Author's note: This is a remake of my old fic, 'The Bloody Handed', which kind of stank. This won't however, as I've put much thought into it. It will get pretty violent at times, almost disturbing to some. But then, it is in the 'horror' genre. Any chapters with anything particuarily nasty will have a warning at the top and a rating of 'M', just in case disturbing images of torture and the like make you ill.
I highly recommend you read this so you understand the story. You don't have to, but it will help you make sense of it. In the Zelda series, this takes place about five years after the end of Ocarina of Time. Instead of Link having gone back to a child however, in this he remains an adult in the Hyrule he liberated from Ganondorf. In this, Hyrule had a peaceful perioud of reconstruction for about a year following Ganondorf's demise. Then, disaster struck as Hyrule's South Eastern neighbor, (I always pictured Hyrule as a coastal nation, with Lake Hylia actually begin a large brackish bay, with its western and northern borders open plains, its eastern border dominated by mountains, and its souther border made up of the desert to the south west, a great forest to the south east, and the ocean to the south. That's pretty much how Hyrule will be in this story.) Andoria, invades. In the years that followed, the war brought ruin to all aspects of the economy and Hyrule is only just surviving. During the four years the war was being fought, plauges and famines and natural disasters also struck Hyrule hard. In short, Hyrule is a dieing nation. This story begins just as Hyrule enters its most poorly and sickly state ever, with its armies crushed and falling back all across the country side and its people dieing off from starvation and disease. I think you can all figure out where Link is in all this by yourselves. And yes, it is Romance/Horror, so he will get a girl. I do have some flexibility here, so I will take suggestions for who he will end up with. Ulitmately though, it is my decision. Finally, this chapter doesn't have Link or any major characters, just some OCs. Its kind of like an intro/prelude kind of thing. Irregardless, I think its a pretty darn good way to start this.
Well, that's all you need to know to start reading the story. Lets begin!
Disclaimer: I own nothing of 'The Legend of Zelda'. It is owned by Nintendo and Mr. Miyamoto, and I am only using their genius creation for entertainment purposes and am making no profit on it whatsoever.
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Captain Oswin of the Hyrulean city guard yawned loudly, leaning back against the wall of the guard house. He stared towards the ground with disinterest, lazily tracing patterns on the cobblestone street with his spear tip. Sighing, he set his spear down next to him and pulled his knees to his chest, glancing around as a cold breeze whipped down the street.
Shivering, he wrapped his ragged cloak around his shoulders tighter, staring into the darkness of the streets. Discarded paper drifted on the freezing wind, mixing with the hundreds of fallen leaves in the autumn air. Yellow and feral eyes stared back at him from the darkness, a desperate longing detectable in their depths.
Shaking his head, he looked away from the hungry stares of the strays, turning his gaze instead towards the night sky. The moon was full, making the night somewhat more illuminated than usual. Shivering again, he pressed closer to the wall and curled up tighter, wrapping the cloak around him until it was stretched to the limits of its strength.
He cursed loudly when he felt a sting of cold air on the bottom of his back, realizing he had ripped a hole in the ragged material of his cloak in his efforts to find warmth. Loud barking down the street ended any further frustration on his part as he dropped the cloak and grabbed his spear, standing ready with the tip pointed menacingly towards the dark.
He heard a yelp of pain and saw a member of the city guard wrapped in a thick fur cloak running clumsily from a stray, holding a knapsack tightly to his chest and making great efforts to protect it from the cold wind and the dog.
"Shoo! Shoo, mutt! Go rot in a gutter, damn you!" the guard shouted, hissing in pain as the dog, just a small terrier, sank its teeth into his ankle.
Oswin dashed forward, whacking the flat side of his spearhead against the dog's back and drawing a yelp of pain from the animal. It released its hold on the other guard and retreated a few steps, turning to face Oswin and growling at him menacingly. Lowering his spear and leaning down so the point was level with the dog's head, he tensed his arms to thrust and kill in an instant.
"Don't even think about it, pooch," he muttered.
As if it could understand the truth of his words, the stray turned away and ran back into the darkness of the city proper. Standing up straight again, Oswin sighed heavily. Turning to look for the other guard, he frowned when he noticed he had already ran inside the guard house, leaving the door wide open. Shaking his head, Oswin entered after him and shut the door, locking it securely.
Looking towards the other guard as he turned from locking the door, he asked, "Well, what did you get this time Magal?"
The other guard, Magal, looked up from his position at the far end of the guard house where the sole source of heat and primary source of light was located. "You'll see," he replied simply, crouching down in front of the wood stove and sticking his hands as close to the heat as he dared.
Frowning, he looked back towards Oswin again. "I think you need to put more wood in the stove, Oswin. The flames have just about died and these embers won't last long without some more fuel."
