Chapter 3: Keeper of the Mountains

Daeia gripped her animal pelt overcoat that Jarod had given her tightly around herself as the temperature began to drop with each step upwards along the mountain. She stuck to the trail that appeared to have been abandoned for several years now: Jarod's story of the malevolent force in the mountain struck an uneasy chord. It seemed things did stay away from the mountains, and the girl was beginning to feel scared. Daeia also thought she heard occasional strange noises, something between a squawk and a shout, and several times she stopped with her eyes wide trying to determine if she had just imagined it. She was determined to find daddy, however, so she kept going.

The surroundings lightened as Daeia walked out of the forest with the end of the mountain's tree line. There were a few sparse bushes but beyond where she stood were craggy rocks and sheer cliffs. A half-rotten bridge swung in the wind over a chasm. Daeia moved carefully towards the bridge and sat down in front of it; too frightened it would break with her weight seeing how no one had bothered to repair it over the years. She sighed and put her head on her arms, wondering where she should go next since she had hit a dead end.

Fey would come in handy now.

Daeia rummaged around her leather bag until she came upon the bottle with the buzzing fairy who was still angrily hitting the glass. She took a deep breath and uncorked the bottle, bracing herself for the lecture that was sure to come.

"DAEIA! I can't believe you put me in a bottle! Your mother would never approve! Did you learn that from your father? When we meet him again I have a few things to say to him. Also, you are not to go to the mountains, you hear me? Hey! Listen! You are to stay away from the mountains!"

Daeia drew pictures on the dirt as the fairy stopped talking and flitted around to look at the surroundings. The girl was beginning to consider putting Fey back into the bottle.

"Daeia, where are we…?" Fey swirled around as she realized they weren't at the village, and then spun faster in increased panic.

Daeia bit her lip as the fairy stopped abruptly, the calm before the storm. After a few minutes of silence, the storm exploded.

"Dear goddesses Daeia! You did not go to the mountains!" Fey shrieked.

"I did…"

"Didn't you hear a word of what Uncle Jarod said?! And daddy is NOT here! If he was it would be way too easy and the world just…doesn't…work that way!"

Daeia stood up and pouted. "How do you know daddy won't be here?! You've never been here so you wouldn't know. At least looking for daddy is better than doing nothing!"

Fey was about to retort when the two heard persistent squawking from the forest Daeia had come from. They froze up in terror.

"Oh no," Fey breathed. She flew to Daeia's hand and urged the girl to stand up. "Come on Daeia, we have to hide."

The girl kept her eyes on the direction of the ominous squawking as she tripped and stumbled over behind a rock. She pressed her back to the rock trying to make herself hidden as well as possible, and she squeezed her eyes tightly, afraid of being found by whatever it was that had followed them. Fey crept up and peeked above the rock to see what was causing the strange noises. The fairy ducked sharply back down and accidentally hit Daeia on the head in her hurry to hide.

"Bokoblins," Fey said under her breath. She watched Daeia holding her hands tightly in fear. The fairy wished daddy hadn't made his descriptions of monsters so elaborate when he had recounted his adventures to Daeia; he had made even the lowest forms of monsters sound impossible to beat to make his stories interesting. It was making Daeia's first encounter with actual monsters a lot worse than it should have been.

Still, Bokoblins were dangerous. They travelled in groups and they could overwhelm unprepared people. Little girls and fairies were even easier targets. Something about these Bokoblins bothered Fey though. I thought Jarod said not even the monsters approached the mountains, she wondered. Why have they come so high up into the mountains? Were they following…us?

Her train of thought broke as the squawking neared, and she made out broken Hylian of "dead end" and "somewhere near." They were looking for something, all right. They would be lucky if they evaded the Bokoblins' search.

The squawking chatter suddenly died down as a powerful gust of wind blew across the mountain crag. There was a high-pitched screech that echoed away and Fey guessed that one of the Bokoblins had been unlucky enough to be thrown off the side of the cliff. That sounds a lot like what Jarod recounted, Fey thought in horror. The fairy felt the urge to look over the rock again to see what was going on, but she decided to stay put after the Bokoblins began to jabber nervously at something.

"Why, it's a nice day out today, isn't it?" a cold voice asked from somewhere to the right of the rock Fey and Daeia were hiding behind. Fey could catch a glimpse of a dark purple cloth, but she couldn't see anything else. "Was it so nice out that you decided to take a stroll up this mountain that I had specifically asked you stay out of?" the voice became sharp and menacing, and the Bokoblins gave a panicked squawk. The jabbering died down and one of them began to talk earnestly. The mysterious person chuckled in a nasty way, and Fey had the impression that this was someone they wouldn't want to mess with.

"Looking for someone? Here? I guess you wanted to see me then because I'm the only person on this old piece of rock. Now, by what foolish reason have you come to see me? Or did you want an appointment with Death? That can be arranged shortly."

There was more jabbering and squawking. The Bokoblins were beginning to sound desperate.

A sharp angry hiss interrupted the group of monsters. "You fools. I want none of it, do you understand? I'm going to let you go so you can tell all your other friends whom they're going to be dealing with if I see them here again. Bring this token with you so your more dim-witted kind will be able to get the message." There was a brief flash after the voice muttered "To Stone With You" and the monsters yelped into a panicked frenzy. Fey took a brief glance over the side of the rock and saw to her amazement one of the Bokoblins turned to stone. She watched the Bokoblins scurry away with the stoned monster from her hiding spot and took an uneasy peek towards the one who had saved them.

