Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Link: Lucky Number 13 ❯ The Sheikah Pt. 01: Death ( Chapter 26 )

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda or the cast. They're all property of Nintendo. I just own the perverted mind and ideas to do this to them. As always, if you don't like long drawn out fan fics stop reading now because it only gets longer.

Story Info: This will be mainly told through Link's point of view. For you Zelda heads out there, I'll say this; he doesn't get her in this one. So, if that news disturbs you stop reading. The following also contains large quantities of angst and a couple, if not a few characters will be of my own making. Without any further interruptions, I present to you, The Legend of Link: Lucky Number 13.

Chapter Twenty-six

Hold on! I can only answer one at a time. First: A few years ago, I came up with the idea of inner-kingdom trade. Well, it isn't as much trade as it is a support system for Hyrule's economy. The Zora provide the freshest fish, so most order their fish from Zora's Domain every week or so. The Kokiri provide Hyrule with the majority of its produce, since you can't get a better apple than one from Kokiri Forest. Saria usually commutes to Castle Town to setup the stand-seeing as the magic of her sage medallion allows her to do such-which is doing incredible business thanks to her milking of the sweet little girl routine. There's also Malon and Ingo, who now provide milk and eggs for all of Hyrule-their business is booming, they have a larger ranch, and they've been able to hire more workers because of taking a little advice from yours truly. The Gerudo have become a fixture in the Hylian society and the Hylian economy as well.

I had no idea they were that skilled in weaving. So, when I suggested that a few of them sell their creations in town, they agreed to give it a try. The designs caught on and in no time, they were cleaning up rupees by the sack full. Seriously, I can't think of anyone with money that doesn't own one Gerudo-brand carpet. That's not even counting the curtains and quilts that they sell. Then there's the back end, which tells of a certain passage tax through our little desert. Heh, well, it isn't a desert anymore. Think Lake Hylia except bigger and with more trees. However you decide to label it, there's a certain percent we charge for passage-and that doesn't count what the ladies lift when people aren't looking (sans the carts marked with the Triforce insignia). Those are from the castle, so they're off limits. And speaking of castles, we remodeled the fortress and added a fifth floor. It's just Nabooru and I up there, but we like the seclusion.

Uh, what was the second question? Oh, that. Well, I don't know what to call their world exactly. It's a lot like Hyrule, but different. Some gods and goddesses look like everyday Hylians with different colored skin, while others were… unique. One of my uncles on my mother's side, for instance, looked like a tree stump. It's somewhat hard to keep your concentration when you're talking to a three-foot tall log. Then there are those who look like animals. I'm sorry, but nothing quite prepares you for your tutorial with the God of the Sea… when he's a floating fish. Oh, don't get me started on the godly aura thing. Everybody glows all the time. They never turn the 'lights' off. It's like a world of people-sized fairies over there. Some glow white, others yellow, and me, I'm walking around with a weird reddish-black aura that spans about five feet around me in every direction. I felt a little odd with everyone staring at me, because I thought they took at as me bragging or something. It turns out that it was just the face. They thought I was my father and didn't know whether to panic or attack.

Then there was my trouble with certain goddesses.

Do you remember when I told Nabooru that no one would want me there? I was wrong. Call it moths to a candle or something, but I don't think I've ever received so many compliments and blatant come-ons in my life. Uncle Vic explained that it was the aura. With mine being so strong, it made the females seek me to produce stronger offspring in their respective dominion of mystical rule. Of course, I had a little too much on my mind to fall victim. But I must admit that some of those Goddesses of Sleep were tempting, in particularly a goddess named, Nocturna. She didn't seem as flashy as some of the others-more reserved and friendly would put it best. I probably got more out of my time there with her as my instructor, as discussions rarely boiled down to me becoming like my father or why do I live among the mortals.

