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satellitevenusnine · 6 months

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The Leaders

18+ explicit, Paya x Tauro, 8k+ words. Romance/Fluff. All the romance. Cozy. My kink is healthy communication. Not hurt/comfort, more like emotional release/physical release. Spoilers for the "Finding the Fifth Sage" questline. Proportionally speaking, 60% of this fic is sex scene. I'm waiting on an AO3 invite but the fic will live here for now. Apologies for any typos, this is my first piece of writing in 8 years. Not looking for critique or writing advice, but if you like it, feel free to send some love my way. I just saw the lack of content and decided to fill the gap, so to speak.

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When Tauro returned to Kakariko village, he was grinning from ear to ear.

Koko and Cottla ran to greet him at the southwest gate shouting their excitement into the light of the evening sun. Koko offered him one of her ring garlands and he swung her up onto his shoulder so she could put it around his neck. Cottla insisted that Tauro try a recipe she was working on. Grabbing his hand, Cottla pulled the unresisting researcher toward a bubbling cooking pot.

Paya heard the clamor from her loft window. She descended into the main room of the village hall and leaned out the window facing the High Spirits produce store. Tauro would have been hard to miss in most contexts, but her eyes immediately found the curly streak of white in a tumble of dark hair. His head was thrown back laughing and she couldn’t help but smile herself. She noticed the container of scrolls strapped to his back and felt excitement pull her to her toward the door. She slipped on her geta and hurried to meet the welcoming party.

“Lady Paya!” Cottla called out. “Come try my Mommy’s pumpkin recipe!”

Paya bowed to the child. “Thank you, Cottla. I would love to.”

Tauro playfully smacked his lips together and patted his belly. “Hey there, Paya! It’s so yummy, I’d eat up the whole pot if you let me!”

Cottla began to give a small lecture about the importance of sharing, Tauro and Koko on his shoulder nodding along gravely. Paya smiled to herself as she helped herself to a spoonful of nutty, spicy, meat-stuffed pumpkin. She savored the warmth as the flavors suddenly reminded her that she had gone too long without eating that day, lost in her ledgers of village supplies. Hunger to the point of nausea rose up and she had to lean a little against the matsu pine tree next to the pot. Lecture concluded, Cottla asked Paya what she thought of the food.

“You were absolutely right about sharing what we have in times of struggle, but I could eat up every last bit myself!” Paya said. She sighed a little. “Have you ever gotten so focused on something that you almost forget you have a body?”

Cottla frowned and shook her head “no,” but Koko was thoughtful for a moment and said, “Sometimes when I’m making my ring garlands, I want to only be thinking about nice things so the people who buy them can feel good as long as they have the garlands. It feels like that’s the only thing that exists, praying and braiding. Then it feels funny when my hands start to ache or something and it’s like I wasn’t even Koko for a while.”

Paya nodded at the older girl. “That’s exactly it.”

Tauro asked Koko, “Can I give you a hug?” and she threw her arms around his neck. He squeezed her tightly, swung her around once and set her giggling on her feet. “I’m glad you are Koko,” he told her. She laughed, waved, and ran back to her garland stand, but Cottla was still frowning at Paya.

“How are you sposed to take care of the village if you forget you have a body?” Cottla asked indignantly, shaking her ladle at the chief.

Paya bowed her head and folded her hands as if to beg forgiveness. “If I knew what delicious food was waiting for me, it would be much harder to forget,” she insisted.

Cottla lowered her ladle, squinting in suspicion. “You only had one bite! You better take a whole pumpkin and eat it all up!” She insisted right back.

Paya smiled in her gentle way. “Thank you, I will. And I will try to remember that you are counting on me to eat well, little Cottla.”

The little girl nodded decisively. She turned her ladle on Tauro now. “You take one, too. I gotta take the rest to Daddy now.”

Tauro grinned and said thanks, hoisting the box of scrolls off his back and setting his ring garland on top of it before scooping a stuffed pumpkin out of the steamer in the pot. He noticed Paya’s focus gravitate toward the box. “I’m surprised you managed to go this long without asking me about my findings! Link helped us land one of the biggest hauls in MILLENIA of Zonai research,” he told her now that they were alone.

Paya’s eyes lit up and she opened her mouth to ask a question when her belly growled as loud as a lynel. Hand over her stomach, she sighed a big sigh. “Cottla is right. I - I’m famished,” Paya replied. “As my honored guest, it is indelicate of me to eat without you starting the meal yourself. As desirous as I am to hear your news, may we please eat together?”

Something seemed to give Tauro pause for a second. His face was hard to read in a way that had nothing to do with his eyes being hidden under curls. Then his usual cheerful smile split the solemn expression and he tucked into his stuffed pumpkin without wasting another word.

Paya bowed her head and gave thanks, then did her best to match Tauro’s leisurely pace instead of tearing into her dish the way her stomach demanded. They ate in companionable silence and left the chatter to the cuccoos until the last morsel made it to Paya’s mouth.

“May I ask you something, Chief Paya?” Tauro inquired.

Paya nodded, dabbing her mouth delicately.

“Did you used to forget meals before the Ring Ruins fell?”

She glanced up at him in mild surprise. He had never really asked her such a personal question before.

She nodded slowly. “For a while after my mother passed away.”

Tauro made a noise of sympathy. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”

Paya looked down at her hands in her lap for a long, quiet moment. “She would have been chief before me if she had lived ’til Grandmother left,” she heard herself say. “I had to start preparations to take her place under Grandmother’s tutelage immediately after…” She was suddenly conscious of having forgotten to put on her chieftain hat in her hurry to greet Tauro and the children. She felt exposed without it now.

Paya felt a tear slip down her cheek and brushed it away reflexively. She had wished for her mother intensely while the stone ruins rained down on the village and the castle rose into the sky, and it had passed out of her awareness until now. A wave of grief hit her, recent losses calling to old ones amid the uncertainty of the future. She was trying so hard to be what the village needed both now and if the Demon King should return to his full power. She desperately fought back a sob.

Tauro was suddenly on his knees in front of her, blurry from the tears she couldn’t hold back anymore. “You don’t have to hide this from anyone, least of all from me,” he murmured. But Paya had both hands pressed tightly to her mouth and she found that she couldn’t look at him.

“Can I give you a hug?” Tauro asked. Paya felt certain that she would drown him if she let loose, but the need for release was greater and she flung her arms open to his embrace. How long had it been since she was held? Not since she was entrusted with the care of the village, at the very least. Not for many Blood Moons. She poured her tears upon his chest and it felt like she became a wild thing howling. Tauro subtly waved away onlookers concerned for their chief and kept her wrapped firmly in his arms no matter how roughly her wailing wracked her body. Her cries echoed off the cliffsides and it sounded like the mountains cried with her in many voices. When she began to tire out he drew her in closer, rocking slightly, until she relaxed in one big sigh. A breeze clacked the wooden emi hanging above them.

“Thank you,” Paya croaked, face still pressed against his body. Tauro just hummed an acknowledgement and the sound of it vibrated through her skull. She sat listening to the great whoosh of his heartbeat for a minute, relaxing further. When she finally raised her head, she found herself looking for his eyes.

“May I…?” Paya started to ask. “May I pull your hair away from your face? I just realized I have never actually seen your eyes.”

Tauro smiled gently. “Of course.”

What little distance remained between them was closed with great tenderness as Paya tucked long locks behind his ears. She wasn’t fully prepared for the sensation of falling into his gaze once she could finally meet it. The warmth and concern present, the patience and the steadiness disarmed her.

“Oh!” She said, startled. “Oh. This is quite intimate.”

Tauro’s smile grew into a grin, hiding his eyes once again in deep creases. “Yeah.” He replied. One large hand traced slow circles on her back. “Are you ok?” He asked.

She nodded “yes”, unable to look away from his face.

The sound of someone clearing their throat nearby startled her back into the wider world.

“Lady Paya,” Dorian greeted her. “Would you like to rest now that you’ve had your evening meal?”

Paya drew away from Tauro reluctantly. He, in turn, left his hand to linger on her back, a fortifying presence.

“You’ve got a little pumpkin in your beard, friend,” Tauro pointed out to Dorian. The guardsman hurriedly brushed the food from his face as Paya collected herself.

“Please thank Cottla again for her fine cooking and her care for her Chief,” Paya told Dorian, a noticeable rasp in her voice now. “Both your daughters do so much for the village. I can see the future of the Sheikah is bright because of them.” She bowed deeply to her bodyguard.

Dorian’s attitude softened somewhat. “Thank you, Lady Paya. I give thanks for them myself every day.” Straightening his posture, he asked, “Would you like to be escorted to your chambers?”

“Yes, I would,” Paya smiled, “but I wonder if I would be better served if you took the night off to rest and spend time with your family. They reminded me once again that without our health, the village cannot go on. We each must take care of our bodies and our hearts. Mr. Tauro has news of the latest developments in Master Link’s journey that he has yet to share with me and it may be best to relay that information in private. Cado and Olkin have guard duty in front of the village hall tonight so I will be well protected.”

“Tauro, would you be willing to accompany me to my chambers?” She asked.

Tauro beamed, bowed, and said, “Absolutely, my Lady!”

Dorian looked taken aback but bowed as well. “Our Lady knows best. I will enjoy time with my girls and return to my post refreshed in the morning.”

Paya felt the absence of the heat of Tauro’s hand when he took it from her back. The sound of Dorian’s footsteps receded.

She averted her gaze from the play of his muscles as Tauro shouldered the crate of scrolls again and clasped her hands in front of her heart. Grandmothers, see him through my Eye. Is he for the Sheikah tribe or for tonight?

Tauro’s hand lightly grasped her shoulder to let her know he was ready. Paya looked up at him and felt a pricking between her eyes that felt like the day her tattoo was inked. A spreading heat and intense yearning for him soaked into her bones. Her lips parted and she began the meditative breath. If you do this it will be Ceremony. Voiced yet voiceless.

She covered his hand with one of hers and spoke it. “If we join, it will be Ceremony. As Chief of the village, I do not do this casually. Knowing this, would you be willing to accompany me to my bedchambers?”

His lips parted too. With so much of his body bare, when he flushed it was very visible. “Yes, my Lady.”

Fireflies began to glow in the village round.

***

“I would still enjoy hearing what you discovered in Faron,” Paya said as she and Tauro climbed the loft stairs together.

“In my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined we’d find depictions of the workings of these ancient conductors, let alone EXTANT ritual garb made by Zonai for HYLIANS to wear!” He gushed without hesitation

“I almost lost my sea legs when me and Calip found Link WEARING the artifacts under a site struck by lightning that had been directed by Zonai conductors!”

Paya giggled and directed him to set the box of scrolls on her work table. “‘Lost your sea legs?’ Like lost your balance from shock?”

“Exactly right! The conductors were able to channel the energy away from the giant storm above Faron Woods, possibly due to the electricity attraction of metals and the energy absorbing properties of Zonaite!”

Paya shook her head in disbelief. “That kind of power… Truly a fascinating culture, but that kind of capability gives me pause.”

“Oh, 100%” Tauro said with vigor. “But now that WE can access these relics, it’s important that everyone know as much as we can about them. Their effect on the world, why they were put there, who they affected, the material cost to make them!”

Paya smiled. “I agree. Let no one person be considered the master of such relics.”

“Uh-huh. I like that.” Tauro looked around the room, scratching his head.

“Paya, may I make myself more comfortable?”

“Of course, Tauro. Do you need to ask?”

“Well, that means taking off the clothes I wear to fit in better with the Sheikah and sitting on your bed because my head damn near hits the rafters.”

