#( aryll having heard the same thing from him many times; take me with you :(

[only-by-the-stars]

the annotated Tome of the Wild

I don’t know how many people are interested in this sort of thing, but let’s go for it anyway! There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of series references and cameos in this story, as well as tons of foreshadowing of various plot points, that may or not have gotten noticed, so I’ve been thinking about making a series of posts talking about it all for anyone curious. So here is part one, covering Chapter One: The Old Grist Mill.

(spoilers for the whole thing, obviously!)

- First up is the attire Link and Aryll are wearing. In the show, the protagonist, Wirt, is wearing a Halloween costume, though this isn’t immediately apparent that that’s the case. For Link’s costume, the choice was obvious: his Wind Waker clothing that you can get via amiibo in Breath of the Wild. Aryll, of course, is wearing the alternate pirate dress that you see her in when doing a second playthrough of WW.

- Then there’s the lengthy list of possible names Aryll tosses out for her frog. This is something that Greg, Wirt’s little brother, does at the beginning of the show, so I thought it’d be a fun way to sneak in a bunch of names that I wasn’t going to use otherwise.

Rauru: The Sage of Light in Ocarina of Time

Zauz: The blacksmith who forges the Phantom Sword in Phantom Hourglass

Snowpeak: For the Snowpeak Ruins, one of the best dungeons in Twilight Princess (and the series IMO)

Lorule: The “Dark World” of A Link Between Worlds

Vaati: The villain of Minish Cap (UNDERRATED GEM)

Swamp: Self-explanatory, there are multiple swamps in the series, like Misery Mire in Link to the Past and Goponga Swamp in Link’s Awakening

Lynel: The infamous, terrifying enemies we all know so well I hunt them for fun sometimes

Poe: Ghostly enemies that recur through the series (perhaps most memorably in TP)

Zonai: The mysterious long-lost race that built some very cool structures in BOTW

Ancient Columns: An area in BOTW where you find a memory and the Tena Ko’Sah shrine

Stealthfin: For the Stealthfin Trout in BOTW

Orca: The old swordsman on Outset Island

Ankle, Knuckle, David Jr.: Tingle’s brothers from WW

Guru-Guru: The Terminan version of the guy in the Windmill who teaches you the Song of Storms

Astor: The villain of Age of Calamity

Molduga: The sand-dwelling bosses in BOTW

Ook: A very hilarious and memorable mini-boss from TP

Tingle: The infamous Tingle, who of course Aryll thinks would be the worst name for her frog. Greg is cut off from saying what he thinks is the worst name, but I had to let Aryll speak for this little gag.

Phew, that was long. Moving on!

- “Rule one of the researcher's code is to never give up! That's what my teacher says, anyway.” Yes. Robbie is Aryll’s teacher, that is a line he says during the cutscene just before the “Relentless as a Waterfall” battle in Age of Calamity. As you might expect, Aryll finds him very amusing.

- Aryll stuck a piece of candy on a tiny black turtle that dripped an oily substance onto the forest floor as it crawled along. Dekuwood oil sighting! This is the very same turtle that gets swallowed by the dog that accosts them later, and the oil is what caused its transformation, just as it did in the show.

- “Why are we in the woods? How did we even get here? I don't... the last thing I remember is...” He screwed up his face in concentration. “Gah, why can't I remember? We were—” So Link goes into water and wakes up in a place he doesn’t know, with no memory of how he got there? Sound familiar?

- A shudder went through him and he resolved to ignore it, even as the sounds of ghostly laughter seemed to reach his ears from far off. And did the mists seem to be growing thicker? A reference to the Lost Woods from BOTW. Quite appropriate, given they’re lost in the forest.

- The mysterious woodsman is, of course, Rhoam. Who was also the first person that Link met in BOTW on the Great Plateau. He has a lantern there too, and carries around an ax, and is separated from his daughter. Just. Too easy.

- I’ll talk about this more in later posts, but, Midna in Beatrice’s role was one of the first and easiest choices I made when casting this thing. Also, notice how she takes off as soon as Rhoam shows up? This is a thing that happens in the series with the Woodsman and Beatrice, who have no prior connection, but Midna definitely knows this guy, and that reveal was held back for later via keeping that bit from the show.

- Also, in the show, the wood is called edelwood; here I chose dekuwood not just because of deku trees and whatnot in the series, but. well. Also to invoke the memory of the Deku Butler’s son in Majora’s Mask who became a victim of the Skull Kid and thus Link’s first mask.

- Link saying “Hey, listen” to Aryll is a callback to Navi’s infamous phrase from OOT.

- “Not in any way that would be beneficial to you.” Link will remember this later when the Beast is trying to get him and Midna to choose whose soul will be in the lantern.

- She leaned up on her toes and retrieved what looked like a compass. Compasses are, of course, a dungeon item in most of the games.

- The owl statue Aryll plays with, and subsequently breaks the beak of, is a reference to the owl statues in Link’s Awakening. Their eyes do indeed glow when you talk to them in the Switch remake, and in the dungeons you have to retrieve their broken-off beaks to converse with them.

- In the show, you don’t find about Wirt’s crush until much later, but I wanted to establish the plotline of Link’s love for Mipha and what he’s been doing about it right here at the beginning. His avoidance of her and what Aryll tells him about how its caused her so much pain is the beginning of his descent into despair near the end of the story. Not to mention that I hinted at the tape’s existence with Aryll’s reference to him making “that thing” for her.

- Aryll decides to call her frog “Blupee” after the glowing, rabbit-like spirit creatures in BOTW.

- “Sheikah smoke! Poof!”  A reference, of course, to how the Sheikah can appear or disappear in a puff of smoke.

- “He is the death of hope, a cunning calamity... he steals life, steals children... he, he...” A calamity, eh? Now where have we heard that phrase before? And Rhoam is, of course, alluding to his belief that the Beast is responsible for the disappearance of his daughter, Zelda.

- “Leave me now, young man... take your sister and go east.” In the show, the Woodsman tells Wirt to go north. But here, it’s east, because their next destination is Ikana, which is located in the eastern portion of Termina in MM.

- A half-moon the color of yellowed pages had risen in the sky by now, and by its light Link guided Aryll onto a path that he was reasonably sure led east. This bit of description is not just there to be pretty. I established a specific phase of the moon here so that I could go back and use the exact same description in later chapters, when more time had passed and it wouldn’t make any sense for there to actually be the same moon phase going on. This is a hint to the fact that everything in the Wild, takes place during the same night in Link’s world. This is something that you see visually in the show, but must be described in a fic.

and that’s it for chapter one! stay tuned for chapter two!

[neokad]

The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker! (HD Turbo Championship Edition)

Hi everybody!

As I plan to revisit many Zelda games I haven't played in years (or at all!) in the upcoming months, I finished what used to be one of the most controversial titles in the series for the second time, and the first in four years! And to my shock considering what I've heard about this adventure over time, I fell in love with it all over again 💗

I'd actually like to start this humble review with this analogy: What surprised me the most while replaying this game, is how its overall structure and world are. I feel like the best way to describe this game is like this: A perfectly balanced mix - as all things should be - between a classic Zelda quest, and the much more revolutionary Breath of the Wild. Now, I gotta say, it may be strange to some people to compare an older title to a newer one to describe it, but I promise it'll at least somewhat make sense at the end of this review... I hope O_O

But hey, we might as well review the plot early as usual! Well, there honestly isn't a lot to this story as usual for most Zelda games, but it is pretty solid regardless. Basically, as the ambient intro of the game teaches you, the ancient land of Hyrule got flooded by the gods, as Ganondorf tried to conquer the land with no Hero opposing him. And ever since that event, the world has been flooded with the Great Sea, only leaving many small islands and some people behind to rebuild the world. And so, many years after this happened, we find this game’s Link on his 12th birthday, wearing the “Hero of Time’’s clothes for the occasion as a longheld tradition. BUT, as this supposed happy day happens, his sister Aryll gets kidnapped by a giant flying bird to the Forsaken Fortress - as many other young girls. Naturally, Link tries to go save her with the help of Tetra - another young girl that escaped captivity thanks to her crew of pirates. With the help of her companions and their ship, Link sets out for the fortress, but as he is clearly underpowered, he gets demolished there by none other than Ganondorf, and washes up ashore, unconscious on Windfall Island, greeted by... a talking red boat! And this same boat tells him he must collect the Three Pearls of the Gods in order to gain access to the Master Sword, to finally save the kidnapped girls! This is not the whole plot of course, as I’m hiding some actual plot twists from you, the reader, buuuut I will say that while it’s not the most developed tale out there, it’s well done! But I feel like what drives this the most is certainly the art style and the characters themselves. See, I firmly believe this game has the best Link in the ENTIRE SERIES, no questions asked! He’s expressive, funny, endearing and he just looks so dang adorable! Part of his charm is definitively thanks to the situations he’s put in, but I think it’s mostly because of the game’s artstyle. IT’S BEAUTIFUL

Yes, granted, it’s not nearly as detailed as many games you’ve probably played, but the cartoony style they chose for Wind Waker really makes the locales pop out, and made the slapstick in the game that much more endearing! Plus, some of those shots just look, well, breathtaking really.

Speaking of character expressions and slapstick, I also believe Wind Waker possesses a very memorable set of NPCs as well! Be it the employee in the battleship game with his twofaced personality, or anyone involved in the many sidequests all over the islands, I’ve built lots of memories just traveling all around the sea, reading and delivering letters, just to get to know those people more! And it turned out that a good chunk of them gave me a good time!

Well, let’s talk about those travels, shall we? Wind Waker got (in?)famous over the years for having sailing. Lots of it. And especially in the original Gamecube version, it made travelling slow and boring to some as a result. Basically, you needed to constantly change the direction of the wind in order to travel as quickly as you could. Suffice to say, switching the wind’s directions this often got irksome pretty quickly : P Thankfully, the HD port on the Wii U does give you an optional Fast Sail in a side quest! As early as the second island in the game! Which means that those who found the sailing unbearable in the original will have a better experience ^^ But regardless, there’s a lot of sailing in this game, which is what replaces running/rolling around on the overworld. And instead of having different regions, they’re all replaced by 49 islands of different sizes and importance! And this is where my BOTW comparison will shine~ I think this game is pretty close in spirit to Breath of the Wild in some ways. Sure, unlike in that game, you’re locked to a certain sequence of items/dungeon/progression, just like a classic Zelda experience! BUT!  Wind Waker also allows you to explore 40+ non-important islands, and sailing between them in anticipation of what you might find there is suuuuch a good feeling! Plus, there’s many treasure chests to loot (both major and minor) while you’re travelling on the big blue. Due to how much you can find in your way off the main quest - while being far away from the suggested path the game wants you to do at the moment - gives this game a very open feeling despite still having a linear quest to it! And I think this element of discovery and exploration in a linear format - coupled with the great visuals and ambience the sailing offered - made this game so, so, so much fun to play <3

But what about the gameplay and dungeons themselves? Well thankfully, they’re both quite good as well! What I like most is how much of an improvement swordplay got compared to Ocarina of Time. Not only are the enemies generally more diversified in strategies and design, Link also received many new moves to his arsenal, and those made combat so much more intense and exciting! Though it did make the game very easy overall thanks to having so many options... alongside you not taking very much damage for most of the game :P Still, the dungeons made up for this! They’re quite fun and pretty well paced, and each offer some quite nice ambience as well!  Although I will say that the late part of the game has two dungeons with pretty similar concept, which while fun in their own right, did feel a little uninspired despite them having clever puzzles :/ On a semi unrelated note, the intro sequence at the Forsaken Fortress has you playing a stealth sequence, and you coming back to it later while able to defend yourself was a high point for me!

I do want to leave a quick note about the music, and honestly? It’s pretty great as well! Like I pointed out earlier, the dungeons create some very fitting atmosphere, but as soon as you’re outside them, many of the main islands have some very pretty, energetic music that is PERFECT for a Zelda game (especially Dragon Roost Island), and the Great Sea theme is very adventurous and grandiose, which motivates you even more to set out and explore! Though it’s somewhat strange that many smaller locations have no music at all, which makes sense to be fair, since those islands are usually pretty small from the outside ^^

Overall? I expected to only like this game, but I ended up adoring it! The Wind Waker is a marvelous journey that leaves a lot open to the player about how they approach the game, while still giving you enough of a compass to never be lost! And a competent story with charming characters and great music certainly help to make that adventure all the more memorable! Though I suggest you all should play the HD version if you can, since it has the fast sail and better looks. BUT, it also heavily tones down the infamous lategame Triforce fetch quest. (While it did not make much sense story-wise since you could just do spoiler without it before, I didn’t find it all that bad in the HD version since you can do some of it before having completed all other dungeons in the game ^^ But yes, HD or not, this is a grand adventure! Play it! 9/10

[ashleyswrittenwords]

How To Be A Queen [Part 11]

Note: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I said no cliff hangers. I’m a liar. Also wtf this surpassed 40k words. It’s 85 pages long on my word doc. How in the hell.

Summary: Princess Zelda is at a loss. Her handed royal responsibilities have begun to weigh heavily on her and she is eventually backed into a corner. Live a life she loathes or run away from everything she’s ever known? Navigating life is hard, and Link forces her to learn that she doesn’t have to do it alone.

Warning: Cussing. Like big boy words.

Previous

Next

Part 1

How To Be A Queen

The few days before the festival flew by. Mrs. Harper had barely finished our gowns on top of the many last-minute requests from other Hateno residents. Anju and I were enlisted at times along to help with sewing. It was hectic, but I loved it. Nothing was expected of me other than my occasional assistance. Over the duration of this time, I had rarely bumped into Link. When I did, he asked what I was up to and was off again as quick as he came. Every now and again, I’d notice him hanging off to the side with that same group of men helping with putting together decorations or stalls for the festival. Sometimes talking with Aryll, other times being pushed away by her.

A boy ran across the courtyard in hot pursuit of a rooster while two other children trailed behind in fits of light laughter. The sun had long since set and a myriad of lanterns were lit around the village. Jovial music played from a makeshift band of young and old musicians alike. Some drifted off to join other festivities while others jumped in to fill the gap. The musicians hooted and hollered louder than their own instruments at times. The music never lost its beat and had been playing boisterously since early evening. I had never heard the likes of the tunes they played, but I could tell it could get the most sober man to clap along.

Which, incidentally, was what I was doing near the edge of the crowd. Sharla Harper had just parted from me to join the dancing throngs of people after our idle witnessing of her husband playing the violin with aggressive enthusiasm. Admittedly, I had turned down a dance with her and chose to become a sort of wallflower instead.

A thin-stemmed glass was pushed into my hands and Malon came into view. Her cheeks were red from alcohol and a smile brimmed her cheeks as she spoke, “Drink! We won’t be able to get free booze like this until Spring.”

“And without the judgement to boot,” I said, trying to match her enthusiasm and stole a glance around us. It seemed like everyone and their grandmother was taking part in the festival’s pleasantries. Not that I was expecting a castle ball’s scrutiny, but this was a completely different world after all. People were laughing, singing, dancing, and I was under the impression that they truly wanted to be here with their loved ones to celebrate another successful harvest season. I was out of my realm and I was loving it.

“You look like you’re having an amazing time and you haven’t even done anything yet,” Malon said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I shrugged and touched the glass to my lips, suddenly realizing I was beaming at nothing in particular.

“Have you seen him?” Her grin was almost devious and I took a small sip of the sparkling ricewine. It smelled vaguely of roses and the color was a matching light pink. “Who are you talking about?” I asked absently, my eyes were drawn to the band before meeting hers.

“Oh, don’t play coy. You know who I mean,” Malon’s voice was lowered as if anyone was eavesdropping.

I wrapped my arms around myself, the glass held lightly in my right hand. I spun a little, feeling my gown twist around my legs. I felt light and appreciate that the only layers needed was a bodice and a white slip. I admired how my drink wasn’t far off from the color of my dress and shook my head, “He probably doesn’t want to look after me all the time. It’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” The woman looked frustrated, “He’s missing out on the most beautiful woman in Hateno and it’s not a big deal?”

I laughed and rolled my head back to look at the sky, “You’re being ridiculous or are you talking about yourself? Because the latter would make sense.” The stars were glistening, not a cloud in the sky. It was like the goddesses blessed the night and were watching from above.

“I’m serious,” Her words were drawn out and she gripped her own glass tightly, “You look hot tonight.” I hid my smile behind the drink. “Thank you, love. You look gorgeous tonight too.”

There were a few men that hung around us. They stole looks at us and I felt bashful. I did feel confident in how I presented myself though. The gown Mrs. Harper had sewn together was perfect. The gown’s neckline heart shaped and was drawn tightly around my waist before flowing in an A-Line skirt. A thick lacy white ribbon was wrapped around my middle and a grey shawl was wrapped around my shoulders and tucked underneath my arms. It was very effective in keeping out the cold, but I dared not to stray far from fire pits that were littered throughout the square.

My shoulders loosened and I quickly realized I had downed the wine as I listened to Malon’s rambling. She gasped and took it from me, mumbling, “We need more drink.”

“Hm?”

“We need more drink!” She said quite a bit louder and turned. I lost her in the crowd and didn’t bother following.

Alone again, I turned my attention to the music and the dancers. They twirled and the partners parted to make lines, then moving through to find their partners again. The ladies bunched their skirts in one hand, laughing and stomping to the beat. I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped.

I looked over my shoulder and expected Malon but found Link squeezing between a couple. His hair hung partially in his eyes from navigating through the crowd, then he looked at me completely and I felt like my world stopped. The space around us seemed quieter than before and all I wanted to do was hear what he wanted to say. The air felt suddenly so warm that I was almost wanting to take my shawl off.

He had opened his mouth speak but seemed to forget his words. Instead he looked at the band. So, I did too. Occasionally, I looked over to see if he would finally say something – anything. He wore a nice white long-sleeved shirt and he smelled like mead. It could have been anyone that smelled like that around us, but I supposed since we were standing so close it had to be him.

“Hey,” he finally said. Link wasn’t really making eye contact.

For whatever reason I started laughing. Something about the prolonged silence and the sudden greeting tickled me. I didn’t doubt it was the ricewine from before that helped fuel it. Link finally looked fully at me and a flash of confusion ran across his features. Then, he was laughing too.

“Hello Link,” I managed to say between giggles. He was just softly smiling now, not nearly as troubled as before and watched as I calmed myself down. “I’m sorry, Malon forced a drink onto me before you got here.”

“She forced you to drink?” Link asked, sounding worried. His eyes flicked to the faces behind me, as if looking for her.

“Oh no. No, no,” I put a hand up, “I was more than happy to oblige. She just put it in my hands.”

He seemed relieved and then grabbed my hand that I had somehow put on his chest. I don’t remember doing that.

“Do you want to dance?” He lightly rubbed the top of my hand with his thumb as if it was a natural thing to do. As if he’d done it before.

“I,” I had no idea what to say. “Yes,” I said, my heart beating quickly as I glanced at where the music was playing and back to him. His smile reached his eyes and I panicked, “I-I mean no.” My eyes grew wide as I realized what I had said, “I mean yes! But!”

At this point I’m sure I looked redder than the tomato pin cushion Anju’s mum uses.

“I don’t know how to dance!” I said quickly in a horrible attempt to recover. I must have looked like a bumbling idiot.

“You knew how to dance the last time,” he said plainly. “Zel, are you sure you want to? We don’t have to.”

“Yes!” I had the itch to fiddle with my hands, but he was still holding one of them. Why was I so nervous? It was Link. It was only Link. “Ballroom dancing is all I can do. Usually it’s only 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4… but this is not ballroom dancing and I’ll look-“

“You’ll look beautiful.”

I stopped talking. Feeling that feeling in my chest bubble up again. I felt inexplicably happy. So happy, in fact, that my brain forgot to spit out words for me to say. He thinks I’m beautiful?

“And,” Link continued, shrugging his shoulders, “I’ll only dance with you. So, if you don’t want to, we’re both missing out.”

“That’s evil.”

Link nodded knowingly, “I know, but it has to be done.”

“I don’t know the steps.”

“There really aren’t any steps. Just follow what everyone else is doing,” he said, tugging on my hand. “If it makes you feel any better, it’s gotten to the part of the night where everyone’s too drunk to care.”

I raised an eyebrow, “How do you know the right things to say all the time?”

That toothy smile was back, “Trust me, it’s pure luck.”

He led us out of the audience. The music was even louder here and somehow someone snuck a drum into the group of already noisy instruments. I gathered my skirts in one hand like many of the other women and somewhere along the way either Link had let go of me or we were forced apart. Now I was sandwiched between two rather large women. I copied the swaying motions and found myself doing rather well. One of the women nearly tripped and the other started cackling. There was a weird box step and the group moved forward as someone on a fiddle played vivaciously.

I noticed we had separated into lines with lines of men and boys themselves moving between and finding their partners. Rather inelegantly a smaller boy bumped into me but held out his hands. I paused, confused, but crouched down and offered my own. His little fingers interlocked with mine and we did a small circle swaying dance. I laughed at his pink face.

“You’re a rather good dancer,” I said.

He looked at me in surprise but put on a brave face. “Thanks. Mum says so too.”

I looked up to see Link with one of the women before with an expression not too different from my dance partner’s. His eyes caught mine and I tried hiding my laughter. Link mouthed something and I shook my head, not understanding. A beat went by and partners separated and reconjoined. Link closed the gap between us and didn’t hesitate to interlock his fingers with mine.

“Hey,” he said again.

My lips twitched upward, “Hello Link.”

“I see you found someone else to dance with.”

“Oh, yes. He was so charming. He stole my heart and left just as quick. Didn’t even catch his name,” I sighed wistfully. The couples moved to form a large circle with another group making another inner circle. We happened to end up on the inside.

“Really?” He asked with a surprised voice, “I’m so honored to know that the next king of Hyrule hailes from Hateno.”

I studied his face. The shape of his eyes, the small scar on his cheek, the way his smile started out lopsided before evening out on his cheeks. I nodded slowly. “Wouldn’t that be something?”

He spun me around and I pursed my lips, “I don’t want a king, though.”

“No? What do you want then?”

I shrugged with a smile, “I don’t know. Kings are awfully boring. Instead, I want someone who can make me laugh and smile.” I thought for a moment, then nodded, “Yes, that sounds about right.”

He hummed, “So, a court jester.”

“Exactly. A dreamy court jester.”

Link laughed at my expression and we were pulled apart again. The cold air replaced where his warm hands were, and the same sequence of dancing went on. After what seemed like forever, I had snuck from the dance and into the chattering audience once more. I hadn’t seen Link in quite some time, so I assumed he couldn’t find me on time to make a convenient exit together. It hadn’t bothered me and I found Anju and Aryll by a food stall.

Aryll noticed me first and pointed me out to Anju with her meat kabob, “Lookie here!”

Anju lit up when she saw me, making me smile back. “Do you want some?” I agreed and she gave me her half of the stick. “I’m full anyway.”

I thanked her and hung on the side, vaguely listening to their conversations as I watched people pass.

“Does he dance good,” Aryll said with a mouth full of steak.

I nodded bashfully, not bothering to ask how she knew. “He can waltz well too,” I said, pulling a roasted carrot off and popping it into my mouth.

Aryll blanked, “Pardon?”

Anju giggled, “Are you serious?”

“Mmhm,” I swallowed, “During the winter solstice ball.”

Aryll started choking and Anju laughed loudly, trying to smack her friend’s back in a lame attempt to help. “Oh-Oh my. Get him. I want to hear more. A first-hand account by the man himself,” Anju waved me off, keeling over at Aryll’s expression.

I walked around aimlessly for a moment and found a stray waste bin for the now empty stick. In all honesty, I had no idea where to find him. He had just narrowly found me before but looking at all the people it felt like searching for a needle in a haystack. There was no way everyone was from this little town and from what I overheard I was mostly right. Many people came from more rural outskirts.

My eye caught someone walking out of the square. It looked like Mac, one of the first people we had seen upon coming to Hateno and he seemed close to Link. So, I made up my mind to follow him.

“I’m sorry,” a man cut into my path and I stopped. “Do I know you?”

I squinted in the faint light of a lamp. He was a middle-aged gentleman with graying hair, but I didn’t recognize him. His smile was sweet and gentle, as if he already knew the answer. I shook my head, “No, sir. I don’t recall. I hope you find the person you’re looking for.”

His smile widened, “My deepest apologies.”

I looked at him questionably and he moved slightly to the side, giving me allowance to move past. I felt scrutinized and looked at my feet as I left. Strange. Nevertheless, I saw Mac just barely disappear around a corner and I followed. It was quieter here other than the soft chatter of standoffish groups. Some merchants hung around; others began packing up. I suppose it was that time of night. I hugged my shawl closer and felt unsure.

Mac didn’t move fast and he held two pints of mead - one for each hand. He turned another corner and Toma shouted his name.

