The Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Desert's Rose ❯ Terra ( Chapter 7 )

The Desert's Rose

 

Warnings: Slash, violence, angst, cute little kids

Disclaimer: Zelda, Sheik, and the word Sheikah aren't mine. The ideas, plot, and Sheikah culture ARE.

 

Thanks to JohnneyAntonelli for beta-ing!

 

Chapter 7
Terra

 

The sword sang as it cut through black cloth and flesh alike. Sheik brought it in a deadly arc to catch another black robed enemy. Both short swords were soaked in sticky, blackish blood. He fought as hard as he could, leaving a trail of bodies behind. Their hoods fell back here and there, showing reptilian and skeletal faces that seemed to laugh in death.

Tallic showed skill as well, but was limited by the too-large sword she'd managed to purloin from one of the slain. Sheik would have commended her quick thinking, but there wasn't time to spare a moment from the fighting. He stayed near his protege's side while letting his eyes wander.

That was how he saw Bridae. Her magics were running wild, ripping enemies apart and burning their remains. She was getting tired and he could feel just how much ethereal energy she was funneling. This was life or death and she was weakening. Sheik realized suddenly that she would collapse in a matter of seconds.

The Sheikah raced through the fighting, taking down who he could in his mad dash to Bridae's side. Just as her eyes became hazed and her body began to fall, he got there and killed a black robe preparing to stab her. She collapsed to her knees and leaned against his leg as he fought off others. He ended up hauling her right back up to her feet and dragging the exhausted mage through the fighting to one of the last lifts. A shout up and the others took her to safety. Sheik turned, looking for Tallic, and felt his blood run cold.

She was still, her big eyes resting at her belly and her sword held over her head in mid strike. Her lips parted for a gasped breath, face pale, but she didn't move... Not until the black robe ripped the sword, the one that had skewered her, out of her tiny body. The girl slowly fell. Seconds turned into hours as Sheik yelled and ran to her.

Tallic stared up at him with wide, pained and hazy eyes. She tried to speak, but nothing slipped free from her throat. Sheik held her to him, hand over the gaping wound, but his mind wouldn't work, couldn't find a solution. She was going to die...

His world faded. The last thing he remembered was tapping the ethereal river in desperation before everything went black.

He floated then, drifting through waking, dreamless sleep. He didn't know how long it went on but when he awoke, he felt sore and tired. Magical exhaustion, he realized as he slowly sat up and looked about. He was in the guest room of Bridae's home. Cold crept into his bones, more side effects of the exertion. He didn't remember what he'd done to come to this state..

And then he saw her. Tallic laying in the other bed, still as death. Her face was pale, dark hair fanned over the pillow, but her body moved. Sheik forgot his exhaustion and raged to her bedside. Breathing, she was breathing! He grabbed the blanket and tore it off her. She was dressed in a Kasuto shirt and trousers, but she was whole! The wound was gone!

Tallic! he called urgently, hand at her half bared shoulder and then he stopped. Her skin was cold. Sheik was confused but at least she was breathing!

The door opened and he whipped around, ready to defend even in his own worrying state, but it was Bridae. She blinked in surprise that he was awake, then nodded to him and came in.

Master Mage, she greeted as she came calmly to Tallic's other side, a waterskin in hand. That was quite a show you put on. Fires everywhere, except for your healing of this little one.

She carefully slid her hand under the child's head and made her drink from the skin, a thick, foul smelling drought.

What is that? Sheik asked, wondering if it was cause for the coldness of Tallic's skin.

A kind of detoxification, Bridae responded softly but there was something in her tone, something hopeless.

Sheik waited until she'd dosed Tallic completely before he asked. What is wrong with her?

Bridae was quiet a moment, looking down at the child's sleeping face. She looked so tired, her scales ashen and movements exhausted. He would have felt sorry for her if there weren't other pressing issues.

The Grim coat their weapons in what they call blood, a deadly poison, she replied quietly. It kills by turning you into one of them. It's how they reproduce.

Sheik just looked at her and he felt the blood drain from his face. She was poisoned.

Yes.

She's going to die anyway, even if she's healed.

Yes.

He sat down on the bed, suddenly shaky and cold. Bridae touched his shoulder.

For what it's worth, she murmured softly, I am sorry... This potion, it will keep her herself for a little longer, but when the time comes...

Antidote. There must be an antidote.

Bridae sighed. No, child.

There is always an antidote! Sheik yelled back at her, loud for all her quiet. He rose quickly, looking wildly for his swords. Bridae grabbed his arm and he nearly struck her for it but managed to hold back.

