Chapter 5

Survivor

Pain…such an unmerciful amount of pain. This is what Link awoke to sometime later. Something wet and cold was pressed against his forehead. He moaned softly.

"Sh…stay relaxed…" a soft female voice whispered soothingly.

His eyes snapped open to see a woman in about her mid-twenties sitting in a chair beside him and holing a damp cloth to his forehead. He found that he was on a small bed with his legs dangling over the end, and a blanket draped over his sore body. His surroundings were just that of a simple room, few decorations and a single window with a beam of sunshine shining through. "Where…am…I?" he asked weakly, his voice coming out hoarse and strained.

"Kakariko Village Inn," she replied simply. "Now hush, you really need to rest.

At first, Link really did try to relax…that is until the events from the previous night suddenly hit him like a blow from the Megaton Hammer. He jerked upright, startling the woman and renewing the pain.

"Silly boy, you need to relax before you hurt yourself more," the woman chided.

"Sorry…" Link mumbled, clenching his teeth to fight the pain away.

"If it matters anything to you, my name is Sasha. I believe you are Link."

"Yes…"

"You have no need to worry for you are in good hands, now just sleep."

Her voice had faded into background noise long before she had mentioned sleep, he then went out like a light, his pain and weariness too much to handle.

…

Several hours came to pass before he awoke again, only this time to voices out in the hallway.

"There's word from the town, everything up there has been totally destroyed," a deep male voice said.

"By what? How?" a vaguely familiar female voice spoke, her voice laden with concern and uneasiness…sounding like that woman…Sasha…

"We're not sure exactly…apparently it was the second attack in that area as there were fresh dead bodies strewn about as well as dead bodies that had been laying out there for quite a while. There is one survivor brought over here that we know of…we may never find out what took place as his words come out in just a meaningless jumble." the man spoke again.

"You don't think whatever happened up there could happen here…do you?"

"Honestly…It's a possibility…"

There was a hesitant silence before Sasha spoke again, "Let's sure hope not. Thank you for bringing this information to my attention, but I must go now and tend to a patient brought in by the king himself…can you believe it?"

"Wow, this patient of yours must be pretty important, you best do a good job now. Well I'll talk to you again sometime."

Link's ears picked up the sound of heavy footsteps receding away and a lighter set coming towards the room where he was. The door swung open and Sasha appeared, she seemed slightly taken aback to see him awake.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Actually yes." Link replied, the pain he had previously been feeling had thankfully died down to a dull throb.

"You recovered rather quickly then…you are very lucky to be doing so well already after having taken all those severe blows from whatever incident caused all this to happen to you…" Sasha went on. "Oh right, the king wanted to see you as soon as you were awake."

"See…me?" now it was Link's turn to be taken aback…although he was surprised to not be dead after when he had passed out in the market area…maybe the king would explain?

"That's what he requested and what kind of honest civilian denies their king such a simple request? Get dressed and I will help you get to him." she turned and left the room, closing the door behind her with a soft click.

It was then that Link realized all he wore were his white leggings and quite a few bandages. He shoved the blanket off and tried to sit up so he could stand, failing at that due to the large bandage strapped around his upper stomach, he rolled off the bed, free falling for a very short distance before hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Last time I had to get dressed was painful enough…

"You all right?" Sasha's concerned voice reached his ears from right outside the door.

"Just fine," he gritted out.

Using the side of bed for support, he somehow managed to hoist himself up to a standing position. His legs were a bit reluctant to hold him up after being idle for a while and all the injuries he had suffered. Now to find his clothes so he could get dressed. At least try to anyway…

He looked around for a little while before realizing what a total idiot he was, his clothes were hanging up on the wall directly in front of him. With slow, sure-footed steps, he went forward and pulled his clothes down. Now came the hard part of getting dressed with only one hand and other inflicted disabilities he would have to deal with for the time being.

It took him what felt like forever, but he finally got it done. Stumbling towards the door, he practically fell into it, but he was saved from colliding with it as it swung open just before he would have hit it. Only problem was, his fall didn't stop and he ended up painfully sprawled out on the hard-wood floor.

"Ow…" he muttered, trying to push himself up.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" Sasha exclaimed helping him up. On his own, his attempts to get up had been so pathetic…it was sad, yet so funny to see a man have such trouble with such a normally simple task that Sasha really had to struggle to refrain from laughing out loud. "Let's be on our way then," she managed to say calmly as she was now supporting him up.

"Where exactly is he?" Link asked, confused when he saw laughter dancing across her clear hazel eyes.

"He's here in the inn, his room isn't far from here," she explained.

Due to Link's still healing injuries, their progress was very slow, Link didn't think it wise to be taking things any faster and Sasha probably wouldn't let him anyways.

Rounding the corner of a hallway, they came before a flight of stairs. The helpless look on Link's face upon seeing this really did make Sasha burst out laughing, she just couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I don't find anything all that funny…" Link muttered bitterly.

"Sorry…I…just…hahahaha…" Sasha only went into another laughing fit.

Link huffed moodily and pulled away from her, grabbing the stair rail, he began making his way upwards.

"Ok ok, I'll stop." Sasha followed up behind him.

