It was the last day of the week and not a peep was to be seen of his mysterious saviour.
Each night his little 'offerings' left as an extra incentive for the mystery to reveal themselves vanished. Now Cyclonus was convinced a passing beast had taken them, or some unscrupulous traveller had spirited them away.
He'd had his suspicions about what had happened and how it happened, but with no one arriving to confirm this, he was still in the dark with little to no basis for his theory.
Covered gently by his feathers Cyclonus rolled an opal around in his hands, it was a beautiful smooth sphere of the most reflective quality; it practically glittered in the light of the afternoon.
On the off chance it was some beast or passing stranger coming to take the items, Cyclonus felt unwilling to part with the item if it were not going to its intended recipient.
However they saved his life, it would be rude to not at least try as best he could to thank them.
He owed them that much.
Holding the opal tightly Cyclonus put it in the mouth of the rudimentary hut he had lived in while recovering, gently pushing it into the dirt so it would not be easily rolled or pushed away by any winds.
He could only do what he knew how to do.
He sang once more.
An old song, he knew it well.
It was one his parents sang many times, be it loud singing or gentle crooning to each other by a warm fire as Cyclonus and his brothers slept, he knew this duet well.
It was a bit mushy but it was at least something? Maybe it would at least prove his intentions were pure and genuine.
Elsewhere Galvatron peered at the edge of the lake, red eyes standing out against the cool shades of the water as they suspiciously eyed the shore, it was turning dark and still, the Rito had not left.
Somewhere Galvatron felt offended that the Rito was not leaving his little gift and pissing the hell off.
Elsewhere he was amused at the idea of a personal bird patrol around his lake, paying his way with singing and indirectly chasing away that lonely feeling one would get from so long without true contact.
Galvatron refused to admit that feeling existed.
Finally, singing started.
'He's late' Galvatron scowled in his mind at the Rito taking so long to even try singing when before he had sung for so long.
Maybe he felt some kind of enjoyment that they were singing to and for him.
It only furthered his desire to jump out and scare him, at the very least it would be an interaction.
Slowly the Rito's deep tone rolled out over the water; he'd sung songs with lyrics in before and not just whistles but he seemed to be enjoying this song.
Galvatron knew this song too as soon as the first line finished, the Rito rolled into the second line he remembered it all and more.
"Forget these wide-eyed fears"
This song, he remembered it so vividly.
He could see it.
A handsome young Zora male, with lovely pink accents to his frills, circled elegantly around a slightly shorter but similarly aged female whose teals and blues meshed excellently with the oceanic background of the setting.
Friends to both stood at the side and egged them on with quiet clicks and excited squeals, the duo apparently having pined for one another for a long time and only just decided to break out and finally admit it.
"I'm here, nothing can harm you" The young male crooned so smoothly it nearly echoed and Galvatron watched, a part of neither friend group but quietly pretending he was and giving his own silent encouragement, "My words will warm and calm you"
The young lady giggled, giving him a shove as she buried her face in her hands but even they weren't enough to muffle her soft song.
"Let me be your freedom" She sang, it wasn't the normal place for the duet to switch places but she seemingly couldn't hold back the urge to sing back any longer and broke the songs form and Galvatron scurried closer as she cooed through the next line and onwards, "I'm here with you, beside you"
Unphased by the duet being sung in a different manner to how it was intended the young man sang the next line with her, their flirting seemingly destined with how in-tune their voices were.
"To guard you and to guide you"
Being so close now Galvatron was a good head shorter than all of these youngsters, young as they may be he was younger at this time.
"Say you love me every waking moment"
He let out a small gasp, he loved the lyrics, he loved the song, he wanted it.
As he gasped something grabbed the caudal extension of his head and the gasp became pained as he was yanked back, practically hefted from his feet.
He watched from a distance for a reason.
"Promise me that all you say is true" He knew that voice, it wasn't the one of the couple he watched or the Rito.
It was sad, forlorn, tainted with sad memories and an emptiness only he knew.
It hurt.
Stupid song, stupid everything
Stupid song, stupid everything.
Stupid lyrics, stupid loneliness.
Stupid fuck-up, stupid reject.
It was no song, just a glaring reminder of everything unavailable in life.
The mere delusions of trust and familiarity and decentness as if everyone had something.
He didn't, He didn't have it.
He wasn't even sure if he had the one thing he tried running to.
Of course not.
That'd mean success.
That'd mean not looking over his shoulder fins waiting for the day the royal guard stuck their flukes back in his business.
"ALL I WANT IS FREEDOM!" To hell with the song and its order, Galvatron shrieked loudly, to hell with it and it's glaring reminders of himself and all that he lacked and could never hope to obtain.
He hated it.
He hated it all, EVERYTHING!.
Aware that he'd just shouted loudly atop his lungs Galvatron sunk like a stone.
A furious stone.
His claws pulled at his face and a familiar burning sensation coupled with a tangy taste swirled around his senses when his pulling tore a gash along the underside of his jaw.
Who cares?
No one that's who.
