ATE: I'd like to thank xForeverGamerx, miserymire, Guest, Nintendoborn, Celestail Spirit, and Nakashima Hatsuharu for their reviews, as well as everyone else reading this story. Now for the guest review(s).
Guest: "Good thing she was in a forest"? Uhhh, what? Are you sure you're reading the right story?
Originally, this was supposed to be the first half of the actual Chapter 6, but seeing as this part ended up being longer than expected (on the outline I wrote out, this part was the shortest part with the fewest points when compared to the rest of it; this part ended up being 5,279 words long!) I decided to get this part out-since you all having been waiting patiently for this update to come out-and then get working on what was supposed to be the second half so that can end up being Chapter 7 (you'll all see why when the time comes). For now, I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Legend of Zelda or Nintendo. I only own my OC.
~*~Chapter 6~*~
Curled up underneath the blanket that covered her, Evangeline was completely content to stay asleep…
...At least that's what she had intended to do if it weren't for the sun shining directly into her face, and covering her head with her blanket didn't help at all!
Letting out a sigh of defeat, she decided she might as well get up and forced herself to escape the comfort of her hammock. Her bare feet soon make contact with the wooden floor of Revali's home—which was warm due to the sunlight coming in from the open shutters—and went about slipping on leather shoes that had been provided to her. As soon as she had finished with putting on the shoes that Evangeline noticed the plate of food that had been left on a nearby table, ironically the same one that had the large map she'd been shown yesterday. Making her way over to the table, it was upon closer inspection that she noticed a folded piece of paper stuck underneath the plate, and without thinking she pulled it out and unfolded it.
However, what was written only left her feeling immense confusion.
Staring back at her were foreign symbols neatly written, and it only took her a few minutes to realize that she'd seen the same symbols from the map of Hyrule. As she continued to stare at the characters, she couldn't help but find herself admiring the calligraphy of the penmanship; in a way the symbols reminded her a little of the characters from the Japanese language, though it was still completely different at the same time.
Regardless of how fascinated she was by the handwriting, she still didn't know what it said, but she could only assume that Revali had left it for her to find (especially if it was stuck underneath a plate of food that had been left for her to eat).
An idea soon popped into her heard.
It was true that she couldn't decipher the language, but that didn't mean she couldn't ask someone to translate it for her.
'Maybe the Elder could help.' She thought.
That didn't sound like a bad idea. She rushed out the door, but in her eagerness she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and it wasn't until she found herself on the ground that she realized she had run into someone.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to run into you!" She quickly said.
"No, I should apologize! I wasn't really paying attention!" A male voice responded in turn, and soon a wing appeared in her line of vision. "Here, allow me to help you up."
Following the wing up to the owner, her eyes caught sight of a russet colored Rito with yellow colored eyes (which she presumed was a common eye color among the Rito). She grabbed the wing offered to her and soon enough she was pulled back to her feet. It was as she glanced up at him that she noticed that she barely reached his shoulders as far as height went (then again, that seemed to be the average height of male Ritos).
"Thanks for helping me up." She said.
"Not a problem." He replied. His head then tilted to the side. "You're the human, aren't you? The others weren't kidding when they mentioned you looking similar to a Hylian."
"Yeah." She couldn't stop the slight disappointment she felt, seeing as everyone knew her as just the human. "I'm Evangeline, by the way."
"Locke, and glad to make your acquaintance. If you don't mind me asking, where were you off to in such a hurry?"
"I was going to go see the Elder. But now that I'm out here, I realize I don't know where he is."
"Looks like you could use some directions. I could show you where his home is."
"If it's not too much trouble for you."
"Nonsense!" He chuckled before turning in the direction of the stairs leading upward. "This way."
She followed after Locke, going up the steps one at a time. During the walk she made sure to take mental note of her surroundings, not so she could remember the path to Elder Chie's place, but to map out the area in order to plan a route out of the village when the time came for her plan to be set in motion.
'I just hope this plan will works in the end.' She thought. 'I can't afford to screw this up.'
"Here we are!" Locke announced when they approached the last hut at the end of the wooden walkway. "You'll have no trouble finding this place as long as you remember that it's the last hut at the top."
