CHAPTER 25: ACROSS THE DUNES OF GERUDO MESA
(unrevised)
_As night turned to day, rock soon became splattered specks, pebbles of
brown spread across the path as if the heavens had dusted their clouds.
The mountains fell away, crumbled into bits of rock that instead rose in
dunes, particles of their sides floating away with light and strong
winds alike. The sands of the Gerudo Desert had at last greeted Link and
Midna. However, with sparse clouds dotting the sky, the gleaming mass
above was free to heat the pebbles to high degree. The warmth radiating
from the sand burned at Link's face, and already he felt sweat dotting
his forehead and cheeks, his cloak choking and cooling his body at the
same time.
Yet Link and Midna continued on across the sands. They knew by the map Auru had shown them that the ancient prison was located to the northeast, and so, they directed their steady pace after Link had calculated their path from the position of the star above. Within the first hour of their fixed speed, spires appeared on the hazed horizon. They were still quite a long distance away, but their presence before Link and Midna assured them that they were heading in the right direction. Those soaring pikes were sure to be location of the prison, and fortunately, in the event that Link and Midna became disoriented, it would only take a glance about to spot the towering spires to redirect their course accordingly.
Their steps soon became strained as they crossed over dunes of various sizes, fighting gravity as their weight knocked sections of sand loose, the dunes trying vainly to force them to back to level ground. It had been at facing these difficulties that Link urged Midna to retreat into his shadow. It was useless for her to exert her short limbs at this point. Though her expression was argumentative, she did as he asked without retort.
Link struggled as he treaded through the shifting land, leaving footprints behind that sunk deeper due to the many grains falling out of place and cascading down the sides of the mounds. Hours passed by quietly, and though Link was unaccustomed to such constant heat, his pace never faltered. He wiped incessantly at his forehead streaming with perspiration, and he slapped away the hair matted to his face.
A few hours into his continuous path, Link halted his steps, heaving deep breaths. He slipped his water pouch from his belt and gulped down a small drink. The distance between him and spires ahead had closed by miles, but they still appeared so very far away. How big can this desert be? Link licked his lips and tied the waterskin off once more on his belt. At this rate it will take me a day just to get there. This reminded Link of the compromise he had reached with Auru. If it took him two days of just travel to and from the prison, a day was not exactly an efficient amount of time to set aside for any unforeseen obstacles he would face in reaching Zant.
Nevertheless, stopping to consider his time restraints did nothing to solve the matter. As he resumed his steps, his mind continued to churn. He could allow the Auru and the others to bump into him on his way back through the desert, but if they came to his aid while he was within the Twilight, he did not want them to follow. If they entered into the other realm and suffered in the attempt to help or rescue him, he would never be able to lift the blame from himself.
As time progressed Link's thoughts trailed to other matters, trivial in comparison to his current mission, his thoughts intermingling and constantly jumping about. Ilia.… Would she ever remember their time together? Colin…. Did he truly forgive him for hurting Luda? Malo and Talo…. Had the cruelties of life been forced upon them too aggressively? Rusl…. Had there ever been a time when he had loved Link as a son? His parents…. Who had they been, and why had they left him? He wanted to belong to someone so desperately, to feel as if he had a true place within the world.
Midna….
His thoughts lingered upon his companion the longest. Her appearance had seemed so alien to him once, so very long ago. Her vicious remarks, threatening smile, and her judgmental gaze. At a time he had hated all these attributes of hers, but as time had progressed, Link had come to realize that these were not faults. He had come to see her for her true self. Her way of speaking was of her personality. The ways her lips coiled at any circumstance were pure reactions, normal for any being. And now he rather liked it when she looked at him, the crimson within her eye seeming less hostile than it had once been.
The way she had pleaded for Zelda to help him … with what would have been her last moments. Midna seemed so much nobler to him, one who truly wished peace for all peoples. And he had to admit that he rather liked having Midna along now; her companionship was a constant reminder that—not only was he doing the right thing—but there were those who cared for him and the sacrifices he had made and was yet to make.
He caught a smile before it sprouted across his face, recalling that his deeper thoughts seemed to connect with Midna while she was within his shade. A little embarrassed and self-conscious of the fact that she may have felt what he had been thinking, he cleaned the thoughts from his mind, where he had been lost for some time, he concluded. The sun now glowered down upon him at its highest point in the blue expanse above. However, he had come closer to the prison, the circling pikes appearing larger and taller within each half hour of travel.
After several more hours of restless travel, he could distinctly see the prison below the pikes, only a half mile away. The building was nestled within a corner of mountainous, brown rock that erupted from beneath the sands. Yet he felt a mental tug on his mind as Midna called out, "Link, look!" He searched about, on his guard now. Over the head of a dune between him and the prison rose a stream of smoke. Link crouched as he moved forward then, precautious of any other visitors.
