A Whole New World [OPEN]

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[attr="class","manalishiltop2"]CAN'T KEEP ME DOWN

[attr="class","manalishiltop3"]IN THE HEAT AND SAND

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”Oh wow…”

Aya stood on the edge of a cliff, staring wide-eyed at the world around her. The cliff part wasn’t inherently unusual. In fact, she’d been standing on the edge of a cliff just that morning, shivering in the hard desert wind as the sands had spread out to the horizon in great, rolling dunes. Then she’d paid a woman known for trade between the Gerudo and the Hylians to ferry her through a series of cool, damp caves. That river (or she’d thought it was called a river) had been the most water she’d ever seen in her life. It had felt almost wrong, the way it had tumbled and turned, too much for even a whole village to drink.

Now she stood at the edge of what she’d heard was called a lake. There wasn’t a word for it in Gerudo, and the word sounded just as wrong as it all looked. Where there should have been sand, there was instead water. She couldn’t imagine any more water, sitting cool and calm and still. There was something about it that had her heart beating faster. Fear? Excitement?

She laughed.

”Wow,” she said then shook out the curls of her hair and stepped towards the edge until her shoes tipped over the side. There wasn’t just water, she saw, but plants. It was an endless sea of blue and green and if she closed her eyes and listened, she heard the soft chirp of insects. It was cold, she thought, or maybe she just wasn’t hot. It wasn’t like the freezing nights in the desert. The sun still warmed her.

She didn’t know how long she stood there. Her eyes wandered from the tall grasses to the small-leafed trees to the adjacent cliffs then back to the water where they spent most of their time. After a while, they landed on a patch of brilliant wildflowers mixed among the grass. She made a noise of delight.

In the desert, you had to know all the right places to find flowers. And she did, but there weren’t many of them and they didn’t come often. Was this world filled with flowers? Why had they ever lived in the desert in the first place?

The Hylians. Oh right.

Aya drifted over to the patch of flowers until they surrounded her and she could touch each one individually, careful not to step on any stems. Then she knelt down, giggling to herself. She was giddy with the height and the change and the brisk morning. She cradled the petals, picking one of each color then working to weave them together.

A flower necklace? Way better than her choker of gold and rhinestone gems. Rarer too. She set one into her hair just behind the ear.

She’d had plans, hadn’t she? Places to go? She couldn’t remember them. Oh well. She could spend a few minutes here, couldn’t she?

Or an hour. Two hours. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t hear anyone approach. Not until two feet stomped into the flowers right before her. Two dirty, terrible feet accompanied by strangled breathing.

Aya froze. Her eyes traveled up from the feet to the green-mottled legs to the skull-buckled belt then up to a face that looked like a wild hog. Its eyes were inset with red. Two curved horns jutted out from its skull. The seconds slowed as Aya’s mouth fell open.

She screamed.

A great stone club swung towards her and she scrambled away, shrieking. It landed with a thud in the flower patch, sending up dirt and petals and smashed leaves and then she flung herself backwards so fast that she tripped over her own hands, turning and darting back as fast as her legs could take her. She heard strange grunts and squeals behind her, giving chase. A moblin? What could it want? Her jewelry? Her rupees? Just her?

The thought shot a bolt of adrenaline straight through her and she picked up the pace, running faster than she ever had in her life. If she could just get away, get away, get-!

Gravity fell away as she pitched forward, throwing out her arms for balance as the world fell open under her and her eyes widened. The cliff. She was at the edge of a cliff. She pitched her weight backwards again, falling hard onto the stone that was still solid ground and not her plumetting doom. She was trapped at the edge of a cliff. Moblin on one side. Sheer, deadly drop on the other. The wild thought occurred that she should jump -- water was supposed to break your fall, right? -- except for the terrible fact that she couldn’t swim.

Aya swallowed and stood, turning to face her attacker. The moblin had slowed. Maybe to be careful around the cliff. Maybe because it knew it had her trapped. It stalked towards her, club practically dragging along the ground. Its eyes burned with hunger. For what, she didn’t know.

Aya clutched at the ornamental dagger strapped to her hip. Her fingers were trembling.

Slow breaths. She had this.

”B-by the power of Din!” She swung her knife forward, calling on the familiar power of the goddess that warmed her blood. It flooded her with heat and she projected it outwards into a ball of flames just how she’d been taught. It struck her attacker and it squealed, hopping up and down to put out the flames. For a moment, Aya’s heart swelled and she thought she might have done it, but then its eyes burned even brighter with rage and it charged her. Aya shrieked again, holding the knife out in front her.

”Help!” She screamed, desperate, in the Gerudo tongue. ”Stay away!”

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