The Shadow's Lament
Disclaimer: NO, I do NOT own Zelda. Do you really need to ask?
Da Scribbler says: Gawd, what a dumb, cliche title...(hangs head in shame) Right, so this is the novelization of Twilight Princess I've been working on. It is nowhere near complete, but I thought I'd upload chap one for heck's sake - see if anybody likes it. I really tried to actually write something good with this. Not something just funny for my amusement (like the majority of my fanfics), but actually try to write something related to literature. Something angsty and good. Of course, I might've just failed miserably in that aspect, but at the very least, I'm sure it makes for good fanfiction.
The italic blurbs at the beginning of each part were at first just exercises in showing off (egotistical fanficer much?) but they don't work as nicely on fanfiction because the stupid document managers don't show tabs and spaces...so I'm rather disappointed about how that worked out. Have to modify them all now...bummer...
I forget exactly where I got the idea for this...I just was thinking of Midna one day and then thought it would be really cool to see things through her POV. Not that I am a hardcore Midna fan or anything...still hold a grudge against her being SO annoying during the beginning of the game. And the first time her laugh came outta the wiimote! Scared me. But yeah, I don't exactly hate her either...although she is STILL a douche. But writing this has given me an eerie amount of insight into her character. Funny how writing does that to you.
Enough talk (although, did you really read all that? You did? You astound me...). Get on to the fanfic - that'swhat I really want you to read.
Enjoy and review!
---i---twilight-------------------------- - - - - - - -
1. Shadow dwells in time continuous
No Light to ever touch its path
Eternal
Twilight
…resides…
***
Midna had lived her whole life in the Twilight – naturally. As the ruler of the Twili (officially, she was the Twilight Princess, but that name had always seemed entirely overly melodramatic to her), the ashen sky streaked with startlingly pale clouds and the midnight particles that hung as dust in the air was completely natural and even attractive to her.
She had never seen the Realm of Light nor did she wish to. Her realm was filled with a quiet, dark beauty that softly compelled. There had been times when she had stood hours on end, just letting the velvety dusk enfold her, murmuring its husky song to her. It was infinitely preferable to light – Midna most definitely did not like light. It was a boisterous thing, inconstant and stabbed like wicked knives into one's eyes. Therefore she did not understand the tone of longing in which the oldest residents of the Twilight realm – those who had been residents of the Light, but were banished to the Twilight - used whenever they spoke of the Realm of Light. What could that realm hold that could surpass the perfection of the Twilight – what could be more beautiful that the rivers of soft blackness, the plains of ashen earth, the soft rustling of the shadows?
No, she could not understand the attraction of the Light for some. And she doubted she ever would.
***
2. Whispers of far away evil
Imprisoned under ancient seal
With shadow
It Merges
…beware…
***
Zant was getting to be a nuisance.
Again and again, he had tried to establish himself as King of the Twili, firmly adamant in the belief that he deserved to be the next ruler. Midna was fully aware of his belief that the Twili had been imprisoned in the Twilight Realm for far too long, that it was an injustice to her people. But Midna knew better.
Although Zant may have harboured feelings of resentment towards the royal family of Hyrule – the royal family of the Light – these feelings were for the most part non-existent among her people. They may have been shared similar feelings initially, but that time had passed. The eons spent in the Twilight had eroded these feelings away until nothing but a vague memory of the Light reminded them that those feelings had existed at all. No, her people would not want to return to the light. They would not follow him, so his efforts were futile. He was a nuisance, but hardly a threat.
Or so she thought.
***
3. The Evil King rises anew
The Dark Power resurrected
Rightful rulers
O'erthrown
…the light fades…
***
Midna was running.
Her foot caught on her ridiculously long robe, and she nearly falls, but catches herself. Gasping, she sucks in another hasty breath and resumes her frantic sprinting. Behind her, he follows.
She was running. She was fleeing.
The screams of her people echo, linger in the air like the midnight specks which drift lazily upwards. Shadow beasts, their eyes gleaming with a terrible blankness are everywhere, they were called by him, they are with him, they have taken over. The Twilight was no longer just shadows, it was full of dark blackness, it was filled with evil. While her people scream, while they plead for help, for her help, she runs.
She was fleeing, turning her back on her realm, on her people.
She bursts out of the castle which used to be hers but was now his – funny how things were like that, one day the world made sense and the next it was turned inside out like some sort of sick joke - and continues to run. Her breaths are laboured, her limbs are heavy, and there is a thrice-damned stitch in her side which she tries to ignore but cannot. Still, he follows.
