Chapter 73: Beneath the Desert's Rule
It took three Gorons to carry one of the four platters. Each was larger than some rooms and stacked with carcasses, their bleeding wounds still steaming. Rithfus' tongue flickered out to catch the delightful scent of fresh meat and lapped it into his mouth. He raised his head from his cushions to watch as the platters were placed before him. All around him, his clutchmates hissed and nipped at each other in anticipation of the feast.
Each plate was stacked high with sheep, lamb, deer, and even a few cows. Those had once been a rare delicacy, but increasingly, the stonemen brought the horned beasts into his hall.
Rithfus rose to his feet and stood tall. All others knew not to begin their feast before he tasted all the finest meats. Ahh, the wonders of civilization. Had there ever been a Lizalfos who lived such a favored existence? His limbs had grown wide, and his gut large. Not even King Dodongo ever lived so grand. No more eking out a sparse meal from captured birds and rats or snacking on insects. Now, the stonemen hunted for him, and he had to do nothing but keep them in line.
The Gorons toil for the Lizalfos, the Lizalfos wait on me, and I answer only to one.
"Only four?" Rithfus asked.
"It is all we have been given," one of the Gorons said.
When King Dragmire gave him this mountain the Gorons provided him with enough food to fill six of the platters. Then a few months ago they started bringing only five. He had held his tongue then, but four? These stone fools are trying to cheat me. "Bring me Darunia. This is not enough."
He wheezed as he stooped over the largest platter and opened his mouth wide. First, he bit into the leg of a wild boar and yanked his head back. With his remaining hand, he scratched and tore at the swine flesh until it came loose, and he slurped and crunched it all up. Then he bit deep into the neck of a deer and the flanks of a cow. He did not stop until he tasted every kind of animal presented to him. And when his stomach cried out that he was full he paid no heed.
More went into his gullet. Always more.
Only when the hissing of his clutch grew too loud to ignore did he stop. Returning to his cushion, he laid down and basked in the heat, enjoying the sweet sensation of being full. "Now," he said with a slurp, "you may feast."
The Lizalfos jumped upon the carcasses. They hissed and bit and nipped, each of them devouring all within reach, fighting each other to get as much food in their stomachs before other greedy jaws stole it from them. There was enough and more meat on those platters to feed thrice the total Lizalfos in the clutch, but that did not matter. The frenzy of the feast had taken them, turning all into little more than animals.
But not him, not Rithfus. He was above the scraping, and he would never again be that low.
"Trisklesk," Rithfus called over the chomping and slurps.
The warrior looked to him; a sheep's head clutched in his bloodied teeth. He swallowed before he spoke. "Yes, Lord Rithfus?"
"I still hunger. Bring me more of that cow."
Trisklesk froze, his eyes darting across the remaining food. Realization dawned that he would need to stop his gluttony, and others would get more than him. He rushed to the nearest cow and shoved Eskkrelt aside before the other Lizalfos could bite into the carcass.
Eskkrelt hissed, his head lowered as though he prepared to strike.
And now Trisklesk will attack first.
Sure enough, Trisklesk slammed his fist down on Eskkrelt's snout. Holding him down, Trisklesk bit the back of his opponent's neck. With a firm shake, Eskkrelt squealed in fear. When Trisklesk reopened his jaws, the smaller Lizalfos rushed away, blood dripping from the bite marks dotting his neck.
Victorious, Trisklesk brought a slab of cow flesh and placed it before Rithfus.
"Good." Rithfus sniffed at the meat but did not eat it. "That is all, Trisklesk."
"The meat?"
"I will eat it when I so feel."
The warrior growled; his body tensed as if he wished to lunge at Rithfus. But he wouldn't. Not even Trisklesk was so stupid. With a whirl of his tail, he returned to gorge himself. Rithfus' tongue flickered out to taste the warrior's submission. Others of the clutch watched. They would not think so grandly of Trisklesk or Eskkrelt. Rithfus lowered his head back onto the cushions. Get them to ridicule and hate each other, and they will have no allies should they try to come for me.
When his clutch finished their food, Rithfus called for the Gorons to take the platters away. No sooner had the ground been cleared did Gorons dive to the floor with buckets and cloths to mop up the blood.
"Leave it," Rithfus hissed as one reached for the cow leg still lying before him, now collecting flies.