Sheik! I pray you, listen to me! she said urgently, not letting go of him. The child is gone! Do you think you are the only one to lose someone to the Grim? My children! My husband! Gone with another raid. They don't attack us for the sheer fun of it, they want these bodies to twist into their own!

I saw your people in robes! Sheik snarled back, barely hearing her and certainly not understanding. He was too angry, too distraught.

I'm an exile, but that has nothing to do with this, Bridae replied with a sudden calm as she let him go. Fine. I won't convince you. Go search then. Waste the last days she has with frivolities. Be gone when she finally turns. It will do you little good to watch.

She released him and Sheik just stared at her mutely. He shook with rage and loss, tried to find some reason to scream at her, hit her, kill her, but even then he could not. Why couldn't he have the decency to cry?

Tallic was going to die.

If only...

The Stone, he breathed.

Sheik-

The Stone! He turned back on her, eyes wide. I'll find it. The Stone is suppose to heal, it will save her!

It's useless! They have the Stone, they stole it from us to power their magics and there is no way you could possibly retrieve it from their stronghold!

Sheik smiled. Was a Grim stronghold really so much in the face of other evils he had taken on before?

In the end, Bridae provisioned him and let him on his way, swearing to care for Tallic and stave off the change as long as she could. There was nothing else she could do, for Sheik refused to be dissuaded.

Following the path of destruction wasn't hard. Sheik suspected the entirety of Kasuto City could come after the Grim at anytime, but fear and lack of numbers kept them away. It wasn't a large settlement, after all. Whatever their reasons, Sheik followed it with as much concealment through the dense forest as he could. He was used to the terrain of the Kokiri land, not this lush forest packed so tightly that no large animal could possibly live here. Some areas he had to circumvent completely, for there was no way even a man of his slight size would fit through. He was glad he'd left Evalus with Bridae, for there was no way the horse could have made it through.

All this was done in a kind of calm. Sheik had a purpose. The image of Tallic's pale, sleeping face drove him on, but he forced himself to think, to plan. A day had almost passed when he came upon them.

Unlike Kasuto's living city, there was nothing. The trees stopped as suddenly as they had started. The ground dried and cracked like an empty riverbed. Wind blasted, harsh and uncontrolled, and Sheik tied his kerchief over his face to keep loose dirt and grit out of his nose and mouth. It wasn't as bad as a sand storm, but the cool edge to it kept getting into his clothing and chilling him. The stretch of dead land went past his vision, but he could see the settlement. A huge, spiraling temple of dull gray and brown stone rose in the center, taller by far than any structure Sheik had seen before. It was conical in shape with a ledge that spiraled up to the very tip. He thought there might be something there but was too far away to see it. Around the temple were a hodge podge of stone structures, none of them too steady looking with their patched thatch roofs, but with the way of the land, he doubted it rained much here. There was stone debris all over from structures that must have fallen. The ground seemed oddly disturbed around these buildings and Sheik recognized the pattern as the same in Kasuto City, where the Grim had come up from the very ground. They were so much like stalfos, but larger and strangely deformed from Hylian standard, as well as wearing more formidable armor. A cousin species, perhaps? Sheik really didn't care enough to speculate further.

There was precious little cover. Sheik waited until night fell, then tried to cast a light camouflaging spell, only to recoil at the burned ethereal trails in his body. He'd overworked them when- No. No thinking on that. This made things harder but Sheik would succeed. He had to.

There were lizalfos-like men patrolling the outskirts of the settlement, looking half nervous as the light faded from the sky. Sheik approached in slow caution, low to the ground and utterly soundless. He may have grown rusty during his stay in Boh, but the weeks out with Tallic had toned him back into shape.

Sheik froze when he heard and felt movement under him. He scuttled forward as fast as he could, hiding himself behind the closest bit of stone debris that could conceal him, and realized what had made the lizalfos so nervous. The Grim were under them, waiting for the darkness. Just as he thought, the skeletal creatures themselves sprang free in small showers of dirt, piercing screams issuing from their fleshless mouths that chilled him to the bone. Sheik stayed utterly still as they met their lizalfos counterparts, who quickly fled back to the central temple. Something like laughter came from the Grim, who could have been joking to one another for all Sheik knew, for he had no inkling of their language, if they had one.

