It has been ages since I had made art of this two! I want to get back to their story.

Seze belongs to me.

Please, note that I have never played a Zelda game in my life but I have always been fascinated by its characters. I have become a trash of @figmentforms ’ A Tale of Two Rulers as well as @s-kinnaly , @mintiture , @ridersoftheapocalypse. I thank them all for the inspiration, this is for you guys.

Go check their work, people. Seriously. I apologize for the messy writing and grammar errors. English is not my native language. And it’s quite short.

-Edit-

Post it again because Tumblr. Thanks @mrneighbourlove.

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Chapter 1

Okay. Alright…This was the third time he spots the mark on the bark of the tree. I’m officially lost, Kerugan thought with a grunt of annoyance. The jungle was a mass labyrinth of dense bushes and trees, the sun followed him like a lodestar through the tangled heads of the trees. But he couldn’t pick up what time it was.

He has traveled for hours or that seemed. Kerugan suspected that he was walking in circles. Just when thought that had advanced, went to see the mark he has done with one of his daggers. No matter how much he tried, he could not change his way.

A frustrated growl escaped from his mouth. He was confuse, hungry and quite tired. Sighing heavy, he continued his journey. It didn’t pass more than a few minutes when he came to hear male laughing at the distant.

He rapidly approaches to where presumably heard them to find no one. Kerugan frowned. Was he imaging things already? He shouldn’t be surprise if the heat was playing tricks to his mind, it was almost unbearable. Even more so with his Northern attire.

He had felt the heat of Loreidi forests, where his cousin, Queen Luimaya, ruled and he had become accustomed of it by the few times he had visit. But this jungle was like burning oven. Kerugan continued to walk under the shadow of trees towering over him. A sudden cold breeze traveled through the leaves, whispering a secret. Kerugan stops momentarily, his guard up. Listening very carefully.

Watching the sun quickly disappeared behind the clouds as they gather in the sky. The beautiful cocktail-blue shade, with which he arrived to these lands, was beginning to darken into gravel-grey. A pattering soothing sound came to his ears and Kerugan began to walk again, quicken his pace. But not even a drop of water fell. Probably because it had yet to pass the emergent layer of the rainforest.

He was tented to use his magic to either locate or be located by his sister and their men. But he stopped himself. He couldn’t risk attracting the unwanted attention of savages animals or enemies. And something, or someone, was watching him. He could feel it, even before getting separate from Audlin.

The feeling was unnerving but he made no obvious movement or statements about it. Giving the illusion of been oblivious of his watcher. Until he saw a pair of brilliant eyes watch him in the distance, between the raptures of branches and everlasting green leaves.

Kerugan couldn’t make out what it was, but they were hypnotic. As if it was whispering, luring him. He took a few steps towards. It was unwise, but he did it anyway. However, when he turns around Audlin and the group of scouts were gone. And so was the pair of eyes. Now he was in this predicament for his curiosity. He smiled to himself. His sister will never let go of this.

He gave himself the task to look for a shelter, water and food for the time been, because even if Audlin send men to look for him, Kerugan was sure it was going to take a while until they find him.

In the distance, a screaming roar, ragged and terrible. Along with a soft crack of thunder from the sky. A shiver spangled up his back. Whatever it was that thing, it was a big.

Kerugan’s heart began to quicken as the thought of running came to him. The forest was silent, save the sound of rain falling. He waited, crouched on his feet. Again the dreadful roar. It was enough to tell a direction. He plunged through the woods.

He ran like a deer, slipping over and around some obstacles, then ripping through others in his haste. Pearls of rain dropped, soaking his clothes and hair. The sound was like the glassy clinking of a champagne flute, lilting and clear. And soon a sheet of rain passed over him and the sound intensified.

He sped up, leaping a wide gorge, setting a group of startled bats and birds into iridescent flight. He landed gracefully on the other side and touched his daggers and sword, making sure they were still on his back.

Another roar shivered the air, suddenly too loud, too close. Kerugan pulled up short so quickly he nearly lost his balance. He slipped over to a massive tree, where the shadows of the trunk would hide him. He tried to quiet his heaving breaths, flicking a bead of sweat and rain from his eyes. His heart thudded in his ears, drowning out the forest sounds.

