AN: Okay, here is the chapter why it's rated R, just as a warning :P I'm very nervous as to the reception of this chapter, so here goes nothing…
Oh! And to 'just a reader' I really thank you for pointing out those things to me and I *think* I see what you're getting at…I'll try to work on it, and if I keep doing it, tell me again! I'm bound to get it right…hopefully :). Yeah, chapter 6…I think it was really more for me than anything else because I wanted to play with my characters…I think it sets up for chapter 7 too, so maybe my chapter break was just ill-placed? Anyway, I really enjoyed your input and thank you again! Thanks VERY much to everyone else who reviews too!
Chapter Seven: The Ways of Power
Over the shops and crowd drifted sweet, rhythmic music that was not from any of the other bonfires, but farther down the lake. It was fast and light, quick paced to move the feet, airy to lift the spirits, and carefree to entertain the soul. People seemed to bob around looking for the source that was not of their circle, but Link and Navi already knew what it was. The Tulare Dance and Theater Troop had just finished their last performance for the evening and Link was nothing less more than grateful. Oh, how his back hurt from sitting there. King Harkinian leaned over the side of his chair and tapped Link's shoulder to get the hero's attention.
"Boring no?" He chuckled as the crowd applauded the dancers off, "lucky for you, you're not the king." His eyes sparkled and Link hoped he meant what he thought he meant.
"You don't mind Sir?" Link tried to hide the shear joy in his voice. The King laughed as Link reminded him of a young stag yearning to get free of the snare.
"Ah, go on Link, no point in keeping you here anyhow, don't worry, I'll cover for you. I'm the King after all aren't I?" Link smiled and slipped out in between acts.
Quickly and quietly he hurried them down the lakeshore toward the music that had penetrated the evening air. As he and Navi grew near they could make out figures of people dancing wildly and singing, beating drums, playing whistles, and chanting along with the intoxicating rhythm. People clapped, feet pounded, drums beat faster and faster as they approached closer. The bonfire was huge and crackling merrily with a warm glow as the people gathered around, eating, drinking, and celebrating in tradition with their culture. Link spotted Loraefin out of the crowd right away, dancing on the far end of the fire with little Alari and Jack. She looked completely happy, whirling around with the two youngest of the village dancing along beside her. She glanced up and her eyes lit up as she saw him.
"Link!" Loraefin yelled and ran up to him, jumping into his arms for she was bursting with energy. "Come and dance with me!" She grabbed his arm without giving him time to protest and swept him off into the circle. The drums pounded faster and faster and the flutes and strings rose and fell whenever it suited them, creating an impulsive and exhilarating beat that pulsated from the soul. Loraefin was loose and perfectly adept with the unpredictable rhythm of the music, swaying her hips and dancing on light feet that gave her an illusion that she never touched the ground. Link watched her in amazement as she danced; having seen it before didn't lessen the enchantment that it was. She faced him and rapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her level and grabbed one side of his waist with a free arm to make him move his hips to the beat. For all that he tried Link was still a stiff dancer.
"You need to move with the rhythm Link, move with the rhythm!" She chanted merrily along with the others and arched herself to fit and move better with him, knowing how he would be embarrassed at such a thing. After all, festival dancing was not a shy form. Pressed together as they were Link couldn't help but move with her. "See, that's it Link," she laughed and backed away from him, "you know, for a hero who has countless women who want you, you're awfully shy."
"Really? Countless women want me?" Link smirked and grabbed her around the waist, dispelling the illusion of shyness. The music was dizzying and Link felt not like himself at all. The memory of Loraefin on the table at her home, overcome with the Duvidth and fumbling with his tunic laces surfaced in his mind once again unintentionally. For once he let the image stay present in his mind. "Do you want me?"
"Oh no," she tauntingly cocked an eyebrow, surprised at his playfulness, "you're too…too…you can't dance, no man of mine can't dance." Link flushed red and tried to crack a smile.
"I try, and I think I've gotten better," he squeezed her waist tighter with one arm and sent her in a dip that caused her hair to brush the ground. Surprised, she laughed as the blood went rushing back down when she was upright again. "Didn't feel like joining the other fires tonight?" Link knew the answer but wanted to ask it anyway.
