Twenty Minutes Before, at the Forest Where the Gaang Last Were
Tai-Dei walked through the gravel road of the forest, searching for a place to hide...
Being a bandit, Tai-Dei had to rely on his stealth and his surroundings to get a grasp of the area and wait for a victim to pass by.
His favorite place to get the jump on someone is coming up.
With his medium strong build, his dark hair being in a messy and dirty ponytail, and wearing brown clothes, as well as having a knife with him just to intimidate his victim or whenever it comes down to a fight, Tai-Dei certainly is dressed for the part as a lowly bandit. Even the goatee he had completed the look. One would think he would do something with his life, other than to rob people, but really, he had a tough childhood, thus he had to depend on his street smarts to survive. The life of a criminal is not easy...
However, being a bandit is not all that bad. This is an area where people, mostly commonly the middle-class folk, make their way to other cities in the Earth Kingdom. This route of transportation carries travelers to other towns, and sometimes, rich folks take this route. He usually gets some good items from the people he mugs, to both the middle-class, and definitely from the rich, which the latter group can be a rare encounter at best. The middle-class people do have some good stuff, though.
As Tai-Dei reached for his mugging spot, a large tree next to the road, he positioned himself from behind the tree, waiting for any unsuspecting travelers to come passing by.
While he patiently waited, he occupied himself by thinking of current events.
Of course, he heard that the one-hundred-year war was over from news hawks and other outlets from the neighboring village he lives in. Something about the Fire Lord's son and some waterbender beating his crazy sister who was going to be crowned the next Fire Lord and the long since returned Avatar beat the old Fire Lord, which he was called the Phoenix King...it didn't really matter to him much, he just cared about getting loot. So what if the Earth Kingdom was going to fall into Fire Nation hands? At least he can live his lawless life without anyone interfering with his criminal activity.
Tai-Dei got his knife out and decided to carve the bark of the tree that he was hiding behind to pass the time...
I wonder what schmuck will come walking down the road today?
...
...
...He then heard someone coming.
Stopping his tree bark carving, Tai-Dei then got into position.
From the sound of it...it sounded like...a person was carrying a large load.
Tai-Dei smirked.
Ah. Perfect! Big load means big cash!
He looked around the tree to see who his victim was.
...He waited...
...Until there was a touch of purple clothes and...a mound full of stuff on his back that he could see.
He dipped his head back behind the tree.
Man, talk about a motherload!
...He took a peek at the person once he got a little closer to his spot that he'll likely pass.
It was a man, a very lanky and skinny man, carrying the huge bag of stuff on his back. He had an odd hair color and he could've sworn he saw he was smiling...a little strange, but at this point, Tai-Dei was certain he could take this guy.
Okay, when he comes to my location and passes me, I get the jump on him.
...He waited...the man's footsteps coming closer...
...Closer...
...Closer...
...And closer...
But then...his footsteps...were slowing down?
Tai-Dei froze in place, not making a sound.
The footsteps...felt weak...
And then...
PLOP!
...It went silent...
...Blinking at the silence, Tai-Dei wondered what happened...
He took a peek around the tree...
...Once he fully walked around the tree he was hiding behind, he saw that the man...collapsed.
The man...looked to be knocked out...
His merchandise was scattered out of his large bag, every item being some form of mask...
...Tai-Dei looked around the area to see if anyone knocked out the man, but seeing no one likely did (he knew these woods well), he turned to the man who was unconscious on the ground.
"...Well, that was easy," The bandit said to himself.
He approached the knocked-out man, carefully taking each step to see if he really was out for the count. Seeing that he is, but making sure by poking his foot on the body to see he wasn't moving, Tai-Dei gazed at the masks that fell out of his sack.
"...A mask salesman, huh?" he murmured.
He crouched and picked up one mask, this one heavy and looking like a rock with eye holes and a mouth.
