Link lay across the cell floor, lost in the depths of his own despair. He stared out into the unending night and felt it swallow up every bit of him. He could hardly feel any portion of his own body. Any sensation which managed to reach Link's frayed mind came as a sudden jolt of pain. He never moved, nor could he afford to move. The pain Link felt tore through his body like knifes, or seethed through as fire would. Link's meager solace came in utter stillness. Only through this could he escape the screams of his wounded flesh.
"Link…" a voice whispered through the heavy darkness, "Link, are you there?"
Link moaned something out, feeling a peculiar curiosity beginning to build inside his mind. He could not comprehend why the utterance of his name might bring about such a feeling. Link tried to put his mind to ease and sleep. No, he could not sleep. There came neither rest nor escape inside those terrible hellscapes. Eyes stayed open, as withered as they felt. It seemed Link's thoughts were thick, slow. He didn't know when he had last slept. Between the pain and the nightmares, he could gain no rest. Never any rest, or even momentary escape from The Spider's cruel hand.
"Hello, Link…" it came again, speaking quieter with the following segment, "It's Shad… I need to talk to you…"
Thoughts ran against thoughts with the painful grating of confusion. Link heard the voice like something strange, as if it were something he knew. Something he'd known. For a moment, no memories existed beyond those of this hellish place. Nothing could be real but the never ending darkness and the corridors which led inevitably through toward horrendous pain. For a moment there was sand, and sky. Something called sky, a sort of something with light. The idea nearly confused Link again, light. However, in that same moment, something snapped back into place. Link knew the voice and he knew the impossibility of it. Through some strange magic, he knew hope.
"Shad…?" Link moaned out.
"Yes, it's me. I'm here…. Well, I'm not really here. It's just one of the more technic… that's not important now. I can't talk for long so you need to tell me as much as you can, quickly. We are going to rescue you, but we need to know what we are up against."
Link's heart skipped a beat and he found himself pouring out all the information he could think of. Link told him about the dungeon and about The Spider. He spoke of Ganondorf and of his two cellmates. He kept on talking until the words finally failed to come. It was at this point which he began listening to the voice again. It was strange, hearing a voice from no lips. This conversation was impossible, yet that did not stop Link from placing every ounce of his faith into it. This last light was all he had. If it proved false, he would be unable to muster another ounce of hope.
With Link's silence, Shad began to speak once more, "That's good. That should help. We will be in there soon, but we might need your help. If there is anything you can do, get it done. This is going to be difficult as it is."
Link muttered a vague affirmative and the voice seemed to disappear. He stayed still for several minutes afterward, soaking in the realization. This nightmare was coming to an end. The cruel darkness would be a thing of the past, something remembered instead of anticipated. The Spider would never take him away again, never into that terrible room. It was all over. Soon enough they would be here to open the cell door.
For the first time in forever, everything would be alright.
Once the shocked paralysis had faded, Link found himself turning toward where he knew the girl to be. He had to trust his sense of direction for the darkness impeded all sight. Though he was too blind to see her, Link knew she was there. He could hear her breathing like a faint beacon in that sea of shadows. Link called out to her, quietly. At some point he knew she was awake and listening. Without waiting a moment longer, Link began to explain what he'd been told. Nothing could quell the excitement in his voice as he told her about the impending rescue.
Finally he stopped and waited for some response. What came was the child's plain, cynical voice.
"They'll just be killed. It doesn't matter who they are or if they're anything more than a dream, these people of yours aren't going to rescue us. No one will."
With those sobering words spoken, the child fell silent. After a long while of this, Link became convinced the child had gone to sleep or, at the very least, stepped out of the conversation.
"I…" the girl began in a shaky, uncertain voice, "I believe you, at least."
"Thank you," Link murmured in response before continuing on a little louder, "Shad said we will need to be ready to assist in whatever way we can. I don't know what we'll be able to accomplish, but we need to be ready just in case."
"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
"Just…" Link said slowly, searching his mind for some answer, "Stay alert. Stay awake with me."
"I'll be ready," was all the girl said, but Link felt a certain resolve which had not existed before. Link noticed it and clenched his fist in unspoken determination. This hope could not be for nothing. Link knew he would do anything that needed to be done so that they could be freed.
