Curse of the Dragon

Chapter 3

 Knowing that they had no time to waste, the small group decided to set out immediately for the Palace of Souls, Cia's base of operations hidden away in the Forbidden Forest. Hopefully, Volga would be there instead of wherever the other dragon-shifters had decided to take up their new refuge in, making their search go a little bit quicker. And so, as night began to fall over the land, the tiny group prepared their envoy, not taking any soldiers along with them as they would merely slow them down. After all, they only had three days to break the curse upon the hero; they couldn't afford to waste any time at all.

Zelda bit her lip anxiously as she stood beside Epona, waiting for Link to come join her, Lana, and Impa. They had all taken about an hour or so to get ready, gathering previsions and plotting out their course, but the hero had still not come out onto the field for some reason. They needed to get going soon, and him procrastinating now would only cost him later on.

Nonetheless, the princess let out a sigh of relief when she finally saw the hero emerge from the castle to meet them, his pace anxious as he held his hands behind his back for some reason. "There you are," Zelda said, giving him a somewhat aggravated sigh. "I was starting to think I'd have to go look for you. Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes," Link said, taking in a diffident breath, not looking her in the eyes lest she have to look into his snakelike ones. "I'm ready. Let's go."

"Good," the princess said with a smile, reaching out to take his hand, though he did not return it as he simply frowned at looked away. Zelda gave him a look of confusion at this, knowing that Link never rejected her hand. "Link... is something wrong?"

"No," the hero shrugged as casually as he could, his anxiety growing upon seeing that Lana and Impa had noticed his apprehension. "Nothing's wrong."

"Then give me your hand," Zelda said, her tone harder than it usually was.

The hero still looked away from her as he shook his head slowly. "I... I can't..." he said, shame filling his tone.

"Why not?" the princess asked, taking a step closer to him.

Link let out a defeated sigh, knowing that he couldn't hide this secret from her forever. After all, it was only bound to get worse. "Because," he said emptily, finally allowing her to see what had once been his hands. "I don't have them anymore..."

Zelda suppressed a gasp of shock upon seeing what had happened to the hero's hands, understanding why it had taken him so long to emerge from the castle. His hands could hardly be described as such anymore; he no longer hand fingers at all, but rather claws, long, sharp, black ones that looked like they could rip anything to shreds. He only had three on each hand as opposed to five, however, and they instinctually curled up close to each other, giving them a sinister look. However, this wasn't the only change; the skin of his hands and most of his lower arms had been replaced with small, iridescent green scales, giving them a rough, leathery feel as the princess held onto his wrist to inspect them.

"Oh... Link..." Zelda said with pity as she looked up into Link's eyes, unable to read much emotion in his slitted pupils. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault," the hero said shallowly as he pulled his arm away from her, staring at his new claws instead of her. "They really hurt as they were coming in though..." he said, cringing a bit as he remembered the agony he endured as his fingers fused together and grew sharp, protruding claws.

The princess wanted to give him further consolation, but she knew that it would mean little at a moment like this. "We should go," she said with finality, turning away from him and mounting Epona all on her own, giving Link an expectant look to join her. The hero wanted to say something to her, but he wasn't sure what he really could say and so he merely joined her, taking care not to hurt his steed with his unretractable claws as he mounted her. And, without any further deliberation, the group was off, heading towards the Palace of Souls with a hope that they could reverse this curse before it got even worse.