Damn, chapter 40 already… and not an easy one to write… but definitely a fun one. As always, thank you all so much for your brilliant support! It absolutely helps fuel this tired brain of mine. That and coffee.
One thing I always wonder writing this: how many of you catch on to little details before I reveal what they mean… am I making it too obvious? Am I making it too obscure? Ideally you figure out some of it after a while, so you can feel satisfied when you're right… It is a game about riddles and puzzles, after all…
Enough rambling! Enjoy!
Chapter 40
Link
When the information from his ears finally reached his hormone drowned brain, he started up and listened.
"What is that?" Zelda asked, wide eyed.
Ding-ding. Ding-ding. Ding-ding, the bell went in an urgent speed that could only mean danger.
"Alarm! Fire or… attack!" Link gasped as he jumped from the bed to look out the small window. No orange shine that might forewarn a fire… either it was too small yet… or…
He could hear the hasty trampling of the other guests in their rooms or the corridor. Their voices rang chaotically through their door, some fearful, some angry.
"What do we do?" Zelda asked breathlessly, her face pale, redoing her buttons.
What indeed? If it is an attack, stay here, barricaded, easily forced into a corner with no escape? What if it is a fire? This room could be their death-trap… Go outside then? Into the open to a confusing web of tiny streets where they could be easily assaulted from multiple sides?
…what if people needed his help? Zelda was his first priority, yes, but… would he just abandon others to get her to safety? Could he leave her somewhere in possibly illusionary safety so he might protect others?
He needed to make a decision… but what does one do when every path was the wrong one?
"Get your sword and take one of my knives. We need to know what's going on." he commanded quickly, grabbing his own sword and shield.
"What about the horses? Could we ride out if we had to?" she asked, donning her sword-belt and trying to affix the knife's sheath to it and failing because of hasty inexpertness.
"The gates will be closed for the night and they won't open them until they're sure that nothing wants to get in that way." he explained, helping her with the knotting. "Besides, if there's chaos on the streets, we can't get through easily with our mounts…" That was, of course, not entirely true, as he was sure she knew. Two war-horses could easily force themselves through a crowd, but such a drastic measure would be sure to result in many injuries of the innocent. He knew any such action would be inconceivable for her and he was glad for it.
They opened the door to pandemonium in the corridor. Apparently the entrance hall downstairs was full and people were scrambling and pushing to get down as well, either hoping to have safety in numbers, or simply because they blindly followed the mass. A veritable barrage of shouts, grunts, curses and angry opinions hit their ears. "It's a fire, I tell you! We need to get out!" a stout, red haired woman yelled, seemingly near hysteria.
"Nonsense! The fire bell sounds different!" A surprisingly noble looking thin man supplied, nervously twisting his moustache.
"And how would you know that? Get the hell outta my way!" a red faced, bald brute growled, attempting to get further ahead, not shy to use his bulk.
"Everybody knows that, you fool! And stop shoving this instant or you'll regret it!" the thin man hissed.
"What is it then, pray? A fucking monster attack? Don't be ridiculous!" baldy scoffed, spraying spit with every syllable.
"Haven't you heard of the two kinds what got mauled? Sounds right of monsters to me!" a woman behind him opined.
"Bah! Two shits break their necks in the hills and you sheep think it's the end-times! Morons!" the brute shouted, trying once again to jostle forward.
"You know what you are, you mother…" the noble looking man roared, obviously losing his cool. But before everybody around had a chance to find out what exactly he was, the people ahead started moving. Apparently someone had decided to go outside to either find out more or gawk… and, naturally, had started a near mindless, crowd-mentality-driven efflux. 'If everyone does it, it must be alright, right?'
"Stay close to me, tell me immediately if you think something's wrong, no matter what it is, keep your left hand on your sheath, so you can draw your sword immediately." Link said quietly and curtly and waited for her to nod her understanding. He gave her a very brief, encouraging smile before leading the way down. Something gnawed at him… a feeling in his gut that he couldn't quite grasp, even less than a premonition…
Downstairs a few people had remained inside, possibly too intimidated to brave the unknown outside. They were pressing around the windows, though, trying to curb their curiosity without having to leave the perceived safety of the interior.
"Is it smart to go outside?" Zelda asked justifiably. Din's fire, he wished he had answers to these potentially life-deciding questions… He felt like a toddler in the woods, lost himself, but still responsible for his little sister… He also didn't know whether he should follow his instincts and sell them as tactical deliberations to make her feel safe, or openly admit that he was painfully unsure himself.
"Not at the moment, I don't think. We will let the crowd outside be our eyes and ears for now."