Edging away from the perimeter, Sheik moved from pile to pile of debris in a slow crawl towards the temple. He could feel nothing ethereal with his paths so burnt, but if the Terra Stone was anywhere, it would be in the temple. Grave determination kept him going. As he came closer to the temple, the lizalfos grew more numerous. They were edgy and nervous, traveling around in twos and threes in some attempt to make themselves feel more secure. It was obvious they weren't comfortable with the Grim, but why were they working with them then...?

There was no way he'd get into the temple unmolested. Sheik rested a hand on the pommel of one short sword and pursed his lips. The Terra Stone healed, he knew, but he'd have to get there with enough strength to use it. Sheik waited and watched, finding a pattern in the patrols. An hour into the latest patrol, when there was the smallest chance of being ambushed by backup troops, Sheik struck.

The lizalfos were difficult. Their swords sang with as much skill as his own, but Sheik would not fail. He managed to kill them with as little injury to himself as he could, then darted through the doors.

The tower was hollow and empty. A great winding stair case clung to the walls and a platform had been built in the center of an intricate tile mural. There were images in the tiles, flourishing forests, a glittering city, people of all races celebrating around a bonfire with food and drink a plenty... He felt a stab of anger at how the tile had been chipped and broken, torn out in some places by rough claws. Later, he told himself. For now, he studied the platform and found a switch. The platform lifted him swiftly upward, past the winding stair and up near the top, where it ended, too wide to go farther. Sheik stepped of onto the level platform and looked upward as the platform descended once more. There as still a while to go. He began trudging up the stairs, keeping his ears open for the sounds of movement. Nothing.. The hair on the back of his neck lifted. Why was so precious a place not guarded...?

There was a second platform and Sheik rose onto it slowly, stopping midway when he noted a figure standing, staring through the wide opening in the wall to the dead land outside. It was a Grim and wearing the same strange armor that the others had, but there was something different about this one. He carried himself with confidence, bulky but skeletal arms folded over his wide chest.

Might as well come out, stranger, murmured a gravelly voice. Sheik tensed but then the Grim turned his head and dark, empty eye sockets stared at him. Pursing his lips, Sheik stepped out into the open, one sword in hand and his other hand resting on the second pommel. Well, at least you aren't a coward.

Where is the Stone? Sheik growled without preamble. The skeletal face split into a grin as the Grim turned himself.

How rude, storming someone's home and demanding things of them, the Grim murmured, then made an odd 'tsk' sound. No manners, you Outsiders. Northerners, what's to be done with them?

Sheik had no time for verbal games. Give me the stone or by the Goddesses, I'll split you to pieces.

Ask your Goddesses for nothing, the Grim sneered, for only then will you be pleased!

In a moment, the Grim drew his huge, wide sword and raced towards him. Sheik barely had enough time to bring up one sword, much less draw the other. The fight was fast and whirling, swords crying in the low light as the Grim came at him again and again. Sheik could barely keep himself alive, much less attack. He got in a few strikes, but they were nothing compared to the bone jarring cracks upon his own swords.

The opening came suddenly and with little room for mistake. One short sword swept through the Grim's near perfect guard and cracked through two vertebre, neatly severing the head. It tumbled off with an angry yell and the body shivered before crumbling into a pile of bones and armor. Sheik panted and wiped sweat from his brow before stepping over to the cursing head.

Damn Northerner bastard! Damn you! Damn you! Sheik knelt and gave him a dispassionate look as he moved the tip of his sword to the center of the Grim's forehead, between his eyes. He stopped cursing and just glared at him defiantly.

Where is the stone? Sheik asked with deadly coldness. The Grim suddenly grinned.

My brother keeps it, he said, his voice full of gloating glee. You'll never defeat him. The great Ugos du Ikana would never be defeated by the likes of you, Northerner!

Where? Sheik insisted, pressing slight weight to the sword. Bone began to crack.

Below, under the platform. He'll kill you, Outsider, for the glory of Ikana and memory of our father, he'll kill you!

Sheik pressed his full weight to the sword. The skull shattered. The voice faded. Sheik turned and left the platform.

By then, the moving platform was down to the ground floor. Sheik descended the stairs and tried to ignore the growing fatigue in his body and his bleeding wounds. Below, he triggered the moving platform but jumped off immediately. There was another staircase spiraling downward. He took it without a thought. The air cooled as he went down, step by step, into the growing darkness. There was something there, he could finally feel the barest inkling of it, but his senses were still so dulled. It was like after the sandstorm, but slightly less damage. Still more than he'd rather.

There was light ahead. It filtered through a mist of displaced dirt and particles, showing the edge of a closed door. Sheik rested there for a few minutes before pressing his ear to the aged wood. There were shuffling sounds behind but nothing definite. He guessed at one moving body. Dropping to his knees, he eyed the crack between floor and door and watched a set of armored boots pace along. The room beyond was huge, big enough he couldn't see the back in his awkward position.

