Chapter 14: Phantoms Of The Past

It was with a silent yawn that Ruto woke from her sleep, her tail unfurling from around her spherical body as she opened her eyes. After shaking off the last of her grogginess she finally took in her surroundings. The structure she now found herself in was relatively cramped, measuring at only about ten feet tall and maybe fifteen feet wide. It was circular, the walls appeared to be of a pale canvas, which rattled as an immense wind howled outside. Some blankets had been laid on the floor, herself laying on one, and in the corner Ruto spotted Epona hunkered down on one as well. In the middle of the room sat Link, roasting a fish over one of his enchanted fire arrows.

Likely sensing her movement, Link looked up, smiling as he peered into the dark eyes of his beloved. "Well, look who's finally awake? You were pretty content there for a while."

"Yeah," said Ruto, yawning again, "Lon Lon Milk has that sort of effect on me. Sorry."

"It's okay," said Link reassuringly, turning the fish over to begin cooking the other side. "You were pretty adorable, sleeping so soundly."

Ruto blushed, her cheeks tinting blue in embarrassment at the compliment. It wasn't that she minded his encouraging words; quite the opposite, in fact. It was just that, for all her life, when her father would overwhelmingly dote on her, he'd often times call her the adorable princess of the Zora, so she had come to associate being called adorable with her overly pampered childhood, when she hadn't been allowed to be anything but the adorable princess of the Zora.

Of course, it didn't draw her ire. Link was unaware why it was a sore subject, and besides, she knows he respected her in ways her father never could. He saw past her cutesy exterior to the strong Zora girl she was underneath. After he was done cooking Link stood up, walked over to her, picked her up, cradled her in his arms, sat down on the blanket, and offered her the fish.

"Hungry?" he asked.

Ruto, whose mouth watered at the scent of the food, immediately leaned forward and began tearing into the cooked meat in earnest. Link smiled at the sight of her eating, feeling both a sense of calm, as well as a sense of self-gratification that he was taking such good care of his beloved. It didn't take long for Ruto to pick the carcass clean, leaving only the bare bones suspended on the stick.

"What about you?" Ruto inquired as she licked grease from her lips.

"Don't worry about me," said Link, throwing the spit into the corner, where Ruto noticed another set of bare fishbones. "I ate before you woke up."

Ruto's eyes narrowed and she shook her head in slight shame. "I really was out of it, wasn't I? I'm so hopeless."

"Hey, don't go putting yourself down over every little thing," said Link, holding her closer. "Besides, you didn't even really miss anything."

Ruto smiled appreciatively and snuggled in close to his chest. The wind rattled outside and Ruto heard something rustling against the canvas wall.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"The Haunted Wasteland," Link answered. "We have covered about a day's travel so far."

The Haunted Wasteland.

Ruto had heard tales of this place, especially from the Sage of Spirit, Nabooru. It was said to be haunted, haunted by the earthbound spirits of all those who had been lost in its ever shifting sand. This tent must be the one that Zelda had given them to aid their quest. It was made from a fabric that was supposedly designed to be able to withstand the unpredictable gales of a sandstorm, and Ruto could only hope that it would live up to that. From the sounds of it, it would not be advisable to be outside right now for any reason.

"We'd best wait until the storm passes before moving on," said Link, sprawling out onto the blanket, settling Ruto into his Kokiri Tunic against his chest, the tranquil magic washing over them both.

Ruto couldn't agree more, so, with a full belly, she drifted off to sleep once more, the rattling of the wind against the wall of the tent a forever constant, even gently slipping into their dreams.

—

The next day Ruto beheld, for the first time in her life, a desert landscape. And her opinion wasn't a good one either. She used to think living cooped up in Zora's Domain was boring, but this place gave a new definition to the word. There didn't appear to be anything but leagues of sand and cloudless sky, both stretching endlessly in every direction. There wasn't even any sign of the cliffs that bordered Hyrule; Link explained that they'd disappeared behind the horizon the day before.

And that was to say nothing of the heat.

In every direction the air rippled with searing heat waves. If not for yet another gift from Zelda the sweltering heat that had always waylaid Prince Hojim's forces would undoubtedly be bearing down on them. Link and Ruto were currently shrouded in a white blanket that Link had wrapped around his head and shoulders like a hood, with Epona having been fitted with a similar blanket. The blankets not only provided them with some semblance of protection from the wind, sun and sand, but also had special enchantments on them that kept the wearer cool. It was a similar, though somewhat less potent magic to what is used on the Goron Tunic, the Goron's always sending their materials to Hyrule Castle because of how much less heat resistant other races are compared to Goron's, according to Princess Zelda.

At the moment, Link and Ruto were both glad Zelda had been right, that the enchantments could ward off desert heat as well as volcanic heat.

"We really should be grateful for Zelda's foresight," said Link, the enchanted blanket shrouded over his head and shoulders like a hood.

