Ohhhh my gosh, last week was so insane for me. I don't even know if I'm even posting this on schedule right now, I'm still recovering from midterms week, but I thought I'd post it anyway, because posting things makes me happy :-D
Chapter 9
A Strategic Retreat
The next morning, before Link woke up, Hibiscus and Byrne crept out of the house and headed towards the wagon train. The horizon was touched with a light shade of grey, but the rest of the sky was still dark, with just a few, dim stars hovering overhead. Even the birds were still roosting, hidden away within the long grass of the meadow; a few chirped at them sleepily as the pair tiptoed past, the soft gravel crunching quietly under their boots. Every so often Hibiscus would hear their wings flutter in irritation, hinting that they had gotten too close to the tiny creatures, but she never saw one. Soon they left the grasses behind as they entered Byrne's secret cave.
"The best way to the mountains will be to skirt around the palace's station," Byrne said as he hooked up his train onto the tracks. "That way we can take the tracks that are still underground."
"Won't it be faster to just go straight that way?" Hibiscus asked, pointing down the tracks that led in the opposite direction of the forest and city. Standing proudly in front of the lightening horizon were the peaks of the mountains, just visible in the growing light.
"Probably. But do you really want to be stopped by any patrolling guards out on the field?"
"No..." Hibiscus grumbled, annoyed that they would have to take the long way around. She grabbed their bags and tossed them into the back, grunting when they resisted her throws with their sheer weight. "Sheesh, Byrne, these are heavy! What'd you put in them, rocks?"
"Mostly food. And blankets. Hop in."
Hibiscus scrambled onto her seat. "What do you think the Gorons'll be like?" she asked as Byrne followed in after her.
"No idea. I'm more worried about what else is up there, and what they might be like."
With a disgruntled noise in the back of her throat, Hibiscus gripped the armrests of her chair and got ready to start moving. In no time at all they were once again flying down the tracks, back towards the forest.
"The forest is the only place that didn't need its tracks to be unburied by human hands," Byrne said casually, already feeling more relaxed now that he was back in his train again. "For some reason the forest unburied practically the entire thing itself, despite Ganondorf's best efforts to destroy it all."
"I bet it was the ghosts," Hibiscus said with a smile.
"Yeah, maybe."
They would probably never really know how the forest had managed it, but it was as good a theory as any other. The sun continued to climb up, chasing off the early morning grey that had been previously holding its spot. The leaves above them cast green shadows over their faces, and for a moment Hibiscus wondered if the forest was trying to make them part of the woodlands, too. Then they reached the branch of tracks that led straight to the palace, and the sight of the trees was replaced by the dark stone of the tunnels. As the sunlight was quickly left behind as well, Byrne pointed over his shoulder, towards one of the bags. "There's a flashlight in one of those, see if you can dig it out."
After opening a few bags and finding only vegetables and dried meat, Hibiscus finally stumbled upon a bag that held only one thing: a huge spotlight.
"Byrne, this isn't a flashlight!" Hibiscus complained as she hefted it up onto her lap. "Where do you want it?"
"Hand it over," Byrne replied, stretching an arm back and towards her as he wiggled his fingers.
With some effort she managed to hoist it up and into his waiting hand; he easily swung his arm back around in front of him, as if he really were only carrying a small flashlight. Leaving the controls for a moment, he attached it to the front wall of his train.
"There we go," he said, sounding quite cheerful as he flicked the large switch.
The tunnel walls jumped out at them, and several bats flapped away, squeaking loudly. Neither of them took much notice of the creatures as they swooped agitatedly over their heads and away from the blinding light.
"Now we won't miss our turn," Byrne said, making sure to keep his voice low enough that it didn't echo too far and give them away.
It had been too dark for Hibiscus when she had gone down there herself, and so hadn't even realized that there might be other paths besides the one that led straight to the palace. Glad they weren't going to be actually passing through the palace's station, Hibiscus settled back into her chair. Just the thought of going anywhere near Zelda again made her feel sick.
