Written in Blood

XXXVII . Noble but stupid

I don't know what went down at that meeting last night, but whatever was said, everyone seems collectively bent on getting the holy Hylia out of here.

Sleep had already been hard to come by, but it's near impossible on the rock hard floor. Even with a layer of blankets there was barely any comfort. Even though the Zoras don't sleep on boulders- made even more obvious by their uppity mannerisms, which they like to call elegance and class- with all of us here, they were bound to run out of suitable beds eventually. And boy... did they.

There's a lot more to Zora's Domain than I ever got to see, their caverns stretch deeper into the mountain side, even under their coveted fountain. It seems to get even danker and damper the further in you go, and I can't help feeling uneasy at the thought of being under that large pond of water, just waiting for the ceiling to collapse and crash down on us and swallow us all up. At least the Zoras could survive. Now that I think about it, Goron City poses a similar accident, except with lava and somehow even more hard rocks.

But the one that really tops it off in terms of nerve wracking and stupidly precarious is Stone Tower. Right side up, there's already the looming Moon to contend with, and the tower does go pretty high up, you'd be flattened to a bloody pulp if there's a misstep. It gets worse when the whole thing flips upside down. I remember how distorted the world became with the sky beneath my feet. One wrong move and it's over. Falling down into the oblivion. Forever. What a load of fun.

I snap out of my thoughts,  thrown back into the thick of things. But the mere thought of the tons of water above me, not to mention the layers of rocks, is still is enough to keep my underlying panic around.

I'm in a narrow stone chamber that's defining characteristic other than dampness is the almost complete lack of light. Sure, there's the one flimsy torch near the entrance, but the light barely wobbles it's way down the wall and to the adjacent one.

It's still enough to see the movement around me though, all the disgruntled soldiers and me are stuck sleeping on the ground and packed together like a bottle of bugs. If only Dohean was here too and then it'd really be a party.

Hushed voices seem to rise up out of the sounds of folding up blankets and packing gear, buzzing around us. I can barely make out the somewhat familiar outlines and silhouettes of those around me, but no sign of Edmund. Either he's not even in here or he's already left. Not that it matters much, we're all leaving today.

I do my best to pull myself out of the groggy haze, forcing myself to stand up. My muscles are sore from a night on the floor, but I ignore the slight ache as I try to consolidate the gear I'd left in a half-hearted pile next to the crumpled blanket I had to use as a bed.

The weirdest realization I make while I haphazardly get my stuff into some sort of order is the fact that I slept in my boots. I don't know exactly why it bothers me the way it does, I guess I just see it as a sign. A sign for what's to come.

Back when I was dungeon delving on the daily, there wasn't time to find somewhere actually suitable for sleep, especially in Termina. Even if I did manage to get in a few hours of rest, it was always last minute and I'd just find the most undisturbed spot and call it a day. That only happened when I was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, so I didn't even bother to take my shield off my back or anything. At that point, having my shield and my sword's cross-guard dig into my neck seemed a fine price for some sleep.

Just the memory of it is enough to get some of my adrenaline pumping in me. I already knew what would happen but the memories of the pain and the exhaustion that I somehow pushed against have made it even heavier on my shoulders. This is so much more than just that now, survival means getting Hyrule back into the hands of its rightful ruler. All of the soldiers have to be willing to give their life to achieve that. An honorable and yet typical death. Hoping for causality is just a waste of time. There's no telling if all the soldiers- or as I like to call them, pawns- get wiped out or not. It's a possibility, as grim as it sounds.