Chapter 8
Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Monster Wilds truly did live up to its name...what with it being an inhospitable wilderness full of all sorts of nasty creatures and unholy abominations, with the only thing resembling a functioning society being the various monster clans and marauders that roamed here.
...and yet, what may be hard to believe for most is the simple fact that the dreadful state of that land was a far more recent development than one might assume. The Monster Wilds weren't...well,the Monster Wildsa thousand years ago, nor were they even a hundred years ago. As a matter of fact, this region had only been like this for around 40 years, give or take...short enough for there to be people alive now who remembered what it was like before.
Back then, these lands used to be under the protection of the Kingdom of Hyrule, supporting many farms, villages, keeps, a castle and even a small town. It was still fairly distant from the the great Hyrule Castle and the more central powers of the kingdom, but it was still a valuable part of it, and quite a few people did indeed call it home.
Back then, this land was known as the Ordona Province.
It was from Ordona where most of the food and produce the people of Hyrule survived on were grown, where most of the farms, ranches and farmers lived, and barring some occasional minor monster attacks here and there, usually from small raiding parties, it was mostly a land of peace.
That peace of course...did not last.
It didn't happen in an instant, but it was still a very drastic and unexpected change. It started with the soil, and the crops, and the harvests.
Something dark, a vile corruption, began to infect the roots of the crops, poisoning the food grown there, and killed many of the grazing animals that fed upon the grass growing in the poisoned soil. It happened only to a single farm at first, but then a few weeks later, another was affected...and another, and another.
No one could explain what was happening, only that it wasn't good. Not only were the Ordon farmers at the cusp of losing their livelihood by the hundreds, but the more farms that were affected, the greater strain it put on Hyrule itself, so much so that the (at the time) current ruler of Hyrule, Queen Regent Zelda XIII (the paternal grandmother of the current Princess Zelda), imposed rulings on restrictions on their dwindling food supplies, rationing it so nobody starved, and ordered a full on investigation into the mysterious corruption.
However, the damage the corruption had on the crops (as bad as it was) was far from the only thing the people of Ordona had to worry about.
As it turned out, while the corruption did indeed kill many things, it transformed many others, turning harmless flowers into horrific man-eating Deku Babas, tiny spiders into massive Skulltulas, mere bats into ravenous Keese and so on, with more and more nightmares being spawned every day.
Furthermore, more intelligent monsters from outside these lands were drawn in by the corruption like flies on dead meat, with raiding hordes of Bokoblins and Miniblins being the first to appear, followed by Moblins and Lizalfos, and all of them in frightening numbers.
They destroyed many of the few uncorrupted farms that were left and hunted people for either their valuables or their flesh, and for some particularly vile creatures, hunted them for sport.
It was at this point that the queen sent the royal army into Ordona, to repel these invaders, get rid of whatever was causing this calamity, and if all of that failed, to at the very least evacuate the remaining Ordonians to unravaged lands.
At first, the trained soldiers of Hyrule, as organised and well-equipped as they were, made short work of the savage monster tribes, reclaiming many areas and fortifying many of the few strongholds still around. Yet, the investigation into the source of the corruption did not advance nearly as fast as anyone was comfortable with, especially with so many monsters around, making a proper investigation difficult and very dangerous.
As time went on though, more dangerous creatures appeared, such as gigantic Hinoxes stomping over human soldiers as if they were nothing but ants, or the especially dangerous Lynels, each one capable of out-fighting a whole squad of soldiers single-handedly, and that was all without mentioning the deranged magic-wielding Wizzrobes that popped into existence out of nowhere, inflicted the most heinous curse on an unsuspecting victim, and then laughed at their misery, all for their own twisted amusement.
With no end to the ever escalating hordes of monsters in sight, Hyrule lost more and more of their forces, and abandoned many of their strongholds, evacuated hundreds of farmers, and lost so many more either to the corruption in the soil or by the swords, claws or teeth of the monsters.
Still, none of that compared to what would historically be known as the final nail in the coffin for Ordona, the spark that would finally give rise to the Monster Wilds, and the doom that destroyed the last of Hyrule's strongholds here.
The people looked up at the darkened sky one horrible night, and saw a bright orange light soaring across it, seemingly benign at first...until the light got closer...and closer...and closer...and the closer it got, the hotter the air became. They would feel themselves start sweating from the heat, find the air harder to breathe...and then, they would hear it: the unholy shriek of a beast greater and more terrible than any other monster around.
After that, all that welcomed them was a painful and fiery death in the scorching heat of dragonfire.
The Infernal Lava Dragon Volvagia had come...and against his fury, the might of men meant nothing.
He burned every castle and keep baring the banner of Hyrule from Ordona, killed hundreds of soldiers, and forced the few that survived to flee these now appropriately named Monster Wilds for their lives. Any attempts to fight him were futile and suicidal, so in the end, that was the only choice they had.
After that, the Queen officially declared Ordona as no man's land, withdrew all troops from there, and instead focused most of her military might on securing the borders leading to it.
By the time the Monster Wilds were abandoned, the investigation had only managed to determine one thing about the corruption that started it all, and that was where it originated from: Darkwood Swamp, a haunted marchland that was corrupted even more than the rest of Ordona was, and that none whom had entered had ever returned from...at least with their sanity intact.
Of course, things had changed a bit in the last 40 years. Sure, the Monster Wilds had only gotten more dangerous since then, especially after Ganondorf built his dark tower in the middle of it, but Hyrule had actually managed to once again secure a small safe haven in this accursed land.
One of the many burned castle ruins had been resettled, refurbished and repurposed as a remote outpost for the Hyrulean army, now under the command of Knight Captain Alfonzo. It was the one place in the entire Monster Wilds that could be considered under the crown's protection, with quite a few soldiers and armaments posted there. There were once a few more such outposts in the region, but this was the only one to have survived the test of time, and that was mostly thanks to its location in a ravine at the base of a mountain...and not just any mountain at that, but the currently dormant volcano known by the charming name of 'Dragon Roost Mountain'.
