Hello! I'm back! Didja miss me?! I hope so! :D
Anyway, I am very excited to present this story to you all. For the past little while, I suddenly found myself consumed by The Legend of Zelda series, which I have always loved, but this time around, I was hit upside the head with an awesome idea: this story! I put a lot of thought into it and the complicated story line, so I hope it checks out and you enjoy it as it unfolds.
A little bit of background information for this story: I tried to write this out as though you were playing it as a game. Even though you will be reading words, I want this to kind of read like a traditional Zelda game, with the characters, the plot, the environments, the history... everything! Hopefully it works out, so, we'll see how it goes as we go along.
Let me also add that the cover I made myself, but I used images that I DID NOT CREATE WITH MY OWN HANDS. They belong to the talented artists who drew them. I do not own these awesome pictures.
Well, I should probably wrap this up, but first, I want to express my thanks to my sister, Nekokem, for helping me flesh out some of the ideas and the characters for this story. She had some awesome insight for this, and I'm so thankful she was willing to lend me some! Thanks, sis! :D
Now! Are you ready to experience the epic that is The Sleeping Soldier? Ready or not, here it comes, if you choose to read it, that is. As most Zelda games begin with a legend told, so shall mine...
Please enjoy. Oh, and pardon any errors I missed fixing. Thanks!
I tell of a legend that has slept beneath time:
A legend of the sting of a fairy's crime.
A legend of the fairy who patiently waits
To raze forever the sisters she hates.
The legend surrounding the fairy who fell,
That cast-out fairy - O, fell Sabrielle.
We begin on a day long, long ago,
In a time very different from the time you know.
Back when the land was freed from the grasp
Of the Demon King of Thieves - but his time has since passed.
Thanks to the efforts of a heroic young man,
Peace reigned in abundance throughout our land.
With the Demon Thief gone, the kingdom was bright;
It was again a beautiful place, filled with greatness and light.
The fair princess restored what he had taken,
Bringing back to the kingdom all that he had forsaken:
Justice, integrity, purity and valiance.
Finally, after the Demon Thief's tyranny, there was balance.
The people of that day celebrated their freedom,
And played jubilant music throughout the kingdom.
So great was their joy that they played without end:
They played at the strike of dawn until nightfall's bend.
Music and laughter rung wherever you went,
And there was never a happy moment not spent.
Of course, when midnight arrived, rest came to dwell.
They put away their instruments and to their beds, fell.
The kingdom dreamt away the sorrows of their past,
With images of the green-clad hero and his courage so vast
Inspiring, enlightening, and strengthening its people.
The kingdom became unified, its new hope without equal.
Though while the kingdom lay sleeping,
They had no idea that something was creeping
Underneath the ground at their feet:
Something awoken from hunger that had come out to eat.
It had been forgotten by the procession of centuries,
But on this night, it crawled out of its trench...
Then one early hour, without even a warning,
The sun arose, grey, that cold, dreary morning.
The pale light that it cast across the horizon
Illuminated awed faces, each and every one.
The people, seeing this, tried to brighten the grey day,
And lifted their instruments to their mouths to play...
But they immediately found with horror and dread,
That the instruments they once played were suddenly dead.
Despite their breaths, their attempts, and their tears,
Their instruments had gone mute, much to their fears.
The flute had ceased tweeting, the trumpet fallen quiet,
The violin without voice - all had become silent.
They wondered, with astonishment, how it could be
That each instrument had inexplicably
Had its very essence of life stolen from it.
The instruments were hollow, and seemed to emit
An aura of decay from the bell, barrel, and hole.
The chilled, dead instruments seemed to lack their souls.
While the people mourned the strange loss,
Four winged figures watched them from across
The murky storm clouds that had choked the skies.
The group above heard the saddened cries
Of the people beneath them, desirous to play on
The instruments their lives had come to rely on.
Moved by the desires of their hearts...
They came down.
The Four Sisters of Music, who are they?
They were sent by the goddesses, or, so they say.
They came on that day when The Silence prevailed.
When the sounds of music had entirely failed.
They came after the sun had parted the rains,
And with the new sunshine, they gave us their names.
The first came forward, her voice like a bell,
And introduced herself as Lyraelle.
She was the eldest, the tallest, with bright blue wings,
And her musical dominion spanned across strings.
She commanded the strings with effortless ease,
And bestowed her talents upon those of the seas.
