Chapter 10
One defiance is much like another
Author's Note: I like reviews, don't get me wrong, but when someone asks a question having the reply button on hand makes it easier for me to answer promptly. That's the main reason I like it when people have an account… I had to be a little cryptic in the reply Zelda Fan because I don't want to spoil it for other readers, if you want me to explain as to why I 'had' to have a Dark Knight and a Dark Nut with this story then either e mail me or leave an e mail you wouldn't mind me contacting you at and I'll drop a line and explanation.
To Zelda fan: Yes, it's Dark Nut…. There's a reason why Wolfkaunos calls himself a Dark Knight, I'll explain that in detail later on, just know it is deliberate. I always stray from the game and add on little cultural things, this is one of those that hasn't fully been written out yet. Also (unless I am really mistaken) in the photo gallery, if you do the photo side quest the blue pigs with the spears are called mobolin and the small pigs that use sword and shields, staves, and the like are called bokoblins (could be bokolins not one hundred percent on that one…). Hopefully I explained it alright and cleared up confusion.
OK PMed the other reviewers… that's done… Have I ever mentioned that I love flying scenes, every chance I get I squeak one into a story. This is "Song of the Seagull's" flying scene, to anyone who's read DES tell me if I managed to make it different enough that it's not a cut and copy sort of thing.
"Should I fall on my sword?" Wolfkaunos mused. "Or should I go in and let the Master skin me alive?"
Decisions, decisions, while falling on his sword certainly had merits going inside would satiate that demonic entity known as curiosity that he had never quite shed after pup-hood. Life had taught him that curious pups were cute and curious adults were dangerous. That those possessed with curiosity generally got killed by the Master or by their own flaw. Sometimes by both if they were particularly unlucky, and the few souls that actually were killed by the Master tended to scream for days. He spared a glance at the sword on his belt, really considered falling on it, if he blotched the attempt (which was highly improbable as he was something of an expert in ripping things open with his sword) an hour would pass before he died, if the Master's humor was particularly foul a week would pass before he died. None of his clan would blame him, others had killed themselves after committing an act that would garner their Lord's displeasure, and to kill ones self was honorable in that and a pawfull of other situations. After the death of one's mate, after the death of one's pups, after the death of the members of one's pack, the coming of old age, or annoying one's pack leader…
Or in this case, annoying the Master.
Still his curiosity nibbled at him, as did his infernal thinking, only his caution kept him frozen in place from acting on either option.
"Perhaps… the master won't be that mad?" He whimpered.
But then cold knowledge of what he had done came back to him with the force of a sword in a gut. He had taken up his Master's name in vain, had given false orders to his pack and the various other creatures that had been in the room, he had helped a Hylian she-pup fool everyone, tried to deceive his Lord.
Was caught mid deception… oh sweet Din he was doomed.
He whimpered, but even as he whimpered he could hear a small little corner of him, a small very puppy part of him howling in laughter when he saw that Long-Spear's shadow had been a mouse.
Curiosity and that puppy part of his brain made him walk across the bridge that bound the Helmrock King's nest and clink up to the wooden path that was wrapped around the side of that misplaced ship. Perched on one of the anchors that hung from the various mess of poles and rope that jutted out from the long trunk that ran form the top of the was a serpentine necked black bird. It stared at him with its dull orange eyes and he snarled.
"You swoop and I will have you as dinner."
Of course assuming he was going to live to see dinner, or rather breakfast. He yawned, stared at the sinking sliver of silver that was the dying moon. It was amazing how tangled and intricate thinking could be; if he ever got within his Lord's good graces again perhaps he should ask to have what made him think removed.
"Kree…" The bird's wings fanned out and Wolfkaunos drew his sword.
Perhaps seeing the five feet of steel in Wolfkaunos' paws made the stupid bird think, because it stared at him, stared at the sword, and then it fluttered off. Its ugly laughing "hreee" trailed behind it like its gaudy golden tail feathers, and after a few moments Wolfkaunos sheathed his sword.
"Stupid bird." He growled, flexing his paws.
X
Wings swept back, he dove, along side was a tower. It raced by even as he raced by it, the stones were little more then a grey blur due to the speed. A glint of golden firelight made him flare his wings. Wind filled his wings, his whole body jerked, his neck snapped up violently, causing tears to form in his slited orange eyes.
"Scree!"
Still he pulled up, flapped, and the window that he'd shot right past loomed above him like a miniature dawn. His long eyes squinted up, and he blinked back the tears born of wind and light. Fluttering through the open window he clenched his talons along the earthen frame and stared down the winding wooden stairs. He watch, dispassionately as a spear wielding pig kin stomped, shaking his weapon and scaring the smaller Bokoblin that was wearily sharing the patrol with it's distant Moblin kindred.
