Seven Years 14

I am sorry it has been so long, but things are crazy... I barely got back from DC to turn around that same week and go to IN to turn around that weekend and go to FL. 6 hours of sleep over three days was the final capstone to this glorious event. Anyway, since it WAS so long, I decided to give you guys a treat and post my longest one ever (I think). It is actually Part 14 AND part 14.5 in the same issue! You might want to go back and read the last entry to, because it has been a while. This one holds a few much antispated entries, so enjoy!

WARNING
This entry does contain a fair amount of blood, gore, cursing, and other potentionally higher rated material, so if you are offened by violance this might be a good time to stop and go play Mortal Kombat or something.

“Ok Toran… it’s worth a look. I’m going to the village to check on Impa, you go to the forest and check for any sign of Draq, and Scela too actually. And be careful… if we are wrong, then that Phantom is still running around out there.”

Toran turned to grab his katana out of the hayloft and yelled back to Shiek.

“You be careful too… you’re walking right into Keef’s arms you know.”

He saw Shiek eyes narrow, cold hatred visible behind them.

“Oh, trust me… I know that very well…”

I really am a jerk… a punky little snot. So Toran and Malon are close friends, who else other then me would have given a care?

Shiek was on her way to village, and making surprisingly good time. This was mainly due to the anger and frustration that was driving her at an insane pace. She was almost as frustrated with herself as she was furious with Keef. Well, first she had to check on Impa, and then she’d figured out what she was going to do about the turncoat shiekah. She had one big advantage on him; he didn’t realize she knew he was a traitor. But she had a feeling Impa might have some extra crafty way to deal with him, so she definitely wanted to see the shiekah elder first.

“Shiek? Hey Shiek, wait up!”

She wasn’t far from the entrance to the village, when she heard the voice calling her name.

It was him.

Choking down revulsion, Shiek stop and turned towards the speaker. The shiekah ran up and stopped a few feet from her, arms crossed and grinning that arrogant smirk at her.

“Keef? What are you doing out here?” she asked, trying to keep her voice level.

“Just finishing off a run; gotta keep in shape if I plan to keep up with the likes of your vaunted team… though I hear you guys have been having a string of bad luck recently.”

Even if Sheik hadn’t been alerted to his treason, the smirk at this remark would have been completely obvious. Before she would have taken it as his cocky, insulting, manner, but now she realized it was probably him congratulating himself on picking a ‘better side.’

“We’ve had some set backs, yes…” she replied, large eyes narrowing behind her bangs.

“Toran left the village in a hurry to find you couple nights ago… seems the ol’ Iron Maiden thought you might be in trouble… did he ever catch up to you?”

“Yeah, we ran into each other…”

“And what about Draq, I heard he ran into some kind of trouble or something…”

She wanted to kill him. Right then, right there, no remorse.

“He’s been gone without notice for a few days, but that’s not terribly unusual for him…” she was finally able to get out without allowing too much open hatred to seep into her voice.

“I see,” Keef responded, arrogant smirk widening.

“Look, Keef, I’m really busy… catch you later,” Shiek turned and continued towards the village entrance.

“Hold it there Shiek,” Keef said stepping to block her path, “I’m afraid you’re going to have to tell me why you need in…”

“That, Keef, is absolutely none of your business.”

“Don’t pull that ‘leader’ act on me, Shiek,” Keef growled, crossing his arms and trying to tower over the much shorter Shiek, “The only way you’re getting in here is letting me know what’s up.”

Shiek looked contemplative for a moment, then suddenly let her right hand flash out. The heal of her palm connected squarely with Keef’s diaphragm, sending him staggering back. Keef barely had time for a surprised gasp before Shiek spun, driving a low kick into his right knee. Keef grimaced, his right leg collapsing, but he was tougher then Shiek had given him credit for. With his right knee still holding his weight, Keef did a quick sweep with his left leg, trying to take out Shiek’s feet. Shiek jumped over the sweep, but Keef pushed off hard with his right leg, driving his shoulder into her chest as she came back down. The force of the blow was not as powerful as it might have been, given that she had just severely hurt the leg he was pushing with, but it was enough to knock her back several feet. Staggering, Shiek was barely able to retain balance, falling back into an open stance as Keef retook his feet.

