Chapter Text
“Hello!” Aria says, greeting her newest customer with a wave. “What can I get for you today?”
“Good afternoon! I’ve heard you sell food that heals like potions! Is that true?” the woman asks. She’s dressed in practical clothing that’s slightly worn but obviously well cared for with a large pack on her back and a sword at her waist. Probably a traveling merchant or something, Aria supposes. Not that it really matters to her who her customers are or what they do… unless they’re Yiga.
“I do! They taste better too,” Aria says with a smile. “Are you looking to purchase a meal today?”
“Yes, please!” her customer replies, returning the smile. The woman is so excited that she’s bouncing on the balls of her feet and Aria’s smile widens such that it makes the corner of her eyes crinkle. It’s endearing how excited they are to have some of her food.
“Do you need something travel-safe or will you be eating it now?” Aria asks. It wouldn’t do to send her off with food that will spoil in a day if her customer plans to eat it later when she needs it. She resists the urge to tuck her hair behind her ear as she used to do when she was nervous. There’s a reason she keeps her ponytail loose enough for her hair to cover her rounded ears. According to her patron goddess, blending in is essential. No one can know she’s a Terran, not that they’d know what that even meant.
“Travel-safe, please,” the woman says after a minute of consideration.
They consult over exactly what kind of food she will want before settling on two servings of mushroom rice balls for 150 rupees. Aria collects the payment, ignoring the wince from her customer. Her prices are a little high compared to regular red potions, but she’s found people are willing to shell out a little extra for something that doesn’t taste like feet.
And it’s more expensive than most would expect for her to run her little stall next to the Tabantha stable. Ingredients on their own can be tricky to get despite her monthly trips to collect local ones and her agreement with the Rito mail carriers to get more remote ingredients they happen to come across for a fee. The amount the fee is varies. Eggs are around 5 rupees. Hearty Durians are about 30, which is reasonable for the amount of work it takes, but still pricey for her.
After reassuring her customer that it will only take her a couple of minutes to finish the order, Aria slips into the back room and starts chopping up the mushrooms. She makes sure to infuse them with magic as she does so. If she doesn’t then they won’t have the healing ability she’s famous for, and that would just be embarrassing. Once she has them sautéing over the fire, she pulls out a canister of pre-cooked rice from the bottomless bag she purchased for an unholy amount of rupees a while ago. The purchase had absolutely been worth it but she still winces when she thinks about how much she had to pay. Three thousand rupees is expensive and took her several months to save up while pinching her pennies. Not that they have pennies here.
Once the mushrooms are done sautéing, she quickly forms the rice balls. A quick look over confirms their good quality, so Aria wraps up both packages and makes her way back to the front of the shop. Her customer brightens up at the sight of the packages and meets her by the counter.
“Remember, make sure you eat them within the week,” Aria reminds the woman. “They should be safe until then.”
“Sounds good,” the woman agrees before carefully tucking the packages into her bag. “Have a great day!”
“You too,” Aria says, waving goodbye as the woman leaves her shop.
Once the woman is out of sight, she breathes deeply and relaxes. One day she will get used to interacting with so many customers every day. Aria is glad for the business but finds herself missing the early days when she only had a couple of customers every day instead of a couple dozen. She tries not to complain about it out loud—afraid her patron who brought her here from her burning, ending home world will curse her for being ungrateful.
If she’s ever cursed again, it will be too soon.
The magic wing marks on her back seem to itch at the thought. It may have turned out alright in the end, but being stuck in her Rito form while trapped underground for two weeks had not been a fun experience. Nayru’s boon to turn the curse into a controllable shift at the end of that had truly been a life saver.
In the weeks since then she’s gotten much better at flying. She’s gotten better at Rito-style aerial archery. Using her beak and feet to shoot is very different from the basic shooting style that Hylians and Rito share. Aria can even hit a target half the time now with that method. Her accuracy is much better when she’s grounded, since that's how she learned to do it back on Earth years and years ago, but that’s less fun now that she’s tried aerial shooting.
