"Tantalus?" Oliver asked, looking downright befuddled as he starting cranking a wheel, slowly pulling the flying bathtub in tow up to the small, makeshift docking crane. The cords that suspended Gaiden wouldn't hold for very much longer. "Why did we just drag a bathtub through the wall of a giant house?"
"Chandler beat me in the spread," Caesar Tantalus yelled nonchalantly through the open window to the captain's office as he checked various maps of the Continent of Mist. He busied himself dropping the Alka-Seltzer miracle drug equivalent into a glass of straight vinegar, and slugging down the overflowing science project as fast as he could.
"What were you betting on?" Olly asked, still reeling in the tub. He jumped in surprise as the cords gave way slightly, and Gaiden yelled in fear, now holding onto the cords for dear life.
Oliver wore the uniform of a young schoolboy, with a gray jacket over a fine white shirt, with black shorts, gray leggings and white socks. His skin was almost a very pale yellow-green, with patched grafts of a tough bottle green cloth here and there. He wore a white headband and had dreadlocks of thick red hair. He was a quiet, shy conformist, though extremely smart and disciplined.
"Gaiden."
"You were betting against me?!" Gaiden yelled, outraged as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and climbed up the cord. He jumped onto one of the many sandbags that lined the hull and rolled over the rail and onto the deck. Olly covered his eyes.
"Well, I never thought you'd win against the old guy with the gun," Tantalus explained, shrugging as he walked out onto the deck. Gaiden spilled his backpack out across the deck, and Tantalus grinned at their new riches.
Caesar Tantalus wore a bottle green cloak and hood, with a maroon jerkin hiding a shirt of mail sewn under it. He wore a white shirt and tough brown pants otherwise. His entire form was not memorable, simply as though you had never met him. He constantly wore several rings on each finger, none matching the others and many seeming to give off a faint glow. You had the distinct impression at every glance that there was more to him than he would have you believe, as though he bent your will towards him. None truly could describe him if he didn't want them to.
"Dammit it's cold up here," Gaiden commented as he pulled on his clothes. "You'd think Tantalus'd figured out how to get central heating by now."
"Shut up." Tantalus said, going over to reel up the bathtub. The sandbag Gaiden had loosened suddenly unraveled itself from the post of the railing, and dragged another 100 pounds of gravel down with it into the bathtub. There was the sound of rushing air and then the force of a bomb as the bathtub plummeted and shattered on the rocky slopes below. There was an eerie silence where nobody made a sound as each went over to the side to look down at all the dust that had been kicked up.
"I didn't do it."
"Yeah you did."
"Shut up, no I didn't."
"Both of you shut up and get a dustpan."
"Don't tell me to shut up!"
"Ow! Quit it!"
"Dammit! No hitting below the belt!"
"I HATE YOU!!!"
"I wanna go back home!"
...Folks, do you see now why I prefer birds? Skye told himself as he watched from his perch on the mainstay.
"Dammit, it's still cold up here," Gaiden said, wrapped in a spare sail. Skye was perched on his shoulder.
"Well, what'd you expect?" Olly told him. "We're about a mile up in the air."
"I fold," Tantalus told Skye, casting down his hand and pushing a pile of crackers towards the bird. Gaiden began to snack on their winnings before Skye nicked him right in the ear.
"Ow! Skye, cut it out! Quit it!" Gaiden yelled, pushing Skye off his shoulders. Olly began to laugh as he polished his fine swallow and ate shish-kabobs cooked over the lamp before then.
"Where are we going to?" Olly asked.
"Death Mountain, thereabouts," Tantalus replied, taking a large swig of wine from a bottle.
"Romeo Township?" Olly asked, suddenly hanging on his Godfather's every word. Olly was obsessed with Romeo Township and its village, Kakariko. It had always been his dream to make a great pilgrimage to become a Dragon Knight, a highly disciplined soldier of Romeo Township, highly proficient in spears, lances and bows. A unique quality of their skills was their ability to jump high into the air and come crashing down upon their enemies. Olly was studying on and off himself.
"Yeah. I'm meeting with the Regent there. There's supposed to be a bash happening soon, too."
