Chapter 10:

It couldn't have been a more morose and bitter day. Far from the desert heat the rains and storms threw all their might down to the earth, soaking all that lay in its path. The sun had disappeared, chained and restrained behind the wall of grey sky. A dim shadow was cast over the land, shrouding everything in a dead and haunting shade of blue. Impa shuddered inwardly as she looked around her as she rode through Hyrule Field. Nothing could have been more similar to that fateful day when she had ridden fiercely in the opposite direction with a small girl in her arms.

She was sure that it was not long after midday, but already there was a darkness spreading across the land, extending its murky fingers all the way up the mountains and hills on the horizon. She could barely see Hyrule Castle; it would have been sparkling brightly in the sunlight in its wreath of emerald jewels set back in the mountainside. She cast her mind back and remembered that it had been unusually dark that life-changing day as well. The sun had sunk behind clouds so thick that night had begun early that afternoon.

She dared not remind herself of what horrors she had left behind that day. The crackling flames had been unbearable to listen to while wailing infants whined and cried in the arms of their snivelling mothers. Those weak, pitiful sounds had struck Impa cold that day, and she hoped she would die before she heard them again. Images of blackened houses against the skies of fire had ensnared her soul for days afterwards, haunting her sleep and awakening in the setting sun.

But now as she rode toward the Castle, the spectral voices of the screaming women and children emerged from within the dim shadow cast over the earth. They snapped at her ears, chilling her wet face with the breath of the dead, urging her back across the field. Impa grimaced, the guilt of escape boiling in her throat. She wished she hadn't left Zelda in Gerudo Valley; she would have felt better in her company. But Impa reassured herself that it wouldn't be long before Nabooru would bring her back.

Gritting her teeth and snapping the reigns of her horse, Impa rode on faster. The growing fear of what lay ahead was pushed away, and she turned her thoughts back to Zelda's situation. Impa's conversation with Nabooru from earlier was still fresh in her memory.

"It is impossible for me to take Zelda with me. Look at her. What would the people think if I rode in with a Gerudo in royal clothes? I would most certainly be thrown in the dungeons, Zelda too. The people are already curious as to the princess's whereabouts. It is too dangerous to take Zelda back with me."

"I understand, "Nabooru answered. "But there is a danger either way. We are banished from Hyrule. Even I am not allowed to set foot outside the valley gorge, even though I am the leader of the Gerudos. If anyone saw us we would both be killed."

"Nevertheless, it is still safer for us to travel separately. But you must stay outside the castle walls. It is absolutely necessary that no one sees you, otherwise you will both be killed. We cannot afford any mistakes. As a precaution I will write you a letter saying that you have business with the King, but this must not be used unless it is necessary. The people are suspicious, Nabooru. It would be very unwise to send them into further panic."

"I know. I will follow you with Zelda at first dark on the road to the Castle. May the goddesses be with you."

Nabooru didn't know that this would affect Hyrule's future. She only assumed that this was the returning of the princess that they had strangely been charged with. Impa thought that it might have been more sensible to empress upon her the real heart of the matter, but impulse had led her to leave Nabooru in ignorance. She didn't even know that it really had been Link that she had seen earlier that day. Impa had persuaded her that it was merely a hallucination, but she did whisper that she had seen Link's ghost wandering through the castle as well. She convinced her that Link was still watching over us all, and would continue to rest easy.

And so she had set off with the sun still high in the sky, slowly dipping across the sky. Unless the peculiar nocturnal shadow had crept around the desert, Zelda and Nabooru must have left the desert by now. But it had been dark for so long that all sense of time had become completely lost. Impa looked across to see Link's pale shadow drift silently along beside her.

She sighed and looked ahead once more, praying silently to the heavens that this seemingly impossible plan would work. If it failed there would be a very grim future for Hyrule. She could feel in her heart a dread that told her that this was the beginning of some horrible cycle. The vivid, lucid memory of that day had held one name in the wind that had chased the entire kingdom into fear. It was cursed, damned, whispered, spat, grumbled, until eventually no dared to speak of such incarnated evil. It had been the name of one man, a man who had snatched away the people's trust in one swipe, overthrown the castle single-handedly and had dictated the lives of thousands for seven long years. Ganondorf…

She had known for a long time that the fear in her chest could be the result of no other; yet till now she hadn't allowed herself to believe it. All her hopes had been riding on the Hero's revival, and the strength of that belief had clouded everything else. It was only now, when she was faced with the thought of failure, that the real danger approaching Hyrule hit her hard. Its fate was in the hands of two people, just as it had been before. She only begged that Rauru's foresight was as miraculous as it was before.