From the back of the hall, the old Goron, Dembugi, limped toward him. He required a young aid to lean on to reach Rithfus without falling. And when he knelt, the boy had to hold him steady. This one was weak. It would not be long until he died. Why the Gorons had not dealt with the decrepit yet, Rithfus did not understand. He no longer served any purpose that a healthier Goron could not. He could not hunt, nor could he build, nor mine, and could barely hear and see. And yet he still ate with the rest of them. It made no sense.
Years back, Rithfus decided to stop trying to understand the strangeness of the stonemen. They declared some bits of metal as beautiful and others as ugly and seemed to favor the former to the latter. They spoke in oaths and seemed to think that means they must be kept. They did not even mate like normal creatures. And yet, every time he noticed another strange aspect of their life, he could not help but stop and analyze how foolish, how inefficient, they were.
"Lord Rithfus." The pair bowed their heads.
"Why have you come?" Rithfus asked.
"I have come on behalf of Chief Darunia," Dembugi said, signaling for his assistant to help him to his feet.
"No," Rithfus said. The Goron stopped halfway up, frozen in a position Rithfus knew would hurt his weak legs. "I like you better down there. Put him back on the ground."
The Gorons shared some look between them that Rithfus did not understand. Their faces had so many different shapes to them. And their displays were so numerous and subtle. When their mouth twisted one way it meant one thing, and another way it could mean the opposite. They did not even bare their teeth when angry. How the Gorons kept all their facial tics straight was another mystery. But once their wordless conversation ended, Dembugi went back onto the ground.
It is good seeing the big stone men in the dirt. Below me. Where they belong.
"Why has Darunia not come himself? Why send you?" A cripple who should already be devoured, this must be some sign of disrespect. He would make the Goron pay. Oh yes.
"My chief remains on the Crown. With him gone, it falls upon me to answer your summons."
"The coward hides in his hole," Freskusth said in their tongue. A few of the others hissed their approval.
"Only place deep enough to hide his shame," Elgassa continued the joke.
All the while, the Gorons stared at them, oblivious as the clutched laughed. For seven years the Lizalfos ruled over Death Mountain, and stonemen still had not learned their language and manners. There were no greater fools in all the world.
"And what issues in the Crown have drawn Darunia's attention?"
"More of the same troubles. Old tunnels on the verge of collapse, rumbles from within the mountain, and a stone-speaker with foreboding words." Dembugi tapped his cane against the ground. "But it is not our woes that concern you, I suspect. How may I serve you, Lord Rithfus?"
"Your hunters have not fulfilled their duties. My guests and my guards have grown hungry."
Dembugi looked around the room at the lizards, still with blood on their snouts and gristle between their teeth. "I see."
"The Gorons are supposed to provide for us Lizalfos. And yet your hunters do not bring enough to fill my plates."
"The hunters can only bring what they find."
"I smell excuses coming," Rithfus hissed.
"Not excuses, simply information. On the last hunt, our people found only half of their expected quarry. The lands around the tunnel entrance are barren of life, and beyond there are few beasts worth hunting."
Rithfus' clutch growled and slapped their tails against the stones in anger.
"The hunts must subside. The mountain needs time to replenish. You must have noticed the silence out here; not even the birds chirp, nor do the squirrels skitter about for their acorns. But our stone-speakers have assured me if we send out no more hunts for half a year, the boars will return. A year after that and the deer will be ready as well."
"No meat for half a year?" Freskusth stood up and flexed his claws. "Do you stone-men plan to starve us?"
"We will still provide food, but we must keep ourselves to fowl and cattle from the Hylians in reasonable quantities. We shall have some scarce months, but if we take proper precautions, we shall get through it."
"There must be more," Eskkrelt said. "They are hiding it. They are. They are."
"We are hiding nothing. My chief forewarned you of this months ago. It has happened as he said. The mountain will not sustain ravenous unending hunger forever. But if we take precaution now, the land will provide-"
"The cows," Rithfus spoke over the hissing of his clutch. "Where are you getting them?"
"Hylian ranchers have provided us with their sick and old cattle for some months. But they are taxed enough as is."
"Ranchers, they will have cows and horses and what else? Deer?"
"No. Perhaps pigs and goats."
"That will do. Your hunters will now catch prey from the Hylians' herds."
"That too could prove difficult," Dembugi's grating voice continued. Did this fool not understand Rithfus' decision was final? "The Hylians have accepted coin for their animals, but they live off their cattle and goats, as well. Their stock scarcely meets their own needs. They will not part with all they have willingly."
"Then take them unwillingly."
