Chapter 37: Babbling Chatter
Stralanavian Slavery Emancipation 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.
"It's an Easy Afternoon" - Black Lagoon OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"Behind the Clouds" - Black Lagoon OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Skies of a Strange Land" - The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel OST. Scene 2 (First Half).
With their explosive grand finals set at last at its conclusion, Link and Ragnar shake hands as per the competitors of each of the Prima World Tour as a sign of respect and camaraderie, a normality within the confines of their competition... yet not without some information; at Ragnar's request, Link divulges all facts already known of the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai, the ancient primal-like powers hidden within the holy Triforce of Courage itself. Ragnar, having just barely avoided a grisly fate in his death-defying duel with the murderous Kage Narumono, wishes Link the best for his upcoming challenge in far-off northern Stralanavia and parts with the group to pursue his own line of martial arts greatness.
Following their fiery confrontation at the Kaioh Bio, Impa and the group set their course now for far-off Stralanavia; a country steeped in snow, blizzards and other harsh weather not unlike that of Termina's Weybour and Snowhead. They opt to board the train leaving Merrybrook Station to Stralanavia's 'Kievskie Station'; a terminal located on the outskirts and borders of Stralanavia's main capital of Velinsk, close-by to a settlement they stumble upon by the name of 'Klimormansk Cave'.
While aboard, it isn't long before trouble begins; the train is run off the rails by what seems to be nightmarish-like creatures; monsters with multiple limbs, disturbing to the eyes and all things in between. The group fairly easily dispatch them however and come upon Klimormansk Village, finding it also under attack, this time by a worldly band of Stralanavian mercenaries and bandits; as before, they cut them down with fair ease, saving the people and earning a permanent place and gratitude within their people.
The village elder, a woman by the name of Zina, proposes she sends her granddaughter out with them all in the morning to assist them in locating the coveted capital of Stralanavia; Velinsk. While some members are fairly impatient to reach the city, Impa and many others thank her for the hospitality and the generosity, finding themselves a place to sleep to wait out the freezing-cold night of Stralanavia's snow-land.
Meanwhile, having left before Impa's group of heroes, the raven-haired rival to Link himself and his mentor soon find themselves in the northern cave of Klimormansk itself; the resting place of an odd artefact. As the pair of renegade Hylians press through and explore the cavern further, they find themselves face-to-face with what seems to be an ancient tableaux, written and filled with ancient Hylian all across it. It isn't long before the tableaux reacts as Scaverin reads the ancient writing inscribed within that the nightmarish creatures seen within Stralanavia's countryside reveal themselves and the two Hylians find themselves embroiled in their own conflict.
A gigantic otherworldly creature, seemingly having been placed there as a last resort, to defend and protect the odd artefact, known only as 'Xel'lotath'.
They struggle somewhat in the savage exchange, especially against its odd ethereal-like powers, yet it is Raynard that manages to save them; a shocking adaptation that sees Scaverin witnessing a new change in the black-haired boy, a reaction and transformation he undergoes to save them both. When Xel'lotath is defeated the pair of Hylians gain access to the curious cube-shaped relic that the Niylahns, ancestor to the Hylians once left behind and with it, access and entry to a memory of their grand metropolis; famous for the wondrous ore known only as 'Laminite'.
Dragowald.
Said to be a dreamlike fairytale of a location, visited only in one's dreams, the city of the ancient Niylahns now exists as merely a forgotten memory, interactable now only through the 'Cube of Insight'. As Scaverin and Raynard peer into its incredible godlike depths, they find themselves thrust deep into the city of the departed gods and one of the last known place of the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide.
However, upon making their victorious return to Klimormansk Cave and the lands of Stralanavia, the screaming Scaverin soon discovers his eyesight has been rendered almost completely useless; a revelation that the knowledgeably-cursed Scaverin had voiced upon mere minutes beforehand.
"The reader is said to go blind from the exertion of all that knowledge in one fall... and insane."
In great spite to his own confident words, Scaverin somehow manages to keep his mental faculties as he loses the use of his eyes; a shocking epiphany that leaves the watching Raynard clueless and uncertain.
The young Van Garrick briefly wonders whether his wily mentor may already be insane.