"Commemorating the Death Siege?" Skye asked hopefully. Their troupe had fought in that battle, and had nearly won it for them.
"I remember the Regent!" Olly suddenly burst out, grinning. "He was so dignified, but bored with his job. He actually reminded me of you, Skye."
"Skye's not dignified. He's just senile and mangy. Ow, dammit Skye, cut it out!" Gaiden shot his mouth off and Skye began rapping on his head with his beak. Gaiden rolled over as Tantalus started booming out laughter. Gaiden covered himself with the sail and swatted away Skye, then quickly retired to bed to nurse his wounds. A battle fought bravely.
Gaiden busied himself in his four-poster above Olly's bed, stripping to his boxers and jumping up under the covers. He quickly cursed, and pulled the large hardcover book out from under his skull. A welt was probably starting to form, he told himself.
"'Royal Dictionary, Thesaurus & Encyclopedia of the Courts of Hylia," Gaiden read the title aloud, figuring it was one of the books Olly read constantly. He figured why not, he needed something to do. He flipped to the Gs first, simply thumbing his way through the pages. One word stood out amongst all the rest.
Geohound (jee-o'hound) n.
1. Uneducated, adventuresome and otherwise wild vagabond wanderers, thieves, murderers or worse, Geohounds are rangers of the wild that perform tasks of roguish, outlawed, underhand quality for civilized noblemen. Above none in culture, etiquette and intelligence.
Gaiden knew these stereotypes all too well, and made his way by the shifty natures outlined in the Royal Court BS Book, and by his own skill with the blade. He sighed heavily at his own expense and pessimism, and made to close the book, but at the beginning of F section another word caught his eye.
Familiar (Fa-mil'yer) n.
1. An offspring of man and another species. Distrusted by both of the races that sired them, Familiars are creatures of passion, driven to the extremes of emotion and are often driven to madness by imbalances in their blood. Possessing Animalian physical abnormalities sharply contrasting otherwise Hume-like features. More beast than man, and not to be trusted.
'You'll pay for that, you dirty Familiar!' Gaiden remembered Kudgle saying that. Otherwise normal, but this single curious factor branded him an outcast as much if not more than being a Geohound did. Gaiden became infuriated by all the cruelty he had faced, recalling it to recent memory. He quickly through the book against the hull, as heavy as it was, and after a sickening crack the book fell to the floor. Gaiden sighed heavily again, pushing open the port window next to his face and enjoying a cooling breeze. He figured Skye would fly in and perch sooner or later, and he found he slept better when his scout and partner was perched next to him with his small head under his wing. Gaiden turned around and turned the lantern down to a small flame, and the wind snuffed it out for him. Gaiden reclined, and lay awake for a while. He heard the flutter of Skye's wings, though his eyes were closed, and quickly found comfort. For a little while.
It was more real than ever before, the way Gaiden's nightmares played out. He saw himself walking swiftly uphill under tree-cover, following muddy footsteps as he was splattered with freezing cold rain and wind that pierced every inch of his skin like needles. He bore only a longblade in his hand, the enchanted steel glowing faintly blue as rain ran down through the carved lines that formed figures of ancient letters and runes.
Gaiden suddenly came to the plateau of the hill where the trees became scarce. The Plateau of Memories was a ruin of long-abandoned monuments of an ancient race, housing an Idol sacred to the village at the foot of the hill.
"Sol-a-a-a-n!" Gaiden began to call out, running through the ruins as the wind and rain blew fiercer and harder than ever. "Mead-o-o-o-w!" There was a fell voice on the wind now, cold, arrogant and without compassion as it laughed, sharp and terrible. Gaiden was soaked to the bone, clad only in cloth, but he took no cover. His sharp hearing picked up a crunch against gravel and a war-cry, and he rushed towards it.
Gaiden yelled out in shock, and ran up towards the body of one of the villagers. It was Bart, one of the bards of the inn, and Gaiden's trainer. There were five others strewn about, all slain but this one, their blood spilling over the scorched earth. He was fatally wounded himself.
