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Ch. 1

Ghosts of the Past

A few vague, fleeting memories filtered through Zelda's mind as she stared at the distant castle. Her home, once, she was starting to believe. Not that she had any reason to truly doubt the device on her hip, it was just... she couldn't be a Princess. How many girls were born into the world wishing that, thinking that, and never finding it true? The odds were... astronomical.

But not everyone, she also knew, got a second chance. Though she could remember no stories at all told by another or even read in a book, she knew no one else came back from the dead. Yet, she, apparently, had.

And she remembered little things. Only the smallest of details. The red on one wall reserved for certain visiting dignitaries. The purple carpeting in another hall, said to bring peace to others from foreign lands. Arguing voices. A crowded, cluttered space full of objects she couldn't remember or identify. A comforting, familiar place surrounded by books. A cake full of bits of fruit, and the delicious flavor she had so loved.

The memories were gone as soon as they started, covered over by the dark magic that filled the castle now.

With a wrenching effort, Zelda tore her still-dry eyes away. She wanted to cry, but there wasn't enough moisture in her. Her lips were dry, but not chapped. Had the machine kept her healthy, but not hydrated? Strange.

A long, slower glance around, skipping over the castle, swept from the left to the right. If it was morning, then from the west to the east. High, snow-capped mountains, then rocky highlands, and another, even higher and larger range with one shadowed peak far in the distance... was that a hole in it? Had some great cataclysm punched a clean hole through that mountain? It was unimaginable, yet there it was.

Beyond that, tree-covered hills, rising higher and higher beyond the castle, culminating in several jagged spires... and a volcano. Yes, that was the word. An active volcano, from which she could see a vibrant, angry red-orange glow and even a few streams of lava from this far distance. Leagues upon leagues away, it must have been huge. More highlands, and a valley broad, then more mountains too, far to the east of the castle, capped by not snow, but heavy rains in a cloud that stretched for days worth of walking by foot.

How she knew that, Zelda could not say, but this land was still achingly, hauntingly familiar, for all it was nothing she knew or could name.

South of there, then, as she continued to turn, was another large mountain, this one split in two as if the earth itself had rent it asunder in an uneven break, not quite through the middle. Then the view was interrupted by something very clearly man-made.

A cathedral or temple or church of some sort, made of deep gray, charcoal-colored stone, close enough to where she stood that Zelda suspected she could reach it in an hour or two at a steady pace. The edifice rose hundreds of feet into the air, and she thought at first that it would be a good destination.

Surely, such a powerful testament would have guards, leaders... someone to help, to explain to her what had happened. Why she was here, awake, now.

What she should do.

But even as she looked, a brick or perhaps a shingle fell from near the top of the bell-spire, rolling and falling down the front until it smashed into the grass below with a puff of dust. It was too far to see the details, but even so...

It was ancient, old, and falling apart.

The temple, for all its majesty, was not being maintained properly.

Zelda sighed. It was still as good a destination as any... for now.

With a last glance around the edges of the many miles-wide plateau the cliffside her current perch rested in the middle of, she could see that it was far above the greater plains between her and the castle. She would have to find a way down. Much of it was ringed in huge fortified crenellations, battlements, and barbicans.

Another memory then, as brief as the first, of visiting this place once in her youth. How impressed she had been at the size of the place, of the work of many hundreds of men over centuries that had gone into crafting it all.

Gone. Wasted.

Hyrule, it seemed, had fallen along with its castle.

But she could not find it in her heart to mourn. She could not remember it, after all, only the palest glimpses of shadows of memory were all that remained to her.

So Zelda did all she could: start walking.

The path down the cliff-side was steep in places, but wide and broad. Overgrown by grass, but there were still weather-worn and well-trod steps of stone, much of it crumbling but serviceable, where the ground dropped the fastest. All around her, crickets buzzed, and butterflies chirped.

She knew the names of some of them... maybe.

Even knew how useful some would be, but could still not remember how. Someone had shown her, once, that the juices and shell of a cricket combined with the petals of a... was it a... sun-wing? No... a Summerwing butterfly could do... something. Maybe there was another ingredient, too. Two? Maybe.

