A/N: I do not, in general, write kid stories. My adult ratings are for a reason. My stories feature: violence (often graphic), Sexuality (almost always graphic), and worse. The villains in my stories are typically very villainous. The heroes are not always heroic- even if most of the time they are. Readers should expect a blanket trigger warning on everything I write. Themes of dubious- or non-consenting sex, domination, violence, gore, and character death- including major characters- exist in many of them. I do not condone such activities in real life, but unfortunately they are real in our world, and I don't feel that I could write fiction fairly without including them.
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Ch. 10:
Scars
The moon was high in the sky when Zelda was startled awake by the splash of water on her leg. It was just another frog, she concluded as the creature bounded away, startled in turn by herself, but as her eyes drifted back shut, the girl realized she was already far too on-edge to sleep.
With a huff, she gave up a few minutes later, and crawled from her hidey-hole next to the little pond.
The rocks from her blasts had long since settled, and the water was once again clear. It had probably been at least a few hours, which was more sleep than she had expected.
Which meant what happened next was not only possible, but likely. Something she had avoided deliberately since waking up and reading about the traumatic wounds she had received, the wounds that might have killed her.
But it was time, wasn't it?
She'd been delaying for... what? Vanity?
She was no spoiled, rotten princess who cared only for her looks, was she? No.
Like it or not, she was a warrior now. A killer of monsters, a world-weary traveler.
It was the kind of princess she had to be.
So what if she was... different? It wasn't like she'd recognize her own face, anyway.
It was still hard to take that long last, slow, breath, and move her face over the moon-lit water.
The reflection was surprisingly clear, if everything but her own shining face was dark.
Bright green eyes, brilliant even in the moonlight as it was so full, shone back at her with cautious trepidation. A small, pert nose and cute little lips. Kissable lips, she decided with a soft smile, and yes, long, luxurious, straight golden-yellow hair.
And the scar.
Slowly, Zelda's fingers came up to trace it gently.
How she had not noticed until now, the princess could not say, but there, plain as day, was a burn scar around her entire left eye.
It almost looked like a sun-burst, with lines radiating out from the central circle.
The Slate said it healed the damage, she heard herself say inside her mind.
It said it healed the damage.
Healed... the damage.
Some damage, it seemed, was untouchable.
Slowly, Zelda withdrew from the water. She didn't recognize that face afterall. It wasn't alien, exactly, but she didn't know that woman's name.
It wasn't even the scar. That, at least, she could objectively say was faint enough that a bit of concealment would hide it from casual view.
Something to mar otherwise perfect features, yes, but what was life without imperfection?
Those were the things the princess told herself as she inched backward on her rear to the very back of the overhang, and began to weep.
Eventually, she stopped. Zelda didn't know when, though the sky was light again when she did.
Somehow, her left tear ducts still worked.
Her vision was as good with one eye as the other.
Her ability to build memories, to recall what she knew, was as good as it ever was, she thought. It was only existing memories that were gone, or that she was unable to recall consciously.
So there was that.
And the scar.
It haunted her as she cried, never leaving her vision entirely.
Zelda did not feel she was vain. But she knew she had been beautiful, once.
Now... well, one side of her face was still.
The other... it was marred. Blemished. Imperfect.
Like her.
Like her entire existence. Like her mind.
The Calamity had done this to her.
She snarled. "The Calamity deserves a few scars of its own."
Two hours later, an hour less than she'd have expected, Zelda stalked up to the old man's cabin door and knocked loudly, the sound echoing through the single-room dwelling.
"Oooh? Who's that at this hour...?"
"It's me, old man," Zelda called loudly, not caring that she'd probably just woken him. "I'm cooking your meal now. It'll be ready for breakfast."
She didn't bother waiting for a reply. Instead, the princess moved to his cold-storage and withdrew two slabs of the meat left from the boar she had hunted two days prior, two of the fish she had caught two hours earlier after stunning them with a well-placed bomb (and what a good idea that had been; even deboning them was a cinch afterward, the sonic pulse apparently just enough to separate flesh from the harder material), and a handful of diced peppers.
After setting the lot to fry with a bit of the same pig-fat he had left in a tub, Zelda stared.
Still, in her mind, that scar.
The one on her face and the one in her mind.
The one that had wiped out everything she knew.
Not much has come back. A few bits and drabbles, some words, fragments in that one disturbing, arousing dream.
