Chapter 2-Enter the Darkness
"My lungs constricted, the evils that remained wringing them with carnage strength, hissing their urges for me to give up. To let myself wither. Die. Die. "
-Deep Blue: By Luna-Nayru
I watched my feet tread across the barren lifeless ground. I stared at the ground and nothing more. The ground looked as though it wanted to speak and tell of all the horrible things that had happened upon it. It wanted to erase the memory of bloodstains still left from battles fought. It wanted to express the agony of fires that raged across the plains consuming everything. It wanted to tell of how it hasn't felt the suns rays upon its face in years. Yet it remained silent.
I forced myself to look up at my surroundings. The Skeletos rode alongside us, keeping everyone in line. Along the horizon there was no sun to be seen for miles. All of it covered in Ganondorf's clouds of evil. It was almost his way of keeping the joy from all of us. His way of hiding all the good things in life and showing everything evil.
Further ahead I looked upon a hill and saw the silhouettes of half built towers emerging over the top of a wall seemingly still under construction. People's outlines could be seen upon the towers gashing away at things with pickaxes. Deformed figures patrolled the top of the walls watching for trouble. The black lightning of Ganondorf's evil flashed all around. Rubble of old buildings now destroyed could be seen. A sign faced me as we approached our destination, "The Glorious Empire of Ganondorf". I spit upon the ground at that instant. I soon regretted it. A Skeletos saw my action of defiance and readied his whip. The entire line was commanded to stop and watch. He approached, not being to show expression on his boned face. If he could show an expression I knew what it would tell of. His lips would be curled into a smile, anticipating the moment. His eyes would tell of bloodthirst. His fingers would grip tightly around the handle of his whip as he would pull it back prepared to punish me. His whip was brought right across my nose and mouth. I could feel where the marks were left from the glass tipped whip ripping into my skin. I felt something warm and sticky begin to run down my face and over the corner of my mouth. The Skeletos appeared satisfied with the single beating, and the line was ordered to get moving again. I took my shoulder and wiped the blood from my mouth. A frown curled across my face. I wished I could spit the blood that seeped into my mouth.
We climbed up the steep hill to where we would be housed for, perhaps, the rest of our lives. Few guards paced on either side of the dirt road marching around. Moblins stopped what they were doing to glare at us as we went by. Their skin always looked as though they had contracted a horrible disease of some sort. Their rotten and crooked teeth were shown as they smiled to the thought of having more slaves to push around. Some took their clubs and ran up to smash the slaves in the heads. The short creatures held leashes in their clawed hands which restrained their Wolfos. They looked up at us snarling and gnashing their teeth. The Wolfos lunged and foamed at the mouth wanting to tear any Hyrulian apart. A horn could be heard being blown twice in a row as chains clinked. The wooden doors squeaked as they were opened for the slave train to pass through. Heavily armored Skeletos stood on both sides of the doors. Spears in their hands and swords sheathed in their holsters.
I passed by them and through the doors on the partially built wall. It was horrible inside. Buildings were crushed that had apparently once been houses for Hylian families. Bodies still lined the ground unmoved from when they had suffered death. Some still had arrows jutting out of their beat up frames. Along the sides of the dirt road going through the middle of this small encampment were spears with heads of the many races of Hyrulians. Some had already rotted away to skulls. Hylians could be seen their tounge slipping out of the side of their mouths. Some wore helmets showing their army origins. Zoras, Gorons, even small children could be seen pierced upon the ends of these poles. It must serve as a reminder... A reminder of the fate of those who defy Ganondorf. People stopped and turned from what they were doing to look upon the newcomers. Every single face was wrinkled from the work and covered in dirt. No one smiled, they had frowns completely burned into their faces. Their hair was mangled and filled with mud. Men and women, children and the elderly, all of them were seen at work here. Some little ones wept, lost and confused as to what was going on. It reminded me of the children in our village. Every single one of them had been executed during the raid, probably put upon spears in establishments like this.
Even as I looked upon the faces of each single individual, I couldn't help but notice how every one of them looked the same. The same look wrinkled their faces. The same tears poured from their eyes. The same mud dirtied them up. The same evil had effected them all. A fear pierced into my heart. Soon enough I would look like all of them. As the heaviness and gloom weighed down upon me, a sight caught my eye which I did not expect to see. A bright color of purple stood out against the dark purple of the clouds , droplets of rain, and dirt ground. The bright purple hung down from one of the slaves head. Their hair was not filthy like the rest. The small frame wielded a large pickaxe. It looked like it was too heavy for the tiny person but they swung it like a feather. They smashed it upon the rocks, picking off pieces of stone. Undistracted from their work they continued to swing. But as the slave train grew close they dropped their pickaxe and tossed their long hair from their eyes. She turned and looked on the slave train looking into each of them. When she came to me she stopped. Her eyes matched the light purple of her hair and her dark skin made the purple stand out even more. With few patches of dirt smothering it. She continued to look at me for awhile. She almost looked like she was trying to read me. Quickly she winked and turned to her work. I was quite confused by it but continued walking.
