Zelda had déjà vu. She woke up again to screaming. Immediately she got out of bed, threw on her robe, and opened the door to the main hall. As she searched the halls, there was a group huddled around an area. Some of the people were crying, and some were screaming.
Zelda walked to the group and broke through the crowd. When she reached the middle, she saw the most horrifying corpse of her life. The head was gone, leaving vein scraps and dense dry blood all around the body and the floor. The body was still in tact; however there was a giant cut in the middle, as if it had been impaled, and his body was scratched and almost ready to fall apart.
The owner of the body's intestines was all over the torso, as if they had been pulled right out of his mouth. Zelda not only began to cry, but shriek too. As she mourned, a group of soldiers parted the crowd and looked at the body. The leader was clearly terrified. But, the first question he asked was, "Who is this?"
Zelda took another glance at the mutilated cadaver. Through the blood stains, she could see the black tuxedo of James Evercroft. "Where's James?" She asked, tears making her eyes red.
The people just stared at her. Nobody answered. "Where is he?!" She asked, louder. Still, no one spoke a word. "Where the fuck is he?!" She cried, then pushed through the crowd, down the hall, towards James's room.
She threw open the door. Instantly, the bed was in sight. The covers were neatly folded, the pillow was placed perfectly on the blankets, and it looked as if the room had been never used.
She walked down the hallway, crying her eyes out. But, she made her way back to the group, where everyone was gone except for the soldiers and a small pair of medical specialists, who were cleaning up James's dead body.
Zelda approached the soldier leader, who asked her, "So… this is James Evercroft?"
Zelda nodded, crossing her arms over her breasts, and shivering.
The soldier whispered to one of the others, "Tell the king."
The men formed a single file line and marched down the hallway, away from the medical specialists, who began to walk down the aisle towards the foyer with the black bag of James's body.
Maids cleaned up the dry blood mess all over the floor, and left. Zelda stood in the middle of the hallway, depressed and sad. She would go visit Link again. But before she went to her room to change, she saw… another black feather. Another raven's feather. She picked it up, and her eyes grew with a rage of fire.
Later in the afternoon, Zelda went to visit Link by Lake Hylia again. By now, Link was in full research of the demon, the Raven, and had searched his entire library with information… and that's just what he needed.
Zelda knocked on the cabin door. Link slowly trudged to the door and opened it. There, Zelda stood, her beautiful body right in his doorway. And although Link had been awake for the entire night and day reading about the Raven, he woke up to her aura.
"Zelda!" He said, happily.
"Yes. I have news. Both good and bad." Zelda replied, walking into the cabin with a messenger bag slung across her left shoulder.
"First, the good news." She said, looking at Link as he shut the door behind her. "My cousin James lent these clothes to you, since Emma's brother is in such depression." She pulled out a tuxedo out of the messenger bag and gave it to Link, who accepted it gratefully.
"Now, the bad news." She said, sitting down on the nearest couch.
Link set the clothes on the table and sat down on the couch next to Zelda.
"James… Evercroft… my cousin… is… dead." She said, barely getting the word dead out. She gagged.
Link gasped. "What happened to him?"
"We found his body mutilated in the hall this morning." She answered, crying a little bit but holding back most of her tears. "It was bloody."
"And, I found another one of these." She said, handing Link the raven's feather she found on James's corpse.
Link took it and examined it. "It's the same texture and has the same aura as the other one." He said, taking the Bestiary book from the coffee table in front of Zelda.
He flipped to the page where the article, "the Raven" was and handed the thick book to Zelda, who took it cautiously. "That's your bird." He told her.
Zelda stared at the article for a long time, flipping through the pages until she broke into tears, and dropped the book. "That bastard!" She screamed. "I'm gonna fucking kill that son of a bitch!"
Her voice was harsh. Link had never heard her speak this way. She was always very sad or very happy. She was never mad or frustrated. Neither had he ever hear her swear. She was a calm woman.
"Zelda." Link said, approaching her. He sat down on the couch next to her, but she was in too mad of a stage to accept his arm.
Finally after ten minutes of sulking and swearing, she finally came to her senses.
"It says that the Raven stops tormenting when someone gives him anything he desires."
She said, beginning to stop crying. "Any living or non-living object. No emotions or things of such. You also have to arrange a meeting with him, by praying to the devil asking about that meeting."
