The Windy Sand Goddess [Eevachu + Electronic Ink]

The bizarre stranger and his odd pet seemed to be less than hostile, to Yuku’s relief. The dour Hylian child in his gaudy garb seemed irritable as he mentioned that the other hand-beasts had retreated. What was someone so young doing in such a dangerous place? The conversation quickly turned even stranger as the Octorok - the land-loving variety, it seemed, rather than the aquatic kind that plagued rivers - made a noise and the child snapped at it. Why… what? What on earth had prompted the child to tell his pet it was not a fish?

It dawned on her that the child was speaking with the beast, and her eyes widened, impressed.
“You have my apologies for intruding,” she shifted uncomfortably, propping the butt of Lonomeru against the ground. The metal made quiet grinding sounds against the sand-coated ground, the grains failing to scratch the polished surface.

The child’s eyes seemed to have caught on Lonomeru’s blade, and Yuku felt a quiet thrill of pride that her weapon was being appreciated for its majesty. “The staircase is ahead, you say? It seems we have a common goal,”

She crouched in front of the Octorok, which the boy had called ‘Wollo’, and studied its face. It had a cute little moustache, she thought with amusement.
“Hello there, Wollo,” she said, reaching out to pat its rubbery skin. She straightened, free hand smoothing out the worn leather of her skirt as she rose.

“My name is Yuku, by the way,” the Zora said as she walked towards the new room, dark eyes sweeping it for signs of more hand-beasts. She hoped the boy would take the prompt and introduce himself, as she felt rather foolish having to enquire. What if he’d already said it, and she had missed it?

“The stairway… is it blocked at all? What is trapping us here? Would two of us be able to overcome it where one could not?”
Yuku was, of course, completely ignorant of the boy’s former companions, the duo who had been bodily snatched by the hand-beasts, or else she likely would not have proposed that two could best what three could not.

Eyeing the child cautiously, Yuku considered. He didn’t seem overtly childish. Was there more to the youth than eyes could see? He certainly had the gravitas of a much older being about him, rather than the warm bubble ness of a proper young Hylian. There was clearly something she was missing here.

“I’d hope you would continue with me,” she began. “I did not journey all this way to be turned back by slight threats. Unless you think our lives are truly in danger, I should like to press forward,”

She nodded carefully as Rika explained the scenario. This sounded perfectly achievable, she figured, although she startled at his mention of his prior companions. Wait, people had been taken? Her grip on Lonomeru tightened. That was no trifling matter. "We will have to be very cautious then," she mused. "I barely got free of the creature that tried to pull me away - their grip is formidable. Your companions will hopefully be able to preserve their lives, if not escape on their own."

Her eyes caught on the gleam of the Sand Wand in the pit and a part of her let out a long sigh. Of course that's where the child's tool had landed. She had half a mind to tell him to stay back - monster-fighting was surely too dangerous for a youth - but the more she thought about his demeanour and enormous scythe the less she was able to deny that she clearly hadn't listened enough in her childhood lessons. Apparently her tutor had not been relaying folklore when he explained that the forests of Hyrule often contained the ageless.

Satisfied that Rika surely had no requirement of her motherly habits, Yuku lifted her weapon. "We will get your wand, then." She barely finished the sentence before he had moved, and Yuku spun to face the second creature. Her hands were damp with sweat that was rapidly cooling along Lonomeru's handle, too far from the blade to fully freeze but certainly not unaffected. She took several steps towards the Sandongo that had hoisted itself from its slothful state, rushing it before sidestepping and running directly up the wall. The lizard made a guttural sound of confusion that Yuku mirrored - she had meant to slice at the creature as she leapt onto the wall but the blade of her halberd simply glanced off. Of course the beast was armoured - although not well, apparently, given that her strike had dented the scales and apparently still bruised the creature. The Zora woman quickly walked higher on the wall as the Sandongo turned to try and bite at its attacker, frustrated that she had climbed out of its reach. Its maw gaped and Yuku's eyes widened when she saw the beginnings of flames spark in the back of its throat.

Thinking quickly, Yuku turned and kept running, putting a hand to the crumbling ceiling when she reached it before pushing herself up to her feet and continuing, now wholly upside-down. Even though she was too far away now to attack she had to keep going, running to get behind the creature before it could turn itself around again. The creature's brightly coloured tail was clearly not as scaled as the rest of it - so surely if she could lop that off, it would at the least be rather inconvenienced. If she was lucky, the tail would be akin to a Zora's head, full of arteries that would quickly bleed out when cut open. She jumped, flipping around to catch onto the ceiling briefly with one hand before letting go and plummetting with Lonomeru's keen blade pointed at the tail.

