CHAPTER 11: SANCTUARY
Kakariko Village.
That was what the sign said anyway. To Link the village looked more like a ghost town, having been abandoned long ago and rather quickly. The tall buildings, though once surely magnificent in their days of glory, were now run down shacks. Cracks formed along every corner of the outside frameworks, which indicated that the insides would be much worse. Windows were broken, shattered completely, or barred. Most doors were pulled tight and locked; others were broken at the hinges. A few shutters had survived the mysterious onslaught against the town, most hanging loosely by one latch. Some houses had lost sections of brick, the blocks hanging halfway out of their respective places; others lay smashed on the ground beneath.
The entire appearance of the village renewed his doubts of finding the children. He had followed their scent eagerly to this very town, but now, all he could sense was the hanging darkness in the skies that had torn at the community. If he were to find them here.... He feared for their safety.
Link cantered up the slope revolving about a house to the left of the entrance to town. By the writings on the front door, he assumed that it had once been a shop. He rounded the bend at the back of the store and came to a drop in the path. Instinctively, Link leapt, having no time to stop. He landed feet away on a manmade outcropping connecting to an open door of the next house.
He crept inside, wary of the approach of any of the insects that he hunted. He jumped down into the dim room, and, sniffing, sensed something. A flitter of movement caught in the corner of his keen eye. He turned about to meet the scampering form of a beetle-like creature. Instantly, before it could escape into the outside, Link pounced and tore the life out of it. After Midna captured the glowing light that rose out of its dead form, Link continued further into the house.
The next room was large. Open space greeted Link, the corners filled with boxes of all sizes, a bar at the far end. Yet at the sight in the middle of the room, he growled and sunk his head low. Two masked shadow beings stood in his way of ascending the staircase at the other side of the room, which climbed to an overhanging hallway.
With speed unlike theirs, Link was already upon the creatures before they even had time to react to his presence. Snapping the neck of the first, Link hopped on to attack the next, but was surprised by a brutal blow from its bone club. His side pounding from the pain, Link had to leap back in order to miss its following attack at his head. Midna held fast to his fur as he circled about the enemy and tackled it to the floor. It wrestled but its efforts ended abruptly as its cool blood began to pour from several wounds which Link had applied to its neck and chest.
Without a second thought, Link tore himself away from the corpses to search the upstairs for any sign of either the children or the insects.
He only discovered one insect in the room adjoined to the hallway, and once its light had been added to the vessel, Link made his way out of the house and back into the empty street of Kakariko.
He searched through the many houses of the small village, carrying Midna upon his back, and within the next couple hours they had recovered several particles of the spirit's scattered light. Once he had exited the last of the houses, one in which Link presumed had been used to refine flammable material into usable substances due to the many warnings against the employment of uncontrolled fire within the house, did he realize that there were even more places to be searched.
Having exited the building on an upper level, he found himself on its rooftop and that it had been attached to the spread of the craggy slopes and outcroppings of the mountainside it had been set up against. It was a strange place to have constructed a wooden staircase, but Link did not have time for questions. He leapt up the stairs and wound through the confusing dirt paths until he arrived at another house a few inclines above. His nostrils caught the familiar scent of the insect thieves and searched around the house, looking for a route inside since the door had been damaged and barred shut. Around the corner of the decaying brickwork, Link spotted a section that had completely broken away. He peered through the fallen bricks and discovered dim lights on the other side of the pile.
Link shuffled his way through the mass and finally emerged into the interior of the house. Whoever had once lived within it had been quite the disbeliever in tossing anything away. In every possible crevice, the owner had crammed belongings, finding a perfect spot for each possession. Although, the end result was one of absolute disorder, no matter how honorable the attempts for organization may have been.
It was during Link's exploration of the house that he tripped over one of the items. He turned about and identified it as a piece of wood; however, one end was now ablaze from being knocked into the furnace by his foot. Before Link could react, the flare had spread to the opposite end of the stick and caught onto a folded curtain. From there the fire sprang up the walls of countless items and soon the entire house was aflame. Link and Midna choked on the rising smoke. The fire seemed to reach his nostrils, and he tried to cover his snout with a paw.
"Huh? What did you do?" asked Midna.
