Fortune Favors the Courageous

Chapter 12: Originations

origination
n. the time or place at which something begins
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Zelda screamed as Link was knocked clean off his feet and tumbled backwards into the malice.

The horses spooked and Link's horse tore across the terrain. All it took was one hoof to hit malice before its knobby legs buckled beneath it and it collapsed with a splash. Zelda yanked the reins of her mare to steady it as it rose up on its hind legs with a frightened scream.

That projectile was like a stream of water that had blasted through the air, splattering against Link, and as it mixed with the pools of malice it hissed and fizzed into a fine mist at their feet.

Link grunted and rolled like a Goron Patriarch back to the grass, droplets of pink and black flying off.

"Link!" Zelda, still fighting for control, cried out.

"I'm fine!" he shouted back. "Go!"

Horseback riding had been another mandatory lesson for the princess, and Zelda knew that to redirect the nervous energy of a spooked horse she had to get it moving. In the early days of her anxiety she wished she'd had someone to do the same for her. Her mare whipped its head back and forth and flared its teeth, fighting her restraint.

Another stream of water flew by their flank, and the enemy revealed itself. Two lizalfos, one blue and one black. The lizard monsters scampered from the trees, weaving in and out of each other's path in a double helix pattern.

Link, back on the grass, drew his windcleaver and flicked it to send the blue one sprawling with a gust of wind. And as the other startled, Link used its distraction to rush in and attack it with the blade.

Zelda got her mare's four hooves back on the ground and urged it forward, which it did so with no shortage of objection. She wasn't sure this got them out of Link's way, but at least a moving target was harder to hit.

The blue lizalfos recovered and Zelda witnessed it spit the stream of water from its angular mouth. It missed both her and Link, but the water fizzled on the malice and made more mist at their feet. To Zelda's horror, the ground was becoming harder and harder to see. She had to keep her horse moving, but she couldn't risk steering it into its demise. Thinking of the only thing she could, she had it walk in large circles around the pool of malice she knew was at their feet. With this repetitive path, she was able to watch Link fending off both lizalfos with just his windcleaver.

She searched for Link's horse next, but with the rising mist she nearly overlooked its brown ears poking through. The creature wasn't moving, but its head had to have been raised to be visible above the growing cloud, so at the very least, it was still alive.

She hoped the poor thing wasn't—

"Princess, run!"

The black Lizalfos was targeting her and rapidly closing the gap between them with great leaps, completely clearing the puddles of malice that otherwise served as nominal protection.

Zelda spurred her mare forward, only daring to go as fast as she could assess the ground in front of them. But it wasn't fast enough. Horn tilted lethally forward, the lizalfos leapt the remaining distance.

Pa-shing! Pa-shing!

The monster sprawled awkwardly on the ground before her, much to her horse's terror.

Link, who had hastily donned his bow, picked up his windcleaver and turned just fast enough to slice the blue lizalfos into halves of magenta and black. Then he swapped back to his bow and fired another arrow at the black lizalfos, just as it rose again before Zelda.