Chapter 16

Link heard a scream thread its way through the trees, and looked up sharply, searching for the source of the noise. When he saw nothing, he looked around the group of men lounging in the clearing, and when he saw that none of them had reacted, he figured he was hearing things.

"You okay?" Finn asked, passing Link a skin of water. Link took it graciously and drank.

"I just thought I head something," he replied, shaking his head "I must be going crazy."

"I'm sure you're just tired." Finn placed his hand on Link's shoulder reassuringly. He wasn't wrong; suddenly, Link hadn't been able to sleep. He worried about Zelda, worrying that his restlessness was a result of her suffering.

Sighing, he passed back the skin and stood up. They weren't going to accomplish anything sitting around, and the quicker he found the second item the quicker he could go home to his family.

"Come on, men," he addressed the group. They groaned, dragging themselves to their feet. "Let's get going."

Link groaned inwardly when the group came across a party of monsters. There were a few Bokoblins, and also a shield Moblin. He took one look at the wobbling red-tinged mass and shuddered, breathing out curses. He'd worked so hard to seal Demise, to rid this land of these monsters, only for them to break free and come back after only three short years. It wasn't fair.

Link ran towards the Moblin, drawing his sword. The Moblin responded by grunting, waving his spear menacingly, stabbing it forward. Link dodged the spear, using the monster's lack of agility to his advantage as he ran around the back of it and slashed at the mounds of its back. The Moblin let out a noise of pain, and Link jumped backwards as the Mobin turned to fight him off. This carried on for a short while, until something flew through the sky. Link only just dodged it, and allowed himself a second to glance to where the objects -an arrow- had come from.

"Archer!" He called, spotting the green Bokoblin. From the corner of his eye as he turned back to the Moblin, he saw one of the men draw his own arrow and fire it, hitting the green Bokoblin square between the eyes, dispatching it instantly. The Moblin followed soon after, falling forwards with a groan and a thud. Looking around, most of the Bokoblins were also finished, a fine layer of black smoke snaking around the legs of those who had been fighting them.

"Everyone okay? Any casualties?" Link asked, his eyes flitting from man to man. Link's heart sunk when Finn raised a hand, his other one clutching his side. He grimaced, but then gave Link a lopsided smile.

"I think I need a little bit of medical attention," He winced, and Link could see the blood trickling out from in between the fingers of the man.

"What happened?" Link asked as the medic laid Finn down and pulled up his tunic.

"I got a bit too careless," He confessed, groaning as the medic moved his hand away "A Bokoblin got me in the side."

Link grimaced as he saw the bloody gash down the side, reaching from just beside his naval to his ribs.

"It was pretty stupid of me, really," Finn laughed, and the medic told him off.

"Sit still!" He said, "How am I supposed to stitch you up if you keep moving?"

The men were pretty silent after that, waiting whilst the medic slathered a poultice to protect again bacteria before beginning to stitch up the wound. Finn grimaced, throwing his head back in pain, but not once did he cry out. This seemed to gain the young man respect from the other, more hardened soldiers. One the medic was done with stitching, he placed a cloth treated with more of the poultice to fight infection. He then bandaged him, and soon they were ready to move on.

After that confrontation, the group came across a few more monsters, but none in a large group. Finn, for the most part, stood back from the fighting, but Link could see that the man was faltering.

Luckily, they weren't too far from where the Seven Sister trees stood. Link was amazed at the sight of them. They stood on a hill, in a circle. The trees themselves were big, but they held no leaves. Instead, the bark was black, looking as if they had been burnt.

"Well, we better start then," Dariil spoke, slinging his axe off his back, and looking to Link for permission. Link nodded. Dariil turned to the first tree and moved to cut the lowest branch off. As soon as the axe struck the branch, a bloodcurdling scream rang out. Everyone froze, only allowing their eyes to dart around to find the source of the noise.

"That can't have come from the tree, could it?" Link asked aloud. He was greeted by silence, until Dariil elected to swing the axe again, just to make sure. Link braced himself for the noise, wincing when yet again it rang out.

"What the hell?" One of the men asked, hands over his ears.

Link shook his head. He honestly didn't know, this was beyond him. They men stuck it out for the final few blows, breathing a sigh of relief when the branch finally fell.

The relief did not last long, however, as when it hit the ground a Moblin materialized. Link drew his sword, and they began to fight, again. It was significantly easier to fight one between the group of them, as some could distract the monster whilst the others sliced at his exposed back. Link couldn't help but laugh about how badly designed these monsters were: why would you leave such a glaring weak spot?

He glanced over to Finn, who was leaning up against the tree, staying out of the battle. Suddenly he realized that their constitution was much weaker than that of the monsters. That stopped him laughing.

Once the Mobin had been defeated, they laid the branch in the middle of the circle. Then, they continued to hack off an arm, fighting a monster each time the branch came off. In between the screams and the fighting, by the time they had an arm from each of the seven, Link was exhausted.

They laid the final branch in the middle of the trees, and they sat back, watching and waiting for something to happen with baited breath. Alas, they were disappointed as a few moments past and nothing. Nothing glowed, nothing rumbled, no weird noises or monsters appearing to suggest they'd changed something.

"We must be missing something," Link muttered under his breath. "Lay them to rest?" He crossed his arms.

"Maybe we have to bury them?" Finn piped up, "Like, lay them to rest in the sense that they have died."

"That makes sense," Dariil agreed, before turning to Link. Link inclined his head in agreement.

"Do we have a shovel?" He asked, and Dariil nodded.

"It's a bit morbid. We keep one in case we have a, um, fatal casualty en route."

Link understood. One of the men stepped forwards, handing the shovel to Link. They moved the branches, and began to dig down into the (thankfully) soft earth. Once that was done, they laid the branches back down, and Link placed the dirt back over.

They stood around again, but this time it was different. The ground began to glow a faint green, which pulses brighter and brighter until Link was shading his eyes. Eventually, the light shot upwards into the sky, before dissipating. Link watched the sky, worried the light could've acted like a beacon to bring more monsters their way.

As anticipated, there was a screech from overhead, and the black bird from before flew overhead. AS it had last time, the bird held something in it's talons, which it dropped down into the clearing. This time, however, instead of being a Stalfos, the bones of the creature did not come back to life. It was similar to the monster that should have been their boss battle back at the volcano. It didn't dissipate, and Link nudged it with his boot.

Very suspicious.

"So," Dariil brought Link back from his thoughts "How do we get the box?"

"I guess we just dig it back up," Link shrugged. Using the shovel to move the bones, he dug back down into the freshly turned dirt once again. He struck something, and reached down. He grabbed the cold, smooth metal, and pulled out the box.

"The second item," Link held the box up to Dariil, who nodded. The emerald glinted in the light.

"We found it."

Sorry I've been gone so long! But I promise, this week I'm going to try and get this story completely done!

Sorry for the short chapter! I'm just trying to end this story at this point ha. I hope you enjoyed!

Please leave a review!

Meiko x