Through clouded vision Link saw something in the fire, but was distracted by Midna's constant bickering. "Sorry, but as romantic as this is," she said, a beam falling from its support against the rooftop, "I'm not going to stay here with you. I'm getting out!" And immediately, Midna slid off his back and pushed her way through the hole in the wall.
Link had come to a dilemma. Discover what it was he had seen in the fire and risk death. Or … follow Midna and risk that whatever it had been would be destroyed in the fire. By one standard he thought Midna's actions had been cowardly, yet another part of him saw her act as simple common sense.
And as the heat began to sting his eyes, the smoke becoming too great for his wolf lungs to tolerate, pots and boxes crashing in wild flames to the floor … he followed Midna out of the house. He cleared the immediate vicinity as the crackling grew to tiny pops of flame, engulfing the house completely in a raging dance of orange and red and smoke. It simmered under the crushing heat of the fire and smoldering breaths of grey vapor, and it blew out. Planks of wood burst upward, bricks flew outward, and an explosion of flame reduced the home and its collection into a mere pile of debris.
Link watched as the ashes settled and the last of the flames died under the repressive twilit sky.
Three gleaming dots swam throughout the rubble, as if calling out.
"I don't suppose there's a nice way to hunt these insects," remarked Midna. Her next words were said without any feeling whatsoever that Link could detect. "Well, you had to sacrifice someone's house to find Tears of Light … but that's how the cookie crumbles, right?"
He did not much appreciate the pun, but resolved to set aside the comment to step once more inside the remains of the fallen house and gnaw the life from the three insects. Midna then plucked their sparkles from the air.
"Hey!" Midna shouted from out of nowhere and pulled his ear to turn him to face the village below. "We didn't look in there. Now how could you have missed that house?"
A tiny, rounded house sat nestled at the corner nearest to the spirit spring. The top of its dome had been badly damaged, its attic exposed to the outside. He wondered how he could have missed it in his search, but remembered that he had left the spring to read the sign posted at the opposite end of the town. Why does she have to point out everything? Why does she always seem to be right?
Link, not wanting to answer his own thought, started his way down the path to reach the house.
Its double doors had been securely sealed from the inside, for they did not tumble inward when he nudged them with the top of his head. He even tried grabbing the door knobs with his teeth and paw before giving up the attempt of pulling them outward.
"Hey, you can climb up there!" called Midna, pointing to the side of the building. Link tossed his head in the direction and found platforms leading up as far as the bottom of the dome. The arrangement of the planks reminded Link of a framework. Perhaps the owner had been creating an addition to the house before....
Link tried not to think of what had happened to the people here. He climbed up the beams and planks carefully and finally drug himself up onto the rooftop attic. There was a small opening in the floor, perhaps damage of the same kind as the dome had suffered. He did not wait for an invitation.
He leapt inside.
Link landed on a red woven blanket. Glad to have landed on something soft, he looked about the room, which was circular, suffocated candles lining the wall on one side. A tall statue stood at the center. It was then he noticed it. Faint glows; strange, hushed voices. Link closed his eyes and concentrated, connecting fully with the lupine blood that was now entwined with his.
When he next opened his eyes, he stared at the window beside the door, but now there was a lanky figure peering out of it in an odd manner.
"Cripes! I don't see those black brutes anywhere...." the crackling, male voice was saying. "They've gotta be hidin' somewhere, waitin' for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they'll feast!"
"We are safe as long as we remain in here. Be at ease," another male voice said behind Link, this one more calm, in control of himself.
But Link found himself unable to turn away from the skinny man staring out the window. He did not know the other voice. It did not belong to any of the children, so he paid his attention to the character who spoke of the beasts. Midna, however, put a hand over her giggle, laughing at both the man and Link's ignorance.
"Oh yeah, I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you," said the man at the window. He turned around to face the man behind Link, raising a welding mask as he addressed him. Glasses adorned his narrow face, its only color coming from the red beard and fluff of hair on his balding scalp. His belly bulged slightly from under its white shirt, giving the impression of a man who worked the wrong muscles.
"They sure didn't seem impressed by my bombs!" he continued, his tone rising to one of anger and fear. "How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh?"
Link heard a whimper behind him.
