Disclaimer:
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.
If I did, I'd be having this story
published with awesome illustrations
and the like, because I'd be FILTHY
STINKING RICH! Yeeeaaahh!!!!!!!!!!
Author's Note:
Uh oh. Poor Link is in trouble now. Everything
was going so well for the young Hylian untill now,
too. And what was the deal with those shadow things?
Link has horrible luck, doesn't he?
Anyway.
It'll probably be a while till I finish. That's
the downside to this story I suppose, but at
3,000 words per chapter, atleast I have an excuse.
I guess.
...
It woulda been done faster, but for some reason,
Notepad is a piece of crap. I save, and I save,
time and time again as I write, and somehow, just
like a PSOne memory card, parts of it just vanish.
Stupid thing ...
And, uh, this chapter may become slightly confusing,
for the POV will switch from character to character
quite often. Thanks to all reviewers for your support,
this story has been fun to write and reading your
reviews makes me feel good =3 and Jared, thanks for
writing, helped get me back to writing this chapter.
And don't worry, they won't stay in the Domain forever.
Or will they...
Mwah hah hah hah hah!
=][)Serenade of Water(][=
(Now with Indented Paragraphs!)
Chapter Three
=Partners in Crime=
Link groaned as he was thrown into the slimy cavernous
jail cell, iron bars slamming shut at the only visible
way out to keep him from escaping. He'd been beaten up
pretty bad on the way to the cell, but the main thing that
was ailing him was his shoulder, most likely from getting
hit there once or twice.
A Zoran guard sat nearby to ensure no one tried anything
funny, though at the moment Link was paralyzed in pain and
no one else was around to try anything.
'A fine mess you've gotten yourself into.' the voice in
his head chuckled darkly, almost as clear as if it were
standing right in front of him now.
"I knew it was.. a bad idea.." Link muttered, too silent
for the guard to hear. The voice laughed more at this.
'Then why did you not stop her?'
"Because..."
'You loved every minute of it. The feel of being
sinister, of kidnapping the young princess, even if it
wasn't against her will.'
"I did it to help her..." protested Link as he began
to, slowly but surely, recover from his beating.
'Yes, but that isn't the whole story, is it?'
"Leave me.. alone..."
'Better be careful, boy.'
"Go.. away..."
'Leave your heart too open to darkness, and you'll
become consumed with it.'
"Go away!"
The guard looked at Link odd as he said that.
"Kid, I have orders. Even if I didn't, we don't take
kindly to criminals." the zora guard said. "I ain't
goin' away."
Link coughed and sat up, leaning against the wall, clutching
his shoulder. A sharp pain still haunted his shoulder,
but the icey feeling that once accompanied it now extended
from it, going down his arm a little bit and around his
chest. Link stretched the collar of his tunic to peek at
his shoulder, then gasped and quickly closed it back. Everywhere
he felt that coldness, his skin was covered in shadow as
if the wound was pouring black blood.
He reached in his tunic pockets, fishing around to find
the medicine he'd been given. It was then he realized, much to
his misfortune, everything he owned had been confinscated.
"Great." he sighed to himself, before looking around the cell.
He had to get out of here somehow...
Garland walked into the throne room to speak with the King once
again. The prince knelt down, as usual, then looked up at him.
The king stirred from his sleep and looked down at the Gerudo.
"Garland? What are you doing here at this hour?"
"My liege, a most horrible thing has happened tonight. I knew the
hylian could not be trusted."
"What are you talking about?" the King said, a bit groggily. The
Gerudo prince looked as if a terrible tragedy had just taken place.
"The Hylian delinquent attempted to kidnap the princess." Garland
explained. THis definately seemed to have woken the king up.
"WHAT!? Ruto has been kidnapped!?"
"No, no, my king, ATTEMPTED. We apprehended the scum, and the
Princess is back in Zora's Domain, unharmed." explained the Prince.
The King breathed a large sigh of relief at these words. "Just so
long as my daughter is safe ... Now please, let this old man get
some rest."
"As you wish, your highness." Garland said, bowing before turning to
take his leave.
As the night drew on, the guard sent to keep an eye on the Hylian
prisoner sat down in his chair and pulled out a magazine. He peeked
over the edge of the pages as if to ensure to himself that Link was
still in his cell.
At the moment, the 'kidnapper' was lying on his back in the small
makeshift prison bed and staring at the ceiling. As the guard turned
his attention back to his magazine, he heard a soft tune being hummed
from the cell, which grew louder quite fast.
The guard continued reading his magazine, trying to ignore the humming
and turning the page every minute or so. He succeeded in tuning it out...
for about ten minutes. "Will you quit it!?" the guard yelled.
"Quit what?" Link asked in a monotone voice.
"Quit that obnoxious humming!"
