open & closed prompts

[hylife]

WHO: Link!
WHAT: some open & closed prompts
WHERE: Solvunn (Tertiary), Horizon
WHEN: Sept to Oct

urgentmatters or PM for plotting! happy to match tagging style (action/prose).

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I. The Lonely Horizon

[ OTA! ]

Link lies on his back in a field of gently swaying blue flowers, knowing nothing save for his name - and a deeply seated feeling of deja-vu. It isn't the place that feels familiar to him, however. There is nothing here to feel familiar. Just rolling green hills, flowers, and clear skies.

He closes his eyes, enjoying a moment of peace. Grass prickles at his back and his bare legs. He is aware that he feels tired - an exhaustion buried all the way down to his bones, like he hasn't been able to rest for a very long time.

But isn't there something he is meant to do? Someone brought him here... he should meet them.

Link rises. There is a sword in a scabbard, a bow, and a quiver of arrows beside him, so he picks them up and slings the straps over his shoulders. He wears nothing else but his shorts and his scars, not even shoes. This doesn't bother him. He goes searching for someone - anyone - he doesn't know who.

II. Gone fishin'

[ closed to Nero & Some ]

Somehow, Link has charmed his way into borrowing a boat. Although the people of Solvunn have proven quite generous, trusting isn't exactly the word he would ascribe to the people of the tertiary settlement. Nevertheless, certain skills talk. One of those skills happens to be eliminating pesky Leviathans from shores that fishermen would much rather fish than have to share with hungry beasts large enough to swallow a man.

Anyway, all they have to do is take out an enormous deadly monster without getting killed and also not destroy the boat in the process? Sure! Nothing more than a Tuesday for the young hero of Hyrule.

The smithy has sorted him out with a slightly rusted sword and a bow designed for deer hunting, and Link doesn't seem worried about how these modest weapons might fare against the ancient horrors of the ocean. If anything, there's an excited glint in his eyes as he unfurls the sails and they catch the wind, sending the little craft into deeper waters.

"We're lucky the moon is out," he says. Light enough to hunt by!

III. Dubious Food

[ Solvunn, Tertiary Settlement ]

If you happen to have settled near the seas of Solvunn, you probably won't miss a very small elf carrying a very large side of meat over his back, apparently unconcerned with the reeking blood staining his tunic and smudged on his cheek. Sure the carcass smells of rotting seaweed, but it is meat, and soon enough the poorer families of the settlement are lining up for a slice of... whatever this scaled beast was.

Despite his gruesome condition (soaked in blood and seawater as he is), Link is happy enough to hack off sections of the animal with his sword for them to take. Approach too closely, and he'll shove a fresh steak at you, too.

Comments

[gruesome]

Some has never been in a boat in his life, so it certainly isn't his skills speaking for them. But he has made himself a spear, nearly as long as he is and with a knapped stone tip. He's made many weapons in his life, but this is his very first hunt.

Which he hasn't admitted to his companions.

Curled up low in the little boat, he squints up at the sky.

"Almost too bright. It will be able to see us."

[hylife]

Link is accustomed to taking these dangers on alone, so to have help of any kind is a boon, he thinks. He didn't even stop to question Some's experience, let alone Nero's.

"That's good. The hunt won't take long if it finds us first."

The searching is the boring part, after all. His eyes are scanning the dark waters, vigilant for any sign of disturbance.

[extremethirst]

Nero is lying on his back with his head pillowed by his arms. He lifts his head up so that he can pull one arm free. The elf points at Link to indicate his support of the plan.

"I like the way you think, little cousin."

And his arm folds back to go underneath his head. He has made a makeshift bow for himself, and thanks for going to the Horizon, an arrow always manifests ready and nocked. How nice. This place is just asking me to kill things for it!

"And, don't worry, Some. Between the three of us, at least one of us will surely survive." He offers his positive take on the situation before laughing at his own morbid joke.

[gruesome]

"If- if we're in trouble, I will just take us all back to the shore," he reminds them, a bit anxious. "Though I don't think I can take the boat."

Careful of how he shifts his weight, he peers over the edge into the depths. "Maybe if I can just touch the creature, I could take it to the shore. If it swims, it would be helpless there, wouldn't it?"

[hylife]

"Not a bad idea," Link nods, approving. It's a good a plan as any, when usually he charges in with none. The boat he could likely retrieve later, if need be... or else he'll just find some way to pay the debt.

"Though we're more likely to be crushed ashore."

More likely than what? He doesn't elaborate.

[extremethirst]

"No, no." He turns slightly to look toward their monstrous friend. "If we get far enough on land, we might be able to get away as it thrashes around and dies."

Nero offers a bright smile, appreciating the plan that is being hatched. "Honestly, I was thinking of hitting it a few times with poisoned arrows, but I'm just realizing that we want to eat this later." A beat passes. "That might have some consequences later if I do that -- so! Either way! Regular arrows, it is!"

He decides to leave out that his blood is poisonous to most creatures, and he has no idea what it does to the "meat" of anything since he doesn't eat what he's struck with his blood. The elf considers himself to be a lot of things, but a people-eater isn't one of them!

And to move away from the topic of arrows, he abruptly says, "Some, you're so smart!"

[gruesome]

No one has ever said that to Some before in his life, and he stares at Nero, all eight eyes fixed on him for a moment.

"I- um? I can put it anywhere. If it isn't too much larger than me. If I put it in the trees, maybe it can't move?"

[hylife]

"Wouldn't it be easier to kill it first, then move it?"

Link's general experience with giant thrashing beasts is that they don't stop thrashing until they're dead. If it turns out this thing can breathe on land, it could take a long time and a lot of felled trees to get the job done.

Then he adds after a beat, as if just remembering -

"I could stun it."

[extremethirst]

"Man, we should have thought of this sooner... we could have sharpened the tops of some trees and had the thing fall on top of 'em." Nero makes a gesture with his hands of the beast falling onto the sharpened branches, then follows it up with "gushing" motions to indicate the blood pouring out of it. "It might still end up skewered if we do it that way, right, Some?"

"And ... easier?" Nero repeats that word with an incredulous tone. His face contorts a little as he isn't sure how easy it is going to be to kill their leviathan -- and he is the one who brought up the beast existed in the first place.

"You could?" The elf again twists around to look toward Link. "You have that kind of magic?"

[hylife]

Ah, skewering it is also a good idea. The time for that plan is obviously past... but it might be fun to try in the future!

Link makes a mental note of that plan to suggest for next time.

He seems surprised, however, that Nero seems surprised. But now that he thinks about it, he supposes the ability is unheard of even among Hylians... but all he really knows is that Urbosa lent him her power, and somehow, he is able to wield it.

So... he just shrugs. "Yes. It's like lightning."

[extremethirst]

"Lightning."

Nero repeats the word carefully as he looks out to the water. He pinches his chin as he suddenly has a thought. It makes him smile as soon as he has it. Pointing to the water, he shares his wickedly terrible idea with his little cousin.

"I think that'd work just fine. We'll blast it and get a few other fried fishies for our trouble!"

The Lonely Horizon

[productid4]

In the Horizon, there's a forest with barren trees that jut through the ground oddly and have a strange rough texture, like giant deer antlers planted in the dirt to grow. The base of the trees bleed, but the dirt soaks it in gratefully, the terrain soft and loamy and rich, on the precipice of using the trees' gifts to burst into new life.

Deep in the woods, there's the outline of a palatial house, but before Link could reach it, there's a flicker of color. A watercolor silhouette with antlers steps into the open, blinking languidly at the new arrival.

"Were you looking for something?" he asks.