AND SO IT BEGINS.

I have to admit, this is one of my favourite chapters. It was stupidly fun to write (stayed up till 2am to finish it), there is plenty of action, and without further ado, I give you:

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Other Perspectives - 7 of 8

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If I had my magic I would have just blown away these bars with Din's Fire, stolen a sword, freed anyone and everyone in sight to cause chaos, and slipped away while everyone dealt with their own business. Which was admittedly crass and irresponsible, but I still had Fi to find.

If she was even alive to be found.

I gripped my wrists, fingers digging into the markings that essentially hobbled me, thinking back to that camp where I'd found the kids. The rope Fi had been secured on had been cut away. One party said she was dead, the other that she was alive. One had to be correct, since you couldn't be both dead and alive, unless we were talking Shadow Temple levels of necromancy, but since that probably had nothing to do with this…

Maybe she had escaped? But why then would she leave her friends? Unless she had no choice? But then why would they think she was dead? It had just made more sense, that Creep's story had made so much more sense, had connected the dots so favourably…

I had to hope she was still alive, maybe just lost in the swamps.

Our cage was in the dead centre of the market, probably because Sheikah were considered more… valuable. Harder to escape when you had the rest of the cages to dodge through if you wanted to get to the river, and the boats. Then it was Hylians like me, who could use magic, and then humans, who couldn't use magic at all, but were impervious to it as a result. When I'd first heard this I'd wished so hard that I was human, thinking of all the magical blasts, lightning strikes, burns from blue fire, so many magical scars I could have avoided if I'd been human.

Except then I wouldn't be able to use magic at all, either, and that was a trade-off I was finding stupidly unfair.

Anyway. Escape.

I'd smeared some bomb-flower pollen into the bars as well as my rope, and it was already eating away at the wooden barrier. That would be my way out in just an hour, hopefully. Noxo had a whip and a knife, weapons that I was quite useless at. Some of the guards had swords, but they also tended to be armoured, so wrestling the weapons off of them would be… close to fatal.

But I couldn't see any other options. There was a pit behind the now empty metal cage, further into the prairies, about the size of Zelda's small garden courtyards. Beyond that was open fields, the way I would have gone if Epona was with me. I could call her, whistling with fingers in my mouth, but I would have to time it exactly right, and for all I knew it could mean her capture too.

Never, never, never.

So past the cages, the retainers, the keepers, the armed guards, along the river, into the trees, then the swamps, and hope I don't get arrowed down again. Without a pink fairy.

I almost laughed. The chance of dying even before I made the tree line was so high I might as well have slashed my own neck. Could I do that? Break the smoking bars where the bomb-flower pollen had left them jagged and sharp, stab my neck, and see if they'll take me to a medical tent or somewhere from which I could make a proper escape? If they had needles for stitches, or great amputating cleavers…

Or they could leave me to bleed to death, and I would make myself even weaker. I had to keep reminding myself that I didn't have any pink fairies, no potion, no backup in the slightest.

Navi would be so upset with me right now, making plans that actively involved me hurting myself to succeed…

I just didn't have a choice.

Behind me, metal hinges screeched. Turning around to see who was occupying the cage now, I paled.

Two Gorons. One of them was a child, and he was crying.

The mother, at least I thought she was his mother, was being poked and prodded into the cage with a spear and she was holding the boy tightly to her side and her eyes were glittering with such fierceness it was a wonder that she hadn't killed them all. The trouble with Gorons was despite their hulking figures and rockish hide and quite frankly their ridiculous strength that let them tear a Hylian in halves if they wanted to, were soft and kind to a fault, and I gripped the bars and nearly gave myself away shrieking at them to stop it, stop it, but I bit my tongue.

I was meant to be Sheikah. And I couldn't throw away my chance at escape, I had to think of Fi.

Oh but the boy was crying, and I couldn't stand watching kids cry.

I dredged up my poor memory of Darunia calling me brother, then sister when I had done away with my disguise. It didn't help that they spoke mostly in growls, deep booming rumbles that sounded like rockslides. "Batuk? Baduk? Badok?"

