Chapter 28: A Premonition

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Suddenly terrified, Link looked up, away from the monsters, up the path she had taken.

And a knobby club struck the center of his chest; something gave way with a crunch as he was thrown several feet backwards, landing in a heap on the trail.

Winded, he nonetheless surged back to his feet and lopped the head from the nearest bokoblin, his vision wavering and his lungs burning and a peculiar cold hollowness possessing his diaphragm; at last he sucked down a ragged breath, ignoring the pain that flared sharply in his chest. Teeth bared in a determined snarl, he swung the Master Sword around in a wide arc, slashing several bokoblins and sending the others hopping back in alarm. He released his thoughts, giving instinct, born of years of training, full control of his mind and body.

The bokoblins kept coming; there had to have been at least ten in each of the lynel-drawn carts. Some were the feebler red-skinned species, adorned with little clothing and wielding the more primitive weapons of their kind. Most were blue-skinned, attacking him with clubs and spears reinforced with dragonbone; a few even carried Hylian-forged weapons of steel. Only a few of the monsters were the black-skinned variety, but they carried more dangerous weapons. Somehow they had obtained jagged-edged lizalfos weapons - boomerangs, shields, even a few bows. At the moment they hung back, squealing suggestions and encouragement to the others, but Link knew he would have to face them eventually, if he managed to survive this first wave of the attack.

They drove him backwards, up along the mountainside, in the same direction he had sent Zelda. Determined, he fought onwards, adrenaline surging and intuition screaming instruction. A whoosh from behind urged him to duck his head even as, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a broadsword slamming down towards him; he flicked the Master Sword upwards to catch the blow. Two clubs struck towards him in the next instant and he backpedalled away from them, thrusting the Master Sword to the side to stop a third attack from that direction.

Something struck his shoulder blades and he stumbled forward with a grunt; pushing away the ache he spun around, bringing the Master Sword with him, cutting deep into the bat-wielding bokoblin's side. It reeled away, howling in agony. Link's attention snapped forward once more in time to keep a bokoblin's sword from impaling him. He dodged to the side in the next instant to evade a crushing blow from a dragonbone-enforced club and flung his arm out, skewering the monster wielding it.

The twang of a bowstring.

Link lunged away as an arrow zipped past his ear, into the neck of a blue bokoblin behind him. The black bokoblin that had fired the shot pointed and stamped its foot angrily, and that was all Link saw of it before a red bokoblin flung itself at him, the pointed end of its spear thrusting downwards. Swinging the Master Sword in a wide arc, he cut the monster from the sky but in doing so had left his chest unprotected; he sidestepped another attacking bokoblin in time to escape with a shallow gash on his left side and whirled back around to sink his blade into the sturdy wood of a boko club, tearing it from its owner and sending it flying over the horde.

And so it continued. Not a single moment was left for him to catch his breath as the monsters kept coming and coming. He ignored the collection of cuts and bruises steadily amassing across his body, channeling every ounce of energy into the battle around him.

Thoughts, when they came, cost him drops of blood: What I wouldn't give for back-up. And too late he attempted to dodge a blow that would have caved his chest; instead it struck his left elbow with bone-snapping force.

He fought for what felt like an age, slowly but steadily losing ground and backing up the mountain, leaving bokoblin corpses in his wake. Gradually the size of the horde around him diminished until at last the red bokoblins had been destroyed and about half of the blue bokoblins and all of the black bokoblins remained. The sun sank steadily lower in the sky, glaring an angry gold down at the battlefield, painting the vibrant cliffs in fire.

But by then the pain of his wounds was becoming more difficult to ignore, and his arms and legs began to feel heavy. He had managed to snatch up a dragonbone shield and slide it over his left forearm, but it was more for support than defense; the club that had struck that arm had broken something, he was sure of it.

Soaked in perspiration he continued the battle, blocking what blows he could and absorbing or dodging the rest, summoning strength and endurance from deep within his soul.

It truly was just like his nightmares, just like the training he put himself through. But so much more real - so much more demanding! A bokoblin's club caught him glancingly across the forehead and he stumbled backwards with a grunt, seeing double for a terrifying moment.