Meanwhile, having rescued two large groups of people in their swift arrival to Stralanavia, the group of heroes led by Impa hope to do what most of Aurelia have failed to do in at least over one-hundred long years; to safely and legally cross the border into Stralanavia's capital, Velinsk itself. With assistance from the village elder Zina's granddaughter, a young girl by the name of Sonya Tarasova, they soon find themselves within the restrained walls of Velinsk Castletown; a feat not many in the continent of Aurelia can lay claim to.
Little do the heroes know that they are fated to encounter some of the worst sights that no child should ever have to see...
Scene 1
Link sighed through his nose and cast his legs out forward from the small settee-bench he sat on just outside of the dining room of the small building they were all invited to; having been sent outside to wait for his mentor by the wise Sheikah herself, Link found himself genuinely curious as to why he was picked out of everybody when everyone else was allowed to presumably leave to their chambers to get ready for bed.
Weird, he wondered.
Maybe it's to complain about something I did; it's always something.
Maybe it's serious...
"All right... bed time everyone, go, all of you; go."
The sound of Impa's ever-commanding contralto made him snap his eyes out of his ruminations, rising up his thick blonde eyebrows as he turned his head to its direction on his left, only to find his companions leaving the dining room at her word. The ever-cheery Barkner grinned on as he passed the young Hylian, issuing out a complimentary fist-bump to draw a similar smirking look from the sitting Link. The folded-armed Alwyn instead however opted merely to throw the boy a simple frowning-faced nod of acknowledgement.
It was only when the smirking-faced Malon walked by him with a kind of satisfied look on her face that the watching Link's earlier sociable grin soon dropped in favour of a half-annoyed frown, as his eyes met with hers; a kind of amused look in her expression told him she expected him to be reprimanded for some sort of issue he may have caused in the past.
Mm, maybe she's not wrong, he thought in growing concern.
He drew breath in sharply in shocked surprise, twitching suddenly when he felt the brushing touch of a pair of soft slender fingers across the left side of his cheek; he narrowed his oceanic eyes and snapped his blonde-haired head to his left only to find the similarly smarmy-faced Vassia sweeping him by, headed a few paces behind the fire-haired farm girl ahead of her.
The youth, his half-annoyed eyesight still kept firmly and fiercely focused on the smirking Vassia's face, found himself suitably surprised when a third girl began to walk into frame of his left eye; he double-took to his left and, sure enough, his frown softened when he found the smiling Zelda passing him this time. She, unlike her past two companions, opted instead to gift him with a well-meaning look in her smile; a demure and kind quality he had come to expect in the young Hylian princess. As always she kept her small soft hands joined at her centre; a prim and proper show of etiquette and delicacy as she followed Vassia and Malon ahead of her.
"I hope you have a well-deserved rest tonight, sir Link."
The former Kokiri swung his head up to his top left as he was named and called, eyebrows rising to match and convey his further surprise before they soon lowered into a nervous little smile as he caught the sight of the similarly smiling village elder, Zina passing him with an acknowledging nod.
"Y-You too..." He sheepishly shot back, rising up his left hand to rub at the back of his green-hat head. When she eventually turned to leave, presumably to follow his other companions, he dropped his hand and smile before swivelling his straw-haired head 'round to his left as if to look for something that was missing.
Sure enough, there she was; the folded-armed frowning Sheikah herself leading the group. His nerves tensed when he saw her, fully expecting some kind of a chewing out or scolding, usually harsh when it came to his hard-willed mentor. His frown soon turned jagged and zig-zag as she approached him, unfolding her armoured arms to place one on her hip and another merely hanging by her side.
"So...," she began, brow furrowing down at him. "We need a word with you."
"Uh... 'we'...?" He merely murmured back curiously, propping up an eyebrow at her as he did. It was only when he suddenly noticed the grinning Barkner and frowning Alwyn standing just outside the main hallway's door frames on either side, almost as if they were waiting for him, that he fully realised. "Oh."
"You damn right 'oh'," the Sheikah responded, a light smirk in her own tone before it soon settled back into its usual unremarkable frown. "Come on, in here." She nodded her head in the direction of the now vacant dinner room.
"All right, first thing's first..."
Link's nerves, normally made of raw steel, soon found themselves withering as he awaited the judgement of his harsh-tongued mentor.
"Where and how did you learn skills like those?"
"S-Skills like... like wha-?"
