(edited 6.30.20)


The Cursed Isle

As Link's dinghy traversed the last bit of open water to the wall of the foreboding island, he gathered the grappling hook's rope into neat coils so it would be able to release properly.

As he had approached, he had seen that the sheer stone face which jutted out from the sea capped off in crude battlements. The little boat that carried him was drifting closer to the wall now, and where the sea lapped against it, barnacles thrived in mass. He stood easily, completely accustomed to the rocking of the little dinghy from years of life on the sea, and prepared the grappling hook. He began to swing it in a loop by his side, slowly letting out a little more rope on every rotation until he had sufficient length to lend enough momentum to the three-sided hook itself. After gauging the height of the wall and planning accordingly, he counted to three and released the tool. The iron head soared up and nearly out of sight in the eerie darkness, and after a moment he heard a metallic clatter far above him, and the rope went slack.

He gave it a nervous tug, and when it remained firm, he gave it a harder pull. After feeling that it was still secure, he heaved on it briefly. Finally satisfied that it was well anchored, he dropped the rope and made sure he had everything he needed. As his eyes did a quick once-over of the boat, they lit on the dagger Auru had given him just before he descended from HRNS Divine Beast. He grabbed it and clenched it between his teeth, in case he needed it the moment he hauled himself onto the wall. He gripped the rope with both hands and hoisted himself up. Slowly, he walked up the vertical stone face, heaving himself up with both hands. The steel dagger was almost painful between his jaws as they clenched with the effort.

Soon, he was near the top. His jaws were aching, and he thanked Din for providing him with the strength to reach the top. Finally, he hooked his right hand over the wall's outer edge, then his left. He hauled himself up just enough that he could see through an embrasure in the battlements. The coast was clear. Slowly, he pulled himself higher and higher until he was able to heave himself up between two merlons and onto the wall.

As soon as he was standing on the wall, he removed the dagger from between his teeth and surveyed his surroundings.

Laid out before him was a fortified settlement surrounded by walls in the shape of a harsh pentagon. Perched atop three of the five corners were searchlights that scanned the inside of the settlement. A pond, doubtlessly very deep, was in the middle of the fortress, and upon it floated Volvagia. Link scowled even as he realized that the map's chest was most likely still on board, and continued to gaze across the Forsaken Fortress. To one side of the small lake was a haphazardly arranged shanty town, set up seemingly over a long period of time on what appeared to have once been an immense cobblestone courtyard.

The ringing of steel greeted his ears suddenly, and he recognized that the sound was a hammer shaping a weapon upon an anvil. As one of the searchlights swept across the area down below, it illuminated a billowing cloud of smoke, doubtlessly rising from the blacksmith's forge.

"What you doing up 'ere?" an extraordinarily raspy voice assaulted his ears from his left. How could he have been so oblivious?! His head whipped to face the speaker, his eyes wide in the darkness, attempting to let in enough light to see the voice's owner properly. All he was able to make out in the dark, however, was that the speaker was scrawny, and had ears far longer than the average hylian which stuck out sideways. The creature was slightly shorter than Link. The young sailor could make out no details. "You speak?" it asked awkwardly. "Crew of ship down in tavern, why you up here?" Its tone was only slightly accusatory, and Link realized that this creature was under the impression that he was a member of Zant's crew.

"I, uh," he started quietly, "I got hot so I wanted some cool air." The sentry cocked its head at him. An idea formed in his mind. "Oh, and I wanted to show you something," he said in a low tone, motioning over the battlements and out at the sea. The creature moved forward cautiously, stepping toward the nearest embrasure to look out where the sailor was pointing. Link switched Auru's dagger from his left to his right hand, and moved up behind the sentry. As it raised a crooked blade above its eyes to peer out into the darkness, Link made his move. He reached around the creature's head and grasped its mouth firmly. His heart leapt as he felt sharp teeth protruding from the crude thing's long snout, but he clamped down tight and reached around the other side of its head with his dagger, and dragged the small blade across its throat forcefully. The one cut did not do the job, however, and as the creature began to thrash, Link grimaced as he was forced to saw back and forth with the dagger. Finally, hot fluid gushed over his hand and the creature gurgled. Link shoved it forward with all his might, sending it over the low area of the battlements and down to the crushing depths of the sea.