Who had that man been? She had not been complaining then about his hands all over her, and her a princess! No, if anything, she had been eager for more.
Stupid time to wake up, she thought to herself.
The distraction nearly ruined the meal, but with a chuckle, the much more awake old man took the metal spatula from her hand and flipped the cuts of bass. "Almost done- it smells just like I remember! And of course, now I have it, thanks to you. How could I forget? It's in the very name. Sometimes, this old man truly does feel the fool. Meat and seafood fry..."
"Told you I figured it out fast," Zelda couldn't resist teasing, "but I believe you still owe me a doublet."
"Aye, that I do, that I do. It's inside. I'll grab it after breakfast. Think I have your measurements right... but I'm afraid I had to alter the deal a little. Not to your detriment, Princess. Fear not. In fact, I think you'll rather like it."
With a cautious frown, Zelda nodded, and helped hold plates while he dished up the meal into two separate servings. She ate with caution at first, but the old man was right. Even cooked by a relative novice like her, this was delicious. The seafood, perhaps, she could have done without, but the spicy pork was amazing, and the fried greens on the side she had added at the last minute, capped with the pepper-filled oil was... oh, just the best thing she'd ever had. At least, the best thing all week.
And that was truly saying something, given how often she'd said it!
Finally, though their plates were clean.
The old man chuckled once more to himself as he stood, "Forgot the seafood in a seafood fry, I can't believe it," took her plate to stack with his, and then hurried into the house.
When he came out, Zelda had to admit... she was impressed.
Like his earlier gifts, this one had clearly been fashioned specifically with her in mind. As well, it was definitely warm-weather gear.
But it was no doublet. It was a full parka, with an extra cowl over the shoulders that seemed held in place with toggles so she could remove it if she wished, with more toggles down the front and a pair of cozy-looking, fur-lined mittens hanging off the end of each long sleeve with a strap.
"It won't protect your legs perfectly of course," the man said with a proud smile,"but the craftsmanship on this parka is about the best you'll find anywhere in Hyrule these days outside of maybe the Rito's village. At least for the cold. And I don't have access to their molted feathers. O, ho!"
"It's beautiful," Zelda exhaled. "And it's... for me?"
"Well, it certainly won't fit me," the man said with a smile, holding it out. "Why don't you try it on?"
Zelda did so with a smile, though it was still a little wane as she imagined how she looked in the overcoat, scar and all.
It was indeed an attractive accessory, she decided. If only she wasn't so broken filling it out.
The outer parts were a deep green lined with red, the mittens were plain doeskin but lined with warm fur, and the interior of the parka was fur-lined in two different layers, too. There were only two pockets, but the toggles were large enough that Zelda suspected even in her mittens they would be easy to open and shut, but tight enough that they wouldn't just come undone because she was moving. "It's perfect," she whispered, giving herself a little twirl.
"That it is. Almost like Hyrule's Princess. Now... go on, Zelda. You have work to do, and so do I now that breakfast is done."
"Oh? What's that work? You have so many secrets," she muttered, trying hard not to scowl at how he'd said she was perfect. She was anything but.
"You will see," he laughed again, "You might even see me up the mountain, if you have your timing right. I have my own doublet still, after all, and some spicy meat and seafood fry to go along with it!"
"Grr... fine, keep your secrets for now," she told him sternly, and this time shook a little finger in his bearded face, trying to ignore how the mitten flopped cutely below her hand, "but you promised me answers once I get the last shrine's orb!"
"And answers you'll have, Princess. Go on, go on. Time's wasting!"
She pouted once more, then turned on her heel with a huff.
Anger would do no good, not at him. He was still five times her mass, if nothing else.
And he had just made her a rather beautiful, and functional, coat...
It was hard to stay mad, answers or no.
Zelda finally found the scar gone from her mind, at least for now, as she moved back to the old gardens behind the temple and started climbing towards the archway once more.
Even if her trek was slowed by two small swarms of bat-like Keese and a few roving Stalkoblins- one of which carried an even cruder club as long as her whole body that she decided was too heavy to carry- Zelda found most of the journey easy.
Even beyond the magical gate, though she felt the sting of the cold air the moment it hit her lungs, it wasn't nearly so bad with the man's coat. Was it, too, enchanted?
It was hard to tell. Her breath still came out in steaming puffs, and her legs felt colder, but she was at least covered enough with the lot to stay above freezing. At least as long as she kept moving.
