Wow, sorry for the long time between updates, but now is spring break, and I have plenty of time to write now that I don't have school. Oh well, I hope you like this chapter, it's actually a bit longer than the others.
AN: I added a new character, his name is Aldrien, I hope you like him as much as I do .
Chapter Five: Aldrien
"Ye be Link–the last the ancient Hylians.."
The hero looked at the floor and shook his head. "What happened? Why has my world changed so
much?"
The aging human sitting at the table opposite Link gave a light chuckle. "Tis not your world anymore. It's Mariks–that dog... Tis been our aim to kill him since he took control of Hyrule twenty years passed..."
Link sat forward. "Do you know what happened? After the castle was attacked that day–"
"Aye, but don't be mistaking me for a historian."
Link shook his head, "Tell me what happened."
"I see no profit in it for me. I be but a lowly pirate after all," he trailed off, eyeing Link slyly.
"What is it that you want?"
"Your help dealin' with this Marik character."
"Do you believe that I wouldn't help you kill Marik?!" the Hylian was angry, obviously. He pounded his fist on the table and leaned over, face to face with the elder man. "What in the Goddesses' names makes you think that the one who killed my family–massacred my people, and took over my country was not meant to die by my sword?!"
"I didn't bring ye here for ye to be cross! Now shut yourself and listen! Ye be the great hero the legends spoke of, aye, ye are. So it must be true that ye be the one that set Marik free as well. If that be the case, then ye be the only person that can bring the four shards of the Hylian stone back together..."
"Hylian stone?" Link questioned, sitting back in his seat, absorbed in the captain's speech. He folded his hands behind his blond, uncapped head, and stared intently into the captain's eyes.
"Aye, lad, the stone. Tis the only remnant of the Triforce left. When Marik was set free, it was shattered and sent to the far reaches of this world," the captain nodded and looked away. "Twas then that we resorted to the lifestyle we lead now–the men of the world, anyway. We turned to a life of piracy not only to escape Marik, but so that we could search and someday, may'ap, bring him down in the name of our old alliances."
"And that is why you need me..." Link continued.
"I'm gettin' there, lad. We've not been able to find the stone shards, and that is where you come in. If ye help me men find those shards and later, when your dear kingdom is restored, pardon us of our misdeeds, I will keep ye safe, well clothed, with all the luxuries one could want," the captain stretched his dirty, calloused palm over the table. "Do we have an accord?"
Link took his hand and squeezed it, giving a nod of approval, "Agreed."
"Then lets go get you some new clothes, my friend. Ye be a bit too scruffy for me liking."
Link quirked an eyebrow as he watched the stout captain take to his feet, walking for the door. He pondered to himself, wondering exactly what kind of mess it was that he'd gotten himself into, and shook his head, speaking quietly to himself, "So now I'm scruffy? What in the Nine Hells is scruffy?"
The Hero of Time stood and followed the captain from the cabin and out onto the deck of the great boat that had been introduced as the Kriashase. The crew of thirty-five bustled about, piloting the great schooner over the wide blue ocean. Link strode cautiously over the deck, following the captain closely, and meandered close to the railing of the ship, the only thing that kept him from falling overboard. He continued to walk, averting his eyes from the ocean and the memories it sparked within him, quickening his pace so that he strode beside the captain along the length of the deck until finally the two reached a decorative wooden door distinguished as being important only by the tiny, ovular stained glass window that adorned it's top half.
"This is quite a ship you have here, sir," Link commented, finding himself rather awestruck by the whole ordeal.
"Aye, commandeered from the greatest of Marik's fleet," replied the man with a sly grin, "but that is the least of our concerns now."
"And what," continued Link, "is of our greatest concern?"
The captain smiled, showing his yellowed and rotting teeth in the sunlight, and shook his head, readjusting his had as he lead Link through the door under the poop deck, into the captain's quarters.
"You allowed them to escape!" he scolded with his deep Hylian accent. It was for that reason, aside from the clothes, that he was recognized as a noble, more specifically, the rightful, however misplaced, heir to Hyrule's throne. That being the case, he was the only full-blooded Hylian allowed to command any humans under Marik.
"Master Aldrien, it was not our fault, they had a ship."
The young Hylian scoffed his dissatisfaction and turned back around, staring into the horizon. "A ship will be readied for my departure upon the rise of Din."
The guards all glowered at the mention of the Goddess. Since the overthrow of the Hylian monarchy twenty years before, the deities had been forgotten, their mention was taken as blasphemy to the new crown, high treason punishable by death.
