In Keeping Secrets of Torn Hyrule

No songfic on this one. I've decided to try and wean myself off that for two reasons. Number one, because I imagine that to those who do not follow or appreciate Coheed and Cambria, the lyrics are little more than a distraction. Second, it's actually a good writing exercise for me, because I don't rely on a storyline for the chapter dictated by the lyrics. It's stretching my creativity and imagery skills to write this. Although that may be a little boasting, because many people have never done a songfic in their lives and write just fine.

ANYway. On to the chapter.

Chapter 3: The Rise and Reform

There were perhaps four hours to go before dawn spilled its scarlet light over Hyrule's eastern horizon. The goddesses finished their fateful work and departed once again for the realm that only they knew.

Sweet wakefulness and life caressed the face of a man sitting in the loft of a barn. He awoke to their gentle touch and allowed his eyes to swim into focus as his body remembered how to use them. Testing his limbs and flexibility, he sat up and stretched out. He felt lithe and sinewy, and his joints were smooth. He could bend halfway over backwards, and he felt a hidden strength pulsing in his muscles. He pushed himself off the floor with one arm and slid down the ladder to the floor, gripping it only by his knees to test himself.

The hard soles of his tough boots smacked on the stone floor as he remembered how to control his weight while walking. He pulled open the door as residual memories began to gather. He was at a ranch. He had fallen in battle, slain by an evil… thing. He had come reborn as deep inside he had known he would. His name… what was his name?

He could remember the names of others. Zelda, his protector. Ganon his enemy. Malon, his love. Were the two women still among the living? Had Ganon's claw reached even them now?

The man's feet carried him out of the ranch through the desolate fields. Ghostly eyes watched him, but did not dare to approach to taunt this man as they normally would.

He stood on a precipice that overlooked a westward flowing river. Only the faintest hint of light was whispering through the sky, painting it navy blue.

The man turned and looked over the land that he knew again as Hyrule. The signs of destruction were everywhere. Fire was still visible over a small town far to the west. Liquid rage began to bubble and burn in the pit of the man's stomach, spreading to his mind, which was working still at lightning speed to recover the details of his life.

The anger forced its way up his chest into his throat. Unable to contain it, he threw back his head, opened his mouth and let fly an unearthly sound. It was a high-pitched scream that told of no terror, only fury. It was unlike any shout made by other men. It was the sound of a bird of prey on the hunt, mixed with the primal shout of an ancient being chasing an animal.

As the crowing sound echoed off the mountain and forest walls of Hyrule Field, crows across the grassland suddenly awoke from sleep, turning their heads to point their beaks in the direction of the sound. One by one they took off, hovering on their wings and soaring over thermal updrafts until they reached the man clad in flexible armor. They gathered at his feet, looking unblinkingly up at his face.

He smiled. He had called, and his new faithful soldiers had come.

He was a man reborn, whose footsteps would soon cause an earthquake of panic in the homes of those who opposed them. He would be known by his unique battle cry.

He would be called The Crowing.

Halfway across the field, back in the confines of Lon Lon Ranch, the crowing of the risen hero echoed off walls and into windows until it hit the ears of a beautiful red-haired woman with the force of a truncheon being smashed into her head. She sat bolt upright and stared at the open window, gasping to make her air flow catch up with her racing heart.

Cautiously, as if the sound had been the touch of a beast and she was afraid of its presence in the room, Malon swung her legs over the bed and stood up. She crept to the door, realizing how useless this would be if the cry had wakened her father Talon (Ingo, exposed as a traitor long before, had fled to Ikana Canyon, on the eastern outskirts of Termina to the southeast). Silently she padded down the stairs and out the front door to the barn. Once inside and not having to worry about sound, she dashed to the ladder to the loft and hurled herself up it. The bed of straw Link had been in was empty.

Malon performed the three-pointed equivalent of crossing herself for the Triforce and uttered a quick oath to the Goddesses. She slid back down the ladder and was about to open the wooden door when it swung open itself, knocking her backward. She scrambled to stay on her feet but fell, barely checking her fall on her hands. Quickly, Malon got back to her feet and stood behind the door, ready to throw a punch if someone came through.

There was a blur of motion and suddenly there was a man behind Malon, grasping her arms with one arm so she could not struggle and holding the other arm tight around her throat, threatening to choke her. She kicked backward at the man's shin, but her foot only met a hard armor.

"…Mal… Malon?"

The words were spoken slowly and with a trudging quality, as if the speaker were unused to articulating sounds and only recently figuring out how. She turned her head and the arm at her throat loosened.

When her eyes met those of her captor, she gasped and suddenly fell to crying, turning and tightly embracing the man. Her convulsions jolted his body as well and he gently returned her hug, running one hand down her fiery mane.

After a few minutes, Link heard Malon's breathing soften and the gentle sound of her tears hitting the stone floor ceased. Her voice was still hoarse as she whispered to him,

"I thought I lost you."

Link's control over his tongue and throat was nearly back to normal as he spoke. "I'm here."

Malon looked into his face again. It was of the same shape, somehow childlike, yet now with a cruel slash of a mouth and eyes that appeared to glow white. The features softened into a content expression as he looked into her eyes.

"You're different," she said in a tone as if she were commenting on the weather.

"It's the price I had to pay."

She smiled weakly, and in doing so allowed him to return one. Standing a little taller, she kissed him on the cheek. He almost recoiled as if he had forgotten what the kiss was, then regained control.

She hugged him tighter, and for a while they stood there together, a wall against the flood of evil that Ganon had brought into the land.

End of Chapter 3

Ahhh yes. Joy. I'm done. Now back to schoolwork.