Chapter 22: The one where you beat your first boss

As expected, the door fell shut behind you.

And then you looked forward and saw something truly terrifying.

It was a big room, the walls ornamented and tall pillars reaching until the ceiling. It was just as expected just as dark as most of the rest of the dungeon. Pretty pots decorated the sides and you felt hope rise within you.

But then suddenly you heard with heavy steps something big approaching. It sounded like it was metal that was being dragged over the dark marble floor. And then the boss stepped into the light that your tunic cast.

Iron Knuckles themselves were horrible enemies. One hit with their gigantic weapon and one looses four hearts. But they were slow until you relieve them from their heavy armor and then they're really fast, but more receptible to damage.

But this boss in front of you not only was a much bigger version than the usual Iron Knuckle found within Time's games, but also seemed his armor lighter and it was therefore more agile. The ax in its hands was with staff about as long as you were tall and the double headed ax head was about as wide as both of your arm lengths combined. It was truly terrifying.

And the monster, instead of unmoving until attacked like in the videogames, was already coming straight at you. You practically dropped Legend, before quickly pulling your dagger and running away from where you left him to guide the monster away.

As expected, it quickly followed, swinging it's ax as soon as it deemed you near enough. You hid behind one of the many pillars in the room while it smashed another one easily.

You knew some people who sometimes dreamily sighed of how boring their lives were and how they'd rather be in some fantasy world. Heck, your friends and you had jokily talked through different scenarios of something like that happening. And as a kid you were a firm believer that someday surely something would come and sweep you away to your adventure.

How foolish children truly were, their minds not able to imagine the true horrors such a wish could bring. There's a saying, be careful what you wish for. Oh, little you never would have imagined something like that.

The dungeon itself was scary and hard and you got hurt more often than you wanted to count. But none of these dangers could compare with your current situation, now it was either kill or be killed.

This was utterly real and it felt absolutely horrible.

You dodged at the last second another swing and watched horrified how it took out the pillar behind which you had just hidden. These swings were absolutely deadly and would take definitely more than just four hearts.

And how many hearts did you have? Could you even survive one of these swings?

In the games Link didn't show signs of fatigue until he was down to three hearts. What did that mean for you? How can you survive such a monster, you were only human after all!

Brushing the sweat and dust from your forehead, you brushed against your now long and pointy ears. Stiffening you then remembered that at the moment you weren't only human. You were Hylian and from you had seen so far, they were much more durable.

So you had a chance and if you were not using it correctly, you'd just die. There were no fairies to heal you, no game over screens to reload. You only had this one chance.

The boss was fast, but you were smaller, agiler, and faster. You had to use your advantages.

You sprinted and dodged another swing before quickly turning around and burying your dagger in the place where the armor pieces met. Then you dashed away, while the monster screamed enraged and swung its gigantic weapon. Then you slipped around it and hit it at the same point, before dashing away.

Rise, rinse repeat. And it worked.

At least, until suddenly the armor gave in and fell away, the monster twisting around in pain and in an unexpected cheat punching you with a free hand, catapulting you across the room against a pillar, quickly stepping after you, while you sat there dizzy and bleeding from a headwound.

And when it swung you barely dodged under the attack. But there was the sound of breaking stones and you nearly lost your just regained footing when you realized one of your feet was stuck.

And the monster already lifted its weapon over its head once more.

Desperate you tried to work yourself free, only to realize that these stones were too heavy for you to lift. Was this it? You could try to avoid the swing, but it would surely still take your stuck leg off. And what then? You wouldn't be able to run.

The ax came down and you looked in horrified fascination how it gleamed and reflected red and pink and…

There was the cling of metal meeting metal as a dagger met the hilt of the ax and forced it back up, it's wielders power bracelet lighting up while strength cursed through the hero's whole being. Legend's teeth were gritted in pain and concentration, his face scrunched up in a grimace, his lags painted in purple and blue colors, the bones apparently not broken anymore but still painful enough just to stand. A glance around the room showed every single pot smashed to pieces, their innards now saving your life in a way you wouldn't have expected.

Legend forced the axe to come down away from you and then quickly slipped the dagger into the space that you had worked free, before giving you a small nod, slipping his power bracelet off to give to you and then skipping away as the monster followed him enraged.

