Chapter 12 Men…

I know forever and a half since this has been updated, been busy with Casters :D note to critics I've been writing on this story since i was in middle school so play nice. :P

Chapter 12

 

 

Men…

 

 

Selene awoke groggy and with a splitting headache. She groaned, and stopped. She tried to talk but heard nothing. She snapped her fingers felt it but didn’t hear it. She started to panic.

“Calm down Selene! There has to be an explanation for this, think girl, think”. Her mind worked furiously as she sat up gingerly.

Surveying her surroundings she figured she was in the healing ward of Zora’s Domain, sleeping on the two cots next to her were Aerica and Meria. She could also make out in the dim glow of the lights other female shapes.

Selene swung her legs over the side of the cot and attempted to stand, she made it after a few false starts. Once up she made her way to Aerica’s side.

Aerica was sleeping peacefully; Selene shook her shoulder to no effect. Selene grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her more forcefully till Aerica’s head flopped back onto the cot and she jerked awake.

Selene watched Aerica’s lips move and could make out the curse word she said. Selene watched as surprise then horror moved across Aerica’s face, then watched as she clapped, then snapped, hearing none of it; she looked around wildly searching for something; Selene guessed it was Meko for the fairy was nowhere in sight.

Aerica looked up at Selene and mouthed slowly, ‘Can you hear?’

Selene shook her head.

Aerica signed to her, ‘Do you know signing?’

‘Yes. But you will have to do it slowly I’m not that good.’  Selene signed back.

‘Do you know where Meko is?’

‘No. I haven’t seen him.’

Selene saw movement on the other side of Aerica and watched Meria go through the same thing as she and Aerica had, Meria looked to them and Aerica signed that they couldn’t hear either.

‘We need to find out what is going on’. Selene signed.

The others nodded their heads in agreement. They moved to the entrance of the healing ward being careful not to bump anything or anyone. They made it to the entrance to find the door shut. Selene tried to open it but it was locked. She turned to the others and told them it was locked.

Meria pointed over Selene’s shoulder.

Karate01

Selene turned to look where Meria was pointing and noticed a key hanging on a peg by the door. Selene was slightly puzzled by this but shrugged it off.

She took the key off the peg and tried the door. It unlocked and swung open. Selene suddenly had the feeling it wasn’t the brightest idea to open the locked door.

Selene motioned the other two to form up behind her, and looked to see them staring at her in confusion.

‘What?’ Meria asked.

‘Guess you don’t know military signing.’ Selene replied apologetically.

‘No sorry.’ Aerica signed with a smile.

Selene sighed, ‘Ok I’ll give you the basics hopefully you’ll remember.’

Selene taught them the sign for form up, take cover, stay put, and run. She also taught them how they should form up. The whole process took more time than Selene would have liked but what could one do.

Selene motioned for them to form up and Meria and Aerica did it perfectly. Selene peeked around the door to see into the corridor beyond. The corridor was dark with no signs of movement. Selene slipped into the corridor to the right, Aerica and Meria followed.

They hugged the wall as they continued for awhile, the corridor snaked back and forth but didn’t incline or descend.

Selene started to become more worried as the corridor continued on without another soul. They made it to the market cavern where this whole business had begun for them; they stopped in horror at the destruction they saw. Stalls were torn to pieces; wagons over turned, baskets and other containers spilled their contents over the floor. Off in the distance the girls could see smoke rising from different places.

Selene’s ears started to hurt and she could just make out a faint buzzing. She looked to Aerica and Meria and signed to them if they were feeling the same thing. Aerica and Meria nodded affirmative and rubbed their ears trying to make the pain lessen.

Puzzled by this new development the group continued on advancing in leapfrog fashion due to the state of things around them. Selene lead crouching behind overturned barrels and carts, Aerica a couple of paces behind her then Meria a few behind her.

Meria moved forward tapping Aerica on the shoulder as she passed her then tapping Selene as she passed her to another cover a few passes forward.