"Thanks for helping me out." She said, offering the Rito a smile. "I appreciate it."
"Well, uh…it was nothing." His reluctance confused her, but it didn't last long since he soon cleared his throat. "Anyways, I should get going! My father's probably wondering what's taking me so long to get back. I guess I'll see you around?"
"You never know." She shrugged.
With that Locke went off to wherever he needed to be. He seemed nice enough and his personality was a welcomed change when compared to Revali.
'Even so, I can't get attached.' She told herself.
Evangeline turned to look at the hut that belonged to Elder Chie, and looking through the open doorway and windows she could see him sitting in a chair while reading over what looked to be a book. At first she was felt hesitant to approach, but then she remembered that she needed to know what Revali's note said. In the end, she forced herself to approach the hut and knocked on the side of the doorway, the sound causing the Elder to glance up from his books.
"Oh, it's you!" Elder Chie exclaimed. "Come in, come in."
Entering the hut, she noticed how the place was bigger than the other homes she had seen. She stopped before the Elder at what she believed to be an acceptable distance.
"It's good to see you're doing well since I last saw you, Erin."
'Uggghhh… Revali…' She mentally groaned.
"My name isn't really Erin. It's actually Evangeline." She corrected.
She watched as Elder Chie's yellow eyes grew wide in surprise, and the sight was almost comical.
"It is? Then why would Master Revali refer to you by a different name?"
"I have no clue." She shrugged. "For all I know, he probably forgot it on purpose."
"Hmmm… Regardless of the reason, it is a beautiful name. However, I'm under the impression that this isn't the reason why you've come to me."
"You're not wrong." She pulled out the note she had. "I was wondering if you could tell me what this note says."
Elder Chie took the note offered to him and she watched as his eyes roamed the page before he spoke.
"It says… 'Unless I have anything specific for you to do, your default task is to make sure my home stays clean once a day. Any free time that remains is yours to do with as you please.'" He hummed thoughtfully before looking up at her. "I presume you're unable to read Hylian if you came to me to translate this note."
"As much as I hate to admit it, yeah." She confessed, adverting her eyes in embarrassment.
A hearty laugh pierced the air, causing her to look up in surprise. Elder Chie eventually calmed down before using a feather to wipe a tear from his eye.
"It's nothing to be ashamed about! If it bothers you so much, I'd be more than willing to teach you how to read and write in Hylian for the duration of your stay."
Evangeline considered this proposition. It wouldn't be a bad idea to learn Hylian, especially if she needed to read the locations on the map Revali showed her. If anything, it would be something to get her one step closer to returning home.
"I'd like to learn, please." She answered.
"Splendid!" The Elder smiled. "I'll need time to prepare the learning material, so we can start lessons tomorrow during your free time."
"Thank you." She gave him a smile. "I better get going. I still need to clean Revali's home, so I'll see you next time."
"Take care, Evangeline."
Now that she knew what the note said (as well as knowing what she needed to do), Evangeline made her way back to Revali's home to complete the task he had assigned to her. In all honesty, she was surprised that he was giving her such a simple task—she had expected him to give her something rigorous or over the top—but she wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth in this instance. Besides, if his note was any indication he would let her know if he wanted her to do something specific.
'Maybe he isn't so unreasonable.' She thought.
As soon as she got back to Revali's home, she was about to get to work until she remembered that she didn't have anything to dust or sweep with, leading to her searching the place for something suitable to use. It took her awhile, but eventually she managed to find a cloth that she didn't think Revali would mind her using before going about dusting off every surface, lifting objects in order to dust underneath and straightening up where she believed was necessary.
Satisfied with her work, Evangeline pulled out Revali's note, coming up with the sudden idea of decoding the letters from what she learned in order to have something resembling a reference. Glancing at the table with the map, she spotted a…
…Oh, great.
An inkwell.
She groaned quietly at this.
That meant she'd had to use a quill, and there just so happened to be one next to it.
'Why do I get the feeling this won't end well for me?'