"Once they attack, it's over!" the bearded man went on, without giving any indication that he had heard the sob. "Remember the lady from the general store? Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened?" His voice squeaked. "She was already gone, and there were two monsters waitin'!
"You connectin' the dots?" he asked the space behind Link. "That means that if we get attacked by them, then we'll be...."
You become the beast … finished Link. He thought of the shadow beings he had recently killed. Had they in fact been the townspeople?
"BARNES!" came the once calm voice of the other man, and it was then that Link turned to look at him. Dreadlocked and ornamented black hair framed a face of deep wrinkles. His eyes were widened in outrage at the other man, lips pursed.
Link looked to the other person that he consoled from the outpour of Barnes's own fears … and he knew that face.... Talo. He looked across the bench were the two of them sat and found four other small figures, only one of whom he did not know. There, sitting with the comforting man, were the children from Ordon. Talo, Malo, Beth, and Colin.
Link felt his heart skip in its rhythmic pulse. He had found them! But … where was Ilia?
The sobs that then squealed through the air drew Link back to the present scene. The strange man looked away from the offending Barnes and put an arm around Beth, who now cried into her hands. The man gave Barnes a sideways glance, and the disproportioned man tilted his mask back over his face and sank to the floor. Whether or not he was laughing or crying was not easy to tell, however.
"Look, Renado," said Barnes, now crawling across the floor, "All I mean to say is that it's risky here, too! Ain't you got some place we can hide?"
The man called Renado thought for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell the cowardly man. Then he said with a glare out the corner of his eye, "There is … a cellar."
As if suddenly struck from the behind, Barnes wheeled ahead, limbs flying in so many directions, Link thought his movements impossible for any human to rightfully manage. At once, Barnes was at Renado's feet, mask lifted, looking hopefully at him. His lips were shaking wildly. "What? You've got a cellar? Where's the entrance?"
Renado's answer came evenly, and Link sensed something lingering beneath the words. "It is designed to open when all of the candles are lit."
Immediately, Barnes was holding a single torch, its tip on fire. He rushed to the candle sitting before the great statue and set it aflame, tripping in the process. Before he could continue on to any of the wicks lining the wall, a female voice brought life to the subtext that had coated Renado's last words.
"I … would not do that."
Barnes looked up at the girl that Link could not identify. Renado allowed her to explain. "When Father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw insects like the beasts outside."
Frightened at once at this prospect, the mask atop Barnes's head flew down over his face again as he paddled backward to hug the opposite wall in a strange fashion. He remained there, clinging to the stones, as the sobs of Beth renewed and grew more painful, leaving her gasping for breath.
Colin leaned down in front of her and reached out a hand. "Don't cry, Beth. It'll be okay." He touched her hand that shielded her face, but with a gasp, she beat back his attempt, covering her face once more. She angled herself away from Colin, sinking back into Renado's embrace.
"Link is coming to save us all," said Colin, his voice unwavering.
It was the first time that anyone had addressed him, and so badly Link wanted to call out to them, to tell them that he was here. He wanted to tell them that he was going to save them. But all he could not speak. And they could not hear him even if he barked.
Beth's cries subsided in that moment and she looked at Colin through her fingers. Talo looked as though he wanted to believe it, eyes popping wide, but his expression was hard to read since half of his face was hidden behind Renado's sleeve. Malo simply sat there, staring at his stubby feet. All of them, Link could feel, wanted him to be with them, but there was a hanging doubt in all of their eyes … save for Colin. Renado and the girl beside them looked on in ignorance. Link wondered if they were picturing a tall and muscular man in their minds' eyes.
Barnes just looked as bemused as any human Link had ever seen, his mouth hanging low and making the strangest sounds.
Colin looked at his hands, summoning strength. "I can feel it!" he said in a rising tone.
Link wondered if he truly could feel his presence … even though he knew that he could not.
He heard Talo's grunt, and looked up to see him turn away, eyes narrowed. He looked to the others and saw that only Colin truly believed that he would come to their rescue. The other children would be proven wrong. Link would not let Colin down, the boy who had admired him since the day he was born, the boy who had treated him like an older brother....
He lingered, staring into Colin's face, a face that could not return his glance.
