The unnatural formation of large rocks was all she managed to take in before the stony beast before her frightened her horse enough to loudly neigh and rear. In shock, Princess Zelda was easily cast off of its back and hit the ground landing on her back, the fall causing the air to leave her lungs. She tried to gasp for air but it wouldn't enter her body. Her legs refused to move. For a second, she recalled the panic and anxiety she had felt in Gerudo Desert – this was the second time she was in real danger. Where her white horse had raced off to, she had no idea of. All her wide opened eyes could look at was the beast before her, casting a huge shadow over her.
Link wasn't late to react. He had heard rumors of these feared creatures in the hallways in the guards' quarters in Hyrule Castle but he never thought one would be so close to Castle Town. He knew what they were called, talus, but he had never seen one before and wasn't sure how to defeat one or if it even was possible without a smaller army of knights or cannons.
But that was unimportant at the moment. He had to get the Princess to safety.
Without hesitation, he quickly got over to the Princess on his own horse before the stone monster had fully assembled, saw her lose control over her white horse and land clumsily on the ground with a thud. He was next to her within seconds, got off his ash brown mare and sneaked his arms under hers to pull her up. It took her a second to react and cooperate, all while her eyes refused to look away from the talus. She wasn't aware of what neither of them were doing, her body simply moved on its own when her knight helped her to get up on his horse and gave it a smack to send it running. Only then did she seem to return to the present.
And she saw Link standing next to the talus without a horse of his own to escape from the beast. He looked so small in comparison; the beast was more than twice his size. And she was sure she saw that familiar gleam in his eyes which meant that he was up for a challenge. But she wasn't sure he would be able to beat this one.
The Master Sword was already in Link's hand and he kept a threatening glare on the talus. Ordinary swords wouldn't do much against stone but if the tales were true that the one he was holding was special and Goddess sent, he would have a chance, wouldn't he?
He cast a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Princess Zelda was far away enough to not get hurt. She was.
He looked back at the talus and had already made up his mind. He would put the sword's strength to a test.
He barely had time to react before jumping to his right, dodging a giant boulder thrown from the talus's own body. He heard his Princess call out his name and heard the worry in her voice. But he wasn't, and he just saw a golden opportunity to strike the talus. The talus got stuck in the ground after trying to smash him and Link took a step closer and swung his sword on what was supposed to be its legs. It didn't feel like it usually did – there was no flesh to cut and all the sword did was to leave some faint scratch marks on the surface – but it must have been enough to annoy the monster because it suddenly swung its arms around and hit Link right on his chest.
The talus sent him flying, the blow forced air to leave his lungs and he hit the ground with a dry cough. Somewhere around him he heard his Princess shriek and the world spun violently. Link was conscious enough to be surprised that the sword was still in his right hand but stayed still for a moment. He soon forced himself to get up, if not to fight the talus, then at least to keep its attention on himself and not on the Princess. He stumbled, his lungs still painfully reminded him that air was needed and he held up his sword again. He found his balance and tried to breathe in once, twice and although his body protested, it also welcomed it on the third try.
He just needed to be more careful, he convinced himself. Pay attention to its movements and then attack again. This time, he would be ready when the talus would attempt to crush him.
Just as Link began to step closer to the stone beast, he heard hooves drum against the ground and he assumed that Princess Zelda was moving too. But he didn't have time to check what she was up to. He needed to keep his full attention on the talus before him.
Link charged and swung the Master Sword as many times he managed before noticing the talus becoming furious again. In something which might have been panic, Link automatically jumped onto the beast and held on tightly, confusing them both for a moment with what was going on before the talus aggressively shook and twisted its body to get rid of the climber. Link lost his grip and fell to the ground. But he hadn't given up yet.
Link took a risky chance and ran under the talus, between its stony legs which were much slimmer in comparison to the rest, and began slashing the sword on the back of the beast, with more power and will than before. Deep inside him, he still wanted some kind of proof that this sword would live up to its stories and legends, that it could easily take down an enemy such as this one. That he truly was worthy of carrying it.
And then he felt it. That same feeling from before, from when he had first laid his hand on it.
A thrill spread from his fingertips to his hand, his right arm, throughout his body. He felt stronger, more precise, bolder, and every hit against the stone beast felt somehow amplified compared to just a moment ago. It felt right, and he didn't want this feeling he had been searching for to go.
Entranced by this sudden feeling, Link didn't waste a moment on wielding the Master Sword. Now he was certain that he hadn't imagined feeling the same thrill when he had pulled out the sword. He had felt it then and he felt it now and it was as if the sword in his hand had always been a part of him. Any doubts he had had that it couldn't belong to him were now gone.