"I agree. She has always been that way since I have known her," said Ruto, comfortably wrapped around Link's neck beneath the blanket, peeking out from the left side of his face. "She has always been really compassionate as well. She's the only person I know who would give away something as valuable as these blankets."

Link nodded. "We're really lucky to have her as an ally."

From that point there really wasn't much to talk about, but they passed the time of this dreary league of the journey by simply basking in each other's company, their mutual love for each other beating within their souls like the steady rhythm of a heartbeat. Ruto, however, had a secondary reason to focus on their deep-seated relationship other than boredom. They were headed to a place that had long since given her a foreboding feeling. The thought alone was enough to make her shudder.

But she pushed past the unease and dread, trying to suppress it by focusing on the boy whom she loves. She also focused on the main goal of their journey. Not only was the only method that even remotely held a chance of successfully returning her to the same age as Link located in Veasina, but, according to the Happy Mask Salesman, Prince Hojim had at last procured a method to force Zora's Domain to lend aid to his campaign against the kingdom of Hyrule.

The last thing she wanted was for her father to have to bow to that vile Zora's whims, so she and Link were going to put a stop to his wicked machinations, whatever it took.

All of this coalesced into a mixture of emotions in Ruto, and she wondered if this is what it was like to truly be on an epic adventure? If this is how Link felt? Her role in his adventure regarding Ganondorf, while crucial, muchlike all the Sages, had been minimal. Was this what it was like to be so close to the heart of an epic adventure?

She was snapped out of her musings when the sound of whipping winds and shifting sand wafted in their direction and, looking to the source, she and Link spotted a wall of sand and wind billowing towards them.

Link wasted no time in dismounting Epona and frantically setting up the tent to withstand the unpredictable gales of the Haunted Wasteland. He just finished sealing the flap behind them when the sandstorm washed over the tent like a tidal wave of wind and sediment. Link relieved Epona of her saddle, gave her some feed, then hunkered down on a blanket, cradling Ruto in his arms, both exchanging an affectionate smile. There was nothing to do but wait till the storm passed, and appreciating each other's company would work just as well at passing that time now as it did when they were stuck just riding through the desert.

But, after exchanging just a few content blinks, the tranquility of the moment was shattered by a sound that was unbecoming of a sandstorm. It was neither that of sand impacting the canvas walls, or the wind whipping around the tent. It was a low, deep and echoing wail.

"What was that?!" Ruto cried out, huddling closer to Link, the sound sending a chill down her spine to the tip of her tail.

"I don't know!" Link admitted, standing up and drawing the Gilded Sword with a hardened expression. "It doesn't sound like anything I have ever encountered before!"

The noise repeated, sounding even closer now. Link and Ruto were as equally confused as they were nervous and on edge. The Haunted Wasteland was practically uninhabitable. Even back in Hyrule no life could be found there (excluding a certain Bombchu Salesman) until one reached The Desert Colossus, which was home to several Guay and Leever, so what could be out there now?

Link and Ruto exchanged a nervous look, both could tell that the other had come to the same conclusion simultaneously. There was a reason that this place was referred to as the 'Haunted' Wasteland, after all.

"You don't suppose…?" began Ruto with a trembling voice.

Before she could say anything else, a figure emerged from the canvas wall. It didn't tear through it, but phased through it like a phantom. Link and Ruto's eyes widened in horror and Epona neighed in fear as the ghostly apparition of what appeared to be a Zora emerged from the tent wall. It was wispy, and slightly luminescent, as if composed of mist from the Lost Woods. It brandished a transparent trident as it hung in the air, its incorporeal eyes locking on Link.

That same eerie cry reverberated through the tent, the apparition clearly the source, though there was no visible mouth on the ghostly features of the Zora's face. The Zora lunged forward at Link, trident poised to strike. Ruto let out a frightened yelp and huddled closer to Link, who, since he was cradling Ruto in one hand, had no choice but to drop the Gilded Sword in order to draw the Mirror Shield to defend himself. He held the shield up just as the Zora apparition's ghostly trident struck, and as soon as the prongs made contact with the moaning face etched into the shield's reflective surface they phased through it just as the apparition had phased through the wall of the tent.

Link's eyes widened in shock as the prongs of the trident passed through his shield as if it wasn't even there, having no time to react as they made contact with his face. But the prongs phased through him just as they had everything else so far, leaving not a mark on him. At that moment the Zora apparition dissipated, as if blown away by an unseen wind.

Link and Ruto stared in bewilderment at what had just happened.

But before they could react any further another apparition of a Zora phased through the canvas wall on the far left, producing a mournful keen as it brandished a spear whose head resembled a huge, pointy conch shell. The apparition closed in on Link and Ruto, its weapon poised to strike. Link glanced at the shield in his hand and the discarded Gilded Sword lying nearby. Such things were apparently ineffective at driving off these spirits, but they didn't have the capability to inflict harm on someone who was still living either.

