Forgive me | Legend of Zelda FF | ENG

20 ~ Daruk

"Do you really think Daruk is in Goron City?", Link asked me when we were already on our way to Goron City.
"I think so," I replied, and then shrugged my shoulders. "Based on all the Malice here in Eldin, I'm assuming he's been overcome by the mud of Malice."
Now Link looked around and saw the masses of Malice that had accumulated here. It was really much; much more than anywhere else. And here it even happened that the hot springs and the lava were also covered with Malice.

By now we had almost arrived in Goron City when we heard a loud scream; it was Vah Rudania for sure.
"What in the name of Goddess Hylia?" it escaped Link as the Divine Beast appeared at the crater of Death Mountain, bathed in a dark light.
"This doesn't look good at all...", I shared my worries with Link as Vah Rudania screamed another time as well. "We need to find Daruk right now."

Link immediately grabbed my hand and together we then ran towards Goron City before anything worse could happen. I mean, who knew what the Divine Beasts were capable of when they were overcome by Ganon's sludge of Malice?

In addition, it was already night again; Link and I had started at sunrise at Zoras Domain, but now we had been on the road again all day. My feet didn't hurt anymore; somehow they had gotten used to all the walking in the last few days.

Link, on the other hand, seemed to be doing really well again; except for his problems in which he loses control. But when I thought about how beat up he had been and how terribly wounded this guy had been, it was a load off my mind that I had him here by my side.
Fate could have taken him away from me forever, but instead everything turned out positively for us, and I was incredibly happy about that.

Finally we arrived at Goron City and all we saw there was mud of Malice; you couldn't even recognize the different houses here anymore, everything was covered meters high with Malice.
"How are we going to find Daruk here?" Link asked, visibly exhausted, as my gaze shifted to him, terrified.
Worried, I watched him as he just looked at me sleepily.
"What's wrong?", I then asked him rather bewildered by his behavior.
He just waved it off. "It's nothing, I'm just very tired..."

Something was wrong, I could feel it. Normally Link kept up long runs, and the walk from the Rito to the desert, he had managed that too without weakening even once as much as he had just done.

"I don't quite believe you," I confessed to him honestly as he came up to me now and yawned.
"It's really all right, I'm just-" he suddenly stumbled a bit in my direction, whereupon I carefully caught him, holding his shoulders.
"I'm just tired...", he mumbled yawning as I sat down on the floor with him.

Something was wrong, I was a thousand percent sure.
"Link," I addressed him as he just leaned against my side, yawning, and closed his eyes.
"Hey, stay awake!", I called out to him, to which I shook him lightly by the shoulder, but he, on the other hand, only snuggled closer to me as I could see the moonlight, which by now was shining down on us, turning a shade of red.

"Link, you can't sleep now!", I called out to him in a panic when he didn't get up. "Look at the moon!"
I still got no response from him, but when I looked up into the night sky, I was startled again. By now the moon had turned a deep red and small red-black particles were flying through the air; in addition, the air around us was getting quite hot.

Protectively, I pulled Link closer to me, since he still couldn't be woken up, and activated my light shield.
For a moment I concentrated on Link's breathing and exhaled with relief when I heard only steady and calm breaths from him.

But still I did not know what had happened to him. That the moon changed exactly then, shortly after Link had fallen asleep, that was already very suspicious. However, I can not explain it to myself. How could the moon be connected to Link? Was such a thing even possible?