Chapter Ten:
Live or Die
Ventus
Ventus dug in the snow, his fingers getting numb. However, he didn't stop until he pulled up a small acorn. Breathing a sigh of relief, he put it in the small little pouch he made from the remains of his mother's clothing. Rini threw near a damn fit when he started cutting their mom's clothing to make the bag, and he wasn't even completely sure she wasn't still sore about it.
His tears had turned to ice, and unlike his father and Uncle Killian, whose deaths he could take the necessary time to mourn, he no longer had that luxury. With Mom dead and gone, it was up to him to look after Rini.
Rini, on the other hand, was in a terrible state for the past couple of weeks. She would be crying one minute, angry at him for not doing the same the next, refusing to get out of bed and it was only really recently she had been able to be coaxed to go looking for food with him. He wasn't sure if it was because she was finally getting over Mom's death or if it was because she was hungry.
At least she was talking to him again, and not calling him a monster or an asshole for prioritizing her life over mourning the dead.
"Ventus, you think we can eat any of these?" Rini asked, walking over to him and holding out her hands showing some red berries and weeds she had found. Ventus glanced at them and after a moment, tossed aside some of the smaller, harder berries and held his bag out for her to put the rest of the food in.
Awwoooo!
Ventus' ears twitched and his hand suddenly went to the blade on his back. While his father's sword was still a bit heavy and unwieldy for him, he had noticed the villagers beginning to eye the Goron steel weapon. While none of them would have taken it with Mom still around, all bets were out the window now. It had only been two weeks since Mom died and their shares of food were rapidly dwindling.
It was like they were trying to make them meet the same fate as their mother without having the courage to make it quick.
"We're going back, Rini," he announced quietly, buttoning the satchel. It was only a quarter full, and barely enough to feed them, but it would keep them from starving. That was the important thing.
"Huh? But why?" Rini asked, her voice dropping too on instinct, eyes darting around the area, taking her brother's hand into hers.
"Wolves."
"But wolves don't usually come out and attack us…" Rini whispered, looking around, searching in the shadow of the woods for the predators.
"I'm not taking any chances," Ven said, pulling her along, back toward the wooden walls. He noticed they've been needing to go further and further into the woods and away from the walls to find what little food they can scrounge up. To make matters worse, rumors were if you went too deep into Kokiri Forest you would find yourself in the Lost Woods.
That, you would never come out of.
"... There's not a lot here."
Ventus scowled as he sat in the small barn, crossing his arms as a mousy haired boy looked at what little food they were able to bring back.
"It's better than nothing," Hikaru pointed out, picking up a pine cone, before he grazed his gray eyes around the small gathered group of orphaned children, brushing his white hair out of the way.
Hikaru was half-Sheikah; his parents had died in the slaughter of his people in the previous Gerudo War, and he had been living with other family members since. However, they had died due to the cold just like a lot of others had. A lot of kids asked him if he had gotten any Sheikah training, but he would kindly remind them he was only a baby when his parents died.
Ventus had been told there used to be fifteen children in the group, but with Elise dying, the last adult who cared about the orphaned children and the sick was gone, and more followed her.
"Not that the little ones wouldn't have died—or at least Jack. He was a goner for sure," Rei said as she handed Ventus blankets for himself and Rini. "Still, Elise could have saved some of the others, I bet. She saved your sister, right? Now we got nobody."
Even though Ventus was only eleven, he was the third oldest, although only by a few months. Hikaru was sixteen, and Rei was fourteen. While he had joined the group after Hikaru had approached him saying they would make sure he and Rini—among other orphans—wouldn't be pushed aside or forgotten, Ventus wasn't exactly sure how Hikaru planned on doing this.
"We're going to need more than this," Rei pointed out, sighing as she leaned against the wall of the old building. While the house they stayed at before was significantly warmer, the eyes of the people after Mom died became colder. The food portions grew smaller by the day, though theirs were the only one.
"Well I don't know why you are complaining," Jinora sniffed, shoving her face with some dried meat. Something Ven or Rini didn't have in weeks. "You have less family members now. Besides, it's not like you really contribute anything."
Ventus did smack her at that. Right across her mouth. The other adults weren't too happy about it, but he would be lying if it didn't feel good. Dad may have always told him that a true knight didn't start fights, but the way he saw it, he wasn't starting one so much as finishing it.
All the same, the two of them left the next day.
But ever since Ventus moved here with Rini, he found the old building much noisier despite there being less people; the wind was constantly howling through cracks in the wood, angry and bellowing.
Just another woe among many.
"Well it's not like there are just stalchildren and poes," Ventus scoffed. "There are wolves in the woods too. Who knows what else is in there."
"I think we can all agree that it's dangerous," Hikaru said, cutting in just as Rei was beginning to open her mouth. "But we don't have any adults to rely on anymore. If we want to survive, we need to remind the rest of the village we're here too. We can't do that if we're dead."