Paya blushed from her seat next to her work table. “How much of your clothing do you wear to preserve my sense of modesty?” She asked.

“Basically, all of it.”

“Oh.”

Silence.

“Tauro, please make yourself comfortable.”

He smiled but it was one she had never seen before. Teasing. He wore boldness better than any garment.

He uncovered his head and shook out his hair. Paya became very aware of her body as the yearning pull started up again. He was right, his head nearly touched the beams of her ceiling. He tilted his chin, leaning contrapposto, and slid his vest off his shoulders, followed by a shirt he had mostly deconstructed. He untied his arm band, the turn of his head accentuating the tendons in his neck. He ran his hands languidly across his chest, grinning. “Still doing ok over there?”

“Oh, yes,” Paya breathed. Her expression shifted from entranced to curious. “How can you share yourself with the whole world like that?”

“I’ve got nothing to hide and everything to feel.”

Paya’s view drifted inward as she considered what Tauro had said. “That sounds wonderful,” she murmured. “You are truly blessed, Tauro.”

It was his turn to look introspective, stroking his chin and playing with the tie in his beard. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Do you want to hide, Paya?”

She looked into his face again. “Not right now. Not from you.”

He put his hand over his heart. “I am truly blessed.”

“Are you as… comfortable as you want to be, Tauro?”

“I’ve got more to show you, Paya.”

“Please, make yourself at home here.”

Another heartwarming grin. Off came his tool belt, his gloves, his research notebook in it’s net pouch, his purely decorative jacket around his waist. He licked his lips and hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his shorts. Paya’s breathing sounded loud in her own ears. Pushing his hips forward slightly, Tauro eased his last article of clothing off his body slowly and gracefully, relishing the sensation of his skin being exposed. He was left in only his Lurelin beads and magnifying lens pendant. He stretched his arms a little and brushed his hair back to make eye contact with Paya. Her mouth was open slightly and the heat in her eyes was intense. Even when he was at half-mast, to borrow a Lurelin phrase, he was the picture of desire.

“I think I see what you mean now,” she said with some awe in her voice. “If I were to visit you in Lurelin, should I wear something like… that?”

The beads draped around Tauro’s hips actually rattled when his cock jumped at the thought. Paya’s breath drew in sharply. “I think that is something you and I can definitely try just for us,” he said in a measured tone, “but most folks in Lurelin these days wear some cloth. They just don’t mind that I like sticking to the old ways.”

Paya let out a scandalized giggle, eyes wide. “I’m glad I asked first.”

Tauro sat down on her bed. “Are you comfortable, Lady Paya?” He leaned back onto his elbows, abs flexing as his torso curled along the length of her bed.

“I, um. I might need some assistance. My hands are a little unsteady right now.” She admitted.

He sat up again and held his arms out to her. She got up out of her seat and crossed the room to him. He was looking up at her face for the first time, but not by much. His hands slid across the sash at her waist and up her back as he drew her between his bare legs. The heavy wool of her garments was velvety against his inner thighs. He stroked her back as she reached for his face. She cupped his jaw with both hands, stroking her thumbs across the stubble on his cheeks. Half-lidded, her dark eyes looked like endless pools he could drown in. She leaned in for a gentle kiss.

A different kind of hunger began to make demands of her body. She moaned into Tauro’s mouth and he gasped, fingers flexing along her spine. The kiss deepened. Her hands were in his hair, tracing the curve of his collar bone, clasping the back of his neck. He grasped at her hips, slid his palms up her rib cage, dragged fingers down her shoulder blades. “Ohhhhh,” Paya moaned again, arching into him.

Tauro pulled away first. “What assistance do you need, my Lady?” He asked.

Her eyes cleared a little of desire. “Oh!” She said, a little breathlessly. “Um, something just occurred to me. Before you help me, um, get comfortable, you should know I may come away from this bed bearing new life. It is our custom to make vows before Hylia should we become family in that way. The bond is forever, in this lifetime and maybe the next.”

Tauro stroked her back again. “The bright future of the Sheikah tribe?” He smiled. She met his smile with one of her own. He put one of her hands over his heart and put one of his hands over hers. “Do I get to be your official consort or something?” Paya’s shy delight practically set her face aglow.

“You get a seat by my side always in all matters. Any children I bear will have the right to wear the Eye tattoo as proof of their unbroken Sheikah lineage.”

“That’s what that means?!”

Paya nodded “yes.”

“Wow. You really want me to be a part of that?”

She nodded again.

He really considered her words, but his hand never left hers, still touching his heart. He interlaced his fingers with hers. Taking in a deep breath and locking eyes with her, he said, “I would be truly blessed.”

Paya’s eyes filled but they were happy tears this time. She leaned in for another kiss and Tauro brought a hand up to her face, touching her tattoo reverently before their lips met again. She began to feel the press of his arousal against her body and her breath escaped her in a long exhale. Tauro moaned a little and let his hands roam down to her lower back and beyond. He used his solid grip on her ass to press her hips against his. “OhhHHHH!” from Paya, than a gasp. Tauro made a noise deep in his throat as their kissing gained a fiercer edge.

“Tauro,” she whispered, “Please…”

He stopped to let her catch her breath. “‘Please’ what, Paya?”

She had to find her words again. “I do not think I can manage knots right now. Will you undo my ties for me?”

He took her hands, kissed her palms, his sure fingers making quick work of the ties at her wrists and forearms. “Easier than untangling fishing line,” he chuckled.

Smiling down at him, Paya reached up to her hair to undo her top knot. Her loose sleeves revealed bare arms and Tauro gulped, realizing that this was the genuinely the most he’d seen of her body so far. She put her hair sticks and vermillion ribbons down on the stand next to her bed as Tauro rubbed her hips. She shook her head now that her hair was free and Tauro saw that in the lamp light, the strands shimmered like silver but had an aura of gold. His breath caught in his chest.

“The knot in my obi tie is tucked into my back,” she told him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her again. “How do you tie it like that?” He whispered against her lips.

“I tie it in front and twist it round to the back,” she laughed. “But I like this way of discovering.”

“Mmm.” Tauro agreed between kisses, “Me too.”

Another quick knot to undo and her obi was on the floor, her great surcoat hanging freely around her body. She pulled it off and Tauro was shocked and delighted to see she was wearing a halter top underneath. When he ran his hands up her back again, they both thrilled at the touch of skin on skin. She leaned into his touch, letting her head drop back while she steadied herself with a grip on his shoulders. Groaning from the pressure of her pelvis against his bare groin, Tauro laid kisses along her collarbone while his hands confidently explored her newly exposed territory. His breath hissed through his teeth when he realized her neck was still entirely covered.

“There are two clasps at the back,” Paya whispered.

In a flash, he had them open. She released his shoulders to pull her top over her head and then it joined her obi and coat on the floor. Unconsciously, Paya clasped her hands over her heart, covering her bare breasts with her arms. Tauro’s breathing was unsteady and his mouth hung open slightly. She could feel the heat and humidity from his breath on her chest. He looked only at her face as she reached a hand to run her fingers through his hair and closed his eyes when she began to lightly scratch his scalp.

“The ties at my waist are the last,” she said.

Tauro hugged her tightly and pressed his face against her throat. Both Paya’s hands were in his hair now and the skin on the back of his neck tingled as her nails traced circles round and round. He grazed teeth against the hollow between her throat and shoulder and she cried out. Massaging her glutes, he kissed and sucked and worked her neck. Her hips began to move against his and he grunted. When she started scratching circles on his shoulders and upper back, Tauro cried out too, muffled against her neck. Running his own fingers through her hair, he brought Paya’s mouth to his and drank of her desire.

A cool breeze came through the loft’s open window and raised gooseflesh on Paya’s fevered skin. Tauro’s hands burned where he touched her.

He drew away first, holding eye contact as he released the ties from the curves of her hips and the thin cotton underskirt fell away.

“Are you comfortable now, my Lady?”

Paya shivered slightly from excitement. Her blush was everywhere. Tauro could feel the warmth and damp from between her legs against his body. “My need for you is uncomfortable. I ache with it,” she said. Tauro felt his own body tighten in response and he tipped his head back. He sucked his breath in through his teeth. “Ah.. yes. Right there with you.” Drawing her into his arms again, he just held her skin to skin for the first time. “I don’t know that I fully appreciated how sensitized you would be with all that cloth and tradition between you and the world.” He told her. Something in her belly unclenched and she let out a breath.

“Oh! Does joining not feel like that to everyone?”

Tauro pulled back slightly to meet her eyes, eyebrows raised. “Beloved, nothing we’ve done so far has felt like joining with anyone I’ve ever been with.”

“I want us to be comfortable together.” He said. “It doesn’t have to be all about tension to get release.”

Her eyelids fluttered a bit as she took that in. “Can you show me?” Paya asked.

Tauro licked his lips and began making slow circles with his hand on her upper back. “Focus on breathing deeply for a bit.” He intoned, leaning in to brush a kiss below her ear.

She could do that. She felt the rhythm of his breathing slow down and began to match it. Tauro massaged between her shoulder blades and planted kisses along her neck while she took in as much breath as she could and released it as slowly as possible. A practiced meditative breath. When she inhaled, he put a hand on her rising breastbone and just rested there, the other hand moving to the curve of her back. A long sigh out and he laid his lips to linger on the junction of her neck and shoulder. He cupped one of her breasts which prompted her next breath in and she pressed into his hand. “Ahhhhhhhhh” Paya sighed.

“Do you feel more comfortable now, Beloved?” Tauro asked, voice buzzing against her throat.

“Oh, yes,” she breathed. The passion she rode began to feel more like a great current than a tempest

“Do you want me to start opening you up?” He asked.

“OH! Oh, yes.”

“Let’s lay you down, Beloved.”

“Mmmmmmmm. Yes.”

Tauro simply splayed both hands across her back and lay down, taking her with him. Stretched out on top of him, Paya took his face in her hands and kissed him deeply, slowly, passing the leading rhythm back and forth between them. Tauro rolled them over so that Paya was on her back and he straddled her hips. More kisses, more sighs, more discovering.

“Will you spread your legs for me, Beloved?” He asked.

She bit her swollen lower lip as he raised himself onto knees and elbows. Running her hands down her body, she squeezed her breasts, traced the curves of her belly, and began to touch her lowest lips as she spread her thighs for him.

“OH!” Tauro gasped and wasted no time covering her face, neck, and chest with kisses. She sighed and kept her breathing steady, but the weight of his body pressed against her vulva made her play with her pussy more urgently.

He cupped and caressed her breasts, sucking a nipple deeply into his mouth, jaw open wide, and laving the underside of her breast with his tongue. “Yessssssss,” she breathed, arching up into him, raining kisses on the top of his head, her free hand tangled in the waves of his hair. He squeezed and massaged, worshipping alternately with hand and mouth, briefly pausing to listen to her racing heart.

Her slit was so slick now, she could feel her nectar dripping like honey over the crack of her ass and soaking into the futon. There was a patch on Tauro’s belly where he pressed his body against her. When he rose up, a string of it followed him.

“Paya, my Lady. Beloved,” he moaned “May I taste you between your legs?”

She whimpered. “Yes!”

He lay his cheek along her belly and brought her wet hand to his mouth. He kissed and licked her fingers, sucked them greedily one by one making little sounds of appreciation, licked the creases between her fingers with the flat and the point of his tongue. Her hips moved beneath him and she sighed. He nuzzled her stomach tenderly, being mindful of his stubbly cheeks. He gripped the prominences of her pelvis and gave kisses like blessings across her womb. Paya intertwined her fingers with his as he kissed the top of her mound. She squeezed his hands and tried to remember her deep breathing as she felt warmth, then cool against her slit as Tauro exhaled, then inhaled, then sighed hot breath against her most intimate of parts.

