A/N: So our patterns are becoming predictable, although I do believe its college and the fact that neither of us are English majors that is to blame for our lack of writing. That and us constantly blaming writer's block, but I recently heard a good lecture by the author Taffeta Chime who quoted Ray Bradbury's method of writing. Basically, you have to make an appointment with yourself to write a particular amount of words. It's quantity verses quality at this stage, and you use editing to mold your words into quality. There is no such thing as writer's block. It's just self-doubt.
I'm going to try and stop doubting myself but I hope you all keep reading despite our ability to write in a timely fashion.
Chapter 42 is finally up. I hope the quality is still up to par. Thank you all so much for reading.
Chapter 42: The Dark Grip
The night was turning to the misted dawn, but still had not lifted from Lon Lon Ranch. It was only a few moments after Arian had been spirited to Damien's room for the bed. The soldier, normally roguish and composed, quickly and worriedly obliged, looking with great concern upon his bleeding friend. Naomi franticly cleansed the wound and applied the last of the red potion. Arian coughed after drinking, but the desired effect did not take place.
"What happened?" Damien choked out as Naomi began thinking of other remedies, still with the faint hope that the red potion would magically kick in as it usually did.
"It was Aura…" Malon explained, for Naomi was unusually silent. Her eyes shimmered like glass, fighting back tears as she mechanically tended to Arian. Damien ran his hands through his hair in disbelief. His mouth gaped open and he stared at the now mournful red head. "She's still in the barn…" Malon said, hoping to turn his bewildered gaze of distress away from her. It worked. Damien immediately grabbed his sword and ran out of the room.
He burst through the barn doors to find a strange old man encroaching on Aura, lying motionless on the ground. Damien drew his sword. The sound of scraping metal stopped the old man in his tracks, and the glowing light from Sol Reprisal forced him a few awed steps back.
"Don't touch her!" Damien stepped between him and Aura, suddenly noticing the red, shimmering blade on the ground. "What is that?" He asked the old man, though he could sense the dark power it held.
"It was a gift." Jabono answered him with his hands held up in surrender.
"From who? You?" Damien beckoned with a snarl and raised voice. He already suspected the old man of giving her a blade poisoned with hate and came upon him with his sword. Jabono trembled and fell to the ground just before skull kid jumped out of the stalls, coming between him and Damien. A white flash knocked Damien back and momentarily took his sight. When he blinked his vision back, he saw that the old man and the skull kid had both disappeared, but the sword remained and Aura moaned beside it.
He took a saddle blanket from the wall and wrapped it around the blade, careful not to make contact. Tying the covered sword to his belt, he bent down scoop up Aura in his arms. She hung limply and breathed in shallow gasps. He held her to his chest, the worried expression still imprinted on his brow.
"Don't worry." Damien whispered. "I'll take care of you… my lady." He added with a smirk.
"Yep. This is as old as they get. Forest children are eternally eleven and always adorable." Navi explained to Amy in an aside.
"Hm… eleven was my awkward stage." She noted with an arched brow.
"Was?" Navi added and Amy passed the blue fairy an icy stare. She, along with Link, sat inside one of the tree homes of the Kokiri. After the initial misunderstanding between them and Amy, Link's dragon-transport, they had warmly welcomed the two of them into Mido's stump of a home where they had begun briefing each other of the current troubles plaguing Hyrule.
Mostly Link had listened to Mido's worries, which were rather insignificant when compared with what he and little Kyra knew.
"Gerudos have taken over the lost woods. We can't reach the sacred meadows anymore." He announced with crossed arms. Link nodded with a show of concern, although he was grateful none of them could make it there, seeing how Devoren had already overtaken Saria. The other young Kokiri wouldn't stand a chance against him.
"Do you think they know where the village is?" Amy asked.
"I'm sure they do by now. They've been snooping around the whole forest. It's like they're immune to the lost part of the Lost Woods!" Mido's pig-tailed sister exclaimed.
"Then why haven't they attacked?" Amy turned to Link to direct the question towards someone who knew a little more about Devoren. Link scratched his chin.
"They may be waiting for something." He suggested.
"Like what?" Amy wondered out loud.