"What are you saying?" asked Marco, a boy with beady eyes who had to be the same age as Leita Serwen—and even more prone to cry. Except when Marco did it, all it did was annoy Ventus. He used to be rather portly before the Gerudo's attack, which was why Rei still often called him fatass. However, now his face was sunken with lack just like everyone else's.
"Well, first, we need to get more food. We can't just rely on Ventus and Rini," Hikaru said, threading his fingers together, leaning forward.
Ventus bit his tongue to stop himself from reminding Hikaru that until a couple of days ago it was just him. But he didn't want Rini to throw another hissy fit or invite her to start throwing accusations at him not loving Mom. Again.
"Everything comes back to lack of resources," continued Hikaru. "We are starving orphans in a run down building. We don't have proper tools. Not to mention there are only ten of us. Now I'm sure as Farore takes more, our ranks will grow, so that ain't the problem. The problem is that unless this village wisens up and realizes if they push away people like us Sakirven ain't going to survive. However, people are stupid, so we gotta convince 'em we're worth something."
"Which we can't do if we're dead," Rei said and the Sheikah teenager nodded his head.
"While I'm old enough to speak at meetings, we need to convince more people to join our cause. More adults to support us," Hikaru said before he stood up and approached the fire, throwing some logs on it. Then he continued to speak. "For that, we need a plan."
"That's a lot of pine needles, Alicia," Ventus said, frowning a bit as the black-haired girl dumped yet another handful into the bag.
In the end, they had been separated into three groups: Ventus, Alicia, Rei and Hikaru looked for food outside the walls, Rini and Gene were to find sympathetic individuals in the village, and everyone else worked on repairing their 'house.'
"Pine needles make good tea, and they are healthy. Plus if we catch a cold, it will help," Alicia said cheerfully.
"And the flu?" Ventus asked, and at that, Alicia's eyes dropped down.
"We pray," she said softly, before turning and beginning to walk deeper into the forest. Buttoning the satchel, Ventus quickly made way after her.
"Hey, wait—where are you going?" he demanded. "It's dangerous to go this far in!"
"It's fine," Alicia assured him, stopping under a large oak tree, bending down and beginning to dig in the snow. "I've been deep in these woods before. I know where to look for food, and with you around, I don't need to worry about the monsters lurking in the shadows."
"Why's that?" Ventus asked, bending down and helping her.
Alicia had told him that acorns were more likely to be found under oak trees because they were its seeds. She also showed him some other edible seeds, like walnuts, pecans, hickories, beechnuts, hazelnuts and pine nuts. It was amazing how much he missed when it was just Rini and himself.
"Well … You want to be a knight, right? Like your father?" she replied slowly, pulling out some acorns out of the snow. Ventus nodded his head. "And I saw how you stood up to those Gerudo, plus if you want to achieve it, you need to work toward it." She paused, furrowing her brow, trying to collect her thoughts. "Like … I want to be a royal cook, so I've been learning everything I could. I even asked your mother for advice, remember?"
Ventus nodded; he did, although he never really talked to Alicia prior to this. He was too busy practicing his swordplay and making sure they didn't freeze or starve. Rini, however, did. Though, it seemed she talked to everyone.
"You work hard at being a warrior too. So just like you trust me in cooking, I'll trust you in fighting. Does that make sense?" she asked, turning to him with a smile.
It really didn't, but he nodded anyway. She recognized his greatness, and that's all that was important.
That's when Ventus heard some twigs cracking and he wheeled around, drawing the sword from behind him. While his father and Uncle Killian made it look seamless, his was awkward and he stumbled a bit. He heard a sharp intake of breath from Alicia just as Rei appeared.
"Were you going to skewer me with that?" she asked, arching an eyebrow, brushing some of her dark purple hair out of her eyes.
Her hair had been longer when Ventus first came to the village, but shortly before Mom died, it suddenly was chopped off. While he was no barber, it looked kind of like someone took a knife to it and went at it. Luckily though it seemed to be growing back and it wasn't looking quite as ugly as it had been.
"You scared me," he retorted hotly, lowering the sword. "What are you doing out here, anyway? Shouldn't you be with Hikaru?"
"Saw a rabbit. Was tired of acting like one and thought it would be best to move up the food chain. 'Got away though," she said, crossing her arms. "Would be nice if we could just eat what livestock remains."
"We can't!" Alicia protested suddenly.
"Why the bloody hell not?" Rei snapped back as Ventus turned his head, hearing a new set of footsteps and once more raising his sword.
However, once again, his worry was for naught.
"Because the adults are protecting it," Hikaru said simply, entering the clearing. "Not to mention if we want to get people on our side, we cannot make ourselves the enemies—no matter how tempting it may be. But Rei's right. We need meat. Starting tomorrow, we're hunting."
Rini
Rini leaned against the building, blowing into her hands, while Gene wrapped a scarf tighter around his neck.
