Finally finished Chapter 3! Don't know if editing went quite as well, but I still fixed a lot of stuff so whatever.
Thanks for the new follows and favorites! I don't know how frequently I'll be able to work on this because my history class is way more packed with homework than I expected. Fingers crossed everything goes well.
Enjoy
A cold hand gripped my shoulder and I flinched. I'd heard someone's footsteps, but nonetheless their touch terrified me, "Jesus Christ." I blurted as their grasp left me and I rolled over. Link loomed above me, puzzled.
Raising an eyebrow, he mused, "Who?"
I sat up, cracking my back and rubbing my eyes vigorously, "It's just an expression, don't worry about it." Waving him off, I tried to bring my legs out of the covers, but the air was too cold and I hesitated. "You have more important issues, anyway." I finished.
The dim light from the window tinted the room in blues and as it filtered through it failed to warm anything it touched. Link had returned to his side of the room, collecting up equipment and throwing back on random articles of clothing. He didn't wear his gauntlets or tunic, only an undershirt and tight pants that bunched up around his ankles. After getting his tunic back on he dragged his sword off the floor, lowering his eyes at it. A frown overtook him before he strapped it on his back and continued on.
My heart beat in my temples continuously as I watched him. The nonchalance of it, acting under little hurry, made my chest squeeze. This consciousness was a gift from him, should that voice had not urged him otherwise, I would be in an eternal dream, much different from this distorted reality. I thought about bringing it up to him, but when he approached me with a new pair of boots, I was breathing too heavily to speak.
"How'd you sleep?" he asked flatly, stretching out an arm to offer the boots to me.
I slid my feet to the floor and accepted them, also apparently giving permission for their layer of dirt to settle onto my hands. They were worn and leathery, smelling of sweat and mold. Perhaps this was his real method of murdering me. Sulking, I murmured, "I didn't sleep at all."
"Did I wake you up?" Link cracked his knuckles, "I'm sorry."
It could all come out now, I could be mad at him, I could ask him why. In the end I wasn't strong enough to get the answer. "I hadn't been sleeping for long anway." I traced a knot in the wooden floor with my toe.
He breathed out glumly, "Did you...hear anything?"
I dropped the boots onto the floor and began tugging them on, "I heard you say, 'Shut up,'" My fingers fumbled as I pulled the first one on, "that's it."
Once I had the second one on I stood up, wiggling my toes into the worn soles. They fit around my legs loosely, but my feet found little space to move. Link watched me skeptically, tracing my movements with his eyes, "If you're going to follow me, you need to understand some things." He stated.
"What?" I held my arms tightly around my chest for warmth, quivering with a sudden chill that ran up my spine.
"For now, always stay behind me," although his head tilted up at me, he held a firm hold on his authority, listing off everything as if they were rules set over his child, "and don't just wander off. It's not safe here. If at all possible, I would practice your magic while we're on the road too." With that he gestured to the doorway, "Let's go." shoving on his green hat over his messy hair, he went to leave.
It had hit me then how silly the hat really was, dangling halfway down his back, still not as long as my own hair. I snorted.
"What?" he glared at me.
"That stupid hat." I pointed at his head.
He adjusted it tenderly, "Hey, at least I don't have to wear glasses." strolling out, he left me behind, pushing the frames up on my nose. I followed soon after, just as he'd told me to do.
The sleepy town was still as desolate as it was last night, the only signs of life a smoke stack raising from the cement house by the spring. Epona was no longer tied to the porch, off somewhere else being tended to, I assumed. We headed up north, dodging into a path I hadn't noticed before.
In the way of the path arose a wall, holding back rocks and debris. Over it was a disheveled netting, torn in places and about ready to snap in others. The only real way up would've been the ladder propped up against it, however, it was broken in half and strewn in the dirt.
Link fit his fist around a piece of netting, lifting himself up only to be thrown down by something two seconds later. Grasping at air, his body fell backward and landed with a puff of dirt. In front of him had sprouted an imp, hovering above the ground with a sneer directed my way. Rubbing the back of his head as he sat up, he shot the imp with a glare, "What the heck!"
