A/N: I own nothing except a copy of this great game.
As the battle raged on outside, the mood inside the Great Fairy Fountain was somber. Lord Justinian's body was gently carried away from the entrance, so that the Moblin and Bulblin armies did not attempt to capture it, and not a word was spoken. Zelda looked around her. The majority of the soldiers were young men, barely into their twenties and some of them only in their teens. There were precious few older soldiers that had come with her. The rest were currently outside, fighting to push back the forces of darkness. She might as well have been the older sister of some of these men.
And they all stared in shock. Silence permeated through the air. No one could believe that it had happened. Justinian Tiberius was supposed to be unkillable. The guy was larger than life. He was the father of the army, the guy that had been at the helm for as long as some of them had been alive. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. He was just unconscious. They'd get him off the battlefield and get a medic and some fairies to him and everything would be alright and things would be oka-
He was gone.
Link stared down at the fallen Lord of War, as Princess Zelda walked over to the magic circle to begin the summoning process. Perhaps it was because he no longer had the pressures of life on him, but Link was struck with how…small Tiberius was. He couldn't have been taller than five foot ten, and he looked pale and gaunt. Clearly, he had worn his work on his sleeve, and all things bled into it. Link had, when he joined the trainee corps, one day hoped to meet the Lord of War and perhaps serve as a guardsman in his elite corps. That would have been the pinnacle of his existence, and he would have been happy with it.
He glanced down at his left hand, and felt the warmth of that strange symbol glowing. It was like a concentrated sunbeam resting on the back of his hand, and it seemed to give him a feeling of confidence, even if it seemed that everything around him was going to hell.
He also knew that it was giving him an itch.
Grumbling slightly, he pulled off his glove and began digging into the skin of his left hand, relieving himself of that obnoxious itch. One of the Hyrulian soldiers glanced at his hand, and his eyes widened.
"Hey, what's that on your hand, man?" He asked. Link glanced over to him in confusion, but before he could react the soldier had grabbed his wrist and stared at Link's hand in awe.
"Th-that's the mark of the…oh by the Goddesses, is that the Triforce?" He asked.
Immediately, a crowd formed around the increasingly flustered Link. Proxi emerged and began to angrily shout.
"Hey! Let him have some space, would ya?" She demanded, futilely beating her wings in the direction of the stunned Hyrulians and Ravagers. Currently, that group of geniuses were in a heated debate.
"Maybe it's a tattoo?"
"Hell no. You ever see a tattoo that glows like that?"
"Which one of that is the glowing one? Is that the Wisdom piece?"
"Nah man, I think it's power."
"You're both wrong. It's Courage!" One of the more astute guards pointed out. "The Royal Family passes down Wisdom, and Power has always been with the darkness. That leaves Courage."
There was a pause. And then the circle of Ravagers and Hyrulians got real quiet. And reverent.
"Holy Hylia*, you're the Hero aren't you?" One of them asked in awe. Link looked around him, getting increasingly uncomfortable with the added attention. He tried to break from the crowd, and in a brief moment he caught eyes with the princess.
It was the same look she'd given him back in the training grounds: one of fascination, and of great hope and awe. Somehow, Link knew that she had heard this conversation between the soldiers, and that she knew that it was all true. And, most importantly, the revelation of this knowledge was keeping her strong in the wake of something so tragic as the passing of her loyal Lord of War. Link realized right then and there that he was serving the princess, even if he didn't realize it.
She seemed to blink back what looked like tears, and smiled softly.
"Would you stand beside me, Hero?" She asked.
Link nodded slowly, and the Ravagers and the Hyrulians parted so that he could stand within the magic circle. Zelda gestured to the glowing symbols at their feet.
"Great Fairies can be…impetuous." Zelda admitted. "Yet if two carriers of the Triforce are summoning one of them, they cannot possibly refuse the request."
Zelda's eyes began to glow, and she spoke in a tongue most ancient and foreign to everyone else in the room. The words echoed off of the walls. Then came the magic.