Galvatrons hands balled up into fists and he instead chose to pummel himself over and over.
Once again that song caused nothing but pain.
At least it was deserved this time.
He earned it.
Above the sound of his own fists reverberating around his skull came the sound of splashing.
It had been more than enough, the Rito had homed in on his unintended noise and found himself at the edge of the lake.
Well, that's gone and done it.
Galvatron silently hissed at himself under the water before angrily yanking at the fins on either side of his face in frustration.
If he'd followed his voice back here then he sure as hell knew it was a Zora living around these parts.
He was either going to leave in disgust or fulfil his duty to the tensions between the species and try to kill him.
He chose the first option.
Of course, he did.
He didn't even need to see Galvatron to know the right way to react.
Cyclonus sang loudly, sure the song meant something to him but it felt like an empty gesture to sing at this point.
Nothing was going to come back to him and this was all turning out to be fruitless.
At the very least he's made some passing traveller or beast very happy.
He sighed, quietly and sadly guessing he was to fill out all parts of the song, a duet with himself.
"Promise me that all you say is true" Cyclonus perked up.
It was quiet and muffled, but he heard it.
Beautiful.
It was sung with emotion and clarity behind it, the sound wavering as the source's feelings dripped through like morning dew gently dropping down from sun-kissed leaves.
Without seeing or even knowing the source it felt heartbreaking enough to hear it sung with such sadness.
Phenomenal.
It had been far too long since he'd ever heard someone put such strong soothing tones into a song, the emotion and feeling behind each syllable!.
He scurried forwards, sensitive hearing pinpointing the direction of its source quickly.
If only they sang the next line.
They were pausing, faltering, not continuing to sing.
Did they get shy and back out already?
Cyclonus stumbled to a stop when instead of a moving tune a different line of the song came out through the forest.
"ALL I WANT IS FREEDOM!" It was loud, it was near screeched but it was clear, it was vibrant.
So fuelled by pent-up emotion it was like a miniature explosion of sound piercing the night air, a defiant statement of heartfelt emotion.
It immediately went quiet again and soon Cyclonus's feet splashed as they came to the edge of the lake.
Undisturbed, peaceful and most importantly, quiet.
He waited but nothing happened, no more song, no more emotion.
He almost wondered if he imagined it.
No one would be out singing like that for no audience in a forest, after all, it should be on a stage.
His feathers bristled at the cool night breeze and in indignation.
With only a couple wingbeats Cyclonus flung himself to the air, there was only one thing he could think of needing to do.
He sailed higher than usual and flew back over the forest, even with the pale light of the moon the opal glinted like a tiny fallen star and Cyclonus hoped he was not visible from the ground at this height, or at least that the night sky would blur his shape to something unrecognisable.
The forest was silent.
Eerily so.
He'd already circled a twelfth time by the time he spotted movement, near the lake.
The moon had already reached its peak at this point, the lone being moving around having waited for so long to come, Cyclonus supposed he might've scared them a little by trying to locate them through their singing.
He flew in a tighter circle above the opal, watching it carefully.
The forest twitched slightly as the lone figure moved, quietly and slowly as if fearful and Cyclonus regretted his actions slightly.
Of course, he wanted to meet them, but he didn't want to come off as so bad or intimidating.
By his honour, he had to meet them! They saved his life!.
A glimmer hit his eye and Cyclonus squinted.
The opal had been moved, he could see it in a figure's hands but they weren't moving.
They simply stood and seemingly stared at it.
Spreading his wings out Cyclonus began to glide, it was hard to keep in such a tight circle while gliding and stay quiet but he couldn't disturb them.
Not now.
He didn't know how they'd react to seeing him coming down towards them.
He was not a short, or small, Rito.
Stifling any noise before it left his beak Cyclonus made a turn and glided down silently to the edge of the lake, the sand muffling his landing perfectly.
He immediately turned back to the clearing, he'd been walking up and down so much over the past week, he knew where all the branches had fallen, where all the soft dirt was, where all the loose stones were.
A silent, stealthy approach was not too hard, and if the suspicions he had were correct, standing between the clearing and the lake meant he would succeed even if he made noise.
The figure was shorter than he was, the moonlight speckled their wet skin gently, not enough to make them a beacon of light from the sky but enough to show their slumped figure in the setting moonlight.
The way they handled the opal.
Distracted and absent-minded.
They wiped the dirt off the underside of it and sighed, claws wrapping around it gently.
Cyclonus wasn't expecting them to spin around so quickly to head back to the lake, it made his feathers involuntarily fluff up for a moment at the sudden movement.
Bad move.
He really hadn't intended to come off as scary but maybe looming in the darkness with fluffed up feathers making him seem just that little bit larger after silently coming up behind them was…. Yes, okay, absolutely the worst thing to have done.
The shriek was loud and had almost every single instance of wildlife in the vicinity awake and fleeing in an instant.
Cyclonus grabbed his head, reeling at the still-going shriek which only, finally, faltered and stopped with a loud thud as the shrieker in question tripped and stumbled over backwards, collapsing to the ground.
What a way to meet.