"She sa-said there'd be mo-monsters," Link pushed open the same door they'd initially entered through, this time with more ease now that it had broken back into being used.
There was an inflection in his voice as he spoke, that said he was hinting at something, and at first, Tya didn't catch on. It wasn't until he looked back at her that she realized she'd been supposed to, and her confusion was evident enough that he carried on to clarify. "Are you gonna be-be able to- be able to handle that?"
It was easy to say yes without having experienced any real battle. She'd escaped a few remlits, swatted a few keese, but never anything substantial. And her mother, before she passed, had taught her the most basic sense of control over her abilities. She had, of course, been far more focused in the ways of containing and hiding it than in using it, but basics nonetheless.
Rubbing her forearm absently, she answered "I don't know."
She couldn't see his face. His back was to her as they walked a short way from the sealed grounds. But she could see discomfort on his shoulders.
It was annoyance, wasn't it…?
She should have left when she got the chance- well.. She hadn't really gotten the chance, she supposed.
But she should take it when she saw it.
She had heard, while the woman was talking to Link and she was sitting on the stairs, that Zelda had her own destiny which she was meant to fulfill. That was all cool and good and fun, but it sounded like a bunch of storybook bullshit. Tya was thrilled to be on the surface, yes. But for how avid she was a reader, she was a little surprised to find that she did not, in fact, want to be a main character. Whatever 'fate' apparently awaited them could be handled by someone else- someone more fit for the task aside from two teenagers. Three, counting the girl that most definitely should go home.
Not that she was going to be all that helpful, and that was something that she was just about to prove.
There was a sound deeper down this surprisingly well kept pathway, that was far different than that of the woods. No, she wasn't well versed in what woods would sound like, but even she could identify the fact that these were strange. The painful screeching left her grimacing, and as much as she wanted to cover her ears, she felt like blocking off a part of her senses would be a bad idea whilst in a completely new territory. Not that she could hear a damned thing past the horrid sound anyway.
Link seemed to agree that it was strange. He said nothing aloud, but he did unlatch his shield and draw the ghostly blade from its sheath in preparation to be mauled by whatever creature was doing it.
While it was an utterly terrible sound, Tya couldn't help but wonder if perhaps it was an animal in pain, leaving her to set a hand on Link's sword arm as a way of stopping him from acting with any impulse.
The pathway on which they stood was bordered on one side by trees and the other, by a steep hill that blocked the view of where exactly the sound could be coming from. It meant that they had a way to walk before they encountered whatever it was, but on the chance that it was something in danger, Tya ushered him to continue on that path quickly so they could rescue it if so needed.
They rounded the pathway to a clearing much smaller than that of the one she'd initially landed in. That one had been a small branched off section of the woods that was cradled on one side by the edge of the bowl around the chasm at the Sealed Grounds. But this was the place in which the ground leveled and beyond this clearing, while the trees choked the path ahead, Tya could see sunlight through them a short ways down, indicating that they soon opened up.
Regardless, that wasn't her current concern.
What was her current concern was a circle of red skinned balding middle aged men wielding weapons and surrounding a rock with a backpack.
Again, maybe she was high.
Link looked down at her hand, a silent request as to whether or not he could proceed, and she withdrew. She'd admit to having a terrible read on the situation, partially because she was just in awe over the strangeness of these beings. They were clothed and bipedal, and the one even had supplies, all suggesting that they were civilized. It meant that there were races on the surface outside of Hylians that had lived.
And as Link stepped forward, making his presence known by clearing his throat, Tya whipped back around in a very delayed realization that the old woman they'd spoken to was a human far closer to a Hylian than either of the two breeds Link was currently associating with.
There wasn't time to think on that- Link had made his presence known, and both parties were very quick to show which was hostile and which wasn't. The balding fat men with rudimentary weapons stopped their horrid taunts to look back at Link, and without any prior warning, decided he was a far better target than the living rock. The group charged him.
Tya, with utmost usefulness, stood there and did nothing for a solid three years before realizing that she should move and try to help in some way. Even if she could fight, the current battle was taking place in such close quarters she would have feared hitting Link with her unruly flames. As such, she opted for the next most helpful thing she could think of, which was darting around the group to the trembling… Man? Rock Nippled Man? Armadillo?
He was afraid, still in shock of what had been happening to him just moments prior. He even flinched upon seeing Tya, but rather than fleeing from her, he complied with her motions to move away from the battleground Link was handling with impressive expertise.
By the time she'd waved him to a safe distance, Link had successfully dispatched three of the six foes and didn't have a scratch on him it seemed. At least she couldn't see any blood that looked to be his, and the difference would be very easy even in her colorblindness. Blood was red. Red in temperature, red in color, much like the clothes she generally wore. Their blood though, while covered with the red film of heat, was an odd dark color, brown or black, something that spattered on the ground as they were shorn through with the ghostly blade.
