AN: Hello people! You thought I would be a jerk and leave you all to ponder what will happen next, right? WRONG! I'm back. With the next chapter.I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!
Also. Work is draining, and I am le tired. So I will proof this tomorrow and see if there are any errors. And if I am completely honest with myself, I try to not have any errors, but I am human, so alas there might be a few.
Apologies if there are and enjoy!
I slowly wake to something moving beside me. I hear Link's bare feet move across the wood floor and out the door as he quietly shuts it behind him. I roll over to my back and look at the ceiling in silence. It's been a long time since I have been able to lay in bed and do nothing like a normal teenager. I sigh.
When did my life become so hectic? Or was I just blind to the things that were happening around me? Over the past few days especially, I have been remembering random events that happened to me when I was younger. Things about my old school. Things related to Ghirahim.
Things I never wanted to remember.
Tears well up in my eyes and I let them fall. I place a hand on my forehead, pressing down to fight off the building headache, and close my eyes. I try to conceal my crying a little bit so no one wanders in here to check up on me. That makes me feel so weak. I hate feeling weak. I need to be strong. I need to defeat Ghirahim.
I need peace.
I hear the door open softly and I turn over to face the wall quickly, pretending I'm asleep, and try to even out my breathing to a normal pace. There's nothing I can do about the tears other than place my arm over my head. I hear something being placed on the nightstand beside the bed and someone sits down on the mattress. They reach out to place a hand on my shoulder, squeezing. I can tell it's Link's large, warm hand. I hear him sigh.
"Zelda," he whispers. He sounds sad, like he wishes for me that my life wasn't so hectic. Tears begin anew falling straight to the mattress. No one has really cared for me in this way other than my family. I never really had any friends before transferring to Sky, and I couldn't be happier that I did.
It also made me painfully aware how alone I was before. I was the geek everyone picked on for studying and doing well in school. I was the one who was the goody-two-shoes, got all the perfect grades, and wore the pretty 'princess outfits'. I think those were only a few reasons I was, deep down, okay with getting out of that school.
That school which is only a few blocks away.
Ah.
That has to be why all of a sudden these memories of that horrid place are coming back to the surface. My old school was here in Castle Town. CT Boarding School. My prison for years of my childhood. Thank goodness I never have to return there anytime soon. Being in Castle Town itself is closer than I want to be to that place.
I feel Link's hand skim my arm down to my hip as he climbs back into bed and wraps an arm around my waist. He can feel my tense abs from fighting back tears and stiffens.
"Are you okay, Zel? Are you awake?" He whispers. Pleads. I lay there for a few more seconds before rolling over and burying my face into his shirt. He instantly wraps his arms tighter around me and rubs heat into my back.
"Zelda," is all he says. It's all I really need to be comforted.
He is here for me and that is good enough.
I wake to a sound I wasn't expecting.
Something small walks between our legs at the foot of the bed causing me to sit up. Link's arm falls into my lap from around my waist as I discover what is walking around on our bed.
The cat form earlier has found its way into the room. It walks up my legs and sits in my lap, curling up in a fluffy ball of white fur. I smile, petting its back. I hear a low rumbling purr coming from the content cat; and a low snore coming from my content boyfriend. I smile and lean against the wall letting the monotonous action of running my hand through the cat's fur soothe my uneasy thoughts.
A sudden knock at the door brings be back to reality. I didn't even notice that the cat already left, and that I had been sitting there alone.
"Zelda! Link!" Impa says from beyond the door. "Come downstairs, please!" I hear her almost silent footfalls take her down the flight of steps. Link stirs next to me as he slowly comes round. I run my hand through his hair and place a hand on his cheek. He smiles.
"Hey," he says, his voice sleepy, but happier than I've heard it in a while.
"Hey to you, too," I respond with a light laugh. I miss this normalcy, this feeling of a completely ordinary and honest life.
But unfortunately our happy hour ends here.
"Come on, Link," I say, scooting to the end of the bed, "Impa called us downstairs."
"Really?" Link sits up to rub his eyes and stretch. His shirt lifts up a bit revealing his midriff. I can't help but notice.
"Yes, now come on, sleepy head," I say dragging him out of bed. He yawns with extra emphasis as I laugh.
"What?" He asks as he pulls his boots on.
"Nothing," I respond, kissing his forehead. "Come on." I slip my shoes on and open the door to head downstairs, Link following close behind.
