Okay, here's Chapter 2! It's a bit shorter than the previous one, but future chapters will be longer. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 2: The Awakening of Hyrule Town
Link awoke abruptly in the street as he heard a noise equivalent to that of an ongoing explosion. Alarmed, he clamped his ears shut and looked up at the darkened sky. In the west, a purple beacon shot up into the cosmos, and from the direction, one could only conclude that it was coming from the desert—or at least somewhere around there.
Screaming could be heard all around, and even though Link tried closing his ears as best as he could, the excess sound still seemed to pierce his head and develop a migraine. People rushed out of their homes to take a glance at the beam, most still groggy, but the alarm was still evident in their expressions. The dogs that were barking only added to the noise, and the irritation caused him to begin questioning his sanity.
Fortunately, the large beam of light started dissipating, and the massive, ongoing explosion of sound began to wane. Soon, he was able to release his ears, which were now hurting from the pressure. Rubbing them gingerly, he caught a small glimpse of the pandemonium going around him as the awakened civilians were on the verge of a panic riot.
Geez, can't there be at least some peace in town tonight? Link complained to himself, tempted to shut his now-recovering ears again. He tried to avoid the bustling, albeit completely scared out of skin, townsfolk, completely failing, however, when he collided head-on into a woman desperately carrying along her young daughter and infant son.
"Watch where you're going!" she admonished, refusing to look back, her son wailing in her arms. Link tried to ignore the rude woman; he could understand her situation, but regardless, her reaction to the collision still left him a bit goaded.
The almost-musical medley of hooves beating on stone began building in volume to his left, and soon after, armored horses carrying soldiers donning polished steel armor raced past toward the entrance of town. Although not nearly as panicked as the rest of the people in town, he was, nevertheless, curious of their intentions and of the state.
Link trailed them to the main gate, which was, as per usual at nighttime, closed off by the drawbridge.
"LET DOWN THE BRIDGE!" one of the knights shouted with a raised gauntlet, and the gate's patrol complied, grunting as he turned the lever keeping the bridge upright. It looked as if it were lightly pulling itself down, no one else needing to be concerned about the speed of its descent. With a loud, wooden KLUNK, the drawbridge locked itself into the ground, and the sentry gave the "thumbs-up" to allow the knights passage.
"To the desert!" commanded the knight that appeared to be the leader, and his subordinates charged toward their destination in a wave of galloping horses. Link dashed after them, only to be denied by the guard close by.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked the boy garbed in green.
"Er…" Link froze. There was no way he was going to get himself out of this, given both his social status, age, and the aloofness that the guards of Hyrule Castle were well known for.
"HA! I know what you're doing, boy! Get outta here and go back to bed! We can't have a ten-year-old dying from something that is none of his business."
"I'm eleven," Link said cynically, firing a pierce glare at the grey-bearded soldier with the missing tooth. He was wearing armor that looked dull, as if he were trying to polish it with oil. Around his neck was chain mail, which he wore like a scarf. Link failed to see the point of wearing something like that around his neck, but he didn't bother dwelling on it.
"Whatever. The point is that we have this problem taken care of, so go back to the playground where you belong," the sentry wheezed crossly. He appeared to have been suffering from a really bad chest cold, made blatant by the man's rearing back and coughing up one of his lungs. Link clutched his throat and grimaced as he saw some blood sputtering out.
He turned around and walked away, thoroughly irritated and grossed out. He was always scorned because he was either "too young" or "too weak" to do something, but he was always older and stronger than what he got credit for. That's not to say that he was the strongest in the world, for he was somewhat weak compared to other kids his age. Kids would have stick fights every so often to check their prowess with the sword, as well as their strength. He obviously found competitions like these appealing, although he never one a single match, much to his dishonor.
Huffing in anger, Link realized that there was no way through the main gate. Providentially, there was a useable passageway by the Temple of Time that he had discovered around five years ago. There was a hole that led right to the moat, and, had the need arisen, he often used the hole to sneak out. He kept it a secret, knowing that anyone who discovered it, especially guards, would ask contractors to seal it.
