Hey everybody! Thanks for checking out my story. It's my first attempt at a full on story so forgive me if updates aren't always right on time, I'll do my best to keep up. It starts off a little slow but it gets a lot better in the next chapter(trust me) so just stick with it through this one...please. I would also enjoy helpful criticism, anything I can work on to improve the story and my writing would be greatly appreciated.
So, anyways, disclaimers: I do not own the copyright to The Legend of Zelda, sadly. This is a purely for fun endeavor and no profit will be made, so, yeah... don't sue.
Ok, so here we go, the beginning!
Prologue: In the Beginning
Death, such a morbidly fascinating topic. I had always wondered about death, mulled it over, a dreary topic I suppose but quite interesting. I always wondered how I would die, when, where, why, and possibly who. I'd like to say that my assumptions were right and that, as I had so often bragged to myself, I would not fear death. I was wrong.
As I stared into the eyes of my executioner I couldn't help but feel fear, fear so great it had me trembling. But then I remembered why, I remembered them my reason for fighting far past when I was needed, the reason I had made it this far in the first place. My trembling slowly slowed and I fell resolute in my path, I would die for them, for those I cared for, so I could protect them from a greater evil.
But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. You probably want to know the whole story, how it started, the exiting points and the dull, my whole adventure. Well I guess I will indulge you. Hmm, now where is the beginning… was it when I met him, no to far. I guess I will start the day before the accident, the day before my life changed forever.
(LINE BREAK)
"BBRRRIIINNNG!" the shrill noise burst out into the still air, startling me from sleep.
"Who, what, where!" I shouted sitting up quickly, covers falling off my frame. Honing in on the noise I found my alarm clock stuttering across my night stand, letting out the loud and obnoxious sound. "Noooo, why today," I groaned. Snatching my clock off the stand I shut it off, dropping it on the floor. "Stupid alarm won't let me sleep in… even on a Saturday," I grumbled to myself, flopping back into bed. About five seconds passed before I burst out of bed, "Wait, it's that day!"
Stumbling across my room I pulled off my night shirt and put on a fresh one, stripping down my sleeping shorts I did the same with some jeans. Yawning I walked quickly out my door and down the narrow hallway into the bathroom, narrowly avoiding the door in my semi-awake state. Looking around I spotted my green toothbrush resting in the corner of the counter. Squeezing some toothpaste onto it I quickly brushed my teeth.
Now that I was starting to wake up I took notice of my surroundings. My dull brown eyes stared back at me from the mirror, my blonde bangs coming down to my eyebrows, framing my gaunt face. Spitting and rinsing I stood up, taking enough time to proudly notice my new frame. In the past year I had shot up in height, no longer was I the shortest in my class and at nearly 5'8'' I was quite tall for fourteen.
Sliding out of the bathroom door I walked down the hallway, softly whistling some tune that had gotten stuck in my head during the night. Suddenly my foot slid out from underneath me, sending me crashing into the ground with a startled, "Oomph."
"Uugh," rubbing my sore back side I looked around for the culprit and found a small sackcloth doll laying on the floor.
"Sarah," I called out exasperatedly, "Stop leaving your toys lying around!"
"Sorry Skyler," came the meek sounding reply from the room to my right.
Letting out another sigh I picked up the doll and tossed it through the crack in her doorway. Standing up fully I continued down the hall and to the stairs. Descending as a rapid pace I jumped the last two steps, reveling in the loud thump I made upon contact. Let me tell you, being big is fun!
Walking into the kitchen I pulled a slice of bread from the bread box and popped it into the toaster. I then proceeded to sit down and stare at it, willing it to cook faster. After a wait that felt way too long the toaster made an excited, "Ding!" and out popped the toast. Reaching out I grabbed it before it could fall back down.
"Gahh, hot!" I said, juggling the molten piece of bread between my hands. Dropping in on the table I prodded it until it was the right eating temperature. In case you can't tell I'm very serious about my food, maximum enjoyment can only be obtained through carful monitoring of the cooking process. Popping the toast in my mouth I set off across the kitchen, reaching the far side I wrenched open the door and called out through my toast, "I'mph offp!"