Cursing, Oswin grabbed a few small logs from the corner next to the door and tossed them to Magal, who fed them into the stove slowly. Sighing contently as fresh flames burst into creation, he took of his fur cloak and laid it on the floor, sitting down on it and leaning back on his hands, letting the warmth wash over him.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"What have you got?"
He laughed in realization, picking up a knapsack from its place next to the stove, saying, "I was planning to warm it up, you see. Blasted cold freezes just about everything, though I think I managed to get this stuff here without exposing it to much." Opening the knapsack, he handed Oswin a loaf of fresh bread, a flask of whiskey, and a chunk of salted venison, taking the same for himself from the pack.
Oswin couldn't help it as his mouth watered, not even bothering to wipe away the drool as he sank his teeth into the bread. He closed his eyes and moaned in ecstasy, chewing slowly so as to suck every shred of enjoyment from it as he could.
"This is some damn good food, Magal," he said after a while, taking a drink of whiskey. "And some damn fine drink, too! How in Din's name did you get all this, man? This is countless times better than that slop you usually get." His fellow city guardsman winked knowingly at him.
"Oh, I have my connections. Just...don't be expecting anything other than that nasty gruel they call soup for a few days now." Sighing, he took a bite of meat and bread, speaking somewhat successfully around the food in his mouth. "Need to lay low for a bit, you know," he said, smirking wryly. slyly.
Oswin almost choked on a chunk of venison, coughing as he beat his chest and taking a swig of whiskey to clear his throat. "You mean you stole this stuff?!" he asked, outraged.
"Well, of course I did. How else is a soldier supposed to get a decent meal in times like these?"
"But you-. But I-. You cant just-. Ugh... If they catch you..."
"They won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Believe me, Oswin," he began reassuringly. "I take great pains to go undetected. Besides, I thought you knew already."
"What? How could I have?" asked Oswin.
"Well...I guess you couldn't have but... You were on lookout, weren't you?"
Furrowing his brow, Oswin looked at Magal strangely for a moment before his face lit up with realization. "Oh! That."
"Yes, that. Why else would you be sitting out in the damned freezing cold?"
Standing up, Oswin shook his head and sighed. "No, I wasn't playing lookout for you. I am a soldier of Hyrule, a protector of the people and an upholder of justice. I refuse to play a part in any of your schemes!" he spat.
"Then why were you outside when you could have been nice and warm in here?" asked Magal curiously.
"I had the foresight to realize that if I had stayed inside, I would have fallen asleep, thus condemning you to the cold for the night since I have the only door key. I was outside suffering in the cold so you wouldn't get locked out in the cold and freeze to death. Besides, you were bringing the food, however ashen it may taste to me now!" finished Oswin vehemently.
Magal smiled weakly as Oswin turned away from him to face the south wall and the firing slits, continuing to enjoy his meal. "Well...thanks for your kind words." he said quietly, turning towards the stove and cramming his bread into his mouth. "Its a harsh world we live in now," he said. "You are aware of that, right?" He noticed his companion nod slowly from the corner of his eye.
"I steal a little food here, a little there, from some rich pompous noble who's hording to much for himself and give it to us so we don't starve to death. Is that so bad, Oswin?"
Eyes narrowed, Oswin turned to Magal and spoke through gritted teeth. "The way I was raised, properly by my family, I was taught something called honor. I don't care how rich someone is or how much food they have stored up for themselves. Stealing is stealing, Magal. We are soldiers of Hyrule, damn you! We are to uphold the law, not ruin it! Have you forgotten that?" He seethed terribly, turning away from his companion again to stare at the shuttered firing slits.
"No, I haven't forgotten," began Magal after awhile. "But to uphold the law you so covet, we need our strength. Otherwise we'll just be run over by the people we're supposed to protect next time a riot comes around. Sound fair enough to you yet?"
"I suppose...you have a minor point there..." said Oswin through gritted teeth.
"Bloody right I do. And besides, do you really think I take just enough for us? I take and take until my pack is bursting at the seams!" he declared, indicated the now empty knapsack sitting to his side. Oswin looked ready to burst with anger at his statement, but Magal continued before he could do anything. "Then, I make a stop at the most desolate and pathetic districts of this damnable city, especially the orphanages and refugee houses. You know what I do there? I hand out food to the needy. It goes without saying I've saved scores of lives by doing this, Oswin. I don't need you to tell me my sense of honor is all off, when clearly its more true than your own!"
Mouth agape, Oswin sighed in defeat, looking towards the floor in shame and offering a hand to Magal. "I am sorry, my friend, to have doubted you so. You were in the right all along; I had no right to say what I said. Its this bloody cold, Magal. Its almost...unnatural, the way it refuses to disperse..." He looked towards the floor in contemplation as Magal scooted closer to him and clapped him on the back.
