The Legend of Zelda: The Three Swords
By: Rémi-Patryk
Chapter 8: Drown
Good morning day
Sorry I’m not there
But all my favourite friends
Vanished in the air
It’s hard to fly when you can’t even run
Once I had the world, but now I’ve got no one
Some persons are happy… Others sad… Others are no more…
Deep cruel laughs were filling a dark, humid, and misty hall. It was only lit up by small cups of fire set up on the walls. The light it provided was scarce and large shadows filled the dim room… Someone was laughing, but that laugh did not provide a warm happy feeling, for there was a touch of evil and cruelty in the tone…
“Ahh, how right I was. It could not be any better. I have the most powerful warrior in the world under my hand… And he doesn’t even want to get paid.” The rogue sheikah overseer was staring deep into Kyul’s eyes. Satisfied, he stood up and said to the doctor patching up his shoulder, “Not even a single minuscule sign of life… I did not believe that spell was so strong it could stop him, a Schatten Reiter, from regaining control.”
“I am glad you are satisfied, my liege.” The medic continued his work and cleaned the dried blood around the wound… The figure hadn’t even twitched when the doctor had sewn up his injury…
The overseer placed his hand on the teenager’s unharmed shoulder. “A soldier who obeys my every command without any reticence or remorse… It is the ultimate weapon.”
The medic cleaned his bloodstained hands in a small fountain trickling from the wall. When he was done, he turned around, looked at his master, and said, “You might want to let him rest for awhile. He might not say anything, but his metabolism is still vulnerable…”
The overseer removed his hand, looked at the medic and replied, “Yes, maybe for a few hours and then I will send him away again.”
Kyul’s spirit meditated to the last words pronounced by his abductor… He would be ready next time… He had help now…
If I needed someone to control me
If I need someone to hold me down
I would change my direction
And save myself before I...
If I needed someone to control me
If I needed someone to push me around
I would change my direction
And save myself before I...Drown...Drown
LOTH MAYN OUTPOST
Link felt his stomach turn over and he moaned. His breakfast could be on its way back… He was helping a field medic patch up a broken leg… The gore and blood did not bother him at all, he was used to it…but the suffering of the man made him sick… Link could not bear to see someone suffer.
“Link? Are you here?” Link turned away from the injured man to see who called him… As he identified his interlocutor Link smiled and stood up, patting the medic’s shoulder in the process. “I will come back in a minute.”
Zelda walked up to Link. They had a tough time talking to each other because of all the confusion after the vicious attack…
“Link… Come with me now… There are some people here you might want to see,” Zelda spoke with an exited tone. She dragged Link over to the outpost’s gate…
Waiting for them were five neatly dressed Sheikahs. They were clad in the classic blue and silver but on their chest instead of the Sheikah crest, Hyrule’s royal family phoenix was shining… The four in front had their arms crossed with the palms open, facing the shoulders… The fifth was none other than Impa the royal Captain of the imperial guard…
“Impa!!! How are you? It's been so long!” Link hastily walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders… Impa grinned. Sheikahs never liked to be touched by other hylians, but not many of them understood…
“Hello, Link. I am glad to be in your presence once again, but I am afraid that the reason of my presence is rather…disturbing…to say the least.”
Link quickly fell back to reality. Although he was happy to see an old friend, he had to remember that evil was back and after them… “What is it? Why did you come here to find us?”
Feeling Link’s anger rise, Zelda pacified him… “Link… Maybe we should wait for morning. And the boy you wanted to see is awake. His shoulder is healing well, there is no sign of infection. Come on, let us go see him.”
Link closed his sparkling blue eyes and breathed deeply. “Good idea. Impa, you and your friends can go rest in the main tower. We will talk tomorrow.” Impa acknowledged Link’s words and without a word, crossed her arms over her chest in the same fashion as her guards and they disappeared in a blue mist…
“It always scared me the way they did that…” Link turned around and walked towards the tent where they kept the victims with less dangerous injuries. Zelda was besides him, her head down and her magic red eyes speaking of her despair. Link only noticed her grief when they were only a few steps away from the tent. Knowing exactly what bothered her, Link stepped up and firmly (almost violently) grasped her shoulders with his gloved hands and said with a very passionate conviction, “IT WASN’T HIM, OK? HE WOULD NOT DO SUCH A THING. NOW STOP THINKING ABOUT IT AND LET'S FIND HIM BEFORE THEY MAKE HIM DO SOMETHING WORSE!”
