Night. The night after the fiercest of fights that Alpha had been a part of in his life. And he’d been through quite a few fights.

The Hakiems had been beaten and crawled back into their hole…wherever that happened to be. Eventually, Alpha knew they’d have to begin searching for Zaboorak, Karunik, and the rest of the evil Sheikah. For now, though, the group was finally headed towards some cave where Shada and Zaris had been staying for the past year, the Hakiems in the back of all three of their minds.

Now they traveled with the caravan from Ruto towards Rauru. But as night had fallen, the caravan had pulled over and set up several campfires all around in the woods. Even now, most of the Gorons and other travelers sat around the largest one, leaving the three Sheikah alone to rest around a small flame. Shada slept peacefully, while Zaris kept his body warm by the fire. Alpha wandered through the darkness of the woods for a long time before finally returning to the light. “Master,” he said in greeting.

Zaris looked up from the flames and nodded as he smiled. “Rested up already, Alpha? I’d have thought you would need much longer after this fight.”

Alpha chuckled slightly as he sat on the log opposite Zaris’. “Trust me Master, I’ve learned quite a bit in the last seven years. Enough so that I can recover from that battle with ease.”

Zaris sat forward. “You certainly seem to have learned much. That scar…adds to your normal, shall we say, keep-away image.”

Alpha sagged his head back and forth, trying to act unconcerned with the remark. But in his heart he wanted to steer the topic of discussion as far away from his scar as possible. “Speaking of one’s image, how did you lose your right arm?”

“Well…um…” he quickly jumped up and walked over to Shada lay. Satisfied, he returned to his seat. “Needed to make sure she was still asleep. She doesn’t really enjoy this particular memory…

“Anyways, she got separated from me, I found her under attack by Zaboorak himself, and we fought. The Zora sliced off my arm with his fin. Much more complicated than that, but…you know…” He saw Alpha nod, and allowed himself to stop mid-sentence.

“Well, another question…since you lost your other arm…how exactly did you do this?” Alpha asked. He reached into his back pocket, and withdrew the map bearing the Sheikah’s symbol, holding it up so Zaris could see. “You can’t hold anything since you don’t have any hands, so…”

“Ha-ha-ha! Just because I don’t have hands doesn’t mean I can’t hold stuff!” He lifted up his right leg, revealing that his shoes had small holes in them. Enough so that he could stick a writing implement in between two of his toes. “Weird, perhaps, but it is rather efficient. Took me about a year after I lost my right arm to learn how to write with my right foot, though…”

Alpha’s confused and slightly bizarre look sent Zaris into another round of laughter.



On a mountain far away from where the Sheikah sat, another figure stood looking at the moon. His wounds were numerous, and it had taken quite a while and a lot of healing to get him back to this amount of health. He now stared silently into the light of the moon, anger filling his mind.

“Lord Zaboorak, may I ask as to what you’re doing up here?” came a voice from behind him.

The Zora turned slightly to see Karunik walking up the path from the Hakiems’ lair. He immediately turned back, and rubbed the scarred flesh of his left arm. “He dessstroyed my fin, Karunik. He now hasss even more to pay for.”

“Your fin, yes. But he also annihilated over fifty thousand Hakiems. Your little ploy about making them seem to be initiates didn’t stop him from destroying them all! Five thousand of them were Level 3 fighters! Our second highest rank of warrior! And he killed all of them with that…that Power of his!” Karunik fumed. He walked to stand at Zaboorak’s side, waited several seconds, then stared up into the Zora’s eyes. “Much as I want revenge for the many humiliations that he has handed to us, I must ask it: do we really have to keep going after Zaris?”

In an instant, Zaboorak turned and smashed his arm into the Sheikah general’s face, throwing him to the ground. “Of courssse we have to go after him! He hasss insssulted me! Insssulted all of our Hakiemsss!”

