Chapter 29

The frantic sounds of bloodshed had long descended into silence by the time Zelda mustered the courage to open her eyes once more. Without looking over the edge of the cleft, she knew with certainty that the Demon had survived and had emerged victorious from the deadly slaughter he had initiated. Something inside would have revealed his death to her, a connection forged by the same destiny which held her hostage.

She was no longer in danger, that much Zelda knew, from either the wolves or Demon's insane rage, but it was long before she could muster the courage to look down to the forest floor below. The black-cloaked warrior had killed or driven off their attackers, but she felt only the smallest tinge of gratitude for his efforts. He had not done it for her, nor to save himself, his actions were the product of his insatiable rage and lust to kill.

The princess, started as a blood-stained, gauntleted hand snaked over the ledge and latched onto it, followed by Demon himself as he hauled himself awkwardly into the cleft. Keeping himself near the edge, he sat gingerly while studiously avoiding facing the princess. There was a deep, parallel slashes running across his right thigh, along with a narrow seeping cut along one cheek and a few aligned punctures on his forearm, but the vast majority of the blood which stained his ragged apparel was not his own. Indeed, it looked to the princess as if the warrior of darkness had been bathing in a pool of the sanguine liquid, instead of merely battling wolves.

Still ignoring the princess, Demon tore a ragged slip from his clothing and started to bind the bite-wound on his arm. A sudden revelation overcame Zelda as he finished the task, showing to her the mysterious reason for the raggedness of the black-cloaked warrior's apparel. The surety and speed with which he finished tying the make-shift bandage in place also betrayed a long experience with such actions. How many times, Zelda wondered, has he done this before?

Watching the black-cloaked warrior, it was long before Zelda could speak, could once more treat her companion as a Hylian, instead of a murderous animal. The image of Demon throwing back his head and howling would most likely stay with her to the end of her days, but somehow the princess managed to overcome the blatant fear that accompanied it. She had seen the warrior of darkness both save her life and kill insanely and both aspects were melded into the soul that was Demon.

"They were after me, weren't they?" the princess asked, trying to break the silence between them. This was the Demon she had talked to the night before, without the manic killer who had massacred the wood wolves

The black-clad warrior looked up tiredly to meet her gaze, showing her the self-loathing behind his eyes, but his speech betrayed nothing of what he felt. "Since evil has awoken, many things have changed" he answered, looking down to attend to the claw-marks on his thigh, "Wolves run free in these woods once more, as they have not for thousands of years." A bitter smile tugged at his lips even as his eyes remained down-cast. "Who knows what they were after, princess?"

"But something attracted them; else they would have not found us so quickly." Zelda replied, furrowing her brow in puzzlement at Demon's answer. Looking at the fresh wounds sported by the warrior of darkness, she paused before continuing. "It was my fault, my fault that-"

"I slaughtered them?" Demon cut her off, cutting off all pretense of attending to his wounds. "No princess, they are my demons that are at fault for that. "As to what called the wolves..." He shrugged his shoulders in ignorance. "There is such thing as chance, even with destiny such as yours."

"And yours," Zelda ventured, looking deep into the Demon's eyes. "I should not think that the Hero of Time would have a lesser fate than the Princess of Destiny."

Pain spasmed through the black-cloaked warrior's body and he looked away from Zelda's intent gaze. "No…" he whispered, his eyes looking off into the distance, "He did not."

Zelda did not respond for a moment, wondering what the black-clad warrior had meant by his words. But Demon did not give her much time to think.

"We must leave, princess." He began as he finished with his wounds, "If we are to reach our destination by nightfall."

Obediently, the princess edged toward the side of the cleft, idly wondering what destination it was of which he spoke. She hardly noticed as Demon caught her arm, but then his voice broke through her thoughts, bringing her back to the present.

"My apologies princess, but I suggest you cover your eyes. It is not a…nice site below." Waiting only to make sure Zelda obeyed his suggestion, Demon dropped over the side to the forest floor below. He then buried his daggers into the wood once more and jumped onto them to assist the princess in her blind descent.

Zelda found herself clutching tightly to the trunk as she resolutely shut her eyes, but the princess stubbornly refused to open them. She had enough trouble keeping the images her mind conjured up of the slaughter below without having to actually witness it. Reaching out blindly she pulled herself to the edge of the cleft and froze, wondering how the black-cloaked warrior expected her to descend without the use of her eyes. It was a problem that was quickly solved as Demon delicately lifted her by the waist and swung her effortlessly to the ground

Fear once again sprouted in the princess as she remembered what those hands had done only minutes before. Fountains of blood had washed those hands, death itself traveled in those fingers, and Zelda found herself shying away before them. She could almost feel the sanguine liquid seeping into her clothing and staining scarlet hand prints into her Shiekan garb.

