Flames of Change - Chapter 2

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A Legend of Zelda Fanfiction

Flames of Change

Chapter 2: Shattering the Peace

By: knowlee

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His blood-red eye scanned the forest surrounding him. He was getting annoyed. Nothing that he was seeing before him was showing up on the map that his aunt had given him before he left. He placed the map he held in his hand back into the small bag he had attached to the cloth wrapped around his waist. His eye narrowed. Perhaps he needed to look at things in a different view.

He took his left hand and moved it to push back the heavy mass of blonde locks he had covering his left identical eye. Above the eye on the area between his eyelid and eyebrow was a curious birthmark that looked like three triangle symbols laying all in a row. After he removed his hair from that eye's line of sight, he used it to look at the forest once more. Just as before though, he saw nothing. He growled. What use was having the rare mythical ability of his tribe if it couldn't even help him find the person he was searching for?

He sighed and removed his hand, allowing his hair to fall back into place. It seemed as if this too, would be another part of the curse he had obtained when he was given this ability by the goddesses. He snorted in derision. Could he ever catch a break?

He decided to focus on what he did know. He knew that this person would be found in the forest so obviously the safest bet would be to keep searching in this area. Perhaps he would come across a clue or even a person who would be able to point him in the right direction. Either way though, he knew that he wasn't going to accomplish anything by just standing there. He took off once more to head deeper into the forest while keeping an eye out for anything that might give him a clue.

~~

The first thing Lin felt after waking up was the soft grass beneath her. With her mind only half awake, she was briefly confused as to why she was lying on the ground until she remembered her and Malon stopping for the night to make camp. She didn't bother with getting out her sleeping bag since it wasn't that cool out yet to warrant having to use one. For that same reason she didn't put up a tent either.

After laying there for a few more minutes she was about to fall back asleep until she was abruptly awoken when she felt something wet touch her face. She quickly jerked up and yelled. “I'M UP!”

Upon hearing Malon's uncontrollable laughter behind her, Lin opened her eyes to see the face of her horse, Epona, directly in front of her. Her cheeks colored in embarrassment. She glared at Epona at irritation and mumbled curses under her breath. She turned to the redhead traveling with her and put her glare on her, “Are you done laughing at me now?”

Lin watched as Malon attempted to control her laughter for a few moments until she finally managed to stifle it. “Hehe, sorry, that was funny!” Malon wiped the tears that had come out of her blue eyes due to her being immensely amused. “Oh, that was a good laugh!”

Lin pouted and instead of making a sarcastic remark to what Malon had said decided to get up and ready for the day. The sun had already began to make its path up into the sky and its light was cascading over the field. Lin reached into the pack that she had taken off of Epona the night before and rummaged through it to find her hairbrush and hair ties. Once she had found those items, she took the brush and began to run it through her light golden brown hair. After the mass of hair had been tamed, she pulled it into a low ponytail behind her head using her hair ties to secure it.

After that was finished, she got to her feet all while straightening up her clothes which had shifted while she slept. She began to help Malon with packing up the camp and getting ready to finish their last leg of the trip. She was just in the middle of stowing away all of her things onto the back of Epona when Malon noticed the arrow she had received from winning the archery match.

“Where did you get that? I don't remember seeing it.”

“Oh, this?” Lin said while motioning to the arrow. She was surprised to hear that Malon didn't see the object in her hands when she talked to her after the match. But, she had to give her friend the benefit of the doubt, perhaps she was just so focused on getting home that it didn't register with her. “Remember the booth you found me at after the ceremony? I won this during the match with that guy who was standing across from me.”

“Ah. Is that one of those things you were talking about earlier when we first arrived? The arrow?” Malon asked as she continued to analyze the object.

Lin nodded, excitement lighting her eyes. “Yep, this is it. I can't wait to go home and try this thing out! I've heard stories of what it can do and want to see if any of them have any merit to them. I swear this is probably the best thing that's come out of coming to Oocca Town for the annual ceremony. I honestly didn't want to come to it since I knew I was needed to help stock up supplies back home, but when Navi announced that I was chosen to be the village's representative, I couldn't exactly refuse.”

Malon nodded as she turned to go and make sure that the ashes they had left over from their fire last night were all stomped out. “I understand that. I felt the same way about it especially since I knew Cremia had been relying on me heavily for the past few weeks. I hated to leave her alone like that.”