"Not at all!" Loraefin smoothed out the red ribbons in her hair, still moving to the rhythm of the music. "We're here because…well, we didn't feel welcomed." Her demeanor deflated for an instant but in the next moment she wiped it away. "Have I embarrassed you enough? Should I let you go sit down?" She laughed and let him take his leave and he sat down to watch. He watched Megeara's glossy red hair fly in the firelight as she danced with Zannon, he spoke with Greysir and Re'ale and many others, but mostly he watched Loraefin who had found a partner in the tall and fair Lycus. He hated this feeling.
"You have that look on your face again," Navi popped in from above him, "you're not jealous of Lycus are you? You're looking at him."
"What? Where did you get that idea?" Link stammered, taking his eyes off of the dancers and up at her. "Why would I be jealous of Lycus?"
"I don't know, you tell me," she chimed in her light and tinkling faery voice. "It's always when he's around Loraefin too, I've been watching you and it's every time. You know they're cousins right?" Link blinked and stared off blankly for a moment.
"Cousins?" He gawked in disbelief at this revelation, "how do you know?"
"Loraefin told me, why, didn't you know?"
"No!"
"How could you not know?" Navi was shocked, "It's obvious anyway, I mean, think about it, the third generation in an isolated area? By their generation they would all be related through blood somehow. That's the biggest reason they even agreed to show themselves, they wanted to have children." Link had never thought about it and now wondered why he had not come across it before. Cousins! All of them! And suddenly that secret pang of jealously evaporated into nothing.
Eventually the music stopped for a moment, giving the players and dancers time to rest. Loraefin went to talk to her parents before taking a seat next to Link and sighing contently.
"Hard work dancing is," she leaned back to stretch, "I think I've celebrated enough for awhile, want a drink?" Loraefin handed him the mug of wine she had been sipping on and he took a swig of the contents. It was sweet and tingled a bit in the back of his throat. Link stifled a cough and handed it back to Loraefin.
"Good," Link cleared his throat and smiled foolishly when Loraefin laughed at him.
"Yeah, this is a bit stronger than I'm used to too," she took another sip and put the mug down on the ground. They were silent for minutes on end, just watching Loraefin's family talk and eat and drink around them. Link turned to her suddenly, struck with something to say.
"I didn't know that you were all cousins," he said and the edges of Loraefin's mouth twitched into a smile.
"Yeah, I thought you knew that?"
"No, Navi just told me. Though now I feel pretty stupid that I didn't realize it sooner."
"Where is Navi?"
"Over by your brother."
"Ah."
"When do you guys go back to the valley?" He blinked hard, resting his eyes from the light of the flames.
"I guess early tomorrow, I know I wouldn't want to much longer than that, you saw what they did to Joshuan. They touch my brother again and I'll kill them." At this she was most serious and Link didn't doubt that she would take matters into her own hands, though he did doubt murder very highly.
"They touch him again and they'll have to answer to me too, but things will get better," Link smiled sweetly, defusing the tension. Loraefin admired his ability to do that. Link thought he caught a blush rise in Loraefin's cheeks but he could just be mistaking the flush from the fire. She put a hand over his and squeezed it then stood to take her leave for the food and drink had run its course. Link let her go and watched her disappear into the crowd.
There was something deeper that she was not telling him, he could see it plain on her face. It would be no use trying to get it out of her now, if she had not come right out with it to begin with. Loraefin may have been small woman, but she was stubborn and could dig her heels in when she wanted. That made Link worry all the more because so rarely did she not say what was on her mind. He thought of following her, but shrugged it off considering where she was going.
Loraefin skimmed around the rock walls that made up part of the lake's enclosure trying to find where the latrines had been dug. Considering, they should not have been that hard to find, but she wanted to be very careful where she stepped. In a concave portion of the cliff she groped her way in the dark with only the faint light from the stars and her nose to guide her.