"I thought you were going to introduce me to her!" The imp, Midna, held her hands on her hips, her one eye shining with contempt. Her details were shrouded by a shadowy glaze cast over her skin. The only thing in color was her one eye, the other covered by a hanging edge of the Fused Shadow piece perched on top of her head. "I wanted to see her in person."
Link mumbled some insult, but remained quiet for a moment, standing and dusting off his pants. "You could've appeared behind me." he sighed, "Maizy, this is Midna."
Midna giggled, "Is it true you can tell the future?!" she flew up to my face, close enough so that we touched noses, yet she didn't back away. I had no idea what to look at, darting from her large eye to the subtle outlines of her face. When I tried to shove her away she circled back around me, giving up only a few inches of space between. "So?"
"Sort of." I rasped, balling my hands into fists as I cracked each of my thumbs lightly.
Link stepped in, "Well, she said she read about this place. And she knows about Colin, and you."
Midna continued with her flamboyance, "So you know what's coming next? Can you tell us what's on top of Death Mountain?"
I tapped my toes against the ground sheepishly trying my best to remember anything but the Gorons. Unfortunately I hadn't played the game in a year or so and it eluded me completely. "There's uh...Gorons up there."
"Oh, you didn't read the whole book?" Midna laughed sharply, "Well then I guess you weren't useful after all. I shouldn't have stopped Link from killing you." She gleamed with pride, ear to ear a smile, "I remember, you weren't asleep."
My back went cold, I'd known she was the voice, and I'd found solace in knowing she wanted me around. But it seemed she was just using it to toy with us. Poking out of my eyes were tears, and despite my attempts to hold back my emotions they ran down my cheeks.
"The Vinderendetta are vile creatures. They've already caused us problem enough, so you'd be better off dead." Midna's laugh pierced the air, a knife straight across my throat.
"Midna, stop it!" Link fumed, "Leave her alone."
She was disdainful to him, but shook her head and disappeared into his shadow.
In between sobs I wiped away tears and blinked my eyes. Link watched me solemnly, stepping closer, but making no progress. Raw wounds riddled my skin and it hurt to move, so I froze.
Why couldn't I just go home? The police were probably searching by now, but what would they find? The book I dropped? My body? Perhaps lying in the leaves I dreamt, a creature attached to my head that fed me this reality as if it was real.
"Maizy?" Link reached into the ice surrounding me, submerging himself in my panic. He was gentle as he spoke, a whisper on a current, "I'm sorry I didn't believe you." An ocean enveloped us, drowning me as he swam onwards, in desperation he pleaded I take his hand, but I didn't, "I was afraid of you."
"I'm afraid of you." I cried, "And this place. I'm afraid of myself."
Link urged once more, "Accept it. Who you are, what you'll be." he withdrew his left hand, "You can't escape the fear unless you accept your fate."
His gauntlets unraveled, like bandages revealing a wound, on the back of his hand three triangles would be darkened into his smooth skin. A mark of potential doom. The hero was chosen by the gods, he did not choose to be the hero. "A Vinderendetta?" I stared at my palms, "That's what she called them?"
"Come on." he beckoned. It was like his arms wrapped around me and I was pulled out of the arctic sea. My eyes were red from salty tears, a piece of ocean that never left me.
I climbed up the netting first, daring glances below every time it strained. My foot always remained nestled safely in place and Link's blue irises were always watching far past me. The top exceeded my standards of tolerance for heights so after halfway I stopped looking down. Above the edge was another pathway leading up the mountain, but in the middle of it was a Goron.
His imposing height and stature made every white mark on his yellow skin visible from my place so far away. "Another little human, eh?" he hummed, voice was gravelly, like his vocal chords were two rocks scraping against each other. As I got up, Link came beside me and the Goron perked up even further, "And you again! You puny humans still think you can pass?"
"Unless the universe wants to pull another plot twist on me, yeah." I mumbled.
"The universe says move over." Link elbowed me towards the left as the Goron leapt into a ball.
