Tairyn blinked. A second ago he was asleep, yet now he was awake. Something must have woken him up. And then Tairyn noticed something strange.
His roof was gone.
Instead of looking up at a thatched roof, he was now staring straight up at the grey sky. That itself was strange, because Hyrule rarely had a grey skies during summer. He blinked again, and then realized that his entire house was gone.
He was lying in the middle of a dirt road, surrounded by large willows. He began to sit up, and realized that he wasn't in Hyrule at all. Tairyn wondered if he was dreaming, but before he could pinch himself, he noticed a large, silver object in front of him.
He stood all the way up, and began to slowly walk to it. Almost immediately, Tairyn realized that the object was an old man. At least, that's what it looked like. He seemed to glow faintly, and his robes and beard were all silver. The robe seemed to reflect the non-existent sun into Tairyn's eyes. Tairyn blinked again, then decided he must be dreaming.
Tairyn began to walk closer to the man. If it was a dream, it was a very odd dream. He could swear that he felt the dirt beneath his boots. Was this not a dream, but witchcraft? But then he remembered that he didn't go to bed fully dressed, as he was now.
The old man in front of him didn't seem to have visible eyes, yet Tairyn felt like he was being stared down. There was something weird about the dream. It was something small, something that he couldn't find, but he knew that something was different.
And then he heard the scream.
It was feminine, yet seemed to come out of the man itself. But as Tairyn heard it, the man looked up, and Tairyn saw his eyes.
Suddenly, everything was gone. For a second there was blackness, and then the familiar sight of Tairyn's thatched roof sprang up.
"Sir?"
Tairyn blinked. Everything was out of focus, but he could tell that there was a man in his room. Tairyn's eyelashes beat away the blurriness, and then he turned his head to look at him.
The man was obviously a servant. His clothes and hair were greasy, and matted with dirt. He didn't have any shoes, showing his callused feet. He was rubbing his coarse hands together. Plus, he addressed Tairyn as sir.
"Message for you, sir."
Tairyn blinked. While he had managed to take in a visual profile of the servant, his mind was still on that dream, and the scream that woke him up.
"Who screamed?" Tairyn muttered. Light shone through his glassless windows, but he still felt like it was early in the morning.
"Screa..screamed, sir? No one was screaming." The man answered, giving Tairyn a confused look. He then quickly added,
"I have a message for you, sir."
"Where is it?" Tairyn asked, slightly embarrassed that he asked who screamed. It was a dream, you idiot. A dream.
"It's a speaking message, sir. You are to report to the Hyrule Castle at once, sir. The Royal King's brother asks for you."
That made Tairyn jump up, loosing any sense of tiredness, and completely shoving the dream out of his mind.
"Lord Attero? The King's brother asked for me?"
"Yes, sir. He requires your speaking skills. I'm Hwygwydd, his loyal servant." He answered dumbly. Tairyn realized that strangely the man must have taken pride that he was the servant to the King's brother. Looking closer, Tairyn could see that for some reason, the man looked scared.
Tairyn slid off of his bed, put his pants on, and then grabbed a faded blue shirt.
"Did you get the message, sir?"
Hwygwydd was still there, staring at him. He must have been waiting to be dismissed.
"Yes, I got the message, and you don't have to call me sir, Hwygwydd. I am no higher birth then you. And why are you so scared?" Tairyn replied, yanking his shirt over his body.
"Did you not see it, sir?" Hwygwydd answered back, dumbfounded. He ignored Tairyn's request to stop calling him sir.
"See what?" Tairyn asked, as he grabbed his pair of cracked, leather boots.
"Outside, sir. The light…" the servant answered, and then pointed outside Tairyn's door.
Tairyn froze. The light? What the hell does that mean?
Slowly, Tairyn walked over to the door, his boots now on, and then he cracked it open. Tairyn peered out, but saw nothing that seemed wrong. He pushed it open some more. Nothing.
