Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, any of the characters in the Zelda series or the "original characters" that I created based on them, except their name (if I did, I wouldn't waste my time here). I'm not making any money of this and if I forgot anything else in this disclaimer I did or didn't do that as well.
Chapter 3 – To Lepirin
Franklin simply glanced at the large mountain to the right, where Vaati had been imprisoned for countless of years, until the actions of his fellow warriors caused him to escape. He hadn't been here ever since Vaati was destroyed by Link's kids, and he didn't want to stay too long. The whole ordeal was like a bad taste in his mouth, one he didn't like to be reminded off. The valley consisted mostly of rocks and a small stream. Maybe sometime in the past something grew here, but the traffic between Lepirin and Mendrova, although this diminished in the last decade, had eradicated almost all the grass on the ground. They quickly passed it and finally set foot in Lepirin. Grass was beginning to return and the feeling of unease that Franklin had felt for being so close to the Veil Falls mountain was replaced by another sort of unease.
"Something's not right…" he said as he looked around.
"What do you mean?" Rowin frowned.
"Where are the guards?" Alicia asked, "there should be some guards here… ah, there's the guard hou…"
She fell silent as she saw the large hole in the roof of the small building.
"Get to the back!" Franklin ordered as he drew his sword.
Rowin and Ivrin also drew their sword as Alicia quickly rode behind the cart. Three guardsmen came out of the building. Franklin started to lower his sword, but a nod from Rowin made him raise it again. Behind the guards, a green ratlike man appeared.
"A Goriya!" Ivrin shouted, "those guards are possessed! My lord, get to the back!"
"I won't run away from a battle!" Rowin replied and urged his horse forward.
Franklin heard Ivrin curse and both men followed Rowin into battle. Rowin ran one of the guards over and headed straight to the Goriya.
"Great," Franklin muttered, "can't that idiot take on the guards? Ivrin, I'll go help him! You take care of the guards!"
"Forget it!" Ivrin replied, "I have to defend Rowin! You take the guards!"
Franklin cursed as he killed one of the guards. He really didn't feel comfortable on his horse. He was used to fighting on the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ivrin ignore a guard and rush to the Goriya who had just killed Rowin's horse. Rowin fell to the ground and as he got up, the Goriya stood before him, with his sword raised. Just as he was going to bring it down, he jumped out of the way when Ivrin arrived.
"Take my horse and run with lady Alicia," Ivrin said as he got off his horse and turned to the Goriya.
"But…" Rowin started.
"Rowin!" Franklin shouted as he killed the last guard, "take Alicia and get her to safety!"
Rowin was about to object, but jumped back when the Goriya charged. Ivrin was just barely able to block the attack and defend Rowin.
"Quickly," Ivrin hissed.
Rowin nodded and got on the horse. Franklin got off his horse to help Ivrin, who was losing against the rat-man. A large cut ran across his chest through his mail shirt and blood coloured his shirt red. Franklin approached the Goriya from the back, quietly to surprise it. But just as he was to strike, the Goriya jumped up, did a flip and landed on the shoulders of Ivrin. Franklin had never seen anything move that fast. Franklin attacked, but the rat-man jumped away. Ivrin got up and picked up his sword.
"Get out," he hissed, "I'll slow it down."
"We'll get it," Franklin said as the Goriya attacked.
Franklin was able to block and countered, leaving an opening for the Goriya. Franklin was hit in the side and felt broken links of the chainmail under his tunic enter his flesh by the force of the blow. He gasped for breath as the Goriya raised his sword again, but Ivrin attacked the rat-creature again.
"Run!" Ivrin repeated, "forget about me! Get the others to safety!"
Franklin nodded and ran towards his horse. He saw in the distance Rowin and Alicia standing near the cart and motioned to them to ride on. When they didn't move, he quickly rode off towards them.
"Get out of here! Now!" he told them.
"But Ivrin…" Alicia started.
"Is making sure we can get away," Franklin told her as he looked back.
Ivrin was still fighting, though countless wounds ran across his body.
"We get the fuck out of here, right away," Franklin said as he watched how the Goriya chopped off Ivrin's arm and started to gut him alive.
"Are you saying to leave him?" Rowin gasped.
"He's giving his life for us to escape," Franklin hissed, "are you going to throw that away?"
"Are you just going to leave him like that?" Rowin spat.
"Fine," Franklin sighed as he got out his bow, "but first you leave with Alicia and the cart."
"I'm staying," Rowin said.
"Whatever," Franklin replied, "Alicia, get the fuck out of here. I'll catch up to you later."
"Don't you mean, WE will catch up later?" Rowin raised an eyebrow as he got his bow out.
"You won't make it," Franklin stated coldly and let go off the arrow.
The Goriya jumped out of the way, but he wasn't what Franklin was aiming at. The arrow entered Ivrin's head and stopped his screams of pain.
"You… you killed…" Rowin gasped in shock.
The Goriya seemed equally shocked and looked back at Franklin, too late noticing the second arrow. The creature tried to dodge, but was hit in the shoulder. It fell on the ground, and as it got up, Franklin urged his horse forward. He jabbed his sword forward, blocking the escape path of the Goriya and rode over it with his horse. The rat-creature was trampled by the horse, but still moving. Franklin turned around and shot another arrow. It hit the Goriya straight in the left eye and the creature fell down.