I leaned into the cliff side as he started rolling forward, accelerating from the steep incline. Underneath Link, the imp poked out and wrapped her hands around his ankles, replacing his regular boots with iron ones as he jumped, clanking on the way back down. In the next instant, the Goron had come up in front of him and Link grabbed his arms, heaving him past and staring back as he flew over the edge and continued rolling down the path.
"Nice." Link dusted his hands, going to step forward until he remembered. "Midna, take them off."
The air wavered.
"Midna!"
A pair of arms gripped his toes and the boots phased back to the original brown leather ones. Link rolled his eyes before we went on, hiking up the mountain.
The ground got steeper from that point on, dropping back down in places only to reveal another wall to climb. Occasionally another Goron would roll by, but we would simply dodge out of the way. Seemingly every time I would fail to move as quickly enough, so Link yanked me away by the back of my shirt. One of those times I was left coughing after the collar had dug into my throat.
"Maybe if you didn't have the reaction time of some fat noble you wouldn't be in this situation." Link chided after that particularly bad instance.
I was continuously trapped in thought, and no matter how many times I tried to stay in the present, the scent of burning metal would attack me and I'd be stuck in a cycle of loathing. I hated the smell, I hated the walk, and I was thirsty. And then another would pop out of nowhere and my stupid t-shirt would choke me again.
"Next time," I promised.
Too bad I was focused on my boots instead of the path.
Link was lecturing me on staying focused when the pathway lead out into a depressed area that stood before a towering cliff. It was unfamiliar, whether I didn't remember it correctly or it had changed, I couldn't tell. The heat had progressively gotten worse the higher we climbed, and in this area it nearly had me sweating. Above, the sky had grown overcast, but I could still tell it was about noon, the clouds were a bright grey.
We began to descend several small drops that lead to the bottom when something started whistling through the sky. Behind us, a rock shattered against the cliffs, debris clunking past us. Link leapt down the next drop, and the next, landing and running as more rocks broke around us. I could barely keep up with him, panting as I tripped over each.
When I reached the bottom, there was a loud shriek sounding overhead. A shadow fell over the ground, encircling me. Link gawked, yelling something as I looked up at the sky where a giant rock was plummeting down, beside it a twilight portal of intense black and blue loomed. The portal protruded with a swirling center, hypnotic.
Perhaps I could have run out of the way in time, but when I turned to leap, my foot caught on a rock and I fell into the ground. The rock above began blocking out the grey sky that previously encased it as it barreled toward me. Into the space between shot my hand, pleading for it to stop when my arm went completely numb, like it'd been chopped off. A bolt of energy surged out of my palm and through the boulder, creating a maze of green light that tore it apart. As I released many of the fragments flew away, but many still rained down on me and one collided with my skull.
They tore cuts along my skin as I flipped over to my side and shielded my head. Curled up, I could feel every single stone graze flesh and shoot pain up my nerves. Shards clattered into the ground, clacking against each other, when their ruckus left my ears I rested there before removing my hands from my head.
My palms were slick, covered in a layer of blood. I sat up, trying to focus against my throbbing headache, gradually peeling off my broken glasses and ripping out a small shard of the lense from my nose. The headache resided in mere seconds, leaving me with a clear view of the piece of glass I held in my fingertips.
From its edge hung a drop of gold.
The sky was dull, yet the blood hanging from the glass was shining as if reflecting the noon sun. Cuts along my body disappeared, leaving behind the same opaque color where they'd been sliced. As I breathed in and out, my blood rushed, down from my brain, to my heart, then off elsewhere. I followed it down my arm until it stopped at the tip of my thumb. With the piece of glass, I stuck my thumb and watched a streak of gold fall down its side, then it stopped. When I rubbed the blood away, there was no sign of a scab.
Blood dripped onto the hot brown stone, falling with it the piece of glass and a tear that had fallen from my cheek. A storm raged through my body, tears poured out like rain, my brain stormed, and my blood was hot like lightning.
Yet by the storm he still stood, and he was willing to be struck, "Maizy!"
Feet clamored over rock, connecting in every right edge so they met with the blood stain as quickly as possible. Solemnly, I looked up from his toes, trying to make out Link through a wet blur that stung my eyes. The tears welled up and fell along my cheeks, revealing him. His blue eyes reminded me of the ocean I was still drowning in.
