Veil of Twilight

Chapter V
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The waters of Zora’s Domain wore a blinding reflection of blackened gold. Twilight creatures ravaged every nook and cranny of the place, undisturbed by many of the Zora, who had taken their young and gone deep under the surface.

They must believe themselves to be safe under there, Zant thought to himself. He knew it wasn’t the case. He rose off of the ground, magically ascending the cliff of the domain, rising above the waterfall and continuing upon the water’s surface towards the throne room.

More of his creatures were in here, abolishing any defense that the Zora guard may have tried to establish. Even the queen herself was engaged in battle, fighting valiantly, standing upon her aquatic throne. Such a proud race, the Zora.

Zant snapped his fingers, and the creatures stopped, once again frozen in time. The Zora held their ground, waiting for some kind of trap. One by one, their attention was drawn to Zant as he approached the throne. He bowed mockingly to the queen.

“Rutela,” he said, standing up from his bow. “As much as I enjoy a fighting spirit, I believe this the end for you. You know what I’ve come for.”

The Zora queen spoke calmly, her voice regal and defiant.

“My surrender,” she said, raising her coral staff and propping it upright beside her. “You will not have it.” There was a surrounding roar of approval from the Zora warriors. Zant tittered, shaking his finger back and forth.

“Now, now, my queen,” he said gleefully. “I have leverage that I’ve yet to mention.”

He outstretched his hand, and in a flash of blackened gold, a figure appeared in his grasp, held at the throat. The small figure thrashed and kicked his finned legs, his own hands at the claw that held him, his faced winced in pain. Rutela’s face fell, dropping her staff as her son appeared before her.

“Ralis…”

Zant smirked beneath his headdress. “I’ve grown tired of games, my darling. What will it be? Your surrender, or your son?”

The queen’s face was slack with shock. She was completely defeated. The rest of the Zora watched, holding their breath, awaiting her decision. Zant grew impatient of her silence.

“Well,” he spurred. “I’m waiting. What will you - Argh!”

It all happened in the space of a second. Zant dropped the Zora prince as he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. A small coral blade protruded from his flesh. He looked at his feet immediately to see the young Zora, still catching his breath.

Zant yanked him up furiously, using his free hand to pull the blade from his shoulder. With one strike he drove it into the prince’s stomach, taking pleasure as the young Zora’s eyes widened, as the queen shrieked in denial.

“Take this place!” Zant cried. Immediately, his creatures came to life, diving upon the distracted Zora. Zant wrenched the knife free from the prince and dropped his limp body, watching it float away and disappear down the waterfall. Insolent whelp.

He turned just in time and caught the queen’s staff in his free hand, the blade of it inches from him. He yanked on it and pulled Rutela close.

“This is what happens to those who defy their king,” he whispered to her, driving knife between Rutela’s breasts and into her heart, the blade still dripping with the blue blood of her son.

He watched the life leave her eyes, throwing her back into her throne when she was dead. His malice was still not sated. Even as he looked upwards and saw the sky rot into the blackened gold of his dominion, he still felt the petty hatred within him. The Zora had defied him, and secretly, he had felt fear. They were adept warriors, and may have stood a chance, had their queen and prince not both been murdered before their eyes. The twilight did not seem sufficient punishment.

In the back of his mind, he heard a sinister chuckle, and the voice of his Power spoke.

I know what will make them suffer, it said…

…

Link had reached the last room of the dungeon, and for that he was glad. He felt like he was losing it.

The tricks and traps of the dungeon were not too much of a challenge, and there had been no monsters. As far as this hero business was concerned, he was turning out to be a natural. Especially with the help he was getting.

It was also the help that bothered him, though. Monkeys.

A group of four apes, following him around like they knew him. Apparently they did, too, because they knew his name. They talked. He could hear their voices within his mind. Midna said it was because of him turning into a wolf. He was connected to animals now. It didn’t matter. He still felt crazy.

Then there was the Oocca. She had rolled out of a jar as he accidentally kicked it.

“Oh, I’m so glad you found me!” she said, her wings flapping. “I’m Ooccoo, and I’ve been stuck in there for quite some time now.”

Ooccoo…” Link mumbled, unable to speak, looking at the small creature with wide eyes. It would have looked almost like a cucco, but it had a small, bald human head. “Wha… what are you?”

“I’m an Oocca,” she said, as if he had asked a dumb question. “What else would I be?”

Link had almost cried a bit, then, tempted to shed a few tears for his sanity. That’s it, he thought. I’ve cracked. Then Midna’s voice snapped him out of it.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby,” she said. “You’re fine.”