Yes, as the name very heavily implied, this was the very same mountain that Volvagia was said to slumber inside. Perhaps an odd choice of refuge considering what the dragon did to the previous residents of the castle they built their outpost on top of, but there was reason to this madness. See, aside from Ganondorf (and now Vaati), Volvagia was the only creature in the Monster Lands that nearly all of the other monsters feared, and he had been in a deep sleep on top of his hoard for decades without once leaving his cave, but if, say...a bunch of monsters dared to launch an attack on the outpost, and assault it with enough numbers and firepower to breach its stone walls, that might cause enough noise and vibrations through the stone to awaken the sleeping dragon, and no one, not even the most bloodthirsty Moblin, would want that.
Communication and supplies were needless to say a pain to organise with a such a remote stronghold in hostile territory, but in the end, King Rheadon and his top general at the time argued that the benefits of the outpost was worth the hassle. It now served as part of General Duelia's 'defence network', a series of outposts that gave her eyes and ears across the entire continent.
How strange though that this outpost wasn't able to stop or delay Ganondorf's invasion of Hyrule Castle, or at least warn them in time...how strange indeed.
Nevertheless, this outpost was where Zelda and Impa were currently heading.
Impa knew the location quite well, being where she usually reported her findings and resupplied after her many scouting missions into the Monster Wilds. She had memorised all the routes to and from the outpost, and so, even with their unexpected detour through the Octorok field, she knew where to lead Zelda in order to get the princess to the closest thing to safety in this cursed place.
The pair had been on the move for most of the day, and Zelda was struggling...a lot, but to her credit, she really was trying her best. After all, they were nearly there, and so she managed to put all of her remaining strength into crossing that final threshold. Just a little more, just a bit more effort, and the princess would be able to relax once more, to get a proper meal, to get a proper bath, possibly even a well-needed change of clothes.
First though, they needed to cross a clearing in the mountain forest at the base of Dragon Roost Mountain...where they came upon a grizzly sight...
Arrows stuck out of the ground, weapons lay rusted and abandoned...and so were their former owners. Halfway buried in the soil were not one or two, not merely a dozen, but a couple hundred skeletons. Some of them were human, but most were not.
"Oh my gods..." was the barely audible response from Zelda's lips as she took in the view, her hand covering her mouth while her eyes opened wide. Despite the numerous attempts on her life in just the last few days, she wasn't quite as desensitized to death as she wished she was.
By contrast, Impa remained far more nonchalant about the sight, having not only been trained to handle sights like this, and had taken lives with her own two hands, but she'd also been here before...several times in fact, so she pressed on without hesitation.
"You coming?" was all she really asked once she realised her travelling companion was just standing in the forest edge, staring at the sight before her.
Taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment, Zelda steeled herself, opened them and followed Impa...though with extra care not to step on any bones on the way. She couldn't say whether she took that precaution because she didn't want to disrespect the dead, or if she just wanted to avoid tripping on them...or both.
Whatever the case, Zelda ended up looking down at her feet as she walked, which was a habit she had found herself doing quite a lot.
"What happened here?" the princess wondered out loud, her fear and discomfort gradually turning into curiosity.
There was a pause from Impa's end, where she took the time to look down at the bones of humans and monsters alike, though she took no effort herself to avoid stepping on them. "I'm not the one to ask. I wasn't around when this battle happened if that's what you're asking, and investigating this massacre was never my mission, so...I actually don't know."
That would have probably been a dead end for some people, their curiosity forever unsated, but...the more Zelda inspected the battlefield, the more her brain started to put the pieces together. "These small buck-toothed creatures...they're not Bulblins...or Bokoblins, but related...what were they called..?" She clicked her tongue and twirled her fingers as she tried to remember the name of one particularly nasty type of creature that she'd read about before.
She snapped her fingers when the name came to her. "Ah, Miniblins! Small, weak and annoying, but never underestimate them for they always attack in massive numbers. 'Blin Bestiary' by Professor Horwell."
"Accurate description," Impa remarked in a tone that made it clear she was speaking from personal experience.
Zelda stepped away from the dead imps to the far fewer human skeletons all centred in one spot...or at the very least, in close proximity to each other. "...they found a squad of Hyrulean soldiers, judging by their weapons and armour, ambushed them, and defeated them through sheer numbers...though the humans did not go down easily, killing a lot of the little vermin before their deaths. Neither side really won this battle, it was all just senseless bloodshed."
Seeing something else of interest, she picked up the tattered remains of a piece of cloth. "This banner is the one my father commissioned, and have only been in use for 32 years, and yet all the bodies here are thoroughly decomposed, which does takes a few years at least, so...while not a recent battle, it cannot have been that long ago...relatively speaking"
Impa didn't say anything, instead just watching and listening as the princess played detective. Though she didn't say it, she was quite impressed with Zelda's initial deductions.
Zelda's eyes fixed on one skeleton in particular, what looked to have been a knight in shiny armour in life...albeit one whose armour was slightly different than the others. She walked over to the body of this particular knight and sat down next to him.
"Zelda?" Impa voiced, now growing slightly concerned over the strangely sad look she saw in Zelda's eyes.
After letting out a long deep breath, Zelda revealed, "I know who this was."
Coming a bit closer, Impa looked down at the knight herself but drew a complete blank over the person's identity. "Oh?"
"General Wright, one of my father's most trusted knights, his second in command...and a good friend of his...and far more to my sister. I have seen his portrait, and there's no mistaking his helmet..." her eyes trailed down to the hand of the body, or more specifically, to what that hand was holding. "...or his sword, for anyone else's."
