Chapter 36: Born in Flames

Tableaux in the Snow Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.

Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best"The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Creaking Throat of a God" - Fear & Hunger OST. Scene 1 (First Half).

"People of the North People" - Final Fantasy X OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).

"Superior" - Dynasty Warriors V OST. Scene 2 (First Half).

"Such Bonds Are The True Strength of This Army" - Fire Emblem XIII OST. Scene 3 (First and Second Halves).


Having at last finished their fighting streak throughout the land of Kaiohdrahl, culminating in a fiery-fisted fiesta of fireworks in the grand finals, the heroes led by Impa move their focus toward their next destination in mind for the Prima World Tour; the far-off northern lands of Stralanavia.

Said to be a near-uninhabitable land of beautiful-white snow, Stralanavia is far to the north in the lands of Aurelia; marked with craggy mountaintops and blistering weather, Stralanavia is home to only the most hardy and strong of people. With horrifically strong blizzards and monster attacks on nearby cities and villages, Stralanavia is easily one of the most durable countries in Aurelia, having survived numerous assaults by monsters, soldiers and bandits alike.

While travelling to this far-off mountainous region, Link and his close companions find themselves faced with a surprising event indeed; mid-way through the track, as they catch their ongoing train to Kievskie Station, it is run off the rails quite literally by what appears to be otherworldly and near-unexplainable creatures. With little to no explanation for what these monsters are, Impa and the more knowledgeable members of the group can only speculate.

They offer their world-class skills by ridding the Stralanavian snow-side of their presence and, in turn, rescuing the poor stranded passengers of the Kievskie bullet-train; a rather selfless act that soon grants them favour and well-repute within the hard-to-infiltrate city capital of Velinsk. It is a few hours before this very train ride, however, that the group of heroes' inward questions are answered...

Though sadly they are nowhere around the vicinity to see these answers first-hand.

Also travelling through the snow-lands of Stralanavia are former right-hand to Ganondorf Dragmire himself, Scaverin Estienne and his recently-acquired student as well as rival to Link, Raynard Van Garrick. Having received a rather sizeable head start on the company of heroes, Scaverin and Raynard find themselves deep within the recesses of 'Klimormansk Cave'; said to be an ancient cavern relating to the ancestor of Hylians themselves, the 'Niylahns'.

These people, as Link had managed to pick up information on during his adventure through Termina's 'Rockvale' and Stone Tower, achieved great and fabled things in their lifetime; men and women that were also said to have descended from the similarly legendary Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself. These people were the first to discover and harness 'Laminite'; a mythical and wondrous ore with incredible near-life giving properties that defy the laws of physics themselves.

In invading through Klimormansk Cave, it isn't long before Scaverin and Raynard are eventually met with opposition; indeed, as they come face-to-face with what looks to be a huge stone tableaux hiding within, an otherworldly creature in similar likeness to the other horrifying monstrosities that would later attack the incoming train appears to assault the two Hylians. While Scaverin is fairly easily overwhelmed, in part thanks to the frightening mind-reading powers the creature known only as 'Xel'lotath' possesses, it is Raynard who manages to somehow overcome the mind-bending illusions it forces upon him. His older mentor watches on in shocked silence, unable to deduce that it was a familiar voice within the black-haired boy's psyche that saved him and, indeed, saved Scaverin himself at that.

The voice of Raynard's now-hated yet strangely admired blonde-haired rival.

After Xel'lotath is vanquished, and poignantly brutally at that, Scaverin at last reveals part of his grand scheme; in his pursuit of knowledge and 'enlightenment', he chases through the 'Cube of Insight' for this otherworldly intelligence. As in the legends and mythos surrounding the ancient Niylahn society and the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide, the 'Cube of Insight' gifts the one brave enough to look inside it the knowledge of the Sainted themselves and even allows entrance to a long-forgotten memory of 'Dragowald', city of the Niylahns... yet, at a price.

The one gazing within loses not only their eyesight but their sanity as well.

