Chapter 2

The evacuation of Hyrule took the greater half of a week. The bulk of the difficulty was relocation. There were various farms along the countryside willing to accept the "city folk" as temporary farm hands. Many more refused to take in dozens of mouths to read. Some went to Gerudo Valley to live among the Gerudo people. Zelda's heralds used the logic that it only stood to reason that these invaders could invade any region Hyrule. They might not be able to differentiate between Hyrule Castle and anywhere else. If they could invade Hyrule, they could invade the Valley.

And they didn't have Zelda's magical skills.

No one did.

Zelda and her legions remained at Hyrule Castle. Her armies had been disbursed across the Valley. If the enemy decided to rebuild the bridge between worlds once more, she'd find out quickly, before the situation could escalate beyond her control.

All the while, Queen Zelda waited for the rumors on the Hero of Time's location to reach her ears.

Zelda waited at the dining room table one morning when Impa returned from the valley. Dawn's light drifted through the tall stained-glass windows overlooking the room. Odd portraits of green, round reptiles and mustached men in odd garments adorned the walls. Old portraits that Zelda felt clashed with the otherwise austere dining hall. The colorful portraits did not mix with the pearly white columns and silver walls. Still, the curators continued to insist these works of art were important pieces of Hylian art, and the Queen, for all her majesty and authority, had little understanding of that subject. According to them.

Impa had been traveling on horseback from village to village, collecting hearsay and stories pertaining to the Hero of Time, Link of the Kokiri Village.

"There are reports of him wandering in the Kokiri Forests," Impa told the queen over breakfast, "As long as word claiming that the Hero of Time has wandered to another world altogether. We have no information on the matter that can be deemed certain or concrete." Impa hadn't touched her meal. The Queen, on the other hand, had eaten twice as much oatmeal as she normally consumed. Dignified, composed—but the stress of ruling Hyrule during an invasion took a toll on her.

Sip of tea. "Do you think you have a partciular lead? Any suspicions?"

Impa finally took a nibble of toast, but hardly chewed. "Only theories. If this invading force does try to bring ruination upon Hyrule, then I suspect that the Hero of Time will make his presence known on his own."

That boy always did have a knack for adventure. Queen Zelda folded her hands under her chin, a wistful smile on her lips. She hadn't seen the Hero since he was a child, but the adventure they had set on—or, at least, what the boy told her occurred, of the future where Ganondorf dominated the kingdom. A separate world. Often Zelda tried to understand what had happened to that world when she changed the future. Surely it hadn't blinked out of existence. Did another world—another Zelda—exist? A Zelda who had garbed herself in men's clothing, gone by the name of Shiek?

Possible. Unimportant, though. As Queen of a kingdom at the brink of war, such questions only bogged her down.

However, a few questions needed answering.

Queen Zelda and Impa, after breakfast, went to Hyrule's Temple of Time. Miraculously, none of the invaders had touched it. While the buildings around it had been hollowed out by flame, it stood undisturbed. Once inside, Zelda reached the alter, and knelt before it. She had felt the Triforce of Power in that portal. If her fears were true—she had to eliminate this impossible probablilty.

After all, Ganondorf remained in the Realm of Twilight, condemned for eternity for his sins.

Stalks of candles secured in spindly columns came alight. Blue and purple flames surged higher, spiraling and coiling overhead. All in accordance to the Queen's will, to her design. A swipe of the hand. A brief incantation. All secondary to the intent behind the words, to the power and strength granted to her by the fragment of infinity kept within her spirit and body.

The echo of thunder cracked throughout the room, followed by the rush of noise, as a peeophole throughout the cosmos was pried open.

A two-way mirror to the Realm of Twilight.

A column of coiled flames ran from the ceiling down to the floor. Nothing burned. Nothing scorched. Zelda didn't flinch as the flames came crashing down before her. She didn't react to the heat flowing around her skin, over her gloved hands. She only kept hold of the power within her, restrained her. Didn't push too much force into the incantation, yet never drew back.

Very slowly, a silhouette materialized within the column. A hazy figure, yet there could be no mistake. Zelda had seen the Gerudo male in her nightmares at night. She remembered fearing his voice for years. Hooked-nosed, scarlet hair, dark eyes, heavy muscles under his armor. No mistake.

Ganondorf had not left the Realm of Twilight.

