A. N. I was bored one afternoon and a terrible writer's block was on me. So I said What the heck! And went on to write this. Since it features Impa, I thought it could still be included on the Chronicles. Have patience! I'll get done with Ben and the rest of the first Sheikah quite soon!
I am alone. I am utterly alone, for that is the doom of my kin: to vanish into the shadows and walk about these lands never again. The slow waning of the Sheikah that began from the very first time a Man wedded a Hylian maiden is come at last to its end, and the Shadow Folk shall not walk abroad anymore. Yet I do not rue bitterly this, for my life is already spent, even if my body is not yet. But I have suffered too much in this world already to have any real reason to be alive – except, perhaps, the child that has grown to be like the daughter I could never had had.
So, even if I do not desire to flee from this castle but fight to my death, I run across the hallways in search for the heir of the Lord of the Hylia.
Impa Erwen, last Lady of the Sheikah.
Of the Fall of Hyrule and the Sheikah's light:
The corridor seemed endless, with its woven curtains hanging from the windows in the eastern walls, but still Impa the Sheikah ran; and her will to save the princess was greater than her wish to face the enemy and die a chieftain's death. On and on her strides took her from hall to hall, fire falling from the windows as arrows aflame. She barely noticed the many voices of pain and fear that echoed in the stone of the walls; and she noticed not at all the roars of fury and hatred that went along with them. One thing there was on her mind.
She reached the staircase at the entrance of the Great Hall and gazed about her: the last battlements of soldiers were already giving way to the hoards of Stalfos and Dinolfos, and these creatures would soon take the entrance and declare victory. Cries of despair and fear reached her ears, and anything she would have given to go and aid the last brave Hylians at the gate. But the one thing on her mind kept her from doing so; and she heeded not their calls. Instead, she leaped from the top of the case and made it to the door leading to the last corridor before the courtyard. She hated running away from battle.
The door swung open before her mighty push. After glancing at the end of the hallway, Impa looked back for a while and faltered, as it seldom occurred to her. Her mind did not change though, and she was running for the exit moments afterwards. Again, screams rang and hoarse roars followed closely; and out of the shadows of the corridor, the Sheikah saw a monstrous figure of a body; but its flesh was gone, and only his bones remained, and they held a gnarled blade with a small shield in its left hand. Just then it trusted its blade and drove it through a brave knight guarding the exit to the courtyard. As the Hylian fell and darkness took his sight the monster turned and noticed the Shadow Woman; and it spoke harshly in the Hylian Tongue.
"Gather all your strength, woman," it said as it pointed the blade towards Impa. "You're cursed kin is lost, as it's your skulking King. Heir! Heir! Where's the Heir?"
"My lady the princess is out of your reach," Impa said firmly, and the Stalfos knight cried in fury and charged at her. But the fierceness of the Shadow-Folk does not quail ever, even if but one remained then, and the Lady of the Sheikah was the strongest warrior since the days of her longfathers. A knife flashed in her hand as a one-sided blade stopped the lounge, and the monster's head fell cloven in half by the Sheikah sword.
Impa sheathed her longer blade but kept the knife drawn. She reached the door and threw it open with all her might. As the hinges creaked, the courtyard appeared before her eyes; but there was smoke and fire, and the din of the arms at clash filled the air. The Shadow Woman gazed about her again in search for the princess, but the reek of the fire clouded her senses, and the yells of falling soldiers and screaming monsters numbed her ears.
"Alas!" she cried. "Where can she be? Of all places she could have been hiding this is the last."
The air suddenly was raised with new sounds. Hoarse voices and horns were heard, and the voices cried as if one: "Heir! Heir! Where is the Heir?" The Sheikah turned eastwards, whence the horns had come, and understood the sign: the castle was lost, and no soldiers remained in the courtyard to her aid. With the first stroke of despair she had felt since the beginning of the battle smiting her heart, the Sheikah ran westwards into the last place where the princess might be. Over fires that smoked and flickered all about the stained grass she leaped, and lying on them she saw many a brave soldier that had fallen pierced by an evil arrow even before the battle had begun. And as she reached at length the threshold to the inner yard, again she heard the horns and the evil voices: Heir! Heir!
