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X A MILLION BAJILLION KAJILLION.
Okay, just had to make that clear.
Chapter Six:
"Keep Off the Grass"
Training began soon after.
"Faster!" Impa bellowed. As it turned out, she was a very strict instructor. Surprise, surprise.
Eric was dripping with sweat as compared to Impa. She had just given Eric a smack on the behind with her sword. He staggered out of her reach, grasping his sword more tightly in his hand. They were out on the training grounds, where Impa was giving Jennifer and Eric crash courses on fighting, horseback riding, and any other skill they might need for their journey.
Eric breathed deeply to gather his strength before going into a guard position. He and Impa were having a bout of sword fighting to gauge Eric's ability. Since Jennifer didn't know the first thing about sword fighting, she had no idea what was going on, but everyone else present was impressed with Eric's natural skill with the blade. In fact, it was almost unnaturally natural.
Still, it was not enough to beat Impa. When Jennifer asked Zelda why they were receiving training in the fighting arts from her former nursemaid, the queen simply laughed. Her nursemaid happened to be the last of the Sheikah, a clan devoted to the protection of the royal family. The clan was comprised of the greatest warriors Hyrule had ever seen.
After Eric and Impa had gone enough rounds to satisfy the Sheikah nursemaid, Impa turned to Jennifer.
Jennifer gulped and took a proffered practice sword. She stepped opposite Impa and realized, not for the first time, that she was a truly intimidating woman. After many hits sure to become bruises, Jennifer hobbled off the practice field, cursing long and elegantly. Eric smiled at her as he handed her a cup of water. She gulped it greedily.
"Don't look at me like that," she said.
"What? I wasn't looking at you," Eric replied.
"Yes, you were. It's not funny."
Eric gave her a long look.
"Not that funny," she grumbled, walking off. "It's not my fault the Goddesses didn't bless me with mad sword skills."
Eric grinned and shook his head before heading back to the practice fields. Impa drilled him for the rest of the day as Jennifer was taught the basics of close combat, hand-to-hand and even with daggers. At first, she was instructed on the use of a sword, and Jennifer never realized swords were so heavy. Eventually, Link gave up trying to teach her any advanced moves, after even Link had to admit her skills were mediocre. Instead, they moved on to some simple moves she could use against opponents twice her size. Jennifer even managed to throw Link a few times, but she suspected that he had gone easy on her. Really easy. Link also taught her how to use a bow and arrows, and Jennifer proved she wasn't too bad, at least better than she was with a sword. Eric, however, outclassed her significantly at everything, much to Jennifer's chagrin. She knew it had to be the work of the Goddesses; how else could he be so freakishly adept with weapons he had never held in his life until now?
Finally, the two were acquainted with their new mounts.
"This," Impa said, "is Chezantin." She indicated a brown gelding she held by the reins in her left hand. "And this is Faedra." She pulled a little on the reins of a bay mare to her right.
Chezantin immediately stuck his muzzle in Jennifer's face, sniffing her. She pulled back and put her hand up to stroke him.
Impa's eyes crinkled with mirth.
"He already likes you," she said. "He's yours, then. Eric, you take Fae." She handed each of them the reins and continued, "These are two of the finest horses Hyrule has to offer."
The two of them were taught the proper way to mount and sit in the saddle. They learned how to direct a horse when both hands carried weapons, how to saddle and unsaddle their mounts, and how to rub down and take care of a horse properly.
By the end of it, Jennifer and Chez had bonded spectacularly. So attached was Chez to his new mistress that when Eric dismounted and walked over to talk to Jennifer, Chez defended her from his advances by giving Eric a little bite on the arm.
"Ow!" Eric said, clutching his arm. Faedra gave a whinny of protest to Chez's treatment of her new master. "Your horse bit me!"
Jennifer stifled a laugh.
"Good boy," she said, grinning widely.
Everyone else sputtered a laugh.
"Not that funny," he grumbled.
They spent all day learning the things it took a normal warrior a lifetime. It was difficult to remember, but between the two of them they managed fairly well. Jennifer and Eric left the training grounds that evening sore and utterly sick of medieval weapons.
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"Wow," Jennifer said.
"What?"
"It feels like we've been here forever, but it's only been less than a week. Everything's moving so fast."
Eric's brows furrowed. "Do you think that, you know, the days have gone by in—in our… world?"
"I hope not." Jennifer leaned on her elbows and said, "It would be a bitch explaining to everyone where we've been all this time."
Eric gave her a crooked smile. "Yeah."
