Whumptober day nine!
Y’all remember that town from the FS manga that blamed Red for burning it down? What if Four had to go back there? What if they remembered him?
1372 words
Warnings for (fist)fighting and very brief drunkenness that’s not really described and only a character mentioned once.
“You ok, Smithy?” He asks, just getting a small nod.
“Just… don’t like this town much.” Four mutters, sighing.
He forces a smile. “You don’t like any town.”
Four forces a small twitch of the lips. “Touche, Rancher.”
Their conversation is cut short as they walk into the tavern, Four’s lips pressing together as people glance at them. “Leave. Now.” Four hisses, arm grabbing his.
Before he can respond-
“Hey- Isn’t that the kid that burned down the town last year?”
Four freezes, eyes widening.
He looks down at the smith, frowning.
The whole tavern seems to look at the smith, too, heads craning.
“He looks a little different.”
“Got older is all. That’s him.”
“It wasn’t me. You’ve got the wrong person.” Four says, eyes glancing carefully around the pub.
“You’re a liar!” One man roars, face red and drunken. “We saw you with that firerod!”
“I mean no harm, I’ll leave if you wish-”
“Damn right you will, once I’m finished with you…”
Four’s grey eyes glance up at him. “Twi. Leave.”
“Yeah, right, Four, these people-”
“Let me handle it. Leave.” Four says, still oddly calm.
He hesitates. “Come on, Smithy, have some sense, it’ll be one on-”
“Twi. Leave.” Four repeats. “Get the others and go. Get away from here.”
“Four-”
But the smith turns, pulling a blade out of his belt and twirling it carefully in his hand.
“I don’t want to cause any harm. But I will if you make me. Let me leave and no one has to get hurt.” Four says, voice carrying through the tavern.
The original man laughs. “My wife died in that fire, kid. I’d like some revenge.”
“It. Wasn’t. Me.” Four says slowly, eyes flashing blue.
Then a lot of people are yelling- about things they lost, people who died, blaming Four, insisting Four set the fire, calling him nasty names.
The first person to get physical is a man who’d been watching from the corner, standing and slowly inching closer to Four.
Then rushes at him.
Four dodges the first blow, ducking underneath the sloppy punch thrown at his head. Unfortunately, the action spurs the others into motion, too.
Four’s grabbed from behind, a man grabbing his arms and another at his tunic, yanking him back. The smith is too hesitant to use the knife he has. He merely struggles, kicking with his legs and slamming his heel into a man’s knee.
The man swears with a grunt, releasing Four, who quickly goes for the other man but misses.
Takes a punch right to the face, staggering, and he’s grabbed again before he even has a chance to regain his bearings. A punch to the ribs. Another to the face. In the chest, on the arms, wherever people can get a hold of him.
Four finally starts fighting back.
Swings at a man, kicking another, knife flashing in the dim light.
Four places a knee right between a man’s legs, making him wince as the man drops.
Another slash. A man howls in pain.
A kick and man topples, having his legs swept out underneath him.
Four… actually manages really well for a while. Exchanges blows, takes a few hard ones, but dishes far more than he takes.
He’d lost his knife at some point, but he’s doing alright without it. And he hadn’t been using it much to begin with.
It’s not until one woman gets him from behind that he loses his edge- she manages to get behind him, bottle in her hands, smashing it right over his head.
He winces, deciding it’s time to jump in, regardless of Four’s wishes.
The smith staggers, eyes glazing over, dropping to his knees.
And the tavern breaks into cheers.
His blood boils, hands yanking his sword out and shoving people out of the way as he frantically tries to get to the smith.
They absolutely dogpile on the teenager, one man holding Four’s arms once again as another punches, another one kicks, one has gotten the knife Four had dropped-
His mind flashes white.
“Leave him alone!” He growls, twirling his sword. Much to his satisfaction, many of the others stare in surprise at him and quickly back away.
He kicks the man holding Four in the chest, hearing the snap of at least a few of his ribs. He staggers, falling to the ground and staying down.
