Ch.10.

The trio found a warm welcome at the Goron village, where they were honored with a feast for returning their loved blacksmith. The trio was only able to eat the dodongo meat, as it was the only edible thing…for them.

Afterwards, when they set out to return to the Rito village, they were awarded with a sword, which was made of silver alloy, and forged by Biggoron.

"Is this the blade you had when we rescued you?" Impa asked, and Biggoron nodded. It's hilt was made from one of the hand grips from Impa's naginata, which was sadly shattered in the Moblin fortress. The edge of the blade was ridged, to make deadlier cuts.

"Thank you," she said, swinging it experimentally. "It's like it was made to for me…was it?"

"Yes," Chief Koro said, "He began forging it a few weeks ago, in preparation for the hero, but, to be frank, you are the hero he forged it for, not Link."

"Hang on," Link said, "You knew we were coming?"

"Oh, yes, we received a message from the goddesses that the hero was coming, and they were right," he said, and Link breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be good if all of Hyrule knew that the army was marching through their land. The element of surprise would be void.

"Thank you for your hospitality, and the blade," Impa said, and the trio bowed.

"It was a great honor for you to come here," Koro said, and Link smiled. "Please do give the Rito tribe our condolences, and apologies."

"Will do," Link said, and the trio turned, and walked away.

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The Trio was still aching from the return to the Rito village after their first night back, and was enjoying the breakfast prepared for them in celebration of their success. The funeral for the fallen Rito would be held once the bodies were recovered, which would be done by a retrieval squad prepared for that task alone. Later that day, in the evening, the Rito would be honoring the Trio in front of the village.

"I'm wondering how far it is between here and Faron," Link said, and Impa swallowed a bite of her food.

"It's only a few kilometers from here; we should see it within an hour of leaving."

"Speaking of leaving," Sheik said, "When are we going?"

"I was thinking tomorrow morning," Link said, "But I'm hoping the Rito give us our compensation first, otherwise we will have to delay out departure."

"The Goron's gave us the Giant's knife," Impa said, "And they let me keep the Quake bracelet." She motioned to the bracelet on her arm, and Link furrowed his brows.

"Ok, just to clarify, that is the bracelet that caused my heart to go nuts…right?"

Sheik nodded. "I thought that Impa could put it to use. The Quake bracelet, along with the Triforce of power? I think that would be enough to collapse a temple-sized building."

"Hm," Link said, and glanced at it once more before returning to his meal.

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The trio was standing beside the Chief, in front of the amassed village.

The chief stepped back, having just finished reading off the list of fallen Rito, ending with Hito. He pulled a large book from his podium, and set it down. He opened it, and pulled a conductors baton from the folds of his cloak.

He set the baton on the open pages of the book. It was short, about half a foot long, and had intricate designs on its handle. The entire baton was made of a silvery material.

"Sheik, please step forward," The Chief said, and she did, raising her brow in curiosity.

"This baton is named the Wind Waker," He said, waving his hand gently to the baton on the book. "It was handed down to the newly evolved Rito by the sky god Levias, before he passed. "It holds the power to control the winds that blow across the land. With it, we have cloaked our plains in a powerful gust, to protect ourselves. However, you have vanquished the threat of the Moblins, so we see no reason to keep the plains a hostile place. We have also decided to hand down the baton to you, as the sky god commanded of us. So please, put your hand on the baton, so I may pass it's power to you."

She placed her hand on the baton, and The Chief began to speak in the Rito tongue.

"Levias ui jeongsin ! geudeul-ui-yeohaeng eul wihae pil-yohan i sidaeui yeong-ung i mabeob-ui seonmul-eul jeondal ! bojwagwan geudeul ! geudeulgwa hamkke ! ulineun seonmul , Levias eul gamsa hago juui gip-eun nun ."

A small gust blew around her, and a piercing wind shot through Sheik, sending a ringing through her ears. She shuddered, and the wind went still.

"The sky god Levias has granted our wish!" The chief shouted, and the amassed village cheered.

He turned to Sheik, and she lifted the baton, her fingers in the correct position, somehow.

"I want you to imitate my movements," The chief said, and she nodded. He moved his hand up, to his left, and to his right. She followed the movement gracefully, and a jet of air rushed through the village and struck the baton, without moving it in anyway.

"Now, to move the wind in the direction and speed you desire, you must only think of it."

