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The Legend Of Zelda - The Worlds End Ch. 4
By CarnaRaptor
For but a brief moment, nothing could be heard in the cave, save the drops of water slipping through the cracks of the cave ceiling from the rivers above and below. Darkness saturated the caves, and the light of the torches carried by Link and Nacie was quickly swallowed by the greedy shadows.
Though it was as cold as he had ever felt, Link could feel beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead as his comrade and he silently whisked through the tunnels, Nacie leading the way.
The silence could not last long, however, as Nacie and Link slid out of the tunnel entrance to an enormous cavern where the underwater lake began. Below, the Gerudo thieves were captured, surrounded by hundreds, perhaps thousands of small troll-like creatures, heavily armed, and several Wizrobes. Link had never before seen Goblins or Wizrobes like these. Their skin was green, and their eyes were bright red, almost as though they glowed. They were wrapped in blue or red cloaks, and their horned heads were covered with thick, gray hair.
“Damn,” Nacie hissed as she pulled her veil over her face. “I had hoped to be able to fight them together.”
Link slid along the wall, refilling his quill with arrows and looking in vain for some sort of sword. “What will you do, now?” Link whispered. “The two of us cannot take them all on, especially without a sword.”
Nacie smiled beneath her veil and looked up to the Hylian. “I only have to hold their attention for a moment. We Gerudo have our own ways of escaping when needed. However, they will come after us as soon as I get their attention. Do you think you are ready, hero?”
“I would be more ready with a sword,” Link hissed as he lay back down at the edge of the ridge overlooking the lake.
“The way of the thieves is not direct fight,” Nacie answered. “These caverns are booby-trapped. We will fight with our minds and our bodies.”
Link nodded as he pulled an arrow from his quiver and readied his bow. “I hope you know what you are doing, Nacie.”
“Aim for the Wizrobes, for they are more dangerous,” Nacie whispered as she stood.
Link lifted his aim to an especially important looking Wizrobe and readied himself.
“Is this an army?” Nacie called out, lifting her arms and laughing out at all before her. “I am deeply troubled, army of Hylia Lake, for I thought Nuerme had real soldiers beneath them.”
The army below began to grumble and many called out, pointing to the Gerudo leader.
“Well, if you truly want to capture the Gerudo, my friends, then come after me,” Nacie called out, smiling broadly under her veil.
The Wizrobes barked out orders to the Goblins and began pointing to the stairways at either side of the stairs. Link, still hidden in the darkness let his arrow fly. It struck the Wizrobe and sent it crashing into the lake.
The attack apparently from thin air had the desired affect. The Goblins cowered in fear of another attack, and the Wizrobes began firing shots everywhere. No one, however, was paying attention to the Gerudo thieves, who, carefully and swiftly, darted past the Goblins into the openings of the walls and escaped as quickly as they could.
Link let two more arrows fly, one taking down another Wizrobe, and the other knocking out a Goblin Captain. Nacie formed small balls of fire in her hands and launched them below to the Goblins, taking out several with each shot.
“There!” hissed one of the Wizrobes as he shot an icicle from his wand across the room. The icicle nailed the wall just above Link’s head, and the Hylian turned to Nacie. She smiled and turned to the tunnel.
The other Wizrobes began firing all kinds of magical projectiles at the soldier, and it took everything he had to avoid each attack, just making it around the mouth of the tunnel before it was swallowed by Goblins.
“Hurry, Link!” Nacie called from ahead. Link watched as she threw a fireball down a tunnel to the left and rushed to the right. The Hylian quickly followed her down the path, and looked over his shoulder to see many Goblins follow the fireball.
“They’re not too smart, but you still don’t want them to get a hold of you!” Nacie called out. “Here’s where we split up. Be careful, and I’ll meet you back at the lakes, or in the afterlife, whichever finds us, first!”
Link nodded and rushed down the left corridor, watching Nacie slide into the right tunnel. He felt the ground beneath harden and become slippery, and the gleam of torches far behind him reflected on the ice around the young soldier.
Link watched carefully the ice around him, keeping in mind what Nacie had said earlier about booby-traps. He was thankful for her warning when he saw the strange green icicles hanging between the blue stalactites hanging on the ceiling. He squeezed through the tunnel, careful to avoid walking under the icicles and continued down the entrance as the Goblins grunted and groaned behind. Seconds later, he heard the unmistakable sound of ice crashing, and the screams of creatures in agony.
The tunnel ended suddenly, and the soldier slid off the pathway. Just as he fell, he instinctively reached back and found the rocky edge, saving his body from falling on the spikes below. Link pulled out his hookshot, and pulled himself across the ravine to the other side of the room, turned, pulled his bow and arrows out and watched.