The only major discussion that we had away from godly affairs was about the difference between the love of gods and mortals. I figured it would've been Nayru to explain this, but alas, what do I know. I learned that in mortals, it seems to be a fleeting thing. Love tends to be more erratic and prone to shifts between off and on. In other words: Mortals love a single person until someone else exhibits something similar and causes that love to shift. Naturally, I'm panicking as she explains this. The memory of Zelda telling me that she loved me only to love Arthur more started, which had me on edge. Was this her way of telling me that Nabooru had moved on? No. Was this her way of telling me that she would eventually move on? As the most powerful of all gods reigning over sleep, she didn't have the ability to see the future that precisely. In any case, she merely wanted to inform me that if I fell in love with a goddess we would be together forever and nothing could make her not love me or vice versa.

"Don't look so upset," Nocturna says. "Your wife is still very much in love with you."

After this, she immediately tells me that gods can love multiple people at the same time. This, of course, explains why they do what they do. They love each individual person within the lands they control-except for certain Gods of War-which is the only thing that could make the job bearable. Without that love, it becomes a chore or a game to some. And when games are played, mortal life tends to end… brutally. So, this leaves me wondering what next.

"I'm simply preparing you for what may happen," she says. "Your wife will eventually move on-especially since you've given her unending life-but that is the price you pay when you make the choice to love mortals on an intimate level. They can only love one person at one time and when that time is up, it's up. You will always love Nabooru, just as you will always love Zelda (both your daughter and the Queen)."

I deny the Zelda thing until I'm almost as blue in the face as she is, but I had a needling urge that she was right.

"This is also a warning. Mortal love can re-develop between a couple. So, if Queen Zelda happened to stimulate you, you could very easily end up making love to her." Right here is where I wait for the joke to be revealed-never happened. "In your eyes, it would be as though you made love to a woman you loved. You wouldn't feel guilty or even regret, because as I said before, you can love multiple people. Your love for Nabooru is the same as it is for Queen Zelda, and that love can be duplicated infinitely if you aren't careful."

"Great. I've been here for twenty years and all I've come to learn is that this god thing becomes harder and more complex by the day." I know it sounds like something whiny, but it wasn't. I always had a feeling something like this was afoot, because I still got the occasional butterfly when I saw Zelda after I got my powers. "Is anything about being a god easy?"

Nocturna gives me this odd little smile. "There's always living here," she says, not realizing that we were in her home at the time. "I mean… uh… on this side-not living with me! Living in this realm would make life easier for you!" Keep in mind this is the first time she's faltered in the twenty years I'd known her. "If you and a goddess fell in love, the two of you would be together in ways that make mortal love seem mundane in comparison." She looks me directly in the eye next, saying, "And she could never leave you."

Space, I needed lots and lots of space after that, but I couldn't leave. So, we sat there staring at each other. Vic stopped by to pick me up for my meeting with Death, which gave Nocturna and I a great excuse to break the formidable silence by her outburst. There was something about her that I liked. The faint blue skin, purple eyes, those legs, her aura and that as… yeah. The things I noticed were merely my physical urges getting the better of me (I hope), which I now had the power to mute. Still, I have to admit the idea of tearing off her clothes and screwing the time away must've run through my mind about a million times. And the funny thing is, she smiled a bit brighter every time the thought surfaced.

"Should I leave you two alone?" Uncle Vic asks.

"No!" we both answer-half-heartedly on her end-feeling a bit foolish that we thought about such things so hard that he could hear it. Yeah, thoughts are out in the open there. It's easy to ignore them, though, which is the case most of the time. We said our good-byes and that was that… really.

Huh? Answer the real question? You just can't let me have a good day, can you? Fine, I'll tell you. But understand something: I'm not exactly fond of how their relationship ended. Take that as your warning.

It started at our reception. Sepaaru was moping around when she stumbled upon a guy standing away from the dance floor. Well, it turns out that it was Rampart-the youngest of those four boys that I saved from the fortress, which put him about six years older than Sepaaru. Naturally, she was attracted to the blue-eyed numbskull and decided to show that attraction by playing hard to get. From my game of tag, I saw the signs and formally introduced them. That isn't saying much given the results. Anyway, with her naïveté on matters of the heart, a few smooth words later and he had her hanging on his every word. He wasn't a bad guy or anything. Hell, he usually struck out more than matches did, but that's a different story. He was the first person to be an official student of mine, which gave him a sizeable amount in common with Sepaaru. During our honeymoon, he and Sepaaru became closer and she began to venture out of the valley with him, I heard.

