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.
Finally, if you like this story or any of my other stories, please consider supporting me on 'The Pat-r-on Site'. You can find it by going to Pat [r] 3on DOTcom/ KajaWilder (you must have NSFW filter turned off to find my page). I can only continue my current (or faster) pace of updates if I can pay my bills. I'm not there yet, but I'm definitely getting you think about how much enjoyment you get out of a movie- about two hours worth of fun- for $10-20- you are getting far greater value by supporting a writer like myself. If even one in twenty people that read this supported me on Pa Tree On at any but the lowest level, I would be able to easily continue focusing on writing more... and you could read more. I'm going to keep writing anyway. But the pace would be and will be a lot faster if you can spare a few dollars monthly. My lowest tier isn't even a small drink at a theater, any more. Is it worth it? Is it worth it to you? If so, then please support me.
Of course, you can ALSO find more of the same stories there. Most everything here (including FwB, PoW, and TaL) are posted here at least a week after the lowest tier's delayed post on Pa Tree On.
Oh, and sorry this is late. It should've been posted on the 21st but I got distracted. ;) I'll be posting Pokemon: Truth and Lies ch. 13 THIS Wed, like the schedule should be, and hopefully continuing on as normal from now on. And FwB's latest chapter should be up in just a few minutes- but I need to upload this to Ao3 first. ;)
Ch. 13:
Fire in the Sky
Zelda didn't know how long she slept, but she was undisturbed. Her entire body was still sore, the worst by far being her arm, but at least she could still move it. The hole had gone clean through, and she'd done minimal damage in pulling it out, it seemed. Gingerly, Zelda tensed... yes, she could still make a fist. Slowly, she climbed to her feet and strung her bow.
That, too, she was capable of pulling back still, though it hurt like no one's business. At least it didn't seem to do any more damage. In fact, she felt... surprisingly fit, considering how close she had come to dying... what, a day before? The sun was now high in the sky, and her throat was dry, but a long pair of draws from her seemingly endless canteen fixed that.
While munching on a pair of apples again- she was starting to get sick of the sweet fruit already, for it was most of what she'd eaten for an entire week- Zelda decided to season it with a bit of her dried meats while pondering the task ahead.
Long term, her goals hadn't changed.
She'd added a short term one, though.
Climbing the tower would be horrendous, even if it was shorter than the last one she had summited, but the ladder and paraglider might be worse. It just depends. She still had most of her grip strength. Could she raise her hand overhead and support weight that way?
There was, unfortunately, only one way to find out. Zelda started climbing once more, up the hill first, then the rickety ladder for a third time. Hopefully the last.
A few minutes later, she sighed, "You're an idiot for trying this, Zelda," she told herself. The target was a couple hundred feet distant, and the angle was sufficient that she knew already the paraglider would take her there thanks to its magic keeping her aloft longer than would otherwise be feasible.
But she could only hold on for so long, and if she missed, she had a long way to go before she could safely touch down.
There was nothing else to do, though, not if she wanted... whatever that was. So Zelda, wincing at the motion alone, held Rhoam's last gift to her aloft, and then stepped into the air.
It hurt, stretching the wound painfully enough Zelda was sure it was bleeding again, but her grip held. Shaky, yes, but enough.
Gritting her teeth, the woman could only do her best to angle the glider's path just so. Down here... left a little, no more- not that much! Up, no, slow, slower... there!
She had indeed almost overshot, but Zelda now stood, two toes on each foot over the edge of the platform, swaying in the light breeze... and a chest behind her.
It didn't hold much, just a thumb-sized chunk of amber and a note written in hasty script. "Traveler, supplies run low. Replenish if you can. If not, as always, take what you need."
It was signed with a single letter, "K".
"Huh. This... doesn't look that old, either. Within a few years, at least. Interesting... so someone does indeed stock these. And- oh, shit!"
Zelda dropped to a crouch, stifling a cry as she did. Below her, perhaps twenty feet off, a pair of Bokoblins with crude spears stalked a wandering boar. From where she had slept, they would have been in easy eyesight if she had been there even five minutes longer. Zelda exhaled in relief.
She could use the boar meat, she was quite low on protein and her body felt it. It would be useful for healing, if nothing else. But fighting two Bokoblins and a boar was... well, it sounded like a lot just then.
Still...
After they had passed, the pig-like creatures getting close and closer to the actual pig, Zelda decided to add a bit more to the stash. She wasn't exactly over-stocked on food after sharing a lot with the siblings the day before, but she still had more than a week's worth of meals. "And I am getting sick of apples."
She set ten of them aside, and one of the mushroom skewers she had made before too, along with a crudely-written, "Thanks. What I could give. -Z" She had been forced to write it in blood, for that was all she had, but it would work. At least it was visible, and the arrow-hole in her arm was plenty to wet her knife-tip without adding another wound.
As she glided down from that perch, Zelda found herself for a moment high above another stag in a part of the woods further east from the Forest of Time. Somehow, it was still sleeping as she carefully maneuvered her way to land behind it, but hopefully out of reach of its legs and crown both. This was too good an opportunity to pass up, especially since she was already looking for more meat.
Her newest spear would be best at this range, she thought, so Zelda slipped it free as quietly as she could, then took a half step closer, spinning it slowly in her hands. Her arm twinged severely as she angled the point down then raised the shaft high overhead... thunk. It sank in with a sickening squelch, but her hope for a quick, instant kill was dashed as the deer let out a strange, high-pitched, warbling call that gurgled too as blood welled from the wound, bright and hot. The deer, larger than she was, made Zelda take a half-step back as it struggled to right itself, but she was too fast, too prepared for sudden violence by the world she had found herself in since waking.
