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flickerintwilights · 11 months

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zelink week 2023 | free day

—stories of flying

rated G / set before botw’s calamity / 2268 words

@zelinkcommunity

(excerpt) He’s not a child anymore. Now he’s — now, he’s here, and he’s seventeen years old. He has a sword, the sword, strapped to his back, in its sheath, and even the sheath is glimmering and catching the light from the sky. Moon and stars; the barrier is still up. He’s lying in the grass, hair unbound, snagging a little on the hilt of his blade.

There’s a girl next to him, Zelda. She’s pointing out constellations.

The sky is not completely inaccessible, even through the cloud barrier. Clouds are just water, after all, and even water wound with magic from a race of gods (or something like it) is permeable, eventually. Getting up there is the challenge, and the reason that very few from the surface ever lay eyes on the sky islands after their raising, or on the other creatures that weave invisible trails of magic through the clouds. But it can be done.

Remember: very, very rarely. But it is possible.

It was the ancient Sheikah, of course. They were the architects of the Divine Beasts; Vah Medoh soared the skies below, if not above, and other creations of theirs could go higher. They set their sights for the heavens, before they fell.

So it was the Sheikah, a mage and a researcher, along with a Rito scientist for the added benefit of having wings, who broke the clouds for the first time in thousands of years. They found and recorded the existence of a before unseen dragon with brilliant white scales, spikes and antler-like horns of luminous turquoise-blue, and a glowing golden mane, leaving a long winding weave of magic from the crown of its head. They wanted to investigate, especially given the lack of visible elemental hazards such as with the other three dragons. They also wanted to investigate the floating islands growing in gold, and the tall building rising up and out from the greatest one.

They never got the chance. For either. They fell, because the Sheikah have a habit of falling, and they never went up again, because the Sheikah have a habit of doing that too.

Specifically, it was because both Sheikah died on the expedition. The Rito survived alone by the usefulness of wings to tell the tale to the gossips and the villagers, who passed it down as folktales. Longer-lived versions of the old ones, from back when the white-scaled dragon first ascended to the clouds. Soon after, the First Great Calamity came, and no one tried to reach the sky again. Let it not be said that Mineru of the Zonai was not brilliant, for raising the lands and the secrets of her people to the heavens.

Thousands of years will pass. Ten, to be somewhat exact. It really is a long time. The story of the land in the sky, at least, survives in children’s stories. Who doesn’t want to believe that? Not adults, of course, they’re too realistic. But children can. A little girl named Shamae, at a stable at the foot of the woods, will, for example. Most of the tale about the light dragon will be lost; many already have a hard enough time believing in the three dragons that do descend to the earth, winding just around civilization.

Most.

There was a child who loved dragons, once. Not anymore, for the first thing; he still loves them. Dragons have a way of coming back to you. But once he was a child, and once he lived in a small village where everyone knew everyone and so everyone knew him, and eventually a traveling merchant came in and stories moved as stories do and somehow someone managed to tell him that there might be a light dragon, a fourth one, not just the elemental three that you say you’ve seen because your papa travels all over. This is a very old story and it’s probably not true — well, it might not be true, so don’t go around saying it is, but maybe you’d like to know.

The child did, in fact, like to know. He looked for the light dragon everywhere, after hearing that story. He didn’t find it because he can’t fly (yet), but he liked the story. (Likes. He’s still alive. Don’t worry for him; he loves dragons.) While he was looking for it and not finding it, he was also looking for the other three dragons and finding them, and he was also defeating adults with a sword, and he was also traveling with his papa who was a royal guard who was eventually stationed at the Military Training Camp at the foot of the woods.

And his name is Link. He drew the Master Sword from the woods.

He’s not a child anymore. Now he’s — now, he’s here, and he’s seventeen years old. He has a sword, the sword, strapped to his back, in its sheath, and even the sheath is glimmering and catching the light from the sky. Moon and stars; the barrier is still up. He’s lying in the grass, hair unbound, snagging a little on the hilt of his blade.

There’s a girl next to him, Zelda. She’s pointing out constellations.

“They’re apparently significant to the ancient Sheikah,” she’s explaining, “do you remember the shrines — they have depictions of constellations all over them. Purah only ran into constellations a few times during her studies, but she and I have been using an old telescope lately, going into old Sheikah texts to find their signs. We’re currently in the process of deciphering them as much as we can. We might even be able to find meaning in the constellations shown on the shrines!”

