Lucky chapter 7. Enjoy...
Malon had stopped right before the door to her house when the fear and doubt finally set in. She hefted the crossbow once more, trying to ignore the feeling of horror and dread, but there was no ignoring the logic her mind was trying to covey to her.
This was lunacy.
What was she going to do, kick the door in and try to hold the entire squadron hostage with her single crossbow and three bolts? Did she expect them to just give in without a struggle and tell her where they were keeping Ingo, and then leave the farm?
She had been feeling so outraged and stirred up that she realised she hadn't given that much thought to what she was going to do, and had only acted in control and full of confidence for her father's benefit.
She looked around the darkened farm, trying to think of where else the soldiers might have imprisoned Ingo. Her mouth felt too dry, and she was shaking slightly.
Suddenly, the distant outline of the barn caught her eye.
Of course. The soldiers probably would have wanted Ingo out of their way, so the barn was the perfect place to-
A sudden sound interrupted her thoughts, and she spun around to face the front door to her house, her heart beating almost painfully as she realised that the door was slowly opening, and someone was coming outside.
So stupid! Why didn't I move out of the way? She had time to think before the door swung open fully. It was too late to do anything. She was caught.
The soldier stepped out into the cooler night air, and, unlike most of his companions, he was awake and alert. He looked around, suspiciously scanning every shadowy nook.
Just before, he had been gazing out the window of the house, and a shadow outline had briefly went past his vision, so he had decided to investigate.
The area was deserted, however.
But he was certain he had seen something, and his instincts warned him that an intruder was somehow in the farm. He looked over to the building opposite him, where they were keeping the old man and his daughter prisoner.
Suppose they had got out somehow? He decided to check in on them, and started walking towards the building, his right hand resting on the sword on his thigh.
Before he reached the door, a low moan came from the building-not of pain, but of pleasure and lust. He stopped in his tracks, feeling disgusted.
He relaxed, however, as he remembered that Swen, the young and idiotic member of the squad, had left the house sometime before, muttering something about getting some fresh air.
It had been obvious to him, however, that fresh air was the last thing on Swen's mind, and he had suspected that the young soldier would try to get at the farmer's daughter before the rest of the soldiers could. Apparently, by the sounds of the moans coming from the house, he had been right.
Smiling wryly, he turned around and walked back to the house from whence he came.
He was a professional, much more then most of the other men who were partying inside the house. Still, he thought, the prospect of taking advantage of the girl excited him, and he was not about to let any thoughts on rank or proper behaviour stop his pleasure.
He opened the door and stepped back into the house, thinking that soon they would all go over to the storage area and pay their respects to the farmer's daughter.
Malon watched the soldier go back into the house, and finally allowed herself to breathe. That had been too close.
She was sitting precariously on the roof of her house, some ways off the ground. Beside her, the teenager who had previously saved her and her father and had just saved her again, was stretched out on his stomach, his red eye still on the ground below, searching patiently for any other sign of danger. Malon looked at him with even greater admiration.
She had thought it was all over when the door had started to open right in front of her, and it would have been, but at the last possible moment something had dropped down in the air in front of her, and she felt herself be lifted by two strong hands, holding her under her arms and pulling her up and over the edge of the roof.
She didn't know what to think at first, as she suddenly found herself on the roof, staring at the strange, blood-eyed teenager.
He held a finger up to his lips and looked at her warningly, as down below a soldier walked out into the night, looking around quickly.
She nodded in understanding, scarcely able to believe that he had somehow managed to get her out of the way in time.
Below, the soldier suddenly started to walk towards the building where they had previously been held, and Malon grasped at the teen's shoulder in alarm, trying to make him understand that, if the soldier went into the house and found his friend dead and the captives gone, the alarm would be raised in seconds, and the farm would be teeming with soldiers.
He nodded, his eye serious, and suddenly a low, animal moan escaped from his lips, shocking Malon; she had been watching him as his lips formed the sound, but somehow the direction of the noise changed, and it sounded to her that the moan was coming from the house opposite.
She realised that he was able to throw his voice, and was trying to create the impression that the soldier was still in the house, assaulting her.
She watched as the soldier stopped abruptly, and stood before the house, hesitating. Finally, he spun around, a small smile on his face, and walked back to Malon's house, re-entering the building.