"I hate not knowing," she muttered to herself, and reached down to pick up a rock. She hurled it in frustration out over the woods below, watching the speck disappear into the canopy far below.

It hadn't traveled nearly as well as she expected.

"I'm weak," the resurrected princess continued to mutter, "so weak. How am I supposed to save... anything?"

She was still lost in her thoughts when a deep, oddly reassuring voice startled her out of her thoughts.

"You are stronger than you know... Zelda."

"Zelda...? Do you know me, sirrah?"

He blinked, deep green eyes hidden behind the dark hood he wore, glistened in the shadows. "I do... Princess of Hyrule, fallen these many years. Returned, it seems, at long last."

"Then you have me at a disadvantage, I'm afraid."

"Ah. Pardon me... but my name will have to wait. It's a rather boring life story, I'm afraid. I'm just an old fool who's been here, alone, for quite some time now. Yet you... you are something, someone, special. Do you know why you are here?"

Zelda found herself grimacing, "To be honest, sirrah, I'm not sure where here is. I understand Hyrule, and I know that was a kingdom- my kingdom, I think, if truly a Princess I was- but beyond that... I know little."

"Well, I for one do not believe in coincidence," the old man said, his long, bushy white beard twisting as he smiled gently, "in fact, you could say I've been here all this time waiting for you, hoping you would wake when I could still speak to you. In answer to your question, Princess Zelda, this is the Great Plateau. According to legend, it is the birthplace of the entire kingdom of Hyrule. Many, many years ago, before this land was even named, it was here that Hyrule's ancient heroes and royal family began what, at the time, was a fledgling kingdom, made anew from the ashes of an even older one."

The old man groaned as he stood slowly, rising from a log he had been sitting on to point toward the same temple she had seen with one gnarled-looking, black-gloved finger untwisting from his crooked staff to point toward it. "That temple, long ago, was the site of many sacred ceremonies. Kings and Queens were married there, or crowned. Yet, ever since the decline of our beloved kingdom a hundred years ago and more... I forget now, but I counted to a hundred once... it has sat abandoned, in a state of decay. Yet another forgotten entity, a mere ghost of its former self."

"Like... me?"

"Ho, ho, no, that wasn't what I meant at all, fierce little princess," the old man chuckled, "I meant more like myself. I have been here for some time, and for some time longer I will yet remain. I will be here to help if you need guidance, young princess. In fact... here, I have more practical help. I find myself, in my old age, no longer needing to carry quite so much around. Take this... and this. It's a spare."

She protested, "No, I couldn't possibly-"

"Take what is freely offered, as a gift and offering to a princess? I'm afraid that won't do," the old man laughed again, louder now, "declining the tribute offered to a reigning sovereign- crowned or not- is most impolite, you know."

Zelda felt her face heat, "W- Well, I- I mean- I cannot be a proper princess if Hyrule is not..."

"Ah. I see," the man said again, heaving a long, deep sigh that made his barrel chest swell hugely, "I understand what you mean, princess... and yet, Hyrule does yet remain. It is fragmented, perhaps. Broken, wounded. But as long as you remain, as long as I remain, and as long as that beast is trapped within the grounds of the castle in which you once lived... Hyrule remains. It remains in the hearts of its people, who yearn and strive and work and toil for a better life. A safer life. One their ancestors, a century and more past, once knew.

"That... is a life only you can give them, Princess of Hyrule. So I beg you, reconsider. Take these as my gift. Take them with the hope they represent. Health and safety for you... and health and safety for us all. For Hyrule."

Suddenly, she found herself weeping, where no tears would come before. Zelda collapsed to her knees as the old man's voice trembled and broke at the last word, his stern but kind visage also wavering. "I... I accept," she whispered, finding her own throat choked and strained.

When she was able to regain her composure, Zelda found the old man standing before her, one hand still holding his lantern-bearing staff, the other held out to assist her upward. She took his hand gratefully, smiling shyly at her weakness and lack of restraint. At her foolishness.

As if he knew what she was thinking, the man's voice pierced her heart again, "Think yourself not weak, Zelda. You have been through much, though by your own word you don't remember. And the burden before you is hard. But you need not walk it alone. Find yourself helpmates, and allies. I would call myself one, if I were not so aged and frail. If I could do more than offer these trinkets, and whatever guidance an old hermit who has lived far too long alone on the plateau can give. You are stronger than you know."

