Family
Chapter 204 The Inn
By: Major144
Disclaimer: I do not own anything, expect the OCs. This is just a story for fun.
The carriage that carried Zelda and the heroes was making its way through the countryside towards the village where Link lived. Zelda had given the heroes a book titled 'The Legend of Zelda' a book that told the history of the world.
"You know the title of this book should be something else." Said Ling.
"What do you mean?" Asked Zelda.
"Well it sounds like Link did a majority of the work in the past, yet Zelda is the legend and the title character. If I was a hero he did a bunch of hard work, I would want some recognition." Said Greed.
"That...is a fair point." Admitted Zelda.
"You should rename it 'The Legend of Link' or 'The Legend of Zelda and Link'. Either name would work." Said Lapis.
"Maybe you can use the name change as a bribe to get Link to being a hero again." Said Greed.
"I'll consider it. I'm willing to try anything to get Link back to being a hero." Said Zelda.
"Don't you worry princess, will help rekindle his heroic warrior spirit." Said Finn.
"Thank you." Said Zelda.
The carriage continued on towards the village, unbeknownst to them a group of Hunters was also making their way there.
Meanwhile miles away there was a temple. The very same temple that Midna had come from and had a portal to the Twilight Realm in it. Within the Twilight Realm their was a palace. In the throne room sat Zant, the Twilight King. Zant was a tall, slender being dressed in black, baggy clothing decorated with turquoise symbols on the sleeves and shoulder guards. The sleeves of his robe were long, with eight tassels on each sleeve hanging to the floor. Zant wore a metallic helmet that resembled a chameleon's head. On the back of each layer of the helmet was a facial decoration. The mouth guard of the helmet is resembled a chameleon's tongue. The front of Zant's shoulder guards were decorated with serpents and his shoes resemble dragon heads.
A couple of large dark skinned creatures with stone mask and shadow tendrils stood by awaiting to obey Zant's command. Zant smiled underneath his mask. It was good to be king. The ruler could hardly believe that not to long ago, he had been denied his rightful place by a bunch of foolish elders and then destiny happened.
Zant had been outside the castle throwing a bit of a tantrum, when two strange beings appeared before him.
"My. My. Isn't this a sorry sight Vaati."
"It is indeed Lord Ghirahim."
"A great man being denied his rightful place. If only he had the power to back himself up then he could simply take what is rightful his."
Zant looked up at the beings and saw that one was white and about his height and a purple one that was a little shorter then the other. Neither of these beings were Twii. Zant blinked and rubbed his eyes wondering if he was hallucinating these strangers.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Asked Zant.
"Oh my apologies, where are my manners. I am Lord Ghirahim and this is Vaati. As to your other question its not what we want it's what you want." Said Ghirahim.
"What?" Asked Zant.
"You were crying out to the havens in rage and a god herd you. Now your going to meet him and all your prayers will be answered." Said Ghirahim as he suddenly pulled out a strange staff.
On closer inspection Zant saw that the staff was actually a large long sword in a scabbard. The sword glowed slightly and a massive ball of orange and red flames appeared before Zant and engulfed him. Zant found himself standing before a giant bearded face made entirely out of flames. The face looked down at Zant, who stared back at it in awe.
"You shall bare a great portion of my power. Your desire is my desire. This world and the world of Hyrule will be yours."
Zant felt a great deal of power surge through his body and the face vanished. The Twili found himself back with Ghirahim and Vaati. Ghirahim smiled and the sword and the scabbard vanished.
"How do you feel?" Asked Vaati.
"I feel incredible! This is the power I deserve!" Declared Zant with a laugh as a helmet began to form around his head.
"Yes it does suit you. Now go take what is rightfully yours and when the time is right, you and your people will march on Hyrule and take it!" Said Ghirahim.
"Why must I wait?" Asked Zant.
"Because of your time here you and your people won't be able to handle the light in Hyrule. You would all perish once you came in contact with the light." Said Vaati.
"So we're going to make things a little more accommodating. Now go have some fun, your the King now and here's a little something to help keep in touch with us." Said Ghirahim as he handed Zant a red crystal with a yellow eye symbol on it.