With deft fingers, Zelda grasped the sword out of the dead man's grip and lifted it up to inspect it with her own eyes."Hmm, over a decade in the wilderness, in the rain, and yet not a single smudge of rust on it." She ran a single gloved finger across the flat side of the blade, and ever so slightly, small sparks of light glittered upon the surface she touched. "A Glittering Rapier: this weapon is enchanted with magic, making it unnaturally durable and able to cut ethereal beings like ghosts. It may not be the Master Sword, but it's a fine weapon nonetheless."
While Zelda did generally think it morally repugnant to steal from the dead, out here in the wilderness, she had begun to learn that her own survival was of greater importance than what was proper or polite, so not only did she take General Wright's sword, but also his scabbard belt, tying it around her waist before sheathing the rapier in it.
Besides, this way she may even get the chance to give it to his next of kin.
"You know how to use that thing?" Impa questioned, apparentlynotjudging Zelda for looting a corpse of his weapon. She would have likely done the same.
Zelda stood up straight, "I'm not as defenceless as I look. I have practiced in swordplay."
The confidence in her voice brought a dangerous smirk to Impa's face, and her response came in the form of two simple (but horrifying) words: "Show me."
Within three seconds had the Sheikah drawn her naginata and placed the sharp end of it pointing right in Zelda's surprised face.
"Wah!" she shrieked out while backing away, holding up her hands. "What are you doing?!"
With her whole body shifted into a perfect battle stance, Impa only pressed on, holding her weapon out while closing the distance between them. "I am pointing a weapon at you, Princess Zelda. Defend yourself!"
"But why would I fight you, you're my-"
Whatever she was about to say, she didn't get a chance to say it when Impa, growing a bit impatient, kicked Zelda in the leg, making her let out a small "Ouch!" instead.
"Friend? Ally? Haha," she mocked with an ironic laugh. "An attack can come from anywhere,anyone, and when it happens, you can't just stand there and whimper like a coward, because then you'll die. If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you five times by now. Fight back!"
"Aren't you supposed to be recovering from your injuries?" Zelda asked as she gripped the part of her leg Impa had rather violently just kicked without warning.
"Like I said, Sheikahs heal fast, and danger won't wait for a full recovery before striking. Now are you going to stand there and tremble like a scared little girl or will you-"
Finally Zelda had enough and drew her newly acquired rapier from the scabbard and used it to slap away the bladed spear-tip that was far too close to her face for comfort. Then, much to Impa's pleasant surprise, the supposedly sheltered teenage princess placed her right leg forward, hunkered down ever so slightly, held her left arm behind her back while the other bent in a way that she held the sword pointing at Impa while also using it as a form of defence, keeping her opponent at bay.
That wasn't some kid playing pretend and swinging a sword wildly, that was an actual fencing stance, footwork and all. It proved that at the very least Zelda must have had some training, but how much was it really? Time to find out!
Despite being very firmly told more than once by her teacher to never go easy on an opponent, even during training, Impa made an exception just this once to test Zelda's skill, and made a few telegraphed jabs with her spear in her direction.
Once again, Zelda surprised her by parrying every one of them with practiced ease. She even took a step back the way a proper fencer would, all while keeping her centre of weight balanced.
"See? I can fight well enough."
"Are you sure?"
This time, Impa didn't hold back (as much), and with a single powerful strike of her weapon, knocked the sword right out of Zelda's hand, then sent her tumbling to the ground with a kick to the chest. A quick flash of pain ripped through her ribcage, followed by a somewhat softer landing in the grass behind her.
Defeated in two moves.
"Evidently not," was Impa's response to that. She walked over and picked up Zelda's sword from where she'd dropped it, taking a second to inspect the weapon for herself. "You're right about this being an impressive weapon, princess...but a weapon means nothing if you don't know how to use it."
A groan came from the slightly disoriented princess, and she pushed herself back on her feet, though still feeling the sting from the kick to her ribs. "You could have held back just a little with that kick, Impa...and I know how to use it,I've trained!"
Impa rolled her red eyes and scoffed, "Iwasholding back. If I wasn't, at least one of those ribs would been broken."
With a graceful flourish, she flipped the dead general's sword around so that the grip was facing Zelda while she herself held it by the tip...all without cutting herself. "Let's go again. This time, you'll be the aggressor."
Zelda reclaimed the offered weapon and once again took on her fencing pose: right foot forward, left arm behind her back, and right arm held so the sword placed as much distance between herself and Impa as possible...though only now did she notice that that tactic might not be the best to use considering Impa's naginata was still longer than her sword by a significant margin.
Once in position, Zelda's brain went into overdrive flooding her conscious mind with different strategies to defeating Impa: flashes of battle techniques glimpsed in books, of what she had observed from watching the guards train in the castle courtyard, and the techniques Duelia had taught her during their private fighting lessons. Surely such knowledge would be enough to at least put up a better fight this time?
Seeing Zelda's hesitation in her innocent blue eyes, Impa assured, "Don't worry about hurting me. Come at me with everything you have."
On cue, the princess attacked: advance, advance, lunge, feint, attack, attack, feint, attack, attack, each and every strike perfectly aimed, but also perfectly blocked by a Sheikah who didn't even seem to be trying all that hard. Despite the fact that a naginata wasn't exactly designed to block sword strikes, her skill with it was still more than enough for her to parry all of Zelda's strikes without breaking a sweat.
...and after another attempted lunge, Impa caught Zelda completely by surprise by kicking her in the leg again...in the exact same spot as last time even, breaking her concentration, and once distracted, placed a single hand on her chest, then pushed with enough force to completely flip Zelda off her feet and straight towards the ground with a painful thud.
Defeated in two moves...again.
"As for your...training, I will give credit where credit is due..." Impa commented, taking a few steps to a nearby boulder and sat down on it. "...you're a skilled fencer, have properly memorised real sword fighting techniques, and your footwork is exceptional..."