"...What in the world? This is a mask?" He knocked on the mask's surface, which felt like it was made of stone. "...Huh."
He flippantly tossed the mask away, letting it emit a hard plop sound on the ground from the weight of it. Searching for more masks, he picked one up that looked...like a hog with bottom tusks poking out from the bottom side of its mouth.
Raising an eyebrow at this, Tai-Dei muttered to himself, "Very interesting wares..." tossing the mask aside, he went to another one, this one being a silver mask with intricate red markings that has one gold eye in the top center of the mask, making it look like a face.
He kept looking through the masks...
...
...
...
COME.
Tai-Dei froze.
"...Huh?"
He looked at the unconscious man on the ground.
...He looked to still have been knocked out.
"..." Looking around the area he was in, he tried to locate that voice...
...Thinking he must've imagined it, he went back to looking at the masks.
...
...COME TO ME.
"Guh!" Tai-Dei jumped from his spot, landing on his rear.
What the...?
Now rapidly looking around for the source of the voice, Tai-Dei was on high alert.
"Uh...hello?" he said a little quietly, not wanting to let whoever is here think he was robbing this man.
...
...
...COME TO ME.
Jumping at the voice, it sounded...deep...a gravely deep tone that almost sounded...ominous...
"Who's there?" Tai-Dei asked the mysterious voice.
...
...
...FIND ME.
Once again startled by the voice, Tai-Dei blinked, "Find...you?"
...
...
...FOLLOW YOUR SENSES.
...Getting almost a little creeped out, Tai-Dei was wondering if this was Spirit related. If this was, he probably should just leave...
Before he could take a step back, though...
FOLLOW...YOUR SENSES...
...Tai-Dei turned his head to a specific object.
...There was one mask, one that was shaped as a heart, that was...encased in wrapped cloth, with chains around it, along with a piece of paper, a talisman seal, being stuck on the chains around the wrapped-clothed mask.
Once he looked at this oddity, the voice came back.
YES...FOLLOW YOUR SENSES.
...The bandit asked a question, "What...are you?"
...
...
...A BRINGER OF GOOD FORTUNE.
Blinking at that, Tai-Dei inched closer to the wrapped mask.
"A...bringer of good fortune?"
...WHATEVER YOUR HEART'S DESIRE...I SHALL MAKE HAPPEN.
"..."
...Taking a few more steps to the wrapped up mask, he came up to it and kneeled to observe the mysterious item.
The talisman on the chains around the cloth that was wrapped around this mask had some sort of...different calligraphy on it...he couldn't read it that well...in fact, it looked kind of...gibberish?
Raising an eyebrow, Tai-Dei looked at the wrapped-up mask in curiosity. However, his curiosity was piqued upon the voice's words.
Whatever my heart's desire...
COME. COME TO ME. RELEASE ME...AND I SHALL FULFILL YOUR WISH.
...Tai-Dei reached over to the wrapped item, hand hovering over the talisman that's pasted on the chains. Grabbing the piece of paper with his finger and thumb, he tried to pull it off...but it was stuck on there tight. Using his strength by pulling the talisman, it was beginning to tear...and soon it tore.
RIP!
And then, the chains...loosened around the wrapped mask. They looked like they weren't constricting the item anymore.
Surprised by that, Tai-Dei almost hesitated...
YES...I WILL REWARD YOUR DILIGENCE IN RELEASING ME...
"...You'll...reward me?"
YES...NOW...LET ME FREE.
...Tai-Dei had to think about this...
Okay, so...a talking...mask? Either way, a talking mask is speaking to me and telling me that I can have whatever my heart desires, and is a bringer of good fortune...
...
...I mean, hey, maybe whatever this thing is, it could give me lots of wealth. I don't really have to fend myself off on the streets anymore. I mean, sure, this thing talking to me is a little creepy, but...do I really want to keep going on living my life, trying to scrape up whatever food I could muster?
"...Uh, okay..."
