Here's the second gift, as I promised. Enjoy!

Three Gifts - by Pseudo Twili

"Have at you!"

"Vermin!"

"Careful, Mina, these monsters are tougher than those others!"

"Keep your own eyes ahead, Mils! Don't lecture me!"

As the two Hylians faced off against the bokoblins they seemed to holding their own pretty well, though they weren't making much progress. The bokos were hardly scratched and kept grinning and lolling their tongues as they repeatedly beat at the siblings' shields. Mina and Mils' faces were grim, for they knew all too well how resilient and persistent the bokoblins were. The fight took place in a little ruin at a fork in the road, and they were a good mile or more from the nearest patrolling guardian. The last thing they'd need would be one of those automatons breaking into the fray.

A rumbling sound gradually reached their ears and they were at a loss as to what it was. A doubly nervous Mils spared one quick look in the direction from which he thought the noise was coming, dreading what he might see. His worst fear was that an ancient, mechanized terror was headed right for them. All that he spotted was a cloud of dust, before the bokoblin's club met his shield, the latter of which made a crunching sound and felt flimsier on Mils' arm.

He glanced over at his sister, who was focused on her bokoblin, getting in a blow of her own whenever she could and shouting out names that didn't even faze the enemy. It was not the time to tell her that his shield was about to fall to pieces. The throaty rumbling sound was only getting louder, but he didn't dare look away again.

"I could use a little help now," he said between gritted teeth. "A new shield would be nice..."

Another blow from the spiked club and Mils' shield fell apart in his hands. He half jumped, half fell back, trying to avoid the rest of the momentum of the swing. Before the bokoblin could follow up, however, the cloud of dust and whatever it hid was upon him and the monster; emerging from the haze came a figure that chopped down the bokoblin with a single strike. Then the same figure launched himself into the air and slew Mina's bokoblin with a three arrows fired at once.

"Phew… That was a close one," Mils muttered to himself as he stared at the pieces of his shield.

The dust settled quickly, revealing a young man in red cap and tunic, whom Mils guessed to be near his own or his sister's age. The stranger was busy picking up the various materials the bokoblins had left upon their demise. Mils turned his eyes toward Mina, who was as unscathed as his shield was not; he breathed a sigh of relief even though he knew a stupid, lowly bokoblin couldn't get past her defenses.

She glared at the newcomer. "Funny, I don't recall asking for your help," she grumbled. "Hmph. I daresay my brother will call me the rude one if I don't thank you somehow. Fine, here!"

Fishing around in one of the side compartments of her pack, she extracted a hunk of amber and tossed it in the general direction of their rescuer. He had to leap up to catch it, but he didn't even look at it as he put it into his own pocket.

"Thanks for the save," Mils said, stepping nearer to the other young man. He looked woefully back at the wood that had been his emblazoned shield. That thing had been with him for some time and he realized he was going to miss it. "I don't know where I would have been if you hadn't come along. Nowhere good, that's for sure. Thanks."

"We're not here for a chin wag!" Mina shouted as she moved closer to the two ruined buildings. "Hurry it up, Mils!"

He twisted his head toward her. "In a minute, sis." Facing the stranger again, he said, "Well, you know my name now, and that's my sister, Mina."

"I'm Link," replied the traveler, extending his hand.

Mils looked down at the proffered fingers and suddenly remembered his manners. After shaking hands, he again eyed the contraption on which Link had entered the scene. It looked a little bit like a horse with glowing orange and spots all over it, though considerably smaller and with two wheels instead of the customary legs. It hadn't moved from the spot in which Link had left it, but it seemed to throb with a pulse that Mils thought was rather like a heartbeat or like that of some bokoblin guts.

"What is that thing? Is it yours?"

"Yep," the swordsman replied, striding over and proudly rubbing the handlebars with the palm of his hand. "It was given to me by this super old monk guy. It's called the Master Cycle Zero."

"Whoa…" Mils breathed, and at a nod from Link, he too touched it. "Is it…alive?"

"Alive? You mean like you or me, or like that boko was? Nah. It's a machine, well, kinda like the guardians."

A wide-eyed Mils snatched his hand back as if a wolf had snapped at it. "It's not going to start shooting lasers, is it?" he queried as he began to back away. "Oh, I knew we needed to get somewhere safe!"