Closing the door behind me I raced off down the rickety staircase that led up to our apartment. Today was Saturday and a holiday, so not only did I have no school but my part time job was off to. Today there would be no sweaty straining around screaming children, just me and my friends. Now don't get me wrong, I love my job, teaching martial arts to the next generation is a joy, but you can only take so much little kid before it starts to overwhelm you.
Coming back to the present, I had just reached the end of my street and was waiting for the crosswalk light to turn green. The bad part of this neighborhood was this street… well that and crime. Right after a wide bend in the road was a little crosswalk with a stoplight over it, cars would race around the corner and miss it all the time so you had to be careful crossing. Just last week a neighbor's cat had been run over on the crosswalk, poor Muffins, I liked him.
The light changed from its repressing red to an encouraging green and I quickly crossed the walkway. I had to hurry, today was going to be fun and I didn't want to miss any of it. My two best friends, Jenny and Phil, were going to meet up with me at the park downtown. Today was going to be a mix of movies, games, and fun.
The sun was shining brightly today, a sign that seemed to say, 'Today is going to be a great day!' Quickening my pace I marched across the sidewalk, lights just barely beginning to turn on in most houses around me I merrily continued on my way. Now why leave so early some might ask. Well, it's true that we weren't supposed to meet up until ten, but my bike had broken down and it was a several hour walk to the park. Why not get your parents to drive you? Well that is because my father had left years ago and my mother had resorted to drinking, so she could rarely ever drive legally, not that it stopped her.
And so I walked… and walked… and walked some more. The dreary street ways slowly passed by and the sun began climbing steadily into the sky. In order to pass the time I began playing, 'Spot the Unusual,' it was a game that Jenny had come up with nearly two years ago.
"In 'Spot the Unusual' you must be very focused," Jenny began in a serious tone, standing in front of Phil and I like a patronizing teacher. "You can't lapse in concentration once or you might miss It." she said, stressing the It.
"Miss what?" Phil asked in a bored voice.
"IT!" Jenny shouted, "The Unusual, the Fantastic, all the cool or creepy things that go on in the world." She was waving her arms in fantastic gestures for emphasis.
"Yeah, ok," Phil tried again, "but what exactly is It?"
Jenny puffed out her cheeks in exasperation, pausing for a second to think while looking around, "Like that over there," she said pointing, "see over there by the fire hydrant? The creepy grocery store man looks like he's handing off drugs."
Sure enough the grocery store manager in question was discreetly passing a brown paper bag to a man in a hoody who was passing several bills back. Looking over his shoulder, the man quickly exchanged the items and they separated as fast as they could.
"No way," Phil said squinting, "that just strange."
"See," Jenny beamed, "I told you so."
"Not really, I bet I can do better," he said, boasting.
"Nuhuh, there is no way you could beat me at my own game," Jenny retorted.
I laughed at my friend's antics as they began trying to outdo each other, racing to find the next weird thing.
A smile graced my face at the fond memory. It had become a tradition when ever we were bored to play the game, and so far we had found many unusual things in the streets of our city. Today though, I couldn't seem to find much. Aside from the average shenanigans that the delinquent high schoolers were up to, like graffiti and mooning passer buyers, there wasn't anything good.
And so I passed my time by continuing my search for the interesting.
(LINE BREAK)
Two hours later found me at the park downtown, thirty minutes early. Sighing while looking at my watch I decided to catch up on some sleep. Walking over to one of the benches I lay down and quickly drifted off.
After what felt like two minutes I was awakened by a long stick being pressed into my cheek. Two jabs latter I grabbed it and snapped it apart, sitting up and opening my eyes. Jenny was standing there with a smile on her face and a splintered stick in her hand.
"About time, I was going to let you sleep longer but the Phil came and you know how impatient he is," she said with a miscevious grin.
I just glared at her while rubbing my cheek.
"I told you it was a bad idea," Phil broke in, "You know how Skyler is about his beauty rest." He ended with a smirk.
Breaking out into a smile I laughed, retorting, "Yeah but you're the one who really needs it Phil, maybe a couple hours more sleep will help fix that face of yours."
Phil laughed throatily, his large frame shaking. Phil was big, as in husky big. He wasn't necessarily fat but he had really broad shoulders and was still pretty short so his girth wasn't spread out evenly. He had sandy brown hair with lots of natural blonde highlights. Phil was the more serious guy in our group.
