A/N: I think this is officially dead. Sorry. I'm probably just going to update it from time to time.
Personally, I think Sheik and Zelda are two different people. Don't bother to point that out.
By the way, keres are dark-skinned creatures wearing red robes; they have sparkling eyes and vicious teeth. At the moment of death, they let out a chilly cry, descend down to a victim, drink the blood from his wounds and carry him off to Hades.
Link walked past the disorderly rows of tents which were the temporary homes of the remains of the Royal Hylian Army. Its numbers had dwindled distressingly since the Evil King had slain the Hylian king and taken over Hyrule and it had been decided by the Council that they would launch a final, desperate kamikaze attack on the Gerudo King's fortress; should that fail, so be it.
As he passed a tent, the solider who had occupied it that night looked up from a spit of not-quite-rotten meat and smiled wanly at him. Link shuddered inwardly but managed to force a smile; this solider, like so many others, was about Link's age and had had his youth stolen from him and replaced with festering scars.
The state of the army was distressing, but perhaps the state of its leaders was more so. The 'Council' now consisted of Sheik, Zelda and himself—three exhausted adults who were finally giving up after a fifteen-year war against the superior forces of the Gerudo race. All others who could have helped lead the diminished army—Ruto, Impa, Darunia, Naboruu, and all those other who had fought along their side—had died in battle or of illness caused by the terrible conditions which the warriors were forced to endure. Link's fiancée had been buried for almost seven years; Zelda's nanny and Sheik's mother not even six months. In addition, the Zora and Goron races had been driven out of Hyrule, leaving Link's people without allies.
Slowly, still managing to look refined despite the filth around her, Zelda walked over to Link and squeezed his shoulder, mercifully breaking him from his memories. Unlike so many other things in their bleak world, she was still radiantly beautiful and looked unmarred by the death and disease she had seen; it was almost as though she walked in a beam of light. Yet he could see the desperation in her eyes as well as an exhaustion which must have been slowly killing her. "Are you ready?" she asked softly.
"As ready as I'll ever be," he answered softly.
"Then gather the troops."
Sheik had already roused his division of the troops by the time Link had begun rousing his and assisted the Hylian in the process when he was done. Link was relieved at the Sheikah's help as it gave them some time to talk before the final battle. Sheik pretended not to be nervous, but Link had known him long enough to be able to tell when he truly wasn't nervous and when he was only pretending not to be; he did not, however, comment on this.
They reviewed the plan before talking about anything else, although Link knew it by heart. "We'll break a way for you into Gannondorf's castle," Sheik said. "We could send a dozen or so soldiers in with you, but I know you think it's unnecessary… But anyway, once you get inside it's all up to you. You must slay King Gannondorf."
"Yeah," Link replied, mostly tuning out the Sheikah. When Sheik had been silent for a moment or so and it was prudent to do so, Link asked softly, "Sheik?"
"Yeah?" Sheik asked, turning to look at him.
"Do you… Do you think we're going to be able to do this?"
Darkly, Sheik shook his head. "Hell no. He'll slaughter us. The Gerudo are amazing warriors alone, and he's got those troops of monsters defending his castle… No. We'll never defeat him."
"Then… why do we even try?"
Sheik sighed deeply and shrugged. "We just have to. No matter how bleak things seem there's always a slight chance that we might actually do it. Zelda certainly seems to think there is. I don't, but hey… her optimism is infectious. So I pretend I think we can just for her sake and the troops' sakes. No other way."
The Hylian took in a deep breath, biting his tongue hard enough to draw blood. He had been trying to say those three small words to the beautiful Sheikah, but had always been unable to do so. But now that his death loomed above his head, imminent and unstoppable, he found the courage to say them: "Sheik… I… I love you."
Instead of reacting negatively to the Hylian's words, as Link had expected, Sheik smiled bitterly and wrapped his arms around him, holding Link tightly against him. "I love you too," he whispered, kissing Link's lips. "If we make it out of here alive, maybe… But first things first. We'll talk about it if we are still alive by the end of the day."
Link nodded, almost hurt, but he understood Sheik's aloofness. The wounds caused from the death of not only his entire family but entire people as well had not yet and would likely never completely heal. "Yes," he agreed softly, pressing his lips gently against the Sheikah's. "If."