Regardless of warnings however, the future does nothing to frighten or sway the determined Scaverin from his end-game goal; with Raynard in tow, the former Hylian bishop descends deep into the recesses and the bowels of Dragowald's memory, perhaps hoping to unearth even more incredible secrets...


Scene 1

"ARRRRRGH!"

"S-Scaverin-sensei, w-what's wrong?!"

"MY EYES...!"

It hadn't been long since the pair of Hylians had returned from their short adventure through the memory of Dragowald, city of the Niylahns and since re-arriving back to the ancient cave of Klimormansk, the previously calm form of Scaverin had suddenly and abruptly began screaming. Having begun without warning, the worried Raynard could only stand and watch in anxiety-driven concern, unable to do much about it.

"What's wrong with your eyes...? Are you blind?"

"Y-Yes...!"

The summoner's sudden response, so surprising, left the watching Raynard wide-eyed and unable to voice another retort in return.

"I-I can't...," he began again with a gasp of effort, lowering his shaking hands to feel around his front, as if he were surrounded within darkness. "I can't see anymore..."

"You did say you were going to lose your eyesight...," Raynard murmured out knowledgeably, recalling from memory. "The fact you're still sane is... probably the biggest surprise to be honest."

Or is he already insane?

"Y-Yes...," Scaverin stammered back in answer, bringing Raynard out of his ruinous ruminations. "Yes I suppose so...," he spoke to finish, his fingers still shaking from the abrupt trauma he suffered. "I should count my blessings... it's not commonplace for a man such as I to have seen the very wisdom of the gods themselves..."

"U-Um... yeah..."

Raynard's relatively lukewarm response seemed to be something of an ongoing occurrence; as he and his mentor continued to travel around Aurelia for their shared goals, he found himself doubting the wizened old summoner and growing jealous of his blonde rival and his own group.

That's a different time, he thought to himself.

Stop pining for friendship; that friendship is dead.

All you have now is this.

"Yeah...," he thought to himself, answering his own saddened pondering, lowering his eyes to furrow his brow as he did. "Better get used to it."


"Are we there yet?"

"No and if you keep asking I'll give you my pack as well as your own."

Malon's disappointed sigh and roll of her sea-shaded eyes were perhaps inevitable reactions to Impa's warning; something that made the frowning-faced Link's own bored look deepen somewhat as he marched alongside her, affixing the strong green-shaded string around his white duffel bag at his back to keep it close to him.

Maybe if I just keep my focus forward and on the next tournament she won't bother me, he thought wisely.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?"

The sing-song tone she spoke in her soprano, somehow a lightly-annoying feeling that washed over his spine, made him roll his eyes and turn his blonde-haired head away from hers, his familiar green hat whipping in the snow's winds.

"About how I've lost every grand finals I've taken part in so far...," he admitted back to her in response, a kind of mutter in his tenor's tone that suggested a growing lack of patience for his situation. "I mean, gettin' there's nice and all, but..."

"How could you say that mon pomme á sucre?"

The sound of Vassia's ever-buzzing soprano made the listening Link's small pointed ears twitch and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and his nerves to match; seemingly a common response for when the pushy Palashian princess would deign to speak to him. While he liked Vassia enough it was how overly rough and rude she tended to be that turned him off on her; most likely something she experienced in how lonely she was, perhaps a side-effect as of her unsociable personality.

That said, however she was much better than she was when they first met in Palashia.

At least Zel and Malon ain't like that, he added to himself in a silent sigh through his nose, his very breath expelling out in beautiful-white air.

Zelda, crown heir to Hyrule and the very picture of a prim and proper princess, was what Link had come to expect in women growing up, especially in the ruined time he had emerged from thanks to her; delicate, subtle and elegant. Malon on the other hand was not quite so delicate or subtle, let alone elegant and yet she still carried the same sense of femininity that Zelda possessed.

Vassia however was a completely different story.

While Zelda and even Malon possessed standards and morals, Vassia seemed to barely hang on to any; what she wanted she took.

It was something that strangely reminded him of the Gerudo soldiers in Hyrule and the Gerudo pirates of Termina.

