Tears of a Broken Kingdom

Chapter One ~ He would be strong

Tears of a Broken Kingdom

dedicated to my friend
LegendOfBink

>*<

      "You're so much better without that voice of yours." The gerudo sneered, watching the blood drip off the knife.

Despite a little protest she'd managed a pretty clean cut. She took his disembodied tongue and threw it into the flames, watching as the fire licked around it as it slowly crumpled into ash.

He watched her with unfocused eyes, feeling the agonizing pain erupt from his mouth. Blood was pooling in his mouth, gushing out of the gash where his tongue used to be. It took all his willpower to not try and cry out in pain, now and while she was cutting. The cut stung from the sharp blade and he noticed her malicious grin as she watched the ash in the flames.

He kept staring at her, trying to ignore the pain. At least staring at her was easier than his family. At least with the gerudo he felt nothing but pain because of her actions. The gerudo warrior wiped her knife off on her pants and slipped it into a sheath on her belt.

She walked over toward the edge of the cell, tapping her fingers methodically on the bars.

"You two enjoying the show?"

There was a muffled cry for a response. He fought the urge to not look away, and stopped trying to jerk his head away when he met Zelda's gaze. He couldn't say anything to her, the cutting rendering him mute, and besides, he wouldn't have known what to say anyway.

Her eyes were full of tears, the torchlight reflecting off of them. He knew that her crying was his fault. She was huddled on the stone floor, holding their son with his head on her shoulder, protecting him.

Zelda's mouth opened slightly, as if she had something to say but decided against it. Probably for the best, he thought, it wouldn't be wise to say it around enemies. But it felt wrong to call the Gerudo enemies, after everything that had happened, Nabooru as the Sage of Spirit had helped begin to mend the rift between them and the rest of Hyrule. But it was as if it was back to how it was before.

Her mouth closed, and she stared at him with the tears still swimming in her eyes, resting her cheek on their son's head. He hopelessly wished for the bars to disappear so he could wipe her tears away. It made his heart hurt seeing her so distraught over him.

Zel please don't cry for me. He thought, wishing he could still talk to her so he could try and comfort her. But it made perfect sense for them to get the tongue gone first. A talking victim just made it worse.

Now all he had was a mutilated mouth that was filling with blood, the metallic smell overwhelming. He coughed as much of the blood up as he could, feeling his head start to throb. He avoided looking down at the red staining the stone floor, and he tried to ignore the quiet sobs from the other side of the room, but to no avail.

There was the sound of new footsteps entering his cell, and he turned his head to face her.
She was easily recognizable from all the other Gerudo, with her higher ranked outfit, but he could have been able to tell anyway. She proudly marched into the cell, hands on her hips, a large grin painted her face.

"Why hello Link," She said with a overly-friendly voice, especially concerning the circumstances.

He stared at her, unable to say anything even though he had a lot to say to her. He tried to wipe some of the blood away from his mouth.

"Not in the mood to say hi back?" Nabooru said as a taunt, he knew for a fact she had known about the dismemberment.
Heck, she had probably organized the whole thing too.

He turned his eyes to the floor, wishing he could just tell her to get on with whatever she had come in to do.
She didn't say a word after that, still smiling that grin, the flames shining off the gems in her proud fiery red ponytail.

Silently motioning to the guard beside her, she was handed a whip, dark brown with gerudo script on the handle.

Her smile turned deadly and her eyes flashed as she strode across the small cell to him, flicking her wrist and sending the whip to the floor, practicing.

"Get down on all fours." Nabooru commanded to him, and he obeyed, sadly casting a glance to Zelda.

Without a warning the first lashing whipped through the air and onto his exposed back- they'd taken off his tunic when they first locked him up, the leather whip cracking down onto his skin that stung in protest.

He bit his lip, trying to keep his breathing steady and his countenance calm. But his heart was hammering in his chest and he had to spit out more blood onto the floor.

He felt so dehumanized, on all fours and getting whipped like an animal.
He had no idea what had caused the Gerudo to go back to their old ways, but he knew it had something to with Ganondorf, even though the King of Thieves had been publicly executed at the castle years ago.

The flogging went on and on and he eventually lost count, his brain muddled with the biting pain of the leather whip, feeling his skin break and begin to bleed.

They hit some of the same spots multiple times, each time causing a sharp pain to flare out again and again, causing stars to burn into his vision.
He begin to feel lightheaded with blood loss, biting his lip harder to avoid losing consciousness. He would not.
He had to be strong, for his sake and for the sake of his family and the rest of Hyrule.

He felt his lip beginning to bleed from his biting but the pain was meager compared to the lashing so he just kept holding down any noise of pain.
Eventually the lashing stopped, his back broken with lashes, blood pooling from the cuts.

He slowly went into a sitting position, sweat had stuck his hair to the back of his neck and his forehead.

Nabooru handed the whip back to the guard, still grinning inhumanly.
Looking at her now, even his pain-numbed brain could pinpoint just how weird she was acting. It was almost like she was being brainwashed.

"I'm not done yet. One more thing for your back." Nabooru said sneering.

He remained still, trying to calm his already shaken nerves. Nabooru- or whoever was actually behind all this, would get more satisfaction knowing how much he was in pain- physically and mentally.

They may have broken him physically, from his tongue to the multitude of scratches he had acquired in the short amount of time, but he would do all in his power to remain as strong as possible. He knew he'd die here, and he wanted to die valiantly for his country, as he was willing to do in the past.
But, every time he thought of death he felt a tiny sense of panic creeping in, what would happen to his family if he died? The sages?

He was violently ripped from his thoughts as a searing pain erupted from his back, burning like he was on fire.

His bit his lip hard, drawing blood, biting harder.

He could feel the grains of salt and smell the lemon juice that they were letting soak into his wounds, burning his back, piercing like knives.

>*<

A/N ~ Ok.... so... what did y'all think? This is my first Zelda fanfic. I've been holding back from writing one from a year or two.
... It's not like a lot of other Zelda fics I've read, but I wanted to write something dark and I guess something different from other fics, I prefer writing tragedies over fluff I guess 'XD. Please give me your feedback!
I'm posting the first chapter first, sorta like a pilot for a TV show, and then I'll work on writing the rest of this mess.

Thank you for reading!