Author's Notes:
*Sorry I was late this week! Decided at the last minute to add a bit. Hope you like it!
While I stick very closely to the HTTYD movie/TV show lore, I take liberties with the LoZ elements. Please read with an open mind, as if this were a new game.
New chapters on Wednesdays. The whole thing, 30 chapters plus Prologue, is written and will be posted!
Impa dashed around a corner. Jayko's wild chase had led them over, under, or through every corner of Kakariko. Doors banged shut. Curtains whisked over open windows, concealing curious bystanders. It seemed everyone knew she was here now, and since the Yiga clearly didn't care about fighting, she threw off stealth as well.
Every time she was about to nab him, he shimmered, vanished and reappeared a few feet away, more than once inside a home. Startled mothers yanked children out of the way and shielded them with trembling bodies. Jayko would laugh, flip out a window, and keep running.
The injury to her leg wasn't helping. She had always been faster than Jayko, but in her current state, she suspected he was actually slowing down for her. The thought only fueled her rage.
She ducked under a heavy-laden clothesline, and there he was! Just fifty feet ahead. Forty, thirty. Just as his whole body began to shimmer, she threw a flashbang at him. It hit him in the back, throwing him face first into the cobblestones. In a moment, she had flipped him over, a knee planted on his chest.
"Where's Link?! I'm not playing your game anymore!"
"Chill, Impa!" Jayko wheezed with his typical carefree attitude. "I may have lied about Link." She whipped out a dagger and pressed it to his throat. "Alright! I did lie," he blurted out.
She stowed the dagger. "Worthless!" She was about to punch him in the face when he shimmered and vanished out from under her. She dropped a few inches to the ground and hit the cobblestones instead. She hissed and shook her stinging knuckles. Cursed Yiga magic!
"Wow, you have been busy," Jayko said. He was standing behind her, reading off her list of shrines. Impa snatched the map out of his hands. "You were close," he said, "and by 'close' I mean you would have found it eventually." Impa limped away.
The clansman raised his voice. "TANELOPE SHRINE." She stopped. "That's the one that lit up. Either you have a face-to-face with the Captain or we take this information to Ganon." With a growl, Impa turned to face him. He was twirling his sickle again. "You don't have time to check for yourself, so it looks like you'll have to take our word for it." He latched the weapon onto the holster on his back and began strolling away.
Impa called after him. "You expect me to trust your word? After what you did?"
"Self-righteous as ever, I see," he said over his shoulder.
"I am in the right!"
"Coccolan Forest. Midnight. And just to make it fair…" Without turning, he tossed her a familiar blue bag. Impa snatched it out of the air. It didn't feel the same as when Forbes had given it to her. Opening it, she found only one of the three healing potions. She was about to yell after him but only caught the last of his shimmer as he disappeared.
Impa stood there, clutching the potion in one hand and the map in the other. Tanelope Shrine, on the border between Hyrule and the Gerudo Desert, was the farthest of all of them. And a meeting in Coccolan Forest? She'd have to leave now to have any hope of being there by midnight. It all stank of a trap. But then, what options did she have? If only she could warn Link…
She gulped down the potion and began to jog through the town square. Shutters slammed, and silhouettes slinked from windows. As she passed the boarded-up town hall, a particular shop caught her eye. With a fresh coat of white paint and flecks of pink and yellow wooden peonies lining the windowsill, it looked like a child's birthday cake. At the moment, Impa felt her wish had just been granted.
/
Postmaster Beitris sat behind the counter of her office, using a soft-bristled painter's brush to dust the tiny pile of papers that perpetually remained on the desk. Setting the brush back in its place between the sealing wax and her collection of pens, she straightened the tiny Postmaster's hat on her silver locks.
She looked sadly about the room. Though she'd striven to keeping her shop exactly as it was before the war, even replacing the fresh peonies with wooden ones when the drought became too severe, there was no mistaking the empty shell it had become. She comforted herself with the thought that one day this terrible war would be over, and they'd all be able to go back to their normal lives. Then these letter sheets would be used to put their broken Hyrule back together.
Dust motes floated from the recently opened door, and she eyed the virgin pages. Not on her watch.
