The Legend of Zelda: Dark Requiem
Chapter One - Loss
The rain poured down soaking everything, the once solid road now lay in muddy ruin, the only thing preventing it from being classed as a river is the swift galloping of a horse over it, the hooded figure hunches over the horses neck, protecting a small bundle from the worst of the rain, she whispers in the horses ear and is rewarded with a loud neigh from the beast and a sudden surge in speed, on the crest of the hill in the distance several riders on large wolf like creatures appear, the riders armour gleams in the deluge, their large bristly snouts sniff at the air as the woman pulls her horse to a halt, the wolf riders finally notice her and with a wave of its spear the lead Moblin issues a cry and charges towards her.
The woman reaches into her clothing and withdraws a long sword its blade slices through the air and some how catches the non-existent light, letting out a fierce shout she charges towards the riders, she releases the reigns of the horse and eases herself gracefully into a standing position on her horse. As the Moblin gets close, she dives at the horrible porcine creature, the sword, passing through its armour as if it was so much paper, she pushes the body from its steed and in one mighty arc takes the head of the wolf clean off, she slides from the carcass, bending to place the bundle just under the still warm corpse, she stands and swings her bow from her back focusing on the other two riders.
Riding side by side the remaining Moblin's bear down on the insolent woman, sneering as they draw their scimitars, this was supposed to be an easy mission but the woman had already slaughtered a dozen of their battalion, they had been told that under no circumstances should anyone be allowed to escape the castle town, and this woman had made a break for it from a hidden escape route, the Mighty Gannondorf would execute them if they failed to retrieve this Shei'kah… this woman.
The woman pulls back her arrow and prays to the Goddess Din, the tip of the arrow bursts into flame as the looses it, the arrows flight is true as it hits the lead of the two Moblin's, the fire engulfed it and its wolf, in the confusion the burning monster steers his beast into it's remaining comrade, despite the down pour the fire spreads and both remaining riders and their steeds crumple to the ground in a smouldering heap, the woman whistles and her horse comes cantering back to her, she mounts and heads towards the tree line.
'They will never look for us in here my dear Link'
Deep within the forest, children's laughter can be heard, in deep green shadows they can be seen running around after each other, their bodies clad in fabric of green with leaves and vines entwined to make body adornments
'Come on you slow poke… he he, you will never catch me like this!'
A green haired girl barrels into a clearing, suddenly she grinds to a halt, something is wrong, the air in the clearing hums with the silence – the rain has stopped, but no, there is something else, barely on the edge of her senses.
A taller blonde haired boy sprints into the clearing and bowls the girl over, she kicks him off of her and stands up, she holds out a hand to silence his complaints and cocks her head, listening.
In the distance a steady pounding can be heard, it gets closer, so close its almost upon them and then a blood curdling scream rends the very air of the clearing, the scream although terrifying was definitely female, the two children instantly sprint for the sound, the boy drawing a dagger made with a gemstone blade and the girl pulling a sling from her vine laced belt.
The arrow bit deep into her shoulder blade, her hand flailed behind her trying to pull the arrow out, she could already feel the cold touch of the Moblin's poison, the Child who up until now had been so quiet, was crying on the ground a few feet away from its mother, its platinum blonde hair could be seen poking from within its blanket, giving up on the arrow, Links mother crawls towards him, scooping up the sword she forces herself to turn and stand, the Moblin swings it's large curved blade over its head and brings it crashing down onto the woman who weakly blocks the blow, once again being driven to her knees, the monster reigns down blow after blow and the woman deflects each and everyone of them, in trying to defend herself, her hood had fallen away from her face, revealing long silver hair, ice blue eyes and a face so perfect in its flawlessness that only the most gifted of artisans would be able to reproduce its likeness…
The children run into the clearing where the woman kneels before a creature so ugly the forest children find it hard to look upon it, but seeing it raise its sword to strike her down both of them lunge forward, the green haired girl, lets loose a barrage of missiles, while the boy runs round the back of the creature with surprising speed, he jumps onto the Moblin's back, bringing his small dagger down repeatedly into the back of the monsters head, black blood splatters the child's face as his victim lets out a gurgling death rattle and falls over and yet the boy carries on thrusting his blade into the thick neck of the monster.
