Chapter 16: Gift Six is Perseverance
Professor: Hello everyone! Hope you're having a good day. Sorry about the long update time, but hopefully this chapter makes up for it.
Fi: You like to apologize a lot, don't you?
Professor: Shut up Fi, I'm still mad that I haven't been invited to your castle yet.
Fi: I told you, you can come as soon as the story is done.
Professor: Well, in that case, I still don't own anything! Enjoy!
…
Caspian barely made it into the How in time before Link's battle ended. He watched with the Sages as Miraz yielded. Honestly, he didn't know how to feel about that. Part of him felt that Miraz should die for what he had done against Caspian's father, but another part said that death was too good for Miraz. The real victory would be giving the land back to the Narnians.
Luckily he didn't have to make the choice as an arrow struck Miraz and killed him. Unluckily, Sebastian called for the start of the battle.
…
Ruto was seriously going to kill Impa for getting her into this mess. And Nabooru. Honestly, the least the Gerudo could've done was make sure that all of those guards would be dead and unable to follow them.
She grumbled to herself and just urged her and Lucy's horses faster.
…
Zelda watched as the army drew closer and closer, already launching some of their catapults towards the How. Silently, she counted to ten at the same pace as Peter.
…
Link knew it would come down to this. Even though he hoped a battle with Miraz would be the end of it, no war was ever that simple. He simply steadied his sword as Peter reached the count of 'eight' next to him.
…
Nabooru felt the urge to give Link his gift boil up again, but not come close to the breaking point. Just when, exactly, was she supposed to blast that boy with perseverance?!
…
The army was over halfway across the battlefield when the floor caved beneath them, making a good number of the enemies crumble down. Shortly beyond that, the rest of the Narnian army climbed out of the ground, sticking the Telmarines between a rock and a hard place.
…...If only that had been the entire Telmarine army…..
"CHARGE!" Peter yelled, leading them down towards the attacking force.
The rest of the Narnians followed their High King towards the battle, attacking with a ferocity that Link had yet to see from them. And then he joined in quite willingly as well, swinging his sword at every Telmarine that came his way.
His knee felt much better thanks to Zelda, giving him only a little trouble as he battled his way through. Nearby, Zelda used her magic spells to her advantage. The ground trembled every now and then, not only from the catapults from the Telmarine army landing harshly, but also because a certain Goron had charged into the battle as well, swinging a giant hammer this way and that. Link could only smirk at the enthusiasm.
…
Ruto and Lucy were surrounded. More guards than they had thought had made their way forward, encircling the two.
'Well then, my turn.' The Water Sage thought to herself as she dismounted and faced them, a blue orb in each hand.
…
"We have to disable the catapults!" Edmund yelled.
"And how exactly do we do that?!" Peter yelled back, stabbing a Telmarine as it approached him.
Link felt something crawl up his leg and torso before stopping on his shoulder. Sparing a glance, Link saw an armored Reepicheep there.
"Well," the mouse said with a casual gesture towards the large contraptions, "Shall we?"
Link smirked, "We shall."
"Leave it to us!" Link yelled as he ran past the two brothers, jumping the large gap in the ground and using his sailcloth to get to the other side.
"Be careful!" they heard Peter yell after them, "We'll try to meet up with you!"
…
Zelda swore she would kill her friend someday as he and a lone mouse ran straight into the heart of the Telmarine army.
…
Nabooru also swore on the death of Link as she realized this would only make it hard to give him his last gift. Grunting with the effort of pushing herself forward and attacking her way through the army, the Sage began her trek towards the Skyward Hero.
…
Ruto took down two of the guards rather easily with a few well placed spells. Then she dashed forward, leaving Lucy to deal with the two startled horses. Probably not the smartest move as they got spooked enough that Lucy promptly fell off and they ran away.
…
Link and Reep made quite a unique pair as they battled their way to the nearest catapult, a mouse and one man in green. But Link was glad to have him there all the same. His small size let him take down quite a number of opponents, also with the element of surprise. No one ever expected to be slayed by a mouse.
Link on the other hand, took them down with almost brute force, slashing his way forward. It was slow progress, and he began to take some injuries, but he was almost to the catapult, Reep right on his tail.
Not more than 20 feet away, a bright flash of light engulfed the battlefield, seeming to blind only the Telmarines. Seems like Rauru had joined as well.
One final push later, the two reached their first catapult. Link dispatched the people manning it, while Reepicheep actually climbed the contraption, cutting and slashing at the ropes that held it together, causing it to fall to pieces.
One down, far too many to go.
…
Well, Ruto had almost done it. She had fought every Telmarine she could, but one got the best of her, attacking from behind and pinning her to the floor.
"Ruto!" Lucy screamed, trying to rush towards her friend, but not making it in time.
Not making it in time, because a blur of golden fur reached the Telmarine faster than either of them could have hoped for.
…
Two catapults later, Link was reaching his limit. He was exhausted, his movements slower, and his breathing ragged. It didn't help that he now sported over 3 dozen different hits from various Telmarines and his knee was causing an immense amount of pain again.
"You ready for the next one chap?" Reep asked him in a rare moment of peace.
"No, but who cares?" Link panted out, wiping sweat from his brow.
"I do you idiot!" A voice yelled at him.