As they began to approach a fork in the tracks, Hibiscus noticed that Byrne didn't even hesitate before choosing which way to turn. She leaned forward casually, looking for a map or some other clue that Byrne was following. Nothing reached her eyes. Suspicion began to bubble inside her, and she narrowed her eyelids at the back of Byrne's head.
"How do you know which way to go?"
Byrne ran a hand through his dark hair with some embarrassment. "I might've explored down here a bit on my own. A few years or so ago."
Hibiscus kicked at the back of his chair. "So you've been to the mountains before!?"
"I never actually left the tunnels. I didn't try to go up any of them."
Despite his attempts to appease her, she was annoyed that he knew something she didn't, and so spent the rest of the trip in silence with her arms crossed in front of her. If, every so often, she kicked at his chair again, then that was just his own fault for putting the chairs so close together. Byrne didn't even seem to notice anyway, which didn't make her feel any better.
When they finally emerged from the tunnels, the sun was high up in the sky. There were no trees to help block it out, but a towering mountain that rose sharply before them cast a long, cooling shadow over their faces. Just in front of them the ground shot up in steep inclines, sloping abruptly up towards the large mountain. The tracks climbed up these steep hills before winding around the cliffs that sat over their heads
There was no grass to be seen, only dark, red earth and large chunks of rock that lay scattered about on both sides of the tracks. The tracks themselves seemed relatively clear, and though the ride was a bit bumpier now, the train began to climb its way up without any problems.
"This place is incredible," Hibiscus said as she stared up at the mountain; her neck was already feeling sore from the awkward angle she had to hold her head at to see the peaks. "What do you think is making those clouds?" Above them, rising from the top of the mountain they were climbing, was a thick, dark cloud that looked almost like smoke. It circled around the tallest peak, and seemed to stretch over the other mountains the higher they went.
"Uh... this isn't a volcano, is it?" Byrne asked, the slight tremor in his voice being the only hint that he was actually concerned.
Hibiscus frowned. "I don't know. What's the chances of it erupting now anyway?"
Byrne cast her an exasperated look. "Don't say stuff like that; it's asking for trouble," he hissed at her.
"The mountain isn't listening in on our conversation, Byrne," Hibiscus said with a roll of her eyes.
A low rumble had both of them sinking lower into their chairs; a few loose rocks slid down from higher up the cliffs, clanging against each other noisily as they rolled down the mountain.
Hibiscus cleared her throat. "Let's just... keep our eyes peeled for any Gorons."
"Yeah."
The wailing. It just would not stop. Orca felt like banging his head against the nearest wall, but that would only attract the wrath of his already overstressed wife.
"Stop," Beth whined at Impal, who was currently sitting in her lap and desperately trying to escape. They had just caught him trying to swing on Sera's precious bead curtain, and had managed to stop him before he tore the entire thing down. "You weren't this noisy when you were first born," the woman continued to complain.
Orca tried to distract the still crying toddler with his rattle, but the boy wasn't having any of it. His light blue eyes were still transfixed by the ropes of beads, as if he had never noticed them before today.
Sera came marching into the store, already rolling her eyes when she head Impal. "He's started in early today, hasn't he? Orca, you got some mail."
"Oh?" He grabbed the letter from the pudgy hand that offered it, immediately recognizing the blocky letters as that of Byrne's. "Wonder what he wants."
Orca,
Was wondering if you could check on the farm sometime.
Hibiscus and I are taking a trip.
Don't talk to Link, just check on the farm.
-Byrne
"He's a strange guy," Beth commented, peering over Orca's arm to read the letter herself. Still clutched in her arms, Impal had turned his efforts from grabbing the beads to grabbing the letter. Giving a little hop in his mother's lap, the tiny fingers just managed to brush over the crinkled paper before Orca stood, tearing the letter away from him. Looking as if he had just suffered the biggest betrayal, Impal once again burst into tears.