“You fight like a girl you little punk,” Keef growled, a smirk still hovering around his lips, “Bum rushes and knee shots… but I guess someone a puny and pathetic as you doesn’t have much else to hit for.”

He fell into a Taraja stance. It was an obscure branch of Shiekah Martial Arts, one which was considered very lethal, but which few mastered. Shiek eyed the right hand, which was curled into a fist and held ready at waist level. Keef wasn’t considering this just a friendly sparing bout; he was out for blood.

Guess both of us must be having a bad day, she thought as she readied her she for the fight.

Shiek was worried. She only knew of one Taraja Master, Impa, and Keef was modeling her stance perfectly. The fact that Keef looked so comfortable in the tight stance, right arm ready to strike while the left hand held out to block in front, meant he was probably fairly confident that he could perform any of the moves her guardian could. Shiek had never fought a Taraja artist, master or otherwise, but she knew the kind of destruction they could unleash.

Time to end this, she though, deciding to not wait for Keef to take the first shot. Shiek hopped forward a pace, spun on her forward left foot and tried to side-kick Keef’s lower back. She was hoping the closed stance would prevent him from block a quick blow to the back.

Keef had obviously been expecting this line of thought.

Whipping around his left arm, Keef quickly opened his stance, catching the kick with his left forearm and trapping her leg to his side. In the same fluid motion, he used his momentum to step forward with his right leg while bringing in his right fist around for a powerful straight punch aimed right at her mouth. Shiek tried to doge, but her weight was totally off balance. The fist connected squarely with the left side of her jaw. Shiek fell backwards, landing hard on the ground. She was going to try a recovery sweep when she realized that Keef was still holding her right leg with his left hand. Quickly bringing his back left leg up to his right, Keef pulled up on her leg and brought his right foot down hard towards her groin. It would pull her right leg straight out of socket, totally immobilizing it. It was exactly what she would have done.

It was Shiek’s turn to anticipate the move.

Her left leg shot out as Keef prepared to kick and connected solidly with Keef’s left ankle. Since she was on her back the blow lacked the force to do substantial damage, but it did cause Keef to gasp in pain and bring down his right foot to balance his weight. Rolling and pushing herself up on her arms, Shiek’s left leg shot out again, this time striking Keef’s crotch. Keef gasped, and doubled over slightly, letting Shiek’s leg go as he did so. Shiek pulled the right leg up so she stood in a handstand facing her opponent. She spun once so her back was to Keef, and then launched herself towards him with her hands. She wanted her feet to connect with his chest, but Keef was just out of range. She landed standing about a foot from him. Keef recovered and lunged towards her, striking with his forward left elbow. The blow caught Shiek in the shoulder as she tried to doge it, spinning her and causing her to stagger off balance again. She recovered quicker then Keef had guessed though, and snapped her arm back to bring her elbow into contact with his diaphragm.

Gasping, Keef sank to his knees, anger and hate in his eyes. His smirk was gone, replaced with an animalistic snarl. He obviously had thought the much shorter and lighter Shiek would prove no match for him, but his bruised body was screaming otherwise now.

“You want to play rough, Shiek? Fine, death it is…” he growled, quickly sweeping back to his feet. He fell into the more traditional ko’ara fighting stance that Shiek used, hands open, held chest high, legs in a balanced, slightly crouched, spread.

Guess he’s through messing around, Shiek thought, wondering if that was a good or bad thing for her. She soon found out.

Keef’s right hand shot out quicker then Shiek thought he was capable of. She barely managed to doge the straight to her face, but left her back open. Keef monopolized on the error instantly, drilling his knee into her lower back. Shiek let out a shirk of pain as she sank to her hands and knees. Keef quickly brought up his left leg to stomp her head. Then Shiek saw her opening. Shifting her weight to her other leg, she quickly brought up her right leg and drove a kick with her strength into the side of Keef’s right knee. There was an unmistakable, sickening pop as Keef’s entire weight twisted down onto his joint. Keef screamed in an unearthly high voice, blood draining from his face. Pushing to her feet Shiek watched as Keef sank to take all his weight onto his left knee. Spinning, she brought down her heal in a powerful ax-kick to Keef’s right shoulder. He crumpled into a little moaning ball at her feet.

