[ZGen] The Legend of Zelda: Archaic Entity (Revised Version)

Changes to chapter one:

-It's not overly dramatic anymore!

...and that's about it.

The Legend of Zelda: Archaic Entity

By Xeves

Chapter One: Reminiscence


The moon was shrouded by the thick clouds above, which covered the pirate ship in darkness. It was an old ship, with tattered sails, faded paint, chipped rails and a worn hull. It had a dead and weary appearance, showing signs of rough seas and lethal assaults on its body. The sea appeared dead as well. The water was flat and comatose, and no land was in sight for miles. No gulls perched on the sails. No stowaways curled up in the depths of the ship. The only life that was discernible on the ship was a young woman, who was leaning on the wooden railing, staring out at the vast and empty sea.

She was quite beautiful, with large radiant eyes that revealed an affluence of experience and insight, soft tan skin that reflected the now uncovered moonlight, long flowing straight blonde hair that swayed with the wind, and a round face that reflected her young age. The woman, however, did not dress like a beautiful maiden would. She wore a red bandana that she tied around her head from her temple to the back of her neck, pearl white trousers that were rolled up to the bottom of her knees, bare feet, a black shirt that hugged her torso and hung all the way down to the bottom of her hips with sleeves that only went a little bit past her shoulders, and long strips of cloth that wrapped around her forearms and the palms of her hands. Around her neck she wore several silver necklaces, each with different lengths and rings at the ends of them. On her pointed ears she had many piercings, with nine on her right and seven on her left. All over her upper arms she had thick black tattoos that looked like billowing flames, which extended all the way to her neck.

There was sorrow and wrath in her visage, which did not appear in her overall demeanor. It was as if the woman did not wish to show her true feelings, and instead hid everything inside her deep blue eyes. She liked to bottle everything up inside, and she hid these feelings in order to appear prominent and independent. However, she did not always have to hide things to appear this way, as she was quite an independent woman; and she always was, even as a child. During her upbringing she was already the captain of the ship, bossing around her crew of pirates and being the mature one around a group of blubbering fools who were ages older than her. Despite her leadership, she always had her true feelings sealed inside of her mind, in a secluded space that not even she dared to unlock. Yet there was one who she unleashed her emotion for, as that person was the only one she ever truly trusted. But that person was asleep in the ship’s cabin, and was not there to help her unchain her distressed thoughts. However, there was always one feeling she kept from that person, and she never let it loose.

She wondered when she would ever be free of the sea, the sea that she had lived with her entire life. It never left; no matter where she was it was always there. She had once loved to be out on the water, pillaging and plundering island communities, reaping the land of its fortunes. It was once exhilarating, yet now she wished to stop this plethora of adventuring. It was once a game to her, an amusing endeavor that had no consequences.

Yet, after being in the world for nineteen long years, and after losing so much, she yearned to settle down and rest for years to come. But she had a task, a task that seemed to never want to end. She had to find a new land, where peace and prosperity could reign. The new Hyrule, as she had once said before Daphnes corrected her as the sea crashed down on them atop Ganon’s Tower.

“It will be your land,” she whispered, reciting the ancient king’s words. Her land; Nay, their land. She had forgotten about the one that was asleep in the cabin of the ship, the one who she had known for seven long years now. It was their task to bear, to share together. She was, after all, the descendant of Zelda, princess of Hyrule. And he, the new hero, was not a descendant of anything. Sure, he had family, a wondrous one at that, but where did he come from? Why was he appointed with this task?

She often felt sorry for him, being dragged into all of this, risking his life with no rewards for himself. He didn’t seem to mind it; in fact, he enjoyed helping others in times of need. Yet, she couldn’t help but wonder if he deserved better. Did he really have to bear this burden? Her thoughts were interrupted by a gruff voice behind her.

“Something wrong?”

“Go back to sleep Link, you’ve had a long day,” she said softly, and this response was very unlike her. In normal instances she would have pretended to be vexed and would have thrown Link back inside the hull of the ship, sending him tumbling down the stairs and landing on his head. However, she wasn’t feeling happy at the moment.

“And you haven’t, Tetra?” said Link.

Tetra turned her head to look back at him. He had changed ever since she had picked him up on that cheerful island to save his sister. He was not the same innocent little boy anymore. Nay, Link was not innocent at all. Sure he was still kind, and understanding, yet it seemed that it was only towards her. With others he was so much rougher now. He was easily angered; he had often rivaled her in scolding the shipmates when they messed up. And he never smiled. Smiling was his trademark when he was young, and he was one of the only ones she had known that ever did. But now, it was a rare occasion that he even curved the sides of his mouth. It had seemed that she had influenced him more than she ever thought she could.

His appearance reflected this change as well. He was much stronger now, not abnormally mind you, but it still made him appear more intimidating. His skin was a light tan from being on the ocean for almost half of his life. The once well trimmed short hair that used to sit on top of his head was now wild and messy, kept long so that he didn’t risk injuring himself with his sword while cutting it, and it seemed to spike out on it’s own without his interference. His face was serious, with a masculine physique and light stubble that covered his chin. His eyes were no longer large and shining, full of glee and innocence; they were now stern, with a deep and cold understanding.

He no longer donned the green clothing of the Hero of Time; he felt that it was not necessary anymore. Instead, he dressed in brown trousers that were ripped off at the bottom of his knees, exposing his lower legs, wooden sandals, and a white short-sleeved shirt that had black bandanas tied at the sleeves to keep them against his arms. He wore a black bandana on his head, covering the front half of his upper head with hair sticking slightly out of the bottom.

He was so much older now, she could barely connect him with the little boy that he once was. She often worried about his newfound awareness and maturity, and how long it would take for it to show him how she felt.

Tetra smiled weakly at him, and turned away. She knew he wanted to know what was wrong, but she couldn’t say it; she couldn’t allow herself to have a breakdown in front of him. She didn’t know what he’d think of anything she said anymore, even after knowing him for almost her whole life. His reactions varied day by day. There were so many things he surprised her with, things she didn’t expect to come from the clueless child of Outset. She didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Link-…Link just go back to sleep. I can handle it myself.”

As always, even with his newfound resentment of being under someone’s jurisdiction, he obeyed her without hesitation. After all, she was his captain. He turned and walked across the deck of the ship towards the door that led down into the cabin.

Then her voice broke the lonely hush of the sea, “Do you regret this?”

Link stopped with his hand on the doorknob, and he turned his head back towards her, seeing her staring back out at the sea. “Everything that has happened to us after you chose to save your sister has come at your expense. You never gained anything in return except for scars and the loss of all that you once knew.” She looked at him from the railing with an expression of guilt and concern that he had never seen her use. “Do you regret this?”