She’s even introduced herself to Rito village as Setura, a shorter than average Rito female they assumed to be from a recently lost tribe from the Gerudo Highlands Foothills-Satori Mountain area. As Ganon’s return has become increasingly imminent, more and more monsters have been appearing. Several wandering Rito tribes have suffered increasingly heavy losses, but the Satori Foothills Tribe massacre was a full-on tragedy. Aria feels a little bad using them as a cover, but it’s not like she can tell them the truth. ‘Hi, I’m not actually a Rito and got cursed before having the curse turned into a shapeshifting ability and that’s why you’ve never heard of me before.’
Yeah, that would go over great.
So now she has a roost in the Village, though she’s often out working. It’s technically not a lie. Aria just never tells them exactly what she does, just that she has to go out and gather ingredients a lot. Which she does. But she doesn’t go to Faron or Akkala or anything like they probably suspect. While she can fly, her wings are more meant for agility and going fast for short distances than distance gliding or high speeds.
Speaking of the Village… Aria glances out the window. The sun is starting to get a little low in the sky, so she tidies up her area before flipping her “Open” sign to “Closed” and grabs her bag from the backroom. It’s a little earlier than she usually closes up but there’s an event happening at Rito Village tonight that she has been reliably informed that she cannot miss. So she pastes a smile on her face and waves to the other people at the stable who are watching her curiously before slipping off and transforming.
The phantom itch of the wings on her back spread until her whole body is itching before there’s a chime of magic and she feels her Terran body shift into that of a Rito. Setura takes a moment to admire her orange-pink to purple plumage, grateful Nayru had chosen such a nice color scheme for her, before taking off towards Rito Village. Thankfully, her bag shifts forms with her due to its enchantments so it doesn’t fall off during the flight there.
She arrives to a very busy, very crowded scene. Everyone from the Village must be here, plus any Tribes in the area for there to be this many people in what’s usually a fairly quiet location. Setura is strongly tempted to try to hide away in her roost. Ther are just far too many people around for her comfort. But then Tori catches sight of her, and Setura’s wings drop from where she’d spread them to take off. It’s too late to hide now.
“Setura!” Tori cheers as she pushes her way through the crowd towards her. “You made it!”
“Of course I did,” Setura says with a light sigh. “It’s not like I could miss it.”
“Absolutely not,” Tori agrees. “The Elder wants everyone to be here to celebrate Revali’s appointment as the Rito Champion! And she would definitely notice if you were missing.”
The Elder was once a member of the Satori Foothills Tribe and so had taken her under her wing when she arrived at the Village. It’s kind of like having a slightly intimidating great aunt, if your slightly intimidating great aunt was in the habit of badgering you about finding a mate. That hadn’t been the case back on Earth, thankfully. But she finds herself grudgingly grateful to have someone who cares about her in a familial way, even with the pressure to settle down with someone.
So yeah, Elder Yalina would absolutely notice if you weren’t there. Satura just hopes she doesn’t get dragged off by the old lady to meet some guy—or worse, Revali himself. A shiver runs down her spine. No thanks, she’s quite happy to be some NPC. Not only would she rather not be part of The Plot, Satura also remembers Revali being kind of a jerk. And, for some reason, she’s not eager to get chewed out by someone so important.
“Could you help me with the decorations?” Tori asks, snapping her out of her thoughts. “I’d wanted to help with the food because I learned a buttered apple recipe from a Hylian down by Tabantha Stable that is absolutely divine. But last I checked there were a ton of people in the kitchen. And I know you’re not a big fan of crowds, especially in small areas. And I’m not about to ditch you, so I figured we could do decorations instead!”
“Thank you,” Satura says, her wings drooping in relief. “This is already a lot for me,” she says, gesturing to the crowds of people clustered on the landings and squeezing past each other on the stairway.
Tori smiles and grabs Satura’s forewing with her own white one. “You’re welcome,” she chirps. “What are friends for?”
“For nagging me to visit more often,” Satura teases.
Tori laughs. “That’s because you do need to visit more often! We miss you when you’re gone!”
Satura rolls her eyes. “You guys barely know me,” she says. “How could you miss me?”
“Exactly!” Tori says. “Usually when people move in, they stick around for a while and integrate into the community. But you didn’t! So now everyone gets super curious about you. Why did you think I have so much gossip about you to share whenever I see you?”