The spear ripped free, tearing at the animal's throat, then down again, a little to the left and higher. This time, it pierced the artery directly, and with wild, fearful eyes, the creature went stiff. Soon, she saw it give a great, shuddering breath while tears welled in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I have to eat... I couldn't pass up the opportunity."
Only too late, Zelda realized she didn't know how to field-dress a deer, and didn't have the tools to do so anyway.
Still, using her too-short knife and too-long swords, she was able to carve a few chunks off its flanks, nearly tripling the meat she had on her by volume. It was also now the only bit she had uncooked, so Zelda, famished once again, allowed herself to eat one of her precious drumsticks. The meat wasn't nearly as tasty cold, but it was filling and her stomach thanked her for it as she wiped the grease off on the dirty fur of the dead deer.
At least her enchanted satchel kept the blood from leaking everywhere, or getting on everything else inside.
Twenty minutes or so later, Zelda frowned as she lay in the grass once more, this time to the east of the tower by another quarter mile. She had been hiding for almost five minutes, trying to decide the best course of action once more. She'd wanted to follow the treasure hunter's advice and skirt south of the road, but had been lured in by the risk and reward both of the northern path. That had worked out... badly, judging by the slowly growing spot of blood on the second set of bandages that wrapped her arm. The bruises were numerous too, but at least she was alive still, and wasn't in as much pain as she had been after the plateau's 'boss' had surprised her.
She didn't think a straight-up fight would be a good idea here, though. Against one Moblin she might be a match with a lot of fury and some luck. The problem was that there were at least eight she could see patrolling the western part of the ruins, with a pair moving up and down the road itself.
She could circle to the north, go all the way around the ruins, but Zelda did not know how long that would take. The afternoon sun shone brightly along the silvery ribbon of the river the Proxim Bridge crossed, but it was still about a mile, perhaps two, away. Circling around might add another three hours to her trip, and she didn't have any idea how far she would have to go to stay out of sight from the Moblins, or what might be there.
She could try crossing the road when the patrols were furthest away, dash by and head up into the hills. That was risky, but also required a bit of backtracking unless she wanted to climb a few very steep sections, which her arm protested. It should be mostly safe once she did cross, however.
Or... she could just run for it, straight down the road, and hope the swarm of giant humanoids she attracted wouldn't catch her on the way, or have more endurance than she did.
"Which is foolish of me to even think about," Zelda scolded herself quietly, "More endurance? You can barely handle walking for a few hours without a break. Running longer- and faster- than one of those lanky, huge things? They don't look particularly quick, but it's far too big a chance to take. Maybe I can sneak through... But there are so many."
Taking a deep breath, the young- or very old- girl crept forward, staying low and trying to use the cover of the grass and broken walls to move further into the ruins without being spotted. Unfortunately, she underestimated the height of a stretched-out Moblin, and one spotted her within just a few minutes. "Meat," it huffed, voice low and husky, and peered over the wall. Zelda, half-crouched, felt the rush of hot breath against her neck as it spoke. She looked up slowly, and got another in the face. It smelled of rotten cabbage, and some kind of green dangled from one long tusk. "Hungry," it growled, lower, "Meat stay still... die fast."
Numb, trembling fingers closed around her spear, the same she'd used to kill the deer. This was not the plan.
It placed one hand as large as her head- no, it had to be larger, she was sure that thing could wrap around her entire skull easily- over the top of the crumbling wall, and used that as leverage to hop over. The ground shook as it landed, and Zelda, who had spun around to meet it with the spear held up toward the beast, whimpered. The red-toned creature, a little scalier in places but furred in others compared to a Bokoblin's rough but mostly human-like skin, whuffed again in amusement. "Meat want fight? Hah. Funny."
She didn't find it amusing at all, though Zelda was relieved it hadn't called for help from the several other Moblins in the area. Though she was sure the smell of her broken corpse, or screams of pain, would attract them anyway. The club it was using, uncharred and newer wood than the one she still had, more like a two-handed weapon the Bokoblins would've used though it carried it easily in one, raised over one shoulder, twice as high as Zelda's head. "Meat try and fight," it growled, long, snout-like mouth twisting up in a cruel grin.
As the makeshift weapon blurred through the air toward her head, Zelda threw herself into motion. Her arm screamed in pain as she tucked into a roll with it leading, but fueled by adrenalin she still felt it was better than letting that club hit her at full force. It whipped overhead, yanking a few long, silken hairs from her scalp, but that pain was inconsequential. Somehow, she came to one knee, and the spear lashed out twice. One thrust that glanced off the thing's crude belt, and a slash on the return stroke that dragged the sharp, leaf-blade over the outside of the Moblin's right knee. It snagged the tendon, and the beast grunted in pain as it whipped back, taking a return swing that smashed into the stone wall as she ducked once more.
It recovered fast, too fast, and the Moblin's free hand punched Zelda right in the jaw as she threw herself back. Her own movement softened the blow, true, but the extra inertia also made her fly back four feet more than she had intended. "Ow," she whimpered, and spat out a tooth. Red and spittle came with it, but she didn't have time to care, no matter how much that hurt.
The Moblin was still moving in, long lanky strides taking the place of a run to cover the distance between them in just three steps.
Its eyes, wisely, watched the point of her weapon now, demonstrating intelligence most Bokoblins would not have. But Zelda did indeed know her way around the graceful weapon, and used that against the thing. Another swing of the club went wide, two feet or more between them as Zelda feinted to the right with a short thrust. Then the left, and the weapon came down to smash into the dirt.