He smiled at her, adopting the demeanor of the clueless boy from Outset that he once inhabited. “I don’t regret anything. Everything happens for a reason, and I don’t hold anyone responsible for what happens to me except myself. Don’t worry about it.” He waved to her, signaling a good night, and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

He stood in the doorway, mulling over what she had said. After a number of seconds, he walked down into the cabin of the ship. As he walked down the stairs, he looked at all the things that were at the bottom of them. Diamonds, rubies, gold, silver, emeralds, jade, ebony, bronze, all the precious gems and metals that you could think of, all collecting dust. He walked past the treasures that had built up during their childhood, and went into his room. This room was not always his; it was once Tetra’s. But she didn’t like to be in there anymore. She wanted to be outside, looking at the stars and breathing in the fresh air. So he took it as his own, put her things in the storage room, and left just a bed, an oil lamp, Tetra’s scimitar, his broadsword, and a box on the floor in the corner. He wanted to look inside of the box, but he wondered if he could take the pain of remembering those he would never see again.




The seagulls sat with profoundly dumb faces inscribed into their heads, gawking at each other and cawing like banshees into the air. A few of them circled the sail without reason, other than having a false purpose in the group of forty-six.

Seagulls were quite a peculiar animal. They seem to be the primary decomposer of this flooded world, eating up the waste and dead things that littered the earth and floated aimlessly around in the sea. They were the dysfunctional angels of death, carrying the empty shells, whether they are organic or inorganic, to the afterlife; to be specific, in their stomach.

If one were to die on their ship, with no one to take them to shore and bury them respectfully in the ground, the gulls would swoop down, devour whatever they could of the corpse, and carry them on to the gates of hell. They always seemed to know when death was imminent. In fact, they were very casual about it. On the sails of the lost ships they wait, preparing to pounce upon the living once the gift of life was stripped from them. When the carcass was devoured, the gulls always left scraps; the heart with only one ventricle left, the bladder and the appendix left there alone, the rest nibbled gingerly and left torn asunder on the deck of the ship.

They were once the weakest link of the detrivores, them at the bottom and the bald vultures of the desert at the pinnacle of royalty; they were the kings. But after the world was flooded thousands of years ago, the gulls were the only ones left standing. So their species took up the mantle of king, and ruled over the decayed people of the sea.

Those who were about to die didn’t know why so many gulls appeared on their sails. They just watched them fight with amusement in their dying eyes. They would never know what was to happen to them. They would never know that the angel of death was upon their doorstep.




The rising sun struck light onto Link’s eyes through the circular window in the back of the room. He opened his eyes reluctantly, and growled at the thought of waking up. He turned over and saw the box in the corner of the room. Just as he laid his eyes on it, he thought of Aryll. How much had she changed while he was gone? Did she even think of her big brother anymore? He couldn’t even picture her anymore, aside from two large curious eyes, and a childish smile that haunted his mind every night.

And then he thought of his grandmother. She would be a hundred and four on this day. Although he knew she was probably dead by now, he did not want to believe it. Instead, he pictured the remaining two members of his withering family line spending time with the villagers on Outset, taking care of the pigs and harvesting from the gardens outside of their wooden houses. The children would be looking up to Aryll just as they had to Link. They would want to be heroes and play with sticks; they would swordfight and try to overcome their imaginary archenemies. They would pretend that the pigs were monsters, and they would chase them all across the island. Aryll would look on at them with the other adults on Outset, all laughing at their follies. That’s what he wanted to think. He wanted to think that all was well at home. Then he pondered over a very sad thought. Did he even have a home anymore?

He couldn’t take it anymore and lunged at the box, and pried it open. Inside was a pictograph with him as a child and the entire village of Outset. Grandma had her hand on his shoulder as well as Aryll’s, and they were in the center of the pictograph. They had always been the glue of the community, especially when the others would squabble. They served as an example to follow, and the others followed in order to survive. Grandma wasn’t always the feeble and gentle old woman she was when he left. She used to be the strong and energetic leader of the island, the one who made all the decisions and solved all of the problems. However, over time her old bones began to wither away, and she had to rest. They all knew she was going to die, they just didn’t know when.

Link threw the box to the ground, and walked out of the room. He went into the storage room, with growling sounds coming from his abdomen as he walked. He looked inside a barrel, and saw that there were no apples. Link looked in another, and saw that all of the meat gone. He repeated in this fashion for an hour, moving faster every second. All of the barrels were empty. He cursed loudly and kicked over a barrel, breathing heavily through his teeth. After he calmed down a bit, and tried to ignore the situation he was now in, he went over to the buckets of water that they had collected after the last rain. He cupped his hands and dove them into the warm water, and returned them to his mouth, at which he drank ravenously.

Link looked to the side of him and saw that the rum was gone as well, with a three large bottles freshly emptied. His eyes went wide, now thinking of Tetra. She’s drinking again. Passing by the treasures that collected dust by the stairs, he walked up to the deck of the ship. It was now the early morning; the sky was clear, spare a few white clouds, and the sun beat down on his neck. He turned and walked up to the steer of the ship. Tetra was already up, laying in the hammock with her legs crossed, drinking casually from a bottle of rum. She looked at Link out of the corner of her eye, and she did her trademark wink and grin at him. Link couldn’t help but smile at this, for she had not done that since he was a boy. He sat against the railing of the ship by her hammock, and looked up at her curiously.

“How long have you been up?” asked Link.

“Who says I even slept?” Tetra hiccupped humorously. Link could now tell that she had definitely not slept, for there were dark spots underneath her eyes, and the veins in those eyes were pulsing red.

“I suppose you feel better now? Or is it just the rum that’s making you giggle?” asked Link with a fake smirk on his face, while he was actually worried for her. She would never drink before. The entire crew drank it, as did he, while Tetra sat on the side constantly saying that it was a waste of time. But after the crew died, she had once almost died of alcohol poisoning. Once again, she was going to drown her thoughts and feelings in a pool of buttery warm rum.

“The rum of course. You know, honestly I can’t believe I used to hate this stuff. It’s fantastic!”

Link could tell she was getting a bit tipsy. She began to sing drinking songs with a drunken overtone, waving the bottle around to the tune. Link looked up at the sail, and squinted his eyes at an odd sight he had not seen in months. There was a seagull perched on the sail of the ship, nipping at its underside. More and more came and perched on the sail, nipping and flapping their wings, cawing at each other at annoyingly high pitches.

He didn’t ask her about her drinking, as he didn’t want to anger her, especially when her common sense was faltered. Instead, he asked, “What are we going to do when we find this new land, anyway? I mean, we don’t have anyone with us, how are we supposed to colonize an island by ourselves?”

“Who knows,” Tetra said lightheartedly, hiccupping every now and then. “Perhaps we’ll have to crossbreed with those gulls up on the sails, make Gullians and live among deformed man-birds for all eternity.”