Now, the teenager stopped scanning the ground, and turned his one visible eye to Malon, his expression questioning and bewildered.
She realised that she had not had the chance to get a proper look at the teen, and tried to sneak in one now.
He was dressed in some kind of blue, skin-tight outfit that covered every part of his body apart from his hands, and both his upper arms were bandaged, but whether it was because of wounds or not she couldn't tell.
On his torso there was some sort of insignia- a large, red eye with three single red triangles suspended above it-maybe representing eyelashes, she thought- and what looked to be a large, red tear-drop hanging down from the centre of the pupil.
His body looked pretty muscled and toned to her, but she couldn't afford to spend any more time examining the stranger, as his accusing eye was on her, waiting for her to give him some reason why she had come back into the farm, holding a crossbow.
"Thanks for that..." she began, unsure of how to justify what she was doing to him.
As she spoke, she noticed that he had a firm, black rope attached to his legs, the other end wrapped around the weather-vane that was on the roof-he must have tied it to himself to support his weight as he lifted her up, she realised, which meant he had probably been watching her from the moment she came back into the farm, if he had prepared the rope in order to rescue her.
"Never mind that," he whispered coldly, so the soldiers in the house could not hear. "What are you doing?"
He was glaring at her, and she suddenly had the impression that he thought she had just came back to get her revenge on the soldiers.
"I had to come back," she explained. "The soldiers have someone else tied up somewhere on the farm, and I won't just leave him here. Also, I have all the animals to think of..."
He was still staring at her, his expression that of shock.
"You're crazy!" He hissed, still whispering. "You and your father could have just walked free, but you had to come back, and for what? Some stupid animals and one person. What is he, your pathetic boyfriend? People like you don't understand that the whole of Hyrule is suffering, and yet you're only worried about your livestock!"
Malon stared back at the teen, who was glowering at her nastily, and tried to tell herself to remain calm. He was angry, but he had a right to be, didn't he? She had interrupted whatever he was trying to do, and he had risked his life to save her once again.
But...he had no right to speak to her like that, regardless.
Obviously, he had some major grudge against the enemies of Hyrule, but that didn't give him the right to take it out on her.
"Now, I have to finish something here, and you have to leave. Right now. I can't have you-" The boy was saying, and something inside Malon snapped.
She aimed the crossbow at him, her look smoldering, and the teen shut up really fast.
"Listen, you!" She snapped, as quietly as she could. "You think I've come back for a boyfriend and some animals? How dare you. Firstly, the man who is being held here is my father's age, and I hate him, because he took over the farm from my dad. Secondly, you say that I should be thinking of Hyrule, and not of my own petty desires? I came back because I could not stand having Ganondorf's men use my farm for evil, and I am going to do whatever I can to stop them! Now, either you can go about your business here and just ignore me, or maybe you can help me and we can both accomplish what it is we're trying to do." Her voice was shaking with anger, and she could hardly believe what she was saying.
She was not the type of girl to just explode at someone, but this guy had accused her of being a simple-minded person who did not care for others, and she knew that caring for others was the one thing that she would never not be able to do.
The teen was staring at the tip of her crossbow, his eye wide, and Malon, feeling slightly embarrassed, lowered the weapon.
He took a deep breath, his eye flickering closed momentarily, and then looked at her.
"I apologize. I'm a bit nervous at the moment, and I was just worried that you didn't know what you were doing. Obviously, you do." He said.
"Let's just forget it," Malon said quickly. She really didn't have the time to be arguing with this guy anyway, particularly since they were both trying to fight the same enemy. "Can I help you? Obviously, I could use your help as well, or else I would have been captured again already."
He nodded. "Okay. Well, I should probably introduce myself first. I'm Sheik."
"I'm Malon."
"Hello, Malon. Now, I have to say that even though I rescued you and your father, there was nothing planned about it. The only reason I came to this farm in the first place is because I had heard rumors that it was to be used as a new fort for Ganondorf's men. Finding and rescuing you was a mere coincidence." Sheik explained.
Malon frowned. So she had been accidentally rescued? Oh well, she figured, it probably didn't matter why she was rescued, just that she was.
"How did you find out that the farm had been taken over?" She asked.
