Breath of the Wild: Link and Friends

Chapter 45

(Sorry about the long gap between chapters)

Kenton decided that they were going to the Spring of Power first, so he dragged Zalie with him. But she had an unfortunate condition.
"Fine, but I want to see your home. The stable where you're from," Zalie said.
He sighed. "Do we have to? I don't exactly have great memories of it."
"Well, I wouldn't know because I have yet to hear to full story," Zalie replied.
"Ok, ok. It's just a stable though. It looks like all the others," Kenton mumbled. Perhaps it would be good for him so visit his parents graves. It wasn't something he'd done recently.
But it was good to walk for once, especially in Akkala. It'd been so long—he'd forgotten how much he missed it. The miles of open fields and clusters of autumn colored trees. Akkala had a privacy to it. Even though it was open, it just seemed so far away from the rest of Hyrule because of the mountains and cliffs blocking it off.
Zalie held his hand as they strolled along the path, a comfort to him with his resurfacing memories.
"Are you sure we'll be back by dark? Maybe we should have taken a horse," Zalie said, brow crinkled in worry.
"I'm confident we will. Plus, your cousins probably won't mind us being out long," Kenton replied, squeezing her hand.
"Maybe. Elyza tends to worry though," Zalie noted.
"Yeah," Kenton agreed. They walked for a little while silently, admiring the landscape.
As they left Shadow Pass—a rather ominous name for a pretty peaceful forest, aside from a bokoblin camp they passed—Kenton steered Zalie towards the spring. The entrance was in the Ordorac Quarry, and there were a few flying guardians patrolling it. Luckily, both of them had brought their weapons. They'd learned their lesson in the Gerudo Desert.
But they wanted to avoid fighting the guardians if they could so they snuck quietly through, dodging the guardians. They walk quietly into the hallway that led to the spring and froze immediately when they saw who was in front of them.
It was Link.
——haha, skipping over to the twins——
Elyza strung an arrow on her bow as she saw a traveler being attacked by a moblin on a broken bridge. Elijah was beside her.
She let go and the arrow struck its head—not killing it—but it slumped forward and fell off the bridge and ran over the beleaguered traveler.
"Thank you for helping me. I bit off more than I could chew there," the traveler said.
"No problem, but what're you doing up here? It's crawling with monsters and guardians," Elyza said. Elijah gave her a look that was clearly exasperated. She ignored it.
"Oh. Well, that's the Akkala Citadel Ruins," he explained, pointing up across the broken bridge. "Long ago, at the peak of Hyrule's power, they built a fortress to protect Akkala. It was said to be unassailable, but during the great Calamity, Hyrule Castle fell...the army had no royalty to lead them. With no other choice, they fell back to this citadel to make their last stand. Sadly, a concentrated assault from the out-of-control guardians spelled the end for this fortress too. In a real sense, the kingdom of Hyrule met its doom here.
"I found out my own kin died in that battle, so I came to at least pray at the spot where they fell," the traveler continued. "But it turns out the old guardians are still active, so this is as far as I go. I've never heard of anyone escaping a guardian's sights, at least. You two don't look reckless enough to chance it, but be on your guard in these hills all the same." He turned back to the citadel.
Elyza turned around and walked away from the broken bridge—since they obviously couldn't cross it. Luckily, there was another way over to the citadel.
Elijah followed Elyza reluctantly as she slipped passed a sitting bokoblin and onto the stairs, sneaking over to the entrance though it could hardly be called that. Elyza sighed. She thought there might have been some opening but it was entirely covered in dirt. The twins pressed themselves against the wall as a flying guardian fly overhead, its red spotlight on the ground a few feet in front of them. Luckily it flew back the way it came.
Elyza got off the wall and dug at the dirt. It was unrealistic that she could get inside of the citadel liked she'd originally hoped. But maybe if she moved it enough she could see inside.
"Elyza, what are you doing?" Elijah asked quietly. She raised an eyebrow at him. She didn't think that guardians could hear—considering they were machines.
"Well, I was hoping to get inside the citadel," Elyza replied normally.
"So that you could see what? Decayed corpses?" Elijah rolled his eyes. "Lovely."