He stepped a little closer to the open door and gazed at the throng of confused and nervous men and women, craning their necks in every direction, hoping to detect anything that might shed some light on what was going on. At least a dozen arguments were going on where poorly supported theories were thrown around as facts, mostly to make themselves appear secure and on top of the whole situation. It appeared as if the majority of inhabitants from this street's houses had gathered… All faces were tense, the attempts at humour forced, as was the resulting laughter, shrill and too loud. Link wondered whether this almost tangible anxiousness was just a result of uncertainty, or whether these people could, somehow, sense that something terrible was about to occur.
A very faint, high-pitched noise made him look to the left, toward the main boulevard. It was a bell, the small piercing bell the night watch would carry to signal peril to all others in the vicinity. It came closer, and quickly. Someone was running towards them, ringing the signal non-stop.
Now the crowd had heard too. Their impotent squabbling had stopped almost instantly, and all eyes were aimed at where the noise came from in breathless silence.
A hysterical tolling like this left very little room for speculation…
Two guards rounded the corner, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. When they saw the throng in the street, the superior redoubled his urgent ringing.
"Into your homes!" he yelled, breathless. "Go back inside, in the name of the king!" His heavy armour clanking, he started running again, in a speed that made it clear that he wouldn't stop for anyone who still stood in the streets when he came through. It took a second of startled fright for the crowd to react.
Then it was chaos.
People ramming into each other, trying to beeline to the safety of their homes through and over anyone who stood in their way, others confused and panicked, running this way and that, desperate to remember where they came from. The fool of a guard had, as Link had feared, crashed into the people at the front who couldn't have possibly made way quick enough because of the milling, precipitate mob behind them.
This was bad… Link had no illusions that these two watchmen were in no way battle-hardened warriors, but to see them this recklessly afraid… One thing was clear: now it had become imperative that he know what was going on.
"Stay here!" he commanded her in a tone that tolerated no buts. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out of the way of the men that were storming back in. He had to yell to make himself heard over the din of stomping and shouting. "If they close everything, go to our room, understand?!" He hated that he had to be so brusque to her of all people, but there was no time. He couldn't even wait for her to signal her understanding… he needed to get out before the soldiers had shouldered their way through and had sprinted on.
Using sheer strength and his slim frame he wormed past the crowd trying desperately to get in, receiving many an elbow in the ribs and stomach.
He kept to the wall, trying to circumnavigate the worst of the pandemonium of shoving, yelling and trampling. He had completely lost the pair of guards in the mad chaos… he hoped that he wasn't too late, or that they hadn't given up on their attempt to find another way through. The bell was silent too; it was of no use now… it could restore order about as much as its shrill noise could calm these tempers. For all he knew his two targets were already trampled by hundreds of scared, hasty feet… no badge or king's name could have protected them…
Right in front of Link a woman was bodily shoved out of the way, screaming in fright or pain as she stumbled backwards. He dived forward and caught her, barely standing her back up before others could stomp over her legs. One brief, startled look was all the reward he got before she ran off, trying to get to safety.
Suddenly he saw them only a couple of metres away. The guy in the front had raised his truncheon over his head, either to signal his comrade where he was or to try to beat people out of the way… Link clenched his jaw. For this man's sake, he hoped it was the former.
Redoubling his effort to move around the now thinning chaos, he manoeuvred to a point where he predicted they would emerge.
Here they were, and as soon as they saw that the way on was mostly clear, they began running. Link barely had time to step in their way.
"Wait! What is happening?" he asked loudly, holding out his hand without actually touching either of the two.
"Move, boy!" the first one yelled, raising his truncheon, hysteria in his voice. When he didn't move instantly, the man's hand twitched downwards, but… something made him stop… something in the very calm stare that Link gave him, completely unthreatening, yet somehow much more terrifying because of it.
"Calm yourself, soldier! These people depend on you remaining composed. Is that understood?" He growled, assuming an air of high command so easily it surprised him. So much so that he nearly dropped the act.
Even more amazing… it seemed to work. After a moment of terrified indecision, the guard lowered his club and started breathing deeply, more easily. Only now did Link realize how young he was, probably just two years his senior. He probably had never drawn this weapon in earnest… his twitching, wide open eyes screamed just how out of his depth the poor lad was… The emergence of someone who gave any sort of direction was probably like a deliverance from responsibility for him…
"Good. I am knight-aspirant Link Andrésson. You will report the situation and your last orders!" he commanded, still staring the lad unblinkingly in his eyes. He produced his badge and held it on eye-level for both guards to see. "Be quick about it, man!"
The two young soldiers' training kicked in at the harsh tone and they snapped to rigid attention. "Full report, sir!" the first one yelled dramatically.