"My princess, what an honor to see you in the flesh once more." Ganondorf's shadow mde a mocking bow. He didn't sound surprised.

Zelda didn't betray her sense of curiosity. She kept her face stiff. Disinterested. Cold. "The feeling isn't mutual, I can assure you."

"Yet you have taken the time to see me. As I'm sure you know, I cannot arrange such pleasantries." His voice sounded calm and collected, but seething rage lurked beneath the calm. Zelda could hear the tremor of forced ease in his voice. "What is so wrong in Hyrule that you come to me for help?"

"Nothing. I'm not asking for anything."

"Then why the visit, my princess."

"Queen."

"Queen? Ah, have you finally married that little kokiri boy?"

Zelda's lip twitched. "Hyrule's King does not need to marry to rule. Why should a Queen by given extra restrictions for her rule?"

"Ruthless. Cold. Just as you were as a girl."

If Zelda had been ruthless and cold by saving her kingdom, then she welcomed winter into her soul. "Your Triforce. Do you still have it?"

Ganondorf chuckled. "Care for a demonstration, then?" Ganondorf raised a fist. On the back of his head radiated light. Even through the shadows of Twilight, the Queen recognized the Triforce's glimmer. "Why ask questions to which you must already know the answer?"

Zelda didn't respond. She began to unravel the curses. Cold. Without speaking.

"Wait!"

As expected. Zelda held the invisible reigns of the spell in her hand, ready to sever connection at will. "Tell me what you know."

The shadows of Twilight obscured Ganondorf's figure too much for Zelda to examine his expressions, but she was sure the Gerudo was grinning. "Ah, but for what reason? You come to me for help, for advice. You need me. I'll withhold my say unless you answer my demands. Free me from your prison. Allow me to return to my beloved Hyrule. I won't speak a word until you do, and I know that my word is something you desperately need right now."

Queen Zelda listened. "Do you expect me to beg like a dog to you? Right now, your word means nothing. You have no leg to stand on. I have no proof that you know a thing. Until you prove to me that you have any information to share, you won't so much as see a ray of sunshine, let alone freedom. Only if your information turns the tide of war will I even consider letting you free, and, even then, I'd only let the frailing shade of your former glory free to bask in the sunlight of your barren desert." Zelda grinned. "I know that is something you desperately need right now."

Ganondorf remained steady, unyielding, for what seamed like an hour. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes, but it felt infinitely longer. "As someone who is stuck between worlds, I can sense the vibrations in the universal boundaries. There is a place, several kilometers from here. A small farm. The infestation that has overtaken the Toads—that is their name, the mushroom people—is running rampant there."

Queen Zelda said nothing. She let Ganondorf's vision linger. Once the shade began to flicker, Zelda dismissed the spell with a wave of her hands. The embers scattered. The darkness faded. Zelda didn't know how long the enchantment had eclipsed the sunlight drifting in from the windows, but now, without that enchantment, the sun filled the chamber with gorgeous, luscious light.

"My Queen?" Impa drew nearer, each step measured, careful—

"Nearest farms. Give me the names. Now."

After a few hours of examining the map, of sending sentries throughout the Valley, the Queen found a farm that had fallen completely silent. Worse yet, it had been a farm she had sent her civilians to.

Within an hour of receiving the report, Zelda and Impa had mounted their horses, and trotted across the green hills. No words between them. No thoughts. Simply speeding their way, hoping to reach the farm before it was too late, before—

They found the farm as the sentry had described: absolutely silent. No animals. No people. Hardly even the creak of an old house standing against the wind. Nothing.

Only the sound of the sign out front swaying to and fro.

Lon-Lon Ranch.

"My Queen—" Impa dismounted. "I fear that this might be too dangerous for—"

"You should know by now that your warning falls on deaf ears." Zelda dismounted her horse, and let it run around the grassy hills. "I need to see this on my own. If a physical adversary comes our way, I'll trust you. I don't trust that you'd help against the magic of another world, however."

After a little debate, Impa relented. She resigned herself to stand inches behind the Queen, eyeing every blade of grass as if it were going to cut Zelda's heel.

