The Mines of Serpential
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"The Mines of Serpential", Chapter 1


The Mines of Serpential

The First Story in the "Demon's Prayer" Trilogy

By: Afterlyfe


This is the author, Afterlyfe, and I wish to say a few things before you go on reading this. This trilogy (A Demon's Prayer) is supposed to expose the darker side of Hyrule. I will say many things about the Triforce that's. Different, shall we say. I want to get the idea in people's heads that referring to any mortal as pure evil is a mistake. This fan fiction will be less black and white than most fan fiction, which is why I personally like the story. This is the tale of the age of wicked angels and righteous demons. Enjoy, and I hope that maybe a few people will think about life at a bit different angle.

"A flower for your vanity, a penny for your thoughts about the world's insanity and how we've gotten lost... And fake a smile as we all say good-bye... Say a prayer for recognition, kiss the ones you love, gather up the ammunition, sigh for all the lost... Raise a glass for ignorance, drink a toast to fear. The beginning of the end has come, that's why we all are here... Good-bye..."

--Jars of Clay, 'Goodbye, Goodnight'

Chapter One: Sudden Shock

Silbera stopped short, the fur on her neck standing on end. Her dove wings spread tentatively. "Link..." Link paid no attention. He balanced carefully on the ledge leading deeper into the cave. Silbera was really a replacement of a fairy for him, though she was much larger and intelligent. But she nagged him. She was a large black cat with silver wings, symbols of the moon crested in several places. Her face grew concerned. Link never listened to her.

Link had heard something, and that was his only reason for venturing into the cave. Silbera angrily thought that hearing was always the reason for this kind of thing. Now Link had thought he saw a Lizalfos. Silbera thought that was ridiculous. Lizalfos didn't live in this part of the country. Sure, they lived underground, but... How could Link be so unreasonable? Silbera turned into her cat form, the one she used around other people to avoid attention. She meowed loudly in disapproval.

"Please, Silbera, I just want to check this out," Link replied with a grunt, clambering down some rocks. He had been wandering in here for a while. Link wondered if he should turn back before he got lost. But before that decision came, he heard it again. A loud chirr and squawk. Definitely a Lizalfos. Link stepped over a rock to try and see if he could chase it down.

"We must leave!" Silbera gasped, turning around yearningly.

"Just a minute, I want to see if the Lizal--" Link said no more. In front of his face, breathing harshly with breath that smelled like rotten meat, was the Lizalfos. Its sword was pointed at Link's throat. It licked its chops then growled. Several spears came out of the dark. Link looked frantically around for Silbera, but she had left with a shriek. Link felt his arms being jabbed bluntly, so he turned back to the several Lizalfos surrounding him. They all had different armor than the ones he had seen. Maybe Ganondorf had supplied them with different armor. The one with the leather armored tunic hissed, "What's this one supposed to be?"

"Dressed differently..."

One of them shrilly squawked, "Look at its ears!" It grappled for his ears, snatching one in its claws. Link yelped as it roughly yanked it into the light from their lanterns. They seemed amused by this and started trying to find other ways to make him yell. But before they did much of that, one with heavy metal armor and a helmet said gruffly, "This is no time to fool around." He pushed the lantern into Link's face to see him better. The creature nodded with a sound of approval. Link stood back because the light hurt his eyes. A few chuckled. The armored one snarled, "Shut up! Bring this one to the king along with the other prisoner. I have no idea why this one's here. Maybe just some extra entertainment, mmm?" Link was jabbed again with a spear. Link tried to speak.

"Uh, who's the other prisoner?"

"Who said you could talk?" Snarling, a Lizalfos looked as though it was ready to give Link a scar across his chest. Obviously this one was used to abusing prisoners. The armored one snarled back.

"You keep your dirty claws off of him! It's like you to kill the prisoner before brought to the king, but not when I'm here." The one that meant to slash Link got a slash instead. It screamed, but listened afterward.

Link was dragged deeper still into the cave. He tried to loosen the Lizalfos' grip on his arms, but they hissed threats at him. The small amount of light let him only vaguely see the gate which opened in front of him. Obviously, Link thought, the armored one was his only chance to stay alive. His mind swam, trying to think of what he should do. He nearly ignored his surroundings, which were amazing. There was a dim light coming from hundreds of lanterns in a huge open cave. Paths led to even deeper areas, and a huge rock pillar, appearing to be a fossilized tree trunk, was evidently the center of the city. Link became dizzy. All that were there were Lizalfos and shadow lizards called Drakles. Drakles were black, dog-sized demons that were normally slow to anger. The walked on four feet, unlike the Lizalfos, but they did speak English. Link knew, however, there would probably be other kinds of lizards. More dangerous ones existed.

