Blinding Darkness - Zelda X Ganondorf

Chapter 23

     "Lord Ganondorf!" One of the guards turned around to stare at him, shocked. "What do you mean?"

     "Tell me," Ganondorf was breathing fast. "what had happened in the past months?"

     "We kicked Hylian butt." The other guard said with no small amount of savage pleasure. 

     "We're fighting a war as you asked us to. And we're actually doing well." The first one threw a glare at the second.

     "Oh no." He whispered, horror seeping through his bones.

     Then he turned to the first guard. "Tell me, is there a battle going on right now?"

     More and more Gerudo were listening in right now, confusion thickening the air.

     "Um, Lord Ganondorf, are you feeling all right?" The second guard suggested tentatively. 

     "No. Tell me if there's a battle going on right now." 

     "...Yes. A huge one. On Hyrule Field. Like you planned for us."

     Ganondorf took a breath, and let it out slowly.

     Hylia. How long had this been going on?

     "You're a fast rider." He said, his voice slightly calmer but his mind anything but. "Ride to the battle right now and tell them to ceasefire. I will go to Hyrule Castle myself."

     "My lord!" She exclaimed, shocked. 

     "You heard me!" He turned away, his heart pounding.

     He needed to check how much damage he had done to this world.

     Maybe because his mind was whirling faster than a tornado, maybe because he was so panic-stricken by what the curse had done to him, he never questioned why it had suddenly lifted.

     And if he had stopped for a moment, just a moment, to collect himself, to actually feel, he would realize what was missing. 

     And everything would fall apart.

     Was already falling apart.

     As time wore on like a relentless river.

     As the seconds trickled by.

     As each moment drifted away.

     Hyrule's days of sunlight were timed.

     As the people lived their lives, they had no idea. Until it was too late.

     The clock ticked on.

     Ganondorf mounted his horse and raced off towards Hyrule Castle without so much as a bodyguard, with nothing but his own two blades. His heart coursed along with his horse, fear and terror replacing his blood in his veins.

     War. War. War.

     That was all he could think about, all he could see. 

     The shifting, golden sands were replaced by swaying grass and towering trees, and Ganondorf pushed on, uncaring who saw him, uncaring what they thought. Hyrule Castle loomed in the distance, but a silhouette but growing closer, and along with it, terrible consequences.

     Holding on to the last bit of rational thought, Ganondorf decided to stay away from the main gate, getting closer instead from the forest framing the back exit.

     Yet, as he trekked through the forest, his ears picked up the faint sound of sobbing, somewhere even deeper inside the woods.

     Alarmed, he abandoned the Castle and followed the sound instead, even more surprised by the faint tone of familiarity in the hoarse voice.