"You." Kyra, Saria's pink fairy, answered confidently. "He must have known you would come, Link." Amy stood quickly to look out the window, finding that she had to bend over in order to see out of the woodcut opening. She sighed at how giant she felt among the Kokiri. She already felt fairly large around Naomi and Arian, who were both small in stature—Naomi's slender form especially.
"No, if they were after us, wouldn't they have attacked by now?" She asked while hunched over. She couldn't see any sign of danger. Link bashfully looked away from her backside, curved in the unintentionally provocative bend. Amy then straightened up and cracked her back and neck before grunting and looking back to the group.
"Wouldn't you think?" She shrugged her shoulders while they stared at her.
"They can't get near the village. I have Kokiri standing guard at all entrances to lead them astray if they come near. We'd know if they approached." Mido answered. "The forest is still on our side."
"Yes, but the forest spirit has been taken…" Navi shuddered.
"Saria." Mido uttered worriedly and Link passed him a curious glance. "Yes, I've suspected she was the forest sage for many years now, and seeing Kyra now is further proof to my suspicion."
"So does that mean the forest is still…er… on our side?" Amy asked without complete knowledge of what it meant for the forest to choose sides in the first place, but she figured that it would be a rather important factor considering they were surrounded by it.
"It means the forest is now controlled by the enemy…" Mido's older sister revealed with her little hands clasped tightly together over her chest.
"We must speak to the deku tree!"
"Will that… help?" Amy subtly asked Link, a little worried about their desires to speak to trees.
"He's the only protector of the Kokiri now… and yes… he talks back."
"Why am I not surprised?"
A great owl perched upon a cleft, deep within the forest where no one could find him without already knowing where he sat. The old man of mysterious ways sat near to him upon a broken tablet. They both stared out across the canopy at the reddened dawn. Storm clouds were blocking the blue skies, leaving the horizon red and grey.
"It seems your successor has been taken, Kaepora Gaebora, but there is still another who can take her place."
"The other was always meant to take her place." The owl hooted firmly. "I could sense it from the moment he left the lost woods. I've been with him for so very long and witnessed his strength. He can succeed where I failed."
"You did not fail, Kaepora Gaebora. The betrayer is to blame."
"And he in turn would blame us."
"And you would be a fool to believe it." The old man calmed the troubled owl. "He wanted to be more than an equal which made him succumb to the power of Pravumerus. If he had not been consumed by pride, the life force of the other four would not have been needed to bind both him and Pravumerus."
"We knew not what it meant to become sage at that time. Now I understand, it entails a complete self-sacrifice."
"And that's what it will take to finally put Pravumerus to rest." The old man affirmed with a foreboding tone. He looked back to the reddened vista. The owl spoke again.
"The four… they need you now. One of them is dying. You again must forfeit your neutrality."
"I think I'm just going to stop calling it neutrality and call it what it is—faith in the living to handle their own messes… this however is a bit beyond them and therefore I'm forced to step in and give them the proper tools." The old man groaned as he stood and adjusted his back.
"So you're stepping in?" The owl ruffled his feathers.
"More like, hobbling." The old man corrected as he grabbed his cane.
"Would you like a ride to the bottom of the mountain?" The owl offered.
"Aw, no thank you, Kaepora Gaebora. I'll take my time. This way I'll get there only a few moments before it's too late."
"Okay. I'm surprised." Amy said while staring at a cow. Neither Link nor Navi took the time to explain the presence of a cow in Link's tree house so Amy let it go, patting it kindly on the head.
She and Link had returned to his place after conferencing with a ten-foot tree. Amy was astounded by exactly how important trees were to these people. The trees on her island had been scrawny little things only good for bearing a few coconuts and some juicy mangos whereas here trees were dwellings and apparently leaders.
The conference with the deku tree had lasted for three hours and it was now nearing nightfall, but it was evident that Link did not intend to sleep that night. He was rummaging through his home supplies and restocking. It was during this rummaging that Link opened a wall cabinet to reveal a mass supply of empty glass bottles. Amy stopped petting the cow to comment.
"Woah, do you collect glass bottles or something?"
Link sighed. This time he would have to respond, despite his rush.
"They're really useful, and rare to come by." He replied quickly and took a couple off the shelf. "I can carry six, how many can you carry, you think?" He handed one of the bottles to Amy. It was twice the size of her hand.
