Another Evil (Four Swords Fanfiction)

An Unfortunate and Unexpected Happening

Zelda's Point of View:

     "And you're asleep. What a surprise."

    He did not respond. For he was asleep. I shook my head and sat down on the grass next to him.

     He'd wake up sooner or later, and, for some reason, I knew he hadn't been getting the sleep he needed. Maybe he kept having nightmares, like me, or maybe he had another adventure ahead of him, he always seemed to start them by taking a catnap. I wanted to say I found it humorous, but in reality, every time he closed his eyes, I wondered if the apocalypse was coming, if it was the end, if something was going to happen and Hyrule was going to fall. Generations of kidnapped princesses had a tendency to freak out the royal family, everyone who had taken care of me had instilled this panic, assuring me that one day, those triangles on the back of my hand would mean something and determine all of Hyrule's fate.

     It had been awhile since I'd gone outside, I realized. Sure, I went to the gardens sometimes, back at the castle, but it was nothing compared to actually being outside and I didn't count it, because it was still inside the caste walls and I felt restricted from fully enjoying it. 

     "If you have time to be outside, you have time to rule your kingdom," they reminded me, voices monotone and so similar that it was all just one voice.

     No one truly knew where I was at the moment, but I knew it'd be awhile before they learned of my disappearance. The chancellor was certainly going to be angry if he found out, precisely why he wasn't going to find out. I'd go back though, soon.

     I sighed. I had forgotten how much I liked being outdoors, the gentle breeze, the soft sunlight on my face that I could surprisingly feel through all the makeup I had on. Normally, I had on a lot of makeup, but the amount at the moment was excessive, in an attempt to hide all the bruises all over my body. I wasn't sure how I was getting them, but no one needed to know I had them.

     I finally heard him yawn.

     "Z-Zelda?" He straightened and stretched his arms.

     "I've been waiting for you to wake."

     "Sorry, Princess," he said with a sheepish grin. Sometimes I forgot how much I cared for him and how charming his smiles were. We were no longer two children playing in Hyrule field, we had both grown and had a lot on our plates now, but somethings never changed, like how good hearted Link could be, how he could always make me smile, and how his kindness seemed to radiate off of him, making everything so much better. Hopefully, us being friends was one of those things that wouldn't change.

     My smile disappeared all too quickly. "Link, there's something wrong...and something that's been on my mind for quite a while."

     "Zelda," he said softly. That was all he said but I could hear the reassuring tone in his voice and it made me feel warm.

     "What exactly do you remember from when you were four?"

     Everything seemed to go silent. It felt like the wind stopped blowing, the birds stopped singing, the world stopped spinning. And while the silence was uncomfortable, I let him take his time.

     He finally said, "I assume you mean when I was four people, and not four years old," and gave me a small smile.

     I knew everything that happened to him when he was four years old, I thought with some sort of satisfaction. His mother had been sick and was being treated in the castle by an expert healer--though the efforts were in vain, and she fell even more ill and died, goddesses bless her--and I just so happened to be in the same room as Link, waiting for the same healer because I was sick with an illness that I survived but still makes me quake when I try t remember it. Link didn't know what was happening with his mother, just that her and his father were alone right now in a separate room, and he was scared so he tried to comfort the other scared looking child in the room, me. And, I remembered in great detail, that in all my fear and the chaos of treatments are cures that never seemed to work, I didn't feel quite like myself. Link helped with that, helped me feel like a kid. He'd give me wildflowers and I'd peck him on the cheek, and on my fifth birthday--that I spent with a medic in the same room as me believing I'd die that day and trying to hide that from me, Link had showed up, smiling and quietly giving me another bouquet of wild flowers, a bow I wore in my hair everyday for the longest time, and a necklace with the tri-force on it. It was about then I took notice of the triangles on the back of his hand.

     I got better eventually. The flowers died, the thing that secured the bow to my hair broke but I wore the necklace everyday, it was some sort of good luck charm to me, a source of comfort.

     Thinking of all that with the theory still on my mind made me feel sick.

     I let him take his sweet time thinking of what to say next. Eventually all the urrounding noises seemed to fade back in. 

     "I know you were kidnapped. I drew the Four Sword. There was four of me...and you were saved in the end. Hyrule was okay. I can't...I can't remember any actual details, whenever I try to, I...I don't know.

     "Link, I...I have a theory...and I hate it, I don't want to believe it's true, I..." I swallowed and traced the words "I'm sorry," on my knee. This was my first friend, my best friend. The youngest knight and the best one, brave and kind and bright, one of those people I needed in my life, the type of person everyone should have in their life. "I'm starting to think the sword didn't divide you into four, it just brought four reincarnations of past heroes from...somewhere. And I think when you drew the sword, it made you swap places; you went to that somewhere, and they came to Hyrule, with...all of your memories."

     He was silent. "Meaning...when they're here, I'm not?"

    "They are you, in a sense. They're reincarnations of the hero, just like you, you...just...just..."

     "Haven't been a hero," he said. "I'm not a hero."

     "Worst of all...something bad is coming...I worry you might have to draw the Four Sword again, and..." I paused. Because so long as those four existed, he didn't, did he? Maybe they were him in a sense, but I didn't want Link in a sense.

     "Zelda," he said softly. "If drawing the sword means you and Hyrule won't be in danger, then I'll do it. I'd trade my life for yours, and if it's for you, four others and all of Hyrule, I'll willingly do it."

     "I'm sorry," I said. "I pray we're wrong. I can't imagine a life without you."

     "Well--"

     The sky darkened. Grey storm clouds rolled in and covered the sun. I think the grass started dying. And rising out of the ground was...

     Monsters. Skeletal, small looking monsters, with red, long claws and glowing red eyes in their sockets. 

     "Wh-What?" We both froze for a minute and I felt Link grab my hand and pull me away when one started creeping towards us, claws raking the air where I had previously been standing.  I stared in horror at it; I hadn't thought to bring the bow that had been given to all of my ancestors, the one they always had on them so they could protect themselves, no, I didn't have any freaking common sense, why didn't I bring my bow?

     Link slashed at them with his sword and a monster crumbled, a few chunks of bone, dust, and then nothing. But more started appearing, surrounding us. They stopped moving when they were just a short distance away, and stared briefly, as if...they were waiting for something.

     They weren't just skeletal looking, they seemed to be actual skeletons, like they were corpses entering the final phase of their decay, bones still somehow clinging together. I looked in one's glowing sockets and swore I saw death staring back.

     They didn't even seem to be adults, which quickly turned my horror and fear into something similar to pity. Maybe they had died young. My pity ran out when they started moving again...closer...closer...closer.

     "Link...?" He didn't say anything in response. I looked over at him and blacked out.