Author's Note: Why did Zelda discover the Song of Storms? Another quest that didn't fit the "direction" I want to take Hero's Path, and Zelda receiving a vision of the future kept the almost mysterious origin of the song in there. Plus, I currently hold the idea in my stories that the only magic songs are those played on the Ocarina of Time, as you will soon find out. Anyway, I need to stop before I seriously cross the spoiler line for my own story! Ready? Set? Let's go!
A Princess' Destiny
Chapter 10: The Eye of Truth
Time was flying by fast in front of Zelda. A man was going about his days in his home: eating, getting ready, picking up some artifact and leaving home, then later he would come back, set it down, eat again and go to sleep. Every day it was the same, over and over, until time came to a screeching stop, or so it seemed, but it actually slowed to normal time. A man entered the now aged man's house. Zelda looked at the table where the relic sat, and payed attention to its detail. It was a red lens of some sort, surrounded by a purple handle crafted to look like the Sheikah symbol. The lens layed next to a long wooden box.
"My time is coming swiftly," the old man said to the younger. "And the eye of truth must not pass into the wrong hands."
"What does that mean? I came to tell you that there is a massive amount of water underneath your house! If you would move to a new location, we could make a well, and this terrible drought could be over!"
"I am dying, not of thirst, but of age." The old man opened the box on the table and revealed a beautifully designed dagger. "I must die with honor. Carry on the tradition, and hide this lens, the greatest treasure of the Sheikah, in my burial place." The old man stabbed himself in the gut, tilting the dagger upward behind his ribs, and fell to the floor, bleeding on the carpet...
Zelda awoke from the gruesome dream with a throbbing pain in her head. She rubbed it and looked around herself. The ground was damp, and above her was a tunnel leading straight up to the purple sky above. She looked all around and found nowhere to go. She had fallen in the well! No way out, she backed up, trying to see more above her. Where was Impa? She tripped on a rock or a root or something and fell backward to the wall. But she fell through the wall. It wasn't even actually there! Beyond the wall was a tunnel, lined with stones with names of famous Sheikah. She recognized several names from the Book of Mudora.
She heard a voice in her head. Look for the eye of truth...
Where was it coming from? Were the dead directing her again? If so, she should follow. Last time she followed the dead, she was led straight to the Ocarina of Time.
She hurried down the path until she came to a dead end. Hoping with everything she had that the wall was fake she slammed right toward it, and charged right through again. She was now in another room. There was about two or three inches of standing water, which she walked through around the room. It was circular around a caged-in room with more tombs. Finally, on the back section of wall, she found a sign that read: "The one who will see the truth, play the song of the Royal Family".
Zelda knew the song of the Royal Family, the song Impa played for her as a lullaby. The only way Zelda would agree to take ocarina lessons was to learn the beautiful song Impa played. She put the Ocarina of Time to her lips and played the notes that put her to sleep every night for eleven years.
The water on the floor slowly drained into nothingness, and she noticed a nearby pit that had been filled with water. It drained, and she looked inside. The pit went down about five feet and there was a door. She hopped in and opened the door. Beyond was a thin tunnel she squeezed through. She couldn't help but make a repulsed sound as she passed through, with all the bugs creeping on either wall. The tunnel started getting smaller and smaller, until she had to crawl on her belly through the tiny, bug infested tunnel. Then it finally opened up to reveal a large cavernous room. She stood up and walked into the middle of the room.
When she did, she was grabbed around the waist by long-fingered hand attached to a long, pale arm that sprouted from the ground. She shrieked in terror, as a face sprouted up from the ground in front of her, devoid of eyes, ears, or tongue. Its mouth was gaping open, revealing its sharp, rotted teeth. It continued coming out of the ground until a neck followed behind. The face tilted down to face her and the neck drew it back. It made a strange hissing sound, and snapped forward. Zelda broke the grip of the hand and rolled away from the head. Both receded into the ground. Zelda ran back to the tunnel, only to find the dead hand sprout up out of the ground in front of her, blocking her exit. It snatched her again, and she heard the head come out of the floor again. She felt its cold breath on her neck, and broke the hand's grip again. She dove out of the deadly creature's area, and the large body parts receded into the ground again. She couldn't leave now, so she'd have to fight. She drew the dagger she kept in her belt.