Sheik smiled slightly, or at least Malon thought he did- it was hard to tell with his mouth being covered.
"I've been tracking the Sergeant of this squadron for some time now, and happened to overhear some of his people discussing it." He said.
"Sergeant Rid," Malon hissed, feeling angry just from speaking his name.
Sheik looked slightly surprised. "You know him, then? No, of course not, you just would have found out his name while you were being held captive."
She nodded.
"Which makes me come back to the reason I'm here right now: I'm going to kill Rid." Sheik said, his voice sounding hollow and emotionless to her.
"Why Rid in particular?" She asked.
"Rid is scum, but he's high-class scum. When I first started fighting against Ganondorf's men, I began by destroying buildings that were being used by the soldiers, or by sabotaging any operation that I could. I soon learned, however, that whatever I destroyed could be re-built, and operations could be done over. No, I realised that I would have to go after the leaders, and tonight I'm going to put that plan into motion." Sheik whispered, his eye flashing.
Malon shuddered slightly, hoping that Sheik didn't notice.
She wondered what had happened in his life to make him so determined to fight and kill Ganondorf's men, but realised that it didn't matter at the moment, for whatever had made Sheik turn into what he was, she would still need him to help her tonight.
"I need to get to the barn," she told him. "I think that's the most likely place that Ingo would be kept, the person I'm trying to rescue." She was thinking fast, trying to form a plan in her head. "I also need to release the horses we have in the barn, but there's no way I could do that without the whole camp noticing. Rid must be in the house below, right? How are you going to get to him?"
Sheik shrugged. "That's what I've been trying to work out myself, or I would have already killed him by now."
Malon suddenly had an idea. "Look, there's a back way out of the farm that only my father and I know about. Which means that I would be able to go to the barn, release the horses, and then escape through the back. That way, all the soldiers would come out of the house to investigate the noise, and half of them will be drunk. Maybe you could pick off Rid then from afar?" She suggested.
Sheik looked impressed. "That's actually not that bad of an idea. I think that would be the safest way to go about it, too. Okay, let's do it."
Malon nodded, smiling, and then a thought hit her. "Will you be able to get away safely once all the soldiers are outside?" She asked.
"Don't worry about me. Just get to the barn, and release those horses, making sure that you steer them towards the front of the farm and past the houses, so the soldiers hear." He told her.
Malon nodded, but she worried about how she would be able to make the horses bolt past the houses without her actually being with them.
"Go now. I'll watch your back," Sheik said, leading her over to the edge of the roof before she could think of the plan any longer.
He took both off her hands in his (she was startled at their warmth), and gently lowered her over the edge and down towards the ground, where she dropped the last few inches silently, landing next to the side of the house that was pointing towards the barn.
"Good luck," Sheik whispered, and she took off without responding, trying to stick to the shadows and make as little noise as possible.
It was some distance to the barn, across an open area where she was completely visible to any soldier who walked out of her house, so at any moment she half expected to hear a cry of alarm from behind her.
None came, thankfully, and she reached the entrance to the barn, slightly breathless. A solitary torch hung outside the barn's double-doors, its flames flickering strongly-one of the soldiers must have lit it.
Malon opened one of the doors and hurried inside, well aware that she would stand out even more strongly against the light of the torch.
Inside, the barn was dark, airy, and filled with the slight musty scent of the horses that Malon had grown accustomed to and had come to love. She could see the outlines of the five horses they currently owned, each in a separate stall, and she wondered whether the soldiers had bothered to feed, groom, or exercise any of them.
She knew she didn't have time to fuss over the horses however, so she made herself walk the length of the barn, calling out Ingo's name softly in the slight hope that someone would answer.
She reached the end of the barn, and was about to turn around and go back, when she spotted a shape out of the corner of her eye, slumped against a pile of hay. She moved closer to investigate, and recognized the elongated form of Ingo, his hands and feet bound by rope and his mouth gagged.
He was lying to one side with his eyes closed, and at first she feared that he was dead. She leaned over him and shook him roughly, and to her relief his eyes flew open.
She grinned at him, but he did not give her a reaction she would expect; instead his eyes widened with horror and he struggled vainly to get away from her, his voice coming out muted and frantic against his gag.
