Legends of the Waker: Remnants of Old
Chapter LXVI: The Breakout
(Link)
I could feel my mind slipping into shreds. How long had I been stuck like this? Nothing but the sight before me and my own thoughts. An hour? A day? Weeks, months, years?
I tried hundreds of things, but with no abilities other than thought, I got nowhere fast.
Every event of my entire life slid before me. The joyous, peaceful life I'd led on Roc's Island for fifteen years. Now I was well into my sixteenth year, or at least I had been when I'd been frozen here. The battles, laughs, and pains of my quest. My love. My Zelda. She was a constant thought, weaving in between the growing madness. As weird noises clattered and buzzed through my head, and a million unrecognizable things began to take the place of the only thing I could see, Zelda anchored me to sanity.
Worry of her kept me from thinking about my failures, my foolishness. Was she okay? Would I see her again?
Would I ever be free?
(Zelda)
I groaned in dread when my food was brought in. Not because of hunger, but because of my plan. I was often left to starve for days, then brought a huge meal so that I would eat myself sick. I'd long ago learned that cutting back on the massive portions was wise. But I ignored that today. I shoveled down everything before me, the heavy creams, the thick bread, the unfamiliar meat, and a huge cake. Letting myself go until I could feel my clothes tightening. When Link and I got out of this, I would have to hire a Goron cook. For rock-eaters, they were good.
By the time I was done, I already felt sick, but I called out for more. Yowling for more food until a short Goron guard with a massive axe strapped to his back and three small maces on a belt appeared. "Why don't you shut up? What is it?"
"I'm hungry," I responded. I need more food.
"But you already ate more food than I've seen you eat since you got here. Hasn't your stomach shrunken from lack? Gisirah said Hylians were very difficult to starve."
"Indeed we are, but your master was misinformed. We Hylians need only eat once or twice a month. We eat a large amount, then store it up. I need to finish my meal, or I might pass away in a few weeks. We can only eat at certain times. Please help me sir," I said, batting my eyelashes. "I have already shrunken so much. I used to be a mighty, Goron-sized warrior."
My pale skin, once almost brown, and slender limbs seemed to move his pity. Within minutes, I was wolfing down another decidedly less delicious meal, and struggling not to vomit. But I couldn't hold it back for long. By the time I finished I threw up all over the cell wall. Forget about hiring a Goron cook.
The guard returned, and I smiled weakly. "I think I'm sick. I've been stuck in this cell for so long, I'm in desperate need of fresh air to replenish my lung filters.
"As long as you know escape will be hopeless. I'm sure you recognize that in your state you could never overcome me."
I nodded meekly and was soon out in a small yard before the jail. High above, I could see the massive torches, and now noticed a round cavern mouth between two of them. I took a deep breath. The air was nothing like the fresh, salty air I had grown up with, but it was far better than my dank and now smelly prison. I also noted an odd whistling and clanking coming from a few buildings away.
I took several noticeable glances at the maces on the Goron's belt, and after making some small talk, I inquired, "I wonder, sir-No. It is too much to ask."
"Let me judge that. What is it?"
"Well...no. Well, could I hold your mace, sir? No doubt a towering, impressive Goron such as yourself has no trouble bearing its weight, but it is much like the mace I used to wield, and I wonder if I could just wrap my fingers around it for a moment. I couldn't possibly harm anyone, being so slender and weak."
"Why didn't you ask sooner? I would be glad to grant a request of so little consequence." Then added confidentially, "I always thought your torture rather unfair."
That made what I was about to do harder, but he would surely recover. As soon as the mace was in hands, I gave it a powerful swing to his armored head, sending him crashing to the ground.
"Oh, no, I'm ever so helpless," I said, swinging the mace up to rest on my shoulder. "Whatever shall I do with this big, heavy mace? Wah hah ha ha HA!"
(Trisyrt)
When Darunia realized what I was doing, he raged constantly. Screaming about what a doomed fool I was. Eventually I figured out how to shut him up. The sliver of ruby that had been imbedded into my left arm over a few months ago.
Going in by the front door would be more than a little obvious. I heard a whistle and quickened my pace. I had a train to catch. A supply train carried Gorons, gems, and goods between the three cities, always stopping for inspection by Darunia, Link, or Dodongo.
I was exhausted by the days events, but I'd always been the most energetic of the three of us. Three of us. The hole left open by Griman and Rost's deaths still hurt. What fools we'd been to follow that Goron!
Darunia no doubt had a warning out for me, as well as Princess, who I imagined by now had connived or fought her way out of prison. She would be useful if she so, but I wasn't going to waste time freeing her. That would mean she wasn't skilled enough to be any help.
