The Legend of Link:

The Bastard Prince

9. Gerudo Frontier

"Zo! Wake up! Zeldy wants you to get your arse in gear!" Alarink knocked and called through Zoelda's door just before dawn the next morning. Grumbling as she pulled herself into a sitting position, Zoelda glared in the direction of the door; it was far too early in the morning for this kind of shit.

"Oh, sorry to wake you sir. … Yes, I know it's early, but my friend needs to get up so we can leave and I'm not going to stop knocking on her door until she does!" Alarink seemed to be talking to someone else outside the door now, keeping his voice loud enough that Zoelda could hear his complaints. "I know, it is very odd that she would chose to sleep in a separate room to me, it's rather rare for me to be turned down. Who can say how the female mind works, though?"

"Alright, I'm getting up," Zoelda called angrily through the door a she got out of bed and began changing into her weird armour.

"Ah! You are alive in there after all, Zo! I was beginning to worry that I'd have to travel with the Princess and Link on my own. A terrifying thought, I know."

"Alarink, could you just shut up for a minute?" Asked she a little snappily as she finished changing and organising herself. While the last two nights she'd spent in Hyrule had been nightmare filled and seemed to drain her energy rather than give her more; last night she'd finally had a good night sleep without the lingering presence of Demise and she rather wanted to go back to it.

"It's unlike you to tell me to shut up, Zoelda," Alarink gasped behind the door, actually sounding a little concerned. "Rough night sleep?"

"No, the opposite. I didn't want to be woken up."

"Huh. Well, if you act like this when you get a good night sleep, I'd much rather you didn't have another one."

"What a horrible thing to say," she called angrily at him as she slipped the band into her hair and opened the door. As she had somewhat suspected him to be, Alarink was leaning with his shoulder to the wall beside her door, his arms crossed over his chest causing his small tunic to ride up with no weapons belts to hold it down - they'd left their weapons and belts with the horses the night before. If it wasn't for the fact that Alarink was a brunet and smiling that damned grin of his, Zoelda could have easily mistaken him for Danny.

She shuddered as Alarink looked her up and down, as she thought of Danny back home, probably leaning like that outside her dorm room waiting for her to come out for lunch and accidentally run into him. Danny and Alarink were as unalike as, well, the UK and Hyrule, and yet she couldn't help but think of her clingy wannabe boyfriend back home as the kingdom's flirt looked her up and down in Hyrule. "You know, that dress really doesn't fit you."

"It's the exact same dress I wore yesterday, Alarink," Zoelda muttered in a slightly disgusted tone as she and Alarink set off down the hall to the stairs.

"Have I offended you this morning?" Asked he as the sound of heels clicking on the floor became irritating. "If it's just about getting up early, that's entirely Zelda's fault, otherwise I'd apologise."

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. It was something only Alarink would say and brought her back to her new reality with these odd people in what had once been a fictitious world. Suddenly, Danny was the furthest thing from her mind again as they started down the stairs.

"No, you haven't offended me," Zoelda said quietly as they approached the table where Link and the Princess sat. "You just briefly reminded me of a guy I know back home, one I want to forget."

"Boyfriend?" Alarink asked curiously as he held the chair opposite the Princess out for her.

"He wishes." Chuckled she as she took her seat and watched Alarink take his next to her with a raised eyebrow and surprised, yet pleased, expression.

"So glad the two of you could finally join us," Princess Zelda's tone oozed with as much sarcasm as the toast did butter as they began to eat.

"Oh, fuck off, Princess." Alarink mumbled. "A few lost minutes aren't going to matter much in the long run."

"Is that what you say when you spend the night with someone?" The blonde retorted, seemingly intending to start arguing already. "Where did you go off to last night anyway? I saw you sneaking back into your room early this morning."

"That's none of your business." He answered, causing Zoelda to remember seeing him cloaked, walking off to the Spring of Eldin at midnight. Prudently, she decided not to ask what that had been about at the breakfast table, there would be plenty of time to ask him alone later if she really wanted to.

"Hmph," the Princess pushed her finished plate away and rose, clearly showing she was done with breakfast, so the others should be too. Link quickly rose to his feet too, following after the Princess as she went to speak to Deru behind the counter about when they could leave. Both Alarink and Zoelda watched the blondes move without much interest as they continued to eat.

