Chapter 6: Lost in the Past
Zelda bowed slightly before the throne of the Gerudo chief.
"Introducing Zelda Bosphoramous, Princess of Hyrule and messenger on behalf of the King of Hyrule," the Gerudo escorting her announced.
"Permission to speak, Chief Urbosa?" Zelda asked.
"Permission granted," Urbosa said with a faint smile.
"I have come to personally ask you if you would be willing to take up the task of piloting Divine Beast Vah Naboris," Zelda said, keeping her voice very formal. She could see Urbosa was internally laughing. "If you are unwilling or unable to do so, we have others that we can ask."
Her advisor seemed to be about to, well, advise, but Urbosa raised her hand to silence the woman. Zelda and Urbosa both knew the answer. "Princess of Hyrule, I accept your proposition without hesitation."
You didn't let your advisor speak just so that you could say you accepted without hesitation, Zelda thought, chuckling inwardly.
"Not only are they planning to resurrect Calamity Ganon," Urbosa continued as the advisor looked about to argue, "It seems the Yiga Clan is after our treasured heirloom." Urbosa sent a pointed glance to the Thunder Helm. It renders the wearer completely invincible to electricity, Zelda noted. I wonder why? She doubted that the Gerudo would let her study the helm, but it was still interesting to think about.
Urbosa's eyes were brought back to Zelda. "You have my word. I won't rest until the Calamity falls."
"Gerudo Chief Urbosa," Zelda began, just as formally. "On behalf of Hyrule and its king, I thank you." Zelda bowed once again.
Laughter rang outside the walls of the Gerudo Town.
"I've never seen you so serious, Urbosa," Zelda chuckled.
"Oh my," Urbosa said, chuckling herself. "I can't say the same. Ten years ago, you rarely smiled, Princess."
Zelda frowned slightly and looked down. "It was… a difficult time."
"I know." Urbosa said, laying a hand on Zelda's shoulder. "It still is. But your days will become brighter soon, my little bird."
Zelda smiled softly. Urbosa always knew what to say to make her feel better. Then her face fell once again. "The days will be bright with the champions here."
"You envy the hero." It was not a question.
Zelda looked down in shame. "He achieved more than I have in a single day. Everyone who meets him admires his skill and strength. They all have more respect for him more than they will ever for me."
"That's a lie," Urbosa said. "You are just as respected as that boy. I guarantee that, if you look a little closer, you'll learn things aren't always as they seem, little bird."
"Little bird…" Zelda repeated quietly. "I feel as if you've called me that before. Where did you get that name?"
No reply. Zelda looked to Urbosa, only to find that she was no longer beside Zelda, instead a few feet behind, hand on the hilt of her blade.
"Halt, and face me." Urbosa's voice was threatening. Zelda, confused, looked to where Urbosa was speaking.
Two, completely ordinary travelers. What? Zelda was extremely puzzled.
The travelers turned toward Urbosa.
"Unlike you traitors, I prefer to face my enemies head on." What does she mean?
The two travelers exchanged a glance.
Urbosa drew her blade and whirled around. "Do your worst."
The travelers ran towards Urbosa in a flash of cards. Their previous appearances were replaced by that of maroon bodysuits and white masks, an inverted Sheikah symbol painted on. Yiga! Zelda gasped.
Urbosa dodged the blows of the first with ease, dancing out of the way as if it was a traditional Gerudo dance. She parried the next blow using her shield with such strength that the first was unbalanced, leaving an opening for her to knock the first Yiga to the ground.
However, leaping up from behind the Gerudo chief was the other. "Urbosa!"
Urbosa raised her hand and snapped her fingers together, a loud crack in the night. Lightning flashed down from the sky, striking the Yiga from the air.
"Out of respect for our princess, you may keep your lives," Urbosa called firmly. "Now go."
The two Yiga limped away before vanishing, once more, in a flash of cards.
Urbosa, satisfied, sheathed her blade. "You asked me why I call you 'little bird.'"
Zelda blinked, surprised. She had thought Urbosa hadn't heard her, too busy watching the Yiga out of the corner of her eye.
"When you were but a small child," Urbosa said, turning and walking back to Zelda, "my dear friend called you that, with the sweetest smile that graced our land of Hyrule." Urbosa looked up to the stars with a bittersweet smile.
It took Zelda a moment to figure out what Urbosa meant. "You mean Mother," Zelda breathed, feeling the corners of her eyes sting.
"It was ten long years ago," Urbosa said, her eyes now trained on the full, milky white moon. "Your mother had just left this world, yet her little bird still spread her wings and became the beacon of light Hyrule needed."
Urbosa's eyes were distant for a moment, memories of an age gone by swirling through her mind. "Sometimes I forget myself," Urbosa chuckled, "and get lost in the past."
Zelda felt the tears in her eyes, and had hoped they remained hidden in the darkness. However, Urbosa knew. She always knows. Urbosa turned to Zelda, closed the remaining space, and gathered Zelda into her arms.
