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[highland_hawk]

Erik knew that the calm wasn't going to last.

You didn't spend most of your life on the water without knowing that the flat calm was only as sure as the next cloud on the horizon. Storms came and went, ebbed and flowed. There were some you could watch approach, others that turned a clear blue sky to the dark grey of impending doom. He wouldn't trade a moment of it.

For now, though, he was going to enjoy the stars overhead, the sound of water against the hull, and the memories of watching a MacDuff put the crown on Bruce's head. Between that and reuniting Chief with his bride? It hadn't been a bad month. It wouldn't always be like this and there wouldn't always be victories. They'd started a dangerous campaign and would be fighting major and minor battles along with the overall war to clear the damned English from their lands.

Erik MacSorley knew how to take advantage of every opportunity, even when the opportunity was for nothing at all to happen.

Chuckling to himself, he decided celebrations might just be in order. Meg, he knew, would welcome him and the rest of his crew with open arms...and possibly open legs. Cheered by that, he roused himself from the deck and went towards the hatch to let the lads know of his plan. His clansmen were always more likely to step lively when they knew what the payoff was.

He wasn't two steps below decks when he realized something had happened, something even Campbell couldn't see.

He was in a castle of some sort. It had to be that because no keep was as appointed as this. The floor felt strange under his boots, the air had lost the scent of the sea, and everything about where he stood fairly screamed out wrong.

Deftly, he pulled his sword from his sheath and kept his eyes out for whatever had caused this magic.

OOC: Erik is dressed like this but with Matt Barr's face.

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[hylianqueen]

In her months of living within the Nexus, Zelda had learned that most men and women did not employ her manner of dress nor did they walk around armed the way men did in Hyrule. While she had seen a few more similar to her own culture (Fili in particular), the vast majority were not.

Which was why seeing a man sheathing a sword was something both familiar and out of the ordinary for her and just curious enough that she thought to draw a bit closer. While she had adapted the normal manner of dress within the Nexus for the most part, today Zelda wore a gown and wondered if that had been luck on her part or not.

"There's nothing that needs to be slain here," she said, nodding toward his sword. By the three, he was tall. "It's relatively safe in my experience."

[highland_hawk]

"Beggin yer pardon, m'lady, but half the time people tell me that, it's because there are people just out of sight wantin t'see me run through."

He turned to risk a look over his shoulder and then nearly dropped his sword. The gown she wore wasn't that of a Highland lass, but it was bleedin close enough to what he'd seen English women wearing. Her accent wasn't any he recognized, either, but that could mean any number of things. "Where are is this? How have I come t'be standin here and who's got m'bloody ship?"

[hylianqueen]

"You're in a place between worlds," Zelda said cautiously, not wanting to frighten the man. He did, after all, have a very large sword and she was fond of not being run through with it. "While there is a door that leads to a dock, I do not know if you will find your ship there. I have not had much luck with it, myself."

There was, of course, the fact that Zelda did not particularly want to return to Hyrule in its current state. It was somewhat cowardly of her, yes, but as it was she'd been captured and put everything into jeopardy. Everything was safer without her involved.

"But you do not need to fear for your person. I've barely seen anyone bearing arms here and have seen no demonstrations of skill."

[highland_hawk]

"You're goin t'have t'explain this 'between worlds' foolishness, lass. Near as I know there's only one world and that's the one we're standin on. Ye have familiar speech t'the highborn ladies I've had chance t'meet. But not quite. Yer accent's a bit off from that. Mind if I ask where yer from?"

And if she said England, the chances were his sword would find her throat to persuade her to be a wee bit more forthcoming.

[hylianqueen]

Zelda straightened to her full height. It was nothing compared to this man, certainly, but it made her feel more regal in bearing and commanding of the situation. Think, and therefore be. It had always worked for her before.

"I am the Princess Regnant of Hyrule," she said coolly. "And it is not foolishness, no matter how strange it sounds. This place serves as the betwixt and between of my world and yours and any number of other ones. You came through a door, did you not? There is a chance that beyond that same door, you'll find your ship."

[highland_hawk]

Erik figured he should have known she wasn't just a higborn lady but royalty. Something about her bearing and formal speech, or maybe that was just his spending too much time with the camp lasses. Either way, he knew his manners. He sheathed the sword and bowed at the waist.

"Your highness. I'm not familiar with Hyrule. Where is it?"

[hylianqueen]

"It borders no land that I know of here in the Nexus, which is this place, but it lays within a circle of mountains locked away from the sea. I could draw you a map, I suppose, but I am only middling with sketches."

It had never been one of her talents in spite of Impa trying to drill it into her.

"Where do you hail from, then?"

[highland_hawk]

That explained it. If the Princess' land wasn't near the sea, and it wasn't the interior of his own, he wasn't surprised he'd never heard of it. Hunter and Saint were the ones that knew the land.

"I come from the northern Isles of Scotland. Spoon Island, t'be precise." He bowed again, then looked up with a twinkling smile in his eyes. "Erik MacSorley, at yer service."

[hylianqueen]

He had a very nice smile and Zelda could not help but be charmed by it even though it had been a long time since she'd been anything but aloof and removed from her emotions. "Well met, though I must insist you do not bow. You are not my subject and I would not insist on such formality even from a Hylian."

Zelda bowed slightly in return. "I am Zelda, a princess, yes, but you need not respect that title. Shall we try to find your ship, then?"

[highland_hawk]

"Whatever ye say, Princess," Erik replied with another grin while he completely disregarded her directive. It didn't matter if he wasn't from her land or even knew what it was. He himself was a chieftan without lands to his name anymore. Didn't stop his men from calling him such. He would do no less here.

