The Link between a page and a knight - PSL for Link in Tortall

[chicklet]

 Passage into this world would not have been easy, and there would have been an odd sensation like ripping through the remains of a barrier that tried to keep him out, but was too tattered and torn to work properly. Thankfully, the gods were with him in one respect. He could have easily landed in a company of the King's Own, or the Queen's Riders, or the Palace Guard. Instead he dropped down just outside the palace in front of a youngster, all of eleven years old - though topping five feet already at that age, heading to the city proper. 

Kel stopped dead, seeing a boy with pointed ears appear out of nowhere, then drew her small knife, wishing she had her naginata, or even one of the horns the pages used on their field trips. She didn't even have her dog or the birds with her, all of whom had proven themselves this past year. But she was still a page of the kingdom, to the shock of all, and she was not going to let some immortal get past her. Even if this was the first time she'd ever seen an immortal that looked like a kid.

But with those ears, and appearing like that, he had to be an immortal? Right?

All of this was running through her mind, but none of it showed on her face. Her expression was blank, as though she were a carved statue of a person rather than flesh. Her stance was practiced, though she never thought to be fighting off an immortal with just a belt knife, no matter how fine the black handled blade was! Her brown hair was cut short above her ears, her hazal-green eyes watched him with no seeming concern. No seeming emotion at all, really. 

But Mithros' spear! She could at least have a weapon or back up or something!

<i>No, Kel. Stone</i> she reminded herself sharply. <i>No, not stone. A serene lake. </i> she needed to be able to flow into her motions, rather than stiffen up.

"Who are you and what business have you here?" she asked, and her voice - as emotionless as her face - was pretty much the first, last, and only hint that the person menacing him with a short blade was female. 

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[chicklet]

"Oh." she said, reassessing a bit. "Odd magic," she finally said. "Well here our capital city is Corus, and it is walled in with the palace. Most of the villages are in fiefs, or are the fiefs themselves."

She wasn't sure if rock people and water people meant miners and fishermen or if it was more literal.

[younghero]

"Old magic."

For a moment he thought about the Great Deku Tree telling him to leave the forest, and how it hadn't made a lot of sense at the time. He'd half expected to keel over when he crossed over the bridge away from Saria....

"Your country must be very large."

[chicklet]

"Reasonably," She said with a shrug. "Carthaki might be bigger, I'm not sure. We only saw a little of it and I can never quite tell from maps."

Numair chuckled. "A lot depends how you are defining large, by landmass size? By over all territory including oceans? Population?"

She poked him in the ribs. "Once he starts with lists he'll be all day."

[younghero]

"Probably all that."

Although, it was likely Hyrule would expand in its current timeline. His current timeline, at least. With Ganondorf imprisoned and awaiting execution----oh, he really needed to go home and supervise that, but, there was no way the King would let him......

"But, Hyrule has some pretty cool places, like Death Mountain."

[chicklet]

"Death,.... mountain...?" Daine asked.

Numair looked like he swallowed sommat sour.

[younghero]

"It's a volcano: That's where my friends the Gorons live."

Typical adults.

[chicklet]

Daine would be pleased to know she was being considered an adult. She blinked. "A Volcano?" she asked. "I've never actually come close to one, what sorts of animals live around them?"

[younghero]

"Not many. A few monsters. A dragon lived there for a bit, but, Ganondorf put him there. Mostly, it's just the Gorons."

[chicklet]

"A dragon?" Daine asked, eyes bright with interest. "How did this ganon manage to put him anywhere he did not wish to be, was he just a baby?"

[younghero]

There was a brief flash of pain in Link's eyes, that he did his best to mask.

"I think he must've gotten him while he was a baby. But, Ganondorf and his mothers had some skill in mind-control magic. I know he used mind-control on him."

The dragon's dying word had been his own name, after all. "Link..."

[chicklet]

Daine looked darkly furious, her hands curling into fists. "I can't abide those who hurt baby dragons, I simply can't. Kit nearly died because some half crazed mage thought to drag her ma into the middle of our war to fight for them. Told her that we had killed the babe she carried. Thankfully we were able to save Kit.... Skysong. We call her Kitten, mostly, but her name is Skysong. Her ma had her live after she got healed then flew back to kill those who had kidnapped them, she died saving us, and gave me her last thought as she did, the place where she hid her little one. We went and fetched her and we've been raising her ever since. Though now that she's a bit bigger she is supposed to be learning to interact with other mortals without me an Cloud as a buffer."

[younghero]

Link felt vaguely nauseous.

"Ganondorf is not a good person," he said, distracted, not wanting to know their reactions if they knew he'd killed the dragon he'd mentioned.

[chicklet]

"We have had our own share of those who were not good," Numair said softly, "we sorrow for your peoples sufferings."

"So mote it be," Daine said softly.

[younghero]

"Don't worry. We took care of him. Zelda, me, the Sages...." Of course, he obviously came back, given what Shadow had told them, but....that was his own timeline. So things got muddled.

[chicklet]

Daine nodded a bit. "And we did for Orzone." Her face was a bit grim and set. The face of one who had done the thing herself, and had not found the peace of it she'd expected.

[younghero]

Link kept silent, lost in his own thoughts about dragons and Gerudo kings. After a few moment, he sighed.

"I had to kill him."

[chicklet]

She misunderstood and nodded. "I had to kill Orzone."

[younghero]

Link sighed and shook his head, biting his lip.

"No, I had to kill Volvagia, the dragon," the boy corrected, already looking for an egress if he needed to leave quickly. He wasn't about to fight these people, after all.

"Ganondorf was feeding my friends the Gorons to him. His mind was too far gone for me to help. He wasn't himself again until he was already dying."

Just don't ask how this small child killed an adult dragon.

[chicklet]

She winced. "Then he probably was glad to have been stopped," she whispered. "Poor little one." She hugged her arms a bit as they drew close enough to the walls that he could hear soldiers ahead, just past the tree line.

[younghero]

"It was the only way to save them."

Gorons were not known for their courage, aside from Darunia. Despite being hulking individuals of incredible strength, bravery was not a common trait. They simply couldn't fight back.

But, then, even the best fighters had failed against Ganondorf. Skill had very little to do with it.

[chicklet]

She nodded softly. "War makes monsters of each of us," she whispered.

[younghero]

"Ganondorf was going to wipe out the Gorons and Zora completely. He was going to kill each and every one of them. He'd made a decent start on the Hylians as well."

Link paused. "I don't sleep great at night, but, I'm no monster."

[chicklet]

"And Orzone was bad enough even before the Goddess of Chaos got her hooks in him and fed him foul things like the skinners," Daine said softly. She almost never slept well at night anymore.

[younghero]

"Skinners?"

Link tilted his head at the unfamiliar word.

[chicklet]

Daine nodded, hsuddering. "Curst things of chaos. They were like rounds of flesh on two legs that shot out arms when they needed um, no face. They'd touch something with one of those shot out arms and... skin it, near as I can explain. In an instant. They touch a tree and it is stripped of all bark and leaves, left dead and raw, the pattern of bark and leaves would appear on the skinners a moment before being absorbed, leaving them hungry again. Pants, animals, people, didn't matter to them. They touched a thing, killing it and wore its outers for a moment then touched some more."