Author Note: Hey guys! I know, I went on a real long hiatus this time. But I was writing this the whole time (kinda, I took breaks for finals month)! I really don't expect this to get much attention, as it is long and has my own original characters, but the gist of it is that each story will be focused on a different side character from Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild during the time that Link was asleep. Some stories will take place earlier than others (this first one is 10 years before Link wakes up) but I'm going to work equally hard on all of them and see how it goes. The next one is going to be from the perspective of a Yiga clansman, so stay tuned!
Adios, readers! Hope you enjoy this (I actually worked really hard on this one, so I really do hope you enjoy it!)
P.S. Yes, an update of After Shamballa will be soon. Don't worry, I have a plan for it too. ;D
Story 1
Lady of Treasure
(This specific story is rated T for gore and morbid themes. If you're okay with that—there's no swearing or sexual themes in here—read on.)
Alynna studied the 3-foot stone statue in front of her, her eyes scanning the markings for signs of any possible clues. The statue definitely meant something, as from the first time she looked at it, she'd felt almost as if there was a chill running up and down her spinal cord. On any other day she'd just assume that was the wind, or maybe she was catching something. But, for some reason, Alynna felt as if she knew there was something to this figure—every treasure-hunting bone in her body told her that much.
The statue itself was carefully carved into the shape of peaceful-looking woman wrapped in a silky stone dress, her features delicately scraped together and masterfully designed. She glared at it, wondering what its purpose was. Was she some sort of goddess or something? Did people come to worship her? Or, more importantly, was it really the treasure she'd been hunting for all these months?
It sure seemed like it, at this point. She'd been looking it for it nonstop for two months, and all the clues she'd found and all the informations she'd gathered seemed to point to this location.
"You're not going to win that staring contest, you know," a voice that belonged to her twin sister, Dalia, piped in from behind her, her nearing footsteps echoing in the decrepit temple they were currently in.
Alynna continued to look at the statue, her gaze unbroken by her sister's words. "There's something to it, though," she commented in a distant manner, "I think it's worth something."
"You think?"
She leaned in closer to the stone. "Well, it's gotta be. It's super intricate, and I get this weird, cold feeling down my back whenever I look at it directly in the eyes. Whatever it is, it definitely ties into the treasure we've been looking for."
"Mina's treasure?" Dalia asked earnestly.
Alynna turned to stare at her sister, a look of disappointment crossing her face. "You've been with me all this time tracking this stuff, and yet you don't even know what the name of the treasure we're looking for is?"
Dalia shrugged. "We've looked for a lot of treasure. It's hard to keep track of which one we're currently on."
Alynna gave a small tut of disapproval. "Well, it's called Lopaz's treasure, and we've been looking for it for about 2 months now, in case you lost track of that as well."
"Well, you've always had a nose for that kind of treasure stuff," Dalia replied, ignoring Alynna's last comment and beginning to pick her nails with a wicked-looking knife, "Me on the other hand, I've ALWAYS HAD A NOSE FOR MONSTERS!" She finished her sentence with a loud yell that could carry for miles, startling Alynna and breaking her train of thought.
"DAL!" Alynna hissed, turning to face her twin, "What are you doing?! You do realize they have EARS, right?"
Dalia pouted. "Honestly, I'm bored. I haven't seen a monster in 2 days, and I want to use this knife at some point. Seems like a waste to let this little beauty rust up." She stared at her knife briefly with a look of admiration and pride, and then continued to pick her nails, looking careless once again. Alynna rolled her eyes with silent fury and pulled her small dagger out of its sheath on her hip, absolutely certain that monsters would show up at any second now.
But, after 10 minutes of anticipated waiting, no monsters had appeared.
"Hm," Alynna grunted while putting away her pocket dagger, feeling relieved yet wary at the same time. Why hadn't they come when Dalia had yelled? They must've heard that from miles away, and yet none had showed up.
Dalia gave a small sigh of disappointment, and began to take a deep breath.
"Do. NOT. Scream. Again," Alynna stated firmly.
Dalia rolled her eyes. "Fine. Whatever."
Alynna turned back to the statue, her face immediately scrunching up into an expression of concentration with a hint of confusion. "I think we should take this," she said finally.
"Okay," Dalia said easily, "How?"
"That's the problem," Alynna muttered, and then snapped her fingers. "Oo, sis, can you find a few shields or pieces of wood around here and a bunch of long, strong grass? Don't get anything special, it can be just stuff like Boko shields and Hylian herbs."
"You're planning on making a sled?" Dalia guessed, pulling her traveling pack she had set down on a nearby patch of grass up to her shoulders.
"Something like that," her sister replied, "Now, shoo. I have to think some more."
Dalia smirked. "Okay, sister. Glad to be of service 'n all that."
Alynna remained silent, lost in her thoughts again as she began to examine the statue once more.
Her monster-fighting twin scoffed with disbelief at the quickness her sister was able to tune her out. "Good BYE!" she yelled.
Alynna remained quiet, still studying the statue.
Dalia turned on her heel and stomped off, irritated at her sister for ignoring her. If she had a list for all the things that she hated about life, being ignored would be at the top of her list.
