Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda or its associated properties
Author's Preface:
Greetings! This story follows the events of twilight princess (hence the name), so expect some spoilers. One of the greatest things about Zelda in my opinion is the excellent soundtrack, and I personally enjoy listening to music as I read. Therefore, I'll be putting some soundtrack recommendations at the start of each chapter as background music from various Zelda games (You should be able to google the title to find a youtube option to listen to). Let me know if you enjoy this concept! This is a bit of an experimental work for various reasons, but I hope you enjoy the first chapter.
Recommended background music: Farewell Hyrule King – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The late afternoon sun shone lazily over the edge of the forest clearing. Dried grass, long exposed to the hot summer sun, gave a light brown texture to what may otherwise have been a vibrant mix of green growth. The forest itself was filled with large oaks but much shrubbery and briars hid beneath the canopy. Little light broke through the sheer number and density of tree limbs.
Shouts and a single scream were heard from the interior of the woods, growing closer in a massive panic. Birds and small animals broke free of the forest or flew away in surprise at the commotion. Suddenly, three figures broke out into the clearing, light gleaming off their chainmail.
The three men were clearly exhausted but also panicked. The sweltering heat was amplified inside the closed helmets and armor all three wore. The three figures wore white tunics with light blue accents above their armor, the red hylian crest clearly displayed on their chests. One wore captain's stripes. He carried a simple arming sword along with one of his other companions, while the final carried a short spear. While panting heavily, he pointed towards the series of wooden structures off in the distance, just over a hundred yards away. The other two men acknowledged him, and they quickly started running off towards the wooden buildings nearby.
The wooden structures in question composed a reasonably sized village created from felled oaks from the neighboring forest. It hosted around thirty buildings, primarily homes. Small chimney and cooking fires could be seen over the top of the settlement. The entire village was surrounded by a large palisade, once again made by the large trunks of oak trees. Most villages in Southeastern Hyrule had no need of such a structure, but this village was different, isolated as it was by the forest. The three men continued sprinting towards the closed barrier, passing through farmland on the way that was used by the village but remained outside its palisade of protection. The reason for the palisade in the first place quickly became apparent.
Exactly where the three men had broken out of the forest undergrowth, five figures emerged. Hissing and shrieking at each other, the form of five giant lizard-like warriors could clearly be recognized. Dressed in a small amount of leather and covered in easily recognizable green scales, the lizalfos quickly broke out into clearing, squinting in the sunlight. All carried curved, jagged swords, and several also carried small square shields. Two of the party had roped axe heads to their tails, adding an additional level of lethality to their armament. The lizards had distinguishing yellow eyes on either side of their heads, long claws, and massive fangs. A few had decorated themselves with paint, earrings, or skulls on their belt. Forked tongues occasionally whipped out, scenting the air in their reptilian way. Almost immediately, they spotted the three fleeing soldiers.
A multitude of loud victorious shrieks filled the air in an instant. The lizalfos started sprinting after their prey, low to the ground and weapons pointed forward. The impact on the fleeing soldiers upon hearing the lizalfos was immediately apparent. They attempted to increase their speed, to little effect in their heavy armor. The lizards behind them could smell the fear upon the air and carried on shrieking.
The monstrous warriors were unlabored by armor and were moving at nearly twice the speed of the party in front of them. Two naturally began to branch out wide to the left and right from the others in an attempt to encircle and slay their prey in front of them. The other three continued straight after their targets. Luckily, the armored infantry in front of them had managed to gain a lead after entering the clearing and were quickly approaching the village palisade.
However, the palisade gate was firmly shut and locked. No watchman or sentry could be seen on the upper wall of the defensive barrier. The three men sprinting towards the gate quickly realized this and began yelling at the top of their voices. As they came closer and closer, nothing changed in the activity behind the palisade. The yells became more panicked and urgent as they approached within twenty feet of the entryway.
"Open the gate! Open the gate!" The lead man shrieked between pants. Nothing changed as they stormed to a stop in front of the wall and began banging on it loudly. "This is Captain Garsus, open the gate at once! That's an order! For Hylia's sake, you'll get us all killed!" Once again there was no returning call from within the gate. The other two men added their voices to his original cry, but to no avail. With a sinking feeling, the captain turned around slowly and attempted to regain his breath, watching the charging lizalfos with a tormented expression beneath his closed helm.
"Forget it men, we're on our own. Prepare to break a lizalfos charge." To his credit, the spearman immediately turned and readied his weapon. Captain Garsus couldn't see his expression behind the helmet, but the body language spoke of readiness and a surprising lack of fear. However, exhaustion had seemed to have taken its toll, as the man wasn't completely steady. The other man dropped to his knees with a choked sob.
"We're all gonna die! Out here for nothing!" Captain Garsus forced him to his feet where the man seemed to regain some composure.
"Die like a man blast you! Get ready, we need you if we are to stand even a tiny chance." The man sniffed and nodded and prepared a half-ready stance. However, he was still shaking terribly and Garsus cursed him inwardly for his cowardice. He had little time to contemplate much else as the three lead lizalfos arrived in a stampede of blades, claws, and shrieks.