Funnily, the talus had no eyes but was still be able to tell where Link was due to the annoying slashing on its back. It spun around, swung an arm made of boulders again and managed to hit the Princess' knight, this time somewhere on his left shoulder blade and dangerously close to his head. Once again, Link landed on the ground with a thud, palms and fingers scratched and bones aching in protest.
Link groaned and allowed himself to lay on the grass and dirt for a long moment. He hadn't seen that coming and he wasn't sure his body could stand getting hit again – but he so wanted to feel that connection with the Master Sword once more. Conflicted, he thought to himself that he might be able to defeat the talus but also realized at this point that it would take some time. The talus didn't seem to become weaker despite all the hits he had given it. This fight wouldn't be worth it considering how much damage the talus was capable of giving if it managed to hit a strike. And time was something he and the Princess didn't have since the Sheikah were waiting for their arrival.
But yet – shouldn't he take this opportunity to test the power of the sword now when he no longer had to question the existence of that thrill he had once felt? Shouldn't he make the best of it when it had finally returned to him?
Link's back ached when he stood up again and reached down to pick up the sword which had landed just a few meters away from him. He held it in his right hand and advanced towards the talus, dodged another of its punches and swung the blade.
Nothing.
Link felt nothing but metal hitting solid stone. Shocked, and not ready to fully accept it, he wielded the blade again and swung it backwards, ready for a third strike when he forgot to pay attention to the talus' movements and got knocked again. Link was sent flying for what felt like the hundredth time that day and landed somewhere on the grass, feeling his body bruise where there previously hadn't been any. His body ached all over and he must be covered in both dirt and grass stains. And possibly several scratches too, judging by the lightly bleeding one on his left cheek.
Lying on the ground, he watched the talus through squinted eyes slowly advance towards him. His intuition told him two things: that he definitely needed to consume a healing elixir and that the talus needed to be stopped now while there still was a distance between them. Link made up his mind quickly – the elixir would have to wait. This wasn't the right moment to start looking for elixir bottles.
He let go off the Master Sword and hurriedly grabbed a bow and an arrow from his quiver, eyes rapidly searching for where to best take to aim as the talus got closer with long but slow steps. Link placed the arrow and drew the bow's string. He found no specific target – the beast was made of solid stone for Din's sake, a simple arrow wouldn't do much against it! – and panic began to spread in his body and his heart raced. But then a thought crossed his mind in the speed of lightening, or perhaps it was a feeling more than a thought. His eyes caught the glimmering stone on the talus' back, that treacherous gem which had lured Princess Zelda to come closer. He just wished it would shatter into a thousand pieces and not harm anyone again. And he took aim, sent the arrow flying without really expecting it would do much against the beast and… watched the talus stumble and fall to the ground as if it had hurt an ankle and lost its footing. He must have found a weak spot!
Link immediately picked up his sword, got on his feet and clumsily tried to hang the bow on his back simultaneously. He looked up and ran towards his Princess who was waiting for him, sitting on his horse and holding the reins to her own white horse in her other hand, looking ready to place them in his. The distance between them quickly shrunk with each leaping step he took, ignoring his aching body to make it to safety. He almost reached her when she suddenly shouted for him to watch out, and he looked back and saw a gigantic rock thrown from the talus in the air. He threw himself on the ground and covered his head by reflex, heard the rock land somewhere nearby, the horses neigh nervously and felt the earth quake from the weight of the boulder, forcing dust, grass and common flowers up in the air.
Link who usually was so quiet suddenly cried out loudly from the pain he felt coming from his right leg. His hands flew immediately to his thigh, felt his fingers become wet from something warm and his mind quickly puzzled two and two together when he saw a red stained rock lying next to him. He must have been hit by it, it must have split from the larger rock when it landed on the ground because his palms and trousers were soon covered with something which could unmistakably be blood.
He needed to get away. He just needed to get on his Princess' horse and they would both get far, far away from the monster.
Adrenaline flowed through his veins and kept the initial pain away, but he still growled as he stood up again and stumbled with a several steps over to Princess Zelda.
"Link, a-are you alright?!" she asked worried as he struggled to get onto the empty sadly on her white horse. She didn't really need an answer – she can see that he isn't. "Can you still ride? We need to get away from here." She cast a nervous glance at the talus before them when it bended forward to find a new rock to make an arm of and she didn't wait to nudge the brown mare to start moving. She had found her own white horse while Link fought against the talus, managed to calm it down and brought it with her so she and her knight could escape. She had first intended to switch back to her own horse but everything happened so quickly that she didn't think of it to be necessary anymore when Link finally raced to meet her.
