The Shadow of Amulets

Slow and Steady

White lines and black lines. Different shapes. Strange colours. Then it started to go blurry. After about half a minute, a brown roof?

Link's POV

A blurry vision is all I saw and soon, my eyes started to focus and I seemed to be looking upwards and looking at a brown roof.

"Where...am...I" I said quite dizzy and groggy. I realised I was lying on the ground. I tried to sit up but I immediately was struck by all kinds of pain. "Aaargh" I grunted in pain and fell back down on my back.

"Oh look who's awake. You gave us quite a scare bro". I turned to my right and saw that it was Alaan.

"Where am I..." I asked in confusion.

Alaan paused for a moment before speaking.

"Your in some small abandoned lodge we found. It was pouring down rain pretty heavy last night and after what happened, we needed to find a place" he said.

"Last...night..." I said slowly. Then everything became clear as it all came back to me. I remembered our encounter with that archer dressed in black. I remembered the fight, the battle and...my defeat. "Aaaarghh" I quickly felt an intense sharp pain coming from my left wrist. I looked and I saw my left arm wrapped in many bandages and a lot of my body covered with cloths.

"I didn't win...and he shot an arrow through my wrist," I said slowly recalling the events of last night.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so. You suffered quite a beating yesterday. To be honest, I don't know how you were still standing after those brutal attacks he gave you" Alaan said.

I looked at him and then looked to the ground feeling defeated. But then I recalled something else.

"The... The Amulet!" I said as I remembered.

"He...Took the green Amulet I had" I added. "WHAAAT!!!" Alaan shouted in shock as he jumped straight up.

"How?!!! How did he even know of the Amulets and how did he know you had one?!" Alaan added in.

I looked to the ground experiencing many emotions. Defeat, confusion, lostness, pain.

"The most annoying thing is, we have no idea who he was. It's pretty clear he encountered me so he could take the Amulet" I said in a depressed tone.

I proceeded to punch the ground with my right arm in annoyance.

"His plan was to get my Amulet. The fight was made so he could take it. And also he injured me pretty bad so I would be temporarily unable to go after him" I explained.

"Damn!" Alaan shouted as he kicked the wall. "He played us!. Next time I see him, I'm gonna tear his head off!!!" He said with anger.

"We need to go now! It's too dangerous for people to find out about the Amulets let alone having it in someone else's possession" I say as I try to get up but my body immediately rejected my action. I gripped my wrist in pain.

"Bro, you just got shot through the wrist and not to mention a few fractures," he replied.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance and anger since I wasn't able to move. I managed to sit up and I sat against the wall. I just noticed something else.

"Wait...where's Elvia?" I ask Alaan very curiously.

"Oh right, she went to get some more water from a nearby lake to treat your wrist," he said. I looked surprised.

"I'm so glad we had Elvia to help me stop your wrist from pouring out blood after we took the arrow out," he said. "Thanks, Alaan for treating my injuries," I said smiling.

"Come on, it was nothing. Except for me carrying you on my back through the forest in the pouring rain" he replied.

"Haha, that must have been hard. Sorry about that." I said.

Just then I heard the door open. I looked towards the door as someone walked in and it was Elvia...

"Well, it seems you've woken up. How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Not too bad. Just a little bit of wounds, no problem" I smiled rubbing the back of my head. "Well I wouldn't call having some fractures, multiple cuts and getting shot through the wrist, a little bit of wounds'" Elvia chuckled before kneeling down to my level.

She took my left arm and started to remove the bandages. "Oww!" I said in pain. "Sorry. I'll be gentle. But we need to replace these bandages with new ones and also to clean your wound so you don't get an infection" she explained as she removed the cloths from my arm revealing the massive gash in my wrist. It was sown with thread to stop the blood from leaking.

I and Alaan watched as Elvia treated my arm. "I also got some herbs from the forest which will help with healing your wound" she said as she washed my wrist with water and tied the herbs directly on the wound with a string.

"So how do you know so much about treating injuries Elvia?" Alaan asked as he watched her.

"It was something I was taught. We had someone in our camp who was a specialist in healing and treating injuries. She taught me a lot and it seems it paid off" she said with a slight smile. She finished by wrapping new bandages around my wrist.

"There. That should help" she said as she stood up.

"Thanks a lot, Elvia. This feels much better" I said in quite a cheerful tone.

"Not a problem. But you should take some more rest. The more you rest, the faster you will heal" she said.

My face turned blank as she finished her sentence. "Alright. I'll try and sleep" I said as I lay back down on the ground. "Alright, ill check on ya later. Just yell if ya need something" Alaan said as he and Elvia exited the room.

