The Cave Beast | Legend of Zelda FF | ENG

4 ~ The Cave

"Are we just going to go in there?", I asked Link cautiously when he just shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess," he put in as he looked toward the cave again. "We should just try it."
I nodded and then pointed to the footprints.
"But we have to be careful, whatever is lurking in there is definitely huge."

Link agreed with me and then stood up. Briefly, he took a breath, as if he wanted to say something. I looked at him intently as he just shook his head and then blushed slightly before reaching for my hand. I felt my cheeks blush as I looked away for a moment and took one deep breath.

There was no way I was going to let Link distract me now. We were traveling for our country; not for us. As much as I would like it to be otherwise.

I shook my head for a moment in clarification as I looked back to Link. Almost simultaneously, we nodded as I stifled a giggle. Link, however, remained serious and looked toward the dark cave entrance.
"Let's go then."

Link quickly retrieved a torch from his pocket and lit it before handing it to me. He then lit another torch for himself as well, after which he took my hand again and walked with me to the entrance of the cave.

Together we entered the cave. It was a little creepy, because the relatively large entrance led into an even larger room. Carefully, I passed my torch along the stone wall as I could make out a few paintings. I quickly brought it to Link's attention as he took a closer look.
"Like a battle..." it escaped Link as his hand slowly slid over the wall painting. "But these are not the tribes of Hyrule..."

Link was right, this had to be an unknown folk. But which people would that be? We've explored so much in Hyrule, really we should know everything, right? Especially through the Sheikah, we knew many ancient legends and were able to excavate the Divine Beasts back then.... But those figures there on the wall were unknown to me.

Link was following the mural attentively when suddenly I heard stones falling to the ground beneath our feet.
I immediately grabbed Link by the arm and pulled him over to me.
"Hey!" he protested, when all he could do was look into my wide-open eyes as it suddenly shook behind him.
He turned around immediately and all we could do was watch as the ground began to crumble beneath our feet.
"Watch out!" shouted Link and was about to grab my arm when I felt the ground break away from under my feet and I fell into the depths.
"Link!" was all I could scream, and I reached out my hand for him.
Quickly, Link threw himself to the ground and grabbed my hand. I felt his fingertips slide through my hand and I could no longer hold on to him.

Panic arose in me and I prepared myself for my end. But it couldn't end like this! We had just defeated the Calamity, our lives were just about to bloom again.... We had fought for a hundred fucking years, just for this time! And now? Now I was falling to my assured death!

How could this happen?

I had the time to take another deep breath as I closed my tear-filled eyes and all the memories played out in the front of my mind's eye. The wind pulled through my long hair, sending me tumbling down faster and faster. The abyss was deep, but suddenly I felt the hard ground against my back. It cracked once and suddenly everything was black.

Cautiously, I opened my eyes as I found myself in shallow water. Slowly I stood up and looked around. All around me, all I could see was this shallow body of water and when I looked up, all I saw was clear sky.
"Where am I...", I whispered more to myself than to anyone else, when suddenly a voice rang out.

"I will heal you..."

Immediately, I turned in the direction of the voice.
"Hello?", I called out cautiously as I could detect footprints in the water.
A little afraid, I backed away, because nothing else was visible besides the footprints.
"Who are you?", I now called out in a shaky voice, when all I heard was the voice again.