Fan Fiction ❯ Professional Hero ❯ Breathing space ( Chapter 28 )

Chapter 28 - Breathing space

The sheikah swiftly maneuvered through the great halls, avoiding any guard he might encounter, until he reached the throne room. He opened the doors and entered. Quickly he made his way to the throne where Zelda was seated, reading the daily journals her advisors had put together for her.

"We have a problem." He said.

Zelda looked up with raised eyebrows.

"Either you have a problem or I have a problem," she sighed and directed her attention back to her papers, "there is no "we" when it comes to governing a country. Except of course the royal "we". And if it's really a problem, I think I'll read about it."

The sheikah seemed to sigh and stepped closer.

"WE have a problem."

Zelda stared viciously at the sheikah.

"Well, then tell me, what problem have WE?"

"Darunia's sons have gone to Tempora and Link has formed an alliance with the Zora, the Deku and the survivors of Clocktown."

"Mashka still refuses our reinforcements?"

"Mashka is dead."

"I'm sorry to hear that. He was a good force, a bit stupid but that was one of his qualities. Who killed him? The Zora, the Deku or one of those wannabe soldiers in Ikana canyon?"

"Link killed him."

Zelda blinked.

"Darunia's son Link or did our Hero of Time resurface?"

"Link hasn't been seen since he's left a trail of bodies through Labrynna and Holodrum. There are rumours of a merciless killer that roams the land, but none can be confirmed. No, it was Darunia's son."

"That's impossible, he lives by that ridiculous code that he doesn't fight other Gorons."

"Well, from what I've gathered, he fought the Gorons but didn't kill them, until Mashka killed Terrani."

"That must be a shock for Darunia," Zelda said without emotion, and returned her attention to her papers, "but I still don't see what it has to do with us. Tempora was pretty useless as long as Mashka refused to cooperate."

"And Romani ranch?"

Zelda looked up.

"You mean…"

"A squadron of Hylian soldiers guarded the ranch."

"Do you think he…"

"He knows. He hasn't told anyone yet what has happened not to let you know, but our informants have let me know that he has called a meeting of the sages."

"This is not good." Zelda placed her folded her hands together and placed them against her mouth.

"What do you suggest?"

The sheikah took of his mask and ran his hand through his pitch-black hair.

"Kill the sages." Dark said after some thought.

"Yes, that seems to be the best thing to do. Especially since neither the Zora nor the Kokiri will have their guardian after Itaké is finished with them. But first I'll distract them with the corruption of the temples so at least we can still use them. Oh, and make sure that Link has some trouble on his way back."

"As you wish, my queen." Dark let out a vicious smile.

The little girl ran through the dark woods at top speed, dodging bushes and trees left and right. She stopped for a moment, heavily panting, looking around to see where she had to go. After she had decided her new direction she dashed forward right through a bush. She came out on the other side dragging a small blond boy dressed in green with her.

"Found you!" she yelled.

"This wasn't hide and seek, Saria," the boy yelped, "at least not with you. And now I think they found me."

"Why not?" she pouted, "why won't you let me play along anymore?"

Two arrows landed in front of the little boy who scuffled back.

"Because they play with arrows and you don't."

He quickly got out his slingshot and shot in the direction the arrows came from. Two thuds could be heard and from a nearby tree two boys came falling out.

"Hey, Dekaru, no fair," one of them, dressed in green with a blue cap, said, "when you're tagged, you're out of the game. And besides, we didn't need Saria to find you."

"You hurt my head," the other boy said and rubbed the soar spot on his head, suddenly frowning, "hey, where's my…"

He looked up and saw his red cap pinned to the tree with a purple-feathered arrow.

"Hey!" he shouted, "that could have hurt me!"

"Don't be a baby," the redheaded girl with here hair tied in a ponytail with a purple ribbon emerged from the bushes, holding a bow, "I don't miss."

"Then why did grandfather have that bandage?" Mikau frowned while getting snickers from his brothers.

"I was six," the girl placed her hands in her hips.

"Anyway," Darmani said as he pulled the arrow out of the tree to get his cap back, "Saria, what brings you here?"

"The Deku tree asked for you and you must go to help him," the green-haired girl started, "this is so cool, this is just like when Link had to go to the Deku tree although he got a fairy and you don't but maybe he'll give you one when you get there but even if you don't…"

"Hold it," Malon stopped her so she could catch her breath, "we'll first go back to the treehouse to leave a message for grandfather and then we'll go to the Deku tree."

The three boys nodded and disappeared into the woods.