Grabs one of the ones punching the kid, shoving him roughly into the crowd and knocking several of them down.
Makes his way to Four, no one else even going for them.
“Four.” He says quickly, grey eyes dazedly meeting his. “Let’s get out of here.”
He tries to be gentle, but anger and worry make his voice rough. Four flinches.
His blood boils as he takes Four’s arm, getting the smith to his feet, grabbing his sword and leading him out of the tavern.
The scowl on his face keeps anyone else from bothering them- and possibly all their injuries as well.
Four limps heavily, hands grabbing at his side, slightly hunched over as they walk.
His nose is bleeding- likely broken- blood smeared all over his face and dripping down his face onto his clothes, one eye already swollen shut, purple splotches already blossoming over his face and other visible skin.
Leans heavily on him, breathing labored.
He doesn’t stop moving until Four starts coughing, doubling over and blood bubbling out of his mouth. Spitting weakly, hand shakily wiping his mouth.
Then Four’s knees buckle, yelping in pain when he quickly grabs at the smith.
“Sorry- sorry! Goddess, Four, I’m sorry!” He says quickly, easing Four to the ground.
Four gives these raspy, painful sounding gasps, blood coating his lips.
Lung is most likely punctured, he realizes, chest sinking.
“Ok, Smithy, we gotta move, need me to carry you?” He asks, but Four gives no response.
Likely focusing on not suffocating.
Despite that, Four staggers to his feet.
Grimacing, hands- with very broken knuckles- grabbing weakly at his sleeve to stay upright, letting him lead them through town to the others.
“Time!” He shouts upon finding the other, the leader and Wind both turning immediately.
Then the old man rushes to them, already digging through his bag. “Do I even want to know?”
“No way Four got into a bar fight.” Wind cackles, but it stops quickly as Four wheezes.
Time falters as his gaze darts over Four, realizing just how badly he’s injured.
“Goddess,” Time swears. “What happened?”
“Some drunk people thought he burnt the town down- decided they wanted revenge.” He tries as Time comes up empty handed.
“Wars and Legend went to find potions.” Time sighs, turning to Wind.
“On it.” The sailor says immediately, darting off. He eases Four to the ground, the smith wheezing worse.
“Easy, Smithy, slow in, slow out.” He says gently.
Four’s grey eyes flutter.
“Wind will be back. You’ll be ok.” He says softly, using his sleeve to try to wipe some of the blood off his face.
Time produces a rag and some water, cleaning Four’s face off then holding the rag to his still bleeding nose.
“We need to get something on that eye, it looks awful.” Time mutters, testing the temperature of the water. “This is cold enough…”
He provides another rag that Time dampens, holding it to Four’s eye.
Four’s hand weakly tries to knock it away, and they both pause.
The smith gives a weak cough, wincing.
Then another, blood spotting his lips.
“Cough it up, Four, get it out of your lungs.” He mutters, rubbing Four’s back.
Gets a weak groan, but another few coughs.
Time gently wipes the blood away, holding the rag back to his nose.
“Hurts.” Four grits out, eyes squeezing shut as he leans his head back.
His breathing is… awful. Sharp, painful sounding gasps.
“You have to breathe, Four. Slower. In… out…”
“Can’t.”
“Four- nope, c’mon, kid, eyes open, just breathe with me.”
Four slumps against him, giving a sharp hiss under his breath.
“You’re ok, bud, just breathe.” He says softly, hand brushing carefully through Four’s hair. “We’ll get you a potion, you’ll be alright. Wind will be back soon. Just hang on, bud.”
Four gives no response.
~~~~
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Chapter 9: A Rescue
Summary:
Legend tries to escape the Yiga hideout. He finds a friend.
Legend rushed onward, but hardly made it to the next room before he had to stop and collect himself, both his breath and his tumbling thoughts.
What in the Sacred Realm just happened? Time slowing down, the Teacher letting him walk away? This wasn’t how dungeons worked. Nothing was adding up.
He leaned on the wall and assessed the room.