After ensuring that the ashes could no longer do any potential harm, Malon looked back up at Lin. “Speaking of the ceremony, what did you think about it? I know that like me, this is your first one. Personally I found it to be interesting although I could tell something was kinda off about it. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I kept feeling an ominous cloud over it, like there was something foreboding about to happen.”

Lin thought back to the ceremony they were talking about. She certainly felt the same ominous feeling but it wasn't a foreboding one but more like she felt like a gut feeling to stay away from one person in particular. She didn't really want to say who that person was to Malon though. She knew deep down that her friend wouldn't judge her, but she was still too afraid to mention it. “Yeah, I could feel that too. I'm not sure what it was all about but either way you're not alone in feeling it.”

Malon smiled wanely. “Ah, well, I'm glad I'm not the only one then. Hopefully it's just that a bad feeling and not a warning of something bad about to happen. Goddesses knows that we don't need any of that!”

Lin nodded slowly in agreement. She was still lost in her thoughts. Suddenly she felt something hit her back and turned around to find Epona gently nudging her. She giggled and smiled at the sight. “Looks like we might need to get going. It seems like Epona wants to get home as soon as possible.”

Malon laughed. “Seems that way. Alright, let's go!”

The two girls pulled themselves onto their respective horses and began their last trek across the field until they got to the point where they would have to separate and go home to their tribes. As the journey continued, one of them found their thoughts shifting back to the day of the ceremony and to the gut feeling that something wasn't right about a very important member who attended it.

~~

The first thing Lin noticed about the castle was that it was HUGE! She had seen pictures of it before in some of her history books and encyclopedias as well as from afar, but none of those certainly did it any justice. She continued to gaze at the building in wonder and amazement until it came to her attention that she had finally reached the stairs leading to the entrance to the castle. She cradled the offering basket in her arms like it was precious cargo, which it was in fact, and stood next to the other three representatives for the ceremony.

Malon was walking up behind her and seemed to be just as amazed as she was by the massive castle and nearly collided into her until she noticed at the last second what was about to happen. She quickly apologized and stood to Lin's left to wait for all of them to be led into the castle and to its throne room.

Lin, curious about the other people who were standing to her right, was trying to get a quick glance at all of them, but when she saw the entrance doors being to open slowly, she quickly went back to her previous position. While the doors continued to open one solider, who appeared to be a highly ranking one due to all the decorations he had on his armor, came up and stood before the five. He slowly looked them all over and spoke loudly, “I am Captain Viscen, leader of the Hylian Guard! I will be your guide henceforth until your reach the throne room where the Tribute Ceremony will take place. After the ceremony has been completed, I will once more be your guide and lead you back outside where you will be free to leave and do what you wish. The only things I ask of you all is to keep up with me and to not enter any of the rooms we pass by. Those are expressly forbidden for you to enter without an invitation. Any questions?”

Lin, Malon nor the others made a response. Captain Viscen nodded. “Very good. Now without further ado, please follow me!”

With that said, the Captain motioned for the representatives to follow and turned to begin the trek into the castle. Lin and Malon waited until the three to their right began to walk in before they in turn did the same. As they followed the captain inside, all of the representatives began gawking at the decorations and objects that were found inside the castle. Majority if not all of these things weren't found in their own respective homes or villages so for them it was fascinating to see that these things existed.

Lin lost count of how many steps they had walked up, but soon the doors that lead to the throne room stood before the party. The captain motioned for them to stop and wait as he ordered the two soldiers who were guarding the doors to open them. The two soldiers nodded their assent and began pushing against the doors. Once the doors had opened enough, the first thing that caught Lin's eyes was the beautiful ornate statue that hung above the throne. The statue was that of three golden women who each wore a crown with a single triangle on it. Behind them were representations of the elements they stood for: fire, water, and forest respectively. They stood above the throne as if they were floating and watching over all who entered the throne room.

Lin had heard some stories of the creation of Hyrule and from what she could remember she knew that three goddesses were involved. She could only assume that those three golden women she saw were one and the same. A few fleeting memories came to her of her parents telling her a few stories about them, but she wasn't allowed to linger on those for too long for she heard the captain speaking again.

“His Royal Highness, King Darius Hyrule!”

Upon this announcement, everyone in the room immediately began showing their respect; the men bowed and the women curtsied; save for Lin since she was wearing pants and saw no need for it so instead she bowed along with the guys. The king walked into the throne room from a door on the left side with an air of dignity about him and went to stand before his throne. Just as he made it there, another announcement was made.

“Her Royal Highness, Princess Zelda Hyrule!”