Link laughed out loud at this. Even though she was only happy because of the rum, this was the first time the two of them were normal since the others died. Well, perhaps normal wouldn’t be the right word, but it was enough normal for him. It reminded him of old times, when the two of them would sing and tell dirty and wild stories with the crew. It made his chest lift up and gave him a grand euphoria. He held out his hand, and Tetra placed the rum in his hand. He took a swig and gave it back to her, and he replied to her Gullian remark, “Ah yes, that would be quite the sight, I can see it now. We would be like the Ritos, only we would have half a brain and we would nip our undersides and flap our wings for no apparent reason when perched somewhere. When we would see someone with food, we would pester them, screaming ‘gnanangna’, as the gulls do, and shooting droppings into their eyes. We would continue doing that until they surrendered their food to us. That is how we would survive, and our society would have no order, just the need to eat, reproduce, and annoy the hell out of everyone we see.”

Tetra saw this as an invitation to compete for the best interpretation of their wondrous man-bird society, and happily joined the fray. They went on like this for hours, ignoring their roaring hunger and the inevitable realization that they were going to die soon. Link did not want to tell her they were out of food though; he wanted her to smile, whether naturally or artificially. He was also worried that after the rum wore off, she would become sad again. He felt horrible when she was; he hated to see her like that. It was just so unlike her, he couldn’t imagine the pain she was experiencing right now.

Link scratched his whiskers rhythmically, and looked back at the gulls on the sail. There were even more now, about forty-six, a few of them circling the sail, and two of them now squabbling over room. The two gulls faced each other in a deadly stare-off, with their beaks wide open. They stood in this trance for a few minutes, and then charged at each other, flapping their wings as they lunged forward. One of them slipped and their beaks crushed together as two stags in battle would clash their antlers in a wrestle over a doe. The two gulls were now cawing into each other’s mouths, their beaks now literally locked together. Eventually Link’s amusement of the epic scuffle turned to annoyance from the constant onslaught of their Gnanangnas, and he looked at Tetra again.

Her eyes were wincing, and her hands grasped her stomach. She got up weakly and walked away from the hammock. “I need to eat,” she breathed.

Link decided that he couldn’t keep it from her, but he couldn’t bring the words from his gut to his mouth. He couldn’t bear telling her of their imminent starvation. He sat there, looking down at the creases in the aged floorboards deck as he listened to her light footsteps head down the stairs to the lower deck, then down another flight into the interior of the ship, and again into the storage room. After a few minutes he heard barrels being knocked over in a hungry fury, and it eventually turned into breaking glass and irate screaming.

Link burst into a fear induced sprint, taking three steps at a time down each flight of stairs, running past the stolen treasures collecting dust, down the hall into the storage room. It was in more of a chaos than he had left it earlier that morning; shards of glass littered the floor, broken barrels laying in piles of spilt salt, shelves knocked down, even bloodstains. Bloodstains…

Tetra was collapsed in the center of the room, sobbing lightly, laying in a pool of blood. There was a long shard of glass by her side, and there was a slice across her wrist. It was right through her artery. She had tried to kill herself.

He rushed towards her with a look of horror that had never before stricken his face. He was supposed to be courageous, he was supposed to ignore fear and fight through tough times. Courage was even on the face of his hand, in the form of a golden triangle that only he could hold. Yet it somehow left him at this moment, but it did not make him weak; it did not take away who he was. It made him human to have such a fear, fear that gave him the strength to do things. Courage cannot exist without fear, yet fear can exist without courage. Tetra had lost her ability to have both.

Link untied his bandana and made a tourniquet out of it, cutting off the flow of blood to her arm. He scrambled around the room for needles, found them, and pulled a thread of cotton from his shirt. While he stitched up her cut and used various techniques he had learned to mend a broken artery, she looked up at him with tears dripping down her cheeks. He was not crying, he never did, but it was showing in his complexion; it was showing in the deep black wells of his eyes, it was showing in the way he breathed, the way he moved, the way he thought, touched. He was afraid of her. Not her herself, but what was happening to her. She was so afraid of revealing herself to him that she hid her urge to leave this world. He had no idea that she was so distraught that she wanted to die. Yet she didn’t want to die; she felt that she had to. She felt that she would rather die by her own hand than by the hands of the goddesses. He knew this, and he now felt horrible. He didn’t want to lose her, but he knew it was inevitable for the both of them to lose each other. He didn’t want death, but if he was going to die, they were going to do it together, in unison. He wanted to die by her hands, and she by his. That was the only way to do it without the other having to feel the pain of losing their last living friend.

He finished her stitches, and undid the tourniquet. The bleeding had stopped, but the pain still seared her. He held her against him, closing his eyes and hearing her heartbeat.

“Why didn’t you let me die?” she whined.

“You don’t need to.”

“But I want to.”

“No you don’t. I know you don’t, and you can’t hide it from me. I know you Tetra. You may not think it, or realize it, but I know when you’re lying, when you’re afraid, when you’re happy, when you’re sad. I can hear it in the way you speak of death. You fear it, everyone does. Even I do.”

Tetra didn’t speak, and buried her face into his shoulder. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she was still in both emotional and physical pain. It pained him to see the once strong and stable Tetra become so broken.

She spoke solemnly, "They were my family, my only family..."

"I miss them too."

I was slightly tempted to vote for the 3rd option since it was so damn funny. But I resisted the temptation and voted B-E-A- Utiful! (Cred goes to Jim Carrey )

I pity the fool who votes otherwise!

Thanks SixaxiS =D

Changes to Chapter 2:

-added a fight scene
-changed the character of Buirma to fit the setting

Chapter 2: Misconception


A gull had ventured down to the lonely deck of the ship to investigate, checking if there was food to eat. It hobbled around, occasionally puffing out its wings as it turned its head in hundreds of unnecessary directions. It stood still for a moment, and then an arrow shot through its head, sending it flying across the deck into the wall, where it hung limp and feeble, dangling from where the arrow pierced the hard wood.

Link removed the carcass from the wall, used the tip of the arrow to open up its belly, and emptied its organs and membranes out into the water. They were desperate for food. He brought what was left of the gull over to a bucket of sea-water that he had just scooped up earlier, and washed off the meat. He attached the meat to a long wooden stick that appeared to have been torn from the ship itself and stuck it into the fresh flames of the small fire he made in the center of the deck. One of the gulls swooped down from its perch and picked up the entrails of its fallen comrade in its beak, flying back up to the sail consume eat the remains.

He sat there for a long time, knowing that it was going to taste horrible, but he and Tetra had recently gained a hope that they might find land soon, seeing as the seagulls had found there ship, which meant there was land nearby. So, it was necessary to get whatever they could find to eat. The gulls were the only things that were going to keep them alive, even while the gulls were the ones who wanted them dead.

The meat was thoroughly cooked after that time had passed, and he brought it down to Tetra, as she needed nourishment the most. She had fallen ill over the past few nights, as she had lost her strength after losing all of that blood. Link had been taking care of her like a mother did with a dying child, catering to her every whim and trying to make her as comfortable as possible, as much as she refused. In order to do so, he had chosen to sleep on the floor so that he was there in case her illness became severe.