A pain flashed against the back of her head that sent Loraefin whirling to the ground. She felt her face being shoved hard against the foul dirt of the latrine, the scent filling her nostrils and matting in her hair. Something pinned her violently to the ground and she felt the callused palm gripping her wrists so tightly she thought the person was trying to snap them in two. She bucked up, knocking one man off his balance and cursed at him in Gerudo. With one hand free she bared her nails and scratched him across the face, feeling her nails sink into the unshaven jaw. He yelled and tried to punch her though her Gerudo training saved her, but not from the second blow from the man behind her and his swift, assailing blows. She crashed to the ground in an incoherent daze and the men held her firm.
A callused hand was firmly over her mouth so she couldn't scream for help and with all her might she tried to move, but it was useless. She didn't know what was happening; she couldn't even see the faces of her attackers. She was scared. Loraefin's mind reeled and the throbbing from the blow to the back of the head grew stronger and stronger by the minute as she strained again to lift herself. But she kept slipping on the muck of the ground and could not. There was another hard blow to the back that all but knocked the wind out of her tired bruised body. She gasped for breath as the blow made every fiber within her scream for oxygen and Loraefin could not keep the tears from rolling down her cheeks or the sobs stifled against one of the two men's rough hands.
Loraefin was too tired and beaten to hold on much longer and her vision was blurred with tears and blood from a cut on her head. The men flipped her over and for an instant Loraefin could see the stars glimmering above her in the autumn sky before they were blotted out by the huge, looming figure of the larger man. He reeked of cheap ale and unclean male sweat, as if that was not the only thing unclean on him, and the smell wafted up Loraefin's nostrils making her want to gag. It was the man she had thrown the stone at, she was sure of it. She felt something grab at her breast, crushing and bruising it with a hard hand. Then there was the terrible pain between her thighs that ripped through her like a blade. Her sobs racked her entire body, but still the pain continued to tear her.
Loraefin clenched her eyes and tried to block out the pain, but it was impossible to ignore the presence inside her. The pain in her head seemed to split her in two while the force of him was threatening too. He cursed at her, called her awful names. He took her with only the thought of revenge for insulting him and his satisfaction. And he could use this worthless Gerudo mutt until he would shudder and roll her over to use again. It made sense to him that she should be tumbled in a pit of filth.
The world started to go black around Loraefin as her conscious was slipping away, but somewhere hovering between the blackness and shame Loraefin felt a sharp sensation in the pit of her stomach, like someone had hollowed out her insides. She felt her belly warming quickly until within seconds it was as if she was on fire from the inside out. The bonfire, I've become part of the bonfire…Her mind told her and the image of her family gathered around a huge bonfire came into hazy view.
As she floated along beside them, unaware of the pain anymore, she noticed that it was not the fire of a festival. She looked to the flames and inside she saw a pyre. A funeral pyre! Her mind gasped. A death! There will be a death! Who is it? Why can't I see? Her conscious hovered there and then the fire parted and she saw the face of the body. With a gasp she returned to her body with the image of herself flashing in her mind.
As the flame grew from red to white in intensity, her skin started to glow with a faint shimmer and sweat poured from every opening in her skin and her hair was drenched within moments. Nausea and fatigue swept over her like a wave so intense she thought for certain that she was going to die right at that moment. The vision, surely it is to come of this…She shut her eyes tightly and felt the pain grow and grow until she could stand it no longer and every muscle tensed as her body erupted with such terrible heat that both men flew back from her.
A dome of glassy flames rose around her and Loraefin could hear the sound of the heat rushing over the land and rocks like the sudden gust of wind and time seemed to hold still in that moment. And indeed time did slow for she saw with perfect clarity the bodies of the men thrown back like nothing more than play things. The flames that engulfed her swirled around her like a shield, glittering amber and scarlet before disappearing into nothing from which they came. When they did, time returned to its normal flow and she was paralyzed, unable to move her exhausted muscles. Her dress was smoldering and reeking of smoke, feces, and sweat. The two men lay on the ground about ten feet away unconscious. One was not breathing.
AN: OoOo….something bad happened….maybe that whole scene was your average 'rape' scene *shudders because she does not like the subject* but seeing as that has never happened to me, I only have other stories to base it on. I hope it conveyed the kind of emotion and fear for Fin that I was going for…*joking* Hey, 'just a reader' (Do you have a name, by the way :) ? ) was that half a part? Did I improve? :)