Hey, look, an update. yay!
Anyway, chapter two is here, so please review and tell me how you think its going and if i hould keep going or not
enjoy...
Meetings
Dawn broke blood red and brilliant gold over the horizon. Light slowly crept through the courtyard, fighting off shadow in order to advance its line. The gray stone walls seemed to transform from quiet, sober observers carefully taking note of the actions of the ones within them to colorful protectors that called to their subjects with joy and promises of good times. The multi-colored flowers, gathered from all over the land and organized into designed divisions, opened up to invite in the warmth of the rising sun.
A small rainbow appeared when the rays struck the fountain silently gushing in the center of the whole assembly. In mere minutes the entire courtyard morphed from a place in which one could lose oneself in despair and depression to a world warmly inviting one to fulfill all the possibilities of happiness and freedom it offered.
The courtyard and its garden were much like an ever-changing battle between good and evil. The dark half would have its time of domination in the deep of the night, when midnight's cloak smothered everything, and one could only retain hope by retreating to a world of dreams. The light would return to beat back the dark however, taking over when the sun peeked its golden head over the great volcano in the East. Their times always came the same. They were always in balance.
Recently, however, the already-precarious balance between these two opposing forces had been unsettled. Every night the dark seemed to last longer. The moon cast its silver net over the land more than the sun drowned everything in its bright rays. The black stretched on more and more, and slowly but surely, light was losing the fight. It required more time in order for the dark to retreat for the day and less time for it to spring eagerly forth to once again take its rule of the land.
The beautiful kingdom of Hyrule was dying.
"I see it, I see it!" exclaimed a small deckhand as he sprinted across the wooden boards of the great galleon. "I can see Hyrule!"
The captain looked down at him from his position at the helm, where he was holding the wheel steadily in his firm grasp. He motioned for a shipmate next to him to take over and stepped down onto deck. He then proceeded to pull from within the confines of tattered greatcoat he wore a spyglass. He extended it and held it to his right eye, looking in the direction the frantically waving boy was pointing.
"T'lads right gent'man," he spoke loudly. His accent was a heavy Cladian mixed with Levenian. He turned to the lad bouncing eagerly by his side. "Run b'low t'decks and tell dem pass'ners wi'll arrive shortish." The boy saluted before streaking down the flight of stairs leading into the bowels of the ship. "Alright, boys, get ready fr t'dock'in. Get out t'goods an make sure th're ready." Several of the men moved off in the direction of the cargo hold while the rest begin to prepare the ropes required for docking. A few even nimbly scaled the rigging to play with the rumpled sails.
And so the great vessel Sea Scourer, as the gold lettering on her aft proclaimed, swiftly cut through the deep blue waves and rode on to Hyrule.
Her eyes fluttered and blinked open as the early morning light struck them. She groaned horribly, realizing that she had left the curtains wide open last night. After all, it had been late into the night that she had finally been able to get to her room. She had been deathly tired, and thus had not even bothered to undress or cover herself. She had just dropped onto the bed and lost consciousness. Even then, her sleep had been broken and fitful, as she was plagued by dreams and visions that brought her awake in a cold sweat several times.
She sighed, remembering the most recent one. It had been much like one she had experienced in the past. She saw her land, green grass lush and full, sky blue and clear, vividly. But it did not last long. Clouds as deep and menacing as night quickly blotted out the sky, diminishing the rays of the sunlight until they were nothing more than dwindling memories. The plants around her shriveled and died and the leaves dropped in bunches from the trees.
In the dream she had had long ago, the one similar to this, the next thing to happen was the appearance of a light. Brilliant and warm, it shone out of the forest. In the midst of it, a boy walked forward, garbed in green. With him was a shining green stone, which seemed to be giving off the light. The light had lanced up at the clouds, blasting a hole through them, once again revealing the bright blue beyond. The boy had continued to advance as the clouds retreated from his presence.
Of course, that had been what seemed like ages ago. Another day, another problem, a different adventure. Now, there was no light to rend apart the evil clouds. Rather, their thickness and darkness grew larger. Nothing could oppose them.
The young lady smiled bitterly. Of course there's no light. Our hero has long since gone. She pulled herself into an upright position and stretched long and hard. She felt and heard several joints popping and cracking, relieving some of the built-up tension from her less-than-comfortable slumber. She slid her feet over the side of the bed and stood clumsily. She found her way over to her mirror hanging on the wall. He reflection looked haggard and tired. Actually, that was exactly what she was. There were deep bags under her violet eyes and her face seemed to hold unerasable worry lines. Golden tresses of her hair gently fell down to partially cover her eyes.
