Ch. 3

Ruto ducked as a keese dove for his head. He swung his sword quick as lightning and lobbed it in half. He crazily swiped and jabbed perpetually at the cloud of keese that had surrounded him.

Meanwhile, Haeda was trying the best he could to keep a stalfos at bay. It lunged at his heart with a heavy sword. With his trusty sword, Haeda parried the attack and pushed the skeleton away. He rolled as a second stalfos almost hit him with a bone club, the bone thwacking the ground and snapping in half. Haeda then made a horizontal stroke from low on the muddied ground and chopped the 2nd enemy's legs off. It plopped to the ground and struggled to keep the boy away. It ended up with a sword through the eye. The 1st skeletal enemy charged at Haeda, who was still crouched on the ground. The boy jumped up and blocked the attack, pushing the stalfos backward. The skeleton stumbled and fell into a barrel. It sat there, helpless, with boney legs and arms dangling out the sides. It looked up at Haeda with hatred and fear in its eyeless sockets. Haeda quick chopped its head off and then went to protect the villagers.

Ruto heard the screams of Midaylia and fear overtook his heart. Grogan was frantically crying out, tears streaming down his face and melding with the now oncoming rain. The fire on his shop raged on. He rushed over to the burning building, and squeezed inside, careful not to burn himself. He heard the crackling of the fire and the falling beams. "Midaylia, where are you?" He shouted.

Midaylia looked up from where she was curled up. "Ruto? Ruto, is that you? Help me!" She answered. Ruto doggedly followed her voice and jumped backward as a wooden beam fell down in his path. The heat pricked his face, and the smoke made him cough. He quickly took another route, and heard Midaylia yelp as the shop deteriorated around her. Grogan was outside, just barely audible above the roar of the flames.

Ruto rounded a corner carefully, cutting down a flaming shelf to get to another room. He saw a glimpse of one of Midaylia's boots, where she was curled up and holding her knees. He rushed to her, stroking the rapidly evaporating tears from her cheeks. "It's okay, I'm here!" He cooed. "Now let's get out of here."

Midaylia clutched his shirt and stood up. She held close, looking at all of the fire around them. It was consuming the shop rapidly. Grogan was shouting something from outside. Ruto strained to hear his words. The shopkeeper was continuously repeating something urgently. When Ruto finally made out what he was saying, his eyes widened despite the smoke and he yelled, "Run, Midaylia, the shop's going to cave in!"

But instead, the teens jerked there heads up as mocking laughter bested even the storm and the fire's roar. Instead of caving in, the roof was sucked up into the air. Hundreds of stalfos and keese were hovering there, and they swept around the two. They screeched as they were lifted into the air.

Haeda paused instantaneously as he heard his best friends cry out. He turned and saw them being roughly lifted into the air from the building. Grogan was also caught up in the storm of enemies, struggling to reach his daughter's hand. "NO!" the boy shouted. The Kokiri were being either slain or taken captive. Haeda was about to run to his friends' aid, but someone grabbed his ankle. Ruto cried out as he saw his bleeding mother clutching Haeda weakly.

"Haeda…" She struggled to say. He crouched and held her up with his arms.

"Rota! No, no, this shouldn't be happening!"

The woman hushed him. "I must tell you more, Haeda!"

The boy growled as he killed an oncoming enemy, and struggled to keep his eyes on her and not all of the things going on around him. "There is more to your past…" Haeda took another death swing at a stalfos. Ruto struggled to get free despite the fact that he was now high above the ground in the middle of a storm. Midaylia and Grogan were desperately reaching for each other. Rota's breaths were becoming shorter. "You…" She caught her breath, and released it in one strong exclamation. "You are a descendant of Link!" Seeming to suddenly lose life, she slumped in Haeda's arms, gasping for breath. "Go, my boy…" She murmured. Her body loosened and she lay limp in the boy's arms.

Everything seemed to run in slow motion. The stalfos and the keese were retreating, paying almost no attention to him. The shop burned, sagging to the ground. The storm raged as a dull roar in his ears. All he had was being destroyed…

"No." He whispered, gently laying Rota down. "No…" His fists balled into fists. "NO!" He cried, taking a death-reeking swipe at a passing stalfos's skull. The vertebra violently snapped and the skeleton stopped in its tracks and tumbled to the ground.

One of the many stalfos ran close by, cackling madly, and clubbed Haeda in the head from behind. He let out a sharp cry and fell to the ground, falling into darkness…