The only thing they did was talk the things I'd taught them, at first. As time progressed, so did their relationship, which I didn't have a problem with that. After all, this kid mimicked me to a green tunic. He was a good person that had dedicated his life to following in my footsteps, and as so, he would never do anything I wouldn't-wrong. I took pride in watching him become a man, because he truly conquered all of his fears to be the absolute best warrior I'd ever seen. Yes, he even surpassed me in some aspects. However, his lack of patience always allowed me to keep the upper hand in our practice encounters and that made him think he was second to me in skill-a place he didn't mind being. Integrity, honor, dignity, and a good personality-the guy was the type of person you'd want for a son-in-law. Sepaaru noticed the same things, spending a good deal of training exercises talking on and on about him.

Naturally, Nabooru gave them two years at most. I, on the other hand, saw something more. While she never missed a class or didn't put in the effort with me on the battleground, I saw that Sepaaru didn't have the desire to keep fighting. So, I didn't exact cruel and unusual punishment for missed meetings and the like. Heck, I was happy that she was slowly quitting. It wasn't like I got a thrill out of dropping her in various events in my past and coaching her through them. Anyway, they were ultimately together for seven years. In that time, Rampart exposed her to life outside of the Gerudo Valley and she became enamored with it and even more so with him.

The Hylian Carnival is where it all came crashing down, though. Nabooru and I wished them good luck, as Rampart went all out on this carriage and flowers for the event. Zelda wanted to tag along with her 'big sister' but we realized that this wasn't a night to intrude and quickly put the reigns on her. I tried to get Nabooru to go, but she wasn't feeling up to the noise. So, anyway, Zelda's down for the night and me and the wife are headed for bed. About four or five hours later-2 o'clock in the morning, in other words-Varia storms in, completely irate.

"Sir, you need to see this!" She shouted, and I sat straight up. We get dressed and follow her all the way outside and I'm simply stunned. The crowd parts, as we reach the white carriage and find a bloodied Sepaaru and a tied up Rampart.

"What the hell happened?" I see the blood pouring from her nose, black eye, and the scratches on his face and chest, but I didn't draw any conclusions. I wouldn't draw any conclusions.

"Well, tell him," Rampart says, seemingly unfazed by the odd-looking circumstances. Sepaaru pushed the scimitar into his back a little harder, making him wince with the pain. She had his hands bound by his own shirt, I saw. Still, this didn't equal what it obviously was.

"He…" she paused; unsure of whom I'd believe. "He tried to attack me!"

"He tried to rape you, you mean," Nabooru added, though oddly reserved. Sepaaru nodded fiercely, eyes downcast in the grass the whole time. I could feel my pulse begin to quicken, as that part of me that I keep hidden began to step into the moonlight.

"Do you honestly believe that?" Rampart says, speaking with sincerity that would make a person doubt her.

"Let me see the sword," I said. By now, we're fully encompassed in frothing Gerudo who'd like to cut him into pieces. But instead, their King cut the knot on the shirt that tied his hands together.

"I told you he wouldn't believe you," he smiles… damn near sneered as he said that to her. "Me and him are one in the same."

That addition made Sepaaru look up at me… tears welling up in her eyes for the first time since that night in the hall. After everything she had went through to gain these women's favor, and here it sat, ruined in a moment of what she considered extreme weakness. She ran off then. I looked back at Nabooru, who nodded her understanding and went after her. Considering how the vibe changed, I knew my respect sat around zero-to-none among my troops.

Still, I had to be certain. What in the hell could make him throw away a seven-year relationship and the love of a woman who worshipped the ground he walked on? Sex-the son of a bitch simply had enough of the foreplay and wanted the real thing. I stood there, feeling that familiar numbness crawl into my system, and tried to find a deeper meaning. I couldn't though and that upset me… deeply. Then the idea of the little jackass to say that he was like me …

"Tell me something," I began, auspiciously calm. "When did I ever advocate rape?" I handed Varia her sword, which she snatched, understandably.

