This central chapter is also the longest. Deal with it. XD
Warning: Violence.
Hylian Kings
By CM
Seventh Chapter: Two Opposite Ways
"Oi, Princess," Mikau called as she came back from the woods, carrying a few medicinal herbs. She intended to soothe Darmani's headache, and wanted to make tea as well. Mikau stopped her as she blankly stared him through. "Have ya seen Link? The kid ain't no where I can see."
Zelda didn't even blanch. She simply smiled softly, answering, "I haven't spoken with him since this morning. I am no more aware of his whereabouts as you are. I apologize."
With that, she calmly walked off, leaving a perplexed Mikau in her wake. The young man turned around to watch her go, blinking. He ran after her eventually, coming to pace at her side as she carefully made her way to the summer kitchen, placing her pouch on the rough table. "But," he began, and she gazed at him out of the corner of her eye, still working on picking out small rocks and bad leaves from her chosen herbs, "I thought you spent the night with him," at that he reddened a bit, but she didn't blink even slightly.
"I did," Zelda admitted, and Mikau averted his eyes, studying his fingers on the table surface, "but after we woke up, I went to eat and he vanished from sight." Her tone was polite but distant and cold, "I am not his sitter."
"Never said you was," Mikau quickly said. "I just thought since ya were so… close, … then maybe ya would have known."
She smiled, and he could discern bitterness in her face. "Mikau, you know him more than I do. You lived with him all those years… Taught him everything he knows…"
Mikau said nothing, noticing her ripping a leaf away with more force than needed. She turned her face towards him.
"There is no way I can be knowledgeable of his habits after only a day."
Suddenly, he saw a flash of pain and a tinge of accusation in her soft blue eyes. Silently averting his eyes, frown turning to a scowl, he muttered, "Is there something wrong, Princess, b'tween the two of us? Ya look angry with me."
Taken aback, she returned her attention to her work. "N-No, I…"
"I'm not too pleased either," Mikau said with shocking honesty, "that the kid should be reminded of a past we taught 'im to forget."
She was about to speak, but decided against it. She was stubbornly setting her jaw. Mikau took a step closer, staring at her down turned, busy profile. Intensely, he said in a low, but not threatening voice, "When the kid came, he was in the same state as ya were. Physically busted, 'motionally scarred by something we dun' know of—but ya seem to know—and he was just a kid."
He took in a calm breath as she gave no indication of having heard him.
"We chose to take the kid under our wing. We chose to help 'im get over himself. And then, just as things seemed to be settling, ya come into the picture."
Zelda tensed, her shoulders stiff.
"Ain't no trouble wi' that," Mikau said with a careless shrug, "I ain't got nothing 'gainst ya, lass. But the kid's old 'nside. I dun' know what ya were thinking of making him do, but he ain't in a state where he can go anywhere. I'm like his brother, ya see? And Darmani's like his uncle. An' we're worried for the kid's sake, got it?"
Zelda looked up at him. He saw her eyes watery with tears. Still, he spoke.
"I dun' want 'im to get hurt, ya know. I get the whole idea. You're the Princess, ya got a duty to your country, lass. But Link ain't got nothing he owes anyone. He lost half his happiness when he left ya, and he ain't leavin' no one no more. Not me, not Darmani. We're his fam'ly now, got that?"
She nodded. Finally, Mikau put a soothing hand to her shoulder, and said, "We'll give ya shelter, lass, but ya can't expect no more from us. We're done with the world."
"Who are you?" She asked suddenly, a curious frown on her face. Mikau froze, choosing to avoid her penetrating, lost gaze.
"I'm no one now," he said.
"Why did you isolate yourself from the rest of the world? Why?"
Mikau stopped fidgeting. He looked up to Zelda, and, sighing finally, he motioned for her to be quiet. Busying himself with the herbs, he started speaking in a level tone.
"This ain't som'thing the kid or Darmani know. We have a policy, ya see. Ya don't ask, ya don't tell, and all is well. But I guess ya'll understand better if I tell ya a bit."
He took a deep breath.
"I was young back then. Maybe a bit older than the kid. It was a long way from here. Far, far away. The land was living a golden age, I s'pose.
