Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Days of adventure begin…


Inside the branches of the pine tree in the training court sat a huge crow with red eyes and a silver collar around its neck. The crow cawed and flew off without anyone even glancing at it.
“Wow an entire day, so what should we do?” Selene asked the group. “We could go for that ride that Meria wanted.” Sheik said. “That is a possibility since we have more time now.” Gerad said. They all agreed and headed for the stables. They passed by the adults on the way and Link asked where they were going. “We’re going riding we won’t take too long.” Gerad replied. “I’d like you to take a soldier with you for escort anyway.” Zelda said. As she said that Calhan came around the corner, “I would be honored to ride escort for them.” He said with his handsomest smile and deepest bow. Since there was no other soldiers around they had to take him. “Alright, head to the stables with the children and ride with them as escort.” Link said, and the adults left. The group continued on to the stables with Calhan right behind.
They stopped off at the armory to grab their weapons for their combat instructor swore that every time was a good time to familiar one’s self with his weapon of choice. Selecting her morning star Selene strapped it to her hip with out even blinking and strapped her buckler to her back. Gerad strapped on his broadsword and buckler. Calhan already had his longsword and shield and the others grabbed their weapons from the racks that held them.
They reached the stables and selected their mounts. Selene retrieved her mare Starfire, a white horse with a silver mane and tail. Gerad retrieved his stallion Artimus who was a blue-ish gray. Dahrin got his stallion Desertstorm, a yellow cream colored horse with a black mane and tail. Aerica retrieved her mare Orchid, a brown horse. Meko slept catatonic on her shoulder his tiny belly swollen from eating himself silly with bread. Sheik retrieved his horse Spider, a huge black horse. Meria retrieved her horse Eyona, the daughter of Epeona, a red mare with a black mane and tail and white hooves. Lucius saddled up a “horse” from Zora’s Domain, it was indigo blue and had long pointed ears, and gills behind its ears, its hooves had fins around them, its name was Fish. G-Link’s “horse” was a giant lizard from Death Mountain its name was Bob. Calhan saddled up Slaughter, another soldier saddled up and together the group rode out the palace gates.
They rode through the town and the little children gawked at Lucius’s and G-Link’s mounts. The townsfolk bowed when Selene and Gerad rode past. Selene smiled and waved as did Gerad. They made it to the town gates and rode out.
Once outside the city they stopped. “So where are we going to ride to?” Sheik asked his voice muffled because of his face wrap that he always wore in public. He undid it and tied it around his right arm. Selene shrugged and said “It doesn’t matter to me.”
“How about we head northwest then circle back this way.” Dahrin put in. The others agreed and they took off.
The wind streamed past them as they flew over Hyrule Field. Meria in the lead with the others scattered behind her. They rode for hours until the sun started sinking down to the horizon. Gerad reigned in Artimus who snorted out a puff of vapor. The others stopped scattered around him. Calhan was looking around scanning for any sign of threat. A crow cawed and flew in a circle above their heads. “That was invigorating.” Sheik said, rubbing Spider’s neck. Calhan was still staring off into the distance. The others smiled and patted their own mounts. They dismounted to let the horses rest and eat, except for G-Link. Bob plopped himself down onto the ground and went to sleep soaking up the last rays of sun. Sheik snorted, “Just like his master, catches sleep wherever.” The others grinned as they heard G-Link snore, except for Calhan who continued to scan for danger. “Well its getting too dark to head back now, we’ll have to camp here for the night.” Sheik said. “What do you mean camp here?” Lucius asked. “He means that it would be dark when we got back so the gates would be closed. Besides we can go a little further to the rivers edge so you can sleep in the water.” Gerad said pulling himself back onto Artimus. The others remounted and Dahrin tapped G-Link and they continued on to the river. “We need to get a message to mother to let her know where we are.” Selene said.
“Yes, Mathius, ride back to the castle and inform their highnesses where we are and that we shall be camping out tonight, and tell them also that I will stand guard and protect them.” Calhan said over his shoulder to the soldier behind him. Mathius saluted, turned his horse around and raced off in the direction of the palace. He was a small man and he had a huge horse, they flew off and in seconds were gone.
