Three
Zelda could hear Ganon laughing, and Link shouting desperately as the stone door slid shut. She turned slowly, raising the scarf up to hide all but her eyes, knives in hand and ready to fight. So much easier, less painful to be afraid for herself than for her champion.
"As long as he has a piece of the Triforce, you can't win."
"As long as I have half my army waiting at the other end of that little escape route, he won't survive."
The world spun out beneath her feet, Zelda was glad she'd pulled up the scarf though he still chuckled as her eyes went wide. No. No, it wasn't possible. No way he could have gotten his forces there that fast, not even from Death Mountain.
"You didn't think I wouldn't see this coming, Princess? I thought your dabbling in prophecy would assist you with such things, but then I might have given you more credit than you deserve. After all, with the forest sage dead, you're rather left with only these desperate, futile attempts at victory."
The sneered words were meant as a goad, Zelda knew it even as she rushed forward, but she also knew he was as trapped as she was, in these close quarters, and maybe just this once Ganon's overconfidence would prove to be his downfall.
The Sheikah had trained her well, in this time of darkness there had been no way to defend the princess better than teaching her to defend herself. The first of the guard went down without a sound, the second had only the chance for a surprised grunt before he fell in a splash of blood, though the dagger caught against armor or bone and was ripped from her hand. Zelda quickly drew another knife from its place at her leg as she pushed off the falling Moblin, leaping high into the air. Two sweeps with her hands sent both knives sailing down at Ganon, he caught the first and let the second slam into the armored bands at his wrists, shaking the attack off with a flick of his elbow, staring with amusement at the heavy dent she'd made.
"Silly princess, trying to be a hero."
Zelda was undeterred, she still more weapons than there were guards, and Ganon was not invincible, not unstoppable, Triforce or no. The Moblin to her left rushed her, she blocked easily, dropping a leg so that the creature's momentum sent it stumbling over her, falling to the ground. Just as she turned back toward Ganon, a blur caught in the corner of her eye, and before she could think to block, something hard and heavy cracked against the side of her head.
Her legs crumpled, she hit the wall before the ground but neither pain reaching her past the initial blow, spikes of agony shooting through her, so powerful Zelda could barely feel her body even as she tried to move, knew she had to get up. Amazingly, Ganon's deep sulfurous voice sounded out loud, rumbling past the shrill ringing in her ears.
"Bring her here, this no longer amuses me."
Hands grabbed her, tight around her arms. Zelda could feel the Triforce burning on her skin, and closed her hands into fists, though the world still tipped and spun horribly when she tried to open her eyes. No, no, she could not let this happen, there had to be something she could do. Anything that might hurt Ganon long enough for her to escape, to keep Link from following her desperate attempt to save him right into an even worse danger.
As it was, she didn't need to worry about it. A sharp shout of pain made her head jerk up, trying to focus her eyes at the roaring red blur that was Ganon, wounded and furious. The soft thud of steel in flesh, and the hands holding her stiffened and fell away. Keeping her balance was impossible, Zelda pitched forward, bracing for impact only to be caught up again. This time, the rough fabric beneath her cheek felt very familiar.
"I taught you to block better than that, princess," Impa's voice murmured, not too unkindly. Zelda frowned, trying to speak, they needed to find Link, he was in danger... but a strong jolt and a flash of light left her senses at the edge of shattering, and even with her eyes closed it was too much to take. Impa said something more, but Zelda couldn't force the words to make sense before everything went dark.
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The next time she woke up, Zelda found she was laying on a thin bedroll, another rolled and tucked carefully beneath her head. It was the best the Sheikah had for concessions to royalty. Impa or one of the others must have been carrying a fairy, she sat up expecting a sharp protest from more than one place on her body only to feel nothing, not even the echo of an ache when she pressed her fingers where she had been struck. The air outside smelled of wood smoke, and she could hear the crackle of the fire.