Behind the farm's fences, Zelda began to smell something. The smell of rot. Dead flesh. She could hear Impa sniffing the air current. No doubt she smelled it too. The smell became stronger in the barn. She didn't touch the door with her bare hands. Rather, she conjured a gust of cold, icy wind. It tore the door of its hinges. The wood splintered. The boards—torn apart. Flakes of ice and snow drifted in the dry barn air, landing, to Zelda's growing horror, on blackened, rotten hay.

Fungus like capillaries stretched from wall to wall to ceiling, thick and heavy. It resembled an ancient spider web cluttered with dried out fly husks. Only rather than the exoskeletons of insects, live-stalk remained suspended. Their flesh had been sucked out under the skin, which had blackened. Only the bones remained, and even those looked soft and slushy. The corruption spread under their hide, networking underneath the flesh, tearing and tugging it in all directions.

The Queen's jaw hung open as she stared at the cows, chickens, and other things too far-gone to ever recognize by name.

"Who in the Goddess's name could do such a thing?" Impa asked.

"Someone from another world let the rot out. They didn't directly kill these people. I'm not even sure they themselves knew it would do this. You saw the Toads—he called them Toads—right? Well, this Rot, when it reached them, turned them into slaves. I think whoever sent it here thought something similar might happen. It looks like they received their answer." Zelda turned from the barn, and walked out with Impa. "Look for signs of the owners. If not—" A ball of flame came to life in Zelda's palm. "We can assume they were in that barn."

"Aren't you going to look more in that farm?" Impa asked.

Zelda threw the ball of fire into the hay. In seconds, it had all ignited. Burning tongues lapped and climbed up the wooden walls, to the ceiling. Soon, the blackened rot had caught flame. It lit up very quickly.

Queen Zelda walked off with Impa. "Look for survivors. Once we get them out, this entire farm will burn."

After a half hour, Impa returned with only one survivor. The owner's daughter, a red haired girl with voluptuous hips. The Queen recognized her. Malon. "I almost missed her," Impa replied. "She had balled herself up into the crawlspace of her house, in her father's room."

"Why wasn't her father with her?"

"He tried to crawl in after her. He couldn't fit. I would've missed her, if I didn't hear her breathing." Impa glanced at the girl she cradled in her arms. "It's possible she inhaled some of the Rot. We can't tell yet."

Queen Zelda ran a hand over Malon's breasts. She tried to sense if anything dark had entered her system. Any of the Rot—

"There is something in there," Zelda concluded, "but let's see if I can extract it."

Impa laid Malon along the grass. The Queen summoned the power of the power of her Triforce of Wisdom, conjured every ounce of magic within her being, before pouring it inside the farm girl's body. Light and warmth radiated throughout the girl's pores, sparks of magic flew—

A bulge spread along her neck.

Zelda focused on it, gathering any trace of darkness from her lungs to that one spot. The bulge grew larger, heavier, denser. It looked like a vein that had built up too much pressure. It squirmed. The Queen never let the corruption break free of her hold.

Very slowly, she forced it up the girl's throat, and out her mouth. It sprayed into the air, coiling above, thrashing like a small serpent. It was black, inky, without true form of its own—shifting from a sleek serpent shape to a bulging splatter of darkness. It tried to break free, but, before it could, Zelda torched it with her magic.

Nothing, not even ash, returned to earth.

Next went the entire farm.

Even when Zelda and Impa returned to Hyrule Castle with Malon in their grasp, the smoke continued to rise.

"This girl will give us a better idea of what we're dealing with," Queen Zelda said, "We have a witness. If she caught a glimpse of the thing that invaded her home, then we might have a chance. Might."

"What if she didn't?" Impa asked as the sentries closed Hyrule Castle's gates behind them.

Zelda let out a measured, heavy sigh. "Then we ask Ganondorf for help."

"Is that truly wise? He's a danger to everyone around him. He could betray you."

"He will, but, at this rate, what choices do we have? We can't combat a threat we know nothing about, and he knows far more than he's letting on." Zelda glanced back at Malon. Still asleep, her moon-shaped face white, sweat smeared on her brow. The Queen touched her cheek. Feverish. "We can't let what happened now happen again. There will never be another Lon Lon Ranch. Not in my Queendom."

A/N – Thank you for reading so far. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, please review. I'm considering doing a Mario fanfic companion to this, showing what's going on in the Mushroom Kingdom during this. Would anyone be interested in that? Thanks again! :)