Chapter 27
Eruptions
A thunderous clash razed the outside walls of the castle. Coordinated series of explosions were so loud that the plume of desolation could be seen from miles around from out on the open plains. And through the fog of destruction, all who were left standing amid the dust and rubble choked in awe. Entry to the castle and city were cut off. The Hylian forces were now split and isolated.
Back in her room, trapped in memory, Zelda nearly fell from a mighty rumbling that shook her tower, tearing her from her happy daydream. Jumping back to her feet, she put away the distraction, reaffirming her focus and resolve on the task at hand.
"What the…I'm back…what was that?" she murmured under her breath, shocked by the clash.
"Oh my goodness, how long was I out? How did that happen?"
She had been mesmerized for a brief moment by the strange magic that teleported her away moments prior, before awakening back in the present.
After some realization she noticed it had been for just a small moment. Relieved, she took in a deep breath and found the bravery within her soul to finish what she set out to do.
Zelda threw her old diary aside and instead gripped the ancient blade she had brought with her tighter.
"It doesn't matter how that happened...Link needs me now, I have to get a hold of myself! No more reminiscing upon the dreams of children!" she declared, composing herself and squeezing her hands at her sides.
With a nod of determination, she ran in a fury toward the adjacent bridge which led to the heart of the castle. She was certain that her knight would be in the thick of the danger.
Stumbling out into the chaos of the castle grounds along the narrow tower bridge, her attention was pulled toward the sight below her. In that instant, a massive series of blasts reverberated with a concussive wave that smacked her full in the chest, nearly knocking her from the ramparts.
Barely escaping a fall, she rose to peer out at the army and its forces. They were in dire straits, nearly falling apart at the seams. Massive plumes of flame erupted along the outlying castle defenses behind the army embankment.
Shocked and frozen stiff at the glance, her eyes scanning as far as she could through the smoke, but she couldn't make out any clear details.
A sudden shudder quaked beneath her feet yet again and she felt the bridge's structure giving way. The far-off explosion weakened the bridge where she stood. It cracked, split between her legs and crumbled as the arching stone began to falter. With no time to consider her reaction, the princess bolted to the heart of the castle on the other side.
"No!" Link shouted. His pupils shrank in terror as his gaze fixed upon his wounded friend, plummeting like a star from the sky.
"Teba!" he yelled again, leaping up from where he had been knocked prone only seconds earlier by the sudden eruptions behind them.
Trying to catch his breath just as he was about to make his way over to where his rito friend fell among the throng of fallen soldiers, his gaze was torn again.
"Goddesses, save us!" Simon screamed to Link's side, also rising from the aftermath of the blasts.
Before Link could turn to him, from the corner of his eye he caught glimpse of Sidon leaping out from the moat ahead. He was much closer. Everything was happening so fast, it was hard to process anything among the chaos.
Sidon shook the water from his scales in disappointment as he shouted to where Link stood. "Dammit, I can't find it!"
"What?!' Link called back, running towards him. Words getting lost in the haze of confusion surrounding them. The line of men was split and the men who escaped the explosions alive were returning to their feet as well, coughing from the settling dust and ash.
"The Pearl, it isn't there…," Sidon explained as the two closed on one another. "I searched into the deepest depths and I cannot find it anywhere. It's escaped me! I'm sorry Link, I lost it! Curse my inability to measure up!"
His muscles coursed with an intensely self-deprecating anger, and it was clear his friend was on the verge of rage. Link had never seen the zora prince so upset as he was today, and he stretched out his arm to console him. It was a kind gesture, though the bleakness of the situation made it seem an empty one.
"It's alright. We'll just have to get to it another way, Sidon," Link said, his voice calm and strong even as he did not shout. "Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it, for the moment. So what matters now is helping the others. Teba needs your help. You must reach him just beyond the line of the men. I have to go and find Zelda. She needs me."
"What? She's here!?" Sidon gasped, stricken by immense fear for her plight. In a great deal of ways, she reminded him of his sister. They had those same caring eyes, he thought. He wouldn't let her be harmed in any way, not if he had anything to say about it.
