A/N: Happy New Year, Guys! I wish you all epic starts to epic years! This chapter is not so mega big on action (aside from the beginning, but there were a few things that I needed to develop so I hope it satisfies :D
Storm Dragon Wolf Princess: Those are pretty cool choices. I don't think Link understands the meaning of the word surrender :D Even though this tale is more centered on Link and Zelda and not everyone else like last time, I figured it would be rude to forget them completely, especially after I spent time introducing them. Thank you!
Generala: It would indeed be cool to see her there. You are pretty right with your guesses, but there is something more. Thank you for the Review!
Yami no Nokutan: I was wondering about that XD, I didn't think I named a character that but I was not sure (typos do lots of things I don't intend sometimes) Hylian huh? That's cool. Yes it would indeed be a good thing if they joined XD thanks!
xXx skytale xXx: An epic boss troll? XD that's hilarious, I love that. Thank you!
Gojira Geek: That's pretty awesome! Thanks!
Scarlet Curls: She may indeed C: Yes, but he could not help it, Ganondorf confiscated all his bobby-pins so he would not try to pick locks with them. AWWW Link looks adorable dressed as Len. I love reading stories on road trips, it so fun! (Better than knitting) Where did you go? Don't worry I actually fixed them already! Merida? That's totally awesome! Thank you for the compliment and review!
Kokokringles: Pretty good guesses. Don't worry I will give Aveil something to do so she does not have to wander aimlessly XD I don't have a wiiU either so getting that game would be out of the question for me too. Thank you for the review!
CupcakePride101: It would be a crime to make him a lousy fighter X3 so you are talented with European middle age style weapons and Feudal Japan style of weapons? Cool! Those are the types that I favor too. I can honestly say I have never tried to wield a scimitar like the Gerudo. Thank you!
silverheartlugia2000: They definitely don't! Thanks!
Stratagem
Zelda leaped back and feigned an opening, hoping lure the Darknut in. Her opponent made a flourishing lunge at her false opening. She danced nimbly towards the side to avoid being hit and then swung out and caught him a blow. With a bellow a rage, he charged her, sword held above his head. She ducked down. Her enemy suddenly stopped and reeled backwards. She soon saw why. The Darknut had impaled itself on the blade of a Lizalfos who had been trying to covertly stab her from behind. Neither she nor the Darknut had known it was there. The Darknut fell but, before she had time to breathe a thank you for her fortunate yet narrow escape, the Lizalfos retracted its blade and swiped it down towards her. She rolled out of the sword's path just in time and disabled the Lizalfos by slashing it across its scaly reptilian legs.
She stood up again, disoriented. All around her, was the confusion and horror of battle. She saw something heading towards her out of the corner of her eye and readied her blade, only to lower it again.
"Jade!" she cried, "get out of here, you could get killed!"
"I see middle sized army of not bad-guys outside gate," her tiny green dragon piped. "They war cry speaks, 'down with tyrranty and Ganon."
"What?" Zelda gasped.
"Follow me!' Jade called and Zelda ran out of the fray and towards the gate. Only a few bulblins blocked her path and she fought past them as she raced up the battlements to peer over the side.
Sure enough, a large mass of armed people stood outside the gate. They were readying fire arrows and a battering ram. 'These must be the rebels the red haired man mentioned, they must have seen the fire,' she thought to herself. She turned to look back to assess the state of the battle. The slaves and monsters were near evenly matched in numbers. If she let in the reinforcements, victory for the slaves and rebels would almost be assured.
She ran to the horizontal wheel, which acted as a turn-shaft to lift the portcullis, and pushed as hard as she could. It budged slightly, but not enough. In normal circumstances, two people were needed to turn the shaft and she knew it. Jade clasped onto one of the bars and started flapping furiously but her small effort was of no use. She was about to give up and think of another plan, when another pair of hands appeared to help her. They belonged to the red haired man.
"I could not help but overhear your dragon," he explained, flashing a small smile. "Also, I assumed the rest of the rebel force would be nearby, if they sent you ahead."
Together, they heaved and the wheel turned. The portcullis slowly lifted. A flood of reinforcements ran through the gate to help the slaves. With the added help, the outcome of the battle was soon decided in favor of the slaves.
~x~X~x~
Zelda smiled at the antics of the celebrating slaves and rebels as they cavorted around inside the walls of the reclaimed fortress and feasted upon what little was salvaged from the enemy's storehouse and their own supplies. She had almost never before seen such a merry gathering of people. Near where the enemy fortress used to stand, a pavilion had been set up and a gathering of people sat around a large table. There were, as far as she could tell, three leaders, and the rest acted as retinue or perhaps council members.
