demanded that I leave the mountains…"
"I'm sorry for your loss," Jezma said softly. Her suspicion overridden by sympathy. "Well, I'm sure the Chief could make some sort of arrangement-"
"It's okay," Mist reassures. "I'm just visiting."
Gema looks at her out of the corner of her eye and pushes her plate of fish closer to the young fledgling. "Eat," she insists.
"Gema, my love, are you going to join me? Doesn't the music make you want to dance?" Kama's cheerful voice breaks the tension. "You as well Pajarito."
Mist's eyes furrowed in confusion at the odd tongue and her claws twitch nervously as the wing not wrapped around his mate extends towards her.
"I- I'm not a dancer," The speckled Rito insists as she hunches inward with insecure shoulders. "Besides, I can't leave my bag…" Mist excuses only to have Kama nudge it off her wings.
"It will be fine Pajarito. You are a Rito, music runs through our veins! Come, I'll show you how it's done," Kama encloses his long feathers around the fledgling's wings and pulls her out into the field.
The bronze avian swirls his mate in a circle as Gema starts to sway to the sound of birdsong and instruments. Mist can hear an accordion and spies the colorful blue Rito playing it. Strings are plucked at with talons and create vibrations that causes fire to twist in tempo as a baseline merges with the melody.
Not a dancer Mist repeated silently to herself like the crash and ebb of waves. Her legs weren't the nimble variant of the brightly colored Rito who took after show birds, paradise birds like the Rito Gema resembled. but rather the stockier variant that resulted from mountain life and designed after birds of prey. Mist supposed that perhaps she couldn't entirely blame her genetics on her insecurity. Kama, another Rito who takes after a predator twirls his mate around easily. His feathers slice through air just as they would in flight as the two dance to the beat. An embarrassing squawk escapes the fledgling's beak as Gema playfully pulls her into their small circle.
"I don't dance!" Mist rushes out as she is clumsily twirled by the colorful Rito who grabbed her.
"All Rito dance Pajarito," Kama insists once more. He takes the young creature's other wing and stands next to his wife. The bronze Rito sways the wing to one side as a note rings out. "Like a heartbeat, one, two, three-"
The trio starts moving slowly, adagio, and slightly off tempo. The music seems to match them as it slows as Kama and Gema guide the younger Rito into a waltz pattern across the outdoor dance floor. Mist's golden eyes nervously watch her feet as they shuffle across the ground. The uneasy movements fades with fluidity as the tempo settles into the child's bones. Mist doesn't even notice when the guiding wings leave her or that she's twirling alone to the crescendo with increasing vigor. The beat ends on a shattering forte and shocks the young Rito back into reality and out of her isolated bubble.
The molten gold irises blink in and out of existence as the Rito regains her bearings. A slight flush worms its way up her face at the muted clapping created by the feathers of her two companions.
"See Pajarito? All Rito dance," Kama's fluid voice rings in her ears.