He kissed her clitoris when he felt her begin an inhalation. Immediately, her legs spread wider, pushing her pussy against his face. He squeezed her hands back and put his whole mouth on her flesh, sucking while his tongue slowly, deliberately writhed and licked between her lips.

“Ahhh!” She cried out, thrusting into him. Her back arched up off the bed as she tried to breathe in slowly through her nose. “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” she sighed out, grinding gently, head tossed to one side.

Tauro made noises of satisfaction between her thighs and her rhythm stuttered. He hummed with her lips in his mouth and rimmed her slit with his tongue. She pressed into him and fell back on the bed. She let go of his hands to massage her breasts and he grabbed a pillow to put under her buttocks. Lapping the length of her with the flat of his tongue, he lifted up her hips and wrapped his strong arms around her thighs, pulling them open further and angling her pussy for a deep drink. Her well had many waters for him. He dipped into her with thrusting tongue and Paya’s voice dropped a whole octave. “UHHhhhh,” she groaned. She scraped her nails across her nipples and reached for Tauro’s head between her legs. He spread her lips wider with rubbing fingers, aiming to relax the muscles of her pelvic floor. He nursed her clit and swirled his tongue inside of her.

She felt like she was melting into his mouth. Her eyes closed and her hips rippled more smoothly against his face, knees dropping toward the futon as she unfurled to him. She made a tender fist in his hair.

“Oh!” Paya sighed, rubbing the space between her breasts with the other hand.

The bed moved slightly from Tauro pushing his own hips into the futon. Her strokes against his tongue started to grip him and he voiced his hunger for her climax. Fingers, lips, suction, pressure, depth. He came up for air with a ragged breath and then sank back into her. With his tongue as deep inside her as it would go, he curled it up toward her pubic bone, moving the point back and forth. Her thighs began to shake. Her toes pointed into his ribs, then flexed. She took as much breath as she could into her diaphragm and felt her Hara, her solar plexus, open up. Then Paya let herself feel it all. His joyful presence after a time of fear and tragedy. The ease with which formality dropped away as they worked together. His enthusiasm and his ability to sit in observation the way she sat in meditation. The way in which he hid nothing and sensed everything.

She rained her sacred waters on him and he did his best to drink them down. His hands roamed her body, touching her everywhere. Her thighs were pressed against his ears. Her cries sounded almost musical, going up and down scales. Tauro heard them as if swimming through the solid conductor of her flesh. He felt like he was being swallowed. Her walls pulsing against his lips and tongue, her hips rolling his head, her hand drawing him in. The smell and taste of sea water. His eyes rolled up. Every sense was filled with her release. Paya moved against him like ocean waves, like something bigger than the bounds of the earth. Thunder clapped overhead. With one hand clutched against her heart, she let go and let the rhythm ride her. It tumbled them both.

When Tauro came up for air again, he was a little wobbly. His lips were puffy. Veins pulsed in his neck. His beard and some of his curls were dripping. His entire face and torso from the nose down were shiny from her gushing waters. Lifting himself up onto his elbow, he burped.

Paya felt like the whole expansive world was her body. She was luxuriating in it when she heard Tauro’s burp and opened her eyes to see a very soggy man.

“Are you well, Tauro?” Her voice sounded resonant like a bell.

A toothy grin appeared. “Beloved, I’m well.”

“Will there be more joining tonight?”

“Mm. The intention is there. Give me a moment, please.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean —“

He nuzzled his face against her knee with as much energy as he could muster and stroked the top of her thigh. “I know. If not now, after a nap. I want you too.”

Her smile was loving. She reached out her arms for him. He belly-crawled up on knees and elbows til her face was within kissing distance. Their torsos were slippery from her fluids and the promise of rain in the air.

Tauro flung his hair back and leaned over her to lace his fingers behind the base of her skull. His eyes explored Paya’s face. He kissed her Eye tattoo and pressed his forehead there, taking a deep breath and exhaling through his nostrils. She met his unblinking gaze and inhaled his breath deep into her Hara.

“Do you know that tradition?” He asked her.

“I’ve not heard of nor experienced it before, but I did what felt right.”

He stroked her hair. “Bright future.”

“Family,” she replied.

“It’s not just for lovers,” he said. “If you share breath, you share life.”

She smiled, reached for the edge of the futon quilt they lay atop of and wrapped it over both of them.

“Do you want to tell me more about your practices, Tauro?”

He sighed happily and flopped to one side, letting his hand play with the curves of Paya’s ribs, waist, hip.

“Where I come from, grandparents and grandbabies do it, parents and children, people you’ve grown up with or survived great challenges with. It’s feeding each other, and it’s like a language that belongs to plants and creatures, minerals and the weather. It all breathes.”

Paya nodded in appreciation. “I feel connected with all things when I meditate, through my breath, because of what you describe.”

“If there’s a name for my practice, I don’t know it. It’s older than names.”

“Is the kiss on the forehead part of it?” She asked

“I wanted to honor where the life in you comes from. It feels meaningful that you have a marker there, where you and I make a connection, too. Some relationships may add kisses, but they won’t mean what ours will.”

Her eyes shone. “We are truly blessed, Tauro”

He drew closer. “I feel it, Paya.”

Closer still. “Beloved Paya, I’m ready if you are.”

She glanced down.

“Well, not ready ready.”

“Tauro, I would enjoy reciprocating. Do you want me to love your body with my mouth?”

A stirring near her hip.

“Oh Beloved…” with some heat.

He drew her mouth to his.

She was mindful of her pressure on his swollen lips. She could taste her own salt on him and his skin had half-dried a little tacky. Some of the urgency had bled off with her release.

Slow, tender kisses expressed her care for him. Paya asked Tauro to lay back and some of the thick quilt fell away. She reached for a basket under the stand next to her bed and got out a jar of oil. She poured a little in her hands and straddled Tauro’s belly. Spreading the oil across her palms, she put her hands on his chest and leaned down to kiss him some more. He slid his hands up to her hips and brushed her skin with his thumbs. Paya sat up and leaned her body weight into the muscles of his chest.

“Ahhhhh,” he sighed. He did his best to keep up with stretches while doing field work, but it was a demanding occupation.

She described big, broad circles in the tissue of his pecs with fists and palms, pressed her fingers between each rib and worked the muscles there. She ran her thumbs in the space between his ribcage and diaphragm while he inhaled deeply. Moving off to one side, Paya rubbed Tauro’s stomach clockwise, no deep pressure on the abdomen. She was careful with his sacred Hara. Her circles got bigger and moved lower. His breathing was deep and regular. She stretched out beside him and kissed the side of his face. He brought an arm up around her shoulders and she leaned her head on his bicep. Her hand slid past the beads on his hips and she rubbed oil into the muscle attachments at his pubic bone.

Tauro brought his knees up to change the tilt of his pelvis and some of his beads clinked as he changed position. His breathing became a little more rapid but still steady. She kissed his throat, his heart, his belly, bringing her hands up to rub broad circles across his nipples with her thumbs. She licked his belly button, circling it with her tongue before pressing inside. He took an extra deep breath and his hips twitched.

Paya looked up at him through silver lashes. “Shall I remove the beads around your middle?” She asked. He pointed to the ties and her fingers were much steadier now. He pulled the strands from under his body and dropped them on top of Paya’s discarded clothes along with his magnifying lens.

The length of his penis lay along one of Tauro’s hip creases. He was swelling but not hard. She reverently rested her cheek against his belly and stroked her oily palm down the underside of his cock, her thumb continuing the motion down his scrotum in the valley between his testicles. She came back up behind his balls and grasped the whole root of him. Tauro began to pant a bit, one knee dropping to the futon to give her better access and his hands coming up to play with his tits. Paya spread saliva around her lips with her tongue and stroked her hand up the length of him. There was enough lubrication from the oil on her palms that she gave each pull a twist at the head. His foreskin began to pull back as blood rushed to his phallus.

Moving her hand to caress his inner thigh, Paya wrapped her tongue around the head of Tauro’s cock and slurped it between her wet lips. His abdomen heaved and he thrust, a little shallowly with no real intention, up into her mouth. “Oh, Goddess!” He yelped.

She sucked gently, pulling up, twisting her mouth around his head now. She swirled her tongue around the tip as he rolled his nipples between his fingers. Paya grasped his hip and began to bob her head slowly up and down his length. He breathed in deeply and rocked his pelvis toward her face. After a minute, she pulled off of him and drooled on his cock. Her hand stroked the base of him with this new lubrication as she caught her breath. When she swallowed him again, she took him as deeply as she comfortably could.

“OHHhhhh, Beloved!!”

Her eyes flickered shut. Her sucking pulsed. One hand made corkscrew motions where his penis joined his body and the other played the valley between his testicles again. Her thighs slipped against each other as her arousal started to spill out again.

Tauro was grunting, groaning in time to her strokes. Paya hummed, fluttering her tongue along the underside of his cock. She pressed his hips down in to the futon when he bucked up toward her, and came up for air. Tauro traced her jawline with a finger.

“Ok, Beloved, I’m ready ready now.” A little raggedy, but with some energy.

Now Paya’s lips were a little puffy as well, and glossed with her saliva. She reclined along side him and they turned to each other to kiss. Tauro’s phallus was hot and slick between the press of their bodies. She threw one leg over his hip and ground her inner flesh against his cock. He rolled her over on to her back and she wrapped her legs around him. He kissed her thoroughly, ardently as he rutted his hips into hers, sliding between her lips and over her clit, driving her desire higher. One hand ran down the front of her body to lavish attention on her breasts. A hand in his hair drew Tauro’s head back and he made eye contact with Paya. She laid her palm at the base of his skull. Tauro did the same for her and kissed the center of her Eye tattoo. Her other hand grasped the slippery length of him and guided him to the center of her heat. Tauro pressed his forehead against Paya’s and stared deeply into her eyes. She exhaled long and slow through her nostrils while he inhaled, then he exhaled long and slow, pushing his cock forward, while she drew his breath in. This time, Taura could feel her drawing his Shen, his spirit, into herself with their breath at the same time he was being physically drawn into her body.

Truly blessed.

He rocked his torso back and pushed his hips deeper. Paya rocked her pubic bone toward him and spread her legs wider. She breathed slowly and evenly, and as she relaxed open, Tauro sank deeper into her body from his own weight. They found each other’s lips, making the sounds lovers make as they explored. Her arms went around his neck like a garland. Then Tauro pushed himself up and the shift drove his cock deep enough that her pussy swallowed him whole. Paya cried out in satisfaction, wrapped her legs around his like vines anchoring him in place. He held there a moment, straining as he felt her hold on him. Everywhere.

“UHHhhhh”

A flash of lighting lit up the room in black and white.

Tauro folded forward seeking kisses. There was an abundance there for him as thunder rumbled in the distance. Paya reached both hands down for his ass cheeks and used the leverage to grind her clit against his pubic bone. Very guttural vocalizations came out of Tauro as he wrapped his arms under and up over her shoulders to hold on. Her head fell back in an arc, her mouth open, exposing the column of her neck. He ravaged her neck with lips and tongue, needing an outlet for the sensations and needing to spur her on. He rocked into her as much as he was able.