He had entirely forgotten about the four lynels when the last of the blue bokoblins was finished and the black bokoblin archer had been taken down. The shadows were lengthening; the sun was beginning to sink beneath the horizon. Link yanked the Master Sword from the bokoblin archer's chest and looked up to face the remaining three bokoblins, only to see them hopping up and down in excitement with the lynels charging up the slopes towards him. Link's heart sank. Just when I thought this was almost over.

Taking advantage of the bokoblins' distraction, he swiftly killed one of them with a slash across the neck and almost managed to end another one when the lynels reached him. Link rolled beneath a vicious horizontal swipe and surged to his feet beneath one of the lynels, thrusting his blade upwards and into the beast's gut. It roared, leaping aside, and he quickly scuttled out from beneath its hooves before lunging desperately out of the way as a second lynel thrust its spear downwards where he had stood only moments before.

Thundering hooves from behind him alerted him to the third lynel's approach. Struck by a sudden mad idea he threw himself to the side and snatched the back of its baldric with his left arm; groaning against the strain he swung himself up onto its back and plunged the Master Sword hilt-deep into its back, close to the spine but not close enough -

The lynel, bucking and twisting wildly, reached backwards and snatched his right arm in a clawed hand, tearing him forcefully from its back and hurling him into the mountainside. Pain jolted through him at the impact and the back of his skull crashed against the stone as the breath left his lungs in a pained grunt and he tumbled to the ground, his body aching. His senses flickered in and out, his hearing obscured by the dull roar of his blood, his vision smearing like water poured over a chalk drawing.

He managed, just barely, to flop to one side in time to dodge the tip of a spear plummeting down towards him. Lungs aching, he clawed himself to his feet, staggering at the cold emptiness in his chest as he struggled, wheezing, to get breath back into his lungs.

A bokoblin and a fireball spat from the maw of a lynel hurtled towards him in the same instant and he grabbed the haft of the bokoblin's spear, wrenching it into the fire's path. It howled and twisted away from him as the flames caught instantly on its clothing and skin; Link snatched its spear away and sidestepped a deadly slash from a lynel's sword, swinging the spear upwards to impale the lynel's throat from the side. The weapon's tip tore upwards into the monster's maw and out the back of its neck; with a gurgling cry the monster staggered back, slowly dying.

That left one bokoblin and three lynels, one of which was clearly suffering, with the Master Sword stuck through its back. Link darted towards that one, once again throwing himself onto its back and clinging to its baldric as it writhed beneath him. Gritting his teeth, he gripped his blade and wrenched it free, sending a violent spasm through the monster's body; he ended its struggles quickly, stabbing his sword through the back of its neck and tumbling off of its shoulders as it crumpled.

A massive club struck the ground inches from his feet and he scrambled backwards, eyes wide as he beheld the small crater in the rocky earth where it had landed. Merciful Goddesses, preserve me!

His pulse throbbed in his neck. The hiss of metal slicing through air warned him of a spear's swing from behind and he launched himself into a backflip, vaulting over the weapon and twisting to land facing its owner. Surprise registered in the lynel's crimson eyes before fading to the usual anger and bloodlust and it attacked again, raising itself onto its hind legs and gripping its spear, tip downwards, ready to plunge it through Link's skull.

It was still for a moment; Link seized the opportunity and darted forwards, thrusting the Master Sword hilt-deep into the left side of its horse's chest, into its heart, and yanking it back out as he rolled forwards the instant the monster stabbed its spear downwards.

A wave of searing heat swept outwards from the beast's thick skin and Link yelped in surprise, a surge of panic jolting his blood at the sight of flames suddenly licking at his clothes. He threw himself to the ground, twisting in the gravelly soil, desperately slapping at the flames with gauntleted hands. The small part of his mind ignoring the fact that he was on fire was cognizant enough to notice the monsters regrouping, charging towards him in this moment of weakness -

"Link!" The twang of a bowstring, and the nearest bokoblin's shriek of pain as an arrow appeared, as if by magic, embedded in the bokoblin's chest. The Princess' gasp of horror at the inevitable realization that she had killed something. The hollow wodden clatter of a bow falling to the stone ground.

