The Heir to the Sword

Chapter 2

Until…

The man laughed for a full minute before finally stopping. Then his gaze fixed on the little girl in front of him. He said, "Now you have to do exactly what I say if you want your mother to live."

Erith, still crying, managed to ask, "Who are you and what do you want with my family?"

The man just said, "I didn't tell you to speak. To show you that you must do as I say I will show you something now."

He raised his right arm to reveal a gray hand, and then he crossed his fingers. Immediately upon doing this, Malon's bone in her right arm snapped in half with a hideous twang. She screamed as the arm went limp.

Erith could only stand and watch as her mother was helplessly crying with a now broken arm. She fell to her knees and just nodded to show she understood.

Malon screamed at her daughter, "No Erith! Run, get away as fast as you can!"

The man in purple now looked at Malon and said, "You're in no position to speak either." The man cracked his wrist back. Malon's left leg rotated a complete half circle which tore the skin on the outside which started to bleed. Her leg's muscle was torn in half and the nerve was severed from her body. Now her leg was now as sagging as her arm.

Erith started to cry at her mother's pain. She had no idea what to do. If she ran, her mother would be killed and the man would find her and kill her too. If she stayed however, she risked both their lives as well.

The man cleared his throat, "Now I know what you're thinking. Won't I just kill you both anyways? The answer is no, if you are the child I'm looking for than I will spare you both. If you prove as useless as the other families with children your age. Well then I guess your fates are already sealed."

Erith back tracked her mind to the image of Zeepha's severed head. She thought to herself, "I have to be the one he's looking for otherwise I'll end up just like her."

"You seem like a smart kid." The man said, "So don't test me. Here's what I want you to do, take that sword down from the wall."

Erith got up slowly and walked over to the wall. She grabbed the sword, or more of as it was a dagger and took it off the wall.

The man laughed and said, "Now stab yourself in the left hand."

Malon shot back to life, "No Erith! Don't do it, please just run!"

The man's hand closed in a fist. Malon screamed as her right side rib cage shattered inside of her. She coughed and a steady stream of blood started to flow from her mouth.

This finally broke the child. Erith screamed, "Stop hurting my mom!" With the sword in hand she sprinted up to the man with tears streaming down her face.

The man just sighed and extended his free hand towards the girl. A dark aura surrounded the hand and Erith was stopped in her tracks, frozen and as helpless as her mother. "You are sure a courageous one alright. Just hope you are the courageous child I'm looking for. However, that was a rash reaction so you must be punished." The man threw his hand to the right and Erith followed until she hit the wall of her house and was pinned there in the air. Then the man said, "So I'm going to ensure this little incident doesn't repeat itself later." He rolled his wrist around so his hand made a circular motion.

Erith gasped as she felt her own right hand moving. Then in an instant, her hand made a quarter circle twist without the rest of her arm following, thus shattering her wrist's connection with the hand. She screamed in pain as the man dropped her to the ground.

The man smiled and raised out his hand to the girl once more, "It seems you are no longer capable of injuring yourself. I guess in the end the dirty work always has to come back to me."

The magic gripped Erith by her left wrist and made her put it up in the air. The dagger now levitated beside the hand and was about to pierce it.

The man twitched his thumb. The sword thrust at the hand and there was a bright yellow flash. The sword fell to the ground by the girl. On her left hand, still in the air and uninjured, glowed a yellow triangle with an upside down triangle missing from its center. The triangle on the bottom right had half of it glowing a brighter yellow than the rest of the symbol.

The man laughed, "Just as I thought. You are the child of the chosen hero." He turned to Malon and said, "Which means you must be the Maiden of Light."

Erith was stunned by this and asked, "What is going on right now?"

The man pinned Erith to the wall again and said. "If you want to know, I'll explain. Your mother and father were known as The Pair in Time. They traveled across Hyrule and saved the land from an unimaginable evil by the name of Ganon. That symbol on your left hand proves to me that this is who they are."

Erith asked, "What are you talking about? Who even are you?"

The man laughed and said, "My name is Vaati. I am a wizard of darkness and I have but one purpose in this world, and that is to blot out all the powers of the light."

Erith looked at her hand and put the pieces together quickly and became angry, "Wait a minute, you said if I was the child you were looking for you would spare me and my mother. If this power that I have is light, then won't you kill me anyway?"