Link nearly burst out laughing, but caught himself just in time… sticking to their drilled in routine in this sea of madness they felt themselves drown in probably was the only comfort those wretched boys could get right now. It was even more ridiculous because, technically, he had absolutely no authority over men of the watch as a mere aspirant. But he wasn't about to argue the finer points of the chain of command when something had these two sprinting like lunatics.
"Report!"
"15 minutes after the midnight bell squad six found th… the… the bodies of squad five, sir. Up on the eastern hill, sir. Attackers gone from the scene, sir, but… their wounds, sir, they…" the lad swallowed and even under the shadow of his too large helmet, Link could see that he had gone chalk-white.
"Monsters? Claws and teeth?" he asked curtly.
"Aye, sir. I… I've never seen anything like it…" he stammered. 'You've probably never seen any monster…' Link thought to himself.
"Continue!"
"Only one of the men had their weapons drawn, sir… they were surprised. Sergeant Gart's blade was covered in dark blood, though, so he at least got one of them!" the young man hissed grimly. In his eyes, full of dark anger now, Link could see that he had lost friends in this squad…
"The alarm was rung and squads 11 through 18 were ordered to split up into pairs and comb the streets and make sure that no-one was to be found outside, sir! We are squad six, originally, sir, but… sergeant said we should make ourselves useful…"
Probably sent the poor sods away so they had something to do and didn't have to think about the horror they had just witnessed, Link thought.
"Very good… constable." he answered after looking at his chevron. "Have there been any other encounters with the enemy?"
"No, sir! I mean, I know of none, sir!" the lad muttered hastily.
"Very well, constable. Carry on with your orders. And don't let me catch you lifting your truncheon for anything other than self defence again, understood? You are here to protect these men and women, is that not so?" he questioned with a voice as unyielding as steel.
The young soldier's Adam's apple bobbed violently for a moment. "Aye sir! It will not happen again, sir!"
Link nodded, his gaze stern. "Dismissed."
The two actually snapped a crackling salute, then ran off as if he were the one truly scary thing they had faced tonight.
He looked around at the now silent town in this moonless night. The crowd had finally dispersed, but the air of tension and fear was now even more oppressing in the quiet that had come after the din. He felt the hairs on the nape of his neck stand on end… at least now he was pretty certain what had attacked the poor, unprepared guards… and it wasn't good…
He jogged back towards the inn. Hazily, he could see a lot of faces behind the dull glass, watching him, whispering. He could almost feel the fear pouring outside… trying to get these men and women to open this door for him would take minutes of painstaking explanation to allay their fear induced stupidity. Time he didn't want to spend.
Trusting that his intelligent Zelda would have done as he had asked her, even without understanding it at the time, he circled around the building into the back alley where their window was. All were closed, which pleased him greatly. She was a smart one! Thankfully he had counted the number of rooms they had passed to get to theirs. He picked up a tiny pebble and threw it at the wooden shutter.
She opened it instantly, looking afraid, but determined. Upon seeing him, she smiled in a way that made his knees wobble. "Farore's mercy, thank you!" she breathed, relief so clear in her voice that he felt a substantial amount of guilt for worrying her so. She disappeared very briefly before chucking down a length of rope. She grinned at his perplexed look. "Where…"
"I… appropriated it!" she giggled as he began climbing. "From the laundry room… they were all far too busy to notice! Tied it to the bed-post!" Her proud tone of voice made him smirk.
"Remind me why I am supposed to take care of you?"
It only took him a few seconds to ascend the rope to the first floor. He was barely in the room when Zelda planted a very urgent kiss on his lips, nearly knocking him back out the window. Then she pulled back, crossed her arms and glared at him. "Now, you better tell me that this has been worth it, you, you…" she growled menacingly, apparently unable to find an expletive that conveyed what utter scum he was. But, of course, he knew that she knew that he couldn't have taken her with him into the panicky crowd… there was no way he could have reliably kept her safe.
"It was… I think I know what has entered the town…" He swallowed, reviewing what he had learned for at least the tenth time, hoping another conclusion would arise. "Lizalfos…"
For a second she looked as if she didn't believe him… he couldn't fault her for that…
"But… here?" she asked as uncertainty crept over her mind.
"I know, but… it's the only thing that makes sense to me. Creatures that can climb up a steep, rocky cliff, carrying two Hylians. Creatures that are stupid enough to attack a whole town. Creatures that can overpower a squad of town-guards before they can even raise alarm." He listed, extending a finger for each point.
Zelda swallowed heavily. "Why would they come here? Why now? Why leave the mountains?"
"Why indeed… why are there suddenly Bokoblin roaming the heartlands when there were none for decades? Centuries even! Maybe they are all starting to hear their master's call…" he said darkly.