“-you took so long I’m basically sobered up.”

“You are nowhere near sober. You can barely walk,” Mac grumbled and I heard a clanking of glass. I stopped just before rounding the corner with him. It felt weird to barge in, I didn’t know them like that. What was I going to say? That I stalked Mac to find them?

As I was thinking about excuses I heard Link say something mildly insulting to Toma and I thought Kafei’s laughter was a warning for a heart attack. He wheezed so bad he started coughing. “You sound like an old man,” Toma quipped, “You got asthma too.”

“Oof. That hurts, mate,” Kafei coughed again to clear his throat, “At least the ladies think this old man is sexy.”

“You have exactly one lady,” Link chimed in, laughing at his own joke.

“Um, one more than all of you!” He shouted, “Besides I have a multitude of women in several other regions. A platoon. You remember when I went to Gerudo Town?”

“Yeah. When you were ten.”

“I was an early bloomer.”

“Does Anju know that?” Mac’s voice disappeared into the pint.

“This conversation stays here and if anyone else knows you’re all dead,” Kafei shouted, again. Even if they didn’t tell, Anju was bound to overhear all the way in the square.

“I’d pay money to see you fight Link,” Toma snickered, “500 rupees right now.”

“Link is a fucking knight.”

Link snorted, “I’ll let you beat me if you split it.”

“With how competitive you are? I don’t want to die young.”

“You’re already old.”

“I’m only two years older than you, fucker.”

There was a wide array of bickering between Toma and Kafei. I rehearsed my excuse in my head, ‘Oh, no. I’m lost! Wait, friends? Thank heavens I found you all. I was just so lost. Aryll wanted to talk to you, Link.’ Okay, no, that won’t work. That sounds worse than stalking one of them.

“Besides Link already has a girl,” Kafei said, “We’re obsolete, boys.”

“Shut up,” I could barely hear Link. I swallowed thickly, thinking about just walking away, but I’m sure they would hear a pair of heels on the stone. Perhaps I can take them off.

“Who? Blondie?” Toma asked.

“That one girl,” Kafei asked. There was a bout of silence. “Selma.”

“What? That’s not even close to her name,” Link chuckled. Toma began laughing unnecessarily loud.

“Zelda!” Toma shouted, “Her name is Zelda. I remember. She’s cute. I almost bedded her.” His words started slurring. Someone probably hit him because there was a light “Ow” that followed.

“She’s not mine, believe me,” Link said.

“What’s the color of her eyes?”

“Green,” he didn’t even miss a beat.

“You’re basically married,” Kafei clapped his hands together. “Congratulations.” I stared at my shoes and felt my face flush. I wasn’t supposed to be here. My hands felt sweaty. I should slip away.

Link didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Trust me, that will never happen.”

Kafei made a noise, “Why not? Why else would you bring someone like that here?”

“Her dad-“

“Yeah, I get it. Her dad paid you. But you could have taken her anywhere. Rito Village and see the aurora borealis, the tops of Mount Lanayru, the warmth of the Gerudo. Anywhere in Hyrule. But you took her here. I’m assuming this girl comes from money and she could have gotten a whole party of people to accompany her just like how every rich person does. But it’s just you. So, what’s the catch?” Kafei quieted down. I pulled at my fingers, feeling overly nervous.

“It doesn’t matter,” He sounded frustrated. I could imagine that he was doing that tick where he ran a hand through his hair and lightly pulled at it as he did. Link sounded annoyed and for whatever reason it upset me. “She’s just immature and wanted to do something her parents wouldn’t allow. I was a convenient solution. She doesn’t mean anything to me, not like that. Lay off, alright? It’s fucking annoying.”

My blood ran cold. What?

“You don’t mean that. You know that I know you don’t,” Now Kafei had raised his own voice, “It’s bullshit.”

“It’s just a job. Nothing more. I’m literally just walking her from place to place and getting money from it. Easiest gig I’ve had in 5 years. Are you happy?”

There was silence other than a sniffle. I quickly went to hold my nose.

“What was that?” I heard Link say.

Toma cleared his throat, “I’m sorry I think I had too much of your aunt’s chili.”

“Are you kidding me, Toma? I swear I should beat your ass,” Kafei said. The bickering continued and I took it as my cue to leave. My heart felt heavy in my chest. ‘I should have expected this,’ I thought repeatedly.

Anju found me before I did her. She was smiling brightly until she saw my face. “Goodness, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

I knew I couldn’t smile to console her. “I think I’ll be off tonight instead.”

“Off?” She looked bewildered, “Off to where.”

“I’m not sure. Anywhere to be honest.”

She stared at me with concern filling her eyes and we later walked wordlessly back to her parents’ residence. They themselves were still at the festival and I felt a pang of guilt for not thanking them properly. She offered me a bag and I packed what little I had. The focus was getting out of here. I had gold and the clothes on my back. Anju packed what food she could.

Anju stood in the doorway of my temporary bedroom with my traveling clothes now clean and folded, “I won’t convince you to reconsider nor will I ask what happened.”

She set the clothes down on the bed and took my hands in hers, “However, when you go can I please tell Link?”

“I’m not so sure,” I found it hard to keep my voice steady. I couldn’t decide if I was simply mad or disappointed or sad. Whatever it was weighed heavily and all I wanted was to leave.

She dropped her hands and I frowned, “I think it’s for the best that I go alone.”

“Do you truly believe that?”

“No, but I’m trying to.”

Anju stepped out and I changed. With the backpack strapped, I followed her out of the village. There were plenty of people leaving from the festival and we didn’t stick out. Once we reached the outskirts I turned to her, “Anju, it’s okay if you want to go back. I don’t expect you to be out here in the cold with me.”

“It’s just that I don’t want to leave you,” she was tearing up, making me do the same.

I embraced her, “I’ll be okay! And you should be okay too. You’re one of my closest friends and I wish nothing but happiness for you.”

“Be careful. Whatever he said or whatever he did… I’ll kill him if you want me to, Zelda.”

I laughed tearfully at her comment, “It’s fine, Anju.”

“No, it’s not! Obviously not.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “All he did was make it clear that he didn’t want to babysit me.” I cleared my throat, “And that’s fine.”

She wasn’t too convinced but relented. “I’ll miss you.”

We said some farewells and I made sure to have her do the same with Aryll and Malon. Then, we parted. I had produced a map from my coat pocket, found Hateno, and traced my finger to the Gerudo region. I’d have to back track quite a bit before reaching a new trading route, but I supposed it couldn’t be the worse of situations. I thought momentarily of going to the Spring of Wisdom, Mount Lanayru was right here, but decided that would be awful in the dead of winter. Gerudo region it was then.

I had been walking for a half hour or so. I took my time, there wasn’t anywhere I had to be immediately. No one to keep up with and no one to listen to. I frowned to myself, his stories weren’t that good anyway. In fact, they were boring and dumb. Tears pricked my eyes. They were very dumb. I hated the fact that his absence gave me no solace. I went into this whole idea of traveling with excitement for my independence and look where that has gotten me? I should be excited. Eager, even. I was just a job, huh? Well, he should be relieved that I left without him. Hell, maybe Link wanted me to leave.

The tune of the festival music was repeating in my head. He had a stupid smile too. And I lied to Aryll, he dances very badly. A tear escaped from my eyes, leaving a trail that the cold air clung to. I’m not crying. I am not crying. I hated the way he talked and the way he’d look at me. Even the way he looks. Why not just add that to the pile too? Amongst it all, the thing I most hated about Link Forester was how he refused to get out of my head.

“Where are we going?”

I screamed and my neck nearly snapped off with how fast I looked to my right. I nearly started bawling.

“Why did you leave?” Link Forester didn’t even want my answer to his initial question, not like it properly registered in the first place. I stopped in my tracks. Link was staring at me as if he was angry.

“How did you find out so fast? How did you-”

“Anju is a bad liar. Why did you leave without me?” Link had frustration written all over his face.

My tears had dried and were replaced with anger. “Don’t talk to me like that. If anyone should be angry, it should be me!”

He looked taken by my outburst. I was too, my bottom lip quivered and I started walking again. I didn’t want to face him right now. He said enough and I didn’t want to hear it again.

“Could you at least tell me why you’re angry?” He sounded defeated, tired and that in itself riled me up more.

“You’ve been dishonest with me!” I threw my hands up. It was obvious, was it not? “I’m immature! I mean nothing to you and I’m just a job.”

Link didn’t move to negate anything. Instead he just watched my emotions bubble over idly. I bit my lip hard to stop from outright crying. “I would be fine if you had told me upfront that you felt that way. I would have accepted it and we would move on like that. It’s not odd that someone deals with me just for money. I’m accustomed to it. I expect that.” I put a hand behind my head, trying to find my words before speaking again. Slower now, partly to myself, “I didn’t with you. I wanted desperately to believe that you hung around because you liked me. That may have been my own fault. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

He just kind of stood there and stared. He was still wearing the same clothes from earlier tonight, his shoes were changed into boots though and he had his sword strapped to him. He was refusing to look at me. I drew my attention away from him. Link’s silence only confirmed my feelings and I hated it. Something dawned on me and I drew in a breath. If he wanted Princess Zelda of Hyrule, he could have her.

“I want to remind you that you are no means tied to my agency,” I had found my voice. It was an odd feeling to speak to him like this. But it did make him look at me.

My eyes stayed on him and he seemed shocked as if it were news to him. It wasn’t anything untrue. I stood tall in my boots and tried to void any feelings I had for him. They didn’t matter, much less to him.

“What are you talking about?” Link said incredulously.

I breathed inward. I knew I didn’t want to say it. In reality, I didn’t want him to leave my side. He was a comforting constant that kept me situations caused by my own shortfalls… but for someone who didn’t want to be by my side by pure choice alone wasn’t right. Goddesses, I want to be selfish and tell him he can’t leave my side even if his life depended on it. I knew he’d do it. I resented myself.

“You’re bounded by orders, right?” My heart was in my throat. “In the beginning I told you that you didn’t have to come with me. My uncle may be general, but by birthright my words hold higher precedence than his.”

I paused to read his face. There wasn’t much difference, as if my words didn’t register. Link moved his head to the side, as if about to deny me.

Frustration built within me, “Look! All I’m saying is that you don’t have to be here! I may be your charge and you may be the captain of my guard, but I’m also the high princess. So…” I pursed my lips, struggling to find purchase on what I was trying to communicate, “So, you don’t have to follow me around and deal with – everything. You can go back to Hateno or go back to Castle Town if you want to. Tell my father I fell into the mouth of a crocodile, I don’t care. I’m sure he’ll be relieved.” My voice gave out and cracked, “I apologize for getting you wrapped up in my own desires. It was never my intention.”

“Zelda, you can’t-“

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to hear another lecture right now,” angry tears stung my eyes. I sounded completely outlandish, but Hylia knows I was in too deep. There was a painful truth in my ramblings, and the harsh reality in his eyes stared back at me. “Everyone I’ve ever met has expected something from me and it usually ends in disappointment. Save yourself the breath.” I couldn’t look at him anymore. Here we go. Oh, woe as me. I turned and started walking, halfway into a jog. You know, in one of my sappy romance novels in Castletown the girl had a similar outburst. Poured all her frustrations out and tried leaving. It happened several times, but he always stopped her. Got her to stay until they could figure something out. Something to patch up their issues.

But I wasn’t living a sappy romance novel. I let my emotions triumph my logic all the time and nothing good has come of it. It was pathetic and impractical to think that I would ever have something akin to that. No knight in shining armor reached out to stop me. For the first time in a while, I wasn’t followed either.

  I wasn’t sure how much time went by. I did know how much I cried.

A lot.

Anju had snuck tissues into my bag and I’ve never been more grateful for a person. I didn’t look back after I left him and after an hour or so I did. He wasn’t there, unsurprisingly. I was tired and wrestled with stopping, but I knew if I walked through the night I could end up at the stable in the early morning hours and a soft bed sounded much nicer than the dirt.

I wasn’t too sure about the time. It was very late and it was silent other than the constant sound of my footsteps. I had hummed a long-forgotten song earlier. It was hard walking by yourself I found. It was colder too. I had my coat of course and it was formidable against the temperature. But it didn’t compare to a person.

Against everything that happened tonight, I missed him. What was with bad nights and celebrations? What an odd streak of bad luck.

My ears perked up to another sound. A steady tapping? I knew it wasn’t just my sound. My eyebrows creased and my heart beat faster.

“Leave me alone, Link.”

It continued.

“I told you before to leave me alone!”

Again, it continued and I whipped around.

It wasn’t Link.

Note: Hey beech. So that was spooky. Who is it? Idk. We’ll see, I’m so tired.

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 24

“Link, get the… the door…” Mipha tiredly hit Link. She meant to tap his shoulder, but it turned out to be a slap in the face instead.

Link groaned loudly and blinked in the darkness. “The… door?”

“I mean…” Mipha yawned and turned over in the bed.

Link turned his gaze to his phone. The ringer was off, but it was vibrating loudly against the nightstand. His eyes squinted in the light of the screen, and his brows furrowed. Why was Teba calling him at two in the morning?

His fingers fumbled in the dark as he reached for the phone. He answered it and brought it to his ear with a yawn. “What?”

“Get up.” Teba’s voice was fierce. “I’m outside. Let’s go.”

The call ended. Link stared blankly at his phone in confusion. “Teba?” he said out loud to no one in particular.

“What… what’s he want?” Mipha asked.

Link sat up in bed, and his heart began to race. Something was wrong. He quickly got out of bed and made his way downstairs, pulling his pants on in the process. He stumbled through the darkened kitchen and opened the door.

Teba regarded him with a fierce expression at first, but a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he looked Link over. “Are those Mipha’s pants?”

Link looked down at the pink, plaid, fuzzy pants that he managed to squeeze into. He cursed under his breath and rubbed at his eyes. “The fuck is going on?”

Teba’s face grew serious once more. It was only then that Link noticed the weapon on his side. His brows furrowed as he met Teba’s gaze.

“We don’t have time,” Teba said quickly. “Roham’s got a warrant out for your arrest. A few of my guys, a few of Dorian’s. He’s not fucking around.”

Link blinked at him. “Arrest?” he sneered. “What fucking for?”

“For being a threat to Hyrule,” he said frankly. “Are you going to keep asking stupid questions or are you going to get moving? My ass is on the line too, you know.”

“Fuck,” Link spat. “Zelda -”

“Zelda is powerless right now,” Teba said. “Roham went behind her back. Besides… she’s preoccupied elsewhere.”

“Doing what?” he snapped.

“Can we do this later?” Teba said in an exhausted tone. “You need to get out of the city, now. ”

“If they’re looking for me, they’ll find me,” Link said. “You can’t possibly hold them off by yourself.”

Teba stepped aside, and Link looked around him. There, standing in the dark, were several other soldiers under Teba’s command. They were dressed in dark clothing, making them appear to be just dark figures in the night, though he could tell that they all carried various weapons and even wore their bullet proof vests.

“This is insane,” Link muttered.

“You’re lucky you have this many supporters right now,” Teba hissed. “You’re on thin ice. Would you like to keep pushing it? You’re wasting our time.”

“Alright,” Link growled. “Give me five minutes.”

“You have two,” Teba called as Link left them alone outside.

Mipha was waiting in the kitchen. She had pulled on one of his shirts and a pair of shorts. She regarded him with a worried gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“Roham,” Link muttered. “We need to leave the city.”

She nodded quickly, not once questioning him. “I’ll wake up Aryll.”

Mipha hurried to Aryll’s room to wake her, and Aryll jumped suddenly. She sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes.

“What? What’s - what’s wrong? Is Link okay?”

“He’s fine,” she quickly assured her. “But we need to leave.”

Aryll blinked at her. “Leave? Why? Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” Mipha said. “But we need to hurry.”

Aryll nodded sleepily and got out of bed. “Is this a ‘pack everything I love ‘cuz we’re blowing up the house and faking our deaths’ kind of thing? Or, should I just pack a toothbrush?”

Mipha sighed. “You’ve been around Link for too long,” she said. “Just grab the essentials, alright?”

Aryll frowned. “I was looking forward to faking my death,” she said dryly. “But I guess being on the lam is just as fun.” She started to grab various items, throwing them on her bed. “Maybe we can take the train across the kingdom like hobos.”

Mipha rolled her eyes and left Aryll alone. It seemed she had just gotten unpacked, and now she seemed to be moving again. Hopefully it was only temporary.

Within ten minutes, Link was packed, though most of the items he grabbed consisted of the various weapons his father had kept in the safe in his closet. The three of them moved through the darkened house and outside where Teba impatiently waited. He tapped at his foot, then pointed at his wrist, though there was no watch on it. Link rolled his eyes and threw their things into the car.

“Girls are with me,” Teba said. “They’ll be looking for your car.”

Link didn’t argue. It made sense, but still, he didn’t like the idea of being split up from them. And it seemed they didn’t appreciate it, either.

“Who will?” Aryll asked, her gaze narrowed on Teba. “And what happens if they do find him?”

“Link can handle himself,” Teba said. “Let’s go.”

Link winked at his sister before sliding into his car. Aryll rolled her eyes, but followed Teba and Mipha into one of the other vehicles.

One by one, they pulled out onto the empty road and drove through the sleepy city. After a moment, Mipha called, but it was Teba’s voice that greeted him. “Where do you want to go?”

Link hesitated. “How the hell should I know?”

“Think of something, then split from the convoy. One of my guys will follow you.”

Link searched his brain quickly. “The ranch. Aryll can get you there.”

The call ended, and Link did as he was instructed. He stopped following Teba and took a different route out of the city. As Teba had said, another vehicle broke away to follow him. A few of the vehicles split from the convoy, each one taking a different route out of the city, and he quickly lost track of them as they disappeared down other roads. He didn’t like being out of sight of Teba, but even without any extraordinary powers, he trusted Mipha and Aryll with him. As long as their escape went smoothly, he knew he’d seen them within the hour.

*****

Zelda and Paya stood in the empty office, their search rendering the same results as it did in Impa’s office. If Purah had anything of use, it was secured elsewhere. They quickly found, however, that they were not alone. They spun on their heels at Purah’s voice to find her leaning against the frame of the door, her arms crossed.

“My sister warned me you would be stopping by,” she said with a sly grin. She inspected her nails as if their presence disinterested her. “You can hide your face all you want, Paya, but I can see right through Zelda’s disguise.”

Zelda met Paya’s gaze, hesitant. Her red eyes turned to narrow on the Sheikah that stood before them.

“Relax,” she said, dismissing them with a wave of her hand. “Unlike Impa, I don’t believe in keeping you in the dark. Just don’t tell her you heard anything from me.” She stepped into the room and moved around her desk, letting her fingers slide across the wood as she did so. “You’ve done well to hide the queen’s identity, though. The Yiga are hunting her. They shouldn’t see through the spell like I can.”

“What do you want?” Paya asked coolly.

“I want to help,” Purah said. “You were right to come here. You want to know about the shrine. Let me save you the trouble; it won’t fix Link.” She sighed heavily. “Unfortunately, there is a small problem in regards to the shrine. The Yiga Clan robbed us just the other day. They got their hands on the Sheikah Slate - the only item that will allow the shrine to work.”

“What can you tell us about the shrine?” Zelda asked.

“The shrine was created several thousand years ago by the Sheikah,” Purah said. “It works with the Sheikah Slate to secure anyone inside and puts them into a stasis to allow them heal from fatal wounds. It has been used on heroes past before they had a chance to defeat Ganondorf.”

“A healing shrine?” Zelda asked.

“Of course,” Paya said. “With the Sheikah Slate, the Yiga Clan can use it for Ganondorf.”

Purah nodded. “Yes. I should have left it with Impa. It would have been safer in the protection of the city.” She smiled sheepishly. “But, you know how am I with these things, Paya.” She sighed and sat behind her desk. “I had been trying to get it to work for our own purposes, should history repeat itself.”

“History did repeat itself,” Zelda said through gritted teeth. “Link died.”

“But, he didn’t,” Purah offered cheerily. She put a hand on her chin. “Regardless. We must get the slate back.”

Zelda sighed and rubbed her temple. “Add it to our to-do list,” she said. “But we still need to figure out how we can fix Link.”

Purah frowned. “I’m sorry, but I cannot help you there.” She clasped her hands together. “If I knew anything, I would gladly help you. Impa and I have discussed it at length. It weighs heavily on her mind, you know. I do not believe the shrine will be able to help him. However, I won’t dismiss it entirely. I cannot know for sure until we test it ourselves. But to do that, we will need to get the slate back.”

“Alright,” Zelda said. She turned to leave the office, but Purah’s voice stopped her.

“I’d like to be able to tell Impa that she won’t need to worry about the slate,” Purah said. “That we have someone trustworthy looking for it. She will inquire. Surely I can’t tell her Hyrule’s queen is on her own rescue mission. How should I call you?”

Zelda glanced over her shoulder. “Sheik.”

*****

It was nearing four in the morning when the caravan reunited at the ranch. Link was not surprised to see one of the front windows cast aglow by a lamp inside. He knew Talon was in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with his usual cup of coffee. When the sun rose enough to warm the cool air of the night, he would be enjoying his second cup on the front porch in his old chair before finally shuffling over to the barn to answer hungry calls.

The headlights of the vehicles flashed over the window as they pulled into the long, dirt drive, likely alerting Talon to their presence. When they stepped out of their respected vehicles, Talon was standing on the top step, his coffee in hand, peering curiously at him. He visibly relaxed when he saw Link move toward him, but his brows were still knit in question.

“I know I tease ya ‘bout bein’ lazy,” Talon started, “but did ya really need to bring a whole crew to help ya much a couple of stalls?”

Link offered him a tired smile. Talon sipped at his coffee, peering at him over the brim of his mug. His eyes moved to Mipha and Aryll, then looked over the heavily armed soldiers as they stood around cautiously.

“I guess yer not here to get a head start on the day,” Talon muttered.

“Not exactly,” he said. He turned his gaze toward Mipha and Aryll, hesitant.

“Ah’right,” Talon said with a great sigh. He straightened and adjusted his worn jeans. “Whatever ya need, kid.”

Link’s lips pressed together. “I just need them somewhere safe.”

Talon grinned. “Well, ya came to the right place. Ain’t nobody gettin’ passed me or the dogs.”

Link frowned. He moved his gaze to the open door. Talon’s three dogs were sprawled out lazily on the wood floor. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”

Talon whistled sharply and the three dogs sprang to their feet. Their tails wagged as they regarded Link before trotting over to him, then immediately passed him to greet Aryll and Mipha and their other visitors.

“Well, screw you, too,” Link said to the dogs as they ignored him.

“I’m not gonna get thrown in jail for harboring some fugitives, am I?” Talon asked, narrowing his gaze on Link.

Link shrugged. “Maybe.”

Talon smiled. “Ah, well. I s’pose there’s a first time for everythin’.” He whistled again and the dogs returned to him in a lazy lope. He turned away from Link, making his way back inside and speaking loudly over his shoulder. “More than ‘nuff room s’long as Aryll pulls her weight.”

Aryll yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Yeah, alright, man. But let me catch a couple more hours of sleep.” She grabbed her bag out of the car, saluted the soldiers playfully, and made her way toward the house.

“Next time we need to make a late night escape,” she started when she reached her brother’s side, “you can just leave me home.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Aryll grabbed Mipha’s wrist. “Come on,” she muttered. When Mipha tried to argue with her, she cut her off. “You know Link won’t have it any other way.”

Mipha sighed and met Link’s gaze before letting Aryll pull her into the house.

Link stood on the front porch as the door closed. He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to look down the dirt drive. The sun was just starting to peak above the distant mountains, casting hues of dark purples and pinks across the sky. The soldiers had gathered together, talking amongst themselves, and Teba parted from the group to join Link on the porch. He lit a cigarette, then pulled his phone out to text as the cigarette sat between his lips. He paused to hold it with one hand and he exhaled a puff of smoke with a heavy sigh.

“When Paya gets back,” he started, “she’ll be able to put a ward up. That should help keep you out of the eyes of the Yiga.”

“What is she doing?”

“She’s doing her part,” Teba said simply. “Don’t worry about it.” He put the cigarette out on the railing. “You need as many people on your side as you can get right now.”

Link turned away from Teba. “You don’t need to be a part of this,” he muttered.

“Well, that’s not your call,” he said frankly. “I work for the queen. And right now, I’m the only guy in her own army that she can trust.”

Link frowned. “You have a kid, man.”

“All he cares about is eating and sleeping. He won’t even notice I’m gone.”

“He’ll notice if he has to grow up without you.”

“Guess I’m sticking around, then.” He let a hand rest on Link’s shoulder before trotting down the steps. “I’ve got appearances to keep up with,” he said over his shoulder. “If you get scared, I’ll send Revali over to protect you.” He grinned at Link before slipping into his car, his face hidden behind the tinted front windows, then pulled out of the driveway.