Suddenly, he crashed into his door, slamming it open. For a split second he still saw nothing wrong, but then his eyes caught the light.
A large, blazing fire was burning on the Iaur mountain range. A mountain was on fire. Or at least, it looked like it. How could anything else explain where the light came from? It was daylight, and the Iaur mountain range was several scores of miles away, yet they could still see the light.
Tairyn stared at it. What could have possibly caused such a thing? An entire mountain on fire?
"Hwygwydd, why did Attero want me?" Tairyn asked, his eyes perplexed by the fire.
No one answered. Ripping his eyes away, Tairyn saw that Hwygwydd was gone. He had run off.
Was this why Lord Attero summoned him? It might have been, although Tairyn couldn't tell why. He was a translator, and that was it. He did have some small skill with a bow, as most men did, but if Attero wanted an archer, why didn't he just send for one of the actual longbow men?
There was no use if thinking about it. He would just have to get there and find out. Tairyn began to walk to the Hyrule Castle, which towered over everything else in the city.
It was not a far walk, but Tairyn constantly stopped, glanced at the large fire, and then start walking again. Most people of the town were staring at it too, wondering what it was. Several people swore that it was dragons, while others claimed that Din herself had landed on the mountain range. It made Tairyn nervous, although he mainly shrugged it off. He did not need to listen to peasant gossip.
It was another five minutes before he reached the large, curtain wall that surrounded the castle. There were two, large metal gates, that were lifted upwards, followed by a gigantic oak gate. If the castle was ever attack, the two metal gates would be lifted, and once the enemy was at the actual gate, the two gates would be closed, trapping them inside.
Those two gates were lifted now, and the narrow passage under the wall that led to the third gate was only guarded by two, burly guardsmen. They wore polished plate armor, and fancy, polished helmet, that contained two large wings that spread outwards, the symbol of the Hyral dynasty. Each carried a large, red longbow, along with a spear, which was attached to their back.
As Tairyn approached, they pushed the top of their longbows in between them, creating an X in his path.
"What is your business inside these grounds?" The guard on the right said, his voice incredibly deep
"Lord Attero summoned me. I am Tairyn, the translator of Hylch."
He tried to make himself sound impressive, but he doubted that it worked. The guards just stared at him for over a minute. He was uncomfortable, but did not know what to say. Maybe he should mention Hwygwydd?
"Hwygwydd was th-"
"You may pass" the left guard said, interrupting Tairyn. They pulled their longbows back to the upright position.
Tairyn nodded, and then began to walk inside. He paused in front of the closed Oak gate, not sure what to do, but then the gate opened without a word from the guards.
"You are Tairyn?" said a voice close to him. Looking around, Tairyn saw that it was another guard, although this one did not look as impressive as the ones guarding the gate.
"Yes, I am. Lord Attero …" Tairyn was again cut off, as the guard then hastily said,
"Yes, yes, I know. Follow me."
The guard began to walk to the large keep. Tairyn hurriedly ran after him, not wanted to be confronted by the guards again.
They walked to another gate, which was once again opened without a word from anyone. Inside was a large, stone hallway, with a long stretch of red carpet spread across the floor. On the walls were many skilled paintings, mostly showing religious scenes, but a few showed famous battles, or prominent Kings.
There was a door at the end of the hallway, along with many separate entrances on the side of the walls. Tairyn and the guard walked into one of the left, which led to a stairway. They walked up the curving path, to enter into another hallway, with another door, and another stairway.
Tairyn lost track of where he was going, and simply followed the guard. None of them said a word, until after a few minutes, they reached another hallway, although this one only had one door at the end. There was another carpet, but this one was blue, with gold threads at the end. There were also paintings, but they just showed historic battles or famous kings. The door at the end was huge, decorated with many carvings of religious scenes.
"The Lord Attero waits for you in there." The guard said, and then walked away.