Still uncertain, Zelda defaced Link and looked down at the still red stained ground. “I don’t know, Link, maybe he learned something… The triforce can corrupt anyone if they are not careful.” Disappointed in Zelda’s beliefs, Link left her and walked in the tent…
There were a few dozen beds in the tent, all of them filled with men and women slightly injured or that were recovering from Kyul’s vicious attack… Link scanned the area for someone particular… It was difficult; many were lying down and it was difficult to make out their identity… After a prolonged examination of the beds around him, Link found who he was looking for… A nurse was leaned over a boy clad in a Sheikah tunic. He was one of the children of the Sheikah Kyul supposedly came to slaughter…
It was quite amusing. The nurse was trying to remove the cloth covering the Sheikah’s figure… But he was responding quite negatively to that idea… “I'm telling you, I can't allow you or anyone to see my face… It's against our beliefs…” The nurse was stubborn, though, and wouldn’t go without a fight… “Boy, shut up and let me help you! I need to clean your face, that dagger came mighty close to ending your short life, so please don’t make it more difficult.” As she said that, she began to tug on the pieces of cloth. The boy, annoyed, grabbed her wrist and said, “Ma’am you are very nice, but leave the cloth alone or I will have to hurt you.” Insulted by the child’s impertinence she walked away mumbling things about the lord being informed of the child’s insolence and that he could die of infection and she wouldn’t care…
The boy relaxed and closed his eyes. “Saved for now.”
Link giggled and approached him slowly. The boy’s ruby eyes opened and scanned him closely… When Link got to the foot of his mattress he asked, “What do you want?”
Link, surprised by the boy’s temper, calmly crouched down and asked, “When do you think they will let you out of here?” The Sheikah boy, thrown off by Link’s non-aggressive tone and the feeling of wisdom surrounding him, answered, glaring claymores at the head nurse, “I think they will keep me here until they find a way to take my disguise off … They say I must be cute under that pile of cloth and bandages…I’d like to see them try.”
Link laughed at the remark and with a faked mysterious face, he grabbed the boy from his bed and stealthily carried him away towards the door… But even Link’s stealth skills could not escape the vigilance of the notorious head nurse. “And where do you think you are bringing this child, Mister?” The nurse had positioned herself strategically inbetween Link and the entrance to the tent… “Well, emmm … Ya see, he might want to leave now… Look, his shoulder is fine… I will take care of him alright… We have to go.” Link paused for a moment and when the nurse didn’t move an inch, Link’s eyes darkened and he continued. “Now.” The head nurse crossed her arms in the manner that a mad child would… “Well he isn’t going anywhere before I say so, sir.” She was visibly losing patience… Her eyes were small with anger and they were shooting daggers at the Sheikah boy… “Well, ya see, ma’am, that could cause a problem. I have things to do places to go… Same with him.” The sheikah boy hadn’t spoken a single word. His head only moved when Link and the Nurse spoke, like someone watching a tennis match. “Well mister, it's not my problem, it seems to be yours.” The words were crisp and full of reprisal… Link was sick of it and he decided to do it the Kyul way… He swung the Master Sword out of its sheath and smoothly ripped open one of the tent’s wall… “Problem solved.” Link plainly walked out, ignoring the curses and threats made by the head nurse…
“Ok kid, let’s go for a ride.”
Zelda was sitting down with Impa. She decided to speak with her… Council, yes she needed council. Link was hurt beyond anything that could be physical… And it showed. He wanted to find Kyul at all cost…
“I understand your concern about Link, Princess, but I also understand Link’s fear. Kyul must be found and brought back to Light before something more horrible than this happens.”
“What could be worse than all these killings?”
“He might be forced to kill you…”
Zelda’s pupils widened… “You mean that Link is right and Kyul is not himself…”
“Princess that’s why I traveled here. I know who kidnapped your friend and what he did to him.”
Zelda didn’t leave Impa time to finish. She ran out of the tower only to find Epona galloping out of the Main gate, Link and the Sheikah boy on her back…
“Where is he going?”
Link and the boy approached a small stream a few miles south of the outpost. Epona halted and the duo walked to a rock piling close to the stream. Epona happily trotted over to the brook to drink…
“Why did we come here?”
“Well, I just wanted to talk to you away from the confusion of that place. I find this a little more relaxing.”
“Yes it is, but why did you want to speak with me?”
“Well, I just wanted to ask, what happened yesterday?”
The boy’s head leaned towards the front and his eyes filled up with tears of rage…
“That man, that traitor… The Schatten Reiter, he just came in without speaking a word and began to kill all the guards… When my dad and my uncles came, he reverted his attention back to them and he attacked them… I tried to help, but he was too quick and he got me… I failed them, I SHOULD HAVE DIED ALONG WITH THEM…”
“No, don’t say that… You did what you could… That man… My friend is one of the best warriors in this world… And he carries the triforce… None of you had a chance… I am sorry.”