He shuddered, wiping the viscous blood onto his shirt sleeve and turned back to the fortress. He glanced to his left and then to his right, and saw that a narrow walkway led from the ramparts down a short distance and into corridors which were situated inside the hollow outer fortifications.

Spontaneously, he looked up at the sun again, and saw that it was still shining, though somehow its light did not reach the Forsaken Fortress.

He slid Auru's dagger into his boot and got his bow ready. When he had it strung, he selected an arrow from the quiver at his back and moved toward the walkway. It led down right before the rampart ended at a tower in one of the fortress' five corners. From the top of the tower, one of the searchlights shone its light upon the walkway, putting on display anything that would traverse that passage from the interior to the ramparts. To his right was a ladder that appeared to lead up to the top of the tower where the searchlight's control section would be. He slung his bow over his shoulder, put the arrow back in his quiver, and began to ascend the ladder.

When he reached the top, he peered over the edge of the tower. Another creature that looked exactly the same in silhouette to the first sentry he had encountered manned the light, facing the opposite direction. He sighed silently, and climbed the rest of the way up onto the tower. He then prepared his bow again and laid an arrow on the bowstring.

The bow was an archaic weapon these days, but he knew firsthand that it was easily as lethal as a firearm in the correct hands, and his were the correct hands. It was also far quieter, which was what made it invaluable in a situation such as this. He drew the arrow back to his cheek, focusing his aim on the searchlight operator, and released. A deep thrum came from his weapon, and the arrow leapt away, then as soon as it had left his hand, it tore into the creature's back, piercing through its heart and continuing out its chest. The operator jerked violently and collapsed silently.

Link nodded to himself and slung the bow back over his shoulder, then strode to the controls to see if he could figure them out. As he suspected, they were very simple and he raised a lever, pointing the searchlight up at the pathetically impotent sun.

After he had descended from the tower and traversed the now-dark walkway down to a small balcony, he opened an unimpressive door and entered the interior of the Forsaken Fortress.

The room he now found himself in was a very dim, dank, elongated corridor that seemed to connect two larger rooms located beneath the towers. He could see torchlight flickering in the doorways at either end. On the air, the musty odor of mold drifted into his nostrils. He shivered.

In the room down the corridor to his left, a rhythmic though muffled clank... clank… clank… continuously rang out. It was a heavy sound, if a noise could be described as such, and sounded as though an immense man was lumbering very slowly. Link strode cautiously in that direction, preparing his bow once again. Shortly, he was drawing near to the doorway, and he sidled up against the wall. It was noticeably damp.

As he peeked his head around the door jamb, he saw a hulking creature carrying a pike. In the dim light, it took him a moment to make it out, but when he did, his breath caught in his chest. This beast had the snout and ears of a swine, but sharp teeth like those of a wolf. Its eyes glowed a jaundiced yellow and about its stout neck hung a pendant bearing the still-bloody skull of some small creature. Its torso was like that of a man who was stronger than any Link had ever seen. The creature's broad shoulders had bizarre, swirling, white tattoos on its otherwise deep purple hide. It wore torn blue trousers on its lower half, and bore cloven hooves for feet. Its long pike's tip was a lethal curved steel point, and in its off-hand, it carried an eerily shaped lantern. This monster was literally the stuff of nightmares. Again, Link shuddered.

Standing flat up against the wall once more, he selected an arrow from his quiver and laid it to the bowstring. He knew he had to move swiftly. Planning his attack, he took a deep breath, albeit as quietly as possible. Then he took a step out into the light, already drawing the arrow back. He peered down the shaft briefly, setting the aim on the beast's throat, just as it noticed him. It began to turn toward him as the arrow left his bow. Then the missile struck its target, slicing cleanly through the animal's vocal cords and rendering it mute while severing its jugular. Its head whipped back in reaction to the sudden burst of agony, and blood spurted from its throat. The pike and the lantern were both dropped instantly as its meaty, clawed hands shot up to clutch its throat. Blood gushed from between its fingers, and it collapsed quickly. After a few seconds of wild thrashing, it lay still, the stone floor all around it painted black in the orange torchlight.