She was staring at the ceiling when he walked in with the gull meat, and at the instant she heard his sandals touch the hard wood of the room she sat up. Her face had lost its glow, and was now pale and weary.

“Where’d you get that meat?” she asked with a withered tone.

“I killed one of the gulls on the sail. I know that we need them to find land, but we’ll never get there without eating.”

She did not complain, and grabbed a hunk of the meat. As she slowly chewed it with an obvious struggle, Link watched with painful sympathy for her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the treasures that were collecting dust by the staircase. In the piles of precious metals and gems there was a portrait of a young woman, with short red hair, emerald eyes, and a strong and independent overall appearance. She looked like a tame and elegant version of Tetra.

Then he asked a question which had come unto him out of pure curiosity, “Tetra… did you ever know your mom?”

She stopped chewing at this, “That’s none of your business.”

He was glad to see that she was acting like herself again.

She looked up at him and asked, “Aren’t you going to eat this?”

“No.”

“You idiot, you’ll starve before we reach land. Eat.”

“You need it more.”

She rolled her eyes, “Link, I don’t need you to breastfeed me, alright? I’m fine. Now eat this damn gull.”

He hesitated, and took the other half of the meat. As he chewed quietly, Tetra looked out of the room at the portrait.

“And quite honestly, I have no idea about anything about my mom, not even the way she died. I was too young to remember… but I do remember the pain of losing her. I was torn and dismayed for weeks, and I would hide in my mom’s room while the rest of the crew worked on deck. I was afraid… but those days left me long ago. I had to be a woman since the day she died.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh don’t worry about it, I don’t really care that I didn’t have a childhood. I got a head start, and did something with my life that no other child had a chance at. I was thrust into this kind of life before I could really find out what I was missing. You know what I was missing though.”

A guilty look appeared on Link’s complexion.

“Hey, it’s not like I care that much,” she reassured. “If I have lived this long without being a child, don’t you think it really wouldn’t bother me?”

“I suppose,” said Link doubtfully.

They both finished eating what little meat they had, and Tetra laid back down, instantly falling asleep.

Link watched her for a long time, with a look of longing on his complexion. As she breathed in and out, her rough yet delicate figure rose and fell in even intervals. With her eyes closed, she did not look as much of an adult as she had minutes before. The way she looked when she slept reminded him of the haughty little girl that she was when he first knew her, only she was less intimidating in this state than she was to him as an actual child. It made him smile to see her in such tranquility, and it lifted his heart further up into his chest to remember those days.

He walked up to the deck again, glancing at Tetra’s mother’s portrait on his way. The sun was setting now, painting the sky in vibrant shades of red and yellow. The seagulls were no longer frantic and hungry, nor were they perched on the sail. No longer were they the angels of death, but their true occupation; a seagull. They flew around the ship merrily, swooping down and catching fish from the sea.

“What the hell?” he exclaimed inquisitively.

How could there be fish? They wouldn’t be so close to the surface of the water unless it was shallow…

Link looked ahead of the ship in awe. In the distance he could see a wide and faded grey shape, rising and falling in jagged forms from left to right. Seagulls soared in the air, all migrating back and forth from the ship to the object. Link smiled, “The winds have not abandoned us.”




“Tetra,” whispered Link.

She stirred in the bed, groaning and tossing over at the sound of his voice, struggling against the urge to awaken. Link gently shook her shoulders, and at this she opened her eyes in slits in his direction, “What?”

“I have a surprise for you.”

“You mated with a seagull?” she asked wittily.

“No, even better.”

Tetra slowly sat up. She looked much healthier than she was a few hours ago, her face now lush and vibrant once more.

Her eyes were now wide open, now realizing that he wasn’t teasing her. She stood up with curiosity, now hearing birds chirping. Not cawing, not screeching, but chirping. She could hear the mating calls of many insects, trees blowing softly in the wind, and the sea washing against a shoreline.

She sprinted out of the room and up on deck, Link following suit.

Tetra stood just outside the door, looking up with a beaming smile on her face, and tears dropping down gently from her eyes.

It was morning, and the sun was now fully emerged from the horizon. Thousands of shades of green, red, and brown stood before them in towering figures, which varied in size and shape. There were long stretches grass strewn around the figures, which Tetra had finally remembered were called trees. They had found land.

She twisted around and hugged Link with unnatural and surprising strength, almost suffocating him. She left him soon after and jumped off the side of the ship into the water, laughing hysterically. She plunged into the sea, and emerged on the shore, drenched in water. He watched her roll in the grass, as if she was trying to become reacquainted with the earth, with a look of pure joy on both of their faces.

He jumped down from the stern, landing gingerly on his feet. Their hunger washed over them, and it was heightened by the sight of hundreds of fruit trees bordering the edge of the expansive forest before them, which bore all colors. The two scrambled over to the trees and picked the unfamiliar fruits ravenously. They tasted things they hadn’t tasted since they left Outset in search of new land; the sweet, the sour, the citrus, the many different flavors they missed for seven years, were now being crushed between their teeth.

No longer did life and death, love and loss, and the memories of home hang over their consciousness. They were only focused on the bountiful quantity of food and shelter they had stumbled upon. They decided right then that they were never setting sail ever again. They had finished the task that Daphnes had brought unto them. They were home.

The treasures gathered dust at the foot of the staircase…




Rain drops fell to the cold earth, becoming one with the lush soil. Footsteps strode across that earth, with nervous movement and fully realized intention. Apprehension and anger walked on the shoreline, with the vision of the punishment of their future victims fresh in their minds. Sword at their side, bow and arrow at their back, prepared to kill if necessary.

Law and order walked hand and hand with apprehension and anger on that night. They allowed them to persecute the ones they searched for, stretching the law to allow revenge to be brought unto those that were in the path of that vengeance.

The four walked hand and hand on the shoreline, searching for the treasures that collected dust at the foot of the staircase…




Link awoke in the night to the sounds of crackling flames, shouting men, and metal clinking together in random bursts of sound. His eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness, and after they were fully rejuvenated he could see the clear and starry sky, with a red moon hanging above them. He turned over in the sand lazily and looked to the left of him to see men on the far end of the shoreline where the land curved around into the distance, holding torches high above their head while their other hand grasped the hilts their swords. The men were walking, and then they saw the ship, at which they sprinted in his direction.

Link stood up in horrid surprise. He thought there was no one here on this island, and yet there was a band of armored men running towards them, drawing their swords. There were people here.

A bellowing voice came from the group, “Halt, in the name of the emperor!”

An empire?

“To the ground, now!”

Link defied, and walked towards them, drawing his blade, “For what?”

