The Legend of Zelda

Chapter Eleven: Eagle Prison

There was always a slight risk of being discovered immediately after breaking into any kind of building, especially when the person breaking in has never been inside before. Thankfully there was no one around to sound the alarm when Miranda came in through the hidden entrance, but this also meant that no one was currently using this part of the prison, meaning that it was very dark inside.

A tiny amount of light came in through the cross-shaped windows along the walls, and the flashes of lightning from the storm gave her brief glimpses of what each of the rooms looked like, but more light was required if she was to check the compass. So she took the magic candle out from under her cloak, and once activated, the whole room was bathed in dim orange light. This proved to be enough for her to see, but it was also enough to disturb the slumbering creatures that also occupied this room.

Bats... dozens of bats that Miranda hadn't noticed as they slept upside down on the ceiling, suddenly came to life. Startled by the light, they panicked, letting out squeaks as they flew around the room. Startled herself by this, Miranda nearly let out a scream, but muffled it by putting her hand over her mouth while deactivating the candle. She then ran out of the room as the bats kept this up for about a minute before eventually flying out the small windows.

This small crisis had passed, thankfully, without alerting anyone on the upper levels to her presence, but she still needed to check the compass, and the flashes of lightning didn't last long enough for her to see. Thinking about this for a second, she decided to use a different approach. If the candle was going to scare any bats that were in these other rooms, then she would just have to hide the light somehow, and this was accomplished by kneeling down and putting her cloak over herself like when a child uses a lantern to read under a blanket.

The compass pointed down the hall she was already heading down, and no more bats had been bothered by her new method for using the candle, so she continued down the hall, and it ended at the stairs to the surface level. It had been her hope that Zelda's scouts had hidden the chest in the sublevel, but no, it was never that easy. It would be easy enough to sneak past the few live-in custodians and guards, but there was always the small risk of getting caught.

"Don't worry about that now, Miranda." She said to herself. "Zelda needs you."

Yes, helping her cousin was more important that the risk of getting caught, so she made her way up the stairs, to the surface level where there was some more light. There wasn't much more; random torch along the wall giving off just enough illumination to see the shadowy shape of everything in each room, but so far there was no one else around. Now the compass was pointing her at a solid wall, so she had to find a way around.

"So then the missus says 'don't you bring that in here'." A voice said as she looked around the corner. "And then I says back 'fine, if we're barring animals from the house, then your brother can't come in either'."

There was some laughter at the end of this story, and as Miranda moved down the hallway, so found the source. There were some older men sitting at a small wooden table in the center of the biggest room she had seen so far, and with them were men wearing armor. No doubt these were the custodians and guards assigned to the prison, but since they were engaged in conversation, and the compass was pointing down another hallway, this was good news. So she was about to head down the next hall, when there was a knock on the door.

The sound was coming from the large wooden door on the far side of the room, so Miranda ducked out of sight while the two guards got up to answer the door. It took a minute to unbar it, and once it opened, there was a little hooded man standing there in the pouring rain. He was alone, and didn't appear to be especially threatening, since he had been completely soaked by the storm.

"Who are you?" One of the guards asked. "What are you doing out here?"

"I beg your pardon, sirs." The hooded man replied. "Goriya is my name, and I seek only shelter from the storm."

"Hey, wait a second." The second guard said as he looked past Goriya. "Where's the other guards?"

That was a good question, since Miranda remembered having to avoid at least four patrolling guards when she tried to cross the bridge, but when she looked past everyone, she didn't see anything. Even during the next lightning flash, all she was able to see outside was an empty bridge.

"You need not worry about the others, sirs." Goriya continued politely as he stepped into the doorway. "In fact, you shall be joining them very soon."

The guards and custodians looked confused by this remark, but then everything became clear when he reached under his cloak and took out a boomerang, which he immediately tossed. The weapon flew through the air, making the first guard cry out as it struck his forehead with a loud crack, and it was back in Goriya's hand before anyone could even move. The second guard was just starting to reach for his sword, when he screamed as the hooded man brought the tip of the weapon across his eyes as if it were a blade.

The guard kept his hands over his eyes, and blood was dripping between in fingers as he fell to his knees. Now the custodians were realizing that they were under attack, so they jumped up to run away, but Goriya had other plans for them. Tossing his boomerang, the weapon skipped under the table like a rock across the water, striking the first custodian in the back of the legs. This caused him to fall, reflexively grabbing the other two in an attempt to catch himself, in turn making all three of them fall on their faces.