Lizalfos were cunning, fast and extremely fierce. Captain Garsus considered each of them worth at least two trained light infantry a piece. With armor, his troops at least had some protection, but he desperately wished his men had carried their shields on this day. But alas, they had not. The Lizalfos initially tried to overwhelm the three in a quick melee. However, the spearman to Garsus's right lunged forward right as they were about to hit and attempted to end one with a thrust to the neck. The lizalfos stopped fast in its tracks and brought its small shield up to block.
The other two lizards leaped forward at Garsus and his cowardly companion on his left. Garsus roughly deflected the curved sword as the lizalfos in front of him bounded at him but the lizalfos's body carried on into him, and they were both thrown to the ground in a tackle. The lizard's sword impaled the ground, but its other hand swung at him, clawing him in the side and going straight through his chainmail. Garsus gasped in pain even as he brought his gauntleted left hand up in a fist and punched hard into the monster's jaw.
The creature tried to regain its feet in a slight daze and bring in its sword to end the fight, but Garsus quickly brought his right arm up and slammed his sword pommel into the creature's chest. It backpedaled a half step, but that was all Garsus needed to come to his knees and thrust his sword through its belly. The creature let out one last hiss as it fell backward and Garsus withdrew his sword, now covered in a nasty green blood. He quickly regained his feet and tried to regain awareness of the situation through the pain and exhaustion.
Apparently, the lizalfos that had targeted him was the most aggressive of the lot. The other two, seeing a quick charge would not settle the matter, had taken to a much more strategic approach of taking quick stabs at their prey from behind their small shields. The spearman, while handling himself well, was bleeding lightly from two or three cuts. The creature he was fighting had received a wound to its leg and was hobbling slightly behind its shield as it attempted to get within the spear's reach to do more damage.
That contrasted sharply with Garsus's swordsman on his left, who was clearly panicking as he attempted to deflect hit after hit from the lizalfos with no aggressive actions in return. He had a large wound on his shoulder and was barely standing thanks to a cut on his leg that was bleeding terribly.
Garsus moved to double up on the swordsman's enemy, but that was when the two lizalfos who had moved to the outside hit the defending party. They had kept on Garsus's men's flanks and sprinted in right alongside the palisade on either side. One had rushed from the left, the other from the right. Suddenly, both the spearman and swordsman had an additional attacker at the worst time.
The spearman saw the charging lizalfos at the last second and attempted to use his spear as a quarterstaff to deflect two attacks at once. He somewhat succeeded, stopping the blades, but left himself off balance. His original opponent stepped in immediately with inhuman speed and slashed a downward strike at the defender with its jagged, curved blade. The slash landed on the left forearm of the spearman.
He howled in pain and dropped his spear, falling back to within a step of the palisade gate. The lizalfos hissed with satisfaction as the spearman clutched his arm in pain. On the other side of the fight however, things had gone even worse for the hylian defenders.
Garsus could do nothing as the other flanking lizalfos joined the fray. His swordsman companion did not even see the attacker until it was far too late. The lizalfos used its sprinting momentum and jumped higher than any man could. It whipped its tail around and Garsus saw in horror that it had an axe head tied to it. The swordsman tried to turn but was too slow, the axe head hitting an upward slice under his left arm, cutting horrifyingly deep through chainmail and launching him.
The unfortunate man landed with a scream right in front of his original lizalfos opponent, who wasted no time in delivering a two-handed downward thrust into the soldier's back with its curved sword. The swordsmen fell silent in a bloody heap.
Garsus found himself backing up shoulder to shoulder in horror with the injured spearman, who had drawn a small, curved knife. Garsus almost laughed at the absurdity of fighting these insane creatures with nothing but a knife, but he did respect the man's resolve. The yellow eyed lizards moved in for the kill, tongues slithering in and out in pleasure.
The killing finale was interrupted by several explosions, back-to-back right behind the lizalfos line. Garsus was thrown to his knees while his comrade was flung against the palisade gate. Garsus's ears were ringing, and his perception was off, but he thought three different explosives had been set off. He had no idea the source of the explosions, but thought he saw a flash of green in the distance.
The lizalfos that had moments before surrounded him were now scattered across the ground. Garsus realized in a panic that his sword had been thrown from his hands in the bombing and laid a good ten feet from him. The lizalfos recovered quicker than any hylian infantry could, and one kipped itself up onto its feet right in front of Garsus. It had not dropped its blade despite being directly in front of the explosion and its dazed eyes suddenly focused on Garsus.
Garsus felt a moment of panic as his eyes met the reptile's yellow glare before he began sprinting towards his blade. The lizalfos was quicker however, intercepting him and slashing its own blade across his right arm and chest, throwing him to the ground face up. He cried out in terror and pain as he landed, seeing the lizalfos raise its curved blade for a finishing blow.
Before the blow descended however, a blade emerged from the lizalfos's chest. The oversized lizard's body crumpled with a fading shriek. Garsus cradled his injured sword arm as the unexpected rescuer withdrew the sword from the dying lizalfos. As the body fell, he got a better view of the new ally, dressed all in green, who was already turning to face the remaining three lizalfos that had recovered themselves and their weapons.
