The sun was setting over Romani Ranch as all activity slowed to a halt. Given the pleasant weather, Cremia opted to cook dinner under the stars as she ignited the old fire pit a little way from the barn. As her sister was occupied, Romani spied the new tenants staying with them from her vantage point atop a collection of crates. The little plant girl looked rather strange with her broom over her shoulder as she marched across the fields in strategic patterns. She did not know what exactly was so fascinating about the grass but perhaps plant people saw things that normal Terminans could not.
The jester girl on the other hand had been helping Onox the entire day. They seemed rather adept at breaking things as they crushed the offending rocks in question into gravel. By now they were attempting to heard the cows closer to the barn. Onox becoming so impatient he practically lifted one of the bovine and carried it to the desired location. Romani asked out loud to no one in particular "Why does Witchy carry a broom everywhere? And why does Jester follow Dragon around so much?"
"Iris, no, I mean, Witchy is a cleaning enthusiast so she carries a broom with her at all times." Veran answered as she slinked from her caravan, she looked over the field alongside Romani "As for Jester, well… she and Dragon are just drawn to one another by fate." She leant over to Romani with a wink "But that's just a little secret between you and me."
Romani chirped "Like how Ralph likes Cremia?"
Unsettled features crossed Veran's face, only to shrug them off and say "Well if it'll help you understand, yes, exactly like that."
"Don't say that man's name, makes my bones chill at the thought of him." Cremia remarked as she tended to the meat cooking over the pit. Ralph was a rather charismatic and handsome acquaintance of Kafei, who in turn was enamoured by Anju, Cremia's friend. In her few visits to Clock Town, Cremia had quickly grown to dislike Ralph with his bigoted attitude over class. Yet for reasons unknown, Ralph was utterly enchanted by her, even if she was in his terms a lowly milk maid.
A cow's cry howled through the night as the creature was lifted and nearly flung to join the rest of the heard. Cremia snapped loudly "Onox! We talked about this! No throwing the cows!"
His voice yelled back "But it's great for building upper body strength!"
"No. Throwing. Cows! That's final! Or else I'm not feeding you!"
Onox fell silent at her threat while he kept walking up the hill. Sable was cackling beside him as she wiped the sweat from her brow "How are you even able to lift a cow?"
"I just can." He abruptly replied as his pace quickened.
Bewilderment flooded through Sable's mind from his sudden change in disposition. They had been rather carefree all day with helping around the ranch. A part of her felt that indeed he was a good friend as it did not matter how much time passed between their encounters. She kicked a stone and shook her head, why were people so confusing? At least in the realm of academia everything had a logic and reason to it. When dealing with people that was never a guarantee.
After dinner was eaten and the area was tidied, Cremia and Romani retired to their ranch house while Veran disappeared into her caravan again. Sable remained quiet near the bonfire while Iris and Onox conversed. Her mind swirling with never ending strings of questions as she attempted to decipher this idea of another god in Termina. It was all she could do to overlook Onox's strange behaviours. Although why she was so concerned with him was yet another question she was not ready to answer.
Onox half reclined, watching the fire dance in its pit "So how is your training going Iris?"
"Alright, I think, I was able to get my feet slightly off the earth today," Iris sighed to herself "But it's so hard! I never expected levitation to be so difficult."
"Any skill is like that when you first try it, keep practising and I'm sure you'll be fine."
"I didn't see much of Veran tonight, how is she?"
"Swamped with work, she's finished her orders for the carnival but she's working on some other masks too… she's keeping really quiet about it."
"Well if she's busy, I won't disturb her."
"It's good to see you understand, usually she puts people off." Onox looked over to Sable "How is your training by the way? Reaped any souls yet? Shifted into any different forms?"
Sable took a moment to return from her inner inquisition, her voice rasped "Um… yes," she cleared it quickly "Yes, I've managed to reap the souls of two creatures and can so far shift into one of them. But it leaves me really sleepy afterwards."
Onox sheepishly admitted "That sounds better than being completely starving."
"How many creatures can you turn into?" Iris then quickly corrected herself "If that's not a rude thing to ask."
"It's not when coming from a witch, I can turn into three creatures. Frustratingly I'm still searching for some kind of aerial beast that suits me."
"What kind of beast would suit you?"
"I'd love to get my hands on the soul of a dragon, but they don't exist anymore. Even then, I have to admit I'm a little afraid of what might happen." Onox fell silent as he hugged his knees, his whole body shivered.
"How come?" Sable almost bit her tongue for being so blunt "It's just that, well… you know you can trust us, right?" She withered beneath his cold gaze "I'm sorry, I know you don't like talking about yourself, so you don't need to say anything if you feel uneasy about it."
For a moment he hesitated, he glanced over his shoulder to see that lights were out in the ranch house. Instinctively he turned to the caravan to confirm Veran was too busy to notice them. He gestured Iris and Sable to huddle closer to him. A calming expression appeared on his face as he smiled to them. Onox watched the flames as he confessed quietly "It feels like… I'm not sure… I have memories sometimes of being a dragon. Not just that though, I did horrible things to a land I couldn't recognise… I stole the seasons, but I don't know how…" He looked to the two girls who were now edging in closer with curiosity "I started getting those dreams when I was younger, until my family sent me off to work with Veran. I don't know why, but there's something familiar about her, like I know her from somewhere else."
Iris tilted her head "That's odd, why would you feel this and not ask her about it?"
Onox bluntly informed "You can't really ask her about it, Veran is one of the smartest people I know and good at keeping you guessing. If it's important I'm sure she'll tell us eventually." He then glanced to Sable "Your turn, you've been off with the fairies all day Sable, what's on your mind?"
