Two days, and two nights. Three grids taken, two pillaged. Three hundred were dead, and some two hundred more wounded. Such were the losses sustained by dawn of the third day. The mayor of the city had ordered every living soul evacuated, instead of five-thousand strong, there were less than four hundred left, Mace’s lads from east Hyrule. It could be that these brave farmers would change the fate of this Hylian country, and claim the first milestone of this war. But any who asked the man after would be told simply, “Twas a good start”.
We had been pushed back nearly to the Clock Tower in the center of the city. We had started strong, for they had no way to mount the walls. For ten hours we rained arrows on their masses, but were forced to seek alternatives when we ran short on things to throw down at them. It seemed we dropped the fists of Din down upon these sinful barbarians, but they kept on charging, as if driven by some inexplicable motivation. Greed and prejudice, fuel that must never be underestimated in Gerudo. One gate after another came crashing in, and as we retreated off one wall, I caught a brief glimpse of the empty streets in the grid below. Covered in debris, carcasses and molten tar, I wondered how we could ever save the city, when there was already such carnage as that lying about.
The fighting seemed to last forever, I believed at times that it was torment from the goddesses, that we were being punished. My theory finally escaped me on the dawn of the third day. Despite our odds, our numbers, our condition, I could sense a new flame of spirit kindling in our hyls. Looking around at the boys, sitting beneath the tower, I’d say half of them looked like they were already dead. When we marched into the city, our armor gleamed and we looked like a regiment of proud soldiers. What was left of us now was a ragtag group of exhausted farmers, mentally defeated with no faith left in their country. And I did not blame them then, these boys came from their farms and villages to ensure the vistory, not single-handedly struggle for it. Why fight for a city when its own people had turned their heels and fled before the fighting even began?
All such thoughts, every doubt in those boys’ eyes vanished when Mace approached them. His confidence and his courage never in his life would falter. He addressed his hyls, his voice steady, and full of life.
“Good morning lads”, he began. Everyone looked at him and he could see the defeat and sorrow in their eyes.
“Do any of you know what today is?” He began, walking among them, they were all collapsed and sitting about the tower square.
“Today, is the dawn of the third day of the Carnival of Time”, he looked up at the tower, “Every year the people of Termina celebrate the summer harvest at this time. This is the only place in the Hylian empire that bears any crops that ripen this early”, he looked around and everyone just stared glumly at him, “I know I’ve asked a lot of you, and I know none of you want to defend this city, but it is not only Termina that depends on you to do it. You stand in the last free city in this country. And to hold this city is to protect everything that you cherish. You dream to return home, to your families, and farms and villages. But the peaceful way of life is under attack, if this city falls, than our homes in Hyrule will be the next target”, looking around I could see his words had sunk deep into the hearts of his troops. They knew no other life than that of theirs’ as farmers.
“Soldiers of Hyrule, you defend your country, and your family and your way of life! We need this victory, to protect everything that we have ever known. Even in a distant country, we still fight for as worthy a cause as we would at the threshold of our homes!”
I, Galandrim, a knight of the Hylian court, had never such spirit and such emotion than what I saw in those hyls. Fearlessly they marched for the grid gate, and pulled open the veil that concealed their waiting enemy. Most gallantry in an emotional fighter would fade to despair about now. Looking upon such a daunting force. But I was shocked when the whole lot charged straight at masses of Gerudo and Garo. They fought with more brutality then I had ever seen in my life, and apparently the same applied for the evil army. Perhaps it was ferocity and rage kindled within the souls of these brave boys, or maybe just the aggression they showed on that morning, but before long the enemy host was in full retreat from the city.
I admire Mace, his leadership is like no other hyl I know. His bravery in the face of despair, and his ferocity in battle will be remembered for all time. Perhaps it will be needed soon, for even as we march southwest for home, I cannot set aside the uneasy thought that the war is not over, and that it is just beginning.