The second called herself Zephyrelle,
The lady of the woodwinds and the breath of the knell.
She favored the woodlands and the creatures within,
So she gave them the gift of the gale's every whim.
They honored the blessing of her life-giving breath
And with her just gift, some of them defied death.
The third called herself Aurielle,
Her eyes and her talents like bold mirabelle.
Golden and radiant were the instruments she played,
And to the people of the mountains were her gifts relayed.
The land of the brass became bounteous with treasure.
The people crafted fine instruments and played for her pleasure.
The last fairy was smallest, youngest, and luminously bright,
And her hair and her wings were of pure, snow white.
She was different from her sisters; her devices technological,
Her music and her talents were unnaturally mechanical.
Her skin so grey, her face so fair, with all of her ensorcell,
On that day, she proclaimed her name as Sabrielle.
The land transformed with the sisters' arrival,
Their presence sparked an era of revival
From the ghostly grip The Silence had wrought.
Straight from the fairies the woodwinds, brass, and strings were brought
Their long-awaited, wondrous resurrection
As the fairies worked life back into their bodies.
And for that moment, the world became whole again.
Nothing stood between the kingdom and its celebration.
Near and far, here and there and everywhere,
The sweet melodies of music graced the air.
There was not a kingdom happier than this,
The Kingdom of Hyrule, submerged in pure bliss.
Yet, in all of their joy, they had forgotten the last...
But while her sisters were accepted, poor Sabrielle was not.
She searched and she searched for anyone to be taught.
She longed to follow in her elder sisters' ways,
That she might dazzle the crowds, or enchant the aqua waves,
Or decorate the leafy breeze, or ignite the golden rocks...
Not wander alone with her quiet, music box.
Forgotten by her sisters, and forgotten by her goddesses,
Sabrielle wandered legions into her own, empty hopelessness.
She walked away from the forests of Zephyrelle,
She turned away from the rivers of Lyraelle,
And she left behind the mountains of Aurielle for a far away place
In which her cavalier sisters she would never have to face.
After flying so far into the distance,
With none knowing of her absence,
Sabrielle finally found her place to call home.
It was a quiet spot, with none near enough to roam;
The highest crest of the ice-capped, storm-ridden tiers
Was the place where Sabrielle sat isolated for years.
While she watched the world from her cold, snowy cove,
She felt lost, forsaken, unwanted, without love.
The notes that she cranked on her tiny musical box
Somewhat filled a vacant space in her clockwork soul.
The world spun on without her as her sisters prospered onward,
But as they were moving forward, Sabrielle only moved backward.
Backward from the times she had relished with her sisters,
Times she now saw as venomous blisters.
She retched at the memories of desiring their praise,
Her mind now a maze of contempt and wild haze.
Sabrielle thought of her sisters and their garish gaits,
And began to wonder if she could twist fate.
What could she do to change the outcome of chance?
How could she overcome the bite of this lance?
Was there some action, some deed to be done?
Something to thrust her out from snow into the sun?
She considered her options and thought for a spell,
And on scenes of rebellion her thoughts began to dwell.
Then, something overcame her as shadows filled her mind,
A new, hate-filled heart left the meek child behind
To make room for the dark woman Sabrielle became.
She knew that for this, her sisters were to blame,
So she set off in flight to their domains afar,
Bent on waging familial war.
What she did next, in this legend is said,
Slashed history so violently it became red
And bled over the course of generations to be revealed.
With her actions, her forthcoming fate was sealed
Beneath the bands of her hatred, jealousy and pain.
She then vowed that no one would ever forget her name.
Perhaps it was luck, perhaps it was fate,
Sabrielle found each of her sisters in one place,
Playing their music at a festival in town.
Villagers, townspeople, and even the Crown
Were gathered together, celebrating the princess' birth.
The setting was untouched by enmity, its elation full of worth...
But not until Sabrielle snuck into the festivities.
With her mind shrouded in shades of rebellion,
She drifted like a ghost through the crowds, pale and unseen.
She knew in her heart her succeeding actions were forbidden;
That fulfilling them would leave her shame-ridden,
But in her mind, this was merely necessity,
If she was to ever alter her destiny.
Unnoticed, still, by her sisters in their song compilation,
Sabrielle decided to break an ancient tradition,
And, whilst glaring at her sisters in the band,
She approached, from behind, a tall young man.
She knew him not, nor did she know his name,
But just as her sisters, he was bound with her the same...