“Your friend… You know this monster and you call him your friend? If I ever find him I will slaughter him.”
“No, he was not himself. A group of Sheikah kidnapped him a few weeks ago and this is the first time we have seen him since th…”
Link’s pupils grew smaller, he grabbed the hilt of the master sword… Something was close…
“What is…” Link put his gloved hand over the boy’s mouth… Then, a bomb dropped right in front of them. Link’s lightning quick reflexes took over as he kicked the bomb away and rolled over the Sheikah to protect him from the blast… A large detonation shook the calm brook and a pile of dust and rock came down on Link and the boy protecting themselves with Link’s Hylian Sheild…
As the dust began to settle, Link saw what he feared to see… Two pairs of glowing red eyes… And then through the thick mist of dust, the outline of two shapes formed… The second Link realised who was standing in front of him, he slowly drew the master sword, crouched down, raised his shield, and said to the Sheikah boy, “Stay back… Run for it as soon as I have their attention.”
The dust was completely settled now. Link could see the two forms clearly now… He crouched lower, aligned the Master sword over his head, and raised his shield just high enough for his eyes to see over it…
The two essence hunters hissed and approached their prey with deadly force, but as the two of them were about to attack, the one in front held the other one back and continued to move towards Link… Alone.
Without moving from his stance, his eyes burning with anger and power, Link spoke with resentment, “So you are back, eh? How was the dark realm for ya? I hope you liked it… ‘Cuz you're going right back.”
The Dark form giggled and began to circle around Link. When he did half a turn, he spoke… “I think you will like it. Pure evil, nothingness, and all the other good things… You don’t think it's nice? Well too bad, you're already dead. I’m stronger now.” To those words, the form brought his left hand up. Branded on it was the outline of the triforce, but it was black… As soon as he did that, Link’s right hand began to burn. The pain was almost unbearable, so much that he nearly dropped his shield… As he noticed the pain in Link’s face, the form laughed again and said, “You see, friend, you are no match for our power. Give up now and our lord might only torture you for a few days before he kills you…”
Replying to the form’s ultimatum, Link dropped his shield and held up his hand, the triforce icon on his backhand. “Yours is fake, bastard. Come here and have a taste of the real thing… Oh wait, you already did, didn’t you?”
The form’s eyes burned brighter. “DIE HERO, DIE!” To those words he attacked, drawing the evil version of the master sword, a black blade, with a black sliver hilt… Then a sword duel beyond anyone’s imagination began. Each fighter moved too quickly for the human eye to make out, even the Sheikah’s sight could barely see the two opposite blades move. As the fight between the two nemesis continued, the second evil warrior also clad in a black (but more heavy) armour, began to move towards Link who was too focused in his fight to see him coming…
One who did see him coming though, is the young sheikah who was hidden behind the mass of rock… And to save his new friend he decided to take action against the strongest evil … In good sheikah fashion he jumped over to the side of the stream and drew his silver dagger. Determined to cut the essence seeker’s throat, the young boy sneaked behind him. His father had taught him… No one could hear a Sheikah sneak… Not even the most skilled warriors or assasins… But the one who he was up against wasn’t natural, and although he didn’t see or hear the boy coming he did feel him.
When the boy jumped to perform his deed, the essence seeker turned around and with a swift movement of his backhand he sent the boy flying and hitting hard a tree close to the brook… When Link saw the boy take flight he completely forgot about his doppelganger and he yelled, “I TOLD YOU TO RUN!” There was enough of an opening formed and Dark Link took advantage. He slashed and it was successful. The black blade sliced through Link’s chest only to form a small cut, but still enough to cause a tremendous amount of pain…
Feeling his defeat, Link, holding his chest, turned around and threw the ocarina of time over to the Sheikah. “TAKE IT, BOY! EPONA, RUN!!!!”
Dark Link hit Link’s head with the butt of his head… The Hero of Time fell unconscious on the dusty ground with a large thump… The large Knight, seeing that the sheikah boy had an important item in his possession, began to walk towards him. Just as he was about to hack the petrified boy with his axe Epona came and trampled him. The boy, without wasting time, jumped on Link’s horse and it took off without asking more questions… The last thing the boy saw was Link’s limp body being dragged by his mirror self, a trail of blood staying behind… The boy grasped Epona’s neck and began to cry as the loyal horse was running back to the last remaining keeper of the Triforce…
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