"Come on you guys," Jenny broke in, "We should get going, we only have all day." She said the last part sarcastically. Jenny was a spunky brunette with a dazzling smile. She was the ring leader of our group, the glue that held us together. She used that and her age to assert her dominance over me and Phil, insisting that a birthday six months ahead of ours meant she was better by divine nature. Being the youngest person in our group sucked, but my recent growth spurt made up for it. Anyways it was impossible to dislike Jenny. Her green eyes were always full of excitement and her small frame was always bouncing, especially when she was excited. "Hurry up, that new zombie move came out today and I want to see it before the theaters get to crowded."
"Okay, okay," I said trying to calm her down, "Slow down for a second, I still have to get up." Making a scene of getting up as slowly as humanly possible I smirked as I saw Jenny's impatient face grow steadily worse.
"Enough!" she finally said grabbing my hand and pulling me out of my half sitting position, "Zombies, now!" The cool thing about Jenny is that she was in to all the things Phil and I were. Action, games, movies, books, you name it and Jenny would almost certainly like it. So far the only thing we had found she didn't like were Brussels sprouts.
And so with a bouncing Jenny we made our way to the theaters.
(LINE BREAK)
Five o'clock found us sitting in Phil's living room, watching another episode of some foreign anime he had imported. One thing that really united us was our love of Japan. In truth we had first met at our elementary schools Japanese club. Jenny had started it in hopes of finding others who shared her fascination and lo and behold, in came Phil and I.
Others had joined our club over the years, but most didn't last past the first month. Apparently our 'obsession' was a little too intense and we scared off even the Asians. The only other member of our club was Sally, a shy, glasses wearing girl who loved Japan as much as we did. We tried to invite her to hang out with us, but she turned us down every time so we only really saw her at the club.
She had turned us down on today as well which was a shame, seeing how awesome it was. We saw Jenny's zombie movie, 'Death Walks Again 2' basically and hour of screaming girls and bloody zombie bits, classic Jenny. After that we went out for lunch at a little hole in the wall taco shop. Horrible premises but really good tacos. Something about the meat there just has that 'wow' factor, either that or it's laced with something. So far the vote stands 1 laced to 1 really good meat with Phil still undecided.
After out meal Jenny managed to convinced us to come over to her house to play Zelda, which basically meant, 'Watch me while I play the game and you sit in the corner and listen to me complain about any flaws the game has' time. I tell you, she has a seriously unhealthy obsession with those games. If you asked her she could probably quote the whole dialog from any of the games… word for word. So after messing around and watching Jenny beat Wind Waker for the umpteenth time we managed to convince her to do something else.
That pretty much brings us up to date. Jenny complained a lot about not having enough 'Zelda Time' but Phil and I were less than sympathetic. We arrived a Phil's house, popped in a DVD and here we are.
"Common, can't we at least get some pop corn," Jenny whined.
"Just wait, this is the good part," Phil replied. Jenny huffed and folded her arms over her chest into complaint position, glaring between Phil and the TV. After about five minutes Phil got uncomfortable enough to cave, "Alright, alright. I'll go get some pop corn." And to answer your question, yes, Jenny scowls are very scary.
Of course Jenny perked up immediately, "Thanks Phil." She called out after him. I vaguely heard him grumble something that sounded suspiciously like curse. With Phil gone and the movie paused Jenny's attention span withered. After fiddling around for a second and trying to decide what to do she looked to me, "So how's the family doing."
While not a 'forbidden' subject, my family life was usually left untouched, so I could tell that Jenny was very bored at the moment. "Ok I guess," I replied with a sigh, "Mom's managed to hold on to her new job so food this month wasn't to big a problem." My mother had resorted to alcoholism after my father's departure and had trouble holding onto a job. The alimony from my father was barely enough to cover our living expenses so whenever my mom was between jobs I had to scrounge up food money. Luckily my martial arts instructor is kind and offered me a good job teaching when he was busy. The perks of being a second degree black belt were nice. "Yeah, all in all not to shabby."
"Oh that's good," she said, "My family's doing great—" With these words Jenny launched into a longwinded discussion about how her dads new business was doing so well and all that stuff. I don't think she was trying to be mean about her having more money, Jenny's just clueless sometimes, but it still hurt a little. Luckily I was saved by Phil arriving with the popcorn.
