Hero by Heart

Chapter 28

Link woke with an uneasy feeling. He didn't open his eyes yet, as he tried to find the source of his discomfort. Then it started to come back to him.
The fight. All the enemies. There had been too many.
He remembered how he had tried to fight them all, only to clear the path, to find his way back to Zelda. He felt like he needed to protect her. It was his one and only job.
Had he failed? He didn't know. He couldn't remember what had happened. How had it ended?
As he started to pay more attention to his direct surroundings, he noticed the cold, hard floor pressing up to his left side and felt the pressure of something around his ankles and chest, tying his limbs together.
He slowly opened his eyes, peering through his lashes and finding that it was extremely dark. There seemed to be a fire burning in the distance. It made that he could see a row of bars right in front of him, telling him he was in some sort of cell.

After very carefully shuffling around he felt a wall at his back, implying he was in the corner of the room. There was not a single sound to be heard, so Link was quite certain he was alone.
He started to wiggle his fingers, with his hands tied to his chest, feeling a little bit of relief. Minutes passed, but he didn't give up, eventually freeing one hand and thus another. With both hands free it was easy getting the rope around his ankles loose.
Now that he could move freely, Link started to search around the cell. It wasn't big, but it was damaged. That was probably a remainder of the Great Calamity, for Link was pretty sure that he was inside the Akkala Citadel.
     There was rubble on the ground, parts of the wall that had crumbled, and a few of the iron bars were bent.
     Link tried to pull at them, to broaden the gap, but they wouldn't budge. Just as he was about to try harder, he saw the lights shifting, indicating that a torch was approaching.
     He quickly scrambled back to the corner and loosely tied the ropes around him again, lying down and peering through his eyelashes.
     A figure appeared just behind the bars, a torch in his hand. In the dark it was impossible to recognize, but Link was certain that it was no Bokoblin or Moblin. This looked like a human.
     The person watched him for about a minute and then, seemingly satisfied that he was still tied up and unconcious, turned and left.
     Link waited a good five minutes and then got up again, continuing his investigation of the bars and walls, trying to find a way out.
     This close to the bars he could see further into the corridor behind. It wasn't very long, he could see it ending in a solid wall. The other side went further than he could see, but it was obvious that there was a lightsource at the end of it.
     Link tried every bar and shook it, but none of them gave in. How was he going to get out of here?
     Surprising even himself, he suddenly thought of trying the walls. The Citadel was in ruins. Chances were this was the most usable cell in the block, but most usable didn't necessarily mean perfect. It had to have suffered more damage than he could see.
     So he went around the room once more, pushing and pulling at every little crack or jut.
     Eventually he put his fingers in a crack low in the wall where the iron bars were fastened and pulled out a whole chunk of loose pebbles.
     They tumbled around his feet, causing a small avalanche of dust and earth, as the hole grew bigger.
     The sound made Link jump, for a guard at the end of the corridor might have heard. To be sure her retreated to his corner and laid down, this time facing the wall.
     Not too much after he indeed heard the shuffling of feet and saw the shimmer of torchlight reflected on the wall, but whoever it was, he didn't come in.
     He seemed to wait to hear the sound again, probably watching Link closely, but eventually the shuffling sounds retreated again. He most likely wrote it off on Link turning over in his sleeping or unconscious state.
     As soon as he deemed it safe, Link got up and crawled back towards the corner at the front of his cell, where the bars were fastened in the right wall.
     That wall made a little angle at the end, giving a broader base for the iron bars. But right now, that was exactly what offered Link his escape.
     Painfully slow he clawed out more of the rock and dust, until there was a big gap in the side of the wall and a small pile in the corner at his feet.
      Link had carefully kept most of the rubble in the dark corner that would probably not be seen by the guard, just in case he would come back.
      Now there was quite a gap between the wall and the first vertical bar, which he might be able to crawl through. There were some horizontal bars too, but spaced more widely, and he thought he could fit underneath the bottom one.
     All in all the hole was not big, but luckily neither was Link. He would need to get his head through, and hopefully then the rest would be easy.
     Very slowly he started to pry his head through the gap, scraping past jagged rocks but ignoring the pain.
     Eventually he got far enough to turn his head and look down the corridor, where he could see the fire that was the source of the light.
     Next to the fire he could see two shapes, meaning two guards. Luckily they were looking into the fire, making it impossible for them to see him in the dark corridor, even if they did look his way.
     Link carefully squirmed through the hole, landing on his hands and knees at the other side.
     He crawled back a little, to the darkest corner he could find, where he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts.
     Wiping his hands on his breeches, he wondered where they would keep his gear. Apart from the clothes on his body they had taken everything off of him.
     He then got up into crouching position and searched around on the floor, hoping to find something to use as a weapon.
     With a big rock in his hand he managed to get behind one of the guards, staying just out of the light circle.
     Then, in a quick succession of movements, he smashed him on the head, making him topple over without a sound.
     Link quickly jumped back into the darkness and circled around the fire, as the second guard lept up and looked around in alarm, reaching for his weapon.
     After the bright light from the fire he could barely see in the dark, making him squint as he tried to follow Links vague shape, moving like a shadow.
     Before the guard had fully gotten him into view, Link jumped out of the dark and smacked him on the jaw, still clutching the rock to give him extra strength.
     He saw the eyes of the guard clearly in the dark, as they widened and the white reflected the firelight. Then they turned away and he fell backwards, landing with a dull thud on the dusty ground.
     Link looked at the guards, but couldn't quite place them. They had the build of Sheikah, or more likely, Yiga, and wore the typical black and red colors, but that was where the comparison ended. They lacked the typical Yiga weapons and their clothing didn't match, apart from the color. What was standing out most, was their lack of masks. Yiga never came out without them. So what were they?
     Link quickly searched them, but found nothing of worth, apart from their weapons. One wore a spear and a knife, the other a sword and shield. Link took the knife of the first and the short broadsword of the second, before leaving them and continuing towards what he hoped was the exit. He would have to find out more about them later. Once he was free.
     When he reached the end of the corridor, Link turned the corner and walked through the opening where there had once been a wooden door, now completely rotten away. He slowly went up the couple of steps there, making sure not to make a single sound.
     He came out in a long corridor, with multiple doorways left and right. Some of those doorways did still have wooden doors in them, but they were clearly damaged. The entire building seemed to have gone through hell, worse than Link had experienced in Hyrule Castle.