"It's okay to cry," Urbosa said softly. "Even the strongest of people have their moments of weakness."
Like the breaking of a dam, the tears flowed out, Urbosa holding Zelda tightly all the while.
Impa made her way through the empty halls of the castle, before turning into the open library, what with its walls upon walls of knowledge.
She had expected to find Liari there. The girl had not been showing up to lessons as often, and Impa desired to know why,
Impa made her way up the stairs into an alcove of the library, looking for Liari's favorite secluded corner.
She did find Liari. The girl was sitting in her favorite armchair, pouring over a book. What surprised Impa, however, was who she was with.
On the floor, reading with just as much dedication, was none other than Link. He did not look his best. Dark bags had grown beneath his eyes, most likely from lack of sleep. Rather than a soldier's uniform, he wore what appeared an old, comfortable tunic.
Just as surprising was the sword that lay on the ground before them, unsheathed and lying beside the scabbard.
"Fi, can you identify the credibility of this book?" Liari asked.
The sword gave a soft chime.
"So not that one," Liari mused, setting the book aside. "Got it."
Impa cleared her throat. Liari jumped, but Link looked up, exhaustion clear in his eyes.
"Impa! I didn't see you there!" Liari exclaimed.
"Hullo… Impa…" Link yawned. Surprising. Link would normally hold in a yawn until no one was watching.
"They've been getting worse, haven't they?" Impa observed. Why else would Link be exhausted? Well, there were several possible reasons. Link could've been pushing himself too hard again. He could have stayed up late cooking some strange meal. He could have stayed up on some random adventure climbing a cliff face or something. And, of course, the reason they were reading books on dreams - more specifically, dream prevention.
Liari nodded, and Link nodded off - before quickly forcing himself awake, of course.
"Well, nightmares or no, Link can't keep this up forever," Impa said. "He's a hindrance to himself like this." Impa turned to Link. "I order you to get some…"
Link fell over with a loud snore.
"...sleep."
"Well… that simplifies things." Liari mumbled.
"Indeed," Impa said, now deeply concerned. "How many nights has he kept himself from sleeping?"
"I don't know," Liari admitted.
That was extremely worrying. "But for how long has it been affecting him?" Impa asked.
Liari shrugged. "I've only known for a week, and he was already looking… not so good, then."
That wasn't good either. "And how did you convince him to let you help him?" Link was extremely independent, and rarely-
"I asked if I could, and he agreed," Liari said simply.
-agreed to have others help him out of stoicism. "Dear Hylia," Impa breathed. She normally had to drag him to those that would aid him. This was not characteristic of him. "We have much work ahead of us." She turned her eyes back to Liari. "His Majesty wishes for him to make public appearances, and I do not see the benefit of parading him around in this condition.
"...I may have to do some research back at Kakariko," Impa continued. "You could accompany me, of course," she added.
"Okay," Liari said aloud, sounding a bit doubtful. "Can you help me find some more books here? I can only think of dream prevention to keep the nightmares at bay, but it seems that it isn't effective at all for this particular situation."
Impa tapped her chin thoughtfully. "There is likely a spell used to prevent external forces in sleep."
Liari rolled her eyes. You have gotten far too sassy, child. "I can't find anything," Liari said, exasperated. "This is Hyrule Castle's library, not Kakariko's. It's all medicinal potions to prevent dreams, cause sleep, the lot. They don't even think that magical spells exist."
Impa grinned inwardly, though maintained a blank front. "You clearly have much to learn about Hyrule Castle. Everyone knows that I have the library of Sheikah spells and artifacts in my office."
Liari stared at her for a moment, before glaring. "You are so infuriating sometimes."
"Not nearly as infuriating as you can be, I assure you," Impa replied.
At that moment, movement drew the pair of Sheikah eyes to the floor. Link's breathing was quickening.
Impa sighed and kneeled on the floor before nudging Link's shoulders. "Link."
Impa felt his pulse. It was also increasing in speed. "Link, I need you to wake up." Impa said, maintaining a calm front.
Link jolted awake, gasping for breath, his eyes wide and wild. He glanced between Impa and Liari for a moment, before his eyes rested on Impa. After his breathing slowed, he spoke. "When'd you get here?"
Impa raised an eyebrow.
Link cleared his throat. "When did you arrive, Dame Impa?" He inserted instead, his voice cracking.
"Lady," Impa corrected. She didn't want to correct him now, of all times, but she knew that he would become suspicious if she didn't treat him normally. To him, this was normal. "I arrived earlier, before you fell asleep."
"That's weird," Link thought, drifting to Impa's well trained ears. "Why isn't she berating me for falling asleep, then?"
Idiot. "You are sleep deprived in the extreme," Impa replied. It wasn't strange for her to reply to thoughts, though she tended to be more careful about doing it in front of those that were not aware of mind reading. "I was about to order you to go to sleep when you passed out in the middle of my sentence."
