Creation's Exile
Chapter Two
18. June. 2010
l2set
author's note: so, we've taken a turn. my mojo is processing a bit slower due to complications at work and problems with my man. anyway, i enjoyed this chapter even if this is the sixth time i wrote it.
enjoy.
I had thought the bayou to be hot and stifling. I had spent months in different deserts across the world and once found myself unfortunate enough to trail a hero through a volcano but this place, this place was teetering on the edge of too much, I felt like I was standing on the precipice of hell.
This was the beginning of a spiral that I knew I was falling into; I felt not like myself in a while. I was aimless without the hero, without being able to guide him around the world. The Dark King was slain, forced into the void between realms right with his creations. Rauru's words echoed constantly in my head, telling me over and over that I was free. That I was without duty for the first time in over a thousand years.
I looked around the entrance of the Woodfall Temple; the end of the swamp collected here, bringing with it all that followed the river's flow. The smells: the dead and the poison that was placed by the hands of evil. The heat came too; the wet, sticky heat. I could tell easily by the air that this was how the temple always felt.
The air was heavy and full of dread, much like the Church of the Dead. Very few temples felt like that place, very few were imbued with enough blood to be that connected to the spirits, that part of the earth. The temple was weeping constantly, I could tell. I could feel the spirits here dancing around, keeping this place free of intruders by merely being dismal. The heat came in waves, it was attacking me even as I stood at the edge.
Against my better judgment, I decided to delve deeper into the temple. I wanted to see the keeper, talk to the creation like I had years ago to the others in Hyrule. The keepers here were not created by Ganon or a dark force. All of them were of the earth, were of Din's fiery arms. I wanted to know what they would have to say to me. What they could teach me now that I was relieved of my duties. . . if they could tell me what my lot in life was now, for I too, was of the earth.
I forced my way into the temple, working my through its traps, thankful that Zelda made me follow Link around that year. I learned a lot from his child-like mind, his ability to make anything a game. I knew that I was at a disadvantage though: some places would forever be unreachable to me since I could not possess the masks like the chosen one. I would forever be in the shadow of the chosen ones. I realized that I was slightly bitter about that.
Woodfall got hotter and more stifling the more I progressed through it. The temple did not understand my motives; I did not kill anything or take its treasures. The temple's keeper was allowing me to live, I knew it, but not without punishment. The keeper wanted me to prove myself. I was a mystery to this place, a place of all knowing. It simply would not overtake me until it knew what or who I was here.
I was lacking in my education as I could not recall anything really about this temple. I had only learned about Woodfall and its sisters in passing. No one really spoke of the temples in Termina from experience, everything was learned from legends; legends that came from the scriptures of the Goddesses. Terminans were much unlike Hylians: they did not enter the temples for any reason. They dared not "dirty" their sacred shelters. The citizens of this land were content to look from afar and admire the works of those chosen by the Goddesses.
For to trespass on these lands was unforgivable, unless you were granted the right by the Keeper. Many centuries ago, the only ones allowed in these places were the sacrificial lambs. Terminans at one time believed that all the temples needed a blood sacrifice for a better year. They would send a sacrifice to each temple and reap the benefit of blood. Nowadays, they only send lambs to the Stone Tower, for only there the Keeper still calls for some.
The people of Hyrule never saw the need for such "barbarian" acts. No, Hylians liked to think they knew all and that they were graced personally by the Goddesses. They were eager to go to the temples and pray there on hallow ground, instead staying a respectable distance away. And they wondered why evil always started there; their hearts were more opened to it. Hylians have no respect for the Keepers of their temples.
I landed on the center platform, located somewhere near the middle of the temple, oddly on a second or third floor, not the normal basement dungeon that most Keepers liked to take. I stood, looking around the room. It was even hotter here, my body protesting staying - I could barely even swallow. I saw the tributes on the wall, the sacrificial rites craved into stone; I could not find the creature's name in all of it.
