A note from the Hime no Argh herself–
Welcome to another chapter, folks! ^^ I've been writing this story pretty madly lately, something like four chapters in two days or less. I also beat Wind Waker pretty recently and now I feel rather Zelda-deprived. Maybe that's why I've been working on this story so obsessively. Well, whatever, I'm just rambling so I'll end this little note. Here's Chapter 6. ^^
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Chapter 6
The Master Sword
Somehow Link found himself seated in front of yet another bar, this time with Impa at his side. There was no inn in Bayside, only a small pub built of bamboo walls and a thatched roof, from which water–at least, he hoped it was water–occasionally dripped.
Impa ordered whiskey and a shot glass. "I'll have what she's having," Link told the tender in the spirit of companionship.
Impa eyed him dolefully. "You don't drink much, do you, boy?"
"Not much," Link admitted as the tender placed a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses before them.
Impa filled a shot glass halfway and passed it to him with a smile. "Bottoms up."
Agreeably Link raised his glass and drank–and nearly choked as the liquid seared his throat, burning all the way down to his belly. "Farore's mercy," he managed to gasp, coughing. The glass still had a few drops left, so he gamely downed the rest.
Impa's grin broadened as she poured a shot for herself. "I like you, kid."
"Thanks." Link watched jealously as Impa downed an entire glass without even a hiccup.
"More?" the Sheikah offered him. Link hesitated, then nodded for her to fill up his glass.
"So," he asked tentatively during careful sips of the fiery liquor, "where'd you meet Zelda?"
"I've known her her entire life," Impa replied, taking another swig. "I was at her mother's side when she gave birth."
"Who was her mother?" Link asked curiously.
Impa paused for a moment, staring distantly into space. "Her mother was a great woman. A powerful, dignified, graceful woman. But then she fell in love." Impa downed the rest of her glass. "And now she's dead."
"Because of love?"
"Yes."
"How can love kill?"
Impa looked at him sidelong, her lips curving into a smile. "Love of any form is dangerous. You mark my words, boy. One day you'll know." She sighed, placing her glass down on the counter. "Zelda's mother left her daughter in my care and went to die for love. That was the end of the greatest woman I ever knew."
Link was silent for a moment, mulling it over, but it was beyond his comprehension. "What about Zelda's father?" he ventured at last.
"Dead. Her parents knew when death was coming for them. That's why they named me as Zelda's guardian. Because I have a tendency to elude death."
Link could not make head nor tail of this, so he asked, "How did Zelda end up becoming a thief?"
"I taught her," Impa replied with a shrug. "Outlaws have it easiest in this world." She glanced at him. "If you're so interested in her, shouldn't you be asking Zelda these questions?"
"I-I'm not so interested in her," Link muttered. "I'm just curious, that's all. Besides, if I asked her anything, I don't think...I don't think she'd tell me the answer."
Impa shrugged again. "Maybe. Or maybe she'd surprise you."
The door of the bar flew open before Link could reply, and two of Zelda's thieves walked in. Oberon was a tall, broad-shouldered adolescent with curly brown hair and cornflower blue eyes, while his counterpart Bolo stood only to his shoulder, his pale blond hair flopping over his forehead and into bright green eyes. Both wore frayed cotton shirts and patched breeches.
"Impa!" Oberon cried as he saw her, seizing her hand and attempting a yearning stare. "My life was but a dreary daze until the moment I saw the light in thine eyes!"
"Why do I get the feeling you say that to all the girls?" Impa asked dryly, tugging her hand from his grasp.
Oberon smiled. "Well, dear lady, it does make me rather popular with the fair sex," he admitted.
The moment he saw Link, Bolo marched over to him and glared at him accusingly. "Stay away from Miss Zelda," the youth ordered.
Link stared at him, surprised not only by his remark but by his bold directness. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me. Stay away from Miss Zelda, or else." Bolo's eyes narrowed. "I'll protect her."
