Chapter 36: The Morning of the Day Everything Changed
The sun rose in the east, bathing the ramparts of the Whitos-Neiki castle and surrounding city with warming light, though a gentle autumn breeze pressed a relaxed chill into the air. It was a day just like any other for the citizens of the city.
Until the alarms on the west wall sounded. Shouts echoing across the rooftops and bells ringing frantically, soldiers pouring from their homes, hastily buckling their weapons and armor, or were already wearing them, having just come off the night watch, now called back to duty.
King Maylow arrived on the western wall, his men saluting as he climbed the stairs to see what was the cause for alarm. He had skipped his makeup, his tan skin darkened further by the his shadow with the sun at his back.
In the distance, growing steadily closer, was an army that poured still from the passes leading into the western mountains as the head of the army marched across the barren, bloodstained field between the mountains and the city wall.
This, however, was no shambling army of undead monsters that had intermittently annoyed the city for the past decade. These were living, breathing men and women. The sound of war-drums could be heard, keeping the men in step as they grew steadily closer.
A lone figure marched ahead of the army, at about a distance of twenty feet from the leading ranks. The breeze suddenly died away as Maylow heard words echoing across the land. He couldn't make out the words, such was the distance, but when the last was spoken, a streak of white lightning leaped from the leading figure to strike the city wall about twenty feet to his right. Stone and mortar were thrown high into the air, along with all the soldiers unfortunate enough to have been standing there, their screams and the crashing of rubble audible to all.
When the dust settled, Maylow could see the gap, about ten feet wide, with rubble around and through it, that was an easy to access opening in the wall. A shout rose from the distant army as more and more of their number joined in, becoming a loud, endless war cry, and the charge began, the first ranks passing and swallowing the leader as they ran toward the city wall.
The wall was already breached, Maylow thought as he ordered his men to take defensive positions behind the breach with pikemen in front, swordsman behind them, and archers on the walls to attack from above.
Though it was not in the manner he had expected, he realized that Sheila and her friend had been right. The magician with them had breached the wall with ease. What could common soldiers do against that kind of power? The best course of action, Maylow knew, would be to evacuate the civilians, just in case things turned for the worse. But that caused two questions in his mind. Evacuate them to where, and just how much worse was it going to get?
Sheila shuddered slightly. The breeze was cool this morning, biting through her relatively thin clothing even under her cloak. Link now led them along a small animal trail through the forest as it meandered southward. Every so often he would slow and carefully scan their surroundings, as though looking for something, then resume the pace without speaking.
She remembered him being much more talkative when they had first met. Something was bothering him, that was for certain.
Midna had caught it, too. "What are you looking for?" she whispered from his shadow where Zelda and Sheila couldn't hear.
"We're not alone," he replied quietly, "We're being watched by someone just out of sight."
He turned suddenly at a rustling of tree branches, looking up to see a branch swaying just a bit harder than he thought the breeze could cause. Several of the golden brown leaves fluttered from the branch to the ground. Autumn was in full swing here.
Link paused to listen for a moment. "You hear that?" he asked the two women behind him.
They both listened carefully, the Zelda said, "I don't hear anything."
"Exactly," Link said, "Even this time of year, a forest should be filled with sounds of the creatures that live here. But they're all silent. Something isn't right."
They resumed walking. Moving in their wake was a figure that fulfilled Link's secret fear of someone who leaped through the trees in the manner of a squirrel, like the wood-folk of legends. However, this creature had inhabited this forest for longer than any member of their party had been alive.
It slipped from branch to branch with nary a sound, the branches swaying only slightly more under its weight than the breeze stirred them. It was intensely curious about these groups of people in its territory.
"Fall back! Fall back!" came the shout above the din of the fighting. Bodies of warriors on both sides clotted the breach in the wall of Whitos-Neiki, the fighters climbing over the corpses of their fallen companions to get at their enemies.
