Into Darkness Chapter 1

This is a fanfiction that takes place long before Skyward Sword. It mainly explains how Ghirahim and Fi ended up as the Sword Spirits of Demise and Hylia. It contains GhiraFi at some moment, and some violence when Majora joins in, but not explicit...
Apart from that, enjoy! ^^


Ghirahim was a young demon boy from about 10 years old who lived together with his parents at the edge of a smaller demon society. Unlike most demons in town, both his parents still lived together and looked after him.

This was quite an unusual event, as most demon men left their 'family' after kids were born. It was kind of a tradition to leave the demon women alone with their children and start a new family elsewhere. In Ghirahim's family however, the father didn't leave and instead, stayed with his wife and son. This would lead to trouble for Ghirahim during his childhood, as the other demon children considered him spoiled because he was an only child and had both his mother and father to give attention to him.

It was one of those days that Ghirahim had to go to one of the social events in centre of town. He didn't want to go, because he didn't want the other kids to bully him again, but his mother insisted on it. She told him he had to be more social and if he refused to play with the other children, he would never make any friends.

Against his own will, little Ghirahim was brought to the market place. His mother waved him goodbye as she dropped him in a crowd of other little demon children. They all knew who Ghirahim was, of course they knew. He was that one exception in town, that one exception in the whole demon society. He was that spoiled and arrogant little kid that always got everything he wanted. They all despised him and none of them would ever want to be friends with him.

Immediately as his mother had gone out of sight, they ran away from Ghirahim, acting as if he had some kind of contagious disease and they would be infected when they got too close to him.

Ghirahim let a sad sigh escape his mouth as he watched the others happily play with each other. He knew he would never be part of them. He knew they would always look down on him. He knew he would be alone for the rest of his life.

And as much as he loved both his parents, he couldn't help but be angry at them. If his dad just had left his mother, he wouldn't be bullied. He would have friends. He would be considered normal.

Slowly and reluctantly, he walked up to a small group of demon boys. They were the same age as him and followed the same course: preparation to serve in the army later.

As he approached them, he could already see their vile looks thrown on him.

With a little hesitation, he entered the circle. "Can I... play?" he asked with his most innocent voice.

One of them started laughing and the others soon followed in.

"Spoiled little Ghirahim wants to play with us?" one asked when he had stopped laughing, "Doesn't he have enough attention yet?" 

"But I-" 

"Little Ghirahim always has to be special, doesn't he?" 

"But we won't play with the spoilt brat!" another of them yelled.

He felt tears stinging in the corners of his eyes. He didn't want to be ignored any longer, he just wanted to be part of the other demons.

The group fell silent and a single whisper went round. Ghirahim couldn't hear what they were saying, but he feared they were discussing and contemplating some kind of plan against him.

One of them stepped forward to stand right in front of him. It was Thorin, kind of the leader of this gang. He used to bully Ghirahim the most. Whatever he was going to say, it wouldn't be good.

"We've decided that you can play with us," Thorin said.

Ghirahim's eyes widened. That wasn't bad at all! "Really?" he asked surprised and more than a little happy.

"But," the demon facing him continued, "There is one condition."

"What is that?" Ghirahim asked, now becoming more suspicious.

"You have to prove you can be part of us. You have to prove you're not spoiled and thus, you have to do something only low-class demons do." 

"What is that?" 

"You have to steal." 

"Steal?" Ghirahim repeated.

He didn't want to do such a thing. He would never want to hurt other demons in any way, and he considered stealing as something that hurt people.

"What do you think, Ghirahim?" Thorin asked, "Do you want to be part of us?"

 Ghirahim remained silent for a few moments and considered the offer. He didn't want to steal, but if this was the only way of becoming friends with them, of ever having any friends, he couldn't do much but accept it.

"I will do," he said.

Thorin smiled widely, but it was more of a malicious smile than a friendly. "Right," he said, "Then here's how the deal works. You go and steal some money from lord Fursor. If you succeed, you will be part of us and we will never bully you again. If you fail, you won't and we'll take you to some place to punish you for thinking yourself equal to us. Do you agree?"

"But... Stealing from lord Fursor is like impossible!" 

"It has to be difficult, you know. It won't be much of a test if it's too simple. You have to prove you're not spoiled, to prove you can function on your own, without your mum or dad being around."

Ghirahim swallowed and closed his eyes. He knew it was most unlikely he'd succeed. But what choice did he have? He had to at least give it a try, now that they gave him the chance. It couldn't be much worse, he knew that. If he failed they would probably humiliate him again someway, and afterwards, the situation would be exactly the same as it was now and as it had always been.