Hearing those words again helped the princess steel her resolve, and she looked up at him finally to see, through the remnants of thin, salty water, that his face was still worn and gnarled by many years in the sun, but kind and gentle, and wise. "Thank you. Truly."

"It is my pleasure," he said with another wide smile. "The pouch is enchanted, it will carry more than it would appear, but my skill at the art is a beginner's at best. At least it is sturdy, and I believe it will resist any attempts to steal from it. Sadly, thieves do exist in Hyrule still, as the needy and desperate scrabble to survive. The waterskin, too, will hold several gallons. The pond a short way down the hill on your right is clear enough to drink, though perhaps the snowmelt higher up would be safer. Or use my fire to boil it, if you've patience."

"Thank you," Zelda said again, this time actually reaching out and down to lift the two objects, hefting both in her hands. The pouch was of a style to fit over her shoulder, with several ties and fastenings leading to multiple pockets. It also had several ties on beaded, braided strips of leather.

"You can use those to hold weapons. Arm yourself as you can, princess," the man instructed her, and pointed once more down the hill, "There is an old axe in a stump that way you can use if nothing else. I find myself cutting less and less wood these days, and I've another at my cabin on the other side of the hills."

"Ah. I see," Zelda murmured, glancing down to see that yes, perhaps eight or nine hundred feet off, she could see a hint of water puddling in the path, and near that a hewn stump with a heavy woodsman's axe stuck into it. "I will do that... if you are sure it isn't needed?"

"No, no, go ahead," the man said with a grin that split his face again, this time wide enough to reveal several very clean, white teeth.

For some reason, it struck her as odd that this old hermit would take such care of them.

"Ah... in fact, take this, too. I was making it for myself, since my lantern is running low on oil, but your need is better than mine."

Zelda followed with her eyes as he stepped around the log he had been using as a stool and bent slightly to retrieve a torch, just recently dipped from the look of it, and held it to her handle-first. "I... are you sure? This is so much..."

"And yet, your need is greater than mine. As is that of all of Hyrule."

Zelda sighed as the truth of his words struck her. "Very well. I accept once more. One day, I would like to repay you."

After another belly-shaking laugh, the man smiled, and pointed far down the hill. "That may be easy enough. Down there, you see the broken rocks near the edge of the plateau? Meet me there when you can. It turns out I have a task that needs doing, and is better suited to youthful vigor than my old bones. Do that task for me, and you can consider any debt between us well paid."

Zelda smiled gratefully, "Anything in my power, truly. Thank you."

He smiled again, "Don't mention it, princess. Now... if I may offer a word of advice? Go back up the hill. Several healthy mushrooms grow around there. Look for the ones with red caps, as large as your hand or your head. Too small, and they're dangerous, but if it's as large as your spread hand-" here, he demonstrated with his own splayed fingers, far larger than Zelda's own, "you will find them safe to eat even without cooking. They taste better after, of course, but I've no cookpot here, just an old firepit. Roasting might help."

"Ah... thank you," Zelda mumbled, feeling her face heat as her stomach grumbled. With another bow and a shy smile, she found herself following his advice after taking a long, desperate, needy pull at the water skin.

"Not too fast now... take it easy at first," he reminded her, a moment before Zelda felt the need to throw the water skin away. She caught herself just in time, blushing again as the urge to vomit up everything she'd just drank began to rise, then settle as she stopped.

"S- Sorry... I wouldn't want to waste, it's just..."

"Been a long while," the man finished for her, another kind smile breaking his beard. "Go on then, princess. I'll be here if you need me. Mind the edge of the cliff. The rocks can occasionally be unsteady."

Down the hill, she tugged and tugged, straining, and eventually had to put her shoulder beneath the axe's long handle and heave upward with her whole body to get it to shift. Then of course, Zelda nearly dropped it in the dirt because of the sheer weight of it, the thick metal head as large as her torso, and probably weighing nearly as much as her whole body. Yet, as she attached it clumsily to the pouch, as the man had explained, she lifted that with no more weight than before. A beginner at enchanting, he claims, she thought to herself, yet he can make even this weigh next to nothing? Is that something every beginner can do?

