Maybe I can fake an injury. Or better yet, maybe I'll just injure her.
Atop his horse, Link continued his journey down the road to the northwest. It had taken him and his sister all day to get this far. They could've made much better time, but Linkle had spotted several monsters along the way, and she'd insisted they go hunt them each time. Half of the monsters had gotten away, and the other half had been practically harmless little things, like Chus or Keese. Link hardly saw the point in any of it, but Linkle acted as if it was her sworn duty to exterminate every minor threat to humanity.
Maybe it'll rain, and we'll get sick. Then we'd have to turn back.
He knew it had been a mistake. From the moment they'd left their home, Link had been trying to find a way to convince Linkle to turn back around. It wasn't too late. They had a good life in Hateno. He could be a master blacksmith one day, and she could end up owning farmland. But Linkle just had to throw it all away to 'follow her dreams.'
Why couldn't she dream of something less likely to get us killed?
Linkle snored softly. For the last hour, she'd been asleep behind him on the horse, her head lying against his back. He hoped she wasn't drooling on him. Still, it was better that she was out cold like this. He'd managed to ride right past a few monsters that he knew Linkle would've insisted they chase after had she been awake. This way, they could avoid unnecessary danger.
Link sighed and reached for his waterskin to take a drink. At the very least, he took some comfort in the fact that they weren't at risk of running out of water. They'd been riding alongside the Squabble River all day, and they could take a break to refill whenever they wanted to. Food had not been an issue either since they'd brought enough for a few meals, but this was only the first day. They would have to rely on hunting and foraging for food eventually if they couldn't make it to a new village each day.
Wanting to go over the plan again, Link pulled out his map. Evening would be upon them shortly, but they should be getting close to Fort Hateno. It was no village, but they would at least be able to trade for supplies there. He hoped they wouldn't make it that far, though. The further they got from home, the harder it would become to convince Linkle to turn around.
After a moment, Link felt his sister stirring behind him. With a snort, she jolted awake, sitting upright on the horse. "Huh? Whazzat? What's going on?" she asked as she took in her surroundings.
"Calm down," Link told her. "Don't freak out the horse."
"Oh!" Linkle seemed to have gotten her bearings after a minute. "Is that the map? Where are we? Are we there yet?"
"What? No, you moron. It'll take us days to get to the capital." Link placed the tip of his finger against the map, then dragged it across the paper, stopping on each of the towns and villages they could stop at along the way. "We're only about here," he said, tapping the map by the Cliffs of Quince.
"Ooh, what's that up there?" Linkle leaned over him and tapped the map on what looked like a tiny valley a little bit north of where Link had indicated they were.
"Hm? Uh, looks like a cemetery. Probably where soldiers who were stationed at Fort Hateno are buried."
Linkle gasped. "We should go there. There's probably Stalfos all over that place!"
"I doubt it," Link said. "It's been a couple years since the last Blood Moon. Plus, I don't wanna risk gettin' mistaken for grave robbers."
"Oh, come on," Linkle complained. "There's gotta be something there. I've always wanted to see a Poe. And think how cool it would be to see a ReDead! I hear those things are hella scary."
Link was about to continue arguing, but then he had a thought. Even if Linkle thought she was brave enough to take on any monster she encountered, surely there was something out there that would scare her straight. She could handle Blins, but maybe coming face to face with the undead would make her realize she wasn't as cut out for this as she thought.
With an exaggerated sigh, Link relented. "Alright. It'll take us a little out of our way, though. And it'll probably be dark by the time we get there."
"Perfect! That's when the Stalfos and everything come out." Linkle seemed as excited as ever. "Alright, Arion. Take us there!"
The horse whinnied as if in response, and Link tightened his grip on the reins. They turned to the right, going off the road and heading north.
It was a short ride to the cemetery, but in the time it took them to pass between the cliffs to reach the valley, the sun went down. The moon wasn't quite full that night, but it illuminated the rest of the way with a soft, eerie light.
"Ooooh, gettin' spooooky," Linkle said in an exaggerated manner. As they got closer to the gates, she unsheathed her blade and examined it. "Hey, we got anything consecrated? Like a Triforce? Or a Mudora?"
"What, you wanna pray before we desecrate a few corpses?" Link asked snarkily. "I'm sure the gods will appreciate that."
"That's not what we're here for. We're here to fight monsters. Surely the gods won't have a problem with that," Linkle asserted. "Besides, I was asking because undead don't like holy stuff. And neither of us know any light magic."
"I thought you just had to cut their heads off."
"Why would that be easier?"
"Most things die when you cut their heads off."
"Most things that die aren't already dead."
"Well excuse me, Sister. I didn't know I'd be killin' dead people tonight. If I did, I woulda brushed up on my re-murdering techniques." Link looked over his shoulder and saw his sister digging through the carrying bags on the side of the horse. "What're you looking for now?"
