AN: I PROMISE last chapter's cliff hanger will be resolved in two chapters, maybe less~ I can't believe I've turned into one of those authors that leaves her characters at cliffhangers a lot! ACK! Hopefully I haven't done it too much . . .
Chapter 17
Saria and Vaati had spent the last few days testing every spot of the castle with Zelda's Lullaby. The reason it took so many days was 1. The castle was huge, and 2. Saria found quickly that you couldn't just rush the song and get it over with. You had to play it correctly, note for note, at a decent tempo. Apparently the goddesses had no patience for shoddy music.
Do you know how long it takes to test every single square inch of a gigantic castle, while avoiding the two elder denizens, while waiting for Vaati to sneak food to you, when you've only got ONE ocarina, and you HAVE to play the song at least THREE TIMES in front of each piece of wall to make sure you played it right?
"AAAAAUGH!" Saria yelled at yet another unresponsive piece of wall.
"Sh!" Vaati said. "How do we even know this song works?"
"IT WORKS."
"SHHH!"
Saria groaned and stomped to the next section of wall. "Okay, mark it, this is the last wall we'll check for today . . ."
Vaati waved his hand at the wall just beyond where she stood, and it glowed pink for two seconds.
Taking a deep breath, Saria lifted the ocarina to her lips. As the last note echoed through the hall, Vaati and Saria stared at the wall for over a minute, as if waiting for a spectacular fireworks show.
Of course, there was none.
Saria threw the ocarina into the air. Vaati caught it with wind magic. "Hey, careful!"
"This is NOT working!" Saria slumped and leaned against the wall—
—and fell right through it.
"What! Saria, where'd you go?" Vaati tried to follow her, but the wall had become solid again. Trying to quell the panic in his heart, he cried, "Saria!"
A rushing sound reached his ears, and he jumped away from the wall instinctively. A purple tornado came from around a corner and whizzed past. It turned into a spinning sorcerer with gold horns. "Juuuuuunioooooor~"
Vaati forced his mouth into an unearthly grin. "H-hi Dad! Whatcha doin' here?"
Mr. Vaati stopped spinning and pointed at himself, fangs glinting. "Meeeeeeee?!" He hopped over on light feet and clapped his clawed hands over his cheeks. With the white face and black marks under his red eyes, he looked truly frightening. "What are YOU doing, junior?! You've been magicking walls every day now, and there's been LIGHT magic." He grabbed Vaati's cheek and pulled on it. "Has my little boy been messing with Light Magic?"
"Ubb-wub-wub," Vaati tried to speak, but it was difficult with your dad pulling your cheek. When Mr. Vaati finally let go, Vaati rubbed his offended skin. "Geez, Dad, why do you seem so happy about it?"
"Haaappy?" His grin got even creepier. "Am I wearing my 'happy' face?"
"Uh . . . yeah. The creepy one where your pupils are slits? And you float a foot off the ground?"
Mr. Vaati glanced at his feet, which were not connected to the ground. He remedied that. "So I am!" He exclaimed joyfully.
"Seriously, Dad, I was just playing with my new ocarina."
"I KNEW IT!" Mr. Vaati returned to floating and grabbed his son and twirled him around in the air. "WHEEEEEEEEEE!"
"ACK! ACK! DAD, PUT ME DOWNNNNNN!"
Vaati wobbled on the ground once his father put him down.
"I'm so happy, happy!" Mr. Vaati was saying rhythmically, clapping his hands. "I was so worried, worried!"
"W-worried?" asked Vaati, spinning around one more time trying to keep his balance. He put a hand out to grab a wall for support, and ended up miscalculating the distance and instead falling down and smacking his face on the stone floor. Grumbling, he rose to his hands and knees. "Worried? Worried why?"
Mr. Vaati used his magic to put Vaati back firmly on his feet and blotted his bleeding nose with magic. "I was worried you'd been corrupted like everyone else in this blasted place and couldn't even do light magic."
"W-what?" Vaati batted his father's hands away when the large dunderhead tried to brush down his clothes.
"You grew up in this awful place, and I was worried it had affected your ability to live in the Light World!"
