Fierce Tuition
Zelda
Following Saki into the interior yard of her mansion, Zelda felt exhilarated… and terrified. The shopping spree had turned out rather short, as her curiosity about what the magnificent Rito woman had to show her had trumped even her love for wandering about in a lively market… with infuriating ease.
Zelda was actually quite cross that her day of carefree sauntering had taken such a serious turn… but she had to admit that, since she had shown the first signs of control over her… talent, the desire to learn more had rarely left that niggling spot at the back of her head. And to be so frankly offered tuition, when their ultimate success could depend on her ability to coax some arcane power from her fingertips, was simply too alluring an offer to delay. And, well… to her own slight embarrassment, she felt strongly drawn towards such mysterious new knowledge… like a child creeping around a present that it wasn't allowed to open yet.
On the other hand…
"Are you… sure that this is a good idea? I really…" Zelda paused, wringing her hands as her stomach twisted into a nervous knot. "I really can't guarantee that… that I can control…"
"Well, we won't find out unless we try, won't we?" came the nonchalant answer from her guide, who didn't even glance at her.
Zelda felt her anger rise a notch, bristling at the unsatisfactory answer. "I am being quite serious! Would you please respond in kind?" She startled herself with her harsh answer… She hadn't meant to sound nearly as standoffish. Then again… her heart hammered in her chest and her fingers felt icy. As eager as she was to learn, no small part of her wanted nothing more than to find an excuse to postpone the lesson until…
'Until what?! Until you grow a spine? Until you stop being frightened at your own shadow? Both rather unlikely to happen in the near future!' She yelled at herself inside her own head.
The pink feathered woman turned and fixed her with a motherly look. "Do you fear your powers?" she asked softly. They had reached the centre of the 'courtyard', if you wished to think of like that, and Saki sat on one of the two cushions that had been placed right there beforehand.
Zelda looked at her, felt the older woman's inquisitive, yet kind, stare. It seemed obvious a question, but apparently it had to be answered… "I do… naturally."
"Why naturally?" Saki probed further, cocking her head.
Zelda thought about it for what felt like a whole minute, still not sitting down, keeping distance. 'Why indeed?' she wondered. She had not truly thought about it… had always worried that asking such questions might… progress things too quickly. But now that the Rito had, frankly, barrelled through her mental walls… she pondered. These powers hadn't been taught to her… they seemed to be within her from… as far back as she could remember. At least the dreadful visions and dreams were, the nightmares both waking and sleeping which had sometimes frightened her so much that her servants thought she was having a fit. They might be at the root of why she was so afeared to wake her slumbering talents… But, she had to admit… they were natural to her.
Still, she couldn't simply admit that her fears were unfounded! "I am… worried because… they are beyond my control. They only show when I am in distress. I do not know what… I might end up doing when they do show. Besides, Hylians don't exhibit such properties. There is no-one who could teach me…" she bubbled forth, all thoughts that shot through her head and there were many more she could have voiced.
"Why shouldn't I be able to teach you?" the magnificent hen asked, curious, not a shimmer of impatience or injured pride in her voice.
"I… I'd assume your people's powers would differ quite a bit from mine…" Zelda replied, having to admit that, once again, she hadn't really thought about it.
"Hmm…" Saki hummed thoughtfully, then cocked her head to the other side. "How much do you fear your magic?"
The young princess stared at her, thoughts racing. A simple question… but how in Nayru's name could she answer? She was about to give a rather testy answer, when memories flooded her mind… The time she had healed the soldier when she was still feverish from the first emergence of her power… and the hours she had fretted quietly afterwards, not knowing whether whatever the hell she had done had even helped… or merely prolonged suffering… Anxious hours of questioning her own sanity at having done something to another Hylian without having the faintest clue about it… She might as well have eaten strange mushrooms in a foreign forest and expected to find nothing but pleasant taste!
She recalled the time her desperate outburst had seared the skin of the Lizalfos assailants so much they had smoked and writhed in agony! What if the same had happened to Link?! She certainly hadn't controlled any of it, not even in the slightest!
