Hey, I kept my promise. Here's chapter 52, right one schedule. Hopefully I'll be able to post 53 in an even shorter period. But that really depends how long it takes me to write 56 (with my three chapter cushion).
I'm trying to make chapter longer, to compensate for how slow I seem to be posting them, but this one's still only 6 pages. Sorry about that.
Better than the last on though. :-)
Man this site has changed a lot in the last couple years, I barely recognize it any more, and I have no idea how to use all the features. It looks like Zelda fiction is becoming an antique...well, we were popular for a while...
Chapter 52
Kashi awoke first the next morning, into the biting cold and harsh surroundings of Death Mountain. He had not slept well in the forbidding conditions, and having spent half the night mulling over the Cycle and the end of the world had not helped. Some of it he had already guessed, but to hear his darkest fears confirmed had truly shaken the innkeeper. He was traveling in the grip of Destiny, and, from the stories he'd heard of such adventures, the people in his position usually ended up dead.
He looked over to where his companions slept. It amazed him how peacefully Zelda could sleep knowing the fate of the world hung around her neck. She had been betrayed, deposed, chased half-way around the country, and yet had not cracked, despite the pressure. Demon had broken under the strain long before, Kashi knew, but Zelda…
Zelda was stronger than either of them.
Kashi sighed and looked away, distracted by his crystallizing breath in the crisp morning air. He sort of wished he was back at his inn, serving up drinks and threatening the rowdier patrons, back in a different life which was quickly becoming a memory. Two days before, he had been an innkeeper in a town that, except for being in the process of freezing solid, was a thoroughly enjoyable place. It was a far-cry from his present situation.
He looked back at Zelda's sleeping form. It was so fragile, even wrapped in her blankets, most of Demon's blankets, and even the assassin's coat. So small, and yet so important.
Tired and frustrated, Kashi rubbed his face with massive hands, coarse stubble grating against calluses. He was not bitter against his two companions for involving him, they had not forced him into his present position, and they had not tied the knots which bound him to their side. Besides, it was Kashi himself that had finally volunteered to guide them over the mountains.
"Well," He grunted to himself. "It could have been worse." His gaze focused on the assassin sleeping just outside the circle of their camp.
"I could have been you."
***
The second day the trail sloped ever downwards, a circumstance that allowed the companions to travel a farther distance, and yet hung heavy on their hearts. The descent may have been easier to endure than the grueling climb which their aching muscles remembered vividly, but each step was one step farther from Hyrule. Of the three, Zelda was most aware of the increasing distance between her and the country she had previously ruled.
To taker her mind off it, she tried to focus on Termina, and how she was going to convince its king to lend her his army. Technically, Termina and Hyrule were allies, but the treaties had not been renewed in over a hundred years, and Zelda secretly wondered how deep the bonds of loyalty truly ran. The Terminians would be loath to pit themselves against the massed forces of the Aratian Empire unless they truly believed there was no other choice.
Which was exactly what Zelda had to convince them.
The princess stumbled over a loose rock and nodded thanks as Kashi caught her arm. What was known in Termina about the Cycle, she wondered. Would they believe her if she claimed the Great Evil was loosed upon the world? Thinking back to her few encounters with Terminian dignitaries, Zelda could remember nothing of their religious beliefs, and that fact unsettled her. If they could not understand the importance of the events which surrounded them, than even the princess's formidable persuasion would not succeed.
Turning, Zelda looked at the innkeeper. "Have you ever been to Termina?" she asked.
Kashi gave her a strange look. "Many times, but I know only the border-town Silva, where the merchant caravans unload their baggage.
"What did you think of the town?" Zelda pressed, trudging along as the trail wound its way around an outcropping.
The innkeeper furrowed his brow. "It's a cramped, dirty place, surrounded by a high wall to keep out the occasional moblin raiders. More like a small city really, than a town, and I've never liked cities."
He squinted, looking off into the distance. "The people are different than Hylians, but not by much. A few strange traditions-" he shuddered. "I almost got myself married once."
