I figured it was about time for another update, so here I am!
I'm still not getting the amount of reviews I would like, and (sorry when I say this) I find it kind of stupid that thirty seconds can't be taken out of readers' time to review. I mean, it takes longer than that to read the chapter.
Sorry, that was my rant for the day. Please, continue reading.
I don't own Zelda. Enjoy! WARNING: MENTIONS OF RAPE... ONLY MENTIONED!
My body shook with tremors as the cold nipped at my skin, gooseflesh rising. I jolted up from the bedroll, realizing just how cold it had gotten overnight. The fire had gone out sometime last night as well, if the dimly lit embers were any indication.
What had caused the dramatic change in the weather?
A groan to my immediate right suddenly drew my attention and I tensed, not used to my new companions. It had been Faie. She slowly sat up and stretched, her sniffles demonstrating her distaste for the weather as well.
"Ugh, I hate the cold. We must be closer to Zora's domain then I initially thought," she moaned as her back popped pleasantly.
I cocked my head in confusion. "Why do you say that?" I inquired.
She shrugged, smacking her lips. "Zora's domain is at the base of a series of mountain ranges called Snowpeak. While it escapes the cold due to various of factors, Snowpeak lives up to its name. It is, by far, the coldest thing I have ever had the unfortunate luck of experiencing."
Leaning in further towards the girl, I pulled my bedroll over my shoulders, attempting to block the cold. "I'm quite interested in how Zora's Domain is unaffected by the cold. Explain, would you?"
"Well," Faie began, choosing to eat some of the leftover meat from the deer we had the previous night, "I'm not quite sure myself. Personally, though, I find Zora's Domain to particularly muggy while refreshing. Most of what I know is that it rains a lot there and there are a few large underwater geysers. I would imagine that's why the place is always warm."
"Why is it so refreshing, then? I don't enjoy muggy weather in the slightest. I find it rather hard to breath in all actuality."
Faie wagged a finger at me as she swallowed a portion of the meat. "That's where Snowpeak comes into play. While Zora's Domain isn't cold, it enjoys the constant breeze that comes in from the mountains. It pretty much blows away the mugginess."
"What are you two babbling about so early for? And why is so damn cold?!" Dark asked, grouchily waking up.
The guardswoman glowered. "Like you can tell the temperature and it's nothing you need to concern yourself with, demon. But if you must know, we made more ground then we thought yesterday."
"That explains the northerly wind," Link piped in, waking as well. He stretched for a moment before rising from his own bedroll. He proceeded to roll it up. "I suggest we get a move on," he said, moving to his pack. He fastened the bedding to it before removing a small jar and an even smaller brush.
I watched as he dipped his brush inside, the bristles now covered in a heavy powder. He then wet the powdered covered brush with water from his canteen and the powder quickly turned to paste. Tooth powder, I deduced.
Link began to brush his teeth. "Anyone else?" he spoke around the brush in his mouth, holding out the powder.
I eagerly took the jar and brought out my own brush. "Thanks." I immediately followed Link's actions, ready to remove the fuzzy feeling off my teeth and my morning breath. The others were quick to follow as well.
Our personal hygiene taken care of, we quickly picked up camp and were off again. And as we moved up the trail, I couldn't help but notice that Link nor Dark had bothered to change out of the flimsy guardsmen tunics. Wasn't he cold? Then again, pressed up against his back, I could easily feel heat radiating off of the werewolf. He was like a furnace.
"You're not cold at all?" I asked, picking at the short sleeves of his tunic.
Link shook his golden head. "Not really. I'm rather comfortable. That'll probably change once we get into the mountain, though. Come to think of it, it is a little colder than normal right now."
"What about Dark? He made a comment about being cold last night and this morning, but Faie mentioned something about him not feeling the temperature at all."
He laughed. "Dark's gotten good."
An eyebrow rose up to the expanse of my forehead. "Explain," I demanded.
Link only laughed again, his fingers tightening on Epona's reigns. "Faie's right, Dark really can't feel the temperature personally."
"Personally?"
"Aye," the werewolf nodded. "Personally. Dark can feel a difference in the temperature, sure, but he really can't feel hot or cold. Like I've explained before, Dark's actual body is more of an ethereal thing that can't touch or feel things in this world. It's only through my blood that he can feel any of the things here at all. And I mean that physically, Dark's always had his own feelings and ideas. To mask his shadow demon habits we've tried to acclimate him to mention things such as temperature and pain."
I was silent. There was so much more to the demon that I originally thought… and to Link as well. It was strange to find that I was actually starting to… to… care?... about these people. It was like my heart was opening up for the first time in years. And I had only known these guys for a few days at the most; Faie even less!
"Hey, guys!" Faie's voice called out, breaking me from my thoughts. "We've got trouble!"
The horses were brought to a halt. The road was blocked, large, spiked blockades barring the way. In front of them was a group of men and they were heavily armed. Thieves?
"Friends of yours?" I whispered to Link.