"But?" Zelda asked as she laid there on the ground, knowing already where this was going.
...and this would be the part where Impa showed no more mercy, and returned to the only form of love she properly knew how to show: the tough variety. "There's a difference between a fencer and a warrior. You treat fighting like a recipe, following instruction to the letter and nothing more. In the duels you would have fought in the castle there are rules, and the goal isn't to kill your opponent, but out here, the one you're fighting is going to try to kill you...or kidnap you, or devour your soul...or just your flesh. It doesn't matter. They're not going to fight fair, they're not going to hold back or show mercy to you, and the biggest mistake any warrior can make is thinking that any part of a battlefield ispredictable."
Impa's words indeed sounded harsh to her ears, but...Zelda could not deny the truth in them. Sanctioned duels and archery contests would be different from a fight to the death against monsters, and Impa had proven that to her when she defeated Zelda in two moves without breaking a sweat...twice!
With great effort, Zelda pulled herself back up on her feet and sheathed her sword, wincing at the pain in her back before taking a seat on the rock next to Impa. Only once seated and given the chance to catch her breath did she realise how tired she was. The little fighting she had done just now was already more exhausting than most things she did on a daily basis.
Oh, and while Impa certainly didn't comment on it out of respect, the stench of sweat from Zelda's body and ruined dress was quite...notable.
"So...think creatively and expect the unexpected?" Zelda suggested, her curious tone at least showing that Impa's constructive criticism hadn't discouraged her.
Yet, that was also not what Impa really wanted to hear. "Creativity is useful, but in the heat of battle, you don't have time to think everything through. You're currently fighting with only your head: focusing too much on planning out techniques and strategies, but with far too little strength in your grip. This is a fight to the death, not a performance. Even worse, your will is lacking: hesitating and flinching when your focus should have been as hard as steel."
As much as she probably should have focused only on how Impa's advice would make her a better fighter, Zelda's brain, as it often does, made a connection between those words and something else, and honestly, she found that comparison ironically funny.
A giggle slipped from her mouth, one filled with both bitterness and amusement. "In other words: I need wisdom, power and courage...just like the Triforce."
Impa didn't say anything to that at first, instead having a somewhat curious look on her face as she took out a sharpening rock from her bag, set the naginata in her lap and went about sharpening the metal edge of the weapon. "That's what this is all about, isn't it?"
"Huh?"
"...those three triangles. This whole conflict is about them, right?"
"Pfff...You can say that again," Zelda remarked with a frustrated sigh, raising her left hand so Impa could see it, and then she clenched her fist. On cue, the Triforce of Wisdom began to glow brightly through her slightly torn silk glove.
"This glowing three-sided thing is theonlyreason Ganondorf kidnapped me, and theonlyreason I'm out here to begin with..." she told Impa with a bit of solemn spite in her voice...that then morphed into a crazed, and if Impa was honest with herself, a rather disturbing smile on her face...followed by a laugh that didn't sound exactly, well...rational. "Heh...heheheh...hehehehe-HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! All of this for a bloody triangle on my bloody hand! This stupid, infernal, fucking, sodding, infernal shite triangle I never even wanted in the first place!Isn't that fucking ironic!?"
Well...that took a strange turn in Impa's opinion. She honestly wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to react to the supposedly majestic and regal Princess of Hyrule talking like...that.
After staring at her with a wide-eyed expression for a while, in the end all she could think of to say was, "I will admit, Your Highness, I did not know you could swear that much."
"Heheh..." Zelda's demented grin remained a bit longer on her face. "...I have never said so many swear words before in my life! Father would get mad if I uttered even a single 'bloody' or 'git' in public, and my etiquette teacher would have a heart attack. It's just...I'm sick of pretending to be perfect, sick of putting on a damned mask, to deny any and all 'improper' behaviour. We're all disgusting animals deep down, aren't we? Why can't we ever act like it?!"
Impa gave Zelda a long side-eye. "Are you...okay?"
"Peachey! Just peachey! In fact, you may call me Princess Peach, because that's how peachey I am!" She slumped her shoulders and sighed. "Sorry if I'm being...peculiar, I just realised I'm going back to civilisation soon, and...well, it will be right back to being the perfect polite princess again."
"I can relate," Impa revealed, but didn't elaborate on.
Zelda did notice however that her companion did have a fairly warm smile on her face when she said that...which Impa very rarely showed, come to think about it. A shame if Zelda had anything to say about it, as Impa did have a pretty nice smile.
Although, even without Impa's own elaboration on her most recent claim, Zelda could give a reasonably good guess as to what she was referring to.
"I...I don't know what it's like being you, and please don't take this the wrong way: but I honestly wouldn't want to be you either..."
Impa, as a matter of fact, didn't get offended by that comment...instead it actually brought a small laugh out of her.
"...and yet, despite having known you for only a few days, I do feel empathy for you, Impa. We are more alike than either of us guessed at first glance, aren't we?"
Impa put down her weapon and leaned back, resting on her palms as her eyes focused on the setting sun dipping just below the treeline, casting the clearing in the beauty of twilight.
It was said in many stories of old that this time of day was when the realms of shadow and light met, and in a way, those stories were symbolic of the two women in question: Zelda, a princess of light, and Impa, a warrior of shadow. It was a beautiful phenomenon, bringing peace to two troubled minds...and yet...twilight was only a brief intersection that lasted merely half an hour at most, and that was why, in Impa's mind, whatever partnership, friendship or...whatever, she might form with Zelda...it simply wasn't meant to be.
"Sure...if you look past our completely different lifestyles, being different races, you being a privileged and spoiled princess while I'm a trained warrior, me being able to lift your entire weight with one arm while you get winded every five minutes from just walking up a hill, you being a witch, oh sorry,sorceress, while I rely more on...physical power. Oh, and as pretty as you are, you don't have the face to pull off Sheikah tattoos the way I can."
