Book One: The Rescue of the Saviour
By Gabriel B
Chapter Thirteen: The Last of the Sheikah
Hyre let go of Darunia's shoulders as they landed beside the large stone staircase outside Kakariko village. He shook his head and said, "I don't think I'll ever get used to this…"
Somewhere on the edge of her perceptions, Nabooru heard Saria ask, "Do we really have to climb this entire thing?" Nabooru mentally glared at Saria and Ruto, and tried to tune them out. But she smiled in amusement as Ruto toppled backwards in an attempt to race her friend up the stairs. "You've got to lean forward," Saria said, and demonstrated.
Ruto brushed some dirt off her blouse and said, "I figured that much out, thanks." Saria reached out a hand, which Ruto gladly took, and pulled up her friend. Nabooru shook her head and followed Impa, who was surprisingly far ahead of them.
At last, Impa reached the top, and was promptly stopped by two guards. "Who are you and what is the purpose of your trip to Kakariko Village?"
Her response was rehearsed; "I'm Impa, last of the Sheikah, and I'm visiting my home, with some allies, to continue my duties as protector of the royal family and its dependencies."
The guards gave each other a curious look. One of them laughed, and said, "This is a joke, right?" When Impa gave him a blank stare, he said, "There is no Impa of the Sheikah. That's just a test they give us to make sure we remember people's descriptions." When she insisted that she was, indeed, Impa, they shrugged and said, "Fine, whatever. You're clear to go inside, and I guess they are, too." They opened the locked gate that guarded the village, and, after three years, Impa finally returned home. But instead of bounding forward, like they expected she would, she simply stood there, inside the barricade, and stared.
After a few moments, Nabooru joined her at the top, and nodded to the guards as they let her pass. It had been three years since she last saw this place, which had also been the first. But unlike last time, she wasn't hiding from view with the Sages; she was standing at the entrance, having been welcomed in to the glorious Village of the Sheikah, Kakariko Village. While Nabooru had never been one for greenery and cool breezes, even she had to admit that it was visually pleasing; the colours were from a pallet much larger than the one used to paint Gerudo Valley; that was for certain. In particular, it was the tree in the middle of the village that caught her attention.
It wasn't a particularly spectacular tree; it was just the fact that it was there. The forest from which they had just emerged, full of trees just like it, didn't matter. Nabooru shook her head and reminded herself that, unlike the Gerudo Valley, trees were plentiful here. Once again, life proved to be unfair to her people. She gritted her teeth and wrenched her eyes away from the tree, and instead looked at the rest of the village. They stood on a dirt walkway, which ran around the thing which she was pointedly ignoring, and on through a central walkway. The houses seemed to be arranged outward from a single point in semicircles, almost like an amphitheatre, with a large windmill behind them. The walkway wound around the back of the village, which seemed considerably darker, and Nabooru felt that whatever was back there was probably better off left alone.
A woman in a red uniform, carrying a bag over her shoulder, walked by, and gave Nabooru a strange look. When she returned the look, the woman looked away quickly and hurried of, apparently eager to be somewhere else.
"It's been a while since we've had any Goron visitors," said one of the guards as Darunia finally made it to the top, out of breath.
Finally, Impa rediscovered how to operate her legs, and started walking forward. Nabooru noticed that her gaze was directed at a heavy-set man, a few dozen yards away, who gave them a slight nod as he opened a door to one of the houses. A ragged-looking figure rushed past him and stumbled forward, and Nabooru realized something was wrong.
The figure muttered something before crumpling to the ground, exhausted, and Impa yelped. Forgetting her reluctance, Impa rushed to the side of the person, who Nabooru now saw was a woman of about Impa's age.
Impa turned the woman over, so that she was lying on her back. She had been visibly weakened by something; her breathing was heavy, and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. The woman didn't appear to have any serious physical wounds; rather, she was just bruised and dirty. But Impa's face bore a look of shock, as though what she was seeing was impossible. "Yrma?" she said after a moment. Yrma…, Saria thought. Why does that name sound familiar?
"Oh, by Nayru's Love, is she okay?" said a red-haired woman, hurrying out of the house after the fallen lady. "She's so weak; I didn't think she should be outside so soon." She knelt down beside Impa and carefully lifted Yrma's head and shoulders off the ground in an attempt to get her to sit upright.
"Thank you, Anju, she'll be fine with some rest," said Impa.
"How did you –" Anju began, but she looked at Impa and answered her own question. "By the Goddesses, you're back! You're safe! We all thought we'd never see you again after you disappeared! What happened to you?"
Impa shook her head, dismissing the questions. "Never mind me, I'll explain later. What happened to Yrma?"
"She… Yrma… she said her name was Impa – I don't know what happened, she stumbled down the mountain last night and one of the guards brought her to my house."
