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Legend Of Zelda The World End Ch. 3
By CarnaRaptor
Snow crunched under Link’s feet as he walked. Step by step, he continued through these lifeless, soulless trees, not sure what was drawing him forward. No leaves clung to the branches, no animals lived within, and gray skies above gave the traveler misery within his heart.
A soft, distant song echoed through the air, the source unknown, as though a small child far off could sing loud enough for the whole world to hear. “When the cold, cold wind blows, and the snow begins to fall, We must turn to each other, we must find warmth in our hearts,” the voice sang.
Link listened to the words, trying to make sense of their desperation. Something else, however, kept distracting him from the song. It was…sobbing. A child, crying.
The traveler turned and walked past the dead trees deeper through the woods until he came across a small Kokiri child, crying into his arms. A blue fairy sat upon his knees, whispering to the child, trying to cheer him, but the child wept on.
“Hello?” Link called out, but the child did not respond.
“Where are you, Link?” a voice called out from behind. Link, startled, turned and reached for his sword, though he had none. Another Kokiri child, this one a green-haired girl, stood in the open, smiling at the Hylian.
“Saria?” Link asked, a smile coming to his lips.
“Why are you here?” she asked
“Here?” Link asked. “I don’t even know where I am.”
“Of course you do,” Saria answered.
“I’ve never been here in my life,” Link responded. “I would remember such a—a desolate place.”
“These woods were not always desolate,” Saria answered. “Once, they were a maze of wonder and excitement. The adventures you and I used to have here with the Deku scrubs were always…imaginative.”
Link looked around in disbelief. “Kokiri Forest?” he asked. “But how? Surely, if there had been trouble, you would have summoned me! Zelda would have helped, or the Deku tree would have found a way—“
“This is not how it is, now, Link,” Saria responded. “But how it will be, if things are to continue. Life, here, is faltering. The Goddesses cannot contain order with the evil that has spread through the world, and though an unseen force seems to be guiding them, the creators of the Triforce will end it all, and restore peace to the lands.”
Link looked at the lifeless trees. “Why, then, do you show me this, Saria?”
Saria looked to the ground, tears beginning to form at the edges of her eyes. “Long, have I waited, to see you, Link. Even to simply hear your voice, a message of some sort, and yet, now, though it may break my heart, my friend, I must ask you to leave.”
“Leave?” Link asked.
“Stay out of the way,” she whispered.
“I was summoned here by the Goddess, Farore, Saria, and now you are telling me to leave?” Link asked.
“The Goddesses have decided that you and Zelda must pay for using time to defeat Gannon,” Saria answered. “The two of you will be destroyed. My heart, however, cannot bear the thought, and now, I ask you to leave, so that you may live yet longer.”
“But, what of Zelda?” Link asked.
“Her life will be lost, but there is more beyond, Link,” Saria answered. “If you stay and fight, and you use all you have to help Zelda, this is what will happen to Kokiri forest. The lands of Hyrule will be destroyed forever.”
“How—how do you know this?” Link asked.
“What does your heart yearn for, my friend?” Saria asked.
“What?”
“Just answer.”
Link looked carefully at the young woman. “Peace.”
“Then go, Link,” Saria yelled. “Go and find it! Go and find whoever you can to share your peace with and let Hyrule be!”
“No!” the crying boy shouted from behind. Link spun around, and to his surprise, found a younger version of himself facing them. His fists were clenched, tear streaks on his face, and his teeth clenched. “Peace will not be had, not here, not now, if we simply let the goddesses have their way! This is our land, for we have fought for it! And, we will not be punished for doing all we could to protect it!”
The two were speechless. Saria put her hand to her mouth as the tears at her eyes fell down her cheeks.
“I think you should wake up, now,” the young Link said. “They’re going to need you.”
“Who?” Link asked.
“I think he’s coming to,” a soft voice echoed through the air.
“The ones who were singing to you,” Saria answered.
~
“They said I might find you out here,” the rough, weathered voice echoed through the garden. He walked through the thick snow, trampling a few flowers at the entrance. “Don’t you think it’s a bit cold to be gardening?”
Zelda brushed back the rogue strand of blonde hair back under her hood and looked away from the intruding Knight. “Don’t you think it a bit cold to be murdering newborn children, Sir Bishop?”
