You're My Purpose

One - The Girl From the Cavern

Warning: OC. Angst. I hate it, but you love it I bet. That's why after the first two paragraphs, it gets uber cliche- MWAH HAH HAH HAAAH. No seriously, this is gonna make you cringe with its cliches, but I like stories like that, where the romance and thoughts are so sweet and innocent.

Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, as obvious as that statement may be. But I do own Link's pairing for this story, Malinda.

GO!

I couldn't see. I couldn't move. I could hardly breathe, if only to make matters worse. The lone capability I possessed at the moment was the frightening sense of hearing. I could hear every small sound possible that resonated through my surroundings. I could hear pacing steps compressing dirt underneath the bottom of shoes. I could hear the slight hisses of the unknown creatures that surely lurked around me. I could hear taunting crackles of an eagerly spreading fire. I could hear unheard cries of help that every clear mind knew would never come.

And as I listened to such painful sounds, I wondered just how in Hyrule Kingdom did we ever deserve a fate so horrid- so unimaginably horrid. How had things shattered into sick, broken pieces so suddenly? One moment the quiet serenity of Sedonna village transpired as it normally would, the next there are monsters... so many monsters, each green face adorned heavily with twisted smiles and eyes of the demons they were.

The men of the village did what they long prepared to do in such cases, as rare as one would think would occur, but they were greatly outnumbered and just as outmatched. The monsters that raided the village were mounted on fierce looking boars and their weapons varied from lit arrows that would burn our buildings to maces that would slaughter our lives. And that's what they did. With each passing moment in combat, a Sedonna warrior was struck down, never to awaken in the quiet serenity of his village again; to forever sleep in an aching memory of failure to his people.

The elderly and women weren't as able in the thought of bloodshed, to the disappointment of the angered village children who didn't quite comprehend the concept of death and who were starving for revenge. The men who hadn't fallen in the initial outburst of the ambush saw their battle loss before it happened and decided to do what they could to fend off the large dispatch of goblins while the rest of the villagers fled the area.

I myself had been included in the group evading to safety, if there was one. But unlike the others who left the village as if on instinct, I couldn't bare to leave my only home of seventeen years to the destruction of those foul monsters. I couldn't... I couldn't go. I couldn't take my eyes off the sight of the men of the village, whom I had known all my life, lose their life for my sake. I couldn't do it... no child like me should. I hesitated and I was captured because of it. Now here I lay, barely clinging to consciousness after the rough handling I endured from my captors.

They didn't take me far, but they did leave me to rot slowly in the back of a cavern as another form of entertainment for them, I suppose. I wondered how long they'd parade around me before losing interest and retreating to truly allow me to die alone. Maybe they'd stay until the very end and happily devour my meaningless corpse, like they didn't have a full buffet just outside the deep cavern.

The thought scared me immensely- had me shaking with fear that ravished at my insides like acid. I was but a mere child afterall. This ordeal never even processed as a possibility the short years I've gone about the normal village life. Everyone I'd ever known, my loved ones, my mother and yet to be born sibling, my papa... gone...

Gods, if you could understand this pain. It was unbearable. It hurt to the point where I silently wished the demons would do me one good deed and end it all. I wanted this nightmare to stop, I wanted nothing more than to wake up with a start in my bed in the middle of the night, face tense from the vivid horror and to have mother and father comfort me, tell me in that soothing voice that it was all a dream... that it wasn't real.

But this was real. And my crushing fear only seemed to prolong time so I could experience this hell to its fullest. And yet... in this bloody, darkness of hours came a patron of light. Bit by bit, the sounds of despair drowning my ears ceased. The sound of fire popping sadistic promises in my ears ceased. The sounds of hooves charging the grounds ceased. Though it did nothing to silence the shouting desperation to give any life I maintained back, it helped my shriveled heart, if only but a little.

Time passed on before the once serene village quieted completely in sound. A paralyzing new fear churned in my lower stomach, making it all that much harder to breathe properly. I began to break out in a cold sweat and my heart raced with hysteria. That soundless air could only be the aftermath of the storm, and I was to all of their undivided attention now. What they could do to me now I did not let myself ponder, yet my mind continued to warn me that it was coming.

A loud shout at the entrance of the cave echoed into my nerves and my body shook harder at the sound of the chiming rattles of a sword. I couldn't even swallow I was so petrified.