Saria hurried over and placed a hand on Yrma's forehead. "She's burning up – Iketh, get her some water." Ruto nodded, and hurriedly rummaged through her bag to find a cup, which she filled with water and handed to Saria. "Thanks – here you go, Yrma," Saria said, pouring it into her mouth. Yrma weakly opened her eyes and attempted a smile, but failed.
Impa whispered to the woman, "Get some rest; Anju will take care of you until I can return again." She looked up at Anju, who smiled, and Impa said, "Let's get her inside. She'll feel better if she lies down on a bed rather than the ground." Anju nodded, and she and Impa picked Yrma off the ground. I've heard that name before; Saria thought to herself with a frown.
"What's wrong with her?" Ruto asked, watching with concern as the comatose woman was carried inside. "She didn't look like she'd been seriously hurt."
Nabooru seemed to share Ruto's concern. "From the looks of it, she suffered from exhaustion. I've seen it countless times before in the training camps back home. And if that woman, Anju, was right, and she did come from the other side of the mountain, chances are that she's been running for at least a day, and that would make anyone tired."
Saria looked behind her to see what Hyre was doing, but he wasn't there; instead, he was staring intently down a well, as though trying, through sheer force of will, to make something burst out of it.
"Excuse me," he said, turning to a nearby man as he passed by, "who's the, I don't know, mayor of this village? Who has been in charge of the goings-on since Impa left?"
The man paused for a moment, and then said, "That would be Mutoh, the engineer. He's not actually our mayor, though; we're not really large enough of a community to warrant such a position. He's just rather assumed the position when Impa didn't return after the war." Hyre nodded and thanked the man, then went back to staring down the well. It took the commotion that began shortly thereafter to break him out of his reverie.
"I said stand aside, solider, or I will make you!"
Off to the left, by another pathway out of the village, stood two of the village guards, being berated by another man in a fancy-looking uniform that Nabooru recognized as Hylian military, probably army, but she couldn't identify the uniform itself. Instead of the light silver plating Kakariko's soldiers wore, the man wore a full-body suit of armour, complete with golden shield and sheathed sword, in addition to the spear he carried. Three more guards stood behind him, each with an identical outfit, and Saria hid behind Nabooru for safety.
When the guard refused to move, he was shoved mercilessly out of the way by the incoming men. He pulled out a whistle, and an ear-splitting sound rang in Nabooru's head. She tried covering her ears, but it didn't help; the sound was still too loud to block out. When it finally stopped, she found the village a lot more crowded than it had just been. Citizens of all ages had poured out of their homes, each taking up arms in defence of their city. Only Anju and Impa failed to respond to the call. And Hyre, being himself, walked straight up to the intruders, defenceless.
"Is there a problem, soldiers?" Hyre asked politely, as though he were asking about the weather.
"My name is Lieutenant Aleph, and these are Lieutenants Beth, Gimel, and Daled. Under Royal Decree, we demand that your turn Impa over to us, or we will take her by force."
Hyre's pleasant expression dropped, and Saria's blood turned to ice. "Excuse me?" Hyre said, after a moment.
"The woman who came this way this morning – either you will give her up willingly, or I will make you!" Lieutenant Aleph lowered his spear threateningly.
Hyre waved a hand at Aleph, apparently not concerned with such petty weaponry, and said, "I'm afraid you're not making any sense. That woman is not –"
"Do not defy me!" Lieutenant Aleph tossed away his spear and swung his sword at Hyre, but Hyre was waiting for it, with his own sword out in defence. Azurewrath's familiar faint blue glow felt almost restless, as if itching to sink itself into flesh, and it disturbed her.
"You were too slow; instead of making a show of grabbing your sword, you should just take it and strike." Hyre was taunting Aleph now, but seemed to be otherwise disinterested in the situation.
"Lieutenants Beth and Daled, occupy the villagers. Gimel, find her. Impa's escapade has ended." Aleph took another swing, and Hyre blocked again with only mild interest.
"Beth, I'll take the Gerudo," said Lieutenant Daled with a smile, nodding at Nabooru. Lieutenant Daled drew a sword and pointed it at Nabooru, who unsheathed her sabre and stood ready for an attack. "Well, well, well, Nabooru the traitor shows herself again after all these years," Daled said with glee, and tossed off the military helmet and threw away the shield, revealing a ponytail of blood-red hair and tanned skin, revealing herself to be Gerudo, as well. "You never knew how good you had it, did you?" Daled lunged for Nabooru's stomach, but the Sage of Spirit jumped out of the way, and threw up her sabre to block Daled's slice. "You could have had any position in His army, but you had to resist, you had to do the 'noble' thing."
Nabooru pushed Daled back, and retorted, "He was killing innocent people!" She landed a kick on Daled's shin with a clunk, but lost her footing and fell.