Bishop let out a small laugh. “They were right about you, your father and his soldiers. You have great beauty, but your mouth needs to learn its place.”
Zelda turned to the Knight, his black armor shining in the glow of the distant dusk sky. “My father is not the same man he once was,” she said bitterly. “Regardless of what he says, you have no right to repeat it, so I would watch your tongue.”
“She sounds like one of noble birth,” a voice called from behind Bishop. At the doorway, another stood, wrapped in a yellow cloak. She was a young girl, not much older than the Princess. “Probably never worked a hard day in her life.”
“Please, Princess Zelda, excuse my Squire, Sakura,” Bishop interrupted. “She has a bit of a tongue, herself, but her sword is as good as any.”
“She knows nothing of me,” Zelda answered. “I have fought hard for this Kingdom. I have lost blood, and worked diligently to save it time and again.”
“When?” Sakura asked. “Your father tells us other than escaping from time to time to the temples, you have done nothing except sit on your throne and cry in the night.”
“My father knows nothing,” Zelda cried. “His memory has been wiped clean of when Gannondorf tried to destroy us all. I was a part of the heroes who saved this land and ended the wars before they happened.”
“Princess,” Bishop began with a smile, moving close to the Princess and touching another rogue strand of hair, “After I destroy this baby, as well as these ‘goddesses,’ your Father has promised me your hand in marriage. When that has happened, these…delusions of time travel and wars that will never happen will cease, do you understand?”
Zelda stepped away from the Knight, looking to the ground to hide the tears that wanted to fall. “You—you can’t…you wo—“
“Yes, I think I have done enough hero work for a lifetime,” Bishop said, turning and walking towards the entrance to the garden. “It is time to settle down, marry a princess, and have a kingdom to myself.”
Zelda looked to the stars above as the moon slid across the now dark sky. “This was not how it was supposed to be,” she whispered, clenching her fists so hard her nails dug into her skin, drawing blood. “This is not how it is going to be!”
~
The world slowly came into focus as Link rubbed his eyes. Warmth had filled his body once again, and the soft bed he lay upon made him forget about the bruises and cuts he had suffered in his battle against the demon. He felt a cut by his eye and pulled his finger away, blood upon the tip, and then started to pull himself up from the bed.
“No, do not rise too quickly,” a woman’s voice called out. Link sat up, ignoring the order and turned in the bed to see two Gerudo women rushing over to help him. “You heal quickly, Hylian, but not that quickly.”
The room surrounding them was dank and dark, stone walls and doorways, but filled with comfortable furniture and a warm fire in a small well at the center of the room. It was not the hideout Link had once snuck his way through, but he knew he was close. “Where am I?” he asked.
“My name is Nacie,” the Gerudo woman answered as she pressed a towel to Link’s wound. She wore the traditional clothes of the Gerudo thieves, except for a white cloak and bits of plated armor. “This is my chamber…my home. I am the leader of the Gerudo.”
“The leader?” Link asked. “What happened to Nabooru? When last I was here, she was the leader.”
The two Gerudo looked at each other. “We have not seen Nabooru in some time, now, I am afraid. We do not know what has become of her.”
“Here, drink this tea,” Nacie said, lifting a warm cup. “It will give you strength.”
Link gladly drank from the cup, letting the warmth of the tea fill his body. He set the empty cup upon the table and stood, pulling his tunic back over his white undershirt, and pulling his boots on, while the two Gerudo women cleaned the table and straightened the bed.
“There is great strength which courses through your veins, for few are the number that have been seen by the Icilander and lived,” Nacie said. “It has haunted our wastelands for months, now, ravaging our peoples and chasing us from the temple.”
Link tightened his belt and looked up at the Gerudo in confusion. “The Gerudo are amongst the finest fighters I have ever witnessed, and yet you could not muster enough to take it down?” he asked.
“We have been…disorganized, Hylian,” Nacie responded. “It is not only the Icilander that have hunted us, but the Wizrobes and Goblins of the caves. With the rewards on our head by the Hyrule King, it is not wise for us to gather together for long, or stay in one place too long.”