The uninjured lynel turned to face her, while the one Link had just stabbed took a half step towards him and stumbled, quickly bleeding out.

Link surged to his feet, smacking the last sparks from his sleeve and grabbing the Master Sword from the ground, his heart accelerating to new levels of panic as he saw the Princess standing on a ridge beyond the battle, staring in terror at the bokoblin's corpse. "Princess, run!" he screamed, sprinting to reach her before the last remaining lynel could. Not fast enough - not fast enough!

Desperate, he threw himself forward, catching the lynel's hindquarters and holding on for dear life. "Zelda! Run!"

As if the sound of her name had called her from a trance, she gave a slight start and shrieked as the lynel bore down on her; at last, as the color drained from her cheeks, she ran the opposite direction, scrambling up another ridge and taking cover behind a tall outcropping.

Link's grip failed on the lynel's smooth coat and he slipped backwards, receiving a split-second impression of massive hooves and a stubby, bristly tail before the monster inadvertently kicked his hip, sending him flying and tumbling helplessly over the rough ground for the umpteenth time that afternoon. Gritting his teeth against the sharp spike of pain in his leg, he dragged himself to his feet and limped forwards, trying to ignore the way his limbs trembled with exhaustion. Once again he picked up the Master Sword from where it had fallen when he grabbed the lynel's hindquarters.

The lynel was trying to puzzle out the two ridges separating it from the Princess; they were too tall for it to leap over, and with hooves it couldn't climb over them. Snorting, it looked back over the carnage across the mountainside, scanning for a discarded ranged weapon.

Link pushed himself into a run, his breaths painful and ragged; metal glinted out of the corner of his eye and he snatched up a forgotten spear, just as the lynel noticed it, too. He threw it and it tore at the monster's upper arm as, with a roar of frustration, the lynel quickly freed its massive club from its baldric.

Link didn't wait for it to make the first move. Shouting a battle cry he sprinted forwards with the Master Sword tightly gripped in both hands, barely giving his foe a moment to block. Sparks flew when the weapons clashed and Link stumbled back, thrown off-balance by the beast's strength. Grinding his teeth together - Din, let this end! - he followed up with a second strike, but this time the lynel was ready and instead of meeting Link's attack it leapt to the side, cantering away before whirling around and darting towards him, swiftly gaining speed. Link waited, eyes narrowed, blade lowered. Come on - I'm an easy target!

At the last second, moments before the lynel's club met his neck, he dropped to his knees with the Master Sword gripped in both hands, tip upwards. The lynel split its belly open with its own speed and strength; with an anguished cry it skidded to a halt, breathing heavily, hunched over in its pain.

Link spun around and the lynel turned to face him, its eyes burning with cold rage. Teeth bared in a snarl, it raced towards him again, throwing its club aside and reaching for him with clawed hands ready to tear him limb from limb. Link watched carefully; time seemed to slow. The lynel met his gaze and he threw himself under its attack and thrust the Master Sword upwards, deep into the wound already opened.

Howling in anguish, the lynel leapt away from him, its hands flying to its bloodied underside. It stumbled; Link charged it one last time, scrambling onto its back and severing its head from its shoulders. The monster buckled beneath him and he staggered away from its corpse, adrenaline abandoning his blood and exhaustion setting in.

Shivering with sudden cold as the breeze cooled the sweat on his body, he picked his way back up the trail to the outcropping the Princess sheltered behind. His arms and legs burned with fatigue when he climbed up the ledges; he felt much like the dying sun on the horizon, its strength giving out at the end of the day. After making it to the top of the second ledge he rested for a moment on his hands and knees, thinking longingly of a nice warm bed. That'd be great right now…

For the first time, his heart sank down to his toes and his insides shrivelled with dread at the thought of guarding the Princess that night. Already sunlight had nearly fled entirely from the mountains; Link could barely believe the battle had lasted so long. But he was too numb with leaden exhaustion to feel any satisfaction or pride in his victory, despite the odds.

Heaving a sigh and instantly regretting it with the spike of pain in his chest, he pushed himself to his feet and limped in a haze the rest of the way to the Princess' shelter.