And so, Tai-Dei reached for the mask and got the chains off of it. He picked up the mask with its wrapped up cloth, and began to unwrap it...
Once he did...he was touching the mask itself.
The mask looked...very intricate. It had a mystic feel to it somehow...it looked otherworldly, even.
It was, again, heart shaped, but it had horns on each top side of its head and four spikes on each side of its face. It had vibrant colors on it, the most being purple, but also having red, green, yellow, and blue. There was no mouth on it, but...there were eyes carved onto the mask. And these eyes were an orange-reddish color with green irises...
The eyes...they almost looked...
...Tai-Dei looked into the mask's eyes.
...Those eyes looked into the man's soul...
...Then, the mask...spoke again.
YOU RELEASED ME. WELL DONE...NOW...FOR YOUR REWARD...
...The eyes then started...to glow...
Everything around Tai-Dei grew dark...he couldn't see anything, nothing coming up to him, nothing around him, he didn't even hear a sound...it was just him and the mask...
It was just the two of them...just...Tai-Dei looking into the mask's eyes...
...All was silent...
...And then, Tai-Dei stood up, letting one of his hands release the side of the mask, still grasping it with his left hand firmly. His arms lay limp to his sides, his gaze looking down at the ground in a daze. Walking forward, he trudged through, away from the unconscious mask salesman and his mask...
Tai-Dei...kept on walking...the mask in his hand, and his eyes hazy and in a trance...almost as if he was taken over...
YES...FIND ME THE ONE WHO'S BURDEN I CAN CONTROL.
Two Hours Later
…The mask salesman gasps awake.
He rolled on his back and sat up. Looking around frantically, he sees that his masks had fallen out of its sack, all of them scattered.
Eyes widened at this misfortune, the salesman jumped on his knees and crawled over to the pile of masks. Worry seeped into his mind as he tried to find that one mask, that one dark, cryptic, and unholy mask...
As he looked around for that mask in the pile, many thoughts came to the salesman.
This can't be...the mask...it came back! The maskhaspoweragain! Its power is back! But...how?
He then froze as he saw something...very troubling.
He sees a pile of chains...a cloth...things that were able to contain the mask...they were all on the ground...
And the mask was nowhere to be found near the chains and cloth.
It was gone.
...The salesman felt...a sense of dread...his smile turning into a frown.
He wasn't completely in fear, he just...felt despaired. Forlorn. Maybe even...hopeless.
...But that wasn't going to be the end of it.
Closing his mouth into a thin line in determination, the salesman decided to reach out to the deities of this world.
...I may have miscalculated the mask's power...but I will try to correct the wrong that I unleashed.
He positioned himself to sit on the ground in a lotus position, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath...letting it out through his mouth, he put his arms and hands out to his sides, as well as on his legs and knees as he sat there, letting his middle finger and thumb touch as he prepared to transcend this world's own unseen realm...
...And soon, he entered the Spirit World.
The Spirit World
The salesman opened his eyes.
In front of him were multiple people...hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, each in formal clothes and robes.
These people were the past Avatars.
One of them, Avatar Roku, came up and said to the salesman, "Hello there. You seem to not be from our world."
The salesman returned the greeting with a smile. "Salutations! I see that you are all the Avatar! And you are all correct!"
The one named Avatar Kyoshi spoke out, "What have you come to our world for, deity?"
"And what is the ominous aura that you once carried, quite literally speaking?" asked the Avatar named Kuruk.
The salesman grinned, "Well, I have come to this world for my own leisure and for business!"
"Business?" the Avatar known as Yang Chen asked curiously.
"Oh yes! I sell masks of much worth! I was trying to find some unique masks from different lands and worlds as well as sell them to patrons!"
...The Avatars glanced at each other, all of them looking a little...dubious.
"You're...here to collect masks?" Kyoshi asked him.
"And...you're selling them across lands and worlds?" Roku asked him also, a little bit in disbelief.