"We got any lantern oil?" she asked, not looking up at him.
"Yeah. On my writing desk, in the other bag."
Linkle moved to the next bag over, then stopped after a second. "Oh. So we don't have any."
"Of course not! We don't have a lantern. Why would I have brought lantern oil?"
"ReDeads burn real good, I hear." Linkle stopped her fruitless search, then gasped excitedly. "We're here!"
Link turned to face forward again. Sure enough, there before them was the cemetery, surrounded by a rusty, spiked fence. The fence enclosed a massive plot of land full of headstones, statues, and mausoleums. He saw no guards and no gravekeepers, and he heard only the ominous hooting of a distant owl. "Yeah, this is a great idea."
"I know!" Linkle exclaimed. "Let's go!" She kicked Arion lightly in the side, making him trot up closer to the fence. Once there, they dismounted and tied the horse's reins to the fence a few feet from the gate.
"Not sure it's safe to leave him here," Link pointed out. "But I guess we can't risk him running off. We'd be screwed if we lost all our stuff and had to make it back on foot. Maybe we should-" Link stopped when he realized his sister wasn't listening. Already brandishing her loaded crossbow, she walked up to the gate and kicked it open. It swung ajar with a rusty screech. She smiled at him, then waved for him to follow her as she went inside.
Link walked up to the entrance and stopped. Sighing, he looked up into the sky. "...If you're watching, I'm sorry about this." He briefly formed a triangle with his fingers, then followed Linkle into the cemetery.
Linkle was slowly creeping between the gravestones with her crossbow at the ready, like a hunter stalking a field for rabbits. Link gave the area a quick once-over, but he could see nothing out of the ordinary. The place was creepy as hell, but it was a graveyard, so he wasn't expecting it to be anything else. "Watch where you're going," Link reminded his sister. "You don't wanna knock over any headstones."
Linkle nodded. "That would piss off the Poes for sure," she said. Her expression changed, as if she were mulling it over.
"I know that look," Link said. "That's your, 'Maybe I do wanna knock over some headstones so I can fight some Poes' look."
"Pfft, whaaat? No, no, I wouldn't dream of it," Linkle said, shuffling away quickly. "But if there are any undead monsters out here," she said, raising her voice so that she might attract the attention of whatever might be near. "I can guarantee I'm gonna lay each and every one of them to rest."
"How very generous of you," Link offered. He wanted to tell her to shut the hell up and stop purposely trying to attract monsters, but he figured she was beyond help at this point.
The two of them spent the next twenty minutes or so wandering around the cemetery. Every once in a while, Linkle would think she heard something, but it would always turn out to be a creaking gate or a squirrel snapping a twig.
"Elle, this is a waste of time," Link insisted. "Let's head back to the horse, find somewhere farther away from here to camp for the night, and then maybe we can think about going back-"
"Shhh!" Linkle said sharply, her eyes shooting open wide. "Did you hear that?" she whispered.
"Hear wha-?" Link stopped. He did hear it, and it was no creaking gate. Somewhere in the distance, he heard moaning. It was low and guttural, like a very tired person being forced out of bed. "What the hell is that?" Link whispered, suddenly terrified.
Linkle said nothing, but she readied her crossbow, crouched down low, and started creeping towards the noise. She wore a stupidly excited smile on her face. Link began to think he was wrong. Perhaps she wouldn't end up scared straight from this experience after all.
"Bloody hell…" Link muttered, drawing his sword and shield before following after his sister.
It was a little bit further down the line of gravestones when they finally found the source of the moaning sounds. They stopped to observe it. The dark of night made it difficult to make out, but it looked like a nearly-naked, emaciated crouching man. The strange man was hunched over a pauper's grave that looked like it had been recently dug up by hand, revealing the body that had been buried in it. Moaning again, the crouching creature lifted its arms with unbelievable slowness, as if the mere act of moving at all was a struggle. It grabbed the leg of the unearthed body and lifted it up, then leaned its head downward.
It's gonna…
Link watched in horror as the creature bit into the corpse. It stayed there for a moment, nearly unmoving, as though it were very methodically gnawing at the flesh. As Link watched, he felt Linkle tap his shoulder. She gestured with her crossbow, indicating they should move forward. Link did not like this one bit, but if they were going to have to fight this thing, they might as well take it by surprise.
Standing up, Link crept forward, raising his sword and shield in a defensive stance. Linkle followed behind him, her crossbow trained on the monster, waiting until she had lined up the perfect shot. Then, he heard the crossbow fire off a bolt. It sailed through the air, hitting the creature square in the temple. That would've been enough to kill most things, but Link was about to lunge forward to slice it with his sword just in case. However, he never got the chance. As soon as Linkle's bolt hit the creature, it suddenly turned its head to face them, moving with much more speed than it had been a moment ago. Its face was gaunt and lifeless, and its sunken eyes were glowing red. Its mouth dropped open unnaturally wide, as if its jaw had unhinged itself, and it let out the most terrifying, agonizing, high-pitched scream Link had ever heard.
