Questline: The Power of One
Chapter 1.
The Awakening
I woke up under a tree in a field. The grass was a beautiful healthy green color. There was a warm breeze in the air. Everything seemed very calm and peaceful. I sat up and then proceeded to get up, when all of the sudden I noticed I wasn't alone. As I turn around there was a girl standing behind me, half hidden behind the tree. She steps out from behind the tree and asked, "Is that really you Aleks?"
I looked at her very confused. She was very beautifully dressed wearing a pink and white dress braced over with gold outlinings. She wore a gold necklace, earings, and a tiara. Her eyes were a clear sky blue color and her hair was a beautiful golden blond color. Her ears were... I fall back down in panic as I point at her shouting, "What the hell is going on here? Who are you? What are you? How do you know my name? Where am I?!"
She runs towards me and kneels down grabbing me and hugging me. She cries as she begins saying, " I can't believe your actually here!? The last time I saw you, you ran into the tower and the front entrance collapsed. We couldn't follow you so we had to go back to the camp and when we arrived back, there was a loud roar across the mountain and we saw the dragon fly over and into a portal it created with its violent blood curddling roar. I was so sure you were dead. We held a funeral with a memorial and everything. How are you still alive after all this time?"
"Woooh, woooh, woooh, lady you still havent answered any of my questions yet!" I exclaimed as I loosened her grip on me and took several steps back.
She lets go with her arms dropping down. She looks at me very confused and begins asking, "Do you really not remember me? ME? Aleks it's me Princess Zelda. Your best friend. We met a long time ago under this very tree. You were sleeping under it even then too."
"Wait, your a Princess?" I asked.
She replies, "Yes, why don't you remember any of this?"
"Please forgive me princess, but I have no memory of ever meeting you, or seeing this dragon. I dont even know where I am. The last thing I remember is going to sleep in my bed and when I woke up, I found myself under this tree." I explain to her.
She looks at me with a sad expression. Her head tilts down and to the side as she slightly turns.
"Well let's just say that even if I don't remember you, that doesn't change the fact that you still know my name even though I never gave it to you princess. So to be honest I'm still open to believing you." I tell her.
"Anyways, you seem to know me and at the moment I have no idea where I am or how I got here. So maybe if I go with you, I might buy into what your saying or I might even remember what your saying. I mean if anything, it's worth a shot, right?" I explain to her.
She turns back to look at me with a smile on her face. She begins to walk up to me and grabs my hand and pulls me, stating, "Well even if you lost your memories, that doesn't mean we aren't still friends. Come with me. My castle is this way and if your stuck here then you might as well have a room to call your own."
As she pulls me in the direction of her castle, she also says, " Tomorrow I can take you to the Cathedral. Maybe we can find some answers with the Goddesses about your memory loss and what happened to you in that tower."
Part of me was happy I could keep her spirits up, but I had little faith in this plan of hers. What god or in this worlds case, goddesses talk to their creations directly.
As we were leaving the fields, we came to a trail leading through the woods. As I stare into the woods I got a very uneasy feeling over me, but just then Zelda pulls me to look at her as she says, " Aleks, whatever you do, stay on the trail. These are known as the lost woods and whoever wonders off the trail gets lost in here and is never heard from or seen again."
As we begin our trek through the woods, I notice the air in these woods feel very different from the field we were just in. The atmosphere is very chilling. We were traveling through these woods for about seven minutes when I suddenly get this very creepy "your being watched" feeling. I let go of the princesses hand to turn around and veiw my surroundings, but I see nothing but woods in all directions.
Zelda asks, "Aleks, whats wrong?"
"Nothing?" I guessed. " I just have had this strange feeling like we aren't alone in here." I explained, but just then as I started to turn to Zelda I spot a figure far off in the woods. This figure... She's staring right at me. I turn to look to Zelda but Zelda is gone and in her place is this figure up close and personal. She is a glowing humanoid figure made up of a bright white light. All I could make out was that she looked human but she had a long flowing bushy tail and what I could only make out as cat like or animal ears. Then I heard her voice. It was a soft spoken voice repeating the words, "Come find me in the woods."
