People are hungry for blood? There is seriously something wrong here... Over 1400 hits and only 28 reviews! COME ON, PEOPLE! REVIEW, GOD DAMMIT!

There won't be much blood in this chapter, sorry. PAY ATTENTION TO THE BOLD FONT! It's sorta like a count-down, if you will.

ON WITH THE CHAPTER! (I've had a little too much sugar, I think )

To Find The Future, Find The Past

Chapter 14

The Fall Of A Great Country

PRESENT

"…Zelda was afraid, I could sense it." Impa continued, "Even though she tried to hide it."

"I bet she would have been." Zelda muttered.

"Anyway," Impa continued, " the Hylian and Gerudo armies met outside the gates to Hyrule Castle Town. They merged, and began to march towards Kakariko Village…"

120AD (eleven hours before Hyrule fell)

Zelda was in a daze. She was riding on horseback with the army. She was one of the country's best healers, so she was required by duty to go to war. She was also the reigning monarch, which meant she might be needed for any conferences or negotiations. Impa rode behind her as her bodyguard, keeping a look out for possible assassins or threats.

They had been marching for barely an hour before they reached the village. It was in chaos.

"People of Kakariko!" the Captain boomed, causing silence to envelop the town, "Your King has been murdered!" there was a cry of outrage, "However! There are more pressing matters at hand! I present to you, your new Queen! Majesty, if you please?"

He stepped down. Zelda stepped up to where he just stood, and cleared her throat.

"The Christian armies will be arriving here soon!" there was a frenzy of panic amongst the people, but Zelda sent out a spell of soothing to calm them, "They will be arriving in an hour! You must round up your families and whatever provisions you can! In half an hour, we will be evacuating the entire town by carts, which are waiting at the foot of the stairs to the village! I must ask you to do this in a calm and orderly manner! Now, go!"

People raced for their houses. Women searched for their children. Men searched for their wives. Children were crying. It all broke Zelda's heart. She could not bear to stand up here any longer. She and some of the soldiers left the village, leaving some of the men and women behind to organize the evacuation.

Walking down the stairs seemed surreal to Zelda. Upon coming out into the open, she saw many tents that had been erected a little off into the distance. The soldiers that had remained behind had done their job, and were now either resting before the battle, or writing letters and journals. Zelda thought a letter would be a good idea.

Borrowing a piece of parchment, a bottle of scarlet ink and a quill, Zelda sat down and wrote. She didn't write a letter, however. She wrote a confession.

"What's the matter, Zelda?" Impa sat down next to her.

"It's her fifth birthday today, Impa." Zelda sobbed.

"Ah…" Impa seemed sympathetic, "It will be good luck for you, then, eh? Her birthdays are always good days for the Kingdom. Now, come. It will do no good to think of such things, Zelda… It's not helping anyone any."

PRESENT

"How sad…" Zelda muttered.

"Yes, but she was always happy on her daughter's birthdays." Impa sighed, "Every year, on the child's birthday, the Kingdom was always free of crime. If there was a war, which was almost every year because of the King, they always beat the invaders back."

"So what made that day so special?" Zelda inquired.

"I don't know…" Impa muttered, "But, it was too much for her for a while. I just sat there and held her while she wept. She cried for the whole half hour. But when the villagers evacuated, and the armies came, you wouldn't have been able to tell…"

120AD (ten hours before Hyrule fell)

"I am Derek!" the commander of the Christian Army bellowed from the top of the village stairs, "Commander of this army! I demand audience with your King!"

Zelda rode forward. There was some muttering amongst both armies. Hylians and Gerudos alike were all worried about her safety. The Christians were muttering about sending a woman to do a mans job.

"I am Zelda, newly crowned Queen of Hyrule!" Zelda shouted in response to Derek, "You will have your audience with me!"

"I will have audience with none other than the King!" he proclaimed, "A woman's place is in the home, even a Queen! Pray tell, woman, where is your husband?"

"My husband is dead!" Zelda spoke truthfully, digging up old, painful memories, "Murdered by your people three years ago, as was my father last night!" She was bluffing, but it would drive the Hylians to want victory even more. Yodde was having troubles with these people back then, so it could have been them, as far as anyone knew.

"We never sent out any assassins out!" he shouted back, fuming.

"Lies!" Zelda screeched. She wasn't about to confess to both murders. Her people would likely turn on her, then.