"Back then, we had a large hall on a pinnacle in the ocean. It was glorious, clear, and waterfalls kept it always fresh. My people were fishermen, trades people, and they had a love for music. I tell ya, there wasn't no one there who didn't know how to play an instrument.
"I was pretty good at the guitar myself. I had friends, admirers. My life wasn't all that bad."
Mikau's gaze was lost in memories of another time now, and Zelda didn't dare drag him out. A small smile had appeared on the man's face.
"There was one girl. Her name was Lulu. She had the sweetest voice ya ever heard. Her instrument was her song, and her eyes caught ya and kept ya 'til she was done her music, and ya weren't gettin' away 'til she was done for good. She was a beautiful lass. Kind-hearted, and a woman prettier than her ya can't imagine."
He chuckled a bit, plucking leaves from the pack of plants.
"I loved the girl. I wasn't 'lone. Every young guy my age had eyes and ears only for Lulu. But she and I… We had a special som'thing. She would come to listen to me playin', and sometimes she'd add her voice and ya ain't heard no song so pretty.
"One day…" Mikau breathed, "We made love."
Zelda's eyes flew up to Mikau's. His had turned to melancholy, and his voice was softer than she'd ever heard him.
"No sooner than the next week, I'd asked her to marry me. And she said yes. Of all the people in the hall, I was happiest.
His eyes filled with a happiness long gone.
"We wanted to be wed as soon as possible. Lulu had told me she was with me child."
Mikau stopped chopping the herbs, staring into the emptiness. Now, he looked truly pained.
"I never wed her."
His voice wasn't as soft now. It was hoarse, raw with pain.
"A few days before our wedding, pirates attacked our hall. It was in the dead of the night. They killed ev'ry infant, raped ev'ry woman, slaughtered ev'ry man. I was runnin' through the hall, tryin' to find Lulu, when I heard 'er scream in agony. I made my way to her room.
"I found 'er in a puddle of 'er own blood. Her stomach had been torn. She was cryin', layin' on the floor, unable to move.
"I ran to her, cradled 'er head, sobbed for her to stay with me. She was cryin', cryin' that our child was gone, dead, that she wanted to die. I couldn't reason with 'er. I wanted to save 'er, soothe 'er, ease her sufferance. I—"
At this point, Mikau's voice had cracked, and he brought a hand up to his eyes, rubbing them, though Zelda knew he was hiding his pain, his tears. With a calming breath, he continued his story.
"I wanted to keep 'er with me. I loved 'er. I know it's selfish. I just—I wanted a secon' chance. I wanted to help 'er, to take 'er away from her pain."
He choked on the next words.
"But she died—d in m-my arms a-and…"
Mikau bent over, hitting a fist on the table and hiding his face in the crook of his arm, his other arm bent, brought up to hide the side of his face. His hand was limply hanging from there over his nape. His shoulders shook.
"I wanted her to live!" The cry echoed in the clearing. Silence became deafening.
His voice was so raw with regret and pain that Zelda put a hand to his back, forcing him to cry on her shoulder. Her own tears had long since overflowed, and in silence she tried soothing the man, so hurt was he that he didn't realize he was crying on the shoulder of a person he didn't agree of.
After a long pain-filled moment, he looked up, wiping his eyes clear. Averting his eyes from her in mild shame, he continued his story weakly.
"I couldn't stand it. I had to escape. Most of my friends had died, my love was gone and my parents'd been slaughtered. I wanted to forget everything.
"So I ran. For days on end I ran. I travelled in swamps, scaled mountains, travelled deep rivers, fought my way through thick forests… And came 'ere. By then, I was so exhausted, I couldn't even stand.
"But I was lucky. Darmani found me and took me in. We chose to keep together and hold out until we died and were allow'd to find our lov'd ones 'gain."
Zelda looked appalled, and she had to wipe new tears.
"You're here because you're waiting to die!"
Mikau shrugged, seeming to lighten up a bit, though now she knew how much of a façade it was.
"After what we've been through, it ain't nothin' big."
"What did Darmani go through?" She questioned, dismayed.
Mikau shrugged, shaking his head.