Aerica did the same and then Selene was in back. The girls made their way across the market cavern not seeing anyone, their hearing slowly returning. Not trusting that they could hear whispering they remained with signing.

Aerica kept a look out for a ball of orange light but never saw it. The girls followed the path that led to the throne room of Zora’s Domain. It appeared that whatever caused the destruction of the market cavern had been making its way toward the throne room.

Their hearing returned completely but they remained silent. The buzzing in their ears continued but remained a dull noise.

Aerica caught a flash of orange out of the corner of her eye and looked to see an orange ball of light floating around an overturned cart.

“Meko!” Aerica cried; Selene and Meria turned around then looked to where she was looking and they saw him.

Aerica made her way over to him still keeping an eye out for anything or anyone. Something was wrong, his color was off; it could be just because of the light in the cavern or due to other innocent factors but something bothered Aerica.

She made it to the cart he hovered around and reached out her hand to him. He caught sight of her and latched onto her hand and bit down hard.

Aerica cried out in pain and shook him off.

“Meko!? What was that for?” Aerica shouted at him nursing her bleeding hand. For such a little mouth the bugger drew a lot of blood. Her green blood oozed from the flesh between her thumb and pointer finger.

Meko hovered at her eye level a few feet from her. She stared at him and stumbled a step back, his eyes were completely red; no iris, no pupil, just blood red.

“Meko?” Aerica asked softly.

Meko hissed at her and flew straight for her face; Selene knocked him out of the air with a piece of wood and he thudded against the cart. He fell to the floor and lay there twitching.

Aerica knelt down next to her oldest friend and scooped him up ignoring the pain in her hand. She studied him carefully; he didn’t appear to be injured other than the bump into the cart.

“What was that about? I’ve never seen him like that before.” Meria said coming to stand on Aerica’s right. Selene stood on Aerica’s left as they stared down at Meko.

“I don’t know, but he’ll be out for awhile.” Aerica sighed and put him in her pocket.

“I didn’t do any permanent damage did I?” Selene asked concerned.

Aerica smiled at her, “Nah, that thick skull of his? No he’ll be perfectly fine.” Aerica rested her hand on the pocket she had put Meko in, “I hope.”

 

The girls made it across the market cavern to the tunnel that led to the throne room still encountering no one other than Meko. They continued their advance down the corridor by leapfrog as they had before. Selene had healed Aerica’s hand; the wound had left a small half circle scar in Aerica’s skin.

They came to the entrance of the throne room still not having run into anyone. They crouched to the left of the entrance and strained their ears listening for any signs of life beyond. Selene could make out the sound of people breathing quietly as if asleep, she looked to Aerica and Meria and signed if they heard the same.

‘There is also another sound that I can’t place.’ Meria said.

‘I agree with Meria, and something is off, it’s odd.’ Aerica added.

Selene nodded in understanding, something was off but she couldn’t place what. She slowly peeked around the entrance and had to stop herself from gasping.

Selene shrank back from the entrance; Aerica asked her what she saw.

‘I found the guys.’

 

The siren looked towards her ‘subjects’, slaves would be the more appropriate word, mind-controlled better than that. Her one red eye gazed at the men assembled before her, switching from one eye socket back to the other as her gaze swept the room. When the eye left one socket a black smoke that seemed to suck light into it took its place.

It was infernally difficult to sit on a throne designed for beings with legs when one had a fin, but somehow Zara managed it with a grace that defied the logic of a fish out of water.

Zara could sense the three girls that had the smidgen of a chance to ruin her plans of dominance that she deserved, or at least believed she did.

“Gerad, love.” Zara purred to him.

Gerad came forward, like all the other men in the room he wore no shirt, and he shivered from the cold that emanated from the siren. She was gorgeous, well the top half anyway, long blue hair fell to her waist her thin torso glistened with the lake water she had emerged from.

Her skin was blue and when she shifted position it shimmered to different shades; she was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

Gerad gazed at her in admiration and love, half of him longed to have her arms wrapped around him and to feel her lips on his, and the other half wanted to run screaming in the opposite direction. He would prove himself worthy of her by the goddesses.

