AN: Chapter 20! Whoo!
Thanks for the reviews! XOXO
Shadow waited as the sun dipped lower on the horizon. He had shadow-melded to the roof of the music box house. Zelly had been busy talking nonstop to Pamela when he left. As soon as evening arrived, Sashira had insisted on leaving. Shadow had asked her if he could meet her father, but she seemed especially perturbed by the question, and quickly disappeared without answering. Shadow wasn't ecstatic about leaving Zelly with Anton and Pamela, but he had questions, and he knew only the night would bring them.
Getting back to Ikana Castle was a simple matter once shadows covered Ikana. Shadow appeared there in an instant. Just like the previous night, the castle was alight with life. Servants and dancers fluttered around, warriors talking amongst themselves. Shadow entered the castle. The main room was filled with people, tables of food crowding the corners. In the center, there were four acrobats performing amazing stunts inside a chalk rectangle drawn on the floor. A lithe, green-dressed one helped another leap high into the air, where he flipped, and was caught by his teammates. Shadow squinted at the green one. He had white blond hair, and brilliant blue eyes. There was something familiar about him. The acrobat caught him staring, and froze, looking straight at him. Curious to get a closer look, Shadow stepped beyond the chalk. Instantly the acrobats froze in their actions, and quicker than Shadow thought possible, arranged themselves side-by-side, heads and upper bodies bowed toward Shadow.
He paused, confused. "Uuh . . ."
He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Mazatl." It was Cualli. "Let me handle this. You are still recovering."
"Handle what?" Shadow asked as Cualli stepped closer to the green acrobats. The others backed away quickly, and the green one knelt, shoulders tense, staring at the floor. If he'd known what was going on, Shadow would have stopped it sooner. However, he could only watch dumbly as Cualli pulled a stick with three braided whips on the end from his belt, stepped behind the acrobat, and struck him with it across the back, once, twice, three times.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Shadow wasn't sure if he ran or shadow-melded to the acrobat, throwing himself over the dancer protectively and shouting up at Cualli. "JUST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!"
Cualli stepped back, whip paused halfway in another strike. "Mazatl. He must be punished."
"WHY? WHAT DID HE EVEN DO?!"
"He looked you in the eye."
Shadow's face widened in astonishment, then scrunched in disbelief. "What?!"
"Servants are not allowed to look warriors in the eye. It is a most grievous offense."
"That's ridiculous."
"Mazatl, you are making a fool of yourself. Stand and I will tell you all you have forgotten."
Shadow studied the lines of blood seeping through the acrobat's clothes. He tried to get the young man to look up, but he kept his head low. "What's your name?" Shadow asked.
In response, the boy tensed and began to shake.
A moment from his flashback came back to Shadow. The little boy practicing swords and his friend. The one would become a warrior and the other would no longer be able to speak to him . . . "You're not allowed to speak, are you?" Shadow knew he wouldn't get an answer.
Cualli gave the boy a swift kick in his side. "Speak!"
The boy huddled in on himself, holding his bruised side. Shadow stood quickly and stopped right in Cualli's face. Perhaps that was a challenge to a duel or something? Shadow didn't care. "Step back," he commanded.
The other warriors noticed the tension and a few started forward, unbuckling their weapons. Cualli raised a hand, and they paused. Somewhat certain that Cualli would not again hurt the boy, Shadow again crouched next to him. This time he asked, "Is your name Impa?"
The boy's breath caught, his head rose ever so slightly, and an accented voice replied softly, "You forgot me after all, Mazzy."
Shadow felt rather than saw the crowd stiffen. Okay, so calling warriors by a nickname was obviously also forbidden. Of course. "To be fair, you're the only one I remember at all from this place."
"You've lost your memory?"
"Yes."
"Mazatl," Cualli interrupted. "Do you know this young man?"
"We were friends as children," Shadow explained. "Before I . . . um, I assume I'm a warrior?"
Cualli nodded, relaxing. "I see. You remembered him, and approached him to see if you could remember more."
"Uh, sure."
Cualli stepped closer. "I believe under the circumstances rules can be bent. You!" He ordered the acrobat. "You will attend to Lord Mazatl."
Impa nodded. Shadow took his arms and gingerly helped him up. From the look on Impa's face, Shadow guessed touching or being touched by a warrior was also a big Do Not. "He needs a doctor."
"Kikaru will take you to the kitchen. They will throw salt water on the wounds."
Shadow laughed like a pig. Salt water? That was it? He tried to speak, but couldn't. He remembered the way to his room, and took Impa's arm carefully and began leading him down the hall. The warriors all watched them go in bemusement.