Without hardly any effort on her part,
Sabrielle turned him around, and instantly won his heart.
He was helpless to resist the beauty of the fairy,
He was smitten so hard, he became dizzy and weary,
And proceeded to fall hopeless in love
With the wicked, vengeful fairy he saw as a perfect dove.
Sadly, the man did not realize the awful, pending situation
Through the fog of his intense infatuation:
His love meant nothing, nothing at all,
In fact, his love would spell only his fall
Within the oncoming stripes of cruel kismet...
His doom was written from the moment they met.
With part of her rebellion under her charm,
Sabrielle linked with the man, arm in arm,
And proceeded through the crowd with him.
With the glaze over his eyes, he would obey her every whim,
And with that knowledge in her care,
Sabrielle walked with him to the town square.
To her fiendish delight, her sisters were there.
The moment she arrived, they stopped playing to stare
At the sister they had forgotten, standing with a man.
Sabrielle watched the three of them stand,
Their eyes filled with shock and utter disgust.
At that sight, she was nothing more to them than dust.
Now, in fairy law, you must understand,
That fairies are forbidden from affairs with any man.
Just as the goddesses were maidens from the start,
So it was that fairies should follow their impart:
That while they were given unmatched beauty,
A fairy must resist any man who tried to pursue her.
Despite knowing this law, Sabrielle ignored.
After all, this was her first step in declaring fairy war.
They held her in their collective gaze,
But in their little sister's eyes, they saw a craze
That hungered for their destruction and nothing more.
They realized that their acts had devastated her core.
Apologies were attempted and explanations tried,
But Sabrielle would hear none of them, and cried
Out harmful words, words of death, death by curses.
She laid three black spells on the heads of her sisters,
Vowing that death would soon befall them for what they had done
When they were blinded by the lives their music had won.
In front of the people, the trio visibly wilted
As the curses enveloping their bodies were completed
Within mere seconds of their casting.
Sabrielle, seeing this, burst out laughing.
She had dreamt and joyed in a sight such as this.
Then she escalated the moment by giving her man a kiss.
Nothing could compare to the pain they felt
When they realized what punishment had to be dealt
To their young sister and the man she had ensnared.
Neither of them were even remotely prepared
When Lyraelle, Aurielle, and Zephyrelle
Surged for them, armed with a powerful spell.
Their punishment for him was given by a rod
Which mightily smote his face, leaving it forever flawed.
He screamed and he bled as they ripped him from his mind,
Shattering his resolve, striking him blind.
As soon as they were certain he fell,
They then turned and rushed for Sabrielle.
Even through the pain of their new afflictions,
The sisters conjured up their own imprecations
To ensure their sister paid for her foolishness.
They no longer recognized her in all of her ruthlessness,
So they decided it would be best for the kingdom,
If she were hidden from it; so they stole her freedom.
It took but a single recitation
Of an ancient incarcerating incantation
To deal to Sabrielle her proper justice.
The spell they spoke would leave her bloodless,
And imprison her wicked soul within the music box she held.
She would be bodiless, powerless, and, if possible, eternally celled.
Lyraelle took up the box with her sister inside,
And thought of a place where she could hide
The rampant evil Sabrielle was consumed by.
She gathered her sisters, and taking to the skies,
They flew toward the frozen mountain frost,
Knowing that there, Sabrielle's Box would be lost.
None know where they hid her, for they never have said
The location where Sabrielle's Box was laid.
The mountains concealed the Box under years of snow
Burying her somewhere deep, deep below.
And a the years have progressed, most have since forgotten,
The memory of the mechanical fairy... the last begotten...
Nowadays, one can only hear whispers
Of the blurry image that is one of the sisters
Of the Fairies of Music, who have long disappeared.
Yet some still remember the only fairy we feared...
Most only tell of the fairy who fell,
That cast-out fairy - O, Fell Sabrielle.
What's the verdict?! Yay? Nay? Any thoughts? Any suggestions? If any of those apply, feel free to shoot me a review – I always welcome them! And thanks for reading!
And while I'm here, I'm gonna advertise for a YouTuber that had a huge hand in inspiring this story. If you have the time, go check out SygmXOfficial's channel. They made a ton of beautiful music box remixes for some of my favorite Zelda songs. I can only guarantee goosebumps and smiles if you listen to them!
Anyway, I'll see you next chapter!
Bye!
- S. A. Morley