Jasce the Jester: A friend in the dark (Pt. 2)

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Started :pushpin: 23 apr 2025

Finished :pushpin: 03 jun 2025

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This is part 2 of ”Jasce the Jester”

If you haven’t read the previous parts, you can do it here:

Part 1 — ”A laughter in the past”

* Brackets […] are being used in this story to mark when words or parts of sentences are in italics *

𝐀 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊

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A few days later…

The sun was standing high over

Tabantha Bridge Stable. It was a rather quiet morning for a stable. The horses outside splashed water all over the dry ground as they hydrated themselves. Two men working at the stable could be heard arguing about apples.

”Thanks for staying with us!” said the worker by the counter as Jasce paid for his night there. He gave them a smile, before saying,

“Have you perhaps had a man staying over at the inn who has dark hair, quite averagely built, wears a poncho and plays the flute?”

The worker tilted their head as they said,

“No, I have not stumbled upon a man that fits that description. Why?”

Jasce pushed out a rather painful smile. “Nothing, just a man I’m looking for. A friend.”

“Ah, you’re one of those,” the worker said. They leaned over and pointed to the entrance.

“There, we have a wall if people want to leave descriptions of people who went missing during the calamity. Check and see if it can help you.”

Jasce thanked the worker and walked up to the cluttered part of the wall. Many pieces were hand-made, begging for help if they had seen their daughter, son, grandparents, sisters and brothers. Loved ones, even parents. They were all there, a vision board of misery, loss and open wounds not finding closure. Jasce swallowed hard as he pulled out a small piece of paper from his all-in-one notebook and scribbled down a note someone would find in the future.

Jasce stepped outside, hitting a wall of warmth. He stuffed his poncho into his bag and strapped the bag on his back.

“Where’re you goin’, boy?”

The elder gentleman who was resting by the dead fireplace looked with his clever eyes at Jasce. He was dressed like a Hylian; loose pants, a beige tunic with a belt and a vest on top of it. His hair was like a wisp of white.

“I’m heading towards the North Hyrule Plains”, said Jasce.

“Why?” the old man demanded.

“Sightseeing”, said Jasce back with a smile. “What else are you supposed to do on such a nice day?”

The old man scoffed in a rather happy way. “That the youth can go sightseeing in times like these, astonishing.”

[What else are we supposed to do, party at the castle?] was Jasce’s thought, but he kept it to himself. He gave the old man a smile, before he secured his leg.

“Be aware of the Breach of Demise, I have heard that monsters have a lair there.”

Jasce thanked the man for the advice, before he kicked off.

The tall Dragon’s Blood trees rose beside him as he kicked himself over the fine road. He ed a merchandiser, who looked tired from a long walk with his horse and carriage. Death Mountain gobbed out hot lava in the distance, but birds were singing. That was one good sign Jasce knew about. If birds wanted to hang out in the area, then it was safe for Hylians to do so too.

Jasce looked at the only other way he could take to avoid Breach of Demise, which was over Seres Scablands. Of course, it was called scablands for a reason. The terrain was so uneven that even for a normal Hylian with two perfectly working legs would have a hard time getting over alive. Jasce rolled on, humming an old tune he knew as he kicked himself around the area.

Soon he came to the crossroad, and he had to make a dreadful decision. The old man had told him of the Breach of Demise, monsters were most definitely hanging out there, his original plan to get to the plains. Jasce knew that the hill between Ludfog’s Bog and Breach of Demise was easy to get over, even with his wheel. Though he had also heard that it was a lair for monsters, and that plateau was nothing but water and a plateau. If the rumour was true, he would stand no chance. The breach was his better way.

He kicked until he couldn’t go faster. He rolled down the hill and saw how the oddly-shaped cliffs came closer and closer. They looked as if you accidentally left Hateno cheese out on your front porch for three months in the blazing sun. Oddly enough, they reminded Jasce of Ganon’s malice, the red stuff surrounding the castle, but what he imagined if it disappeared or cooled down. What it would leave behind was deformed rocks of nothing. It saddened Jasce deeply, to never be able to see the castle in its former glory.

The road twisted and turned as the cliffs bent over Jasce, covering the sun and the blue sky. The sound of his wheel was so loud that he could barely hear anything. Though one thing was for sure; the birds were gone.

He came to the bottom of the Breach. On the map the right road led to the castle, and nothing but guardians awaited him there. The left road rose, but it was better than nothing. He could make that with the wheel.

The breach was dead silent. Jasce got up a bit on the steeping hill until his luck was gone. He stopped and locked his wheel so that he didn’t risk starting to roll backwards. For a moment he thought the rumor was false; he couldn’t see a single monster in the breach. People sure loved to talk.

