The Sunken City [Darksea] [COMPLETE]

Cast:
Sirius Longfellow - Blonde Panther
Silas Longfellow - Squishy

DISCUSSION THREAD

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The surface of the sea was calm. So calm, that one would think there was nothing out of the ordinary with it, if it hadn't been for the army camped on the beach and countless of soldiers standing guard at the shore.

Silas was standing between them, watching the waves crash onto the sand. As soon as word of what had befallen Impa had reached Castle Town, he had been send out to help. In the short he had been given to pack his belongings, the Sheikah had hastily written a note to his brother, saying he was in need of his help and to meet him here. He hadn't had the time for a full explanation, though he would be surprised if his brother hadn't already heard a thing or two at the Academy.

Right now Silas could do little else than wait until his brother or the Zora mages, that would help them in their descent to the city, would arrive. He had taken off his socks, and carefully dipped a foot into the sea, before pulling it back with a shiver.

His mind went to the city, slowly sinking beneath the waves, and the people trapped inside. While the mages inside the city had been able to temporarily slow down the descent, there was no denying that Impa was still sinking, and there was no telling to how long the mages could keep up their protective spells.

The reports from shore had been just as worrying, as general Nihil had seemed to disappear along with the city, though there were no reports of him being found amongst the rubble or stuck beneath the waves. His second-in-command, Onox, had survived the onslaught and was leading the troops in the city below, but there seemed to be whispers of conflict between the citizens and soldiers...

Silas sighed, wiping off his foot and putting his shoes back on. He could only hope for his brother to arrive quickly, so they could start their mission before it was too late.

"Oh, hello boy!" A big, goofy grin appeared on Silas' face when he saw a familiar canine next to him. He bent down to the dog's level, giving it a good scratch behind the ears.

"Who's a good boy? You are! Yes, you are! You're a goody good boy~ Have you been looking after my dearest baby brother?"

Then Silas heard a familiar voice behind him. Giving Rover a last pat on the head and sneaking him a small treat, the Sheikah stood back up and turned around.

"So hurtful, dear brother." He replied, pulling his face into an exeggerated pout. "But I'm happy to see you too." The pout quickly turned into a smile, albeit a small one. The arrival of his brother meant their mission would start any moment now, as soon as the Zora mages arrived.

Silas laughed, slightly uneasily.

"Should've brought my bathing suit." He muttered, gesturing to the sea. He wouldn't openly admit it, but the idea of being trapped deep beneath the waves instilled a deep sense of fear in him. When he had recieved the mission, it had been all too clear he would either succeed and survive, or fail and perish in the sinking city. Silas was pretty sure his brother had realised as much.

Silas' face took on a grim expression.

"This is no laughing matter, and I take my missions incredibly serious. I thought you knew me better than that." Perhaps it was just nerves that made his brother a little on edge, he thought. When he started to repeat the details of the mission, Silas waved him off. "Yes, yes, dear brother, I've had my briefing. I know to pay attention to the big boss." He said with a wink. Then he became serious again when Sirius brought up the missing general.

"The man's a soldier, Sirius. As loyal as they come and definitely not a coward. The only explanation for him being missing is that he's dead, as harsh as it sounds."

One of the mages next to him coughed lightly, trying to catch his attention.

"Ah, yes!" Following his brother, Silas quickly introduced himself. "Well then, we're all set to go, aren't we?"

One of the mages nodded, while another rummaged through a bag, before taking out a small jar filled with a clear, lightblue substance. He offered the jar to Silas, who opened it and carefully sniffed it. It didn't have any particular scent, though it had a strange gooey consistency, he discovered when he rubbed it between two fingers.

"That is to be applied on the lower face in a thick layer, specifically around the nose and mouth. Underwater it will expand into a bubble, which will allow you to breathe until we reach our destination. We will have two of us to carry you gentlemen into the city, while two others will act as guards, and a last one will scout ahead. So far there have not been any hostile encounters beyond the city, but we have to be careful." The mage said.

"Alright, seems clear enough." Silas took a big scoop of the gooey contents of the jar, and rubbed it onto his face, after handing the jar over to his brother. He also put a streak on Rover's nose, and patted him on the head.

"I'll give you a big treat if you stay nice on the trip down, okay~?"

"It should take no more than half an hour. I do hope you can hold on to your... dog, though. As we had not expected it to come along." One of the Zoras said, looking at Rover with a mix of slight disgust and annoyance. He coughed into his hand, slightly embarassed. "At any rate. We are ready to go when you are."