Practice dummies lined one wall, weapons on the other. Each dummy had a devilish sketch pinned to the face—a face with distinctive blond hair.
The veteran stumbled over to it, snatched the paper free, and laughed. These were somehow worse than his old wanted posters! Wild had to see it. By Din’s dance, he’d make it out of here just to shove this in Wild’s face. The others would never let him live it down. Nor, of course, would he.
His prize safely stowed away, the veteran lit up the now-faceless dummy to mark his path, but didn’t ignite the rest of the room: they might need to come back this way, and after the inferno he created earlier, he should probably reserve at least enough oxygen for the journey out.
He moved on, and found the last hall in this wing. Peering around the corner, Legend came face-to-face with a stark white mask.
The footsoldier raised a hand to whistle an alarm. Legend swung his blade faster.
He wiped his sword clean, checked the map, then followed the switchbacking halls. These led to mirrored rows of tiny rooms on the bottom edge of the map. A prison, most likely. Not an ideal place to find Hyrule, but a likely one.
Ahead in the next hall, two burly guards paced.
Memories of his first adventure bubbled to the surface. If only Hyrule had Zelda’s telepathy.
Legend’s boots made no sound, and then no guards remained. He ran, and the floor sloped ever downward. His steps, quiet as they were, still echoed. This felt more like a dungeon than anything he’d seen so far.
Passing through one last stone archway, he found the hall lined with cave-like cells. He checked through the bars of each one. All gaped back at him, empty, until the fourth. From the dark, red eyes glared back at him. Legend lit up his firerod and peered closer. A Yiga soldier glared back at him, still in uniform but unmasked, his face heavily scarred by what looked like bear claws. He was bound, and the ropes were tagged with the inverse design of the many papers stuck around the caves. Sheikah magic, musty as moss, but mingled with something wrong, something heavy as tar. It must be some spell to prevent teleporting, he guessed.
The brawny Yiga man stared at him, incredulous, then bellowed, “Guards!” Apparently he was still loyal to his clan, despite whatever crimes he’d committed. Legend knew they would not answer.
Legend moved on to the next cell, knowing the guards would not be coming. In the next cell, a slight figure stepped forward into the dim glow of the torchlights. Gold eyes looked back at him surrounded by a faint shimmer of fairy-magic.
Rulie!
No, too small.
A little girl approached the bars, folding her arms as she scrutinized him, her nose held high. It was as long as the Old Man’s. Bold red hair, pulled in a high ponytail, curled at the end like a piglet’s tail.
A Gerudo child?
Bright, ornate flower patterns covered her thin slippers and silk clothes. Stranger still, they glimmered with hints of fairy magic, identical to Wild’s tunic, but dimmer. He’d encountered magic clothing before, but the fluid, nectar-sweet fairy magic was distinct from the sharp, clean bite of Hytopian magic, or the chilling, weightlessness and mystic glow of Lorulean weaves. He resolved to finally buckle down and ask Wild about his tunic as soon as he got the chance. Fairy blessed clothing was exceptionally rare in his own era, but here apparently even little kids wore it.
The girl watched him closely, her stare intense as a beamos, while he quickly checked the last two cells.
Empty.
Legend tamped down his disappointment, and with a voice hoarse with ash and smoke, asked, “Either of you see a brown-haired boy with gold eyes? Wears a green tunic?”
The little girl shook her head, earrings tinkling, but her eyes widened in surprise. “You’re a voe !”
“A what?” Legend asked, but she only scowled. He shrugged, too tired to puzzle out what that meant.
The maskless Yiga soldier gaped at Legend. “What?” He hissed, “Then… you don’t have him either?” He gave a dark, mirthless laugh, shaking his head as his smirk dissolved into a snarl. “Oh, I knew it was that demon! Sooga warned us! That monster won’t be controlled, no matter what it promises! It can’t be trusted!” He lunged at the bars, shoved his face as far as he could between them, and bellowed toward the very-dead guards, “It was the sword! It wasn’t my fault!”
