Blood and Spirit
Book 1 of the Bound Destinies Trilogy
Chapter 1: Beckoning Dreams
"Link... chosen hero of the goddess Hylia..."
A strange, yet heavenly voice called out to the hero as he stood within a mysterious forest, sunlight just barely spilling through the tall trees. Oddly enough, the voice seemed to be coming from a specific direction, and no more than a second after it first spoke to him, the bright, trilling sound of what seemed to be a flute or something close to it, began to echo throughout the woods, as the feminine voice rung out once more.
"Hero..." it said, a certain desperation starting to creep into its otherwise calming tone. "Please... Come this way..." A light breeze began to rustle the trees in a certain path ahead of the hero, showing him where to go. "I am in need of your aid... A corrupting power pervades my own champion... I am in need of your strength to free him from the evil that binds his soul... Please... Help save my dying land as you have saved the land of Hylia... Find your way here from the forest of your world... Come with the goddess' reincarnation... Please, hero... You are my last hope..."
The mysterious voice faded away, as did the forest itself, as another, much more familiar voice called out to him cheerfully and rather abruptly. "Hey! Wake up, sleepyhead!"
Link groaned sleepily and rolled over, trying to ignore Zelda, but as usual, she persisted. "Come on, Link!" she said brightly, leaning down to his level to make sure he could hear her. "Its another gorgeous morning on the surface! The sun is shining, the birds are singing..." She sighed wistfully as she rose to stand once more. "Its just amazing! Its always so beautiful down here!"
"But its so early..." the hero muttered, begrudgingly opening his eyes to glance up at her.
Zelda couldn't help but giggle at his morning grouchiness. "Oh come on..." she patronized. "If anything, its late. In fact, I think I let you sleep in for a change!"
"You've never let me sleep in, Zel," Link protested with a slight smile as he sat up, finally waking up fully. "And sometimes I think you never will..."
She grinned cleverly at him. "Aw, don't be like that..." she said sweetly, taking a seat on the temple floor beside him. "After all, I was nice enough to wash these for you down by the creek earlier." She handed him a bundle consisting of his green knight uniform tunic and cap. "And all before you even woke up."
The hero frowned as he took the clothes from her and slipped them on overtop his undershirt. "You shouldn't have done that," he said patiently. "Going out there on your own could be dangerous. I don't want to loose you again."
Zelda felt her cheeks redden a bit, but she smiled good-naturedly nonetheless. "I was fine," she said, glancing towards the sunlight that spilled in from the broken part of the Sealed Temple's ceiling. "There aren't any monsters wandering around in the forest anymore now that Demise is gone and besides, I wasn't alone..."
"What do you mean?" Link asked in confusion.
The girl's smile became mysterious as she lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "What I mean as that, all over the surface, there are loyal guardians, whose responsibility is to serve and protect Hylia... or... well, me now, I guess, hidden within the shadows. They're of Impa's tribe: the Sheikahs. I've haven't seen any of them except for Impa herself since we've been here, but I know that they're there, watching us from the shadows and making sure that I'm safe."
"I thought that was my job," the hero said with a joking smile.
Zelda laughed as she rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, well how do you plan on protecting me if all you do is sleep all the time?"
Link couldn't really argue with that, and so he simply joined in her playful laughter as the two of them stood up and went to truly experience the fresh morning outside of the temple walls. The two friends had been living on the surface together for the past three weeks, ever since the hero defeated Demise, the demon king who had tormented the surface and all of its inhabitants in an age long past. With the surface now a peaceful, largely safe place, Link and Zelda had both decided that they wanted to dwell within this strange, unknown new world and watch over the golden relic, the Triforce, rather than return to their native home up in Skyloft. Of course, they had returned to sky to visit several times since then as it was a relatively quick trip and they still had friends and family up there. But for the most part, the two of them had stayed on the surface, exploring it together during the day and sleeping within the safe confines of the Sealed Temple at night. They didn't intend for the temple to be their permanent residence, but for the first few months, it would work. Occasionally, they would receive Skyloftian guests, such as their friend, Groose or Zelda's father, Headmaster Gaepora, but most of the time they were on the own, the only two humans living on the surface as far as they had seen. They both enjoyed it immensely though. The surface offered them a new kind of freedom that the sky hadn't; they could go anywhere they wanted to without restrictions and they were the first people within recent history to explore the unconquered frontier. Everyday was a new and exciting adventure, and what made it better was that the two friends, who had both been through so much to reunite with one another, were spending them all in each other's company, laughing and sharing good times together just as they used to when they were both children.