Link watched until the car disappeared, then pulled out his phone and dialed Kit.

“Do you know what time it is?” Kit snarled in greeting.

“Figured you’d just be getting home.”

The line was silent for a moment. “Yeah, alright. What’s up, Mr. Hero?”

“You said you could get me things,” Link started. “What kinda things?”

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

Linked Universe Fanfic: Fright

Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!

So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my @ LinkedUniverse fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name (Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story) I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 1.

The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?

Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.

I wrote a bit of fanfic for @linkeduniverse . It’s 3 pages long in Word so I’ll put it under the cut. I hope you enjoy!

Night fell on the young heroes slowly but steadily. Soon enough, it was getting hard for them to see slivers of midnight-blue sky between the tree branches above them. They found a clearing just off the forest path and set up camp. As Wild and Four set about starting a fire, Twilight and Time scouted the area for monsters and got a lay of the land. Satisfied, they came back a few minutes later to a roaring fire and their seven companions enjoying idle conversation.

It can get tiring on a long journey like the Links’, so one must make their own fun. “Guys,” Wind said suddenly.

A general murmur of acknowledgment spread through the group.

           “We should tell stories.”

           Wild sighed. “You know I don’t like to do this.”

           Wind started to protest but was interrupted by Time.

           “Let the kid have his fun,” he said to Wild with a shrug. Looking at Wind, he asked “Stories about what?”

           “I dunno, something we haven’t talked about yet?”

           Warrior piped up, “How about something scary? We don’t tell scary stories often.”

           Wind’s eyes lit up. “Sure!” he said.

At the same time, Time’s and Twilight’s darkened. They knew this might not be as fun as Wind hoped it might be. The Links looked around at each other, waiting for someone else to start. It was my choice to tell stories, Wind thought. May as well start.

“I had some pretty scary things happen to me on my quest… not really terrifying, more like stressful. It was on my twelfth birthday that my sister Aryll was kidnapped. A gigantic bird came out of nowhere and snatched her up. The whole time it took to save her, I couldn’t bear to think what she was going through. She was only nine.”

A sister? Wild looked up. It had never occurred to him that one of the other Links had a sibling. He tried not to think of his sister if he could help it. Between knowing she died in the Calamity and not properly remembering her anyway, it was unpleasant for him. Wind now had his full attention.

“It took a while, but I finally saved her. It felt like a huge weight was lifted off my chest… then Tetra was kidnapped. Our crew decided to chase after a ghost ship. She jumped aboard and didn’t come back. It took a few weeks to find the ghost ship and save her, but she had been turned to stone. She was freed later, but…”

Four perked up when he heard this. His Zelda suffered the same fate.

“Well, anyway, I didn’t have too many jump scares. There were some redeads, but other than that it wasn’t too scary.”

Wind looked around the group, evidently finished with his story. Wild hesitated but spoke up. “My Zelda practiced and prayed for almost all her life to master a sealing power that could defeat Ganon. It was terrifying when the Calamity came and we both knew full well that she couldn’t hope to use that power. I… I couldn’t show my fear. I had to be there for her. She needed me to lean on, and I couldn’t deny her that.”

The rest of the group couldn’t help but stare. They had all had to push fear aside to defeat evil, but they never suppressed their feelings like Wild. Most them hadn’t, that is. They waited for Wild to finish, but he seemed to be lost in thought again. In a few meaningful looks, they agreed to leave him be.

Legend picked up the proverbial torch. “I woke up in the dead of night from a vision of Zelda to my uncle holding a sword and shield I didn’t even know we owned. He told me to stay in bed, but you know I couldn’t do that. I found him mortally wounded in the dungeons of Hyrule Castle… then, later, when I thought I was about to save Hyrule, the wizard Agahnim sent me to the Dark World. It was like Hyrule, but it was just… wrong. It was an evil reflection of what I knew. Seeing my world perverted like that was almost too much.”

Silence followed for a good few moments. Still, Time and Twilight were stony-faced. Sky looked around and figured it was as good a time as any to say his bit. “My Zelda went missing. We were riding our loftwings together. I could feel us having a moment. The clouds around us, inches away from each other… a tornado cropped up and pulled her underneath the clouds. I spent the next few weeks traveling the air and surface trying to find her.”

“I was this close,” he said as he held up his hand, almost touching the tips of his thumb and index finger. “So many times, I almost caught up with her. I lived knowing that while I was doing my own adventuring and fighting, so was she. I knew she could handle herself, but it still stressed the daylights out of me. So I guess I’m in the same boat as you,” he finished, gesturing at Wind.

A minute or two passed before Wind asked, “anyone else?”

Twilight looked over to Time. Time gave a near-imperceptible nod.

“I don’t like to talk about this too much,” Twilight began, “but I suppose I can share it with you all. I don’t want to invalidate what you went through or anything, but your fear came from what was around you. Your surroundings, your loved ones in peril, all of that. I’m not an exception.”

The others looked at him, wondering If he was trying to show them up or leading up to something terrible. Inwardly, they hoped he wasn’t being humble for a change.

“My gir—best friend, my friends were all taken from our village.”

Only Time noticed the change of wording. He understood Twilight’s reluctance to get attached to anyone.

“I was the last kid left,” Twilight continued. “Our world was stuck in perpetual twilight that kept us living in fear and darkness. I was only saved by the Triforce of Courage. I wasn’t the same, though. You’ve seen me turn into a wolf before. I’m mostly comfortable with it now, but I wasn’t always. The Triforce somehow knew I had the spirit of a wolf. Being a ranch hand, I know how vicious wolves are. How dangerous they can be. It scared me that that was the essence of who I am.”

Legend felt a modicum of guilt. The Dark World transformed him into a helpless rabbit. That was unsettling in its own right, but now he realized he faced the lesser of two evils.

“As I adventured, I began to understand that wolves are ruthless against their enemies, but they take care of their own just as fiercely. What I had to give and what I had to do to save my friends made me realize that. Malo, Talo, Beth, Colin… Ilia. I didn’t know where they were or if they were safe.”

All the Links understood this feeling well. Twilight felt no need to continue that train of thought.

“Those of you who had companions had someone that was easy to trust. The King of Red Lions, Ciela, Navi, Tatl, Ezlo, Fi; you knew you could count on them. Midna was something else. For the longest time, I had no way of knowing if she actually had my back, or if she was just using me. That scared me too.”

The sound of Navi’s name made Time flinch, but everyone was so focused on Twilight that they didn’t notice. The longest silence yet followed. Even Wind was speechless. Whether it was out of fear or shock or respect, Twilight couldn’t tell. He felt slightly guilty for unloading all of this on them.

Time eventually began to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat. The other eight stared at him. He had faced far worse pressure in his life, but he knew that he owed his friends a glimpse into his past. He had never told them much about it, only enough to bring them to visit Malon.

“Time?” Hyrule asked. It was the first time he had spoken all night.

“Hm?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want. We’d understand.”

“No, it’s okay,” he murmured. “I… I’ll be brief.”

The Links had no idea what to expect. They were on the edge of their seats. Time leaned his elbows on his knees. He stared straight ahead, seemingly transfixed by the fire. The eldest of the heroes took a deep breath, then spoke:

“I was afraid of being alone.”

The others waited for him to continue, but he didn’t say anything else. He was silent for the rest of the night. Everyone decided that it would be best if they let him be and turned in for the night.

Wild had trouble sleeping. What did he mean by that? He always had a companion, right? He was never alone. How could he be afraid of being alone?

The Links woke at dawn to see their gear neatly packed. Time was making breakfast over a rekindled fire. He had a tired look in his remaining eye. It occurred to the more perceptive of them that he probably hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep that night.

[writtingthing]

Crossing The Great Sea - Chapter 1 (Linked Universe)

Word count ; 2173 (Bound to be mistakes)

Archive of our own

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Wind was a cheery person. He tried his hardest to be happy, for himself and others. He didn’t hate anything, but he strongly dislike a few things. The dark was one of them. Not that he got scared of the dark or anything. He wasn’t afraid while walking through the dark woods with little light. No, he just missed the sun. The warm light on his skin. He missed the sea breeze flowing through his hair. They had been walking through these dark woods for what seemed like a while, though Four reminded him it had only been two days.

“Anyone recognize any of this.” Time asked. All the others glanced around, shaking their heads ‘no’.

“Are we going to take another break?” Sky asked, he had been sending glances to the sky the entire walk. Wind knew he missed the sun too, but in a different way. The Chosen Hero had practically grown up among the clouds.

Twilight shook his head, “We have no clue where we are, if we can walk a bit further, I say we should try.” Time nodded in agreement, then looked at the others. “We all good to keep moving?” Time looked in Hyrule’s direction, he had been quiet for most of the day.

All the heroes nodded, and the group continued forward. The walked into a canyon of sorts, large grey rocks on both sides of the group, but the sun seemed to reach them a but more. It was after passing over a fallen log and reaching a small clearing, still surrounded by rocks when the heroes heard Wind gasp.

They all turned expecting the youngest to have see something bad, but instead the Hero of the Wind had a big smile on his face.

“I know where we are!!” With more energy than earlier the hero's dashed forward climbing out of the clearing. “Follow me!!”

The others had a good guess of where they were as they followed the blue blur that was the youngest hero. Though, none of them were fully prepared for the sight that greeted them beyond the blinding light. Wind was standing at the edge of a cliff looking out onto a town, it was more like a few houses, with a big smile. Wind turned to the others, “Welcome to my home! Outset Island.”

“Wow.” Twilight spoke first. While yes, all of them had seen water and heard that Wind’s Hyrule was called the great sea, they had not been fully expecting to see ocean on all sides with nothing else in sight. They might have commented more if not for a voice on the other side of a suspension bridge.

“Big brother?!” The Heroes turned to see a small girl with blonde hair in pigtails and pointed ears. “Aryll!” WInd began to run rto her. The two hugged each other tightly.

“Big brother you’re back! Where did you go? Did you bring me anything? Where’s Tetra? How did you end up in the forest I didn’t see you arrive?” Aryll asked a few more questions then turned to behold the other heroes, “Who are they?”

“These are my friends! Time, Twilight, Wild, Four, Legend, Hyrule, Warrior, and Sky.” Wind pointed to each respectively, “Guys, this is my little sister Aryll.”

Aryll waved and asked more questions, which the youngest hero did his best to answer. The others began to take in the view. Twilight made his way to stand next to wild, who had gone slightly stiff.

“You gonna be ok?” Twi put a hand on Wild’s shoulder. Wild shrugged, “Yeah, stupid memories I can’t even remember.” Twilight offered a smile.

The heroes proceed to meet everyone in town, including Wind’s grandma who gave them soup. Wild nearly begged for the recipe.

“We should get moving.” Time told them, they had seated themself along the porch. “How?” Legend raised a brow and gestured to the open ocean, “If you haven’t noticed old man, we are stuck in the middle of an ocean.”

“We could always sail.” Sky chimed in.

“We have no boat.” Warriors looked along the coast, “and looks like most of these folks don’t either.”

“I couldn’t help but overhear,” The heroes turned to see a girl walking up to them. She wore a simple blue collared shirt dress, black leggings, and brown boots. Her brown eyes were sharp and her brown hair was put up into a small bun which sat on top of her head. “You boys need a ride.”

“And you have one?” Wild gestured once again to the empty beach.

She gave a small huff but didn’t drop her smirk, “My boys are coming back to pick me up, should be here tomorrow if the letter I got can be trusted. Once they get here I can give you boys a ride”

It was a surprise to see Wind step forward, eyes narrowed, “What’s your price.”

The girl raise her arms in defense, the two were the same allowing them to be face to face, “No price, it’s the least I can do for the Heroes of Hyrule.”

Wind seemed taken aback by her answer, “How….”

“I told her all about you brother!” Aryll gently hung on her brothers arm. “I told her stories in exchange to hear her stories. She’s a great listener.”

“And you are a great storyteller.” The women smiled, Aryll beamed at the complement.

“It would be improper if I didn’t introduce myself,” The women took a small bow, “Name’s Jacalyn, I am a traveler of sorts.” She gave a small jerk of her head as she spoke the last words. “I’ll leave to your family, if you want a spot on my ship it’s yours. The offers open.” With that she walked away, walking towards the forest.

“Should we trust her?” Legend had stated the question they had been thinking since Jacalyn left.

“Is there any reason why we can?” Sky played with his sailcloth as he spoke.

“She’s most likely a pirate,” Time explained, “most can’t be trusted.”

“Most.” Legend repeated.

“That means we can maybe trust her.” Warriors chimed in.

“Even if we can’t, we can take them if the try to attack us.” Wild glanced at the path she walked up, Jacalyn was sitting atop the cliff, gazing out towards the sunset.

“We don’t know how many we’d be facing.” Warriors had been in plenty of strategy meetings to know never underestimate the enemy.

“We faced the the destruction of hyrule, I think we can handle a couple pirates.’ Wild argued. “They give us a ride or we get a boat. Win Win.”

Twilight began to argue with Wild and Time knew that would go nowhere. Instead the eldest turned to the youngest, “Wind, what do you think, you know what kinda people come around here.”

Wind looked troubled, “I mean, the only bad people around here worked for Ganon, but…” Wind looked at the cliff. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“The ocean is pretty big…” Hyrule started but was immediately interrupted by Wind, “Yeah the ocean is big!! And maybe we were always on opposite ends! But You’d think I would have at least heard of her! Maybe passed her… I don’t know.” The Hero of the Wind lost energy as he talked.

“But,” Wind picked himself up, “I say we take the chance.”

The others nodded, some more slowly and it was decided, they would follow the strange girl.

“Glad to hear it.” Jacalyn shook Trime’s hand. She had a firm grip, maybe to show she wasn’t go to back down. Or maybe Time was just reading into it too much.

The other were around.

Wild was trying out his new recipe under the watchful eye of Wind’s grandmother.

Legend, Four and Warriors were sitting on the beach talking.

Hyrule was exploring the island.

Sky and Wind followed Aryll to her outlook to watch for the ship that was supposed to arrive soon.

And Twilight was by Time’s side, trying to get a read on their new companion. And it looked like she was trying to do the same.

“Time and Twilight right?” Jacalyn gave a lazy wink, “If we’re gonna be partners I guess I should learn all your names, right?”

“It would make things easier.” Twi managed to smile.

“So, you said you’re a traveler?” Time raised his brow.

“Yep, I’ve been around the block a few times.”

“So why are you here without your ship?”

“Well,” Jacalyn rubbed her neck, “Windfall Island is at least a day or two away, and we needed supplies. But, I wanted to learn about where the Hero of the Wind lived so the boys drops me off and went to get supplies.”

Before Time r Twi could question her word choice Wind and Aryll were rushing towards them shouting, Sky not too far behind.

“Look! Look!” Aryll shouted, pointing North. A medium sized ship was slowly approaching. “That’s your ship right?”

Jacalyn smiled at the girl with such fondness, “Yep. That the Kalar.”

“The Kalar?” Sky looked out towards the ship.

The ship itself looked like most others, a dull, worn down reddish brown color, the only difference being there was a blue accent color.

“Yep, where I come from it means ‘Traveler’, or at least I think.” The girl gave an awkward laugh.

Time sent Wind and Sky to round up the others, while he spoke to Twilight. Twi could hear Aryll talking to Jacalyn a few feet away.

“You’re leaving so soon?” Aryll gave a sad smile.

“Yeah, sorry, I got to get some of my boys home.” Jacalyn responded, her tone seemed to consist of sadness and something else, something Twilight couldn’t pick up on.

“Will you come back?”

“I can’t make any promises, but if I’m ever in the area, I’ll stop by. Ok?”

“Yeah!! You’ll bring more stories too right?”

“Only if you can tell me some new ones too!”

Aryll eagerly nodded, and Jacalyn smiled.

The ship proceed to dock and Wind could only count five men standing as the crew. Jacalyn waved at them and they all seemed pleased to see her.

While she walked up to the ship and, Time could only assume, explain the new arrangements to her crew, Four walked up to Time’s side.

“So we’re going through with this.” The smallest hero asked.

“Yep.” Time answered simply.

The boys said goodbye to Outset Island and boarded The Kalar.

Jacalyn introduced the heroes to ‘her boys’.

Regen was the smallest of her crew, standing an inch below Jacalyn. He had red hair and hazel eyes. His outfit consisted of a white undershirt, green vest, brown shorts and shoes. He had a gentle and warm voice, his personality seemed to match.

Qin was about as tall as Wild and had green eyes and brown hair. He seemed blunt and straightforward, but it was clear he cared for the rest. The man wore a simple purple button up shirt, grey pants, and black shoes.

Hal caught the eyes of the heroes. Their face and body was more feminine, but Jacalyn introduced him as the boy she has had around the longest. His eyes were a deep green and his hair was a faded blonde. His smile had a bit of mischief behind it. Like the others he wore an plain colored button up shirt, shorts and shoes.

Fellin was older man, his brown hair was starting to grey and his blue eyes were hazy. He seemed the most reserved of the bunch, his shoulders slouched under an invisible weight.

Willian seemed to be the youngest, his brown hair and eyes were bright. And his personality seemed similar to Wind’s.

There was one more person on the ship, a disheveled women. Her eyes, hidden behind round glasses, were a green were tired and her reddish brown hair was in a loose braid trailing down to her lower back. She wore a similar shirt dress to Jacalyn, though this woman’s was a dull green color reminding the heroes of the green most once dawned. Wind even noticed a similar belt to the one he once wore. “Sorry.” Was the first words the heroes heard she speak.

“Amila, there’s no need to apologize. These are the the heroes,” Jacalyn proceed to introduce them, “Guys, this is Amila, she’s kinda a fan.” Amila smiled awkwardly and fidgeted with her glasses.

The heroes were about to say something, Wind mostly, when Jacalyn narrowed her eyes and the entire boat seemed to go quiet.

The women smile was still present while she stepped forward, “I think were far enough now.” Time stiffened and felt the others do so as well.

“Now now,” Jacalyn’s smile was still there, “I just want to have a civil conversation.”

Twilight let out a low growl and Time watched as some of the crew members flinched.

“Just a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question.”

The light seemed to vanish from her eyes as she stared down the heroes.

“Most of you aren’t from this world are you?”

[wandering-chronicler-blog]

The Wolf of Farore - Chapter 42

An Ongoing Zelda/Witcher Fusion Fic - Updates Sundays

Small Author Note:  Hey guys.  Thank you for the patience and all with the gap between the weekly updates.  A lot of things happened that required my attention.  For the foreseeable future as well we’ll be doing Sunday updates it’s looking like as well.  Enjoy!

War has come to The Kingdom of Hyrule.  The people cry for a savior as monsters and spirits stalk the once green fields of the provinces.  Famine grips the populace as the Gerudo Tribes and their blin allies strike along the borders.  Hope for peace begins to drown in the blood spilled in No Man’s Land.  But Hyrule doesn’t need another hero.  It needs a professional.

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The collected crew of pirates was in the main room.  Some chairs and crates had been moved to form a circle around the center where Mikau stood with Link and Aveil.  To the entrance they’d come in a couple guards stood.  To their right was a couple more pirates including the captain, Jolene.  Her dark hair was back in a ponytail and arms folded as she leaned against a crate. Medli stood between her and Linebeck looking exasperated from dealing with both of them.  The Labrynnan smuggler was to Medli’s right, Link’s left, and had his back to the pirate captain.  He dug his flask out of the pocket of his coat, which he’d draped over Aryll, who looked like she’d fallen asleep lying against the wall and another crate.  She stirred a little as Linebeck got his flask and looked over to listen.  

 Some of the other pirates were eating the few rations they still had.  Another pair passed a bottle back and forth between them as Mikau outlined the plan.  Some of the pirates looked particularly skeptical of it.  Link couldn’t exactly blame them given what they were up against and the horrors they’d seen starting to creep into the tower.  He was sure they’d be facing more than just the one phantom soon. As the zora finished talking, he took a deep breath.

 “Anyone have any ideas to add?” he asked.  “Ideas? Things that could go wrong we should plan contingencies for?”

 “So, lemme get this right,” Jolene started.  “The slime, like the Malice we’ve heard stories about from when Demise walked the earth, is a mutagen?  And our burning it didn’t work because…  Magic?”

 “Pretty much,” Aveil said. “Most mutagens react pretty quickly when exposed to magic and then become inert.  So that might be what we’re looking at.”

Link nodded in agreement. With what he knew from The Tower and what Midna had said, it was looking like only a little bit of magic would be needed to completely remove the slime.  They couldn’t do all of it due to lacking a mage, but between him and Aveil, they were sure they could at least clear enough to get them out of there.  “Very few people know how mutagens work,” Link said. “And those that do are not going to give up that knowledge readily.”

 “So you both can light fires with your magic,” Medli asked Aveil.

 “Like Link, I have a couple signs at my disposal,” she said.  “I can’t shoot fire from my fingers, but that frost is still holding it looks like.  And I do have the fury of Naboris at my disposal as well.”

 “How soon would we be doing this?” the goron Lurch asked.

 “If we’re doing it,” Jolene added.  “This sounds like it’s a really quick and messy way to die.  And we’re not interested or even equipped to handle a god at the bottom of the sea.”

 “And hiding in a tower is accepting that you’ve already given up,” Aveil said.  “That you’re going to stand here and wait for that phantom and its servants to come marching up here and drag all of you into the depths.”

 She pointed a finger at the gerudo.  “Never said that!  You speak of facing monsters like it’s just another day’s work.”

 “It is for us,” Link said dryly.  “I’ll admit though that going after a dead and dreaming god at the bottom of the ocean is a little out of the ordinary even for me.”  He stopped talking when he recalled how just a maybe a month ago now he had stopped a madman wearing the mask of some ancient and unknowable horror. The thought that this was going to become the norm did not comfort him and he cleared his throat.  “But this is the best chance any of us have for a chance at surviving and possibly stopping Bellum.  Mikau knows where the tomb is.”  Link looked at the zora.  “When there, I assume you have a plan to deal with it?”

 “I do,” the zora said. “We need to get out of here first, and need I remind each and every one of you that you’d be dead had your captain decided not to listen to my advice in dealing with the geozards.”

 “And you’ve done an admirable job at that,” Jolene said to him, her tone softening to one that was more diplomatic.  “But now you’re asking for us to attempt something that is crazy.  Crazier than what the former merchant marine would even try.”

 “Never said I was actually going to be directly involved in the fighting,” Linebeck said, still not looking at her.  “Just moving the people who would be from place to place.”

 “No wonder you never cut it in the Imperial Navy as a privateer.”

 “Merchant marine.”

 “Because you were too much of a coward to join the real marines.”

 “Conscientious objector!” He spun on his heels then and the two were finally facing one another.  “I can fight just fine!  I’d just prefer not to, you know me.  And I’m not cut out for the life of a pirate!  Or even a privateer.”  He waved a hand outward before stuffing it into his pants pocket.  “I’d rather just sneak off with treasure.”

 “Yes, you’re very good at that,” the captain sneered.  “And the second it gets too hairy for you, you turn tail and run.”

 “Will you two give it a rest?” Medli snapped in a tone Link had never heard her use before. “Seriously, you had a long argument and made up and now you’re at it again!  And Bellum is bigger than all of us.  He manages to come back, we’re all going to be in trouble.  It’d be like Demise rising from the grave.”  She looked back at the pirates.  “None of you are going to be actually facing this thing directly unless Link, Aveil and Mikau fail.  They’re equipped and prepared for it.  All they need is support so they can do their jobs and ships to get there.”

  Link was secretly thankful that she hadn’t mentioned the elixirs or other dangerous parts of his job. Especially with Aryll listening to the plan coming together.    He saw his sister was on one of the crates leaning over with her arms on her legs, watching the others.  A yawn escaped her mouth given the hour and events earlier of the day.  Jolene looked to the group once more.  “I still think you’re all crazy for thinking to try this,” she said.  “But…”  A smirk appeared on her face.  “You are right in that if someone doesn’t do something about this, we’re all going to be in serious trouble.  And you three look to be the ones most prepared for it and might have the right amount of skill and stubbornness to pull it off…”  She looked at Linebeck then.  “Even he’s got that same stubborn look you do, hylian.” She looked at the rest of her crew. “We’re not going to stay up here anymore like yellow-bellied rats.  We’re going to fight!  We might die, but we’re not going to die like so many other pirates do at the end of a noose! Lurch, Pelen, go get the gear from the roof!  We’re packing up.  I want our ship underway within an hour after that monster is dealt with!  If the geozards and other horrors come up from the depths while we escape, I want us to all be on deck to fight them off!”

 “Aye!” the goron said. He waved to the pirate that had come downstairs and they started for the corridor.

