"The Destiny Stone"
Disclaimer: I do not own all the familiar Zelda stuff. Either Sond or I own all of the unfamiliar stuff. Woot.
*****
Author's Note: Told ya I'd be back! Well, the project all purpose backstory' was originally gonna just be a collection of random origin stories, but thena better idea came along. So now we've got this, another full-blown story. The nice thing is, there will be flashbacks to said origins during the story, meaning it will still serve as a kind of backstory.' Sowoot. Again, I'm just starting to write at random, so who knows how long this one will be. Chances are it'll outdo An Act to Follow as far as length. There's a lot happening in this story. Soenjoy! Oh yeah, and occasionally I'll be illustratin' stuff from this story, so when it's relevant, I'll add a link to the picture at the end of the chapter. This story takes place just a month or so after the events of An Act to Followlike most stories, I'm re-introducing everyone, though it's probably a good idea to read my last story so you don't get too confused. Anyhow, as our story opens, we find our group having returned to Hyrule, though not everyone's happy about that. For one thing, they have to camp outside
*****
"The Destiny Stone" — Prologue: Fire and Ice
"Hold up, I think I can do this, guys."
Kat rolled up her sleeves busily; staring around at her friends, then back down at the small circle of stones, littered with several logs, smaller kindling, and a good amount of dead brown leaves.
"Uh, what are you gonna-wait a second!" Kafei, a boy with red eyes, purple hair, and a pensive expression swallowed. "Are you absolutely surethat's safe?"
The other children sitting around the unlit fire exchanged similar skeptical looks. Kat looked around at all of them with dark brown eyes, flicked back a stray strand of similarly dark brown hair, and fixed them all with a bemused expression. "It'll be fine, honest!"
"Well," a boy with dark spiky hair directly to her left muttered, "Last time you used Din's Fire, we almost all had our eyebrows singed off"
"That's because I was just full of nerves," Kat reassured them. "I'm in complete control of it, I'm sure."
"And besides," the boy continued. "Link's coming back with the fairies soon with more firewood, and he knows how to do it too." The boy, whose name was Chiron, leaned back a little on the stone he was currently using as a makeshift seat. "Hopefully he found some dry wood. After that rain we've been having"
Kat huffed. "I know I can do this!" She said, looking a little pink in the face. It wasn't often Kat lost her cool, but it was possible. And rather unpleasant when she did.
Kafei chewed his lip. "Wellhe does have a point, Kat" he said slowly, trying to placate her.
Kat just made a neutral sound, something between a growl and a sigh. Four other children, three boys and a girl were sitting nearby in the grass, playing cards. The single girl didn't look up, but she did speak aloud.
"It is getting dark, you know," she remarked casually. "Going to be very dark and cold wi'out a fire, and we don't know when Link'll be back."
The other three looked up, however, glancing at each other. The first boy blinked, his reddish-violet eyes set wide in his olive-skinned face. Chewing his lip, he smirked. "Yeah, knowing Link, he won't come back for at least ten years."
The second boy, a redhead with green eyes, snickered. "You'm ri' there, Ty," he intoned in his odd accent. "Mebbeshe shou'"
The third boy, a trifle shorter than the other two, looked reluctant. He ran a hand through raven-black hair tied up by a green headband, eyebrows knitted. "UhI don't know about you," he said, letting his voice lower to a conspiratorial whisper, "But I really would rather that my head not catch on fire this time." He blinked, green eyes glinting oddly in the lowering daylight.
"I heard that," Kat's voice wafted over, in a dangerous tone.
Flustered, Ty elbowed the short boy. "Good one, Timbre."
"Sorry," Timbre muttered. He pulled his trenchcoat tighter around him and looked around. The small group was currently situated right at the edge of Hyrule Field, literally between the plains and the edge of the large foreboding Lost Woods. It had been a bit since they'd returned to Hyrule from Termina, but already the scenery was becoming familiar to them again. Ty's monkeylike tail twitched as he blinked and poked Timbre.
"Yo, it's your turn."
Jolted out of his train of thought before it had even really begun, the trenchcoated boy looked back down at the game. "Oh sorry again."