He ducked at the top of a sand hill and peered over. The large space in front of the prison's walls was completely flat … and there were guards. A campfire sizzled at the middle of their huddle, prepared for the sun's descent, which was coming quickly. Two of the bulblin mercenaries and their boars sat near the fire while two of the guards were stationed above on lone wooden towers.
He turned his attention to the structure beyond, and from what he could tell it was by no means inescapable, for its stone walls had fallen away in some areas. In several spots the ceiling had completely caved inward. However, the complex seemed to stretch back for some distance. Perhaps the sections at which Link now looked had not been the places where the protectors had locked away their inmates. This forward section only appeared to be closed off by a few gates, so perhaps it was merely the entrance into the real prison. Link's attention was drawn to the spires. Six in total, all capped by long poles that supported what appeared to be the symbol of the eagle holding something circular within its wings. Yes, that must be where the Mirror is located, he surmised. Now, just to reach it….
He scanned the horizon of the main entrance to find even more archer towers hidden among the stone. There were seven in total on the inside, along with ground guards that he noticed a moment later patrolling every walkway that he could see through the wrecked state of the walls. "This is good … and bad."
Midna appeared at his side. "How could this be good?" she demanded.
As Link answered her, he drew out his bow and counted out nine arrows. "Zant definitely didn't want anyone getting in there, which means that there is something he is guarding. Hence, I doubt that the Mirror has been destroyed."
"Well, of course—that's good," Midna said, and her brief pause directed Link's gaze to her. He did not quite understand the look in her eye, but he dismissed it. She was not one to respond well to questions at any rate.
Link peeked over the sands again, checking his targets. None of them had moved, and those on the ground paced through the same paths continuously. Link jabbed each of his arrows headfirst into the side of the dune, holding his bow loosely. Midna watch him impatiently, as it seemed he would never take aim on any of the guards. When he passed a glance toward the dimming sky, she lost all tolerance. "What are you waiting for exactly? A miracle from the heavens?"
"There are too many of them to just start taking them out," he returned calmly. "We wait until the cover of nightfall. That way they won't see right away that their archers are disappearing. Then we stay to the shadows and take the rest of the guards out one by one."
For a wrangler he was not so bad at strategizing. Midna sank into the sand facing away from the prison. At first, she folded her arms and cast her gaze toward her feet, waiting. But as the night seemed to stave itself off on purpose, she threw her sights toward its reaches as if silently pleading the sun to fall. She could not handle remaining idle for long. Stillness was never something she had been good for.
She turned to Link; his gaze was so fierce, so intense and full of purpose. How did he keep his composure so well in dangerous situations? Of course, she was not one to lose her head in such times, but she had to wonder where exactly his strength came from. Was it simply that he had been given blessed powers by the goddesses? Or was there something else to Link that he had never spoken of?
Her thoughts were quelled however, as darkness suddenly appeared and cooled the dry sand. Link flexed his arm then and raised his bow, nocking the first arrow, greeting the chill with a smile. He released the shaft and it sailed directly into the forehead of the furthest archers above the campfire. The dead body had not even touched the ground below before Link had dispatched its twin patrol. The first corpse landed with a thud, rousing the attention of the two bulblins sitting at the fire, but the second caused more of a clamor, splashing into the flames and sending orange sparks flying in all directions.
Link quickly grabbed another arrow from its sheath in the sand and took aim of a new target within the walls of the entry while the guards at the fire tried to figure out what was happening. Link's arrow caught his prey in the neck, but he reacted by nocking another deadly weapon and releasing its assault upon the next sentry in line.
By the time the archers and ground troops understood what was happening and had rallied behind cover, Link had already dispatched five of the inward bowmen. Some began barking orders, others asked for instructions, but most tossed their gazes about in truly incomprehensive gestures.
Thankfully these guards don't appear to be organized, thought Link as he struck down his eighth victim. All the more simple….
As soon as the last of the archers were eliminated, Link threw his bow back into its casing and tossed his hood overtop his head to conceal his appearance further. "Ready?" he called to Midna. When she nodded he jerked the twin daggers that he had previously inherited into his hands and raced out over the dune toward the campfire.
His voluminous cloak had been spotted for nothing more than a mere second before Link again slipped into darkness, the bodies of the two outside guards collapsed in the sand, several knife wounds painted across either of them. Even more riled at their deaths, the bulblins on the inside of the walls tightened their grip on their weapons, casting apprehensive glances in all directions, waiting for someone to call out the location of the attacker.
Link hugged against the outside wall, relying on his enemies' attention to be focused without their fortification so that he could sneak inside. He crept along, Midna at his side, until he arrived at a gaping opening in the middle of a crumbled section. He craned his neck to peer inside, finding only one guard at this post—its gaze turned away toward the main gate. Apparently, its instincts had falsely indicated that any intruder would barge in through the front door.