“Damn it Shiek! What the hell was that for!”

“In case you didn’t notice, that heal stomp I prevented you from executing was going to kill me, punk,” Shiek growled, a blood red haze of anger and hate beginning to fog her vision, “and you’ve had this coming for a long time now. How long have you been working for Gannondorf, scum?”

Surprise flashed through the pain in his the large violet eyes, but it was soon replaced by an arrogant loathing.

“Long enough to see that idiot Draq get what was coming to him. He didn’t die in that grove you know… that would have been too simple,” after spitting out a considerable bloody clod, the old arrogant smirk returned, “we all had some fun before he went down.”

Shiek felt something in her mind snap. It didn’t matter what Impa would do anymore; Keef was going to die, right here, right now, compliments of Zelda, Ruler of Hyrule.

“You little bastard!” she hissed, grabbing his collar and pulling his face up and bending down to glare straight into his eyes. Her fist drew and unloaded punch after punch directly into Keef’s face. It only took five hits before Keef’s face and her fist were coated with blood, and it was splattered all over her clothes. As Shiek fist pulled back for the final rage driven hit aimed to snap the traitor’s neck, an odd frightening thing happened to her. Maybe it was the blood on Keef’s face, maybe it was the fading light, maybe it was the Triforce of Wisdom, or maybe it was just her conscious screaming at her through the rage, but for a moment Keef’s face disappeared, and she was punching the bloodied face of Draq; she even heard Gannondorf’s grim laugh escaping from her mouth. Her eyes fell down to her blood-stained hand, but instead of her white and blue gloves, she saw the heave leather-gauntleted fist of the evil warlord. Gasping, Shiek let go of Keef, allowing his body to sink into a limp pile at her feet. She staggered back a few paces, falling to her knees, the color draining from her face, staring with wide frightened eyes at her hands.

Long live her majesty, Queen Zelda, Absolute Ruler of the Hylian Empire! The words came unbidden to her mind.

“What in the name of Din’s fire happened?” Shiek looked up wildly at the speaker, panic sweeping her.

It was Impa. New scars on her face, and an uncharacteristic look of shocked horror in her eyes, but unmistakably Impa.

Shiek spread her arm out and sobbed.

“Don’t let me Impa! I don’t want to be him! I don’t want to be him!” she was on the verge of hysteria, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

“Don’t let you be who?” her guardian asked falling on her knees to check and see if it was Shiek’s blood that coated the princess’ clothing.

“Gannondorf! Gannondorf! GANNONDORF!”

With that, Shiek fell into Impa’s arms sobbing, and for a time she knew nothing more.

Shiek woke up with the feel of a cool rag on her forehead. Moaning slightly, she tried to push herself onto her elbows, and felt her arm groan in protest. Her entire body felt stiff and sore, acting as a very potent reminder of the brutal fight she had just went through. Pulling the rag away from her face, Shiek looked around to get her bearings. Apparently Impa had taken her up to her house on the hill. As far as she could see, she was the only person in the room, but there was a white sheet over a bed in the corner that look like there was someone unmoving beneath it. The sheet was drenched in blood. A wave of nausea swept her as she realized what the sheet had to be covering; Keef’s corpse, bloody and beaten lifeless by her own bare hands. Shiek felt a shiver run through her. The dark room would have been creepy enough, and Keef’s body wasn’t helping at all. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the door suddenly flew open. Recovering herself, she looked to see who had entered.

It was Impa.

“Feeling better, princess?” Impa asked, concern in her eyes, belying the unemotional air she tried to keep about her.

“Don’t call me princess, Impa, please…” Shiek said sitting up fully and letting her sore legs dangle over the bed, “I never want to be ruler of anything, I don’t want to become what I was last…” she trailed off realizing she wasn’t sure how long she’d been sleeping. She made to rise to her feet, but Impa reached out, pushing her back to sit on the bed.

