Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda: The Ballad of Fallen Angels ❯ Dead Men Walking ( Chapter 16 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 16: “Dead Men Walking”

The sound of dripping water was the first thing that Saetoushei registered when he regained consciousness. The splitting headache was the second. Saetoushei held his pounding head as he tried to sit up. A dim, glowing light pushed him back down onto his back.

“Gently, gently there.” Tatl said soothingly. “Don't get up yet. I can't believe you're not smashed into a thousand pieces.”

“What happened?” Saetoushei groaned.

Tatl replied, “Well, you kinda jumped off the cliff. It's about seventy-five feet straight down. By all rights you should be dead.”

“You'll find I'm just full of surprises.” Saetoushei grunted as he finally pried himself up to one elbow. He looked around at his surroundings and shook his head in disbelief. “You know, maybe my luck actually is holding strong.”

They were in a dank, yet brightly lit, cavern. A small pool of water glistened at one end with a tunnel leading out of it. The tunnel led back out to the river that run along the bottom of the cliff. On the other side of the cavern was a tall wood-and-metal door.

“I didn't remember this place was here,” Saetoushei murmured. “Through that door's where I fought the resurrected Demons.”

The Demons in question were the Secondary Demons of the four temples of Termina. Froggo and Stamp from the Woodfall Temple, The Wizrobe from the Snowhead Temple, Wart from the Great Bay Temple, and the Master Gabu from the Stone Tower Temple. Each of the temples was controlled by two demons that Saetoushei had defeated in his first adventure in Termina. The High Demon controlled the Secondary Demon, and the Secondary Demon controlled the evil forces of the temple. Saetoushei had killed all of them, but the Secondary Demons had resurrected here in the numerous rooms beyond the door.

“We'll be safe here for a little bit.” Tatl said. “There's plenty of fresh water here-“

“-but no food.” Saetoushei finished for her. “We can't stay here, Tatl. We need to escape. We need to get back to Clock Town.”

“Okay, that probably won't be hard. With any luck, Descrod thinks you're dead from your little fall earlier. We can hopefully just stride on out of here.”

Saetoushei shook his head. “We need to stop by Sakon's place first. There's a couple of items that are in the palace that I need back.”

Hours later, Saetoushei and Tatl sat in Sakon's hideout, waiting for the thief to return. It hadn't been easy to persuade Sakon to head into the castle for them, but eventually the thief had relented and left. Now they waited for him to reemerge from the dark passageway that lead to and from the palace.

Tatl head a plodding sound from the passage and turned to see Sakon emerge from the dark corridor. He tossed something at Saetoushei. Saetoushei caught it and looked it over quickly to make sure that is wasn't broken.

“The Ocarina of Time. Good work, Sakon. Now where's the key?”

The thief looked nervously behind him. “Don't have it. Couldn't find it.”

Saetoushei put the Ocarina in his tunic, his left hand idly stroking the hilt of the Great Fairy Sword that Minck had given him. “Now Sakon, we don't want to mess up your little place here. Give me the key and I'll be on my way.”

Sakon was hopping mad. “Look, I'm not lying! I searched the entire stupid castle for your crap, man! I found the flute thing in a heavily locked room. It was on a shelf lying next to the broken pieces of your sword. There was nothing else there. Guess what, Descrod ain't there either. Probably has the thing with him!”

Sakon was silenced by the point of Saetoushei's blade pricking him in the neck. “All right, thief. You found me the Ocarina. I'll take your word for it that you couldn't locate the key. But if I find out you're lying to me, you'll regret ever being born.”

The trek from Sakon's hideout to the beginning of Ikama Canyon took up the better part of the night. The sun was just poking itself over the horizon when Saetoushei and Tatl wearily trekked into the canyon. Tatl flopped down onto Saetoushei's shoulder and sighed. “So tired. I can't make it any longer. My wings are dead.”

Saetoushei wiped sweat from his eyes. “We have to go on. We can't be caught here in broad daylight. Descrod's men will find us.”

“But we can't keep going at this pace. We'll collapse before we reach Clock Town. Isn't there someplace safe we can rest for a bit?”

Saetoushei was about to reply when he noticed that the wall that he was standing next to curved in on itself about a dozen feet away from him. He stumbled to the curve and found to his amazement, the intersecting pathway that led further into the canyon. Suddenly Saetoushei's face lit up, and he laughed out loud. “Yes! Yes, Tatl, there is someplace nearby. And there'll be help there, lots of it.”

An hour later, they dragged themselves through the wrought iron gates and into the Ikama Graveyard. No living creature entered this place of death unless they had to. The entire establishment was one giant plot of land that was covered in gravestones. The bodies of a thousand deceased soldiers of Ikama were buried here.

As they wandered through the graves, Saetoushei noticed someone moving around the graves, cursing to himself. Saetoushei groaned, “I forgot about this guy. He gives me the creeps.”

The guy was Dampei, the old grave keeper. His disfigured face and hideous eyes glared out of their sunken shells at Saetoushei and Tatl. The Hylian noticed that, as usual, Dampei didn't have his glasses on.

“Eh? What do an odd couple of young ones like you want in this here old cemetery? Don't go messing up the graves or nothin', just making more work for me to do, aren't you, you devilish little brats!”

The pair watched the old man wander away, still cursing to himself and muttering about all the things wrong with the youth of today.