Honestly, Zelda had to admit to herself that she just didn't know. Much like with every other puzzle she now faced.

Back up the hill she climbed, this time keeping a careful eye out for supplies. Anything had to be better than that... huge chunk of metal. It might be useful in a pinch, yes, but she could barely swing it!

After a few minutes, she saw what she had been looking for, what that strange giant of an old man had suggested she find.

Food! Even though her stomach rebelled at eating anything raw, or anything at all, the first of the three large, red- and orange-mottled caps of the mushrooms flew into her belly barely chewed. The stems she left, suspecting they would regrow quickly, perhaps even overnight. She could cook a few later, there were plenty up here, growing in the cool, moist air and shade of the cliffs and tall pines.

With the satchel she had been given half-full of victuals at last, and the ache in her stomach no longer quite as potent as it was, Zelda turned her eyes to less immediate concerns, though no less important.

Defense. The land was dangerous, the old man had said. Wild, untamed, aside from the occasional spot of civilization left by the last remnants of Hyrule's once powerful, numerous peoples.

And all she had was an axe that was dull, one she could barely lift, much less swing effectively.

But there... a stick! It was just a stick, Zelda knew, but it was the same length as her arm, and looked sturdy enough. With a grin, she picked it up, giving it a few test swings, then a slap against the nearest pine. The branch, which it had probably fallen from, rattled in her hand, and she winced at the pain.

And she welcomed it.

"I need to get stronger," she murmured, "I have to get stronger. Don't I, mysterious tablet?"

It, of course, didn't answer.

She kept searching. The blue head of a rhino beetle caught her eye, and soon that entered her satchel too, the rest of the insect discarded. The butterflies mostly stayed out of her reach as she reached for them, she was just too slow to catch them, but one landed on her arm and she was able to stun it to the ground before throwing it into the satchel, too.

More mushrooms, and another stick was attached to the bag, too, the exterior loops just enough to hold a spare twig as it swung opposite the machine.

It wasn't much, a couple of sticks, a worn axe, and some basic foodstuffs, along with the well-worn wineskin and tattered dress she still wore.

But it was something.

By the time the sun was setting, Zelda had found a little more. Now her armaments included five dangerous branches, one slightly used, and a brief climb up to a ledge about three feet higher than her head had garnered another half-dozen mushroom caps, too.

On her way back to the man who had probably saved her life by providing the basic supplies of a pouch to carry things in and a water skin, Zelda realized the tree that had been shading him while the sun beat into his little overhang was an apple tree, too.

Her stomach grumbled again, possibly rebelling against the half-digested, uncooked mushrooms. But she didn't care. They were tasty and savory even without being prepared, and she wouldn't throw them up now. At least, as long as they weren't poisonous, and she believed the old man that they weren't. What motive would he have?

At worst, he'd drug her and rape her... and he'd have done that already. There was no question that even elderly, he could overpower her, as large as the man was.

Zelda shuddered at the thought. But no, his smile was kind, knowing. He knew who she was by name, even though he hadn't revealed his own.

She had to trust him. Had to trust someone.

"I could've just eaten apples," she called as she approached the tree, sending a quick, annoyed glare the old man's way.

"Oh, ho, you absolutely could have. If you'd returned with less than your bounty, I would have pointed them out, you know."

With a grunt of effort, Zelda started climbing. Her sandals and dress were both ill-suited to the task, but with a bit of work and about ten minutes, she'd added three delicious-looking, and smelling, red treats to her satchel.

A bit winded when she hung for a few seconds from the taller branch and let herself drop a few feet to the ground, Zelda panted for a moment before she let herself smile. The first true smile, she thought, she'd had since waking in the strange room up the mountain.

"Ah, an excellent prize," the old man said with another soft chuckle, "Come, share in your bounty. I've actually just fried one up if you want to trade... I have already eaten, you see. One roasted apple for a fresh one...?"

Zelda's mouth practically watered. She knew, of course, that she could spit one on a branch she already carried and roast away... but she was so hungry, and it sounded so good! "Deal!"