Her aim was true, nearly wholly severing the tail - she hadn't managed to entirely cut it off but that was okay. Frost quickly spread on both sides of the cut as a burst of frigid magic whirled from the blade, greatly relieving Yuku's heat-induced discomfort but causing the Sandongo to wail in distress. Lizards did not like the cold, particularly when it was introduced to their insides. It lunged at her and she jumped backwards, avoiding the teeth. She put her body into the next swing of her weapon, wedging the blade directly into the creature's open mouth and slicing its tongue. It shrieked as the ice now filled its throat, the noise quickly choked off by the freezing of the Sandongo's airway. The lizard slumped to the sand, weakly thrashing as it coughed. Tiny bursts of aborted flame made it out of its mouth as it tried to melt its icy throat, but by the time it could breathe again it was already too weak to haul itself back up. The trail of blood from its tail was thick and telling, and it wheezed for a few further minutes before going still.

Lowering her weapon, Yuku winced at the strangely-coloured monster blood across Lonomeru's blade, chilled into a semisolid state. A few quick swipes through the sand mostly cleared the pearly surface, and she turned towards Rika. The kid had defeated his own foe with similar swiftness, and she stepped towards him as he retrieved the wand. Her eyes widened slightly at his praise; if her guess was right about the 'child' being an immortal forest being, that was high praise indeed.

"Thank you," she nodded. "You weren't so bad yourself; it does seem these creatures are not fond of ice." She absently tapped the handle of her halberd, quiet tones audible with each touch as she considered. A small, proud smile met the Kokiri's compliment of the weapon. "Lonomeru is a beauty, and powerful to boot. In the short time I've owned it, I could not have asked for a better weapon."

What else was she capable of? Yuku planted the end of her halberd against the ground and leaned on it. "My ability to run on walls, you already saw. Aside from which, I am able to force any creature into sleep by touch, and I use Nayru's Affection as equal parts weapon and shield, when the need arises. I also am in possession of several tools useful when exploring dangerous areas, and can purify liquids into clean water if this desert is dehydrating you."
She paused to snort slightly. "It is most certainly not being kind to me; only Lonomeru's frigid aura and my own damned sweat were keeping me from drying out like a beached corpse out there. I am very grateful for the shade in here."

Now that things had calmed, Yuku felt justified in pulling out her waterskin and drinking deeply, letting out a satisfied sigh as her thirst was slaked. She pressed her hand against the opening to wet it before swiping the water over her arms and face, attempting to soothe her parched scales. Deserts were certainly no place for a Zora, and it had been foolish of her to not procure protective equipment before coming out here. Not that she could have afforded it, frankly; she'd have had to steal it, which was never easy. Magical item vendors were always sharper of eye than their mundane counterparts. Storing her waterskin, Yuku then reached for her fishbone pipe, lighting it with a quick flame from her finger. The spikes of adrenaline that her battle had given rise to quickly subsided to the kelp weed as she looked around.

Yuku walked towards the stairs, eyeing them carefully. That was their destination. Yuku had come this far, and the ceiling overhead was protecting her from the heat that had endangered her thus far. It was far cooler inside the temple, and she rather thought that was the only reason she had been able to continue in here. Sea Zora were notoriously poorly adapted to the heat. She could keep going in here, though, and she could feel it in her gut that she was close to finding something important. This was most certainly the place she had been searching for.

"Rika? I imagine that the further we go inside, the fewer wildlife monsters we will find - these lizards seemed loathe to do anything except lounge in the shaded sand. Shall we go forward?"

Yuku caught the sphere of water and stared at it wondrously. Her gills fluttered a little as she tried to work out if she was envious or impressed. Both seemed to be the likely answer. “This magic is one I would love to acquire,” she admitted, rolling the cool water across her fingers. She raised it to her lips and drank deeply, until little more than a drop remained on her fingers. “Does the trick lay in the summoning of the water or the force it creates when it disperses?” She was grateful that the orb hadn’t exploded in her face.

