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“What the hell is that thing?!” asked Legend while gripping his fire road.
“I knew land had some really weird animals but damn, that thing is ugly.” Wind’s big eyes looked puzzled while reaching for what was most likely a bomb.
“That…That is no animal that I know about.” Their resident animal lover and whisperer shrunk back. If Twilight looked that nervous, then it definitively wasn’t a normal animal.
“Whatever it is. It doesn’t seem to be attacking…”, Warriors carefully analyzed the being. A giant white creature with a black-grey underbelly, gold pointed hoof and an incomplete ring thing on its, presumably, hips.
Time didn’t like the feeling this creature gave off. The smell of ozone was strong, and it felt too much like the presence of a certain mask hidden on his pouch.
Looking at the group he noticed how pale Sky’s complexion looked. His eyes were sharp, and he gripped the master sword like a lifeline. So, Time wasn’t the only one that caught on to the otherworldly presence.
“It looks like a malformed llama that got stuck on a fancy fence.” Four’s eyes flashed a deep violet as they seized up the thing.
At their side, Hyrule’s face looked completely neutral. His gaze never leaving what was presumably deity. The traveler’s body was tense, ready to spring into action.
It simply stared at them, as if they were the strangers in this environment. It did not move, only hovered there in place. Red eyes seeing straight through their souls, or at least that’s what Time thought.
Suddenly the tense atmosphere broke as Wild began to stalk towards the creature. A determinate and exited look on his face.
“Wild! No! Don’t go near it!” Twilight desperately pleaded for the Champion to cease approaching the weird intruder.
“I’m going to mount it.” Signed Wild, his eyes blazing with uncontained mischief and the typical madness whenever the Cook thought of something, well, wild.
“Wild NO!” Time tried to grab the Champion from the shoulder, but he sprinted toward the back of the thing.
“Wild YES!”
He leaped and managed to land with practiced ease. Legend cursed, Wind whistled, and the rest of the chain prepared to battle.
But nothing happened. The creature merely turned its head to eye Wild, who tried to direct its movements.
They all hold their breath as they watch Wild grab the fur(?) of the creature and pull in order to tame it. But it didn’t. It continued its observation with an unreadable expression.
Not that they could guess what the thing thought, it didn’t even have a mouth. And the red rubies it had for eyes lacked the shine leaving beings had despite their brilliance.
“Ok, so its not going to do anything is it?” Wind asked as he also approached the giant figure, but Sky managed to get hold of his shoulder.
The skyloftian stern expression never eased and with a cold tone asked, “Can you understand us?” Red eyes turned to look at him and Sky let out a controlled breath. “Yes.”
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere. It sounded like a cacophony of many things happening at the same time.
Like the singsong of the wind, the creaking of old bark, the beating wings of birds, the chime of laughing bells, the steady waves of the sea, the lively roar of a campfire, the howls of night beasts, the rhythmic hammering of steel, and the booming chatter of a crowd.
Such a disorientating voice startled the heroes, leaving them breathless and blinking. “My ears are bleeding.” Blurted out Four while grasping his ears, a little whine leaving his lips afterwards.
“Apologies.” Said the creature, causing that the chain to cover their ears in recoil. “Ugh! Stop it!” Exclaimed Wind, brow creased in irritation.
And it did. Again, it exanimated them as the chain recovered from the earape. After some time, it tried again.
“Is this more to your liking?” Suddenly Winds own voice echoed around them, causing the chain to look between Wind and the creature.
Wind was so flabbergasted that he barely managed to mutter an a pretty confuse ‘Wha?’ before turning fully at the stranger. “My voice! That is my voice! You have no permission to use my voice!”
Wind puffed his chest and glared at the creature, but it simply asked again. “Better? Or do you wish for another?” This time it was Twilight’s voice. Having voice its interrogative, the creature loomed over them, eyes overbearing.
From the back of the creature, Wild signed at the rest of the chain his idea. “You want it to speak like Beetle?” Twilight momentarily forgot about the looming mimic and stared at Wild with an exasperated expression.
“This one?” The lively singing tone of the unfamous vendor chimed soon after. Sky face reflected a perturbed expression, while Wild and Wind doubled into hysterical laugher. The former falling from the creature’s back.
“H-How do you know Bettle’s voice?” Said seller tone answered back at the sky dweller. “Your acquaintance thought about it.”
"You are reading our minds?" Twilight sounded concerned and uncomfortable at the prospect, not that the strange creature thought any of that. "Indeed."
"Ok, this is so weird.” Legend spoke to himself, breathlessly while he grasped at his pinky strands.
Four eyed the creature, the violet light still present. After a minute or two, they also approached and ran a hand over its skin, a smile beginning to grow on their face.
Four’s eyes sparkled red, and they lifted their face to meet the creature’s own. “Its skin is so smooth! Like a polished gem! ”
At that statement, Wild clapped and then signed. “Gem skin? It’s fur! And it’s the softest I have ever touched!”
“Is it?” Twilight’s curiosity was picked, and he took a tentative step forward before been stopped by Time.
“It appears you don’t hold any ill will towards us. But I would like to know why a being like you is walking around in the woods like no one’s business.”
Sky’s ear twitched, anxious to know the answer to that seemingly simple question. Briefly gazing at the Master sword.
“A being like me? Ah, you speak of the presence bound to you by a curse, of three distant melodies and the power within the wooden mask on your bag.” Time’s breath hitched at the last mention, for a moment his breaths grew somewhat strain, but just as quickly he placed it under control. He nodded, unconsciously gripping his bag.
At that statement, Warriors and Wind exchanged a worried look. On the other hand, the rest of the chain looked mostly puzzled, while their unspoken leader wanted to know more.
