Chronicles of Hyrule Volume I

HYRULE SHATTERED

ERA: Hero of Hyrule (1,000 years after the Upheaval)

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hyrule had fallen into darkness. Adrim had overthrown his sister, Queen Riva. Riva escaped to Gerudo Town. It was the one place in Hyrule that Adrim could not follow her into. Adrim's bloodline continued to grow, and a millennia later his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, King Zane was on the throne. His entire bloodline was bad, but Zane was the worst of them all. He was completely dedicated to tracking down Queen Riva's descendant and would not stop at anything to keep his throne. My name is Link, and this is my story.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slowly sat up in bed. I was inside my house in Kakariko Village. I walked over to a small rack and grabbed my customized Sheikah armor. The purple uniform was indistinguishable from the rest of the warriors, with gold shoulder guards and a scarf, but I had replaced the sandals with boots and usually kept the scarf down so as not to cover my face. I grabbed my Eightfold Blade, sliding the curved weapon into its sheath. I grabbed a Shield of the Mind's Eye, clipping it into place on my back. The Sheikah warriors patrolled the outside of Kakariko Village to stop Zane's soldiers from subjugating the people inside, and we were good at our job. The Sheikah warriors had brought the Hero of the Wild to the Shrine of Resurrection when he was killed by the Guardians during the Calamity, and they had fought against armies of monsters during the Upheaval. I strode out the door and down the damp grass along the road through Kakariko Village. I walked over to the meeting point and checked the map. A group of Sheikah warriors were going to be watching the road from the Dueling Peaks. We marched through the forests surrounding the village until we reached the road. We crouched in the underbrush. In front of us was a road twisting against a mountainside, the edge dropping away onto a wide field. Ruins dotted the field, and Fort Hateno was in the distance. It was cloudy, but there wasn't any wind, and it was dry, which was lucky. Something slowly climbed the hill. A carriage.

"Should we use Muddle Buds?" one person asked. Muddle Buds were dangerous. They burst into a cloud of spores when hit, and if you breathed them in, they would cause you to go crazy and attack your own side.

"We can." I said. We all reached down and pulled our scarves over our mouths. The fabric would function as a filter, stopping us from breathing in the spores. The carriage came closer. Soldiers were surrounding it. There were bars across the windows. It might be a prisoner carriage.

"No Muddle Buds." I said "Use Puffshrooms." Puffshrooms would create a large cloud of smoke when hit. The smoke was hard to breathe, but it wasn't poisonous. Taron through the Puffshroom. They hit the carriage, causing confusion.

"I can't see a thing!" one soldier coughed. We ran down the hill and into the thick smoke. I paused behind one guard. I tossed my sword up into the air, catching it with reverse grip. I then proceeded to slam the blade into the soldier's back. They slumped over, falling in a limp pile on the ground. I heard two more thunks as the rest of the guard were dealt with in a similar manner.

"This is easy!" said Halon, one of the newer Sheikah warriors. I smacked my forehead. Almost immediately, a gust of wind blew the cloud away. We turned to see a group of the Royal Guard standing in front of us. Whatever is in the carriage must be valuable.

"Looks like we'll be getting into a fight after all." I said. I picked up a shield, spinning around and throwing at one of the guards. It shattered against them, knocking them over. I ran forward, slashing low. My sword clashed against the guard's Royal Broadsword. I pushed, sending them tumbling backward. They reached for their fallen sword, but I kicked it over the edge of the cliff. They stood up, and I slashed across their stomach. They fell to the ground, rolling back down the hill. Two more guards stood at the top of the hill, fighting against each other. Halon was wounded, clutching his arm where a broadsword had left a deep gouge in his upper arm. I ran across the dry grass, racing toward the other guards. The Muddle Bud was wearing off. I swung at their head, but they raised a golden blade to intercept the strike. The other guard circled around behind me. They swung at my side, but I raised my shield and deflected the attack. The first guard swung from below. I jumped over their head, hitting them across the back with my shield. They tumbled toward the edge of the cliff, but at the last moment they rammed their sword into a patch of exposed earth, rare among the mountains, and clutched the hilt while dangling above the mist-filled abyss. The other Royal Guard ran over to try to pull his ally up, but as I advanced, he was forced to defend himself. I swung my Eightfold Blade at his side, and he brought his sword down to deflect. We fought back and forth, our feet scrabbling against the rocky surface, dislodging pebbles with every step. The rock tumbled downward into the cavernous river below. I could hear it rushing as we fought. Suddenly, there was a scream. The sword that the Royal Guard had used to hold on had cut through the soil. It came to a stop against a rock, but it was pointed in a way that it was impossible to grab onto. The guard's fingers slipped, and he tumbled downward, landing with a splat on the river below. I forced the guard I was fighting toward the carriage, but he began to push me toward the cliff. I jumped over his head and landed on the hill, forcing him to come uphill to attack me. An arrow sprouted from the back of his neck. Taron had fired an arrow from his Phrenic Bow into the base of the skull. He threw a small pulsing red cube toward the carriage. Whatever it was carrying, they didn't want anybody to know about it.