Draco: So... I've been rereading my dAmn shoddy fanfics to laugh at my naivete, and my Zelda hype recently turned my eye to that one. It turns out I wrote a variation on like half the plot twists of Skyward Sword in a Zelda fic that came about purely because I went into a fandom overload over Ocarina 3D, with all of them planned at least a couple months before Skyward's Sword's release, and the fic itself concluded like three days after the game was out in North America (which I did not obtain until Christmas of that year, and after the announcement of which I had banished myself from the Zelda community).
{mimics head explosion a la Candlemaker}
Also, I got a copy of Hyrule Historia. If this Zelda state keeps up, I'll probably have a Zelda fic by the end of the year. Someone kick my ass for that.
Characters, weapons, origins, locations © Square Enix. Monsters © Akihisa Ikeda.
La Montaña de los Caballos Jóvenes
The trip to Mt. Kolts was alright, as far as travel goes. When they arrived at the base of the mountain, Edgar had a reminiscent look on his face. "This is my brother's training ground," he told Terra.
Locke turned to him. "Sabin?"
"No, Zidane," Edgar mused, turning to him. "I've never told you about him before. He's a thief like you. He practices by stealing from the rocks. Of course I'm talking about Sabin. Who else is going to be using this place?"
Terra was quiet as the two of them spoke. Locke noticed; concerned, he asked, "Are you alright?"
"There's... someone on this mountain," she murmured. "I can feel it."
Edgar turned to him. "Ah, yes," he mused. "Yoko energy is so high-level they can pick up another monster on the other end of a football field as though they were standing right by them."
The observation caused Terra to lower her gaze. Something about Edgar and Locke calling her a yoko still didn't quite feel right, somehow.
"Think it might be Sabin?" Locke asked.
"Possibly," Edgar admitted. Turning to Terra; "Does it feel anything like me or Locke?"
"I... what?" Terra was slightly confused.
Edgar rolled his eyes at himself. "Right, you can't tell," he murmured. Louder; "Here, close your eyes for a sec."
Terra did so. A sudden wind caught her hair - it was gentle, just enough to disturb her emerald locks, but it was still out of nowhere.
"You can feel me and Edgar here, right?" Locke asked. "Our energies? We're right next to you."
The flare dancer hesitated for a moment before nodding.
"Alright," Locke mused. "Now, the presence you feel on the mountain. Does that feel anything... like us?"
Terra turned her head slightly towards the mountain, quiet for a moment. "I... I can't tell," she murmured. The wind faded, and she opened her eyes.
"Could be too far away for her to make it out," Edgar mused. "It's alright. Thanks for the heads-up."
He drew out his spear again. "Best to go in armed, anyway."
+x+x+x+
The mountain peak had been cleaved flat from the clash of the two violent forces now entrapped in a duel there.
One of those forces was a diamond, scattered in a pile of gravel. Spikes as sharp as a steel blade protruded from his bare arms, his hands were a three-pronged scissor claws with all the force of dragon's fangs, and his shirt - a fighting tank in royal blue - was in pieces on the earth between him and his foe, leaving him clad only in baggy white leggings. His blonde hair, unkept, cast itself into his vision every so often, but a short tuft was imprisoned in a tail behind him.
His opponent was a demonic crow, bearing only the vaguest semblance of human appearance - shape, and voice. His eyes, buried in the shadows of his necrous silver hair, were only visible from the blank white glow they emitted, for his face was otherwise consumed by the menacing, razor-sharp beak it formed. Wings adorned in black feathers emerged from his back, and his tanned torso, bare, was wrapped in tattoos. His leggings were twisted tight to his legs, and the golden sash around his waist was shining gold.
They had known each other for ages, and each of them recognized every action their opponent took, but the diamond fought only to weaken his foe such that he could explain - and that put him at a disadvantage, for the crow fought with intention to kill.
+x+x+x+
Echoes of what sounded like explosions sounded every so often as the trio of Edgar, Terra, and Locke made their way up. Mt. Kolts was filled with a winding series of interconnected caves; though the climb was all the easier for it, every menacing boom caused loose stones to rattle threateningly, sending their nerves into a fright.
A while up the mountain, the three stopped at a small outcrop located outside of the caves. "So," Locke mused, turning to Edgar, "how come I haven't seen Sabin around Figaro recently?"
"His training with Duncan has been getting more intense," Edgar explained, retracting his spear - though he didn't store it away. "He hasn't had time to visit the town. I hear the arguments between him and Vargas have been getting worse and worse."
"Weren't they bad enough already?" Locke protested.
"You don't know the half of it," Edgar admitted. "They put on airs of friendliness in public, but the moment they get out of town Vargas is at his throat. I swear that kid is a demon."
Locke scoffed. "That's friendliness?"
"Me and Sabin were worse as kids."