She knew that she would have to come clean and tell them the truth behind herself and her mission if she ever wanted to gain trust or aid. Also, she was sure they would find out that she was not what she had claimed she was, sooner or later. The longer she delayed the more incriminating that would look. She took a deep breath as she headed over towards the tent just as they finished their discussion and began to break off. The spiky red haired man saw her coming and waved her over to the table. For the first time, that wary look of his had eased slightly and he looked pleased. When she reached the table, she took in the tree leaders. There was the red-head, the man who had reminded her of Auru the night before, and another man with midnight black hair and thick beard sprinkled with strands of silver with armor and a dark blue sircoat over his mail.
"Where did you lot find such a skilled infiltrator?" The red-head, whom she was almost certain was a Gerudo male, asked the black haired rebels leader, giving Zelda a smile and a sudden look that made her feel a twinge of embarrassment and discomfort.
The rebels' leader or general sat stone-faced. His eyes showed mild surprise as he looked Zelda up and down. His dark brooding eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement.
"What?" the man started to say, but Zelda raised her hand as if she were silencing her subjects. She knew that the truth had to be given now so she forced her voice to steady as if she were addressing her court.
"I must admit that there has been a slight misunderstanding and I am guilty of deception," she said quietly to the redhead. "I am not one of the rebels."
"Then what are you?" he asked with a hint of a frown, his hand rising to his goatee. The daring suspicious light had started to eek back into his golden eyes and she saw two of the men acting as guards of the previous meeting start to head towards her. She knew she needed to be brief and concise in order to get her story out before she was arrested.
"My name is Serhild and I am from Hyrule. I came here to look for my friend who was captured by Ganondorf. I thought he might be here. Even though he wasn't, I just couldn't stand by and do nothing while you and your people suffered."
"You mean to say that you took it upon yourself to rescue a bunch of slaves you didn't even know," the grey haired general, who looked like Auru asked incredulously.
"I agree with Fredrick," the blue clad General stated bluntly. "Your motives do seem a bit questionable."
"I think it was rather noble of her, Tarsius," the red haired leader of the slaves said to the rebel commander, "and thanks to her efforts, when we unite the people of this fort with the other half of your rebel army we will have a force strong enough to lead an attack on the enemy."
"Even a spy can have a pretty face, Rhydd," Tarsius told the young slave leader solemnly. Rhydd cleared his throat awkwardly and closed his mouth, but she saw a faint smile grow upon his lips. Zelda found herself blushing, glad that her face paint was hiding it.
"I can understand why you would not trust me, and I don't expect you to. I just want to know if any of you know the whereabouts of my friend," Zelda said quietly.
All the people present at the meeting table shook their heads one by one in answer to her question.
"Whether acting honestly on our behalf or not, you have done a great service to our people. I can give you permission to ask among all of us for your friend." Fredrick said after a small pause.
"You have my gratitude," she replied, inclining her head in his direction. "As for my actions in saving people I did not even know, my reasoning was not as faulty as you think. I consider any enemy of Ganondorf to be on the same side as me. And are my actions so very strange when I can see that we were once of the same kingdom? Surly it is not odd to wish to help my own people, despite where they settled years ago."
"Spoken like a warrior," Rhydd said smiling again as he locked eyes with her. Those golden orbs of his seemed to be very perceptive, at least to her. "I agree with Sir Frederick and would even go so far as to say we should at least give her a chance. Besides, if she was really working for Ganondorf do you honestly think she would help us gain enough men to fight him?"
Fredrick nodded in agreement at Rhydd's suggestion, but Tarsius was not the type of man to be so easily swayed.
"Yes, she would, if she wanted to expose all the leaders of the rebels," Tarsius snapped.
He said more but Zelda's attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere. A Gerudo girl about her own age stumbled through the fortress doors into the center of the celebrating people. She was welcomed into their midst and, after a brief whispered conference with someone, she headed over to the place where Zelda sat. She was very beautiful and Zelda could tell that her tattered clothes had once been fine. She looked completely worn and exhausted and she was barely standing upright. The soldiers did nothing to try and stop her. As she headed towards them, she managed to pick up the last bit of Tarsius's impromptu rant.
Rhydd stood suddenly when he saw her.
"Aveil?" he asked, in the softest voice Zelda had ever heard him speak in.
The girl hardly even acknowledged his presence as her whole attention seemed to be riveted upon Zelda. Her expression was something in between worry, shock, and relief.
"You are from Hyrule?" she asked almost desperately.
Zelda nodded.
"The friend you are looking for, is he the blue eyed golden-haired hero of Hyrule?" she asked pulling something out from her sleeve.
