The Last of Promised Light
Chapter II - Recovery
Why?
The question was all that remained in Zelda's mind as horses fled from the carnage, slain men sliding off their saddles and landing on the ground with sickening thuds. The white mare she and Impa rode upon reared with a frightened whicker, and swung in the opposite direction, with a desire to be as far away from absolute chaos as possible. As the young horse turned, Zelda turned her head back at the army of monsters. The creatures had rolled down the hill, bizarre callings erupting from each one, be it howl, scream, or a roar like the wind. The one she had believed to be a hero had disappeared in the mass of bloodbathing monsters, albeit she didn't know who he was anymore. It couldn't be him. The one she met was the Hero of Time, who warded off a great evil, who had great kindness in his eyes, who had an aura brimming with nobleness. He, who left Hyrule in search of a friend, who left for that purpose alone. This couldn't be him; he wouldn't turn on them all of a sudden in a matter of months.
How?
That question was even more difficult. Red swam before Zelda's eyes, the hollers and panicked pleas of dying Hylians, Zoras, Gorons punishing her enhanced hearing. Zelda bit her lip; she didn't know where this all went wrong, didn't know how it started, didn't know when...where...she felt her body give a lurch, and Zelda was on the ground. Upon impact, a great burst of air escaped her throat in a scared gasp. Zelda's eyes were closed in pain and shock, but she pulled them open when she felt cold steel against her neck. She became bloodless, pale, when she realized the golden but stained blade was at her throat. Standing above her, Link, with that sneering smirk, was already set to kill her. She couldn't think anymore, all she did was let out a frenzied scream, knowing she was going to die.
In a flash, one of the commanders rode up on a white horse with brown blotches, and he pulled back, his stallion rearing with him. It kicked powerfully at Link, landing a blow on his shield, and forcing him back on his feet. The young Hylian immediately turned and fled into his army once more, disappearing among the many monsters swarming the fields. Zelda looked up at the commander, and heaved a great, relieved sigh. "T-thank you," she started, but the athletic man in his bronze armor simply shook his head, and raised his hand. He was a well-known man, who did good deeds for a living, though he often strayed from the castle. His motto was, of course, that he require no reward, that he require experience. The man extended his raised arm, and Zelda took it, allowing her delicate body to be lifted onto the horse behind the commander. The stallion threw his head, throwing his black mane in several directions, and curved to the right, racing through the crowds of both armies towards Hyrule Town, flying through the falling sun.
"Did it have to happen?" Zelda asked the man, in the safety of her own castle. Her heart sank so low, it hurt terribly.
"Did what?" replied the commander in a soft, fatherly voice. His back was turned to the princess, but he turned around to face her, lifting the visor of his helmet and fixing her in his brown eyes, his shining, brown but reckless bangs falling in front of his eyes. Yet, Zelda did not have to say anything; he already knew what troubled her. "It's him, isn't it?" he questioned with the same soft tone. The princess responded with nothing, but a drop of her eyes to the floor. "It's that boy...you knew him. I don't know anything you know about him, but it seems to have a powerful impact on you. Don't worry," he added, trying to cheer up the young girl. "Eventually, we'll find a way to get him back. The gods above will help us through, and the three goddesses will lend us what they have given."
Zelda gave a slow, silent nod. Sir Copper, as many referred to him, was a kind man who understood much, but he wouldn't know how depressed she was. Copper knew he didn't understand, so he turned and left the room to allow the princess a quiet moment of thinking. Zelda sat there on the bed, one arm supporting her head as she set her cheek on it, legs overhanging the side of the cotton bed, sheets of white silk. Her blue eyes traced the engraved patterns on the floor, the tiles of grey marble, every tenth one with the Hylian symbol in the center. Se raised her head from her supporting arm to see the stone figure of the Triforce above the doorway, between the wings of the Hylian eagle, rays of the sun shining forth from the symbol. This was only stone though; it had to symbolize something, yet Zelda couldn't see what just now. Her sight fell to her right hand, and she stared at the gloved palm, before gingerly turning it over to gaze at the back of her hand, as if expecting to see something reveal itself through the white glove. Still silent, she turned her head, and her face fell into her hands with a strained, confused sob.
Awakening to the sound of determined cheers, Zelda's eyes snapped open. Her body was not stiff, though a bit weak. She creakily turned her head, to realize her body was sprawled across the bed in the wrong direction. She supposed she had fallen asleep while crying quietly to the silence, trying to sort out why and how everything turned out to be. Her head hung over the bed a bit, her legs on the opposite edge. Zelda twisted her body around onto her stomach, and pushed herself onto her knees, lifting herself against the edge of the bed with her weak arms. Her hair was untidy again, and her dress was in an awkward condition. She slid backwards onto her feet, and slapped at her dress a little to return it to its normal position, as it had tied itself around her legs a bit. She raised her head in a rigid motion, her eyes staring out the window at the weak morning light. Voices were trailing across the sky, snaking through the alleyways, past her window to her ears. It sounded like a gathering of the commoners, and she thought it was a simple auction when the word 'army' came to her ears.