Legend’s knees threatened to give out, and he leaned against the bars of an empty cell. This all made less and less sense. Hyrule hadn’t escaped… he’d never arrived in the first place? He was never here ! The veteran shook his head, his vision swimming from exhaustion, both magical and physical.
Another red potion. He dropped the empty glass in his bag, then wiped sweat and ash from his face with a shaky hand.
“Right.” He turned to the child, collecting himself, plastering a friendly mask over his frustrations. “Want out?” He regretted the disappointment still heavy in his voice.
“Of course,” The girl sniped, still eyeing him suspiciously. Whatever “voes” were, she didn’t seem to trust them.
The scapegoated Yiga soldier yelled for the guards again, loud and desperately as he glared at both of them. Legend wanted to scream back at him, to throw fire into the cell. He’d already spent so much time in this cursed place and his brother wasn’t even here !
Din’s teeth. Hyrule! Where are you?
But he also felt a spark of pity for the idiot who took the fall for something he didn’t actually do.
Instead, Legend braced himself for one last fight, one last rescue to complete, before leaving this whole place behind. There were no other leads to chase here.
This girl looked strong for her age, but she was still small, barely up to his elbow, and too young to help much in the escape. He’d need to do this on his own.
“Alright. Stand back!” Legend shouted to her. He aimed his fire rod, about to torch the wood beams that served as bars, and the talismans, and use his shield to barrel through when they were weak enough, but the girl scoffed and pointed behind him.
A rope and pulley system. One designed to open cell doors.
Legend grumbled. If she wasn’t a young kid in need, he might have stuck with the fire rod plan.
He needed to slow down, to think. Legend put the weapon away and yanked the fifth lever. Arms crossed, she came out and stared him up and down again . She had gold eyes like ‘Rulie’s, but red hair as bright as hibiscus, just like—
“Can you actually get us out of here?” she demanded. “How old are you, voe? You don’t look like a grown up, and voe like you aren't even…well…”
Oh, this was going to be a nuisance. “Aren’t what?” Legend stared her down.
“Tough?” she said, throwing out a hand, eyebrows raised, as if this was common knowledge and he was an idiot.
Oh Sweet Nayru’s blessings... “First, I don’t know what a voe is. Second, whoever said it is probably wrong about them, generalizations are never good. Third, we need to go. Now.”
She scowled. “How did you get in here? How do I know you’re not one of them ? They looked just like my aunts when they took me. You could be a Yiga in disguise.”
Okay, fair . But every second here was a second wasted. “Would they bother pretending to be someone else inside their own base?”
She chewed her lip and seemed to mull it over.
“You’re staying here, then?” Come on, kid!
“I… no,” she admitted, uncrossing her arms, “but they said they’d kill me if I tried to escape again. I can’t get caught.”
“They always say stuff like that. They’re idiots. Can you ride on my back? We’ll move faster if you let me carry you.” He held out a winged pegasus boot. Maybe she was familiar with other magic clothes. She only nodded and climbed quickly onto his back.
The girl muffled her squeal of surprise into Legend’s shoulder as he dashed back the way he’d come, breezing through passages and skidding around corners, until they entered a new hall.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” the girl hissed when he slowed down and silently checked the passage ahead. It was clear. Oddly clear.
“Yes!” he shot back.
“I’m just asking! How do you know?” She demanded.
Legend checked his tone this time and took a centering breath. “Because I checked the map.”
“How come you’re dressed like a vai?”
Zelda, Hilda, and even Ravio were never this annoying when sneaking through dungeons. “What is a… listen, kid, just… hush.”
Legend stopped at the end of the hall. A sense of danger opened like a pit in his stomach. He fidgeted, shifted the girl more securely, and crept slowly up to the next turn to listen. Something felt off.
At first, he heard nothing but the girl breathing too loudly over his shoulder. But no… it wasn’t just her. He could hear the soft brush of feet on sand, the creaking dry of leather, and small sniffs and grunts beyond.
