Bard of the Wild (Chapter 23) (Patreon)

I sit in the back of the car, Linkle in my lap as we gaze out over the quickly passing plant life. 

Rain pours down upon us from the large dark clouds above. The sun hidden away. 

It has been like that for the past couple of hours. 

Or, at the very least... we have only noticed it the past couple of hours as we grow closer and closer to Zora's Domain. 

Purah abruptly slams on the breaks, nearly flinging Linkle and I into the front seat, but I quickly grab onto the little roll cage above us. 

"..." 

"Purah... when you get the time. There's a little something I'd like you to invent called a seatbelt." 

"Sounds boring and like it'd get in the way!" The girl chipperly hums as she peers outside. "But... this looks like as far as we can take my little buggy here." 

"Why?" Linkle questions. 

"Road's gone." The white haired girl shrugs. 

Linkle climbs out of my lap and peers through the windshield. 

"The rain seems to have caused a landslide down into the river below..." Saria informs, gazing out the passenger side window. "It looks like we'll need to travel on foot from her on out." 

The green haired girl climbs out, followed shortly by Linkle and myself. 

Mud lightly squishes underfoot as I am nearly instantly soaked by the chilling rain. 

"Well. This sucks." I sigh, gazing back towards Purah who is still sat in the car. "Are you going to get out, tech lady?" 

"I need to find a good place to hide this. You three go on ahead. I'll catch up." She smiles. 

"Alright." Linkle shrugs as we both turn and walk forwards, gazing out over a large unlevel gap in the road. 

The missing portion is about twenty feet wide. Such an obstacle would normally be quite the annoyance to cross... certainly not impossible, but climbing down and back up would take a little time. Maybe ten minutes... thirty at most. But as we are now? 

"Hey, Saria... do you need me to carry you across the gap?" 

The girl smiles and shakes her head. "No. I believe I can manage. Thank you for the offer, though." 

I turn and with a little run, I easily clear the gap, following close behind is Linkle who lands right beside me. 

We both look to Saria as we can see Purah reverse her buggy in the background. 

The green haired kokiri rushes forwards, crouching briefly, then with a spin, she grabs onto a large spinning flower that propels her forwards like a set of helicopter blades. 

She then seems to glide the rest of the way, using her large leafy cloak. 

The three large leaves are probably keeping her quite dry. I'm a little jealous. 

"Huh." Linkle hums, also surprised by the smaller girl's agility. 

"I may not be able to leap off leaves, but I am still quite mobile." Saria smiles. 

With that we turn and begin to walk along the path. 

"Hey Aurum... can't you do something about the weather with Song of Storms?" Linkle questions. 

"Eventually... yes. But keep in mind it is called the song of storms. Not song of sunny day. So, while yes, eventually I'll be able to conjure tornados, blizzards, nice clear sunny days and all that other fun stuff. Right now, it's only storms." 

"Huh." She hums. "Well, at least your power will be magnified by the rain." 

"Oh, that's true." I nod. "I didn't even need to spend most of my power to conjure it." 

I let out a low whistle as we come to a small bridge going over the rushing river at the bottom of the small gorge. "Damn. This architecture is nice to look at." 

"Oh, you'll love Zora's domain, then." Linkle smirks only to pause. "Unless... it was damaged during the calamity, that is... honestly, I'm unsure if it is even still there." 

"Huh. Alright." I nod slowly as we make our way across. "Hey, Saria, did the Zora in the past have a home? What was it like?" 

"It was... big to say the least, even if I had never personally set foot there... a large underwater city to the south of Hyrule in the Faron Sea. The highest points were roughly one thousand feet below sea level, so the only time I ever saw it was through the windows of Vah Laruta. It was really pretty though. It actually looks like Zora architecture hasn't changed all that much." 

"Hey Linkle. Is there some sort of underwater Zora city you know about?" 

"No?" The blonde frowns. "I think most Zora stay out of the sea... or, at the very least the general region Saria seems to be talking about because of the giant... oh..." 

"Hurricane?" I question knowingly. 

"No. but close though. Whirlpool." She replies. 

"So... Vah Laruta?" 

"Probably." Linkle shrugs. 

"The question you should be asking is 'what set it off'." Saria begins. 