"We will not!" The young Goron stepped out from his elder's shadow. "Gorons are not thieves. We do not steal from the Hylians."
"Be silent, goro," Dembugi grabbed the boy's arm and gave the child some sort of look—another of those secret conversations that Rithfus had not yet deciphered. But the meaning of this one proved easy enough to discern. The young Goron tore his arm free from Dembugi and turned his back to Rithfus to address the serving Gorons that watched from the periphery of the chamber. "All my years my fathers have told me of our history and the honor of my people. We Gorons fought every side during the hundred-year calamity when all of Greater Hyrule took up arms against each other. But they also spoke of how the last Queen of Hyrule, and her lord husband brought peace, a true peace, not won with betrayal and lies. The Hylians and Gorons became close as kin. What kind of monster demands that we betray our kin?"
Rithfus pushed himself to his feet and slithered to the young Goron. The child must have felt his presence because he turned back to look at him. "I will show you what kind of monster; if you so wish." Rithfus hissed in the child's face.
The Goron stepped back, but he did not flee. "I- I'm not afraid of you One-Arm." He wished to prove himself the little warrior, but he lied. Rithfus could smell the fear on him.
"Lord Rithfus," Dembugi waddled forward, leaning heavy on his cane. The elder Goron tried to place himself between the child and the Lizalfos. "Forgive the boy. He is young and his temper runs hot as the fissures of the Crown. But if we can return to important matters, do you think it wise to steal from the Hylians? Our king demanded we keep the peace."
"King Dragmire will not care if some Hylians go hungry."
"He would not even care if some Hylians go missing," Elgassa licked her lips.
The Goron was attempting to distract him, but the stonemen proved clumsy and oafish. What should he do with the child? He must be punished, but how greatly? Too lenient and his Lizalfos would think him weak, too harsh and Gorons may attempt to fight as the Zora did two years prior.
"Go, Dembugi," Rithfus said. "Tell the hunters what I have ordered. I will expect full platters when they return."
"Yes, my lord," Dembugi glared at the child. "Let us go, goro."
"No," Rithfus hissed. "He stays. Bring him to the dungeons."
The child howled and ran at Rithfus with his arms forward. Before he took two steps, Rithfus' guard had the child pinned to the ground.
"Lord Rithfus, I beg you, the child is naïve. His head is full of fairytales. Please show him leniency."
"I am."
The child continued to roar his defiance as the guard forced his arms down and pressed his hands into the manacles, thick and heavy enough that even a Goron could not break them.
"Tell this also to the hunters, Dembugi. What do you think we shall eat if they return empty-handed? Gorons grow tough as they age, but many in those caves are still young and tender. Should I go hungry, this one will be the first."
"Understood, Lord Rithfus."
He returned to his cushions while the young fool was dragged away, and the old fool limped out. Rithfus waited until both were gone before he signaled for Freskusth to come closer.
"Why wasn't I informed that their chief left the tunnels for the Crown?"
"Don't know."
"Who is watching him?"
"Rerskith's clutch this week."
"Bring me Rerskith then. Either the Gorons are trying to hide something, or that clutch will soon need to find a new leader."
Rithfus basked upon his cushions until the guards ushered Rerskith into the hall. Spearmen flanked him. Fear radiated off Rerskith's scales, filling the room with the intoxicating aroma of Rithfus' power.
"What is your wish, Lord Rithfus?" Rerskith lowered his belly to the ground and his tail went flat. Not a year ago, two from his growing brood attempted to overthrow him for control of their clutch, and Rerskith slew them both. And now this fearsome warrior groveled at Rithfus' feet.
Wonderous.
"Why was I not informed that Chief Darunia had left for the Crown?"
"Is this some trick?" Rerskith hissed.
"No."
"Darunia has not left for the Crown."
"Are you certain? Perhaps one of your clutch failed to inform you of his whereabouts?"
"It cannot be. He is entertaining a visitor. I heard his voice myself."
"What visitor?"
"Don't know. None of my clutch saw anyone enter, but he is talking to someone. Darunia speaks loud. The other is softer. We cannot make out what they say. But they are not a Goron. One of my clutch claims it is a Hylian."
"How did a visitor enter without being seen? There is only one entrance to the chief's quarters."
"I cannot say, Lord Rithfus. I was not on watch at the time. Wittrik, Dellignaksh, Slervar, they stood on patrol. They are to blame for any failure."
