The Legend of Zelda: Zelda's Honor

Chapter 79 - The Order of Masks

For the first time in her life, she was free from her parents. Xavier bounded through the snow with wild abandon, kicking up fluff and debris into the air with each scrape of her claws. Darunia was beside her, laughing as he kept decent pace with the Cyn'Taak, both reveling in the cold snow. They were vaulting up the steep incline, leaping over sarsens and diving over escarpments with the force of their momentum. Darunia was impressed with her ability to utilize her powerful arms to propel herself through the air with each leap.

This was the first time Darunia was alone with the creature and he was quite fascinated with her. The Goron king had never seen anything quite like her. She was covered in bluish-green scales that scintillated in the blinding light reflecting off of the snow. A rather odd hue of red fur was trailing down her back, ending at the base of her scorpion like tail. Her snout was that of a crocodile but with far more teeth. She currently had her tongue lolling out of it with the pure ecstasy of their impromptu race.

"So where are you from exactly Xavier?" Darunia queried as he sprang over a rather large boulder utilizing his arms to help thrust him over the top, his hammer jangling slightly upon impact within its strapped loops attached to his back.

She had to think about it a bit before answering, "I 'on't know." She truly didn't. The first memories she had were of Link and Zelda taking care of her, supplying her fresh meat to eat and blood to drink.

"That's okay. Sometimes I don't even know where I'm from either!" Darunia chortled as he flung a huge clump of snow onto her muzzle, blinding her slightly with the slush flinging up into her eyes. He went manically laughing the whole way up the hill as she roared with irritation at him securing the lead on her.

Her tail twitching irascibly, Xavier scampered up the slope shaking the snow from her snout. The imposing site of an irate Cyn'Taak might have given anyone other than Darunia pause, instead he just hooted louder at her perceived affront. She was almost upon him, ready to tackle his hulking form when he curled up into a ball and rolled down hill much to her surprise.

She spent several moments gazing down upon her quarry as he hurtled down the mountain gaining speed. Figuring she could do the same, she somersaulted forward and nearly flopped over onto her tail as it whipped back around and slapped the snow sending puffs of sleet in every direction. Frustrated yet determined to catch up with the irksome Goron, Xavier clamped down hard onto her tail to keep it close to her belly and began the roll again. Utilizing her arms to boost her forward with each rotation, she managed an admirable rate of descent down the mountain side.

Xavier had truly begun to enjoy herself. Barreling down the slope, casting snow in a pitched arc around her, she blazed a grooved path clear as day for anyone to follow. It wasn't until she heard a muffled cry off to her right that she realized something was wrong. She released her tail just as it cuffed the snow roughly, sending her catapulting over the precipice revealing a sudden drop of thousands of feet. She yelped dreadfully as she comprehended that she was still meters away from the other side of the ravine when she began her fatal descent.

Darunia, seeing the danger to the ignorant beast, altered his course and began rolling quickly to where she was to launch off airborne. He shunted off the edge just as Xavier flew over the abyss. He unfurled in midair and grasped the business end of her flailing tail just below the venomous barb, with a mighty cry he twirled in the air taking the hapless creature with him. On the upswing, he pitched the Cyn'Taak up onto the opposite ledge. She rammed into the ground with the force of a piston sending spires of sleet spiraling into the air. She immediately crawled panting to look over the edge as she spotted the fading form of Darunia plummeting into the misty depths below.

"'Arun'a" Xavier howled into the void, her eyes scanning the hazy fog enveloping the ravine.

Her small, swept back ears were flicking to and fro trying to garner some hint of life from below. She looked around her seeing nothing but steep crags burdened with heavy ice, it had begun to snow again and the wind was picking up something fierce. Xavier began to hyperventilate now that her new playmate had left her. Was she to be left all alone on this mountain with no hope of food or water?