Terra had remained quiet; with a glance in her direction, Locke sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Terra," he mused, "none of this makes sense to you."
"It's alright," she insisted. "I don't... It's not too important."
A long moment of quiet.
Edgar was the one who broke it, getting to his feet. "Those crashes seem to have faded," he mused, changing the subject. "Here's hoping the path to the peak hasn't been caved in."
+x+x+x+
They made it to the peak without finding anything in the way - but when they got there, they had much bigger things to worry about.
The top of the mountain was flat. The Sabre Mountains were so named because they looked like blades sticking out of the earth, but the peak was a shaved-level battlefield that could have hosted boxing Cyclopes. There were what looked like meteor impacts scattered about the surface, and what looked like a large, impenetrable boulder from one side was actually two broken halves of a boulder.
"What the hell happened around here?" Locke murmured.
Edgar knelt at one of the impact points. "These blasts... these are from the punches of a crow tengu," he muttered. "Vargas or Duncan must have been here."
Terra turned to him. "A what?"
"Crow tengu," Locke explained. "Fallen angels is the best way to describe them. A punch from them will connect a good fifteen metres away. When they get serious, the impact is like a grenade." Turning to her, he asked, "Can you still detect that presence from before?"
The question caused Terra to close her eyes. A wind caught her hair again. "There's... there's two of them," she murmured. "It just felt like one before, but I can tell there's two of them, now." A pause; "It's... they're pretty close. And... I think they're fighting." She opened her eyes as the wind died again. "One of them feels like you guys."
"Sabin," Edgar mused. "If it weren't for all this, I'd say he's sparring with Vargas, but a tengu would have to draw his wings to make blasts like this."
"We'd better hurry," Locke observed. "If he's in a real fight, we don't want him going too long."
+x+x+x+
They were halfway down the other side of the mountain when they found the fight.
The battlefield was a jagged section of earth - those who would rather not risk a tumble would take a good three laps around the path it formed before reaching the next cave. Two men were locked in fisticuffs, their chests bare. One of them had silver hair dancing around his head, and jet-black wings emerging from his back, obscuring most of his body; the other had messy blonde hair, his arms covered in spikes and his hands like scissor claws.
"Sabin!" Locke called, hoping he could get their attention.
The monstrel turned to the three of them briefly. "Locke!" he called. "Edgar! Not a good time!" The tengu lashed a punch forward, and Sabin leapt aside as an explosion of what seemed to be pure vacuum ripped up around where he had just been.
Edgar let his spear elongate, the blade tearing out. "Vargas!" he shouted. "What is the meaning of this?!"
"Go back to your desert, machinist!" the tengu snapped, glaring over his shoulder - and Terra stumbled back when she saw his face consumed by a crow's beak. "This doesn't concern you!"
He hit the ground, lashing a one-two punch at thin air; Sabin managed to leap away from one explosion, tumble over the air of another, and hit the ground with his claws thrusting forward. Vargas only leapt away, landing with a slide.
"What's going on here?" Locke protested.
Sabin aimed one hand at Vargas, two claws folding so that one pointed at the tengu. "This bastard killed his own father because he saw something from the wrong angle!"
Edgar reeled.
Locke turned away.
Terra's gaze hit the earth.
A grimace isn't easy to do with a beak, but Vargas managed it. "I hope that came out wrong," he protested.
"Yeah," Sabin admitted, lowering his hand. "That came out wrong. Look, I'll explain later!"
He leapt forward, swinging his claws towards the tengu, but Vargas only sidestepped the blows before thrusting his fists downward and launching into the air. The explosions ripped up where he had been, and Sabin was sent flying - though he managed to right himself before he landed.
"Is this a personal matter?" Locke demanded.
"YES!" both of the combatants insisted.
Edgar grasped his spear in both hands. "Is this a matter of honor?"
Vargas snapped, "Yes!"
Locke raised an eyebrow. "Sabin?"
"Do what you want," the monstrel insisted.
"Oh, no you don't!" Vargas roared, punching towards him again; and Sabin crossed his arms before him as the explosion hit him full-on. When the dust cleared, he was on one knee, one arm hanging at his side, and he didn't look like he was in any condition to take another hit.
Terra weighed her options for all of two seconds further before she took stance to fight, her feet perpendicular to one another as one faced Vargas. Her greatsword was drawn from its sheath on her back, and she braced it earthward at an angle, held between her and her opponent.
"If it's all the same to you..."
Her other hand was raised skyward, with its palm forward, as it would be while she danced.
"...I think I'll intrude on this."
Vargas heard; in an instant he turned towards her, lashing his fist forward.
Terra ducked low, her hand touching the earth before her as the blast sounded from inside the cave she, Edgar, and Locke had come out of.