//Oh, goddess bright - Link!//
Zelda gasped against the sudden tightness in her lungs, leaping onto her feet, dashing further into the small clearing. She recognized it only far enough to send another jolt of panic through her - far away from Death Mountain, enough that she was certain Impa had fled without pause or hesitation. The Sheikah's implicit refusal to extend their vow of protection to anyone outside the royal family had always frustrated her, and this time it might have been enough to kill her beloved champion.
The cluster of Sheikah around the fire glanced up at her entrance, and quickly away, impolite to stare at a face uncovered. Zelda couldn't be bothered to make her hands work correctly, to tie the scarf into place, everything inside of her trembling in dread at the thought of what might have passed while she was asleep. She crouched down until she and Impa were at eye level, wishing those dark eyes would tell her if her fears were true, afraid speaking them aloud might make them real.
"I sent Link away, there was a secret tunnel. I thought he'd be safe, but Ganon said-" Her breath caught in a soft, tight sob as the woman nodded gravely.
"Your recovery was my first priority. After I knew you were safe, I went back for the boy." A lifetime with the guardian woman had left her able to interpret the smallest gestures, hints no one but another Sheikah would have understood - it was bad, very bad.
"The battle had ranged out along the entire hilltop, there were many of Ganon's minions scattered there, and a set of hoof prints, leading away. It was the boy's horse, he had escaped, but there were more prints leading after him, and enough of a blood trail, that I do not believe things went as well as we might have liked." She shrugged slightly. "I did not follow the trail long, I had to attend to your injuries."
Zelda nodded grimly, nothing she could fault the woman for, and at least Link had escaped the initial trap.
//At what cost?// Even if it had been a small party chasing him, if Link was too wounded to fight back...
"Princess... you would know if he was truly lost, wouldn't you?"
It was the truth, she had just been avoiding it, didn't want to actually stop, and close her eyes, and see what happened when she tried to find him. It didn't take very long, likely because of the Triforce connecting them, or even that more subtle understanding, something neither one of them could describe but they both knew was true. How she always seemed to know a little more about Link than most people - how he was feeling, whether he was worried or calm or happy - the sense of him in her thoughts no different than prophecy, in a way.
The feeling that touched her was immediate and strong, sweeping down to wrap against her heart like a warm wind. He was alive. Safe, and alive. Zelda smiled, clutching both hands against her chest for a moment, no more details coming than those, but it was enough for now. The corners of Impa's eyes were turned up, though the smile was invisible beneath the cloth around her face. Zelda quickly reached up, tying her own scarf back. It was the middle of the night, not that it made a bit of difference to a traveling Sheikah.
"We're going now." The other dark-clad figures rose without a sound, Impa nodding in pleased agreement as she kicked dirt over the small fire. Stabbing Ganon once had been even an insufficient warm-up for the warrior woman, she wouldn't mind the chance to try again.
More importantly, Link was likely headed toward the resting place of the Chaos Glass, and if Ganon had trailed them to the catacombs, he would be following close behind the hero now.
"We have to get to Link, and the hidden weapon at the northern lake, before Ganon does."
It was the only order she needed to give. A shadow passed across the moon, just for a moment, and when light touched the ground again the clearing was empty.
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It was well past dusk on the second day, when Malon reached her father's house. The twinkling light faded and brightened like a strange phantom or Poe, but too warm to be any sort of specter. Epona picked her way delicately up the steep slope, Malon finding the path to the barn by moonlight and memory, enjoying the warm scents of contented animals as she led the horse into the barn, heads raising in the other stalls, the llamas blinking wearily, surprised by the new guest.
Thankfully, all the beasts her father kept were good-tempered, and it wasn't long before she had the horse fed, watered and blanketed, Epona settling in for the night as Malon backed her way out of the stall. A sleepy bleat, and a small, soft head butted against her leg, demanding attention. Malon grinned, leading the young beast back to its pen, patting it again as she secured the lock.
It was a short but cold walk from the barn to the house, any warmth from the barn immediately snatched away by the night air, Malon swiftly making her way up the rough-hewn steps, smiling again at the warmth of the lantern, spilling butter yellow and welcoming over the top two stairs, though it was still difficult to see her father though the thick glass.