"Heh... maybe she was born in the wrong country..." He spoke lowly to himself, cracking a light grin in his self-amused chuckle as a side of his bored-faced frown upturned into a half-smirk. The listening Vassia on his left rose a curious purple-haired eyebrow his way, affixing the straps of her backpack as she did.

"What was that mon amour?"

"U-Um...," Link stammered out, double-taking in her direction with a light bead of sweat dripping down his forehead, in great spite to the cold Stralanavian weather. "N-Nothing dear."

The watching Barkner chortled to himself as he watched, Malon rolling her eyes in light annoyance as Zelda next to her tittered in her own display of amusement.

"Impa...," Alwyn spoke up quietly from the front, marching along next to her. "Look... up there..."

The ever-wise Sheikah leading the party of heroes narrowed her fiery-crimson eyes up the long incline to their right away from the path they were walking; seemingly leading to what appeared to be a small settlement. The sounds of steel, cries of human agony and battle exuded from within its borders, at last pulling the rest of the group's attention; they all swung their heads 'round and chatter from around them soon died as they listened on, intrigued.

"I see it...," she responded to the similarly astute Zoran. "I don't think it'd be a good idea."

"B-But... those people are being attacked Impa..." Zelda spoke up softly behind her guardian, turning her blonde-haired head up to face her.

"Zel's right; we gotta get in there and help." The likewise-faced Link left in as he stepped forward through the crunching snow beneath him, still gripping at his duffel bag behind him to join the two.

"And why is that?" Vassia challenged him with, placing a hand on her hip as she did.

The ever-confident Hero of Time flashed one of his trademark closed-mouth smirks at her as he 'rounded it on her behind him, re-opening his mouth to speak to her. "'Cause it's the right thing to do!"

"'It's the right thing to do'?" Impa parroted the exuberant youth's words deliberately slowly and mockingly, a half-smirk of her own present on her expression. Link's grin fell but only for a moment as he 'rounded it back on his white-haired mentor.

"Of course!" He shot back confidently again, flashing his grin as he slammed his left fist into his open right palm, his duffel bag remaining hanging across his shoulder through an impressive use of Aegir-control, as if he were showing off in front of the group. "I mean if we were in trouble wouldn't we want someone helpin' us too?"

"Fair point." Barkner agreed along with his younger companion in a concurring grin, ever the cheery one.

"Well... I suppose if we must...," the smirking Vassia spoke up again. "A champion's work is never done."

The listening Link snorted back at her derisively, still feeling somewhat sore of his loss to her in Palashia as well as the trick she pulled on him in Kaiohdrahl. "Of Palashia maybe." He reminded her. She turned her know-it-all smirk back on him, re-rising up her thin purple-haired eyebrows as she did, re-opening her mouth to give voice to her next comeback.

"Jealousy does not become you, cher cœur."

The ever-sanctimonious tone she spoke in, so irritating and bothersome, had some new sense of odd maturity to it; it was something Link took notice of. He turned his oceanic-eyed gaze back on her and her over-the-top smirk, perhaps forced for the rest of the group in an attempt to keep up her appearances, very slowly switched to a satisfying seeming smile as she returned his gaze.

In great spite to the spoiled and overindulged attitude she projected, he sensed some form of change in her.

I guess miracles really can happen, he thought to himself, a familiar low grin gracing his complexion.

"Ey, boss."

Barkner's low-voiced interruption caused the children of the group to swing their heads up from their own interactions, curious at the Goron's intentions; he stepped past the crunching snow beneath him to walk up to his Zoran and Sheikah companions.

"We'd better get over there if we're gonna help 'em." He pointed out, nodding his rocky-shaped head in the direction of the chaos.

"He's right," Alwyn nodded similarly, a hardened look ever present in his glaring-eyed expression. "There won't be much of a settlement left to save if we keep sitting here talking."

"Good point...," she sighed back in response, pulling the sleeves of the long coat she purchased for the strong Stralanavian weather, revealing the iron arm-guards she ever wore so faithfully. "Everyone ready?"

The sound of Link's Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield, echoing out as they were pulled from their resting places, was the response the Sheikah got as she briefly turned to receive nods from most of the watching group.