She remembered when… when her side had hurt so badly she hadn't even had enough strength to scream. She remembered, dimly, the strange focus she'd had… the energy she had unleashed, the energy Link had conducted… Goddess above, what if he hadn't been able to give it direction? It had all happened so fast… He had understood… or had listened to mere instinct and it had worked but… Only faintly she still saw how the entire root chamber had been charred, the pitiful rest of the slimy adversaries burning away… What, by Din's hellfire, if Link, her protector, her beloved, had been hit with but a fraction of this power?
"More than death…" she whispered when the visions finally abated. She breathed it without even meaning to, it had just made its way past her lips, whiny and overly dramatic as it was… But absolutely honest it was too…
Saki seemed taken aback for a second, then her eyes showed genuine sympathy. "I see…" She took a few moments to think as Zelda stood by awkwardly, wishing she could take back that embarrassing avowal, her mind still shaking from countless devastating what-ifs.
The older woman offered her winged hand. "Come. Sit with me." she bade, smiling very motherly now.
Zelda felt like a young girl when she hesitantly took the proffered hand and let herself be gently pulled down on the other cushion.
"I have to apologize, first." she heard the Rito say sincerely. "You seem a very thoughtful young lady, very much in control. I initially thought you might simply need a little… emotional push, hence why I tried to enrage you a little bit. Now I see that the problem lies elsewhere…" The magnificent woman gazed at her, seemingly analyzing her from top to bottom. "Fear of one's power is… rare among my people. Aeromancy is as natural to us as our sense of touch. And, of course, once the gift awakens in a young boy or girl, you can hardly stop them from experimenting… Hence why your dilemma didn't occur to me as readily …"
Zelda listened to the hen's explanation, interested to hear more.
"I assume, then, since your feelings are so strong, that you know about your powers for a long time?"
"Since I can remember…" she muttered. "Though a new, frightening aspect of them has only shown itself a few months ago. I am wholly inexperienced in that regard, even more so than with… the other facet." Din's blazes, I can't even properly speak about it, she thought angrily. 'Still I am convinced I will be held as a freak, if ever my abnormity came to daylight! Yet another thing I can thank the king for!' She gritted her teeth, her fidgeting hands calming long enough only for her nails to dig into her palms.
"And, I presume, you have made little progress in developing them?" Saki dug further. If she had noticed the younger girl's brief boiling of emotions, she chose to ignore it.
Zelda nodded glumly. "Always too afraid…" she admitted with a tiny voice. "My… the king would constantly remind me never to show any sign of such… abnormity. No-one must ever know, he would instil in me time and time again. Then, when finally this new… light came forth and it could no longer be hidden, he forbade me from digging further…" She looked to the side, glaring at the potted plants around as if they were to blame. She quietly seethed for a moment, then her expression mellowed. "Link would always urge me to find out more… to confront my fears head on… He would devise method after method, exercise after exercise, to coax something, anything, out from me…" She felt herself smile, amused when she thought of some of his more ludicrous ideas… sad, when she recalled that she had boycotted all his efforts out of worry for his safety. Only within the Deku Tree, when she was simply too exasperated to think, had he been able to lure something out from the depths within… and so had she, come to think of it…
"Link would waste so much time on me… I fear his understanding of his own powers has suffered for it… I believe he scarcely even realized his own potential, so focussed was he with aiding me…"
"Interesting…" Saki mused, eyebrow cocked, thoughtful for a spell. Then her eyes fixed on Zelda once more, kindly, and she extended her open palm. "Take my hand, sweet one!"
The would be student hesitated… she did not like being kept unknowing of what would follow. At the same time she chided herself for her mistrust. She felt so dreadfully torn between her nearly insatiable curiosity driving her on and the chains of fear and doubt, crafted over 15 years by her father and herself with terrible care, holding her back.
Willing her hand not to tremble, she took Saki's left hand with her right, feeling dazed by the rapid hammering of blood in her own veins.
The Rito took her fingers between her own, firm enough to provide stability, light enough to allow her to escape, should she want to. "You are probably right that our magics differ to a degree that I cannot teach you much of your art." she intoned softly, her gaze intense. "However, I do not think that that is what is needed of me anyway. You yourself are without a doubt the strictest tutor, child…"
Zelda swallowed at the change of tone in her opposite's voice. She didn't even think of objecting to the word 'child'. At this moment she was nothing but against this woman's authority.