There were many lessons to be learned, engraved into the mortar of this place. I could see legends that I had never even realized existed, my thirst for knowledge was overpowering my better judgment. In my thousand years existence I was seeing the beginning, as it was, from the eyes of one of the first creations on the Goddesses. His story was written for all to see, only no one was allowed to see. I suspected that I would be the first and last to know of this tale. In all of its words, one stood out to me.
"Odolwa," I spoke out loud, startling myself. I could feel his presence take over whatever space left from the heat. I could not yet see him, I was not yet worthy of the Keeper's true form. "Odolwa."
"Yes, yes, little Sheikah. What you see here is not the truth . . . The days of the new twist the words of the old. Did you know that Sheikah means Keeper? Not anymore, it has been turned to something new, something darker for the pleasure of mortals. They know you only as a shadow now; they do not even see you." Odolwa's voice was grave and danced about my head. I do not even think he spoke out loud. "What brings you here, my little Keeper?"
"I am here for guidance. I have been relieved of my duties, relinquished from my charge. I do not know where to head from here."
"Ah, you kept Death. He did his duty and you yours. Yet, only you seem to be free. Death wanders wide and far, searching, searching, searching. He fears he shall not find what he isn't looking for."
"What?" I asked, confused by the Keeper's words. "What do you mean – he's not free? There are other things for him to do? How can he do them without me?" I sounded petulant. I could not hold my anger in from this. How dare the Goddesses give the hero cause to venture where I have not tread before him – how could they give me freedoms when my work was not done.
"He is free but not free. I doubt that now he shall ever rise again; we must wait for the river to flow again before he takes his call to duty. We must wait for everything to be at rest again. Tell me, Keeper, why do you worry so about this child? About the Death that you so worry about?"
"I was created, like you, for one purpose and one purpose only – to keep. I keep the hero of the world, the chosen one of the Goddesses. I seek for him, and make sure that all is well so he might defeat the evil that walks upon this earth. Without me guiding him, we would be plunged into the darkness forever."
"Ah, but it is dark here." I wanted to scream. Odolwa was not understanding my plight. I wanted him to understand, to show me the path that has brought him here.
"I cannot - will not! be cast aside so simply! I was worthy of the first hero – he gathered the seven pieces of the Triforce because of me! He saved the damned princess because of me! If I was not there to show him the way, to disguise myself and lend hand, then we would all be dead! The Dark King would have never allowed these temples to exist without his influence!" I screamed, angry that this creature was not understanding.
"How many times has the Dark King come to be?" He asked simply. "It has been at least four times now, so he hasn't really been put to rest. No, simply Death has not yet risen fully. He has yet to mature. How can one child mature with it's matron constantly on its shoulders? No, no. He does not need you now."
"What?" I was trembling. I could feel myself getting cold, despite how hot it was inside that damned place. The hero did not need me anymore? I was holding him back from his truest form and destiny? "What use am I now?"
"You will find your purpose, if you put your purpose behind you. You must not seek what you are to find, for it will forever elude you if you are to attempt to find it knowing it what it is."
"You speak in riddles."
"Perhaps. Or perhaps, you only listen with your ears and not your heart." I sighed, knowing that I would not get anything from this mish-mosh of a conversation. "You must know, that you will never lay to rest. When the time comes, the earth will call to me and I will cradle myself in Din's arms. Your true nature does not give you such peace."
"What do you mean?" I asked, I was a little more than frightened by his words.
"Death will forever elude you. He seeks you, but he will never find you. . . you are the only creature that Death is blinded to," Odolwa told me, his being finally coming into view. He was large, larger than I expected. I could smell the woods and river upon his very body; for a moment I felt at peace. "But that doesn't mean that I can't try to kill you."
End Chapter Two.
Well? I have no idea what is going on, I'm just following Sheik. Actually, I really wanted to have a Majora's Mask story but I knew it wouldn't work. I think Sheik is merely remembering his time there as he sails to the mainland. We'll get back to that soon.
Please review. :D