A. N. This is the second part of the revised version of 'The Lady of the Lost Woods'. I hope you like it! And as usual, I would ask you to leave your comments in a pretty, well-earned, long-awaited and good review. ^_^
The Lady of the Lost Woods: The Field of Hyrule.
In the twilight of the night, a person standing in the street could have seen a figure walking in the shadows, striding for the drawbridge. A closer look could have revealed the silhouette of a woman clad in a dark-blue cloak, the hood not being able to conceal the bangs that hung over her forehead. An even closer inspection would have showed two more figures without cloak but clad in blue walking silently and sometimes blending with the partial dark that covered the city at eight o'clock of the night. The hooded figure would be seen carrying something in its arms while the other two appeared to have some kind of weapon in their hands, though it could have been hardly mistaken by a sword.
The threesome was walking in a line. The male Sheikah sent by the besieged captain was leading with Dyni walking quickly trying to catch up with his long strides and Lampa, Dyni's bodyguard by request of the captain, in the rear, ever aware of watchers. They arrived to the gate.
"How shall we cross it?" Dyni asked.
The two Sheikah looked at each other and pulled out at the same time a pair of large pins and held them in each hand. The male Sheikah threw his at the top of the drawbridge while Lampa threw hers right at the middle. He then took out a rope with a hook at one of its ends and hurled it at his pin. As soon as he felt the rope taut he began to climb with amazing speed until he was atop of the bridge. Lampa turned to the lady and spoke.
"We have no other way to cross the gate in stealth," she said in a low voice. "Give me the child. I will carry him to the other side while my kinsman helps you."
Although she knew that her baby would be safe in her bodyguard's hands, Dyni felt reluctant to be separated from him. She slowly uncovered the boy from her cloak, wrapped him even tighter on his blanket and handed him to her guardian. The Sheikah took the baby and gently placed him on her back. With speed that matched the other, the female Sheikah climbed to the top of the gate at the same time that the male landed near Dyni.
"There is no one in our path for as far as I could see," he said. "I saw some lights a few miles to the south-east, though. If my heart does not lie, I think that battle was not fought any today. I regret to tell you, thus, that I have to leave you and my kinswoman. Climb on my back. I will leave you to your guardian as soon as you reach the other side.
"I may be a woman," the lady said firmly although regretting his departure, "but I can climb a rope when the need tells me to do so." She did not like the idea of holding another Hylian in her arms rather than her husband or child
The man gazed at her strangely. "Proud as her husband," the Sheikah then muttered, lowering his sight. "I do not doubt you, milady. But can you do so as fast as your bodyguard or me?" To this Dyni made no answer.
"Let it not be said that the lady Dainúviel is a simple woman witless at the view of peril," he said with a low sound that resembled a laugh. "Yet, if it is your choice, then I shall step apart."
"No," Dyni said in the lowest tone, throwing her pride away. "I will do as you suggest." With this, she held onto the Sheikah while he climbed for a second time the gate.
At the top of the drawbridge, the lady gazed into the horizon to the south-east. After seeing the lights of which the Sheikah had spoken, she aimed her sight to the ranch. Some walls mingling with the night's mist a few miles away were the only things that greeted her eyes. She turned to the shadow-man but did not find him. She looked down only to see the Sheikah pulling the ropes and retrieving the pins from the wooden bridge. Then with a small flash that parted the darkness he was gone. Dyni, having heard of these disappearing techniques performed by the Sheikah, turned again looking for her guardian. She saw Lampa with the baby still on her back, already across the moat, nailing another large pin on the floor. She then reached for something lying on the ground and pulled it. Another rope had been tied around a similar pin atop the bridge. The other end was being tied by Lampa at the other side.
Dyni understood her guardian's idea. When the female Sheikah had finished, the lady grabbed a nearby hook left by the other shadow-man with an engraved Sheikah eye and passed the rope through it. She looked down and closed her eyes. Without a second thought she slid all the way from the top of the drawbridge to the arms of her bodyguard who seemed to smile even in the night's shadow.
"Do not laugh," the lady said with dignity as she stood by herself. "It was not pleasing to do that."
"I am sorry milady," Lampa said. "I'm not saying it was."
Having retrieved both pins and the rope, they went forth into the night's veil.
Hyrule field was the greatest extension of the small kingdom of the same name. At its longest it stretched for eleven miles, from Kakariko to Gerudo Valley. Hardly a small dot in the world, it was nonetheless the only realm in which its inhabitants still claimed to be descendants of the noble people of the Hylia. The creation of life in the world is recorded elsewhere, but as far as history could uncover, the Hylia had been the goddesses' chosen people and they had been blessed with the gift of magic. But their lines had become thin over millennia and very few lingered yet in the world in whom the true Hylian blood of old still ran through their veins. Of these few folk were the Royal Family of Hyrule and some other lords and ladies who were not akin to them but of Hylian ancestry anyway. The Lady Dainúviel and her husband were of these last remaining Hylia of non-royalty.