"All right... then let's move out!"

2

Even as the watching Barkner approached, ever in his superfast Goron rolling offensive advance, he very quickly acknowledged the mixed clothing the attacking men and women possessed.

SKRRRRRR-FWOFFFF

CRASSSSH

Especially as he rolled into and through them.

As the fast-rolling Goron sliced and diced the first pair of bandit mercenaries and as they were both sent vertically careering high into the sky with similar screams of agony and pain; a reaction that the grinning Barkner followed up by uncurling fairly quickly as he skid up against the snowy ground beneath him and turned his head to the skies before suddenly swinging it 'round on his right.

"Al!"

The nearby former Zoran soldier himself darted his head up from mid-combat with another bandit. The man ahead of him grinned and chuckled maliciously as he stepped forward to advance in a swipe with his broadsword, drawing out a half-uncaring response from Alwyn; he easily swatted the weapon away in a noisy clang with his right sword-fin before pulling back his right leg. As he swung it roughly in a quick but accurate roundhouse, not only did he catch the wide-eyed bandit ahead of him, but the two poor men screaming sent careering from Barkner's earlier rolling strike in mid-air as they dropped to meet his level.

SMASH

SMASH-SMASH

As the two men were sent into a savage tailspin, he followed up with one last spinning axe-like kick; a vertical high-rising and falling drop that saw both bandits make a short and sudden stop, brutally into the snowy ground together, lightly staining it in their hot-red blood. While the ever-cheery Barkner flashed the Zoran a brotherly grin and shot up his open right palm, presumably to be high-fived. The half-surprised Alwyn double-took in the rocky-skinned palm's direction before shutting his eyes, lowering his head and smirking back as he rose up his left hand to slap back in response.

CLANGGG

The sound of Link's ever-trusty Mirror Shield rang out echoingly through the air as he used it to vault up and over one of the many careless brigands that rushed at him thoughtlessly, sending him up and over his small form rather surprisingly and humorously over his left shoulder. As he stepped forward in his advance, the young Hylian grinned on exuberantly as he sliced lowly at the ground widely and horizontally; the yelling cry of another marauder reverberated out powerfully as he was knocked over from the sweeping slice, sending him sailing down to the meet the snowy ground below.

SLICE-SLICE

A quick mid-diagonal and high-horizontal swipe echoed out from the Gilded Sword he carried as he caught the running bandit-woman and hooligan to his front, sending them grunting and coughing out to his two sides to open up further advance.

WHOOSH...

SLICE

Another man screamed as Link's Gilded Sword came flying vertically high into his fast-advancing face; time slowed down briefly for the pair as his life's juices came flying high into the snowy Stralanavian skies, pulling yet another reaction from the Hylian youth.

SLICE

CLANG-SLICE

First a wide horizontal swipe at the carelessly running man ahead of him, then a quick clash of his blade with a passing bandit-woman's before swiftly countering her fairly telegraphed assault in a deft and acrobatic spin, still grinning on overconfidently as he spun his body 'round in his advance.

WHOOSH...

HACK-SLASH-THUD

A pair of screaming men were brought down in their next ill-fated attack; as they approached, the young blonde swiped at the first in a wide yet extremely fast diagonal slice that saw him tailspinning through the air before swaying to the side to avoid the second's vertical cut. In a savage counter that called back to his savage days in the Hylianis rebellion, he used the Gilded Sword's great double-edged blade to brutally sever the second man's leg off before using the hilt to send him grunting harmlessly down to the snowy ground below, caking it in his life's juices.

DRUNNNG

SLICE

VRUNNNNNG...

The last three men that attacked seemed to be the final of the surrounding area. The young Hero of Time used his Mirror Shield to knock the wide-eyed first bandit's jumping strike back, sending him yelling and flying toward the far-off Impa on his right. As a second approached, he savagely sliced up the man's side in a similarly second spiralling spin before at last finishing his advance by abruptly and suddenly halting by making one final turn, slamming up his Mirror Shield to block the fast-running third man's own advance. As the bandit predictably ran into the horrifying face on the shield's surface, he stopped suddenly and shortly like rushing water against solid rock, sending him wide-eyed and grunting down toward the snow beneath him.