"Maybe the old man was right," she muttered to herself, "it's best to get this done all at once. I don't want to be up here after night falls."
She stuffed the logs she had found bundled near an old, half-collapsed hut and one of those strange, terrifying bell-spider monstrosities as quickly as she could, and when the ping of the Slate told her that there were a few chests hidden beneath the frozen water of the lake, she dragged them up with Magnesis quickly too. It wasn't a lot, just another opal and a piece of amber for her uncut gem collection, but Zelda still suspected that, if nothing else, they would be valuable to trade. Money made the world go 'round... or something like that. Getting axioms was hard with no context.
Her progress around the lake was halted by a slime-creature, both similar to and yet very unlike the soft blue ones she had seen in the plateau's lowlands (high though they were).
It was still gooey, gloopy, globby, and all-around acidic and tangy by smell, and the creature slid and slithered along the ground with a similar trail in its wake as the two eyes, roving for prey, kept locked onto her otherwise.
But the white mist that drifted off it even in this cold clime told her it was far more frigid than the snow it had been nesting in.
Zelda frowned, grimaced, and turned to run.
She was no warrior, after all, set to swing first and ask questions later.
She had to know what it could do before braving it.
With a careful eye back, not running so fast as to escape, Zelda lured it back in the direction she had come from, judging the thing's speed and how far it moved with a lunging jump.
Not too far, about five feet.
She could outpace it in all ways, it seemed.
But when it landed, the creature let out a burst of cold that, even from ten feet away, made Zelda shiver beneath the parka. If that blast caught her... I'd freeze solid, she realized, a glance at the nearby trees and a few unlucky birds enough to prove that.
They were nearly crystalline, already dead.
She was a bit larger and warmer, but still, it would not be healthy.
Yet even as she watched, the white color that had blasted out of the creature with the wave of cold slowly returned. Slowly... over about twenty seconds, as she counted. Maybe not quite that long, because time was weird when adrenaline pounded in your veins, but...
Near a twenty-count, at least if not seconds.
"An arrow," she muttered, "I could probably drop it with a couple of those at range. I don't want to let it get close- if it bursts apart like the blue ones, that same cold could kill me even in its death-throes. No, I don't want to waste arrows, but a few bombs... hah, that's perfect. It's slow enough that it should be easy!"
She waited until it lunged again, hopped backward out of its blast range, and then hurled the bomb. It landed behind the frozen slime-monster, but Zelda was still backpedaling. A few steps later, as it was starting to get some of the bright white color back in the otherwise dull gray body of the thing now, she hit the button.
The explosion had predictable effects: Little droplets of acidic white goop splattered the area around her feet, but none quite reached her. With a grin, Zelda reached one mittened finger down for the last bit of core left. It was more or less like the blue ones were, amorphous almost, bubbly, gelatinous, and so freezing cold that even through the gloves she felt it. Yet, squeezing it was oddly satisfying and even stress-relieving, she felt as it moved and morphed between her fingers.
She couldn't play, though. Zelda added it to her monster-part pockets, and kept moving, retracing her backtracked steps to where the monster had burst from the snow, and on further.
Another pair of the slime monsters met the same fate, but they added three, not two, more of the jelly-cores too. Not long after, another pair as well.
Then, as she neared the same collapsed bridge she had seen where the blue Bokoblin's camp had been the day before, Zelda found two more of the dark bell-spiders. How they had gotten this far in the snow, she didn't know, but neither had made it past the shattered wall of the old fortress that stood on this side of the shore.
Doing so would not be easy for her, either.
For a moment, Zelda debated crossing by using the metal doors that had once stood in the wall, walking across them as she'd done in the Magnesis Trial to get to the steadier parts of the bridge.
But that sounded like suicide with a single slip.
Instead, with a huff of annoyance for wasting her time, Zelda turned back.
The hard way up and round the mountain slopes it would be.
The first camp of Bokoblins actually took Zelda by surprise, but she was somehow able to cut them down with the last hurrah of the shortsword she had so prized several days ago, and then used their own burning clubs to smash the rest to charred pieces. With a few more arrows and a single hard-won acorn being all she had to show for it, Zelda was even less happy about being forced to backtrack and take the longer road, too.
When she found the second camp half-way up the slopes, Zelda did not bother with climbing up and around to push boulders down into them. Instead, she only hurled one bomb, carefully aimed at their own explosive stash (and a huge one, five full barrels!), before hitting the snow-pack face first, her hand already on the detonator button.