"I've got a bad feeling about it," Orca said, handing the letter back to Sera. "I'd better go right away!"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Beth shouted. "You don't have a bad feeling, you just don't want to help with your son!"
"That's not true at all, honey!"
"Don't you "honey" me! Get back here!" Beth glared at the door as it quickly swung shut behind her husband. She let out a furious growl from the back of her throat. "Sometimes he really makes me angry! I'm going after him!"
Sera looked up from the other letters she was sorting through, noticing instantly that she was setting Impal down on the floor with just a quick pat on his mousey hair as a farewell. "Hey, wait a minute, you're not mad at him you just don't want to deal with your own poor son!" Sera protested.
"That's not true at all, Mother!"
"Hey, you get back here, young lady!" Now it was Sera's turn to glare at the door as it once again slammed shut. She slowly turned to look at Impal, who shot her an almost evil looking grin before stumbling towards the beads. "Oh for the goddesses' sakes... If you die on my watch you'd better not go blaming me."
The pair eventually came upon a part of the mountain that was more level. The tracks became almost completely flat, and off to the side, tucked into the mountain wall, was what looked like what had once been a train station. The wooden platform was now in splinters, and most of it looked inaccessible, but Byrne pulled the train to a stop anyway. A little further down, the tracks began to climb back up again, but this was the first sign of civilization that they had come across so far - albeit not a very good one - and they couldn't pass it up.
"Maybe there's a village here or something!" Hibiscus said excitedly as she climbed out.
Byrne took a moment longer to dig around in one his bags before joining her, stuffing something into the pocket of his long jacket.
"What was that?"
"What was what?" the man asked in a voice that told her he was trying to be annoying on purpose.
She threw him a withering glare. "You can be such a child sometimes."
"Let's try that way," Byrne said, pointing past the station.
Most of the area was covered with smaller cliffs that would have almost looked like walls if they had been placed there on purpose. Their jagged edges made them look difficult to climb, and so they instead slipped between them, through narrow valleys and ducking under rocky overhangs.
Then, almost suddenly, the smaller cliffs around them seemed to disappear. After squeezing between another grouping of rocks, they found themselves in a clearing of sorts. All around them were still more cliffs, even taller than the ones they had climbed around, but these held large, cave-like openings in them. While they couldn't see inside, as it was far too dark through the entranceways and the angle of the sun directly above them wasn't helping at all, they noticed that set around these openings were large, stone arches. They were old and most were crumbling from lack of care, but Hibiscus got the impression they were meant to look like doorways.
Glancing at each other they rushed towards the nearest of these strange caves. They stepped into surprisingly cool air, and as soon as their eyes adjusted to the darkness they found themselves in a large, empty cavern. The walls around them were mostly smooth, hinting that perhaps the place had been carved out of the mountain like that on purpose. There were a few broken vases and other pottery items scattered about the floor in large shards, implying that someone had lived there at some point. A huge rock lay in a far corner, with round edges and a flat, dark brown top, and Hibiscus imagined that it had once been a table for the mysterious rock people.
"Nothing in here," Byrne said disappointedly.
"Try another?" Hibiscus asked.
"Sure."
They turned to leave when a low moan filled the cavern; it wasn't particularly loud, but it was deep enough that the floor beneath them rumbled from the noise.
"...What was that?"
The moan returned, and the pair turned sharply to search for its source. That was when they saw it: the rock that Hibiscus had thought to be a table was moving. It suddenly shot upright, as if it were sitting up, and the moan sounded again.
"It's too early to wake up," a voice from the rock grumbled.
Pressing closer to Byrne, she watched as he quickly reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a pistol. "Who are you?" Byrne demanded, pointing the gun at the moving rock.
The rock instantly froze. Then, ever so slowly, it began to rotate. The sound of it grinding against the ground filled the cavern, until it had turned a full one-eighty. Hibiscus quickly spotted large, dark eyes on the rock, and small, skinny arms sticking out of it near the top, along with frail looking legs crossed in front of it.