"Hurry up!" The Princess stomped at the doorway. "We don't have forever!"

"Of course we don't," Alarink said quite calmly as he rose, grabbing the two last pieces of toast as he did, forcing Zoelda to stand too as she stared angrily at his back, cursing herself for not being fast enough to grab one of the slices.

"Shall ve?" He asked as he held a slice in his teeth, freeing a hand up to hold the Inn door open for the group to file through. Pouting a little, Zoelda was given the last slice of toast as she walked through the door. Looking back at Alarink, she saw him wink at her as he closed the door behind him, the other piece of toast still between his teeth.

The toast exchange played on her mind as they left the Village. It was such a simple thing, and yet Zoelda couldn't help but feel profoundly uncomfortable by it. Quite suddenly, as she mounted Rogue again and they set out in the direction of Kakariko Gorge, she realised that the whole toast exchange had been an odd way for Alarink to flirt with her. Staring at his back as she rode behind him in single file, she couldn't help but wonder why he had started flirting with her again. In fact, if she hadn't had heard the hate in the Princess' voice yesterday as she spoke about Alarink, Zoelda might have suspected that the two of them were more interested in each other than he was with her.

The whole exchange was put far from her mind as they crossed the gorge. Unlike the day before, which had passed mostly without incident, today there were many monsters out and about. Alarink and Zoelda took most of them, him using his short sword and her with her bow, with Link taking any that got too close to the Princess. By the time they started crossing the path into South Hyrule field, Zoelda was sweating.

"There are so many more of them than before." She muttered as she readied her bow again.

"It's because you aren't swearing at them as you kill them," Alarink replied with a smile, wiping a smudge of monster blood of his cheek as he did. "Tell them what shitty motherfuckers they are."

"You seem to be doing enough of that for all of us."

"Just making up for Link not being able to." He replied modestly as she shot down a kargarok swooping in for them from the field, he began shouting profanities at it as he ran down the carcass.

They ran straight from Kakariko to Lake Hylia - an act that took until early afternoon at an all-out gallop - where they took a small lunch next to the Great Bridge. After eating, Alarink showed them the path that lead down to the lakeside near the desert wall, telling them they would need to lead their horses down it.

As they lead their horses down a newly constructed wooden path - that, as far as Zoelda could tell, passed through the old hanging cottage that used to be there twenty years before - to the Desert Plateau wall at the south, Alarink started humming the Song of the Hero. As soon as the Princess scoffed at him, Zoelda defiantly joined in, earning a surprised grin from Alarink as she did. As the humming reached a crescendo, a third humming joined in and everyone was surprised to see Link shrug as they finished their little impromptu song.

"Really, Link?" The Princess asked as they reached the bottom of the path and the lakeside. "Really?"

Link smiled at her with a tilt of the head, a little action that made Zoelda like him a whole lot more.

The sun was beginning to make its way to the western horizon once again as they approached the Desert Province wall. Zoelda seemed to recall being told that there used to be a path up to the Desert many years before that had been made inaccessible after the prison at Arbiter's Grounds had been established, and closed off completely after Ganondorf had been incarcerated. Looking around for any sign of the path to no avail, she sighed and turned her attention back to the wall and the system of pulleys and strings attached to a rickety looking container that was likely the lift to the desert. Looking at the height of the wall, Zoelda thought she'd rather try her luck at scaling it by hand than go up via the odd lift.

Much to her dismay, Alarink lead them over to the unsafe looking contraption and the man knelt before it, performing some kind of maintenance. "Shad! Sorry we're a little late, checkout was later than we thought it would be."

"Oh, don't worry about that, my boy." Shad said, turning around to look at the group, squinting a little as he did. "I've spent most of the day working on the old machine, but I don't think it's going to be sturdy enough to take all of you over at once."

"No preamble today?" Alarink asked, a little surprised. "That's unlike you, my friend, is everything alright?"

"Oh, yes, everything's fine." The ginger man stood up a little shakily, very obviously trying not to meet Zoelda's eye as he looked them all over again. "Why don't you all follow me? I've got a little stable set up for your horses, I'd imagine you're going to be gone for a while, so I'll stay here to take care of them."