Led by the Council, the Hylian Royal Army crested a final hill to Gannondorf's tower and was greeted by a perfectly disciplined guard of monsters. Werewolves, a strain which had the ability to shift back and forth from wolf-form to man-form at will, seemed to comprise the majority of the force, but there also were a handful of chimaeras, hydras, wyverns, gryphons and a dozen centaurs. The Gerudo King himself stood on the roof of a turret, his arms crossed over his chest and a cold, egotistical look on his face. The fact that he was aloof from his warriors was surprising, as he normally fought with his troops.
Sheik shook his head, his frown deepening. If he was not leading his warriors, he did not consider the Hylian army worth his attention.
The monsters which defended Gannondorf's castle were fidgeting or playing with their weapons. Most centaurs were polishing their bows despite that the wood could likely have been polished no more; each had two quivers filled with arrows which were slung across their human torsos. An air of superiority saturated their section of the field and the Hylian army could catch whiffs of it now and then, pungent as rotting meat. A collective shiver ran through the warriors.
A centaur mare with a silver coat stepped forward before the monsters, her bow gripped tightly in her left hand. Her appearance was marred only by a long scar which ran her equine chest. Like the Thief King, she exuded egotism and confidence in a somehow subtle way. Slowly, she pulled an arrow from the pure-silver quiver on her right side and nocked it against her bow. Having done that, she cried out in a beautiful, powerful voice to the monster guard, "ATTACK!" and with that, loosed the first arrow.
Sheik's hands rose immediately to put a magical barrier around himself, Link and Zelda; the arrow and many of its fellows which had joined it in the air, bounced harmlessly off, but Link could hear soldiers behind him scream in pain as arrows embedded in their flesh.
Looking over at Link, his face already beaded with sweat of exertion, Sheik cried desperately, "Go! I can't keep up the barrier for long and you must get inside!"
The Hylian warrior nodded and ran flat-out toward the Gerudo King's castle. He had wanted to say something to the Sheikah, to tell him he loved him, but there was no time to do so; without looking back, he did as he had been told. His sword and shield had been slung over his back, and so he was defenseless and relied entirely upon Sheik's shield for protection. The Sheikah barrier did its work well, preventing anything from hurting him. Most monsters simply raised an eyebrow and laughed as he sped past them, stepping aside sarcastically.
Sheik watched him run; Hylians built like him ran so very gracefully. He did not, however, allow himself to be distracted. The barrier which protected Link was vital to maintain. Still, a tiny smile curved the corners of his mouth. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Gerudo King could be stopped after all.
The smile disappeared as he shrieked in pain, dropping the barrier. An arrow shot by the silver-coated mare had managed to get through a weak point in the barrier and struck his shoulder. But for the protection of the barrier he should have died and saw that he would soon die despite that the arrow had been slowed. When he pulled the arrow from his body, he saw its head was black with hydra venom.
Ignoring the pain which was rapidly consuming him, he attempted to remake the barrier in vain. The venom worked quickly, making him feel slow and dizzy, as he had once felt when he had warped to the very top of Death Mountain from Lake Hylia as a child. "Zelda!" he called out desperately, before the venom could swell his tongue and throat too much for him to breathe or speak. "Hydra venom!"
She looked over at him, terrified; both knew she was not a powerful enough mage to cure someone of venom as powerful as a hydra's. Still, she bit down hard on her lip and nodded. Muttering a few incantations, an orb of white light appeared over her palm and she blew it towards Sheik. It encompassed him, piercing into his body, and then shot out in beams of black light. It had left his body, taking some of the venom with it, and although Zelda had not cured him, she had slowed down its effects enough for him to fight longer.
He stood up and recast the barrier magic, watching warily for arrows aimed at the weak spots of his wall. Clearly, he thought bitterly, he had underestimated the prowess of Gannondorf's centaurs; there was no other creature the Evil King could have employed that could manage to shoot an arrow through the tiny weak spots of a Sheikah barrier.
Hurry, Link, he thought desperately as the first wave of Gannondorf's werewolves tore through the Royal army. We can't keep this up long.
