Day X

Kaysho.

'Are you the one who I'll paint in blood, little Keaton?'

Slowly, Ganondorf opened his eyes, to wearily view the destruction that surrounded him. The room lay in ruin; shattered tiles scattered about the floor and floating lazily through the stream. Slowly, he staggered from his resting spot against the wall, and crawled away from it, on his knees. "…Kaysho." He mumbled inattentively, then lifted his head and started to search for the keaton. Kaysho was easily spotted, surrounded a red pool of bloody water, the only color in the room that truly stood apart. The keaton lay with his tails on the dry tile, his middle in the water, and his head resting on the other side of the tiled stream. The blood spread into the water, and created a dark, wet cloud surrounding Kaysho. "…Kaysho!" Ganondorf breathed, then slowly stumbled to his feet, and hobbled over to his friend. "Kaysho…" he repeated quietly, then gingerly picked Kaysho up. Kaysho did not stir, nor speak. Like a time only three years before, Ganondorf took the quiet creature away in his arms. Like three years before, he laid him before a warm fire, and wrapped his shaking body in a blood red cloak.

"He-he….What a foolish boy!"

"See? Here I am."

"A lie?

I tell no lies."

Ganondorf finally lay down onto the floor, and looked over at Kaysho. Both the keaton and his own wounds were bandaged. Kaysho had a slash across his entire middle, red swollen marks across his necks. As if something tried to rip his throat in two. His body was scattered with jagged cuts, his tails each his it's share of shredded patches of Kaysho's once beautiful, golden, silky fur. As for himself, Ganondorf had a deep slash across his arm, and a strange cut on his left cheek. He remembered seeing it in his reflection in the stream, while he bent down to pick up Kaysho. It seemed to be shaped like something. He took rather appalling care of his own wounds. He slapped clean water on them, then wrapped some bandages around his arm, and that was that. But with little Kaysho, he took the greatest care. Still Kaysho did not stir, nor speak.

Kaysho slowly opened his eyes, and dragged himself off the floor, shakily to his feet. He paused, then blinked and took a look around. 'Blurry…' he thought, as he looked down at the soil beneath his feet. It had a light, almost sky blue tint to it, and was as soft as the finest grained sand, or as silk, except for the strange rock-like formations that rose from the earth, like crystal shrubbery. "…ah!" Kaysho said at once, and shook himself from sleepy haze, "Dirt….? Rocks? But I was inside…" He looked up to the sky, only to find that there wasn't one. Strange flog that might pass for clouds shrouded the entire area, leaving a strange misty cool feeling, in an place that looked to be in the middle of a foreign wasteland. Only, to his side, was a shore, and beyond that, a sea of dark water, as far as the eye could see. Kaysho walked over the shore of sorts, then sighed and looked out at the waters, and watched them ripple. They rippled and stirred every so slightly, even though nothing stirred about them, nor was there any wind to aid them.

Ganondorf sat in thought, every once in a while looking down at Kaysho's motionless body. 'I hope he's okay…' Ganondorf thought, then sighed, and looked around the room. He paused, and wondered what had exactly happened to them. 'A spirit? Demon, more like. But how…?' He pondered most on that question, how. Suddenly, a thought came to mind. Completely irrelevant, his mind pictured that scroll, tired down with the red string. He shrugged the thought away, but it kept coming back, like the soul of a slave haunting his master. Kaysho did not stir, nor speak.

'My wounds are gone…' Kaysho finally observed, as he looked down upon himself. '….Impossible.' He paused, then sighed and looked down at the water beneath his feet, then yipped and took a step back. The reflection was Ganondorf's, and not his own. Kaysho paused, then lifted a paw. On command, the reflection raised his hand. Kaysho sighed, and looked out into the waters again, with a desperate plea in his eyes. He sighed, then opened his eyes, and again narrowed then a little, so just a slit of the powerful blue could be seen. He looked to the waters out of the corner of his eyes; in trying to hide his grief, his face appeared drained and pouty. "From his lips came a quiet cry, "….Am I awake? …Am I in the land of the dead?

….Am I real?"

