Zelink BotW Sequel/ Legend of Zelda and the Last Knight

Chapter 22 A moment to breathe

Authors notes: Shorter chapter this round friends! I'm working so much at my job that it has been hard to find the time to write. But last night I had the evening to clear my desk and get back to it. So here is the next bit of the story! The calm before the storm. Please be sure to drop a comment! It really motivates me to keep this going, you have no idea. Thanks again so much, I love you all! And stay tuned for the audio drama if you're following that. The next episode will be out next weekend hopefully

Chapter 22

A moment to breathe

From the brink of fading in and out of twilight, he awoke choking on the ground. Unable to even cough as all the air from his lungs was robbed from him. Desperately trying to breathe, he gasped from the cover of his burnt and ravaged mask, and the black void that engulfed him gave way to burning light as it pierced through the gaping holes of his cover and burned his eyelids. Even though his vision was still blurry, he saw the darkness that he once thought doomed him forever fade away as he lifted his gaze to a glowing orange dawn that crept over the horizon, peering in from a broken doorway from where he lay.

Collecting what thoughts he could one by one by piecing them together from a jumbled mess of recollection, he pondered to himself, questioning where he was as he lay motionless on the ground of an unknown place. Where am I? Am I back?

He was certain he was alive. That he was sure of. But he couldn't hear a thing except the ringing of his ears. Smoke and rubble debris filled the air around him, and the taste of ash sat like poison powder on his tongue. The young man could hardly move a muscle and was stricken numb from any control of his body. Was it the fear of death from before or the pain of his wounds holding him back? He couldn't be sure.

Face first in the dirt of what seemed like a ruined barn, his vision became clear, and Link found himself to be back in the present. Using all the strength, he could summon up to stand up to his two feet once more; he forced his body into compliance. With his bones rattled and nerves shaken, it only took a moment for the burning pain from the blast from before to return as he regained back his senses. He flinched as it sent shockwaves throughout his entire body. Everywhere his body echoed pain.

Slowly trudging about in his torn and ragged soldier uniform, he ripped off the worn mask that now had been rendered useless and destroyed, freeing his face. Although his mask bared most the blast, it offered hardly any protection from explosion and shrapnel. Just enough to prevent any scarring to the front of his face.

He gently grazed the side of his cheek with his ripped gloved fingers, feeling nothing but the coolness of drying blood coming from where his pointy ear was. Fear quickly gave way to relief as he realized both earlobes were still intact and that he may have only suffered minor cuts and a ruptured eardrum on his left side. However, given the news of his ears, he was still in bad shape. One arm was still slashed from the fight before the siege, and now most of his body was bruised from the roof of the barn and loft that broke his fall from the sky, which no doubt saved his life. Not to mention, his left side was singed by burns and bloody scrapes.

In his condition, all he could hear from one side was the low rumblings of war, shouts, and the dull clashing and clanking of steel all around him as he lumbered out from where he lay hidden. It didn't take long for his well-off ear to hear in full clarity, yet again at was unraveling all around him. He was somewhere in the city, and the battle had begun. And from what he could tell, he had only been out of the fight for just a few minutes.

The foul smell of burning slowly became more and more pungent around him. Until finally, it couldn't be ignored any longer.

"What the hell is that foul?-Eyagh!" he yelped with a jump.