Link took a shaky breath, and slung the bow back over his shoulder. Another close call.

The creature's tongue lulled out, as the pool of blood beneath it expanded slowly.

Link then exited that broad square room through a doorway in the far side of the room, then progressed through another corridor similar to the one he had entered originally. He strode quietly through the dark building and shortly came to the far end of it. The door here opened into a slightly larger room where a statue of the upper half of a beast that looked strikingly similar to the one he had just killed protruded from above a double doorway. He scanned the room for enemies, then cautiously began to make his way into the room which was lit dimly by one torch resting in a sconce on the wall.

Silently, he crossed the room with one hand on the pommel of his hanger. He decided to try the doors beneath the massive beast statue, though they were shut. He reached the doors and took hold of a handle. He pulled gently at first, but when the door did not budge, he gave it more force. Just when he was about to give up, the door he was working on creaked open about a few centimeters. The noise seemed to split through the silence, and two little sentries like the first one he had encountered spun around to look at him.

"What you doing?" one asked.

"Crew in tavern," the other said, echoing the words of the one Link had slain upon the wall.

"Captain Zant had me go check on something as soon as we arrived," Link said on a whim, and sidled through the small opening he had created. If the crew was getting drunk in the tavern, hopefully he could make it to Volvagia without incident. Nonetheless, he would be very careful.

In front of him, the Forsaken Fortress of legend opened up. He suspected that he was the first hylian - with the exception of Zant's crew, perhaps - to set foot in the infamously legendary stronghold in centuries. Dirty, clumsily put together buildings lined a walkway that led from the building he had just left to the lake on the far side where Volvagia was anchored. It wasn't that far, but the area was bustling with activity. He had no idea how he would get to the ship relatively unnoticed, and he prayed to Farore that he didn't run into Zant along the way. He knew that the captain would know he wasn't a member of his crew, in fact, he might remember seeing Link on the day that HRNS Loftwing was destroyed. Link shuddered at the memory of Zant's dead yellow eyes staring him down all the way from his own ship when Link had been perched in the crow's nest. He wished he could purge his memory of that forever.

Instead, however, he trekked on, determined to take back the map. He strode forward confidently, looking ahead for a building that could be the tavern. He passed the smithy on his right, and various sorts of apparently residential shacks, then one came up on his right that would be the tavern. He could hear loud voices coming from inside and picked up the heavy scent of liquor and smoke.

He took a left before he reached the alehouse, and navigated his way through the tightly built homes where various species of sentients resided. Staying out of sight of the tavern wasn't difficult, and soon he was at the small dock where the pirate ship was moored.

A narrow gangplank led up to the vessel's deck, and Link looked nervously behind him before he began to ascend it. He moved slowly, and each step he took was as soft as he could make it. The tavern was some distance away now, and it was relatively quiet here.

As Link's head came level with the gunwale, he peered over it and between the cannons stationed on the deck cautiously. Two pirates were standing guard at the entrance to the captain's cabin beneath the quarterdeck. After looking at the men for a brief moment longer, however, he realized that they weren't standing guard, per se, but more of just existing in the right place. One was fast asleep, while the other attempted to keep a watchful eye out on their surroundings. Link almost felt bad that he had to kill them, but then he remembered HRNS Loftwing, and his original remorse vanished without a trace. He stepped back down the gangway a few steps and shrugged his bow off his shoulders, nocking an arrow. He raised it to eye level and advanced once again until he was able to aim the arrow just above the gunwale. In a flash the projectile hissed off the bowstring and smashed itself into the pirate's face, killing him nigh instantly. The other guard remained asleep.

Link didn't want to waste another arrow, so he slung his bow back over his shoulder and drew Auru's knife, moving up onto the deck. He strode aft, toward the door of the cabin. When he reached the slumbering pirate, he pointed his dagger at the man's throat. But then he had mercy. He would not kill a man in his sleep. Instead, he wound up and brought the steel pommel of the small weapon down against the guard's temple, and the pirate simply sagged over a little more.

