The Legend of Link:
The Bastard Prince
18. Ganondorf
Somehow, in some way, Ganon was still holding control of her.
They were both bruised now, Link more so due to him wanting not to injure his Princess, though he had gotten a few decent hits on her as they continued to spar. As he remembered her no mercy policy on him when they were children and decided to try it against her now.
But somehow, Goddesses be damned, she was still under evil's control.
And she was still silent whenever he hit her, not grunts or moans in pain when he created a bruise.
They were both getting exhausted now though, sweat matting their blonde hair and their swings and parries becoming ever more feeble as their arms began to tire.
As Link deflected another strike by clashing his sword with hers and pushing it down, he thought back to the night they'd first arrived in the desert. The night that Zoelda had been under Ganon's control and tried to kill Alarink. He thought about how she had broken free – screaming and running in the opposite direction.
And then he realised. He understood why she wasn't making any noise of pain or war as they continued to fight:
If she screamed, if she made any noise in pain, it would reawaken her mind and Ganon would lose control.
With that in mind, Link shook his head and turned away in anger at what he would have to do. Though, try as he might, he couldn't see any other way.
So he jumped out of the way of a strike and landed on the back of one of the benches, running to its end as the Princess stood and stared, clearly confused but her lips in a snarl and her sword still raised.
Silently, he apologised to her before running down the length of the bench and launching himself at her, screaming manically with the intent to draw blood. All the girl could do was widen her eyes and stare in fear as she hastily parried many attacks, leaving obvious gaps in her defence which he exploited with little nicks and cuts wherever he could. Still, there were no screams.
Then she left the ungauntleted inside of her arm exposed for the briefest of moments.
It was long enough.
Link saw it, silently punished himself for what he was about to do despite it being for the greater good and struck with whip like speed.
He opened a shallow cut that ran her entire right lower arm, missing any major veins, causing blood to start to spill over after only a few moments.
In stinging pain and shock, Zelda dropped her weapon and let out a scream, her fingers moving to unbuckle her gauntlet. She stopped when she screamed, her eyes flashing a momentary surprised blue before going back to angry red. Once red again, the Princess reached down for her sword, but Link was there, kicking it far out of her reach halfway across the room.
In the silence that followed as the two blondes stared each other down, Link mentally begged her, prayed that she'd come back instead of attacking again.
"Zelda. Come with me." He said again, hoping she would, just once more.
Instead, she headbutted him, causing him to stagger backwards with an oath as she ran over to where her sword was.
She wasn't fast enough.
Soon Link was there, whipping his sword with precision and speed against the back of her shoulders to momentarily paralyse her arms. There was a scream of shock as she looked over her shoulder at him, her eyes flashing blue for a moment, a blue that showed fear and pleading.
Looking down at the cut on her arm, Link knew just what he had to do – he didn't like it, but he knew he had to do it all the same.
Sheathing his sword, Link gently cradled her bleeding arm, looking up at her lovingly as he did – causing intense confusion to Ganondorf as he watched back in the real world next to the incessantly chatting Alarink.
Then he dug his right hand into the cut, digging his nails in in a clawlike fashion while gripping her arm like a vice.
Zelda screamed like an animal, howling and struggling against his hold, watching as her skin turned pinker, her veins lowered and her eyes flashed from red to blue and back again.
Suddenly, he ripped her gauntlet off, catching the cut with the buckle as he did, causing even more pain as she continued to scream. His fingers were bloody, his grip on her arm tight enough to slow the blood flow and he was sweating profusely; but he didn't let go.
"Zelda. Come back to me." Pleaded he, using his free and bloody hand to turn her face to him, covering her chin with her blood. Her eyes were watering, flashing red and blue in quick succession as she tried to break free of Ganondorf. "Come to me."
She whimpered in response, tears beginning to fill her ever changing eyes.
"We-we can run away," Link said quickly, watching her eyes change intensely and never letting go of her arm. "Far, far away. We, we can ask Impax to show us the way to another time, another place, a Hyrule that doesn't need us and that isn't in danger. We could live there as commoners, tending a farm and earning our keep. No one would have to know I'm an orphan or you're a Princess, we can simply live our lives in peace."
One of her eyes was fully blue again now, the other still flashing and she was still snarling in anger despite the tears falling down her face and the snot coming from her nose as she cried in pain and anger. Link let go of her face and dipped his hand down the front of her bodice, causing her to flush and turn away from him in embarrassment, struggling against his grip on her bleeding arm.
