Jasce the Jester: A laughter in the past — #OurFool Challenge

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Started :pushpin: 17 apr 2025

Finished :pushpin: 20 apr 2025

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This story is part of here

𝐀 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭

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A few years after the Calamity Ganon…

The rain poured like Mipha's last tears

over Outskirt stable. The rain made up a wall, almost making it hard to see the trees from across the road. The Coliseum Ruins’ dark presence could be easily mistaken for the tall mountains that surrounded the stable. The malice of Ganon was for a moment washed away in the rain, and lost in people's minds.

The warmth of the light inside welcomed anyone in who tried to escape from the rain. A traveler, wet from head to toe, talked to Embry, owner of the stable, while covering the counter with water with their long sleeves. A faint scent of honey crepes filled the room, as people were casually chatting beside the fire, shielding themselves from the coldness roaming in through the opening. Among the many beds, further into the stable, could music be heard from a lonely traveler. He had been staying there for a few nights and was known by the ensemble, and good friends with Embry. His dark hair fell over his eyes as he played a joyous tune on his flute.

His music got mixed with children’s laughter, because a few of them had gathered on a specific bunk bed, placed in the left nook of the room. Three were sitting on the bottom bed, and two kicking their legs from the top bed. Their entertainer, a man in his 20’s, moved his hands in the air dramatically, casting shadows on the wall beside them. His wooden wheel, replacing a missing body part, squeaked slightly under the body weight as he twirled around on it.

“His Majesty frowned with his big brow and said, ‘Guardians? Is that what you call these… these spiders?’”

The entertainer leaned over, trying to mimic the movements of the guardians, who in this day and age, was a child’s biggest nightmare. In his rather crab-like movements, the children laughed, turning these monsters into shadows on the wall. The man flipped his dark blond hair and straightened his back.

“‘Yes, Your Majesty. These are the guardians that will protect us from Ganon.’”

The entertainer turned, seemingly changing his mannerisms in an instant.

“‘Hm… yes, of course,’” he mumbled in the deep voice he had before, mimicking the king of Hyrule.

One of the kids on the bottom bed, a girl with pigtails and pink cheeks, rose her hand.

“Is it true that guardians were nice before?”

“Well of course,” the entertainer said, “why would our King, his Majesty Rhoam, otherwise bring the creatures in on castle grounds?”

He twirled, getting down on one knee in front of the kids.

“He thought of them as his own children!”

“Stop talking nonsense about our belated king, you maggot!” one of the other travelers said from across the room.

The entertainer threw a hasty look over his shoulder, before he turned back to the kids.

“Is that true?” asked one of the boys sitting on the top bed, referring to the comment the other traveler had made.

“You only know if you know the stories. The tales of King Rhoam, and the Sheikah people bringing the guardians back to life. Did you know it’s said that Her Highness Zelda was the one to bring one of these back to life?”

“Really?” asked the girl, her face lighting up.

But before the entertainer could answer, a voice cut through the room.

“Cassi, Cygnus! And Corvus! Get over here, it’s time for bed.”

The three kids on the bottom bed sighed, gave each other a look, smiling at the entertainer, before getting up and running over to their mom who had called on them. The two kids on the top got down, thanking the entertainer, before disappearing back to their beds. The entertainer smiled and watched them disappear, before his smile slowly faded and the darkness he carried on casted a shadow over his heart. He once again ed who he really was.

He got down on the bottom bed, stretching out his prosthetic leg. The flute music had stopped and families were getting their kids to bed. Jasce, for that was his name, stared into the fire, letting the flames dance over his face. Soon he felt a cooler presence beside him.

“You know how to tell stories.”

Jasce looked up. It was the man who had played the flute before.

“Thank you,” he said.

The man gestured towards the bed, and Jasce made space for him on the thin mattress.

“Where did you learn such a skill?” the man asked, “I would like to become proficient in it myself.”

Jasce smiled, as he always did.

“A gift from Hylia herself, I suppose,” he said. “I’ve always… loved to tell stories.”

“A talent is useless if not practiced,” said the man.

Jasce looked at the man. He seemed to be somewhere the same age as him, maybe further into his 20’s. His somewhat unkempt hair and his unshaven face made him look rough, but his eyes were kind and his small smile warm.

“Well, I…” Jasce started, “I was a jester at the royal court.”

The man’s eyes widened slightly.

“Wow. What an honorable job.”

“I wouldn’t call it honorable,” Jasce answered back.

Silence fell between them. The space was filled with chatter from two older men drinking and two siblings fighting over the blanket in one bed.

“How was it?” asked the man.

Jasce, who had turned to look at a lady beside them make her bed, turned back to his conversation partner.

“What?” he asked.

“That day, when Calamity Ganon came.” Curiosity shined the man’s eyes up. “Tell me the story of what happened to the castle when calamity came.”

Jasce turned his head, looking into the fire. He fiddled with his earring, one he had made from clay. It was like the flames hypnotised him. Soon images flashed before his eyes.

”Sky…”

”The sky…”

“The sky turned red.”

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It was like the sky was bleeding.

A sound that killed out anything else in Hyrule.