Link gasped. "You're not gonna actually pray him are you?" He asked.
"If it will stop the death, then I must." She told Link, looking at him with her bloodshot eyes.
"And, make sure you come to that ball." She warned. "Because that's when I'm going to schedule that meeting."
Link didn't speak. In front of all those people? He thought. Is she fucking crazy?!
"Goodbye Link." She said. "See you at the dance tonight. Make sure you give the guards there this." Carefully she handed Link an envelope with the royal seal on it. Then she got up and left his house.
Link stared at the floor for a while, thinking about what has just happened. This is big. He thought. I've dealt with Ganondorf and Majora, no doubt the craziest people (or is Majora a demon?) in this world. Now the devil and this demon… this… Raven? What the fuck could they possibly want with Hyrule?
At 6pm Link began clothing himself in the tuxedo, and then headed out for Castle Town at about 6:27.
Meanwhile, Zelda had been praying… to the devil.
At 4:00, when Link had been pacing around in his room, Zelda was in her room, kneeling on the balcony outside overlooking all of Castle Town and some of Hyrule Field.
She began after a long thought of what she was doing, then began. Satan… Lord of evil… Instantly, she felt a chill across her back. I come to arrange a meeting with the Raven… Then, when she thought she couldn't feel any worse, she heard a deep voice in her head speak to her. Yes. I suspected this would come. The voice was horrid. It was scary. Like a thousand people speaking the words at once. I would like it tonight, at my ball, right in the main ballroom where all the people are. At nine o' clock. She told the voice. Silence. Not a word. Finally it spoke again. Indeed. Shall I send It too? Whenever she heard "it" another chill went across her back. No. She said to the voice. There were then another few moments of silence. Very good. I shall tell the Raven. It told her then she felt the dark essence disappear.
She cried until 5pm when she took a nap. Then, at 6:48, she headed out to the ballroom.
Link rode his horse Epona, all the way to Castle Town, where Malon was to take it to Lon Lon Ranch.
"Take care of her." Link told Malon.
"Don't worry, I will." She answered in her sweet voice. She then took hold of the reins of Epona and headed out into Hyrule field, towards the farm.
Link fixed his tie and walked up the path to Hyrule Castle.
Zelda was standing at the entrance to the ballroom in a sparkling purple dress. She had a golden crown on with beautiful diamonds and sapphires all over it. As hundreds of people passed by, greeting her, she waited for Link.
Link began the trudge up the steep dirt road leading up to Hyrule Castle's entrance. The gate was in sight. But right as the two guards at the gate caught sight of him, they hollered, "Hey peasant! Get out of here! What in the blazes are you doing on this royal property?!"
Link ran up to them and handed them the envelope he got from Zelda. One of the guards vigorously took it. They both examined it and opened it.
They both nodded and handed him back the envelope which was now empty. "Very good sir." One of them said. "Go on."
The guards opened the gates to Hyrule Castle's entrance and he jogged up the rest of the trail.
As Zelda stood at the ballroom door, a young man walked up to her.
"My lady," He said. "Are you waiting for someone?"
Zelda turned to him with her blue eyes in a somewhat angry stare. "Yes, I am."
Then the man took a deadly risk. "Might I ask who?"
Zelda's eyes grew in a small rage. She smacked him across the face and pointed to the ballroom. The man ran in, scared out of his mind.
Her eyes returned to normal and watched the entrance again, as Link ran into the foyer, right to the door.
He fixed his hair as Zelda just smiled at him. "Let's go." He said. He gave her his arm and she gladly took it as they turned and entered the ballroom.
After over an hour of dancing and talking, they sat down in a corner of the ballroom, as Zelda began to talk about the meeting arranged for tonight with the Raven.
"So, when is he supposed to arrive?" Link asked Zelda, quietly.
"Around nine o' clock." She said.
Link looked at the clock in the ballroom. "It's 8:57 now." He informed. "He should be arriving soon.
Just then, it turned 8:58. Zelda began to tremble.
Then 8:59. Her heart beat rapidly.
Then… 9. She froze.
Just then the candles burned out in the ballroom. The whole place went black. Some people began to scream, others stayed quiet. The huge chandelier that was lighting the room fell from the ceiling and crashed on the floor, killing a man, although no one knew who it was, since it was too dark.