“I’m just busy,” Satura says with a roll of her eyes. “Besides, being around other Rito is… hard. I keep thinking I’m seeing Tula out of the corner of my eye or catching a glimpse of Mama or Papa.”
Tori blinks, taken aback. “Oh, why didn’t you say so?” she asks. “I mean—we probably should have figured, but if I tell them that they’ll stop gossiping so much.”
Satura just shrugs. “I don’t want people to pity me,” she admits. “While I miss my parents and hatch sister a lot, I’m doing a lot better than I used to. And I really would prefer people treat me like they have been.”
“That makes sense,” Tori says thoughtfully. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone then.”
“Thank you,” Satura says with a small smile. “I appreciate it.”
“Of course!” Tori says. “Now c’mon! I need your advice on what colors to use for the main landing!”
And with that, Satura is pulled off and kept busy with preparations for the next of couple hours. The sun is quite low and the sky beginning to darken by the time preparations are ready and everyone is gathered at or around the main landing. Some Rito are even hovering in a small cloud around the landing. The Village really is not big enough to hold this many people.
Thanks to their work decorating the landing, Satura and Tori managed to get spots on the main landing. So they get an up close view as the Elder flies up onto the edge of the landing and begins a speech. Thankfully the speech isn’t too long and wraps up fairly soon.
“-so please welcome to Rito Village,” Elder Yalina says, “the official Rito Champion: Revali!”
Everyone in the crowd cheers as Revali shoots up a little above the Elder, riding a gust of air that’s clearly from his Gale—a remarkable ability he’d invented all on his own. He’s famous for it and well respected and admired by Tribesmen and Villagers alive—despite Tribesmens’ usual dislike of or pity for Villagers.
To the Tribesmen, he is a phenomenal warrior and an exception to the rule of Village mediocrity.
To the Village, he has been their champion for far longer than he’s held this official title. Any Tribe would eagerly have taken him in, but he chose to stay with the village and those who he had known since he was young. He’s an arrogant peacock, for sure. But he’s their arrogant peacock.
Satura is a little awestruck to see him in person, honestly. Part of the reason she’s been avoiding the village so much is to avoid seeing him, but now she finds herself kind of regretting that. His Gale is a work of art. She’s always thought it was cool. Wind manipulation has always been one of her favorite superpowers. But now that she’s a Rito sometimes? Satura understands even better how significant control over the winds is. It revolutionizes everything from travel to combat.
Needless to say, he’s an arrogant twat, but he’s earned that arrogance. It’s rooted in very significant skill. He truly is the elite of the elite. Satura feels very small seeing him in person. She looks up at him and tries not to be awestruck. Their eyes meet for a heartbeat, then five, then the Elder says something to grab his attention and the moment is over.
Thankfully, the crowd finally starts to disperse to enjoy the activities and the feast. She turns to Tori to ask what she wants to do, determined to put whatever the heck that was behind her. But what she sees sends a shiver down her spine. Satura’s friend is looking right at her with a growing smirk. She’d definitely noticed that little staring contest.
“Nope, nu-uh, we’re not doing this,” Satura says, throwing her wings up and walking off. “Nothing happened. Our eyes met. It’s not a big deal.”
“Oh, but it is!” Tori insists, catching up with her quickly. “I’ve known him practically all my life and he’s never done that before, as far as I know.”
“As far as you know,” Satura emphasizes. “How well do you know the guy?”
“Well, not all that well,” Tori admits. “But-“
“But nothing,” Satura says, waving her wing dismissively. “I doubt it’s a big deal. And I’d really rather you not make a big deal out of it.”
“But Satura!” Tori says. “You guys would be so cute together!”
Satura blinks at her slowly before shaking herself off. “Nope, I’m not doing this,” she says. She spreads her wings and takes off from the landing. Where’s she going? Not sure. Just not here. Tori is calling out to her from behind her and is probably starting to give chase, so Satura dives and weaves between roosts and walkways to lose her. She’s careful not to hit anyone despite her relatively high speed.
It takes a lot of concentration, so she doesn’t notice as she weaves past the Elder and the new Champion, nor how his green gaze follows her until she’s completely out of sight.