Dark smoke, no, a mass out of this world, spreading through the halls of the castle. I ran as fast I could out on the nearest balcony. Pushing myself against the stone, I covered my head and felt how the mass, sharp like knives, ed right beside me. It ripped my hair, my clothes, I think maybe that’s how I got the scar around my mouth. Or perhaps that came later after I had climbed down the wall, ing the princess’ room and study, to run towards the guards chamber. I stumbled upon a guardian, its mechanic eye dark with hate shot a blaze toward me. I stumbled and fell into the water. The coldness surrounding me for a moment brought me back to life. I managed to cling to the side, waiting for the creature to leave.

I took a leap and fell down the waterfall to the long road that just ed the observation room. The road seemed abandoned, but I heard marching feet coming from above. I got up from the water and decided to follow it. I I turned to look up, and seeing the horrendous sight of the dark mass surrounding the castle. The voice of the princess, who had told me, in a ing remark, echoed in my head.

”Jasce, if Ganon comes back, then you run, and you never come back.”

So I jumped.

After that things became a blur. I know I got up from the water, running with confused and scared villages away from the castle. Houses were on fire, the darkness of Ganon followed us and guardians, fast like any six-legged creature. There I lost my leg. I saved a young boy from crushing under a guardian, but I put myself in danger. I can’t how it all went, but suddenly I was being dragged out from below by the boy’s father. I couldn’t feel my leg. He helped me out to the Sacred Ground Ruins, but there I fainted because of blood loss.

The next thing I woke up past the Dueling Peaks, at the stable. I was told some Sheikah found me and wanted to bring me back to Kakariko town, but couldn’t get me up the steep road to the village, so they left me there in Tasserens care. The only thing they could replace my leg with was this wheel…

★                                                          ★

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The man hummed in answer. Now the noise in the stable had calmed down and only loud whispers could be heard. Jasce didn't know what to say, so he just got up, digging around in his belongings.

”Everyone who survived that day lost something,” said the man. ”I’m sorry for your loss.”

Jasce stopped and turned to look at the man.

“What did you lose?” He asked.

The man stared at him for a moment, before getting up from the bed.

“A friend,” he said.

He walked up towards the fire and threw another to it, as it was slowly dying, and the rain was still pulling in a cold chill.

“What did we work with?” Jasce asked.

“He was in the royal guard,” the man said and turned to Jasce with a smile. “And I was the one delivering produce, and holding masses on Thursday evenings in the cathedral.”

Jasce was the one now to look surprised. He stood up.

“What was his name?”

Jasce was the one who would brag about him knowing everyone in the castle, because he more or less did. He was not just the jester for the king, but for everyone.

“What is your name?” he then hesitantly asked. He tried to see the man’s face clearly, but it was hard in the dim light. What he saw didn’t ring a bell in his head.

The man just smiled. It was bothering Jasce.

“I’m no one important to ,” the man said, before turning and walking over to his bed.

“Goodnight, Jasce.”

Jasce, after a moment by the fire, decided to head to bed as well. The words of the man bothered him, because how could he so casually accept his fate as a lonely traveler, carrying the sorrow of a lost friend? To even lose his whole life? The cathedral was nothing but ruins now.

He got down under the blanket, looking over at the man. He would ask him tomorrow. He would ask him how he could drown himself like that in sorrow. But when he woke up the next morning, seeing the man’s bed empty, and after asking Embry, the man had left at the crack of dawn, just as the rain had stopped.

Jasce didn’t stay, before noon he had begun his journey towards the Satori mountain. As he walked in the earthy smell, feeling how the sun slowly dried up the earth, he saw the beautiful trees of the Satori mountain, shining in the soft sunlight. He understood why it was named that way, ‘enlightenment’.

He decided to take a break by the Sanidin Park Ruins, as it was talked about in the castle, but he himself had never been there. All he knew was that it had a breathtaking view.

He saw the magnificent horse statue, before looking out over Hyrule. A stone formed itself in his stomach. The view over the castle was beautiful, but the sight in itself was enough to bring back memories, ones he didn’t dare to visit last night with the man. The malice, red fog constantly emerging from the castle that now had fallen into darkness. Its polished stone, bright and colourful windows and greenery in the summer only lived in people's minds now.

Jasce sat down by the statue, turning his look towards the Dueling Peaks, but the castle kept creeping in the corner of his eye. He tried to breathe through the heavy feeling that was pushing against his chest, but it didn’t go away. A tear fell down his cheek as he turned and looked at the castle again. His home, his whole life, his family lived in there, and now everything was wiped away. If his whole self was in that castle, then who was he now when that was gone?

He thought back to the kids last night, how he had, in their laughter, seen a glimpse of his past life, the one he tried so hard to exist in. He sighed, thinking of the man. A royal guard and a delivery boy. Two people who could tell him who he was, give him a clue where to look for himself.

He had to find that man.

He got up, carefully getting down the stairs, before securing his leg, and kicking off, rolling down on his wheel as pink leaves from the trees on Satori Mountain was carried with the wind.

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:pushpin: 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞:

Proof of no plagiarism and ai