You know I had to.
——————————————————————————
Whatever Link had meant to say promptly died in his throat as the rumbling faded away. He and Zelda stared at each other, horror mirrored in their expressions, long after the rumbling stopped.
"The mountain," Zelda whispered, her voice barely audible over the wind, rain, and distant, but ever-nearing, roaring. Link swallowed and grasped her hand, hauling her to her feet. "Come on. The boats are leaving. If we don't hurry, Valoo and the others will leave without us--"
The mountain gave another rumble--much louder this time. They could feel it shaking beneath their feet. As Link glanced around, panic-stricken, he noticed a glow from within the crater.
A new sense of horror dawned on him. He'd thought the glow had been cast by the large fires around the crater, but--but the fire pits had long since been drowned by the rain. The glow was from the magma that he could now hear over everything, bubbling and sizzling against the rain.
The mountain had never been dormant--and they were fools to think it was, so soon after the tragedy.
It was the panic from this new revelation that drove Link now, dragging Zelda--not that she was putting up much fight--down the road, away from the magma. The lava was perilously close to the lip of the crater--how had no one noticed? It was a tad hard to miss.
They careened down the road, the ruins now nothing more than gray-and-black blurs, slashed with streaks of white rain. Zelda's gasping registered over the torrential downpour, and Link's boots slipped on the slick cobblestones, almost sending them flying down the hill. His breath scorched his throat, sending spears of pain lancing into his side.
Through the gray haze, Link could see the dock. But when they reached it, Link's heart dropped into his shoes.
The boats were gone.
Against all instinct, he refused to let his shoulders fall and felt the soldier in him rise to the surface. So the boats were gone. He'd just have to find another way to get them off the island.
He pushed down the anger that Valoo had just left them there. There was no room for anger. He needed to find another boat.
And quickly, he thought as the mountain gave another rumble. He turned to pull Zelda back into the streets and found her eyes fixed on the cyclone.
"It's almost here," she said, and Link could hear the fear in her voice. He gripped her hand and her eyes snapped to his. "We are getting off this island," he said fiercely. "Together."
Something in her gaze sharpened, and she nodded. "I think I have something in mind."
Without further ado, she dragged him into a side street, leading him down a slight downhill. The building rose up on either side of him, as did the filth. Soon, their boots became caked in black mud and bits of seaweed as the island dipped below sea level. Here, when the mountain rumbled, the buildings shook and rained dust and debris down on them--though whether it was because the foundation was weaker this far down, or because the rumblings were getting stronger, he didn't know.
Link decided to go with the latter; when he looked up, black smoke was billowing into the sky.
Zelda stopped abruptly at an entrance to a tired-looking house, leaning on its foundations. At one end, water filled an empty space, and a makeshift dock had been constructed. And tied to one of the posts was a boat.
Link's heart leaped even as he took in the dilapidated state of the boat. It was old and rickety, and frankly looked like it would snap if he threw it hard enough, but as he stepped closer, keeping tight hold on Zelda's hand, he could see the weakest spots had recently been reinforced with lightweight steel bands.
His mind quickly took in the surroundings as Zelda whipped out her knife and began sawing at the rope ties. The small dock was linked to the sea via a short waterway. On the dock itself were a few oars and other planks of wood. Link gathered them up, his stomach giving an unpleasant flip as the mountain gave another roar, then fell silent.
Link froze, one foot in the boat. For one long, painfully quiet moment, the only sound was the gentle lap of water against the boat, barely audible over the thunder of rain, and their heavy, bated breaths.
Lightning struck. Thunder followed seconds later, and then they heard it.
An explosion like nothing they'd ever heard before, like two mountains slamming together, and red lit up the sky above them. Dread pooled in Link's gut.
Fire Mountain had erupted.
/
They had seconds. Twenty, at most, before the lava came.
Zelda barely kept her panic in check, but she could feel herself succumbing to it the longer they kept bobbing in the dock.
Link, on the other hand, was the picture of calm. He had leapt into action the moment they'd seen the sky turn red, leaping into the boat and kicking away at the rotting wood planks of the dock. But the wood was weak, and the storm on the sea had turned the waves into a maelstrom, and they had gotten nowhere, simply buffeted back and forth with the angry tides.
