A/N: Well, hi there! I know I haven't been working on Shadowed Truth lately... But I do have something good for you readers~... I've been working on a collab with LeahAF from DeviantArt (she's ProFinEnce on here). This is it~! We don't own LoZ, but we own our plot and OCs. The pairings are... BluexRed, VioxShadow, GreenxVaati... And more that shall be revealed later on in the story. Enjoy the tale we're about to spin for you...
Chapter 1: Paint the Sky With Charcoal
Dark Clouds
It was a dark, cloudy day in the fields of Hyrule and our four heroes all stared up at the sky.
"A storm is coming..." Green said uneasily.
"There's more to this storm than meets the eye," Vio added quietly.
"I think the rain will do the fields some good!" voiced an optimistic Red.
"Shut up, Red! Everyone is trying to be serious!" Blue shouted, whacking the smallest Link in the head with his hammer.
"I'm sorry! Umm, it looks... bad?" Red tried weakly.
Blue grunted a disgruntled reply before turning toward the clouds as well, his hammer slung over his shoulder.
"We should get some rest. Tomorrow we'll be heading towards the castle, right? Maybe the Princess will have some ideas," Green said weakly, trying to mediate between them as best he could.
Vio was quiet, standing a bit apart from the other three teens and staring up at the sky. "This storm looks like serious trouble... If it even is a storm," he muttered, speaking too softly for them to hear.
It was just like I predicted; the storm brought us nothing but trouble. We made the foolish mistake of not assigning someone to be look-out, too... And now look what's happened. There are hundreds of monsters- all coming from the South, it seems- and we're surrounded.
When night came, all hell broke loose. We all went to bed only to wake up completely surrounded by monsters!
I remember everyone keeping close to Red. That wimp isn't much of a fighter, after all. Even though we were being careful not to, we somehow lost track of him in all the commotion... Dammit!
"Red? Red! Where the hell did you go this time?" I shout as I tear through the woods, moving fast. Vio was right. Goddess-damned bookworm, why does he always, always have to be right? This storm is more than meets the eye. With it came a whole entire army of monsters! Hyrule is slowly burning to the ground...
Death Mountain has erupted and the skies are fogged with ash. Vio mentioned that someone had actually forced it to blow its top, claiming that the volcano itself wouldn't have erupted if it was left undisturbed. How in Hyrule does he know that? Hmph. That's the least of my problems at the moment. I have to deal with Red first. The little idiot is lost somewhere, as usual, and I can't find him! Only the Goddesses know what kind of trouble he could get himself into!
Damn it all! When I find that little idiot I'm going to grind him into sand! I clench my fist around the hammer in my hand, chasing after the fleeing monsters. I swear I'll kill those creeps if they have Red! J-just to show him what I'm gonna do to him, of course! It's not like I like that stupid sissy or anything; everything about him ticks me off!
"Blue!" Red yells in a panicked voice as the crowd of monsters grows denser and denser, separating him from the others.
"Green! Vio!" the boy struggles to get back to his companions, but he's grabbed and thrown over the shoulder of a darknut before he can get very far, knocking the breath out of him for a moment.
"L-let me go! Green! Vio! BLUE!" he screams, but his desperate cries go unheard; lost in the commotion as the shortest, most innocent Link is carried off amidst the chaos...
~time-skip~
"Wh-where are you taking me?" Red asks fearfully, his eyes swimming with as-of-yet-unshed tears.
"..."
There is no response from the darknut, who simply continues to carry the boy as if he's nothing more than a light sack of rupees.
'Is it mute?' Red thinks to himself curiously. 'Poor thing...'
~time skip~
It seems like hours have passed to the terrified Red Link, though he can't be sure. Before long, they enter a sparsely populated camping ground. Not sure if he should be relieved or not, the boy merely pouts.
Red is suddenly thrown to the ground, a shrill squeak escaping his lips at the harsh treatment.
"Eek...!"
"Stand." The command is harsh and unyielding.
Red scurries to his feet, wincing as he feels thousands of tiny pinpricks shoot through his numb legs and feet. The boy is far too terrified to say anything as he stares fearfully at his captor, surprised that it suddenly spoke.
'I-it's not mute! It was just ignoring me... T.T '
Slowly getting over the fact that the large armored creature isn't as mute as he thought, Red's stiff, frozen pose slackens slightly and he shivers a little.
A whistling sound slices through the silence from behind with a deafening crack, followed by a shrill scream.
Red instantly clasps his hands to his knees, doing his best to grasp his lower calf. Tears instantly overflow down his cheeks as the boy shakes in terror.
"I said stand, 'red hero,'" the darknut says brusquely. "Do you want to get yourself killed?"
"N-n-no, sir..." Red mumbles timidly, even more alarmed than before. He gets up again, standing so quickly that he nearly falls. A snicker comes from behind Red as he frantically tries to regain his balance.
"Hmph. I knew I should have taken one of the others, it's just my luck that I decided to choose the crybaby," Red's darknut grumbles to itself, annoyed.
"Hey, is that little kid seriously a hero? You're BLIND, mate!" another darknut, the one who snickered, yells. Unlike the other darknuts, whose armor is gray in color, this one's armor is red.
"Shut it, will you? He has one of the Four Swords, which is proof enough," it snaps at the snickering darknut, shaking its large broadsword at its annoying comrade.
"He's so wimpy compared to the others! Are you SURE that thing's not fake?"
"WHAT PART OF SHUT IT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? SHUT IT!"
Red shivers, bringing his hands close to his chest. The tension between the two darknuts is making him nervous.
'Th-this is scary...'
Their shouting match brings them closer toward the middle where Red stands in a frozen mess. As they continue to advance on each other, Red side-steps, gaining the attention of the 'not-so-nice' darknut. The crueler of the two monsters grabs him roughly by the arm and lifts him into the air.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, you little brat?"
"N-n-nowhere! I-I wasn't going a-anywhere, r-really! I was just t-trying to get out of the w-way!" Red cries as he struggles to get out of the creature's strong grip.
"Think you can escape, huh? Little idiot! I'll have to teach you a lesson!" the darknut roars as it throws the small "Link" to the ground before giving him a rough kick to the gut. Red whimpers and instinctively curls up into a ball with his knees to his chest and his arms shielding his face. The cruel darknut pulls out its weapon, a ball and chain, but is stopped by Red's darknut before it can strike him with it.
"Enough! We need him alive, you fool!" The grey-armored monster barks. "Have some honor. The boy is disarmed. Even if he weren't, in his state he clearly can't fight back!"
"Hmph. I wasn't going to kill the brat, just teach him a lesson. The little hero's in OUR turf now," the violent darknut grumbles.
"Get up," Red's unlikely protector says gruffly, completely ignoring the other darknut.
Red hesitantly scrambles to his feet again, stumbling in his haste.
Red's darknut sighs, more than likely rolling its eyes under the helmet. "Tie him up. I highly doubt he'll go anywhere, though."
