Chapter 10: Snowpeak Ruins
Dad and I were in no hurry to get to Snowpeak; we would have to stop somewhere to find winter cloaks considering that collecting them from our castle would be impossible. Dad told me to take the mountain trail to the north field and there was a secret cave that would lead us to Zora's Domain which in turn would lead us to Snowpeak. The horses took a break from galloping and we allowed them to make a steady walk through the trail.
My heart ached the whole way; all I could think about was Relena's betrayal and how I just left her to fend for herself. The anger inside of me didn't want to think about it; she had been fine on her own before she met us and she'd be fine now. But my heart…what was my heart saying? Why did I feel so destroyed and so defeated over this? In my heart, Relena was my best friend, she was the one girl who stood by me no matter what and she had been there for me for most of this journey. The shock of her betrayal and the way she made me feel over this course of time, made it that much worse. I sighed internally.
"What is it Son?" Dad asked me.
"What?"
"You've been sighing since we left Lake Hylia." So much for "internally." "This is about Relena isn't it?"
I had always been able to tell my Dad what's been on my mind but did I really want to spill my whole heart? Would it take away this ache along with it? I didn't care, I needed to talk about it. "Dad, how could she do it?" I knew he'd understand what I meant.
"I'm afraid Relena is the only one that can answer that question for you. Are you sure it was right to leave her on her own?"
I sighed again. "I don't know Dad. My mind says one thing and my heart says another. But I have to believe that leaving a traitor behind in order to save my mother and my kingdom is the best thing to do."
"That's what your mind says." Dad smiled at me. He had just been talking about right or wrong when it came to Relena but he still found it in his heart to smile at me. I think I was beginning to understand unconditional love and what that really meant. "What does your heart say Landon?"
I stared down at Rain's mane, trying to decipher between two conflicting sides. Was Relena really a traitor? Have the past eight years been a lie? But what about the Relena I know from this journey? I felt things for her that I never felt before. She and I have done things together that I could never accomplish on my own. So maybe…just maybe… "Dad, I think I…"
"Look there Landon." We could see our beloved castle once we entered the field. The fires had grown, in size and intensity. The townspeople were dashing through the gates, probably on all sides, desperately trying to put some distance between them and the hellish flames. A woman carrying a baby and two children at her heels ran up to our horses, spooking them in the process.
"OH! Praise the goddesses. It's you King Link. Castle Town is being destroyed and most of the guard is wiped out."
Father looked apprehensive. "Don't fear my dear subject," he said to her. "Prince Landon and I are in search for our beloved Queen. When we rescue her, we will deal with this pestering abomination."
The woman reached for my father's hand. "Oh thank you King Link. How can I ever repay you?"
He pulled out something from the satchel on Epona's left side. "Take this. It will summon a palace horse for you and your children. Take the horse and flee to Kakariko for the time being. Please guide others with you and if a guard should see you, give him this." He handed her a handkerchief with our family symbol on it. "Tell that guard that I personally gave you this and the horse and told you to guide everyone to Kakariko Village. When I have dealt with the problem at hand, I will send word to return home."
She thanked him again and took the charm. "Let's go Landon." He said to me. "The quicker we find your mother, the quicker we can save Hyrule. YAH!" We forced the girls into a full gallop as we traveled the last mountain trail to the cave. We had no other choice but to leave the horses at the mouth of the cave and continue on foot; Father said the cave was too treacherous for the horses to handle. Especially poor Epona, whose age kept showing every day in new ways.
I was taken aback by the sight of Zora's Domain; it was beautiful. The river flowed so majestically without cease, the Zoras swam without a care in the world. What I wouldn't give to be so free and easy. "Keep up Landon, we've got a long trek ahead of us." I hustled to catch up.
"So how do we get to Snowpeak from here?" I asked.
"First, we're going to see King Ralis and ask for winter cloaks. Then, we'll climb down the falls to a cave underneath our feet. Once we're through there, we have to climb the mountain." We climbed the falls to the throne room where King Ralis sat. Dad gave him our request and he complied. We gave him our thanks, a few rupees, and we made our way back down the falls. It was a little tricky and I would have fallen in some places had it not been for Dad pulling me back up.
The cave was right where Dad said it would be and I could feel the frosty air blowing through. Dad and I wrapped our winter cloaks around our shoulders and hiked up through the cave. The blistery winds picked up the closer we got to the mountain. The windblown snow was piercing into my eyes, nearly blinding me. "Do you remember where to go Father?" I asked.
"Well, that's the problem Son. But I have an idea how we can trek across this." He said. He took off his cloak and put on a glove."
"What are you doing Dad?"