“A price upon your heads?” Link asked, surprised. “The royal family is just, they would do no such thing. Nabooru is a Sage, how can the Church allow this?”
“When our king, Gannondorf disappeared, there was calm and hopes for peace again in our world,” Nacie answered. “Then, the Hylians decided they were not going to allow our thieving ways any longer, and argued to the church of wars that were supposed to happen because of us, though they were supposedly stopped. They were punishing us for events which had not even transpired!’
‘We were not surprised by this, as we’ve been hunted in the past, and our fortress is nearly impenetrable, but we were surprised several months ago when Nabooru went missing. She told one of our thieves that she was going to the Temple of Light, but she has not been seen or heard from since. That was also when…’He’ began to hunt us.”
“He?” Link asked. Both Gerudo thieves lowered their heads and looked from one to the other.
“His name is Nuerme, and he is the leader of the Wizrobes,” Nacie said. “His followers are fierce and many. His armies fight in the battles between the Gorons and Zora, and what they lack in intelligence they make up for with their numbers.”
“Wait,” Link started. “The Gorons and Zora are at war? Why has Hyrule not stepped in? What is happening to this realm?”
“The answers to your questions I know not,” Nacie whispered. “All I know is that we are hunted, we are scared, and we need the strength of the one who can destroy a Icilander.”
Link looked down to the floor in thought. Never before had he turned down a plea for help, but with so much going on elsewhere, he wondered if he might not better serve these people by getting to the castle, first.
He turned to talk with the Gerudo and his eyes met their pleading green eyes. The fear that ran through ones who were so proud not long ago was overwhelming. “I suppose…I have no choice,” Link answered carefully. “You did, after all, pull me from the snows.’
“However, I do not know our enemy, though I have encountered Wizrobes before. I do not know where he resides, or what kind of weapons are needed to stop him, that is, if he can be stopped at all. If the numbers are as large as you say, we may need the army of Hyrule to help us.”
“Hyrule will not help us, as we have said,” Nacie answered. “However, there are some who may. “Nuerme is allied with the Zora, and resides in the Water temple. We may find help with the Goron peoples.”
“Good,” Link answered, grabbing the last of his things and walking to the doorway. “I need some weapons and armor, at any rate, as mine has all been lost or destroyed. We can go to Kakariko village and find what we—“
“What?” Nacie asked, as Link stopped suddenly.
“Do you hear screams?” Link asked. “From down the tunnels?”
Nacie rushed to the hall and listened carefully. She turned to Link, her face flushed. “They have found us!”
~
“Is this the way it must be, my King?” Duggan asked as he followed his lord down the long, winding hallway. “I understand the need to stop the prophecies, but to kill a child?”
“These are different times, Duggan,” the King answered. “There is much evil in the world, and wars are filling our lands. Hard decisions must be made. No one will miss one child, and besides, it is not we who are killing the child, rather it is a Knight from another land.”
“Yes, m’lord, but that makes our hands no cleaner,” Duggan replied. “When shaking with bloody hands, it does not stay on one person.”
“And thinking like that, Duggan, is why you are nothing more than a lower-tier Captain in my guard,” the King answered as he came to the large, wooden door. “Now, no more talk of this in front of my daughter, her heart is undoubtedly hurt by what has been decided. I will talk to her, and help her to understand our thinking.”
“I am not certain that any explanation will help her, my lord,” Duggan responded. “Perhaps we should just let her be.”
The King opened the door, ignoring his advisor and walked in. The room was bathed in the soft blue light of the large moon outside, and the cold, cold air swept through the open window, but the Princess was not within.
“Confounded!” he spat. “Has she wandered off to that cursed temple again? This is why we built a chapel at the Castle!”
“No, m’lord,” Duggan answered, holding up a letter on the desk. “It would seem that someone else has a hand in this all. I have a letter from one named, ‘Shiek.”
“Never heard of him,” the King responded. “What does the letter say?”
“None shall harm the child,” Duggan read. “Signed, Shiek.”
“Alert the guards and ready the Military scouts,” the King said as he turned to the hallway. “My daughter has been kidnapped by this Shiek, in some plan to save the child. He will be caught and executed.”
“At once, my lord,” Duggan responded, still looking carefully at the letter.
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5/6/2002 3:16:39 PM
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