The first Goblins came in through the doorway. Link could see them by the torches they carried. He let loose his arrows, catching the first two through the stomach, one in front of the other. His third arrow missed to the left as one of the Goblins saw it and ducked, but he slid through the door and fell into the waiting pit below. Three more rushed through and fell before a Captain stopped them and ordered them around the pit.
Link turned and rushed up the tunnels again, feeling them rise under his feet, and the ice turning to slush before turning to puddles and mud. His lungs were beginning to burn and a stitch started to pull at his side as his aching muscles began to revolt from his brain.
“Hey, hero,” Nacie’s familiar voice called out as she landed next to the soldier, her two bright swords glowing dimly in the light. “I see you’ve lived so far. Come, this way will lead us back to the entrance.”
“I haven’t seen the Wizrobes, yet,” Link whispered as he turned and followed her, his gaze still over his shoulders. “Only Goblins.”
“Perhaps, young one, you haven’t been looking too hard,” she responded. Link heard the sound of metal pulling from a sheath and turned to the young woman. She was smiling, her teeth glowing through her veil, and her eyes a bright yellow as she reached back. Both swords flung from her hand, and Link barely dodge them both as he flipped back.
With a motion that defied sight, Link pulled an arrow from his quiver and let it fly. Nacie disappeared from sight and reappeared a few feet away as a Wizrobe. The creature’s glowing eyes looked out from the darkness of its blue hood, and its glowing magical rod was pointed at Link.
“Far too slow, little one,” the Wizrobe called out. It let loose a blast from its wand, which Link sidestepped. The wave from the wand nailed the first of the goblins as it rushed in through the doorway, turning it into a frog.
Link turned to the onslaught of Goblins. The first one shot in, sword raised, and swung sideways at the hero. Link pressed himself to the wall, just avoiding the tip of the blade and stepped in on the Goblin, sending his gloved fist into the creature’s jaw, and knocking it out.
The second Goblin swung a heavy axe down, which clipped Link’s arm as he swung around. The Hylian kicked the butt of the axe, sending the sharpened end of it flying into the creature’s stomach.
The Wizrobe raised his wand and shot a blast across the room. Link dove aside as the blast ripped stone and Goblin apart, and littered the room with debris and bodies.
Link rubbed his eyes, barely lifting himself from the debris. His arm was burnt in several places from the explosion, and he couldn’t hear anything at all as a trickle of blood fell from his ears. He looked up to see the Wizrobe standing right before him, wand pointed down at his head.
Suddenly, the creature was swallowed in flames. It screeched as it flailed around, sending blasts from its wand in all directions.
Link rolled over to a dead goblin, grabbed its axe and rushed to the Wizrobe, chopping its head off. The creature disappeared without a trace.
“Well done, hero,” Nacie yelled, though it sounded like a whisper to Link.
“Couldn’t have done it without you,” Link called back.
“Come, now, we must get to the entrance. There are dozens more Goblins, and several more Wizrobes, but I think we can sneak by them if we hurry!”
Link looked back at the room, now destroyed beyond recognition. He shook his head, turned and ran after the Gerudo.
~
The first gleam of sunrise began to spread over the forests of the Kokiri, the waterfalls of the Zora and Death Mountain. All was blanketed in a snowy frosting, giving the appearance that the Goddesses had sprinkled diamonds across the horizon for all to see.
A new mother rocked back and forth in her rocking chair as she looked out the window of her living room, watching the sun slowly rise over the distant horizon, her daughter sleeping gently on her lap.
“You’re up awfully early, Miere,” a warm voice called out.
“Oh, Koine,” Miere smiled. “I simply wanted a moment’s peace with our daughter. Since she was borne, so many have come by for a glimpse, I just wanted to be a normal mother for just a moment.”
“Normal,” Koine smiled. “That is a word I’ve heard a lot recently. Ever since the Zora and Goron War started, people all over have wanted things back to normal. Those two races seem not to care who gets hurt, so long as they think they have an advantage over the other. It scares me to bring a daughter into this world.”
“Oh, hush, now, Koine,” Miere whispered. “Everything will be okay. Our daughter, after all, is protected by the Goddesses, is she not?”
Before Koine could answer, a knocking came at the door.
“By the Goddesses,” Miere hissed. “It is not even sunrise, yet, and they have come to see the child!”
“I’ll send them on their way,” Koine answered, as he went to the door. “We need our time with our baby. Speaking of which, we need a name, soon.”
“Open the door, Koine!” a voice called from outside. “It’s me, Kwan!”
“Kwan?” Koine asked, opening the door and letting his neighbor in. “What on earth are doing up so early?”
“Koine, this is no time,” Kwan answered. “Soldiers…from Hyrule Castle are coming! Here! They are coming here for the child!”
“How do you know?” Koine asked. “Did you see them? Why are they coming here?”
“They’re coming to take the baby!” Kwan answered. “Mueriate works in the Castle. She overheard some of the soldiers talking last night! You must take the baby and hide before they find you!”