She screamed in terror and something hard struck his jaw, knocking him off-balance; wobbling, he staggered back a few steps before his knees buckled and he fell, hard, on his backside.

"Oh!" the Princess gasped. "Sir Link, I - I'm sorry; I didn't - I'm so sorry!"

She held his knife in her other hand, he noticed, instinctively cringing away when she reached for him. Quickly she drew back, her cheeks coloring, and he felt a distant twinge of guilt. "Sorry," he mumbled around his swelling jaw, his shoulders slumping. Slowly he pulled a knee to his chest and let his forehead rest against it, closing his heavy eyelids… Just one moment… one moment and I'll…

The next thing he knew, the Princess had unpacked their meager medical supplies and was pouring drops of water onto a small cloth. Suddenly her face was impossibly close as she dabbed at a cut over his eyebrow, and his mouth went inexplicably dry. A wave of emotions cascaded through his heart and he opened his mouth, feeling the urge to say something but not knowing what to say.

"Don't ever do that again," he finally decided, his words slurred.

The Princess drew away slightly, her nose wrinkled in confusion. "What… do you mean?"

He tried to lift his leaden arms to act it out but quickly gave up. "The bow… what you did with the bow… don't do it again."

The Princess frowned, looking affronted. "Well, I apologize for saving your life. Believe it or not, I don't exactly want you to die, so if I see you in danger and there's a way for me to help, you'd best believe I'll take it."

Link grimaced. He hadn't intended to offend her. "That's not… I wasn't… it's my job to protect you, not the other way around."

"I know that," the Princess huffed. "It's just, I… I didn't like seeing you getting hurt." Her voice was soft with those last few words, and she avoided his gaze as she pressed her cloth against his left shoulder, trying to stop the slow stream of blood from one of his deeper gashes.

Link could feel his cheeks heating up. She cares, he realized, warmth enveloping his heart. She… really cares about what happens to me. Perhaps her sudden change was genuine after all. "You wouldn't have seen anything if you'd run like I told you," he reminded her gently.

"I tried that," the Princess muttered, shaking her head. "And I felt absolutely sick doing it. I couldn't just… sit still somewhere safe while someone I… someone I knew was fighting on his own against so many monsters. To be honest, I… I didn't believe it would be possible for one man to win against so many."

Neither did I. Link grimaced. "You were very brave," he said. "I'm just… worried. There's a fine line between courage and recklessness, especially when the years of experience aren't there. You could have been seriously hurt." And for nothing. He tried to give her a stern glare, imitating Captain Janin, but she wasn't looking at him.

Silence engulfed them for another several moments and the Princess continued tending his wounds; she wasn't doing much that would actually help, but Link wasn't about to strip down for her to treat them better, and nor was he going to ask her to stop. Her eyes were clouded; Link remembered her horror at killing the bokoblin and knew that she just wanted something else to occupy her mind and hands, and sopping up blood from his wounds seemed to be fulfilling that desire.

"It was a good shot," he said at last, trying to distract himself from the pain as she worked on several cuts littering his left forearm, ignorant of the broken or dislocated bone he knew was there. "I'd like to see Revali try to do something like that." He licked his lips; there was something he wanted to ask but he knew that it wasn't his place to ask anything of her. Mustering his courage, he continued anyway. "Where… where'd you learn to handle a bow like that?"

A soft smile flickered across the Princess' lips. "You didn't expect that from me, did you?"

Link almost smiled himself. Archery wasn't common princess repertoire, as far as he knew. "Not really. No."

"My mother taught me," the Princess admitted, her voice nearly a whisper. Her eyes were mournful, but she smiled. "I saw her practicing one day and was completely enthralled. So she showed me how and we worked on it every day for… a few years, I think… and she told me stories of the warrior queens of legend, whose wits were just as sharp as their blades, winning battles without drawing a drop of blood through their guile. I wanted to be like that, like my ancestors and my mother… That's what drove me to my scholarly pursuits, and I realized that I truly enjoyed studying.

"Archery was never supposed to be something I used in an actual battle. I'm not saying I regret what I did," she said quickly, glaring at the surprise on his face. "But I didn't enjoy it. Not at all."