Link chuckled. "No, it doesn't have any lasers. It has a headlight though."

He flipped a tiny switch and a light burst forth from the front of the Master Cycle. He directed it toward the crumbling wall of the ruin; it was easier to see because the sky was so overcast. Mils stepped into the light and then stumbled back, blinking at the spots that appeared before his eyes.

"Whoa, you could probably blind a bokoblin with that thing!" he said with the beginnings of a grin.

"It's happened a few times," Link admitted. He swung a leg over the seat and gripped the handlebars. "Want to go for a ride?"

"It won't start shooting lasers at us? Or try to buck us off?"

Link shook his head. Mils sighed and seemed to be weighing his options, but his curiosity about the vibrating machine was too much for him. There wasn't enough room for him to sit behind Link, so he had to put his feet up and half crouched, half stood behind the rider. As soon as he was settled, Link started off, going slow at first but gradually picking up some speed as he alternatively rode through the grass and over the dirt road. The engine purred and the two young men didn't seem to hear Mina's aggravated shouts. Mils exulted in the feeling of the wind whipping by and hum of the ancient machine.

After several minutes of going in semi circles and loops, the owner of the bike pulled to a stop and they both dismounted. "Want to try it on your own?" he asked.

A minute later, after some quick instructions, Mils was by himself on the Master Cycle and accelerating slowly while he accustomed himself to the controls. His brow was furrowed in concentration, but his eyes shone with all the interest of a little boy playing with a new toy. He was amazed at how smooth the ride felt, how effortless the machine covered the distance. He was conscious of an impulse to keep riding, keep going until he was forced to stop at the ends of world, but he'd hardly gone the smallest fraction of that distance when beneath him the Master Cycle disappeared in many twirling cords of blue light. Mils suddenly found himself on the ground and completely at a loss as to why he was there.

Link came sprinting up behind him. "Sorry about that. It does that when I get a certain distance from it."

Picking himself up, Mils grumbled, "So if you're not riding it, it disappears? A little warning would have been nice. Where'd it go?"

"Actually, I think it's tied to my Sheikah slate," the swordsman said, unhooking the device from his belt. "If they get to be too far apart, the bike disappears. I just have to summon it again."

He tapped at the little glowing screen and a second later the Master Cycle materialized in the same blue strands of ancient technology. Mils mounted it again and this time Link crouched behind him. They rode around the ruin and the field, sometimes hooting and shouting with boyish glee. Not even Link wanted to stop when he noticed the sound of the engine was getting rougher, more throaty. A minute later, the lights on the bike went out and they coasted to a stop. No matter how many times Mils pressed the throttle he could not budge it an inch.

"It's out of fuel," Link explained, as his boots met the ground. "Hmm… I wonder what I should put in this time…"

Mils dismounted as well. "What do you usually use?"

"Oh, anything," the swordsman replied with a shrug as he dug around in his pouch. "Apples, wood, ancient parts, meat, plants, star fragments…whatever I have on hand. It'll take anything."

To demonstrate, he tossed a slightly misshapen apple into the machine's fuel tank; the ancient technology lit up again and resumed its mechanical purring. Then he added some sticks of wood he picked up from the ground, and a screw he'd taken from a guardian. The young men then proceeded to ride the bike and experiment with all sorts of items thrown into the tank. They tried acorns, rock salt, and flowers, a grasshopper Mils accidentally ran into, bokoblin guts and horns, and even a star fragment Link had.

Their testing was abruptly cut short, however, when Mina grabbed her brother's ear and pulled him away. "That's enough, Mils! I've been breaking my back over there hunting for treasure and you've been goofing around!" she chided him without remorse.

"Ow, ow, let go!" he groaned.

"Get back to work, you!" she said, and released his ear. "Or I'll really give you something to be nervous about!"

He clapped a hand over the smarting ear. "Ugh… Family," he muttered, but all the same he began searching through a pile of rubble.

Meanwhile, Link put away the many materials he had taken out of his pockets. He glanced up at the sky, noting how the clouds had grown even darker. Instead of mounting his bike again and riding away, he took shelter in one of the ruined buildings, one that had a roof which was mostly intact. Withdrawing a couple bundles of wood from his pouch, he threw them together and lit them quickly with a flaming weapon.

