A cool, moist wisp of wind brushed softly over rocks, let branches sway back and forth. As though it were the only of its kind, a dragonfly buzzed shortly above the water’s surface, across the large leaves that rested on it, through between the reed, into a cave and out on the other side. Venturously it dropped deep down, over more leaves between the red Thornpalms, scarce grass and through an ornamented doorway. Also the wooden planks past it it passed blazingly fast. Determinedly it flew straight on, towards a corridor. A buzzing like that of her wings. With a loud smack its flight came to an abrupt end, on the wall, under the upset look of the Queen who had just left the throne room when one of her guards had decided to seize opportunity for a targeting practice.
Enraged by the disturber in her bush who had brazenly rolled right through just like that, the hornet shot up in the air, but the pursuit was in vain. Solely a few early awake children it could put to flight with screams of terror. The Goron had already passed and left the village, after a last emergency delivery. But that didn’t impress the frog by the waterfall much, between the last patches of snow. It looked up to the rocks with anticipation, as though it actually knew what day was about to dawn.
Vastly disinterested in the calendar were the fishes between the corals and shells and most colourful plants that had no equal. Together with their to them gigantic friends they listened to a lovely voice and her backing – last preparations. Only a few hours left until they would have to leave for still catching a moist spot. Not the fishes. They would stay behind as usual. Someone after all, had to guard the hall, if though the pirates were anyway more keen on the wandering jewellery in the alleys of the capital.
Far off in the east however, peculiar things were under way. Inside the houses – in front of the houses – and some almost even on the houses – all was bustling with animals. Cuccos, goats, cows, pigs. Domestic cattle everywhere. But it was no market, if yet the agitated voices of their owners were echoing through the canyon and all back and forth across the stream just like on such a day. They didn’t bargain but discuss vigorously. This animal seemed ill, another too healthy. Much too scrawny was the cow. Because, it should yield something once all was over. No, this Cucco laid too many eggs. But the neighbour’s, that one was lazy. Why then not taking the neighbour’s – no, he rather wanted the pig to serve. After all, it was the first time since the downfall.
Such a downfall nearly took place in a stable. Still not fully knowing what it was actually about, Link had put the pitchfork aside and crossed his arms. The argue of the two women was interesting to listen to, but what it was concerning, he hadn’t been able to tell. Certainly it wasn’t relationship problems anymore or discussions about work and deliveries, or even planned costumes that had been esteemed inappropriate, but something that seemed to be very serious. That it was regarding the Carnival, he could eliminate though. Why ever should Cremia forbid her sister to attend the Carnival – especially the first Carnival since the invasion!
However, the word invasion had been mentioned, and of course, that it would be the first time since. As though Igos had been brought somewhen throughout the conversations, it must have had something to do with Ikana that Kafei had kept from him. He had already given up on finding out everything about him anyway. Apparently multiple lives wouldn’t suffice for that.
The sisters’ dispute had featured animals even. Poor animals, as Cremia had emphasised. And she seemed to consider it absolutely illegal. After all she vehemently thundered against it – and Romani against her.
“For the last time! You will not go there!”
“And you can’t forbid me to go there!”
“I have tolerated Franin so far, but that definitely stretches a point! And there isn’t that much in him that he could be so enthusiastic about it.”
“Half, Cremia! Half! Both his parents are half Sheikah, which does make him half Sheikah as well!”, at least that fact Link had found out since the execution. “He does indeed have the right to say he’ll go there!”
“But that means nowhere near you can go there!”
“I’m his girlfriend! Kafei explicitly noticed that it would be unwise to let him sit there alone!”
“Kafei’s bonkers!”
That was something new, especially from Cremia. After all she had liked to defend him many times. Even against Rim. Link had the strong notion that she had had a crush on him long ago, or still had a bit. But this flagrant statement did make him doubt such feelings.
“He is sick! I don’t understand how he can bring back something alike! First the execution! Then this! And if he had saved us a hundred times! All of us! I don’t care! This matter is just vile! I will not allow you to go there with Franin! Least of all, alone!”
“Cremia! Hundreds will be there!”
“Hundreds of nutters!”, slowly but surely it sounded as though it wasn’t the two sisters, but Aryll and Doria. “This is insane! Disgusting!”, or Anju’s mother to her daughter; the Heavens only knew where she had gone after Anju had thrown her out of town.
“It is a feast of life, Franin says.”, now Romani too crossed her arms.
“Because he let himself be manipulated by Kafei! Let himself be allayed! All sick!”
“May I remind you that you’d been married to one of them?”
That was the final straw required. Basically Link had already waited for her to bring up Rim. He was still a delicate subject and Cremia reacted very sensitively on his mention. To include him in such a quarrel equalled a death sentence.
“What ever it is,”, Link decided to intervene before pitchforks would learn how to fly, “I will go there too.”
“What ever it is?”, breathed Cremia “What ever it is?”
“If you don’t want her to go there with Franin only, I will take care of her.”
“Thanks.”, Romani sighed. “She just won’t get that I’m mature enough.”
“YOU ARE FOR GIANTS’ SAKE NOT MATURE ENOUGH!”, the rooster bolted and several cows noticeably winced. “AND YOU!”, Cremia now pointed on him, “DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE SLIGHTEST CLUE WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT?”
“Quite, yes,”, meant Link.
“NO, YOU HAVEN’T! HE HASN’T EVEN TOLD YOU ABOUT IT, MISTER WHAT-EVER-IT-IS!”
“So what?”, Link remained blithe.
“So – so what?”, completely thunderstruck she stared from one to the other, then – “Out. Get out. Both of you. Now.”