Princess Zelda wasn't sure what to keep an eye on, Link or the creature who would surely love to crush them both. Her knight held the reins to his (her) horse with one hand and clutched his thigh with the other, failing at keeping his facial expression free from the pain he felt. And it would only feel worse once the adrenaline's effect would begin to fade. Princess Zelda looked up to the talus one final time. It didn't seem to want to let them flee and would surely catch up on them unless they went faster. Princess Zelda took the reins from Link's hand, mumbled "hang on" loud enough for him to hear and sped up, hoping the white horse would get the hint and follow them at the new speed. It needed a little bit of encouragement from Link and they were soon on their way. The talus became smaller in her vision and eventually gave up chasing them and returned to disguise itself as a harmless rock in the ground again. They were finally in safety but despite knowing this, Princess Zelda's heart wouldn't stop beating hard against her ribcage.
She led them up Sahasra slope and came to a halt somewhere halfway up. Over the hill and between the mountain tops would Kakariko Village lie. She could only imagine everyone's thoughts if she turned up still shaken from the encounter with the glimmering gem which turned out to be a monster made of rock and her knight with a bloody leg. And a white horse in royal gear with her knight's blood smeared on it. This was far from what she had in her mind last night when she went to bed, thinking of the best ways to present themselves for the Sheikah. Although she doubted it is necessary to present herself – she assumed she was well known by them all considering the tight contact the tribe had with her and her father.
Link was bent forward, resting his head against the neck of her white horse or hiding his face, and by doing so, his pain, from her. He didn't seem to pay much attention to her bringing them to a stop and he didn't look at her when she got off his mare and began searching for something in their saddle bags.
Princess Zelda forced herself to take command in an attempt to fix the mess both of them were. She took a deep breath in and moved her gaze from the blood to Link's head.
"Link, where do you keep the bandages, we should try to stop the bleeding. And I know you want to make sure the wound is clean, but you should take some healing elixir as well" she said in her authoritarian voice to make sure he understood that this was not something he could say no to. He stirred and sat up straight, held back a groan from the back of his throat and turned around in the saddle to open one saddle bag to find the things she had requested for. She took the bandages from him and let him uncork the bottle of elixir. He looked at it for a second as if he hesitated to take it and lowered his arm slightly, just slightly but enough for his Princess to look at him with stern eyes, and he took a small sip from it after meeting her gaze briefly, leaving more than half of the liquid in the bottle. She was about to protest when he shook his head lightly and she closed her mouth. She understood that it would be fruitless to negotiate. They exchanged the items in their hands and Princess Zelda placed the elixir back in place in the bag. She stepped back to get onto the brown horse but when she sees Link start to wrap up his thigh with bandages, she just stands next to it.
She watches him and feels terribly guilty for everything. Everything had been her fault. If she hadn't been so curious, if she had stilled her thirst to examine things that were unknown to her, if she just…
"What were you thinking, trying to fight against that beast?!" The tone coming from her mouth was harsh. But he didn't stop wrapping his leg with the clean fabric. "You thought you could defeat it, didn't you? It was made of rock, Link, rock! What if you got under its hands, what if it actually had crushed you? What then, Link?" She knew she was likely assuming things because she truly had no idea what had gone through his mind. He kept wrapping, and listening to her. "You have to stop being so reckless, Link, you can't just-" she waved an arm in the air, "- you can't just run into every fight head first. When will you start to think, Link? When will you stop being reckless?" He finished tending his thigh and simply held the rest of the clean roll of bandage in his hands and his head hung low. She stared at him, frustrated at him and his silence but even more at herself.
Everything was quiet except for distant bird song and the howling wind. She took the moment to calm herself. This is not at all what she wanted to say. Yes, he had been acting like a fool and she was angry at him for that, but her biggest disappointment was at herself. None of this would have happened if it wasn't because of her, and she knew it. She was to blame, and she was certain of it. She let her frustration of herself, of the whole situation, all her shock out on her knight. And she wasn't being fair to him.
Her pride was too big to say it directly to him, but she could always try to soften her words.
She turned her gaze downwards to the grassy ground and opened her mouth once more.
"You're the hero we need, Link. You can't let yourself get into such fights before the Calamity is here. Your job is to escort me and make sure I'm safe during our travels, but it is also to ensure that you're in one piece. That you're in perfect condition to face the Calamity. You know that it might come any day, don't you?" She looked up and he's still facing away from her. But she knows he's listening.
"… I was so scared, Link. Promise me you won't scare me like that again." She stays silent and he is too, and he twists in the saddle to finally look back at her when she adds, "I need you." And she realizes how true those words are the second they leave her. She needs him, and he needs her in order for this to work.
His mouth was grim and his eyes apologetic. And he doesn't say it but she can feel his regret. And she accepted it after more passing moments of silence.