Link crawled through the tunnel and noticed that it was beginning to become too constricting to use anymore. It was weathered from wind and rain, so the contours of the tunnel were smooth, at least. He charged right through the spider webs and marching ants without fear, and after a few minutes of traversing through the tunnel, he finally saw moonlight. When he was at the tunnel's edge, he fell into the water and felt a bitter cold sensation throughout his entire body. His head fell below the water from the fall, and the cold urged him to quickly resurface and replenish the air in his lungs out of alarm.
His density being too high to float high enough to grab a ledge, Link let the current of the moat carry him until he came across a very small set of steps that ascended up to the moat's bank.
Link stumbled up the stairs, shivering from the intense cold, and was drenched from the water. He put his hands on his knees, quickly recovering his breath, and began to wring out whatever part of his clothes he could, all with limited success. The feeling of a cold liquid in his clothes in the cold night air left him shivering and feeling overall uncomfortable. He shook his dripping hair dry as much as he could and wrung out his favorite hat, which matched his green clothing perfectly, and put it snuggly back on his head when he was done.
He stepped out of the small puddle he created and made an effort to shake off the cold. After breaking into a jog, he began warming up, and, thus, decided to keep at that pace for a while as he headed west to follow the knights.
A few hours passed until the sun started to rise and Link reached Lon Lon Ranch, the place in Hyrule that supplies only the best livestock and dairy products. Link, thirsty from the traveling, was tempted to go in and ask for milk. He dreamed of the deliciousness of the drink that he could get—the luscious feeling of the white fluid in his mouth, the taste of the nutrients that lie inside, and the rejuvenating energy erupting forth from his stomach to power him through the rest of the day.
Unfortunately for his parched throat, however, he had absolutely no money on him, the feeling in his pockets being nothing but fabric. Disappointed, he continued walking, the hours continuing to fly by.
Link traveled and traveled until he finally saw the outlines of desert monoliths. His spirits rose greatly as he discovered that his trip to the desert was almost over. His legs, although weary from traveling, broke into a run, dust flying behind their master.
He suddenly stopped on the spot when he saw what looked like an injured soldier desperately trying to crawl away. Link dashed up to the soldier and found that his armor was charred a strange purple. It looked like some of the metal was melted off, and his helmet was cracked—the flesh that was held inside seemed to have the bizarre yet gruesome mix of a burn and bleeding.
Kneeling at the knight's side, Link cried, "What happened to you!?"
"What are…you doing here, kid?" he sputtered out painfully.
"That's not important now. Just tell me what's going on."
The soldier took a quick, deep breath before beginning. "We…were attacked. We went over the bridge crossing the canyon… Some Gerudo warriors were waiting by the fortress, but they appeared to be just as…alarmed by the sudden explosion as we were. They let us pass and guided us toward where they thought the beam originated…
"When we got there…all hell broke loose. Strange fire was shooting us from the left, right, and above. We couldn't fight them off; we didn't know who it was who was attacking us…so we…ran—UGH!" The soldier clutched at his abdomen, and Link saw that it, too, was both burned and bleeding. "I'm the…only one who managed to come out alive… Apparently, whoever it was didn't want to finish the job on me."
Link looked at the poor soldier in pity…and then, deep inside him, came the acidic feeling of rage. He really didn't know the man very well, but he at least knew him enough to sympathize him and garner his respect to the point of being referred to as "kid."
"I…won't make it…so there's not much time to explain… Please…I have a friend known as Mardin up in the mountains. Please…seek him out… He'll know what to do…" The soldier then died on the spot. There was nothing graceful about it, as much of the library books that Link read had depicted. He was simply gone.
Link carried the soldier off the road gently, seeing that what had attacked the poor soldier could very well soon do the same to every person in Hyrule. He took a glance at the purple sheath that was in the soldier's possession. A lone, scorched sword made of pure Damascus steel was lying snuggly inside. Strange spider-like monsters dwelled in the mountains, which he knew from personal experience, and he was aware that it wouldn't be safe to go unarmed. Knowing the soldier wouldn't need them anymore, he took the sheathed sword and thanked him, wishing that he rest peacefully.
Taking the soldier's advice with a new weapon in hand, Link turned and started another trip across the country toward Death Mountain.
Here ya go! Please review!