Zelda was shaking crazy next to Link. "I've already caused a death." She said, as Link put his arm around her.
Suddenly, the candles on the broken chandelier lit up. But, they were purple fire. The flames grew and grew until they had the entire golden chandelier lit up, and the middle turned light blue.
The room was somewhat bright again. But people were paralyzed in fear.
As the fire stopped growing, everyone heard a "KAW" coming from inside the fire. But people knew that couldn't be possible.
Zelda stared at the fire. A raven emerged from it, along with a podium that sat perfectly in front of the purple and blue fire. But it didn't burn or catch flame.
Then the raven started to speak in a terrible voice. It was almost as worse as the voice heard by Zelda when she was praying.
"Nobles of Hyrule." It began. The room felt like a torture chamber just listening to the evil voice of the Raven. "I come in peace, but just this one time."
People began screaming even more and some even tried to leave the ballroom. But the doors shut and blue fire grew over them.
Zelda stepped forward, and everyone was silent, turning their gaze towards her instead of the Raven. "Guardian of Satan." She began, still trembling. "I am Princess Zelda. I scheduled this meeting, and I don't want to bring it upon everyone else here."
"Hmph." The Raven murmured. "Fair enough, princess. I understand that you blame me for the death of your two cousins. And you were right to blame me."
Zelda was in silence for a moment, but began again confidently, "I know to stop the massacre I must give you an item you desire." The Raven seemed to grin. "Which one this time?"
The Raven flew onto the top of the podium and perched there. "Hmm…" Link was deeply scared of what this demon wanted. But everyone sat there, as the Raven stood, silent, until two minutes had passed. "Majora's Mask." The Raven finally answered.
Only Link gasped.
"What?" Zelda asked, confused. "What is Majora's Mask?"
"Oh I'm sure your friend Link should know." The Raven said. "He had a… past with it."
Zelda turned to Link, who just stared down at the floor, shocked. She turned back to the Raven. "Now, I must ask…" She said, "But what is the creature you have chosen to do such horrifying murders?"
The Raven seemed happy to answer. "I was hoping you would ask that."
Link knew almost all information on this Raven, except what creatures he picked for the bloody job. He also memorized almost all of the "Dangerous Monsters" section of the Bestiary. It could be anyone of them or any monster in the whole book. He began to bite his nails.
"A Jalusas." The Raven said.
Link gasped again. He knew this creature all too well. He would tell it to Zelda later.
Zelda was in such confusion. "That's enough." She told the Raven. "We will get you your mask, and you keep your word."
"Fair enough." The Raven said. "Ta ta."
The Raven started to hover in the air, as the podium burst into blue flames. The bird disappeared into the fire as the candles lit up again. The fire faded instantly, along with the fire on the exit door.
The chandelier came together again and rebuilt itself supernaturally. Then it reattached to the ceiling with another satanic force.
The dead man on the floor was no longer there. People were still scared, and most left.
Zelda was left to question Link. "Now what's this Majora's Mask and what's this Jalusas?"
Link was still staring at the floor.
"Come to the library." He said, getting up and looking into her pretty eyes. "I'll tell you there."
Later in the library, Link told her the story of his journey to find Navi, which Zelda recalled upon. Then he told her of his accident entering Termina, and the demonic Majora's Mask playing a serious trick on the people of the once peaceful land.
He then told her he had sealed that evil in the mask, and it never harmed anyone again… or so he heard.
"Now, what's a Jalusas?" She asked, sitting on a stool, while Link sat on the carpet floor.
Link definitely hesitated, but answered. "It is a dark being of evil fused together by peoples' nightmares." He said, hands covering his eyes. "I met a lot when I crashed on Koholint Island returning to Hyrule from Termina."
"This one seems to be very murderous." He said.
Zelda was frightened, but asked more. "Can it be killed?"
"Yes." He said. "But it must be in its nest. If it is not, you cannot kill it."
"I'm guessing the one here is nesting somewhere in the castle." Zelda theorized.
"I bet so." Link agreed.
"Maybe the dungeon." Zelda though aloud.
"Don't get any ideas." Link warned her.
"Fine." She said. "We'll do it your way. Let's meet with the Happy Mask Salesman tomorrow."
I hope my name, Kookiez n' Milk isn't making anyone not want to read this story. I put a lot of effort into it. I really did. More coming soon. Don't leave.