She really didn't want to be out here, doing this, but at the same time it was made quite clear to her she could no longer stay inside and mourn her mother like anyone with a heart would do. Even so, it was like they expected her to be heartless like her brother was—Ventus cried for Dad of all people, but not Mom?
"Feel like a fucking idiot waiting out by the damn outhouse," the mousy haired boy grumbled. "Well, it fits at least cuz this is a shit job—Why couldn't Hikaru do this? He's considered an adult; people will at least listen to him."
"He didn't want to make my brother, Rei and Alicia risk their lives looking for food without doing the same," Rini reminded him, her eyes trained on the area where she knew her mark was going to appear from.
He always came out at this time, like clockwork.
"Well, Alicia is one thing but your brother and Rei are fucking crazy; I think the monsters need protection from them," Gene pointed out with a scoff.
Rini snorted in return; while Ventus got respect from the group for his stunt months ago for refusing to stand down even when the Gerudo were beating him to death, Rini still saw it for what it was.
Selfish stupidity.
Like he was determined to die and leave her alone, even though he promised he would always be there for her.
Still, she couldn't help but be curious about his comment regarding Rei. From her interactions with the older girl, how limited they were, the girl didn't strike her as stupid so much as having an attitude problem.
"What, did Rei get beat for some selfish reason too?" Rini asked, turning to the older boy for a moment.
"Nah, she ain't your brother's level of crazy, but I heard before she left, she straight up shanked her aunt," Gene told her, before dropping his voice as if letting her in on a secret. "Rumor has it her parents were criminals. Didn't your dad ever talk about the Laverna family?"
"First off, my dad was never home," she replied tensely, her fingers digging into her palms.
The only real time they got to spend with their father was when he took them to Kakariko. Even then he was always hanging out with Uncle Tori or Uncle Killian if he was around, and pushing her and Ventus to play with the other kids. Sometimes—even now—she really didn't understand why her brother looked up to a father like that. After all, he was much better for the things which counted—being there for your family.
"Second off, Dad never talked much about his job around me and Ven."
"Oh."
That shut Gene up, and an awkward silence came between them.
Thankfully it didn't last long; the man they were waiting for hobbled around the corner. Rini elbowed Gene, letting him know a little harder than she needed to.
"Come on, and let me do the talking," she whispered, quickly running toward old man Perseus.
"Perseus! Perseus!" Rini called, Gene stumbling after her. The older man paused, coughed and scowled.
"What da ya want, lass? Make it quick; nature is a calling," he demanded.
"It won't take long," Rini assured him, smiling. "I just wanted to know how people are treating you. Are the odds still 50:1… or no, wait, it's 75:1 now, isn't it?"
Perseus scowled at her; the betting on his life, or better said, his death, had slowly slipped into the mainstream conversation. Perseus wasn't too pleased about it, but there wasn't much he could do about it besides desperately claw at life on his lonesome. With as much money riding on one old man, there was no reason for anyone to help him. The causes of death had to be of natural causes for the winners to collect their money, otherwise Rini suspected he would have been found dead of mysterious causes months ago.
Not that money had much use anymore. People were trading things like thick blankets for food now. You couldn't eat rupees after all, and rupees couldn't keep the frosty chill of winter from your bones.
"Get to the point, brat," Perseus growled.
"Well," Rini drawled for a minute. "I'll just say this … they don't have your best interest at heart, now do they? Now it ain't right, to bet on someone's death, to not take care of them. You—we—are all part of Farore's family. All we want to do is remind the villagers of that."
Perseus didn't say anything, but Rini didn't expect him to. She had made her argument, now all she had to do was wait.
"Food for thought," she hummed, before turning around. "Let's go, Gene."
Ventus
"It didn't set off."
"No shit."
"I'm hungry."
"For fuck's sake, Marco, shut the hell up. We're all hungry," Ven snapped, trying to see where they went wrong this time.
It was the Month of Wisdom, but Ventus sure didn't feel any smarter; especially being outsmarted constantly by small woodland creatures.
True to Hikaru's prediction, as the cold winter dragged on, they got more and more children joining their cause, although some of them weren't children anymore. The oldest was twenty, but there wasn't something quite right with him—he seemed more bothered by sounds than Ventus was. Yet for whatever reason, he couldn't hear nearly as far, although getting him to answer the simple question was nearly impossible—he wouldn't look up from whatever he was working on.
His younger sister told Ventus to just leave him alone.
Still, while the nuts and berries were just enough to feed the small group before, it was nowhere enough now with their numbers nearly doubling. Whatever Rini and Gene were saying, it was working, that's for sure.
"Well, at least we know it can set off," Alicia said, looking between Ventus and Marco nervously. "No animals probably came through here. That's nobody's fault."
"Alicia is right. We'll just have to set more traps," Hikaru said, adding his voice to hers, giving her a small smile which Alicia returned, along with a blush.
However, Hikaru's already pale skin was beginning to look like the snow that was on the ground, and Ventus noticed the sounds of growling stomachs had lessened over the past few days despite there not being any more food.
It scared him.