Link stopped in his tracks, stumbling as he tried to back up. All other thoughts were forced out of his mind, leaving nothing but the most crippling fear he had ever felt. His body shook so much he was practically convulsing, causing him to drop his sword and shield. He took a few more panicked steps backwards and ended up colliding with his sister. The two of them fell to the ground, landing side by side. In his terror, Link found himself no longer able to move, and Linkle seemed similarly incapacitated. He could only watch in horror as the skulking monstrosity slowly moved towards him, blood dripping from its unhinged mouth and from the bolt wound in its head.
Link's mind was blank. He could not think of a plan, he could not think of escape, he could not pray for his life. All he could do was lie there as death approached. But then, a voice clawed its way through the fog of fear clouding his mind. "Link! Link! Please! Help! Link!" She sounded miles away, but his sister was right next to him, screaming for his help. Somehow, he managed to turn onto his side. He saw Linkle staring at the creature, calling out for him as if she didn't know he was there.
Get up.
It felt as though he were pulling himself out of quicksand, but Link managed to turn himself over and push himself up off the ground. Still trembling with fear, he grabbed one of Linkle's flailing hands. "Linkle!" he shouted at her. She flinched as if she'd heard him, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the monster. "Dammit…" He grabbed her arm with his other hand and pulled, dragging her through the dirt as he retreated back into the field of gravestones, not daring to look back. All the while, Linkle continued shouting his name, not recognizing that he was already there and helping her.
He must've dragged her a hundred yards before the way she was calling his name seemed more present. "Link! Link! Hey! Stop! Let go already!" his sister shouted. Before stopping, Link finally chanced a glance behind him. He was grateful that the monster was so slow, as they appeared to have lost it. He let go of Linkle's arm, then dropped to the ground, laying his back against a statue. Linkle sat herself upright as well, pushing her back up against a headstone across from him.
"You okay?" Link asked.
Linkle nodded. She was no longer in a fear trance, but she still wasn't all there yet. Link didn't feel fully recovered yet either.
"So that was a ReDead?" Link asked. Now that he had time to think, he recognized the creature from the stories.
"Yeah," Linkle said. It was strange. She was ordinarily ecstatic to see any new kind of monster. She'd even been looking forward to seeing ReDeads, Stalfos, or Poes earlier that night. But she didn't seem all that excited anymore.
Link noticed she didn't have her crossbow. Then he remembered he'd dropped his sword and shield as well.
Fuck.
"You still got your sword?" he asked Linkle.
She reached behind her back and pulled out their only remaining weapon. "Yep." Turning it over in her hands, she examined the blade, touching it with her finger to test its sharpness. "That thing didn't look very strong," she said. "If I can sneak up on it, I think I can cut its head off, like you said."
"Are you out of your mind?" Link was astonished. Even with half her wits scattered from their recent encounter, she still had her mind set on trying to fight it. "Linkle, no. You and I are leaving. We're gonna find someplace safe to camp for the night, then come back for our weapons when the sun is up."
"But we have to kill it," Linkle insisted, her one-track mind painfully exhibiting itself.
"Why?" Link asked forcefully.
"It could hurt someone."
"No it couldn't! There's no one here. No one but us. As soon as we leave, that thing is harmless. You're not doing anyone any favors by risking your life to kill it." He felt as though he'd been through this with her a million times, but it never seemed to stick.
"...Well then it's practice," Linkle claimed.
"Practice?"
"Yeah. If, at some point, I take a quest to slay a ReDead that is putting people in danger, I need to know how to do it." Link rolled his eyes, but he hated that she was making a little bit of sense. "It'll be good for you, too. ReDead quests pay a lotta rupees, I hear." That last part sounded made up. She was probably only saying it to try to convince him, but either way, it had to pay something.
Link put his hand to his temple. He was annoyed. He was tired, scared, and sore all over. But there was no creature in Hyrule more stubborn than Linkle when it came to monster hunting. "Okay," he relented. "But we're doing this the smart way."
"What's that?"
"Figured you wouldn't know."
Linkle flipped him off, then asked again. "How are we gonna kill it?"
"I don't know," Link admitted. "We don't have anything holy, we don't have fire, and we can't get close enough to cut its head off," he said. "What else kills a ReDead?"
Linkle scratched her chin and casually flipped her sword as she thought for a moment. Then she had an epiphany. "The sun!"