"The lesson I will try to teach is a different one. An important and undoubtedly frightening one. I will attempt it once, to give you the first push away from being a frightened fledgeling. Only once. It will then be decided whether I succeeded or failed." Her voice lost nothing of its soft calm, but there was unbending steel beneath it. Her eyes shone with an intensity that could turn a bunch of rowdy men into an orderly formation without a spoken word. Zelda's breath caught for a moment, stunned. "You sound like a warrior…" she squeaked, afeared and terribly fascinated.
"Who says I'm not?" the woman snarled with grim satisfaction, a rough half-smile around her beak. Her magnificent pink feathers bristled and waved… and Zelda could suddenly feel the power radiating from her. Not just in her hand that was still in Saki's grasp, but on all of her skin, in every fibre, in every bone.
"Now, girl…" she said with dire finality. "Will you learn what I have to impart? Or will you pull away?"
The hand that held her softened a little bit as if to dare her, taunt her, offer her a way out… an easy way… a child's way…
Zelda was trembling, afraid of what was to come, afraid of the pale blue glow of arcane power that radiated from her tutor's eyes… but, strangely, she was also calmed. This was a test. A test with a kind but strict teacher, which wouldn't be repeated…
She had always been good with tests…
Letting her heart override all her brain's doubts for once, she grabbed the proffered hand as fast as she could.
"Good…" The warrioress growled. "Then we can begin."
Almost immediately Zelda felt the air around them start to move, nothing more than a light breeze around her skin, but enough to send shivers over her arms to her shoulders.
"Close your eyes!" Saki commanded coolly and she obeyed.
Even with her lids shut it was as if she could see her opposite, so clear and defined was the sheer force that she emitted.
"Your task, for now, is to simply feel my aeromancy and the winds around us. Nothing more."
Her voice sounded impossibly loud all of a sudden… then Zelda realized that no… not her voice was loud but everything else had suddenly gotten very quiet. The omnipresent creaking of wood around them, the rustle of a sea of leaves below, the muffled voices from beyond the walls surrounding the 'courtyard' they were sitting in… All had been extinguished.
"What am I doing?" the woman asked levelly.
Zelda didn't have to think very long… even the slightest movement had ceased. Sitting still, she had the feeling of being encased in honey. "You have stilled the air…" she meant to say, but no sound escaped her lips, causing her to rip her eyes open in surprise and a sudden fear of suffocating.
"Eyes closed!" Saki repeated fiercely, her voice still terribly loud. The younger woman swallowed, breathed in deeply, forced herself to calm… then shut her eyes once more.
"Good. You are correct. I have stilled the air. And not even you shall disturb the quiet because I won't allow it." The feathery hand suddenly became like a vice. "I could take your breath too… just as easily as I took your voice." she whispered, deadly as the chilling cold of a mountain's peak. A shiver of fear ran down Zelda's spine and she felt her teeth chatter before she stopped them. Deep down she knew that there was no real threat of that, but the icy certainty in Saki's voice caused a primal reaction of terror. Still, her hand did not pull back.
"But I won't. You may keep breathing because I allow it." The grip relaxed, and the tiny vibrations and swirls of the wind returned, feeling peculiarly welcome and missed. The serenity, however, only lasted a moment…
The bluish aura flared outwards, strong enough that she actually saw the woman's outlines through her eyelids. Still, that was nothing compared to what she felt. The waves of arcane energy crashed through her so fiercely that it drove the air from her lungs… what had previously been but a thin sheen of power was now a raging fire, its heat felt with a sense that Zelda had maybe always possessed… but was so rarely used that it was now stimulated to its breaking point.
The furious tempest that had engulfed them was almost an afterthought, even though its roar threatened to punch through her ears.
Despite everything, she tried to focus on her task, tried to explore this still new sense that was currently inundated with information… like a babe exploring a toy with chubby, clumsy fingers.
