#clalec

It was absolute chaos the moment Kheel started to fly. Everyone was focused on pitching tents when someone called out an alert:

“He’s flying away!”

Balisti jogged over to the cart that contained the prisoner—had once contained the prisoner, as it was now empty—and searched the skies. There, flying west, was Kheel.

“I can’t hit him.” Valina rounded the cart behind Balisti. “Arrows?”

“Too late for that,” Balisti groaned. “Can we catch him?”

“We’re not fast enough.”

Balisti slammed the cage door of the cart in frustration. The troupe had just made it out of the cover of the jungle and were in sight of the Grand Butterfly Lake when they decided to break for the evening. Kheel had called it Lake Hylia, and seemed to know the area better than any of the Dracozu. They were planning to rely partially on him to guide the way to Rito Village. But now, he was soaring away, just a faint red speck on the horizon.

“Damn it!”

Balisti walked back to the center of camp, and called her warriors to her. “Yochi, you’re on lookout—keep an eye on the bird for as long as you can see him.” Yochi sprang to action and jogged away from the circle of Zora.

“Listen—if he lands, we go after him. If not, we continue to Rito Village. For now, everyone is on high alert—we don’t know if he’s going to round up reinforcements to come attack us later.” Balisti shook her head. “These damnable birds! We've been cursed since they came!”

A heavily whiskered warrior spoke up. “How are we going to find Rito Village without the prisoner? We need to catch this fool.”

“No,” Valina said, “we just keep on track toward the mountain. You can see it from here. We don’t need that idiotic bird.” She pointed north. “Besides, we have the old maps.”

“It’s a mountain,” Balisti said. “We can’t get lost if we can see the mountain.”

Balisti, Valina, and the rest waited until lookout Yochi finally told them that Kheel had not landed; he had kept flying west until he was no longer visible.

“That settles it. We keep the mountain in sight, and we push on to Rito Village.” Balisti sent everyone to their tents to rest for the night.

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“Why are there so many mountains…”

Balisti sat in the grass looking over a map with Yochi. The night had been uneventful, and the watch reported nothing more than a fox running by. The day, though only having just begun, would prove to be very exciting in comparison.

“So…” Yochi grimaced. “The prisoner said Rito Village was between the Hebra Mountains and the Tabantha Frontier. Which ones are that on the map?"

The trouble with the map was that it had been drawn by a particularly adventurous Dracozu party from many generations ago, and they had used the old Dracozu names for the landscape. Kheel used the modern Hylian names.

“Well, there’s the Mountain of Red Rivers to the northeast,” Balisti pointed to the drawn landmark and its wavy concentric circles. “Then there’s the Peak of the Lonely Kiss,” She pointed to a jumble of elevation markers in the northwest corner of the map. “But I don’t see another mountain that far north.”

"Well..." Yochi surveyed the map more closely. "It could be a mountain that's closer than the others. If we make our way there, we can get a better bearing to orient ourselves." He gave Balisti an unconfident smile. "We'll get there eventually, don't worry."

************************************************************

The nearest mountain in question was revealed to be Star Mountain—there were many notes of excitement here, with little scribbled details.

Mountain lights up! Gods reside here? Beautiful!

“That’s fascinating.” Valina looked over Balisti’s shoulder. “Who cares about Rito Village. I want to meet the gods.”

“Valina, really now…” Balisti rolled up the map. “The carts can’t make it up there anyway. We have bigger problems.”

“Bigger problems than the gods living on a mountain?”

The party continued, finally getting their bearings from kind workers at a building that housed horses and the occasional traveler. It took many days, but from there they finally had the right mountains in line.

Soon the Rito home base was in view. They had made it to a world of beige stone and freezing rain, white trees, and painfully cold air. The party winced at every footstep in the barren white fields—they had never been faced with such environmental extremes and were woefully underprepared.

“I know it’s getting dark, but let’s press on. We need to get warm!” Balisti shivered, beckoning everyone forward. “We’ll freeze if we’re out here at night.” The rest of the warriors agreed.

They trudged down the snowy hill, to a small encampment where another stable stood. Hylians and Rito alike milled about, packing up projects and preparing to turn in for the night. The Dracozu party advanced towards Rito Village proper—the town was joined to the mainland by nothing more than a small bridge, and that was guarded by two Rito warriors.

“Hail!” Balisti raised her hand to the two.

The guardsmen straightened their posture, and one returned the gesture. “Hello, state your business!”

Balisti moved forward, trying her best not to make the shivering obvious. She failed miserably. “I am Balisti of the Dracozu, here on business with Karranis—”

The guardsmen stiffened and whipped their polearms forward. Balisti stumbled back in shock and fell to the powdery ground just as a dart of water cut the air from behind her. One guardsman was hit in the face by a blast of Valina’s attack, and stumbled back off the edge of the cliff he was standing in front of.

And just as the journey had begun in chaos, what Balisti thought would be the end was now beset by more chaos. Unbelieveable, she thought, as a faint splash could be heard from the gaping canyon that separated them from Rito Village.

The remaining guardsman screeched something, dropped his polearm to his taloned feet, and dove off the side of the cliff like his compatriot. In only a matter of seconds the guardsman had flown back up, soaring in a circle high above the Dracozu. Balisti looked towards Rito Village, and saw a swarm of figures lifting off into the air towards them.

The guardsman aerially circling them dove suddenly with a screech and collided loudly with something behind Balisti. She heard the thock of an arrow being released from the line, and another horrible screech. She scrambled up to her feet again—now numb to the cold and buzzing with adrenaline—and surveyed the battle.

A Rito with an arrow in its wing wrestled with Clalec the heavily whiskered warrior, in mortal combat on the ground. Valina was running to Balisti, Yochi drew another arrow, and a thick flock of Rito were now descending upon them. The random Hylians and Rito of the stable had shuttered themselves in the building.

There was no way to win this fight.

🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️🌨️

Uh oh!!! Double uh oh!!!!! Seems like it's nothing but bad news for the Dracozu...