Elyza stopped shoveling dirt. He was right. Of course. She sighed and wiped her hands on her trousers. "Fine. Up we go then."
It looked like Elijah regretted speaking up now. He obviously had wanted to avoid a dance with death today. Too bad for him.
——ok, ok, back to our lovely couple——
Kenton watched silently. Link was obviously in his memory. He looked over at Zalie questioningly. Should they say hi?
Zalie motioned for him to wait so he did, backing up a little so Link wouldn't see them if he happened to turn around.
After his memory ended, Link sagged down to the ground, using the Master Sword to steady him. Zalie took a step forward at his obvious distress but Kenton held her back. Link probably didn't want anyone to see him like he was.
Link shook himself visibly and forced himself back to his feet. He looked up at the serene statue in front of him.
"I don't understand. I'm missing so much," Link said to the statue, his voice echoing and almost accusing. "Zelda didn't deserve that. Why didn't you give her that sacred power? What happened? Why...?" He looked down at his clenched fists. "Why did I have to lose everything I ever knew?"
Kenton didn't know what answers Link expected from the Goddess but the two of them clearly should have left. Link had separated from them for a reason. Zalie and Kenton backed into the long hallway to at least get out of plain view if Link turned, which seemed likely. But his foot accidentally scraped the rock as he and Zalie hid.
Link spun at the noise. "Who's there?"
Zalie looked at Kenton. Kenton shook his head. Don't respond. She nodded, frowning.
Kenton peeked out ever so slightly. Link shook his head and pulled out his Sheikah Slate and disappeared in rising blue light. He stepped out and Zalie joined him. He looked at her.
"I suspect that we should never mention to Link we saw that," Kenton said.
Zalie looked conflicted but nodded. She took a deep breath, and put her bright smile back on her face. "Alright, let's see this spring.
Kenton smiled and grabbed her hand and they walked back down the hallway again. Zalie looked around, admiring the small waterfalls around them.
"It's beautiful," she said.
Kenton nodded. "My mom took me here years ago. It was one of her favorite places to go."
Zalie slipped her boots off and rolled up her pants so she could step into the water while remaining relatively dry. Kenton followed suit and joined her as she crossed the spring. The water was pretty cold, like it had come from a mountain spring. He was pretty sure that his feet would be numb if he stayed too long.
Zalie walked behind the statue, and climbed up the wall of the spring, next to a waterfall. She sat down with her legs dangling. Kenton joined her.
"So, I know how you lost your dad, but what about your mom?" Zalie asked.
Kenton looked down, but replied. "If you can imagine, my mom was really adventurous and she liked to challenge herself. She always said it made life interesting. It varied, but a lot of times she battled monsters and stuff. Not super far from here, there's a lynel."
Zalie nodded, and Kenton remembered that Link had fought one once.
"They don't usually attack people unless you get too close or are threatening, but my mom decided she wanted to kill it. But, a lynel isn't exactly a weak creature and she was wounded pretty badly. My dad had tried to stop her but didn't get there in time. She had to have her leg amputated and it sucked the life out of my mom to not be able to walk anymore, and her leg got infected. She got really sick and died from it and my dad died a couple months later of suicidal grief," Kenton finished. He took a deep breath but couldn't force out a reassuring smile. Akkala held a lot of memories for him, and Kenton wasn't sure how he felt.
Zalie put her arms around his waist, hugging him. "Sorry that I dragged up bad memories."
"Nah, it's not really you. It's just Akkala. I probably would've brought it up anyway," Kenton said. He sighed but smiled anyway. "Oddly enough, it doesn't hurt like you'd think to see everything from my childhood. I just remember the good mostly."
Zalie smiled. "I'm glad. Should we go?"
"Yeah probably. I actually want to stop by the stable now. See how much has changed," Kenton said.
"Right, well let's go."
——back to the twins——
Elyza took an unconventional route to the top to appease Elijah. They just climbed straight up to avoid fighting. She figured they would probably run into a fight anyway.
When they reached an outcropping ledge, they rested up a bit when Elyza noticed a discarded weapon near her feet. She nudged it.
"This place is really sad," Elijah said. "To think that Hyrule, that great kingdom, lost everything here is horrible. The Calamity destroyed so much. Can we really ever rebuild?"