He started to work his way up in a rather gimpy way. The wheel seldom gave any grip. He focused on his heavy breathing and the rhythmic scraping. Suddenly he stopped. His rhythmic scraping was being interrupted by something more heavier being dragged across the breach. He slowly turned around, seeing a group of monsters coming from the left, seemingly walking towards where he came from. There were at least four Bokoblin, two red, one blue, one black. But the ones who were leading the company, who were dragging their weapon across the dirt, were two Moblin; one blue and silver. Jasce had heard about the silver, you called yourself dead if you got chased by a silver monster, of any kind. They were brutal to the core.

So far they had not seen Jasce. He figured that if he just stood still, then they wouldn’t notice him. His mind started to race on what to do [if] they saw him. Were they fond of music? Jasce could capture any crowd, but he had never tried to capture a monster crowd. What kind of music would they like? Sad ballads? Some rocky dance music? The possibilities were endless.

But he didn’t get to discover that thought any longer, because one of the red Bokoblins had found something interesting by a stone sniffing its way up the road. The moment it lifted its head, it was over for Jasce. He turned and moved as fast as he could up the road while the scream of that awful looking pig echoed through the breach. It moved rather fast towards him, and decided halfway to throw a rock at Jasce, which he dodged. [Rather dumb pigs,] Jasce thought, but realised that he might just have to eat his own words by the time that silver Moblin caught up on him.

The red Bokoblin came at Jasce with its rusty sword, which Jasce dodged again. He pulled out the only weapon he had; a longer knife. It had been gifted to him by the late princess. He got around the Bokoblin and stabbed it in the side, making the pig screech out of pain. It took a jab at Jasce, but he pulled backwards and slid to the side, cutting the Bokoblin as deep as he could with the knife. That was enough to make the monster turn into dust.

By this time the other red Bokoblin and the blue Bokoblin had reached Jasce. He knew his knife was no match, especially because the blue Bokoblin came with a shield [and] a sword. It was time to run.

Jasce got on his merry way up the hill, but he didn’t get far until the red Bokblin was at his heels. Jasce managed to dodge their strikes, but he couldn’t do it forever. As the blue Bokoblin ed the fight, Jasce tried to figure out if it would be a plan to go back the way he came from. He could ride past the monsters, but what then? He was not going near the castle, and the other road was equally as steep as the current one.

The blue Bokoblin jammed its sword between the spokes of Jasces wheel, and Jasce fell to the ground. This was it. He had imagined that the day would come, he was only buying himself time from the malice of Ganon. It was only meant for him to die that day, but he had miraculously escaped. Now the reaper had caught up on him.

Jasce inhaled deeply, gripping the knife, as he saw the blue Bokoblin charge his sword at him. But in the second it would hit him, the sword fell helplessly to the ground. The blue Bokoblin disappeared in the dark mist, and from it emerged a young man’s face, one the same age as Jasce. His brown hair with bleached tops was glued to his sweaty forehead, his blue tunic sticking to his body and his blue eyes staring at Jasce with exhaustion. He didn’t wait a second before slashing the red Bokoblin. He just managed to turn before parrying the black Bokoblin. It took a finess in feet and three strikes before the Bokoblin was gone.

Now the two Moblins had caught up to the party, dragging their heavy clubs towards Jasce and the mighty fighter. The fighter turned his back towards Jasce, facing the two Moblins. Jasce saw the sword the fighter was holding; the dark iron shimmering in the light of the Royal Guard sword, with its matching shield on the fighter's back. It felt like time and space stopped for Jasce. The fighter pulled out his bow and shot the silver Moblin, blinding one of its eyes. He quickly got up to the blue Moblin and jabbed at its legs, before finishing it off. The silver Moblin was now enraged, filling the air with its battle cry. It didn’t seem to scare the fighter, who waited for the Moblin’s attack. It swung its club at the fighter, who gracefully dogged, sliding under and striking at the blindspot of the Moblin. The pain only made the Moblin more angry, and swung its club aimlessly around itself. The fighter jumped and used the stone wall to get on the Moblin’s back. A few strikes later, and the Moblin turned into dust, having the fighter land smoothly on the ground. All this had Jasce observed from his spot on the ground, and it was one of the best performances he had seen in his life.

The fighter came rushing at him, mumbling something under his breath. He grabbed Jasce's arm and helped him up.

“What?” asked Jasce.

“Hinox,” the fighter said, and pulled him down the road. Jasce didn’t quite understand, until he turned to look back. There, at the entrance of the breach came a giant Hinox, wobbling back and forth. Jasce's eyes got big as he ran as fast as he could with the fighter. They came down to the crossing again, and the fighter said,

“Water!”