The mother turned around, glaring at me, tears in her eyes too. Attention caught, at least, so I rolled my sleeve up, making sure our stupid retainer didn't notice, and showed her the inked silhouette of the Goron Ruby in my inner left elbow.

"Darnja," was how his name sounded in his native tongue, "Di dondog. Ga bon, Jing. Di dondog."

My brother. His son, Link. My brother. It was just a matter of whether she believed me. Or understood my awful pronunciation.

Her eyes flickered recognition. Yes, yes! "Darnja?" she said, a low, deep purr, "G'Bigang?"

I was pretty sure she said 'Of Death Mountain' or the equivalent of. Obviously they didn't call their own home mountain death, unless it was filled with graveyards or something, but I didn't remember the history and I was just too relieved to do anything but nod.

"Hyrule," I whispered, tapping my chest, "Do you speak Common?"

Hesitantly, she purred words in the Goron language and I took it as a 'no'. I shook my head too; I had tried when I was younger to learn sentences and greetings but it destroyed my throat because there was so much gargling involved, and as far as I could hear the words just, blurred together. I wished I hadn't been so lazy now.

If only I could ask how she had been captured, how far away, was she from Hyrule too? If I brought her home, if I could place her under Darunia's protection, could this terrible excuse for a market be shut down? Her little boy was weeping with plaintive garbling sobs and the mother was shushing him tenderly, eyes flicking from me to the guards outside their metal cage, on the far side from our perspective.

"You speak their language as well?" Renado hissed in Common, and I snorted.

"I wish."

"Then how did you…?"

"I have a Goron Bond-brother."

"How?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell it when we're free." Besides, one of the guards was telling the kid to shut up and it was frightening him and I had the terrible feeling that his crying was about to get a million times worse, and I had to do something, anything, quick.

I started singing. I was not a good singer. I much preferred percussion so I drummed the bars, tapped my chest, the way Gorons did at their fantastically fun parties. They had no instruments, it was just differently pitched drumming and banging that sent reverberations all through the body and into the very soul, and this was absolutely nothing like the real thing, but I remembered the rhythm and the singing melody and it was a decently well-known song. The mother picked it up, and we sang it together as quietly as we could, and the kid calmed down enough to watch this weirdly pale, weirdly thin person sing a ghost of a song that he knew from home.

Was this song about going home? I wasn't sure, it might have been, maybe it was I hoped it was. Because damn it, I couldn't imagine an escape plan that didn't involve this mother-son pair and the Sheikah father beside me even if it would require more thinking than I could afford.

I'm so sorry, Fi. Just, please, don't be dead. I'm coming.

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He'd lingered, to see what the girl would do, if she would maybe do something else particularly mad and exciting, but the cage in the distance was quiet. Had the lie sunk in, broken her spirit? Well, that was certainly… boring. He waited, just in case, thinking perhaps she was scheming.

He saw her hand stretch across the bars to the iron cage, scrabbling with the prisoners opposite. Oh? Was she making her move? The prisoners that turned out to be Deku Scrubs were bought out by their own, but beyond that, no developments. An hour later, a creature that had looked like a Goron was shoved into the cage next, but had not caused any noticeable change. That in turn was over half an hour ago.

Sighing, he made sure the papers and names he'd stolen were safely secure under his cloak, put away his looking glass, and turned to mount his horse. A rather heavy hand clamped on his shoulder and he turned, grimacing, knife in hand.

But the hand had gone just as quickly as it had come, and he recognised the face it belonged to immediately. He blinked, shocked. "Little brother?"

A scowl was his answer. "Ghirahim. What the hell are you doing here."

He was genuinely happy to see him, and scooped the younger but taller man into a hug. "Good Goddesses, you've grown. I barely recognised you!"

"What the hell are you doing here, Ghirahim?" was the uncharacteristic snarl, and Ghirahim backed off. Then again they hadn't seen each other for over ten years; how would he know what was characteristic or not?

"I could ask the same of you, brother," Ghirahim evaded, glad that he had already dismissed his usual disguise magic. "As much as a reunion is long overdue, I'm surprised as you are to find each other… here. I was leaving to make a report."

"On what?"

"Some buyers from Labrynna. There have been rumours that the Sheikah here were culled outside of Kanalet borders, and you know how that could lead to war. I was tasked to infiltrate and collect the appropriate ledgers to either confirm or disprove. Yourself?"