It was a piece of green cloth. 'No, not a cloth,' Zelda realized, 'it was a hat- Link's hat.'
"Link," she whispered as took it carefully from the girl. "Where did you get this? How did you get this?" She blurted. "Do you know where he is?"
"He and I were held prisoner together and he helped me escape slavery at Ganon's fortress. Actually, we tried to escape together but…"
She trailed off, hanging her head and Zelda assumed that the escape had not gone too well.
"We have to save him; Ganon wants him for something that has to do with gaining power if we don't stop him… I don't know what will happen," Aveil sat down at the table next to Rhydd after finally greeting him. With an exhausted sigh, she began to give a hurried account of the events that had taken place.
"Do you believe Serhild now?" Rhydd asked almost smugly. "We all know Aveil is not a traitor or a liar, she comes from one of the most honored and well known families in the kingdom. I hope you're satisfied."
"I am never satisfied," Tarsius replied gruffly. "You should rest Aveil," he said to the girl, "you look spent. After what you have been through, you should probably take a take it easy for a while."
"You think I am going to sleep while you guys are discussing our next moves and battle plans? Many of my people and now my friend are prisoners of our enemy. Our country has been ravaged, our people enslaved. My place was always at this council before and I don't mean for that to change. I have been inside Ganondorf's fortress so I can be of assistance in your planning.
Her comment led to a long heated discussion between the leaders about the logistics of their next move but Zelda was not paying attention. She was lost in thought, thinking back to all the lessons she had ever learned about strategy.
"Serhild?" Rhydd asked tentatively, breaking her concentration. "Is something wrong? You are being strangely silent. The fact that you are still here tells me that you have something on your mind that concerns us."
He was indeed as perceptive as she had thought, and pretty clever too.
"I have a proposal," She said suddenly. All the attention of everyone present was directed at her. "I know that it is inevitable for you to lead a full forced attack against your enemies and there is something I can do for you. What if I could take out Ganondorf while you attack him outright? I know you do not completely trust me and I do not ask you to. I would be more than accepting should you can keep your plans of attack to yourself. I do not wish to know them and honestly think that, the less I am aware of them, the better it would for everyone. However, you can know mine. I will break into the fortress, seek out Ganondorf and try my best to defeat him and recue my friend. If I succeed, then the enemy will have lost their general, giving you the advantage. If I fail in this, then I alone pay the price and you will have lost nothing."
"What makes you think that you have the skill to defeat the Dark Lord?" Aveil asked.
"Suffice it to say that I know him, and have faced him before," she said quietly looking at her hand, towards the spot under her glove where a piece of the Triforce marked her skin. The unfortunate truth was that she believed that other than Link, she might be the only one capable of killing Ganondorf, but she said nothing of this to the others.
~x~X~x~
The sun was setting and the sky was clear and bright, the air much warmer than it was in the reaches of the mountains. Unfortunately, her mind did not share in the clearness and pleasantry of the sky. Her mind felt like it was filled with the troubled brooding of the clouds of a lightning storm, and the loud company of the strangers around her was not helping much. True to her word, she had stayed far away from the generals as they strategized. The Gerudo women had accepted her easily enough, having admired her skill and her gender, and even the Hyrule people were a bit open to her, though they seemed a bit mistrustful of her hidden face. Still, she needed space and quiet to think and so she made her way to the wooden ramparts of the furthest wall from the festivities and preparations.
As she began to climb the crude wooden stairs upwards, she found her hand straying towards her belt, intending to intertwine her fingers with the fabric of Link's hat. The action made her sigh for it was so familiar. She had often found a small measure of comfort in holding it the last time their kingdom had been in a mess, the time that she had let him down. In fact, it had become so much of a habit that Link had later teased that she had been using it as a handkerchief. The happy memory of that afternoon tugged in her memory and she began to feel angry. Fate seemed to have something against their friendship. They had hardly just returned to their good terms and sense of camaraderie with each other, and then this happened.
There was so much she had wanted to tell him, to do with him, and simply be with him, she supposed. Their friendship was still so tentative and fragile; and it already seemed that yet another circumstance was trying to tear at those threads. It was not fair; but she realized with a sigh, life hardly was. She not only held the life of her friend in her hands, but also the life of both her kingdom and another. Her plan to help these people defeat the Dark Lord and aid their attack had already been reluctantly accepted, but the cost for failure was high. She had failed so many times before in her life, and she wished that she could somehow have the assurance that this time would be different.