“Hyrule would never take our baby!” Miere laughed. “Why would they think of doing such a thing?”
“Mueriate has never been wrong before about occurances of the castle, Miere,” Kwan answered. “We must—“
A knocking came at the door. “Soldiers,” Miere whispered, looking from the window.
“Open up!” the soldiers called from outside.
“The back!” Kwan hissed, turning to the doorway, but before she moved, she jumped, startled by something on the table.
“The house is surrounded,” the soft, gentle-sounding voice called. “They are here to destroy your baby.”
“But why?” Miere asked. “Why? She is just a baby, she can do no harm to anyone!”
“The King fears her. The world fears her. Her birth may well mean the end of the world. I, however, can protect her, if you will trust me.”
“Wh—who are you?” Koine asked. “I’ve never seen you here before!”
“My name is Sir Bishop,” the Knight sitting on the table smiled. “And I am a hero. A hero who will save this land.”
~
Three more Goblins fell to the ground in the explosion, but Link was quickly running out of arrows. Nacie was holding her own, but she was tiring quickly, too, it seemed.
“Perhaps it was a mistake to come back to the lake?” Link called out.
“It’s the only way out, hero!” Nacie answered. “We had to risk it!”
“Where are your friends, then?” Link asked, as he side-stepped another attack, then thrust the Goblin’s own sword through another and himself. “The friends who escaped in those tunnels?”
“They slipped out while the Goblins and Wizrobes were chasing us!” Nacie answered, throwing fireballs over the rock at the attacking Wizrobes.
“Ah, well…”
A Wizrobe floated over Link, firing shots down on him, but Link was too quick, sidestepping, then ducking under attacks from the Goblins. He slid under one Goblin’s attack and pulled its elbow down on his own shoulder. He then tossed the larger creature, using the strength of his gloves, into the air and slamming the Wizrobe into the cave walls. The Wizrobe disappeared and reappeared a few feet away, unharmed by the attack.
Link pulled his last arrow from his quiver and took careful aim at the Wizrobe who was readying its attack. He let the arrow fly, but before it reached, something wrapped around the enemy’s neck and whipped it back.
The whole cave stopped for a second as the Wizrobe screamed out in agony. Twenty tentacles reached out from the reflective surface of the waters, shooting out at the goblins on the land.
“What is that?” Link yelled, dodging a tentacle, then a Goblin.
“A Weatrabe…a Water Demon!” Nacie yelled. “Though none live in this part of the world!”
“There’s one here, now,” Link responded. He slid under a tentacle as it grabbed a Goblin and yanked it forward. Link reached out and yanked a sword from the Goblin’s hand as it shot across the rocks, pulled into the underwater lake.
Quickly, the Hylian swung with his new sword straight up, chopping off the tentacle as it darted past him, then parried an income axe as a Goblin attacked. Link riposted with his sword, slicing off the creature’s head, then slicing off another tentacle as it tried to wrap around him.
Two more Wizrobes and several more Goblins were captured and pulled into the sea. Link rushed up and sliced off a tentacle that had wrapped around Nacie’s foot then pulled the Gerudo below a rock and looked under it to the waters.
“There are no more Goblins,” he whispered. “Perhaps it will leave.”
“Shh,” Nacie said, putting her finger to her lips.
The tentacles searched the beach, finding occasional dead bodies and pulling them into the waters. One tentacle reached over the boulders and even felt between them, but Link and Nacie easily avoided their grasp. The tentacles had huge suction cups across the bottom, and their reach seemed endless.
Suddenly, a tentacle shot down between the rocks. Link and Nacie turned and readied their weapons, but froze as the tentacles whipped out a Wizrobe, hiding behind the boulders not far from them. The screeching Wizrobe was yanked down into the waters below, before dying away.
The tentacles searched for ages, checking cracks in the walls, and even lifting boulders. Nacie nudged Link and pointed to the hallways, but he shook his head and motioned to stay. His experience with these types of creatures had taught him well.
After several close calls, the tentacles pulled back into the waters.
“How long do you suppose we should wait?” Link asked, finally standing up and looking out at the torch-lit waters. “It might stick around and guard the entrance.”
“I only hope it has not eaten my followers,” Nacie answered.
“Knowing the Gerudo,” Link smiled, “They likely made it with no trouble past something so large.”
Nacie smiled and batted her eyelashes at the warrior. “You are the flatterer, aren’t you, hero?” she asked. “Perhaps, we can pass the time in another manner?”
Link stretched and looked out at the water. “What?” he asked. “What do you mean?”
“I just—“
Before she could say, the tentacles shot out of the water and wrapped around the Gerudo woman. She started to scream, but another tentacle shot around her mouth, and the long arms yanked her over the rocks to the murky, cold waters.