"Three in one shot." The hooded man said to the still screaming guard. "Impressive, wouldn't you say, sir?"

He stood there as if waiting for the guard to praise his skill, but then must have run out of patience, because the hooded man suddenly did an overhand swing with the boomerang, stopping the guard's screams as the weapon penetrated the top of his skull. Goriya then reached up and removed his hood, showing that he wasn't a man, but a rodent-like creature with large ears, an elongated snout, and blue fur. Ripping his weapon out of the guard as if it had been stuck in a tree, the rodent now turned his attention to the stunned custodians.

"Thank you so much for sheltering me, sirs." He said as he walked toward them. "Now, I am looking for something that might have been hidden by a royal scout recently. Nothing? No one like that came through here recently? Perhaps I can help you remember, sirs."

It was tempting to use them for a distraction so that she could find the chest, but Miranda was by no means heartless. When Goriya raised his weapon to strike the first custodian, she came out of hiding and fired her hookshot. This was enough to distract him, but he also saw it coming at the last second, which allowed the rodent to smack the hook away. Well, her sneaking plan was destroyed, but at least the rodent's attention was off the older men.

"Who is that?" One custodian asked as her hookshot retracted.

"It's Blind!" Another exclaimed. "I saw his wanted poster, and… he saved us!"

"Run for your lives!" Miranda ordered in her deepest voice possible to protect her identity. "Get out of here!"

The rodent's attention was now fully locked on her, even so far as not stopping the older men as they ran out into the storm. Once they were gone, however, Goriya started moving again, starting with throwing his weapon at Miranda. She dove out of the way, into the same hallway where the compass was directing her, so she got up and kept running, hoping to avoid a fight. Sprinting, she ran past old jail cells and torture chambers, randomly turning down hallways and ducking through small rooms in an effort to lose the creature. But then there was a whoosh just before his weapon hit her in the back of the legs.

Letting out a startled gasp as she fell forward, Miranda hit the stone floor hard before sliding to a stop. She was just starting to get up, when the rodent leapt onto her back, knocking the wind out of her. Normally this was where her magical bracelet would give her the strength to deal with this kind of thing, but Goriya was too fast, pinning her wrists behind her back and pushing them as far up as they would go, making her cry out again.

"A girl?" The rodent asked as he restrained her. "Blind the Thief is a girl? Then I wonder… is she pretty as well?"

The rodent needed one hand to reach for her hood, and that was the moment she had been waiting for. Twisting free of his grip, she rolled over onto her back and shoved him away; the bracelet pulsing, and giving her the strength to send him flying several feet down the hall. The rodent crashed into a nearby table, giving Miranda time to get up and run again, and she was just entering another large room, when the rodent leapt onto her back again.

Knocked onto her stomach, she was about to try and escape, when Goriya put his weapon under her throat. With a hand on each end, he pulled back on it while sitting on her upper back, making Miranda gasp for air as it choked her. This time he had her pinned in such a way that it was impossible for her to escape, and now she was starting to weaken.

"You look a little out of breath, dear." The rodent said happily. "You go to sleep now, and when you wake up…

Suddenly the room was filled with dim light, and then Goriya screamed as he saw that it was a huge sphere of energy coming right at them. It just barely missed Miranda's head, and then she was able to breathe again as the rodent exploded. There was heat and blood, but now she was free, and purely out of reflex, she rolled behind a pillar to avoid the next sphere that came for her. Coughing and wheezing, she dared to see where it was coming from, and saw to her horror that it was an Aquamentus. The single-horned dragon was chained to the wall, and it sent another sphere of energy at her when she looked at it, but this was not the worst part.

The worst part was that the chest she was seeking, perfectly illuminated by the light from its energy, was sitting right behind the creature. This was not good; she was weakened from the scuffle with Goriya, and it was only a matter of time before those custodians came back with guards, so she needed to do something fast… and then she remembered the rodent's weapon. Reaching out and retrieving the boomerang, she pulled it to her just in time to avoid another attack, and then she threw it. Not at the creature, but toward the other side of the room, and as she hoped, the Aquamentus attacked it.

The weapon exploded once it was hit, and this gave Miranda a single chance to get the chest. Coming out of hiding, she fired her hookshot, the grapple at the end latching onto the chest, and pulling it back to her. The creature roared in rage at what had just happened, and Miranda was just barely able to dive out of the room before the next sphere hit. Scrambling to her feet as more spheres of energy destroyed the nearby walls, she tucked the chest under her cloak and ran toward the exit.