"Have whoever was supposed to lead among them slain. The others are to be punished with a scourge."
"I will, Lord Rithfus. Thank you, Lord Rithfus."
"Is the visitor still there?"
"When I left."
Rithfus stuck out his tongue and cleaned around his eyes. "How long have they been inside?"
"Most of the day."
Darunia brought someone into his home. Someone important enough that he hid their arrival and presented a lie to the Lizalfos. He's planning something. The rock-brained fool wishes to be free from me and King Dragmire, but how does this lie aid him to that end?
Did this newcomer bring messages of support from the base of the mountain? Or perhaps weapons? No. One person getting past Rithfus' watchers was possible, but weapons enough to matter would require wagons and horses. Even a blind Lizalfos would know of them. But this visitor must be important.
A plot formed in Rithfus' mind. One where Hylian and Goron came together to throw him off the mountain. They would need a reason to work together, and what better reason could he have provided them than a child taken for speaking out against harming the Hylians? Rithfus hissed and shut his eyes. Was Darunia clever enough to orchestrate such a maneuver? Was he so predictable as to be played by that rock-eater?
He could not risk it. When hunting stronger prey, kill them fast, before they realize you are there.
"Freskuth, gather your finest spearmen and Rerskith inform your clutch. They're hunting Gorons tonight."
Within the hour the warriors had gathered and set out with Freskuth at their head. All the while Rithfus did nothing but lay upon his cushions. How enjoyable civilization was. He had the servants bring him another meal while he waited. Not as grand as the first, but still, he had more than his fill of cow and hog.
The clacking, hissing, and stomping down his home informed him of the assault's success. He raised his head from his cushions as the doors slammed open and seven Lizalfos dragged the high chief of the stonemen in chains before him.
"Darunia," Rithfus hissed. "How was the Crown?"
"You are breaking the King's Peace, One-Arm." The once proud Goron was forced to his knees, battered, and bent. His eyes lowered to the ground. His stone-hard skin cracked and thin streams of blood dripped over his massive arms. The gold bracers he always wore looked like shackles.
"Lord Rithfus," he demanded as he heaved himself to his feet. Strange. He expected to smell the fear on the Goron when he approached, but there was no trace of it on him. "Where is Rerskith?"
"Dead," responded one of the warriors that held onto Darunia. "The guard, Brodni, got him in his hands. Crushed him."
Rithfus snarled. "And what happened to Brodni?"
"He managed to escape with Darunia's consort. But we killed the others."
Disappointing, the big Goron could prove burdensome. "Including Darunia's guest?"
"We found no guest. His home was empty."
Rithfus slithered back to Darunia, hissing in his ear. "Who did you speak to? Who was so important that you lied to your betters?"
"Betters? Hah! No one came, One-Arm. I merely had no desire to spend my time in your presence. Seven years I have suffered the humiliation of kneeling before you. I wished to have one day of peace and merriment when I could have song and forget the decline of my people. But most of all, One-Arm, I wished to never again be close enough to hear you."
The Lizalfos pressed the pommels of their swords into the Goron's wounds, making him wince and double over in pain.
"My people heard voices coming from your home. Hylian voices. Who have you been speaking to, Darunia? How did they escape?"
The stoneman met his eyes and his mouth twisted up. What did that expression mean? Wasn't it joy? No, that couldn't be right, there was nothing for Darunia to find pleasurable. "Your folk are lying to you. I spoke with no one. Kill me if you wish. But I think my people will not take my death lightly. And when the mines grow cold and Dragmire's great project grinds to a halt, who will he blame, I wonder?" Beaten, captured, and humiliated, the Goron still had a laugh in him, though it was low and dark and sounded of grinding stones.
Rithfus looked to his warriors; Trisklesk, Yalmargg, and a dozen more whose names he never learned. Half wished for his place, and the rest simply yearned for more blood and meat and violence. What if the stoneman spoke true? He had never heard the voices himself. Rerskith may not have been clever enough to conceive such a deception himself. But then, he had missed the guest's arrival. What of those he named? Could one of them be some blood-mad young upstart? One with the ambition to create a conflict and use it to rise above their current position.
Possible. It took only one misplaced servant to throw the plans of their betters into turmoil. I should know. That was how I came to power.
"You think your death will cause the Gorons to revolt? You think you are that important to them?" Rithfus hissed in the captive's face. "They will not even remember you once your bones are picked clean. I have seen rulers killed before. Moqut, King Dodongo, that Hylian who sat the throne. The low creatures will not care. They follow whoever leads."