The skin was still hot as the old man dropped it into her eager hands, and Zelda had to toss it back and forth to keep from being burned for a few seconds. Once it was cool enough, she brought it to her mouth, and...

Heaven.

The skin was crispy, just starting to char, but the flesh of the apple he'd given her was beyond delicious. Soft, moist, near-boiling with heat and caramelized sugars, but by far and away the best thing she had eaten in... well, according to him and the device on her hip both, over a century.

It sure tasted like it, too.

Zelda quickly found that she'd devoured the entire thing, core, seeds, and all, right down to the stem. "Oh... I'm sorry, how rude of me," she started, "to eat so quickly, it's..."

The man laughed again, another deep belly-laugh, "Think nothing of it. After a hundred years, I imagine I'd be famished, too. Now... the hour grows late. If you wish to press on as darkness falls, I should warn you the woods below- in fact all areas in Hyrule- tend to grow more dangerous. The beasts and monsters that now roam the wilds of these once-tamed lands are often nocturnal, or at least see better in the darkness. Then again, many also like to nap when they can, and if caught unawares can be easily dispatched without a fight. The choice is yours, Zelda. But if you wish, you can simply while away the dark hours here, next to my fire with me. I will promise not to snore."

Zelda couldn't help herself from letting out a little giggle of her own as she thought about it.

Danger was not something she wanted...

But in the end...

"I have been sleeping, it seems, for many years. I will rest no longer until I must," she eventually decided aloud. "I'll press on."

"Very well. Don't be reckless, and you should be alright. Ah... I'll be around, don't be surprised if you see me in other places. But when you are ready to head to those rocks, as I mentioned, I'll meet you there. And watch out for the Bokoblins."

"B- Bokoblins? What are... those?"

She knew she had known, Zelda could feel that in her bones. She'd once faced a few down herself, in open combat, before her guard could rescue her. She'd even slain two of the four! She felt so proud of that achievement then, but... now, she couldn't recall what they even looked like.

"Ah. Orange, or blue, perhaps black or silver if you're treading into dangerous territory. Large of head, and ear, with beady eyes that glow orange in the night, and a single, stubby horn at the center of their brow. Sharp of claw and fang... and cunning enough to use weapons and traps. Do not let them catch you unawares, and most of the ones around here- who only have to deal with me, and are lazy- should be little trouble. The blue more than the orange or, as they are named I suppose, red, or common Bokoblins. They are the most numerous servants of the Calamity on this plateau by far, but not the only ones. Be wary of the blue. They are far stronger than their red kin, able to lift and throw a full-grown man if he is vulnerable. Shatter shields, break through armor... against an unarmored person, they are particularly deadly. Only face one if you must."

"Alright," Zelda said softly, "I'll... be careful. But I must do what I must. Mustn't I?"

He smiled a bit sadly, "That you must. Go, then. I will be here a while longer. Don't forget to fill your water skin at the lake."

"Thank you again, sirrah. Are you sure you won't tell me your name?"

"In time, perhaps," he chuckled once more, "now, go, or I'll ask you to keep me company anyway. It has been a long time since I've had a decent chat, and even this old fool has many stories of boring days to tell."

Zelda faked a shudder, because she was sure he was anything but boring, and gave a deep bow before finally heading down the worn path toward the stump once more.

She was able to catch, through sneakiness and guile more than speed, a long-tailed lizard she thought might be edible (if needs must) half-way down the path, and picked a few more apples from another tree, before Zelda was faced with the first true test of her resolve.

When trying to climb another tall, thick tree to gain access to a thick, fresh bird's nest, hoping for some eggs, she smelled a strange odor. A quick, worried glance around in the late afternoon light revealed nothing, but after a more careful look, she spotted it.

Something... blue. Nearly cerulean, in fact, her mind supplied, viscous and goopy, with two large, yellow eyes ringed in red with deep black pupils framing the basic folds of a mouth. It slithered through the grass, and as it went, the slimy trail left by the creature burned and withered the foliage. That, Zelda realized, was the source of the acrid smell.

She thought about running. It was coming straight for her, but wasn't that fast by the looks of it.

"No," she told herself after a moment, "I must fight. I have to get stronger. I've slain Bokoblins. I can handle... whatever this is! Even if all I have is a few sticks!"