After the clouds had been threatening for the last few hours, a light sprinkle began to fall. Mina gave her brother a warning look, one that forbade him to mention finding shelter from the rain. He sighed again and continued with his search, mumbling something his sister could not hear.

The rain gradually picked up as the sky finally unleashed all the wrath and fury it had been holding back. They began to hear thunder in the distance, which only grew louder and the lightning strikes came closer. That was when Mils threw in the towel. Both he and his sister were equipped with metal gear, and as any traveler worth his salt knew that being exposed to the sky in a thunderstorm with metal on one's person was an invitation to shockingly hasty demise.

He made a dash for the same open-sided shelter which Link occupied. Mina followed him moments later and her glare was almost worse than the danger of the lightning. She viewed her brother and the swordsman with a chilly look.

"If you think you can get on my better side by offering us food and a fire, you've got a bug in your brain," she said, and seated herself in the furthest corner from the crackling flames.

Mils tried to reason with her but she would not be swayed. Finally he gave up and returned to Link and the wondrous things he was grilling over the fire. The two young men enjoyed a satisfactory meal and Mina stubbornly munched away at some cheese and cold meat from her pack.

"Are you here hunting for treasure, too?" Mils asked after swallowing a bite of seared steak.

"Nah," the swordsman replied, polishing off his third baked apple and tossing the tiny bit of core into the fire. "I guess you could say I've found treasure of a sort though."

"You haven't gone near the castle, have you? That place is dangerous, crawling with guardians! I get nervous just thinking about them."

"I've been there," was his nonchalant response.

Mils eyes widened hugely and a bit of mushroom fell from his open mouth. "You must be mad! I can't believe you're here to talk about it. Was there some amazing treasure to be found there?"

"What I found was better than any treasure." Link's eyes were somewhat distant and cloudy, as if he was remembering something from the past. After a moment he shook himself. "You know what kind of treasure is the best? The kind that has a purpose!"

"Yeah, like the kind you can sell for a handy sum."

"Those are easy enough to come by. I mean something you can use—or eat!"

From his pouch, Link pulled out another star fragment, which Mils recognized as one of the items they'd inserted in the Master Cycle's fuel tank. The swordsman lifted the warmly glowing fragment to his mouth and bit off the end of one of its dulled points. He then handed it to Mils, who nearly dropped it. He looked it over, noticing how light and yet how dense it seemed to be and how it pulsed with a serene, golden luminance. It seemed almost criminal to eat such an item but Link had, so he took a bite too. It melted immediately in his mouth, with only a little bit of crunch remaining. The taste was like nothing he'd ever had or even dreamed about; it was like candy except that it was only slightly sweet. He thought the closest thing it could come to was the pungent, pitchy taste of evergreen needles, or like being thirsty for hours and having a drink of the purest spring water.

"Mina, you have to try this!" he called to her.

She merely narrowed her eyes at him. He handed the fragment back to Link and they both took a few more nibbles. Then Mils said something quietly to him, the swordsman nodded and tossed the glowing item to Mina. She caught it, more out of reflex than anything else. The young men turned their backs, leaving her free to have a taste without their scrutiny.

They talked about some of the things they'd seen in their travels. Mils mentioned Hyrule Castle again and Link told him how to avoid being murdered by guardians. If just one of those ancient machines targeted you, it was fairly simple to either avoid it or to dismantle it. An arrow to the eye was an effective way to stun it, removing most or all of its legs severely restricted its movement, and something as simple as a properly executed shield parry would turn the guardian's deadly beam back on itself.

Though the thunderstorm faded away, the rain had increased to a veritable downpour, continuing even as night fell. Not even Mina wanted to go out in the dark and the bone-chilling rain. Eventually the three travelers fell asleep, using whatever sort of blankets they had in their packs and warmed further by the fire.

The next morning, the siblings awoke to find that their companion was gone. "Good riddance," Mina muttered, but her brother wore a frown.