Midna woke him from his trance. "These kids knew you'd come to save them? What a hero!" she called. "How sad, to be right in front of someone and not be noticed at all...." There was not a note of sympathy within her voice, however. "You are chosen by the gods, and only that keeps you from turning into a spirit, or worse, into a dark monster, when you enter the twilight," she reminded, quite unnecessarily. "And no one knows what you have done.... You may be doomed to toil in obscurity forever."
Truthfully, Link preferred it that way. If his alter identity could be kept a secret from everyone, the better he would feel. He did not need recognition for his deeds. The tasks were simply those that needed to be done … whoever was to do them.
"You're the type to worry about everything," she droned on. "I can tell. But don't fret over Princess Zelda! She chose this state of affairs after all...."
To save her people from a certain death, Link argued in his mind. They are better this way. Wandering in the twilight as spirits.... They aren't dead, so, they still have a chance.
"So," boomed Midna's voice, "what's all this about having to light candles to get to the basement? Not very subtle, is it?" She bent over him, clutching the vessel carefully within one of her arms.
At least she cares about something, Link thought.
Midna smiled at him. "So, what are you going to do now … my lonely little hero?"
Ignoring her callous giggle, Link picked up where Barnes left off, grabbing the dropped torch between his jaws. Quickly, he sprang to each of the four candles set into the wall, and in the middle of the room, a well-disguised hatch behind the statue collapsed into the floor.
Across the room he could hear Renado and the children's astonishment at the movement. Barnes had backed himself into a corner mumbling to himself. "It just moved … by itself … what's going on?...."
He let slip the torch and it fell to his feet, where his soft paws patted out the flare. He then strode over to the entrance and peered down. It was dark. Should've kept that torch. But then Link remembered that his eyes were now more powerful in darker places, so he had no further hesitation in dropping down into the unknown.
With a tumble he landed quite safely into the basement. A passage led into a central room, and it was there where he found his hiding prey. Its quick movements from side to side were no match for his sight or reflexes, and within seconds, its stolen light was stowed with the others.
That was what the sign said anyway. To Link the village looked more like a ghost town, having been abandoned long ago and rather quickly. The tall buildings, though once surely magnificent in their days of glory, were now run down shacks. Cracks formed along every corner of the outside frameworks, which indicated that the insides would be much worse. Windows were broken, shattered completely, or barred. Most doors were pulled tight and locked; others were broken at the hinges. A few shutters had survived the mysterious onslaught against the town, most hanging loosely by one latch. Some houses had lost sections of brick, the blocks hanging halfway out of their respective places; others lay smashed on the ground beneath.
The entire appearance of the village renewed his doubts of finding the children. He had followed their scent eagerly to this very town, but now, all he could sense was the hanging darkness in the skies that had torn at the community. If he were to find them here.... He feared for their safety.
Link cantered up the slope revolving about a house to the left of the entrance to town. By the writings on the front door, he assumed that it had once been a shop. He rounded the bend at the back of the store and came to a drop in the path. Instinctively, Link leapt, having no time to stop. He landed feet away on a manmade outcropping connecting to an open door of the next house.
He crept inside, wary of the approach of any of the insects that he hunted. He jumped down into the dim room, and, sniffing, sensed something. A flitter of movement caught in the corner of his keen eye. He turned about to meet the scampering form of a beetle-like creature. Instantly, before it could escape into the outside, Link pounced and tore the life out of it. After Midna captured the glowing light that rose out of its dead form, Link continued further into the house.
The next room was large. Open space greeted Link, the corners filled with boxes of all sizes, a bar at the far end. Yet at the sight in the middle of the room, he growled and sunk his head low. Two masked shadow beings stood in his way of ascending the staircase at the other side of the room, which climbed to an overhanging hallway.
With speed unlike theirs, Link was already upon the creatures before they even had time to react to his presence. Snapping the neck of the first, Link hopped on to attack the next, but was surprised by a brutal blow from its bone club. His side pounding from the pain, Link had to leap back in order to miss its following attack at his head. Midna held fast to his fur as he circled about the enemy and tackled it to the floor. It wrestled but its efforts ended abruptly as its cool blood began to pour from several wounds which Link had applied to its neck and chest.
Without a second thought, Link tore himself away from the corpses to search the upstairs for any sign of either the children or the insects.