Link raised his eyebrows, looking the youth over. "No offense, kid, but you don't look like you could protect much."
"You wanna bet?" Bolo cried in outrage, reaching for a small knife on his belt.
"Hold it!" Impa's hand clamped over Bolo's wrist before he could touch the weapon. "You know the rules," she said evenly, giving Bolo a warning look. "No fighting amongst ourselves."
Bolo yanked his hand away and pointed at Link. "He's not one of us! He isn't even a thief! He's just an outsider!"
"If you have a problem, take it up with Zelda," Impa ordered sharply. "Or I'll make sure she knows you were starting trouble!"
Bolo flinched. "Fine," he said after a moment's pause, throwing another dirty look at Link. "I'll talk to Miss Zelda." He turned and stomped out the bar, slamming the door shut behind him.
"You wouldn't think it, but the kid's got a nasty temper, eh?" Oberon said to Link in a friendly manner.
"No kidding," Link said dryly, shaking his head.
"Well, don't let it get to you. He's got no place to say anything." Oberon waved and followed Bolo out of the bar.
"Maybe he does have a place," Link said to Impa worriedly. "I mean, sometimes I'm not even sure what I'm doing here."
Impa sighed. "Bolo, he..."
"Yeah?"
"Well...it was about five months ago, and we were traveling in the mountain region southwest, near Gerudo Valley. Zelda strayed away from the wagon and didn't come back. We didn't know what had happened to her, but when we went out to investigate the next morning, we found an entire portion of the cliff had collapsed into the canyon."
"Farore's mercy," Link gasped. "Did you find her?"
Impa shook her head. "Apparently she was caught in the collapse and was badly injured. Bolo–he used to drive herds of desert sheep in the canyon–found her barely alive and nursed her back to health. She has a few bad scars on her back and one below her ribcage to show for it. We thought she was dead, but eventually Zelda caught up with us and Bolo came with her." Impa shrugged. "The kid can't do anything and he has a temper, but Zelda has a soft spot for him. And Bolo's very protective of her. You have competition, young man."
"I have absolutely no desire to compete with anyone over Zelda," Link said frankly. "If Bolo wants to protect her, he's welcome to. Goddesses know she doesn't need me."
"Oh?" Impa gave Link a knowing look. "Then why are you still here?"
"Sometimes I wonder," Link muttered.
Impa stood and stretched with a groan. "I'm getting too old for this life. Look, boy, if you don't care to be here, then leave. No one is stopping you."
"But..." Link hesitated, searching for the right words. "There might be a reason I should stay."
Impa raised her eyebrows. "Might be? Or is?" She shook her head. "Your will is your own. Decide the reason for yourself." She patted his shoulder. "See you back at the wagon, or not."
The woman left at an easy, unhurried pace.
Link sighed. "Choices," he muttered aloud. What choice did he ever have? He'd been caught up in this adventure before he even realized it.
There was no point in hanging around the bar, so he left as well. But then he wasn't sure where he should go, so he ended up wandering around the village for a while, thinking. He supposed there really was no reason for him to stay among the thieves, and it was time to move on. After all, he didn't believe in destiny and he certainly did not blindly follow the designs of creepy little girls who lived in forests.
The problem was that leaving the thieves meant returning to a life of wandering. He hated it, the feeling of loneliness, of discontentment. There was no purpose for a young man with no family, friends, or home.
Other than, of course, whatever it is I've been searching for, he thought, pausing on the beach below the stilted houses to look at the ocean.
A figure closer to the sea caught his eye. Someone standing still in the surf, a sad, lonely figure stark against the wide arc of the sea.
Link felt a prickling on the back of his neck. The strangest sensation was coming to him, a feeling that made no sense...a feeling that told him the person in front of him was the something he had been searching for all his life.
His legs moved as if they had a mind of their own, carrying him down the shore. Hearing his approach, the figure turned. Midnight-blue eyes widened.
Zelda blinked at him in surprise. "Link?"
His sudden feeling about her seemed suddenly stupid. Still...