Rising from the now-glowing pool in front of them were more fairies than Link had ever seen before. They gave off a twinkling sound, as they all flew around the inside of the Fairy Fountain. Their mere presence caused the ancient carvings in the floor, walls, and ceiling of the fountain to begin glowing with a bright white light. Then, like a whirlpool of light in the middle of the room, the fairies all started to converge a few feet above the pool. They seemed to be gathering together, and forming a feminine shape.
There was a bright flash, and a cacophonous bit of joyous laughter.
The Great Fairy* had materialized before them, and floated lazily above her pool. There was no real way to describe how she was dressed, as it seemed to be lines of jewelry that covered up any bit of immodesty but that was about the extent of it, and Link was greatly unnerved with both how humanlike and how disturbingly other she was. She gazed at the princess, folding her hands under her chin like a child expecting a bedtime story from mother. Zelda took a deep breath.
"Make it so that Justinian need not have died in vain." She said, speaking every syllable of her wish clear and pronounced.
The Fairy nodded, and let out a most uproarious laugh. She held her arms up in the hair, and fairies began to break apart from her. Her form rapidly detetriorating, the Great Fairy had time to look at Link, wink, and blow him a kiss. And then she was gone.
"What happened?" One of the Hyrulians asked.
"I dunno." One of the Goron Ravagers remarked. He glanced at his pouch. "Hey! My bombs are gone! All of them!"
"Surely you didn't already use all of them to blow the doors?" Asked one of the Hyrulians. Sir Gawain, who had been standing vigil over Justinian's body, glanced at his belt.
"That cannot be, for my bombs are gone as well." He pointed to the pouch on his hip that held a few.
"Are all of our bombs gone?" One of the Hyrulians asked. "What do we do now?" He asked.
Finally, the princess spoke.
"We take cover."
…
Impa let out a mighty roar, swinging her Biggoron Knife with enough force to shatter a Moblin's raised shield and break its arm in the process. When the creature howled in pain, Impa lunged in for the kill. Ishaka was faster, and stabbed the creature in the chest before Impa had gotten a step in.
"Dishonorable!" Impa shouted. "That was clearly mine!"
"Yeh jes' be jeal'us cuz I be winnin'!" Ishaka shouted, a mirthful grin on his face. The Ravager captain was positively drenched in Moblin and Bulblin blood, a testament to how long he'd been fighting and how close he'd gotten to the action. It had gotten to the point where the enemy chose to flee in terror rather than face the crazed-looking man before them.
"Be that as it may, there are still too many of them!" Impa shouted, cutting up two charging beasts without breaking a sweat. "We cannot possibly hope to outlast them all without some sort of miracle."
"What be takin' them in th' Great Fairy Fount'n so long?" Ishaka asked.
At that precise moment, the sky seemed to darken. Impa looked up, wondering what had caused it to do so despite the fact that there were no clouds in the sky. Then she saw it. There, floating high above the battlefield and directly above the majority of the enemy force, was…a bomb. A massive bomb, infused with fairy magic and floating high in the air. There was a multitude of glowing pricks of light around it, and she knew that those were the fairies that were keeping the thing aloft. But then she realized something.
"ALL TROOPS, FALL BACK!" She yelled.
The Hyrulians and the Ravagers ran as if the darkness itself was chasing them, headed for the safest of cover as the fairies dropped the bomb. It fell like a weighted stone, plunging towards the enemy at a terrific speed. Most of them barely had enough time to glance up in confusion before it hit the ground.
There was a terrific explosion, and a massive clump of smoke and fire. Impa watched in awe as the majority of the enemy forces were tossed into the air like rag dolls, and felt a renewed courage within her.
"Forward! Forward!" She cried.
…
From within the Fairy Fountain, Zelda could sense the explosion had been hit. Though that was not necessary, as everyone in there had heard the terrific boom. Zelda glanced around, and saw the soldiers before her looking to their regent for orders. She sighed.
"We move forward. The Royal Guardsmen are to stay with me. The Hero shall be at my side." She looked around the Ravagers. "Who among you is the leader?"