Kat huffed and sat down. "I'm positive that I'd be able to do this" she said moodily, picking up a stick and picking at its bark covering.
The card-playing girl grimaced at her hand of cards. "Well, I believe you, Kat."
"Thanks Sond," Kat said, with a forced glare at all of the boys. "At least someone has confidence in my magic-using skills."
Nick, the redhead boy, looked thoughtful as he put another card down. "We don' no' ave con'fedn'ce in y's," he murmured, bumbling through a double negative. "Is jus' we li' aving eyebrows, tha's all."
At this comment, all of the boys snickered, much to Kat's ire.
"Oh, very funny you guys," she huffed, drawing herself up to her full height. "So help me, I'll just do it right now!"
Kafei, who didn't feel like being set on fire, tried to calm her. "Sorry Katit's not that we don't think you couldn't, it's just thatwell, Din's Fire is kind of" he paused, looking for a word.
"Dispersive?" Chiron offered.
"Flammanatory?" Ty added.
"ErExplod-ey?" Timbre finished lamely.
"Uhwell," Kafei stared upwards for inspiration. "What they saidhas a rangeyou're just as likely to set the camp on fire as you are the fireplace, that's all"
"What are you implying?" Kat said, raising an eyebrow.
"Er, sometimes your aim is off, that's all," Chiron said quickly.
"Oh." Kat stared at the ground dejectedly.
"Yeh, las' thin' we nee' is th' bloody Los' Woods on fire" Nick mumbled.
"Well, I'll just have to aim carefully, that's all!" Kat said, looking up. With a resolute air, she strode over to the pile of kindling, crackling her knuckles. Forming a fist, she demonstrated the technique of Din's Fire. She mock-punched her right fist at the kindling pile, stopping short of it by a few inches. "See, if I take it slowly enough"
"Oh" Ty said offside to Nick and Timbre, gesturing at Kat's turned back. "We get to burn to death slowly instead of quickly"
"I. Heard. That." Kat's shoulders hunched as she stood up, teeth gritted and race slightly red.
"Oh great" Timbre hunched over, pulling his coat halfway over his head like a cowl. "I'd take cover if I were you, guys"
Link was just nearing the outskirts of the forest, when a nearby commotion startled him.
"DIN'S FIRE!!!!" A loud explosion and several bright flashes of lights, like that of many fires being set, immediately followed this exclamation. Staring upwards at the bright orange pillar of erupting flame in slight amusement, Link sighed.
"Guess we didn't need this extra firewood after all, guys."
A group of eight various fluttering colored lights hovering behind him all started squeaking at once, dropping the bundle of firewood they had been bearing together.
"Well that's just so nice of them!" A particularly agitated yellow fairy screeched, putting her hands on her hips. She flitted over to Link's shoulder, and leaned against the Hylian's head, taking in the view. "Still, glad I wasn't near that one." The fairy, whose name was Tatl, smirked.
Tael, her dark violet colored younger brother, nodded in agreement.
The pillar of flame descended slowly, and Link lowered his chin and started walking towards it. "I hope there's something left of them"
The scene Link arrived on was typical for the type of thing he expected of his friends, in other words, complete chaos. Chiron, Kafei, Timbre and Nick were still stunned from the blast, Sond was just coming out from her hiding place behind a particularly large rock, and Ty was just getting to his feet. Everyone's faces were singed black. In the middle of the crater, a small fire was burning merrily, Kat calmly warming her hands as if the singe marks everywhere were perfectly normal.
"Hey Link," Kat said cheerily. "Just put the firewood down over there." She gestured towards a less sooty spot on the ground. The bedrolls near it were gently smoldering.
"Kaaat" Dink, Kat's aqua-colored fairy, zipped over to her charge's shoulder. Behind her the rest of the fairy squad groaned as they suddenly found one less body holding up their firewood bundle.
"Dink!" A blue fairy wheezed loudly. "Warn us before you just drop out like that!"
Dink pointedly ignored them all. "Kat, now what have I told you about huge explosions?" She reprimanded.