"You killed him," Rowing rode up to Franklin.
"He was dead either way," Franklin simply stated and turned his horse around, in the direction of which the cart had fled to, "I just eased his suffering."
"A fairy could have…" Rowin shook his head.
"That thing was nearly too good for me," Franklin shot back, "I can't nearly even believe I was able to beat it. Ivrin's wounds were too deep and he would have bled to death before I had finished off that Goraya, or whatever you called it."
"But if we healed him right away…" Rowin tried once more, knowing he was already defeated.
"There are some things even a fairy can't heal, and even if it was possible, then that thing would have killed him anyway," Franklin ended the discussion, "it was the only thing I could do. Trust me, I have been in this sort of situation before."
Rowin heard from the tone of his voice Franklin had already been forced to kill too many of his own to save them from a worse faith, and he knew now was no different from those times.
"Where are the others headed?" Franklin asked.
"There's a sanctuary a bit further down the road," Rowin said, "I'm sure the others are headed that way."
"Let's hope we catch up with them soon and they're safe."
The sanctuary was a large red building, set in a seemingly peaceful garden. No traces were visible that the lands were in turmoil, except for the many people that were in the garden. Wounded people with bloodied bandages were sitting in the shade of the trees, while guards watched the roads carefully. Franklin and Rowin caught up with the cart, just as it rode through the gates.
"Where's Ivrin?" Alicia asked.
"He… he didn't make it," Rowin replied, with grief in his voice.
Alicia started crying and looked at Franklin for more explanation, but the young warrior simply dismounted and took off his brown tunic. His mail shirt was now visible and was damaged at the left side, where the Goriya had hit him. He carefully pulled out the rings that were lodged in him, and grunted when his flesh finally let them go.
"Aren't you going to use one of your fairies?" Talicia asked as she watched him clean the wound out with water.
"Not on something like this," he said, "after seeing how good that thing is, I'll need every fairy I have."
"Don't worry about that," an old woman said, dressed in a white gown, "there's a fairy pond behind the sanctuary. We learned of their healing powers recently and they've been very helpful."
Franklin considered this for a second but then shook his head. He took out a green bottle out of his saddlebag and rubbed some of the liquid inside on his wound. He hissed as the wound disinfected. Then he took off his mail shirt and leather armour and took out a blue jar. He rubbed some thick paste on his wound.
"Do you have any bandages?" he asked the woman.
She nodded and called a younger nurse. She applied to bandage over the paste, around his middle.
"Thanks," he smiled, but it was visible it was just a courtesy smile.
The nurse simply nodded and returned to another wounded man.
"Who's your friend, Rowin?" the older nurse asked.
"Uhm… this is Franklin… from Mendrova…" Rowin started.
"Franklin?" the nurse raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "and how did you get that wound? Ride against a tree or did you cut yourself on your own sword?"
"Guess William was here too," Franklin grunted, "where can I speak with someone who knows something about what's going on?"
"And why would you speak to him?" the nurse laughed, "think you can play the hero here? We know all about you, young man."
"Uhm…" Rowin raised his hand, "he got that wound from a Goriya…"
The nurse's eyes grew wide and then narrowed. She was about to say something, but Rowin spoke up again.
"We ran into some possessed soldiers and a Goriya," he continued, "we were lucky that Franklin was here, or we all would have been dead, instead of just Ivrin."
"Ivrin's dead?" the nurse said, "no doubt thanks to this young man's arrogance…"
"Tell me," Franklin turned to the nurse, "did William fuck you too or just the good looking ones?"
The nurse gasped loudly and suddenly noticed a younger nurse turn red. She blinked and then turned to Franklin, now with his sword drawn, the tip under her chin.
"Tell me where I can find someone who knows more about these problems," he said coldly, "or you might be the one who needs a fairy."
"They say that the king's advisor, Sahasrahla," the young nurse said, "is somewhere in the western plateau…"
Franklin looked at her and nodded his head. He sheathed his sword and turned around to his horse.
"Good thing I packed lunch," he said and then looked at Rowin.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked as he saw the young man mount his horse.
"I'm coming with you," he said, "you don't know the lands, and you would get lost."
"Fine…" Franklin sighed, "but get some fairies first. I don't want to die simply because I kept you alive."
Rowin nodded and rode to the back of the sanctuary. Talicia walked up to Franklin and kissed him on the cheek.
"Good luck," she said, "and sorry for the way we treated you when we first met you. I see now that they were all lies."
"Better late than never," Franklin grunted as he put his armour back on, with his brown tunic on top, and then grinned at Talicia, "don't worry, I'll be fine."
He looked back to see Rowin coming back and then mounted his horse.
"Time to sort this mess out," he sighed, "fuck, what did I get myself into?"
AN: Man, this chapter was a bitch. I had to rewrite it three times, and since I still wasn't really satisfied, I rewrote large parts of the first chapters, to change Ivrin's role.
Anyway, if you want a layout (and spoilerish things) of Lepirin, just take the map of A Link to the Past and flip it, both horizontally and vertically (so the desert is in the top right corner, this is part of the Gerudo Desert from Hyrule).
And what kind of name is Sahasrahla anyway? Think I'll either copy/paste his name or simply put something simple like and then replace it automatically. And I thought I had it bad with home made names…