"Except we have traps everywhere it seems, and the only thing setting them off is fatass over here," Rei growled, jerking her thumb toward Marco.
The boy looked insulted for a half a second before thick tears began to build up in his eyes.
"Rei," Hikaru said sharply. "We are a family now. There's no reason to be cruel to each other."
He sighed though, before dragging his hand across his face. "Still … you are right in saying we haven't caught anything. But what are we supposed to do? Even if there was livestock left, I'll bet every last rupee I have to my name it's being guarded. There's nothing else we can do for meat that doesn't involve hunting in the available daylight hours we have."
There was an awkward silence at that.
"Why give more bodies as ammunition? Unless, of course, we plan on eating them."
Those words Ventus had overheard what seemed a lifetime ago and had haunted him ever since, came back. The mere thought at one time was enough to make him sick, yet now ...
He swallowed a lump in his throat, and in a very quiet voice, he spoke up.
"That's not true."
Alicia—who was closest to Ventus—turned and looked at him, surprised and confused.
"What?" she asked.
"That's not true; there's one other place we can get meat," he said, speaking louder this time, raising his eyes, glancing around nervously before meeting Hikaru's gray eyes. The older boy furrowed his brow, his blue lips thinning out.
"Then why haven't you said anything earlier?" Rei demanded, grabbing the front of Ventus' jacket and jerking him so he was looking at her angry green eyes. "We're starving to death, and you just think to mention this now?!"
"I think … I think it might be against Sheikah law or something," Ventus said softly. "That's why I never said anything."
"The fuck you talking about?" Rei demanded. "Sheikah law applies only to …"
However, that's when she figured it out and she loosened her grip on his jacket, taking a horrified step backward, not finishing her sentence. However, she didn't need to, because there were sharp intakes of breaths all around him; everyone else had pieced it together too.
There was silence; even the wind seemed shocked at what Ventus just suggested.
"That's really messed up, Ven," Marco said after a long moment.
"Normally I don't agree with the pig, but he's right. Real fucked up, Agni," Rei scowled, and Ventus felt his blood boil at that. It wasn't like he wanted to do it either; he was a Sheikah too after all! Yet if they wanted to survive, they would need to break certain taboos.
Just like Aliyah Kali, whispered a nasty voice in the back of his head, but he violently pushed it to the side for now. Eating the dead wasn't the same as raising them. It wasn't.
"You said it yourself! We're starving to death, and unless we do something, Farore will take us too!" he protested hotly. "How much longer do you want to wait?! More and more people are joining us, but what good will that do because we don't have nearly enough food to provide for all of us!"
"The bodies are probably rotted," Marco protested.
Then much to Ventus' surprise, Hikaru spoke up in defense of his plan. It was the last person he expected—the boy was more Sheikah than Ventus was by far, yet he was the only other one considering breaking the law of his—their—people.
It was ironic in that way, those with the Sheikah blood being the ones to consider breaking their own people's laws.
"No… it's been incredibly cold. They're probably preserved," he said slowly, his hand covering his mouth, the gears inside slowly beginning to turn.
"What are you saying Hikaru?!" Rei demanded, aghast. "You can't tell me you agree with this crazy plan! Meddling with the dead is strictly against Sheikah law! You of all people should know that! Not to mention when Day of the Dead comes around again, and I don't know about ya'll, but I ain't too keen on having a ghost haunting me because I went and ate their body."
"Except Ventus has a point!" Hikaru replied calmly, although his gray eyes narrowed dangerously. "I don't think any of us want to eat the bodies of the fallen. But what choice do we have? We're starving. We're hungry. We've been trying to trap for weeks with no success of what we wanted to catch."
"Eating the dead is something even the Gerudo bastards wouldn't do," Rei hissed angrily.
"Except it's because of the Gerudo we're in this position to begin with," Alicia pointed out softly, dipping her head low, her hair covering her eyes. Rei looked at her incredulously.
"You can't tell me—" she wheeled around and glowered at Marco. "What about you, pigboy? Do you want to eat the dead too?"
"If Hikaru thinks it's what we need to do to survive…" Marco said, trailing off, and Rei looked shocked before recoiling in disgust.
"I don't believe it," she snarled. "You're no better than necromancers. Next you'll be telling me we should be bringing them back from the dead and fuckin' them."
"Rei, first off, nobody here has magic. Second off, that's not what we're saying. Third, I'll make this real simple for you," Hikaru said, his voice growing cold. Even though it wasn't directed at Ventus, something about the way he spoke made him feel uneasy. "Do you want to live or do you want to die?"
Rei glowered at Hikaru for a long moment before her shoulders sagged and she looked away.
"You know the answer to that."
At that, the ice in Hikaru's voice melted away, and he nodded his head, turning toward the rest of them.
"Right. So it's agreed. We'll do what must be done," the young man said simply.