He growled inhumanly. "Hell no. Like I would be caught dead with these raping, murdering swine."
A scrawny man emerged from the group in front of us, palming a bludgeon. "Well, well, well. Looks like we spiders caught us some flies! Right, boys?!" The men behind him laughed in agreement, and the man began walking towards us. "And it looks like they've brought us some pretty flowers too. How about that? Talk about lucky!"
"What makes you think you're so lucky?" Link snarled, his arm twitching, wanting to go for the sword strung across his back.
Twig, my new nickname for the scrawny man, laughed. "Why else?! We get to kill you, loot you, and we get to take your women too! You've given us quite the gift." Twig drew a sword. "Let us return the favor and send you to paradise so you can be with your goddesses!"
I grew tired of hearing Twig drone on, so I decided to cut the conversation short. "Oh, go suck a lemon," I snapped, pulling out my gun and cocking the hammer. It was fully loaded, and not with tranquilizers this time.
Link and Dark's laughter bellowed out all around us, and the snickers of the men weren't missed either. Twig's face flushed. "Girl's got game," he said angrily. "Too bad for you I like my women feisty!"
"Oh, I've more than game!" I yelled, squeezing the trigger. A bullet was fired right into Twig's knee, and he was dropped like a rock, squealing like a pig. "How do you like them apples," I sneered.
"You'll pay for that, you damned girl!" Waving his arm wildly at us, Twig shouted, "Get 'em, boys!"
Leaping off Link's horse, I switched my pistol to my left hand and drew my saber with the other. I pointed them to the charging group, just about to attack when Link vaulted off of Epona and fired some kind of explosive arrow. (A.N. Yes, that is a Zelda Wii U reference.) The group scuttled backwards, narrowly missing the explosion.
"What the hell?!" one yelled.
"Group two!" Twig yelled from his spot on the ground. Out of nowhere, another group came in from behind us, having hid in the shrubbery. At that moment, I was getting damn tired of hearing Twig's whiny voice. And so… without much thought put into the action, I lobbed off his head with my saber. Said head rolled right off the side of the mountain path.
"Good riddance too," I stated with a nod of my head.
The sounds of clashing metal made me jump, and my head whirled to see Faie facing off with a burly man. She was wielding a massive scythe that she seemed to have pulled out of thin air. I'd have to ask her how she did it later, but for now I needed to focus my attention on the fight… and the man sneaking up behind the brunette.
Aiming, I fired off another round off right into the back of the sneaking man's head. If he was alive, which I highly doubted he was, he would have a massive headache. Faie turned her head just enough so she could see what happened and she nodded to me in silent thanks.
Nodding in return, I turned to find Dark and Link holding off the majority of the horde. Even the horses were helping, their flailing hooves knocking people back just before they stomped them out with their massive weight.
Suddenly, a loud bang reverberated around us and a searing pain shot down my left arm and shoulder, my weapons falling from my hands. I had been shot! "Dammit!" I swore loudly, looking at a massive swell of blood coming from my left shoulder. Looking to where the shot came from, my eyes widened at the sight of another man standing not even five feet away from me. How had I missed him?! He was at point-blank range!
"This is for my brother," the man's seethed through clenched, gritted teeth. He pointed his own gun at me, digging the barrel into my forehead. There was nothing I could do; my weapons were on the ground, I had an injured shoulder… I was going to die.
The hammer cocked and I slammed my eyes shut.
BANG!
I screamed as the shot fired, but surprisingly… no pain came. It only took a second for me to realize that I hadn't been hit. Opening my eyes, I gasped. Link lay on the ground clutching at a spot on his side. He had taken the bullet for me… why?
My pupils narrowed to slits as red clouded my vision. "You bastard!" I roared. In less than a second, I had kicked my saber up into the air, grabbed it, and spun around to deliver a killing blow, slicing the man clean in half from the waist.
The shock of my blade slicing though bone reverberated up through my arm. I had felt the crunching of the man's bones as clear as if they were my own. The deadly edge of my blade had sliced his insides into ribbons, blood pouring out from both ends of his body's halves.
Dropping my sword once again, I dropped to Link's side, helping him sit up as I ignored the pain that flared up in my shoulder. "You idiot," I snapped, pulling out a dagger. The bullet was still in Link's side and needed to be pulled out. Speaking of, the one in my shoulder needed to be pulled out as well. "Why did you do that?"
Link shook his head. "I don't know," he said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "My body just moved on its own," he growled out the rest as I dug my dagger into the wound, trying to dig the bullet out.
Swallowing, I breathed out a sigh, noticing the fighting had stopped with us as the victors. "Well, thanks, but don't make a habit of that."
Link chuckled lightly. "With the way my instincts were screaming at me, I don't think we have much choice."
Finally managing to get the bullet out of the werewolf, I watched in fascination as his skin slowly knitted itself together. Soon the wound was gone… there wasn't even a scar. "Wish I healed that fast," I sighed. "It would definitely be a better perk than these yellow eyes."