But Aldrien was different.
"My Lord..."
"Enough of your insubordination, Miek'lai! I am your commander and you will treat me as such."
"You are a child!"
The prince turned and stared coldly at the human before him, knowing well that the lower ranking soldier was the dominant, superior race of Hyrule, by all stereotypical rulings, but Aldrien was superior in the new hierarchy, finding his comfortable place as assassin in the high ranks of Marik's private guild. He would use that to his advantage.
"A child, Miek'lai?"
"Merely nineteen, a child," the dark haired man snarled in return, his tanned skin crinkling at his brow.
"No," Aldrien shook his head and smiled, almost too warmly, throwing the men around him off balance, "a child by your standards–but by the consideration of the Hylian elves I am an infant, wise beyond my years, with hundreds of ages left before me. That is what I am, and that is what you will be forced to deal with until your death. And may I remind you," he paused to see a slight nod from his inferior, "by that time, I will be a mere child, and this child may well deal your death to you with a swift blow of the blades forged by another, lesser-fortuned child.
"Guards," he growled, eyeing the other nine men surrounding him, "death will be suitable. On the charge of treason to the crown. Ready my ship by noontime, I will return with the supplies from the castle town by then."
"But, My Lord, that is a night and half a day's ride from here," one of the other soldiers argued pointedly, but Aldrien did not care.
"Maybe by your horse, but not by my Epona. She will have me there and back by noontime."
And with that, Aldrien stepped away from the crowd of men and into the shadowy, dangerous streets of Kakariko, pulling his cowl over his face as he walked. Deep into the city he walked, until the moon was high in the night and the fire lights outside of the houses burned to glowing embers, when the assassins and burglars roamed at large, searching carefully and stealthily for their next victim.
Many times Aldrien had been targeted for such. But the young Hylian prince would not be so easily murdered, robbed, or otherwise. A prince by day, assassin by hire, he had grown on these very streets, practically outcast from his family at Hyrule castle, albeit for his own security and safety in the revolution. In that short amount of time, between his departure from the castle and his reentering as high commander of the Hylian army, he had been taken in by many of the Moguls that commanded the robbers around the city, being hired almost every night for one stealthy mission or another. His reputation for killing had been well established by his early teenage years. Between stealth, speed, and lack of consequent evidence, he was undoubtedly the most well known, and most feared assassins on the streets.
He knew his reputation well, and did not toy with such a thing. He could feel the eyes watching him, demonic eyes of humans and conjured spirits trained to follow his every motion stared through windows high above the ground, and the robbers that he uncovered in the few alleyways he passed through cowered at the sight of the twin long knives that hung on either hip.
"Young sir," came a voice from behind a nearby house, beckoning from the lightless alleyway. Aldrien was, however, not phased by the sudden calling, but rather, found himself intrigued by the elderly sounding man, doubtlessly an aging human beggar, ready to call upon the nearest well built figure for a little protection or a few rupees.
"Yes, m'lord?" Aldrien replied through a smirk, though his voice remained unwavering. He stopped and turned his attention to the alley, stepping into the shadows, wrists resting comfortably on the hilts of his weapons.
"My Mogul has a proposition for you, Aldrien."
"And I have business elsewhere, beggar. State your proposition and be gone from my presence," the assassin growled in reply. Aldrien was in no mood to be toyed with, not with such an urgent task as pirate hunting before him. If he was to catch the rogues that had ravaged Kakariko, and recover the escaped felon, he would have to work quickly.
"My master wishes you dead," the elderly man stood, ripped his cowl from his face, and revealed a surprisingly young thing that had taken the form of a beggar.
If only Aldrien was a bit more empathetic, maybe the man would have lasted longer. But with lightning fast motion, the long knives were snapped from their sheathes, and drawn across the man's slender, pale neck were two thin, red, parallel slits. And in the same fluid move, the knives were replaced, and the man fell, clutching his bleeding neck, lifeblood pouring from the wounds while Aldrien walked calmly past, eyeing carefully the cross bowman that had his aim set firmly. But the prince knew well that that particular man would not fire his quarrel, not after witnessing the swift, merciless downfall of his comrade.