"What will we tell the others?" Marco asked tentatively, and Ventus immediately thought of Rini and his gut twisted. He didn't want her to burden this terrible knowledge. If she wasn't aware of the sin, was she really sinning? Could she be held accountable for her deeds?
Ventus would like to think she wouldn't be.
"We don't," he said suddenly. "What we are about to do stays between us, okay? No need to burden anyone else."
There was silent agreement from the others, and Hikaru made it final.
"The knowledge of our sin doesn't leave our lips until we reach our graves," he said seriously. "We are the protectors of Farore's family, and we will take whatever gift she has for us, no matter how twisted it may be."
Rini
To say Rini was surprised when the hunting group came back with meat was an understatement.
Their numbers had grown, both with her and Gene's—if she felt like throwing some undue credit around—hard work, but Ven, Hikaru, Alicia, Rei and now Marco were falling short in their duties to feed them. She was worried. If they were dead, the ideas she planted in the heads of useful adults would be for nothing.
So to be sitting next to the fire, Alicia cooking actual meat, it felt like a dream come true, especially since they hadn't had anything of real substance in months. It even smelled sweet as it began to thaw underneath the warm embrace of the fire.
Yet, even as her mouth salivated, her stomach twisted in knots—and not because it hadn't had a proper meal in so long.
It shouldn't be frozen.
Glancing over at her brother, who was sitting on a crate Leroy made, Rini pressed her lips together. Ventus scrubbed at his sword despite the blade being clean. In fact, even when he started it hadn't been dirty.
"Where did you even find this?" Ami asked, amazed as Alicia dragged a cast iron skillet from their 'kitchen' and set it over the fire, allowing it to warm up. Hikaru looked up at her and smiled, but his exhausted gray eyes didn't quite meet Ami's brown ones.
"We found a carcass out in the woods," he said, handing the pieces of meat to Alicia who practically threw them onto the skillet like she was touching something unclean. "Beggars can't be choosers, right?"
If they found a carcass in the woods, shouldn't it be a bloody mess? Shouldn't it look like rot? Rini understood that they couldn't exactly be fussy with what they ate—they were eating pine cones for goodness' sake—but something about this seemed off.
Not to mention how quiet and twitchy the hunting group was. Marco seemed to jump at every question, looking at Hikaru for answers for the most simple inquiries. What animal was it? Where did they find it? Did they have to chase away any other animals to get to it?
More surprisingly was that Rei didn't jump on the chance to mock him for it; the girl always seemed to find any excuse to put anybody down, but Marco was her favorite target who she seemed to torture and make fun of with sadistic glee. It was odd that she gave up the opportunity now.
Hikaru was more composed, although he started to get snappish after the fifth question or so—something Rini never saw happen. Ventus wouldn't answer any questions. He acted like he didn't hear them which Rini knew was a bunch of bullshit, and Alicia seemed on the verge of crying.
No, Rini may be only eight, but she wasn't stupid or blind. They had done something, something bad. Something which would probably get them all in trouble. And because of that, she wasn't sure she wanted to eat the meat.
But after an hour of watching Alicia cook, when the bowl with the cut up chunks of meat was put in front of her, despite the nauseous feeling beginning to climb up her throat, she took a spoonful of food and put it in her mouth.
Sweet, she thought, glancing up at the others. While for the most part, everyone was scarfing the food down, the Hylian girl noticed that for once Marco wasn't inhaling his food but rather picking at it, like a bird might. Which was odd because he wasn't a picky eater.
He wasn't the only one acting odd. Rei and Hikaru, who had the best manners of the group besides Ami and Leroy, had their mouths full of food as if they were chipmunks trying to store nuts for the winter. They would pour a bit of soup inside their mouth and swallow what they could before repeating the process. Very faintly, Rini could hear Ventus making a soft noise which he usually made whenever he saw someone wear unflattering clothes. And Alicia for once wasn't asking anyone about her cooking, just poking at it miserably as if she had cooked something rotten.
Glancing down at her food, Rini felt her throat constrict and she put her spoon down, fighting a sudden urge to cry.
Ventus
"Someone hit me," Marco whispered.
A moment later, a squeal of pain, as Rei fulfilled his request by slapping him across the face. Hard. He backpedaled before falling in the snowbank, holding his cheek as he looked at Rei with widened beady eyes.
Normally a rebuke from Hikaru would be forthcoming, but this time there was silence. He—along with Ventus and Alicia—were staring at the trap, seeing a limp rabbit ensnared inside. The body they stole, a fresh corpse with no more living family to claim his body come spring, managed to hold them over for the past few days due to Alicia's careful portioning. The extra energy and renewed vigor had finally paid off.
No more eating the dead for them, hopefully at any rate.
Alicia sniffed, before choking up on tears and she buried her face in her hands as she began to sob. Something which was dangerous considering how cold it was. Drawing his sword, Ventus took a step forward only for Hikaru to hold out his hand in front of him, stopping him. There was a sudden glint and a knife appeared in the other boy's hand.