The princess walked in through a door on the right side of the throne room and smiled at the representatives. She slowly walked over to the smaller throne that sat next to her father's. There she sat and the king followed suit after smiling back at her.

After the king had finally taken his seat in the empty throne, he motioned for everyone to stand back up. “You may rise.”

Once everyone had risen back to their feet, Lin took this chance to get a good look at Hyrule's Royal Family. She had only heard brief descriptions of what they both looked like, but none of them really helped give her a good picture. Apparently the king wasn't very big on public appearances especially since his wife's, Queen Zelda's, death a few years ago due to an assassin who wasn't very keen on the current ruling party. In his mourning, he holed himself in the castle and since then has only made appearances when it was absolutely necessary, such as now. Lin kinda felt bad for him for having such a horrible thing happen to him, but at the same time there was something about the man's eyes that made her want to stay away.

The princess though was another story. She tried to keep up appearances in order to make an effort to show Hyrule that the Royal Family did care, but her appearances were still few and far between. Like her father, she still mourned her mother's death and it was known to the vast majority of Hyrule that she too, like her father, dearly missed her. Lin didn't feel the ominous feeling towards the princess though. Instead she felt as if she could be friends with the woman if she had been born into the life of nobility instead of that of the forest.

Captain Viscen began announcing the representatives who had come to give their tribute to the Royal Family. Each of the representatives' tributes contained items that their tribe was known for being excellent at producing. These items could range from things such as simple clothing to jewelry so beautiful that they could be seen on the throats and fingers of nobles. The items chosen to be shown were hand picked by the leaders of the tribes and were meant to be of excellent quality. If it was less than stellar then it could mean that funding for each tribe could either stay the same or decrease. The funding could be anything from improvements in their infrastructure to funds for the tribe to use to help prepare for big events such as the winter that was set to happen a couple of months from now. Rarely did something of that caliber occur, but regardless each tribe tried their best to impress the royal who was currently in rule. Some people contended that this method of doing this was a little outdated, but overall it was considered to be a good way for current ruler to know how the rupees being given to tribes were being used properly.

“The first representative is Ravio of the Oocca Tribe. He is heir to the Lorulian mercantile business which is one of the most widely known businesses in all of Hyrule. He shall present his tribute.”

Lin watched as the raven-haired man slowly made his way to stand before the king and princess. She could see the nervousness emanating from his form, but as soon as he made it to the designated area where he was to present his tribute, he managed to shake off his fear and focus on the task at hand. “Y-Your highnesses, I present to you the tribute from the Oocca Tribe.”

At those words, he held the basket containing the said tribute in front of him. “This basket contains the very best of our recent technological advancements in medicine and in other areas of science. There is also some artwork from one of the most famous artists found in our village, Kane. And lastly there is a book that was recently published that contains detailed information regarding some of the ancient histories of Hyrule that was discovered earlier this year.”

Ravio knelt down onto the floor underneath him in a deep bow and sat the basket on the ground before him. “I hope that you will accept this tribute from Oocca and that it is to your liking, Your Highnesses.”

After those words were spoken, Ravio stood back up and walked backwards back towards the spot he was originally standing. Now it was time for the next tribute. “The second representative is Volga of the Goron Tribe. He is the head apprentice to the blacksmith Rosso. He shall now present his tribute.” Captain Viscen spoke.

Lin saw a tall well-built man make his way to where Ravio was standing earlier. His long blonde hair was tied into a low ponytail and his green eyes shown with determination. He held an air of confidence about him that showed that he believed his tribe had done well with this year's tribute. “Your Highnesses, I present to you the tribute from the Goron Tribe. This basket contains some of our latest creations that has been crafted by our finest blacksmiths, my master included. These creations vary from daggers to pottery that was made in our smithy and baked in our kilns respectively. Also inside are examples of the finest and strongest stones that we use to build various homes all around Hyrule. We use nothing but the best in our work.” Volga did the same motions as Ravio. “I hope that you will accept this tribute from Goron and that it is to your liking, Your Highnesses.”

As Volga was making his way back to his original position, the next representative was called which happened to her friend, Malon. “The third representative is Malon of the Zora Tribe. She is one of the owners of the famous Lon Lon Ranch that is located in said tribe. She shall present her tribute.”

“Your Highnesses, I present to you the tribute from Zora Tribe.” Lin saw Malon hold her basket out in front of her. “Inside this basket is the first of our fruit and vegetables that were harvested and picked especially for this moment. There is also a bottle of water that has been purified by our filtering systems that help keep the water that is distributed throughout Hyrule clean and fresh.” She bowed and placed her basket before her on the ground. “I hope that you will accept this tribute from Zora and that it is to your liking, Your Highnesses.”