"I am willing to put their loyalty to the test. Are you?"
Does he want to die? Why? How would that serve him? These stonemen did not make sense. "Why bother when I have already won? Bring the cage and weigh the Goron down with iron."
His warriors wrapped the prisoner in layers of chains so heavy the mighty Darunia could hardly move. Goron servants with tears in their eyes brought forth an iron pen, with bars so thick that not even a Dodongo could break them.
"Place it there in the corner. He does not wish to be in my presence? Let him become my ornament forever."
With much prodding and shoving from the guards, Darunia trudged into the cell. As the iron door shut, his eyes met Rithfus's own. "Why?" He asked.
Rithfus held out his hand, and one of his warriors gave him the key. "If your death will cause your people to riot, what will they do for your life?" He approached the cell. "Let all know that if the mines close, if our king does not receive his payment, and if your hunters cannot find my meat, it will mean your end."
There, just as the lock clicked into place, that was the smell he was waiting for. Rithfus' tongue flickered out and lapped the fear up as delicious as any meal.
That night the smell roused him from his slumber. Not the grimy stench of a Goron or the lingering scent of his fellow Lizalfos, but one still familiar to him. Hylian. Female. Close enough he could have bitten her. But when he lifted his head to search the room, he found no one. Nothing looked disturbed, but in the dark, there were many places she could hide.
"Guards!" He called.
Five warriors burst into his room snarling and bearing their weapons. But not even a shadow stirred.
"What is wrong, my lord?" One of the lizards asked.
"An intruder entered my room."
"There is no one else here."
Rithfus growled, but he could not deny it. "Did none of you see a Hylian enter my chambers?"
"Of course not, Lord Rithfus."
"We would devour any who approached."
"I can smell her!" He hissed, though even the odor had begun to fade. He tried to follow what lingered around the room. She had passed over him, from one side of the room to the other. She must have been searching for something. What was missing? Where could- "The key! She is trying to free Darunia! Hurry to my court! We will catch her!"
The guards rushed out of the room, slithering on all fours through the hall.
Rithfus followed. "Erkusk, gather the rest of my guard." One of his number skittered down a side path.
Four warriors now. They would beat one Hylian, but should Darunia be freed when they arrived? That could prove more difficult. How wounded was the Goron in truth?
"You should not have come, goro," Darunia's deep voice carried through the halls. The Hylian's response did not. "We are not yet ready."
Rithfus and his guard whirled into the room. The Hylian stood before the cage, the key in its lock. Between her and the door, the corpses of the two Lizalfos Rithfus had left to guard the prisoner lay. Foam spilled from their mouths and decay reeked from them. Poison.
The cage screeched open, but Darunia was still in chains. They came just in time.
The Hylian cursed and pulled a cloth over her face. She covered herself in the clothes of the Sheikah, the fearsome hunters of the Hylians, but she did not quite smell like them. Though it mattered little, she would not escape.
"Run," Darunia struggled to step out from his cage. "I shall delay-"
"You will not!" the Hylian said as she fished a knife from her sleeve. "No more harm will come to my family on my behalf, uncle."
What did that mean? Family and uncle were words the Gorons and Hylians used to describe members of the same clutch or the same bloodlines. But that could not be true. Gorons shaped their young from the stone, they could not form a Hylian. Could they?
Another mystery to unravel once the girl was dead at his feet.
"Darunia," Rithfus stopped midway through the room and let his guard advance, spreading out to surround the pair. "Return to your cage. You are unarmed, you are wounded, you are bound. You cannot hope to win."
"Hmm," the Goron looked to the four guards. They advanced upon him with spears lowered and tails and tongues lashing the air. Even the fool must know he was beaten. The Hylian could not face four with only those puny knives. She would be torn apart, and Rithfus would enjoy the show.
"Down!" Darunia yelled. The female crouched low as the Goron screamed, and on his wrist, the golden bracers gleamed. He flexed his arms and chains creaked, then swelled, then shattered. With a speed Rithfus did not expect from the battered figure, he turned and grabbed the cage that took several of his kind to carry and lifted it above his head.
"Impossible," Rithfus whispered as Darunia hurled the iron into the nearest of the Lizalfos. The warrior did not have time enough to squeal before he was crushed.
Then the Hylian swirled back to her feet and her knives soared from her hands. Three of them embedded into another of his warriors. Before he slumped to the ground the female had rearmed herself. How many blades did she carry?