It was… fuzzy at first… like the colourful blotches and streaks in one's vision overtaxed by light. But then, as Zelda dared to allow more and more of it in, her sixth sense attuning to the unfamiliar stimuli, ever more was grasped, ever more understood.
As calmly as Saki was sitting across from her, a part of her mind was dancing, weaving and waving to a celestial rhythm that was beyond her ken. It was a joyous jig, as of a young girl twirling freely in glee… but still in absolute control, no movement in error, every hard practiced mental motion perfectly precise. And the wind followed, swirling around them both playfully. Suddenly she saw, or rather felt, the myriad of threads that connected the Rito to the air about, sensed the thousands of soft, coltish coaxes that sent it into a merry frisk… Only the sheer volume of the wind around them made it seem threatening, its gleeful hollering seem angry shouts, its eager tugging at Zelda's clothes and hair to come join seem violent tearing.
She understood all this… and also what could happen when the now tame and spiralling threads of magic from Saki's mind were to be tautened.
"You have relaxed considerably…" She heard the older woman speak, her voice still as clearly audible as if she were talking right into her ear. "You see what I am doing, do you not?"
Zelda nodded slowly, afraid that the brittle connection she had managed to form might break with rapid movement. "You are dancing…" she answered simply, her own sound blown away immediately.
"Hmm…" the warrioress hummed approvingly. "Strange… I do not feel your presence on me. I should." She seemed to ponder for a few moments.
"Your second lesson, young one…" she stated loudly. Zelda swallowed. She wasn't even sure she had understood what the first one had been. "…What can, at first glance, seem threatening and violent can, in truth, be perfectly benign. A mighty roar, strong enough to vibrate the earth, might send fear to your heart… but if you round another corner in your path, you might find it to be nothing but a lively river, raucous and strong, but in the end still peaceful in its bed. The way to know is simply-"
"Careful study." Zelda finished the sentence, nodding earnestly, feeling the sweet flutter of blossoming understanding in her belly.
"Just so, fledgling." Saki said, her voice kinder again.
The princess felt the corners of her mouth tug upward timidly. These thoughts weren't completely new to her, but to hear someone who has clearly mastered her kind of magic talk her language still felt quite encouraging.
"Try to influence the wind!"
The younger girl's eyes snapped open once again, her surprise quickly surpassed by another wave of fear and uncertainty. She couldn't really mean…
"Go on! And eyes closed, I said!" Saki's stern voice was back with a vengeance. Her grip softened a tiny bit to allow her student to move her hand a bit.
The challenged one hesitated, almost losing the new and exciting connection due to turbulent thoughts and worries. She tried to focus, her muscles tensing almost painfully… but she didn't have the slightest clue what she should do, where she should begin. "I… I can't…"
"Sorry?" came the impatient reply.
Zelda had no doubt that her teacher had understood her perfectly, even though there was still no tone escaping from her throat. "I can't! I don't know how!" she repeated.
"Oh? How very surprising! I have taught five-year-olds that could at least do anything… and weren't quivering in fear at the slightest little farts of a breeze they could produce…" the Rito taunted quite humourlessly.
Zelda felt her cheeks redden and her lips narrow. Without even meaning to, her grip tightened.
"Oho! Are we getting angry, princess? And will there be a royal fart to follow it up?"
'I'll give you a fart to remember, you strutting self-important, over-developed pillow filling!' Soundly enraged because of the stinging truth in Saki's words, she abandoned her sheepish little approach of opening herself and all but rammed in the door. Her mind nearly went white with the intensity of power that washed over her, but her anger kept her senses in check. The tiny bit of understanding she had gained and clung to from within the Tree had to be good for something, didn't it? Saki herself had bridged her waking thoughts with the wind around them, had provided a corridor along which she could see, hear, feel and comprehend the flowing air around them… Until now, she had merely watched… Immensely carefully, she tried extending her mind until it brushed against the whirlwind, attempted to appropriate some of the myriad of tiny connections her mentor used to make it dance to her will.