One more representative was left before it was her turn to go. Lin could start to feel her nerves begin to get the better of her. “The fourth representative is Tatl of the Gerudo Tribe. She is the daughter of the Cheiftess Aveil and has been chosen to succeed her mother as Cheiftess. She shall present her tribute.”

A young girl, more than likely no older than sixteen, walked towards the king and princess. Her shoulder-length blonde hair swayed across her shoulders as she got closer to the man. Lin vaguely found herself wondering if she was perhaps one of the thieves that were known to hail from that tribe. She had encountered a few of them when she was on a trip once a year or so ago with some other fellow hunters to the Gerudo Tribe. It wasn't a pretty sight either. Although she knew in the back or her mind that it wasn't right for her to judge the whole tribe based on the actions of a few, but it was still hard to tell whether or not someone from the Gerudo Tribe was a thief since it was infamously known to harbor many of them and that incident did leave a bad memory on her mind. She figured that the girl probably wasn't though since she was in fact the daughter of that tribe's cheiftess. At the same time though, she couldn't blame those that did resort to thievery. The Gerudo Tribe didn't exactly live in the most rewarding of environments.

Once Tatl got to the designated position, she stopped. “Your Highnesses, I present to you the tribute from Gerudo Tribe. Here inside the basket are a few items that we found in the desert that have been verified by historians to have belonged to ancient members of Hyrule from many millennia ago. There is also some of our finest jewelry that have been crafted by many jewelry makers. The few that are found in here are only a small portion of what beautiful accessories can be found back in my tribe. Another thing included in this basket is an example of the ore that we have discovered deep within the mines located in mountains that can be found alongside one of our borders. This ore is commonly used to power many everyday objects that people all across Hyrule use.”

She followed suit with the other representatives. “I hope that you will accept this tribute from Gerudo and that it is to your liking, Your Highnesses.”

Lin took a deep breath. Great, now it was her turn. Hopefully her nerves didn't get the best of her. She tended to feel sick to her stomach whenever she felt that way. She took another deep breath to calm herself down as she heard Captain Viscen call out her name. Well, it was time to get it over with.

“The last representative is Lin of the Kokiri Tribe. She is the leader of the famous Kokiri Hunters that her tribe is known for and is her Cheiftess' second-in-command. She shall present her tribute.”

Lin quickly took another deep breath to quell her quivering stomach and slowly made her way to stand before the king and his daughter. She could see the king's eyes on her and coupled with the dark feeling that she kept getting from him, her stomach still refused to calm down. She tried instead to focus on the princess, but it didn't help any. It wasn't until she stopped to present her tribute that she was finally able to get herself to relax. The sooner she got this over with, the sooner she could get away from here. “Your Highnesses, I present to you the tribute from Kokiri Tribe.”

Lin held out the basket in her hands and eyed the contents to help her remember all of what it contained. “Inside this basket is some of our finest clothing that was stitched together by our tailors as well as some of the figurines that were crafted by some of my village's artisans. Also included is some samples of high quality wood that we use to build the many pieces of furniture that is used all across Hyrule.” She knelt down to the ground and placed the basket next to the others. “I hope that you will accept this tribute from Kokiri and that it is to your liking, Your Highnesses.”

When Lin stood back up from her previous position, she nearly jumped to see the king's eyes staring straight at her. She found it slightly unnerving but managed to ignore it long enough to walk back in line with the other representatives. She could still see his eyes on her which bothered her. He didn't do that with anyone else…

The king apparently noticed that she had seen his gaze for he quickly turned away to speak to Captain Viscen and thank him for bringing them here. He then motioned to the captain to give them the funding they would be receiving in return for their tribute.

As Lin watched the captain do his duties, she couldn't help but think back to the dark feeling she had picked up off the king.  The rational part of her mind was telling her that it was just that she could tell that he was still feeling depressed over his wife, but still…

Lin quickly glanced at the king to see that he was now staring off at the floor, lost in thought.

...she didn't like it one bit.

~~

Lin was still lost in thought when she heard Malon call out her name. She immediately stopped Epona from going any further since her first thought was that her friend was warning her that she was getting close to falling or hitting something. That turned out behind not the case when she heard her friend giggling at her. Lin turned to face Malon who was stopped on her horse facing away from her. Lin raised an eyebrow at her action wondering what was her problem.

