A Link Without Zelda [COMPLETE]

9. The Urge To Protect

Ellemy is on her bed thumbing through some of the texts that she took from Link. Her eyes drift through the pages but her mind is typically elsewhere. Every now and then she focuses on what the words says when something catches her attention. But nothing has really stood out to her in terms of something that can help Link. She comes to the page that her and Link looked at a little while ago. The page with a blue ocarina. She reads down through it. While ocarinas are usually wood colored, the ocarina that came from the royal family is blue which represents its sacredness. It also has the gold markings of a triangle, sectioned off into three separate triangles. Ellemy now knows that to be called the Triforce.

Interestingly, the ocarina of time has powers endowed by the royal family. No doubt by princess Zelda from that era. So here are three conditions that need to be met in order to utilize its powers. One is that the person using the ocarina needs to be either a member of the royal family or chosen by the family. The other is that the they chosen individual needs to have a sacred ability, the last is that the ocarina needs to be the one selected by the royal. Any ocarina wouldn't do.

"So that includes the cheap ocarina I bought at the odds and ends shop," sighs Ellemy.
"I guess it wouldn't have hurt us to read it a little more closely. Then again, with the situation Link is in and the fact that he does not have the ocarina of time, it was probably his only shot anyways."

She thinks about Link and how he probably has played that ocarina a thousand times by now. Useless of course. She glances at the clock. "I should probably tell him while I still have time."

She gets up and checks herself in the mirror. Then her motions become slow and robotic. "Or am I just looking for a reason to see him?"

Her door flies open, startling her. Her father stumbles in her room.

"Ellemy," he yells. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"It's only eight o'clock, father."

He comes closer to her, banging into her dresser and knocking her items on the top. He sniffs her hair. "You smell nice. You better not think that you're going out anywhere."

"Father, are you drunk?" she says when she notices the smell of yeast.

"I wouldn't have to get drunk if my children, especially my only daughter, would only obey me," he says sitting on the edge of the bed. "It's that boy isn't it."

Ellemy's heart is beating. Her father is a cold man but when he drinks, he becomes over involved and overprotective. It makes her sick. She notices him eyeing the ancient books she took from Link. Had she known her father was drinking, she wouldn't have brought them into the house.

"Explain this!" he says shoving the book only inches away from her face.

"I'm just studying," she says, barely about to get the words out.

"I'm no damn idiot. These aren't texts from the academy. And when did you start studying about Elrule's history anyways? Well, this is something I can fix."

He opens the book and starts ripping out page after page. "I don't know what kind of children I have here, thinking that they can grow up and leave me alone to care for the farm. Fucking useless children."

"Father, stop!" she says authoritatively stepping in. Something she has never done before. He takes one look at her and whips the text book, the corner of the heavy book landing just about her eye with unexpected force. Ellemy screams and puts her hands over her eyes and she kneels down, as she tends to her physical and emotional wounds.

"Ellemy, I'm so sorry," he says getting up.

"Stay the hell away from me!" she screams.

"What the hell is going on here?" says Ellemy's older brother, "Xavier, get in here! Dad's been drinking again."

Her two brothers come in and hold her father back. But just barely. While she has her chance, Ellemy bends down and picks up the text book and as many papers as she can.

"Ellemy get out of here! We can't hold him much longer."

Ellemy snatches the last piece of paper just before her father breaks loose. She runs out of the house not even closing the door behind her. Fueled by adrenaline, she continues to run. She can hear her father's heavy pants. He is an athletic man but his drunkenness is something that she can work with. He's clumsy when he drinks. While he is still on her tail, every time she looks back, he is tripping or running into something. He lets out a yelp and when she looks back this time, she doesn't see him. The path is a little narrow. Did he fall down over the bank?

"Ellemy!" she hears him call her name. "I need your help! Please. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you." Pathetic desperation, yet she slows down as she remembers the times she spent with her a father as a child. The enjoyable times. The times he gave her piggy backs and taught her how to ride a horse. How he supported her after her mother died. She feels sorry for him and just when she thinks she is about to go back to help him, she remembers the abuse. And so, she keeps on running.

She comes to a clearing and there is no sight or sound of her father. She wonders if he died. Despite that, she doesn't stop. 

I'll just keep running. Maybe I'll just leave, she thinks as she clutches her books to her chest. She sees the exist to the village and she makes a bolt for it. To leave and never comes back. But without any warning whatsoever, she collides with something. Or rather, someone. She figures with that much force she would fall back. Maybe even hurt herself. But to her surprise, she feels supported. Whoever it is that's holding her is strong and she too, feels their strength.

"You're in an awful rush."

It's Link. The only person she typically wants to see but as of now, he is last person she wants to see in that state she is in. She keeps her head down.

"Ellemy?"

She doesn't respond. She stands still as a tree without a breeze, her books clutched to her chest as she looks down at her feet.

Link takes her shoulders and moves her gently into the light of the moon so he can see her.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.

"For what?" he says cocking his head to the side. She holds open the text book, the spine now broken and a mess of pages slipping through her fingers. Link knows Ellemy and that's not the work of her own. Then he notices her bare feet, concerned for her safety, he places his finger tips delicately on her cheek and he guides her face up to him. He tries his best to hide the shock when he sees her swollen and bleeding eye.

"Who the hell done this to you, Ellemy?"

She looks down and shakes her head, embarrassed to tell him that she has been periodically beaten by her father for years.

"Ellemy. I'm not joking. Who done this?"

Ellemy opens her mouth, she isn't sure what she wants to say, but it doesn't matter anyways. There the snap of a twig and when both look, Ellemy's father is revealed as he staggers through the bushes.

"That's right, Ellemy. Tell him who hurt my little girl."

Ellemy's breathing staggers at the sight of him and Link can sense that. He looks down at her and then at her father. He knows, but is it safe for Ellemy to let on that he knows? He feels his arms and legs tremble when he thinks of the fact he was ever cordial with this man.

It's been a while, but the urge to protect is strong. Had her father forgotten just how dangerous Link can be?