Ladders had appeared in from the attackers army and been thrown up to the wall on either side of the breach, sharp metal hooks latching into gaps between the crenulations and the cut stones beneath them, and the men and women of the attacking army poured up them onto the wall to be met with spear, sword, and axe. Bodies were piling up like cut wheat, but the attackers were gaining ground.
Whitos-Neiki possessed a two-fold defense. Should the outer wall fall, a second wall was erected, effectively cutting the city in half, with the castle on the east side, itself contained within a third wall. A breach on the east side would effectively ignore this second wall, but the king and the soldiers could still fall behind it and put up a fight for what remained of the city.
With the civilians evacuated from the western city to the east, King Maylow saw his men losing ground and numbers, and had no choice but to order the tactical retreat. "Fall back!" he called again, as loud as he could, "Flee to the inner wall!"
His soldiers were trained for this event, in any case. They moved back, keeping their weapons and shields toward the enemy, keeping the ranks even as they backed away from the wall, down the streets. Maylow himself was with one of the last groups, about fifteen men, as they retreated through the market square, their enemy close behind them, leaving more dead along the route as they pushed the defenders to have their blows turned by one shield-bearing soldier and to be stabbed by the one to his left.
As they did so, Maylow saw her. She ascended the mountain of bodies filling the wall breach, walking at a deliberate pace as her followers charged past her, careful to give her plenty of room. She stopped briefly atop the mound of death to scan the city from their, carefully taking in everything that was happening. Standing their in the morning light, Maylow could see everything about her, from her dark skin to her fire-red hair, the enormous and complex plating covering her left arm, and a sword in her right hand that seemed to pulse and glow with a life of its own even in the sunlight. Trickles of light seemed to flow over the blade from somewhere within its steel self, and even drip from the tip to the ground, like some mystical kind of blood.
And then she turned and looked directly at him. She saw him, and Maylow was sure she knew who he was. For a brief instant, an image of a great mountain cat, with a deep purple body, and great saber-teeth stood behind her, its growl like the rumble of thunder. It was gone as soon as it had appeared, however, and Maylow couldn't help but wonder if he'd imagined it.
Then she descended the pile of corpses, and resumed her deliberate marching pace, straight in his direction. She was moving at about the same pace as Maylow and his men were retreating, and they would reach the wall well before she caught them.
She's the one who breached the wall with the bolt of lightning, Maylow thought, nearly oblivious to the fighting around him, If we can kill her, it may break their morale. It may be the only chance we have.
Unfortunately, hundreds of enemy soldiers continued to pour through the breach, moving down the streets in full charge, passing her by and joining the fighting.
It's not possible, Maylow thought as he moved with his men toward the inner wall, Where could they find so many men? There's nothing on the other side of the western mountains but desert, and these aren't the barbarians from the artic lands. There is no place in the world for this army to come from…
The woman walking toward them suddenly lifted her left arm, and a single word echoed about them in her voice, "Daem!" A streak of lightning shot from her fingertips to connect with the corner of a building rooftop over Maylow's head.
"Move, move!" he shouted to his men, pushing several in the direction of the inner wall as he broke into a run and an eight foot segment of the building's wall, along with hundreds of chips and bricks, fell toward them. Two men were too slow and were crushed beneath the heavy stone as they fled.
Maylow looked back for just a moment, and through the heavy dust that floated slowly down, he could see the woman's figure, coming ever closer.
Arthur Ragefaust could hear the fighting. He looked up at the wall that divided the city in two from the east side. He was on the "safe" side, at least for the moment. It was dazing, to think that for ten years the city had held against this enemy, and now they had breached the wall and were swarming over the western half in but a few moments.
He could see the defenders coming through the gates in the wall, most of those able to walk under their own power lending their shoulders to the wounded, others carrying children or dragging civilians by the arm, trying to get everyone to safety.
