Carcass of the Saint.


"In our world, we've long believed that the Hero would appear as a divine beast." - Midna


Link calmly walked through the eerie silence of the Sacred Grove. Stone and rubble littered the holy ancient ruins of what was once a great and grand temple. Its few remaining pillars stood tall and mighty, as they reached up into the calm blue sky side by side with the majestic trees of the forest that had reclaimed what was always theirs.

The bright silver sword was held loosely in the boys hand as he slowly approached the pedestal where he had taken it from. The air became thicker and thicker in anticipation, the sword itself rejoicing, ready to fly into the pedestal itself if the boy wouldn't move quicker. He moved closer and closer, gripping the sword more and more tightly as everything around the Sacred Grove seemed to come to an immediate stop the moment Link stood directly in front of the pedestal in which the sword had made its home.

This was a time for rejoicing, a time for celebration, the demon was slain and the hero had ended the final battle triumphant. In castle town the cartels that had held the population to ransom were slaughtered by the new Malo mart. Bridges and roads that were lost to dark and mighty forces had been repaired. Beasts and monsters that tore the earth in two and bought darkness onto the land now fertilised the soil with their remains. This was the time to rebuild, to march as a collective people to a new, bright and shining future.

Yet in the age old temple something was amiss. Specifically with the young boy that had slain the demon who had caused so much strife in the land of Hyrule.

Link looked at the pedestal with grim determination and gripped the sword tightly, he lifted it up into the air and with a defiant scream he...


Link walked through the halls of the marble castle at a leisurely pace.

"Watch out!" a voice shouted his ear as four Lizalfos ran towards the hero. Their swords shining in the brightly lit castle, as they shrieked their battle cries.

Three.

"Link!" the voice shrieked once more.

Two.

Bang!

"Oh." He heard Midna mutter as all four of the beasts fell to the hero's mortal draw. Link smiled at his companion, sheathed his sword and carried on through the castle."That was dangerous!" he heard her say as the smile on his face grew even larger. It wasn't everyday that he'd get one over on his perceptive companion. Although he had gotten many more moments like this recently. The most likely reason as to why was that she had recently become more worried about him, and seemed to be a little less adventurous and wasteful with Links life than when they ad first met.

It was an odd feeling, having Midna act as protective and as worried as she was, it wasn't a bad feeling, but it was one that made him want to hug his little shadow and rub her hair. Of course, because her hair doubled as a big red magical hand that could easily throw Link into a pool of lava on Death mountain from the tip of Snowpeak Link chose to walk on, making sure that his grin was still plastered onto his face.

Maybe he would rub her hair, possibly if they had to camp in the castle as they had in some of the dungeons, when she'd be tired and less likely to make the effort to throw him off of a mountain. But if he had to choose between Ganons army and Midnas hair hand right now, he'd choose Ganon.


The thunder of hooves, the shrieks of Bulbins.

Fire, fire the wagon's on fire!

The flames leapt up, growing and growing. Threatening to take the young Zora boy and the girl that held onto him with all the care her heart could muster.

Wind and rain, rain of arrows!

The prince and the girl shook, they cried and screamed, weak and weary. Then help, a gust of wind puts the fires at bay.

The action was enough to jar the Prince awake from his sleep of almost-death and in his fear all he saw and felt was the presence of the young girl. A feeling that seemed to put all of the never ending chaos at rest, if only for a moment. Before the warm dark sleep engulfed him once more.


The news spread swiftly amongst the Zora, as if it was a river and had a life of its own. The Hero had saved their Prince. It was evident now that he was the Chosen One because he was wearing the outfit woven and forged by their late and benevolent King. There were stories of how he was greeted by the spirit of the late queen. How he had freed the Goron that was stranded underwater from his stone prison, cleansed their water temple and unblocked the flow of their life giving river.

Champion they named him, Champion of the Zora people. Wondering where he was at this moment.

Then when the news came of a young girl who was one of his best friends; the stories of how she had cared for the Prince in the Hylian settlement when everyone else had left him for dead. How a young girl had waited besides him, even when her memory had been lost turned her into an idol for the Zora, a symbol of kindness and hope in the dark time that they were marching through.

It dosn't take long for the gossip to move on to new, more trivial subjects.

It didn't take long before the Zora people forgot about the young hero.


"Hey, why don't you try talking to the girl?" Midna asked Link as he walked into the fields east of Castle Town.