"If me there me kill little she runt."
"Master say no kill little she's…" The smaller green hued creature sighed with the air of someone who had repeated themselves far too often.
The larger pig only grunted to itself.
"Long Spear dumb, you ask me, dumb dumb, makin' Master mad like that. Him go in stew if he no… erk!" The creature froze as the Moblin pressed the tip of its spear against the smaller beings throat.
"You watch tongue piglet, or me cut it out."
Satisfied that the smaller creature was properly cowed the larger continued withdrew its spear and went back to climbing up the stairs. Rubbing a thin bead of red from its throat the Bokoblin snarled and clenched its paws a few times.
"No kill stupid Moblin 'till Master say "kill Moblin… no kill stupid Moblin till master say…" The creature growled to itself. "Master damn well say kill soon or me kill kvark spawn Sharp Tusk sooner then Master say kill, then me in big pile of chu-chu muck then…"
Orange eyes glittered, blinked then as soon as the smaller creature passed the window midnight hued wings fanned out. With a slight rocking of the slender legs the lesser Kragaroc thrust his wings down sharply and loosed his grip on his perch. One flap, two, he cleared the window and lazily spiraled down the abyss that was the space untouched by stair, wall, and spanned between the long hike between floor and tower top. A long block of wood, the top of the cage, was far below and he lazily alongside the steps, the tips of his black wings rushing the wood from time to time.
Glints of silver, threads of fishing wire caught his eye. And the second he gazed upon them they immolated, he left a small trail of smoldering wire behind him, but a little ash where torches were abundant would cause no questions.
"Hree!"
He folded his wings and landed on the grate with a small thump, his talons easily finding hold on the mess of water slicked rods.
He stared into the cell, twelve little children lay, their clothes were in taters, a mess of long pointed ears peeked out from the various heads of hair. Brown, red, most were blonde though, all came from different islands, from different lives. All those lives had been ripped asunder by a dark shadow and a pair of gleaming talons. He stared as the red haired child shivered from the cold, one of the blonde haired girls awoke at the sound.
Or perhaps she hadn't been asleep at all.
She shivered, her clothes were wet, her eyes were tired, and she looked right through him and stared at the other girl who was shaking even in sleep.
Slowly she walked to the bars of the cage, and then rapped on them sharply. The snoring Mokoblin guard opened one yellow eye.
"Whats you wantes?"
"Could we have blankets… please… the waters were really co-"
"No. Lay down, shut up."
With a whimper the girl did as ordered, though he saw the hint of wetness in her eyes and did not miss the thin trails of water running down the child's cheeks.
They paid him no heed, the guard went back to sleep, the girl eventually fell into a fitful slumber. And he walked the ting of his talons striking rod with each step ran out with a cheer that ill suited this place of holding. Every high tide the waters must rise from the grate, the floors were kept clean that way, but the prisoners were soaked, denied blankets, warmth, they might very well sicken and die.
He watched, for a long moment, stared at the various styles of dresses (all adorned with filth) and stared into the face of each child. He looked to the darkest corner; away from the other children saw an outcast. He stared into that sleeping face for a long moment, blinked once, then opened wide his wings. Only a small rain of black feathers that fell from his wings as he clawed his way back up the winding path marked that he'd even been there.
X
"Enter."
Licking his fangs, unaware that he whimpered, Wolfkaunos reached out to grasp the door handle, it swung open at his touch and he walked into the Master's den. It was a place of fire, torches burned from everyplace not marred with wooden cubbies filled with page holding leather skinned contraptions or curtains. He hardly noticed the softness of the various orange rugs that made a mess of shapes here and there, or the red painted markings that ran across the walls.
In a slow and reverent manner he knelt at the feet of the being that had created him. His tail pressed against the floor, his face no longer masked by the darkness of his helm was against the wood in the ultimate show of submission.
"Once you said you would never bow to me, never in surrender, never live in servitude, this hour you make a liar out of yourself Kaun."
Wolfkaunos blinked, looked up and to his shock saw that his lord was not in some great rage or in a clam before a rage. Not seeing his lord in some state of anger surprised Wolfkaunos so much that he blurted the first thing that came to his mind.
"I don't understand your meaning, my Lord."
"You defied me, you handled a situation that you caused with grace, in that you made yourself an adult, yet by this show, you are still little more then a child."
Anger licked at Wolfkaunos' reason, he lifted his head and growled.
"The one who holds the key of creation can easily wield the blade of destruction."
