Chapter 23 New mission…

Chapter 23

 

New mission…

 

 

Dahrin groaned, his head felt like it was going to explode and his body didn’t feel any better. He slowly opened his eyes to dim light and looked at his surroundings. He was in the healing ward of Zora’s Domain. He brought his arm up to rub his eyes and saw his arm covered in bandages. He sat up slowly and saw that all his exposed flesh was covered in bandages.

“Ok. What happened?” Dahrin asked out loud.

“I was hoping you’d tell me.” Selene whispered from his left.

Dahrin looked in her direction and saw her sitting in a chair wrapped in a blanket. A candle was burning next to her on a small table. In the candle light she looked exhausted.

“Have you gotten sleep?” Dahrin asked her swinging his legs off of the cot so he could face her. Selene chuckled and scooted down into the chair more.

“More or less. More less than more.” Selene said with amusement.

Dahrin chuckled then hissed when it hurt his wounds, “How is everyone? I assume we won.”

Selene shrugged, “Sort of, Lara retreated. Everyone’s alive. Sasha is trapped in the Temple, there’s nothing we can do for her at the moment.”

“How’s Lucius taking it?” Dahrin asked.

“He’s surviving. He blames himself. I’m more worried about you though.” Selene said.

Dahrin looked at her puzzled, “Why?”

“You don’t remember anything?” Selene pushed.

Dahrin thought about it, “I was fighting Lara, and loosing. She choked me and I blacked out. I regained consciousness and found myself in the midst of monsters, I put my shield up and then“

Dahrin stopped he wasn’t sure if he should tell Selene about his incident with black Dahrin. He wasn’t even sure if it had been real or just his oxygen deprived hallucinations.

“And then what?” Selene asked concerned. She was leaning forward slightly.

“And then I blacked out again. Next thing I knew I was here.” Dahrin lied, he could remember vaguely his second fight with Lara, though it was more like he had just sat and watched it from behind his own eyes. He remembered his arm being severed but like it had happened to someone else. He even remembered Lucius, he had been frightening when he had stabbed Dahrin through the chest and pinned him to the wall.

Selene gave a small sigh, “Well, here’s what happened when we found you.”

 

“And why did you stab him in the chest again?” Selene asked for the tenth time. Lucius sighed and sank to the floor; he was too tired to try to explain what he had done in his sage mode.

“If I hadn’t of pinned him there he would have gotten himself and/or all of us killed. What we need to do now is figure out how to get him back to normal. This is temporary; I think.” Lucius said standing back up and moving closer to Dahrin who was grinning at them like a maniac. His eyes still swirled black and orange but it appeared the orange was increasing.

“From what I can tell his two sage spirits are fighting for dominance, it’s too early to know which will win.” Calhan said standing on Dahrin’s left.

“What two sage spirits? Dahrin’s just the Spirit Sage isn’t he?” Sheik asked from where he sat on a chunk of the pillar Lara had knocked through. He felt queasy looking at his best friend stabbed through the chest to the wall.

“Well, as we should all have figured out by now, Dahrin is the son of Ganondorf. As such he has a piece of the Evil sage inside of himself. It happens when sages mate, that way the sage spirit has somewhere to go already when the sage dies. But since Ganondorf mated with another sage both spirits happened to enter Dahrin. And from what I can tell they’re fighting for dominance.” Calhan explained.

“Ok, so how do we help him?” Gerad asked.

“I don’t believe we can.” Calhan said as he sighed.

“There’s gotta be a way.” Selene said looking from Calhan back to Dahrin.

Meria turned to Lucius, “Can you do what you did for Sheik back in Kokoriko?”

Lucius looked at her with sad eyes, “It might kill him and the person I let in there. Throwing someone into the middle of a fight between two people isn’t the healthiest of ideas.”

“I’m willing to give it a shot if it’ll help Dahrin.” Selene said coming to stand next to Lucius.

“Like heck you will! I’m not letting you put yourself in danger.” Gerad said turning her to face him. Selene shook off his arm, “It’s my decision to make whether I risk my life for someone else.”

“But who says it has to be you?” Gerad asked crossing his arms defiantly.

Selene took a breath to shout back but couldn’t think of anything to retort with. She turned to Lucius, “Please, let me do this.”

Lucius turned to face her and looked deep into her eyes; he saw only love for Dahrin there and a pleading for him to help her save him.

“Ok, I’ll help you. Try not to die in the process.” Lucius sighed.

“Hell no!” Gerad cried, “You’re not throwing my little sister to a potential death! I refuse!”

“The only reason I’m your little sister is because you happen to come out first!” Selene yelled back.

“Doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t let you do it if you were older, you’re my sister, I’m not gonna let you get killed!” Gerad said turning to her again.

The rest of the group watched in stunned silence at the two siblings quarrel.

“Uh, Ger-“ Calhan started.

“Stay out of this Lore Sage!” Gerad cut him off without even glancing at him.

“I love him, Gerad.” Selene said.

“I know that. But it doesn’t make a difference, you’re not going.” Gerad said.

“Oh, but its ok for you to risk your life and not me?” Selene asked sarcastically.

“Yes.” Gerad replied crossing his arms again.

“HA! Why is that?” Selene sneered.

“Cause I’m older than you.” Gerad stated.

“Big whoop! Still doesn’t mean you have to, G-Link could do it instead. But no you have to be the one to always risk your life, not letting others step up in your place, because you can’t stand the thought of losing any of us, but what about our feelings about losing you?!” Selene cried as tears began to fall down her face. Gerad didn’t answer.

“I don’t want to lose you both. And I don’t want to lose any of my friends.” Selene whispered.

Gerad sighed, “Now you know why I risk my life.”

Selene sniffed and rubbed her eyes, “Well now you’ll know what it’s like to be the one to have to wait.”

Lucius pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to seek patience, “Gerad, it’ll be alright. I think they have enough of a bond for her to be safe. You don’t need to freak out.”

Gerad looked at Lucius who took an involuntary step back from the hostile glare he got. Selene stepped up to Gerad and turned his face to her once more.

“Gerad, please, let me save the man I love.” Selene asked begging him with her eyes to let her, his little sister, out from under his wing.

Gerad sighed, and Selene’s heart wrenched at the pain she heard in that sigh, “Don’t you dare die on me. Promise me Selene.”

Selene smiled at him in understanding, “I promise.”

The others sat back and watched as Lucius walked to Dahrin’s right side and had Selene stand on Dahrin’s left. Dahrin watched in curiosity as Lucius put Selene’s hand over his head and heart.

“Close your eyes.” Lucius ordered.

Selene did as bided and felt herself get lighter.

‘Open your eyes.’ Selene heard Lucius’s voice.

Selene opened her eyes and saw fire swirling all around her, she screamed in fear as the fire licked at her flesh then stopped screaming cause it didn’t burn her. She looked around and saw she was enveloped in an orange shield.

Dahrin appeared out of the flames, but he looked like the one pinned to the wall, “Hi, sparkles. Here to seal me again are you?”

“Who are you?” Selene asked turning to face him.

Black Dahrin laughed, “I’m the Evil Sage’s Spirit. I always liked the name Eshen. So we’ll go with that, sparkles.”

Eshen reached out to stroke her face but the shield repelled him. He cried out at the shock he got and sucked his fingers.

“Leave her alone.” Another Dahrin appeared on the other side of Selene. She turned to face the new comer but it wasn’t her Dahrin. This one had orange glowing eyes instead of the amber ones she longed to see.

“Who are you?” Selene asked him.

“He’s the Spirit Sage’s Spirit. I call him Sprite.” Eshen cackled.

Selene raised her eyebrows at Eshen, clearly this guy was insane. Eshen continued to cackle and Selene turned back to the sage spirit. He returned her curious gaze calmly.

“Where’s my Dahrin?” Selene asked him.

“He is safe.” He answered as he blocked an attack from Eshen who still cackled.

Selene felt her spirit bubble move as the sage spirit moved her behind himself so Eshen couldn’t hurt her.

“I’m here to help, let me out of the bubble.” Selene called to him as he fought.

“If I let you out, you will die.” He answered. He didn’t even glance at her as he answered.

“Well, where is Dahrin, let me go to him.” Selene called out to him.

“You cannot.” The spirit answered.

“Yeah, good ol’ Dahrin is the whole reason we’re doing this.” Eshen answered as he kept slashing at the spirit. The spirit blocked each attack and inflicted wounds every time he attacked. To Selene it seemed the spirit was stronger than Eshen. But this didn’t deter Eshen from attacking, even when the spirit chopped off his right arm.

‘Lucius, why am I even here? The Spirit Sage is winning.’ Selene thought to Lucius.

There was no answer. Selene waited as she watched the fight and Eshen lost his other arm, but more shot out of his torso.

‘Lucius?’ She asked.

Still no answer, she began to get worried.

“Oi, Sparkles, what’s the matter? You don’t like my company?” Eshen asked as the fires dissipated and the spirit bubble disappeared. She landed with a thump onto the ground. Glancing around she didn’t see the spirit. Eshen came and crouched down in front of where she had landed.

“Eshen, what’s going on? Where did the Sage spirit go?” Selene asked starting to panic; she didn’t want to be trapped in here alone with the Evil sage spirit.

Eshen cackled and Selene scooted away from him a little bit, “He’s been gone, I swallowed him long time ago.”

“You’re lying.” Selene said back narrowing her eyes.

“HA! Wanna bet? Dahrin’s gone too. I ate him right after the other sage spirit. Now it’s only me in here.” Eshen said leaning forward onto his hands and knees. He crawled closer to her and she scooted back more. Still smiling insanely he moved his legs up to where he was resting on his heels.

“I still don’t believe you. And even if it’s true I’ll get them back.” Selene said glaring at him.

Eshen reached out his right hand and twirled some of her hair between his fingers, “I always liked you Sparkles.” He jerked and Selene cried out in pain as he pulled her to him by the hair he had in his hand.

She felt something wrap around her body but couldn’t move her head to see what it was because Eshen had her head bent back to look up at him. His tongue slithered out of his mouth and licked her cheek.

Selene grunted in disgust and brought her right hand up and punched him in the nose. Blood spewed and whatever had her loosened as Eshen let go of her hair and grabbed his nose. Selene looked and saw black tendrils wrapped around her middle. She scooted out of them while Eshen was distracted and stood up. She kicked the side of his head before she ran.

Selene tripped when she couldn’t bring her foot she had used to kick Eshen down. She looked back to see Eshen holding her foot. He laughed as he dragged her back. He grabbed her by the throat with his other hand and let go of her foot. Selene grabbed the hand that was on her throat and twisted it. Eshen was overbalanced and he fell. Selene managed to twist out from under him using his momentum to twist his arm around behind his back and pin him face down onto the ground with her knee in the middle of his back.

Eshen cackled at the pain as she twisted his arm to the point of breaking, “Sparkles, I’m impressed, you’ve got spunk. I likes it.”

Selene cried in horror as Eshen’s head twisted completely around to face her. She heard the bones of his neck snap as he grinned up at her. She let go of him and jumped away as he stood up. He turned his head back around the correct way still grinning at her.

“What are you?” Selene gasped out stepping away from him.

“I already told you, I’m the Evil sage spirit, part of it anyways. You see when Ganondorf was sealed you all thought I was with him. That idiot fortunately had a kid on the way before then so I had someplace to go.” Eshen said stepping closer to her.

Selene backed into something that felt like a wall, till it grabbed her. She screamed in surprise as the wall swallowed her arms and legs. She tried to pull her arms free but only managed to get her hands out. She was stuck spread eagle on the wall with no way out.

“Let me go!” Selene cried as Eshen stopped a few feet from the wall.

“Ha! Heck no, you’re far too interesting. Now what shall I do to you first?” Eshen purred as he moved closer. He twirled some of her hair as he smiled at her.

‘Lucius! Anybody!’ Selene screamed in her mind.

A dagger appeared in Eshen’s hand and he slid it along her thigh slicing her pants leg.

“DAHRIN!” Selene cried as loud as she could. She desperately wanted him to save her.

Eshen stopped mid cackle and slowly backed away from her. Selene blinked through her tears and saw Eshen drop the dagger and grab his head.

“NO! Stay put, darn you! I’m in control now.” Eshen screamed.

Selene watched in awe as light erupted from Eshen’s shoulder joint and his arm blew off. He continued to scream as he slowly blew apart. The wall that held Selene dissolved and she fell to the floor.

“You haven’t won; I’ll still be here waiting for the day you slip in control. Just wait Dahrin; I will have you body and mind.” Eshen’s head cried out in defiance and then blew apart. The light slowly faded and Dahrin stood there gasping.

“My thanks, Light Sage.” Selene heard behind her.

She twisted and saw the Spirit sage spirit. He calmly regarded her as she slowly stood up glancing back and forth between him and Dahrin. Dahrin had turned to face them and just waited.

“You’re welcome. Now what?” Selene asked as Dahrin moved closer to them.

“The evil is sealed. You may leave.” The spirit said dissipating.

Selene looked back at Dahrin who had stopped a few feet behind her. Dahrin started to say something but Selene cut him off by running into his arms. Dahrin hushed her sobs as he held her close to him stroking her hair.

“You were so brave.” Dahrin whispered.

Selene choked out a laugh, “You would have done the same for me. Are you going to be normal now?”

“Yeah, Eshen won’t bother us anymore. From now on I’m just the Spirit sage.” Dahrin said tilting her head up to look at him. Selene smiled and kissed him.

‘Selene! Selene, can you hear me?!’ Selene heard Lucius voice in her head rather loudly.

‘Yes, I can hear you now. Why did we lose connection?’ Selene asked him pulling away from Dahrin.

‘I’m not sure, but is everything ok now?’

‘Yes, we fixed things in here.’ Selene answered wrapping her arms around Dahrin again.

‘That’s wonderful. You should come out now. Kelith will need your help in fixing Dahrin.’ Lucius told her gently. Selene closed her eyes and felt herself get light then really heavy. She opened them again and found herself staring at Lucius again.

Lucius let go of her hands and gripped the spear. Dahrin was unconscious, thankfully, as Lucius jerked the spear out. Gerad and Calhan caught Dahrin as he fell and laid him on a mat Kelith had put down. Someone had found his arm and had laid it on the mat as well.

Kelith motioned for Selene to come help and she did as bided, “Help me heal the wound in his chest, then we can move to the arm.”

Selene nodded and gathered her sage energy. She put her hands on Dahrin’s chest just over the wound and they started to pulse. The rest of the group had to look away for the brightness of the light emanating from Selene and Kelith.

Selene gasped in a breath as the wound closed and her light dissipated.  Kelith took a deep breath and started on the arm, Selene followed suit and together they were able to reconnect it.

Dahrin’s breathing became even and Selene smiled then passed out.

 

“And that’s the last I know of, I woke up a few hours later in here, but you’ve been out for almost two days.” Selene concluded the story.

Dahrin was silent as he thought about what she had told him. He didn’t like the fact that Eshen was still in his head and could potentially get loose again.

“Ah, you’re awake. Good.” Gerad said coming up to them followed by everyone else.

“Yeah, I guess.” Dahrin said yawning.

“Well, let me brief you on what we’ve decided.” Gerad said crouching down next to the cot. Dahrin gave him his full attention.

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that everywhere we go ancient monsters tend to pop up?” Gerad asked him.

Dahrin chuckled, “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

“Well, Calhan has a theory about that. Calhan?” Gerad said turning to him.

“From what I can tell, Ganondorf is resurrecting old evils, like he did the previous time. We seem to be only a few steps behind him. We’ve been fortunate so far that the monsters weren’t up to their full strengths. Seeing as how they’ve just been ‘Woken up’ we’ve been able to beat them into retreating for the time being. Sheik managed to get Arachnis to back down, with a challenge to duke it out in four years. G-Link fought Claire, and defeated her shell so Fosrow escaped. From what I know of Fire Elements, once released from a shell they take a few years to recover. And then that brings us to Lara.” Calhan paused turning to Lucius.

“She’ll be one to wait and recover her strength, build her forces. We’ll have a few years.” Lucius answered his silent question.

“So, what you’re getting at is?” Dahrin asked waiting for the other shoe.

“We think this will be how it is everywhere we go. So, for the time being we’ll continue our journey as we have been, like diplomats visiting our neighbors.” Gerad said.

“But, we’ll also be visiting all the temples while we’re there to check things out and make sure no old archrivals of our former selves have popped back up again to seek revenge once more.” Sheik interjected trying to sound spooky; Meria rolled her eyes at him.

Dahrin raised his eyebrows at his best friend and chuckled. Gerad shook his head at Sheik who just grinned back.

Gerad looked at all of his friend’s faces in turn. He came to Selene last and looking her straight in the eyes he said, “So our new mission is to basically save the world.”