Chapter 14
Fi:
Link charges at Majora.
"Wait!" I yell. He swings my
blade and Majora blocks with his forearm, his handsome face crazed and
drooling. He kicks Link to the ground and draws out two blood red whips from
his undulating mane. He wields them with deadly grace. They snap, scarring the
ground around Link. He's toying with him.
"MASTER!" I cry. "He's too
powerful! Come away!"
But Link persists, rage in his eyes.
Tears shed for his ruined home and murdered people glisten on his face. A whip
slices his calf open: a graze of what the wound might have been. Then it wraps
around Link's neck with a crack, choking him. Majora yanks him like a dog on a leash.
"LET'S PLAY! LET'S PLAY! COME BACK
ANOTHER DAY!" Majora sings, dancing and twirling. "YOU BE THE BAD GUY
AND I THE GOOD! DO AS I ASK! COME ON! COME ON! PUT ON THE MASK!" He pulls
hard turning Link and throwing him off his balance. He chokes and coughs. Then
Majora strips himself bare, sensually, teasingly. I do have to admit he has a
nice body. "PUT ON THE MASK!" he leaps on top of Link and pins his
wrists. Link is stunned.
"Do me!" Majora hisses
venomously. "Do me a favour and come back with flavour! You are a pitiful
mess!" he forces their lips together.
"Master!" My voice breaks.
Majora leaps back and flips to his feet.
"FIGHT ME WHEN YOU'RE WORTHY...If
there is still time." with that he skips off into the trees, laughing
wildly. My Master is shocked. I am dazed. I couldn't bring myself to harm
Maltzar... some sword I am.
"Link, the moon is falling fast!"
I look to the globe of death in the sky. "It will land tomorrow
evening."
"I must save Zelda!" He says.
"But we don't have enough
time!"
"Not if I can help it!" Link
rises.
***
Link:
We are sailing through the cluster of the
outer islands: the region of destiny, as our people called it, where the
Chieftains' offspring would perform their first kill. That life seems eons ago.
It brings tears to my eyes.
"Vaati took her this way?" I
ask.
"Yes." says Fi. "Master,
look!"
"I see it."
I steer us toward a raging cloud over one
of the islands. Once on shore I pull the canoe into the bushes. With the Master
Sword in hand I make my way into the strange forest of the isle. In no time I
come to the edge of a massive crater. Something indigo glows at it's core. Surrounding
it is an army of dark creatures I've never seen before: things with the heads
of bores, wolves with human hands, goblins with rows of teeth and boars with
eight legs. I see Vaati lounging on a boulder in human form, smirking, a pair
of witches at his sides. Ghirahim stands by the giant gem in the center of it
all, beside an exceedingly tall man with flaming red hair and soot all over his
skin.
"Is that...is that Maltzar's
father?" Fi asks. The tall, red-haired man certainly fit the description.
He was handsome in a dark way, same as Maltzar. "He's...helping Ghirahim?"
"Maybe he serves Demise..." I
say, sneaking down the slopes. "And Maltzar fought Ghirahim because he was
rebelling."
"Oh Mal," Fi sighs, longing and
sympathy in her voice.
My foot slips. I tumble down into the
midst of the enemy. The pig faces seem startled. I leap to my feet, keeping my
back to the wall. The melee begins. Black blood paints the ground. As I
decapitate the last one, more run in. I'm gasping and aching, I'm so tired. Spears
jab at me, like snakes testing my flavour. The wounds Majora gave are
throbbing. I'm brought to my knees but I keep fighting. Like a cornered wolf I
thrash and twist, keeping my oppressors at bay. Soon they just watch me
struggle. Ghirahim approaches and stands over me. I swipe at him and he steps
on my blade.
"Look who it is, wholesome and not
in pieces. How disappointing." he drawls. I throw myself at his knees but
he kicks me in the face. His blade comes under my chin and he forces me to look
up at him. "No matter. I'll own your soul instead."
Fi flips into being and kicks him. He
staggers, hissing. I grab the Master sword and strain to my feet.
