~Later That Evening~
By the time Popo and Nana returned to the village, preparations for a celebration were well underway. Upon their arrival in the feast hall, a mob all but instantly formed around them, everyone eager to congratulate the two on their return to the tournament. Elder Harasen had tried to maintain a frown when the news had come in, but the upcoming festivities and overall mood of the other villagers rendered this effort into a rapidly losing battle. His sour disposition wasn't entirely unwarranted; this was a day he'd always feared would come, after all, even when they weren't in attendance for the previous competition. At the very least, all of the extra work they'd put in would help keep things safe while they were gone…
Wait a moment…
A realization came barreling into his mind, as if a Nitpicker had swooped down and smacked him in the face: They were bored these days! The guardian training idea, the lax approach to their now mundane tasks, the sass, everything; it all made sense now! As this revelation came to light, another was hot on its heels: Even if he chose to forbid their participation, their wills were strong enough to openly defy him and leave anyway. To have the promise of an adventure ahead of them suddenly taken away, after having to not only sit out the last one, but having it practically rubbed in their faces… Were he in their place, Harasen probably would have dismissed those forbidding orders without a second thought.
These thoughts constantly flitted through his mind as he weaved through the crowd to approach the Climbers. Nana, somehow, spotted his advancing form and had motioned for the crowd to part, allowing Harasen to approach unhindered.
"I, er…Thank you, lass." A wry smile managed to win out as he drew within conversation distance of the climbers. Already, Harasen could see a clear difference in the way they were carrying themselves; backs were straighter, heads held higher. To see them like this again…it brought back memories of when they came back from their second tour away. They might not have taken first place, but they were well within the top third of the competition. They also made so many friends during their travels; no doubt the prospect of seeing them again also lent strength towards their demeanor.
He cleared his throat, attempting to bring a sudden surge of pride under control.
"They, ah, won't let me enforce your punishment," Harasen finally managed, a defeated sigh punctuating his sentence. It was true; once everyone had seen the sign in the sky, there was practically a riot for control of the kitchen to get the celebration started. The open, challenging glares he'd received from several villagers throughout the day after he'd laid out the Climbers' punishment detail that morning told him that cleanup of the hall afterwards would also be covered, much to his chagrin at the time.
Doffing the hood from his parka, Popo actually looked apologetic as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't worry, Sir, we'll manage to carry it out somehow." Nana had simply nodded and removed her own hood, content to watch the crowd as the two spoke. Her behavior intrigued Harasen, given the manic giggling she did when she grappled down Popo and sent literal chills up his spine this morning. Did they somehow have a falling out on the way back from the training sessions? A bushy brow was raised, attention drawn back to the lad.
"No, no—there's no point in it anymore. You've learned your lessons, haven't you two?" Waving off Popo's words, Harasen chuckled, which turned into full-on laughter when he saw their open shock. Their jaws had dropped so far down; the local fisher could have fit the catch of the day into their mouths with room to spare!
It took a minute, but Harasen was able to collect himself enough to clap Popo on the back. The other villagers, nearest to them, finally relaxed enough to return to the festivity preparation. Nana was also visibly relaxing, which crossed 'downhill spat' off of his mental checklist. Did she think he would somehow try to forbid them from leaving? The question brought him up short, as he recalled the swirling tempest of thoughts and emotions buffeting his mind but a few minutes ago; of course she did. They probably both thought that, after his reactions to their admittedly harmless roughhousing this morning…
Maybe it was time to talk.
The time, however, would have to wait. While he was forming the words, Harasen could only watch Murasat's champions get swept back into the crowd. He wasn't one bit surprised by this.
The music was powerful tonight. The players of the various drums and stringed instruments were especially known for their stamina, and there were more enthusiastic musicians waiting to relieve them, should they tire out. This party was definitely gonna go to 'question marks', and Nana was so ready to push her body to the limit! Her vantage point from the dance floor was often obscured, but she made sure to keep an eye on Popo when she could. He was still seated at their table, eagerly putting away the smoked fish that never seemed to stop being served, as well as a heaping pile of vegetables. That boy will either be in a food coma or so full of energy, and Nana wasn't sure which she would prefer with his lack of sleep.