They two of them sat in darkness and waited. Through a decade of unending silence they lay anticipating, hoping for that promise to fulfill itself. Time became heavy and slow, deadening like the impenetrable night. Link listened with a strange, unending hope for any noise which might announce their rescuers. He knew she was there nearby doing the same. Link longed to say something to her, but he feared any word would mask some vital sound. They needed to be on guard, always ready for anything they might have to do.
The tapping of footsteps rang out through the pitch darkness. For a moment, Link's hope spiked with a quickly drawn gasp of breath. However, that faded with the moment as he recognized the footsteps. Link knew them so well in a way he might never forget. The Spider's strange flat shoes made a distinctly terrifying noise which chilled Link.
The tinny jingling of keys cut through the darkness and Link found his fingers reflexively curling up. Nails scratched up against the pitted stone before Link knew what his body was doing. He felt The Spider coming closer more than he heard the iron door swing open. Every fiber of his body was screaming by the time The Spider had taken another step forward. Link wanted to crawl away, to run, to somehow sink down into the stone itself.
Link froze.
If there is anything you can do, get it done.
His breath caught as those words resounded inside of his skull.
This is going to be difficult…
An image of that foolish knife ran through Link's head. He hadn't even considered this since that. He could feel The Spider standing there, only a foot or two away now. All of a sudden, that desperate rage flew through Link and threw him upward. In a fast assault, Link launched his arms toward the man.
Fingers touched skin and, in that same moment, Link dropped back down in a shuddering heap. Pure pain ran through Link's body like some sort of ethereal torture. At once it seemed Link's whole being was being torn apart and rammed back together as splinters. Nothing was right as it all fell apart through lightning fast atrophy of body and soul.
As the soul agony subsided, Link found himself still upon the floor. The Spider stood over him, a twisted surely upon his face.
"I never would have guessed this of you. For a while I'd thought you broken, but it seems there is more to be had of this one."
Glee was audible in every word, practically dripping. The Spider knelt down over Link and dread filled him.
"Of all the projects I've had the pleasure of toying with, you just might be my favorite."
A sound crept into Link's ear, sinking some further fear down into him. Dread seemed to expand past the limits of its possibility. Link could no longer breathe. If he could, Link would have shouted the word NO.
He could hear the rustling of movement off beyond The Spider. He knew just what that was and knew just what would come of it. Link wanted to scream for her not to follow in his idiotic footsteps.
Moving slowly like some invisible nightmare in honey, the girl leapt up toward The Spider. Some faint light let him see her arms outstretched, ready to grab or attack The Spider. Link could not understand the thought of harm coming to this wicked thing. It was the source of harm if anything, and all Link wanted was for her to be far away from it.
Before she could even come near the kneeling figure, the girl fell from the air, writhing much as Link had. She cried out once before biting down hard with a loud clack. It knocked through the air over the sound of her body squirming in the agony.
"Oh my…" The Spider murmured with delighted curiosity, "What have you made of this one? Could there possibly be some spirit left in her?"
Letting out a heartbreaking chuckle, The Spider continued, "Well I'll have to do something about that."
Something in the air changed, as if lights had suddenly burst to life all around. The darkness remained, though, for this strange sensation seemed to occur exclusively within Link's head. It shifted, he knew not what. Link felt something lift off of him like a leaden curtain. Something crawled away from him and stagnated, decayed in the shadows.
In the space of a moment, something disappeared.
The Spider suddenly dropped onto Link causing him to let out a sharp groan of pain and surprise. The Spider was pressing down on him, threatening to smother Link beneath his weight. Link tried to fight The Spider off of himself, but he was too weak. Even with the curtain lifted, he couldn't muster the strength to shift this deadweight.
The Spider fell away and Link discovered a pair of silhouettes beyond. Even before his eyes adjusted to the smoldering torchlight, Link knew these two to be their rescuers.
He recognized the vague shapes of Mason and Shad.
"Looks like we got here just in time. "Shad said, offering him a hand to his feet.
Link took the extended hand and was lifted to his feet, still feeling a disorientating sort of shock. Surprisingly, he was able to stay there once lifted. However, before he'd been upright more than a moment, Link was turning his attentions back toward the girl. She hadn't reacted to the men's arrival, instead staying curled up on the floor, shivering.
"Hey," Link said gently, "They're here, we're getting out."