The swordsman in question revealed no fear, hesitation, or uncertainty as he stepped in front of the two wounded men, standing between them and the attacking lizards. He confidently held his silver and brown handled sword in his left hand and a blue shield in his right in a fighting stance. The individual was dressed in green with chain mail lying underneath the tunic. Garsus noted a quiver and bow mounted on his belt along with several pouches. The hylian man wore a strange hat as well, green like the tunic but quite long that covered dirty blond hair.
Garsus groaned and tried to crawl towards his sword. Explosives or not, one man could not last against three lizalfos, and he'd rather die with his sword in hand. However, he kept his eyes on the fight, and quickly stopped in shock, uncertain if he was seeing correctly.
As the three lizalfos simultaneously rushed the young hylian man in front of him, it seemed as though time slowed. The hylian struck like lightning, slicing the foremost lizalfos in the neck before it could respond and throwing it to the ground where it lay still. The green-clad swordsman immediately brought his shield up and blocked a strike from the next attacker, dodged to the side of the third lizalfos's leaping attack, and thrust his blade deep into the gut of the lizalfos who's blade was still locked with the stranger's shield. It went down with a shrill cry.
The final lizalfos tried to follow up its attack with a tailspin, hoping to catch the new arrival with the attached axe head. The swordsman moved with inhuman speed and jumped into the lizalfos's leap with a predatory pounce. He stabbed the lizalfos in the neck with the sword in his left hand and rode it to the ground. It died before contacting the earth.
The young hylian withdrew his sword and wiped the blood off of it before sheathing it into its place on his back. He now looked over to Garsus and walked over to him. Garsus was uncertain how to respond to the wild, animal-like look in the hylian's eyes, but it seemed to fade with the action of the skirmish. Garsus shook the strange observation from his mind as he attempted to stand. The stranger was instantly at him, his sharp features marked with concern.
"Sit still captain, you're wounded. You'll lose a lot of blood if you let that go unbandaged." The stranger said in calming voice while indicating the captain's chest. Garsus looked down and realized blood covered his front tunic. The lizalfos had cut his upper arm very deeply and his chest was also cut pretty badly. He stopped trying to rise to his feet but sat up fully.
"Aye, it's an ugly one. I owe you my thanks for your assistance. I don't think we could've pulled off a miracle here without..." He coughed raggedly as he tried to finish his statement. The green-clad stranger was checking his arm and chest with a practiced hand and shaking his head.
"Take it easy, there will be plenty of time to talk after we have you taken care of." He pulled a wooden reed-like object from around his neck and blew into it. A moment later a brown and white charger trotted up beside him. The horse was extraordinarily large but gentle, nudging her master as he went to her saddle and pulled out a roll of bandages. The stranger said nothing else as he began methodically caring for the captain's wounds. Once satisfied with a fairly professional bandaging job he tossed Garsus a canteen that the captain greedily drank from.
The man turned towards the former spearman who still lied by the palisade gate from the explosion. The hurt spearman groaned as the stranger approached, sitting up in a daze. The green-clad swordsman whispered a few words to him before helping him stand, albeit wobbly. From there he helped the older man bandage his left forearm and then passed him the canteen as well.
Captain Garsus managed to struggle to his feet and pulled off his helmet, revealing a full red beard and sweaty red hair. He reached out his unbandaged left hand to the stranger.
"Well met, stranger. My name is Captain Garsus of the Hyrulean Army. This is Sergeant Letz. We both owe you our lives and am in your debt. We'll try to repay that debt in any way we can, but it would be nice to know who we are lucky enough to have visiting this tiny village." Garsus's voice was still somewhat shaky from the whole ordeal, and he hoped the words sounded more confident than he felt. The captain watched as the stranger seemed to consider the captain and his subordinate. He then took the offered hand and shook it.
"My name is Link, and I'm here to help." He quickly stowed his bandages and canteen back in his saddle bag. He then grabbed the horse's reins and turned back to the two men. Captain Garsus used this time to better view this new stranger. Sharp features detailed his face and long ears marked him as hylian. The aspect that most surprised him was the stranger's height. He was a half a head shorter than Garsus himself, and Garsus was average height at best. However, he couldn't fault the young man's fighting prowess. He was interrupted from his thoughts by Link. "Any reason they left you outside of the gate?" The stranger asked in a calm voice, studying the wooden structure in front of them.
"I'm not sure, but I'm about to find out." He turned to the gate and raised his voice angrily. "You in there! Open the gate at once. I know you're in there, and I'll kill you myself if you keep this gate closed with no monsters on the doorstep!" Once again there seemed to be no response.
"I'm sure someone will open it eventually," Link remarked. Even as he said that the sound of the wooden beam behind the gate could be heard being lifted. A moment later the door slowly opened to expose the interior of the village. The captain grunted as he shifted his arm in pain while turning to Link.
"I'd say welcome to the Village of Vinwaka, but I doubt it's going to be a very warm welcome."
Author's Note:
This story is completely finished except for the epilogue. Expect a fast-paced tale in an out of way corner of Hyrule. Uploads every week! Let me know what you think and if you enjoyed. Until next time.