He hissed suddenly when a sharp pain traveled through his right hand. He jerked his hand to loosen whatever bit him, quickly looking at the wound. Two small punctures on the back of his hand. The thing fall in the sloppy ground gyrating away through grass and dirty; a snake. Just his luck.

He forced himself to calm down, listening to his heart as it gradually slowed. Good, slow breathing.

And then the ground trembled under her feet. And again. Again.

Something huge was approaching, pounding closer to the other side of the trunk. He lifted his face to the air and his nose flared as his scented the breeze – an antelope, he knew. But only one. It must have been separated from a herd nearby.

Kerugan’s mouth was suddenly dry with fear when a thought came to his mind, and his heart was again in his throat. The coming beast had set a trap for this animal, and he had walked right into it. He pressed his back against the tree trunk, casting about with wide, concern eyes. He didn’t dare move. He didn’t dare breath.

On the other side of the tree, he heard the animal give a startled snort, as it too tasted the air. Perhaps smelling Kerugan, or sensing the approaching predator, the antelope suddenly turned and rushed away. Another thunder strikes, louder this time. Kerugan sighed quietly and stepped away from the tree.

The roar this time shattered the air, left his ears ringing. From around the tree facing Kerugan the predator’s massive armored head emerged. It’s bristling quills from his neck and spinal portion twitched and vibrated, and it turned to look straight at him with eyes red of hate. It was muscular with the height and weight of an adult werewolf, with a massive distensible jaw and long sharp teeth. Its skin burnished in black and dark brown.

He fled as fast as he could, because he noticed with desperation that his breathing changed dramatically and his vision started blurred. The snake was poisonous. He wouldn’t make it that far, but there was even less hope of fighting it. He cursed himself. This trip was full of surprises.

He went lithe through the forest scrambling through roots, dodging through thickets of grass and brambles, trailing a spray of blood where a thorn ripped through his skin. Rushing black monster, closing the distance, bending and splintering trees, smelling blood and meat and fear. It leaped.

Kerugan screamed as the beast’s paw knocked his to the ground. He yanked himself along the ground, gritting his teeth as the behemoth’s giant claws tore gashed down his back. He regained his feet, disoriented, and stumbled forward again, hearing nothing but a high sliding sound of his sword out of his scabbard.

The beast leaped up beside his and swept its armored tail at his back, sending him sprawling again to the ground. He groaned, coughing blood into the dirt, and then he was up again, his sword out of reach.

He heard the beast leap again, felt the breath of his strike, and formed a desperate plan in that instant. The Direnor warrior leaped forward and twisted in the air, throwing two daggers as he fell to the ground. With the daggers stuck on his back, slavering, growling in pain, the dark beast fell from above, dwarfing him. He held another dagger, the burning sensation while gripping it intensified.

The dark beast wrestled, snarling, trying to get Kerugan’s head as the wolf with his left hand strangling and using all his strength to keep it away. The explosive roar shakes his ears when with the dagger pierced the tender area of the beast jugular.

Kerugan twisted the blade to aggravate the wound rolled away as the beast rearing up on its back legs, stumbling from the massive blood lost from his neck. It landed heavily on its feet again and hissed at Kerugan, crest rising and falling. Then it staggered to one side and fell heavily to the ground.

He scrambled away from the body, lightheaded with shock and blood loss. He shook his head and fell to his knees, and all the sound of the rain and his own ragged breathing came back to his ears.

He stared dumbly at the huge creature. He could have defeated it by transforming, but he normally avoids it and uses it as a last resort. He stumbled away, looking repeatedly over his shoulder at the non-breathing monster until it was out of sight.

The beast’s tail had broken something in his back – each step was sharp, bubbling pain. He was bleeding heavily from the slashes in his back, less so from a dozen other wounds. Not to mention his hand was bright red and swelled up where the snake had bite him, the venom burning through his veins. He wanted to stop, at least to heal himself a little.

