The Legend of Zelda: TriSpirit, Episode 3: Tale of Two Princesses

Chapter 9
Rebellion Subdued

The baffled crowds stare in awe as the Zora princess and Sheikah warrior stand atop the stone guardrail with eyes locked and weapons ready.

The Rod of Jabuni feels restless in her hand at this chance to test her skills against Impa. In truth, Ruto cannot help but feel somewhat honored to be facing a warrior of such high esteem.

A warrior whom even she herself has always felt somewhat of an admiration for growing up. The rebellious Zora will take this duel much more seriously and respectfully than when she was messing with those laughable Hylians in the arena. Impa is an opponent worthy of honor.

Both warriors bow low before engaging, keeping their eyes locked as they do.

Formalities complete, they both leap back, still keeping perfect balance on the guardrail which they stand upon, then rush forward with their weapons ready to strike.

"HYEAH..!"

Ruto takes a swing at her opponent, her rod leaving a trail of eerie luminescence in the wake of its sweep.

*Swipe!*

But the blow connects not...

*Poof!*

With a puff of orange smoke, Impa vanishes from sight. Ruto's swing catches only thin air.

Baffled, the surprised Zora princess can barely react. She looks about frantically. Where did Impa go?!

Her question answers itself as she takes an unexpected blow to the side. Impa has reappeared behind her and struck with a swing of her weapon!

*Wham!*

Ruto falls off the side of the wall they were fighting on. She crash-lands onto the floor of the arena with a thud.

What a cheep trick!

"OW! Hey!" protests the young Zora as she hits the ground. "Teleportation on the battlefield is unfair..!"

Without a word in response, Impa merely looks down at her from atop the rail. Her countenance remains stern and serious.

Ruto is outraged to have been defeated in a single blow. She will not accept such a quick defeat. She raises her rod to cast another Hydros spell to left herself back atop the wall to resume the fight.

But she is given not the chance.

*Clink!*

Shackles have been thrown around her wrists. The guards have nabbed her while she is down. "You're in big trouble now, young lady!"

The words of the guard binding her sting like hornets. Frustration fills Ruto to the brim to have her duel against Impa end so quickly. Talk about anticlimactic!

What is worse; as she looks upon her captors, she finds that among them are not only Hylians but her fellow Zora as well. Zoran guards by the names of Huso and Amia seize her by the wrists while another, Salmo, snags the Rod of Jabuni from her grasp.

"Unhand me at once, you traitors!" protests Ruto with rage. "Give me back my rod! Your princess commands you!"

"That won't be possible, Princess," Amia asserts, a scowl upon her face. "Your father has ordered that you be taken into custody."

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?!" Huso scolds. "You have disgraced the very name of our people right before all of Hyrule with this unacceptable display!"

Ruto continues to resist, fighting Huso and Amia's grasp as she tries to get to Salmo to take back her prized possession. "I don't care what you call it! I refuse to be pushed around by these insufferable Hylians! Now return my rod to me at once!"

"I cannot do that," says Salmo, holding the rod out of her reach. "Your father has specifically commanded that the Rod of Jabuni be taken away from you. You'll be lucky if he ever allows you to touch it again after the damage you have caused with it today!"

Hearing this panics the princess. "What?! No! My baby! He can't do that to me! None of you can! He already declared it my inheritance! It's rightfully mine! All mine!"

Desperately, she struggles in vain to grab hold of Salmo to take back her treasured weapon, but Amia and Huso hold her back. They will not allow it.

"There is no point resisting!" Amia insists. "Now come! You have caused more than enough shame and disaster already!"

"The name of the Zora already receives more than enough disgrace from those savage Geozards," says Huso. "We do not need our own princess making it even worse!"

Ruto objects all the more; "All I did was stand up for myself! I am fed up with always letting those obnoxious Hylians treat our kind like dirt and get away with it! What is so wrong about wanting justice to be done?!"

Huso raises his voice all the more angrily; "Does 'justice' involve spilling innocent blood..?!"

"What do you mean 'spilling innocent blood'..?!" Ruto scoffs. "I never struck anyone with the bladed part of my rod in any areas that were not armored! No blood was shed!"

"Oh, wasn't there..?!" says Huso rhetorically.

Amia points off towards a group of Hylian guards among the crowds. "Then what do you call...THAT..?!"

Ruto looks off in the direction they point. To her shock, she realizes now what is happening...

One of the guards who was chasing after her lies injured on the stone floor. It appears that he was one of those who had tripped over the magic cord she had left in her pursuers' path for them to stumble on, which had worked better than she would have ever called for, as he had apparently hit his head upon falling.

Splitting it open.

Prince Zora Jr is being escorted to the scene. The Zoras have recommended his healing powers to try and treat the injury.

Ruto struck with a sense of guilt. She can feel her stomach turn.

"I...didn't mean to go that far..."

"Well the fact is; you did," Amia sneers. "You'll be lucky if that Hylian is ever able to recover after what you've caused him!"

Salmo grips the Rod of Jabuni all the more tightly in his hand. "And that is why I cannot allow you to lay even so much as a finger on the Rod of Jabuni for the rest of our stay here in Castle Town!"

"Now come quietly," orders Huso. "And perhaps your father may be able to convince King Roark to go easy on your punishment."

Ruto hangs her head bitterly. "It was just an accident..."

"Hush!"

She gnashes her teeth in irritation. But there is nothing she can do. They already have her bound.

They lead her away. She follows begrudgingly, feeling somewhat burdened by guilt, but not quite willing to admit that she went too far.