Link's earlier grin, so childlike and innocent, very quickly faded as he turned his hardened-eyed glare to face the fallen foe he'd downed before advancing slowly on him; he rose up the Gilded Sword one last time and brought it singing down coated in fire as he knelt to match, brow furrowing and oceanic eyes narrowing firmly as he did.

CRACCCK

The sound of the wide-eyed man's flesh and very bones breaking echoed out below the caped youth, caking his sleeveless coat and Kokiri tunic in the man's blood. The look in his cerulean-shaded eye, a kind of far-off one that even the watching Alwyn, Barkner and Impa had to stare at and exchange worried looks with one another, all silently thankful for the far-off presences of the other children.


"Link..."

The listening young Hylian, surprised out of his hardened reverie, turned his blonde-haired head up to find his mentor standing over him, a kind of unsure look in her fiery-red eye. His own frown took on a curious turn and, very quickly, he found himself surrounded by Impa, Barkner and Alwyn, all with concerned looks on their faces.

"I never asked questions when it came to your fiend and monster work... you've easily become one of the best since returning home from your pilgrimage in Termina." The ever-wise Sheikah spoke; rare words of praise and honour. Link couldn't help but widen up his frown into a half-surprised smile, re-opening his own mouth to respond to her.

"Thanks Impa-sen-"

"However, that said...," she began again in light interruption, folding her armoured arms as she always liked to, crimson eyes closing as her frown deepened as if in disapproval. "There was no need to kill any of these men."

Link's smile dropped from his face as he turned his straw-haired head to his back, only to find an alarming number of fresh corpses in his wake, drawing out a worried wince from him in response.

His instincts took over and he hadn't even noticed; instincts he learned very quickly in his time within the Hylianis under Sheik's command, the Hylian rebellion. When he turned his head up to give the frowning-faced Barkner and Alwyn a brief look he caught glimpses of what seemed to be shock and dismay in their eyes.

It was fairly nostalgic for him and not in a good way either.

"S-Sorry...," he apologised, cerulean eyes lowering in half-shame. "Old habits I guess..."

The silent Alwyn and Barkner exchanged unsure looks with one another, almost as if unable to explain the disconcerting and clashing level of maturity within the boy...

And whether it was a problem or not.

"B-But these guys were hurting these people, weren't they?" The former Kokiri attempted to reason with as he re-raised up his head to eye the three adults. "I mean what are we gonna do? Knockin' 'em out won't really help."

Impa's hardened disapproving frown fell into a softer variant, silver-shaded eyebrows lightly rising up as if in reluctant agreement with the boy, drawing out further quiet concurring with the listening Barkner and Alwyn.

"I mean it's... pretty damn sick...," the frowning Barkner commented on as he cringed in about-turning his rocky-shaped head to view the carnage behind them before soon re-facing the front. "But he did what he to didn't he?"

"Sometimes you just can't reason with people," Alwyn nodded quietly in agreement, eyes briefly closed as he did. "The Templars should be proof of that."

Impa's brow furrowed as the former Zoran soldier referred to the Templars of the Weeping Stars; a company of mercenaries that coincidentally originated in Stralanavia, yet were much more fearsome.

"Mm...," Impa began, a light conceding sigh coming out from her nose. "That's true..."

"And the kids ain't gon' see this anyway...," Barkner claimed, turning his head 'round as if in search for their remaining party members. "Well... so long as we keep 'em from it."

"It'll be difficult but it can be done," Impa nodded. "Besides...," she began again, lightly turning her white-haired head to briefly view the settlement's surroundings. "Looks as if we're finished here anyhow."

As the three men swung their heads 'round to trace Impa's stare, sure enough, all the remaining bandits had been taken care of; either having been dispatched by Link or dealt with safely by the rest of the group. Impa re-opened her mouth to speak.

"All right... then let's locate the village elder and see what comes of this."

3

"Thank you all so much for your help."

