Alaia Skyhawk: CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!
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Also, I know I keep saying this but sorry for the wait. I've been proofreading and editing my book to its final manuscript, ready to start sending to literary agents in the hope one of them will sign me on and get it published, and it took a while to finish. If any of you haven't checked out my website (click the homepage link on my profile page, or the link I pasted near the top) and would like to read the teaser then please do. All comments on it in the guest book are much appreciated, as they will hopefully help me to get an agent. With any luck in a couple of years time, after I've gotten an agent and book's through processing, my book will be in bookshops *crosses fingers and everything else*
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I don't own the Zelda series or anything associated with it. I do however own this story and any OCs, so please don't steal them.
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Chapter 37: Lord of the Water Realm
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The sound of splashing mud and water, as he'd trudged through it towards what he knew would be the conclusion of this Realm's trial, had gradually given way to the thud of drier earth and stone. Just as Yorkl had described, Arkai found himself climbing the gradual rise that marked the rim of Heirdaras' lair. The creature apparently lived in the well of a natural spring, the ridge of rocky earth keeping the water within clear of the murkiness of the swamp beyond, while the water itself trickled outwards through the ground in places to feed the wetness of the surrounding lands.
Taking a deep breath as he saw the top of the ridge just a short ways ahead, Arkai neared one such rivulet and paused to fill his water bottle. He wasn't scared, not anymore, though he supposed some fear would kick in when he finally came face-to-face with the beast. Yorkl's words of advice, and the story of his brother's folly, had had a deep impact on the would-be Hero. He would remember that lesson, and be sure not to make that mistake. Thinking on it now, it made it easy to understand why the Sage of Courage, when he'd been the Hero of Winds before his awakening, had gone to such efforts to be treated no differently than any other man. He had shunned pride, and instead put himself to continuing to help those around him, and even then had still managed to achieve the more ordinary part of life that was marrying and having a family. He'd balanced those myriad paths of his life into one whole, and come out of it a man who all admired and respected for all the right reasons. Arkai could only hope that, should he defeat Malice, he could do even half as well as the Sage had done.
His bottle now full, Arkai fastened it back to his belt and kept going, striding up the last of the slope to stop at its peak. True to Yorkl's words the land within dropped away to form a vast bowl of earth and rock, filled within by crystal clear waters and a scattering of rocks and tiny islands. Another difficulty in fighting Heirdaras was now apparent... those wishing to attack him had to swim to where he nested. Well, now was time for him to literally get his feet wet yet again.
Arkai carefully descended the slope to the water's edge, mindful of every noise he made. He wanted to get as close to the hydra as he could before it detected him. If the thing really did have seven heads he wanted every advantage surprise would give him in dealing with them.
Reaching the water, he eased out into it and began to swim as silently as he could burdened by all his gear. He'd stop to rest on some of the tiny islands along the way... no sense in reaching Heirdaras out of breath.
A short distance away, hidden from sight by illusion and mist, Link watched as Arkai slowly closed in on the currently sleeping Guardian. Four was the number of Guardians Arkai had yet defeated, four the number who would now lend their aid if it became needed in the battle against Malice. Two more was the number of those who he had yet to prove himself to, and Heirdaras was by far the harder of the two to best. Arkai would have to use his head as well as his speed... if he didn't then the hydra was about to get a snack.
Link followed him, his puppet 'Yorkl' abandoned out in the swamp now that he no longer needed it. Arkai was so close to the end now, so close to the end of the trials of the Temple of Courage. In five hundred years of plans and preparations, time spent building these Realms and the tests within them, he was actually finding himself anxious to see how this first potential Hero to face them would pan out. Arkai was so close now; Link almost wanted to bite his nails at wondering if he'd make it through the rest, or fail spectacularly at the last few hurdles. Failure would mean dark times for Hyrule, until such a time as another potential Hero would arise. If that happened, Hyrule and its people would forever be scarred by Malice and its dark intentions. Not even the Sages would be able to prevent that lasting harm, shackled as they were by the laws of the Balance. They would do what they could to shield the people, but apart from that they would have no choice but to bide their time until another rose to face the darkness.
Shaking aside those grim thoughts, Link took a deep breath to settle himself and continued to follow the other Hylian. All he could do for now was watch...
It had emerged into view from the faint mist ahead, the sight of scaled coils partially submerged in clear waters. Confronted by the sleeping Heirdaras, Arkai had continued his slow and careful swim, pulling himself carefully up onto a rock close to the beast and taking his bow from his back. One head of the seven was in clear in view, the others partially or totally concealed by each other's necks. It didn't matter though... one shot was all he was going to get before a very angry hydra woke up with a desire to chew him into little pieces.
Kneeling on his rock to steady himself, Arkai fitted an arrow to his bow and drew it. No magic, just a mundane arrow with a razor sharp point on it aimed at an eye closed in slumber, an eye set in a head half the size of a small cottage.
Heirdaras... was huge.
Biting his lip nervously, the fear he'd expected finally starting to kick in, Arkai adjusted his aim one last time and fired. The arrow whistled though the damp air and slammed through the lid of the closed eye, the fact that Arkai had fired from just twenty yards away when the bow's range was over a hundred and fifty meaning it did what he'd hoped. The slender shaft went through the eye into the skull beyond, killing the head it belonged to even as the remaining six jolted awake with a scream of rage.