To remind the bulblin that not all trespassers were ill educated in the ways of stealth, Link slipped in through the breach, slit its throat, and kicked it to the ground to muffle the better half of its dying gurgles. Midna remained close at hand, prepared to fend off any of the sentries at any moment Link might fail to react.
Just as quickly as Link had slain the guard, he had receded from the reach of the flittering torchlight to calculate his next step.
By this time all of the patrols were on their highest guard, in a whirl of motion as they spoke to others around them and checked every crevice. Link did not wait to unleash his next attack, cloak spiraling behind his movements as he dipped in and out of the shadows in an intersection where three guards paced back and forth in their search. They dropped quickly, falling in a heap.
Link flooded through the area in this manner, slashing through unsuspecting foes. Midna cast magicks upon the few who caught sight of his cape, rendering them lifeless to the ground before they could attack. Link and Midna continued, dropping into every corner that crawled with the patrols, and they soon made their way closer toward the complex.
Link and Midna made their way through the narrow corridors, some with ceilings and others cleaved open to the starry sky. Link snuck up behind a guard at the end of a passage who clutched its sword with shaking hands, peering out into a room that spilled out in front of it. Link clubbed it across the back of the head with the blade of a dagger, but the thud of the body drew the attention of several surrounding guards, and before Link could escape through any breach in wall or ceiling, seven bulblins had encircled him and Midna. Link held his daggers at the defensive, as he felt Midna's back against his, also prepared.
One of the guards barked an order and they all began closing in on the intruding pair. Only Link's mouth and the tip of his nose were exposed to their sight, and he imagined that due to the mysteriousness of his present figure he would be able to intimidate them.
Link took a half step forward, stretching a blade out to his leftmost target. At once, each sentry stopped, trying to judge what action Link would take next. This breather was all that Link needed to secure his thoughts on how to escape. His plan formulated within an eye blink, and he somehow knew that Midna waited for a signal.
Link stepped into a furious dance then, his daggers whipping in all directions. First, he lunged toward his nearest foe, landing the knifepoint into its eye. Midna had called her body into movement at that point, adding rays of black-tinted red and green rays spiraling about the area, adding to Link's rhythm. During the altercation Link seemed to be everywhere at once, Midna at the center of the fight, focusing her magic and guiding their beams so as to miss Link.
He ducked out of the path of a sword and dove upward with a dagger, killing its master, and he then turned upon the next—and final—opponent of the group. This one, however, seemed more skilled with its saber and in keeping fear at bay. Link swiped his daggers in, but the bulblin parried and countered with a low slice toward Link's stomach. Link leapt back immediately, and greenish sparks flew out from behind the cloaked warrior, sailing directly for the guard.
The bulblin quickly brought up its guard, and the steel exploded upon the magic's contact, shards impaling the walls and the owner of the blade. Although, stunned by the pain of the sharp piece of metal that had embedded itself within its stomach, the foe darted away. Link chased after it as it led him into a small rectangular building. Yet when Link entered, the bulblin was no where to be seen. Inside, there were at least eight boars, some eating out of their troughs while others rested. Though there were two that glanced up at the disturbance. There were two exists. The one he had used upon entering and another that loomed ahead.
He started for the open door, but all of a sudden a wooden gate blocked the way. He twisted about just in time to see a gate slide over the other opening as well. Link did not panic, however. He turned back to his exit and spotted a crack in the bottom. By this he could see that the gate was at least a foot thick. He looked to Midna, and she nodded in comprehension. Link stepped back as she conjured a dark orb of magic and threw it at the gate.
Yet it only made a small indention at its point of contact and only peeled away a few splinters. Link decided against asking her to use her energies to break down the obstacle, for by the time her magicks could free them, she would be too exhausted to lift a finger.
Right, so maybe they aren't so disorganized after all, Link said to himself. He had misjudged the situation. He had concluded that the guard he had snuck up on had been trembling due to the fact that none of them seemed to have known what was going on, and yet Link realized— He was the bait.
But just as he had deduced how he had come to be in this situation, an odor wafted into the stable from the outside. He flung his hood back so that he could sniff at the air without the material restricting his sense. "Smoke," said Link.
Cursing, he sheathed his daggers and tossed his sight about looking for something he could use. His eyes sparkled at the item in the corner behind one of the boar pens. At least they're not the smartest bunch, he grinned, rushing over to where the heavy axe leaned against the wall. He gripped it tight just as the corners of the thatched roof exploded in orange fires. Link stepped alongside the door and swung the deadly blade into the gate. Its impact left a deep impression in the wood, and with another hit, chucks of wood began to break away.
Greatly satisfied, Link plunged into a fit of pounding against the gate, pieces small and large splitting away with each strike. Soon the flames above them had spread across the entirety of the ceiling, and the thick black fog filled the room quickly. The boars had begun to toss their heads in fright, and the sound of their squeals drew Link's attention to them momentarily. He amassed his plan quickly, hoping that it would work.