He moaned when his knees gave in and his shoulder hit a tree, falling to the mud. Then, he saw a figure. Kerugan couldn’t see its face, it was raining too heavily and the hood on its head wasn’t helping. But of what he could distinguish from his clouded vision, he recognized it as a female.

She started walking to him and Kerugan panicked. Was she responsible for the beast’s attack? Was she there to kill him? He could only lie there, threading in and out of consciousness, unable to make himself move. He was weak and so tired.

“Who…?” he said weakly.

The figure didn’t respond. She simply kneel down by Kerugan’s side moving her hand to his head and gently caressing his wet hair. In the way you try to comfort a hurt animal. His heart beat lowered, but not enough to give up…yet.

Few old sketches of Seze and Kerugan from In the Land of Spirits.

Kerugan belongs to fabulous @s-kinnaly and @ridersoftheapocalypse

Part of Kerugan and Audlin’s crew.

Varden (46)- Scout master and cartographer of Kerugan and Audlin's expedition. Father of Einar.

Einar(23)- childhood friend of Kerugan and Audlin. Eldest son of Varden.

Boudiika (21)- Audlin's best friend. Youngest Aesir* and tough as nails warrior of the North.

Taggar (24)- Womanizer extraordinaire X), Kerugan’s best friend.

Baldur (22)- the sweet, skillet archer and healer.

Kerugan and Audlin belongs to @ridersoftheapocalypse, @s-kinnaly and @mintiture. The others belong to me.

Hi there! Here is Chapter 2 from In the Land of Spirits. Again. I accidentally erased the post, my bad.

I apologize for the messy writing and grammar errors. English is not my native language. And it’s quite short although added a few things.

I need to improve my writing skills. XP

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Chapter 2

She was surprise he was still breathing.

Deep lacerations. At least two broken ribs. Three broken vertebra. Maybe only bruise. Blood loss. Not to mention the bite of one of the most deathly snakes.

And yet, his body refused to give up. It was terrifyingly impressive. How can someone withstand so much pain?

She felt her insides wrench every time his screams of agony echoed thought the cave as she used her healing. Placing bone and tissue back together. Repairing was needs fixing. Until he is utterly limp under her hands.

She washes him clean from the dried blood and sweat, dirt and tears with a small piece of cloth. She tried not to look too closely, to give him some sort of dignity. Still, she couldn’t help but notice he was fit, muscles lining every limb, rippling over his abdomen.

She did the same with his red hair and brush it as best as she could, and let it loose. The young man shivers with fever, and when he whimper from time to time she comforts him.

After a while, his eyes stayed closed, but this was a different quality of sleep than his earlier, half-delirious dips into unconsciousness. Some of his natural gray color was already coming back, and the sweat, dried blood and grime had already been cleaned from his skin.

She looked down at the stranger. She could see him better now and she realized he was handsome in repose. Amazingly tall and strong, he was muscled as a ferocious warrior. His hair with long waves of brilliant red.

Tentatively, she reached out and brushed a few locks of hair off of his face, tucked them back behind one pointy ear. Something lurched in her heart, and some quiet, logical part of her brain told her that this was dangerous. But he was a sigh from the Spirits and that was enough for her.

When she spotted him and his companions, she decided to not intervene. The magic surrounding their territory helped her people’s cover. The strangers would roam the jungles for days, probably months, before they could find her tribe. It had happened before. And those few that had found them, well, they never came out alive to tell the tale. Imani took a interest of the red haired warrior, much to her disapproval. Then the obia ambushes him and he fights him with great effort but courageously nonetheless. And she knew that event  was a sign. Although, she still doesn’t know her feline friend’s true intentions towards the man.

She found herself just looking slow up and down of his breathing. A small smile drew on her lips– remembering the word he had spoke to her moments ago.

When she had been washing him, he barely regained his consciousness. He drank, with a little trouble, the remedy she made for the snake venom and his body was fighting it.

He had opened his tired eyes and looked at her disoriented. With difficulty, he brought his burning hand to touch her cheek. The gesture took her by surprise, but she did not turn him away. A lazy smile spread on him face.