"I thought that was you humming..." Link said, turning to look at the
soldier, who looked very ticked off at the moment.
"Why would I be humming? It drives me insane!" he said, picking up a
mug from nearby and taking a gulp of the coffee in it. Link blinked,
trying to figure out where the humming had come from.
"What is that song, anyway?" the guard asked as he began looking at
his magazine again.
'Nocturne of Shadows, a personal favorite of mine.'
"Nocturne of Shadows." Link replied, as realization hit him. Somehow -
he couldn't explain how - but somehow, the source of that voice in his
head was humming, and someone other than he himself could hear it. Or
perhaps he was humming it, and merely going crazy.
"Well quit humming and get some sleep." the guard said. "The King ain't
decided what to do with you yet, you'd probably be dead now if you weren't
a friend of the princess you kidnapped."
Link stared at the ceiling once more as the guard rambled on. Nothing
ever seemed to go quite right for him, but he planned to make things
right this time. If only he could think of some way to escape this cell..
The Zoran guard took another big sip of coffee as he pondered how to
get out.
The zora guard stood up suddenly, setting his magazine down. "You..
stay put for a minute." he said, before running off. Ah, good old cause
and effect. You drink too much coffee, you have to pee. Link grinned as
he suddenly thought of how to get out of this predicament...
Ruto lie in her bed in her room, and for the first time in her life,
she began to cry. "Everything's been all wrong since that... that stupid
Gerudo prince showed up.." she sniffed, trying to get her composure back,
to little avail. "They think they can control me like some sort of puppet..
I'll show them." Ruto said as she got out of bed, walking towards a small
chest near the middle of her little island room. She opened it up and began
gathering various materials, putting them in a seaweed-woven blue bag to
prepare for the following morning.
The guard walked back into the prison with a sigh. "Man, that was some
messed up coffee." he said, sitting down in his chair and pulling his
magazine back up. "Worried for a while there you'd get out, but what was
I thinking? Only way you'd get out is if someone let you out."
He continued reading his magazine, not even paying attention to the
jail cell at the moment. "I heard rumor that the princess was quite
fond of you. Don't make any sense why you kidnapped her." the soldier
commented, turning the last page of his magazine. "Why'd you do it,
anyway?"
The guard paused a moment to finish reading, then put the magazine
down. "Your being awful quiet. Don't tell me you fell asleep on me."
he said, looking at the cell. Then he gasped. "What the..." he muttered
as he jumped out of his chair and rushed over to the iron bars. The
bed was there. Nothing was out of place. But one thing was missing from
the prison cell. Link.
The guard opened up the prison door and walked in, looking around.
"Oh, no, this is NOT good..." he said, beginning to panic. "I-I could
lose my job for this, or worse..!" The guard walked over to the bed and
crouched down to look under it, then heard two footsteps hit the rock
floor behind him hard. Before he could turn around, something hit him
in the side of the neck, hard, knocking him out.
Link crouched down and grabbed the guard's keys, then gently shut
the cell door, walking over to a big chest next to the guard's chair
and using one of the keys to open it. He began to grab all of his
things, putting them where they once were, then slipped on the slightly
oversized hover boots and silently crept out of the prison.
As he reached the exit of the small prison cavern, he slowly peeked
around to make sure no one was looking. He was looking out into the main
room of the Domain once more - it seemed that almost everything connected
to this room.
After assuring himself no one was watching, Link slid down the side of
the main room's walls. And as he hit the bottom, of coarse, he heard
footsteps drawing near. "Just my luck.." he thought to himself, looking
around quickly before ducking into a small tunnel nearby. Two Zoran
guards walked past without even noticing him; they seemed to be talking about
something important.
Once the soldiers were out of sight, he crawled out of the tunnel and
began down the main path once more. "Ok, I'll wait outside untill morning,
come back once Ruto's awake, and help her escape again." he said as he
began to move a little faster.
'Not very smart.' the voice in his head said. 'Take her now, while
everyone else is asleep.'
"Ruto wakes up before anyone else in the Domain, don't worry so much." Link
said, passing the halfway point of the pathway.
'Boy, you're being an idiot. Go on, keep going. The dumber you are,
the faster I'll be rid of you.' the voice laughed. Link seemed confused
by these words, but his confusion didn't last long as he reached the
waterfall. The voice continud laughing in his mind as he took a few steps
back.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.' the voice chuckled.
"Shut up... the Domain will be most heavily guarded tonight, so this
is the easiest choice."
'Suit yourself. Idiot.'
Link took off running and leapt into the air, passing through the
falls. At this time, everything seemed to slow down. The roaring of the
falls filled his ears, heavy water pummeling him yet not phasing him a
bit. Nothing but white filled his eyes for a moment, before he emerged on
the other side, the voice in his head cackling madly the entire time. Link
looked down to prepare to land on the strip of land he always has. But,
to his horror, someone was already there.
