Chapter 6: Explody Beam of Death

Zelda went through her notes on Vah Medoh. Apparently the Divine Beast did not have any levers or switches to control it, like the guardians, instead controlled by Revali's mind.

The Divine Beasts. So much that we don't know. Yet, to think they were actually built by people…

"Zellie!" Zelda looked at the door just as Purah threw it open, followed by her new assistant.

"Good morning, Purah." Zelda said as calmly as possible. "What is it?"

"Robbie's gotten the guardians to do something incredible!" Purah said excitedly. Zelda immediately leapt out of her chair.

"What?" She asked ardently.

"They can shoot these sort of beams!" Purah hands motioned and shot straight out in front of her. "And upon impact, they explode!"

Oh no. Zelda mused silently with a small smile. We all know how Purah gets with explosions. "Incredible!" Zelda said. "Can you show me?"

"Well." Purah huffed and put her hands on her hips. "I was supposed to ask you first."

"Come on, Purah!" Zelda laughed. "You know you want to see these explosions."

"Oh, fine." Purah giggled and grabbed Zelda's wrist, dragging her out of the study.

"It's out of control!" A man screeched. Link's ears perked and he looked around. It's coming from the guardian courtyard. Has something gone wrong?

Link narrowed his eyes and felt his hand itch. Something was definitely wrong.

He followed the sounds of yells and screams, before he finally reached the courtyard.

It was chaos. Absolute and utter chaos. Or anarchy, if you're a fancy person. The guardian's strange mechanical legs lay strewn about it, and its head turned frantically, shooting strange lasers.

Link saw where it impacted, where it caused an explosion. Link glanced around for a shield. Perhaps he could deflect the beam?

But no. The closest they had was a pot lid lying in the corner of the yard. Link rolled his eyes (Why wouldn't they have a shield handy when conducting experiments on these monsters?) and ran for it, pushing his way through the screaming flow people.

He grabbed the pot lid, and just before the guardian shot a beam towards the flow of people, Link leapt out of the flow, holding the pot lid in front of him defensively.

Time slowed. Link felt his left hand burning, but no matter. He watched as the beam shot towards him, and just before impact-

Link thrusted the pot lid forward, causing the beam to reflect. Time resumed its usual pace, and Link could feel his left hand burning.

He grimaced. The pot lid had exploded on impact, splintering and breaking. His right arm was full of the bits of wood, and blood oozed.

Well, he thought. That doesn't look very... healthy.

He quickly grabbed a fallen cloak from the ground and draped it over his arm, hiding the damage. The people couldn't see him weakened.

"Sir Link!" Link turned and saw a Sheikah researcher, whom he recognized as Robbie, running toward him. "That was quick thinking. Very good!"

Link shrugged. It was actually really stupid, but it was fine if the people believed that it wasn't. How would they feel if they realized their hero was a reckless lunatic?

Robbie glanced at his arm and frowned. "Why do you have a cloak?"

"Found it." Link grunted. "Someone will want it back. It's not a pile of ashes."

"What in Hyrule?!" Link turned his gaze to the shout, carefully keeping his face blank.

It was Lady Purah, Impa's older sister. Behind her was a shocked looking princess, as well as… Liari?

Well, it's only natural for her to be here! Link scolded his uneducated mind. She's Lady Purah's assistant, isn't she?

"It appears we had some… complications." Robbie said nervously. "We lost control of the guardian, hence the destruction."

Purah glanced at the guardian. "So you had to blow up the guardian to stop it?"

Robbie laughed nervously. "N-no, that was actually all Sir Link. Right, Sir Link?"

Link stared at the researcher. So you're throwing me under the horse? How kind of you. If it weren't for me, you would be in a lot worse trouble, pal.

"Well, it was necessary." Purah sighed, drawing Link's attention back to her. "Thank you, Sir Link."

The princess was merely staring at Link, eyes narrowed. Of course she's mad. I just blew up the first guardian with a functioning… what was it?

Eh, I'll just call it the Explody Beam of Death. That sounds good.

Anyway, that probably still wasn't the best idea.

Liari came forward, glancing at the cloak on his arm. Could reading his emotions also include knowing when he was injured?

"Sir Link, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Link nodded, carefully keeping the cloak on his arm and his face blank, despite the burning pain of the wound.

Liari grabbed his left arm and yanked him out of the courtyard, into a narrow alley.

"What were you thinking?" She hissed quietly.

Link shrugged. "Would you rather have had all those people die?"

"Well, no." She replied. "But you could have found a less…" Liari glanced at his arm. "Risky solution."

Ah. So she did know. "It's only a small cut." He said coolly. "I'll be fine."

"Well then, if it's only a small cut, then you won't mind if I look at it, then, will you?" Liari said with a sly grin. Crap.

"U-uh, well," Link began, flustered. "See, I'm actually supposed to be at the, er, training yard! One of the squires needs help with his, uh, parrying!"

"So that's how you took care of the guardian!" Liari said in awe. Then her gaze darkened. "Because you never help squires, because you don't want to seem soft. And how did you parry the laser? You don't have a shield."

Link shrugged. "It… exploded! After I used it, I threw it on the ground, and it exploded." He said, nodding. It wasn't a… complete lie, even though it actually blew up his arm instead of the ground.

"What kind of shield was it?" Liari continued to question, occasionally moving her hand towards the cloak before Link swatted it away,

"It was a, uh…" Link began before he sighed in defeat. "It was a pot lid."

"You used a what?!" Liari hissed, a bit too loud for Link's liking. "And you got a small cut, did you?"