"He was the closest we've ever been to fulfilling our purpose, our destiny as a race!" She put her weight into thrusting her sword through Nabooru's head as she emphasized the last word, and used the handle as a pivot to turn her momentum into smashing her foot into Nabooru's face as she rolled away. "We've waited millennia for that chance, and YOU RUINED IT!" Daled pulled the sword from the ground and in one smooth motion, flung it at Nabooru, who was still recuperating from the kick.
There were gasps from the villagers, but Nabooru didn't hear them. One of the men even managed to escape from Lieutenant Beth, and tackled Daled to the ground, but she didn't see that. Her jaw throbbed in pain, but she didn't feel that, either. All that existed to her was the sword hurtling at her, and all she could do was duck, but she knew she would be too slow. She saw the sword, ready to cut her apart; she heard the whistling of the air against the razor-sharp blade; she felt the point on her face where she knew she would be impaled, and the only thing she could feel was fear.
With a puff of smoke and a loud clang, Lieutenant Daled's sword stopped short of Nabooru's cheek, with Impa's glowing arm in the way. "What, you didn't think I'd leave you out here to get killed by the Royal Guard, did you?" Impa said with a smirk, and Nabooru, breathing a sign of relief, gave her an equally devious, albeit weak, grin.
"Get Gimel; he's looking for her," Nabooru said, and Impa nodded. Nabooru raised her own sword and prepared to return the pain. Daled found her shield, held it up, and charged forward, forcing Nabooru to move to the side. Daled retrieved her sword, and made to slash at Nabooru again, but a scream of incredible pain rang through the village.
Lieutenant Aleph was on the ground, with Hyre's sword, minus its usual blue glow, cutting into his right arm. Nabooru watched in pity as Aleph tried to twitch, but the entire right side of his body was frozen in place. His left arm and leg flailed wildly, but Hyre dug the sword in deeper and the scream grew louder.
Then the noise died, as Hyre pulled the sword out of Aleph's arm. Though Nabooru couldn't see his face, she saw the fury in his motions as he swung the once-again-blue sword around to the other side, to torment the soldier further. But before he could bury the blade once again into flesh, someone called to him.
"Hyre, stop!" shouted a voice, and the sword froze. "Look at what you're doing!"
Nabooru's gaze remained firmly placed on Aleph, for she already knew to whom the voice belonged, and the girl's bravery frustrated her. "Look at him! You've hurt him enough as it is; do you really think you need to torture him even more?" Saria ran in front of Hyre, and looking at the fear in her eyes, Nabooru almost felt sorry for the soldier. Even Daled, who had come within an inch of killing Nabooru, looked at her sword and wondered what she was doing.
Hyre hadn't moved a muscle since Saria stopped him, but Azurewrath's tip was visibly shaking, as if begging to taste blood and flesh again. "Hyre, look at me! Stop this, please!" Saria begged, and Hyre's arm relaxed.
Nabooru took advantage of the diffusion of the situation and swung around, ready to take a good hack at Daled's arm, but Daled had found the same opportunity, and their swords collided.
Daled smirked, and said, "I see you've been training in your absence. Too bad you're still a lousy warrior!" She brought her shield around to crash into Nabooru's arm, but this time, the Sage of Spirit was ready. She leapt backwards, and when Daled lost her footing when her shield bumped into her own sword, Nabooru charged forward and pounded the soldier's shoulder, which gave a satisfying crack.
"I see you haven't been," Nabooru said, spitting at Daled's feet as the Gerudo soldier screamed in pain at the dislocation.
"Bring her over here," said Impa's voice, and Nabooru saw that Lieutenants Aleph and Gimel were slumped together, unconscious, and the villagers seemed to have taken Beth somewhere, as neither she nor they were anywhere to be found.
Nabooru grabbed Daled by the elbow, and being careful not to pull hard enough to set anything back into its socket, led the screaming soldier over to her comrades. Impa unceremoniously shoved Daled onto the ground. "Now, talk," she said, and, with Darunia's help, reset Daled's shoulder.
A full minute passed, which was more than enough time for Daled to control her hyperventilation, but instead of talking, she spat at Impa's feet. "You don't scare me," she said.
Hyre stood up, and, ignoring Saria's protests, squatted down in front of her and said, "Maybe she doesn't scare you, but how about this?" He pulled out his sword, and Saria shrieked. She grabbed his arm to prevent him from cutting Daled, but she recoiled anyway.
"Hyre, don't," Saria said.
"We just wanted the Sheikah," Daled said quickly, and squirmed backwards, but Darunia's bulk was in the way.
Impa frowned, and said, "If you wanted to talk to me, you should have just asked; you didn't need to assault us."
"Not you, you idiot, we wanted Impa, the woman who passed through here this morning. We know she came through here, and your little defence act told us she never left."