Tairyn was nervous. He was about to meet a Lord, the brother of the King. He had never even seen Lord Attero. The only nobleman he had seen was Prince Link during a speech, but that was over a year ago. Tairyn suddenly realized that he was wearing nothing but simple peasant clothes, with no jewelry or anything fancy on him.
But, surely Attero did not expect him to be fancy? After all, Tairyn was not above peasants. He made up his mind. Gritting his teeth, Tairyn waked to the door, and opened it.
The door led to a circular room. In the middle of the room was a hefty wooden table, finely polished. The room had windows that were covered by large, crimson drapes. The floor was once again carpeted, although this time with red and gold. There were two men sitting at the table, both looking incredibly rich and powerful. One of them looked up at Tairyn.
"Ah, Tairyn! At least, I presume that it is you. I do not see why my guards would let anyone else enter."
The man was tall, broad, and was handsome. He had long black hair, that he held in place with red ribbons. He had a silver circlet around his head, and wore a rich, red, wool vest. His face had a huge smile on it. Tairyn paused, not sure what to say, but then decided on,
"Yes."
He felt like punching himself.
"Good, good. Hwygwydd means well, but sometimes he grabs the wrong person. Not too smart, that one. Please, sit down."
Attero gestured to an empty chair at the table. Tairyn froze, and then walked over and took his seat.
Tairyn looked at the other man, who was busy writing something. He had long, blond hair, blue eyes, and wore a green vest, much like Attero's. His face was also incredibly handsome, much more then Attero's. The man then looked up at Tairyn, and he realized that it was Prince Link.
"You are the translator?" Link said, staring at him. He did not have the smile that Attero had, but instead had a much more serious face.
"Yes." Tairyn said again. His tongue seemed to have glued itself to his jaw.
"Ah, good. Do you want anything? Hungry? We will be here a while." Link said, and suddenly his face switched. He had a smile, and his face seemed like he was actually happy that Tairyn was there, as if they were old friends.
"No, I'm fine." Tairyn said, uncomfortable with Link's face.
"You sure? We will be here for some time." Link said, with his face now full of concern. Tairyn would have thought that Link was faking his look, if it wasn't for his eyes. They seemed to invite him to confidence, and seemed to tell him that Link meant good.
"I'm sure, thank you." Tairyn replied; glad that he could now put several words together.
"Alright then. Let's get to business. Attero, do you wish to explain first? I have to finish this." Link said, pointing to his writing.
"Sure, sure, nephew." Attero said happily, as Link dipped his quill into a bottle of Ink, and began to write again.
"Now then, Tairyn, I assume that you have seen the fire?" Attero asked
"Yes." Tairyn said, although puzzled that Attero would ask him about that. What would he know about it?
"It is no fire. It is a beacon. Have you heard of the beacon system?" Attero asked again, his smile now fading, to be replaced by a more serious look.
"Beacon? No, I have not." Tairyn replied, although still puzzled. Why was there a beacon?
"Very well, then. Around a thousand years ago, give or take a few hundred, Hyrule was in contact with the Kingdoms across of the Iaur mountain range. We set up the beacon system to send messages, although it was rarely used. We had certain birds, which were trained to fly to great amounts of light. We would tie our messages to the bird, and so send it on its way. However, Western Kingdoms were destroyed some hundred years ago. We do not know why, nor is it important."
Link brought his head up to look at Attero for a second, but then went back to writing. Attero ignored him, and continued.
"We then adapted the beacon system for use amongst ourselves, the Southern Kingdoms. We used it to send messages, or to call for aid from other countries. This was when we were at peace. However, as you know, we have not had peace for several hundred of years. Because of this, the beacon became useless. We decided to use it as a place to put our old veterans, and it soon became a thing of honor. To be a Warrior of the Beacon is a gift that most warriors would die for. And trust me, many do die for it." Attero said, his face now grim. He scratched behind his left ear, and then continued.
