Guess what! I'm not dead!
I was so inspired by your guy's kind words, and found myself finishing this chapter! Thank you so much for waiting for me to get out of my funk. I can't promise I'm gonna be on a writing spree now, but I will be trying to write more.
I want to reassure you guys and let you know that I found a wonderful job, where I can express myself again! My old job was horribly, and suffocated my creative muse for the two years I was there. But! I'm free from that hell! And now I can be myself again! Yay!
So here we go! Hope you guys enjoy!
On with the story!
Laying across the foot of the bed, Shadow couldn't help but remember a few days ago when he was in this same position back at the cottage in Kakariko Village. At the feeling of someone shifting on the bed, Shadow looked to the headboard where Vio still sat up. He watched as the purple clothed Link grimace in pain as he shifted into a more comfortable position.
"Do I need to move?" Shadow asked as he felt Vio's feet press against him.
"No, no," Vio panted out as he carefully laid in a half-curled up position, facing Shadow, "You're fine." Shadow doubted it, and pulled the blanket out from under him. He felt Vio's eyes watch him as Shadow shifted to his side, pressing his back against the footboard. He reached out and gingerly grabbed Vio's ankles and the blanket covering them before pulling them towards himself, stretching out the intelligent Link's legs.
"There." He said proudly as he watched Vio shift into a more comfortable way to lay on his side, still facing Shadow without making his whole body painfully scrunched up. Shadow smiled as Vio let out a content sigh at the new found position. Shadow knew being on his side must not be the most comfortable, but he hoped it was better than what it was. After catching Vio up on recent events, both decided to take the time to relax as neither of them could find it in themselves to go back to sleep.
"I know you hear this every time you're awake," Shadow whispered as he watched Vio tighten the blanket around himself, "but how are you feeling? Besides the obvious pain of course." Shadow watched as Vio took a deep breath to further take note of his own body before humming in thought and saying;
"I'm a bit cold, and a bit sluggish. Pain isn't as bad," Shadow snorted in amusement at that statement, "but honestly it's not as bad as it once was. The medicine I've been given helps a whole lot." Shadow nodded at this,
"Yeah, the stuff does wonders sometimes." He watched as Vio gave him a look between confusion and concern, but Shadow waved him off.
"Not important. Don't worry about it."
"I feel like I should." Vio said, before adding in a hushed whisper, "Especially if what you told me, before the whole Death Mountain incident, was true." Shadow opened his mouth to deny the past statement he once made, but found he couldn't and just sighed before whispering back in a small voice;
"It's something that I'd rather not think of tonight." Shadow watched as Vio did a small nod in understanding before silence settled on them for the moment; the only sounds in that time being a few small congested coughs from Vio. After a few minutes, Vio spoke up again;
"Do you know anything on how Castle Town and Hyrule Castle are fairing?" Shadow could hear the underlying question; "Have you heard anything on Dad?". Shadow could do nothing but sigh, before answering,
"No. I haven't." Shadow sadly watched as Vio closed his eyes, sighing in remorse at the possibility of what happened to their father. Shadow opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a small, almost high pitched shout of pain and anguish. Sharing a look with Vio, Shadow pulled himself up from the footboard and looked behind him to where the sound came from; another following as he did so. Looking over, Shadow saw that at one point Blue had slid down the headboard, and now laid on his side, curled up and trembling. At first, Shadow thought it was just because the blue Link was just cold, but after watching for a good minute, Shadow knew it wasn't the cold bothering him. Before he could do anything else, however, out of nowhere Blue's eyes suddenly snapped open as he bolted into a sitting position; a full-on bloody scream of pain and sorrow escaping his mouth. This immediately had Shadow jumping up, the others not far behind; being woken by the scream. Immediately jumping into action, Shadow quickly held a hand up to the others to prevent them from advancing as he sat on the bed in front of Blue, searching his eyes for any sign of clarity. Seeing none, and blood starting to gather in his eye as his breathing became fast and erratic; panic seeming to be the only thing his face could show, Shadow called out to the boy.