The group settled down at the rivers edge and made a fire. They had packed blankets and rations so they wouldn’t starve or freeze. They were sitting around the camp fire warming themselves and laughing and telling jokes, except for Lucius and Calhan. Lucius was in the water asleep and Calhan was at the firelight’s edge keeping a lookout. G-Link was asleep in a ball next to Bob who was curled around him. They all dozed off one by one; Selene leaned on Gerad who sat still so he wouldn’t disturb her. He jiggled his shoulder to wake her up when Meria and Aerica turned in. Selene yawned and got up to go lay beside them. The boys continued talking into the night. Meko sat on Gerad’s shoulder and joined in the conversation.
It grew to midnight and everything was peaceful, when a deep rumbling started. The boys jumped up and looked around confused. The girls sat up startled by the noise. G-Link slept on as did Lucius. Calhan backed up to stand next to the boys. The rumbling stopped a few minutes after it had started. Everyone was tense expecting something to happen but hoping nothing would. Their hopes were answered.
“What was that?” Meria asked edging closer to Sheik. Dahrin shook his head, “I don’t know.” They closed into a circle their backs to each other. Calhan had drawn his sword and was standing next to Selene and Gerad. Aerica had her bow cocked and Meko hovered next to her right shoulder. Minutes passed and still nothing happened. They relaxed, a little, but still stayed on guard. An hour passed and still nothing happened. They lay back down around the fire closer together and sleep came later.
A few hours later the group was dead asleep. The ground burst open near their campsite and ten stalfos crawled out each wielding a sword or club. The group awoke in time to scramble to their weapons to defend themselves. Annoying as he was Calhan was still the best soldier, he jumped in front of Selene and Gerad as two stalfos came for them. Gerad put himself in front of Selene as another came from the side. Sheik guarded Meria as two came for them. Dahrin, Aerica, and Meko handled two more but there were still three left. Calhan beat back the two in front of him while defending himself from another. Gerad battled with one and Selene another. Sheik managed to kill one and shouted in triumph only to have it get caught in his throat as the stalfos came back together and attacked him again. The remaining three went to their horses with the intention of slaughtering the tied up beast. But the horses were war trained and defended themselves from the skeletons.
The group was spread out each fighting to survive, as more stalfos clawed their way out of the ground around them. Selene whacked one with her Morningstar and it fell apart and disintegrated. Another one came at her from behind, she turned with a swing and knocked it’s head clear off. Aerica stood near Dahrin shooting out knee caps of stalfos as they came their way, Meko acted as targeter for Aerica hovering near the stalfos she aimed at to give her a better target, Dahrin hacked at them with his double headed axe.
Lucius and G-Link were still asleep. Gerad sliced and hacked with his broad sword while Sheik ducked and weaved while slicing with his daggers. Meria whacked and beat with her quarter staff knocking off bones as she hit them. Their horses undid the ropes that held them and fought their way to their masters to help them fight. Selene was backed against a wall being hounded by four stalfos, she and Starfire held them at bay. A bony hand shot out of the ground and grabbed her ankle. Selene screamed and whacked at the hand.
Gerad heard Selene scream and looked to where it came from, he saw Selene whack the hand but another grabbed her other leg and a third reached out from the wall and grabbed her arm. A fourth hand grabbed her other arm and two more grabbed her around the throat. Gerad killed the stalfos he was fighting and tried to get to his sister but there were too many in between him and Selene. Calhan was trying to get to her as well but he faired no better. Dahrin was pinned down with Aerica and Sheik and Meria were having a hard time with the stalfos also.
A huge stalfos stepped into the circle surrounding Selene, he stood a head taller than the rest of the stalfos; he wore a robe and carried a twisted evil looking staff. Selene shivered as he drew near. He stared into her eyes, his hideous face inches from hers, he lifted a hand and touched her cheek, caressing it. She shivered and tried to pull away but the hands holding her wouldn’t budge.
Gerad fought harder than he thought he ever could to reach his sister but to no use. The boss stalfos stepped back from Selene and placed a bony hand on her shoulder. He handed his staff to a subordinate then drew a long twisted dagger as he hissed something to Selene. Her eyes widened and he plunged the knife into her stomach. “Selene!” Gerad screamed as the hands let her go and she fell to her knees. The boss stalfos laughed as Selene stared at her hand as she pulled it away from her stomach; her hand was covered in bright red blood. Gerad slashed and hacked through stalfos making his way to his sister. Calhan fought harder but got nowhere.