"Never and I didn't rape her," he responds, in attempts to stay 'cute'. "I went after what I felt was mine, which is something you taught us all to do." Naturally, I'm almost devoid of feeling at this point and that's not where I'm known for my proficient thinking. I stop pacing and I just look at him. I mean really look at him. The light from my eyes casts his shadow against the far canyon wall, almost to the point it appeared to be daylight. I knew this was about to go bad, and so did everyone else.

"I see. So, she had your pussy and you had to get it back-is that what you're telling me then?" I heard a laugh behind me, which made him get a little anxious and play into my hands.

"No!" Right here is where I throw the first punch and effectively fold him around my left hand. I'm keeping the true extent of my physical strength in check, because I don't want to kill him… yet.

"Then that wasn't yours to take." I took a fistful of his hair and began to pace with him-like a kid dragging a doll. "She trusted you! I trusted you! And then you say that you were going after what was yours?" I threw him against the side of the fortress, watching him quickly compose his fighting stance. Normally, I would've been impressed at him handling such an amount of pain. Normally… but that wasn't the night for normality though.

"Oh, like you know what it's like! Seven years she's been nitpicking around the subject! I did the gentlemanly thing: I gave her space and time and all that other bullshit that women need. Do you know how many paychecks I went through on her? Goodness, it wasn't like she didn't know what a dick looked like. She sucked me off enough, but a mouth can only do so much…" This is where I grab his face faster than he can assess my movement and put his skull six inches into the granite.

"Unreal! So, because you're still an impatient little shit and she doesn't want to sleep with you, you can just try to beat her into it?" When that memory drifted from his mind into my own, complete with her screaming appearance, I must've hit him a thousand times. You had better believe I kept him alive throughout, too. "You should've been happy with what she did give you instead of focusing on what she wasn't. Then you somehow grow the balls to compare yourself to me?" I kneed him in the balls and then tossed him like a bail of hay into the far canyon wall, where I was already waiting to catch him.

He somehow managed to choke out: "So, what do you expect me to do? Whimper and whine behind her like some dog? Oh, no, wait-let me guess-you want me to paw behind her like you did with Zel…" I kicked him in the face as hard as I could, just short of making his body explode with the impact. He rolled over and leaned back against the wall, bloody gums glistening in the moonlight. "I must've struck a nerve." Did I mention his absurd tolerance for pain? "You've gone soft, Link! I know it, the guys back at the castle know it, and your little women know it, too."

"Maybe, but I'm not pathetic enough to resort to rape for sex. What's the matter, Rambles? Can't get a woman without a little violence?" You should've saw him then, trying to stand up and take a swing at me for calling him that. He used to stutter in very long lines and his brothers nicknamed him Rambles because of it. Needless to say, he didn't like that name. He swung wide with his right, like a wolfos, until the momentum turned him around. I pushed him face first against the rocks and just ground my boot into the back of his head. "Ladies," I called, as a few quickly came to each of my sides. "Would you be so kind as to hold our prisoner?"

Four of the five grabbed hold of an appendage and held him prone, via their enhanced bodies.

"Now what?" Khali asked, as Rampart swore at her but nonetheless remained trapped.

"Now, we're going to show to Mr. Rampart what it is to lose his dignity," I materialized a lance and handed it to Varia. She didn't understand my demented plan, but I soon explained. "See, during my time at the castle, I did a lot of reading: Fairytales, novels, plumbing, various ways to torture a man without killing him-a variety of things." I paused and Varia's face lit up like a star. Rampart, through swollen eye, looked over his shoulder to see Varia approaching him with a smile marred in sinister intent. "This is Varia. I'm sure you know, but I think I'll tell you again. This is Sepaaru's older sister you see…"

"And I really don't like men. And I loathe the bastard who forces himself upon a woman," she finished, snatching his tights down to his ankles. By now, he's swearing up and down… just short of begging. "Heh, one in the same…" she looked back at me, and then glanced in front of Rampart. "One in the same my ass. Hmm, maybe I could use this for bait." She then wondered aloud, letting every imaginable way to castrate him play out for his ears. It only took five minutes to reduce him to begging.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I…" We shared a laugh as he began to stutter. I imagine that's all one could do, given that the base of the lance is about six inches wide and Varia was tracing it against his ass, now preparing to violate him.