"I'll get the crappiest shields and the weakest grass I can find," Dalia angrily muttered to herself with a newfound resolve, and set out to find what she needed.
—
Alynna hadn't meant to tune out Dalia. She usually tried to be very patient with her slightly younger sibling, no matter how hard it may have seemed at some points in time, but she was honestly very fed up with her sister that specific day. In the timespan of the approximate 3 hours they'd both been awake, Dalia had already provoked a swarm of bees into targeting them, sung "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves" purposefully out of tune to make it more annoying, and now she'd gone and yelled for some monsters, which could've potentially found and killed them if they hadn't been so lucky. And this was all because she was bored.
So, after considering all this, Alynna thought she was perfectly entitled to tuning out her sister for this one time.
"I swear she must've swallowed some Bokoblin blood when she was a baby," Alynna muttered to herself after she was sure Dalia had sulked off to find some supplies, "How else could she be this erratic?"
She sighed, thinking about how great it would be if Dalia lost a finger or something, just to teach her the repercussions of her actions, and then continued investigating the statue.
But, even after 15 more minutes of boring her eyes into the lump of stone, she still couldn't figure out anything new about it, besides the fact that a little restless cricket had made a home underneath one of the statue's toes.
"Maybe if I stand back…?" She took a small step back and, seeing as this wasn't helping at all, decided to take a brave leap backward.
She stared into the statue's blank eyes, begging for something, anything to happen…
Nothing. The statue did absolutely nothing.
She sighed, and plopped down next to her pack that was leaning against a deteriorating wall, pulling out the apple she had stolen from some farmer other day. Maybe this thing that she'd been obsessing about for the past hour or so was really nothing—maybe it was just the chill in the wind getting the best of her.
She glanced at the statue again, receiving that same eery feeling, and shook her head, confused but enamored at the same time. "Don't worry, my lady statue," Alynna said, staring at the monument as she chomped down on her apple, "I'll crack you. Just wait and see."
After a few minutes of the temple just consisting of the echoed bites Alynna was taking of her apple, footsteps were heard once more down the long stone hall. Alynna was just about to call out, sure that Dalia had finally come back with the supplies, but then stopped herself. It could be a monster for all she knew. Therefore, yelling her sister's name was surely not going to do her any good.
Instead, she decided to remain in her spot and begin to crouch stealthily, her hand on her dagger just in case.
"Hello?" a voice called out.
Alynna's grip tightened. It wasn't Dalia's voice—it sounded boyish and squeaky, as if it were coming from a teenager who had some extreme puberty going on. Nevertheless, she could never be too careful, as it could be an armed and dangerous pubescent adolescent.
She remained perched in her spot for a couple of minutes, waiting for another sound, but none came. It was almost as if the person had just vanished into thin air.
That was, until, she felt a sharp tap on the back of her shoulder, causing her to yelp in surprise. She whipped around, her dagger in hand, turning to face the tapper.
It was who she assumed it was—the teenager, looking about the same age as her. His pimply face and curly, bright red hair was exactly how she'd pictured it in her mind only mere minutes ago, and his face was pulled into an expression of surprise. She took this look as an opportunity to strike, and she gave him a nice good kick to the knees. That knocked him off balance, giving her the chance to grab him by his leather-bound shirt and hold her dagger to his neck.
"Who are you?" she asked brusquely, blood pounding loudly in her head. She'd never really done anything like this to a person before—she was just an amateur treasure hunter, not some crazed assassin who held knives to people's throats every other day.
"S-slow down!" the kid stammered, "I'm not a-an enemy! Please, lemme go!"
"Why are you here? Are you following us?" Alynna growled.
He looked very confused. "Following? Us? Who's us?"
"Where are you from? Who sent you?" Alynna interrogated, ignoring his last answer.
He slightly gestured to his fur boots with a shaky finger. "I-I'm from ta farm down ta road, 'n no one sent me, I jus' wandered over 'ere..." He trailed off as his eyes looked up at the sky nervously, probably regretting that he came here.
"You live on a farm?"
He gulped and barely refrained from nodding. "Mhm. Th-The one down the river, with horses 'n a-apples. We s-sell horses to travelers, 'n give 'em food." He looked up at Alynna, fear dancing in his eyes clear as day. "I-I can show it to yehs, if you wanna see."
The boy gave her a nervous smile, prompting Alynna to sigh and remove her weapon from his neck. He immediately looked more at ease and began to rub his throat vigorously.
"You don't have to show me," Alynna said, resigned but relieved at the same time, "I believe you. Sorry about that, by the way…you can never be too careful out here."
"Oh, I know that!" he responded cheerfully, "I do wish I was more careful wit' you, though. My knees are not gonna feel good t'night."
Alynna smiled at him, pleased that he'd been able to slightly forgive her so quickly after being attacked. It was hard to find forgiving people out her most the time, and it felt good to be talked to jokingly. "Haha, yeah, sorry again. Really." She held out her hand to him. "Nice to meet you, even if it was slightly weird due to my paranoia."
"Balo. Balo Blake," he said, shaking her outstretched hand vigorously and grinning.
"Alynna," she replied, smiling.
"Just Alynna?" Balo inquired politely.
She gave him a slightly darker look. "Just Alynna."
