Yay! Thanks for the commentaries! Much appreciated:D

Hope this chapter meets satisfactory!

Saber88


P.S: At the bottom of this chapter, I have the pronunciation for some of the names of the character's I made up – I've come to realize people probably have trouble with them… After all, they usually are made from random character's pressed on the keyboard! xD


Chapter 5

The Conspiracy

By Saber88


Lady Tendra had assembled her servants once again, for there were rewards to be dealt out and new plans to be worked.

"Orth, Earcu, I am pleased you managed to capture the princess without major conflict and little witnesses, so I plan to reward the pair of you grandly."

Earcu acknowledged the praise humbly, while Orth impassively bobbed his human head, using that form to make communication easier.

The sorceress continued, "I have decided to raise both of your statuses – Orth, you are second in command of everyone who has come with me to Hyrule-"

The disguised demon-spawn's cold, stone-like face broke into a grin at that. He was finally getting the position he deserved.

"-and Earcu, I have boosted your power to leader, that is, for the griffons I have brought along with us, because you are the most experianced and resourceful.You will take no commands from anyone but your superiors, me and Orth."

The beast hissed in pleasure, bowing his head regally, "Thank you, Lady." He said graciously.

Before the two could even get a chance to actually mentally celebrate their rewarding, Tendra had launched into a detailed description of the fiendish plan she had been plotting labouredly over for the past few days.

"Now, with Zelda out of the way, Ganondork-"

A few chuckles at that,

"-Ganondorf," she corrected herself lamely, putting a hand to her mouth in mock horror before continuing, "Haha, anyway, he has spread his rule, and as you all know, I need all three Triforce pieces before I can steal them from these pathetic mortals. Without one, I cannot fight this 'Lord of Evil' – yet, and come out unscathed."

"There is only one other, besides the princess who has a shard of this Triforce – Link."

Orth laughed, malevolently, "Oohhh, I see where you're going with this-"

"Hush. Anyway, as I was saying, we can use him, and at the last possible moment after making sure of Ganondorf's downfall-"

"We will betray him!" finished Rogth gleefully, "I like it..."

Orth nodded solemnly, "Two birds with one stone, as the saying goes," he chortled.

Earcu said, tension obvious in his voice, "But, how will we do this?"

"Ah! Don't you just love the innocence of it all?" she laughed at some comical joke unknown to the others. "My dear Akilah will be our hero's temptress to gain his trust."

The third brown-robed figure in the corner fidgeted apprehensively, the one who had attended all the meetings, but had not yet spoken. In a voice the tickled the minds of the others, she said blissfully, "Lady, what shall I do for you?"

Smirking wickedly, the sorceress outlined her devious plan.


Link had just entered Hylia Lake a day an a half after he left Lon Lon Ranch, and was rudely jerked out of his stupor, or as he called it, 'riding trance', by a feminine voice calling.

The voice pleaded, "Help! Oh, help!"

When the Hylian looked to the source of the distress call, he was baffled to see a young women fleeing from a hostile-looking lizard man – in fact, it looked strangely familiar…

With a yell, Link rushed toward the fray, having absorbed the scene in a stride. The girl was running in his direction, her beautiful form stained in mud and gorgeous golden hair matted with blood from the cut marring the perfection of her visage.

When Rogth seen Link had taken the bait, he melted into the shadows, disappearing from site to watch the predicted events unfold.

Link unsheathed his sword and jumped off Epona, only to glance around, puzzled the speedy disappearance of the reptilian human.

The enchanting female flung herself into his arms, and he caught her reflexively.

The girl was babbling incoherently, seeming insane with terror. Link carried her over the peculiar house with the blue roof and laid her in the shade, her back against the firm wall of the building.

The adolescent whistled for Epona, and she nicked softly, trotting up beside her rider.

When the stranger finally ceased her pointless ranting and seemed to come back to reality, Link asked, feeling very much like an adult scolding a child, "How did you end if like that?"

She neatly avoided the question, instead blurting out, "Err, thanks…" She blushed, "My name is Akilah."

"How-"

Akilah fluttered her eye lashes at him, "What do you friends call you sir?"

Sighing Link told her his name.

The girl beamed winningly at him, "Ah, A lovely name!"

The Hyrulian had had enough of the girl's flirting and waved her away, turning around to remount the roan-red mare behind him.

Akilah scrambled to her feet, grabbing Link's shoulder, "No – wait!"

He angrily rounded on the other, grabbing her wrist roughly, "Hey-" he stopped suddenly. Looking more closely at the girl, he felt her stiffen as he reached out a hand to look at an amulet hanging around her neck.

He had seen that somewhere before… the engraving on its surface.


Flashback:

Link's eyes widened and his throat tightened in genuine fear as he backed up, deeper into the water.

What he looked upon was a bat-like creature. It had leathery wings and a pair of curled horns protruding from its cranium. Pallid ash-coloured scales lined its body, and two muscular and feral legs at the bottom. His feet were clawed, looking similar to the lizard man's. His arms bulged as he threw them in the air, howling in glory along with the gale that swept across Hylia Lake, rain pounding down suddenly. The sun seemed to wink out of existence and hide from the abomination.