Link returned to his task, splintering the gate apart just enough….
The smoke attacked his eyes, making them cry with dry pain. Choking on the haze, Link stepped back to look at his work through squinted eyes. Content with how much he had been able to tear from its surface, he grabbed Midna by the waist and carried her quickly to a boar. It reared when he mounted its saddle, and Midna simply held tight to his arm, unable to see anything through her single eye and her heaving lungs.
Link directed the boar the best he could toward the gate, the animal squealing at the flames and the sudden weight. It tried to sever itself from the course Link had set, but Link sunk his legs into the creature and yanked on its reins each time it faltered to a side, directing its gallop for the unstable gateway.
With a horrendous, shattering crack, the boar broke through the decomposed doorway, flame spouting after them in a single burst of flashing orange. Its immediate and lethal spark caught the tail of Link's cloak, and he quickly patted down its existence. Free of the inferno, Midna continued coughing as they galloped away, Link taking the opportunity to fight back his own series of wheezes to retrieve a dagger and slay the bulblins that he came nearest to and forcing the boar to trample several others.
Link stayed upon the straight path that stretched outward from the stable, following its course through the encampment. Fortunately, it seemed to lead directly into the innards of the complex, and once the passage spilled out into an open area. Boulders of a broken structure seemed to have dotted the ground for mere decoration, for if they had once been apart of any walls there was only a short framework upon the ground that served as the evidence to the fact. A long stairway led up to the entrance of the prison, and it appeared to have remained free of the suffering to which the rest of the outside buildings have been victim. However, columns lined the stairs on its outside edges, appearing cracked and withered from the ancient years they had likely seen. Two balconies branched off from the entryway at the top of the steps.
But Link had spotted the archers upon these platforms too late, two arrows whizzing by his head. In dodging one he misjudged the trajectory of the other, and it scraped along his right earlobe and impaled the ground behind him. Link's hand shot immediately to his bleeding ear, releasing the reins of the frightened boar as he cringed at the smarting pain. He drew himself from the rearing animal, stumbling with his hands busied and unable to steady his weight. He sprinted behind one of the wrecked boulders that would conceal him from both archers' weapons. With the stone's width, he was able to set Midna down—her coughing now controlled—and tend to his ear. He winced at his stinging touch against the open wound. It did not feel like a wide slash, but his blood had already stained the entire of the ear and now drizzled down his neck and collar.
He whipped his cloak to one side and withdrew his bow once more, peeling out an arrow from his quiver. He aimed it quickly when he ducked out to the right, sending it for the archer before it could target him. Link had concealed himself after he had fired and rightly assumed that the dull thud that sounded moments later had been the untimely death of the guard. Link peered to the left and spotted the second, crouched down behind a broken stone wall with only its head peeking out. Its bow was aimed directly upon Link's hiding place, and when Link had ducked out momentarily, it had fired a clean shaft that would have pierced his forehead had he not retreated.
Yet Link had no other alternative except to attempt to hit his mark before the bulblin did. Link removed another shaft and nocked it, pulling back on the string slightly. He searched his memory for the details on where and how the archer sat, calculating the distance away and from what angle he would need to shoot.
Taking a deep breath, he twisted out from behind the rock and fired after a quick adjustment of his bow then slipped back into his concealment … but not before the enemy arrow was able to graze the middle of his arm. Link had let out a yelp and clapped a hand to the wound, as his bow fell to his feet. He did not know if he had been successful in slaying the archer, instead looking to his arm. A straight rip of white was met by a line of blood.
"You have absolutely the worst luck," remarked Midna.
He smirked in return. There was a part of truth in that, he realized. Every danger into which he had entered, he had exited from with injuries. Perhaps it was that he had bad luck despite his skills, or maybe it was due to the very evil against which he fought. Either way, his personal pain and grief was nothing to be compared to that of Hyrule's. In spite of any wound, he had made a vow to continue.
Link gritted his teeth against the pain he found when he flexed his arm. Fortunately, it had been his right arm that had taken the injury, and he would still be able to use his sword without fear of dealing further damage in using it unless the situation called for such action.
He peered toward the balcony then, the bulblin's feet dangling lifeless over the edge. Rather pleased with himself, Link grabbed up his bow, and fixed it within its case again. He and Midna then raced up the surprisingly whole staircase, and came to the entrance of the prison. Ornately carved torches—made of brass if Link judged correctly—curtained the outside of the barred opening. The gate appeared a newer addition … as did the lock that sealed it to either side of the cavity.
"Well, at least we shouldn't encounter any more resistance once we get inside," said Link thoughtfully. Before Midna could retort, he lifted one of the flaming torches from the loops that clasped them to the wall. He bashed its tip hard against one of the locks several times, and it soon broke away. Link wrenched the gate open partly and crept into the narrow corridor beyond, Midna trailing behind him.