That surprisingly lengthy reply earned a near scandalous smile from the princess, who soon found herself erupting into a full on laughing fit. "Hehehehehehhaahahahahhahahaahahahaha-hohohoho! Point taken: those tattoos do suit your face better than mine."
Impa nearly started laughing herself at the mental image of Zelda being branded with Sheikah tattoos, though once she actually started picturing it...she surprisingly ended up liking the look she imagined. Princess Zelda may be a bit of a spoiled whiny snob, but...she was fairly easy on the eyes, that Impa had to admit. Even her laugh was cute.
The hour of twilight may be brief, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it while it was there.
Though before that treasonous line of thought went any further, Zelda stopped laughing, looked confused for whatever reason, and then asked Impa something she wasn't expecting her to ask.
"Wait, wait, wait, you can't do magic?"
"No...should I?"
Lecture mode Zelda strikes again! "Well, I've read from multiple accounts that unlike Hylians, where innate magical power varies wildly from person to person, all Sheikah have the capacity for sorcery if they managed to attune to it. Ozshen is a skilled spellcaster, so I just assumed that magic was something he taught you during your training with him."
Whatever joy was in Impa's face until now vanished at that question, instead replaced with a frown and what Zelda could only assume was shame. "You're right, that was something he did try to teach us. He had us meditate for hours to get us to attune to the gifts Hylia gave us. One by one, we unlocked our magic, even that lazy oaf Kohga revealed himself to be a natural at it...while I...couldn't even summon a single spark. Nothing, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I focused, how hard I trained, I...I was still a failure. One of many reasons why Master Ozshen named me 'his worst student'."
Something...happenedright then and there. It wasn't really all that overt, more...subtle, but the Triforce mark on Zelda's hand started to glow faintly, so did her eyes, and there was a slight otherworldly echo to her voice when she spoke her next words.
"Ozshen's folly was his lack of empathy. Innate magic can only be attuned to by understanding your own soul...such as it did with this one. Find your own truth, child of the Crying Eye...and of the Goddess of Sands."
Every single instinct Impa had told her that there was something very...'off'...with Zelda at that moment, and it unsettled her more than she would admit, staring in open-eyed bewilderment at Zelda's face...which had an expression on it that was unlike any face the princess had shown her before, and not only that, but it was a weird expression for any person to have.
Zelda didn't show any emotion whatsoever on her face,none, and her voice was detached, devoid of personality, being far more calm and serene. What the heck was going on!?
Also...how on earth did Zelda know about that last part?!
"What...did you just say?"
...and then whatever that was ended in an instant. Zelda blinked a few times, the shine in her eyes no longer present. "Uhhh, Impa...I felt my lips moving, but...I don't think that was me talking."
As realisation crept in, Zelda understandably freaked out. She stood up, frantically hugging herself while hyperventilating, her eyes closed shut and she looked downright terrified. "Wha-wha-what was that?! Who was that!? No, no, no, got to tune it out, tune it out, come on, brain, don't get weird on me again! I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy! That was just...ehhh, I...I...I..."
Every synapse in her brain was working on overdrive trying to figure out what in the world just happened to her...and was coming up with nothing. Someone, or something, had oh so very briefly used her body as a puppet on strings and spoken words that were not her own. How? Why? Who? Would it happen again? These questions and more swirled around in her head with no answers anywhere in sight.
It only got worse when Impa suddenly laid a hand on her shoulder, which, of course, was done for the purpose of letting the panicking princess get a grip back on reality...but in this instance, that turned out to be the worst thing she could have possibly done.
With her mind in the troubled and confused state that it was, the sudden physical contact was just one thing too much for Zelda to deal with and she...reacted. She wasn't sure what exactly it was that she actually did, but she sure didsomething.
Her eyes snapped wide open, but now they glowed bright blue, completely masking her pupils. A sudden powerful shockwave of magical energy erupted from her body in all directions, blowing pebbles, dust and leaves away from her with a loud bang.
Impa, who was in the epicentre of the blast, found herself blown off her feet and sent flying across the clearing, her back hitting the ground a good five metres away from where she originally stood.
It was certainly a painful impact, shooting straight up her spine, but all things considered, just one hit from an Octorok-propelled stone was more painful...and she took quite a few yesterday. She still had the bruises to prove it.
As for the young princess herself, well...if she was freaking out before, it was way worse now. Her hands were clenching her skull, eyes glowing as brightly as the full moon, and she was still hyperventilating.
Suffice to say, Zelda was stressed.
From where she had landed after the unexpected blast of magic hit her in the face, Impa shook her head to get her bearings together. In one swift motion, she had leapt back up on her feet and now stared Zelda down, looking tense and wary, but not angry this time. "Calm...down," she urged firmly, a dangerous edge to her voice.
The second Impa tried to approach her though, Zelda held up her hands and shouted, "No, stay back! Don't touch me! I don't wanna hurt you! Just...give me a second to..."
Though that sentence was never finished, it didn't have to be. Impa obeyed to the word, and didn't take a single step closer, though she did raise her own hands and maintained her steadfast look, almost as if she was dealing with an agitated beast.
With Impa's life seemingly no longer in danger, the distressed girl managed to close her eyes and slow her breathing, willing the sorcery flowing in her veins to cool down from a raging storm to a calm breeze...and then into stillness.
That said, the excess magic she had generated in her body needed to gosomewhere, so like a lightning rod, she slammed her hands down to the ground and poured it all into the earth below, and thus...out of herself.
"I...I think I'm fine now." A faint glow around her fingers could be seen as she lifted them from the ground, but it soon faded away into harmless sparkles. She opened her eyes and looked down at her hands, turning them over, to make sure the glow was gone. "A magic surge. I have read about them, fairly common for first time mages who haven't learned to control their powers yet. That part I understand..."
