Fan Fiction Friday: The Era Without A Hero – Part 67

Part Sixty-Seven

They rested until the first lights of the morning sun were illuminating the sky. Then, the trio gathered their gear and emerged from the bridge. The road north was the same that Osmond had ridden in on a few short weeks ago before they’d departed for Kingdom Bay.

There was a small scar on Osmond’s arm that he had begun to feel more in the time since coming to the North Castle. It wasn’t a significant one, though Zelda had noticed it one night, but it was staring up at him now as they walked.

It had come from one of the small skirmishes he had been involved in during his time in the mountains. A stray bokoblin’s spear had come in from the side and, before he could bring his shield around to defend himself, it caught his hand just above the thumb. The monster had paid for the wound with its life, but the cut hadn’t healed just right and so now he carried this small scar with him.

As he looked down at it, it rekindled the questions he’d asked Fado a while ago. Questions about whether he had made the right decision. About whether he was happy as a knight.

The questions he’d been asked in the aftermath of Adok’s assault by the Sages floated through his mind as well. Which traits were most important to a knight? Was he okay with being away from home for such a long period of time?

Now, thoughts of his Uncle Henry and his workshop returned. Happier times of standing around after closing and sweeping up. Joking together on the way to the local tavern. Wondering if the girl at the flower shop had noticed him. Daydreaming while sanding down the legs on a table.

A single moment then played out in his mind.

“This is possibly the most important lesson I can teach you,” Aldwin said.

“More important than a counter?” a much younger Osmond replied.

“Why did the Princess of Destiny return the Hero of Time to where he came from?”

Osmond shrugged, searching his notes for an answer.

“It’s not something that you would have written down. It’s an idea.”

“She did it… because… it was right?”

Aldwin chuckled, “Perhaps, but we don’t know that yet.”

“Was it so that he could prevent Ganondorf from coming to power?”

Alwin motioned all around, “Did that happen? You can’t change history. If he tried, it obviously failed. Think. We’re dancing around it with these answers.”

Osmond furrowed his brow and glanced around, still unsure.

“Perhaps a riddle.”

“Okay…?”

“Until I am measured, I am not known. Yet how you miss me when I’ve flown. What am I?”

Osmond hesitated then glanced up at the ominously ticking clock that rested on top of the bookshelf.

“Time.”

“The most precious thing we have. The one resource which we can spend and spend, yet never get back. Be aware of the time you are given. There is no promise of tomorrow, nor another today to be had. What you do with that time determines all that you will be.”

What was Osmond?

His mind returned to the present, realizing that he’d dropped back a little from Huron and Fado. Though he tried to focus on the road and the destination that was drawing ever near, the question flooded every moment.

The encounter in the mountains with the spirit in his dream. The arbiter of justice. The purveyor of vengeance. A Knight of Hyrule. The husband to the Princess of Hyrule. What was he?

I am all of these things…

But that answer did not satisfy. There had to be something deeper. Something bigger. Something else.

“You alright, Os?” Huron asked suddenly.

Osmond looked up, again realizing a moment too late that he’d drifted away. This time there wasn’t a faking that everything was okay.

“I suppose I’m having a bit of a tough time, is all. There’s just been a lot of things to happen lately and… well… I just haven’t been able to process any of it.”

“Don’t think we’ll have time now for it either,” Fado said, slowing to a stop.

Each of them looked ahead and saw the black gate that blocked the path. It looked like it had been hastily built and would be no match for Huron. However, the two towers just beyond were manned by soldiers that appeared to have bags full of bomb arrows that begged to be lit and fired.

“Don’t suspect they’re expecting guests,” Huron said cracking his knuckles and neck.

Osmond felt his pulse quicken.

The soldiers at the gate spotted the trio and waved them over. Carefully, Osmond and his two sage companions approached.

“Good afternoon, sirs. The road is closed from here on, you’ll have to turn back.”

“We’re coming from Castletown to see the King. We can handle whatever’s on the road ahead,” Huron smiled.

“I’m afraid not. The road is closed,” the soldier said more firmly.

Osmond noticed the archers take notice of them. However, everybody’s focus suddenly turned to Fado.

The diminutive sage dropped to his knees and clutched his stomach. As he writhed around on the ground, he shouted unintelligible sounds and groans. He threw his arms around wildly, he kicked the ground, arched his back, and made a scene so grand, even Huron and Osmond believed it for a moment.

“For Nayru’s sake, surely there’s a healer through here? Please!” Huron begged.

The soldier was absolutely flummoxed.

An older soldier stepped out from somewhere behind the gate and unlocked it, pushing through only a second later.