"Blue! Hey, what's wrong? Talk to me." He tried to keep the panic and full blown fear out of his voice, but it became hard as Blue let out a grieving sob; his breathing getting worse, and his face reddening due to it. Panicking at see this, Shadow grabbed both of Blue's upper arms in a tight grip before calling out,
"Blue! You gotta breathe!" This seemed to snap Blue out of whatever haze he was in; but as soon as he made eye contact with Shadow, one of his sobs hitched, and his breathing became worse.
"Blue! Listen to me!" Shadow couldn't help but shake his arms a bit to get the boy's attention. This worked, and Shadow watched as Blue tried to take a deep breath. When he tried to exhale, however, a heart wrenching sob is what came out instead. Shadow couldn't help but better look at Blue, his internal panic calming at the sight of him. Taking a quick breath to calm his own nerves, Shadow gently grabbed one of Blue's hands, and pressed it against his own chest.
"Breathe with me Blue." Calmly, Shadow took deep, slow breaths for Blue to follow. At first, Blue struggled in catching his breath, but Shadow patiently stayed with him, talking in a hush whisper until Blue's breathing became steady again after ten minutes or so. Shadow watched carefully as Blue closed his bloodshot eyes and took deeper breaths for a minute more, then reopened them before wiping the tears, and little bit of blood that had gathered. Shadow decided not to mention the fact the blue clad Link has blood now smeared across his eye socket, instead gave a calm smile as their eyes met.
"Hey," he said, ignoring the flash of fear that was in Blue's eyes for a second, "you OK?" He couldn't help but watched as Blue quietly turned to look at the others. Everyone stood a good foot or so away from the bed to give him room. Shadow watched as he made eye contact with each one of them. However, Shadow didn't see the last one he saw to make his breathing hitch, and blue eyes fill with panic and fear. Shadow watched as he whipped his head away, tears gathering in his eyes that he quickly wiped away. The shadowling couldn't help but sigh as blood mixed with the tears, and this time, Blue caught on as he passed his fingers over his left eye and paused. Everyone held their breath as Blue slowly took his hand into eyesight to look at it, eye widening at the sight of blood. His breathing hitch again, and this time, it fell back into the previous hyperventilating.
"Blue?" Shadow couldn't help but call out as he gently squeezed the hand that was still pressed against his chest. But the boy was no longer listening; his breathing became worse and worse, Shadow calling out and tried to get his attention once again. However, this time the panic became too much for the hot head as his eyes suddenly rolled into the back of his head. Shadow cursed under his breath as Blue fell forward, catching the now unconscious boy. He took note of Red calling out in alarm and running forward.
"Is he ok?!" Red asked in a panicked tone, kneeling down beside the bed.
"I think so." Shadow grunted as he shifted Blue in his arms to get a better look at him. The purple haired boy couldn't help but sigh at the sight of the boy's clear unconscious face, blood slowly slipping down Blue's cheek from his eye. Shadow opened his mouth, ready to ask Shelda to fetch a rag, but before he could; Erune's mother came in.
"Is everything alright?" She asked, "I heard a terrified scream coming from up here!"
"Everything's ok." Vio told her quietly. "Blue just had a bad dream. We got him to fall back asleep." Shadow opened his mouth to make a comment about how they weren't able to do the sort, and Blue in fact passed out, but after seeing the woman's whole body relaxing at what Vio said, Shadow quickly closed his mouth.
"That's good." She said in the same quiet voice as Vio. However, something struck the woman as she hastily told;
"Not the fact he got a nightmare, heavens no! But the fact that no one's hurt! Not that nightmares can't harm people on a physical and or mental state, but I mean-" The woman stopped talking by Vio gently placing a hand on her shoulder.
"It's ok, we know what you meant." The woman nodded, letting out a sigh. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a frantic knock echoing within the house that belonged to the front door. Shadow, confused as to who could be here in such an early hour, watched as Erune's mother hastily went downstairs. Vio, brows furrowed, carefully walked over to the window unnoticed by the others.
