*posts chapter and fades into the darkness*
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Your Menacing smile: ch 12 - Into the unknown -
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I have often been told I am remarkable at slipping by others notice. It was a matching set to my silent nature- a boy who always has his head in the clouds and a body with a will to follow, they said, coupled with a stern gaze. Since I spent most of the time hiding during my childhood, whether from chores or bullies, it seems like those words held some truth to them. When I hid, I could regularly take my naps in peace, away from the watchful eyes of others. Even when stranded in Skyloft, I simply let the dreams carry me away, far over the clouds. Mind as free as I felt on the back of my loftwing, with the wind in my face and the tall grass tickling my skin, as soft as his red feathers. Yes, I dreamed. Most of the time.
"I found you!" My eyes fluttered open sluggishly in reaction to the strained voice, only slightly out of breath. In my daze, I barely recognized the child merely inches from my face. Her short hair was swaying in the wind. Golden strands of pure light, brought forth by the bright sun at her back. The corner of her eyes were creasing in pleasure and her cheeks flushed by exercise. I thought she was beautiful.
"So you did." I replied with a content sigh. I made no inclination to budge from my comfortable sleeping spot, however. Even with my eyes sliding closed, I sensed her moving to lie down beside me. Fingertips brushing mine.
"Are you hiding from the adults again? Or from Groose and his gang?" She spoke softly in my ear, as if concerned that I preferred it to stay secret. By some means she read my silence as having confirmed her theory.
"You should just tell me directly next time! I'll keep those bullies off of you." She fearlessly promised and put her hands on her hips in a defiant posture. If that was not enough to assure me of the sincerity of her words, her eyes alone did. Her strong glare could send even the bigger kids running. I had seen it happen many times before and was always impressed by her unfaltering bravery. The adults were careful around her too, including her father. They knew not to argue with her when she was determined to a cause, something they had learned the hard way. To see such a small child, only slightly taller than me, make such a bold statement with not an ounce of doubt - I did not mean to, but a small chuckle escaped my lips before I pressed my fingers firmly over my own mouth to cover the sound. Too late. The punishment was delivered in the blink of an eye as my nose was pinched between her fingers in a light, yet firm grip.
"Don't laugh, Link! I'm serious!" Despite her fierce tone and the frown on her round features, a smile threatened to spread on her lips, barely kept back by her will to stay serious in compliance with her words. Barely. Behind her hand on my nose my face broke into a small smile and I was relieved to see her reluctantly return it.
"Thanks, Zelda."
...
I awoke in cold sweat and a sharp twinge in one of my fingers, causing a wave of nausea to wash over me. Scratch that, everything hurt. I was... I found myself down on the jagged floor tiles made of stone, pressing into my already sore sides. In a state of disorientation and dizziness, I realized I must have fainted due to the exhaustion. With the remnants of my childhood memories fading, my senses slowly grew more alert. Despite having escaped that dreadful room, I was still caught in the seemingly endless maze beneath the ground of Eldin Volcano. After taking a quick look, I let out a tense breath when I saw that the coast was clear. At least I had enough strength and common sense to find a secluded place to pass out. I felt my bones creak as I rose to a stand and managed through it by sheer willpower and gritted teeth. Succumbing to pain was not acceptable, not if I wanted to get out of here. And I needed to. Yet as soon as the thought had entered my mind, succumbing to it was precisely what I found myself so dangerously close to. My face contorted in pain, its roots more emotional than physical this time. The dream. I had not dreamt about her in a while, not since Plats died. I was not sure how long it had been since I first came into Ghirahim's grasp, but it felt... Long. Longer than I knew was possible. Like the nightmares had always been there, burrowed deep beneath my skin. Seeping out to encase me in my sleep. Still hovering over me in the waking dream that had become my reality.
With my eyebrows furrowed, I sighed while struggling to sort out the mess of thoughts in my head. I could not discern whether it was my mind trying to cope with... everything by escaping to her warmth, or if it was my worry over her safety that called for her. But to see her in a precious memory, ever so radiant and pure, almost painfully bright- it made my heart waver at once and my courage crumbled. Rubbing my eyes, I was surprised to feel them wet with tears. Why did the dreams, even the happy ones, leave me with such... sorrow? A part of me felt the dreams like a crescendo ringing in my chest. A feeling akin to a premonition. And it frightened me. No, it must be the stress, I told myself. And I have had plenty of that under Ghirahim's care. This was... normal.
