Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 1

Aryll's flight

"Put me down!" She screamed, she had stopped biting and clawing the massive fist around her waist a while back. Her hands hurt, her teeth throbbed after a few moments of biting, so she squirmed and pushed on the massive talons that were wrapped around her middle. After that not having any effect she started screaming at the bird.

That had had an immediate effect. The huge creature had cringed; its grip had loosened a bit. Taking advantage of her luck Aryll had sucked in her breath, pressed herself as tightly as she could, then griping the edge of the monster bird's talon, had pulled herself out from the monster birds grip. With nothing below her she had fallen, she screamed as the ocean rushed up to meet her and she sank down though the still air to meet what she thought would be her death. The sea was so large and beautiful, Aryll thought to herself, how could their ever be so much water? As the water got closer she wondered would her striking the water would be like a crumb in the seagulls mouth, there for a moment then gone in the hungry darkness?

She never had the chance to find out, a dark mass took place of the water and she fell onto the feathery back of the big black bird. Her earlier fear was chased away by her curiosity; she scampered over the bird's shoulder to look at the ocean. At every down stroke of the black bird's wings it sounded like thunder. Every time the wings would swing up Aryll would have to grip the long feathers so she wouldn't get swept away by the winds. They bobbed up and down, there was more up then down through but that was the big thing about flying, there was a lot more going up then going down, and the ocean below them was a first a mass of foamy white. Slowly the bird pulled farther away from the ocean, the water seemed to cease its protests.

All seemed peaceful for a bit, she had no idea where she was going, but just for a little bit she forgot and enjoyed the feeling of flying, or rather riding on a giant bird that was flying.

Then something, it might have been the way the shoulder on the bird seemed to roll ever so slightly, told her that what enjoyment she was getting was about to end. Years of feeding seagulls and watching them fly around Outset gave her enough warning to sink down low and grab the feathers for all she was worth. She screamed as the bird rolled, did a complete roll that no sane seagull ever would have tried. The bird too screamed. Whether it was because the dosing that the bird's wing got as they lost height and nearly crashed into the water; or from the fact that Aryll had ripped out several feathers in her panic, she wasn't sure why the bird screamed.

Water splashed all over Aryll as the bird simultaneously tried to dry its wing and fly.

"Look out!" She screamed seeing a mass of metal rushing towards them; or rather the bird it seemed was rushing at the strange metal coated mountain. Her stomach flopped like a fish on land as the bird turned then threw itself to the side. She winced when the bird squawked out in pain, anything else she might have said was lost from her when the wind rushed out of her lungs when the bird suddenly pulled itself up in the air as quickly as it could.

"Awk!" The bird cried out a curse to the island below. And for a moment Aryll could see a glint of metal, but then the bird's head sank down low as it checked its leg for damage.

"Oww, you stupid bird, put me down!" Aryll wheezed, her breath was not coming back to her so her voice sounded all funny. "Take me back to Outset you oversized feathered pirate!" She was so scared and angry that she missed the tell-tale flick of the left wing. Suddenly the world spun around her, feathers, wings, sky, and then she was falling again, falling towards the ocean...

A clawed foot snagged her less then a body's length away from the water by the scruff of her tunic. Then, as the bird flared its wings to stall she was herded by it's beak into its grip yet again.

"Put me down!' She shrieked in her loudest, shrillest, voice. This time the bird did not respond. "Take me home!" At that the bird lowered its head to regard her. Unlike all the birds on Outset it's face was a stark black with just a touch of purple in its crown. The crown was roused, the beak parted, and Aryll, reading the bird's aggression wisely fell silent. The beak snapped shut, as if to say, and stay this way, then the bird with the glossy metal mask and fish yellow eyes tuned from her and went back to watching the area around them as it flew who knew where.

