Legacy of a Deserter
The Rise and Fall of King Igos du Ikana
Chapter 3: Lost
The woods were dark and what wasn't obscured by shadow was overrun with green. Igos payed this no mind as all he needed to see were the brown tree trunks he was dodging as he continued to run. As Igos ran deeper and deeper into the woods, the horns from the castle faded until he was alone with the sounds of the forest and his own labored heaving. Igos paced himself and slowed to a walk to catch his breath. He stopped at a nearby tree and gathered his surroundings.
Nobody had ever told Igos about the beauty of the forest, mostly because nobody had ever ventured in and had come back to tell the tale. The underbrush of fallen leaves and twigs was calming to walk upon and the mushrooms that thrived in the moist darkness added spots of color that added a tranquil chaos to the monotony. Igos was first amazed at the beauty of the woods but soon stopped his fanciful thoughts to focus on gaging his direction so he could find a way out when enough time had passed. Igos surmised that the hunt for him would probably be over in about three days, as Hyrule wasn't that big of a place, and by then he would be able to live the rest of his life on the shores of Lake Hylia.
Unfortunately the forest seemed to be exactly the same in every direction. No matter which way Igos turned, the woods seemed to be an endless stretch of the same hundred-or-so trees in each bearing. Looking up didn't alleviate the situation as the canopy of the combined trees blocked almost all of the sky from view. Without an accurate way to gauge his heading, Igos decided to just start walking in one direction and, through sheer perseverance, he would eventually end up exiting at the other side of the forest, wherever that may be. Either that or he would eventually come across a clearing or land mark that would point him towards the way he came. Igos took up the broken shackle that was still attached to his left hand and began aggressively gouging a deep line into the bark of a tree followed by two more coming to a point. The arrow pointed to Igos' left.
Igos then set off to the left of the tree counting the trunks he passed by. When he had counted to thirty trees, which wasn't too long given the overabundance of them, Igos stopped and etched another arrow pointing left. The etching process was difficult because Igos was dominant on his right hand but it threw searing pain if he dared to move it. The broken right wrist he sustained after his escape was starting to discolor and swell where the shackle had been, more so where it had been hit. He was sure something had broken but wasn't attentive to it when he was running on adrenaline. Now the fight-or-flight response had faded and he not only felt the exhaustion he had been lacking but now the wound he had sustained was also slowly growing more aggressively painful.
Another thirty trees and another arrow was etched. Igos realized that he had never really tended to the deep gash on his left thumb and just now noticed the dirty newly formed scab that was cracking with his repeated use of that hand. It was no longer overflowing with blood but every movement cracked the dirty red scab and new blood trickled out. In fact, Igos' left arm had a thick dried blood trail that ran from his thumb all the way to his elbow. Igos wished he had some water to wash the grim sight off his body and not having that luxury only made the throbbing in his thumb all the worse to endure.
Yet another thirty trees and yet another arrow was etched facing left. He was actually getting quite good at using his left hand now that it was too painful to move his right. However, the shackle on his left wrist was starting to take its toll, leaving an itchy rash where it continually rubbed. The guards had purposefully tightened them too tight as they wanted Igos' last moments in this world to be filled with discomfort and misery. Though it seemed he had put himself through that anyway by going into the woods. The air was starting to get thicker and heavier with moisture. The humidity had skyrocketed in the last few moments and Igos' sweat was no longer evaporating off his skin and clothes. He wiped his brow and winced as some of the salty perspiration singed his thumb wound. If the humidity climbed any higher then he feared he would drown while breathing air.
Igos finished counting trees to another thirty and…
An arrow stared back at Igos.
"Dammit." Igos swore as he sighed and looked around for another one of his arrows. He started walking in the opposite direction and when he reached thirty trees again he did come to one of his old arrows but, confusedly, it was facing right instead of left. Igos furrowed his brow and started to point in different directions muttering to himself trying to figure out if there actually was a way to come to an arrow that was facing left to then face right. But no matter how many different scenarios Igos came up with to rationalize it, the idea that one of his arrows had flipped around was impossible… unless someone was following him and putting up different arrows to confuse him. Though Igos found this improbable at best, he still scratched out the arrow that was there and etched a new arrow under it facing the correct way.