"Alright. No quarrels from me, nope." He removed his hand from the shake, laughing nervously. Alynna immediately felt bad for making this poor, innocent guy anxious again, but the truth was that she didn't have a last name. At least, not one that she freely gave to strangers, no matter how nice they seemed. That, she decided, was something she'd always keep to herself, whether that information be spoken or written.
"Sooo…" Balo started nervously, peering slightly over Alynna's shoulder, "Whatcha doin' 'ere?"
Alynna paused. "Just, ah…taking in the scenery. Seeing the sights. I'm a traveler," she replied after some thought.
"What's this statue all 'bout?" Balo remarked, his eyes growing wide at the sight of the figure behind the treasure hunter. He stepped toward it, his hands outstretched.
"Uh, just some statue. Nothing much to it, honest," Alynna replied quickly, moving so that she was blocking his path toward the lady. For some reason, she felt oddly defensive of it.
"I saw yeh lookin' at it when I was comin' up to yehs. Why ya lookin' at it?" Balo persisted, pushing past Alynna to get closer to the statue. He seemed mesmerized by the stone, and Alynna didn't like it. At all.
"Hey!" She firmly stepped in front of Balo, glaring him down. "Why are you so interested in this statue, huh?"
Balo paled. "Uh, no. Not interested, not at—"
"And by the way," Alynna interrupted, realizing something she considered to be important, "How did you sneak up on me so quietly? I'm a pretty good listener, and I didn't hear you at all!"
The boy's face turned even whiter, as pale as a bucket of milk. Alynna felt satisfied, certain that she had cornered this fool. Now, what was he going to tell her about the statue?
"Well?" she asked smugly, "I'm waiting for some answers."
Balo gulped, and then, while hugging himself, he replied, "Me mam…she made me these boots, yeh see? Not supposed to tell anyone 'bout 'em, since they're special made for me to catch horses for ta farm. They're made o' lotsa different furs, 'n help me be sneaky so I can actually catch 'em. Since I gots da boots, I've been explorin' a bit. Meetin' fellow travelers, seeing ta sights, stuff like that. 'N today, I saw you out here, lookin' at this statue-ma-jig. Didn't mean ta be rude or anythin' by sneakin' up on yehs, but I just wanted to see whatchyoo were doin' is all. Sorry." He panted after his long speech, having gotten all of that out very quickly.
Alynna was a bit taken aback, but mostly she just felt stupid and guilty again. Why did she feel the need to distrust this poor guy? He was clearly the most innocent and earnest person she'd met in a long time, and she was treating him like dirt. She sighed, cupping her face in her hands.
"I'm sorry…you're fine, I'm sorry. I'm just being super overly suspicious, and I have no idea why in the world I feel this way," Alynna responded apologetically. She faced the statue, sighing defeatedly. "I just…I don't know. This statue gives me a weird feeling."
"Same 'ere," Balo said, "Gives me a feelin' like there's an ice block runnin' down me back."
Alynna whipped around to face Balo again, her eyes gleaming. "Really? You feel that too?"
He looked confused. "Is it bad…?"
Alynna shook her head, her thoughts whirling around in her brain, her precautions about sharing information with strangers going out the window in her excitement. "No, no, I don't think so. I feel like this statue is like, treasure or something, and maybe it only affects certain types of people. I don't know what kind yet, but it isn't affecting my sister, so I think maybe it has to do with interest in treasure…? I don't know, there's not much about it in the books I've read, but I'm looking to find out more from—"
"Alynna, who's this?" Dalia piped up, appearing to have just shown up with a few shields in her bag and a bunch of grass stuffed in her pockets. She was suspiciously pointing her blade at Balo, her eyebrow arched precariously at him.
Alynna immediately turned a bright red, realizing that Dalia had probably heard the what she'd been spilling to this guy, and she felt quite ashamed and guilty about it. "He's a friend," she said quickly, trying to convince herself that she'd only freely given out a little of the bits of information she'd gathered.
"Hullo, I'm Balo," Balo greeted, smiling earnestly and holding his hand out for a shake to Dalia. She slapped it away, glaring at him.
"I don't like you," she growled, "Alynna, I don't think we can trust him."
Alynna rolled her eyes, feeling defensive. "Oh really? Is that really what you think, or are you just letting your attention complex get in the way of your decisions again?"
Dalia turned from Balo to face Alynna, her face confused and beginning to look angry. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, it's no secret that you've always been a bit of an egotistical person, Dal," Alynna said cooly, feeling anger well up in her chest, "Honestly, Balo here is just another person who has taken interest in the statue. I'm just saying that maybe you could cool off for once and stop thinking that everyone is a psycho or something."
Dalia looked indignant and miraculously at a loss for words. "Seriously? Is that seriously how you feel? Or are you just saying that just to protect your own pride, since yes, I did hear you telling him pretty much everything we know about that statue."
"Everything I know, Dal," Alynna corrected quickly, "You didn't even know the name of the statue before 5 freaking minutes ago."
Dalia quivered with anger for a second, trying to find something to say, and then, finally, she threw the shields to the ground and started tearing the grass out of her pockets furiously.
"What are you doing?" Alynna asked, starting to feel slightly bad about her cold and only half-true words.