A few tiny golden strands replaced the Rito's light blue threads… and Zelda's head started to spin as if she had been slapped, her whole sensorium suddenly mired in a violent vertigo. Her free hand slammed onto the wooden floor, desperate for anything it could hold onto to stem the twisting, bucking and turning that assaulted her mind. Nausea crept into her stomach, but she gritted her teeth against it. The pitiful little strands she had established spiralled loosely away, not severing, tugging at her, pulling her this way and that. She was being controlled, instead of the other way around! She tried to fight it, pouring more of her energy into them, but that only strengthened the connection, ultimately inflicting more harm on her as she didn't know how to control them!
'Like with the door!' she suddenly remembered… She had felt its weight, felt it nearly crush her bones with its mass and had only been able to ease a few kilos away, just enough for Link to lift it up!
The merciless spinning became almost too much to bear. She was ready to yank her hand away, if only to prevent herself from spilling her guts onto her teacher… Then she remembered another thing… With immense effort, she took another feel at Saki's aura… that part of her mind had never stopped dancing…
Battling down yet another wave of nearly overpowering nausea, Zelda attempted to join in, releasing her fierce grip, her desperate attempt to remain 'standing' as the gales pelted her… and let herself be carried by the rhythm of the wind. Almost instantly, the violent tugging on her soul ceased, the relentless spinning stopped… the strands of power, connections of her own making, had no more friction on her. She turned and twisted and danced in tune.
A fierce grin spread on her face. 'Now, let's see if we can't dictate the beat!'
Now that she could focus on the few golden strands that merrily hopped along, she tried to do some tugging on her own. Slower… just a tiny bit…
At once, her head began spinning again, but far less so this time. Zelda adjusted her mental dance until she and the wind were once again in the same rhythm. Good… again…
Sweat ran down her back and formed in large droplets on her forehead. A part of her marvelled at the awesome skill of Saki to do all of this without even a hint of effort… while she panted at the equivalent of a 90-year-old crone's shuffle.
Step by slow step, the whirlwind slowed, its howl calmed.
"Well, well… now I can actually feel you. Good!" A pause, then she continued darkly. "Time for the third lesson, then." Even with her eyes closed, Zelda could hear the sadistic smirk and tried to brace herself… too slowly.
"My turn!" Saki hissed and without so much as moving a feather her arcane power exploded around her with such intensity that the younger girl yelped in shock, her still new senses blinded and the tender strands of control instantly ripped to shreds. A mercy, as even the few milliseconds of clinging to the wind, now again firmly under her teacher's control, was enough to send her tumbling back down into terrible nausea. Her whole body heaved, her hand, driven by instinct, twitched to hold on to the stable floor… but at the last moment Saki re-grabbed her palm, the connection never fully lost.
"Where do you think you're going?" the older woman snarled with such sudden anger that Zelda's breath caught in her throat. The grip on her hand turned iron, she would have yelped in pain if she had any air to spare… The storm around them howled with such horrifying fury that even drawing breath had become a trembling effort.
Her new sense blasted into numbness, she couldn't help but tear open her eyes… a mistake. The intensity of the wind, enough to physically chafe her skin, dried them within a moment and she shut them again… Still, the moment had been enough to send mortal fear to her heart. If before had been a tempest, what Saki had conjured now must be nothing but the apocalypse! It had become nearly night-dark and just for this tiny instant she was convinced that she was able to actually see the movement, the panic inducing speed of the twisting air.
If her rationale hadn't yelled at her to stay put, and Saki didn't still have her in a vice grip, she might already have fled in the vain hope of finding shelter from the storm's shocking wrath.
"What now princess, hmm?" The Rito's dread voice rang tremendous in Zelda's ears despite her belief that the onslaught all around had deafened her.
"Did you believe your puny little tantrum would impress me? Did you think your weak effort might actually wrest control away from me, a master of my craft?!" The younger girl cowered away from the sheer might vibrating in Saki's words, but there was nowhere to run. The wall of wind seemed to draw ever closer around her, threatening to simply grind away her skin with its awesome power.
Zelda felt sour panic rise in her gut as even breathing became belaboured, the air seemingly being pulled from her chest.
