Blood Moon: A Story Before the Calamity

Seven

     Did she ever give me this armor? Did she have the chance to confess before the Calamity swallowed her? Did I love her back before she lost her life, and me my past?

     I hated myself. She had been so kind to me, and how did I repay her? I was dishonoring her memory by the way I felt whenever I thought of her.

     Sidon was staring at me with worry. 

     "Are you all right? You look ill."

     I nodded, too numb, too cold, to sign. He didn't understand sign anyway.

     Muzu finally capitulated and told me where to find twenty shock arrows. There was a terrifying man-beast that resided on top of a mountain called Ploymous Mountain and I was to slay it.

     I wasn't scared in the least. I seemed to have lost the capability to feel anything other than shock. 

     Get a grip, I told myself. The concept that someone had once loved me was still so... strange.

     Almost immediately after I engaged the Lynel, I was badly wounded and losing. I had never encountered the likes of such a beast, all the monsters that I had fought rather stupid, wielding high-grade weapons, but easily outwitted. This one however, it seemed to be able to gauge exactly where my weak points were. Within minutes, I was left holding my bleeding left side, hunched over, watching the blood slowly being drained from my body.

     I did not have any food left. Even if I had, I would not have had the energy to move.

     "Just kill me," I rasped, coughing up specks of blood, closing my eyes against the merciless rain. The Lynel stared at me coldly. "Kill me now."

     I'm sorry, Mipha. I'm sorry, the rest of the Champions. I'm sorry, King Rhoam.

     I'm sorry, Princess.

     And then the Lynel charged at me, its blood-stained blade raised high, glinting against the dark, rumbling sky. I had one last glimpse at the expressionless face of the foe that would be my downfall before the blade hit me and all faded to black...

     I was running, a hand in mine. Everything was blurry, indistinct, and a woman's voice was speaking, but I couldn't hear her. All I knew of was to run, run, run, keep her safe. Who she was, I did not know, nor care. I needed to keep her safe.

     I was sitting on a windowsill, listening to the cheerful birdsong from the robins perched on the outstretched branches of a knotted tree nearby. I had a small notebook in my left hand and a pen in the other, but I had nothing to draw. Too empty. Too hollow. I had nothing.

     My eyes opened into an unfamiliar place. It seemed like a small hut, with a merry fire crackling at the fireplace. I felt a dull pain where various wounds ran through my body, but it was with a detachedness I couldn't place, like I was feeling someone else's pain instead of mine.

     A little girl no more than nine was standing tiptoe on a stool, frowning at my bare torso, her tiny hands flying over my gashes. Her golden hair was pulled back by a headband, and her brown eyes were narrowed, the tip of her tongue between her teeth.

     Her eyes cleared when she saw that I was staring at her with a bemused expression.

     "Ah!" Her voice was young, cheerful. "You're awake!"

     I tried to sit up, to take in my surroundings, but the girl pushed me back down.

     "Nuh-uh." She scolded. "You aren't. Did you know how close--" She placed her thumb and index finger so close that they were nearly touching. "--you were to death?"