Yet Link and Midna continued on across the sands. They knew by the map Auru had shown them that the ancient prison was located to the northeast, and so, they directed their steady pace after Link had calculated their path from the position of the star above. Within the first hour of their fixed speed, spires appeared on the hazed horizon. They were still quite a long distance away, but their presence before Link and Midna assured them that they were heading in the right direction. Those soaring pikes were sure to be location of the prison, and fortunately, in the event that Link and Midna became disoriented, it would only take a glance about to spot the towering spires to redirect their course accordingly.
Their steps soon became strained as they crossed over dunes of various sizes, fighting gravity as their weight knocked sections of sand loose, the dunes trying vainly to force them to back to level ground. It had been at facing these difficulties that Link urged Midna to retreat into his shadow. It was useless for her to exert her short limbs at this point. Though her expression was argumentative, she did as he asked without retort.
Link struggled as he treaded through the shifting land, leaving footprints behind that sunk deeper due to the many grains falling out of place and cascading down the sides of the mounds. Hours passed by quietly, and though Link was unaccustomed to such constant heat, his pace never faltered. He wiped incessantly at his forehead streaming with perspiration, and he slapped away the hair matted to his face.
A few hours into his continuous path, Link halted his steps, heaving deep breaths. He slipped his water pouch from his belt and gulped down a small drink. The distance between him and spires ahead had closed by miles, but they still appeared so very far away. How big can this desert be? Link licked his lips and tied the waterskin off once more on his belt. At this rate it will take me a day just to get there. This reminded Link of the compromise he had reached with Auru. If it took him two days of just travel to and from the prison, a day was not exactly an efficient amount of time to set aside for any unforeseen obstacles he would face in reaching Zant.
Nevertheless, stopping to consider his time restraints did nothing to solve the matter. As he resumed his steps, his mind continued to churn. He could allow the Auru and the others to bump into him on his way back through the desert, but if they came to his aid while he was within the Twilight, he did not want them to follow. If they entered into the other realm and suffered in the attempt to help or rescue him, he would never be able to lift the blame from himself.
As time progressed Link's thoughts trailed to other matters, trivial in comparison to his current mission, his thoughts intermingling and constantly jumping about. Ilia.… Would she ever remember their time together? Colin…. Did he truly forgive him for hurting Luda? Malo and Talo…. Had the cruelties of life been forced upon them too aggressively? Rusl…. Had there ever been a time when he had loved Link as a son? His parents…. Who had they been, and why had they left him? He wanted to belong to someone so desperately, to feel as if he had a true place within the world.
Midna….
His thoughts lingered upon his companion the longest. Her appearance had seemed so alien to him once, so very long ago. Her vicious remarks, threatening smile, and her judgmental gaze. At a time he had hated all these attributes of hers, but as time had progressed, Link had come to realize that these were not faults. He had come to see her for her true self. Her way of speaking was of her personality. The ways her lips coiled at any circumstance were pure reactions, normal for any being. And now he rather liked it when she looked at him, the crimson within her eye seeming less hostile than it had once been.
The way she had pleaded for Zelda to help him … with what would have been her last moments. Midna seemed so much nobler to him, one who truly wished peace for all peoples. And he had to admit that he rather liked having Midna along now; her companionship was a constant reminder that—not only was he doing the right thing—but there were those who cared for him and the sacrifices he had made and was yet to make.
He caught a smile before it sprouted across his face, recalling that his deeper thoughts seemed to connect with Midna while she was within his shade. A little embarrassed and self-conscious of the fact that she may have felt what he had been thinking, he cleaned the thoughts from his mind, where he had been lost for some time, he concluded. The sun now glowered down upon him at its highest point in the blue expanse above. However, he had come closer to the prison, the circling pikes appearing larger and taller within each half hour of travel.
After several more hours of restless travel, he could distinctly see the prison below the pikes, only a half mile away. The building was nestled within a corner of mountainous, brown rock that erupted from beneath the sands. Yet he felt a mental tug on his mind as Midna called out, "Link, look!" He searched about, on his guard now. Over the head of a dune between him and the prison rose a stream of smoke. Link crouched as he moved forward then, precautious of any other visitors.
He ducked at the top of a sand hill and peered over. The large space in front of the prison's walls was completely flat … and there were guards. A campfire sizzled at the middle of their huddle, prepared for the sun's descent, which was coming quickly. Two of the bulblin mercenaries and their boars sat near the fire while two of the guards were stationed above on lone wooden towers.
He turned his attention to the structure beyond, and from what he could tell it was by no means inescapable, for its stone walls had fallen away in some areas. In several spots the ceiling had completely caved inward. However, the complex seemed to stretch back for some distance. Perhaps the sections at which Link now looked had not been the places where the protectors had locked away their inmates. This forward section only appeared to be closed off by a few gates, so perhaps it was merely the entrance into the real prison. Link's attention was drawn to the spires. Six in total, all capped by long poles that supported what appeared to be the symbol of the eagle holding something circular within its wings. Yes, that must be where the Mirror is located, he surmised. Now, just to reach it….