It reached out to grab it below the feathered and weighted tip, but that part was out of even the Moblin's long reach suddenly as Zelda whipped the haft around in her hands and brought the short, bracing-point of the butt end upward into the Moblin's long jaw with a sharp crack.
It howled, deep and guttural, "Owie! Meat should just die!"
Its next swing, two handed, hit the shorter part of the wall she had been trying to use to hide, sending twenty- or fifty-pound stones flying away, and ruining the weapon too. Immediately, it lunged, both arms stretched forward to throttle the princess. She was ready this time, and spat more blood, this time into its face. That was just another distraction, and continuing to spin the spear had the same spike set into the dirt with her foot bracing it, in turn.
With a sickening squelch, the Moblin's throat lodged firmly around the leaf-tipped weapon, which had already been coated in the deer's blood before. The spray of hot, violet-red liquid splattered across Zelda's cheek and neck too, and the Moblin still reached out with furious arms, swiping just an inch or so from her face for several seconds. Thankfully, the beast was mortally wounded, and lacked the strength to push itself past the weighted ball that ensured a straight flight.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, the Moblin's arms fell, swinging slowly, and went still. As the light left its eyes, it vanished into smoke, leaving a long, twisted horn from its snout, and a heavy, bicuspid tooth as big as her thumb and pinky put together.
Slowly, Zelda exhaled in relief, but as she gathered up the leavings she kept a wary eye out for more. The conflict had been short and not too loud, but the wall being shattered could very easily have attracted attention.
And her arm hurt from having to hold the spear in place against the Moblin's raving, plus landing on it in her first roll.
But she didn't have time to set the bandages again, or make another poultice.
Instead, Zelda spent barely thirty seconds more feeling around her mouth for the broken tooth's position and found one next to it loose, too. At least they were far back, and would be mostly invisible. The bruise on her jaw the next day would probably be impressive, though.
"Nothing for it now but to go through, I suppose," Zelda muttered darkly, shaking her head at her own foolishness and hubris. "If nothing else, either my journey will end or the roads will be safer with less Moblins around."
She didn't run into trouble for a little bit, but by carefully picking her way through the ruins, staying out of sight, Zelda was able to pick a few remnants of healing herbs from an old, long-forgotten garden, and a supply of some lost soldier's arrows in one of the old barracks.
Another Moblin, this one armed with a crude, Bokoblin-style stick sized for itself and reinforced, if only barely, by a few tied ropes and scraps of cloth as a spear, was felled with a combination of arrows as it closed and two thrusts, one to the groin to stop it in place and one up under its heaving ribs. That one, though it cost her the limited supplies of a few arrows (of which, she had told herself before and after, she did truly have enough for a while). While the spear had snapped off, breaking cleanly in half as the Moblin fell, she was at least able to replace the weapon with its own much poorer one. Even if it would hopefully be discarded soon.
Having taken out a few of the giant beasts relatively easily now, Zelda decided, as the sun started to get low in the sky, that she was taking far too long. It would be faster, if a bit more dangerous, to just kill them all and be done with it. It would cost her in weapons, and maybe her life, but she could at least partially recover the loss, and if it made the roads safe for the siblings returning home, it would be worth it.
The third Moblin of the ruins was dispatched in her favorite way, though. It had heard her climbing the tall wall, one of the tallest left standing, but old and worn with several finger-sized cracks that made climbing it easy enough, but hadn't pinpointed her location before she was near the top. One of the tallest creatures around, it never occured to the thing to look up.
True, Zelda knew she could miss and twist an ankle, or even break a leg. That would surely make fighting hard. But the advantage of height on a creature so used to being taller than its prey would be significant. That was how Zelda discovered that Moblins, powerful and dangerous as they were, had a soft spot in their skulls just behind the horn, below the eyes.
Her second spear, feathered and weighted as the first was for throwing, much like an ancient Pilum style weapon, sank deeper than she had expected, and the princess nearly fell from her perch atop the wall. On the other hand, she was treated to the strange sight of the Moblin's shining eyes going cross-eyed at the shaft of the weapon sticking from its nose, even as the life left them. The body's fall tore the weapon from her grip, and this time Zelda fell too, but she was able to land atop it, soft enough that the recoil her legs had to absorb was minimal. More like jumping off one story than falling off two- hard, but not really dangerous.
A grimace crossed Zelda's features as she realized why this one had been so distracted. The large puddle of water, eight or ten feet across, that had caved in half a building was the thing's wash-basin, and it had been bathing.
Which meant it was naked.
She tried not to look as she tore the weapon from its head, but it was just... there, flopping, as the remnants of life made its body jerk.
A penis about as long as her forearm, and almost as wide. It wasn't human-like, not really, she thought. The Bokoblins', in comparison, were short and stubby, but human-shaped. Like a child's, almost, before puberty. Zelda couldn't say how she knew, like with so much since she had woken in the Shrine of Resurrection, but the Moblin's reminded her more of a horse, or a very large goat. It had a flat tip, rimmed, and mottled with darker spots about an inch across up and down the length. The princess shuddered as she tore her eyes away in the same motion that freed the spear at last. Just thinking about the Bokoblins, both of them, that had mentioned raping her was horrible, but if a Moblin got the thought into their heads it would rip her organs apart, Zelda thought. Finally, fortunately, the motion of yanking the spear free seemed to have ended the last bit of life in the creature, for it turned to smoke and magic the moment it did, saving her from the last images.