"What do you mean?" I blink. 

"Well, the divine beasts sort of have this programmed intellect to them... not true intelligence, but they can work more or less on their own without any assistance. They will do actions deemed by their pilots and, will move to defend themselves if attacked." The green haired girl begins as we reach the other side. "But they won't just lash out at anything nearby. Vah Marak had that parasite in it, likely detecting it as an enemy and flood the surroundings in its mist in an attempt to subdue or kill it. But. It didn't breathe or was completely immune to the poison." 

"Vah Ruta, Naboris, Medoh, and Rudania are all being controlled by the calamity... well, except for Medoh... it just isn't doing much of anything." I frown. 

"Not doing anything but... attacking anyone who gets close." Linkle whispers, eyes widening. "it hasn't fully been taken over yet so it's still in its passive defense mode!" 

"Mhm." Saria nods. "Vah Sarin is lashing out because it's likely incredibly damaged... Linkle how big is this whirlpool exactly?" 

"Er... I've never actually seen it. Just heard a few stories." She admits. "But it supposedly makes any sea travel to the south of Hyrule utterly impossible unless you stay relatively close to the shore." 

"Hrn... it must be quite the whirlpool, then... I will admit, in the past we never really... stress tested... our divine beasts due to the sheer damage they could have caused to the surrounding ecosystems... I have no idea how powerful they can truly be. But for it to even activate and continue to create a vortex like that, it must either detect an enemy- and has been detecting that enemy for quite some time- or it has been taken over by the calamity like the other divine beasts." 

"Why can't we ever just find a Divine Beast that is like... just turned off?" I sigh. 

"Because that'd be too easy." Linkle bemoans. "And life just doesn't want to give us an easy win, I guess." 

We continue walking. 

"So... a lot has changed in the last nine thousand years." I admit. "Did you have bokoblins in your time?" 

"Oh yes. They're dreadful little creatures... not many of them, but annoying all the same." 

"What colors did you have?" 

"Oh, there were some red ones... some blue ones, even a black one extremely rarely. Those ones were a bit problematic." 

"What about Silver and Gold?" I ask. 

"..." 

"You're kidding." She sighs. 

"I wish he was." Linkle sighs. "We saw a gold one recently. The only reason I killed it is because we got the jump on it with an ancient arrow." 

"Hinox, Lizalfos, Moblins, Lynels..." I begin slowly. 

"Wizzrobes?" Linkle shrugs. 

"Yes, we had those." The girl nods. "But... I assume the ones here are quite a bit stronger." 

"I suppose this is evidence to the theory that those creatures are pawns of the calamity. But it's quite strange... they were around even before Calamity Ganon formed. Perhaps he could have been lurking for centuries?" 

"Honestly, to me, Calamity Ganon seems more like a ghost... or like... leaking power." I shrug. 

"Leaking power." Saria repeats, turning to face me. "Like... it's just a fragment of something else's power... something that is either dormant, sealed or hibernating?" 

"Uhhh yeah." I nod. 

"I pray that you're wrong..." The girl whispers. 

"Honestly, same." Linkle agrees. "But. We shouldn't discount it. Better to be prepared and wrong than caught off guard." 

"That is... true, I suppose." Saria relents, gazing off into the sky. 

We continue walking in silence for a brief moment. 

"So much has changed..." Saria whispers. "These plants, these mountains, and these paths feel familiar, but they're so... alien... and strange." 

"A lot can change in nine thousand years... entire empires can rise and fall, technology can advance to a point it becomes incomprehensible. So much can just be... forgotten." I nod along with her. 

"Ah! Shit!" Linkle curses. "We didn't tell her about the Yiga!" 

"The Yiga?" The green haired girl echoes. 

"Apparently, shortly after that king in the past forbade the Sheikah tribe from using their technological advancements, a group, discontent with this, split off from the main group of the Sheikah." I begin. 

"For a time." Linkle picks up where I left off. "They were disgruntled and distant... but peaceful." 

"Oh dear." Saria sighs, shoulders slumping, already seeing where this is going. "Maybe I shouldn't have stopped Makar... King Harkanian has been dead for nine thousand years yet he is still causing me problems." 