Link nods attentively, eyes on the sky. A star is glimmering brightly, a little to the north; they’re by Lake Hylia now, for reference. The lake is sloshing gently at the green slopes, and the bridge is quiet. The sky is clear. He points up, to the point of light in the sky, in question. It feels vaguely familiar, he might have seen it when he was stargazing as a child.

Zelda follows his hand, looking up. “That one? Hm… oh, that’s the Central star. I think… it’s supposed to be part of our constellation for your sword, but for the ancient Sheikah it was part of a constellation they depicted on the old Sheikah towers — like the one on the Great Plateau, that we haven’t been able to activate. It’s the only one we’ve found, so we aren’t certain that it’s a repeated motif, but we haven’t seen it on the shrines either, so… we’re making guesses.”

She wiggles her fingers vaguely in illustration, a carefree motion of the kind she wants to make more often, and she can’t help her smile. It’s contagious, anyway, now Link is smiling too.

Zelda traces out the shape of a teardrop, connecting stars with her finger. “It was the sign for wisdom. Given the towers, and the shrines, there might be a corresponding sign for courage — that is the attribute associated with the hero — and maybe even one for power, though I’m… not sure where we might find that.”

Link hums in interest. “Was that a teardrop for wisdom?” he signs.

“Yes, apparently.” He makes a face, and Zelda shrugs. “It probably is for the same reason that the Sheikah eye has a teardrop, but I don’t know why. Maybe wisdom is inherently associated with sadness.”

It’s a depressing thought. More so, when you consider that Zelda is Zelda, with the blood of the goddess, and the historic representation of Wisdom.

“It shouldn’t be,” Link signs in response, after considering, and he shifts closer to her and presses his shoulder against hers. His right shoulder, because he’s left the Master Sword on the grass a few feet away. She leans into the touch, because he’s warm and a bit of a wind is picking up, and because it’s nice. She hasn’t done it often, before.

The wind is more than a bit, though. It begins to gust and then to rise, whipping their hair into their faces. Zelda laughs, bright and open, because Link looks funny with his hair flying all over his face instead of pulled back in its ponytail like it usually is. But then she quiets, and she turns to the lake. The water is picking up along with the wind.

Look.

The wind swirls up, and the water sprays from the shore by the sudden motion of the waves, a few droplets landing on their legs and clothes. Light ripples from the center of the lake, just outside the bridge’s shadow, yellow-green and electric. From the glow, a horn breaks the surface of the water. Maybe breaks isn’t the best word; it’s too clean, too graceful, as if the water had parted in that singular form to allow passing.

The light flows down the horn in rivulets of water, or the shape of it, because it doesn’t seem to be wet. Following the tip of the horn, as it bends and winds down to its source, is a nose, electric green scales, two brilliant eyes bathed in green and gazing blue-purple. Then the mane, crackling with energy, tinged yellow-green, flowing over the ears and down to the body’s glinting scales.

A dragon. Farosh. Spirit of the forest, of courage, of the spring.

They’ve both seen them before; they emerge from the lake regularly, on their time, and they’ve both been to the lake. It’s a landmark of the kingdom, named for the goddess. Of course they have.

The thing about dragons, though, is that every time you see them, you can’t help but look. They’re beautiful. Timeless.

They sit on the slope and watch Farosh, in silence, as they ascend. Sparks of electricity forming and balling and unwinding around them. A miniature thunderstorm, alive with energy.

“I used to love dragons when I was a kid,” Link signs, shoulders back, eyes still drawn to Farosh as they descend past the bridge, looping back into the water. The same graceful, weightless dive, just down instead of up. “I mean, I’d see them all the time, and they were also in all these books, and they sounded so cool.”

“What kind of books did you read?” Zelda asks, curiously. “The books I had about dragons were… mainly about them as servants of the goddess.” See, she likes dragons too. Does that sound redundant? It’s hard not to, first of all. But more importantly, she’s always been able to see them — as they circle, circle, circle, never faltering from their same steady unknowable paths through valleys and over mountains. A contradiction, but the good kind, where she thinks she understands even if maybe she really doesn’t, and that’s enough for her.

Still, she wouldn’t describe their appearances in the stories she was told as cool. So she’s curious.