"Our policy is to not ask 'ny questions. But if ya ask me, I think it has to do with the war he was a soldier at. He's old enough to have lost a whole fam'ly 'imself."
Zelda finally asked, after a long silence, "And you took Link in because…?"
"The kid didn't tell us why he'd escaped his former life. Why don't ya tell me?"
Surprised, Zelda looked down at the pile of herbs sitting on the table.
"I'm not sure. I only learned a bit this very morning. But," she suddenly declared, "you shouldn't have taught him to lock his past up. No matter what you say…"
A cold look from Mikau made her quiet. The man grabbed a knife and started cutting the herbs. "When the world turns its back on you," he muttered, "you turn your back on the world, lass. You had a rough past yourself. You should forget about it."
"I can't!" Zelda cried. "My past is the only anchor I have! Even Link is a part of my past! And my present! I have a realm! I have to go back eventually! My past," she breathed, bringing her face very close to Mikau's, in anger, "is what made me who I am. To try to forget it would be to say I have no pride in whom I am. No pride in what I've lived! No pride in those I loved!… I wouldn't forget it for the world."
With those words, she shooed him away, grabbing the knife and continuing her work. Mikau stepped away, stunned.
And suddenly, he realized where everything had gone wrong.
"Coward," Link grumbled, kicking a rock out of his way angrily. He looked behind him at the woods, as though Zelda was standing there and he was still in an argument with her. "I'm not the coward, you are! You—You ran away too!"
Quickening his pace, he stumbled up to where he usually spent his sunlit afternoons. Thick, dark clouds hung over him, and he had the impression he could touch their black vapour with his hand. They seemed gorged with rain.
In the distance, he heard a faint rumble that shook everything around him very faintly.
A storm was brewing inside of him as well.
He didn't lie down this time. He stood, facing where the wind came from and felt the thick humidity building up in the fresh, static air. The trees looked a bright green under the grey. He felt cold then.
He told himself it was the wind. Told himself that it had nothing to do with the great emptiness inside.
Was he bound to lose every one of those he loved?
Suddenly, he wanted to scream. To let go of the sanity that held him down. He wanted to race to the edge of the cliff and jump off just to see how it felt. To feel…
Alive again.
But he didn't.
Inside, a voice was begging to be heard. He allowed it to speak. What it said, through his lips, through his throat, through his heart…
"I thought… I thought everything would be alright… But then…" His eyes prickled. "But then… she came, and now… Darunia! Darunia!"
He walked to the edge of the cliff, screaming at the top of his lungs the name of his former mentor.
"DARUNIA! SAVE ME! HELP ME! DARUNIA!" His voice cracked, and he heard his echo faintly in the vast area over the trees.
"I thought I'd be okay, Darunia!"
When no one answered, he fell to the ground, on his knees, and buried his face in his hands, broken before his time.
"I thought… I thought I'd be okay… Why was I wrong? Why?"
He looked up as a flash of light brightened the vast horizon. From his high place, he could see the forest below and the clouds overheard and he heard the thunder echo towards him. Nothing was rushed. All was silent.
His knees hurt, but not as much as his chest.
"Why… I always… Was it because you told me never to leave my sword on the battlefield, Darunia? Was it because Mikau and Darmani told me to put the past behind me? Why do both ways make sense, yet both hurt me, Darunia?"
Link rubbed his forehead, trying not to let the tears flow. He was aching inside.
"Am I a coward?" He asked to the black clouds on the horizon. "Or am I sensible?"
"Every second spent hurting is a second lost in your life."
Link nearly jumped out of his skin. He swore he'd heard those words before. He swore…
"Mister Darunia?"
Whirling around, he nearly jumped again. He thought the person who had spoken was a good distance behind him, but he came face to face with him.
It wasn't Darunia. Far from it.
The young man was sitting cross-legged right behind him. Link carefully moved away.
"Who are you?"
The stranger chuckled, brushing thick blonde hair out of his red eyes.
"I'm Sheik. And you are?"
Link began stammering. Thunder clapped overhead. "What? B-But you're—you're the one who quoted Darunia—if you know him—don't you know me already?"