The prince could not bear to let what happened to his beloved sister happen to Zelda. In just the short time of getting to know Link, know him again since having forgotten so much of his childhood one hundred years past, they were more than simply friends now. They were brothers.
"I am going with you!" Sidon declared, raising a fist in solidarity.
"No! I need you here, with the army and with Teba. He is wounded, and I saw him fall. Please…I can't care for him and save her as well. This is where I need you, Sidon. Please…," Link pleaded. Not wanting any more of his friends to sacrifice on his behalf. He knew deep down, he couldn't protect them.
It was that thought that ate at his heart and tore at his guts. For the first time in his life, he was afraid. He had not feared in this way when he woke to face Calamity Ganon. Nor even one hundred years ago, at the height of the war. But in that time, he had lost so many good friends, be it to the Calamity or the passing of time. The fear he felt now was for them, for all those he both dreaded and knew he wouldn't be able to save. Link would never allow others to risk the ultimate price on his behalf. Not for him, not this time.
At Link's command, Sidon only nodded, upset he couldn't do more to help. He turned away and ran toward where their friend fell.
Even as they all began to think the worst was behind them, a whole new nightmare unveiled itself from the smoking destruction. Impending desolation wouldn't wait for them to organize. Time was up.
Simon shouted in horror. "Dear Goddess of the golden sky, it can't be –"
"It is!" a marshal interrupted him, stricken by fear, his face flashing pale under his helmet.
Simon choked in terrible awe, petrified where he stood by the sight unfolding right before his very eyes. "It's was a trap!"
Shaken to his core by the loud cry he heard in his voice, Link slowly turned to face to where Simon gazed. To his hideous surprise, he also saw the doom that lurked behind among the shadowy plumes. Out from newly open chasms in the ground, hell's host of demon servants arose. Eyes aglow, red with malice, piercing through the hazy fog of falling soot.
"You've got to be kidding me…," Link muttered to himself, fatigued and wounded. Sweaty and blood-soaked bangs slapped his face as he looked toward the destruction engulfing them from the rear, where the once-proud castle wall stood in ruin.
At different points from beyond the clouded explosions at the wall, enormous silver Lynels emerged from the shadows of each coordinated explosion. One for every blast that detonated. There had been eight blasts.
In a mind-numbing blitz, they tore through the ranks of soldiers caught off-guard, disorganized and flatfooted. In what could be regarded with no less a descriptor than unrelenting catastrophe, the creatures spared no mercy. With a single swing of a Lynel sword, entire squads of men were cut down, thrashed and torn asunder. Blow after blow, men cried out as their last breaths were robbed from them.
The army was in a panic, no longer a fighting functioning force. What was once a battle had become a desperate fight for survival, with the hope of victory fading more and more swiftly as the tables violently turned against them.
They were being offered like lambs to the slaughter, and the Hero of Hyrule was faced with an impossible plight. Does he flee to save the princess, only to leave the army to the mercy of devils? Or stand with the army and fight, leaving Zelda alone to face whatever perilous fate might befall her? With no time to think clearly, Link made a rash decision.
Within the pitch-black halls of her castle, Zelda crept as a stranger among them. Now an intruder in her own home, she wandered through the long stairways, halls and great chambers of old. No light dared to shine within, and candelabrums along the wall had long since faded to bleak darkness.
She could hardly see past her nose, yet Zelda did not fear. She held tightly to the courage within her heart, the courage that he had given her. It was her only light among the darkness, but the bravery of her knight burned brightly and led the way.
Hands outstretched, she reached for the damp, musty and filth ridden walls as she tip-toed further into the void in search of Link. But it wasn't his sweet voice she heard among the abyss. Through unsettling creaks and clacks of old stone echoing into the deep nothingness, she heard another instead, and far more dreadful – Malroc the Terrible.
Like a chilling wind, the voice engulfed her, wicked and cruel. Zelda's blanket of bravery melted away at the sound, and she felt truly alone, surrounded by a permafrost of fear. Her eyes frantically tried to make sense of the void ahead, but she still couldn't see a thing.