Link preferred to not let him be told twice, grabbed Romani’s wrist after a giant stride and pulled her outside, even before the biological clock of the rooster could make him announce the morning. Behind the closed stable door they could hear his muffled crow and Cremia’s angry outcry, rather because of the rooster and not her sister. That one meanwhile looked up. The sky was dull and the smell of rain was in the air. That also worried Link now. Rain was the last that should occur on Carnival’s Eve. So he hoped, that if it had to rain by all means, it would be over by nightfall.
“She can’t do that, can she?”, moaned Romani to the clouds.
“She’s your big sister and she feels responsible for you. I can understand that, if though I can’t comprehend what you make such a verbal carnage out of.”
“He really hasn’t told you?”
“No.”, Link shook his head.
“The Sun’s Feast.”
“The Sun’s Feast.”, repeated Link, huffing. “And what is that?”
“Something like the Carnival of Time. Uhm – well, I think the Carnival originated from it – or so. Neither of the two said. I only know that the Carnival the way we celebrate it, has been influenced by Termin. Once it had been celebrated in Clock Town too. When the land had still been a part of Ikana. But the people would walk to the Imperial Village, disguised with masks made from reeds, so they could be in front of the castle an hour to sunrise, before the sun would rise above the castle. They had gathered there to offer the sun animal sacrifices and commit the masks to the water. But only livestock, no cats or so.”
“Oh that’s why she minds. But you butcher them too? Out of a quite mundane reason?
“She means it would be a waste, but the meat and the leather will be shared. The bones will be used again as well. But she believes to have heard from Rim that the main reason for the sacrifice is that the people can drink the animals’ blood to honour the sun. It’s supposed to bring strength.”
“There’s something to it,”, Link noticed. “It takes a bit getting used to it – and is certainly better than the blood I had to drink – but – you know, if you’re close to starve and dehydrate and exceptionally angry and your knees are shaking from exhaustion and fear for your life, you may happen to forget you’re still a child and eat the heart of a giant spider. And of even worse monstrosities.”
“I thought Kafei gave me shit!”
“No, he didn’t.”, chuckled Link upon her now nearly twice as big eyes. “And despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten meat up to that and neither had ever planned on eating meat one day, considering the circumstances it had been quite strengthening and not as untasty as I had expected.”
“That really uplifts me, you know?”, Romani smiled smitten. “But that won’t sway Cremia. She also meant, what comes afterwards, is really nothing for me. If though she won’t want to tell me what it is.”
“Then I suggest you go find out yourself. But no single word to Kafei. I want to see his face when he notices that I made it to a feast he tried to keep secret from me. Say – what are you going as this evening anyway? You’ve argued over that too – ”
“Please don’t laugh now.”
“I won’t.”
“Because I’ve put a lot of work in it.”
“And? What kind of costume is it?”, finally Romani took her eyes from the clouds and Link couldn’t miss her fighting a laugh herself.
“A Dodongo.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
Presumably he shouldn’t have washed, but the stable’s smell had stuck to him so badly, he would have needed to use buckets of perfume to get rid of it. And as he had freed himself from the water as a wolf – his hair in normal state was now a glorious mess. He even already played with the thought of cutting it again, but Kafei’s look when his fingers could glide through Link’s blond strands, was worth the effort of detangling the horror every day anew. And if he wanted to shove them under a wig without actually having to cut them off on the next day, he simply had to accept the torture. Also all of it would otherwise have been in vain.
He could have had it in other ways, but of course he had needed to take real vines. Therefore at least the leaves were real. It had taken him quite a long while to find out how to conserve something like that. Lastly he had been able to buy a resin that was as clear as glass once dried and not sticky. In days of clandestine work he had covered leaf after leaf with it and let them air-dry. And then? Then, the real work had started. Because then he had had to sew the leaves together at the projecting resin layers – and also some on skin toned underpants. He though knew that he would regret not having had commissioned Ydin for a suit like Dotour’s back then, as the hour would come for him to freeze a lot, but the things a man did for a fair impression..
Hours later, so it appeared to him, the build of unstructured braids was done and everything was stored under a pomp of three brightly pink dyed ponytails that were adorned with leaves. Certainly he could have put on his old mask, which wouldn’t have been inappropriate at all, but to him it was about the principle. Luckily also the main jumble of brownly green leaves including leaf-straps and decorated underpants had let itself be put on easier than at his fittings. He only hoped that the leaves wouldn’t go flying off one by one. The only comfort of the costume were the knee-length boots. If he would end as a block of ice, he remained in safe knowledge of his toes being granted to enjoy cosy warmth.
Finally he dedicate to the simple and even pleasant part of it: putting on makeup. Flashing lilac lips, eye shadow as vibrant and fatal as the not cheap horsehair wig, a hint of pink on the cheeks – the eyelashes blackened with ink – he should have actually commissioned a corset – one like those Kafei had – with which one could even push up male pecs to the shape of female colossi. After all he possessed even more gold `around the top´ than Kafei, if though he had somehow managed to stay slim. No, he wasn’t a beefcake, but with a corset with artificial belly and a cushion to each side of his hips he could have quite passed off as a pale copy of Telma. Or so. Maybe not.
But no, Tatl had been so fond of the “Great” Fairy by the castle lately that he simply had to do her the favour. Yes, he too could uphold secrets. The girl had no idea that he would actually grand her the wish to show up as a – semi-great – Fairy. He had even snuck into the storage at night to practise the cackling laugh that he remembered from his childhood, to be nearly more unnerving than Navi’s bossing-around. Why by all means, had the Goddesses endowed such graceful beings with such insanely horrible attributes? Therefore there was one thing he was certain of: as much as he now looked like a Great Fairy that had been flattened at the front, as much he wasn’t one of them – and he didn’t have the slightest needs to swap bodies with one of them.
On thing however baffled him: he went as Fairy, Romani as papier-mâché-Dodongo. But the others? He didn’t have the slightest clue. Because Anju had fortified with the rest of the family in her office and the rooms behind. But latest in two hours he would know. Meanwhile he could go outside and freeze his a- acclimatise himself.