The defensive, angry posture slowly eased, though his hands were still fisted. "On a rescue mission."

"Oh?" Ghirahim thought of the girl, still in the Sheikah cell, and suppressed a smirk. "So far from home, too. Weren't you working for the Hylian Royal Family, now? What business do they have in the meat-market?"

Ghirahim watched his brother chew the insides of his mouth, before biting out, "Princess Zelda's friend was captured in these regions; she's worried that this is where they ended up."

"They know that Sheikah like us are a prize here, don't they?" he demanded with a touch of concern, a fraction of it real. "And the Princess sent you here?"

"Probably because of it. Those rumours of Sheikah being culled outside Kanalet's borders? The culprit's one of our own."

Ah, so that was found out now. Excellent timing for leaving this place for good, then. "Well, damn."

"Did you see anybody suspicious, while you were here? Dark hair, tall."

"Little brother, I was on a mission of my own. I was not on a lookout for blood-traitors, either."

He sighed, shaking out his blond hair. "No names that stand out in your ledgers?"

"Unfortunately my mission was mostly about buyers, not sellers. If you're looking for ledgers that deal strictly with Sheikah, go to the pens holding them, and the storehouse closest; the names and descriptions of the Sheikah captured are with the keeper, I believe his name is… Nix, or something. The names of the kidnappers are at the storehouse, and they may have the buyers' names as well, though I doubt this clot of filth is so meticulous with their books."

"You know more than I expected."

Ghirahim grinned and clicked his fingers. His hair turned orange, and his eyes became gold, and his dusky complexion added to the illusion of a bastard Gerudo wanderer. Then he mounted his white stallion with effortless ease, taking the reins and clicking his tongue. "I've been here long enough to be regarded as suspicious. I'm afraid I must go."

He stopped him, barring the way. "Ghirahim, come home. Mother worries about you."

Ghirahim snorted, pulling his mount the other way and trotting towards the exit of the slave-trade stables. "And deal with that lout of a father? No."

"He's dead. He's been dead for over four years, now. We would have told you if we'd known where you were."

The man disguised as a Gerudo blinked in surprise, but shook his head. "And what of that bastard child of his, eh? He dead, too?"

The scarred face twisted, and he grabbed Ghirahim's ankle. "She is your sister, and how she was born is not her fault. Mother's raised her as her own, I love her as my own, why can't you do the same?"

"Because she is living proof that father betrayed us. Left us, left you when you needed him most."

"Oh you're any better, leaving for over ten years."

"I've been writing letters." Ghirahim snapped, shaking the hard grip from his boot, "I've been sending aide. Aside from the absence, I think I've been a rather dutiful son. Also, I've invited you to come on adventures with me for years, don't you forget that. Most of all, clan life isn't for me. And I can't just up and come back, I've got this mission to complete."

He really hadn't expected this whole day to have degenerated into a domestic spat, that was for sure.

"Even once you're done? Not even to ease mother's worries?"

"...Maybe," he acceded, "Depending on how things go."

Especially depending on just how far his disguises and false names had kept him from being caught.

"That's all you're going to give me? Ten years, big brother, and all you'll give me is a maybe."

"I will write you. To both of you. Don't ask any more of me, Tharlaigh."

The scarred young man gritted his teeth, but stepped away. "I wish we could talk more, but I need to hurry as well. Be careful out there, big brother."

Ghirahim rolled his eyes fondly. "Like I said, I'll write you."

"And how am I supposed to reply?"

"I'll have an address soon, depending on how things go. You watch out for that blood-traitor, little brother."

And Ghirahim galloped away, grinning despite himself.

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An hour or more passed after we managed to calm little Gorko down, and I still didn't have a plan.

I'd been thinking, and failing, and tearing at my hair and my wrists, desperate for inspiration, a hint, a sign, anything. The bars I'd coated with bomb-flower pollen was just waiting to be snapped with a good kick, and I was sure there was a way to use Dorga's strength and protectiveness of her son and Renado's want to see his daughter Luda again, to this nonexistent plan but…

I couldn't share my thoughts with them.