Impa sighed heavily again, brining her disgusted memories to a close. There would be time later to think about the past. There were more pressing matter at hand to be occupied with. She snapped the reigns once more, and rode as quickly as possible through the storm's torrents toward the dark castle walls.

The day seemed unusually long, as if the sun had stopped in the sky. Zelda had sat in her chamber all afternoon waiting for the sun to set. Patience had been a virtue that she had never been blessed with; instead she had been given a temper that could send the entire castle into hiding. The heat of the day certainly wasn't helping either. Agitation prickled her skin, and for what seemed like hours she paced back and forth, almost positive that she had left an elliptical grove in the stone.

She was dreading the moment when she would have to put her royal garments back on. Despite her initial disgust of the Gerudo attire, she had grown fond of the soft, sturdy garments over the past month. They let her ride a horse like a man, and nothing felt more wonderful than breaking every rule she'd ever known. But she knew that the weather in Hyrule was not half so glorious. She didn't have to remind herself of the rainstorms that would come seasonally in the autumn, nor did she need to remember the chilling winds and snows of the winter.

Each year when the first snows would settle on the mountaintops, the new winds of winter would spring from the skies and whistle and whine across the Hyrule plains. Nothing sounded sadder than those winds, and Zelda had often listened to their mourning lamentations late at night when no one would hear her crying along with it. They had been a comfort during those hard months after Link's death, but they had long passed away, leaving in their wake a path for the gentle spring tides that would follow.

Zelda had yet to feel the freshness of springtime. She had been whisked away into the heat of summer before the first blossoms had burst from the trees. There was no doubt in her mind that, once this was all over, she would see those small white flowers that decorated the gardens again. However much she wanted to stay a part of her always longed to see the old, ancient beauty of the castle once more. Nothing could completely tear her away from her birthplace.

A warm wind suddenly shook Zelda out of her thoughts. She looked out of the window again and smiled to see a blaze of scarlet and saffron bleeding across the vaults of the sky. It wouldn't be long now. But she still couldn't believe what Impa had told her…that she would really see Link…alive. It was too much to think about, and ever since Impa had left her, her heart had been all a flutter. Nothing could quell it, silence it or calm it. To say the very least, she was beginning to feel nervous.

But as she gazed out of the fortress window, the guards down below all suddenly stopped their patrol and peered up at the sky. Every last one of them craned their heads toward the heavens, and Zelda saw them all drop their spears. For a second they stood dumbfounded, staring up oddly with their mouths open. Zelda was puzzled by their abrupt loss of life, and she too looked up.

It wasn't a moment after the screams and terrified shouts began to fill the air that Zelda's smile dropped immediately from her face and her eyes went wide. A piercing cackle erupted from above her, and two hunched figures whirled straight toward her down the side of the fortress walls. Their knotted, ivy-coloured skin, their gold-washed teeth and their rolling eyes of pearl all scraped past her in the second she threw herself away form the window and slammed the shutters together. Scrambling her wits together, Zelda ran for the door, driving away the horrified cries that came from outside.

"I-It's Twinrova!" - "Return to your posts! Hold your position!" - "They've returned from the grave!" - "Defend the fortress!"

As Zelda turned the corner she saw Nabooru running straight toward her with the same fearful expression embedded in her face. She immediately grabbed the princess's hand and pulled her into the winding network of corridors that led to the very heart of the fortress. Nabooru didn't say a word till they came to a halt.

"Here, take this." She handed Zelda a traditional Gerudo sword, and turned away muttering, "What the hell is happened?"

"They must have come for me," Zelda said, looking at the clear reflection of her unfamiliar face in the blade of the sword. Nabooru stopped her grumbling at once and looked at Zelda from the corner of her eye.

"What do you mean 'they've come for you'?" she said incredulously. Zelda was silent for a moment, averting her eyes from Nabooru's face. "Tell me what's going on!"

A sad, wry smile appeared on Zelda's lips. Everything suddenly made sense. "It appears as though I'm to be married to the very man who destroyed and saved Hyrule at the same time! Oh goddesses. Impa knew there was something about suspicious him. She knew it!"

Zelda's voice grew more hysterical and her eyes went wild with fright. Everything that had happened that day suddenly hit her very hard and she felt like laughing and screaming at the same time. Nabooru clutched the princess's arms in an effort to keep her still, but Zelda threw her off.

"Fate is a cruel master indeed! I'm…I'm to be married to Ganondorf himself; and there's no way I can possibly escape! Dear goddesses, what am I to do?" she cried, and fell to her knees.

