Revolution
Link left castle town by the south road, and called Epona once he was at the base of the steps. The sun low in the evening sky, but he intended to reach the lake before midnight. He figured that would get him close to the desert by midday, then he'd rest during the hottest part of the day, and cross the desert at night. He took off, pushing Epona fairly hard, and made it to the Lake in only a few hours.
At the lake, he rested briefly With Epona, and thought about the rest of his trip. Epona would require too much water to take her into the desert, so he would carry all his gear himself. This only amounted to the Master Sword, his hunting knife, his bow, a bundle of arrows, a flint, travel rations, and two water skins. He took a nap by the lake for the few hours before the sun rose the next day, and began heading heading up the road to the desert.
It was took several hours to make hike up the the plateau before reaching arid desert. Link was always confused that a vast desert could lie directly overlooking an body of water as large as Lake Hylia. Zelda explained to him and Midna when the caravan took them to the Mirror Chamber several weeks earlier, "The lake itself is one of the lowest points in the Kingdom. Whether it rains in Kakariko or in the Zora's Domain, it all drains to right here, so even though the Lake itself may never see much rain, it sees all the runoff in all of Hyrule. Also, since most weather blows in from the east, the desert plateau creates what the scholars call a 'rain shadow'. The storms that make their way over Eldin Province and Hyrule Field and survive long enough to reach the lake find themselves trapped by the thousands of feet of elevation gain between the lake and the plateau." Since changes in weather could often have significant consequences on his travels, Link relished every opportunity to learn about weather patterns.
By the time Link was approaching the top of the plateau and the trees began to become sparser, there were still several hours of daylight left. Since he was avoiding the desert during the day, he made a shelter sufficiently dark to sleep in by felling a lush sapling pine with his sword, removing all the branches, and leaning the spar between a fork in another tree and the ground. The removed branches he leaned in an alternating pattern on the sides of the spar, the dense needles effectively blocking out much of the midday light.
There he rested, and longer than he had planned to. By the time he had woken, the sun was very low in the evening sky, so he hastily grabbed all his gear and departed. The evening turned to night before he had finally entered the desert. At the end of the road and off to the side, Link came upon what appeared to be a very small cairn. He examined it, and though it was dark and the moon only half full, he noticed that the rock on top was of a different color than the rest. He cautiously picked up the stone, and noticed crude engraving on it. On the flatter underside of the stone was an eye with a tear, and three triangles above; it was the very same symbol Saer had shown him.
Link pondered at what this might mean, as he returned the stone to its original position in case it was a signal to someone else. He continued his way westward, towards Arbiters Grounds, keeping his eye out for any roaming bullbo that he might ride to shorten his travel time
It wasn't till about a hour after Link entered the desert that he saw a bullbo at a distance. He reached the animal, who snorted when Link patted its shoulders. Satisfied that the animal was relatively tame, Link mounted this slower—but more recklessly destructive—steed, and made his way across the desert, happily making up time lost during his long slumber.
Hours before sunrise, he came close to the base of the ancient prison, and at the moment, he had no intention of getting closer, for it seemed that after Ganondorf's defeat, the bulblins had regrouped and rebuilt their fort. Link dismounted and lay down to make himself less visible as he spied on them, crawling closer. The three towers guarding the entrance to the canyon that lead to the fort were again manned, and there were also raiders around the fire between the three towers. Behind the hills, Link saw that the towers within the fort were as well manned.
"There are three towers and six raiders here," came a voice from behind Link after he had been watching for a few minutes, "and four towers and about thirty raiders at the fort."
Link turned suddenly, and rolled to put some distance between him and the voice. The man didn't seem immediately threatening, except for the dark, sandy colored cloak that made him blend in to the desert night, so Link stayed low and drew no weapon, instead demanding, "Who are you?"
"I am called Ilon, a Sheikah. Word travels fast amongst us, and I was told that you had befriended Saer. If that is truely the case, you should know this symbol, as well as the one I left for you by the entrance to the desert," he said, withdrawing an arm from his cloak and exposing the same tattoo Saer had on his arm. "In addition to some graver news, I was told that you might come to the desert and that we no longer had to hide ourselves from you."
"I was wondering what that cairn was about," said Link. "So are you here to help? Two against, what, about forty-five seems slightly better than one against forty-five, I'll admit, but that's hardly comforting. Also, I didn't bring the gear I would have if I had known to expect such numbers."
"There are alternatives to directly assaulting a fortification like this," said Ilon. "With care, these front nine can be passed with stealth. I see you have one of our forest cloaks. What color is the inside?" Link reversed a section of his cloak and revealed a dark green inside, which in the dim light of the night looked like a dark grey. "That should work. Our cloaks are meant to be darker on the inside, so they can be reversed for night use."