"Just where has he been?" Cualli asked no one in particular.
As soon as they were out of sight of the revelry, Impa turned and threw his arms around Shadow's neck. "Mazatl!"
"Careful," Shadow warned, "You'll irritate your wounds."
"These? These are nothing." He tightened his hold. "I thought I would never see you again."
". . . Okay, but we really should get those looked at. Come with me."
When they reached Shadow's room, he asked some servants for hot water, bandages, cloths, and medicine. He used a knife to cut the tight-fitting outfit from Impa's shoulders, not willing to irritate the wounds by taking it off the normal way. "So . . . I've been gone three years."
"You're old."
"What?"
"Sorry."
"Stop that. Do I look old?"
"Yes."
Shadow glanced into the mirror. "Well, that makes sense. Where I've been, it's been over a decade." Then he went back to dressing Impa's wounds.
"Where did you go?" Impa asked.
"Hyrule."
"Where is that?"
"No idea. Can't remember that, either."
"What did you do there?"
"Was very confused. I'd forgotten everything by then, and I was taken advantage of by an evil man. After that I met a princess, we got married, and now I have a daughter named Zelly."
"No way! . . . You must be aching to get back." There was a tinge of sadness in Impa's voice.
"Yes, I . . . I am."
"Married a princess. First you were a baker's boy, then you became a warrior, now you are a king?"
"Pretty much!"
"Wow. You are amazing, Mazzy. But why did you come back?"
"My . . . a man tried to kidnap my daughter. I . . . followed him here to get her back. She's fine now," he added quickly. "And I stayed because . . . I have to know where I came from."
"What is Hyrule like?"
"It's . . . there aren't any servants who can't look their masters in the eye, for one. It's very beautiful there, too."
"Is it a desert?"
"Nope! Very green, it's got lakes and rivers."
"It sounds lovely."
Shadow finally finished cleaning the wounds and bandaging them up. "So . . . what can you tell me about . . . myself?"
They both shuffled to sit comfortably on the bed. "Well," said Impa. "You seem much calmer now than before."
"That would be my wife. Zelda. She's changed me into a teddy bear, and I rather like it that way."
Impa chuckled. "I knew there was a softy under all that ambition."
"Ambition?"
The boy nodded. "You became a warrior because you wanted to influence change. You wanted power so you could stop the oppression of the lower classes, of people like me."
"And then I disappeared."
"You were sent away."
"Sent away?"
"Yes. Three years ago, a seer of our people warned us that if we did not make peace with our enemies, the Goddess of Time would curse us to never stop fighting in this land, even after we died."
This sounded familiar to the tale Link had told.
"Most laughed at the seer and drove him out of town, but not you. You tried to get King Ikana to reconsider. You did not like the bloodshed. As a result, he sent you away on a ocean voyage, and that was the last I heard of you until now."
Huh . . . so I was on a boat. "Where is the ocean, anyway?"
"It's to the east, all the way across Termina. Oh Mazatl!" Impa grabbed his arms. "I am so glad you are back! Please stay awhile before you leave again."
Shadow smiled unconvincingly. He suspected that none of the citizens of Ikana knew that the curse had already been brought to pass, forcing them to continue to fight as spirits in the cursed desert for eternity.
Impa had no idea he was dead.
Shadow was torn. On the one hand, he'd finally found out where he'd come from. On the other hand, it was an ancient place that only still existed because of a curse that none of the dead were aware of. He wanted to know more, to remember more. Most of all he wanted to help Impa. He loathed the idea of leaving the boy cursed. Was there no way to bring peace to the people of Ikana? Shadow thought he remembered Link saying he'd done so, but apparently that hadn't actually happened.
Then again, with all the strange time convolutions going on, perhaps Link hadn't actually come here yet. Perhaps Termina was in the future and Shadow had not gone as far as Link, or perhaps Shadow was in the past.
Rather than shadow meld across the desert like he had before, Shadow took the long way back to the music box house, walking with his eyes on the ground, studying the many pebbles and cracks.
Either way, he knew he could not stay. He needed to get Zelly home. He needed to protect his family, and his country. He could only hope there was still a home left to go to. He remembered how everyone in the castle had been turned to stone except him. Had Link also been spared? Was everyone still stone?
He lied to Impa. He said he would see him again, but there was no way Shadow could promise that. He'd do his best, though. He had no idea how to return to Hyrule, but he figured he'd done it once, and the best way to do it again was to retrace his steps.
The last place anybody had heard of him was the ocean. That meant he and Zelly were headed west.
The Music Box came up over the horizon just as the sun began to rise.