“Beautiful,” the warrior said weakly in a strange language.

She stilled, her eyes widened for a moment but she quickly composed herself. Placing her hand on his cheek, she pressed her fingers on his temple. Warm energy released from her finger tips.

“Ssshh,” she only said. And the warrior instantly closed his eyes, falling to sleep once more.

He then sighed in relieve and surrender to slumber.

~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~

He slowly opened his eyes at the soothing sound of rain still falling in a distance and the considered warm of a fire. He doesn’t know where he is, sorts through the information his senses are giving him. All he can smell was the dirt and herbs, it’s warm, feels distinctly subterranean, so he must be in some kind of cave.

He sat up slowly; his head began to pound from a sudden rush. He groaned, passing his hand on his face. It then that he becames aware of the heaviness in his limbs, the steady solid beating of his heart, the soft wind of his breath. His red hair tumbled down over his shoulders as his eyes inspected the space around him.

Kerugan observed confused by all the small jars, plants, and fabrics pushed against the a few corners of the space. Including his clothing neatly folded near him. Someone certainly has been lived here.

At the sudden crushing sound, he snapped in the direction of the noise so fast his neck hurt. He found a pair eyes glowing in the swallowing darkness. The same ones that made him get lost. They were moving; getting closer.

He widened his violet eyes saw a leopard coming out of the dark.

The animal glances at him intently as he sat in a considered distance. Kerugan stayed frozen, his muscles tense, afraid to make any sudden movement. He may no longer be in pain but he was still weak.

“You are awake.” Kerugan jumped, startled by the female voice that spoke up. He was surprised to find a woman standing nearby the entrance of the cavern.

He couldn’t see her face clearly but he could feel her sight piercing. She was curvy and had slight muscles. Kerugan frowns when he fights through the fog in his mind and remembers. She was with him before he passed out.

The leopard makes a movement and he quickly turned his attention to it.

“Do not fear, he is tame,” she walked closer to the fire. Pausing to move away her hood. “When needed.”

Kerugan’s breath was taken away momentarily. She had dark short hair, trimmed to her left side. Her cheekbones are wide and pronounced. Her skin glowed like honey and her full lips red as strawberries. While she tosses more wood to the fire, he notices the face-paint; a series of red and white dots on her forehead and  a white line that traveled from her lower lip to her chin. Once she is done with the wood, she takes her damp, long loincloth and wrings it.

But what caught his attention the most were the pair of eyes that seemed to glow while staring at him.

“Where–?” Kerugan cleared his dry throat. “Where am I?”

“My place.” She answered nonchalant.

“Ah I see.” His gaze moved around the interior once again before falling on to her. “It is…nice,” Was he trying to be polite?

She smiled slightly. “I don’t live here if that’s what you mean.”

Her firm sight crossed his, deep and piercing and hypnotic. “How do you feel?”

“Fine, thank you.” Kerugan lied. He was a little dizzy actually but he wouldn’t dare to say it; she was a stranger.

“So, were you the one who saved me?”

She nodded. “Yes, I am.”

“And you brought me here…”

“You were dying.”

“Well, yes.“

“You fought an obia,” she murmurs absently. She moves to the jars and takes a small vase.

“What?” Kerugan asked.

“An obia,” the woman said immediately. “My people can kill or run away from almost anything else. But even the most expert warriors, avoid them.” She served some green liquid in a small vase. “You’re blessed to be alive. The amount of wounds that were inflicted on you, you should be dead but your body has almost completely healed.”

Suddenly, everything began to flash back into his mind, his blood running cold at the memories of the creature that attacked him. His hand immediately shot to his lower back, groaning by the strain of pain. He traced the skin and noticed a scar. It was considered board and smooth, she must have had used magic to heal him. An alarm go off in the back of his mind. What other things she did while he was unconscious?

“Here,” the young woman offered him the small vase. “The venom is still in your system. This will help.”

His violet eyes wavering slightly as he reached out to take the cup. He drank gently and efficient, griming at the taste. “Thank you.”

“Thank Imani,” she gesture her head toward the leopard. “He guided me to you.”