XXX

When she first saw the fortress she shrieked. She fought, bit, clawed, and did all in her power to get away. All the bird did was tighten its grip on her mid-section to the point where she could barely breathe. Still she whimpered. Stone, it was like a big mountain, a mess of rooms that were wrapped in the wings of a great stone wall surrounded by the ocean. In the center of those stone wings and poking window eyes there was a tower, a place -where by some mad whim- a ship had been put down on the top of the highest tower point of the tower mountain thing. Half rusted anchors hung down from it like macabre earrings, and to Aryll the grey stone in the moonlight seemed alive, haunted. The pale sickly light seemed like ghosts cling to the fortress' walls.

"Anywhere but there, please..."

Her voice sounded so strange, as if it didn't belong to her. The bird spared a moment to look down at her, and if she didn't know better there was concern in those dead yellow eyes.

"Drop me; don't make me go in there, please..."

The grip on her mid-section loosened slightly, as if the bird was about to comply, but then after a moment of not being dropped Aryll came to realize that the bird had only loosed it's grip because it thought it might be hurting her. The intelligence of the beast scared her, but it's all she had at the moment.

"Can't you feel it? There's something there, please take me home." Her eyes burned, her lips trembled as she fought to keep from bawling. The bird cawed, it was an ugly sound, and then they were over the walls and she glimpsed things in the shadows, blurs, then they flew soundlessly along the side of that misplaced ship. Then the bird flared its wings and… well hovered wasn't the word it couldn't hold its bulk still in the air for very long… but it lingered by what appeared to be a walkway. And she saw a figure, a figure of black with spots of red on its head. The birds swaying and her tears blurred out all of the other details, all of them save the figure's eyes. Those were the color of sunset hitting the clouds. All her cries for help died in her throat at the figures calm unmoving stance. Something told Aryll that this person had been waiting, that this figure would be deaf to her pleas. Then it was a gesture so slight that she almost missed it, the black figure shook its head, and the bird loosed his claws.

It was going to drop her! Then a spark of stubbornness flared in her. No your not, not without a fight! As the talons loosened she gripped the claw, and to the bird's shock clung on despite its wild thrashings.

"You keep that up and you're going to crash again!" She taunted the bird, and she felt the figure's burning eyes on her. Now they were no longer board, but very interested, curious even. It was the kind of measured look Orca would give Link from time to time. "Come on you feathered pirate!" She ignored how the thrashings made her teeth rattle. "Try to knock me off, I double dog dare you!" The bird shrieked its outrage, rolled, and Aryll, despite her aching hands kept her hold. "Do it again!" Aryll mocked. "I'm not letting go until you take me home to my big brother!"

Enough! The voice whipped over her head and struck the bird between the eyes. It trembled and twitched then went back to its attempts at hovering. Aryll's arms bleed from their fight.

Put her with the others.

The bird screamed, then Aryll reached up and snatched a feather and it really screamed.

"Take me home or your bird won't have any feathers left!"

The eyes regarded her, and she thought for a moment she heard laughter.

Take her to the others, make sure the guards pick her up and escort her to her cell. If she proves to be a problem bring her to me. Breaking her spirit will be the first pleasure I've had in over a decade.

The bird squawked as Aryll pulled out another feather. She managed to take out four more feathers before the beast dropped her on the roof of the second tallest tower.

X

"Maserrr!" the "maserrr" looked up from the ancient scroll he was reading, an annoyed look on his face. "Maserr," the Moblin grimaced at its bad Hylian, but then "masser" always ordered them to speak it so he always tried his best to get it right. His snout kept getting in the way though, he had yet to complain openly about it though, because the "masser" might suggest cutting it off. "Te Huuman girl, te new un..."

"Certainly you could handle a little girl! Tie her up, gag her, and then drag her to her cell if that's the problem! I can't believe you would bother me over such a-" The "masser" snorted, going back to his scroll. "-ridiculous..."

"Maserr, me hurts."

At this the "masser" looked up and didn't look through the burly beast, but honestly took in its features. It's normally blue skin was purple due to bruising, and there were scorch marks on its back. It's once curl tail was wound up in bandages, and its snout looked like it had set, much like a human's broken am would have been set. For a long moment the "maserr" stopped breathing.