Continuing to make her way through the East Post Ruins, Zelda was able to kill another Moblin easily enough simply by sneaking up behind it and driving her spear up into its ribcage to the left of its spine. Shortly after, she found a piece of amber and a flint, the steel long rusted out of the fire-starter kit, and added a few more apples from a mostly picked-bare tree near the center of the collapsed buildings. There were even a pair of the jelly-like, acidic creatures she dispatched as easily as a single stab each. In one of the last buildings, she found another hunting bow, but this one she left there, intending to pass along its location to Mina and Mils if she saw them again. Hopefully, the ruins would still be clear, making it easy and safe to access.
The sun was setting when she killed her fifth Moblin, one she suspected was the leader of the local band. It had an actual bed of sorts, fashioned from the spoilt mattresses of several nearby houses, and a finer weapon, one of the reinforced, fire-hardened clubs, as large as the last one she'd had. It even had a supply of fresh meat she was able to take from its hilltop nest, in the form of a fox she had watched it kill. There wasn't much meat on the vulpine body, but Zelda was still of a mind that any was better than none, and more was better than a little, so she hastened to cut a few strips free and add them to her collection before infection could spread within the still-warm body.
Then there was the Korok. She hadn't seen any since leaving the Plateau, but on an old, cut stump near the Moblin leader's nest had been, a shimmering, half-translucent pinwheel spun slowly in the wind... backward.
Just being partially invisible but not quite was enough to pique the inquisitive princess' interest, but spinning backward was highly unusual. And on investigation, she could feel with the outstretched hand that the wind indeed reversed course about an inch away from the pinwheel itself, while moving straight through the 'object' as if it were not there.
That was when she heard the high-pitched giggle. "A Korok...?"
It didn't reveal itself, however, at least not at first. What she did notice quickly were two large acorns flying through the air in strange, ovoid patterns. Not quite egg-shaped, but definitely not circular, at any rate. It almost looked like two creatures were juggling one each from behind a nearby wall.
Walking over to it, Zelda saw nothing, not even the acorns. But the moment she returned to the pinwheel, the giggle sounded again, and the acorns returned to existence in a puff of white smoke and leaves. A trick, then... what's the goal? Sick amusement, as usual?
Frustrated, she tried to throw a rock toward them, but missed. An arrow, perhaps, will fly faster and farther... easier to aim, too. And they do seem to like tests of skill or puzzles.
The first arrow went wide and high, lost among the ruins she had already passed through. The second struck true, and the right acorn vanished in the same puff of smoke it had appeared in. The other acorn proved more elusive still, and Zelda only caught the briefest of glimpses. It was most obvious through a window in the same wall, where she could spot it for about two seconds as it moved through the air.
A difficult shot, she knew, but mostly in the timing. Placing an arrow through a window at that range wasn't hard at all, a beginner could do it. She just had to analyze the pattern and timing...
"Yes!"
Zelda's cry of happiness as the second vanished was mirrored by one of high-pitched surprise as another Korok, spinning on a leaf that whirled over its head, appeared. "Nice shooting, lady! Take this seed to Hestu, it'll bring you good luck!"
Unlike many of them before, this Korok actually held the little golden lump out, expecting Zelda to take it. She did with some reluctance, now strongly suspecting the 'seeds' were more accurately spoor, given the smell.
But she couldn't in good conscience decline, especially since the implication that this mysterious Hestu, if she ever met the creature, would reward her was obvious. "Thank you, my friend," she said with a little bow, forcing a smile onto her face as she dropped the seed into her pouch.
"Anytime, hah! Bye, archer-lady!"
Then it, too, vanished.
In the easternmost building, Zelda was caught off-guard by a drizzle starting. It wouldn't have been bad, but the crash of thunder some miles away made her hesitate. "Maybe I should seek shelter... there isn't a lot of cover around here, though." But that same building also had once been a reinforced structure, and the burst-in doors, crafted of iron-reinforced oak, were still intact if off their hinges. They would be far too heavy to lift, as each door was ten feet or more high, four feet wide, and several inches thick. But she had Magnesis, and the iron bands around the doors were more than enough to move them into the position of a crude but highly effective lean-to. Even better, one of the doors had landed covering a steel chest. Had this been a bank, or some similar building, once? Either way, the door had broken it open, and a few small green gems and one large, pearlescent gemstone, an opal, had spilled out.
Zelda scooped them up happily while she waited out the rain, and eventually fell asleep.
The night passed in peace, and she woke to a low mist on the ground that was quickly dissipating in the warmth of the new day.
Moving on after a hasty breakfast to satisfy the hunger that had been building since she found the apple tree the day before, Zelda soon found herself near the banks of the river, and what she was now sure was Proxim Bridge. There was more here she hadn't spotted from afar, though.
While across the way a broken Guardian sat on the spit where two rivers met to the north of the bridge, between her and it a large camp of Bokoblins circled a little fire. A blue leader was starting to become predictable, but this time there were no fewer than five others, for a total of six beasts. Enough to overwhelm her, Zelda was sure, even if the last was a red instead of blue.
But they were foolish in a way, too. Two barrels of explosives that might be hard to ignite in the early morning mist, but if she simply waited until the wood dried in a few hours (if she could spare it) would be, she thought, a decent plan to thin their numbers. It would cost one of her magical Fire arrows, or sneaking very close and risking a thrown bomb, but that way was much, much safer.
Then, on the south side of the road, a Shrine. It was hidden by the hill from further to the west, but plainly visible from the road, and just off the bridge by a few hundred feet. The hill that had hidden it was the same long, rolling and high one that had the watchtower atop it, which still called Zelda to explore and examine it for supplies, or evidence of what might have happened. As well, the stone watch-tower or whatever they were with the wider top was closer, too. She could, Zelda thought, explore the shrine and hike to the larger tower, back down, and climb the shorter in a single day. Maybe half, if the Shrine didn't take too long.
