"The Destiny Stone"
Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda or any characters, places, or events thereof, so there! Of the original characters, I came up with Timbre, Kat, Aka, Benz, Vulcan and some various bit characters here and there. Sond owns the rest. Thanks Sond! Rej is © FogFrontier!
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Bear with me, here. This is a kind of test. Some people are probably wondering where the Sam scratch I've been. Well, I'm here, and with an update. Sort of. Some of you might notice that this chapter is about half as long as my normal updates. Yes, it is supposed to be that way. I'll explain the situation after the chapter, okay? I promise.
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"The Destiny Stone" – Chapter 29: Trick Up The Sleeve
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It proved to be a very warm, though solemn dawn, the morning they parted ways. There was barely enough light yet to even start to burn off the morning humidity, and so it hung about in clouds of mist, that floated about like the ends of question marks. The nearly opaque haze wrapped about the three lonely figures like a blanket, crowning them in shimmering auroras from the reflected vapors.
Kat shivered slightly, feeling quite miserable. Even the morning mist could give chills to her in this case. It was hard to believe that beyond all this swirling mist, an entire world existed besides the three of them, and that the moment they broke their huddle, all of them would have to rejoin that normal reality. But for the moment, it was like all there was or ever would be consisted of their tiny party.
Sond was the first to speak. "Are you sure about this?"
Timbre adjusted the wrapped sword that was now firmly strapped to his back via the harness. It remained inconspicuous enough, though possibly looked a little strange on his frame. "Have I ever been sure about anything?" he replied, a little snidely.
"Hey, I wasn't joking you know," Sond said back. "If you want...we could still go with you."
The youth shook his head and frowned. "Sond...you're not making this any easier...you know that." All three of them knew that he had to go alone, and there wasn't anything they could do to change that.
Both of the girls were now huddled against the taller form of their friend, just as if to reassure themselves that he hadn't himself turned to mist. And maybe, just maybe, if they stayed, he'd never come to any harm. Kat felt a telltale lump in her throat that always heralded tears.
"Just...promise something," Sond finally said.
"What?"
"For goodness sakes, take care of yourself."
Timbre raised an eyebrow. "Why suddenly so worried?"
"Because," Kat said, sounding a little more choked then she would have wanted. "We do care about you...what if we never saw you again?"
"You do know I intend to come back, right?" Timbre looked a little concerned. "I'm not gonna drop off the face of the earth or anything..."
"Would you quit saying things like that as if you were joking?" Kat snapped. "We're serious, here." Now the first tear finally escaped her.
Similar sounds of grief from Sond's side made Timbre suddenly droop. Both of his friends were crying, now. A surge of guilt made him swallow, and he nearly just started howling there himself. He didn't want to go, he did care...but...
Still upset, he bowed down and changed forms, both girls still with their arms thrown around him. The sudden intensification of his sense of smell made him feel like he'd suddenly plunged underwater. On either side were the familiar smells of his friends, and he let out a quiet sigh. It wasn't something he'd be experiencing in a while, and the thought made him shake a little.
Kat felt the shudder, and knew what it meant. "We can't keep him here forever, Sond-"
As if on cue, both the girls sat back, breaking the tight embrace. "Sorry," Sond sniffled. "We didn't want this to get this emotional, but..." she bit her lip. "Just come back to us, okay?"
Of course I will, Timbre said, soundlessly. A great deal of the lupine language could often be said without a single sound, and so he spoke as such now, solemnly touching nose to nose first with Sond and then with Kat, daring to look directly into their eyes and to gently lick the tears from their eyes.
And as much as humans said or thought they didn't know any lupine, Timbre could read both of his friends' faces in the silence, and what they had to say gave him a little comfort for the lonely journey ahead.
"Goodbye," he whimpered once, and then let his legs carry him away. He only looked back once, but that was reassurance enough. Then he plunged forward, ears back, swallowing himself into the clouds.
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Chiron stared scornfully down at the dying Wolfos in front of him. He'd spent a good deal of the early morning dispatching the beasts that still had the gall even now to haggard him. Now only this one remained. It had been in terrible shape, even before his sword had found it – it seemed to have been lamed in both legs. How it had managed to run was just a testament to the extreme tenacity of its species. He had no doubt that it would even now rather die angrily, with its teeth sunk in his neck then submit to him.
The broken monster was curled on its side like a comma, and one of its watery eyes stared balefully up at him. The beast was panting, coughing up a trickle of blood and drooly bile from its jowl with every breath. Although pitiful, it somehow managed to suddenly grin at him. An unmistakable animalistic laugh cut the mental air.
Chiron raised an eyebrow. He hadn't even been aware that he'd left his communication spell activated. But he decided not to let this anomaly go to waste. "What are you laughing at? I've just killed you and all your pack." he demanded, vexed.