Link reversed his cloak, as Ilon continued: "So here's what I was thinking. That bullbo you road, make it charge hear the southern edge of the towers. As it runs, it should distract them, maybe even draw some raiders away from the fire to capture it, giving us the opening to skirt along the north wall unnoticed and slip into the canyon."
Link thought about this for a moment, and saw no fault with the surprisingly simple plan. He nodded in agreement, and Ilon headed to the north wall, but gave a wide berth to the bulblins. Link returned to the bullbo, which was already roaming slightly south of the towers, and smacked its hind quarters, sending it rampaging across where the towers could see.
He looked for Ilon, but couldn't see him anymore, so he went to the north wall too. He thought about trying to enter, when he noticed all but one of the raiders decided to try to chase the bullbo and ran after it. Seeing his opening, he skirted slowly against the north wall toward the entrance to the fort. About half way there, he disappointingly saw that the animal had changed course in response to the chase; its path was now curving towards Link.
Link needed to think of a new suitable distraction. First he thought of a shooting an archer, but the arrow would be a telltale sign that someone uninvited was around, and the alarm would go up. He then thought of shooting one of the raiders' steeds, giving them something else to chase, but there was still the problem of the obvious arrow which would be quickly discovered.
In desperation, Link withdrew his bow and nocked an arrow and readied to shoot the oncoming bulblins. As he cursed the fire in the distance for partially night-blinding him, he noticed how precariously it was built: many pieces of fuel were sticking too high up, leaning against each other all askew. Link quickly turned and shot an arrow into the fire, knocking much of the fuel over and out of the fire-pit and towards one of the lookout towers, and hopefully consuming his arrow in the flame.
One of the tower guards shrieked, which caused the raiders to look over, then run over to fix the fire. Less than fifteen seconds later he bullbo stormed past Link, but he went undiscovered as all the bulblins struggled to get the flames back into the fire-pit, giving Link the chance to slip into the canyon leading to the fort.
Link came upon Ilon waiting for him halfway to the fort, and said, "Great plan. Not only did it almost backfire, but I also almost got trampled."
Ilon only replied with a shrug and said, "Looks like you did alright."
They went up the canyon till they reached the fort. There was a sentry patrolling in front of the walls of the fort, which Ilon expressed annoyance at, saying, "He's going to make it harder to find a way in. As soon as we're spotted or try to fight him, he'll sound an alarm. Any ideas?"
"I've got one," Link said. He nocked another arrow, and before Ilon could object, he shot an arrow at the bulblin, and then turned to stare at the concerned Sheikah. Ilon watched the bulblin, the anxiety and annoyance obvious on his face, but quickly he realized that it dropped to the ground without a sound. He turned, rather bemused, to Link, to see Link already staring back. Link explained his idea: "I aimed for the throat. He couldn't make a sound."
Ilon stifled a laugh, and resumed observing the fort and defences. After a few minutes, he said, "I think I know a way in that will get us unnoticed by the bulblins on the ground, but we need to do something about the ones on the towers."
They both fell silent for some time, thinking about the towers. Link couldn't take out the tower guards inside the fort the same way he had taken out the tower guard that was outside. If he tried, the bulbins in the fort would immediately see their fallen comrade and the alarm would go up. Link found himself wishing he had taken a few bombs with him to make bomb arrows, when inspiration hit. He pulled the square fire starter that Saer had given him from his cloak, and asked Ilon, "How many of these do you have?"
"A few," Ilon answered, pulling about half a dozen from his cloak. "Why?"
"Give me four, I have an idea," Link replied. Link drew another arrow, and stabbed his fire starter through the nock. He crept up behind a stone pillar so he'd be out of sight of the fort, and ignited the skewered square with his flint, effectively creating an impromptu torch.
Ilon handed Link four starters, and Link skewered each with a different arrow. Two towers were visible from where he was. He nocked the first arrow, and set it ablaze. He shot the flaming arrow into the bottom side of the platform at the top of one of the towers, right under the feet of the archer on top. He repeated this with the other tower he could see from where he was.
In a minute, the platforms at the top of the towers had started to burn and to avoid being roasted, the lookouts had to descend. The bulblins were confused, but it was not obvious exactly what had happened, so they didn't immediately expect it was part of an attack.
Ilon ran up to a section of the outer wall that had been patched by wood. He produced a rope and tied a loop at one end and, with a few twirls and a throw, secured the loop over a vertical beam. He quickly climbed up the rope. Link handed the arrow with the burning starter on it to Ilon, and with more difficulty, also made his way up the rope. From there, Link was able to take out another tower.