He then entered the cabin. As he shut the door behind him, he realized that he probably should have been more stealthy about his entry in case there were men inside, but he had gotten lucky, and he was alone. He returned the knife to his boot and strode into the room. And it was just that; a relatively empty room except for a door at the far end, lit by torches in sconces on either side of the room.

With nowhere else to go, he stepped over to the far door. He tried it, but it was locked. He sighed. He glanced around the room once more, and his spirits began to fall, but then he saw a trap door in the middle of the room. How had he missed it the first time? Reinvigorated, he moved to it and opened it. A ladder led down into darkness, and he shuddered as cold, stale air greeted him. Then he had an idea, and fetched one of the torches from the walls then returned to the trapdoor. He opened it again and dropped the torch down. It hit the floor shortly and sputtered slightly, but remained ablaze, lighting up the ladder and the way down.

Once again faced with only one way to proceed, he began to climb down the ladder. When he reached the bottom, he scooped the torch back up in his off-hand and drew his sword, pointing it out into the darkness. He took a few tentative steps forward, listening intently, but hearing nothing aside from the crackling of the torch. The air itself felt wet down here, and the cold soaked through his thin white sleeves.

The light from his torch chased away the darkness, and he saw two fixed torches which were substantially larger than his in sconces on either side of the short entryway where the ladder had brought him down. He assumed these were made to light this room, if it could be called such. With that in mind, he brought his torch to the first larger one, and after a few seconds, the wood there lit. He repeated that with the second one, and the room area where he was - the hold of the ship - was relatively well lit.

Seeing that there was no immediate threat, he sheathed his sword again and dropped the torch that he no longer needed.

In front of him, the floor dropped off some five meters, and then was flat for a distance, then at the far end - which was just barely visible to Link - platform and a doorway. In the deep gap between he and the far side, iron cages large enough to fit a few men were lined up. He figured it must have been the warship's prison.

To his right, there was a short pedestal which protruded from the floor maybe fifteen centimeters. He shrugged mentally, and moved over to step on it. As soon as he stepped on it, however, it dropped down flush with the floor beneath his weight, and suddenly platforms shot up from the floor down below, just close enough for him to jump from platform to platform.

He sprung automatically into action and leapt across the gaps. He took a couple seconds to judge the distance before each jump, and he was nearly to the end when he was in midair and the platforms dropped back into the floor as suddenly as they had risen into place, and Link plummeted down to the hard wooden floor. He muttered a curse under his breath when he noticed he had ripped a hole in the knee area of his canvas pants. He looked around himself, annoyed, but thanked Nayru when he saw a ladder on the side where he had begun, so he wasn't stuck down in Volvagia's hold. He made his way between the cages, and after climbing back up to his starting place, he was more certain that he had to get across this obstacle and through the doorway on the opposite end.

Again, he stepped on the pedestal, and again, the platforms shot up. Knowing what was going to happen, he launched himself across the first few platforms in bounds, then took an extra second for a longer gap. He was halfway across. He continued to leap forward, and finally he was on the last platform. He jumped as far as he could on the last one, and caught the edge of the ledge in front of the doorway. At that moment, the platforms vanished back into the floor. He hauled himself up and headed through the open doorway.

And there it was. The map's chest. He approached it, knowing it was locked. The lock was not an ordinary padlock, however. It did have a key slot on the front, and hopefully that had fooled Zant for now, but the real mechanism was located on the back of the lock. Two tiny levers had to be pulled. Link had it unlocked shortly, and he opened the chest.

He snatched the map out of the chest, and tucked it into his belt. He closed the chest again and relocked it. Then he beat it back to the first ladder. Before he ascended it however, he decided to douse the torches he had lit. Once through with that, he picked up the torch he had brought down, and ascended the ladder. When he reached the cabin, he climbed out and put the torch back in its sconce, then shut the trap door.

He strode back to the door, and began to open it slowly. As he peered out of the cabin, his heart skipped a beat. Crawling all over the deck was a crew of furious looking pirates, and mere feet in front of him was Zant himself, his yellow eyes searching Link's very soul.

