Rewriting the Past

One of my Favorite Battles in Age of Calamity

Destiny

I didn't get very much sleep last night. And, guessing by the looks of it, not very many people didn't.

Wild and Flora looked the worst. They had gotten to share a tent because apparently, they are both very active sleepers when it comes to limbs in your side and bodies on top of you.

Which is strange considering I heard Wild slept in trees for a good while.

After breakfast–which, I've decided, is better than the castle cook's–we mounted our unnamed horses and started the few hour journey to the fate of Hyrule.

The battle had waged on through the night.

A storm gathered, washing out all sunlight, but failing to extinguish the fires in and around the famous Hyrulean battalion.

We let the horses go just before we entered the Citadel's boundaries. They turned heel and booked it away from the Citadel as soon as we let them go. They didn't seem bothered by the torrential rainfall turning the once stable dirt under their hooves into mud that can steal your footing in one fell swoop.

We continued along the large bridge spanning a deadly drop. A deep valley with a thin bridge meant to stave off attackers.

But it obviously didn't deter the Guardians.

I remember when Father brought me to the Citadel when I was a young, naive little girl.

It hadn't been too long after Mother's death and he was trying to cheer me up, knowing how interested I had always been in Akkala's only line of defense.

He had shown me around the Citadel, introduced me to a few captains, and spent the whole day with me. No meetings, no urgent matters. Just him and his little girl.

Oh, how I miss papa.tle girl.

How I miss Papa.

But today, the Citadel looked nothing like it had when Papa had taken me.

Now, Guardians swarmed it, fires lit up the dark clouds above. The only things I could hear, were the sounds of the storm, no longer as soothing as they usually were, the crackling of fires that seemed to feed off the rain instead of dying from it, the cries of dying men and women, the footsteps of my group, the clanking of metal machines that I, once upon a time, had looked upon with wonder and not horror, and the sound of my own heartbeat, like a drum echoing around my head.

It was all I could do to keep from tripping on my ripped and tattered Prayer Dress. Once the color of the pure and divine, but now covered in blood and grime.

A red beam broke through our group and focused on Link (or Calamity, I guess).

Cal, hearing the beeping sound, turned around, ready to fight the Guardian. But before he could, a blast of ice hit the machine, causing it to fly into a wall and self-destruct.

A mechanical and all too familiar cry towered above the sounds that had previously haunted my every breath.

We turned to the source. A giant mechanical beast stood in the middle of the river, water running down it, its blue lights almost blinding in this darkness. It raised its trunk either in a way of greeting, or as a battle cry.

The faint, faraway silhouettes of a Zora Prince and Princess stood atop it.

I relaxed as the heroes and former Princess cheered at its arrival.

Impa put a hand on my shoulder. I smiled back at the Sheikah. "C'mon Princess, we're not alone."

I exhaled, standing up straight. I nodded. "Yes."