"Zelda, do you..."
She blinked at him, cocking her head to the side. He noticed that she carried a pair of thick, leather-bound books in her arms and briefly wondered where they'd come from. "Do I what?"
Link sighed. The whole thing seemed ridiculous now; regardless, he plowed ahead. "Do you ever get the feeling that we've met somewhere before?"
Zelda cocked her head to the other side, bird-like, and Link almost laughed. "Do you?" she asked, frowning.
"I don't know," Link admitted. "Sometimes I think maybe, but then I think maybe I'm just crazy."
Zelda smiled. "Maybe we met in another life."
It was Link's turn to blink at her. "Sorry?"
The thief shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy too. But all things are possible, right?" She shifted the books in her arms and opened one volume. "Here, take a look at this."
She sifted through the pages until she found what she was looking for and handed the volume over to him. Link took it and stared at a perfect picture of his sword, right down to the goddess mark below its hilt.
"What is this?" he said in amazement.
Zelda shrugged. "I wondered about your sword. It's not often I stumble across a goddess-marked weapon, you know. So I went to a scholar friend of mine–he lives in the lighthouse down the beach–and he found it in that book." Her finger skimmed over the page, pointing out the caption below the picture. "Apparently it's called the Master Sword. Did you know?"
"I didn't," Link admitted, raising his eyes to meet hers.
She gazed at him solemnly. "Link, where did you get that sword?"
Link hesitated. The tale was a strange one, exactly why he didn't share it with many people. Zelda seemed to sense his hesitation. She took her book back into her small hands with obvious disappointment. "It's okay, you know."
But she met his eyes again with her midnight blues, and the story spilled from his lips before he could stop it.
"I didn't find it, really...I mean, I've always had the feeling that it found me, if that makes any sense. It was five years ago." Link was silent for a moment as memories welled inside of him. "I was just a boy then, but I needed money badly, so I took a job to track down a wanted criminal. The man was crazy enough to run off into Hyrule Field–and I was crazy enough to follow him."
Zelda gasped. "You didn't!"
"I did," Link said grimly. "I never even caught sight of my quarry. Barely half a mile in I was ambushed by monsters–lizards, I think. They were crazy, half-starved, desperate for blood. I only had a standard sword, but what could I do? I fought them, but one of them severed the weapon in half with its own. So I ran."
Memory took him again–rain pouring in icy sheets; a black sky torn apart by jagged bolts of lightning. Running, stumbling, starving beasts scrabbling at his heels. Zelda's cool voice cut across the memories like a knife.
"What then?"
Link blinked and shed his trance. "I tripped and fell–and it was there. I swear it appeared out of nowhere, sticking out of the dirt. I grabbed it–I had no other choice–and fought them. Somehow I managed to strike down every last one of them." He shook his head, still amazed by the event. "Then I ran like mad until I reached the edge of the field, and the sword has been with me ever since."
Zelda watched him in silence for a moment with that intent, calculating gleam that he didn't like. "That is quite a story," she said at last.
"I suppose it is," he said shortly, abruptly irritated with her.
"It almost seems–" He had the sudden feeling that she was choosing her words very deliberately, "–like destiny, doesn't it?"
"You mean like everything else that's happened since I met that damned forest girl?" Link snapped.
"Exactly," Zelda concluded triumphantly, startling him.
"You definitely don't seem like the type to believe in destiny," Link informed her, too surprised to be irritated anymore.
Zelda smiled. "Well, Rune always says that my feet are so firmly planted on the ground, I should set down roots. But I try to keep an open mind. It comes in handy, you know?"
"Then you really think...?"
"I might," she said with a shrug. "And if my hunch is right, then this book definitely has something to do with all this." She closed her book with a snap and showed him the title.
"The Chronicles of Fate," Link read in disbelief.
"Indeed." Zelda smiled again. "I am going to read this book from cover to cover, and maybe then we'll finally have some answers."
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To be continued.