Still synonymous with the glorious feel of the wind, I lay just below a shrine, refusing her suggestion. I couldn't bring myself to fully part with my old ways just yet.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I glimpsed the Rito I had seen in a slumber on the floor finally elevate himself and head over in the direction of the Inn. Something about him I recollected. Misa let out a call toward him, and it was then I noticed. I couldn't remember his name, but I remembered his sheer amount of ambition, of charisma in things that he adored. It was painful to know he was sombre. Observing him head back with Misa, I attempted to shuffle myself comfortably in the dying midnight wind, curling my legs around my satchel. Noticing the lack of rupees that lay in it, I smiled. I missed the Hylian, even though he most likely didn't with me, but I knew, wherever he was, he was one hundred rupees richer, looking upon the same enchanting moon. I shut my eyes, content, finally losing all worry about my days ahead. However, as I felt myself drifting away from wakefulness, I heard the known snarl of what I identified as two skeletal monsters dragging their eerie frames toward me. My heart pounded. Their weapons if I didn't act now, would drag me with them, and to death. I remembered how I'd handled it on the island, and hoped my tired body was able to replicate such techniques.
I stood up, spreading out my wings. They swung at me with a sword of some kind, and I ferociously kicked them in the place with my talons I remembered did most damage. Their violent low squeal as they vanished filled my body with relief. The only other squeal other than Medoh's, that could pacify me was the roar of a beast I knew was doing it because they were no longer be a deadly threat.
I resumed my slumber and was met by muffled memories as dreams, mostly of Teba, that I admired greatly and who protected me as a child. Although my memories in my village weren't all pleasant, all of the ones associated with him were. My mind then fizzed through images of him in my sleep, injured, or dying when confronting the possessed Vah Medoh. "The goddess saved him." I kept repeating, like a mantra in my sleep, not in a way unlike my mother used to sing me a lullaby every night as a child. She was an outlier among Rito, something I didn't know was for good or for bad, a woman rito that adored traditions outside of our own. People thought it was a Hylian that bestowed the love of the Hylian's Goddess to her, but it was actually her own curiosity and faith so she always told me. Eventually, my repetition helped, and I was able to see the glorious sun spreading across the green, brown landscape like a painter's precious brush stroke, warming all of my bones more than any sunshroom could ever do.
I hadn't met Teba in five years, and it was safe to say we had a lot more to catch up on than he realised. The day being a magnificent one, and the wind being perfect to my feel, I envisioned myself flying with him, but I knew the most important thing on my mind. I took a bite of some of the food that lay beside me and turned my head for monsters. All was clear, all was ready- all but half of my mind that still lay in anxiety somewhere inside of me, that I buried and shoved back.
Terrified someone would see me and make assumptions I yet didn't want to be made, I wasn't sure whether to perform the useful skill I developed in my island and had only shown to the Hylian but with everyone still sleeping, I closed my eyes keenly and swirled the wind around me. I felt the wind's high pressure build up beneath my feet and shove me like the great eagle bow's arrows speedily into the sky. I was free- except, someone did see me.
"Mimo!" A violet Rito flew toward me as speedy as a bullet and ascended alongside me. I instantly recognized the voice. "You…did it. You mastered the wind…just like…" She stuttered, holding back tears. I faced her directly.
"Mum, I…"
"I know what you're going to say." She spoke gently yet articulately as we continued ascending in a circle above our village. "You're going to say."
"Sorry," I finished, smirking as she was.
"Yes, and you shouldn't say it my darling. Where are you off to?"
I didn't know what to say. I could never lie to my mother but sometimes telling the truth felt more harrowing and cruel. I averted my eyes from her.
"Mother, I…"
"Let's fly down." She stated, soaring herself downstream of my current. "I heard you were here last night but I didn't want to disturb you then, and I knew you'd be out this time doing this."
"Thankyou. Mother, I need to tell you something."
We both landed back on the ground near someone I recognized, a bird but not a Rito, holding a musical instrument.
"Mother, I need to say that…"
Melodious sounds started to fill our ears from his instrument. Perhaps this was a sign that I wasn't ready to do either of a truth or a lie, or maybe even to visit my accomplished elder just yet.
"Who is that bird? I remember him?" I changed the topic of conversation, seeing the yearning in my mother's eyes to reconnect with me after years.
"I don't know, I've never asked, he just keeps singing this one song, at first it kind of grated me but it's sometimes nice to listen to when I'm over here. It reminded me of you…" She burst into tears, them falling out of her like a large erupting volcano.
"I'm sorry, it's just been so hard with you…" she wept. "It's been so hard with you gone."
"Mother I know." I placed my wings around her shoulders then lifted her chin with the edge of my right one, wiping her tears. "Mother, it's okay, I missed you too, dearly."
"It's all my fault, darling." Her eyes were deep, ones that looked through me with her entire soul, with her spirit. "If I'd have just done a little more to make you comfortable with expressing yourself, if I'd have just…"
I hugged her tightly this time, and to this, the bird, clad with instrument, looked over with a smile.
"My son, I hope that we can figure out a better way for you to live here being you, and that's what we shall do. I'm so proud of you, I hope you always knew I was."
My mother had said those words to me before, but right now was the time I most kept them within my heart.
"I hate this but I have to go, but please, just please meet me here tonight." She sobbed one more diminutive tear.
"I will mother."
She slowly headed left, waving at me as she did so. "I will tell your father how proud I am of you."
I battled with my mind on whether it was only right to see her elder on the mission I was embarking on, after seeing her such full of joy from my return. But if I was going to stay here with her, perhaps if I did it later on it would sting more than Dinraal's horn. I convinced myself that the fact was, I wasn't going to be truly guilty of any wrong. For now, I just wanted his company and his truths to my questions. I resurrected my previous gale and positioned my body in the direction of the Hebra mountains. I took one tall breath of the air that surrounded me, absorbing it into every inch of my veins and my spirit, and picked up speed in that direction. "The wind is guiding me," I muttered, tilting my wings, and finding solitude in its changes.
The path was strikingly cold, snow knifing me with an icy rage as I propelled myself forward. My soul was quivering, hoping that I'd packed enough things in my satchel and still had enough insulation in my deeper feathers to withstand it, after staying in a place with immense tropical warmth, I often did forget the feeling of the Hebra cold. Vah Medoh was now farther away from me, but the precious spirit that lay within it was still as close in my heart. I let out a tear as I faced away from the mighty machine that a part of me wished I had never left the sight of at all. Thankfulness spilled in my heart for Teba associated with it that I now could face, that I could now perhaps even say with a substantial amount of confidence. The confidence of Link the Hylian when he approached me, inspired me, his ability to forge his brashness. I hoped he could keep the artifact from Master Revali, even though I loved it so dearly, and still remain noble among my people.
As Flight Range appeared amongst the blinding blizzards, Teba's face came slowly into view. I gasped, seeing him extremely well, healthy and forgetting his salient, charming appearance, one I somewhat envied as a child. His son sat as if anticipating something, yet still happy and relaxed.
Teba's eyes glistened like the snowy mountains beside them.
"Mimo!" Teba let out a shout that was muffled by the thickening snow. Out of everyone I had encountered, Teba was the most startled by my arrival, his face not giving any other emotion but awe and confusion. I held my head down, afraid to face him. Did he even want to talk to me, a Rito who had abandoned his village? Maybe I was being foolish to even think I should approach him so soon.
"Mimo!" He repeated, his son now flying to his side. "Let me see you."
My heart numbed mid-flight. I still couldn't estimate his next reaction, nor what emotion his greetings had rooted from.
*New chapter to be done soon, thankyou all for reading. 😊*