The goblins snickering around me appeared alarmed at the sound and rushed off to that part of the cavern. It left me momentarily curious, and desperately begging that it wasn't anything that could make my last minutes on earth anymore painful or heart-wrenching than it already was. A part of me that still foolishly latched onto hope wished it to be a miracle, someone to save me from my demise. I began to whine low pleas of help when the goblins never returned, reasoning that this must be a sign from the Gods above who kept me in their prayers.

A glow from around the walls of the cavern blinded my vision for a minute before I could readjust to the brightness. When I cleared my sight of the colorful splotches, my eyes rounded at the man running up to me.

He was... an ally, I presumed, a savior. I used the fraction of strength I had left to plunge myself into his arms, tears pouring near uncontrollably. Usually, I would never be so openly trusting, but you learn to suffice when on the precipice of non-existence.

"Help me..." I cried hopelessly into the man's chest, over and over again. "Help me sir, please."

He nodded his head in a quiet promise and held me there until I cried myself unconscious, which unsurprisingly didn't take long at all. Relief put me under faster than anything, really, but the idea of going under for only a short period displeased me so much. I couldn't bare awakening to the cruel reality I'd been dropped in. I was alone, I was orphaned, I was homeless, I was scared. I didn't know if this suffocating hatred was for the monsters that took my life away from me or for this man who had me thinking I had a life worth trying to live for.

The next I opened my eyes, it only took an eighth of a second to realize my heart's vanity. My body felt numb, cold, void of any feelings that weren't horrific. I couldn't go on like this, I refused to. What have I to live for? What was waiting for me out there besides ash and lifeless remains? I close my eyes only to have my lidded vision raided with replaying deaths. I hated this. I hated this fear, I hated this sadness, I hated this anger, Gods I hated everything right now. I'd prefer termination ten times over over this...

Somewhere along the lower level of the building, a door clicked open, shutting with a thud as it closed and for the longest time the only thing I could hear was the tapping of feet against the wooden floors. It drove me insane, had my teeth grinding in the most painful way. I suddenly had an interesting muse of how I became so incredibly bitter, but thought it as a result of being nothing but a hollow shell of my former caring self. Watch your life crumble right in front of your eyes, bitter wouldn't even begin to describe it.

I could tell when the owners of the footsteps reached the room I was placed in, the taps had grown louder, closer, clearer. Then they stopped. They still held distance from my bed though, probably lingering in the doorway. I didn't care. If they were not there to finish me off then they posed as little interest for me. My eyes could only roam the ceiling in self pity.

"Good, you've awaken. Are you in good health, Miss? You've suffered quite the detriment..." A male voice spoke softly.

He was helping my recovery. But how does one remedy trauma? How do you cure what's forever damaged? Was he naive or was he simply ludicrous? His steps started closer until they reached my bedside and we briefly locked eyes. He was an older looking man of tanned skin and crinkled, night hair cascading over his shoulders. Full lips parted to catch my attention, but I just... didn't have any left to give. My head rolled over in his direction slowly and I noticed the boy clad in green watching us silently.

"Miss," He began, as if in repeat. "Can you hear me?" He questioned warily, eyes searching my expression tentatively for any signs of discomfort.

"Yes..." I responded lowly.

A degree of relief seemed to brush against the middle aged man's sharply featured face and he smiled harmlessly as tanned fingers started to probe along my head in a cursory inspection. "How are you feeling? Does anything hurt in particular?"

I closed my eyes in lieu of spitting in the man's face at this. I wanted to tell him how everything hurt, how everything ached and pulsed with a sickeningly hollow feeling. But the words died on my tongue. "No..."

The boy who saved me, supposedly, came striding into the room and gave me a concerned once over. The sword on his back clanked noisily as he moved and his blue eyes never left my red ones. Now that I had the chance to get a good look at him, I couldn't look away. This was my hero...? This boy who appeared no older than myself? This boy who looked as if he wouldn't hurt a fly? This boy... who completely made breathing way harder that it should have been?

"And do you have a name, Miss?" The man continued. I averted my eyes from the quiet boy with the green tunic and back into the eyes of the tanned man.

"Malinda..."

The man nodded slowly. "Yes, well the day grows late. A few days at bedrest should do you well. If you should need anything, I will be downstairs. I wish you peaceful slumber. "

I whispered an okay and the man with banded strands of dark hair left with another nod, looking towards my hero and silently bidding him a safe night. My hero's gaze then fell back in its place in my direction and the intensity of the gaze made my heart sort of stutter.