Finally, the bridge itself was covered in vines on this half, and many of the stones leading up to it, especially the short stairs built for wagon-travel (and why not a ramp, she wondered, for that purpose), but it looked sturdy enough even if some of the higher parts of the support columns were broken and fallen.
Her Slate pinged as the name Bosh Kala Shrine appeared on the screen, and the oddly familiar ritual of standing before the pedestal and activating it brought a sense of reassurance to the princess too before, like all those on the plateau, the lift brought her down, down into the depths of the earth.
The voice was female this time, but still aged, "To you who sets foot in this shrine... In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial. The Wind Guides You."
Zelda stared. It was by far the largest shrine she had been in, judging by the distance between her position just off the lift and the farthest walls, which faded in the still, clear air until they were barely visible.
But the air did not stay still for long. She had just noted the four decorative pillars with the glowing blue light-crystals on them around her, a platform with stairs leading up it to the left and another with a chest and no obvious access to the right, and another stairway leading to a wide, open arch further into the shrine when her hair began to move in a sudden breeze.
In seconds, that breeze kicked up to a roaring, whipping wind that prompted her to gather her long hair and twist it into a loose bun that would hopefully hold it out of the way as the wind continued to increase. It circled around her in a clockwise direction, but the dust kicked up by the wind's movement soon gave rise to another valuable piece of information.
On the platform to the left, the one with the staircase, a round device on the wall spewed forth a powerful current of air, which seemed to be the source of the entire room's circulation. It was blowing, she could see, straight toward the chest on the other side.
Which seemed strange... Why would one build a chest and then remove all access? Better to just take the chest elsewhere, or... were the builders unusually tall?
Of course, had she a portable ladder or box it would be easy to reach, but she already knew the dark stone blocks the inside of the shrines were constructed from was impossible to climb.
She needed a way to...
Oh.
"Oh, you are a fool, Zelda," she whispered to herself, but even that sound was pulled from her mouth by the wind. All you need is to increase the drag- and you have a paraglider. Even your dress might provide enough pull with that wind. I just have to hope it doesn't smash me into the opposite wall!
A moment later, glider furled but expanded in one hand, she tested the strength of the powerful, directed stream with one hand. Even that she had to strain against, and as Zelda carefully stepped into the torrent, she staggered with the force of it. She grinned, braced her wounded arm for more pain, took hold with both hands, and opened the glider.
It was ripped from her hands immediately, the direct force hitting the surface area far too powerfully for her to hold.
It bent, twisting, and scattered on the ground below.
Grumbling, the princess retrieved it, muttering darkly to herself about how she truly must be an idiot if she didn't think to account for angles, then tried again. This time, she didn't hold the glider full-on into the wind, but at almost a forty-five degree angle.
Again, unfurling it pulled, hard, on the glider... and her.
With a whoop that she barely heard over the howling gale, Zelda felt her feet slide on the floor... and then bend as her heels left it. Her toes slid too, faster and faster, and- and she was doing it! She was airborne, like a bird! No mere glider, no, with this wind she was actually flying!
Zelda was so distracted by the raw, fierce joy of that brief moment that it passed without her noticing, and her legs smacked into the chest on the other side. Skinning both through the doeskin pants, she winced as she tumbled to her hands on the ground, the glider falling once more. But now she was on the other side. Scolding herself again for losing focus, Zelda still couldn't wipe the grin actually flying had caused in her as she climbed to her feet. Fighting the gale was still hard even at a distance, but more manageable, and the princess found this chest, like most in the Sheikah's ancient Shrines, opened at a touch.
True, the prize was only a cut cube of amber, perfectly symmetrical and two inches on a side, flawless in quality from what she could tell, but Zelda didn't care. She had flown. Wind had indeed guided her, up and over!
That alone had been worth it.
The room beyond was a bit harder. The central stairs had taken her there, and she found most of the area ahead dropped off into the same limitless abyss she had seen in other trials, like the Stasis one. Across a long gap, a hundred feet or more she was sure, a ledge stuck out. Some sort of grillwork cage protected the blue glow she thought was the Sage's resting place to the left. On the right, another of the ducted fans faced her on a higher elevation. Perhaps... it was there if she need to return? Lifting a hand showed a very strong gust blowing in that direction, but she failed to see how it would be useful to her unless something needed her to come back this way. The center of the platform was blocked off by a pillar from here, atop which was another of the crystal lights on a shorter pedestal, and two ramps framed it on either side from behind, which also seemed to flank another smaller arch. Finally, a third fan aimed toward the distant platform accompanied another raised dais. Simple enough, then... if she didn't slip. The wind would carry her over there, and quickly. She would fly again, too.
But if she did fall, she would fall a long, long way.
And probably die.
Zelda shook her head. She feared a lot, but death wasn't truly something she did. Was it? No. She feared what would become of Hyrule if she died, yes. Of her knight, she supposed, in that abstract way, because she could not remember him. Her?
She couldn't recall at all.
No, what Zelda feared were the moments before death. If a Bokoblin caught her and forced itself on her, or a Moblin. If she was tortured, or brought before the Calamity. Or tortured, raped, and then brought to the Calamity. That would be the worst.
No... dying here would be a relief, if anything.
So Zelda took her place on the higher space, and stepped off the ledge, glider held high, without any fear at all.
Simple enough, there was even a third ramp going to a third fan-covered drop that rose from the central pillar. All Zelda had to do was leap again, and there was the Sage's resting place, just up a staircase. Only... there was another chest, tucked away in an alcove on the opposite wall.