With a filthy curse, Link leapt out of the boat and pushed at it from the dock, his boots slipping. Rain had plastered his blond hair to his face, but it did nothing to diminish the fury in his blue eyes, the only spot of brightness in the night. Zelda fixed her gaze on them, swallowing against her fear.
"Come on, Goddesses damn you, move!" he roared, giving one last shove. Finally the boat slapped over the wave that had pushed against it and drifted away, leaving Link stranded on the dock. Her breath sharp in her chest, Zelda floundered in the boat and seized the line she'd cut earlier. Praying it was long enough, she threw it out to him.
Even before it reached him, she knew it was too short. It slapped into the waves. Hissing through her teeth, Zelda clambered to the very edge of the boat and leaned out as far as she dared. The dock was already a good ten meters away, and to her horror, Link was illuminated from behind by an orange glow that steadily got brighter.
Holding back a scream, Zelda gathered her strength and fixed her gaze on Link's blue eyes, calm in the rage of the storm, and threw the line.
He leapt forward to catch it and splashed into the ocean. Zelda did scream then, lurching forward, but--but that was Link's golden head that popped out of the water, gasping for air. He was shouting something. Zelda strained to hear.
"Pull me in! Lava--coming!" he broke off coughing, but it was all Zelda needed. Fear like nothing she'd ever felt galvanizing her, she hauled on the line, thankful for all the extra lessons she'd asked of Ilayen. They gave her strength even as her back threatened to give out, and soon Link was grasping the hand she held out, clambering in beside her. "Row," he croaked, stumbling to grab an oar. "Row, now!"
Zelda seized an oar and did so, blinking through the rain. She couldn't see where she was going, but she didn't care, not as they distanced themselves from that orange glow. She hardly noticed that there was open sea around her, but as that glow suddenly intensified, she gasped.
Her eyes fell on the mountain before them, now at least fifty meters out. It was covered in lava, molten rivers of fire streaming down the roads, dripping into wells and over walls, setting everything it touched aflame. The rain as it pattered down evaporated into steam, sizzling.
Zelda faltered with the oar, stricken. Was this what the survivors of the first explosion had seen? Link grasped her arm, shouting words she couldn't hear, her mind summoning an image of Valoo and Tetra and Ilayen, fleeing the platform, getting trampled in the race to the boats, burning in the sea of flame before them--
Zelda lurched over the side and vomited, coughing and spitting. Link was there, but she hardly registered his hand on her back, or the words he murmured in her ear.
A distant roar was what brought her back, sounds returning suddenly and aggressively loud, and she remembered. They still had the cyclone to contend with.
She tried to tell this to Link, but she could hardly hear herself, and all Link did in answer was cup his ear and lean in. His mouth formed the question, "What?"
Zelda gave up trying to shout down the storm, her eyes widening. Oh Goddesses, no . . .
The cyclone sucked them in with a whirlwind, nearly throwing Zelda from the boat. They started spinning, faster and faster, until Zelda's surroundings became blurred into a swirl of blue, white foam and black sky. She fell to her stomach again, gripping the edges of the boat--she didn't know how it hadn't shattered yet--Link's arm, anything she could get her hands on, if it only stopped her from spinning.
As swiftly as it had begun, they came to a jarring halt. Zelda's neck would have snapped if Link hadn't grabbed her and crushed her to his chest, keeping her body as still as possible. When they came to a gentle coast, she crawled to the side and emptied her stomach. As she slumped to the bottom of the boat, her cheek pressed to the edge, she noticed the bubbling of the sea.
Confusion and sickness muddled her mind. They were too far from the mountain for the sea to be bubbling that way . . . weren't they? She tried to lift her head to look, but black spots entered her vision as soon as she moved.
Besides, she thought, the bubbles are more intense ahead of me, not behind. She felt more than saw Link clamber to his knees, having been sick over the side as well. His whispered prayer made dread pool in Zelda's gut. What new horror awaited them?
She forced herself to lift her head as a dull roar, not unlike that of what they'd been hearing for the past hour, grew louder and louder. As she came to one knee, coming face-to-face with what rose from the waves and looked up, and up, and up, she had only one thing to say.