Evangeline sighed before heading over to the table, spreading the note on it before pulling the lid off from the inkwell and grabbing the quill. Just from examining the note she could see that Revali obviously signed at the bottom, so that was a good place as any to write down his name in English, and from there she started to write letters below the symbols. Though she could only identify from Revali's name and was able to decode a few letters (along with accidentally causing a few small ink blots due to her inexperience), it wasn't enough to confidently guess any of the words with her limited knowledge.
'At least I figured out some of it, even if it's just a few letters.' She sighed, returning the quill to its rightful place before stepping away from the table.
Seeing as she had finished her task, she decided she might as well spend her free time exploring Rito Village in order to familiarize herself with the place. With her mind made up, she went outside Revali's home, the wind playing with her dark hair as she walked around. Every time she passed by one of the small windmills she couldn't help but think back on her thoughts from yesterday concerning windchimes, and as a result she started to imagine the sound associated with them.
Ah…
That set up a relaxing setting.
Though the weather could be a little warmer. That did beg the question of what time of year it was, specifically in this world. Was it the same back home or was it completely different?
Eventually Evangeline came across the landing she and Revali had been at last night and she decided to rest there for a bit (if not to get her bearings before she continued her exploration). She leaned against the railing, taking in the scenery around her, as well as noting the level below her (from what she could see). In the distance she could see a snowy mountain range, and at first she thought it was the Gerudo Highlands, but then she realized the terrain at the foot of it was covered in snow, while the mountain she had woken up on had a rocky terrain when she had climbed to the bottom (plus, the distance didn't look right). Knowing it was a different mountain she wondered what it was called.
"Excuse me! Are you the human?"
She turned around upon hearing the feminine voice and came face to face with three female Ritos that had been standing behind her. The one in the middle had green feathers and blue eyes, while the two on the left and right were light yellow with red eyes and dark red with yellow eyes respectfully.
"Yeah, that would be me." She replied. "Who might you be?"
"My name's Sarai." The green Rito introduced herself.
"I'm Onra." The yellow one said.
"Kali." The dark red one followed suit.
"I'm Evangeline. Nice to meet you three." She smiled. "What brings you here."
"Well, we were curious, so we thought we'd come over and talk to you." Onra answered. "It's not every day you get to meet a human, then again that's likely to change."
She was aware of what Onra meant by the last thing she said, implying that her presence would eventually become familiar to the rest of the Rito. But that wouldn't be the case once she managed to get back home to her world.
'It wouldn't matter if they get used to me being around.' She told herself. 'They'll eventually forget about my existence once I'm gone.'
"H-hey! Are you okay?"
Evangeline blinked, feeling confused by Onra's tone and her concerned expression.
"I'm fine. Why are you asking?"
"You made this weird expression, like you ate something you didn't like or something." Kali provided.
Her eyes widened at this, followed by her face turning red in embarrassment.
"Oh! Sorry about that! I've just had a lot on my mind lately, that's all."
"Well, I hope you're able to get everything sorted out. I bet everything's different compared to what you're used to."
"You're not wrong. Things are different here, but there's a certain charm to it." She agreed.
"Hopefully, you enjoy your stay as well." Sarai said. "We need to get going, but maybe we can all get together and hang out something."
"It was nice meeting you, Evangeline!" Onra added.
With that she watched at the three female Ritos left, ascending up the stairs leading to the upper levels. As soon as they were out of view she decided to continue her exploration of Rito Village, making sure to note locations of whatever houses and shops she came across; during her exploration she encountered a strange looking stone structure that stood out compared to the rest of the village (how she had missed it the other day, she would never know), but other than being aware of its presence, there wasn't much she could do about it so she left it alone.
By the time she had made it to what was the entrance of the village (or the lowest level where the steps stopped at ground level) there were hints of orange bathing the horizon in the distances and the nearby shadows were gradually getting longer and longer, indicating that it was evening. Just seeing the sight was breathtaking and almost made her wish—
'No time to think about that.' She let out a disappointed sigh. 'I should head back to Revali's place.'
With her mind made up Evangeline proceeded up the steps as she made her way back to Revali's home. The trip itself was uneventful and seemed too short for her liking since she soon found herself before the hut, though the sight that greeted her upon entering left her anxious.