"Yours is too big," he said softly, and Ventus nodded, lowering the sword and allowing the tip of it to bury itself in the snow, his eyes falling on the unmoving rabbit.
It wasn't as much as the body provided, but it wasn't eating their own dead. His stomach growled hopefully as Hikaru cut the body free—not before breaking the rabbit's neck—turning back to the rest of the children.
"Let's head back," he said, holding the rabbit up like a trophy. "Alicia can cook us a feast."
"I don't know about that," Alicia flushed, ducking her head shyly.
Ventus frowned, thinking he heard something rustling, yet when there was nothing more, he shrugged his shoulders and sheathed his father's sword.
Must be the wind, he mused.
"Still, we finally caught something," Hikaru pointed out, smiling, walking past them, Marco stumbling to his feet. "Things are finally looking up for us. It's even getting warmer out!"
"Oh yes, because the blood in our veins isn't freezing anymore means spring is in the air," Rei shot back sarcastically. "Just in time for Year's Beginning."
"That's in a week or so isn't—" Alicia started to say but a piercing scream shot through the air, and all of them turned around to see crimson blood stain the white snow and a wolf maw wrapped tightly around Marco's throat.
It was no wolf Ventus had ever seen before.
It had glowing green eyes, despite the sun still shining brightly in the sky, and it seemed to be hunched over and—unless his eyes were deceiving him—holding Marco between its front two claws like a Hylian might. This didn't even begin to mention the two long talons on each of its front paws which were also decidedly not normal.
Marco's pudgy fingers clawed at the wolf's maw, trying to pry it open weakly, air escaping his throat but no sound came out.
Ventus stood frozen in fear, his feet rooted firmly to the spot as if they were frozen there by the ice and snow itself. Even as blood dripped down from Marco's neck, and the boy's interlocked with his own, pleading silently for his help, he didn't rush forward like a hero would have. He stayed still like a rabbit might, spellbound as if the wolf had cast some sort of magic paralysis over him.
That's when a figure rushed to Marco's rescue, and it was one nobody would have expected.
Rei.
Brandishing a stick she must have picked up from the ground, Rei dug the jagged end into the beast's eye. The howl of pain snapped Ven out of his frozen stupor, as it did with everyone else.
"Run!" Hikaru roared, and Alicia took no time in doing just that, screaming as she sprinted in the snow toward the village walls. However, Ventus did not join her or Hikaru, who was running as fast as he could himself. Instead, he drew his sword once more and ran forward to join Rei, cursing the fact he had even hesitated in the first place.
The wolf, dropping Marco, reared back, and slashed at Rei, cutting across the girl's face. The rough girl, who seemed to enjoy inflicting pain, suddenly didn't seem to like it so much when she was on the receiving end. She dropped to the snow with a loud wail, covering her face, and in particular her left eye.
Ventus took advantage of the opportunity and slashed his blade downward. He could feel it digging into the beast's flesh, resisting him. However, he didn't train this hard to fail at his first real fight and with an enraged yell, pushed all the way down.
That's when those green eyes turned to look at him, and Ventus was shocked at the fact that not only were they pupiless, but he had never seen something so full of malice. Its maw opened, and Ventus suddenly saw his life before his eyes and his thoughts immediately went to Rini.
He would be leaving her all alone.
I should have ran, he thought dizzily, taking a step back.
However, the pain he was expecting never came. The beast let out an anguished cry and fell to the ground, unmoving.
Staring down in shock, Ventus panted heavily before prodding it with the tip of his sword. Nothing. Just to be safe though, he hefted the sword above his head once more and brought it down on the neck of the wolf. It went through but removing it took a considerable amount of more effort, but the head was split off.
"Son of a bitch!"
Quickly being reminded of their current situation, Ventus looked up to see Rei had crawled over to Marco, whose eyes were beginning to glaze over—the girl shaking him hard. Blood was dripping out of her eye, and Ventus could see two long scar streaks where the wolf had struck her running across her face. Still, she looked very much alive.
The same couldn't be said for the other boy.
"Come on fatass! Get up!"
Marco's eyes looked over at her, his mouth moving and an odd sound escaped his lips, then there was no more movement. Ventus could hear no more labored breathing. Squatting down in the snow next to Rei, who was trying to apply pressure to the wound, he put his ear against Marco's heart—though he already couldn't hear it—before turning to the girl to say what they both knew to be true.
"He's dead."
Rei looked like a mummy—her face was wrapped up in bandages, and they had to be cleaned constantly. She only let Ami or Ven attend to her wounds, snapping at anybody else who drew near—especially Alicia and Hikaru. There were some people she tolerated to a degree, as in the sense she wasn't more cruel to them, but her attitude in general had taken a nosedive.
There were times Ventus wasn't sure if she was more obnoxious than Jinora.
The group worried there would be an infection, but it seemed Ami at least knew what she was doing. However, it was the day prior to Year's End, and the older girl announced what was feared but without a healer, a foregone conclusion; Rei would no longer have any use of her left eye.