"Ingo, calm down! It's me, Malon!" She explained, wondering what had gotten into him.
She removed the gag from his mouth, and thankfully he did not cry out, but nor did he calm down much.
"You...you can't be Malon," Ingo moaned. "She's dead."
She sighed, thinking to herself that she didn't have time for this, and slapped Ingo in the face. Normally, she wouldn't like slapping people, but seeing as it was Ingo, she somehow managed.
"Ow!" He complained, glaring up at her. Then his expression softened. "It's really you, Malon? I thought you were a ghost!"
"Well, I'm not," she said, and begun to go to work on undoing the knots in the rope around his wrists and legs.
"Thank god for that," Ingo muttered. "I've been lying here feeling like hell, since today some of the soldiers were telling me that they were going to kill you and your father tonight, among other nasty things."
Malon felt a flutter of fear at his words, but made herself keep trying to work at the ropes.
"I knew you had come back to the farm yesterday, as the soldiers liked to sit and gossip in here when they were off-duty, and they didn't seem to mind me over-hearing everything. Damn but they're an awful lot! Anyway, my one good thought was that at least Talon had you back with him for when he died, and at least he would stop being so lazy! You can't be lazy when you're dead, eh? By the way, how did you escape?" Ingo rattled away.
Damn ropes! Malon cursed. She was also beginning to almost regret rescuing Ingo. He wasn't usually the most talkative of people, but apparently after being tied up for days on end he was keen to try out his one-sided conversation skills.
Finally, she managed to get him free from all the ropes, and he stood up shakily, wincing in pain as all the blood began to flow more freely about his body.
"So, is Talon still alive?" He asked, not worried, Malon noticed, just curious.
"Yes, he's fine." She answered.
"I suppose that's good," Ingo mused.
"You're awful."
Quickly, she filled him in on what was going on, and what she intended to try. Ingo didn't react too well to the news that all but one of the soldiers were still alive and well, and that she had only managed to get free with the help of one person, and not with the help of a rescue party.
She explained about the secret exit at the back of the farm ("Huh! I should've known!" Ingo scoffed.), and that she needed to free the horses and somehow make them run past the houses and out of the farm, to lure the soldiers out of the house so Sheik could kill their leader.
Hearing this bit of her plan, Ingo shook his head firmly.
"It can't be done, girl. Even you will not be able to somehow explain to the horses that they'll need to escape the farm, and you won't be able to get them to stampede in the right direction, and in safety. Maybe if you had that nancy fairy boy's magical flute thingy, he could lure them all over there with that song, but you don't. Yes, I know all about his annoying song- not much gets passed me, I'm afraid!" He gloated.
Malon scowled. Ingo might be an arrogant idiot, but when it came to the horses she knew that he knew what he was talking about. And even she had not figured out a way to do it, either.
"We can't do it," she said, feeling guilty. "There will be no distraction, which means that either Sheik will have to give up and leave the farm...or he'll be stupid enough to try to kill Rid regardless, and will get himself killed!"
Ingo was yawning idly, and she knew that he didn't really care what happened to Sheik, but at the mention of Rid's name his ears pricked up.
"You say that it's Sergeant Rid that kid is trying to kill?" He cried. "You should have said so earlier! That bastard tricked me into giving him the farm, and then tied me up in here for all these days without food or water. He deserves to be killed, and more!"
Ingo paced around the barn, clearly deep in thought. Malon found it rather amusing that, when it came to making other people's lives miserable, there was no person more suited for the job then Ingo.
He snapped his fingers, his face twisting up in a rather nasty smile. Malon almost expected him to start laughing evilly, with lighting flashing outside.
"I got it. Easy. If someone uses rope to hold all the horses together, and rides out on the lead horse, they could easily direct all the animals past the houses and out of the farm." He said, looking quite proud of himself.
Malon sighed. She had thought that Ingo had actually come up with a workable plan there for a second.
"We can't do that, because we both need to escape through the back, so obviously there is no-one here that can ride the horses." She said.
"I'll ride the horses."
"No, don't even try to make me ride...the...wait. What did you say?" Malon asked, figuring she mustn't have heard what he said.
"I said I'll ride the horses." Ingo said, smirking.