Sheik's previously closed eyelids opened again, piercing Link with their red gaze. "Ah, so you are worthy of my time. Allegedly, you can't align words, but at least you can think for yourself."
"I can align words!" Link exclaimed. "What are you doing here and what do you want with me?"
Sheik looked amused. "Two questions that would have been so easily summarized in one."
"Just answer them," Link muttered, unexplainably annoyed with this stranger.
Sheik rolled over, standing without a sign of effort. He walked towards the clear waterfall that ran near as it thundered down the steep cliff. He took a long sip. Then, wiping his mouth, he turned to Link. Clouds were massing over them, and the distinctive scent of rain was smelled.
"I am here to speak with you."
"About what?" Link growled without patience. He didn't know why, this Sheik person thoroughly irritated him, though he wasn't feeling threatened.
"Hm, anything, everything. You need someone to talk to. And I am that someone."
"I don't need anyone," Link scowled. "You can go back to wherever you came from. Why should I share my worries with someone I don't know?"
"Ah, but you know me," Sheik smiled, apparently uncaring whether he got to Link or not with that wise grin. "Or rather, I know him!"
"Who's 'him'?" Link questioned, peeved as Sheik came to sit beside him.
"Darunia Goroni, of course. Now, what torments you?"
Link tried hard to hide his curiosity. He covered it with a grimace of exasperation.
"You didn't know him. I was his only apprentice. And he didn't deal with children other than me and Zel—the Princess."
"Speaking of whom, did you know she was very hurt by your actions of this morning?"
Link whirled towards Sheik. "What the—What would you know about what we spoke of this morning?"
Sheik shrugged. "The whole forest heard you, my young friend. And it was obvious on her face. She was crying, you know."
"Crying?" Link almost looked remorseful at the memory, but then he hid his face from Sheik and hardened his eyes. She'd… She'd brought it onto herself…
Right.
"Yes, crying," Sheik lazily commented as lightning streaked the sky. He waited for the thunder to rumble around them before adding, "You should have more respect for her. You don't know what she's been through just to get here."
"And you do?"
"I know everything," Sheik said with a chuckle. Link wasn't sure whether he was joking or not. Still, an immense curiosity inhabited him.
"Fine," he grumbled, eventually choosing to sit down beside Sheik, who was meditating without worry on the tip of the cliff, index and thumb joined in typical prayer on his crossed legs. "I'll listen to you. But just this once."
At once, Sheik's eyes snapped open and he smiled. The wind was blowing stronger now, and Link felt a chill crawl up his arms. He rubbed them with his hands absently. The storm was slowly coming over them, and Link could see small grey curtains of rain sweeping slowly, hazily, on the horizon. Now, all light on the horizon had disappeared. The sky was dark and cloudy and low.
"I can explain briefly, or well," Sheik said. "You can choose either, but I will end up telling it my way anyhow."
"Then just spill it, why should I care?" Link exasperatedly asked.
"Because she was tortured," Sheik announced in a tone that was much too cheerful for Link's liking. He began to think the man was insane. "The poor girl, she was. Any living soul in Hyrule heard her pain. Her loneliness. Her despair… The poor girl indeed."
Link was going numb because of the cool air, but Sheik's words made his blood run cold too.
"Rumour says the only reason she was kept alive and relatively fed was because the Evil King wanted to wed her someday."
"What!"
"What luck," Sheik continued, still as light, smiling and unconcerned, "that she grew as stubborn and wise as she grew pale and weary. You may be shocked to hear she was locked in her royal chambers for the most part of the past seven years."
Link said nothing, eyes wide. Overhead, thunder and lightning played. He felt one fat, cold drop of rain fall onto the crown of his head.
Sheik, uncaring of the rain that was slowly moving closer, kept speaking.
"Ganondorf has no qualms about mistreating the girl. Her only defence was to lock herself up in her beautiful stone cage. The Evil King has purpose for her. He hopes for a child to be born from her… Once they are wed, of course."
Link whirled around and felt more drops fall wetly against his chilled skin. He glared at Sheik. "Ganondorf saved Darunia's honour."