Link ran through the doors of Gannondorf's castle just as Sheik's barrier fell away. A werewolf looked over its shoulder, noting this, and ran towards him. However, instead of attacking him, as Link had thought it would, it simply ran past him and up a flight of stairs.
Relieved at not having to fight a powerful werewolf, Link began to walk through the lobby of the castle, trying to decide which way to go. He had been through Castle Hyrule several times, but the layout of Gannondorf's castle was nothing like it. He felt tempted to go the way the werewolf had gone, but he was not interested in facing the monster.
He had explored several rooms when a pair of centaur mares walked into the room, laughing at something. Their coats were silky red, almost the shade of Epona's, but darker and more vibrant. Both were huge, and had they been humans, would have towered over Link by a full foot. "You're kidding!" the one on the left said. "He didn't! Little Abayomi? Imagine that! I wonder what our king will—" Her sentence was abruptly cut off as she let out a gasp when she noticed Link standing with his sword drawn. Her gasp and look of mild concern was quickly replaced by an amused smile as she and the other mare turned around and galloped out of the room, giggling.
"Maybe this one will give out king a challenge!" the second centaur tittered. "The last few were certainly nothing as compared to him!"
When the two had galloped from the room, Link sheathed his sword and muttered darkly, "What is it about women and Gannondorf? Not only has he got the Gerudo drooling over him, he's got those centaur mares as well."
He shook his head and continued threading his way through the maze of the Gerudo's castle, muttering irritably to himself.
"My lord!" the auburn-coated mares cried in unison as they entered the Gerudo King's throne room. Immediately, embarrassed by forgetting protocol, they stopped and bowed low to him, and then one continued, "The Hylian, my lord, the blonde one… He has managed to enter the castle. Shall I have him disposed of?"
Gannondorf looked up at her, then shook his head. "No, that won't be necessary. I knew he would try to kill me… Faris, go find three other centaurs not currently defending the castle and bring them here with their bows. Adsila, go find him and bring him here. Get your bow as well. You two and the three others shall wait in the shadows until I decide I need you and call for you. I'll not be so stupid as to face him myself."
"Yes, my lord," the two said in unison, bowing and running out the door.
He watched them trot out of the throne room and break into a gallop. Centaur mares were oddly graceful despite their size. When they had passed from his line of sight, he turned back around to watch the battle. The odds were decidedly in his favor, although this did not please him. None of his warriors had been killed, although Hylian bodies littered the ground. The keres, he thought bitterly, would eat well tonight.
One of the two roan-colored centaurs galloped into the room in which Link was fighting a Stalfos. The skeleton took a look at the mare, nodded, somehow managed to grin despite the lack of skin, and disappeared into the ground. The mare skidded to a stop in front of Link, a gentle yet cocky smile on her face. "Come, Hylian!" she said, moving so that her side was to him. "My lord wishes to meet you; get on my back and I will take you to him."
"Your lord, huh?" Link asked, drawing his sword despite that the mare was unarmed and unarmored.
The mare favored him with a look normally reserved for complete idiots. "King Dragmire," she said snidely. "You know, tall guy with dark skin and flame red hair? Kinda stands out in a crowd? Not that he's that well known or anything…!" Her face twisted up into an odd smile as she said, in a tone that was about as normal as she could manage, "You know, you've been screwing around the castle for a while, so why don't you just get on my back and let me take you to him? It'll be faster and you can save energy."
Slowly, Link approached her, as if afraid she would bite. "I don't trust you," he said darkly.
"I don't trust you either," she replied nonchalantly, shrugging. "I've got no proof that you won't stab me in the back as I've taking you to my king. I would actually expect it; truly, what else is to be expected from a little backstabbing weasel such as a Hylian?"
"Then why did you offer your help?" Link asked, putting the sword away.
Another shrug. "My lord requested that I bring you to him." Sighing in annoyance, she trotted over to him, jerked him up by his collar and sat him on her back. Without regard for whether or not he was seated properly, she began to gallop up a flight of stairs. "You're being obstinate. Just calm down and enjoy the ride."
"How could you possibly follow a man who has brought such death upon the land of Hyrule?" Link asked venomously, glaring at her despite that the back of her head faced him.