He only discovered one insect in the room adjoined to the hallway, and once its light had been added to the vessel, Link made his way out of the house and back into the empty street of Kakariko.
He searched through the many houses of the small village, carrying Midna upon his back, and within the next couple hours they had recovered several particles of the spirit's scattered light. Once he had exited the last of the houses, one in which Link presumed had been used to refine flammable material into usable substances due to the many warnings against the employment of uncontrolled fire within the house, did he realize that there were even more places to be searched.
Having exited the building on an upper level, he found himself on its rooftop and that it had been attached to the spread of the craggy slopes and outcroppings of the mountainside it had been set up against. It was a strange place to have constructed a wooden staircase, but Link did not have time for questions. He leapt up the stairs and wound through the confusing dirt paths until he arrived at another house a few inclines above. His nostrils caught the familiar scent of the insect thieves and searched around the house, looking for a route inside since the door had been damaged and barred shut. Around the corner of the decaying brickwork, Link spotted a section that had completely broken away. He peered through the fallen bricks and discovered dim lights on the other side of the pile.
Link shuffled his way through the mass and finally emerged into the interior of the house. Whoever had once lived within it had been quite the disbeliever in tossing anything away. In every possible crevice, the owner had crammed belongings, finding a perfect spot for each possession. Although, the end result was one of absolute disorder, no matter how honorable the attempts for organization may have been.
It was during Link's exploration of the house that he tripped over one of the items. He turned about and identified it as a piece of wood; however, one end was now ablaze from being knocked into the furnace by his foot. Before Link could react, the flare had spread to the opposite end of the stick and caught onto a folded curtain. From there the fire sprang up the walls of countless items and soon the entire house was aflame. Link and Midna choked on the rising smoke. The fire seemed to reach his nostrils, and he tried to cover his snout with a paw.
"Huh? What did you do?" asked Midna.
Through clouded vision Link saw something in the fire, but was distracted by Midna's constant bickering. "Sorry, but as romantic as this is," she said, a beam falling from its support against the rooftop, "I'm not going to stay here with you. I'm getting out!" And immediately, Midna slid off his back and pushed her way through the hole in the wall.
Link had come to a dilemma. Discover what it was he had seen in the fire and risk death. Or … follow Midna and risk that whatever it had been would be destroyed in the fire. By one standard he thought Midna's actions had been cowardly, yet another part of him saw her act as simple common sense.
And as the heat began to sting his eyes, the smoke becoming too great for his wolf lungs to tolerate, pots and boxes crashing in wild flames to the floor … he followed Midna out of the house. He cleared the immediate vicinity as the crackling grew to tiny pops of flame, engulfing the house completely in a raging dance of orange and red and smoke. It simmered under the crushing heat of the fire and smoldering breaths of grey vapor, and it blew out. Planks of wood burst upward, bricks flew outward, and an explosion of flame reduced the home and its collection into a mere pile of debris.
Link watched as the ashes settled and the last of the flames died under the repressive twilit sky.
Three gleaming dots swam throughout the rubble, as if calling out.
"I don't suppose there's a nice way to hunt these insects," remarked Midna. Her next words were said without any feeling whatsoever that Link could detect. "Well, you had to sacrifice someone's house to find Tears of Light … but that's how the cookie crumbles, right?"
He did not much appreciate the pun, but resolved to set aside the comment to step once more inside the remains of the fallen house and gnaw the life from the three insects. Midna then plucked their sparkles from the air.
"Hey!" Midna shouted from out of nowhere and pulled his ear to turn him to face the village below. "We didn't look in there. Now how could you have missed that house?"
A tiny, rounded house sat nestled at the corner nearest to the spirit spring. The top of its dome had been badly damaged, its attic exposed to the outside. He wondered how he could have missed it in his search, but remembered that he had left the spring to read the sign posted at the opposite end of the town. Why does she have to point out everything? Why does she always seem to be right?
Link, not wanting to answer his own thought, started his way down the path to reach the house.
Its double doors had been securely sealed from the inside, for they did not tumble inward when he nudged them with the top of his head. He even tried grabbing the door knobs with his teeth and paw before giving up the attempt of pulling them outward.