Zant nodded as he marched his way towards the castle. And thus his reign began.
Back in the present Zant smiled fondly at the memory. Things were going good for the Twilight King. He had conquered the castle and had turned most of his race into creatures he called Shadow Beast to serve him, while keeping a few Twili around to cower before him. Soon he would invade Hyrule. There was the small problem of Midna escaping into Hyrule with a piece of the Fused Shadow, but Zant had alerted Ghirahim about it and he was confident that Midna posed no threat to him and would soon be dealt with. All he had to do was wait.
Back in Hyrule, Zelda and the heroes arrived at the village and got out of the carriage. The village seemed to be having some kind of party near a building that seemed to be some kind of inn. People were laughing and dancing.
"Seems like a nice place." Said Ling with a excited smile.
"Link should be somewhere around here. Phoebe. Lapis. Peridot. You three should stay close to me. I'll just tell anyone who ask your from another world." Said Zelda.
The three women nodded and stuck close to Zelda as she made her way into the inn followed by Finn, Ling, and Mimi. The group made their way through the crowd. A good deal of people cast curious looks at the newcomers and were a little surprised by Phoebe, Lapis, and Peridot's appearances, but they saw they were accompanying Zelda and figured they must be friends from a far off land. The people gave polite bows to Zelda and got out of her groups way as they walked through. As they made their way deeper into the inn, Finn could see a group of people playing musical instruments. Finn saw one young man playing an ocarina and Zelda pointed him out.
"That is Link, he always did have a bit of musical talent." Said Zelda.
"A music lover huh? That gives me an idea." Said Finn as he sat his bag down and began to go through it.
"What are you doing?" Asked Zelda.
"Well I figure that a good way to introduce myself to Link is through music, to help show I'm a normal guy who likes music." Said Finn as he pulled out a flute.
Mimi seemed to like the idea of music and went through the pack, until she found another flute. The girl looked over at Lapis and Peridot with a pleading look in her eyes.
"Alright will join you." Said Lapis with a smile as she pulled out a tambourine from the pack.
"I suppose I can figure out how to work this instrument." Said Peridot as she pulled out a triangle and a metal wand and used her powers to levitate them in front of her.
The green gem hit the wand against the triangle making it ring. Mimi smiled. Zelda, Ling, and Phoebe took a seat at a table, while Finn and the others made their way over to Link and the other instrument players and joined in on their playing. Link eyed the newcomers with interest and gave a small smile and friendly nod to them. Finn nodded and he and the others played on.
Outside the village their was a small lake near the woods. Out the woods floated Midna, who landed near the lake to rest and look at her reflection. The former princess glared at her reflection and was reminded of her former beauty. Midna gritted her teeth in anger as her hair stretched out and formed a large hand that slammed itself on top of the water causing her reflection to ripple and become distorted. The imp let out a frustrated sigh as her hair returned to normal and her stomach let out a growl. Midna had eaten some apples earlier that day, but now she was hungry again. It was then she took notice of the village and decided to check it out. She floated towards a building and she peeked from behind it to watch some people walk by towards a large building. This was Midna's first time seeing the race of Hyrule. They...were called humans Midna recalled. Midna watched the humans enter the building. The building seemed to be packed full of humans and Midna realized that this was a good thing. She had enough magic to disguise herself as a human and sneak in. Midna could listen in on the humans talk and maybe get some important information on Hyrule and find a place that might provide clues about where the Fused Shadow pieces might be. Maybe she could find someone who might be able help her on her quest. Midna's stomach growled again. But first she needed to eat something first.
"Ok time to be human." Though Midna.
Midna's body flickered a bit and in her place stood a young girl wearing a pale blue dress with orange hair and red eyes. She cast a glance at her reflection in the lake and smiled. It was only a Illusion to disguise herself, but it would work. Midna made her way towards the building.
