Chapter Nine
AN/ Ok, so I've not been near writing for the last week, sorry about the last chapter, I realise it was kind of confusing
The room, contrary to the scanner, was in perfect condition. It was small, and square, with sparse furnishings; a single bed pushed up against the wall, a wardrobe on the wall, a small metal chest at the foot of the bed, a desk with a lamp and swivel chair, a full length mirror on the wall, and a door leading to a bathroom with a toilet, and a shower. The first thing Link did was have a shower, getting the dirt and sweat from him, all the stuff he'd picked up on the day he'd just had.
He re-entered the bedroom in a towel wrapped around his waist, heading for the wardrobe, hoping it was stocked. He was a little weirded out by the contents.
There were six long-sleeve green shirts on a rack, with two in red, made of some material he couldn't identify, two blue with strange markings, and what looked like scales, like on a fish, in places, after this were two camouflage, two desert camouflage, two black, and two white shirts. What really got him was what hung on the racks above; there was one hat, just like the one given to him by the Kokiri, but in each of the colours of the shirts, with some sort of mask that covered the face of the wearer, attached to the blue one.
Below all of this, on top of two draws, were several pairs of neatly folded white, and cream coloured trousers, and more matching the above shirts.
Each one looked almost exactly like what he'd arrived in, in different colours. He took a green shirt, but left the hat, the hat he wore, he wore as testament to the Kokiri, to what they'd given, to what they'd sacrificed.
He opened the one of the draws, and managed to find a pair of desert camo trousers, they just felt right. He decided to keep wearing his old brown boots, scuffed and worn as they may be.
He changed quickly, fixing his sword, and shield in their rightful place, and all his various effects along his brown belt. He placed his hat on his head, and faced the full length mirror on the wall.
The farm boy he had been was barely there, the tough face had set in, emulated by his earring in his pointed ear, and the sword hilt sticking its way over his metal shoulder braces.
He strode outside; he wanted to find out where he was, not to mention what he was supposed to be doing here. The various people he passed gave him slight nods of acknowledgement. They all wore either green camo gear, the norm for Hyrulean soldiers, apart from when armoured, or white camo gear. A couple had the silver metal armour, as they stood guard at certain large doors. He eventually came to one of these doors with two armoured guards; they each held their force spears, and their defensive rectangular shields. Both nodded at him as he passed, before he stopped, he wanted to know what was on the other side of the large circular door.
He passed through, the door splitting into two parts, one sliding into each wall with a pneumatic hiss. The room beyond was small, bare except a small computer bank beneath a large rounded window, and a staircase leading down on both the left and right sides of the room.
He stepped over to the window, and what was beyond was like blew his mind.
A massive long room stretched into the distance, people milling around various crafts. There were grey, and white speeders and skiffs. There were large, grey metal boxes on caterpillar tracks, and a large turret with a huge tube sticking out. He'd only ever seen pictures, or schematics, but there about two dozen grey tanks, right there below him. After that were mobile artillery, huge eight wheeled troop transport trucks, and various mobile turrets. What really took him was what occupied about half of the room, the far end, the planes.
There were smaller one man fighters, the curved body, and flowing wings making them look like art forms. Then came the bombers, the huge fuselage holding various glass windows, and gun turrets, the huge wings holding two engines on each side. Beyond this were three of the biggest objects Link had ever seen, truly huge structures, the fuselage the size and length of two, perhaps three houses, the wings each holding four massive engines, curved to hold the flow of the wind. Along the left wall were what looked like teeth, clamping to each other had been forged into the metal, or could… that was a door, an absolutely gigantic door.
Link's mind was racing, trying to process all the information; he walked over to the stairs, descending to the floor of this mind boggling place. Black writing high on the wall, about as tall as Link himself, said in Hylian 'Hangar Five' there were four more hangars as big as this?
By the staircase were three guards in white camo, standing by a door, which looked tiny in comparison to the hangar doors that made up an entire wall. On the wall beside the men were several white coats, and jackets, all in white, not unlike the scientists' trench coats he'd seen here and there, why white? He walked over to the guards, questions brimming in his head, for instance what lay outside? He had no idea what part of Hyrule he was in anymore, or if he was even in Hyrule at all.
'What's out there then?' Link asked as he approached the guards, two cracked a smile, and the third sniggered before answering.
'What d'you think?' his tone was condescending. Link remained serious as he replied.
'You tell me.'
'What, you want to go out there?'
'Yes,' he wasn't sure why, but he did need to know where he was, to put his mind at rest. The man looked at him, sizing him up, noticing for the first time that he wasn't in a uniform, and the sword hilt poking over his shoulder. He decided something and walked over to the rack, throwing him a long white coat.
'Dan, you take him out.'
'Alright,' the second guard answered, Dan. He was young and lanky, his brown hair dipping down his forehead. Link put on the coat, which reached nearly to his knees.
'You're gonna need to take that hat off I'm afraid,' Dan told him, to which Link grudgingly put the hat in one of the coats many pockets.
'Why?' he inquired.
'Security measure, we don't want to be discovered,' Dan replied, as to how the removal of his hat helped that, Link didn't know, that is until he stepped outside, the door hissing shut behind him.
This was too much, he'd been through so many weird things this day, it wasn't fair to do this to him.