“What’s he meaning of this? What’s going on out there?”

“They approached from the south, sir. And then, well, the little one there… he just… collapsed.”

Fado cried out, his voice cracking.

The elder soldier grunted and shook his head, “Just let ‘em through. There’s a healer at the castle. Ask for him at the main gate on this side of the water. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Osmond said.

Huron scooped up the overacting Fado and they all scurried through the gate. The elder soldier groaned as he pulled it shut and returned into the small shack he was previously in.

Fado’s whining continued until they had made their way far enough from the gate to ensure they couldn’t be heard anymore.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Osmond said.

“Everybody is a sucker for the sick guy ploy. Nobody wants to clean that up,” Fado winked as Huron set him down.

It was a fact that Osmond couldn’t argue against.

The stretch of the road between where the gate was built and the castle, was just far enough that the trio ventured off the road without being seen. The slopes of the mountains in the area were covered enough with trees and brush, that even Huron could hide among the more normal sized coverage.

“I think you might have had the right idea coming here,” Fado said, peering through the bushes. “I suspect there will be a patrol soon. What’s our plan?”

“Get to the King, find out what’s really going on, then take back the castle if we can,” Huron cracked his knuckles and neck as he spoke.

Osmond looked out of the trees overtop of Fado and noticed the soldier that had been at the gate now walking along the road.

“Whatever we’re going to decide, we’re going to need to do it fast.”

“There’s an antechamber below the central hall. There should be way into there from the outside. We can go under the bridge and move around on that little bit of island that the castle is resting on,” Fado suggested.

“Antechamber? I didn’t know there was a chamber down there,” Huron said, confused.

“I didn’t either. Kalia mentioned it to me and I thought it was by accident, but now I’m wondering if he foresaw some of this.”

“Could be a trap,” Osmond said.

Fado and Huron both remained silent at the suggestion.

“What should we do about the patrol?” Osmond asked, looking back through the brush.

Huron looked as though he was about to say something, but Fado motioned for him to stop.

“Let him go. If we take him out, they’ll be onto us.”

“If he gets to the castle and we haven’t arrived, they’ll know something is up too,” Huron argued back.

The soldier continued toward the castle, drawing closer to Osmond and the others’ hiding place.

“Whatever we’re going to do, we might need to make the decision fast.”

The soldier was coming closer and closer.

Only a few steps away.

Osmond drew back into the cover of the bushes with the others.

They fell deathly still.

The soldier came to a stop.

In what was the tensest moment for the trio, the soldier glanced around and then let loose the clear and unmistakable sound of a fart. He promptly then relaxed his shoulders, turned about face, and sauntered down the road back to the gate.

After they were certain the guard wasn’t returning, Osmond, Fado, and Huron moved out of their hiding place and continued toward the North Castle.

*          *          *          *          *

Adok sat on the rubble throne he had assumed. His hands were still covered in the blood from the solider he’d torn apart earlier. One failure after another had begun to wear on him and the amount of capable soldiers or monsters left at his disposal was dwindling.

“I want the city left empty. I want it to be a scar of rubble and waste when you’re finished,” his master commanded.

“I would rather rule it; command Hyrule’s people into servitude like my people were. At the lowest of low, their King and royal family. I agreed to your conditions-“

“You submitted to my command and you will do as I tell you. I would just as soon wipe you from the face of the earth as I would the King.”

“Then why am I still here?” Adok clenched his fist.

“Because you know I’m the only way to get what you want. Without me, your hope is as good as gone. Do as I command, or you’ll be offered up to that pestilent and ever bothersome knight.”

“He’s no match for me. I would crush him in an instant.”

“You underestimate him.”

With that, his master severed the connection that tied them. Since that conversation, Adok had remained atop the pile of rubble that he was claiming as throne and fumed bitterly.

I am the most powerful being since Lord Ganondorf… The Triforce of Power is my destiny… How does he assume that knight could best me?

A voice echoed in his mind.

“Be still litio konungur.”

How?

“Patience, my son.”

The memory of his mother brought a sense of calm over him. It brought a sense of purpose and focus also. When he opened his eyes, two soldiers were kneeling before him.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We have a message from the gate to the North Castle. Lords Huron and Fado alongside that Knight were spotted.”

“Going toward the castle and not Death Mountain? How fortunate for us…” Adok stroked his chin and rested it on his knuckles.

“Sir, what are our orders?”

After a moment of pensive tension, Adok spoke. “Go. Lead all our forces out and settle at the crossing to the west. Burn anything that still stands in your wake.”

 

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 sometime in 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! Every Era Has Heroes…