"Victory Means Life"

The sands were very soft on that day.  The sun blazed over head, sometimes making the soldiers hallucinate. All the men stood there, side by side, row upon row, waiting to meet their fate.

Forty thousand Hylians simply stood, waiting for the signal.

From behind the lines, Lord Von Richtold rode up to the front.  He dismounted, slapped his horse to make it run, and took his place on the field.  The general clenched his sword tightly in his hand, and waited silently with his men.

On the other side of the field, hidden from sight by a large sand dune, the cavalry stood ready.  Impa, atop her now armored white steed, patiently waited for the signal to attack.

Her stomach was in knots, and she felt ill.  This was something she had never done before, only heard about, and she didn't know if her courage would hold.  The time was drawing very near, so she grabbed her shield and short sword.

Riding to the front of the cavalry line, Impa, swallowed the lump in her throat and recited a short prayer.

"Oh, Goddess Farore, grant unto me the courage to accept the things I cannot change.  My Goddess Din, giveth me the power to change the things I can.  Dear Goddess Nayru, allow me the wisdom to know the difference."

Suddenly, the right words came to her in a flash of light.

"Boys!" Impa yelled.  "No.no, not boys, men!"

All those under her command instantly turned their heads to listen.

"Right now, as of this moment, I am dead."

One of the soldiers interrupted her.

"No, my lady!" he yelled back.  "Never!!"

Impa raised her hand to silence the men who were now distressed at her words.  They did not yet understand.

"As of this moment, we are all dead!" she continued.  "Let me ask you this.  I am Shiekah, but could I ever be thought of as one of you?"

"Yes!!  You are with us here now, that is what matters," one of the men yelled out.

Impa pulled on her horse's reins, and it spun in a circle.  She gestured with her sword to the enemy on the other side of the dune.

"Good!! Because we go into battle today to reclaim our lives. We do this proudly because we are Hylian!!"

Stopping her horse, Impa felt the hot sun on her back.  The heat implored her to turn around. As she did, a red flag appeared over the top of the dune.

The sign had been given, they had to go now.

Over the sands and across the desert the heavy cavalry charged the Gerudo lines.  The sand just over the crest was not loose, but was hard and gritty.  This was solid ground, and it shook under the weight of the armor that thundered over it.  As they got closer and closer, Impa could see how many there were.  Hundreds of the brilliantly colored warriors stood, brandishing scimitars.

The Gerudo might have heard the pounding of hoofbeats, but they wouldn't see them until the last second.

At the front of the charge, over the deafening roar of battle, Impa gave one final order.

With all the air in her lungs, she screamed, "REMEMBER, VICTORY MEANS LIFE!!!!"

Just as the infantry went in, a thousand armored horses slammed into the side of the enemy lines.  Swords and lances impaled dozens of enemy Gerudo.  Bodies were flying everywhere.  None of the Hylian soldiers seemed to have any qualms about killing these women.  They had dared to challenge the king's authority and now they were paying the dreadful price.

In the thick of battle, something struck Impa, and she was ejected from her horse.  She hit the ground rather hard, but was not injured in the slightest.  Standing, she found that her horse had gone missing.  Impa was now permanently grounded.  Screaming, she hurled herself at the nearest Gerudo, and instantly killed with a sharp blow to the face.

Filled with rage, Impa struck down twenty more Gerudo.  She sliced off heads and severed limbs.  Again and again, Impa brought her bloody sword crashing down upon her enemies.  Those she could not kill, she swiftly knocked to the ground with her shield.  The Gerudo had never seen another person fight with such fury, such power.  Suddenly very frightened of the warrior in blue, they began to turn and flee.

The cavalry had already destroyed this flank, and some of the orange fighters were retreating.

The Hylian infantry had ripped through the enemy life a knife through butter.  They folded immediately and started running for their lives.  Arrows flew from somewhere behind the Gerudo lines, but they plinked harmlessly against the steel armor of the Hylians. Very few were injured and none severly.

Now there was nothing that could stop His Majesty's wrath from coming full circle.

Somewhere in the course of the raging battle, Impa found her horse.  It had stood out like a white beacon, and she mounted and rode off, wiping out as many Gerudo as she could.  The enemy were beginning to lose their nerve, but most of them still remained to fight on.

To her great dismay, she witnessed Lord Von Richtold's demise.  Dying with twelve spears in his body, he had fought valiantly, and had died bravely.  A true warrior, he would be remembered, as all heroes are.

In the midst of mortal combat, Impa noticed someone.  A wide shouldered man, wearing dark colored armor, riding on a black stallion.  She knew who he was, and he disgusted her.  This man was Ganondorf, and even now with his army being destroyed in front of his face, he was smiling.

The embodiment of all things evil, he needed to die.

Impa would personally wipe him off the face of the planet.

She charged at him.

She got very close.

First, two hundred yards, then a hundred, then fifty...

Impa got within ten yards of the King of Thieves. Filled with anger, she raised her sword to strike a blow.  Ganondorf, finally noticing her, raised his hand.