Link raised an eyebrow. He felt stupid for not having thought of it first. "Oh yeah. Undead things don't come out during the day, do they? Sunlight kills them. Or re-kills them, or however the hell this works."
"So all we gotta do is trap it," Linkle said. "Make sure it can't make it back to whatever hole it crawled out of, then wait until dawn."
"And as long as we don't go near it, it can't paralyze us with that horrible scream." It was obvious to the both of them that the ReDead's scream had done more than simply scare them. That scream messes with the minds of its victims somehow, making them unable to move. That must be how an incredibly slow-moving creature like that could hunt and defend itself.
"Okay. So how do we do that?" Linkle asked.
Link stood up and looked around, surveying the types of burial sites that were present in the graveyard. "It has to have somewhere to sleep during the day. And it's slow, so its resting place has to be located near its feeding ground."
"So we gotta go back to where it was eating that dead guy."
"Yeah. Probably." Link didn't like the sound of that. If they would have to get close to the ReDead again anyway, this wasn't going to be as safe as he'd hoped.
"And its lair could be any grave in that area?"
"No." Link shook his head. "There's no way it digs its way out of the ground and then reburies itself every night. It's gotta be coming from some kind of crypt. Like that." He pointed to a mausoleum with a stone door, probably the resting place of some minor noble family. "All it has to do is push the door open a crack when it awakens, then slip back inside just before the sun comes up."
"Okay." Linkle nodded. "So we find its crypt and block the door. But what if it just goes and finds another one?"
"If there are any others nearby, we'll block those too. But it moves so slowly, I'm betting it'll be too late by the time it realizes it can't get inside." Link stepped over to her and held out his hand. Linkle sheathed her blade behind her and let him help her up. Together, they headed back to where they'd found the ReDead.
"I don't mind doing things your way, even if it's boring," Linkle said. "But if that thing gets close to me again, I'm gonna cut its head off."
"Sure, by all means," Link conceded. "But if you get killed by a dead guy, I'm giving you a cheap funeral."
It wasn't long before they could hear the ReDead's dreadful moaning once again. Once they knew they were close, they crouched down low and stealthily moved up like they'd done before, peeking out from behind a large gravestone. Apparently, after they'd run away, the creature had returned to feeding upon the corpse it had dug up. It was crouching in the dirt right where they'd first found it, with Linkle's crossbow bolt still lodged through its skull. Their weapons were visible on the ground, but they didn't dare risk alerting the monster to their presence by moving close enough to retrieve them.
"Perfect," Link whispered. "Now we need to find the closest crypt."
Linkle tugged on his arm, then pointed past the ReDead. Many yards away, there was a small mausoleum amongst a grouping of thin stone graves. That was the closest one they could see from where they were. Link nodded to her, and they set about creeping around the ReDead to avoid its notice.
They made it to the mausoleum without incident. Standing in front of it, they could see the door was slightly ajar, as they had suspected. "This is where it came from," Link declared in a soft voice barely above a whisper. Even if the ReDead heard them from there, it would take a while for it to reach them, but Link didn't want to take any chances.
"Let's bar the door," Linkle suggested.
Link observed there were indeed slots in the door frame where one might stick a heavy wooden bar in order to keep the door from being pushed open from the inside, likely a measure intended specifically to keep the undead trapped within. It appeared someone had neglected to make use of it. "Hmm. I dunno. The ReDead might be able to claw the bar out."
"Then let's bar it from the inside."
"I don't think there are enough hours left in the night for me to explain all the reasons that wouldn't work."
Linkle seemed to realize that, even if the door worked that way, her idea would mean trapping themselves inside the mausoleum, at least until dawn. "Fuck. Yeah, I guess not. So, how about we just push something really heavy in front of it? If it takes us both to move it, then the ReDead shouldn't be able to move it on its own."
Link nodded. "That's what I was thinking." A part of him felt bad knowing they'd need to move some dead person's headstone or statue in order to do it, but he figured their spirit would forgive them if it meant killing a flesheating monster. "We just need the right-" Link turned to look for the right heavy object to block the door, but as he did, he saw something moving. A couple yards away, there was a ReDead skulking its way between the headstones, moaning quietly to itself.
How the fuck did it get here so fast?!
Link froze up, panicking. If he'd been wrong about how fast ReDeads could move, then they were in even more danger than he'd thought. But then he realized this ReDead did not have a bolt through its head.
There's two of them?!
He felt stupid for not thinking of it before. If there was one, there could be another. And now that he'd come to realize it, if there were two, there could be even more.
We gotta get out of here.
Linkle turned and spotted the second ReDead as well. She opened her mouth to exclaim something, but Link shoved his hand over her mouth. "Shh," he shushed her. "We're leaving. Now." He spoke in as low of a whisper as he could. Grabbing her hand, he quickly and quietly led her off to the side, wanting to move away from the second ReDead without heading back towards the first one.