She winced at the slight grating sound the door let off before at the void beyond. Yuku pushed up her glasses as if to try and better view what was ahead, but there was nothingness. It was a warm sandy colour, and light particles were illuminated by some abstract source, but there was simply nothing. It defied explanation.
“Had I not already known this was an arcane place, I would certainly know now,” Yuku frowned. “I also want to retrieve that chest. There are no walls here, but perhaps I can walk on the underside of the stairs and drop down from above? The fall is… not exactly negligible, though. Are you in possession of any magics that would safely transport us over there?”

Yuku took the moment to de-stress, inhaling the kelpweed smoke and blowing it away from Rika. It wasn’t a pungent smoke but manners were manners, and even though her companion was not the child he appeared she still objected to polluting his air with her vice. The pale smoke drifted upwards, rippling in the dry air. “I don’t doubt that this place is exactly what I was looking for. As dilapidated as it is, I think that there is a certain aura to these ruins. I am grateful for your company, though, Rika. Both your help and your conversation,”

She hummed in thought, kicking a swathe of sand off their platform and into the abyss. It fell quickly out of sight. “I would rather not linger too long, admittedly. This room unnerves me. It has the appearance of a trap, and I say our taking of that treasure must be quick, lest we find ourselves tricked. Treasure is the perfect lure, after all. Not that I don’t want to get it, the prospect is far too intriguing for that. We simply must hurry,” Her tentacles moved absently in the air, gently up and down with her breathing as it steadied. Not too far ahead now, surely.

The other’s response surprised Yuku, and she paused, trying to decipher the odd tone in his voice. Was he mocking her? Before she could riddle it out, Rika had hopped neatly off the side of the platform. Yuku’s mouth opened and she went to shout in alarm, but the sound died in her throat as she registered the strange sensation crawling through her body. There was a pale light enveloping her flippers, and as she watched it seemed to tremble with unrealised energy. She looked up - or rather, looked down - in time to see Rika execute a practised hop off of thin air, and he touched down unharmed. Another of his magical talents, then - to be able to jump without feet touching solid ground, and perhaps the glow he had bestowed meant he could grant it to her, as well. She felt a flash of gratefulness that as yet none of her children had begun to manifest magical ability that would allow such dangerous acts; whilst Taku was had certainly been a menace since his legs started growing in, the worst he could do was clumsily chase Maku around while she hollered at the top of her little lungs.

Her reminiscing was interrupted as suddenly the earth trembled, and far below in the abyss she realised Rika’s predicament. There was no time to waste; she had to hope that Rika’s magic would make her descent safe. She crouched slightly, readying Lonomeru, and leaped forward. Her arms spread to either side and she fought the instinct that demanded she flip over, to breach the water with with proper form - except there was no water, so that would be a patently ridiculous move that would only result in her ungraceful death. The wind furiously buffeted her as she fell and she desperately flared her fins in an attempt to control her descent. The air below her churned with foul serpentine creatures thrashing about through the air; the danger was less from the bite of the worms but from the extremely dangerous slabs of stone attached to their heads; a strike from those could crack a bone in two!

As the ground rapidly approached Yuku prepared to make an attempt at the little hop she’d seen Rika do, but before she could a worm whipped towards her. With a yelp she twisted her body sharply, putting Lonomeru between herself and the creature. The tile clipped the blade and there was a crystalline clink as a crack scythed through it; at the same time there was a burst of frigid air and a veneer of frost raced across the worm’s skin, the upper half of the creature frozen solid. The worm and Yuku fell together, and she almost didn’t make the tiny jump in time; the worm hit the ground and the frozen portion cracked open on impact. Yuku stumbled as she landed, hurriedly putting Lonomeru out to balance herself; she glanced at the halberd’s blade anxiously. The crack seemed minor, and she knew the blade would repair itself, but if it broke she’d be at a rather problematic disadvantage.

“The fans go all the way up!” Yuku shouted to Rika, falling into a battle-ready stance, Lonomeru at the ready. She pivoted backward and sliced a flying worm in two. Her tentacles were starting to ache with the force of the winds pulling them this way and that, and her footing was unsteady. Surprisingly her wide, flippered feet were somewhat helping her keep upright on the shifting sands. Her eyes widened as a trio of tangled worms whipped towards her; she braced herself shoulder-first and let her bioelectricity crackle to life moments before they struck. The shocked worms for a moment stopped flailing, and Yuku lashed out with her halberd, slicing one clean in half and tagging another with the blade badly enough that it went limp not long after. Her swing hadn’t been powerful enough to harm the third worm, and it initially hit the ground with the weight of the other two worms, but the impact jolted it free and the wind pulled it off again. She was hacking at worms so frequently she was having to duck them to give Lonomeru’s enchantment time to restore itself; the frost on the blade melting off each time she wore it down. The water filling her hands was starting to give her an idea.