"Link..." Bart spoke to Gaiden, using Gaiden's shoulder to pull himself up to whisper into Gaiden's ear. Blood ran down his chin from his mouth, but he didn't care. He was lacerated and a corpse already. "Run... just go. Don't try to face him...."
"Bart! Please, tell me, where's Solan?" Gaiden yelled into Bart's face, holding him by the collar with a quiver in his voice. Bart hesitated and began to raise his arm, but it fell limp. His eyes rolled back, and he had passed on.
"Dammit!" Gaiden cursed for the first time in his life, and closed Bart's eyes. Gaiden took up his sword, and began to shift his eyes in each direction, strafing around the pillars, trying to find what had slaughtered his friends. He suddenly heard a screech of shock and pain, and ran towards it. It was followed by the same laughter, and Gaiden was sure that the laughter was what had butchered his elders. He didn't realize who the laughter belonged to.
Gaiden's eyes went wide in shock as he saw the fair Meadow standing atop a ruin, whose beauty truly rivaled even the Princess Zelda of tales far-off. Her fiancé, and Gaiden's brother, Solanthanor, stood before her, his eyes glowing with ferocity. His sword shone with fiery colors of gold and orange dimmed by the rain. He moved with such speed as Gaiden had never before witnessed and could barely follow as he quickly stabbed Meadow through the stomach and let her slide down towards the hilt, suspended in midair like some deranged puppet. Solan owned that laughter, that laughter which haunted Gaiden still as he watched Meadow's limp body slide off the sword and fall ten feet down to the stones below.
Solan laughed again, and jumped to the ground himself. He rushed towards Gaiden, and Gaiden felt his right backhand begin to burn as he raised his sword in defense, still unbelieving and unwilling to truly fight his brother. He was amazed as his brother moved untouched by the rain, as though he had a phenomenal meticulous nature and controlled how his every cell moved. Gaiden felt the cold cut of enchanted steel and felt the wound burn as it was assaulted by the elements, and barely had snapped his blade towards his own clan, and felt it simply get batted away. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground, grieving in his last moments of consciousness before what he could felt was his death. Truly, it was Gaiden's birth from the ashes. And all he could think was
Why...? The next morning, Gaiden heeded Bart's words and left.
"Dammit!" Suddenly, Gaiden awoke from his nightmares with more passion than he had ever felt. I was almost able to forget.... It quickly turned to grief.
"Wake up, you lousy sacks of crap!" Tantalus yelled, using a triangle right in the ear to wake Olly and Gaiden. Skye was out grabbing some breakfast. "Which one of you dicks left the sail up all night?"
"It was Olly man, I was in bed way before any of you," Gaiden yawned as Tantalus rang Olly's head a few more times.
"Ga-i-i-i-den! Why'd you tell him that?" Olly yelled and kicked Gaiden right in the ass. Bottom bunk had its privileges.
"Shut up Olly, or I'll send your ass skipping down Lollypop Lane," Gaiden said, jumping down onto the floor and starting to pull his underalls on.
"Whoa there little boy, what do you think you're doing?" Tantalus said to Gaiden, pulling his fine robes of green with red and gold designs.
"Getting dressed, and I'd prefer it if you didn't stare," Gaiden said, royally pissed. Right at the crack of noon, too.
"Hold on. Since Olly left the sail up all night, we're only about ten minutes away from Romeo Township. Death Mountain's right there. I could spit to it," Tantalus pointed out the window, and Gaiden turned to see a flurry of feathers whisk past his eye-line. He jumped in shock as Skye took a perch on his bed. "Get your clown suit on, we need to make some money."
"Come on Boss, not the clown suit," Gaiden tried to reason, but even then he knew it was hopeless. He groaned as he grabbed a sleeveless shirt of four giant checkers of white and blue, with huge, green, padded overalls with yellow stars all over. He combed his hair far over one half of his face as he pulled the white gloves on with the yellow silk frills. He finally put a mask over the open side of his face, the top half white and the bottom black. He looked in the mirror.
"I hope it's okay to be a stoic clown," Skye chuckled to himself.
Within minutes they were over the Court of Romeo Township, and preparing to land.