"Yup." Link lied quickly, nodding his head. Heroes don't feel pain. Champions don't get hurt. Blank. Emotionless. Strong. Hide your emotions, hide your weakness. Appear weak when strong, and strong when wea-

Link winced as Liari yanked the cloak off of his arm. Liari yelped, before her gaze hardened. "You, young man, are going to the infirmary."

"I thought I was older than you." Link forced a crooked smile. "And I'm fine. I'll just go back to my room-"

"You call that broom closet of yours a room?" Liari snorted.

"-and patch myself up." Link finished.

Liari sighed. "Fine."

"Really, I'm- wait…" Link stared at her. "What?"

"Fine. But I will be telling Impa." Liari huffed. "And if this happens again, then I will brutally murder you."

"Thanks Li. Really enjoying all the love." Link turned to walk away, but Liari grabbed his shoulder.

Link looked over his shoulder to see Liari waving the cloak for a moment, before throwing it straight at his face.

Link reached up to grab in before wincing. He had used is right arm. He quickly switched to his left and draped the cloak back over his injury. "Thanks again. See you."

Link made his way off, Liari staring sadly at his departing back.

"Oh, Link." His sister whispered softly as his figure disappeared. "You don't realize that you're going to wind up killing yourself, do you?"

"Zelda," Purah began. "You do realize that the knight was only trying to keep people from dying, right?"

"Yes, I do." Zelda huffed. "But that does not mean that he can destroy the little progress we have!"

"Zelda, please stop." Purah pleaded. Zelda ignored her and continued walking, before pausing.

"Where are Sir Link's quarters?" Zelda questioned Purah.

Purah blinked at her, before laughing. "That's a good joke, Princess!" Zelda thought she saw the Sheikah mouth 'quarters.'

"Lady Purah, Princess." Liari came out from nowhere. What was up with Sheikah and moving silently?

"Ah, Liari!" Purah said quickly. She was trying to distract Zelda. Well, it's working. "Where did you head off too?"

"I was scolding Sir Link." Liari said calmly. "Though it seems he would like to keep the reasoning quiet."

"Good." Zelda huffed. "Now I have two things I can order out of him!"

"Princess," Liari said quietly. "Sir Link will be unavailable for an unknown amount of time. He has important business to attend to."

"But he just went and blew up the first guardian with a functioning laser!" Zelda growled, much unlike her usual composed state.

"And he also saved the lives of fifteen or so people." Liari said coolly.

Zelda clamped her mouth shut. That stupid little knight, always looking for an opportunity to prove that he's better than everyone else! We already know! There's no need to rub it in! The horse is dead! Stop beating that dead horse! STOP IT!

"Zelda," Purah said softly. "Leave him be."

Zelda hesitated, before sighing. "Fine." Then she stomped off, back to her study.

Ah, Liari. Foreshadowing even though she doesn't know it. The irony!

This was a fun chapter, despite the... er... injuries. I really do like action. But I'm telling you, no Links were harmed in the making of this chapter! Except for maybe BOTW Link! Or is he Pre-BOTW Link because he remembers everything and this is before the game? Asking the big questions, now, aren't we...?

I freaking love making stupid names for things. If Link was real- No, he is! He lives in our hearts! Don't cri, don't cri... Anyway, we would be best buddies.

I actually wish this was longer, so give me ideas for details I could add? Maybe some more elaboration on the wound? I don't know.

REPLIES!

SmokeyMirrors: Yeah... I was totally planning the sleep thing. I was really subtle on purpose, because I didn't plan on revealing it until later. Eh, oh well. You'll find out more about that later. Yep, Link has pretty bad confidence. Maybe he's depressed? I don't know, probably. I can't reveal why yet (for all you know, it's a HUGE plot twist), and I'm actually still planning some of it out. So I don't mind ideas. At first, Liari and Link were actually, positively related, but now I'm not sure, so that's why Liari ended up blonde. And I'm not sure you noticed, but a couple of chapters ago Zelda pointed out he was completely silent in dismounting and movement, and wondered if he had had Sheikah training. I was planning Link having some relation to Liari early on, so... yeah. I don't know. I can't give away all my secrets, though! I'm glad you enjoy this enough to review so much! I love having a normal occurrence in my reviews, so thank you! ...And we are in complete and total agreement that longer chapters are more satisfying. Even to write about them is more fun!

SmokeyMirrors (2.0): Once again, you give me so many good ideas for later on! I love listening to people's speculations, because it gives me a better idea of what they might expect, so then I can turn their world completely upside down. But enough of my secret dark side- About Link's age. I actually imagine him being like, eighteen or nineteen in this. But maybe he's like, seventeen, being slightly older? I don't know. I've always imagined Link being older, and since Liari is Zelda's age, while Link is sort of her older brother... I don't know. Tell me what you think!

poplasia: Thank you! I thought that adding Fi would be a nice easter egg! So here she is. I haven't had her in a couple chapters, but I think she'll be in the next one? Maybe? It depends. I don't know if that chapter is going to be full on Zelda's POV, yet.

thedarkesthorcrux: I see we have a Harry Potter fan! I'm glad you love this story! That's the whole point of the whole thing- making people happy! Well, that and jotting down my interesting thoughts. So thank you!

SmokeyMirrors (3.0): Wow, you're really into this! I actually did put these in as a reference to what I thought could be Link's past, so good job! When writing, it is important to hide little hints earlier on before revealing them, so that it all just clicks when revealed. So yeah! Thanks again for reviewing!