Covered by rock and frozen water, the blast was still deafeningly loud and echoed up and down the mountain. Zelda even thought she heard a small avalanche a half-mile or so away, but she couldn't be sure.
What she did know was that not a single Bokoblin survived.
Even their stone chest had been shattered and cracked, though the arrows within were alright.
Higher the Princess of Hyrule climbed, past a few old ruined pillars carved, perhaps, by her own people in times long past, to where a single blue Bokoblin lay in ambush behind them.
No mere brute, this one was clearly ready for her, warned by the explosion below. It was armed with a spiked club like the one she had been saving, and a reinforced shield like the last one had carried, too.
Not suitable for my bow, she realized. If it is any kind of defensive fighter- which it looks like- I won't get more than a single arrow into it before it starts guarding too well.
Spear's out for the same reason... I might... hm... that might work... if I can time it right...
The woodsman's old axe, of all her weapons, might just be the best. It would be heavier than anything except the sledgehammer, and potentially cut the shield to pieces. But the blue Bokoblins were faster than their kin, not just stronger.
More vicious, too.
And it was patient. She could hear the thing licking its lips hungrily as it waited for her to climb the slope.
But she did have bombs, still...
Maybe that would work?
She conjured one up, and taking care to stay hidden, tried to put a bit of spin on the thing as it rolled out, up and down the curved, snowy bulges in the ground. The Bokoblin snorted, and she heard it jump to its feet.
Boom.
With a wail, she saw the body go flying, at least by the shadow, and crash into the stone of the mountain at high speed.
Zelda wasted no time, charging out with the club she had claimed in the camp below in one hand, her own bark-shield at the ready too. Meager offense and defense both to the Bokoblin's might and horn-spiked ones, but it was face-down on the ground in the snow when Zelda landed on its back, driving down with both knees and her club.
It yelped and started squirming, trying to buck her off, but Zelda brought the club down again and again, three times in all, at the back of its head before the beast stopped moving.
Slowly, carefully, she climbed off... but it didn't disappear.
Was it dead...?
No. It was still breathing. She could see its ribs rising and falling in the snow.
Unconscious...? Perhaps.
Carefully, Zelda watched as she poked around the camp. There wasn't much... but a bit of rope might do the trick. At the very least, slow it down long enough for her to finish the creature off. The chest she'd found a piece of amber in on its feet while she sat on it for extra weight would help, too, she was sure.
With almost manic glee, Zelda forced the still unconscious Bokoblin's arms behind it and around the nearest pillar, making sure they were not at all loose and certainly not comfortable. Then she stretched out its legs, the head lolling with eyes half-open and tongue hanging out, and dropped the chest unkindly on its ankles before slamming her own weight onto it.
The creature cried out, coming back to consciousness in, no doubt, terrible pain. It squirmed, it bucked uselessly, throwing spittle and vitriol in her face, but Zelda maintained a carefully neutral expression from just inches out of its snapping jaws' reach.
Finally, it wore itself out, and Zelda leaned in just a little, giving it a hard look, "Who are you?"
"M- Me- Me Rabdik."
"R- Rabdik? Your name is Rabdik?"
Slowly, probably unsure why the crazy lady was talking to him instead of killing him, he nodded.
"Why are you here?"
"R- Rabdik lose? Rabdik lose fight to lady. She tricksy."
Zelda felt herself grin cruelly at the monster's assessment.
"Lady not fight fair," the beast continued grumbling, "Lady lose in stand-up fight!"
"Maybe," she admitted, "I admit you almost surprised me. But you are the... fourth, I think, blue Bokoblin I've seen here. The other three are all dead."
"Lady cheats," he snarled, the dark eyes burning blue instead of orange like his lesser kin. "No fight fair."
"Ambushing someone half your weight isn't fair," she told him.
Rabdik snorted, "Rabdik fight, not use... blue trap-booms and backstabs!"
"Backstabs? I whacked you, not stabbed you," Zelda reminded him, patting the blood- and snow-covered club at her side, "and with a lesser Bokoblins' weapon, no less. But I meant why are you here. In this place. I thought Bokoblins hated the cold."
Where she had learned that, she didn't know.
"Bokoblins hate cold," he snorted, looking away still, "but orders is orders."
"Orders... from whom?"
The creature snarled. "Boss!"
"Who is 'boss'?"