"T'would be me." One of them, a sickly looking craol with sunken eyes said. "What be your orders, ma'am?"
"Tread lightly." She said. "I will not lose anyone coming out of the fountain due to negligence or recklessness." The Ravager captain nodded. He whistled once, and the Ravagers around him began to form up into a semi circle facing the entrance to the Fairy Fountain and the world outside. Zelda glanced over to Sir Gawain.
"Sir Gawain?"
"Your Highness?" He stepped forward. Zelda shot a pained look over to the left.
"Please bring Lord Tiberius back to the castle. We will…make sure that he is cared for after the enemy is driven away. Take your most trusted partner with you. I will not force you to bear such a burden alone." Sir Gawain nodded once, and Link thought that he saw a crack in the stoic façade that the Royal Guardsman wore with such ease. He nodded to another of his brethren, and they walked over to Lord Tiberius' body. Proxi watched them go.
"That's so sad!" She exclaimed. She rested on Link's shoulder. "His family will be devastated!"
"Lord Tiberius had no family." Zelda said softly. "He was married to the Hyrulian Army, and his soldiers were his children." She turned to Link. "I saw him…before he passed. He said something to you. What was it?" Before Link could respond, Proxi cut in.
"He said that he knew that Link was…a Hero? I think that's what it was. And that he was supposed to protect you, your highness!" She said. Link blushed a little bit. He might not have worded it so bluntly, but that was essentially what had been said. Zelda smiled sadly.
"To hear that the Hero of this era has awoken allays my pain for the loss of Justinian." She said. "And I am sure that you will more than live up to your destiny." She winked at him. But then she turned towards the entrance of the Fairy Fountain. "We must move. I imagine that Impa and Ishaka are having quite a struggle out there."
…
"HIYAH!" Ishaka brought his knives down in a downward stabbing arc, embedding them into the head of a particularly stout Moblin. The creature toppled to the ground lifelessly, with Ishaka lying on top of him. He yanked the blades out, and snorted.
"Bah! They be nuth'n but weakl'n's!" He said. "They be runnin' fer th' hills after tha' bomb!"
Impa responded by heel kicking a charging Bulblin in the chin, the force of the blow breaking its jaw. The creature fell to the ground squealing in pain, before a stab from the Biggoron Knife ended it. She looked up.
"We seem to have the battle well in hand." She took a moment to glance around. The Ravagers were serving as an essential sidepiece to the Hyrulian advance, allowing for a pincer motion on the battlefield that trapped the armies of darkness in between them. She looked at Ishaka and smiled. "I commend your Ravagers and their battle tactics. They play well with us, if you do not mind me saying." Ishaka's grin was catlike.
"Helps when th' Gods grant yeh a bom' fr'm b'yond th' gloam." He said, pointing to the sky. "They be awf'lly kind t'us, wouldn't yeh say?"
"Agreed." Impa said. She glanced over to the Fairy Fountain. "Lo! There is the princess and the Hero. I think it would be best for a rendezvous." She glanced to the battlefield. "Are you confident in your Ravagers without their leader for a moment?" Ishaka's grin turned wolf-like.
"They be playin' now. They be fine."
…
Impa and Ishaka rushed over to the princess, Link, and the detachment of Ravagers and Hyrulians that had gone with them. The Sheikah warrior scanned their ranks, and felt a rising sense of anxiety in her chest building.
"Where is Lord Tiberius?"
The looks on their faces gave her the answer she needed but did not want.
"By the Goddesses…" Impa said, feeling as though a massive weight had been tied to her chest. Ishaka took the lead.
"Th' Fairy ans'red yer prayers, yer highness. That bomb abou' killed off alla them Bulblins and Moblins. We be doin' clean-up at this point." He said. Zelda nodded.
"That is good. It would appear that the battle is won, despite such a horrible cost." She looked close to tears. Ishaka reached forward and clapped a hand on her shoulder.* She went rigid for a brief moment, but then relaxed when she saw the soft look in his eyes.
