Yeah, so I'll just leave everybody alone today…enjoy. It was a long time in the coming, and I'm afraid it could be better, but this is what you get due to reviewer guilt at about one in the morning.

Chapter 29

The Twisting Threads

For the second time in less than two days, Tyr was leaning against the lip of the fountain, staring at herself in the quietly rippling water. She could hear the voices around her, shouting in surprise and sometimes pain, as the normal rules of their simplistic world were suddenly twisted and broken. The building was crumbling around them, and for a moment, Tyr felt as though she was carrying some of the weight she had seen all too often in Link's now-dead eyes.

She shuddered involuntarily. Though she had seen some sort of burden in the ebony eyes of the creature that walked in the late Hero's skin, it was not the same mortal burden of others. Tyr laughed quietly to herself, trailing pale fingers in the cool water. Who was inhuman or rich or innocent enough to not carry a burden these days? Just as this thought scattered over her mind, one of those select few tugged shyly on her hair.

She smiled down at the owl Maglar child, who blinked huge, luminous eyes up at her. Somehow, she had never quite gotten over her love for children, which had developed during her years in the crèche, watching over them while they loved her without condition.

She was lying to you…she cursed both of you.

For some reason, Nayru's soft, deadly voice echoed in her brain. Her breath caught for an instant, but she forced out a small grin and ruffled the boy's hair. Tyr knew that, when all else failed, at least children would still love. Somewhat comforted, she opened her mouth to speak - but the boy beat her to it.

"What are you doing here?"

Tyr was momentarily silenced and permanently taken aback at the serene calm and subtle hint of wisdom echoing in this deceivingly young-looking child. Perhaps the centuries begun to weigh too heavily, even upon the shoulders of children...

"Do not be afraid. You were meant for this. But before you go gallivanting off into the real world again, I thought it'd be best for you to know-"

"Wait a moment. What are you saying? You're just a child."

His voice was, unexpectedly, laced with regret. "This body of mine is more than two hundred years old, and this soul was there from the beginning."

Tyr opened her mouth to speak, but again the boy cut her off. "Child, others may say you are merely another link in a chain that has been added to since the beginning of time. However, I believe that you will not just be any link - you will be the final link, you three who were Chosen."

The boy leaned closer and blinked, his small hands gripping the material of her dress, giving every appearance of being a small child. His eyes told her a different story.

"Listen, and listen carefully. I am not who I seem. You would do well to learn to trust your heart, and not your eyes." The child beckoned her to lean closer, and whispered in her ear, "We will not meet again. But you must know the way of things. There are always three. No more, no less. But that was before, and, if all goes well, then you will be the last. We have been planning this for centuries, and you must not destroy our efforts. Do you understand?"

Tyr whispered back, "I'm not sure I want to, little one."

"Tyr?"

She turned to Eval, and her face immediately darkened. "What do you want, unicorn?"

Eval smiled weakly under the scrutiny. "We should leave now, if we are going to leave at all."

A small voice beside her, so soft she almost thought it was in her head, whispered, "Don't. Leave the forest. Quickly."

For some strange reason, Tyr decided to trust the little squirt. After all, he did seem reasonably…sane…and she had no intentions whatsoever of going back to that place.

"No way. You can go by yourself. I'm leaving, and this little kid – "

She turned to look at said kid, only to find air and a single, tiny brown feather left on the floor. She hid a smile and turned back to Eval, who was looking at her strangely. She said, "Well, let's just say a little bird told me not to. I'm leaving the forest, Eval, and I'm leaving now. So I'll see you around."

"You can't leave."

Tyr got onto her feet, tugging absently at her dress. "Excuse me?"

Eval looked slightly uncomfortable. "You'll die if you leave. The moment you step outside that forest, you're transformation will speed up, so quickly that your body will change too fast for you to survive. You'll be literally ripped apart."

She could smell the desperate lie on his breath.

"I don't care. I have to get out of here."

She turned to march straight out of the Hall and into the forest, but an outstretched hand and a sigh from Eval stopped her. "Wait. Just a moment. I can't let you go alone. Let me call the others, see who will go with you. This threat will eventually affect all of us, and we know this." He sighed heavily. "For too long, we have been afraid to leave these Woods. But...maybe, if luck is with us, the tales told about the barriers surrounding this place are not true, even if only for now, because of this strange shift of the world." He grinned spontaneously. "Besides, I have a feeling that a certain someone will not allow you to go anywhere by yourself, no matter the consequences to himself."

Tyr growled softly, but sank back onto the lip of the fountain, content to wait, at least for the moment. She quietly tucked the feather behind her ear, and put her hands in the soothingly cool water.

By the time the Maglar arrived, the water was beginning to steam.

Oo

"Zelda."