The listening Link remained half-asleep as he sat at another long table, this one a little more old-fashioned than the one he had the pleasure of sitting at in Kaiohdrahl. He absent-mindedly, and rather shamelessly at that, chose to idly stick his right pinky into his small and pointed right ear as he slouched and leant back in the chair he sat in. He twitched when the annoyed-expressed Malon sitting on his left reached up to lightly slap at the side of his face, drawing out a similarly irritated frown from him in response.

"You've all been ever so kind to help a lonesome village far out here in the north," the smiling elder spoke as she stood before the group, dressed in purple and white-shaded robes, carrying a long wooden rod. "We all owe your our lives."

Perhaps infected by his blonde companion's overconfidence and cheer, the ever-grinning Barkner shrugged his rocky-shaped shoulders back at the old woman before opening up his mouth to speak.

"Ain't nothin'!" He merely claimed confidently, drawing out rolling-eyed frowns from the listening Vassia sitting on his left and Malon diagonally across from him. The watching Link however couldn't help but upturn half of his frown into an amused smirk.

"Yeah, could have been a lot worse," he agreed on with the Goron, speaking absent-mindedly as he cast his bored-faced frown forward, engaging his pinky into its rude display of digging into his ear. "After the Templars of the Weeping Stars these guys were a cakewalk."

The listening village elder, shocked by the Hylian youth's words, could only widen her eyes in shock. "T-The Templars...?!" She spat out. "Are you sure...?!"

"Their forces had reached about as far as Kaiohdrahl by the time we got there, anyway," the ever-frowning Alwyn spoke up from Barkner's right, his slim Zoran arms ever folded as he faced the elder. "They were... very strong."

"Velkarez was very strong ya mean," Link corrected his close Zoran companion with, a half-annoyed look in his vision as he eyed him briefly. "Took everything I had to down that motherf-"

"LINK!"

He winced again, seemingly a common occurrence, as Impa's angry rebuttal managed to silence him mid-sentence. Thoroughly tickled and amused, the listening Zelda tactically seated on his right, tittered with her right hand resting on her closed lips, her left reaching under and over to gently brush his raised right arm. He turned to eye her carefully and found her smiling at him, as she always seemed to like to, before morphing his half-bored frown into an overconfident smirk.

Almost as if she were enticed by the look on his face and in his oceanic-eyed gaze, her own entertained smile widened as she wiggled her fingers at him from safe under-table level. He blinked back at first before rolling his eyes as he realised, however, chose to concede to her request regardless; the former Kokiri wandered his eyes from hers guiltily and uncomfortably as he lowered his fingers to thread softly with hers.

Seemingly a request she sought for quite regularly from him.

Just don't let her realise how much you enjoy it, he thought.

"I'll never hear the end of it if she does."

"I apologise," Impa spoke up, drawing attention once more to the wise Sheikah leader as she turned to face the village elder. "It's hardly an excuse but we've been fighting since and travelling ever since we were run off the rails half-way to Kievskie Station."

"Ahhh yes... the creatures...," the old woman began knowingly, her hardened frown returning to her as she nodded, joining both bony hands on her wooden rod as she placed it in front of her. "I think it's time I introduce myself... and tell you of their origin."

The listening group, curious, could only turn their heads in her direction.

"My name is Zina Tarasova... and those creatures appearing at the border to Kievskie are proof of our failures here at Klimormansk Village."


It didn't take long for the elderly woman to explain the situation; having been located directly surrounding the outskirts of the capital and, more importantly Klimormansk Cave itself, those within the old Stralanavian order thought it wise to place operatives nearby to protect and watch over it. Zina explained that the strange otherworldly disturbing creatures they experienced running their train off the rails had to have originated from that particular cave.

There was just no other way.

When questioned how someone could have entered into the cave and disturbed its rest however, the elder and her staff could only apologise for their lack of observation; something so simple and yet so easy to have happened.

"Hey at least no-one was hurt," the ever-cheery Barkner spoke up from the side, smiling positively into the near-morbid conversation they were all enduring. "That whole train ride was a cluster at the end too; was a small miracle when you think about it."

"That's true," Alwyn agreed again, an objective nodding frown on his folded-armed face, eyes shut as he did. "Safer spots have seen worse results."