Nixo or whatever was paying more attention after we'd sung Gorko to sleep, so Common was out. My Sheikah was shot, Dorga barely spoke Common, my knowledge of the Goron language was a smattering of words, so unless we spontaneously decided on a system of hand-signals or had a divine epiphany that resulted in freakin' telepathy, I would literally just have to blaze a path through ridiculous obstacles and desperately hope that these three would follow my lead.

This is why I prefered my own company in dangerous situations.

Not that it mattered, because my hand had been forced.

There had been distracting screeches coming from beyond the metal cage, screeches that probably anybody else, actually scratch that everybody else would have noticed and immediately worried about.

Me? Well I just thought it was annoying.

But I noticed when the door to Dorga and Gorko's cage opened, and Dorga was forced out of the cage without her child. It made no sense. Why would they separate the child from the mother, they couldn't possibly know enough about the Goron's way of life to determine that the child would survive without the adult, why…?

I had not considered that they really didn't give a rat's arse about them, that they might not even care about selling them.

Dorga was forced into the pit, the one that led to the prairies, the one that was the size of one of Zelda's garden courtyards, and the one where the screeching was coming from.

"No."

A Goron was strong but they were not fast and speed was vital when dealing with-it screeched, and Dorga roared with pain and Gorko screamed for his mother.

I'm sorry, Fi. I am so, so sorry.

"Can you get the child out?"

I had turned on Renado and it looked like he could barely believe what was happening either. He started, surprised. "What?"

I pointed at Gorko. "If I break the bars can you get that child out and into the pit with me?"

"What!?"

"DO YOU WANT TO SEE LUDA AGAIN YES OR NO!"

"Uh, y-yes, I?"

I lunged into the ceiling to grab the bars there and rammed my feet forward into the compromised bars and they fractured shattered and tore into a thousand splinters and I was running out, roaring like a monster all the way into the pit to face the Dinolfos unarmed.

It was not used to prey that came right for it so it was slow to react, which was fine, perfectly fine, I fisted my naked hands together and hammered it where the jaw met the skull, the scaly boney hinge fracturing and Din's stinking feet my hands would not be happy with me.

It staggered, it fell, and I whipped round to see if Dorga was fine, she had one nasty cut on her torso but nothing else thank Nayru, and back at Renado. "GORKO! RENADO! GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

The tail of the monster whiplashed, its axe-boned tip whistling frightfully close. A skip and a hop to get away, and whistling three piercing notes with my fingers I brought its attention solely on me, its tongue lashing out of its lolling jaw and around its fury-bright eyes. As nice as it was to know that I had incapacitated its teeth it still had a shield and a sword and a bladed tail.

And I thought facing armed guards would be a fatal disaster.

Behind it was Dorga, hands pressed firmly on the sliced side that the Dinolfos had inflicted on her, and Renado and her son joined her in a dusty cloud as they skidded down the pit edge. The guards were so far doing nothing because hey they were going into the pit with the lizard monster.

My heart was roaring up a storm, screaming at me to run run run away and I had to admit that it had a fair point, but now was not the time.

It swung twice with its stolen blade, barking its strange bark, backing me up against the wall. I circled, dodging, hands fluttering and aching before me for balance and in the position they would be in if I was goddamn armed.

"Dorga, go!"

The Goron looked up and ours eyes briefly met but I was more preoccupied with keeping my life in tact so I couldn't really look at her so I just hoped that she could see my hands. "Grab your son, roll, and go! GO!"

I was pointing fiercely at the prairies and the Dinolfos took it as an invitation to amputate my hand. I swung my limb down and around and backed away but I was cornered, I was done for, my knees buckled and I followed my own advice and rolled between its legs and scrambled away, the bladed tail whistling by my ear, every single fibre of my being calling me a blasted masochistic idiot and begging me to run the hell away.

Not yet not yet not yet not yet.

Dorga had understood me it seemed, because she grabbed her son, rolled into a ball around him and kicked up a plume of dust as she did that Goron thing and turned into a living boulder with the speed and power of a rockslide and cannoned out of the pit, into the prairies and freedom.

Two down, one to go.