Sheik closed her eyes, and the faint whistling of wind overhead the village…stopped.

The village clapped, along with the chief, Link, and Impa.

"Thank you," Sheik said, after the applause died down.

The chief smiled. "Thank you, hero," he said, "We are very grateful for your contribution, now depart, save this land, and may the goddesses be with you."

The trio said a few farewells, and was escorted to the east gate.

They turned back to the village once more when they left the towering palisade walls, and made their final departure.

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Link flashed his blade forward, gouging a wound across the soldier's chest plate, dropping him to the ground. He spun, parrying a strike to his back, and flicked his blade up, clashing the steel together, and brought his sword down quickly, bringing his leg up, kicking the sword from his adversaries' hand. He thrust his sword through the soldier's chest, and glanced around the courtyard, his Hylian commander robes swishing across the grass, their protective armor glinting in the light. He looked up to the courtyard balcony, where one of three archers was firng at him. He swiped his blade forward, casting the arrow aside, and set his mind to the balcony. He couldn't see any unfelled enemy troops that weren't engaged in battle, so he strode forward, sheathing his blade, and headed towards the short wall. A small group of now combat-free soldiers followed him as he dashed up the wall, dodging a falling archer, and hooked his hands on the balcony, one of which landed on an archer's foot. He took this opportunity to latch his fingers into the laces, and yanked, pulling the archer to his rear.

Link heaved himself up the railing and vaulted over and onto the archers' stomach, sending a dagger into his gut. He stood up and blocked a blow to his arm by one of the marksman, and slipped his dagger down, slicing the archers' finger off, and disarming him. Link shoved the dagger into the archers' throat, and kicked his chest, sending him over the railing and to the grass below. The other soldiers had made it to the balcony, their arrival much less graceful than Link's. He glanced back to the courtyard below, seeing a scene of carnage before him, he shouted orders to guard all exits to the castle, and waved for the soldiers that were with him to follow.

He pushed the wood frame door to the castle interior open, and found himself in an extensive hallway, with two soldiers patrolling, one half each. He quickly shied into a small nook while the soldier's back was too him. The rest of the soldiers with him followed suit. He ducked his head out after a second, and saw the back of the soldier patrolling their half. He waited till the guard has completed his turn, and once again had his back to them.

Link motioned for the soldiers with him to stop, and snuck out of the nook and slipped up to the soldier, burying his dagger in his neck. He set the body down slowly, and ran up the other guard this time flinging his dagger at the guard's throat as he turned to face the thumping sound of Link's running.

Link whispered an order to the soldiers after he pulled the dagger from the soldier's bleeding throat, and they came out of the nook and followed Link to the next door. He pushed it open, and found a stone staircase. He immediately went up, quickly-and noisily-running as his soldiers did the same. He finally entered a door after ascending three flights of stairs, and arrived in another hallway, this time, three soldiers stood guard, one of which defending the other door, one in the hallway, standing with a bow drawn, and the other directly in front of Link. His dagger did little to parry the strike of the soldier, and his blade was knocked from his hand. The soldier swung again, this time causing Link to move to his left rear, allowing the archer's now fired arrow to sink into the stone behind him. A soldier he had brought with him stepped forward and jabbed his lance forward. The guarding soldier couldn't step far back enough, and the lance impaled his gut, going straight through. He stepped back, withdrawing the lance, as the guard from the other side of the hallway ran forward. The archer stepped back and drew another arrow, this time aiming for the lance-bearing soldier. He sidestepped the arrow, and the archer drew another arrow, lowering his bow this time, and allowing the other guard to engage.

Link ran forward, his sword now drawn, and faked a swing to the soldiers right shoulder. The guard halted, swinging his shoulder away, and Link flashed his blade to the guards left side, gouging the blade deep into the soldier's armor, and, as blood was leaking from the wound, body.

The archer now fired his bow haphazardly, missing Link by half a meter, and turned, running to the other door. Link pursued, drawing his dagger and flailing it to the archers back. It missed his back, and instead sunk into the guards poplit. The guard let out a grunt as he fell, and his landing was quite loud, his body crumpling to the lightly carpeted stone sent out a clang-like thud. Link ran to the archer, and pulled his dagger from his poplit, sending it into his throat next, ending his noisy groans of pain.

Link wiped the blood from the dagger on the carpet, and stepped up to the door, sheathing the dagger as he did so. He suspected this to be the throne room, as it's guarding was a bit more meticulous than the other hallway-and, to their scouting, this was the general area where the throne room lay.

