Memory of a Conquered Waste

The parting was unflattering and brief. Though her goodbyes lasted well under a minute, her thoughts dwelt on the strange pair of Deku Scrubs for hours on end. It wasn't of course, that she harbored any strong feelings toward either of them. Lucia prodded her forehead with her long finger. She had this unsettling feeling pursuing her, that she had left the two behind selfishly. She soon double-thought this notion, realizing it was they who had left her behind. After all, she was the one who was injured from the day before. Sure, Talshin had caught that arrow through his arm. . . but did he feel it too well?

Lucia's thoughts soon turned to how well a Deku Scrub might feel an impaled limb through such a thick, wooden hide. Having not felt the hide much, she wondered now if it were really thick at all? Lost entirely in thought, Lucia soon forgot she was treading a field currently under Ganon's military control. She nodded herself out of the daydream and considered herself lucky to not have stepped on a Leever yet.

"I suppose it's a miracle I'm not yet deceased." she bantered with herself. Unsurprisingly her fairy had taken the opportunity to reply.

"Listen! You've got to continue through this field. It's necessary for your journey to stay on this path."​

"I counted, you've said that line eight times over the past three hours. I'm full well considering feeding you to a Dodongo at this point." she threatened the fairy despite knowing she wasn't listening.

Unbeknownst to the fairy, Lucia had chosen this path after learning a new city was being erected near the shore. She had then made a compromise to traverse a long stretch of deadly field in return for finding shelter at the site of the future city. Not only would she be out of the range of the watchful eye of the law, but she would have a place to rest and heal up where monsters were less likely to roam.

On the subject of monsters, Lucia began a strict watch for anything hostile in the area. Her glasses gave her the comfort of knowing at once if something was attacking her. As the sun crept down the sky Lucia increased her pace. Night was the worst time to be out in the middle of nowhere like this. No sooner did she think this did she see a red blip appear before her through her enchanted glasses.

Several yards closer and she made out the shape of a gooey creature. She quickly remembered this was a Chuchu without having to check her notebook. It slathered itself around in the grass and pursued Lucia with a big, goofy smile and wide, silly eyes. She unhinged her boomerang off of her belt. Such a creature should be fairly simple to dispatch, she thought. It lunged forward as if accepting her challenge.

It slopped itself onto the dirt before her, dripping beads of jelly in its wake. Lucia cocked her arm back and led its movement with her eyes. When it hesitated for a moment, she twisted her arm out and let the boomerang fly. The wooden instrument recoiled off the gelled surface of the Chuchu's face. Somehow the brainless creature had become thrown for a loop by the blunt force, and flew into a daze. Lucia fumbled the boomerang and it slipped onto the grass nearby. Not saving even a moment for embarrassment, she contemplated how to destroy the monster for good.

"Not a blade on my person. . . flinging a fist will probably do much less." she announced in frustration. Suddenly it occurred to her how to stop this thing. If not by outer harm, she would have to harm it from within. Lucia picked her boomerang up and dove straight at the Chuchu in a tackle. She immersed herself in the red creature as her arms cleaved through the gelatinous flesh.

There was a dead silence as Lucia disappeared inside and the goo bubbled over to envelope her. The Chuchu's eye began to bulge outward as the goofy smile became a frown. With a sudden jerking motion, Lucia burst out from within. The force of her body squeezing out all at once tore the Chuchu to shreds and sent little red drops exploding in every direction. The girl was now covered completely in the red gel.

"Now that does rather look like jam, doesn't it?" she admitted as she made no attempt to clean it off.

Lucia's body filled with warmth as she felt the effects of the red Chu Jelly repairing her wounds. It wasn't a perfect regeneration but the extra boost would help her last outside until she found a place to rest. She continued her jog in the original direction, making extra haste as to beat the night from overwhelming her.

"That doesn't quite taste like raspberry at all." she remarked.

With the sun gone from the sky, Lucia could now make out several Moblin camps in the distance, all marked through the distance by their fire pits and torches. Lucia had thought she was lucky not to have encountered many Octoroks, but a Moblin would have taken her to an early grave. Remembering the countless Octorok attacks brought back many old sores she didn't want to remember. The little heathens really had none more to do than pelt her with stones? Though, putting thought to it she realized, that was probably their way of catching food. She shuddered to think of herself as the meal of an Octorok.

Keeping a close eye out for foes, she huddled past bushes and boulders to make an extra attempt not to be seen. Horribly enough, after all the miles she had traversed she feared that something may have caught her scent by now. With a swift peer behind her, she noticed nothing was tailing her for at least half a mile backward. The wind crept up her leg and she remembered to keep moving.

The sight before her was heart-breaking. Not even a half a mile in every direction, could be seen the flames of enemy territory. Lucia couldn't help but shiver every few steps she took, thinking a wrong step could get her trapped behind their gates. What does a Moblin encampment even do to a defenseless Kokiri? She never wanted to find out.

With her steps hushed to a light shuffle, she kept a wide perimeter of each base she saw. There would be no reason to jog if it would get her found out. Lucia suddenly wondered if she had trailed too far south of the direct course. She knew caravans of supplies to the city would never get this close to so many moblins at once. It was decided that she had made a wrong turn somehow.

She used her memory of the direction of the sunset to assume where north was, and reformed her goal to be a bit more north-east than where she was currently heading.



Soon enough, she made her way out of the wasteland of Moblins. She found herself treading toward the dim light of the many construction sites she was looking forward to hiding in.