Zelda nodded, not really listening to the innkeeper's answer. She was back to plotting Aratia's demise, and the devious paths her mind wandered were unfathomable by any else. Kashi continued, unfazed.
"She was a nice girl, but not exactly what I had in mind." Eyes staring off into the distance, he rambled. "It's a pity I had to leave town so quickly once her father found out."
He was cut off by a thin scream, which wafted its way up the mountain, jolting the companions back into the present.
Zelda's scheming was cut short in an instant. "Moblins!" She hissed, her hand fumbling for the alien sword-hilt on her hip.
"They've found other travelers." Knives glittering in his hands, the assassin tensed for a moment, and then relaxed. "That should distract them long enough for us to pass."
His brutality stunned the other two companions into silence, but not for long. "What do you mean pass, we have to help them!" The princess jumped in.
Demon turned and looked her in the eyes. "Do we?"
"Yes!" Zelda exploded, horrified at the assassin's callousness. "I would not leave even Gabriel to die at the hands of moblins! I-"She broke off, shocked that she had just referred to her former lover. Avoiding looking at Demon, she turned to the innkeeper. "Am I right Kashi?"
The bear-like man considered briefly, and then nodded agreement. "If we do not help, than we are no different than the Aratians."
Demon looked from one to another as if weighing something in his head. Another scream echoed from down the mountain, and then a shout and the ring of steel.
"If that is what you wish." His eyes were on Zelda, rather than the innkeeper. "Then let us rush to the fight and hope that you at least know how to draw that sword, princess." He gestured to her waist.
Zelda grasped the hilt self-consciously, and yet did not pull. It was the first mention Demon had made of his gift in the two days she had worn it, and the princess honestly wished it was under different circumstances. So many questions still ran through her mind, and yet she could not ask them while moblins killed innocent travelers.
"I'll do what I can." She hedged, before turning to the innkeeper. "Lead on Kashi."
"Then come." The big man broke into a run. Zelda moved to follow, but a hand on her shoulder spun her to look into the assassin's eyes. Like always, they were almost completely unreadable.
"If it is Gabriel down there, the moblins won't have to kill him." He turned and ran off after the innkeeper.
Slightly taken aback, Zelda wondered what exactly her bodyguard had meant. She had immediately regretted mentioning Gabriel, and the pain his name brought her was only doubled by the assassin's response to it. Besides, the princess realized as she began to run, she might have been lying about not letting him get killed.
Dodging the boulders which lay scattered across the pass, the three companions gradually converged on the battle raging below them. The ugly sounds of combat grew clearer and clearer until Zelda found herself certain that every corner they rounded would be the one to plunge them into the fray. And yet Kashi did not stop until they had almost reached the end of the valley, about to plunge into the next one.
"The echoes in this place are deceptive," the big man apologized. "I cannot get any closer without risking plunging us into the fight. From this point on we must be battle-ready."
Demon drew his knives, and the innkeeper rummaged impatiently through his pack before pulling out a heavy pouch which clinked with every movement. He opened it, and Zelda leaned forward curiously to see what weapon Kashi favored. Whatever it was, it fit into an awfully small bag for such a big man.
What he did pull out were two steel gauntlets, much like the assassin's except bigger. For a moment, the princess was confused, until the innkeeper slipped into his inventions, and Zelda saw the splinter of metal embedded into their knuckles. What Kashi was wearing were modified versions of what tavern brawlers referred to as "brass knuckles", known for the brutal way they cracked cartilage and bone.
Kashi finally noticed her attention and shrugged grimly. "These won't be much use against moblin swords and pikes, but they're better than nothing. My crossbow was too bulky to carry over the mountain."
"You'll need your sword too princess." Demon reminded Zelda, tapping the hilt with one of his knives.
Swallowing, she nodded. "Right." The weapon felt cold in her hand as she drew it's gleaming length from the scabbard.
Demon smiled, and raised one gauntleted fist in the air. "For Hyrule." He said.
"For Hyrule." Kashi and Zelda agreed, and followed him down the mountain.