Upon entering the main area again, I was speechless. Everything was completely cleaned up, spotless, and shining. It almost makes me wonder what happened in the first place to make it look like it went out of business about fifteen years prior.
"What happened here?" Link asks. Impa simply laughs.
"You're not the only ones with magical cleaning abilities. I helped Telma get the place cleaned up so she can open the bar again. And not just the bar, either." She smiles knowingly.
Link and I exchange a glance. I'll bite.
"What do you mean?" I ask. She grins even wider.
"The very reason Telma's ancestor opened this bar in the past was so she could aid the Hero who saved Hyrule from the Twilight. She let a resistance group meet here in the bar late at night and early into the next morning strategizing over an old map and trying to figure out the enemy's moves before he executed them. They also helped the Hero along on his quest. Telma was named after this ancestor, and plans to continue the effort. I explained everything about what is going on with Ghirahim with her, and she is going to help us in any way she can."
I felt something rub against my leg and saw the cat walking in a figure eight pattern around my legs. I bend down to pick it up and it starts purring. I smile and pet its fur. Impa smiles, too.
"That cat sure has taken a liking to you, Zelda," she states. I nod.
"Yes it has."
"She," Impa corrects.
"She," I confirm. "Does she have a name yet?"
"Yes," I hear the booming voice of Telma say behind me as she enters the room. "I have decided to call her Louise."
"Good name," I say, scratching behind Louise's ear. Her purring becomes louder.
"Now," Impa starts, "Telma here said that if anyone is attacked or any disaster happens, she can hold people here and provide food and shelter for them. Obviously, she can't house all of Hyrule, but it is a start in a resistance. I know of a few people who would be willing to join the cause, too. I will send letters to them as soon as we are done talking here." She pulls out a sheet of paper from a satchel she has on the bar, along with a quill, and begins to draw a sort of map.
"So, in order to pick up the supplies we need, you will need to go here," she points at an 'x' on the bottom of the page. "We are here," she points to a circle at the top. "You need to take this second right to get to the back alleys and find the shop called 'Twinrova's Potions'. I have most of the supplies here in my room, but we still need two containers of salve and at least ten rolls of tape for injuries. If you happen to see anything else you think we'll need, pick it up as well. Bring a satchel with you, too." She hands me the map as Link makes his way up the stairs to grab his satchel. I fold the map in my hands and turn to walk toward the door when I feel a hand grab my arm to pull me back.
"Zelda," I hear Impa whisper, "don't do anything rash."
"I won't," I whisper back as Link makes it down the stairs, slinging the satchel around his shoulder.
"We'll be right back, Impa," Link says. She nods.
"Don't wander off," she warns us. We both wave and turn to leave the bar. I open my map and hand it to Link suddenly nervous.
"Here is where we need to go, it's not that far," I say, but my voice doesn't conceal my growing panic. He places a hand on my shoulder and stops us before we go any further. Great.
"What's wrong, Zel?" He tilts his head to the side to get a better look at my face. I look away.
"The path we need to take to get to the potion shop, about half way there it comes to—" I suck in a nervous breath. Link places an arm around my shoulders.
"Where does it lead to?"
I gulp.
"My old school. My old prison."
He just stands there, but lifts his other arm to wrap me in his warmth. I have told him about my old school. How it was torture waking up every day to attend classes that I had no friends in, along with the constant bullying I never got used to it was downright hell.
"We don't have to go that way if you don't want to," he whispers as he rubs my back. I focus on the movement of his hands. It soothes me, if only a little.
"No, there are no other roads that lead there. It's in a dead end alley."
"We'll just walk really fast then," he smiles at me. I grimace.
"I wish we could Mist Travel again," I mumble. Impa told us that we can only use the Mist Travel technique once in a ten hour time span; otherwise we would turn into water ourselves. None of us wanted that. So, as unfortunate as it is, we walk.
Link reaches over to grab my hand and bring me close. I grab his arm with my other hand and take in my surroundings. All the streets are lined with marble buildings that are all three stories tall at least. I look past the tops of the buildings into the nothingness that now makes up the sky.
Suddenly, I get a feeling like something is looming over me. Something big, and I continually get smaller, along with everything around me. I feel the happiness slowly being sucked out of me like a syrup tap in a tree. My thoughts slow to a sluggish pace, and get even slower, so I only can physically think about one thing.
Alone. So alone.
This whole great world, and I am alone.
I feel something tugging on me, shaking my shoulders. I don't know where I am. I start calling out to whoever is listening.