"Skills like those that you used in yesterday's skirmish with those bandits," Impa spoke up again, leaning against the dining table as she folded her arms down at him, a firm-faced frown upon her expression as she did. "Those skills you used to kill those men with."
Link's oceanic-eyed gaze darted in the direction of the presence of his other two adult companions; the concerned Alwyn and frowning-faced Barkner in the two corners of the room. Strangely, it almost felt as if he were being interrogated somehow and the respective Goron and Zoran were both her bodyguards.
The idea would have genuinely made him laugh were it not for the hard atmosphere the room had been plunged into.
"From...," he began again, lowering his eyes from the Sheikah's briefly as if recalling his memories of the original timeline, a kind of half-tortured twitching frown on his face before it lightly wilted up into a half-smile, tilting his head as he re-rose it to gift it to her. "From... you."
The listening Impa, genuinely surprised by the youth's words, furrowed her brow and opted to remain silent to allow him to continue.
"I mean... not you here but the you from my time," he elucidated at last, using his hands to gesture as he did. "Ah... and Sheik too."
The far-off Barkner propped up an eyebrow. "Sheik?"
"Um... Zel I guess that'd be," he answered the curious Goron with, casting him a sheepish-faced frown as he rubbed the back of his green-hat head. "When she grew up she used the trainin' you gave her to train me... and Ray too." Link claimed, nodding his blonde-haired head in the direction of Impa, drawing out an understanding nod from her at last.
"It would be wrong to judge you in the eyes of a child then... wouldn't it." The ever-wise Sheikah claimed, her silver-shaded eyebrows briefly rising up as her similarly-haired head tilted back at him, a kind of suggestively-interrogative quality in the tone of her contralto.
It made the listening Link nervous that he was about to eat a serious punishment.
"He did save those people Impa," Alwyn spoke up for him from the far-off right corner, his own slim Zoran arms folded as he did. "Lives of the innocent are more important than those of killers aren't they?"
Impa sighed out, lowering her head. "I suppose..."
Link's frown softened up into a grateful-faced smile as he caught the frowning-faced wink the wily Zoran soldier shot him with.
"In the end all of this is on me anyhow," the Sheikah enlightened, a softer frown adorned on her usually hard expression. "I should have specified our orders then instead of just rushing like that."
"I guess we had to," Barkner chuckled in well-meaningly. "Didn't have much of a choice."
Impa tossed the cheery-voiced Goron a light-faced grateful smile of her own before re-facing the frowning Hylian ahead of her.
"Try not to take so many chances like that in the future, okay?" She requested, eyebrows lightly rising as she did. Link piqued one of his own in curiosity. "We already lost you once to Velkarez before... I'm sure our princess would be heartbroken if it happened again."
Her words, while a subtle jibe at how embarrassed he always got around that particular subject, also found their weight in gold in him.
She was right, he thought; it wasn't the first time he'd been staring death in the face and actually suffered it. It was nothing like he'd imagined.
Thank the goddesses for Mr. Sorcerer guy, he added on in a pensive silent frown.
"All right... you're free to go."
He shot up his straw-haired head from his hardened ruminations, blinking with light confusion.
"May as well catch some sleep; we'll be out early in the morning to hit Velinsk, after all." She finished out, arms ever folded.
"Won't that be fun..." Barkner muttered out as he pushed himself softly up off the wall and corner he leant on.
"Could be worse," Alwyn shrugged well-meaningly. "Could be another extreme temperature."
"I can deal with blazin' hot stuff like a desert or a volcano but not this," the Goron shot back, shaking his rocky-shaped head at the former soldier with a light grin. "I dunno how you do it."
"Years of service my friend." He admitted back, a rare small smile adorned on his own face as he did. The listening Link couldn't help but grow a light smirk as he watched the exchange, his spirits lifting fairly quickly in response.
"Well...," he began silently to himself, about-turning to leave the dining room, his smirk falling into a more appreciative-faced smile. "That went a little better 'n expected."
2
"The cold country air feels délicieux, does it not mon amour?"
"Uh deh-lee-see-ooh. Yes dear."
Link kept his oceanic-eyed gaze firmly fixated on the slow-snowy crunching road before him, eyes lightly drooped as he kept good hold on the green string holding his duffel bag to the coat sitting well on his back over his trusty green Kokiri tunic.