He could see her balling her hand to a fist, digging her nails into her flesh, possibly trying to keep calm. He couldn't watch it, he reached over to take her hand, closed the window behind him, annoyed that he hadn't done so sooner, and led her to the bed to sit down. As he sat beside her, he could feel her tremble ever so slightly… he placed a calming hand on her back, but couldn't find the right words, if there were any.
The reptilian beasts were very bad news… 'If you see a Lizalfos it's either fight or die.' an old adage said, alluding to the fact that you simply can not flee from them. They could run faster, they could climb faster, they could swim faster… If you weren't on a horse in full gallop when you encountered one, you had only one choice: Try your luck killing it, for running only meant waiting for an inevitable sharp pain in your back, followed by a gruesome death. And they were so utterly unencumbered by intelligence that they knew little to no fear. There was another adage… 'Men knew no true fear until first stalked by the demon in lizard's skin.'
"What do we do?" the miraculous girl beside him asked with such determination that he couldn't help but admire her. But goddess help him, what could he answer?
"First off, the inside is no real protection. These things can climb pretty much any surface and enter through every window. But it's still better than roaming the nightly streets…" he began, hoping a solution would present itself while he was talking… he doubted it. "Ideally these things will just gorge themselves on whatever food they find in the markets and then bugger off… The watch won't catch them, they're too good at hiding and move too quickly."
"They are nocturnal hunters…" Zelda mused. "They're rarely active for more than a few hours, I've read… So maybe we should wait for the morning?"
His little scholar, he thought, smiling. "I believe so… we…"
He stopped, his smile wilted away. He had clearly heard something from… above!
The roof was slanted steeply, no hylian would find purchase there… no hylian…
He heard it again, much clearer now… something hard, like claws, scraping over tiles, not loud, quite the opposite… Something large, creeping very carefully, its tough nails making barely a whisper over the slippery surface…
Link's heart began to race… why, of all the houses in the town, were they here?!
"Link!" he heard her tiny squeak beside him. Startled, he realized he had clenched his hand with her fingers still in it. He opened his cramped fist and eyed her in horror as she massaged her hand. "I'm so sorry!" he breathed, but she brushed his words away with a gruff gesture. There was silence for a while... he thought he could hear a very faint sniffing, but couldn't be sure that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. They, too, were quiet, barely daring to breathe.
After an endless minute, they heard the scraping again, moving along the building, then vanishing into stillness once more.
No words were spoken for another few seconds, all senses strained to the max, hoping that nothing would return.
Zelda broke the silence. "Link… they're here for us!" she whispered, her voice cracking, her expression terrified.
He eyed her, jaw clenched, thinking furiously. Of course that thought had crossed his mind, but... he wasn't convinced of it… there was no real proof, this could still be coincidence! But the most worrying thought, were it true, would be: how?
"Why do you think that?" he wanted to know, hoping against his conviction that she had said that out of a spell of hysteria and not cool consideration.
"Think about it! They appear a few days before us. Their one and only target so far was… a young couple…" her voice failed her and she put her hand over her mouth, her eyes tearing up. "They thought they were us… I heard a woman downstairs… they were sixteen… and both blonde…"
Link's insides turned to ice. She was right, she had to be… A group of Lizalfos attacking two people resembling them, then roaming the streets at night without any further attacks… until the very night Zelda and he arrived… These things weren't here by accident… they had very specific prey in mind…
And now they were here…
But that wasn't the worst part… "The people downstairs! Everyone is in danger because of us!" she breathed, nervously biting her finger. Link clenched his jaw… yes, his first priority was Zelda, but he just could not be so callous as to dismiss these men and women and leave them to their fate… he simply didn't have it in him. And he knew she would never allow her people being put at risk for her.
Somewhere in the building the old wood creaked, as it had a dozen times before… only now every sound was a potential portent for disaster and they both jumped. …no more sounds could be heard, apart from the occasional gust of wind.
"What do we do?" Zelda asked shrilly, desperation now obvious in her voice. "They will find us! The people down there, they…" She suddenly had a far off look, her beautiful features twisted into a grimace of utter horror. "A man drowning in his own blood! Another getting stabbed, trying to protect a woman! She screams, then dies too! …blood everywhere, and dread, and death! They die because they're in the way! The beasts don't care! They…"
Link grabbed her head, terrified, his heart storming at a deadly pace, and gruffly forced her to face him. "Look at me! Zelda!" he hissed, shaking her as gently as he possibly could. "Look. At. Me!"
Slowly, as if with great difficulty, her eyes focused on his, her extremely wide pupils got back to normal. After another second, she started breathing again and her suddenly cold fingers gripped his arms like a drowning man would a life saver.