"That still doesn't excuse our failings," Zina instead opted to disagree with the pair, shaking her white-haired head as she did. "To have been placed here by those before us, and to have failed so spectacularly... we put not only your lives in danger... but those of the innocent."

The similarly frowning Link merely shrugged his hanging left arm across the chair he sat in as he swerved a glance in her direction. "It ain't that big a deal, I mean... we all dealt with it pretty easily."

When he felt the oddly firm press of Zelda's fingers into his own, seemingly a kind of silent disapproval of his actions, he turned to blink back at her and found her shaking her own blonde-haired head back at him.

He couldn't help but droop his eyes back at her humorously, annoyed and yet unable to voice his irritation.

"What Link means to say is... we're grateful to have helped at such a delicate time." The Hylian princess dutifully spoke, bowing forward in her seat as she shut her cobalt-blue eyes in a display of respect, drawing out an appreciative smile from the watching elderly woman.

"No it is we who are grateful child," Zina smiled lightly. "Those creatures... they are not of this world or even the next. They are...," she began again, her smile slowly swivelling into a firmly-faced furrowing frown. "Something else..."

"Tellin' me..." Link murmured out in brief recollection to the disturbing, nightmarish creatures stalking the Stralanavian countryside.

"Regardless we, not just as Klimormansk Cave's guardians but also as Stralanavians, all thank you from the bottom of our hearts," Zina spoke again in a well-to-do smile, turning her eyes so she faced the group around her. "I cannot thank you all enough just for dealing with the Templars," she claimed. "While the holy theocracy of our state is fairly effective in stamping down on insurrections and revolutions, some eventually slip through the cracks."

"Like Velkarez?" Alwyn posed forward quietly, arms ever-folded as he cast his frown toward her. She nodded sombrely.

"Yes...," she answered. "He... truly was something of a different nature to the rest of us Stralanavians... so unrestrained... so radical..."

"Well we're just happy we caught him and his company in time before anyone else died," Impa frowned into the conversation with, leaning back in her chair as she turned to face the elder. "We hear they were former military?"

"That's correct...," Zina nodded, a firm frown on her face. "They were very experienced regulars of the 'Tsentral'noye Komandovaniye' division."

"The what now?" Barkner questioned curiously, a humorously clueless blink in his face as he did.

"Ah... I suppose that would be: 'Central Command' in modern Hylian," she spoke again, a kind of apologetic smile in her words. "I do apologise; sometimes it is difficult to stop myself from speaking our language so close to our capital."

"'Central Command'...," Alwyn murmured out in narrow-eyed repeating, seemingly having recognised the phrase. "That's the Stralanavian main-?"

"Main forces," Zelda at last spoke up for a change from the disinterested-looking Link's right side, a knowledgeable frown placed on her porcelain face. "They're said to be near-indestructible; a military unit of gargantuan proportions that have never seen a loss in all their years of deployment," she explained briefly, drawing out a half-curious eyebrow-raise from the listening Link on her left and a similarly intrigued look from everyone else. "I don't think there's another unit quite like them across all of Aurelia."

When she finished her sentence, and the rest of the room found themselves staring at her almost as if to gauge her next words as Hyrule's very princess herself, she darted her blonde-haired blue-eyed head around them all before smiling at them sheepishly.

"U-Um... even of my own homeland of course..." She chuckled somewhat nervously, receiving amused yet well-meaning grins from the watching Barkner and Link.

"To have stopped a renegade unit broken away from Stralanavia's Central Command army, even if they were essentially bandits, is still an extreme achievement... for any man," Zina smiled into the conversation with again, joining both hands on the wooden rod she carried ahead of her. "We, of Stralanavia and of the White-Snow Soldiers, are all in your debt."

"So how's 'bout some payb-"

SNATCH

Link's very open mouth was soon shut-closed as quickly as it had opened by the narrow-eyed Malon on his immediate left; a hard-eyed look from the fire-haired farm girl that saw her reaching up to paw at his cheeks before pressing them together roughly, ending in a particularly droll-looking exchange between the Hylian children. He widened his oceanic eyes in genuine surprise before narrowing them in annoyance, his brow furrowing and his thick blonde eyebrows lowering as his eyes similarly dropped down to glare at her, drawing out a satisfied-looking smirk from her in response and an appreciatively-amused chuckle from the others.