"I quit," Dalia replied furiously, her hands covered in thick grass.
"Dal, we're sisters. You can't just quit—I'm your family," Alynna said.
"Well, you also can't stop me," Dalia retorted back, "So yeah. Bye. Have fun with Balo, I'm sure he won't turn out to be bad or anything." She turned on her heel and stomped toward the exit of the temple, fuming.
"Wait!" Alynna called, feeling extremely remorseful now—she hadn't known what had gotten into her. "Dalia, come back!"
"I'm not bad!" Balo finally added unhelpfully to the conversation (for the most of it, he had been standing next to Alynna, wide-eyed and looking alarmed).
"Screw you guys!" Dalia yelled back as she exited the temple and out of sight. Alynna sighed, shaking her head.
"Sorry about that, Balo. I suppose I should go out there and apologize to her…that was some pretty untrue stuff, I have no idea what came over me. I know you're not bad, but I still shouldn't be telling you stuff about treasure," Alynna muttered, starting to walk after Dalia, "You wait here, okay? I promise she'll like you, you just have to give her time to—"
"I think you were completely justified, to be honest," Balo replied, interrupting Alynna, "She seemed like quite the awful sister."
Alynna paused, looking slightly confused by his blunt response. "Oh, uh, I don't know about that…she's really a nice sister, actually, I was honestly just kind of embarrassed that I was telling you everything, and I took it out on her. I should probably go apologize." Alynna tried to step towards the exit again, but Balo blocked her.
"Want to see something cool?" he asked oddly, his voice strange.
Alynna felt suspicion rise up in her for the third time about this boy, and felt the need to get to her sister start to become more and more necessary. "Actually, I think I'd better go apologize, so if you would just excuse me…" She tried to push past Balo again, but he blocked her once more, only this time with a chop to her arm.
"Augh!" Alynna yelped, pulling back her assaulted arm and cupping it with her other one.
That's when she felt the bump.
She stumbled to the ground, her face hitting the stone tile hard, realizing only too late that Balo had stabbed her in her arm with some sort of paralysis drug. She tried moving her body, but she was frozen; the only thing she could do was move her eyes around and slightly move her mouth.
"Man, should've listened to your sis. She has good instincts, you know," Balo laughed, looking down at Dalia with amusement. "But, you didn't, so here you are. On the ground. One-hit KO. And, I doubt Dalia is coming back any time soon, so I have plenty of time to do what I need to do."
Alynna grunted angrily, feeling mortified. She was tricked so easily, so, so, SO easily, and now she was paying the price.
"Ah, you must be kicking yourself for thinking I was innocent," Balo said, seeming to have read her mind, "Well, don't worry—you're one of many. I have a talent for reading people, and you are practically an open book, seeing that you're basically just the average angst-filled, dramatic little teenager." He snickered pausing for a second to laugh as Alynna glared, trying with all her might to move but ultimately failing. "You know, Balo means bait in ancient Hylian, right? Just thought it would be funny to tell you since, ya know, you're incapacitated and all that."
"W-why?" Alynna managed to force out.
"Why?" he asked, "You mean why did I manipulate you into getting your weapon-crazy sis away from here and then attack you?" He laughed. "Well, I don't think I should be telling you this, but to hell with it, right?"
He sighed, sitting down on a nearby rock next to Alynna, making her feel even more utterly helpless.
"Well, you see, Alynna, I'm a treasure hunter like yourself, only I'm a bit on the, ah, riskier side. More of a thief than anything, to be quite honest, but I do manage on finding decent treasure hunters to track and protect—that's why you didn't see any monsters on your way here, since I was doing the favor of protecting my prey and killin' 'em for you! Once the group I'm tracking gets to their bounty, I separate the members and steal from them. I do this by picking up little bits of their conversations and turning it against them—it's really entertaining, actually! Like, remember when I told you that I felt that ice block going down my spine when I looked at that statue? Totally didn't—I just overheard it earlier. Just something to make you trust me more." He laughed coldly. "And boy, did it WORK! I've never separated a pair of hunters quicker than you guys! Must be that time of the month, huh?"
He laughed real hard at his last joke, which made Alynna want to rip his head off. Then, he continued in a more serious manner.
"But, all jokes aside, you two really found me a good piece of money right here. Honestly, Lopaz's treasure is gonna set me for a few months, at least! So, thanks for that, I guess." He grinned wickedly. "Also, I'll be needing to slit your throat in just a little bit. You know, since I did tell you about how I sneak up on my prey, and I don't want hunters to get more vigilant now if you ever decided to share my information with others."
Alynna's eyes widened at the sudden turn of events, her anger dissipating and morphing into fear. Part of her wanted to think that Balo was just joking about the whole slitting of the throat thing, but a small voice inside her head told her she should probably find a way to get out of the situation as soon as possible. She let out a strangled moan of distress, trying to yell for help, but it was no use.
"Ah, so you're one of those who can tell when I'm not joking, huh?" Balo remarked, "After all, most people see me and think that I don't have the guts for murder, since I look pretty young 'n innocent and all that. Glad to see you're one of the better ones." Balo pulled out a knife and sharpening stick out of his boot and began to sharpen the weapon slowly, the edges gleaming in the dim light of the temple. Alynna let out an involuntary moan of fear.
