New readers, skip down a paragraph to my new-reader intro.**SPOILER--ALERT!**
A couple BIG changes here: I'm going to try to tell this all from Vanessa's PoV, minus the prologue. Also, if you were hoping to meet the big bad red dragon mentioned waaaay in the beginning of the original draft by Vaden, be sorely disappointed. I've cut him, because he serves no known purpose and is one of my original bad plot bunnies for this story. (Hey, I wrote it when I was eleven, cut me some slack, haha x)). Here and there I may or may not go behind-the-dark-scenes with Vaden and Link, but then again, maybe not, hehe. You'll just have to read on to find out! ^_^
**END--SPOILER--ALERT**
Hello, my name is Gladius and welcome to my first (far from last) Zelda fanfiction. Ever. Seriously; I started this as my first writing project when I was eleven and have since expanded from this to include it in a cycle of five novel-length adventures. Six if you include...but that's another story for another day, haha. ^_^
Now I know you may be thinking 'But I have no idea what Zelda's about,' and may even be confused by my description of the game's hero being Link when the game is named Zelda, after a certain princess who can never seem to rescue herself... Well fear not, all Zelda-pertinent info shall be explained over the course of the story, so (hopefully) thou shalt never be left in the dark.
Er...except the thing about Link being the hero and not Zelda. Sadly, no one to this day can answer that, except possibly Nintendo or the actual Legend of Zelda (seriously, it's in one of the earlier game booklets. There's actually a legend behind the legend! xD).Oh, sorry; I'm getting off track, haha. ^^; Anyway, if you have any questions about stuff that was not intentionally meant to confuse you, go ahead and ask in your review (or PM if you think it's a stupid question--I have absolutely no qualms about that, haha
).Gah, alright! Enough rambling. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the story! ^_^
P.s--the 'PG' I've given this could be called an elevated PG or even a T, as I'm pretty sure it's gonna get slightly bloody/painful.
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Prologue: Wings of Darkness
Vaden’s boots made rhythmic taps against the stone stairs down which she traversed, nervously following her master’s heavier tread. Before her—amidst the depths of darkness which would have made any other light-dweller cringe with fear—the huge man’s heavy cloak whispered along at his heels like a demonic familiar, beckoning her onward despite the faint feeling of misgiving starting to take hold in the pit of her stomach.
Finally, after what felt like centuries had passed, the pair ended their interminable descent down the dark stairwell and into what the apprentice could best describe as an equally-interminable cavern. Though her cat-like eyes—with the help of her magic—could penetrate within a few dozen yards of the gloom, the shadows jealously cloaked the remainder of the enormous space in impenetrable murkiness. Her slow, cautious footsteps farther into the cave echoed eerily, telling her that what she could see was but a fraction of the underground room’s total volume. Not a sound other than her and her master’s movements disturbed the silence.
More at ease within the darkness than his apprentice, Vaden’s master brushed past her hesitating figure and strode confidently through the shadows. They quickly retreated like the monsters he commanded above ground, cowering in fear at his power.
Not wishing to be left behind and swallowed up by the vengeful shadows, Vaden darted after him.
The pair at last halted in what Vaden assumed to be the center of the cavern, at least a good hundred yards from where they had stepped off the staircase. A question about what was to happen next burned on the tip of her tongue, but the sorceress-in-training bit it off determinedly; it would soon be answered, she was sure.
She watched with mild interest as the man began the ritual summoning incantation. This was nothing new, as she had rehearsed it countless times before with her master. The ancient Hylian rolled off his tongue as smoothly as poisoned water to Vaden, a thought which made her smirk.
Soon, however, her smirk morphed into a frown—the sorcerer had paused in his recitation and moved a single step farther into the darkness. His body shimmered faintly with magical energy, illuminating the rim of an otherwise invisible pit before his feet. When he continued the spell, it was in words Vaden did not know. She subtly clenched one hand into a fist as a brief flicker of irritation ran through her; her master was keeping secrets, neglecting her training and keeping her in the dark to be sure she stayed in check!
‘Well we’ll just see how long that lasts,’ the apprentice thought maliciously.
The beginning of an underground vibration jerked her thoughts back to the summoning, her mind frantically searching out the source of the disturbance. Apparently, he master had lied about more than just the ritual—he had not mentioned anything the likes of this in his explanation of the effects of summoning, either.
Vaden did not dwell on it, however, instead concentrating on what was going on around her; a single moment of inattention could be her last. The rumbling steadily intensified in harmony with the mint green glow slowly illuminating the abyss’ endless depths. As it reached and passed the point where she could not hear her master’s words, Vaden began to feel the slightest inklings of doubt and anxiety. What if Ky’rel was not subdued by the sorcerer’s powers? A far greater terror than anything his powers could create would be unleashed, left to ultimately destroy the world they sought to conquer.
When the cloaked figure stepped away from the brink, brimming with so much satisfaction Vaden could feel it, she hesitantly questioned, “Master? Are you sure this is wise?”