He simply pointed it at her, palm out.

A lightning bolt of pure dark energy came from within him, lashed out, and struck Impa's white horse.

She and her steed were lifted off the ground, then blown back almost to where they had started.

Impa hit the ground with a dull thud.  Quite severely injured, she was pinned to the ground, her white stallion lying on top of her.  The poor thing was crippled, and was kicking its front legs wildly, while its back legs were limp and unmoving.

Using all her strength, Impa managed to pull herself out from underneath the horse.  The only thing that had saved her life was the blue armor, which was now dented and jamming into her side.  Collapsing onto the desert ground, she crawled away from her steed.  Impa winced at the pain it brought when she tried to touch the left side of her body.  She was in extreme pain and began to feel rather light-headed.

All around her, the supposedly fearless Gerudo warriors ran to their master.  They did not stop when they had reached his position.

None of them slowed down, halted, or even acknowledged Impa.

Sitting up on the hard, cracked ground, she looked again at Ganondorf.

He was still smiling.

Ganondorf, Gerudo King of Thieves, brought both of his hands into the air.  He waved them once, and something truly amazing happened.

All the Gerudo warriors, alive and dead, vanished into smoke, then returned to the nothingness from whence they came.

The army had never existed.

The Gerudo king pointed to the Hylian Army, which was simply befuddled as to what had just occurred.  The men were confused, and began to search aimlessly for the enemy and their fallen comrades.

Then, something incredible happened.

The earth shook violently, and split open in a million different places.

From the gaping holes in the ground, creatures arose. Thoroughly disgusting beasts of all shapes and sizes rose from the ground, all were menacing and had weapons.  Skeletal beings, taller than a man, and twice as powerful, appeared.  Giant lizard things with razor sharp claws materialized from out of nowhere.  Goblins, wolves, and demons revealed themselves after hundreds of years of dark slumber.

Thousands upon thousands of these savage things reared their ugly heads.  The sun glinted off the steel of their swords and shields, and for a moment, blinded the Hylians.

Quickly, they formed a large army of evil.

Then, they attacked the Hylians.

Impa, wounded and now bleeding, managed to stand.  A wall of dark flesh was charging toward her.  She found her sword, stood her ground, and prepared to meet destiny.

Before the creatures could do her in, she passed out amid the screams and shouts of the dying.

She already lost too much blood.

Within the next few minutes, thirty seven thousand Hylians would perish.

Days and days later.

Impa woke up to something she had not expected, the sound of birds singing.  Over her head, several sparrows flew.  The little birds landed on the branch of a tree some distance from where she was lying.  Impa smiled to herself as they took to the wing and disappeared into the deeper part of the forest.

Suddenly, a wonderful fragrance wafted through her nostrils.  It smelled like daisies, tulips and roses.  Impa could even smell some lilac, and the grass and wildflowers made everything serene.  She felt weak and tried to move but couldn't.  Surrounded on all sides by trees, Impa found that she was lying in the middle of a small meadow.

She truthfully believed that this was the afterlife.

When a stabbing pain in her side reminded her of how alive she truly was, she quickly found the energy to move around.  Sitting up, she noticed the white bandages around her stomach.  Her splendid blue armor was gone, and Impa was quite confused.

"Ahh." she groaned.  "Where am I?"

From out of the blackness of the woods, a small figure approached her.

"The forest," said the figure.

Impa recognized the voice, and suddenly felt her strength return.

"Zelda!" she exclaimed.

The Crown Princess of Hyrule stepped into view.  The young girl wore a pink headdress, and a few strands of her light blonde hair were sticking out from beneath it.  Her normally dazzling royal tiara was now dirty and slightly torn.

With her, Zelda had a jug of water.  Giving some to Impa, she sat down beside her caretaker.

"You got hurt real bad.  It was hard to get you here," she softly said.  "We're in Kokiri Forest."

Impa was overjoyed to see the princess, and gave her a big hug.  As soon as she was better, they would return to the castle and report to the king.  However, things needed to be answered first.

"Ugh.what happened to me?" Impa asked.

"Your horse fell on you," the princess answered.

"I know that.  What news of the army?"

"Most of them are dead.  That man has the Triforce."

"I know, Zelda.I know."

The princess stared at the ground for a moment, stood and walked away.  Impa turned to see where she was going and saw at least twenty other people lying on the ground around her.  They were soldiers!  They were the ones who must have brought her here.

Had Zelda cared for them all?  How many people were left to defend the princess?  Was this truly all that was left of the once magnificent Hylian Army?

These questions and many more passed through Impa's mind.  It did not matter though, as the princess was safe here for the time being.

All of a sudden, Impa felt fatigued again.  She knew now in her heart that everything was lost.  Surely Ganondorf, with the Triforce in his hand, would conquer the entire world.  On her back, looking up at the sky through the trees, Impa saw black storm clouds billowing over the land.

The army destroyed, the king surely dead now, Hyrule was descending into darkness.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

"At least there's the boy," she thought to herself.

"Yes, that boy is our last hope."