Okay, this is the chapter where the real action begins. How? Well, you'll just have to read and find out! XD
Anyway, as usual, I hope you enjoy!
Please read and rate/comment, I'd love to hear what you have to say!
The Other Hero of Time
Chapter 4
"Hey, Link, should I call you 'Master Link' since I'm your apprentice?"
"There's no need for you to be so formal. Just call me Link." He smiles, his mood much lighter since when we first left town. "Though we should find a name to call you since you can't remember your own."
"Yeah, at least until we reach—" I stop myself he as a strange pounding is heard behind us. I turn back, my eyes widening as the air is sucked from my lungs. An armored monster is coming up at full speed on what appears to be a giant lizard creature. "Link!"
"Look out!" Link jumps on Epona in front of me with the reins in hand. He quickly makes her start running at full speed, which almost knocks me off. It an attempt to stay on, I wrap my arms around Link's waist. "Hold on tight! I'll get us out of here!"
"Where did that thing come from?!" I yell looking back at the odd creature. It looks to be slightly larger compared to us, yet still having a humanoid-like anatomy despite looking so strange. The monster doesn't slow down or stop, but instead speeds up to catch up to us and stays right on our trail.
"I don't know, but let's not find out." He glances back at the creature before urging Epona to go faster.
We travel around in attempt to lose the thing, but with every turn we make, it's quick to follow. As we pick up speed, so does it. Whatever it is and wherever it came from, it's obvious that this thing isn't following us with blind rage. It's clearly after us for whatever reason. I tighten my grip, fear beginning to leak into my mind. I don't want to find out what this creature wants with us anytime soon.
"It's alright." Link says, causing me to look up at him. As he glances back at me, I can see a smile on his lips. "We're going to be okay. We'll lose this thing in no time."
I nod, believing in his confidence. "Right."
Epona runs until the suns nearing the horizon and despite Link's encouragement, I can tell she's running out of juice fast. I look back to see the monster close enough to get at with a blade.
My heart races as the images of Link being hurt arise in my mind. Instinctually, I take Link's blade from its holster on his back and turn towards the creature. I know that I have to do something, anything to protect him; even if we have just met. With the emergence of a strange instinct, I follow it, rolling off of Epona. I hear Link yell for me not to, but I ignore his warning.
I continue rolling around the speeding creature until I'm at the lizard's back. I quickly jump up launching the blade under the armor, angling it at the creature's heart before it can turn to attack me. It screams in a high octave as it squirms bitterly as it dies and slumps off the lizard's back.
The lizard stops and begins yelling as it flails to throw me off. I hold on tightly, seeing Link looking back at me stunned. I smile and nod as I jump off the giant lizard's back. It growls at me, moving from side to side with a malicious glare in its yellow eyes. I tempt it to come at me while leisurely moving Link's blade around, finding that it feels oddly powerful in my hand. It makes me feel strong.
The lizard thing launches itself at me, aiming to bite my face of. I tuck and roll to the side, nearly avoiding the angered creature. I stand quickly, jamming the blade into its throat where it screams while flailing, making the injury much worse for it. I slide up and through the rest of its neck, its blood splattering as I do.
It flails for a long time before coming to a dead halt and slumping to the ground. When the two creatures explode into puffs of dark black and red smoke, I jump back startled. It takes me a little bit to realize what I had done as I look at the blood on the blade, oddly not disturbed. That was strange. It felt as if that was normal. It was like I was in one of my visions, but it was all real. What's going on here?
"Whoa…" Link begins to pull Epona around to me with a look of astonishment. "How did you learn to do that?"
"Fight? I don't know." I look up from his now bloodied blade. I find it a shame that such a beautiful sword has been tarnished by blood. "All I really did was follow my instincts."
"That's not what I mean." He dismounts from Epona, his mouth still partially gaped. "How did you learn to do the Back Slice?"
"Back Slice?" I cock my head to the side as I stare at him puzzled. "What's that?"
"What you just did." He explains still a little perplexed. "It's a hidden skill that was taught to me by the Hero's Spirit. Only the Chosen Heroes can successfully learn and execute that move…"
"Well, if you put it that way, then I guess we now know for sure that I'm a Hero." I hand him his blade, the blood strangely already gone as if it was never there in the first place. "I didn't really think when I did that. I just kind of… did it."
"I think I have a name for you now." He puts his blade in its holster before looking at me with a gentle smile painted on his lips. "Azra."