"Not 'boss'," the creature mocked her tone, "Boss," adding extra emphasis, "Boss Bokoblin! Him take orders from High Boss Chief Death!"
"Ah," Zelda said, as if that made any real sense. And she supposed, in a way, it did. If whatever the ultimate boss of the Bokoblins on the plateau- or whatever organization they used- took orders from a higher power, it would probably be the Calamity... and that might as well be called Chief Death, yes. She wasn't going to let that scare her, though. Not when she was at least close to finally getting off the plateau. "Do you want to go back to where it's warmer, Rabdik?"
The monster snarled again, hissed and spat, but eventually it grumbled, "Yes, Rabdik hate cold. Rabdik even stand away from fire to surprise lady-killer-cheat."
It was her turn to snort in amusement, "Well, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you this time... but I'm not really sorry. You would've killed me, and I know it."
"Hah, show what cheat-lady know," the Bokoblin said, snorting with dark amusement at the end. "Rabdilk not kill cheat-lady... yet."
Her eyes narrowed, "What? Would you have raped me, first?"
"Yeah," the dull blue eyes lit up with renewed vigor, "High Boss Chief Death say all Bokoblins that capture pointy-ears can keep them for fun for a while. Says to break spirit and body before bring alive to castle. That part fun."
"I see. Well... in that case, Rabdik, I just have a few more questions for you," Zelda said quietly, her fingers drifting to the club again. "First, where can I find 'Boss'?"
"You find Boss up there," he snorted with amusement, twitching his head to the left, toward the distant Shrine. "He make you feel good and bad too, more than even Rabdik!"
"I'm sure," she drawled, "though right now you only make me feel... dirty. Last question before I set you free. Where can I find High Boss Chief Death?"
"You know," Rabdik growled, low and threatening now, the voice strangely sibilant, "Lady cheat knows where High Boss Chief Death is. He at Castle, where he fight. All the time, he fight, grow very strong. Lady cheat gonna die if she go there. Even if survive Boss, she not survive High Boss Chief D-"
The last word was cut off in a strangled cry of agony as Zelda stood, lifted the club with her right hand, and drove it straight down onto the thing's groin.
Its eyes rolled back in its head, and Rabdik the blue Bokoblin died in quite as much agony as it had wanted to inflict on her. "Hate... hate you," it whimpered.
Zelda felt no remorse at all as it vanished in black smoke.
The shield and club were even pretty good, if still less durable than she would've liked. "It's like every monster is worse than the last," she growled to herself as she started climbing higher once more.
Filled with a sudden, powerful urge as she reached the highest saddles of the mountain, Zelda turned her feet to the right when the snowy trail split. Around and around the tallest peak she climbed, circling it two, perhaps three times in all, before she finally crested the last steep slope onto relatively flat ground. Three things caught her eye at once.
The spectacular view, from which she could see what looked like the entire country of Hyrule (though some parts were behind mountains, and some of those higher still than her own lofty perch).
A monument of sorts, an obelisk of stone a few feet taller than herself and probably five times or more heavier, held in place and upright by a ring of smaller ones at the highest point of the peak.
And that damnable old man.
He had left no tracks in the snow, yet here he was.
"Hah, hah, you've even made it up to this perch," the man chuckled. "I do love the view from up here."
"It is b-b-b-breathtaking," Zelda said through chattering teeth. It was getting darker than she would have liked, though the sun had just set. She had not been looking forward to this and hadn't realized it was that late until she had started the last stretch up.
"Indeed, I find it the best place to get a full view of the entire plateau, even better than that amazing tower. I'm sure, from here, you can get a good look at several shrines with your scope."
"P-Perhaps," Zelda acknowledged, holding her arms around herself. She hadn't realized her fingertips were freezing, but at least her toes were still numb... or maybe that was a bad sign? She couldn't remember. "B-B-But I'm only here f-for o-one."
"True, true. You'll find it over there, on that butte. Be wary; there's a particularly strong Bokoblin on the lookout for you over there."
"I've heard," Zelda said through clenched teeth, both from anger and trying to keep them from chattering, "I... interrogated a blue one a couple hours ago."
"Ah. A... Fruitful interrogation?"
"Well, I got some information and a dead Bokoblin."
"Excellent... if ruthless. I wonder what your old advisors would say. Still, that isn't my place to judge. Go on, Princess of Hyrule, the last trial of the plateau awaits you. Be careful."