"Do you think he'll wake up soon?" Red asked Shadow in a quiet voice as the shadowling carefully laid Blue back down on the bed. Shadow sat back against the footboard, sighing as he watched as Green came up to gently nudge Blue's face. Both Shadow and Red watched as Blue's face scrunched up in disgust; a few mumbled words left his lips, but other than that there was no response. Shadow frowned at that, knowing it would probably be awhile until he woke up. Silence filled the room as everyone got down from their adrenaline rush of being awoken to Blue's scream. Looking at each of them, Shadow could see exhaustion starting to set in, especially in Vio; who now sat on his bed looking at nothing with a faraway look. Sighing, He waited until Shelda made eye contact with him, before nodded over to the purple class Link. Shelda immediately caught on, nodded, and headed over to him.
"Vio," she said as she made her way over to him, "how about you head to bed now? You look like you need it." Vio lifted his head to listen to Shelda, but Shadow watched as he shook it in disagreement.
"Thank you, Princess, but I think I'll be up for a little while longer." Shadow couldn't help but throw a hand over his mouth to prevent him from full on laughing at the face Shelda currently had. Complete shock and surprise was written clearly on her face as she just stood there, staring at Vio. Shadow couldn't contain the smile on his face as he exchanged a look with Red and Green, seeing they both were taken aback. Vio looked generally confused at their looks. Once crimson met blue, Shadow couldn't take it anymore.
"She's not a princess Vio." He couldn't help but let out a small laugh as Vio realized what he did, quickly looking back at Shelda to say,
"I deeply apologize, Prin- Shelda." Shadow chuckled as he added,
"Vio's the polite one, if you can't tell Shelda."
"I can tell." Shelda said simply, clearly still taken by surprise. He watched as Vio looked up at her curiously, asking,
"So you're not a princess in the Dark Realm?" This snapped her out of her shock and earned a chuckle from Shelda as she sat down on the bed across from the purple clad boy.
"Naw, never been a princess."
"Only princess she's been is the Princess of Sass." Shadow informed Vio as he tucked Blue under his blanket, wiping the blood away with his shirt sleeve.
"If I'm the Princess of Sass," Sheda retorted in a humorous voice, "then you're the Prince of an Emotional Mess."
"Naw, more like the Prince of Sleep Depravity." Red added with a small smile before adding, "Green said that one, but I knew you two can't hear him." Shadow smirked as he sat beside Shelda, catching the look of interest in Vio's eyes.
"You two can't hear Green? Her, it would make sense, but you can't Shadow?" Shadow shrugged as he replied,
"Apparently not. We're not sure why, but it doesn't really bother me as much as you would think."
"I doubt that."
"Doubt all you may, but it doesn't." the shadowling replied. " You guys make good translators."
"Although.." Shelda started, a curious chuckle in her voice, "It would have been amusing to know what Green and Blue argued about all the time." Shadow chuckled before replying,
"Naw, it's more amusing when we don't have full context."
"Heh, yeah, you're right." Shadow let out a quiet chuckle before looking over at the prone figure of Blue, and immediately sobered.
"We probably should go back to bed." Shelda said in a soft, respectful voice, "We all need to rest." Shadow nodded in agreement, and opened his mouth to verbally agree, but the sound of footsteps rushing up the stairs stopped him. Turning towards it, he watched as Erune rounded the corner with one hand holding a cardholder with a lit candle, the other hand blocking the flame from going out. Erune huffed as a look of fear plastered her face. Everyone stood as one once as she spoke;
"Dark Knights!" She exclaimed in fear, "Dark Knights were spotted heading this way!" Shadow couldn't help but glance at Shelda, sharing a look of worry.
"How far out are they?" Vio asked before giving out a few coughs.
"They will be here once the sun breaks the treelines." She answered.
"How many of them?" Red asked in a timid voice, obviously translating for Green.
"The spotter couldn't count them all, there were too many." Erune said, shaking in fear. Shadow watched as Vio reached out and put a comforting hand on her shoulder, speaking in a soft voice,
"Thank you for the info. Why don't you go back and be with your mother? We need to plan our next step." With a nod, Erune stepped out of the room, closing it behind herself. They all sat for a moment, before Shelda broke the silence.
"We still have time to rest, and a couple hours at dawn to head out. Let's all get some sleep, and be ready to move in the morning."