"How are you feeling? Kakariko Village is at the end of this slope, do you think you can make it?" He makes an attempt to sit a bit straighter, winces but nods. She took one more look at him to ensure he will be fine, trust his word (or, rather, his nod) and then got up on the horse again. Together they slowly moved forward, letting the mountain cliffs guide them until the gates to the village were revealed. The wooden arches were painted in red, decorated with thick ropes connecting the two pillars and evenly placed in between the tall mountain walls. And when the Princess and her knight went around a corner, Link was sure the Sheikah and their village must be very different to ordinary Hylians.
Beneath them, down a shorter slope, laid Kakariko Village, surrounded and hidden by tall mountain tops. The houses had nothing in common with the architecture in Castle Town, not even from Link's own humble hometown. Their roofs arched outwards, they weren't built as closely as the buildings in some of the narrow streets of Castle Town but if there was one thing Karariko Village had with the capital of Hyrule, it was the largest building standing in front of several waterfalls, looking like Hyrule Castle in comparison. One could immediately tell it was an important building.
Princess Zelda remembered the village as she looked over it. Confident on where she would find Impa, she nudged the mare to move and took the lead. She had for a moment considered to get off the horse, take the reins and walk down the slope but thought that it would look odd if she was walking and not her knight, so she stayed on Link's brown mare's back.
The clopping of hooves soon brought attention to them. A Sheikah villager working on a small field of pumpkins looked up and observed them with a look of hesitation, or maybe it was confusion and soon a second villager looked up as well to see what brought the first one to take a break. Their eyes landed on the bloodied fur of the white horse and then must've noticed the luxurious looking, purple horse gear for they soon went to look at the leading rider, immediately recognized them and yelled out "It's the Princess!" The same words were repeated once more and curious villagers stopped whatever it was they were doing to see if it really was the young Princess of Hyrule who had graced them with a visit. Realizing that it was, they fell down to one knee to pay their respects and adverted their gaze from the visiting Hylians to the ground.
Link looked around them – it felt peculiar to not stand there on the ground, next to the Sheikahs and bow with them. For many years he had bowed to commanders of the Hylian army, to superiors and finally the royal family and the members of the court as well. It was the first time he was on the receiving end so to speak. And he wasn't sure he liked it 'cause it reminded him terribly of the burden he had to carry as the chosen hero to save to world.
An older Sheikah man with white hair sticking out underneath a woven hat kneeling nearby spoke up with a clear yet deep voice once Princess Zelda came to halt. "Princess, welcome back to Kakariko Village. We heard from Lady Impa that you would grace us with a visit in the near future."
"Thank you, it is good to be back. It has been far too since I last was here, I apologize for not being able to visit sooner."
The Sheikah man dared to look up and met the Princess' gentle, green eyes. He must surely have seen the now dried blood on one of the horse's fur but was polite enough not to comment it. "You must have been very busy, Princess. There's no need to apologize."
Princess Zelda smiled a tired smile. "Yes, I have. And I'm afraid I haven't come to stay for very long either. I need to speak with Lady Impa, you wouldn't happen to know where I can find her?"
"I am right here, Princess" a young voice called out to their left. Looking up, Link saw a young Sheikah standing next to the railing to the deck surrounding the largest building in the village, the one in front of the waterfalls. She was dressed in white robes and wore a wide brimmed, pointy woven hat on her head with the Sheikah eye symbol painted on it in crimson red. Link had imagined Purah's sister to be several years older but the woman standing above looked young yet had an aura of authority around her. He could tell she was an important person just by looking at her.
"I see that the hero has hurt himself, so I assume your travels weren't as safe as I had prayed for. Come inside, please rest yourselves – and we should probably take a proper look at your leg, hero" Lady Impa lastly said and her eyes landed on Link.
"How did you know he's the hero?" Princess Zelda asked and looked between Impa and Link, her mouth forming a small o in confusion.
"I believe you would only bring a boy with you if he is either the hero or has been promised your hand, Princess. And I suspect marriage isn't King Rhoam's highest priority at the moment. Please come inside, you must be tired of your journey."
Princess Zelda felt her cheeks getting warm from Impa's bluntness and spoke no more. She got off the saddle, locked eyes with the older Sheikah man who had welcomed them and were in a silent agreement that he would take care of the horses for them during their stay. Link had a bit of trouble to get off since the thigh pained him, but he looked as emotionless as ever once he stood on the ground again.
Princess Zelda thanked the man, looked at Link over her shoulder and then walked up the wooden stairs with her knight behind her to join Lady Impa and enter the large house.
I initially wanted this chapter to go on a bit longer but I thought it would be too long.
Happy #Linktober to anyone who's participating (I am!) and to those of you who are playing the remake of Link's Awakening, I hope you're enjoying it! I know I am.
Happy Friday, everyone!