She drew the first one she'd picked up, holding it like her most vague memories of sword-play suggested, in a two-handed grip. The creature bunched up, shook, and then lunged with surprising speed into the air. Zelda reacted on pure instinct, thrusting forward with both hands and a shout, "Hya!"

Somehow, she stabbed it right in the gaping maw, which dripped with lines of drool- or maybe whatever substance passed for a tooth, or both- and skewered the thing completely. Of course, that only meant that it's momentum was slowed. Instead of barreling into her and knocking the princess prone, its viscous body slammed around her hands and arm. At once, she felt the caustic substance sting and burn. Zelda grimaced, growling in pain as she yanked her hands free, pulling the stick out at the last moment as the creature dropped to the ground.

Her stick was smoldering and burning, too. It seemed whatever acid made up these creatures, it burned all organic matter the same.

Which meant she was on a time limit.

"If I'm to die in this journey, then so be it," she growled, "but it won't be to you!" She whirled, her entire body spinning on the heel of one sandal, driven by the other, as her hand lashed out to add even more speed to the blow. Another miracle occurred, and her forceful, if graceless, blow smashed through one of the slime creature's eyes, sending it clean free of the body to fly through the air and splatter against a nearby oak. The creature trembled, and she feared it would lunge again...

And then it collapsed into a puddle of sodden goo, the other eye wilting and vanishing into mist and steam. Whatever powered it seemed to have fled, but the caustic acid remained, smoking and burning at the tall grass in which it had been hiding.

Zelda shivered, watching her skin redden and flake, but the stuff, whatever it was, didn't do too much before it dried and began to fall off of her, too. Soon, she was rubbing off the disgusting-smelling substance, all pain gone but a mild irritation that stretched half-way up her left arm and a bit further on her right. The stick, unfortunately, she gave up as lost, having been eaten nearly clear through. Down to four...

But as she cleaned her arms, Zelda realized something else. Where the bulky mass of the creature's body had been were now three jelly-like, almost crystalline globules. The creature's core, perhaps...? They were a little darker, more solid. Zelda poked one quickly, and it shivered, but didn't otherwise move. Yes, her finger stung once more, but while it hurt she would live. With a grin, she hurried to open her satchel again and, taking a few leaves from the trees just in case, wrapped the globules in their own bits of leaf before depositing them in a pocket by themselves.

Acid was always useful, and for more than just alchemy, to a cunning mind.

Her confidence slightly restored, Zelda found a bit of good luck a short time later. Attracted by mushrooms at first, Zelda had climbed up to the top of the rock she found them under looking for more in the shade of that same massive oak tree, only to find acorns scattered here and there on the ground, instead. And birds chirping... another nest!

Soon, her satchel carried more than just fruits, but nuts, and protein, too. If she could find a way to cook them, at least. Zelda did not want to experience an uncooked egg. Even without remembering the look or feel of them, she knew it was revolting.

She saw her first Bokoblin some ten minutes later, after meandering nearly all the way down to the bottom of the hill. It was just as the old man had described: Short, hunched forward, its only clothing a poor loincloth and wrappings around its arms as some modicum of armor, with a single horn and bloodshot, beady eyes above a mouth far too big for its skinny little body.

And it, too, was armed with a weapon: A branch much like her own, only older and more worn.

Unfortunately, the creature saw her just as she noticed it. It shrieked, a weird, rattling, "Rhatchachacha," and then lunged, the stick raised high.

Zelda panicked, and threw herself to the side.

That action probably saved her life. Somehow, she tucked into a roll, and the branch smashed into the dirt path where she'd just been with enough force to at least have knocked her unconscious. Her fingers scrabbled for another branch, and she grabbed it easily enough, but the thing caught on the braids. The Bokoblin lunged again, this time going for a thrust, followed by a swipe of his dirty, blood-encrusted claws.

The thrust she missed, somehow, though it snagged in the lower remnants of her dress, but the claws raked across her right thigh. Zelda screamed in sudden pain, and found herself throwing a single punch forward.