"Thank you." Said the Princess as they walked their horses over to a little stable shack set up a little ways from the wall. As Alarink took Rogue from her, Zoleda spent some time looking around the lake, noticing that, while the general landscape of the lake remained unchanged, the man-made structures had changed. There was no longer a house or any structure at all in the centre of the lake and, while the canon to the city in the sky was still there on the centre island, it was pitted in rust and covered in moss. They appeared to be on the westmost island in the south, only a short, vertical walk away from the desert, and Zoelda suspected she'd be able to see all the way to Arbiter's Grounds if she stood on top of the tower in the centre of the island.

"Zelda?" Someone whispered next to her, causing her to jump slightly as she turned, expecting to see Alarink grinning at making her jump. Instead, she was surprised to see Shad looking up at her. "May I borrow you a moment?"

"Um, okay?" Zoelda said, following Shad back over to his lift contraption.

"How are you feeling about your part in this?" He asked her, making himself look busy with the machine as he did.

"I, um, I don't know?" She stuttered, looking back over her shoulder at the others, who were still busy with the horses. For some reason, she felt as though the ginger man was trying to lead her towards something, though she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it could be. So, she decided to ask outright. "Um, Shad, I don't know why you've asked to speak to me alone, but something is clearly bothering you, can I help you with it?"

Looking back at her, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses, he smiled slightly. "You really are a great deal like your mother."

"You knew her?" Zoelda asked instead of noticing how he had dodged her question.

"Not well, but well enough to see the resemblance between the two of you goes a lot deeper than just appearances." He squinted a little as he looked at her properly for the first time. "The two of you are truly two of the most interesting Hylians I've ever met. To an unknowing eye, you look a lot like a human, but looking closer… You can see a resemblance of Hylia. There's even still similarities between you and the Princesses, how intriguing!"

"Shad," said Zoelda as she noticed the others beginning to come back over. "I hate to rush you, but…"

"Oh, yes, my point is," he said, his eyes going wide as though he was just remembering that his conversation had a purpose. "You are very similar to your mother. But, despite the fact that she came from Hyrule, and loved being here when she was, she was afraid of our Kingdom. The presence of Demise and his curse lingers heavy here, and it was too much for your mother to bear at times. But you, Zelda…" Quite suddenly, he took her by the shoulders. "You are our chance to break free from Ganondorf. Demise and his curse may never be escapable, but we can escape his human form. So, I'm asking you, Zelda: Are you afraid of Hyrule?"

The question struck her harder than she thought it would. In a very real - though virtual - way, she had grown up half in Hyrule and its legends, and she was undeniably drawn to it and everything it had to offer, the good and the bad. But, she was afraid of the prospect of facing Ganondorf, of what her future in Hyrule would bring and of the possibility of failing and dooming the Kingdom to more of the same curse.

However…

"No. If you're asking if I'm afraid of what will happen to me in Hyrule, I can't say for definite that I'm not afraid - but then, who could?" Shad's face fell a little as he heard her say that, and his grip on her shoulders loosened a little. "However, I'm invested to see it through now. And I could never be afraid of Hyrule itself, I'm too inspired by it, drawn to it to be that."

Faster than she could stop him, Shad pulled her in for a fierce hug. "May the Goddesses be with you, our lost princess." Whispered he as she laughed a little - a nervous, stunned but ultimately happy laugh. Despite her laughter and her relief to finally tell someone what she thought of Hyrule, there was a part of her - or rather of her mind - that seemed distressed by her lack of fear. She had barely registered the feeling before it was gone, making her wonder if it was just some passing nerves at being hugged.

"We wondered why the two of you had gone off alone," Alarink said, coming back over from the horses carrying two canvas bags and her Docs. "Shall we come back later?"

"No, no," Shad separated himself from Zoelda and pushed his glasses up, conspicuously wiping his eyes as he did. "I think it's time for me to send you on your way now."

"Yeah," the brunet squinted as he looked over the ridge into the desert and the low sun. "We'll want to leave before it gets any darker. Oh, but before we do, these are yours."

Alarink handed Zoelda one of the canvas bags and her Docs, leading her to look up at him a little confusedly as she took them. "We all need to carry provisions, we won't get far otherwise. And you won't get anywhere in those shoes."

Looking at her silly little heels, Zoelda had to agree that she probably wouldn't get very far in the desert with them, and was just about to ask why she wouldn't wear Ilia's old boots instead of her conspicuous Docs when she noticed the Princess wearing them. Sighing at herself, she changed her boots, wondering where she should now put her heels.