Nabooru gathered the defeated woman to her. An odd kind of maternal instinct overtook her actions, and she cradled Zelda in her arms, not understanding her ravings at all. "They don't know you're here. There's still a chance we can get you home, Zelda. Calm down. It's all - "

"No it's not all right!" Zelda barked. "Don't you understand? If I don't get back to the castle all of Hyrule will be destroyed just like it was before! If I don't reach Impa, Link can't be revived, and Ganondorf will kill my father! He must have found out that my father tricked him. Oh, goddesses, we're all doomed. If he's waiting at the entrance there's no way we can escape. I'll be forced to marry him, and…and he'll take away my Triforce!"

"What are you talking about, Zelda? Get a hold of yourself!" Nabooru said raising her voice. Zelda stopped immediately, startled by the outburst, and stared up at the Gerudo.

"What has become of you?" Nabooru said pitifully. Where's the calm, defiant girl that disguised herself as a Sheikah to hide from Ganondorf for seven years? Where's the cunning princess who outwitted the King of Evil and all his minions? Where's the fearless warrior that watched over the Hero during his quest? What has made you retreat into this pathetic, cowering woman who has no hope in the world?" Nabooru paused and looked down at the trembling princess. "What have you become, Zelda?"

"I-I don't know - "

A screeching chortle penetrated the stunned silence and suddenly Twinrova burst through the doors. They sat on their hovering brooms, leering at the two women crouching on the cold stone floor. Their wrinkled, grinning faces loomed in front of them, an evil stench hissing in their breath as they sniggered and squinted at their prey. Nabooru instinctively moved in front of Zelda, holding her arm as she handled her sword in her other hand. She grimaced as an eerie memory washed over her. This had been in this very spot she had been standing the day Twinrova had stormed the fortress to take her to the Colossus.

"Give us the princess, Nabooru! We know it's her so don't try and hide! We can sense her Triforce! Give her to us and we won't hurt you!" Kotake squealed.

Nabooru smirked. "You think I'll let you take her?"

"You can't fight us! We'll take you as easily as we did before!" Koume jeered.

Nabooru growled, knowing the full extent of their true power. There was no possible way she could defeat them single-handedly without the Mirror Shield. There was only a short amount of time before they would both be captured. Nabooru knew it.

"The first chance you get, run like hell!" she hissed to Zelda. And with that she charged forward, arching her sword above her head, ready to smash it downward.

But the witches were too quick. They easily dodged to the side, sailing to the left and right on their brooms. However, Nabooru anticipated their movements, and thrust the power of her vertical swing into a horizontal crescent, cutting the air diagonally around her. Koume shrieked as the blow struck her in the back. The witch careered forward, thrown clear off her broom. Nabooru ran forward and lunged after Kotake, but fell short by a few steps. She stumbled and fell over her footing as Kotake made an abrupt swerve. A ball of fire suddenly came from her left and Nabooru barely had enough time to shield herself and deflect it with her sword. She cringed as the scorching embers dissipated over the sizzling blade and burned her face. Koume in the meanwhile had picked herself up off the floor and had begun hurling raging fire spells across the room. But Nabooru sprang forward and pulled another sword from the wall where it hung ornamentally.

All this time Zelda had remained rooted to the floor still shocked from Nabooru's harsh words. It was true, and she could see it with a clarity that she had never possessed before. Ever since Link had died she had shrunk back into immaturity, hiding behind the morals and tempers of a child. If something untoward happened she would have moaned and cried about it. She immediately thought of the shame and embarrassment she must have brought upon herself, and regretted her behaviour instantly. Yet she struggled to bring herself to act differently. It was always so much easier to shout and rage about in a temper than to think rationally.

Nabooru's feet scuffed and slid over the floor and she cried out as Kotake's icicles struck her hand, freezing her fingers around the hilt of the sword. It spread all up the blade and shattered into tiny fragments. Zelda suddenly realised her position. Nabooru was fighting for her. All the Gerudos had fought for her. It was time she did something for them. She held her own sword tightly in her hand and took her chance to escape. Quietly, still acting in a state of innocent shock, she set her mind to conjure the words of Farore's Wind. As if she had never been there, Zelda vanished from the room.

She travelled as fast as possible, heading straight to the stables at the front of the fortress. Releasing herself from the spell, she leaped up onto the horse nearest her and dug her heels into its flanks. The horse whinnied and galloped out into the setting sun of the hazy afternoon. Zelda rode down to the desert gates, and made a direct course for the Colossus. It was the only place she could go, and her only chance of escape was to lose them in the vast expanse of the desert. She only hoped that Nabooru would be able to hold out long enough for her to get a good head start before Twinrova realised she was gone.