He snorted derisively. “Watch,” his deep bass voice commanded.
Just as he spoke, a deafening roar echoed from the abyss. The bright light, which had by now solidified into orbs that ricocheted against the pit’s sides, flashed twice powerfully before exploding into a neon fountain that splashed in waves of unimaginable power over the magicians. Released from the clutches of the confining glow, an enormous shape only visible due to its darker-than-night coloring let out another earth-shaking roar in its ecstatic flight around the cavern. The breath of its wings as it passed overhead was so strong Vaden could barely stand, forced to reinforce her stance with magic.
The summoned beast made one more pass around the cavern before noticing the one who had called it. With a trumpeting cry of bloodlust it dove toward the stone where the pair stood, its great maw opened to swallow them up whole. Vaden reflexively retreated a single step, wondering if her master was going to do anything or let the monster have its way.
At the last moment before she feared they would have been as good as gone, however, the sorcerer raised his hand and leveled a powerful beam at the monster’s head and chest. The dragon—for that was what Vaden could now see it was by the glow of the magic—howled in pain as it was thrown back from its intended prey, landing heavily on the stone across the abyssal well from them.
“You see, my apprentice?” her master crooned, his voice dripping with smug self-assurance.
Seeming to hear this, the dragon leapt back into the air for another try at the infuriating magician. Yet again it was cast back—this time bound to the ground by invisible chains it could not break. On red eye glared balefully at its captor, a growl of resentment rumbling so strongly through its body that the stone beneath their feet trembled.
The sorcerer smirked, turning from his new minion with an arrogant flick of his cloak.
“We have nothing to fear.”
..oo00O*O00oo..
As his blade smoothly slid into the large stomach of the last Moblin to stand against the Hero of Time, Link heaved an internal sigh of relief.
Kicking the enormous corpse off his sword, the blond warrior raised crystal eyes to scan the clearing in which he stood, standing in a relaxed stance but wary of more unseen threats. After a few tense moments spent scanning the wood-line, he lowered his blade to wipe the black blood on a patch of clean undergrowth.
‘These monsters are far more active than they should be,’ Link noted uneasily as he hefted the Master Sword in his left hand to a readier grip, stepping over the pig-like monster’s body easily and moving toward the clearing’s opposite edge. ‘Not to mention they seem to be looking for something. I hope Nayru’s alright…’
Shoving down worry and doubt which would kill him in combat as surely as any mortal weapon, the Hero moved deeper into the forest, avoiding the path lest he should be ambushed. He glanced around far more often than he did normally in times of peace, wary of hidden monsters and possible pitfalls. Not a sound other than his own footfalls interrupted the blanket of stillness that lay over the woods; not even a squirrel disturbed the treetops, nor did the river a few dozen yards beyond his sight dare speak above an inaudible murmur.
Everything was still. Absolutely still.
What felt like agonizing hours later but was really only fifteen minutes, an unusual noise intruded on Link’s hearing. His long Hylian ears twitched faintly at the crackling that filtered through the trees ahead of him—from the clearing in which Nayru had built her two-room cottage.
A twelve-year-old memory triggered by the familiar sound darted through his mind, feeding his unease as his pace quickened unconsciously. Heart pounding, the warrior threw caution to the wind and stepped back onto the forest path, breaking into a sprint toward his destination. The crackling grew increasingly more noticeable, so much so that Link could feel his breath beginning to catch as a realization crept over him.
Angrily he shoved it back. ‘No, it can’t be—it can’t! Not after the last time, please… Please don’t say I’m too late again.’
Alas, his prayer went unanswered.
Link skidded to a halt as he rounded a turn in the path, eyes widening as they took in the flames licking wildly at the treetops and surrounding undergrowth. Smoke billowed thickly from the charred remains of a building nestled between dozens of fallen pines and smoke-blackened hardwood trunks, filling the once-pure air with a choking smokescreen. A resounding crack ricocheted across the clearing when the fire snapped off an enormous limb of the oak that had once provided Nayru shade as she played her harp for the forest creatures. The flame’s symphony crescendoed feverishly as it eagerly devoured the new fuel.
A kind of numb resignation took over his limbs as the Hero slowly stepped between piles of debris left behind in the inferno’s devastating wake, carefully avoiding ground fires so as to keep from melting his boots’ leather soles. The heat barely bothered him—considering he had experienced much worse when he ventured to the center of an active volcano—so he continued to moved dazedly along a crooked path toward the gutted corpse of Nayru’s forest dwelling. Somehow he still harbored a hope that maybe his charge and her attendant had survived; yet a voice in the back of his mind reminded him of the last time he had seen an entire village razed in the same manner, and how many survivors had escaped from that unscathed.
‘Exactly one,’ he grumbled, frowning viciously.
After allowing the expected guilt to run its course—after twelve years, he found it much easier not to confront it, but rather let it flow over him like a rock in a raging river—Link sighed and sheathed his weapon. The fire was obviously beyond any control now, but still he made an attempt to force it within some boundaries so as not to burn down the entire Forest of Time. Besides, the work helped to keep his mind distracted from the past and focus on the future, especially with such pressing matters as finding who had done this and being sure the Oracle was safe to consider.