“You know Him?” Time’s voice was uncharacteristically low, his gaze expectant. Legend’s sensitive ears noted how the old man’s heart rate steadily accelerated.
“No." Came the short, negative answer, much to Time's disappointment. "And as for your first interrogative, I’m performing what you humans call ‘sightseeing.” That only made the heroes furrow their brows in appalled confusion.
Twilight’s jaw dropped, while Hyrule merely blinked in succession. “So, you are like… a tourist?” Warrior’s voice carried a skeptical tone, shifting to look at the rest of his brothers.
“Tourist.” The being tested the word before saying, “Based on your definition that would be indeed the case.”
Sky let out a halfhearted laugh, “Seriously? What even is my life now.” He covered his forehead with his hand and dragged down his face.
Legend frowned as his thoughts bounced all over his head. “So, you don’t have any kingdom or country to care for?”
“I do.” That irked the Veteran who threw the creature a poisonous glare and spat, “So what? You got bored of your chores? You taking a break of been a god or something? Or let me guess, someone else is cleaning up after you?”
At this point Legend was basically growling at the offending thing. “Leg, that’s enough. You don’t want to provoke it.” Wars said as he threw the creature a wary glace.
But it did nothing, floating there it simply ask. “I’m I?” Genuine or not, Legend was about to give the strange creature a piece of his mind, but then Wild patted its leg and with a pensive face signed, “Are you watching over them?”
“I am. Here and now.” That last phrase seemed to catch them off guard. After a beat of silence, the creature neared its head towards the heroes, and for the first time there seemed to be a change in its eyes.
An unfamiliar voice now resounded from it, “I created my universe, sired time, space, gravity and antimatter. However, the perfect conditions aligned themselves and the concept of life arose by itself.” For the first time, the creature blinked and slowly rose back to its full height.
“I’m I really their god? Even if life birthed not from my will, but its own?” whit a distant expression it looked past the mismatched group swordmen, the light in its eyes sparkled like the changing night sky. “Nevertheless, I love it. I may not always understand it, but I love how alive life is.”
The atmosphere grew tense again. Silence stretches for an eternity until Wind decides enough is enough and breaks it with his sunny personality.
“Ok, gods are weird. Better than sinking a kingdom thought.” The creature eyed their youngest and with a much lighter, different voice expressed, “Kyogre would.”
The boys had no idea who this ‘Kyogre’ was but whatever. Wind was still determinate to voice its thoughts, “Why do you look so weird?”
“This form is what the humans inhabiting the confines of my universe pictured me as.” Now it was Four whose eyes shined with curiosity.
“Does that mean you don’t originally look like that? If so, how do you look?”
“Akin to a swirling gold nebula, or I have been told by my brethren.” Before Four could ask what a nebula was, Hyrule made one of his own.
“Sooo, is it skin or fur?”
“Is as you picture it. This fragment was made to interact with the world as it found it fit after all.”
Sky scratched behind his head thinking of the implications, “Fragment you say? Wait, so it could also be feathers?”
The deity nodded and allowed the chosen hero to feel for himself. Sky touched what he thought were the prettiest feathers, after Crimson’s of course.
Unsurprisingly, Twilight joined Sky and he let out squealing ‘soft!’
Warriors decided it was his turn at the question game, so he proceeded carefully, “Why this universe exactly? May you have noticed that now is not the time to be vacationing in Hyrule.”
“I find myself traveling through many more, as we speak I witnessed men in red and green garments jump on top of oversized fungi. A pink round being riding a solid yellow star. An Empress' fall, the rise of a new King, and many more.”
The silence returned, but this time it was more awkward than tense. Time was the one who broke the ice. “Do you have a name?” The time traveler felt that he shouldn’t keep referring the somewhat passive god as it or creature. Even if mistrust still bleeds into his mind.
For the first time, the deity took a moment to find a suitable answer. “I have been given many titles. As for what a name is by human standards, Arceus is what I’m called the most.”
Legend latched on to that last sentence and voiced the next round of questions. “So you ARE known.”
A laugh, no different than the vacuum of air deafened the heroes. “I’m what they classify as a mythical being, whether I exist or not is up for debate.”
Legend hummed, and crossed his arms while he turned his head sideways muttering a bitter 'and whose fault is that.' The now named Arceus watched him and added. “I believe few things would require my direct intervention anyways... I was also called tactless by a dear friend.”
Even if that was clearly pointed out as a defect, Arceus’ voice changed into a softer tone. It…they were probably fond of whoever called them out.
Finally, Wild clapped again. “You are sightseeing right? Well, luckily, we are in my Hyrule and there is much to see!” Grinning widely, the Champion did his new interpretation of a knight salute and frantically signed. “I’ll be your guide! Oh! Flora, Impa and Purah must meet you!”
Wild practically jumped from excitement before stopping dead on his track. The blazing determination returned to his electric blue eyes as he met the impassive gaze from the god. “But first”, a smirk growing on his face with each hand movement, “Let me ride you!”
Twilight let out an irritated sigh, “Wild you ca–“ But before the Rancher could finish, the llama look-alike god named Arceus agreed. “Sure.”
Not needing to be told twice, Wild rushed back toward the waiting deity. This time whoever, Wind, Four and Hyrule came along and hopped on top the gods back.
“Everyone! We’ll see you in about… Not sure, but we’ll be back!” Wind so casually said.
“Wait!” As soon as Time raised his voice, they were off into the sky. “Damn, I wish I went too.”
Time turned to look at Sky, who kept staring at his name keeper, and while pinching the bridge of his nose let out a tired sigh.