SessKag; Breath of the Wild

FORTY NINE

He opened his eyes, a little worse for wear and struggled to gain his bearing. He stood up and wavered, the ground too far...or was he too high?

Sesshoumaru groaned, his head still pounding as he stumbled his way through the fog. How long has he been here? Where was his pack? His joints hurt and so does his muscles. Basically, everything hurt. The battle had been long and vicious. His mettle had been tested against a deity and he had barely survived the meeting.

Over and over they clashed, his will and skills tested raw.

How many times had he died?

Crushed, burned, bludgeoned, shocked, frozen solid, dismembered, petrified, melted...name the type of death and the Fierce Deity had forced him to experience. A deity born of memories from fallen warriors...what did he expects? At one point, he had almost dreamed of simply be broken, shattered beyond repair, if only so that the pain of death will stop. But his pride as a Divine Dog, or Divine Beast as he was called, would not let him break...and perhaps it was that very pride that saved his sanity.

Ironic, how his pride saved him from a fate worse than death...

Or was it perhaps his fear for his pack?

The Golden Beast appeared and Sesshoumaru turned his gaze to the spirit before being beckoned to follow with a toss of its majestic head and a dash through the underbrush where it appeared. Sesshoumaru toddled forward like a newborn deer, before slowly his body regains its confidence with each movement and each step taken. It wasn't long before he become as one with the wind, chasing after the Golden Beast where he stopped behind it as it sat to toss its head high, notes bellowing from within and echoed through the darkened forest...

Link looked up to see Twilight howling towards the Lost Woods before heading to the entrance. Link stood up from where he was recuperating from the ordeal he had faced in the Middle Trial. He reached Twilight just in time to see him looking at a gold coated wolf that shared a striking similarity with his patterns. Then something large and tall loomed behind the odd colored wolf, causing Link to tense with his muscles ready to spring into battle.

When the looming figure finally come under the sun filtered through thick leaves, his eyes widened at the strikingly familiar yet at the same time complete stranger. But deep inside it was a thought something missing returned to its place as his blue eyes met the one familiar golden gaze, lighter than how he remember it, and the other silvery pale like the moon, "Sesshoumaru?"

The giant, as tall as Sidon, nodded. Link studied his lost friend, so different from the one he had travelled with and yet...he can see similarity. The markings of his face now appeared more tribal-like; his crescent moon now trapped in an odd blue pattern that met in a point that extended to the tip of his nose that was comparable to Paya, fading away as it stretches further away the blue cage. The curved crimson marks on his cheeks had jagged slightly in a familiar feral way, the once short but pointed ears elongated to the same length as Link's and ended with tuffs of pale velvety furs at the tips.

Sesshoumaru had retained the feral appearance he wore as he disappeared into the Lost Woods but more in control of himself. His golden left eye and silver right eye studied Link in turn, the black kohl-like marking around his eyes highlighted by the equally crimson shade of his eyelids making his now mismatched eyes stand out. He sniffed; his head tilted in a familiar way that suggested pride and impress, "You've grown stronger,"

His voice familiar but deeper, almost rumbling with a soft growl that belied the feral Beast held inside, but to Link it was the sound of family as he smiled, "Yeah...the Great Deku Tree said as well," He then frown, "Sesshoumaru...what...happened to you?"