Vaati got a bad feeling. "What do you mean, Dad?"
"What, have I never bragged about it? When I was your age I could do all KINDS of magic: elemental, spiritual, black, white, dark, light." He looked at the ceiling dreamily, raising his hands to it and walking along the hall.
"And . . . if I couldn't do Light magic . . ."
His father spun around to face him. "You wouldn't be able to leave this realm. Well. At least not for long, not without your grandfather's power. You'd be trapped under his thumb forever!"
Vaati wasn't sure why, but the sick feeling in his stomach got worse. But that wasn't ME doing light magic, that was Saria!
"Now," said Mr. Vaati, hovering close again, hands clasped before him. He grabbed Vaati's hands and the ocarina and lifted them up. "Show me what you were doing, my dear boy."
Vaati paled. "B-but why do you care if I can live in the Light World without Grandpa Bellum's help?"
Mr. Vaati's face said he wasn't going to answer, so Vaati took the ocarina and prayed he didn't get into even more trouble. He hadn't actually played his ocarina yet, but he had seen Saria play Zelda's Lullaby so many times . . . his hands trembled so much, it took him several restarts and retries before he got the song right.
Heat filled his hands, which soon became white hot. Vaati cried out and dropped the ocarina. It fell out of his hands, and Mr. Vaati let it crash into a million pieces on the ground. Vaati stared at his hands, red and painful. "D-dad . . . my ocarina—"
Mr. Vaati had frozen with a confused grin on his face. "I . . . don't understand."
What does this mean? Vaati thought. He lowered his head, his thoughts racing, eyes wide with fear. B-but he said that, if I can't do Light Magic, then . . . then I can't . . . I can't . . .
I can't leave!
He was trapped! He would never be able to run away with Saria. He would be stuck here with Grandpa Bellum and his father forever.
Mr. Vaati was still trying to puzzle out what happened. "If it wasn't you . . . well . . . that's no good, then."
Vaati looked up. Did his father look . . . sad?
A rush of magic traveled through the hall past them. Mr. Vaati's eyes widened before he grabbed his head with a snarling cry. "GAH!"
"What is it? What's wrong?" Vaati tried to grab his father's arm, hand, anything, but the older mage stumbled away from him. It seemed to Vaati that he was growing bigger.
"The seal!" Mr. Vaati hissed. His voice sounded deeper, laced with magic undertones.
"What seal?"
His father turned around, and Vaati backed into the wall in alarm. There were cracks on his father's face and hands. Black clouds seeped from them, pushing his face outward. "The seal keeping us in this castle!" Mr. Vaati's form bent at an angle that should have broken his spine in several places. His robes became enveloped in black sludge. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Vaati pressed hands against his mouth, pushing his back against the wall with all of his might.
His father's form disappeared completely into the mass of dark magic, and Vaati could feel its great power.
Suddenly a tentacle shot out, grabbing Vaati's collar, and a voice completely alien to him shouted, "RUN!"
As soon as the tentacle let go, Vaati was gone. He didn't remember running away, he was so scared his body was on autopilot. He remembered nothing until the castle began to shake around him. Was it going to fall?!
What do I do? What do I do?! The castle was his whole world, he knew of no other! If it fell down . . . what was outside? And he couldn't go to the Light World! He skidded to a halt as a piece of ceiling slammed into the ground ahead of him, missing him by inches.
To the young mage, it was as if the sky was literally falling.
Saria! Where is Saria!
No. Grandpa Bellum! He'll know what to do!
Using magic to shield himself from the crumbling debris, Vaati headed to a side of the castle he'd never dared before.
SSS
Saria pounded on the wall that had just been false a moment ago. She yelled Vaati's name, but received no answer. After several minutes of waiting to see if maybe Vaati was able to get the wall open, she gave an almighty sigh, her head sagging back. "UUUUUUGH!" There was nothing for it but to go forward.
