Chapter 14 Real Reality…

      Chapter 14

 

 

Real Reality…

 

 

Lucius jerked awake and startled Calhan who was standing guard while the others slept. Lucius sat up rubbing his head trying to disperse the massive headache. Calhan moved to his side silently so as not to wake anyone else.

“Hey, you alright?” Calhan asked him.

Lucius didn’t answer the pain in his head made it difficult to even hear. His healing slowly made it fade from a waterfall roar to a dull drum beat. Lucius looked at Calhan and saw that he was waiting for an answer with concern.

“Oh yes, thank you. Sorry was trying to calm a headache.” Lucius apologized. Calhan gave a half smile of sympathy. He patted Lucius gently on the back as he went back to his post.

Lucius was too awake now to go back to sleep and it was going to be dawn in an hour or so. He got up from his bed on the cold ground of Hyrule Fields and moved closer to the dying warmth of their camp fire.

They had set out from Kakariko two days ago taking a leisurely pace through Hyrule Fields. Lucius rubbed his still pounding head wondering if this was real, or if Zara was still messing with him. He glanced over to where Selene lay asleep next to Gerad. She was curled in a ball scrunched up right next to him for warmth. Her blanket had slipped off sometime in the night.

Lucius stood quietly so as not to disturb anyone and walked to her side. He squatted down near here and recovered her with the blanket. She sighed in comfort and relaxed a bit.

Lucius sat there and watched her sleep peacefully for a minute or two. A strand of her hair fell from behind her ear and blocked her face. Lucius carefully moved it back so it wouldn’t tickle her nose and wake her up.

He gently stroked her cheek with his fingertips once and moved back to the fire. G-Link joined him a few minutes later. For a large rock he moved quite silently.

“Fair sunrise.” G-Link greeted him. G-Link could also talk softly when he wanted to, unlike his father.

Lucius nodded his head in greeting as G-Link sat next to him. They said nothing for a bit enjoying the quiet breathing of their friends. Calhan stood and stretched to get his blood flowing again a few times, but ignored them to keep watch a few yards away from camp.

“So when are you going to tell her?” G-Link asked him.

Lucius glared at his oldest friend. As much as Lucius picked on G-Link for being as dense in the head as he was in body mass, G-Link was very intuitive.

Lucius sighed as he answered, “You know I can’t.”

“Can’t or won’t?” G-Link countered.

“She has already chosen someone else.” Lucius replied looking at Dahrin’s dark form.

“You know as well as I that it will never work between them. You’ve sensed it as well.” G-Link said in such a matter of fact tone the statement took Lucius aback. He looked at G-Link in puzzlement.

“Just because it’s there does not mean he will succumb to it.” Lucius countered.

“It might be too hard to resist. Her love might not be enough.” G-Link said. He looked at Lucius till Lucius looked him in the eye.

“What will we do when that time comes?” G-Link asked him.

Lucius broke eye contact with G-Link and looked into the coals of the fire. He sought for an answer that he liked. But all the answers were the same. If Dahrin embraced it, they would have to kill him.

G-Link stirred up the fire with his powers to bring out more warmth in the cool dawn air.

Meria yawned and stretched as she sat up. The sun was just peaking over the horizon. G-Link stood up and went to Bob to get him awake. Meria came over and sat next to Lucius.

“Morning.” Meria greeted him. He nodded in greeting; the rest began to waken as the sun slowly climbed higher.

“Did you sleep well?” Lucius asked her.

“Yes, I don’t know why but being out in the open like this, I’m more comfortable.” Meria replied as she leaned back. Lucius smiled returning his gaze to the sunrise. Sheik joined them, sitting next to Meria and giving her a good morning kiss. Meria’s smile widened.

“Did you sleep well?” Sheik asked her.

“Yes, and you?” Meria asked snuggling closer to him. Sheik put his arm around her shoulders.

“Yes, no nightmares this time.” Sheik answered.

Meko flew up from where he had slept on Aerica’s shoulder. He stretched and yawned then landed on Aerica’s face. He peeled back her eyelid and she jerked awake.

“Gah, Meko don’t do that.” Aerica fussed at him, he hovered back as he laughed at her. She got up and stretched then joined Sheik, Meria, and Lucius by the fire.

“Good morning.” Aerica said as she sat across the fire from Lucius. G-Link returned and handed Aerica the bag that held their provisions. Aerica thanked him, and began rooting through the bag for something edible to eat; as with all trail provisions these weren’t very tasty.

She pulled out some things and set them by the fire then went and got the cooking supplies and herbs to start breakfast.