Ganondorf slowly opened his eyes and stared at the wall, cold and , glaring at nothing. Again, the image of the scroll lashed at his mind. 'It is nothing…'He hissed to either himself, or something else within him, '…I'll show you. It is nothing.' He stood up, and looked down at Kaysho, making sure he was warm. He covered Kaysho with his cloak, then left the room, and quietly closed the door behind him. He silently strode though the halls, down a flight of stairs; he could have done it with his eyes closed, if only asked to do so. He walked into another room, with it's candle still burning, walked past the bookshelves, and reached for the scroll he'd left on the ground. Then sighed, sat down on the red carpet, he reached for the red string, and was about to open it when his finger slowed. His hand seemed to have realized what it was truly touching—the string was not red, but white, reddened by a thick coat a dry blood.

Ganondorf paused to breathe, and stared at the string for a moment. 'It is nothing.' He repeated his words, then pulled the string lose and tossed it aside. He opened the scroll, took one short look…then let it fall from his hands into his lap. His hands shook, as if trying to tell his eyes to stop starting upon it, to stop reading it. But his eyes did not move, nor did they blink, and un-relentlessly he looked down upon the dried papyri, the black ink, the ancient Gerudo figures. His hands gave up and fell to his sides. A single tear, either from grief or shock, fell from his eye, swam across the odd-shaped cut on his cheek, and fell off his chin and landed on the scroll. And all the while, Kaysho never stirred nor spoke.

"Only for one shall everything fall.

History shall turn to legend,

And legend to Myth…

And then the day will come.

He will choose if life is to exist.

The land will cower,

Every tree and stone.

The for the day will come.

When the earth is his…

And his alone.

Because only for one will everything collapse.

One will reach for the goal, Zion,

That he might receive the prize.

That prized beautiful hatred.

Because only for one shall the heavens fall.

One will search, go mad, then search again.

Will he search for God?

Or a forgotten friend?

For only one can end us all.

Only that cursed spirit,

Most gentle of all.

Only for demons,

Will that graceful spirit sing.

Kaysho!

Rise, O Daughter of Zion!

The day has begun,

These spirits search for each other.

Rise, O Kaysho! Hidden Phoenix!

The One shall rise from the ashes,

The sky alight in his flame.

But his swallowed up partner…

Will he be the same?

Shout aloud, O Kaysho! Child of Zion!

O, mortal born with wings!

Fly over the clouds of the earth

The hill called Zion

The mountain tops, the river banks,

Kurenai.

Soar over the sleepy rooftops of Jerusalem,

Over the mighty castle walls

Of the land of the goddesses,

Over the sands that scream out, 'death, death, and death.'

Fly upon thy wings like a dragon.

Because while you fly, horrible things happen on the earth below you.

The evils of Babylon scorch the earth.

Do you know why, O Kaysho?

Wings

Fly, O Kaysho, fly to your fate.

Fate

Soar, O Kaysho, through that black cloud…

Which is thy fate.

To Kaysho,

Men will fall.

To Kaysho,

The end of all.

To Kaysho,

The smallest of all.

He, the cursed, the one called Kaysho.

He shall destroy the world.

Rise, Fly, Kill, then Perish, O Kaysho.

For you shall destroy the world.

Kurenai."

Kaysho still looked out into the waters, deep beyond knowledge. From them, a voice screamed. Kaysho did not stir, nor speak.

Ganondorf jumped to his feet and back away from the scroll, till his back collided with the wall. He stared at it for a second longer. "…NO!" He covered his eyes, then slammed himself into the door and ran down the hall. He bolted up stairwells, down halls, then stopped in dead sweat. He'd come upon the tiled room. "ah..aah…" Ganondorf stumbled back, then shakily turned around and started running another way. He stopped again suddenly, then fell down a staircase, just to avoid the spot where'd he'd seen the dream Kaysho, the other Kaysho. Kaysho's twin star; was it just a dream now? He cried out and lifted himself back to his feet, then kept running. He eventually passed the room with the mirror inside it, but didn't stop to give it any mind. He didn't notice that when he passed it, the reflection was of Kaysho's, and not his.

At last, he reached the roof of the Spirit Temple, and coughed from running, only to breathe in cold air that burned like lungs like an icy flame. Ganondorf stared up into the stars, then let himself fall backwards. He collapsed against the cold limestone that made the roof of the Spirit Temple, and he stared up into the abyss.

For hours alone, lost in the darkness.