"Sorry" Kat mumbled, as the fairies behind them slowly deposited their firewood next to Link's bundle, then hustled off to take care of their respective charges. A blue-violet fairy hovered over to Kafei's senseless form, while the dark blue one who had yelled before perched on Sond's head (next to the coffee cup). Soon everybody had a fairy attending him or her, except Nick and Ty.
Groaning, Timbre sat up and rubbed his head, letting the coat slip back into its normal position on his back. Staring blearily upwards, he nodded at the green fairy hovering in front of his nose. "Hey Obol."
Obol bobbed mutely, for he was unable to make a sound and had to often rely on exaggerated gestures to get his point across. The green fairy sulkily entered Tim's right trenchcoat pocket, where he often retreated to brood. Shrugging, Timbre got to his feet and brushed himself off.
"Well, at least the fire's going," he said finally, trying and failing to sound optimistic. He clapped his hands (which were adorned in black fingerless gloves) in a futile attempt to knock the excess soot off of them. "Blech."
"Anyhow," Link said. "I'm back."
"Took you long enough," Chiron grumbled. "Anything new in the Lost Woods?"
"Not really," Link said wearily, sitting down on a rock after brushing the soot off of it. "Hyrule's the same old Hyrule, it seems. Same old Castle Town, same old castle"
"You gave the Ocarina back to Zelda, right?" Sond looked up sharply.
"Yeah," Link sighed. "It was about time I returned it anyway. Besides, I still have my old one," Here he reached into a pocket and retrieved a sandy brown ocarina. "And the magic still works."
There was a pause as everybody stared at the fire. After a moment, Nick threw up his hands.
"Goo' grief! Hyrule's borin,' in't it?"
"Well, what do you expect?" Link snapped. "I mean, we did dispose of the major villain plaguing the land, didn't we? And when everything's peaceful again, it gets boring."
"Shou' stay'ed in Termina," Nick grumbled.
"Problem there" Kafei intoned. "Remember the Spring Festival? I think it was right time we gave Termina a break."
Timbre sighed. "Myep."
Ty shrugged. "We could've gone to Holodrum or Labrynna"
"Too far," Link said. "Besides, I had to return the Ocarina."
"And make sure our house is still standing in Kokiri," Sond added. "If Mido hasn't had it knocked down yet, anyway."
"And I do want to visit Kakariko," Kat said after a moment's reflection. "Just to see it again."
"So," Link said, spreading his hands and looking at Ty and Nick, "Majority rules. And if Kasumi were here he'd just say something neutral. So there."
"Hrmf." Nick and Ty looked the other way moodily.
"Oh, come off it, all of you," Sond scolded. "Look on the bright side, we've got a nice fire going, its just getting dark, it isn't rainingand we have a while bag of marshmallows back from Clock Town."
"Marshmallows?" Chiron looked up sharply. "When were you able to get those?"
"Off that candy vendor, right at the start of th' Spring Festival." Sond pulled out a brown bag, filled with the puffy confections. "And when you have a fire, and marshmallows
"Right!" Everyone said, and for once, they were all in agreement.
*****
In the darkness, a single consciousness awoke, and spoke aloud with itself.
"Wake up." A first voice intoned searingly into the void.
"Yesss, wake up." The second voice hissed chillingly. "Talk to Mother."
As if this were a cue, a second mind awoke in the void. It, however, did not speak, although its bursts of raw emotion were enough to convey its anger. It was trapped! It wanted out! It wanted out now! It wanted to escape, to be released, to-
"Calm youssself, ssson," The icy voice intoned with sibilant esses. "There isss no room for the hasssty here."
The emotion calmed itself to a dull rumble. Then, it tentatively snaked about, expressing confusion.
"But where is here,' you ask, my boy?" The searing voice licked over the blackness, fire in its tongue.
The second consciousness purred assent.
"You are trapped within the Ssssacred Realm, my dear ssson. A mere ssshadow, even though you posssess the Power." The second voice hissed hollowly.
The second consciousness recoiled, then started thrashing again in anger. Waves of hate emanated from the center of the mad mind, somehow making the void around the two of them darker.
The fiery voice cackled, and the sharp sound echoed around the all-encompassing nothingness. "You wish to be released, yes?"