 “Keleil, Soltrou.  Get them any rum or oil and anything else that can burn.  We need to boil away as much of that slime.”  The two gerudo pirates were off as soon as the captain had finished speaking.  “Rest of you, load your muskets and crossbows. Sharpen and oil the swords.  And if we have any silver left load it into smoke bombs!”  She clapped her hands together as the rest of the crew went to work.  Jolene turned with a grin to Linebeck then.  “And that is how you command a crew!”

 “Well, maybe a pirate crew,” the smuggler said.  “But you gotta have to have a laid back approach with some other people…”

  Link walked over as the group dispersed.  Aveil was talking with Mikau now as Medli continued to play mediator between Linebeck and Jolene.  The rito gave him a look that was asking for help and he complied by clearing his throat.

 “Are you two going to be doing this the entire time?” he asked.

 They both stopped their arguing to look at him.  “Ah… And you’re the infamous Link,” Jolene said.  “Chosen Agent of the Crown of Hyrule…”

 “Former, Chosen Agent of the Crown of Hyrule,” Linebeck corrected with a smug look on his face. “Why, with a war on, would you expect him to be working with someone like Aveil?”

 “Could be a honeypot, but the question is who is doing who.”

 Link just shook his head with a sigh.  “Look,” he said.  “I know you two have some sort of history, but if we’re going to survive this you two need to be able to work together.”

 Jolene laughed a little then.  “He’s definitely got your stubborn streak, Beck.”  Her lips curled into a smirk.  “And those proud blue eyes, like a feral wolf.  Bet you’re pretty strong too since you’re carrying all that scale and steel. Tell me, is it true that Chosen are just hexers with a pension?”

 Linebeck cleared his throat. “We were talking the plans once we were at sea…  I trust your zora has plans to deal with Bellum as opposed to just escaping?”

 “He does,” Link said. “We’ll head to Bellum’s tomb and drop down.  Him, me and Aveil since we’re equipped for it.  One thing at a time though, we need to get out of here.”

  “You three going after the phantom then?” Medli asked.

 “We are.”  He looked at her.

 “Okay.  While you’re doing that then I’ll help them get supplies down and run escort.  We’ll go after you guys have cleared some of the slime.  That’ll get the phantom’s attention I’m sure.”

Link nodded.  “Take Aryll with you.”

 “Already was going to ask her.”  She smiled a little then.  It vanished though as she looked back at Linebeck and Jolene.  “Can you two behave yourselves while I’m helping them move things?”

 “Oh, I was going to help you too with that!” Linebeck said, arms folded.  He turned around to put his back to Jolene.  “I think we can discuss our tactics later for dealing with anything we may run into.”

 “You started this, remember?” Jolene argued.  “By just showing up here.”

 He turned around.  “I was worried you wouldn’t get your cut of our agreement!  Was on my way to Mercay to find you when we just happened to find your ship downstairs!”

 Link let out a long sigh then.  He put a hand to his forehead and turned away.  “Oh, sweet Farore, just find a bunk already you two…”  Though the other two didn’t hear it, his sister sure did and stifled her giggling as she hopped off the crate.

  “So…” she said.  “You want me to help Medli?”

 “I do,” he said. “That thing is incredibly dangerous and is likely going to be accompanied by other monsters.  I’m thinking you’ll be safer if you’re running escort and helping the pirates load their ship.”

 “You know I can fight though.  And you saw how I took out those mutants.”

 He looked her right in the eye.  “I know. But this thing took a bomb like it was nothing while we were retreating up the stairs.  The area is going to be cramped and we need to maneuver it around to the window.  I know you want to help, but this is what I was trained for.  I deal with monsters like this every day.”

 “And if you end up needing help, what then?”  She put her hands on her hips.

 “Aveil and MIkau are there too.”  He smiled a little at her.  “You’ve seen her fight.  And Mikau kept everyone else alive up here.  We can handle this.”

 Aryll didn’t look happy about it.  She puffed her cheeks out and exhaled through her lips in such a way her bangs flew upward. It did make Link chuckle a little as he remembered her doing the same thing when they were children.

 “You wouldn’t want me doing falconry, would you?  Or tanning at the ranch?  Or cooking?”

 “You cook fine though Medli tells me.”  The annoyance was partially washed away by his comment.

 “Okay, you definitely wouldn’t want me putting together a chu jelly potion then.  It’s like cooking?”

 There was a small giggle. “Oh?”

 “Yeah, alchemy was never my strong suit at The Tower.”  He grew serious once more.  “A cramped room like that is going to be tricky for your bows.  And how well can you use a sword?”  He looked at the one she’d taken form upstairs.

 “I was going to use it more like a knife.  It’s one of those short stabbing ones anyways.  Just in case.”

 “Okay.”

 “Thanks.”

 “You’re going to have to teach me how to handle some of this other stuff too.  If I’m going to be helping the rito, I’m going to want to be able to handle myself.”

 “Looks like you already can though.”

 “I meant with some of this monster business.”  She glanced back as some of the pirates came down with the crates from above.  Lurch carried two of the biggest ones on his own with one on each arm.  Link recognized one of them as the crate with the frost bombs.  “A couple thugs and brigands are one thing,” Aryll continued. “As are a couple raiding blins… But…  Undead?  Those geozards and these poor pirates getting turned into those things?  I’ve heard stories about the gohmas in the woods. Giant chus?  There were these things too we had to deal with during The Conjunction too.  These… They looked like humans?  But were too big.  And moved on all fours…”

 “…Did they have plate-like masks on their faces and long tendrils?”

 “And they screeched something terrible!  Every time we’d managed to finally take all of them down, one would still be standing and bring the others back.”  She hugged herself a little then.

 “And you didn’t have the proper weapons or equipment to handle them.”  In fairness, Link could think of very few people who would be properly equipped to deal with shadow beasts.  Even in his initial encounter with them, if not for Ravio’s quick thinking they both would’ve been killed.

 “We lost six cows to them. And Icho lost his leg to whatever it was doing to him…”  She let go of herself and then looked back at her brother.  “World’s getting more and more dangerous.  We can’t just sit and wait for some hero to show up to fix our problems.”

 She had a point and Link found himself nodding with her statement.  “Alright,” he said.  “But still, one very important thing to remember is to know when you’re up against something you cannot beat.  I’ll teach you some of the things I know from my training later.  Right now though we don’t have the time.”

 Aryll smiled brightly then. “Okay.”  She looked back at Medli as she looked ready to give up on dealing with Linebeck and Jolene.  “…I’m gonna go help Medli then.  She looks like she could use a hand with those two while you prepare for the phantom.”

 “Sounds good.”  He watched her turn.  “And Aryll?”

 “Yeah?”  She glanced over her shoulder at him.

 “I’m happy to have family with me on this.  And that you didn’t read me the riot act when I told you everything.  Still some more to too, but…  After all this.”

 “Hey, you’re my brother. We didn’t really have much of a childhood together, but we’ve done pretty well.”  Aryll smiled wider.  “And now we can catch up for lost time anyways!”

 “Yeah.”  He smiled a little back as she went, but it vanished. Fear began to churn in his stomach. If she was going to remain with him, she would find out about the elixirs soon.  Seeing him with it running through his system and toxic was something he was sure would terrify her.  Link took a deep breath and went back to one of the other boxes to inspect his equipment and prepare for tomorrow.  He wouldn’t have to worry about it

  After a meal and a night’s rest, Link was awakened by Mikau and Aveil.  The zora handed him a canteen and he took a drink as he woke up.  It was just before dawn and it looked like the pirates had prepared as much as they could for what was going to happen. The others were starting to wake and prepare as well.  Link saw some of them with blunderbusses and muskets, but most of them had sabers and clubs or some bows.  Medli looked tired, but she was standing ready and adjusting a leather jerkin over her robe.  She was wearing thick gloves and her hair was pulled back tightly and out of the way. Once she was done she began to do some stretches.  Aryll was still asleep, curled up against a box and with a blanket over her.  Link gently nudged her awake after getting some coffee and some rations.

 “Huh?” she asked.

 “Wake up,” he said. “We’re getting ready.”

 “Keep quiet,” Jolene said, slowly sharpening her saber.  “Lurch said there was some activity at the barricade last night.  They probably know we’re up to something here.”

 “We’ll go first,” Link said. “Clear the way.”  He glanced at Aryll for a second as she got up and loaded the hoppers on her crossbows, one silver bolt at a time.  She slipped them on her hips and tugged at her armor slightly, clearly not used-to it still.  “And we’ll draw the phantom out.  It’s big and noisy, so you’ll know when it’s coming.”

 “It’ll probably have an escort of mutants,” Aveil added.  “But a group could come down and deal with them as we deal with the phantom.”

 “I’ll let Jolene know,” Mikau said.  “We deal with the phantom and its mutants, the other group moves and stops anything else from getting to the phantom.  Then, they can keep it clear as the other goods and the wounded start coming down. While that’s happening, the three of us will deal with the phantom.  Once it’s done, we’ll help escort and bring things down.”

 “And we’ll be ready,” Linebeck said.

 “Good,” Aveil said. She looked at the pirates.  “Any last details before we go?”

��Link shook his head as he loaded a silver bolt into his crossbow.  He checked to make sure it was secure and then slipped it on his hip. He pulled his new longsword from his back and inspected it.  The silver diamond pattern along it shined a little brighter than the rest of the blade in the light and he could make out in them terminan goron glyphs in greater detail.  He went to the door to the stairs then.  Aveil and Mikau were right behind him.

 “Going to try out your new blade?” the zora asked.

 “Mmhm.  The phantom’s sword looked like it could go through my shield anyways.  And I’d like to keep my shield intact.”  Aveil pushed the door open.  It lurched upward and the three headed down.  When they reached the bottom, the goron looked up at them.

 “So,” he said.  “Here for the fuel?”

 “Yeah,” Aveil nodded.

 He grabbed one of the glass bottles filled with a pitch black liquid.  A soaked cloth was stuffed in the mouth of it.  Link too one and inspected it.  It was crude, but would be effective for what they needed when it came to the purple slime and the eyes within them.  Link sheathed his blade.  Mikau took one too.  “Be careful with those,” the goron said.  “They’re not whatever’s in those inferno grenades we had earlier, but it’ll still burn.”

 “How long do these burn?” Link asked.

 “I dunno.  You just need to throw them, yeah?”

 “I meant the improvised fuses.”

 “Just a little dip of the lantern oil to get it started.”  He shrugged as he pushed the barricade’s door open.  “I’m not an explosives expert.  I just lug the cannons and smack the idiots who need it.”  He slammed his fist into his palm.

 “Alright.”  He looked to the others then and pushed the barricade’s door open.  

[the-delta-42]

To Find Hyrule 5

5. Retrieval

Tetra rolled her arm as she walked out on deck. It had been two years after She and Link had been on the Isle of Shadow and Kado, despite the fact he had no position on the ship, enjoyed putting everyone, bar Tetra and Link, through their paces. Tetra winced slightly as Gonzo hit the deck with a loud thud.

“Kado,” Tetra called, “be careful with them, we need someone to operate the arm and I know for a fact you have a bad history with them.”

Kado winced as he recalled how he broke the last Salvage arm, which Tetra had ordered him to clean the entire ship, with a toothbrush. Link looked up at Tetra, who in turn looked back at him, Link had been receiving strange letters from someone. Tetra didn’t know why, but the idea of someone else liking Link made her feel angry, but sad at the same time.

“How many have you got now?” Asked Tetra, walking over to the bow of the ship, where Link was sitting.

“73, I think.” Said Link, his voice had been getting stronger over the years, which was the result of some form of medicine and therapy for his throat, now the only times Link stuttered was in times of great stress for him. Which, thankfully for them both, didn’t happen very often.

Tetra frown slightly, “Who’d like you so much, they’d send you 73 love letters without receiving a single reply?”

Link sent her a funny look, “You sent me a love letter once.”

Tetra’s cheeks flushed, remembering that one occasion that nearly backfire on her quite spectacularly, “T-that’s beside the point.”

Link quirked an eyebrow, before pulling her close to him, “If I recall correctly, it’s what started our ‘little’ relationship.”

“Yeah, but the crew will freak if they see us,” Said Tetra, glancing around, “especially Gonzo, you remember how he warned you when you first came aboard.”

Link sighed, before looking down, “I really wish we didn’t have to hide.”

“Me too, but the crew aren’t going to be very happy with all the secrets we’ve been keeping.” Said Tetra, as Linebeck walked up towards them.

“We’ve reached the area you spoke of,” Said Linebeck, making Link and Tetra jump apart, “Are you sure this is the right place?”

Tetra and Link looked out over the ocean, spotting the few landmarks they had seen when they surfaced from Hyrule.

“Positive.” Said Tetra, before she turned to Link, “You best get suited up.”

Link groaned, before heading below deck and returning carrying two heavy diving suits, “I still have some concerns about this.”

“What, are you scared the scary statue is going to attack us?” Snarked Tetra, carefully stepping into her diving suit, “Besides, we only picking up what we left there.”

Once both Link and Tetra were prepared, Tetra turned to Senza, “You all know the plan, Link and I will dive down, wrap the cable around Ganon’s statue and come back up.”

Everyone nodded, before Link and Tetra jumped into the water. Diving into the sea, now that life had returned to the waters, was an incredibly surreal experience for Link and Tetra. Fish swam in front of their view and crabs scuttled across the sea floor. When Link and Tetra hit the sea floor, they immediately caught sight of Ganondorf’s stone remains, with the Master Sword in his forehead. Tetra started looking around for the shield Link had lost, before spotting it. Even after two-three years at the bottom of the sea, the shield hadn’t lost it’s shine. Picking it up, Tetra caught Link in the reflection of the shield, he was just standing there, staring at the statue. Link remained that way, before collapsing to his knees.

Tetra attached the shield to her back, before moving as fast as she could towards Link. Placing her hand on his back, she leant over him, his shoulders shaking. Link’s mind was in turmoil, the guilt he felt for ending Ganondorf’s life, as well as the self-loathing he felt because of it had rammed their way to the surface. Link absently felt Tetra’s hand on his back and he felt her take the rope from his grip and wrap it around Ganondorf.

Tetra guided Link over to the statue and got him to hold onto the rope, before she tugged the rope twice in quick succession and allowed the crew to haul both them and the statue onto the deck. As soon as they were back on the ship, Link removed his helmet and disappeared below deck. Tetra removed her suit and followed Link.

Tetra nearly tripped over the discarded diving suit before she heard the sound of grunts and a sword being rammed against a bunch of straw. The sight of Link violently attacking the dummy concerned Tetra, the last time she’d seen Link this upset was when one member of the Killer Bees gang on Windfall carelessly broke Aryll’s heart. But the reason for to be upset was different this time, she had a vague idea, but she couldn’t be sure of it.

“Link,” Tetra called softly, “are you alright? Do you want to talk about it?”

Link was quiet, before the sound of the Phantom Sword hitting the floor was enough to tell Tetra that Link was walking over to her. Tetra had expected Link to try and be distant, so when Link immediately wrapped his arms around her was a bit of a shock. What shocked Tetra even more was the fact Link was crying. Link had cried before now, Orca’s funeral, when they came across the lifeless boat that had once been the vessel for the King of Hyrule, but those times his crying had been obvious, and the fact Link cried wasn’t seen as shameful by Tetra or any of the crew. Tetra had never made an effort to pretend she didn’t cry and she only cried alone when she was ashamed of something, ruining Link and Aryll’s live being one of those things.

Tetra wrapped her arms around Link in turn, as she felt him grip her tighter. Tetra guided Link into the set next to her, before gently pulling away from him, “Do you want to talk about it, or would you prefer to do that in your own time?”

Link wiped his eyes on his sleeve and took a shaky breath, “I’m sorry.”

Tetra’s eyes hardened, “You have nothing to be sorry for, Link, what makes you think that you do?”

Link took another breath in, “Ganondorf, after I stabbed him, I saw this look in his eyes.” He took in another breath, “He was trying to help his people, and I murdered him, I-”

Link was cut off by Tetra gently, but firmly made him look into her eyes, “Link, if you hadn’t have killed Ganon, we’d probably both be dead, everyone else would be under an oppressive, tyrant and anyone who stood against him would be broken.”

Tetra gently kissed Link, before resting her forehead against his, “I understand that you regret killing him so much, but do you remember what he did?”

“H-h-he s-started l-l-l-laughing.” Stuttered Link, slowly dissolving into a panic.

“He was happy, Link.” Pressed Tetra, placing her finger on Link’s lips, “He was tired, the same feeling we’ve both gotten when we’ve seen what our previous selves have done.”

Link only gripped Tetra tighter, as more tears fell, “I-i-i l-l-l-love y-y-you.”

Tetra’s entire world went still, Link had never properly said ‘I love you’ before now.

“I love you too.” She whispered, gently stroking Link’s hair.

TFH

Half an hour later, Link and Tetra returned above deck, Linebeck was eying Link’s mirror shield, and Gonzo was eying Linebeck to make sure he didn’t steal anything.

Linebeck looked up at them, and the question he was going to ask Link died on his lips, the glare Tetra was giving him was enough to turn anyone to stone. Linebeck idly wondered if that’s what happened with the stone guy.

The crew had positioned the statue so that Link could stand near the wheel and pull the sword out. Link’s fingers wrapped around the hilt of the Master Sword and its blade glowed slightly, before Link yanked upwards, pulling the sword free from the statues forehead. Surprisingly, the stone started to recede, and the lifeless corpse of the Gerudo King slumped onto the deck.

Tetra quietly ordered Gonzo to load the body into one of the longboats, before the Master Sword clattered to the deck of the ship, as Link could only stare at the body. Tetra quickly took Link’s hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, before ordering Niko to get one of Link’s bows and a fire arrow.

The sun slowly started to sink beyond the horizon, as the longboat with the body was set adrift. Tetra watched, quietly, as Link notched an arrow and let it loose. The fire arrow leaving a small trail of embers, until it hit its target.

Ganondorf’s remains went up in flames, as the fire spread across the linin that was wrapped around his body and the bundles of wood. Tetra gripped Link’s hand, as he looked down at the deck of the ship, before she wrapped her arm around him. Tetra saw Gonzo’s eyes narrow, before she sent the man a glare.

Link couldn’t look at the flames, despite being a self-proclaimed pyromaniac, the flames mocked him. Mocked him for the weakness he was showing, Link’s thoughts were suddenly jarred as Tetra went from holding his hand, to wrapping her arm around him. Link shifted his are around Tetra, before looking out at the sea. Ganondorf’s remains were slowly fading from view, while the wind picked up and made Link turn his gaze towards the Master Sword.

Slowly detangling himself from Tetra, Link walked over to the Master Sword. He gazed at it, before picking it up and walking back over to Tetra.

“I was thinking,” Said Link, speaking slowly and taking in deep breaths, “When we get to our Hyrule, the Master Sword could be placed in a forest there.”

Tetra smiled, “I think we can arrange that.”

Tetra surprised Link by leaning up and quickly kissing him, “Let’s just hope we don’t lose it again.”

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 21

It was after midnight when Link and Mipha got back to the palace. Zelda pulled her robe tightly around her as she strode towards them. “You better have a good reason for waking me up,” she muttered. She yawned as she stopped before them. They looked equally as tired as her, but the lines in their faces were creased with worry and fear. They looked about the same as when she had seen them a few hours prior, except they were somewhat cleaner. Link’s hands were shoved into the pockets of a leather jacket, which she suspected was mostly to cover the weapon he still kept on him. Based on his expression, it didn't seem likely he would be removing it any time soon. Her brows furrowed. “What's going on?”

“We need to talk,” Link said sternly. “About the Yiga Clan.”

Zelda hesitated. She looked around them quickly. Though the room seemed empty, she knew they couldn't speak so openly. “Come on,” she said, her voice hushed. “Follow me.” She moved quickly through the dark hallways with Link and Mipha on her heels. They moved almost silently up the staircase and down another hallway before Zelda slipped into a room at the far end of the hallway. She closed the door behind them before moving to the center of the room. Except for a few book cases and stacks of boxes, the room was relatively empty.

“What's happening?” she asked, turning to them.

And Link explained what had happened. Everything from their kidnap, to the injections, and their eventual escape. Zelda listened intently as he spoke, but said nothing for a long moment when he finished. She turned her gaze to the solitary window, open to the glow of the moon, the only source of light in the room.

“They'll be looking for me next,” she said softly. “My father... he couldn't have known about all this. If he knew they were such a threat... that my life was in danger...”

“He knows something,” Link said, his gaze narrowing on her. “We need answers.”

“I'll try to talk to him,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I'll talk to Impa.”

“If they haven't said anything by now, what makes you think they'll tell you the truth?” Mipha asked coolly.

“I don't know,” Zelda admitted, averting her gaze. “Perhaps they won't. But leave that to me.” She met Link's gaze. “In the meantime, we can't do this alone. If we're going to take on the Yiga Clan and stop them, we'll need all the help we can get.”

“Absolutely not,” Link barked. “That's out of the question.”

“Well, no offense,” Zelda started, crossing her arms. “But without that sword, you're useless to me. And if you think I'm going to rely on some former hero who's been turned to the dark side, you're clearly insane.” She dropped her arms and pulled her shoulders back. “I have a kingdom to protect.”

“To protect from an evil that only you and I can stop.”

“It seems to me that right now, you're the evil that Hyrule needs protection from.”

Without hesitation, Link let his fist fly into the wall, shattering his knuckles. Blood coated his hands quickly and stained the crevices in the hole in the wall. He fumed angrily, his teeth clenched together. “Fuck you.”

“What do you want me to say, Link?” Her voice sounded apologetic. “In the state you're in, you pose a threat to Hyrule. As it's queen, I cannot sit by and allow the darkness to take over. I will do everything in my power to fix this and to fix you, but...” She hesitated.

“What are you going to do?” he sneered. “Lock me in a dungeon?”

“Well, we don't typically call them dungeons anymore.”

“You are not dragging anyone into this.”

“I can't very well do this on my own.”

“You'll need me,” he said. “I'm not useless.”

Zelda's voice lowered, her gaze softened. “What happens when we lose you, Link? When you betray us all?”

Link grit his teeth together. He inspected his broken knuckles. “Kill me,” he muttered. “But I will destroy the Yiga Clan first.”

Zelda sighed softly through her nose. She held her gaze on him. “I’ll call the Champions together,” she said. “We’ll discuss it together and figure out what to do about it. I’ll try to get as much information as I can.”

“Fine,” Link said bitterly. He didn’t pull back when Mipha took him by the wrist and healed his hand. When she was finished, he glanced at Zelda one last time before leaving her alone in the dark room.

Zelda stood quietly in the dark for a moment until she allowed herself to relax. She jumped slightly when Impa appeared in the doorway, then narrowed her gaze on the old Sheikah.

“I told you not to go after the Yiga Clan,” Impa hissed at her. “You need to convince him not to go.”

“This is Link we’re talking about,” Zelda said flatly. “There’s no convincing him.”

“You’re not exactly trying to steer him away.”

“My concern is with the darkness that has corrupted him,” she said. “If we don’t find a way to fix it, he will turn on us all.”

“Fix him,” Impa snapped. “But stay away from the Yiga Clan. I won’t say it again.”

“I can’t stop him. What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Don’t go after him.”

Zelda hesitated, holding her gaze on Impa. “If he goes -”

“If he goes he will die,” Impa snapped. “If you try to save him, you will die, too, and the Yiga will get exactly what they want.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Zelda said fiercely. “Someone has to stop them. I don’t see you doing anything about it!”

“Don’t be a fool, Zelda. You know that’s not true.”

“How can I know when you won’t tell me anything?”

“You need to trust me.”

“Trust you?” Zelda raised her voice. “You and my father have been lying to us for years! How do you expect me to trust you?”

Impa frowned. “Please,” she said softly. “You cannot get involved with the Yiga Clan, Zelda. That’s all I ask of you. You must understand that we’ve been fighting them since before you were born. All to keep you and Link safe. If you walk right into their hands, all of this will have been for nothing. All the lives sacrificed. Can you really do that? To Link?”

Zelda hesitated, her lips pressed together. “I’m terrified, Impa,” she said softly. “Link is the only person I trust.”

“That may be,” Impa started, “but he is not thinking straight. He puts his trust in you. Don’t lead him into more trouble than he needs. Let me deal with this. Focus on fixing him before it’s too late.” And without another word, she was gone.

*****

Daruk was gone by morning, though not without arguing with Link, who still wouldn’t tell him anything, merely stating that he would ‘find out soon enough.’ For the first time since their abduction, Link turned on his phone and prepared himself for the onslaught of notifications.

The text messages came first. From Zelda, Daruk, Urbosa, and Revali. Even Teba, Riju, and Sidon had tried to get a hold of him. There was a group message as well that they all seemed to be a part of. And then there were the missed calls. Hundreds, it seemed. And not just from his friends, but from Talon, Kit, and Sera. There were quite a few voicemails, too, but he didn’t bother listen to them. He was sure they were all the same.