By this time the raid of soldiers had arrived close to Link’s proximity, and their attire was in full sight. Their armor which curved outwards where the men had joints was plated with steel and jade, with intricate designs inscribed in the surface of them. Underneath they bore chainmail, and on their heads they wore helmets that curved in such a way that made them appear to have tusks, which perhaps served as a weapon in battle.

The man at the front of the group who wielded a voulge, a long spear-like weapon with a sword’s blade on the end, yelled through his thick and wiry beard, “Drop your weapon, and come quietly, or face death.”

Link defied, grinding his teeth and glaring at them with his cold eyes, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

The men behind the leader were intimidated by Link’s building fury. He was frightening, like a feral dog that foamed at the mouth.

The leader held his sword out in Link’s direction, looking sternly at him, “I’m warning you, thief! Drop your weapon!”

“I am no thief. You have no right to call me such a thing.”

“Your ship matches the description of Aletra Ohira, the pirate who murdered seven Unharan nobles and escaped our fleets with hundreds of pounds of gold. Now where is she?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Your captain, where is she?”

“I don’t have a captain.”

“Quit telling us lies!”

The leader of the armored men raised his voulge to strike down upon Link, and in return Link prepared to parry the man. However, before the hooked blade drew close to him there was another sword blocking the man’s onslaught. Link looked to the owner of the weapon, and saw it to be Tetra, who was blatantly furious.

The leader furrowed his brows and grinned, “There you are.”

Tetra spun his blade, which forced him to recoil and prepare to defend himself. She looked to Link with apprehension and told him, “You take the rest of those soldiers, and I’ll fight this *******.”

At this the leader bore an insane and merciless grin, and came at Tetra with his voulge in brutish manner while she gracefully twisted across the ground and grabbed the staff of his weapon. She swung herself upwards using its curvature and attempted to kick the leader in the chin. The leader quickly reacted to this and tilted his head to the side, causing her to only brush his beard. Soon after realizing that she had missed her target, she allowed her body to do a complete flip on the staff and land gingerly back on the ground, thrusting her scimitar at him. As the man parried her blows, Link was showing no mercy upon the soldiers.

They could not lay even a finger upon him, often falling prey to his aberrant proficiency with a sword and his uncanny acrobatic movements. Link blocked oncoming thrusts and jabs that came from all around with ease, and often kicked the men down to the ground in a harsh comportment after lowering their guard. Yet while he unleashed his fury upon them, he tried to refrain from taking lives as much as possible.

Tetra and the leader swiftly attacked and parried each other’s moves, and often found themselves in a chance between two blades, fighting for dominance in the quarrel. They came to a final one, one where their faces came close together, bearing their hatred for the other to see. She was firmly focused on him alone, and not what might come for her by his command. He took advantage of this brief distraction and kneed her in the stomach. As he did so, she dropped to her knees and bent over, clutching her abdomen. He hit her over the head with his rigid fist, and she fell to the ground unconscious, with a few trickles of blood running from her hair down across her cheek.

Link turned to see her collapse, and when he did he overflowed with a vehemence that had never before burned inside of him. He ran at the leader with his sword held high, cursing at him with all of his might. The two clashed their blades, sparks flying from the metal. Link pressed against him with all of the force in his body, and as he did so a dent was made in the leader’s blade. The leader struggled under Link’s rage fueled power, his legs trembling under the weight. Link kicked him to the ground and crushed his shoulder with his other foot. The leader howled with pain as the bones crushed under Link’s weight, and he coughed up blood as Link twisted his foot to further the leader’s anguish.

Then an arrow was shot into Link’s ankle, then into his thigh, and again into his shoulder. He fell over into the sand, disabled and wrought with pain. They tied Link and Tetra in chains and left them bleeding into the earth, while the soldiers climbed up into the ship. They emptied everything out, and put everything of value into a steel box. The leader held Tetra’s mother’s portrait in his able hand, and spat upon it, and cackled quietly to himself. Link watched them throw a torch at the sail, and at that the ship was engulfed in flames.

The pictograph curled up in the fire, shriveling up to the center. The last face visible in it was Aryll, who had a wide and childish smile on her face. The pictograph turned to ash.




Tetra awoke in a dark room, unaware of what had happened. She slowly looked around, searching for a hint of light, and failed to succeed in her hunt. She moved her foot slightly, and heard the crinkling sounds of metal. She was chained to the wall.

“Link?”

No response came.

Her voice became more frantic, “Link?”

No response came.

Tetra tugged at her leg, angrily attempting to free herself from her imprisonment, yet the chains did not give way to the tension she created. She punched the wall in frustration, which she just then learned was made of stone and concrete. Her knuckles bled slightly, and the area where the skin was removed stung sharply. She tried again to free herself from the wall, and failed. Again, and again, and again, and she failed each time. However, she remained undeterred, now in an eternal struggle to gain freedom.

Then a door swung open, and a bright white light blinded her vision. A man was thrown into the room, landing sprawled on the ground. He was bleeding profusely, and there were lashes all across his back. His breathing was broken and quiet.

She was close enough to kneel down beside him, and she turned him over. It was Link.

They looked at each other, both pairs of eyes piercing into the other’s mind. Then an armored man knocked her to the side, and lifted Link up by the neck. The man dragged him over to the corner of the room, and attached chains to his right arm. The man turned around and glared at Tetra. As he walked out, he looked back and her and blared a grim smile at her. The door slammed shut.

“Link?”

He moaned in agony.

She rushed towards him, and instantly fell over face first onto the cold concrete ground due the chains that clung firmly to her legs. As her nose began to bleed, light entered the room again. She felt the metal brace of the chains free itself from her ankle. In an irrational feeling of freedom, she rushed in Link’s direction.

Then the armored man grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her out of the room as she shrieked in horror and pleaded for help. The door slammed shut.

The man hauled her down a brightly lit empty hallway with pure white walls and a smooth marble floor.

The man opened a door and threw her inside, slamming it behind him. She was in a square room, with white concrete walls and a similarly colored ceiling and floor. It was brightly lit in that room, even more so than the hallway, which made it blinding to her.

She was chained with her front to the left wall, which was stained a dark red in various places. The man grabbed a whip.

Then a proud voice echoed from the corner of the room, “Begin.”

The armored man lashed the whip at her back, searing her with pain. She did not cry out, but instead scrunched her face and absorbed the pain internally.

The voice echoed again, “Captain Ohira, you look much different than you did seventeen years ago. It’s strange; you look much younger than I remember.”

“I don’t have a last name, and I am no captain. Not anymore.”

“Yet you own a pirate ship. Seems to me that you are the captain.”

“I am captain of myself, I have no crew.”

“Then who is the man you were found with?”

“He’s an old friend.”

“Whose name is?”

“That’s none of your business.”

She was lashed again.

“It seems that I’m the one who holds your future. I believe that makes it my business.”