Quickly squelching my fear before it grew, I peeked out from my hiding place again and soundlessly moved along the walls, mindful to avoid the area I remember coming from before my slumber. Even if the passageways looked nearly identical at a glance, I had been careful to seek out the few differences they had. This place, the underground, was unimaginably vast. With no exit in sight. Only new corridors adorned in the same dimmed light. I pondered over what importance this place held for the demons. How far did it stretch? A fearsome notion had sprung its way into my mind, that it was not only the ground beneath the surface of Eldin Volcano that was corrupted by monsters. But that was yet another thought better not to dwell on, especially considering the implications that would create of the severity of their threat.
Speaking of monsters, I had expected them to scour through the area, mindlessly searching for me by now. I had encountered no such thing. On the contrary, the security had been more lax than usual. I had seen a few troops, but they acted leisurely, with no purpose beyond carrying out a simple routine. Have they not discovered I was gone? I felt the corner of my mouth twitch into a nervous smile at the thought. If I was right, I had been luckier than I had hoped. It would make my chances of breaking out of this hell much more likely. But the fact that Ghirahim had not noticed yet was strange on its own, considering he had left me alone for some time prior to my escape and even longer after it. The thought should have comforted me, had his obsession, other than torturing me, not been his search for the gate of time. And in turn Zelda. I dearly hoped his search had not been fruitful. I... some memories of the room he had me trapped in were fuzzy and a few even made me draw a blank. What if... no! I shook my head vehemently, disgusted by myself for even suspecting for a moment that I would ever give in to him, knowing who would pay the price for it. This turned out to be a foolish move given that I was woozy enough as it was. I let out a pained grunt when I inelegantly collided headfirst with the wall, my nose taking quite a hit. While struggling to retain my balance, I held my stinging nose instinctively, trying hard not to cry. I was glad to be alone for that embarrassment, even though crossing with a bunch of bokoblins right now would unlikely end up with them pointing and laughing like they would back home.
The past memory of my dream suddenly flashed through my mind. I saw a younger image of Zelda, with my nose pressed between her somewhat plump fingers. Her bewildered expression unwillingly relaxing into a smile before me. I let my hand slowly slide of my face and leaned my forehead against the wall to rest for a moment, focusing on the happiness of the children in the fading dream. My heart ached with yearning for that innocence to return. Squeezing both my eyes and my fist shut tightly, the latter hard enough to scrape up the roughened skin of my hand, I harshly pushed myself away from the wall and pressed on.
As I searched for a way out in the drearily similar corridors, I was soon surprised to find a new part of the underground. At least visibly different. I took in my surroundings with baited breath, my eyes tracing the lines and patterns that seemed to grow more detailed in its path along the walls. They led towards... a door? No, several doors, it seemed. Instead of the open and empty hallways I had grown accustomed to, the sight of them filled me with anticipation. A new path, a dead end, an exit... Doors always lead somewhere. Or to someone. He had found me through one such door during my last escape attempt and I'd be damned if I would let him trap me again. Cautiously, I treaded through the new area, but halted when I heard sounds coming from the first entrance. Ok, next. Don't stop. When I discovered that by listening closely, I was rewarded with the sound of life behind each and every single one I passed, my pace and heart rate quickened by the number. It was an incoherent buzz of voices, from the jaws of demons, no doubt. Definitely not opening those.
Above each door was a nameplate with a number of eerily familiar signs carved into them. It then dawned on me. What I had believed to be some ornamental design marking the many walls I had seen, might have actually been foreign letters. It would explain why the demons seemed to have no issue finding their way through here, if they served as directions. I heaved a long sigh, having never believed a day would come where I wished to know how to read demonic writing- or whatever type of letters they were. But I had felt truly lost ever since I got here and any kind of leverage at this point was more than welcome. The monsters I had encountered, save for the biggest one of them all, had all spoken in some strange tongue. If they had their own alphabet, it would not surprise me. When I thought about it, it was odd that Ghirahim spoke my own language while his minions did not. Yet he had no issue ordering them about, colorfully so. Demons... There were so little my people knew of them, or of anything regarding the surface, other than the tales of old. Fi seemed to have at least basic knowledge of them and their different kinds, though I was unsure of how she had attained this information. With question after question piling up and filling my head to the brim, I felt myself shrinking. It was as if the current of my own confusion and helplessness would sweep me away at any moment and I found myself hastily biting my bottom lip until it bled, to remind myself I was still there. The pain and the taste of blood spread through my mouth and served as my only anchor to the physical world. But the doubt remained with me. How much did I actually know about anything on my own?