"Like your king would have been any better?" she answered, and he could tell she rolled her eyes. "Please. I trust my lord with my life even though I know he may not always be able to save me; more than I ever could have done with your Hylian king! The bastard…" She bit her lip hard and shook her head, sending her long auburn hair cascading over her shoulders.
She galloped in silence, with the exception of the clop of her hooves against the stone floor. Whether she was annoyed at herself or at him, Link could not tell, but decided not to push his luck by questioning her further; centaur mares could be dangerous when provoked, a fact he knew from unfortunate firsthand experience.
She came to black double-doors, which were embossed in silver with scenes depicting all of the mythical monsters he had seen outside and more. The centaur abruptly bucked as he stared at the doors, and he fell to the ground in a rather unheroic position. "Go through the doors and you shall meet my lord. He is interested in meeting you, so do not keep him waiting any longer." And with that, she galloped down the stairs, obviously relieved at not having to deal with a Hylian for another second longer.
Link watched her go, his mind only half-interested in the ripple of muscle under her roan fur. Likewise, he could only devote half his mind to thoughts of his battle with the Dark King. He was frustrated, but not really surprised; if Gannondorf knew he was here, then a sneak attack was out of the question. Gannondorf's warriors could lay him into tiny pieces in an instant. His only option was really a straight attack, which terrified him. He doubted very much that his skill even began to rival that of the Gerudo warlord. Still, he had no choice, and he could not turn back.
A dark glare set on his face, he swung the door open and walked into the Evil King's throne room.
Gannondorf sat on his throne, a circlet of gold and amber set on his forehead. The usual head-jewel of amber sat on the throne's arm, and a double-headed axe, one of the king's favorite weapons, leaned against the right side of his throne. The man himself looked bored and, Link was surprised to see, as exhausted as the Hylian warrior.
"Took your sweet time, didn't you," Gannondorf said, his tone oozing nonchalance. He rose slowly and regally, taking the axe in one hand and swinging it in a manner which effectively demonstrated his strength and confidence. "No matter. Let me explain something to you before we go further: I have no particular inclination to kill you. When—if—you decide to back down, I will allow you to go free, to do whatever it is you intend to do. And I can afford to, as you can well see." He gestured with one hand to a clear glass window; from it Link could see the dueling warriors, and he could see that the Hylian army had no chance against the monsters Gannondorf had recruited. "Renounce your vow to take my life and I shall let you leave with yours."
"Never," Link cried, yanking his sword from its sheath.
Sighing and shaking his head, Gannondorf said, "Very well. Just don't say I didn't warn you."
Link shuddered involuntarily as a void which preceded magic formed over the warlord's left hand, and filled with a sound which made him think that the a piece universe had sucked in upon itself. A black orb of dark magic orbited horribly, its orbit irregular and at different speeds depending upon where one looked. Heedless that Gannondorf's palm had not moved, the orb broke into thousands of tiny shards of black magic and shot towards him.
The Hylian lift his shield to protect him, but it was useless; the magic penetrated his shield as if it was tissue paper, destroying it and shooting straight into his body. A scream escape his lips, for the magic, though purely intangible, felt as though it had driven into his body like thousands of tiny needles.
Gannondorf's expression did not change, though Link had thought his screams would bring some sick joy to the dark warlord. Instead, he lifted his axe and, rather than neatly decapitate the hero in his moment of weakness, struck him hard in the side with the flat of the blade. Pain exploded in the hero's body as he was thrown across the room.
Arrogantly, Gannondorf stood leaning against his axe, watching in a bored manner as Link slowly regained his breath and stood up. "Have you had enough?" he asked.
"I will leave here with your head!" Link cried in reply, furiously.
"That's not very sporting," Gannondorf replied coldly. "What manner of animal are you that you would wish to take my head as well as my life? I would have you buried, or at the very least burned; I respect you even if I hate you. You have caused me a great deal of headache, after all." Another magical orb formed above his palm. "Leave. Now. Before I am forced to do something unpleasant to you."
"Never!" Link screamed, drawing his bow and nocking an Arrow of Light.
The Gerudo King waved his hand as if to dismiss the notion, and the bow and arrow flew from Link's hands and shattered on the far wall.