"Azra…" I repeat it to let the strange name settle on my tongue. It's a pretty name, yes, but it doesn't seem quite right. I suppose since he gave me a name he thinks is suitable for me, I'll make it fit. Besides, I kind of like it; though I guess he could give me the ugliest name in the world and I'd still like it. "I'm sure this name will due until we reach that spirit you and the Princess were talking about."
"So you were eavesdropping." He smirks as if proud of something; I suppose proud of himself. "I thought so. I guess you heard why she wanted to keep it a secret from you?"
"Yes and I can absorb a lot of information very quickly without too much strain."
"Obviously. I'm surprised that you're so calm after everything that you've experienced these past couple days. You haven't even begun freaking out over just killing something, especially when you had done so, so naturally." He says with a bit of suspicion.
"It's probably similar to the conditions that I lived with in my past and I'm just accustomed to it." I say petting Epona gently. "We should stop and set up camp. Epona seems to be very tired from running so far, so suddenly."
"Yes, that seems like a good idea." He takes the hand grips. "There's a small lake a little to our north. We can set up camp there."
We travel to reach the small lake that lies not too far from us, but this time I travel on foot beside him. When we reach the lake, I find that even though it's not the biggest lake in this area, it certainly is one of the prettiest whilst the sun's fading rays of various colors of the sunset dance along it's surface.
Somehow, being able to sit here in such a large open area makes me really happy, yet something feels off. There's really nothing to fear out in this area and yet I feel nervous. Part of me tries to reason that it's probably just my nerves going in a belated shock from killing that monster from earlier, but I know it isn't because of that. I felt too calm at that moment for there to be a reason for me to go into shock now. Just so I have something to blame it on, I settle the matter by thinking that it's because I'm alone with a boy in the middle of nowhere, even though that's not it. He's waiting for his soul mate and won't do anything to me even if I wanted him to.
"Azra?" Link's voice makes me snap out of my dazed thoughts. "You alright? You've been really out of it today."
"Sorry, I just keep going on tangents of unanswerable questions." I laugh nervously. "I'll try to restrain myself from further distractions."
"No, that's fine." He starts to construct a small fire with ease. "It's perfectly fine for your thoughts to be wondering. I'm sure I would be that same way if I didn't have any memories."
"So you think it's normal?"
"Yeah. It's not like you have any real knowledge of who you are or where you came from, so you have nothing left to do, but wonder." He smiles softly at me and I look away not wanting to get caught in his gaze, but I look up at him a second later to get caught in it anyway. "Hey, if you think I can answer any of your questions, go ahead and fire away. I'll try my best to answer."
"Really?" I smile excitedly with my face feeling warm. "That'd be great!"
"No problem, so what do you want to know?"
"Well…" I glance away for a moment, looking down at my mark and looking back at him, the fire shining beautifully in his wild blue eyes. "What was it like for you? When you found out you were a Hero, I mean."
"I didn't know what to think." He looks off to his right, his eyes hazed as if he was remembering all the trials he had to overcome. "When I discovered this, people from my village had been kidnapped and I was willing to do anything to save them. When I knew there were safe, I wanted to end whoever had endangered my people and prevent him from doing that to anyone else. I guess I was happy to be the Hero, so I could save my friends, but I was scared, too. I was afraid of failing everybody, but I knew I had to dismiss that fear. I knew that if I wanted to protect my people and the others in Hyrule, I had to be brave. Sorry if I rambled. I hope that answered your question well enough."
"No, that was perfect." I smile. "I'm glad you told me so much, because I don't know what to think either. Since I don't really have any memories and I don't know anyone too well, I don't have any particular person to protect from whatever's coming to cause trouble… Does that make me heartless?"
"No, not at all." Link comes around the fire and sits next to me. "You just don't know who you are yet, but I'm sure that will be cleared up when you see Eldin. He'll explain everything to you."
"It just seems so strange that I've lost my memories… Do you think he took my memories on purpose? Can he even do that?" I sigh and put my head on my knees. "There are so many questions that I want answered, but I don't know who can answer them."
"It'll be okay." Link puts his hand on my shoulder, causing me to look up and see a pair of beautiful blue eyes smiling back at me. All of a sudden, I feel nervous, yet relaxed at the same time. "Eldin will answer everything that I can't answer. Just try not to strain yourself in the mean time."
"Alright." I sigh impatiently. "How long will it take to get to him?"
"If we leave in the morning, we will make it by noon."
"Okay, I think I can manage to not kill myself from lack of answers by then." I laugh jokingly and he laughs with me.