"But what about-" Linkle was about to start arguing, but as they turned the corner around a statue of a winged woman, they were stopped in their tracks. There was another ReDead, standing still with its back to them. Another few steps and they would've bumped right into it. Sensing their presence, it began to turn its head. Link froze, knowing what came next. The ReDead would spot them, it would scream, and then they would be done for.
However, Linkle charged past him, letting loose a fervent battlecry. She swung her sword, going straight for its throat. It sliced about halfway through before getting stuck in the creature's undead flesh. The ReDead didn't react in the slightest as blood began pouring from its open neck hole.
It didn't work.
If she had managed to decapitate it, they would've been saved. However, as the ReDead finished turning around, it opened its mouth to scream.
"Aghh… Grlhk…"
It did work!
She hadn't managed to re-kill it, but his sister had damaged its throat enough to keep it from screaming. The ReDead seemed to realize this as well. It began lifting its arms, slowly reaching for Linkle. Link let out his own battlecry, charging forward and tackling the undead monster to the ground. He kept it pinned, holding down both of its arms with the weight of his whole body as it weakly squirmed beneath him, still emitting those nauseating choking sounds as it attempted to scream. "Finish it off!" Link shouted to his sister.
Linkle hurried to crouch down next to the monster's head. She put her hands back on the hilt of her blade and yanked on it until she managed to dislodge it. With a few grunts of exertion, she swung the sword downwards once again, and again, and again, chopping at its now weakened neck. She continued with this until the head was detached completely. When the head was severed, it rolled a little to the side, dripping blood along the way. Link felt the body stop moving beneath him. The head seemed to stay alive for a few moments longer, its mouth opening and closing uselessly. Eventually, the red glow in its eyes soon faded, and the head became motionless as well.
Link breathed a sigh of relief. "Good work, Sister."
"Don't mention it. Or do. In fact, praise me more." She rose to her feet and sheathed her weapon. It was clear she was out of breath, but she looked proud of her accomplishment.
Link stood up as well. He looked down at the body of the decrepit creature. Seeing it now, it seemed… different, somehow. It was one thing when it was an unnatural, living corpse, skulking about and looking to feed upon human flesh. But now that it was well and truly dead, he could see that this monster had once been human. Even though it had been perhaps even more dangerous than the Blins they'd killed, this felt worse somehow.
...Sorry.
"Okay," Link said, hoping to move on quickly. "Let's get out of here now."
Linkle met his eyes. "No," she said. "We know we can kill them now. Let's finish off the other two."
"Are you mad?" Link asked. "We got lucky, Elle! What if it had been facing the other way? Hm? What if there had been two of them? And how do you know the other two we've seen are the only ones left? No. It's too risky. The sooner we leave this accursed graveyard, the better."
"But I have a plan!" Linkle insisted. "I think I know a clever way to do this."
Link sighed. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not gonna like this?"
"Look… The ReDeads are slow, right?"
"Yeah. And?"
"Remember when that first one screamed? How it turned its head really fast? Like, faster than it normally moved?"
Link remembered very clearly. He didn't think he would ever forget that grotesque image. "Yeah. What's your point?"
"If it could move like that all the time, it would," Linkle explained. "But it doesn't, which means it can't."
"Still waitin' for that point, Elle."
"Its scream must be like that, too," she went on. "If it could keep screaming as much as it wanted, we never would've gotten away."
"So what does…"
Uh-oh.
Link could see where she was going with this now.
"Soooo… If one of us goes in and lets it scream, then the other can come in and kill it before it's ready to scream again!" Linkle thrust her sword into the air proudly. She smiled at Link like a dog hoping for praise, as if she wanted her brother to tell her he was impressed with her plan.
Link put his face in his palm and sighed. "Elle, that is the stupidest idea that might actually work."
Linkle's smile faltered for a second as she sussed out whether or not Link was insulting her. When she figured it out, she seemed excited. "Yeah! Let's do it."
I can't believe I'm agreeing to this…
"Alright. Fine. So, who's getting screamed at?" Link asked.
Linkle's smile faded. She suddenly seemed less enthusiastic. "Um. Well, I'm the only one with a weapon, so…"
"Yoink." Link casually reached out and snatched the sword out of his sister's hand.
"Hey!" she complained, reaching for her weapon. Link held out his hand, pushing her face away from him while holding the sword up into the air.
"What's the matter?" Link taunted. "I thought you had a hero's courage?"
Linkle stopped struggling against him and took a step back. She glared at him with what was probably meant to be defiance and determination, but all it came off as was uncertainty. "I'm not afraid," she declared. "I'll be the bait, and you can kill it."