"Let Zelda go." I growl,
pointing with my blade. Ghirahim laughs. "I'm afraid you are a little late
for that one, hm....what was your name again?"
I scowl. But a chill rolls down my spine
as the man with flaming hair looms into view. He is holding the harp. A string
has broken.
"Hylia's power is waning." he
says with deep tones. If death could speak, he would have this voice.
"This is but a useless trinket." he throws it at my feet.
"Where is Zelda?!" I yell.
"She's dead." he says. My insides
freeze up.
"No...YOU'RE LYING!"
"To save you she awakened Arksi and
gave us the Ether Blade. Demise killed her with it." I'm finding it hard
to breathe. The world is spinning. I refuse to believe it. "And now,"
the man looks up to the moon burning a hole in the sky, "Demise's world is
almost complete. All life from Hylia's song will be annihilated. And he will
reign supreme." His handsome face smiles.
"AND WHAT OF YOUR SON?" Fi
yells. "DO YOU CARE?"
"Son?" He looks perplexed.
"Why I haven't been more proud of him. It was he that fed us the location
of Arski. Without him, none of this would be possible."
"NO HE WOULDN'T!" Fi cries. I
feel cold and dead inside.
"Run, rabbit, run." Ghirahim
giggles. "You've lost." The army crowds in, cackling like bats.
"Malladus." Maltzar's father
purrs. A great blue lion, with a fiery main, horns of a bull and the face of a
man, parts the crowd. "Kill him." It lunges for me. I fall back
stabbing and hacking at it. But the Master Sword does nothing.
"Link," Fi gasps. "I'm
waning."
"NO FI! DON'T GIVE IN!" I choke.
Grabbing the harp, I scramble back up the slope, dodging teeth and claws. Malladus
pursues me up the side of the crater. I can hear the army laughing. Tears run
down my face. Zelda...dead? As I gain altitude, I look back hoping to see her
golden hair, somewhere in the masses, but there is no sign. They lied! They
must have. As the climb becomes steeper and more treacherous, I manage to get
out of reach for a moment. I freeze stunned by the sight below. There on the
bright purple gleam of Arksi, stands Majora, lifting a limp body over his head.
A body with golden tresses of hair: Zelda.
"VICTORY! VICTORY! VICTORY!" he
shrieks, shaking her. The army echoes the chant, filling the air with a
cacophony of sound. I scream but I am not heard. The sky rumbles. Evening is
drawing near. There is not enough time to save Hyrule.
Malladus roars, catching my boot with his
claw. I run into the forest. Leaves whip my face and bushes snag my heels. I'm
blinded by grief and empty. I come to a rocky summit and I climb. My hands are
shaking violently, I keep slipping. When I come to the peek a great roaring turns
my attention. The moon is a bowl of flame in the sky, lowering, falling. I see
the forests of Hyrule ignite. Dragon Roost crumbles. And in a flash of white
the moon hits. All sound is sucked in by the impact. Silence. I wait, not
breathing
Then a shock wave brings back sound. It
hits my ears like a jackhammer and bursts my eardrums. The wind throws me off
my feet and crushes me to the ground. Another shock wave cracks the earth under
me. Once I find air slow enough to breathe, I sit up. A wall of fire is rushing
towards me. I run. Down the slopes I slip and fall, tumbling through the
brambles and rocks. I run to the edge of a cliff. The sea laps at its base far
below.
I turn. The flames roll over the peak and
flow down toward me like an avalanche. I jump.
The falling sensation swoops in on my gut
holding me terrified as my arms flail. The explosion above roars across the sky
painting the sea red. The water hits like a wall. I feel the impact in my
spine, with a slap in the face and a punch in my ribs.
Gravity drives me deep. I have to fight
to get back to the surface. Flaming ash falls like snow, hissing and sputtering
in the water. Meteors whistle down, crashing into the islands.
I am alone, fighting to keep my head
above the waves.
Hyrule is lost. I ran out of time.
***
I wash up on shore amidst the burning
wood, the harp clutched tight in my hand.