Link was quiet for a moment, torn between finding out why she was suddenly so willing to share this with him, and trying to comfort her. "You're not meant to," he told her at last. "The moment you realize you enjoy it is the moment you know something's gone terribly wrong."

The Princess nodded slowly, her brow furrowed as she contemplated. "Do… do you enjoy it?"

"No." Black forest. Twigs and brambles clawing at him. Monsters in hot pursuit; they would kill him if he didn't kill them and he didn't want to die -

The Princess' shoulders relaxed. "Good," she murmured.

He forced his thoughts back to reality, trying to find something to anchor him. At the moment, the Princess worked best. "You… you seem to take after her, you know. Your mother. I didn't see her often, but…" He shrugged.

She nodded, moving her cloth to three deep scratches on his right arm, gouged by a lynel's claws. "She understood me like my father never did. We… did everything together." She blinked several times and forced a smile. "I suppose everyone has a parent like that - one that they can truly relate to. From what I see, your… your path seems to mirror your father's. You've dedicated yourself to becoming a knight, as well."

Link frowned, his heart skipping a beat with agonizing hope. My… father? She knew my father?

"Your commitment to the training necessary to fulfill your goal is really quite admirable," she nodded, her eyes distant as if recalling something from the distant past. "I… see now why you would be the chosen one."

His heart plummeted. No. She couldn't have; we're both about the same age and I can barely remember… But who…?

It dawned on him in an instant. "He's not my father," he blurted all at once.

The Princess blinked. "What?"

"Captain Janin," Link explained quietly. "He… isn't my father."

Her eyes went very wide. "I… had no idea," she gaped at him. "I had heard that he's been training you since you were a small child. I would've thought that would be impossible unless he was your father." Her gaze burned with curiosity and he knew what would come next. "If he's not your father, then who is? And why would he consent to having you all but taken away for the rest of your life?"

Link swallowed thickly, his tired heartbeat accelerating with something mildly close to panic. "I… I don't know who my father is," he whispered. "He… died. That knife I had you take… I think it was his."

The Princess looked confused for a moment, but understanding and shame quickly flooded across her features. "Oh," she breathed, her cheeks coloring. Her eyes darted away from his, and she pressed her cloth to his wounds with an intensity that revealed her discomfort. She was silent for several moments, staring fixedly at his arm, until at last she pulled the cloth away and examined the wounds critically. "These cuts don't look too bad, actually. I think you're fine for now. But if I'm to stay away from your battles, then… promise me you'll be more careful." She met his gaze again, leaving him breathless from the sincere concern in her eyes. "As brave and skilled as you are, that does not make you immortal."

Link felt the pain wavering through his body and nodded, grimacing in agreement. "Hopefully this is the only time we'll be attacked by a Din-forsaken army."

The Princess chuckled humorlessly, shaking her head. "I'll add that to my prayers," she sighed. "It seems that, not only is the frequency of these types of attacks on the rise, but the scale of beasts we are facing is intensifying as well. To see four white lynels all in the same place, working together…Well, kind of. They fought amongst themselves for a while before deciding to attack you, actually." She bit her lip nervously, turning her gaze to the bloody carnage just below the ridge. "I fear that - I fear that this is another omen which portends the return of Calamity Ganon."

Link's blood ran cold. Another omen… There have been far too many already. The Master Sword felt heavy in its sheath on his back. "So you think it'll happen soon."

Zelda gulped audibly. "I do," she whispered. "I'm ready to expect the worst. We'll need to make preparations as soon as possible." Her gaze darted down to her hands, stained with Link's blood and devoid of the mark of the Triforce, and she seemed to sag.

Link covered her hands with his own, and she looked up at him with surprise. He was surprised, too, but he quickly pressed on with what he had to say. "Let's go ahead and set up camp for tonight. Further up the mountain, away from this… mess." He gestured vaguely towards the battlefield.

The Princess nodded quickly, getting to her feet and dusting off her trousers. "I'll follow you," she promised earnestly, resolutely turning away from the scene of the battle.

I'll follow you. He thought about the concern in her gaze and wondered, painfully, if perhaps there was a double meaning to her words. If only.


Updated 7/8