Before either of them, or pretty much anyone on Skyloft for that matter, could remember, Link and Zelda had always been the best of friends. They had grown up together, and they knew more about each other than perhaps anyone else. Even before the surface incident, many people believed there to be something more than just a simple friendship between the two, though if anyone were to ask either of them, they'd both stubbornly deny it. But neither of them could deny that they cared deeply about the other. They were both known to have a fault of worrying too much for each other sometimes, and they both hated seeing the other hurt or upset. They had always been inseparable, and they especially were now that they had everyday to be together.
Link and Zelda stepped out of the ancient temple and into the front courtyard, where the towering Statue of the Goddess rose high above the Sealed Grounds. Originally, the statue had been a part of Skyloft until its recent descent to the surface, along with the ancient golden power of the gods, the Triforce. Since it was Hylia's charge to protect the sacred triangles from falling into the hands of those who would abuse its awesome might and since Zelda was the goddess' reincarnation, she and Link had taken it upon themselves to watch over it as they dwelled on the surface. So far, nothing had tried to steal the Triforce away from its high perch above the statue's hands, but they could never be too careful. Even though Demise and his cronies, including the treacherous demon lord, Ghirahim, were gone from the surface thanks to the hero, Zelda knew that there could still be greedy souls lurking throughout the land, seeking to take the power of the gods and use it for their own selfish whims. And so, as an extra precaution, she had placed a seal upon the Triforce shortly after they moved to the surface, making it so that only her or Link could have access to it if they ever needed it.
And so, as was their routine every morning, the two of them called their respective Loftwings down from the sky to give them a lift up to the top of the statue. The two guardian birds flew down together through the opening in the cloud barrier over the forest and landed before their riders within the open courtyard. Because Loftwings were not accustomed to the thicker air of the surface, they generally did not tend to come through the recently-opened cloud barrier unless they were called. But even so, every morning, Link and Zelda's Loftwings loyally came down without fail, so they could deliver their riders to the Triforce's elevated resting spot so they could check the integrity of its seal. After the two of them safely landed atop the perch, Zelda closed her eyes and concentrated, using her powers to sense how strong the seal was, as she made sure to do every day.
"So?" Link asked a moment later. "How is it?"
Zelda opened her eyes and frowned, gazing up at the golden relic. "Its getting weaker..." she sighed, positioning the Goddess's Harp that she had brought along with her. "I'll need to strengthen it again, but... I'm worried... One day, a simple seal like this won't hold up any more and then anyone will be able to get their hands on the Triforce..."
"What will we do then?" the hero asked.
"I don't know..." she trailed off quietly as she began to strum the Ballad of the Goddess upon the harp. A slight glow began to form around the Triforce as she sang the words to the song in her melodious voice. "O youth... Guided by the servant of the goddess... Unite earth and sky... and bring light to the land..." The Triforce flashed for a moment as she finished, signifying that the seal had been renewed once more.
Once the ritual was complete, the two of them continued to stare at the shimmering golden relic for a moment longer, as a gentle breeze began to blow towards the east, rustling through the leaves of the dense forest in that direction. The sudden change in the wind caught Link's attention, making him think of the strange dreams about the voice in the woods that he had been having recently. The odd gale directed his gaze towards the thick forest beyond the Sealed Grounds, a part of the surface that he had never been to before and it made him wonder: was there anything beyond that unknown labyrinth of trees? "Hey Zelda," he said, breaking through the natural silence.
"Yes?" she said, putting her harp aside and looking to him.
"What's over there?" he asked, pointing towards the mysterious woods.
Zelda frowned as she looked towards the forest as well. "Hm..." she mused, trying to remember something about the place from the memories that she shared with Hylia but finding nothing. She sighed, frustrated at how selective the goddess's memories that she had received sometimes were. "I don't know... I guess I didn't get any of Hylia's memories about it... Why?"
"Well, I've been having these weird dreams lately," the hero began. "I'm in a forest and there's a slight wind blowing through the trees in certain direction and this voice is calling out to me-"
"And there's the sound of a wind instrument echoing through the woods?" the girl finished his thought, much to his bewilderment.
"Yeah..." Link said, giving her a curious look. "But... How did you know that?"
Zelda smiled slyly. "Because," she said, looking to the woods once more. "I've been having the same kind of dreams myself recently. I guess that makes them even weirder, huh?"
He nodded solemnly, still perplexed about the dreams. "What do you think they mean?"