“Uh.” Link scratches the back of his head, a little sheepish. Half of Farosh’s long body has gone through the water. “Picture books? Or adventure. They usually showed up as guiding spirits, or they gave the hero powers or blessings. I think I read one once where the hero flew around on one. But—” He hasn’t read these books in years, not since he pulled the sword and became a knight and had a destiny placed on his back. It’s both nostalgic, a nice memory to come back to, and it’s books he read when he was ten. An accomplished swordsman already, but still ten. He’s seventeen now, of course he’s embarrassed.

Zelda laughs, genuinely, as he signs. She wants to read those books, a little.

“I heard a lot more stories, though. Travelers would talk about them on the road. Like, this story that the Dueling Peaks were split by a dragon, have you heard that? And that dragons live above the clouds.”

“I believe I’ve heard the second one,” Zelda replies thoughtfully. “There are plenty of old legends about a city in the sky, all varying. Dragons get mentioned in at least one version.”

Link nods. “There’s also a story about a… light dragon? White dragon?” He shrugs. “The words get jumbled in translation. It’s meant to be a fourth dragon, other than the three elemental ones. Up in the sky somewhere, so we never see it. It seems pretty obscure, though. If it did exist, it’s probably gone.”

The last of Farosh’s spikes vanishes past the surface of the water, and the lake is still again.

Zelda gazes up to the sky. It’s still clear, but the stars are beginning to fade back into invisibility. The sun is rising in the east. “Stories always come from somewhere. It’s not likely, but… still, I’m glad you told me. It’s interesting to think about, isn’t it? If there could be countless other dragons up there, that we just can’t see?”

“Wonder why it’s only those three that come down, then,” Link signs, propping his chin up on his spare elbow and gazing out over the lake. Farosh is gone now, not even a crackle of electricity left, but the lake is still beautiful in their wake. The first glimmers of sunlight swim across the surface of the water. “Maybe they like us.”

Zelda laughs, more than a little hopelessly. She’s used to divine figures not liking her. “If only.”

Link nudges her lightly. “We saw them. They were there, for us. Maybe the light dragon even is too.“ He cranes his head to gaze up at the sky, tilting his head like he can see through the clouds, then drops back down again and looks at her. “It was nice.”

It’s such an unassuming statement — it was nice, that could be them walking over an uninteresting grassy field or sleeping or something else entirely mundane. But it looks so sincere. And it was nice. It was. The stars and the crisp air and the close hum of energy over the water and Link. It’s the simplest, the easiest, way to describe it. She understands perfectly.

“Yes,” she says, nodding, “yes, it was.”

#i don’t know wtf this is tbh but #happy #zelink week 2023 #i wrote this in a day i have no conception of preparing works for events a month beforehand #but i made it!#dragons #tears of the kingdom #my fic #zelink #might post this on ao3 later but it isn’t up there atm

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a-chaotically-small-lunta · 6 months

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I had a dream, where there was this movie called something like Hoisho and the Windfolk. (Straight up what it was called btw) Apparently dream me has been searching for this movie forever. Cause apparently no one remembers the ending or the twist at the end. They all remember and have clips of the most fucked it scene which many believe is the actual ending of the movie, as well as other clips from the beginning of the movie.

The only reason I’m putting this under more is because holy shit is it long. My dreams and all the damn lore they come with, like jeez man.