He waved his soldiers over and explained his thoughts to them. They all nodded in agreement, and Link drew his blade. One of his soldiers picked the fallen archers bow from the ground. He tugged the strings a little, and pulled the quiver from the archer's body, slinging it across his back.

Link carefully opened the door, and found himself in the wrong spot. He was on one of three balconies. The one he wished to be on was to his left, directly behind the Prince's throne. He quickly stabbed the balconies guard, and had his archer snipe the other two.

Only seconds later, the door of the balcony adjacent to his opened, and General Impa and her soldiers slipped onto the balcony. Impa saw Link across the way from her, and her own position. She gave Link a look of frustration, and he shrugged.

Their plan was to emerge on the balcony behind the Prince, so they could jump onto his two royal guards, taking out his prime defense. Then Link would keep the Prince on his Throne as the rest of their soldiers jumped. Then, they could clean up the remaining throne room guards and seize the Castle from the Prince's grasp.

Link motioned to the guards underneath their balconies, and Impa nodded, understanding his new plan, which was to take out what they planned on being the remaining guards. He readied himself on the balcony rail, and his soldiers did the same. Impa's group readied themselves, and Link counted off three seconds with his hands, and leapt off the balcony, rolling as he landed, and driving his sword into a guard's back. The guards were cleaned up in mere seconds, and the group turned to the Prince. His royal guards-clad in Gold and Black armor, with great two-handed claymores in hand-were standing in front of the Prince, defensive positions struck.

Link and Impa waved off their troops, and the guards engaged the two leaders.

Link sidestepped His first strike, and then jabbed his blade to the guards cuirass, but, to his avail, the Blade merely stopped at the cuirass, and left Link vulnerable for a second, which is all the guard needed. The guard left his blade in one hand, and used his other gauntleted hand to punch Link square in the jaw, knocking Link onto him back. Link kept a grip on his sword, and rolled away when the guard brought his claymore to the ground. He got to his feet, one hand on his jaw, and saw that, a few meters away, Impa was pulling her longsword from the guard's throat.

Impa dashed up to the throne, and the Prince snapped to his feet, drawing a sword of his own-an elegant silver longsword with a jewel encrusted hilt.

Impa flashed her blade forward, beginning the duel, as Link struggled with his.

The guard continued to push Link to the wall, until Link saw a brief moment of opportunity. He jumped back against the stone wall, and leapt off, diving at the guard through the air, and tackled him over. The guard lost his grip on his claymore, and Link rolled over, trying to reach his blade that he too had dropped. The guard, however, abandoned his claymore, and stood up, and kicked Link in the side, causing him to double up, clenching his stomach in pain. Link's soldiers couldn't stand to see him risk dying any further, and they rushed forward, avoiding stepping on their commander, who was now attempting to stand. The soldiers attacked the guard viciously, and he fell after several blows to the head…by axe.

Link stood, and muttered his thanks to his soldiers, as one grabbed his sword and handed it to him.

Meanwhile, Impa was still dueling the well experienced Prince. He was doing well with parrying her powerful strikes, and still getting chances to strike on his own accord.

She was beginning to gain ground though, and when he began to feel trapped, his strikes were less precise, and she could feel him starting to tire from blocking every strike instead of parrying it and dispelling the energy from the force of the strike.

His last mistake was trying to strike while she was striking. His blow was too slow, and she imbedded her blade into his leg, dropping him to the floor. She stepped back, and he muttered a few words she couldn't recognize.

"Hm?" Impa asked.

"I surrender," He muttered, more audibly this time.

Impa looked over at Link, who gave her a thumbs up.

She turned back to the Prince, "Shall we begin negotiations for a treaty?" She asked, grinning lightly.

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The trio stood in front of a large wood, also known as Faron woods. The walk had been must faster than their previous journeys through the plains, and less tedious as well. Finally they arrived, and Link took the first step into the woods that housed the Triforce of Courage. It was dark. It was very, very dark. The first few steps were illuminated by the sun, but when he was a few meters in, he was forced to light a torch, and his comrades followed his actions.