"Oh," Link said, confused and still looking exhausted. "Okay." "So I'll be punished later."
"You really need to work on your mental blocks," Impa said, rolling her eyes. Link merely blinked at her.
"Can you tell us what you see and hear in there? It would help us help you if you actually let us know." Liari huffed.
Link looked at her absently. "No, thank you." His eyes flicked towards Impa, sharp as always - despite being sleep deprived. "I know full well that you already know."
Impa winced inwardly. How did he figure that out? She should've known to be more careful. Link was far too observant not to notice the most subtle of things.
"Come on, Link," Liari said, completely oblivious to what Link had implied. "You can tell us."
"I don't want to be treated like a child, so no, I won't tell you, thank you very much. I can deal with it myself."
"You should not think so rudely, Link," Impa scolded.
"It's not…rude," Link mumbled, his eyes drooping. Impa felt a sharp pain in her own mind as horrible images flashed from the boy's mind to her own.
You poor child, Impa thought sorrowfully. Being forced to relive the same experience over and over was something not even she could imagine. And one as horrible as that…
We'll end this, Impa vowed. I will see to it that this cycle is broken.
Hmm... I wonder what that's all about! JK, I know EXACTLY what's happening.
I am currently bound home by snow (homeward bound... hah... no one gets that), so no school! Should I be happy, or sad? Hah, just kidding, HAPPY! But instead of writing in this weather, for some reason I decided to jump into few snow banks and draw really bad pictures. Oh, and chuck snowballs at my buddies (woah, I have friends?!).
I'm so immature. Anyway, because of this stuff, I'm behind on my writing schedule. Hopefully I'll get caught up today. If not, that would be the reason I update a little later next week. Weather (hah, get it?) later in the day or early in the next. If I update late, assume that I got stuck in [another] snowbank.
NOW, onto the replies! (Secret review phrase is weather)
AddyBOTWfan13: Aw, thanks! I'm glad to hear that people can actually look forward to Mondays! I TOTALLY need a poof poodle doggo to scare the crap outta Daruk. Or maybe he'll just think it's a weird marshmallow. We'll see! OH! OH! OOOOH! I got that same book for Christmas! It was actually one of the reasons I decided to rewrite this story, because it has an actual time line of what happened before BoTW. I thought the exact same thing about Purah XD. I'm glad that they went with the one they did, though, because now it's like they put me into the game, except actually de-aged. I'm just a lunatic that acts like a three year old.
MeaninglessMayhem: It's okay. I'll torment Daruk more later. EVERYONE GETS A TURN! But Link gets more, because it's just really fun to torture Link. I'm assuming that you meant Fi, and that something auto corrected it or something. Yup, gotta torture Link in more ways than one! XD
bladeofthebookworms: Me neither! I wonder why that sounds so familiar ;). Hopefully this Liari will be better. I think I gave her too much power in the last one. Let's start small, this time! And her personality was a bit inconsistent in the last one. I was actually thinking about doing that in the last one, but I decided not to. Maybe I'll do it in this one! We'll see. Aw, thank you! Your support is appreciated!
notaname: Oh, it's completely fine! I wasn't being completely clear myself, so it's all good! I'm working on descriptiveness, but it is definitely an area I struggle with. It's not that I can't describe things in writing - it's that I can't find the balance between too much and too little. But I'm working on it! And yeah... I kind of just say, "okay, Zellie's HERE now." I really don't like writing about traveling (the title of one of the chapters in the old one was "Oh boy! Some more FREAKING traveling!" until I changed it. So don't look! I kind of want to put him in (well, at least his ancestor), but I'm still thinking about how to fit him in here. I'll figure it out. Yeah, I've heard of Botrick before! And the Lord of the Mountain, as strange as it is, is also very majestic. It's such a nice reference they put in. A moment of silence for Satoru Iwada... okay, done. I've played BoTW, but I had to share an account with my brother (long story), and he did a load of it without me. Then I bought a Switch for myself, started the game over, all that good stuff. But I actually started the old Before... before that. Heh, puns. Anyway, I hope I don't ruin the game for when you get the opportunity to play it! GOOD! That's why I decided to update on Mondays (everyone hates Mondays XD). Thanks for the support, sorry for the long reply! XD
notaname (2.0): Aw, thanks! I think it's been a ton of people since before the rewrite, but I've been too oblivious to notice XD.
RoseyMirror: Ay! You aren't dead! Thanks! I'm working on keeping personalities consistent. Overusing italics? ...Yup, I can see that. I'll work on it! Once again, thank you! :3
Once again, review! Any suggestions are welcome!
That's all, folks! Now I'm off to go bury myself in a snow bank... and write, of course. Hopefully I don't decide to draw again - it can get very time consuming.
THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT! :D
Sincerely ((This joke is getting old...) I'm probably lying, bla bla bla),
Ari~