Straight ahead was a small body of water. The two men ran straight for it, jumping into it. The fighter got behind a rock and pulled Jasce close. There they sat in silence, listening to the heavy steps of the Hinox coming down the road. Jasce was scared that his instruments might get water damaged, so he wished that the Hinox could get on with it faster.

Soon the Hinox came down to the crossing, but by that time it had already forgotten what it came here to do. With a peaceful mind, it wandered off towards the castle. The two men sat with water up to their chest, waiting until they couldn’t hear the Hinox anymore. Eventually the fighter got up, shaking off the water from his tunic. Jasce got up out of the water too, trying to squeeze out water from his pants.

”Hey,” he said, ”thank you. For saving my life.”

The fighter looked up at him, gave him a hesitant nod, before turning back to getting his shoes off and emptying whatever disgusting stuff that had gotten stuck in them. He took off his shield, bow and sword and carefully placed them against the nearest stone. He pulled off his blue tunic, only standing in the white undertunic. Jasce looked at his weapons before saying,

“You’re a royal guard, right?”

The fighter didn’t answer back. His mannerisms reminded Jasce of the princess’ Champion, that Hylian boy. Jasce had heard that he was a mighty fighter, rather short for a Hylian and didn’t say much. All three descriptions seemed to apply to this fighter. Maybe this was a reincarnation of the Champion, if such things were possible.

“You fight really well, no wonder you managed to get away from the Calamity.”

The mention of the dreadful day made the fighter stop in his attempt to squeeze out the excess water from his tunic. He looked at Jasce with a rather cold look. Jasce quickly moved forward in the conversation.

“Oh, I’m the royal jester, no need to worry,” he said, waving his hands in front of him. “I’m Jasce, Jasce the Jester, the greatest entertainer of the court.”

He brought himself to a smile and held out his hand. The fighter looked at it, before slowly taking it, giving it a firm shake and then going back to his chore. Jasce figured that he would be the sole entertainer of this conversation, which he had no problem with.

“So, where are you going? No, wait, I have an even more pressing question. Where did you come from?”

The fighter seemed satisfied with the results and placed the tunic on the stone to dry.

“The plateau,” he said and pointed up towards the rough rocks. “Was ing and woke the Hinox.”

So he was the one who had brought the giant monster along. Now Jasce started to think in circles, would he have been able to outrun the Hinox or not, if he had taken that route? The fighter for sure thought he could.

”So where are you goi-”

“I’m going to Serenne Stable,” the fighter cut Jasce short. He seemed to understand that Jasce was gonna ask that question eventually, so just best to get it over with it. Jasce nodded.

”I’m going the same way, what a coincidence!”

The fighter didn’t seem equally as pleased over the news. He got his shoes on and pulled the tunic on, despite it being still damp. Meanwhile Jasce pulled out his instruments, shaking out water from his guitarlele. The fighter could hear him mumble, talking about the wood and the tuning of the instrument in a sigh. The fighter strapped on his armour and weapons and let his eyes linger on Jasce, getting stuck on his wheel for a leg. Jasce noticed.

”Oh, this thing?” he said and lifted it up towards the fighter while he was checking the other things in his bag for water damage. ”It was from Ganon. Some Sheikah people tried to save my leg, but couldn’t, so they replaced it with this. Kind of neat, huh?”

The fighter didn’t answer back.

”Though it is a hassle walking up hills. It takes forever. That’s why I got stuck there with the monsters. Otherwise I would’ve outrun them.”

The fighter pulled on his armour, checking his sword. He felt a rather uncomfortable feeling, as if this jester he had stumbled upon would rip him open and discover all his dark secrets. He tried to keep a low profile, yet this man kept figuring things out about him. If he just kept this man company to the stable, then they could go their separate ways there, and this could have just been a funny interaction.

”So…?” Jasce asked, closing his bag and shaking off the last last water he could. The fighter looked at him.

”I’m Zack,” he said, and turned towards the road. ”Let’s go before it gets dark.”

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:pushpin: 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞:

Big thanks to Will for letting me borrow Zack and drawing the picture!!! I’m forever in debt to you.

You thought you had seen it all of Jasce? No sir!

During Our Fool challenge I got too invested in this OC and his little adventures in Hyrule. I hope you all will have a fun time getting to know him and watch me be so inconsistent in whatever I’m trying to accomplish hahaha

I also suck at writing combat scenes so this was a good exercise!

Thank you for reading!! If you’ve gotten this far, bless your next meal to be the best of the century 🫶🏻

Edit: Forgot to add proof of no ai