She just stared at him, bewildered. "You would risk your life to help Sheik? A couple of the soldiers might go after you, and they might even have horses of their own somewhere around here."
"I can out-run 'em. And of course I wouldn't risk my life to help some silly thug. However, I will risk my life to make sure Rid gets what he deserves." He said, an evil glint in his eye.
Malon blinked, unsure what to say. Still, if Ingo did ride the horses out of the farm, he would still be a lot safer then he is now, and it would help Sheik a lot.
"Okay," she agreed. "Gather up the horses."
Some minutes later, Malon cautiously pushed open the doors of the barn, and helped Ingo, who was now sitting astride their black mare Rally, outside. They had used the bits of rope that the soldiers had used to tie up Ingo, along with various other material they had found, to connect all the horses together. All the horses looked half-starved, so Ingo had reasoned that they should be keen to run anywhere, in the hope of finding food and water.
All five horses were out in the open now, and as Malon looked around the farm she was glad to see that all the soldiers were still inside the house.
Ingo nodded down to her. "Okay girly, I'll try to meet up with you later on, but if I don't see you again, make sure to keep that slob Talon working."
Malon rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Good luck." She said.
"Gee up!" Ingo cried, and spurred Rally on. Soon all the horses were thundering across the farm, and when they passed the houses, Malon actually heard Ingo roar "Yee haw!" at the top of his lungs.
She had enough sense to close the barn doors before the soldiers all came scurrying out into the open, and she stood inside waiting in the darkness, listening for any noise.
She soon heard the commotion as the angry soldiers burst out into the night, and she was about to leave via the back of the barn, when a thought hit her. What if Sheik failed in killing Rid? And what if, once Rid was dead, the remaining soldiers still used her farm as a base of operations?
Once the idea hit her, she acted on auto-pilot, so as not to give her the chance to think too much of what she was about to do. She opened one of the barn doors a crack, and reached around until she grasped the handle of the lantern that was hanging outside. She brought it inside and closed the door, hoping that none of the soldiers were making their way over to the barn yet.
Moving to the rear of the barn, she stood before the largest pile of hay and took a deep breath.
It could seem almost childish, what she was about to do, she thought: if I can't have the farm, then no-one can? But deep down, she knew that it was the right thing to do.
The horses were safe, all their cows were currently out grazing beyond the walls of the farm, and other animals like their chickens would surely be able to survive.
Even though they often used lanterns on the farm, her and her father had always been careful not to start any fires, for they knew that, with all the hay, manure, and wood, a large enough fire would be able to spread and take out the entire farm.
With a shock, Malon realised that she was crying, the tears sliding down her face and dropping to the old, wooden floor of the barn. Sure, it was just a farm, but it was her home. Memories of happier times went past her mind- she had had a lot of fun growing up here with her father, hadn't she?
And before that, her father had had the best time of his life living here with her mother, she knew. The farm was just about the only thing Malon still had with her that reminded her of her mother, and now she was going to destroy it.
She thought of Ganondorf and his men, and the evil they had brought to the land. Of Sheik, the possessed yet courageous young man who fought for the people of Hyrule. And...of Link. Her hero, who she had last seen riding off into the sunset, virtually weaponless, beaten, and yet still fighting.
She swallowed, and allowed the lantern to slip from her fingers, into the pile of hay.
Malon ran across the open grounds towards the tall, back fence of the farm, and behind her the inferno raged. She had not expected the barn to go up so quickly, but the catalyst of hay and manure and wood caused the small flame to burgeon into a huge fire that soon swept to engulf the whole building.
She could hear the shouts of the alarmed soldiers as she reached the back fence at last, and prayed that a crossbow bolt would not suddenly go through her.
Finding the right spot in the fence, marked by a very slight and mainly unnoticeable change in the shade of color, she pushed her shoulder into the spot, until the wall shifted slightly so that she could manage to slip into the open space and outside the farm.
Once outside, she felt a thrill course through her body. She had done it! She ran forward, down the slight slope and into the clump of trees that stood near-by, her heart beating quickly and her adrenaline rushing.
Once among the trees, she felt a lot safer, but she had walked no more then a few yards when she bumped into someone in the darkness.