"I will try," he said.

"Perfect! Come on, follow us. We'll bring you there, to see and watch on you so you don't flee."

Thorin left and the others followed him, including Ghirahim. It felt weird to Ghirahim to be around other demon kids and not walk alone through the streets.

...

They crossed a lot of streets, and when they had left the centre of town and came in the district of the high-class demons, they soon arrived at their destination, the house of lord Fursor.

"From here on, you have to go on your own," Thorin said.

Ghirahim nodded and tried to look calm as he left to walk up beside the house, looking for an open window or anything that could form a possible entrance.

He was lucky, and spotted a back door that had been left open. With quick paces, he walked over there. One last time he looked around to make sure no one could see him, and then he swiftly slipped through the small opening.

The room he had entered was quite a large one, larger than most of the rooms in his own house, but he assumed that was only normal considering this was the property of a high-class demon. It seemed to be functioning as some kind of porch for the demons to sit in on sunny days.

He quickly passed this room as he didn't expect the money to be kept here. Right behind the porch, there was a hallway, including stairs at his left side, leading to the second floor. He peeked round the corner to make sure the stairs were empty. When he noticed the coast was clear, he walked up the stairway.

He assumed he would find what he sought for in the bedroom. He remembered his parents doing the same, hiding their money in a small chest under the bed. Hopefully, lord Fursor used this as the hiding place for his money too.

When Ghirahim had reached the second floor, he started looking for the bedroom, which wasn't that difficult to find, as a sign on the door indicated its location. The door was closed. That wasn't good. Now Ghirahim had to take a huge risk by opening it without first seeing if the coast was clear.

He placed his hand on the door handle and pushed it down slightly. He didn't dare to open it immediately, but waiting also was dangerous, as someone could sneak upon him any moment.

With one quick push, he opened the door fully. It was empty. Completely empty. Ghirahim happily walked in and looked underneath the bed. Of course it was there, the box in which the money was hidden. The young demon crawled under the bed. He had to go far before he reached it, as the bed was a huge four-poster one.

When he had finally reached it, he grabbed it to pull it from underneath the bed. It was a beautiful box, already revealing the wealth of the owner and probably also of its content. Ghirahim placed the box on the edge of the bed and slowly opened it. He had expected it to be locked, but even that wasn't the case.

Inside there were more than hundred golden rupees, which were each of a value of 500 rupees. Ghirahim gasped as he saw this huge amount of money. His parents weren't particularly poor, but he was sure they had never owned an amount like this. They were only middle-class demons.

He closed the box again, picked it up, ready to leave, and turned around, only to see someone standing in the doorway.

Startled by this sudden appearance, Ghirahim dropped the box. "What do you think you're doing?" the demon in the doorway asked. Ghirahim blinked, but couldn't speak. This must be lord Fursor. And he would certainly punish Ghirahim, as he would think of him to be a low-class demon, who didn't have any rights.

Often enough, the young demon had seen how demon children of the lower class were attacked and even abused for no reason. He started trembling, his eyes pleading for mercy as he looked up to the elder demon.

"It certainly wasn't a good idea to sneak in here and try to steal my money," the lord spoke, "And so, you will be punished. I take great pleasure in showing you low-class filth where you truly belong, you know..."

Ghirahim felt tears stinging in his eyes, "I... I don't want to steal..." he whispered.

But lord Fursor didn't listen to him and left the room. The demon child didn't know what to think, but soon enough, when the elder demon returned, he knew what was going to happen. Lord Fursor was holding a sharp knife in his right hand.

Ghirahim staggered back, but trying to escape was no use. He fell backwards on the bed and before he even realized it, the other demon had him grabbed tightly by the throat. He was pushed against the bed and felt the sharp tip of the knife touch his cheek.

"Do you know how we mark little thieves?" the lord asked as the knife's sharp edge slid over Ghirahim's skin.

When the young demon didn't reply, the knife was moved upwards, to rest just underneath his eye.

There, it was pushed deeper, to break through the skin. Ghirahim squirmed and screamed as the knife slid over his skin, leaving a trace of red where it had passed. The same happened underneath his other eye.

When lord Fursor removed the knife, tears mixed with the blood and both filled Ghirahim's eyes. The elder demon stepped back a bit and let his victim recover. Ghirahim slowly sat upright and his fingers traced the lines underneath his eyes where his skin had been removed.

Eyes still pleading for mercy looked up at lord Fursor. But that one shook his head.

