Rise of the Goddess

Chapter Eight - Jira

Jira was having a good day. That morning she woke up to a nice surprise from her family, and within a few hours at her workshop, she finished Aadil's prosthetic, now she only had a few adjustments she wanted to add. She wrote in her journal and drank coffee as her wife came in through the door with a smile on her face and a bag in her hand. The sun illuminated her curly dark hair, glowing against her dark skin, her hazel eyes blinked at her. One of her slender hands sat over her hips. She came over and sat next to Jira at her bench.

"What are you working on?" She asked her, forcing her to look up from her journal.

Jira smiled and looked up at her, "So do you have any real reason for coming in here or are you just gonna ask questions you already know the answer to?"

"It's always business as usual with you," her wife grinned wrapping her arms around her waist, "Atall's with my brother, so I thought I'd spend the day with you," she lifted the bag, "I brought stuff for a picnic,"

"You know I hate picnics,"

"Yeah, yeah, twenty years of eating in the wild does that to you, I know, but I found a really beautiful view and... well, call me a hopeless romantic, but..."

Jira gave an exasperated smile, "Let me finish this entry,"

"Of course," she smiled back.

Esen's presence distracted her, as always, but she couldn't deny that she couldn't help but love the distraction. She didn't exactly have anything to do anyway.

Around 10 years ago she met Esen and Atall, she'd been a single mom wandering Hyrule alone without a place to live or food to eat. Both of them were starving and on the brink of death, so Jira let them in, giving them a house to live in, and food to eat. The only rule was that they weren't allowed to interrupt her work.

At first she did it only because she'd been where they were, she knew what it was like. It didn't take a week before Jira began to like the two of them. Esen was brilliant and hilarious, she wasn't fazed by Jira's history and accomplishments, she was one of the few people who treated her as a normal person and a friend. Her son had only been around 4 years old, and Esen would do anything to protect him. Even then Jira could tell he was just as clever as his mother and was fascinated with the world around him. A month later Tarrey town came under attack by a bunch of bandits, Jira fought them off but they'd gotten to Atall. She and Esen had to hunt him down and after a few close calls, they'd grown closer to each other. When they saved Atall and returned home they had fallen in love, no less than a year later they were married and they'd been living together like this ever since. They'd become the family she lost. Esen taught her to live a life worth living, and Jira taught her the culture and history she'd studied all her life. Loving Esen was the greatest gift life had given her, and she'd personally been able to raise Atall as if he were her own flesh and blood.

She wrote down a few more notes in the journal when there was a loud banging at the door. She and Esen jumped, and then she got to her feet and raced to the door, opening it wide. A boy stood there at the door, covered in cuts and scrapes, deep wounds in his shoulder and lower thigh, carrying a soaking wet girl in his arms. The kid looked exhausted and desperate, the girl he held looked like she wasn't breathing.

"Help," was all he could get out, before collapsing at her feet.

Jira hesitated in shock at what had just happened. Esen was there in an instant, gathering the soaked girl in her arms, bringing her in. Jira jerked herself to action and brought the boy in too.

"Jira, this girl, she's not breathing," Esen cried, bringing to her work table, shoving her books and the prosthetic arm aside, "Set him down, we've gotta save her,"