"But... Makar wasn't in his right mind. I worry just how many innocent people he would have hurt before he got to Harkanian." 

I nod along with her as we continue walking. "Well, more recently the Yiga clan became much more hostile. Worshiping the calamity as some sort of deity." 

"That's dumb." The girl scoffs. 

"it is, but they are a real threat... especially since their leader has my Triforce of Magic." 

"Your... triforce of magic?" The green haired girl echoes. 

"To cut a looong story short, basically I woke up with no memories, Linkle here flying tackled me with a glider, then my sword revealed that in the past I wielded all three pieces of a tri-force. Magic, that Kohga has, Knowledge, that Purah has, and the Triforce of Ferocity that is... missing." 

"We also know that the Tri-force of courage is somewhere behind Zora's Domain, and the Triforce of Wisdom is reasonably close to where Vah Sarin crashed. Locked away in a Prison." 

"Then- should we try and get it?" 

"The last time we were there, we saw a fifty foot tall corpse with four arms with its hands cut off playing the bongo drums." I deadpan. 

"W-What?" She whispers 

"And that was just a fucking GUARDIAN. Like a gatekeeper for the prison the piece is located in- oh look, a Lizalfos." 

An arrow is lodged into its skull thanks to Saria. It is dead before it even gets up. 

"Luckily, it seems to predate the divine beasts, so whatever's inside shouldn't be as strong as the Calamity... still threatening regardless." I shrug. 

"We should still probably check inside." Linkle begins. "You heard what the Great Deku Tree said, a third master sword is inside of that place somewhere." 

"T-Third master sword?" Saria stutters. 

"Oh yeah, there's apparently six of them, two- well, three are currently moving, so, both of ours and an unknown third one, then there's apparently a fourth inside that prison somewhere." 

Two large octopus-like creatures shoot from the water, their bodies puffing up and floating in the air... somehow... 

Linkle draws both of her crossbows and shoots a bolt into each of them, causing them to deflate like a popped balloon. 

"Man. This path is a little perilous." I observe. 

"One hundred years ago, it was well-maintained." Linkle sighs. "Vah Ruta must really be causing issues for Zora's Domain." 

We continue walking for a little longer, but we are yet again cut off as a high pitched gurgle echoes out, a large, horned, green lizard dives from the nearby river, it is hunched back, with light metal armor across its back and on its head, at each of its elbows are large jagged looking spurs that would likely hurt if you got jabbed by them. 

Clutched in its hand is a strange metallic blade that looks much like a really bent kukri. 

It hurls it forwards as a second lizard rises from the water, a bow in hand. 

I draw Vivi and swat the hurled weapon aside, the bladed edge sinking into the mud as I lift my hand and snap my fingers. 

A bolt of lightning arcs down from the stormy sky, engulfing the rightmost lizalfos. 

Its body shudders, the arrow it had drawn back flying wide as its muscles spasm slightly. 

An arrow strikes it in the throat, the creature gurgling as large roots seem to immediately grow in the wound, its mouth being pried open as a few flowers appear in between its closed jaw. 

Linkle and I look to Saria in sheer horror. 

Not even Linkle shooting a bolt into each of the other Lizard's eye sockets comes close to the sheer brutality of having plants grow inside of you. 

"What?" The green haired girl asks. 

"I'm- I'm really glad you're on our side." Linkle whispers. 

"Am I~" the green haired girl darkly chuckles. 

"You are." I stare. 

"I am!" She beams. 

We follow the broken path, walking past futuristic glowing light posts sort of like standing torches and small arrow-like signs. 

"What's the deal with that glowey shit?" I question as I gesture to one of the light posts as we make our way past. 

"Oh. There are some bioluminescent seashells underwater... most zora buildings in my time- and this time, judging by that bridge we crossed- is made of ground up sea-shells, metals, and stone to create a sort of 'alloy' that's a little more durable than stone while keeping the same stony texture." 

"Huh..." Linkle blinks. "That is... fairly interesting... damn. Now I really want to see that underwater city." 

"We'll be forced to kill the giant monster that's locked in ceaseless conflict with Vah Laruta first... or some sort of giant crab that's using it as a shell" I deadpan, causing the girl to sigh, shoulders slumping. 