Then she leapt into a backflip, and a bolt of fire tore from her heel, ripping through the air and connecting with Vargas' left wing. The blow sent him tumbling, and as he hit the ground he let his wings fold; the black feathers vanished, as did the flame they had caught, as his beak molded back into a human face. Terra wasted no time, leaping from her perch on the ledge the cave joined to, arcing into a swift forward flip and casting another bolt from her hand; Vargas ducked this one and rushed towards her, intending to strike her while she was swinging her weighty blade.
No such luck.
Terra's moves were no less graceful than her dance; she arced into a spin that drew her away from his blows, bringing the blade along his side before swiping it skyward and catching his shoulder. The blows ought have hurt, but Vargas showed no hindrance for it, turning back to strike at her from a skid that lasted about eight paces' worth; Terra only stepped aside as he thrust a punch that connected on the earth behind her - this one producing a much more subdued thud as it did so, disturbing the rock dust.
She and Vargas rushed each other; his steps pounded the earth like Titan, but hers had all the grace of Shiva as they approached one another. She stopped on a nickel and pulled away as he punched forward, both the jab and its wave passing her without harm; then she arced into a spin, and Locke saw her sword twirl in her hand to connect thrice as she turned once. Vargas fell to the earth, though he rose up again quickly and tried to strike at her with a wave, but Terra only braced the greatsword in a backhand grip, such that its blade was raised above her.
Two smaller thuds hit the stone before her.
Then she turned to face him, taking her sword-dancing stance once more.
Vargas grinned. "Clever..."
Then he lashed his fists earthward as a surge of power emerged around him, and Terra stumbled as his wings burst out of his back again, his face taking the form of a beak. His monstrous energy surged around him, and the detonation of his blows was an explosion once more, one that threw him forward. Before Terra could react, he was already there, and he landed a fierce cross to Terra's jaw, throwing her from her feet and sending her flying into the stone his split punch had connected to.
Her greatsword clattered to the ground in front of Vargas.
Then the stone exploded, burying Terra under a torrent of rock.
"Terra!" Locke shouted.
Edgar let spikes surge out around his own arms, and his legs elongated as he leapt towards Vargas, his spear raised. "You son of a bitch!"
Vargas pulled away as Edgar passed before striking him in the head with his wing and then his opposite heel. The Figaro king tumbled back as Vargas grabbed the spear, wrenching it from the earth and rolling it along his hand. Locke was leaping towards him, his knife in hand, but Vargas caught it on the shaft of the spear before kneeing him in the gut and forcing him back.
The stones began to clatter.
Everyone turned to see Terra pushing the largest rock fragment - which had landed on her - aside, getting to her feet with one hand on her head. Slowly, she managed to pull herself over the piece before her, looking up at the fight before her.
"...Vargas... I believe?"
Vargas took a fighting stance, dropping the spear in favor of his fists. "How...?"
Terra blinked slowly. "...I... owe you thanks..."
Locke turned to her, shocked at her words. "What...?"
"There... seems to have been... some sort of... dam... on my memory."
The flare dancer set her feet perpendicular once more, one towards Vargas.
"Your blows... have such force to them..."
One hand was extended forward, palm skyward.
"...that you seem... to have damaged it..."
The other was extended skyward, palm forward.
"...if ever so slightly."
Vargas growled. "You... are making a fool of me!"
Terra's gaze scanned the area in an instant, as - so she was beginning to realize - they had done many times before. Edgar was disarmed, and Locke had yet to blade his feet. Sabin, though not in the best of conditions, was on his feet - he was the best choice.
Their eyes met for the briefest of moments.
"NOW!"
Vargas already had his hand halfway out for a blow; and now, a sort of light traced Terra's leg as she arced it into a forward kick, her foot raised at the same time the tengu's arm was extended. A blaze dashed across the ground and slammed into Vargas' feet, the blaze ripping across one side of his body and throwing him into a spin - which put him in the perfect position to see Sabin rushing him.
The monstrel's hands... were hands.
It took only a moment; Sabin's fingers closed into fists, and he landed a sequence of seven blows across Vargas' bare torso, tracing the image of three triangles joined at the tips. He drew back one hand and landed an eighth blow at the point where the triangles would be joined, sending Vargas skidding back - and the tengu's eyes, shining beneath his silver hair, were wide in shock.
"That sequence..."
Then a blow struck his back, and his spine straightened as his own explosive vacuum consumed him. Sabin stood straight, crossing his arms before him and bowing his head, his eyes closed as Vargas' body was ravaged by the blast; when it faded, the tengu stood there, the feathers torn from his wings, his beak cracked.
"You slew your own father. Fall to his arts."
He lashed his hands down at his sides, the spikes in his arms melting into his flesh, and the lights that were Vargas' eyes faded as he fell back, landing roughly upon the earth.
Draco: I know this one is rather short, I'm sorry. Mt. Kolts didn't take nearly as long as I expected it to.