One harder to get... and she was sure, far more valuable than a mere piece of amber.
Getting to it would be hard, she knew... there was no easy wind to carry her there. But it was indeed below the platform the third wind had carried her to... it was just a long way off, and she wasn't sure she could make it. Getting back would be easy if so, and she might be able to recover if she missed, by landing on the long platform that seemed built just for that purpose.
It seemed that, while the Sages did indeed intend most of the Shrines to be trials, they didn't intend for them to be too obviously lethal.
It wasn't a death-trap... only risky.
And that was something the princess was becoming used to. Nothing to do but try, I suppose, she muttered resolutely, and spread the glider once more.
She spun once in the air after her first leap, the wind catching the glider and whipping her around in a full circle as momentum carried her beyond it, so Zelda was startled and dizzy as the distant ledge approached. Still, a desperate grab, tucking her knees up all the way, had one boot half-onto the corner and both hands outstretched as she hit the stone. Again, momentum carried her further, but Zelda still had to lift and roll, kicking her other free leg, without support, wildly into the air as she tucked into a roll that barely carried her over the edge.
When she stopped moving, the young woman was sprawled on her back, the glider half beneath her, spread eagle as she stared up at the distant, glowing ceiling. "I'm starting to hate these places," she chuckled weakly.. This time, more distant and in a wider space, she actually heard herself over the wind. After catching her breath and letting the adrenaline fade, Zelda sat up, and moved toward the chest.
Inside was a prize indeed, though one clearly intended for the Hero, not her.
The blade was long, nearly five and a half feet, so close to as tall as she was. With the handle, it would be a few inches taller, but she would absolutely need both hands to wield it. It was larger than the traveler's claymore she already carried, shrunken and weightless, on her weapon belt... yet as she picked up the finely-crafted piece, which was free of ornamentation except some long-forgotten maker's stamp on the base of the blade, it was, if anything, lighter.
She was no great judge of blades, at least not anymore. Perhaps in her past life, Zelda had seen many fine weapons of the greatest knights of the realm. Now, she knew very little... but that little still told her this was the most deadly, costly, weapon in her arsenal. It may have just been a common soldier's weapon, but it was probably that of a heavy troop, or an assault vanguard, for even most knights might struggle to use this weapon with grace and finesse.
Zelda was no knight, but she did seem to have at least a basic grasp of combat with many kinds of weapons, and she'd already used a claymore much like this, but of lower quality. Now she carried two, and she only had to lose a Moblin club to carry it.
Satisfied, even happy for the trade, though she kept the spear at hand for now, the princess hopped down onto the lower ledge with ease, and made her way back up, over the air once more, and to the Sage's resting place.
An indeterminate time later, though Zelda suspected it was mere moments in reality, the princess smiled as she stretched, and pulled her left arm out of the doublet. Her arm no longer hurt, not at all. She pulled the bandage free, her tongue working over the regrown tooth while she did. There was still the dark stain of blood on her sleeve, in her sleeve mostly, and running down her arm a bit where the poultice- which now reeked heavily- had leaked. But the wound itself was gone without even a scar.
She grinned once more, "That is very handy. Even a grievous wound like that, vanished in an instant. I shall have to remember that if I'm ever in real danger... though attempting a more challenging Shrine in that condition could prove fatal, too."
A few minutes after, she tossed the poultice into the river to allow it to wash away, stowed the bandages for later use (after she washed them, of course, as best she could) and continued on, this time up the hill to the south instead. "In fact," she murmured to herself as she broke into a faster walk, "I feel... positively great."
That lasted about thirty minutes, when the rain of the previous day burst into a great downpour. While that did allow her to sneak up on a Bokoblin armed with a farmer's hoe as a weapon and dispatch it easily with her spear, it also let two of its fellows, hidden out of sight, jump up as it gave a death-cry.
Their weapons were poor, the red armed with a broom of all things, old and cracked, but the blue, stronger one had a rust-pitted broadsword, which it swung with wild abandon.
A quickly-tossed bomb took out the red one first, and its broom flew in her direction, forcing Zelda to duck before it struck her neck. Instead, it clattered against the rock face behind her, leaving the girl little time to take several protective thrusts with her spear to ward off the aggressive blue's advance.
It kept swinging, showing no finesse but plenty of strength and speed, but for several seconds the spear was plenty to keep it at bay. Her arms would tire before it would, though, Zelda was sure. She should move, feint, and then-
No!
Just as her plan was to start, the blue Bokoblin's face grew fiercer as it grinned, and its style shifted from swings to thrusts. Its reach wasn't anywhere near hers, even though Zelda wasn't tall even for a woman, but it still got it close enough to grab the haft of her spear and yank it from her hands. It threw the weapon spinning into the air and caught it, hurling it at her, forcing Zelda to leap to the side, while it sailed underneath her outstretched arm. She heard it smash against one of the rock's behind her, and two different sounds as the larger pieces fell on opposite sides of her. Just then, the Bokoblin lunged, sword outstretched in a harder thrust.
As quickly as she could, Zelda's body twisted, and the sword ripped, tearing a hole through air and her thick parka alike, to skitter and spark across the granite behind her. Just then her fingers closed around the broom's handle. It cracked against the Bokoblin's shoulder a moment later, and it lurched to the side as the hole in her parka grew a little wider. It shrieked in fury, barely hurt, but the movement had bought her enough time to take three quick steps to the side, circling the monster. She thrust again, the bristles stabbing into the Bokoblin's sensitive snout, and it snorted, grunting in displeasure. A wild swipe on its end was lucky, shearing the end off the mop completely.