Darmani was writing a note to Madakar when Mikau suddenly frowned.

"Saria," he asked, "you think this is serious?"

"I don't know," the little girl said, "but he has been looking very bad lately. And since he knows how important you are, he won't call you out without reason."

Mikau nodded and placed a chair against the wall. He climbed up and jumped to the cabinet. He grunted and pulled himself up. On top of the cabinet was a wooden box that he pushed down. The box fell open when it hit the floor.

"Why didn't you just push the chair against the cabinet?" Malon asked, knowing the answer.

"Because this way it was more fun." Mikau grinned as he jumped down.

Malon sighed and placed the box on the table. She opened it properly and took out a Kokiri sword.

"Well, grandfather said he was gonna give them to us when we went for battle," Darmani said as he grabbed his sword.

After the four children were armed they left the treehouse following Saria and sat course towards the Kokiri forest.

A little time later they arrived with Saria at the Kokiri village and set course to the great Deku tree meadow. There the young Deku tree stood in the shade of the old Deku tree that now was completely black. The deku tree himself didn't look so good either but seemed to lighten up as the four children of Link arrived.

"It's good to see you," he smiled, "I need your assistance as the old Deku tree needed your fathers twenty years ago. Somebody has put a curse on the old Deku tree, sapping all good lifeforces out of the ground, leaving nothing to me, and so trying to kill me. I must ask you to enter the old Deku tree and stop whatever curse is killing me."

"No problem," Mikau nodded, "we'll see what we can find and help you."

"Thank you, I will give you this fairy to guide you."

The other kids nodded and dashed into the old Deku tree with their new fairy.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" Saria asked, "because the old Deku tree died even though Link saved them, and I don't want you to die."

"Don't worry, Saria," the Deku tree tried to reassure the little girl, "the old Deku tree tried to fight off the curse on his own, I do not or cannot take that chance."

Saria nodded, turned around to go back to the village, glanced back at the Deku tree one last time, shrugged and then skipped off.

The four children came in the belly of the giant tree. A huge spider web was spun in the middle and large Deku baba's were snapping on the side. Dekaru sheathed his sword and got out his deku stick. Twirling it around in his hand he jumped to the first one and hit it on the flowerhead, sliding through to the second one and giving such a hard blow it came out with the roots. He did a backflip and jumped over the web to the third one but before he could strike an arrow killed it. He looked rather disappointed to Malon who placed her bow back.

"Why do you still have a deku stick when you have a sword?" Darmani asked.

"I got this deku stick from the great Deku tree." Came the response.

Darmani nodded and let out a grin.

"The problem is probably located near the roots," the fairy said as she flew over the spider web, "so we must get down here."

"Get out of the way!" Malon shrieked.

The fairy flew out of the way just as a giant spider came crashing down. The spider who had missed its prey, stopped just a meter above the web and climbed back up.

"Cool," Mikau grinned, "something we can kill."

"Then let's get up there." Darmani responded and started to climb the vines on the side of the tree.

"But we must get down." The fairy said.

"Before we can get down, we must go up," Darmani stated, "that's what living in the Lost Woods has taught me."

The fairy sighed as the four children started to climb up but followed them.

"How hard do you think this will be?" Mikau asked as the reached the first platform.

"Hopefully not too hard." Darmani answered.

"But hard enough," Malon reacted, "so we don't get too confident."

Mikau and Darmani shrugged at this and started to continue only to stop when they saw somebody standing a bit further.

"Is that?" Dekaru started.

The boy was dressed in green much like Dekaru but looked about the age of Darmani and Mikau and he started to climb the vines. Suddenly one of the skultalla seared down and bit the boy in the arm. He fell down, gripping his arm in pain. A fairy fluttered by his head.

"Come on, you can do it." The fairy sang.

"But it hurts, Navi."

"So this is the big dare devil I've heard so much about?"

"It burns!" the boy shrieked, "this isn't like falling out of a tree, it burns like a fire under my skin."

"Show me," the fairy asked, "it's turning blue, it must be poisoned. You must suck the poison out."

"How do I do that?" the boy asked.

"Cut in your arm and suck the blood out. I'll go look for something to heal you."

The fairy flew over to the children and passed right through Dekaru. She stopped near some grass and pulled out some sort of heartshaped fruit. She brought the fruit to the boy that had started sucking the venom out of his arm.

"Good, now spit it out and then eat this."

The boy spat out the blood and started to eat the fruit. The wound on his arm slowly started to close.

"Good, now I think you best…"

The voice of the fairy faded away and both of them disappeared.