A silence settled over the trio as the wind whistled through the fields. The cool night air was chased off by the warmth of the bonfire. Sable decided to share what troubled her "Do any of you know about another god that watches over Termina? One that's separate from the Giants?"
Onox replied and shook his head "Another god? No."
"There are many gods and goddesses out there, well, it's better to call them wild deities because they don't belong to anyone. They're kind of their own race beyond the veil of reality." Iris elaborated while waving her arms and making various gestures "They apparently live in a world beyond ours that encompasses everything around it… like Termina is just a small island on a huge ocean. This ocean is called the Twilight Realm where the deities roam. Apparently long before the races of Termina claimed the land as theirs, Termina was a playground for the deities when they wished to venture beyond the Twilight Realm." She took a deep gulp from her bottle of water.
By then Sable was poised over her notebook with a pencil in hand as she played scribe as she always did when presented with a new tale. Onox on the other hand appeared perplexed with wide eyed stare directed at the Deku.
"The Giants were one of the most powerful of the wild deities, these are known as primal deities and there are only a few of them that we know of. Anyway the Giants loved Termina so much that they dedicated their powers to protecting it." Iris scratched her chin "Although, I don't know what they were protecting it from."
Without looking up from her book, Sable prompted "Who are the other primal deities?"
"Well… there's the Oni and the Man-Eater, then there's also the Golden Goddesses. The Oni is a deity of abolition and order, while the Man-Eater is a deity of insanity and chaos, the only detail known about these two is that they fight with one another constantly." Iris scratched at her leafy hair "I don't really know what the Golden Goddesses stood for, but I know they don't like Termina."
Onox's face was utterly flustered "How could you know all this? I've never even heard of any of these things, well, aside from the Giants of course."
"I take it you don't know much about the Dekus, there's a reason we're so private." Iris saw Onox shake his head while Sable was waiting with bated breath. "The Deku Palace is only a small sliver of the Deku population, they worship the Southern Giant. The rest of us who live deep in the swamps beyond the reach of any Terminan, worship Odolwa, the wrath and the shadow of the Southern Giant. We are taught the forgotten tales of Termina."
Sable nervously asked "Is that why you were raised by Koume and Kotake?"
"Perhaps, my mother was a shadow priestess of Woodfall so who knows? Maybe she made a deal with the witches to take care of me when she died." Iris sighed out loud as she elaborated "Even then I don't think she truly died."
Onox suggested "So… she's an undead? I didn't know Dekus could be undead."
"No, it's more to do with what Termina truly is, it's why the Golden Goddesses despise us. Termina is a place for lost souls, some may call it purgatory while I think it's more accurate to call it a land where souls may sleep. We wander this land to have some chance of living. Some of us, we've been born already but fragments of ourselves prefer to linger here, others are merely waiting to be born and then there are those who were never meant to be born, but we exist here because we will it." Iris looked at Onox "I'm guessing your dreams are from what you will become or what you once were."
"And that's why we can speak with the Giants?" Sable added solemnly, flicking through her pages and looking over the tales she'd collected "It's why the deities even acknowledge us and can manifest in our world... isn't it?"
Onox protested loudly "You two cannot be serious!?" He threw his arms in the arm "I'm sorry Iris but that is utter nonsense, of course we exist!"
"I'm not saying we don't, it's just what we truly are. Think about it Onox, have you ever heard of anyone travelling beyond the boundaries of Termina? Ever been to another land far away?"
He was about to debate the matter when the realisation dawned on him. Despite travelling all over Termina, Onox and Veran had never left its boundaries. His mind was overwhelmed by such an epiphany, he glanced between Iris who appeared as calm as ever and Sable who looked tormented but persevered in collating more notes for her research.
Onox growled to them both "You two are utter fools for believing such nonsense. I can't believe that you would both even suggest such a thing. You're both idiots!" He abruptly stormed off to the caravan cursing to himself.
Iris was genuinely shocked by his response but she expected it. Her mind brought back to reality as Sable asked "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because when people find out they react like that." Iris sighed out loud "But I know it's true."
"I can't believe you kept this from me, of all people!"
Iris played with the hem of her sleeves and braced for the onslaught of insults to follow.
"I am trying to understand this amazing land and you're basically hiding a huge wealth of knowledge from me. This is… really important details as to why the world is structured the way it is."
She was taken aback, looking up to see Sable smiling at her. Iris narrowed her eyes "You mean, you're not angry?"
Sable sheepishly admitted "I guess I'm still greatly disturbed, but curiosity trumps it right now. I can freak out later, but I'd like to hear more about your tribe's stories some time." She glanced back at the caravan "Do you think he'll forgive us?"
Iris grimly predicted "They don't, they just hate you afterwards."
Her gaze did not move from the caravan "I see…"
"I'm sorry Sable. I should've kept my mouth shut."
"It's fine, I'll get over it."
They put out the flames and retired to their makeshift beds in the barn. Sable stared blankly at the ceiling as her mind swirled with thoughts. If having dreams of another life meant you lived elsewhere, then what did a lack of dreams mean? Even more curious was what happened to lost souls who died in Termina? Were they merely absorbed back into the Twilight Realm or did they go elsewhere? Question after question flooded her mind well into the night.
At dawn, a sliver of sunlight spilled through the cracks in the barn door. She heard the whinny of horses and a carriage being pulled away. Quietly she rose from her hammock tied between supporting poles. When she opened the door she saw Veran's caravan disappearing into the distance. Her heart sank further as the reality of the situation finally struck her. Her lines of questions had been a mere distraction from the fact that she lost one of the only friends she had ever made.