Well, of course he still had to have a power bracelet. That rat had just not deemed it necessary enough to give to you, leaving you to carry him by your own strength everywhere. So not cool.

Whatever, good for you, his rattiness had just saved your hide, guess you now were somewhat even.

You slipped the power bracelet on and marveled at how easily you now could lift the before unliftable stone. Carefully you slipped your foot free and stepped on it, its pain stronger than anywhere else in your body, but still bearable. This sucked.

But then there was a scream and you only lifted your head in time to see the axe brought down on the downed hero, punched by that cheating boss monster.

Red, there was red everywhere. There was nothing but red.

Someone was still screaming and there was a ringing in your ears when you saw that the monster lifted its axe again to bring down again. And it would again and again and again…

And suddenly you were on the other side of the room and jumped and held the hilt of the axe firmly as the monster wanted to bring it down again. There was red on the ax's head and red gleamed the fire of burning hate within you.

And when the boss let go with one hand to punch you, you pulled with all your might. The power bracelet sparked and suddenly you were sitting on the floor, the ax in your hands no heavier than your backpack as both the monster and you stared dumbfolded at each other.

And then suddenly the adrenaline coursing through your veins forced your face into grin as you stood firmly on both feet, the pain fading away in a sea of red.

And then you brought the ax down and down and down with the same mercy the boss had shown: None.

You were still hitting the spot where it had been when it had long since ended up in a puff of smoke. And then suddenly a small heart appeared, bigger than the others had been.

What was this? You bowed down and let go from the axe with one hand to pick it up.

And suddenly the red receded as your body was healed and the concussion gave way to clear your thought and open you up to dawning horror.

The bloodstained ax clattered to the floor as you rushed to Legend's side, dread pooling in your stomach until you needed to empty it. But you pushed that urge down, even as you sat in the blood pooling around Legend's quiet and pale form, desperately searching for a pulse. There was one, weak, so weak and he was still bleeding badly.

Frantically pressing your cape against his wound, you prayed for the bleeding to stop, for the notebook to perform another miracle, anything.

And then suddenly there was person in front of you, white hair and blood-red eyes, male and muscular, a lantern to light everything around him in his hand. A Sheikah. He looked at you judgmental, then at the dying hero under your hands. And instead of doing what any decent being might have done, meaning helping, he starts calmly to speak in the same weird language, Hylian, everyone here spoke.

And of course you do not understand a word.

But that didn't matter, because Legend was dying and you needed to save him and so you screamed at Sheikah to help you, to do anything, crying begging and desperately trying to stop the blood flow. And the Sheikah just watched coldly from a distance away, unmoving.

Your heart skipped a beat just as Legend's breathing stopped and you know, you know there's nothing you can do to force this man to help you…except…

Frantically you started to hum Zelda's Lullaby, praying that the secret song of the royal family would move the Sheikah into saving Legend, for he'd think you have a connection to the royal family and because the Sheikah were loyal servants and protectors of the royal family he'd be required to helping you, finally.

He hears your humming and his eyes widen, for the first time showing emotions. You gestured frantically to Legend's still, so still form, and with two quick steps the Sheikah is next to you and pulled out a bottle, a trapped fairy within. You cannot find it within you to pity the trapped being at that moment because at that moment there was nothing more important than restoring the life back into the fallen hero in front of you. And so the Sheikah released the pink fairy and the being flies over Legend's still form before it disappeared in a shower of glitter.

You held your breath as you wait for Legend to finally take his next.

The Sheikah's red eyes pierced into you but you can't bring yourself to care.

And then Legend at last took a mighty breath that quickly started to turn into coughs as his lungs freed themselves from the blood that had run into them. Awkwardly you helped him turned to the side and patted his back as he got rid of the wrongly placed fluids.

When finally his lungs were emptied he took a mighty breath and weakly opened his eyes to look up and around: "…Babble…?"

"You're okay…" you breathed out, emotions overflowing and then before you could stop yourself you were hugging the hero. "Oi" he brought out, as a simple halfhearted protest. But nothing more. Awkwardly he patted your back as relief flooded through you and you were sobbing and laughing all at the same time.