Link yelled as he looked upon the cruel grinning face of Garland. He
continued falling towards the man, untill he felt a rock-hard grip take
hold of his neck and suspend him in the air.
"You pitiful child." Garland laughed as he held Link up by his neck
with one hand. "You realize the King was going to let you go in the
morning as a favor to his young daughter. Pity you had to try and
escape... and injuring the poor guard... After all this, you can
forget living to see another night."
Link gasped for air, trying to pry Garland's fingers off his
neck. Garland grinned as he looked at Link's left hand, the same
side he'd been stabbed on the previous night. "All of this has been
catching up to you it seems." he said with a wicked grin, before
slamming Link into the ground, then tossing him a few feet away.
Link groaned, then looked at his hand and stared wide-eyed.
His entire hand, up to the fingertips, were covered in shadow just
like his wound. "Crap." he muttered, as Garland slowly stepped up
to him, a magical glowing sword materializing in his right hand.
'See? What did I tell you? Stupid.' the voice in Link's head
mocked.
"If you knew all this, why didn't you tell me..?" coughed Link.
'Because I want rid of you.'
"What...?"
Suddenly, Garland stabbed Link in the chest with the shining
sword. Link yelled out in agony, a searing pain tearing through his
body as the sword melted into him. The darkness of his wound began to
spread, untill it covered his entire body....
And then, like a spirit leaving a possessed body, the darkness took
form and slowly rose out of Link's form. It shaped into an exact clone
of Link, leaving the real Link behind with nothing but a scar on his
shoulder to prove he'd been stabbed - all the shadow was now in this.. creature.
Garland grinned as the shadow turned to face Link, its shining red
eyes flashing open. "Finally, I'm free." said a very familiar, cold voice
from the shadow.
"Now, to return the favor of freeing you, will you search this
Hylian boy's tunic for a blue stone?" Garland asked. The shadow cackled
a bit.
"But of coarse. No skin off my back." Shadow Link said, suddenly
turning into a puddle of shadows and quickly covering the real Link.
In seconds, he slid off of Link and reformed, with a shimmering blue
stone in hand. Garland grinned as the shadowy fiend handed him the
stone. "No..." Link muttered, as Garland walked over to him and
picked him up by the neck once more.
The Gerudo prince grinned and looked at the shadow one last time.
"Shadow, I've got a job for you-"
"If I'm not mistaken, my debt has been repayed with that stone
I gave you." the shadow said. "From here on in, I do as I please."
"What the.. But if it wasn't for me--"
"--I would have gotten out sooner or later with or without
your aid. Now go do whatever it is you want, and I'll do whatever
it is I want, thank you."
The Shadow link took off running, leaping into the darkness
of the night. Garland sighed, then looked at Link, who had been
glaring at him this whole time. He kicked Garland in the gut.
The prince laughed and walked back into the domain, with Link
struggling and kicking him the entire time.
"You bring far too much upon yourself..." Garland said as he
walked up the ramp back towards the prison cavern. "Had you just
left things the way they were, this wouldn't be happening."
"I'm not the type who just leaves innocent people to suffer." Link
said weakly, struggling to breathe thanks to Garland's harsh grasp
on his neck.
"Yes, I notic..ed..." Garland said as he walked into the prison
chamber. "Hold on a second..."
Garland held Link up and stared at his face for a moment or
two. "I know who you are now, Hylian boy..."
"You.. do?" Link said with a gulp.
"Ever since you got in the picture, my father just vanished."
Garland said, glaring at Link. "You're that brat who got in his
way... It's your fault he's gone!"
Garland slung Link into the prison cell and slammed the door
shut, as a wall of flames arose around the bars. "Let's see you
get out of it this time, you wretched boy." he snarled, before
striding off. "Come dawn, you'll be out of my way for good..."
Link sighed. "Great. Stuck in here again."
As light poured across Hyrule from the sunrise, our young
Hylian hero's death was drawing near.
Garland briskly strode up the main path of Zora's Domain,
quite happy today. "Everything's finally coming together.." he
said to hismelf, reaching into his pocket to run his fingers along
the smooth edge of the blue stone. He walked into the shadows and put
the mystic Zora Mask on, before entering the Throne Room as "Stryker."
He saw Ruto storming out of the throne room as he walked, and decided
to take this oppurtunity to try and make up for his bad mood yesterday.
"Hey Princess, what's up?" Stryker said, walking in front of her to
cut her off.
"Quit calling me that and get out of my face." Ruto said, shoving
Stryker out of her way before leaping into the waters of the main pool.
Stryker sighed. "Well, plenty of time for apologies." he said, before
walking off towards the throne room once again.
He kneeled before the Zora king once more. "My liege, have you
made a decision about the young princess?" Stryker asked. The bloated
King still looked unsure about what to say.
