The afternoon sun cast golden ripples across Lake Totori and the great stone basin in which it lay. A half dozen adult Rito dove hopefully, then wheeled away in disappointment upon finding the water disturbed only by wind. Totori was emptier than any of the bird-like creatures could remember, a fact that would be driven home by their crying eggchicks later that night.

With heavy hearts and empty beaks, the Rito used their powerful wings to ascend from the lake's surface to their home at its center. The fires from a fortnight previous were long doused, the wooden stairs and platforms repaired, but a somber pall still hung over the ancestral roost. The normally hail and hearty greetings for those returning from the hunt were absent. Uneasy silence had replaced the melodic birdsong with which nest makers normally soothed their young to sleep. Whimpers for more food were shushed quickly, lest they be heard by fathers already weighed down by their lack of success.

One such effort did not escape Teba's sharp hearing. The snow-white Rito cocked his head toward the sound of his approaching mate, who was only just now returned from assuaging their lone son's innocent complaints. On any normal night, Teba would lift his gaze to warmly greet the one he considered the most beautiful of all the Rito. Hylia had graced Saki with lavender plumage and sky-blue eyes that put luminous stones to shame. Even her beak was a soft and small counter to the harshness of Teba's hawk-like visage, albeit one in which she took equal pride. It had surprised no one when the already accomplished Rito captain had asked for the graceful maiden's wing in marriage.

Their celebrated union had produced an eggchick, a fine son who was already taking after Teba in almost every way. Tulin had inherited his father's white plumage and inborn eagerness for action. Saki adored the first trait even as she not so quietly endured the second.

She need not worry about that now, Teba thought firmly to himself. I go to protect him from such darkness. Can she not see that?

The Rito warrior was already steeling himself for the argument to begin anew. He was somewhat surprised to merely feel his mate's warm, comforting touch on his shoulder.

"He asked for you," Saki gently informed him.

"You told him I was busy." It was not so much a question as a spoken expectation. He felt Saki's feathers go unusually still as she replied.

"I did," she said coolly. "Still, I don't think he would object to his father going back on his word for this."

And there it was. In their own way, females treated conversation as their own battlefield. How deftly they turned a perceived high ground upside-down and made their enemies flounder. It was worse, even, for such cold-hearted tactics should be saved for those who merited them rather than the ones they loved most. The timely injustice made Teba's blood boil, and he turned to face his wife at his full and considerable height.

"You think my son would esteem me more for hiding from that which threatens us all?" he demanded hotly, his rage only just restrained. "You think he would rather see more coward than courage from me now?"

And again, as women so often did, Saki illogically retreated just as she had gained the upper hand. Her softness in the face of Teba's sharp-edged words nearly disarmed him. Nearly.

"I think our son would esteem you for the obedience you could teach him," Saki murmured as she caressed her husband's battle-scarred cheek. "There is honor in following those whom we have vowed to obey, more so when their orders are hard to follow. It would be a great example for him, one only you could set before his eyes."

Teba caught her wife's feathers gently in his own, but the golden eyes under his heavy, black eyebrows were hardened with resolve.

"He sees the example I set for him now," Teba whispered harshly. "A Rito warrior forced to walk the length of our home and fish only the waters below it. A master of the sky mastered in turn by a piece of floating metal with neither soul nor heart nor mercy. I will not allow that example persist, not while there is breath in my breast to change it."

"You are using our son to justify your own impatience!" Saki cried, all pretense of gentle persuasion now gone. "Do not confuse Tulin's desires with your own, Teba! We are all subject to this trial, but only you lack the patience to endure it!"

"That is not true."

Astonished to hear the very words he had been about to utter spoken by another, Teba turned to see an enormous, owl-like Rito standing respectfully outside his conically shaped dwelling. He sensed more than heard Sika fold her feathers and make the slight bow that was ritual to all her people in the Elder's presence.

"Elder Kaneli!" she breathed ashamedly. "I am sorry our argument disturbed you! That is unless… did you… did you wish to say something?"

The Rito leader waddled his way into the couple's home, somehow avoiding delicately perched wares and ornaments alike despite his great girth. Kaneli then took each Rito in with his kindly gaze before first acknowledging Sika with a small bow of his own.

"Thank you for welcoming me into your nest, Sika," the elder said warmly. "And thank you, Teba, for welcoming me with such honesty."

"Honesty?" Teba asked, nonplussed.

"Oh yes," Kaneli returned sincerely. "You did not waste your time or mine with a bow of respect, which means you are well and truly set on your endeavor of disobedience. I admire honesty above all else, and you certainly have it in spades for me."

"You're… you're welcome," Teba acknowledged awkwardly. "So you've… accepted my plan?"

"No, I'm afraid I am not," Kaneli answered as his aged face became grave. "I applaud honesty, it is true, especially when it unearths disagreement. Disagreement is one of the healthiest symptoms of any people. I would be truly worried if everyone agreed with me all the time, something of which you have never been guilty. You are a great warrior and leader in your own right, Teba. I value your disagreements a great deal."

"And yet you… disagree with me on this," Teba concluded warily.

"Of course I do," Kaneli confirmed earnestly. "It took you less time to disregard my council than it does that son of yours to down a mouthful of trout. For such a heavy decision - rife with consequence, I might add - to be made so quickly is extremely troubling. Rarely do rushed decisions wind up being good ones. I have a long life to thank for having witnessed so many examples of them."