Fully attentive, she raced over to the window, some air forced out as her stomach flattened against the wall, her upper body nearly toppling over from the window. Her excitement made her reckless, and she coughed, trying to recover from the shock. Zelda stared down at the ground far below her, and raised her head. Hyrule Town Market was in the distance, but the voices were loud, and she could hear them perfectly. Even the guards lost their attention to the gathering, angry hollers rising from the source at the topic. Zelda continued to listen, biting her tongue to keep herself from sprinting out of the room, downstairs, and bolting outside. Her ears perked at every loud statement or word that arose from the conference out in town.
"Gather...build...save...rid...unpure..." were the words Zelda managed to snatch as she leaned out the window, trying to hear the whole conversation that commenced. More continued to flow forth from the commoners, including what was recommended to prepare for war, who exactly was their foe, and comments from the audience. Did they lose their heads? The situation was very dangerous, but no one except for her knew that. Would anyone take the word of a young princess who had a terrifying nightmare that may have foresaw this? Many doubted a child, even a prophecy-reciever, at times of massive crisis such as this. Who should she turn to now? Her father wouldn't help, even though he was the king. Her father, in fact, was preparing what was left of his army, for the most violent war that was at hand. The question came up once more; who was she to turn to? Zelda whirled around, her dress gracefully following the spin, and skipped off across the chamber, through the doorway and quickly curving to the right, taking the stairs descending to the second floor, raced along sun-lit corridors, nearly toppling over a female walking along, and halting in her sprint to regain wasted breath. Drops of sweat quickly formed at her forehead, her lungs pained. Never did she attempt to run so fast, and if she had done so in the past, then she couldn't remember. Leaning against the wall for support, she hoped for herself to quickly recover her breath before continuing.
"Move!" hollered a demanding male voice as a steel-armored figure raced past her, spear in hand. He didn't take a second glance over his shoulder, and thus, did not realize he nearly collided with the princess. Zelda pushed herself away from the wall, brushed at her dusted dress, and glared in the man's direction before managing to take a brisk walk down more stairs, which were hidden under a fine red carpet outlined in gold. As she continued down the long flight, she cast her gaze to the base of the stairs from past her shoulder, and viewed the golden Hylian symbol there with the Triforce held between its wings. She kicked off the third last step, landing roughly onto the symbol, and continued her pace along the carpet strewn along the floor. It winded around the corner, joined another red carpet, trailed from the intersecting point to the great hall. The princess sprinted past the great hall as well, racing past chairs and rushing through yet another door now. Her body ached again, and Zelda swayed, keeping her balance against the stone wall. This time, she took about four minutes to gather up more energy for another distance of flying past hallways. Once the required was finally summoned, Zelda, her rib cage pained, desperately flung herself into running once more, her legs carrying her along the floor, and out the bridge. The guards of the drawbridge noticed her, and turned around.
"M'lady," the first one began, "must you be outside at this hour?"
"Yes, I muh--must. It is--urgent," she gasped. "W-where's Impa?"
"Lady Impa is retrieving a horse from the stables."
"Just what I needed!" Zelda exclaimed, taking the guard by surprise, and the young girl bounded away to locate Impa. She needed not to search long, for the Shiekah was already there with the white mare. "Impa!"
"I know, Princess Zelda," the woman answered. "You are in search of consolation. Come onto the horse, and we will head for Death Mountain."
"Death Mountain? For Darunia?" Zelda responded in surprise.
"Yes, and if he is unable to help, we will head for Zora's Domain next."
"Oh, alright..." Zelda managed to lift herself onto the mare's back with Impa's help, and the Shiekah seated herself behind the princess. Lightly taking the reins into her hands, Impa pulled them, making the horse rear wildly, legs kicking at the air, and off they went. Images blurred past as the wind whipped at them, the white horse pounding her hooves against the ground as she darted along, bolting past the gathering, out of town. Impa gripped the reins harder, and pulled them towards the right, directing their horse to the left towards the bridge of Kakariko. It was not a long distance away, but they had to make haste, for this was becoming a shadowed age indeed. Impa, being Zelda's caretaker, knew what she was thinking at most given moments, knew what she wanted, knew her emotions. The only thing Impa knew, however, was that Zelda wanted to partake in a dangerous journey to gather information vital to them in releasing Hyrule from the quickly growing evil. As the horse rode up to the stairs of the small village of Kakariko, the sun's light breaking the horizon...
"Oh, lady Impa," said the voice of a guard standing next to Kakariko's gate as the Shiekah strode up to it with Zelda following closely. "What brings you here? Often you don't visit little Kakariko. On business, I presume?"
"Indeed," Impa answered impatiently. "We head for Death Mountain."
"With the princess in hand!" the guard responded in surprise, his eyes falling upon the young girl trying to hide behind Impa.
"Yes. It is required she come."
"Oh, alright. But I don't know about this," the guard told her concernedly. "Are you sure it's a good idea?"