"Who was that?" the fairy of the children asked as Dekaru checked the grass where Navi had gotten the heartfruit.

He found a piece and put it in his pocket just in case.

"Link," Malon answered, "our dad."

"But why are we seeing…" Mikau was cut off when Link reappeared with his slingshot.

Link shot the spiders down and laughed out loud.

"Take that, you filthy things, hahahaha, I can't believe I used to be scared of these things. Let's go, Navi."

He started to climb up the vines and disappeared again.

"Well, seems like he got a lot of confidence with his slingshot." The fairy said.

"He's coming back again." Dekaru pointed to the new Link that came out of nowhere and shot the spiders without saying a word.

"I get it," Mikau snapped his fingers as the third Link disappeared, "we're seeing his previous trips. Didn't he tell us that he relived the same fight three times?"

Darmani nodded.

"But the last one," Malon shook her head, "he seemed different then the first two. What could have happened?"

"I guess we'll see when we get further." Dekaru shrugged and got out his slingshot.

He shot the real spiders that were up the wall and started climbing it.

"Why do you have a slingshot when you could have a bow?" Darmani asked as he followed his younger brother.

"I don't know," Dekaru answered, "must be an age thing."

They made it safely to the top and shot the huge spider that lived up there.

"Now what?" the fairy asked.

"Now we get down." Mikau shrugged.

"Down? But we just got up?" the fairy responded.

"Different kind of down." Dekaru grinned as he pointed to Darmani.

Darmani let out a load yell and jumped down from the ledge to the web in the middle of the floor. The web snapped and send him down into the water.

"Is he insane?" the fairy shrieked, "that was dangerous! Well, now we can get down and climb down that hole."

"After getting up here?" Mikau frowned and started to run, followed by Dekaru and Malon.

"I'm following a bunch of brainless kids with a death wish!" the fairy shrieked as she flew down, right behind the kids that had jumped down.

They landed in the water and laughed hearty as they got out on the side.

"That was dangerous!" the fairy shrieked, "you could have…"

"Oh, that was nothing." A voice interrupted her.

The four kids looked up at the new fairy flying down.

"Who are you?" Malon asked.

"I'm your fathers fairy, I'm Navi." The fairy answered.

"Cool," Dekaru grinned, "you can help us and tell us stuff about our dad."

"Yes I can, but first we must save the Deku tree." Navi flew around to look over the area and returned to the kids, "And things are just like we left them."

"We get up that block?" Darmani asked, "then let's go."

"But…" their first fairy wanted to object.

"You'll get used to them," Navi reassured her, "after all, I got used to Link pretty fast. At least these don't whine."

"Dad whined?" Malon raised an eyebrow.

"Only on the first trip," Navi explained, "he wasn't used to fighting, just doing all kind of neck breaking stunts. So when a monster had hurt him, he'd whine, but when he almost broke a leg from falling down from something or even jumping off, he'd never complain."

"Cool!" Darmani grinned.

The four children jumped down the long shoot and fell into the water. They swam to the side and opened the door that led to the inner chamber of the tree. There they saw Link standing ready with his sword while a large spider like creature came crashing down. The small blonde boy could barely jump out of the way as the three-legged spider hit the ground.

"That's Ghoma," Navi whispered, "I forgot it was so big. She was the one poisoning the Deku tree."

Link quickly hid behind a wooden pillar and got out his slingshot. He jumped out and started to shoot. The seeds bounced back on the thick armour of Ghoma but one of the seeds hit her eye and she fell down.

"That's it," the memory Navi shrieked, "you have to shoot her eye and then she's helpless!"

Link grabbed his sword and ran to the spider. He was just about to strike when the spider blinked and got up. The blonde boy yelled and ran out of sight.

"It doesn't stay down!"

"You have to shoot her again," Navi responded, "but try to stay close so you can kill her."

"But my slingshot is still on the other side," the boy panicked, "I thought it was done for, so I left it there."

The image vanished and the four children looked at each other.

"That was the great Hero of Time?" their fairy said, almost mockingly.

"Do you see any of the Kokiri do better?" Navi asked.

"No, but he was…"

"Just a Kokiri," Malon whispered, "he didn't know how to fight, he just did everything like he had always done, by instinct."

"But what was…" Darmani was interrupted by a reappearing Link who shot the eye of Ghoma and ran to slash her.

He hit her and ran back to shoot again. A sudden noise made the kids look up. From the heights of the room four spider-like shades dropped down and scattered.

"Is this real or just a vision?" Dekaru shouted at Navi.