"Don't worry, you still got a few minutes," Balo said in what seemed to be a mocking tone, "And I'll be sure to make it quick. You seem like a nice girl."
Alynna's eyes drifted toward the exit of the temple, wishing desperately she was out of the situation. She most certainly did not want to die, especially at the hands of an egotistical and insane little brat who thought he was superior to her or something. As much as she hated it, however, her death seemed to be inching closer, and it was sure to happen unless something stopped him.
Something like Dalia appearing and somehow saving the two of them.
Alynna sighed, inwardly scolding herself for thinking of the impossible, and began to frantically think of other ways she could get out of this mess without her sister.
She was coming up with nothing.
—
Dalia stomped through the underbrush, trying to get as far away from the temple and her horrid sister as she overflowed with anger. Honestly, what was Alynna's problem? Dalia certainly wasn't being an issue—not, at least, at that point. Yes, she'd purposefully been quite annoying that day just to test Alynna and see how much she could take from her annoying younger sister, but Alynna's reaction was ultimately something that Dalia herself had never seen from her.
She felt a twinge of guilt inside of all her anger. Maybe she had gone too far this time.
But then she remember Balo, that stupid little boy who looked as smart as a pile of Moblin crap, and she got furious again.
"I mean, it's obviously an act," Dalia muttered to herself, angrily hacking at a bush, "He couldn't be coincidentally looking at that statue and be as innocent as he looks. Plus, he's got a bad feeling about him."
She rolled her eyes. "But of course, if ALYNNA trusts him, then we should ALL trust him, right? My opinion shouldn't matter at ALL, since I'm the dumb side-character in Alynna's freaking FAIRYTALE!"
She huffed, realizing she had yelled that louder than she had meant to, but she felt a little bit better nonetheless. At least she'd get to fight some monsters now.
She waited for a few minutes, scouting out the area for monsters when, finally, she saw a blue Bokoblin in the distance, looking confused Dalia's yelling and not knowing where she was.
Only, there was something wrong with it. It seemed to be hobbling, (more than usual, as Bokoblins always tended to hobble) almost as if it were injured. Dalia squinted her eyes, looking closely at the monster and saw that it had an arrow embedded in its chest, probably close to death.
It was now Dalia's turn to be confused. She had honestly thought she and Alynna had been alone on the Great Plateau—it was almost like an island, considering the fact that it was so highly elevated from every other land, and was extremely difficult to climb without the right equipment.
So who could've shot the Bokoblin? It couldn't have been Alynna or her—both of them didn't have any experience with bows.
And then, for the second time in about a minute, Dalia furiously remembered Balo. He probably had hid his bow somewhere before approaching Alynna.
Dalia looked back at the temple, which was still pretty close, and wondered if Alynna was okay. After all, she had almost sure proof that Balo was not as innocent as he seemed.
"Maybe I should just check on them," she told herself, her anger turning a bit into genuine concern for her sister when she suddenly realized how stupid she was being.
"Check on them? What are you thinking, Dal?" she muttered angrily to herself, "Alynna's probably fine. Plus, if she got into a mess, she can get out of it. She knows how to do stuff, you're not her babysitter, and she is a little brat anyway. But smart. So she'll figure how to get out. Nothing is happening that is seriously putting her in danger."
She looked at the temple again with hesitation.
"Probably."
—
"Alright, time's up! I made sure my knife was extra sharp, so you don't really feel any pain," Balo announced suddenly, standing up from the rock he was sitting on. Alynna felt fear erupt in her stomach, realizing she honestly had no plan for this moment. Some part of her was still waiting for Dalia to come back and save her, but those secret hopes were shattered as Balo approached her with menace in his eyes, no signs of Dalia anywhere near.
"Don't be scared," he whispered eerily, a technique that did the exact opposite to Alynna than the words he spoke suggested, "I told you, it'll be quick."
Alynna desperately attempted to squirm out of his grasp, only managing to twitch her arms and legs and moan.
"Don't try to move!" Balo chastised Alynna as if she were a smile child, "It'll hurt more, trust me. Honestly, this death isn't so bad. I'm giving you the fast route to another adventure. It'll be exciting!" He sounded as if he had convinced himself of this fact as well, as if he were doing her a favor, and that made Alynna all the more convinced that he was a psychopath and was definitely not joking at this point.
She desperately wished he was, however. It would've made things so much better at that moment in that terrible situation she could think of no way out of.
She squeezed her eyes until they hurt, trying to hold in her tears, trying to forcefully wake herself up from this horrible dream using pain.
"That's it," Balo cooed. Alynna could feel the coldness of the metal on her throat now, the sharp edge prickling her skin. "Good girl."
Something seemed to wake up inside of her at those last words, something fiery and angry and motivational. She hated being patronized, after all, but she'd never experienced something so raw and powerful. With all the energy she could muster, she managed to sharply swing around her right leg to his face and give it a deservingly hard kick. He was thrown back, his knife luckily escaping his hand and clattering to the ground in front of Alynna as he tumbled back—if he hadn't let go, her throat would be in a serious condition.