After having been woken up extremely early in the morning (and fairly uncomfortably at that too by the teamed-up efforts of Malon and Vassia), the group very quickly consumed breakfast with thanks to the tribesmen of the White-Snow Soldiers populating the small settlement. As promised Zina, village elder, introduced the group to her granddaughter; a young girl by the name of Sonya, coincidentally and fortunately of similar age to the rest of the group's accompanying children.
While Link would normally be fairly grateful for another youth around his age to hang around with he also noted with great growing concern that it was yet another girl.
It seemed to be something of a rapidly-rising pattern within his group.
He didn't necessarily mind spending time with the girls, especially Zelda, yet it's just as they say with many things in life.
Too much of anything can be a bad thing in and of itself.
"There we are, up on the main gates there; Velinsk."
The thick Stralanavian accent with which Sonya spoke managed to break the blinking Link out of his firm-eyed reverie, instead turning it forward; dead ahead and further up the crunchy-snowy hill was the capital city itself in all of its magnificent splendour. Numerous towers and spires all coated and sleeted in sheets of snow set out before them all, guarded by what seemed to be militaristic belfries at either gate's side, manned by two men; presumably archers or snipers. Similarly there appeared to be two men dressed in full Stralanavian armour, something the group recognised after their desperate fight with the renegade mercenaries of the Templars, standing on either side of the main gate.
"I imagine you'll all be fine by yourselves from this point on," Sonya spoke up again, a frown on her face as she nodded her dark-brown haired head toward the gate ahead and above them. "Just introduce yourselves and they'll let you in."
"Won't we need you to get us in?" Impa pointed out curiously, eyebrow raising up down at the young Stralanavian girl as she did. Finding another opportunity to make jokes and quips, the ever-childish minded Link found his bored frown slowly upturning into a low-faced smirk as he watched the young girl on his right, re-opening his mouth to address her.
"Yeah Sonya," he began, his tenor grating and irritating to the hardened young country girl. "It's only a city. Whatcha scared of?"
When he received what felt like a warning tap to his right hand he blinked and swung his curious look 'round, only to find the frowning Zelda shaking her own hat-wearing head at him as if in disapproval, drawing a half-annoyed look from him in response.
I ain't allowed to have any fun, he thought.
The listening Sonya rolled her own light-brown eyes before eventually realising her own promise and the group's quandary.
"All right, um... I suppose I can take you all as far as the Sorcerer's Superstation," she admitted, a kind of half-meaning murmur in the tone of her low-voiced soprano as she lowered her brown-haired head. "But that's it."
"What's the big problem with Velinsk anyway?" Barkner prodded her interrogatively, eyebrow propping up to convey his curiosity as he walked alongside her. "Got someone there you don't want to see?"
"Ex-boyfriend or girlfriend probably." Link muttered impolitely, a half-bored frown adorned on his face as he leant his form to his right toward the walking Zelda next to him; she held back a noticeably amused titter on her lips before she, rather wisely, tapped him firmly on the arm he nudged her with as if to dissuade him from making further quips and jokes. He rolled his oceanic eyes again and the listening Sonya narrowed her own eyes at him, seemingly insulted and annoyed.
SMACK
"Ow!"
The cold Stralanavian air made the savage hand-slap Sonya issued him across the head all the more painful; something that made him wince and rise up his one free hand to rest on his green-hat head.
"It's none of our business why she doesn't want to be in the capital Link," Impa mildly admonished the youth, ever in her knowledgeable and firm-faced frown. "Let's not press her; we're lucky to have her."
"Thank you..." The similarly frowning and sheepishly-faced Sonya murmured in response, chestnut eyes lowering in light gratitude as the subject was seemingly dropped. It was only when he received another prod from the firm-faced Zelda on his right that Link rolled his oceanic eyes and gave in to her silent request.
"Sorry." He threw over toward the young Stralanavian girl. Sonya turned to face him, her frown hardened before eventually softening as she nodded in understanding and stoic acceptance.
"Какой у тебя бизнес?"
The group, surprised by the foreign language, soon reminded themselves they were within a foreign country as they swung their heads in the man's voice's direction; a guard posted on one of the militaristic towers as they approached seemed to speak down to them. The frowning Sonya furrowed her brow as she raised up her pony-tailed head to face the Stralanavian guard, re-opening her mouth to speak to him.
"Я прошу этих путешественников получить безопасный проезд."