"Be at peace, yer highness. Th' Gen'ral rests well. 'E fough' th' good fight." He said. Impa cleared her throat.
"I believe that now would be a good time to get you off of the battlefield, Zelda." Impa said. "At this point, I prefer to take no chances. We've lost our Lord of War. There is no need to lose our princess as well." Zelda sighed.
"I agree, Impa. I shall take my leave." She gestured to the Royal Guardsmen, and they all briskly left the battlefield and began to head for the castle. As soon as they were out of earshot, Impa whirled towards Ishaka.
"You. Idiot." She hissed. Ishaka's eyes widened in shock.
"Wha' di'I do?" He asked.
"That is incredibly inappropriate contact with a princess!" Impa said. "She's not just riffraff drunkard, she's the ruler of this nation. In the past we used to execute people for such violations of decorum!"
"But yeh don' do it nah?" Ishaka asked. Impa sighed, and shook her head.
"No. We do not."
"Then I don' see wha' th' prob'lm is." Ishaka said. "A man close t'her died. I comf'rt'd 'er as bes' as I could. Don't see wha' be th' probl'm wi'dat."
Impa sighed. It occurred to her that a man that lived on the fringes of society might not be familiar with the concepts of what "high" society took part in. And if Zelda wasn't going to pursue it, then she was foolish to do so herself.
"Never mind." She said. "Just…be a little more aware, would you? We cannot afford to lose you because some old-fashioned noble saw you…acting like a ruffian." Ishaka's eyes narrowed.
"Those yer words 'r theirs?" He asked. Impa looked him directly in the eyes.
"Theirs. I assure you."
Ishaka seemed to buy it, and nodded.
…
From a distance, a disgusting bulbous creature watched the battlefield with a mixture of disgust and anticipation. Sure, he had not expected the Great Fairy to make such a…dramatic presence on the battlefield, but this was still something that could be worked with. Those pathetic Hyrulians and those disgusting ruffians with them were flat-footed. Time to catch them on their guard.
"Hiyah ha ha!" It cackled, waving its magic ring and pointing to the ground. "Now this is where it gets interesting. Unleash King Dodongo!"
It struck the ground with its ring, and then with a hideous cackle disappeared.
…
Ishaka was the first to sense it. He went rigid, his eyes wide in horror. He gripped the hilts of his knives so tightly that his knuckles whitened. Impa turned to him in confusion.
"Ishaka? Whatever is the matter?"
"It's…they've got one." He said, turning towards the battlefield. Impa raised an eyebrow.
"They've got one? Whatever do you-"
And then she sensed it too.
"Oh Goddesses. EVERYONE FALL BACK!"
There was a rumbling underneath the battlefield now. It was enough to cause the Moblins and the Hyrulians out far into the mix to stop and stare at the ground in confusion. And then the ground exploded. As dirt and fragments of earth shot through the air, tossing screaming soldiers from both sides, a monstrous roar could be heard. A brilliant gold scaled beast had emerged, with red frilled horns and murderous claws. With a swipe of its arm, a column of soldiers both Hyrulian and Bulblin was turned into a bloody mess. The beast looked around the battlefield, surveying the miniscule and puny creatures running away from it or stupidly trying to dent its armored hide.
And King Dodongo* let out an ear-splitting roar. The hunt was on.
"Scatter!" Ishaka bellowed, whistling across the battlefield to give the command. Ravagers took this to heart, and fled to the hills. Some of them were unable to avoid the fiery breaths from the King Dodongo, and Ishaka felt pain in his heart as he heard their dying screams. "We've got ta kill this thing!" He roared. He turned to Impa. "Yeh got any tips?"
"I do not!" Impa shouted, as they leapt out of the way from a raging fire blast. "The one I killed was an old beast, and I did so by caving in the caves around it. There's nothing to work with out here!"
"Why di'nt we ask th' Fairy fer 'nother bomb?" Ishaka barked, tackling one of his Ravagers so that neither of them was scorched from a wave of fire. He felt something burning, and a horrible smell accompanying it. It was his hair and skin that was burning. "T'WOULD BE NICE NOW, D'YA THINK?"