The emotion surged madly from the second consciousness. YES, it boomed without hesitation. Release was good. It wanted to return to the world it had been cut away from. It wanted-
"Revenge?" The fiery voice cackled again. "Very good."
"But if I sssshould releasssse you" the icy voice started.
"And revenge you seek," the fiery voice added.
"Then you ssshall fail." Both voices spoke as one.
The second consciousness boiled angrily in on itself, seething like a black morass of oily sludge. It didn't care. It wanted to be released. NOW! The rumbling increased, and the mad mentality fetidly thrashed against the walls of its prison.
"You know you will be stopped," the fire said.
"Jussst ssso." the ice commented dryly.
The morass of emotion surged.
"The Heroes of Time," spat the fire.
"The Heroessss of Time," the ice echoed.
The emotion blasted at the double voices was deafening. Heroes of Time! It seemed to roar angrily, straining against its bonds like a mad dog against its chain. Destroy them! It demanded its release. Out, now! Release!
"Before I release you," the fire said quietly,
"I must dispose of them." the ice murmured.
Out! Now! Destroy them! The morass' thrashing echoed violently among the nothingness. Apparently it wanted to dispose of its enemies itself.
Seemingly ignoring its mad companion, the double voice began to talk to itself.
"Together, they are too strong," the fire muttered.
"Yesss, together they overcome their weaknesssesss" the ice agreed.
"But so" the fire started.
"Ssseperatedtheir sssurvival would be compromisssed, without the sssskillsss they offer each other" the ice commented.
"Yes, then," the fire seemed to come to a decision.
"It mussst be asss if they had never met!" the ice declared.
The pure emotion stopped thrashing, and for the first time, truly calmed down.
"If you are willing to listen, my son," the fire rasped.
"Then I sssshall exsssplain." the ice concluded.
"We cannot depend on changing the past," the fire purred. "It is too easy to alter the past to others' goals as it is our own. No, we must dwell in the present, for the moment. Then we shall see to your future, dearest child."
The consciousness of emotion riled impatiently.
"Ssso although I mussst leave the passst unaltered," the ice seemed to smile as a chill wind erupted, "I can attempt to alter Dessstiny itssself. There isss a ssspell-"
"It is called the Parting of the Ways'-"
"It requiresss much preparation-"
"Intensely complicated-"
"But wasss I to cassst it, the Heroessss of Time would be ssssent their ssseperate waysss"
"Unaware of each other, or of their experiences together. Nobody would remember them, or recognize them for who they really are."
"Sssseperated, they ssstand no chancesss of defeating you."
"Hardly a challenge"
"However, to enchant an entire world to thisss end" the ice sighed, "Takesss much power, yessss-"
The morass of mad emotion looked rationally expectant.
"But it can be done." the fire smiled.
"Firssst we casssst the Parting of the Waysss. When Desssstiny isss altered,, and the Heroesss of Time ssssundered forever, then we sssshall return to releasssse you, my sssson."
"Be patient, Ganondorf."
The swamp of dark emotion boiled in anticipation. Soon it would be released, it comforted itself, as the double voice of its mother surrounded it lovingly like a shroud. Though the bonds remained, they would soon be loosed, and Ganondorf would return.
Soon, it told itself.
Very soon.
The deep booming laugh of the former King of the Gerudos echoed madly through the void of the Sacred Realm.
*****
End prologue. Hey wow, that creepy part at the end, eh? Didn't see that coming, did you? Heh. Yeah, this story's probably going to be a little more involved than An Act to Follow, maybe a little more serious at parts, though the comedy is key. That's half the fun of writing this little group is the dynamic interaction. Woot. Oh, and sorry that this chapter's so short, and rather uneventful. That's why I deemed it a kind of prologue, because it was mostly scene setting. Oh, and starting on illustrations right away. If you wanna see some preliminary art, check out these two addresses:
http://www.side7.com/cgi-bin/S7SDB/Archive.pl?ANO=6648
http://www.side7.com/cgi-bin/S7SDB/Archive.pl?ANO=5346
There are pictures of many of the characters up. Give a look if you want, but before you do, please read and review this! It would make me happy. Thank you!