The dying Wolfos cackled again. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No." Chiron frowned. "Why were you lamed?" He vaguely remembered speaking to this particular Wolfos at some other time, and then it had only had one injury.
A red eye rolled back at him. "I was lamed by the same one that you seek now," it admitted, and it bared its teeth. "And a thousand curses to the whelp."
"Liar," Chiron spat. "No swordsman would bother laming a creature twice. You would've been slain."
"They would," rasped the Wolfos, "If they didn't use a sword. But you didn't bother to think of that, did you, human? But...it is no matter...for he is left already..."
Chiron scowled.
"Ah, you disbelieve me yet...but it is no concern of mine if you do or not." The Wolfos coughed again, and its eyes slowly began to lose their glow. "You will be made a fool of yet."
"What do you mean?!" Chiron demanded. "Where is he? What do you know?"
The Wolfos gave a gurgling laugh, and died spitefully with a grin still passing its jaws.
Sneering, Chiron severed the corpse's head with a forceful chop of his katana. The blade was beginning to dull, and Chiron grudgingly realized he had no skilled blacksmith anymore to sharpen it.
Several loud curses spat through the air, and Pedro homed in on them, as usual.
"Boss? What's up? Didya kill all of 'em, finally? Th' Poes haven't left guard since you left, y'know...An' also, did you know that-"
The fairy's enthusiastic tirade drew to a slow halt as he suddenly frowned at Chiron, who was furiously rubbing his temples, and didn't seem to be paying any attention. "Boss? Boss!"
"Gargh! What is it, Pedro?"
"It's important news, y'know...Thought you might want to know, cause...it's...important..."
Chiron coughed angrily.
"Oh, right! See...th' Poes've noticed some movement in th' town, finally...looks like they're sendin' someone out today, wi' th' You-Know-What-"
Chiron suddenly paused. "What? Why would they be so foolish?!"
"Not foolish," Pedro recited. "They're just, y'know...desperate. I don't think they've got food left, Rej figures they're starvin' by now. Maybe they thought one of 'em would have a chance-"
Chiron stared down at the severed head, kicking it from side to side with a bored air. The head rotated, its wide open eyes giving it the air of peering about. "I find it hard to believe that Impa would allow such a thing. Who is it going out?"
"Er...that odd fellow, th' one we don't always see all th' time...some sorta hermit or something."
Chiron remembered something of the Wolfos' dying words. "Tell the Poes to remain invisible. Let whomever this champion is to pass the barrier unharmed. I will deal with him."
His opponent wasn't long in arriving. Chiron actually saw him coming for a while before he actually arrived, as the hanging mists had drawn their silken curtains, though the whole world was still somewhat white-washed out.
His opponent wasn't even that impressive, Chiron thought. He himself hadn't been on watch long enough to recognize him right off, but even so, Chiron had seen more fearsome foes. The one striding towards him was somewhat tall and gangly and unkempt. This was their great champion?
The young man's hair was spiky and black, and a bit long to be considered very respectable. He wore a long brown coat of some unknown make. No Knight this one, Chiron thought with a smirk. Unless they've been lowering their standards...
But there was something about the person that interested Chiron a great deal. There appeared to be a scabbard-shaped object on his back, slung via the shoulders. A Sword! Chiron thought.
Pedro, who seemed eerily accurate about his master's thoughts, said what he was thinking aloud. "That's the Sword, boss. S'gotta be."
"How do you know?" Chiron asked, curious.
"Cause they said so," Pedro answered innocently.
The Gerudo scowled. "Tell the Poes to guard the barrier carefully...this might just be a ruse to distract us from seeing a second person slip out or something," he muttered. Pedro bobbed once.
"I'm on it, boss!"
As Pedro's flickering subsided into the washed-out sky, Chiron stared his adversary in the eye. He was very close now, not more then fifty feet, though he appeared to be unaware of Chiron. In fact, he seemed more interested in the ground then anything else.
"Halt!" Chiron called out, pulling up his katana so that it didn't catch against the ground.
His adversary stopped and looked up at him for a brief moment. Then he looked back at the ground and continued forwards.
"Halt, I say, in the name of Lord Ganondorf!"
This time the young man answered him when he looked up. "Hold on, will ya?" He looked down again, and this time Chiron clearly heard him counting as he walked. "One-hundred ninety-six...one-hundred ninety-seven...one-hundred ninety-eight-"
"Stop that!"
"Hold up – one-hundred ninety-nine, two hundred! Okay!" The man planted his feet squarely onto the ground, and looked up at Chiron. "There. Now, what do you want?"
Aggravated by this sheerly insolent character, Chiron growled. "You're trying my patience. You know what."