"At least you have your life though," Alicia offered meekly only for Rei to glare at her through the use of her good eye, causing the younger girl to shrink into herself. While the older girl had a sharp look to her, the bandages with some of the bloody scars peeking out only added to the effect.
"No thanks to you," Rei sneered, hissing slightly when Ami's rag pressed too hard against her wound. "For all yer talk of family, ya sure have an easy time abandoning them. Easy come, easy go."
"Rei—" Hikaru started before Rei snapped at him too.
"Don't patronize me, Nox! You were the one who started all this! Let's all be a family, you said! Let's remind the others we are part of the village! Yet how is it only I and the idiot wannabe-hero were the ones to jump in to save fatass!" she yelled.
"If it wasn't for me, you would be dead!" Hikaru snapped back.
"No, if it wasn't for Ventus, I would be dead," Rei replied coldly, and Ven shifted uncomfortably, not exactly wanting to be brought into the middle of this even if it was true.
That's when she looked at him, as if peering straight into his soul. It wasn't eerie like how Eli's was, but somehow it made him uncomfortable all the same. Just like Eli though, he refused to look away.
"You take after your father," she said finally, leaning back as Ami finished her work. "Careful with that. Heroes die before their time after all."
Rini
It was on Year's End when Rini figured out the universe had it out for them. It only would be later would she fully understand her role in what had happened.
Right now though, peering up at Perseus and some other adults with no family, all she could feel was excitement. The group was beginning to fracture after Rei's injury, and now they had actual grown ups besides Leroy, they might be able to reach their goal.
"Well?" Perseus snapped. "Let us in, brat."
Rini quickly stepped aside and allowed them passage. Leroy's pounding paused for once, and he looked up from the table he was making now that the house itself was fixed. She wasn't sure where he got the wood, but Rini didn't ask. Ever since the first time the group brought back meat, she learned to ignore the twisting in her gut.
Sometimes there were things you just didn't want to know.
"What are you doing here?" Rei demanded, causing another adult—a balding man desperately trying to hide it with a terrible combover—to do a double take.
"Goddesses!" he exclaimed, and Rini remembered him vaguely as Rolas, the town drunkard. He had been forced to go cold turkey when the town's alcohol ran dry. She remembered him being a right bastard after that; everything seemed to irritate him, and he was constantly shaking. Even now he was fidgety. "The fuck happened to you?!"
"I saw your face and got an allergic reaction," came the smartass response.
"Rei got attacked by a wolf," Leroy supplied helpfully, his voice slow, as if he was thinking out his words. His eyes drooped to the floor. "Marco got eaten."
"Shit how the fuck are you kids still alive?" asked a woman this time—Anna, Rini remembered.
She had the same name as her doll, though if she had to be honest, she thought her doll was much prettier than the real thing. Of course, her Anna had Ventus' homemade clothing, but Rini wasn't sure even if adult Anna had the benefits of Ven's needle, she could look half as pretty as her doll.
"Well, it wasn't thanks to you," Gene complained with a growl. "We lose 'em as quick as they come in. So what are you doing here?"
"Well, this is the day fer giving thanks and starting the year on a new foot, ain't it boy?" Perseus asked, sitting down on the crate they used for chairs, once again threatening to cough up a lung. After a full minute of his organ refusing once more to escape via his mouth, the elderly man continued. "I've been thinking what you and the girl have been sayin', and I approached these fellers about it too. Yer right, those bastards don't have mine—or any of these sad fucks—best interests at heart."
Threading his knobbly fingers together, he leaned forward, his eyes gleaming. He sort of looked like a skeleton, and a shiver ran down her spine.
"So I was thinkin'—we all was—that we start over," he said. "After all, we have an idea which will make sure we are all live comfortably."
Ventus
Year's Beginning was supposed to be starting the new year on a good foot, but since Perseus came with Rolas and Anna—more adults were beginning to stream over after that—things only seemed to get worse as Ventus was concerned. For the first time Year's Beginning, quite easily the best three day holiday of the year, had nothing going on. No singing. No dancing. No magic shows or shows of strength, and no telling of the creation of their world.
It was like everyone forgot where they came from. That they were all Farore's children.
When Ventus first joined this rebellion with Rini, it was because they had nowhere else to go, but it was also because Hikaru's vision to remind the rest of the villagers they were part of Farore's family too and the village couldn't survive without them that he stayed.
Now though, instead of trying to work together with everyone, a coup was being planned.
"Are you all listening to yourselves?" Ventus demanded, stamping his foot down as he glowered at the gathered individuals.
There were a few members from when he first joined left—Gene, Rei, Hikaru, Alicia and of course, Rini—and besides Ami and Leroy who joined not that long afterward. Now there was a group of thirty or so gathered in the home, and they were mostly new faces. At least in the sense they weren't part of the rebellion until the past couple of weeks.
"What you are suggesting is straight out murder. And for what? We've been managing to get food on our own, and come spring, the village is going to need us to function. We'll just refuse to help until they apologize and make up for what they've done."