"There are times when right and wrong need no more than a blink of an eye to be decided," Teba challenged. "That was enough time for me to see our people starving and land-bound. Surely you do not think our people are better off?"

"Your argument has all the consistency of a Hyrule bass," Kaneli replied with a sad shake of his head, "cutting swiftly through the current one moment, then leaping out of the water and ending up somewhere else entirely. Of course our people are not better off, but you have already decided the only course is to go against my wishes with a score's worth of warriors behind you."

"What madness is this?" Saki interrupted, looking from husband to elder frantically. "Who would fly with Teba against a Divine Beast?"

Kaneli's level answer cut off the scathing words that nearly flew from Teba's tongue.

"Those who share your husband's frustrations," the elder said with a bow of acknowledgment. "It is for this reason I refuted your heated accusation that Teba alone is impatient to see these dark days done and over. He has recruited - quite successfully, I might add - the strength of several younger warriors to his cause."

"What did you promise them?" Saki demanded accusingly. "More warrior beads for their braids? Perhaps to be known as 'Teba's Company?'"

"I promised them an end to the winged curse that flies over us even now!" Teba answered with a wing upraised and stabbing skyward for emphasis. "Unlike you, they wish to be real Rito once more instead of cowering worms that hope the chickaloo is done feeding its young for the day!"

"And therein lies the flaw within your great plan," Kaneli said sadly. "You are so foreign to being the worm that you cannot give place to the thought that we might as well be worms as far as Vah Medoh is concerned."

"You question our bravery?" Teba nearly screeched in rage. "The warriors who will fly alongside me are young and strong! They are not afraid to brave Vah Medoh's wrath! They-"

"-are very brave and will likely die very quickly," Kaneli concluded smoothly. "I have told you - I have told everyone - that the only ones capable of boarding Vah Medoh and appeasing her are those who bore a Sheikah Slate. As you know, the Champions of old are a hundred years dead. Unless you bear some relation to Revali of which I am not aware - and his Sheikah slate has also somehow survived - you have no means of winning this battle. The only death you will accomplish is your own, and now, perhaps those who fly with you. Can you look into Maddie's eyes and tell her that Harth died at your side and against my counsel? It will be your news to bear, Teba, not mine."

Trapped by his own commitment and Kaneli's firm yet gentle words, Teba floundered.

"You would have us merely wait and hope?" he asked in a strangled voice. "For what? A miracle? For Vah Medoh to grow bored and fly elsewhere?"

"To exhaust less dangerous options," Kaneli answered soothingly. "We can reach other fishing grounds by walking first. Strock Lake, perhaps. We can also trade with the stablemen."

"I will not let the Hylians take advantage of our plight!" Teba snarled. "They gouge prices because they are truly flightless worms to Medoh's eyes. The Divine Beast does not trouble them, so they see no trouble in turning a profit at our expense. They can go to Ganon for all I care!"

"I believe in Hylia's power for good more than Ganon's for evil, and I believe the former will see their greed returned to them ten-fold," Kaneli agreed. "Either option is better than leading young warriors to near-certain death, don't you think?"

Kaneli had taken an appeasing step forward, a movement punctuated by the clack of his claws upon the wooden floor. Teba had grown to hate that sound of late. His people, kings and queens of the sky, forced to walk with wings folded out of fear. He turned to face Kaneli, the wisest of the Rito, the one for whom Teba had always reigned in his flash-fire temper. Now he saw only the face of his people's fear, content to remain grounded as long as a Sheikah-built machine let them do so and live. He would not allow Vah Medoh to define these days, not while Hylia granted him life to do otherwise.

"No, Kaneli," Teba knelled. "Our people will not suffer on Vah Medoh's terms. It will meet ours, and we will issue them in the air as Rito are born to do."

Sika wept silently as Kaneli placed his enormous wing on Teba's shoulder.

"Then Hylia fly with you and yours, Teba," the elder pronounced sadly, "for none of us will."

AUTHOR NOTES

As the books progress, the other Champions/characters establish themselves and their stories more and more. Book Three will see an especially big shift in switching characters/viewpoints more often, but for now there's still a lot of spaced-out table setting to be done.

Teba's disposition is pretty easy to discern in the game, where Link first meets him already prepared to attack Medoh against his wife and elder's wishes. This chapter provides a glimpse into what got Teba to that point, and I enjoyed mapping it out and writing it down. Sure, he wants to take Medoh down, but I felt even he would have briefly struggled to brush off the two most important adults in his life. That being said, I couldn't get over how raw of a deal the Rito got with their Divine Beast. It's literally hovering above their homeland and preventing them from doing what they were born to do (fly). For as free a spirit as Teba is, I could only conclude he would go mad with rage.

One of the fun twists in this series is how absolutely different females are portrayed among every race. Gerudo are stone-cold warriors. Zora women are as equally capable and willing to fight as men. Hylian women that travel/trade are still pictured as armed and capable. The Gorons have no women. I don't doubt that a Rito "nest maker" could peck a threat's eyes out, yet they were designed to appear as the least combat-ready characters in the game. Conscious or unconscious, that happened for a reason, and again, it provides a different dynamic in a Hyrule full of them.

Teba's confrontation with Medoh will test him and his people. I'm eager to see it unfold.

Thanks for your precious time in reading this. As always, feel to drop a review or private message, even if it's just to talk about what you like/think/dislike. Hope life is treating you well. - mattwrites