Behind the all the smoke and noise, Impa saw a crouched figure of a young Hylian maiden with her arms about a handmaid lying in her lap. With great relief, though, she approached the princess and called for her.
"Princess Zelda!" she said. "Princess Zelda! You are safe!"
The princess raised her head, and Impa saw she was unscathed, yet her face was stained in blood; but she rubbed away her tears with her sleeve. "Impa! Impa!" she said wavering, but she broke into weeping again. The Sheikah approached the princess and stooped forwards and put her finger over the wounded maid's throat.
"She is no longer among the living," Impa said sternly, though she felt pity stir in her silent heart as Princess Zelda gave a cry and embraced the maid once again, staining her dress. The Shadow Woman was not of the kind that ignored sorrowful moments, but the feeling of haste was returning to her, and she bade the princess let go her and come along.
"There shall be none to remember her or any other servant, soldier or knight if we linger here," The Shadow Woman said. "Please, my lady, let us go! I must take you away from peril." But just as she had said this, a creak loud and fell rang in their ears; and the princess cowed down and put her hand in her mouth. The Sheikah drew once again her long blade as two Dinolfos had leaped from the roof-top and had landed on the yard. They treaded over the fair and carefully planted flowers and let out a deafening wail. Impa at once flung herself at one of the beasts and slew it quickly. The other swung and swung back its broad sword, but the Sheikah sprang back, and her knife quickly drove through its scaly face.
"We must not linger, child!" she called, and Princess Zelda stood up. But before she ran to her bodyguard's arms, she turned her face one last time to the windows that showed the darkened halls of the throne room. Another tear fell from her eyes, but she quickly ran back into the Shadow Woman's protection.
The stables were not far off from the courtyard, yet the Sheikah and the princess had to avoid many battles between the last desperate soldiers of the realm and the fell beasts of the Dragmire's army; and time and again Impa felt her heart roused to yearning of battle, but the terrified princess ever clutching her hand tightly kept her on her sense of duty. At length they reached the stalls, and the place was one of the few that had not been burned or taken in the siege. Many archers had positioned themselves at the walls that surrounded the building, yet the quietness of those that know that death was unavoidable but receive her in peace was in their faces. The captain among them leaped from the watch-post and asked for news from the castle.
"The castle will fall, and so will the city shortly afterwards," Impa said, and the captain nodded his head in sadness, for many of the Hylians under his command had wives and children of their own dwelling in the city; but the archers would not yield to their foes till death.
"As lost in despair as we are, one thing I shall do ere we fall," he said. Some of the Hylians had overheard his words, and though many of them had tears in their eyes, neither jest nor rebuke came from anyone's voice. "We have still plenty of horses that await rider to bear in battle, embassy or message delivery; yet I bid you: take my horse and begone from this place! 'Tis the swiftest beast you will find in the castle, for great friend of mine is the owner of Lon Lon Ranch, and as a gift it was given to me. Rocheleg is her name, and it is the white mare over yonder." He pointed to the last of the fair steeds that were there.
"I thank you, captain of the brave Hylians of the castle," said the Shadow Woman, and she turned away. But Princess Zelda spoke for the first time since their fly from the inner yard.
"What's your name, captain?" she asked in a timid voice, and the captain turned to her and smiled, if only in a sad manner.
"Surely you are our lady, Princess Zelda of the house of Hylia," he said, and as she nodded he said: "It softens my heart to learn that you yet live. It is well that the Sheikah will take great care of you. Listen always to her words! But as for your question: I am Meninen of the guard of Hyrule. But the name shall be forgotten soon."
"It won't be forgotten, I promise you," she said trying to sound noble, but a childish quiver was on her words. The captain smiled once again at her tenderness and said: "Hasten, my lady. The Shadow Woman is already waiting for you."
Princess Zelda noticed the sound of hooves over cobblestone and sighed. Impa came along, already over Rocheleg and helped the princess up onto it. It whinnied and they departed for the southern exit.
"Farewell, brave archers of Hyrule!" Impa called as she passed the walls. "May your bows bend and defend us till they part."