And though he knew everyone was searching, the lack of media coverage shouldn’t have surprised him. Like everything else, Roham made sure to keep their abduction a secret. Of course, it wouldn’t bode well on his part if all of Hyrule knew their Chosen Hero was missing or in trouble. And at the hands of the Yiga Clan, no less. A group of people that were made to look like nothing more than a mere annoyance, when they were in fact a very dangerous group of rogue Sheikah. Lies, lies, and more lies.

He decided to call Sera. She picked up on the first ring.

“Link, what the fuck? Where have you been?”

“Hey, miss me?”

“You’re not fucking funny, man!” Her voice lowered. “The fuck is going on with you?”

“What are you doing?”

“What - what? What am I doing? For the love of - I’m at work! The hell do you think I’m doing?”

Link frowned. He realized then that he had no clue what day it was. Were they even still in the same month he last remembered? Was it still June? “Uh. Sure. Work.”

“Yeah, that thing you’re gonna be fired from,” she hissed.

“Yeah. About that. I need to quit.”

Sera was silent for a moment. “What’s going on? Are you okay? Will you just talk to me? Shit, Link, no one has heard from you in like, two weeks! I thought you were dead! And you left me here alone at work - I thought I was going to die!”

“That must have been so hard for you,” Link said dryly.

“Look. I’m leaving early. Meet me at the bar, alright?”

“But-”

“Be there!” And the call ended.

Mipha’s gaze narrowed on him as he stood. “Where are you going?”

“His work wife is pissed at him,” Aryll said with a grin. “Tell Sera I said hi.”

Mipha frowned. “You’re really leaving?”

“Yes,” Link said simply. “I have shit to take care of.”

“Like what?”

“Like a job to quit.”

“A two week absence wasn’t enough?”

“I’m hoping if I show up, they’ll fire me and then have to pay me a severance.”

“I’m glad you have your priorities in order,” Mipha said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, I need some kind of money coming in while I’m off saving Hyrule again.”

“You know,” Aryll started, “if things weren’t so fucked up right now, you’d make a better Superman than Superman. Corporate slave by day, hero by night.”

“I’m hoping they’ll make a movie out of my life,” Link said bitterly. “Gotta get something out of this, anyway.”

“Because peace in Hyrule isn’t enough.”

“Doesn’t pay my bills.” He grabbed his keys. “Don’t leave the house, got it?”

“What if we’re attacked?” Aryll asked.

“Then stay here and survive so I don’t have to go searching for you.”

“Wouldn’t want to put you out,” Aryll said. “Would you be okay with it if I blew up the house in the process of trying to survive?”

Link shrugged. “I could collect the insurance money on it. Won’t have a mortgage. Yeah, go for it.”

He made his way to the office first, making his way straight to his boss’s office and avoiding as many people as he could. To his dismay, his boss was not angry, but concerned for his sudden absence, and seemed unwilling to fire him over the matter. To no surprise, his boss was full of his own conspiracies, and pressed Link for information, though Link insisted nothing was going on. He was obviously not convinced, seeing no other logical explanation for his sudden disappearance, and insisted that Link couldn’t quit.

So, Link opted to go another route, and inferred that there was something going on, but he couldn’t explain the details to him. It was the truth, anyway, and this seemed to please his boss’s inner fanboy. And they came to an agreement - a layoff, of sorts, leaving Link free to go about his heroic duties, and able to return to work when he was ready, all the while still having some sort of money coming in. Because, as his boss stated, Aryll still needed to get through one more year of high school.

No one could say his boss wasn’t an understanding and considerate man. Off the record, of course. Still, Link didn’t press his luck further, quickly thanking him before carefully sneaking out of the office undetected.

His next stop; the bar. It was still early, but he knew Sera would be meeting him there shortly. And he was sure he’d get the same interrogation as he got from everyone else, but there was little he could say to her. He made his way to his usual stool, ignoring Kit’s surprised gaze.

“What the fuck, man?” The bar was empty, which was no surprise giving the early time of day, which meant Kit had all the time in the world to press Link for information. He whistled as Link sat. “Where'd ya get that shiner?”

Link grunted his thanks as Kit slid a beer across the counter.

“Did Aryll finally beat you up?” Kit continued with a grin. “I'm sure you had it coming.”

“No, but you should see the other guy.”

Kit raised a brow. “The fuck happened to you? You were gone for two weeks. Sera wouldn’t leave me alone about it. Said you stopped coming to work, and you weren’t answering either of our texts.”

“I was... busy.”

“Busy getting the snot beat out of ya?”

“Something like that.”

“So, what happened?”

Link said nothing as he finished his beer. He met Kit's watchful gaze and waved the empty bottle at him.

“Fine,” Kit muttered. “But in exchange, I want answers. I know something's going on.”

“What makes you so sure about that?”

“You've got that determined look on your face.”

“I don't have a determined look.”

Kit put the next bottle down in front of Link. “You've got that 'I'm the hero and I'm about to kick some bad guy ass' look.”

“That's not a look.”

“Sure it is. I haven't seen it in some time. But if we're being honest, it didn't look that threatening on that baby face you had back in the day when I'd see it on the news.” Kit grabbed a beer for himself, opened it, and took a sip. “You're scarier, now. If you didn't have that nice black and blue, I'd be intimidated.”

Link sighed. “It doesn't concern you.”

“So, it is hero business, then.” He leaned on the counter. “What's going on this time?”

“If I told you, you'd only be in danger.”

Kit leaned back and grinned. “Oh, sounds good. Now you gotta tell me.”

“Let it go,” Link muttered.

“No way,” Kit said. “You guys get to have all the fun. I live through your stories, Link. The only thing that gets me through the day is wondering what exciting adventure story you'll have for me. My life is meaningless, Link. I'm begging you to tell me.”

“You're pathetic.”

“Tell me something I don't know.” He finished his beer and waited for Link to finish his. He tossed the two bottles, then turned back to Link. “So, what's a guy gotta do to join the hero team?”

“What's your superpower?”

“I'll give you free beer for life.”

Link frowned. “Shouldn't that have been offered to me when I saved the world?”

“Clearly the world isn't out of the woods yet.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“What do I have to do? Jump up and down like a little girl?”

“Yes.”

Kit scowled at him. “I'm cutting you off until you tell me.”

Link shrugged. “Plenty of other bars around here.”

“But will you get the same quality service that you get here?”

“Probably better.”

As Link stood, Kit sprawled out against the bar, grabbing at the air with his fingers. “C'mon, Link,” he whined. “I won't tell anyone. Tell me, tell me, tell me!”

Link sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You're impossible.”

“What's a little story gonna hurt, hm?”

Link narrowed his eyes at Kit, but sat back at the bar. “Look,” he started. “This is serious.”

Kit straightened and nodded, his face serious. “I'm listening. Hit me.”

Link shrugged. “You were right.”

Kit mouthed his words silently to himself. “About what?” When Link didn’t answer, his eyes lit up. “The Yiga Clan?” he shouted, then lowered his voice, his face falling to disappointment. “Did you let the Yiga Clan beat you up?” He didn’t wait for Link to respond. “Of course you did, you dumb bastard. You know, I know you don’t have your super sword anymore, but come on, man, you’re better than that. You can’t let a bunch of losers in red tights beat the shit outta ya.”

“I don’t exactly stand a damn chance, you know.”

Kit considered this with a nod. “Guess you’ll need all the help you can get.”

The door opened before Link could argue, and Sera strode angrily over to him. She sat promptly at the bar and narrowed her gaze on Link, though she spoke to Kit. “Beer. Now.”

“Rude,” Kit snarled.

“The fuck happened to you?” Sera said, ignoring Kit.

“The Yiga Clan beat the shit out of him,” Kit said smugly.

Link shot an angry gaze toward him, and Kit threw his arms in the air defensively.  He turned away to get Sera her beer.

Sera’s eyes widened. “The Yiga Clan? The fuck is that?”

“They’re bad news,” Kit said. “Mr. Hero’s got some ass kickin’ to do.”

“For real? Is that why you just disappeared?”

“I never said that,” Link muttered.

“You implied it,” Kit said.

Sera frowned. “What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” Link said simply. “I’m kind of going rogue, here.”

“Rogue?” Kit repeated.

Link’s brows furrowed. “Roham has been keeping a lot of secrets.”

“Scandalous,” Kit said with a grin. “Hyrule would riot if they knew their old king was being so shady.”

“What about Zelda?” Sera asked.

“I think he’s been lying to her, too.”

“So, what exactly is going on?”

Link shook his head. “I only know what I know, and even that isn’t much.” He sighed. “The Yiga Clan needs to be stopped before they have a chance to undo everything Zelda and I did ten years ago. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.”

Kit frowned. “So, what? You’re taking off to go hunt them down?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Yeah? You and what army?”

“I’m rogue,” Link said. “I’ve got not army.”

“And you’re gonna die.”

“Probably.”

“This is stupid,” Sera insisted. “You can’t do this alone.”

“Never mind the fact that the a single Yiga could take him out with a snap of their fingers.”

“I’m well aware of my odds,” Link said.

“This is suicide,” Sera said fiercely.

Link stood. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve gotta take care of them while I still can.”

“While you still can?” Sera narrowed her gaze on him. “The fuck does that mean?”

Link sighed. “Stop asking questions,” he hissed at them. “You’re not supposed to know any of this shit.”

“So why you tellin’ us?” Kit asked.

“Because I figured I at least owed you a damn explanation. Just leave it alone, alright?”

Kit and Sera fell silent. They exchanged worried glances.

“You know,” Link muttered. “I’m not incapable. I saved the world once, didn’t I?”

Kit grinned and shrugged with one shoulder. “Alright, Mr. Hero. But when you’re ready to admit you need real help, you let me know.”

“And what do you think you’re gonna do?” Sera sneered.

“I know people,” Kit said cryptically. “I can get you things.”

“Right,” Link said, rolling his eyes. He turned to leave the bar. “Stay out of trouble.”

Sera frowned. “At least try to stay in touch this time,” she called after him. Link waved a hand over his shoulder as he made his way to the door. “And stay alive, dammit!”

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Yiga | Chapter 17

The injections came every few hours as Kohga had promised him, but Link could no longer differentiate the real world from his hallucinations. He had no idea how many injections he had received or how many days had passed. The world simply ceased to exist around him as he drifted in and out of hallucinations, each one blending into the next. He whimpered and gasped as his body reacted to each injection, until finally, he could start to feel a new life take form inside of him.

And as the injections continued, he grew more and more infuriated. His anger seemed to temporarily ground him in those moments, and for the first time in what felt like years, he could recognize his surroundings once more. He felt more grounded in reality, more aware as Kohga approached him with each syringe. The anger grew inside of him until it became seemingly irrational. He was angry at King Roham and Impa for keeping his father's death a secret. At Dorian for betraying them all. He was angry at Mipha for abandoning him; at Aryll for falling into the same pit of despair he had; at his mother for dying. He was angry at all his friends for seemingly betraying him, moving on with their lives and leaving him alone, and angry with his father keeping secrets. But most of all, he was angry at himself for letting the Yiga Clan get their hands on Aryll and Mipha, and for allowing himself to succumb to Kohga's tortuous injections.

When the next injection came, he couldn't contain his anger any longer. It bubbled through his body, flaring wildly as Kohga approached him. His anger clouded his mind as it grew to levels of rage he had never experienced before, and he quickly felt himself losing control until he seemed to only be a small figuring huddling in the corner of his mind as something else entirely took over.

Link's body strained against the restraints, testing their strength as he threatened to break through. His fingers flexed, then curled into his palms, his nails suddenly long and sharp. His skin paled and darkened, as his eyes flashed vivid red. A low growl escaped his throat as his gaze landed on Kohga, his chest heaving with each breath he took.

This seemed to please Kohga, and he grinned and laughed as Link twisted in the chair. Link threw himself forward, and the restraints groaned under the pressure, but otherwise held strong, holding him back despite his struggles. Kohga plunged the syringe into him once more and the fury raged further inside Link for another moment. But then his body calmed as soon as the syringe was withdrawn. The rage disappeared almost instantly and he fell back against the chair, his body falling limp as his awareness crawled forward, taking control once more.

He was exhausted. So exhausted that he could barely move or open his eyes. But he forced his eyes to open. His eyes that had returned to their clear, pure blue, moved weakly to Kohga as his breathing slowed and steadied.

“Thrilling, isn't it?” he said with a grin. “The more you fight it, the weaker you will become, and the quicker that darkness will consume you. Your rage feeds it. Soon, you will disappear completely. Hyrule's Hero will be gone forever.”

Kohga moved back to the table, placing the empty syringe back on the table. “There won't be many more injections left,” he said as he moved to the door. “But don't worry; we won’t send you away without seeing your friends one last time. The two girls – we'll let you watch them die before we finish you ourselves.”

If he wasn't so exhausted, the rage surely would have blown through him again, causing the darkness inside of him to gain control once more. But he simply could not think straight, or even really process the words Kohga had said to him, which may have been to his benefit. There was surely some truth to what Kohga had said; the more he fought against the darkness, the quicker it would consume him.

He let his head hang for sometime, allowing himself to rest before he finally felt relatively normal. His mind was clear; or, clear enough to begin to process all that had just happen. And for the first time in what seemed to be a long time, he remembered that Aryll and Mipha were in trouble, and that the Yiga Clan had them.

He cursed himself for succumbing to Kohga’s injections, for not being stronger, for not being able to break away and save Mipha and Aryll. He took advantage of his sudden clarity and looked around the room once more. He needed to find a way out of his restraints. He fought against them once more, but still, they held strong. Even the chair did not budge, and he could only assume it was bolted into the floor. There would be no way he could escape. At least, not on his own. He was not strong enough, but maybe there was someone who was.

He tried desperately to will that other part of him to return. He reached into the deepest, darkest corners of his mind to will the darkness in him to surge forth once more. He tried to recall all he had seen, heard, and witnessed. He recalled some of his earlier hallucinations; the ones he was sure were hallucinations. Seeing his mother was surely one of them. But nothing more stood out to him. He thought back to his brief moment of consciousness - his father. He remembered seeing him. He ordered him killed. His own father… a traitor.

No. That couldn’t be right. As strong as the memory was, he still couldn’t believe it, though as he played it over again, the pain struck his chest each time, as real as the last. But he refused to believe it nonetheless.

Still; it had the effect he was hoping for. He could feel the darkness creep in around his mind, pushing aside his consciousness. And he let it - encouraged it - to take over. He opened himself to it, but it only seemed to shirk away. It quickly slipped away from him, causing his insides to pull sickeningly. His head spun once more, and he quickly lost consciousness.

*****

The door opened and light spilled into the room. Two dark figures, silhouetted by the light behind them, stood in the doorway. They said nothing as they stepped into the room, closing the door behind them. The dim lights flickered on and hummed as they warmed. Link was barely conscious, his head hanging low and his breathing shallow. He noticed the change in the lighting. He heard the footsteps of the two figures that entered. But everything else was indiscernible. He paid no mind to them, assuming them to be more Yiga soldiers. In truth, he didn’t care anymore. There was nothing he could do to stop them. He had given up.

A strong hand pushed him back against the chair, seemingly annoyed that he had not regarded them. The hand gripped his shoulder hard while another hand slammed his head against the chair. A bright light shone in his eyes, and he groaned and turned away from the source. The light snapped off and the hand pulled his chin. His eyes moved tiredly to the figure that stood before him. He recognized Dorian immediately, but his expression remained unchanged. Dorian’s eyes narrowed fiercely on him as he spoke. Link couldn’t understand him at first, and it seemed his face had shown his confusion. Dorian’s gaze softened and he spoke again.

There was another voice after Dorian’s. It came from the second figure, standing behind Dorian and off to the side. Link turned his gaze to this figure as he stepped forward into the light. He met the figure’s gaze, smiled, then laughed. He pulled his chin out of Dorian’s grip.

“Nice try,” he muttered.

Dorian straightened, keeping his gaze on Link. He spoke again, and Link’s mind slowly came into focus, now understanding the hallucinative conversation between the Sheikah and his dead father.

“...to the city.”

Rusl’s gaze hardened on Dorian. “They’ll find him,” he hissed.

“If we don’t get him out,” Dorian said, “Zelda will look for him. I won’t let the Yiga get to her, too.”

“Your job was to keep them out of the Yiga’s hands,” Rusl growled. “And yet here he is.”

“Rusl,” Dorian warned. “I’m doing everything I can damn well do.”

“My son’s on the brink of death because of you!”

Dorian shook his head. “Nothing I do is good enough for you,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve managed to keep them safe for over twenty damn years. I got you out of this hell hole. What more do you want from me?”

“I’m done hiding,” Rusl said. “You’ve had your way. I’m done. I want to go home.”

“If you go -”

“He knows, Dorian! He’s not an idiot!”

“That’s debatable,” Dorian muttered. He turned his gaze back to Link. He got to his knees and peered at him curiously. He pushed his chest back with a finger and Link turned his gaze to him.

“How’s it going, kid?”

Link sighed heavily but did not respond.

“So, we’re gonna get you outta here.”

Link smiled, then laughed, but still, he did not respond. He knew better than to engage with the hallucinations. That’s all they were. Images of false hope. Images of broken promises and pain. Nothing was real anymore.

“Okay,” Dorian said. “Let’s go.”

“You’re a traitor,” Link muttered. “If I ever get out of here, I’ll kill you.”

“You’re dense,” Dorian said. “A damn idiot.” He stood once more, stepping away as Rusl moved toward his son. He gripped his shirt, shaking him briefly.

“Snap the fuck out of it.”

Link smiled and pulled away. “You’re dead,” he spat. “Get the fuck out.”

Rusl frowned and released his hold on his son. He turned to Dorian. “What’s your plan?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Whether you like it or not, he’s a part of this. He won’t stand down. Not until he’s destroyed the Yiga Clan.” His gaze narrowed. “If you had just told him the truth -”

“What do you think would have happened?” Dorian snapped. “The same damn thing. He’d walk right into their hands with the stupid idea that he could end it. He’s powerless against him. And before you know it, he and Zelda are team Ganondorf, and everything they’ve done will have been for nothing.” His voice lowered. “If he knew you were alive, he would have gone after you. If he knew they were a threat, he would have gone after them. Either way, he would have been exactly where they wanted him.” Dorian hesitated. There was a tone of regret in his voice when he spoke again. “I kept my promise to you, Rusl. I can’t possibly plan for everything. They still got their hands on him. But he’s here. He’s alive. And I will get him out if you just let me do my job.”

Rusl pulled his gaze away and turned back to his son. “I’m done,” he said softly. “I can help him. We can finish this.”

“How do you expect to do that?”

“The Champions,” Rusl said. “They have a lot more going for them than you like to think. Let them do this. Let them fight.”

“You were the one that wanted them to have no part of this,” Dorian said.

“I know,” Rusl hissed. “But they’re all we’ve got.”

“Let me talk to Impa and Roham,” Dorian said. “I’ll keep Kohga away from him and Zelda as long as I can.”

Rusl met his gaze. He opened his mouth to speak, but Link’s voice interrupted him.

“Dad.”

Rusl turned to his son. His head still hung low. His body shuttered with each breath he took. Rusl moved to him, getting to his knees and putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll get you out of here, alright?”

His head shook slowly. Tears fell onto his lap. Rusl frowned and moved his hand to his son’s head. He pressed his forehead against Link’s.

“Just hang in there, kay?”

Link did not respond to him. Rusl returned to his feet, his lips pinched together. He turned to Dorian. There was a bright flash of light and a loud crack split the air.

Link gasped for breath. His eyes moved around the room, but he was alone. There was no evidence otherwise that there had been anyone else in the room with him. He bit his lip and sobbed softly.

*****

Though the space was small, Aryll still managed to pace back and forth, from wall to wall, almost dizzying herself in the process. She ignored Mipha’s plea to stop, unable to calm her anxiety. Her hands trembled as she wracked her brain, reviewing every detail of their plan.

“Are you sure it will work?” Aryll said softly. Her pacing ceased and she gazed out the barred door.

“No,” Mipha admitted. “And I can’t heal as long as we’re in here,” she continued. “So we can’t fuck up.”

Aryll cursed softly. Already, they were both banged and bruised from the Yiga, virtually powerless against them. She was sure her bones weren’t broken, but they were definitely fractured in some places. Her wrist, being one. And it was likely they had both suffered concussions, but there was nothing either of them could do about it except pray there were no internal damages that would sneak up on them suddenly.

From what they could recall, they had been Yiga captives for almost a week. It was enough time to quickly learn their routine, time their shift changes, and form a plan for themselves to break out and find Link. It wasn’t a good plan. Far from it. But it was a plan, nonetheless. And Aryll was impatient as they waited for their chance to execute it. It wouldn’t be long before their time was up, and they would all die. It was now or never.

And their chance finally came. One of the Yiga soldiers returned to the room where they were being held. His mask was removed, and he was grinning stupidly at his phone held in one hand, while the other had a half peeled banana, which he took a large bite out of. He didn’t even glance in their direction as he made his way to sit on the other side of the room where he kicked his feet up on the table and finished his banana, still watching his phone.

Aryll glanced at Mipha, hesitant, but found reassurance in Mipha’s confident gaze. She sucked in a quiet breath and moved her gaze back to the Yiga guard, then promptly fell to the floor. The guard glanced over at them as Mipha hurried to Aryll’s side in concern. He sighed and spoke into the radio on the table.

“One of those girls just passed out,” he said in a bored tone.

“What do you mean she passed out?” came the response on the radio.

“I dunno,” he said. “She’s unconscious. What do you want me to do?”

“Boss wants them alive. Fix it.”

He frowned. “That’s more work than I agreed to.”

“Stop being an idiot,” the voice hissed. “Do what you want afterwards, but keep them alive.”

This seemed to be incentive enough for the guard. With another sigh on the edge of a groan, he got up and made his way to the cell.

“Back against the wall,” he instructed Mipha. Mipha silently obeyed, pressing her back against the hard wall as the guard entered the cell. He got into a squatting position as he looked over Aryll for a moment.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked, though his tone suggested he did not care.

Mipha’s gaze narrowed on him. “She probably has a brain bleed,” she snarled at him.

“Hmph. What would you know?”

“I am a nurse. I can fix her if you let me.”

He shook his head. “Nothing I can’t handle,” he said arrogantly. “Don’t move.”

Mipha watched as he continued to check over Aryll, then promptly set to work on healing her. As he worked, Mipha quietly slipped off her belt. She held the leather in her hands behind her back, waiting for her moment to strike. Aryll’s eyes fluttered open and the guard stopped working. As long as she was conscious, that was all the healing she needed.

Aryll, however, thrust a fist towards him, but he was quick to catch her wrist, and she yelped in pain, the bone still fractured. He grinned down at her as he thrust her arm to the floor, pinning her.

“Nice try, you little bitch,” he hissed at her.

That was all the distraction Mipha needed. She lunged at him and brought the belt around his neck, pulling tightly against him and dragging him backwards on top of her. She grunted under his weight as they fell, but did not release her grip. He clawed at the belt in surprise for a moment, then thrust his arm aside, causing the ground to tremble in an attempt to weaken her hold.

Aryll sprang on top of him and pinned his arms to the ground in hopes of preventing him from further attacking. He started to gasp and choke as his airway was cut short, which likely weakened him. She knew she was not strong enough to fight him off, but his weakened state came to her advantage, and within moments, the Yiga fell into unconsciousness.

Mipha hesitated as Aryll stepped away from him. He was not moving, but she wasn’t completely convinced. She waited another moment before letting her hold loosen, then let the belt drop to the ground. Still, the guard did not move. Aryll kicked at his gut, but he gave no response, which was confirmation enough for Mipha. She let her fingers rest on his neck, searching for a pulse, but the Yiga guard was dead.

Mipha pulled her hand away slowly, her face whitening. “I killed him,” she said softly.

Aryll hesitated, her lips pressed together. “Let’s get out of here,” she said after a moment, reaching for Mipha’s hand and pulling her out of the cell.

They moved to the table where they quickly grabbed anything the could use as a weapon, including the guard’s own blade.

“This was the easy part, you know,” Aryll muttered. “We have no idea where Link is or how to find him.” She met Mipha’s gaze. “And we don’t stand a chance against a group of Yiga soldiers on the hunt for us.”

“We’ll wing it,” Mipha said. “Link always did.”

“And did that ever work out for you guys?” Aryll asked skeptically.

“Not really,” Mipha mumbled. “Got him gutted once or twice. We won’t be so lucky.”

Aryll pulled her gaze away. “You’re right.”

Mipha hesitated, immediately regretting what she said. “We’ll figure this out,” she said in an attempt to reassure Aryll. She shrugged. “You’re with a Champion, after all. I’ve gotten through worse.”