Silas turned to his brother.

"This is it, then. Once we're down there, there's no way out." Unless we die, he thought, but he didn't dare to speak that thought out loud. Things like that tended to kill the mood pretty quick. "Well, I'm ready to go. Just tell us where you want us."

The Zora mage nodded.

"Good. Zino and Yara here will each carry one of you." He snapped his fingers, and two strong-looking Zoras, a male and a female, stepped forward. The mage turned around to give directions to the remaining three Zoras, and then they set off into the waves.

They had to walk the first part into the sea, until the water got deep enough to properly swim for the Zoras, which around waist-high. Yara, the female Zora, turned to face Silas. Zino, the male Zora, would carry Sirius and Rover.

"Hmm, you'd best hold on tight. We don't want you getting lost at sea, now do we?"

"I guess not, though I don't speak for my brother..."

And off they went.

As soon as they were submerged, the ointment on the brothers' faces started swelling into a small bubble that would allow them to breathe until they arrived at their destination. Even though he was tempted to, Silas refrained from touching the bubble, as the Zora mage had not told them how much the bubble could take before it burst, and neither did it seem a very good idea to let go of Yara whilst they were swimming. Especially not at their current speed.

The Zoras were fast, even with the two Sheikahs holding on to their shoulders, and the sun was rapidly becoming smaller and more distant, until they were in an alien sort of twilight, with neither surface nor ocean floor in sight. Just endless water.

Silas turned his head, trying to see how his brother and Rover were holding up, managing a small, but reassuring smile, as if saying 'So far, so good'.

Seeing the city suspended in the depths was sure to send a chill through the brothers' spines. From afar, it seemed almost peaceful. Almost.

Closer inspection revealed the broken homes and rubble where the ground had been violently torn from the continent, as well as several twisted shapes that could only be corpses... Silas could swear he saw something else, something not human, pass through the streets, though it was so fast that it was gone in a flash. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good. It was too small to be human, and too fast to be a pet or regular animal.

As they approached the bubble, the Zora they had send ahead to scout returned to the group. He reported to the mage, who was leading them, though being underwater made it hard for Silas to hear them. The scout did not leave the group again, as they were now close to the city. The closer they came to the bubble, to more Silas started to worry. Right now they were swimming through the water, but once they passed through the bubble, the water would be gone, and they would be left hanging in the air, at they were approaching the bubble from the top, right above the center of Impa.

Fortunately, the Zora mage seemed to have a solution for the problem. He was the first to pass through the bubble, seemingly falling to the ground, until he slowed himself down with a simple gesture of his hand. Once the rest of the group, the two Sheikahs included, passed through, he did the same, giving them a relatively soft landing on the solid ground. Upon impact, the bubbles covering the brothers' faces simply burst, leaving a small trace of the ointment.

Silas was the first to get up, wiping the remnants of ointment off his face and stretched his limbs, glad to feel solid ground underneath his feet. He looked around, trying to assess the situation. The Zoras had dropped them off right in what was once Impa's main square, which was now littered with rubble and debris from the attack. Hyrule's army, or what was left of it, was also stationed there, and in the process of gathering the remaining citizens in the town hall.

One of the soldiers, a gruff and large man, approached the group. Silas recognised him as the current commander, Onox. He saluted, and the large man returned the gesture.

"General Onox, I presume? I'm Silas Longfellow, my arrival should've been announced."

"Aye, we've been expecting you, mister Longfellow. You being send was one of the few messages we've managed to recieve, seeing as we have limited means of communication with the surface down here... A few scouts and messengers, though we can't keep them running forever and this damn place is getting more dangerous by the second." Onox said, growling in frustration. Then, he noticed Sirius.

"I'm not sure if we were expecting you as well, sir. Though the message might've gone lost. It wouldn't be the first... Anyway, no one would come here willingly, I assume someone send you to help as well?"

"Ah, my apologies then." Onox said, upong hearing Sirius. "At any rate, I actually have a request to make of you... It's just a rumour, but the townsfolk keep whispering about having seen Nihil in the streets... My men are busy gathering everyone in the town hall and keeping them safe, I can't miss any of them to look for the general. I know I shouldn't send you out on a wild goose chase for a dead man, but..." He sighed, and leant in closer to the brothers.