All in front of him was white. All was snow, blanketing the area, there was an instantly visible incline, leading downwards, were his line of sight was lost due to clouds and mist. He turned around to see the snow continuing upwards, inclining so, so high, right up to a summit far above where he stood. He suddenly felt really rather small, and insignificant looking at all of nature's beauty, in all its glory.
He'd never seen anything on this scale before, sure Ordon had winters, with snow falling, and the snowball fights between the village children, but this was an endless land of ice and snow. He had heard tales of mountains, which bordered the North Eastern borders of Hyrule, and the Death Mountain volcano, but to actually see it.
'Allow me to introduce Snow Peak Mountain,' Dan said somewhere to his left, sounding as awed as Link was, he supposed things on this scale never really faded from memory. He could see clear blue skies, with barely a cloud, stretching out into infinity before his eyes.
His attention was captured by a yellow light, further down the slope. He flicked his visor down, intrigued. He zoomed in, but saw nothing but snow, and ice, he shrugged and flipped it back up.
Sitting on its haunches in front of him was a glowing golden wolf; it looked like it was made of yellow light, casting no shadow, its fur shining brilliantly. The only part of it that wasn't gold were its eyes, a feral red, no whites, and a tiny iris, the left hand one was milky, with a white line running down it, they made it look angry.
Link whirled his arms around, deliberately ripping the loose coat he had tied around his shoulders like a cape, so he could draw his weapon. He stood ready, prepared in a defensive stance, his shield readied, holding his sword back a bit, prepared for an attack.
The wolf looked at him, cocking its head like a dog. Then it snarled, the snarl gripping its features, twisting into canine power, as feral display, Link didn't flinch or back down an inch. The wolf snarled again, the sound renting the air, before it leaped, with a wild grace straight at Link, he brought his sword up to defend, but the moment it touched the wolf's fur, there was a huge white flash, blinding Link.
He blinked furiously, aware he could be attacked any second. His sight returned, as he was met with an incomprehensible scene.
He was standing in a world of white, he saw things in the far distance, covered in mist, a forest, a mountain with strange shapes over it, obscured by mist, a desert of fine golden sand, a sea of water, a place with what looked like ruins, a black shape, huge but covered in so much mist he couldn't make out what it was. Beneath his feet was white cobbled stone, but he couldn't see any of it more than twenty metres away.
Around six metres in front of Link, the wolf sat on its haunches, completely at ease; it was looking straight into his eyes.
It suddenly pulled back its head and howled, Link got his eyes closed before the flash this time, but the light still pierced his eyelids, he opened his eyes to a different sight.
In front of him was what looked like a skeleton, similar to a stalfos, very similar, clad in golden armour, though there was no neck, spine to the hips, and no legs, just gold boots. It held a long sword in its right hand, and a dented circular shield in the other. The shield and various parts of its armour were covered in vines, and bits of rotted cloth, were it had decayed away. The helmet had what would have been three rectangular prongs, if one hadn't been snapped at the halfway length, in the helmet, where its head would be was a skull, slightly greyed in age, while the left eye socket was empty, the right glowed with a fierce red light, directed right at Link. Tatters of what was once a red cape hung from its shoulders, frayed, with little left.
'You have done well Hero,' the skeleton opened its mouth to speak, with a ghostly, ethereal quality, but identifiably male. 'You have made it thus far, and freed the power of the Forest,' he pointed his sword to the forest in the distance, without turning from Link. A rumbling filled the air, a huge symbol from the medallion, surrounded by wings made of stone rose from the ground forty metres away, it continued to rise on a thin shaft, before filling out to a full-fledged pillar, rearing far into the sky, all of a white stone, the three swirls were depicted in green, right at the top, barely visible.
'You are here to have a skill imparted to you, one of the hidden skills of ancient legend,' he was pulled from watching the pillar by the skeleton speaking once more.
'Who are you?' Link asked, not dropping his sword arm.
'I am known as the Hero's Shade, or the Lost Hero. I was one of those brought by the same spell that binds you. I was lost; the Goddesses took pity, and took me to do what must be done, to impart my skills to those who followed me. This I have done for many years, but this is the final time, you are the Last Hero, the future of Hyrule rests with you.'
'What do you mean, how can I hold the future?' Link asked, hoping for answers to the confusing things that had followed him all day.
'It is not my place to say. I am here to teach you the first skill, the ending blow. Once you attack an enemy, they may only be stunned. Leap forward, and plunge your sword deep into their chest to end them completely, now show me.' The Shade readied his sword, and attacked, Link instinctively battled, pushing him to the ground, before leaping to deliver the ending blow. He pulled out his sword, and stood back, to his amazement the Shade stood up.
'Well done, you learn well, the first skill, the ending blow, has been passed on. I have more skills to impart, until then,' the Shade waved his sword in the air, and the flash of light blinded Link again, caught unprepared.
He once more felt the cold air, and feel of snow underneath his boots. As his eyesight cleared, he heard voices shouting, he gained full sight to see several people in whit gear standing around staring at him, and one woman in white camo, striding towards him angrily, her blond hair whipping in the cold wind.
AN/ Well, chapter nine, I'll start work on ten tomorrow, remember reviews make me write faster.