"Aye, these past years has been brutal to us all. The wars are one thing, but then we have that dreaded drought killing the crops, the plague that slaughtered the livestock, and now this unnatural cold that seeks to end us all. It all reeks of fell powers acting behind the scenes, if you ask me."
"You mean like Ganondorf? Like some of his followers trying to bring him back?"
"No," sighed Magal, standing and walking over to one of the shuttered firing slits. "This feels like something else, if you ask me. Remember, I always had that feeling before Ganondorf's bastard underlings attacked before? Remember how accurate it was? Well I haven't had even a twinge of that lately. Not even a hint at it."
"What do you think it is, then?" asked Oswin tentatively, picking up his venison from the floor and brushing it off. "What could be worse than Ganondorf?"
"I never said this was worse than that madman," snapped Magal. "It might be, but I doubt anything could. We're all just rather superstitious at the moment more than anything. Just a really bad patch of weather probably."
"A patch of bad weather and a series of unfortunate events which have been continuous the past few years?" asked Oswin through a mouthful of meat. "Somehow I doubt its a coincidence."
"Oh, bloody hell Oswin! I shouldn't have brought it up! Now we can't stop pondering about the end of all things. I think we-" He paused abruptly, looking at Oswin with a questioning look.
"What?"
"I thought you said it tasted like ash."
"Well...that was before I was enlightened to your selfless actions."
Chuckling, Magal sat down against the wall next to a boarded up firing slit, stretching out his leg and dragging his cloak to him with his heel. Oswin shook his head and snickered as he devoured his food with newfound hunger as Magal wrapped the cloak around him and laid down with his back to the wall.
Slowly, he drifted off to sleep, the muffled howling of the wind outside, the crackle of the wood stove's flames, and the sounds of Oswin eating all that permeated his peaceful state. To him though, they were just background noise and before long he was fast asleep and oblivious to all around him.
The air outside dropped to a subzero chill as the wind began blowing faster and stronger in the dead darkness of the Hyrulean night.
-
Like an ocean caught in a storm, the cloud of darkness writhed and heaved as it stalked across the endless grassy plains of Hyrule. It clicked and snapped, sniffing at the air and taking labored steps though it had no mouth, nostrils or limbs with which it could.
It was a roiling, heaving, twitching pool of dark. Like magma bursting into the icy water of the northern seas it hissed, the gaping maw silhouetted in its depthless self opening and closing to bare teeth which collapsed in wisps of black smoke and then remade themselves as they saw fit.
Twisting with countless physical impossibilities, it heaved onward through the night. The ground on which it stepped died instantly, all objects in the space sucked of their color and life. One could trace an eerie trail through the fields where it had passed, and yet the trail would not lead to where it had come from, for the trail never ended. Nor did it begin. It was merely more impossible madness spawned by the impossible cloud of darkness that stalked through the night on limbs that did not exist and guided by senses it should not possess.
Around it, the wind seemed to twist and heave, growing colder and colder until it possessed a chill so potent it could have frozen the very molten depths of the earth. But instead, it blew faster until it cut through the air like a great whirlwind, scything the air and screaming like a thousand children as they lay dieing.
Without the means to do so, it sniffed the air and screeched, taking off at a ferocious pace and screaming through the fields like a wild beast overtaken by the thrill of the hunt. The ground groaned and churned violently as it plowed a path through the field, carving a hideous scar across the landscape. It smashed through a large stone wall that towered over the surrounding plains, obliterating the structure with a tremendous cracking noise and sending chunks of masonry hundreds of feet in the air and in all directions.
Skidding to a halt as it reached the crest of the hill before it, it screeched into the night once more, the noise horrifying and grating. Before it in the valley below was a great city, its walls large and its structures numbering in the thousands as they stretched beyond even the impossible yet potent senses of the darkness. Towing above them all, a great castle surged into the sky and dominated everything around it. The sight would have been impressive, but the darkness did not see as men saw.
It looked at the city and purred in feral pleasure as it saw the buildings shatter, blood pour into the moat from a million eviscerated corpses, and people scream as they were fed into the eternal flames of Hell and their souls forever damned and slaughtered by things to evil to fully exist in the mortal realm.
Screeching one last time into the night, it gouged a depression in the earth and barreled down the hill towards the city, intent on making its lurid visions a stark reality. Its scything winds screamed into the air and smashed into walls with the force of a thousand cannons as hundreds of shadowy figures disgorged from its presence as it vanished into thin air. It was as if it had never existed.
As the first bloodcurdling scream of terror rent the night like an explosion from Death Mountain itself, the city came awake in a surge of terror and panic. But when the people ran into the streets, they were met by not only an impossible vision of evil, but a horde of slavering, depraved men who set about to pillage and slaughter with a passion unheard of in all the tongues and histories of man.