In the middle of all of this, Link was running circles around the King Dodongo while looking for an opening. He ducked under one of its claws, and saw it take a deep breath to let loose a steam of fire. He watched as the crevices in between its scales started glowing, and could feel the heat from within its gullet as the fire column formed. It let out a blast, and the fire caught one of the keeps and turned it into a fiery mess of earthen junk and fallen bodies. But Link kept focusing on how hot its interior had gotten. That gave him an idea…
"Link! What are you doing?" Proxi cried, as Link raced out into the open. He slid to his knees, stopping right next to a fallen Goron. Frantically, he shuffled through the soldier's bag until he found what he was looking for. Making sure that the bag was tied tightly, he grabbed it and began racing for the King Dodongo.
By this point, the Hyrulian army and Ravagers had taken cover in the hills or behind keep cover, leaving the King Dodongo to stomp around unmolested in the middle of the battlefield. At this rate, one of its fire blasts was going to fly errantly off towards Castle Town and the Hyrulian castle, causing a mass panic. Impa could not allow that to happen, and yet at the same time she had no idea how to stop this beast.
And at that moment, she saw Link racing for the King Dodongo.
"LINK!" She shouted. "What are you DOING?"
…
Link didn't hear her. He couldn't hear anything really. Nothing but a roaring in his ears, because the real Link was currently submerged in layers upon layers of testosterone, adrenaline, and reckless abandon.
The monstrous being turned towards the little flea coming towards it, and if one looked closely there almost appeared to be a dismissive look in its eyes. Still, if this little whelp had a death wish, then the Dodongo would oblige it. It reared back, feeling the heat building up in its gut. It opened its mouth, sucking in all of the warmth that it could.
Link saw his chance. Taking the igniter he'd removed from the dead Goron, he stuffed it into the bomb bag and held it until he heard the tell-tale sizzling of a lit fuse. He closed up the bag, and began to swing it around his head like a discus. Then, with a shout, he tossed the bag towards the Dodongo. The beast sucked it up without a second thought. But then it stopped sucking, realizing that it would swallowed something. It felt a horrible sense of indigestion, as it had never stopped mid-blast before. But then it realized that what it had swallowed was something bad.
There was a muffled explosion, and the beast's belly bulged outward as if something were trying to burst out. It gave a pained scream, spitting up blood and other interior pieces of itself as the bombs tore its insides asunder. It staggered to the ground, breathing in a ragged and dying rattle. Link didn't stop running, and ran up one of the King Dodongo's extended paws like a set of stairs. He leapt up, and with a yell stabbed his sword through the creature's eye so far deep that there was no hope of it being recovered. The King Dodongo went rigid, the blade having pierced its brain, and it was mercifully put out of its misery.
...
All was quiet on the battlefield. With a sigh, Link sat down atop the downed King Dodongo's head. He felt the breeze in the air, and closed his eyes with a contented smile. That felt good. He didn't realize just how sweaty he had gotten in this restrictive chain mail uniform.
"Uh…Link?" He heard Proxi ask in his head. "You…you killed a King Dodongo."
And then the implication of what he did hit him.
He opened his eyes with a start, and glanced around him. The Hyrulians and the Ravagers all were slowly emerging from cover, gazing at the young man in awe. The Moblins and Bulblins had fled in terror at the sight of a young man killing their beast with such ease. Impa and Ishaka slowly came to the front. Impa was flabbergasted.
"He…he slayed it. It…it took me days to kill one and he…he just…" She was lost for words. Ishaka glanced up at Link, and let out a hearty laugh.
"Yer still skinny." He said. "But yer a real hero, all right." He winked at Link. The Ravagers all raised their weapons.
"AH-OOH! AH-OOH! AH-OOH!"
Link slowly walked down the back of the King Dodongo, feeling the adrenaline leaving him. He was tired. Impa walked up to him.
"You truly are the Hero that we need, and that we deserve." She said. "I am honored to fight alongside you."