"What? I don't even think I have room for one in my bag, let alone six." Her wide-eyed exclamation brought a smile to Link's face.
"I guess not everyone was raised with… the Kokiri secret." He shrugged. Amy became very intrigued.
"Kokiri secret?" Amy arched a brow.
"We should show her." Kyra perked up, flying in a pink swirl around Amy. Link grew a mischievous grin and Amy a dumbfounded expression.
While Amy learned a secret of the forest children, Devoren was busy rounding up the guardians of the forest temple and adding them to the ranks of his dark army. They were fierce warriors who chose no side but the forest. With large spears held tight in their powerful arms, these human-like monsters normally walked the passages of the earthy maze that separated the forest temple from the sacred meadow.
Not even they could resist the powerful influence of Pravumerus. Now the large, hulking beasts trudged past Devoren and his men, their forms slowly being consumed by the black veil that marked Devoren's magic. All around them, the vines and trees were withering, and the ever-floating particles of light were fading away.
The forest was dying, but a faint glimmer of life followed in the slow going wake of the old man. He came upon Devoren in the forest on his way to the troubled ranch, stopping his long trek to lean on his cane and gaze sternly upon the most feared being Hyrule had yet seen.
"I see a millennia in solitary confinement has done little to change your agenda, Pravumerus." He called with a great amount of dignified authority. Devoren knew without seeing who had called him. He laughed.
"To change it, no, but it has done much to improve it. Your petty little tricks will not fool me this time, Probonum." He turned to face the old man, Probonum. Link's perfectly mirrored face contorted into such a demonic smile that no confusion could be made between the hero and the villain. Pravumerus bore his true self before the ancient man. "And I see you have done little to change yourself. Still appearing in the shape of an old man, so pitiable and frail."
"Yet very approachable and most inconspicuous." Probonum smiled, amused by his own self. "I understand you still favor the youthful. Feel fortunate that the man to step in your mirror was young and handsome."
"True. There could have been worse forms to be trapped within, but better worse in appearance than be as meddling as this young man."
"Do I sense concern in your tone?"
"Concern? Hardly. Irritation is more like it. You shall see, just watch like you always do. You give your gifts but do nothing. These creatures are in need of a master, and no longer of a creator nor a giver."
"True, they no longer need a creator, nor a giver. Now they are the creators, the givers, and the masters."
"So where does that leave us, old man?" Devoren, the ancient being Pravumerus, scoffed.
"As friend…" The old man let a silence pass as he watched his words fall unheeded upon Devoren. "Or foe…" He ended his thought.
Devoren was neither impressed nor enlightened by his ideologies, but time left no room for remark as Probonum, the old man, needed to continue his journey to Lon Lon Ranch and Devoren had to deal with his newly arriving minions. The skull kid and Nit had just returned with Jabono in hand, and their noisy entrance distracted Devoren and gave Probonum time to silently vanish.
This only further angered Devoren, being the appropriately irate villain that he is. He directed his villainous glare towards his three irritating minions who cowered before him.
"Was it delivered? Is he dead?" He asked haphazardly while looking for his ancient rival.
"Dying, my liege." Jabono replied with his face to the ground and his shoulders hunched over, shuddering.
"And what of the girl? Your daughter? You were supposed to bring her to me!" Devoren shouted, his rage unaffected by the previous affirmation. The skull kid decided to speak up for his new friend.
"One of the others prevented her from coming. It was the once stone soldier you spoke of." At this Devoren roared and his black horse, Fear, whinnied. An awkward deku scrub scuttled across the background of this villainous scene. The treachery of their calls echoed throughout the woods.
"Did he recognize the blade?" Devoren asked in a shout.
"I don't know, my liege." Jabono answered as he cowered.
All were silent for a moment as Devoren absorbed the information and developed his plans accordingly. The deku scrub scuttled back to the other side from which he had originated. The anxiety within the silence instilled more fear within its listeners than did the great roar, however, its echo reached the ears of the Kokiri forces currently leading Link and Amy through the still secured portions of the forest.
"Devoren." Link said with a snarl. "That must be where Saria is. We have to hurry." He began to run. Amy glanced at the young Kokiri troops behind her, motioning for them to stay put before taking off after Link. Something about their size and innocent stares brought up her motherly urges, making her want to protect them as opposed to use them to fight evil.