Nobody would fire on Aldrien while he was on his way to the stable house that held the horses of the guard. In strode the assassin, throwing his cowl back to alert the stableboy of his coming, feeling almost as if the unusually loud clicking of his boot heels would not be enough to wake the thing. But, as always, the stableboy came rushing up to greet the man, five years his senior, and gave a deep bow before leading Aldrien through the drabby stables, past twenty five scrawny mules and poor excuses for horses, until at the very end they approached Epona, the pride of the Hylian military.
She was a beautiful horse, even after so long. Her white mane showed a bit of gray, but her brown coat had not lost a bit of its former luster. She was as lively and difficult to tame as ever, but for some reason, Aldrien had always been able to ride her to her limits, making her easily the fastest horse in the country.
"How has she fared this night, boy?" Aldrien asked as he knelt beside the stableboy, taking in the image of his steed.
The boy seemed absolutely ecstatic at the idea of talking with the Hylian prince. "She's well, Your Majesty. Well indeed if I may say so. However," he paused, looking to the blonde man at his side, subconsciously wondering how in the world a Hylian could have rose to the ranks of high general, "she did not eat much this night. You may wish to have her checked by a more–capable person than I."
"You are the most capable person in Hyrule, my boy," Aldrien replied, reaching into the pouch at his side. He produced a generous handful of rupees and handed them to the boy, nodding his approval. "And that is why I come to you time after time, entrusting you with my horse, is it not?"
"Yes, My Lord Aldrien, thank you My Lord," the boy replied happily, taking his leave from the prince, counting his rupees happily as he bounced away, leaving Aldrien to mount and ride from the stables toward the Hyrule Castle Market.
Aldrien rode long into the night, his bow kept close at hand for when the stalchildren came from hiding. Always there was an arrow notched on the string, for Hyrule field at night was not, by any reckoning, a safe place for travelers. Monsters roamed the lands freely once the sun set, each using its species' qualities to their fullest extent. The stalchildren, however, were the most devastating to passing merchant caravans, second only to the occasional wolfos that mercilessly slaughtered any human in sight faster than that poor unfortunate could react.
But as the palace came into view on the moonlit horizon, so did a particularly suspicious patch of bare ground. And as Aldrien cautiously approached, he saw the telltale shadows of the stalchildren in their favorite hiding spots, waiting to reach out from the ground, grab, and pull down to their death, the first person to approach.
Aldrien would not be that victim.
He let fly an arrow into the dirt patch, calling upon his seemingly innate magical powers as he did, and the tip of the arrow was set ablaze with the fire of Din herself, such a light that the prince nearly had to avert his gaze.
His magic, rumored about the land nearly as much as his alter identity as an assassin, had been an obvious blessing since birth. However, none could explain the abilities, and most called it a sign from the three deities. Why else would a Hylian of all races be given the gift to summon fire at will; to cover anything in a layer of thick ice, or even to produce impenetrable globes of blinding white light over unsuspecting foes? Those abilities were a grand gift, and some fanatics had even ventured to say that consuming the heart of the possessor of such gifts would bestow them upon others. Some said it was a sign of the apocalypse. But either way, Aldrien's powers were inconceivably strong, blasting through the ground and into one of the four stunned stalchildren, the arrow shaft splitting its skull down the center while the fire set its innards and clothing, however sparse, blazing.
In that split second, the remaining three stalchildren jumped from their holes, advancing with short, labored steps toward their attacker. But Aldrien only could smile as arrow after arrow soared through the air, hewing limbs and splitting skulls, ultimately killing two more of the foul beasts before they even had a chance.
Three arrows were fired and two of the beasts had fallen beside their first dead partner. That left only one of the four, to be dealt with by a few clean swipes of Aldrien's long knives.
Aldrien slowed Epona and dismounted, snapping his blades from their sheathes with lightning fast motion. He stepped toward the stalchild slowly, measuring its seven foot height in comparison with his meager five and a half feet, and began slicing, left blade cutting up and into the stalchild's bone shoulder, while the right cut harmlessly across the thing's exposed ribcage. Aldrien reversed both blades and brought them both back down diagonally, slamming them deep into its skull, downing the monster where it stood.
By that time, the sun had broken through the night, and the bones of the dead stalchildren sank back into the ground to regenerate, recreating their undead keepers, only to be killed again.
After mounting Epona once more, Aldrien's attention turned to that rising sun.
"Epona, the sun is red this morn," he mused quietly, his voice solemn and quiet, "someone has passed from the world this night, and it is one of great import–I can feel it..."
He kicked his heels deep into Epona's flanks and the horse took off with blinding speed toward the castle town, her rider's worry mounting with every long stride.