"Perfectly. We will head up now; we'll be back, and I won't let any harm befall the princess."
Impa swooped past him through the gate, flattening small blades of grass as she briskly walked along. They passed by the tree, where a teenage male sat against it, and quickly strode up the pair of stairs to the higher level of land of the village. A Cucco brushed past them, clucking in oblivious cheerfulness. Zelda struggled to keep the same pace with Impa, looking like a helpless child despite her royal appearance, her pink dress sweeping the grass, her blonde hair bouncing against her shoulders, blue eyes scanning the peaceful area of Kakariko. Impa rushed past the guard of the Death Mountain gate, still dragging the young girl along with her...
The arachnid-like creature burst into green flame, quickly dissolving into dark violet smoke as it disappeared within itself. The Red Tektite met its fate by Impa's own dagger as it had leapt at her, only to be caught with death. Zelda ducked to the left as another flung itself at her small body, only to slam into the wall and be slain by Impa's jagged dagger as well. The line abruptly bent in a zigzag style, making it seem like a bizarre weapon to wield. Tugging Zelda's arm a bit, she raced up the path, the dagger still in her tight fist as she bounded off, the princess still trying to follow desperately. Eventually, however, the Shiekah slowed her pace, and they came to a stop for a bit of rest, especially for Zelda, who was out of breath, panting heavily. "My apologies, Princess Zelda," Impa said as she seated herself on a low ledge, legs crossed as her body leaned back onto her hands.
"No, it's alright..." Zelda murmured in forgiveness, plopping down next to Impa. "I know we had to rush...how far are we from Goron City?""Not very far."
"Okay..." Zelda laid her head in her lap, exhausted to her full extent, lungs paining harder than ever before from the constant racing. Impa kept her silence, watching Zelda closely as she rested. Knowing full well she was thinking about Link again, Impa made an attempt to draw her attention away from the topic as to keep her from losing more courage and determination. Impa patted her softly on the shoulder, and Zelda raised her head, before turning her eyes up at Impa's face. "Look at the sky," she muttered quietly, gesturing to the clouds above. Zelda did so, and easily lost herself in the sea of blue and white. "It's a lovely day." Then turning her head towards the city, she kept her own steely eyes locked onto that direction, as if expecting one of the Gorons to roll past them and ram into the wall of the trail.
"Let's go."
Impa glanced up in surprise. "But you've only rested a few minutes."
"That's all I need, Impa!" Zelda answered in a surprisingly strong, yet somewhat higher voice. "Let's get to Goron City, quick!"
Zelda poked her head through the entrance first, panting heavily. She didn't fully recover during their rest, but she was still determined. Taking a step forward, Zelda glanced back and forth at the stone walls, and her eyes stared down the floors below them, a platform hanging in the center held by ropes. But no Gorons were here, none at all. Impa followed after her, also seeing none of the city's inhabitants. Turning her head, Impa quickly moved towards a flight of stairs leading to the bottommost floor, and Zelda huffily followed, tossing her head to shake her hair out of her eyes.
Upon setting foot upon the stony floor of the last level, a voice floated out of a rock door to their ears. "It's Princess Zelda, and the Shiekah called Impa," reported a shaken, low voice.
"Let them in," replied a gruff, tougher one to the other. The door slid up to allow the two entrance into the chamber. Zelda hesitated, blinking at what just took place, but Impa dragged her in without so much as a thought. The door slid shut behind them, and they both threw a glance at it before turning back to what was around them. A small room full of several Gorons, a more buff and taller one standing within the crowd. The Goron pushed his way to confront Impa, with Zelda still hidden behind her. Daruna stood over them both, his chest puffed out proudly, though one could easily sense the fear residing in him.
"So, two of the royal Castle have been sent to us?" he asked, keeping his tone harsh.
"We came on our own choice. We wanted to gather any information that can help us in this dark age," Impa quickly snapped back in answer. Daruna, caught off guard, blinked at her and quickly regained himself.
"Hruff!" he grumbled. "Huh! I suppose we could help. Only recently, a small group of travelers wandered into our city. They looked like those merrymaking folk we don't see often, with an old hag, several young adults, and a silent but odd boy amongst the group. Now, as they were staying here for the day, one of the Gorons came upon the boy, who wore black, and was staring at his black cap that he didn't wear that day. When that Goron--" Darunia then sent a look into the crowd, "--set foot into the tent, the boy made a weird statement. No one else was in the tent but him since the others were either exploring the city or were outside. Uh, how'd it go again?"
"Uh..." A Goron in the back of the crowd began to speak. "I remember it like this: Therein blackness, no light shineth. Yeah, that's how it went."
"Right. They left not too long ago, but I have no clue where they'll be wandering next," added Darunia. "I hear one of the Zoras know their route though. You should go find him, he might tell you how to find the group. I think the boy can help you, though he's really suspicious..."
"Thank you, Darunia. We will do such," Impa responded gratefully, and with a bow, swept out of the chamber.