V - Tabantha


Link felt sad leaving Castle Town behind as they rode out into the open field. Their stay in the capital had only been short-lived, but a much welcome change after the unpleasant town of Hilltorp. Eagus had told them that they'd only stop for provisions, but they had ended up staying the night and dining and drinking in the finest taverns – at the expense of the king of Hyrule.

They took the road that passed between Mount Gustaf on the left side and the quarry on their right and approached the Regencia river. Gorons were busy mining rocks from the quarry, while construction workers carried them to the other side of the river. They pushed the carts over the wooden bridge and didn't pay any attention to the approaching royal army. On the other side of the river, just before Carok Bridge, a tower was being built.

"What are they doing?" Link asked Pipit who rode beside him.

"It looks like they're building some kind of check points."

"What for?"

"Probably to control who gets in and out of the capital."

"Looks like the devil is behind them."

Link watched the workers as they hurried down the bridge, sweat dripping from their red faces. They looked like they were being chased by an invisible force with a whip.

"So", he said, "the king is basically shutting off all of the main roads? What is he so afraid of?"

Pipit shrugged. "Mate, I have no idea. But this does sound fishy. Like something big is coming up."

Link fell silent, wondering if the king was overreacting or if there was more going on than anyone knew.

Eagus' plan was to take them through West Hyrule plains rather than the northern plains, past Hyrule ridge to reach the Tabantha Great Bridge. They would rest at the Tabantha settlement, which housed a stable and sleeping accommodations. They would then continue past Rayne Highlands and Nero Hill, over Kolami Bridge and on towards Totori Lake, home to the Rito, a bird-like race that inhabited the islands in the middle of the lake. The boys were all excited to spend a night or two in Rito village, but Eagus wasn't so sure about how welcoming a race the Rito were, so he did not plan to pay it a visit. Instead, he decided to set up a primitive outpost in the small wood area right before the passage nestled between Passer Hill and Cuho Mountain.

They had to ride in pairs through the Breach of Demise, and Link wondered how the location had come to its name. The path was surrounded by strange rock formations which looked as if a Goron had punched holes into the stone, and Link would have liked to know whether it was a natural phenomenon or actually man-made. He remembered the stories of old, of a time when Hyrule was still a fairly uninhabited land, and the Hylians lived high up in the sky.

Long before that time, a demon king named Demise broke through a fissure in the earth to seek out the Triforce; a sacred artefact that was left behind by the three golden goddesses Din, Nayru and Farore after having created Hyrule, combining the holy power of the three. Demise, after attacking the people of Hyrule along with his minions was eventually stopped, and sealed away by the goddess Hylia, whose mission was to protect both the land and its people, as well as the sacred relic. After her doing, Hylia sent the people of the surface skywards, thus creating a place called Skyloft. Heavily injured by the fight against Demise, she decided to resign her divine form and be reborn as a mortal Hylian. It was at that time that the first hero was born; a hero who would, at the side of the reborn goddess, fight Demise, whose seal had weakened over the years, and destroy him once and for all. Perhaps, the rock formations were created when Demise had broken through the fissure of the earth, and were later hollowed by thunder and rain.

The soldiers were past the breach then, and out on the road again. To their right, the vast terrain, called Seres Scablands, stretched out, with its distinct gigantic trees shooting out of the earth like natural umbrellas. They were dragonblood trees, a rare species of trees that only grew in this part of Hyrule. Many stories ranked about the origins of these trees, but no one knew which one was actually true. When cut, they ooze a dark red liquid, much like dragonblood, hence its name.

Not far from the Scablands existed a plateau with the exact same trees, which was said to always be covered by dark clouds. Rain and thunderstorms were pretty common in this region, though, and when Link looked to the sky, he was disappointed to see that it had actually turned from bright blue to dark grey.

"Looks like something is going to come down anytime soon," murmured Pipit.

Before long, the first raindrops sprinkled the earth and a low growling was heard in the distance.

"Boys," Eagus called out from the front, "we better make haste. The settlement is not very far from here. Spur your horses, I'd rather make it there before the thunderstorm hits us."

Link pulled the hood over his head gave his horse the reins. The gelding broke into a gallop and quickly caught up with Eagus' steed. The rain was now falling heavier and the growling in the distance had become louder, sounding much closer. Neither the riders, nor the horses liked the weather, and so they hurried down the road. After the next bend, the settlement finally came into sight. It consisted of small huts, a large tent and a stable. Link had never seen them dismount as fast as now, and soon the horses were taken care of in the stable and the soldiers were gathering in the great tent. The sleeping cabins were small but each contained five beds, and the rest of them would be sleeping in the back of the tent.

There wasn't much staff, only the clerk who ran this place and a guy who assigned travellers to their huts, two stable boys, and three handmaids who took care of the cleaning and the serving of food.

After dividing up the huts – or rather, fighting about who gets to sleep in an actual bed – they reassembled in the great tent and gathered around large, wooden tables. The food that was brought to them filled their stomachs, but it was nothing compared to the fine cuisine of Castle Town's inns.

That night, Link lay awake in the small, hard bed, and listened to his companions' snoring. His thoughts returned to the origins of the first hero, the power of the Triforce and the reincarnated goddess Hylia. The hero's name, his name, repeatedly appeared in history books and legends alike, and it had become some sort of fashion to call their child after the great heroes of times long gone. He sometimes wondered how many boys in Hyrule were called Link, and it made him want to snort. He was as much a hero as the stable boy from this settlement. For all that I know, he might also be called Link, he thought, so what does that even make me? A run-off-the-mill soldier with a hero's name?

He closed his eyes as his thoughts threatened to take him back to his past. A past he vowed to forget.


The soldiers arrived at the outskirts of Rito Village in the late afternoon, and once they reached Passer Hill and started to set up camp, the sun was setting behind the trees. Link was thankful for the warm coats they had brought along. Tabantha was close to the snow-covered Hebra Mountains; a barren and harsh area that was barely populated. During daytime, the weather could change from mild temperatures to light snowfall, but the nights were bitter cold, and the tents did not provide much warmth.

They spent their days patrolling around the outpost and Lake Totori, making fires, lazying around, and sometimes eating or drinking out of boredom. Being tied to this uneventful place had made them careless, but once Eagus had found out about them consuming alcohol, he punished them by making them go hunting for food instead. Due to their excessive boredom-snacking, their food rations diminished rather quickly. When the first hunting troop returned late in the afternoon with only a handful of berries and mushrooms and one gaunt squirrel, Eagus called them a bunch of scallywags and decided that he'd have to send some of his men to the settlement at the Great Tabantha Bridge to get new provisions. Link happily volunteered after spending unfruitful and frustrating weeks at the outpost, and set out, together with a dozen men, on the morrow.

Once they arrived at the settlement in the early evening, they brought their horses to the stable to be fed and watered and spent the night in the big tent, eating and drinking to their heart's content. The day after, they bought some provisions, but had to learn that the merchants were short on meat to sell, because the newly built checkpoints in central Hyrule slowed down the trade considerably. If they wanted meat, they would either have to wait or go hunt.

Stuffing the saddlebags with their bought provisions, which consisted mainly of potatoes, cheese, bread, vegetables, and a little bit of sausage, they set out for the camp as soon as the sun had reached its peak in the sky.


Another short, boring chapter, but sadly necessary.

Please bear with me, the pace will soon pick up as characters are meant to come together, and chapters will become longer and somewhat more meaningful ;)