"I'll take them for you," the Princess said rather courteously. "I can put them away while you and Alarink go into the desert."

"Wait, we're going first?" Zoelda turned to look at the contraption again, suppressing a shudder as she did.

"Well, you could go with 'Link', if you like," Alarink smiled, walking over to the lift and jumping in. "But, I didn't think you'd want to. Plus, I'm going first since I'm the only one who's been to the desert before, hence the only one who knows what they're doing."

There was a part of her that feared going into the desert simply because the method of transportation looked as though it wouldn't last the journey, but there was another part of her that didn't want to go into Gerudo because that's where Ganondorf was and that's where everything evil was in her mind. For the life of her, she just couldn't seem to escape the feeling that something big was going to happen in Gerudo, some kind of revelation that she wasn't sure she was prepared for.

Regardless of how she felt about going into Gerudo, she knew it was necessary. So, her feet dragging a little as she walked, Zoelda approached the two-foot square cuboid that acted as the lift of the contraption. She hesitated a little before taking Alarink's hand - causing their Triforces to flash again as their hands touched - and stepping up into it, standing a little too close for her liking opposite him.

"Hello." Alarink lent around her to close the door on the lift, a waist high bar being the only thing on all sides that would stop them falling out.

"Don't worry," Shad said to her, seeming to note her slightly nauseous expression as he walked over to the lever that worked the lifts pulleys. "This is perfectly safe. Alarink can tell you that much himself."

"I'm not entirely sure I trust Alarink's judgement." Muttered Zoelda to herself as she hugged her arms around her.

"Rude." The brunet said as he lent back against the bars, causing the lift to shift a little under his weight.

"It's perfectly safe." Shad repeated, looking a little nervously at the way it had shifted. "I'll see you again in a few days, be safe in the desert, won't you? Oh, and let me know what happens." Quickly, he leant over to fully secure the door and covertly whispered to Zoelda: "Keep an eye on him for me, would you?"

And then they were off. With one pull of the lever, the lift contraption went upwards over the rise on a track and wheels before plummeting back down again on the Desert side, travelling at a speed no lift should ever travel at. As it started down the other side, Zoelda was knocked from her spot with the velocity of it, falling straight into Alarink's chest as she tried to find some kind of grip or support.

"Probably should've told you to hold onto something," he remarked as he helped her back to her feet, her hair falling over down turned face. "You okay?"

Holding onto the bar behind her for support, she kept her face down as she tried to steady her breathing. It was like being on the world's worst roller coaster, and Zoelda had never much cared for roller coasters in the first place. But there was more to it than that, as soon as they had crossed onto the sand, a kind of crushing presence had settled itself at the front of Zoelda's brain, like an intense migraine. The combination of motion sickness and migraine pressure had set her completely off balance to the point where she couldn't think.

"Zo?" The lift was starting to slow to a stop as she felt Alarink's hand on her shoulder, attempting to get some sort of response out of her. "Zelda? Can you hear me?"

The lift quite suddenly spun 180º as it reached a stop, turning the door to face the sand as Alarink moved his other hand to unlatch it. The spin had done nothing good to Zoelda's migraine and seemed to help make her feel ten times worse, her vision turning an odd purple as Alarink helped her out of the lift, still trying to meet her eye.

"Zo, it's okay now, you're off now," he was speaking slowly and comfortingly, but it was setting her even more on edge as her legs tried to accustom themselves to the flat, though shifting sand, land once again. She seemed to hear him through a glass, the sounds coming out much more garbled than they should have been. "Zoelda, look at me."

Forced up by his hand on her chin, she looked at him with dazed eyes, barely processing the look of intense worry on his face as she noticed a purple sandstorm brewing behind him. Her brain seemed to thump as she looked up, so she closed her eyes, attempting to turn her face back down again only to have Alarink's hand stopping her.

"Zelda, it's okay. The first ride is always the hardest, it'll be easier next time." His grip on her chin would not loosen as she struggled against it. "Zo, look at me. Talk to me."

Looking up at him again, her vision blurry and purple, she saw a creature jump out of the sand, it's cross-like jaws open to maul. "Link, fuck!" She managed to stammer, pointing at the Moldorm behind his shoulder.