What would she do? Arthur had already made up his mind. He was no warrior, but he would join the defense of the city. He marched to the garrison entrance next to the gate, finding a soldier who seemed to be in charge, issuing orders to the rest. It was chaos as men seemed to be flying every direction, up the wall, through the gate, and the wounded left lying in the street for lack of anything else that could be done at the moment.
Arthur could smell blood, and a lot of it. He nearly stopped when he passed one man lying on his side, screaming in pain with a hand clamped over his gut, where his chain shirt had been cleaved open and his insides threatened to slip between his fingers. Arthur took a deep breath, steeling himself, and approached the commanding officer.
"I want to fight," he said without preamble, "Where can I get a sword?"
The officer turned to him, the look on his face saying he was ready to scream him down, when another voice called to him. "Captain! Shut the gate!"
It was King Maylow, along with about twelve men coming through the gate. "We're the last ones!" the king said, "Shut it now!"
"Close the gate!" the captain shouted into the open doorway behind him.
With a resounding crash that shook the ground beneath them, the portcullis slid down and slammed shut.
"And as for you," the captain said, turning to Arthur, "Don't waste my time. Go to the safe house with the rest of the civilians…"
"I want to fight," Arthur said, "I'm not going to cower in the safe house while everything I know is destroyed."
"Captain," King Maylow said, stopping the man from responding, "Get the archers up on the wall and tell them to concentrate on the red-haired sorceress that's coming this way. She's their leader, I'm sure. If we can kill her, it will be a severe blow to their morale. Go, man!" he added as a shout when the captain hesitated.
The king turned to Arthur. "And you. You want to fight, is it?"
"Yes, your majesty," Arthur said, "I want to defend the city."
"A city is nothing but brick and mortar without people, lad," Maylow said, "I'd rather you defend our people than the city."
"Yes, sir," Arthur said, "I want to defend our people."
"Hey, you!" Maylow turned and shouted into the garrison doorway, "Throw me one of those spare swords."
He caught the sheathed blade just under the hilt when it was tossed out the doorway. He turned and offered it, hilt first, to Arthur. "I hereby dub thee lance constable. Now get up on that wall, soldier."
"Yes, sire!" Arthur said as he took the sword and ran for the wall.
He joined the men ascending the ladder to the top of the wall, buckling the baldric of his new weapon around his waist as he waited a chance to step onto the ladder. Men swarmed up the ladders on either side of the gate like ants, scarcely any space between the feet of one and the head of the next.
When Arthur reached the top of the wall, he received his first sight of the enemy they faced. More men than he could count stood in perfect ranks in the streets facing the wall. Packed shoulder to shoulder across the streets, they looked like an immovable wall of flesh. For some reason their charge had stopped a distance from the wall.
"Ast kailon nu drige darmin," a woman's voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, echoing in a most unworldly manner, and the sky seemed to darken with the words. A spark of light drew Arthur's gaze and he saw her.
Standing on a rooftop just out of range of the archers was an elf woman with fire red hair, the sorcerer the king mentioned. Her right hand, at her side, clutched a sword whose blade seemed to be made out of some kind of liquid metal as shapes and lines moved along it's blade, and white light dripped from the tip to vanish just before reaching the ground.
Her armor was a design like Arthur had never seen, form-fitted to her body, spikes protruding from her right shoulder-plate, and her left arm covered with so many interlocking plates, he couldn't fathom how they could move together and not lock up. She lifted her left arm toward the sky, the clawed fingers of the heavy gauntlet stretched out as her palm pointed straight up.
Sparks of electricity ran over her body seemingly at random, and Arthur realized she was conjuring magic at that moment. "Han trea bu zeke!" she incanted in that otherworldly voice, "Ancient god of death, unleash ultimate destruction upon my enemies, and open the gates of Hell!"
The sky was getting darker, Arthur realized. Black clouds materialized in the sky, swirling around a single point, a small funnel visible directly over the head of that woman.
