Chapter Text
A comfortable fire crackled merrily, making light dance in patterned delight, pushing the darkness away. It cast heavy shadows on the Fierce Deity as he watched the other men eat the fish he'd caught, and Abel finally raised an eyebrow at him.
"Do you ever eat?" the former knight asked.
"I require very little sustenance," the deity answered.
Rusl and Abel exchanged a glance and shrugged, both about to return to their own food when the mystical warrior's stomach growled loudly. Both men looked at him, waiting for an acknowledgement of the obvious.
When nothing happened, Rusl spoke up. "...I believe your stomach is telling you it's time for that sustenance, friend."
The deity blinked. "Is... that what that sensation is?"
Abel and Rusl once again exchanged glances, this time practically screaming how the hell is this man still alive . The more Abel learned about this mysterious deity the less he understood.
Fierce hummed to himself, grabbing one of the fish from the perch where it had been roasting over the fire. With a mumbled apology to the captain (since when did Fierce know Abel had been a captain?), he tore into the fish with fangs that were unnervingly large at such a close vantage.
"Forgive my curiosity, but..." Rusl started off, and Abel immediately leaned away from the pair in a reflexive response. He was just as curious as the Ordonian, but he was far more used to keeping his mouth shut no matter his thoughts on a matter. Apparently blacksmiths from simple farming communities had no such scruples. "How do you know how to fish? Your title and your skills, well, lean more towards fighting than pastimes."
The deity munched slowly on his food, staring seemingly at the fish for a moment before he swallowed. "I learned from Link."
This was another matter that confounded Abel. It wasn't unheard of for multiple boys to be named Link - it was a popular name, one drenched in the mythology of their people, of heroes and monsters and goddesses. But for a deity to be looking for someone named Link... it made Abel leery. Was Fierce searching for his son?
Abel wished things just made sense . Nothing had been normal since the calamity. He and Tilieth had finally gotten into an uneasy peace on the plateau before that had been shattered.
"So, Link is your... son...?" Rusl tried to ask as tactfully as possible.
The Fierce Deity blinked. "I don't have offspring."
"Link isn't biologically my son, either, but he's still my son ," Rusl clarified.
Fierce's head swiveled to Abel, an unspoken question in his tilted eyebrow. Abel was fairly certain he was simply asking if the former knight's Link was his biological son or not, but there was still that hint of unease that the deity was actually looking for his Link. Abel wasn't sure he wanted to reveal the truth of the matter.
He couldn't fathom why he was so mistrusting of someone who had clearly prove that they were both as otherworldly as they claimed to be and was also acting on his behalf. But... well... he didn't trust easily anymore.
Besides, there were so many things that didn't add up.
"What's your relationship with Link?" Abel finally asked, pushing past his old habit of keeping his head down around authority figures. It wasn't as if Fierce had asserted his power to either of the men, anyway. Mostly.
"Link is... a Hero of the Goddesses," Fierce answered slowly, as if he himself were choosing his words carefully. Abel felt like he simultaneously wanted to laugh and groan at it. It seemed they all had things to hide. But his phrasing also snagged at Abel's mind, making him stiffen. So the deity was looking for his boy. He'd never heard of him, though! "He is pure hearted and I chose to protect him."
"So you're his guardian?" Rusl surmised.
The deity tipped his head. "Yes. He is very young. He is capable as a fighter, but incapable in many basic mortal aspects. I do what I can to assist him in battle and in any other way possible, time willing."
Abel narrowed his eyes. This was... making even less sense.
"My Link is a sweet boy," Rusl said, leaning back and staring into the fire with a gentle smile. "He's a ranch hand. Or, well, he was, before he was dragged into destiny's greater affairs. He's a restless young man now. But his heart is still pure and gentle. He hardly needs my help in a fight, but I still try to assist him."
Before he was dragged into destiny's greater affairs? "Is--was your son a knight?"
Rusl looked at him, a little confused. "No. He worked on the ranch. I taught him sword fighting, though."
Then what was...? Actually, that brought up another question. "Yes, about that. You're a blacksmith, and I understand blacksmiths know a little of sword fighting so they can craft well. But you fight like a warrior, not someone who learned basic handling to better understand a weapon."
Rusl's smile pulled more at one side than the other. "Oh, I've had a few jobs in my life."
"Clearly," Abel quipped, dropping the topic. It wasn't worth poking him about it. He just needed to piece things together, little by little.
"What about your Link?" Rusl prompted.
"He's my flesh and blood," Abel answered simply, dropping the subject and looking at Fierce. "So, you learned to fish from the child you're protecting?"
"He knew a little of fishing, yes," Fierce replied, tossing the remains of his fish into the fire. It snapped loudly as it burned through fat and bone. "I perfected the method. It's surprisingly relaxing."
"Well, you are certainly good at it," Rusl muttered.
Abel looked away, pondering the situation. Link didn't know how to fish, not like Hylians did. He learned from the Zora, which usually consisted of attempting to chase them down and catch them by hand. Zora were clearly much better at it--and used nets, but that detail never seemed to deter Link--but his boy still tried, despite his Hylian capabilities, or lack thereof, in the water. The Fierce deity didn't catch fish in that manner.
"Yes," Abel said quietly, thoughtfully, before reaching for another fish and holding it out to the deity. "And you caught plenty of them. So eat."
"I ingested one, that should be suffici--"
"Eat," both Rusl and Abel emphasized at the same time. Hylia only knew how this mythical person had survived this long, honestly.