"Goddesses help us."
The squid was impossibly huge, exceeding twenty feet in height and several lengths of their tiny boat in width. Giant, bulbous yellow eyes covered its body, blinking independently of each other, and its legs lashed the sea around them, throwing up a wave over ten feet.
Smaller waves continuously rocked their boat, sloshing water into it. Zelda glanced helplessly at Link. "What are we supposed to do against that?" she shouted. The rain was pounding harder than ever.
Link looked as helpless as her, staring up at the monster. The squid itself glared balefully down at them, each of its eyes--those that Zelda could see, anyway--blinking one lid, then another, uncaring of the water that streamed down its sleek, pale-blue body in small waterfalls.
It seemed to be waiting for them to make the first move. For a long moment they simply sat there, staring at each other. Then Zelda glanced down and realized they weren't as still as they'd first thought.
The water surrounding them was circling around the base of the squid, slowly, but Zelda could just see they were accelerating.
Her heart leapt in her throat. What would happen when they were pulled all the way in? It wasn't as if their tiny boat could provide much resistance--nor was it hard to guess what their fates would be. If the squid didn't kill them, they'd simply drown in the thrashing waters.
This fear was compounded as a wave rocked their boat, so strong that they nearly capsized. Zelda lost her grip on the sides. She fell to the floor, knocking into a pile covered with a thick cloth, her vision a kaleidoscope of blue, black and yellow. She groaned, clutching her head. Already there was a lump the size of an egg blooming. What the hell did I bump into? she thought.
She pulled the cloth down and couldn't contain her gasp of surprise. "What?" Link shouted.
Zelda glanced over, Link was currently scraping a large stick into the shape of a bow with his dagger. "I don't know how much good it'll be," he yelled, coming over to her, one eye on the squid. He held the bow aloft. "The arrows might just fly off with the wind!"
"Not if we have something to weigh them down with!" Zelda yelled back, dragging Link to the pile. His eyes widened, and he grabbed a stick, the dark blue material almost black in the rain.
"How are they still dry?" he whispered, then repeated his question louder. Zelda glanced around, noticing the pile had slid out from under the bench she'd sat on earlier.
She told Link as much. "But they won't stay dry much longer," she warned. Already, the cloth was beginning to darken. She shoved the pile under the bench again.
Link was still examining the bombs, small enough to fit in their palms, running his fingers over the engravings on the sides. Zelda was acutely aware of the squid's legs bringing them ever closer, so she leaned in when Link began to speak, his voice rushed.
"I don't think it matters much if they're wet. Look at this design. It's--"
"Sheikah," Zelda whispered, her fingers tracing the trademark swirls. "These--they're remote bombs."
Her mind whirled. Remote bombs--like the ones the Hero of the Wild had used, gifted to him by the ancient Sheikah civilization. In the time since he and his era's Zelda had rebuilt Hyrule, the kingdom had confiscated every Sheikah relic they could get their hands on--for research, led by their Zelda herself. They'd been illegal ever since--until, two hundred years ago, they'd finally become available to the common folk.
They'd become a commodity almost overnight, and soon every Hylian had access to them--even remote bombs.
Zelda couldn't keep back a snort, then, despite their dire circumstances. Of course--the one boat they picked, and it had the very thing they needed to kill the monstrosity before them.
Her amusement faded quickly as the squid roared, and soon her hands were flying--tying the bombs to the shafts of wood as quickly as Link tossed the makeshift arrows to her. Within minutes they had a pile of arrows between them.
Zelda looked up from carving her own bow as Link called her name. He handed her a small device, glowing a bright blue in the darkness. She could hardly see his face, but she knew it was grave. "Hold this between your teeth and press down when your arrows strike."
It was dark, even with the devices, but Zelda could see Link had one of his own between his fingers. She finished stringing her bow with the hard twine they found beside the bombs and stood. Her dress made movement nearly impossible, and her coat was so waterlogged she was surprised they hadn't sunk yet. She tossed the coat aside and after a short hesitation, she drew her knife from its hip sheath and cut away the excess fabric. She stopped as it reached her thighs, and the blue lights illuminated the redness on Link's face. Zelda grinned.
