Chapter 4
The cool, night sky hovered over the ruined Hyrule Town Square, inhabited by the temporarily docile Zoran Army. A small gap of the Hyrule courtyards separated the Castle and their invader's camp. Scattered through the flooded ruins, large tents housing many Zoras were constructed, one in particular which rose above the rest. This was Overlord Zoraco's den. On the ground floor within the tent were ten, armor-clad guards that were stationed just inside the doorway and all paths leading up the staircases to the upper floors. On the sides of the inside of the tent, the stairs spiraled upwards, leading up into a broad circular platform that stretched the width of the tent. Zoraco's living quarters and conference room were kept here.
"Ahh...a long day's work...and it is still yet unfinished...Traela, would you please go down and retrieve Mister Swiftback for me? He should be being kept in the Calvary Quarters." asked Zoraco, without even setting eyes on the ambassador.
"Of course..." replied Traela, The ambassador swiftly glided down the staircase and seemingly floated through the waters that engulfed the town square. Zoran guards dotted the campsite, either sleeping or talking amongst themselves. Soon Traela made it into the Cavalry Quarters that was built over the inn and was welcomed by the stench of horse waste which was being picked up by the Zora's that tended the horses.
"Dranor Swiftback...where is he." asked Traela to one of the cavalrymen.
"Heh...he is in the back in the stables, we made him sweep up some horse dung. Pathetic Hylian...I don't know why the Overlord even..." the guard's voice trailed off as Traela stared him down. He was caught withing her glare frozen with fear as her eyes turned a deep black, with a hint of crimson glinting in the pale candlelight that swallowed the room. Traela broke the glare and the guard dropped down on his knees in fear as she glided towards the back of the tent where the stables were held.
Huddled up in the corner, clutching a dung-saturated broom in fear, an elderly man looked up in anxiety towards the ambassador's beautiful face. "Dranor..." spoke Traela.
"Y-yes...I am. Wh-what do you want with me? J-just leave me be." stuttered Dranor.
"You are needed. Come with me." replied Traela solemnly. She glided up to him and with a desperate attempt at protection, Dranor smacked Traela's knees with the broom. The end of the wooden broom passed through Traela's legs and smacked against the wall of the stables.
"H-how in the world...it didn't hit you..." said Dranor in complete shock. Without word, Traela shot her arm out and grabbed the broom that was aimed for her. Lifting it into the air, Traela gripped the broom and it slowly started to burn until it incinerated completely in the palm of her hand. She then grabbed the stunned apothecary and made her way back to the Overlord's tent. On her way out, the guard was still on his knees. Sweating terribly, the Zora started to whimper until he fell to the ground and started to spasm in and out of seizures. The guard was writhing on the floor, screaming until his pulse finally ceased.
"W-what happened to him?" asked Dranor nervously. The ambassador refused to answer him and continued to glide out of the Calvary Tent, leaving behind a corpse and many stunned Zoras.
Eventually, Traela made it to the top floor of Overlord Zoraco's tent and sat Dranor down in a chair in the middle of the elegantly furnished room. Though it was just a campsite, the Zora prided themselves with living in lavish abodes. In Zoraco's dwelling, the walls of the tent were made of pure silk held up by jewel-studded, turquoise pillars lining the inner walls. The furniture consisted of surprisingly strong silken hammocks that were tied onto the walls and stretched the length of the sides of the circular room. Various sorts of knick-knacks were placed in random places around the room for decoration.
"Thank you very much Traela. You are dismissed." said Zoraco. Traela swept out of the room glancing harshly at Dranor and Zoraco as they both sat across from each other.
"So...Dranor, how are you feeling? I know today has been quite shocking for you. Rest assured that we will take excellent care of you. You are, of course, the one who is going to help me in an attempt at saving my people so I don't see any reason why we should kill you."
Dranor sat in silence, staring at Zoraco through the his long, ruffled gray hair that covered his wrinkly face.
"Well now...I was originally going to have you meet me in Ferathur Palace, a very extravagant castle, but since your queen so foolishly decided to be against us Zora, I have decided to come to you instead."