It caught the Bokoblin right in the snout somehow, but she cried out in pain again as she realized its skin was rough and hard, calloused almost like a lizard's, despite the pig-like shape of its nose. A quick glance told her the fingers were bloody, too. The Bokoblin, though, seemed stunned, and it staggered back, lifting a hand to hold the porcine snout as huge tears welled in its beady eyes.

Zelda growled, "You'll get no sympathy from me, monster!"

She took its distraction to her advantage, and twisted the satchel around her torso far enough to get at the braids. A pull of one thread was enough to get a second branch free, and that smashed down on the thing's thin wrist, the one holding its own branch. Disarmed, the stick fell to the ground, and the Bokoblin yelped in pain.

Zelda didn't let up even as it swiped again with its paws, her own reach just a little longer. Unarmed, she could probably reach further, but with the stick, it was easier. She swiped madly, left, right, downward, down and right.

The creature took blow after blow, and she heard the branch crack, but it didn't give out before she caught one lucky blow against the Bokoblin's left ear. It spun and whirled, landing face-down in the dirt. She expected it to get up, howl in pain and rage, and charge again.

But it was hissing, almost snake-like.

Then, to her horror, it dissolved. The entire body vanished in just a few seconds into black mist and smoke that made her skin crawl. Where it had been, like the slime creature, were teeth, two of them, and a single horn. Its horn, she realized.

Zelda stared, panting, down at them, the branch, cracked but still half-serviceable she hoped, hanging numbly in one hand.

She'd done it.

A monster.

A real monster, though apparently a common and weak one, dispatched by her... with a stick. Nothing so glorious and grand as an actual blade, but she'd done it.

Zelda howled to the sky, turning orange to the west now, in triumph and victory. Her blood surged with power, with confidence. She had slain a foe once more! She was no mighty warrior, Zelda knew that.

But she was not helpless, either.

Her trophies entered the satchel soon after. If nothing else, they would make for a good story to share with the old man later.

The princess continued collecting eggs, mushrooms, and apples as she finished down the path, which eventually ended at what she suspected was once a parade ground. The ruins of fountains, columns, and flagstones littered the area before her, and to her right, closer to the cathedral, the shattered walls of buildings long collapsed under their own stone and brick weight flanked a cracked, stair-filled causeway. Guard posts, perhaps, for the temple's ancient protectors.

In the distance, near the causeway's first split, another Bokoblin meandered, occasionally picking up a rock or leaf and discarding it. Sometimes, it reached down again, and threw whatever it got into its mouth. Insects, she realized. It was eating the bugs from beneath the stones.

Disgusting... but she supposed they had to eat something. Though after her first experience with one since waking, Zelda was already of the mind they could all just starve.

If only it were that easy.

Still, she elected to follow the old man's advice. She was not one for a stand-up fight when it could be avoided. Cunning and guile were going to be her standard tools. She crept down, slinking around the ruins of the building closest to her. From her higher vantage, she had seen that it approached the lake, but she thought that, from closer, she might use the shadows of the causeway's walls to hide her until she was on the creature. Even a stick from behind might do the job in a single blow, she hoped.

She was half-way there when she spotted two barrels inside the building's walls.

Intact barrels... marked with the words Food Storage.

Her stomach, partially sated by mushrooms and apples, and that now two hours ago, grumbled again.

"Food..."

It was probably old. But preserved, perhaps.

Maybe still edible...?

Over the wall she went at a low-point, the stained white dress sliding almost snake-like across the tops of the weather-smoothed but broken marble bricks.

Getting to the barrels was easy.

Opening them with no tools, not so much.

Zelda thought for a moment about trying the axe, sure that its weight would at least smash them easily enough. But no... that would be noisy, and attract the attention of the Bokoblin, she feared. And as strong as the last one had been, judging by how easily it had ripped new holes in her dress and leg both- thankfully it had only bled for a few minutes, and didn't itch overmuch with infection despite the filth- she didn't want to know what it would do with the heavy axe in its own hands.

Chop her to pieces, probably, without even trying.

Zelda sighed, and kept looking. There had to be something...

Finally, after nearly an hour of poking quietly through the rubble of the former guard post, she found a rusted out bit of metal. A door hinge, maybe, long worn and useless for that purpose. But with it, she was able to slowly work it beneath the lid and pry first one, then the other, open.

