Queen of Light, Queen of Dark

Chapter 2: What the Hell is Going On?

Link disregards the ladder, jumping off the edge of his home and landing right in front of a neighing Epona. He was close enough to Beth to see her face was an odd mix of blue and purple. Although he couldn’t discern the color, Link knew the young girl was suffocating.

                Link picks up a rock that is close to him and tosses it at the Assassin, hoping to distract it. The Assassin throws Beth to the side, where she smashes her head off a tree. Link wants to move toward her, but he can’t afford to waste time when the monster was trained on him. With a flourish, Link slices his sword as if he is beheading the beast, but it dodges just in time. It raises a giant hand and slashes at Link with claws that extended sharply from its fingers. Link raises his shield, but he hears the screech of claws on metal that meant it was destroying the piece of art on his forearm. Link stabs at the Assassin and catches it by surprise. When Link’s hit lands, the monster yowls in pain and holds its bleeding arm in its other hand. Link notices the beast’s blood wasn’t red—it was thick and silvery. With a final hiss, the beast retreats into the forest.

                Link runs over to Beth and feels her pulse. She’s not dead, thank the goddesses, but she is unconscious. Link carries her under the overhang of Epona’s stable so she wouldn’t be in the rain. She is breathing shallowly, so Link tilts her head back to open her airways.

                Link begins to worry about the experience he just had. That Shadow Assassin is the first he’s seen in five years. They shouldn’t have existed in a long time. Even when they were common, they never retreat—they fight until their prey is dead, or they are.

                When Beth starts breathing all right, Link carries her to her house, tells her parents what happened, “I’m going to speak to Bo about this!”, “Why would Beth leave in such weather?”, and then he goes to his own house. He tries to ignore the troubles flitting through his mind, and he just narrowly avoids them so he can fall asleep.

                When Link awakes, he feels sun beaming in through his window. The storm must have passed overnight to make way for a bright and gorgeous day. He thinks of Midna for a moment, but then hops out of bed and climbs down to the ground below. He feels dew on his feet before he tugs on his work boots and lets Epona out of her stable.

                “There ya go, big girl,” he says as he feeds her an apple. “Today we’re goin’ to Kakariko Village up north.” As if Epona understands human speech, she neighs happily. Renaldo always gives her the best feed in Hyrule.

                He mounts his horse, and she trots into the village. He notices no one is out, so he steers Epona to Fado’s stables to check in on him. The gate is open. Link enters cautiously and sees the whole of Ordon, including the sickly Ilia and Beth’s mother, congregated near the stables. The goats are not out grazing. Link approaches quickly, then dismounts and asks Bo what’s going on.

                Before Bo could answer, Uli shouts, “Kate is gone! Little Kate…” She begins to sob on her husband’s shoulder. Colin looks at her with a certain sadness.

                “They’re goin’ for our children!” cried Beth’s father. Next to him, Beth was alive and well.

                “Link, what do we do?” shouted someone else.

                “Rusl, how many horses do we have?” asks Link.

                “Well, there’s Epona and Zenobia—”

                “Carriages?”

                “One.”

                Link shoots off another question: “How many supplies can we get, food-wise?”

                “I can pro’bly make enough goat milk ta last two days,” says Fado. “And there’s enough punkins in this town for weeks. Ta tell tha truth I’m sicka eatin’ ‘em.”

                “Blankets?”

                “I have some. They were Kate’s,” offers Uli. She begins to cry.

                “Wait a moment, Link,” Fado breaks in, “ya ain’t thinkin’ a relocatin’ us, are ya?”

                Link says, “It’s the only way. We just have to think of the safest place.”

                “What about Kakariko?” says Bo. “Renaldo has that basement, and there are gates at most of the entrances. One of ‘em is to Death Mountain. The Gorons are on our side.”

                “Yes, but the castle has trained guards!” shrieks Beth.

                “Yeah, and what happened to them last time?” fights back Talo.

                Beth looks hurt but says nothing else.

                Link is struck to see how the children, as young as fourteen, are participating in discussions. It is so strange. “It’s settled, then. Rusl, get Zenobia hooked to the carriage. Fado, forget the goat cheese. Harvest some pumpkins. Someone can help Uli gather blankets.” Beth looks eager, so she runs to Uli’s side.  “And Colin, you can catch some fish to be cooked and cooled.”

                Colin lights up at the fact he is included. “Yessir!” he says, saluting Link.

                Beth’s dad escorts his wife out of the field, and soon everyone is off doing their various tasks. Link mounts Epona again and leaves to aid Fado in the collection of food.

                As Link is cutting the pumpkins out of their leafy entanglements, Rusl walks by. Link rises to meet him, and they shake hands.

                “Weapons, too,” says Link.

                “You got it,” replies Rusl. “I hope we get Kate back. Uli is devastated. Colin has barely spoken since.” He sighs.

                Link places a reassuring hand on his aged shoulder. “We’ll find her.”

                Rusl leaves Link to his harvesting with a wan smile. In less than twenty minutes, Fado and Link have harvested enough pumpkins for a long while. It takes many trips to load them onto the small carriage, and soon they decide they need to leave some pumpkins for more people to fit. They will have a feast that night with the extra fish Colin catches.

                When sundown comes around, Link invites the village to his home. Bo makes sure everyone is accounted for, and they figure no one is missing. Ilia’s nose is cherry red and she sneezes often, but no one thinks she’ll be dying any time soon. Colin looks distressed, so Rusl urges him to speak.

                “I… I found something while I was fishing,” he says nervously.

                “Damn right ya did!” shouts Talo’s father. “Dinner fit for a king!” Everyone cheers and clinks glasses of beer, including the children.

                “I did find plenty of food, but… I found forbidden fish. The ones that swim around evil places and bite you if you swim near them. I caught a few, and they bit me…” He holds up one hand, unwraps the cotton, and everyone sees he lost his tiny finger and nearly got his index bitten off. After gasps of disbelief, he rewraps his hand and holds his hand down.

                At first the party is morbid, but once the drunkenness settles in everyone is enjoying themselves. Even Link takes place in the festivities, Midna out of his mind.