Silence still proceeded to be the only thing that Dranor could give in reply.
"Er...I understand that you are an apothecary, no?" Again, Dranor replied with a blank stare.
"When I talk to you, you answer back! Do not test my patience old man...I am your keeper and you do as I say. I could easily smite you with the palm of my hand as we speak! I expect you to respect me by acknowledging that I am speaking to you!"
Dranor continued to stare back at Zoraco, now with a faint smile starting to curl upon his face.
"How dare you...how dare you mock me by merely smiling at my yelling at you! I deserve to be respected!"
In his fury of aggravation towards Dranor's blatant disrespect, Zoraco stood up and walked around his desk towards the old man, still yelling at him. "The reason I have called you here is because you are going to give me some help, in finding out what is spreading this foul disease within my ocean!"
Settling down in relief as he released the reason he need Dranor, the Overlord sat down back into his seat and stared at his prisoner with expecting eyes.
"I would not help you even if your entire race would perish...the foul Zora will not receive any aid from Hyrule or any of its people...including me!' Dranor began to rise out of his seat as he recited his sentence, glaring at Zoraco in distaste.
Just as Dranor stood up, Traela walked in in a furious pace; her face slight with anger. "Ambassador, we are in the middle of something, come back another time!" said Zoraco, irritated at Traela's rude entry. Traela stared icily at Zoraco's remark, causing him to shudder and sink down into his seat. The ambassador strode up to Dranor's seat and lifted him up by the neck, letting his legs writhe beneath him. Coughing miserably and pounding futilely at the delicate yet forceful wrist that imprisoned him, his face started to turn beet red.
"Tr...Traela, what the he! Do you think you are doing! Let go of him this instant! GUARDS!" Pounding up the staircase, Zoran guards, wielding their ominous tridents, surrounded the ambassador.
Traela moved her head next to Dranor's ear saying, "I suppose I should finish this swiftly, then, hm?" With those last words, Traela's eyes glinted a dark red once again and after lifting her free arm up, the fin that spread outwards from her left sliced through the neck of Dranor Swiftback, pouring blood down her blade-like appendage. The corpse of the old man dropped limply onto the ground, blood slowly encircling him as the guards and Zoraco gazed in silence.
"I am truly sorry, but I must be leaving. I do hope you all have a nice...rest of the night..." said Traela, her voice bathed in sarcasm. Before all of their eyes, Traela faded away with a menacing smile upon her face and her eyes shining blood-red.
Hyrulian soldiers rushed towards the castle, nudging the two Zoras and Lady Prakle out of the way in haste. The once tranquil atmosphere that filled the courtyards was replaced with one of chaos and fear underneath the lightless night sky.
"We should seek shelter inside the castle in case the Zora strike once more." said Lady Prakle. No guards were on duty and even noticed the threesome jog in. Within the great sanctuary, an extremely long hall led up like a hill towards a circular room that was the throne room. On either sides of the hall were many other hallways leading to various rooms such as the armory, the library, dungeons, and countless more antechambers. The group made their way up the hill-like hallway toward the throne room, still chaotic with guards not noticing their presence.
"Ah, I almost forgot, you two need to be disguised. If they see two Zora in here, I don't know what will become of you..." Lady Prakle stood on her toes but could not reach the Zora's foreheads. "Er...move kneel down please..." The two Zoras knelt down and Lara placed her hand on their heads, and started to chant inaudibly. From the tops of their heads down to the floor, a cylinder of seemingly pure gold rushed down their bodies and evaporated into the air as soon as it had came.
"Excuse me...but what happened? I feel no different..." asked Caelin, almost in a smug tone.
"Of course you don't feel any different children, when you look at yourselves, you look the same, but when anyone else, including me, looks at you, you look just like brave, just Hyrulian guards!"
"Hey! No one else is allowed in the castle! Old woman, go out behind the castle. That's where all the surviving townsfolk are staying." A guard rushed passed them, finally attentive to them being there.