"У них есть авторизация?"
"Да ты гребаный идиот, теперь открой ворота!"
The finishing exclamation, and in such an angered tone of voice by the young girl, caused the surrounding group to double-take in her direction.
Fortunately for them however, they were unable to decipher exactly with what she spoke.
"You get any of that...?" The watching Link murmured out as he leant in the frowning Zelda's direction; she merely shook her head.
"My Stralanavian isn't quite as good as my Palashian; sorry."
Link clicked his tongue in light distaste and disappointment, drawing out a half-amused smile from her in reply.
"So what's the plan, little flan?" The half-grinning Barkner began socially, eyebrow rising ever-upward down at the young Stralanavian. She double-took in a fashion similar to the group themselves before regaining her tired-faced frown and responding.
"He said you can all go in if you have authorisation and so long as you all don't cause any trouble."
The listening Link's left small pointed ear perked up a little in a humorous display, almost as if he were called and addressed somehow. "Did someone say... troub-"
"No."
Again the frowning-faced Malon opted to silence him and with the quick and nimble use of her slender yet coarse fingers; Link's ocean-blue eyes widened in surprise as she shot them up to paw at his cheeks, closing them in together and essentially cutting him off before he managed to finish his ill-fated sentence.
"Thank you Malon." Impa spoke, fire-red eyes briefly shut as she did, drawing out a satisfied-seeming smirk from the fire-haired farm girl and a comically-annoyed droop of the blonde boy's eyelids.
"We should probably get going in here if we're going in Impa." Alwyn pointed out in his business-like frown, ever the practical one. The similar-faced Sheikah nodded in swift understanding.
"Agreed. Come on everyone."
–
3
The idea that the area's temperature would have lowered or somehow gotten warmer somehow very quickly faded from contemplation within the heroes; a notion that was sadly lost on some of the more simple-minded members of the group.
"Urgh... why is it so damned cold?" Link moaned out, brow furrowing down as he crunched his boots through the endless lines of snow that dotted the beautiful Stralanavian city of Velinsk's main hub.
"I can always warm you up mon chéri."
The sound of Vassia's ever-abrasive soprano managed to make the small hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as she stepped toward his form on his left, wrapping both of her arms 'round the coat atop his own form as she cast her well-known smirk back on him. He turned his oceanic-eyed gaze 'round on her suspiciously, a kind of apprehensive quality in the ocean-blue of his careful-eyed stare.
"Not if you were the last chick in Aurelia."
The listening Barkner snorted in amusement as he marched alongside the pair of children, drawing out further delight through even the usually-stoic tempered Alwyn on his own left. While Zelda remained respectfully silent, she couldn't help prevent the growing smile of satisfaction and entertainment writing across her lightly red-pink cheeks. Malon however was far less subtle in her display of contentment; she opted to throw her fire-haired head back and laugh to the heavens, re-opening her own mouth to give voice to her oh-so-obvious hilarity.
"BURN!"
It was the listening Barkner's turn to laugh; an elicited response that was sheer delight to his own sense of humour and obviously a line she took from him directly.
The curious-faced Link eyed the pair quizzically, eyes wandering from each of his close companion to the next in wonder.
They've gotten fairly close considering the age difference, he thought curiously.
Maybe they're just similar people with identical senses of humour.
"Yeah, that'll probably be it."
"So... I imagine the Sorcerer's Superstation is somewhere around the centre of this city?" Alwyn spoke up, his business-like frown ever-returned to his face as he kept his coat-wearing slim Zoran arms folded, re-facing the Sheikah next to him as he did. Impa nodded similarly dutifully.
"Yes it should be situated in-"
"Ah, excuse me!"
The group, surprised, swung their heads 'round from their own conversations and laughs only to find a young woman dressed similarly to the countless Stralanavians marching 'round the capital; equipped for the freezing weather surrounding them. While it was civilian clothing, she looked a little more important than the average person; she carried what seemed to be a clipboard in her hands, suggesting to an official government connection.
"Would you happen to be the travellers hailing from Hyrule?" She called forward as she began to approach them, her words carrying through the bustle of the people surrounding them and the falling snowflakes above.
"That's correct," Impa answered her in a deft enough nod, casting her frown back on the woman before her. "I believe it was miss Sonya's grandmother that sent us; Zina... Tarasova is it?"