"What?" He turned quickly, his hand already going to his hidden short sword. "Oh, shit-!"

With his right hand, he grabbed the Moldorm in mid-air, flinging his sword out of its sheath with his left and slicing it right down the middle, still squirming in his hand. Dropping it to the floor, it's body half cut through like some kind of dismembered fish, he turned back to Zoelda to find her lying on her side in the sand, her eyes not entirely focused on the dead Moldorm.

"Take that, you fucker…" she mumbled, laughing as she watched the sand clouds come closer, bringing with them a fine, hazy purple sand that began to coat her immediately.

Alarink knelt beside her as the lift came back, bringing with it Link and the Princess - both of whom looked slightly nauseous, but certainly nowhere near as bad as Zoelda, who was now tracing patterns in the purple air before her. Her eyes were entirely unfocused and her head was pounding, causing the purple haze to practically oppress her as it pressed on her head.

"Well, that wasn't fun," she heard the Princess say from much further away than she was. "And it's sand storming, what a great fun this'll be!"

"Princess, don't complain, not now." Alarink snapped, his words distorted and his face obscured by the sand and purple haze. Weirdly, to Zoelda, the combination seemed to make his skin look blue as she reached for it, only to stop halfway to look at her hand, and how much longer it was than she remembered it being. Alarink watched her actions with a worried expression, trying to gauge what was wrong with her at a glance. "Get me water and a cloak, now."

"You don't command me," said the Princess rather snappily, though it sounded like a garbled duck talking to Zoelda. Slowly blinking as she looked back up, she saw the Princess in her field of vision as well, her face contorted and angry under the purple sand haze when it was actually profoundly worried. "Link, get water and a cloak, and please be quick."

A few moments later, Zoelda felt a heavy weight on her shoulders as Link put a cloak around her. She jumped in surprise and shook it off - an impressive feat considering she was already half buried in sand - she didn't need a cloak, she felt as though she was burning up, not as though she was lying in a desert sandstorm at night.

"Not that cloak, you idiot." Alarink screamed, his voice very shrill and piercing when really it was quiet and chiding. Pushing herself up - noticing her arms were half buried in sand as she did - Zoelda tried to push herself away from them, suddenly very afraid of them and what they could do to her.

Quite suddenly, as she saw Alarink reach towards her, she realised that this was no bout of sickness, this was an external force messing with her brain. As soon as she figured that out, she realised that she was being played by Ganondorf, the purple haze could be no other than his doing as he attempted to gain control over the one who posed the most threat to him.

The idea of posing a threat to him seemed to excite Zoelda's brain back into action, and make Ganondorf's control on her weaken. She pushed Alarink's hand away as she stood, not watching as he also stood and the three others watched her through the growing sandstorm and dimming light.

"Zoelda?" Alarink called to her through the storm, shielding his eyes with one hand as he reached out the other for her. In the part of her mind being controlled by Ganondorf, she seemed to sense an intense joy at seeing Alarink. No, an intense joy at the opportunity to kill Alarink.

Already feeling her arms move to her swords, Zoelda tried to think of a rational way to stop herself from doing this. Finding none, she raised her swords, watching the faces of the three in front of her, and the way that Alarink put out a hand to stop Link from reaching for his own weapons. The controlled part of her laughed at him doing that, while the more free part of her willed herself to run.

Still achieving nothing, and beginning to swing her arms down on Alarink, Zoelda screamed in frustration. Ganondorf shrank back from the scream, freeing up the control of her legs and freezing her arms in place as the others stared at her in shock. Forming a plan, she screamed again and forced herself into a run with her swords raised above her.

It was a rather good plan to get rid of Ganondorf, she thought, until she felt him laugh within her as he realised that she was running head first into a desert sandstorm at night. Suddenly, he let go of his hold on her and seemed to watch as she ran aimlessly into a landscape she couldn't see and didn't know, her companions calling after her…

AN:

So, there's been a spike of people reading this again. There's now double the number of people reading per chapter, which is pretty cool! Thank you!

The third half of this chapter was the start of a section I had in mind before I started writing the story, so it's probably more thought through than some other parts of the story and I was very happy with how it turned out. The rest of it will be in next week's chapter.

Anyway, have a nice week, keep reading and enjoying, and I hope to see you again next week for another Alarink POV chapter.

~WWQ