At the side of the fire where Link had slept lay a couple of items and a note. Mils picked up the paper and his sister snatched it from him. To the siblings who know what the greatest treasure is. Here's a shield and a bow for you. May they keep you safe in your travels. If ever you want to find another star fragment, look to the night sky. A shooting star will show you the way. Best stay clear of the castle for now. I haven't cleared out all the guardians yet.

"Hmph. Who does he think he is, telling us what to do?" Mina grumbled, even though she'd told her brother that same thing more times than they'd been attacked by monsters.

Meanwhile, Mils was admiring the shield, a disc-like item that seemed much too small to be such a thing. However, when he touched it, it opened up like a fan and some glowing blue material formed a full-size shield. The bow was massive and made from gray metal with edges that looked like they could cut just about anything. He couldn't even pull the string back halfway. Lying next to the bow were a couple dozen arrows that would open up with the same blue glow when he touched them.

Mina tested the bow for herself; she could pull it back just a bit further than her brother. "I'll take this," she declared. "You need a new shield anyway."

She was still in a bad mood, which when she gave into it almost always led to a bad decision. One time it had been climbing up a mountain when a bad storm was on the way. This time it was venturing a little closer to the castle, but where they would still have the cover of trees or ruined buildings. Mils tried to protest, to remind her of the caution she'd long since drilled into him, but she was having none of it.

They were doing all right, searching through some of the ruins near the old garrison. He was doing the dirty work and she was standing against a wall, saying she was keeping an eye out, but in truth she was moping like a little child who hadn't gotten her way. She did not hear the slight mechanical clanks of a guardian as it came up behind her, until suddenly she saw a large red dot appear on her brother's back. She whirled and glimpsed the terrifying thing much closer than she ever wanted to see one.

She turned back to her brother in an instant. "Mils, run! Guardian! Get to cover!" she screamed, and threw herself flat against the wall.

She watched in growing, mind-numbing horror as her brother fled in the opposite direction of the guardian, which was also away from any cover he might have hidden behind. Her heart leaped to her throat as the autonomous mechanism crawled over the wall behind which she cowered, closing in on Mils. Later she was sure she'd shouted something in those two unendurable seconds but she could never remember what the words had been.

The guardian fired its beam and Mina shrieked so loud she strained her vocal chords. She was so stricken with grief and guilt that she didn't take into account that the laser was reflected back at the automation, which struck both it and one of its legs. She leapt up, screamed at the guardian and hardly knowing what she was doing, drew back the bow with one of the special arrows the traveler had left behind. Recovering as if from a tremendous blow, the guardian seemed to sense her, either by her movements or the vibrations caused by her voice, and began to target her.

"You killed him!" she screamed.

In all her rage and desperation, she managed to pull the string of the bow further than she had before. Her hand was shaking as she took deliberate and slow aim, not wanting to let her brother's death go unavenged. The ancient arrow unfurled as it flew, and even its path seemed to correct itself slightly as it headed straight for the blue eye of the guardian.

As soon as she realized that she'd actually stopped it, she didn't even wait while the machine clanked and whirred madly before it shut down completely. She pelted around the thing and to her brother's side, hot tears squeezing out of her eyes. She was expecting to see something horrible, to see her brother's blackened corpse; she nearly fell over when he sat up as she dashed up. She stopped and stared for a split second, wondering how it was possible, and then launched herself at him, both hugging and half strangling him.

"You! Why did you do that?! You idiot! You were nearly killed!" she burst out in a cascade of words mixed with tears.

"But I wasn't, thanks to you I think. Wait, why wasn't I killed? That guardian fired its laser, right?"

They quickly found the answer. In place of the one that had broken, Mils had put the ancient shield Link had given them on his backpack. The shield looked as though it had been hit with something, leaving it slightly darkened, but otherwise was in good condition, glowing a bright blue even in the daylight.

"This thing," Mina murmured in awe as she fingered its contours. "It saved your life!"

I was doing some experimenting with materials in the Master Cycle myself. One handful (5) of star fragments, either of the ancient cores, and/or monster extract will fill the tank completely when empty. Things like wood, apples, and mushrooms require two handfuls (10) to fill it. A lot of the monster parts, insects, other food, gems, and dragon parts are less than that. I usually use wood when I fill up, as I have a plenty, it sells for a measly two rupees each, and I don't have need to make that many campfires.

12-26-2018 ~ Published