Soldiers ahead. They were waiting. Another ambush.
Legend slid the girl off and signaled her for silence. Slipping on his red cape once more, he poured his magic into it and peered around the corner.
It was a cavernous room he’d passed earlier, scorched remains of a storage tower bearing witness. The cave was tall, long, and rather narrow and winding. Short walls, fences, and steps divided it into three parts.
Scattered wall to wall, dozens of foot soldiers crouched in readiness to attack anything that entered from the lowest room. It was the path he’d taken to the skulltulas. Legend suppressed a grin. Perhaps the Teacher hadn’t told anyone he’d reentered another way?
That chilly canyon door would take them north into freezing mesas, away from the desert this girl surely came from. And that shrine was useless without Wild’s slate. They had to risk the desert exit to get her home, no matter what men or monsters stood in their path.
His current hiding spot—a narrow hall deep in the shadows—led to the middle portion of the room and the burnt remains, the stink of charred wood and burnt bananas still thick in the air.
He looked left, and found exactly what he needed: at that end, the entrance to stone stairs, cut from the caves, like every other structure in the hideout. They led around and up to a bridge that spanned over the stairs’s entrance and to an open doorway that led to their final destination, according to the map: a round room, one with many doors tucked inside narrow alcoves. One of them led outside, to freedom. Legend could even see the faintest yellow glow of sunlight overpowering dim torchlight, peeking through the distant arch.
“I know you are there, Hero of Legend.” A deep, hypnotic voice echoed through the cavern like a spell.
Legend jerked back behind the corner, yanked the girl up, and wrapped the cape over them both. The girl moved stiff as a log, and he hardly blamed her when her nails dug into his skin. This man’s voice was unsettling, crawling over his skin like insects, blurring the line between sounds in the room and sounds in his own head.
Was this the mage, at last? The one with the stench of rot, who hopefully didn’t know about Legend’s pilfering? He couldn’t see through the cloak’s magic, could he?
The intoxicating voice spoke again. “Don’t you wish to find him?”
Legend ignored him as he stepped out of the hall, watching for a reaction from the masked soldiers. None of them turned his way. Good . They had to risk it, while the old man yapped. Their sound would cover their footsteps if they were lucky.
The voice surrounded them again, masking its origin. “You and I know he is fated to die. But what comes after? I can show you how to bring him back from death. That's all any of us want, for the dead to return to us,” echoed the voice in the stone ceiling above.
Legend knew fate was, in fact, rather flexible. Going back in time and meeting his own ancestor, Sir Raven, had changed many things in his Hyrule. The sorceress Veran had nearly erased Legend when she tried to execute Sir Raven, and wreak havoc in an ancient time that should have been secure and unchangeable in the warp and weft of fate, if such a thing existed. Clearly, it did not.
With these memories, Legend steeled his mind against the words. He was rather picky about which disembodied voices to trust anyway.
As he fully entered the room, he searched for the source, stepping softly forward but not activating the pegasus boots. He needed every drop of magic for the cape to keep them both hidden, and his magic was draining fast.
Legend padded forward on his toes, balancing the girl and himself in careful silence with every step, weaving breathlessly between dozens of footsoldiers toward the stairs. One soldier spun a spear, bored and restless, and the veteran carefully timed his run past it.
He ducked under a Blademaster’s sword, held in fidgeting hands. Ignoring the pit of anxiety building in his gut, Legend continued to maneuver between soldiers and their whispered grumbles of where is that stupid kid , and let’s just storm the hall already . He squeezed between them at a lull in their conversation when they turned to other neighbors to quietly continue to grouse.
They all still faced the lowest level, clearly expecting him to come from that way. Let them waste their efforts, the idiots .
He danced between two more blademasters, both of which stood a head taller than Time, nearly Teacher’s height. It was harder to notice short interlopers like him from their vantage point, and at last Legend’s chest relaxed at the knowledge that they were close, at last, to the stairs, and to escape.
But the girl began to tremble. She tried to hide it, flexing and relaxing her fingers, but still he felt her whole body shivering.