In another part of the woods, a dozen Hunters studied the village. The Hunters were an assortment of men and women and they each wore different colored coats, hats, along with an assortment of mask and rags over their eyes. They carried an assortment of spears, axes, rifles, and pistols. The Hunters were a group of hired mercenaries who hunted down whatever they were told to for a price. It didn't matter if it was a person, beast, endangered animal, plant, or object, if a person could afford their fee, the Hunters would hunt it down without questions or hesitation. The current assignment the Hunters were on was a bit unusually and their employer was a bit of an oddball collector, but his money was good and that was all that mattered to the Hunters. The Hunters had been running around Hyrule collecting pieces of a large strange mirror and according to their research a piece of the mirror was located inside an inn in the village. The inn was currently packed with people, but the Hunters saw it as no real challenge. The group prepared to charge in and make it's move.
Inside the inn things were in full swing. Finn and his friends were jamming it out with Link and everyone was enjoying the music. Ling was looking around the inn and took notice of a wall decorated with various objects hanging on it. There were mask, shields, paintings, feathers, and a large shard of a mirror with strange symbols. Ling turned from the wall and began to observe the crowd. He took notice of a girl in a blue dress with orange hair snatch a loaf of bread from a table, when no one was looking, walk away, and hungrily munch on it. Ling didn't approve of stealing, but he could understand the pains of hunger. He also noticed that the girl was studying the crowd and then she looked at Zelda's table. Ling quickly looked away and looked elsewhere. Whatever the girl was about, Ling could sense no danger from her, so he chose not to worry about her.
Midna looked around at the inn and people in awe. This place was certainly different of her home. She grabbed a loaf of bread from a table and munched on it as she looked around. Midna's eyes landed on a young women who was better dressed then the other humans and by the tiara on her head, Midna figured the women must be someone important. Maybe she could help Midna or at least point her to a place that could. Midna then took stock of the strange women playing instruments. One of the women was yellow with hair made of fire, while one was blue skinned, and the last one was green with a triangle shaped haircut. This world seemed to be filled with strange and unusual people. Midna decided to wait to ask the women with the tiara for help.
Several minutes later Link and the others stopped playing to take a little break. Link saw Zelda at a table and decided to join her and the people she was with.
"Zelda." Said Link.
"Hello Link." Said Zelda.
"Who are your new friends?" Asked Link.
"These are people from another world. This is Finn, Phoebe, Mimi, Ling, Lapis, and Peridot." Said Zelda as she introduced the heroes.
"I take it your simply not here to visit and introduce me to your new friends." Said Link.
"I'm here to talk to you about the Hunters and to help rekindle your heroic spirit, you haven't been yourself lately Link and I'm worried. Something happened to you on your adventure off world and you haven't told anyone what happened to you. I want to help you Link and these people are heroes, they can help you." Said Zelda.
"Look...the Hunters aren't a serious threat. They're a bunch of travel bandits who go from world to world stealing stuff. They'll either be caught by the guards or go away bother another planet. As to what happened to me, fine I'll tell you. I failed a great deal of people and I saw a different type of evil that resides in people." Said Link before he began to tell about his adventure on Zorg.
After several minutes Link finished his story up and he had a bitter look on his face.
"Link...I'm sorry about...what you witnessed, but what happened on Zorg was not your fault. You did all you could and the people's greed and anger is what led them to ruin, not your actions." Said Zelda.
"But I failed...to save anyone. What...kind of hero fails at...saving even a single person?" Said Link.
"A hero that is a normal guy with feelings." Said Finn.
Link looked at Finn with confusion.
"You can't save everyone man. Your just a normal guy going through a tough time. I've been in a similar place. One time me and my brother stumbled upon a place called The City of Thieves. It was a crazy corrupt place, where everyone was a thief and they stole from each other. We tried to help some people get their stolen goods back, but they kept getting stollen. A creepy old lady kept telling us it was pointless, but I refused to give. In the end we only managed to get a few of the stolen things back and return them to their rightful owners. I kind of felt like a failure and that my actions did very little for the city. I went into a bit of a depression for a little while, but then my brother heard some news and he took me back to the city. It was there that I saw some people helping each other out and trying to prevent thefts. I later learned that my actions inspired these people to stand up for themselves and do the right thing. I might have failed, but my actions inspired others. They didn't make a gigantic impact, but they did change some things. I've failed a few times and people got hurt, but...I'm not going let those failures stop me from helping people and doing the right thing. You shouldn't let your failure stop you either." Said Finn.