We crisscross the river as we continue further on, stepping over large flat rocks that have been lain across the roaring rapids underfoot. 

The path eventually begins to rise upwards into the mountains, but then loud thuds reach my ears as a large boulder begins to quickly roll down towards us. 

"Uh. Linkle?" 

"I've got it. I've got it." She waves off as she points her gauntleted arm forwards. 

"Hnng-" 

The boulder is surrounded in green, Linkle briefly sliding backwards, her feet carving two little lines in the mud. 

But, she manages to toss the boulder off the side of the cliff, where it impacts the water below with a great splash. 

A second boulder follows the first, but thankfully, this one nearly instantly rolls off the edge. 

Our next obstacle would be a small crevasse, in which we get ambushed by three Lizalfos from above. 

All three are swiftly taken care of. 

"Is the road supposed to be this dangerous?" I question to Linkle as we continue walking, coming to a large curve that bends around a small clearing. 

"No... it isn't... but with the roads broken and eroded like they are, I doubt any traders have been to Zora's Domain in quite a while. The Zora likely use the river to get to and from Zora's domain. 

"S-Seriously?! They use those rapids?!" I balk. "Isn't that INCREDIBLY dangerous? Like... far more than just taking the road?" 

"You'd be surprised by just how good Zora are at swimming." Saria hums. "Those rapids would probably be just a gently flowing brook for them... they can swim up waterfalls, y'know." 

"W-What?" I whisper. 

"Oh, yeah. I saw Mipha do that once." Linkle nods in agreement. 

"That- That breaks like... SO many laws of physics!" I protest, looking between the two girls who just shrug. 

Linkle's eyes narrow slightly. "Wait... in that little cave. Is that... a blue Lizalfos?" 

"It has been quite some time since I saw one of those." Saria frowns. "A couple hundred years before I got stuck in amber." 

"Well, In my experience... when it comes to these fuckers. Where there's one, there's probably three to five greens." Linkle informs. 

I lean forwards slightly, gazing out over the field. 

Saria points. "One." 

"Two." I count, spying a second clutching the side of the little rocky cave the blue is stood inside. 

"I count six." Linkle hums. 

"Seven." Saria corrects. 

"Huh? Where's the seventh?!" Linkle hisses. 

"Hidden from view behind that rock." Saria gestures into the field. I could feel him moving the grass." 

"You can feel things through plant life?!" The blonde continues. 

"When I'm trying to focus, sure." The girl nods. "All plants have voices, if you just know how to listen~ and in this case... I hear some very displeased grass being flattened by a big stupid lizard." 

"It appears that those big stupid lizards are looking at us." I deadpan, putting a stop to their bickering. 

"Huh?" Linkle blinks as she turns. 

I hold out my blade in front of Linkle, allowing an arrow to crash against its side and fall to the ground. 

"Ah." She blinks. 

I crouch slightly, my knees bent, then I blur forwards. 

A large chameleon seems to form in the grass as it rises to its full height, blue light shines around my blade. 

A deep gash is carved in its chest as my sword seems to leave a trail of light in its wake. 

Three copies of my blade seem to follow closely behind my first attack, each surging forwards along the path my blade originally took, sort of like an... echo... 

However, these echoes seem to reach slightly further out than my blade. The first 'echo' seems to carve about two inches deeper. The second, four, and the third lengthening my reach by six entire inches. 

Of course, my earlier attack caused the Lizalfos to move slightly. My attack doesn't perfectly follow the cut. 

Thus a second cut appears slightly off center. It doesn't get all the way through its body, seemingly lacking a lot of strength. 

However. 

The two following cuts cause injures that are less clean cuts and more tearing out a section of flesh and rib so large that I could honestly reach my hand inside of the reptile and tear out its beating heart. 

It is of course very dead from my attack. 

"This bodes well." I smirk before snapping my fingers. 

Three strokes of thunder arc down from the sky, magnetized to the metal weapons of the three next lizards who leap for me. 

An arrow strikes the shoulder of one of them mid-air and a bolt crashes into the chest of a second. 

As their slightly toasted and twitching bodies fly towards me, I do one singular slash and slip past, then pivot and thrust my blade upwards. 

The hovering blades tear into the leftmost lizalfos, almost certainly killing it as its arm is rent from its body and its chest cavity is caved in. 