After a few more moments of giggling, she turned her upper body around to answer her. “I was just trying to tell you that we reached the pathway that leads to my village, but you looked like you were too lost in thought to hear me speaking.” She inclined her head to the right to signal Lin to look in that direction. Sure enough, once Lin looked, there was the pathway Malon had mentioned. She sighed. Looks like the time had come for them to go their separate ways for now.

Instead of being sad though, Lin decided to smile. She knew that she'd see her friend soon enough. It probably wouldn't be until after winter though since travel between the tribes would be scarce during that time. Nonetheless, she knew that the two of them would see each other again. “I guess this is when we go our separate ways then.” Lin spoke.

Malon's face held a bittersweet smile. “Yeah. I guess I won't see you until at least after winter's end. Hopefully you'll get some time off then. Maybe you can convince your boss to let you have a few weeks off so you can come see me! Plus Romani has been wanting to see you for some time.” Malon laughed. “She's been wanting to show you how much she's improved with her archery. She wants to challenge you to a match just to see how good she's gotten!”

Lin laughed. “Ah, so she has gotten better now! I was wondering if she really was serious about taking up the bow last time I saw her. You know how you told me that she had been going through instances where she was briefly interested in something and I was afraid that it was something of that nature when she first asked me. I guess not though if she's getting that good at it.”

Malon nodded. “Oh, yeah, there are times when she drives both me and Cremia nuts talking about it. But at least she's got an interest in something.” The redhead began to steer Ace towards the pathway leading to the Zora Tribe. “Yeah, well, I guess I'll see you later then.” Lin watched as she went and called back. “See you, Malon!”

Malon turned around to wave goodbye. “Remember what I said about seeing if your boss can give you some time off here soon! You need to come visit! Bye!” With that said, Malon turned back around, brought Ace into a gallop and began speeding off, eager to get back home.

Lin gave Malon's disappearing form a slight wave. She sighed. Maybe she could convince Navi to give her some extra time off before the winter season hit, but she kinda doubted it. She was already supposed to get a week off from work once she got back home due to her being chosen as this year's representative for the tribe. Based on just that knowledge, she really doubted that she'd get any extra though. Not to mention, since she was Navi's second-in-command her chances of getting extra time off were very slim. Oh well, Lin huffed, if she didn't get to see her again anytime soon due to being busy, she'd see her after winter was over.

Lin's blue eyes looked over to her left and saw up on top of the hill a pathway that she knew would lead to her own village of Kokiri. She knew that she should head over to it in order to get home as quickly as possible, but she turned Epona around to gaze out at the field that lay behind her.

She felt the wind gently brush past her face and took a deep breath to smell all the scents that the air was carrying. In the far distance she could see the castle that both her and Malon just left around this time yesterday. She vaguely wondered when she'd see it again. She knew that it probably wouldn't be for quite some time especially since her chances of becoming her tribe's representative next year were pretty low since it was a different person every time.

Lin took her gaze from the castle to see a few of the ruins that littered the landscape on the side of the hill some ways down from her. She found herself beginning to wonder what used to stand there in that space when suddenly something caught her eye. She leaned forward in the saddle to get a closer look at what she had seen.

The object she saw moved quickly and seemed to be searching for something. She felt Epona began to stir underneath her. From her horse's motions she could tell that the creature didn't like the object and wanted to get away as fast as possible. Lin tried to calm her down. Before she could do that though Epona reared up onto her hind legs and neighed in fear. Then in the corner of her eye she saw the object turn to look at them and before she could register what was about to happen, its eye lit up a glowing blue color and a bright stream of light shot out from it hitting the field behind her.

Lin yelped in fear and Epona bolted in an effort to get away from the strange metallic beast. Lin quickly adjusted to her horse's speed and grabbed ahold of the reins to ensure she didn't get bucked off. She didn't know what this thing was, but she agreed with Epona that they needed to get away from it fast!

~~

He heard the sound of a shrill yelp reach his ears. He turned his head towards the area he heard the sound come from and took off towards it. He didn't know exactly what the sound was, but considering that he had been searching for hours without any success, he was willing to bet that it was a clue that he was getting closer to some sort of civilization. The noise also sounded human, female more than likely due to its feminine tone.

He continued to run until he saw a small stream with a bridge crossing over it appear below the elevated landmass he was standing on top of. His red eye quickly scanned the area below to see where the shriek had come from. Soon enough he got his answer when he saw what looked like to be a young woman wearing blue and tan clothing riding a horse straight towards the bridge. Streams of blue light shot towards the woman but they missed as she was able to dodge them quickly. Fire erupted from the areas the light had landed which gave him the impression that the beams were quite hot.