I'd spent the last several days preparing in hiding, and now I was ready. I had two choices in getting aboard the train. I could sneak on and hide, or I could force my way and take control of the engine.
I didn't feel like hiding anymore.
It was an almost pathetic matter to get past the guards. I didn't even bother to fight them. Just ran by. They rolled after me, but I leapt onto the caboose of the already moving train and was soon out of reach.
In a matter of moments a bulky engineer was quivering like a child before the sharp, harshly glinting edge of my sword. Two other crew members and a trio of gaping upper-classers on a tour watched in open-mouthed astonishment.
"Keep things moving as they were," I ordered calmly. "I'll let you know when to change course."
A pattering on the roof suddenly cut in with the clattering of wheels against rails. One of the walls heaved inward as if the train were taking a breath, and mace spikes dug through the wall. Gorons weren't much good with metal.
Zelda.
Perfect.
The grinding of metal on metal screamed as Zelda tore at the siding. She leapt in through a gaping hole and swung her mace at my head without saying a word. I hopped back and brought up my sword in defense.
Wind pushed at my face as Zelda swung heavily, leaning into her attackss and throwing her full body weight into them, which wasn't much, but she was obviously stronger than she looked.
Too bad she had no mace skills whatsoever.
Matching blades with her, I knew she was could outfight me with her weapon of choice available, but as it was I could beat her in less than a minute.
But that wouldn't quite suit my plans.
I let the battle drag on, and suddenly, a massive fist nearly knocked my head off. The Goron engineer had joined the fight! I dodged back from a follow-up blow and barely managed to parry a strike from Zelda.
Now this might be a little more trouble.
I raced over to the far edge of the car, where the trio of thin, flashily dressed Gorons were cowering in fear. I snapped off a sapphire from the neck of one and concentrated. The onrushing engineer was knocked backward against the coal door of the train by a blast of icy wind. I concentrated harder and sent solid needles of glinting ice at Zelda, purposefully slow enough for her to dodge if she had the reflexes of a dead Cave Cucco.
The smell of ice began to fill the room as I back-flipped away. Had to make this look good. She was there, mace ready to strike. I let her knock the sword from my hand and pretended to be too tired to use my sapphire. It was tempting to blast her with ice. I didn't need her that badly. All three gems came from the mines outside the cites. Each had a special power. Ruby, fire. Sapphire, my favorite, ice. I'd never seen emerald used, so I wasn't sure about it.
Zelda had swept up my sword and now I knew my life was in her hands. I had to choke back a laugh. It was really working!
Emotion burned in her eyes as she spoke. "Where is Link? What have you done with him? Tell me before I kill you!"
"...Link? Is that your friend? I can take you to him. I'm on my way to Darunia's inner sanctum." Strange that he shares a name with a Goron Lord. "Do not fear for my motives. Darunia has betrayed my people, and must be stopped." Completely true. I had no trouble letting her gaze bore into my eyes.
She nodded, shrugged, and dropped the sword by my feet. I swept it up. Now all there was to do was wait. The train would deliver us in time. By now we were outside the city. Wind was blasting through the hole in wall. Only a deep darkness could be seen outside the windows.
That's all there was outside the circles of warmth where sane Gorons lived. Vast emptiness.
A screech and a loud shriek made me jump. Zelda jerked at the double assault of noise too.
As long, steel claws began to tear into the ceiling of the train, I knew. Deadly trouble was here.
I cursed loudly. "Keese!"
"What is this?" Zelda cried. "What's going on?"
"The worst thing that could have happened."
"What's that?"
"Mutated monsters. Insane Gorons. Gem-Crazies. Pray to whatever gods you worship, because we're about to die."
Chapter LXVII: The Quest For Self
Captain's Log, First Entry.
(Asriel Krytos)
It has been just one year since the rains came, and the ocean consumed. I can remember the events like they happened yesterday, because they unraveled my life like a cat playing with a ball of yarn.
When the war came, I seized all opportunities to prosper. The head of a band of thieves has to be ever on the lookout where such things are concerned. It wasn't long before great masses of wealth and slaves were mine. We had collected the riches from the goron, zora, and gerrudo tribes. The Goron and zora animals make excellent, able slaves. The beautiful, spirited gerrudo women make excellent wives.
Or so I thought. When I saw the flooding begin, I decided to put my slaves to work building a boat on Lake Hylia. We were pirates, after all, and it would keep our treasure safe, even in a landlocked country such as this. Little did I know how much I would benefit from such a whim!
The rest, as they say, is history. Hyrule is long gone and the people are scattered. They would be easy to plunder were it not for the problems we encountered with the women.