"There you go. Focus on me! You're here with me! Nobody's dead downstairs! They haven't found us!" he whispered, fixating on her shining eyes, trying his utmost to give her calmness, even though he felt like he had none himself.
She was panting rapidly, unconsciously digging her nails into his skin… she seemed to teeter on the verge of complete panic, staring into his eyes as if they were her only safe haven, and losing them meant the descent into madness. Her face contorted as if she was about to violently sob, worrying him so much he felt his own breath catch in his throat… but she caught herself, biting down on her lip like pain might help carry her back into the now.
"We need to leave!" she said so silently it was almost inaudible.
He believed her… to think anything of what he had just witnessed was acted would be the height of foolishness. Her hands still were ice cold, she trembled like a leaf in a gale and there was such terror in those eyes he loved so much, it made his stomach churn.
"Please!" she pleaded.
He nodded, although he didn't like it one bit. Leaving now, with these monsters doubtlessly still in the vicinity, felt completely, catastrophically wrong. But if it was the only way to keep innocents from harm… He couldn't protect them all, if it came to a fight. But, he grimly vowed, he could protect her. Besides… whatever Zelda had seen, it frightened her to the death! And he was not about to let her live through another… phantasm like that!
They probably had a little bit of time left… somehow these bloody creatures knew their approximate location… but they wouldn't charge into a building until they were certain. Blind slaughter did not aid their hunt.
"Then we have to brave the streets… Do you remember where the nearest guard office was?" he asked, moving his hands to her shoulders, which he held firmly, but supportively, attempting to hold her in reality, if she was still at risk of losing it.
For a moment she seemed to have problems concentrating, her brow furrowed, trying to think. "We walked past it… twice… it's just on the way we came here, right?" she replied uncertainly, something obviously distracting her.
"And you remember the way we came here?" he followed up. He had to make sure she knew the way in case they were separated… in case he had to stay behind…
"I do." She answered, more firmly now.
"Good. That's where we're going for now. These offices are usually built to have only one exit to keep arrestees from escaping. Few ways out means few ways in. And there will be one or two guardsmen left there to aid us. Agreed?" He had formed this plan relatively quickly, so he hoped he wasn't making a grave miscalculation.
Zelda nodded, her gaze much clearer now, though still rife with heart-pounding tension. He could sense by her terror-stricken eyes and the tremble in her shoulders just how scared she was to go out into the suddenly so deadly streets. He knew how she felt… he was too.
"Get what you have to, but nothing that encumbers you or limits your movement. Go!" he ordered, hastening to his own bag where he snatched the heavy purse, poured about a quarter of the shiny crystals into his own pouch and affixed it to his belt by its leather strap. He also grabbed the rolled up parchment with the king's seal and stuffed it into his tunic. What he wouldn't give for bottomless pockets…
When he turned back around, Zelda stood ready… pale, jaw clenched, her hand cramped around the sheath of her sword, once again strong willed… Whatever nightmare had befallen her, she had overcome it… unfortunately he had no time to be proud of her.
"Good. We climb." he whispered. He had been straining his ears the whole time, but no suspicious noises were heard… Either the scaled monsters were combing the roofs somewhere else, or… or they already knew where they were and simply lay in waiting motionlessly. Why the hell didn't he know how good their hearing was? Could they have heard their whispered conversation through wood and tiles, and through the hubbub from the common room? Conceivably… he just didn't bloody know!
"I go first and signal you I think it's safe." Link breathed and, exceedingly carefully, opened the window. Sticking his blonde head out just enough to get a glimpse of the outside, he surveyed the street below and twisted his neck to see the overhanging roof above. Nothing could be seen… but in a back-alley on a cloudy night there were enough dark corners to hide a Goron mining party…
Moving as silently as he possibly could, he stepped onto the sill, let the hempen rope back down and, deliberately, rappelled onto the cobbles below.
The hairs on his neck stood on end… he felt as unprotected as a child alone in the mountains. After a brief but thorough look around, and an even more careful listen, he gave the rope a gentle flick that travelled all the way up. Immediately, Zelda appeared, nimbly clambering over the windowsill, careful that her rapier didn't bump against anything during her acrobatics. As she hung herself out the window, her weight now fully supported by the hemp, the moon broke through the clouds for the first time that night. Link started at the sudden light, but after quick thinking decided that this could only be an advantage… Lizalfos were nocturnal, as she had said… so they would see better at night anyway… ergo, the more light he and Zelda had, the more even they were on that field.