"And now the beacon is lit again. Why? We do not know. As you most definitely know, Hyrule is at the northern tip of the Southern Kingdoms. And yet none of the other kingdoms have lit their beacons, and we gave no order to light our own."
Link finished writing during Attero's explanation, and now added,
"We do not know why it was lit, but we have several theories. The most prominent among them is that the beacon was accidentally lit. Others claim that they must have seen something, and so thought that it was another beacon. We do not know for sure, and that is where you come in. If another beacon was lit, they would have sent a message. Your job will be to translate it."
Tairyn froze. He could not find anything to say. Him? Just himself?
"You will not, however, go alone. I assume that you have heard of the Gerudo's failed attempt on Prince Link's life?" Attero asked, leaning back in his chair.
"I have heard rumors." Tairyn said. He was glad that he was not alone, but he still felt like something was off.
"The Gerudos are getting too rowdy. Their activity has been increasing, and recently we had reason to believe that they have infiltrated us." Attero said.
"We had some suspicion that they had planted a spy amongst us for a while, but we had no definite proof until the assassination attempt on my life." Link said, rolling up the parchment he wrote on, and then continued, "I did not ride out with banners and trumpets blazing. Yet they still knew exactly were I was going, and were I was at the time. I would have been killed if it was not for one brave recruit, who is now actually at the Beacon."
"And now we have reason to think that they might try and reach the beacon before us. Whoever the spy is would have surely would have told them about it, and they will probably learn that we are sending out a messenger to reach it. And so, you will go with around two score of soldiers. Half of them are Longbow men, and the other half men-at-arms. You will be well protected. In fact, that is what Link is writing now" Attero explained, and suddenly he smiled again.
"Do not worry, Tairyn. We doubt that you will find any resistance. The guards are just there incase someone gets a little too bold."
Tairyn did not say anything. He was stunned, and simply sat there. Attero's smile turned into a frown at Tairyn's silence, but Link's face was one of patience. It took Tairyn several minutes of awkward silence, before he asked,
"Whe..when will I leave?"
"Tomorrow morning, probably. Maybe in the afternoon? We do not know for sure. I trust that you have some skill with the bow? We can equip you with one, along with some armor, if you wish. Not that we expect you to need them. However, we can deal with that later. I am now afraid that we come to the tedious part." Link said, and pulled out another piece of paper.
It was tedious, and took several hours. Link read each and every name of the men that would be going with Tairyn, to make sure that he was no quarrel with them. After that, Attero pulled out some more pieces of paper, and made Tairyn translate them. He would then check the translations with another sheet of the words in Hylian. He would then make Tairyn translate words from Hylian into other languages.
Around halfway thought the ordeal, Hwygwydd came into the room, carrying several plates of food. Even though Tairyn said before that he did not want anything, he found that he had a plate anyways. Tairyn ate it, and was surprised at the flavor. While the meal was only bread, ham, and some wine, the bread was cooked with honey, while the ham was baked with herbs and rare salt.
It took over five hours before Tairyn was done. After the translations, Attero gave him a speech that took over twenty minutes, mainly about how important his mission was. He was then taken out of the room, and placed into the practice grounds, where several archers were waiting for him. They gave him a bow, and then tested his skill. He had no shot a bow in over three years, and forgot the strength needed. The bow required over 100 pounds of strength to pull the string back with one hand, and Tairyn was a little ashamed that he lost the strength, for the Longbow was Hyrule's chief weapon. Hyrule alone was able to produce the thousands of bowmen needed to bring kingdoms to their knees. A trained archer could hit a man from over 200 yards away, with enough force to pierce the strongest mail. Only the new plate armor could deflect arrows, and plate was incredibly expensive and rare.
It took Tairyn over an hour before he could hit a target 150 yards away, and the archer's decided that it was satisfactory. It wasn't until then that Tairyn could leave.
He walked back to his house. The beacon was still lit, and in the growing darkness, Tairyn could make out some individual flames.
He fell asleep the second he landed on his bed.