The last fell, and Link let out a breath as he looked around, fully trying to analyze whether or not that was the last of the fight or not. As he flicked the dark blood off the blade, grimacing in the process, the bodies of the beasts blackened and decayed in seconds, before falling to dust in the soil.
Goddess the surface was weird.
Upon watching the beasts wither, the rock at her side let out a breath of relief. He didn't really have shoulders, but there was most definitely tense muscle in there somewhere that Tya noted released in the calm. Link approached them as he slid his sword back into its sheath. He didn't bother to put his shield back, leaving it hooked over his arm and that was probably better anyway so it was ready to defend them at any point.
"Thanks, brother," the rock said, a hand extending out to roughly pat Link on the shoulder.
The boy offered a smile up to him. "No problem," he answered.
"Just seeing all kinds of weird things today," he splayed his hands outward, motioning toward the place those creatures had just been, then to the two of them. "Was already surprised to see one of your kind, then those pests, and now there's more of you?"
"You saw another of our kind?" Tya asked, tilting her head. Another spark of hope sent her looking down the pathway, but she was quick to remind herself of the thought she'd had moments prior, that the old woman had been 'one of their kind' as well. As such, it was quite possible that other Hylians like themselves could be found here.
"Yeah," the man said. "Real bright colored too," he made a motion to his own body then looked at Tya curiously. "You don't look as fragile as that one did. Same kind though."
"Fragile?" She asked, retracting just a bit as she realized attention was on her. He raised his hands and put them close together, then pointed to Tya waist. She looked down at herself, then understanding dawned on her as she realized what he meant. "Ah," she sounded. "Yes, she is quite small, but I assure you, she is nowhere near as fragile as she looks." In fact even though Tya was a little bit chubbier than Zel, she was probably far more fragile and breakable than her thin little friend was.
"That's good," the man said. "She was heading farther into the woods and it's pretty dangerous in there."
"If it's dangerous, what- what a-are you doing out here?" Link asked.
It was clearly a good question since the creature was immediately excited to answer. "Oh!" He couldn't help but bounce a little. "I'm researching the history of these woods!"
Tya, despite her nearly dissociated state, couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy over that fact.
"In fact, I just came across an amazing artifact," he motioned off down the pathway deeper into the woods before continuing to say "it was a statue. They say these statues are for traveling up into the sky, to a place called the Isle of the Goddess. Isn't that amazing?" He exclaimed. "You guys should really see it for yourselves, it's beautiful!"
"We will," Link assured with a little laugh that kind of warmed Tya's insides. Yes, it was cute, but moreso, it was the expression he held- the adoration toward hearing someone's interest. She always liked listening to Zel talk about her hobbies or her training or her day, but she'd never been quite so keen on talking about her own. To see that someone was interested in hearing such things- hearing the historical value of something or the interest in something ancient- was pleasant.
Perhaps after they brought Zelda home, she'd ask him if he'd be interested in hearing about one of her books. She wondered if he liked to read at all?
There was a bit more conversation that ensued after that Tya only half paid attention to. The wholesomeness of Link's mere personality managed to ease some of her discomfort over him. Anxiety was still present, trying to urge her into the belief that it was a show, it was fake, or that it was only directed at others and not her. That it would change when he discovered that her blood was that of a monster rather than a Hylian, and that he'd also make the connection she had that this entire ordeal was her fault as punishment from Hylia herself. She'd always seen her blood as darker than others. It wasn't quite so tarnished as what had been spilled from those 'pests' as Gorko - she'd managed to catch his name in his and Link's exchange- said but it was still dark…
Gorko had things to do, sights to see, places to explore. As such, he waved them goodbye to continue on his way, leaving Link with a 'thank you' for saving him as well as wishing him well on his own journey to find the girl he'd seen earlier in the day. Had Tya not been so goddamned tired she likely would have been more impatient in getting going out of hope they'd catch up.
But she was glad to stand for a second since her legs still ached from walking back up from the bottom of the chasm, she was very lightheaded thanks to the overwhelming amount of oxygen there was in comparison to what reached them in Skyloft as well as the fact that she hadn't eaten since yesterday morning, and she was so, so fried. She could barely think straight with the information overload that had been piled in that day, and none of it connected to anything else, leaving so many bits and pieces all over the place. She couldn't pick any of it up or straighten any of it out or put any of it away because she didn't know what she'd need.
She shouldn't be here…
Her determination was draining so fast.
She wondered if Zelda had ever wanted to abandon her like this, when she became too difficult to deal with.