What was left of the Hylian warrior's confidence shattered along with his bow. The arrows, Zelda had told him, may have been the only thing that could immobilize the Dark King long enough for Link to get in a few good blows. With those gone, how could he possibly assassinate a man whose skill far exceeded his own?
So deep was his distress that he did not notice that Gannondorf had walked over to him until silver and black energy enveloped him and picked him up off the ground. He struggled to get free, but the magic held him immobile. The Evil King shook his head and said softly, "I expected better of you, Hylian. I realize that you think that without your bow your chances are nil—despite that you never had a chance in the first place—but to be distracted by something like that? You fight like a novice, and surely that cannot be so?"
"Damn… you…" Link hissed, biting his lip to prevent himself from screaming in pain from the searing touch of the black magic.
"I'm quite damned enough, thank you," Gannondorf replied nonchalantly. Rather than kill his opponent, he threw his axe to the side, where it disappeared in a flash of silver light, and planted his fist hard in Link's stomach.
As the Hylian gasped for breath, Gannondorf allowed the magic imprisoning him to fade, and Link dropped unceremoniously on the floor. The Gerudo knelt down beside him, lifting his chin so that the Hylian's eyes looked into his own. "Listen well, Hylian," he said softly. "As soon as you get your breath back, run. This is your last chance. I'll let you go. But if you choose to stay, I will kill you. That is a promise." He stood back up and took a few steps back, waiting patiently for the would-be assassin to get his breath back.
This time, Link took the man's advice. He struggled to his feet and made for the door. However, before he could get to it, a centaur mare whose coat was a pure, silky black, stepped forward, an arrow nocked against her bow. Her face was consumed with hatred for him. "You go nowhere," she said darkly. Four other mares, also wielding bows, stepped forward and glared at him threateningly.
"I thought you said I could go!" Link cried, looking back at Gannondorf.
"I did," Gannondorf replied, shrugging. "They, however, seem to think differently. I can't say I blame them, after what you've done to their kind…"
"But—"
A tiny smirk, the first one Link had seen on the man's face in years, crept onto his lips. "I'm sure as hell not going to tell them to let you go. They may be mine to command, but they are thinking, feeling creatures. I believe that after you threatened to take my head, their attitude towards you changed. They might have let you go, too. But no matter; it seems that we have no choice but to finish our fight. Draw your weapon."
A feeling of dread weighing heavily on his shoulders, Link drew his sword and prepared for what he knew would be his final fight. Gannondorf, a katana appearing in his hands, moved with the graceful confidence of a cat, although the tiny smirk had disappeared and been replaced by a look of coldness and exhaustion. The centaur mares had lowered their weapons and were smirking dangerously, knowing full well the outcome of this battle. While they did not shout praise to their king, it only took one look at them for Link to know that if for some reason he did manage to inflict a major wound to the Gerudo King, he would immediately become a human pincushion.
Gannondorf struck the first blow, which Link only barely managed to block. The metallic clash of their blades echoed through the room. The force of the Gerudo's blow worried him immensely, for it felt almost strong enough to shatter his blade, and with the loss of a blade and a bow, where would he be?
He parried another of the Gerudo's blows, this one softer and less damaging. However, Gannondorf, distracting Link with a sword thrust, swung out his foot and tripped the Hylian warrior. He brought his blade down, and Link very narrowly managed to avoid it. He leapt to his feet, holding his sword in front of him and parrying another of the king's blows.
Gannondorf stepped back, lowering his sword. Foolishly, Link ran in to strike him, and the Gerudo managed to neatly wretch the sword from out of his hands. It clattered to the floor away from him. He attempted to retrieve his blade, but the warlord's foot connected solidly with his chest, throwing him backwards into a wall.
Link cried out in pain, and slid his hand to the back of his head, feeling a warm liquid trickle down his neck. He grimaced when he saw it was his blood. He forced himself to his feet, trying to ignore the pain which seemed to be screaming from every part of his body.
However, before he could effectively stand, Gannondorf's foot came down into his shoulder, driving him down and into the floor and wall. Link screamed in pain; while his collarbone had not broken, it certainly felt as though it had. Blood, already hot and sticky against his back, seemed to have made its way down to his belt.