She had just set the brush back down when the front door burst open, and a mad woman flew inside. The Postmaster jumped so high she bumped the desk. The sealing wax, seal, paintbrush, and half a dozen pens clattered on the floor. A wave of dust surged in from the street, and the letters scattered about the room like a flock of startled cuccos. In a matter of moments, Kakariko's last bastion of normalcy was tossed upside down.
Beitris fumed. "Now, see here young lady, you can't just—"
"I need to send a letter," the woman demanded. "Who's your fastest runner?"
Beitris collected the displaced writing utensils before turning an appraising glare on the intruder. Athletic build, white hair, sword, and peeking out from the fold of her cloak, the Sheikah Eye. Her glare melted into terror.
Beitris dropped behind the desk, clutching the edge as she peered over. "You need to get out of here. Now. You can't be seen here."
"I only want to send a letter."
"Out," Beitris squeaked.
"If you knew what was at stake—"
"I know if they see me with a Sh— the likes of you, I'll never be seen again."
The Sheikah's expression darkened. "If you know what I am then you know how important my mission is." Her hand drifted to the handle of her sword.
"Threaten me all you'd like. My only runner is currently on assignment." Glancing at the strewn papers already smudged with dirt , she sneered, "Even if he weren't, I wouldn't let him deliver for someone as disrespectful to mail as you."
/
Impa slammed the door so hard a yellow peony broke off the sill and bounced in the dusty street. Good riddance to that old crone. Disrespect to mail. How about disrespect to Sheikah?! To Hyrule?! If that woman had shown half that spine to the Yiga, Kakariko wouldn't—
The low warble of a sparrow stopped her in her tracks. She hadn't heard that signal in fifteen years. She doubled back to the source, an alley brimming with discarded crates and heaps of moth-eaten blankets.
"Forbes?" she whispered.
A heavy-set figure stepped out of the shadows. A patch of sunlight glinted off his bald head.
Impa snorted. "You know it's dangerous to be seen with me."
"I needed to tell you while I have the chance." His swollen, downcast eyes bade her pause. "I'm so sorry. I wanted to warn you, but they were already here."
It took a moment for the truth to set it. No, not you too.
His eyes flicked up, desperate for a response. A potent scowl met him.
"After what they did to the Mayor, I knew they weren't messin' around. There are lots of people here, Impa. Innocent folks." That was true. For every Postmaster there was an old soul gifting his music to an indifferent community. Her expression softened slightly, but the sting lingered.
His eyes drifted away. "You, you better get goin'," said Forbes. "Coccolan's a fair distance." Had he been listening in or had he known the Yiga's plan all along? Did it matter?
"Link needs to know."
"He will." He looked up and smirked weakly. "Daneby could give a mustang a run for its ruppees. No way a Yiga's gonna catch him."
The pain of betrayal morphed into trepidation. "Oh, Forbes, you didn't."
"I told him to lay low for a few days afterwards. Should give you and the Hero enough time to finish things up, right?"
"Were you seen?"
"Probably." Then his fate was already sealed.
Her voice trembled. "You didn't have to. I could have sent it myself."
"You think they'd let you?"
True. She hadn't considered that.
Her eyes burned with tears. She wished this was a bad dream, that she could wake up and everything would go back to how it was. But here they were, hiding in an alley, each with a terrible fate before them. "Why are you telling me all this?"
He heaved a sigh. "I didn't want to die with you thinkin' I was— I'm not…" His shoulders slumped. "You've lost so much already." He'd known her longer than most and still didn't know the half of it.
She placed her hand on his shoulder. He breathed heavily a few moments before whispering. "Is she really back?"
Impa's throat clenched. "I don't know."
His misty eyes looked beyond her and sparkled like he was on a treasure hunt again. "She is. I can feel it. Things are changing."
Impa nodded. Whatever made him feel better.
She bowed stiffly. When she came up, her lip was trembling. "Be careful." Then she threw her arms around his neck.
He gave a tight squeeze and pulled back. His gray eyes burned with resolve. "Run, Impa. Run for Hyrule."
She nodded, jogged to the head of the alley, and ran down the street.
No sooner had she turned out of sight than his skin began to crawl. Someone was standing behind him.
The voice tutted softly. "Not a smart move, old man."
Author's Notes:
Thanks to Ari Lewis and Luke for beta reading!