Zelda looked up from her hands and towards Impa. Though the panic was gone, the underlying fear that caused it was not.
"...the other part, the one where someone else spoke with my tongue, with my mouth, and said words I do not know...that part..."
There was no need to finish that sentence either: Impa understood the feelings Zelda was trying to convey well enough with the harrowed tone of her voice and her slightly trembling body language alone, and in spite of Zelda's previous command, she approached the frightened princess but didn't touch her. The added proximity still added a lot.
"You'll figure out, Zelda...in due time," she assured, her voice stern but warm, and Zelda found strength in her eyes. "For now, I need you to remain focused. We're just a few minutes or so from the outpost. Once there, you'll-"
Whatever she was about to say was soon forgotten when the sound of movement from every single direction at once triggered Impa's finely tuned instincts and made her instantly switch to combat mode, turning around and drawing her weapon, ready for whatever beast, enemy soldier or abomination dared to try to sneak up on the two of them.
Zelda wasn't quite as quick on the draw, but she also sensed that something was wrong, her eyes scanning her surroundings for any potential threat.
At first, neither of them saw anything out of the ordinary, nothing coming in from the treeline, nothing rushing towards them, and nothing swooping down from the sky...but then they turned their eyes towards the ground below.
The decomposed skeletons that littered this clearing, remains of dead Hyrulean knights and monsters alike, were no longer...well,dead.
Every single skull that could be seen above ground now had a red glow in their eyes, and not only that, but they all, even without true pupils, seemed to be looking directly at the two living beings who had trespassed on their shared grave.
...and then they started to move.
Shrieks of the dead filled the clearing as the skeletons dragged themselves out of the ground, pulling their scattered and decomposing bones together until they walked once more. Whatever unholy magic was doing this to them also morphed their features into more monstrous forms than before, with their faces going from relatively normal skulls and instead forming nightmarish grins and what almost resembled facial expressions.
Zelda had heard horror stories about these things: It was said that in certain cursed places, such as the infamous Lost Woods, the dead will simply not rest. Instead, their bones will crack and ramble back into undeath to attack any living being that crosses their burning red eyes, eager to claim more bodies into the realm of living death. These creatures take on many forms, depending on what bones were left to claim, but all are known under one single name: Stal.
In this case, the remains of the small Miniblins emerged as Stalchildren: weak, tiny and predictable...but just like their living counterparts, they always attacked in absolutely ridiculous numbers.
Far worse than them however...was what happened to the human knights after the curse affected their bones. They emerged as creatures called Stalfos, just as skilled, armed and armoured as they were when they were loyal soldiers fighting for the Kingdom of Hyrule, but now with none of the humanity they once had left in them: Now they were monsters!
Stal-Creatures cannot exist in sunlight, that is a rule they have no choice but to adhere to and that all of the books Zelda had read about them had agreed upon. Yet these, while emerging just after the sun dipped under the trees of the horizon and as such wasn't indirectsunlight, had sprung up a fair bit earlier than was normal for their kind. Usually it took at least a full hour after sunset for the dead to walk again. So what could have possibly roused them this soon after...oh dear.
That's when it hit her with a horrifying realisation: the magic she carelessly dumped into the ground after her panic attack, that had to be it! Which meant...
"Oh my Hylia...I caused this," Zelda muttered in horror as she saw more and more skeletons crawl out of the ground all around them.
Casting blame was not anywhere near the top of Impa's list of priorities though, her head being put to far better use figuring out what to do about it here and now. "The outpost is just on the other side of that forest, same direction we've been heading, you can't miss it. Make a run for it...NOW!"
Zelda most certainly did not need to be told twice, snapping out of her sense of 'oops' and bolted for the forest with all the speed she could muster...all while more and more skeletons emerged in her path, trying to intercept her.
She pulled her newly acquired sword from its sheath and swung wildly at the Stalchildren that got just a bit too close for comfort. While her skills with a sword might not be enough to defeat Impa in single combat, these tiny undead were fighters of considerably lesser skill, and even completely unarmed, trying to rake her with their claws or bite her with their oversized teeth rather than swinging any kind of actual weapon.
The first that tried to lunge at her had its old fragile skull slashed in two from Zelda's first frenzied sword swing, while the next lost its arm to her second. The third she simply pushed away with her free hand before she resumed running. She wasn't fighting to take them out, just to give herself an opening so she could escape.
Impa made sure to cover her retreat as best she could, her stance almost daring the Stal-creatures to fight her...and since the undead had no survival instinct, they sure did.
The first barrage of Stalchildren tried to dogpile her with their superior numbers, but she foresaw their one and only form of battle tactic, and swiftly dodged out of the way, keeping her distance from the horde while using her naginata's length to her advantage, slashing it in wide arcs to take out as many of the tiny skeletons as possible.
Of course, once the larger Stalfos decided to join in on the fight, the situation very much changed. Unlike the small fry they were fighting alongside, these monsters fought like actual trained soldiers, and were armed with rusty (yet still sharp) swords and shields.
A pair of them came up upon Impa, one charging at her from the front, relentlessly slashing its sword at her while the other circled around her back but kept its distance, just waiting for an opening.
Impa did her very best to block and dodge the furious skeleton's wild sword slashes, but it was absolutely relentless, never letting up for a moment nor being in any way affected by fatigue...which actually was entirely fair for a being that didn't need air, lungs or muscles to fight.
Oh, and just because the big boys had joined the fight did not mean the Stalchildren were taking a break either. They were still attacking just as much as before.
Still, Impa wasn't outmatched yet.