As soon as she executed the kick, she felt all the energy drain out of her body, and her leg fell back to her side, paralyzed once again. Through the corner of eye, she could see the statue glowing and sparkling a bit.
She almost bizarrely laughed at herself during this moment, despite the circumstances. Glowing and sparkling statues? It must've been a hallucination caused by the paralysis tranquilizer Balo used on her.
But how had she found the energy to move her leg?
Balo got up, sputtering blood, and the statue's glimmering began to fade on the lady statue. "H-how…did you…?" He glared at her leg vehemently. "Screw the quick and easy way, friend. You're leg's going first, and then we'll talk about how you'll die." Alynna felt fresh fear rise in her stomach as her angrily shuffled back toward her, fury dancing in his now maniacal eyes. Why couldn't she have just accepted death when she had the option to make it painless versus painful? She should've known that this would happen, she should've just died the normal way.
Balo was nearly on her when Alynna realized that he didn't have his dagger. Without it, he couldn't cut off her leg and kill her, and it was located conveniently right next to her face. With all the might her paralyzed muscles could muster, she puffed out as much air as she could to move the dagger farther away as a last ditch effort, but only managed to get a few little whispers of air out. Balo snatched his knife back from over her, her slim hoping of prolonging her inevitable death vanishing as she helplessly watched the knife disappear from her view as he picked it up.
"Man, you're one of those struggle-y types, aren't you?" Balo hissed, "Some of my colleagues in the same business as I am think that's neat, but I personally like the quick and painless way. But you know what they say, 'no pain without gain!' Except for you're kind of only getting the first part." He chuckled quietly at his own joke, the knife once again stinging her skin, and then suddenly and eagerly set into her leg. His tiny but wicked dagger cut flesh like a butterknife does through bread, working its way slowly and excruciatingly through her right calf. Alynna wanted to howl and scream because of the horrible, wretched, awful pain that was erupting in her leg, but all she could manage was a peep of strained agony. The one thing she was slightly grateful for was the fact that she couldn't see my leg being shredded, although se would've easily traded that for the ability not to feel the pain and the sick warmth of the blood oozing out of her wound.
Just when it felt like he was halfway through ripping through her leg, and she was going to pass out from the pain and blood loss he suddenly stopped, the pressure of the tiny blade vanishing. This brought no sense of relief to Alynna, whose brain was swimming with dizziness and torment, but some rational part of her wondered why he had stopped. Maybe he'd sated his sick hunger for plunging knives into people's legs for the day? She thought that was highly unlikely, and if that were to be happening he would probably just kill her soon anyway.
But then she heard a familiar voice. She tried to get her thoughts organized to be able to recognize the speaker, but her panicked and suffering mind seemed to want to hyperventilate and not quite work correctly at that moment. Her vision growing hazy and her hearing muffling up, she attempted to roll over to watch the scene that was occurring. However, just like her other attempts at moving, it was no use—she only managed to expend the last bit of strength she had while additionally irritating her leg even more. Her vision flashed in her eyes, flickering and dimming the more she tried to keep control of it.
She passed out moments later.
—
"HEY!" Dalia shouted into the temple just to startle whoever was inside, hoping she had made Balo jump at least a foot into the air. She was probably going to regret coming back—she was just going to look stupid after angrily storming off and then returning like some dog. She could never be too careful, though.
And that's when she saw the Balo, Alynna, and all the blood in between.
Balo stood up with a bloody knife, looking completely different than before. He appeared to have been cutting Alynna's leg for some reason, and she wasn't getting up or moving at all.
Dalia looked at Balo with deadly fury. "What…did you…do?" she asked, barely able to get out the words in her rage.
Balo smiled with insanity that seemed strange, especially for someone of his age. "What I had to, Dal. What I had to."
Dalia began to shake with her anger, her face steaming up with uncontrollable rage. "WHAT ARE YOU, SOME LUNATIC? WHY IS MY SISTER ON THE GROUND? WHY ISN'T SHE MOVING?"
Balo simply smiled and started to walk toward her with his knife and some sort of needle thing in his hand, not answering her question. "You'll be tough," he said randomly, "But not impossible. Not for me."
Dalia's vision started to blur. A weird, powerful sensation rose up inside of her, her clenched sword hand beginning to feel as if it were holding something. She looked down, and realized that her hand was glittering, and a long blue sword had appeared in it.
She honestly did not give a crap. She wanted Balo dead more than she wanted to know what in the name of Hylia was going on.
Balo paused, fear striking his face as he seemed to recognize the sword that was now in her hand. "Could that be…the…the legendary…are you…?" he managed to get out, his eyes widening as Dalia's vision got brighter and brighter.
She raised her sword to point at his chest and, in a voice that was not her own, simply said "Begone."
The world erupted into light, and Dalia collapsed.
—
The first thing Alynna saw when she woke up was her own blood on the stone floor of the temple.
Immediately disgusted, she sat up to get her face away from it, and then realized she could move, and was apparently not dead.
She twisted around so she could see the back of her injured leg. She involuntarily gasped when seeing that the injury was gone, the only proof that it had ever happened being a thin red line. She looked around, alarmed, wondering what in the name of Hylia had happened.