"You may proceed," I told her, bringing my anger back into controllable levels in light of the sick comedy in front of me.

"WAIT!" Rampart screamed, as Varia began to probe. I held my hand up indicating that she should stop. "Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-What k-k-k-k-kind of sick…!" I dropped my hand then and he screamed, "WAIT!"

"Why? Varia feels your ass belongs to her, so why can't she do what she wants with it?" I asked it in pure sarcastic reference, but Rampart completely warped its intentions and gave us more fuel for the fire.

"Because! It's my ass! I don't want a stick in it!" He was struggling, but my lovely guards held him like vices.

"Oh, so my sister doesn't want your twig but it's okay to force it on her?" Varia pushes the thing slightly between his ass-cheeks and he screams-out of nervousness, not actual penetration. "Look at you, you sniveling coward! Trying to dish out what you can't take, you make me sick!"

I let her toy around with the situation for a little while longer, as his screaming summoned the majority of the women and provided plenty of opportunities for them to laugh at his expense. Humiliating, don't you think?

"Let him go," I told them, as I finally decided to put this to rest. Reluctantly, they obeyed my order only to find Rampart unable to move. I held him in the same position via my powers, as I closed my left hand over his nose and mouth, effectively blocking his airways. Ah, here is where I began to shine. I'd intended to bring him to the brink of suffocation a few times, but I caught glimpse of Takara's nails. She kept them long, almost dagger-like in sharpness. That's when inspiration hit. I elongated the nails on my right hand and began to walk them along his backbone. "Feels interesting, doesn't it?"

I pushed the nail in-between the vertebrae in his neck and marveled in his screams of agony, though muffled by my hand. I wouldn't let him pass out from the lack of air or the pain, as I drove my middle fingernail in just below the index finger. I did it repeatedly, until Rampart was openly crying and begging me to stop in his own way. I didn't though; I just drove in my ring finger, pinky finger, and then… I wiggled them. I could feel his blood rolling down my arm, but that only made me continue to torment him.

"If you set foot on Gerudo ground again, talk to my daughters, or even let me hear of you attempting to force yourself on anyone again, and I'll do things to you that make this seem fun and exciting. Do you understand?" I was no further than three inches from his face, whispering with a voice born of utter disregard for emotion or petty caring. He began to nod, but I stopped him. "It doesn't matter. Now, get the hell out of this valley before I let them have their turns." I removed my nails at this point.

"Oh, and before I let you go," I held my left hand up and ignited the Triforce emblem, which I then burned into the middle of his forehead and onto the backs of his hands. "See these marks ladies? Remember them and feel free to kill anyone who wears them, okay? They'll light up if he gets within five feet of a Gerudo or Gerudo grounds."

"Yes, sir!" They said, mirroring the other's evil smile.

After that, I grabbed Rampart by the back of his neck, threw him in his carriage, and told the horses to take him home. (I fixed the telltale injuries on his face, by the way.) The other ten women who were present didn't know exactly how to take my display with the horses, as expressed in their wide-eyed looks. Alas, I was feeling a little too upset to notice. Goddess, I introduced her to the fuck and billed him as such a great person. Heh, now that I look back on it, I did make reference that he was as trustable as I was. Sad as it may seem, I tried to think of Sepaaru as Ganondorf's daughter and tried to channel some hate into my heart to cloud the guilt. It didn't work. She honestly became my child somewhere and when I imagined Zelda in a similar spot… let's just not think about that.

I arrived at her door and knocked.