The latter, she decided, would be for the best. The party was for both of them, and it just would not do for one of the dual champions to be conked out while the other had their fun. There would be plenty of time for that scenario to come up when they got to Master Hand's domain. She was sure Popo wouldn't nod off so soon; if he did, she could certainly give him a repeat performance of this morning's antics!
Okay, maybe that wasn't the best course of action; the Elder would most certainly be around, chaperoning this event. The last thing Nana wanted was to incite him, and then they'd have to sneak off to the tournament without saying goodbye after he tried to confine them to their duplex. Would he do that, though? All of his reactions and shouting earlier in the day clearly showed he would, but something was weird about his behavior when they got back. Unfortunately, she and Popo didn't have time to discuss it as they were all but body-surfed to the table reserved for guests of honor and the food was served shortly thereafter.
Nana was just about ready to head for the buffet table for seconds, when she caught sight of a familiar gray mane weaving through the crowd in a different direction. Harasen was on the move. Nana decided she could put off her hunger for at least a little bit as she changed course to follow. Unlike Popo, she was not above telling the Elder exactly what she thought of him right now, but she would at least attempt to be tactful about it.
Her first tactical decision was that she needed to get ahead of Harasen, so she picked up her pace and deftly stepped around couples, stiff-armed her way through groups, and was able to reach the door a good five seconds before he did. Twirling around, Nana leaned back against the wall and affected an intentionally too-innocent gaze, combined with a small smile while folding her arms across her chest. The final touch was pressing one boot flat against the wall. She thought it would give the illusion that she had been waiting for some time.
Elder Harasen, to his credit, only paused for an eighth of a second in shock before his features morphed into a carefully blank expression.
"Lass," he intoned, betraying no emotion in the greeting.
"Harasen," replied Nana, somehow managing to emphasize the lack of honorific. A hint of a glare began to harden her eyes.
The Elder held her gaze evenly for nearly a minute, before he finally spoke again. "Of course you would be the one to face me first. It is probably for the best, though. This is more your fight than Popo's."
Nana blinked and tilted her head slightly, before nodding. "I suppose you're right. Let's take this outside then; I really don't want Murasat's last memory of us to be ruining the celebration right before we left."
"Lead the way."
Nana pushed off from the wall and exited the feast hall, taking a moment to hold the door open for Harasen, and began to walk towards one of the vegetable gardens. Around the halfway point, they came to a couple of the many benches scattered around the village, and Nana ungracefully plopped down in one. Harasen settled in the bench opposite her, appearing deep in thought.
They stared at one another, a task at least simplified by the 'welcome back' display suffusing the area in white light. It was probably going to stay active until they departed, though Nana was clueless as to how that was going to be done. The last two invitations were completely different from one another; she and Popo would have to simply wait for further instructions.
Harasen cleared his throat, breaking her from her reverie. "I wish this were under better circumstances," he began, pausing as if in search of the right words. "I would have preferred to say this once to both of you before the festivities began, but I am well-acquainted with repeating myself these days. I wanted to apologize for how I treated you two this morning."
"And that's another thing. Why did you see the need to—wait, what!?" For the second time this evening, Nana was caught flat-footed by his actions. How did he keep doing that? What was his angle? The Elder never deigned to apologize for the things he did, often demanding apologies instead. He wasn't abusive in his station, but there were a great many times where things…clashed with his vision. Compromise was rare; this was impossible. Closing her mouth, Nana schooled her shocked expression into a calculating one and leaned against the armrest, pressing her fist into her chin. "What're you trying to pull, here?"
Harasen had the nerve to smile. She was just about ready to unleash a verbal salvo when he spoke again.
"I'm too old for that nonsense, these days. What you're hearing is the genuine article." He sat up straighter, smiling a bit more widely. "What I have done today—and did in the past—was unacceptable. I got so caught up in the image our village presented, that I had forgotten what beats beneath it. You two are the spirit of the village, and I shouldn't be stifling your needs—or those of anyone else here; I should be helping them grow and flourish."