In truth, all she was really trying to do was to keep the vast majority of the monsters away from Zelda and buy her enough time to escape, just like she did with the Octoroks. Would Zelda approve of her doing this after their previous conversation? Probably not, but at the very least the princess was actually running away this time and not just staring at her like an idiot...and also, this time Impa did have an escape plan, even if it was a very risky one.
"Come on, undead filth! That all you got!?" she taunted, her resolve unrelenting, even as the attacking Stalfos got closer and closer to breaking her guard, its partner was looking more and more eager to strike, and Stalchildren had her surrounded from all angles.
However, when it seemed as if they might have gained the upper hand, she decided to use their numbers against them.
When the Stalfos behind her finally saw its long awaited opening and tried to run its blade through Impa's seemingly vulnerable back, a Stalchild leapt into the air to attack her at that very same moment...and Impa turned the tables on them with one swift move, one that she could only credit her years of intense training and combat experience for being able to pull off.
She grabbed the Stalchild out of the air and threw it straight into the path of the incoming stab. Instead of piercing soft living flesh as intended, the Stalfos soon found its sword stuck in the ribs of the Stalchild instead, leaving the creature, for just a moment, unable to use its weapon and distracted...and that was all the time Impa needed to thrust her spear through its guard and pierce its skull.
The next thing that happened was that Impa used her weapon to pull the lodged skull out the Stalfos' spine, swing it in a wide arc and slam it into the shield of the Stalfos behind her, crushing the skull into pieces and bonedust. No amount of necromantic magic would bring it back to life fromthat.
...and with the other having its shield raised up high to block the skull-tipped attack towards its own head, it also gave Impa a split-second opportunity to capitalise on it...which she did, swinging her naginata in a downward arc with blinding speed and up towards the Stalfos' right side, chopping off its sword arm in the process.
Almost comically, the Stalfos looked down at its missing arm and gawked, its jaw literally dropping from its skull, clattering to the ground at its feet.
Even though several more Stalfos were approaching, the lack of any immediate threat other than the far weaker Stalchildren and a one-armed Stalfos in her direct vicinity gave Impa an opening to escape.
She literally leapt over the Stalchildren trying to box her in, even landing on one of their heads, only to use it as a springboard to propel herself even further, she landed on her feet outside of the ring of death...and took off towards where Zelda had previously run off to, showcasing her remarkable athleticism when she ran away way, way faster than the princess had.
As for how things were going for Princess Zelda herself, well, the good news was that Impa's diversion tactic had actually worked, and most of the undead had indeed focused their attention on Impa...but the bad news was that not all of them had taken the bait.
The princess had made a fair bit of distance from the clearing where the fight had started, but a pack of Stalchildren and a single Stalfos were now chasing her through the woods, and they were not getting fatigued nearly as quickly as she was.
As a matter of fact, their lack of weight, lack of any need for muscles or even air made exhaustion a completely alien concept for them, and Zelda...well, she was anything but a marathon runner.
The Stalchildren had even gone so far as to run on all fours, almost like monkeys, making all sorts of creepy inhuman noises as they tried to sink their teeth in her...while the single Stalfos that was after her was just waiting for the chance to get close enough to stab her with its sword.
One single inconvenient tree root was enough to make Zelda stumble just enough for the undead to catch up to her. Five Stalchildren leapt up on her back and tackled her to the ground with their combined weight while the Stalfos took the opportunity to swing its blade down on her head...only to hit nothing but the forest ground.
Even with the lack of a proper face, the Stalfos looked thoroughly confused at the sudden disappearance of the human it had been trying to kill. As for the Stalchildren, they were equally bewildered when the person in their claws vanished into thin air, leaving them all to collapse in a heap of bones.
About twelve metres away, Princess Zelda reappeared in the centre of a small swirling green twister, looking quite surprised herself...and the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom was glowing at the back of her hand again.
Farore's Wind, the same spell she used to escape Vaati's attack on Ganon's Tower, had once again saved her life even if she had no idea how to use it on command. Maybe that was something she could look into? Zelda considered.
No, what was she doing wasting precious time trying to figure out things like that? Run, you idiot!
With the help of the unexpected (but certainly not unwelcome) distraction, Zelda once again resumed running, gaining a bit of a head start from her skeletal pursuers this time.
Now while Stalfos may seem like just mindless undead at first glance, this one clenching its mismatched teeth while making a sound similar to a growl as it watched Zelda try to escape made it clear that it could feel some semblance of emotion...in this case: rage!
Though when the Stalfos tried to dislodge its sword from the soil to give chase once more, Impa suddenly came up on it from behind and sliced its head clean off from its bony neck with a single swift sneak attack, leaving the Stalfos to blindly fumble around in the forest trying to reclaim its head after it flew off and landed on the ground with a thud a few metres away.
The Sheikah had no time to finish the job though...as the entire rest of the undead horde were hot on her heels, and they were out for her blood!
Despite her considerable head start, Zelda was nowhere near as good of a sprinter as Impa was and soon found herself once again running besides her.
"Keep it up, Zelda, we're almost there!"
"I'm trying!"
Defeating a horde of Stal-creatures this large with just the two of them was downright suicide. Both of them had gotten very close to a swift and grizzly end at the hands of these living corpses already, and so their one and only hope of survival would be to reach the heavily fortified and heavily guarded outpost which was just past this forest...
However, the bony abominations hunting them had another ace up their sleeve. Even with their unlimited stamina, the Stalfos had taken too much damage, their prey had gotten too much of a head start, and whatever malevolent being controlling them all had had enough.
One very specific Stalfos, one dressed in more fancy armour than the others and with no sword in his hand...because his sword was now in Zelda's possession...stepped out of the crowd and glared at the retreating girls. Even when reanimated into a murderous undead revenant, a bit of the late General Wright's personality shone through, and his tactics in life were always bold.
He pulled out a war horn and blew into it. Despite currently lacking actual lungs, it still made a noise that could be heard for miles in all directions.