She was, in that moment, suspended in stifling air, a warm fuzziness that someone swelled her hands and filled her lungs and made her think of herself as a bloodless doll, crushed in the arms of a sleeping child. She was a wingless angel, swimming through darkness, trying to surface into the light. She could barely remember how to breathe. The sharp, cold clearness was gone, replaced by the constant warm fuzz she had never quite noticed before.

A heartbeat later, and the world fell around her.

The effects of the imbalance between dimensions were being felt throughout the world, and the places where ancient and powerful forces resided were among the first to tremble with fear.

Someone had cheated death, and now the world was going to be made to pay.

She vaguely realized in the back of her mind that a light tenor voice that she had captured inside her heart from the beginning had shouted at her, and hands had roughly shoved her with inhuman strength up the stairs, out of the way of the falling rubble. She drunkenly stumbled out of the stairway, and sat down hard on the ground.

Oh, she thought to herself, that monster is trapped in there. But it's not really a monster, is it? I'm really not sure...

She jumped and screamed when a searching hand emerged from the rubble, half-glowing in the darkness around her. But it was not dark any longer...she gazed at the sky and saw the flying coals of molten rock flying out of Death Mountain. The rivers of fire beneath the earth had been awakened.

She shuddered in fear as lightning spiked through the sky. Just as suddenly, a vision spiked through her mind.

Zelda fell onto her back, her mind lost to the Mists of Time, as the monster slowly struggled out of the fallen rock.

Oo

A field. Fire. Burning...dying fire...a dying sun. The sun setting on this time and rising on a new age of organized violence on a widespread scale the world had never imagined.

Gone was the quiet, slow existence of peoples before. The ability to live as one pleased, to do whatever one pleased without having to pay for one's own existence. Vanished like smoke in the wind.

Nobody was free any longer.

Instead, they were all slaves, many individuals gathering together on a barren plain to clash in the so-called 'art' of war.

Countless individuals. Monsters everywhere. People struggling for air, struggling to breathe against the loud crashes of steel on steel and the cries of the dead.

And in the middle of it all, men found their destinies. Some left this world; some stayed, much to the pity of others. And some even overcame themselves and realized who they truly were.

And one...

One was left alone. Completely, utterly alone.

Zelda shook as a pair of eyes burned into her, through her...

Oo

The blood-curdling scream that curled hair and curdled butter miles away rang through the small house suddenly, just as the first rays of light were beginning to break over the horizon.

Kawhin and Navi raced to Zelda's room, where they found her gasping for air, gripping her sheets with white knuckles. She was making an attempt to control her breathing, hoping that the shaking would stop as soon as she got normal amounts of air in her system. Kawhin approached her cautiously, patting her softly on the cheek, as if trying to wake her from a deep sleep. She did seem as though she was somewhere else; her eyes were glazed over with distances beyond the papered walls of the cramped room.

Zelda eventually managed to calm down, and Kawhin sat down on the bed, Navi perched on top of his head, hanging on by a few pure white strands.

Kawhin cleared his throat, making an attempt at speech. "Zelda...what...wrong? Okay?"

She breathed deeply, then opened and shut her eyes several time, as if not believing what she was seeing. "Well, I'm not...entirely sure. What happened?"

Navi dodged into Zelda's face. "You slept sound all night, and then you just woke up screaming like something really ugly was about to eat you! Did you have a nightmare or something?"

Zelda slowly shook her head, trying to salvage what few memories she had retained from her encounter. "I could've sworn...there was...an angel..."

"Yep, must've been a dream of some sort. C'mon, Grissilda makes a mean waffle."

"But..."

"Zelda. Eat. Good...for you."

"Kawhin's right. C'mon, you need to get some food in you. The morning's almost over already."

Zelda looked directly at Navi, her thoughts returning to their violent outbursts the previous evening. "Navi, I must apologize. I...last night. I said some things I shouldn't have, and...I'm sorry."

"Yeah, me too. I just tend to get a little touchy about...certain subjects."

Zelda smiled at her, but some of the cold tension remained, unable to dissipate in the warm morning air.

"All right, let's eat. I'm feeling really hungry today."

"'Bout...time. Eat! Food!"

"I have a feeling those are going to be two of his favorite words, eh, Princess?"

"Maybe we should tie him up, so we at least get a chance at eating something..."

Oo

When Urian landed roughly on all fours, with knees bent and wings outspread, none of the creatures under its command noticed. They were too engrossed in a scuffle to pay it any mind, betting and jeering at the fighters, shouting loud comments that made even Urian wince. It strode through, throwing aside Waeul and Borun as it went, until it reached the outside ring. There, it saw a sight that almost managed to surprise it.