Not far ahead now, just beyond a group of yawning scythe-wielders, the stairs waited. The first steps were blocked by three assassins.
“ Walk faster ,” the girl whispered.
Legend dared not answer, or move faster.
“ Hurry !” she begged in an ever louder whisper, digging her fingers tighter into the shoulder of his tunic.
Legend shook his head, watching the guards around them for any clue that they’d heard the girl’s plea.
She barely breathed, but kept shifting, the swish of fabric far too loud, as she looked back and forth at the soldiers surrounding them.
She’s panicking!
Legend moved closer to the left wall and slid along it where the rows of soldiers ended, leaving just enough room for the toteming pair to turn at the corner and slip behind them, parallel to the bridge. They just had to reach the stairs, only a few feet away.
The voice filled the cavern and his mind again. “He will die, hero. Fate and the gods have willed it so.” Fear wrapped him with every word, wrapping like coils around him.
Fuck fate , he scoffed in his head, and the fear loosened, but still followed him.
“I can teach you a spell that will weave him back together.”
Legend stopped and swallowed hard, heart thundering in his chest as the fear caught up to him.
It’s a lie. And yet, he struggled to take another step. Why do they keep saying that? A spark of anxious hope flared at the words. Is it possible? If Hyrule were to die, somehow, or any of them, is there a way to bring them back? Stop! They don’t have Hyrule , and it’s probably dark magic, he reminded himself. They don’t even know where the demon is .
Legend scanned the way forward, and found the voice’s source. Above him on the bridge stood a man in purple robes. Four soldiers guarded him, two on either side. For a brief moment, Legend’s heart raced at the folds of purple fabric. But no, these robes were dull, dark, and the draped hood bore no silly, familiar ears. Instead, a withered face stared across the room, amber eyes nearly glowing from the hood.
“Believe it or not, we want the same thing.” The mage droned on, the buzzing on Legend’s skin growing stronger as he spoke. He longed to itch everywhere, but resisted. The girl did not.
Legend grimaced at the words, the false familiarity it established between them, and the paralyzing spell of fear. Din, this same shit again? It sounded no different from the weird old Teacher, and the demon’s nonsense about the red thread of fate. Whale it stung to turn his mind away from Hyrule– not abandoning him! Not giving up! —he thought about the girl trembling on his back. Right now, she needed him. That’s all that mattered.
“Hero…think about your friend. He will need your help.”
Hyrule’s blood. Hyrule’s death . That’s what these people wanted.
He would not offer himself as a pawn in their plot.
Regardless, the stairs were too crowded to continue.
Legend was stuck.
“Reveal yourself, and we will talk. I promise no harm will come to you. But you will help, either way. For I have seen it. Fate will not be thwarted.”
He crouched and quietly bent enough to set the girl on her feet, and dug in his pouch.
“ Don’t you dare leave me here! ” she hissed, clinging to him.
He shook his head slightly, and she slowly let go of his shoulder but held tight to his belt. Hands free, he downed another potion, tart and dry on his tongue but washing his body wholeness . He’d need it all for what he was about to do.
The girl slipped off his back. He tried not to panic, but she left one arm on him and climbed back up a moment later.
Her arm snaked down his, her fist over his hand, and something spilling out. He opened his palm. She dropped sand and pebbles into it.
What?
“ A distraction. ”
Oh.
Dirt could work, but he could do better. Legend drew out a boomerang, an old one with no magic. He hated to lose it, but it had a purpose now. From the shadow of the bridge, he threw it. It was easy to mistake for a keese in the dim light, but the clatter it made on the far side of the cavern sent a shockwave among the soldiers. Dozens of them rushed to the sound.
The Yiga on the stairs disappeared to investigate.
Legend hauled the girl up the stairs, his foot slipping a little on the sand as he climbed.
At the top was another cell, oddly separated from the dungeon. He checked inside.
Empty.
But there, midway across the bridge, stood the mage, framed in the faint hint of daylight beyond, blocking it.