Links mother pulls herself upright holding her baby and looks down upon the fallen Moblin, her eyes widen with horror as she realises that her saviour is a small child now soaked in the Moblin's blood, another child, a green haired girl runs up to the boy and tries to tear him from the Pig, but he carries on plunging into the creatures back, its head now completely severed, tears stream down the boys face and his eyes are tightly shut.
'Jared! Please stop' sobs the little girl, 'we are not supposed to kill, not even these vile abominations, The Great Deku tree forbade it!'
The boy Jared suddenly stops 'Oh no, Saria what have I done…' the boy curls up next to the bloody corpse wailing and rocking'
Saria kneels by her friend and places a protective arm around him, she finally looks up to the woman, Links mother's eyes glaze over and she barely manages to whisper 'Take me to the forest guardian' before she topples over, Saria catches the babe as he falls and with her other hand, she puts two fingers in her mouth and lets out a loud but mournful whistle – in the shadows around the clearing, hundreds of children appear, and as they do, the rain begins to fall again.
The band of children march through their village towards the Deku tree's grotto, Saria leads them as they carry the unconscious woman, as they pass, faces appear at every door and window and then pour forth to accompany the rest, the storm unleashes torrent after torrent but none of them seem to notice as they enter the Great Deku Tree's haven.
The forest guardian, the great Deku tree, stood tall in the centre of its clearing, the bark of its mighty trunk bore the features of a face, two eye knots, two dents for nostrils and a gaping hole for a mouth, it would be but a scary looking tree if it wasn't for the movement of its feature when the children bring the woman in to lay her down in front of him, concern sweeps over his face as he looks down upon her.
'Awaken child, awaken and be free of the poison coursing through thy veins'
The woman's eyes flickered and finally opened, she gazed into the kind, yet featureless eyes of the great tree, she tried to sit but yipped with pain and collapsed back, her eyes suddenly snapped wide
'My Baby!' she cried 'Where is he..?'
'He is safe with us, you must relax child'
She visibly relaxes as the words form in her mind, she looks around her at the sad faces of the children and then the coldness began to take her again
'How long do I have left?
'less than an hour, the enemies poison is stronger than my abilities to heal, but know this Shi'in of the Shei'kah your son is safe within my borders, he has a tough journey ahead of him, but I will make sure he is well prepared when the time comes'
She nods at this and grits her teeth as pain washes over her 'Can I see him before I go?'
Saria steps forward holding the bundle out to Shi'in, she takes her baby and cradles him, from her lips escape the first few words of a lullaby and then she bows her head and sobs into the hair of her son, after a long time the sobs slow and stop, her grip on the child lessens, her pale hand falls to the grass and a small ring rolls from her palm.
All the children fall to their knees and one after the other each one begins to cry, the sound of their mourning carries out of the forest, across the great field of Hyrule and beyond, even stretching to the great halls of the Zora and the Gorons
Only one of the Kokiri that night shed no tears, Jared sat with his knees tucked up to his chin, he had committed the most reviled crime in the Trees domain and he did not know what the punishment for it would be, but he would find out in the morning, even knowing this he did not feel sad and this above all else worried him…
Disclaimer – I do not own any of the characters (except Jared and Sh'in) or any of the places featured within this fanfic, all Zelda related items are the property of Nintendo.
A/N well here it is! My first fic, hope you all enjoy it, because of this being my final year of university I will not be able to update on a regular basis, but I will try to get a chapter up a week at least.
Also there will be a cover image posted on sometime soon, possibly tonight (26/03/05) on my dev-page ( www.luciferous. )
hope you all will look forward to future chapters and art, please Review... Thanks in advance
Shane