"You two, go up to Queen Zelda and sta there. You might be able to find out what to do from here...she might explain why she didn't accept the offer to the ambassador or if there was even a meeting!" Lady Prakle shuffled off back through the Castle Doors and turned left to find where the guard was talking about.
"Well...let's go then. Do you think we will be noticed?" asked Saeli.
"I really don't think so. We are in guard uniforms...er...at least I think we are." Caelin looked down at himself and only saw his regular Zora skin, but when he looked at Saeli, she was clad in the traditional Hyrulian armor. A bright gold breastplate laden with the markings of Hyrule corresponded to the helmet, which was the same color and had the Hyrulian markings. A crimson plume protruded from the helmet and lay limp, hanging a down a bit. The arms were clothed in silver chain mail and sturdy, steel bracers on the wrist with chain gloves. The legs had black, leather-fortified stockings upon them which led down to the chain boots. A radiant golden diamond studded both of the boots that were elongated up almost to the knee.
"I suppose you are right...like always. Let's go." Saeli and Caelin made their way towards the throne room. Within the throne room were many scholars and guards rushing around busily, trying to get weapons, send messages, and round up as much resistance as they could to make up for the absence of most of their army. This made for a clamorous noise due to their feet smacking against the pure white, tiled floor. In fact, most everything in the castle was white, except for the throne section of the room, which was pure gold from the throne, down to the silken carpet. The support beams for the ceilings were studded with glamorous diamonds and the walls were just white, unmarred by jewels or markings.
"Ah, good. You two must follow me. I need you two to come with me right away! You must report to Captain Banes with news from the Grand Council which will be held very shortly." A scholar clothed in silver and white garments walked speedily down into a room towards the back of the throne room. Caelin and Saeli had to run to keep up with him. The room that he had entered was actually another grand hall. A long, glass table lay before them as they slowly walked in. Seated at the table were numerous people, all looking very prominent. Many humans with long, white robes were sitting in a group towards the back of the table, surrounding the queen who was giving out orders to passing guards. In the front of the table nearest to the door, however, sat people of which the two Zoras had never seen.
A large, beige beast sat, taking up two chairs, with a strangely jolly expression on his face. He was definitely not human, but his face did resemble, somewhat, that of a man's. His back seemed to be made of some sort of a rough rock and the rest of his body was extremely muscular. Upon his head seemed to be a little hair, though no one noticed it as it was only on the tip and hardly came down.
Across from this strange creature sat a peculiarly small person. Her hair was green and she wore a dark, jade tunic. Her expression was that off pure joy; it was as though her mouth was completely incapable of frowning. Though her seat was brought higher by a couple of large books, her head only barely rose from the top of the table.
Yet another person was sitting diagonal from this miniature woman. This was also a lady. Her skin was a deep tan and her hair a bright red, tied up in a ponytail that hung down just past her neck. The clothes that she wore were not at all fitting for the council: a pure white satin bikini top and white pants that seemed to puff out from the waist down to her light brown, pointed shoes.
A final person sat across from her that the two Zoras knew all too well. This was the only one who seemed to take notice of them. Her onyx black eyes seemed to pierce through their disguises and a menacing smirk appeared on her face. Caelin and Saeli sat down as furthest away from them as possible, but then they were called up to stand next to the queen. The woman stared at them while waiting for the council to start.
At last, the noise had ceased as a few guards closed the doors to the rooms and everyone had stopped chatting. "Ah, thank you all very much for coming here tonight. As you all know, the Zora are camped outside our castle and I was hoping to see if anyone would like to contribute to our effort to drive them off. We cannot do it alone. Hopefully, it will never have to come to us battling them, however, because as all of you probably have noticed we have a Zora right here with us."
The woman's gaze at Caelin and Saeli averted to the queen as though Zelda was talking to her.
"Ambassador Traela, please...tell us what is going on? What has happened that has made your people so fierce with anger toward us?"
Traela's smirk melted down into an extremely fake frown of depression as she abandoned her solemn personality and began to tell of a story dripping in lies.