01-06-2017, 07:49 AM
Malon had thought that she would be leaving the fountain behind and never return. Though she did not realize the magnitude of her mistake that day, when the fountain behind her began to shift that thought was rapidly swept aside. With rumbling not unlike an earthquake the fountain turned into a blob of some substance between solid and liquid form, then shot high into the sky and turned transparent as it took on a familiar shape. An hourglass... although, an hourglass larger than a house, and filled not with sand but with gray and black flakes of some sort. "Hoooh... easy there, boy", she said when the horse beneath her stomped the ground with its hooves, voicing its discomfort. It did not throw her off its back though, which she was grateful for.
As she turned around to approach the center of the Nexus once again she saw movement inside the bottom half. Not the gray flakes, but something black, a figure that was difficult to make out from this distance, but... was it alive? A little panic spreaded around her stomach and she urged the horse to accelerate. Yes, that was someone alive in there! They were being buried alive by the gray sand as they tried to break out! What Malon could do about it she did not know, but there had to be something! Like knocking the hourglass over or having the horse break the glass with a good kick. But her worries and thrown-together plans turned out to be unnecessary as the individual inside smashed the glass with some sort of blade and broke through in a cloud of what Malon now realized was ash. The hourglass's contents poured out the hole along with him and made him stumble forward several steps before he fell down. The gleaming blades that he had wielded fell out of his hands, as did the glasses he had been wearing. But even if he had been holding those weapons still, Malon would not have been dissuaded. This was different from Harlan - this was someone needing aid. She could not keep her heart from pounding regardless as she dismounted when the horse was still decelerating and ran the last few steps towards him to provide whatever aid she could.
The first order of business was to drag him out of the ashes that were still floating around; with every breath he drew he was sucking it into his lungs, and that just COULD not be healthy. Easier said than done: even among humans Anderson was considered a giant, being much taller than most, and way bulkier. Hylians were slightly smaller than regular humans, and Malon was short for a girl her age. She heaved the man several times and nearly dropped him twice until she had carried him a good five or six meters from where he had landed and there was little ash in the air, thanks to the lack of wind in the Nexus.
After that was taken care of Malon turned the man over to lay on his back, and remembered the old techniques that Talon had taught her in the event that she traveled to Lake Hylia for her deliveries and encountered some poor sap that was drowning. She put her hands on top of one another, placed them over the man's lungs and rhythmically pressed down to force the contents out, as strong as she could. "If you're breaking their ribs, you're doing it right", dad had always said. When that had no result, Malon let herself drop onto his chest, with her weight focused onto her hands to add her body's weight to her muscle force. This got her better results, as it made the man exhale air violently from his nose and mouth and got little clouds of ash flakes spewed out several times. His breathing stabilized and the coughing, while not completely gone, stopped for the most part, and she realized that he was looking at her. It was not a hostile gaze but nontheless sent a shiver down her spine.
Wait, had he not lost a pair of glasses when stumbling out of the hourglass? Maybe he wanted those back! Better get them soon! Malon hastily got up with that excuse to escape the man's eyes for a little while and ran over to the hourglass while shielding her nose and mouth with her sleeve. The glasses were quickly found as their surface reflected the light, and in the process she found the man's strange weapons as well. What were these things? Knives? What a weird handle though. Imagining that he would want those back as well she picked both out of the ash pile and returned, but put them down at a distance where he could not reach them at a moment's notice. In spite of it all the encounter with Harlan and the memory of his sudden turnaround was still fresh on her mind. She did not want to risk being the next victim. With that done though she cleaned the glasses on her shirt and put them on the man's face. "You'll be fine, okay? Try to, uh... just focus on catching your breath for now. I don't want to hurt you", she said the first thing that came to her mind. What did one do after rescuing a drowning man? Talon had not taught her that part. But he seemed to be doing better already. Surely he would recover by himself now.
The only thing that she really hoped would not be misunderstood was the bodies of the soldiers that still laid nearby - the one laying on the ground with a hole in his chest and the one still on the back of her horse, which was now standing a slight distance away, observing them both.
As she turned around to approach the center of the Nexus once again she saw movement inside the bottom half. Not the gray flakes, but something black, a figure that was difficult to make out from this distance, but... was it alive? A little panic spreaded around her stomach and she urged the horse to accelerate. Yes, that was someone alive in there! They were being buried alive by the gray sand as they tried to break out! What Malon could do about it she did not know, but there had to be something! Like knocking the hourglass over or having the horse break the glass with a good kick. But her worries and thrown-together plans turned out to be unnecessary as the individual inside smashed the glass with some sort of blade and broke through in a cloud of what Malon now realized was ash. The hourglass's contents poured out the hole along with him and made him stumble forward several steps before he fell down. The gleaming blades that he had wielded fell out of his hands, as did the glasses he had been wearing. But even if he had been holding those weapons still, Malon would not have been dissuaded. This was different from Harlan - this was someone needing aid. She could not keep her heart from pounding regardless as she dismounted when the horse was still decelerating and ran the last few steps towards him to provide whatever aid she could.
The first order of business was to drag him out of the ashes that were still floating around; with every breath he drew he was sucking it into his lungs, and that just COULD not be healthy. Easier said than done: even among humans Anderson was considered a giant, being much taller than most, and way bulkier. Hylians were slightly smaller than regular humans, and Malon was short for a girl her age. She heaved the man several times and nearly dropped him twice until she had carried him a good five or six meters from where he had landed and there was little ash in the air, thanks to the lack of wind in the Nexus.
After that was taken care of Malon turned the man over to lay on his back, and remembered the old techniques that Talon had taught her in the event that she traveled to Lake Hylia for her deliveries and encountered some poor sap that was drowning. She put her hands on top of one another, placed them over the man's lungs and rhythmically pressed down to force the contents out, as strong as she could. "If you're breaking their ribs, you're doing it right", dad had always said. When that had no result, Malon let herself drop onto his chest, with her weight focused onto her hands to add her body's weight to her muscle force. This got her better results, as it made the man exhale air violently from his nose and mouth and got little clouds of ash flakes spewed out several times. His breathing stabilized and the coughing, while not completely gone, stopped for the most part, and she realized that he was looking at her. It was not a hostile gaze but nontheless sent a shiver down her spine.
Wait, had he not lost a pair of glasses when stumbling out of the hourglass? Maybe he wanted those back! Better get them soon! Malon hastily got up with that excuse to escape the man's eyes for a little while and ran over to the hourglass while shielding her nose and mouth with her sleeve. The glasses were quickly found as their surface reflected the light, and in the process she found the man's strange weapons as well. What were these things? Knives? What a weird handle though. Imagining that he would want those back as well she picked both out of the ash pile and returned, but put them down at a distance where he could not reach them at a moment's notice. In spite of it all the encounter with Harlan and the memory of his sudden turnaround was still fresh on her mind. She did not want to risk being the next victim. With that done though she cleaned the glasses on her shirt and put them on the man's face. "You'll be fine, okay? Try to, uh... just focus on catching your breath for now. I don't want to hurt you", she said the first thing that came to her mind. What did one do after rescuing a drowning man? Talon had not taught her that part. But he seemed to be doing better already. Surely he would recover by himself now.
The only thing that she really hoped would not be misunderstood was the bodies of the soldiers that still laid nearby - the one laying on the ground with a hole in his chest and the one still on the back of her horse, which was now standing a slight distance away, observing them both.