As she crested the last stair, she saw that she was not the only one to have thought to seek out some solitude. Rhydd was standing near the sharpened end of the stakes that made up the battlements. His hands were clasped behind his back and he stared at the treetops that seemed lost in a world of dusk. Now that he had changed out of the tattered clothes of a slave, he seemed to look almost regal. There was no denying that his baring had always been rather princely but now he actually looked it in the dark leather high-colored vest that overlaid a dark long-sleeved tunic. She had seen the way that he received deference not only from the Gerudo, but also from the Hylains, and this had started her thinking. She came within feet of him before he registered another presence and jumped, but when he saw it was her he relaxed.
"Sorry, if I startled you," she apologized hastily, taking a few steps back.
"I don't particularly mind being startled by beautiful women." He said, offering her that small smile of his.
Something told her that he did not mind it a bit, especially with the way General Tarsius had chided him earlier. She could see that it would not be hard for him in that area for she would have been a liar to say that he was not handsome. She decided she should probably keep careful eye on this one, but she brushed that aside for the moment.
"I wanted to clear my head," she said by way of explanation and he merely nodded as he turned his attention back upon the trees and sky.
"It is a good spot to think," he said simply.
"I thought it would be, which was why I sought it out."
He turned back towards her, "Would you prefer it if I left?"
"No… Yes? I don't know," she bit her lip then sighed, "I honestly am not sure of what I want right now."
"I am," he said his voice suddenly harsh, "I want freedom for my people and for the Hylains. I want to bring about the end of Ganondorf for the suffering her has brought my people."
He was proud, she thought, but not especially arrogant.
"You are the Gerudo's king aren't you?"
He let out his breath in a short puff of air, "Not now, but I will be again, I owe it to my people."
"I owe much to mine too," she admitted.
"Your friend?" he asked gesturing to Link's hat.
"Him especially. When Ganondorf invaded my kingdom, the princess was forced to surrender. It was because of Link," she held up the hat, "That we were freed. I helped him," she said, her voice softening, "But not nearly enough by my own standards." She had no idea why she was telling him this, but perhaps it was because she had recognized a little something of herself in his shielded wheat-gold eyes. "I would settle that debt." She said finally.
He returned her stare as he spoke again. "I was an untried young king who was simply born into that title and did not fully understand its significance, until it was too late. My world was so much smaller then. I failed to protect my people when Ganondorf came. At first it seemed as if he were trying to reclaim what he considered his birthright and set himself up as king. But then, he enslaved my people and I because he knew we reviled his name. It slated his revenge lust as well as conveyance for him. Our ancestors were the Gerudo who disagreed with his rule and so he saw us the same way we see him, a traitor to our race. Funny how something like that can change your perspective forever. I would make it up to my people, and I will take it all back. But you don't need to hear this story. As I seem to have the gift of falling into the unoriginal calamity of a naïve prince, I would not wish to bore you, but I would tell you that you aren't alone in those thoughts you shared."
Their circumstances were indeed rather similar, she thought, which lead her to something else. "Why did you support me in the war meeting?"
"I guess I admired your willing heart and pretty face."
"You can hardly see my face, sir," she called him out.
"I was not lying about the pretty face, but I guess I also saw something in you that reminded me of myself, milady."
She started, "What makes you think that I am a lady?"
"Probably the same way that you could tell I was a prince."
She cursed inwardly, and here she thought she had been doing rather well at hiding herself.
"I thought I could trust you because I think our end goals might be the same, besides if you were an assassin, you would be a pretty lousy one, seeing as I am still alive, and a spy would not offer the plan that you proposed. You would sacrifice much while staying away from learning anything. Also, you saved me from slavery and that has to count for something. I am not one to ignore a favor." He said almost smugly.
Zelda frowned a little. She remembered the Hero's Shade saying something about being able to trust 'her,' by which she thought he meant this Aveil. But he had also said that she could trust 'the young king,' Rhydd seemed to be the only one who fit that description. Even if the shade had not told her that, she believed she would have already have started to entertain the thought. What was strange was that deep in his core he had nearly the same base points as Ganondorf, the strength and pride, the, she would not exactly call it greed, but more of an unflinching claim to what they considered theirs, and yet they were so very different. It was strange to think of it. What could have happened if the Triforce of power had gone to someone like Rhydd instead of someone like Ganondorf?
A/N: Don't forget to review! :D Link will return next week, and Ganondorf's purpose shall start to be revealed! We are just about to reach the climax. Thank you all for your support and for reading! You are all Awesome!
Question: What do you think would happen if the Triforce of power was given to a more balanced person? Do you think that it is the actual Triforce of power itself that corrupts people like Ganondorf, or do you think that his personality and desires were always the same with or without the Triforce?