Nana, for her part, remained silent while she absorbed these revelations. Could Harasen really be saying these things? She shook her head momentarily, before reaching down to grab a handful of snow and slap herself across the face with it.
"Okay, so I'm not imagining this." She mumbled, bristling at his sudden burst of laughter. "Hey, if you were in my place, you'd think this was a dream or something too!"
It took a coughing fit to get his laughter to stop, but Harasen eventually composed himself into something more fitting to his station, and he leaned against the backing of his bench, hands folded over his lap. "A bit of a dramatic test, but no, you're quite right. And this is not a dream—or a hallucination like when Popo tried seagull wine that one time…"
Oh, how Nana tried to keep her glare in place. It was a valiant effort, for sure, but the way her lips twisted and undulated revealed it to be an ultimately futile one. The memory came flooding back; the conjured image of Popo, standing on top of their home, screaming obscenities and battle cries while swinging his fists at unseen Topis and Nitpickers sent Nana into a fit of laughter that left her clutching her stomach and kicking out her legs. It had taken her and four freshly-trained village guardians to subdue the boy, and he could barely function the next day while he worked through a major headache and upset stomach combo.
"O-Okay… okay." She finally got her giggles under control, punctuated with a decidedly unladylike snort. "Maybe this is real," her expression had taken on a more serious edge. "But I'm not going to just instantly forgive everything after an apology, you know? I don't think even Popo will, and you know how patient he is with your authority." She then stood, and glanced back towards the Feast Hall. She could see a few people steadily coming and going; even some unfamiliar parka styles started to make appearances…apparently the beacon was drawing in people from out of town. "Look. Let's just forget today's stuff happened for now and head back to the party. Whaddya say?"
"That is fair," Harasen tilted his head forward briefly, and also rose to his feet. "I hope you two will be able to at least think about it while you're off at this thing you love so much. But for now, there is fun to be had; Go get the lad and celebrate like you should be doing!"
Nana smiled a determined smile, before she took off for the hall to do just that.
~The Next Afternoon~
Some mountains, Popo decided with resigned sigh, were simply not meant to be conquered.
He held his empty framed backpack in a shaking grip, engaging his imposing adversary in a staring contest designed to wilt it into submission. The pile of clothing heaped onto his bed, to its credit, absolutely refused to bend to his will.
"Well played," Popo grumbled. He did not like the activity of packing, especially for long excursions like the one they were about to partake in. Not only did it involve the arduous task of folding up all of his clothing and somehow fitting it into his bag, but also organizing it in such a way to maximize balance and movement. And there was a lot to put into this bag. Somehow, they were to squeeze in seven extra parkas, the boots and mittens that went with them, and their underclothes. On top of those articles, they also had to work in casual clothing for when they weren't fighting—most days of the week, if he recalled—as well as personal effects for hygiene. Food and water was most important, however, in case a lot of travel was required.
Maybe he could put this off for just a little while longer…
Popo had just settled into a chair, halfway to propping his feet up when a knock on his door sounded. He sighed. "Come in."
Nana poked her head inside, one hand covering her mouth as she gasped. "Really, Popo? What gives? You're usually the first to be done with this stuff."
"Please, Nana. I just need, like, an hour's rest to clear my head." Popo finished propping his feet up and folded his arms to assume the position for just that. He had just closed his eyes, when he heard a sigh and a cluck of disapproval.
"That's not very 'leader-like' of you." A light chuckle, followed by a 'fwumph' sound. Popo would open one eye to see Nana lying in his pile of parkas, arms and legs splayed out as if she were in the middle of making a snow angel. "But you have a point; I didn't finish packing either. I laid everything out, and then came here to bug you into maybe…doing it for me?"
The eye closed. "No."
"No?"
Popo grinned. "No. but if you let me sleep, maybe we can work out a compromise." Instead of just trying to nap, now Popo made sure to keep his eyes closed in case she tried to pull one of her signature adorable faces. Nana didn't always do it, but she was quite good at pulling heartstrings when there was something she really wanted. He could avoid that by not looking at her; when it came to these little games they played, Popo was pretty good at predicting most of her expected moves and planning ahead of them these days.