"You cannot hide from me…," the rumble of the walls themselves seemed to speak with Malroc's voice. Echoes of it trembled around her in the dark, shaking the very foundations of the castle. Zelda spun and glanced over each shoulder, still blind in the gloom. Frantically, she reached out for the walls to seek out some hiding place amid the stone.
"I know you are there, Princess," came the voice again, devilishly gloating over the pursued prey. "Even in this great darkness, I can smell your fear. Your sweat is rank with it, and the perfume of your terrified flesh is like nectar to me."
A series of low chuckles followed as she heard the steady march of heavy hoofsteps sounding closer and closer to where she hid among the shadows.
Zelda shivered at the sound of his wicked hum, but held tightly to the blade of ancient foretelling underneath her cloak. Illucifarr, the Light bringer! The very blade of Locke the Valiant himself. A fine weapon to have at hand, yet the sheer weight of it made the thought of testing her own skill with it against the beast lurking in the darkness unimaginable. The sword was not hers to use and she knew it. She had to flee, but how?
Malroc spoke again, ferocious voice making his presence known. He tasted the air as he continued his demonic taunts, loudly smacking his lips as if on the verge of feast.
"I can taste your unspoiled, delicate presence upon the wind. Such a sweet and tender morsel you will make. I've never had goddess blood before. I wonder how the likes of it tastes? Will she be Divine? Or perhaps, in truth, would she actually be quite sour? The inside is more revealing than the outside, and perhaps your flesh will reflect your falsehood, a fabricated illusion for all those that would try and make you a queen…
"Yes, the truth is made clear now. You are a pale imitation of a true goddess…a lesser daughter of greater sires. Such a pity that is. They had so much hope, these people you promised, these sheep…they truly believed you had a chance…"
At that moment, Malroc stomped and roared, "There is no chance! YOU HAVE NO CHANCE!"
His demonic smile unseen in the dark. But even still with that, Zelda heard his glee.
Zelda huddled behind the closest stone pillar she could find, frantically trying to calm her breathing. There she listened, desperately holding her breath to keep from being heard as she listened to the menace closing the distance between them.
"You think the shadows can conceal you from me?" Malroc asked in a sneering tone. "We creatures of the night, were bred from the darkness. In its misery we were made. The shadows will betray you to me…even as does your own heart.
"Yes…your heart betrays you. It is true princess…
"I have been given the marvelous power to peer into the depths of your very soul. You cannot defend against it, despite your nature. I see, yes….don't tell me…what is this? You actually care for that knight? The boy who leads the vanguard, so careless and foolish! He does try so very hard…"
Malroc's eyes seemed to glow in the darkness. He roared with laughter before proclaiming with a growl, "The poor fool! He is dead! Yes, you are too late, my dear! Princess, your boy hero is dead!"
Zelda didn't want to believe his claim, couldn't believe it. So she stood there, unwavering, listening. Tears stung at her eyes, the feeling of a lead weight dropping into her stomach.
Then, with no warning, Malroc suddenly leaped out from the darkness. He landed immediately before her hiding place, sneering down at her with malicious glee. "There you are! How good of you to bring yourself before us!"
Caught.
Zelda shrieked and ducked away, narrowly avoiding a swipe of the Lynel's claws as he decimated the pillar that had been her hiding spot. By some miracle she was untouched, save for a few strands of hair sheared from the back of her golden head.
Unfortunately for the both of them, the titanic beast had been overzealous. His weight was far too much for the already stressed floor and, as he stomped and clawed to flush the princess from hiding, the floor gave way. Crumbling into uncountable fragments of broken stone and wood, the structure collapsed beneath them. Zelda fell, away from his terrible grasp down a slope of crumbling tower.
"Eeeyaaa!" Zelda screamed even as Malroc roared, plummeting away from his grasp and into the ruinous gloom below.