“Yes, my empress?” Gerad said as he bowed in submission before her.

She smiled at him seductively and Gerad smiled back in response. “There are some ‘guests’ outside the entrance, would you be a dear and bring them to me unharmed?”

Gerad saluted his empress and turned to Dahrin and Sheik, “Follow me.”

The two of them nodded and left the formation before the empress and followed him to the entrance of the throne room. Zora, Goron, and Hylien males parted for them to pass never taking their glowing red eyes from their empress.

Zara’s laughter followed them out the door and down the corridor. There was no one to be seen there so they moved on. Dahrin knelt down to examine the floor and pick up a trail for them to follow; all three of them had their weapons with them. Dahrin stood back up and nodded his head in the direction further down the corridor. The hunting party set out from there; Dahrin led, tracking, as Gerad and Sheik followed.

 

The guys made their way to the entrance and Selene quickly signed for the girls to fall back. Meria and Aerica didn’t argue as they followed Selene back down the corridor.

“This is nuts. What the heck was that thing on the throne?” Selene asked of no one in particular and the world in general. Meria shrugged her shoulders having no answer to give.

Moving further down the corridor the girls paused by the wagon they had found Meko at to catch their breath.

Aerica shrieked as she fell to the ground and started sliding towards the shadow the wagon cast.

“Aerica!” Selene and Meria cried out as they lunged for her outstretched hands. Selene got a hold of Aerica’s left arm and grabbed hold of the edge of the wagon. Meria grabbed Selene as her grip slipped from the wagon.

“What the heck is it?” Aerica screamed as she slipped a few inches further into the shadow. It appeared that she was going through the floor but the part of her body that was already in the shadow was gone.

“Ah, the only thing I know of that can do that,” Meria grunted, “is Sheik!”

Selene tried to pull Aerica back out with only her right arm, but Selene didn’t have the strength, if it was Sheik someone else was helping him.

Meria got her arms around Selene and pulled using her whole body weight; Aerica came out of the shadow up to her knees.

“Gah, almost there!” Aerica said trying to pull her legs out.

Selene and Meria strained with all their might and Aerica slowly came out. She was almost out when something surfaced from the shadow.

It was a very big beast, with tentacles. It was a shadowy outline with red glowing eyes, when its mouth opened there were shadowy fangs and a long slithery tongue.

The beast roared and knocked Selene and Meria away with one of its tentacles as it grabbed Aerica with another. Selene landed and rolled up to her feet then had to immediately dive over another tentacle. Meria had landed against a column and was a bit dazed.

“Meria get up!” Selene called to her as she dodged another tentacle then was hit by a second in the air. Selene flew back and slammed into the same column as Meria and almost landed on top of her.

“Guys!” Aerica screamed as the tentacle beast began to sink into the shadow.

“No! Aerica!” Selene screamed getting back up then getting hit back down.

“Figure out what’s go-“ Aerica shouted as she sank deeper.

Aerica disappeared into the shadow and the beast followed shortly after her. Selene got back up and ran to the shadow she jumped and landed on solid ground. The rift or whatever it was had closed.

Selene cursed, and then turned to Meria as she came up beside her. Meria held her arm close to her body but only smiled and shook her head at the quizzical look Selene gave her.

“We should keep moving.” Meria said turning away from the shadow.

Selene nodded and wiped away a tear, “Where should we go?”

Meria looked around their position, “Well, we should probably arm ourselves, and all our things are still with the horses, so we should probably find them to get our stuff.”

Selene pursed her lips as she turned around looking for a sign or clue as to where the horses might be.

“Got any ideas?” Selene asked Meria after she had made a full 360.

Meria chuckled, “Nope.” She started walking in a random direction away from the corridor to the throne room. Selene shrugged and followed after her.

 

Some time later, and a few close calls with wandering groups of males, the two of them found the stables. Selene glanced around the entrance and saw that there was one Hylien male as a guard.