While Zelda was far too terrified to do anything but keep running forward, upon hearing the horn Impa dared a quick look over her shoulder and noticed that their pursuers all stopped in their tracks for whatever reason. While that might at first seem like a good thing, in her comparatively bleak experience, Impa had a very bad feeling about this and resumed running as fast as she could without leaving the slower Zelda behind.
Every single Stalfos and Stalchild in the area all stopped what they were doing and converged on the reanimated General Wright, their bones breaking apart from each other and merged together, building and interlocking with one another like LEGOs, and not into just a big formless pile of bones, but instead into...legs...then arms...then a massive torso...and eventually, a head that was the stuff of nightmares, with...let's call him StalWright...in the very middle of it, controlling the rest.
Reanimated Skeletal Golem
STALLEGION
Now with much longer legs to walk with, the massive abominable amalgamation known as the Stallegion began to run after Zelda and Impa, its footsteps so heavy that it made the earth shake with every step, scaring away birds, awakening animals in their burrows...and making a very powerful and dangerous dragon nearby ever so slightly stir in his sleep.
Zelda could feel her legs burning from exhaustion, her lungs nearly tearing themselves to pieces as she panted like a dog, sweat soaking the miserable remains of her dress, but also her adrenaline was higher than it had ever been in her life, and though she wouldn't dare look back, she could both hear and feel the massive footsteps that was coming closer and closer behind her.
Entire trees were knocked over in the giant's wake, and they barely even managed to slow it down. The Stallegion felt no pain, no fatigue, and had no desire but to kill two petulant teenage girls no matter what stood in its way...and with every massive step, it was gaining on them.
Yet even with her very impractical shoes and being on the brink of collapse, Princess Zelda managed to reach the end of the forest and into another clearing just at the base of the mountain. Her vision was blurry and unfocused, but she could vaguely make out some kind of man-made stone structure up ahead.
She didn't get any further than that though before Impa suddenly pushed her out of the way of a massive fist made out of amalgamated bones smashing into the spot where she was just running. She fell over on the ground, getting dirt and grass stuck in her blonde hair...and likely a few more bruises than the ones she already had.
At least she was still alive. Small victories, yay!
Impa was at her side in a second, trying desperately to get her back up on her feet before the Stallegion could launch another attack, but Zelda's ruined body absolutely refused to comply. Every muscle she had was screaming in pain, her lungs felt like they were full of needles, and she was practically drowning in her own sweat.
There was nothing else she could do.
"Come on, get up! GET UP!" Impa screamed, and Zelda could hear the desperation in her voice above anything else.
"I...I can't!"
The Stallegion meanwhile had during this time reared its fist back and began to swing it in an arc where it would crush both of them with a single deadly punch, the insatiable urge to kill that controlled this creature revelling at the prospect.
With Zelda too exhausted to move and Impa refusing to leave her side, there was no way in hell either of them were going to survive this, there just weren't...unless...
With all the strength and mental focus she had left, Zelda called upon her sorcery to conjure another Nayru's Love barrier to save Impa and her own life, just like she did with the Octoroks, and, as luck would have it, a crystalline barrier did materialise around them in the nick of time...and it was strong enough to protect them from the bone golem's fist...once...then it shattered like glass.
As strange as it may seem, magic does follow some of the laws of nature...specifically the simple rule that everything has to come from somewhere, and that nothing, not even magic, can just appear out of nothingness. All of Zelda's spells were fuelled by her own internal life force, her mana, but even a sorceress would only be able to store a certain amount of magic in her body at a time, and right now, she had used up everything she had.
In truth, Zelda hadn't been recharging her mana ever since she first unlocked her magical power...meaning that every single spell she had casted since breaking through Ganon's crystal prison at the very start of this tale had been using up a limited resource. Sure, of course there are a number of ways for a sorceress to recharge her mana, but as a complete novice in the field, Zelda hadn't really thought to actually do so, nor did she even know how.
With the little that she had, she only had enough power to stop a single punch from the Stallegion, just enough to save her and Impa's life for a few more precious moments...but when the creature shattered it, the impact alone caused a massive disruption in the connection between herself and the barrier, feeding back into a violent pulse that hit Zelda like a brick wall.
It was not unlike the feeling of being punched in the face.
What happened next was a bit of a blur to her; Zelda's grasp on reality became...hazy, shapes became blurry, and her legs felt like jam, falling to the ground like a rag doll and only able to perceive bits and pieces of what was going on around her.
There was...a loud explosion...so loud that it made her ears ring...with bones, dust and shrapnel flying in all directions...
...skeletal shapes rushing towards what she believed was Impa...there was fighting, so much fighting...and then fire, Impa was on fire? Wait,Impa was on fire!? What?!
People in armour rushed in from...somewhere...she could feel the click clop sound of horse hooves vibrating through the ground...and then...sand...lots of sand blowing...like a sandstorm...
...and then nothing but darkness.
Author Notes: My deepest apologies for how ungodly long it has taken me to finish this chapter. I actually nearly finished it a while ago, but...I ended up hating how it turned out so I redid like...60% of it from scratch. Hopefully the next one won't take nearly as long.
By the way, I recently bought, played and finished The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, and man was it a good game!
I also still can't get over how many unintentional similarities this fic has to it, with the prologue in particular being almost one to one, with Ganon being the main threat at the start only for a new threat to pop up out of nowhere and remove Link from the protagonist role before Zelda could even learn his name, oh, and I decided on Volvagia being in this story long before I knew he would make an unexpected comeback in that game.
While the game's existence probably won't change this story too much going forward, I may or may not add one or two elements from it into the story (as you might have noticed in this chapter). Nothing big or spoiler-heavy, but still.
Oh, and I have a TV Tropes page now. Please, feel free to add to it.