My teeth grinded together, lips laced with the taste of salt. Nose stuffy, I sniffled and gasped, "What is this?!"
Link kneeled down, "It's okay. I won't hurt you, I promise."
I opened up my bloody palm, gold, I should've been dead, "What am I?" Hair was matted against my head, stuck with dried blood. I should have been riddled with wounds, but instead my skin was smudged with small gold splotches. There were no scars, only stains.
"You're okay," he repeated, "Come on, we have to go." he grabbed my hand, leading me up onto wobbling legs. Before I could fall back down safely, a black shadow flew up between us, tugging our grasp apart as I tumbled onto my butt.
I tilted my head back, met with Midna's eye, brooding and callous with her snarl. The tears trailing my cheeks halted their path in terror and I pulled back as far as I could against the fallen rocks. In the distance rained the fiery boulders still, but in this place we did not move, the only thing in motion was the bending accent of a sharp tongue that cried, "I knew it!"
"I'm sorry, I-I," my voice became inaudible.
"If you try anything," she paused, welled up with anger, "don't expect any mercy from me." Midna slipped away, pulling back a curtain to Link's wide eyes.
I stood up, brushing away tears and wiping my nose on my sleeve. My composure didn't last long and I began crying again. "What am I?" I sobbed.
He sighed heavily, stumbling over himself, "She told me...the Vinderendetta...they're the reason Zant was able to take power." A sharp whistle came from above as a rock slammed a little ways away. Link stretched out his arm, then extended it to me, "I don't know much else, but I trust you. You can feel safe knowing that."
His posture was erect and despite his fierce eyes, I found his manners inviting. Truthfully, I didn't want to trust him, not when his shadow was filled with so much hatred, yet I took up his hand again, feeling my way around the leather until it fit right. I was still covered in blood, disheveled from head to toe, but I could do nothing.
Our feet picked a way, skipping on top of the cracked rocks. When my boots hit ground I had found my tears dried on my cheeks and my hand empty. Link's gauntlet was smeared a brilliant gold which he warily wiped off on his pants, leaving a stain that was only a shade or two duller.
We walked around the base of the mountain, eyeing entrances and exits, all guarded by Gorons that either stared straight forward, or caught our gazes. Across one of the exits was a hot spring Link squinted at, then glanced my way. I'd still yet to see myself in comparison to when I'd sat in that room alone and considering the odd look from Link, I wasn't holding up too well. He jogged away, gesturing me to follow as we came to a large archway. Strung across was a rope under which hung several pieces of cloth bearing a simple symbol much like a spiked paw print.
In the opening were two Gorons, arms crossed and eyes dead set on us. Link marched up to them, carrying me in tow, though, I kept my distance, watching his shadow play over the ground. He set himself in front of them and spoke articulately, "Hello."
The Goron on the left uncrossed his arms and made huge fists, each easily the size of my head, "I heard there were two humans running around." he chuckled, "How'd you get all the way up here?"
Link set his hands on his hips, ignoring the sheer height of both of the Gorons, feet taller than both of us. "It doesn't matter how, it matters why. I came here to fix your problem, you have an elder, yes?"
Their eyes twinkled, "You wish to see the elder?" the second one questioned. They eyed each other, faces framed in confusion by the contour of rocks protruding from their skin.
"Yes." Link clarified.
The left Goron gestured his head back, "Follow us then." he squinted at me, "She with you?"
Link looked back at me, several feet away. "Yeah, she's still with me."
My heart beat faster as I stepped closer to him and fell in step behind when they'd all turned to go in. It was a small incline up to an open room, carved out like a cave. Lining the walls were six Gorons, two more sitting steadfast in front of a doorway. A few torches lit the room and an intense heat boiled in the air, flowing in from the far door. In the middle was a ring, from what I could remember, for sumo wrestling. They all regarded us cautiously, nodding at the two Gorons leading in.
"They would like to speak to an elder." one said.