Link lowered his arm. He thought back to how terrifying an experience it had been to be subjected to a ReDead's scream, and he remembered Linkle's desperate pleas for help while she stared off into space, unable to see him. He could tell she did not wish to relive that experience any more than he did.
...Dammit.
Feeling guilty, he handed her sword back to her. "...On second thought, it's your sword. You have more experience with it, so it'll help our odds if you're the one using it."
Linkle tried and failed to hide her relief as she snatched the weapon back. "Yeah. Um, yeah, I suppose that's true." But as she held the sword, now she was the one who looked guilty. "...Are you okay with that? Being the one who gets screamed at?"
Link put on his best overconfident big brother smirk. "Yeah, it'll be fine. I broke out of my trance faster than you did last time anyway." That much was true, but it didn't make the idea any more appealing. "But we're only killing those other two that we saw already," he continued. "It's already late, and I'm not spending all night combing this fucking graveyard for more screaming murder-corpses."
"Okay!" Linkle said happily, her confidence returning to her. She sheathed her shortsword and walked past Link, lightly punching his shoulder affectionately. "Let's get going then, Brother."
Link rubbed his shoulder, then followed her. Part of him felt stupid. If he had allowed her to follow through and be the bait for the ReDeads, she probably would've been scared enough for him to convince her to head back home afterwards. He'd been inches away from achieving his goal, but he'd let it slip through his fingers, all because he felt sorry for her.
Why do I have to be so bloody soft?
If they managed to kill three ReDeads in one night, he could only hope that the minor success wouldn't embolden his sister too much.
"Wait. You hear that?"
After a little bit of searching, the siblings came to a halt. From somewhere nearby, they could hear the telltale moaning of a ReDead.
"I think it's coming from over there."
Peeking out from behind a large headstone, Link could see the creature kneeling in front of a tiny wooden grave. It had only begun unearthing its meal, scooping up the dirt in front of the grave with slow, deliberate strokes of its bare hands. Like the others the siblings had seen, this one wore only a few tattered remains of the clothing it had been buried in. Link began to wonder what the undead monster had been in life. Perhaps a soldier, or a farmer. But he quickly silenced those thoughts. They needed to put this creature to rest, and that would be much easier to do if he thought of it as just another monster.
"Keep your distance until after it screams at me," Link whispered to his sister, trying not to let his voice quiver. "Cover your ears and don't look. Hopefully you'll be able to hear it enough to know when it's done screaming, but not so much that it affects you fully." That was another variable they had to count on. If even just hearing a little bit of the scream still put her in a trance, he was pretty much dead. But somehow, he trusted his sister would be able to do her part.
She wouldn't let me die any sooner than I'd let her die.
"Okay," Linkle whispered, nodding. "Good luck." She turned around and crouched down, leaning back against the headstone and putting her hands over her ears like she was waiting for a bomb to go off. Link took a deep breath.
I hope this works…
Fighting every instinct he had, Link stepped forward, approaching the monster. The closer he got to it, the more he realized how ugly and sickly it was. He felt like he'd end up with the plague just from standing this close to it. When he was about halfway between his sister and the monster, he held his breath. Any second now, he would hear that horrible sound again. Once it put him under, all he'd be able to do is hope for his sister to come and save him.
I wish I still had my sword…
After a couple more steps, he stopped. Any closer and he'd risk the monster getting to him before Linkle could get to the monster. ReDeads were slow, but Link wasn't going to take any more chances than he already was. However, the creature continued digging. It must not have heard him approaching.
"...Hey," Link said after a pause.
As he'd been expecting, the creature's head suddenly twisted behind its back. Its red eyes glowed sharply, and its lower jaw dislocated, letting out that terrible scream. It hit Link all at once, like a sudden riptide pulling him out to sea and plunging him into the dark depths. The world around him spiraled and twisted. His instincts pulled him to run in every direction, but he couldn't bring himself to move. All he could do was watch as the hideous creature stood up straight and began to slowly trudge towards him. He felt himself falling, and then the whole world disappeared.
Dozens of nightmares flashed before his eyes. He saw a horde of Blins closing in around him, fearsome spears thrusting forward, baring wicked fangs and sporting hungry looks in their eyes. A swarm of Keese engulfed him in a sea of leathery wings and grotesque eyeballs, pulling him through to the next nightmare. He was locked in a pillory next, with a red-eyed executioner moving forward to swing a sword down upon him. He closed his eyes, but when he opened them, there were hundreds of gangly ReDead hands grabbing at him from all sides, pulling him down beneath an ocean of corpses. The last thing he saw was a row of eight gravestones. The one on the far right sat before a freshly dug grave. Lying in the pit was his sister. Her skin was pale as the moon, and her eyes were open, but unseeing. It seemed so real, and it hit him like a punch in the gut. Suddenly, he was standing on the edge of his own open grave, allowing himself to fall into it.
