Royal Rebel 4 ~ The Return

Chapter 14: Where The Champions Lie

The sky began to grow dark as night settled across Hyrule, slowly fading from blue into a darker indigo color. The clouds adorning the horizon became less visible, and the moon began it's course over the kingdom's sky, glowing magnificently as it joined the stars.

I rode Ruby across Hyrule Field and towards the Sacred Grounds, where symbols were carved up and down each of the four corner pillars. They weren't very visible unless you were close, as it was a thin marking.

I halted her just outside, and I slid off of her saddle, staring at the center symbol of the Grounds - the three triangles that I now knew the meaning of. I walked towards it, letting my hand run against the carvings on the south-west pillar.

As I got closer to the center, I noticed the bracelet on the little triangle pedestal in the center of the Triforce symbol. It looked like the one I had found, and like my mothers. It started to glow as I got closer, and I quietly gasped and quickly reached into my bag to grab the one I had found.

Both were glowing, and I also noticed the triforce symbol faintly glowing. On the sides of the little pedestal, there was a triforce with three little triangles in each of the big ones, with arrows pointing to them. So I had an idea.

I gently placed my bracelet on the top triangle, and then I carefully picked up the one from the pedestal - which looked older, but in better condition than the first one - and set it down on the left triangle.

I realized I didn't have my mother's, so instead, I placed my hand inside the right triangle. Causing it to glow yellow, and then the center pedestal's carvings glowed, as well as the ones on the four pillars. As the colors settled in, I realized each pillar told a story.

The Northwest was in green, the Northeast in red, the Southeast in blue, the Southwest in yellow, and the center one was white. I recognized the symbols from the calamity book, and I realized they were the Champion's.

Each row had a different event in the Champion's lives. And some rows of the pillars looked the same. The center pedestal and Northwest shared multiple, and I noticed the final row on each pillar had the champions against a monstrous looking thing. They must be the blights that Yunobo was talking about.

The center pedestal's final row had _____ with a giant beast, and I recognized it from one of the books. So I sat down and pulled out the Calamity book, searching for the symbol. And I soon found out it was dark beast.

It had a picture with her, darkbeast, my parents and the triforce and sword. And even a bow.

I was confused about what it meant, but I decided to read a bit to find out what had happened to her.

~~~~

I was quiet as I walked alongside my wife into the forest, mind lost in an ocean of my thoughts and worries for the near future. I was hardly paying attention to the trail, only knowing I was walking directly by Zelda's side. So, being zoned out, it startled me a bit when I felt her hand on my shoulder.

"Are you alright, Link?" She asked, and I took in a deep breath and nodded. "We're almost there. Then you can pull the sword, and we can get over to the town to discuss our plan with the Champions."

"Right." Was all I could say, and she only gave me a worried look before going back to her conversation with the captain. I was internally panicking. We had a week left until her thirty-seventh birthday, exactly twenty years since we defeated the Calamity. Seventy since the event happened.

I was worried that she was being completely honest about her want to hold down Ganon, almost permanently this time. Long enough that I and our daughter would never see her again, and that scared me. My heart ached. And not just for Zelda. For Idalia.