“Holy moley!”
It was exactly what he had been close to scream as well. Totally startled he spun. Without his notice, the door had been opened and –
“What by Grandma’s crab salad are you wearing there!”, Aryll laughed, but he could ask her the same.
From her shoulders down she was clad in golden and copper fabric and looking at her wrists, it surprised him that the masses of golden bangles hadn’t given her away with tinkling. He had only recognised her by her voice. She had taken the tradition more serious than most of Termina’s inhabitants and wore a similarly shimmering mask that had glittering rays painted on, spreading from her nose. The eye holes were accentuated with a black rim and the lips sculptural and highlighted with a strong bronze, but otherwise her face was fully covered. She could only breathe through slits where the nose was, and possibly through the eye holes. Of course her ears stood off at the sides and managed to peek out, yet also her rings and chains in them weren’t silver anymore, but golden and glistened immensely.
Her hair she had shaped to a stiff corona with Chu-Jelly, which made it clearly impossible for her to walk through doors straight ahead and standing upright. That she was aware of it, she showed by entering sideways and slightly crouching, which resembled much a crab after a coastal storm. Much faster however she approached her brother, so she could take a closer look at the crime.
“You’re really totally loopy.”, she giggled. “Do you have any idea how brilliant you look?”
“And you! I don’t know how much they’ll like it, but if the clouds won’t move until sunrise, you could step in for the good one so the Sheikah don’t need to cancel their peculiar feast.”
“Which peculiar feast?”
“So you don’t know either?”, she cautiously shook her head. “Well, if Romani and Cremia hadn’t quarrelled, I might have never found out. There’s a Sun’s Feast. Quasi an extension of the Carnival. But for Sheikah only. Allegedly an ancient tradition in Ikana and Kafei reintroduced it upon his subjects’ pleas.”
“Sounds interesting! What’re they going to do there?”
“If the two didn’t exaggerate, you don’t want to know. But I’ll only attend it to calm Cremia. After all I’m not a Sheikah. I believe, members of other tribes have no business there. Except if they’re invited, like Romani had been invited by Franin.”
“Okay? And what do you think? Why didn’t Kafei say anything about it?”
“Either that I – oh what do I know. No idea. Anyhow, I hope for him that he will regret it the moment he sees me there.”
“You’re some catty fellow!”, laughed Aryll.
“Maybe. Whatever. Say, when the goings get rough – will you lend me one of those cloths you wear over that slim mass of a dress?”
“But of course I wrap up my freezing brother-sweet before his artistic simplicity loses him his nipples.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
Against expectations, their costumes weren’t among the most pompous. Some had serious issues with moving, not only through the crowd, but generally. Nevertheless he belonged to a small number who didn’t wear an actual mask. Slowly he should bother whether he had understood the tradition correctly. Yet if putting on makeup wasn’t as much fun for him, he would have likely dedicated to a mask. However, in this moment an entire flock of Cuccos crossed their path. No real Cuccos, but several Bombers in collective plume. They surely had collected feathers all throughout the year so their parents could have made them theses fine specimens.
There was, as he could see by comparing to the previous year, a clear tendency to the extreme. There were the ones that solely wore some kind of mask, yet hadn’t bothered putting much thought in matching clothes, and then there was people like his sister and him, and even more peculiar figures. At one point they also caught a distant glimpse on an upright hasting Dodongo, who was completely taken up in her self-imposed task to scare each and everyone.
“Su itham!”, Link turned to the way too familiar voice. “Tatl will freak out. Or did she see you already?”
“Er – no – ”
What Link saw however, was far from what he was used to seeing of him. Also it was nowhere near the Zora from last Carnival. Dotour had tamed his hair back in masses of thin braids that were honeycombed with fire coloured ribbons. Matching them, he wore a ritually appearing reed mask. His clothing in the same colour though, was made of nothing but differently wrapped cloths that showed more than they covered. It would yet take a while for Link to see his back, but he could already tell that his tattoos weren’t much veiled. The front too showed well how hard he had worked on his body all throughout the winter. If there hadn’t been the visible age of his skin, he wouldn’t have guessed that he was facing quite an old man.
Dotour slightly pushed the mask up so he could gain a better look at Link. Thereby he revealed his artistic facial painting. One would have had to have very little knowledge of the world to not be able to clearly match it to Ikana.
“This is quite an astonishment, I see there.”
“Me too.”, chuckled Link. “Apparently everyone knows about the feast, somehow.”
“Wait – didn’t he invite you?”
“He didn’t say a word.”, Link suppressed a puff.
“Curious. He told me that he has a very special role for you.”
“It seems, the role of the one who hasn’t been invited. But I technically told myself off to being Romani’s chaperon.”
“Oh dear. Has Franin told her about the Meal as well?”
“Erm – let’s say, she obviously knows better why Kafei didn’t hesitate to eat that bunny heart back then.”
“And still she wants to go there?”
“She wouldn’t let herself be kept from it.”
“Then you also have to see to it that she leaves after the Meal.”
“What’s so bad that nobody wants to have her at it?”
“Let us say, when it is time, Cremia will love you forever for sending her home, with or without Franin. See you.”
“Dotour – what – ”, but he only waved with already lowered mask and disappeared in the crowd. “Do I want Creamia’s love?”
“You do.”
This time Anju stood behind him, and the mask she wore appeared regal regardless of the same material, so there was no doubt: such a mask was reserved for the Queen. Some of the ornaments were gold plated and shimmered downright magically in the light of the torches and lampions. It also didn’t appear as rustic as Dotour’s. The mellow bird face with slant eye slits was a masterpiece of weaving. Her cloths too were mainly kept in red and orange tones, with subtle blue embroidery and golden beading. Some bead- and bone-chains had been draped elegantly as well.