Can she really be blamed for this? It is not as if that guy was incapable of giving up and leaving her alone, right?

Prince Zora Jr holds his hands in quiet prayer over the injured Hylian. A blue glow emits from the young Zora's palms, shining with the serenity of the evening tide. The light envelopes the Hylian's head, slowly closing the wound as he regains consciousness.

His eyes open. He groggily gets back to his feet, but is obviously still feeling dizzy and holding his aching head in pain.

The Zora prince having done all he can, a doctor examines the Hylian. He looks over the traces of the wound and asks the man a number of questions to check his awareness before coming to his conclusion of the patient's condition.

"He'll live," says the doctor to everyone's relief. "The Zora prince's powers have done quite the miraculous job on healing the wound. The remaining head trauma should only be temporary, but it's best not to push it. Apply some ice to keep the swelling down, make sure he stays awake, and just keep a close eye on his condition in case any abnormalities should arise."

The injured Hylian is granted leave from guard duty and escorted out. His head still pounding from the blow, two others have to hold him up in support and help walk him out of the Colosseum in his temporarily uncoordinated state.

Princess Ruto is brought before King Roark. He looks down at her with eyes full of hatred and fury. His cape has been temporarily removed from his back and is now wrapped around his waist to cover his exposed undergarments.

Princess Zelda now stands by his side. Pain and dread fill her heart as her beloved childhood friend is brought forward in shackles.

Although she keeps silent in respect for her father, her sapphire eyes, filled with hurt and pity, speak for her as she gazes upon Ruto with concern.

But Ruto will not look her in the eye. She gives nothing more than a clod glance in Zelda's direction before quickly turning away in resentment, refusing to acknowledge the Hylian princess.

"Well, I hope you are satisfied with all the trouble you have caused, Princess!" says the Hylian king angrily. "If not for your brother's healing powers, that man would have more than likely perished, and I would have had to charge you with murder on top of everything else!"

"That was an accident!" Ruto protests in defense. "I didn't mean to go that far! -Besides...it's not like you haven't done worse..."

"Ruto!" her father scolds. "Hush..!"

"Well, it's true..." she indignantly scoffs.

"Silence!" King Roark commands. "Now, I have talked to your father, and he has agreed to take full responsibility to make sure you are thoroughly punished for all that you have done, and so I wash my hands of you. But from this day forward, you are hereby banished from ever setting foot in Castle Town again!"

"Oh..?" Ruto smirks. "And here I thought I was about to be punished..."

King Roark refuses to dignify her remark with a response and only continues his orders; "...But as for the rest of your current stay here; you will be spending it locked and chained within my dungeon until your tribe takes you back to your own domain with them tomorrow. You will be provided with minimal food and water, and you will not be permitted visitors until tomorrow. Now, do you have any questions before your confinement..?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a question..." she replies calmly and points to the king's beard; "Is that hairy thing hanging from your chin a dead weasel or some kind of muskrat? Or maybe it's something that had been regurgitated by a larger beast before you glued it to your face? I have always been curious, but it is so difficult to decipher its origins when it is in such a mangled state."

His face red with anger, King Roark grips is beard defensively as the vexed scowl on his face intensifies. Of course Ruto would use her chance to ask one final question as an opportunity to insult him one last time.

"Enough of that! It is solely out of respect for your father that I am allowing you to live, but do not assume you are above the death penalty!" the flustered king scolds before turning to the guards. "Now, take her away! Keep her imprisoned and do not allow her a moment unchained! Be sure that this disgrace of a princess is never allowed within my line of sight ever again!"

Ruto scoffs. "As long as I am spared the torture of having to look upon your hideous face and that...dead thing...that hangs from it, I am perfectly fine with whatever other abuse you may treat me to. Few things are more torturous than the sight of your ugly mug."

"...And keep her mouth covered!" King Roark adds to his orders.

Ruto defiantly sticks her tongue out at King Roark, insulting him with one final gesture before being gagged.

Zelda watches in silence and emotional pain as Ruto led away to the dungeon, shackled and chained like some dangerous criminal. It breaks her heart to this happen to her closest friend from childhood.

And by her father's orders, no less.

She cannot bear it. And if Ruto is truly being banished from Castle Town, then this really is the last she will see of her. She desires to speak with her father and try to convince him to lessen Ruto's punishment, but she knows it will be futile when his anger is at its peak like this. She will wait until he has had the chance to calm down before even bringing this up to him.

The Zoras watch with heavy hearts as Princess Ruto is taken away. It is difficult for them to see such a shameful thing become of their own princess, but even more so, it is difficult for her family.

Zelda stands beside the young Prince Zora Jr as his eyes follow his older sister being led to the dungeon. She places a hand on his shoulder in sympathy. She knows very well the pain he must feel in witnessing his sister being publicly shamed like this.

After all; she is watching it happen to her own 'sister' as well.

As Ruto is taken out of sight, King Roark turns to a shamed King Zora and addresses him sternly; "De Bon... I will speak with you alone. Come to my office at once. _As soon as I've gotten some pants on..."

Meanwhile, a man garbed in black attire observes silently and attentively from among the crowds.

Slipping out of sight, he reverts to his true form -that of a black-and-red Ache bearing a golden emblem upon his forehead- and quietly flies ahead to the window of the king's office...

Thanks for reading! Looks like Ruto pushed it too far...and now someone intends to eavesdrop on the kings' meeting. Things are about to get more interesting...