And those ember eyes looked into his own, the face as still as an obsidian wall, only the eyes moved and the flickered with an intensity that made him lick at his fangs.
"Any fool can hold a sword Kaun, any fool can end a life if he swings the blade just right."
Kaun stared at his Lord, his mind not comprehending…
"Watch him."
"Who, my lord?"
"Long Spear, I want you to watch him. Now get out."
That was it -Watch Long Spear, get out- that was it? His mouth sagged open, as the thought came home. No torture sessions, no screaming death, one order, and that was it?
Certainly he had misheard something, his ears must be broken, his wits scrambled by the fall down the stairs…
"Why are you still here?" The voice was soft, silken, a threat.
"Be- because… I do no understand my Lord. I understand your words, yet I do not understand the thought behind them."
"Comprehension of my thought is not necessary." The Master hissed.
"Some comprehension…" Wolfkaunos whimpered. "Would allow me to serve you better, my Lord…"
Those orange eyes met his own, he resisted the urge to loll out his tongue and whimper in pure terror, and then the Master turned and lifted one arm. Lost in the black fabric of sleeve Wolfkaunos could no help but note that his Master's arm looked much like a wing… From the darkness came a small red eyed bird, it landed easily on the Master's arm as if it were meant to be there, the Master met the creature's eyes and it jerked spasmodically then went very still.
"Ten years ago, twenty, my empire was firm, the foundation unshakeable, yet the foundation crumbles before my eyes. Tonight's… show was a hint of how far it has fallen. In times of old once child could no have terrified and demoralized my soldiers no mater her skills as an actor, none of my own would have allied themselves with a creature not of their own. The fire of your unified hate has dampened, and the smoke of old battle fields is clearing away, and the steel blade that I had meant to forge is in pieces."
Still Wolfkaunos did not understand, the Master only petted the black bird then flicked his eyes upon him.
"Get up Wolfkaunos, do as your Master has ordered, leave all confusing thought behind and just obey. It's all you're capable of anyways."
Nodding, miserable, Wolfkaunos scrambled to his paws, stood…
"The Hylian, you are relieved from watching her, this assignment takes all precedence over the others."
Wolfkaunos opened his snout, a pathetic whine came from him, no unlike the sound he'd made when an Foreverback pup kicked him in the stomach when he was still a pup himself.
"Pawns do not have minds Wolfkaunos, your will is my will, defy me ever again and you will spend eternity screaming from the hell fires I summon."
Bowing low Wolfkaunos turned to the door, as he pulled it open with a trembling paw he heard the master hiss something to the bird, just one word, but it made him flinch in his armor.
"Pathetic."
X
Aryll shivered, stare at the large pigs that had replaced the dog people that had been their guards, their task makers. They were hit with the staves a lot and it hurt. She whimpered, curled into a ball and tried not to listen to them drool over little girl stew. She wanted Wolfkaunos back, she liked to dog people, and even the smaller pig people would be better then the Moblins.
"I want to go home… I want to be home…" She whimpered, holding herself while the girls around her slept and the guards got ready to nap. "I don't want to be here."
Well… if she wanted to go home… wouldn't the first thing to do would be to get outside the cell? She stared at the guards, they were asleep, but Twee hadn't been by tonight and he probably wasn't going to be with her all the time. She whipped at her eyes; tip toed to the door and then pulled on the handle. It opened, but Twee hadn't opened it or they hadn't locked it after Twee had opened it last time…
Not saying a word she crept out of the cell, closed the door behind her, and then sneaked her way past the guards.
X
Pawns do not have minds… you will do my will
Wolfkaunos snarled, smashed his fist into the unyielding grey wall. Frustration roared through him with the intensity of a fire storm, he had been given orders and he had failed. Night after night he had hunted for information, for some way to watch or hear and again and again he was thwarted. That was where his frustration was born from, that could be the only place…
Pawns do not have minds….
It would be the only place that he allowed that frustration to stem, it would be the only place he would think of and perhaps the rest of the thoughts would go silent. The silence would be a blessing, the endless picking fangs of his curiosity would cease…
Pawns…
"Wolfkaunos?"
He whirled, stared at the she-pup and she looked up at him. He didn't quite understand the glint in her eyes, didn't understand. In that his master was right, he was a puppy, because he didn't understand he would forever remain a puppy.
He stared at her, his rage worn out, his knuckles bloody. She had once more sneaked out of her cage, had once more come to his den. He greeted that information numbly, only looked at her and waited.
"Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine." He growled. "You're out again." He noted.