Arkai stood up, his mouth suddenly dry as six sets of fangs were bared at him, Heirdaras towering over him. One head lunged at him, and in blind instinct he jumped backwards and fired an ice arrow at it where it struck and smashed the rock he'd been on.
The water around the rock and the partially submerged head froze solid, a startled squeal revealing the head was trapped. Hearing it, Arkai scrambled to his feet from where he'd landed on this sudden platform of ice, drawing his sword and jamming it through one of the head's eyes. Startled squeal became earth-shattering shriek, as with another head down the other five all lashed out at him.
Arkai swore, running across his patch of ice while readying another ice arrow, taking cue from his first accidental platform to use more of them to create solid 'ground' for him to move on. Behind him the ice where he'd been was shattered, water sloshing up from below to splash at his heels. Weighed down by two dead heads and their necks, the hydra couldn't follow far, and reaching the edge of its range Arkai did something he hadn't done since the Realm of Fire.
Golden Gauntlets were pulled on, a hammer lifted from where it hung on his back, Arkai reversing his direction in time to see a tooth-filled maw bearing down on him. He struck out with the hammer, putting all his strength into the swing, the attacking head half crushed by the impact even as the force slammed it into and killed the head that had been lunging down behind it.
Only three heads were left, and they were not happy. Now trapped in place by four dead heads, Heirdaras hissed with its central one before it did something the Hylian fighting it hadn't known it could do... It spat blue fire at him.
Arkai yelped as he slid across his ice to hide behind a rock, the white sheet beneath him sprouting frost flowers as the moisture in the suddenly icy air froze on its surface. The hydra was now savagely defending its remaining heads, and there was no way it was going to give him another chance to use the hammer again.
He returned it to his back, considering his remaining options. Arrows would just be blasted out of the air, the Lens of Truth wouldn't help, and his hammer wasn't going to work again. Shoving gauntlets back under his belt, he plucked one of his clawshots from it and jammed it into a crack in the side of his rock, he then made a mad dash to another rock nearby, and repeated it with his other clawshot even as another burst of icy flames licked at him. He then came into the open, covering himself with his mirror shield and praying.
He felt the flames hit, a crystal whine reaching his ears as the shield absorbed it. Heirdaras, startled by the disappearance of its attack, hissed at that mirrored defence. Taking his holding the shield to mean he didn't have the hammer out right now, it sent its two remaining side heads at him to rip his shield away from him.
Arkai heard them coming, standing straight as they came at him before throwing the pieces of rock he'd pried from the second bolder at the latches of his two wedged clawshots. Claws and their attached chains shot outwards, each managing to latch onto a part of each of the two heads. Arkai ran at the nearer one, striking with his sword to kill it before firing an arrow into the eye of the other where it lay stunned from its forced impact with the other rock.
Thanking every god he could think of that the stunt had worked, Arkai now began to advance on the final, central head. Heirdaras was now screaming incoherently in rage and dare he say it... fear. In a matter of minutes he'd slain its six side heads, albeit it didn't know that two of those had been sheer dumb luck, and two more had been done more at suicidal risk than deliberate trickery. All it knew was that this Hylian was coming for it, and now it was beginning to panic.
It blasted fire at him again, again Arkai crouching down to put his whole body behind his shield. The crystal whine from before increased in intensity, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he began forward again. A third blast came, the whine suddenly a chime before blue flame he'd had no idea it had been storing blasted outwards. Trapped in the shield, the culmination of three fiery attacks had been compressed and intensified, screaming outwards right into the face of the final head. In seconds scales became coated in a layer of ice like frozen shackles, Heirdaras letting out a choked shriek when it realised it was stuck.
Arkai stood there, dumbstruck, at the sight of the ice-coated head and front half of the hydra. Heirdaras' body was struggling madly, the ice trapping it starting to break. That sight spurred him into action, one young Hylian sprinting across frozen lake towards fear filled eyes that were trapped well within reach of attack.
When his blade sunk home, Arkai felt no triumph. Heirdaras lay there, defeated, but he knew it was only partly down to his own skill. Humbled by that, and by the knowledge of how it might have turned out if he hadn't been so damned lucky, Arkai turned to face the portal that appeared a short distance away and headed for it, pausing once to glance in the direction of the swamp where he'd last seen the crotchety old frog.
"I won't let this go to my head, Yorkl, you can count on that"
He disappeared through it, the portal vanishing even as another Hylian appeared from his veil of illusions.
Link, his pride at Arkai's victory and attitude clear to see on his face, sighed once before facing the downed Guardian and casting his power over it. Ice melted, wounds healed, and seven sets of golden eyes opened once more to gaze down at their master. The central head reached out, setting itself before Link so he could lay a hand on it before letting out a small chirrup of enquiry.
Link smiled, patting his Water Guardian's snout in approval.
"You put up a good fight, Heirdaras, rest up until I call you again. It's time for me to go set things up in the final Realm."
Stepping back as the guardian curled up to sleep once more, Link then pushed himself back into the Mortal Realm where a potential Hero now settled himself to do likewise.
Alaia Skyhawk: Hehe, that was a fun fight to write.