But, as soon as he did, his sister called his name. "Link!" Her voice sounded muffled, as if he were underwater. "Link!" she called once more. Dirt began falling into the grave he lay in, as if someone from above were burying him. "Link!"
He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was his sister, no longer still and lifeless. Before he had time to process anything, she began beating her little fists against his chest. "Link! Link! Please, please, please! Don't! Link!"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Hey! Hey! Quit it, wouldya?" Link sat up, having realized he was lying on his back. He grabbed his sister by the wrists and held on tight, forcing her to stop hitting him. When she stopped, he noticed the look on her face. She looked terrible. She was staring at him with a mix of terror, misery, relief, and shock. Her eyes were watery, and she was breathing heavily. For a moment, Link feared the state of his sister may have been caused by the ReDead. He hurriedly glanced around them, only to find the creature's decapitated body lying on the ground a few feet behind Linkle. "Elle, what the hell's going on?" he asked.
Linkle broke his grip on her wrists, wrenching her hands free. But, rather than continue assaulting him, she threw herself into a hug. "I'm sorry!" she cried. "I'll never make you do that again, I promise. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"
Link blinked, confused. "How long was I out?" he asked. His sister only shook her head, indicating that she didn't know. Link hadn't had a real sense of time while he was in that trance. When he'd slipped out of it, he'd assumed it had only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed like it must have been longer this time. "Elle, I'm alright," he assured her, patting a hand on her back. "I'm serious. I'm not hurt. I think."
Linkle suddenly stood up and turned away from him, wiping an arm across her face. She stepped over by the ReDead's corpse and bent over to collect her discarded sword. As Link climbed to his feet, she handed the weapon to him. "Here," she said. "I'll be the bait this time." Link took it cautiously. "I'm sorry," she apologized again.
"...Elle, it's fine," Link repeated. "Look, let's just forget this whole thing. We can sneak past the other ReDead and pick up the stuff we dropped, then we can get out of here. How about that?"
Linkle nodded meekly, looking very guilty. "Okay."
Link clenched his jaw. Part of him was glad she was finally seeing things his way, but at the same time, she was only agreeing to leave because she felt terrible. Shaking his head, he took a step forward, deciding to escape the graveyard first and figure out his own guilt later. He stumbled a little, still a bit woozy from his fear trance. Linkle hurried to his side to catch him, pulling his arm around her shoulders to help steady him.
"I'll be fine," Link insisted, but she didn't let go of him. Together, they made their way back to the mausoleum that they figured the ReDeads had climbed out of, then went past it back towards where their discarded equipment would be found. The ReDead that Linkle had shot through the head was likely still nearby, but they'd be able to get around it without incident if they were careful enough.
"...Thanks for doing this for me," Linkle said after a few minutes of walking in silence. "And I'm sorry it turned out like this."
Link hadn't exactly been expecting to be thanked, but he was glad his efforts to put up with her nonsense were finally being appreciated. "Don't mention it, Sister."
Eventually, they came to the clearing behind the ReDead. The corpse it had been feeding on was still there, or rather what was left of it. The creature must have had its fill, since it now simply sat there, crouching in front of the grave, still as only a dead person could be. The only way Link could tell it was still awake was the occasional unholy groan it emitted. Link hoped it would stay where it was so they could grab their discarded weapons from the ground nearby without alerting the creature to their presence.
Wordlessly, Link and Linkle shared a look. They nodded, crouched down, and crept toward their belongings. When his sister reached her crossbow, she picked it up and examined it fondly. Link had never asked why she'd made it her weapon of choice. Many of the famous heroes she admired so much used bows, but none of the stories he'd ever heard featured one with a crossbow. However, he could tell it made her happy, and that was good enough for him.
As Link slipped his sword into its sheath and picked up his shield, something very strange happened. Several yards in front of him, next to where the ReDead knelt, a very dark shadow moved across the ground. Link thought it was a passing cloud blocking the moonlight at first, but it continued to get darker and darker until it was a patch of pure darkness, as if an abyss had opened up in the ground. Starting to freak out, he turned to his sister, silently begging for an explanation, but she looked as confused as he was.
Then, something rose up out of the darkness. It had the appearance of a giant severed hand, black and purplish in color. Hovering above the ground, it moved through the air towards the ReDead. The creature turned its head curiously, but if it had intended to scream, it did not get a chance to. The severed hand grabbed the ReDead, its giant fingers wrapping around the monster's entire body, gripping it as easily as a person would grip a doll. Making no noise other than a faint whirring sound, it dragged the ReDead back over to the abyssal shadow it had risen from and lowered itself back down into it, taking the undead monster with it. When both were out of sight, the shadow dissipated, leaving no trace of it.
