Another chapter so soon? Yup! I tell ya, cliffhangers do wonders for my inspiration. Still can't manage to pump out the daily updates, though. I blame the United States Educational System. Anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering what's going on in Snowbound. Well, here it is!
Chapter 6: Despair
"Brother!" Maris shouted as she kicked off her cumbersome boots and ran barefoot through the snow with tears in her eyes. The snow and ice were telling her something, though she couldn't quite hear what. However, she could tell that their message was urgent, furious, and melancholy all at once. At one point she could almost swear that she was being told to turn back.
"Miss Maris! Don't run off alone!" River called as her raced to catch up. The girl wasn't listening, though. She couldn't care less about the Zora prince at the moment. Her brother… her aine… They were the only family she had. The closer she came to Snowbound, the more she noticed that it was uncharacteristically warm in the area. Finally Maris reached the peak of the snow bank. Her mouth fell agape at what she saw.
Fire. So much fire, it was unbelievable. How could a place built in so much snow and ice burn so well? The combustibility of the town wasn't a priority at the moment, though. Maris slid down the mound and looked everywhere, calling for her sibling. She could hear River shouting for him as well. There came the unmistakable sound of Zephyr's battle cry, followed almost immediately by a grunt of pain.
Maris quivered with fear as she sprinted past burning residences. She soon stumbled upon a great bonfire. Before the raging flames stood a tall man clothed in elaborate robes. Zephyr crouched off to the side, whimpering with pain and clutching at a terrible wound. The man had a woman caught by the neck and was holding her well above the ground. She was an intimidating young Shiekah woman with hair as white as the snow around them…
"AINE!" the blonde girl screamed as tears fell relentlessly from her cerulean eyes. She ran forward, sobbing, and immediately began to whack the man with her staff. He swatted her away with his free hand, knocking the breath out of her and momentarily crippling her.
"Sinners. Heretics. Repent with your lives," the man spat. His eyes were dark and cold with hate. Sisha managed to turn her head just enough to get Zephyr and Maris in her line of vision. "Chil…dren… R-run…" she coughed as she fell limp in the man's grasp. "What have you done? What have you done? What have you done?" Maris cried, forgetting the throbbing pain that enveloped her.
"My name is Saint Karl," the man introduced with a small bow. "You two are not Shiekah from before the Changing. You are both young Hylians, young enough to not have been exposed to the evil that is Tri'dism. Tell me. Do you believe in the holy savior Unra?"
"No!" Maris admitted. "I never have! I never will! Unra is the evil that we Chosens are going to defeat! And we'll kill you too!" She immediately resumed her fit of sobbing as Karl approached her. "Chosens?" he repeated contemplatively. "You mean to say that two mere children are the ones who are destined by the prophecy to rid Hyrule of an 'evil god'?"
"M-Maris…" Zephyr stammered. "Shut up… D-Don't tell him these things…" The boy wondered where River had disappeared to at such a time.
"Guards!" Karl snapped. "Bring your ropes and torches! I've found two more of the heretics! Let us burn them slowly over the fires and savor their youthful screams."
"What k-kind of morals are those?" Zephyr said with as much contempt as he could muster. "Some kind of messenger of g-god you are, who wants to h-hear a couple children cry for their l-lives." He doubled over as a new pain enveloped him.
Soon three men in white armor showed up, one with a good length of rope and two with torches. There was another being standing behind them. He had long white hair that ran down his back and had on standard boots and gloves. His eyes were black and serene. His most notable characteristic, though, was that he was nothing more than a giant rock with arms and legs.
"Why don't you let me take these two?" he suggested in a deep, grating voice. Karl whipped around. "And who are you?" he demanded skeptically.
"Name's Doroki. I'm a traveler. A hungry traveler. And these two look mighty appetizing." He chuckled. "Of course… you don't look so bad… yourself!" Doroki then erupted in a fit of maniacal laughter that lasted a good three minutes and left Karl and the three guards very, very disturbed. There was a bit of silence. "I'm only kidding," the rock creature admitted.
"Well… Are you Tri'dist?" Karl asked as he narrowed his eyes. "Oh, yes! All the way! Tri'dism, GO!" Doroki cheered. One of the guards raised his hand slightly as if remembering something important.
"Saint Karl, I think this is that rogue from the Gorons. They say he's stark raving mad. You can't take his word on anything. Watch this, sir. Doroki, are you Unrist?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course I'm Unrist!"