The piercing attack is where it gets a little interesting. 

The spectral blade surges forwards, holding the lizard aloft just long enough for the second to surge along the length of the first blade and sink even deeper. 

The third sprouts completely through the chest of my opponent as I turn and lock blades with a fifth. 

There's a slight shriek of metal as I knock him off balance with a punch to the face, then behead him with one clean downward slash. 

"AURUM!" 

I glance behind me, then backflip, foot coming to land atop a large jagged metal two-pronged spear. 

I use it as a foot stool to leap up, towards the final green lizalfos, putting aside the blue one for a moment. 

It stands atop a large flat stone that serves as a little roof for a little indent in the ground. A bow rests in its hand... and it wisely shoots at me. 

But its arrow is blocked by my sword. 

It is cut completely in half, shoulder to hip as I land on the roof, snapping my finger again, causing the thunder above to rush down at the leader of this little group. 

He is quite swift as he runs around the clearing, looking to circle around behind the rock I am stood atop in order to jump up at me with his spear. But. He can't outrun lightning. 

One bolt strikes him, followed by a second and third mere seconds later. 

He loses his footing for a moment, rolling to a stop as I hop down, blade stabbing downwards. 

My blade pierces its flesh, pinning it to the ground long enough for blue energy to surge down my sword and impale the poor beast slightly lower than where I stabbed. 

The two other blades seem to follow the first's path as I pull my sword out and slash downwards, cleaving its head off. 

The remaining green lizalfos are already dead by the time I look up. 

"Damn..." Saria mutters. "I'm really glad you're on our side." 

"Am I?" I shoot back with a small smile, eyebrow raised. 

"You'd better be." Linkle scoffs. "If you know what's good for you." 

"Oh? Are you going to beat me up, Linkle?" I question, my smile turning into a full blown grin. 

"Nah. Just deprive you of sex." 

My smile is erased. "Let's not be hasty." 

Saria blushes slightly at the casual nature Linkle mentioned sex. 

Linkle lets out a small amused huff. "Honestly. You're so whipped. I just need to close my legs and you're like putty in my hands." 

"Eh. You like it as much as I do. Don't lie." 

"True. True." She relents.  

"Also, I'd totally just go to Saria instead. Right Saria?" 

"H-HUH?!." The girl gasps, a massive blush on her face. 

"Heh." I huffs. 

"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Linkle growls. 

"Purah then?" I ask. 

"Only if I'm also there." The girl crosses her arms, then slowly looks over to the green haired girl. "And maybe that extends to Saria too." 

"W-What are you saying?!" The green haired girl stutters. 

Linkle smirks in victory, she has been taking loss after loss from the green haired girl, so she must be over the moon to finally find a little gap in the Kokiri's armor that causes her to become a blushing mess. 

Seggs. 

She watches the green haired girl cover her face with her hands, the tips of her ears twitching as they turn a deep shade of red. 

"Was... Was I like that?" Linkle asks suddenly. 

"Yep. Just as cute, too." I nod slowly. 

"Huh..." She hums after a moment. "I wonder how Zelda's going to react to all of... this." 

She gestures to the two of us. 

"She's going to freak out, probably... maybe do something along the lines of a 'Prove you are worthy of my friend!' Thing?" 

"Eh... nah. I doubt she'd do that." Linkle hums as she tilts her head. 

"Well, I've never met the girl, so I wouldn't know." I roll my eyes. 

"Think we should wait for Purah here?" I ask. 

"Ah... maybe?" Linkle shrugs. "Traveling as a group is safer... oh, and this is also quite a safe and dry place. We could spend the night here while we-" 

"Remember how I can just summon a house?" I ask. 

"..." 

"Ah. Right." She mutters before folding her arms behind her head. "Regardless, let's wait for Gram Gram Purah here." 

"Isn't she only slightly older than you are?" 

"HEY!" The girl snaps. "I was dead for one hundred of those years! Those don't count!" 

I let out a long dramatic sigh. "Here I am. Travelling with a group of older women who wish to try and take advantage of me. Oh, woe is me." 

"The only thing that's being taken advantage of here is my patience." Linkle threatens before a small smirk appears on her lips.