Quill: Marcus (25r) and Loft (25r) Spirit: Kamalya (Spirit Priestess Level 1, -10r) --- Marcus leaned back on the rock, his legs neatly hanging over the side of the cliff. The sea spray barely touched his shoes, and his heart and mind were still and serene as he watched the ocean's water wash in and out, pulling the sand to and fro with every tug of the tide. He heard a flap of wings, and looked to his right to see a seagull hopping back and forth on the rock, searching for something edible to send down its beak. "Do seagulls screech?" Loft asked. The boy was spread-eagle across the rock, his legs kicking over the empty space stretching between them and the ocean's water below. "Or do they caw? Cluck? Wail?" "Don't know," Marcus said, hoping to convey through his tone that this wasn't a subject he was interested in pursuing. "Beaches are fun," Loft said, sighing as he lifted up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun's glare. "Not cold or snowy, or hot and lava-y.... Just sun and sand." Marcus nodded his agreement, looking at the ocean's horizon. They hadn't been here for long, just a few minutes. A few peaceful, quiet minutes. No monsters yet, thankfully. In fact... Marcus straightened, looking around the cliff more carefully. Below them stretched the beach, about a dozen feet below from the rock they were on. Around their rock was nothing but grass and pebbly soil, pebbles that slowly gave way to larger rocks that eventually became hills. Nothing at all seemed wrong with the area, and Marcus was left wondering why exactly they were here. Beside him, Loft was still going on about how great the beach was. "It's like... like it's a spitting contest between the wind gods." "What?" Marcus looked at his companion. "What are you talking about?" "That," Loft said, pointing at a large gray mass some distance away from the shore. It was a swirling mass of gray, a fog that whirled and spun around a central point. Marcus may have thought "storm," but it was completely frozen in place. The winds blew the opaque mist around and around in a never-ending shell, but the activity was all focused in one place. "I wonder what's in there," Marcus said, staring out at the swirling fogs. This couldn't be natural; natural storms were less concentrated, less focused in one area. If this were a storm, it would be covering a larger area, and the effect would thin as it spread near the edges. Plus, he highly doubted that shells of spinning fog existed in nature. "We should check it out," he said. Loft waved his hand to the side. "Later," he said. "I'm enjoying the sun right now." "But-" "The person you are trying to reach is currently unavailable," Loft said loudly, setting his head back down on the rock, "please try again later."
"You're as Gerudo as I am Goron!" Kamalya shouted as she swung her quarterstaff, knocking the final pirate off of their small patrol boat. They dressed like her sister, looked like her sister, they even talked like her sisters. But there was no way Kamalya would ever call them her sisters. They were far too brutish, there was no honor and no respect among them. Those heathens didn't even know how to treat a spirit priestess properly! With the boat now under her control, Kamalya pushed the same controls she watched the pirates use. It looked simple enough to her, just push the steering lever where you wanted the boat to go. And indeed it did work, the boat lurched forward in the direction of the Great Bay Temple. Only it worked a little too well and began speeding off faster then she would have preferred. Kamalya was knocked to her feet by the sudden speed shift, quickly costing her control. The boat zipped through the water, bouncing off the waves and threatening to toss its passenger into the ocean. Mercifully the steering lever began to move back to its neutral position and the boat started to slow down. It finally stopped as it crashed near a few rocks, although it was moving slow enough that it didn't sustain any damage beyond some mild scrapes. At this point Kamalya had been tossed into a small bundle of her own traveling cloak, groaning slightly from all the jostling. She quickly picked herself up, however, when she realized there were two people watching her. The spirit priestess held back a blush of embarrassment as she stood as respectably as she could under the circumstances and cleared her throat. "My name is Kamalya and I am looking to get into the Great Bay Temple." Kamalya stated as she pointed off into the distance at her destination. "Do you know a way to get there?"
"Marcus," Loft said, sitting up and pointing at the water, "look! A stray bogey from that spitting contest!" "That's a boat, Loft." A small boat was zipping erratically through the water, and Marcus' idle interest sharpened immediately when he realized that whoever was steering had lost all control. The boat twitched this way and that, and Marcus jumped to his feet; that boat was about to crash! "Come on, Loft," he said, carefully edging his way down the cliff face. The path was steep, but he was cautious, steadily picking his way through the rocks and unsteady pebbles. Loft, on the other hand, took no precautions. He launched himself off the side and sprinted down the slope, pushing off near the bottom and rolling to a stop on the sandy beach below. Marcus joined him just as the boat crashed into the beach, sending its owner sailing through the air and rolling onto the sand. The bundle of cloak and sand stood, revealing a Gerudo with short, fiery red hair. "Well," Marcus said, looking to where Kamalya was pointing, "if your boat still works, you can use that. We're actually looking to go there too," he said. The Gerudo had a boat, after all; such an opportunity couldn't be wasted. "My name's Marcus," he said. "I'm Loft, the jell-O loving ninja!" Loft proclaimed happily, plopping himself down onto the sand and doodling diamonds onto the beach.