Link and Linkle stood there for a moment in stunned silence. "Elle," Link said, drawing his sword nervously. "What the fuck was that?"
"I don't know," she responded, loading her crossbow. "Maybe a Wallmaster? Or a Floormaster, rather. But I've never heard of one that big before, and they've never been spotted outdoors."
"Where did it take the ReDead?"
Linkle shrugged. "No one knows where Masters take their victims. Most say they drag them into the Spirit Realm. I've heard other guesses, too, though. Some say it's whatever realm Demise came from, or even the space between realms."
Link turned in place, looking in all directions for any sign of this new horror. From behind him, he heard a noise like a tree branch snapping. When he spun around to see what it was, he could've sworn he saw something ducking behind a headstone off in the distance.
Another ReDead?
He suddenly had the sinking feeling that they were being watched. The situation was getting too unpredictable now. After everything that had happened, he was done. "Well, whatever that thing's up to, I'm not stickin' around to find out. It's time to go," he declared.
"Right," Linkle agreed with a nod. Ordinarily, she'd probably be thrilled to have found a new monster, and she'd be begging her brother to let her stay and kill it. Luckily, she still seemed to be feeling guilty about earlier, and she offered no argument to his suggestion. Pulling out her compass, she pointed south, and they made a run for the front gates.
Link's dreams that night were surprisingly pleasant given the horrors he'd experienced earlier. He and his sister had taken their horse away from the cemetery and made camp in the woods near the road. Linkle had generously volunteered to take the first watch, and Link had managed to fall asleep almost instantly, his fatigue catching up to him all at once.
He dreamed that he and his sister were already back home. They were chopping wood in preparation for building a larger stable for the second horse they'd talked about getting. It was a pleasant, sunny day, with the sound of birds chirping filling the air. Not a monster in sight. It was peaceful.
That's what I need to convince Elle to let us go back to.
When Link awoke, he found his sister sitting by the horse, propping herself up with her crossbow. She looked half-asleep already. "I'm up, Elle," Link told her as he climbed to his feet. "You get some rest, now." She nodded and let herself slump to the side, lightly snoring almost immediately.
Link decided to gather some berries and herbs from the surrounding woods. They still had some food that they'd taken with them when they left home, but they were going to eat some of it for breakfast, so he wanted to restock. Afterwards, he built a fire in preparation.
It was several hours later when Linkle awoke to find her brother cooking breakfast. It was only a simple stew, but she grabbed a bowl and began scarfing it down. Link fed Arion some oats before sitting down to join his sister.
After she'd had her fill, Linkle set her bowl down. "So… How are you feeling this morning?" she asked, seeming uncharacteristically bashful.
Link blinked, then remembered everything that had happened last night. "I'm alright," Link said. "You?" She'd only experienced the ReDead scream once, but from personal experience, Link knew that would be enough to affect anyone.
"I'm fine," she said. She paused for a moment before continuing. "Look… I'm sorry about what happened," she apologized again. "But, I just wanna say, I think we did a good job. I don't know how cursed that cemetery is, and I know we didn't clear out all the monsters, but we did something. That was two more dead people laid to rest, and they won't be digging up and desecrating corpses anymore, and, well, so…"
Link could tell she was proud. Her lips kept flickering to a smile, but she was avoiding eye contact. She looked conflicted.
"I… We…" Linkle sighed. "If you still wanna go back home, I understand," she said finally. "I know you never wanted to do something this dangerous. I almost got you killed, and, and, well, I…"
Link considered what she was saying. She was offering him a chance to turn around, but it didn't sound like she was willing to. Even considering the horrors of that cemetery, this was what she desired. She wanted the journey, the monsters, the adventure. She didn't want to return to the life of a simple farmhand.
Link, on the other hand, still had a chance. He could go back to his apprenticeship, explain to Master Nebb where he'd been, and hopefully return to a normal life. The only issue was that it would be a normal life alone, without the sole remaining member of his family.
Link sighed.
I can't believe I'm doing this.
"...It's fine. I'll stick with you," Link said.
Linkle finally met his gaze, looking as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Really?" she asked.
Link nodded in confirmation. "Yesterday got a little hairy, yeah. But we got out of it, didn't we? Your plan worked, and we managed to kill that second ReDead because of it. You might actually have a talent for this sort of thing."
Visible relief washed over Linkle, and a huge smile spread across her face as she stood up and tackled Link with a hug. "Haha, yeah! I knew you'd come around! Don't worry about a thing, Brother. There's not a monster on this Earth that can stop us!"
Even though he still had plenty of reservations about this whole thing, seeing his sister this excited made Link smile. He knew there were bound to be dozens of times in the very near future when he would regret this decision, but he was committed now.
Wherever we go, whatever we do, I'll make sure we both survive.