A woman and a Borun were locked in battle, wrestling on the ground. The woman was screaming, and the Borun was snarling at her, nose wrinkled and ears pulled back. Only after a moment did Urian realize that the woman was actually screaming words.

"You stupid, dumb, smelly excuse for a mutt! Come on, fight me! You have the strength of a week-old kitten!"

It took a second later for it to click in Urian's brain that the woman was Inriar. And she was fighting like a lunatic.

A lunatic that was losing.

It strode forward angrily, shoving the Borun off of Inriar and killing it with one swipe of its giant wing. It scooped up the Lieutenant, glaring at her, and barked out orders to the rabble to start moving, knowing it and Inriar could easily catch up.

Urian stalked into its tent, still not taken down, and threw the Lieutenant on the ground, and began pacing back and forth, barely able to contain its simmering anger.

"What the hell were you thinking? Did you want to die? You know better than to pick a fight with a Borun!"

She glared moodily into a corner. Urian grabbed her face and stared right at her, teeth bared.

"Listen to me, Inriar! I don't care what your motives are, you will never attempt to take on one of the horde again! We need you as a leader, not as a corpse."
She sighed, and nodded silently. Urian backed off, sitting down on a crate in the opposite corner.

"What were you thinking, anyway? Explain it to me. I don't understand."

The deadness in her eyes as she refused to look at its face answered its question. It immediately quieted.

"Oh. I see. You miss...being a Borun? A dead thing? A sad imitation of life?"

Her eyes flew wide open, and she exploded on him. "What? No, you idiot! I miss the strength! I miss the emotionless memories! But most of all, I miss..."

"What?"

"The anonymity. If we ever...ran into someone...they wouldn't know me. They wouldn't hate me on sight..."

"Oh."

She glared at him. "Shut up, you."

It raised an eyebrow. "You know, I would kill anyone else that said that to my face."

"So why don't you just kill me and get it over with?"

It cocked its head, pondering. A moment later, it snapped its fingers.

"Aha. I've got it. Because you're my Lieutenant. Get it?"

It stomped angrily out of the tent as fast as it could without seeming hasty, before she could ask any more questions that made it examine itself. There were some places it could not yet bear to look.

It walked out into the heat, shouting back at her, "Get out of that tent! I'm taking it down. Move!"

She crabbily stood outside, watching and hanging back as it packed up the tent and its meager belongings, setting fire to what it did not need. It tied its baggage onto the crimson horse and set her on, ignoring her silent protest. It lightly hit the horse's flank, causing the mare to gallop towards the ever-sinking sun, after the swiftly disappearing mass of black in the sky.

Urian itself erupted off of the ground and high into the air, spreading its wings and trying to get high enough to forget everything that was important to it.

All that mattered was ridding itself of every reminder of its inhumanity.

In bittersweet sorrow, it imagined itself as an angel, flying above and beyond immortality and death.

Oo

"Would you STOP following me?"

"Well, where else am I supposed to walk? We're both going the same way, right?"

"Yes, but you're practically walking on my heels."

"Hey, you need someone to guide you out of the forest."

"Well, I won't have someone for much longer. You're probably going to die as soon as we hit the tree line."

"If I do, will you at least kiss me first?"

"NO!"

"Hey, just asking..."

Tyr cracked her knuckles, hoping to silence the voice directly behind her, so close behind, in fact, that she could feel the heat radiating off of his body. Far too close for comfort in her books, but...she hated to admit it to herself, but she seemed to enjoy making an exception in Ayran's case, on some deep inner level.

Damn his arrogance, and his self-assured smile that only came out after he was sure she wouldn't attack him for it! This entire situation was his fault. The wish that suddenly lurked at the back of her mind, the small voice that wondered what it would be like to touch his face without punching him in the process...

She shoved her anger back, ready to take it out later, when they made it through the barrier alive. Alive, she thought, that's the important part. And of course we'll make it alive!

Most of the Maglar had come with them, all except the very, very old Maglar who had no desire to leave the only home they had known for years, crumbling as it was. The others saw no reason in staying in a place that was falling apart beneath their feet, so they jumped at the chance of an escape of any kind. Even Eval and Furona had agreed to come, though the sadness in Eval's eyes when he looked at her was almost more than she could stand. It wasn't her fault that he had failed himself, and yet she always felt as though she was the only one who could make him smile again...

...and Ayran was breathing on her neck again, snapping her out of her inner thoughts. She held her tongue against an angry protest, seeing the edge of the forest just in front of them. Ayran grabbed her arm, slowing their pace. She tugged against his grip, but he refused to let go, whispering conspiratorially in her ear.

"Slow down for a minute. Let's make sure everyone else is caught up before we try to cross the barrier."

A moment of silence. Tyr almost breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, that offer for a kiss-before-certain-doom still stands. Any takers?"