Then there was a rustle somewhere in the woods that made Igos jump. His eyes widened and he listened for more sounds. Save for the quiet rustle of leaves in the wind, the forest was silent again for a long time. As soon as Igos relaxed a bit, a sharp chuckle from somewhere within the trees assaulted the man's ears and a sharp pain hit his right shoulder. He reached around with his left hand and pulled from his muscle a small yet sizeable sharpened wooden dart caked with a large amount of blood. Igos wasted no time in bolting in the direction of his newly etched arrow and kept running. Arrow after arrow on trees flew past him and he could hear more projectiles hitting the scenery around him. Or at least he believed that they were projectiles. Igos was kicking up so much underbrush in his full sprint that the twigs and pebbles bouncing off things only fueled his idea that he was being followed.
He had definitely seen more than the four arrows he etched so his being followed hypothesis seemed correct. The one with the piercing laugh must be the one trying to confuse him. Maybe trying to capture him. At this idea Igos immediately wanted to stop. However, a large branch that had probably fallen off a tree saw to it that Igos' foot got caught in it. He stepped on it with one foot and when the other came forward to take the next step, it got stuck. Without anything to catch his forward momentum, Igos flew through the air a considerable distance before crashing into the soft earth. The years of undisturbed leaves and twigs cushioned his side a bit and bunched up to limit his skid to a halt. By the end of his fall, Igos had created an impressive crater in the soil. Igos quickly stood and took off again in the same direction as before, paying no mind to the new aching in his other shoulder.
A bit more running and Igos suddenly stopped, pure confusion plastered on his face. He stared, mouth agape, at the scarred ground before him. It was crater like one made on impact and it had very familiar dimensions. The tree he stood next to had an arrow pointing in its direction. But this only added to Igos' confusion.
"Wait…" Igos thought aloud, "could it be?"
Igos cautiously walked around the left side of the tree. A quarter of the way around its trunk Igos found another arrow carved into the tree pointing in the same direction.
"No…" Igos breathed as he continued around the trunk. Half-way around the tree now and Igos stared at another etched arrow in utter disbelief.
"This is… i-impossible. There's no way. There's no damn way!" but as Igos turned to the final section of the tree, a familiar scratched-out right facing arrow greeted him along with its left facing counterpart below it. Igos took a step back.
"I don't understand. I just don't get it! How… I thought I was going the right way but…" Igos gasped, "that's it. I'm going the wrong way! It tried to tell me but… I have to go the right way!"
Igos immediately turned to the right and ran off in that direction. He started counting at first and rapidly reached thirty trees. There was no arrow etched on any of the trees near that number. Fourty trees and still no arrow whizzed past. Fifty trees and Igos began to feel hopeful for an exit. Fifty-seven trees and the man was starting to feel winded and began to slow. Sixty-three trees… or was it sixty-seven? Igos was getting so exhausted that keeping track of the trees was getting harder and harder. His prisoners' shirt was drenched in sweat and clinging to his skin. It wasn't long until he was heaving and desperate for water.
Then the sound of a rushing stream softly whispered to him from his left.
"Oh thank the Goddess." Igos gasped as he briskly walked in the sounds direction. The noise continued to grow louder until the prospect of fresh water overpowered his weariness and he began running again, pushing himself with the promise of fresh water. Then, just as he was about to stop again, Igos came upon the stream that was making the beautiful noise that guided him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he ran to the stream and cupped the crystal clear liquid in his hands. The water was so clear that if the light didn't reflect off it, he might as well had been holding air. When he drank it life came back to his throat and breathing became many times easier. Despite the hot and humid air around him, the water was briskly cold and had the most amazing taste. By around the third mouthful Igos no longer felt any tiredness, as if he had just woken from a deep slumber.
He then bathed in the icy water, washing the sweat from his skin and clothes. As he rubbed himself down, Igos suddenly noticed that his right hand, though moving all about, wasn't hurting at all. When he looked at the wrist the swelling had already started to recede and its discolored bruising washed away as if it were dried on ink. Then Igos turned to his thumb and it too had completely healed. Where a scab was and a thick scar should've been was just his normal fingerprint unmarred by any wound. The pain in his shoulders, one from falling and the other from that creature's dart, was alleviated and their strength rejuvenated. Even his feet, tired from all his walking and running, felt as if they could run another hundred miles.