She however confirmed the guess to his expression when she rapturously spun once, whereby everything swayed which wasn’t knotted down well. Her back was visible almost too low and like on Dotour, the layers over her chest seemed rather to be meant for the attendees of the Carnival. Both forearms were weighed down nearly up to her elbows with artistically crafted gold bangles and she also wore some on her upper arms. Even around her ankles that were supported with silken bandages, gold shimmered. She wore no shoes. Apparently the bandages were sufficient.
How ever she had managed to, birds claws were glued onto her fingernails, carved as though they were a completely natural part of her. Her neck was adorned with a collar of gold beads, coloured glass beads and skeletal skulls of small birds. Her bloodred mane wasn’t braided fully, but she too had ribbons in it, in blue tones, and with more gold beads. Three braids on the back of her head were directly worked into her dark greenish blue royal tiara; attachment included; its front disappearing beneath the mask. Now Link spotted the delicately embroidered ribbons that held the mask.
“Am I the only one who needs to change clothes?”
“Yes.”
“So I’m invited?”
“Why shouldn’t you be invited? Kafei insists on it!”
“To me, he hasn’t said a thing about that. Aryll – wha– ”, but she had wordlessly let herself be lead to a dance.
“To me he has. It is on me to kidnap you before his speech and make you pretty, so you’ll be there in time.”
“He could have told me though,”, Link had reached the point where he couldn’t fight back his frustration anymore.
“But he knows how spontaneous you are.”
“I might though be anticipating something much easier, if I knew bits of it at least.”
“According to Romani, you already know quite much.”
“Yes. They serve very un-hylian food.”, huffed Link.
“Now, don’t speak so disparagingly of ancient traditions.”, despite the noise, he could – see – Anju’s quiet giggle. “It will likely fascinate you rather than you’ll like it, but when you’re through it, many things will be easier for you. Kafei meant that I needn’t worry so much anymore. It seems, his only reason for approving with the reintroduction was that it is a chance for the two of us to prove worthy.”
“And he can tart himself up with all he’s got.”
“That perhaps as well.”
“Where is he?”
“You won’t get to see him before the feast.”
“So I can’t thump him?”
“No. Because nobody is allowed to see the King prior to it. If you manage, you can look out for a richly embroidered dark cloak. But you’ll more likely recognise him by the mask. Actually, people aren’t allowed to see me either, but I’m so awfully hot with excitement and under this mask, I couldn’t bear it. They might not be as strict with me.”
“And Esra?”
“She’ll be there as well. It is a feast of love. Not inviting her would be quite inappropriate.”
“Does she attend that – Meal as well?”
“Rejecting food?”, Anju laughed out loud.
“True.”, grinned Link. “But does she know what awaits her?”
“You think, Dotour hasn’t practised with her?”
“If she follows through with that, she must really love him.”
“Oh, she does, believe me. Did Tatl see you already?”
“No. Will she be there too?”
“Of course. The heirs to the throne can’t be excluded.”
“I don’t know, Anju. Sure, it’s your children, but aren’t they a little bit too young?”
“May I remind you, that you – ”
“For the last time – ”
“Alright, alright, relax.”, she laid a hand on his shoulder, very careful, so she wouldn’t damage his leaves. “They only receive the blessing. Then Sirileij puts them to bed.”
“Could she, if she’s already at it, take Romani and Franin with her? I have no interest in Cremia tearing my head off.”
“I’m afraid, my authority doesn’t reach that far. According to Ikana’s laws they are old enough to decide for themselves.”
“Yes, Franin is legitimately of age due to his descent, but Romani’s a pure Hylian. I don’t think,”
“You are neither King, nor Romani who has decided to entrust herself to a half Sheikah. It is her decision, which laws she follows. If she says she wants to be treated like a Sheikah in the matter, Cremia has no more say.”
“Also if she’s, as a Hylian, not yet – ”
“You too decided, if I may remind you.”
“Second – what’s this about anyway?”, slowly Link began putting the facts together.
“If she resolves on being seen as a woman, it is hers alone.”
“Do you mean to tell me – but she doesn’t even know what will happen after the Meal – ”, this realisation made Link indeed nervous and he would have never thought the day to come when he would worry about Romani.
“Now – calm down. It is her choice, how long she wants to stay. She knows of the Meal and wants to take part. I know Franin since he was born. He explained the details to her, I’m certain of it.”
“Yes, sure, but – and what, by all means, happens afterwards?”, he had a faint assumption, yet hoped for an exaggeration of his raw nerves.
“He is selfless enough to accept her choice. If she says they go through it to the end, he will see to her well-being. And if not, he will accompany her home. You don’t need to worry that you will fall victim to Cremia.”
“Well, actually, I’m more worried for Romani than myself at the moment.”
“Link, she’s my best friend’s little sister. I too will make sure that she doesn’t have to do something she doesn’t want.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
She didn’t even let him see Kafei’s mask. Shortly before it was time for his speech, Anju grabbed his wrist and manoeuvred him through the masses swarming to the south square. Everyone they passed by, looked after them confused, as they apparently were the only ones with other things in mind. They watched the fireworks from by the Town Hall, if though not all of it. Anju wanted to know him to be inside before everything would get moving again.
Instead of upstairs, she brought him through her office, right into Dotour’s and Esra’s room. The fireplace was lit already, which lastly made him realise that he was more than just a bit cold. Then she even helped him out of the veins and the wig that was sweatsoaked from dancing, which did allow him proper breathing and easing of his already stiff neck, yet the warmth of the flames was no real relief considered the sudden cold around. But even for that she knew remedy, although he had to lend her a hand with the big iron bowl she had to heave off the hook. They placed it in the middle of the room and she made it clear to him that he had to step inside.
“What now – I have to wash?”
“Not you wash yourself. I’ll do that. It brings ill luck to do it yourself. In the end you’re not precise and not clean enough for the Gods.”