The eerie silence was interrupted by what he recognized as the cackling of a group of Bokoblins, having a camp somewhere. Now that Link payed close attention he could see the firelight reflecting on the wall, across from the biggest doorway in the corridor. It was the only one with double doors, one of which was missing.
     Link looked at the open doorway and tried to listen closely, judging how many monsters there would be. He would have to cross the corridor to find the exit, but that meant passing that door and that would offer a big risk of being seen.
     When he looked around again, he decided to try and find a different way. So he snuck through an open doorway on his left, entering a dark, empty room. It looked as though it once was a room used for soldiers to sleep, but it hadn't been occupied in a very long time.
     Link walked through the room, his footsteps muffled in the thick layer of dust. As he hoped, there was a small doorway leading to the next room, a wooden door hanging crooked in its hinges. He carefully stepped through the opening, making sure not to touch the fragile wood.
     This room was even darker, as the big door leading to the corridor was still intact and closed. In the dark Link stumbled across a bedpost, making him whince, but he immediately held his breath, listening for any sign that someone or something had heard him.
     When it stayed quiet he carefully walked on, feeling his way across the room, towards the other wall. He truly hoped there would be another door here.
     Reaching the other wall, Link felt up and down for a doorhandle, or any sign of an opening, but there was none. His hopes were quickly crushed and he sighed softly, leaning his head against the cold rock wall.
     Apparently this was as far as he could go. The only other option was hoping he could walk by the doorway unseen.
     Just as Link turned to head back, suddenly a loud bang sounded through the halls, making the ground seem to tremble beneath his feet.
     Link jumped back from the wall, instantly prepared to fight any enemy that came his way.
     Slowly commotion grew out in the corridor, as the monsters from the nearby room poured out into it. They seemed to be just as confused as he was, running in all directions and making an afwul lot of noise.
     Under the cover of all that confusion, he went back to the previous room and peered out into the hallway. No monster thought to look in his direction, for the rooms were never used. So they simply ran past him, looking fearfully over their shoulders.
     Now it finally became clear what the cause of the uproar was. At the end of the corridor Link could see the sparse light reflected in weapons and golden armour. Those were not the kind of things the Bokoblins wore. None of the monsters he knew wore that kind of armour. The only place he recognized it from, was the desert. But that couldn't be.
     What would a group of Gerudo Warriors be doing here?
     That was when Link saw her. In the middle of the group, majestic and beautiful in her blue tunic, he saw the soft golden hair of none other than Princess Zelda.
     She had come for him. She had come to save him, just like he would always come to save her. To protect her. Now the roles were reversed.
     A broad grin spred across his face, as he kept his weapons at the ready and stepped out into the corridor, determined to make his way towards the princess.