Kamalya spared a moment to observe the two Hylians. The darker haired one, Marcus, looked dependable if nothing else. He was fit looking, although not solidly built. Probably someone who didn't use a weapon unless he had to. Maybe a mage or something. The other Hylian though... Not even all her self control could stop Selena from looking a bit wierded out by Loft. What he said, his actions, it didn't seem...normal to her. Perhaps he was Marcus's brother or something, being taken care of by him because of some...blow to the head. "If you are traveling to the Great Bay Temple, you may come with me if you know how to maneuver this device." Kamalya gestured to her boat, her desire to not crash again overpowering her pride. Besides, it never hurt to have a little company when going into somewhere so unknown. Perhaps they knew their way around it.
Marcus nodded and stepped over small rocks to get to the boat. "I guess I can take a look," he said. It wasn't too damaged, thankfully; scrapes, scratches, a slightly crushed nose, but other than that, it seemed fine. As long as it got them to the Great Bay Temple and back, he supposed. "Is this yours? It doesn't look too damaged, but you're going to have to do some repairs later." He stepped inside the motorboat and began fiddling around near the lever. Loft, meanwhile, was drawing a large circle in the sand. He put two eyes and a smile onto it, then slashed in two angry eyebrows above the smile and gave it vampire teeth. "What about the gods' spit?" He asked, pointing to the large gray winds encircling what must be the Great Bay Temple.
"It's mine now." Kamalya stated firmly, not wanting to explain how she stole it from some pirates. "However, I'm not attached to and if you would like to use it, it is all yours." Since Marcus was working on getting the boat figured out, the spirit priestess decided to take a seat and wait patiently until they departed. The setting was rather beautiful, with the grand ocean crashing into the shore below the bright blue sky. It reminded her of home, although significantly less sandy. "What business do you have inside the temple?" Kamalya eventually asked when the thought occurred to her. They didn't look much like treasure hunters, but maybe she was wrong.
Hers now; implying that it wasn't before. Well, Marcus wasn't sure what had happened, but he automatically resolved to not let up his guard around her for a while. As for what their business was... Marcus glanced over at Loft, then turned to flip a large, black switch to the left of what he guessed was the steering-lever. "We heard that something's wrong inside, and we decided to investigate." The engine roared to life, and the boat began to shudder. "It's ready," he said, sitting down in front of the lever. "Climb aboard and we can get going." As Loft flipped into a seat behind Marcus', the boy at the lever glanced over at Kamalya. "What about you? Why are you heading there?"
Something was wrong? Perhaps that's why she felt the calling to go to the Great Bay temple. After all, it wouldn't be much of a challenge if everything was in proper order. All Kamalya knew was that she needed to visit the very heart of the machine, if there was something going on chances were that it'd need to be fixed in order for her to accomplish her goal. "I am going to the Great Bay Temple as a test of sorts." She answered as she hopped into the boat, staying low to the ground this time in case another accident happened. "I am a spirit priestess, and I seek to increase my understanding of my beliefs."
With everyone in the boat, Marcus placed his long-fingered hands on two levers and took a deep breath before pushing them tentatively forward. The boat lurched forward and to the right, and Marcus hissed at how close the beach was coming again. He pulled them back, and the boat whirred into reverse and the left. After a little bit of jarring fiddling, he got the controls in hand and steered them off towards the swirling mass in the distance. It would be a quick journey, as long as nothing unexpected happened. "A spirit priestess?" Marcus said over the sound of water breaking against the ship before them and the engine roaring underneath them. "I'm not familiar with the order; what are your beliefs, exactly?" "Isn't it obvious?" Loft said, his arms clamped tightly around the seat head in front of him. "They believe every soul is a part of the Big Poe, Jalhalla, and they can send secret knowledge to each other through him!"