Sheepishly, Link scratched the back of his head and smiled slightly.
"Aw, Link, she gave you a compliment! You're real popular with the ladies, aren't you?" Proxi teased. Link blushed, and smacked the back of his head in hopes of reaching Proxi. No luck.
"Got voices in yer 'ead, 'ero?" Ishaka asked, an amused smirk on his face. At this point, Proxi emerged.
"Link doesn't speak much. I'll do the talking for him! My name's Proxi!" She said. Ishaka raised an eyebrow.
"So what yer sayin' is…Link speaks through a Proxi?" He chuckled. "Hee hee hee. Now I've heard everything!"
…
"Commander Impa!"
Everyone turned around to see Sir Gawain, his helmet gone and his face bruised, running for the battlefield. "The princess is gone!" Gawain wheezed.
Impa felt an ice block in her chest.
"What?" She asked. "How?"
"That bulbous sorcerer!" Gawain said. "It attacked the castle. Killed some of the Royal Guardsmen, and knocked me out. When I came to, the princess…she is gone! We've looked everywhere!"
"Bloody hell, this was all a diversion!" Impa snarled. "That sorcerer wanted our attention focused on the Dodongo. Damn it! DAMN IT!" She whirled around. "Fall back to the castle! We will rendezvous and plan there."
…
Sir Gawain was right. Impa had searched the grounds relentlessly for hours now, and checked everywhere that Zelda could have gone. She checked the secret catacombs, she checked the secret rooms of the castle. She checked everywhere. But the princess was nowhere to be found.
In the middle of this, Ishaka and Link had retreated to the throne room. Lord Grantham was there, though he was nursing a bag of ice to the back of his head and looking thoroughly ashamed of himself. Impa emerged from her search, terribly upset.
"She's gone. I cannot find her anywhere." She said with a hint of finality. Ishaka sighed. He was puffing away on his pipe now, that cloud of smoke surrounding his head.
"Yeh think she's-" Impa cut him off.
"No. I would know if the princess was dead or if she was captured outright. But she is gone, regardless." She said.
"This is all my fault!" Lord Grantham barked. "If I hadn't been such a weakling…"
"Elijah, this isn't your fault." Impa said. The Lord Treasurer kept going.
"Yes it is. They knocked me out like a drunkard right from the beginning! I'm so useless in a battlefield. Completely useless! A dog could have put up more of a fight than I could and I-"
"ELIJAH." Impa boomed, catching everyone off guard. She walked over to him, her expression softer. "This was not your fault. None of us could have forseen this coming. If anything, this is all my fault. I sent her back to the castle. I left her out of my sight, and the sorcerer took advantage of that. We will find her, and the first thing she'll do is tell you that this was not your fault. But you must listen to me." She said. Her expression got serious. "You will need to keep this court together. You will need to keep the peace. You will need to let the people know that the end is not nigh."
"Why…why are you telling me this?" Grantham asked. Impa sighed.
"Elijah…today is the princess' birthday. And she was going to name you the first Minister of the Interior that Hyrule has had in over one hundred years." She ignored Elijah's widened eyes of shock and continued. "So when I say that you are the only man that we can rely on to keep the peace while we look for the princess, you are the only one that can keep the peace. There is no one here that has your political skill, and no one that projects the calm pragmatism that you will need to sway the Lord Fawltys of the world that the sky is not yet falling. But make no mistake. Things will be difficult. This will be the hardest job of your life. Do you believe that you can do it?"
There was a pause. Link watched as the Lord Treasurer's face changed from a mask of uncertainty, to worry, to acceptance, and then to resilient courage.
"In the name of the Royal Family." He said. "I pledge myself to this." Impa smiled.
"Good. You will do a good job ruling in her absence." She turned to Ishaka and Link.
"Prepare yourselves. Tomorrow we start looking for the princess." She said.
"How?" Ishaka asked. Impa looked at him.
"Your Ravagers. Are they connected to the land? Could they be scouts?" She asked. Ishaka scoffed.