The werewolf in front of me frowned, sitting up and taking my dagger away. He got behind me and slid the top of shirt down slightly over my arms. It was my turn. Bracing myself, I hissed, having felt the tip of the blade begin to search my shoulder.
"What if I like them?"
"What?" I gritted out. "Like what?"
There was a pregnant silence. "Your eyes," Link finally answered.
I swallowed the lump that had unexpectedly formed in my throat. "Well then, you'd be the first." I cried out when Link dug the bullet out of shoulder, the metal coming out with a plop. He began wrapping my shoulder with some gauze.
Sliding my shirt back up my shoulders, I couldn't help but laugh. It probably looked like a rampaging flock of moths had gotten to my clothes. "At this rate, I'm going to need a new shirt. I mean half the sleeves are gone and I'm putting holes absolutely everywhere in it."
Faie snorted, her scythe having disappeared. I still needed to ask her about that. "Well, I'm pretty sure we'll all be needing new clothes soon. Even wolf boy here won't survive long in one of Snowpeak's blizzards. Luckily for us, I know someone that is trying to get her winter apparel store off the ground. You can't exactly see clothes to a Zora."
Link, Dark, and Faie walked off back towards the horses, leaving me confused. "Why can't you sell clothes to a Zora?" No one answered. "Oi! Do Zoras not wear clothes or something?!"
Clutching my sides, I shivered uncontrollably as my jaw dropped. If this was Zora's Domain, something was most definitely wrong. The warm, tropical environment described to me by Faie was not this. This was a frozen tundra.
The other's faces mirrored my own, showing their disbelief. "What in the name of Hylia happened to this place?" Faie gaped.
"Well," said Link, "at least we know why it's colder than normal."
"Colder than—colder than normal?! Zora's Domain is frozen solid! If it was any colder, we'd have a bunch of stiffs on our hands!" Dark exclaimed, motioning towards a shaking pair of fish people.
That's another thing. Zoras, as I've come to find out, are fish people. There rather beautiful actually. With angular eyes that matched my own in color, the Zoras gave off an alluring quality. Their noses, if they could be called that, were completely flat at the bridge and their scales glistened in the sunlight. The only thing worn by the Zoras were jewels embedded in gold. Some were wrapped around their webbed ankles or wrists. Sometimes I'd spot similar collars around their necks or even a headdress of some kind.
Fortunately, they all seemed to be fine… for now.
"Why is it like this?" I asked. "Could it be something to do with that mountain, Snowpeak?"
Link nodded. "It has to be. And it's happened before."
"What do you mean? How has it happened before?"
"It was over three centuries ago," Faie spoke up. "A great darkness took hold of Hyrule. It sent an ancient artifact, one of four, to the top of Snowpeak. The darkness had corrupted it, turning the artifact into a thing of misery. It devoured the mind of a poor creature and sent Snowpeak into an eternal blizzard, but it wasn't just Snowpeak affected."
"Zora's Domain was completely frozen over, worse than what we are seeing now, water sources across Hyrule began to dry up, plants withered… It was chaos," Link continued for the girl.
It seemed magic affected Hyrule just as much as my world. Magic seemed to almost engulf Hyrule. It was like the kingdom revolved around it. That brought me to my next question. "Is the artifact doing this?"
Dark shook his head strongly. "Impossible. The artifact was destroyed a long time ago."
"Then what could be causing this freak freeze?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out. Perhaps the answer is in Mynas Grove." Link turned to Faie. "Where is this friend of yours, Faie? We need some durable clothing."
The girl smiled, revealing some sharper than normal canines. "Follow me."
"I don't know what you four are thinking going up that mountain, Faie, but you've definitely come to the right place."
Faie's friend went by the name Iza. Iza was definitely a character. Wearing skin tight clothing and with a huge fro on her head, she was an interesting sight. We had been given all new clothes fit for the coldest of winters, courtesy of the strange woman.
Link and Dark and finally managed to wear some trousers, thick ones too that were lined in fur and fleece. We all wore undershirts, long sleeved shirts, and heavy dusters equipped with hoods. And the thick riding boots we wore were sure to serve their purpose in the snow. I chose to keep my leather pants any other part of my clothes that survived.
"Well," Link began, grabbing a wide brimmed hat and placing it on his head, "if we're not prepared, I don't know what prepared is."
"Right," Iza joined in. "Since you're only borrowing the merchandise, I won't charge you. Let me give you some advice, though. Along the mountain, there are markers indicating caves. If a blizzard picks up, hide in them. Don't try and brave the storms."
"Got it," we all agreed.
"One last thing, yeah?" the woman continued. We all waited expectantly. "If you see any yetis, don't scream."
"Righ—wait… what?"
Ah, well that's another chapter done. I'm really excited for the next chapter, and I really think you guys will like it. Callisto shows that she… has a heart! No seriously, she actually shows a little compassion.
Anyway, thank you to all my readers who review. You guys are what keep me going.
Please, please, please… rate and review.