Note from the Author:

Okay guys, no more delays! The summer is nearly over, and I've got loads of free time. I'm sorry I've been neglecting my story and I promise I'll do everything in my power to finish it before summer's over.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter 6: Obliterated

Link's eyes burst open. It was a habit he could never seem to break; waking up sometime around 8:00 AM without even trying. Rubbing his eyes, he slowly sat up on his bedroll. The fire had long since died. He could see Malon, still asleep, shivering slightly. Link stood up and stretched with a yawn. He then pulled on his boots and cleared the remnants of the campfire. It took the time to pack everything except Malon's bedroll onto Epona's saddle for Malon to wake up. She yawned one of her high-pitched squeaky yawns and sat up.

"Morning, beautiful," said Link. Malon smiled, still yawning.

"Good morning," she said. She looked around and rubbed her eyes before Link helped her to her feet and began to pack her bedroll.

"You know you really don't need to do that," she said. "I can take care of it myself."

"What's your point?" Link asked.

"Well, how about you let me do it?" she asked, starting to take the bedroll from him. Link held fast to it, and there was no way she could have pried it from his hands. He gave her a blank stare for a moment before finishing. "Why?" she asked simply.

"Because you're a lady and you deserve respect," he stated. He tied the bedroll to Epona's saddle and hopped on, gesturing for her to hop on. She complied.

It took them about an hour to finish the ride home, and the two teenagers talked about the importance of the contents of the package they delivered to Marek.

"What item could be so powerful that it could save Hyrule from destruction?" Link speculated.

"Don't ask me, I'm just a farm girl," Malon replied. "I don't know about this kind of thing."

"Well, whatever it is, I won't be having a good night's sleep from now on."

They crossed the stone bridge than ran over the Zora River and proceeded to climb the stone steps that led to Kakariko.

"It's going to feel so good to be—" Link stopped himself when he beheld the village. It was a sight that brought tears to his eyes. He could only stare for what seemed like an eternity at what had become of his village.

Kakariko Village had been decimated.

Nothing was left. Charred, blackened frames of homes swayed in the gentle breeze. The windmill was in pieces all over the village; he could see a piece of the canvas fan far off to his left, and the stones that made up the windmill had crushed two homes before they had even been burned. Bodies were strewn all over the town plaza, and the bodies that hadn't been burned were missing several limbs each. The grass was in most parts red. One particular body had been impaled against the tree in the plaza with a large spear. Spears were stuck in the ground around the tree, each one adorned with a human head on the top. Upon closer inspection, Link saw, in horror, that the body impaled against the tree was the mayor.

The roof of his home had fallen in, and there was an enormous chunk taken out of the north wall, which was also blackened. Malon had already rushed off to her own home, going through what had been her family's belongings and treasures. She wept harder than Link had ever seen her.

Link slowly dismounted Epona and made his way to his home, taking as much time as he could to prolong having to even glimpse the interior of the building. Tears were already streaming down his face.

Finally he came to the enormous hole in his wall and stepped through. The shingles of the roof that had fallen in were all over the ground. The stairs had collapsed, so there was no way to get upstairs. He looked everywhere for Uked, just to see if there was even a remnant of him. He couldn't find anything. They—whoever they were—had obliterated Uked into nothing. Link collapsed to his knees and held his face in his hands, and began to sob. He began to shake uncontrollably, not from depression, but from anger, from seething, furious anger. His tears began to turn hot. He pounded his fist into the ground until he had made a large hole, his knuckles bleeding. He kicked a chair so hard that it flew into the wall and exploded. He overturned a table and broke off one of the legs. He collapsed to his knees once again and continued sobbing.

Malon came into the house, and seeing the added destruction Link had caused, rushed over to his side. Her face had ash all over it, but there were two clear lines that started at the eyes and ran down to her jaw line. Link's face was black as well from the ash that was still drifting in the wind.

Malon didn't say anything. She only wrapped her arms around him, and he did the same to her. They held each other for a long time, sharing each other's tears.

After a while, Link pulled away from Malon's embrace, his tears now stopped. He stood to his feet. Malon didn't like what she saw in his eyes. It was a mixture of determination, fear, and mostly anger.

"I am going to find whoever did this," he stated.

"Link—"

"I am going to find whoever did this and I am going to kill them. I am going to kill every last one of them," he said. He began to tremble with anger. His face contorted to fit his emotions. "Whoever it is, I am going to hunt them down and destroy every last one of them. I won't stop until either they or I die."