“What?”
“Not my idea. Or do you suddenly fear contact?”
“Anju,”
“One never knows,”, she laughed and for the first time he saw her facial paint as she put the mask down on the table.
“I do know very well,”
“You do?”
“What?”
“Fear contact?”
“Anju! Be careful what you say!”, he too laughed, took off the rest of his underwear. “Just stepping in?”
“But please be careful. The bottom is hot.”
“I’d never figured.”
She waived his sarcasm with a smile and grabbed a sponge that laid in the bowl on the table. With it she now began to wash him from top to bottom. Even –
“The ears? Is that really necessary?”
“Their messages mustn’t be befouled before you perceive them.”, she said as though it was a thing of course to believe in something like this.
“My goodness – the nouf – af wouell? Do I haff do fmell ’em doo?”
“Hold still and let me do.”
“But not my – ”
“Oh it’s especially the hair that needs to be fair. Stop being so prim.”
“It’s not that I wouldn’t know what water does to them.”
“You can’t hoax me into believing it turns them into slimy tentacles.”
“And how you can bet on that!”
“Believe me, there is hair that acts even more weird than yours. And you really behave as if I had never seen them wet. What is wrong with you? Why are you so tied up in knots?”
“Maybe because my soles are burning?”
“I told you. Don’t make such a fuss and take it like a man. So did I.”
“Like a man, you took it.”
“No, like a woman. We’re by far not as squeamish, if you care to know.”
“At the moment I only care to know whether I’ll have to freeze my back off latter.”
“Yes, you do.”
“Who set that?”
“Not me.”
“And the colours are predefined as well?”
“No. Do you have any special wishes? Or perhaps the need to lose some bits of hair?”, which she meant, she demonstrated with the sponge.
“I don’t care, if you believe they need to go. They don’t bother me much.”
“There’s not much there, to be honest.”
“And they’re light, even.”
“So?”
“So, what?”
“You want?”
“What. There is something I may decide myself?”, chuckled Link.
“Decide, yes. Do, no.”
“So that’s how it is. I say off with it and you – ”
“Exactly. Just not on the head.”
“And it’s not like I already shaved these stupid stubbles off in the morning already,”
“Just as that. Arms and legs are up to you as well.”
“Who shaves their arms, actually?”, murmured Link.
“Up with those.”
“What?”
“So I can wash your armpits.”
“Oh. Are they supposed to lose something too?”
“I repeat, you decide.”
“So I may understand it that way – the Gods want me freshly washed, in salacious cloths, with artistically knotted hair on the head, but it doesn’t matter if the rest looks like a brush-pig?”, Anju had to laugh.
“Link, I only mean to accommodate you. And myself, since I got to know.”
“Can you carve in some patterns? Just kidding!”, he hastily added upon her look.
“No, I mean, sure. Everything you want. Just mind regarding exuberant extra wishes, that you cannot hope for perfection in light of my talented hands.”
“If you continue to annoy me, I’ll soon say `all or nothing´.”
“You already said it.”
“Yes, yes.”
“So what now? Both at once doesn’t work.”
“Stop overwhelming me. Wait – for real, now?”
“Especially there,”
“How many more times will you say that?”
“There aren’t many more possibilities left, you know.”
“Then do what you mustn’t let. As long as it’s only the Gods you pleas- argh!”, she had thrown the sponge up into his face, but skilfully caught it again. “I thought this to be a sacred ritual!”
“Exactly. So regard it with the proper respect.”
“Only if you stop grinning throughout it.”
“Did you decide yet?”
“These count as well?”
“It’s hair,”
“Really. Says who.”
“Looks like hair, behaves like hair,”
“You love to humiliate me infront of myself, don’t you?”
“Link. If it discomforts you to talk about it we’ll keep it all and forget about it.”
“It doesn’t embarrass me. The thought of being shaved by someone else just feels a little strange. What does Kafei reckon with?”
“Only what you can manage.”
“Which would be?”
“Respectfully follow along all rituals and look beautiful.”
“So you think, I am beautiful.”
“Hello? Beautiful is slightly understated. Foot up.”
“Oh the bliss!”, he groaned. “Cold!”
“Tz.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
He had to confess he could get to like the feeling, if though he knew from Kafei that he would have to resist any needs to scratch over the next few days. At least his arms he had been able to save from the knife. Everything else he had done rather for Kafei; to show him that he was serious, certain about the two of them, that he wanted to be part of his identity, his culture. Because he knew Anju would have never brought it up, if it wouldn’t have had even the slightest relevance.
Somehow she had managed to weave a quite acceptable number of thin braids into his unruly hair. He too was granted to wear noble ribbons and even beads. One thing however, he hadn’t expected: Once she was done with his facial paint, which was far from beginnerhood and carried a lot of symbolism that he noticed only now, she went to the table a last time and opened the highly decorated gold casket, the existence of which had raised questions inside him the whole time.
“Please close your eyes.”
“Now here we go.”
“And please don’t make me laugh again.”
“Alright.”
If it hadn’t been for the casket, he would have thought they had to leave now. Instead he just stood in front of the mirror, eyes closed, and had to notice that she was still not done with his head.
“Now. You may open them.”
At first he was almost blinded by the sparkle. But then he understood why. It was the nature of Moon’s Tears. The eye had to slowly become attuned to their shine. Forged from the same dark bluish green metal and almost identical to Anju’s, an elaborate tiara adorned his head. At a closer look the ornamentation turned to be a mix of the most prominent symbols of the Sheikah at his forehead, Hylian patterns on the back and the frail art the sides resembled waves of the sea and rippled clouds, mixed with leaves – just as if they were carried across the ocean by the wind.
