Born a Weapon: Twilight Princess

Mysterious Boy

It was early in the morning, so Rusl was ready to get in a bit of sword practice today. He had been training with a sword for many years, but practicing every day kept his skills sharp. He grabbed his sword and strapped it to his back as he headed out the door.

"Hi, Dad!"

Rusl turned to his right to see his son Colin sitting by the water near their house.

"Hello Colin, what are you up to?" The parent asked.

"I'm looking for tadpoles again!"

"Have you found any yet?"

"No..." Colin hung his head for a second before resuming his joyous mood, "but I haven't given up!"

Rusl smiled and gave his son a pat on the shoulder. "Well, I'm heading up to practice for a bit, if you need me, I'll be there."

"Ok" The youth exclaimed as he turned his attention back to the body of water before him.

Giving another smile, he headed out to the main road and turned left to head up the hill to the empty house. The treehouse at the top of the hill had been vacant for years, so it had been turned into a storage building containing supplies, and outside, Rusl set up a practice dummy to train with. But on his way, Mayor Bo stopped Rusl for a chat.

"Good morning, Rusl!"

"Good morning Bo."

"Are you off to train again?" the mayor inquired.

"I am."

"Well, it's good to have a hobby, but I hope your skills will never be put to the test in a real fight."

"Yes, let us hope so. Is Ilia well?"

"Yes, she was just heading on up to the spring."

As if on cue, the girl let out a scream that had heads turning towards the hill in seconds, and Rusl and Bo sprinting to the girl.

"By the Goddesses! Help! He's bleeding!" she cried out.

Rusl finally saw what she was talking about and was stunned. As he laid eyes on a teenage boy lying in the dirt, he realized bleeding was the biggest understatement he had ever heard. The boy was pouring blood out of several deep wounds all over his body.

"In Din's name," Rusl exclaimed as he examined the boy.

"What do we do?" cried Ilia.

"Dad?!"

Rusl heard his son cry out for him and turned to see him running up the path.

"Stay back, Colin!" he shouted. His son did not need to see someone on the brink of death.

He stopped approaching but shouted to him again, "Dad, what's going on?"

The rest of the kids came running, but each was ordered to remain with Colin by the adults of the village.

The mayor brought Rusl's attention back to what was before him. "We don't have any way to heal this lad, this damage is... is..."

"The spring!" Ilia shouted.

Rusl exchanged glances with Ilia and the mayor before speaking up.

"It is said to be blessed by the light spirit Ordona and can heal terrible wounds."

Mayor Bo raised his eyebrows. "But, we've never used it, how do we know it will work?"

"It's all we've got right now, and he won't survive if we take time to think of something else only to come up with nothing," Rusl explained as he reached down and lifted the boy in his arms. The figure in his arms seemed lifeless and was completely drenched in blood, and now so was Rusl. As he ran up the path, he saw a thick line of blood leading down it.

He must have fallen down the hill Rusl thought, and as he reached the top, he saw a massive pool in the open clearing and a very frazzled looking horse.

How much blood did this boy lose? And is that his horse?

He pushed the pool of blood out of his mind for now and darted left toward the path into the woods and the spring he was heading to. He laid the boy in the water and prayed it would heal him.

He watched as massive wounds cutting deep into the boy's body, and some straight through it, began to close.

He sighed in relief and stepped back, noticing the blood spilling from him into the magical water would disappear after a few seconds.

"It's working" he sighed.

Sounds of relief came from Ilia, Bo, and many other adults he didn't even realize followed him.

"He will need a place to rest while he recovers, if he got to the water before it was too late" the Mayor stated.

"He can stay in my house until he either recovers or passes on" Rusl offered.

"All right" the mayor stated, "Do keep us up to date on his progress, will you?"

"I will" Rusl promised, and then all eyes were back on the mysterious boy drenched in blood as the mystical water sealed his wounds.