"Who are you?" the rock asked, sounding absolutely miffed. Large, pink lips parted as it spoke, revealing a row of flat, thick looking teeth. Its voice was gravelly and rough, though if that was just from misuse or if that was just how its voice always sounded, Hibiscus wasn't certain.
"Byrne..." Hibiscus whispered. "I think that's a Goron."
The round, dark eyes blinked at her slowly. "Goron? Yes, that is I."
Ever so slowly Byrne lowered his gun. "They really are real," he said in awe.
"Of course I am real!" the Goron said before yawning loudly. He smacked at his mouth a few times with one of his skinny hands, as if to stop himself from yawning. It didn't really work, and only threw a strange, choppy sort of bellow throughout the cavern. "Sometimes I think... maybe I am not real. Because how do we know what is real? But then I realize... non-real people do not wonder if they are real or not. At least, I don't think they do." The Goron suddenly frowned, as if he had just discovered a flaw in his own argument.
"Right..." Byrne said hesitantly, not quite sure if there was a point to this. Apparently there wasn't, because the Goron fell silent and seemed content to just stare at them after that.
Byrne seemed equally happy to stare back at the Goron, and finally Hibiscus realized she would have to be the one to get him talking again. She felt a little annoyed about that, and spent a couple of seconds floundering for a way to start. Eventually she decided on the traditional style of introductions first. "My name is Hibiscus, and this is-"
"Hi...bis...cus..." the rock repeated slowly. "Interesting name. Very long. I prefer short names, because we Gorons live a long time, and I do not want to have to waste too much of it with names."
"Um... and this is Byrne."
"Byrne. Now there is a good, solid name!" The rock beamed at the large man, flashing his large, flat teeth at him.
"Are you... are you alone here?"
"Alone?" the Goron's eyes slowly rolled back onto Hibiscus. "You are here. So no. I have to say, this is a nice dream. I have not spoken to anyone in quite a while."
"Dream? Oh, no, this isn't a dream!" Hibiscus said quickly. "We're real!"
"Are you? How interesting. I wonder if dreams think they are real when I dream them. It must be awful for them when I wake up." He shifted slightly, and several layers of dust slid off of him. "I will try to stay asleep for as long as I can for you, Hi...bis...cus... and Byrne."
Hibiscus chewed on her lip and then shrugged; there really wasn't much point to arguing with him. "Ok, fine, thanks. Listen, we came here to ask you for something."
"Ask me? For something? I do not know what a something is, nor do I have it. I have... a vase. Oh, but it looks like it broke." The Goron stared at one of the many shattered vases on the floor with a forlorn expression. "Ah well. That is how the rock crumbles."
Hibiscus took a deep breath; keeping this guy focused was going to be rather difficult, she could tell already. "Do you know anything about Magic Powder?"
For a while silence surrounded them; Byrne and Hibiscus watched the Goron with hopeful eyes, while the Goron himself looked like he was about ready to fall asleep again. His eyelids drooped lower and lower, but just before they closed completely they snapped back open, and the eyes underneath considered the Hylians as if he were just noticing them now. "Magic Powder? That sounds tasty."
Hibiscus felt her hope beginning to disappear. She didn't understand; her great-great-grandfather had said these people were old and wise, hadn't he? So what was wrong with this one?
"Maybe the elders know about it," the Goron said with a shrug.
"The elders?" Hibiscus quickly leaped onto this. "Where are they."
"Oh, higher up, in the other village. It is supposed to be hidden better. They said evil was coming and so they all moved. But I came back here," the Goron added proudly, pointing at himself. "You know why?"
The Hylians shook their heads.
"Because I realized a long time ago that this village was paradise. So why would I want to leave paradise?"
"But... there's no one else here," Hibiscus said confusedly.
"No? I thought you said you were real. And you are here. I am here. There are quite a few one else's here."
Byrne gave Hibiscus a nudge on her shoulder. "This is a waste of time. We should keep moving up the mountain."