"Son, there were some things I didn't tell you about my first adventure." He proceeded to explain to me about the Twilight that cloaked the kingdom and what happened when he entered it.
"So, you can turn into a wolf?"
"Yeah but there is one catch, I have to touch this from the Twilight Realm." He held up the thing he pulled out of his pocket that was wrapped in several handkerchiefs. "This is a gift from the princess of the realm, she helped me a lot and this is her gift for me and she told me to limit how many times I use it. This is a time for it." Dad touched the rock with his other hand and quickly wrapped it back up and put it in his pocket. Suddenly he clenched his fists and grunted in pain; he was starting to bend over and fall to his knees.
"Dad? Dad!" I cried out, placing a hand on his shoulder. His shirt was soon replaced by soft, black and white fur. I watched my father transform into a wolf before my very eyes. I jumped back, away from the wolf and I landed directly on my butt. I scrambled to get away but the wolf shook its head as if to say, "No it's okay." The wolf slowly crept close to me and crouched in front of me. He grumbled a little but laid down for me to pet him. "Cool trick Dad. You know, I wasn't that scared." He huffed, kind of like a chuckle. "Really, I wasn't."
Dad waited for me to grab his scruff before he started sniffing. I tried my hardest to keep up with him but it proved really difficult. I trekked as fast as I could and Dad scouted ahead but turned his head to make sure I was keeping up. We finally reached the top next to a giant tree when Dad snapped a necklace from around his neck; it was the rock that turned him into a wolf. He touched it with his nose and the wolf disappeared to reveal my father once more. He stretched his shoulders, and his back. "Haven't done that in a long time." He said. He smacked the tree and a sheet of ice dropped from it. "Grab one Son, and try to keep up." He winked at me.
"What are we doing?"
"Don't worry, it's fun. I'll even race you, what do you say?" He asked. I smiled and knocked a sheet of ice down.
"You're on Pops." He laughed and we lined up in the same spot.
"Ready, set, go!" Dad said and we pushed off. We raced down the mountain, I started to beat him but he ducked down lower and sped passed me. I saw the gigantic mansion at the bottom and I nearly let Dad pass me. I decided to play dirty; I launched myself from my sheet of ice and grabbed my dad around the waist, knocking him into the snowy pile before the bridge. "Hey!" Dad hollered.
We picked ourselves out of the snow, brushing it off of our shoulders. We sat and laughed together and in that brief moment, we were our old selves. We were father and son again. "You weren't supposed to cheat." Dad said.
"I don't like to lose Dad."
"You're definitely my son." He chuckled again. He became very serious. "We need to get going. Your mother might be freezing." He helped me to my feet and we knocked on the door. A very tall creature answered the door.
"Oh, it's tiny human. Come in!" The creature beckoned. We followed the creature into the giant mansion and everywhere I looked, there were giant, gaping holes in the ceiling, in the floor, and even the walls. They didn't call this place Snowpeak Ruins just for the fun of it. We found another giant creature sitting by the hearth, with a glowing fire crackling. "So, what bring you back again? Looking for more friends?"
"No this time it's my wife. We were both captured by someone out to destroy the kingdom. We need to find her."
"You lost wife? Very sorry to hear. We no see anyone come through. Welcome to look."
"Thank you. Come on Landon." We searched every room, fighting snow beast after snow beast. Each time we came up empty, I grew more and more discouraged that we were ever going to find my mother.
"Dad, I don't think Mom is here." I said.
"I'm starting to think that too." He said and sighed. "Well, maybe we should…" A terrible roar sounded from the third floor. Dad and I rushed through this broken hallway, up the ladder. "Come on, this way!" Dad shouted. We sprinted up a ramp to a giant door and burst through. We found Yeto and Yeta cringing in fear from a giant snow creature forming in the middle of their bedroom. "Landon, I want you to wait outside."
"No, I'm staying and I'm going to fight."
"Landon please." He unsheathed his sword and I did as well. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore. I can do this." We prepared for battle together.
"Alright, try to keep up." I took the first lunge and landed a blow directly on the monster. "Not bad." Dad complimented. "But this isn't just for show Son." He hit the monster as it tried to come near us. "We have to kill this monster now."
"Okay, so what do we do? What's our strategy?" I asked.
"You cover the left, I'll take the right and we'll ambush it." I rushed off to the left side of the monster and Dad tried to lure the monster to his side but its eyes were fixed on me. "Landon, look out!" I looked up to see the monster's hand about to come down on my head. "Get out of the way!"
I rolled to my right and the hand just missed me. Feeling dissatisfied, the monster continued to go for me. "Get away from my son!" Dad suddenly shouted. The monster turned its hideous gaze on my dad.
"Dad, get out of the way!" I screamed. I tried to focus his attention back on me.
