Disclaimer: Everything (except my OCs) belongs to Legend of Zelda/Nintendo


Shadowed Waters

28

A Common Enemy


Ralis only moved once he was sure the guards were gone. He heard a door close with an echoing thud followed by the muffled, shuffling of footsteps up what he assumed was a staircase. The light had gone with them, but Ralis didn't need it. He made his way over the slippery stone to where the two men had been talking to find a doorway nestled into the wall. He had found his access to the Castle.

Before entering the door, Ralis unslung the pack from around his torso and let it fall to the ground. He knelt before it and extracted what he needed. First the tunic, leggings, and belt. Ralis hadn't wanted to wear anything besides the cloak, as it was Zora custom not to wear anything, but Malo had pointed out the merits and Ralis reluctantly agreed. It was best to try to blend in as much as possible, not that a tunic would do much in that department – Ralis twitched his head-fin anxiously – but at least it provided a little more coverage.

He slipped on the fitted blue clothing and was rather reminded of what the Hero had worn during his quest to save Hyrule, excluding the color. Next he pulled out the dagger – the one item he desperately hoped he would not have to use – and slipped it into his belt. Ralis pulled out the cloak and slipped it around his shoulders, pulling the hood over his head, before tossing the bag into the water to be carried away. It would have just been cumbersome to carry around with him.

Ralis took a deep breath before turning towards the door. "You can do this," he muttered to himself, words quiet, lost in the noise of the rushing water. He reached for the doorknob and pushed the door in. There was a short flight of stone steps leading up. Empty torch brackets hung on the wall and the only light seeped in from the cracks around the door at the top.

Ralis could feel his heartbeat pounding in his chest when he reached the top door, hand frozen in place on the doorknob. Sure he had gotten in the Castle, but this was not according to Malo's plan. He didn't even know where he was going to be coming in from. How was he supposed to find Agitha or Evrret's rooms? Ralis tried to ignore that little fact as he turned the doorknob.

The door opened into a short and, thankfully, empty hallway. Ralis crept quietly to the corner and peered around it into a much longer hallway lined with doors and a few lit torches. A ways down stood two very bored looking guards lounging against the tone walls around one of the doors. There was a door at the very far end of the corridor. That looked to be the only exit.

"Great," breathed Ralis, sarcastically, drawing back. The guards looked relaxed, meaning he should be able to sneak up on them, but then what? Ralis fingered the dagger hanging from his belt and sighed. He had no desire to take any unnecessary lives.

With one last deep breath, Ralis snuck out into the open, keeping close to the wall and out of the bright perimeters marked by the torchlight. The guards were too out of it to notice him padding silently down the corridor.

When Ralis was near enough, he slipped the dagger from his belt, and repositioned the hood over his head. The guards were still oblivious. Just a little ways further, thought Ralis as he ducked within the shadows between the next set of torches, just keep looking away…

One of the guards turned. "Hey!" yelled the soldier, "Who are you?" Ralis cursed under his breath as he straightened up. At least that hadn't recognized him yet. Ralis said nothing and kept his head down as he approached the two guards, his hood falling low over his face. Both had straightened up at the sight of this unexpected visitor. "I said," repeated the guard, "who are you? What is your business here?"

Ralis stopped walking just before the first guard. "If I tell you," said Ralis calmly, hand resting lightly on the hilt of his dagger, "Will you let me pass?"

"Who do you think you are?" asked the guard, "I asked you a question. You don't want me to go upstairs and get Evrret do you?"

"Actually," said Ralis, "I very much would like that."

The soldier seemed to be taken by surprise at that statement. Ralis watched as he looked over at the other guard. The first soldier's hand moved deliberately to the hilt of the sword at his waist and twitched his head, nearly imperceptibly towards Ralis. The Zora took that as his cue. He wasn't about to become anyone's prisoner.

In a flash out movement Ralis struck. He whipped out his dagger, but did not aim to kill. Instead, he hit the guard hard on the head with its hilt. The Hyrulean crumpled to the ground, unconscious. The second guard stared in disbelief for a moment before, yelling with rage and making to tear his own sword out of its sheath. He stared for a moment too long.

Ralis flexed his fins into weapons and struck the other guard in the chest with the flat edge. He hit the wall with a soft "oof," head snapping back in the process. The crack as the second guard's head connected with the stone was sickening. Moments later he slumped to the floor beside his comrade, unconscious as well.