On top of the wall now, Link and Ilon slowly made their way over the fort. A cough, or the crunch of a stone would be enough to cause a guard to look up, but because of skill, and probably a little luck, they were ready to take out the last tower right as the alarm went up.
Earlier, bulblins had gathered around the towers that mysteriously caught fire at the top. Eventually, the arrow that struck the first tower had gotten so burned away at the tip that the back section, with the nock and the fletching, broke off and fell to the ground where it was discovered. In a pinch, Link could use the bulblins arrows he collected, but they were generally cheaply made, so he used better, more acurate arrows from hylian craftsmen. Consequently, the bulblins recognized the discovered section of the arrow as not being of their own.
Meanwhile, Link had set the last tower ablaze as guards started to look for them on the ground. Most of the guards were behind them, but there were enough yet ahead of them that they decided to stick to sneaking along the top of the wall a while longer.
They came to a point where only two guards were ahead of them. Just then, a more clever bulblin who had climbed partway up a tower to look around shrieked and pointed at them. The two guards ahead ran where they were at, as well as many of the guards behind.
Ilon quickly said, "leave the front two up to me, shoot as many as you can get behind us," as he jumped from the wall. Link followed his instructions and shot the closest bulblins, as well as the ones that he could see were archers from where he was till he used up his arrows. He turned to check on Ilon and found the two guards dead and the Sheikah nowhere to be found.
Link jumped down and headed up the stone pathway that lead towards Arbiters Grounds. When he got close to the entrance to the massive stone building, he saw Ilon running out with two clay pots. Before Link could ask, Ilon shouted as he ran back towards the bulbins, "Link! Grab the torch!"
Link looked around for a torch and only saw the flaming arrow he had made earlier. Assuming that was what Ilon meant, he picked up the arrow and ran back towards Ilon saw that Ilon had another starter between two of his fingers that were also holding a pot, and he dropped it. Link grabbed it, skewered it, light it with his flint, and followed Ilon back towards the fort. The sheikah smashed the pots on the ground at the top of the corridor as Link began to hear the bulblins make their way up.
Ilon ran back Link, gesturing towards the pots. Link guessed what he meant, and shot the flaming arrow where Ilon smashed the pots. Instantly, flames shot up all around the top of the stairs, cutting the bulblins off from their pursuit.
Link asked with a smile, "The vat of oil right inside?"
Ilon answered, also smiling, "The vat of oil right inside." And they both entered Arbiters Grounds.
"What do you mean, you want me to pay for that? I guard this city. I keep you safe at night!"
The roadside meat vendor replied, "What guarding have you done? By what I hear, that nineteen year old kid who doesn't even live here does far more guarding than you. Why don't you go back to your post and sit on your ass drinking beer!"
Even though he was only being paid to start a yelling match with this vendor, the guard felt like that last comment went to far, so he backhanded the vendor across the face. As the sound of the vendor being knocked over into his wares could be heard in the nearby area, the man who was waiting this to happen reflected on what a good choice he had made in regards to paying off the most hotheaded guard start a verbal fight; two lines in, and the conflict was physical.
The vendor fell, but on his way up, grabbed a thick cudgel that he kept to fight off any would-be burglars. The cudgel smacked across the helm of the Castle Town guard, causing him to to collapse, right as two guards on patrol walked by, and the man in the crowd smiled to himself.
The patrol saw the guard fall, and not knowing what lead up to the attack, went to subdue the vendor. The vendor resisted, but was losing, when the man in the crowd shouted, "Hey! He was only sticking up for his rights! You can't do that!"
"Calm down," barked one of the guards. "We saw him strike a guardsman. Maybe he had just cause, maybe he didn't. But that's for us to decide."
"You'll just protect your own," another citizen yelled back. "You are all weaklings that can't protect the kingdom from invasion, so you protect yourselves."
Many of the bystanders agreed, and as the crowd continued to hurl more insults, the guards became more hostile and defensive. Looking to escalate things, the man who paid off the first guard discretely through rock at the helm of one of the other guards. Even though the guard did not know who assaulted him, he punched the nearest citizen with his mailed fist to try and intimidate them into obedience. Instead, all hell broke loose. Soon the patrol was overtaken by civilians. The commotion brought more guards to subdue the crowd, but with the loud encouragement of the same man who first shouted at the guards in defense of the vendor, more people joined the resisting mob.
The guards were quickly overtaken as they were outnumbered at least ten to one; they were disarmed, tied up, many were unconscious, and a two had been beaten to death. The man who had been prompting the people to interfere with the guards from the start began addressing the mob, who, as they had all just rioted and beaten some men to submission, and some to death, were collectively on an adrenaline rush.