"Hey, you can climb up there!" called Midna, pointing to the side of the building. Link tossed his head in the direction and found platforms leading up as far as the bottom of the dome. The arrangement of the planks reminded Link of a framework. Perhaps the owner had been creating an addition to the house before....
Link tried not to think of what had happened to the people here. He climbed up the beams and planks carefully and finally drug himself up onto the rooftop attic. There was a small opening in the floor, perhaps damage of the same kind as the dome had suffered. He did not wait for an invitation.
He leapt inside.
Link landed on a red woven blanket. Glad to have landed on something soft, he looked about the room, which was circular, suffocated candles lining the wall on one side. A tall statue stood at the center. It was then he noticed it. Faint glows; strange, hushed voices. Link closed his eyes and concentrated, connecting fully with the lupine blood that was now entwined with his.
When he next opened his eyes, he stared at the window beside the door, but now there was a lanky figure peering out of it in an odd manner.
"Cripes! I don't see those black brutes anywhere...." the crackling, male voice was saying. "They've gotta be hidin' somewhere, waitin' for their helpless little prey to come out! Then they'll feast!"
"We are safe as long as we remain in here. Be at ease," another male voice said behind Link, this one more calm, in control of himself.
But Link found himself unable to turn away from the skinny man staring out the window. He did not know the other voice. It did not belong to any of the children, so he paid his attention to the character who spoke of the beasts. Midna, however, put a hand over her giggle, laughing at both the man and Link's ignorance.
"Oh yeah, I wonder if the monsters out there agree with you," said the man at the window. He turned around to face the man behind Link, raising a welding mask as he addressed him. Glasses adorned his narrow face, its only color coming from the red beard and fluff of hair on his balding scalp. His belly bulged slightly from under its white shirt, giving the impression of a man who worked the wrong muscles.
"They sure didn't seem impressed by my bombs!" he continued, his tone rising to one of anger and fear. "How long do you think we can hold this sanctuary against beasts that strong, huh?"
Link heard a whimper behind him.
"Once they attack, it's over!" the bearded man went on, without giving any indication that he had heard the sob. "Remember the lady from the general store? Just one of those things attacked her, and a whole gang from town went to save her! And what happened?" His voice squeaked. "She was already gone, and there were two monsters waitin'!
"You connectin' the dots?" he asked the space behind Link. "That means that if we get attacked by them, then we'll be...."
You become the beast … finished Link. He thought of the shadow beings he had recently killed. Had they in fact been the townspeople?
"BARNES!" came the once calm voice of the other man, and it was then that Link turned to look at him. Dreadlocked and ornamented black hair framed a face of deep wrinkles. His eyes were widened in outrage at the other man, lips pursed.
Link looked to the other person that he consoled from the outpour of Barnes's own fears … and he knew that face.... Talo. He looked across the bench were the two of them sat and found four other small figures, only one of whom he did not know. There, sitting with the comforting man, were the children from Ordon. Talo, Malo, Beth, and Colin.
Link felt his heart skip in its rhythmic pulse. He had found them! But … where was Ilia?
The sobs that then squealed through the air drew Link back to the present scene. The strange man looked away from the offending Barnes and put an arm around Beth, who now cried into her hands. The man gave Barnes a sideways glance, and the disproportioned man tilted his mask back over his face and sank to the floor. Whether or not he was laughing or crying was not easy to tell, however.
"Look, Renado," said Barnes, now crawling across the floor, "All I mean to say is that it's risky here, too! Ain't you got some place we can hide?"
The man called Renado thought for a moment, deciding whether or not to tell the cowardly man. Then he said with a glare out the corner of his eye, "There is … a cellar."
As if suddenly struck from the behind, Barnes wheeled ahead, limbs flying in so many directions, Link thought his movements impossible for any human to rightfully manage. At once, Barnes was at Renado's feet, mask lifted, looking hopefully at him. His lips were shaking wildly. "What? You've got a cellar? Where's the entrance?"
Renado's answer came evenly, and Link sensed something lingering beneath the words. "It is designed to open when all of the candles are lit."
Immediately, Barnes was holding a single torch, its tip on fire. He rushed to the candle sitting before the great statue and set it aflame, tripping in the process. Before he could continue on to any of the wicks lining the wall, a female voice brought life to the subtext that had coated Renado's last words.