Link seriously doubted it. But he couldn’t stand to let Midna win, so he sucked it up, taking the strange crew through the rest of the temple with him. They had helped him reach the door where the source of dark magic was, and then the apes left him alone with Ooccoo and a parting gift; an old boomerang.

He didn’t feel very confident fighting whatever was in the room with just a boomerang and a possibly imaginary bird lady thing. But he would rather that than have the talking monkeys accompany him any longer. It was all beginning to be too much.

The inside of the chamber was large and unspectacular, covered with vines and roots like every other part of the dungeon. In the center of the room was a large pool of murky water.

As soon as Link entered, the door closed behind him, overgrowing with vines, preventing his escape.

The water rippled and frothed before him, and vines began to shoot out of it, latching themselves to the ceiling. A bulbous, greenish brown plant eventually pulled itself up, suspended by the vines. It opened in four directions, revealing a large, yellow eye.

Ooccoo squealed and flew away, leaving Link staring slack jawed at the monstrous flora.

“Well,” Midna’s voice came. “Are you going to do something, Mr. Chosen Hero? Or are you going to stand there and get us eaten?”

Link snapped out of it. As usual, she was right. A vine detached from the ceiling, whipping out towards him. Link jumped out of the way, and saw a dozen other vines detach, coming for him.

With all the vines focused on him, Link saw, there were only a few holding the plant up. He retrieved the boomerang from his pocket and threw it hard, watching triumphantly as it sail towards the vines. His face fell as they missed completely. The boomerang came speeding back towards him, and he ducked to avoid it. It stuck fast into the wall behind him.

The vines were at him now, wrapping around his limbs, subduing him. Link struggled frantically, freeing one of his arms and grabbing the boomerang from the wall. The vines lifted him off the ground, pulling him upwards towards the bulb of the plant; the eye watched him approach, the veins upon the orb pulsing.

Link waited for his chance, trying not to panic as the tendrils brought him only a few inches from the eye. He noticed darkness closing around him, and saw the bulb was folding shut, meaning to trap him inside. He lashed out with the boomerang, driving one of the wings into the plant’s eyeball.

The thing made a deafening noise, and the tentacles loosened, dropping Link into the dingy water below. He surfaced immediately, gasping for air before pulling himself out of the grungy pond.

The plant fell from the ceiling soon afterwards, splashing the water out of the pool and sending another wave of it over Link. When he cleared the muck from his face, the plant lay in a crumpled, deflated heap in the pool. As he watched, it began to melt away, leaving only a strange looking item floating in the water.

As Link approached the pool, Ooccoo fluttered down and landed on his head, as if she had been helping him the whole time. He hardly noticed; he reached the end of the pool and examined the thing floating in it.

It looked to be made out of stone, which made no sense, since it was floating. It was jagged around the edges, as if it were a piece, rather than a whole, and it was covered with strange designs, which looked oddly familiar.

“Well,” Midna’s voice spoke from his shadow, still shaped like her. “Pick it up, and let’s get out of here.”

Link nodded, unsure why he felt hesitance. He reached down and plucked it out of the water, expecting it to weigh a ton. In reality, however, it was fairly light. As he examined it further, it disappeared in a flash of gold.

“I’ll take that,” Midna said happily. “Now let’s go.” The air around Link stirred, and he felt that strange feeling as they dematerialized and left the dungeon.

…

They appeared outside the old tree; The Deku Tree, as the spirit had called it. He felt something atop his head, and looked upwards. The bird lady thing was staring back at him. He had hoped that he had just imagined it.

“Thank you for freeing me from that jar,” it said.

“You’re… welcome…?” Link’s voice uttered the statement as a question, his eyes unblinking as he acknowledged the thing.

“I guess you Hylians weren’t such useless creations after all,” it continued. “Even though I did do most of the work in there.”

Link turned his eyes to his shadow and exchanged glances with Midna; what was this thing talking about?

“Anyway, I must be off. I have my own quest to tend to. I have to find away to ascend back to the heavens. I‘m sure we‘ll see each other again. Don‘t miss me too much, now.”

Without another word, the Oocca flapped it’s wings and took off from Link’s head, leaving him and his shadow staring up into the sky after it, both perplexed and speechless.

“Well,” Midna said after a while. “That was strange…”

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*Here we are. I finally updated. In the game, the first dungeon actually takes place in the Faron Province, if I remember right. I moved it to the Ordon Province, for reasons that will be apparent later.
*"dave" and "Anton," thank you for the reviews. Humor and characterization are both things I'm trying to improve.
*Until next time, I suppose. Read, Rate, Review, and Enjoy!!!