Well! Chapter three . . . No reviews . . . Oh well! Chapter three it is then!
The horse was far too big for her. Or, she was far too small for the horse . . . She had no idea where to look, but look she must. It wasn't fair of her mother to worry her like this. Fair, however, was never how things had been for her. She had gotten used to it. Nine years had worn away at her.
She had little experience in how to ride a horse, so it wasn't long before the horse was merely wandering the vast expanses of Hyrule Fields'. She was worried for herself now too. She had no idea where she was. The sun had set and she was getting cold. Her horse was showing no signs of stopping for the night.
It meandered toward a small stream and across an old bridge. Aryll had been dozing when suddenly the horse gave a loud whiney and an odd sort of half jump forwards. In her groggy state, she couldn't tell for the life of her why the horse would do such an odd thing. She blinked and gathered her senses. She looked around and noticed they were going up a well traveled (and well worn) staircase.
Before she could wonder where she was, a large sign above a gate loomed before her. "Kakariko Village." It read. The horse wandered toward a small lean-to and stopped entirely. This, she presumed, was the end of her ride. She dismounted rather ungracefully by sliding off onto the ground. The horse seemed to snicker at her and she glared at it. "You don't have to be mean about it . . . " she muttered even though she knew the horse couldn't understand her and she knew the horse wasn't really laughing at her. The horse turned its head away as it "sniggered", none the less.
Aryll got up, brushed off her rump and looked around again. It was dark. The lack of night life was unnerving to her. Not a light was lit, not a door slammed, not even a coco clucked in its sleep. Even if it was scoundrels lurking out of sight of the moon light, it would have been comforting were something there at all. The moon its self seemed to dim in an effort to guard against any unwanted attention that night. This should have been a warning to Aryll to turn back, but, not being superstitious, she was not likely to regard these ill-happenings as omens. On she pressed. There were two roads of which Aryll could have taken, one led up to a cluster of homes and shops and disappeared into a great, smoldering mountain. Another led down into what appeared to be the heart of the darkness, and that one she followed.
The darkness was surprisingly empty as she walked quietly through it, not wanting to disturb any thing should the sleeping evil slumber light. The residences became fewer and shabbier as she inched down the dirt road, eventually thinning out to none. The dirt road turned into a small path and it led into a protected opening which the darkness seemed to originate from. On she walked, her foot steps becoming quieter and quieter.
Aryll could feel the air around her suddenly change cooler as if she had walked into a wall of cold. She walked through a small fence only to find her self in the presence of another a short ways away. There was a garden of bushy plants who's purple flowers were just opening for the night. An open gate stood tall and morbid, welcoming in the dead and their mourners but rejecting all joy that may wish to pass through. An ornate announcement was proclaimed in steel above it, "Kakariko Grave Yard" it said. A simple, yet informative statement. Aryll paused to absorb all it's stillness of death, and then proceeded.
A shiver ran the length of her spine and through her arms and legs. The night got colder still when she passed through this gate. She gazed at all the head stones, a testament to all that have passed. She stepped lightly once again and tried to avoid noise all together. The paths between the gravestones were well tended to and mostly made of stone. As she traveled the path she only got colder, the chill of death only getting stronger. She came to a large grave stone that boasted royal names and was covered in the sacred triangles. Curiously, she peaked behind it.
Had her fear of awakening the dead been any less, she would have screamed. The tears dropped onto the cold ground and froze there. She fell to her knees as her legs gave out. The world seemed stacked against her, unwilling to relent in its torment. She had found what she sought, she had found her mother.