Five minutes passed and I opened my eyes. I sat up and struggled to sit up. The pain was excruciating, but I eventually stood up. My body was aching and felt broken in so many places and my wrist was pounding with pain. I quickly punched myself in the gut to break the pain. "Sitting around here isn't going to do anything. I need to train and become stronger if I'm going to be able to beat him..." I said as I limped out of the room and snuck out.

Alaan's POV

I was practising in the open field with my sword. I still haven't mastered my father's sword he gave me. The weight was totally different and yet it felt incredibly light. My technique and precision were off and that was what I was working on.

I noticed that it's been about an hour since I checked up on Link so I put my sword in my holder around my back and headed for the small Lodge.

When I arrived, I noticed the door was slightly open. I pulled it open and I saw the inside of the lodge with no Link.

"Huh? Where'd he go?. How did he even leave, he was badly injured" I said in confusion.

"I gotta find him quick! I should tell Elvia" I said as turned to the exit and opened the door only to find Elvia walking in.

"Oh! Alaan, I didn't know you were here... How's Link?" she said.

"Well, it seems he's got up and left" I reply with a nervous smile.

"Wait what! He's not here!?

Just great. When you tell him to rest up, he goes and runs off" Elvia said quite furiously.

"Well, I can't blame him hehe. I mean he got brutally destroyed by a complete stranger and you want him to rest? I mean he's obviously training right now. Can't lie I would do the exact same thing. He's got the same warrior's blood as me. Never stop, keep training!" I said proudly looking into the sky.

Elvia just looked at me face-palming. ?‍♀️

"You two are something else, you know that," she said with a bored expression.

"Alright, we need to find him quick. We should split up and search. You take the right side of the forest and I'll take the left" she said.

"Alright!! Let's do it!!" He said formally as he ran in his direction into the forest.

Link's POV

15 minutes later

"....23....24....25....26..." I grunted as I tried to do some pull-ups from the tree's branch with my right arm.

"Cmon, I need to push myself harder!" I said as I continued. I switched to sit-ups. My legs were wrapped around the tree branch and I was I pulled myself up.

"34..35..36...37...38...39....40!" I grunted feeling quite exhausted and I felt some pain from my wrist and my aching body.

My gear was off and I was wearing my grey shirt underneath as I normally do when I train seriously.

I continued repeating the same actions until I heard someone's footsteps behind me. I was quite high up on the tree in the middle of my sit-ups so I tried hanging down backwards from the tree with my legs. My vision was upside down but I saw Elvia approaching.

"Well I'm not surprised to see you training already, even though you are still very badly injured," she said with a small laugh.

"Yeah, sleeping all day isn't really fun" I replied to her.

She sighed and then started to speak.

"I understand you wanting to get back to your training straight away or whatever...it is your doing up there, but the more you rest, the sooner your injuries will heal" she explained.

"I'm doing sit-ups...I thought that was obvious" I said confused.

"Ohh, now it makes sense. Sorry, you talking to me when your upside down confused me" she said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty dizzy being upside down," I said as I pulled myself up and fell to the ground.

"Look, I appreciate you caring about my recovery, but I can't just sit there and do nothing... I... I just can't. After what happened last night... That stranger.." I struggled to talk feeling mixed emotions as I sat down on the ground against the tree.

Elvia stood there listening. She then sat down and leaned against the opposite side of the tree.

"Alaan um, told me what happened... With your Amulet" she said softly.

I paused and took a deep breath.

"Yeah... I just have so many questions, like how he even knew I had an Amulet and what does he want with it?" I struggled to say.

"And the worst part is we have no idea where he went...

I couldn't beat him... And we paid the price... I failed!" I said as I punched the ground in anger and stood up.

Elvia got up too as she heard what I said. "You didn't fail Link! And we will find him!" she replied.

"What do you mean I didn't fail!!? I lost that fight badly. He stole my Amulet. And I couldn't do anything!! That was his plan from the start. I was completely useless!!!" I replied back at her enraged as I raised my voice.

Elvia immediately threw something quickly at me. I caught it. I unwrapped my hands and it was Elvia's violet coloured Amulet. My eyes widened as I completely forgot about it.

"We haven't lost Link!. We still have this Amulet!!" she raised her voice back at me.

"If that was the stranger's plan all along then why didn't he come for this... It's because he didn't know we had two Amulets" she explained.

I was shocked as I was completely blind to the fact that we had two Amulets. I started to smile.

"Your right Elvia. I guess I was too focused on myself and I didn't even think about you or Alaan" I said.

"We still have a chance of finding him and the rest of the Amulets" I added.

"I'm sure we will" Elvia replied with a smile.

"Alright! Let's do it! And also thanks for coming with us on this journey. You've helped us so much already" I say with a smile as I extend my arm for a fistbump. Elvia returns the gesture. "I'm glad I could join you to find the rest of the Amulets" she replied. We headed back to the lodge where Alaan was.