“Yeah,” Aryll said softly. She sucked in a breath, her expression hardening. “Well. I’m sure as fuck not dying here. So, let’s do this.”

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Future | Chapter 77

Crawling in the Dark - Hoobastank

I will dedicate and sacrifice my everything for just a second’s worth of how my story's ending. And I wish I could know if the directions that I take, and all the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing. Show me what it's for. Make me understand it. I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer. Is there something more than what I've been handed? I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer. Help me carry on, assure me it's ok to use my heart and not my eyes to navigate the darkness. Will the ending be ever coming suddenly? Will I ever get to see the ending to my story?

Rusl was leaning on the hood of his car when Dorian appeared before him. They held their gazes on one another for a moment. Their relationship was tense, to say the least, and it reflected in their hesitance toward one another. The only thing Rusl knew was that Dorian had heard his message, and he had come. Whether he would continue to cooperate, however, Rusl couldn’t be sure.

“What do you need?” Dorian asked calmly.

Rusl hesitated. “The Champions need all the help they can get,” he started. “They’ll go after the Yiga Clan by themselves. But I won’t let it come down to that. We can’t stop them, so the least we can do is give them a damn fighting chance.”

“You’re right,” Dorian said. “They aren’t in this alone. They’ll fare much better with the Sheikah on their side.”

“You’ll help?”

“I can’t give you all of my men,” Dorian started.

“Like, maybe ten?” Rusl grinned.

A smile pulled at his lips. “Eleven.”

“Gee,” Rusl said dryly. “That’s real swell of ya.”

Dorian slipped his hands in his pockets and pulled his gaze away. “It’s the least I can do,” he said. “I haven’t exactly been doing well keeping my promise to you.”

Rusl frowned. “No, I should never have asked anything of you,” he said. “Link and Aryll, their safety is my responsibility, not yours.” He sighed softly. “You’ve had way too much on your plate, D. I’m sorry. This isn’t your job.”

“You’re right,” Dorian said. “My job is to protect the royal family and the chosen heroes. And that’s my job just because I’m a Sheikah.” He hesitated, his brows knit together. “I didn’t get to choose any of this. It’s just expected of me. But protecting you and Link and Aryll… that’s not a job. That’s a choice. It’s the one choice I’ve been able to make. So, don’t apologize. At the end of the day, everything I do is for you and them.”

Rusl pulled his gaze away. “I know I haven’t made things easy for you,” he said. “But… I know I won’t come out of this alive.” He hesitated. “I won’t throw it away but… Just promise me… just one more favor.” He looked up and met Dorian’s gaze. “Make sure it’s not for nothing. They need to survive this. That’s all I ask.”

Dorian looked away. He wanted to argue with him. He wanted to find another way. But time was not on their side. And despite all this, he couldn’t bring any words out even if he wanted to, his throat seemingly closing up completely as he faced the reality of the situation. He was right; Hylia had said so herself. All these years, he knew it would come to this. And now, that time was here. Time. Time was all he wanted. Just a little more time.

His gaze moved to the horizon; there were still a few hours before the sun would begin to light the sky. He had an army to assemble, and a clan of rogue Sheikah to destroy. A world to save. A friend to watch die.

He glanced at Rusl and met his gaze, then moved toward him.

Rusl’s breath caught in his throat as Dorian stood before him. Their eyes locked, and Rusl instinctively reached for Dorian, pulling him closer. Their lips met, softly at first as the fire sparked inside of them. Dorian pressed against him, deepening their kiss. After a moment, Rusl pulled away slightly. Their foreheads touched as they stood together in a silent moment, and Rusl sighed softly.

He couldn’t bring himself to pull away from Dorian. But they no longer had the nights they once had. Dawn would come in just a few short hours, and they needed all the time they had to prepare the Champions for their war against the Yiga. He pushed against Dorian’s chest, ignoring the sharp pain in his heart as Dorian stepped back.

Rusl stood and pulled his gaze away, walking around the car toward the driver’s side door. He opened it and hesitated, meeting Dorian’s gaze again. His heart broke for the pain he caused Dorian, the pain that reflected in his eyes. But the air pulled, and in a snap, Dorian was gone. Rusl slid in behind the wheel, turning the key in the ignition and peeled away back onto the road.

*****

Jini’s gaze was focused on his phone when the door opened, though he heard the footsteps outside just shortly before. His ears twitched slightly, but he did not look up as his unexpected visitor stepped inside.

“Appointments only,” he said in a disinterested tone. “That goes for pigs, too.”

“That’s cute.”

Jini looked up from his phone, recognizing the voice, and peered into the shadow by the doorway. His eyes widened as Rusl stepped out of the shadows, then a wicked grin split his face. He crossed his arms.

“Well I’ll be fuckin’ damned,” he said. “And here I thought you were dead.”

Rusl stopped at the table in front of Jini, his hands in his pockets. His lips pulled into a crooked smile. “Keeping yourself busy I hear?”

“That depends,” Jini said. “Definitely haven’t been giving that kid of yours stolen, illegal weapons.”

“I didn’t think so.”

“He’s got balls, just like you.” He pulled a dagger out of the table and inspected it. “No one comes knocking on my door for that shit without a good reason.” He narrowed his gaze on Rusl. “What have you been up to?”

“Me?” Rusl responded in feigned defense, and his grin widened.

Jini made a sound of disapproval. “Guess they know better than to fuck with you.” He pointed the sharp end of the dagger at Rusl. “I’m guessing you’re not here to reminisce on old times.” He spread his arms out. “Can I interest you in some of my goods?”

“I’m not here for your shit,” Rusl said.

Jini raised a questioning brow. “If you think you can bust me -”

“I have a proposition,” Rusl said simply.

Jini held his gaze on Rusl for a moment, then his smile returned. “Do you?”

“It’s a suicide mission.”

“You know those are my favorite kind.” He twisted the dagger into the table. “And I guess I would be an idiot to say no to you.” He glanced at Rusl. “Still got those moves?”

Rusl chose not to answer him. “I need an army.”

Jini pulled his gaze away. He rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling. “You must really be desperate to come to me.” He cocked a brow at Rusl. “Gone rogue, have we?”

“Are you in or out?”

“I forgot you don’t enjoy foreplay,” Jini said. A pleased grin split his face when Rusl’s nose wrinkled. “Alright, alright,” he said. “You know I’ll hook you up. Just tell me who we’re fucking up.”

“The Yiga Clan.”

“You know just how to pleasure a man, Rusl. I’ve got a boner just thinking about Yiga heads rolling.”

“What do you know?”

He crossed his arms and inspected the blade. “Not much,” he said. “A source told me your son was trying to fuck up their day.”

“Who’s your source?”

Jini glanced at him, then shrugged. “A washed up bartender who helps me smuggle my goods to some clients.”

“Kit,” Rusl growled.

Jini’s brow raised. “You know him?”

Rusl’s brow furrowed. “What else?” he pressed.

Jini grinned. “What do you want, Rusl?”

“Everything.”

“Well, I don’t -”

“Don’t fuck with me,” Rusl snapped. “I know you know something.”

“What are you willing to pay for my information?”

Rusl lunged at Jini, grabbing the collar of his shirt and slamming him down onto the table. Jini grabbed at Rusl just as quickly, pulling him hard against him and flinging him over and off of him, but as he moved to return to his feet, he was greeted by Rusl’s outstretched palm, and he froze. He studied Rusl carefully, then grinned.

“There it is,” he said softly. “You’ll get your answers just as soon as you teach me that.”

Rusl held his hard gaze on Jini. “Tell me and maybe I won’t tip off the Sheikah to your location.”

Jini frowned. “Why do you have to take the fun out of everything?”

Rusl’s gaze hardened and Jini sighed.

“Alright,” he said in an annoyed tone. “I’m doing this because I find you tolerable, Rusl. Not because I fucking give a shit who your connections are.”

“The feeling is not mutual,” Rusl said, keeping his hand raised toward him.

Jini smiled. “Well, I’m afraid my information might not be that useful to you.” His expression turned serious. “There was a blonde women who would contact me from time to time. She was interested in my biggest customer. But I’ve never met him or spoken to him.”

“Who is he?”

Jini shrugged. “Couldn’t tell ya,” he said. “But this woman suspected he was working with the Yiga Clan. She was a Hylian woman. She gave me a card once, but all it had was a number on it. I never called, and she never called me.”

Rusl’s heart lept in his throat. His arm lowered and he held his gaze on Jini. He watched as Jini moved to a bookshelf. He flipped through a few notebooks and containers until he pulled out an image, then moved back toward Rusl and handed it to him. It was a black and white image taken from security footage. Though it was grainy, Rusl immediately recognized the woman as the same woman that approached him in Tabantha.

His heart stopped as he stared at the image in his hands and his mind flooded with questions as he tried to piece Jini’s information together. He didn’t think Kohga would reach out to a measly arms dealer when his own power would do far more damage than even a nuclear bomb. So, who could have been doing business with Jini? And what did this woman know about the Yiga Clan?

There seemed to be so much more to this war than he realized, just when he thought he finally had a handle on it all. Maybe Dorian was right; maybe he wasn’t meant to die just yet. Not now while there were still so many unanswered questions. He had to get to the bottom of it before it was too late.

He let the photo drop onto the table and he turned back to Jini, his brows furrowed fiercely. “Find her,” he hissed.

Jini grinned. “Still want that army?”

Rusl turned his back on him. “Everyone you can get,” he said. “I want her alive.”

[katedoesfics]

Shadows of the Future | Chapter 41

Rusl stared at Impa. His nostrils flared. “What do you mean they have Mipha?”

Impa held her gaze, but chose not to respond.

“How?” he snapped. “The city is warded from the Yiga.”

“Yiga, yes,” Impa commented simply.

Rusl’s face paled. His heart leapt in his throat. “Who did this?”

Impa shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “It wasn’t Dorian. He’s the one who reported it to me.”

Rusl wanted to feel relieved, but his gaze narrowed on her. “You can’t know that.”

“You don’t trust Dorian?”

Rusl hesitated.

Impa stood from behind her desk. “Dorian is gathering what he can about this,” she said. “He is unaware of anyone else in the Yiga Clan, but even he does not know everything. In the meantime.” She held a folder in her hand, waving it at him before handing it to Rusl. Rusl looked through its contents as she spoke. “The Yiga have opened another portal. Tomorrow, I will tell Zelda and Link about it. They will go and close the portals and deal with whatever has spewed out of it.”

“I guess you want me to take care of the Yiga lurking around and waiting for them?”

“They’ll be expecting you,” Impa said. “They’ve likely guessed at our plan, and they’ll expect that Link and Zelda will arrive shortly after. Your timing will be critical. Clear them out before they can send in another troop.”

“You think it will be so easy?” Rusl sneered. “Their numbers will be double this time. Triple.”

“I thought you wanted a challenge?” She smiled.

But Rusl was not amused. “We’ll get destroyed out there.”

“You will have the Sheikah,” she reminded him. “Kohga can only afford so many men. If Dorian’s intel proves true, he’s already spreading his army thin.”

“If?”

“Kohga will not be able to recover quick enough to stop Link and Zelda. The portal will be closed and they will be back in the city before his men can return. If you want them to survive this, destroy them.”

Rusl dropped the folder onto the desk. “No pressure,” he muttered. He left her office without another word to her.

*****

Rusl was being watched, this he knew. But he chose to ignore the stares as he propped himself up on his elbows. He peered into the binoculars toward the Temple of Time. From their position on the cliff, he had a decent view of the ancient temple and the surrounding forest. He had spotted just a handful of Yiga soldiers milling about, moving in and out of the temple, but he was sure there was an entire army of them hiding in the forest.

“What’s the big deal with this place, anyway?” Jini asked. He was still watching Rusl carefully. He smiled. “I mean, Impa doesn’t put her number two in charge of a measly stakeout mission.”

Rusl continued to check the perimeter of the temple. “Number two?”

“You know,” Jini continued. “In the three-way you have going with her and Dorian.”

Rusl’s nose wrinkled. He turned to glare at the soldier beside him.

“Do those stripes come with being the father of the Chosen Hero, or did you fuck your way to the top?”

Rusl’s nostrils flared, and Jini grinned at his response.

“C’mon,” Jini said. “I’m fucking with you.” He took the binoculars from Rusl’s hands and peered through them. “But you can’t expect us to believe there isn’t more to this than you’re telling us.”

Rusl turned his gaze toward the temple in the distance. “If it concerned you, than you would know.”

“So, it is hero business.” He frowned. “What do the Yiga want with this shit pile of a temple?”

Rusl got to his feet but did not answer him. After a moment, Jini, too, pushed himself to his feet. He turned his gaze to Rusl. “Or, maybe you’re just getting yanked around like the rest of us.”

Rusl frowned.

“It’s no secret,” Jini continued. “You’re not exactly invisible, you know. Everyone knows what you’ve been involved in. No one really believes you earned those stripes.”

Rusl met his gaze and glared at him once more. “Do you have a problem?”

Jini shrugged. “No. I’m on your side. I’m just saying.” He thrust a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the rest of the troops behind them. “Round ears don’t trust us.”

“You and I are not the same,” Rusl muttered. He turned his back on the temple. “I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks.”

But before Jini could offer another sarcastic remark, the air pulled violently around them, practically pulling the breath out of Rusl’s lungs. Yiga soldiers appeared in the air with a sharp snap, dropping to their feet and immediately pursuing the Hyrulean and Sheikah army that had attempted to keep out of their sights.

Rusl and his men tried desperately to fight them off, but there were simply too many of them, and they were heavily outnumbered. This was no where close to what Rusl had expected. It seemed as if Kohga had sent a majority of his army to defend the portal, perhaps in hopes of dealing a heavy blow to them, giving Hyrule a heavy disadvantage and leaving the Chosen Heroes exposed for an ambush.

It was a smart move. One Rusl should have seen coming. Of course Kohga would make such a bold, confident move. They shouldn’t have expected anything less from Hyrule’s biggest enemy. They were careless; stupid. And his stupidity would no doubt lead to the death of his son.

He cursed under his breath. There was nothing he could do about it. If even the Sheikah couldn’t stand up to the Yiga Clan’s forces, then there was no hope for them. The battle would be lost. This was a truth that Rusl knew.

Still. He couldn’t let them win. He wouldn’t. His son’s life depended on it. And for the love of Hylia, he would make sure that damn kid stayed alive. It was foolish to think he could do anything to prevent their loss, but that didn’t stop his feet from moving under him as he sprinted into the heart of the battle.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing?” Jini shouted to him, but Rusl ignored him. He ignored the call to fall back. He ignored the soldiers falling around him as the Yiga Clan pressed on. He slid to a stop only when Yiga soldiers appeared suddenly in a snap, the air pulling around him as they landed on their feet, circled around him.

His gaze darted around them, and they smiled and laughed wickedly, taunting him. He holstered his weapon, knowing it would do no good to him now. He watched as one of the soldiers stepped forward. He raised his arms, and his eyes pulled at the corners beneath his mask.

“Well?” Rusl spat at the ground. “Let’s see it.”

His eyes narrowed on Rusl. Rusl felt the power flowing through the Yiga before it burst out of his palm. He lurched forward into a full sprint, faster than he ever thought he was capable. He threw a leg out in front of him, sliding across the ground like a baseball player sliding into home, narrowly dodging the attack as it burst forth. Just as the Yiga soldier’s gaze caught Rusl once more, he was lurched to his feet, throwing his fist and knocking the Yiga backwards. Rusl lunged on him before he could react and pulled his blade from his hip, swiftly bringing it across the Yiga soldier’s neck and ending his life in a blood sputtering instant.

No sooner had he done so, however, the other Yiga soldiers sprang into action, lunging at him from all sides. He stood as they came at him, and with one sweep of his arm, they were immediately thrown backwards with tremendous force. They crashed into trees, snapping the trees completely in half, and dropped to the ground, lifeless.

The rest of the Yiga army, now alerted to Rusl’s attack, turned their attention to him as he stood among the bodies scattered around him. They didn’t waste a second, instantly turning their attacks on to him. Their attacks came quickly, instantaneous, and without any order, determined to defeat the Hylian that proved to have inexplicable, immense strength.

But Rusl simply held up his arm, immediately erecting a shield around him, and their attacks bounced violently off of the invisible force field, flinging back towards them and taking the Yiga soldiers out in masses.

Those that had survived their own attacks lept into the air, disappearing in another snap, but Rusl expected this. When they appeared once more, they were not more than a yard away, their palms outstretched as another attack ripped from their open palms. But in the split second before their attack hit Rusl, the ground erupted violently around him, cutting their attacks short and once more sending the Yiga soldiers flying violently back.

Rusl wasted no time in his second attack, thrusting his palm towards the ground, causing it to erupt again around the Yiga soldiers in a fiery explosion. In the chaos of the short battle, the Hyrulean army found a chance to escape, falling back quickly. Rusl felt a violent pull in the air, signaling the escape of several large groups of remaining Yiga soldiers who had survived long enough to make their own escape, and when the dust and the smoke settled, only Rusl remained standing.

The sun was high in the sky, now. Link and Aryll were in school. If Link hadn’t heard from Impa yet, Rusl was sure he would soon. Their path to the portal was clear, the mission a success.

His knees were weak. The corners of his vision began to darken from overexertion, and a tingling sensation crept down his limbs, into his fingers and toes. The last thing he saw was Jini approaching him. He could hear his voice, but he could not make out his words. Still, he knew Jini was swearing up and down at him. His knees gave out and he lost consciousness.

*****

If it weren’t for Impa’s hardened expression glaring at him, he would have been sure he had died. But no; her presence reminded him that he was very much alive, still stuck there to endure her wrath.

“What part of don’t use your powers did you not understand?” her voice bellowed.

Rusl sighed and closed his eyes. “Sorry,” he murmured.

“You are NOT sorry!”

A smile pulled at his lips. She was correct.

“Do you know the position you put yourself in?” she hissed. “The position you put Link in?”

Rusl opened his eyes, meeting her gaze, and frowned. “What?”

“They know who you are,” she sneered at him. “That ward will do you no good, now.”

Rusl closed his eyes and shrugged a shoulder. “They can’t get me as long as I’m in the city,” he said. His eyes opened again, his brows furrowing. “And so what if they do?”

“Fool,” she spat. “They won’t kill you. You’ll beg for death, but they will show you no such mercy.”

Rusl sat up, wincing. His head was pounding. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he muttered. “If I had done nothing, we would have failed.”

To his surprise, Impa did not argue with him. When he turned to her, her expression had softened. She was gazing out the window, a deep frown on her face. After a moment, she turned her back on him.

“Go home,” she said simply.

And home he went. He was still exhausted, and while he figured Impa had healed him, he was sure she didn’t put a whole lot of effort into it, leaving him still just exhausted enough to not be a pain in her ass.

Aryll was just getting home when he pulled into the drive, and he greeted her with a tired smile. Link was not home, but this came as to no surprise to him. He was sure at that moment, he and his friends were off on their rescue mission to save Mipha and close the portal, completely unaware of all that was going on behind the scenes to ensure their success.

Confident that Aryll could entertain herself for at least an hour, Rusl dropped into his bed and closed his eyes, and immediately drifted off to sleep.

It was much later when he awoke, sleeping much longer than he had intended. He rubbed his eyes tiredly. The pounding in his head had quieted, his body easily doing its job to heal what Impa had left behind, and he already felt back to normal. He stretched and cracked his limbs, then trotted downstairs to take a tally of his children.

Rusl stood in the doorway for a moment. His gaze moved from his daughter, to his son, both present and accounted for on the couch, and he stepped into the kitchen.

“Someone decided to come home?” he said over his shoulder. His attention was turned to another ripped up shirt in the trash. The Master Sword was laying out on the table where Link had casually tossed it, the pendant still looped around the hilt. His brows furrowed and he turned to the fridge to grab himself a beer.

“You know,” he started, moving into the living room. “This isn't a damn barracks.” He turned his gaze to his sleeping son and sighed.

“What's a barracks?” Aryll said, looking up at her father.

“It's somewhere I'm going to send your damn brother,” he muttered.

Aryll frowned. “Why?”

He turned his attention to the tv. Still images of the strange portals seen throughout Hyrule were moving across the screen as the reporter spoke.

“King Roham's press conference is expected to be sometime later this week. Stay tuned for all the latest updates...”

“Are you mad at Link?”

He turned his gaze back to his daughter. “Huh? No. Why?”

Aryll shrugged. “Sometimes it seems like you're mad.”

“I'm not mad,” he said, though he was far from reassuring. “Your brother is an idiot, but I'm not mad at him.”

“So why are you angry all the time?”

He hesitated. “You think I'm angry?”

“Sometimes.”

“Oh.” He pulled his gaze away and reached for the remote, clicking off the tv. “Don't you have cartoons to watch?”

“Its okay to be scared,” Aryll said. “I'm scared, too. And I bet Link is, too.”

“Oh, yeah?”

Aryll smiled and nodded. “But it's okay. I know everything will get better.”

[wandering-chronicler-blog]

The Wolf of Farore - Chapter 38

An Ongoing Zelda/Witcher Fusion Fic - Updates Wednesdays/Thursdays

War has come to The Kingdom of Hyrule.  The people cry for a savior as monsters and spirits stalk the once green fields of the provinces.  Famine grips the populace as the Gerudo Tribes and their blin allies strike along the borders.  Hope for peace begins to drown in the blood spilled in No Man’s Land.  But Hyrule doesn’t need another hero.  It needs a professional.

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CHAPTER 38:  THE TOWER OF THE GODS

“You are telling me something literally ripped the foundation of one of our platforms out?” Medli said, looking in shock at Link and Aveil as they sat exhausted on the floor on the hold. “And that it was capable of hauling it several dozen feet and broke the support apart?” She ran a hand over her face and into her hair. “I…” She shook her head. “How are we going to handle something this big?”

“If it’s like one of the worms of the desert, we need to find what it eats,” Aveil said.

“If it even eats,” Link said. “Remember what Zepps said. Bellum is an old god. How do you go about killing a god?”

“Even Valoo has to eat though,” Medli added. “He hunts the seas and skies usually. Some of his prey involves kargarocs or juvenile helmarocs.”

“Wait,” Aryll said. “We don’t even know if it is Bellum who did this.”

“You sure?” Aveil asked. “All this evidence is looking like him. It… Whatever.”

“No, I meant it might not be Bellum itself. Gods have servants, right?” She hopped up on the crate that Linebeck had been using as a bed back in Windfall and crossed her legs. “We saw that big whale-thing too and the geozards. Could one of those big whale-things have pulled it off? Ripped the platform’s foundation out and then carried some of it off?”

“She’s got a point,” Link said. He looked back at Medli. “There’s other servants of Valoo too other than the handmaidens. We could be looking at other leviathans like that emerging.”

“I see what you mean,” the rito replied. “We already know too that Bellum was able to warp geozards. And High Priest Zepps mentioned that he once made his own servants. Phantoms they were called.” She pushed some of her hair behind her ear. “And with how little we know anyways about the creatures in the Abyssal Plains, we could only be seeing the amphibious forces.”

A look of dread covered Aveil’s face. “Great eels or squids. Or something we haven’t even seen before.”

“Last time I was in the depths,” Link began, “I found this… It looked like a frog. But was massive and. And it had these tendrils coming from its legs. And dozens of eyes. Was almost as big as one of those skiffs the pirates south of the zuna ports use and had tentacles instead of a tongue.”

“Din’s fire, that sounds horrible,” Aryll gasped. Her face lost any color to it.

“It was worse than the gyorgs its blood attracted.” He looked back at the others. “Anyone tell Linebeck about this yet?”

“I can hear you just fine up here!” they heard shouted down from the bridge. “Just really don’t want to have to deal with whatever we’re going to run into! You know I didn’t even need a cannon until I met you, Link.”

“Just think of the money,” Aveil said. “And what you said earlier too. That there’s nothing that says you can’t do some good and make a lot of money at the same time.”

“Still, I’m not relishing the idea of finding something that can snap courier platforms like that in half.” He came down the stairs from the bridge and pushed the door to the engine room open. For a moment, they heard the hissing of the boilers as he worked briefly. He soon stepped back out and closed the door. He wiped sweat off his face with the red cravat around his neck. “Sun’s going down and from the charts we’re still on schedule. If what it sounds like is true though, we’ll need to be very alert. Something is out there. And it could very well be stalking us now. I’d prefer if we found something we can do to help make sure we’re not literally sunk.”

Medli raised a hand. “In the daylight I can circle the ship. Anything big enough to pull those platforms out is going to be big enough that I can see it when it starts to get close to the surface.”

“We’re gonna need someone too under at night then,” Aveil added. “It’ll be too dark to see anything below the surface from the skies. And if they see something they can alert the surface guard.”