"One little girl did this?"

"That, and the stairs she threw him down-" grumbled the Wolfos Knight as he made a clanking entrance into his Lord's private chambers. "-I was called away from supervising the re-construction of the western rooms to deal with the problem my Lord." The creature in red armor bowed low and grimaced ever so slightly and moved to rub its leg after standing. "She did this to him, another Moblin, and the Miniblins that rushed into help... We had to fish them out of the harbor."

"Give me a report on this in the morning I have other studies to pursue, is she in her cell?"

Both Knight and guard looked at each other for a long moment.

"Last time I checked, sire." The Knight admitted. "But the look in her eyes told me she'd find her way out soon enough."

"Don't be insulting, I made those cells myself, their virtually fool proof."

"Te girl be sneaky maserrr, 'ery sneaky."

The Dark Knight rubbed his leg, then after a long uncomfortable moment cleared its throat.

"My lord, do humans have a poisoned bite?"

"She bit um maserr." The Moblin answered his King's unspoken question with a slight smile. "E squealed ike a min-o-blin wi its tail on fire! Eh he he!"

"Oh and you didn't after she ripped the rug under you hooves and kicked you in your male parts!" The Knights red eyes gleamed in the torchlight.

"Dat wa mi brudder, I wa thrown down da stairs!"

"Oh, and that makes it better?"

The Moblin drew its spear, the Wolfos his sword. Both seemed read to kill each other. Tempers were like his now, strained and rough. But then in this little speck of ground with no where else to go the "maserr" could understand such frustration and the rages it lead to. So it was in sympathy and understanding to that anger that he didn't kill them, they did leave his rooms a great deal more scorched then they entered it though.

Boredom had been weighing on him, crushing him; centuries of reading the same Hylian text, watching the disgraced ancestors of the Hylians build their cities and lives around the delusion of a sea. He could not conquer, could not wage war with the oceans keeping him bound.

It seemed that he could not live, could not breath the salt poisoned air. The tainted air brought him low, into periods of great lethargy, where months would slip by and he could not eat or sleep. Perhaps this spirited child, with her fire and wild life, would re-kindle his own spirit.

None to serve him, he served himself, drew out a cask of cold wine and poured himself a glass.

"To life, young one-" He whispered into the dark gloom of the now dead pirate's fortress, of his new fortress. "-and the battles we wage to keep it."

X

The other girls were if nothing else, hopeless.

"You did what, to the guards?"

"Do you know when they'll feed us next?"

"Just leave me alone, I want my mommy!"

And so on and so forth.

Didn't any of them think, wonder, hadn't they tried to get out yet? For a moment Aryll considered asking, but she was tired, so tired from all the fighting. She couldn't do anything but go to bed with all those endless helpless questions buzzing in her ears

Chapter 2

Tasks

Wake up maggots!" A voice snarled. Then their came a sound, a sound at home that meant the sun was rising. Wood slapped against wood. Fuzzily she remembered one of the younger boys on Outset slapping a stick against the side of the small springy trees in front of their house. Link would wake up, grumble, and then put the pillow over his head. Grandma would take that as her cue to start cooking breakfast, and Aryll would run around getting spices and stuff for her. Link would come down once the food was cooked, and Aryll would tease him about his hair being all bed crazy. If she closed her eyes she could almost see it, could almost believe.

But there was the drip of water, the clank of metal, the smell of pig and wet dog, and those things told her she was not home.

She was not home, she was somewhere with no name, with pig men with spears, and snarling voices that crawled out of red shells. Tears stung her eyes, and she curled up into a ball, and wept.

"Rise and shine worm!" The voice snarled, something prodded her, it wasn't sharp, but it was rammed into her so hard she gasped and jerked up. Seeing her tears, the huge blue pig man burst out laughing. "Aww what de mater, someone homesick?" The honey slick tone dried her tears, it made her think of that bully on Outset, the one who called Orca names behind his back, who slept during Stugeon 's classes, and hit every younger child on Outset who was caught by themselves.