Through her motions, the end of the rope scraped against the cobbles… a tiny noise, but in the surrounding silence it rang out like the screech of a dozen Zora violins. Link bent down to pick the end up but stopped abruptly, eyes widened in shock, not even daring to breathe. Right in front of him, only visible now in the moonlight, was a trail of dark, almost black blood… "At least he got one of them!" the lad had said… Just a few speckles here and there, but… dreadfully, heart-stoppingly fresh…
"DROP!" he roared, his skin going both hot and cold. It was a testament to her trust that only after a heartbeat of consideration she let herself fall. In the infinitely distended second that followed, Link saw how a shadow, completely invisible up until now, had jumped from under the opposite building's overhanging roof and was already, unstoppably, flying towards his falling Zelda.
It would smash into her! They were still too high up, he couldn't jump that! What could he do?! There was no time, even drawing his sword would take too long, he only had… the rope! Acting on pure instinct, and praying that whatever gift he possessed would grant him strength for just this moment, he yanked at the hempen cord with all his might. For a miniscule, horrible instant he believed he had failed and all was lost…
But with a sudden sharp wooden snap the rope came loose and, still perceiving everything in panicky slowness, he watched as the bed-post it had been tied to sailed out the window and towards the creature plunging from above. It crashed into its shoulder, twisting it around in the air just enough, changing its trajectory just enough that its claws, glinting in the moonlight, missed Zelda's neck and found only air.
Releasing the rope he dampened her impact with the ground, then pushed her behind him and drew his sword. The Lizalfos had rallied impossibly well… it hadn't crashed with the inn's wall, it had landed on it as if it were solid ground, had turned its ugly head towards them and was flexing the muscles in its legs, getting ready for another jump.
Now, however, the tables had turned… now that Link's heart-freezing fear for her life was receding, it left room for the searing-hot fury that galloped through his nerves and muscles, and promised nothing but death for these craven, backstabbing mistakes of nature!
It jumped… razor-claws primed for his throat, eyes lolling wildly in anticipation of a kill, teeth bared, ready to sink them in his flesh…
Link was ready. It jumped to its doom.
Switching to a two-handed grip, he made one perfectly calculated, ducking step forward and stabbed right at its face. It had no time to react… its claws flew over him and his blade sunk to the hilt through its skull, the force of his thrust great enough to arrest its motion instantly, breaking its neck in the process. It died before it ever knew what had happened… a pity, almost, thought Link.
Its carcass hit the ground, limp, but still twitching as its body slowly joined its head in death.
Violently, he ripped his sword from the repulsive creature's skull. Dark grey scales, slim, hunched body and narrow limbs, a twitching tail and a cruel looking horn on its head… On its hands it wore a sort of glove with long, metal claws on the tips of its fingers, enhancing its own…
But a tiny glance had to be enough to take in the important details… he had no time for more.
Zelda, when he had pushed her out of the way, had fallen down behind him. She was on her back, propped up on her elbows and stared at the dead fiend in horror. Undoubtedly she had felt how close its vicious claws had come to her skin…
He rushed over and hauled her to her feet, time so deathly scarce that he didn't even regret how rough he had to be… He could already hear the hurried scraping of death-bringing talons over stone from a disheartening number of directions. He had killed their vanguard, their assassin… but the rest were now so close he could almost feel them breathing down his neck. They were wary, probably, but their killing intent was palpable in the air…
Link grabbed her hand and pulled her under the overhanging roof of a lower building… here at least they couldn't attack from above. Blessedly, Zelda's was able to shed her horrified stupor and, in one quick, fluid motion, drew her rapier. As he retrieved his shield from his back he urgently wanted to comfort her, but sadly, there was no time for that either…
"Behind me, in the corner!" he hissed, twitching as he saw slow, cautious movement from the darkness. She made a sound, something between an affirmative hum and a jittery, involuntary squeak, he couldn't tell which. He had already taken position in front of her and couldn't look back, no matter how much he wanted to… any mistake, no matter how tiny, might be his death.
The menacing shades slowly emerged from their nooks and stepped over the street towards them… Link's heart sank… six of them…
She gasped behind him, her breath quick through clenched teeth. There were those that froze in times of overwhelming peril, but he didn't think her the type. He had already seen her keep fighting when everything had seemed lost. But she also couldn't get too aggressive…
"Don't go for a kill. Focus only on defence!" he growled, before she was lost in the mindlessness of battle. "High guard! They go for the throat…"
She gave another quavering hum and by the rustle of her clothes she changed her position slightly. Good girl… not many were this cogitative before battle…
The Lizalfos approached, step by careful step, drawing the circle around them ever smaller… running, of course, had never been an option once they were on their trail.
They moved fluidly, but their heads twitched almost grotesquely, their eyes rolling wildly in barely controlled bloodlust… The sight was extremely unnerving… Their backs were bent, making themselves small, presenting the least surface for attack… There was no haste in their movement… they were sure of their kill… This might be the only advantage he had…
As he looked at them over his shield, he noticed that they had no weapons, but some had the same metal claws as the beast he had already slain, and some had a kind of metal harness on their tails… their main two weapons?