I kicked away and rolled some more, my legs shaking so badly I could barely stand, I had to use the sloped wall of the pit to practically crawl upright and I could barely breathe (did I have both my hands?) my stomach was crawling up my torso and it was taking precious space from my lungs and Goddesses I couldn't, I could hardly breathe-

Archers. Aimed at Renado. They let loose.

I screamed inside, a cry so viscerally desperate I think the Triforce reacted. Time slowed. The arrows wobbled in the air like lazy snakes as they slid through the air, the Dinolfos behind looming down with the blade readying to pierce my back and this would have been a perfect chance to take it, turn on it, lop its head off, but that would equate to Renado bleeding out in the dust.

I scrambled, I sprinted, I launched myself up the lip of the pit and took the bow from archer number one, caught its arrow, kicked archer two in the back of the knee and stabbed the arrow in my hand there, catching arrow two, repeating the method with archer three but taking his quiver too, archer four and five were on the opposite end so I all I could do was catch their arrows before they respectively pierced Renado's ribs and stomach. I shot them back, taking care to aim for the kinks in their armour, and time sped up again.

The Dinolfos was confused, archer one was confused. Two and three fell screaming, clutching their knees, and four and five dropped practically silently and Renado looked at me as if both of us should be dead. My left ankle agreed; I'd twisted it during the time-shift.

I was sweating, I was shaking, but I was standing. My gullet swelled with fire, each gasp painful. A spot a little below my shoulder-blade was letting me know that I might be hurt.

I glanced down. Blood seeped down my tunic.

"Renado, are you hurt?"

"I, me? You're the one-"

"Are, you, hurt."

"No, but,"

"Can you ride? A horse, not a pony."

"I, yes? Yes," and his voice was almost resigned, "Why. Are we stealing one?"

I pressed my forefinger and thumb into my mouth, against my tongue, and whistled those three notes again twice with more urgency. "No stealing necessary."

A fierce whinny that warhorses would cower to erupted in the distance, heralded by confused shouts. Epona, my beloved, faithful beautiful Epona burst over the lip of the pit and skidded to a stop by my side, after glancing the Dinolfos with a resounding kick with her back hooves.

"Epona, rescue," I ordered, grabbing Renado and heaving him onto his feet. "Rescue, alright? Safety. Hurry up get on, that lizard's not going to stay down forever."

Renado finally swung on, and Epona huffed at me, huffed at my wound which was really beginning to burn up. More archers were gathering, unwilling to let the slave go. No time to mount her myself, and I doubted she could leave this pit with the weight of two people on her.

Renado managed to stutter a "Why?" but I slapped Epona's rump.

"Safety! Go! Hyah!"

And Epona screamed, rearing up on her hind legs and charging right out of there, ignoring the arrows that pierced her sides and I was going to murder every single one of these bastards for forcing me to do that to her.

The Dinolfos screeched and charged. Him first.

I aimed for its soft thighs, missing once out of three, and it squawked and I dodged and it slammed into the pit wall with a brutal thud and I back-back-backed away, hop-limping off my now sharply painful ankle, shooting at its head. I missed all four times, which was unbelievable but actually not because my back was flaring with agony, the cut flowing freely and considering I'd nearly bled out yesterday already my head was swinging through black clouds.

Farore please not yet not yet, once Renado was safe Epona would probably buck him off, she might come back for me which meant I had to keep fighting I had to survive, I, I only had one arrow left, and the Dinolfos was running disjointedly terrifyingly fast straight at my face.

I let loose, and it hit its eye. I dodged its blade but wasn't fast enough for the rest, a goliath of reptilian muscle slamming bodily into me.

I may or may not have blacked out.

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Somewhere, watching from afar, Ghirahim laughed.

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Panic would not let me down for longer than a few seconds, forcing me up, gasping for breath, scrabbling for freedom and just getting away from the touch of its scaly skin and there were guards and keepers and other such people skidding their way into the pit, too.

One enemy down, two, six, no eight to go.

I tore the weapon from the Dinolfos's grip, barely avoiding a deep cut on its serrated edge. But I mishandled it as I stood and I sliced my right wrist open, but not on the inside thank Hylia.

