Rise of the Goddess

Chapter Six - Miko

Miko was having a relatively normal day in the jungles of Faron and East Necluda. Out of all of the places in the world, it was one of his favorites. He was wandering around the forests around Pagos Woods when he heard someone scream "ZARIAH!"

Zariah... it had been years since he thought about Zariah, the Hylian Princess. He remembered playing around with her back 15 years ago. It sounded like she was in danger and he sprinted over to go try and help. When he got there, there was nothing but around less than a hundred dead monsters. He paused, but continued rushing on to see what had happened and found a tall Hylian woman with another man. They both looked young but fully grown. The woman had long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail, bangs that covered her forehead, and freckles that covered her entire face. It was her eyes, though, that finally made Miko recognize her. Her blue eyes were so clear they looked like glass, he remembered seeing those eyes in the girl he knew long ago.

"Zariah?"

They'd talked and he led her and the other man back along with him to a hut he'd built in a cave. It was where he'd been staying for the past couple years. The entire time he was shocked that Zariah had grown up so much in such a short period of time. He was used to children growing up in a matter of 30 or so years, not 10. He knew Hylians aged much faster than Zora, but it still shocked him.

To think that the small girl Miko had known was now a young woman... and a strong one too, considering the look of all those monsters. He couldn't imagine the two of them taking down so many. Granted, Zariah had always been rather brave and more than a little feisty.

He came across the hut he'd grown so used to living in, opened the door and invited them in.

"So this is where you've been living all these years?" Zariah asked as they walked through the door.

"Yeah, for the most part. I've traveled around a bit since settling down here but there's nowhere else I've gone that I enjoy so much," he explained, pulling a chair over and sitting down.

Her face suddenly fell, "I understand finding a place you love, but why did you cut out everyone? Nobody's heard a word from you in over a decade and you've just been living here? What about your family? What about your responsibilities? What about Aadil?"

The last question hurt like a spear to his heart, "If you want to know it hasn't been easy," he said, his voice much quieter now, "It's tortured me every second for the past decade,"

"Then why haven't you come back?"

He sighed.

"It's—"

"Don't say it's complicated,"

He sighed again, "It was a while ago," he said, thinking back, "I was exploring the oceans in Hateno Bay and after a while, I discovered an island. It looked deserted for the most part, except for an old shrine. The more that I explored it, the more I discovered it wasn't actually deserted, there winded up be hoards of monsters hiding there in caves, not unlike the hoard you guys fought off,"

Zariah nodded in understanding.

"I let my guard down. I was sleeping near the peak of the island, when the monsters overtook my camp, one of the lizalfos got me in my legs, tore a few tendons and broke a few bones. That combined with the hits I got from Bahuma a few years earlier left me crippled for months. I fended them off but I was stranded there," he paused, dwelling too deeply on the memory to have noticed Zariah's flinch, "Before then I'd kept in touch, but stranded there with no way of escape left me without any way to communicate to anyone. I was injured, and alone for something like 8 months. I figured since nobody came for me... I fell out of touch with the world. A few years ago I built this hut here and I've been trying to enjoy myself as much as possible ever since,"