“Me and Aveil can handle that,” Link said. He looked at his sister. “Aryll, can you manage night watch with Linebeck?”

“I can,” she said. “Wish I had Rupert with me though.”

“Who?”

“My sea eagle. Trained him to help spot things. He’s back on Outset, safe.”

Aveil chuckled. “You are full of surprises, aren’t you? Falconry too I’m guessing?”

“Yeah. Did a little on the ranches The Crown owned. An eagle would keep some of the other raptors away from the cuccous.”

Link let out a yawn then. “Alright,” he said. “We’ll handle all this then. I’ll take first evening watch.” He forced himself to his feet. “How many days until we reach the tower?”

“At our current pace?” Linebeck asked. “Four? Three if we keep up this pace and we don’t run into trouble.”

“Good. Sooner the better.”

The days and nights were difficult and Link was sure that if not for the insulation of the armor coupled with his own mutations, he’d have hypothermia for spending at least four to six hours in the cold water every night. Most of the time he and Aveil were asleep in the hold due to the exhaustion of just being in the water. He was awakened by the ringing of the ship’s bell when they arrived, throwing him out of a dream about Hyrule at peace. Link forced himself to his feet and grabbed his sword and crossbow. The zora armor was mounted on a rack and the fabrics of it were hanging on a line to dry out, leaving the hylian in his shirt and slacks. He pulled his boots on as he heard Medli and Linebeck talking on the bridge. The ship began to slow down. Link glanced once more at Aveil as she lay curled in a hammock under her deep red cloak. The symbol of the united gerudo tribes was on the back of it in a bronze tone. He decided to not wake her just yet though due to how she took the morning before dawn for their watch.

“There it is,” Medli said to Aryll on the bridge. Linebeck was behind the wheel directing them. Out the window, Link saw the ancient tower of white stone that stuck out of the ocean. It was easily taller than the main keep of The Tower of Hera or Kaer Tarm in Holodrum.

“Tower of The Gods,” Aryll said. “Only ever heard stories about this place. Just that most people avoid it ever since pirates took over.” She looked back at Linebeck. “Surprised we haven’t run into any yet.”

“Me too, actually,” he said. Linebeck glanced over, realizing Link had joined them. “Good morning! See you got the wakeup call today.”

Link merely grunted a response and looked back to the tower that they saw in the distance. A mug of coffee was put under his nose and he took it. Medli smiled a little at him. “Thanks,” he said. “So… No other patrols or anything from the pirates?”

“Not a one.” Linebeck shook his head. “And we should’ve encountered some earlier as well. Wondering if they’re too busy elsewhere or have found something.”

“Or maybe they’ve met the same fate as Medli’s couriers,” Aryll said.

“Yeah…” Medli sighed. “I can fly out of cannon and bow range as well and get an idea for what we’re expecting.”

“Do it,” Link said. “Aryll, come with me.” He watched as Medli stepped outside. He followed with Aryll behind him. Medli spread her wings and within moments took to the skies. Link sipped his coffee after climbing the ladder to the top of the bridge. “Aryll, we’re going to likely be seeing some fighting soon. And it might very well be against other humans. Not tainted creatures like the geozards that attacked Dragon Roost.” He turned around as she reached the top of the ladder. “Are you okay with this?”

“I’ve fought people before,” she said. “Cattle rustlers and a couple highwaymen.”

“But have you ever actually killed any of them?”

“I…” She shook her head. “No.”

He looked her right in the eye. “Be ready. That may very well happen here.”

Aryll took a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Linebeck can take care of the ship so you’ll be with me and Aveil when we get in the tower. Depending on what Medli tells us, it could be you’ll wait on the boat until we’ve secured a place.”

“I can swim.”

“But you don’t have zora armor in case the only way actually in is a hundred feet down and through some passages in the tower. You’d drown before you could get in”

“…Good point.” She pulled one of the hand crossbows off her hip. “So. What if the pirates are friendly?” Aryll began to load six steel bolts into the hopper.

“Then this should go a lot easier. But I’m not expecting them to give up their zora prisoner without a fight.” He looked to the horizon. “If we’re really lucky, Linebeck might be able to talk this all out.”

“Is this the infamous Jolene I’ve heard mentioned?”

“It is.” He rolled his head on his shoulders a little and stretched. “They were together. Or not. It’s…” Link shook his head with a groan. “Far as I know it’s a bit of a mess and neither of them are really clear on it, but Medli is convinced they just can’t spit it out.”

Aryll laughed a little and stowed her crossbow back in its holster. “Really?”

“Yeah.” He narrowed his eyes and looked to the horizon. “Wait. Pass me your telescope.” Link stuck his hand back and soon felt it land. He pulled it to his eye and focused on the tower on the horizon. “Something’s wrong… They should have ships out. I don’t see any.”

The Tower of The Gods had long been an oddity in the South Seas. A great ivory pillar that stuck out of the ocean but was left mostly abandoned as only the top levels were actually dry. The rest was flooded below and had long ago been looted by zoras and other scavengers. Link remembered Shad once saying it was an archeological mystery left behind by the ancient Cobble Kingdom. He would have to tell him about his discoveries when he returned. An hour had passed since he’d gone below with his sister and discussed some of their plans with Aveil over breakfast. Once he’d washed up and shaved, he was back on the deck, wearing the zora scalemail. He adjusted the gauntlet on his right arm a little as he saw Aveil emerge from the bridge with Ayrll behind her. Both had pulled on their armor. Aveil in the zora armor she’d picked up at Dragon Roost and Aryll in leathers and a dark green tunic. A heavy kidney belt was wrapped around her waist and gave the illusion of a corset. She wore gloves as well that went nearly to her elbows and held a full-sized crossbow already loaded with a bomb arrow.

“We really should’ve run into the pirates by now,” Aveil said.

“Yep,” Link said. “But there’s nothing out there but the tower.” He saw as Medli glide back in and landed gracefully on the deck. She quickly came over.

“No signs of anyone having been in or out of there in a while now,” she said. “Didn’t see any boats. Didn’t see any signs of life either in the tower.”

“Ever get the feeling we’re always late to the tragedy?” Aveil said. “First the towers, now this.” She knocked an arrow for her bow. “You thinking drowners? Or more geozards?”

“I hope we’ll find survivors and no monsters,” Link said. “But since we’re not seeing boats.” He looked at Medli. “Any signs of battle? Floating debris? Movement?”

The rito shook her head. “None. Not a single soul I saw.”

Link let out a sigh. “Okay. We need to stay alert then.”

“Agreed,” Aveil said. “When we get close, I can dive in and check the lower levels.”

“That was my plan for infiltrating,” Link said. “Go in through the lower levels with the bombs we picked up from Dragon Roost. The visco fuses should work underwater fine. But it’s sounding like we don’t have to. Anything else you find, Medli?”

“I did get to the top. Looks like there was a lot of supplies set up there,” she said. “If I had to take a guess, they were planning a last stand.”

“Great,” Aryll said. “That’s not good for us.”

“But maybe we can take the supplies,” Aveil said. “They’re not going to need them.” She watched the horizon as the tower grew ever closer. “Did they have any way to get them up there easily? A magic lift or crane?”

“I didn’t see one,” Medli said. “And dropping them all that way might damage whatever’s inside. Or set off any explosives.”

“Meaning they likely carried everything up there,” Link said.

“That’s going to take time to get down. But I can go up and find anything that we might be able to use to bring down. If it’s light enough, I’ll be able to just fly it down. But anything bigger would be a little trickier.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He looked at Aveil and Aryll. “If it’s clear and when we’re docked, you’ll come with me and we’ll work our way up the tower.”

“What about survivors?” Aryll asked.

“If there are any, we get them to safety.” He let out a sigh then. “That said. You brought up a good point, Aveil. “We could run into drowners. And if what we’ve seen Bellum is capable of, they could be heavily mutated. So we’ll be using silver. I’ve got my bolts. So do you, Aryll. And Aveil has her dust and arrows. If they react violently to it, we know.”

“That’s going to mean getting close. Or shooting them.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s obvious.” The boat’s bell rang again and Link saw Linebeck turning the wheel a little as they began to slow down. Still they encountered no resistance or greeting. Eventually they reached the great ring that arced out of the sides of the tower to create what may have once been a massive courtyard. Now it looked to serve as a small bay to the large entrance. The crew stood ready as Linebeck carefully brought the ship inward.

The inside of the tower was massive and had looked like it would be able to hold a few Hyrulean frigates. Most of it had been converted with simple floating piers and moorings. The pirates had clearly been busy, but so had something else. Bloodstains smeared the once alabaster walls and weapons lay on the floor. Whatever had happened, it didn’t look like the pirates were still around, even though there was a ship docked there too. Link hopped over the railing and landed on the pier as Medli tossed a rope over to moor the ship. The chain to the anchor dropped into the water and a ramp was lowered so they could board back if they needed to. Aveil was off first, followed by Aryll.

“Wait a second!” Linebeck said, emerging from the bridge once they were docked. “That’s Jolene’s frigate!”

“Why am I not surprised?” Link asked, sounding almost bored. He looked up at Linebeck as he came down the ramp, checking his pistol. “You’re not going to go hide in your crate?”

“Don’t be daft.” He grinned at him. “She’d have spotted us the minute we came in. I’m just going to… Make sure everything is in order on her ship.” The grin vanished. “Also, to make sure she got her cut of the deal we had.”

“Right,” Medli said, following him down. “Wait, what deal?”

“Jolene is the reason why he found the statues in the first place,” Link said.

“Oh.” Medli shook her head. “So you lied to us back on Windfall.”

“You knew I was lying though,” he said, waving a hand upward. The rito looked slightly infuriated by his behavior. “You know whenever I’m oddly specific like that, you know I’m lying.”

“You know that doesn’t make it better.”

“Guys, it doesn’t look like anyone’s been on the ship,” Aveil interrupted. “I’m seeing no lit torches or movement.”

“Guess that’s where we’re investigating first then,” Link said. He pulled his sword from his back and his crossbow from his hip. “Everyone stay alert and if you see something in the water, don’t keep it to yourself. A geozard might jump out and pull you under. Or worse.”

“What could be worse than one of those things?” Aryll asked.

“An octorok, some breeds of bari, stone-head gyorgs… Oh, and masked terminan gyorgs,” Aveil said dryly.

“Water’s too cold for terminan gyorgs,” Link said. “They like it warmer. Hence why they’re found in the Great Bay of Termina. More tropical so they don’t need the thicker blubber to stay warm.”

His sister sighed. “You two are not making me feel less nervous about this,” she said, pulling her crossbows from her hips. Aryll brought up the rear with Linebeck while Link was in front. He led them across to the other side where the frigate was docked. There was more signs of fighting. To their shock though there were also a pair of pulsing pods of pink flesh, slime and viscera latched to the hull. They were the size of a man and quivered as they approached. Link glanced back to see Linebeck pull his sword from the scabbard on his hip while Medli visibly tensed up. The ramp to the deck was clear and they still saw no signs of anyone having been there.

“What the hell are those things?” Linebeck asked. “It looks like those parasites the zoras were trying to get rid of back in Labrynna.”

“The what?” Link asked. He turned back to look at the smuggler.

“One of their guardian spirits, a Jabun, was infected with parasites. Some of the filth it threw up looked like this.”

“A barinade. It’s a very big bari breed,” Aveil said. “I’ve encountered them before.” She looked at the growths and poked it with a scimitar. “Those typically though grow inside another creature. Not…” A gasp escaped her lips and she took a step back. The growth pulsed and stretched in strange ways from the irritation. A strange noise rippled from the growth and Aryll shrieked in shock.

[wandering-chronicler-blog]

The Wolf of Farore - Chapter 44

An Ongoing Zelda/Witcher Fusion Fic - Updates Sundays/Mondays for the foreseeable future.

War has come to The Kingdom of Hyrule.  The people cry for a savior as monsters and spirits stalk the once green fields of the provinces.  Famine grips the populace as the Gerudo Tribes and their blin allies strike along the borders.  Hope for peace begins to drown in the blood spilled in No Man’s Land.  But Hyrule doesn’t need another hero.  It needs a professional.

[First] [Previous] [Next] [Archive]

CHAPTER 44:  PRE-DIVE

The escape had gone far smoother than anyone expected and the Tower of the Gods was almost a day behind them now.  All around them was just the ocean.  No signs of the platforms that Medli’s tribe used for their courier work or other ships. It was completely empty apart from the steamboat and frigate that moved together through the vastness.  They’d expected trouble from the escape as the other ship in Jolene’s small fleet had been lost to geozards and the mutants, but they met no resistance.  For the moment, he stood on the bridge next to the cannon, watching below as Medli demonstrated to Aryll some of her martial arts.  His sister had started to practice them as well and he could hear the rito correcting her as they went.  She stopped as Medli pulled a stick to mimic a sword and handed it to her.  A moment later, she demonstrated how to disarm an opponent with it.

 They were still a ways from their destination though, and he was sure there was more they could be doing to prepare.  Given the hour though, he reached up and squeezed the wolf around his neck.  Any other last pieces of information on what they were up against would be invaluable.  Especially given how she’d saved them a world of hurt when learning that the mutated corpses could become carriers.  He turned back to look to where they’d come, leaning against the rail and squeezing la little tighter.

 “Hey, you there, Mid?” he asked.

 There was a long pause before he heard her voice.  “...hang on...”

 He realized then the time differences between their worlds.  “I didn’t wake you did I?”

 “No.  I’ve been preparing for my trip to Lorule.  Got the okay from my father to check in.”

 He closed his eyes, focusing.  “Ah. Making sure something didn’t happen there like with the mask?”

 She appeared in his mind’s eye then.  “Yeah.” She ran a hand through her hair. He could make out a couple books and a bag too.  

  Her red eyes glanced in his direction.  “So. What’s up?” she asked.

 “We’re preparing our dive,” he said.  “We found Bellum’s tomb.  And its looking very dangerous.  Just because of the depths we’re going to.”

 “To say nothing of the fact it’s a god from before The Goddesses ordered your world.”

 “Yeah.”  He took a deep breath.  “Really nervous about it.  Good chance none of us will come back from it.”

 “Well, did find a couple other little things.  Least from one of our texts.”

“Oh?”

 She grabbed one of the books.  He saw papers sticking out of it she’d used to bookmark it and quickly skimmed through them before stopping on one page.  “Looks like your goddesses may have been partially involved.”  She pulled it up and showed it to him.  He recognized some of the symbols, even though he didn’t know any of the specifics of what they m eant.  Shad would’ve known, he was sure.  “Nayru specifically.”

 He nodded a little.  “Well, one old tale says she created the sea by weeping into it and submerging an entire continent.”

 “That could very well be part of the tale.  She used it to hide a prison buried under the rock so that something would remain there until the time was right.”

 Only one answer to what would be there given everything.  They both knew it.  “Bellum.”

“I don’t have enough to clearly tell you one way or the other what’s down there, but Bellum’s tomb could have been made by The Goddesses and sealed away by your sky and ocean spirits.  Hoping to keep him down there until eternity ends.”

 Though going that deep and into the unknown was something particularly worrying, he was sure that at least he might be okay now and that they had some small thing in their favor against the old god now.  “Alright.”

��“There’s something there too.  Something keeping his servants from opening the door to his cell, but most of these texts don’t have a whole lot to go on.”

 “Oh?”

 She furrowed her brow as she flipped through the book some more, eventually putting it aside and taking another one.  “They’re deliberately cryptic.  Why I can’t reason with something this important.”

 “Heh.”

 She glanced up at him. “What?”

 “Twins say the same thing with some of their research.  Especially about The Inquisition.”

 “Aaah.”  She gave an understanding nod before looking back down at the page and the paper she’d stuffed in it.  “There’s a note here though that...”  For a brief moment she looked surprised then.

 Suddenly, she vanished from his sight.  The magic was still working though, he could feel it in his charm.    “Mid?” he asked.  There was no response though.  He let go of the charm for a moment before looking back down at his sister and Medli.  They were practicing kicks now as Medli played the instructor for Aryll.  He was glad she was getting along so well with everyone.  Maybe it would be okay to bring her along.  He bowed his head a little then, looking back to the stern of the ship. The life of a Chosen was brutal and though many a tale painted them as great as The Hero, he knew all too well that they were still very much mortal.  Their mutations, a secret to the world apart from those few in power, did let them perform legendary feats, but there was a host of things that came with it. Before his mind could dig further into it, his charm shook.  He reached for it and closed his eyes again.  Midna appeared once more, this time, eyes narrowed and a scowl on her face.  One he had seen her wear countless times during The Conjunction.

  “You okay?” he asked

 “Zant’s here.” She said plainly.

 “Oh.  You have to go?”

 She shook her head, sitting back down and slouching in her seat.  “He’s not even supposed to be here today.  One of the new servants let him and his entourage in.”

 “Aaah.  And now he’s demanding to speak with you.”

 “Yep.  I have a couple people delaying him right now.   Though I don’t know how long that’ll last.”

 “Know what he wants?”

 Her gaze scared him a little at the look in her eye.  Though he’d seen it before, it still was something that scared him.  She was clearly unhappy with the events that had occurred.  “Yeah.  Me.”

 “Ah.”  From what little she’d told him on him, he assumed whatever had happened in their past was something that had caused her to loathe him.  At that moment though, he immediately realized she’d always disliked him as long as he’d known her.  Or at least as long as...  “.. oh.”  Midna glared at him.  She figured out what he had just learned as well.  He saw her lip curl down and her gritting her teeth.  Link held up a hand to her then and shook his head.   “Say no more.  I won’t pry.  But if you want to vent I won’t tell a soul.”

  The sneer faded as she closed her eyes with what sounded like a forced chuckle.  “You’re too noble for your own good sometimes, y’know that?” she asked.

 “Didn’t you want me showing you more chivalry?” he replied, a slight smirk on his own lips.  

 It was her turnt o smirk back at him.  “Wasn’t expecting it to show up right then with that Griffin.  And be remarkably difficult to tell the difference between that and your usual noble idiocy.”  The smirk turned into a sweet smile as the mischief left her for now.  “Thanks though.  Seriously.”

 “Of course, Mid. 

 She sighed a little and sat back up in her chair, tugging down the vest she wore.  “It’s...  Kind of a touchy topic.”

 “So how about to one less touchy?”

 “Yeah”  Midna’s eyes glanced over the book again  “Like old gods at the bottom of the ocean.”

 Her bluntness made Link chuckle.  “Like that.  So.  That note you mentioned before Zany Zant so rudely interrupted us.”

 That got a small snicker out of her.  “Uh...  ah.”  She began to skim the book again, looking for where she’d left off.  “It looks like for some of it that the prison designed follows the same laws of Nayru.  So.  This could’ve been during The Ordering.”

 “Anything specific?”

 “That no divine hand or ones touched by divine hands could open it,” she said, not even looking up.

 Given what he knew about mythology and legends in their world, virtually everything had been made by divine hands.  “If that’s the case someone or something has opened it enough that Bellum is trying to change the world.”

 “I have a theory on that actually.  But it’s a lot of speculation.”  She closed the book then.

 “What is it?”

 “The Conjunction put cracks in the prison.  And it has allowed Bellum’s influence to leak out. But he can’t break the prison to free himself.  Because he’s a ‘divine being’ or counts as one at least as far as I can tell by these texts.”

 “But his servants can still carry out his will.  Use the slime to give him a better look at things, which is his influence leaking out of it.  Given a physical form and mutagenic properties like The Malice of Demise.”

 “Exactly.”

 Guilt washed over him then, much as he’d learned with some of the creatures twisted by The Twilight energies during The Conjunction and then again when him and Midna had encountered the refugees turned into shadow beasts .  He always hated these instances. “So those geozards could be as much victims of his mutagens as the pirates were.”

 “Definitely possible.”

  He shook his head, focusing on her theory.  “So...  why The Conjunction?” he asked.

 “Mmm.”  Midna tilted her head and looked at the ceiling.  “If I were a goddess...”  She stopped when she heard Link stifle a snicker and gave him a look of mock annoyance.  It vanished as quickly as it had appeared and was replaced with a smirk.  ”If,” she continued, pointing a finger at him.  “And if there was a being I couldn’t kill, like Bellum, I’d try and trap him somewhere he could do no harm to my followers or plans.”  Her brow furrowed as she looked down at the desk and bit her lower lip.  “Which might mean making an entire little pocket dimension to stuff him in.  We have theories on how to do that even.”

 “Mmm?”

 “Making new realities.  But with our current understanding of magic, they’d be literally the size of a needle point and flash out of existence faster than the blink of an eye.  To say nothing of just how much magic would be needed to do even that in the first place.” She paused for a moment as he nodded, at least understanding some of it.  “But for a divine being, they could easily and have laws applied to it like Nayru did to your world.”

 He could see where she was getting.  “And then The Conjunction happens and the worlds collide.  The prison gets cracked just enough the inmate can peak out and try to influence things In your world.”

 “Yep.  And so Bellum starts whispering to anyone who will listen and people fall under his influence.”

 “Yep.”

  “Huh...”

 “What?”

 “Didn’t know they taught transdimensional magic and theory in The Twilight.”

 She laughed at little at it.  “I had to track down a couple people after The Conjunction. People far smarter and with more time on their hands than me.  One of them helped me get the stuff together on how our worlds are still pretty connected.” She glanced to her right then.  “I hope you have a good plan for sealing up whatever cracks are in that tomb.  ‘cause I haven’t found anything that suggests how you could.”

 “So, this could all just be for nothing.”  He took a deep breath then.  “But we have to try.”

 “You do have a plan, right?”

 “Mikau is working on it with the frost bombs we recovered, I think.”

 She nodded a little.  “If you can make it red ice with the alchemy, it won’t melt down there.  Real patch job but it should at least buy the world time.  Close it off enough that you should be fine for a while.”

 “Yeah.”

  She glanced to her side then before sighing.  “Aaaand I’m out of time.”

 “No more distraction?”

 “Yeah.”  She closed the book.  ““I won’t be available for a few days too, so really make sure you don’t do something stupid.”

 Link chuckled a little. “Well, you know me.”

 “Heh.  You still owe me for all this extra work.  And I expect you to pay in full.”  The smirk was back on her face.

 “Alright.”

 Midna composed herself, taking a deep breath and sitting up straight.  “Good.”

 “Good luck with your trip.”

 “Thanks.”  She smiled at him.  “You too.  See you later.”  She vanished from his sight then and he let go of the charm.

The waves beat against the bow of Linebeck’s ship as they traveled.  Black smoke billowed out of the stack in the back as Link sat on the floor with his back to one of the many crates that had been loaded in the hold. Knowing what was coming, he prepared himself mentally and practiced his breathing.  Deep dives had not been something he’d been formally trained in, but he had done it before.  Just not to the depth that Mikau had mentioned as they left for what was ominously named ‘The Dreamer’s Tomb.’  Before him were the elixirs he’d picked up in Windfall and another one the zora had given him and Aveil.  He remembered what the zora had said about it and picked up two other vials.  One was another Kaepora’s Vigil, while the other was a Red Ice.  He pulled another bottle from the bags he had next to him.  It was empty and particularly large, but was meant for mixing. He uncorked both of the smaller bottles and poured them into the larger one.  Once done, he mixed the one Mikau had given him, using a stick to get the last of it out and stirred it together.  After a minute, he placed it on top of his lantern and lit it to ensure it would mix properly.

 Across on the other side of the hold was Aveil.  She was essentially doing the same thing, muttering a prayer in her native tongue as she poured the syrupy blue mix into a larger bottle.  It had been the first time as well he’d seen her out of her armor. She was in leather pants and was wearing a white shirt much like the one he had, but cut more for a woman.  The sleeves were rolled up and her left wrist was wrapped in a couple bandages to help keep her from injuring her sprained wrist any further.  He noticed numerous scars along what skin was showing on her arms.  They weren’t as bad as his, but from their talks, it sounded like the desert viper’s preferred prey was the kind that wouldn’t leave scars if it managed even to land a single blow.  He’d only encountered moldorms when working with Shad in the desert and was amazed that she’d been able to kill things like the lanmolas she’d mentioned back on Windfall.

She inhaled sharply, holding the bottle to her nose that held the now pitch black liquid in it. Aveil placed it on her lantern to heat it to finish the mixing and looked over to Link.  “Amazing how similar our rituals are too,” she said.

 “You said it,” Link answered.  He looked to the scabbards that held his swords next to the bag.  “So, you never met a Chosen before me?”

 “Nope.”  Aveil carefully unsheathed one of her scimitars and produced a whetstone.  “Heard stories here and there, but nothing that could be said to be true.  You guys usually stick to Hyrule.”

 “Explains why we never heard of your sisters either.  We’re both so focused on our regions and the troubles there.”  