The Kokiri remained at the beginning of the lost woods and Link led Amy through a series of twists and turns, stopping occasionally to peer around the corner at a redheaded guard. It was now near impossible to distinguish between Gerudo and Pirate, but either way, one shot from his arrow would render them momentarily unconscious. Amy was quite impressed by his shooting. She had tried to shoot an arrow once, a long time ago, and Daruitha had still yet to forgive her for the scar under her left eye that had resulted from that attempt.
"Do you know where we're going?" Amy whispered after the third time Link made an abrupt turn. He merely nodded his head. Amy growled under her breath. A nod was not enough to reassure her. Again to her surprise, Link noticed and whispered back, "The way the echo sounded—I've followed sounds like that before. They're in the sacred meadow."
Amy didn't ask any more questions until they came upon an opening just before an eerie labyrinth carved into the forest's hills. Link stopped her here. He looked up upon the hilltop with a thoughtful stare before pulling out his ocarina.
"Are you crazy?" Amy queried with a hushed voice. "If Devoren is anywhere near here, he'll hear you!"
Link played a group of peculiar notes despite Amy's warning. He then pulled out his hookshot and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Oh, um…" Amy looked at him awkwardly, a blush spreading across her cheeks. "This is uh—." A scarecrow burst forth from the ground on the hilltop and Link released his hookshot into its side, pulling himself and Amy to the safety of higher ground just as Devoren's creatures peered around the corner in reaction to all the noise.
They saw nothing as Link and Amy hunched down close to the earth. The scarecrow danced, which was very odd and a bit frightening. He was ignored by Devoren's henchmen, and even when Devoren himself appeared in the small meadow before the labyrinth, the dancing scarecrow was apparently still inconspicuous.
"I heard an ocarina!" Amy and Link heard Devoren yell. "Spread out and find him." Amy pulled Link back to hide on the other side of the hill. Her gut was telling her that it wouldn't be long before Devoren gazed up in response to the sound of swishing hay in the dancing scarecrow's arms. She was right. Devoren glared at it, but without much suspicion. There were stranger things that danced in this forest.
"Uh, thank you?" Amy whispered to the scarecrow. She figured she ought to be polite, even if the thing really freaked her out.
"Oh, oh yeah. You play that tune, kid, I love it!" The scarecrow whispered back. Amy flinched a little before turning to Link.
"Let's go. I'll bet Saria is that way." She said. Link nodded, glad to have her on the same page for once.
The two climbed nimbly across the labyrinth, only jumping when it was certain no one would see them. Even though Link had reassured Amy that the large creatures lurking below them rarely ever looked up, they took great caution and made it safely to the other side of the labyrinth. Devoren's rough bark could be heard from their perch.
"I told you to bring me the girl."
"I could not, my liege. I told you, the guard protected her—."
"Enough excuses! With the boy disabled and her trust questionable, it is enough for me to work with, but I am certainly done working with pathetic creatures like you."
Link and Amy glanced at one another, both with wide-eyed worry that foretold a courageous drive to action.
"My lord, no! Please!" Upon the mystery man's first plea, Amy and Link simultaneous jumped from their perch, swords drawn and began running recklessly down a narrow pass towards the sacred forest meadow. Link rolled clear of a large blow from a giant ogre's club before righting himself and plying several mighty thrusts into the creature's side. It fell and Amy jumped over its fallen form to follow Link up a staircase to where the air was becoming charged with a dark energy.
The two of them saw an old man huddled in a corner as Devoren stood before him with his hands raised, summoning the dark powers that now stifled the life of the forest. Link ran at him with his blade raised, but Devoren was smart. He turned his mighty powers on Link just as he came close. Link held the now blackened Master Sword on guard. The legendary blade took the blow, but Link could feel the strain upon it. He feared it might break, but he held firm nonetheless as Amy circled their confrontation to help the old man. She pulled him to his feet and out of harms way, or at least where she felt less exposed. Devoren's attack of darkness ended, and the Master Sword prevailed. He snarled at Link.