Link spun around to see the angry gaze of Nabooru on him, a large orange orb in her hand. Not giving him have a second, she slammed it (quite painfully, although something tells him that Nabooru really didn't care at that point) into his chest.
Instantly the fatigue left his limbs and energy filled his body.
"Do you know how hard it was to get that to you with you constantly running off?!" The Gerudo yelled at him, "Slow down for once you nitwit! No matter which Link it is I have to deal with, none of you make it easy!"
And she decided to punctuate that statement by throwing her sword into a Telmarine behind Link who had been approaching him. She stalked off and rejoined the battle in an angry fervor.
"Hmmm…" Reepicheep watched her while stroking his whiskers, "Shame she isn't a mouse."
"That's one thing I definitely didn't need to hear."
…
Peter lead his army into battle as best as he could, away from the How's entrance which was now damaged beyond repair. Link and Reep had been attacking the catapults, and while that was helping, it hadn't been enough to stop some of the damage. His hopes soared though. Because the trees had awakened, and something, the same something that told him in his gut in the train station that it was magic pulling at him, told him that it wasn't because of the tiny green haired girl that had joined the battle. It was because of Aslan.
…
It all hinged on one moment, and that moment was when the trees attacked, destroying more of the catapults and killing far more of the Telmarines than anyone thought possible for a bunch of trees to do. So, in that moment, the Telmarines retreated, and the Narnians followed.
They chased their attackers all the way to the Ford at Beruna where the Telmarines had built their bridge.
Only there, they stopped. Everyone stopped. Stopped and stared in amazement.
At the other end stood Lucy and Ruto.
…
Ruto glanced at the small girl besides her, a small girl who suddenly seemed much more grown up since her conversation with Aslan. Lucy looked at her as well before pulling her dagger out. Aslan stood up besides them, now fully visible to everyone.
The Telmarines didn't care. Sebastian led them in the charge across the Ford. It didn't last long as the waters rose, faster and faster, before a giant wave came crashing around the corner, headed towards the army.
…
The river caused a great amount of destruction in the next few moments and killed quite a number of Telmarines. But the none caused quite the amount of satisfaction as the death of Lord Sebastian as the river lifted him up on the bridge. Caspian only watched as another man he knew died, not feeling any remorse, and actually feeling sorry for that fact.
…
"Rise, kings and queens of Narnia." Aslan's voice spoke over the ones kneeling at his paws.
Three of the four stood up. The Sages watched in the background in confusion at Caspian's not rising.
"All of them."
"I do not believe I am ready." Caspian said, refusing to even glance his head up.
"And it is for that reason I know you are." The Lion's voice was soft, encouraging as Caspian stood and accepted his new role.
The touching moment was interrupted by a small group of mice, carrying their leader on a stretcher.
"Oh!" Lucy quickly hurried forward and poured a drop from her cordial down the mouse's throat.
Reepicheep began to stir, woozily climbing to his feet as his injuries healed. (Saria had to keep herself from giggling at his cuteness).
"Oh, Aslan!" To say that Reepicheep was taken by surprise at the sight that greeted him would be an understatement, even more so, when he discovered that he no longer had a tail. One embarrassed noise later, and Reep was looking towards Lucy again, "I apologize for the state of my appearance! Perhaps...a drop more?"
"I'm not sure it does that…" Lucy said sadly.
Reep dropped his head at the news.
"My Lord," one of the other mice spoke up. They turned to see all of the mice holding up their own tails, "We will not keep the honor of a tail if it cannot be shared by our king."
Aslan chuckled, "Not for his honor, but for the love of his people."
Reepicheep looked at him in confusion, until he realized that his tail had indeed grown back. The sadness on his face soon turned to one of joy as he began proclaiming the love and promises of cherishment for his new tail.
"Wait a second…" Edmund said, looking at Reep in confusion, "Didn't you go off with Link in the battle?"
"Yeah," Nabooru said, walking up towards the group, "You did, towards the catapults. We haven't been able to find him after the Telmarines surrendered."
"So I did, so I did." Reep nodded in agreement, "But I was injured in the retreat of those same Telmarines. I don't recall what happened to my comrade."
"So where is he?" Edmund asked, in confusion once again.
"We didn't see him when we found our king!" The mice piped up.
"Let's go look." Susan said, knocking an arrow and prepared to leave.
"You'll do no such thing." Aslan stopped her, "There is no need for pointless searches. Link is over there, just beyond the tree line." He shook his head in the direction of the forest, "He went in there shortly after the battle, nursing his injuries."
Everyone but Rauru ran off in the direction the Lion had gestured to.
"You don't seem too concerned about Link, if I may say." Rauru mentioned.
The Lion smiled at the Sage, "Because, he's about to get his peace. Real peace."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I am sending him back to his world. They'll barely get back in time to say goodbye. This quest in Narnia didn't need Link, Rauru. Link needed this quest."
"You mean-" Rauru's eyes widened in shock.
Aslan nodded, "Yes, everything would've worked out the same had Link and the Sages not been here. But Link, he needed this to move on. To come to terms with everything that has happened to him. Your Impa helped him move along with his feelings, even if she doesn't realize it. He'll be ok now."
…
The others could do nothing but watch as Link smiled up at Zelda, succumbing to his injuries at the same time that he disappeared in a flash of golden light, taking all but the Master Sword with him.