The bridge was too narrow to sneak across, not with four blademasters and a dark-magic wielding mage between them and the way out.
“He’s here,” the old mage whispered to the guard on his right. “I feel the old magic. Have them move about. He may be hiding.”
One step ahead of you . But now Legend needed more than a simple distraction, especially if the mage could sense his magic. He dared not lead them to the Gerudo girl, but how to get her past them?
Legend’s eyes lit up with an idea. He fished in his pouch, and grabbed a ring–a magic ring–and slipped it onto her thumb. In the quietest whisper he could manage, he spoke over his shoulder. “Wait until I clear the way, then run through there and follow the sunlight.”
He slid her down, and crouched as he turned to face her, careful to keep the cloak over them both. He swept his sweaty bangs aside to watch her response. She searched his face for more answers. He had none to give. Before she could object, the veteran ducked out of the cape.
He took the first blademaster by surprise, striking his back so hard the man plummeted off the high bridge.
The mage backed away between the far pair of guards as the second blademaster approached. Legend unleashed a spin attack, four strikes, and he dropped the clansman with a lethal strike to his collar.
The mage seethed. “Enough! You have something that does not belong to you! Not unless you stay and learn the way.” He raised a finger, eyes glittering red in the torchlight, cold and hard. “The book is missing half the spell! Only I can teach it.”
Legend lunged with his fire rod and sword. The mage dissipated the flames, while one guard swung his blade, and a sharp wind knocked Legend to the edge of the bridge, and over the bridge. The Mage gasped and rounded on the guard with a furious shout “STOP!”
Empty air gaped below him, but Legend was not called the veteran lightly. He fetched two items at once, kept together for just such an occasion: a feather, and a bulky hookshot. Holding the roc’s feather, he leapt high on the open air as if leaping from flat, solid ground. He jumped again, arcing high once more, his stomach in his ribs, soaring far out of easy reach, and as he dropped he aimed the hookshot at the fourth guard. It burst forward and latched on to the stunned guard’s bicep, and with a sickening jolt they swapped places. The blademaster shouted as he lurched and plummeted, and Legend stood face to face with the mage on the bridge once more.
To his surprise, the last guard toppled over the edge, a sickle appearing, already buried in his side.
The mage spun aside and raised his hands toward the place the weapon had appeared, dark magic gathering around him, acidic and rank with rot. Legend rushed forward and bodily yanked the Mage’s arm, away from what must be the Gerudo girl. With all the force he could muster from his exhausted body, he spun the mage and shoved him off the bridge.
The mage fell, but coils of dark power slowed his descent. Red flashed in his eyes as he glared up at Legend.
Smoke choked the air around him, but Legend reached into the fog to where the girl must have been. Shaking, invisible fingers grasped his. The unseen girl climbed onto his back. Both her and the cape settled over the veteran as he rushed in the direction of the narrow hall as the smoke cleared, bowling over soldiers as they appeared, chasing the faint glow of sunlight.
They streaked into a round room like he’d seen, but instead of doors he saw statues, except one bright alcove. He passed through it in a blur.
Sunlight! Legend chased it outside into the hot desert air, heavy with grit. The sky blinded him, but ran forwards all the same. Soon, shapes appeared through the white haze: reddish canyon cliffs, sparkling sand sloping downward, and a ribbon of pale blue sky.
And those damned puffs of spoke. They appeared atop the cliffs and scattered on the path ahead. Dozens of bows aimed their way, their bodies invisible but their footprints in the sand were not .
The girl screamed as she clawed his shoulders, “Your shield! Surf!”
Oh! Wild had shown them shield surfing before. He’d thought it a waste, seeing how much it damaged Wild’s already flimsy shields, but right now he saw the appeal. The cape gave them cover, powered by the ring, as Legend fumbled in his pouch, rifling through rings and canes and empty glass bottles until at last he felt the smooth, long curve of uncle’s soldier's shield. But their footprints must have given them away, as arrows rained down. He tossed the shield ahead, and with a leap hooked one foot into the strap. The other foot he planted on the back edge, and with the momentum of his run they sped off, rushing down the hot sand, gaining momentum, exhilarating and fresh.