The world around me started spinning and twisting until I found myself standing on a burned and shriveled land. A huge black Dragon flew over and past me to where I saw creatures, horses, humans, fairies, and other mysterious beings standing side by side looking to me from down below a tall hill. I begin to hear a loud roar that makes the hairs on my neck stand and the ground begins to crack and rumble. Huge bursts of hot air begin to gust all around me as I see this Dragon staring down at me from the sky. Atop the Dragon is this "Dark Armored Being" surrounded by seven evil looking creatures, horses, humans, and other beings. Suddenly the "Dark Armored Beings" Dragon roared so loud and powerfully that it felt like it shook the entire planet only to be followed by flames everywhere.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I jump awake in bed shouting. I look around and think to myself, "So I made it to the castle. Was that dream real? Maybe Princess Zelda isn't all that crazy after all. And if so, I might want to stick around and do everything I can to help."
The next morning I head to the throne room where I find Princess Zelda. She glances over at me as she continues communing with her visitors. I turn over to the throne room guard and give him a nod as I ask, " Well the Princess seems busy at the moment. Could you happen to point me in the right direction to the Cathedral?"
He quickly grabs me by the arm and and takes me out of the throne room when the princess isn't looking and scolds me on how I'm not allowed in the castle without a written invitation from the princess herself. He then proceeds to drag me out of the castle and throws me down the steps and then turns around and walks back inside.
"A SIMPLE NO WOULD HAVE SUFFICED JERK!" I shouted out loud as he closes the door. After I pick myself up off the ground I noticed I caused a scene and many people were stairing at me with judgemental looks on their faces.
I shrug off their stares out of frustration and pick a direction and begin walking.
While walking, I begin to veiw my surroundings. There are so many shops, venders, stalls, and attractions. Everything seemed so great around here that it would be hard to imagine the princesses dragon story was even real. If it was, wouldn't these people be in a panic or wouldn't they have abandoned this place.
As I continue walking, I notice a young woman that looks around my age has been walking beside me for a while. She hasn't made any effort to to speed up or slow down to keep any sort of distance between us, so I spot a turn and take my first left to get away from her.
"That seems to have worked." I quietly say to myself.
"What seems to have worked?" a voice behind me asks.
I turn around only to find her right behind me staring into her bag as her hands frantically thrash through it as if she seemed to be looking for something.
"Failing to understand why your following me?" I ask hesitantly.
"I'm not following you. We just happen to be going the same way." She quickly replies.
"Oh? Then why did you stop and start talking to me? I quickly asked.
"You seemed like a nice person and to be honest you look familiar. I swear I've seen your face somewhere before." She says as she stops searching through her bag and looks at me with a smile.
"Well maybe you were one of the many people who saw me get thrown down the castle steps." I said as I laugh about it.
She looks at me in ahhh as she says, " I only know of one person who got in without a written invitation but I haven't seen him in years. I wonder how he's doing? Anyways, what were you doing at the castle?"
"The Princess and I were suppose to go to the Cathedral together, but when I went to the throne room, I noticed she was busy so I desided to ask the guard for directions and well you know the rest." I laughed.
"Ahhhhhh well anyone could have told you that would have happened. But why do you think she would want to the Cathedral with you?" She asked.
"I don't really know for sure. She told me that the goddesses might hold the key to unlocking my lost memories, but it all seems a little far fetched to me to be honest." I explain to her.
"You say she actually made these plans with you? Wow! If what your saying is really true then you are a really lucky guy to have such a beautiful princess think of you. But yeah, as of lately she has been really busy. She doesn't even really have much time for visits from friends." She explains.
"Yeah well thats not even the crazy part to be honest. She says that we are friends and that I went to take on this dragon in some tower on some mountain but when I entered the tower the entrance collapsed and she and the others couldnt follow me. Sounds crazy right?" I ask.
She stops motionless for a brief moment, speechless and shocked. Her eyes widen and then she slowly speaks the the words, "Your the legendary hero Aleks. The same Aleks who died on that very mountain?" She asked with a sarcastic and yet somewhat annoyed tone.
"Well my name is Aleks and the princess said she only assumed I was dead. No body was ever recovered. But to be honest, I'm not so sure I'm the same Aleks she thinks I am. But after she told me this, the following night I had some sort of dream or vision. Like some memory or past life. I don't know what it was, but it felt so real. So needless to say, I really don't know what to think or believe." I said.