That's when she saw Dalia also collapsed on the ground just a few feet away.
"Dal!" she yelled, scrambling over to her sister. She began to shake her younger sister's shoulders, trying to arouse her. Dalia's eyes fluttered, and she moaned angrily as she rolled over, muttering something about sleeping and how it affects the state of mind when facing a horde of vicious butterflies. Alynna smiled, glad to see that her sister was okay.
"I wouldn't shake her anymore, if I were you," a deep and earthy voice sounded from behind Alynna. She immediately whirled around, fear erupting her heart as she expected Balo or one of his "colleagues" to be holding a knife to her back.
Her eyes widened as she saw no one behind her—only the statue, which seemed to be glowing and sparkling now more than ever. But the statue couldn't have talked, right?
"Hello?" Alynna asked cautiously, reaching for her dagger, which she was relieved to realize was still attached to her belt.
"Hello," the deep voice replied, seeming to resonate from the statue.
The oldest twin took a step back, alarmed now that it was actually confirmed that the statue was talking. "You can…uh…?"
"Yes, indeed, I can talk."
She buried her face in her hands. "I'm dead, aren't I? Dalia and I both were killed by that psychopath Balo, weren't we?"
"Yiga clan member #156," the statue corrected calmly, "And no, you are not dead."
Alynna looked at the lady statue with confusion.
"I see you on your face that you are puzzled by the circumstances that have been set before you. Let me explain to you what has happened," the lady statue stated, her words echoing across the temple.
"I am an incarnation of the goddess Hylia put in this world as a statue for the purpose of aiding the hero of legend on his journeys to vanquish evil," the statue began, "I am a statue created for noble purposes, and therefore do have noble intentions. Today, when you and your sister walked into the temple, I felt a curious and innocent aura resonating from you, even though you intended to steal me. I did not interject in your efforts because of this aura, and also I know that no man or woman alive could manage to move this statue due to heavy incantations that have been laid on it." She seemed to chuckle at this, though Alynna honestly didn't get what was so funny. Once she had gotten over her spat of laughter, she continued on with her explanation.
"Once the man arrived, however, I immediately sense he was a Yiga clan member disguised as a young child like yourselves in order to trick you. I didn't think much of it, as I cannot do anything without the necessary means of power or the presence of the legendary hero, and Yiga Clan members tend to not bother anyone who doesn't interfere with their work. However, this fellow was an exception, born and raised with malice and hatred to grow to be the small population of Yiga Clan members who terrorize anyone they can find. You were both unfortunate enough to encounter one of these members, and I could only watch as he attempted to kill you. However, when I sensed that surge of anger coming from you, I poured some of my power into your soul for a short amount of time, and it allowed you to gather the strength to kick the Yiga. This, of course, was very lucky, as it allowed your sister to be able to come and rescue you in the nick of time."
Alynna turned to look at her sister, feeling immense gratitude. "How did she save me?"
"Well," the statue began again, "She simply came into the temple at the right time, just as your leg was about halfway cut off. When she saw this, she was filled with such incredible determination and anger that I was able to give her the Master sword for a short amount of time, and that scared Balo off in a manner of seconds."
"Master…sword?" Alynna said slowly, realization beginning to fill her brain, "Wait…is that the sword that seals the darkness? The one that only the hero of legend can wield?
"That is correct."
"So…does that mean…?" Alynna began to ask, not wanting to finish the question due to the fact that she did not want to believe that her sister was truly the hero of legend. It was supposedly a dangerous profession, getting you into all sorts of crazy and horrible situations where you could die very easily if you weren't careful. And Dalia was the least careful person that Alynna knew, even through all her years of trading treasure with roguish con-men and scallawags.
"No, your sister is not the hero of legend," the statue replied, prompting a huge and unhidden sigh of relief from Alynna, "But, in different circumstances, she may have been a choice for that position."
"What do you mean?" the relieved elder twin asked with curiosity.
"The current hero of legend is asleep, and has been for the past 90 years or so," the statue replied, "Therefore, if he had died, Dalia would have had a very good probability of being selected to fill that role and help save Hyrule."
"90 years?" Alynna asked, alarmed, "Isn't he too old for the job? And how does someone sleep that long?"
"There are ways," the goddess replied simply with a slight bit of humor in her voice, making Alynna feel like she knew something that the twin did not.
"How long is he going to sleep? After all, Hyrule is pretty much the equivalent of Moblin crap as of now," Alynna asked, knowing that she was not going to get any answers from her previous questions.
"Even I do not know the answer to that question," Hylia replied quickly, "He will wake when he is needed most."
"Isn't that, like, right now?" Alynna protested, starting to feel a bit irritated at this supposed hero of legend. After all, it was his duty to protect the citizens of Hyrule, and he was just sleeping while innocent people were dying at the hands of evil.
"It is time for me to leave this statue," the goddess statue resonated, avoiding Alynna's question and making her feel like something was awfully wrong about the whole setup with this hero, "Dalia will be aroused in a minute, and then you should be on your way."
"But, you didn't—"
"Goodbye," the statue said quickly, and the sparkling presence in the temple seemed to fade, signaling the goddess's departure.
