Fan Fiction ❯ Roam ❯ Wings of Darkness ( Chapter 7 )

Wings of Darkness

The sky is a bright hue, almost violet. The trees rustle, but I hear nothing… Except the flutter of wings. Many wings. I whirl to see tens of thousands of them leave the trees, all of them on fire, but never burning. The trails of flame they leave in the sky hang, etching visions of birds and prey in the twilight. Then, they fall. The flame rains down onto the trees and grass. Crimson shards lick my boots, but nothing burns. No, the trees burn, but grow in the flame. But something is wrong. Wrong with the bark of the trees.

The bark is moving; rearranging itself into something new. I move closer and I see… Myself. My own face grown out of the bark. The eyes open.

And it screams…

I awoke to the smell of brush. I became conscious of the grass I was laying face first on. My fingers etched grooves in the green as I clenched my fists and pushed myself up. My fists pulled up two tufts of grass as I rose. I took in my surroundings. They were Dark. The daytime was a continuous storm, and the Wind was nothing more than a violent spirit, churning now it seemed for destruction, instead of protection. An opposite.

"Oh God…" I gasped, and recoiled from the sight before me. It lay on its side, armor still crisp. The remaining flesh was decomposing at a rapid rate. The blue cloth wavered in the torrential wind…

Charles.

I covered my mouth to stop whatever my stomach had planned. I wanted to vomit. Then it all came back in a rush. The lightning stream, an exchange of pleasantries, then a sickening thud. The battle. The Epic battle. All in vain. Damn you, Charles. I should have been first. You hear me? "I should've been first!"

Footsteps! I heard the thumping of thread-wrapped boots. The grass around Charles' body was littered with stray spears. I snatched one and leapt into the shadows of the temple I had laid beside. Taking refuge behind one of the gargoyle statues, I waited.

Two shadows sauntered in from beyond the yellow stone. The figures were dark, and whatever language they spoke consisted of grunts and whines. Their features were difficult to make out with the little light given. I saw that each one held his own tall spear and wore lightweight armor. Footmen, or maybe scouts.

The footmen came further into the shadows and a pungent stench of moss and mud filled my nostrils. I nearly gagged. They smelled like a horse stable. The grunting grew into a high wail with vibrato. Laughing. They nodded to Charles' body and made for it. My teeth clenched.

The left beast froze in one contorted stance, then thumped upon the grass, a shaft standing erect from his back. His partner turned on the body, and I pounced on his back. He flipped me over, but my boots hit grass, and my talons were already clasping his long shaft. My Sight beheld an assortment of monstrous teeth and a long snout. "A pig?" I exclaimed.

The creature snorted and shoved me backward into his friend's body. No, a boar. Instincts kicked in, and with less hesitation than I expected, my arm shot out and gripped the spear still protruding from the boar's back. It was lifted with ease and twirled with finesse to rest in my right arm. I grinned. I didn't know how I knew how to wield this weapon, but I did.

The boar charged forward, spear in front. I did the same, but only for two feet, powering the spearhead into the grass and launching myself into the light. His spear stabbed air and my boot crunched into his temple. Landing on his other side, as he fell, the spear twirled once more over my head before impaling itself into the creature.

My hand began to leave the shaft, but could not. I yanked the spear out of the corpse, and without another second of hesitation, reached down and took the fallen's own spear. I dashed into the daylight.

The daylight was dark, a violet sky. Maybe it wasn't day at all. All I know was that I was standing there, brandishing two long spears, and a relentless gust of torrential wind flowed through my hair. I was not humbled. And besides, there were more foes…

My eyes calculated for me. Four boars, and something else in the distance, not important now. One charging. My right spear now pointed down, and I thrust it into the ground while leaping forward, my boot pointed like a knife. Great idiot minds think alike, it seems, as the boar charged the same way as his predecessor, and fell the same way.

As I landed, though, his buddy was one foot from me. So, we grappled. More specifically, however, I used one spear to occupy his own, while I landed furious blows to his body with the other. It took no more than three moves to expose him enough to thrust the spearhead through his neck.

Two left. The next was a tad bit taller than his brother. I sparred with him awhile, his defeat taking longer due to my lack of a second spear, but his idiocy finally got the best of him. He thrust in a spot where I no longer stood, and I spun the spear up so its butt connected with the boar's chin. Quite quickly, the spear kept going until it found rest in a throwing position again, this time aiming slightly down. It flew with great speed and struck the monster in its gut, producing only a short blood flow. Even though he was only a few inches back, my arm fired that spear with enough force for it to sail clear over Death Mountain.

Spear. Behind. I turned to see the final boar hurl his spear. Sidestepping, my right hand clutched it as it passed. I turned on my heel, catching momentum, and flung the massive arrow back to whence it came: the foolish boar's head. Then it hit me. Uh, oh.

The thing in the distance; a Cyclops, and a rather large one at that. He had appeared quite fast, despite all the stories that these hulking beasts are 1) easy to notice, and 2) extremely slow as well as stupid. This one was yelling orders at me. When it told me to leave, I would not move. So, resolutely, it charged.

The hulking beast barreled over to me, looking as if he were to tackle me. I, with no intention of grappling with such a colossus, dived between his legs. On the other side, I found myself at the foot of a long yellow staircase. So similar it was to the castle's stairs still fresh in my mind… Wake up!

The Cyclops was in front of me again and my chest compressed as the back of its massive hand whacked against it, hurling me backward. Orient thyself! I did, with a surprising fluidity, and landed with legs spread and one hand resting on the stone. My Sight could burn into the one eye of my opponent and lure him in. It worked, the beast came closer, and closer.

Now! "Ali-oop!" I sprang upward and pushed off the hulk's shoulders to propel me over his head and into a dash. A rock blocked the path to the west, but somehow I believed I could clear it. With a sense of agility that I had never felt before, my feet handily found the top of the rock, then the mud on the other side. My Sight glimpsed, over the top of the rock, the Cyclops call to yet another boar to accompany him. I was not ten feet from the rock when it was torn asunder and the beast crunched through its rubble in pursuit.

I ran for what seemed as ages in an ageless world. I journeyed for an eternity, but no time truly passed. The Wind felt possessed and demonic, no longer an element of cleansing. The clouds were black as night. Either black and a dark blue, I knew not which meant day or dusk.

My tribulations took me to town, or what I thought was town. The sign of Kakariko Village hung broken, wailing a cry of despair as the Wind flowed through its cracks. My heart filled with fire. Where am I that there is no Sanctuary?

The forest. I dashed into the sanctity of the trees. But the cool breeze and beams of sunlight from the treetops was replaced by a violent gust and a thick layer of smog. Horrid creatures roamed the grassland and haunted from behind the bark. Who would do such a thing? …It's all your fault…

I felt my fire, but I felt something else. A burning desire for vengeance. Constant, flaming vengeance. Rustling; they're coming. "Them." My gauntlet clutched my hilt with so much force I could hear the material stretching with my bones. Along with my rage, I felt my back grow, adding to the blinding anger. Rustling; louder. It's their fault, it was always their fault. They emerged.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!" I drew my sword, wings grew, and I screamed…

My sword still rests on my back; my crossbow remains at my side. I have had many regrets in my life, but I am alive and I continue to live…

End of Act I…