In this fantasy AU, Zelda is an alchemist hunter. She finds and harvests magical ingredients. (Think... catching a frog in botw, and her fascination with ingredients and their effects.) She also has light magic.
Link is a new apprentice to a witch i...
We arrived at the second fold center an hour later, and it took a little longer to get through this one. When we came out of the fold it was just starting to become fade. It would take at least another five hours for the moons to completely fade and night to fully fall around us.
Yes, we'd named our drake after the process of night falling, and it was obvious why - his dark blue scales were scattered with stars, as was the mane running down his neck.
As the sheer brightness of the moons started to recede, you could see a lot more of their individual colors coming though. You could also see the star belt more clearly. A stretch of the sky that glowed independently of the moons. The Elysians lived up there, amongst the floating islands and the shining sky... It was hard to tell their cities from stars, or so they said... None but the Elysian were allowed in Elysia.
"Where are we now?" Link asked.
I took my mind off the sky and thought about it. "We're further west than we were before. The fold path sort of takes us in a curve. Looks like the long way around but is actually shorter, since we're basically teleporting from place to place. We're closer to home than we were before too."
"How much further?"
"Not much now. We just have to hope the anavor hasn't moved since I last came through here."
"Aren't they easy to track? It's like a moving mountain, wouldn't it leave a trail?"
"Not if it burrowed underground and dug a tunnel. Or went into the water."
"Ah... Yeah."
"Should just be another half hour. Keep an eye out, there could be predators around here."
I felt Link's grip tighten around my waist.
"You getting nervous?"
He hesitated. "Maybe a little."
"Don't worry about it. If anything happens, I'll protect you."
Those thirty minutes came and went in silence, apart from the wind and the pounding of Fade's feet. He stopped on his own, and I sighed in relief when I saw the anavor hadn't moved. Tracking it down would have been a chore, and I was doing this for basically free... not that I minded. I turned and smiled at Link. It was worth it. "It's still here."
"Where?" he asked. Then narrowed his eyes. "That hill is an Anavor?"
"Yep, it's a small one." I took a good look around. "Okay, so here's our options. You stay down here on Fade, and he can keep you safe if anything shows up. At least until I come back. Or you climb up with me."
"I'm going with you," he said without hesitation.
I grinned. "Protecting you still applies." I slid down and made my way to the hill. The fairly steep hill. I took handholds in the grass and ferns and began to pull myself up.
We made it to the top in less than ten minutes, and once we were up, I kept a good lookout for any trouble.
Anavor were the centers of unique ecosystems - things fed on their mineral infused plants, other things fed on the first things, and so on, getting bigger and more dangerous as you went up the food chain.
Of the several active ecosystem anavor sites my mother and I knew of, this was the smallest, and so it was, theoretically, the safest. But I'd still run into trouble here before so I wasn't letting my guard down.
Link was looking around. "So... where are the trout?" he asked. "Is there a pond up here or something?"
"Nope, not a water fish," I replied.
"Oh. So even harder to catch."
"It's not going to be a problem," I said, holding up a glowing hand. "Just keep an eye out for anything."
I had him walk beside me.
I wondered if he was truly bad in a fight, or just didn't like to be in one. He didn't have any weapons that I could see, but in a world of magic and movada, you could never really be sure how dangerous someone could be.
It didn't actually take long to spot the first trout, then we found the school of them. "Be on extra alert," I said quietly. "Where there is prey there are predators."
I kept my eye on the fish and the surrounding bushes and trees, then scooted from around the rock we were behind. "I'm going for it, yell if anything comes," I said, then held up my hands and started making my light net. It only took a couple of seconds, and I cast it around as large a group of them as I could fit. Maybe a few dozen or more. They weren't that big. I tightened the net around them and drew them in. The light wasn't fully tangible, if they were fast they could scramble out of it with minimal burning, but it was hot, and it spooked them, so they swam towards me and away from the light. I held out an open sack, and they swam right in. I repeated this two more times, then turned back to Link. "That's it for that."
"Why not take more?" he asked.
"Don't need that many more, and it's better to only take what you need, to be sure we don't hurt the supply."
"So we'll head back now?"
I tapped a finger on my chin. "I thought I might grab something else while I'm here. Just a few flowers, keep on the lookout."
He still looked nervous, so I smiled. "We'll be okay," I said. "I do this as my job." I turned away and forged a path across the Anavor until I found a good spot to pick some more ingredients. A beautiful field of flowers spread across the hill. I picked as many would fit in a bag.
"Now we can go?" he asked.
I nodded, and we retraced our steps until we found a good place to climb down the anavor. This part wasn't nearly as steep, so we didn't even have to find handholds. I still used them so I didn't trip.
We didn't talk, so I could focus on listening for any sounds of danger.
Link seemed to be relaxing as we made our way down. Was he that afraid? If he really was as nervous as he seemed, had I forced him to come along with me?
We were a few minutes into climbing down when I heard the suspicious brush of leaves and crack of something behind us.
This was sure to be fun... I turned my head carefully, just in time to see a tuskcat camouflaged against the underbrush.
I slowly held out my arm. "Link,"
I had barely started my soft sentence when a second tuskcat swiped me off my feet and sent me tumbling down the hill. So much for handling it carefully.
I didn't really have any time to think of expletives or worries. I hit a tree with a sharp crack.
~*~ Today's drawing ~ Zelda and Miro Yes Miro looks... Squiggled. Drawing animals is hard and I tried 😂👌
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One day I will draw something actually related to the chapter... One day.
I hope you liked this chapter, I'll be posting the next tomorrow, so the cliffhanger won't be so bad ~ see you then!