"I thought you were Tri'dist?" Karl reminded.
"Tri'dist, yup! That's me!" the Goron replied cheerfully.
"But you just said you were Unrist."
"Duh! Unrism is the way to go!"
"Well, are you Tri'dist or Unrist?"
Doroki stared blankly. Karl could almost hear the little hamster that powered the fool's brain die. "Unrist," he prompted.
"YEAH!" Doroki responded enthusiastically. "So, can I eat them?"
Karl pulled aside his guards for a quick conference. "Do we let him take the children or not?" he asked. One of the guards chuckled. "He's so insane, he's probably telling the truth. I say we let him take the little brats," he suggested. The other two guards agreed. Anything to get Doroki out of their hair was good with them. They had heard rumors about the Goron that came from a strict family of protectors. Sources said that the rules of the family were so stern and harsh that Doroki lost it and became the black sheep of his bloodline. Renounced by his ashamed relatives, he became a wanderer. However, it was well-known that Doroki was extremely powerful. And everyone understood that power plus insanity equaled bad, bad things.
"Very well. Do with them as you please," Karl assented as he motioned for his guards to return to the ship. A while later, the boat's horn resonated over the glacier. It soon became obvious that they weren't coming back.
"You can come out now," Doroki said to a nearby pile of snow. River emerged from behind it looking mortified. He ran to Maris' side and fell to his knees in the snow. He took a small bottle out of his travel bag and poured a drop of icy liquid into her mouth. The girl shook her head and opened her eyes. "What just happened?" she questioned weakly. River smiled in relief and gently laid her down upon the snow, then proceeded to Zephyr.
"How are you feeling?" the Goron inquired. Maris looked around worriedly. "Aine!" she shouted as she sprang to her feet and ran to Sisha. The woman was long dead. "Feeling all right, you say?" Doroki continued, despite the fact that the one he was speaking with had left. "That's good, that's good. You took a nasty blow. Oh, and your Shiekah caretaker… You should go see her."
"Sisha…?" Zephyr was also well now. River silently walked over and stood beside the large Goron. "So… is your name really Doroki?" he asked hesitantly. The rock being nodded once.
"And are you really going to… eat us?"
He nodded again. River gasped, evoking yet another nod from Doroki. "…Sir?" he inquired. Doroki nodded once more. The young prince sighed in frustration and crouched beside Maris, who was kneeling in the snow before Sisha's corpse. "Are you okay?" he asked gently. His response was the soft sound of the girl's weeping. He bit his lip and looked at Zephyr. The boy's head was bowed, his eyes veiled by shadows. Tears stained his shirt and marked the snow at his feet.
The young prince turned to look at Doroki to find him… still nodding. The guy must be nuts, he determined. "Sir! Why don't you say something?" he prompted. The man snapped to attention. "What did I miss?" he inquired as he searched the landscape for Goddesses-know-what. "Sisha is dead, sir," River reminded.
"And it's all my fault," Zephyr interrupted as he turned his face towards the sky, his eyes closed as a meager defense against his tears. "I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't fight him… I… I failed…" His voice cracked and he turned away to clear his eyes of tears. Maris stood and hid her face in her hands, shaking her head as if trying to convince herself that she was dreaming. "Brother…" She lowered her hands. Her dark sapphire eyes glimmered with tears.
"Excuse me," Doroki said, "but can I assume that you are Zephyr, Maris, and River?"
The named nodded in turn.
"And I see by your eyes that you are all Chosens," he observed as he met the pale blue gaze of the Chosen of the Wind, the darker cerulean of the Chosen of Water, and the shining emerald of the Chosen of Earth.
"We are," Zephyr replied simply. Doroki bowed. "My name is… Well, you know my name. I am from a family of Gorons. This is why I am a Goron. My mother and father were Gorons as well. And all my siblings, cousins, and other relatives. Somewhere alone the line there might have been a… No, no. We're all Gorons. I'm one hundred percent Goron. The most Goron-y Goron in-"
"We get the point!" Zephyr snapped, still upset about his aine. Doroki cleared his throat. "My apologies. I often get that way," he admitted. "Anyway, my bloodline is charged with the task of protecting the Chosens whenever they may appear. Think of me as your new non-Shiekah aine. Goron aine. Like a… gaine. Considering the spelling, it's sort of like 'rain'. Or 'grain'. Wood has grain, you know. Wood is a great natural resource. Rocks are a great resource too. Mm, rocks…"
The three Chosens looked at one another, each with their own look of disbelief. This… this fool was their protector? He couldn't hold his attention to one thing for more than five seconds, and they dreaded what antics he would pursue should he become engaged in battle.