She turned from the mirror, unable to look at herself any longer. She stepped to the wash basin situated in the corner and undressed. When she was finished washing, she moved to the large closet which dominated one wall of her huge, magnificently-adorned room. She selected a simple pink dress with matching shoes from the hanging selection. After she had slipped this on, she attached a thin belt made from small crescent-moon shaped gold pieces grafted deftly together. Next she pulled on long white gloves. She crossed back to her mirror, and, braving her reflection, proceeded to apply just enough make-up to make it appear as though she was not a redead. She put in Triforce-shaped earrings and slipped on a silver necklace. Finally, she placed a golden tiara upon her head. As the precious metal touched her hair, a knock resounded at her door.
"Enter," she called. A maid entered, bowing her head as she did so.
"M'Lady, do you require any help?" she questioned.
"Actually, I would like some with my hair," the woman spoke as she moved to the bed. She patted the place beside her to indicate that the maid should sit with her.
She did so before questioning, "And how would her majesty prefer her hair this morning?"
"Something simple, please. Make it small."
"As you wish m'Lady," the maid said as she pulled a thin, simple white ribbon from her apron and began to braid the hair on the side of her lady's head.
Several moments of silence passed before the woman spoke up, "what do you think I should do, Melina?"
The maid didn't seem too surprised to be questioned, as she just kept right on braiding. "Seeing as how I am just a lowly maid, I suppose it is not my place to be making any statements regarding your decisions."
"Melina, I have known you all my life. You have served me faithfully and always given me good advice. Nothing you say will leave the confidence of this room, I swear upon my honor as ruler of Hyrule."
"Your Majesty, don't you ever stake that for a simple opinion! Never!" Melina exclaimed.
"Well, I am sure the people wouldn't mind. As Queen I have done nothing but bring them pain and suffering. I have failed to protect them as I promised to do."
"Begging your pardon, but the current circumstances could not be avoided. Not even by you."
"Wrong, I could have been avoided. If I had been faster, smarter, and more strong-willed, I could have opposed my father all those years ago. I could have stopped him, " she said quietly.
"Your father did nothing wrong, m'Lady. What good would have come of opposing him?"
The woman clenched her fist. She has forgotten (again) that nobody knew about the adventure from years ago. Nobody remembered the hero who fought so valiantly for them. "Forget it. Instead, I need to focus on how to handle the problems we have now."
Melina smiled. "Now that sounds like the Princess Zelda I admired when I was younger," she said as she dropped the finished braid. It was woven with the thin ribbon, creating a plain look that helped actuate the queen's elegant features. The rest of the queen's golden hair flowed down to the middle of her back. It was loose, just the way she liked it. "Now let's go, Your Majesty, I believe you have people to meet with."
"I'm telling you, we should have taken a left back by that sign."
"And I'm telling you to shut it!" exclaimed the man who was the target of the first voice's chagrin. He wore a cloak of deep black that covered all his features, the hood was drawn up and upon his face was mask of equal darkness. Black gauntlets covered his hands from forearm to fingertips.
"But we are going the wrong direction," the first voice replied. This came from a figure dressed in the same garb, except that his clothing was all yellow. He had no gloves on, revealing hands gnarled with age. His whole figure was more rotund and less physically fit than that of the black dressed man.
"Light, please stop giving Wind a hard time. After all, he is the leader of our group. He has been on the most adventures and has the most experience."
"I agree with Forest," indicating the one who had spoken, who was dressed in the same garb of the color green, a red-clothed figure spoke up.
"You always do, Fire," spoke a voice from the center of the group. Dressed in blue, the person continued, "But in this case, so do I. Shadow, Spirit, what do you to think? You normally float around and offer advice when needed."
The two in the back, dressed in deep violet and orange, glanced up. Spirit shrugged, while Shadow spoke up, "I believe we should trust Wind's judgement. He has been all over this land and has a keen sense of direction."
"But-" Light began.
"We're here," Wind stated. Light looked up to find that they were, indeed, right where they had wanted to be.
"Ganon's great beard, how does he do that everytime?" he asked.
"Like Shadow said," Wind replied, tapping his noggin, "keen sense of direction. Now all we have to do is arrange some transport to the castle so we can pay a visit to the dear queen."
"I'll handle it," Light said as he entered the building.
"So, what shall we do until he comes back?" Forest asked.