Sheik rose again and felt for the latch. There was no lock, thankfully but as he began to pull it, the door groaned and the figure beyond froze. Sheik cursed and flung it open, swords drawn with a loud cry. The Grim was surprised but recovered quickly. He was bigger than the last and a better fighter. Sheik hissed as the wide blade bit his flesh but continued the fight, sparing glances for the room around them.

It was a huge cavern, stalactites and stalagmites dotting floor and ceiling alike. They were utterly dry and weakened, as Sheik found out when the Grim, Ugos, slammed him through one. He managed to get to his feet but barely had time to bring up his swords to parry another attack.

Northerner scum! How did you find this place?! Ugos hissed out between strikes, his face twisted in rage.

Pile of bones upstairs, Sheik snarled back and the Grim hesitated a moment in shock but it wasn't long enough for Sheik to get the final blow.

Egos?! You miserable bastard of a whore! I'll kill you!

His attacks came faster, and the pommel of that huge sword managed to smash hard into Sheik's head. He stumbled back and the Grim slammed him with the entirety of his bony body. Sheik crashed through four stalagmites before he lay still, groaning with pain. He could hear Ugos's heavy steps coming nearer and tried to get up, but he just wasn't fast enough. An armored boot smashed into his belly and Sheik flew through another two stone deposits. He rolled onto his back, gasping for breath. A few ribs were cracked if not broken through. Opening his eyes, Sheik stared up and noticed a strange light. He turned his head slowly and nearly laughed.

The Terra Stone was a deep green in color and shined with all the power the Fira Stone had. He felt it's power flowing over him, teasing. One hand lifted from the ground and reached but there was no way to get it. He was so close...

An armored hand grabbed the front of his tunic and tore Sheik up from the ground. His head swayed limply but he manged to look back at the enraged Ugos who had death in his eyes.

This will be sweet, Ugos hissed quietly with a deathly grin. Sheik could barely lift a hand, much less defend himself. And then Ugos did something phenomenally stupid.

He threw Sheik right into the Stone.

There was a second of of numbness as Sheik's chest connected with the smooth surface and then light exploded from them along with a shearing power that left him screaming in pain. The pain faded and his body was restored, but the Stone wasn't done with him yet. Terrifyingly amazing power bore through his body, pulsing between the worst pain he'd ever felt and the most all encompassing pleasure of his life. Finally, it let him go and he stood beside it in dulled awe.

The awe didn't last long, for Ugos came at him with rage. Sheik's swords seemed to materialize with how quickly he grabbed them and suddenly, the fight didn't seem so one-sided. Ugos was good, but Sheik had been fully replenished and he felt the rush of his restored magical pathways. He tugged the ethereal river and cast as they fought, bringing the tide of battle to his advantage until finally, with a last strike, he beheaded the Grim.

Ugos cursed more colorfully than Egos had. Sheik came to him, placed the edge of the blade to that bony brow, and ended the noise.

The stone was warm when Sheik gathered it to him. He was surprised by the size. It barely filled his gloved hand. Sheik tucked the precious item into his pocket and started back up the winding stairwell.

Immediately when he triggered the platform, Sheik was back into battle. He fought through the droves of stalfos and lizalfos who seemed endless, screeching about lost leaders Sheik didn't care about. Still, his strength was waning as enemies he dispatched of were replaced by even more.

Use me...

Sheik jerked at the sudden words in his mind but one hand suddenly opened, dropping the short sword, and flew to his mouth so he could tear off his glove, still fighting with his other hand. His bared fingers dropped to his pocket and wrapped around the stone. A surge of power and then-

The ground itself rose up. Great stone spikes drove up into skeletal and lizard-like bodies alike, shearing them to pieces. The earth rumbled and snarled, throwing enemies off their feet and spearing them just as mercilessly. Rubble fell as the temple grew unstable. Sheik cursed and ran, doing his best to keep even footing. He didn't have to dodge earthen spears, but the quake itself threw him to the ground over and over. He managed to get out of the door way just as the tower began to implode upon itself.

Sheik didn't know what to think, so he didn't. He ran, fighting the few he had to, and when he hit the tree line, he kept going. The ground here was undisturbed, but he took no chances.

Dawn broke just as Sheik found his muddled way back to Kasuto City. He collapsed in the village square and faded out with his hand still wrapped tightly around the Stone.