"Thank you Malon." The frowning Impa spoke up in her impassive-faced contemplation, arms folded and her fiery-red eyes shut in appreciation as the rest of the group erupted into a laugh.

"You certainly are a colourful bunch...," the old woman spoke again, casting her smile across at the sitting members. "We shall repay our debt... by introducing you all at the entrance to Velinsk."

Link swung his curious-eyed look on her, his cheeks still humorously caught within Malon's grip as he opened them as best he could to speak. "Wha's in Velinsk?"

Zina chuckled before answering him. "It is Stralanavia's capital; the main hub and city of commerce," she began, re-opening her mouth to continue. "Normally getting within is a privilege in and of itself; the Stralanavian government are particularly picky about who they let in within their borders."

"Is that true Impa...?" Barkner spoke out quietly from across the table, eyebrow piqued up in genuine interest.

"Yes, it is," the ever-wise group's leader responded with. "Stralanavia have always been extremely careful of their neighbours; whether it's suspicion or just how they are is always something left up for debate with the rest of Aurelia," the Sheikah claimed, eyes shut and lowered before soon re-rising them to face them all. "Make no mistake; this is one of the only instances where anyone has crossed its borders safely and legally."

The annoyed Link grunted out as he rose up his left hand to swiftly yet softly backhand Malon's hand away from his cheeks, receiving a satisfied smirking giggle from her in response before he turned to face Zelda on his right.

"Not even you?" He asked her curiously, eyebrow rising ever upward.

"Not even me," she responded with an acknowledging nod, hands having joined her centre in display of her old habit. "While they've officially acknowledged I and my father's place as Hyrule's royal family they make no effort to do any more than the laws require them; they have their own, after all."

"Well that sucks..." He merely blurted out as he swung his head back forward, eyelids drooping humorously as his frown deepened as if thinking of the Stralanavians as buttoned up nobles.

"In any case...," the half-amused Zina chuckled from the end of the table. "When tomorrow morning hits I shall send my granddaughter out with you to help you scour the snow-land in search of Velinsk."

"Shouldn't we just go now?" The impatient Vassia at last spoke up from her bored corner of the table.

"We'd freeze to death out there, especially at this time of night," Zelda replied softly with, a concerned frown attached to her face. "It would just be too dangerous I imagine." While Barkner and Malon held back snickers from their respective sides of the table, it was the watching Link that saw an opportunity for comical mischief.

Something he often always delighted in.

"Yeah Vass," he fired back at the purple-haired princess of Palashia, and she swung her brow-furrowed glare his way from across the table. "Last I checked we weren't all huge mounds of Eenos with snow comin' out our ears."

His childish comments, while eliciting exasperated rolling-eyed sighs from Alwyn and Impa, managed to pull amused snorts from Barkner and Malon and even a silently-amused eye-lowered smile from Zelda to his right. Vassia stared back at him for what felt like at least an uncomfortably silent minute, her left eye singularly narrowed back at him as if she were pondering what to say in response, before she at last opened up her mouth.

No words of actual audio left them however; Link's eyebrows lifted and his own amused smirk soon dropped when he managed to successfully read the words she mimed in eerie silence.

'Don't fall asleep'.

His cerulean eyes widened in shock and his wooden chair scraped noisily as he dragged it across the ground to end closer to the surprised Hylian princess on his right, an anxiety-filled look in his worried eye as he kept it carefully on the now-smirking faced Palashian princess across from him. Zelda rose up her own thin blonde eyebrows as she recognised his movement before her frown soon upturned into an amused smile, eliciting further delight from the surrounding group in a bursting laugh from the watching Barkner.

"And I think that's our cue," Zina spoke with a light chuckle. "Please feel free to explore the rest of the settlement before heading to bed if you all wish... I shall see you all in the morning otherwise."