"Is Vio fit for travel?" Shadow couldn't help but ask. Vio opened his mouth to say something, but Shelda spoke first,
"We still have Epona. He can ride her for the time being." Shadow watched as Vio stared at Shelda in annoyance before saying;
"I can speak for myself, thank you." Shadow silently watched the tension build in the room as Vio glared Shelda down as she calmly looked at him.
"You're right, I apologize. By all means, answer Shadow's question yourself." the tension built as Vio continued to glare at Shelda, before turning to Shadow with a look that he could only describe as stubbornness and annoyance.
"I can travel just as well as you guys." that was the moment Shadow could look back and claim that he could hear Shelda's patient strain against herself.
"Vio," she said in a calm voice, but Shadow could hear the edge deep in her voice, "you have barely had three full days to recover. If I had the choice, I wouldn't let you out of bed for another week. Your body, your lungs especially, are still trying to recover from the trauma of being poisoned. Not to mention the wounds you were given that haven't even had time to even heal enough for you to be able to fight." Shadow watched as Vio's face grew defensive and offended, opening his mouth to say something, but the purple haired woman cut him off before he could say anything.
"Are you really willing to put yourself in an even worse state then we found you because you are going to decide to be prideful?-"
"You are in no position to tell me what to do." Vio interrupted. "How do you know what's best for me? For any of us? You don't know anything about us, or what you're talking about."
"Vio.." Shadow finally spoke up, giving his friend a warning tone. Vio immediately turned to Shadow, and, oh boy, he could see the seething anger in those eyes now. However, he could also see the pain and exhaustion behind his anger, bags starting to show underneath those sapphire orbs.
"He's beyond his limit, and he knows this." Shadow couldn't help but think.
"What? Am I wrong? Are you telling me she actually knows anything about us?" Shadow sighed, trying to think of a way to go about this.
"Vio, please, you're being dramatic." a rough, tired voice cut through the tension, causing Vio's seething anger to suddenly flip to one of shock as everyone whipped their heads to the bed across the room, where Blue now propped himself up, looking over at Vio in tired annoyance.
"Blue!" Red exclaimed, wiping tears from his eyes. Shadow watched as Blue looked Red up and down an unreadable look on his face, before looking back at Vio.
"C'mon dude, you're upsetting Red over nothing. Calm down."
"Calm down?!" Vio more or less barked, "Blue, we don't know her! We don't know what she's capable of doing to us!" Shadow couldn't help but notice the wince Shelda gave at those words, but chose to ignore it, and spoke up;
"Vio," he said, "are you saying you don't trust me enough? I was the one that brought Shelda along. Are you saying I'm wrong in bringing her with?"
"I trust you Shadow." Vio said calmly, "but I can't say I trust her."
"Understandable." Shadow agreed. "You haven't gotten to know her yet, though, so maybe give her a chance." Vio looked away at this, silence hanging over them as Shadow waited patiently for Vio to agree. Before Vio or himself could say anything, a timid, sad voice spoke up.
"If it wasn't for her, we'd be dead." said Red, catching Vio's attention.
"What do you mean?" The purple clothed Link asked.
"She was the one who made you the antidote." he answered, petting Green's fur as he talked. "She also patched me up, and probably saved my life. More than once really."
"Not to mention," Blue added, "she was the one who took care of Shadow and tended to his injuries before they found any of us." Shadow nodded in agreement to this, and watched as the gears turned in Vio's tired state. It was at this point Shadow knew he was on his last ropes, looking ready to pass out, but was thinking too hard to allow his body rest. Shadow couldn't help but feel bad for Vio, knowing the conflict going on in his head, and added in a quiet, serious voice;
"It's because of her I'm even here in the Light Realm." This gained all the Link's attention. Sighing, Shadow gave the short version, not wanting to get into it.
"Twinrova arrested me after turning traitor against the Dark Realm. Shelda was assigned to assassinate Link, but she decided she didn't want us to suffer anymore, and convinced Twinrova to take me with her." Shadow saw Vio open his mouth to ask, but Shadow quickly stopped him,
"I don't want to get into details now. We need to rest to prepare for tomorrow." Shadow watched Vio as Blue and Red quietly talked in the background, probably catching Blue up on their coming problem.