It was a movie about these two factions, the windfolks: people who believe in bringing beauty back to the world via ancient statues, who held on to tradition tightly, and they were considered old style despite abandoning the main reason they are even called windfolks.Then there was the other faction, which did have a name but i don’t remember it, they were a faction of larger beast who were a strange combination of lizard, amphibian, man, and machine. They were the future but they were the result of a scientist who made wanted to create the ultimate defense for human kind, or something, which lead to the downfall of the world and a terrible war that ripped the world in two. After the war, Each faction never crossed into the others borders. Then we meet Hoisho, a young lad and part of the windfolk. All kids have this sense of adventure and are wild, so as per tradition, they go to learn about why it is dangerous to go out adventuring, why trying to befriend an enemy is pointless, and why creating something new is dangerous. The windfolk believe that restoring ancient statues that were destroyed in the war will bring them true peace, especially when these statues are built with a rare metal that only came to be because of the war. It was clumpy and strange but shaping it with your tools was almost impossible with how tough the stuff was. When put into the light it would glitter and shine bright colors, and if the statue was done correctly then the true colors would appear. Aka if the statue was of a blonde woman then when it was remade with this special metal in the correct way, you could actually see the blonde hair when the statue was in the sunlight. Creating something new was prohibited since it was seen as a waste of metal, and it was so rare that most windfolk will never see a new collection of it in their life time. They are taught that the mines are the place they will spend their lives, and that they are only called windfolk in honor of their ancestors who flew in the sky. They were also taught to never explore past the tree line or to open the “rat door.” Each of which was basically a death sentence. Hoisho didn’t believe in this kind of stuff and thought that their people should abandon the destroyed past and live as they were supposed to, flying in the sky! But the elders said that windfolks have never actually flown in the sky, however Hoisho, being the explorer he is, found old paintings and relics depicting their ancestors gliding through the sky. So he thinks it’s all bullshit and wants to prove them wrong without giving up his secret hiding spot where all the evidence is, in fear of them destroying it.

However one day Hoisho, accidentally crossed into the other factions territory. He tried to get their attention thinking they were some tall windfolks, but when he grabbed some of their hands he noticed they were far bigger than any of the windfolk. He tried to run, the fog hiding his cover, but he found himself in a crowd, that only seems to be getting taller. The crowd sees him and thinks him a bug, they find joy in keeping him a pet or simply squishing him into a paste. Hoisho, terrified tries to leave but eventually is found only for them to become enraged, accusing him of trying to steal their tech and start another war. Well they won’t let him start the war cause they’re gonna start it! They tell him to let his little town of weaklings know, a war is coming. He is let go and runs off to his home to tell them what happened. They are pissed and banish Hoisho from their home and tell him that if he comes back they’ll throw him into the “rat door” Either way they must prepare for a war. Hoisho then asks why the rat door is so dangerous, with such a stupid name. They explain, (and in the movie it is shown in a different visual style and considered the most fucked up part of the movie) that a criminal in their society will be walked to the door and shoved in. When the door opens screams of what sounds like a strange combination of human like screams and rat screeches. We get to see a glimpse of what’s inside and its filled with a horrifying image. Of people fused into giant rats with body parts scattered about, their eyes being crazed out from what has happened to them. Like it was fucked up.

Hoisho runs off and tries living on his own when he meets a strange man his size, which he thought only the windfolk were his size but this man is clearly not one of them. From his gray skin and jet black hair, which gave off a feather like look. (Windfolk tended to have actual color in their skin, just think humans tbh) He takes the boy in and tells him that everything he knows is a lie…

THEN MY FUCKING DREAM MOM GOES “This movie is cheesy and dumb, turn it off” and she does that. When I’ve been searching for this damn movie for fucking years because I’ve never seen past the part of where Hoisho meets the stranger! And this bitch just turns it off?!?!? And doesn’t even let me watch the rest of it?!!? I was so pissed that I actually woke up.

Anyway from what I could remember and gather I think I know the twist. In the dream I remember there were many different theories on what happens and other theories about the windfolk. Like why is it called Hoisho, and the windfolks, when he is already one of them? One theory is, That the windfolk we meet at the beginning aren’t the actual windfolk. But then where did they go? Some believe that the rat door holds them and that they’ve all become these horrifying monsters behind the door. Others believe that the mysterious man is actually a descendant of the real windfolks, which may or may not have intermingled with whatever Hoisho and the rest of the fake windfolks are. With this theory it is thought that the fake windfolks are actually “rat folks” and that those who are too wild are sent into the door because they will one day break into the monsters that lie behind the door. But there are so many questions about the rest of the story! What about the giant faction? Why were they so into violence but many of them actually didn’t care for it? It was only the soldiers that were itching for a fight. Why did that special metal appear after the war? Is that metal their deceased corpses? They were know to be cyborgs in a way. Why are they huge? Are the folks humans? Or are humans all gone? Are the different folks tiny people who were a result from the war or were they always around? Why the fuck was it considered a fun kids movie when the whole “Rat door” sequence existed? Is the “rat door” the reason why the movie disappeared? Was it so disturbing that everyone agreed to make the movie disappear? How the fuck did my dream mother find the movie?!?!?

So many questions, no answers…although it sounds like a pretty good Internet mystery Or like an ARG tbh haha!

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