Hyrule Adventures 2

Adrenaline like wine in my blood. Camphor. Cardamom. Sweat. The moon leads me out west, I follow. Springing from branch to branch. Rough bark calloused skin. I can hear her breath. Thick. Heavy. She vaults from an outcropping of stone and into the clearing. I can see her, there, she turns and glances over her shoulder the light catches on her flanks and shoulders, her long neck arched in a silver curve of moonlight and flesh. She vaults again, over a fallen log, hanging, parabolic angel, against the ground glass stars. I come down from my fortress of branches and changing leaves; crashing to the ground in a pile of sinew and want. My breath is hot, it tastes like blood and pain and hunger. Closing the distance in a scrabble of limbs I slam bodily into her, catching her in mid flight. We crash to the ground. Snap of bone and gasp of breath. My teeth, white and clean for too long now shear though her hide and open pure red lines on her throat. I smear her life on my face and raise my head to the sky:

DIIIIIIIIIN!

Finaly I slake my thirst.

The wind howls a song of dread and sorrow as it watches the scene unfold before itself. The trees shrieking in pain as it watches the maiden fall to her death. And as nature sings its hmyn of despair a zora lay under slumber care.

Julian's eyes flutter open as his senses are drowned in the smell of blood. He smiles is cast upon his face as he contemplates on the crimson delight that he is now wafting in. He slowly lifts himself up from the ground with his staff. The leaves crackling as his staff dives into the ground. The zora searches in the direction of the smell, letting the smell of the wind guide him through the darkened forest. The echoes of owls accompany him as he traverses through the trees. His eyes meet a clearing in which he can see the a woman spread onto the fields. Her body is tainted with redness that can only be presumed as blood. Julian's eyes gaze towards the man. Seconds later, Julian finds himself walking towards the man for no apparent reason. He stares down at the woman's raveged body and then back towards the man's moon lit face. "Why have you done this?"

Sheng Long's lithe form bent over the figure rises. His long features stained in red, his breath coming in long hard gasps. He stands to every inch of his height. The moonlight runs quicksilver over his body and his carmine streaked hair, and onto the broken form of... the deer... that lies at his feet. Wiping his chin with the back of his hand he cocks his head to the left, perplexed.

I worship the Goddess of Power, do you wish to take communion? I know that this communion is not yours but I will gladly share.

Julian stares at the fallen doe, his smile hidden beneath the hood of his cloak and away from the gleaming light of the moon. 'I swear that that was a woman. The moon light must be playing tricks on me,' Julian thought to himself as he looks back at the man, his smile now replaced with a solemn stare. "No thank you. I have no regrets of the things that I've done nor do I need to confess the in them in the name of Din," the zora says as the moon light strikes his face, illuminating his facial features. His eyes are dark and ominous and the light of the moon stares down at his pale blue face.

Folding his legs under him, Sheng Long sits beside the broken form of the deer. He has caught his breath now, and the lines of his body no longer quiver and writhe in the ecstasy of the hunt. He folds the doe’s legs and head towards her chest as if she were in the womb. Doing this and without looking up he says:
Heh, Din does not take confession. Din is not a Goddess of forgiveness. Din is a Goddess of life. In her eyes every thing is forgiven because we are alive. Does the spider ask for forgiveness from the fly?
And cocking his head up towards his companion, and looking up at him with one grey eye
Or the wolf from the deer?
Pausing he bends down and pulls a deep draught from the flowing wound on the beast’s neck.
If we are separate from the animals and can sin than there can be no atonement for that sin, because we know the difference between right and wrong. If you ask for forgiveness than you know you have chosen wrong. Knowing what wrong is and still choosing it is a sin that can never be forgiven.
I did not ask you to take confession with me. I asked you to take Communion. To become one with the Goddess. To share in her existence and to merge with it.
His voice drops to a lower level and his gaze becomes unfocused.
To be the fire. To be the marrow, bone, sinew, meat of her. To join with her as you do a lover or a meal or a dream. To become her presence in this world; her avatar….
He shakes his head slightly and looks back to you, eyes sharp.
That is what you should seek. Not forgiveness, but oneness.

"Do not patronize me with your words of divine unity. I seek only one thing and that is to rid the world of evil," Julian says solemnly. "And Din cannot help me for Din is the goddess of life and gave life to everything that is seen in this plane...including the evil that lies beneath the surface of the very ground we stand on." Julian glares at the man for what seems like an eternity and then whispers so the only one that can hear him is the man in front of him. "Life is neutral. It does not care for what it gives birth to, and if I am to destroy the source of evil I must destroy life itself."

"Din is a goddess of life," hears Arco, as he weaves his way through the low branches. Having seen the crushed trail of grass and brush, and--upon pausing to listen--having heard voices, he followed the fresh path with curiosity.

It was what adventurers did, Arco reasoned.

And now, standing somewhat Samsonesque, holding back two branches as if having stopped in the door with a very heavy bead curtain, Arco peers at the two people, mixed feelings swilling around in the mouth of his mind.

Is he holding a deer? Did he just drink its blood? What's he saying?

Stepping forward, and letting the limbs crash together behind him, Arco tries to listen, blinks in confusion, and twists a pinky in his right ear. And tries again.

I don't get it...

Head bowed Sheng Long speaks slowly, almost mournfully...