The two of them were sitting on Eric's balcony again. They were to depart the next morning; servants were expertly packing supplies for them in the background. Jennifer would have happily packed her own things, but Zelda had insisted that the servants do it. Her reasoning was that they knew what they were doing and Jennifer and Eric, well, didn't.
"As if it's that hard to pack crap," Jennifer had said, but now she was seeing what Zelda had meant. The servants managed to stuff the tons of things they could possibly need into saddlebags the horses could actually carry.
The servants also laid out Jennifer's and Eric's new threads. Rather than the skirt and bodice number Jennifer had been wearing, she was now the proud owner of an ensemble to put Aragorn to shame. She had a button-up shirt, deerskin jerkin, and dark green, knee-high breeches that she tucked into brown leather boots. When Jennifer tried on the outfit in front of the mirror, she couldn't help but feel like an extra from The Princess Bride. But it was comfortable and supposedly functional, so she went with it. She saw Eric's outfit lying on the bed, and noticed that his wasn't much different.
The sun hung low in the sky as Jennifer and Eric watched wistfully, each of them lost in their own thoughts.
Suddenly, the sound of alarm in the village reached their ears. Jennifer pulled her head up. Out on the horizon was another Mordeth. Plus a couple hundred of his friends.
Jennifer's jaw dropped, and she could feel Eric's gasp of incredulity next to her. The line of Hands of the Shadows was slowly approaching the gate as the soldiers in the village prepared for battle. The townspeople rushed inside their houses, barricading themselves indoors.
The terrible army marched slowly, too slowly, towards the wall of the village. The mass of Hands consisted of all the horrible types of dead. Some were short and squat, others were tall and lanky. Some were just bones and others dripped some ooze Jennifer didn't want to name. The one thing they all had in common was the despair they brought with them. Every single creature should have been dead, long dead. They should have been confined to the Sacred Realms, doing whatever it is the dead do. Instead, Jennifer thought with a grimace, something more horrible than even the dead had loosed them in Hyrule. Nature screamed against their presence. They had no right to be in the Mortal Realms.
Yet, they were here and the soldiers scrambled to their positions to defend the castle against a siege. Both Jennifer and Eric ran down to the Grand Hallway, where Zelda was once again in the middle of it all. Her band of guards encircled her as others ran around, carrying out her orders. Zelda met the eyes of Jennifer and Eric and pursed her lips.
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Eric asked.
"I am afraid not," she said sadly.
"We can fight!" Jennifer exclaimed.
Zelda shook her head.
"It is up to the soldiers of Hyrule now," she said. "It is unnatural. That the people of Hyrule must defend themselves from creatures not meant to be in our world." She gathered herself and spoke in a voice Jennifer had never heard her use before. "And they organize as well! What blasphemy pulls their strings!"
"They don't normally organize?" Jennifer said.
"They are not smart enough. If they gather in such a fashion," she gestured out to the Hands, "then it is the work of something very powerful."
Jennifer and Eric silently bowed their heads.
"Never despair," Zelda said, partly to them, and partly to herself. "There is always hope." She looked significantly at the two of them. "We will survive the night, and we will see you off in the morning."
With that, the sun dropped beneath the horizon and the creatures of the dead charged the castle.
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Jennifer, Eric, and Zelda watched the battle from the balcony of the War Room. It was perfectly situated near the top of the castle so that the monarch could view the battle below and give orders at the same time. Messengers and soldiers scrambled around in the back, occasionally asking Zelda for her orders. Zelda usually left the generals to direct their fighters, but the truly important decisions were left to the queen.
Jennifer and Eric shut out the din of the War Room and watched with horror and strange fascination the battle at the walls. The archers managed to shoot a great many of the Hands, but most of the rest were left to the swordsmen and cavalry. But it was not enough. Too many of the Hylian soldiers were gone, out fighting the monsters on the Fields and in the outlying villages. The queen's army was stretched too thin, and everyone knew it. And, so it seemed, did the Hands, or whoever was controlling them. Jennifer thought grimly of their impeccable timing, striking the castle just after the queen dispersed her soldiers, and just before most were set to return.
The worst part of it all to Jennifer and Eric was that they could not do anything. Jennifer and Eric both insisted to anyone who would listen that they could fight, but they were ignored. The two of them were too important to risk their deaths. They had unexpectedly found themselves to be the last hope of the Hylians. Though no one ever directly told them this, everyone followed them with their eyes and whispered when they passed. They were the Goddess and Destiny touched. They alone could find the Key and stop the evil flooding the kingdom.
The Hylian soldiers fought doggedly, but the tides continued to turn for the creatures of the dead. Jennifer and Eric watched with sinking feelings in their hearts, but Zelda appeared to have no emotion, her face wiped clean. The queen simply watched.