She felt so full. Not only full with her lover, with Tauro’s body, but full of vitality, full of pleasure, full of emotion. It felt so good to be in this body and to share it with someone who could honor all of her. She kneaded his buttocks and they both moaned as he flexed inside her. Tauro pushed himself on his hands so the balance of his weight was in his pelvis and he felt his shoulder muscles tense. Paya gasped, gripped his ass harder, circled her hips — mortar and pestle. She pushed him right up to the edge in her own release. He took a deep breath in, wrapped his fingers around her breasts, and rode the sensations. She gushed around him, pulled him deep with her internal embrace as they churned together. She lifted her knees around his ribs and, free to move his hips, Tauro began to move by millimeters in and out. The thinner, watery fluid of her release eliminated friction. She let go of his ass cheeks, put her hands over his on her breasts, and just let their bodies pulse together.

Tauro flexed himself inside her again and her torso rose off the bed. Kissing her. Kissing him. Kissing each other. He rested on his elbows and Paya wrapped her legs and arms around his back. This was an old language too. They matched breath, chests pressed together, and heartbeats hammering in synchrony. He moved in and out in time to their deep breathing. Push, pull, pressure, vacuum.

“Tauroooo…” Paya moaned

A hitch in his breath. Now in and out in time to their pounding hearts. “OhHH Paya!”

She could feel him growing fuller and firmer too. She was stretched to her capacity and she engulfed him. She kissed him, suckled his tongue, and pressed her heels into his sacrum at the base of his spine.

A scratchy gasp burst from his lips. His fluid movements were not under his intentional control anymore. He could feel energy building up in his Hara, in his guts, in his balls.

Paya spilled over first, calling his name again. The bed was rocking like a boat on the ocean. Tauro’s beads clicked in time to his thrusts. She was milking the core of him and he felt his energy expand outward. He rutted into her welcoming body, back bowed, and he felt like he was bursting apart like the birthing of a star. In a rush, his Jing, his essence, flowed from his root and poured into Paya. He poured it deep, deep into the well of her sacred waters. They cried to each other like cranes taking flight across the skies.

Lifegiving rain poured down on the village.

***

“…are you well, Tauro?”

“y- ye —ahem. mm. yes, Beloved.” murmured threads of voices.

“shall we rest just like this?”

“mm. don’t think… i can move anyway.”

sighs. rustling of bed linens. yawns. kisses. sleep.

***

Tauro cracked one eye open as sound of cuccoos crowing carried across the village despite the muffling blanket of rain.

Paya was still fast asleep. He’d moved off to one side of the bed at some point during their rest. Pulling the futon quilt up to his chin, Tauro snuggled up to her again. This definitely beat a bedroll or a cot in this kind of weather. He supposed there were some material advantages to staying in one place where you could cultivate things. His focus drifted around the room as he felt sleep starting to take hold again.

Sitting bolt upright in bed, Tauro asked, “Paya, is that an ORIGINAL tapestry depicting the Calamity??”

She startled awake, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and staring confusedly up at him. “mmmph?? Y-yes??? You didn’t notice it last night?” Her scratchy voice asked blearily, squinting at him.

“I was focused on OTHER THINGS, Beloved!”

Laughing, she put her arm over her eyes. “You took all your clothes off right in front of it!”

Mouth agape. “And you DIDN’T POINT IT OUT??!”

“I have looked at that tapestry every day of my life, sweet one. It started to pass beyond my notice when the Hero won against the second Calamity and we were no longer charged with keeping it safe for fate of the world.” Paya took his hand. “Have you learned much about Sheikah relics?”

He was considering her. “Not enough, apparently.”

Lying back down, Tauro wrapped an arm around Paya’s shoulder. “How many of your ancestors have had the tapestry?”

She brought a hand up to her Eye. “Including the weavers, I am the 108th generation to serve in this way.”

He started to play with the tie in his beard. “How old were you when Link reawoke the first time?”

“Mmmm, do your people count the year of pregnancy?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“I was twenty years of age.”

“… was your mother already…?”

“yes. I was being educated to become Chief after my grandmother.”

He squeezed her lightly. She placed a hand over his heart and snuggled into him.

“Paya, Link and the Sages are going to win.”

She curled her fingers. Sigh. “Tauro, I trust you. I still fear for my village, though. Where does your confidence come from?”

Considering in silence. “So much has been laid down before you and I were born. So many things have had to go right over thousands and thousands of years for us to have the tools and information we have at our disposal. You called me here at the opening of something new, each of us carrying this wisdom from the ancients, and then when we joined, it felt like we blessed the whole valley. Maybe we can’t see the whole story yet. But I think it has to mean that we have the best possible chance to succeed.”

Closing her eyes, Paya listened to the great whoosh of Tauro’s heartbeat. “I feel it, Tauro.” Her voice resonant, like a bell.

He kissed the crown of her head and turned to encircle her in his arms. They matched each other’s breathing and lay listening to the rain on the thatch.

#loz totk #paya #tauro #kakariko village #paya x tauro #i literally got possessed by this idea and sat down over 5 days to write it #i have sequel ideas but i'm not trying to do this for a following #i'll write shit if the inspiration strikes #i really went nuts with the ocean puns i do not apologize #actually nikkei #actually shintō #if you know you know

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satellitevenusnine · 2 months

Text

The Leaders of the Village

PG, PG-13 max. Paya x Tauro, pt II. i have a lot more written, i just need to get some of it up before the whole thing became too unwieldy. cultural notes are at the end this time. word count: 10,703

ao3 link if you'd prefer to read it there.

***

They didn’t join every night, but quite often.

Tauro made generous portions of hearty meals at midday and handed them out to whomever was at the Zonai Survey lab. Cottla agreed to run them over to Paya if the Chief’s duties meant that she couldn’t eat with him.

Paya gradually had much more energy at the end of the day. She slept more deeply and peacefully than ever.

Tauro’s first expedition away from Kakariko village after their involvement began saw him pouring out his feelings for Paya in a notebook to bring home to her, kept separate from his research notebook, of course. He wasn’t especially given to verse, but he wrote about seeing her gracefulness and humility in the way the Hylian rice bowed under the weight of its grain, caressed by the breeze. He told her about what he saw on the road each day, questions he wished he could ask her, evidence he wanted her insight into.

Paya had so many memories with him and of him in the village, she felt his warmth near her always as she moved throughout her day.

Cottla was a good cook, but she was trying to stuff Paya to the gills in Tauro’s absence. Therefore, Paya did her best to promote movement in her own digestion by walking, scaling the scaffoldings, and providing hospitality to the research teams around the ruins in person.

Her heart felt lighter, bigger, and it buoyed her steps. Her friends and relatives responded joyfully to their Chief in kind, tucking flowers behind her ears as she passed them on the village paths, hands touching hands, slipping fruits and wild-growing treats into the folds of her garments against her insistence that she was well-fed already.

When Tauro returned, he moved his things from the lab to Paya’s loft. It rained on the village that night.

He took her home to Lurelin and showed her the restoration work that had been done. Tauro hadn’t felt the need to wander back in a while but Paya had never seen the ocean and he could hear the siren call of the sea. He taught Paya to sail by the wind and to catch crabs and ocean fish, and they traded them for meals at the restaurant. She tried fish roe for the first time and her big eyes looked at him with such bliss that Tauro bought an entire pot packed with salted roe to bring back to Kakariko.

The children told Paya about being displaced by pirates and she listened with quiet attention. She asked the boys take her around the village and show her what they remembered, other villagers sharing where they had hidden or which path they had taken fleeing with their families. Then Paya and the children prayed before Hylia together.

Paya wore Lurelin wraps for the first time and subsequently spent three days solid speaking to the weavers about how they were made, the history of the materials, and what the motifs meant.

Rozel presented Paya with one of their recovered boats, chief to chief, and she and Tauro got to work fixing it up. Paya worked with weavers like Ralera to learn to make a sailcloth and cushions. Tauro took her foraging in Faron Woods for dye materials. She asked Kinov and Zuta, the little boys, to help her create a design that could represent both their villages. They traced many iterations on the sand before choosing a Sheikah eye encircled by a ring of waves. Tauro sat nearby making nets, floats, and line while Paya and the children painted the boat and got the sailcloth attached.

Rola and Cado came to vacation in Lurelin from Kakariko and they were happy to donate a ring garland they were carrying as the finishing touch.

With shining eyes, Paya placed the garland on the prow of the boat and secured it there carefully with cordage she made.

She and Tauro took the boat out into the bay to spend the night anchored on the waters. The rocking of the boat became part of the rhythm of their joining that night. Their sighs and exaltations blended with the calling of the sea birds. The salt of their bodies blended with the ocean spray. The waters that bore Tauro welcomed Paya as surely as her valley in Kakariko had welcomed him.

She dreamed of diving through the air in a place of golden light, surrounded by clouds. Brilliant yellow trees sang to her from floating islands. A sparkle nearby. A flash of trailing light. Paya reached out her arms and gathered a tumbling star to her heart. She felt a familiar embrace from behind, steadying arms cradling her catch as well. Weightless, they floated above the clouds. Black buds in the trees burst into radiant yellow flowers that caught the starlight with gilded petals. Her silver hair floated around her and her lover. Facing each each other, Tauro cupped his hands around the fallen star and brought it to Paya’s lips. She drank the light in a flowing stream until she was filled and then it spilled down the front of her body. The light within blinded her to the world, timeless, weightless, she could only perceive the prismatic shifting blaze of many colors and sacred harmonies for countless measures. Then, the light solidified in places. She saw Tauro, but he had his back to her. He was sat carving something, something that took up his whole lap.

Paya awoke to the sounds of gulls.

She could still feel the light in her body.

Tauro was curled up around her, holding her close in his sleep. Paya lay listening to the lapping of waves against the boat for some time, letting herself recall the details of her dream as many times as it would take to memorize them. She wanted to take this dream to her grandmother to confirm her suspicions.

Tauro stirred when their shared body heat began to get uncomfortable in the increasing warmth of the day. He unstuck himself, stretched his limbs, gave Paya a squeeze, then sat up and dunked his head over the side of the boat.

She laughed when he shook his hair, spraying water everywhere. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” Paya said lovingly as he vigorously rubbed his face. When he kissed her in greeting, she tasted salt and his flesh was chilled.

“Mmmmmph,” Tauro resettled himself next to her onto their narrow sleeping platform. “Good morning, starshine.”

He felt her startled reaction and came awake fully for the first time. “You ok, Beloved?”

“I - I had a dream last night!” Paya exclaimed. “I will tell you all about it, but why did you name me ‘starshine’ just now?”

“I dunno, you’ve picked up a tan while you’ve been here. It makes your hair stand out like star light or something. What did you dream, Beloved?”

She recounted it for him.

“I - I think,” she said haltingly, “I think we were in the Sacred Realm.”

“…Paya?” Tauro’s hushed voice contained no small measure of awe. “Paya, I’ve been carving a cradle while we’ve been here.”

“Lurelin is the only place where you can get this oily, buoyant wood. I think its propagation has become entwined with village life as we’ve used it over time.” He explained. “I didn’t know when we’d be here next. I haven’t forgotten what you said about our joining maybe starting new life.”

Paya lay pensively staring at the sky for a moment. She twined her fingers around Tauro’s when he reached for her hand. “It feels like I am still dreaming,” she murmured. “But I believe life may be growing.”

She met his eyes through his wet curls. “You have been carving a cradle?” She smiled so sweetly Tauro felt it like a physical touch.

“Beloved, I…” tears filled his eyes and he fell quiet. She opened her arms to him and he covered her with kisses until she was breathless. “I think you have your own light,” he said finally, voice full of emotion, “and I want to be near it always. The cradle was supposed to be my promise that I’m giving all of myself to a future that we build together. Vows before Hylia or no vows, babies or no babies, I want to see you and Kakariko thrive. But if there are babies, I wanted to be prepared.”