The hand came up again and grabbed her. She let it. If she attacked the arm, she would wound the creature. If she struck the head, she could destroy it. She waited for the head to come up and draw close. It drew its head back, and she sliced the wrist of the hand. It released as the head lunged forward. She ducked down and slashed the neck. It wailed in pain and dropped into the ground.
Zelda wished Impa was here to fight for her, but now she was alone, fighting her own battles, as she should be. Impa need not fight for her, though Impa could use the shadow arts. But why couldn't Zelda?
She ran around the room to keep the hand from pinpointing her. I'm in this well because of a vision, she thought. This is where the goddesses put me. They sent me a vision to empty the well, and another to put me in it. There is something here I need. If it is the will of the goddesses, I must oblige. They know best and will take care of me.
At that moment she realized none of it mattered. The well, the creature, her own life. Everything happens as the goddesses wished it to. So why should she worry? If the goddesses were on anyone's side, it was Zelda's, not this monster's! It would have to work out.
The hand grabbed her and the creature's head appeared. The slice she made to its throat seemed to have no real effect. No blood, and the creature functioned just fine. The scratch was hardly even visible against its pale skin. She would have to remove its entire head atleast!
She could only think of one thing to remove it completely, instantaneously. She freed her hands as the creature tilted its head down to face her.
She formed the shadow hand signal, then broke it, careful to put a small amount in it, but more than last time. It drew close. She put her hands beside eachother and extended them fully forward, willing her shadow energy to her arms. Then she forced the energy out as the creature drew back. She released, and two pitch-black orbs stuck together emerged from her palms. She relinquished control of the energy and grabbed her dagger again as the creature lunged forward.
She blocked its bite with her dagger, propping its mouth open with it. It stopped completely for a moment with the dagger in its jaws and the orbs encasing its neck.
Perfect, Zelda thought. As the orbs faded, so did that portion of the creature's neck, and the head fell to the ground without so much as a sound. The hand let go of Zelda and the entire creature burst into a blue flame and incinerated.
Winds began circling the room as Zelda picked up her dagger, pleased with her new-found ability. What now? she thought. The winds grew tighter and tighter, circling the center of the room, until a chest appeared in the center of the room. The air calmed. Zelda was now curious as to what was inside the box after all the commotion of its arrival.
She walked to it and opened it. Inside was the lens from her vision. Was this all a test for the Sheikah treasure? she thought. If so, she was pleased that she was accepted as its bearer. She picked it up and looked through. Nothing strange about it. It just made everything red.
All this for this? Zelda thought.
She stuck the lens in her belt and crawled back out. She climbed out of the pit through the door, and into the circular room. She went around looking for the spot where she entered, but didn't see it. She put her hands against the wall and went around until she fell through the wall into the grave-lined hall she had walked through before.
Finally, her curiosity got the best of her, and she pulled out the lens.
"Something spoke to me about you here," she said, as if the lens was listening. "Can you see it? Can you see the truth?" She looked through the lens and saw strange, incandescent forms floating all around the passage. Each one had a face.
"They-they're ghosts!" she said. She ran down the hall at the strange sight. Seeing the forms was much different than speaking to them. As she ran, she still peered through the lens and didn't see the wall she first passed through again. She came right back to the well area and put the lens in her belt again. Impa dropped in next to her.
"How did you get down here?" Impa asked.
"I fell."
"You weren't here before!"
"Are you saying I'm lying?"
"Of course not!" Impa grabbed Zelda and jumped out of the well with her.
"Impa, look at this!" She pulled out the lens and started to gaze through it once again. What she saw greatly disturbed her.
All over the valley were those bright forms, going across from one slope to the other. All of them were much smaller than the ones in the well, and they seemed to be marching from the graveyard out to Hyrule Field. As she caught sight of this image, a hum began in her head, that turned into a loud screeching sound. She dropped the lens, and everything turned blurry. Her legs grew weak and she fell to the ground as her consciousness slipped away again...