Demon ignored her shudder stolidly, knowing exactly what had caused them and cursing himself for his weakness. Once again he had hurt his princess, and the knowledge that he had removed the threat of the wolves upon her person made it no easier to bear. Moving forward, he led her slowly between the shuddering carcasses, making care to avoid the red-tinged pools slowly forming around them. Once, twice, he erred and the princess flinched as her foot encountered a soft, limp form, before delicately moving around it.

After what seemed like an eternity, the pair reached the limit of the slaughter and Demon let go of the princess's hand. "You may open your eyes, princess, but do not turn around." Demon started, noting the paleness of Zelda's face. She did so with a hesitant flicker, looking the black-cloaked warrior full in the face with her solemn blue eyes. Something flickered inside them, and emotion Demon could not name slowly replaced the fear.

"I thank-you," Zelda began, adopting a pose of more confidence than she felt, "For trying to protect me…but I must protest. We are entering a war, a war in which we are severely outmatched, and such things as this…massacre, will happen many times before this struggle ends. I cannot be shielded from the realities of this war if we are to have any chance of winning."

The princess turned to the black-clad warrior, expecting anger and disgust, but his face showed nothing but sadness. "It is a terrible thing," Demon whispered, shifting his gaze away from the princess and back towards the tree where they had sheltered, "To lose one's innocence."

Zelda shifted, remembering Impa, and the killing blow which had stolen her nurse's life. She had seen death, had felt the horrible toll it inflicted upon those left behind and knew its consequences. Abruptly, the reasons the princess had conjured to justify her words waver, but she forced herself to continue. "No," she murmured, "I have already lost that." Turning resolutely Zelda flinched as she beheld the horrible destruction around the tree.

The first thing she noticed was the blood, which covered the entire scene in garish red. Bodies lay everywhere, twisted into contorted positions by the violence of their death throes. In the princess's mind's eye she could almost see Demon moving among them with a speed and grace which totally outmatched the blinding quickness of the wolves themselves. The color slowly drained from Zelda's face as the battle raged in her head, adding vibrancy and motion to the nightmare in front of her.

The black-cloaked warrior looked at her and a curious, dangerous tone entered his voice. "Are you still so eager to fight, princess?" he asked, from behind her. Do you still wish to witness the glory of killing, to understand the truths of battle?

Abruptly turning away from the massacre and carefully finding an unspoiled spot in the grass beneath her, the princess dropped her pack down on to it. "Yes," the princess sighed, careful to keep her eyes forward and away from the massacre behind. "If I am to fight, to take back my kingdom, I must learn." Puzzled by the sudden anger in the warrior of darkness's features she paused before continuing. "I have seen war before-"

Demon cut her off, with a harsh laugh that echoed through the forest. "You think you have seen war, princess?" he asked, his voice lowering into a snarl as his face contorted in pain and sudden despair. "You think that since you have witnessed death, have seen the bright, shining weapons and the men marching off into the sunset with hope glittering upon their bright shields and their banners crackling in the breeze-" he ran out of breath and had to inhale deeply before continuing. "You think that you have seen war?"

Zelda recoiled in shock at the sudden change in her guide, seeing once again the terrible darkness which was festering in his soul. His presence seemed to have grown as he ranted, like he was leeching the shadows from the world around and taking them into himself, feeding upon their insubstantial being. Actually, as the thought flashed through the princess's head, he did not even look entirely human. As if a grotesque presence from the Dark Realm had switched places with the Demon she knew. But then it was gone, and the black-clad warrior crumpled inward, tired and spent, the red fleeing from his eyes.

Once again, he was speaking to someone else, no longer the princess. His remarks were not even addressed to her, but instead to the scenes inside his head that he could not escape.

"But have you seen war?" he whispered, peering off into the distance, his face blank, masking the conflict within. "Have you smelt the reek of fear as the enemy cuts down friends around you, seen the blood fly as the bodies fall upon the stained earth, never to rise again? Have you heard the screams, and the yammering, and the terrible sounds of bones crunching and breaking beneath the stroke of blade and hoof? Have you," he whispered, his voice fading away "Seen the light fade from a man's eyes as you pull your dripping sword from his torn throat, and feel the satisfaction at his death?"

"Have you killed, princess?" he finished, painfully dragging his mind away from the images of his past that had welled up inside his soul. Seeing the answer writ on Zelda's features the black-clad warrior smiled grimly. "No, I thought as much." Then his expression softened slightly. "But some would call that more of a strength than a weakness." He strode forward into the forest, leading the way for Zelda to follow. "Come princess, there will be many more such chances for you to witness destruction and death. Be not too eager to seek them."

Staring after him, Zelda realized that she had finally caught a glimpse, a brief flash of the forces that haunted the black-cloaked warrior, had finally witnessed a part of the shadow that claimed his soul. What forces had caused Demon's slip, the princess could not fathom, just that he had finally made one. That the tortured soul whose memories haunted him day and night had finally surfaced, if only for a few seconds, to voice his private horrors. I will find a way to heal you, Zelda promised herself,wondering as she did so at the conviction in her thoughts.