‘The Maku Tree will need to know about this,’ he noted, making a mental to-do list starting with that one observation. ‘Then the question becomes, how do we go about investigating this? Anyone or anything could have started this, though one thing’s for sure—this was no freak accident. …Hm?’
Link paused in dragging a huge, charred tree he had found to mark off the edge of the burnt clearing, cocking his head curiously at a trail of scrape marks etched into the ground some fifty yards from Nayru’s cottage. A second memory came to mind as he scrutinized the deep gouges, this one far older and more vital to his growing problem than the last.
‘Volvagia’s claws made the same marks,’ he mused, dropping the log temporarily to get a better look at his discovery. ‘But she only had two feet. There look to be four here, and then there’s that snake-like track behind them.’ He scowled at the tracks, concentrating furiously in an effort to decipher the muddled claw marks.
After staring at the odd arrangement for a few moments, the answer finally hit him square in the face. ‘A Calosus dragon—of course!’ He moved in a crouch along the line of claw-prints the enormous beast had left behind, mind racing as he put the pieces together. ‘It flew into the clearing, probably taking Nayru by surprise, and started burning everything in its way before flying off again. Now the question becomes ‘why’—unless…
‘Someone’s after Nayru.’
———————
“That’s about all I could tell from the evidence at the clearing,” Link concluded, crossing his arms. “The fire had been burning for a while, so anything else that might have been there was long gone.”
Before him, the tree which was the Great Deku Tree’s kindred spirit in Labrynna groaned in a fashion that resembled a contemplative ‘Hmm’ from a human. The Maku Tree’s willowy limbs dipped gracefully into the shallow pool surrounding her, tracing a rippling trail through the crystal water.
There was no sign of the Oracle? she questioned in her airy voice. Link nodded, knowing she would be able to sense the motion in her own way. Hm. Then this dragon that you mentioned is going to prove more dangerous than usual; a dragon performing in such a drastic and specific manner is no rogue creation pulled from the void by chance. It is quite likely we will find a much more cunning master behind the monster.
“Who could it be, though?” Link questioned, shifting his weight onto one foot impatiently; he hated dealing with the unknown, as much as he had had to deal with it. “With Veran gone, I can’t think of anyone who might threaten Labrynna. Hyrule is one thing—everyone wants a piece of us, it seems—but Labrynna…”
There remain many cruel-hearted men out there without Veran’s influence, Hero; you of all people should know that, the tree reminded. For all we know there may be one among them with the power and motivation to attempt the creation of any number of beasts to avenge or even revive their fallen idol. Nayru’s powers would be a great aid to them in either endeavor.
The seventeen-year-old sighed, unfolding his arms as he sensed the end of the conversation. He slipped a hand under the rim of his long green cap to reach a particularly irritating itch as he contemplated the Maku Tree’s words, considering his options. A last thought occurred to him before he excused himself from the Tree’s presence: “Do you think there’s a possibility that this might be another cross-dimensional effort, and we have another Veran-and-Onox duo to deal with here?”
Her branches shook in her equivalent of a human’s shrug. I believe it is unlikely. Certainly a combination of Din and Nayru’s powers would be desirable to our enemies, but considering what setbacks they have experienced with the loss of two powerful generals, I deem it unlikely. If it concerns you, however, I will relay a warning to my colleague in Holodrum.
Link nodded, satisfied for the moment that he would be notified of any outside threat before it managed to affect his operations in Labrynna. “So what do we do next? Do we have any other clues to go on?”
There is…one, she answered hesitantly. I sense a veil of evil being drawn around North Castle. It is likely the lair of our new enemy is that castle; you may find it worth your while to investigate, though I recommend you take some others to aid you in the event that this prediction bears fruit. Lynna’s people may not be warlike, but what soldiers we have should suffice for an expedition, should you choose to embark on one.
“Thank you,” the warrior thanked sincerely, smiling. “If that’s all, then I guess I should be getting provisions together to check out that castle.”
He only made it to the slightly ajar double doors sectioning off the Tree’s grotto from the rest of the city before she stopped him. One last matter, Hero—perhaps it is time for the Hyrulean child to embark on her own destiny. A breath of wind gently pulled at her drooping limbs. Do you not agree?
Link’s heart sank marginally, misgivings filling the space left behind; the same memory and it accompanying remorse triggered by the flames that had consumed Nayru’s home was tugged to the surface of his thoughts by her words. Overcome by the swamping emotions, he put a hand over his face and sighed melancholically.
‘The day I am not haunted by debts of regret and failure will be the day I die,’ he brooded sorrowfully, levering himself off the wall on which he had propped himself while succumbing to his inner demons.
To the Maku Tree, he merely replied tersely, “Of course. The suggestion is a wise one.”
And with that, the enigmatic Hero of Time disappeared through the crack between the doors protecting the guardian tree like an unseen tear.
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