She grabbed her bow and a cluster of arrows, feeling the wood scrape her fingers. Despite the discomfort, it was still familiar, and she drew the string back with relative ease.
She had no arm guard, but she'd trained without one for exactly this reason. As if you'll ever be in that kind of position, being the princess, Ilayen had teased one evening. Zelda smiled grimly, staring up at the monster. She nocked an arrow to her bow, slipping the device between her teeth.
The squid watched her and roared, declaring its challenge. The waters really started swirling now, until Zelda could hardly see the monster. Its eyes, however, made perfect targets.
She aimed at one of those brightly glowing points and let fly, hoping their plan would be enough. Luckily, the bomb weighed down the arrow just enough that it stayed on its path--a straight shot, right into the horizontal pupil. The squid squealed as it was struck.
Zelda bit down.
BOOM!
Fire blew outward, lighting up the rainy night with red and orange. The explosion almost--almost--drowned out the squid's roar of pain. Its flailing legs thrashed the water and the shockwave rocked the boat backward. Link crashed down beside Zelda as he yelled, "Nice shot!"
He glanced at her on the floor and grinned, and Zelda couldn't help but return it.
He pulled her up as he rose and she immediately had to steady herself, for the squid was flailing still. When it finally stilled, Zelda could see that the eye she'd shot was now a smoking black ruin. The rest of them fixed on her in rage, and she hurriedly nocked another arrow. It raised a leg before she could aim, however, and Zelda braced herself for impact.
Link raised his bow and aimed in one lightning fast movement and fired, hardly taking more than a second. The explosion rocked the squid back a bit and it squealed even louder than before.
"We can't give it time to counterattack!" he shouted to her. Zelda nodded grimly. "We won't," she swore, taking aim.
"Just make sure you leave some shots for me, okay, Empress?" He exaggerated the title with a bow. Despite their circumstances, Zelda laughed. Just seeing Link undaunted by the challenge before them--even having fun with it--was enough to wash away her own fear.
Still, she eyed the flailing legs with apprehension. They were still spinning--it was a miracle, and many years of grueling training, that she'd even made that shot. But there was no way to take out the legs if they couldn't see them. They'd just have to aim carefully.
She ducked as one of those legs swept overhead, showering them. Spitting out salt water, Zelda aimed and fired a second time, just as Link let his own arrow fly. They bit down in unison.
Twin explosions of red and orange lit up the sky once again, obscuring the already black canopy with smoke. The two kept at it, aiming as close as they could get, and for a time their ears were filled with gasps of air, clicking, and explosions heralding roars of pain.
Then the monster started fighting back.
With all but one of its eyes gone, it glared down at them from the very top of its head, the fire and smoke billowing around its body. Rainwater made streaks of ash look like errant ink strokes. A leg flared, raising high above their heads, water raining down in a mini waterfall. Zelda stayed Link's bow, watching the squid. What is it up to now?
As her eyes met that of the beast's, a dull mark began glowing above the pupil. It grew slowly, and when it became clear what it was, Zelda felt a cold chill snake down her spine, and it had nothing to do with the freezing water soaking her.
She'd seen that mark before. On the spine of a book, tucked into a packed bookcase in a moonlit room, glanced at quickly before she'd moved on.
Ganondorf's bookcase.
She had no time to think about that, however. The squid let loose a roar, so loud Zelda's eardrums popped, and slammed its tentacle down. It smashed into the water beside them and sent their boat flying.
Zelda's last thought was that she quite disliked flying.
/
Blaring sunlight woke her.
Zelda cracked her eyes open, crusty and dry from the saltwater. She was lying on her back, miraculously still in the boat. She groaned, clutching at the sides to pull herself up. How had the flimsy structure even survived the squid's attack?
She asked Link as much. He was sitting at the prow, she saw, squinting, staring out over the blue ocean. Startlingly calm, compared to last night, she thought dryly. Link turned to help her, and she got a good look at his face.
Dried blood crusted the right temple, and his left cheek was bruised black and yellow. He'd ripped the sleeves of his uniform off, leaving his arms bare, and a strip of cloth was wrapped around his head.