"Come in," she said calmly. Surprised the hell out of me, but I put on my humble face and did as told. Nabooru was sitting on the bed, as Sepaaru doctored her nose and mouth in the mirror. "So, did you invite him in for a sandwich?" She couldn't even look at me, beyond a quick glance.

"No." I attempted to approach her, but she simply retreated further into the corner and her reflection.

"I think you two have some things to talk about," Nabooru said. As she crossed the room, she stopped and just looked at me. "Don't let her go after him," she whispered just as she walked out the door. I didn't exactly know what to make of such a statement… yet. I walked around Sepaaru's room, both waiting for her to say something and trying to think of something to say if she did.

"I'm going to kill him," she says. I turn around and find her scowling at me, silently gauging my take on that idea.

"You can't kill him." I was honest, brutally honest.

"Why not? Is it because he's one of your friends?" She didn't understand the honesty of my prior statement. So, I tried it again, spelling out exactly why she couldn't.

"No, because you're not skilled enough to kill him." Her eyes nearly came out of their sockets, almost as though I'd punched her in the stomach. "Don't misunderstand me. You're an extraordinary fighter, but he's better." I know it wasn't exactly a self-confidence building statement. I didn't know how to build confidence with her; I could just point out flaws and let her corrections work towards that confidence.

"How do you know? You haven't seen him fight in years." True, but I'd seen her fight. So, I posed a question.

"Right now, do you think you could defeat me?" As if by my will, she understood what I'd say before I said it, as evidence in her complete loss of emotion. "He's better than I am-from a fighter's perspective anyway. He can't compete now, but from where he stands at this moment, no man or woman in Hyrule can touch him." She all but stumbled away from her vanity and sat on the side of her bed, completely dejected. I invited myself to sit down, and then I waited.

"I was so scared," she whispered. "I told him I just wanted to wait a little while longer… but he wouldn't stop this time. I'd been saying that for so long and I guess this is what I get."

The only thing I could seemingly think at the time was, "How would Ganondorf deal with this?" There is such a thing as too much dwelling on the hatred one keeps, and I realized that once she began to cry. It didn't matter that she was the child of the man who made the greater part of my life a living nightmare. Sepaaru was a grown woman who'd been nearly victimized by some pervert and who was in need of a friend. So, I put my around her shoulder and tried to be that person. The woman turned into a stone wall, as her nerves were more frayed than she led on. So, I took my arm back before she vomited on me.

"You didn't do anything wrong," I informed her, as I turned over the reason she could blame herself for such a thing. "Everyone is nervous their first time, so don't let anything he may have told you make you think otherwise."

"Yeah, that's same thing Varia said." Sepaaru managed to chuckle, albeit bitterly about that. "I'm a twenty-three-year-old virgin… and I'm scared to have sex."

"So?" I asked in complete seriousness. "No one says that you have to have sex just because you're a certain age."

"Sure, that's what you say. Nabooru was thirty-three your first time together. And according to her, you were eighteen your first time with Queen Zelda. That puts you in a league of adulthood that most around here can never have. You've made it to the top of the hill, so it may not seem like a big deal since you've been up there for so long. But for the people at the bottom looking up, we're nothing." As she's saying this, I'm wondering when Nabooru decided to start broadcasting our sexual lives among the group, but I let that go in favor of something else.

"Four lifetimes of semi-living may put me in a league of adulthood-if there is such a thing-beyond the people here, but sex doesn't." She was trying to make it seem like sex made you an oracle or something-which was a line of thinking I had to undo. "You can't keep living in fear of something like this, because it isn't right and it isn't worth it. Look at it like this: Did sex make you who you are?" Shut up, I see it's a bad example now.

"Yeah," Sepaaru answered, as she saw it then.

"All right, that was a bad example. Did you two have a good time without sex being a factor in the beginning?" I knew this wasn't the best question then, but it fit my purposes. Sepaaru nodded a confirmation to this, bringing the gloomy mood back.

"So, you see, there's more to life than sex." Ugh, did I mention how bad I am at cheering people up?