She walked along the dim tunnel, imagining the light was just a side effect of Tunnel Magic. Like all Light-powered secret tunnels, she assumed it wasn't actually built into the castle, but the Goddesses or whoever was in charge of this kind of thing would create a tunnel loophole in the dungeon's magical defenses. She figured this castle must be pretty well protected if there was only one spot that could be broken through and an escape tunnel made. Then again, they hadn't actually tested any of the other walls. She'd figured there'd be flashing lights or the door would open on its own like in her father's stories. The tunnel went on a really long way. With the luck she'd been having, she wondered if there would be a dead end and she'd be stuck.
She soon saw a wispy, golden light up ahead. As she got closer, she saw it was some kind of magic doorway. It looked like a messy gold and dark blue oil painting, the colors swirling in on each other in beautiful curlicues. She approached it and stuck a hand out, placing it on the doorway. Light filtered up through her fingers, making her hand look like it was glowing. She tried to push through, but the painted landscape didn't budge.
Backing up several paces, she rolled up her sleeves with a determined pout and ran at the wall, charging into it with an entirely undignified roar. Zelda would be appalled.
Then again, Aunt Zelda dressed as a guy for seven years, so . . .
All she ended up with was a hurt body and an aching head. The wall wouldn't give at all. "Ow."
Her pain was interrupted by a squishing noise, and she looked behind her.
Although in the dim light it was hard to see, her eyes soon adjusted to find a . . . a . . . giant snail!
No. A SLUG. Its little eye stalks wiggled as it got closer to her, and Saria backed against the light wall in disgust.
Ghosts. Fine. Sorcerers. Piece of cake. Taken to a an alternate dimension and stuck with two psychopaths. No sweat!
A giant slug. The squishing noises got worse as it slurped across the stones toward her. It was bigger than Epona! It lifted the front part of it up, slime strands trailing from its chin to the ground. Was she imagining it, or did the very tip of that slimy membrane curve up in a creepy smile?
Nope! Saria spun and pounded on the light wall. NOPE. NOPE NOPE NOPE! NOPE! "AAAAAAIIEEEE ANYBODY SOMEBODY NAYRU DIN FARORE HELP ME DON'T LET IT EEEEEEEAT MEEEEEEEEEEE!"
She felt, or rather heard, a light ringing and she suddenly became weightless and there was a blinding blue light. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt her eyes at all. Slowly the blue light dissipated and she was able to look around her. It was much brighter here. She was no longer in the tunnel? She was no longer even in the castle!
Strangely colored clouds, green, gold, purple, all kinds of bright, luminescent colors, stretched beyond her as far as the eye could see. They didn't look like regular clouds. In fact, they kind of reminded her of pictures painted of the Twilight. She looked behind her and found the castle looming above her. Somehow she'd escaped?
Saria?
"GAH! Who's there?!"
It's Rauru, the Sage of Light. We sages have fallen, but were able to use the last of our might to rescue you from the castle. In doing so, the seal placed upon the castle has been broken. Vaati and Bellum now have full rein over Hyrule and this Dark Realm.
She was beginning to feel strange. "What should I do?!"
Search for the realm of Twilight. There you will find Princess Midna. Be careful, little Saria.
"What about Vaati?" Was it just her, or was her voice getting higher? Wait, was she falling through the clouds?! She looked down with a cry. No, not falling.
Shrinking! Hop-hop-hop she went, and suddenly her arms got heavier as though they were covered with something. Her voice became twittery and melodic, her mouth long and . . . and sharp! Her eyes separated and suddenly she couldn't see in front of her, but instead saw left and right. She turned her head around, shrieking wildly. Feathers. Feathers! All over her arms, and her torso, and-and-SHE HAD A TAIL. She wiggled it, and shrieked again, noticing her face now had a beak, and she hopped into the air. Her feet! She only had four toes, one on the back, and her knees went backward!
She landed back on the clouds with a puff, and calmed herself down.
A bird!
Saria was a bird!
HOW WAS SHE A BIRD?!
She shrieked again.
After a minute, she calmed down enough to hear whatever was left of the sage's message.
There is sadly nothing we can do for your friend. You MUST seek out the Princess of Twilight! Only she may be able to return you to the Light World.