"They're real! I don't remember them!" the fairy replied.

The vision of Link disappeared and was replaced by four red and black monsters with huge scissor-like claws at the end of their arms and their torso resting on six legs. All of them had one yellow gleaming eye that scanned for the four children across the dark room. One of them suddenly leaped forward to pin Darmani against the wall with his two front legs while coming closer with his claws. The second jumped for Dekaru but the young boy ran out and let his deku stick come down hard on the monster holding Darmani. Darmani grabbed one of the legs that had let go of him and twisted it around until a dry pop could be heard. The monster winced while Darmani disappeared in the shadows.

The spider monsters seemed to sniff the air and jumped forward, looking for the four children. Suddenly the one with the broken leg shocked and fell forward, showing three arrows in his back. The other three skittered away in the shadows.

"What are those things?" Malon whispered to Navi.

"I don't know," the fairy admitted, "from what I can tell, they seem to be the offspring of Ghoma, she also had such claws, but she only had two legs, not six. They seemed to be altered by magic."

Malon shrieked as one of the monsters suddenly jumped before her and snapped at her with his claw. Mikau jumped up from behind her and slashed it in the eye with his sword. The monster fell back and Mikau dragged his sister back into the shadows.

Ghoma and Link reappeared again and this time Link shot Ghoma without saying much. He ran through one of the spider monsters to kill the huge parasite and just as his sword struck, Darmani came bursting out of Ghoma. The monster tried to defend himself with his claws but Darmani just thrust his sword deep in the monsters body. It fell down, dragging Darmani with it, while the sword remained stuck in it's ribcage. Darmani got up and ran to the monster to get his sword back but suddenly the last monster jumped out of nowhere and landed before him. The young boy tried to stop and turn but the monster grabbed one of his arms with his scissors and pinched. Darmani cried out as blood ran down his arm. Mikau and Malon shot their bows but the arrows were plucked out of the air by the remaining claw. The monster slowly started to move towards the boy children, dragging Darmani along. Mikau unsheathed his sword and charged with a battle cry. One of the spider-legs shot forward and struck the boy in the stomach. He was ready to pierce the boy with his leg when he suddenly seemed to blink and closed his eye, clawing at it.

"A nut is harder to see than an arrow isn't it?" Dekaru yelled while he loaded his slingshot again.

Malon didn't waist any time and shot off another arrow. It struck in the shoulder of the monster, making it sway. It dropped Darmani who rolled away, clutching his bleeding arm. Mikau got up his sword and jumped to the monster. With a large yell he drove his sword deep in the veined eye of the monster and with an unearthly scream it died.

"Why did dad seem so sad when he last appeared?" Malon asked when the boys caught their breath, "or should I say, so mad?"

"Yeah," Dekaru said while he tore his shirt to bandage Darmani's wound, "before that he looked, well, not happy, but…"

"Arrogant." Darmani winced as Mikau examined the cut.

"He was," Navi admitted, "but then he learned… the errors of his way, sort to say. It's… hard to explain… and I'm not really sure I should either…"

"That's okay," Dekaru responded, "I'm sure he'll come back one day and tell us what happened."

The tree suddenly started to shake. The four children looked up and ran to the hole of light that was in the middle of the room while pieces of dead wood came falling down. They were enveloped in a cube of blue light and vanished.

The cube reappeared before the Deku tree and the four children fell into the soft grass. The huge Deku tree started to crack and bright light could be seen through the cracks. It seemed to explode in a bright flash but there was nothing that could even prove the huge tree had been standing there for centuries.

"I thank you a lot," the Deku tree said to the four children, "thanks to you I can draw nutrients back from the ground and now I have place to grow. You have saved me."

"But what caused it?" Mikau asked.

"I don't know, but ever since your father left I have felt an evil growing from the desert. But now with my full strength back, I can feel it has spread all over Hyrule. This was just one of the things to stop people from noticing. I feel a disturbance near the Goron village and Zora fountain as well. You must go to stop it."

The four kids nodded and ran away, eager to fight this evil that threatened their home.

AN: This is it, the first part of the liberation of Hyrule. The flashbacks of Link were to be part of a new story, a quite novel idea I might say, namely a novelisation of the Ocarina of Time, which by my knowledge hasn't been done before (or I really should start reading some stuff on here). Either way, that plan is kinda put on hold since I already had Link say he lived through Ocarina three times which seems a bit too long. I mean, would you read three times the same thing? I still might do it, but know, if (and that is a big if, unless I get special requests for it) I do it, it won't be a priority.