Link was pulled roughly onto a few stairs that led up to a stone platform. There, to meet them, were a dozen other armored Lizalfos. They were crowded around someone or something large. A few of them looked up, but looked back to their business. A Lizalfos nipped Link, telling him to "stop struggling so."

"Hey watch it! Jest 'cuz yeh outnumber me... Ow!" Link looked over to the crowd of Lizalfos, a little surprised. A man. A huge man, who towered over even the tallest if the Lizalfos. But there were too many for the man to fight. A Lizalfos dragged a huge sword out and ordered others to be melt it down for armor. Link stared. He knew that sword. Ganondor-- "You filthy snakes! Keep off my sword, blast it! That thing's genuine silver..."

"Shut up, Dragmire! Nothing's yours anymore!! Not until the money comes." The largest Lizalfos snarled. Link was pulled closer, so he could just barely see Ganondorf's face in the light. Link had never seen that sort of expression on Ganondorf. It was bewildered, furious and helpless at the same time. Blood trickled from his mouth. Ganondorf had seen Link, but paid no attention to him at all.

"Dang it, I came here to tell you why it ain't here. The money ain't coming. I don't have it. Listen, even if I had any money, it wouldn't be anything near to what I promised. I tell yeh, I was plannin' on having it..."

"Save your excuses!" The Lizalfos looked ready to tear Ganondorf apart, but held that back and turned to Link. "What's this?" The creature snatched him by the shirt and yanked him up to its face. It hissed disapprovingly. "Looks dumb. Why didn't you kill it when you found it? The miserable animal would be better off." Link fumed, but didn't dare object. Dumb indeed...

"I was thinking that the public would approve of some more entertainment," the armored one explained. The one he spoke to must've been a captain.

"You don't think! He's a weasel! Not worth anything!"

"There have been slave-selling rings developing..."

"The king doesn't approve of those yet. He doesn't trust humans, especially the outlaws. What were you thinking?" The armored one's eyes narrowed.

"What's your name, boy?" Link was trembling, looking at Ganondorf. He didn't hear the Lizalfos. "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" It screamed. Link wrenched back as far as he could with the guards' restraint. He stammered meekly.

"L-Link."

"Curse you, Ikirae. You're not supposed to question the hostages until..." The Captain stopped short, its eyes gleaming gold. The armored Lizalfos named Ikirae continued firmly.

"Questions of these sorts have nothing to do with it. Don't you recognize the name? Or is the great Trefnil unable to remember?" Ikirae grinned, baring its teeth. Trenfil scowled.

"Spill it, scum."

"Oh, I shouldn't have to tell you. Ganondorf, what the heck is matter with you? You've been so quiet," Ikirae said sarcastically with a cruel smile. Ganondorf ignored him and tried to loosen the ropes around his wrists. Trefnil furiously barked out to the other Lizalfos to actually guard him. "Oh come now," Ikirae continued, speaking to Ganondorf, "be reasonable. You know who Link is, correct? Tell Trefnil for us, like a good prisoner." Ganondorf muttered incoherently, but refused to speak. Ikirae was slow to anger, yes, but he had no patience for Ganondorf. He raced over and slashed Ganondorf across the face, screaming, "IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, YOU'LL COOPERATE!" Ganondorf moaned and glared hazily at the Lizalfos, breathing heavily. Blood rushed down in streams. He gulped, then began.

"Link... He's a Triforce Keeper... Not a lot different than me... An enemy, but I doubt there's anybody who ain't... He had... Stopped me from claiming Hyrule..."

"That's not the information I'm looking for. Wasn't he the one who killed several of our captains along with soldiers?"

"Yes? No? Maybe... I dunno, heck, I never knew him..."

"You didn't need to know him," Ikirae shook his head and snarled. "You gave our best warriors miserable armor and sent them out into battle as if they were attack dogs. You promised so much money, sire... We gave our warriors to you and what do you do with them?? Give them scrap metal and expect them to live! And he killed them!" Ikirae pointed to Link, then subsided in a mumble to some awaiting Eustre behind them. Eustre were dinosaur-like creatures that would be called, by humans, raptors. They are very intelligent and they sell precious items for a living. They adore anything shining. This often leads to their deaths. "Go ahead and take anything valuable they have. Sell it off if you like. We own the weapons, and anything found that could be used to fight will be melted down or kept for future battle or customers... Go on..." The Lizalfos backed away and the Eustre pounced. They instantly ripped anything off like swords, bows and arrows, or leather packs. Three clambered on top of Ganondorf, one of them struggling with his earrings, the other two searching his belt. Link had only two, both were searching his leather packs at his belt. One found the bag of rupees and had to fight the other for it. The other got to claim the Deku Nuts and a red potion, which it tasted, but snarled at the foul taste and shattered the jar on the ground in its anger. The three on Ganondorf fared better. Being a king, he had lots of jewelry and useful weapons. The Eustre on his head finally managed the earrings off, then snatched up the sun-shaped headpiece. The earrings were red and dull, but it enjoyed the headpiece. The other two found chain necklaces and hundreds of rupees, along with quite a bit worth of Gerudo currency.