"Zelda, look at me, look at me." Link demanded, forcing her to turn back, her face still red as she saw him kneeling on the floor, a hand still gripping her arm and the other presenting her with the ring he'd fished out from her bodice. He smiled at her, watching as the red drained out of her other eye with the tears. "I fuckin' love you, my Princess."
Then she collapsed, right into his arms as the strings of the puppeteer were cut; a crying, bleeding, hot blonde mess.
"Zelda?" Link asked gently, pushing her back from him slightly only to feel her hold on even tighter. "Zelda? You okay?"
"… S… Stop asking for me to run away with you…" She muttered between tears, not letting go of him as the world began to glow in a bright light.
"I'm not making any promises, Love."
New found agility, strength and adrenaline could only get a person so far.
That's what Zoelda realised as she found herself standing with one foot on either tusk of the giant boar, her swords sticking into both of its eyes.
She was pretty sure the creature was blind now as a white and red fluid began to flow out of its eye sockets. That hardly changed the fact that she couldn't figure out how to remove her swords and dismount effectively without landing in its fanged and agape mouth.
So, thinking of what Alarink would do in this situation – some fancy dismounting backflip with a grin and series of swears most likely – she decided to pull one sword free and balance on one tusk instead of spreading herself between both.
As soon as she pulled the right sword free, the fluid began to run onto her hand, down the creature's face to drip steadily on the floor. Quite rightly, Zoelda gagged and brought the back of her free hand to her mouth, forgetting that it was holding a sword that was also covered and dripping the fluid.
Immediately taking her hand away again, she wriggled the other sword free and ran along the creature's curved tusk before jumping off it and hiding behind a column, wiping her swords on her leggings as she ran gagging.
Knowing the boar was now blind, the only way it could find her was by listening to her or by sniffing her out. She immediately stopped panting when she realised that, simply listening to the boar cry out in pain instead.
Out of her element, shattered and half covered in the fluid from the boar's eyes, Zoelda lent against the column gently, trying not to make any noise.
This was insanity, malarkey at its best. No one, not a single person back home, would ever believe this happened. And there were no references back home that she could draw on for how to effectively kill a boar, at least not one of this size. She doubted simply planting her feet and waiting for it to run into her outstretched swords would work here.
Sighing, she noticed just how quiet the room now was; the boar had stopped squealing, instead listening for her.
Turning to look behind the column, she realised how much of a mistake she had made in sighing, her eyes growing wide as she saw the creature readying itself to run at the column and her behind it.
"Shiiittt!" Zoelda shouted as she jumped out of its way and the column came crashing down, rubble just narrowly missing her feet as she dove away.
(Back in the real world, Alarink had stopped his sexual banter as he saw a column randomly crash into nothing, Ganondorf as shocked as he was as they both exclaimed: "What the fuck!")
Desperately trying not to make much noise as she panted and tried to make her breathing steady, Zoelda shakily rose to her feet. Adrenaline and instinct were taking over as she realised that there would be no flight from this instance, only fight.
So, still shaking, she planted her feet wide, her back to a solid wall and one sword gripped in both hands, the other sheathed away. Wiping the sweat out of her bangs, she readied herself to do what was beyond the most stupid thing she had ever done, and the only thing she could think would work in this situation:
She whistled to the beast, stamped her feet on the ground and just generally made a lot of noise. It was facing, unseeing, her direction but a few seconds later, sniffing the air as it decided if she was lying or not.
With a terrifying beastly grin, the boar pawed the ground once, showing just how little space there was between its stomach and the ground, perhaps only a foot or two in height.
Zoelda readied herself as it charged, sliding down onto her knees at the last possible instance as it's tusks hit the wall. With enough speed, and thanks to the fluid coating the floor and her leggings, she was able to launch herself the entire way under its stomach and out the other side, slicing a neat seam through the stomach as she slid.
Her back ached, her knees were skinned and bleeding and her neck clicked as she sat up, but she'd somehow managed to pull it off.
A seamless slide under the boar to slice its body open.
She was exhausted, covered in sweat and boar eye fluid, it's blood splattered in her hair, but of course she was laughing. A deep throaty chuckle as she stood shakily, putting her other sword away despite it not being clean.
"Take that you fucking beast!" She turned to it, pointing dramatically and grinning, unaware of the light dimming and the room getting ever smaller around her. "Thought you could beat me, did you, bitch! Well, you can't because you're-"
"-dead!" Said she dramatically, still pointing forward. Only now she wasn't pointing at the boar:
She was pointing at Alarink, who was looking at her with a mix of surprise, shock; sadness and joy.
