The Waters of Nayru
Chapter 49: Din's Face
By, Frank Hunter

The ground beneath Tydus rumbled and quaked, catching the attention of everyone around him. The soldiers closest to him began to step away nervously as a reflective sheen began coursing its way up and down his body, down his limbs and back again. His skin, in a disturbing sort of way, began to tighten across his face. Tydus himself looked as though he were straining his muscles just to stand there and take the punishment that this process was inflicting upon his body.

The attention off of him, Rigo steeled himself to make one fast attempt to end this new nightmare before it could begin. He charged forward, sword in hand, closing the distance between himself and Tydus in a heartbeat. Before the Hylian soldiers could react to what was going on, Rigo raised his weapon over his head, and brought it down, connecting the blade with all of his might behind it against Tydus's exposed neck.

He had hoped to finally and satisfyingly see the man's head go loping across the ground. That would have been ideal. But he had prepared himself for that not to be the case. He'd prepared for the eventuality that the Waters would allow Tydus to survive even such a deathblow, and that Rigo would have to deliver more to put him down for the count. But the one thing he hadn't prepared for was that the man would shrug the attack off entirely. As Rigo's sword connected, the only thing that happened was that the blade bounced off, reverberating as though he had smashed its edge against a solid piece of stone. If Tydus had felt any pain, he didn't show it, but he scowled at Rigo as he absently noted the attack. As Rigo recovered from the shock of the blow, Tydus wound his arm back, and smashed his forearm into the Gerudo's gut.

Rigo felt as though he'd been hit by stampeding wildebeest galloping at full speed. The blow knocked a fresh wave of pain and nausea through him, and he was sent careening through the air, straight across the Temple. He rolled to a stop on the tile, his vision blurry and his stomach threatening to expel its contents across the floor.

"Rigo!" He heard the cry from beside him, and noticed after a moment that Amili had risen to her feet and run to check on him, looking over him for wounds. None of the Hylian guards seemed concerned that she was no longer shackled, as they were otherwise preoccupied, and Rigo couldn't help a short, painful laugh as he realized she had probably slipped out of her hand shackles the moment they'd been fastened. Most of the Gerudo probably had. It was a useful and fairly common thieving skill they all learned at a young age.

"I'm OK," Rigo croaked out, working to get back to his feet, though he wondered if maybe something was broken inside of him. It felt that way.

As he pushed himself up, he looked over again at Tydus and wondered if he was hallucinating what he saw. The man was growing, steadily and rapidly. He was approaching what might have been nine feet in height, and his limbs were widening to the thickness of small tree trunks. His gear, fitted to him at his more modest Hylian proportions, began to break and tear away as he expanded. The chain mail he wore broke as ringlets popped out of place and ricocheted around the room. The buckles on his armor began to shatter, the metal itself bending as it was peeled off of him. His cloth gear underneath attempted to keep up with him, though it was reduced to rags and tatters that clung to him in only a modicum of decency. Only the one remaining Silver Gauntlet held fast, still magically or mysteriously adjusting to the growing size of its wearer.

Tydus's skin had stretched now beyond the point of looking disturbing to the point of smooth splendor. Its color had transformed to the white of eggshells. The effect of it had him resembling, more than anything, a beautiful, living alabaster statue that had been carved by an artist of immeasurable skill. Even his hair turned white and solid on his head.

The man was down on one knee as the changes neared their conclusion, but for all of it, there was only one thing he seemed to notice. He stared at his own hand, and it took Rigo a moment to realize that it wasn't the hand with the Gauntlet on it. This hand was bare, and full, complete with five working fingers. The Waters had restored to him the limb that Rigo had severed. Tydus wiggled his fingers in disbelief, until a laugh escaped him, a terrible sound of unbridled joy and possibility.

The creature before him was the spitting image of human perfection, and Rigo could not help but think as he looked at its face that he was gazing into the visage of a god. No, he thought. Not a god. A goddess. He knew there was only one being who would have created this creature. And it was her fiery eyes hidden behind the power and malice of the man. It was her face, the one Rigo'd been looking for so desperately outside, that now, finally, he was seeing before him.

Hello Din.

One of the Hylian soldiers tentatively stepped up to his commander. The man only came up to Tydus's shoulder now, even with him kneeling down, but he held out a hand as though to help his commander to his feet.

"M'lord?" the soldier ventured with timidity. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"

Tydus met eyes with the man who shuddered, but held his ground. The other Hylians stood and watched, waiting to take their cues from this first exchange. Although some Gerudo still kneeled, many had now given up any pretense of surrender, standing with hands before them, or holding any sort of weapon they were able to find. They were prepared for anything.

After a time, the creature let out one word in response. "Help?" it queried of the soldier before it. The voice was deep and harmonic, sounding as though it came through the pipes of some celestial organ in a simple chord that resonated in everyone around it.