The salesman shrugged with the same grin, "It's a hobby of mine."
"So...what, you're not here to enlighten us with any secrets of the Universe or anything?" Kuruk asked him, a little skeptical.
"Hohohoho!" the salesman laughed oddly, "I'm not that kind of deity. But I will say, I mingle with some Gods and Goddesses every once in a while! Possibly a Demon King or two!"
...That last part alone was quite worrisome to the Avatars.
"Demon Kings?" Yang Chen asked, a little in shock.
"Oh, no worries! They are just customers! I don't participate in their blood and slaughter rituals! Hohoho!"
"...This isn't helping your case, pal," Kuruk muttered.
"Oh yes, yes, of course," the salesman nodded with a smile, "But believe me, I mean no harm. I just want to sell and find masks for myself! I am an avid collector of them!"
"Yes, that we can see," Kyoshi said, "I guess what we're wanting to know is, what was that raw and terrible power that was clinging onto you?"
Still keeping his smile, the salesman answered...kind of. "Why, that was a very ancient mask that lived long before my world's kingdom could prosper."
"Kingdom? Your world?" Roku repeated, "What is the name of this Kingdom?"
The salesman chuckled, "It is named after the Goddess of Time in that world, Hylia, which, leave off the -lia, and add in -rule to it, which it's called Hyrule! Meaning Hylia's rule! Hyrule! Hohoho!"
"Hyrule, huh?" Kuruk mumbled with a hand on his chin, "Definitely sounds foreign."
"You said this mask is ancient. How ancient?" Yang Chen asked the salesman.
"Well, the Kingdom of Hyrule has lasted around ten-thousand years, so I would think the mask lasted around ten-thousand more years before that!" the salesman hypothesized.
The Avatars blinked.
"...So...you think it's around twenty-thousand years old?" Kyoshi asked him.
"Possibly. Maybe even older. I was born at that time," the salesman explained with a grin.
"Wait, so...you're over twenty-thousand years old?" Yang Chen asked in awe.
"Yes, that I am! I know, it's quite young for a deity such as myself, but that doesn't mean I'm not experienced!" the salesman said as he laughed, "Hohohoho!"
"...Well, no matter how old this mask is, either way, this mask carried off a vicious aura. What kind of mask is it? And what is the name of this mask if it has one?" Roku asked him.
"Hmm. Well, to answer your last question, the mask is named... Majora's Mask ," the salesman answered.
"Majora's Mask?" Kuruk repeated in curiosity, "Who is Majora?"
"Now that, I don't think I can answer," said the salesman.
"You can't?" Kyoshi wondered, "Or you won't?"
"Simply put, the entity known as Majora is still a mystery to not only me, but to my God and Goddess brethren. The only Ones that may know who Majora is, are our World Creators, the Three Golden Goddess, Din, Nayru, and Farore...however, I heard of an ancient tribe using this mask's dark magic at the time, but that itself is unclear."
"Wait, so...what is this Majora's Mask used for then? How did it come to be? You said that an ancient tribe used the mask in your world, correct? " Yang Chen asked him, wanting answers, as well as the others.
The salesman just kept smiling in an unnerving way. "Indeed. But...that's all I know. I don't know much about this entity, other than it exists."
The Avatars looked at each other in slight concern.
"However!" the salesman spoke up, getting all the Avatars' attention again, "It can be beaten again...well, I can only hope."
"Beaten again?" Kuruk said in interest.
"What do you mean?" Kyoshi asked, also in curiosity.
His smile turning into another grin, he told them, "You have heard of the story of the Hero who saved the world from catastrophe, right?"
The Avatars' minds all clicked at that information.
"Wait, the story you told...it happened in your world?" Roku asked.
"Yes, yes, indeed!" the salesman said in slight cheer.
"Wait a minute, how did you know about the kid being the Avatar? You know, the one named Aang?" Kuruk asked him also.