Saria tried to reply, "Oh bugger all that!" but all that came out were tweets. The sages remained silent, probably too weak to continue the conversation.
Without even thinking, Saria ruffled the feathers of her entire body in agitation. NO WAY was she leaving her friend behind! She took a step forward and stumbled onto her beak. She couldn't figure out how to walk, and did birds even walk? So she hopped until she found a sort of high puff of cloud. She was not one to do things halfway.
Well, here we go! She spread her wings and hopped off. Wind caught her wings. It was the weirdest feeling . . . but also really really nice, like wind through your hair! Only after realizing this did she remember to start flapping her wings.
POOF!
She slammed right into the clouds. At least it was a soft landing.
It took a few more tries, but soon she was fluttering up and up and up, surprised at how fast she could move her wings. She'd never been able to move her arms that fast. She flew up over the castle and looked for a window, something, anything! She had to find Vaati!
An unsettling noise reached her ears . . . or well, did she even still have ears? An image of a bird with Hylian ears entered her brain, and she trilled merrily.
In the distance, black marks began to grow in the sky, heading straight toward her. It didn't take her long to recognize their cries.
Keese!
She flapped as hard as she could. Gotta find something something SOMETHING!
And yet, once the keese reached her, they flew right past, so Saria slowed. Loud clangings and clobbering sounds came from the castle. She watched as an entire parapet collapsed and fell onto the rest of the castle. Oh no! The castle is breaking apart! I HAVE to find Vaati!
She attempted a dive, and didn't fail. Soon she was mere feet from the unstable castle's top. A window! A door! Anything!
A circular pipe sticking out of the ceiling caught her eye. A chimney! Perfect! She flew near to it and stopped flapping her wings, ungracefully landed inside the pipe and falling, falling . . . falling . . .
Poof! She landed on a thankfully cold pan of ashes before bouncing again and landed on a hearth, coughing.
"Oh dear," an ominous voice spoke, and whoever it was stepped toward her.
Saria looked up and balked.
It was Bellum! The monster's beady eyes grinned evilly as he bent down. Saria shrank, but Bellum just held a clawed finger out. Saria got the idea that she was supposed to climb onto it.
Well, she was a bird. Might as well act like one. She climbed uneasily onto his finger, and he lifted her up. "There, there, little bird. How did you get in here?" He walked back to where he'd been before, behind a large oak desk covered with books. It was an office, with bookshelves on every wall filled with tidy books. There wasn't a dust speck anywhere. It was spotless and immaculate. He sat at the desk and opened a large book that smelled like old socks and dirty underwear. "Now, let's seeeeee."
Saria looked down at the page and if she were still human, she'd have paled. Instead, her feathers poofed and she looked like a puff ball.
The page Bellum had turned to was covered in spells that had illustrations depicting the different ways you could dissect a bird. Or decapitate it. Or de-wing it. She crouched to leap off the man's finger, but only then realized he had a firm grip on her toes with his thumb. She gave a startled tweet.
Away from the slug, straight to the crazy den! She flapped her wings insistently, twittering ceaselessly. Then she tried to peck Bellum's hand, but she wasn't sure how to do that effectively, and he just spun his hands so she was hanging upside down and she shrilled in an offended way.
Something smashed into the office door.
"It's not open," Bellum said unhelpfully.
"Grandpa Bellum! Grandpa Bellum it's me! Open up! You've got to help! The Castle! It's falling—"
Bellum snapped the fingers of his free hand, and the door opened to reveal Vaati outside.
"—down," Vaati finished, with much less vigor than before. He ran into the room. "Grandpa Bellum, what are you doing? Don't just sit there! Wait." He glanced around. "Why is everything okay in here?"
Saria realized he was right. She'd been too terrified to notice, but nothing was shaking in this room. Everything was still in its place, or she assumed it was, having never been in here before.
Bellum shrugged. "What of it? No need for my books to get destroyed during your father's tantrum."
"But Grandpa, Dad really needs help!"
"Do NOT," Bellum stood and loomed over the boy dangerously, "tell ME what to do, boy!"