Not only had Revali gotten back before her, but she now watched as he stood by the table looking over the sheet of paper he held in his wing; his yellow eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as his green eyes roamed across the page. At first she wondered what he was reading, only for the blood to drain from her face seconds later as she realized what it was.
Well, shit…
Luck wasn't on her side since it was at that moment the Rito glanced up to see her standing by the door, though she had a feeling he'd been aware of her presence the second she'd stepped inside the hut.
What else was he capable of doing that would put her one edge?
"There you are, Erin!" He started. "I was wondering where you went off to."
Okay, why did she have the distinct feeling he was up to something?
"I did what you wanted me to do. I just went and explored the village afterwards." She told him.
At this he raised an eyebrow.
"And how did you know what I wanted you to do? I thought you didn't know how to read Hylian."
Oh, so that's what he was up to. Did he think she was faking that part? Was this some sort of test?
"I don't. I went to the Elder and asked him to translate your note for me."
Revali frowned at this, and it was enough to prove her theory; he really thought she'd been faking it! For some reason she felt disappointed by his actions, but the reasons for his actions were clear enough.
He didn't trust her.
That, or her actions and behavior yesterday were reason enough for him to believe she was suspicious.
'Why should I care?' She thought, suddenly feeling irked. 'He's been insufferable since day one. I'll be more than glad to get away from him once I get the chance.'
"You still think I'm illiterate!" She then said, just in case her facial expressions were betraying her thoughts.
"Perish the very thought! I only made a conclusion based on earlier observations. And besides, these symbols you managed to put down on this note proves that you're capable of writing, though not in any language I've every laid eyes on. Am I correct in assuming that these characters are part of the language you humans use?"
She was so tempted to say something sarcastic, but decided against it in the end. There wasn't any point in doing so, and it seemed like Revali was being reasonable enough at the moment; she might as well enjoy it while she still could before he decided to change his mind.
"You are. Though it's only one of the many languages used by humans, it happens to be one of the more commonly used ones."
"And what do you call this language?" He asked, referring to her writing as he pointed to it on the note he held.
"It's called English. Unfortunately, it's the only language I know how to write and speak in."
"The only one?" His head tilted to the side. "You seem to be awfully fluent in speaking Hylian, so you must excuse my skepticism."
She shrugged at this.
"Who knows? Maybe Hylian and English are the same language when spoken, but not when written…"
She trailed off as she soon realized something. If what she just said was actually true, would the letters from the Hylian and English alphabet have the same name or meaning?
It wouldn't hurt to ask.
"How is your named spelled in Hylian?"
The Rito regarded her at that moment, and she couldn't help but wonder what was going through his head. After what felt like hours he finally spoke.
"R. E. V. A. L. I."
She tensed upon hearing this.
So her theory had been right.
This…changed things. For better or worse, she couldn't tell.
"What did you realize?" He suddenly asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Had she become that predictable in such a short time or was he just that good at reading people?
'Both option leaves me feeling uneasy as it is.' She thought. 'Either way, he's too perceptive for my liking.'
"Your name is spelled the same way in both languages. Only the characters themselves have a different appearance when written."
"If what you say is true, then the letters you wrote…" Revali glanced down at the note he was still holding before returning his gaze to her. "Go sit down."
Evangeline was about to ask why, but was unable to since he rushed over to his desk. Not knowing what else to do she did as she was told and sat by the firepit. Soon enough Revali came over to where she sat and deposited the items he'd been carrying in his wings in the free space in front of her. Not only was the note he'd written for her placed before her, but the inkwell and quill were among the items, as well as a few blank pages and a random book (likely meant to be used as a hard surface to write on). She thought that would be that and he'd just leave her be, but much to her surprise the Rito sat himself down beside her (thankfully there was enough space between them to put her at ease). This left her confused and she wondered what he was up to now; he spoke before she could even ask a question.
"It's to my understanding that you were able to translate my name in your written language, along with using that as a reference to decipher some of the Hylian letters I wrote." He explained. "I want you to translate the rest."