"That a s'rious quest'n, Sheikah? A'course!" He said. "'ll give th' ord'r. They'll fin' somethin'." He walked away. Impa nodded. Then she turned to Link.
"Come with me. You're going to need something…different to wear."
…
She was getting annoyed. They were late. She was not happy when things were late, or off schedule. Yawning somewhat dramatically, she glanced at her wrist. There was a flash in front of her, but she did not flinch.
"You're late." Cia purred. There was annoyance in her honeyed tone. Volga snarled.
"Take it up with the wizard. He wasted time that could have been spent killing humans!" He clenched his fist so hard it was a wonder it didn't break. Cia yawned again.
"Goodness, Volga, aren't you an eager little boy? Why don't you go cool off, I think that you'll think straight afterwards." She said. Beside Volga, the wizard cackled. It was a disgusting noise.
"Hiya ha ha! Don't get too…hot-headed, Volga!" It snickered. Volga whirled towards the creature, brandishing his pike.
"I will disembowel you, filthy wizard!"
"Don't antagonize him, Wizzro." Cia said, getting bored. "You know how anxious he gets." She waved her arms dismissively. "Go back to summoning more creatures. We'll need them to smoke out the princess. She cannot hide forever. There is nothing that escapes my watch."
Wizzro cackled, nodded, and then disappeared in a puff of gas and smoke. Cia crossed her arms across her chest, and stared at Volga with an impatient huff.
"What?" Volga growled.
"Wizzro did his part, and stayed to the end." She said. "I want to know why it is that the great and powerful Volga, the man whom I rely upon to lead my armies…fled the battle halfway through?"
"It was not fleeing!" Volga snarled. "It was a tactical retreat. The enemy cheated!"
"Such comforting words to hear from my general." Cia muttered. "What on earth stopped you? An ovulating she-dragon?" She asked.
"NO!" Volga growled a little too quickly. He snorted. "It was some fairy-boy, with a glowing hand of some sorcery."
"What?" Cia went rigid, her eyes widening behind her mask. "A boy stopped you? And his hand was glowing?"
"…Yes?" Volga said, uncertain as to why his master's demeanor had changed.
"Which hand?"
"I don't know, I wasn't paying attenti-"
"Which hand?" Cia's magnified voice echoed through her chambers.
"Gah!" Volga flinched. "His left. What difference does it ma-"
"What did he look like?" Cia asked, feeling her heart beating faster. Volga shrugged.
"Like I said. A fairy boy. With blonde hair, blue eyes, and a misplaced sense of heroics. I could see it in his eyes. That boy thought that he was something special, I could tell, but he won't be so special when I've ripped out his spine an-"
"You will do no such thing." Cia hissed. She put a hand to her chest, as if that would stop her beating heart. "A young man, with blonde hair, blue eyes, left-handed, and a heroic look to him? You are certain?" Volga was getting annoyed.
"Yes, I am certain. Though I did not see heroics but rather a puffed up sense of-"
He was interrupted by a moaning sound. Cia looked as though she were about to swoon. Volga did not know how to react to this. At all.
"Oh Volga, you've been a good boy. A good boy indeed." Cia said. She stared at him intently. "You are dismissed. Go train or something. I don't care."
"Yes, mistress Cia." He intoned.
There was a flash, and he was gone.
Cia staggered back up the steps of her keep, and stood before her crystal ball. She touched it gently, rewinding time inside it so that she could watch the battle from earlier that day in front of her. She scoured the scenes in front of her, skipping the beginning with an annoyed expression on her face. And then she saw him.
She zoomed in the sight as close as she could, so that she could only see his face in the crystal ball and nothing else. She let out a gasp, clutching her heart to quell its rapid beating. She felt warmth in her cheeks and butterflies in her stomach.
"Oh Link…my darling." She said breathlessly. "Oh…darling…Oh my precious little Link. You're even more gorgeous than I could have imagined." She leaned forward, resting her cheek against the crystal ball. She caressed it slowly as if it were Link's face itself. "I'm waiting for you, my dear. Come to me, and you will understand…you and I…we belong to each other…You'll see. Oh…baby, you'll see."