Only then he examined Anju’s royal tiara more closely – after all she didn’t wear it often, especially not with the half moon on top. Hers too was Hylian at the back, depicted a beautiful fusion of a Bug and Phoenix, and at the front of course flaunted the Death Dancer, flanked by the flames of the Bloodsun of Ikana. All of the gildish yellow sparkling crystals had an octagonal cut. Link’s Moon’s Tear pieces as well. Either more than he had thought had fallen, or Zubora had simply kept the leftovers of Link’s last Carnival commission.
“That must have cost a real fortune! But – it is – incredibly beautiful. Just incredibly beautiful.”, he breathed and felt his eyes beginning to itch.
“It is a gift from Kafei. From tomorrow on nobody can say anymore that you don’t belong to us. And no, pull yourself together. Don’t you dare to cry.”, like many times before, she laid her hands on his shoulders.
“I’m trying.”, he gargled, fighting for air. “It’s not – like – tears could wash away the blue.”
“What’s bothering you about the colour of your eyes?”
“It – somehow doesn’t match – not that – ”
“And what’s with mine?”
“Well – they’re more vivid. Just a tiny hue.”
“Give it a rest, Link. Your eyes are perfect.”, she appeasingly brushed down his arms and placed a single kiss on his right shoulder.
“I hope, my toes won’t freeze off.”, he had only said that to have a reason to look down instead of into the high mirror.
“Mine are still alive. And believe me, comforting warmth will be provided.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
Sirileij’s regalia had confirmed what Anju had told him. Though she as well was barely wrapped in complicatedly bound cloths, but the colour scheme was poles apart. However, the combination of dusky pink and purple matched her hair perfectly. She had brought them directly into the castle yard, which was almost empty. Tatl and Juro awaited them excitedly, as uniform as apparently all of the family, yet should remain unmasked throughout the course of the ceremony – which disappointed Tatl especially, but didn’t kill her enthusiasm. Far behind the big gate, by the entrance to the inner palace, Link finally saw the cloak Anju had spoken of.
Indeed Kafei wore a birdlike mask in front of the hood and chatted with a single Archpriest. His mask had considerably grimmer features than Anju’s – more, Link couldn’t see, as he too was donned a mask. At least Sirileij had warned him. According to her words it was a wolf. Yet this he would only get to confirm when they would commit the masks to the water.
Outside the walls; to him; exotic music was played and a waton mood filled the air. That too he didn’t get to see, as two Archpriests lead them through a tunnel to the spring. Out of it they stepped onto a platform that was decorated with reed and cloths, beneath which the water flowed through without being disturbed. At the front middle a sort of altar with metal rings and a hollow had been placed, behind which a triangle shaped opening in the floor allowed a glimpse on the water.
Even before Link could examine everything thoroughly, a dead silence suddenly fell over the entire village. At least one thing that Link, as he had to admit, wasn’t surprised of finding in Ikana. Only a little number of animals made noises. He could spot them everywhere in the crowd, kept firmly in check by their owners. Also he noticed through his eye slits that almost exclusively couples were present, or had gathered. Children were nowhere to be seen. Here and there he could identify smaller groups of three or more by their clothing. Yet no blue eyes pierced through any of the reed masks. None but two vanward pairs. One belonged to Romani who was clad in orange, crème-white and grass green, the other to Esra, in the same colours as all in the family. Where Dotour had gotten a goat from however, was a mystery to him.
He was silently ordered to move a little more to the right. Anju stood opposite of him to the other side of the cave’s exit. Tatl should position herself between him and the altar, Juro on the other side by his mother. That one had been right concerning the warmth. Everything was bathed in a golden shine from the uncountable torches with Sun’s Fire which gave off a the pleasant feeling of a cosy home.
At once, even that water seemed to hold its breath and all citizens lowered their heads. His own zoomed left – he had come.
Even more cloths than Dotour already wore, and still his son appeared much less dressed. His hair too was entirely woven to thin braids, with the difference that the many ribbons and beaded strings fell down like a veil that he trailed behind himself. For the first time in several years Link got to see Igos’ crown again – and the first time for him, Kafei wore it. However, he hadn’t waived to wear his mother’s tiara. Due to the gold and the golden beads both pieces of jewellery appeared like a unity. Igos’ Death Dancer brooch was resplendent on his chest as well, where it held a barely visible, gauzy, soft blue silken cloak that hung slightly beneath his shoulders and almost disappeared in the cave. All that, combined with the mask, made him appear otherworldly – the sight actually took Link’s breath away.
Only when he spotted Anju’s hands, barely past him, Link realised that he needed to do something. She as well as Kafei put their fingers into the shape of the Goddesses’ triangle, heads lowered for silent prayer. The entire village square followed their lead.
Link hadn’t prayed in a long while. What he should ask for, he was momentarily too overwhelmed as to consider. But actually, it was quite simple. Only a single plea. He spoke it inside, the thoughts in a different sphere. Everything became brighter before his eyes, but not uncomfortably. When it was brightest, a delicate, beatific murmur filled his ear. This was not the first time he heard it. It felt so good and he knew himself in guarding arms.
As though on their own, his eyes opened again. He almost jumped. Obviously he had prayed for a longer time than everyone else, because, as if it too knew that it needn’t fear anything, a shining white goat suddenly laid bound onto the altar, sideways, its head directed at Anju. Completely calm it rested there. In front of its belly laid three extraordinary daggers in a richly ornamented earthenware bowl.
If yet he understood no word, Kafei’s words echoed into the shimmering night, like he had only heard at the execution. But now, they weren’t filled with anger – it was as if it was not even him who spoke. His voice had the sound of centuries and yet conveyed eternal seeming youth. He took off his mask and held it towards the sky with both hands. Then he kneeled down and carefully let it glide into the triangle shaped hole behind the altar. Tatl tore Link from his trance and indicated to want to take his mask off him. He had no choice but to get on his knees as well. Both children thereupon committed his and Anju’s masks to the water together. One by one masks were moved over to the stream and laid into it, where they sailed through between the crowd like a colourful carpet, towards the abyss.