"I would love nothin more. Not that the scenery here isn't lovely," he paused to throw her a wink, "but I've a war t'get back to and one I'm needed t'fight."

[hylianqueen]

War was something Zelda was all too familiar with. Hyrule had been at war for most of her life in some fashion or another and it was only her refuge in the Nexus that removed her from it. She nodded quickly.

"Yes, of course, I should not want to deprive your lands of a soldier. Even a princess has some knowledge of the art of war, me more than most. Hmm, I suppose we shall start with the door you came through, yes? Was it this one?" she asked, touching the handle lightly.

[highland_hawk]

Erik was about to agree when he looked from that door to the one next to it. "How can ye tell? They all look near on identical."

Still, though, he reached out to turn the knob. When it didn't move, he tried again, putting every bit of his strength behind it. The blasted mechanism didn't budge. "Where's Templar when I need him?"

To the princess, he shrugged. "It appears t'be blocked."

[hylianqueen]

"So it would seem," Zelda said, surreptitiously flicking her fingers to use magic on it rather than brute force. This, too, seemed to have no effect. "The doors can be fickle at times though I had hoped that would not happen to you since you have something so important to go back to."

She bit her lip slightly and tried to decide her next plan of attack. "Logically speaking, we should be able to try any number of the other doors and see if we find one that leads back to your Spoon Island, yes? It's better than throwing everything we have at this one, at any rate."

[shes_biochem]

Exhausted, Simmons has begun to think that maybe she needs to get more rest because the peril of losing her own mind in the wake of Fitz's trauma is real and pressing. She also believes that perhaps her brain needed more rest when suddenly she's staring at someone right out of the Highlands, which Jemma has dreamt about, but has never told anyone of those fantasies, not even Skye. "Oh good," she says to herself, fingers fluttering anxiously. "I've gone mad."

[highland_hawk]

"Have ye?" Erik asked the woman as he stood, both hands on the broadsword as he looked left and right for whomever was behind this madness. It certainly wasn't normal, wherever he was, especially with women dressing...well, like something a man would wear if he'd lost his kilt, and all bleedin sense.

"Do ye mind not takin passengers along? I was perfectly happy where I was."

[shes_biochem]

Oh, and he's Scottish. Yes, this must be one of her fantasy dreams -- nightmares, they are nightmares, she reminds herself. She takes in a deep breath and exhales, tries not to think about Scotland or tartans or Fitz in said tartan and her mind only slightly successfully steers away from it. "Oh," she says, realizing as her face contorts into understanding, that maybe this isn't a dream. "Oh, you're real. Hello," she says brightly, wiggling her fingers in a nervous wave to try and get away from the staring.

[highland_hawk]

"Aye, I'm real enough last I checked. Is there a reason I shouldn't be?" He was starting to wonder if he'd fallen asleep on the ship and awakened near an asylum. "Or are ye often confronted with not real people?"

At this point, he'd believe about anything.

[shes_biochem]

"It's just that I'm very tired," Simmons explains, unable to stop staring, which is another symptom of her issues. "And I've been watching over someone with an accent that's remotely similar to yours, so I thought maybe I've utterly lost my mind and fallen asleep without even realizing it," she confesses.

[highland_hawk]

"Ye've another Scot here, have ye?" His attention piqued at that and his suspicions raised. He might be in a strange people and amidst people that looked as foreign as any he'd seen, but he was still fighting a war and had a king to protect. "What clan is he? Is he a Highlander or from the lowlands?"

The way he said the last made it pretty clear what he thought of those that lived there.

[shes_biochem]

She blinks, not sure what 'clan' she ought to say. "He's from the Fitz family?" she manages. "Glasgow, I think? I haven't been back to see his family in years, though, and I think they might have moved up to Edinburgh in the meantime," she responds. "Fitz definitely isn't a highlander or a ... lowlander," she finishes, wincing because she doesn't think she's using that right.

[highland_hawk]

"Just Fitz? That's a bit odd, but all right. Not a name that's familiar t'me." Which didn't say much, but it was enough to have him deciding to not visit the man with his sword out. Her phrasing, however, had another teasing grin turning up his lips. "Edinburgh'd be west of Glasgow, lass, so they'd have been movin over rather than up, but I won't hold it against ye. The midlands can be confusin t'most that haven't lived or travelled there. I'm guessin ye haven't?"

[shes_biochem]

"Leopold Fitz," she says the name with great care and precision, wanting to take care of a part of him even if she can't take care of him right now, as weak and forgetful as he is. He probably doesn't even know where he's from and she's not much help. She can do the best she can, but not right now. "No, I'm from London," she says. "Though I left quite early to go to school, when I was twelve."

[highland_hawk]

Any direction of the man's family was lost as soon as she said London. Erik stepped back and put his hand on his sword again. "Yer English."

The way he said it left little doubt of what he thought about her native land, and with good reason. Many of his countrymen had fallen on the ends of English swords, not to mention what they did to Wallace and were currently planning to do at Longshanks' direction.

[shes_biochem]

She gives him a strange look, rather confused and concerned about his reaction to her. She thinks she ought to feel insulted, but the truth is that she's not entirely sure how to feel. "Yes, I'm English," she agrees warily, blinking through the words. "It's not as if I've been there recently," she protests. "And it's not a bad thing. Is it?"

[highland_hawk]

"That'd depend on whether or not ye have plans to slaughter me and take over m'country. If ye don't, then we can exist peaceably enough. Problem is, I've never met anyone English that didn't have designs on m'land, or m'people for his own gain."

Erik was smiling, but it didn't go near his eyes. War had been his life for too many years and he still didn't know just what this place was, or who was responsible for his being here.