Gerrudo are just regular people like any of us, but upon entering their order of 'honorable thievery", they are sealed with a magic oath. They warned us of their custom that only one man is to be born among them every century, but we ignored their superstitious rubbish.
The gerrudo tried to resist marrying to us, but when we threatened other's lives, they had little choice.
But their dire warnings proved true and disaster struck. Many of the woman became pregnant at the same time. The rest soon followed. When the first woman gave birth to a son, the rest of the women miscarried and their husbands died instantly.
Leaving me aboard a ship full of warriors, as I was the husband to the woman who gave birth. In weakness after giving birth, I managed to shove them all overboard.
Now I'm all alone on a pirate ship too large for one man to control. I have been lost and drifting the sea ever since. Food runs low, and I can no longer bear the sight of my son. I tried to throw him overboard with the rest, but something stayed my hand.
Now I keep him deep below decks and only visit him to provide him with sustenance. He frightens me to the depths of my soul. Born with green skin, red hair, and void black eyes, his origins are without doubt. At only a month old, he can already speak. Just one word, however, which he repeats over and over.
"Ganon."
(Mako)
The shock was bigger than the pain. What could I do? My life seemed to be trickling away in a stream that would soon merge with a river, carrying me out into an ocean of death. Nobody else seemed quite sure what to do with themselves.
But no. I'd misjudged. The man had stabbed the wrong rib! Right instead of left. I would be fine if I didn't bleed to death.
"You missed." I said to the chief, sweeping his head off with the sword still wet with Karbuzal's blood.
I staggered to the ground, fumbling to make a bandage. A crowd of bizarre people surrounded me, and as my consciousness faded I realized I was everyone's chief.
Sunlight streamed into a small room as my eyes slowly blinked open. A girl with red-gold hair and beautiful green eyes was staring down at me with an eager, gleeful smile animating her face. I smiled back dreamily and almost fell back asleep when recognition jarred me into sitting up. "Mareri! Your face! But...how?"
"Your leadership has brought back together our evil, warring peoples. You have ended a battle that reaches as far as our history, though it is obvious we are of the same race. We owe you a great debt."
"Perfect," I responded. "I want nothing more than to go home." I knew the enormous bird we'd seen hatch would be able to take me straight to the forest, but I needed to rejoin my friends. A different plan suddenly presented itself.
"Are any of your people into painting?"
Chapter LXVIII: Sand
(Laruto)
Grit was the first thing I felt. Pressing my face, sticking to my clothes, grinding in my mouth. I awoke and almost screamed from the pain of sleeping the wrong way for far too long. Bones popped, my jaw ached, and my limbs were as sore as if I hadn't slept.
"Ugh."
Medli was still asleep beside me. As I sat up, I looked around. Zelda, Shiek and Cufell were sleeping nearby. Some of the pirates were too, but most were huddled close to a small fire that crackled and smoked in the rain I belatedly noticed was falling around me. They looked as pathetic as I felt.
Ganondorf's days were numbered.
Right.
I sighed, the pressure of so many lives that weighed on mine bringing me down to the sand. Now was the time to sneak off alone. The pirates were used to following orders, and badly run through. They wouldn't protest if I told them to stay here.
Checking the harp that had gone unnoticed for so long at my back, I made for the cave entrance. Suddenly a hand shot out from nowhere and grabbed my ankle.
(Medli)
"Where do you think you're going? Do you really think we wouldn't just follow you? Sit down, eat something, discuss a plan of action, and we'll get you into that temple," I commanded, trying my best to sound imposing while on my belly grabbing someone's foot.
"No. I'm too close. I can't rest now. Come with me or don't, but alone or not, I'm leaving now." Laruto shook her head sadly and shook free of my grasp.
I stood. No fear. That surprised me. I had no worry about what I might encounter inside the temple.
"Are you sure you want to come, Medli? There might be a lot of trouble waiting."
"I've seen true despair, and I've washed my hands of it. I am fearless now. I am a sage, and will stand with you to the end."
She nodded and turned towards the small black mouth waiting to swallow us, and stopped suddenly, whispering, "Make wisdom yours."
"What?"
"We have to bring Zelda. Wake her."
Zelda came awake quickly, eyes wide. She gave Laruto a strange look that made me feel I'd missed something while Laruto explained, but she seemed glad to be included. When the three of us got to the entrance one of the pirates suddenly exclaimed "'Ey Miss Zelda! Where're you goin'?"
Several minutes later, I was standing behind Laruto as she prepared to enter through. A strange stone block shaped like a head rested nearby. She'd pressed her hands straight into the rock and made it. With no explanation why. Zelda, Shiek and Cufell stood behind me. The pirate crew watched from the beach.
There were no preparations we could make except prayer. This was it.
Taking a deep, calming, breath, I stepped inside.