“About that, what happened this afternoon?” Impa ask, pushing some of Shiek’s long bangs away from her face, “I came out of the village to find you and Keef covered in blood; him unconscious and you screaming hysterically about Gannondorf. Were the two of you attacked?”

“Sort of,” Shiek let her eyes travel to the other bed, “is he, um…” she trailed off, unable to finish.

“Dead? Yes, whatever attacked you two must have had a sick twist to it; it pulverized Keef’s face, I could barely recognize him. So what happened? Moblins? Skultiods?”

“No… me…” Shiek’s reply was barely above a whisper, as she looked at Keef’s corpse, unable to tare her eyes away from the bloody sheet in the corner.

Sighing Impa shook her head, a look of pity in her eyes.

“Princess, what happened was not your fault. It was obvious you did your best to help thwart the assailants, which is all that can be asked for…”

“no, you don’t understand,” Shiek replied, still whispering. Her eyes finally traveled back to Impa’s, filled with sorrow and shame.

“I killed him… myself… with this hand…”

Impa didn’t say anything for a few seconds. There was an odd look in her eye, and Shiek thought it looked as though she was trying to decided if the princess was mad, lying, telling some kind of sick joke, or really serious. Finally she must have come to rest on the last.

“So, why did you kill Keef?” she asked, hanging doubt still obvious in her eyes.

“Because I hated him,” it was the truth after all. She had not really needed to kill him. And that was what was burning her soul, the real reason she didn’t want to be Queen. Just another Gannondorf with a different piece Triforce and the same maniacal desire to kill anything that opposed her.

“Um, princess, are you sure you are remembering the afternoon correctly?”

“How else do you explain this Impa?” ask asked, holding up her right hand, which was wrapped in gauze, “or that way I was covered with Keef’s blood. And please… don’t call me princess; I can’t be a princess anymore…”

“That is not something you can choose, princess… it is what you are.”

“Maybe it is what I am… but I cannot do it again.”

“Do what again?”

Shiek sighed. This was going to be a long story.

“…that’s when I ran into Keef outside the village. I confronted him about his treason, and he attacked me.”

“And then you killed him,” Impa said comprehension beginning to form on her features.

“No,” Shiek said, shaking her head, “I defeated him in combat. He was helpless. Then I killed him.”

A shocked looked crossed Impa’s face.

“Why in Din’s name-”

“He said he had tortured Draq,” Shiek interrupted, “and I hated him. That’s why I don’t want to be princess, or queen, or anything. Never again will I be like Gannondorf.”

Impa shook her head looking steadily down at Shiek.

“One does not have to rule to anything to become like that vile magus, and not all rulers are poisoned by the madness that holds his mind. You will be a ruler Princess Zelda, destiny cannot be overruled… the kind of leader you will be is what is in your power to craft.”

Sighing, Shiek looked back to the bloody sheet. As always, Impa was right, but she still had hanging doubts. The rage and passion that had bashed the life out of Keef had come from inside her. Maybe destiny had decided that a Gannondorf would sit on Hyrule’s throne, even if it had to be a female version.

As Impa saw to the readying of Keef’s body for burial, Shiek walked out into the village. Both she and Impa had decided that supporter of Gannondorf or no, Keef was a shiekah, and ergo deserved a proper shiekah resting. Besides, Shiek sort of felt she owed the guy a favor.

There wasn’t much happening in the village. A few peasants wandered around, Fiona’s chickens were running wild yet again, and of course the two odd Gorshii brothers were laughing over something till their sides were bursting in the center of the town. Shiek had long ago stopped asking them what they were laughing at, it was generally just Geral Gorshii laughing about how Georfy Gorshii had gotten scared out of the little wits he possessed by something or other. Walking over to the well in the back of the village, Shiek stared gloomily down into it. At the bottom of the well was where the evil spirit Impa had imprisoned was caged. It was odd how ht well looked so normal on the surface, giving no clue about the great evil it housed.

Perhaps in a way it’s like me… seemingly innocent, but ready to erupt in a violent burst at any second. Shaking the thought away, Shiek turned back towards the village entrance. She reached about the center of the town when she spotted Toran, who was obviously returning from the forest.

“You ok?” the young warrior asked as he slowed to jog to stand in front of her, “you look kind of banged up.”