"I know it is a hard decision," Stryker said, "but you and I both
know the man she chose. That Hylian scum is to be executed soon, as is
Zoran law, therefore she really has no suitor any longer."
"I will ask the Princess herself about it." the King said. "Matters
such as this are too delicate to take lightly."
"But your highness--"
"You are dismissed, Stryker." the King said, as several guards stood
ready to force him out of the throne room if needed. "Your persistance
in this matter is beginning to trouble me."
"As you wish." Stryker said, bowing before walking out of the throne
room. As soon as the King and his guards were out of earshot, he took off
his mask and let out an aggrivated growl. "I've got what I came here for,
anyway. Their law is meaningless to me now." he said to himself as he
stormed off towards the exit of the Domain. "Might as well watch the
execution first..."
Meanwhile...
Link was awoke by the sound of magic being dispelled and his prison
door opening up. At first, a small ray of hope that someone had come to
save him came, but as he opened his eyes to see the faces of two Zoran
guards and one Gerudo prince, his hope was shattered. One of the guards
seemed familiar to him somehow, though... 'oh yeah, that guy from last
night...'
"Hey, you're that guard who had night shift... Sorry about knocking
you out like that.." said Link with a sheepish grin. The guard scowled a
nd jerked him up, throwing him to the other two. Garland grabbed him by
the neck once more as the guards took some tightly-woven ropes and bound
his wrists together, as well as one large rock to both of his ankles.
Garland let go of his neck, then flicked the back of it, sending
a stunning shockwave of energy through Link's body, numbing his entire
body for a mintue. "He won't give you any trouble now." laughed the
Gerudo prince. The guards nodded and began to drag Link out of the Domain,
with Garland following close behind, looking as happy as if it were
Christmas morning.
Link was brought out to the circular ridge that arched across
ZOra's River in front of the waterfall. A good many of the Zorans were
standing around to watch it happen, as well as one Zora dressed with a
black robe, who appeared to be an executioner. The Guards dragged Link's
stunned body over to the black-clad Zora, who held him still as the guards
took a few steps back, ready to subdue him at any moment if he began to resist.
Garland grinned as he stood in front of the waterfall, gazing upon the
scene. "This Hylian is charged with kidnapping her highness, Princess Ruto,
as well as assault on a royal guard and attempted escape." the Executioner
said to all the Zorans standing around. "The penalty for such crimes is
death by drowning." Link grinned inwardly as he heard this. Thanks to the
blue tunic Ruto made for him, it won't do a thing...
"May I advise something?" Garland said, intterupting. "Apologies, I
know very well you don't like to do things different, but I know for a
fact dropping this boy in the river won't kill him." Link has the worst
luck, doesn't he?
"And how could he survive being pinned underwater? He's a Hylian." the
Zoran executioner asked.
"This boy is no normal Hylian, trust me."
"Well, what would you suggest?"
"By all means, drop the boy in the water, but we have to make sure
he dies." Garland sand, holding his hand up. A long, shadowy whip poured
from his palm, which he grabbed hold of and tossed into the water - and
in mere momets, shining red eyes glared through the river as a black snake's
head surfaced. "That will do the trick. Thank you." Garland said with
a sadistic smile.
The executioner nodded, then looked at Link. "Any last words before
you fall to a watery grave?"
Link muttered something, but his body was still recovering from being
stunned, which included his mouth, so all that escaped his mouth was gibberish.
"Heh, that's what I thought." the executioner said, shoving the boy into
the river. Link let out a startled cry as he hit the icey morning water,
then stared into the eyes of the black serpent a few meters in front of him.
"Here... drink this." a soft voice whispered in his ear as he felt
the tip of a bottle touch his lips, a sweet liquid filling his mouth as a
quiet slicing sound was heard as his bonds were cut. The feeling in Link's
body quickly returned to him as the ropes around his ankle were cut, and he
pulled out his bow and arrow quickly.
"What the.. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!?" Garland exclaimed furiously as Link
let off a shining arrow, oblitering the shadowy snake. Behind him, a figure
in a red cloak&hood became visible. "Let's get out of here!" the claoked
figure shouted in a feminine voice easily recognized as Ruto's, dashing down
the river.
"Well!? Don't just stand there, GET THEM!!" Garland shouted, jarring the
guards back to their senses as they took off after the duo. Garland growled
and pulled out a long wooden staff with a wood sword handle, three odd slots
placed in the hilt for some reason.
"Atleast I got what I came here for." he said, taking out the ZOra's
Sapphire and placing it in the appropriate sword slot. The entire wooden
sword began to glow, as the handle grew longer and turned blue, and in an
instant an icey blade jutted out, shattering the wooden one in a burst of
splinters. "Only two to go..."
[End Chapter]