"No." Kamalya punctuated her curt response by tapping Loft on the head with her quarterstaff. Not hard enough to physically injure him, but it's not like the Gerudo are renown for their gentleness. Doubly so given how she felt about misconceptions and falsehoods regarding her order. "There is more to religion then simply Din, Nayru, and Farore. The Goddesses built the world around a series of elements, it is important for there to be people who work to understand and uphold these elements. Forest, fire, water, shadow, spirit, and light, they all represent virtues, values, and concepts important to everyone and everything. Spirit is the element of community, the idea that we are all connected. It is the element the Gerudo embody the most, so I chose to become a priestess of spirit for my sisters." A faint smile had slowly formed over Kalamya's lips as she explained the core idea behind her belief. She quickly returned to a more serious face once she realized this. "Over time people have forgotten about the elemental orders, which is why they are fairly uncommon now."
Loft winced and rubbed his tender head as Kamalya explained. Marcus smiled; it was always nice to see someone taking the direct approach with Loft. He listened, intrigued, as the Gerudo priestess went over the basis of her beliefs, still keeping enough attention on the water to keep them steered straight to the mass of spiraling winds which hid the Great Bay Temple from view. "That's very interesting," he said honestly, smiling to see how much she enjoyed her beliefs. "But what exactly does being a spirit priestess entail? If Spirit is the element of community, what do you do?" He found the differences between the elements, their unique qualities, and how this impacted their believers, intriguing. They were beginning to approach the winds, and hopefully their arrival wouldn't keep them from continuing this conversation.
Kamalya smirked slightly as Marcus questioned her further. It was always nice to see someone take an interest in her beliefs, even if he wasn't one of her sisters. Her order wasn't something that actively sought to convert others into it, but it was her job to spread her beliefs so that others could benefit from them. "Well, for one I serve the role that any priest or priestess serves. I can perform marriages, blessing, things of that nature. It's also my job to teach others what the element of spirit really is and encourage others to embrace it as much as they can. The goddesses never intended for there to be absolute balance between the elements so not everyone embraces it as much as others, but in order to do so you must know what the element of spirit is in the first place." "But more specific to my role as a spirit priestess, I inspire people. I show others what it means to be a part of a greater whole and how to draw strength from that. To be part of a group, part of a culture, to be part of the world, even to be part of the circle of life. Together everyone and everything is stronger for it, from the smallest flower to the mightiest king." "To isolate ourselves from this is one of the greatest perversities one can commit. It is one of Ganon's greatest sins." The mention of the King of Evil soured Kamalya's mood slightly, causing her face to shift into a glare at nothing in particular.
"Why would the Gerudo need marriages?" Loft mumbled, watching as the spit ball that was the winds and waters spiral around the Great Bay Temple. The idea of the elements not being balanced was particularly interesting, and Marcus asked her if she could elaborate on that. "The circle of life... that reminds me of the element of Forest. I suppose even the elements that make up reality itself are intertwined." Ganon certainly did have many sins, and violating the element of Spirit's code was probably not the worst of them. They came upon the mass of strong, chaotic winds, and Marcus slowed the boat to a halt. "How do we want to do this?" He asked. "Full speeds or at a crawl?" He glanced over at Kamalya and said, "I don't suppose you have any magic to help, do you?"
"They don't, but silly Hylians like yourself seem to be rather fond of them. I merely said that I have the power to, not that I do it." Kamalya responded curtly again, but the distraction got her mind off of Ganon and she was grateful for it. Even if she didn't realize it. "Elemental imbalance is what causes change, and change is required to grow. It's also what allows everything in the world to be different from everything else. The goddesses want a vast land rich with life and that simply wouldn't be possible if everything was perfectly balanced. The world would be a dull land where nothing happened, a wasteland almost. Instead we have Gorons who embody fire's passion, and Kokiri that embody the forest's serenity. There is struggle, but there is also success. You could say that the world has a imbalanced balance, a perfectly imperfect land." "What you say about the element of forest is true as well. Many of the element overlap with each other. They are all connected because that's what it takes to create the world the goddesses wanted. Spirit shares the same value in life as the forest does, which also believes in the same passion that fire holds. Light believes in purity, as does shadow in that one should be able to draw strength from themselves without influence from that which is unnecessary. All elements are necessary, but mastery of each one is not." Watching the storm surrounding the Great Bay Temple did bring out the regret of having not learned any wind magic in Kamalya, but she didn't dwell on it. "We should be swift about entering, but not hasty. If we turn with the wind we should have a better chance of making it then if we just rush straight in."