“Nacie!” Link screamed, jumping over the rocks. Two more tentacles shot out, but Link easily cut them away. He pulled off his green tunic and loosely threw on his blue tunic, jumping down into the water.
The flames above the water provided very little light, and, even as Link watched, Nacie was disappearing into the darkness of the waters. Link pulled His hookshot and took aim at the Gerudo woman. He released the trigger, and the arrow stuck in the tentacle, yanking the Hylian through the waters.
Link reached through the opening of the wrapped tentacle and pulled out Nacie’s dagger, then stabbed as hard as he could into the tentacle. It hardened, then let go of the Gerudo woman.
Link lifted her body, noticing that she was almost out of breath, and slid her arm through one of the sleeves in his tunic, allowing her to breath as he did.
The two floated in mid lake, for a moment, barely able to see in any direction, except two distant points of light, one of which was the entrance to the cave system, and the other was the tunnels the Gerudo had called home for some time, now.
Suddenly, two large points of light appeared around them. Two more appeared on the other side, and the light showed the faces of the great creatures that had surrounded the two warriors. Both looked as fierce as dragons, with long, wide heads and sharp teeth around enormous mouths. Tentacles reached out in every direction from around the creatures’ bodies.
Link lifted his hookshot and pointed it at one of the creatures, then the other, unsure of where to shoot.
One of the creatures let out a grumbling roar that sent vibrations through the water. Both floated around the two warriors for a moment, then attacked, together.
Link pulled the Gerudo tight to his chest and kicked hard with his feet while the hookshot blasted out at the creature’s eye, though it did not penetrate.
The tentacles shot this way and that, nearly ensnaring the two twice, but Nacie ripped at them with her knife, barely keeping them free. Link pulled his sword and swatted at the tentacles, but the weight of the sword in the thick waters made it move too slowly, and the sword glanced off the tough skin without even a knick.
One of the tentacles wrapped Nacie around her foot, and both creatures closed in, trapping the two between them. Link looked around for any weakspot, and mentally searched his pouches for any weapon that could help them.
Nacie pulled the hookshot from Link’s hand and aimed it at the Water Demon behind her. She pulled the trigger and let it fly. It missed the creature, going high over its head, but it connected with something else, instead.
Nacie released the trigger and the hookshot yanked the two forward through the water, ripping her free from the tentacle’s grasp and straight past the two demons.
They reached a ledge where Nacie freed the Hookshot and shot again towards the light. Again, it stuck and yanked them away from the beasts, towards the light. Two more shots brought the two to freedom above.
Link carried the Gerudo out of the river onto the rocky shores and then pulled his tunic back around himself. “Good—Good thinking,” he panted. “That’s twice, now, you’ve saved my life.”
“Come,” Nacie panted. “We must meet up at the fallback spot.”
“Where is that?” Link asked.
“The fortress. It’s not far, now.”
“No,” Link said, standing up. He looked down the river towards the Hylia Lake. “I…I have to go, alone, to the Water Temple.”
“And get yourself killed?” Nacie asked. “Hero, Nuerme is not some demon. He is much, much more powerful, and he will kill you if you face him alone.”
“I’ve face powerful before,” Link answered. “More powerful than you can imagine.”
“And he’s still more powerful than that, hero,” Nacie yelled. “I’m telling you, go down that river alone, and he will kill you!”
“I’ve been through that temple before,” Link answered. “I killed the Amoeba that was within. I’ve taken on great creatures of the sea before, and seldom have I been hurt too badly.”
“Link, you fool, he is not a creature of the sea!” Nacie yelled. “He is a Wizard! He is far more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen, and I’ve see Gannondorf’s evil ways!”
Link looked to Nacie. “I have weapons and items that can help me. Go, muster your girls and ready them. I…I have to go. I have to do this. I am sorry.”
Link turned and began to walk along the rocks on the river banks, carefully climbing from one to another to avoid falling in, as the first rays of sunlight began to shine down over the cliff edges.
“You fool,” Nacie spat as she began to climb up the tall cliffs. She turned and looked over her shoulder to the Hylian and shook her head. After climbing a few paces, she let out a sigh, shook her head and turned to the Warrior. “Wait up, then!” she yelled. “If you’re going to get yourself killed, at least have me there to pull you out when you die!”
~
“They have taken the child!”
“Soldiers, from Hyrule Castle!”
The village was bustling with activity as the horses began to rush away from the house. A Knight, clad in black led several soldiers down the cobblestone street towards the Castle.
Above, a figure stood atop the Castle walls, looking down at the Knight as he carried a small baby in his arms. As soon as she had put on the purple suite and pulled the wrappings around, a flood of memories of another existence filled Shiek’s mind. All the training, all the experience of another lifetime came back in a flash.
“I hope you’re ready, hero,” Shiek whispered. “You’ve never faced anything like what you’re about to.”
5/7/2002 4:48:44 PM
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