She carefully opened the door, lifting up as she pushed in, to keep the warped wood from sticking. A small detail that told her she was truly home, the pang of nostalgia quickly replaced by one of hunger, the air thick with the smell of some sort of stew bubbling gently on the stove. She set down her bundle - darts and gun and knives - relishing that she could remove them here and still feel safe.
"Papa, I'm home," she breathed quietly, just for herself. "I'm home," she called out louder, shutting the door behind her - locking it, something she knew her father never did, too good-hearted even now.
//No one ever comes here, and simple locks wouldn't stop Ganon's men anyway.//
Shaking off the dark thoughts, Malon stepped around the partition separating the doorway from the rest of the open front room. It was always more than a little funny, to see the giant bear of a man that was her father bent over the threads of a weaving loom, looking as if he might reduce it to a heap of splinters at any moment. He lifted his head, blinking at her over a pair of tiny spectacles until he finally realized who he was looking at, and smiled brightly.
"Malon! My little Malon, what a surprise!"
She smiled back, listening to the familiar creak of his footsteps on the wooden floor. It only took three strides for him to cross the room and she gladly returned his tight embrace.
"Hello, papa. You're up late."
Talon looked out the window, and shrugged. "Never know when I'm gazing at a sunrise or a sunset, these days." He looked back to her, cupping her cheek gently in one huge hand and carefully studying her face, though Malon knew she couldn't have looked much different since the last time he'd seen her.
//He's never sure when it might be the last time he sees you, though.//
"My, my. You look more like your mother everyday."
It had not been such a common thing, the marriage between a citizen of Hyrule and one of the Rito, the bird people. Anyone who had seen the happy couple together, though, found it impossible to wish for anything but the best for them. The space where she should have been never disappeared, a gap at the table and in her favorite chair by the fire and always, always at Talon's side, a hole in the shape of Malon's mother.
Malon would kneel by a lake or fountain sometimes, tracing her own angular features with her fingers, touching the tips of the feathers at her wrists, fiercely concentrating on her mother's face. Determined to remember it, so that when she returned there would be no hesitance in welcoming her home.
When Ganon had come, the Rito had all flown far away, across the sea, and her mother had gone with them. Ganon had a fierce grudge against the bird people, for reasons unknown, and Talon wanted her to be safe even if it meant losing her for a time, for years, as it turned out. Malon could not fly, just a child with tiny tufts of feathers that could never grow into real wings, and so she could not follow her mother into the sky. It had been the right thing, to stay behind, Malon knew that now. Her mother had her clan, still, but her father would have had nothing, had she left him behind.
She stepped back, stretching a few kinks from her muscles, trying not to show any bit of fatigue or pain in front of her father's concerned look.
"I heard there was trouble, a few months ago. I worried about you."
He had every right to, though Malon hadn't been the one to pay that price.
"It was the forest sage. I wasn't even there." Wasn't even there, and for a while all she could think about was how things might have changed if she had been - though if even Link hadn't been able to stop it...
"Ganon killed her... had her killed, she died." It came out awkward because the words still barely made sense, she could hardly believe it had happened. No one had been expecting it, that one act throwing off the balance of the entire world, leaving them all scrambling for a new plan, a new way to fight.
Leaving Link painfully off-balance, trying to live in a world that had taken one of his most precious friends away. He never said as much out loud, never admitted his doubts, but Malon thought that at one time or another all of them - even Princess Zelda - must have wondered just how much longer this dark time would take to pass.
"I'm all right, papa," she sighed, "I'm fine."
One last squeeze of her shoulders, and he let her go. They both laughed a little when she dropped to the floor, neither of them noticing that he had lifted her right off the ground in his excitement.
"Still don't know my own strength," he smiled sheepishly, cleaning his spectacles with the corner of his shirt. "Go on, get yourself some dinner. I'll be finished with this mess soon enough."
Malon listened to him shuffle back toward the loom, moving quite slowly, taking his time as he eased back into the chair.