We resumed the movie and for several hours all my problems were lost to the magic of computer animation. By the end of the show it was getting late, looking outside I was disheartened to find it raining.
"Dang man, I'm going to have to walk home in the rain." I complained.
"If you wait a while I'm sure my mom could take you," Phil said.
"Naw, its ok, my homes not to far from here." Phil's house was located about a ten minute walk from mine. Over the course of the day we had been picked up by Phil's mother and brought over from Jenny's. "Plus I don't want to inconvenience you mother."
"I'm sure it'll be fine with her," Phil replied.
"It's okay, anyways your mom has to take Jenny home." Paul groaned at that.
"Hey, I'm not that bad," Jenny huffed.
Paul groaned again, "Yeah but I have to be in the car to, and it's like a twenty minute drive."
I laughed at that and with a wave and a quick good bye I was out the door and on my way home. The rain was just a light drizzle now and actually fairly warm, so I wasn't complaining. I actually liked the rain, it didn't happen much in my deserty hometown.
Whistling bland tunes I slowly made my way home, basking in the rain.
(LINE BREAK)
I instantly knew something was wrong. I had just climbed the rickety staircase that led to my apartment when I found the door left open, that never happened. I made sure of it.
Entering the kitchen and quickly closing the door behind me I noticed how all the lights in the kitchen, and most of the apartment were off. The only light in the whole building was coming from the direction of the living room. I slowly made my way into it, looking around.
On the floor to the left I spied my mother, passed out on the ground with an empty bottle next to her.
"Skyler!" the shrill cry came from behind me. Turning around quickly I spotted my sister being held by a grungy looking man who held a knife at her throat.
"Don't move or the girl gets it," he hissed threateningly.
Quickly taking stock of the situation I slowly held up my hands to show that I was unarmed, "Now now, calm down, there's no need for that. What do you want?" I said in a slow, calm voice. I slowly began edging my way to the coffee table, my miniscule movements hardly noticeable.
The man licked his lips before looking across the room in a shifty manner, "… I heard you've got sugar here." He finally said.
'What?! He broke into my house and took my sister hostage for sugar!' I thought. Seeing my confused expression just seemed to infuriate the man, he shook my sister roughly, pushing the knife in harder.
"You know, sugar, the powder, Crack!" he shouted out the last word, a maniacal look on his face.
'Wha—cocaine? Why the heck would we have that here?' I thought. Letting none of my emotion show through I slowly closed the last inches between me and the coffee table. Now all I needed was an opening.
"Calm down, you can take as much as you want, it's over there," I said pointing towards the kitchen. He turned towards where I was pointing, 'There!'
Quick as a flash I pulled the butter knife that had been resting on the table and threw it underhand at the man. As it was leaving my hand I reached for a bobby pin that had been resting near the knife and threw it at the man in a wide sweeping motion. With a large clang the butter knife hit the hand holding the knife, causing said knife to spin off to the left.
Just as the man was beginning to process the pain the bobby pin made contact with his eye. With an earsplitting shriek he dropped Sarah and clutched at his eye. By now I was already halfway across the room. Two more steps and I was upon him. Slugging the larger man in the chest and causing him to bend foreword with a pain "Oomph," I grabbed his head and slammed it into my knee. With a cracking sound he went limp and fell to the floor. Dropping down I punched him in the back of the neck, just to make sure he was really out for the count.
"Sarah are you ok?" I asked walking over and gathering my little sister up into a hug. She just started crying and blathering incomprehensibly. "Calm down Sarah," I said, slowly rubbing her back and holding her close, "It's ok, it's all over."
After about ten minutes she calmed down enough to tell me what happened. "M—mom came home late again and was d—drinking." She got out between sad hiccups, "She just sat in the d—door way and drank. T—then he came." She scowled at the man when she said it, "He snuck up b—behind mommy and hit her in the head. T—then he c—came towards me and started yelling about w—where it was. I d—don't even know what i—it is." She chocked out.
"It's okay,' I said, "Now I need you to be tough and wait here for a minute." After receiving a nod I set her down gently and got up. Walking towards that man I heard him groan, a sharp kick to the side quieted him down. Dragging his body to the kitchen was hard but I managed. Pulling him up into a chair I got some chicken wire and tied his arms behind the chair. Tying his ankles together I then tied them to the chair too. Wrapping his upper torso in the wire I made sure he was secured to the chair and that there was no way for him to move.