If Fey had to describe the young man in one word it would have been "purple."

He wore a royal mauve tunic with a gold buckle snapped around his waist, and he had the total composure of a mage of old with a dark cape draped over his shoulders and a ruby encrusted hat streaming from his head. There was a gold pin on his collar right below his thin lips he wore with a frown, and one of his piercing red eyes was hidden by light purple hair that went down below his shoulders. There were dark streaks on his cheekbone.

Fey imagined she had seen him or at least heard of his description before, but she couldn't think of where. Seeing his cold, calculating eyes, she judged she must have heard of him doing something malicious. She slowly flitted back down to hide behind the rock again, and bumped into Daeia for the second time.

"Ah!" the girl gasped in surprise. As soon as the girl had made a noise there was a whirlwind and the man was hovering right above the rock they were hiding behind. Fey and Daeia looked up at the silhouette in terror.

"Well, well, well," the man sneered. "So they were looking for someone. I guess I was wrong." He floated down until he was standing on the rock. He cocked his head to the side in amusement. "Dear little girl, don't you know it's dangerous to come here?"

Daeia remained frozen as she hugged her knees tightly and Fey fluttered between them in defense.

"Don't you know," he asked as he hopped down off the rock and stood in front of them, "that there's a big bad sorcerer living in these parts?"

Daeia began to loosen her grip on her knees as a word the man said caught her interest. "Sorcerer?" She was in a dangerous position, but magic always intrigued her. Besides her mother, she had been told magic no longer existed among people.

The red eyes narrowed, causing Fey to go closer towards Daeia. The man clicked his tongue. "Yes, a sorcerer. One who abuses his power." He looked at her for a while and then sighed in exasperation as he realized Daeia didn't look as scared as she should be. Children were difficult to deal with. "Why am I wasting time talking to a little child like you?" He made a movement towards Daeia, grabbed her hand firmly, and proceeded to drag her out from behind the rock and back towards the forest. Daeia struggled to get him to let go and Fey protested.

"Hey! Mister! Let her go and stay away from her!" She sent a little shock of magic towards the man's wrists in an attempt to zap him into releasing Daeia. The man flicked his free hand and Fey's spell rebounded and hit her instead. He stopped and smirked at the fairy that was twitching a little in a daze.

"Shame on you. I was just bringing this lost little girl home. We'll get back sooner if you cooperate." He let Daeia go and propped the surprised girl like a doll onto a stump. "Would you mind telling me where you're from?"

Daeia looked at the man firmly and recited the lines she had learned from her mother. "Mommy told me I shouldn't talk to strangers."

The man rolled his eyes. "Did she now? You hypocrite, you were just talking to me. Your mommy would be ashamed."

Daeia stuttered a bit as she realized she had talked to the stranger. She tried again, refusing to lose. "I'm not a hippo-grit." She was beginning to be upset enough that she forgot about her fears for the man. No one had treated her with such disrespect back at the castle. "And you wear funny clothes," she said as she scrunched her nose.

"You're right, you're not a hypocrite. You're a brat. Now tell me where you're from so I can take you back to mummy," the man frowned. He watched Daeia make a face and point her nose skywards in a clear message that she wasn't going to tell him anything. "Are you from Ruso?" he tried. The man glanced at the fairy that floated unsteadily back up as she recovered from the rebounded spell. "You, where is this girl from?"

Fey buzzed. "You think we'll tell you? We don't trust you at all."

"Fine. I was just trying to be civil," he shrugged. "If you won't tell me, I can either get rid of you by sending you down the mountain like that Bokoblin or I can hand you two over to those idiots." He looked at Daeia who was biting her fingernails. "I was offering help, but if you two don't need it…" he shook his head in mock pity.

Daeia began uncertainly, "I'm from Hy –"

"We're from Ruso." Fey cut Daeia off. "Now please take us back and we hope to never see you again."

The man snorted rudely. "Good. I don't care what happens to you. Just don't bother me again, and keep your little adventuring to the village cuccoo pens."

What an immature young man, Fey thought disdainfully as she considered how he had treated them. She had believed someone with decency wouldn't treat a six-year-old with such pessimistic sarcasm.

"All right. Enough wasting time. Off to Ruso." The man announced with boredom and he warped them away from the mountain.


fleets: Vaati Vaati Vaati! It's so fun writing his dialogue.

Peka the Corsair: Thanks! I was that kind of kid :P

Reily96: Opal turned out to be a Sue. I tried to be really careful with her after. And then I killed her off D:
I wonder why we couldn't keep Navi in a bottle...At least then she wouldn't have been able to go on with her Hey! Listen!

Rune Caster: Yes indeed! Though I dunno about Vaati being evil; well, he claims he is. Let's see if he speaks true, 'cause even I don't know the answer to that one. :D I've never had to suffer through Navi, though from rumors I hear she was horrible.

I luv Vaati: Not much answers in this chappie, but a lot of your questions will be answered in the next one (I think). Stay tuned!

Astral S. Kepeire: So I JUST saw you review and I decided to add the reply here. Thanks for following this! Super-updating? Whew, well I sure hope I can keep this up...