"Thanks for…everything," Alynna said to an empty room, feeling more confused than before she had talked to the statue. She almost wondered if that whole conversation was a dream, since the room seemed so normal and ordinary now, but she knew better than anyone that it was real.
She turned to face her sister, who was still passed out on the hard, stone flooring. She still couldn't believe that her very own twin could've been the legendary hero, and tried to imagine their life if that was the case. It would probably involve a lot more fighting than their present one, and a lot more enemies and action. It probably would be something Dalia would enjoy and relish.
Alynna sighed as she plopped down next her sister, shifting her thoughts to the present hero, and her conversation with the statue. The goddess incarnation obviously was uncertain about exactly when the hero was going to wake up, and Alynna had to wonder about the possibility that goddess knew when the hero was going to wake up, but didn't tell her for some reason. Maybe he wasn't going to wake up for a long time?
Or maybe, Alynna realized with a feeling of dread rising in her stomach, he wasn't going to wake up at all?
"No," Alynna mumbled to herself, trying to think rationally, "That's impossible. A goddess as powerful and knowledgeable as Hylia wouldn't slip up and send a hero to sleep forever. That's just not…possible."
But what if she did? a nagging voice of doubt whispered in her head.
Alynna tried to shake off this thought, but it was of no use. The avoidance of questions, the hasty departure, the unexpected unsteadiness that was in the goddess's voice—the all added up to the answer that something was just really wrong with how long the hero had and would sleep.
Suddenly, Alynna heard the sound of Dalia moaning and sitting up from behind her.
"Wh…what happened again?" Dalia muttered, rubbing her head and groaning.
"We have to go wake up the hero of legend," Alynna muttered absentmindedly, still lost in her thoughts.
"Wait, WHAT?"
—
EPILOGUE (10 years later)
Alynna studied the intimidating patterned wall in front of her, trying to figure out exactly what she was supposed to do with the orange and grey and glowing ball Dal and she had managed to roll up the steep hill that lead up to this place. She was pretty certain where they stood was the Shrine of Resurrection, although there wasn't a lot of information anywhere about it. The only people who knew substantial information on the shrine were friendly but also did not reveal that much, just like Hylia from that day in the temple.
Alynna sighed and looked up at the Sheikah sign on the wall feeling confused but also complete. After 10 long years of searching for, begging for, and reading about information on how to wake up this dormant hero, Dalia and she were finally at the finish line.
"Hey, I think I found it!" a voice called from outside the long tunnel Alynna was in.
"Found what?" Alynna called back to her sister, still looking at the door.
"The speared and tortured body of the hero!"
"Not funny, Dal," Alynna replied, rolling her eyes even though Dalia couldn't see her.
"Okay, fine. But I actually found something. Like, related to what we're doing right now."
"You're not joking this time?" Alynna asked with suspicion.
"Just come on out and you'll see!"
Alynna climbed up the steps leading out of the tunnel, wary of but also excited to see what Dalia had found. Directly outside of the mouth of the tunnel, Dalia stood next to a barely uncovered mechanism that glowed the same color as the ball. It looked almost like a very oversized plate, only that there was a large divot in the center of it.
"You know what we need to do, right?" Dalia asked, smiling at her twin.
"The question is, do you?" Alynna questioned, smirking at her younger sister.
"No," Dalia replied, feigning confusion, "That's why I need you, big sister Alynna! Because you're so smart and always ask me if I know things that you know!" She finished off her sarcastic comment with a baby voice.
Alynna rolled her eyes again, laughing. "Come on, help me out with this," she said, beckoning her sister over to the ball. On the count of three, they both lifted the ball together and shuffled over to the plate until they had the ball directly over the divot.
"You ready?" Alynna asked, "This is the moment we've been waiting for, after 10 years of studying and asking tons of—"
"Let's just do it already!" Dalia interrupted impatiently, but then smiled at Alynna.
She smiled back, and, wordlessly, they both dropped the ball into the divot.
The ball fit perfectly into the divot, rolling around a little until it was settled. Alynna and Dalia both scrambled back a few steps just in case some explosion happened, but they were both curious to see what happened. Once the ball had stopped moving, it and the plate suddenly turned a bright shade of blue where the orange had been previously, and a rumbling insinuated from the inside of the tunnel. Alynna and Dalia immediately took cover behind a large rock, fearing that they had caused some large explosion inside of the shrine and had ended up killing the hero, but no debris shot out of the tunnel. Instead, the plate and ball began to sparkle and disappear, leaving a patch of wildflowers in their wake once they had fully disappeared.
"Well," Dalia said as she stared at the new patch of flowers, "That's something I've never seen before."
Alynna nodded sagely, and they quietly stood together, thinking about what they should do next.
"Should we, uh, meet him?" Dalia asked, "I mean, we kind of spent so much time trying to wake him up, it's only fair that we get to see him."
Alynna shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I mean, he's probably really disoriented right now, after sleeping for 100 years 'n all that. How would you feel if you woke up to find two 25 year olds in your face, asking who you are and what you remember?"
"I would probably punch them," Dalia remarked with thought in her voice.
"Well, I guess we'll just…leave?" Alynna asked, staring at the mouth of the tunnel.
"Yeah," Dalia said, "I guess."
And leave they did.