Zelda cracked the reigns again and again, completely exhausted her horse by the time the Colossus rose above the skyline. It dawned on her that this horse was unusually small and was no where near as powerful or as thrilling as the beast she had ridden before. Her heart sunk; she had picked a mare. Zelda cursed herself for being so hasty, and she began to wish she had taken just that little extra sliver of time to pick one of the larger, more powerful stallions. At the speed she was going at it wouldn't be much longer before this small horse would stop completely.

A sudden thought entered her head. Where would she go? From what Link had told her the Colossus had been a dead-end. Zelda had trapped herself already. She panicked, but still rode blindly into the early stages of the evening sandstorms. The wind was beginning to pick up now, twirling the gold grains in its hands as if they were partners on a dance hall. She racked her brains for a plan, trying to remember the exact description Link had once told her. Yet no matter how hard she searched her memory, nothing Link had said was of any use. Her mind instantly became clouded with fearful images of Twinrova seizing her from behind.

But there was something. She knew someone had told her something…and instead she found it was Nabooru. She vaguely remembered her telling her that there was a land that extended far beyond the Colossus, only that it was too barren and rugged for anyone even think of inhabiting. At the very end of the flat plateau there were steeply forested hills on all sides that led down to the very edge of Hyrule's border, where the cold winter winds ended their journey across the most southern border.

The momentary rejoice then fell back into devastation. Her horse surely wouldn't make it. She could already begin to feel its body heave against her legs. There was no chance of her escaping. Ganondorf must have seen her come this way. It wouldn't be long before she'd be caught and probably killed on the spot. They would catch her before she even reached the Colossus at this rate. But another uncovered memory renewed her hope. There were Gerudos stationed at the Colossus! They must have horses tethered somewhere; it would be impossible to cross the desert on foot in the heat of the day.

There was still a chance. She knew there was a chance. She wouldn't let herself believe anything else. Zelda smiled coyly. She knew that she would be eternally grateful to Nabooru for many years after this, for both her words and for opening her eyes. Privately she had often wondered what had become of that strange, courageous girl of her past. Even in the darkest of times that girl had stood strong against the terrors of the world. Zelda resolved that the same girl was to be born again. If nothing else, it was her duty as the princess of Hyrule to save her people. It had come in the cruellest of ways, but this was her trial to prove her worth. She would get to Hyrule Castle, even if she had to take the harshest, most indirect route to get there. Zelda could already feel confidence brewing inside her, and she snapped the reigns again, urging her horse on toward the great Colossus of the desert.

AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. All your comments made me so happy:D I'm sorry to say that, as you can see, this is gradually coming to a close ;; I have exams coming up soon, so I might take a bit longer in updating, but I'll try to get a chapter out in May, if not the very beginning of June. I promise that the first week of June will be the lastest (I have a week holiday then). Gah, it sounds so far away! Hopefully I'll be able to update before that. Till next time:D

serenitythefaierikin: Yeah, I have a terrible habit for cliff-hangers X3 I'm terrble! I'm glad you liked the last chapter. That was definately my favourite so far. But I had to go over and over it to make sure it was right.

Some Say the World will END.: Thank you! The plot has actually changed hugely from what it originally was. I'm happy that this one is turning out so well. Hopefully the end will be just as good.

Hououza: Yeah, despite the TV series being the ultimate in cheese, it's great fun :D. Glad you liked chapter 9. I even let my friend read it to see whether it was okay. I really wanted that one to be perfect because it was so important, and fluffy XD

vladimir the hamster: Thank you! I feel honoured that you think of my writing that way :) You'll be a devout Zelink follower by the end of this. I shall consider myself a failure if you aren't XD

Forlorn Rain: No worries! I'm guilty of the same crime XD Thank you so much for your words. I'm inspired to do even better knowing that I inspire you. hugs :)

Vampiress24: Yay! I achieved perfection!Thanks!

Sage of Hyrule: Glad to see you again :D I almost thought you'd abandoned me. Just kidding XD Their encounter was real though, only cut short. What you said sums up their situation exactly: "So close yet so far apart", and I'll try my hardest to give them a happy ending. Although there are a few problems I need to sought out. It might be a rather tragic happy ending, but I'l try to make it a happy...happy ending Oo;

Mar Specter: Thanks! And thank you for reviewing too!