Nabooru's smile vanished as Viento galloped across Hyrule Field towards the Gerudo Fortress. She glanced up at the night sky, the stars twinkling down towards the earth and the thin sliver of moon sitting serenely near the western horizon. As she gazed at the moon, a sense of ease formed in the bottom of her stomach. She turned and cast a glance towards Link, who was still unconscious. Her sense of ease vanished and was soon replaced with worry. Now that she had acquired her prey, her mission was to return without losing her prey. She had little fear of Link getting lost, unless he fell off the horse or learned to teleport without using his silly ocarina, but a strange feeling of unease kept creeping in. Her sisters often told stories about Hyrule Field during the night, stories of poes attempting to eat the souls of unwary travelers and skeletons rising from their lost graves to sate their blood-thirst. Those stories seemed insignificant before, but now that she had to keep Link safe. She was snapped out of her thoughts of her sisters' stories when she noticed a boulder ahead of her. The boulder was of no interest, but the strange mist hovering near the boulder worried her.
"It must be a poe..." She hissed with distaste, she never liked poes. Poes were frequent nuisances when it became necessary to cross the desert. While there is a singular poe who led travelers through the desert, many lost souls also wanted to lead travelers to their demise. With a sigh of irritation, she gently nudged Viento's side with her right ankle. Viento snorted and shook his mane in irritation, but began drifting towards the right. Nabooru watched the boulder as they passed by it, wary about the poe.
Then, she heard a loud crunch. She quickly called Viento to slow and looked around, trying to see where the sound had come from. She looked behind to notice a strange object nearby. The strange object was white streaked with brown, the top of the object was crushed in the image of a hoof. She stared at it, trying to apply a word to the strange object, when it shifted to the side. The word immediately came to her tongue, bringing a bitter taste to her mouth.
"Stalchild," She growled. Viento screamed and reared in suprise, hoofs striking out as if to ward off anyone thinking about attacking him. Nabooru yelled as Link slipped from the saddle, sliding down Viento's side to land on the earth with a sickening thud.
"Calm, Viento! Calm!" Nabooru yelled as she untied her scimitar from the saddle. Instead of calming down as he was supposed to, Viento screamed again and started running. When she realized that he wasn't listening to her, she leapt from the saddle in Link's direction. Her feet slipped from under her, sending her tumbling until she came to a halt on her back. Nabooru stared upwards, dazed from the fall when she felt something curl around her ankle. The touch jolted her out of her daze and she kicked out at it. Her foot connected with something and it crunched under her foot. She pushed herself up on her elbows and bit her lip to keep from screaming. The empty skull glared back at her, the jaw crushed. It had an iron grip on her ankle, it's other arm was trying to push itself out of the dirt to get at her. She kicked out again, this time catching the arm. It snapped in two, forcing the creature to let her go.
"Dammit," She swore angrily as she stood up. She looked around, noticing more creatures freeing themselves from the earth and stumbling towards her. She noticed Link a couple of feet away from her and her scimitar was close to the one-armed creature. She dashed for the scimitar, avoiding a slash from the enraged creature and grabbed it. The blade shone as she swung it towards the nearest creature. The blade smashed into the chest, causing the creature to thrash before collapsing and sinking slowly back into the earth.
"Why now?" She hissed as she dashed back to Link. She quickly counted up the creatures surrounding them, discovering that there were twelve stalchidlren surrounding them. She swung towards the closest one, missing it's skull. The creature did not flinch, but lunged forward and slashed at her. She leapt back and swung again. The scimitar caught the hand, slicing it off. However, it did not stall the creature's approach. She stabbed foward, this time connecting just underneath the jaw. It shuddered and collapsed, reducing the number of creatures to eleven.
"Who's next? Come on!" She hissed under her breath, prepared to swipe at the next creature. The creatures stared dumbly at her before two of them lunged towards them. She cleaved the head off the first child and swept towards the second one. The creature leapt forward, avoiding the blade and smashing into her. She screamed as she fell on her back, her breath forced from her lungs from the fall and her scimitar jolted out of her hand. The creature stumbled backwards, but kept it's balance. Nabooru took a shaky breath, ignoring the pain that came with the breath and noticing her scimitar nearby. She reached for it, watching the stalchild coming towards her again from the corner of her eye. Her fingers brushed against the leather handle of the scimitar, but she could not get a grip on the scimitar.
Then, a bellowing scream broke Nabooru's concentration and she looked towards the noise. The stalchild turned to the noise and hoofs landed on its skull, driving the creature into the ground. Nabooru sighed in relief, causing Viento to look towards her. It stared at her with his warm brown eyes and he looked down in obvious shame. In spite of herself, she smiled. Then, she realized that there were still more creatures and pushed herself to her feet. She grabbed her scimitar and ran towards where she had left Link. The stalchildren were slowly surrounding him, the closest a couple of feet from his limp form. She dashed to the creature, swinging her scimitar with an angry yell on her lips. The creature turned and was cleaved in half, falling into shambles from the blow. She spun to face the others, prepared to attack them. The war cry on her lips died as she noticed that more creatures were pulling themselves free from the earth, adding to their numbers. She knew she didn't have the energy to battle all of them.
Then, the creatures stopped their advance, looking over her shoulder towards the horizon. She took the chance to look, curious to see what could halt them. She saw the sun rising beyond Death Mountain and quickly looked away, not daring to stare at the sun. A low hiss came from behind her and she spun, bringing her weapon upwards. She stared at the creatures, noticing that the creatures were desperately clawing at the earth. They sank into the earth, retreating from the sun. She remained motionless for a couple of seconds, then she sighed with relief. Warm fur pressed against her side and she smiled.
"Thanks for coming back, Viento," She whispered. The horse looked back at her and blew his hot sticky breath across her face. She smiled as she pushed his head away from her face. She carefully tied her scimitar to the saddle and walked towards Link. She felt relieved when she noticed that he had remained unharmed, she worried that the creatures might have attacked him. She dragged him upwards, struggling to lift him. After some effort, she finally got Link back onto the horse. She lifted herself onto Viento's back, making sure not to sit on Link.
"Let's go home," She said. Viento snorted and broke into a brisk trot.