Leaving the unconscious man in the kitchen I returned to the living room and found Sarah next to mom. "Sarah," she looked up at me with big eyes, "Go get the phone and call 911, tell them a robber broke in." I said. "Don't worry about mom, I make sure she's alright." Sarah nodded and ran across the room to the phone and started to dial.
Crouching down next to mom I carefully rolled her onto her side, wincing when I saw the injury. A bleeding crack was visible in her scalp, a blunt injury, probably made by the butt of the mans knife. Looking around I spotted an abandoned pillowcase on the floor, left over from laundry day. Carefully raising mothers head I wadded up the pillow case and pressed it into the wound.
Sarah returned and hovered over me and sniffled, "The p—police say they're on their way."
"Good, okay Sarah, I'm going to need you to hold this to moms head," I said, indicating the pillow case.
"Why?" she questioned. Her tear stained face pulling into a frown, "You're not leaving right?"
"I have to Sarah, who knows how long it will take an ambulance to get here. I need you to hold this to moms head while I go get Dr. Fitzgerald." I said looking her in the eyes. Dr. Fitzgerald was a surgeon who lived in the big house down the block, he would know how to stop the bleeding. "Got it." I ended.
She looked at me a few seconds before nodding and crouching down to take my place, carefully cradling my moms head before applying pressure to the pillow case. I stood up and walked towards the kitchen, "Hurry back." Came the quiet command. I just nodded.
Walking through the kitchen I thumped the back of the mans head again, stubborn piece of work didn't want to stay unconscious. Walking across the room I opened the door and went outside. The rain was really pouring now. I thundered down the slick steps, not missing a beat.
'Why would the man think we had cocaine in our house.' The thought popped into my head, 'Nobody in my house would deal drugs… not even mom. He must have been delusional, or maybe he followed my mom home from the bar, mistaking her for someone else.' I frowned, why didn't my mom lock the door behind her. Drunk or not she knew that robberies happened frequently in this neighborhood. I wasn't as much angry about the door as I was that she had allowed that man to get a hold of Sarah. She was a sweet girl and deserved a better family than she had, definitely better than a family who let her get into a hostage situation. This last thought made me grimace.
I slowly calmed down, allowing the anger to leave me, like the steam that radiated from me in the rain. Coming to the crosswalk down the street I notice how foggy it was, I could barely see the other side of the street. I waited until I saw the faint green light indicating it was safe to cross… I should have waited.
I was halfway across before it happened. With a horrible screech a car materialized out of the fog to my left. Time seemed to slow, I could see the car coming, the water flying from its skidding tires. I even noticed the slight crack in the windshield, but I couldn't move. It was like my body was encased in gelatin, all my movements were sluggish, my reaction speed gone.
With a sickening thud I felt myself get lifted off the ground. A sense of weightlessness overtook me as I saw the street fly by beneath me. I hit the ground and suddenly everything was spinning. I felt the flesh tear off my face as I skidded across the asphalt but I felt no pain. I came rolling to a stop, the rain falling all around me, but I couldn't hear it. I vaguely noticed someone rushing out of their car with a panicked look on their face but that didn't hold my attention. I could see a viscous red fluid slowly forming a puddle around my head, it looked beautiful in the light of the cars headlamps, sparkling and radiating, it seemed alive.
My vision slowly started to tunnel around me, everything started to fade. I saw a pair of sneakers step in front of me, a black form kneeling over me. I wanted to move, but I couldn't. My last thoughts were, 'Wait, I still need to get Dr. Fitzgerald… mom needs help.' Everything faded to black.
(LINE BREAK)
Deep within the caverns of a land long lost to time, a giant form slowly stirred. With the sound of cracking stone two heavily lidded eyes opened, casting their golden glow into the darkness. Sound similar to that of an avalanche echoed out as the stone wall around the eyes seemed to shift, revealing that they were part of the creature, not just what it was resting on. A voice laden with power and prophecy thundered through the empty expanse,
"Brethren, we have found the ONE."
Ok, so I'd love to hear what you thought. So review! Anyway thanks for reading and sorry about the lack of anything Zelda, it improves in the next chapter.
Guppy out.