Link had made the decision to get to his princess, but before he could run to the castle his gaze was trapped at what was happening around him. He was rewarded with a view of the army being decimated right before his eyes. The chain of command had broken down completely, and the Hyrulean forces were in utter chaos. He could hardly believe his own eyes as men fled from the Lynels in a scattered, panicked retreat. Those soldiers unlucky enough to not be moving with the flood were overrun, crushed under the heels of their own retreating comrades. The defensive line had been utterly obliterated.
It was less a battle, and more a slaughter.
Link couldn't understand how it could be possible for the men to be so ill trained, but, it had been one hundred years since the Kingdom reigned in the light. And in this new dark age, many things that shouldn't have been forgotten, were lost. Of which was the skill of war.
In the fog of confusion, he made out what he could. He couldn't abandon the army to their doom, yet he also needed to find his princess! That was his sworn duty!
Simon, also stunned by the surprise counter-offensive, could barely screech out an order to any of his subordinates to regain control of the battlefield.
Taleran on the other hand was filled with quick conviction and hollered to his men near Link at the frontal command. "Rangers, fall in at the front! At the double! Form up! Now!"
Those who could hear the order amid the fray stood and rallied, forming ranks. In the wake of the destruction, Link followed suit to try and help, but after taking a mere two steps forward, he collapsed to one knee. Trembling uncontrollably, he felt a sudden zing and hum in his temples. Link moved his hand up to rub at his forehead and regain his bearings, but the pain was too great. His head throbbed at the intensity of the pain and before he knew it, his eyes went blurry.
"No, not now! There is no time!" Link cried out to himself as he watched oblivion continue to befall the army, his one hope to restore peace.
Link strayed out of thought and time, entering yet again another forced memory against his will. He was all too well acquainted with ill timed thoughts of the past. Yet, it wasn't up to him to decide the comings and goings of such things. It was out of his control.
But, in some ways, he wanted them; craved them even. For they seemed like dreams so far away. Memories he could retreat to and run away to a simpler time. Back to a place where things made sense and where the edge of the world was within his grasp. He only had to stretch out his hand and take it.
But he knew all too well now looking back in his thoughts. That things did not end up the way he had hoped for and that the future was much uncertain and that was where he truly belonged. For he had yet to accomplish the task that he was entrusted to do.
That he knew deep down to his bones he was the only one that could do so. For he was chosen to be by her side to help and guide her so she could usher the foretold rebirth of the kingdom in all its splendor. That was his mission. And he knew it.
It was the present day hat needed him now. They of which who were so desperately hanging on by a thread, doing what they can. They are who needed him now. Not the maybe memories of what could have been one hundred years ago. But, it was out of his control. He was sent back into a drifting spiral to the past.
He found himself yet again a century ago. He was frozen stiff, huddled among the throng of his fellow trainees. They were already well away at work. It was some days before the coming trials. And because of that, they were enduring the most vigorous of preliminary training drills. A series of many test to weed out the chaff from the wheat before the real trials were to begin.
Athelon scorned, "Alright you sad sorry asslings, I want more out of you! Push it to the next level!"
The old brute marched around in front of the men, and continued his taunts. "If you have any hope of becoming guardsmen, nay, even men for that matter, you must push and prevail until the very sinew of your bones breaks and bleeds through your worthless corpses! For that, is what we all are at the end of the day lads! Corpses! ….Yes, it is true…we are the weapon. You are the sword of Hylia!"
The young cadets were cold, struggling and shivering in mud soaked raggedy armor accomplishing what seemed like an impossible feat as they trudged up hill.
And to top things off, a raging downpour was dumping overhead. The likes of which that appeared more to be a curse from the goddesses themselves than anything natural. And the unforgiving wind chill from the Dying mountains carried a frost that made it no better.
It had been hours and hours. Two days to be precise. Never-ending grueling drills and endless tribulations to test their desire, strength and will to carry on.
No food, nor water was offered. At best they were given two thirty minute breaks in the day that their superiors had the audacity to call naps. The men knew better though.
It was well known that if and when some sad soul would attempt to close their eyelids for just a solitary moment among the whole ordeal, that not even a breath later would a captain of the guard run up and scream them back to attention, filling them with a soul fleeting fear.
