The Abyssal Plain

<div align='left'>Zenia continued to snarl, her claws digging even deeper into Ganondorf’s flesh. She lunged forward…and fell into his arms, sobbing manically. Her claws withdrew, the small scales on her face receded, and her eyes once again became their normal size and shape. As Zen’s claws withdrew the wounds on Ganondorf’s arm began to heal. He sighed and held her as she sobbed against his chest.

That’s right, I can’t die; yet it seems my mind isn’t ready, or doesn’t want, to acknowledge this fact, he thought as he stroked Zen’s midnight hair. Whatever could have frightened you so much, love? What thing could make you cry like a wounded child? What could push you even farther down your path of madness? were the questions that ran through his head as he looked down at her, realizing just how fragile she looked.

“I’m sorry,” Zen said, sobs and hiccups distorting much of what she said. “You must hate me, or fear me, right now…” She broke into another fit of wild sobbing.

Ganondorf looked up at the ceiling and searched for the right words to say. He smiled and looked down at Zenia once again. Lifting her head up to look him in the eye he said, “It doesn’t matter how insane you are or how far you go down your crazy path without turning back, I’ll always love you. Nothing can change that,” he looked at her, his face pleading that she understand. She looked up, her bottom lip trembling, and smiled shyly.

“You’ll love me no matter what?” she asked, the playful mischievous glint back in her eyes.

“Unless you try to drink my blood, you stinking vamp.”

“Ha ha, very funny…”

***

Meanwhile at Neko’s table, Telphinia and Kari were having a heated discussion over the prices of steer. Neko sat staring into her bowl of potato soup and wondered how her friend had gotten onto the subject of steer in the first place. Looking up from her bowl she noticed that Yari and Mohan were both nowhere in sight.

“Hey guys, not to interrupt or anything, but where are Yari and Mohan at?” she asked, her eyes showing a sense of utter befuddlement. Telphinia and Kari both stopped what they were doing and looked at Neko with wide eyes. Even though Kari’s hood was over her face, Neko thought she could see the zombie’s face turn paler than usual.

“I don’t know…” Kari said. She scanned the room and then shook her head.

“ I see them!” Telphinia exclaimed. She pointed to the bar, and lo-and-behold there sat Yari and Mohan seemingly fighting with someone else at the counter.

“Hey Kari, go get them before they do anything brash,” Neko comanded, looking at the scene that was unfolding before her. Kari gave a curt nod, and with that she drifted through the crowd to the bar. Soon she returned, dragging a kicking and screaming Yari with one hand and Mohan in the other. She shoved the two of them into chairs at the table and tied their legs to the chairs they sat in.

“That should keep them out of trouble,” she said, more to herself than to the others.

Telphinia looked at Kari, one eyebrow raised, “Wasn’t that a bit harsh?” she asked.

Kari just stared at her for a while then shrugged. Yari and Mohan both sat sulking in their chairs, Telphinia and Kari returned to their earlier conversation, and Neko looked at her soup once more.

Over at Rio’s table things had not much changed. Rio and Shadow still stared at each other with half lidded eyes, and Green kept on scooting his chair back from the table. Finally, Rio motioned to the hallway that led to the boarding rooms and arched her eyebrows at Shadow. Shadow smiled, and with that the both of them departed for the hallway. Green watched them as they left, and then he stared ahead of him thinking about what had just happened. Finally he sighed and left that table to find the other members of the troupe.

When he got to the table he beheld the strangest sight he had ever seen: Yari and Mohan had fallen over causing their chairs to fall over too, Telphinia and Kari were having some strange conversation about steer, and Neko was staring into a bowl of soup without eating it. He walked away from their table backwards, and then ran away with his eyes shut. He ran into a huge man with a bad attitude and a thick accent.

The man grabbed him by the front of his tunic and lifted him off the ground. “Wha’ the heck wa’ tha’ for ya lil’ runt?” he growled in a deep voice.

Green tried to explain as best he could, but in the end he ended up getting punched in the stomach. The man then gave him a swift kick to the groin and followed that up with a punch to Green’s face, sending Green flying towards the wall of the inn. He hit the thick wooden boards with his back and fell to the floor, hacking up blood. He stood, but was too weak and lost his footing.

The burly man stalked forward, a deadly glint in his eye, and said in his strange accent, “Ya’ll a fool boy. Ya messed wit’ me, the fighta Falnin, so ya mus’ pay!” He pulled his fist back and landed yet another punch into Green’s gut. Green fell backwards, clutching his stomach and moaned. As he touched his stomach he felt something moist. He lifted one of his hands up and saw the blood on it, then looked at his stomach and saw that a huge, but not deep, oozing wound had appeared where he had been hit. Falnin smirked, and prepared for his next attack.

Green snapped. He pulled a small dagger out of a sheath on his belt and charged. Falnin, caught off guard, received a large bleeding groove in his side. Green turned on his heel and charged again, but this time Falnin was ready and managed to punch Green’s face. This went on for a while, each gaining or losing the advantage and taking hits. All the heads in the inn had turned to watch their battle. People could be heard betting on someone to win or lose, and others stared in awe.

Neko’s eyes rose up from her soup bowl to linger on the scene of the fight. Her eyes became cold as she saw who Green was fighting against. She rose violently from her seat, pushing it across the room with a loud screech. Inside of it’s sheath her katana became a black color with writhing red tendrils across the surface. As she walked towards the fray her gloved hand slipped down to the hilt of her weapon.

“Falnin…” she growled, menace and hate tainting her voice.</div>

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