Paya melted. She couldn’t help it. It was her turn to cover him with kisses. “Yes, I want you by my side,” she sighed. “Tauro, will you put your roots down beside mine?”

“Yes, Beloved. I think we’re cultivating something beautiful.”

Paya agreed. They got along very agreeably until the early afternoon.

“The cradle is meant to float on water,” Tauro explained in their tent back on shore. “Carissa was hanging on to it for me so you didn’t discover it accidentally. You could tie it alongside a boat or anchor it with a line on the beach since the bay is more protected. Then the ocean rocks the cradle for you.”

Paya ran her hands over the tight grain of the wood. It warmed to her touch.

“I figured in Kakariko, we could set the cradle near the Hylia statue and let the mill races do the rocking.”

She closed her eyes and pictured it, smiling when she thought of her village flocking to the cradle under Hylia’s watchful gaze.

When she looked at Tauro again, tears began to flow. “I hope we get the chance to use it, Tauro. Thank you.”

He held her as she shed a few happy tears, sharing a few of his own.

“Me, too, Beloved. I’ll be here regardless. I know not every pregnancy bears fruit, and there’s danger ahead for the foreseeable future, but we’re facing it together.”

In the loft at the Kakariko village hall, Impa listened to Paya’s dream, poked and prodded her body some, took her pulses, asked a few very personal questions, and declared her to be in the childbearing year.

“If you’re not bearing life now, you will be soon,” Impa said matter-of-factly. “I had a dream before each of my children started quickening. Your mother had a dream before she found out she was carrying you.”

“She did??” Paya asked. “Do you remember what she dreamt?”

Impa looked toward the ceiling as she tried to recall. “I believe she was eating a papaya and spit out a seed that grew into a baby.”

“Oh! She didn’t visit the sacred realm?” Paya asked.

“No, and neither did I in my dreams.” Impa replied. “But neither of us were pregnant when the Age of the Demon King was returning. I believe the veil is thinner now, destinies are more weighty. More Honored Ancestors may be choosing to come back to Hyrule now. They know better than us what the future holds.”

Paya blinked, slightly in shock. “May I call Tauro in, Grandmother? I feel like he needs to be part of this conversation.”

“Good idea. We should start planning your vow ceremony as well.” Impa said in her gravelly voice. “Some of your duties will have to be modified or delegated while your body and your vitality are changing. You’ll have to name a successor in case you pass from the birthing.”

“Grandmother, tha-that is too much to think about all at once. Please, I need to get Tauro.”

Making a noise of acquiescence, Impa waved off Paya’s protests and gestured toward the staircase that would take her down into the main hall.

Tauro was transcribing some notes from his research notebook to be distributed to the various team leads when he heard Paya descending from the loft.

“Paya?”

Dorian the bodyguard cleared his throat from a corner near the door.

“Lady Paya?” Tauro corrected himself. “Do you need me?”

“Yes, Mr. Tauro, would you come with me to the loft, please?” She bowed with her hands clasped over her heart, sort of out of habit. Tauro could see her mind was occupied.

When they were in the stairway, Tauro snuck an arm around Paya’s waist.

“Beloved, are you here right now?”

The question seemed to ground her some. She steeled herself, looked him in the face and smiled, “I am with you. If everything goes well, you and I will have a — a baby.”

“Tauro, we are going to be parents.”

His smile was radiant. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He tossed his hair back, cradled the back of her head with one hand, kissed the center of Paya’s Eye tattoo, and pressed his forehead to hers. She held his gaze, eyes shining, and drew his exhaled breath into her Hara.

He kissed her and she answered with a passion too big for the tiny stairway they occupied.

Impa cleared her throat from the zabuton cushion on the floor of the loft.

Paya and Tauro ascended the rest of the stairs and sat down on the edge of her bed together. He was dabbing his eyes and she was beaming at him.

“I can see the connection between you is robust,” Impa said. “Good. Paya needs to keep her heart channel clear in order to nourish the life coming through. She told you about the vow ceremony?”

“Uh, she told me there would be one if life came from our joining,” Tauro said, “I’ve known that from the beginning. We haven’t discussed details.”

“Hylia will hear your vows to serve creation.” Impa began, “You have participated in perpetuating a lineage that has been recorded since the days of Hyrule’s founding. In order to fulfill the requirements of the ceremony, each of you will undergo ritual purification and spend time in meditation with your ancestors and the unborn generations to come. Tauro, do you have anyone from your village who can guide you in this?”

He nodded. “Our chief should be able to, or he’ll know who to ask.”

“Mmm,” she acknowledged. “You have the option at any point to refuse to continue. The purpose of the purification is to arrive before Hylia in a state of truth. You must have no room for doubt. The vows must be made while your energies are aligned as one, with one vision.”

Paya rubbed circles on Tauro’s back as he sat in quiet focus.

Impa continued, “The vows themselves are simple enough. You pledge to honor and uplift the parts of yourselves that are coming forward in the next generation. You toast each other with good rice wine and petition the village to accept your vows. The strength of their voices will carry your vows to the Goddess.”

“The dances, too. Right, Grandmother?” Paya added.

“Mm. Dances carry the energy in joy and exultation to grant the both of you happy lives, but the acceptance of the people is what seals the ritual. Particularly for us, Paya, as servants of this village.”

Paya bowed her head.

Impa raised her chin. “Given the events that are happening across Hyrule, I will invite a select few individuals from each tribe as our honored guests. A blessing shared multiplies and we all need reasons to celebrate now.”

Tauro spoke up, “I can ask the Zonai survey team if anyone would be willing to carry messages in the course of their fieldwork.”

Paya nodded, “Any members of the research team are welcome to join the festivities as well.”

Tauro sat up straight and heaved a big sigh. “I’m a little out of my depth here. But I’m excited!”

Paya caressed his face. “Deep breaths, remember?”

He gave her a heart-melting smile and nodded. “We got this. All of it. And I’m glad we get to mark this milestone with something meaningful.”

Paya was astounded to find that making the ceremonial arrangements felt much much lighter on her back than her duties as chieftain. Instead of thinking purely in terms of survival or propriety, she was free to be inspired. She felt sure in her decisions. She was drawn ever more deeply into the lives of her people as she went to them seeking their contributions and their company. Three generations of Sheikah gatherers roamed the hillsides with her to collect ingredients and decorations. They exchanged stories, sang songs, spun histories, and told jokes over the hours spent reaping the abundance surrounding the village. Cori the Survey Team member finally had success in growing a whole crop of Sundelions and Koko was given a few to weave into a crown for Paya. Lasli came home at Claree’s behest bearing fabrics from the Hateno dyer’s. The afternoon Paya spent at Enchanted draping fabrics for her ceremonial robes became a precious memory of laughing and dreaming with the sisters.

She was in the forest looking for hearty truffles with Mellie, Trissa, and Nanna when the guardsman Cado came running up to her.

“Lady Impa requires your presence, Lady Paya,” he gasped, “there has been news of Master Link and the Yiga Clan.”

Paya tipped her basket over as she launched herself toward the path to the village.

Tauro had also been summoned to the main room of the village hall. Impa sat in state on the dais.

Impa acknowledge their presence with a nod. Wasting no time, she said, “I have just received word from my sister Purah that Link has defeated the pretender Kohga in the Depths and learned the location of the Demon King. We do not know when he and the Sages will move against Ganondorf. He has yet to find the sword that seals the darkness, so it may be some time. But the Yiga Clan is without a leader. They still present a danger to travelers, but we may yet be free of them.”

Paya was still catching her breath and she reeled a little at the news. Tauro went to her and let her steady herself with their joined hands. “You ok, Beloved?” He asked. She reached for him and he wrapped his arms around her.

She began to cry with mixed emotions. “Oh, Tauro!” She sobbed, “The Yiga have caused so much pain here. I should be glad they were thwarted but I tremble at the thought of Master Link facing the embodiment of evil!”

He just nodded and stroked her hair.

“Be steady, child,” Impa warned. “Don’t let your strength waver now.”

Paya couldn’t help herself and she cried even harder.

Tauro rocked her a bit. “Lady Impa,” he said, “May we be excused?”

Impa sighed and nodded.

Tauro led Paya up the stairs to their little loft. They sat side by side on the bed while she bawled on his shoulder. He made soothing noises, stroking her hair gently and kissing her head. “I’ve got you. We can do this,” he said over and over.

When her crying began to lose force, she drew away some. “Aiee, my chest is tender,” Paya grimaced. She wasn’t meeting his eyes when she reached for his hands. “Thank you, Tauro,” she said.

“Oh, Paya…” the tone in his voice made her look him in the face.

“I still believe in Link.” He told her, “But I wish we could make our family together in a world where there was no cause for you to cry like this.”

Her face crumpled again as the tears flowed, silently this time.

“The Yiga broke into this hall once,” she admitted quietly. Tauro’s grip on her hands tightened. “They had stolen an artifact I was supposed to keep safe for the Hero. Dorian had told them the location of the artifact in order to spare my Grandmother and I from their wrath.”

Tauro hissed as he sucked in air through his teeth.

“Beloved… that’s terrifying.”

Her expression was pained as she closed her eyes. Then she sighed a big sigh and her face shifted as she seemed to resolve something. “Yes. It was.” Paya agreed, eyes snapping open, “But I am stronger now. I am Chief. I bear new life. Kohga’s defeat means that I have outlasted his destructive agenda against our people. You and I can make our vows without the threat of him hanging over our lives.”

His respect and admiration for her caused Tauro to practically glow. “That’s right, Beloved.” He said proudly. He tucked some of her disheveled hair back behind one ear. “Your family and this village have kept going through it all.”

Paya snuggled into him for a side hug and they just breathed deeply together.

“You ok, Paya?”

“I am well, Tauro. Thank you. I love you.”

Paya had her first bout of morning sickness about a week later. Tauro and Dorian became couriers while she conducted ceremonial arrangements and village business from her bed in between naps. Impa taught Cottla to make acorn cakes for Paya’s breakfast and Mellie delivered ceramic jugs of umeboshi and plum vinegar to the village hall. Rola made Paya a snack food of deep fried lotus seeds and endura carrots that she said was traditional for morning sickness in Lurelin. Paya ate small, frequent meals just to have something in her stomach and drank more herbal teas than she ever had in her life, but she was able to keep her food down. The Zora delegation from the Domain arrived when she was taking one of her many trips to the privy following her morning brews.

“Excuse me for not being present when you arrived, Queen Yona,” Paya bowed deeply when she got back to the village hall. “Please be welcome.”

Yona and her two ladies in waiting curtsied. “Lady Paya, it is delightful to meet you, especially under such wonderful circumstances. Please, do not trouble yourself with formalities overmuch. I was recently a new bride myself and I am so grateful to be able to share in the joy of your own ceremonies.”

Paya blushed, beaming. “Yes! Many blessings to you and King Sidon!”

Yona clasped Paya’s hands in hers and smiled from eye to eye. “May the waters we share flowing through our lands, flowing through our veins, bless our unions and unite our people.”

Paya bowed her head, the iron eye charms on her kasa clinking. “May it always be so, Lady Yona. Thank you so much for coming to Kakariko.”

Teba and Saki flew in that afternoon. Rozel and his son Numar came in from Lurelin before the sun set. The first feast was laid out in front of the village hall and Paya was almost too tired to put in an appearance. She leaned on Tauro long enough to call everyone to the meal and Impa oversaw the festivities after that.

“Do you want me to come with you while you rest, Lady Paya?” Tauro asked.

“No, Tauro,” she said. “Please enjoy the celebrations and get to know our guests.”