"Get lost."

"You wound me, Tyr."

She rolled her eyes, then reluctantly pried his hand off of her arm, dropping a kiss onto his palm. "There. Happy?"

He smiled, a small spurt of joy rising in his chest. He released her and moved towards the barrier. "For now. But you can make me happier once we both leave this forest."

"Fat chance."

"Hey, it was worth asking. All right, here goes nothing."

For just a short moment, Tyr and Ayran locked gazes in the darkened forest, genuine fear shining in both their eyes. Fear of what lay beyond that last line of trees, fear of never returning...and most of all, fear of what might never be.

Ayran nodded silently, then turned and walked between two trees, finally escaping the darkness he had been imprisoned in for most of his long and lonely life.

Tyr waited a moment, hoping for some sign. When nothing came from beyond the tree line, she took in a deep, shuddering breath and ran, shielding her face from the long whipping branches.

And then the whole world faded into light.

Oo

Shiro had sent out runners overnight, and by afternoon Kakariko Village was swarming with not only willing soldiers, but also refugees, hoping that somehow Kakariko could be a safe haven from the earth-shaking storms and the shifting of the earth as well as from the violence and death that had long been haunting small villages the world over. Kawhin stared in wonder at the teeming masses, but Zelda's spine was prickling. The sight was eerily reminiscent of the vision that had left her with a sharp pain in the back of her skull all day. Navi had hidden in Zelda's hair, not wanting to be picked out by any superstitious people who happened to walk past.

I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one place in my entire life!

"You may want to speak, Kawhin, you never know who may be listening." Zelda cautiously glanced around where they sat on an old wooden crate that had been on display in front of Shiro's house for who-knew-how-long.

"Yes. How...many?"

"At least seven hundred. Maybe even a thousand, if we're lucky."

"Hmm. Enough?"

"I'm not sure. The runner who saw the horde didn't go close enough to estimate their numbers."

"You sure...horde evil?"

"Kawhin, just look at these people. Smell the wind, listen to the sound of fire burning. See the tenseness in their faces and their hands. They all know it, consciously or not. There is something stirring that has not stirred for a long time, and it will not rest again for many years, I'm afraid."

"I hope...you wrong."

"I too, Kawhin. I hope..."

"Line up! March out!"

Both heads turned in the direction of Shiro, who had taken impromptu command and organized the multinational villagers. Zelda and Sheik stood up, moving to the back of the large group as they started to exit down the staircase and onto the seemingly endless field that lay beyond.

"Whoa, there!" The leader of another village looked at Kawhin and Zelda, and pointed back towards the houses. "I don't think so. We don't bring any women or children."

Zelda could feel Kawhin's anger, and it only added to her own sudden onset of self-righteousness. She opened her mouth to defend both of them, but Shiro stepped in for them.

"Now hang on there, Lurn. These two are special. They're coming with us."

He shot them a huge wink, and walked the other village leader back to the small group of other leaders, where all of them immediately fell into discussion as they walked out in the middle of the large group of volunteers.

Zelda and Kawhin clustered closer together, afraid of losing each other in the mass of people, and took another step towards what they each privately felt was a pointless effort.

Oo

Well, I suppose that's about it, guys. I've been really, really busy over the past couple of months - Physics is not my best friend. Besides that, I've been completely uninspired. Hopefully the worst of the writer's block is over now...and about the weird formatting stuff I couldn't fix, like the sudden absence of the stars…well, what about it? I'm afraid of technology, okay?

Anyway, I must thank the anonymous reader (Fader, was it?) who helped me get my rear in gear. Today is July 20th. It's 3:15 AM, and I'm not really tired. Maybe I'll work on the next chapter...

Also to Wolf, for always, always, ALWAYS having something positive to say.

Zelda the 7th Sage, who is WAY in over her head…why she ever started reading this monster is beyond me…

To ??? who usually always shows up and more often than not has a good pitch to throw in…

L'tariel, who SOMEHOW read the whole thing…to Sheik for the same feat - you guys should get medals. Whoa.

Also to all the other reviewers along the way…you provide motivation, and that's a good thing!

Many thanks to H7, because even though she doesn't know it, she inspired me to get back into a 'Zelda' frame of mind again. That Act I: Trial of a Man story is just awesome, and I haven't even worked through the tip of the iceberg.

Heh. I just tried to spell iceberg wrong.

Anyway, hopefully we can continue on towards the end without much further tragedy, folks. I've just got some things to take care of in my personal life, along with a bit more vacation to enjoy.

Also, please forgive any nonsense sentences or bad grammar in this chapter, considering the brain isn't meant to function properly this early.

I have to wake up in about five hours...ugh.

-Shawshank

(Yeah, that's right. I'm back. Dead? Just about, but not quite.)