 “Speak for yourself. The Vipers were independent.  Not agents of Ganondorf.  At least until the war started to get worse…”

 Link instantly looked up at her.  His muscles tensed and he felt his fingers coiling around the grip of his arming sword on the floor next to him.

 “Technically we still are…” She ran the whetstone along the scimitar to sharpen it.  “We’ve been forced to take some contracts from The United Tribes though.  You know all about the counter invasion I’m sure.” Aveil let out a sigh as she continued sharpening her blade.  “You’d be surprised at what you do when your entire culture is at stake.”

 He picked up the longsword then and pulled it from its scabbard.  “I was on the Northern Front.  Against the blins.  I’d heard though that an incursion was successful though.  Captured a couple forts even.”   Link inspected the weapon carefully again before getting a vial of oils to treat the blade.  “The Chosen were meant to prevent a conflict like this.”

 “Prevent it how though?” She was watching him closely with her gold eyes.  The sound of the blade being sharpened echoed in the hold.  They heard voices and the pirates working with Linebeck discussing things.

 “Depends on who you ask.” Link started to rub the oil along the blade with a cloth.  He worked it carefully to make sure the blade was treated right.  “Some would say that we should’ve attacked the second Ganondorf proved himself a threat and could’ve united your people.  Others would say we would have waited until later when the invasion started…”

 “And you?”

 He slowly ran the cloth along further and shook his head.  “I’d have liked if we could have found a solution that’d prevented a war and avoided any bloodshed.  I was standing guard in some of the negotiations before the war.  Seeing the diplomats trying to find something but…” Link shook his head again.  “I wanted to grab them and just shout at them to find something to avoid the slaughter that was going to come.”

 “Did you?”

 Link shook his head.  “I didn’t realize just how bad it was.  How much our people hate one another…”  He ran the cloth back up the blade again.  “I got reassigned just after Ganondorf arrived to try and work through the negotiations.”

 “Tarey Town Summit?”

 “That was it.”  He coughed a little.  “I’m guessing too then you heard about the trouble.”

 “Only a little. Someone tried to kill the Labrynnan Empress?”

 “Yep.  Prevented it, but it didn’t do well for negotiations I heard.”  Link inspected the blade carefully then, watching the reflection.  He could make out his face almost in the silver diamonds along its flat sides.  “I was sent off to help oversee work with an archeological dig on the northern end of the Haunted Wasteland.”

 Aveil’s face lost its color and she stopped sharpening her blade.  “That was Arbiter territory…”

 “Yeah.  A storm had revealed some ruins and we wanted to take a look since a couple zuna traders had talked about it bearing marks of the Royal Family and the Sheikah.  Was there… Six months before The Conjunction.”

 “That mess with the monsters.”  She started sharpening her blade again.  “That was pretty profitable for us.  Talk of a swamp that could be found if you went in the right caves…”

 “Lorule.”

 “Huh?”

 “It’s…”  He tilted his head and looked at the ceiling.  “It’s another world.”

 “Really?”  She sounded disbelieving.

 “Really.”  Link looked back to her.  “That entire event with the monsters was our world colliding with the space between dimensions and a parallel to our own.”

 “You must’ve been there then.”

 “Yep.”  He finished with the oil and inspected the blade carefully again.  Each of the goron glyphs were incredibly clear now.  He held his wolf charm tightly and moved it carefully along the blade. It vibrated as it got close. There was magic, but he couldn’t tell any specifics.  “We called that entire thing The Conjunction.  Worked with some people to try and close every door we could find.”

 “Given how vast the world is, that must’ve taken months.”

 “Almost a year.  But we did it.”  He put the longsword back in its scabbard and started treating his arming sword.  “Y’know, I’m a bit surprised we’re not at each other’s throats after what you said. Working for The Ganon.”

 “We’re hunters.”  She ran the whetstone along a little more before inspecting the edge of her sword.  “We’re about as far from normal as you can get.  What with the enhancements seared into our bones and spending most of our childhoods being turned into killers of the world’s filth.” Aveil winced a little as she twisted her wrist in a way that wouldn’t have if it wasn’t injured.

 “You going to be okay?”

 Her gaze glanced up at him. “I’m fine.”  Aveil looked back at her wrist then.  “A potion won’t fix that.  It needs time.”  She inspected the bandage before looking back at him.  “Going to put us at a disadvantage, but we don’t have a choice here. Do or die time.”

 “The water at that depth is going to help a little I think.  Mikau said it’d be near freezing apart from some of the thermal vents.”

 “Been that deep before?”

 He shook his head.  “Not that deep.  But deeper than when we looked at the platform the other day.” The elixir on the lantern began to bubble and white steam started to rise out of it.  With a thick cloth, Link removed the bottle from the lantern and placed it on the floor.  “So… Do we have any idea really of what exactly Bellum is going to look like or its abilities?”

 “Well, we know the statues Linebeck picked up were squidlike.  If they were anything like the idols of the Sand Goddess or your Golden Goddesses, we could assume that Bellum’s avatars or greatest servants are like that.  Or could be like the phantom we encountered.”

 “And we don’t have anything that can scratch a phantom…”  He let out a sigh as he oiled the arming sword.  “So our goal is going to be I think more to contain this thing.  Seal it in its tomb.”

 “Which is what the frost bombs are going to be for.”

 “Yeah.  Sounded like Mikau wanted to make some undersea glacier there…  Or at least use it to damage the tomb and hold it together so that when it finally did thaw it’d make the entire place collapse in on top of him and leave him even more trapped than he already is.”

 “Mmm…”  Her eyes widened and a small smile played across her lips.  “What if he’s preparing it?”

 “Preparing how?  I’d guess with some sort of alchemy?”

 “He said he was an agent for the zoras out of Great Bay in Termina.  They could have others.  He’s been sent ahead to help prepare and clear the way.  Make sure any witches or sorcerers that come along later can do their work in peace without Bellum causing problems.”

 “That’s a pretty solid plan, actually.  Was something they taught the mages in the tower back home.”

 “Your order had mages?”

 He nodded.  “Yeah.  Yours didn’t?”

 “Sort of.”

 “Ah.”

 “Most of the time we’d have tribal witches for help with magic.  Would be worked out in the contracts usually.”  She sheathed her scimitar then and leaned back against the ship’s hull.  “There were a few times though we’d have liked to have had our own witches to do our work…  Let me tell you.  Especially when it came to setting traps for things like tracking the stalks of a desert manhandla.  Oh.  Or finding the nest of one of the thousand-year moldaraches and then holding its claws and stinger away so we can kill it quickly.”  They felt the boat dip then and rise.  There was a creaking sound as someone came down the stairs.  Link glanced over to see Medli there.  She was soaking wet and looked ready to collapse.

  “You okay?” Link asked her.

 “Just exhausted from flying between the ships,” she said.  The rito stumbled a little before collapsing over the crate Linebeck used as a bed.  “Mikau said he’d be over shortly to make sure you were ready for the dive.”

 “We’re just waiting on him now,” Aveil said.  She picked up her glass bottle with the mixture in it and eyed it carefully.

 “Drink it before you go down.  So you’ll have the most time before it works through your system and can get back up. You don’t want a case of the bends.”

 “It’s actually supposed to prevent that,” Link said.  “Mikau said it would allow us to adapt to the pressure differences like a zora does between the layers.”

 “I figured, but…  What about the time until it is worked through your body?  What would happen if it ran out when you were still at a lower level?”

 “Shouldn’t.  It should last at least two days with how thick it is.” He picked up the bottle again.  “…I’m still not going to drink this until I’m in the water though.”  Link looked back at Medli as she lay over the box.  “I don’t want Aryll to see the change.”

 “Is it that toxic?”

 “Looks it,” Aveil said. “Someone without our enhancements drinks it, they’ll be throwing up their stomach.  And lungs…  And liver…”

 “Geez.  I know that those things can be nasty but.”

 “Be happy you’ve never seen an idiot highwayman drink a venomblood potion,” Link said.

 “There’s gotta be a story behind that,” Aveil said.

 “If there is I don’t think I want to hear it,” Medli said.  “You two need anything to eat or things to prepare for the dive?”

 Link shook his head.  “Just that if we fail that we have some plan in place and word to get help.”  He looked right at Medli then.   “And… And please keep an eye on my sister.”

 “I will.”

 “Thank you.”  He slowly got to his feet then.  “Mikau say how long it would be until we reached the point to dive?”

 “Couple more hours Linebeck says.”  She eyed the black mixture in the bottle.  “So, you have the one he gave you.  What other two did you mix in?”

 “Kaepora’s Vigil and Red Ice.”

 “I can guess what the red ice does,” Aveil started, “but what does the other one do?”

 “Endurance.  Keeps me awake.  And if it’s that dark down there, it’ll be hard to see.  So it lets me see in the dark.”

 “Sounds like the ones I mixed too.”  She glanced at her armor that was hanging on a rack next to Link’s.  “That thing doesn’t have a lot of insulation, so it’s going to be really cold down there.  Then again, Termina’s waters are a lot warmer than out here.”

 “I’m more worried about the pressure.  Even with the potion.  Going to the bottom of a lake or as deep as we went for the platform was one thing. But this…”  He shook his head and looked to Medli.  “When I went for the freighter, it was deep enough I was feeling the weight of the water on top of me.  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be that far down.  Hope the armor can take it.”

 “Hope so too,” Medli said.

[wandering-chronicler-blog]

The Wolf of Farore - Chapter 3

An Ongoing Zelda/Witcher Fusion Fic - Updates Wednesdays/Thursdays

[First] [Previous] [Next] [Archive] [On Ao3]

Summary:

War has come to The Kingdom of Hyrule.  The people cry for a savior as monsters and spirits stalk the once green fields of the provinces.  Famine grips the populace as the Gerudo Tribes and their blin allies strike along the borders.  Hope for peace begins to drown in the blood spilled in No Man’s Land.  But Hyrule doesn’t need another hero.  It needs a professional.

The Story So Far:

Upon arriving in a refugee camp on Death Mountain run by the gorons who live there, Link is brought in ropes to the big boss, Darunia.  He is able to convince him that he can look into determining why the dragon that lives in the mountain range attacked the camp.  With the help of the scholar Gorko, the hylian hexer begins his investigation.

CHAPTER 3:  PUTTING A PUZZLE TOGETHER

The sun was starting to peek over the horizon when he walked out again. There was still the scent of scorched earth in the air even though the fires had been put out. Link watched as the dead were counted. The gorons started taking the dead bodies and carefully pile them on an unlit pyre. He looked to see some of the refugees standing near them. Some helped, others wept. Many were human, while a few were hylian or even gerudo. Link merely closed his eyes and bowed his head. These were the people who needed him.

Link walked to where Epona had been hitched. “Time to get to work,” he said to the mare. He dug through the saddle bags for a moment before pulling a bottle of milk and another with a label that read ‘lupine sense’. He uncorked the second bottle and drank it. The liquid felt like ice as it went down his throat in spite of being kept in the warm saddle bag. He coughed and clenched his eyes shut as it took effect. A moment later he opened his eyes and saw the world with greater clarity. The smell of the dead grew potent in his nostrils, almost to the point he felt vomit rising in his throat. The wind clearly whistled in his ears and hushed conversations among the refugees became clear if he focused on them.

Link looked among the refugees again. He could see spirits standing among them; with the ones they’d loved in life or had found camaraderie with. Other spirits wandered the camp as well though. It was these he looked to. They wandered the camp, going through the motions of the events before the attack. Others shook and rocked in place but each was an echo of a life now gone. He’d done this before though, and needed to first find the scent of the attacker. He inhaled deeply as his sharpened senses worked to determine which one belonged to the attacker. It took a little effort, but he managed to climb onto the archive dome and inspect the claw marks, where its scent was strongest. Though it had gone to the skies, it was enough that if he used the rest of the lupine sense elixir in the caves, he’d recognize and be able to follow it if they needed to.

As he climbed down, he’d noticed, a couple refugees and the same guard who had brought him to see Darunia were now watching. They muttered about his strange behavior, but seemingly ignored him as he walked past. He’d heard these before though when he investigated. Alfonzo had always said to treat the investigations like the puzzles in the temple trials for potentials. Once he’d climbed down, he went to one of the ruined tents. The few belongings within it were scorched black. He picked up a canvas doll that had somehow survived the inferno and inspected it for a moment before gently putting it aside.

“What are you doing?” a small voice asked.

He looked up from his kneeling position and over his shoulder. A young boy stood there in ripped clothes. His dark hair was matted and long, falling over his eyes while his hands were burned and bandaged. The boy was around the same age he and Aryll had been found by the Chosen of The Crown in Aboda more than twenty years ago now. “Putting a puzzle together,” Link said.

His large eyes watched the hylian’s digging with intense interest. “You’re trying to put the tent back together?”

“No. I’m trying to figure out why the dragon attacked.” He picked up a blackened book. With his sharpened senses from the potion, he looked it over, but found nothing of use. There were no weapons, no armors, nothing to suggest the refugee had lost everything or never had them to begin with. Curiously though, he found some jewelry and gold. It was damaged horribly, but together enough that it was recognizable.

“But it’s a dragon…”

“And?” He looked back over his shoulder again.

“And it’s… It’s a dragon. Dragons are monsters that hoard treasures. Different kinds of treasures. They’re not dumb animals.”

Link nodded a little hearing the explanation. It was true. “Understand your enemy and you will increase your chances of victory.” He thought back on some of his past work, before the war. A small smile appeared on his face for a moment. “You may find that your enemy is just someone trying to help their friends like you are. And if you can reason with them, you may make a new friend.” He looked back at the ruined tent at the jewels. They didn’t appear to be incredibly valuable, but they had been left. He went to check another scorched tent and dug through the ash.

“So you want to be its friend?”

“Better than making an enemy.” Link picked up another ruined box. He pried it open with his knife, finding a few gemstones within and a charm similar to the one he’d tied around the knight’s wrists. Placing his index and middle finger on it, he sent a faint pulse of magic into it, but nothing happened. He breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a poor copy. “It depends on how things go.” He stood up after putting the box back down and thought on his knowledge of some dragons in the past. Clearly this one did not value material wealth. He stood up again and resumed inspecting the site before looking at the child. “Were your parents in the attack?”

He shook his head. “Me and my sister. We came here with Joli. Do you know Joli?”

Though he wasn’t aware of it, his eyes widened and watered slightly. “I don’t.” He briefly glanced up from them to see the spirits pass through some of the others there. The funeral pyre began to burn as a goron spoke the rites to grant the dead peace.

“He’s funny. Always looking for shiny things. Ran into a grotto looking for treasure! He ran out when there were keese in it.”

That sounded like someone else he knew. When he looked up though, thanks to the potion, he saw a pale green, partially transparent man standing next to him. They’d been burned horribly and very little was able to help Link identify them. He did not let on to the child he could see their guardian next to them. “I know a man like that,” he said. “He helped me when I was in the South Seas.”

“You’ve been all the way to the sea?!” The child’s eyes were wide in surprise.

Link nodded.

“What’s it like?!”

“Well, it’s a number of islands, with the big ones being Windfall, Dragon Roost and Mercay. You know about rito?”

The child nodded eagerly, grinning.

“There’s a tribe from Dragon Roost. And they know just by listening to the winds if something is wrong with them. There are pirates. And zora. But not like the ones you’d see along the rivers. They’d have trouble if they came up the rivers into Hyrule.”

“Why?”

“They’re used to the warmer salt water. And the cooler freshwater in the rivers is difficult for them to adapt to. They can but it’s not comfortable for them.”

He took another couple minutes to answer the questions the child asked. He did not share his deeds though. Taking a moment to amuse them he felt would help them both. They were only one of many that had lost their families in the war and he felt some camaraderie to them. Even if it was only because him and his sister Aryll were orphans of another bloody war a little more than twenty years ago. He finished looking around and took a long drink from the bottle of milk. The spirits started to fade from his sight. The stench of death was dulled as well as his hearing back to more human levels. It would still be another hour before his senses were truly normal again, but he knew the enhanced senses could be problematic. The hearing in particular he’d found was the worst part.

He walked back to Epona and stowed the bottles. “So,” he said to her. “We have a dragon. One that does not hoard valuables or jewels that has stayed out of human conflicts for as long as anyone can remember.”

The horse flicked an ear and blinked at him as he reached up to give her snout a stroke. “Gorko mentioned knights going after it though,” he continued. “Maybe there’s some records of the more recent attempts.” He went back into the archive dome then.

It looked cleaner than the first time he’d entered, but there was still plenty of cleaning to be done. A couple refugees were shelving the books now while Gorko had a huge stack of them on two desks. He sat at one and flipped through it slowly, taking down notes in another book. He looked up as he saw Link approached. “Anything new outside?”

“A few things,” Link said. “This one doesn’t appear to have any desire to hoard treasures.”

“Sometimes dragons are pretty territorial. Maybe it’s upset about the refugees. But if that was the case, it’d have attacked when they started to appear. As it stands, it’s been over a year since refugees started to flow from Hyrule proper through the mountain range.”

Link found a chair and pulled it over. He winced a little from the shrill scraping it made on the stone. His hearing was still enhanced. “You mentioned knights had come along to try and deal with it earlier.”

“I did. From all over too.” Gorko stood up from his chair and pulled a book out from the pile. “Anyone carrying enough weapons and armor that comes through we need to keep an eye on. Anyone with an entourage as well. Big Brother doesn’t like strangers to go around so heavily armed unless they have a good reason. Doubly so with so many refugees now. Wouldn’t be surprised if he starts getting some help from the jarls in Holodrum to help keep the peace.”

“Things really that bad?”

“Getting there. We had a couple fights the guards had to break up earlier. I thank Din every day we don’t have a riot. Most people just want to get out of the country before The Tribes reach North Lanayru.”

“Long as the Hyrulean Army holds the Castor Wilds, that won’t happen.” Link opened the book and started to flip through it. “Wait, I recognize some of these names. Katir from Labrynna, The Calatian Bear… These are some pretty big names.”

“Anyone with a red ‘x’ by their name went off after it and never came back.”

He glanced back down. That was all he needed to do. “That’s a lot of names...”

“Exactly.” He coughed a little and went back to his notes. “The ones who don’t either weren’t hunting the dragon or were able to be talked out of it.”

“Hmm…” He kept going through the names. The number of willing knights and adventurers trickled to an end around the time the war started. He did stop though at a couple names, recognizing them as Chosen who had gone missing decades ago. “Find anything else out about the dragon?”

“I might have actually.” He grabbed another book and flipped through his notes. Gorko slid it over to Link. The hylian read quietly some of the scribbles. “So, The Warlord of Eldin was said to have traveled the world, seeking the strongest warriors and at one time lead an army of lizardmen and a few humans who he felt were worthy. Though his army was victorious many times and he personally led them, he felt empty and disgusted. Disgusted because humans are so petty and maybe a bit of hate in that he had never once met an opponent he could consider worth his time. So he retreated into the mountain. Our records however suggest that the dragon doesn’t even consider people worth his time anymore. So anyone who challenges him actually faces his appointed knight.”

“So he’s been at this for… Years.”

“Centuries, actually. That was just the most recent set of records we could find.” He motioned at the one Link held as he spoke.

“So, we try challenging him and make him keep his word. Provided we can’t talk it out of it in the first place. We do it somewhere we have an advantage. Does it have wings?”

Gorko nodded.

He began to formulate more of his plan. There was little heroic about what he was going to do, but he wasn’t going to risk the lives of the surviving refugees. He would need the obsidian shard bolts from his bag to shred the creature’s wings and the small bombs to help crack its hide. He’d first bring it to the ground. Then he’d finish it off. He also needed a backup plan though in case it was clear there was no way he could bring it down. He wasn’t going to let it hurt anyone else. “Could we lure it into the old Temple of Din and then collapse it?”

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of challenging it to a fight?”

“Do you really want to take a chance?”

Gorko was quiet for a moment. “We can do that. A couple powder kegs in the main chamber on the supports will bring it down entirely. And I think Din would forgive you for it if it meant saving lives.”

“Sounds like we have a plan then.” He stood up. “I’ll go prepare.”

It was noon by the time they reached the cave him and Gorko would enter. It was far up the pass and from where he stood, he could see Eldin Province as well as the majority of neighboring Lanayru. He could even make out Castle Town at the heart of The Kingdom and the smoke rising out of No Man’s Land. Link was digging through Epona’s saddle bags as he waited. He’d traded the recruit’s uniform and tabard for the armor that Darunia had offered him. It was a deep red tunic with a plate piece over his torso and heavy greaves over his legs. His left arm was encased in similar plate to protect his sword arm. The gauntlets were woven fibers and scales made from skinned dodongos. His arming sword and shield were on his back. He pulled out a quiver of special bolts for his crossbow and loaded one. They were enchanted to explode into tiny obsidian daggers moments after having been launched. In the pouches on his belt were six small bombs and the rest of the lupine sense potion along with a bottle of milk and a little blue vial to mend his wounds. He hoped that he wouldn’t need it because he was sure any loud enough echoing in the caves would hurt his ears had he consumed the potion. He gave the mare a gentle rub on her neck before hearing the others.

Gorko walked up the pass with a pair of particularly bulky gorons. Each one was carrying a massive keg of explosive powder on each shoulder. Gorko was telling them about the importance of making sure things from the old temple had been recorded before they destroyed it, but they didn’t seem to pay any attention to him. In silence the two with the kegs kept going up the path while Gorko stopped next to Epona and looked to the entrance as well. The archeologist wore a scale armor vest on and gauntlets similar to Link’s. The biggest difference though was Gorko’s gauntlets had heavy plates above the knuckles. Even though gorons were hearty beings, Link knew full well the stories of how some would be eaten whole by dragons.

“My brothers will set up the explosives in the temple,” Gorko said. “Then they will head back down.”

“Sounds good.” He pulled the helmet of the armor on then and looked to the cave. “You ready?”

“I am.”

Link took a deep breath and lit his lantern with a flick of his fingers. After he’d hooked it to his belt, he started inside with Gorko next to him.

The cave began to grow hotter as they headed deeper. Not long after entering, they came across an old camp. They found scorched skeletons of men in armor and mail. There were four horse skeletons as well. Link cringed a little seeing how they’d thought it was a good idea to bring their mounts so far into the cave. The bodies looked like they had been left where they fell and the weapons were of no importance. Looking around, there were a few different caverns they could go.

“Map?” Link asked.

Gorko pulled one out of his bag and started looking it over. “This map might not be right,” he said. “Volcanic activity could’ve sealed off some of the paths or just rock slides. The dragon might’ve even changed things around to keep people guessing.” He looked down then. “But the tracks in here are well-preserved.”

Link knelt down and looked at them carefully. There were dozens of them and it was impossible to completely tell what was what, but they all were heading into another cavern. The bulk of them though started to head towards the crater. He got up a moment later. “We’ll try this way,” he said. “If we have to, I have the potion.”

They started down the tunnel then that lead towards the crater. It began to grow hotter until they came to a great cavern. Rotten wood platforms were affixed to the top level and they could look all the way down to the bottom. There were old statues it looked like carved into the walls and faded cave paintings of gorons. Gorko immediately started looking them over. He pulled a notebook from his bag and wrote furiously while Link slowly walked further down. It was clear it had once been a goron village or fort, but was long abandoned. He stopped though as he saw footprints. They were narrow and clearly not the prints of a knight or someone in armor. He reached up to his neck, but stopped. He no longer had his charm to check for any sort of magic trace. Following them though, he saw they were very fresh and they lead into a tunnel at the bottom.

When they reached the bottom, Link saw a great archway that lead further back. It was a throne room, but if that had been its original purpose, Link didn’t know. Bolted to the walls were scorched skeletons, still wearing the armor they’d worn in life. Their weapons and belongings as well were laid at their feet. Link recognized the heraldry on some of the shields as well.

A figure sat at the other end of it in a chair carved into a long pillar. There was a small area behind the throne as well with a number of round holes cut out of the rock to make windows. The red glow from the crater filled the chamber. The figure was a man and wore red plate armor. In one hand was a long spear with a pair of small prongs behind the weapon’s head. Its base had a small spike on it. Their helmet appeared like the head of a dragon and had a long red tail out the back. They looked up slowly as Link entered.

“Another…” the figure said. “Why have you come?”

“I am looking for the dragon,” Link said. “The one they call The Warlord of Eldin. You are his appointed knight, are you not?”

“Volga,” he growled. “Another looking for glory. How typical… Not waiting for the rest of the army I see. Just leave my master be. He has no interest in your wars.”

“I am not here to fight. I am here to ask them if they know anything about the refugees who were attacked.”

The figure on the throne stood up. The spear twirled in their hand in a circle. “You dare insult my master? Saying that he attacked worthless animals?” He laughed. “They are cowards. Not worth killing. And you! I will kill you where you stand for your insults!” They lunged off the throne, grabbing a spear next to them.