In an instinctual, flailing strike Zelda attempted to once again connect herself to the storm, restore her torn, golden strands that had allowed her, for a moment, some semblance of control. She might as well have tried to thread a needle while fleeing from a hurricane… Fuelled by terror, she felt herself tugging and yanking at whatever her soul could grasp, tried vainly to overpower her attacker in the last mortal struggle of a girl sensing her death approach. Energy poured forth from somewhere within and for but a fraction of an instant, her own golden glow became stronger than Saki's blue.
Night. A dark stone corridor. A wooden door slightly ajar. A small hand pulling it open with a frightening creak. Suddenly blinding light…
The split-second vision ended as abruptly as it had assaulted her, rupturing instantly whatever connection to power she had briefly discovered, leaving her once again as helpless as a leaf in the storm
Saki's grip was still iron, as was her voice.
"You feel my strength, don't you, girl? You sense just how close you are to the abyss!" the pure malice in her growl turned the princess' guts to ice. "With a single thought I could crush you between the winds at my command. But more… With a single flick of my wing I could tear these nests off the Guardian's branches like I might brush off dust from my feathers."
There was no doubt in Zelda's mind. Saki could do these things… she felt her power in every bone, every fibre, every nerve…
"How is it, then, that I may gather this much raw force to show you the dread I can conjure… and still be absolutely sure that I risk not even a ruffled feather of any one of my brothers and sisters? How may I keep all of this at bay, even as my wrath knows no bounds?"
The younger girl needed a few attempts before her bone dry mouth could be persuaded to move despite her trembling. "C-control. Control!" she squawked, inaudibly.
"Through what?!" the Rito barked, her eyes furious.
The answer was simple, but with it came the profound and visceral understanding of this lesson. "T-Training! Training to perfection!"
The winds lessened instantly, receded as mysteriously as they had appeared to whatever realm it called its own, until nothing but a tiny breeze remained. The sudden silence… was deafening. Zelda's whole body shook and tears welled up in her eyes. She realized, again, that all this had been nothing but an exercise… and felt ashamed that her teacher had so easily buried that knowledge, that safety, beneath icy dread.
Saki breathed deeply, the strain of her incredible conjuring of winds now visible on her beaked face. The younger girl felt the grip on her hand soften, but the desire to pull away was gone… Partly because she was still in shock, in another part because she now saw that there never was any danger.
"Do you see? Do you see the importance of control over one's magic?" The Rito woman questioned, her voice once again calm… motherly…
"Every creature lashes out when it is backed into a corner. Think of what I might do, what havoc I might wreak, had I not developed my skills as I have. Can you imagine, someone with my talent in aeromancy lost in animalistic panic?"
Zelda swallowed, memories flashing before her eyes of the instances when she had, indeed, fallen into sheer despair and her powers had burst forth, raw and unbridled.
"Or think of your protector… a fearsome enemy to have, or so I'm told. Do you think he is afraid of his blade? He respects it, doubtlessly, lest he hurt himself… but fear? He needs to know it, needs to know its weight, its feel, its power. He needs to know his sword's path before he has even twitched a muscle, else how can he protect you? How often does he train his prowess with his weapon?"
"…daily…" she replied, her voice tiny as understanding finally broke through the cocoon of fear inside her head, as well as shame about her own childish evasion of the issue… and the valuable time lost due to it.
"Exactly. What separates a true warrior from a child with a sharp stick is purpose and training. You, child, certainly have purpose… now you know what else you need."
And with those words Saki at last let go of her hand and awarded her a small but cordial grin.
Zelda stared at her tingly fingers, still dumbfounded by the events of the last minutes. It was like the swirling tempest still raged within her head, so difficult it was to grab hold of a single thought. There were a thousand questions she knew she needed to ask her newfound mentor and she couldn't get any of them to come out!
"W… what do I do?" she finally voiced lamely, immediately feeling like an utter dolt.
"For the future? You begin! You have a goal, so begin working towards it. And let your man help you with it, that's what he's there for!" She giggled with a rather suggestive wink. "And for now? Go back out, enjoy your day and think of other things. You have learned quite enough for today… or rather, you have been taught quite enough! The real learning will happen in time."
With an enviably smooth motion Saki stood up and nodded. "Class dismissed!" she snarled sternly but wasn't quite able to keep a low chuckle from her voice.