"Well, I thinking we co-" Wind started before he was cut off by a loud siren. "What in the Goddess' names?" He turned to see a crowd of people surging past them, clogging the street. They were screaming and yelling in fright of something.
It didn't take Wind and the others long to see what. The whole group was being pursued by a rampaging gang of men and women. They were dirtied and appeared slightly crazed. They all wore the same thing; loose black trousers with black tunics. They were screaming as well, but unlike the other group, they were crying out in what seemed to be joy, not fear. They passed by Wind's group without even a cursory glance.
Wind quickly took note of their position before speaking in an urgent voice, "Shit!" he spun to the remaining members of his entourage. "We have a problem. In this harbor town of Hollo, there is a maximum-security prison. It's for the worst of the worst. Guessing by the little spectacle that just passed us by, I would wager that it's security wasn't quite as high as they thought it was. So now we have a choice to make. Help the people being terrorized, or wait for Light to get back and hightail it outta here." There was absolutely no hesitation, even before Wind had finished speaking, the others were moving. They took off down the street in pursuit of the escaped convicts. Wind set off after them. Haha, too bad Light. This will be over by the time you return. You always seem to miss the fun.
Zelda sighed and rubbed her temples soothingly. It was not helping too much though. Things were going from bad to worse with the High Council. All they did anymore was scream about her poorer character traits and opposed everything she did or said in loud voices. In fact, that was what they were doing right now, which resulted in the skull-splitting headache she had acquired. It felt as though something was building behind it as well.
"If you think for one second, Your Majesty," the man who was speaking spat the words with harsh contempt, "that we are going to go against your father's wishes and repeal any of the laws that he laid down, you are seriously mistaken."
"Lord Polik, I am merely suggesting that we bend a few of the decrees made by the past Hyrule ruling class that would be helpful to us," the Queen replied in a forced calm voice.
"As I have already stated, we will not, under any circumstances, repeal or adjust anything done in the past. The only reason Hyrule has survived for as long as it has is because it has always had a stable set of laws and rules. If we break those now, Hyrule could fall apart."
Zelda's eyes flashed dangerously as she spoke through gritted teeth, "In case you haven't noticed, Lord Polik, Hyrule is already falling apart. We are being destroyed and dominated piece by piece and we still haven't come up with a way to stop it. That is why we need changes. It's the only way we will get out of this alive."
The man was already shaking his head, along with several others along the table. "It will never hap-" Sir Polik started.
"Shut up for a second, man!" a deep voice cried out. It was the leader of the Goron Tribe, Link. Named after the great hero who saved the land, the Goron had shown his support for the queen anytime the opportunity arose. "Actually consider the Queen's request before flippantly dismissing it. What are you afraid of, change? Or perhaps you fear that is something is adjusted, you won't have what you have now. You might have to actually suffer a little."
"Link, enough," the Queen spoke. "Thank you for your support." At least somebody here has a set of brains in their head. I only wish that King Zora was here as well. The Zoras had not been heard from in quite some time, and the enemy army appeared to have already taken hold of Zora's Domain. It was unfortunate. The Zoras had been stern supporters of Zelda, and their opinion held a high sway over the Council because they were the guardians of all the water in the land. The pressure lurking in the back of her head increased. She looked up before continuing, "You all must see the situation from my viewpoint. An army has randomly appeared in Hyrule; controlled by dark magic of whose we do not know. They are well trained, coordinated, and far too much for even our great soldiers to handle. They are slowly conquering Hyrule, having over half of it under their control already. The people are suffering and dying, and our soldiers are barely able to hold them off. I am the Queen, yet I cannot do anything. I am restricted by an ignorant, arrogant, council made mostly of pompous fools and by archaic laws that forbid even the declaration of martial law. How can I fight such a problem with so little resources and such opposition?"
There was silence in the vaulted room after this speech. It was mostly due to shock. She had just insulted the most powerful people in Hyrule next to herself. Did she really think she would get any support from them now? However, a few were taking her comments and thinking them over. Was that really the problem preventing Hyrule from fighting back, the old laws and rules?
Lord Polik was the first to recover and speak, "If your father had lived to here that come from your mouth…"
That did it. The anger and frustration that had been building inside of her overflowed, along with the pressure hidden underneath her headache. She stood suddenly and slammed her fist down on the table, cracking the wood up the middle all the way to the other end. Splinters flew into the air as everyone gasped. Zelda's eyes were burning ferociously, and blue sparks of magic raced up and down her limbs and hair. The majority of the Council cringed in fear from her, but a few looked on with fascinated awe. Zelda managed to bite out through bared teeth, "Don't…ever…speak…of my father…like that…again." She spun on her and exited the room, slamming the door as hard as she could behind her.