"You hurting worse, papa?" She called out, ladling stew into her bowl. Vegetable, certainly the best vegetable stew in all of Hyrule. Malon's stomach clenched, at the sudden thought of Link in that empty glade, without food at all - but the tree would provide for him, somehow, that strange forest world a part of him ever since he had been a little child.
Talon only sighed, shaking his head slightly as he moved the shuttle slowly back and forth. "I'm all right, just my old bones. The wet weather has a way of seeping in, but I'll be fine."
He wasn't so old, not really, but his time with the Hyrulian Guard had worn heavy on him, well before the true war with Ganon had begun. He'd been given an early leave, discharged with full honors by the King himself, a story he gladly told anyone who would listen, and that Malon had heard enough to know by heart, down to the pauses between words.
"How is the business going, papa?"
It had broken his heart to sell the horses and leave the ranch, though even he had realized how dangerous it would have been to stay. The foothills of the northeastern mountains were much, much safer, scattered towns and villages that Ganon had likely never looked at twice, if most of them even appeared on a map.
Horses were not so popular on the rocky terrain, and Talon had turned to herding the local llamas instead, finding a small but successful niche, spinning the wool into yarn and turning that into blankets that sold in the nearby villages.
It was very nice, to just sit in silence, eating and listening to the soft squeaking of the loom, the crackling of the fire. It wasn't long before Malon was scraping the last of the thick broth from the bottom of the bowl, caught between going for another and just falling asleep where she was.
"You're tired, Malon."
"I'm all right." No more weary than anyone else, certainly.
"It's the boy, isn't it. The reason you're here - something's happened to him."
Talon didn't hate Link - it was his old guard's shield that Link still carried - but it was true that Malon had joined the fight with stars in her eyes because of him, and her father knew a little part of her would always ache, because he loved another.
"I rode his horse here, she's in the barn. He was hurt, papa, trying to fulfill a quest that might stop Ganon once and for all. I don't know where Zelda is, I don't know what happened, but I know where I need to go finish what he started. I have to try."
"It sounds dangerous." He had turned in his chair, watching her closely. Malon didn't bother trying to lie.
"I'm sure it will be, but I don't have a choice. Everyone else has given everything they have for this... I have to do all I can, too."
The temptation for a second bowl of stew was finally overpowered by a massive yawn, Malon finally letting the weariness seep into her bones, looking forward to falling asleep beneath her own quilt, in her own room, where it was safe.
"I think I should go to sleep. I'll have to head out early." No idea where Ganon's troops were, how far behind, but thankfully even Moblins had to sleep.
Talon nodded, reaching out to cover one of her tiny hands in both of his, his eyes so dark and serious they froze her to the spot.
"I gladly gave my youth and my body in service to king and country. I would still give my life for the princess, if it was asked of me to do so... but I will not lose you, Malon. Not for the Triforce or the kingdom or anything. Not for anything."
"I'll be all right. I promise."
The words fluttered a bit in her throat, the kind of promise that shouldn't have been made, because there was always the chance it couldn't be kept - but she would try, she would try to fight and she would try to live, and even with all the darkness and destruction around them Malon still couldn't help but feel that it would all work out, as long as she kept trying.
"Goodnight, papa."
"Goodnight, Malon."
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Talon watched his daughter leave the room, turning back to the loom, but still listening to the tell-tale squeak as she dropped gracelessly into bed. He threw the shuttle through the threads, a few more would finish off this blanket, and it wouldn't take very long at all to set things up for his next project.
Talon glanced down at his shelves, the small bag set against the corner, gray fur sparkling gently, shimmering unlike any color he had ever been able to dye. A stranger had brought it to his door, mentioned Malon and some generosity she had given him, offering the gift and asking nothing in return. He had explained the magic of the wool, had even proved it when Talon wasn't quite convinced. He'd been waiting until Malon's birthday to weave the cloak for her, the only time he was ever certain she'd come home - but as his father had said, the only moment to be sure of was the one in your hands, right now.
He sighed, bending over the loom, and did not move away until sunrise.