“Keef,” Shiek replied shrugging, “but don’t worry… he’ll never bother us again.”

Toran nodded, and fell into pace with Shiek as they walked towards Impa’s House.

“I went to the temple courtyard,” he began, jerking a thumb in the general direction of the forest, “and found a few things,” his voice carried a strained sound, and Shiek figured that she had been right after all.

“What did you find?” she asked, already guessing at the answer.

“I found Scela’s body… he’d been chopped into pieces, Shiek, like a Dark Knuckle had gotten a hold of him,” his voice sounded controlled, but Shiek could tell by the look in his eyes that Toran had been simultaneously infuriated, sickened, and grief-stricken at the sight.

So it’s worse then I had wanted to believe, not only is Draq dead, but Scela died trying to avenge him…

“The strange thing is,” Toran voice cut into her thoughts, “there is no sign of Draq anywhere. No body, no torn clothes, not even a sign of his freaking axe… Why would whatever killed them take him away but leave Scela behind? It just doesn’t make sense to say he’s dead…”

“But it doesn’t make any sense to say he is alive either,” Shiek mused, “because he surely would have fought to the death… and even if he hadn’t died after I left, who ever killed Scela would have only been able to do it over Draq’s lifeless body. But you’re right, there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for why there’s no sign of him. You’re sure you didn’t miss anything?”

Toran nodded.

“I checked everything thoroughly… there was absolutely no indication that Draq had been killed in the courtyard, or in the maze outside it either…”

The two stood in contemplation for a moment, and soon found themselves joined by Impa. Toran gave a startled look at the arrival of the Shiekah elder, which soon melted into a small grin. Shiek knew that even though Toran was often frustrated by Impa’s cold manner and strict rules, he respected her greatly and looked on her as the closest thing to a mother he’d ever had.

“Impa? My, you’re up quick. It wasn’t that long ago that you looked like you should have been dead!”

A wry grin tugged at Impa’s mouth, but she remained collected.

“It would seem that Jethro is a very qualified healer… not to mention is rich enough to buy the most powerful medicines ever seen in Hyrule. I was much more then adequately cared for. And I am glad to see you found Shiek and were able to assist her.”

Toran sighed, rolling his eyes heavenward.

“Impa, seriously, chill. Why can’t you just say, ‘yeah, doing much better, and thanks for watching over Shiek’ like a normal person would?”

Shiek was about to interject her own comments when there came a roar that cause all three heads to snap around to the far side of the village. Smoke was billowing from Death Mountain, and it looked as though it was about to erupt. This was not an overly uncommon occurrence, but this time the smoke was an odd color, not the normal grayish white.

“Um, am I the only one who thinks this is probably a bad thing?” asked Toran, somewhat rhetorically, starting to walk towards the foot of the mountain. Shiek made to follow him, but Shiek only took three steps before she felt an odd, yet familiar, tingling in the back of her mind. It had to be Rydum the Sage of Light trying to connect with her telepathically from his place in the Sacred Realm.

“Impa,” she said pointing after Toran, “can you go help him? Rydum wants to talk with me, so I need to head to the Temple of Time…”

Impa nodded and Shiek pulled out her harp. A few strands of the Prelude of Light brought her to the large stone cathedral that acted as the gateway to the Sacred Realm.

Toran and Impa reached the base of Death Mountain after the short jog across the village. Quite a few of the villagers had gathered to see what might be up, and Toran saw concern, surprise, and even fear among the sturdy refugees.

“Impa,” he asked under his breath, starting up at the strange ring of smoke floating over Death Mountain crater, “you ever seen this happen before?”

The Shiekah shook her head, and the two moved to the path up the mountain to Gordon City.

“Please everyone,” Impa said, turning to address the crowd, “we are going to go see what has happened, and if there is any danger. Until then, I suggest you do your best to just go on about the day’s work. Even if Death Mountain erupts, this village has never been in its blast radius, so there should be no threat to everyone here. We will return to give you a report of the situation by this evening.”

There were some murmurs that ran through the crowd at this, but slowly the villagers left to their various jobs. Impa commanded a great deal of respect among the villagers, and if she said something would probably not harm them, they were willing to listen.