In an instant, his forces that once doubled his opponent were now equal in number. But they did not seem equal in anything else. One of the two remaining guards squawked as he charged at the Hylian. But she slipped away, ever just out of reach of his spear or jaws or claws. Yet close enough to lead him past danger.
"Watch out!" Rithfus shouted, but too late.
The Hylian dived away from one final thrust of the spear and the Lizalfos leaped after her. The thick hand of Darunia plucked him from the air and smashed him to the ground. As the Goron throttled his opponent, his bracers gleamed again. He slammed his fist into the Lizalfos, and the stones of the floor dented from the impact.
The last of Rithfus' warriors leaped onto Darunia's back. He bit the Goron's throat and clawed at his tough flesh. Darunia only grunted as he whirled about, trying to get his hands on the lizard. He did not need to. The Hylian appeared seemingly from the shadows. She wrapped a cord around the guard's neck and yanked him off Darunia's back.
The warrior squirmed as Darunia raised his arms high. The bracer lit the room enough for Rithfus to see every detail on the guard's thrashing face as the fists came down upon him. The building shook.
How had this happened? Four of his guards dead in a few heartbeats.
Darunia turned to him, and Rithfus felt his jaws go dry. "One-Arm."
Rithfus bound away from the stoneman. But the Hylian appeared between him and the door, a knife pointed at his neck.
May the poison you use bite into your veins. May you convulse and die at my feet!
"Long have I waited for this reckoning." The thump of Darunia's heavy steps sent a chill down Rithfus' spine. Every day on the edge of starvation returned to him. When he worried if a Dodongo or a fellow Lizalfos would gut him just for the fun of it. "Long have I suffered under you and your endless hunger."
Rithfus scurried as far from the pair as he could. He felt sick and sluggish, and his heart pounded. But he only needed to avoid them until Erkusk arrived with reinforcements. The entire army of Lizalfos would descend upon them and they would be overwhelmed. He would feast upon their flesh soon enough. He had survived the Battle of Death Mountain. He outplayed King Dodongo. He had led the Lizalfos for seven years with a wound that would have seen anyone else abandoned and left to starve.
All because he was smarter than those around him. Others threw their lives away, only he had been willing to do whatever he needed to survive. Though his gut slowed him, and his chest ached, he would never stop. He clattered across the room, hurling cushions and toppling over empty platters still stained from the day's feasts. Yet the pair continued their pursuit around the room.
A light flickered through the door. He had done it! A stomping march of feet approached. He had them.
This is what becomes of those who cross Lord Rithfus! I will listen to your screams and feast upon your flesh with delight.
A large figure reached the entrance, followed by several more. Far too large.
"No," Rithfus whispered as the Gorons entered the room. Many he recognized from among the servants that brought him his food or cleaned up after his clutch. But others had on them the dust of the mines and burns along their arms. Leading them was the massive Brodni, with the child at his side.
All of them held the weapons of the Lizalfos in their hands.
"Chief," one of the Gorons called, "is it time?"
Instead of speaking, Darunia looked to the Hylian.
"No," she said. "I am sorry. But we are not yet prepared. However, this one cannot tell any of what he has seen."
Rithfus screeched and backed away from the advancing Gorons. There had to be a way out of here. There must be. His tail struck against the cold stones of the building he had designed to signal his unquestioned authority. His pleasure house where he had dined upon all the delights of the world. Now it caged him just as he caged the Gorons.
"Think, Darunia," he tried to reason with the oaf. "I am marked by our king. I – I can speak to him on command. You lay your hands upon me, and I will call. He will bring this mountain down as he tore apart Lord Jabu-Jabu and the armies that rode against him."
"He cannot," said the Hylian. "That isn't how the spell works."
Darunia grunted, but his advance had never slowed, and his expression never changed. It no longer mattered what he or that Hylian said. Over all the years Rithfus had been forced to look upon those strange faces with all their twisting shapes. Now, at last, he recognized the emotion on them. On all of those that encircled him. Hatred. Every Goron's face was twisted with hatred.
"Wait," Rithfus begged.
There must be a way out. I can think of a way out. I need time. I just need time!
"Wait!"
But the cold stone grip wrapped around his throat. And his pleas, like his rule, came to nothing.
Author's Note: Please excuse any delays between chapters. I'm still in the process of changing careers, so updates may be less frequent than when I was writing Part I. But I thought I'd delayed this long enough.