It was when she did unexpected tactics, that Nana truly surprised him.
A sudden weight landed on his lap, causing a surprised squawk to escape his lips. Popo snapped open his eyes to see Nana stretched out perpendicular to his position, back and legs draped languidly over the arms of his thankfully sturdy chair; Popo made a mental note to thank the village's local carpenter and maybe kick some sort of compensation his way. For now though, he turned his startled attention to Nana. "I don't know what you're driving at, Nana, but I'm not packing both of our bags!"
"Shhh," Nana mumbled, placing a finger to his lips. "If you're going to nap, I'm going to nap right here with you. We have a long time ahead of us to be able to do things like this again, so why not get used to it?" She slipped her left arm behind his neck, and rested her right hand over his chest, before snuggling her face into the crook of his neck. "So let's rest up and then we can pack together, one bag at a time."
Tension melting away, Popo awkwardly (she had pinned his arms beneath her when she jumped into his lap) managed to bring his arms around her form, and sighed in bliss. It'd been too long since they were able to rest like this, no thanks to that stupid wall separating their halves of the cabin. Maybe he should talk to the Elder; see about taking it down. That was going to be a shouting match he wasn't looking forward to…
Speaking of the Elder…
"Hey, Nana?" murmured Popo after a few minutes.
"Yeah, Popo?" The way her breath tickled the side of his neck when she mumbled caused Popo to squirm and laugh softly, but he forced himself to calm down so he could continue on. He felt this was something he should know about.
"What happened between you and Elder Harasen last night? I saw you two leave, and it looked real tense at the time." He felt Nana stiffen as his mention of the Elder, but it was only momentary. 'Tense' was an understatement. From where he sat at the time, Popo was all but certain she would have punched the Elder.
"We…we had a talk last night. The short of it, he apologized to me, but I'm…" She trailed off a moment, before he felt her shift position. He opened his eyes to see her sitting upright, looking down at him with an apprehensive look in her eyes. "I'm just not sure how to take it. I don't even sure if he meant it, but he said to at least think about it while we're gone. What do you think?"
Popo let it all sink in, nodding along while he thought about the implications. Maybe the Elder was actually willing to turn things around, but there wasn't really enough time to hash it out with him. He'll have to wing it for now.
"I think he's being honest about it. I've never seen him do anything so devious as to fake an apology to betray anyone. If you saw the same things that I did when we got back, then I think there's some sort of change going on in that heart of his—" Nana snorted at that "—but we're not gonna have a lot of time to address it."
He looked around, then. "Think I'll worry about sleeping a little later. For now, we should pack our things and get ready for…however we're supposed to head back to Master Hand's."
A quick nose-nuzzling after Popo's 'orders', and they got to it. Nana would handle the rolling up of the parkas, and Popo would expertly sort them into the main compartment of their backpacks on top of their boots. The mittens would be stuffed into various side-pockets, which would leave the Climbers' personal effects to be packed on their own. Nana probably wouldn't have objected to it, but Popo refused to handle her other clothes. It never felt right, for some reason. No doubt his discomfort would have provided Nana a great source of amusement and stories; Popo would never willingly hand her that sort of ammunition.
Popo was in the final stages of filling up his pack when a dull roar of shouting reached his ears. Glancing up, he looked around and shrugged before returning his attention towards examining a pair of socks for packing. The shouting was getting louder, and curiosity quickly won out for him. Eyes all but blinking independently at this point, Popo got to his feet and trudged to the window to see what everyone was getting riled up over.
Well, this was certainly a sign if he'd ever seen one.
What looked like a red Smash Ball had made an appearance amidst a volatile sky, and was sailing almost lackadaisically through the air above Murasat Village. Mesmerized, Popo didn't realize his face was pressed so hard against the glass while he watched the spectacle play out. It looped and swooped through the air, picking up speed and possibly purpose before it dropped down, low to the ground, at the center of the village. Once it made almost-touchdown, it zoomed straight towards their duplex, with no regard for the residents who needed to dive or roll out of the way to avoid the thing.
