Legend of Zelda: In The Land Of Spirits Ch.1
Please, note that I have never played a Zelda game in my life but I have always been fascinated by its characters. I have become a trash of @figmentforms ’ A Tale of Two Rulers as well as @s-kinnaly , @mintiture , @ridersoftheapocalypse. I thank them all for the inspiration, this is for you guys.
Go check their work, people. Seriously. I apologize for the messy writing and grammar errors. English is not my native language. And it’s quite short.
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Post it again because Tumblr. Thanks @mrneighbourlove.
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Chapter 1
Okay. Alright…This was the third time he spots the mark on the bark of the tree. I’m officially lost, Kerugan thought with a grunt of annoyance. The jungle was a mass labyrinth of dense bushes and trees, the sun followed him like a lodestar through the tangled heads of the trees. But he couldn’t pick up what time it was.
He has traveled for hours or that seemed. Kerugan suspected that he was walking in circles. Just when thought that had advanced, went to see the mark he has done with one of his daggers. No matter how much he tried, he could not change his way.
A frustrated growl escaped from his mouth. He was confuse, hungry and quite tired. Sighing heavy, he continued his journey. It didn’t pass more than a few minutes when he came to hear male laughing at the distant.
He rapidly approaches to where presumably heard them to find no one. Kerugan frowned. Was he imaging things already? He shouldn’t be surprise if the heat was playing tricks to his mind, it was almost unbearable. Even more so with his Northern attire.
He had felt the heat of Loreidi forests, where his cousin, Queen Luimaya, ruled and he had become accustomed of it by the few times he had visit. But this jungle was like burning oven. Kerugan continued to walk under the shadow of trees towering over him. A sudden cold breeze traveled through the leaves, whispering a secret. Kerugan stops momentarily, his guard up. Listening very carefully.
Watching the sun quickly disappeared behind the clouds as they gather in the sky. The beautiful cocktail-blue shade, with which he arrived to these lands, was beginning to darken into gravel-grey. A pattering soothing sound came to his ears and Kerugan began to walk again, quicken his pace. But not even a drop of water fell. Probably because it had yet to pass the emergent layer of the rainforest.
He was tented to use his magic to either locate or be located by his sister and their men. But he stopped himself. He couldn’t risk attracting the unwanted attention of savages animals or enemies. And something, or someone, was watching him. He could feel it, even before getting separate from Audlin.
The feeling was unnerving but he made no obvious movement or statements about it. Giving the illusion of been oblivious of his watcher. Until he saw a pair of brilliant eyes watch him in the distance, between the raptures of branches and everlasting green leaves.
Kerugan couldn’t make out what it was, but they were hypnotic. As if it was whispering, luring him. He took a few steps towards. It was unwise, but he did it anyway. However, when he turns around Audlin and the group of scouts were gone. And so was the pair of eyes. Now he was in this predicament for his curiosity. He smiled to himself. His sister will never let go of this.
He gave himself the task to look for a shelter, water and food for the time been, because even if Audlin send men to look for him, Kerugan was sure it was going to take a while until they find him.
In the distance, a screaming roar, ragged and terrible. Along with a soft crack of thunder from the sky. A shiver spangled up his back. Whatever it was that thing, it was a big.
Kerugan’s heart began to quicken as the thought of running came to him. The forest was silent, save the sound of rain falling. He waited, crouched on his feet. Again the dreadful roar. It was enough to tell a direction. He plunged through the woods.
He ran like a deer, slipping over and around some obstacles, then ripping through others in his haste. Pearls of rain dropped, soaking his clothes and hair. The sound was like the glassy clinking of a champagne flute, lilting and clear. And soon a sheet of rain passed over him and the sound intensified.
He sped up, leaping a wide gorge, setting a group of startled bats and birds into iridescent flight. He landed gracefully on the other side and touched his daggers and sword, making sure they were still on his back.
Another roar shivered the air, suddenly too loud, too close. Kerugan pulled up short so quickly he nearly lost his balance. He slipped over to a massive tree, where the shadows of the trunk would hide him. He tried to quiet his heaving breaths, flicking a bead of sweat and rain from his eyes. His heart thudded in his ears, drowning out the forest sounds.
He hissed suddenly when a sharp pain traveled through his right hand. He jerked his hand to loosen whatever bit him, quickly looking at the wound. Two small punctures on the back of his hand. The thing fall in the sloppy ground gyrating away through grass and dirty; a snake. Just his luck.