There wasn't much serviceable in either.

But among the dross, which smelled truly foul, one salted drumstick of some... well, fowl, still seemed mostly preserved and at least partially edible. It wasn't the dubious-looking mold the rest had been reduced to, at least. In the other, despite just as much work opening it, she found absolutely nothing. A few shells of grains, nibbled on by rats, and a hole at the bottom. "Perfect," she muttered. "At least it's something... if I dare eat it."

The next Bokoblin, she saw with a frown, was not armed with some simple stick. It was a full on, actual club of heavy, sturdy-looking pine, as thick as her thigh. Shorter than her sticks, yes, but it still would do a lot to even out the thing's reach.

I'll simply have to surprise it as best I can, and keep it at range. It's all I can do. I can't just slip by, it's far too close to my path.

Zelda frowned once more, and resigned herself to dropping belly-first into the dirt, hoping the tall grasses would conceal her approach. It was both easier and harder when she realized she was slithering through a wide puddle some dozen feet across. At least the water is clear, she mourned. Perhaps it will clean the wounds on my leg. ... Or make it worse.

She slowly moved around, using one dark column as cover, until she was beneath the wall itself. Far too low to escape notice. She waited, eyes watching the thing sniff at the ground, scratch its armpits, and slowly turn to resume its hunt for more bugs.

She was almost on it when it spun suddenly, its nose twitching with a pig-like snort. Again, adrenaline surged through Zelda's body, and her hand, already holding a stick this time, lashed out three times, slashing across its face even while it raised the club.

The third strike threw it backward as the stick shattered. Without a thought, she hurled herself forward toward it, her fingers closing as she rolled around the handle if its own club, dropped as it went airborne.

Down it came, crashing across the creature's skinny, malnourished chest.

It lurched, all four limbs and its head spasming skyward with the impact, and it let out a blood-curdling shriek, then went still. Then it, too, vanished into black smoke.

For the third time that day, Zelda felt her body tremble as the adrenaline wore off as quickly as it arrived.

Slowly, with shaking fingers, she bound the crude club, far better than her previous sticks if shorter, to the satchel at her back and loosened another stick to stay at her side, before bending to pick up what it had left behind.

Another horn, and no fangs.

She was about to grimace about the lack of a bounty compared to the last one, meager as it was despite the weapon, when she saw it.

The column she had slithered around.

Dark, cold, metallic. Not stone. Covered in moss and algae from the puddle that lingered around it.

Bell-shaped.

Zelda did not know what it was.

But it evoked such a feeling of terror in her that she fell to her rump and scrambled backward until she fell backward, rolling down the stairs some hundred feet away, until it was out of sight.

What... what was that? What is that? That... thing?

Zelda did not know.

Eventually, she dared peek over the worn stairs again.

It was motionless, just as it had been before.

Dark, cold, dead.

She swallowed.

You can't let fear stop you, Zelda told herself. It almost worked.

But after repeating the phrase a few more times, she stood once more, looked around for wandering Bokoblins- or perhaps the old man, to answer the several questions that now burned in her mind- and stepped closer.

She even dared prod it with her stick once she reached it, only to be met with a hollow clang.

Whatever it was did not react at all.

With a frown, Zelda looked around. There were more of them all around the temple, each as motionless as this one, though some still had many-segmented legs with metallic pincers at the end. Each also had, as she strolled carefully around it, a central eye. And they were decorated with the same kind of scrolling cloud- and circle designs that had been in the room she woke up in.

As if they were made at the same time, or by the same people.

Strange... but that didn't explain why that place, for all its austere coldness, had felt safe. And these things felt so terrifying, even dead.

Or whatever they were.

Zelda shook her head, "It's something I'll have to puzzle out later, I suppose. I still need to look around, get the lay of the land, before I head to the stones that old man spoke of."

She followed the thin rivulet that fed the puddle she had just crawled through up and behind the building she had circled next, and found a small pond, ringed by stone.

It was crystal clear, so much so that she could see fishes swimming in the water several feet away. They were thick and green, long, healthy-looking. It's too bad I've no way to spear one.

The water, at least, was clean, clear, and cold.

And so good!