The boss stalfos grabbed a sword from a smaller stalfos with a grunt of disgust as Selene pulled the dagger out and tried to stand up. He leveled the sword with her neck and pulled it back to take a swing but Dahrin slammed into him. The boss stalfos howled in rage and turned to face Dahrin who had already gotten up and aimed a swing at his chest. He blocked the swing with his sword but Dahrin recovered and swung again. They traded blows and cuts with Selene on the ground watching through a grey haze.
Dahrin was tiring quickly but the boss stalfos showed no signs of fatigue. Dahrin swung one last time and missed; “I am not going to kill you, little master.” the boss stalfos came in and hit him on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword. Dahrin went down unconscious. He turned back to Selene and raised his sword to strike again. He tried to kill her again but this time Sheik hit him from the back and bounced off onto the ground. The boss stalfos turned and hit Sheik with a back knuckle and Sheik went flying and landed sprawled out on the ground unconscious. Calhan attacked from the other side and managed to hold his own for awhile till two stalfos jumped him from behind and knocked him out also. The boss stalfos turned his attention back to Selene only to end up with an arrow through his chest and knee. He screamed noticing Meko hovering near him, he grabbed him out of the air squishing his wings and threw him into the wall of stone, Meko fell to the ground his light going dim. Aerica screamed his name, the boss stalfos turned back to the direction of Aerica and pointed at her, she fired again the arrow landing through the stalfos’s outstretched hand. Three stalfos attacked her and knocked her out too. Meria jumped in front of Selene and blocked the swing of the boss stalfos’s sword with her staff. He screamed again and tried to hit her again but she blocked. He swung a few more times then back handed her across the face; the force of the hit threw her against the wall. She hit her head and went down. He turned back to see Gerad standing over his sister. The boss stalfos screamed with rage at all the interventions in this assassination of one little girl. Gerad held his ground as the boss stalfos came at him with his sword raised high. Gerad blocked the swing and shoved him back away from his sister. The boss stalfos stumbled back and defended himself from Gerad’s furious blows. Gerad kept coming at the boss stalfos no matter how hard the stalfos tried to defend and counter. Finally the stalfos saw signs of fatigue on Gerad’s face and he pressed the advantage. Gerad was on a backpedaling defense now as the boss stalfos came at him.
Selene saw Gerad miss the swing and it go across his stomach, it was a shallow wound but the boss stalfos hit Gerad on the back of the head and he went down. He turned his attention back to Selene who lay on the ground staring at her fallen friends. “You just made a big mistake.” Selene said as the boss stalfos stood over her again. Selene stuck out her hand fingers spread wide and a blinding white light shot out of her hand and struck the boss stalfos full in the face. The boss stalfos screamed in pain as he disintegrated. Selene stood up and a bright light shined from her wound and engulfed the battlefield with pure white light. The other stalfos screamed as the light burned them.
After the light vanished there wasn’t a single stalfos left and everyone was healed. Gerad shot up and ran over to Selene to find her sleeping and unharmed. He breathed a sigh of relief and went to check on the others. Meko rose from where he had fallen and flew to Aerica. Sheik was already up and at Meria’s side. Dahrin was sitting on his knees rubbing the back of his head. Gerad went to Aerica and found her rubbing her arm just above the elbow and staring bewildered at it. “What’s wrong?” Gerad asked her. She stared up into his eyes hers full of fear and astonishment, “They cut it off Gerad. They had cut it off.” Tears fell down her cheeks and Gerad held her close hushing her sobs and stroking her head. “Hey love it’ll be ok.” Meko said landing on her shoulder and hugging her cheek. Aerica smiled and rubbed him with her finger. Orchid and Artimus stood over their masters and neighed softly comforting them.
Starfire stood over Selene and nuzzled her cheek till her eyes flickered open. Dahrin was kneeling beside her and smiled when her eyes opened. “Hey, how you doing?” He asked as he helped her sit up. “Headache.” She said rubbing her forehead. Selene petted Starfire on her nose and stood up with Dahrin’s help. “Is everyone alright?” Selene asked surveying the battlefield. “It would seem so.” Sheik said walking over with Meria by his side. “Where’s Calhan?” Gerad asked looking around. “I’m here.” He said coming up behind them rubbing his head.“Where’s Lucius and G-Link?” Gerad asked looking around. They all heard a big snort as G-Link rolled over. Shaking their heads they all laughed.