"My apologies to you." He consoled, with a slight waver in his voice, like he'd been debating on truly saying those words. The statement had my mind shooting back to the my village's ambush. Before I knew it, the roll of hot tears trailed down my cheeks. My eyebrows crinkled in their attempt to stop them, but the effort only sent a choke of more tears to my system. I would never believe I had more tears to shed, but here they were, coming down and breaking me that much more as if commanded to.

A sympathizing frown marred the heroic boy's lips as he stood by, not knowing whether to give me space or to comfort me. I just wanted the emotions to stop overwhelming me, feeling them only made me angry. This would not be a problem had they not saved me, had he left me to die in that cavern.

"This is your fault..." I sobbed in the bed sheets. "You should have let me die..."

That little tidbit had the boy advancing towards my temporary bed with a determined look replacing the pained one. "Had I let you die you never would have gotten the opportunity to live out the rest of your life. The only thing I claim fault for is not arriving soon enough to protect the rest of the villagers." His sunkissed hand rubbed gently along my back in consolation. The act went in vain though; death still prevailed the thought of life, so what was the point?

"Why try to live a life when you're alone? The people I've known an entire lifetime are dead, gone. Why do you deny my reunion with them? What else is so important that I must live inside an already dead body?" I counter-argued.

My hero shook his head lightly in disagreement, bangs swaying with the motion. "You won't be alone forever." He said simply. Annoyed and slightly angered, I turned my head opposite of his direction and clenched my jaw tightly to suppress anymore daring tears. Why was he so focused on my living? What did he deem so meritorious that it kept me from escaping this sorrowful place? Life was but a cycle of death and bloodshed, even if my eyes were blind to its existence, so why was he so intent on me living through more than what I already had?

"But my life will forever be a reminder of those who were pilfered of theirs..." I said to myself. I had the slightest impression that he'd heard my concise soliloquy, and this hunch proved true when his hand suddenly halted from their rubbing and retracted. Next I realize, there is a floppy hat placed on my head. It was the green one my hero wore...

"Keep this until I return. If you will not see yourself a purpose for life, then I'll show you as many as it takes."

I sat there dumbstricken, absently clutching at the sheets harder. I just didn't... understand... Why was he trying so hard for a meaningless cause? My eyes returned to his blue ones to be faced with such a serious gaze again. A single trail of heated tears broke free from my hold and I nodded slowly, silently hoping there actually was a point in my life other than encasing despair.

My hero cracked the smallest smile as his hand reached forward to pet at his hat atop my curly, honey hair. "And I'll be expecting my hat back specifically from your living hands upon my return, Malinda."

Again, I could only nod mindlessly. His eyes, crystal, shining azure eyes, seemed to promise me anything his words could not. Turning with a clank of his sword and shield, he made his way to the doorless exit, but before he could completely disappear from sight, my voice shouted before my own recognition.

"Wait, sir!" He backpedaled a few steps and looked at me expectantly. I hadn't meant to stop him, but if I had his attention... "What is your name?"

His smile stretched a few notches before his eyes rolled skyward in thought. "If you're alive and well when I return, I will tell you then. But for now you've been told to rest."

The thudding of his boots was the last I heard of him and once engulfed in silence, my mind reeled with mysterious fuzz. I felt almost as if the air had been stolen from my lungs the moment my ears registered the door closing. Like a new emptiness spread inside and this feeling teased me relentlessly, knowing full well that the only thing on this twisted planet that could fill that emptiness was that man who had left me for goddesses knows how long.

That man... my hero. I wish you safe journeys...

Story fact: I only started this story to practice angst writing.

FAIL

A/N BETCH: Euuugh. She's so fucked uuuup. I hate writing with her personality- I SWEAR TO GOD IF ANYONE STARTS WITH ME ABOUT A DAMN MARY-SUE, I'LL LOSE MY GODDAMN MIND. I know that with creating an original character comes with the expectation of legitimacy in personality, but the realism of an actual personality is just too hard to perfect as a beginner or an amateur, which is exactly what I am. And my dumbass self thought it'd be so smart to start off with not only a normal OC, but a traumatized one. So PLEASE, unless it's constructional or something that I can work with to help my writing seem more realistic in your eyes, NO REVIEWS ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU HATE MARY-SUES. I SERIOUSLY DON'T CARE. Now that we've established that, *insert horribly timed colon-open parenthesis* :)

Review/Follow, it's totally your call.Thanks for choosing Bretardedness 101, please have a nice day!