Both stared at it for a moment, then the monster lunged again.
In sheer desperation, Zelda moved as little as possible, just enough to twist out of the way of another swing, and stabbed forward with the handle of the mop. The shorn, sharp edge jabbed straight into the blue Bokoblin's mouth, and came out the back of its head with a goopy sort of plip noise, quite audible and sharp even over the rain and low wind.
"Grhck..."
"That's what you get," she tried to say bravely, though her heart was pounding at the reversed ambush. It could have gone much worse, she knew. But she'd won this time. It had cost her her best melee weapon, or at least the weapon she was best with, but that second spear had already been through a lot and wouldn't have lasted much longer, she was sure.
Still, she had the spiked club, the two great swords if necessary, and... that hoe. "Yay," Zelda said, voice flat and as drawled as she could as she hefted the thing. The head was heavy, at least, and while dull, would probably cut deep if she swung at full force. But the handle was built for dirt, not combat. Tilled dirt, at that. It wouldn't hold up to much, even if it was... she was no expert again, but Zelda saw no dirt on the weapon, not even in the tip's crevices. It may be so new it had never actually been used for its intended purpose.
If she was lucky. The wood was definitely newer and well cared for, though. It had likely been made at least within the last season.
"Which means it was taken from a trader, craftsperson, or farmer within the last season," she muttered darkly, wishing she could kick the dead Bokoblins a few times for the probable murder and definite theft. But at least they still dropped alchemical ingredients when they died.
It would, maybe, restore some of what was lost to them.
Maybe.
The stone pillar-tower was set into a little gully about half-way up the larger hill, and Zelda was grateful, but the time she had climbed to the top with aching limbs once more (thankfully long after the rain had stopped, for it would have been impossible if the stone was slick) for whoever had tried to climb it previously. A small stack of boxes, logs, and branches had shortened her journey considerably. Atop it was another of the small lockboxes with another note, this one wrapped around an uncut sapphire of brilliant blue. In lieu of other supply, I offer this to trade. -K
She added food instead, and a note herself as she had last time, In trade I offer only supply, though value can't be fare. Produce and salt may keep it safe, on your journey beware. -Z
Hoping they at least got a little joy out of the rhyme, Zelda set several more apples, her last chicken wing, and some of the roasted pork from the plateau in the box and shut it tightly. Gliding down made her more grateful to her father than even the box-stacker had, though.
To prevent her stashed trade with the mysterious "K" from being stolen, Zelda used a well-placed bomb to destroy the climbing aids, and hiked upward once more.
It took nearly two hours to crest the large hill, but at least Zelda had found a worn, grass-covered old road that wound around it a few times, easing the workload considerably.
At the peak was, as she had suspected from afar, an old watchtower that might have held a half-dozen men at one point. It was circled by tall cypress trees and flowers, which must have added unneeded beauty and aroma to the post. Unneeded, she thought, for the view in all directions was breathtaking. To the south and southwest, the great bridge that spanned the miles-wide lake, and the tower beyond that toward the setting sun. Southeast, red stone cliffs and tiered jungle, half-covered by the southern flanks of the Dueling Peaks. East, those twin mountains themselves, majestic and tall... and, Zelda saw, "A shrine! Way up there! That's almost worse in some ways than climbing up Mount Hylia! I'll have to go to the summit and climb down!"
Indeed, built within a hollow of the split mountain was the orange glow of a shrine, far above the tower she could make out a bit better a few miles past the river.
To the northeast, beyond the Proxim bridge, she could make out in the setting sun another, smaller bridge of wood and stone combined. On either side, the glow of Shrines became more visible as the night grew on, both north of the river. The left was closer, perhaps a half-mile from the bridge, and Zelda thought the right was both further from her and the bridge, north by a few more miles too. A swampy, marshy forest lay on that side north of where the two rivers met, and the high, storm-ridden mountains beyond that.
More toward the north, the great volcano rose, and Zelda spotted another new tower that had previously been hidden by the castle's dark malevolence in all her other attempts to get a good lay of the land. A great, vast forest lay upon the hills there, west of the volcano. West of the castle too, now facing northwest, the distant, pierced, snow-capped mountains still lay, shimmering white-red in the moonlight.
... Wait... that wasn't right.
In horror, Zelda looked up at the moon itself.
She expected a full moon, as it had been waxing for days. But this...
It was full, yes. But not the beautiful, cold, pale white it should have been. The moon seemed darker, larger, like a massive, cruel, evil eye, staring down over the world.
Staring at her.
Green eyes widened in fear, and Zelda felt her breath quicken along with her pulse, as a faint voice entered her mind.
A voice that was so achingly, powerfully familiar, like her father's had been, only more, and yet still unknown.
But she knew who it was. Her whole being cried out with the information, even as it recoiled from the moon's red glare. The voice of the Hero, the appointed knight. "Zelda... Zelda! Be- be careful... the red moon... monsters reborn... Calamity-" the voice cut off as a great roar pierced her senses, thrumming through her whole mind and body. At the same moment, the gaseous mist of shadows around the castle shuddered and shook too, and it seemed to shrink and then pulse outward for a moment. Then the voice returned, more strained somehow, yet also... more... what, resolved? Was that the best word? Zelda didn't know, didn't have time to ponder, as the voice began again. "C-Calamity... Rises... Dang-Dangerous! C-Be- Be careful... Look out for... Danger... Ganon's... power... grows! Blood Moon... Spirits of slain monsters... return... careful. Careful, Z-Zelda..."
Then, nothing.