She held up one finger to convey this info to Meria. Meria nodded and waited while Selene crept around the corner.

Selene crept up behind the guy and whacked him across the back of the head with a piece of wood. He crumbled down to the floor unconscious. Meria came to stand next to Selene as she knelt down to check his pulse. Selene straitened up and nodded to Meria.

Meria whistled softly and was answered by a neigh further down. The two of them followed the sound to where Eyona was stabled. Meria pet Eyona and was nuzzled back in return. Selene left Meria and Eyona to find Starfire. She found her a few stalls down and was greeted by a friendly neigh and nuzzles as well. Selene retrieved her morning star and shield and promised Starfire she’d be back and made her way out of the stable. Meria met her at the entrance with her quarter staff in hand.

“Well, now what?” Meria asked her.

“Heck if I know.” Selene replied shrugging her shoulders, “Well the way I see it, we can either a: try to leave Zora’s domain and go get help and come back, or b: try to take out that creature and hopefully save everyone and not get killed in the process.”

“Hopefully, yeah that sounds about right.” Meria said, glancing around the entrance into the corridor.

“I believe it would be smarter to go get help, if we can find the way out, than trying to take on a creature we know nothing about while said creature has apparent control of our friends.” Selene leaned against the wall that was suddenly not there. Selene shrieked and flung out her hands as she fell into the rift, Meria grabbed her outstretched hand in time to pull her back out. The two of them raced out the entrance and down the corridor.

“You can’t run forever!” Gerad screamed after them.

Selene glanced back to see him step out of the stables and start after them, Selene cursed again and picked up the pace. Meria followed suit and the two of them sped down the corridor away from Gerad.

“Where’s the entrance?” Selene gasped to Meria; her side was beginning to ache.

“This way I think.” Meria replied and took the lead.

Selene followed as they made their way through more corridors with Gerad right behind them. Gerad was faster and slowly caught up to them. Selene glanced behind just as Gerad made a lunge for her. Selene dodged to the side and Gerad missed by an inch. He landed with a thud and lost distance as he got back up to his feet.

Meria and Selene rounded a corner and Selene ran smack into Dahrin. She bounced back onto the floor as did he. Meria started to slow her pace and turn back but Selene screamed at her to keep going. Selene made it to her feet before Dahrin did and started running just as Gerad came into view.

Meria screamed as one of the shadow creature’s tentacles shot out of a shadow and grabbed her. Selene screamed her name as she grabbed onto her arm.

“Just go! It’s up to you.” Meria said shaking Selene off of her arm and disappearing into the shadow. Selene slammed up against the shadow, “No!”

Selene glanced back and saw Gerad and Dahrin coming fast. She cursed and started running again, hoping it was the right direction. She rounded corner after corner, till things started to look familiar. She saw the entrance gate to Zoro’s domain and sped up to the horrible protest of her muscles. Sweat poured down her face and into her eyes, stinging.

She came to the entrance gate that was closed, two Zora males stood guard. Selene kept her morning star in its holster and brought her shield out.

One of the guards looked up just in time to see a shield bash into his face. He went down, as the other guard unsheathed his sword. Selene brought her shield back up in time to block a swing. She was surprised to find out she knew this Zora. It was Ferloth.

Selene grimaced as she blocked another swing, she didn’t want to hurt Ferloth, but she also didn’t want to be hurt by him either. She dodged a swing and came in close and used her shield in an upwards bash to Ferloth’s face. Ferloth fell and Selene moved to the gate.

The gate was massive; it had to be to secure the entrance of Zoro’s Domain. There appeared to be a small door carved into the gate and Selene tried the handle. It was locked. Selene turned back to Ferloth and checked him for the key, he didn’t have it. She tried the other guard and found a key. Selene took it and tried it in the door. The door unlocked and Selene pulled it open just as Gerad and Dahrin came into view.

“Stop!” Dahrin screamed to her as he ran towards her. She glanced back as she dashed through the door.