Fan Fiction Friday: The Era Without A Hero – Part 47

||  Part Forty-Six  ||  Part Forty-Eight  ||

Part Forty-Seven

On the next street, Princess Zelda caught a glimpse of the building she was trying to get to, still another block over. As she turned, looking for another pathway to the street she needed to be on, another band of soldiers appeared ahead of her.

“You, stop! This area isn’t safe!”

Zelda grabbed the corner of her cloak and cast it aside.

Some of the soldiers dropped to their knees. The ones that didn’t though, drew weapons.

“What are you-“ one of the soldiers who had knelt began. His sentence was cut short by the guard of one of the traitor soldier’s blades.

Zelda drew her hammer and pointed it at the traitors.

“If you want me, come and take me.”

“With pleasure,” a traitor grinned.

In total, four soldiers began walking her way. The two that remained on their knees pulled their arms over their heads and cowered as a fifth traitor drew a pair of blades and held them to the backs of their necks.

Zelda raised her hammer up and slammed it on the ground, sending a shockwave of magic through its face and shattering the ground between her and her attackers. They stumbled back and she sprinted at one of them. With a quick move, she raised the hammer upward into his chin, knocking him upward and onto his back.

The second soldier then thrust his spear toward her. She narrowly dodged and wrapped her arm around his weapon to swung herself around it, kicking him in the face on her way over. This left her directly in front of the third enemy who was charging with his sword. Again, Zelda dodged the lethality of the attack but caught part of the blade on her arm. She winced in pain but retaliated by swinging her hammer into the side of his helmet and caving it in.

The soldier with the spear pulled his weapon back before slamming it sideways against her. Zelda stumbled forward and to the ground, the wood exploding across her back. The head of the spear landed just beside her and as the fourth soldier approached with his weapon ready to attack, she scooped the spearhead up and jammed it into the soft part of his armor, at the knee.

She ripped it back out and turned to throw it at the fifth soldier that had been holding the two loyal men captive. The spearhead missed but managed to distract him long enough for her to close the gap and knock him backward.

“Come on! Get up!”

The two soldiers did as they were commanded and quickly subdued the traitor that had been using the spear. With the others defeated or at least unconscious, the fifth enemy scrambled to his feet and began running away. Just as he disappeared around a corner, he was sent flying backward.

“Ho-hoo! Eat gravel, you sorry sack!” Huron’s voice boomed.

A moment of joy filled Zelda as the behemoth ally turned to her, cracking his knuckles.

“Good to see you too, Princess! Where are you heading in such a hurry?”

“Lord Sagesse is trapped on that rooftop. I think it might be Adok.”

Huron’s eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened. He turned and motioned for her to follow and climb onto his back. As soon as she’d positioned himself at the top of his cloak, he barreled down the street and through to the doorway of the building Sagesse was trapped on.

Overhead, a blast of magic flashed against the early evening sky. Flashing lights of magic attacks erupted one after another. The way into the building though was collapsed. In fact, the building itself looked as though it would collapse under the weight of the combat.

“We have to get up there,” Zelda said.

They looked around and realized the building next door was unphased by the assault thus far.

“Hold on then. Here we go!” Huron crouched, then vaulted himself upward. He grabbed hold of the window on the second floor, then launched himself another two floors to the ceiling by pulling up as hard as he could.

Sagesse and the hooded figure clashed magic blast after magic blast. It was a contest of pure power, and Zelda decided to tip the scales. She leapt across to the street below and extended her arm.

“Adok!”

Sagesse and the hooded figure ceased their battle a moment.

The hooded figure also wore a face covering, concealing everything but his dull blue eyes and a strand of silvery-gray hair that peeked out.

It wasn’t Adok.

The man turned to Zelda and started toward her, his arm reaching up toward his hood. Before he could reach Zelda though, Sagesse hurled a shot of purple and black magic at the man and sent him over the edge.

Zelda peered down to the street below and watched as the man struggled to his feet, clutching his arm. He glanced upward, then ran off and disappeared around a corner.

Zelda started after him when Sagesse grabbed her arm.

“There is no need. Thank you.”

Another explosion shook the ground. This time though, instead of the blast coming from the direction of the camp or the assailants, it came from a couple of blocks over, well past the perimeter. The blast came from the building that Rassa had been at.

Zelda reached down and pulled out the small blue stone and called for Rassa.

There wasn’t a response.

A look of concern washed across Sagesse’s face.

“Rassa?!” Zelda tried again.

She put the stone back, jumped across to the building where Huron was still waiting and had him help her back down.

“Stay on there and just tell me where to go!” he called out to her as they reached the ground, Zelda hanging onto his shoulders.

They pounded their way back the few blocks and streets that she had taken to get to Sagesse. He was not far behind when they reached the pile of rubble that remained. The building had collapsed inward it looked like.

Zelda clenched her fists and fought her emotions back as much as she could. When her knees and fists hit the ground, she felt as though she couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred and the world around went quiet.

“Zelda,” Rassa’s voice suddenly cut through.

Zelda shot up and fumbled with the stone, “Rassa?!”

“Zelda, I’m here,” Rassa coughed hard. “I’m just below the building and I’m hurt. I can’t feel my legs.”

“Hang on!”

Without needing any more cues, Huron began lifting the rubble away. In moments, he cleared a path down to the level that had been below the building. With a little help from Rassa to guide them, they managed to find her and pull her free.

It was worse than she had let on.