He forced himself to calm down, listening to his heart as it gradually slowed. Good, slow breathing.
And then the ground trembled under her feet. And again. Again.
Something huge was approaching, pounding closer to the other side of the trunk. He lifted his face to the air and his nose flared as his scented the breeze – an antelope, he knew. But only one. It must have been separated from a herd nearby.
Kerugan’s mouth was suddenly dry with fear when a thought came to his mind, and his heart was again in his throat. The coming beast had set a trap for this animal, and he had walked right into it. He pressed his back against the tree trunk, casting about with wide, concern eyes. He didn’t dare move. He didn’t dare breath.
On the other side of the tree, he heard the animal give a startled snort, as it too tasted the air. Perhaps smelling Kerugan, or sensing the approaching predator, the antelope suddenly turned and rushed away. Another thunder strikes, louder this time. Kerugan sighed quietly and stepped away from the tree.
The roar this time shattered the air, left his ears ringing. From around the tree facing Kerugan the predator’s massive armored head emerged. It’s bristling quills from his neck and spinal portion twitched and vibrated, and it turned to look straight at him with eyes red of hate. It was muscular with the height and weight of an adult werewolf, with a massive distensible jaw and long sharp teeth. Its skin burnished in black and dark brown.
He fled as fast as he could, because he noticed with desperation that his breathing changed dramatically and his vision started blurred. The snake was poisonous. He wouldn’t make it that far, but there was even less hope of fighting it. He cursed himself. This trip was full of surprises.
He went lithe through the forest scrambling through roots, dodging through thickets of grass and brambles, trailing a spray of blood where a thorn ripped through his skin. Rushing black monster, closing the distance, bending and splintering trees, smelling blood and meat and fear. It leaped.
Kerugan screamed as the beast’s paw knocked his to the ground. He yanked himself along the ground, gritting his teeth as the behemoth’s giant claws tore gashed down his back. He regained his feet, disoriented, and stumbled forward again, hearing nothing but a high sliding sound of his sword out of his scabbard.
The beast leaped up beside his and swept its armored tail at his back, sending him sprawling again to the ground. He groaned, coughing blood into the dirt, and then he was up again, his sword out of reach.
He heard the beast leap again, felt the breath of his strike, and formed a desperate plan in that instant. The Direnor warrior leaped forward and twisted in the air, throwing two daggers as he fell to the ground. With the daggers stuck on his back, slavering, growling in pain, the dark beast fell from above, dwarfing him. He held another dagger, the burning sensation while gripping it intensified.
The dark beast wrestled, snarling, trying to get Kerugan’s head as the wolf with his left hand strangling and using all his strength to keep it away. The explosive roar shakes his ears when with the dagger pierced the tender area of the beast jugular.
Kerugan twisted the blade to aggravate the wound rolled away as the beast rearing up on its back legs, stumbling from the massive blood lost from his neck. It landed heavily on its feet again and hissed at Kerugan, crest rising and falling. Then it staggered to one side and fell heavily to the ground.
He scrambled away from the body, lightheaded with shock and blood loss. He shook his head and fell to his knees, and all the sound of the rain and his own ragged breathing came back to his ears.
He stared dumbly at the huge creature. He could have defeated it by transforming, but he normally avoids it and uses it as a last resort. He stumbled away, looking repeatedly over his shoulder at the non-breathing monster until it was out of sight.
The beast’s tail had broken something in his back – each step was sharp, bubbling pain. He was bleeding heavily from the slashes in his back, less so from a dozen other wounds. Not to mention his hand was bright red and swelled up where the snake had bite him, the venom burning through his veins. He wanted to stop, at least to heal himself a little.
He moaned when his knees gave in and his shoulder hit a tree, falling to the mud. Then, he saw a figure. Kerugan couldn’t see its face, it was raining too heavily and the hood on its head wasn’t helping. But of what he could distinguish from his clouded vision, he recognized it as a female.
She started walking to him and Kerugan panicked. Was she responsible for the beast’s attack? Was she there to kill him? He could only lie there, threading in and out of consciousness, unable to make himself move. He was weak and so tired.
“Who…?” he said weakly.
The figure didn’t respond. She simply kneel down by Kerugan’s side moving her hand to his head and gently caressing his wet hair. In the way you try to comfort a hurt animal. His heart beat lowered, but not enough to give up…yet.
Eventually, mercifully, unconsciousness claimed him.