After washing his clothes, Igos tried to wring the fabric out as much as possible but no matter how much he twisted and whipped the fabric, it was still damp and clung to his skin all the same. However it wasn't as bad as before as the water seemed to be perpetually cold and protecting his skin from the hot forest air. His hair had also absorbed some of the water and cooled his head in perpetual refreshment. It was so revitalizing that Igos feared collapsing from such bliss.
Suddenly, Igos was struck with a revelation. Hyrule only had two sources of water, Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain. This stream, if the woods followed the same rules as the rest of the world, must come from one of those sources. Igos surmised that if he did follow the river upstream then he would either find himself at an unknown branch off the Zora River or at a secret exit to Lake Hylia. So, taking the last drink of water, Igos took a refreshed sigh and headed off upstream following just outside its bank.
The stream's soft yet torrential noise created a soothing atmosphere that Igos slowly lost himself to. Soon his feet began to drive themselves and he was even able to close his eyes, letting his mind go blank. The noise of the stream enveloped him as if he were swimming in the sound. The small differences and breaks in the water's flow al adding to the serene chorus that soothed Igos' very soul. He couldn't even hear the twigs he crushed underneath his shoes and even his breath had become overpowered by the stream's melody.
Igos was in such a serene state that he hadn't even realized that the stream's background noise had completely vanished. It wasn't long until he realized that something was amiss and when he opened his eyes and looked around, the stream was nowhere in sight. Igos' groan of frustration echoed back at him as if the forest was just as fed up with his presence as he was of its trickery. Igos couldn't hear the stream from where he was. He figured he had wandered away from a place where it turned in a different direction. So, even though he was annoyed, Igos turned around and began to walk back the way he came.
It wasn't long until he found the stream again but this time it was different. When he first came upon the stream the water flowed from his right to his left. Now the water rushed from his left to his right. So either the magic of the forest had flipped the entire stream around or somehow Igos had gotten so lost that he actually came to the other side of the stream he was supposed to be following. However, at this point Igos no longer cared about that. He only cared about getting out of this demon's playground that the Hylians called a forest. So, gathering an even larger amount of determination to leave, he followed the stream again but this time heading downstream. For all he knew, this stream actually supplied the waterfalls that covered Zora's Domain.
As Igos walked with the stream he kept his eyes on the running water like a hungry dog watching a meal. Tearing his eyes away only to avoid tripping, Igos tried his best to focus on following the stream and resist its calming sounds. To counteract the relaxing scenery, Igos walked with a brisk pace with very long strides. He also tried to walk on the right side of each tree to minimalize the amount of time he spent not looking at the stream. It was a foolproof plan that could only end in some kind of success.
Igos had made it about an hour, or what felt like an hour, before he accidentally let a single tree block his view of the water. When he arrived at the other side of the tree, the stream had disappeared again. It didn't leave a single sign that it used to be there and even the waters' noise vanished without even an echo.
"No! Why!?" Igos yelled at the forest's trees who only repeated his inquiry almost mockingly. He looked around the tree over and over again in a futile attempt to make the guiding stream reappear. Going back and forth made him look like a giant ape playing hide-and-seek with himself. When he finally realized that his attempts were doing excessive amounts of nothing, Igos got angry. It didn't take long until the man was reduced to a raging, cursing, and yelling maelstrom of random chaos. He kicked and thrashed at shrubs, rocks, and branches scattering debris in every direction. He even went so far as to pick up a rock and repeatedly hit the tree he had passed.
He had made it through most of the bark before his frustration doubled over and realized how juvenile his actions were. He threw away the rock and took a deep breath laden with annoyance and frustration. He tried to listen for the stream again but the angry thumping in his ears blocked even his thoughts from making complete sense; his heart and blood the ironic barrier to his own survival.
But it wasn't a sound that got Igos' hopes up again, it was a breeze. A breeze so light it was more akin to a draft within a house. It softly grazed the back of Igos' neck then dashed away like a rabbit sensing danger. Igos recognized the touch of that air. It was the breath of Hyrule calling to him. Igos slowly and carefully scanned his surroundings looking for any outlying differences in the forest. When he finally looked behind him he could only chuckle to himself in the most intense relief he had ever felt.