He scanned the horizon of the main entrance to find even more archer towers hidden among the stone. There were seven in total on the inside, along with ground guards that he noticed a moment later patrolling every walkway that he could see through the wrecked state of the walls. "This is good … and bad."
Midna appeared at his side. "How could this be good?" she demanded.
As Link answered her, he drew out his bow and counted out nine arrows. "Zant definitely didn't want anyone getting in there, which means that there is something he is guarding. Hence, I doubt that the Mirror has been destroyed."
"Well, of course—that's good," Midna said, and her brief pause directed Link's gaze to her. He did not quite understand the look in her eye, but he dismissed it. She was not one to respond well to questions at any rate.
Link peeked over the sands again, checking his targets. None of them had moved, and those on the ground paced through the same paths continuously. Link jabbed each of his arrows headfirst into the side of the dune, holding his bow loosely. Midna watch him impatiently, as it seemed he would never take aim on any of the guards. When he passed a glance toward the dimming sky, she lost all tolerance. "What are you waiting for exactly? A miracle from the heavens?"
"There are too many of them to just start taking them out," he returned calmly. "We wait until the cover of nightfall. That way they won't see right away that their archers are disappearing. Then we stay to the shadows and take the rest of the guards out one by one."
For a wrangler he was not so bad at strategizing. Midna sank into the sand facing away from the prison. At first, she folded her arms and cast her gaze toward her feet, waiting. But as the night seemed to stave itself off on purpose, she threw her sights toward its reaches as if silently pleading the sun to fall. She could not handle remaining idle for long. Stillness was never something she had been good for.
She turned to Link; his gaze was so fierce, so intense and full of purpose. How did he keep his composure so well in dangerous situations? Of course, she was not one to lose her head in such times, but she had to wonder where exactly his strength came from. Was it simply that he had been given blessed powers by the goddesses? Or was there something else to Link that he had never spoken of?
Her thoughts were quelled however, as darkness suddenly appeared and cooled the dry sand. Link flexed his arm then and raised his bow, nocking the first arrow, greeting the chill with a smile. He released the shaft and it sailed directly into the forehead of the furthest archers above the campfire. The dead body had not even touched the ground below before Link had dispatched its twin patrol. The first corpse landed with a thud, rousing the attention of the two bulblins sitting at the fire, but the second caused more of a clamor, splashing into the flames and sending orange sparks flying in all directions.
Link quickly grabbed another arrow from its sheath in the sand and took aim of a new target within the walls of the entry while the guards at the fire tried to figure out what was happening. Link's arrow caught his prey in the neck, but he reacted by nocking another deadly weapon and releasing its assault upon the next sentry in line.
By the time the archers and ground troops understood what was happening and had rallied behind cover, Link had already dispatched five of the inward bowmen. Some began barking orders, others asked for instructions, but most tossed their gazes about in truly incomprehensive gestures.
Thankfully these guards don't appear to be organized, thought Link as he struck down his eighth victim. All the more simple….
As soon as the last of the archers were eliminated, Link threw his bow back into its casing and tossed his hood overtop his head to conceal his appearance further. "Ready?" he called to Midna. When she nodded he jerked the twin daggers that he had previously inherited into his hands and raced out over the dune toward the campfire.
His voluminous cloak had been spotted for nothing more than a mere second before Link again slipped into darkness, the bodies of the two outside guards collapsed in the sand, several knife wounds painted across either of them. Even more riled at their deaths, the bulblins on the inside of the walls tightened their grip on their weapons, casting apprehensive glances in all directions, waiting for someone to call out the location of the attacker.
Link hugged against the outside wall, relying on his enemies' attention to be focused without their fortification so that he could sneak inside. He crept along, Midna at his side, until he arrived at a gaping opening in the middle of a crumbled section. He craned his neck to peer inside, finding only one guard at this post—its gaze turned away toward the main gate. Apparently, its instincts had falsely indicated that any intruder would barge in through the front door.
To remind the bulblin that not all trespassers were ill educated in the ways of stealth, Link slipped in through the breach, slit its throat, and kicked it to the ground to muffle the better half of its dying gurgles. Midna remained close at hand, prepared to fend off any of the sentries at any moment Link might fail to react.
Just as quickly as Link had slain the guard, he had receded from the reach of the flittering torchlight to calculate his next step.
By this time all of the patrols were on their highest guard, in a whirl of motion as they spoke to others around them and checked every crevice. Link did not wait to unleash his next attack, cloak spiraling behind his movements as he dipped in and out of the shadows in an intersection where three guards paced back and forth in their search. They dropped quickly, falling in a heap.