'Okay, who are you and what have you done with the real Revali?' She asked mentally, refraining from voicing that question out loud despite how tempting it was.
"But with my assistance, naturally."
'Never mind, he's not an imposter.'
Sliding the book in front of her, she placed the note on top of it before carefully taking the lid off the inkwell, followed by dipping the tip of quill into the ink. She was about to bring the quill to the note, but once she glanced at what she'd been able to translate she realized she had no way of knowing what the rest of the Hylian letters were. She also realized that she'd have to rely on Revali for help, and as much as she hated the idea of having to do so she really didn't have a choice.
"What is this first word?" She asked, using her free hand to point to the word she was referring to.
"That would be 'unless'." Revali provided.
Evangeline nodded before carefully writing the letters that hadn't been identified for that word—occasionally needed to dip the tip of the quill into the inkwell every now and then-and as soon as she finished she examined both Hylian and English letters in order to compare them. It didn't take her long to noticed that the Hylian symbols for 'U' and 'S' looked similar to their English counterparts, so she went ahead and translated those letters, as well as do the same for the letter 'N'. Once she was done, she looked over the progress she made on the note.
UNLESS I *AVE AN***IN*
S*E*IRI* R*R **U ** **,
**UR *ERAUL* *AS* IS
** *A*E SURE ** ***E
S*A*S *LEAN *N*E A *A*.
AN* RREE *I*E **A*
RE*AINS IS **URS ** **
EI** AS **U *LEASE.
REVALI
Her eyebrows furrowed as she hummed thoughtfully. From what she could see so far, she could make a guess as to what some of the other letters might be, and looking at the third word she had a feeling that the missing letter was 'H' and proceeded to write that down. There was also the second to last word in the note that looked like a 'P' so she went ahead and inserted 'P' there and did the same to decoding that symbol as well.
"What about this word?" She pointed to the fourth word on the first line.
"'Anything'."
Filling in the blanks, the translation started to get a bit clearer now, and the more she figured out, the more some Hylian letters seemed to become obvious.
"This symbol is 'K'."
"Correct."
"So what's this word here?"
"That's 'home'."
She paused upon hearing this.
Home…
Just thinking about it caused her to feel sadness.
'Focus!' She told herself before continuing her work.
UNLESS I HAVE ANYTHING
SPECIRIC ROR YOU TO GO,
YOUR GERAULT TASK IS
TO MAKE SURE MY HOME
STAYS CLEAN ONCE A GAY.
ANY RREE TIME THAT
REMAINS IS YOURS TO GO
EITH AS YOU PLEASE.
REVALI
"'Unless I have anything spe…'? What's this supposed to be?"
"'Specific'."
"How can this word be 'specific' if there's an 'R' where the 'F' should be?"
"That's due to 'F' and 'R' sharing the same Hylian symbol." Revali explained. "The same can be said for 'D' and 'G', 'E' and 'W', 'J' and 'T', and lastly 'O' and 'Z'."
"Hmm… No wonder why some of the words I've translated so far look weird. 'Rree' is supposed to be 'free'. And if that's the case, 'gerault' should be 'default' and 'eith' should be 'with'."
She made the necessary changes, and by that point there was only one letter left to decipher, but from what she'd managed to translate so far it was simple.
"'Unless I have anything specific for you to do, your default task is to make sure my home stays clean once a day. Any free time that remains is yours to do with as you please.'" She read out loud before handing the note over to Revali.
"And with that, you have managed to translate my note." He said after reading it over. "It's interesting to see how your written language compares to Hylian. And yet despite being foreign, these letters appear to be crude in nature."
Evangeline couldn't help but laugh at this due to finding his observation to be so absurd! Ironically enough, she found herself feeling slightly better compared to how she'd felt earlier that day.
"Don't look at me! I'm not the one who invented English." She commented. "Speaking about language, the Elder offered to teach me how to read and write Hylian."
"Did he?" Revali slid the book in front of her over to where he was before grabbing a sheet of paper. "And did you take him up on his offer?"
"I did." She watched as the Rito started writing down Hylian letters, and it was interesting to see how the feathers of his left wing were able to grip the quill as he wrote as if they were actually fingers. "What are you doing, anyways?"