"That hurt!" She snapped, rubbing her chest where the butt end of the spear had nudged her.

"Get up!" The thing roared. The other girls -Aryll noticed- were rubbing themselves too. It looked like everyone had been hit when they were woken up. "Don't and I'll chuck you in the stew you unsnouted runt!" Spittle flew from the things huge slobbering mouth, no doubt the thought of stew made the thing drool like the pigs would drool when they heard the meal bucket being filled. It seemed either walking on two legs or four a pig was a pig.

"Leave me alone..." Aryll sat back down and curled up into a little ball. The tears were coming back; she wanted to be home, not here, not in this wooden seagull cage!

The closest thing to home she had now was her dreams, and that's where she was going to go...

"I say you get up, now get up!" The staff of the spear slid through the bars and Aryll was slapped by the pole of the weapon. She squeaked, sat straight up, and looked at the huge pig man. Anger scrunched up her eyes.

The pig thing only smiled, revealing small tusks and many sharp yellow teeth. It was happy that it had the excuse to hit her, and it wasn't shy about showing that amusement. Thinking her cowed, the pig beast pulled its weapon through the bars and leaned it against the wall.

"Looks like new one's 'ere, so me explain things once and only once. You all get fed, every Din rise, every Din death. You let out every day unless Master say to me not to let you out. You taken to out-house to "go" as you like to call it and you have to ask to do so. Don't expect no privacy or nuthing cuz our not gunna get none. Now Master comes by time to time, you bow when he does, you bow or you get whipped, understand? Since new ones here Master will come by soon, or he may send his dog in to talk to you little runts. You bow to the dog, understand. You call him Disei-sakinne and don't get it wrong, he very touchy about his "title" said wrong, he kill you. Any question, maggots?"

"What did we do?" Aryll managed, after a moment of gathering nerve.

"Do?" The pig man looked baffled, if it had eyebrows they would have met in the center of its head like Stugeon's did, or so Aryll imagined.

"Why were we bought here?" This was one of her night questions, one of her inside questions that the girls wouldn't have asked. It was something she had to know.

At her words the beast laughed, or rather snorted loudly and shook its head from side to side in what she thought was a pig laugh.

"Only master know that runt." The pig thing brought its head down, sniffed loudly and wrinkled up its slit eyes. "So you the little thing that beat up the other guards."

The girls squeaked and pulled away from her like the guard said she had the grey skin fever. In response guard only did its strange snort laugh. "Master should feed you to sharks, that my thought though, not his. He makes all decisions, all rules, put these silly ones in after he saw us putting little kiddies in stew... Me only follow orders though not make them."

Yet something in that gargle voice told Aryll that the orders that were followed were done so in a way that Link would be forced to do certain chores. Link would sigh, would whine, then do it, and it seemed as if the pig thing was much like that. It was scary how she could see Link in this monster.

"You ask him though little she-dog, you ask him and me watch as he cut you in half and feed you to his fat seagull."

"I will." She said; trying to hide how her legs wanted to tremble and her voice wanted to break. "And he won't dare, not if he wants to stay in one piece, and if he doesn't think I'll do it he should take a look at his other pig things that tried to hurt me."

The creature's eyes bugged out, and Aryll smiled sweetly at it. The other girls were inching as far from her as they could, looking at her with the same horror that a beached fish looks at the sun.

"You...you…" the thing sputtered, raining Aryll with spittle. "Master kills you, and me get big laugh when watch!"

Aryll looked at the pig, and though she wanted to tremble she told herself not to.

This was scary, scarier then talking to Orca. But Aryll understood something that none of the other girls seemed to get. No one was here to protect them, so she would have to protect herself, and maybe show them how to do so to.

If they'd ever listen to her that was.

The pig was so shocked by her "sauce" as Grandma would have called it, that it totally forgot to feed them. The other girls gave her mean looks and when she tried to talk to them they ignored her. Alone and not alone Aryll crawled back to her corner of the cell and lay down, wondering and dreading what was going to happen when the "Master" heard about her words.