He could see that the woman had reached the bridge and was about to completely cross over it when the creature that was apparently chasing her caught up with her and with one quick swoop of its arms from underneath the bridge, it destroyed the supports. His eye widened as the creature was nothing like he had ever seen. His attention snapped back to the woman.

She had managed to stop her horse in time before the bridge was destroyed and even though he was a great distance from her, he could see the fear that was shown in her eyes. Apparently she had never seen anything like this creature either. Even though he knew that his aunt had advised him against jumping in to things where he didn't need to be, he knew that he couldn't stand by and watch someone get murdered before him.

He was just about to jump in and distract the creature to give her enough time to run away, when he saw her pull out a bow and two arrows. Ah, so she was an archer. He watched as she briefly used something to strike against a string that was attached to the end of both of the arrows she had produced and saw that it created a spark.

Before the creature had time to react, the woman released one of the arrows at it which made a loud and bright explosion. It was a bomb arrow, he realized. She quickly released the next one at the left side of its top portion to distract the creature more. He observed as she quickly reached back to grab something else that was attached to her horse's saddlebags. He couldn't tell what it was from his vantage point but he could see that she was debating on whether or not to use it based on her facial expression. She didn't take too long to decide because soon after he watched as she pulled herself up out of the saddle on her horse and placed her feet on top of it. Her horse reared back and she used the momentum that her horse gave her to push off and fly into the air.

He saw the eye on the creature begin glowing a bright blue and knew that she only had a few moments to react. She placed the item that she had picked up earlier into her bow and after pulling it back on her string, she pulled some kind of small lever on the 'arrowhead' portion of the arrow. His eye widened once more as the item's arrowhead quickly opened up to reveal a pointed end that glowed the same blue color as the creature's eye. Then she released it.

The arrow made contact with the creature's eye just as it launched a blue beam at her. He held his breath, fearing that it would hit her, but luckily she had fallen down enough at the last moment for it to barely miss her. He saw that it did barely brush the tip of her ponytail since she had ducked her head down to prepare to land in the shallow water below.

Right after she landed, he only had a few moments left to shield his eye as the metallic creature began glowing all over its body. Then its body erupted in a violent explosion. Once the light from the explosion receded, he removed his hand to see that there was nothing left of the creature. He looked to the right of where the creature once stood to see the woman looking at where it remained. He could tell that she was relieved that the creature was no longer pursuing her, but at the same time based on what he could see of her expression she was confused as to why the creature was even chasing her. He too was wondering the same thing.

Suddenly the woman turned around and saw that her horse was freaking out over the load noise that the creature's explosion had created. She went to go calm the animal down. It took her a few moments but soon the horse was back under her control again. She apparently had a way with animals he noted.

The smell of smoke came to his nose and he realized that amongst all the commotion that the metallic monster had created, the two had failed to realize that it had caught some things on fire. He knew that it would take a while for the fires to be put out and he had a feeling that this woman would probably lead him right to where he needed to go. Underneath his scarf that covered the lower portion of his face, his mouth formed into a frown. He didn't have time to wait until she put out all the flames. Nor did he have time to wait for a storm to come along. The frown on his face turned into a smile as an idea came to him. He would have to make his own.

He grabbed the harp that was attached to his back and released it from its confines. He held in the crook of his left arm and placed the fingers of his right hand onto the strings that needed to be plucked to play the right notes he needed to produce the Song of Storms. It only took him a few moments to play the song.

Sure enough shortly after the song ended, he heard the tell tale sounds of thunder rumbling. He also saw that the woman had heard the notes he played for she was looking around trying to find the source of the noise. He quickly used his shadow magic to hide his appearance to prevent her from seeing him.

The rain began pelting the two of them and to his delight the rain began to slowly put out the small flames. Soon they went out completely. He turned his eye back to the woman to see her pull out a small black hood out of one of her saddlebags and put it over her head to stop the rain from getting her hair and face wet. Then after she looked back to where the flames once were to see that they were now completely gone, she pulled herself onto her horse and began leading it through the water since the bridge was now broken.

Once the two were out of the water, they began to walk down the path that was to his right. He continued to watch the two as they continued on their trek. He didn't know for sure where they were going, but if his hunch was correct, which they usually were, they were probably headed right where he needed to go.

Making sure that his harp was secure once more against his back, he stayed in the shadows while following them as quickly and silently as he could.