Paya gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Come find me when the evening winds down.”

He smiled lovingly and said, “I’ll be there with leftovers.”

She laughed, energy flagging but still with some warmth.

Impa patted her hand as Paya made her exit and told her to put on thicker socks before she went to bed. “Don’t let the Kidney points in your ankles get cold,” she directed.

Paya felt a bit like someone had cast a spell on her that increased the effects of gravity as she climbed the staircase to the village hall. She took her time to take each step carefully. As familiar as her home was to her, she could feel some clumsiness setting in from fatigue. Her stomach began to rumble ominously when she finally got under her futon quilt and she felt a tear slip out as she thought about trying to get up and brave the party or wait for Tauro and risk nausea setting in. She was startled out of her overwhelm when the door to the hall banged open a floor below her and she heard footsteps in the stairway.

“Lady Paya!” Cottla’s piping voice shouted. “Are you still awake?!”

Before she could even answer, the little girl entered the room bearing a plate of food. “Mr. Tauro said you didn’t get anything before you left!” Cottla said in a slightly accusing tone.

“Bless you, Cottla!” Paya said with great relief, sitting up in bed. “Come sit with me while I eat, if you please. Oh! Unless you want to get back to the party?”

Cattle’s mouth twisted up into a pout. “Daddy says I have to go to bed after you eat.”

Paya smiled, “All the more reason for you to keep me company. Would you like to sit in bed next to me or pull up a seat?”

Cottla gave Paya the plate and clambered up onto the futon next to the Chief. Paya gave her a morsel of something gooey, saying, “Lasli brought this back from Hateno. They call it ‘cheese’ and it’s made with cow’s milk. What do you think?”

The girl’s eyes went wide. “MMMMM!”

“I like it, too. It is especially good roasted like this. Do you want to try some with an apple slice?”

“MM-HMM.”

“How about with these poached tomatoes?”

Paya took nibbles of everything and fed Cottla from her plate while asking her what she thought of their guests.

“It’s fun to have more Lurelin people around! Rola is laughing a lot. I like that.” She paused to contemplate for a bit. “I always thought the grownups in the village were big but the Rito and Zora are even bigger! How come Tauro is the only Hylian near their size?”

“Mmm.” Paya covered her mouth until she was done chewing. “All the people of Hyrule can come in all shapes and sizes. The previous Zora king, King Dorephan, would not be able to fit in the village hall according to Master Link.”

Cottla was stunned. “Wow! How come HE didn’t come?! I wanna see.”

Laughing, Paya squeezed her in a side hug. “You will have to travel to him someday, little one. We may be smaller, but we also walk a lot more quickly than someone of his noble bearing.”

“Link told me about the Skyview Towers! I wanna get shot into the sky and glide to Zora’s Domain!” Cottla spread her arms and mimed zooming across the sky.

Paya shook her head slightly at the thought, putting the empty plate to the side. “You are much more adventurous than I am, Cottla.”

“I dunno. I don’t think I wanna carry a baby in my belly. Isn’t that gonna hurt coming out?”

“I don’t have any experience, but yes, it is supposed to be very painful.”

Cottla was looking at Paya like she was crazy.

“You don’t ever have to carry a baby if you don’t want to!” Paya reassured her, “but for myself, I have been able to find paths to prayer through pain. Like when I received my Eye tattoo. It did not feel like when you meet with an accident. You are able to prepare. There is a rhythm. And I felt connected to all my ancestors who had also undergone that rite of passage. Giving birth is supposed to be kind of like that.”

Cottla still look suspicious but her curiosity was piqued. “I’ll ask you about it again after the baby comes out.” She said.

Paya laughed. “I will have more to tell you then. I guess I will let you decide how adventurous I really am.”

Nodding in agreement, little girl picked up the empty plate, bid Paya goodnight, and trundled down the stairs to her own bed in her own house.

Paya sat up listening happily to the merriment in the village round while she digested. She gave a little prayer of gratitude for the blessing in disguise of being sick enough to take frequent breaks from socializing. She could get used to new people at a more leisurely pace. Her natural shyness was less at odds with her responsibilities as Chief than when she had started, but Paya was too worn out by the physical demands of pregnancy to be outgoing. She fell asleep still sitting up and when Tauro woke her up in the middle of the night with a kiss on the forehead, she had a crick in her neck from her head falling forward unsupported.

“Beloved, I’ve got some more food and your evening tea if you need it.”

Paya stretched her legs under the futon quilt and rubbed her neck.

“Mmmmmmm.” She roused slowly. “Thank you for this. And for the plate earlier. My stomach only started warning me of trouble once I was tucked in bed.”

“Cottla is always happy to look after her chief,” Tauro smiled indulgently. “Paya, I know this is a lot. How are you holding up?”

“It’s challenging, to be sure,” she said, “but I have found some enjoyment in overcoming challenges lately.”

“You really have, Beloved.” Tauro stroked her face. “I knew you were special when I first got to Kakariko, but just in the time I’ve known you, you’ve really bloomed.”

Paya blushed and leaned into his touch. “I can only reach for the Sun because you have been there to support me.”

She parted her lips as he leaned in for a kiss and her stomach gurgled loudly.

“Oh! Excuse me!”

Tauro laughed and kissed her cheek instead. “Here, scooch up a bit.”

Paya held her plate and scooted toward the foot of the bed while Tauro got in behind her. He nestled her in between his legs and began to rub her neck and shoulders.

“ooooooohhh,” Paya sighed. “How do you know better than I do what I need sometimes?”

“I’m trained to observe and put together patterns. I’m not keeping an eye on you like Dorian is supposed to but I notice when your energy feels off.”

“You do not get tired of looking after me?”

“It’s not a chore, Paya. I love being around you, and I especially love being around you when you’re feeling your best.”

She leaned her head on his shoulder as he worked on the crick that had developed.

“Tauro, I — I have never experienced the kind of love you are capable of,” Paya tried to explain. “I did not know that I was worth the effort.”

He turned her face toward his. “The ‘loving you’ part is not an effort. As for the other stuff, I don’t feel burdened by responsibility. Do you feel burdened by caring for the village?”

Tauro went back to work on her neck.

“I think I see your point,” Paya said after some thought. “Some people do not think much of serving others, but my service is an extension of my love for my people. I remember what makes Dorian smile. I know Trissa’s joints bother her when it rains. I try to understand what people need to be comfortable. Perhaps… perhaps I spent so long in hiding, I did not understand how I could be known. Perhaps I did not understand how limitless love really is.”

He sighed, wrapped his arms about her waist, kissed her cheek. “I feel it, Paya. Like we exist inside of love instead of the other way round, and it keeps growing.”

“Yes!”

“Mmm.” Another kiss. His voice low, next to her ear, “You are infinitely worth knowing, Beloved. Please trust me.”

“Yes. I trust you.”

“Don’t forget your tea and snacks.”

Paya picked up one of the onigiri from the plate in her lap and stopped halfway to her lips. “Tauro, is this fresh fish roe on top?”

“Mm-hmm. Queen Yona brought some hearty salmon roe as a present for our ceremonies. I thought I’d add some to your plate.”

She burst into tears.

Tauro rocked her some and made soothing noises.

“icanNOTbeLIEVEhowLUCKYiaaammMMmmMMmm,” Paya wailed. “WHY AM I CRYING ALL THE TIME??”

Tauro buried a laugh in her hair. “Ohhhh, Beloved, I’m sorry you’re feeling so raw. I think this is better than when you tried to bear it all silently, though.”

She sobbed and hiccuped and rubbed her eyes, but she nodded in agreement.

“You want your tea?”

She nodded again.

“Thank you, Tauro,” Paya sniffled.

He planted slow, deliberate kisses from her neck to her shoulder while she drank off her herbal infusion in one go.

She shuddered a bit from the bitter taste and couldn’t help making a face, but the kisses were a welcome distraction. She relaxed back onto his chest and reached up to stroke his hair. Paya took a moment to just breathe with Tauro before going back to the food he had brought her.

“Did you get a chance to speak much with Queen Yona?” She asked between bites.

“Yeah, she was telling me about the structures that fell in the domain! They aren’t just Zonai in design, they appear to have been a COLLABORATIVE EFFORT between the Zonai and Zora!! Link and Sidon were able to use a waterfall to ASCEND to a TEMPLE on the SKY ISLANDS where they did battle!!!”

“!!!” Paya said with her mouth full.

“I KNOW! Teba and Saki had stories about their Rito ancestors and the Zonai as well.” Tauro continued. “I’ve asked if folks would be willing to be interviewed by Survey Team members and they agreed. It’s like catching fish in the shallows! We’ll be able to leave a record of primary sources accounting to all these happenings across Hyrule.”

Paya giggled. “What did the Zora delegation think of your Lurelin sayings?”

Tauro gave her a squeeze. “They kinda sounded like dolphins when they laughed.”

Paya had to shush herself so she wouldn’t wake the village with her own laughter. “Oh, I would love to see if you would find King Sidon a kindred spirit! We should see if he and Queen Yona would like to visit Lurelin with us sometime.”

“I think they’d be fantastic fishing partners!”

Paya nibbled on a seedcake and gave Tauro a bite of spiced coconut cream. He licked it off his lips with relish.

“Do you and Chief Rozel need anything special for your purification rites?”

Tauro shook his head “no.” “Mmm-mm. When all the guests have arrived, we’ll go out with anybody who wants to participate in holding down the Yang side of the ceremonies and we’ll gather materials from the countryside.”

A small silence.

“Tauro, our vows are in a day or two.”

Another squeeze.

“Is there anything we should have a heart-to-heart about before we get really busy?” He asked her.

“Nothing is weighing on me, sweet one.” Paya told him. “I could float to Hylia Herself. And you?”

He leaned his cheek against her hair and let out a deep breath. “That sounds about right. I love you, Paya.”

Paya brought one of his hands to her lips to brush a kiss across his knuckles. “And I love you, Tauro.”

They rested in each other’s arms.

The morning sun brought more guests to the valley. Isha and Ashai formed the Gerudo delegation and the first rays of sunlight flashed off their golden adornments. A much smaller figure was with them, one with the gray hair of the Sheikah tribe.

Dorian roused Paya when the watch alerted him of visitors in the pass.

She was there to receive Josha with open arms. “Little Sister of the Village, welcome home!”

Josha bowed before running to embrace Paya. “Lady Paya!!” She shouted, wrapping her arms around her chief’s waist.

She pulled back to give Paya a big eyed expression. “You’re making vows with TAURO???”

Paya blushed and nodded. “I.. umm.. let’s not be rude to our guests, Josha. Would you like to make introductions?”

Josha sighed and turned back to the Gerudo. “Jewels and Wifey here were kind enough to escort me from Lookout Landing.”

Isha blushed angrily and began muttering while Ashai sighed in turn. “Those are not the most flattering nicknames, little vai.” Ashai said firmly.

Trying to reel it back, Paya bowed deeply. “Please! Be welcome to Kakariko Village. I am Chief Paya of the Sheikah tribe. Thank you so much for going out of your way to bring young Josha to us safely.”

Isha and Ashai genuflected in the Gerudo way. “I am Isha, hereditary keeper of the sacred wisdom that forges the Daybreaker and the Scimitar of the Seven.”

“And I am Ashai, a teacher in the wider ways of Hyrule. Our Chief sends her best wishes for your health and happiness, and her regrets at having to miss an opportunity for jubilation. I’m sure you can imagine that her duties as Sage and Chieftan are no easy burden.”

Paya placed her hands over her heart. “Yes, I pray for her and the other Sages’ success every day.”

