Guys, I am really, really sorry but I don't know when I'm going to be able to update The Triforce United. I'm facing a huge case of writer's block. Everytime I sit down to write I end up staring blankly at the computer screen. I will try to get that story out soon for those of you who are waiting, but no promises.
This story, surprisingly, is getting out very rapidly (as in one or two chapters a night). I just don't post very rapidly because I procrastinate (sorry again!). Anyway, here's the next chapter.
Reviews and feedback are much appreciated, but please do me a favor and tell me what's good about the story, just so I know where my strong points are. Constructive criticism is always welcome (any way I can make this story better?), while flames and "you sucks"s will be laughed at.
Enjoy reading!
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Catacomb
It was high noon when we reached Lake Hylia. The white horse was exhausted by the night-and-half-a-day long ride, but Impa had not dared stop for anything, not even to let me relieve myself. Sliding off the horse's sweatsoaked back onto my sore, stiff legs, I waddled to a clump of bushes to do just that. When I was finished I returned to Impa and gazed up at her with a cross expression.
"I'm hungry."
Impa, staring out at the lake with unreadable eyes, took a long time to answer. "There is no food," she said at last.
"Not even for him?" I pointed at the horse, who was drinking greedily from the lake. "He needs it more than I do."
"There was no time to prepare for our flight from the castle. Stop him, Zelda," Impa added, meaning the horse. "He'll drown himself."
I scowled and went to the horse. Grabbing his reins, I dragged his head out of the water and led him over to a patch of long grass that he might like. He eyed the grass, then lowered his head and began to delicately eat. With that taken care of, I looked expectantly to Impa again.
Now she was staring at the sky. She was really just exasperating.
"I don't like this," she said abruptly.
"Don't like what?" I snapped, harder than I'd intended to. I couldn't help it- I was cold, wet, tired, and hungry, with nothing to eat. On top of that, I had no idea what had happened to my father or my kingdom, and was sick with worry.
"The sky," she said.
"What about it?" I cried, utterly exasperated. "By the goddesses, it's just a few clouds!"
Impa looked at me gravely. "The sky in Hyrule reflects trouble on its lands. Didn't anyone ever tell you that?"
I rubbed my eyes tiredly. Someone had mentioned it, but I was too tired to remember it now. "It rains all the time without there being any trouble. Farore's mercy, Impa, that's how the damn crops grow."
"'Damn' is not a word fit for a princess," Impa said absently. "And stop calling on the goddesses. You know as perfectly well as I that this is not the rainy season. This time of year there shouldn't be a cloud in the sky."
"Maybe...maybe it's just a fluke," I said hopefully. "Maybe Ganondorf was captured-"
A bolt of lightning tore suddenly across the sky, and the air split with a booming crash of thunder. Impa and I both jumped.
"I guess that's a no," I said weakly.
Impa began to pace. "We must find out what's happened in the kingdom. I don't like these omens at all. If the time of darkness is upon us, I may be called to-" She stopped abruptly and glanced at me. "Well, never mind."
"Never mind what?"
"It's too dangerous to go north by any of the normal roads," Impa went on, ignoring me. "And the only other shortcut is accessable if you can hold your breath." She scowled. "For a long time." She stopped pacing and sighed. "I knew it would come to this. Well, I suppose it's the only way. Better disillusioned than dead."
"Disillusioned than- Impa, what are you talking about?"
Impa glanced at me; an odd light shone in her eyes. "Follow me, Zelda. Leave the horse here, he'll be fine."
"Are you going to tell me anything?!" I demanded, exasperated almost to tears.
"No point in explaining." Impa had already begun to walk toward the wooden bridge behind the lakeside house that led out to an island. "You'll see soon enough. Come on."
What could I do? I waved goodbye to the horse and trotted off after Impa as she marched onto the wood-and-rope bridge. I followed her carefully across it, trying to ignore the bridge's swaying in every little breeze and the sight of cold, dark water beneath me. When we reached the island and stepped onto solid land, I sighed in relief.
This island was just a small thing, serving only the purpose of connecting another wood-and-rope bridge to the larger island out in the middle of the lake. That island had a large tree on it and a Triforce hexagon, marking it as a place blessed by the goddesses. There were rumors that the Zoras had built some kind of structure inside the island, but I had no idea if that were true.
The island Impa and I stood on was marked only by a gravestone. It was so old and battered by the elements that it was impossible to read the name of the unfortunate creature buried in such a ridiculous spot.
Impa stared at the marker for a moment, then went around to the back of it, curled her fingers into grooves in the stone, and pulled with all her might.
"Impa!" I cried, shocked that a Sheikah of all people was desecrating the house of the dead. "Stop it! There's someone buried under that!"
"No there isn't," Impa said, her voice strained with the effort of pulling. Her heels dug into the soft dirt of the island. "This was put here by my people...as a way...to hide it..."
"To hide what?"