"Not yet, dear," he said sarcastically looking down at his wrist as though to check an imaginary watch. "Soon though."
"Alarink!" Zoelda breathed a sigh of relief as she saw him, sat alive and nonchalantly on the back of a bench. She didn't even see Ganondorf stood only a few feet from her, just out of eye-line, grinning evilly. "Thank Gods you're still alive! I thought-"
As she tried to walk towards him she hit a barrier, an invisible box that was holding her in place on all sides – nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.
"Alarink," Zoelda said, her voice teetering on the verge of panic, her heart racing as she saw Ganondorf out the corner of her eye for the first time. A towering presence of pure malice that was staring down at her like she was a trophy for him to steal. "What's going on, what is this?"
Glancing to her left, she saw the Princess and Link snap back to reality, crouching on the floor, covered in blood and holding one another – nonetheless also confined by the same sort of forcefield as she was. There was a large cut down the Princess' right arm and Link's fingers were coated in blood.
"What did you do to the two of them?" She breathed in the direction of Ganondorf, her eyes wide and terrified, never focusing on one thing for more than a few moments. Looking in the direction of the lounging Alarink was strictly out of discussion since he looked so incredibly depressed, a small smile on his lips as he watched, knowing his breaths were now limited.
"I did nothing, Lost Princess," Ganondorf said, walking up to her cage and causing her to flinch back in fear. Laughing he put a hand on the front of the box, showing that he couldn't reach her any more than she could reach him. "They did it to themselves."
"Why?" Zoelda put a shaking hand to her mouth, her other resting on one of the swords.
"I put my spirit in the Princess to test our non-Triforced man's courage."
"And with me… You created that boar, that beast to test my courage?"
"Oh, is that was it was?" Alarink asked, looking Zoelda up and down, noting the white fluid and missing clothes. "I kinda thought you were just off having your first time without me."
"Okay, seriously," Zoelda glared at him, her voice shaking with her hands as she desperately tried to steady them. "Don't go making jokes right now. Please, I can't bear to see you acting so flippant with your life on the line."
"My life isn't on a line, I know exactly where it is and when it'll leave."
"Would you please-" Zoelda struck then, pushing her sword against the barrier in the general direction of the gem covering the hole in Ganondorf's chest.
She didn't know why she thought it would work. Of course the sword wouldn't be able to break this barrier. All it did instead was clatter against the barrier and make her wrist hurt as she tried to force it past.
Finally, it fell to the floor, having done no more damage to Ganondorf than it had to the invisible wall.
"Did you really think I wouldn't have accounted for you doing that?" Ganondorf asked with a disappointed expression.
"No, thought it was worth a shot, though." Zoelda shrugged, picking her sword back up and putting it away. All her bravado, all her pointless attempt, it was all to try and distract herself from what was about to happen. But as she looked over at where the Princess and Link were, now both standing up, she realised it was pointless.
So she steeled herself, breathed deeply and begged herself not to cry. Trying to stop her shaking hands and quavering voice from breaking.
Alarink wouldn't die.
"I thought better of you, Heroine." Ganondorf said as he walked over to where Alarink was lounging, motioning for him to stand. "I thought you'd know that those pathetic little swords of yours are not what will kill me."
"Don't stand up." Zoelda said sharply, her attention fully on Alarink, her eyes wide with fear while he was sighing in resignation. "Alarink, don't you dare stand up!"
He flashed her a grin as he stood, brushing himself down and drawing the Master Sword.
"Little parting gift, Zo," He said sadly as he kicked it towards her, watching as it rebounded off the barrier wall and came to a spinning stop a few feet from her. "Use it well."
"Alarink, no." Zoelda put her hands to the barrier as she watched him click his neck and smile that stupid grin of his in the face of death. "Link, please! Please don't do this!"
She could beg herself not to cry all she wanted, it didn't stop the catch in her throat, her breathing becoming fast and ragged.
Begging couldn't stop this.
"Oh, he's not doing anything," Ganondorf almost purred in his deep voice as he raised his marked right hand in front of Alarink's chest. "This is all the Goddess' doing. Making this Triforce and bestowing it onto a few humans each time? Who do we have to blame for that but Hylia herself?"
Then Zoelda knew. She knew how Alarink was going to die. She knew what was going to happen in this room now.
But knowing didn't make it any easier.
"Please, p-please don't." Zoelda half choked as her right hand flared up with Ganondorf's. A quick glance to her left showed the Princess' hand was glowing as well. "Stop this, please! Why?! Why are you doing this?!"