King Maylow appeared at Arthur's side. "Dear gods, it can't be…" he said, trailing off in a whisper.
"Can't be what?" Arthur asked.
Before the king could answer, a single beam of light shot from the woman's hand straight up into the clouds. The color of the clouds suddenly changed from black to a hideous dark violet, and the woman lowered her left arm, pointing her fingers directly toward the wall. The next word she spoke, even in the bizarre echoing voice, was clearly a shout, and the three syllables drug out in a shout that seemed to last forever.
"Harrowing!" she shouted.
Beams of white light fired from the violet clouds, striking into the ground, each one covering a six foot diameter and raking across the ground in seemingly random directions. Men caught in the beams scarcely had time to scream before their flesh turned to ash, flaking off into the air, their and weapons turned molten, their bones crumbling to dust, only to vanish into the molten stone that had once been a solid wall and streets beneath them. Hundreds of the beams struck down throughout the city, and traveled in every direction, crisscrossing in an unpredictable pattern, leaving rivers of molten steel and stone in their wake.
The entire eastern half of Whitos-Neiki had just fallen victim to the most powerful of the ancient forbidden magics.
Arthur could do not but watch as the city burned and screams of the dying echoed louder now than before, as the beams of light crossed before him and to either side, leaving him standing on an unstable piece of the wall about three feet in diameter. Blind luck and the shock that had frozen him in place saved him from the spell as the last of the beams vanished. He turned back to look at the army on the other side of the wall. The soldiers threw their arms in the air, cheering their victory, though they had little part in it.
One figure wasn't cheering, however. The sorceress on the rooftop sheathed her sword, and with her unarmored hand, wiped her face as she turned away from the destruction.
Arthur felt something in his chest. A feeling like he'd never felt before. If what he had felt for the woman, Zelda, had been true love, then this was best described as its polar opposite. It was complete and unbridled hatred.
"I'll kill her," he said to himself, "I swear I'll kill her."
"Hey!" a voice called to him. He turned to see King Maylow and about six soldiers standing on a rooftop across the street from him, on the half of the building that had been spared from the beams of light.
One of the soldiers had a rope which he was tying around a small brick. Arthur sheathed his sword, seeing what they intended. "Catch!" the soldier called as he picked up the brick and hurled it, trailing the rope, across the river of molten stone that had once been the street.
Arthur caught the brick and took grip on the rope about a foot up from it. "You'll have to jump," Maylow called to him, "We'll catch you!"
The other five soldiers all took grips on the rope behind the first.
Arthur got what bit of a run he could and jumped from the fragment on the wall, which toppled in the opposite direction the moment his feet left the stone. The rope went taut in his hands and he slammed into the wall of the building across the street, his grip slipping and suddenly he found himself holding onto the brick instead of the rope, his feet hanging just a few inches above the molten rock of the street. He could feel the heat through his boots already.
Then he was rising, sliding up the wall as the soldiers heaved him upward. In a moment, he was safely on the rooftop. As he climbed to his feet, he looked back toward the west city. "Sire," he said, "What was that? You sounded like you recognized it."
"You know that many of the magics created during the ancient war were forbidden from being learned by modern magicians?" Maylow said, "That was one of those forbidden spells. The spell of ultimate destruction, the Harrowing."
"Our numbers have been decimated, sire," one of the soldiers said, "The enemy can't venture into the eastern city while the streets are molten, but we can hardly defend what is left."
"Yes," Maylow said, "Our only choice is to flee."
He turned to them. "We'll go east to Tyr and send runners to the other kingdoms. This enemy is too great for any one of us to fight alone. That sorceress has to die for us to stand a chance even with the remaining four united.
"We'll find a route out of the city and search for any other survivors while time permits," he added, "We need to be gone before they can start sending squads into the east city."
"That's it?" Arthur said, unable to disguise the disbelief in his voice, "You're just going to up and walk away from all this?"