"Farewell, woman of the Shadows!" Meninen called back. But he doubted the Sheikah had heard his words. He turned round and saw that not far away there marched the army of monsters, with the Gerudo King himself at their lead. His horse was huge, black-hoofed, with red glaring eyes. With a great shout he commanded his minions to charge forward and take the last post of the castle with fury. The Hylian captain frowned and said quietly: "This is our last stroke against the evil ones."
He ordered the archers to shoot down at will ere the darkness overcame them; and thus fell the last beasts of the Dragmire's army ere the complete fall of the castle.
Amidst the short battle that followed thereafter, Ganondorf himself wounded the captain Meninen and held him to be dead. But though the castle was taken, he was tired after a whole search in the castle; and he had not found was he was looking for; and his wrath was great. He ordered his monsters to pile the heads of those who had fallen in the siege and to throw them into the moat and to cast everything they could as well; for he desired to defile as much as he could the river that ran as a moat for the castle and for the city. When he had spoken, he rode forth from the stalls and headed for the gate. He knew now were that which he desired was, where it was heading and where should it be caught; for he had ordered to bar the entrance to the castle with his best soldiers.
Rocheleg was as swift as the captain Meninen had told, and Impa and Princess Zelda had ridden through the yards and the roads to the entrance. But when they came to the gate there Zelda cried again in fright and despair, and Impa drew her longer blade and held it aloft; for shortly ahead there were gathered all sorts of fell beasts that had not been in the siege and had been waiting for the loot and spoil: Lizalfos, Armos, and more Stalfos and Lizard-warriors. They all roared in expectation as they saw the white mare approach with the princess riding her, and they foolishly reckoned without the strength of the Sheikah thinking that yet another handmaid would be theirs to slay. But the Shadow Woman did not quail ever, even if there were outnumbered by far more than tenfold. She rode on and swung her blade in the air; and in that moment some of the hidden power of those of the kin of Ben Turandir was shown. With a violet light the blade gleamed in her grasp, and she let out a terrible shout of fury; for the lust of battle had overcome her senses for a while. When the first of the beasts stood in front of her Rocheleg did not swerve, and the mighty steed trampled down the monster at the same time Impa hewed off the heads of three Dinolfos in a single blow. The Dragmire's minions quailed and ran away from the fury and light of the Sheikah, shrieking and calling out harsh names to the princess and her guardian.
So it was that the last of the Shadow Folk lingering in Hyrule clove her path through the foes of the realm. Since the gate had been torn and broken, Impa and Princess Zelda passed it with ease as the beasts roared again, this time in anger and fury. But among them came another call, and they turned and hailed their King as he swiftly had ridden from the stalls to the gate. He had seen the light flash through his minion's ranks; and the madness of haste was on him. If the princess should escape into the fields, then his chances of finding her quickly would vanish. Crying in utter hate, he whipped his stallion, and the Gerudo Beast whinnied and quickened its pace. He too rode through his monsters and was out of their sight as he hastened into the city.
Rocheleg now had crossed the town square and was nigh on arriving to the gate. With a cry the Sheikah called for the door-opener to lower the bridge in haste; but instead of hearing a response, Impa heard a cry coming from the tower that stood as watch post for the city. Then a body was cast from the upper level, and she sternly gazed at the fallen soldier that operated the gate. A monster peered from the window whence he had been flung and cried in laughter. But without wasting any time the Shadow Woman drew a bow from Rocheleg's side and shot at the beast. The laughter died at once, but because of some strange grace the monster fell over the lever that held fast the chain of the gate. With metallic clanks filling the air, the gate was lowered. At that time, Princess Zelda heard the sounds of the people calling for her. She turned round and cried once again; for she saw Ganondorf riding towards them with a deadly gleam in his eyes and his huge scimitar drawn.
But the bridge was set over the moat ere he was even nigh, and Rocheleg flung itself to the wide fields of Hyrule; and the Gerudo King's hopes vanished as the white mare disappeared beyond the gate. All of his plans, his labours, his battles in the castle, they were foiled. The princess lived yet, and still she held the Ocarina.
A. N. On with the names: 'Meninen', literally 'Way of Water.' Yep, I was out of names, Matt. 'Rocheleg', 'Swift Horse'. Not a terribly original name, but it still works.
Leave your comments! I appreciate everyone of them. Feel free to niptick if you want to, I always appreciate that, right Squeak?