"I thought you would know by now," Ganondorf said as a golden glow appeared on the diagonal of Alarink's chest, piercing through his armour. Alarink was breathing heavily, raggedly, one hand at his throat while the other was behind his back.
That damned grin still on his lips despite the fact that his breathing was laboured and he was drenched in sweat, the Triforce tearing at his insides.
"I want to rule the world." Ganondorf said as the Triforce of Power began to grow out of the back of his hand. "I want Hylia to bow to me."
Half the Triforce of Wisdom flew out of the Zeldas' hands then, leaving Zoelda feeling strangely empty as it travelled away from her over to its partner to join up with it and become whole Wisdom again.
Then the fully formed Triforce of Wisdom slotted itself in place on the lower left of the Triforce of Power, hovering just out of reach behind Ganondorf at his eye level.
"Oh Goddesses, please." Zoelda choked, her eyes so watery she almost couldn't see what was going on before her. "Please, please don't do this. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO EMBED IT IN HIM TO BEGIN WITH?!"
Zoelda screamed at the world around her as Alarink smiled one last sad smile at her, a smile of sheer pain as the Triforce cut at his insides, bestowed into his body by force instead of onto his Spirit by choice all those years before.
His destiny had been set as soon as his father died.
Then it was he who screamed as the Triforce of Courage neatly pulled itself free from him, right across his scar on his chest.
Coughing up blood almost immediately, Alarink made one last lunge as the Triforce left his body – completely free of blood as it floated over to join the other two pieces – and stabbed his short sword into Ganondorf's stomach as he fell onto him.
There was blood everywhere, though some of it now belonged to the shocked Ganondorf.
Princess Zelda was screaming.
Alarink smiled up at him, his eyes clouded, his face bloodied, his chest dripping. All his strength was gone, and soon the shock of the blood loss would kick in; then it would be only a matter of minutes until he died, in utterly excruciating pain.
Link had broken his silence oath and was swearing, shouldering the invisible box where the Triforce had pierced it.
Ganondorf took the short sword out of his stomach in contempt and stabbed it into Alarink's chest.
There was a cough and another eruption of blood from his lips as his heart was pierced. His minutes even more limited now.
The box shattered and Link began to run.
Then everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.
Link seemed not to get anywhere as he pulled his sword free.
The Princess was still silently crying as she struggled to pull her bow and set the light arrow.
And Ganondorf, evil incarnate, did something merciful.
Grabbing Alarink by the head, he picked up the dying, disoriented man and flung him behind him, in Zoelda's general direction.
Sliding on the now bloodied floor, Alarink only came to as stop as his head hit a column, caving the skull in.
Killing him instantly.
Falling to her knees, her face in her hands, Zoelda didn't see anything merciful in the instant death Ganondorf provided.
All she saw was blood and water as her tears spilled over.
As she finally allowed herself to cry.
AN:
First thing first, I want to apologise for any glaringly obvious errors in this chapter - I'm really under the weather as I'm doing my final edit, so I'm bound to have missed something.
Anyway, as I said last chapter, the courage test was a real false victory for Zoelda before the rug was swept out from under her and Alarink was killed. It was an opportunity to show how much she has grown over the course of her week in Hyrule.
And Alarink submitting to his death is also a way to show his character development - a week ago he never would have considered going down without a fight, now he just wants Zoelda to be safe. A bit ironic, I suppose, since that's also what she wants for him.
This chapter was the first time I've written something so graphically violent, so I don't know if it's technically good or not, but it was (probably a little weird considering I was writing my main characters death) a fair amount of fun. I should clarify, Alarink dying is not the fun part, the creating the image of his death and the violence of it was what was "fun", especially since I don't normally enjoy writing descriptive imagery. It was also the first time I've written a main character's death, so it perhaps isn't as impactful as it could be, though I do expand on it over the last two chapters.
Regardless, I'm going to stop this note here. I still have a lot more to say about this chapter, I'm sure, but I just can't put any thoughts into words today. So, I'll probably talk about this chapter again during the note of the next one (the penultimate chapter, if you will). The next chapter was also my second favourite chapter to write, behind 12.
So, have a nice week and everything, I hope you've "enjoyed" I quote because I'm not sure that's the word I'd use when describing this chapter, but anyway, I hope you liked it, hope to see you next one.
~WWQ
PS. I've had issues accessing my account this afternoon and it's only through a little bit of server trickery that I've actually been able to get back on at all, so if this does go up today, that's a small miracle, if it doesn't, I'm really sorry about that and I'll get it up as soon as possible.