Elyza hoped so. If they managed to defeat Ganon in the first place. "We will. Somehow."
"Where are we actually going anyway?" Elijah asked.
"Uh...the top," Elyza replied. He sighed. "C'mon." She started climbing again, and Elijah followed, grumbling to himself.
The reached the top eventually, revealing ruins covered in Malice. (I think that's what it's called?) Lovely. Well, as long as they didn't step in it, they'd be fine. Elyza got out her bow, casually stringing an arrow. There was bound to be monsters up her.e Elijah unsheathed his own weapon.
Unfortunately, they had climbed next to a guardian Elyza had thought was dead but it turned out it was still active and it sputtered to life and immediately targeted Elyza.
Great.
She shot it in the eye and it faltered so Elijah started slamming his broadsword into the guardian. Elyza kept nailing it in the eye and it exploded in no time. She shoved the spare parts in her pack. They had to come in handy sometime right?
Elyza turned to go explore the ruins. They had to kill a few bokoblins in their explorations, but it was manageable. They had to kill some of the Malice to get inside the ruins but it was fine.
She saw the old papers and books left from when the citadel had been attacked, but most of it had really suffered from the exposure to the elements. The writings and pictures were impossible to decipher. Maybe it had been a waste to come up here.
Elijah was standing by the edge, looking out at the rest of Akkala. Elyza joined him. Clouds rumbled ominously in the distance. It sounded like a thunderstorm was on its way.
But she ignored it for now, checking out the view.
Akkala was a lot of open fields, but also clusters of fall colored forest. She saw a big lake with a big island in the middle as well as a few cascading waterfalls. She also saw a distant stable as well as a funky looking lighthouse, or what could have been a lighthouse. Oddly enough, it reminded her of the tech lab in Hateno. Elyza vaguely remembered something Purah had said—that there was another tech lab or at least something about a guy named Robbie. Perhaps this was where he was?
Elyza decided she was gonna find out. She grabbed her brother and they made their way back down the citadel, and grabbed their horses so they could make quick progress to the other stable.
——I'm jumping around a lot——
Kenton found himself sort of nervous as he reached his old home. Which was totally unlike him and didn't make any sense at all. Rudi was the one in charge of the stable...
Zalie squeezed his hand as Kenton reached the front desk. Rudi looked very similar, just a little older. He smiled when Kenton came into view, probably thinking him another merchant or something.
Rudi started when he got a good look at Kenton. He stared in disbelief. "Is that...you? Kenton?"
Kenton smiled weakly. "Yeah. It is. Been a while."
"You're so much older! You've grown into a man," Rudi said. He came around to give Kenton a big bear hug. Zalie had politely stepped back to watch.
Kenton chuckled. "Yeah. I was only 10 or 11 when I left. I'm sixteen now. Five years make a difference. How is everything?"
"Good. Business is normal. Not much has changed around here," Rudi answered. "Most of us are still here, except for a few new faces. Hoz is around somewhere."
"Thanks. I'll say hi. I wanted to visit my parent's graves. Still around I assume?"
"Ah, yes. Of course. It's good to see you. You look startlingly like your father, you know. He'd be proud to see such a fine young man," Rudi said, wistful.
Kenton smiled, nodding. "I hope so. Anyway, I'm gonna go, but it's nice to see this place again."
Rudi nodded. He let Kenton go and went back around the desk. Kenton waved for Zalie to come with him and he walked silently to where his parents graves were.
He sat down in front of them once he reached them. Zalie sat next to him, a comforting presence.
"Well, Mom, Dad, I'm about to go save Hyrule with my friends. It's been a real crazy adventure," Kenton said quietly to them. "I wish you were still around but...if you were, I wouldn't have met my friends. I'll make sure to come visit more often. I hope you really are proud of me. I've learned a lot lately. I'll bring 'Mae next time. She's gotten so big. You wouldn't even recognize her. I'll make sure she grows up right. Like you raised me." He didn't know what else to say. But he didn't really need to. They knew.
After a while, the sky was rumbling and it was time for them to get to shelter. It was getting late though and they had to get back to Central Hyrule tomorrow. Link would be waiting. And so was Ganon.
But he had one thing he wanted to do first. And he suspected it might help with saving Hyrule.