The master of the enlistees gazed at the boys from above. Situated and standing firm on the high ground he evaluated the new recruits attempting in unison as they tried to ascend a towering peak.
The boys were struggling. Not only from the endless berating from their captain that chipped at their morale, but they also had to contend with an impossibly gargantuan tree stump. A log of epic proportions. It could have been the Deku tree itself. And they were forced to heave it over their shoulders while they braved the incomprehensible trek up the mountain summit.
Link was one of those boys.
Athelon gave out a hearty chuckle, "What is this? Is this supposed to be Hyrule's new elite fighting force? Pathetic!"
The boys huffed and groaned, almost unaware of his words, frantically trying to keep the log lifted as they trudged uphill to the rally flag. Their knees sank into the mud and the menacing whip of the rain slapped their faces, pushing them two steps back for every one they shoved forward.
The captain shouted again. This time much more fierce with a fire burning in his eyes. "That wasn't a volunteer question for you to answer whenever you fancy! I said what is this!?"
The lads paused where they stood, almost sinking from the weight. They gasped and moaned a unison reply, trying to focus on their trying task at hand yet all the while to answer their commander. "No, sir!"
"Dammit, that isn't good enough!" Athelon spun to face them, face filled with red fury near a boiling rage. "That may be good enough for the Draene Dagger Draggoons or the Seascape Rangers of Tarble, but that is NOT good enough for the Royal Guard of Hyrule! Do you understand me?
"You need to be doing it better!…Time is almost up!…
"You are out of TIME! Our day of reckoning is at hand At any moment and you are still not ready! Helpless!"
And in that very moment when he shouted, one of the boys faltered, losing his grip of the massive tree. The others felt the sudden drop of weight bear on their shoulders. It was almost too great and just as they were all about to surrender to the elements and the stress, one of them took charge.
Beside the young man who collapsed in the mud, one reached down with one hand to lift him while bearing the load for both of them. It was Link.
In a grueling grunt he gripped the other recruit, who was Sven. And, with one hand supporting his friend back up to his feet he shouldered the rest of the tree that needed to be lifted. Link struggled, but tried so anyways.
Athelon ran up beside him and shouted. "What is this!? You think you're some sort of hero now? Drop him! HE IS WEAK! We have no place for weaklings among us!"
Heaving hard while carrying both his friend and the log, Link squinted back through the prickling rain to his captain. "I'm alright… I can manage well enough…I can do this! Please…"
"Is that so!? You all have just two more minutes to make the top of the peak or you will repeat the entire hill again! Is that clear!?"
The boys all forced a suffocating shout back,"Yes, sir!"
During all of this, Link's father watched from afar, near the summit where the finishing flag stood, a hood draped over him. Under the shadow of his cloak he lit up a cherry embered pipe and puffed away, watching in silence as the whole situation unfold, intrigued by the scene.
Athelon saw the fearless, courageous stare Link threw at him and continued back again to test his limits. "Are you deaf? I said drop him! Or I'll—"
"No!" Link said, voice raised.
Athelon was stunned by the insubordination he was hit with but before he could contest any further the young man reaffirmed himself.
The young man's eyes were aglow with desire. "His fate will be the same as ours! We either all make it together as one or not at all! Is that not the way of the KNIGHTs of legend?"
The wind slapped again more fierce, and the other men were still struggling behind him, but were glad he took upon himself the extra load of the weight. Link could hardly find the strength to persevere, but the more he believed, the more power he felt come to him.
Athelon smirked at his reply and contemplated to himself for just a moment before screeching out another order. "Very well then…You have one more minute! Now drive it! Carry him if you must!"
And with that, the small platoon of recruits hastened their steps up the slippery road ahead. They were now organized and determined, moving as one.
They were almost there. And as they passed him along the way, Athelon stared off to the distance to where they were, eyes locked on the boy who defied him.