"But sex is a part of life," she countered, which upset me. "You're not very good at this, are you?"

I raised an eyebrow as she looked up at me. "What can I say? I can teach you how to fight, but I can't teach you how to live. You can obsess over this or you can let it happen. You can't rush it, so just wait until you're ready." This was my best stuff here. We got your fatherly advice, truth, and concern rolled up into a few happy words.

"What if I'm never ready?" We got nothing. It was like a merry-go-round. "What if I go my entire life and can't keep a man because I'm afraid to make love?"

"I doubt that'll happen. Making love and sex are two entirely different things." You could almost here the "how so" in her breathing.

"No it isn't-it's still having something shoved inside of me." Of course, you and I would be wrong. Anyhow, the child needed to know the intricacies in the Art of Love.

"Wrong. To make love requires a certain amount of feeling, which is something common sex lacks. Sex is something you do with random people or to pass the time. Making love is something that lovers do to show physically what they feel in their hearts. If you actually loved Rampart, I doubt you would've been afraid-a little nervous maybe, but not actual fear. And if he loved you, there was no way he would've attempted to force himself on you. Find the man you love, make love, and you'll recognize the difference." I waited for a rebuttal, but Sepaaru finally ran out of excuses and questions. "I'm not going to have to lock you in, am I? I've put in too many hours of torture to let you run off and get killed on me."

It was a joke, of course. A sick joke that needed to be told to break the silence, but what can I say. I'm sick, I need help.

"No, I'll stay put," Sepaaru said, quite used to my brand of humor. "Mind if we start the lessons over? I know I've been slacking the past couple of years, but I think I'm still in pretty good shape."

"Sure," I told her. "And I think you're in better shape than you know, because you did fend off a great warrior tonight… even though his greatness matters about as much as barrel of shit."

"Thanks, I guess." She cracked her neck before lying down, emulating me in a weird sense. "Could you snuff out the torches on your way out?" I did my thing, wishing her a goodnight in the process. And beginning the next day and for the next ten months-that's from June to April on the new monthly named calendar-she trained intensely. This is where… excuse me for a second.

Deku Nut husks? Weird, wonder what's up. I continue across the bridge toward home pausing only to take in the weird vibe the air has. It's probably nothing. Ah, I see it now. A horse got loose and busted the gate down again. A little magic on this end and a little magic there-finished. Seems a little quiet to you? Yeah, I think you're… "Oh, god!" I shout, as I begin to walk up the steps. This… this… bodies… everywhere. There appears to have been a battle here… no, a slaughter. Each of my soldiers lay dead or filled with these odd throwing-knives. They look like arrowheads, only wrapped.

"The kids!" I think swiftly and warp immediately into Zelda's room, finding it untouched. Not now, I have to check on Link. Nothing… thank… no! An image flashes in my mind, as I appear in the meadow to find it true. My little boy lies there… dead. What kind of monsters could do this to a five-year-old! My feet move like cumbersome stones toward him, as I feel the tears begin to pour out of my eyes in heavy waves. I whisper that I'm sorry, collapsing beside him and touching his cheek. It's cold… goddamn it! It's cold! He's been out here like this for hours… with two of those knife-like things sticking out of his chest. I roll him over onto his back, barely able to stop the shudders that hit my body. "I am so sorry."

I notice a movement to my left. If it's one of the people that did this to my boy, I'll lay waste to everything they've touched! No, it's a Gerudo and she's barely alive. I carry my son's corpse toward her, realizing that it's his mother… clutching her sword, moaning faintly. I roll her over, nearly screaming as I see a familiar mark carved into her stomach: A single eye with an elongated teardrop pouring from it. It's the Lens of Truth.

"No…" Sepaaru whispers, as blood drips loosely from her mouth. She reaches toward our child, tears falling from her eyes as heavily as they do from my own. "I… I… tried… to stop them. They… they… had these… flashers… and they blinded me. I'm… sorry."

"It's not your fault," I whisper, as I watch her slip away from me into the arms of death. "It's the Sheikah."