Zelda stalked off down a corridor with no sense of direction. She took random turns and hidden pathways, letting her feet guide her to where they wanted. When she finally had cooled off enough to notice where she was, she found herself in the courtyard garden. It has always been a place of peace and serenity to her. She smiled faintly as she remembered the days she used to spend as a child running through the bright garden beds, laughing senselessly. Those had been the better days of her life. Back when he had been there. She sensed a faint presence behind her and tilted her head to acknowledge the person.
She turned, expecting to see one of her Sheikah bodyguards, most likely concerned by her release of magic earlier, but she was confronted with an unfamiliar figure. A glint of steel caught her eyes, and she realized with horror that the person had a sword, and he looked prepared to use it. However, when the man bore down on her, she stood her ground and easily disarmed him. She spun around behind him and delivered a flat palm to the center of his back, using magic to make sure he went down. The man collapsed into a boneless heap.
She sighed. This just was not her day. First she got a small amount of sleep, then she had to deal with the High Council, and now assassination attempts had been added to the list. It was probably the lack of sleep and the overall frustration of the day that caused her to miss the other man now sneaking up behind her. As it was, she could not even let a small shriek out when he grabbed her from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth as his other lifted a knife high. It swooped in, aiming for her throat. Zelda shut her eyes, she could do nothing to stop him, and she knew she was done.
"This way please," the servant spoke as he led Wind's group through the winding hallways of the castle.
"Okay, so, let's try this again," Wind said. "We just showed up at the palace escorted by a bunch of guards, and you're letting us see the princess why? Not that I am complaining, that's exactly what we wanted, but still."
The servant looked back over his shoulder before answering, "You have done Hyrule a great service by taking care of those demons we call prisoners. It is only right that you should see the princess after such a deed."
"Oh well, alright then. Anyway-" Wind's word stopped in his throat as something pricked at his conscious. What was that? Magic? He looked back at the expectant face of the butler.
"You were saying, sir?" the man questioned.
"Ah, nothing," Wind waved away the question with his hand. They continued on for several minutes with nothing but silence.
Something was making Wind feel uneasy though. The air seemed to be charged and waiting for something. The spark of magic he had felt earlier seemed to be linked with it. Nothing had happened, but the tension was thick enough that he was beginning to feel smothered. What the hell is going on? The answer was not long in coming.
It flared up suddenly and without warning. The pressure in the atmosphere broke and forced itself upon everyone. A killing aura?! Wind wasted no time. He grabbed the servant and spun him around as he screamed at him, "Where is the Queen?!"
"I-I don't know, sir," he stammered out, surprised by the sudden change in his guest's manner.
"Din's fire!" He spun to his group, "Go, search for the Queen, find her and protect her, something's going on, and I think its aimed at her." They nodded before sprinting if in different directions. Wind closed his eyes and concentrated, ignoring the cowering man next to him. Harder, harder. Search harder. In his mind, he flashed through corridors and closets, bedrooms and bathrooms, washrooms and dining rooms; none of them contained what he was searching for. Damn, damn. And suddenly, it was there. He emerged into the courtyard with his mind, and was almost drowned by the murderous intent permeating the place. He opened his eyes and instantly shoved his hand into the equipment pouch at his side. Only one way I am going to make it there in time. He removed a green crystal and held it up in his hand. Wind closed his fist around and it, crushing it. The next instant, he was enveloped in a bright green light, and disappeared.
The knife was a mere inch from Zelda's throat when a green flash caught the corner of her vision. The next instant there was a harsh thwack, and the knife clattered to the ground, along with her assailant. Zelda followed, collapsing to her knees. She turned to see a man standing where the assassin had been until moments ago. He was completely dressed in black, including a mask. But that was not what caught her attention about him. That spell, that was Farore's Wind! How can a simple traveler use that?!
The man smiled, barely visible through the slit for his mouth left open in the mask. He held out his hand to the queen as he spoke, "Your Majesty, are you alright?" She gingerly took the offered help and climbed to her feet.
"Yes, I am. But who, sir, may I ask, are you?"
"Ah, that is right, we have not been introduced yet." He bowed deeply. "My name is Wind, and I have come from far away to assist you."
"Assist me?"
"Yes," Wind said as he stood up, still smiling. "I do believe I can fix this war for you."