I hear someone say my name, but I can't place who it is. It sounds familiar, warm, and inviting. Then it hits me.
Link.
I call out to him, but get no response. I begin to panic.
"Link? Link!" I repeat his name over and over again, but to no avail, and I am sucked into the darkness that is my new reality.
Fire. I smell it. I feel it. Something soft covers me, and I rest on a cloud of a cot. A cold rag sits on my forehead, keeping my forehead cooled. I try to move, but am pinned down by something. I open my eyes and am barely able to make out anything in the darkness, but from what I can tell, nothing restrains me.
Nothing other than Link's unconscious form.
Link has half of his body resting on top of mine, his head by my neck, and an arm behind my back. My arm rests against his, and his breaths come in slow, deep rounds. His breath cascades down my neck.
I lay my head back and look at the ceiling above us. I can't make out any fine details, but the fire helps a bit to let me see around the room.
I see some furniture skirting the edges. A couple chairs, one couch, and a vanity mirror line the walls, and a couple more chairs are positioned in front of the fireplace. To be honest, from what I can tell from the dim light, the cot makes up the majority of the cluttered room.
I wonder where we are.
I try to move again to slide out from under Link, but I can't. It's as if I am paralyzed. I start panicking as Link slightly stirs. He begins to speak, but his speech is slurred. He calls my name, but I shush him just in case our hosts are not overly friendly.
"Link, I'm here," I whisper, tilting my head to the side to kiss his temple. He turns his head toward me and opens his eyes slowly.
"Zelda, wha—"
We both hear a noise coming from the hall and fall silent. We hear the sound of footsteps making their way closer to us. Link tries to move, but only shifts about an inch before falling down on top of me again. I groan as he whispers an apology. We are instantly silenced by the turning of a key in the door's tumbler. I look up to see who is entering the room upside-down. The door swings open slowly on its hinges as an elderly lady with white hair and a headband with an oversized single red jewel walks in. She has big beady eyes and a long nose that almost seems too big for her small body. Then again, I'm upside down and could be exaggerating a bit.
"Finally you're awake," she says with a light cackle. Her voice sounds like a choir of toads. "You've been out since we found you a couple hours ago. Both of you, curled up in the street together. Not the best place to take a nap if I were you, children," she walks over to the fire and places a new log on top. "My name is Kotake," she adds as an afterthought. Once she is done with the fire, she turns her attention to us again.
"Now that you are awake, I can cast a spell to unbind you from your curse."
I look at link.
"I'm sorry. What curse?"
"Eternal Sleep, of course," she says it like it's the most obvious thing. "You're lucky. We found you just before the spell had taken full effect and cast a counter curse."
"We?" Link asks.
"Yes, my sister Koume and I were walking back from the market and we saw you," she points at me, "fall down and you," she points at Link, "try to support her, but also falling yourself. We have seen this spell all over the place lately and have come up with a pretty good counter curse for it." She walks up to the cot and holds her hands out in front of her hovering over us.
"This might feel a bit uncomfortable, but it will do the trick. Bear with me."
I begin to gain feeling back in my body. Imagine your leg falling asleep and regaining that blood flow to the previously cut off point. Now imagine if that is your whole body, and that's what Link and I are currently going through.
Uncomfortable was an understatement. It was almost painful.
Once she is finished, she places her hands back at her sides and deems us able to move. As Link gets off of me, he brushes his hand against my stomach where my shirt lifted ever so slightly. I still can't believe a little fleeting touch like that can send so many lingering emotions through me. He holds out his hand to pull me up.
"Come on, you two, let me take you upstairs. We have many potions that will be able to help you out."
We follow her down the hall and up the stairs. The dim light never brightens as we continue upward to what I assume is the main level of the building. And I am okay with it, since standing my head has steadily been throbbing harder with each step I take. I place my hand under my eyebrow bone and apply pressure to ease some of the tension. Kotake turns around suddenly after grabbing something off of a shelf and holds it out to me. It is a little red bottle.
"Red potion?" I ask. She nods and places it in my free hand. I take off the stopper and drink the burning, beautiful liquid. She hands a bottle to Link as well. I can feel its effects immediately as it makes its way throughout my system, like a weight is being taken off of my shoulders. I can see out of the corner of my eye that Link took his potion and is letting the effects help him out as well. I turn around the store with renewed energy and find that we are indeed in the very place we set out to get to: 'Twinrova's Potions' shop. Now that my headache is going away I can see shelves upon shelves of potions, medicines, and books on spells and homemade potion recipes. There were even a few magic items on a shelf. Like an imbued boomerang that cast whirlwinds to list one among many.