"Don't give up." Said Mimi.
"Sometimes bad things happen and the only thing we can do is endure them. It's not easy, but it can be done and in the end it can sometimes make you stronger." Said Phoebe.
"But...I failed to stop those greedy people from ruining their world. Their...greed was evil." Said Link.
"It's true that greed isn't exactly good, but it's not really evil either. Greed is basically desire and everyone desires one thing or another. Some desire things for selfish reasons, while others desire things for nobel reasons." Said Greed.
Link was a bit taken aback about this truthful logic. However before he could ask or give an opinion, the windows were shattered open as Hunters came smashing through them. The people screamed and began fleeing as a couple of Hunters fired their guns into the air. A panicked Midna dived under a table and dropped her disguise. Midna quickly shank into the table's shadow to avoid being spotted. The Hunters went about throwing tables and chairs to the side as the went about causing chaos. Three of the hunters raced to the wall with the decorations on it and began yanking them off and stuffing them into a bag. Midna watched from her hiding spot as one of the female Hunters grabbed a shard of what appeared to be a mirror with strange symbols on it, wrapped it in a cloth, and then stuffed it into her coat pocket. Something about the strange mirror shard looked familiar to Midna, but she had no idea why that was.
"Well it looks like we have a fight on our hands." Said Ling as he cracked his knuckles.
"Let's kick these Hunters out of here." Said Finn.
The heroes charged in to attack. A Hunter swung, his ax at Ling, who let Greed takeover using his powers to armor up his right arm to slam into the ax blade and shatter it. Greed smirked as the Hunter at his ax in shock, before Greed punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground. Finn chopped the head of a spear off, before he delivered a kick to a Hunters chest. Mimi picked a table up and tossed it at a couple of Hunters knocking them down, while Peridot levitated a metal shield from the wall and sent it crashing into the back of a female Hunter knocking her to the ground. Lapis summoned the liquid from a bunch of cups to form a tendril to wrap around the leg of a Hunter and flung him into a couple of others, while Phoebe set the hats of a couple of other Hunters on fire, forcing them to run about before they stopped and flung their hats to the ground.
"Some of these people are something else entirely." Thought Link as he watched all the fighting.
The Hunters realized they were outmatched and began to quickly flee the scene. One female Hunter however had different plans. She saw Zelda and decided to take her hostage. The Hunter flung herself at Zelda wrapping an arm around her neck and pointed her pistol at the heroes.
"No one make a move. The princess is mine and she will suffer if you don't give into my demands." Said the Hunter.
The heroes and Link backed away. The Hunter smiled nastily. From her hiding spot, Midna recognized the Hunter as the one, who pocketed the mirror shard. Midna also saw that the Hunter had backed up and that her shadow was touching the table's shadow. The imp could sneak through the shadow and take the Hunter by surprise. Midna couldn't simply stand by and do nothing. If she wanted the women's help she was going to have to rescue her. Midna traveled through the shadow and rose up behind the Hunter, who was fixing to start making demands. The imp stretched and extended her hair into a large arm and hand to grab the Hunter. The Hunter managed to let out a startled cry before Midna yanked her away from Zelda and hurled her into a wall with a thunderous crash. The villain laid against the wall in an unconscious heap. Everyone looked at Midna with surprised looks on their faces from her sudden appearance and actions. Zelda then spoke.
"As Princess of Hyrule I thank you for rescuing me. Please tell me your name." Said Zelda.
"I am Midna, Princess of the Twilight Realm. I came to Hyrule seeking help. My people and realm are in danger...and I think your world is in danger now as well." Said Midna.
A look of concern appeared on Zelda's face. It seemed like a new threat was on the horizon for Hyrule.
To be continued.