The two shadows that now walked in the night made a halt after two hours of journey. Dyni sat on the ground tired, while Lampa gazed at the east horizon in awareness.
"It's cold," the lady said holding her baby even tighter. "Could we not… do something?"
"It is much to risky to start a fire," the Sheikah said sitting down in front of her. "And there is not a single tree with boughs near enough to even try to get some fuel."
Dyni went silent, but even in the darkness, Lampa could make out her shivering figure. The Sheikah felt sorry for the lady, but the only thing she could think of to comfort her was to sing. And these soft-spoken words the shadow-woman sang.
Out of the night
When the Hylia yet dwelled
In these lands about
And the world was young but ripe
When war was first fought hither.
Out of shadow
There once came a man that
Sought to renew
The forgotten times of peace
And the Sheikah knew who he was
Romahil was, this valiant man
Who lost it all by this noble desire.
Out of the dark
the sword-arm felt the heavy
Wan of his days
thus he beckoned his kindred to
The last of his great councils
Life may yet ail, and hope may not hail
But memoirs do not quail
And love shall not fail!
The Sheikah went silent too when she finished. Dyni had been listening to the whole song and could not help being but curious.
"Who is that man of whom you sang?" she asked.
"The song is about Romahil Sword-arm. He was a mighty Sheikah from the old days when the Hylia were still in these lands. During a battle many ages ago, he lost his sword to a foe. But he kept on hammering enemies with his own hands and forearms covered in the steel rings of his mail-shirt. It is said that every blow he delivered was mortal, no matter where would he strike. This is only the end of the song, for I cannot remember the rest of it.
"But why did he lose it all in that war?"
"Romahil lost his family in that same war, and he was never seen again for many a year. And then one night a stranger arrived to a Sheikah gathering by Lake Hylia. He bore scars on his upper limbs and was fearful to behold in wrath. He was hailed, thus, as the returned Sword-arm by the Sheikah elders; though he gave little heed to his title, indeed. But every night when the moon was not waning like the Gerudo but full like the Sheikah he would sit on a hill and talk to the young men and women and teach them wisdom, until one night he knew it was his last and spoke the last words of the song not just to the youth but to all who would listen.
"It is a sad story," the lady said.
"It is," Lampa said. "But the last words of Romahil are ones of those which remain in the heart of every Sheikah."
"I would like to hear some more tales about the Sheikah… some other time."
"I would be pleased," the Sheikah said. "But for now let us make haste."
Both women stood and carried on their road. Midnight was still a few hours away, so they had enough time still to arrive to the woods ere dawn. The stars shone brightly in the sky, and by the moonlight about them they walked along the even brighter way.
A few lights could now be seen to the west. They were scarcely a league away from Lon Lon Ranch and already a foul smell was in the air. The stench of death surrounding them indicated that soon would they be reaching the deserted battle field, where Dyni's husband had been wounded that same day. Presently, Lampa noticed a few paces away the firsts of hundreds of bodies they saw. Dyni squirmed at the sight of the corpses of Hylians that lay in unnatural positions. They had been hewed cruelly in various parts and some had been bereft of some limb. The lady saw, too, the bodies of the Gerudo women that fell before the Hylians. The scimitars were apt to hew only while the long-swords could hew and stab; and the thieves showed profound wounds in which the blood had already dried. The horrible sight was worse when she saw the corpses of many Zoras that had come to the aid of the thieves. The terrible stench of the field and the smell like rotting fish that also came now were enough to make her feel sick. Dyni delivered her son to Lampa and after an unpleasant retching sound she vomited over the darkened grass.
"Are you all right, milady?" asked Lampa. Dyni wavered.
"I'll be fine," she said in a gasp. "Please, let us get way from this place."
At that same moment a bow sang and an arrow stuck in the ground near Lampa's feet. Some voices sounded and another arrow shot through the air, this time sticking on one of the death Zoras that lay nearby. The Sheikah immediately threw something to whence the voices had come. A blinding flash similar to the one Dyni saw the other Sheikah cast parted the night, and suddenly her guardian grabbed her arm and pulled her just before another arrow landed where the lady had stood.
"Thieves in the night!" Lampa said running, and alongside was Dyni. "They have come to get what they could from the bodies. They must have heard us."
"Are they Gerudo?" Dyni asked.
"I'm not sure. But the voices were female, I think."
They ran in the darkness, though not blind. For the moon would be full the next night and was illuminating the travellers' way. Soon, more voices were heard and more bows sang, wasting arrows in the dark because they could see none.
In running through the night Dyni stumbled upon a rock and fell to the ground. Her arm landed on a sharp stone that peered a few inches above the ground. She gave a slight cry as the stone dug deep into her arm and her own blood stained her cloak making it even darker. Lampa turned and lifted the lady from the ground. An dark wound had been opened in her shoulder, for she had rolled in the air to prevent from falling over her child. The pain was intense, and yet by her own pride she did not cry aloud, though a tear ran over her face.
"We must not continue for a while," Lampa said. "It is a nasty wound and it might worsen if do not tend it right away."