They sprinted through one more boulder field before finding themselves on the edge of a seep bowl teeming with moblins. At the center, a tight circle of overturned wagons provided cover for their human occupants, who were protecting their lives and livelihoods with grim determination. The caravan guards thrust their pikes through gaps in the wagon, which a steady hail of stones from the merchants within the circle kept the monsters at bay.
It was a temporary standoff that could only end in death for the besieged humans. They had been surrounded and taken by surprise, the unlucky stragglers cut down where they stood by the vicious moblin attackers. In minutes the Terminians had been forced to terms with their own imminent death, and yet they were set on selling their lives dearly. None could have foreseen the arrival of salvation in the form of three travelers sprinting over the lip of the mountain.
Omar, Captain of the Merchant Guard, was a man of the sword, and had always believed that someday he would die upon one. And yet now that the moment was fast approaching, he had quickly realized how little he wanted that prophecy fulfilled. One moment he skewered a moblin with a ferocious thrust, and the next he ducked behind the barricade to avoid a retaliatory hail of arrows, snarling as one of his men fell transfixed. Omar did not want to die, and so when the surprised grunting of the Moblins made him again poke his head out over the wooden wagon to watch Demon and Kashi enter the fray, even the terror of their coming could not quell his smile.
The assassin's sanity had begun to desert him the moment he set foot into the valley, and by the time he reached it's bottom nothing of the man remained. He was the destroyer, a nightmare of wrath and vengeance that had descended out of a clear, blue sky to dole out unholy justice upon the assembled moblins. None could stand before him, and yet so great was the evil of his presence that the monsters mistakenly assumed that he was another of their master's creatures sent to lead them in his foul work. It was an assumption that caused them to waste precious seconds when they could have been running for their lives.
The question of allegiance was answered for the creatures when Demon took off the first one's head, and sent the still quivering body rolling down the hill. He managed to kill two more before a glancing blow from another's pike threw off his balance and sent him tumbling also. The moblin's victory was short-lived however, as Kashi's metal-clad fists crumpled it's skull like paper.
Grabbing the swarthy, pig-like creatures spear, the innkeeper followed his companion down. He lacked the skill of the assassin, but his sheer size made him a force to be reckoned with. For Kashi, accuracy was not important, wherever he hit the creature it was going to stay down.
Forced to react to a new threat, the moblins all but ceased their attack on the caravan and concentrated on getting out of Demon's way. The ferocity of his charge unnerved them, and only the harsh cursing and threats of their chieftains prevented them from breaking and running. Kashi and Zelda hurried along in the warrior's wake, both counting the forces arrayed against them and suddenly doubting the wisdom of their rescue attempt.
Omar was still peeking over the barricade, watching the rapidly approaching Demon with serious incredulity. His weapon lay forgotten at his side, the moblins having temporarily stalled their attack and his companions also were caught up in the sudden twist of fate. He had asked the Sky God to send an angel of war, Omar knew, but this, his gaze fixed on Demon, this was no angel.
Closer, the warrior of darkness came, and closer, until the raging death in his gaze seemed to fill the beleaguered Terminian's souls. Then, abruptly, the assassin reached them and Omar felt a breath of air against his face as the man vaulted into the center of the wagons.
In that instant, the merchant guard remembered not only their disregarded weapons, but also the possibility that the wraith in their midst might have come to kill them all. Within seconds, the assassin found himself surrounded by a ring of spears, and he snarled menacingly. Luckily, it was in these seconds that Kashi and Zelda scrambled ungracefully into the stand-off.
The princess immediately took stock of the situation.
She sidestepped a guard, slipped between the spears and Demon, and watched some of the rage fade from his eyes as they focused on her. He wasn't exactly calm, but now he would be at least coherent. "These men are not your enemies," She pleaded. "Don't kill them."
Tension wavered in the air for a moment until Demon shuddered slightly, and his knives disappeared into their sheaths. A presence had left him, or been subdued, and in it's place another rose up.
"My name is Demon." He announced gruffly to the Terminians. "And these are my companions Kashi and Zelda." He pointed to each in turn.
"We've come to rescue you."