"So you think," Sheik nodded, still smiling. It unnerved Link to no end that he should not know what the man was thinking. "But Ganondorf is a pitiful man, with hardly as much sense of honour as you do."
"Hey! Watch your tongue, you—"
"Don't be furious with me, Link," Sheik said, standing and walking to the cover of the trees. "I am merely speaking the Princess' mind."
"You lie," Link spat. "Why are you so compelled to lie to me?"
"I lie not. But perhaps you'd like to know exactly what you should do now?"
Yes, Link knew. He wanted to know what to do.
"I don't! Why should I listen to a perfect stranger who lies?"
"Ah, ah, now, you're being rude. Perhaps I should have come on another day?"
Link closed his fist tightly. If the man kept annoying him, he'd feel wonderful to swing it right in his face.
"You have strength, just like him," Sheik suddenly said, out of nowhere. He seemed to contemplate Link's face and eyes. "You are just like your father and just like Darunia."
"You knew my father? How did you know Darunia?"
"Two men of great valour," Sheik said with a solemn nod. His faint smile still hadn't disappeared. "They had as much worth to me as two brothers. Wise, kind and courageous men they were. I see in your eyes the same light I saw in them."
Link almost fell for it. Suddenly, he shook his head.
"You lie. You're my age. You wouldn't know them."
"I wouldn't," Sheik repeated without tone. "If you say so. Though I can still offer some advice. You seem to be at loss."
Rain starting falling heavily onto them. It hammered on the ground, making splashes in the small river, hitting the leaves full force. Thunder rolled over them, grumbling in their gut, shaking them to the core. Link's pulse beat in his temples.
"I am not."
"How did you feel, when Darunia told you to run if you had to, on the day he told you to hide as he fought?"
Link, tired of trying to guess how this man had known, simply answered, running a hand through his thick dark blonde hair, "I thought it was unfair. I wanted to fight too. I wanted to show I was good enough. But then he… He died."
"Do you know why he died?"
Link turned towards Sheik and glared. Then, raising his voice to cover that of Mother Farore, he yelled, "It was my fault!"
A long silence, cut only by the sound of heavy rain, stretched between the two young men.
"Was it?" Sheik finally asked, apparently unfazed. "I recall that you held to his word. Where did you go wrong?"
"I went wrong when I couldn't save him in time," Link spat bitterly. "I went wrong when I didn't run to his aid after I came out from behind that table."
"Like Ganondorf told you to do."
Link froze, then turned to Sheik and said, "What are you speaking? Are you saying I'd have obeyed to Ganondorf rather than Darunia?" Accusation was thick in his voice.
"If I recall well," Sheik calmly said, unbothered by Link's glare, "Ganondorf kicked the table away, then held his sword to your face and told you to fight."
"Your point is?" Link angrily asked, confusion lacing his voice, ignoring the fact that he still didn't understand how Sheik could have known what had occurred, how he could have been there when Link had been sure he was alone, feeling water seep into his clothes, making them heavy and uncomfortable.
"You had no choice but to disobey Darunia, and the reason he died is because he got so scared for the life of his apprentice. But it was… Ganondorf's kick. He is, unless I remember wrongly, the one who distracted Darunia by threatening your life."
Link said nothing. Suddenly, he turned to Sheik, and the glare he wore faded into complete misery.
The heavens wept. Lightning streaked the sky, thunder trembled around them.
No other word was spoken on Link's part.
Sheik brought a hand to Link's shoulder, facing him, and said, his smile disappearing into strong solemnity, "You know now what you must do." He took a few steps back, leaving Link in the rain, and said, over the storm, "I trust we will meet again, Link, royal consort."
Link's eyes flew up, but Sheik had disappeared.
He never had felt so drained…
Yet…
He felt so light.
To clear this up, what I mean by 'two different ways' is either: "don't leave your sword on the battlefield", a way supported by Darunia and Zelda, and/or "if it doesn't work out, try elsewhere," a way supported by Darmani and Mikau. While I believe both ways have their merits, this story is going to, of course, move more towards the former. Or else, we'd lose the plotline.
As for Sheik's strange knowledge and age, you'll figure it out in the next chapter.
Review?
Love,
CM