Link flooded through the area in this manner, slashing through unsuspecting foes. Midna cast magicks upon the few who caught sight of his cape, rendering them lifeless to the ground before they could attack. Link and Midna continued, dropping into every corner that crawled with the patrols, and they soon made their way closer toward the complex.
Link and Midna made their way through the narrow corridors, some with ceilings and others cleaved open to the starry sky. Link snuck up behind a guard at the end of a passage who clutched its sword with shaking hands, peering out into a room that spilled out in front of it. Link clubbed it across the back of the head with the blade of a dagger, but the thud of the body drew the attention of several surrounding guards, and before Link could escape through any breach in wall or ceiling, seven bulblins had encircled him and Midna. Link held his daggers at the defensive, as he felt Midna's back against his, also prepared.
One of the guards barked an order and they all began closing in on the intruding pair. Only Link's mouth and the tip of his nose were exposed to their sight, and he imagined that due to the mysteriousness of his present figure he would be able to intimidate them.
Link took a half step forward, stretching a blade out to his leftmost target. At once, each sentry stopped, trying to judge what action Link would take next. This breather was all that Link needed to secure his thoughts on how to escape. His plan formulated within an eye blink, and he somehow knew that Midna waited for a signal.
Link stepped into a furious dance then, his daggers whipping in all directions. First, he lunged toward his nearest foe, landing the knifepoint into its eye. Midna had called her body into movement at that point, adding rays of black-tinted red and green rays spiraling about the area, adding to Link's rhythm. During the altercation Link seemed to be everywhere at once, Midna at the center of the fight, focusing her magic and guiding their beams so as to miss Link.
He ducked out of the path of a sword and dove upward with a dagger, killing its master, and he then turned upon the next—and final—opponent of the group. This one, however, seemed more skilled with its saber and in keeping fear at bay. Link swiped his daggers in, but the bulblin parried and countered with a low slice toward Link's stomach. Link leapt back immediately, and greenish sparks flew out from behind the cloaked warrior, sailing directly for the guard.
The bulblin quickly brought up its guard, and the steel exploded upon the magic's contact, shards impaling the walls and the owner of the blade. Although, stunned by the pain of the sharp piece of metal that had embedded itself within its stomach, the foe darted away. Link chased after it as it led him into a small rectangular building. Yet when Link entered, the bulblin was no where to be seen. Inside, there were at least eight boars, some eating out of their troughs while others rested. Though there were two that glanced up at the disturbance. There were two exists. The one he had used upon entering and another that loomed ahead.
He started for the open door, but all of a sudden a wooden gate blocked the way. He twisted about just in time to see a gate slide over the other opening as well. Link did not panic, however. He turned back to his exit and spotted a crack in the bottom. By this he could see that the gate was at least a foot thick. He looked to Midna, and she nodded in comprehension. Link stepped back as she conjured a dark orb of magic and threw it at the gate.
Yet it only made a small indention at its point of contact and only peeled away a few splinters. Link decided against asking her to use her energies to break down the obstacle, for by the time her magicks could free them, she would be too exhausted to lift a finger.
Right, so maybe they aren't so disorganized after all, Link said to himself. He had misjudged the situation. He had concluded that the guard he had snuck up on had been trembling due to the fact that none of them seemed to have known what was going on, and yet Link realized— He was the bait.
But just as he had deduced how he had come to be in this situation, an odor wafted into the stable from the outside. He flung his hood back so that he could sniff at the air without the material restricting his sense. "Smoke," said Link.
Cursing, he sheathed his daggers and tossed his sight about looking for something he could use. His eyes sparkled at the item in the corner behind one of the boar pens. At least they're not the smartest bunch, he grinned, rushing over to where the heavy axe leaned against the wall. He gripped it tight just as the corners of the thatched roof exploded in orange fires. Link stepped alongside the door and swung the deadly blade into the gate. Its impact left a deep impression in the wood, and with another hit, chucks of wood began to break away.
Greatly satisfied, Link plunged into a fit of pounding against the gate, pieces small and large splitting away with each strike. Soon the flames above them had spread across the entirety of the ceiling, and the thick black fog filled the room quickly. The boars had begun to toss their heads in fright, and the sound of their squeals drew Link's attention to them momentarily. He amassed his plan quickly, hoping that it would work.
Link returned to his task, splintering the gate apart just enough….
The smoke attacked his eyes, making them cry with dry pain. Choking on the haze, Link stepped back to look at his work through squinted eyes. Content with how much he had been able to tear from its surface, he grabbed Midna by the waist and carried her quickly to a boar. It reared when he mounted its saddle, and Midna simply held tight to his arm, unable to see anything through her single eye and her heaving lungs.
Link directed the boar the best he could toward the gate, the animal squealing at the flames and the sudden weight. It tried to sever itself from the course Link had set, but Link sunk his legs into the creature and yanked on its reins each time it faltered to a side, directing its gallop for the unstable gateway.