You had not been ready at all to see someone die right under your nose, their life slipping away unstoppable like water between your fingers, the price paid for saving you and now through a last-minute miracle the life had been restored. It was an emotional rollercoaster you had not been ready for, at all.

The Sheikah gave a few awkward coughs and you let go and scooted away from Legend, face burning. Okay, so maybe your reaction was a little extreme for technically knowing him only a few days but still it was undeniable that you two had bonded in your shared near-death experiences of your little adventure. Thank god that was probably over for now.

The Sheikah spoke something to Legend and the hero snarked directly at him, leaving the Sheikah annoyed barking back but Legend was not deterred. He got back to his feet, swaying a little due to lightheadedness from blood-loss, before walking up to the Sheikah until they were nearly nose to nose while talking a calm voice that was probably promising nonsubtly murder. The Sheikah seemed almost fearful from the smaller male, for he took half a step back, before finding his ground again and holding it but only barely.

Finally he asked something quietly, to which Legend started to cackle before answering, shortly glancing back at you. The Sheikah stuttered something at that before finally collecting himself and mumbling something to Legend. Legend gave a short nod, before turning to you: "Come, he's finally going to show us the way outta this sh*thole."

You nodded, numbly, getting up. Your eyes found the blood stained axe lying on the cold marble floor. You hated it so much but then you realized that maybe you could end up in another situation like this. And so you picked the huge ax up and held it, weighing it and finding it suitable for your needs.

You'd never find yourself as helpless as you had been again.

You refused to.

And so you decided to keep the weapon as a warning and a reminder and as a save for when you know if you won't have a game over screen.

And so you held it at your side, thinking about a way to keep it that wouldn't involve dragging it around everywhere, when suddenly the axe shrunk and disappeared like magic. Confused you turned to Legend, who was watching you and when he noticed your confused expression he explained: "The magic bag you found now stores it. If you think about it, it'll appear again. Don't ask how it works. It's magic."

You chuckled at that and then both of you, bloodied and bruised as you were but alive, followed the Sheikah as he guided you out.

"What was this dungeon anyway?" you asked Legend while you walked, figuring that he might have learned something from talking to the Sheikah. The hero gave a dry grin and snorted: "Apparently it was an ancient training ground for young Sheikah to prove themselves as mature. But because of its high mutilation and death toll it hasn't been used in a long time. And we entered due to a broken trapdoor. You've got some really bad luck, you know? Imagine, if we'd gone left when I told you to go left, we'd have run into that Sheikah a lot earlier and gotten out. You really have the worst luck."

You gulped at that and remembered what you had written in the notebook. You had wanted to get more hearts, and now you had gotten one, hadn't you? This whole incident was then probably all your fault.

"Maybe you shouldn't stay around me then" you meekly offered. "My bad luck nearly killed you twice." You didn't add that he was actually dead for a long and hard moment.

Legend eyed you as if you had just suggested to start fighting the moon before retorting: "Are you serious? That just means I'm out of training and need to get back in shape as quick as I can. Maybe staying near you will speed that process up!"

You chuckled weakly at that, feeling a lot lighter. So your newfound friend – though he'd probably rather go through another round of this dungeon than admit that out loud – wouldn't abandon you for now. He didn't know the whole truth yet, but his firmness about that topic at least lightened the load a little.

"What was so funny about your talk anyway?" you then asked, curious. Legend smirked: "Well, he asked how you knew a secret of the royal family – which I don't know how you know but already know your answer to."

"Which is?" "It's a secret!"

At your shared laughter the Sheikah gave a nervous glance over his shoulder. Served that jerk right.

And then finally you were in the sunlight again, breathing in the fresh air and stared at the clear blue of the Hylia Lake.

"We've walked quite a while, let's go back to the ranch" you suggested once you had soaked in the sight enough. "And how do you know where to go?" Legend sarcastically asked at that, crossing his arms with a slight smirk.

You chuckled, the running gag kept running, and so you started to, too: "It's a secret!" Legend actually snorted at that but then quickly followed you.

And while your rubbish excuse was funny, the faces the other Links plus Malon made, when they saw your beaten, bruised and blood-soaked forms, were not.

As were there reactions.