Curious, the man turned his head to one side. "I do? Huh." Then, to the complete and utter confusion of Chiron, the man shrugged and sat down on the grass with a quiet smile. "Lovely morning, isn't it?"
"What in the name of-"Chiron frowned. "What are you doing now? Get over here right now!"
"But not two minutes ago you wanted me to 'halt,' remember?" The raven-haired youth smirked. "If you're going to make a job've ordering people around, you better get your priorities straight!"
"Gah! So help me you'll be in pieces!" Chiron strode aggressively forwards, closing the distance between the strange youth and himself. Staring disdainfully down at him, Chiron pointed his sword at the man's throat. "Get up. Now!"
Holding his hands up as if surrendering, the man smiled softly. "If you insist." He stood, oddly nonchalant about being threatened. This made Chiron even more convinced that this was nothing more than a distraction. An annoying one, at that. Chiron debated what to do with him.
"Was there anything specific you wanted to ask me?" the man suddenly prompted, as if he were trying to encourage a shy child to speak.
Chiron scowled, losing his patience. He decided to be as blunt as possible to this simpleton. "The Sword. I want it."
"What Sword?"
The sword-point hovered dangerously. "The one on your back."
The man's eyes roved backwards slightly, as if glancing behind him. "Oh. That one. Well...y'see...it isn't for sale."
"I don't want to-"Chiron lost his temper. "Give it to me now or I will kill you!"
"Heh, funny thing about that..."
"NOW!"
"...it isn't mine to give, see..."
Chiron's temper exploded completely, and his sword swung horizontally to cleanly take off the man's head.
The sword passed directly through the man as if he were a ghost, and his image flickered like a disturbed pool. The distorted image righted itself in front of Chiron's face, whose enraged face was twisted into an expression of dire anger and shock.
"...cause it isn't really there. Sorry, that plan was doomed from the start," said the man, and he suddenly disappeared. In his place, his head standing a good two feet lower, was a Skull Kid, who was adjusting his hat. "Though...ya did nearly take th' tip off of m'good hat, y'know..."
Chiron's moment of pause ended, and he aimed a second chop directly down at the Skull Kid. Before he could follow through, however, half a dozen Sheikan needles suddenly seemed to sprout from his hand. He stared, dumbfounded at them, and as it registered, his entire hand and arm exploded in a spasm of pain.
The katana dropped from his suddenly deadened, nerveless hand. "Poes!" Chiron yelled, clutching at his injured arm. "There's a Sheikah out here! Kill it!"
"I'm sorry sir," the Skull Kid smiled in the same way the man had. "That won't work, cause we already took care of them..."
Chiron stared and backed up a pace. "What?"
Impa materialized from the mist, a dozen more needles still glimmering from in-between her fingers. "Your ghosts are gone. They've been vanquished since early this morning. Earlier then before you came here."
"But...but..." Chiron's face twisted in pain. The last words of the Wolfos seemed to echo dimly in his ear. You'll be made a fool of yet..."The Sword-"
"Long gone." Impa's mouth twitched. "The wolf carried it away with him, hours before you even were aware of it."
The Gerudo hissed and spat a thousand curses. "Fools," he suddenly declared. "When Ganondorf learns of this-"
"Well, then you'll be in quite some trouble, I'd expect..." Kat walked up. In her left hand she carried a bottle that seemed to be filled with orange, struggling light. Pedro's muffled yells were deadened by the thick glass. "He'll probably kill you for failing him, am I right?"
"It would be worth it, because you would be next," Chiron spat at her. "I don't care for my own life, anyhow!"
"Well, maybe you should, Chiron," said a voice directly behind him. Instinctually, the Gerudo turned to strike the voice with his uninjured arm. But the stranger struck first, across the back of his head.
CLONG!
Chiron's unconscious body practically slumped onto Sond, who took a step back and let him drop onto the grass instead. She casually swung a cast-iron frying pan to and fro as she stared downwards.
"You," she said to Chiron, "have been deceived."
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Okay then. Now you might be wondering why the chapter was so short. Basically, here's my situation: I'm currently in the throes of my senior year at college. My free time is very very compromised at the moment, as I'm jugging four classes and a senior thesis, plus managing a school organization and being a peer advisor for my floor. That, and I have to sleep and eat and stuff. So here's one of my two options, I thought I'd let people vote on this:
I could continue writing these smaller, shorter chapters, in which case I would be able to update the story more frequently. Like every other week or so.
I could keep the chapters the 'old way,' that is as long as they have always been, but if that occurs the updates will be very long in-between. Like a month or so.
So there's the options. The third would be to drop the story altogether, but I don't want to do that...if I could get some feedback on this it would help a LOT. Please, and thank you!