Zelda swallowed her gasp. What the hell?
Link didn't answer her question, which was answer enough. He didn't know, either.
"Whatever the case, I'm just glad we stayed in the boat," he said wryly, pulling her up to the prow. He squinted out over the sea, shading his eyes. "That squid's got one hell of an arm. It's shot us all the way to the coast, almost." he squinted harder, and Zelda fanned herself, wiping the sweat from her brow. It was hot. "Looks like we're about a couple of days from the Hyrule-Twilight border. Zora's Domain isn't too far, either. Maybe a day more."
Zelda hardly heard him. Her mind was on what she'd seen the previous night. Was she sure it matched the book spines from Ganondorf's collection? Had she been blinded by the explosions? Had she just imagined it? She wrung her hands.
It didn't make sense besides. There was no way Ganondorf could have awakened one of the ancient creatures of the deep and controlled it. And all the way from the palace? Impossible.
But . . . he had awakened--revived--several monsters, creatures long thought to be extinct. She shivered in the sunlight. And better off extinct, she thought.
And worse still, her mind would not let her banish the image of the crest. It spawned questions endlessly: had she really seen it? What if she really did? What if she didn't? If she took this, preposterous as it was, to the council, and they somehow believed her, it would label Ganondorf as a criminal over numerous counts--not the least of them necromancy--and he'd be headed to the gallows that week.
But if she was wrong . . . if she hadn't seen the crest, she could be headed towards the very same fate. Condemning a man on a false charge was judged harshly, even for empresses.
Zelda's shoulders slumped. She felt ill, despite the bright sunlight, and a shadow had fallen over her, obscuring the view ahead.
Link watched her, and after a tiny hesitation, put a hand on her back. "Let's just get back to land, all right? We can figure it out later."
He made to move away, but Zelda laid her hand on his, closing her eyes. Thank you, Link.
When she reopened them, she saw that Link had not moved, and his hand beneath hers had frozen. Confused, she glanced up at him, a question on her lips. But as their eyes met, his widened and he gently took his hand away. He smiled, though it was more of a grimace, and turned. "Sorry. I--Let's just find something to row with, all right?"
Still puzzled, Zelda nodded, scratching at her right hand absently.
They ripped planks from the sides of the boat, further debilitating it, and for the next few hours paddled toward the dark horizon. They took breaks intermittently, quiet as the breeze, picking the splinters from their palms before picking their makeshift oars up again. As the sun began to set, the outline of distant buildings slowly began to come to life, glittering with lights until it resembled one of the paths of stars above.
Zelda paddled relentlessly, her eyes fixed on that band of civilization, her mind centering on only one thought: get back to land. Her arms burned with the strain while her palms stung as salt water made its way into the scratches from the rough wood. The plank began to feel like a ten pound weight she was dragging through the water. It was only when she lurched to paddle, eyes blurry with exhaustion, and nearly fell out of the boat that Link pulled her aside and told her to sleep.
/
When she woke, the sun was high in the sky. Zelda rose from the uncomfortable ball she'd curled into and staggered over to where Link still paddled. The boat wavered dizzyingly beneath her unsteady steps, and she sat down across from him gratefully.
"Have you been at this all night?" she yawned, stretching like a cat.
"Someone has to keep the course," was his response. He didn't look at her.
Zelda watched him, chewing the inside of her cheek. His strokes through the water were long and powerful, belying the tiredness she saw in his face. She tried a couple more times to engage him in conversation, but his responses were short and monosyllabic.
Something was different about him--and this time there was no doubt about what had caused it.
Zelda closed her eyes. She was tired. Tired of there always being something, tired of tiptoeing around him, tired of it all. She grabbed the plank from Link's hands, wincing as it aggravated her wounds. "What's wrong? Tell me."
She barely caught his muttered, "Is that an order?" but he spoke again, louder. He even had the gall to give her a confused look. "What do you mean?" he mumbled.
Zelda stared at him. Was he really trying to convince her with that? "You reacted strangely last night," she said, getting straight to the point. Beating around the bush never worked--not with him.
Now his eyes narrowed. "As have you for the past few weeks," he countered. "Any explanation for that?"