Throughout the castle of time, a noise drifted through the walls and echoed through the halls. It was a woman's voice, singing softly. There was something beautiful and hypnotic about that sound. And yet it haunted.
Oh can't you seeeeee?...
You belong….to meeee…..
Oh how my poor heart….aaaches….
….with every step you take…
HYRULIAN CODEX
Hylia – While most Hyrulians are rather uninformed of the story of the Three Golden Goddesses save for theologians or religious students, everyone is aware of the story of Hylia. Known as Her Grace and The Goddess, she is known as the one that originally kept the Triforce protected from evil, as well as serving as a watchful protector of Hyrule. Eventually, she would ascend to a higher plane of existence, but not before first assigning the Sorceress of Time responsibility of guarding the Triforce and keeping evil at bay. She is venerated as the watchful protector of the land, and the people treat her with absolute reverence.
…Which is interesting, as this contemporary understanding of Hylia's purpose is a classic example of how the passage of time can corrupt memory. For in reality, Hylia was tasked with the protection of the Triforce, but at the behest of the Three Goddesses. And Hylia is technically no longer a divine being, as during a dark moment in time she chose to reincarnate her soul into a human form for eternity so that there was always a watchful eye against the darkness. For this selfless sacrifice, the Three Goddesses granted her total and complete control over the Triforce of Wisdom, and Hylia's presence can be felt even to this day. One can only imagine the reaction of the people if they were to discover that their fair regent, Princess Zelda, is in fact a reincarnation of the Goddess they cherish so.
Great Fairies – Great Fairies are a strange group, even by magical standards. For starters, there is no evidence to suggest that Great Fairies "exist" as their own person: rather, they are a collection of countless regular fairies who temporarily fuse together to create a mighty being more powerful than any of them combined. A sort of "the sum is greater than the parts of the whole" effect is definitely in play.
Great Fairies serve as sorts of "genies" in the world, granting wishes for those that are lucky enough to summon them. However, one must be very careful in how one words the wish. While not malicious at heart, Great Fairies have…quite the sense of humor, and will come up with a solution to one's problem in a manner that might seem roundabout, ludicrous, or even totally inconceivable. And yet in the end they give their wishmaker what they want, so no one complains.
There have been many a story written about what these strange creatures look like, and while there have been several variations, one thing is certain: they are quite beautiful, almost entrancingly so, but in the end there is an "otherness" to their beauty that reminds the enthralled that this is not a mortal being, and you'd better not waste your time pining after it anyway.
Of course, it doesn't help matters when the Great Fairy is feeling particularly flirtatious in that moment.
Interactions between Royalty and common folk – Though Princess Zelda is remarkably liberal in her dealings with traditional decorum surrounding the role of the ruler of Hyrule, in general it is considered extremely inappropriate for a common-born like Ishaka to interact with royalty in such a way.
"King" Dodongo – Dodongos are nasty little beasts, that eat anything and everything that they can get their jaws around. They primarily live in the Eldin Caves and deep below the Goron Mountains, and are a constant nuisance for the Goron Kingdom for caving in tunnels and infesting mines that are full of precious gemstones. However, most Dodongos are relatively easy to handle. For a Goron, it's a matter of picking up the little lizard-like beasts, and then slamming them hard on the ground. For the Gorons and their notorious strength, this is an easy matter.
But there are some Dodongos that survive this culling, and retreat deep into the mountains to grow. They feed on rocks and minerals, all while nursing a hatred for anything that gets in their way. A full-fledged Dodongo, whether it be male or female, is granted the colloquial moniker of "King" Dodongo, to showcase its gigantic size and terrifying appetite. They are creatures of indeterminate size and very determinate rage, and are nigh-unkillable. To date, the only surface dweller that has killed a King Dodongo is the Sheikah warrior Impa, who was venerated as a near-deity by the Goron people as thank you.
And even then, it took her ten months to fully recover from the injuries she suffered.