She looked back at the voice, and she saw a dark figure of a young man sitting on a chair. But she didn’t get to see the details, as she was lashed again.

“…Link. His name is Link.”

“That’s it?”

“He never told me. I don’t know his last name.”

She was lashed again.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Well Aletra, you don’t seem to be ready to admit to what you did, so-.”

“My name is not Aletra!”

She was lashed again.

“Then what’s your name?”

“Let me go!”

She was lashed again.

“Tetra.”

“Then where is she?”

“I don’t know! I don’t even know who she is!”

She was lashed again.

“We found a portrait of Aletra in your ship. That is proof enough that you know who she is.”

Tetra fell silent, “No, it can’t be.”

“What?”

“She can’t be.”

She was lashed again.

“Tell us what you know!”

Tetra coughed up blood, “She’s my mother…”

The young man smiled, “Ah, so you are the spawn of the demon. No one knew she had a daughter. This is interesting.”

He stood up from his chair and walked over to Tetra, observing her with grim curiosity. She could now see him out of the corner of her eye; long and straight jet black hair that parted to the side, bright skin that was just barely more ethereal than the walls, and abysmal purple eyes that swarmed with malice. Around his neck he wore a silver necklace with three crystals, blue, red, and green in color, strung upon it. He wore a crimson hood embroidered with golden designs, and a red and black robe that was decorated in markings that appeared to depict ancient proceedings and symbols. One out of the ordinary symbol at the peak of his hood caught Tetra’s eye immediately; the Triforce.

He bared his teeth in an ominous smile at her while he cupped her chin in his palm. “Where is she?”

“She’s dead.”

He laughed, “So you didn’t commit the crime, and Aletra is dead. I don’t care; you are the still the kin of that vile woman. I won’t let you walk the earth any longer, and neither will your foul mouthed friend. Tried to kill me, he did, sputtering curses and saying things that no sophisticated man would say. He is just as dangerous as your mother.”

He slowly strode away with his head held high, and looked over at the armored man, “Keep lashing her, I want them to see her scars when she’s up on the gallows.”

The young man smiled curtly back at Tetra, “The two of you are to be hung tomorrow morning. Savor your last hours, child.”




Link was past his pain, and was intent on killing the next person he saw. He knew what they were doing to her. They already knew that Aletra was Tetra’s mother. They already knew who they were. They had already decided to hang them. They were torturing her for the pleasure of hurting things that they didn’t understand.

He now wished that they had died on the ship three days ago, as he’d rather be decomposed by seagulls than hung at the gallows for crimes he didn’t commit. Something told him that things weren’t well where they were now. Something told him that people like him were persecuted for the sole purpose of ridding them from the land.

The door opened, and the blinding light came in once more. Tetra was in the opening, bloody and wide eyed. The armored man threw her inside, hitting the ground just as Link had; only she landed close to Link. The man didn’t bother putting on the chains, as they had nowhere to go. As Link struggled against the chains to come after the man, yelling out in a feral manner, the door slammed shut.

Link held her in his arms, her blood dripping onto his clothing. They didn’t speak, for nothing they could say would turn their attention from their fate that was soon to crash down upon them. They were hopeful that they were to get out of this, but in their hearts they knew this was a fabrication spun by their fear of death.

Their shattered souls could not amass the courage to tell the other the truth. Even in their eleventh hour, even in wake of the afterlife, they could not say it.

“You mated with a seagull?” she asked wittily.

EPIC!!!

A little mature, and wrong to think about, but still epic!

Changes:

-Sheikah Village is a lot better
-Less confusing than before
-New character

Also, tell me if there is anything that you feel is confusing or missing from the story, as I've been editing these quickly.

Chapter 3: The Entity


Thousands of people stood in the market square around the gallows, all watching Link and Tetra stand with their hands and legs chained together, waiting for the angel of death to come for them.

A thin and mousey man stood on the stage of the gallows, holding a long scroll in his hands. He recited the words in front of him, telling the crowd the false accusations that purple eyed priest had made. The crowd appeared to have believed it, but some were skeptical. They looked up with mixed feelings as they peered at Link and Tetra’s scars, still fresh from the night before.

Link wondered how such horrid people could govern such a beautiful city, with its bright marble hi-rises with vines growing up the walls, black round shingles on the roofs that arched upwards towards the sky, and many obsidian towers with domed roofs. Chickadees and finches flew through the city and passed over his head, chirping with a pleasant and soothing tone. Trees dominated the city’s structure, and gave the place a bond to nature. The sun illuminated the world and gave bliss unto the city. Such beauty seemed to lightly mask the fact that a noose was being swung onto his head.

He looked at Tetra, and saw her strong demeanor and vigilant personality booming from her stature. She was ready to face death, even if it was unjustified in its reason. The young captain was revealing herself once more in the face of death. She was really becoming herself again.

He looked out at the people before him, half of them cheering on for the two of them to be hung, and the other half quiet and observant, seeming to know that Link and Tetra had done nothing wrong.

He sighed and looked above at the four story domed building before them. There were three men in white cloaks, all standing side by side at the edge of the roof. The one standing in the middle knelt down on one knee, and mouthed a quiet command. The two men at his side ran along the roof in opposite directions, leaping from building to building. The man in the middle leapt down from his perch, scraping a clawed golden gauntlet on the wall of the building to slow his fall, landing without a sound. No one noticed the men.

The scrawny man walked over to a lever, ready to pull it down to allow the trap doors to let Link and Tetra fall to their deaths. Then a long black dart, shot from the roof of the left hand building, pierced through the man’s skull. The man then dropped to the stained wooden floor. Link and Tetra’s chains dissipated and fell to the ground as a dust of metallic particles. Then three silver wolves twice Link’s height leapt onto the stage of the gallows, bearing their long fangs and bristling their fur. The three cloaked men leapt from nowhere onto the backs wolves, the one with the golden gauntlet grasping Link and Tetra from the nooses and pulling them swiftly onto the back of his wolf.

As the citizens screamed in panic, and as arrows shot through the air, the wolves pounded off through the crowd and down the main avenue of the metropolis, which was bustling with horses, carriages, pedestrians, and soldiers, all surprised at the sudden onslaught of monstrous wolves sprinting towards the towering black gates to the outside world. As the cobblestones crushed beneath the wolves’ paws, they leapt up the sides of the buildings onto the ebony roofs, sprinting towards the colossal ninety foot high wall of the city, with its barracks and armories protruding out of the sides. The wolves thrust their claws into there outlaying buildings in the walls, frightening the soldiers and workers inside of them, and used these constructs as footholds up the monstrous wall.

Link was dumbstruck as to what was happening, as was Tetra. Their eyes were wide, and both fear and happiness shining from their expressions. They were free, or at least they hoped this was so.