The two by the doorway disappeared, coming back out moments later with someone behind. When they parted they revealed a stout Goron, shorter than the others, but holding himself with more energy. On his stomach was purple paint and his skin sagged around tattoos of the same symbol from the cloth on his arms.
Link left the path of the two Gorons that had lead us in and skipped ahead, me trailing behind slowly as I watched the faces of the others glare at me from the walls. The elder crossed his arms firmly, smiling, "I am the elder Gor Coron, you wanted to see me. What brings a small human like you all the way up the mountain?"
We settled below him, looking up from the base of a small staircase, "I heard Death Mountain has been restless lately." Link started, "If you wish, I can fix that for you."
"You know, it's not that simple." Gor Coron looked at us skeptically, "A few days ago all four of us elders and our patriarch went to investigate after the mountain began to rage. Our treasure entrusted to us by the spirits came to be the source, but the moment our patriarch touched it, he turned into a monster." he unfolded his arms, "Darbus is locked deep within the mines, who are you to go and rescue him?"
Link flexed his fingers, "My name's Link, I've been chosen by the gods to protect Hyrule. Please, allow me to help you."
"Prove it."
"What?" Link hesitated, "I can't-"
Gor Coron interrupted him, "I used to be the strongest of the Gorons in my prime. Prove to me you aren't just some slouch, got it kid?"
"O-okay." Link stuttered, glancing back at the ring, "Let's go."
The six Gorons, including some that had entered from a side hallway, gathered around the ring. Link climbed up, looking exceptionally small next to Gor Coron, and hopped into the air, for a split second the imp's hands shot out and graced his feet with iron boots. No one around us batted an eye. I looked up at the two Gorons still by the door, and although they seemed perplexed, they didn't say anything.
At first, I watched anxiously from my spot in front of the steps, until someone from the crowd shifted over and blocked my vision. From that point I could only see rocky backs and hear Link grunting, along with his iron boots that clanked around sporadically. Meanwhile Gor Coron's feet were always firm thuds that dug into the dirt, he rarely made any noise to signal difficulty.
I sighed, going to scratch a zit on my forehead I'd made a scab out of just the other day only to realize it wasn't there anymore. Of course, why would it be? My fingers twitched and I pulled them off my face, sticking out my index and tensing it slightly. I took a deep breath, imagining my blood flowing through me to my nail and not letting it stop as I pushed it passed my skin. Out of my fingertip shot a small blue bolt that continued to dance like an electrical current.
"Hey!" a rough voice called. The small static stopped as I twirled around to one of the two Gorons glaring at me, "Was that magic?" he was about to step down to investigate me when a loud cheer erupted from the ring. As I spun back around, I saw Link running a hand through his hair. He stood high on the ring and below Gor Coron was lying on the ground, laughing cheerfully.
I moved away quickly, taking advantage of the break in the crowd where he'd landed to jump up next to Link. Gor Coron stood, dusting off his hands before reaching out one that Link took to shake. "I would expect no less from the Goddesses' hero. May they bless you further."
"Thank you," Link tapped his toe lightly and the boots disappeared back to normal brown. He ran his fingers through his hair again, sweat dripping down his temples.
"You may enter." Gor Coron frowned, "The other elders hold the shards of the key we used to seal Darbus. They're somewhere in the mines. I have hope you can find them. May the Goddesses give you strength."
Link bowed his head, "Thank you again. We won't let you down."
We climbed down, jogging over and up the steps and straight through the doorway. Once on the other side a scorching heat flew into my lungs and singed my skin. We stood on a pathway that lead down to a pool of lava. All around, geysers spat out jets of molten liquid that collapsed within seconds before boiling over again. Just past the first pool was another, on top a metal cage that lead up to a higher level.
"Jeez," I mumbled, "Maybe I should just walk back to Kakariko."
Link elbowed my arm encouragingly, "Come on, don't be afraid of yourself, don't be afraid of Midna, and don't be afraid of me." he stepped to the edge where the pathway dropped off to a lower level. Gesturing forward he cracked a smile, "You ready?"
I scratched my arm where he'd poked me, "Yeah, yeah, I'm still with you."