"It won't work."

"Hey?" she asked in a concerned tone as he just continued to walk forwards.

"Hey!" she screamed in frustration, "Hey! Listen to me! Don't you walk away from ME Mr important hero boy!"


The three Goron elders stood With Darabus, the tribal patriarch of his people as they told him of the dark spirits that had consumed him and his people.

"Urgggh!" The large Goron groaned, holding his head in shame with one hand and pounding the earth with his other. "I shame us!" he growled, as the tribal elders waited for their Patriarch to quell his rage.

It took some time before the Patriarchs fist stopped pounding the earth and even longer before he spoke, still covering his face as if it was the mask of his shame. "How?" he asked in a tone of voice that was unusually calm for the passionate leader.

"WHO STOPPED ME!" he roared at the elders who remained calm "Who saved our people?"

"The small brother." said the voice of an elder, although Darabus still did not know which one. "The green one"

"Ha. Make him Patriarch." Darabus murmured, "He is strongest, he should be leader."

"No." The said in unison as their once proud Patriarch looked at them with confusion etched into his stone face.

"WHY NOT?"

"You are our Patriarch"

"I am not the strongest. I was... I am the weakest of our people." He said, showing his face and telling the Elders of his tribe the shame that he now felt, the shame they knew that he would feel when he found out.

"You are our Patriarch." An elder repeated.

"Where is the boy, I will bring him here myself. If you won't."

"You won't find him."

"Why not?"

"We don't know where he is. No one knows where he is."


Link slowly walked through the desert; glad that the sun had begun to set, and that due to the lower temperatures they were allowed movement across the desert. Now the thought of reaching the Arbiter Grounds had become a real possibility. It was an odd trip for the young boy; the sand in the desert reminded him of sand from the river's edge but golden and never ending. He wondered for a moment if the sand was made out of gold, perhaps to ask Midna and find out what her answer would be...

Or maybe not. It was a rather stupid question, and if there was anyone in the world that scared him, it was her and her hair that could turn into a huge orange arm. He recalled the first time he saw it and realised that there was no way he could beat her in an arm wrestling contest.

He said to himself that he wouldn't ask her the question, he enjoyed her company more than anything else but he knew that stupid questions would just serve to get her angry. Then she'd go yap yap yap yap yap.

Then again, she had changed her attitude since they had first met; she had been silent for the vast majority of their trip through the desert. In fact Link recalled that it was only recently that she had been acting differently, in comparison to how she was when they had originally met. It was odd at first when she became silent for more than thirty minutes, but he had assumed that their meeting with Zant had something to do with that. Then when her new personality lingered Link asked himself if the brief moment of quiet was a gift from the gods, it seemed like one.

Although now his companions silence had become unnerving, making him feel something that he hadn't felt before on this journey, alone. In the stark silence of the desert he admitted to himself that he felt alone. Yes she did help him when he'd need his equipment, and she did come out whenever he wished to ask her something. But her tone had changed, it was was kind, caring, and all of a sudden, in the silence of the desert Link began to worry about her. He wondered if he should ask her if anything was wrong.

The last things she had said to him were about her tribe. The Twili, banished from this world for trying to take the power of the Sacred Realm for their own desires, banished from the Light into the Twilight by the Goddesses for what they had done. He recalled that she had said it with some self loathing, in comparison to before when she regarded the Twilight with high regard. It made him wonder which one was the real Midna, the imp that had mocked and teased him before, or this new shadow that he knew in his heart wouldn't leave his side.

He thought of the idea of asking her, and in the silent emptiness of the rapidly cooling desert the thought seemed to consume him. 'Ask her' his mind seemed to say, 'just talk, you've done it before' the voice in his mind whispered once more, yet he didn't seem to have the strength to say anything. He had spoken before, although speaking had never been his strength, but ever since the journey had begun it just seemed to become harder. He never used to ask Midna anything, she'd talk and he'd listen, he'd always been good at listening. Should he ask if everything was alright? The young boy wondered, saddened at the thought that speaking to a friend, something which most people could do with ease, he, the hero found as difficult as climbing up the side of Snowpeak naked.

Link was so caught up in his endless train of thought that he hadn't noticed that he had stopped walking.

"Link?" came the familiar melodic voice of his companion as her shadowy form rose out of his shadow. "Did you stay out in the sun too long?" She asked with a concerned tone, the same tone that continued to unnerve the young boy as he shook his head to reply 'No'. "Well let's get to the mirror chamber as quickly as possible, it's our only way to get to Zant."