"You're bleeding." She pointed to his paw and he sighed, unclenched his fist and leaned against the stone that had a faint hint of his blood on it.
"She pup… what are you doing outside, again?"
"I didn't want to be in the cage again tonight." She yawned and he closed his eyes.
"Go back inside when you want to then, I'm busy."
"I came to say… good bye."
His eyes flared open at her words.
"I'm going home."
Then he closed his eyes.
"Thank you for telling me, but I doubt you'll be heading home anytime soon. Not with all the ocean between you and your home."
The she pup looked at him in horror, so she hadn't known…
"We are pawns." Wolfkaunos snarled. "Both of us."
And the look on her face, stubborn defiance, told him louder then words what she thought of his –to her, at least - most strange pronouncement.
"I'm not a… whatever you call it, I don't even know what it is, but all I know is I'm not it. I'm not any it; I'm not any kind of it. I'm me, and that's all I need to know."
Wolfkaunos stared at her.
"And you aren't an "it" either, I don't know who this he of yours is but like Grandma would say, he sounds like the type that has a barbed anchor up the butt."
Wolfkaunos made a rasping bark sound, and he stared at her in shock, awaiting the lightning bolt that should come out of the sky and incinerate her. He awaited some painful death to fall on the she before him, he waited for a long moment, and then when nothing happened he was almost so shocked that he lost all speech.
"He is not very… ah nice as you'd put it."
"He wasn't very nice; after all he took me away from home." She pointed out firmly. "Does that sound nice?"
"No, it doesn't." He said slowly.
He smelt the iron, the hint of blood, the aroma that she'd smelled of after cleaning after the seagulls…
So this was defiance against the Master, it smelled the same to him as any other defiance.
"So-" she looked up at him, her dark eyes wide. "-why listen to him?"
Because he made me, and all before me. He took the Wolfos race, a pack of savage creatures not too unlike rabid dogs, and he made them into what I am. He allowed us to walk, upon two legs instead of four, he enhanced our intelligence, gave us steel weapons, and the Hylians who once hunted us we could now hunt them… To hunt, kill, avenge our fallen mates, our cubs skinned and tortured only to be turned to pelts for some noble woman's cloak…
To not listen to Him… would be unlike deafening one's ear to Din's voice, to gouging one's eyes out to avoid looking upon the sun. Blasphemy and beyond blasphemy would it be to defy, to ignore, Him in all his Dark Glory.
"It's complicated…" He brought his paw to his snout and licked at the blood. "Very complicated."
"When we grow up, we're supposed to be brave, like heroes in the stories. That's part of being grown up, being brave, and sometimes being brave means saying no to scary people and doing what's right."
Wolfkaunos stared at the she-pup, suddenly struck by how small she was. If she stood upon the tips of her clawless hind paws she could not have reached his waist. He must loom over her, hell… everything but that shadow chu-chu was bigger then she was. It struck him, how brave she was then. He, a large and powerful Wolfos, cringed from one Master, she should have been cringing from the world. She did not, she ignored all her would be masters, had done so even to say good bye.
She had done what she thought was right, saying good bye was a nicety, at least to him, but to her it must have been right. Because she had defied them all to do it, for her to say two simple words she might very well be killed.
Not so long as he had any say.
"Come on, I'm taking you to my Den."
She looked at him, her wide eyes lost in confusion.
"You aren't going back in that… cage." He growled. "I'm going to do as the Master says and do what I want all at once."
He offered her his gauntleted paw and she took it in her clawless hand.
"Kree!"
The she Islander Aryll started at the sound and Wolfkaunos bared his fangs in a grin.
"It's just a bird she... er Aryll… Ignore it."
"It's a nasty sounding bird." She noted.
"Most of the Master's pets are nasty." Wolfkaunos grunted. He looked up and stared at the orange eyed bird that was perched in a nearby window. "That one," The Dark Knight pointed to the orange eyed eavesdropper. "-is the nastiest of the lot."
The bird stared at the clawed hand pointed at it and blinked. Then the bird snaked its head around to peck at his finger.
"Stupid klavk spawn!" The Wolfos roared. He swiped at it, claws fully extended. The creature let out a mocking "scree!" and fluttered off to a small ledge just out of Wolfkaunos' reach. Letting out a growl he padded down the hall, the she pup still holding his paw.
"Did it hurt you?" Aryll asked as they walked.
"The steel blocked the hit, but you have to hit those things sometimes to remind them not to do it."
"Oh."
And as they walked, going deeper into Forsken, above them whispered the black wings, and it seemed from ever corner, from every crevice that claws could sink into and wings could bare it's inky body orange eyes gleaned and followed.