Kerugan turned unsure to the animal, which was still, staring at him. The big cat huffed, in indifference maybe? He wasn’t sure.

After a moment, Kerugan discreetly stares at the woman while she searches for something in a leather bag. When she turned her back on him, he saw the scars. The claws of a big animal all along her shoulder blades. And he had the strange temptation to touch it.

He frowns, pushing away the feeling with a shake of his head.

She then kneels beside him, gesturing his right hand. “May I?”

He allowed her to hold his hand, his so much larger and warmer.

Soon, Kerugan was left mesmerized by her eyes. They were blue and green, like the clear waters of the ocean. Her black eyelashes, copper skin and face paint made them stand out even more. Some of his uncles and cousins were blue eyed but he had never seen such brilliant color before. It made her look like something different, something ethereal. And nothing like Varden described from the natives of this land. Could she be from the tribe he and his sister came to look for?

She worked efficiently taking away the bandage. She inspected the the bite, which is clean and not as swell as before. She opened a big leaf, in its center has some kind of lotion with a vague scent of mint. Taking a small portion, his savior takes his large hand in her small and delicate one and massages, spreading the lotion.

Her fingertips are soft, warm as they travel over his skin, coaxing a response from Kerugan that had never happened by only touching his hand, leaving him contrarily thrumming and pliant. He could feel the power coursing through her, humming under her skin like lightening contained. Blood fizzes in his veins, plumping his skin and heating his ears…and other places. But it also frightens him and he make a monumental effort to not clap his hand away.

He tries to concentrated on something else, so turns his head to look at the leopard. The animal, forelegs crossed, narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, giving the impression he was judging the Northern. And he highly unsettles him.

Kerugan is so centered on the feline that misses the faint smile on the woman’s lips.

“How long have I been out?” Kerugan said quietly, watching her wrap the new bandage.

“For two day,” the woman replied. “You caught a high fever while your body fighter the venom of the snake.”

He cursed under his breath. Audlin was going to kill him for sure.

He glanced at the woman as she disposed of the old bandages and made a long pause, purse his lips as if studying her.

“Why I can understand you?” Kerugan inquired carefully. “I hear you and your language is foreign to me. But I know what you’re speaking. I understand your words in my mind.”

She frowns, shifted her sight to the ground. Thoughtful and slightly thrown off. “I…don’t know.”

A long silence followed only interrupted by the crackle of the fire and the rain outside. The woman stretch her arm to take a small fruit from a basket, and bites it. When the scent of fruit struck in is nose, his stomach protested greatly. A light blush of embarrassment appeared on his cheeks. The woman just smiles at him.

“You must be hungry,” she reached out again, this time to take the basket with fresh fruits. At the sight of it, his mouth watered.

She moved to him once more and put the basket on his lap.

“Eat, rest,” she stood with a blanket on her hands to where the large feline was. “Tomorrow will be decided what to do.”

Kerugan eats ravenously, nearly inhaling each mouthful, staring at the young woman laid down where the leopard -Imani- is curled.

The animal’s breathing is slow, huffing warmly across the grain dirt. He moves his paws slightly to make room for her head. And when she rest her head between his belly and the ground, Imani bend his neck to place his head beside her.

When he finished with the basket, Kerugan clears his throat, unsure.

“I’m Kerugan, oldest son of Vidar, Hesir of the clanThorhalla of the North, and Princess Kanisa of Hyule.” Kerugan announced gently.

She smiles to herself, as she covers with the warm tunic. Her eyelids already heavy.

“I am Seze, daughter of Nxingha, leader of the Siri Tribe of Zaire.”

~~~

I hope you enjoy it.

I work for @figmentforms, @s-kinnaly, @mintiture, @blueganon, @ridersoftheapocalypse and @mrneighbourlove.

Go check their work. They are amazing.

Kerugan belongs to @s-kinnaly and @ridersoftheapocalypse.

Seze and Imani belongs to me.

Previous chapter: http://pantheon-for-a-muse.tumblr.com/post/157284257054/legend-of-zelda-in-the-land-of-spirits