"What is this?" Link asks from the other side of the store holding up a sort of baton. I turn to walk over to him but am cut off by Kotake.
No. This woman has a blue jeweled headband that matches Kotake's. She looks exactly the same otherwise.
"It's called the dominion rod. It can give momentary life to statues and you the ability to move them at your command." She smiles up at him. "I sure know a handsome young man like yourself could really use one of those now a days."
"Koume, no flirting with our customers!" Kotake yells. Koume only snickers.
"Well, how else am I supposed to make the sale?"
"Maybe be a salesperson rather than a complete tw—"
"We're here for medicine, actually," I cut in before their fighting becomes all out war. "Some healing salve and tape. Ten rolls. Do you have that?"
"Are you really asking us for medical supplies when you know we supply all things medical?" Koume asks. I shrug.
"Well, I've never been here before, and I don't know how your store is arranged, so," I drop off. They give each other a look of almost annoyance and comply to my wishes.
"Anything else I can get for you today, my dear?"
"No, thank you," I respond waving over my shoulder to say goodbye. I see one of the two women inside snap her fingers and a broom goes flying across the room to the other woman. The door shuts just before the broom is about to crack over her head. I raise my eyebrows in surprise.
"They are sure a lively bunch for their old age," Link says as we walk down the stairs and get onto the main drag. Before we could make it much farther than two feet away from the bottom step, Koume bolts out the door and locks eyes with me.
"Also, just so you know, the eternal sleep spell that was cast on you was actually from the sky above. That's how whoever is behind this gets the unsuspecting ones. He has emitted an entire layer of magic over the land and whoever looks deep into the empty sky gets cast under the spell. Now—"a broom comes crashing down on her head.
"Kotake! You're going to get it!" She slams the door behind her and we hear the continued fighting behind the closed door. Link and I laugh, but it is short lived.
I had no idea that kind of magic existed. A film over the surface that puts you under Eternal Sleep? And what about Skyloft? Can we make it back? Why does Ghirahim need me of all people this badly?
Link squeezes my arm and I relax at his touch.
"You are not turning yourself in. Not that easily. Or in general, I will never allow it, actually. So disregard any negative thoughts about your part in this and let's keep going, okay?"
He knows just what to say, and I love him for it.
I slip my arms around his neck and he bends down to wrap his arms around me. I close my eyes and try not to open them accidentally and look at the sky.
We pull apart after a time and begin to find our way back when I someone call up to us from the alleyway.
"Oh, little Zellie has a boyfriend? And a hot one, too," my blood freezes over. I know that voice. After all, she led the main resistance force against my existence during school here in Castle Town.
"Please say you remember me, Zellie. After all, we were best friends," I feel Link's arm tense around me as he pushes me forward. Then again, I should be thanking her. After all, she was the one who got me to where I am today.
I turn on the spot and take her in. Time has not been an enemy to her skin. It is still as flawless as ever, immensely pale, almost a green color, and her bloodshot looking eyes still pierce my very being sharp as daggers.
"Veran," I say, "how lovely it is to see you, but it is rather a shame we must dash. Gotta get back to where we are staying."
"Let me escort you," she says walking up to Link and gripping his arm. He wraps his arm around me tighter and pushes us away.
"No, thanks, I've got the escorting taken care of, sorry," Link sputters out.
"Very articulate, pretty boy, I can see why she likes you," she says with a flip of the hand. "Thank goodness you have your looks. If you didn't have that, you wouldn't have anything." She winks at him. He glares.
"Well, hopefully I'll see you around, little Zellie, so we can reminisce about the good old days. I think stall number three is always open for Swirly Saturday. We reserved it special just in case you returned." I hide partially behind link, who holds his arm out protectively in front of me. I sigh as Veran turns to walk down the other direction.
"The bane of my existence," I whisper. Link turns us around to walk us back.
"Come on, Zel, Impa has probably been expecting us for a while now.
I can't help the tears fall down my face as Link steers me away from the scene. I feel weak. What was all that training for I just went through? Why can't I stand up for myself?
"Zel?" Link asks, knowing he is treading on dangerous waters. I look up at him expectantly.
"Are you okay?"
I thought over the past hour or so.
"I've had worse." He nods and continues to lead us back to Telma's.