Her legs had been completely crushed by a piece of the stone wall that had fallen on them. Her skin was quickly draining of color, and blood was pooled around her head from where another rock had fallen. When she spoke, blood coated her teeth and seemed to be filling her mouth with every cough.

“Zelda,” she struggled to say, “listen carefully. Take the broken pieces of the ocarina to the mason in Kakariko City. He can reforge it,” her breathing became more labored as she winced in pain. “With it, you can find the path to save Hyrule… No matter how difficult or impossible it seems.”

“Rassa, hang on! Please!” Zelda begged, holding the elder Sheikah woman’s head in her lap.

Rassa gave a weak smile, “Dear Princess… You must not fail. You won’t fail. You have only begun to see the power you possess.”

“Rassa, no!”

Rassa closed her eyes and let out a long and strained breath.

“Hurry!” Sagesse shouted down the street.

Zelda looked to see what Sagesse had shouted about. Then she saw it.

Laruto was in full sprint coming towards them.

“By the grace and love of Nayru,” she shouted, extending her arm, “I bless thee with life anew! Let not these moments be your last, as work unfinished thou hast!”

As her prayer ended a white glow floated out of her hand and fell onto Rassa. In that moment, Rassa’s eyes sprang back open, and she breathed in as though she had just been underwater for a long time. Her eyes fluttered open, then closed gently as color returned to her aged skin.

Laruto knelt down beside them and Sagesse arrived only a second later, both panting hard from their running.

“She will be alright, she just needs to rest,” Laruto managed.

Zelda recognized the healing spell. It was the same Laruto had cast on Osmond the night of Adok’s initial assault at the Swordsman Festival. She let out a long sigh of relief and managed to compose herself.

Just as soon as she did though, a chilling sound pierced the air.

A wet snap.

Laruto and Zelda looked down and saw the tip of an arrow protruding from the chest of the Sage of Earth.

A lone arrow had narrowly missed Sagesse and struck Laruto.

Zelda let out a cry as the Zora queen fell to the ground.

 

*          *          *          *          *

 

“It is done?” Adok asked, his gravelly voice emanating from the darkened corner of the room.

“Arrogant fool,” the man in the black cloak spat under a hushed tone. “You did well to kill the Zora boy and start that riot, yet it was not you who fired the arrow to end them.”

Adok remained silent.

His silence was met with a firm backhand across the face.

“I pulled you out of squaller and death. I taught you how to harness the powers you so ignorantly possessed. And you stand here claiming to be the one who killed the Sage of Earth?”

“You are right, master. It was not I who let loose the arrow-“

“Because she is not dead!” The man showed a rare flare of anger and emotion. “You failed to do your duty!”

“Master, I only failed because of him. That knight clad in gray who moves as you do. He arrived when I was due to meet you and I could not allow him the knowledge of-“

“And once again you fail before your words leave your tongue. He does know. He confronted me and nearly undid all the work I have done for nearly sixty years!” The man was irate now. His breathing was heavy, and he had lost any sense of secrecy that they had strode to protect for some time.

Composing himself as the sound of some nearby soldiers gave him some clarity and reminder of the situation, he asked his question calmly.

“What of the Sage of Ice?”

Adok paused, then answered.

“She is dead. I did it myself. That is why I was not present to finish off the Sage of Earth, my lord.”

A chilling quiet entered the room. There was not a sound for a few moments as the truth of Adok’s actions sank in. Then in one tremendous crash, the hooded man slammed his fist down through his desk and into the stone floor. As papers and rock flew about, Adok sunk into the shadows of the room and felt fear for the first time in decades.

This man is mad, he thought. He is damned mad and yet he is right. I have failed. Forgive me, mother. I shall not lose sight of our great task again.

In the chaos that once was the office where the two had met, the hooded man sat in the remains of his desk and floor. He breathed harder than he had in some time and took a drink from a glass that had remarkably not broken, or so he thought. When he tilted the glass upward, it sliced his lip sending a trickle of blood down into the wine.

He eyed the whisp of red that swirled into his drink then spoke aloud with newfound calmness and clarity.

“Going forward, you will operate from Medina. There you are to recruit an army. Those who resist, kill. Those who flee, hunt down and kill. You are to have absolute authority of everything west of the mountains. Any dissenters are to be put down. Do you understand?”

Adok bowed, “Yes, my lord.”

“Today was but the beginning of the end. We are nearing the final steps to our victory. The princess will go and retrieve the last key that we require, allowing me to at last drop this façade.”

“What am I to order this army to do?”

“They will march on Castletown in one month’s time. When they do, hordes of the Dark Lord’s forces will join them from the east and the south. Go, now. While I sow the seeds of chaos and ensure that the people of Hyrule have more disasters and tragedies, you will build the coffin for their long sleep.”

“Yes, my lord.”

With that, Adok disappeared through a portal. The man in the dark cloak looked about his office and grumbled.

He waved his hand toward the door and said, “Come clean this up and find me a new desk as quickly as possible.”

 

David Wayne Nystrom is a Staff Writer for Zelda Dungeon. This story is an imagining of the final days in Hyrule prior to the Great Flood talked about in the opening cinematic of The Wind Waker. The story is getting an audio version in podcast form set to begin releasing in early 2022 and there’s a complete soundtrack for the first volume here. Head over to erawithoutahero.wordpress.com or follow the story account on Twitter @ZeldaTEWAH where you can keep up on information regarding the future of the podcast, soundtrack, and other TEWAH news that will be coming soon! David’s top three Zelda games are Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, and Skyward Sword. He’s also an avid Smash Bros. fan. Every Era Has Heroes…