Upon its arrival to their modest abode, the orb came to a dead stop to hover just outside of Popo's window. For a long minute, it floated there motionlessly. Finally, it bobbed once as if in confirmation and moved over to Nana's window to repeat the procedure. Seemingly satisfied, the otherworldly ball shot up into the air, out of sight. Popo then saw a red streak across the sky as it made a beeline to slam into the side of Icicle Mountain, about a quarter of the way up from ground level. The impact could be felt from as far as their duplex; Popo's teeth rattled painfully against the window before he peeled his face away from it.
Apprehensively, he exited his half of the cabin to peer up towards the 'Welcome Back' sign in the sky to see that it had changed.
A digital countdown took its place, with the words "TIME UNTIL INVITE EXPIRES" beneath. They had thankfully been around digital clocks often enough during the past tournaments to be able to see that they had a comfortable amount of time to make that climb. A half day's time allotted to reach the impact site, from his understanding of the numbers scrolling down…
Popo didn't want to take any chances. They would leave within the hour, and arrive well before that countdown expired.
"Nana!" he shouted. "I think our ride's here!"
Popo and Nana, strapped down like upright pack animals with their too-large backpacks, stood in front the small crowd gathered at the center of Murasat Village. A little too small, Nana decided, to be everyone that lived there. Was everyone still sleeping off the effects of last night's party? Nana didn't think so.
There wasn't any ceremony involved, but Harasen and Popo took a few minutes to engage one another in low tones. They then nodded to one another, shook hands, and Nana saw a pensive look on the Elder's face before the duo was off towards their destination on Icicle Mountain. As they left, Popo filled her in on the brief discussion; basically echoing what she told him earlier during their aborted nap attempt.
Only when they saw the foothills of the mountain range in more detail, did Nana realize why the crowd seemed so small when they left the village. The path before them was flanked by the twenty pairs of the village guardians that they'd trained throughout the last season. Their positions in the mountainside firmly established, each pair held out ropes for Popo and Nana to easily hoist themselves up without fear of losing their footing or any of their packed supplies, and the two Ice Climbers gratefully took the offered help. When each pair of guardians had finished their portion of the task, they would belay up the mountainside ahead to the impact site. The efforts of these extra climbers had rendered an hour's climb into a trim twenty minutes, and Popo and Nana could not even begin to keep their pride in check when they reached the designated landing.
With the boys on the left flank, and the girls on the right, Popo and Nana fell into lockstep on their approach to the orb, where it was embedded in the side of the cliff. Nana felt the hot sting of prideful tears pricking at her eyes, but refused to attempt blinking them away; she didn't even need to look at Popo to know that he was also going through it. Wordlessly, they stopped just outside of arm's reach of the crystalline sphere, and turned to face the gathered protectors to their home's lifeline supplies.
The Ice Climbers then struck one of their signature victory poses, a high-five, as a salute to their disciples. They were answered with the sound of forty hands slapping out twenty high-fives, beginning at the rear of the flanks and travelling one by one up to the front. Nodding to the gathering, then to each other, Nana and Popo then turned to the pulsing ball and simultaneously rested their mittens upon it.
The ball's pulsing light quickened its rhythm almost eagerly, and a low hum reverberated through the ground immediately surrounding Popo and Nana. It culminated in crimson lightning arcing outward in a short radius, rapidly enveloping the duo in a bubble of light that started out the same shade as the lightning, quickly shifting through lighter shades of red until it was pure white. The gathering would later report to the Elder that they briefly saw black lines bisecting the bubble, before it vanished with a loud pop.
And they were gone.
Author's notes: (08/28/2019) Phew! Well we're finally getting to the proverbial fireworks factory, folks! I want to once again thank you all for the reads you've been throwing my way, as well as the favs/follows/reviews. Updates to this story may or may not get wonky, as I'm trying real hard (and failing) not to push these updates out so fast, and I may take a crack at better editing the first two chapters. Any updates to those will be mentioned in these notes in the future, in case people wish to go back and check them out. As usual, if you like what you see, or have any tips to make the writing—especially the exposition—less clunky, drop me a review or a message!