The sound pressed Rigo back like a gust of wind, but the creature itself looked confused and disoriented. It glanced at the man's outstretched hand and then back at its own before deciding to take him up on his offer in a small vestige of a human gesture. He reached out, engulfing the soldier's arm past the wrist in a cast of white stone, and worked to get to his feet. Then, panic ensued.

The soldier's arm was pulled clean from its joint without resistance or pretense. One second it was there, the next it was dangling from Tydus's hand, blood dripping and staining his new ivory fingers that terrible, familiar crimson. The injured soldier shot backward in immediate shock, not seeming at first to realize just what had happened. But everyone around responded in turn. Or at least, they tried to.

Hylian forces fell into complete disorder, some trying to mobilize, others running toward either end of the room in an effort to get as far away from the creature as possible. The Gerudo, who were more prepared for some trigger to be pulled, were more collectively moving toward the exit, keeping weapons up and eyes open and engaging their enemy where they found it necessary.

Rigo himself was tired and confused, but there was one thing he felt confident of. If that monster made its way back through the gateway, there was no telling how much damage it would do to the realm of Hyrule. And it was still Tydus in there. How long until he came for the Gerudo in Jirin, too? What could they do to fight against something like this, a demigod with the power of Nayru coursing through its veins?

"We need to hold it here," Rigo said.

"What?!" asked Amili, as she helped pull him to his feet.

"We can't let that thing cross back over," he told her. "We need to keep it in here."

A glance at Tydus showed he was already back on his feet and lucid. "You cowards!" he screamed in his odd, melodic tones. "Get back here! Form up!"

His soldiers were having none of it, still fleeing like the hounds of hell were behind them. Tydus scowled a deep, penetrating scowl and swiped at a Hylian that tried to slip by him from the back of the Temple…

And a flash of the whitest light Rigo had ever seen erupted from the center of Tydus's body. He shielded his eyes as a sound like gunpowder went off throughout the chamber. Tydus stumbled backward two steps, shaking the ground and brushing at something on his chest, swiping at it as though it were on fire. When the glare cleared, Rigo saw a broken arrow drop to Tydus's feet. The creature contemptuously stepped on it, as if the arrow were vermin.

Some kind of light magic, Rigo suspected. He shot his eyes to the doorway and had no trouble finding the source of the magical arrow. The Hero, Link, stood on the stairwell, braced on one knee with his bow drawn. He was gesturing frantically at the people around him, Hylian and Gerudo alike, urging them out the door and away from the monster while keeping an eye on its movements.

"Amili, you need to help get these people out of here," Rigo told her. "Get them away from the Gateway and ready to flee into the Lost Woods."

"Are you crazy?!" she interjected. "What about you?"

"Someone's gotta stop him from going through," Rigo said.

"Keep him here!? Then what happens to you?"

Rigo tried not to wince as pain returned to his stomach. He needed to put on a good show, or she'd stay here, stay in danger.

"If you even try to tell me to seal the gate with you inside, I swear I'm gonna throttle you right now."

"You can't do that," Rigo said through a forced smile. "There's only one way to seal it now." He nodded at Link, and specifically, the Master Sword on his back. The only key for the Pedestal of Time now that the Chalice was destroyed. "And I think that's also the only real weapon we have to fight him."

Amili stared, putting the information together in her head. Link glanced over at Rigo, nodding at him in an inquisitive way. Rigo responded in kind, in affirmation.

"I don't think I'll be fighting alone."

Amili looked back and forth, struggling for something to say, some better plan she could offer. But already Rigo could see the calculations going in her head, solving the puzzle before her. How to get the armies to cooperate, to lay down their arms and help each other get out of this situation. She was a thinker, and a born diplomat. She should have been King. She was better, Rigo thought, than he would ever be.

"There are some things I need to say to you," Amili ventured.

"It might be best if you made them quick," Rigo answered.

"No," she said. "They're not quick. They're very long, and very complicated, and very overdue."

Rigo looked over at her to try and anticipate what she was getting at, but the look of sincerity she held caught him off guard.

"So I'll tell you when you get back," she said. "Make sure that you do."

"Yes ma'am," Rigo answered, humbled. Amili flashed him a ghost of the genuine smile he'd used to get from her when they were kids, and then she hurried off, helping a wounded Hylian soldier to her feet and over to the doorway.

The Temple was clearing out now, and only the three men looked as though they planned to stay. Tydus kept his eyes on Link's bow as the other began a slow descent, back down the stairs and onto the level flooring. Rigo, still working to mask the severity of his injury, slowly circled around in front of Tydus to join Link at the stairs.

It felt like the deck was stacked. It felt like all the cards were playing out against him. But Rigo tried not to let it get under his skin. It was better, he felt, to acknowledge the truth. That this, right here, could very well be his death. And that would be fine. The only way, the only way, that he would let Tydus back into Hyrule was if no longer had a breath left to blow the monster away. He might give everything to protect the lives of his people. He would give his own life for them, if it gave them a chance at peace, and life beyond this dangerous place.

That, he realized in a moment of revelation, was what it meant to be King. That was what was expected of him. And he would live up to it. For King he was.