She nodded. "I will."
"Oh... and if you find yourself in need of some additional punch... I've heard there was an old stash of weapons behind the highest waterfall here. The one at the head of the River of the Dead."
Zelda's eyes widened. "Truly? One of yours?"
"No," the old man laughed, "I've actually hidden only a few caches around here myself. Most were left by the defenders long ago. This place doesn't get a lot of visitors, if you recall. In fact... I think you were the one who left that one there. That story was from a long time ago, though, so I may have my facts mixed up, hah, hah."
Zelda raised an eyebrow, but had to admit she just didn't know if that could be possible. "I suppose it was as likely me as anyone else, then, at least. Very well. You be safe, too."
"I will be, but thank you for the concern, Princess. Go."
She gave him a wane, tired smile and started heading back down. At least it was downhill, and that meant a bit of an easier climb... and she could say she'd made it all the way to the top of the peak of Mount Hylia! That wasn't something everyone had done, right?
Zelda decided she could have done without the frost and snow covered Stalkoblins. Trading a club for the life of three of them and one of the creepy, grasping arms they sometimes left behind for weapons was... unpleasant.
The blood that quickly froze on her leg after receiving a gash from those same claws was even less so. But at least she had survived, and the single ice-winged Keese she had slain had added a new, frigid type of item to her monster collection.
That arm had barely lasted through killing two more of the frigid cold-climate bat-creatures, but those wings, she hoped, were valuable.
Zelda was almost at the trailhead leading up to the final, western peak that held the butte the shrine rested on when she saw a chest, shining but dark, purple almost, against the moonlit backdrop of the sky. It was maybe five hundred feet away, just a short jog off the path.
And a climb up a two-dozen foot tall ice-covered wall.
But she made it, by the skin of her teeth it felt like, and another satchet of well-made Bomb arrows made her grin triumphantly. Maybe I'll just use these on 'Boss' then...
That little bit of side-trip had apparently given the Boss' minions fair warning she was coming, though, for several large balls of snow, several hundred pounds worth for the larger ones, came rolling down the hill one after another just after the princess started climbing it.
They weren't hard to dodge, loud and slow despite their size, which made her wonder if they were a scare tactic, a delay tactic, or if they had just been to make her jump.
That, at least, she'd done... if only to the side to dodge the largest one.
They could've had stones inside, after all. You couldn't be too careful.
Then she was there, outside two barriers and a single tiger's teeth section. As if a cavalry unit would come charging up the hill at any time after them, in the snow, with the kingdom destroyed.
Zelda frowned.
Idiots.
Four Bokbolins did not make much of a camp, either.
In fact, a single Bomb Arrow into their stored defenses, what was left of them, would likely wipe the lot out. Zelda grinned as she pulled the string back a few seconds later...
And the sparking arrow was snuffed out by a big, blue hand. Then the arrow was yanked from her bow, and her head yanked back painfully by the hair.
A moment later, she was staring up into the cruel face of the largest blue Bokoblin she'd yet seen. "Hello, pretty," he snarled, then yanked down, pulling Zelda all the way back, her legs and spine arching painfully, to land between his legs.
One of Zelda's booted feet kicked up, aiming for his groin, but the creature grabbed it easily while the other moved down to her chest and hauled her up by the arm holding her bow. "Not so fast. We jus' wanna play with you a bit," he snarled evilly, the accent unusual but more clear than any other Bokoblin's she'd heard yet. "Hey, boys! Boss caught a new pretty plaything! Come say hello to pretty!"
Her body was wrenched down, thrown into the snow, and then stepped on. Then she was being hit, kicked, punched, and even bit from all sides.
Zelda heard herself cry, heard the sobs, and knew they were her own.
Soon, she was sure her body would match her face and her mind.
It was all going to be scarred.
And she was going to be the plaything of the same monsters until she died, or she was taken to the castle.
She wasn't sure which fate would be worse.
Her whole life may as well have been one long scar.
She had nothing to lose, not anymore. She'd already lost it all.
Then again... if she had nothing to lose...
Somehow, she felt her fingers touch the Sheikah Slate, still attached to her belt though the weapons had been stripped.
Nothing to lose at all.
Two bombs popped into existence, one on either side of her.
The Bokoblins, all four of them, paused mid-kick or punch or bite.
Zelda, through bloodied teeth and lips, grinned. "Scars for everyone," she croaked through the pain.
Boom.