"I'm merely writing down the Hylian alphabet for your convenience. From there I'll leave it up to you to translate the letters."
It was quiet from that point save for the sound of the quill scratching against the paper as Revali wrote. During this time Evangeline wondered why the Rito was going through all the trouble of helping her translate Hylian—especially when she'd informed him that Elder Chie would be teaching her how to do so—and what he would gain from helping her. It was somewhat frustrating; right when she thought she'd had him figured out, she'd be dealt such a curveball that left her confused.
Why did it bother her so much?
And why did she even care?
'Would you stop?! You're not supposed to get attached, remember?' She mentally yelled at herself.
The way Revali was acting definitely wasn't helping matters, either.
'SCREW REVALI! He can't even bother to remember my own name!'
Thankfully, that issue won't last long once she managed to get back home. As much as she didn't like the idea, she would tolerate it for now.
"Here!"
Suddenly the book was pushed in front of her, this time with the paper of the Hylian letters he'd been writing down sitting on top of it.
"Translate as many letters as you can using the note you just deciphered. Refer to me concerning any letters you're unable to figure out." Revali explained as he handed her the quill he'd been using. "Now then…while you're busy taking care of that, I'll proceed on cooking dinner."
'Stop being so freaking civil! You're not making things any easier for me!'
She threw a glare in his direction, but the Rito didn't seem to noticed a thing as he went about gathering ingredients. Letting out a sigh, she turned back to the paper before her with the note she'd translated placed on the left of the book. Dipping the tip of the quill into the inkwell she started working on translating the Hylian letters, being careful not to make any mistakes and constantly checking the note just to be sure. So far, she was only able to translate 21 letters (18 if you counted the symbols for 'D/G', 'E/W', and 'F/R'), leaving her with only 3 Hylian symbols (4 English letters) left over; something she noticed was how the Hylian letters were arranged in the order of the English alphabet, but despite this she left the symbols she didn't know blank for now.
"Okay, so I'm missing 'B', 'J', 'Q', 'X', and 'Z'." She glanced up at Revali, who was casually stirring the food that was in the cooking pot with a wooden spoon. "Any help?"
The Rito placed the wooden spoon off to the side before turning in her direction. She handed him the paper when he held out a wing in her direction and watched as he looked over her work, all the while humming thoughtfully as he did so. Eventually he placed the paper back on top of the book before pointing at the symbol after 'A'.
"This letter here is 'B'." He told her, and she went about writing the English equivalent in before he pointed to the symbol for 'O'. "This symbol serves as both 'O' and 'Z'. 'T' and 'J' also shares the same symbol." He then pointed to the last two unidentified letters. "These are 'Q' and 'X' respectfully."
She nodded before filling in the blanks, and soon enough the translation of the Hylian alphabet was completed. Revali went back to tending to the food he was cooking and she took this time to look over the paper, making an attempt to memorize the details. But the longer she looked it over, the more a specific thought kept spinning around in her head.
"Why did you want me to do this?" She asked.
"I assure you, it's more for your benefit than mine." Revali seemed satisfied with the food he made, piling some on two separate plates before handing her one. "The Elder may be starting you on your first lesson tomorrow, but what happens when you suddenly forget what you've learned? You can't always go to him when you need something translated, hence why I had you work on a reference sheet."
"…Well, when you put like, who am I to complain?" She spooned some of the food and took a bite out of it. "Though I don't see what you'd get out of it."
"Peace of mind? Preventing secondhand embarrassment?" He shrugged. "Would it really matter at this point?"
"No, I guess not."
Time passed and eventually Evangeline found herself laying in her hammock wide awake. A lot of things happened today and Revali's behavior left her wondering what he was up to. Did this have anything to do with how she was yesterday?
'It's likely.' She thought. 'Why does it bother me so much?'
Letting out a soft sigh, she closed her eyes in attempt to get some sleep, all the while repeating three words to herself as she drifted off.
Don't get attached.
ATE: Thanks for taking the time to check out this chapter. Please be sure to leave a review!