X

Disei-sakinne

It was a name ages ago, Disei was the name, sakinne was an ancient term for warrior. Time had passed and while the deeds of the hero were forgotten or exaggerated to the point they were dismissed, the name though was preserved. It became the name of the elite, the best of the best, the wolfen arm to the fire eyed Lord. Being elite he had been trained since his arcane rebirth in battle and war, what he hadn't been trained in was this. He looked down and twelve dirty faced human pups looked up at him in fear, there was some anger he didn't doubt it, but it was mainly fear. The acid reek caught in his nostrils and he wanted to gag at the smell, his ears slicked under his helm as he walked the line of children. The litter of human pups were chained together at the ankle. Most shifted, uncomfortable with the steel bondage, others seemed beyond caring and stared blankly ahead. He empathized with those still alive enough to be uncomfortable because he was uncomfortable as well. The smell of rusty steel nauseated him, but they had to be detained as he checked them. For all he knew they were rabid.

"Well what does the Lord say?"

Flicking an ear the Desei-sakinne turned his fiery eyes upon the blue beast before him and the pig snorted and winced and bowed his apology.

"He hasn't spoken of yet." Kaun growled in their master's tongue, and the children that had shown some interest in the talk between their captors's went back to looking bored. The spear wielding Moblin snorted and scrapped it's snout against the hay strewn floor in a grossly exaggerated show of being rebuked and the Wolfos felt his lip curl back against his fangs. Luckily the show of fang was hidden by the shadows of his helm, not being caught he wouldn't have to explain why he was disgusted or make other chatter with the thing before him to cover his lapse.

Kaun wouldn't rub his nose against the filthy floor of this hovel, not even for his Lord, but then pigs were like that. Groveling, weak, spineless, sludge. That more or less summed the long-spear tribe up right down to the piglets. Despite the face that the spear tribe towered over their Miniblin and Bokoblin kindred the lot of them were little more then cowards. Even the word coward made his paw itch to be over the hilt of his blade, but that would not please his Lord. So he mentally sighed and endured.

"He hasn't found the right pointy eared one? Then he doesn't need these ones?"

"He might, 'never throw away a tool until it fails'." Kaun growled out one of their Lord's edicts. "We'll find use for them."

"You will or He will?"

Kaun growled and the Moblin shrank back in fear. Reaching out with a clawed fore paw he snatched the creature by its skull necklace and lifted it up so they were snout to snout. Despite the fact that the creature was almost his height and probably twice his girth lifting the pig was no hard feat with the fire of Din's power running in his blood.

"I speak only his will, never doubt me in that!"

He let go and the creature's cloven feet hit the stone with a muffled "ting". The stupid creature rocked back on its paws and then fell on its rump.

"Feed them, water them, and get them outside in an hour. Our Lord will want to overlook the lot of furless pups so they know what's what."

He said the last in Hylian so that all would understand the import of his words, and the terror that caught in each eye told him it had. Satisfied, Kuan bared his fangs openly and turned on his paw. The sooner he got out of this hay filled room filled with animals the better.

X

Stairs are horrible when your feet are bound. You walked a step with everyone at the same time and if you didn't you all fell down. If you were smart you'd go slow, but you couldn't be smart because they wanted you to do it fast. You had to be fast, because if you weren't fast the pigs would smack you, cuff you, and one of them had a whip… They would crack that whip from time to time, so no one would forget, and the girls would cringe and try to run. But they never ran far, because every time they ran they tangled on the chain and trip. And the pigs would just laugh and bare their fangs, and talk about stew and food.

Seeing the light, seeing the first hint of 'outside' Aryll caused the last trip when she cried out and moved to run ahead. All she wanted to be was free of the gloom, the walls, the stone...

All she did was cause them to trip and to scrape her knees bloody.

"Move worms!" The whip smashed into the ground and they picked themselves up and stumbled forward.