"Kill them all!" Devoren yelled to his minions. Mythic beasts, Hylians, and Terminians alike began swarming in. The black horse, Fear, spotted Amy and charged, ready for another round. The look in his eyes revealed his identity. Amy shuddered as he neared, but held up her blade. She stood between the black creature and the cowardly old man. She took a swing as it approached, but its blow knocked her back as well. She began to slowly pull herself back up with a groan as Fear rounded for another, probably more devastating charge. Amy would have been done for, but another creature jumped in to help her.
Amy opened her eyes to see the skull kid wielding a peashooter of sorts that snapped with a great light as it accurately hit the steed, Fear.
"Thank you!" Amy ran to his side before fighting off a Gerudo. She saw Link battling across the way, and knew that this was a lost cause. They needed to flee.
"Link!" Amy called in between fighting off opponents. Her eyes shined a yellow light and dragon wings burst from her back. Tendrils of smoke curled from her snarling lips. "Link! We have to go!" She yelled again, though this time her voice echoed in an effeminate roar, demanding but beautiful. This captured Link's attention, but as his gaze shifted towards her, he saw another horrifyingly beautiful sight. There was a lifeless but conscious statue of his dear friend, Saria, standing on a cleft above where Amy stood. His heart sank, and his gaze couldn't break from this terrible sight, not even with Amy's continuous calls.
"Link! Look out!" She tried again, but she could see that he was too preoccupied. Another rage burned within her as she saw Devoren advancing upon a rather unwary Link.
"LINK!" She shouted and screeched, the rage boiling up within her and consuming her body with fire. The fires ran from where she stood and encircled Link, blocking Devoren from continuing his advance and snapping Link from his trance. He looked back to Amy.
"We have to go. Now!" She demanded with a confidence that Link had yet to see in her. Link ran towards her as Devoren sliced through the fires with his blade. With a stone cold façade, Devoren marched towards them. Amy gathered the old man and skull kid to meet Link halfway. They stood upon a grey pedestal bearing the symbol of the forest. The fires kept all enemies temporarily at bay.
"I don't think I can carry everyone!" Amy's normal, stressed in times of crisis demeanor returned, but Link now had an idea.
"Don't worry! Hold on to me!" He told her and the others. No questions where asked, not even when he pulled out his ocarina with Amy's arm on one shoulder, the old man quivering on one of Link's legs and the skull kid holding the other.
Tunes of light and a lofty joy silenced the chaos that surrounded them. Devoren's dark and sinister visage disappeared into beams of light before they all felt themselves being sucked into something that may have been far too small for them all, but just before the discomfort became unbearable, the group of four found themselves gasping on the floor of the Temple of Time. They stood upon another grey pedestal, this one bearing the symbol of light.
"Don't worry, you're safe now." Amy said to both herself and the old man after regaining some of her bearings. The old man was crying.
"But your friends, they are not. I am so sorry. I knew not what I was doing." He sobbed. Amy let him cry at her feet, feeling as though she should kneel but finding that he was in the way of such an action. She rather gracelessly regained her balance while Link asked the obvious question.
"What do you mean?" The doors of the temple burst open. The Princess Zelda ran towards them as though she had expected them all to be there. The greatest concern wrinkled her brow.
"Link! Arian is dying!"
A/n: It's winter break after this week and I will begin implementing making appointments with myself to write. Please hang in there and in the mean time, listen to some of the artists I worked with either in the studios or other side projects. I'm (Amy C) a Recording Industry Major and this semester I clocked around 150 hours in the studio, 75 hours working in the audio maintenance shop and took 17 hours of classes.
This one my friend recorded but I like it: .com/track/no-bones
I re-recorded and helped fully produce "Orpheus" and "Little Things" by this artist: /stacimariecarriere
I produced (in 4 hours) track 14 by the band Seeing Skies: "Christmas Medley (Silent Night, Noel, Away in a Manger)" on this album: .com/cd/ultimateduo
I'm co-writing a fairytale script with this artist who is writing music for it: /johnnadaymusic/music
I really just like her music.
I plugged "I Dream of Going Home," her un-mastered x-mas songs into a short film. I'm going to re-record it in a studio next semester: /desireelblevins
This may seem like a shameless plug, but I'm just really proud to have worked with or even to know personally these artists. I hope you enjoy them too if you get the chance. None of them are signed, but I really like them and think they should be.
Happy holidays everyone. Again, sorry for the delay