Vaati chuckled and said, "Very good, you're smart. You have your father's intellect. But you were too late to figure that out now weren't you?" With his left hand still holding Erith in the air, he threw down his right one causing Malon to crash into the ground. Then his entire right arm took the form of a blade. He put it up to her throat and said, "Well I guess you'll have the comfort of knowing that your death will put an end to my killing for the time being. Or I guess you could also take the guilt for leading me straight here."

Erith then thought, "It was him, that's why Zeepha was acting so weird today. It wasn't Zeepha at all, it was Vaati."

Then Vaati said, "Well as fun as it was to meet you, this is where our interaction ends"

He brought back his arm sword and prepared to swing. On his slice however, he toppled over and fell to the ground. Erith fell to the ground, free from Vaati's magic. She looked up to see what had happened to see that her mother had thrown her crippled body onto the wizard.

Malon screamed to her daughter in a pleading manner, "Go now!"

Vaati threw Malon off of him and picked her body up by the neck and said, "You have irritated me enough." He thrust his blade through her sternum. Vaati stared into Malon's eyes as life slowly left them. His left arm took the form of a blade as well and cleaved her head straight off. Then Vaati turned around to face the girl who's mother he had just killed. But the girl was gone, along with the sword. Vaati laughed as he thought to himself, "This just got interesting." He picked up Malon's severed head and chuckled, "At least it wasn't a waste of my time, The Light Maiden will be my prize this day."

Erith ran and ran until she was so out of breath that she fell to her knees. She had taken the sword with her but it was pointless because she could barely wield it with her left hand because she was right hand dominant.

She thought to herself, "This can't be happening, there is no possible way this is happening right now." She looked at her left hand to notice the symbol on it had faded away. She started to cry upon realizing that her mother was dead by now. She had left before she could see the end result of her mother saving her but she was smart enough to assume she was dead. "This was all my fault, I led him to my house and now mom is dead." She thought to herself still in tears. But sorrow was replaced with alarm when she noticed what she had just done. Erith had run into the center of Hyrule Field just before the sun set.

"Damn it. I walked right into this one. Monsters come out during the night." She urgently told herself. She looked around but the nearest town was Kakariko Village, about 3 miles away. She started to run towards the village but didn't make it halfway before the sun set. While she was sprinting, a skeletal hand came out of the ground and caught her leg. She tumbled to the ground but the hand didn't let go. Another hand came out of the ground by it and pulled the rest of the skeleton out of the ground. The skeletal creature picked up Erith by her leg and held her up. It's lifeless orange eyes seemed to stare into her soul.

Erith struggled to break free but the monster's grip was too strong. She brought her left hand around, holding the sword, and dismembered the hand. She fell to the ground and rolled. The monster seemed unphased by the loss of its hand and began to pursue Erith.

Erith got to her feet and started to run again only to be stopped by two more of the same skeleton monsters. She skid to a stop just before reaching them. Both of them clambered towards her slowly. Erith put her sword behind her back and prepared for an attack. She thought to herself, "Come on, remember what dad taught me." When the two monsters were finally an arm's length away from her she wiped her sword forward and completed a 360 degree swing which cut both of her opponents in half. A blue flame engulfed the bones as they were drug back underground to be repaired.

The young girl saw this as her chance and sprinted as fast as she could towards Kakariko Village. She made it another mile before another hand sprung up out of the ground. Instead of grabbing her, this monster pierced her leg with its sharp fingertips. Erith stumbled and then fell to the ground. She tried to get up but the pain was too much from the wound. Four more creatures sprang forth from the ground and had surrounded her.

Erith thought to herself, "Is this really how it ends? I escape Vaati after my mom sacrifices herself for me just to die about 15 minutes later?" She was breathing surprisingly calm for someone who was about to be killed. She closed her eyes and prepared herself for her fate and she breathed out slowly and fell into a state of unconsciousness from the pain she had endured.

The monsters reached her worn out body and one raised its hand and struck downward. Before it reached her body however the hand was shot off. A person riding a horse approached from Kakariko Village. He charged in and trampled two of the skeletons with his horse. Then he pulled out his slingshot once more and shot the remaining monsters heads of. The skeletons, not dead but blinded staggered around to find their target.

While they stumbled the man brought Erith onto his horse and rode back into town as quickly as he could.

Erith opened her eyes slowly and her vision was blurry. She could make out a poorly focused image of a person looking down at her. "I'm dead, aren't I?" She asked in a whisper.