Maylow turned to him. "What would you have me do, child? We can't fight a force like that now. We probably couldn't before. We can't do anything for those who have died right now, but try to prevent more deaths."
Arthur turned back to the west. "You said the sorceress has to die, right?"
"Yes."
"Then go," Arthur said, "Find what survivors you can and go. I'll stay here in the city. I'll kill her."
"You can't fight an army alone, lad," one of the soldiers said.
"I'm not going to. I'm going to lay in wait and ambush her," Arthur said, "She's bound to come over here to look around herself. And when she does, I'll kill her or die trying."
"My money's on die trying," the soldier said.
"What is this about, son?" Maylow said, stepping next to Arthur and speaking low so the soldiers would not hear, "You trying to be a hero or something? There's no future in that line of work, just so you know."
"No, sire," Arthur said, "Until two days ago, my life was empty and meaningless, until I met a certain woman. I did not even know what an empty shell my life was until I met her. She…" he paused to take a breath and consider his words, "She touched me, sire, in a way I never thought possible. I was intent on turning my life around, becoming a good man, worthy of her heart."
Maylow nodded and said nothing. "And now," Arthur said, "In but an instant, all I've known, all that I care about, my family, my friends, all that would mean something to the future of my life and the lives of countless others has been snuffed out. There is nothing left for me now."
"Was this woman in the city?"
"No, sire," Arthur said, "She left the day after we met."
"Then it seems you still have something to live for," Maylow said.
"If I can kill the sorceress," Arthur said, "then it will undoubtedly save millions of others she would slaughter in the same way. Even if I don't get out of the city alive afterward, that will be a worthy meaning for my life."
"So be it, then," Maylow said, "Good luck. You're going to need it. If you make it out alive, make sure to find that woman, understand?"
"Yes, sire."
The king and the soldiers departed, descending the stairs from the rooftop into the building, and onto a narrow street that turned into an alley that had been missed by the beams.
Arthur watched the opposing army, now busying themselves with plundering the western city.
For the second time in just a few days, Arthur's life had radically changed direction. He wasn't trained in the use of a sword, but he knew that if he could catch the sorceress off guard, he could kill her. He had to.
"Hear that?" Link asked the girls, who paused to listen.
"Sounds like running water," Zelda said, then caught it, "The river!"
"So we're about two thirds of the way through the forest," Sheila said.
The resumed the march down the animal trail. The walk had been easy compared to the march through the mountains, and Link was pleased to note that neither Zelda nor Sheila was tiring yet. They were getting into a decent traveling condition at last. Of course, that was being slightly unfair to them, considering that they both came from backgrounds not really accustomed to traveling on foot. Zelda was also becoming accustomed to the weight of her chain shirt, and the fit, and was no longer getting sores under her arms from it.
I wonder, he thought as they walked, She's not terribly good with that sword, though she has had a little instruction with it. Maybe we could stop early tonight and I can show her a few things.
"What happened?" Midna asked him, "You're smiling again for some reason."
"Haven't I been?" Link asked.
"No, for the past few days, you've been all brood, brood, brood, angst, brood, etc," she said, "In fact, ever since that night in the mountain pass."
"Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said, "Decided a few things. I'll tell you all about it when we stop tonight."
A shadow flitted through the tree branches up ahead, there and gone in less than a second, the branch it landed on shaking briefly a bit more than the wind rustled it.
"Did you see that?" Midna asked, her tone suddenly serious.
"Yeah," Link said, pulling the Master Sword from its sheath and sliding his shield to its position on his right arm, "Kind of wish I hadn't."
Less than six feet ahead, the path they were on opening into a clearing about fifteen feet across, and the river could be seen flowing west to east about twenty feet in. Link glanced back at Zelda and Sheila, to see they had picked up on what was going on easily. Zelda had her bow ready and an arrow nocked, and they were both scanning the tree branches above them.
"Sheila, you didn't sense anyone?" Link asked.