The total dark of night had finally fallen, and the soldiers and the Hands became indistinguishable in the view of the War Room. Fires lit up and danced back in forth in the distance. The sounds of the dead and dying filled the air, suffocating those watching the fight.
Suddenly, miraculously, a horn cut through the air, the pure, sweet sound of hope. Everyone in the War Room and the town turned their heads at the note. The Hylian soldiers had returned, Link at the head.
Everyone's lips parted, too filled with hope to speak. Link and the fighters charged toward the line of Hands, viciously cutting away at them with all the strength only hope and courage could bring.
The Hands were confused at being attacked on both sides and the Hylians used their momentary uncertainty to their advantage, taking down as many of the dead as possible. More Hylians fell, but even more creatures of the dead fell as the balance of the battle shifted.
Zelda clasped her hands under her chin as everyone else waited with bated breath. The battle was finally turning in their favor. Jennifer worried her lip and Eric kept his eyes on the fight. No one moved in the War Room; no one dared look away.
One by one the Hands fell. It seemed to take an eternity, but the creatures were slain, turning to dust at the swipe of a sword. The Hylian soldiers closed in on them, and all the Hands were killed, sent back to death where they belonged.
Only at the death of the last creature did the people exhale. Link, sweat-soaked and covered in blood, looked up to the War Room. His bright eyes shined when they met Zelda's and the queen smiled shakily down at him.
The aftermath of the battle was evident on the plains in front of the castle walls. Though the dead had turned to ash as they were sent back to the Sacred Realms, they left behind the bodies of too many Hylian soldiers. The wounded were taken to healers and the dead were placed in graves dug by the townspeople. It was a long night, but many were glad that they had at least lived to see it.
As the last of the soldiers was buried, the entire town stood by to watch and to mourn. Jennifer and Eric both noticed that many of the Hylians had looked to them during the burials, glimmers of hope on their faces. Jennifer met Eric's eyes; if they ever doubted before, they were certain now that they were ready for this quest.
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"Fare thee well, Jennifer and Eric," Zelda said.
The entire town had appeared to see them off. Jennifer and Eric stood in front of them, decked out in Hylian gear. Eric had a long sword buckled at his waist. Jennifer didn't really trust herself with a sword, and so had a bow and arrows on her back. What wasn't on their person was on their mounts. Chez's and Faedra's saddlebags were full of extra food, clothes, and weapons. All this was at the cost of the queen, who was determined to let Destiny take her course.
"You, too," Jennifer said, giving Zelda a hug. The queen seemed a little taken aback, but was pleased nevertheless. "Good luck," she whispered.
Jennifer turned to Link and hugged him as well. "Thanks for running into me," she said.
"I am sure I will again," he said, smiling. Link really was so very pretty.
Eric said his goodbyes and the two of them mounted up; both were much more confident on top of a horse after their lessons. They waved back at the crowd, Link, and Zelda and made their way across the drawbridge. They had talked about their route that morning. They were to go in order to the Powers, starting with the First. Since the First was given to those with warrior ways, they turned right to the Gerudo's Fortress, skirting Hyrule Field. They had been warned not to go out into the Field; they were choked with the creatures of the dead, too dangerous to cross. Instead, they had to go around and through the forests.
"Stay away from the Field," Link had said. His warning still echoed in their minds as they led Chez and Fae farther and farther away from the castle. Zelda and Link now stood on the top of the gate, watching their retreating backs. Even as the rest of the townspeople dispersed, Zelda and Link stayed up there to watch, squinting in the early morning sunlight. They stood up there for a long time, even after their last hope for Hyrule had vanished into the forest.
So, the adventure begins! And hopefully now you get a little better idea of the whole situation, the Hylians, the Hands, and why Jen and Eric are so needed.
Oh, and I couldn't help myself saying Link was so pretty. He really is. I know Jen and Eric are uña y carne, but still, sometimes Jen just needs to stop and admire the scenery.
Begin rant. Grr, this site is pissing me off. Everytime I edit a document (i.e. A/N's and everything) on this site, some of the words stick together likethis. It is really annoying 'cause I'm not doing it on purpose! I'm a stickler for spelling and grammar mistakes and it really bothers me when thishappens, 'cause I take the time to make sure I don't have any mistakes, and then this stupid site goes ahead and adds them without my knowledge or permission. Okay, sorry about that. End rant.
I may not be updating for a little while, as finals are coming up next week. Mierda. I'm swamped already. I will try as hard as I can to get something up soon, but I'm not making any promises.
Toodle-oo, my dear readers, and don't forget to review!
BB