"Yeah, ok," she muttered back, but then turned back to the Goron. He was still studying them, but his eyelids were beginning to droop once again. "Is there a station near the next village?" she asked loudly, to jolt him back awake.
He clunked his jaw together loudly as he processed her words. "A station? No. I don't think so. There used to be, but then the evil thing came, and it got... splatted."
"The evil thing..." Byrne grumbled bitterly. "Ganondorf."
"Ga...non...dorf..." the Goron repeated. "You people certainly like your long names. Who is Ga...non...dorf?"
"The... evil thing. No?" Byrne asked with a frown.
The Goron shook his head. "Never heard of the evil thing being called Ga...non...dorf. No."
Hibiscus started to feel nervous as she traded worried looks with Byrne. "Um... how long ago did the evil thing come here?"
"How long? Hmmm..." The Goron tapped at his chin thoughtfully. "A few days ago. The elders said that only something very evil and powerful could have woken it up. But they tended to be very dramatic at times, so who knows? Maybe it just decided now was a good time to wake up." The long skinny arms rose up through the air in a shrug before settling back down at the Goron's round sides. "That was before they all got splatted, so we can't ask them."
"What... what is the evil thing?" Hibiscus asked quietly, not really certain she wanted to hear the answer.
The Goron opened his mouth to respond, but a loud shriek from outside the cave stopped him. It sounded like a large eagle, but as the scream echoed through the cave Hibiscus thought that its tone was far too deep to belong to such a bird. "Ah. That is it right now."
With wide eyes, Byrne and Hibiscus stepped to the doorway and peered outside, squinting through the bright sunlight. A large shadow raced across the ground in front of them. Craning their necks up, they spotted what appeared to be at first glance a giant bird, circling so far above them that it was hard to make out any specific details. Then Hibiscus noticed that the wings didn't quite look like bird wings but more like a bat's, and as it passed through the sunlight its pitch black body seemed to shimmer, as if it was covered in something reflective rather than feathers.
"What is that?" Byrne asked.
The Goron had shambled over to them, and though the small, skinny legs trembled under hits weight and looked ridiculous under his huge body, they somehow managed to hold him up. "The evil thing. The elders called it a... a... dra...gon. Dragon. That was it."
"A dragon?!" Hibiscus repeated. "They're real, too!?"
The Goron gave a shrug. "It looks that way." Suddenly his eyes became very grim. "You should go home, little Hylians, because that evil thing is tired of splatting Gorons now... it's going to be looking for something else soon."
"Goddesses," Byrne whispered. "We have to go back and warn the city."
Hibiscus glared at him. "But what about-"
"There's no time to find the Magic Powder! We'll have to come back!"
Hibiscus stared with a slack jaw as he darted out of the cave, back the way he had come. An image of her returning home, with nothing to help her father, flashed before her eyes. "But-"
The Goron hummed sadly. "You should listen to the bigger little Hylian, little Hylian. The evil thing eats anything it sees moving, and if there really is a city it will see it from way up there. Cities are great for dragons; lots of people, not much room for them to run."
Hibiscus felt herself grow cold. A second later she was racing after Byrne as fast as she could.
The Goron watched the pair disappear behind the wall of cliffs. "Such interesting little people," he mumbled to himself. Suddenly his entire back straightened. "Oh, wait! I do know what Magic Powder is! ...Oh well, maybe they'll come back soon." He gave a thoughtful hum. "I wonder if I should have warned them about the robbers that live around here... well, once I wake up they won't be a threat anyway." With that he curled back into himself and let his entire body fall back to the ground. He fell asleep right next to the entrance way, too tired to bother moving back to the corner of the room the Hylians had found him in.
And now we finally get to the dragon! Yay! Kudos and an imaginary muffin to you if you can guess who the Goron is that they talked to! I don't think he actually has a name in the game he shows up in, but there are a few little mini-quest type things with him :-)
And, of course, thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