As I hurried through, the sight of one peculiar door caused both my thought process and feet to come to a complete halt. In fact, calling it a gate would be more accurate due to its grand size and construct. The beautifully carved openings of the decoratively cut metal were big enough to let some rays of light seep through the springs and reach the opposite wall to color it in its white patterns, yet small enough to conceal what lay behind it. Where the gates were supposed to meet, one door was left slightly ajar to let out a thicker and stronger stream of light that cut through the dim darkness I had walked in for so long. It was a captivating sight. In its mix of overt transcending into covert appeal, it almost felt... Alive. As if beckoned by it, I found myself slipping through its doors before I could think it through. What met me on the other side baffled me. The source of the light came from the red candles that evenly aligned the walls of the small passage, like a trail of light. A trail leading to a stairway. The light could only reach so far, for the stairway went a far way down, its end fully obscured by darkness. A little voice inside me whispered in my ear, pleading for me to turn my back to it now and seek another route. This way went deeper into the ground, further away from the freedom of the surface. From my goal. But from that black void I felt something else pulling me, something familiarly serene yet strong in its stability. Something that gave me hope. A name spilled from my trembling lips in a hushed whisper.
"Fi..."
She was there. A beacon in the middle of the darkness, small but undoubtedly hers. At once I was filled with a longing so strong it shook me to my core. Far more than the comfort of her memory had. I could actually feel her. Half-numb legs instinctively moved my body forward. My less injured hand sought the carvings of the wall, to guide me by the fingertips through the dark and the unknown. The warning voice calling in the back of my mind was ignored with such ease that that alone should have set off the warning bells within me. But what harm could drowning out yet one more voice do?
...
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
The soft rustling of naked feet against the hard steps of stone echoed through the darkness. I felt perspiration form on my forehead. It ran down the old, cold track along my reddened cheeks, sliding to my clenched jaw, dipping into the slenderness of my neck. My face and chest felt uncomfortably hot and feverish, jet my bare back was cool as ice.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
My body was not flesh anymore, but a battle of opposing temperatures that struggled for dominance. In my head, I questioned how anyone in their right mind would ever combine having no source of light with stairs, of all things, but it only made my irritation grow. I tried hard and failed to quiet the infuriating sound of my own breathing. Almost desperately, I instead struggled to put all of my attention on the physical sensations I initiated rather than the ones controlling me.
The muscles that moved my legs and feet down the steps.
The texture of the inscriptions along the wall, softly brushing against my fingers.
The feeling of its flats and hollows.
Edges sometimes sharp, scratching skin.
Nails bent back, clawing the arms of the chair.
Dead eyes drill through blind blue, bleeding from the back of my-
STOP! Ok. Stop. Feeling that. Stop.
I did. I stood as still as my heaving chest would allow me to and glared into the darkness, suddenly furious. I had not expected the events of that room to follow me so far, but it seems my body remembered better, knew better than my own mind did. One part of me dreaded meeting the cause of my trauma, but the other? Aside from my own nightmares and painful memories plaguing my fantasies, they occasionally led to different thoughts entirely. To scenarios where I paid him back for all the suffering he had wrought. Brutally. Yes... The other part of me wanted him dead. By my own hand. On the canvas of my mind I pictured my hands wrapping around his neck, tight enough to hear and feel the bones grind against the other. Hard enough to silence his smooth voice coated in poison into ugly, choked gasps. Imagining that while trying to ignore the real sounds the best I could, I found the darkness somewhat easier to tread through. But not fully. My steps stumbled only for a moment and I quickly tried to regain my balance. And my control. Even in my own head, even as I was squeezing the life out of him, his lips quirked into a wide, mocking smile.
BAM!
I banged my fist into the wall with a loud thud and growled. The old thought burned within me stronger than ever and tumbled from my mouth uncontrollably.
"I will kill him..!"
...
Finally, after what felt like hours, a dim light reached my vision and I could both walk and breath with more ease, quicker now when I could see where I stepped. My relief was short-lived however, seeing as when I reached the end of the stairs I was faced with a new dilemma. The path split into two ways. And to my fear, the presence of Fi I had felt before had diminished with time, and with that the only way to point me toward her. How could I even know that she really was down here after all? It could very well have been a figment of my imagination born from my desperation to find her. But it had felt so real... Abruptly and with vigor, I smacked both sides of my face to stop doubting and focus! Both my injured hand and cheeks stung, but the pain served its purpose. I turned left and that was that. I can regret things later, I told myself. Though not as convincingly as I had intended.