They were only three metres away now… Link feinted a lunge by very quickly shifting his weight and twitching his shield forward, just to gauge their reactions. They stopped, though neither instantly, nor orderly. The leftmost one, the largest, only halted when it noticed that the others had. They twitched and snarled, scraping against the ground… some were visibly itching to finally dash at him, sink their claws into his neck, while others were just a tiny bit more cautious… occasionally one hissed at its neighbour in frustration! A grim, humourless little smile twitched on the corners of his mouth… these things were no coordinated pack of hunters, they were individual predators, banded loosely together by some greater force, possibly against their instincts. If he could somehow pick them off one by one, shatter their frail cooperation for a few moments, he might have a chance… If he could not, there was little doubt how this would end… The tiny grin ended abruptly… Whatever happened, they would not get to her… that was a resolution as unbreakable as the mountains above and the ground below.
In a split second decision, before they had a chance to rally, he kicked at the ground towards the largest monster, hoping there was enough loose gravel or sand between the cobbles to make for little projectiles. It was an obvious provocation, not meant to cause harm, but these things were too stupid to understand such tactics.
A few tiny pebbles pattered against its feet… it had already seemed like the biggest aggressor, the one most likely to break formation.
It twitched, hissed while baring its teeth… Link steeled himself.
He barely had enough time to yank his shield up before the claws were at his throat. Goddess, these things were fast! He could hear the metal crunch into the wood, jolting his arm so viciously he felt a stinging pain in his shoulder. Without hesitation he ripped his right arm to the side to make room for a vertical swing of his sword, aiming for its long, extended arms. Only mid attack did he see the approaching danger… the creature had already twisted its body to whip its scaled tail at him from the left. He couldn't defend, he had to go through with his attack! He had to disable it as fast as possible!
His steel, fuelled by the strength of his anger and desperation, sliced through the Lizalfos' arms, drawing a ear-piercing screech from it. An instant later he felt the impact on his stomach, a sharp, searing pain and enough force to make him reel for a split-second… almost long enough for the worst to happen!
A second one, lured by the first one's sudden assault, had dashed forward, quick as a viper, and was nearly upon his right side. Twisting his whole body, Link slammed the rim of his shield into the rapidly approaching claws while using the same motion to decapitate the recoiling first attacker with his blade. The second one hissed in frustration or pain, then screamed when Zelda's rapier snaked past his arm and into the beast's narrow torso. Her quick and accurate jab gave him just enough time to complete his heavy swing and hack into its disgusting head with a sickening crunch, ending its life.
All this in the course of two seconds at max…
He immediately returned to his defensive position, shielding her as much as possible. The other, more cautious creatures had twitched forward, but to Link's immense relief had halted their charge when they saw how poorly it had gone for their two comrades.
It had nearly ended in catastrophe for him as well! Despite all he had heard, he had been completely taken aback at just how bloody fast these monsters moved and it had nearly cost him everything! They zigzagged over the ground as if they weighed nothing! …but judging by how easily he had stopped the initial assassin flying right at him, they probably really were extraordinarily light.
It had cost him something… He gritted his teeth… the pain from his left side was only now beginning in earnest and got worse every time he breathed. And that had only been an unarmoured whipping… he didn't want to encounter such an attack from one that wore that metal harness.
Breathing seemed harder than before… Fuck… he hoped he hadn't cracked a rib… he now had to try and end this quickly, but without being hasty… Easier said than done…
Four left… and a trick like he had just used wouldn't work again. But he had leaned two things: They were not very creative in their attacks, using mostly their claws, and, most importantly, the way their dangerous tails moved would allow only two of them to assault them at once, lest they swiped at each other.
There was a real chance! They really could survive this! He hadn't wanted to admit it, but he had almost been convinced that he would shake death's hand on this day…
Without any warning two of them charged, claws primed for the kill. He was not going to give it to them!
The right one changed tactics at the last moment, whipping his metal tail in a wide, brutal arc, while the other continued to aim for his throat.
Link stepped forward to lessen the tail's momentum when it hit his shield, while making a deflecting, outward motion with his sword, pushing the left creature's talons to the side. The impact on his wooden defence was brutal, but he had been ready for it. Bringing both his arms back together in front of him with a pain-filled grunt, he smashed the shield's rim into the right thing's face and sliced across the left's throat. For an instant he felt like doing a triumphant whoop… but then disaster hit. By doing this one step forward, he had just barely walked out from under the roof… where an eighth monster waited. He heard it jump while seeing the two remaining ones charge. Maybe, possibly, he could dive to the side to avoid the danger from above, but… then they would be upon her! And the one he had smashed his shield into was far from dead, just dazed… One tiny instant had turned the tides from hopeful to almost certainly doomed.