"No," she said, "I don't know how someone got this close, and I still can't find them."
Maybe it has something to do with line of sight or something, Link imagined, maybe even the elves don't know all there is to know about this sixth sense of theirs. Whoever it was, however, Link was sure they had been trailing them for awhile. The unease he'd felt the previous night, maybe they really had been someone watching them. Someone who was very good at remaining out of sight. Some forest rangers were rumored to be so good that when they didn't want to be seen, they could be standing on your foot and you wouldn't be able to find them. Link had never met one personally, of course. He wondered if they had anything in common with the ninja.
Whoever this was, though, they'd screwed up, and crossed right in front of them in plain sight. Not likely one of those legendary forest rangers, then.
"Let's get into the clearing where they can't drop down on us," Link said.
They moved quickly down the path, keeping their eyes on the trees above them. Once in the clearing, the three of them put their backs together so they could watch in all directions at once. "Midna," Link said, "You can see through shadows better. You seen anything in the branches?"
Midna emerged from Link's shadow, floating upward to just over his head, turning slowly to scan all the edges of the clearing. "No," she said, "Whatever it was, I think its-"
She was cut off suddenly as something white in color shot from the side and slammed into her, sending her flying toward the river to hit the ground and roll to a stop a short about two feet from the bank.
"Midna!" Link shouted, turning to see her struggling in a white net wrapped tightly around her small body.
"Link, what is this?" she shouted, "I can't see!"
Link moved to help her, and stopped. Suddenly they were all around them. In black leather armor and hoods, face masks, curved swords drawn, and all around them. About thirty of them, Link estimated.
Thirty ninja, laying in wait for them, their job made easier because they had been watching the trees.
"Midna," Link said, "Use your magic, blast out of it!"
"I can't!" she said, "Something's blocking me, and I can't see!"
"Damn," Link said, turning back to the ninja.
There was another familiar figure among their number. The woman pushed back the hood of her green cloak, revealing the green hair and hideous blue lipstick he remembered from the brief encounter in the mountains.
"Hello again, handsome," she said, and ran her tongue across her teeth, "Remember me?"
"Zelda, Sheila, we need to get to Midna," Link said in a low voice, "I'm going to charge that side of the circle and make an opening. I want you two right behind me when I do. Put your backs to the river and keep me between you and them and give me support with your bow and magic while I fight. Ready?"
Without waiting for an answer, he shouted, "Go!"
The ninja moved to block them off as they ran. Link swung his right arm up, the sheer weight of his shield breaking through the first ninja's guard and the sharpened bottom edge cutting into his arm, scraping along the bone and up across the ninja's face, cutting through the mask and slicing to clear to the skull in one motion, which sent the dark elf crashing to the ground, his hands held to the flaps of skin hanging loosely from his face as he howled in pain.
Link pulled the shield close as he turned in a complete circle as he ran and lifted his sword arm as he completed his circuit and cleaved the second ninja's head from his shoulders and pushed the body out of the way before it fell as he continued to run toward the river, and toward Midna.
He reached her and skidded to a stop as he spun about and shouted, "Behind me!" to Zelda and Sheila.
As they turned, Zelda loosed an arrow that struck one ninja squarely in the throat, who fell over backwards with a gurgling sound and blood bubbled from his neck.
"Get me loose, get me loose!" Midna was shouting.
One of the ninja was coming into Link's reach. He swung his shield again, but this ninja stepped back just in time, the sharpened edge barely cutting into the leather of the armor on his torso. He moved forward, lifting his sword to strike, and Link swung the shield back to the right, catching the ninja flat across the face with the front of the shield and its full weight, an audible crack was heard and blood poured out the front of the mask as the ninja's nose was shoved back into his brain, and sending him flying to the side.
Before the body even hit the ground, Link turned the strike of the next ninja on his shield and stabbed his sword into the ninja's gut, then pulled upward, the Master Sword cleaving easily through the ninja's armor and ribs and out his shoulder, showering Link in blood.