"The Master knew you would open the chest for us," he said in a horrifyingly silky voice. Link instinctually backed up, and shut the door again. Eyes wide with incomprehension, he drew his hanger in his left and Auru's dagger in his off-hand and prepared to defend himself. The door was opened again and three pirates rushed toward him. He dispatched the first one to him with one simple move, and engaged the next two. They were slower than him, but the fact that there were two of them began to give them the advantage, and in a moment, there was enough room for another to fit through the doorway, then another, and another. They surrounded him, and he realized it was over. He disengaged and dropped his sword to the floor with a clatter. Raising his hands, he surrendered himself.

"I don't know how you got here, but your presence indicates that there must be a vessel nearby," Zant said as he strode cockily through the doorway. His crew parted for him as he approached the Hyrulean, who held his head high in defiance, his blonde bangs sweaty and slicked to his forehead. "It was courageous of you to come after the map alone, but in the end, you, too, have only served to further the Master's plan, and you have failed in taking it back," the man - if he could be called such - reached for the map at Link's belt, but as his fingers closed around it, the young man twisted his waist and caught the pirate captain's hand and simultaneously yanked his hand so fast that his wrist slipped easily free of the pirate who held it. In one motion, he scooped up his dagger and jabbed it straight up and into Zant's exposed wrist. The disgusting captain shrieked in pain as Link sawed Auru's dagger savagely back and forth inside Zant's wrist. In a flash, the captain had pulled his hand back even as it hemorrhaged blood onto the floor of the cabin and the pirates had caught Link again and this time tackled him, holding him down on his back. Incredibly, the inhuman pirate regained his composure, gripping his wounded wrist tightly with his good hand. "Indeed, courage the likes of which I have not seen," the pirate said with disdain as Link glared daggers up at him.

Zant drew his sword then and did something Link did NOT expect. In a swift movement, his curved blade removed his crippled hand entirely. The white dismembered hand fell onto the cabin floor next to Link and blood from the captain's wrist spurted onto Link's attire and face before the captain clutched it again to stop the bleeding.

"Pathetic. Kill him and-"

"Do not kill him." A new, deep voice carried from somewhere outside of the cabin. "We will take him back to Ghirahim and his king will make a spectacle of his execution, using it as a way to subdue the undercurrents of dissent in Hyrule."

With the pirates distracted by this voice, Link knew he had to act now. He leapt to his feet and burst past Zant and through the circle of pirates and sprinted through the doorway. As he passed out of the cabin, a huge arm swept across his path and clotheslined him, and a moment later he was on his back, looking up. An immense man stood above him whose features were obscured by a hood in the darkness.

"Where did you think you were going?" His deep voice sounded mocking. He reached down easily and snatched the map out of Link's belt. "Throw this kid in the brig," he commanded. Link lay on his back, slightly stunned, as pirate hands grabbed at his shoulders violently. He was hauled to his feet and turned around; back toward the cabin. Zant strolled up to him, his back lit by the torches inside the cabin. Link could just see his smug face as he walked up to him. The Hyrulean struggled briefly, but pirates on either side of him held his arms tightly.

"Men! Set sail for the mainland! We have the map!" the yellow eyed Captain shouted to the rest of the crew while looking Link in the eyes with a malicious smirk.

As the rest of the men around Link hurried to get the ship moving, the two controlling him forced him to the trap door once more. A third fetched a torch, and climbed down before him. When the other two forced the hylian down the ladder and threatened him with a sword and a pistol, he reluctantly obeyed. When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he turned around quickly, hand on his hanger, but the first pirate down was ready with his torch dangerously near to Link's face and a threatening look in his eye.

"Don't even think about it, boy," the hand said condescendingly. Link scowled, but held both his hands up, showing the pirate that he would go willingly. The next pirate landed behind Link and secured both his arms again. As soon as Link was defenseless, the first man down took a step forward and wound up with his torch then swung it at the side of Link's head. The next second, a dull crack echoed through the relatively enclosed space and after a flash of bright color, Link's vision went black.

\-][- /...to be continued...\ -][-/

A/N - I hope you liked my take on the Forsaken Fortress! In case you were wondering, it is NOT, I repeat, NOT supposed to be identical to the Forsaken Fortress from WW. Just similar in many ways ;) Anyway, follow, favorite and please leave a review! Thanks!