200 Day Fic Challenge: Day 4
Prompt: Rivalry
Characters: Midna, Zant
Word Count: 1634
To put it rather bluntly, this had been the last thing either of them had expected, let alone wanted.
It had started out as another relatively normal day on the battlefield. Midna, Lana, and a few hundred soldiers had been tasked with keeping Ganondorf's forces from making their way out of the desert; his minions had grown quite bold, and dozens upon dozens of his Stalfos soldiers had been capturing keeps left and right. This couldn't be had, of course.
From her perch on her Twili Wolf ('nowhere near as much fun as the real thing had been', she thought idly), she'd overseen most of the battles with ease. Undead bones crumbled easily, and after only a few hours most of the keeps had been reclaimed by the good guys.
Until he had shown up.
Probably having been sent in to back-up their quickly falling troops, the buffoon and come flying in and begun to spin around, scimitars flying as he disposed of not only the Hylian soldiers, but his own that were caught in the crossfire as well. Zant's erratic screaming could be heard all over the fields, and tides quickly turned in his favour.
Most of the soldiers on either side had already fled to their respective bases, fearful of dying at the hands of the Usurper King. Lana was injured badly, leaning heavily on her spear for support, and could do nothing but watch as Midna and Zant locked in a vicious power struggle a mere thirty feet away.
Zan'ts scimitars were crossed and pressing hard against Midna's near-sentient hair, the large, flame-orange hand grappling with the blades. Even so, it was clear who had the advantage. Helmet having been discarded some time ago, Zant bared his teeth in a feral grin and gave a hard shove against his rival, sending her flying back and hitting the nearest canyon wall, several yards back and inside a small cave. As she was propelled backwards, Zant rushed after her with a primal scream; but something was horribly amiss.
Midna's impact against the back of the cave had been so forceful that the canyon itself began to shake. Small rocks and bits of sand fell from the shock-wave, followed by much larger, Goron-sized boulders. As soon as Zant had cleared the cave mouth, the rocks fell in earnest, blocking off the hole and trapping the two Twili inside.
Jolting awake with a sharp gasp, Midna lurched up rather suddenly. The unexpectedly quick movement pulled at her side, and she cried out, falling back to the ground as she coughed violently to clear the dust from her lungs.
All around her, everything was dark. Groaning at the aching pulse in her forehead, Midna gathered a small bit of Twili energy in her hands and formed it into a dimly glowing orb. Wincing as she adjusted to the light, she glanced around. The cave was completely empty, except for herse-
"WHAT?!"
Unsure if her eyes were playing her or not, Midna levitated the orb over to the shapeless form several feet away. Sure enough, as the light played across it and lit up various runes, a face came into view.
A face she'd really rather not be trapped with right now.
Luckily for her, Zant was unconscious, a dark bruise forming over the turquoise runes on his forehead. Frowning, Midna pulled her tiny arms and legs into her deformed body, huddling as far away fro the usurper king as she could.
Midna sat there for what seemed like hours in the quiet of the cave, before Zant finally came to with a low, pained moan. She stiffened as his once-prone form moved and he sat up, gazing around the cave in a slight daze before he took notice of the light orb above his head. Eyebrows furrowing in confusion, he glanced around for it's source, and soon took notice of Midna across from him.
As he bared his teeth with a growl and prepared to launch himself at her, Midna rolled her eyes with a rather audible sigh.
"Calm down, Zant. If you move too violently, you could send the rest of this cave crashing down on top of us."
[At least then you'd be dead!] he snarled back at her a he lapsed into Twili, his eyes flashing dangerously. [What should I care if I bring the whole mountain down, if only to bury you under it?!]
"If you did that, you great louse, then you would be dead as well, and unable to return to your beast of a master. Not that I would care, mind you, but I don't really feel like dying right now."
Mention of Ganondorf seemed to calm the enraged Twili down, much to Midna's surprise; she watched him curiously as his face morphed from one of murder immediately to one of worry. Zant lurched to his feet rather unsteadily, and he wandered over to the collapsed mouth of the cave. After a moments inspection, he dropped back to the ground with a moody sigh, avoiding turning his gaze onto the imp-like Twili behind him.