Zelda nodded and stood. Her soul reeled after the tumultuous onslaught of emotions and stimuli… and her mind shook at the new prospect, the new concepts she was only just beginning to comprehend.
What would she be able to do? How would she find out? How does one train a skill that was so uncharted in both its origin and its ultimate manifestation?
Her gaze still lowered, Zelda realized she was still standing motionlessly in the middle of the 'courtyard'. The strange vision she had while trying to find her own powers puzzled her, so unlike the usual phantasms that accosted her mind. It had seemed… deeper… and strangely, even more threatening…
She heard Saki softly hum in a questioning tone. How long had she even stood there, glued to the spot like a buffoon? She winced at the thought of how much of a fool she must look and finally gazed up. Naturally, Saki still stood there, smirking as if nothing amused her more than watching her befuddled pupil sink into ever deeper pits of embarrassment. Her face suddenly very hot, Zelda felt herself sink rather rapidly…
"Oh my dear girl…" Saki cooed, her warm, motherly voice instantly replacing the strict instructor of moments before. She spread her wing and touched her young disciple on the shoulder, half reaffirming grip, half caress. "Although, I should stop with the 'girl', I believe... I would embrace you, but I feel it wouldn't be appropriate at this moment…"
Zelda gazed at her truly kind eyes - the gentleness in them did much to forget the icy promise of peril they had shown just moments before – confused at the older woman's meaning.
"You have shown me your warrior spirit here today… the spirit of a deeply courageous and dedicated woman whose intellect is her greatest weapon. Certainly not that of a fickle and skittish fledgling, too fearful to face her own shadows… or too brash to squander her gifts." The pressure of Saki's claw on her shoulder tightened briefly, as if to reinforce her words.
Zelda swallowed, taken aback by the sudden compliment, still too stunned by the last few minutes to feel flattered. "But… I am fearful…" she admitted, her heart once again beating faster at the thousand thoughts that threatened to overtake her mind.
"Listen to me, Zelda of Hyrule!" Saki spoke loudly, some of her teacherly demeanour returning briefly before she continued most gently. "Of course you are, sweet young warrior…" Her smile was so filled with kindness and encouragement that for a moment Zelda yearned for that embrace… the embrace of a mother…
"You are imagining a hundred outcomes, a hundred failures, a hundred accidents… as any wise person would, faced with the unknown. But also heed my wisdom when I say: fear of the unknown is best overcome by learning… studying… turning the unknown into the known. Something you are fairly decent at anyway, if I am any judge…"
This kindled a shy smile on Zelda's lips. She did like learning… uncovering secrets… understanding ever more…
"And besides…" Saki continued cheerily "… you already did those ever pesky first steps, did you not? You were afraid when I offered to show you my magic on the marketplace, yet you followed me. You were afraid when I promised to teach you a lesson that anybody with a potentially dangerous skill must learn, yet you accepted my tutelage. You were afraid when I made you open your mind to me and join me in dancing with the wind, yet you strode on. Finally, you were terrified when I threatened you with all my considerable might… yet you remained steadfast, calmed your mind in the face of disaster and kept on thinking. All these are steps that you have already taken on your way… why should the next step be so much more difficult?"
The magnificent Rito nodded encouragingly, winking. "Flap by flap we reach the sky! Or…" a brief spell of confusion rose around her beak. "…would it be pace by pace you… reach… the…" Saki shook her head, gazing far off as she thought. "…hill? What is the highest you featherless beings reach?"
The honest exasperation in the Rito's voice forced a burst of giggles from the younger woman. It felt good, releasing some of the pressure pent up inside.
"Step by step! We just say step by step…" she informed between chuckles.
"Quite…"
With that Zelda's shoulder was at last released. Her tutor, without another word, motioned with her head towards the door, showing a sly smile that seemed to say: "Now go play!"
Her gaze lowered she almost tumbled back towards the outward branches, still so dazed that she nearly forgot to bid goodbye. Lost in thought, she plodded back towards the market place, hardly even noticing the many wide-eyed Rito that had gathered outside of Komali's mansion.