If you have not yet found your faith in the Goddesses that is something that will change in time. They will speak to your mind, body, and soul as you grow. In time you will come to understand that to be one with the them, to lose yourself in them, is to overcome all evil. Evil of self, and evil of the Twilight realm. To be the instrument of the Goddesses, can only evoke goodness!

Slaping his thighs and leaping to his feat, his face still besmirched with gore. he says...

HA! to destroy evi! This is a good goal! Moblins and Stalfoes, these are evil. Perversions of Din's glory. Look at the skulltula. It does not kill for food, nor even for worship, but wantonly. It kills all it touches, showing no respect and offering no thanks. Its webs poison what they bind, rotting wood, and crumbling brick. I too seek to destroy evil!

And with great solemnity Sheng Long lifts his hand to his mouth and bites at the fleshy mass between thumb and first finger. He pulls at it for a second and then spits blood into his hand, holding it palm out to you.

We are brothers in this!


OOC: you might want to watch your Zelda morality. While Sheng Long has a rather skewed image of what the games present as the goddesses, he is still abiding by the concepts of morality. There are very stark lines between good and evil and light and dark in Zelda. The Darkworld is the source of all things evil. The Goddesses are not responsible for creations like moblins and stalfoes. These are perversions of the Darkworld. Their origin is kinda vague, but LTP says that they were once men who were taken into the Darkworld by Ganondorf (before he became Ganon) and as his black heart corrupted the "Golden Land" into the Darkworld so too it changed those who lived there.
And forgive me Weien, I'm not ignoring you, Sheng is just a tad involved right now.

"Heh, the goddesses can speak to their heart's contents for they cannot topple my virtues. If you seek to destroy all evil then you are seeking to destroy all life. If this is not your intention then I cannot be your blood brother. So...do you still wish to become my brother?"

OOC:Only Sheng Long can hear this.

pulling his hand back slowly Sheng Long's features take on the flatness of a calm lake:

You would ask for terms from a man who freely gives a blood oath? You have no honor!

Taking a step back, lowering his shoulders and bearing his teeth Sheng Long hisses, biting off every sylable:

You will face me now, in Din's name. Or, if you retreat I will tell everyone I meet that you are a honorless cur, not worthy to be spit upon!

OOC: sorry about the delay, I wanted to consider how Sheng would react to this.

"As you wish," Julian says as he removes his staff from its holster. He leaps backwards onto a broken log and cracks a wide grin. His eyes narrow and he pulls his hood over his face. Darkness grabs hold of his features as his face becomes concieled in darkness and the only feature that can be seen are his teeth as the moon shines through the veil of darkness.

"You have asked the goddesses for unity and I will help you reach their open arms for when you die they will carry your battered soul to the heavens where you will watch my legend unfold!" Julian says with a raspy but clear voice. His words echoing through out the forest clearing and awakening the flight of the birds who have until now, watched the two enemies speak. The flapping of their wings sign the beginning of the fight and all becomes quite as Julian waits for Sheng's next move.

His teeth pulled back and his long grey hair streaked with carmine Sheng Long widens his stance, rests his weight on his back leg, and raises his hands on level with his face, palms down, fingers extended, their tips just meeting the ends of the thumbs. Dropping low he hurls himself along the ground, trying to close the distance between him and his opponent.

He Sings…

Come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king, I will fly like the falcon when I go
Bear me my brother under your wing, I will strike, fell like lightning when I go

I will bellow like the thunder drum, invoke the storm of war
a twisting pillar spun of dust and blood up from the prairie floor
I will sweep the foe before me like a gale out on the snow
and the wind will long recount the story, reverence and glory, When I Go...

Julian eyes are locked onto the singing nomad. "I feel sorry for the people who will never be able to hear your singing but they'll join you in the end," Julian whispers as he walks toward Sheng and then stopping a few yards in front of him. "I, of course, will have to suffer the silence." Julian aims his staff directly at Sheng's torso and digs his feet into the ground. His knees are bent and his hands are firmly clenched into the rim of his staff.
"Now, I suggest you stop singing and fight."

Taking the final steps to close the gap, Sheng Long snakes his arm around his opponent’s staff catching its length in the crook of his elbow. He braces the length of it against his hip and planting his feet throws his weight sideways, sending all his built up kinetic energy into the length of wood, attempting to tear the weapon from the Zora’s grip. In the same motion he extends his other arm palm open towards his rival’s face.

Still singing…

Spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin, i will leap like coyote when I go
Tireless entrancer, lend me your skin, i will run like the gray wolf when I go

I will climb the rise at daybreak, i will kiss the sky at noon
raise my yearning voice at midnight to my mother in the moon
I will make the lay of long defeat and draw the chorus slow
I’ll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listening when I go

Julian's eyes widen as his mouth is swallowed by the nomad's hand. He pushes off the nomad's knee and commits a wall jump off his torso. The moonlight flickers as it outlines the zora's sleek frame. His robes whispering in the wind and slapping Sheng Long's copper hue face. His staff twirls in the air and sends debree off into the sky. The ground trembles beneath him as he lands crouched onto the ground, his left palm leaving an indent in the ground. He stands up from his previous position and dusts his robes off with an uncarring brush of his fingers. "If you wanted to play unarmed you should have...," Julian slams his staff into the ground. "Asked!" his voice says with a slight irritating tone as his staff is rooted into the ground. "Now...fight me!"

OOC:Did you come up with this song by yourself? It's wonderful. It's a bit hard to find melody but when I did it truly was a euphoria of literary music.