"Well..." she said thoughtfully. "Maybe they're meant to give us a sign or something... Did the voice in your dreams talk about needing aid?"
"Yes," the hero said. "Maybe there's someone or something in the forest that needs help?"
"Maybe... Should we go check it out?"
"I think we should. Even if we're wrong, then we'll at least get to see what's over there."
"Yeah," Zelda said with a small smile, ready for another adventure upon the vast realms of the surface. "Well then, let's get going, shall we?"
Link nodded as the two of them prepared to descend from the statue's hands. They both used the sailcloth to get down, with Zelda holing on to Link so they could both land at the same time. Once they were back on the ground, they wasted no time in getting ready for their trek to the uncharted woods. Anticipating that they would be gone for quite a few hours, if not all day, they made suitable preparations; Zelda got a small bag of food and some other supplies together, while Link prepared his sword and the rest of gear so the pair could make it through the woods in safety. Once all their arrangements were complete and they plotted the course they would take to get to the forest, they left the temple and started towards Faron Woods.
The late morning sun was bright and pleasant as the two of them walked through the familiar forest at a relaxed place, casually conversing along the way as they headed for a path that could lead them to the deeper woods. However, both the goddess and her hero were completely unaware of the several sets of eyes that watching them intently, swiftly and silently following behind them in the shadows of the trees. Two different groups kept a close eye on the two friends, each with their own purpose. The first group watched over Hylia's human incarnation in the hopes of protecting her if her hero was unable to. The second group's intentions, however, were much less noble. Though they too were supposed to be keeping a protective watch over the goddess, they were instead spying on her, gathering information to report back to their own leader with. And, as soon as Link and Zelda had vanished out of sight and into the forbidden woods that none in their tribe were supposed to enter into, the group of about ten slipped away and took the intelligence they had gathered back to their leader, who was patiently waiting for them within a well-hidden cavern nearby.
The group entered into the den of their brethren, the legion of around two hundred who followed the ambitions of their leader rather than the rest of their tribe. They operated in secret, their agenda and motives completely hidden away from the main tribe that they were all apart of. It was a necessity for them; if their intentions and ideas were discovered, they would be branded as traitors and banished from their tribe forever.
"Mistress Veress," the leader of the scout group bowed humbly before where their respected leader stood within the cavern. "We have returned."
Their female leader frowned in disappointment at all of them. "Why?" she asked, an undertone of anger creeping into her normally calm, calculating tone. "Why are you not still following the goddess and her hero as I told you to?"
"Mistress Veress, we apologize, but they entered into the lost woods. No one who has ever entered into that place has come out alive."
"So? You let something as insignificant as an old wive's tale keep you from the task I entrusted to you? You all are a disgrace."
"Again, we are deeply sorry, mistress... But as far as we could see, none of Sheik's braves went into the forest either."
"Ah... so, Sheik is too afraid to send her precious, loyal little Sheikahs into the forbidden forest? That figures; she always was scared of the place, ever since we were both little... Either way, it matters little at the moment. Tell me, what new information have you gathered about Hylia and her hero?"
"This morning, before they left to go into the woods, Hylia strengthened the seal on the Triforce, but she confided to the hero that it will not last forever. Perhaps we should wait until the seal breaks permanently and then make our move?"
"No... That could take months, even years of waiting. I want to do this as soon as possible. I am quickly growing impatient with 'her grace' and her loyal little hero. All they do is wander around the surface and watch the Triforce, as if it could go anywhere on its own. They're fools... both of them. They have access to all of that power and they don't even intend to use it! Such great might would certainly be better off in the hands of someone with ambition, don't you all agree?"
The group simultaneously nodded and voiced their agreement and support as their mistress went on. "We are gathering more and more power each day as both our numbers and our magic increase. The time is nigh! All we need is the perfect opportunity. The day is coming very soon when we shall make our move against the goddess and her hero. Hylia must pay for disregarding the strength and might of our tribe by choosing a so-called 'hero' to take on a task that we easily could have accomplished. If she had only given us a chance, then we easily could have defeated the demon king all on our own, without the need for any hero at all! But she disgraced us, showing us that she does not see the might of our tribe by choosing that weak hero of hers and having him take on Demise instead of us. That is why we must show her just how powerful we are! Powerful enough to strike her hero down, powerful enough to take the Triforce as our own and powerful enough to rule over the surface in her place! My brothers and sisters, let us prepare... for soon, we shall avenge the broken honor of our tribe! Soon, we shall know unlimited power! Soon, we shall make both the goddess and her hero pay!"