"Ah, yes, the young boy!" the salesman said, "I just happened to see something extraordinary in that boy! Or should I say some extraordinary 'someones' in him, hm? Hohohoho! But really, I learn pretty quickly whenever I land on a world. I gather information with the air around me."
"Hm...you seem to have unique powers as well," Kyoshi stated.
The salesman shrugged, still smiling, "It comes with being a deity of my kind."
"And what kind of deity are you?" Yang Chen asked him.
"Now that...I don't know you all too well. Hohohohoho!" the salesman laughed.
Yang Chen frowned at that.
"Either way, my mask is out there in your world and is being used by someone right now," proclaimed the salesman, "And I believe it could be beaten again once your inhabitants know of its existence."
"Hmm..." Roku hummed, "So you're saying that the story you told to Aang and his friends was true?"
"Indeed it was," smiled the salesman, "And I would think the Avatar, being the boy named Aang, can beat something of this caliber, can he not?"
"Well...what kind of power does this Majora and its Mask have?" Kuruk asked the salesman.
"...Well, I did say catastrophic, didn't I?" the salesman told them.
The Avatars glanced at each other, a little unsure.
"Um...we think he could," Kyoshi half-heartedly confirmed.
"Hmm...well, I feel as if you all must act quickly. It seems from this world's spiritual energy, it awakened the entity inside the Mask."
"Our world's spiritual energy?" Yang Chen asked curiously.
"Oh yes...the mask certainly absorbs any kind of energy...whether it be negative energy, spirit energy, soul energy, it focuses on two things...it's burdens and despair ."
...All the Avatars didn't like the sound of that.
"So, again, I would suggest letting your new Avatar know about this force that I accidentally unleashed onto your world." the salesman advised them.
"..." Roku looked at the salesman, "You weren't trying to bring this dark power onto our world on purpose, were you?"
"Oh no! I'm just a mask connoisseur wanting to spread happiness with my masks! I honestly thought the essence of Majora's Mask was destroyed, but it seemed the entity in that mask was just...sleeping this whole time," the salesman explained, "I honestly wouldn't have known about it having its power again! Why, it even knocked me out thanks to its dark aura!"
…Roku, Kuruk, Kyoshi, and Yang Chen all gave each other unsure glances.
The salesman just smiled and told them, "My statement still stands, though. You must tell the boy named Aang."
"...Even if we can, he has to come to us in the Spirit World where we can tell him," Roku said, "Right now, he is searching with my great-grandson, Zuko, on finding his mother, who is also my granddaughter, Fire Lady Ursa."
"Hmm..." the salesman rubbed his chin in thought, smile still intact, "Well, someone has my mask. And if they aren't stopped in time, it will go to another poor soul to control. And then the cycle will continue until Majora finds its most valuable puppet for ittoreallycontrol."
"...Who would you think that would be?" Kyoshi asked him cautiously.
"...Someone that holds a certain loneliness in his heart, from what I saw that the Mask could do," the salesman answered.
...The Avatars let that sink in...
"...However, that's only if that person wears the mask," the salesman clarifies.
"Wears the mask?" Kuruk asked, blinking, "Wait a minute, you mean it has the kind of power that can take control of anything without being worn?"
"Like I said, this world's spiritual energy is strong for the Mask to feed on. I would think a simple touch of the mask would spread some of its influence upon many other people. Maybe it would even stare into the eyes of mere mortals and control them...the Mask is a strong relic."
"..." Roku looked at the other Avatars, who all looked worried about this development. He turned to the salesman, "Then we shall try to warn Aang."
"Splendid!" the salesman exclaimed in a chipper tone.
"Actually, I have a question for you, deity," Yang Chen said to the salesman.
"Oh? What could that be?"
"...What will you be doing while the Mask is on our world?"
"Hmm...now, I know this will sound a little suspicious, but I will do...nothing!"
"Nothing?" Kyoshi wondered, her eyes blinking in confusion.