-
Oswin awoke suddenly, his breath caught in his chest as icy cold wind threw him violently against the wall. The howling of the wind was almost deafening as he struggled to prop himself up on his hands and knees, looking up towards the front wall and the firing slits.
Splintered shards of the boards that had just moments before covered the firing slits to keep out the cold cut through the air dangerously close to his head as he beheld the empty darkness of Hyrule field through the now open spaces. Magal crawled over to him and tapped him on the shoulder, drawing his attention away from the shapeless black cloud that was billowing towards the city.
"We have to get out of here! The whole bloody thing is going to come down on our heads!" he shouted, barely audible over the clamor of the wind. The entire structure groaned and appeared to sway as support beams cracked and splintered, dumping tons of stone and rotten wood on top of them.
Without bothering to acknowledge the reality of his statement, Oswin began moving towards the door after his companion. Magal stumbled and cried out in pain as another one of the shuttered firing slits fell against the wind, sending thousands of splintered fragments towards him. Most flew over him, hitting the wall harmlessly. But many hit him, driven deep into him by their great speed.
"Magal!"
Reaching his side, Oswin inhaled sharply when he saw the damage. Blood was trickling down Magal's body from countless tiny wounds, each negligible on their own, but combining to cost him vast amounts of blood. His breathing was haggard and came in short gasps, each breath clearly laced with intense pain as the cold penetrated deep into his body through his many wounds. To make matters worse, he wasn't even conscious.
"Magal, come on! We cant stay here! Wake up!" cried Oswin hysterically. "The whole bloody roof is going to fall on us if you don't get up! Goddesses know I cant carry you and get out in time!"
Eyeing the door longingly, Oswin made to abandon his friend. As he crawled away however, he chanced a glance backward and saw Magal's shattered and pitiful body, bloody and dieing. He swallowed hard, whimpering as his basest, most fearful instincts called for him to flee and his humanity urged him to save his friend. Groaning in frustration, he turned and ran back to Magal's limp form.
"Damn you, Magal..." he muttered.
Oswin hoisted Magal up, throwing his arm around his shoulder and stumbling around for a few precious moments before he compensated for the extra weight. Moving as fast as he could, he cried out in surprise when a terrible crack split the air. Looking over his shoulder, Oswin felt his heart almost stop as he beheld the support beams giving way, splinters and chunks of ill-maintained wood flying through the air as the weight of the roof came down upon them.
Sprinting at a speed born of desperation, Oswin flung himself and his crippled companion at the door, smashing their way through and out onto the freezing streets in a shower of splinters. He released a breathe he wasn't aware he had been holding, falling to his hands and knees and panting heavily. Looking up towards the city proper, his breathe caught in his throat.
Many of the visible buildings were aflame, the smoke rising into the air and blackening even the night sky. Screams of terror rent the air and the sounds of vicious fighting seemed to come from everywhere at once. Looking back at the walls, Oswin nearly fainted at the impossible spectacle.
The great walls that had withstood the test of time and countless wars against both human and demonic enemies was almost completely annihilated. Great cuts were rent through it at random intervals, the pieces flung around and smashed into nearby buildings. Much of it was still being destroyed, the devastation so incredible that even now it was still crumbling.
Going pale, he noticed what had brought down the guard house. The entirety of the main gate, draw bridge included, as well as much of the nearby wall, had been brought down on top of it. That he and Magal had escaped at all was nothing short of incredible.
Looking around at the destruction done to the city, Oswin felt anger and the urge to kill those responsible rise within him. Glancing towards the ruins of the guard house, he picked up Magal and secreted him underneath a part of the wall that was propped up against what was left of the guard house's northern wall. Digging through the rubble, he miraculously found Magal's fur cloak and some of the blankets he had been using before their rude awakening.
Putting what could be salvaged of the ruined food he found nearby his motionless body, Oswin hung the blankets over the opening and shoved more rubble in the way to further block him from view and from the cold. Laying his cloak over him and lighting a small fire in Magal's hiding place, Oswin stepped back and surveyed his work.
"Well, it certainly doesn't make up for the fact I almost left you for dead to save my own skin. Nothing ever will. But at least now you'll be safe and won't freeze to death while I figure out what's going on." Looking up into the night sky, he shivered as a great feeling of dread fell over him. "Maybe if I live through this...and you don't die on me, I can at least try and make it up to you. Maybe..."
Satisfied he had done all he could for his friend, Oswin began digging around in the rubble for a weapon. Fortunately, his probing hands soon grasped the hilt of a sword and he pulled it free of the ruins. Taking a few test swings, he buckled it to his belt and ran back onto the street.
Turning towards the smoke filled city, he said a quick prayer to the Goddesses and charged into the darkness.
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Author's note: What did you think? Not bad? Horrible? Pure genius? Let me know, please! I will try and update soon, worry not.