"... I thought you had reclaimed your proper form."
Midna froze in shock at the words coming from Zant's mouth; had she really just heard him try and make small-talk with her?!
Blinking, she shook her head to clear her muddled thoughts, then sighed, stretching out her stubby limbs idly. "I did. But then that witch Cia cursed me with the same spell you used not so very long ago. I would've thought her death would have reversed the effect, but it didn't."
Zant nodded in thought, silent while Midna spoke. After silence stretched on between them for several minutes, a small, dark chuckle echoed over on his end of the cave.
"It matters not how it happened, I suppose. Either way, the imp form suits you best. Conniving little thief that you are." Zant's tone was low and dangerous-sounding as he turned to face Midna, His orange eyes were aglow with hatred as he stared at her, but his thin lips were quirked into a sadistic smirk, the slits at the sides of his mouth spread open slightly to reveal his fangs.
"... Excuse me?! I am not a thief, you ludicrous, spastic excuse of a Twili! I've never stolen a thing in my life!"
Well, there was the sword and shield incident with Link-... no, that's besides the point!
"Hah! Do not lie to me, princess. You know very well what you've taken!"
"No, I don't think I do. Why don't you elaborate?"
She'd begun to push Zant too far; a high-pitched whine sounded from the back of his throat, and he bashed his hands on the cave floor, eyes wide and frenzied. "The throne, you foolish imp! You took the role of leader from me [when it was rightfully mine!]"
In his rage, he began to lapse back and forth between Hylian and Twili; Midna had not seen him this angry since he had first usurped the throne. Right now, however, she couldn't care less; thoroughly mad enough in her own right, she rose from the round in a flash, floating in mid-air as her hair swished angrily overhead.
[Did it ever occur to you that maybe I never wanted the blasted thing in the first place?! That maybe, just maybe, it had been thrust onto me just as it had been ripped away from you?! Don't blame me for your inept ability to rule or having been passed over, blame yourself and our elders!]
The air between the two was eerily quiet, filled with nothing but their harsh breaths and the tangible disgust held mutually for the other. Ember-coloured orbs stared hatefully back at yellow and red ones. It seemed as though both were about to make a move towards total annihilation when, out of nowhere, a rumbling could be heard. Puzzled, Midna and Zant looked towards the source of the sound – the rock pile that blocked their escape.
For a moment, nothing happened. The rumbling then grew louder, and just when it seemed that the entirety of the mountain were to collapse, a shaft of light broke through the rubble, and several voices could be heard outside.
"Midna! Midna, are you in there?!"
"Darunia, can you see-"
"Zant?!"
Eyes going impossibly wide, Midna floated over to the opening, peering out as she blinked at the harsh sunlight. Outside the cave, directly in her line of vision, stood several familiar people, two of whom she'd not expected to see in the least.
"Zelda? It's good to see you all, but... what are they doing here?"
The young Queen glanced over to her right, where, rather surprisingly, Ganondorf and Ghirahim stood, both looking surly and sour, but with an undertone of... was it worry? She couldn't really be sure.
Turning to the imprisoned imp, a wry smile crossed Zelda's lips. "When Lana returned and told us that the two of you had been trapped in a rock slide, a ceasefire was called so that we could combine our efforts to rescue you and... Zant."
Behind Midna, the Twili in question gasped, rushing forward to peek out the hole for himself. "Master?! Ghirahim?! Y-you came to save me?"
Although neither let it show in their expressions, both those in question were clearly relieved; Ghirahim's rather tense form relaxed a touch, and Ganondorf spoke in a rather gruff, oddly quiet tone.
"Off course we did."
A small whimper slipped from Zant's lips, and after glancing back at him warily, Midna turned her attention to the Goron who'd been unearthing them.
"How fast do you think you can get us out of here, Darunia?"
"Hah hah! Fast enough, sister. I would say before sunset, most likely."
"Oh, good. The sooner we're out, the better."