The woman's own frown soon swung up into an accepting smile as she nodded in likewise understanding and recognition. "Good; I've come to collect you all. I was briefed on the size of your party."
The listening Link rose up a thick blonde eyebrow, briefly eyeing the numbers they carried and merely shrugged in response.
We're not that big, he thought.
At least not yet anyway.
"We have prepared rooms for you all at the Yensk; please, come with me."
With that, she bowed respectfully and turned around, presumably to begin the march back to her place of origin.
"The what?" Link murmured out curiously, turning his unsure look on the chuckling Zelda.
"The Yensk," the Hylian princess repeated for him. "It's the official government headquarters for Stralanavia, much like Hyrule Castle for us back home."
"Oh...," he murmured back similarly thoughtfully, swivelling back his blinking blonde-haired head 'round to stare after the marching woman ahead. "Weird name..."
When on the way to the Stralanavian 'Yensk' building, the group soon noted with great curiosity and wonder in the common peoples' attitudes; while the commoners in Palashia and Kaiohdrahl were somewhat distasteful of the Hylians within the group for their histories, it was the Stralanavians that surprised them all with their aloof uncaring attitudes.
It was strange to be ignored as opposed to being acknowledged and mildly disliked for their race.
Having been warned that the Stralanavian people were very much like this however, they took heart and followed the woman to the Yensk, the young Sonya still travelling with them.
"She can probably go now, right Impa-sensei?" Link questioned curiously over his shoulder as he walked down the building's main entrance, the snow crunching noisily under his and his companions' collective feet.
"That's rude," the grinning Malon shot over at him with a quick nudge, eliciting a half-raised eyebrow from him as he turned to face her in their march. "She's been nice enough to guide us; the least you could do is thank her."
"It's fine," Sonya spoke up for herself as she marched ahead of the group by a few steps, eyes focused forward. "I was ordered to guide you until I was sure you were all safe and that is what I will do." She began again, her thick Stralanavian accent coming through fairly boldly in the modern Hylian with which she spoke.
"Your Hylian is very eloquent," Zelda complimented with a well-meaning smile, hands joined ever at her centre. "Where did you learn it?"
"My grandmother," the brown-haired girl answered her, a simple-faced frown adorned on her expression as she did, briefly eyeing her. "She taught me, and many others, living within our village," she explained, a simple frown on her face as she marched on stoically. "She says that knowing our language is good... but being able to communicate with others is better."
"Regular genius I bet..." Link muttered out rudely, turning his eyes from the young girl; she seemed to register his comment and briefly eyed him in an emotionless frown before re-facing the front. It was only when he received a back-hand across the head by the annoyed Malon that he regretted his words with a sharp intake of breath.
"Thank you Malon." Impa repeated for what felt like the umpteenth time in a stoic-faced frown of her own, eyes briefly shut as she did. The fire-haired farm girl shot the group's wise leader with a grateful-eyed grin of her own, drawing out a half-annoyed frowning turn of Link's own expression.
"Ah, welcome one and all!"
The group, surprised by the second voice, swung their heads all 'round to its source only to find a smiling woman approaching them from the entrance of the odd abbey-like building itself. She was dressed in what seemed to be a formal business-like suit; something worn for the professional side of Stralanavia, also wearing her long brown hair into a neatly-held ponytail. While the suit itself was obviously designed for a woman, it reminded the watching Link and Alwyn somehow of the same fashion construction as Kaiser Pashkov's in their initial tournament at the Hylian Hyrax.
Must be a Stralanavian thing, Link wondered to himself silently.
The nameless woman strode over to meet them and the other woman, presumably her subordinate, and nodded at her as she passed her; a silent smiling gesture that saw her nod similarly and walk off.
"Welcome to Stralanavia!" She spoke again, extending out her sleeved arms to both sides as if to receive them. "I imagine it's been somewhat tedious travelling through our lands with our customs and rules, even as early on as you all are." She chuckled well-naturedly, pulling out a half-amused smirk from the listening Barkner and Link.
"I've travelled through worse lands," Impa admitted in a light frowning-faced sigh, tilting her silver-shaded head as she did. "We've at least had good guides here to help us with." The Sheikah gave credit to the young Sonya ahead of them; she twitched as she was referred to, briefly eyeing the woman behind her before re-facing the front. The Stralanavian woman ahead of them chuckled again, her smile growing.