"I … would not do that."
Barnes looked up at the girl that Link could not identify. Renado allowed her to explain. "When Father instructed me to secure the cellar, I saw insects like the beasts outside."
Frightened at once at this prospect, the mask atop Barnes's head flew down over his face again as he paddled backward to hug the opposite wall in a strange fashion. He remained there, clinging to the stones, as the sobs of Beth renewed and grew more painful, leaving her gasping for breath.
Colin leaned down in front of her and reached out a hand. "Don't cry, Beth. It'll be okay." He touched her hand that shielded her face, but with a gasp, she beat back his attempt, covering her face once more. She angled herself away from Colin, sinking back into Renado's embrace.
"Link is coming to save us all," said Colin, his voice unwavering.
It was the first time that anyone had addressed him, and so badly Link wanted to call out to them, to tell them that he was here. He wanted to tell them that he was going to save them. But all he could not speak. And they could not hear him even if he barked.
Beth's cries subsided in that moment and she looked at Colin through her fingers. Talo looked as though he wanted to believe it, eyes popping wide, but his expression was hard to read since half of his face was hidden behind Renado's sleeve. Malo simply sat there, staring at his stubby feet. All of them, Link could feel, wanted him to be with them, but there was a hanging doubt in all of their eyes … save for Colin. Renado and the girl beside them looked on in ignorance. Link wondered if they were picturing a tall and muscular man in their minds' eyes.
Barnes just looked as bemused as any human Link had ever seen, his mouth hanging low and making the strangest sounds.
Colin looked at his hands, summoning strength. "I can feel it!" he said in a rising tone.
Link wondered if he truly could feel his presence … even though he knew that he could not.
He heard Talo's grunt, and looked up to see him turn away, eyes narrowed. He looked to the others and saw that only Colin truly believed that he would come to their rescue. The other children would be proven wrong. Link would not let Colin down, the boy who had admired him since the day he was born, the boy who had treated him like an older brother....
He lingered, staring into Colin's face, a face that could not return his glance.
Midna woke him from his trance. "These kids knew you'd come to save them? What a hero!" she called. "How sad, to be right in front of someone and not be noticed at all...." There was not a note of sympathy within her voice, however. "You are chosen by the gods, and only that keeps you from turning into a spirit, or worse, into a dark monster, when you enter the twilight," she reminded, quite unnecessarily. "And no one knows what you have done.... You may be doomed to toil in obscurity forever."
Truthfully, Link preferred it that way. If his alter identity could be kept a secret from everyone, the better he would feel. He did not need recognition for his deeds. The tasks were simply those that needed to be done … whoever was to do them.
"You're the type to worry about everything," she droned on. "I can tell. But don't fret over Princess Zelda! She chose this state of affairs after all...."
To save her people from a certain death, Link argued in his mind. They are better this way. Wandering in the twilight as spirits.... They aren't dead, so, they still have a chance.
"So," boomed Midna's voice, "what's all this about having to light candles to get to the basement? Not very subtle, is it?" She bent over him, clutching the vessel carefully within one of her arms.
At least she cares about something, Link thought.
Midna smiled at him. "So, what are you going to do now … my lonely little hero?"
Ignoring her callous giggle, Link picked up where Barnes left off, grabbing the dropped torch between his jaws. Quickly, he sprang to each of the four candles set into the wall, and in the middle of the room, a well-disguised hatch behind the statue collapsed into the floor.
Across the room he could hear Renado and the children's astonishment at the movement. Barnes had backed himself into a corner mumbling to himself. "It just moved … by itself … what's going on?...."
He let slip the torch and it fell to his feet, where his soft paws patted out the flare. He then strode over to the entrance and peered down. It was dark. Should've kept that torch. But then Link remembered that his eyes were now more powerful in darker places, so he had no further hesitation in dropping down into the unknown.
With a tumble he landed quite safely into the basement. A passage led into a central room, and it was there where he found his hiding prey. Its quick movements from side to side were no match for his sight or reflexes, and within seconds, its stolen light was stowed with the others.
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*xelaalex Jul 26, 2007 Nice job, I like how you are portraying Midna's personality