Then in a sarcastic voice the person looking down said, "No, but given the situation you were in, you should be."

Erith began to sit up and accidentally put pressure on her right hand. Pain shot up her arm as she threw herself back on the bed she happened to be laying on. She tried so hard to keep in the terrible things she was thinking from becoming verbally existent.

The person said, "Whoa slow down there, just get some rest ok?"

The voice to Erith sounded like a boy's voice and a rather young one at that. She looked down at her leg to see three finger sized holes on her right with dried blood surrounding them.

The boy said. "Yeah it looks bad, almost to the point where I doubt you could ever walk on your right leg again. I'm…" He stopped because Erith burst out in tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tell you the bad news it just slipped out."

Erith shook her head and said, "No, it's not that, it's just…" The girl started to whimper and wiped her tears away with her left arm. "I just thought it was a nightmare. I would wake up tomorrow with my mother waiting to feed me and I would work like any normal day. But that can never happen anymore." She burst out crying again.

The boy was confused, "What the Hell happened to you out there? Where is your mother?"

Erith quivered as she remembered what took place. She barely got out, "She's… She's dead now…" She threw herself into the boy and wrapped her left arm around him with tears streaming down her face. She cried into his shoulder and the boy hugged back.

He stuttered to get out, "I'm… I'm so sorry to hear that."

Erith sniffled, "He's going to kill me too."

The boy asked, "Who is?"

"A wizard named Vaati." She answered softly.

"So he's at it again? Fine, it's time I end him." The boy replied.

Erith was shocked, "What? You know Vaati?" Her vision became clear and saw that the person she was talking too was a blonde haired boy no more than 12. "How do you know him?"

"Vaati is searching for people, children chosen by the gods to have their powers passed on from the last generation." He said.

Erith remembered the triangle symbol that appeared on her left hand. She thought to herself, "Is that the power he is talking about?"

The boy said, "The last purge Vaati made he killed many people of Hyrule in search for the Triforce of Wisdom. Eventually I confronted him in the Royal Courtyard and ended his search and killing spree."

Erith's jaw dropped in awe, she exclaimed, "You were the one who had the power he was looking for!"

The boy held up his left hand and the same symbol that appeared on Erith's hand earlier now took form on his own hand. The lower left triangle was half lighten up just as Erith's bottom right was.

The boy said, "I will avenge your mother, and promise with my life that Vaati will not hurt you! My name is Tacka and I will stop Vaati."

The girl shook her head, "I'm guessing you haven't seen what he is capable of in person yet."

Tacka put down his hand. "Oh and like you have" He said smugly.

Erith nodded and said, "Yes I actually have. He's the one who broke my wrist. He used magic to pin down both me and my mother. He did it with such ease too. Vaati must really be a master in his magic art."

"It doesn't matter, I have to stop him! It's my duty as a chosen hero." Tacka replied to this. "Vaati has to die now, before he can cause more terror."

Erith said in agreeance, "True, but I'm gona help too."

Tacka laughed as he asked, "Wait what? You can't even walk or wield a sword. How could you help stop him?"

Erith smirked and said, "Watch this." She put her left hand over her leg wounds and spoke, "Saphilara Enos." Erith grimaced in pain as the three holes were sealed and replaced with fresh skin. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. "See? Good as new."

Tacka chuckled as he said, "So you have learned some light magic. Cool but I know that spell. It doesn't work on bones. What are you going to do about your wrist?"

Erith responded, "My mom always keeps medicine at my house. If we can go back I can heal up and join you to kill Vaati."

Tacka stated, "You really want revenge don't you? Enough to go back home after everything you have been through. What's your name even?"

Erith nodded, "Vaati is strong but together we might stand a chance. And it's Erith." She looked around the small room and noticed there was no window. "So where are we exactly?"

Tacka answered, "Well let's go outside and find out."

Erith agreed, picked up her sword, put it through her belt, and walked to the door. Tacka followed and opened the door. A loud rumbling burst through it. The young girl walked through to see multiple stairwells leading downward. She asked again, "What is this place exactly?"

Tacka said again, "Wait till you get outside. I don't see a point in explaining something you'll figure out in like thirty seconds."

As they descended down the stairs, Erith started to hear music. The song got louder the further down she got. She thought to herself, "What the heck is that?" That thought didn't last long as they reached the bottom of the stairs and there stood a door. She opened it with her left hand and walked outside.