Marcus found what Kamalya said to be intriguing, and yet... yet it seemed to clash with things he had previously heard. He remembered learning that the element of Forest symbolized the cycle of life and death, yet here was the Gerudo Priestess telling him that it symbolized serenity. Perhaps the two were not mutually exclusive? Perhaps there were multiple truths to the same reality? He wrenched himself from his thoughts, nodding to Kamalya. "Go in with the winds? Alright. Hold on tight!" He wet his lips, then turned the boat and steered them into the vortex at nearly full speeds. The chaotic winds tossed them to and fro, and the levers became virtually irrelevant. Marcus did his best to steer them inwards, whichever way that was. With the winds and waters howling all around the boat, it was hard to tell which way was which. Eventually, a dark shape appeared in the midst of the storm, and he guided the boat to it. They burst through the edge of the storm and slid forward, tired and wet, into the eye of the stormy sphere. They were so close to the building that it was hard to tell its general shape, and soon they had glided through an entryway and stopped in a large room. "I wish there were a rope we could tie this with," he mused, "but the waters are so calm I don't think it matters." He held out a hand, wondering if the Gerudo's culture allowed her to accept help climbing out of a boat from a male.
Living in a desert did not prepare Kamalya for the ordeal of being wet. Her travels have taught her, very quickly, what it was like to be soaked but none of it compared to the drowning she had gotten now. Complaining was now how she, or the Gerudo for that matter, did things though, so she kept her mouth shut and suffered in silence. At least the inside of the Great Bay Temple was humid and warm from the ocean, the priestess wouldn't have to concern herself with freezing to death. "It would be best to not take any chances with our only means of escape." Kamalya stated as she produced her cheval's rope and tied the boat to the dock. Once she was done, Kamalya hoped out of the vessel with a nimble leap. She didn't even recognize that Marcus was offering her a helping hand. "I hear the sounds of machinery in the distance." She stated as she pointed to the only other exit with her readied quarterstaff. "With the entire place being made out of metal everywhere we go could be trapped. We should be on our guard."
Marcus withdrew his hand awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck as she tied to boat off. "Alright," he said. "You know, I'm kinda surprised that you know how to do that," he said, nodding at the rope. "This obviously isn't your first time out of the desert." Loft tapped the metal door with the hilt of his knife. Standard procedure to see if it was rigged to explode. When nothing happened, he nodded and tugged the door open. The room on the other side was like a box filled partially with water. Lily pads floated in place around the pool, which separated them from the other door. "Badoom," he said.
"There's only so much you can learn in one place." Kamalya stated simply as she proceeded through the doors, giving Loft the tiniest of nods of approval for his approach with the door. "Everyone has something different to teach, so I started traveling and learning what I could from others. There's no such thing as useless knowledge." The room itself seemed pretty mundane to the Gerudo, which worried her considerably. This wasn't a place designed for people to come and go as they pleased, it was meant to keep people out. The storm outside was evidence enough of that. With no obvious traps of any sort that meant there was something going on that she couldn't see. "I can jump across the lily pads without any problems." Kamalya said as she fingered the Roc's Feather in her pocket. "How do you two intend to cross?"
"There's only so much you can learn in one place." Kamalya stated simply as she proceeded through the doors, giving Loft the tiniest of nods of approval for his approach with the door. "Everyone has something different to teach, so I started traveling and learning what I could from others. There's no such thing as useless knowledge." Marcus nodded, smiling. "I completely agree," he said, his voice's pitch rising with excitement. "That's exactly why I'm traveling, too!" He smiled at her as they walked in, happy to be working with someone so like-minded. After traveling with treasure hunters, people who would kill him as soon as look at him, and lovers interested only in each other, this made for a nice change. Loft grinned and jogged over to the wall. "No problem. I can defy gravity!" He stepped over to the wall and stood on it. "See?" Marcus frowned at the lily pads. The water was clear, the walls were bare, and the door simple. Perhaps he was too used to rooms where every nook and cranny was crammed with traps to behead him and his friends, but he felt nervous. "Hold on," he said, "Loft! Toss me a Deku Nut!" Loft did so, and Marcus stumbled to catch it. "Thanks!" He turned to Kamalya. "I'm just going to check something." He tossed it gently onto the nearest lily pad. The moment the nut pressed down onto the green plant, the lily pad sprang to life. Jaws burst up and snapped down on the nut, and Marcus heard a dull explosion within the plant as it exploded. The lily pad reeled from the shock, stunned, but it appeared unharmed.