Before him was a giant tree trunk on its side and hollowed out to make a tunnel. Igos nearly fell in his mad scramble towards the exit to this crazy place. There was a part of Igos that was weary of the supposed exit and wanted to steer clear of it as one of the forest's tricks. But that voice was massively overpowered by Igos' desire to follow anything that might lead to an exit. He ran so fast he nearly collided with every tree and his legs were caked with mud and dirt from how much debris he kicked up. Igos didn't care that the tunnel had no light at the end of it and he was too delusional to notice that the air coming from it was much too cold to be from Hyrule.
The first thing that Igos did when he stepped into the cave was slip. The floor, overgrown with mushrooms and moss, was slick and didn't favor Igos' running. As a result, Igos fell and his forward momentum carried him into the tunnel. He first hit a lip of some kind made out of stone and then felt his lower body fall over the edge of a hole. His hands scrambled for something to grab and thankfully found the lip that his leg had hit. He hung on for dear life as his body hung in the air against a rocky wall. His feet scrambled on the wall and found a slightly protruding rock that had just enough room for Igos to steady himself with one foot.
"Help!" Igos cried when he had finally gotten his grip.
But he immediately berated himself out loud, "Stupid!" he hit his head on the stone wall, "This is the Lost Woods. Nobody's going to hear you!"
"Now, I wouldn't be so sure about that." a high-pitched voice spoke from above Igos. The misplaced jovial statement was followed by an equally unsettling laugh that sent chills down Igos' spine. He slowly looked up and was met with the silhouette of a child wearing a frayed large-brimmed hat. The figure had bright yellow glowing eyes that bored into Igos' own.
"Who… who are you?"
The figure chuckled, "You come into my forest and ask who I am?" it laughed, "Hylians really have no concept of boarders, do they?"
"Please, whoever you are, help me!"
"Hmm… I—dunno…" the figure crossed its arms and looked pensively up at the ceiling.
"Please. I just want to get out of these damned accursed woods!"
Something about what Igos said disagreed with the child-like figure and they slowly looked back at Igos.
"Oh, don't worry," the child said in a much more menacing voice, "You'll be leaving soon enough." The silhouette knelt at Igos' hands that grasped the lip just a forearms length away from the edge of the hole. "But first we're going to play a game."
"What? No, please, just go get help or someth-"
"Adults never want to play nice." the figure cut Igos off, "But this game will help you, don't worry!"
Igos could feel the child smile at him even though its face was obscured in shadow. Before Igos could voice another plea, the child reached for his hand. He could feel the gloved fingers and noted that they felt strangely lifeless, even encased in rough linen gloves. The figure then popped Igos' pinky finger off the lip.
"Hey!" Igos yelled, wide-eyed, "No, no, no, no!"
"This little kokiri went to market." The child jovially chanted in a sing-song manner.
"No, please!" Igos continued to shout as the silhouette popped the second finger off his grasping place.
"But this little kokiri stayed home!"
"Please! I'll do anything!" Igos tried to yell above the child's rising singing.
"This little kokiri had mushrooms."
Just as Igos was about to replace his other fingers onto the lip again, the third finger was pried off. His left hand's index finger was not strong enough to hold his weight and the entire hand slipped off the lip by itself.
"And that little kokiri had none." The child cackled again.
"Dammit, please!"
The figure turned to Igos' remaining hand. He tried to pull his newly free hand up to grab the lip but it was just too far up past the edge of the hole and the ledge was too slippery to get a confident grip.
"And this little kokiri…"
"For goddess' sake, I beg you!" Igos slipped into hysteria as he pleaded to the cold emotionless eyes.
"…cried 'Please, please, please!'…"
"No!" the creature tightened its grip around Igos' remaining hand. He tried to lift himself up to grab at the silhouette but lost his footing before he could get even remotely high enough.
"…all the way…" Igos looked up when the thing paused. It had brought its face as close to Igos without being within reach. He stared horrified at the burning yellow eyes and could hear its sadistic giggles.
The creature whispered, "All the way… TO HELL!"
"No!" the child threw its hands up and dislodged Igos' death-grip on the lip. Igos tried to scramble for another grip but a small foot in a curved and pointed shoe came around and smacked Igos right across the face. As he fell, all he could see was the two menacing eyes fade into darkness along with the creature's insidious laughter.