"As you know," Doroki continued, paying no heed to his audience's strange expressions, "the Monastery is out to destroy every last trace of Tri'dism. Do you know why this is?"
"Is it because the three golden Goddesses have no power if everyone's prayers are directed to Unra?" River guessed.
"Hm. That's better than what I was going to say," Doroki nodded as he pulled a notepad out of his boot and jotted down the prince's suggestion. "Either way, Unrism is really the bad religion. At least this is what I was told. One way or another, you Chosens need to unite with the Chosen of Fire if you are to fulfill your destinies."
"And where is the Chosen of Fire?" Zephyr inquired impatiently. Doroki applauded for some infinitely strange reason… "I don't know!" he laughed. Maris covered her face with her hand and turned around. Sisha was still there. No doubt every Shiekah in Snowbound lay slaughtered in their homes.
"Before we do anything else… we need to bury these people and give them all a respectful funeral," she murmured. Zephyr released a shuddering sigh. "Aine… Thank you so much. We'll never forget you," he whispered.
---
Between Zephyr's, Maris', and River's Elemental powers, creating graves for the scores of corpses was a simple task. Maris and Zephyr cleared away the initial layer of snow while River handled the brown earth. Doroki, with his impressive strength, had no trouble at all hauling bodies to and fro. Surprisingly, the thought of holding a bloody carcass in his arms wasn't disturbing in the least. When the pits were covered again, River brought gorgeous blue roses into bloom from beneath the ice. They grew on trees, bushes, vines, and individual flowers. The next time a fresh snow fell, it would a breath-taking sight.
"These people were our family, whether or not we spoke on a regular basis. Their lives were unjustly taken in the name of this 'god' that the Monastery promotes. Din, Farore, Nayru… please guard their souls in an eternal peace. I hereby vow to avenge the death of everyone here. This will not go unnoticed…"
By the time Zephyr finished, there were tears in his eyes. Maris and River stood aside, watching with heavy hearts. When her brother stepped down, the younger sibling knelt before Sisha's grave and pulled water out of the snow, then froze it into a sculpture of herself, Zephyr, and their aine. "We'll always remember you, Aine," Maris promised before she fell back into rank with her fellow Chosens.
"I have a boat on the other shore," Doroki announced. "Do you have a destination?"
"The sea to the east," River stated simply. Doroki gave his assent and started off towards his ship. "Um, Mr. Doroki," Maris said. When he turned around, she went on, "My brother and I can ride on Lielu, the guardian of Seabound. Is that all right?"
Once again the Goron acceded the proposal. River decided to ride along with Doroki, since Lielu was only really big enough for two people to sit on comfortably. In no time at all, they were headed east across the oceans.
Maris did eventually get her shoes back… just so ya know. Oh, and now I have high speed and I can load things like WHOOSH! It's so much fun! Although now AOL (which still runs on dial-up, somehow or another) locks up all the time, so I have to use AIM to talk to my friends and Internet Explorer to browse and such. But, man oh man, the loading time. You know how it is if you functioned on dial-up forever and then got high speed. Great, huh? High speed means I'll be able to load new pictures to my website much more quickly than before. So expect new illustrations soon.
Sad to say, all the inspiration from The Chronicles of Narnia movie was used up chapter before last. Well… Now I gotta find that map I drew of New Hyrule. Can't remember what I called the sea to the east. Anyway, got no new contests in the works. Don't think I ever will. If you want, you should come read through my forum every now and then. It's role-playing and it gets really awesome, even if it's just practice (we don't even have a villain yet…). We've got the most posts out of all the Zelda forums. Blondie91 says I should feel 'popular'. Screw you, Blondie.
I still answer reviews via blog, which you can get to from the link in my profile. I don't have much else to say, so… Please review! It's only those reviews that makes me update! So the more I get and the longer they are, the faster I'll write! And that's the truth! I go a lot more quickly when I know there are a lot of people eagerly waiting. I digress. So… yeah. Have a nice life.