“They aren’t our Hakiems! I am their leader, not you!” Karunik snapped back. “You hired us twenty years ago to kill Zaris, and have since been granted a mere honorary membership. We follow your orders solely so we can get our revenge on the Golden Sheikah and his companions. Once he is gone you shall have no control over what we do.”

Zaboorak sneered, knowing that Karunik’s statement was correct. “Yesss, and until you actually sssucceed you are ssstuck with me. Remember, Karunik, I need you. I know that I cannot take on the Golden Onesss myssself, ssso I employed your ssservicesss.”

“Why don't you remember, Zaboorak! You want us to take care of the Golden Ones? All of them? Then why is it you constantly have us after Zaris? There are others out there, other Powers to help us defeat him –”

“You have no knowledge of emotional warfare, do you, Karunik? All you know to do isss fight! That’sss why I am here now.” The Zora tapped his forehead, indicating his brain as his raging voice continued. “I ssspent ten long years ssstudying battle tacticsss, and I know how easssily the other Golden Onesss would and will fall once Zzzarisss is dead. Cut off the head and the body goesss with it. We ssshall continue fighting him!”

By now the two were having a full-fledged argument, bordering on a true fight. And though he was the weaker of the two, Karunik was certainly brave…or stupid… “But we gain nothing from these fights! We only lose more and more of my resources, more and more of my men!”

Zaboorak could take no more. “Sssilence!" His deep voice bellowed, sending fear into Karunik's eyes. "Sssilence, you fool! You could never underssstand the complexity of what thessse battlesss have accomplissshed!” Zaboorak whirled back to his former position, fists clenched. Karunik quickly turned away, fury in his eyes. As he approached the doorway to the Hakiems' lair, Zaboorak sighed, placing his hands together behind his back. “Very well. Begin your sssearch, General Karunik. Find the other Golden Onesss, and I ssswear that you ssshall be the one who ssslicesss open Zzzarisss’ throat after I have defeated him.”

Karunik turned slightly, shocked that the Zora had taken up his plan of action. “My lord,” he said as he half bowed and rushed back inside the hideout, already barking orders to the Hakiems within.

Zaboorak returned to glaring up at the moonlight and the stars, and within several moments a low chuckle escaped his throat. “That fool…I gained three distinct advantagesss from today’sss fight.”

He thought of the four other warriors that had, for some reason, chosen to fight along side Zaris that day. “There are now four more reasonsss for the Hakiemsss to need my aid; four more fightersss that they ssshall need my help dessstroying before they complete their revenge. And yet long before that happensss,” he snickered at his next thought, “Long before that happensss, Karunik ssshall die by my hands. I ssshall asssume complete control of the Hakiemsss tribe, and as the Massster of the Goldforce I ssshall obtain power that ssshall sssurpasss even that of my former massster Ganon…”

He remembered the second thing he had gained. “And yet another pawn hasss joined the ranksss of my ssservantsss today: that foolish Hylian, Azzzador. A weakling, to be sssure, but I am sssurrounded by weaklingsss daily, and now have three of the Goldforce Powersss.”

His laughter slowly trailed off as he thought of the final piece of information he had garnered from the fight. “Isss it really posssible…that that fool Alpha…could be…Wraith?” He remember the tales he had heard of years before: those of a cold-blooded Sheikah assassin who had never failed to take out his target. He had met Wraith several times, had seen him honored by his superiors several times for escaping against overwhelming odds. He had even been present when the Sheikah had received that scar… “It mussst have been him…to think that Zarisss’ pupil once ssserved that lunatic…oh, what a tasty tidbit of information that isss.”

As the Zora stared up, he thought of only one thing. “It may take time, Zarisss. I may be detoured from obtaining the Sssheikah Goldforce for now, but the time will come when you and I fight again. And the knowledge of your preciousss apprentice’sss employer will caussse a reaction in you that I sssurely would not misss for the Triforce itssself…"


And as the Zora laughed on, the small figure of Coby silently slipped away from his hiding place and back inside the hideout, already preparing his report for Karunik.