With a horrendous, shattering crack, the boar broke through the decomposed doorway, flame spouting after them in a single burst of flashing orange. Its immediate and lethal spark caught the tail of Link's cloak, and he quickly patted down its existence. Free of the inferno, Midna continued coughing as they galloped away, Link taking the opportunity to fight back his own series of wheezes to retrieve a dagger and slay the bulblins that he came nearest to and forcing the boar to trample several others.
Link stayed upon the straight path that stretched outward from the stable, following its course through the encampment. Fortunately, it seemed to lead directly into the innards of the complex, and once the passage spilled out into an open area. Boulders of a broken structure seemed to have dotted the ground for mere decoration, for if they had once been apart of any walls there was only a short framework upon the ground that served as the evidence to the fact. A long stairway led up to the entrance of the prison, and it appeared to have remained free of the suffering to which the rest of the outside buildings have been victim. However, columns lined the stairs on its outside edges, appearing cracked and withered from the ancient years they had likely seen. Two balconies branched off from the entryway at the top of the steps.
But Link had spotted the archers upon these platforms too late, two arrows whizzing by his head. In dodging one he misjudged the trajectory of the other, and it scraped along his right earlobe and impaled the ground behind him. Link's hand shot immediately to his bleeding ear, releasing the reins of the frightened boar as he cringed at the smarting pain. He drew himself from the rearing animal, stumbling with his hands busied and unable to steady his weight. He sprinted behind one of the wrecked boulders that would conceal him from both archers' weapons. With the stone's width, he was able to set Midna down—her coughing now controlled—and tend to his ear. He winced at his stinging touch against the open wound. It did not feel like a wide slash, but his blood had already stained the entire of the ear and now drizzled down his neck and collar.
He whipped his cloak to one side and withdrew his bow once more, peeling out an arrow from his quiver. He aimed it quickly when he ducked out to the right, sending it for the archer before it could target him. Link had concealed himself after he had fired and rightly assumed that the dull thud that sounded moments later had been the untimely death of the guard. Link peered to the left and spotted the second, crouched down behind a broken stone wall with only its head peeking out. Its bow was aimed directly upon Link's hiding place, and when Link had ducked out momentarily, it had fired a clean shaft that would have pierced his forehead had he not retreated.
Yet Link had no other alternative except to attempt to hit his mark before the bulblin did. Link removed another shaft and nocked it, pulling back on the string slightly. He searched his memory for the details on where and how the archer sat, calculating the distance away and from what angle he would need to shoot.
Taking a deep breath, he twisted out from behind the rock and fired after a quick adjustment of his bow then slipped back into his concealment … but not before the enemy arrow was able to graze the middle of his arm. Link had let out a yelp and clapped a hand to the wound, as his bow fell to his feet. He did not know if he had been successful in slaying the archer, instead looking to his arm. A straight rip of white was met by a line of blood.
"You have absolutely the worst luck," remarked Midna.
He smirked in return. There was a part of truth in that, he realized. Every danger into which he had entered, he had exited from with injuries. Perhaps it was that he had bad luck despite his skills, or maybe it was due to the very evil against which he fought. Either way, his personal pain and grief was nothing to be compared to that of Hyrule's. In spite of any wound, he had made a vow to continue.
Link gritted his teeth against the pain he found when he flexed his arm. Fortunately, it had been his right arm that had taken the injury, and he would still be able to use his sword without fear of dealing further damage in using it unless the situation called for such action.
He peered toward the balcony then, the bulblin's feet dangling lifeless over the edge. Rather pleased with himself, Link grabbed up his bow, and fixed it within its case again. He and Midna then raced up the surprisingly whole staircase, and came to the entrance of the prison. Ornately carved torches—made of brass if Link judged correctly—curtained the outside of the barred opening. The gate appeared a newer addition … as did the lock that sealed it to either side of the cavity.
"Well, at least we shouldn't encounter any more resistance once we get inside," said Link thoughtfully. Before Midna could retort, he lifted one of the flaming torches from the loops that clasped them to the wall. He bashed its tip hard against one of the locks several times, and it soon broke away. Link wrenched the gate open partly and crept into the narrow corridor beyond, Midna trailing behind him.
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REVIEWS FOR THIS CHAPTER:
*duck-da-duck7 Dec 13, 2010 Suspenseful! I love it!
~midna98 Apr 21, 2011 Please post more! I love it so much and it is very detailed!
~theshexynator123 Jul 28, 2011 dang, i wish that Link could do those awesome moves in the game! That would make me so happy!
~midna98 Apr 21, 2011 Please post more! I love it so much and it is very detailed!
~theshexynator123 Jul 28, 2011 dang, i wish that Link could do those awesome moves in the game! That would make me so happy!