At last we came to a halt and were untied. I rubbed the red marks on my wrists from where the bindings pressed in. We were divided into men and women and brought into seperate shelters. Small places. It appeared as though there was barely enough room for each of the slaves. The room held no beds and was completely bare. A wooden floor, wall, and ceilings was all this place consisted of. the Skeletos standing at the front of the room began to hiss, "Listen up! I'm going to speak the rules once, and only once. You are now a slave to the Great Ganondorf. You will do as you are told, or suffer severely. You will recieve two 'meals' a day. One when you wake up and one before you sleep at night. Do not try and escape! There are many guards surrounding the perimeter of this camp and you will be punished when caught. And you will be caught. The other slaves are coming in for their evening meals now. You will be expected to join them. Now go do what everyone else is doing and leave my sight, pathetic creatures." With that the people turned and exited out the door they had entered. A bell was rang from a tower somewhere and I saw everyone drop their tools they were working with and trudged off in the same direction. Not a word could be heard. It was whisper quiet. All gathered to a charred, littered building. Skeletos stood on a balcony throwing moldy bread down to the people. They all rushed to grab as much as they could. People fought each other for the hard crumbs. It was apparent food was hard to obtain here. They rushed with a look of an animal in their eyes. They had been turned to animals. Animals with no free will. Animals with little soul or spirit left in them. The women clawed at each other. The men scooped food up into their mouth along with the dirt. Each of them crazed and wild. What was this thing Ganondorf could do to people? There was an evil in him I could not understand yet. But soon it would become clear to me.
I was not interested in the food. I stood on the tips of my feet scouring the crowd for the one with purple hair. I looked back and forth but could find no sign of her. I thought back on the moment, which was not too long ago. When she winked at me it was a different wink. As if she was trying to catch my attention, not show a sign of attraction. As I still looked I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face purple eyes outlined by a dark shade of brown. "I've been looking for you," she said with a half smile on her face, "come," She simply said to me. As she turned it was apparent the half smile on her face was a desperate one. It felt impossible to smile in a place as evil as this.
The woman took me behind one of the buildings cautiously. Once behind she looked to the left and right looking for any guards. Fiercely she slammed me against the stone wall. Her purple eyes stared into mine but with the same crazed look of the others. Her face was that of an animal as she glowered at me. Her nails dug into my shoulders as she whispered frantically, "I need your help!" The puzzled look on my face must have responded instead of words, for she continued.
"I need your help to escape! This place is awful! Look what its done to me already!"
"I'd be glad to help if you would release me first"
The mysterious woman lost the furocious look in her eyes and back away from me. She put her hand to her forehead taking a deep breath.
"Sorry 'bout that.." Her voice changed as soon as the expression on her face did. She spoke with an accent I had not heard before.
"It's alright."
"O yes, I didn't even introduce myself. Sorry 'bout that." She extended her hand to shake mine, "The name's Kimyatta of Ascilia. You can just call me Kimyatta."
"Ascilia? I have never heard of a place named quite like that."
"'Eh', well, few have. It's a small island off the southern coast. It's where this accent comes from. Alot of dangerous sea creatures like the water around our island so we don't get too many visitors. Well, that is 'till the day the sea creatures went on a rampage. They came upon our land and killed many. I don't know how many survived but those who did were taken away to this horrid place. But that don't matter. What does matter is us escapin' from 'ere."
"Right, about that, I do hope you have a plan arranged? One doesn't merely walk out of here."
"Honey, I've been plannin' this getaway from the second I got locked up in here."
"Well, what is it?"
"Hold on, hold on, don't get all frustrated with me now. You see there's a big ol' slimy swamp on the other side of the back wall of this place. You probably noticed the walls were constructed quickly, in a rush. Easy to break through with the right stuff. I've got a few otha good hearted people left in this madhouse, willing to help us out. Now breakin' through the walls won't be a quiet task so we'll have to be quick on our feet. Hopefully we'll lose 'em in the swamps."
"Sounds workable. What would I have to do?"
"You're the one who breaks open the wall."
"Me?!"
"Yes, you'll have assistance from some other people. They'll meet you at the wall. I buried the hammers and axes in front of the weakest spot on the wall I could find. Look for a big mound of dirt."
"What will you be doing the whole time we are taking down the wall?"
"Diversion. Quick and simple to cause some confusion. Once you have the wall down don't wait for me, just run. I'll be out soon enough."
As she finished those words another echoing bell rang throughout the encampment.
Kimyatta winked again as she said, "Tomorrow night, hun."
With that she turned and ran around the building.
I walked to the housing building along with everyone else, my mind in another world. I found a spot on the floor and lie there. What I was living what was like evil nightmares. Like a war that didn't end. Like a pain that didn't stop. Like an evil corruption. Like an empty hope of battle. Unknown to me, it was not 'like' that. These horrible things were yet to happen.