And as she stared, lost and forlorn, terrified, the moon rose higher and higher. She could not look away, could not stop staring at the horror, unable to cease wondering what dark magic, what horrific power, could change the moon itself in such a way. At its zenith, her neck aching from looking up for several hours, Zelda winced dry, unblinking eyes as the whole sky went red for a moment, and a wave of shadow pulsed out from the moon, covering the entire land from horizon to horizon.
That, she knew, was the Calamity restoring the spirits of its minions to life, as her lost champion had said.
All that work she had done clearing the roads... making the place safer for everyone... even just a few hours before, pinned against the cliff, nearly stabbed through the gut.
All of it, wasted.
They were back. Even those on the plateau, she was sure.
Zelda frowned. Then scowled. Then, grunting, hurled a rock down the hillside in frustration, straight through the open wall of the half-missing tower.
She never even noticed the Korok rewarding her for her temper with another seed.
What Zelda did notice, as the red light faded and the sky and moon both returned to normal, the clouds passing quickly as the storm moved on while she was mesmerized in horror, was the streak of yellow that passed from high overhead down to the plains northwest of the river. Beyond the ruins, out in the open grasslands where Mina had said the Guardians roved in large numbers.
But the shining, yellow light called her.
There had been red fire a moment before, which lit up the whole sky with a powerful roar of evil, announcing the Calamity's growing strength to the world.
But that soft, yet brilliant, small glow, the streak of golden fire, seemed a light entirely opposite. Perhaps not sacred, that wasn't the right word, but divine all the same.
Without realizing it, Zelda broke into a run. Heedless of the late hour, for the Shrine had restored her energy and only the hike up the hill had tired her now, along with the quick combat before that and climb up the watch-post.
She was heedless too of the danger in the ruins, now that the monsters were reborn.
She just ran, and ran, ignoring the screams of monsters to her left, her right, and increasingly, behind.
That light was calling her, and she needed to reach it before it flickered and died. The yellow-gold light on the horizon was her beacon, her destination... and it seemed, her very destiny.
Zelda ran, and ran some more, unaware how her legs burned.
She only ran toward the light, as quickly as she could manage.
Over grassy, rolling hills, through two, then three swarms of Keese that nipped and jabbed, flapped in her eyes, Zelda ran. Directly through a camp of mostly-sleeping Bokoblins, even ignoring the locked treasure box she barely noticed, the princess leaped straight over their low fire and kept running. Around a large bluff too steep to climb quickly, and out into the open, grassy plains, she ran, and ran some more.
The light was just there, on the ground. No... not a light. Two of them, side by side, glittering, brilliant crystals. They were round from a distance, but up close golden yellow, brighter than any topaz, and each shone with a light like a star's, only brighter because they were so close. The were warm to the touch, Zelda realized, but not hot. Instead, it felt like she was being touched and kissed by the sun on a warm day. And both called her, so strongly, so powerfully. She held up both to her chest, nuzzled her cheek against them, and felt...
Belonging. Warmth. Home. Safety. Magic.
Everything good in the world that she didn't associate with her father's scant memory or the even more absent memories of the Hero, Zelda found in those two little, spiked spheres.
She was so enamored by them that she nearly missed the Guardian until it was too late.
With a shriek of fright, she dived, rolling to the right like a child in the grass, just out of the way of a stabbing, three-clawed leg as it thrust into the dirt where she had just been.
Panic set in at once, but even in that panic, Zelda acted.
The reason for her fear of the dome-like shapes outside the Cathedral of Time was obvious to her, now. These things were terrifying, and this one was fully operational, not the immobile turret-like version she had seen three of on the plateau. It was fast, nearly blindingly so, and every one of its six limbs was both speed and a deadly close-range weapon that could lash out in an instant to an impressive ten feet from the body.
But she already knew its most devastating weapon was the great eye-beam, one which charged up even as it continued to stamp down with one leg, trying to catch Zelda as she rolled back and forth, evading by a hair's breadth each time.
Thankfully, the two star fragments, for she knew not else what to call them, made their way into her pouch, and Zelda's thoughts turned to flight.
She had to get away, she could not fight this powerful servant of the Calamity! She was too scared, too weak, and it too deadly, and the beam was almost fully charged, no doubt far stronger than the weak, damaged ones on the plateau that had cut through tree and stone!
Her fingers touched the slate as it beeped.
She didn't know what buttons she pushed, but just as the lance of white fire burst out of the Guardian's eye, her body became insubstantial.
It passed right through her, and Zelda gasped in shock, thinking she was dead... only for her vision to go white.
And the Guardian was gone.
More accurately, she realized, she was gone from its sight.
Zelda rematerialized at the last Travel Gate she had activated, the one at the Bosh Kala shrine, just outside the Proxim Bridge.
Where she actually wanted to be, if not home in her bed, safe, with no Calamity in all of existence.
But if she couldn't have that, the Shrine was a decent place to start.
Slowly, Zelda forced her panic to subside. She was safe... a Guardian might follow and stalk while it had a chance to pursue, but there was no way it had followed her here. If it had, she would already be dead.
No... she was safe. Or as safe as she could be, for now.
Which meant she... she should rest...
Why was she so tired?
Her legs hurt.
Those sparkling, shining fragments were beautiful, though... why had they called her so strongly?
She had to get them. And she had, but she'd almost died to do so. What had made it so worth it to her...?
Zelda didn't know. Nor could she spend much time trying to dredge up memories, because as dawn broke over the shattered kingdom, its prodigal princess passed out in the doorway of the Shrine. Thankfully, she was out of sight of most passers-by, and any monsters. Thus, for the third night since leaving the plateau, Zelda got a half-decent (if awkward and cold) rest.