They walked for an hour or so, before they came to a clearing, where the brush had blocked off any sort of "path" they could use. The vegetation had actually blocked the clearing off completely, save for their entrance. Link shrugged, and drew his sword. He moved to hack at a segment of brush, and his blade cut through smoothly. He made a few more cuts, and pushed the brush out of his way. He sheathed his blade, and looked up, as a small puff of air flew down the side of his head, and distinguished his torch. He whipped his head up, to find the source of the air, and found two golden eyes staring down at him.

He threw himself back into the clearing, landing on his rear as the golden-eyed creature dropped from it's perch and entered the clearing. It looked like a wolf. It's fur was a mottled gray-black, and it had two claws the size of Link's hand on each paw.

Link pushed himself to his feet as his comrades drew their weapons, and the wolf…stood. It held itself like a hunched human. It snarled violently, and shook it's head, spit flying in every direction, and howled. The ground was then filled with thumps, and the brush around the clearing burst open in places, and many of these "wolves" entered the clearing.

The trio back-pedaled till they were back to back, facing each direction, which held many teeth-crammed jaws. Link racked his brain quickly to try and remember what these were, and the answer hit him-wolfos! He bit his lip as the wolfos neared, that bit of information didn't help at all, it just made sure he knew what was killing him. Drat.

Sheik threw her free hand in the air, and a flame shot into the air, and hung over the clearing, providing a light, so they could drop their torches, which they did. The wolfos all snarled and leapt forward. The trio exploded away from each other, swinging their blades small and large towards the beasts. A spray of blood and fur spread out onto the grass, and Link found himself on the ground, two very violent pains in his right shoulder. He jumped to his feet, and found another wolfos bounding up to him. He stepped back, preparing to parry the wolfos' strike, and sunk his foot into the ribcage of one of the wolfos he had felled…right as the wolfos pounced.

He couldn't balance himself, or unhook his foot from the bone, and down he went, as the wolfos landed on him, knocking the breath from him. He threw his arms up to push the wolfos' jaws away, only to be overpowered, the wolfos bearing down on his throat, ripping it open. The wolfos walked away, satisfied with it's kill.

His head hit the grass hard, and his vision fogged for a moment, and he could see blurs of movement from his fellow heroes as they spun and clashed against the wolfos. He saw a smaller blur leap over one, slicing it's skull open as it did, and landed gracefully. It turned to him, and rushed over. The other blur, which was much bigger, didn't move gracefully. It's movements were rough, and powerful. It sliced and ripped the beasts apart, only taking one glance from a beast, which was subsequently slain by the behemoth warrior.

His view of the carnage was then replaced by a foot, the foot of the small blur…Sheik. She moved forward, and he felt something land on his leg. She knelt down, and moved his head, which held a pair of glazing eyes.

Sheik muttered a spell under her breath, and the blood stopped gushing from his throat. She looked back to Link's face, where his eyes were now shut. She stood up, as Impa felled the last wolfos, her blade sinking deep into it's torso. Impa looked over to Sheik, as the brush behind her cleared, and another wolfos leapt out from the darkness. Sheik moved to her right, just in time, and the wolfos, before standing, twisted. It's body began to shake and shudder violently and it shrunk slightly, but it's legs became buffer. It's mouth opened, revealing a not-so-threatening mouth, and an agitated deep voice came out from it.

"Put the chosen hero onto my back," It ordered.

"What?" Sheik said, in disbelief, "Who are you, no, what are you? What do you want with Link? I'm not putting him on your-".

"Do it," The voice interrupted. "The hero has just died. My words are true, now, put the hero on my back."

Sheik's heart stopped for a moment as she took in the wolfs' words. She turned, and both she and Impa knew at that moment, from his still eyes and chest, that their hero was gone. She knelt down next to him, and steeled herself.

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Cia sighed in relief as Sheik put Link on the wolfs' back. Hopefully the wolf's intent was good.

She fell to her knees, and put her hand to her breast. What had the wolf said? She hadn't paid attention…she was…so…the hero was dead. She looked up at the portal, and saw the wolf bounding through the woods. What was the wolf doing? Where was he…the hero…Link…her…only…

Cia collapsed onto her side, her skin cold against the stone. warm tears flowing down the side of her face and dripping down, splashing onto the surface of the valley of Souls. She sniffled, and an onslaught of tears poured out, her weeping heard echoing throughout the valley.

Please review!

Note: The language the chief speaks in the beginning of the chapter is Korean I translated. I'm using Japanese for Ancient Hylian, so I thought Korean would be good to use for the Rito language.