But still, it was an injury that I would have rather avoided. I staggered back, then around, forward, the sword tip hardly lifting an inch above the ground as they advanced, their own swords raised as they circled me. Sweat dripped into my eyes and I couldn't even wipe it away, knowing that once I let this sword go I was officially dead.

I was so tired. I was just, so, tired. But I had to endure, I had to, I had to, I wasn't ready to die. I didn't want to die a Hero, I wanted to be me, I didn't want this I wanted none of this, I wanted to go home.

Except home had died six years ago. Navi had died and left me here, alone, alone, alone.

What would they do to me, if I let them capture me? I didn't know what people did to slaves but I remember the Kakariko Well and its secret chambers full of torture devices. I didn't know what people did to slaves, but I knew what they did to prisoners.

I dropped to my knees, my ankle no longer able to take my weight. Leaning on the serrated blade, I let it kiss the soft skin under my jaw. Right.

I'd had enough.

I'd done enough.

I didn't know what they would do, but I knew it was nothing good, and I had a pretty good imagination when it came to morbid, awful things. Now, if I could just cut my neck deeply enough that I would go into shock, I can bleed out quietly. I could slip to sleep, go home. I stared at a guard closest to me, and smiled.

I won, gits.

"Get away from her!"

Somebody lopped the guard's head off and blood splattered disturbingly warm against my face.

I blinked. Who…?

He kicked the body down and immediately went for the next, roaring, whirling, slicing through armour with a spear with the longest blade I'd ever seen at its tip, and their focus went to him. He crouched and ducked under the shield strapped to his arm as arrows fell from the sky and he was screaming my name, and seriously, who was he?

"..in! LIN!"

Being conscious hurt. I'd nearly collapsed, my arms quaking as I kept myself from sprawling in the dirt, a part of me still very much abhorrent of the idea of simply dying because it would be so much easier. Well I had no strength left to lift the sword, now lying in the dirt, so. That was decided for me. "I'm fine."

My rescuer swore so viciously it reminded me of old men playing simvar. "Get up! Get up right now! Fi's safe, we found her, there's no reason for us to be here now just get up and get out of here!"

I finally recognised that voice. And… did he just say... ? "Fi's safe?"

"Yes!" he roared as he fought two men at once, shielding me from them, the others too wary of the Dinolfos corpse to come for me from there, "Fi's safe, she's home, we don't have to be here anymore gah!"

One of them had gotten through, sliced open his arm. The other was swinging down a killing blow.

I raised my hands and blue snapped around him and the blow bounced off harmlessly. He killed them both in one fell swoop.

What?

I looked down at my hands, my shaking useless hands, and the cut on my right wrist had broken the line of shadowscript on my skin and they were fading away, they were going, they were gone.

I had my magic back.

It crashed back in a tidal-wave and my Triforce burned with what felt like triumph and I was swallowed rushing burning riding soaring bursting with magic-magic-magic and I was wind, I was fire, and I was holy righteous vengeance, these mere mortals nothing but specks of scum before her power.

"Nayru's Mercy."

All around, blue crystals bloomed over men and women, startling them, frightening them.

"Farore's Hand."

The retainers, guards, book-keepers, stable-hands, all who had something to do with the maintenance of the complex were collected in the pit in a shower of green light.

"Din's Wrath."

Black lightning knifed down from the clear skies with shrieking cracks that slammed through the air like the Goddess's fist itself, tearing open buildings, pens, any and all structures that stood went down, freeing all who had been trapped in them. Their bonds were turned to ashes, their chains rang like silver as they shattered, and yet they were unharmed, surrounded by the light of the Goddess of wisdom and mercy.

When the black rain stopped, when the rumbling of the sky quieted, the figure glowing like a summer sky raised her hand, and pointed at the pit.

"Her pain," she said, and there was screaming, and fountains and fountains of blood.

AND SO IT ENDS

Well, no. There's still the next chapter, and the epilogue. But DID YOU GUYS LIKE IT? If you were wondering about the weird perspective change at the end of the chapter, yes it is deliberate.

What do you think about Sheik/Tharlaigh's other sibling, hmmm? :D Getting the timeline right for these guys was hard. But I did it!

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed it all, and I look forward to hearing from you guys what you thought!

REGARDS,

S.S.