"If he is alive, we need him. Something is hunting us out there. We're starting to lose more and more mages, and at one point we won't have enough to keep the city afloat and filled with air. My men are tired and scared. They follow my orders simply because I am highest in command now, but I don't know for how long it will last. I fear I might not be able to control the situation for much longer." Onox lips' settled in a thin line, eyeing the two Sheikahs.

Silas had to take everything in for a moment, as he knew the situation was bad, but not this bad. He was about to ask the man about any rumours regarding tensions between the army and the citizens, but decided against it when he say how exhausted Onox looked. And right now something hunting them down seemed to be the bigger problem. Silas cleared his throat.

"Any idea what might be hunting you?"

"There's the regular pests like Chuchus, River Zoras, anything that was already bothering us when we were still on the surface, but there's also something... different. I have not personally seen it myself, but my soldiers report people suddenly disappearing, especially those out on their own, hence why we're gathering everyone. It can't be the work of those worthless blobs, and Zoras tend to leave their killed prey behind. No one seems to know the exact details, since no one has yet survived an attack. All we know is that people are disappearing, and fast."

Silas nodded, then turned to his brother.

"Seems like we've got our work cut out for us, brother."

Onox shuffled through some reports in his hands and took out a slightly crumpled sheet of parchment, handing it over to Silas.

"According to the citizens, he was last seen on the eastern outskirts of town. I think that would be your safest bet to start searching. Just go past the town hall and keep going until you come to a bridge."

Behind the men, the murmur of the people gathered suddenly increased in volume. Onox looked back, worried, and gathered up his reports once more.

"'My apologies, I have to leave you now." He said in a hurried voice. The general started to turn around and hurry back, but not before stopping for just a moment.

"You'd better be on your guard out there. Good luck."

And then he was gone in the crowd.

Silas looked at the retreating men with a mix of worry and curiosity, but then he shook his head. The citizens were not his priority now. He had gotten his orders for this mission, any emotions he had were not of importance, as he had learned in the past what could happen if he let his emotions interfere.

He brusquely turned around, starting off in the direction the general had pointed out.

"Let's get to work."

Silas shrugged, a dark look on his face.

"I don't know. It's so... it's so strange. I mean, people suddenly disappearing off the streets? With not a trace to be found?" He took out the sheet of parchment again, sliding a finger past the lines of text, trying to find anything that might give them more information. "I've encountered a lot throughout the years, but never something like this."

The water surrounding the city gave everything a ghostly blue glow, shadows of the waves above shimmered across the buildings and pavement. Silas was lost in thought, studying the sheet. It was a collection of statements from citizens and soldiers alike, all having said to have seen the missing general. Most of them simply mentioned a dark figure in the distance, while others spoke of something with an unsettling lurching gait, as if it was only barely human. At any rate, none of the statements gave the Sheikah any hope.

"Hmph. That won't be of much help..." He muttered, folding the sheet up and tucking it back into his clothes.

"I've never heard of anything like this. Though it's bound to be connected to all this." Silas gestured at the water surrounding them.

Silas raised an eyebrow, giving his brother an unimpressed look.

"That 'stern teacher' trick doesn't work on me, I'm afraid. I'm your elder brother remember? And besides, I've been properly raised by mum and dad to not tell lies." He said, a slight smile playing around his lips, before settling in a thin line again. "If I knew what it was we wouldn't be wandering around here, deperately looking for clues. Be honest, you know that just as well. When I 'disappear' people, as you put it, they are people who pose a danger to the king. These people were simple civilians, no connections whatsoever, save for them living in the same town."

When the Zoras appeared, Silas cracked his fingers. The creatures looked absolutely starved, and hunger had made them slow. An easy match. The first one went down when it took the Sheikah's dagger to the throat, after Silas had thrown a handful of needles at it's face and rushed up behind it while it was howling in pain.

The second one, however, was slightly more alert. It managed to dodge a needle thrown in it's direction, but only by a hair's width. Silas circled it with his dagger drawn, looking for an opening. He got it when the Zora spat a ball of fire at him. The Sheikah jumped to the side, dodging the projectile, and immediately jumped forward, slashing at the creature's eyes. The Zora screeched and covered it's eyes with it's hands, crawling back. Silas simply followed the creature, flexing his hands. Before coming here, he had been practicing a new technique he found in a book in the castle's library, and this was the perfect moment to try it out.

He grabbed the Zora by the neck, who weakly tried to claw at his hands, but the pain and hunger had weakened it significantly.

'Rest in peace...'

Flames burst from Silas' hands, and the Zora went limp.