Chapter 2: Unfamiliar Territory
Link shot back up, to see himself in his house in the early, bright, morning.
"D'you sleep well?" asked Chrom.
Link jumped after hearing Chrom's voice, and unsheathed the Master Sword. He saw Chrom and Robin waiting in front of him.
"You were attacked by something while you were in our mind link with Naga. She closed it down and we ended up in your house, I suppose," said Robin. "You were unconscious, so I gave you an elixir."
Link sheathed the Master Sword and nodded. All three of them stood up.
"You had a long wound, probably from some form of a blade," said Robin.
"..." (Link).
"If there weren't any of those creatures that you talk about, could it have been a person?" questioned Robin.
"..."(Link).
"You're right. We should check the rest of the village, incase the attacker decided to visit the village," said Chrom.
Ordon Village
To the utter surprise of Link, Ordon Village was empty and partially in ruins. The door to the shop had been torn down and the short flags were left scorched on the ground. The water wheel was torn down as well, and it was jammed between the opposite shores of the creek. The pumpkins were squashed, with flies scouring the remains.
"Great Naga..." said Chrom.
"Hello!? Is anyone here?!" shouted Robin, as he walked further into the village.
"..."(Link).
The three of them walked into the ranch. The wooden fences were cut and burnt. Some of the cattle were dead on the ground, and some were cowering against the rocks, and appeared to be struck with some fear.
A thud drew their attention towards the barn. They slowly approached it. Robin held his tome, Arcfire, and stepped forward. Out burst Fado, the ranch owner that Link worked for. He came charging with a spear. Robin was almost about to use Arcfire on Fado, but Chrom knocked Robin out of the way and on to the ground. Link pulled out the Hylian shield and held it in front of him. Fado hit the shield, lost balance, and fell back.
"Link? You're alive?" said Fado."Who are these two?"
"..."(Link).
"What happened? Well, I was here at the ranch at night, and I heard the sound of a huge fire. I climbed up on the roof, and saw one of the shop in flames. Rusl charged in here with Colin and Uli, and told them to hide here. I grabbed this spear, and went with Rusl to see what was going on. There were these, reptile humans, with red eyes, and a thin purple gas around them. They had black hoods, and had swords. Rusl and I charged at them. We took out about five of them, but there were still a dozen more. They went into the houses, and took everyone. We came back to the ranch, and it turned out that Colin and Uli were taken too. Rusl, he was broken. He left this morning to go to Hyrule," explained Fado.
"..." (Link).
"Link, you got taken into the Mind Link, and you couldn't get out. This isn't your fault," said Chrom.
"Who are you too anyway?" asked Fado.
"I'm Chrom, and this is Robin. We're leaders of Ylisse, a distant kingdom," answered Chrom.
"Never heard of a place beyond Hyrule. Well, if Link trusts you, I guess I can trust you," said Fado.
In front of Link's House
"..." (Link).
"We go to Hyrule Castle and see Zelda? I suppose, if we can get into the castle," said Robin.
"..." (Link).
"Well, I suppose saving the kingdom does have rewards," said Chrom.
Hyrule Castle Town
"These streets are as busy as Ylisse's," said Robin.
"I wonder what it is like at night. I wonder if the town is still bustling then," questioned Chrom.
The three of them approached the main castle gate. The two guards recognized Link.
"..." (Link).
"Zelda did tell us that we should abide by your requests. We'll let you and your companions go through," said a guard.
The opened the gate, and the three of them walked through into the castle. They entered the front yard, where they saw Zelda walking through, guarded by seven soldiers.
"Your majesty, we have company. 'Tis Link, with two other men," said on of the soldiers.
"Standby, royal guards," said Zelda, as she walked towards Link. "Two pieces of the Triforce have come together again."
"..." (Link).
"Great Faron... all the villagers except a few. The man named Rusl has not come yet. We must act on this quickly. The attackers, they were reptilian with red eyes and thin purple smoke flowing around them? Perhaps it's documented somewhere in a scripture. Follow me," said Zelda.
Zelda's Chamber
The four of them entered Zelda's room. She walked towards a bookcase where she searched for a certain book.
"This is the first time I've been in a woman's room," said Robin. "What about you Chrom?"
"I'm married to Sumia, remember? And, yes... I have been in her private room with her," replied Chrom.
"What did you two do in her room?" questioned Robin.
"Now isn't the time for this Robin," said Chrom.
Zelda came back with a red book, and opened up to halfway through it.
"The creature on this page fits your description," said Zelda.
On the page was a drawing of a humanoid figure, with the dark green reptilian skin. It was described with a purple smoke flowing around it, just like the attackers from the village.
"That's definitely it," said Robin.
"There isn't much about them, not even a definitive name. It just states that they are skilled with swords and throwing knives," said Zelda.
Link examined the page. An old map attached to the description of the creature caught his attention.
"..." (Link). He pointed out the map to Zelda.
"This? Oh, I think it is a map of places where they were drawn to. It's written in a dialect I cannot understand though, answered Zelda.
"..." (Link). He understood the writing. Something from a past memory, perhaps from the past Hero of Time.
"A Gerudo writing system? I've never heard of such a thing," said Zelda.
"It's probably a dead language," said Robin. "I mean the map shows that the place is an uninhabited desert."
"..." (Link). He explained that the writing said that the creatures were present in desert areas because of their reptilian skin.
"If we're gonna find answers, we should go there," said Chrom.
"I'll go with you," said Zelda.
"You're the leader of Hyrule though. We can't exactly walk through town without people following you," said Robin.
"That won't be a problem," she replied.
Zelda caused a bright aura to appear around her body, and when the aura cleared, she changed into Sheik.