The rest of the group slowly joined them by the fire while Aerica cooked and Meko tried to help. Gerad sat next to Aerica while Selene sat next to Dahrin.

“Who wants to go first in training this morning?” Calhan’s sage robe hadn’t been salvageable, even with Impa’s superb seamstress skills.

“I’ll try.” Meria said standing up and moving to Calhan’s side. Sheik followed as they moved a little bit away from the camp.

“What do you think Meria’s powers are like?” Selene asked Lucius. Lucius shrugged he hadn’t the faintest clue about the specifics of the Wind Sage.

“Probably something having to do with wind.” Gerad supplied.

Selene gave him a mock glare, “Ha, ha, very funny.”

Lucius chuckled with the rest of them then stood and went to join the training group. G-Link had migrated to watch Meria. Calhan was explaining something to Meria, showing her something in the book. Sheik was seated next to G-Link and so Lucius sat next to them.

“Why are they so far away?” Lucius asked. Meria and Calhan were at least twenty feet further away from camp than they were.

“Calhan said something about needing space, to minimize potential danger, or something along those lines. I kind of don’t pay attention to half of what he says.” Sheik answered.

G-Link chuckled, “He tends to go about things in a round about way doesn’t he”

“It’s a family trait I think.” Lucius supplied smiling.

“Did I miss anything?” Selene asked as she came up.

“Nah, they haven’t even started yet.” Sheik said stretching.

“Oh that’s good, I brought ya’ll some breakfast.” Selene said handing Sheik and Lucius each a plate. They took the plates, there was something that resembled meat and some dried fruit pieces.

“Thank you.” Lucius said beginning to eat.

“Yeah thanks.” Sheik said, his mouth was full when he had said it so it came out more as, “muyah tanks.”

Selene laughed handing G-Link his bag of rocks. G-Link thanked her and selected a few rocks out of the bag to munch on. Selene sat next to Lucius munching on some fruit pieces.

Gerad, Aerica, and Dahrin joined them shortly later. Dahrin had two plates for Meria and Calhan and set them on a boulder that was next to their group.

Calhan finished explaining something to Meria and moved to the group. He spotted his plate and got it from the boulder and began to eat.

“So what is she trying?” Sheik asked him.

Calhan held up a finger as he chewed and swallowed the mouthful he had bitten off of the meat. “You’ll see.” With that he went back to eating.

The group rolled their eyes at his non-answer and turned back to watch Meria.

 

Meria watched as Calhan walked off towards the rest of the group. She chuckled to herself at his explanation of the attack she was going to try to do. It didn’t seem that hard of a concept to grasp. Think of the most terrifying moment in her life and focus that feeling to dredge up a wall of wind for a defense. Sure, no problem. She tried to think of a terrifying moment in her life, but couldn’t think of any that fit the description. Sure the Stalfos attack was frightening but it didn’t linger in her mind. They had survived, that was that, end of story.

“Maybe I’m not really the wind sage.” Meria said to herself digging at the dirt with her toe. Meria remembered the countless times she had made arrows go through targets and then about reading in the book that that was one of the powers of the Wind Sage.

“Ok so scratch that, I am.” Meria sighed. She thought about how she felt when she had sent the arrows flying farther and faster. The last time she had been agitated. The time before that she had been upset at something her father had said.

“Ok, maybe fear isn’t my trigger.” Meria pursed her lips in thought. She tried to think about something that would agitate her. She closed her eyes and thought of something the hay master’s son had said about her. She felt a surge of power start from her gut and spread out to her arms and down her legs. She followed her instincts and raised her arms out as she felt the power surged faster and hotter through her veins.

 

Calhan munched on another piece of fruit as they watched Meria stand all alone in the wide open space of the field. She dug at the dirt with her toe then tilted her head to the right in thought. Sheik started to rise to go see if he could help her out when Calhan put a hand on his shoulder forcing him back down.

“Wha-“ Sheik started but shut up when he felt the wind pick up around him. The rest of the group felt it too and they all hunkered down further to the ground. They watched in curiosity as Meria raised her arms out parallel to the ground. She didn’t glow but the wind began to swirl dust and leaves around her. She began to rise and turn in the air.

When she was facing the group her eyes were an odd shade of grey. She turned her hands from palms facing down to up and slowly brought her hands towards each other in front of her face. The wind picked up in intensity to where the group had to hold onto each other and G-Link to stay in place. Meko clung to Aerica’s shoulder with a death grip as the winds threatened to suck him away. Aerica finally grabbed hold of him and clutched him to her chest, sheltering him from the wind. Meria’s hands touched and the wind died around them but around her the wind was hurricane force. Where she stood in the center was calm but around her in a two foot wide section the winds howled.