Ralis didn't wait around to see if their little, one-sided skirmish had been heard. He sheathed his dagger and took off running down the long corridor. The door at the end opened up to a staircase, winding and made of stone. The guard had let slip that Evrret lived upstairs, and these stairs seemed as good a place to start to look as any.

The stairs were tall and winding, branching off on to many floors on the way, but Ralis took none of those paths. Malo's instructions involved Ralis getting to the highest floor of the Castle, so he climbed until the staircase ran out. The hallway the top of the stairs let out on was lined with red carpet and intricately welded sconces – much more luxurious than the lower floors. From what information Ralis had gleaned about Evrret and his arrogant personality, he guessed he was in the right place.

Ralis padded silently down the hallway, the plush carpet hushing the sound of his movement. He stopped before the only door in the entire hallway. "This has got to be it," muttered Ralis to himself. He took a one last deep breath before pushing the door open.

The door opened into the main room of a dark apartment. The remnant embers of a dying fire glowed in the hearth set into one wall and a cushy armchair sat before it. A table, laden with maps of Hyrule sat in the center of the room. Even in the dim light, Ralis could see that the entrances to Upper Zora River and the Domain had been thickly highlighted in red ink. Ralis resisted the urge to tear the parchments to pieces and destroy whatever work Evrret had already done. He didn't have time for that. He had a job to do.

But of course this job couldn't have been easy. Ralis stepped lightly around the carpeted room, checking in every conceivable place for the sword he had been tasked with finding. But to no avail. Malo's sword was not in this room. Which meant it was either in the bath chamber or the bedroom. Ralis felt his heart sink, as he was pretty sure he knew which room it was not in.

Pressing his head up to the dark wood door leading to Evrret's bedroom, Ralis listened for any sound of movement. Even through the thick door, Ralis could hear the General's slow and heavy breath in deep sleep. And hopefully he will stay that way, thought Ralis warily as he clutched the doorknob in a scaled hand.

As silently as he could, Ralis pushed the door open and entered Evrret's bedroom. The room was lit with moonlight that spilled in through the open-curtained window. The silver light spilled onto the large bed in the center of the room and onto the sleeping and blanket-swathed form of General Evrret. It accented the silver streaks in his graying hair.

Ralis scanned the room for the stolen sword and found it easily. Unfortunately that did nothing to lift his spirits as the sword was in the one spot nearly impossible to get to: hanging on the wall directly over the head of Evrret's bed. Ralis couldn't help but curse internally at his luck – or lack thereof.

But he had come this far and wasn't planning on letting a little thing like the fact that the General that he was stealing from just happened to be asleep directly beneath the place Ralis needed access to, stop him. The Zora silently made his way over to the side of Evrret's bed, fins tensed for action in case things got messy.

He slowly lifted one webbed foot and placed it on the bed as softly as he could, testing his weight on the plush mattress. When Evrret didn't wake up, Ralis lifted his other foot as well, standing on the edge of the bed. If he stretched he would be in reaching distance of the sword. Ralis leaned forward as carefully as he could, trying not to jostle the sleeping Evrret as he inched his fingers closer to the hilt of the sword.

Just a little bit further, thought Ralis almost giddy with how well this was going.

And then he felt a hand close around his ankle.

Ralis felt his body go rigid as he slowly looked down… right into the bleary eyes of General Evrret. "What the…?" said the General wearily as the remnants of sleep left his body and Ralis knew he didn't have much time. So he sprung.

Ralis bent his knees ever so slightly before launching himself in a dive over Evrret, hand grasping the hilt of the sword in the process and landing with a roll on the carpeted floor on the far side of the bed. With a grace only mastered by a Zora, Ralis rose and turned out of his waterless dive just in time to see Evrret, fully awake now, pull a dagger out from beneath his pillow. Ralis ducked seconds before the blade sliced through the air where his head had been only moments before.

By the time Ralis was standing again, Evrret was out of his bed, waving a dagger in front of his bare-chested body for protection. In the moonlight, Ralis could see a web of mangled scars cutting the through the skin of his right shoulder. Ralis held the sword out in front of him.

"Drop the sword," said General Evrret, "And I might consider letting you live."

"Tell me where the prisoners are and I might consider letting you live," said Ralis, not dropping his guard.

Ralis didn't miss the momentary dumbfounded look that crossed Evrret's face at Ralis's mention of the prisoners. He also didn't miss the fact that Evrret seemed to have yet to realize that he was dealing with a Zora. It seemed that the disguise had worked – for now.

"You don't want to cross me, thief," said Evrret, "If you know what's good for you."

"Tell me where the prisoners are," repeated Ralis, ignoring Evrret's threats.