She screamed in fright, but the person grabbed her and held her tightly to him, and she knew straight away that it was her father. She hugged him tightly, making sure that the crossbow she was still carrying was pointing safely away and towards the ground.
"Oh Mal," her father sobbed. "Why did I let you go back? You took so long, I thought for sure that they had caught you again."
"I'm so sorry," she said, choking up on her tears.
"We'll talk later, but right now we have to go, and...good god, is the farm on fire?" He demanded in a shocked tone, and she spun around to see that the flames had spread to the entire farm, and even the high fence around the farm was now burning.
"I had to," she apologized. "Ingo helped-"
"What? So you actually found Ingo? I just assumed you hadn't," Talon cried.
Suddenly, a minor explosion shook the ground around them, and the flames around the farm jumped higher. Malon figured that the flames had reached all of the soldiers' alcohol.
"We have to go," Malon said. "They'll be mad now."
"Bit of an under-statement, but let's hurry," Talon agreed.
He took Malon's hand in his and the two of them ran through the trees, hurriedly trying to put as much distance between them and the farm as possible. Malon took one last, regretful look back at the farm, and the flames reflected in her eyes.
I have a lot I need to say about this chapter, so a pre-emptive apology for what will probably be a long "Author's notes" section.
Firstly, for this chapter I did not reply to the reviews for once, as I thought I would just use this space to answer any questions of whatever, as most of the reviews talked about the "boy". It seems half of you didn't realize that it was Sheik until I said something about it, and half of you did. I was going to try to be sneaky and not say anything about the boy's identity, but I figured that if I didn't, enough of you would have worked it out anyway, and I would have gotten lots of reviews saying "You can't fool me, I know who it is!" anyway, haha.
Sheik is a difficult character to write. From Malon's point of view, Sheik is male, but everyone should know by now that Sheik is really Zelda, using her magic to disguise herself as someone else, so Sheik is female. Sheik is also royalty, and I tried to portray that as well. Also, I regret using the term "boy" too much, in chapter 6, as Sheik would be around Link and Malon's age-14. So, in this chapter, I switched the word to "teen".
I want to look at when Sheik snapped at Malon: "You're crazy!" He hissed, still whispering. "You and your father could have just walked free, but you had to come back, and for what? Some stupid animals and one person. What is he, your pathetic boyfriend? People like you don't understand that the whole of Hyrule is suffering, and yet you're only worried about your livestock!"
Even though Malon does not have a clue that Sheik is female, the sentence "What is he, your pathetic boyfriend?" should give her a hint. While a male could easily say that, it's more likely that an upper-class female would utter these words-in a way she is almost jealous that Malon might care for someone so much to risk her life, in the name of love. So yeah, just my thoughts, and I hope when people read what Sheik says, they'll keep in mind that it often has a double-meaning.
Phew. A bit more to go! The farm. I changed the lay-out a bit, I think. If I remember correctly, the "barn", in the game was pretty much right next to the house, right? Well, I had it so that the barn was some ways away (more realistic, maybe?), and in the story the whole farm feels a lot bigger then the one in the game did.
Some people might think "you can't have Lon Lon Farm burn down!". But I can. :p It can easily be re-built at some stage, for one, and I think it fits well with Malon's determination that the soldiers will not use her farm for evil. In the game, the farm doesn't burn down (shock horror!), but I think it goes well in my story, and doesn't really affect things too much anyway.
Regarding how this has turned into "Malon's Trials", I almost promise that the next chapter should be the last one that focuses on Malon (and Sheik...wow, a spoiler.), and then I will see what Link is getting up to. I've actually missed the guy, it feels like he's been out of the story for ages!
Babygurl and Rynada, I think you two have reviewed every single chapter, and for that I'm very greatful! A big thanks to everyone who's ever left a review, keep it up! I got past 30 reviews thanks to you guys and gals. :)
Thanks to new reviewer Lauren-I liked how she pointed out that Malon didn't jump out the window and start breaking necks and taking names. Good for a corny movie, but bad for this story. :p
And welcome back, EndlessStrife-I remember you were one of the first people to leave a review for the story, when it began.
Oh crap. King of Talking Too Much or what. Writing about Ingo was kind of amusing-what a twisted character. Okay, please review, I'm so sorry for making your ears bleed.