She said nothing though.
"We need to move," Mason said simply.
"I don't think she can walk," Link replied worriedly. A glance over revealed that the child had remained asleep.
"I'll carry her," Mason said, "and Shad, you get the other one. We need to go."
Shad nodded and went toward the child. Lifting him up, he stepped back into the dank corridor and waited behind the larger man. Before Mason bent down to lift the girl up, he removed something that had been hanging over his shoulder and handed it to Link.
It was his sword or, more accurately, the sword he had taken from the soldier all that time ago. He held it weakly in his hands and wondered what use he could possibly be now.
"It's just in case," Mason said, lifting the girl up, "Even in your state, it's better than nothing. Now let's get going."
Link threw the strap over his shoulder and followed behind other two. His could feel the great weariness and injury in his legs and body but, for some reason, it seemed less than before. As if a portion of the damage had bled away with The Spider's life.
Other than the crackling flame and their echoing footsteps, all was silent. Link listened for voices or distant sounds and found none. Before long they were climbing the stairs he had nearly forgotten about. Into the finer chambers they went, among the alien niceties.
The strong light of this place burned Link's eyes but, aside from that, he had begun to feel strangely better. Somehow in the space of this short trek he had managed to accomplish what he had been attempting for days or weeks. Link could nearly feel his strength. It existed beyond his reach, but it did exist.
They had come to some sort of courtyard. The sun shone down upon them from above. Link could actually see the sky and he realized how much he had missed it. In the deep darkness of the dungeon, there was nothing to parallel the sky or its sun. Only that terrible, limitless night.
The dirt beneath their feet was coarse and warm. Link could feel the heat radiating off of it. His shoes knocked it across the ground and spread it out. It was strange to feel the ground again instead of the cold stone.
In a lightning moment, the dirt rose up and seized Link's legs.
Link's soul sank as he recognized this. He remembered the night with a thousand identical attackers. Link remembered the man who had captured him.
"It couldn't really be that easy," the man said, standing just in front of the large gate.
Link noticed that both Mason and Shad were half engulfed in the rising tide of dirt as well. His mind was racing as theirs surely were.
Snickering with a toying confidence, the man mused aloud, "Now which of you should I kill first? Of course, the one in the back is safe, so it's between you two… We don't need either of you, or your cargo. Normally we'd be worried about the risk of your reincarnations, but we already have him. Just short time from now it will all be done so why should we care?"
Pausing for a moment, he concluded, "Screw it, I pick you both. I'll make it quick too, I'm not a sadist like that freak downstairs… Let's get this over with."
The dirt began to slither up around the two men. In a few moments it was around Shad's neck as he struggled to raise the child higher. Mason was fighting against the stuff as best he could, but it was far too strong for him. It climbed up his arms and has quickly taken hold of him.
With horror, Link watched the girl's face disappear below a wave of sand.
Link reached out and grasped at everything he could. With desperate hands, Link took hold of his meager power and threw it toward the man. He had no time to think of a technique in particular, so something just seemed to slide out of him. Instinctively. There wasn't much energy left in him, only what had managed to seep back since The Spider's hold was broken.
All Link could do was hope for it to be enough. He threw the bit of energy toward the man with desperate force.
A dark gale wind seemed to rise up from everything at once. It ran through the air fists and knives. Link roared as he held his hands out, feeling his strength slip away. The wild wind tore at the ground and at the court wall. Portions of the wall were ripped away, thrown down against the floor with such devastating force that they were half buried. Chunks of ground were pulled up and tossed skyward. Link watched as debris flew about, breaking apart with collisions.
In a moment, the great door was splintered upon the man. Pieces of the wood stuck from his flesh while larger sections threw their weight down upon him. The storm buried him with debris of all sizes, piling it down until the man's slight bulging presence had gone.
Finally, the wall collapsed inward across the pile, crushing it absolutely.
All of the animated dirt fell away in the storm and was whipped off. This left Link to stand free, admiring the devastating power of his act.
"That was… that was just…" Link murmured out incomprehensibly. Confusion shot through him before he collapsed down to the hard, windswept earth below.
I'm actually very proud of this chapter. I feel that it had a good quality which I managed to keep up throughout the whole thing.
I think.
Anyway, let me know your opinions. Leave a review or send me a message