A little later and they stepped into sunlight. They staggered upon the stone shore of the island. The tower loomed behind them like an evil shadow, and above them the seagulls sang.

Their captors did not follow them; the large pig men stood in the darkness their small eyes watching the sky in fear. Their fear was catchy, scared of the dark, now scared of the light, the girls clung to each other and someone moaned. Aryll looked to the sky. Not scared, after all. If there was anything to be scared of the seagulls would know. So Aryll didn't waste so much as one precious second of being out in the light by looking at the tower. She watched the white specks drift above her, smiling at the birds that no one else seemed to notice or care for.

Down came the shadow, a huge black mass that made the gulls cry out and scattered before its coming. Aryll knew, and so did the other girls, they knew what was coming. Screeching the shadow came down, down, down, it fell. Impossibly fast it shot over them then flared open its huge sail sized wings. It hopped once, hopped higher then any of them were tall and turned itself. The claws left long gouges in the stone and Aryll shuddered at the sight. It faced the pale shaking children, stared with its steel faced head and unblinking red eyes...

That's wasn't right though! Its eyes were yellow not red…

Yet the creature had red eyes, red piercing eyes that drifted over them all

"Screee?"

"Yes, sire, that is all." Stepping from dark into light was a huge metal shell wearing… thing. She didn't know what it was, hadn't seen it with the pigs. And whatever it was, it wasn't a pig. It clanked a few steps forward, all metal and sharp edges. Aryll shrank back against the others, scared of the bird, scared of the metal thing…

At least she was scared until it clanked right past them and began to talk to the bird in a growly way that wasn't how people spoke…

Then she saw it and she snickered despite herself.

It bobbed up and down, curled a little and uncurled, it even swished left to right for a little bit. It poked out from the armor and it was perhaps a little longer then her fore arm, and it was very fuzzy looking. That's because it was a tail.

"Is something funny?"

"You forgot to stick your tail in your shell when you got dressed this morning." Aryll told the metal shell thing.

There was a long silence, the bird blinked, and the monster's tail stopped mid wag and curled on itself.

"It's called armor she-pup."

"A tails a tail." Aryll said firmly.

"Not my tail you Hylian idiot, my arm-"

"What's a Hylian?"

There was another long silence, and then the bird made a whistling sound from its beak and bobbed its head up and down.

"Yes Sire, the ignorance of these creatures is pitiful; your orders remain the same?"

"Kree!"

The tailed metal shell thing smashed its fist into the shell that covered its chest and bowed. In response the bird blinked then turned about ripping apart more stone in the process and opened its huge wings. The wind, it was so strong she fell on her rump and she was vaguely aware that the other girls had done the same. If any cried out surly the winds stole their cries or the thunder that was the rising and falling of those wings drowned it out.

When the bird was gone, when the winds had died the metal clad creature turned to them and there was a glint of white that joined the red sparks that made a home in the impenetrable darkness that served as the thing's face.

"I am the Disei-sakinne; Wolfkaunos Crimsonrun. I would like to welcome you, the children of Windfall, Greatfish, and sole pup of Outset, to your new home. You have no names as far as I'm concerned, you only have skills untapped. You will either use your skills, all of them, or you will die. You will be given tasks. When we find a task you are good at you will continue to do it until it is done, then you will be set to another."

"Nobility do not do tasks!" Sniffed one of the girls, she was wore some glossy material that was only just beginning to show signs of dirt and filth.

The metal shell thing threw its head back and let out a warbling howl. Aryll shuddered, and was glad that when the howl ended that she wasn't receiving that red spark stare that the monster put on the girl who had spoken.

"You will do, or you will die. If you have a problem with that little she-pup I'll cut you lose and throw you to the seas, if the sharks don't get you the bird will. So what will it be, the bird, the sharks, or the tasks?"

Whimpering the blonde girl crumpled under that merciless stare and cried.

"I thought as much. You, pigs, unfasten them! They'll need to be able to walk for now!"