Ashai took one of Paya’s hands between hers, “As do we all, Lady Paya.”

Josha was bouncing a little in excitement. “Hey. Hey Chief Paya, I was wondering if you could talk to the Boss Lady for me about letting me go into the Depths once the Demon King is gone.”

“I’m sure Chief Paya has plenty on her plate right now, little vai,” Isha said. “I know you’re enthusiastic, but at least let her have her wedding first?”

Josha’s face fell and she tried not to pout.

Paya withdrew her hand from Ashai’s and knelt so that she and Josha were eye-to-eye. “If we see the Demon King defeated, ask me again, Little Sister.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that!”

“I know you will.”

Bludo the Goron Elder was the last of the tribal dignitaries to arrive, making quite an entrance by rolling thunderously into the village. His booming voice as he greeted Paya seemed to resonate off the cliffsides. Kakariko looked completely transformed, both by the unusual activity of so many guests from many tribes and by the beautiful decorations that were almost in their final positions. Even the scaffolding around the Ring Ruins had been decorated with garlands of flowers and swags of vermillion fabric. Fruits from all over the world were piled in front of the kaeru guardians.

The afternoon sun raced across the valley floor. The last garland was secured in place upon the statue of Hylia. When all was in readiness, a gong rang out. The doors to the village hall opened and a figure with sun-kissed skin and silver hair appeared. She was clothed simply in a white cotton juban set and straw zori sandals. A taiko drum sounded from somewhere on the mountainside. Impa, veiled and carrying her mendicant staff, made her way to the staircase in front of the village hall, guarding Paya’s descent.

Chief Rozel blew a conch horn in the middle of the village round. Tauro emerged from the inn clad in a white cotton sarong. Numar, Bludo, Dr. Calip, Dorian, Teba, Olkin, Steen, and Cottla formed a line behind him, all dressed similarly.

Yona, her ladies in waiting Chroma and Kiya, Isha, Ashai, Josha, Saki, Koko, Nanna, Claree, and Lasli arrayed themselves alongside Impa.

Tauro lit a torch off one of the fires surrounding the Goddess and, one by one, the others in line behind him lit their torches in prayer. Tauro began to lead a procession up the village path that switchbacked up to the forest, the points of light showing their progress with one doubled at the end where Dorian kept a close eye on Cottla.

Impa struck the ground with her staff. The drum responded with a cadence. Paya felt the trance state begin to take hold and sank into a meditative breath. Impa struck the ground twice more and a grinding sound from deep beneath their feet signaled the opening of a new pathway. Cool blue light outlined the trajectory of a staircase descending into darkness.

The drum beat echoed, ringing slightly off the black ceramic walls of the stairway. Faintly lit constellations gave the impression that the space underground was limitless. Paya had to touch the walls to orient herself. Her companions lined up behind her and followed Paya down into the embrace of the abyss.

The forest procession’s torchlights illuminated a low dome. A willow rod frame had been covered with mats of woven cattails and then packed with earth on top. Tauro used his torch to light a sacred bonfire. When the blaze reached a certain height, Chief Rozel began to whisper to it. He fed it pieces of all the food that had been prepared for the celebration and the crackles as the nourishment was consumed sounded like a conversation between the chief and the fire. Numar played a pipe made of two hollow gull’s bones while his father and Tauro brought in coals and glowing rocks heated in the heart of the fire. The dome’s opening was barely able to fit Bludo, and even the Hylians still had to crouch and crawl into the sacred space. The opening was blocked with another mat behind the last person entering the dome, all of the participants sitting arranged around a central hearth. The lilting, keening song reverberated within the willow dome as the light from the fire was cut off.

Paya showed no hesitation on her descent into the Earth. The drum beat from the village began to get fainter and fainter, but the rhythm of her steps and the ringing strike of Impa’s staff created a song that drowned out thought. The group traveled from constellation to constellation, cosmic motifs sprawled across the walls and ceiling. The more time it took reaching their destination, the less it felt like time meant anything. There was only one direction: forward.

Those beings with the ability to sweat were starting to show it as they sat around the central hearth of the Yang ceremonies. Cottla had been given a heavy wool blanket to block some of the heat and her gourd of water was the biggest out of the participants. Dorian wiped his brow with his bare arm as he watched his daughter’s face in the scant light from the coals. Chief Rozel also glanced at her from time to time.

Numar’s song and the heat filling the dome had a hypnotic effect. Tauro sat still with legs crossed in the lotus position, letting the heat and the sweat and the closeness of many beings become sensations he was experiencing without judgement. Rozel held up a hand and the pipe melody cut off on a plaintive note like a bird crying. Rozel kneeled in front of Tauro, both men brushing their hair back to expose their foreheads. In unison, they clasped the back of each other’s skulls and pressed their foreheads together. Eyes wide, one inhaled while the other exhaled, and vice versa. Rozel drew away to pick up a sheaf of dried leaves.

“This Son, Tauro, comes to speak with the Village across the Deep Water where the Ones who have come before reside alongside the Ones who will be born. We give thanks to those who gave us life and gratitude to those whose lives come through us. Let all our relatives be here with us now, speaking the language of love.”

Rozel spread the leaves over the hearth, sending up a curling veil of herbal smoke.

Paya was better able to perceive the walls around her again as a cerulean glow grew closer. A natural spring emitting from the bedrock was augmented with masonry made of luminous stone. The familiar celestial designs decorated an egg-shaped room, half craggy, half constructed. Paya knelt before the spring and Impa kneeled next to her, striking her staff against the floor one last time to punctuate the journey. Impa found a bamboo dipper on a protruding rock and rinsing one hand, then the other, poured a tiny amount of water into her left hand and passed the dipper to Paya.

“I would advise that you take only a small sip of the sacred water,” she said loudly enough for all to hear. “This is a salt spring.” She brought her cupped hand to her lips.

Paya took Impa’s advice, the tang of salt and the mineral taste of granite got between her lips and gums and lingered in the back of her throat.

One by one, the Yin procession repeated the ritual of rinsing hands and cleaning the mouth. One of the Zora assisted Saki with cleaning her feathers and poured her libation directly into her beak.

When Koko, the last participant, had completed the ritual, Impa turned to Paya and gestured for her to enter the water.

The smoke from the herbs on the smoldering coals rose like shades of spirits. Cottla began to cough and someone handed her water over.

Tauro began to sway a bit. The pulsing glow from the coal bed was casting uncertain shadows and the spaces between his companions began to feel like they were populated. It sounded as though the wind was picking up outside the walls of the structure. He focused on his breathing. The air was uncomfortably smokey and Tauro turned his mind toward gratitude for each inward breath that came easily. When Paya came to his inner vision, Tauro smiled and relaxed. It was gratitude all the way.

Paya found the waters of the spring to be slightly warmer than blood temperature. It was salty enough that she felt floatier than normal. Impa indicated that the others should also enter the water. She herself stayed kneeling at the edge instead.

“Lie on your back,” she instructed Paya. “Friends and relatives, please arrange yourselves around our Lady.”

The companions found the most comfortable places for each of them to stand on the uneven floor of the rock pool. Paya lay with her head toward Impa, hands clasped over her heart.

Reaching under the water to cradle Paya’s head, Impa instructed. “Please support our Lady and the new life inside her.”

Flesh and feathers easily took the weight of Paya’s body, buoyed by the salt water.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

The shape of the room made Impa’s voice sound like it was coming from every direction.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

When the others joined in, their blended voices resembled the divine harmonies of the sacred realm in Paya’s quickening dream. But they were real, more penetrating and complex even though her ear canals were under the surface of the water.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…..”

Tauro could feel … weight. And presence. The increasingly piercing sound of the whistling wind and the dense smoke in the air were competing for his attention. He turned his focus toward his awareness of Others. It was hard to keep his physical eyes open to see anything through the dim haze. His hand traced outlines in the air of what he saw with his eyes closed. He was reaching, but not quite certain of how to bridge the gap.

“M-Mommy?” Cottla croaked, deep in her own vision.

Tauro felt warm hands on his shoulders.

Paya had not been supported like this since before she was born. The chant had become the heartbeat of the Earth which bore her. Her breathing came slow and even. Her experience touched on the edges of all the lifebearers before her who had lain in this pool, an unbroken passage through which Paya herself had emerged. She felt the resonance of their emotions carried in the water: excited, trepidatious, ecstatic, despondent, grieving, fulfillment, letting all of it wash over her. She touched those moments of pain and insecurity with tenderness, and sank beneath the current of pure feeling to find a deep well of love. All of the beings before her had contributed to its’ depth in some measure. Paya felt an outpouring of love so strong it made her shout for joy. The chanting grew stronger in response.

Tauro sat in the cradle he had carved. His life givers, each in their own boat, towed him between them. Although the water stretched from horizon to horizon, there was no current or wave to disturb the surface. It was flat like a mirror except for the wake produced by their three vessels. No words were spoken. They did not turn to look at him, and still he felt loved and safe. Tauro gazed upon the star-filled sky. A warm glow grew in their sightline. Tauro felt an awareness turn toward him composed of the attention of many beings. His parents cast ropes into the source of the light and they were all hauled in together by many crystalline hands. He felt rather than heard the greetings. He was reminded of the great shoals of fish that used to support giant marine predators, many members of the collective would flash an emotion or sensation like sunlight shining off scales. Tauro couldn’t begin to number them if he tried. His mind struggled a little to comprehend the incomprehensible.

He took deep breaths into his Hara and did his best to open his heart.

Paya gave thanks for her village, and for her valley. She could feel the turn of its seasons from many perspectives through the ages. She felt her belly swell and empty, she felt the pain of birth, she felt what it was to see a child walk away from you and not look back. She felt the bones of her Ancestors surrounding her in the Earth, she felt the trees in the forest that fed the living drawing nourishment from her relative’s bodies. She felt every bee sting, every bud breaking forth in spring, every granite slab broken up to make gravestones that had happened in that valley for 10,000 years. And there was so much love in everything.

Paya realized how many changes to the Sheikah way of life had truly happened over the years. But the drastic changes to the land? Those were few and far between even in the ages of legend. Shaken a little by the realization, she let the flow of love that was so close at hand lift her heart. Their ways would continue and adapt as they always had.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

Underneath the droning chant, Paya began to perceive another, faster rhythm.

Patterns of light eddied and swirled around him. Tauro felt some beings respond with curiosity to the cradle he sat in. He thought of Paya and the whole collective became excited. He felt giddy in the midst of it. A warmth enveloped him.

He was moved by the depth of emotion on his behalf. He received an image sent by the collective of his cradle rocking and then so many cradles in many different waters. None were exactly alike but they all felt familiar. Familial.

The sensation was physically palpable, given the weight of an embrace. Being held by so many relatives brought tears to Tauro’s eyes.

He had never been one to miss the company of other beings. Tauro could happily spend days, weeks, months, with no one to speak to and no thought of companionship. At least until he had fallen in love with Paya. It struck him that his love for her had led him to this new place of connection with himself and those who bore his heritage. The collective community responded to this thought with delight.

Tauro flipped his hair back and felt many consciousnesses behind the pressure against his forehead. His eyes were open but all he could perceive was the shifting light. He exhaled and felt the light draw him in. When he inhaled, the life force of uncountable beings suffused him. Many voices lifted in sacred harmonies.