Once up the stairs, Link breathed a deep sigh of relief…that was another difficult challenge in his present state that was thankfully over with…now he could just dread the trip to get back downstairs.

Sasha knocked lightly on a door and a voice yelled as one used to giving orders, "Come in!" definitely the king.

Sasha opened the door and Link hobbled inside and Sasha abruptly left, shutting the door behind her and leaving Link and the king alone. Link couldn't help but notice how much bigger and nicer this room was compared to the one he had stayed in.

"Sit down," the king indicated a chair facing where he sat. Once Link was situated comfortably, which of course had been with difficulty, the king continued speaking, "Me getting you here is only returning the favor…I want you to think nothing of it in any terms associating with my daughter."

Link nodded, now he knew for sure it was the king who had gotten here somehow…

"It wouldn't be right if I had left you lying there for dead, after all, you saved my life. And if I hadn't have gotten you here, there would have been a chance for there to be no survivors from that first attack or me as the sole survivor of that whole area."

Link's eyes widened, "But what about the people who were ahead of us? Did they not get out? And what do you mean there might have been no survivors?" he questioned.

A sad look crossed the king's eyes as he began to relate what had happened, "When you had passed out, I heaved you up on my shoulder and continued along as fast as possible…There were people ahead of me, but they were all so viciously slaughtered by those horrid creatures…all just torn to shreds like that…What happened after that was quite strange actually, they looked right at you and steered clear of us."

"Zen…he did say he had wanted to keep me around a little longer because I am apparently amusing to his twisted humor…that has to be why…you remember that incident right?" Link put in.

"Of course, that means you saved my life twice…even in an unconscious state…I thank you for this as well…" the king said sincerely, but then added under his breath, "Too bad you couldn't have saved Zelda too…"

Link stiffened as what the king had last said cut him deeply, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't get to her in time…" The king hadn't expected him to hear that and stared in puzzlement at him. "I have more sensitive ears than most as the type of situations and training I taught myself through." Link quickly replied to the king's puzzled look.

The king sighed, "You shouldn't be the one apologizing, that was totally rude of me…Moving on, apparently there was another attack in the market area around when a lot of people head out there. The whole place lies in ruins…with only one man left from the second attack to tell the tale and he seems to have suffered severe head trauma…"

"Do the people not know we survived from an attack? Do you really think this Zen guy is…a god?" Link suddenly asked.

"No, they do not know and it may be wise to keep it that way…I don't really know what to think anymore about that Zen…no matter what he is, he has my daughter and he better not have laid a single finger on her."

Do the people not think it odd that the king would have arrived here before a second attack? Not to mention without Zelda… Link thought this but did not say it aloud.

"I'm with you on that…" Link said before quickly adding, "Just not the daughter part."

"How long have you and her been…together?"

"A while now…" Link replied.

"You're not of any nobility are you?"

Link hesitated, pondering whether to tell the king the truth or not. Then he decided at a time like this, the truth couldn't hurt. After all, it was a lie that had started all this. If Zelda would have known the true whereabouts of where he had received the necklace, she probably wouldn't have been so eager to wear it and they probably wouldn't be in this mess they were currently in, "I'm not gonna lie to you…I'm not of any nobility whatsoever."

The king inhaled deeply, he hadn't missed the tidbit of slang that had slipped into Link's speech, but he just ignored it, "I figured this would happen…Zelda's such a rebellious girl that it makes sense she would want to go against the laws and find a boy outside of any royal blood…"

Link had expected the king to explode, but not…be…understanding? "What? Does this mean you're ok with it?"

"It's not you two are getting married or anything…so I suppose that is a yes…for now." the king appeared pained and to really have to struggle just to say yes. "As long as she is happy."

Link breathed a sigh of relief…Suddenly loud screams rent the air from outside.

"What in the world…" the king stood and went to the window.

Link slowly got up and did the same.

What the two saw was not what you would call pleasant…

People ran about screaming like ants who had sensed a disturbance in their path. Most were pursued by the recognizable creatures that sent a sharp pang through Link's stomach in remembrance of when he had been stabbed just the night before.

They watched in horror as people were viciously massacred and ripped to shreds, something had to be done…but…what?

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A big thank you goes from me to those who have actually taken the time to review : ) THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

IMPORTANT: If you people want me to continue this then you gotta say so because more than half of the reviews I have are from a friend and my sister and of course the rest are from people who are actually willing to fill out a review and hit submit. And I'm thinkin' about takin back that thing I said about continuing despite lack of reviews because basically, I'm becomig depressed with the large hit numbers and the few reviews. I know hit numbers are not entirely accurate but here they are:

Chapter 1: 47 hits, 4 reviews
Ch 2: 27 hits, 2 reviews
Ch 3: 21 hits, 4 reviews
Ch 4: 17 hits, 3 reviews
Notice the huge difference? And consider the fact that for every chapter, 2 of those reviews are from my sister and from a close friend. Sorry if I sound desperate, but why don't you go back and compare the hit numbers to the review numbers again? I do NOT have anonymous review blocked and I never have so that is no excuse.(Of course I am beyond grateful to those who do review: ) )

-blondie91

Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda. Zen, Sasha, and any other characters be they minor or major are mine however.