"Landon no!" The monster swung again to hit me.
"Landon, watch out!" A familiar female voice screamed. She shoved me out of the way and the monster's finger just hit her into the wall.
"Relena! No!" I screamed. The sight of her, limp on the floor sparked a fury so powerful I forgot that we could all die; I forgot everything except this monster hurt the girl I cared for the most in the world. I slashed away at him; recalling everything Dad taught me at once. Dad filled in the spaces I didn't hit and the monster finally went down and burst into a thick cloud of black smoke. I threw down my sword and ran to Relena. "Relena? Relena? Are you okay?" I held her head in my hand and tried to lift her up.
"Landon?"
"Yes. It's me."
"I'll carry her down to the hearth." Dad said, picking her up like a swaddling babe and carrying her out of the bedroom door.
Dad found some blankets to wrap around the two of us as we gathered around the hearth. I wanted so desperately to talk to her but I was at a loss for words; what should I say? Instead of making an idiot out of myself, I stared at the fire, watching the dancing flames and listening to the calm crackling. Dad cleared his throat after a few minutes and talked to Yeto and Yeta.
"Yeto, Yeta, why don't we go into the kitchen and cook some soup so the kids can talk?" The three of them cowered behind the door and I knew it was time to talk.
"So, what are you doing here?"
"Saving your butt apparently." She tried to joke.
"Thank you, by the way."
"You're welcome."
"No really." I looked at her for the first time in what felt to my heart like an eternity. "Thank you. After the way I acted, I'm surprised you even wanted to save me."
She sighed. "I can't say I would've blamed you. You have every right to be upset with me and I know I deserve it."
"No. I was wrong Relena. You may have started out with bad intentions but you changed over the last eight years. We both have. I was wrong to leave you behind with no way to fend for yourself." She smiled at me.
"Thank you Landon." We sat there for a moment, not saying a word. My heart couldn't take this silence anymore, I wanted to tell her and I wanted to tell her now.
"So, you followed us didn't you?" I asked.
"Yes, I did. I was trailing you ever since you left Lake Hylia. It was harder keeping up with you coming down the mountain but I kept a safe enough distance that you didn't know I was there."
"But why? Why didn't you just…let yourself be seen? Why didn't you just come up to us?"
She looked into my eyes, with tears spilling out of hers. "Because you said you didn't want to see me again."
"Relena, I said a lot of things back at the Lake. I was just so angry because I thought that everything I knew, everything I felt about you for the last eight years had been a total lie. You can't even imagine how that feels so I said things that…I didn't mean. I'm sorry."
"Landon, I don't want you to apologize. You had every right to say those things, you had every right to be hurt and feel betrayed. I deserved everything you did to me."
"No. Because you're a good person Relena, you really are." She stood up, with her blanket still wrapped around her shoulders and stood closer to the hearth. I stood up next to her. "Relena, when I thought that monster had killed you, I was even angrier than finding out you betrayed me. You mean the world to me. I'm sorry I almost ruined it. But I have one more question, why do you keep saving me when this Demetrius guy is trying so hard to kill me?"
She took a deep breath. "When I heard your dad, calling your name from the third floor, all I could think about was how much I didn't want to lose you. For good. All I could think was, "Please, don't let him get hurt. Please hold on until I get there.'"
"But why?"
"Because…I'm in love with you Landon." She finally looked at me, completely crying. "I'm sorry I was working with Demetrius but I swear to you, I broke it off with him a year before this all happened. I would've broken it off sooner but…I was unsure of my feelings and then this all just happened and I was forced to accept them and now here I am, standing in a freezing cold mansion in front of a fire with the man I love that also hates me. I'm sorry I betrayed you Landon, I'm so sorry." I pulled her into my blanket and held her, smelling her hair and igniting all of those feelings I had before the betrayal.
"I love you too Relena."
She pulled back just far enough to see my face. "Really? You don't have to say that you know."
"Actually I do. I've been keeping that in for so long now. I have to be honest, when Dad and I left you, all I felt was a hollow emptiness and my heart ached so much I had no idea why. But when I saw you lying helpless on the floor like that, I honestly thought you died. I told myself over and over again that you were okay and you would get back up but I couldn't convince myself. Then I caught myself thinking, "What if I never got to tell her I love her?" So here I am, holding the girl I love and I never want to let go again." I smiled and kissed her forehead gently.
My little speech made her cry even harder and she pressed her face into my chest inside my blanket. I looked up and saw Dad peeking through the kitchen door, with a big smile on his face too. He gave me a thumbs up and closed the door. Relena and I held each other until it became too hot in the blanket to stand in front of the hearth. "Now what?" Relena asked.
"Now, we have to find my mother."