shadowhive

Reflection
Rating: PG, to be safe?
Warnings: none really
Notes: This is less a fic and more a character study about my Dungeons And Dodongos character Ahno, who is a Zora. This is more his thoughts on recent things from the campaign (though set just before the most recent session) and this was…. Interesting to do. I dunno if I’ll share it with the group, but maybe I will.

Ahno sat in a corner making notes in his book. He’d been sure to take a blank one when he first left the Domain and had been using it to make notes of the groups travels. At first he’d started it so it could be a first hand account of the world outside the Domain, but it had become more than that. While yes, it was about the wonders and curiosities he had seen, as well as the group’s exploits, it had also become part diary.

He’d be sure to edit the more personal parts out when it came time to return to the archives.

It was strange, at one point he was sure that he would never leave the archives and he was content with that. He liked the order that came from making sure everything was organised, that everything was in its proper place. He’d despaired when he’d visited on his return home, how everything was being reorganised in his absence.

He tried not to let his mind wander back to the what had happened after that.

He finished up his notes for the day. The desert survival tips that Nat had given them, meeting this regions great fairy, what it had been like to turn into a cat (and have an urge to knock things off the table they had found) and that strange storm that they had seen when they left the temple. He finished noting how strange the desert was, how it could be so hot in the day yet so cold at night.

His mind drifted back to home, to the archives. It had been his home for so long, ever since they had taken him in when he was a child. He only had the vaguest memory of his life before, how his parents had gone travelling one day, a trip that was only meant to take a few days and he never saw them again.

He couldn’t even remember their faces.

Ahno shook his head looking at his new friends, how they were all settled around the fire, doing their own things. Nat, the Gerudo and native of the region, was talking, while Forte and Doki were listening intently. From what he could hear they were asking questions about the desert and what it was like to live there. Maruk, the Goron member of their party, was sitting nearby, munching on some gem shards. Kellan was inside a shelter and he hoped that they were cooling off artery spending the day in heavy armour. Caspian, the Rito, was listening to Nat as well , though his sharp eyes were keeping an eye out for danger. He couldn’t see Pom, the Sheikah who he respected greatly. That wasn’t unusual though, as she often took time for herself and he couldn’t blame her after all that had happened recently.

He never would have thought that he would ever had friends with such a diverse and unusual group of people, but he was grateful for them all.

Back in the archives he’d always kept to himself for the most part, which had suited him just fine. Now though he had to wonder, had he been missing out because he isolated himself?

Maybe. He hadn’t felt he had missed anything at the time, but now?

He thought back to when he returned to the Domain, how everything felt different. He wasn’t sure if it was because of his time away from home, or because of his fellow zora, Forte’s, unease at returning home. He hadn’t fully understood it at first, but then he heard the stuff people were saying about him, that he had something to do with the robbery’s that had happened in their absence. It had made him so angry, angrier than he probably should have been. And he felt he’d caused a scene and felt embarrassed that he had.

And then in investigating the robberies they’d found bodies and that had unsettled him. Not least because they found the Great Fairy was also broken until they healed her. All of that had made home feel less safe, especially since all of this had happened under their noses. Hopefully them recovering the stolen items and informing the guards would mean it wouldn’t happen again, but that it had in the first place was worrying enough…

When they’d returned back to Castle town he’d made sure to get Forte some gifts, mostly an attempt to cheer him up from after what happened back home. The smile on his face was worth every rupee.

He liked when Forte smiled. His joy at life was infectious, something he’d never seen in anyone else. It was charming. He found he thought about his smile a lot, especially when his mind wasn’t filled with worry over whatever current threat they were facing.

Which now apparently included something that could make terrifying eldritch sand storms appear at will.

The thought made him shudder and he was grateful for the cold as it meant that anyone who noticed would assume that was the cause. Hopefully the rest of their trip into the desert would entail less eldritch sand storms, though he had a sinking feeling that there would be something worse awaiting at their destination.

There was no point worrying about it now though and instead he tucked his book back into his pack, going to join the others by the fire.