"Ya live in a delusional world, boy," Perseus snorted, hogging the only chair they had so far. In the corner, Leroy was working away at making more, and he had been humming loudly and obnoxiously since the meeting began, making it hard for Ventus to concentrate. "They've been aimin' to kill us all winter, 'cept they wanted to make it nice and slow. Just like I bet it was for your mother."
"Why you—" Ventus snarled, his rage erupting, only for Hikaru to throw his hand in front of him before he could lunge forward and beat up the old man.
"Ventus!" Hikaru snapped. "Stop it! Perseus has a point, and you know it! Plus, I'm not going to let fighting happen among our family members."
Ventus wheeled around and glowered at the taller boy. Since he joined two months ago now, he had nothing but respect for Hikaru. He led the group with a calm, rational head and tried to minimize the loss of life. They hadn't exactly always succeeded, and while Ventus felt he should have at least stayed when Marco got attacked, he had still tried.
However, now since these adults joined, Hikaru seemed to have been taken in by their murder talk.
"Everyone is part of Farore's family!" Ventus yelled angrily. "If we want to beat the Gerudo, we can't be fighting among ourselves! We need to work together."
"You're the only one who thinks that here, boy," Perseus growled. "Face it; it's them or us. That's how the world worked before, and how it works now. All that matters is getting you and yours ahead. That's all. Either ya accept that, or you die."
"You can't tell me everyone believes that," Ven scoffed looking around. "Right?"
However, nobody looked at him, eyes averting. Even when his eyes landed on Rini, who was hugging Anna—her doll, not the ugly older woman—close to her chest, her eyes drooped down.
All he was met with was silence.
Rei
Despite it being the middle of the Month of Spirit, there was still snow on the ground, though it was steadily getting warmer. Expectations were snow melt in the next week or so, and perhaps even rain.
Despite the good news, the entire village was on edge, as if it was dangling over the side of a cliff where one wrong move could send everyone to their deaths. As far as Rei was concerned though, they were already plummeting down. Blood would be shed before the snow melted completely away, that much was certain.
She didn't care about that though. She really didn't care for much of the remaining villagers. However, she had a life debt she owed and was determined to pay back.
The sun wouldn't be up for hours still, but she crept over to where Ventus and Rini slept, away from everyone else after the increasing spats between Ventus and literally everyone else. While she respected his moral high ground, it was just going to get him killed—literally. She heard talks between Perseus and Hikaru, plus some other of the new blood, saying Ventus could be a liability, and probably already told the villagers of their plan.
If he was smart, he would have done just that, but Ventus wasn't smart—he honestly seemed to believe his words alone could change their minds. Even if people agreed with him, they weren't going to be stupid enough to say it out loud; it was obvious to everyone but the hero wannabe that the power here had shifted.
"Wake up," Rei whispered, shaking Ventus, who was clinging to his father's sword in its sheath like it was a teddy bear. The boy's eyes squeezed shut before fluttering open.
"Rei what are you doing here?" he asked groggily, sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Looking around, his brow furrowed. "It's still in the middle of the night."
"No shit," Rei growled. "Listen, you need to take your sister and leave. Now."
"What?" Ventus asked, becoming more alert now, and with it, his voice louder. "Why?"
She clamped her hand over the idiot's mouth and looked around fearfully before glaring at him.
"Quiet!" she hissed. "Look, dumbass, you have become a risk—a threat. They think you're going to tell the others in the village—"
"I haven't yet—" Ventus protested, after pushing her hand away, but Rei plowed on right through.
"—Because that would be the smart thing to do. And because I don't think you'd understand it if I said it any other ways, I'll say it in simple terms that even a stupid idiot like you can understand; they're going to kill you," she hissed. "So you need to take your kid sister and leave right now."
"I don't understand…" Ventus whispered, his eyes going wide with shock, and Rei figured it just might be quicker to wake up his younger sister. She seemed like she was the smart one of the two after all.
"Ngh … what's going on?" Rini grumbled, and upon seeing Rei, became more alert. "Rei?"
"Your brother pissed off people playing hero, and now they want to kill him," Rei told her, deciding to get to the point. "So you need to leave. Now."
Luckily, Rini was quicker to grasp the implications than her brother and quickly shot up, grabbing her doll and shoving it in the satchel and shrugged on her cloak before throwing on her gloves and scarf.
"Come on, Ven," she hissed, grabbing his cloak, throwing it over his shoulders before hitting him in the face with his gloves and scarf as well. "Let's go!"
"But—"
"I already lost Mom and Uncle Killian! I'm not losing you too!" Rini growled, standing up.
That seemed to snap Ventus to attention, and he buttoned up his cloak before strapping his sword to his back, looking mournful as he did so. Finally he turned to Rei.
"Why are you helping us?" he asked quietly.
"Because," she said, shrugging slightly. "This world needs a hero—even if they don't last long."