"That's quite a disguise," said Robin.
"I'm not as restrained as I was in that dress," said Zelda.
"Well then, off to Gerudo," said Chrom.
Gerudo Desert
The four of them trekked through the sand, under the Sun which was setting. Slowly, the moon rose on the opposite direction.
"It's getting cooler, finally," said Robin.
They were getting closer towards Arbiter's Grounds, a temple built in the desert. On top of it was the Mirror Chamber, with what used to be the entrance to the Twilight Realm. Link looked up on the roof, and just saw the empty presence of the temple and the chamber. After all, Midna did destroy the Twilight Mirror, closing off the Twilight Realm.
"Hey guys get down!" said Chrom.
The four of them hid behind a large collapsed pillar. In front of them was an outpost that was in front of the temple. Instead of desert Bokoblins, the humanoid creatures were using it.
"Those creatures are there," said Chrom.
"I think we're walking into the belly of the beast here," said Robin. "Doesn't look like we can sneak past them."
"We should kill them off, but very quickly," said Zelda/Sheik.
Sheik dashed to another cover spot, while remaining silent and out of sight of the creatures. Link pulled out the Hero's Bow, and a few arrows. He looked out at the creatures. There about nine of them, and they were gathered around a campfire. Some were sharpening their swords, and others were eating a roasted meat of some sort, probably a boar. Link pulled and arrow through the drawstring, and aimed at one of them. Robin charged up his arcfire tome, and aimed at them as well.
Finally, Link let go and shot the arrow through the creature's chest. He collapsed and let out a deep scream. Robin shot his arcfire, and it hit two of the creatures staring at the creature that Link shot. That that was three down, and six left. Sheik jumped out from cover and hurled three needle-like projectiles at the remaining creatures. One of them threw a throwing knife at her. She gracefully dodged the knife, and threw three more needles at the creatures. All but one went down. The last one had dense metal armor that couldn't be penetrated. Chrom dashed to the creature and slashed it with Falchion.
"Falchion can cut through almost anything," said Chrom.
"It looks like there are more at the temple entrance," said Sheik.
The four of them approached the front of the temple. Chrom, Robin, and Link were armed with their swords, and Sheik was armed with a dagger, to Link's surprise. They charged to the entrance, and encountered four of the creatures: Three small ones, and one big one, with a heavy sword and heavy armor. Robin eliminated the three creatures with his arcfire. The remaining creature lifted his sword and began to smash it down on Link. He swiftly held the Hylian Shield in front of him. Link held his ground as the sword hit, with a loud clang. Robin proceeded to use a bolganonne time on it. The tome inflicted damage, but the creature did not flinch from it.
The creature lifted his sword. Sheik threw a few needles, but they didn't penetrate the armor. She then jumped on to the creature's head, and tried to dig her knife into his kneck. It threw her off, and Sheik fell to the ground.
"We can't hurt him while he still has that armor on!" said Robin.
"..."(Link). He had an idea.
Link took out his bomb arrows. He shot one of them at the creature's chestplate. The bomb detonated, and the front part of the chestplate became brittle, and fell off of its body. Chrom used this advantage and slashed across the creature's chest with Falchion. The cut marks burned into the creature's chest. This weakened the creature, and it fell on its knees, holding on to the sword to stay up. Sheik jumped on to it's head, and tore the helmet off.
"Link, quickly, use your sword!" Sheik said.
Link ran behind it and climbed up its back, and thrusted the Master Sword through its neck. He backflipped off, pulling the sword out. The creature fell to the ground, dead and defeated.
"..." (Link). The creature wasn't one of them. It was a large bokoblin.
"Why use your own, when you can just put heavy armor on a large bokoblin and send him out with a sword," said Robin.
"We have to keep moving. We lost the element of stealth," said Chrom.
Link felt a sudden rush of thoughts in his mind, as if someone was talking to him. They all said to go to the Mirror Chamber. Link pointed up to the Mirror Chamber.
"What makes you say that?" asked Chrom.
"I can hear it too. There is definitely something at the chamber," said Zelda.
The Mirror Chamber
"Does anyone else see what I am seeing right now?" Robin said.
There were a dozen of the creatures, and all of them were kneeling, facing the Mirror holder. They were oblivious to the four of them. They appeared to be dulled by something.
One minor detail shocked Sheik and Link. The Mirror of Twilight was somehow partially repaired, despite being disintegrated and shattered by Midna.
"The Mirror of Twilight, it's..." Sheik said.
"What does the Mirror do?" Robin asked.
"It was a portal that connected the Light World to the Twilight Realm. A shadow being known as Zant usurped power of the Twilight Realm. He morphed his own kind into Shadow Beasts, and invaded Hyrule with them and shrouded It in Twilight. Link managed to defeat him, and take back Hyrule. Link's shadow companion, Midna, then regained power of the Twilight Realm. When we watched her go through the Mirror portal, she shattered the mirror, forever severing any connections between the realms," explained Sheik.
"..." (Link). It's only halfway complete, so it can't be used.
"Even if it was complete, we might not end up in the same Twilight Realm that Link went to," said Sheik.
"What about these creatures here? We can't leave them," said Chrom.
"I can handle that," said Sheik.
Sheik threw needles at the creatures, in two instances. They fell without a struggle, and weren't even alerted when one of them died.
"Should we shatter the mirror?" Robin asked.
They were silent at the question. They didn't know what they should do with the Mirror. The force that repaired the mirror is probably still alive, and he, she, or it may pose a threat.
If the mirror were to be fully repaired, Zelda and Link could see Midna again. Then again, they don't know what occurs in the Twilight Realm. The Twili could be at war, and it could slip into the Light world.
After careful consideration, they agreed to their choice.