"Midna" his raspy voice suddenly whispered, causing the boy to wonder why he had opened his mouth.

"Yeah?" she asked, positioning herself in front of Links face as he began to wonder in the depths of his mind what in the world he could ask her.

"What do you think the sand made out of?"

She didn't know the answer, but as she talked about how stupid his question was, Link was oddly comforted by the knowledge that his former companion had not completely vanished.


Have you ever felt loneliness? Link did, he was back home in Ordon and he felt completely empty inside. It was loneliness, resentment, anger, and a deep deep sense of betrayal. He recalled Zelda telling him in her dammed infinite wisdom that this was not what he was supposed to be feeling.

He however thought that he had every right to feel however he wanted.

She was his friend.

And it hurt. It HURT.

She was his friend and now she was gone.

She WAS his friend and now...

Gone without any warning. Giving him nothing that could have prepared him for what she did.


"Link… You saw how nasty that monster was, right? The evil within the shards is more powerful than you can imagine… "


Have you ever felt loneliness?

Abandonment?

We all have, and it hurts.


"You know, we could be assembling something truly terrible here… "


But imagine how it felt for Link, a boy whose world revolved around loyalty.

Betrayal...


"It could be something that we'll ultimately have to destroy..."


Betrayal felt like death.

But he knew through his grief that he had to move on. He just wished that he could find out why she did what she did. He asked the gods, without malice or hatred, but with desperation as deep as the sea, "Why?"

Needless to say he received no answer, but he had to move on.

Link had returned to Ordon from the desert, and so had the rest of the children. The town was joyful and happy at the reunion after what seemed an eternity of time to the parents who were separated from their children. Everyone was so happy to be back with the ones that they had cared about and never wanted to leave each other again. It seemed adequate that Link wanted to leave and be reacquainted with the horizon he had become so familiar with, never truly having a family in Ordon, no matter how much the villagers loved him, and how much he loved them in turn.

He looked at his equipment, putting it away in places where certain inquisitive children won't be able to find the pointy and dangerous tools. His mind recited the things that he had to put away, his jars of Fairy's Tears and Special Chu Jelly, his Spinner, the Dominion Rod. Most of the things that had come in handy during his journey but were now no more than extra baggage.

"Link?" came Ilia's voice from beyond the door before she opened the door with a creak. The young lady put her head in, and upon seeing that Link wasn't in an embarrassing situation smiled at the young boy and walked in. "Hi Link" the young lady said with a smile as the young boy nodded and smiled back, holding his fishing rod and placed it besides the wall, next to a broom. "So you're unpacking?" Ilia asked as the young boy nodded, looking back to his jar of Faries tears that hung of the edge of his shelf and deciding to place the bottle of valuable liquid somewhere safer.

"Link." She asked the young boy once more with worried eyes and sat down on one of his stools, motioning for him to sit down beside her.

He looked at her with curious eyes, placing his full attention on her as she began to talk in a quiet, frightened voice, "You know we've gotten back home, right?" she asked as he nodded slowly, wondering what she was going to ask him, "and dad's happy" she continued at a faster pace, "and everybody's back together and everything. But" she said pausing, continuing when Link gave her a prompt to carry on, "Link" she whispered under her breath "I don't want to be here."

His eyes opened wide in shock. This was the last thing he had expected from the young girl who seemed more than happy going about her daily chores amongst familiar people, in a place she loved. Of course, he also realised that he could have said the same thing about himself.

She had placed her hands in front of her face and had begun to weep. "I should want to stay, but I can't" she said in between her tears. "I haven't even told daddy" she finished, slowly ending her sobs, not wanting to look at Link's reaction to what she had said. Wanting to leave, it wasn't what she would do.

Link stared at his friend in surprise, this was the last thing he had expected from her. He expected a proclamation of undying affection, or perhaps of how she wished to hear stories regarding his journey that he would rather not tell the other children. But this, leaving? Link had assumed that he was the only one with such a desire and as he looked upon Ilia he realised that he wasn't the only one affected by the invasion, that he wasn't the only one who had changed and was lost, trying his hardest to find his new place in life.