She flees, but not fast enough. He is upon her.
She whips around, eyes wide with fright, and he is there. His heavy iron helmet-mask covers the majority of his face, but she can see his smile. His sick smile, triumphant, mocking and devoid of sanity. Yes, that was what Zant was – he was insane. Something in him had broken and that was how the evil had reached out and seized him and now he was upon her.
There was no escape.
She retreats with faltering steps. If only she could stop the wretched trembling of her legs. She was the Twilight Princess – she should be able to at least die with some semblance of dignity.
Ah, but I'm not going to kill you, princess. It'll be far more amusing if you see what you have let happen to your kingdom – to your people! Twilight Princess and you run away while your people are suffering! I never would have fled. I would have stood for our people. I know what is best for the Twili, and it is I who shall lead them, not you – YOU LITTLE WRETCH!
He raised his sleeved hand then as if to smite her, and she raises her hand in a futile attempt to protect herself. And then something, some shadow seizes her then, and she is consumed by it, she cannot see, she cannot hear, all she feels is herself shrinking, being diminished somehow and then she is on the floor. With an unsteady breath, she gasps, and pushes up with unsteady limbs, her small hands on the paved floor – her hands. Her small, small hands. Were they like that before? Uncomprehendingly she stares at them and then the true horror of what happened seizes her
(-din, nayru, and farore, he turned me into an ugly little imp-)
and she screams and screams as her life and her realm lies in ruins around her.
***
4. Hope gone, light lost, the dark has won –
But wait.
Forgotten Myths
Magic, Tribe, Antiquity
Beast
Hero
...buried in time...
REMEMBERED
***
How long had it been? Seconds, minutes, hours, years, time dragging on end, infinite, meaningless, an instant, forever? She was lost, all was lost, the dark had taken over and both realms were lost, lost, LOST!
Princess…
She staggered mindlessly, eyes blank, unseeing. She had no destination. She lurched onwards because she had to, she had to do something, or the guilt inside her
(-the guilt for doing absolutely NOTHING! what a useless little-)
that was barely restrained would break loose and rip her apart.
…can you hear us?
Was there no hope at all left? Her people screamed in pain, and the very realm seemed to weep, a broken murmuring that seeped in every shadow in the land.
Princess…can you hear us?
Can you hear us scream?
Dear goddesses, this was all her doing. Wretched little imp that she was, to have fled like a white livered, spineless coward.
Princess, why have you deserted us? YOU turned your back on US, on YOUR PEOPLE, those YOU SWORE TO PROTECT!
Can you feel our pain? Can you feel what you let happen to us?
We SCREAAAAM, We SCREAAAM IN THE PAIN YOU INFLICTED ON US!
If only she had stayed…if only she had resisted him…if only she hadn't been so weak…
Can you hear us?
Can you hear us SCREAM?
If only her mind would go dark, black…like her kingdom that now was submerged in the void…and let the hope die…
No.
Things could not end this way.
Not then, not now, not ever!
She could not let things be this way. Zant may have gained his unholy power but he had forgotten…he had forgotten about the most ancient and powerful of their tribe's magic.
The Fused Shadows.
She could've laughed, in spite of her exhausted state. The fool! The fool had completely forgotten about the Fused Shadows, the ultimate shadow that had been broken into 4 pieces, one of which had been passed down from generation to generation of the rulers of the Twilight. The fool had forgotten to take it from her!
All it took was for her to will it to appear from that immaterial vault that she carried with her wherever she went, and it appeared, with a low, controlled humming. Never before had she recognized that humming for what it was: restrained power waiting to be freed.
Her crimson eyes went flat with hatred and her mouth widened first into a smile, then into a feral snarl, all needle sharp teeth and writhing tongue. Yes. She would gather the forbidden power. And with it, when she found Zant again – Goddess help him then – she would unleash it on him and crush the unholy power with which he had wrested the Twilight Realm from her grasp. She would free her realm and her people – she had to.
She had failed her world once. She would redeem herself.
***
- - - - - - - --------------------------i--end----
And there we go. Hope you enjoyed one of my occasional attempts at actual writing. The horror style writing was kinda inspired off of Stephen King books...if you haven't read them, you should. Well, that is, if you're not afraid of stepping in a few puddles (and sometimes lakes) of horror, bloody and gore.
Anyways, don't be expecting an update for - I dunno - say, a month at the least. I don't want to post everything I have and then agonize over finishing the next chapter.
And before you go, you absolutely must review. Right now.
I mean it.
Done? Good. Bye now.
~Da Scribbler