"What do you mean 'nothing'!?" Kuruk asked the salesman rather firmly.
"Well, I don't want to cause a panic," explained the salesman, "So I will blissfully wander freely until the Mask is defeated again!"
"So...you'll just be on the sidelines?" Yang Chen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"In a way! I'm usually cheering on the sidelines, so people can use their strengths to achieve the impossible! I wouldn't use my own strength, as that would be too easy! No, I would let people use their own strengths to conquer their burdens! To let them believe in themselves! Yes...to believe..."
Roku and the other Avatars looked at the salesman rather oddly...until Roku said, "Very well. In that case, we shall depend on Aang and his friends to take this evil entity down."
"Yes, indeed!" nodded the smiling salesman, "I can only trust that this Avatar and his friends will conquer Majora's dark power!"
"Hm...I guess this is where you take your leave, I presume?" Roku asked.
"Oh yes, it is!" the salesman opened his arms wide and told them all, "Thank you all for being cooperative! And remember!" He placed his right hand in front of him and pointed upward, "Believe in your strengths...believe..."
And then...the image of the mask salesman began to fade...
Back to the Living World
The mask salesman opened his eyes once again, but this time in the material world.
"...Hm," he hummed, "Quite an interesting world..."
He soon got up to stand, and went to gather all of his masks back inside the sack. Once he gathered them all in, he tied the sack back into the other pile of luggage he was tied up. Now going around the straps of the giant luggage, he looped them around his arms and carried the sacks on his back.
Carrying the weight quite well, the salesman lugged the baggage on his back and kept walking.
As he walked in the forest, he couldn't help but think one thing.
I can only hope that Avatar Aang will not be the one the Mask will take control of...or even anyone that has strong burdens on them.
And with that, the mask salesman walked through the thick forest, humming a tune...
Back in the Spirit World
The Avatars stood there...
"...He's an odd one," said Kuruk.
"Yes, for a deity, he's...peculiar," Yang Chen said in agreement.
"Even then, he said some troubling things," Kyoshi said.
"...We need to contact Aang somehow," Roku suggested.
"But how? He has to come to us for us to actually tell him!" Kuruk reminded him.
"Yes, and that would be a good while..." Yang Chen mutters.
"He is at the Earth Kingdom right now. Maybe he could go to a shrine and ask one of the Spirits about where to find your granddaughter, Roku?" Kyoshi advised.
"That could be our only chance to reach him," Roku says, "Unless he meditates for any other reason, we need to get to him before he goes back to the living world."
"Right..." Kuruk lowers his head with a hum, "Well, great. We got an ancient alien evil on our soil...I hope he's not as crafty and cunning like Koh."
"From what I heard of this Mask, I feel like maybe facing Koh would be the safer option," Kyoshi says.
"Let's just hope Aang and his friends can find and stop this evil from spreading onto our world," Yang Chen says.
"Hmm...the mask salesman said to believe in our strengths...let's hope Aang believes in his, his friends, and as well as ours..." said Roku.
Back in the Living World
...The bandit just kept walking...still in a trance...the mask still in his hand...he kept walking to find that one person...that one person who's burden and despair will satisfy its hunger...
Until then, the puppet that the entity, the demon, is using will wither away in due time. Stuck in his own fantasy in his head, Tai-Dei is unaware of his real body being controlled...
Soon, it will throw him away like trash...and will find a new vessel...
It hungers for despair...it will feed off their misery...it will find its true source of pain and suffering.
...And Majora will relish in it!
YES...I WILL CONSUME... EVERYTHING!
Whew! Here it is folks! The new chapter of "We All Have Masks For Faces"! Hope it's interesting enough! :D I love to hear what you all think of the story so far! :)
Leave me a review, fave, and a follow! :D I love them all! I just hope I did it all justice on the ATLA side of things! :O
Thank you all for reading and keep on rocking everybody! :)
-TSP