Kafei waited to receive sign that the last mask had taken on its journey. Then he and Anju raised and Link with them. With more words in Sheikjiarnjinjú Kafei took the bluish dagger from the bowl, lifted it like the mask before. Link only understood that he spoke to the Goddesses. Everything else was over his head. Kafei pulled the dagger close to his forehead with his eyes closed and spoke clearer words.
“Nayru ishaidemjiar isamaii!”
Now he directly turned to Link, strode towards him and presented him with the dagger.
“What – ”, that one breathed.
“Emulate me.”, mumbled Kafei.
“Erm – ”
“Loud and clear. Nayru,”
“Nayru ishai– ”
“Demjiar, isam– ”
“Demjiarisamai.”, inexplainably nervous Link held the handle of the dagger to his own forehead, but caught a brief glimpse on a faint, smiling nod.
“Good. Give it back to me. Very good.”
Anju apparently didn’t need instructions and her pronunciation was of course perfect. How could he expect him to know that rite? Nonetheless he found he hadn’t done so bad. When Anju was done, Kafei carried the dagger back to the altar, whispered some words that Link couldn’t even hear well and held his left hand to the goat’s eyes to cover them.
So that was the moment. Strangely it didn’t even wince; Romani however a little. He pierced the dagger smoothly through its forehead. The goat was dead immediately – like all other animals on the square. He felt really bad for Romani, because it was clear that they butchered differently on the ranch. Nevertheless she took it with exceptional equanimity, that Franin as well had to kill the calf he had calmed well up until now with the same words that Link had just had to repeat.
Kafei handed the dagger over to an Archpriest, who carried it away and now laid his hand on the bleeding wound. With the blood on his palm he first went over to Tatl and carefully drew the sign of the Goddesses onto her forehead with thin lines. Link, he painted it between the eyebrows. He got himself more blood and repeated the ritual with his son and wife. Only when they too carried the sign, the priest returned, wiped some blood from Kafei’s palm and consecrated him in the same manner. Now everyone on the square did it to their opposites.
The reddish dagger Kafei took, but placed it next to the bowl. He grabbed the greenish dagger, lifted it, spoke to the Heavens and lowered it to his lips with the following words:
“Farore ishaidemjiar sresamaii!”
That was already a little easier for Link, which surely wasn’t due to the Goddess, he believed to know. After Anju’s plea back at the altar, Kafei drew a fine cut at the goat’s throat and held the bowl beneath, until it was filled to the brim with the warm blood. Tatl licked her lips – to Link’s shock not in unease. She seemed almost jauntily excited to be allowed to drink it. He himself of course had no problems with it. Kafei’s gleeful smile when he watched him drink, did scruple him a little though. Juro struggled a little more against the drink. Link saw that he wanted it, but couldn’t fully accustom to the taste. He briefly shook it off while Kafei let Anju drink and in the time he needed to empty the bowl, Anju too sent Link a smile of her blood wetted lips.
Both wounds were still leaking blood onto the hollow and it downright playfully trickeld down the stone, into the hole the masks had been laid into before. With all others’ appeal the waters in their middle turned scarlet red in the torches’ shine.
What followed, was what everyone had anticipated, so Link felt. Kafei handed bowl and dagger to the priest, who disappeared with them. The reddish dagger was presented to the already twilit sky. He laid it to his heart and spoke:
“Din ishaidemjiar garsamaii!”
At this point Link realised that something was different. His own heart downright raced and his mind seemed to want to go haywire. He accepted the dagger and recited louder than before. Faster and faster his pulse went. An impatience overcame him. He couldn’t even look at Anju’s smile. It made him nervous, by its calmness. Kafei went back to the goat, thrusted it in beneath its thorax, cut a triangle out of the flesh and removed it. The dagger still in hand he pushed deeply into the hole. The way he searched inside – it made Link even more agitated.
“Need help?”, he hissed to him.
“Shut it. That’s not my first.”, Kafei quietly gnarled to the goat.
“Sure?”
“Won.”
Link felt like exploding inside. Why did he find it unnecessary that Kafei gave the priest the last dagger as well? Why didn’t he simply put it down? And – what was going on with himself? It felt to him as though he was to grow a pelt any second. Everything took way too long. Kafei moved so slow that Link feared he would freeze on the way. That he gave it to Tatl first, bugged him terribly. Then, finally, he virtually tore the heart from his hands. Kafei almost had to tear it back out of his hands so he would remain with a single bite. Confused, he stared at him.
“Hungry?”, he aspirated.
“Whad?”, Link swallowed the bite.
“Oh nothing.”
Not without a short look back, Kafei handed the heart to his son. Then Link knew that something was indeed wrong. For a split second a sick envy had gotten hold of him, which he though had just been able to dismiss, and that brought him back to reality. What had happened to him? Had he developed an addiction in the end and not been aware of it?
Panicky but pensively he studied every single chewing movement of Kafei, not noticing that Anju too had spotted his streak. Desperately she tried to catch his attention, but even when he saw it, he couldn’t take his eyes off the sight. How the blood sprung over Kafei’s chiselled lips, adorned his chin – the smeared hands – now he noticed as well that Anju wasn’t the only with bird’s claws on her fingers. As though it was the culmination of a yet hidden fantasy of his, his heart began to race once again, with each drop that reached Kafei’s brooch and dyed the delicate silk.
He didn’t even bother anymore whether Romani followed the rite – or Esra. All logical worries and questions came to nothing. He only wanted to eye Kafei and to the horror of a small portion of his sanity that apparently still worked properly, he found it appealing in a strange way how Kafei brushed the blood on his hands down his cheeks and neck with closed eyes and eerie voice; reached the crimson fingers back out into the dawning sky.