He heard her gasp when she noticed the clawed hands from above… He gritted his teeth in a demonic grimace. His skin turned cold, as did his thoughts.
They will not get to her!
Roaring in newfound rage, he swung his sword in a violent arc, slicing cleanly through the dropping creature's skull as if it were butter.
The others were upon him before he could bring his blade around. One snaked around him and clambered onto his back, only missing the nape of his neck because he rolled forward, flattening the thing under his weight, screaming as its nails dug into his back instead.
Dark fury and monstrous bloodlust let him forget the pain and promised great strength, but something in him recoiled… some last shred of sanity hung on to the edge of the chasm of mindless, murderous madness, afraid to lose himself completely.
The two others came at him without relent, using their incredible speed to make quick, glancing attacks, then retreat immediately before he could riposte. The third one that he had rolled over recovered quickly and joined the endless barrage of sharp swipes and hissing whips from all sides that he was only barely able to deflect. His rapidly failing defence cost him all his remaining energy… even if he found an opening, he wouldn't be able to swing his weapon quickly enough to make it count. He might move with unreal speed, fuelled by this enigmatic power that came to his aid at times of great peril, but it just wasn't enough…
His lungs burned, his whole body cried for oxygen. Every moment now he would feel the harsh sting of a claw that his increasingly blurry mind had sensed too late… then he would fall. He hoped that Zelda had used the few seconds he had bought to flee… all three remaining Lizalfos were focused solely on him.
A particularly vicious tail-whip knocked his sword out of his fingers that he almost couldn't feel anymore. In a last, desperate effort he rammed shield first into the closest beast, knocking it to the ground. Link lifted his shield up to ram its edge into the hissing monster's throat, expecting the other two to strike him down… maybe she could defend herself against the last remaining ones… it was his only hope.
The heavy wood crashed down, obliterating his enemy's windpipe with a satisfying, wet crunch. He tried turning around, but his strength failed him. One claw knocked his shield away, a tail he hadn't even seen smacked into the side of his head, robbing him of his vision as lightning seemed to cross in front of his eyes.
This was it. His mind turned dark…
An ear-piercing scream cut through the numbness in his head like hot steel.
Zelda… NO!
An instant later he saw only light and felt a strange, friendly heat on his skin. The creatures around him wailed in surprise or even pain.
"LIIINK!" she screeched, so much pain and despair shrilling in her voice that it twisted his stomach to a knot. Another wave of heat hit his body, strangely calming, like a soft caress of a summer breeze… or, weirdly… her soft touch…
Fighting through the almost overpowering urge to give in to exhaustion, he reopened his eyes… slowly his vision returned… Hazily he could see one of the foul creatures clutching at its eyes, twisting and shaking and squealing as if in great anguish. Whatever she had done to render it so helpless, he thought grimly, he would not hesitate to end its suffering. Gathering the pathetic remains of his strength he lurched back up, whipping the knife his father had gifted him out of its sheath. The monster noticed him, flicking its tail at him blindly, but Link no longer cared. He would end this, right now. The weak lashing glanced off of him without even slowing him. He grabbed the vile thing's horn and, almost lovingly, carved the razor sharp knife across its throat. Dark, hot blood gurgled from the gash, the monster twitched and writhed… he let it drop, caring for it no longer.
One to go. He turned, slow and careful so he wouldn't fall. There it was, in a similar state as its brother…
Now that his eyes had recovered, he saw tiny wisps of smoke rising from its side… its scales were seared, the flesh beneath them screaming red.
He had no mind to think about it now. He lumbered over, limbs leaden, head foggy… It tried to scratch him, a pitiful last attempt at fighting the inevitable. He grabbed its sluggish arm, at least to him it seemed sluggish, and with little more than a gentle squeeze he felt bones shatter and grind to dust. The thing screeched in pain one last time, then, with a quick motion, he stuck the blade through the underside of its head all the way up into its brain. It crumpled instantly, all its weight now resting on his arm… it weighed nothing to him.
He pulled out his father's dagger, meant to put it back into its sheath, but by now his hands trembled so much that he missed and dropped the blade. No matter… only one thing mattered.
Turning around painfully slowly he saw her, kneeling a little way off. His vision had gotten so blurry, he couldn't really tell, but… something told him that she was unhurt. That was good…
She looked at him, wide eyed, her mouth slightly open… his groggy mind told him he probably looked a complete mess…
His legs gave out… someone caught him… said something that he didn't understand, but… it was her voice… That was good too…
The last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness was thinking how spectacularly her eyes shone in the dark…