But then the stone began to move at last, revealing an open hole in the ground beneath it that led into darkness. I stared, fascinated, as if it were the very mouth of hell.
When the hole was wide enough to admit a body -I shuddered at the thought- Impa stopped pulling, stood straight, and wiped her brow. "In there," she said, panting.
I backed away in horror, remembering just in time to stop myself that we were standing on a small island. "You're crazy, Impa. I'm not going into a grave."
"It's not a grave," Impa said patiently. "It's a catacomb that extends throughout all of Hyrule. It will lead us safely north."
"People are buried in catacombs, Impa!"
"Only the Sheikah, and them centuries ago. You won't see any skulls and bones in there, I promise. It's been too long."
"But their spirits-"
Impa laughed. "There are no vengeful Sheikah spirits haunting these tunnels. We know how to bury a person so that he or she will move on. You know that."
I shook my head emphatically. Spirits or not, the thought of going in that place was just too awful to bear.
Impa sighed. "We're going in there whether you like it or not, princess. It's either that or risk you getting killed, which I certainly shall not do." She crouched at the edge of the grave and carefully lowered herself into it up to her waist, then glanced up at me. "I'll catch you when you come in. And don't you even think of running away, because I'll come and drag you back- and then I'll make you grope around in the pitch dark. You wouldn't like that, would you?" With that said, she tucked her arms into her sides and let herself fall down into the grave, landing with a thump on the dirt floor below.
I dropped to my knees and peered down into blackness, panicking. "Impa?!"
"I'm right below you, looking up at you," Impa called. "Jump and I'll catch you."
"Oh...all right." I took a deep breath, gritted my teeth, and hopped into the grave to land safely in Impa's arms. Once I was in, the marker that covered the grave rolled back all on its own, leaving us in utter darkness.
I screamed.
There came the sound of striking flint, and orange fire flared. Impa held a torch she must have found on the wall- I could now see the brackets where it had rested. Too terrified to speak, I stared up wide-eyed at my nursemaid.
"There," said Impa. "Now we have light. Nothing to be frightened of in here, see?"
She waved the torch around, and I could see in a quick, tentative glance that she was right. There were no bodies lying around, not even bones. Vermin and insects were nowhere to be seen; the walls and ceiling of the catacomb seemed to be made of flat stone, or perhaps hard clay. It was dry, too, and comfortably warm.
"It's not so bad," I said quietly after a few moments. Not even an echo- the walls, I thought, must absorb sound.
Impa nodded. "My people make good resting places for their dead. Why should a brother or sister have to sleep in a place that is cold and damp and crawling with vermin? Besides, the living used these tunnels as well." She set off down a passgeway and I quickly followed after her, not wanting to lose sight of her flickering torch.
I did not bother to ask how Impa knew what her people had done centuries before she'd ever been born. "We know many things" was the only reply I'd get. Instead I asked, "Where does this catacomb extend?"
"Everywhere. Under the lake, to the deserts of the west, through the forest of the Kokiri children, past the rivers, through the mountains, to the castle itself- and all over Hyrule Field."
I swallowed hard. "Do you know where you're going, Impa?"
"Yes."
I suddenly thought of something else. "Impa! If we're traveling under Hyrule Field, on foot...by the goddesses, it takes a day to get across it on horseback! And we have no food or water!"
"Not to worry," Impa said, with a flash of her fierce grin back at me. "The tunnels are magicked."
"Magicked?"
"Yes." Doubtless Impa will explain in her own time- which means never, I thought, exasperated.
We continued through the dark tunnels. Impa's torch danced off the walls, creating odd shadows that I didn't like. I had never been particularly afraid of the dark or shadows, but there was something strange about this catacomb. Bodies or not, the place reeked of old blood and old death- I felt it in my own being, shadows sweeping over me.
I stopped walking and stood still in the middle of the tunnel, staring rigidly ahead. I did not dare look around. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw things, terrible shadowy things reaching for me, ready to take me. To consume me. Something crept behind my eyes, ensnaring my mind. Touching. Speaking.
"Go away," I whispered, petrified.
Impa halted and turned back to me. She walked toward me and took my hand in a firm, comfortingly solid grip.
"Come on, now," she said gently. "We're almost through."
I followed her, knowing nothing else- clinging to her like a very small child who had just woken from a nightmare. The shadows stayed back. They dared not touch Impa.
It was a few more minutes before my nursemaid stopped walking and looked up. Lost in my fright, I didn't notice she had halted until I bumped into her legs- and then I, too, looked up. A patch of the ceiling seemed to be made of dark stone.
"Open," Impa commanded, and the stone rolled away to reveal gray sky above. I gaped in astonishment, but Impa wasted no time. She seized me around the waist and shoved me through the opening, the scrambled up behind me.
I stared around in amazement. We were in the graveyard of Kakariko Village.
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Continued in Chapter 5: Village