She was taken aback by the counterattack, but it only lasted a moment. She leaned forward. "You know damn well what that was about," she snapped. "Do you think it was easy, explaining these scars?"
Link sighed exasperatedly. "No--I know that even better than you. But, Zelda--"
"This isn't about me," she cut him off. She could feel her hands shaking. "This is about what happened yesterday."
Link gave her a flat look. "What happened yesterday. And what, exactly, happened yesterday?"
Zelda stared at him, shocked into honesty. "Every time I touch you, you behave strangely."
Link's face flushed slightly. "And how is that different from you?"
Zelda spluttered. He has a point, she thought, recalling every time he'd touched her, but she wasn't about to tell him that.
It didn't matter anyway. Link took two--just two steps in the confines of the boat, and then he was in front of her. Zelda's breath whooshed out of her at his nearness. His hand rose, his fingers brushing her shoulder.
Zelda swallowed. Link's eyes followed the movement of her throat. This is beyond inappropriate, she thought wildly. This is the last place and time we should be doing this . . .
That thought tapered off as Link's hand rose to her cheek.
Zelda shivered as his fingers traced around her mouth. "Link . . ."
"What?" His voice was no more than a whisper. With every movement they made, the boat rocked gently under them, threatening to pitch them into the sea. They were forced to make tiny adjustments, resulting in some part of them constantly in contact. An arm brush there, her leg bumping his, their chests grazing just slightly.
They were oblivious to the danger, Link's fingers drifting to her chin. "Link, stop."
"Why?" His thumb traced her lower lip. He tipped her chin up.
It was unfair. So bloody unfair, Zelda thought, her mind a haze. That he could reduce her to this with just a few touches. Well, two can play at that game.
She grabbed his shirtfront and yanked him closer, so that their bodies were flush with one another. A gasp escaped him, but it cut short as his mouth came within an inch of Zelda's.
"Zelda," he breathed, licking his lips.
She ignored him like he'd ignored her, instead letting her hand drift over a tiny scar on his forehead. Her heart was pounding, one part of her mind screaming to stop, another screaming that this was right. She didn't care about any of it. She'd never felt this free to do anything, even when she was Sheik. She could almost pretend she wasn't the empress, out here in the middle of the ocean.
Yes, she thought, and Link's gasp made her wonder if she'd said it aloud. She slid her hand into his hair, feeling the way he shook beneath her fingertips. I'm no one--just a girl on a boat with the boy she l--
Strong hands pushed her away, jerking her sharply back to reality. She stared up at Link, matching his wide-eyed expression, down to the heaving breaths they took.
Zelda's face burned with shame. She turned away, snatching up the plank and sitting as far from Link as she could get.
She was a fool. A Goddesses-damned fool, and she wouldn't let herself forget again. She was the Empress--she couldn't be Sheik again, no matter how much she wanted to. No matter how much she loved him.
Her eyes burned. She was a queen, and he was a guard--a Royal Guard, sure, but . . . it wasn't enough. And she hated it.
She sucked in a slow, steadying breath. It didn't matter. He remembered who they were--he knew it was impossible. Why couldn't she?
Link settled on the bench opposite, facing away from her.
So they rode in silence, watching the day wane and the moon rise, the band of lights of Zora's Domain as far away as ever.
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cue evil laughter*
Ahhhhh this chap and the next several are some of my favorites. (And yes, I know I say that about, like, every chapter lmao)
REVIEW REPLIES.
To Oracle of Hylia: aww thank you haha. Like I said, I really have no restraint.
Hahaha XD I had a lot of fun with her mentality,
To that point, How do ya like THIS, then?? Lmaooo
To Ultimate blazer: ooohh I love that XD. Let's hope he does as well! (Or maybe not lol)
To Generala: kinda? HAHA. He def knows it now! And the storms. . . I say nothing ;)
WELL that's today's chap, as always review, follow, whatever floats your boat (insert Goofy laugh) get it? Lmao.
Also I probs don't say this enough—actually, I know i don't say this enough, but thank you to everyone who enjoys this story, whether you review or not, y'all are precious and I'm glad you took a chance on this story :)) I hope you stick around for the end! Later~