"Fellow victims: Today we have all witnessed the selfishness, the ruthlessness, of the very people meant to protect us!" The mob cheered. "But ask yourself this: Are the guards the ones who we should be mad at? Do they deserve to be bludgeoned? Strip of power? To be dealt with by us?" At each one of these questions, the crowd cheered "Yeah!" But the speaker contradicted them, with "No! They are victims, just as you all are!"
This was a risky move, for now the speaker was at the centre of attention of a murderous crowd, and telling the crowd that they are all wrong, no less. Only a skillful and manipulative speaker, could pull off such a tactic, and Varnum was such a speaker. He continued, "All of us are victims! Victims of fear, Victims of suffuring! Victims of..." he turned, pointing at the castle "Victims of her!
The crowd murmured amongst themselves uneasily. Varnum continued, "She raises taxes on us in the name of restoring our kingdom! And what for? So her guards can steal our food? So she can rebuild her castle? While we all sit out here in ruined buildings, starved and cold?" Varnum was successfully redirecting their hatred. Now he needed to instill a sense of urgency in them, to drive them all to rash action.
He continued, "We can not sit here a moment longer, growing sicker by the day! Hungrier by the hour! We must act! We must show those in high places that we are the backbone of their world! We must show them that the foundations of their kingdom aren't in legends, or in the cement beneath their castle! We are the foundation! Now is our hour! We have been freed from a great evil by a kid of immeasurable courage, and now is hour for us to learn by his example and cast of the yoke of oppression! Arise, countrymen! Arise, friends! Arise... HYRULE!"
The mob cheered wildly, and Varnum lead them north towards the castle. There were no guards at the gates just to the north of the fountain, as he had arranged, but the gate itself was shut and locked, which was a deviation from his plan.
While the crowd worked on breaking down the gate, Varnum thought to himself, 'The guards are gone, surely by Mikel's order, but the gate is locked as it usually is. What's his game? Mikel surely can't think I'd believe that he'd forgotten to leave the gate open... perhaps he was interfered with? Maybe someone else re-secured the gate? We'll find out soon enough... Where the hell is Mikel, anyway?'
The mob had broken through the gate, and headed up the causeway toward the castle. The larger gate was also secured against them. Varnum knew nothing about fighting or seizing a castle, but luckily for him, someone got the idea of setting a massive fire in front of the gate.
The fire gradually burned through the wood, but it took so long that Varnum began to worry. Keep the mob active and engaged, and they won't think about what they're doing; let them stand around idle for half an hour, then they begin to think about their actions, get bored, and second guess the rhetoric that brought them this far.
As the fire did its thing, Varnum started improvising a speech. It wasn't rehearsed, so it was far less effective than the one he gave earlier, but it was just enough to keep the mob from thinking. Once the final gate was down, the mob swarmed the castle grounds, searching for the Princess.
People began to come back to Varnum saying that Zelda was nowhere to be found. This infuriated him greatly; his spies in the city guards had personally informed him that she was in her chambers, right until they were dismissed by Mikel, also following Varnums orders. That had been less than an hour ago. Surely if she left the castle grounds, she would have been noticed.
Varnum cursed himself. He had noticed that a lot of the nobility were being sent home to their provinces over the last week, but only now did he realize just how many people had been dismissed from the castle in the last few days: practically all of them. Even the servants were given the day off. He should have been suspicious; instead, he hurried blindly into his plan, not realizing that Zelda too was suspicious, and taking precautionary measures.
Varnum had taken the castle, but taken none of the nobility. The entire ruling class of Hyrule were missing, as well as Link. All that had to happen for his mob to turn against him and be executed as a traitor was for Link to ride through the city gates with Zelda at his side. Varnum reprimanded himself for his blindness. 'But still,' he said to himself, 'At least the princess should be here... but where?' So lost was he in thought that he hardly noticed what was going on in the mob around him, even as the people he planted for specific roles began to act their part.
"What now?" someone began. "We've done away with a tyrant. Now we need a ruler."
"Someone we trust," said another.
By and by, someone paid to throw in Varnum's name played their part. Varnum feigned to decline, but some of his other actors insisted. Finally, as more and more of the mob agreed with the actors, Varnum pretended to be humble, and accepted the offer, saying that he would only do so temporarily, until someone better suited could be decided upon.
Someone, not even one of his actors, found a decorative, jewelled helm with a golden crown around it, and put it on Varnum's head, bellowing, "Long live the King." A few in the crowd replied the same phrase back, so he said again, and louder, "Long Live The King!" More in the crowd echoed, and once more, he chanted, "Long live the King!" and this time, the whole mob echoed.