He smiled to himself, So Link, you believe yourself are one to save the helpless, eh?…Good…Yes…Very good my lad…That is exactly the sort of fighting spirit we need now more than ever…Yes…I have been watching you…ever since you were just a wee' small boy…Like your father, I too must believe…
You may not remember it now, for you were still very young, but you beat me in a game of duels, although I will never admit it! But, even so, that was when you were just a small child and it was then that I knew…You will grow to do great and marvelous things. You were different somehow. I can't explain it. But, I know there is something there. Whatever that may be, I know there is more to your story than we know….
He gazed further at how Link took control of the situation, even so much to rally the men behind him as he continued to carry his fatigued friend and the tree. They were going to make the summit in time.
Athelon continued to look onward in thought, Very good Link, that's the way… You can do it! Just hold on, a little longer my lad…You're almost there…
Indeed you do have great power dormant within you…we just have to find it in time…
I pray for all our sakes…For you may very well be, our best hope in this great war to come…My only question is…will it be enough?…I hope…
Back at the present, whether by coincidence or providence, the hall Zelda had fallen through the floor of had been situated over the battlefield. As the building broke apart around her, the princess found herself sliding down an enormous slab of broken castle stone, the piece extending down to the lower level. In that catastrophic moment, the sword she had been carrying was ripped from her grasp as she fell, lost somewhere amid the debris of the collapsing castle.
Rolling into a cloud of rubble, Zelda found herself out in the open, upon the battlefield. The terrified screams and shouts of men waging battle were just a stone's throw away.
She coughed and panted, amazed to have escaped such a dire situation with only the few scratches and bruises she'd taken in the fall. Her knees ached, and her leggings had been horribly scraped and torn, but she would suffer a bloody arse and legs over disembowelment at the claws of a Lynel any day.
Elsewhere, having fallen in the opposite direction of his prey, Malroc tumbled through another part of the castle. The beast growled in primal fury, and like a lion on the prowl for a gazelle, he tasted at the dusty air around him as he continued his hunt for the princess.
"I will find you, girl! Like a wasp to rotting flesh, I will hunt you down!" Malroc cried out in a bloody rage. "You cannot hide from me! As predator and prey, you are mine to hunt! Mine to sacrifice! Mine to bleed and ravish and break! Mine to use in ordination of His Majesty, the true ruler of this world – Mandrag Ganon! And with your death, his shadow shall manifest itself and cover the land in sickness and darkness for time everlasting! You won't escape me! You won't deny me! NEVER!"
Even from such a far distance across the battlefield, Link could hear the Lynel King's declaration. Using all the might he had left, and with the sheer will not to let his princess be taken, he rose from where he'd fallen prone, and force the pain from his mind, forced his body into compliance. No doubt he would pay the price for it later, but he knew that evil roar, and he knew he was talking to her.
Only seconds passed since his fall and it was Simon of all people who ran to his aid.
"Hey! Are you alright!? Pull yourself together hero, even I need hope in a dreadful hour such as this!" He said, somewhat patronizing, almost amazed at his own confession. For even he now believed it could possibly be true.
In his eyes was a worry staring back at the young hylian warrior, as if his health was a bellwether for their entire campaign
"I'm alright!…Thanks," Link declared, strongly rising up to his feet shaking away the shutter to his body. "I have to go, can you manage?"
"What you mean?"
"She is in danger! I must get to her before…"
"Before what?" Simon prompted.
"Before he does," Link finished, spinning around to face the heart of the castle where the dust settled from the collapse.
So, after regaining some measure of control, the Hero of Hyrule charged into the smoke and destruction before him, hoping against all odds to find Zelda before Malroc did.
The army will just have to do without me for a moment, he thought.
Zelda coughed and rose to her feet, only to find herself greeted by a gang of unfriendly eyes. Eyes that belonged to Malroc's servants, monsters enslaved to his will. Her mind tallied no less than five bokoblins and two lizalfos. In an instant, Zelda had been cornered, the last vestiges of her courage replaced with naked fear.
There was nowhere to run. With only an empty watchtower at her back, she had no means of escape. The tower couldn't even serve as a place to make a last stand, as she'd lost the only weapon in the collapse, and the tower's portcullis clear across on the other side had been dropped in any case. She was left with a caged empty room to her back. And with no way to reach the army just beyond, her fear could only grow.