"I'm not done yet." His sentence was only nearly finished as his fist shot forward, making hard contact with Ghirahim’s nose. The little demon fell backwards once more, only to be drawn upright again. Another fist hit his face, and yet another. Ghirahim screamed in pain as his body was being more and more damaged.

After what would have been like ten punches, lord Fursor picked Ghirahim up from the bed and dragged him down the stairs, through the hallway, towards the front door. He opened it and brutally dumped Ghirahim's bruised body on the stairs that led to the door. He slammed the door shut and let the unconscious demon boy lie there.

...

When Ghirahim opened his eyes, it wasn't all over yet, he realized when he saw the shoes and legs of his fellow demon students.

He slowly lifted his head and his eyes crossed those of Thorin, who looked down on him in despise.

"Seems like you weren't able to fulfil your task. It was a simple one though, but this proves how much you really are on your own, without your mummy and daddy behind you to hold your hand."

His mum and dad... How would he ever explain what had happened? How could he possibly face them after what had happened? With those awful marks under his eyes, what would they think? Would they hate him?

He couldn't hold back tears and they slowly slid down his cheeks. This only caused the others to laugh at him.

"There still is punishment for you, little Ghirahim," Thorin said when he was done laughing. "Please..." Ghirahim whispered, "Haven't I been punished enough yet?" 

"No. You failed your test, and as we agreed, we would take you somewhere to punish you, remember? Well, to make it easy, we've already brought you there."

Ghirahim crawled to his feet as he tried to get to know where they were. He didn't immediately recognize the surroundings, and thus had no clue of what could possibly happen.

Two of the demons surrounding Thorin brutally grabbed Ghirahim's arms and dragged him away from the group.

"Nice swimming!" Thorin yelled after him, "It's best you try not to drown!"

Ghirahim struggled to break free, but it was no use as he was still weak due to his injuries and both the demons holding him were older and stronger. They dragged him up on what looked like a hill of stone. It took a few minutes for Ghirahim to realize where they were going. But when he remembered seeing this place before, he only began to struggle harder.

They soon reached the top of the 'hill', where the demons halted. It was a flat plateau with in the middle a huge crater, which served as a basin to dump food leftovers, as well as the content of toilets.

Ghirahim desperately tried to get away from them. He didn't want to be thrown in there. He didn't want that!

"Seems like you're going to take a swim in this nice little pool," one of them said, "You'd better try to keep your head above the water." 

"Please!" Ghirahim pleaded, "Please don't do this! Please!"

 "Begging won't work, little Ghirahim. We have no mercy for a little brat like you. You deserve to drown in this filth! It's where you belong!"

With those words, they pushed Ghirahim forwards and send him falling to the pool. Ghirahim screamed as he made contact with the mass of filth, and soon he went head under.

Desperately he tried to keep his head above the mess, but it was difficult, as he was not used to swimming. In fact, he had never done it before. His arms smashed on the filthy substance as he tried to move himself to the edge. He was lucky they had practically dropped him, and not thrown him, so now it wasn't too far.

It didn't take that long before he reached the edge. He hands grabbed the protruding stones in the wall and he pulled himself out of the filthy substance. With difficulty, he climbed up against the stone wall. It wasn't that high, so eventually he reached the top. Still covered in the brownish substance, he looked around. And then he noticed someone watching him. He staggered back as he recognized this man to be the supervisor of the basin.

"And what do you think you were doing, little demon?" the supervisor asked Ghirahim. The young demon couldn't reply as he was petrified of fear.

The other demon shook his head and picked up a bucket that stood beside him. He threw the content in Ghirahim's face, washing away most of the filth. Ghirahim wanted to thank the elder demon, but when he noticed the way he was being watched, he doubted it would be the right thing to do.

"You are a thief!" the supervisor exclaimed, "Well, then I have no mercy!" He picked up the bucket again, to use it as a weapon and smash it in Ghirahim’s face.

The little demon cried and fell backwards. Blood flowed from the open wound in his forehead. The supervisor hauled Ghirahim to his feet again, and pushed him down the stairs that led up to the platform they were standing on.

Ghirahim rolled down the stairs, until he came to a halt at the bottom, where he lay half dead. "Don't you ever dare to come here again, you low-class piece of filth!" the supervisor screamed as he left.

Ghirahim tried to climb to his feet. His body ached everywhere. He felt so much pain now. Not even all the pain he had felt before together could be compared to what he was feeling now. And it was not just physical pain, also mental. And that second maybe even was the worst of both.

He slowly limped away from the basin, to leave town, and to maybe never return.

_____