Gannondorf walked over to him and threaded his fingers into Link's thick hair, yanking the Hylian up; Link screamed in pain, overlapping the snapping sounds of strands of hair being ripped from his scalp. The Gerudo dragged him that way over to a window and slammed his head against it, his fingers digging deeply into the hero's scalp.
"Look at Artemis," the Gerudo growled, looking down at the battlefield.
"Who?" Link answered.
Groaning in annoyance, Gannondorf answered, "The silver-coated centaur, idiot. She led the attack against your army. Do you see her? Do you see how she fights?"
It was a grim spectacle indeed to watch the lady-centaur fight; she had slung her bow over her shoulder though her quivers were still mostly full and now fought with a dagger in each hand. She did not use them often, however; the main damage she dealt was inflicted with her hooves, for she did not run to but jumped upon the Hylian warriors, bearing them down and shattering their chests or stomachs with her equine bulk. Blood stained the silver of her coat all the way up to her knees. Her teeth were bared in a furious snarl as she screamed in blood-lust. She did not even bother to kill those she leapt upon, but simply left them to lie screaming to be put out of their misery in the dirt. Of all the creatures upon the field she was the most brutal.
"And do you want to know why she fights like she does?" Gannondorf snarled, his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits as he looked from the battlefield to his Hylian captive. "Her mother, her father, her little sisters, her little brothers were all killed by Hylians! All killed by your people! She still wakes at night from nightmares where she watches her family being mutilated, tortured, and all for the fun of Hylian tamers! The long scar across her chest was inflicted when she was less than two summers, and that's the most merciful of her wounds. It has been sixteen full years, but the scars on her flanks, hindquarters and sides, where she was burned, stabbed and whipped, have still not healed and most likely never will. She would have made a powerful ally even if she had not been tortured as a filly." He leaned close to Link's ear and hissed dangerously, "Think what an ally she would have made to you. She has felled seventy of your men, at least, already.
"My army, Hylian, is made up not only of my own people, who have suffered because of your people, but monsters, as you seem so fond of calling them. The drakes, the dragons, the nagas, the dire wolves, the werewolves… The creatures you have so routinely hunted down and slaughtered for no reason except that they exist. I gave them jobs where they are paid, homes where they are welcome, places where they are accepted. For this, they would give up their lives for my cause, a cause in which they believe as firmly or even more than I—to destroy your people. Hylians are not worthy of inhabiting the holy land of Hyrule. You're a plague, harlot! No longer men but viruses!"
Link opened his mouth to protest, but Gannondorf yanked him by the hair and threw him across the room. His head struck a table, which broke beneath his weight, sending its contents cascading down upon him. He did not even have time to begin to get away when the Gerudo King's foot connected firmly with his side; pain exploded in his sides and chest as his ribs cracked into pieces.
As Link lay sobbing from the pain of his broken bones and crushed organs, Gannondorf walked over to him and stepped on his neck. Link clawed at the man's leg, but what strength he had had been robbed from him, and continued to dwindle as his lungs demanded air.
Gannondorf drew a dagger from a sheath strapped to his hip. Its blade seemed to explode with light as it was drawn out into the air. Coldly and cruelly, Gannondorf said, "I will continue my destruction of this plague with you. Take a deep breath, because you have two seconds to say anything that might rectify you."
His foot lifted, but Link did not even have time for the promised breath before the dagger in the Gerudo King's hand came down into his chest.
Gannondorf walked up the outside steps to a high turret of his castle. Almost in unison, every monster on the battlefield turned to look at their King. Several werewolves let out long howls and all retreated, followed in many cases by arrows fired by overzealous soldiers, but none struck their intended targets.
Gannondorf's warriors seemed to be conceding the battle to the Hylian army, but Sheik and Zelda knew better.
The Evil King had reached the roof of the turret and had walked to the edge. His infantry had by this time put slightly less than a half-mile between themselves and the Hylian army and most were grinning sardonically, looking up expectantly at the bronze-skinned mage. Most if not all of the Hylian soldiers had stopped and were also looking up at the Evil King. The field was silent, and it seemed impossible and blasphemous that there should be anything to break that silence.
Slowly, his face devoid of emotion, Gannondorf raised the bloody body of the Hero of Time above his head, and it was at that moment that the war was lost.