The two had only gotten around the first bend in the path when Plarth staggered into view out of the Gordon Cavern. He was the leader of a resistance team that stationed themselves in a cave near Gordon City, and just one look at him told Toran that more then a volcanic eruption was at foot. Plarth’s brown hair was disheveled, there was a nasty gash across his face, and his tall thin frame was hunched over as though he was trying to apply pressure to his lower abdomen. When he saw Toran and Impa, his glazed brown eyes cleared slightly, and tried to take another staggering step forward. His legs gave out though, and Plarth fell to the ground, clutching stomach and groaning. Toran was beside him in an instant, Impa right behind him.

“Plarth! What in Narue’s name is happening?” Toran said, trying to help Plarth sit.

“Gannondorf’s army,” Plarth gasped, obvious in a massive amount of pain, and still wrapping his arms around his midriff, “Lizardmen, Moblins, and Skultiods… They attacked Gordon City early this morning. My team and the Gordons fought them as best we could, but there were just too many of them. We might have even had them, except for the Dark Knuckle leading them…” Plarth fell into a fit of coughing that brought blood to his lips.

“How could they have gotten an army up the Mountain?” Toran asked, looking at Impa, “The only way up is through the village. To get to Gordon City he would have had to attack the village first and all the mainland races would rush to its aid. Gannondorf knows without the other pieces of the Triforce he doesn’t have the military clout to defeat the combined armies of Gordon, Hylian, and Zora races combined.”

Impa shook her head grimly, obviously perturbed.

“There is an old path up the back side of the mountain carved by the normal lava flow… only the Shiekah people knew about it…”

Toran’s eyes hazel darkened.

“Keef…”

“The Dark Knuckle slaughtered our group, only I made it out to try and get word to you, Impa. They took most of the Gordons alive, dragging to the Fire Temple in the crater. Using his arts, Gannondorf woke up the fire dragon that has been dead for countless generations, and plans on feeding it Gordons until its full strength returns. The Gordon king and I were the only ones able to get away. He sent me to warn the village of the attack and went to the temple to kill the dragon. I was only able to make it the Gordon Cavern and warn a few miners to escape before I collapsed. Thank Narue you made it to me…”

Toran reached down and pulled Plarth’s arms away from his abdomen. The bloody gash across it caused bile to spring to Toran mouth. Swallowing hard he looked over to Impa, who grimly shook her head, anger mixed with sorrow in her eyes. Toran knew what she meant; there wasn’t a doctor in Hyrule that could save Plarth, he would be dead before they could even get him to the village. Impa knelt down and placed her hand on Plarth’s forehead.

“You have done wonderfully Plarth, and we got your message. Now, lay back a rest…”

“Get me to the village, ok?” Plarth rasped, curling up and squeezing his eyes shut in pain, “I need a doctor to patch me up so I can get back in there… the Gordons are gonn’a need help!”

“Ok, ok… just rest now,” Impa said, gently stroking the messy brown hair, “you have already done more then enough… your father would be very proud.”

A smile crossed Plarth’s face and his expression looked less pained. His breathing became shallower, and slowly his body relaxed. Impa waited for Plarth to slip away fully before standing and turning to Toran. Toran wasn’t sure, but he thought there were tears in Impa’s large eyes.

“Toran,” she said, voice grim and strained, “I want you to get to the Temple of Time and inform Shiek of what has happened. I will go to the Temple of Fire and see if I can help the Gordons. Then-”

“No Impa,” Toran cut her off, holding up a hand in protest, “not gonn’a work that way. The cause needs you alive too much to send you into the crater alone. You go find Shiek and I will look into the Gordon problem. If you try to continue up this path, you’re going to have to fight me to do it.”

Impa looked surprised that Toran would be so forward to her, but nodded.

“Very well, Toran… but try to not get hurt. Shiek would never forgive me if you died, and honestly, I care a lot about you to. The Goddesses go with you!”

There was a flash, and a crack, blinding Toran for a second. After a moment his vision returned and Impa was gone.

Only way you’re getting up this path is by fighting me, eh? He thought with a smirk before turning to run towards Gordon city.