Link gazed up, and further up, petrified. The only thought that crossed his mind and continued to ring was Demon!


What he didn't notice at the moment, was the medallion the creature also wore, with the same weird sign on it…

It was a circle crossed six times, encased in a diamond, in the center a miniature carving of red rock designed to look like a flame – the sign of magic…


End of Link's flashback and thoughts


Link looked at the girl, who had gone rigid in his hands, "How deeply are you intertwined with the demon?" he snapped aggressively throwing her back against the wall, "Don't lie to me. He wore that very amulet."

Akilah knew then – she had made a big mistake of forgetting to hide the medallion that marked her a follower of Lady Tendra, the mage.


Epona shifted restlessly, and the worst possible thing that could have happened when she did so occurred.

A small jar fell from one of the saddle sacs, and landed on the ground, burying itself in the mud.

There was silence for a while, and Link's face was a mask of horror.

A tiny voice called out, "Link! Watch out! Listen! LINK! LINK! Look! Listen! LINK!" continuing on until it became an annoying drone and the Hylian was desperately tempted to kick the bottle as hard as he could.

Link turned around the snatch up the jar, and Navi called out again, "No, seriously Link, LOOK!"

Of course, he didn't, and missed seeing Akilah rush at him, knowing she had been discovered -so she changed tactics.

In the nick of time, the young man swiftly turned around and again, grabbed her wrist, but now she held a dagger.

Surprised and angry, Link tried to push her back, but the women had a sudden burst of inhuman strength.

They tussled, each trying the push the other back, unable to kick because their feet were needed to support their unstable bodies.

Now, what happened next, Link will never fully understand.

A black liquid shadow drifted over the two combatants, causing them despite themselves, shudder and look upward, stopping momentarily.

Orth, the spawn demon, flew over them, he grinned, fangs hanging over his lips he hovered a moment, then plunged through the air, and into Akilah's back, pushing the two humans over.

Link went down, cracking his skull on the ground. Dizzily, he tried to push the prone body of him, but…

Miraculously, the beast had picked her up, and was in the air, flying higher and higher.

Link's first thought was, "What…? He saved me?"

The look the demon shot at him, though clearly said, "No, I'm not saving you, stupid, I have other business."

In the air, Akilah was screaming at Orth, "What are you doing?"

Orth's eyes flamed, seeming endless and entrapped her, again, with his mind, he spoke into her head, "What are you doing fool? You can't kill him!"

He was shaking her, trying to bring sense the her puny brain.

The women stopped her shrieking and tensed. Her eyes changed from a beautiful azure to crimson, and a devilish tail sprouted from he backend, tangling around the demon's leg. She yelled in his face, "I take orders from no one!"

Startled, Orth let go of the so-called 'girl' how was growing heavy and uglier in his claws. She was hanging by her tail from his leg, now. And he swiped at it, severing the whipcord.

The transforming human fell down from the great height and landed on her feat without evenso much as agrunt.


The thing in front of him was changing before Link's eyes

What had been beautiful long golden hair had been changed into mud-plastered straw, just barely enough to cover her head. Her smooth, even skin was turning a deep orange, and small, tiny scales were protruding from her flesh. The women's form of thin curves was bloated, and two curvilinearhorns grew out of her skull.

With long, red fingernails, she swiped at Link, hissing.

One look at the creature and he knew it would have to be exterminated.

The young Hylian yanked his sword out of the groundand quickly stepped backwards to get some ground between him and the strange monster.

Akilah moved closer and pounced on him, and Link rolled onto his back, thrusting his sword upward, he skewered the flesh of her stomach.

The new abomination yelled her rage and whizzed around to face the insulting Hyrulian.

When she turned fully, her head was neatly lopped off by Link, who had swung with all his might.

The disgusting body fell onto the ground, purple blood oozing from where the neck used to be.

Retching, Link ran back to Epona and picking up Navi, he turned to get away as fast as he could.


Meanwhile Orth had landed on the very top pier of the lonely, blue-roofed house at Hylia Lake's shore, and glared steadily after him, growling at the gross tableau formbelow him.

The demon-spawn should have let thechanging girl destroy that young fool of a boy. It was only his orders from Lady Tendra – who's magic's could indeed, even outwit a demon – that had kept him in check, forcing down his blood lust.

Link looked back behind him once, seeing the demon-spawn glowering daggers into his back, and thought, "What was it he had said about fate…?" before continueing to ride away from Hyrule's largest lake.


Well, hoped ya liked it. That was, I think, probably one of the longest chapters so far. xD

Anyway, not really much to say, but to review, please.


Name pronunciations:

Earcu-------------Air-ah-coo

Lady Tendra:----Ten-dra

Orth:--------------Or-th

Rogth:------------ Rr-ogg-th

Akilah:----------Ack-ill-ah


Saber88