One look at her fragile form told him that she was determined to leave but needed to tell someone. She wouldn't tell her dad, as kind and caring as he was Link knew that the mayor had a tendency to worry for Ilia as if she was always a baby. Link had the advantage of knowing about the dangers of the outside world in ways she didn't, and had the advantage over Rusl of being around the same age as she was.

"Link?" she asked, breaking the young boy out of his thoughts.

He realised that she wanted him to say something, help her to get out of the storm of emotions that she had lost herslef in. "Where will you go?" he asked her, amused by the confused expression that manifested itself on her face.

"Maybe Karakio, or to see the Zora, Just to see how Ralis is doing?" she told the adventurer unsurely.

It all made perfect sense. In an odd, mixed race fairy tale sort of way. Ilia had always been a caring soul. An arrogant, pampered, self righteous soul, but a caring one nonetheless. It seemed to make sense that when she had found the young Zora, ill and abandoned her motherly instincts taken control whilst her memory had abandoned her. Include that to the knowledge that she couldn't be motherly to the battled hardened boy, the children who had faced their own ordeals, or her father who forced a reversal of roles with his assertive daughter, she had to find someone to care for.

But still, a question bothered Link as he asked the young girl, "why?" in his quiet and curious voice.

"Why, what?" she replied in a confused manner as Link sighed at having to find a way of explaining his thoughts in a small amount of words.

"Why leave?" he asked, hoping that he would get a proper reply this time.

She sat down for a half a minute, her face held in her hand as she wondered why exactly she wanted to leave. In the end she just said, "Because I want to." As Link wondered if in between losing her memory, and attempting to remember directions to desolate half abandoned villages, this girl would ever give him a simple and straight answer. He knew she never would.

"But Link." She continued, "I think I might need some help."

"Hmm?" Link murmured, raising an eyebrow as if asking Ilia what sort of help she would want from him.

She fidgeted for a moment, before asking Link with her eyes averted to the floor. "Well, I wanted to ask you if I might, get something to help me. Like a sword to protect-"

Link coughed in surprise, with his eyes wide open. A sword!

"What!"

He asked himself if she even knew what she was supposed to do with the pointy end.

"Well, will you help?" she asked with irritation in her voice, clearly understanding the thoughts that were going through the boys head. "Well?"

Link paused for a moment but walked over towards his table and picked up his Ordon sword. He walked back to Ilia and looked deep into her eyes before pointing to the handle and telling her in a stern tone, "You're supposed to hold this bit."

"LINK!" she screeched, grabbing the hilt roughly out of Links hand. "Now look here mister. I know how to use your pointy stick!" she waved said pointy stick violently in front of the boy with the intention of showing him that she meant business. All that it did was make Link hope his nose was still attached by the end of the day should she carry around like this.

"Now listen to me Link, I need your help, ok!" Ilia said firmly. "So no more of your not so funny jokes. Got that?" She roared shaking the flat end of the sword in front of Link.

He looked at her, behind his reflection in the Ordon sword that looked back at him. In response Link grabbed the sword just above Ilias hand and twisted it so that he couldn't see his reflection, but rather the sharp side of the blade. He looked towards Ilias confused expression, with a calm one of his own and said, "You use the pointy part."

"LIIINKK!" she screamed. "You're going to help me. NOW. Got that? Or I'm going to use your pointy stick and chop off your nose. Got that?"

He nodded, hoping that she wouldn't drop the sword, mainly because he had unwisely put the pointy bit in front of his face. Specifically his nose.

"Link." Ilia sighed, moving the blade away from Links face after noticing that he had been worried about getting himself unnecessarily wounded. "I need your help. Will you help me?" she asked, knowing that despite here pervious bravado she wouldn't last very long against the hordes of monsters and bandits that lay beyond the entrance of the village. That she didn't want to see the heartbreak on the faces of the other villagers at seeing their small and fragile community break into pieces moments after it had been rebuilt. "Please." She asked once more, "Will you help me?"

Yes, he nodded his head as the young girl closed her eyes and sighed in relief, feeling a tremendous weight lift off of her shoulders. But then feel it crash upon them once more when he heard him tell her, "but you have to tell Bo first."

She left her friend's house, taking his sword with her and hiding them in the bushes when she was certain that no one was looking. She couldn't tell her dad. It was in her nature to be caring, and to see his heart break. She knew the sight would break her heart as well.


I hope you like, and if you did so that you'd find the time to do so. But even if you don't, thanks for reading.

Next chapter coming up soon.