She didn't fear for what they might do to her flesh, or the ways they might abuse her physically, but she did fear for the state of hersoul. Had there ever been a vessel such as her that had been taken by Ganon's monstrosities?
She fear, too, for her love. What would become of Link if he should find her broken, dead or both?
As her last vestiges of hope seemed to fade, Zelda cursed her pride, cursed attempting to set out on such a foolish crusade as this. Her entire being shattered within, right down to her core, at the thought that she could be so easily taken. That she would be apprehended and made to serve the purpose of her eternal enemy. To be the cause of his awakening so that he might once again wreak havoc upon the world. That this would be the last moment she would breathe freely.
Her only regret in that moment was that she never bared her soul to Link. She would never have the chance to confess her heart to him, the way she always intended to, for it did belong to him and none other. She was reconciled to her fate, now and lowered her head in dread. Her life was spent, so she let her hands go slack, not intending to fight her fate. Instead, with a choked sob of sorrow, she closed her eyes against the coming terror, and offered a solemn prayer, one she hoped would reach her beloved. Before her captors took her, she would give her last words. The only thing she could ask for, as one last favor from the goddesses for her sake. She wanted them to be for him, needed them to be for him.
But fate had chosen to have it another way when, lashing out from above with a grand leap, ax and blade spinning in the air, Link appeared between her and her foes! Her knight had arrived in a wonderful display of skill and heroism yet again!
He was tired, dirty, bloody and torn up, yet still appeared just as spectacular and handsome as ever in Zelda's eyes. In an instant, both of Link's weapons buried themselves in the two nearest creatures attempting to grab at the princess. As her knight dispatched both of the monsters, Zelda gazed up where she fell by the surprise, strong and gallant as ever. Despite his fatigue, he appeared perfectly in control, as though an everlasting strength radiated out from him. She knew in that moment that he would never let her be taken.
Zelda thought back to those earlier days, long ago, when she'd first met him. When the Yiga clan of old had entrapped her, alone among the desert sands. And like a prophetic vision, she saw him yet again display his selfless bravery before her, willing to smite her foes if they so much as deigned to try and touch her.
With the monsters facing them shaken at the sight of his superior abilities, Link turned to look at Zelda, waking her from her starstruck stupor.
"Are you alright?" he spoke softly, tenderly.
She could only look upon him with amazement, happy that Malroc's lies were just that – lies.
He continued, still in the thick of the fight, with one eye on focused on her enemies yet still as sweet as ever in his voice to her over his shoulder. "What are you doing here? Why did you come?"
"I…," she could hardly say a word, mesmerized by his abilities even as she returned slowly back up to her feet.
With her pause, Link knew there was no time to talk just yet, enemies were closing in around them. "Do you trust me?" he asked with a caring, reassuring smile. He offered his hand to her like a princely hero of legend, just as he did so many years ago when she thought herself left alone to her doom during that terrible encounter with the Yiga clan.
"I do."
It was all she could utter from lips so eager to one day taste his.
Without hesitation, Link reached out with one arm and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her close to him.
"Then hold on tight!" he declared, tightening his warm embrace around her.
And, with a remarkable display of speed and agility, Link fended off two more foes with his free hand just before bringing down his ax to break the reel of the watchtower gate behind them. In the instant of the chain shattering, time seemed to slow, and Link's hand grasped at the broken end of the chain as its tension snapped it back toward the tower.
Holding Zelda tightly in his arms, the pair of them shot through the air, whistling away at breakneck speed. Zelda huddled herself into the safety of Link's chest as the reel whined and spun. Within moments, the chain had flung the two high into the air even as the front tower gate fell before their enemies.
They had miraculously escaped.
AUTHORS NOTES- Hey Everyone, I hope you all like! This chapter was cut in half. The other part I am still editing. These war scenes are particularly difficult due to coordinating everyone's movements. Should be up by the weekend though : ) Pleeeease leave a comment if you haven't already and let me know what you think or what you want to see more of. Any predictions for what happens? I want to hear them! Thanks and much love- Sky