"But the thieves are out there still," Dyni said. "We must carry on."
"Not for now, milady. You must lie down." The Sheikah looked at the bleeding puncture in the lady's shoulder and frowned.
"I must seek for some herbs. I don't carry any with me, although I should."
"Are you leaving me alone?" asked Dyni with fright in her voice.
"I'm afraid that can't see any of the plant I need. Do you know which one? It is called the sacreye."
"Sacreye?" the lady said wincing.
"Or Sheikah alba opjhe, as it is known in pure Hylian."
"You mean the holy eye?"
"You do know what foil is that then. It is the only remedy I know for profound wounds."
"I understand," Dyni said. "Please, don't delay."
Lampa walked into the darkness and soon vanished from the lady's sight as she tried to cover her wound from the wind. It was bleeding still, but stopping steadily. She then sat with her legs crossed and put the baby in her lap. He was awake, but not crying. His eyes made him look, in fact, as if he was in awareness for somebody to come also. Dyni was glad of the fact that he was awake yet calmed and judged the time correct to feed him. Thinking that the Sheikah would return soon, she nursed her child. The baby almost smiled and gently suckled from her breast, and she felt happy for having guessed what he wanted. I love him, she thought. And she was sure that the baby thought of her likewise.
Half an hour had passed, and Lampa had not yet returned. The lady gazed into the night searching for any silhouette, either to be glad or to run. The wound still hurt her but it had stopped bleeding already. She had ripped a piece of her cloak and tied it around her shoulder. The pain had been intense, but she had withstood it as she could. The cold wind of the night was caught by her golden hair waving in the night that also caressed her face. The lady felt her gaze stray again to the ranch, about three miles away, and the memories of her husband again returned to her. She closed her eyes for a moment and she had a vision of a dying man lying in a bed with the king burying his face in his hands. At a movement by this man the king would take a wet piece of cloth and put it in the man's forehead. The man would begin to shudder, muttering some words and the king would bent towards him to listen. The door behind them would open then and a pretty woman with red hair would enter followed by her husband and another man that appeared to be a healer. But the wounded man would begin muttering again, and the healer would take out of his pouch some herbs. The woman would hand him a small bottle with water and after tearing the plants and extracting their sap the healer would pour it into the recipient. The husband would take the bottle and go forth to warm its contents. After this, the woman, who was pregnant and due soon, would speak to the king; and the sovereign would only nod in agreement. Ere long, the husband would return with the medicine, which was now bright red. The king would take this remedy and would try to awake the man with soft words. But he would only mutter again and again… Dyni… The woods are safe…
Suddenly, she heard some shouts and opened her eyes. She could make out the shadow of a person running in the night. In a few seconds Lampa was yelling at her.
"Milady, get up! They are coming!"
A rain of arrows poured over her as the Sheikah ran. Dyni stood and ran for the path that led to the woods. Lampa quickly ran alongside her.
Out of nowhere five Gerudos suddenly sprang in front of them, scimitars and torches in each hand. Lampa stopped and stared at them with cold eyes. The Sheikah threw aside a clothpiece that hung over her back and drew a rapier. A long knife also flashed in her hand suddenly. Dyni went blank with fear, but holding her child with one hand she clasped a knife she had kept under her cloak and drew it; her mind might have been afraid, but her heart was ready to protect the baby to the end. The Gerudo clinked their swords between them and charged at the two travelers. With impressive swiftness Lampa dodged the first scimitar while burying her long knife in the thief's back. She then swung her rapier at the second Gerudo who fell with her throat bleeding open. The Sheikah then locked in battle with the remaining three. Dyni saw her and tried to aid her guardian. She ran for one of the thieves and stabbed her swiftly in her right shoulder. The woman shrieked in pain and dropped her blade, but with a quick movement she turned round and smote the lady with great strength. Dyni fell to the ground with a wince. Her lip was bleeding and she could taste her own blood in her mouth. The Gerudo threw her torch and tried to grab her scimitar with her left hand, but before the lady could motion anything the thief fell lifeless to the ground wounded by the Sheikah rapier.
"Milady, run! You must run!"
Dyni saw with horror how Lampa barely finished this sentence, for an arrow had flown and stuck in the Sheikah's chest. Lampa wavered, and her breath turned into furious gasps. But still she fought on, like a true child of the shadow that only quails before hopelessness. She hewed one more thief with her stained rapier as she broke asunder also the scimitar of the only remaining rival. The lady saw again how the last Gerudo fell before the Sheikah long knife at the same time another arrow plunged into the shadow-woman's shoulder. With her last breath, Lampa uttered run! to Dyni and fell to the ground.
The lady ran away with the Gerudo flinging arrows all around her. The night covered the country and that was fortunate, for the Gerudo would not have missed their target so many times during daylight, had they missed at all. After some minutes of desperate pursuit there came the moment when all of the arrows where spent and their prey had not been accounted for. But the thieves had also cunning minds apart from deadly blades, and judging by the path Dyni had taken they knew where to head.
A. N. See you in the next chapter! Please leave your comments!