But Evrret just smirked and looked down at the dagger clutched in his hand, as if contemplating its merits, before deciding to launch it straight towards Ralis's head. The Zora easily ducked out of the way, listening for the thud as the knife buried itself into the wall behind him. Unfortunately, however the dagger provided enough distraction for Evrret to obtain a real weapon – well weapons. Ralis looked up in time to see the General pulling two broad swords out of a chest in the corner of the room. He brandished them with a flair that told Ralis he knew what he was doing.

Ralis gulped involuntarily. Suddenly his single blade seemed very inadequate.

"Like I said," repeated Evrret, "Drop the sword and I might consider letting you live."

"Oh, because you have such s good track record for keeping promises." Ralis did not say that and neither did Evrret. Both spun towards the door to see a certain blonde soldier brandishing a long and sharp sword with practiced ease.

"Colin?" said Ralis in disbelief.

"Corporeal Colin," echoed the General in a growl, "I suggest you leave now if you don't want to spend the rest of your life staring down the inside of a cell."

"Frankly, I'd rather have that fate than continue working for the pathetic excuse for a General that you are," said Colin mirthlessly, "But I don't plan on becoming your prisoner. I don't think the Zora is planning on that either."

Evrret blanched at this. "Z-Zora?" he said a little listlessly before contorting his features into a scowl. "Good. Then no one will even care when they find your mangled body washed up on the shore of Lake Hylia. Just desserts for the kidnappings you've organized."

"The Zoras have had nothing to do with those," said Ralis quietly.

"And what makes you think I'll just let that happen?" said Colin and Ralis looked over at him in surprise. The blonde shrugged. "Looks like we finally found our common enemy. But don't think this means we're friends."

Ralis half smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it."

They both turned back to Evrret who was doing a very good job of covering the fact that he was dumbfounded by this whole situation. "An enemy of mine is an enemy of the Kingdom."

"We'll see if the Kingdom agrees with that after they find out you've been taking prisoners without their consent." Ralis cast a sideways glance Colin but said nothing. So Evrret was working behind the Castle's back? Maybe there was still a chance that he could get their support. The Twilight that still blanketed his land lay heavy in the back of his mind.

But he pushed the thought aside; there was enough to deal with in his current predicament to put off worrying about the Twilight for a little bit longer. Evrret didn't have an answer to this last threat. Instead he growled and lunged at the both of them, swords whirling down in sharp arcs. Moonlight glinted off their curved blades.

Colin lifted his sword to defend as Ralis jumped back out of the way. The clang of metal on metal rang through the air as Colin twisted and turned blocking blow after blow of the dual swords. He was handling the General quite well on his own, but Ralis soon decided that it was time to step in.

Sidling around the distracted General, Ralis lunged forward, fins hardening like twin blades in the process. And before Evrret could even react, Ralis had his immobilized – captured with bladed fin pressed to his neck. "Drop the swords," said Ralis, pressing ever so slightly at the man's throat.

Evrret complied. "Go ahead. Kill me Zora. Prove me right that you and your race are monsters."

Ralis took a deep breath. "We are not the monsters. You, who kidnap the innocent, are." and with that he brought the hilt of the sword down hard on Evrret's head. The General went limp in the Zora's arms – unconscious.

Colin eyed him as Ralis lay the man back down on his bed. "I don't think knocking him out at all proves your point," said Colin. Ralis cast him a look to which he immediately amended, "Hey, I'm not complaining. I can't stand that guy and now he has Agitha…"

"Where is she?" was all Ralis could manage to say. Their separation was beginning to tear at him. Even if she wanted nothing to do with him and only wanted Colin… he still couldn't leave her imprisoned. He loved her too much for that.

Colin walked over to Evrret's limp body and pulled out a set of keys, holding them up in the light. "Follow me."


An update... finally *peeks out fearfully from behind laptop* I know it's been forever since I've done anything with this story and I'm really, really sorry. I'm going to try to be better. Especially since I've gotten reviews/favorites/alerts since the last update. I don't want to let down any of you awesome people actually reading my work. You guys rock, seriously. You deserve a prize for sticking with me.

Like maybe an apology for Colin's OOC-ness? I didn't mean it to happen, I swear! Just sometimes I type things with no real direction and when they finally start to take a direction... well, jealous and hot-tempered Colin happen. And a bug-less Agitha... but that one I can hopefully make up for later.

Anyway, thank you so much for any and all reviews. I read them all and take them to heart. Please leave one if you like the story!