" You know you sound crazy, right?" She says curiously.
I look at her with a smirk on my face and reply, "Well how do you think I feel? This castle, this town, this land. I dont know any of it. I have never even been here before, let alone even heard of this place before. I mean, look at your ears and then look at mine. Nobody has any ears like mine that I know of." I continue saying.
She looks at my ears and notices how the have a more round shape and then she says the last thing I expected. She says, "I just assumed that those suffered a birth defect?"
"No! Were I come from thats how our ears are naturally. Look it's clear you don't beleive me. I probably do sound crazy. I don't care to be honest. In fact I wish, no, I hope I am crazy. That would make everything going on much more simple." I state as I begin to turn around and then start walking away.
"Hey where are you going?" She shouts as I walk.
"To the Cathedral. It's where I was told I might get some answers. You don't believe me and I suspect nobody else would either, reguardless. Honestly I don't need anyone to believe in me. I just need my answers. If you want to follow me then I'm not going to stop you. If you don't want to see me anymore then you know where I will be so try avoiding that place." I shout back as I keep walking.
She begins to walk away as I continue to wander the streets of Hyrule. I stop and turn around and shout one more time to her saying, " By the way."
She turns around looking at me in what look to be more annoyance. I come running up to her as she stands there continuing to stare at me.
I catch up to her and reach into my back pocket and pull out my wallet. She looks down to my hands as she watches me pull out my United States California ID card and hand it to her. I place it in her hands and proceed to close her hand as a sign of telling her to go ahead and keep it. I tell her, " Thank you for taking time out of your day to talk to me. It was really nice of you and I really appreciate it. I'm sorry if I annoyed you. I'm just really stressed and I shouldn't have been. That I never did ask for your name."
Her annoyed look turned into a smile as she said, " My names Malon, and it really was no problem. And thank you for not staying stressed, It was kind of getting on my nerves. I really hope you find the answers your looking for, bye."
With that I turn around and walked away.
As I continue walking, I take notice of a circus tent. It was really big and I was tempted to go in but I didn't. I kept walking.
I kept walking for about twenty minutes seeing all of the sights and shops until I found myself back infront of the castle. Out of frustration I kick the steps leading into the castle. I look up to the top of the castle and wisper to myself, " I thought you said we were friends."
" Then why am I out here all lost and alone while you commune with strangers in your own home. A home I was kicked out of nearly right after I just woke up." I say to myself.
I walk over to the water fountain in the middle of town and I begin pull a penny out of my pocket. I hold the penny in my hand as I quietly say to myself, " If I'm really some great hero then why don't I remember it? If there are any goddesses out there listening to me right at this very moment, then if they can please show me the way to the Cathedral so that I could speak to them directly, that would be the greatest."
I tossed the penny into the fountain and then I turned around and sat down on the edge of the fountain.
Suddenly I notice an old man sitting down next to me. He didn't say anything. He just seem to be watching all of the birds as he pulled out crackers and crunched them up and then tossed them to the birds. The birds started scrambling to get to the crumbs.
The sound of the fountains water sprinkling down was calming. I couldn't help but feel more relaxed.
But out of nowhere there was a scream of terror. I quickly jumped up and ran down the road I heard the scream coming from. As I continued running, I couldn't help but notice everyone was running in the opposite direction that I was running.
As I ran by the last person, the road looked nearly empty except for a bunch of castle guards up ahead. As I reached them I saw what they were confronting. It was a pack of creatures holding a group of men and women hostage and they were trying to push past the guards. They out numbered the current amount of guards there.
One of the guards got scared and abandoned the others, dropping his sword as he ran for his life. Honestly I thought he had the right idea but as I looked at the hostages I noticed Malon was one of the many hostages.
Suddenly the guards started running away, one by one since they knew they were out numbered
I thought to myself, " What the hell you stupid guards? Imagine how those hostages feel."
I ran closer and picked up the sword the first guard dropped. I then ran up to the pack of creatures holding the sword, ready for a fight to the death. I stopped just infront of the pack.