The wolves dove over the wall, sliding on their claws down the marble, and landed in the grass of the large world that Link was now aware that they were in. To the north, at a far distance of probably a fortnight was a long and soaring mountain range, with a dead volcano in the center that brushed against the clouds in the morning sky. There were rolling plains all around, with tall grass and the occasional patch of trees. To the south, bordering the metropolis that they were leaving behind, was a large lake that seemed to pour down into the ocean at the end of it. Large red and yellow birds that were as large as a human soared through the air, screeching loudly and swooping down over them, gracefully showing off their attractive golden tails. The fields surrounding them were full of lush gardens of wildflowers, some even appearing gargantuan and alien, flaring wondrous and vibrant colors and patterns. The forests surrounding them were towering and foreboding monstrosities that hunched over as if they were watching them.

The wolves panted heavily as they ran up and down the hills towards the mountains, frightening away the behemoth birds. Link and Tetra felt odd here. Even as their old home held many magical elements and exotic features, this place was otherworldly to them; the monstrous animals, the oversized cites; the mountain ranges that seemed to literally touch the heavens; all of the sights that they saw in the open world gave them a paranormal idea of what was hidden in this new world.

They stopped at the edge of a soaring maple and oak forest about nine miles away from the city, which appeared to wrap around the edge of the mountains, where there was a man standing in the shadows of the trees, waiting for them. The man that wore the gauntlets leapt down from his wolf, leaving Link and Tetra behind as he approached the hidden man.

They spoke in an unknown language using spiteful tones, as if they were being forced to cooperate with each other. The man that wore the gauntlets lazily motioned for Link and Tetra to come forward and approach him. They studied the situation with caution, and stepped down from the monster, taking prude steps toward him and the hidden man.

The man with the gauntlets turned towards Link, and lowered his hood, taking a steel edged straw hat from the inside of his cloak and placing it on his head, soon after throwing the cloak onto his shoulder. The man’s skin was a dark and yellow tan, his medium length hair a dark brown, and his eyes colored in an odd assortment; yellow pupils, a rainbow iris, and coal black corneas. He wore a black shirt and brown trousers that hung over his leather boots, appeared to have an inside of steel and iron.

The man did not appear to be friendly, nor did he seem to trust Link and Tetra. Why did he save them?

“Follow the man in the enclosure,” said the man. “He’ll take you to safety until the government stops looking for you.”

“Now just wait a minute,” barked Tetra. “What is going on? Who are you?”

“I don’t have time for questions,” said the man as he swung himself back onto his wolf. “Just do it.”

He dug his heels into his monster’s side, and the group bounded off back south towards the city as Link watched them ride away. He scowled, and ran after them.

“Get back here!” he exclaimed. “Answer the damn question.”

They were too far away to hear him.

Tetra grabbed him and urged him over to the forest.

“Come on, let’s go. You heard what that guy said, the government is after us. We’re fugitives, we have to hide.”

Link scowled, “No, we haven’t done anything wrong! Why should I have to hide from them?”

Tetra had a worried look on her face, and pleaded, “They don’t care if we’re innocent or not. The man that gave us the sentence wanted us dead just because my mother was a murderer. He wants to cleanse the earth of our kind, Link!” She looked into his eyes, “We have to hide.”

“You can hide then, I’m going back to kill that bastard.”

“Link, stop acting like this, you’re being a moron!”

“Maybe I am one. I might be the stupidest son of a ***** that ever walked the earth, but I’m not going to let some elitist bastard shove you and me around like this just for his own interests. I’m going.”

He began to walk away as the man in the shadows called out, “If you try to go, I’ll have to bring you back by force.”

Link spun around enraged, “Who asked you?”

The man emerged from the enclosure, revealing himself. He was a tall and elegant man who appeared to be in his mid twenties, with long blood red hair, tan skin, and dark scarlet eyes that were demonic in form. He had pointed ears, like Link and Tetra, with black piercings that spanned the entire outline of the ear. He wore a black robe of silk, and an array of white cloth that wrapped around his arms and lower neck.

“I’m the one who helped save your lives,” said the man. “And I wish you’d be more appreciative of what I have done for you.”

Link calmed down, still suspicious of the man, “What’s going on?”

“Our oracle sensed that you were coming, and there is a lot you need to know.”

“Who were those men?”

“I’ll explain everything once this is taken care of, but you have to come with me now, before it is too late.”

“What do you want?”

“Millions of lives are at stake, and all you want to do is ask question after question. Come with me now, or find out when it is too late.”

Link stood, thinking of what to do, when Tetra pulled him up the hill to the man.

“For love of Nayru, Link,” she said, “Just come on.”

He obeyed her, and walked up to the man, who had already begun walking back into the forest. The man swung himself onto a smaller black furred wolf, still taller than a human, but much more slender and streamlined than the white wolves that the other cloaked men rode.

“And the name’s Arcodes. Now get on, before we run out of time.”




The sun was setting deep into the horizon as Link, Tetra, and Arcodes rode the wolf through the forest to the high elevation of their hidden destination. And as they progressed inside of this forest, the trees began to become less teeming, and more spaced apart. Yet, while the forest floor became open, the trees thickened and grew immensely in height. The leaves began to become less common in the canopies of growing thickness, and were replaced by sapphire, white, fuchsia, and red petals which felt fibrous to the touch. Link could see nocturnal animals with glowing eyes that pierced the darkness traverse the canopies soundlessly, eyeing him with apprehension and vigilance. They appeared as only silhouettes in the darkness, and were like ancient spirits that guarded this colossus of a forest.

Link could see cerulean lights ahead, dotting his vision and flickering like firelight. The lights moved around, sluggishly twisting and swirling in their illuminating radiance. As the wolf began to slow down, they floated around Link, passing in front of him and encircling his body.

Arcodes’s ears perked up, and straightened his back as the wolf came to a halt. He dropped down to the ground, and held his hand out in a cupped form. One of the cerulean lights came down and rested its form in his palm, and soon after began to shine brightly. He whispered into it, and at his enunciation it disappeared. In the wake of the dying of the light, forms of people, stairways, buildings, wolves, and bridges between the trees began to slowly manifest in the empty spaces of the forest. Tapestries hung from all walls and railings, depicting an eye with three triangles as eyelashes shedding a single tear that trailed for a distance and became spherical at the end. There were homes built into the behemoth trees, and there were people of all ages traversing the forest floor, the entirety of them with tan skin, red eyes, and wraithlike white hair that were each styled in bizarre and elaborate fashions; some were graceful and gorgeous, and some feral and spiked.

A line of five cloaked priests adorned with tribal ornaments and crooked staffs appeared before them, bearing the same traits as the other people, and all of them strikingly elegant yet untamed at the same time. They bowed before Arcodes, and as they did so an adolescent girl wearing a dark cloak walked gracefully from behind them, her red eyes hidden under her hood’s shadow. Her elegant and beautiful complexion emulated a wealth of wisdom, and her silver hair was long and mellifluous, curling in a long hook outward from her hood. The eye symbol that covered the forested city was etched into her forehead, the tear painted along the bridge of her nose and rounded at the tip. The skin surrounding her eyes were highlighted a deathly black, her lips painted the same. Her face was nearly emotionless, stern and calm, and her demeanor was unearthly, even amongst all of the abnormalities of this land.