The girl on his back laughed.
They surfed for half a minute before the ring’s magic petered out. Legend stuffed the cape away. He’d have to rely on himself now, on his ability to dodge and weave.
A skill he excelled at.
He quickly found how to move his feet just so to aim his descent, and he charted a breakneck, unpredictable course downward, sometimes lurching left or right, or kicking on the back of the shield to leap over boulders instead of swerving around them, arrows chasing them. The girl clung on and tried to shrink against him, and he mentally apologized for the seasickness she must be feeling.
Red bodysuits and white smoke littered with paper still appeared all around, though Legend dodged them with ease. A squeeze and shout from the child made him worry she’d lost her grip as he took a particularly sharp right curve, but she clawed him tighter than ever and held firmly, and they sped onward.
A dozen pops of white flashed in a cluster less than a hundred yards ahead. Barreling at such a speed, Legend could barely hear the girl’s shout of alarm, but he’d already seen them and angled for one gap before quickly shifting to pass through another while the Yiga scrambled toward the first.
Lithe soldiers appeared once again, much further ahead than the first group and forming a tighter line. Their sickles flashed in the sun. Perhaps they wanted to give him time to slow to a stop, to surrender. Legend smirked and eyed a sloped ridge nearby. It was perfect. He swerved sharply left. It was difficult balancing two people on the shield as he steered, but he’d seen it done once before in a small, snowy canyon. Thanks again, Wild, he thought as he aimed for the stone ramp, grated over the edge, and soared high above the heads of the Yiga. The white masks tracked him as he soared overhead.
Legend’s stomach twisted as he dropped, but he clutched the roc’s feather and gave a shout of triumph as they bounced once in the air halfway down, then again closer to the ground, and finally hit the sand in a spray, mercifully staying upright at the impact and hurtling forwards. They left a cloud of dust in their wake big enough to obscure the assassins. The girl shrieked, and Legend couldn’t tell if it was fear or the thrill.
At last, at long last, The canyon ahead stayed clear. They rode it in tense silence, Legend no longer dodging and weaving, simply feeling the rush of air cool the sweat completely coating him. His rabbit-quick heart finally began to slow down.
They soared onward, riding the solid wave of glittering sand as the canyon curved left and opened onto the vast, sea-like desert.
Legend slowed as it spilled over the flat expanse and leveled out. He stopped just before reaching a path through ruins. A town shimmered into sight through the desert haze, only a few miles away.
Legend jumped off the shield and bent to let the girl down. She slid slowly, and he felt her wobble but seemed to catch her feet. He stared at the distant town and drank. The relatively cool stamina potion felt like heaven in his throat, the heat sapping his strength even as he stood still.
“Is that your home?” he asked between gulps, searching the ruins for signs of monsters or places to rest safely all the while.
“Ye-yes,” the girl whispered. Legend turned as the girl dropped to one knee, her face pale as paper.
Legend cursed. Two arrow fletches peeked over her shoulder, rising and falling with her labored breaths: one in the back of her upper arm and one in her shoulder. Droplets fell and shone like rubies in the sand behind her, swiftly swallowed by the earth.
Din dammit! He should have stopped to give her an extra shield for her back! Or anything to protect herself! He was used to treating wounds on himself, but removing arrowheads on a child? One that already barely trusted him? This was Warrior's area of expertise. He needed help.
“Hey, kid, I’m going to get you some help. You’re going to be okay. Just… just stay awake, okay? You need to tell me if I’m going the right way. Got it?” Goddesses what am I doing? What am I supposed to say?
Legend stowed his shield, downed another magic potion, chiding himself to conserve them better, and carefully lifted her onto his back again.
She cried out, and her arms lay limp now, but he tied the cape around her back, kicked his heels, and ran.
They’d certainly have all she needed in that town ahead, beyond the ruins.
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