Tatl said, “Old friend of yours?”

“I honestly don't think he has any friends.” Saetoushei replied wearily. “He hasn't changed at all in seven years. Come on, we're close by.”

“Close by to what?”

The grave of the commanding officer. That's what they were close by to, Tatl thought, as she and Saetoushei stared at the gravestone.

“That's your plan. That's your brilliantly thought-out plan?” Tatl asked Saetoushei with a tone of voice that clearly asked “have you lost your flipping mind?”

“Why not?” Saetoushei said defensively. “I freed him once before and everything went well. What's the problem?”

“All right go ahead. But I just don't wanna overdue our welcome if we keep waking this guy up.”

Saetoushei pulled the Ocarina of Time from his tunic and whispered, “Maker of magic and music, grant me my wish, the wish that I make with the melody that I play.” Putting the Ocarina to his lips, Saetoushei began to play.

The tune that he played was beautiful. There was no other way to describe it, Tatl thought. The melody soared through the air, ringing around the corners of the graveyard and ripping the oppressing silence to shreds as it's wondrous song carried into the heavens.

When Saetoushei stopped playing, the last note hung in the air, like it never wanted to leave. The silence that followed was not oppressive, but this time was sweet and soothing. Tatl noticed that even Dampei had fallen silent with the music.

Then Saetoushei whispered a single word, “Awake.”

Immediately the ground under them began to buckle and roll, as if something huge underneath them was digging it's way to the surface. Saetoushei jumped backwards off the grave. His hand shot out and pulled Tatl behind him as the mound of earth and grit exploded into an enormous pillar of brown that shot towards the sky.

When the cloud of dirt cleared a giant skeleton stood in front of them. It was a dozen feet in height, with large hands, the finger bones sharpened to points. It's empty eye sockets glowed with a reddish-orange light.

The skeleton lowered it's head to gaze down on the pair. “Are you the ones who have summoned me from my eternal sleep? Speak now, or be considered my enemy and the enemy of Ikama, and be destroyed.”

Saetoushei grinned. “It has been many years since we have last seen each other, Captain my Captain. I have summoned you because I desperately need your help. Commander Link of the Bombers, reporting for duty, Captain Keeta.”

“Link?” Keeta's demeanor changed immediately. The giant skeleton sat down on it's bottom and patted Saetoushei with an enormous hand. “Link, my good officer, it is you! My, I've been dead so long that I've forgotten how much a mortal can age and change over the years. When your dead and after your flesh rots off your bones, nothing else changes, ever.”

“Keeta, my old friend. Ikama, nay, Termina, the world is in trouble.”

Keeta became serious once again. “Who dares to challenged the great Kingdom of Ikama? Tell me Link.”

Keeta's dead eyes stared off into the darkening sky as twilight fell over the graveyard. It had taken the remainder of the day to explain everything to the skeleton in the detail that the long-dead officer expected of his fellows. Keeta sighed, letting his bones clink together.

“Saetoushei, it is truly a sad day, when the ruler of the greatest nation of them all acts in such a way. Ikaylimu Descrod's acts of treason against Ikama must not go unpunished. Oh Igus, my dear, dead friend, why did it have to come to this?”

“Uh, Captain Keeta, sir?” Tatl said tentatively.

Keeta looked down at the little fairy floating around his ribcage. “Be not afraid, little one. I remember you from years before now. Rest, little fairy, and ask easily.”

“Is there any way you will come to Clock Town with us? Do you think you can help in some way?”

Keeta stood up, the dull orange light in his eyes suddenly leaping to a bright glare, as if someone threw a new log on the fire. “Oh yes, Tatl, Saetoushei, I can help. And I will help greatly, oh yes I will!”

Later that night, Keeta stood with Saetoushei and Tatl at the gates to the giant graveyard. Lightning flashed across the sky as the midnight hour began.

Keeta raised his arms to the sky, and began to scream.

Not a normal scream, nor one of fright, terror, or pain, but a loud, roaring sound that filled the air around the graveyard. It was as if a thousand banshees came together to wail all at once.

And as Keeta screamed, all the other graves in the graveyard began to rile and churn, the dirt shot into the air as bony hands thrust up into the night air.

When Keeta stopped screaming and lowered his hands, every dead body in the graveyard was moving about. Nearly five thousand strong, the dead army of Ikama raised it's collective head to the sky and cried out a long, blood-curdling war cry that made every hair on Saetoushei's body stand on end.

It was truly a frightening sight. Tatl was sure she would die with fright if one of the skeletons looked at her.

Keeta raised his head and bellowed, “Belay that noise, my rabble, and get into lines! About face!”

At the sound of Keeta's voice, the skeletons immediately ceased all noise and hurried to assemble themselves between the upturned graves. In a few short minutes, the army of Ikama was standing at attention in front of their commander. All at once, the skeletons through a salute and cried, “Hail our commander! Captain Keeta, the fighting force of Ikama, reporting for duty, sir!”

Keeta turned to Saetoushei. The giant skeleton laughed at the look on the Hylian's face. It was a look of hunger, of eagerness, of battle.

“Are you satisfied, Commander?”

Saetoushei grinned broadly and began to laugh. “Oh yes, my Captain. Yes, I am completely satisfied. Now, to Clock Town!”