Suddenly I hear Malons voice screaming, " Aleks, No! Theres Too Many Of Them! You'll Die! Your No Great Hero. Your Just A Good Person. Nothing More!"
I shout back, " Malon, thats exactly why I have to try and do something. Because I'm a good person!"
I hold the sword ready, waiting for one of them to make the first move.
One comes running at me with it's club raised and it takes a swing at me but I duck and roll under the swing and as I finished the roll, l kicked back behind the creatures knees causing it to fall to its knees and turn around with a powerful swing of the sword, seperating the creatures head from its body. I turn to look at the rest of them. They all stare me down unflinching and unaffraid.
Three more come running at me as I hear a scream from Malon pleeding me to run. They all three jump at me. As I dodge the first one letting him fall to the ground, I immediately use the sword to block the second, while simultaneously kicking the other one in mid air. I then jump and kick the one I blocked to the ground as it tries to land it's feet on the ground quickly stabbing each one of the two I just knocked down to finish them off. I then turn and swing at the one I originally dodged and we clash sword and club.
As steel and wood collide in a power struggle, I kick its knee cap in causing its leg to break and with one final swing its head flies off.
I turn to look at the rest and they look like their beginning to get riled up. I raise my hand to them gestering them to make a move.
Then suddenly, they release the hostages. All of the creatures charging me all at once. This time theres ten of them.
I begin running at them, sword drawn and ready. I quickly dive to the ground as I reach them. After rolling to my feet, I do a quick spin with the sword, breaking and cutting them down from the ankles. After one quick spin, one of the creatures still standing tries to take a swing at me but with a quick swing of the sword, I chop its hand holding the club off. I pick up the club and begin swinging both club and sword at every last one standing. Blocking, swinging, slashing, and stabbing until every last one was finished.
As the last one falls to the ground, I stand there shouting at the top of my lungs, "ANYMORE OF YOU OUT THERE THAT WANT SOME OF THIS?! I'M RIGHT HERE! COME AND GET ME! DON'T EVER COME BACK TO THIS TOWN AND TAKE HOSTAGES OR ELSE YOU'LL DEAL WITH ME!"
I drop the club. While covered in the creatures blood, I begin to turn around but just before I do, I feel someone run up from behind me grabbing me and hugging me. This person feels too small to be Malon or Zelda. I turn my head over my shoulder and look down to see whose hugging me and what do I see but a really little girl child.
I turn around and sit down on the ground and look at the child and as soon as I do she tackles me crying.
I can't help but say out loud, " Its okay. The monsters are gone. You don't have to be scared anymore. I promise I'm not angry."
I pull her away and ask, "Where's your mom or dad? Are they here?"
She points over to a woman dressed in what looks like a maids outfit who was looking at the whole scene around her in aww.
I take the little girls hand and get up and walk her over to the lady. As soon as we reach her I ask, "I'm sorry ma'am but is this your child?"
She looks at me and then down to the little girl. She quickly grabs the little girl by her other hand and says, "Little Miss Cecilia where did you go? One second your here and then your gone! Thats very dangerous, especially right after a monster attack!"
She then Looks right up at me and proceeds to scold me saying, "And you Aleks! I can't believe you went and put yourself in danger like that! The last thing we need is for you to go and die again."
Before I even get a chance to say anything, Malon comes up from behind and interupts saying, " Excuse me, Miss Tabitha? Do you know this guy?"
Tabitha then looks over to Malon and says, "Oh hello there Malon, aye, that I do. The princess found Aleks here laying under a tree in the Hyrule fields. But shortly after leaving the fields Aleks fell unconsious so we got him back to the castle and put him in a bed. But surely enough this morning I go to check on him and hes gone and vanished. The princess was mighty worried when I told her you were gone Aleks. It's best we go show her your okay."
"Wait, wait, wait. So It's true . Everything you told me when we met. It all sounded way to crazy but it's true." Malon says to me.
"First this card you gave me. This I-Dent-A-Fction card thing, and the incredible way you took on fourteen big moblins, and with Tabitha confirming everything you ever told me before." Malon continues.
"You really are the great hero Aleks." Malon says.
I look at Malon and smile saying, " Like I said, I don't know if I'm who the princess thinks I am. All I know is that after seeing that dream or vision, I might have to be, if I'm not."