The vicious winds faltered as the first fan was frozen, the grinding sound of metal leaving Yuku cringing. The second fan shearing through the ice solidified the idea that had formed in her mind, sparked by the small streams of water pouring down the haft of her weapon and through her fingers. The sand around her feet was by now damp, and as Lonomeru's dripping blade froze over again as its enchantment restored itself, Yuku instead pivoted against the wind and dug in her heels. She took in the structure of the fans for a moment, and then called out to the Kokiri who was so easily holding his own. The howling of the wind was too loud, though, and she knew that she hadn't been heard. Yuku let out a slightly less than composed yelp as a Tile Worm spun overhead and she barely managed to duck beneath it, staying low as she tracked the distance to cross if she was to get close enough to join Rika.

Summoning the power of the jumping spell he had bestowed on her, Yuku kicked off from the ground, leaping forward. Her jump was well timed; almost as soon as she had left the ground a Tile Worm whipped through the space her shins had been with well enough force to have broken both of her legs. Whew. As she reached the height of her arc, Yuku realised her folly; a Tile Worm was whisked toward her. There was no way she could dodge that in time! Instinctively, Yuku twisted and braced herself, latching onto the tile itself as though it were just another wall to walk on. A quick jab from Lonomeru bisected the worm, and Yuku leaped off it as it burst into smoke, landing far closer to Rika than she had been before.

"Wet the blades!" she shouted, her voice carrying over the wind. "Cast the water and we can freeze them solid!"

Yuku's gaze latched on to the Tile Worm Rika was pointing at, and her eyes lit up at the realisation. With how high the gale was able to blow the creatures, Rika's plan was genius! She watched as the frozen Worm, no longer thrashing about, followed a relatively smooth path through the air, around and upwards. "Good thinking!" she shouted, pivoting on her flippers and turning her attention to the worms. She saw a Tile Worm hit the sand before the gale brought it towards her, and she gritted her sharp teeth before ducking to the side of it and slamming the back end of Lonomeru into it. The shock of it reverberated up her arms, the weapon unexpectedly chiming a high B at her unusual grip, but the tactic worked. As the wind swept the Worm away, ice spread over its body, freezing it solid. Perfect! But inefficient. Yuku weaved her way through the Worms, trying to find a central point where she could strike quickly without being caught in a crush of them. Three more were quickly frozen.


Her eyes caught on Rika once more as she watched the orb of water form in the Kokiri's hand. She focused on her own hands, willing her magic through them. The rippling sensation under her scales was promising, and she grinned triumphantly as droplets of water began to cascade down her fingers. The cracking of rapidly forming ice and the sudden drop in the force of the wind was proof that the tactic was working for Rika, and as Yuku summoned her rudimentary spell she was able to fling a weak burst of water before her, resulting in a great deal of soggy and now aggravated Tile Worms. Her weapon now made much faster progress, the ice spreading quickly across the wet carapaces of the monsters around her. She cursed as one worm, moving far faster than she had expected, knocked her backwards to land squarely in the sand. Spitting sand, she used Lonomeru to push herself to her feet, backing away from the column of Tile Worms spinning in the air.


Flicking the sand from her arms, Yuku prepared to take on the Tile Worms once more. With just a few extra frozen Worms, they would surely be able to make it to the top! They would have to be quick, before the heat began to melt the ice; even with her ability to walk on almost any solid surface, Yuku wasn’t confident that she would not slip and fall were the ice to become slick. She turned to check on Rika's location, now that their escape from this pit seemed possible. The newfound stability of the environment that his use of the mysterious powder had brought was perfect for their escape. Jumping lightly, Yuku's flippered feet made contact with a low-moving frozen Tile Worm, which dipped precariously in the air. Alright, so they would have to make haste. Focusing, keeping a level grip on Lonomeru to retain her balance, she jumped forward to land on a second, making her way closer to Rika. She was sure that the talented and resourceful Kokiri would be at least as surefooted as her, but at the same time, she wanted to be nearby so that the two could assist each other in their climb.