The girl released a small chuckle with the voice of a mature woman, grinning slightly, and closed her eyes. “It is so strange; the child’s depicted something of a demonic beast, not a young boy. Are you sure this is him, Arcodes?”

Arcodes nodded in a way that made her seem like the authority, and knelt on one knee, staring at the ground. “Yes, Lady Impalazu. Shall we proceed?”

Impalazu retained her emotionless glance. “Indeed, we must cleanse him quickly, lest we risk all that we have done for the past thousand years.”

Impalazu walked towards Link, moving so gracefully that she seemed to glide across the ground. She placed her hand upon his forehead and recited a chant, at which he collapsed to the ground, all of the color in his skin lost to the silence of his consciousness. As Tetra shrieked, Arcodes picked Link from the ground and placed him upon his shoulder, dangling from the perch. Tetra lunged at Arcodes, screaming in a livid and confused manner. Impalazu waved a hand at Tetra, sending her flying back at the trunk of an ancient tree. At this action Tetra was silenced, for a sharp pain constricted her heart and bequeathed writhing pain upon her. And as she tried to moan in pain, she could not emit sound, leaving her distressed and wrought with confusion. Impalazu walked away, with Arcodes and the other priests following suit down the path of vegetation and stone, while all of the people in the vicinity watched with much curiosity.

Impalazu spoke back to Tetra without even turning her head, “I cannot let you interfere. This must be done, child.”

Tetra became overcome with rage from that last word, and she limped forward in an indomitable compulsion to save Link. Yet her effort was hindered, for she was already being chained in cold shackles by two of the cloaked men, staring at her with their piercing red eyes.

She looked out at Link with tearing eyes, a full expression of regret exposed on her stricken face. But as soon as she realized she was weeping, she looked down at the fertile earth with silent dread.

Tetra finally obeyed, and followed the group quietly with trepidation in her eyes. The people of this beautiful yet foreboding hidden village watched them pass by with a look of knowing; a sense of what was happening. She wondered why they would not tell her why they were doing this. She wondered why they would not tell her what they were doing. It all remained a secret in the minds of this otherworldly and seemingly ancient race.

The cloaked figures walked in single file, bowing their hooded heads towards the ground. On the back of each cloak was the same symbol of the crying eye that covered the village. The symbol was oddly familiar to Tetra, but she did not know why.

They group approached a broad and enormous tree, tinged a deep and eerie black, around which a winding staircase made of the tree’s very bark was embedded. They climbed up the stairs, walking through the constant downpour of petals and the wondrous scent of ginger root and sage leaves.

“Where are you taking him?” Tetra asked frantically.

No one answered her.

She looked up to the canopy of this monstrous tree to see multiple dark buildings that were built into the thick branches. These buildings curved around, forming spirals that connected the other branches together and all eventually led to a center colossus of a temple, which slanted upwards into the sky, eventually peaking out of the canopy and into the open air. Swirling and spiking designs and crimson tapestries depicting that same eye symbol spanned the walls of this high temple, seeming to act as protection from the outside world. The array of buildings sent a lurching feeling deep into Tetra’s chest, and caused her to look back down. That is where they were taking him.

Then Tetra saw something she hadn’t noticed before; it was a much smaller cloaked figure, who was holding Arcodes’s hand. It looked back at Tetra. It was a little girl, with large, frightened sapphire eyes, and long, graceful light blue hair that swirled around in the gentle wind. The girl turned away from Tetra and looked up at Arcodes for comfort. He kept looking forward even as this little girl clung to his leg, determined to do whatever he had to do.

They had made ink markings all over Link’s body while they walked up the tree; swirls and letters and symbols that covered him from head to toe. They had stripped him of his clothing in order to perform this task, leaving him nude, save for the cotton blanket that they wrapped him in as Arcodes handed Link to a few of the cloaked priests. His skin was turning grey.

They still hadn’t told her what was going on.




“Chain him down, get the seal ready.”

“What are you doing to him?”

“We’re doing what’s necessary for the fate of the world.”

“What is wrong with Link?”

“There’s no time to explain, child.”

“Tell me!”

Tetra was being held back from the center floor of the dark temple by two of the cloaked priests, with their hoods on to hide their faces. Arcodes was placing strips of long paper with writing on them around the floor, where there was a large circular array of symbols and patterns surrounding Link, who was fighting wrathfully against the chains that held him to the ground.

“Arm yourselves now, this might get out of hand,” said Arcodes.

He stood back, and held out his hands. He muttered a chant, and the air in the great hall of the temple rose up as he finished. The array on the floor began to illuminate with a blue tint as Link arched his back upwards, writhing from side to side, screaming at the top of his lungs to the gothic ceiling on which the statues of ancient creatures laughed down at him, their faces radiating from the light of the array. He froze in his struggle as the glow turned red.

Tetra tried to break herself from the two cloaked men, “Stop it, you’re killing him!”

They paid no heed to her cries, and stayed focused upon the phenomenon. Link’s eyes began to glow, and an opaque black shape began to excrete from his mouth, moving through the air as a snake would on the ground.

The little girl huddled back against the wall of the temple, looking on in horror at the sight in front of her. She tried to watch for a short while, but her eyes teared too much to bear it, and she squinted them shut as she looked away.

Tetra pulled against the arms that held her back, screaming, “What are you doing to him?”

“Aim the seal!” demanded Arcodes.

Impalazu, who beheld an emotionless gaze, held a black and white box forward from her body, bracing herself for an impact.

Arcodes slammed his hands onto the ground, making the array glow even brighter. The writhing shape twisted erratically at this, and a multi-pitched screech echoed through the great hall. The box shot a light through the air that pierced the shape’s skin. It scrunched tightly, shriveling under the power of the ray. It then broke free of the beam of light, still attached to Link’s body. It kept growing and bulging outwards, bubbling in some places.

Arcodes’ eyes were wide with dread.

“Reverse it!” he said. “Put it back inside his body!”

Three cloaked figures rushed into the glowing array that Arcodes kept his hands firmly against in order to keep the growing shape inside. They each placed their palms against Link’s chest, and muttered a chant. The black shape shot back inside of his body, and he dropped limp to the cold floor of the temple. All was quiet, all was calm.

it's a good story

Did you originally post this on FF.net? I think I might've read this on there...

Thanks Icecreamlink, and yes, I did have this posted on FF.net, Veyrael, but that is an old version. This one is revised, with new concepts and scenes, and I also added about three new chapters to the five (or something like that) that I had posted on FF.net, of which I am still revising.

Thanks for the comments!