As he turned for the next, the ninja sudden fell on his face, an arrow protruding from the base of his neck.
That shot had come from the far end of the clearing, where they had come from. Someone was helping them!
Suddenly the world exploded in front of Link, and he felt himself thrown into the air, dirt flying up in front of him, and he landed on his back, his ears ringing and his vision blurry. Link shook himself. Had to get up. Had to.
He forced himself to one knee, shaking his head. He couldn't see or hear anything. Somehow he'd managed to hold onto his sword and shield.
"Fall back!" he heard someone say, "We have what we were after!"
There was someone standing before him. A man. In some kind of purple bath robe. The man leaned down and picked up Midna by the net that held her.
"No," Link growled, "Get away from her…"
The man turned toward Link. "Get away!" Link screamed as he leaped forward, swinging his sword with everything he had. The Master Sword cleaved into the man's shoulder, past his arm and nearly to his hip. The man grunted in pain.
Then he smiled, staring Link in the face with the sword in him, cut nearly in half, he smiled.
Then Link realized that there was no blood. The inside of the cut was an ugly brown color, and completely smooth. This man had no blood, no bones, no organs, or anything that kept a person alive. Link watched in morbid fascination as the wound closed around the sword, then up to the man's shoulder.
The man took his free hand, turned it sideways, palm open, and struck Link in the chest once. It felt like a kiss from a battering ram, and Link found himself flying backward through the air to land in the water of the river. It was deeper and faster than Link had thought, and he was swept rapidly downstream as he fought to sheathe his sword and move his shield so his hands would be free to swim.
Managing to do so, he kicked toward the bank, grabbing two handfuls of grass as he pulled himself from the water. There was shouting from upstream. They were still fighting. The was a dull thump, like a distant explosion as Link climbed to his feet and started to run back upstream.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something going down the river. The blonde hair that told him it was Sheila, fighting the current, not making any progress, her head bobbing up and down in the water as she choked.
"Oh, no," Link said to himself, "Don't tell me she can't…!"
He dove back into the water, swimming downstream after the drowning woman.
Swimming with the current, he caught up to her in just a moment, and wrapped his arm around her waist and swam sidestroke toward the bank. She wasn't moving, and his heart was pounding. He pulled them both up onto the bank and laid her on her back.
She wasn't breathing. "Come on," Link said, shaking her chin.
He leaned one ear against her chest. "Oh, no," he muttered.
"Okay," he said to calm himself just a bit, then closed her nose with one hand and leaned down to breathe directly into her mouth.
"Come on!" he said as he pushed at her chest with both hands.
It didn't take much. Sheila choked, coughing up water and rolling onto her side. She coughed again, more water spilling onto the bank.
"You okay?" Link asked.
She nodded weakly. "What happened?"
"We need to get back up river," Link said, rising to his feet and offering her his hand, "Can you walk?"
"I think so," she said as Link pulled her to her feet.
They moved as quickly back up the river as Link dared, but Sheila recovered quickly and soon they were running as fast as she could manage. Link could have easily outdistanced her, but he didn't want to leave her alone with those ninja about.
However, when they reached the clearing, it was as Link had dreaded. Six bodies, all the ninja that they had killed, lay in the clearing. Midna, Zelda, that sadistic woman, and the rest of the ninja all gone.
And that man also gone. What was he? One of the Lords of Chaos? He couldn't have been human.
Link scanned the terrain, looking for any form of trail in the torn ground that he could follow. The ninja, unfortunately, were very good at coving their tracks. There were no trails leading away from the clearing.
"Damn," Link whispered, falling to his knees in the dirt, then he slammed his fist into the dirt with all his strength, and screamed as loud as he could, "Damn it!"
It was somewhat ironic, he realized, he had been feeling somewhat at ease and happy for the first time in over a week. Now everything was falling apart.