Vaati shrank back, aware that he was alone, with Grandpa Bellum, who really didn't like him all that much. But he'd thought he liked his dad at least. Suddenly he knew he'd made a terrible mistake and tried to escape out the door. A new door materialized in the doorway, blocking his path. Bellum chuckled with a disturbing smile cracking across his shapeless mouth.
Saria got an idea. She puffed up her chest and whistled a tune. "Toooooooo-tooooo-toooooooooooooo, toooooooooooo-toooooo-toooooooooooo—!" Zelda's lullaby, bird style.
Luckily those few notes were all she needed. Bellum's grip on her suddenly released as he hissed, and she plopped onto the desk. The magic door had disappeared. Saria scurried across the desk and hopped off, flapping her wings and gliding until she could grip Vaati's tunic with her feet. She twittered at him chaotically.
"Saria?!" Vaati asked in wonder.
"TWEEET!"
Well, Vaati didn't need to wonder what that meant. He sprinted for the doorway and ran back into the collapsing castle.
"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!" Vaati was shouting like a maniac, blasting away falling boulders and floating them over holes in the floor. Saria gripped his collar for dear life.
Saria didn't know why he was freaking out. Outside! Just go outside already! Although after a few minutes she suddenly thought that maybe he didn't even know Outside was a thing except in the Light World. She tried twittering at him to get his attention, but he only screamed louder and his feet became a blur of speed. Finally, she cranked her neck back, then brought her sharp beak down onto his collar bone.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIEEEEEEEEE-OW!" Vaati flinched and fell on his backside. Saria flew up and hovered in front of his nose. "Tyoo!" She twittered sternly. "Putyoo wooshoo pyoo pyoo!"
"Huh?"
"PYOO!" Saria flew up through a hole in the ceiling. Vaati used his wind magic to follow.
"Go up? I see." Vaati had no clue why, but maybe Saria knew something he didn't. He caught up with her and swiped her from the air, right before she collided with a falling gargoyle. He stuffed her in his hat. "Just stay in there, okay?! I get the idea!"
He flew along the castle hallways, climbing up every ceiling hole he could find, dodging bricks, nearly getting smashed by collapsed walls and ceilings. Eventually he saw something up above he didn't recognize. Strange colors. What part of the castle was that?
Saria and Vaati finally reached the very top of the castle, and suddenly there was nothing around them but air.
Their momentum carried them higher and higher. Vaati spun in circles, staring around him in shock. "WHAT IS THIS?" He was shouting, understandably terrified. "W-WHAT IS THIS?!"
Saria twittered from his hat, and he looked down. There was that black sludge again, appearing from the wreckage of the castle and tearing down what was left. Vaati gulped. No time to wonder now! He propelled them by wind as fast as he could away from the castle and into the endless Twilight.
SSS
They had been traveling for an hour at least, full speed, but Vaati wasn't even tired yet. At first he thought it must be adrenaline, but eventually he realized, no, he just wasn't running out of magic energy. He spun onto his back and looked behind them.
The castle was nowhere in sight. It hadn't been for a long time. Vaati slowed and landed on the puffy, strangely colored clouds. "Saria, are you alright?" He held his hands up to his head, and Saria clambered out onto them. Vaati lowered her to his eye level. She tweeted twice. Even though she was a bird, he could still see the fear in her eyes, and imagined he looked about as disconcerted as she did. He looked around. There was absolutely nothing in sight. He was careful to not move his feet. He didn't want to accidentally start heading back toward the castle! "Where do we go now?" he asked plaintively.
If she wasn't a bird, Saria would have told him what Sage Rauru told her. But she couldn't, so she shuffled her wings and twittered sadly.
Vaati seemed to understand this, at least. He nodded. "Well, stay close. I'll protect you." He lifted her back to his head, and she slipped onto his hat, behind the little golden jewel, which she held with her wings for support. She wanted to see the view as they flew! "Hang on tight!" Vaati rose back into the air and the two continued forward, their destination uncertain, but their friendship stronger than ever.
AN: Yes, I DO think it's ironic that Vaati has a bird on his hat!