Almost immediately after my descent from the stairs, I found myself drawn to one of the first rooms I passed. An archive. I heard no signs of anyone inside, but went in with caution nonetheless. When I had made sure that I was truly the only one in the room, I took the time to study my surroundings more thoroughly. The room itself was not that impressive in size, but its content was. A large number of books were crammed into the many rows of shelves put claustrophobically close together. Due to the lack of space, books lay piled over one another on the floor as well, with some stacks almost reaching my own height. Gaepora's library was no match in quantity, that's for sure.
With knowing that it was unwise to linger in any room with no other exits, I began to turn my way around to leave. Something piqued my interest however, enough to cause me to forget my actions. A working desk. On closer inspection, it was riddled with paperwork. Books, letters, diagrams... all written in foreign symbols. Some of the notes were recorded neatly, others looked like they were written in a rush, as if the writer had let either excitement or haste guide their hand. What froze me on the spot was not the incomprehensible notes however, but the things I could understand. Pictures. Maps with areas crossed out and circled in, some familiar, some completely new to me. Among the notes was another picture that caused my eyes to go wide. On one of the pages of an open book was an image of a humanoid creature with metallic skin, sharp hair and a jewel imbedded in its chest. It was with no doubt one of Fi's kind. A sword spirit. This one appeared to be female too, yet with some differences from the one I had travelled with, both with its arms and colour. Beneath it was an enlarged picture of the gem with further notes beside it. But why was this here? Was this about Fi?
Before the worry over my friend's safety could fully set in, a sudden chill went down my spine. I was overwhelmed by the raw, ferocious dread coming with the one sole thought that filled my head at that very moment.
H- I- D- E
My instincts told me to flee, but for once I knew that following my head was my only option, given the lack of time. I slipped behind a small cabinet covered in a thin veil of cloth that I had noted before and prayed to the goddesses that it was not as see-through as it was from my side. A couple of dusty books lay scattered in piles around my hiding place, hopefully managing to obstruct me from view better. I do not know how I did it, panicked as I was, but I managed to slow my erratic breathing down. Though I was less successful with my pulse. A small part of the end of the chain connected to the collar around my neck stuck out from beneath the cloth and I quickly pulled it close, thankful I had been the one to discover it. In next to no time, I heard the hurried sound of footsteps entering the room and I tensed up from top to bottom. Listening. Waiting. A pair of legs strode past me and I had to bite back a gasp. No, I thought. Not so soon. Not again. The figure was leaning over the desk I had stood by only moments before, animatedly scribbling something down. No matter how many time I would beg for it not to be, I could not change the fact that the one I was now taking cover from was the last person I wanted to meet. None other than Ghirahim.
Of all the rooms I had chosen to walk into, it had been his work study, by the looks of it. My feelings were thrown into disarray, the vengeance within me from before quickly forgotten in the face of fear. Being found now, weaponless, would not turn out in my favor. He would have the upper hand. He would... lock me into that room again, toying with me until I break. Until he got the words out of me that I have sworn never to give so long as there is breath in me. My heart was pounding loudly in my ears and fed the terror inside me. No, no, calm down. He can't see me from here. He- I winced, feeling pain spread through my clenched fist. Opening my hand I was shocked to find a red dagger resting in my palm. Where did-? Then I remembered. I had seen a couple of diamond shaped daggers dig into the wood of the desk, marking the map. In my panic, I must have grabbed one without realizing it. If he noticed that one was missing he was bound to know that something was amiss. Perhaps even figure out why it was missing in the first place. I scrutinized the object in front of me through half-lidded eyes while swallowing dryly. It could be dangerous, but on the other hand...
I finally had a weapon.
A sudden, slamming noise ran through me like a jolt. With my heart beating out of my chest, my eyes wandered toward the demon standing only a couple of steps away from me. His fingers were digging into the edges of his desk, the sheer force of his grip spreading small cracks through the wood like bolts of lightning. He was laughing. The side that was visible to me of his tall, shaking form looming over the desk was cast in shadow. But I saw the contours of his lips move. Playfully. Wickedly. Coiling like a white snake in the dark. The corner of his mouth tugged upwards to reveal sharp teeth in a wide and sinister grin.
"I found you."
...
What's that sound? It sounded like something just shattered into pieces?
Oh wait- It was just Link's sanity. Haha, Ghirahim you rascal you.
See you in chapter 13! Please, review! I want to know your thoughts, fears, whatever this chapter meant to you dear readers! And things will go down in the next chapter... I leave you to interpret in what manner that is
EDIT: I've rewritten some parts of a couple of the older chapters that bugged me and hope to go through them more thoroughly in the future. For now I want to focus on new chapters though. So! New readers, welcome! Old readers who I hope haven't tired of me, glad to see you again after a 100 years! Happy reading