Paya was reminded of how often she took comfort in listening to Tauro’s heartbeat. What she heard now was much quicker, much higher pitched, like the fluttering wings of a rock dove. The rhythm was strong and regular.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

Her Eye tattoo began to prickle as if the striker were once again piercing her flesh. Once again, Paya could feel in her own body how it felt for each of her Ancestors who had visited these waters when they received their own tattoos. A hundred strikers pounding in syncopation interwove with the gentle heart tones of the new life she bore, underscored by the buzzing, hypnotic chant.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

The light of the star that had inhabited her in her quickening dream began to glow again. She felt it in every fiber of her being. Paya was being uplifted by the foundations laid by her Ancestors, uplifted by her lover, her peers and relatives, and by the sweetness held in the promise of a heartbeat. She overflowed with love and felt it seep into the bedrock of Kakariko. She felt the footsteps of her descendants on her body, an echo of when her physical form would be laid to rest beside the village.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…”

Paya felt rather than heard a dragon roar from far, far above the Earth and opened her eyes.

Tauro startled back into his body as the reverberations of the roar began to recede. Chief Rozel had scraped the last of the embers into a small pile in the middle of the hearth as the other celebrants sang lively, wordless chants, drumming on chests or thighs. Teba added piercing ululations while Bludo’s voice shook the ground they sat on.

Tauro waved and gestured toward his water. Many hands passed the container, from one to the other, until Tauro was able to quench his thirst. Rozel grasped his shoulder and Tauro began to laugh for joy. Rozel joined in, then Cottla, then Calip, then everyone in the willow dome. The glow of the coals began to die as everyone leaned on each other and shook with laughter.

Even when the entrance to the dome had been unblocked, the darkness did not abate. Once people had made their way out of the shelter, the glow of blue nightshades and silent mushrooms led them back to the path toward the village. Their silent and orderly ingress was not repeated. Folks were still laughing and hanging on friends as they headed back down the mountain path. They split up into their accommodations for the night, Tauro staying at the Inn.

“Are you well, child?” Impa asked.

“Yes, grandmother,” Paya responded. The pitch of her voice seemed to create resonant vibrations in the granite walls.

“Thank you for holding me,” she addressed her companions tenderly. “I believe I can get up now.”

The others withdrew to the edges of the pool while Paya sat up.

Koko had very big eyes when she approached her chief.

“If I carry a baby, am I going to do that?”

Impa answered instead. “Every lifebearer will have a different experience, but yes, you will be given a ceremony here.”

Paya opened her arms to Koko, smiling. “Little Sister, I felt every lifebearer who has ever called this village home.”

“A- All of them?”

“…Yes. Your mother, too. And mine.”

Koko leaned into the hug. “She was here in these waters?”

Paya rocked Koko, big as she was. “Yes. When she was carrying you.”

The companions began to chatter a bit, particularly those who had never experienced a Shiekah ritual. Impa cleared her throat.

“Thank you, friends and relatives, for choosing to be here tonight. Let us return to the village in a reverential attitude.”

Paya and Koko led everyone back up the steps toward the surface. It seemed to take much less time than the descent. All was silent when they emerged in front of the goddess statue. The bedecked village was lit only by fireflies at this hour. Paya knelt in front of Hylia and prayed. Most of her companions joined her. When she got up, she embraced each of them in turn. Gentle laughs, palms laid adoringly on cheeks, kisses and preening.

“I will see you all in the morning!” She called as they parted ways.

Impa struck her staff three times and the stone slab covering the staircase grated back into place.

The dragon’s roar echoed throughout everyone’s dreams that night. Those who were more spiritually inclined caught a glimpse of the sacred realms and saw a small figure holding aloft a dazzling blade while atop a pale dragon.

Nanna, Claree, and Lasli came to the loft shortly after Paya awoke, laughing and chattering. Claree and Lasli carried the robes for the vow ceremony and Nanna carried a tray of breakfast foods.

Paya broke her fast ravenously, really feeling her appetite for the first time in weeks. When she was ready to be dressed, she stood in her underskirt and breast support in the middle of the loft. Looking down at her own body, she noticed the curve of her hips and belly starting to swell as well as how much her chest strained the wrapped support fabric now. Paya’s ceremonial robes were made of soft silks traded from the great faeries and they flowed over her new contours like water. Claree and Lasli chatted and gossiped with Paya as they helped her arrange her finery just so.

Koko arrived with the crown of sundelions and Nanna helped bind Paya’s hair in a way that complimented her flowers. They all embraced before Paya descended into the village hall and waited for her cue at the doors.

A taiko drum and Rozel’s conch horn were the cues she was waiting for. Dorian and Steen threw the doors open for her and Paya began to make her way down the stairs.

Her golden robes draped off her shoulders and glinted like molten metal in the sunlight. The vermillion lining was visible on the turned back cuffs of the large sleeve openings. A thin, trailing ribbon-like scarf called a tenne flowed behind her and over each arm. Her embroidered indigo obi was worn a little high up and it tilted slightly over her more rounded belly. Wooden kanzashi hair sticks secured the garland of flowers to her head. The finest, sheerest silk veil, a simple circle draped over the top of Paya’s head, shimmered with a changeable weave of gold and undyed fibers.

Tauro, dressed in his own finery, stood up a little straighter when she appeared. He stood in front of the statue of Hylia decked out in elaborate jewelry made of stone beads and a beautifully patterned Lurelin sarong in shades of green. His chest drape also went over one arm. His head and his feet were bare. His smile stretched from ear to ear.

Her hands were clasped in front of her heart and her affectionate gaze was on his face. When she met him in front of the Goddess, he reached for her and she took his hands.

“Friends and relatives,” Impa called from off to the side, “those who have traveled great distances to be here and those who were born in the shelter of this valley, please be welcome!”

Paya and Tauro turned to bow at the beings gathered around them.

“We will now hear your petition to the community. Paya, you first.”

Paya blushed but she held her head high.

“My people! My Goddess! Ancestors! I stand before you with the father of the life growing within me. The next generation of the Sheikah breathes and has a heartbeat in me. I have been faithful in my duties as a Daughter who serves. I come before you in the spirit of the love that has flowed throughout the ages between the beings that populate this valley. Tauro and I have planted a seed together to tend it and watch it bear fruit, and to grow old in its shade. I pray that you open your hearts to us!”

Paya squeezed Tauro’s hand and he planted a kiss across her knuckles. Impa directed the young Sheikah girls to circulate among the crowd with lacquer cups and rice wine.

“Family!” Tauro called. “I stand before you with the chief of the Sheikah people. I ask that you hold us with hope. Creation is still healing. I come before you in the spirit of change and evolution. Our footsteps tread new ground even as we rely on the wisdom of the ancients. With Lady Paya, I reach new heights of understanding and new depths of feeling. Chief Paya and I have dreamed a common dream of peace across Hyrule, and raising a family free from fear. Do you share this dream with us?”

Toasting the couple with their cups of wine, the crowd roared with one voice “HAI”

Impa called out, “Do you affirm the union of Chief Paya and Tauro of Lurelin?”

“HAI”

“Is their child a child of this village?”

“HAI”

Impa herself served Paya and Tauro their servings of sake.

“Let their love be blessed for all time!”

The happy couple toasted each other and everyone drank off their cups in one go.

Paya parted Tauro’s hair and tucked his errant locks behind each ear. He laid a palm at the back of her skull with the gentlest of touches. She brought him close as she mirrored the gesture. He kissed the center of her eye tattoo and pressed his forehead where his lips had lingered. Staring into her eyes, he was reminded of falling into the swirl of consciousnesses that was the village beyond the Deep Water. He inhaled as she exhaled. As he exhaled, Paya inhaled, and Tauro’s breath nourished more than just her own body.

Cheers broke out as they kissed each other, touched with an edge of passion.

Rozel blew the conch horn again and the feast was on.

People were free to make plates and mingle. Many small tables and chairs had been placed at the edges of the village round. Claree brought Paya a michiyuki robe protector and helped her to put it on. The diaphanous veil was taken away for safekeeping. Tauro fretted playfully about losing access to Paya’s bare shoulders and a casual onlooker would not have been able to tell whether she was blushing from the rice wine or the attention.

Tauro and Paya mostly stayed in one place as guests orbited around them. Dear faces circulated in and out of conversation. Many toasts were made, although Paya toasted with cool water going forward. Taiko drums began playing and the space in front of Hylia became a dance floor. All those beings who shared in the dream of Hyrule’s liberation found some release from tension that day in joyful celebration.

Isha and Ashai cleared the floor for a couple’s dance with scimitars. The sunlight as it gleamed from their swords and jewels became a part of the dance. The beauty belied the risk the dancers undertook, and the utter trust on display culminated in a kiss that sent up cheers from the watching village. The Gerudo were given thunderous applause.

Teba and Saki dazzled with an aerial dance. Saki had borrowed Paya’s tenne silk scarf and she really looked like a figure out of legend. A portion where they flew high and then fell together wheeling with claws clasped drew gasps and cries of disbelief from the audience. Back on the Earth’s surface, they preened each other as the ceremonial party shouted their praises.

Rozel and Numar coaxed laughter from everyone by doing the Bolson dance. Josha, Koko, and Cottla performed a short routine they had choreographed themselves featuring adorable ending poses. As night began to fall and the flow of wine began to make folks a little silly, the Zonai Survey Team members started up a kickline.

The Zora enthralled the crowd by swimming up the waterfalls surrounding the village hall and then performing acrobatic dives into the pool below.

That was about the point that Paya’s energy began to wane. She squeezed Tauro’s hand, he took one look at her face and nodded. “I’m ready to turn in if you are, Beloved.”

She took her time getting up from her seat, took a deep breath, and addressed the village. “My people, thank you so much for making this day one that Tauro and I will cherish forever. I need to take myself to my rest now, but I beg that you continue to avail yourselves of the food and music until you have had your fill. Kakariko has never been so full of beings of all nations in my lifetime. I would ask that you make the most of this opportunity to connect.”

She bowed deeply. “Good night, all.”

A chorus of “Good night”s came back in reply.

Tauro waved. “Sending love to everyone!” He added. “Good night!”

fin.

***

author’s notes/cultural notes: tauro having a notebook to write to paya when he’s not with her is inspired by early examples of japanese poetry, which i believe are called “wandering songs,” or “traveling songs.” folks used to think of marriage/romance as exchanging parts of your souls and you had to nourish the bit of your partner in yourself when you went wandering, so these poems were written by a traveling spouse speaking to the part of their beloved that they carried with them.

additionally, the bit about the hylian rice comes from a japanese proverb: minoruhodo, kobe wo tareru inaho kana or “those who have accomplished the most, look to the noble rice stalk to see how the more fruit one bears, the deeper one bows.”

sheikah wedding rites are modeled after jinzen shiki, or “civil” Japanese weddings. since i do not support imperialism in my faith, i chose to omit iconography associated with the wedding of the taisho-era emperor in favor of a fancier version of wedding traditions my rural ancestors would have had.

tauro's yang-side ritual was inspired by ceremonies on turtle island that i have been invited to participate in. i chose to omit specific practices that didn't feel right to share, but hopefully the idea of connecting to a greater collective and a communal well of wisdom is being honored.

isha and ashai are lovers because I think it’s a fucking crime that we don’t have gerudo wlw rep. yes, i am choosing to vent about it here. also, i think it would be hilarious for the ‘voe and you’ teacher to be queer.

earliest you can detect heart tones on something like a fetal doppler is 10-12 weeks gestation, if anybody was wondering. you can actually hear the heartbeat with analogue tools like a pinard's horn starting about the same time the pregnant parent starts to feel kicking, about 20 weeks or halfway through, but we're gonna pretend the ritual was like a magical doppler.

#paya x tauro #loz totk #totk #tears of the kingdom #breath of the wild #romance #lots of plot incoming because i have some weird ideas about how the civvies would try to come up with a contingency plan if link fell to ga

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