Consciousness crept in—the haze of a mind reluctant to awake. Weight crushed Adara's chest. Breathing came slowly, painfully. The world trembled and she couldn't tell if it was actually the ground or the throes of a dying body. She lifted a heavy, numb arm to the weight of the wooden shaft protruding from her breast, her decimated fingers unable to grasp properly. Warm, sticky blood drenched what remained of her charred tunic, matting it to the wound. Her blackened and blistered skin screamed as she moved, though her scorched lungs couldn't.
The ground rumbled without ceasing. She fluttered her eyes to see a world of blur. As she blinked some focus returned. Ash and fire spewed into a sky billowing with black clouds. Slowly the memories of the final two Adaras at the top of the mountain entered her mind. Demise had returned. They had fought for the fate of the world. They had failed.
She had failed.
A figure of brilliant white approached. She rolled her head to the side, struggling to adjust her eyes. Only when he knelt and leaned close could she make out his features.
He wasn't human. His kind face studied her with a broken-heartedness she had seldom seen from others. His golden eyes almost glowed. He had soft, lion-like features, with a fat, stubby nose, and a mouth protruding slightly. A thin layer of silver fur covered his face, and a thick mane of silver hair flowed from the top of his head, around his neck, and came to a point in the center of his shirtless chest.
She tried to speak, but he shushed her like a grandfather. "Quiet now," he said in a deep bass voice full of compassion, somehow cutting through the rumble of the mountain and the thunder in the sky. "For now, allow me to be your protector."
"Who are you?" she croaked.
He reached out with muscular arms and, for the first time, she noticed the majestic horse-like body kneeling on the rock behind his torso. The hair on his flank gleamed bright sliver like his mane, immaculate and without blemish. As his hands approached, reaching to slide beneath her body, she caught glimpse of a triad of golden triangles on the back of one - the bottom left triangle glowing brighter than the others. As it neared, the golden triangles on her own blackened and shriveled hand tingled. Two pieces of the Triforce calling to each other.
He eased his arms beneath her. The slightest movement sent waves of pain through her chest and ripples of fire across her skin. She whimpered.
"Easy now," he soothed. "I will take you someplace safe and will help return you to health. I have foreseen it."
As he cradled her in his strong arms, he studied the faraway land beyond the mountain as if searching for something. Having found it, he pulled her close.
"Who are you?" she croaked a second time.
He gazed down at her affectionately, though she recognized a lethal fortitude behind his eyes — a tempest collared and leashed. "I was once the monster you called Rangtar." He looked back into the distance. "The monster is dead. I am remade."
With a quickening in her stomach as if falling, they vanished from the mountainside.
-----------------------------
END OF SEASON 3
-----------------------------
Thank you for reading!
The Legend of Zelda: The Tainted Blade will CONCLUDE with Season 4 - COMING IN 2021!
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY, PLEASE LIKE, COMMENT, AND FOLLOW
FOLLOW OLIVER D. KING ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MORE UPDATES
www.facebook.com/oliverdkingauthor
www.instagram.com/oliverdkingauthor
www.twitter.com/oliverdking1
www.OliverDKing.com
YOU ARE READING
The Legend of Zelda - The Tainted Blade (Season 3)
FantasyIt's been three hundred years since Calamity Ganon was defeated and two hundred and eighty years since the Great Hyrule Civil War. Now an ancient secret, that once tore the land apart, is rediscovered. Will there be another war? Or will the fracture...