"It's nice to see you again Sonya..."
As she spoke her warmly-held sentence, she stepped forward and knelt down into the snow to wrap her arms around the indifferently-frowning young girl, smiling on as she shut her eyes. Sonya, in response however, seemed to stare out into the distance impassively. The woman kept her smile on her face as she rose herself back to her feet, turning her sociable look on the rest of the curious-faced group, bowing in respect as she re-opened her mouth to introduce herself.
"I am Nadya, senator to the Stralanavian Theocracy and I bid you all welcome to our grand capital of Velinsk."
–
4
"B-O-R-E-D, I'm a poet, see?"
The listening Barkner shot the blonde youth a lightly-amused smirking chuckle as he re-affixed the cards he carried in his rock-shaped fingers, sitting away from him on a table with the similarly calm-faced Alwyn opposite from him.
"You're an idiot." Malon hit him with as she passed the hanging Link, a half-annoyed look on her face as she knocked her backhand softly against his defenceless chest hanging upside down.
"Ow!" He exclaimed out indignantly, shutting one of his eyes in display of his light irritation, his upside-down position still holding across the expensive sofa he once sat on. His green-coloured hat dropped down toward the ground, his long fringe of blonde-shaded hair similarly dangling downward. "What'd you do that for?" He asked, annoyed as he turned his eyes on her, rubbing the afflicted area she struck.
"I think the more important question is, why didn't she do it sooner?" The smirking-faced Vassia commented on from across the room, legs crossed and viewing her nails in her usual position. Link stared back at her from across the room in his upside-down position, eyelids drooping downward to match his mildly-irritated frown before he groaned and rolled them as he changed his positioning back to an upright one.
"You guys are no fun..." He muttered out indignantly, turning his oceanic eyes away from the group, drawing out an entertained laugh from the female side of the room. Barkner chuckled quietly along with the ever-frowning form of Alwyn across from him.
"Ah here you all are! Just as your leader said."
The group swung their heads again at the sound of Nadya's voice only to find her joined by the frowning folded-armed Impa and the similar-faced Sonya on either side of her. She smiled on as sociably as she did earlier, re-opening her mouth to continue speaking.
"I have managed to secure you all rooms to our glorious home here at the Yensk," the Stralanavian senator spoke with a satisfied-seeming smile sitting on her face. "When Sonya informed me that it was you who all defeated the Templars of the Weeping Stars... the pravitel'stvo were all more than willing to accommodate you all."
"Didja have to?" The listening Link shot back, rolling his eyes in an overconfident smirk, shrugging exaggeratedly as he did, eliciting an amused smile from the watching Zelda on his left. Vassia rolled her own eyes in a display of contrasting irritation while the listening Malon standing across from them all folded her arms at him; a conveying of her own exasperation with him.
"I kinda feel bad for Impa though," Barkner began, looking up from his game of cards to cast his frown forward into the conversation with. "Didn't she pay up for the full year in the Sorcerer's Superstation?"
"Please," the smirking Palashian princess shot back over at the concerned Goron. "We at Palashia could at the very least double the Hylian royal family's payment. It is of no consequence."
While the rest of the group remained uncomfortably silent at Vassia's rude response, the deeply-frowning faced Link re-opened his own mouth to respond.
"Shut up Vassia."
Almost immediately most of the listeners, even the normally rude Malon herself and the impassive Alwyn all attempted to hold back their amused smiles. The watching Vassia's smirk very quickly faded down into an annoyed frown, her brow furrowing back at the young Hylian.
"In any case...," the chuckling Nadya began, her own smile growing a little in half-amusement of her own before it softened into her usual sociable-faced expression. "You're all welcome to explore the Yensk tomorrow; we've shut most of our corridors tonight as it's nine o'clock," she claimed. "Ah! Except the third floor; staff only."
"What a gyp." Link shot back callously, his eyelids drooping to match his bored-faced frown as he placed his small hands up to rest behind the back of his green-hat head, leaning back on the expensive Stralanavian sofa he sat on.
"Your rooms are all in the west wing in the guest suites," she explained further with a well-meaning smile. The woman bowed forward respectfully as she briefly shut her eyes and re-opened her mouth to finish her next sentence. "I may have some interesting news for you all in the morning so, please... be sure to get some rest."