"Very well…" Derek was sick of talking, "You give us no choice! Charge!"

The Christians charged down the stairs. Zelda's horse reared, and she steered it out of the battle lines.

"Charge!" The Hylian Captain ordered, as soon as Zelda was out of harms way.

The armies met on even ground. The clashing of swords and shields, the cries of men and women in pain, and the thuds as men and women, Christian, Hylian, and Gerudo alike, were wounded or killed, was all Zelda heard for the next two hours. Eventually, the Hylians and Gerudos, though depleted in numbers significantly, drove the opposing army back. The Hylians and Gerudos had claimed Kakariko Village back from the invaders. Zelda could see the blood of the fallen trickling down the satirs.

"Oh, Goddesses no!" Zelda muttered, as she caught sight of the enemy's reinforcements coming over the mountain. There were at least three times as many soldiers in their reinforcements alone, compared to the original size of the Hylian army. They were sitting ducks there! The exit-way was too narrow. They would be slaughtered!

"Get them out of there!" Impa roared, but it was too late. The Christian reinforcements had already reached the village at full speed.

PRESENT

Zelda stifled a gasp. She could only imagine what it must have been like, to know that you and your people were going to die.

"Zelda knew that it was hopeless at that point," Impa continued on with the story, "so she decided to take desperate measures…"

120AD (five hours before Hyrule fell)

"Impa!" Zelda cried out, a desperate edge in her voice, "Come here! There is something I need you to do for me!"

"What is it?" Impa reached her, breathless from the battle, "If it is within my power, I shall do it."

"Take these." Zelda handed her an envelope and a golden piece of what was once a sacred pyramid, "Place these objects in my bedchamber. The envelope goes inside my diary. Just put the Triforce on my bed. Leave it, and lock the doors. Do not go in there after you lock it! Put the key in a safe place, and do not bring it out until the true heir to the Throne returns to Hyrule! Only He can open the door!"

"B-but," Impa stuttered for the first time in her life, "What about you? What are you going to do!"

"Don't worry about me!" Zelda screeched, pushing her towards the castle, "Just go!"

Impa turned her back on her Queen, and made her way to Hyrule Castle to do her bidding.

PRESENT

"It was the last time I saw her alive…" Impa seemed to be choking up.

"I'm sorry…" Zelda muttered, turning to face the Sage, "That must have been hard for you to take."

Impa stared out the window, and concluded the story.

"The rest, I heard form an old friend of mine who was watching the entire thing in the village…"

120AD (five minutes before Hyrule fell)

Zelda entered the battleground, using the cover of the shadows to reach her destination. She climbed to the highest point left standing in the village, and placed her hands together, as if in prayer.

"Goddesses!" Zelda cried, "I offer myself as a sacrifice for the survival of my people! Take my life, and spare theirs!"

There was a bright flash of light, and in an instant, every Hylian, Gerudo and Christian in the land were frozen as if made of stone. Zelda herself fell from the rooftop, and landed on the ground.

She was dead.

PRESENT

"The Sheikah, Gorons, Zora and Kokiri were spared by the Gods," Impa explained, "Because they were not overly involved in the war. I was spared simply because I am a Sage. Afterwards, the Sages had another counsel. We were to decide Hyrule's fate. In the end, we decided to hide Hyrule from the rest of the world, until it was time for the Heir to revive it. So, we cast a spell to cloak Hyrule, until it was time for you, Princess Zelda, to revive it."

"You must have made a mistake!" Zelda turned around and grabbed Impa's wrist in desperation, "I can't do this! Can't you ask someone else to do it!"

"I'm afraid not, child…" Impa gently placed her hand over Zelda's in a comforting manner, "All I can do for you is make sure that you are ready. And that you don't suffer the same fate as the Ancient Queen…"

A pained expression came across Impa's face.

'She must really miss her…' Zelda's mind whispered, 'and you coming has only poured salt into those wounds… The best thing you can do for her is to do as she asks, and try to learn quickly…'

Zelda smiled gently at the woman, and removed her hand from her arm. Turning around, she took the older woman's calloused hands delicately in her own.

"I will do it." She said calmly, "Just teach me what I need to know."

WELL, THAT'S IT FOR NOW! THE MORE REVIEWS I GET, THE QUICKER I UPDATE, IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT!