Escape754Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAZxNxeq3Xx
Linkle turned around as the sound of yells reached her ears, and she found four Gerudo attacking each other, and other Gerudo around them. Maybe they got into a fight about who's shift was next, or it was a sparring match, whatever it was, it got the attention of the captain, who stayed out the conflict herself. Linkle stumbled back as the world briefly darkened, and followed a line of yellow to the path leading out of the village. If her eyes weren't deceiving her, then there was a person glowing yellow, running out of town, but when the world resumed being lit up, she saw an outfit, faint blue and a little white, but she tried not to think about it. She returned her attention to her flock, and getting them fed, though she was hungry, too, now that the misery she woke up with faded.
"There you guys are, that's breakfast!" Linkle always split the meals for them into sacks, so she didn't have to worry about throwing them too much, and could just focus on emptying the bag, "Speaking of which, I-"
Linkle turned to see a lot more guards, way more infighting than earlier, everyone was hitting indiscriminately, "Man, those guys are stupid."
"No kidding." a calm, collected voice added.
Linkle jumped back and turned to find no one, "Okay, look, I know I heard some-" Linkle felt something soft land on her, and her eyes fell to the cloak at her feet. She looked up and found two red eyes watching her, "Who are you?"
"Just returning your property." the voice whispered, mildly mischievous, there was a plan, "Well, go on, don it, if you're worthy of taking fate into your own hands."
There wasn't just a plan, there was an offer. Linkle grabbed the cloak and wriggled her arms into it, she looked up and could see crinkles around the eyes, the person was smiling.
Her mysterious visitor landed before her and pointed at the captain, who watched the battle, "Focus, look at her with new eyes."
Linkle suddenly found the world go dark again, and the urging whisper of whoever was with her broke the stillness as hands clasped her shoulders, "Fear not the shadows, embrace the darkness, for it is but your own shadow."
Linkle clenched her teeth, and allowed the dark world to stay, "Why is that one yellow?"
"I think you know." was the determined, hissed reply. Two hands, blue, in this view, clasped her wrist and Linkle held back a reaction. Linkle allowed herself to be turned to face the masked visitor, who was light blue.
"Who are you?" Linkle inquired, vision returning to normal.
"Sheik, survivor of the Sheikah, I work alone, I walk alone...my companion is my sole shadow, ever since the Mentor and I parted."
Linkle watched Sheik, and was offered two gauntlets, "Umm...what are those?"
Sheik placed one leather gauntlet into her hands, and held up an arm. Sheik was wearing one of them, and to Linkle's surprise, a swift blade darted out, then retracted. That same look was in Sheik's eye, something fierce and destructive, but was that merely a shadow cast in light of recent events?
"Umm...I don't know." Linkle let the Sheikah push the other device into her hand, "I never expected this."
"I fear that oftentimes we must execute with only basic knowledge...but I do pity you, having this thrust upon you, this is akin to what you wanted, but is this the incarnation you wanted? What would you trade for Hyrule to be free from Ganondorf?"
"I-I...wouldn't...there's no trade, there ought to be no trade, it's a given!"
"Right! You know that this...this is what...this is what it comes down to, it's not something I take likely, it's best to...measure twice and cut once...I've measured, it's best this way."
"Who is she, what has she done?"
"Removing her will disrupt the chain of command." Sheik turned to leave, but paused a moment, "It...often helps to remember why you're doing what you do. I'll be watching from here."
Linkle turned and focused her vision until the world was dark again, and found the captain walking back to the building built into the ground beneath Linkle. She took a deep breath and felt herself settle into a crouch, then pounced. She dove towards the Gerudo, who smirked at her on her way down. Linkle felt the gauntlets with her fingers, rubbing the top of the palms and shaking her wrist. The Gerudo smiled and let Linkle crash into her. She jumped up and let Linkle's momentum fuel a roll, which ended with Linkle on the ground, her shoulders pressed back.
"Leave her to me!" the captain announced, pulling Linkle up by the hood.
Linkle wriggled free and spun around her fist aimed at the Gerudo's stomach, head down to keep hood over her face.
The Gerudo stepped back three times, anticipating the swings, then grabbed Linkle's arms, her right hand over left, and pulled Linkle's arms over each other, then kicked her feet out from under her, grabbed Linkle by the shoulders, and pressed her to the wall.
"Wow, you're promising!" the Gerudo chimed, then pulled Linkle away from the wall and shoved her to the building, "Keep your head down, Grasshopper!"
Linkle gasped as she was shoved at the door, and fell against it, "What kind of set up is this?!"
"Do you want to be the new resident punching bag? Stop asking questions, and move!" the captain ordered.
"Well, what, you're going to lock me up?"
"What did I say about questions?"
"What are you planning, are you going to lock us all-ah!" Linkle's ears rung and her face stung, the captain turned around to face her men.
"Didn't I tell you I'd handle-" Linkle jumped up and grabbed at the woman's neck, but the height difference meant it took longer to secure her grip, and she was knocked to the ground, "Don't!"
Linkle's eyes widened at the sight of spears poised at her, "But ma'am-" a Gerudo began.
"No, she lives, she's coming with me, and don't anyone make me repeat myself!" the captain's finger was pointed at her soldiers, but it lowered to Linkle faster and sharper than her hand fell across Linkle's face.
Linkle rubbed her thumb over her hot, stinging face and flicked her glance to the blood on her thumb, then back at the Gerudo, "I'm going to get you for that." the fallen Sheikah vowed. Fallen, and her time as one cut short.
"Oh, I'll teach you, Sheikah, exactly why you won't...several reasons you won't, in fact!" Linkle felt her resolve fail as the Gerudo captain loomed over her, and swiftly brought her up, "Now, get up, we've got a cell with your name on it!"
"That's funny!" Linkle spat, "The name's Linkle, and I'm a Sheikah!"
The Gerudo chuckled mirthfully at Linkle's struggle, "Wow, your spirit just flared back up, then, didn't it? Well, resilient spirit or not-"
"Unbreakable." Linkle corrected, her face mashed against the wall.
"Won't that be determined, though?"
"I'm the Hero...'determine' that!"
"Resistance is futile, Hero, so let's calm down before we see if your face is like your spirit." the Gerudo turned her around and pressed her against the wall. Linkle silently grimaced as her shoulders connected with the rock wall, "Look at me, no, really look at me! Look at them! One of these things is not like the other, the sooner you realize that, the better of both of us can be!"
Linkle was befuddled by the Gerudo's choice of words, wasn't there something in papers where two pictures had differences in them? She couldn't help connect the phrase with the memory, which calmed her down, but when she used her Sheikah powers to "see" the Gerudo, she saw that she was blue!
Sheik was blue, one of the bystanders was blue, somehow she could see the intentions of those around her, and this captain meant her now harm, not that it didn't happen anyways.
Linkle let her shoulders slump, put on the ruse she'd worn so often, "Fine."
She actually did feel dispirited, somehow, maybe she was good at acting, or maybe deep down, she did feel beaten, it helped that she was trusting a Gerudo, who beat her up just to tell her that she's on Linkle's side, as much as she hoped it was true—not that she had a choice—she doubted her luck. She felt betrayed by Sheik, most importantly, and like she had taken a risk just to get trapped, and now she was useless. She cast her glance around and tried to figure out some escape from here, but so far there was nothing. Then she heard a jingle.
Keeping her head down, she looked under her shoulder and found a set of keys on the Gerudo captain, but didn't know how she could keep them from being seen. It was, she decided, worth the risk. Linkle looked up, squeezed out a few tears from the hopelessness she could have stumbled into, and looked eyes with the Gerudo. Linkle let her hand drag against the wall, the brought her other arm to wipe her face. Her fingers found something cold and solid, so she sniffled as loudly as she could, stopping all at once so the Gerudo bumped into her.
Her finger hooked into the key ring and she lifted it up off the unnoticeable hook, which she traced with her thumb to find it curved down, making lifting a very risky move, but it was a success, and now the next step was to not drop the keys in her fist, she silently braced for a shove, and was disappointed, as all she got was a simple push.
"Okay, this is your cage, take a look around and get settled, it'll be a while until you can play the Hero again!" the Gerudo pushed Linkle inside the cell and left her. Linkle wasn't going to unlock the door, first she was going to see if there was some clue or something in her.
"Take a look...well, here goes nothing." Linkle sighed after an extensive search of the room, and found a yellow mark on the wall, pointing at some part of the wall over the rags thrown on a stone that she concluded was suppose to be an excuse for a bed, a very out of place area to put a switch, perfect for hiding form anyone looking for a way out.
Linkle turned around and found no one behind her, so got on the bed and pressed the wall. She heard something like rock scraping rock, and with her power she saw a yellow object on a wall, perhaps a switch to close the door. Linkle used her normal vision again and found that it was a well hidden path, cloaked in shadow.
Linkle put the key in the lock, turned it, and left it ajar, then ran into the hall that opened up, and pulled the level, when she let go, it went up, and the door of rock went down, and she made her escape.
"Captain." a blonde girl jumped up and saluted the Gerudo captain, who smirked as her friend jumped off the flatboat.
"Hello, Captain." she replied.
"Thank you, Captain."
"No, thank you, Captain."
"Captain." the blonde stated.
"Captain." the Gerudo confirmed.
"Captain?" the other inquired.
"Uh-huh, Captain." was the almost promised reply.
"Captain!" the blonde danced.
"Yeah, yeah, anyways, Captain Aryll, I've secured her!"
"And your keys are missing." Aryll pointed out.
"Indeed, they are, she actually lifted herself, I didn't need to drop them myself."
"Well, Malron, she sounds promising!"
"That's what I told her." Malron replied with a smile, "Unfortunately I had to hit her, a lot."
"Well, when in Gerudo territory, you know?"
"I still feel kind of bad about it though...at the very least, I feel bad that we had to meet like that."
"You know, I hear you don't really know a Gerudo until you've had a fist fight, and a few rounds of target practice with her." Aryll remarked.
"Ladies." a voice from the shadow called out, and they found the red eyed blonde who'd sent their target in.
"Oh, wow, she's going to be so angry when she finds you two here!" Aryll laughed, "Especially you, Sheik, you tossed her in with Hidden Blades that don't work!"
"Well, Malron said she could handle being ambushed, so I let her go for it." Sheik stretched her arms and sighed, "She's actually quite good, sprang forward like she'd been doing it all her life."
"That's good!" Aryll patted the covered object on the boat, "She'll need a lifetime of experience, so if she handled the basics, let's she how she can cope with this!"
"You know it'll hurt if she gets hit in there." Malron frowned.
"Well...it doesn't hurt that bad, the hardest part is when you're ejected from the glorified sarcophagus." Aryll crossed her arms, "And she handled you, right—wait, did you see her after you locked her up? Exactly how badly did you throw her around? What if she's in tears?She isn't a professional, she-"
"She gets thrown around by Malron's lackey's all the time." Sheik pointed out, then turned to a contemplative Malron, "What is it?"
Malron clenched her jaw, "I...left without paying much attention, and she was silent, but had the keys. But if she's alright emotionally, she could get a lot of physical pain in that, usually the one going in there had experience, trained on the outside world, but...what we're talking about has never been done, to gain experience from that thing, and to...apply it to the real world, to reverse it's purpose! I've said my piece, honestly, I'm concerned for Linkle, I tried not to be rough, honest, but she almost got herself killed!"
"It's understood," Sheik nodded, and clasped Malron's shoulder, "you did your best to keep her alive and let her break out, now all we can do is wait for her—and I sense her presence closing in on us."
"You called her-" Aryll cut herself off and stared at Malron.
"She volunteered information, I disclosed nothing to her about anything, didn't reach out to her, I remained a 'model' Gerudo captain." Malron let out a sigh and turned to Sheik, "You sense her closing in yet? That's a maze she's running through."
"As long as she uses Hawkeye, she can see the path forward." Sheik remarked, "It'll take time, but so long as she keeps a clear mind and watches the walls, she should arrive soon."
"How soon until Grasshopper arrives?" Malron inquired.
"Soon." Sheik breathed, "We have three marching in fast!"
Silence displaced the conversation as Aryll disappeared into the cabin of the ship, Sheik jumped to the blind side of the little boat and held onto the side, and Malron pretended to inspect the boat.
"Sir!" they greeted.
"What brings you down here?" Malron stood up and regarded them silently.
"The prisoner's escaped!" was their message.
"What? How did she escape?" Malron patted her side and looked at the red headed group, "My keys are gone, that Sheikah must have help on the inside! Do we know why there was infighting earlier? Did you not find any Sheikah? I told you if suspected anyone to turn them over to me!"
"Only the blonde Hylian girl, Sir!"
"Well, what are you standing around for? Conduct a search here, flush the mole from our ranks, present them to me! I've been so bored recently, I could pick a fight here just for thrills. After you return to tell me if we have a Sheikah in our ranks, report to me, and then go find her! Go to Castle Town, don't raise a panic, don't talk to anyone, just put her face on walls, and a bounty on her head, and then come back!" Malron ordered, then turned around, her hands gesturing around her, "Does this place look like it'll excavate itself?! No? I didn't think so!"
"Sir, yes, Sir!"
"And send General Aveil my congratulations on ascending the ranks, tell her I'll personally drag her down once I can finally be stationed somewhere else!"
"As you wish, Captain!"
Malron turned around, climbed onto the boat, and looked down at Sheik, "Peekaboo, they gone?"
"Yes...and don't call me that." Sheik replied before climbing up and knocking on the cabin, "We're clear!"
"Ha, ha, I wasn't calling you that, but now you mention it, that's a fine handle for a proud Sheikah warrior!" Malron grinned.
"I...would prefer not, thank you." Sheik muttered.
Malron smirked and thought of ways to pass the time until Linkle showed up, but came up empty. Silence was all there was, until Linkle showed up.
Linkle walked through the narrow passages with nothing but a lantern to light her path. She often came across torches she could light, which was handy when she had to leave her lantern at a distant ladder, climb up, walk across a board, and find the lever just within the twilight glow that faded into darkness as she left the torch on the other end of the gate.
She thought she heard whispers, but it turned out to be her own breath. Linkle admitted to being scared, armed with nothing but her fists, but she pushed the fears aside and thought of something else, like the questions she'd ask that captain, and imagined meeting that smirking idiot and punching her in the face as a greeting.
She let out a sigh that echoed off the walls, and ran back to the light, under the gate, and grabbed the lantern she found. It's warm glow reminded her of home, in a time when it was a home, and not just where she, her flock, and her memories dwelt.
She caught her breath as she heard something, and left her lantern while she peeked around a corner, then stepped out as she saw an end the passage open up.
She heard someone barking orders to find something, and when the captain brought up a bounty on "her" head, she figured that she was the one she referred to. She was still blue, Linkle found, and there was another blue figure on the other side of some boat, and a glimpse of blue was barely visible though a window in the boat's cabin, maybe they were working together, but all the talk of catching someone made her uneasy.
She returned her vision to normal and noticed that the one on the other side of the boat was the one called Sheik, and she saw some sort of plan form, that somehow involved whoever was in the boat, the captain, presumably, they were on a boat, which meant, if the Gerudo planned Linkle's escape, and if Sheik planned her capture, then it was all a journey, but where the road would take her, she didn't know.
Linkle crossed ledge, which she had to catch with her hands, and found the ladder. The trio she approached turned to find her, everyone but a masked Sheik smiled, "Hey, glad to see Malron didn't rough you up to death!" the blonde chirped.
"Get in the box." Sheik bobbed her head to the boat.
"Ah-" Linkle coughed in surprise, "excuse me? I just got here! At least fill me in, what's going on? Why are you working with her?!"
"We're pressed for time, and Sheik's on edge." the blonde explained, "That's just the way Sheik is, though, to be honest, I think being away from Impa has the effect of making one question themselves."
"Impa was here?" Linkle had heard rumors, not much, but enough to know that that was one of the greatest names in Sheikah circles.
"She was my mentor," Sheik explained, "though she was the Mentor in the Sheikah community, she mentored me personally for longer than normal, I am the last Sheikah to enter the tribe, so we grew especially close, and then she told me we had to cover more ground, and that required splitting up while we assume our own roles in our plan to topple the Gerudo."
"Isn't she a Gerudo?" Linkle pointed at the captain, "You're their captain, you're Malron, right?"
"Yes, I'm Malron...we'll explain on the way," Malron nodded, "we don't have a lot of time to chat, sit in the cabin with Captain Aryll and wait, alright?"
Linkle scowled at her, "I don't like Gerudo...but I'm not sure how I feel about this."
"Trust me, don't trust me, like me, don't like me," Malron held her hands up as though testing the weights of some object, "really, as long as we take out the Grandmaster, isn't that what matters?"
"Grandmaster?" Linkle repeated.
"Questions later, I'll draw their attention, then we'll be off, hey, you wanted to hit me, right?" Malron smirked, "We won't shove you into the coffin right away, then."
"Coffin?"
"Explanations later—guards, here they are!" Malron turned to Linkle, "What; put your hood up! Come on, I can't take them both!"
Sheik rolled her shoulders and Malron swung at her twice, but missed. They rehearsed these punches.
Sheik winced under her cowl as she prepared to strike Malron's face. She hit just hard enough that Malron stumbled back, and Aryll—head and tricorn lowered, grabbed Malron's shoulder. Sheik grabbed an arm and helped Aryll pull her onto the boat. They turned Malron face down, and Sheik took her arms and held them up, her knee in Malron's back.
"Take the wheel!" Sheik cried, and threw a ball over at the crowd of Gerudo, who collapsed as a white blast engulfed them. As the light faded, Sheik got off Malron, turned her around, and sat next to Linkle, who was thoroughly bewildered.
"Having fun yet, Grasshopper?" Malron smiled, holding the side of her face Sheik hit.
Author's Notes: Update time, update time! The diving bell had to be one of my most favorite things in AC: BF, but I didn't like the sharks...the eels were okay.
I hope you guys didn't hate Malron too much at first in this...and that you saw "Grasshopper" and maybe wondered if I was combining Malron's MM counterparts, hinting at Malron (from my story Linkle's Great Adventure)because I wanted the audience to have that moment where they pause and their brains wonder if that is Malron...if they read Linkle's Great Adventure before now.