The Lizalfos were about to escort Link and Ganondorf to their king, but a noise of whimpering began. Two Eustre had begun fighting for the headpiece. The one that originally had it refused to let the other see it, snarling, "It's mine! It's mine!" The other kept grabbing for it, and the creature pulled away. It was innocent at first, no one paid attention. But soon the Eustre got very protective. The rest of the Eustre became interested and also began trying to loosen its grip on the shining metal. It screamed and ended up beheaded one of them in its chant, "It's mine!" Panic came to the Drakles and a crowd of some more Eustre, who eventually tackled it down. It struggled violently, leaving many dead or wounded. The Lizalfos ignored it with a roll of their eyes and groans. A few more heads rolled, and finally, a bored Lizalfos stuck a sword through the Eustre. Its eyes clouded over, gasped out some air, then died with a gurgle. Even dead, it still clutched to the metal. The Lizalfos walked back over to Ganondorf, stuck itself in his face, and licked the blood off its sword with a grin.

"I can't wait to taste your blood, Dragmire..."

The king's visit was short. At least for Link. They held him there for a short while, discussing matters with the king. The king wasn't dressed up much more than the others. He just had some gold jewelry, and that was all that separated him from the other Lizalfos. Link didn't feel comfortable about the way they talked about him, especially when they referred to him as "entertainment." They called Ganondorf "Dragmire" or even "sire" at some times. But whenever they said it, it was implied as mockery. They never really spoke to Link, so he was now standing outside the entrance with two guards holding him. He heard them speaking with Ganondorf, although he rarely replied to the questions. Link was confused. Why are the Lizalfos against him? They fought for him! He remembered that they kept mentioning money. Had he promised more than he had?

Link also found it odd now that they kept repeating the situation to Ganondorf. It hadn't seemed so odd before, but now, Link was suspicious. Every few minutes, they'd repeat themselves in saying that he owed them money. And he didn't object to them telling him, either. He'd nod and once in a while ask them to tell him again. Almost like he had amnesia... Or a memory problem... Or...

"You there! Get moving! You're lucky we aren't dealing with you tonight..." The king's room was on the top of the rock pillar, which Link had found was hollow. There were wooden platforms outside to stand on, and a hand-made platform moved up and down between the floors. Ropes and chains were everywhere in this machine. The group was lowered down to the ground, and from then on, Link had no idea where they were going. They just pushed him along a path until it would be pitch black if they didn't have lights strung along the cave walls. Eventually, he heard a clang of metal, and he was shoved into a cell. Ganondorf walked in without force.

"We're in the same cell?" Link found that the cell was very large, so he quickly edged over to the opposite side.

"Well, yeah, I guess." Ganondorf shrugged and looked at his belt. "Ha! Knew it. They missed a few things. What're you staring at?" Ganondorf took out a few things that Link couldn't see and moved them around.

"There's not much else to look at." Link stood up shakily, looking around. Just another cave, but with a locked door. He sighed.

"True that... Wasn't quite expecting 'em to do this, but I had my doubts..." Ganondorf pulled something back on a chunk of metal, and there was a click. "Well... S'ppose you'd want to know what's going on..."

"...Yeah... Maybe..."

"How 'bout..." Ganondorf sat down a distance from Link, sensing he wasn't about to let him get any closer, "See, it's a bit more complicated than what you probably make of it... You know when I went berserk and all that... I remember almost none of it. The only stuff I know about what I did was what people told me. And it don't stick, either... I hafta remember it vaugely if I want to recall it later... I don' remember anything about the Lizalfos, see... Dang," Ganondorf glared at Link, "I can see it already, you think I'm mad or somethin'. Blasts, this'll never work."

"...I sorta get it," Link had a puzzled expression. "But the Lizalfos are yours, aren't they?"

"Mine?" Ganondorf looked just as puzzled, "You can't own 'em, kid. According to them, I promised some money and borrowed some warriors. But they ain't mine. Even their king don't own 'em."

"What if they're... Lying?"

"Lizalfos don't lie. They don't know how. And anyway, even if they did, they wouldn't be able to make a story like that..." Ganondorf paused, then grunted. "Man, I'm tired. 'Night." Silence. Link thought that Ganondorf was still awake, but that didn't matter a whole lot. Link leaned back against the wall, a little exhausted. How'd this happen again? He shivered and tried to sleep.