To Lev's surprise, the Skullkid lifted her mask, revealing a pale face that not even the most desperate and blind of mothers could love, with eyes that resembled some kind of addict and teeth that might as well have been serrated steak knives.
"Hehe! You got that right! I've tried dozens of times to get you ghosts to talk to me and all I get are grunts and lanterns swung at my head. Now that is rude." she laughed childishly, as befitting something perpetually locked in adolescence for eternity. Lev found her fairly endearing already; he lifted his lantern and gently bopped her on the head with the cooler base. "There. I wouldn't want to tarnish my kind's image, now would I?" he asked mischievously. They were going to get along famously, he decided.
Another voice caught his attention,
"Did he just say the ‘Large’ family? Because… ten for foresight." the Hylian quipped to his Shiekah partner, prompting a quiet chuckle from Lev. The man's observation was rather astute, he decided. When the man noticed Lev, and exclaimed about seeing a ghost, Lev jingled his lantern in mock threat. "Boo."
"I know who summoned you here," a diminutive voice squeaked, prompting heads to turn. It took the speaker a few more words before Lev finally spotted them, a fairy with a shockingly proficient oral output for something so small. It was impossible to not picture a missing Kokiri child accompanying the fairy, as fairies tended to be their quintessential fashion accessory. Still, Lev didn’t exactly question the fairy’s authoritative manner of speaking, inviting them all to head towards the Shadow Temple, as if it were a prime tourist trap.
Catching eyes with the person closest to him, Lev shrugged and levitated towards where the fairy fluttered off to, the high wall before the Temple entrance, closed off to all but the most determined. Even being a ghost didn’t make the Temple any less unsettling for Lev; there were darker things residing in there than he, and all of which that didn’t care for intruders of any sorts. It wasn’t the sort of place he fancied being trapped for eternity.
The fairy, once everyone had assembled, introduced herself as Lethe. The courteous platitude of how much of a pleasure it was to meet them all couldn’t have been more strained if one were trying to suck melted water out of a block of ice through a straw. If Lev had to take a guess, Lethe was probably expecting a lot different than what she got. The Poe huffed, indignant at the thought that the fairy probably thought very little of them all, him in particular. He was a Poe, by the Goddesses, he should have been feared, or something. This was all so very… mundane.
However, his misgivings were quickly quelled when Lethe began to regale them with a story of how darkness was rising, and the dire consequences to follow. Lev found himself quite captivated, and didn’t consciously realize he was reaching for his book and ink. Was this the origin of his story?
"I am here to tell you that Ganondorf is coming." gαηση∂σяƒ ιѕ ¢σмιηg... gαηση∂σяƒ ιѕ ¢σмιηg... Lethe said, the now familiar voice echoing in Lev’s mind as she spoke. That cleared up that question, certainly. The Fairy was the one who brought them here.
”Uh-oh.” Lev said, having read enough tales to know that Ganondorf qualified as probably the Very Worst Thing. Considering the circumstances surrounding this meeting, he didn’t doubt what Lethe was saying. Lev was an undead spirit, one of darkness and pretty much the antithesis of a fairy, but that didn’t mean he was destructive and evil. He rather liked the world, even if the feeling wasn’t mutual.
"--but the Hero of Time... is not." нєяσ σƒ тιмє ιѕ ησт... нєяσ σƒ тιмє ιѕ ησт... Lethe and the voice continued ominously.
”Yessssss!” Lev exclaimed, feeling immediately validated. He could feel his story practically writing itself, and the shelves would be saved from yet another tale of the Green hero saving the day from evil, blah blah blaaaah. Now the day would have to be saved by the same hapless mortals he’d hoped to capture in his writings. Catching the concerned, if not disgusted glances of those around him, Lev cackled apologetically. ”It’s, uh, not what you think.” he said, not burying himself in his book fast enough.
Wait, hold up, Goddess… picked me? Lev thought, looking up, suddenly completely at a loss of logical thought. He felt excitement, and pride, swell within him. His dream was coming true! Each of these hapless fools would be the key characters in this most exalted story to be penned, they’d be the heroes that saved Hyrule, all without that pesky Green rapscallion!
” History is being written as we speak.” Lethe said with grave finality.
”Literally.” Lev chimed in, scribbling way furiously before nodding. ”You have no idea how long I’ve waited for something like this to come along. Goes without saying, I’m in without reservation.”
The brown-cloaked figure that seemed to possess no small amount of ire towards the Skullkid that had quickly asserted herself amongst the gathering mocked Lethe and her tale, claiming the Goddess had somehow slighted his people, a statement Lev found rather puzzling as he momentarily sifted through his memory for anything related to people that universally felt slighted on a cosmic scale. Gerudo, maybe? Until the man, thing, monster... whatever, revealed his face, it was going to act as a big unknown.
Try as he might, Brown Cloak wasn't going to be a killjoy for this expedition, Lev decided. Poe turned back towards the group at large as the first stepped forward to spread allegiance, although they never uttered a single word. Joining the Shiekah, the singular one that seemed to have an utter lack of vocabulary, Lev hummed quietly to himself as words danced across the blank page that was becoming less so by the minute.
…And she rose from the earthen font in a blinding burst of flame, resplendent in flowing red finery embroidered with the purest of golden strands, woven together like silk thread. Her skin, darkened like it had been tempered by the flames themselves and hair indistinguishable from the inferno that seemed to consume her aura, was free of blemish and more flawless than anything in all of Hyrule.
She was the Goddess Din, and it was she who called upon the stalwart guardians of the realm before her, her champions to stave off eternal darkness with little more than their resolve and courage. Her very flames that shaped the earth itself would be what would guide the guardians through the darkest of days to come.
She extended a hand to the first of the guardians, a mysterious Shiekah so dedicated to their order they forsaken their identity and garbed themselves in shadows manifested tangible, and only through Din’s flame and her fair touch did the others see the Shiekah for what they were; a beautiful but scarred individual who had sacrificed all in service of their King, their pure heart hidden from all eyes, save for the Goddess before the Shiekah. Overjoyed, as if being seen for the first time, tears welled up in the Shiekah’s eyes, their resolve as brilliant as the flames that shrouded Din….
Oh, this is going to be brilliant. Lev thought mirthfully, losing himself in the moment and forgetting, for a moment, all of this was decidedly real and about to be terribly unpleasant.
Nyxella,
TokyoPewPew,
Tlaloc