Realizing that the only course of action was to just wait it out and hope whatever has stirred these spirits from their eternal rest would pass soon, Link hunkered down and threw the blanket he had been squatting on over himself and Ruto, who was trembling in his arms.

"Be calm, Ruto," said Link smoothingly as he held her to his chest. "They cannot hurt us."

"Who…who are they?" she mumbled against him pitifully.

"I don't know," Link admitted, gently caressing her shaking form. "All we can do is hope that they move on eventually."

Ruto's only response was to nod against his chest.

For what felt like several hours Link and Ruto took refuge under the blanket, continuously hounded from all sides by the wailing of the apparitions. Every now and then they'd catch a glimpse of an incorporeal weapon being plunged into the thin fabric of the blanket, the one thing preventing them from beholding whatever horrors were going on outside. Eventually, as the winds of the sudden sandstorm died away, so did the wailing of the ghostly Zoras, Link lifted the blanket, him and Ruto noticing the sunlight seeping in the the sealed seams of the tent.

Whatever phenomenon they had just endured seemed to have finally passed.

Exiting to the outside, Link and Ruto looked about, but there was no trace of the ghostly apparitions that had hounded them mere moments ago.

"What was that all about?" Link asked.

"I don't know," said Ruto, her voice shaky and timid.

They took a brief reprieve from their journey in order to recuperate, Link holding Ruto as she sometimes became racked with tremors. Eventually, they managed to pull themselves together and resumed traveling. However, over the next ridge, they discovered something that might explain the ghostly Zoras that they had encountered.

At the top of the sand dune they had just finished climbing, Link looked on with a stunned expression as he sat upon Epona's back, Ruto wearing a look of incomprehension and horror as she peeked out from his hood. A multitude of bones lay scattered upon the sandy ground below, stretching for several leagues in all directions. Without any change in expression Link gently streered Epona down the steep slope, her hooves rustling as they approached the gruesome scene. Upon entering the massive graveyard Link directed Epona forward at a casual pace, eyes wandering from skeleton to skeleton as he casually surveyed the scene.

"What is this?" asked Ruto, her voice etched with unease. "Some kind of ancient battlefield?"

Link's first assumption was something along those lines, but he steadily began to notice inconsistencies in the scene before him that negated that as a possibility. Link was no expert on warfare but the position of the bodies was too consistent for them to have fallen in battle. They were all armed with weapons of some kind and wore armor, an obvious sign that this was some kind of legion of warriors, but the bones lay side by side, as if, rather than having been struck down by enemies, they had all perished in march.

And there wasn't any sign of an opposing force. The armor, weapons, and even the nearby decrepit frames of what appeared to have once been supply carts all seemed to have been manufactured by the same culture. And all the skeletons were Zora, the bone structures of fins and crests stark on their figures.

"I don't think this is a battlefield, Ruto," said Link, casting her a nervous sideways glance. "If I didn't know better, I would say this is a legion of warriors that perished in the Haunted Wasteland while marching."

Ruto only had time to contemplate why such a large number of warriors would be marching through this desolate place (and Zoras at that) when they passed a lance embedded in the sand, a frayed banner tied to the shaft billowing in the wind. Her eyes widened in recognition, horror, and realization as she recognized the crest depicted on the banner, the silhouette of Zora against the backdrop of the full moon, thrusting a trident skyward as he stood upon a pile of three bodies, one body a Hylian, another a Goron, and the last a Deku Shrub.

"Link!" she gasped, gesturing with her nose towards the billowing banner. "That's Prince Hojim's crest!

Link followed her gaze, his expression twisting with disgust at the morbid image. They exchanged a look, both coming to the same realization. They knew Princess Hojim wished to launch a campaign against Hyrule, but his endeavors were always waylaid by the harsh journey the Haunted Wasteland would impose on his troops. But apparently he had tried to conquer this insurmountable obstacle some time in the past and they now stood amongst the results of Princess Hojim's attempts to fulfill his morbid ambitions.

"This must be where those spirits came from," Ruto whimpered as she gazed at the shriveled remains of what had once been an entire army of her kin. "So much loss of life. It's…devastating. And now, because of the goals and ambitions of their malevolent ruler, the souls of these poor warriors are doomed to wander the Haunted Wasteland forever."

Link could do nothing but put a hand to the side of her face and rub his cheek against hers comfortingly. He vowed that, should the chance arise, he would remove Prince Hojim from his lofty throne which he had no right to rule from. A leader should never sacrifice their own people, especially for a needless cause that only serves to enhance their own pride and ego.

With nothing left to do, they departed the area, leaving behind the legion of lost Zora warriors to the sand that not only their bones lay upon but their very spirits were lost amongst.