"Shadow's right." Blue said, now caught up on everything, "we need to get as much rest as possible for tomorrow." Everyone nodded in agreement, but Shadow watched as Vio made no movement to lay down. Looking over to the others, he could see Red and Green fussing over Blue, said Link grumpily reassuring them that he was fine. Looking back over at Shelda, he could see she was nervous to move, sneaking quick glances at Vio now and again. Sighing, Shadow looked around the room, before deciding on something, and stood up. He nudged Shelda off the bed, before walking over to the other side and pushing it towards Vio's bed. Vio was as quick as he could be, pulling his legs onto the bed as the second one collided with it. Once in place, Shadow huffed in satisfaction and smiled. Looking over at the three Links on the other bed, Shadow nodded over to the two now adjoined beds.
"What do ya think? Slumber party?" Red immediately perked up at that
"Perfect" Shadow thought as Red more or less dragged Green over with spare pillows and stuffing them into the crack between the beds.
"That'll encourage both Vio and Blue to sleep." The plan worked perfectly; once Red deemed it ready, with a small pile of extra pillow and blankets, he quickly went in charge to get everyone to fit in. Shelda helped push the third bed against the other two while Red encouraged Vio to lay down. Shadow sat at the end of the three beds with a smile as Blue admitted defeat and climbed into the pile.
"Thank you for joining us tonight." Shadow said with a smirk.
"Fuck you." Blue snapped back, but paused as he watched the other three; Green was gently laying by Vio's feet while Red was making it a mission to get Vio as comfortable as possible. Shadow watched as Blue let out a sigh, before adding,
"But this was a good idea. I guess." Shadow let out a laugh as Blue joined the others, helping the two get Vio to bed, but being less gentle.
"Blue! You can't do that, you'll hurt him!" Red exclaimed as he took a pillow and used it to swat Blue away, letting go of it as Blue grabbed it.
"You need sleep too! Go ahead, and lay right here." The red clothed Link said, patting the spot beside him. Shadow couldn't help but chuckle as Blue settled in the spot, but immediately turned to Shadow, and flipped him the bird. This only caused Shadow to laugh louder, and fully climb up on the bed. He purposely laid close to Blue, asking the blue clothed Link in a taunting, overly innocent manner,
"Can I sleep with you tonight? I'm scared of the big meanies coming for us."
"Dude, fuck OFF!" Shadow burst into laughter as he was aggressively shoved away from his brother.
"Children, behave or no more sleepovers." Was Shelda's monotone response, going and settling onto the end of the bed.
"Yes mom." Was Shadow's cheeky reply and he laid down beside her, earning a snort and eye roll from the purple haired woman.
After a while, everyone finally started to sleep, Vio being the first to conk out, Red and Blue not far behind. Finally, Green, and then Shelda joining them in the land of dreaming. Shadow laid there as he listened to the steady breathing of his family. The occasional hoot of an owl echoed somewhere outside. Shadow couldn't help but think about the army heading this way, and could almost hear the armor clanking as they marched towards his cell.
"No." Shadow immediately thought, shaking the thought away as he felt his heart leap to his throat. "I am not there, and we are not going down that road again tonight." But still, Shadow couldn't help but reach over and touch his own wrist, as he remembered the horrid nightmares he's had of that place. Only once he felt the dirty, soft cotton of his shirt did he let out a sigh of relief. However, Shadow couldn't help himself as he pulled his sleeve up to look at his wrist. Small red marks still littered his wrist from the week from hell he was in shackles.
"We got each other." He reassured himself, forcing himself to take deep breaths as he adjusted his sleeve. "I won't get captured. I won't go back to that hell. I won't let them take me alive."
….
Hoo boy that took a hot minute.
I thank everyone that have been waiting so patiently for me to continue. You guys encouraged me to keep going, and I am so thankful to you guys! I can't say it enough!
Hopefully I will have the next chapter up a lot sooner. We can only pray that happens thou…
Welp! Hope you guys have an amazing day/night!
TELLER OUT!