Hyre paused for a moment, and looked at his sword. "You know, if you're not telling the truth, I could make you regret it in an instant. But my friends would get mad at me, and I still need their help for a bit, so I probably shouldn't piss them off."
Daled looked at Hyre, who had a genuine look of insanity on his face, and said, "By Din's Fire, I swear that that's everything – we needed a Sheikah, and since Impa was the last one, we were ordered to locate and collect her."
"Well, she's not here," said Impa, and Hyre turned around curiously. "So here's what you're going to do: you're going to go back to your commander, and you're going to tell him that Impa is not in Kakariko Village, and you will take your search elsewhere. And if you return, well…" Impa gave a mischievous grin to the unconscious men on the ground, "if you return, you probably won't see your comrades alive again."
Nabooru gasped, and pulled Impa to the side. "What do you think you're doing?" she whispered angrily. "You realize that the moment any of them leave this city, they'll bring the entire squadron here in a manhunt for Yrma and for us!"
"I'm giving us time to get Yrma out of here safely. The army won't actually attack unless there's resistance, and I figure that if we're gone by the time the army gets here, the village will be safe."
"What do you suggest we do with her, then? We can hardly just bring her along! She can barely stand, and by the time she gets better, the squadron will be back!" Nabooru could hardly believe that it was Impa who was suggesting such a crazy plan.
"We can take her to the Leviathans," Hyre suggested, appearing behind Impa. "If we can bring her with us to Goron City, when we leave we can take her directly there."
Impa shuffled to the side to allow Hyre to join their conversation, and asked, "Where exactly is 'there', and will she be safe?"
"There are a few entrances whose locations I know, the most viable of which is down the side of Death Mountain. As for whether or not she'd be safe…" Hyre paused, and stuck a hand in one of his many pockets, and pulled out a bright golden coin, "I still have Rauru's medallion. Best case scenario is they accept me as Rauru's messenger and nurse her back to health. Worst case is…" Hyre trailed off, apparently at a loss for words.
"Go on, don't leave us hanging like that," Nabooru said, raising an eyebrow.
"Worst case scenario is that the lieutenant and her friends won't get the Sheikah they're looking for."
"You're mad!" Impa said, eyes bulging. "I can't believe I agreed to help you on your insanity quest!"
Nabooru tuned out Impa's response; she didn't need to hear any more of their quarrelling. She instead turned to focus on Daled, who was glaring directly at her. Daled mouthed some words at her, but Nabooru couldn't tell what she was saying; she was too far away. Instead, she simply smiled at the captured soldier, mocking her.
Apparently some sort of agreement was made between Hyre and Impa, for Impa said, "Fine, but I'm telling you, if my sister gets hurt because of your recklessness, I don't care what the Leviathans might do to you, I'm going to kill you!"
"That's fair enough, I suppose. Darunia, you can let go of our friend over there. She's free to leave the village."
Daled leapt up at the release of the pressure, and stood up. She walked to Nabooru, rubbing her sore wrists, and simply said, "You can't fight our destiny, Nabooru; none of us can." Leaving her equipment behind, Daled raced down the stairs, eager to get as far away from Kakariko Village as possible.
She heard the familiar knock on the door, and knew that news had arrived, but sensed that she was to be disappointed. "Come in, General," she said, without turning from the window.
The door opened, and General Tav entered the room, kneeling as soon as he was clear of the doorway. "I bring word from the field, your highness. Lieutenant Daled returns with a most… unusual report."
This made the queen frown with disappointment. But Lieutenant Daled was hardly the highest ranking officer on that mission, unless… "The casualties have been noted, General. But what news do you have of the Sheikah? Was the mission successful?"
"There were no casualties yet, your highness, just those wounded or captured. And no, your highness, she continues to elude our capture; they chased her out of Termina over Death Mountain, but, of course, Kakariko Village lies on the other side. Neither could he, nor can we take village. Its entry points are too easily defended against land troops, and its citizens have been trained in archery against any air assaults. Lieutenant Daled recounts two of them disarming Lieutenants Aleph and Gimel, and the rest of the villagers overwhelming Lieutenant Beth. The three of them have been captured."
The Queen glared at her reflection in the window, and head began to itch with irritation. The urge to kill the captain grew ever stronger, but she had to suppress it, for the sake of progress. "Thank you, General," she said with restraint. "You are dismissed." She saw in the glass the captain stand up behind her, but he did not leave.
Instead, he said, "Your highness, there is one more thing." At this, the Queen turned around, and General Tav immediately dropped to his kneels again, bowing his head. "Lieutenant Daled reports that one of the defenders – one of the swordsmen –" the Queen's eyes grew wide at the stress of this word, "– was carrying a glowing blue sword, and that Lieutenant Aleph, quote, 'screamed like he was being consumed with fire,' unquote, upon contact with it. She said they called him 'Hyre'."