What he said, Link was almost indifferent to. He only wanted to – actually not be disrupted by another silent prayer. But if it was any help, he wanted to give it a try.
Again Kafei spoke, very quiet this time and Link opened his eyes as he had not been capable of concentrating on anything but his unsettling desire. Why did he call Tatl to him? She didn’t bother in the slightest that he took her face in his blood smeared hands, whispered something to her – and placed a bloody kiss on her braided hair. Link didn’t understand what they talked about. So far he had only learned the colloquial language. But this dialect of Sheikjiarnjinjú that Kafei solely used within the family – it was completely different. Link could recognise scattered words, but the pronunciation was so different he was dead in the water.
In the meantime three priests had taken the goat off the altar and everywhere the other carcasses were collected and brought into the castle. That made him remember Romani telling him that everything would be shared in fair manner. So, some sort of rite was yet to follow to bridge the time until everything was properly – portioned. Presumably it was what Cremia didn’t want her sister to attend.
Kafei briefly stroked his daughter’s arms and then called Juro over with a soft gesture. As the boy was still considerably smaller than his sister, Kafei kneeled down before him, took his face as well and kissed him. Why he preferably talked to him in Hylian, Link didn’t understand.
“I am sorry if I asked too much of you.”, he whispered.
“It’s alright, Daddy. I survived it.”
“Were you uncomfortable?”
“It was a bit gross, but like I said, I managed. It’s not like you didn’t prepare me.”
“Come here, my big boy.”, he shortly pulled him close, stroked his back. “I love you.
“I love you too, Daddy. Do we really have to leave now?”
“Yes, it is time for bed.”
“But I want to see the sunri– ”
“You will. But from town.”
He gave a curt nod down and Sirileij, having sat in a blind angle to Link beneath the altar, climbed the podium. What he asked of her, Link could finally decipher. Of course he had known it priorly, which made things considerably easier, but he understood his words.
“I lay my own flesh, my own blood, my soul in your custody. Look after my children, bed them well in the newborn Light of the youngest day.”, he said aloud but added something meant for her ears only. “And make sure they fall asleep right away and don’t monkey around til afternoon.”
This sentence managed to push Link’s consciousness back into a state that was more pleasant for him. The sky above the castle turned blazing already below the clouds that were softly glowing in all colours and Kafei spread his hands above his head anew, much to Link’s discontent. Again he didn’t understand a single word. But actually he didn’t care then, as Kafei didn’t speak anymore. His words were a melody, an ancient song that Link had heard before, if though not in this form. Kafei had sung it back when Link had returned from Hyrule, at the big feast in the Imperial Village. This time however the backing was missing. Solely his unique voice echoed to greet the sun.
Not stopping, he lowered his arms and pulled Anju close with both hands. Foreheads together, she completed parts he deliberately omitted. Then he turned to Link, who he pulled closer as well.
“I can’t sing.”, the latter moaned, but Kafei only laid his forehead against his.
“You don’t need to.”, he replied even more softly than his touch was, which was drowned by Anju’s vibrant voice. “You are now part of us; part of the family. And if one falters, all catch the faltering.”
Indeed the whole square slowly but steadily joined in. The sound of the many voices and the melody they presented the new year to welcome it, sent a cold shiver down Link’s spine and made his hair stand on end.
“I wish you unerring wit, courage forged from steel and a silken heart. I wish you Eternal Light and the Sun’s strengthening Blood in your veins, should you ever be in danger of desponding or the favour of your own trust mean to leave you. And that you understand even just slightly how much I love the two of you.”
Struggling for an answer was beyond Link’s abilities. Kafei divested him of several possibilities with an extremely passionate kiss. Just in the moment Link realised that hundreds of Sheikah watched them and even had stopped singing – right in that embarrassing moment Kafei loosened the touch and said something to Anju in his native tongue. Link avoided all eye contact to the crowd. But when Kafei kissed his wife no less voluptuously, a strange curiosity got hold of him.
Only a brief glance to the side, he meant to risk, but he couldn’t leave it at that. He discovered the reason for the silence. Under the blinding rays of sunlight that bathed the topmost houses in silvery red-gold, suddenly all had attended to their partners for expressing their love in the same manner.
Never before he had seen something like that. First a sacrifice so abhorrent to nature, if though dignified – and then this. Crouching in the pools of blood from the sacrificed animals, kissing couples wherever Link’s eyes wandered. Disturbing and touching at the same time, breathtaking and ineffable. And albeit all were busy with their dearest, he nevertheless felt cheap for watching them being so intimate. It was something else with Kafei and Anju. That, he knew. Therefore he could turn his look back on them without hesitation.
Kafei still stood between them, but looked towards Link. With a tender smile he closed his eyes when Anju’s hands moved around his torso from behind; loosened the brooch. While she placed the jewellery in the middle of the altar, the hint of a cloak glided down Kafei’s arms and landed on the boards below like Fairy wings in the grass. Anju returned, kissed his bare shoulder.
“What’s the matter?”
“I – I don’t – k-know – I’m a little – swamped right now?”, stuttered Link. “What shall I do?”
“What do you think you should do?”
“I – don’t know?”
He only swallowed when Kafei stepped behind his wife, she laid he face in his left hand and his lips searched their way down her neck. But even if Link had wanted, he couldn’t have turned away. Too captivating was the sight, as Kafei’s hands glided under her cloths.
“Did you decide yet?”, he looked back up to him, but didn’t let up on Anju who gave herself to his touches with her eyes closed.
“Decide?”
“Well, you may leave, or stay. It is your choice.”
“And if I stay?”
“It is entirely on you. I won’t force you to do anything. It is the feast of Love and Love means mutually leaving each other the freedom of choice. What you do, is yours and yours alone. If you need help with your decision, just say. Take as much time as you need.”
~o~0~O~0~o~
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