Calhan clapped, “Very nice.” His hair had come out of its tie and was a big mess. The rest of the group didn’t look much better.

“So, what is it?” Gerad asked trying to smooth his hair back down.

“It’s a wind barrier.” Calhan said, assuming they’d understand with no further explanation.

“Yeah we can see that, but what is it for?” Sheik asked.

“Oh, well it’s for defense. Aerica shoot an arrow at Meria please.” Calhan said turning to Aerica.

“Excuse me?” Aerica asked raising her eyebrows in surprise.

“It won’t get to her.” Calhan said.

“What if she loses her concentration and it dissipates?” Lucius supplied. He was interested to know if it could stop an arrow, but not curious enough to endanger Meria.

Calhan thought for a moment before he answered, “Didn’t think about that.”

Gerad chuckled, “No didn’t think you did.” He clapped Calhan on the shoulder as he turned to G-Link.

“Could I borrow a rock?” Gerad asked him. G-Link nodded and dug out a fair size rock from his bag and handed it to Gerad. The others watched as Gerad moved forward a bit and then lugged the rock at Meria.

The rock flew true to its mark straight for the side of Meria’s face. She turned her head to watch its progress. It hit the wall of wind and shattered. The group was impressed and clapped for Meria. She smiled hugely and the wind began to die down. She closed her eyes and let her power drain completely. There was a two foot wide rut in a circle around Meria where the grass had been sucked up by the wind wall. Meria moved to the group as bits of grass began to sprinkle down from the sky.

“That was very impressive.” Calhan said picking bits of grass off of his shoulders. Meria smiled at the praise. Sheik picked her up and swung her around happy that she had done so well. Meria laughed as she hugged Sheik back. He set her back on the ground both of them a tad dizzy from the spin.

Aerica let Meko go and he flew to her shoulder where he perched and tried to fix his hair. Aerica chuckled at him as she straightened hers.

“I wonder what else you can do.” Selene said to Meria as she brushed her hair out. Having the longest hair wasn’t a lot of fun in a wind storm. Meria chuckled as she shrugged.

“Who knows.”

“That was pretty awesome.” Gerad said giving up on de-knotting his hair.

“Yes it was impressive, I wonder if you can attack with it?” Lucius said picking up Meria’s plate from where it had been blown by the wind. The food itself was nowhere to be seen. Meria chuckled, “Oh, well.” She accepted the plate from Lucius and the group headed back towards their camp.

“I’ll fix you some more, there were left-overs.” Aerica said patting Meria on the shoulder as she walked past her towards the provisions pack. The camp had remained untouched by the winds. Meria smiled in response, her arm around Sheik’s body and his arm around her shoulders.

They arrived at their camp and began packing up their stuff to continue their journey to Zora’s Domain. Meria sat next to the camp fire and ate her breakfast while the rest rolled up their blankets and stuffed them in their packs.

“So what was the terrifying moment you chose?” Calhan asked her putting his hair back in its tie. Meria swallowed the mouthful of food before she answered, “I didn’t.”

Calhan was confused by this, “What do you mean?”

“Well fear isn’t my trigger.” Meria replied munching on the last bit of fruit from her plate.

“What is it then, so I don’t accidently set you off?” Sheik asked from where he was rolling up Meria’s blanket for her. Meria smiled at him as she stood to go redo his rolling job.

Sheik stepped aside and let Meria do it as she answered his and Calhan’s question.

“I found out that my trigger is anger. Which when you think about it is kind of childish.” Meria said stuffing her blanket into its bag on Eyona.

Calhan shrugged, “Well, I believe once you train your powers you won’t need these ‘triggers’ it’ll come to you at will.”

“That would be nice.” Selene said stuffing her blanket away then tightening Starfire’s straps. The others chuckled in agreement with her as they all finished packing up. Lucius had taken the plates to the stream that ran by their camp and washed them. He returned and handed the plates to Meria who was next for chef duty. Meria took the plates and packed them next to her blanket.

“How much further to Zora’s Domain?” Gerad asked Lucius as he passed by on his way to Fish.

Lucius smiled, “Not long. Another day at the most.”

He mounted and waited for everyone else to mount also. They were all situated and Lucius led the way towards Zora’s Domain. Despite his misgivings that Zara was still messing with him, he still felt a bit of excitement for heading home and showing his friends his world. Well, most of his world. They traveled in silence for a few minutes enjoying the morning sounds of the animals greeting the sun.

G-Link leaned over to Gerad and said, “You owe me a rock.”