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Well, well, well. I have to give you many thanks for looking at this :3 I'm sorry to present you all with such a cliffhanger at the end... But trust me anyways, this story DOES have an ending. It may be about 3 chapters long, but with this first one, it's already almost halfway through. I have the story layout in me head. Anyway, this is my first ever Fanfic, and I will probably make -A chapter a day-. Or something close to it. Anyways, I'm going to write a set every day. I won't let this story die... If you read it, get bored, and leave, you'll miss the ending, and the flying monkeys will attack you. 3
Enjoy! x)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Link, the Hero of Time...
Well, our young hero lay lazily between the trees that border the passage to the Kokiri Forest entrance. Yeah, he had to stay there, he dared not go anywhere and just ask to be given a house. And he hated it, he hated the Kokiri Forest... None of the Kokiri treated him normally after they learned he wasn't a Kokiri himself. Most stared at him as he passed, some gave him dirty looks, seeing him as some kind of a traitor. And then there was Mido.
Link wavered the thought away, stareing at the gentle blue sky of afternoon as thankfully, clouds momentarily blocked the sun which would blind a clear sight. Everything was so... peaceful. And boreing. He felt like the only one in Hyrule who actually had nothing to do. Sure, Zelda had princess duties, as did Ruto. Malon was takeing care of horses. The Kokiri were... He wasn't sure what kept the Kokiri from going bored out of their minds, but they seemed to enjoy the forest. Again, he hated it. He only went there to sleep in his treehouse, but he always spent the time outside.
He almost wished he had a friend who had as little to do as he did.
Legs were straight as he gazed up at the usual sky and clouds, arms behind him to hold him up. Traveling the streams of time, fighting deadly monsters, slaying the King of Evil. Yeah, he deserved a rest. But he didn't want this much rest... Perhaps he was just spoiled, used to always having an adventurous task before him. He wanted something to happen though, no matter how much he tried to deny it in guilt, he wanted something to happen.
And something would happen.
Link had felt it before it happened. He felt the ground shake a bit, as if something was traveling under it. Link rose, his hand on his Kokiri Sword as he stepped back slowly in preparation. He only had with him his sword, he saw no use in carrying the shield or any of his other weapons... The shakeing stopped suddenly, and a single member of the bark people, those nut-shooting monsters, the Deku hopped out of the ground.
Link lowered his eyelids as soon as it did; it couldn't be anything that exciteing, could it? But he didn't have his shield... it didn't matter, it was just a Scrub... But at second look, the creature wasn't looking for a battle. It was huffing and shivering, trying to find it's words...
"Hrruff! Huurelp rountain!"
Getting on one knee, Link tilted his head a bit to the side, placing one hand on the Deku's shoulder to try to calm it down. He barely understood what it had said, but the panic was beginning to make him nervous.
"Calm down! Tell me now, what happened?!"
The walking bush looked as if it were about to cry. It continued shivering at the feel of Link's touch, sniffling from inside that huge hole in it's face. Even Link wasn't sure how Deku spoke, (He decided they probably have their mouths hidden under a sheet of wood) but the Deku tried again, more slowly. "Fruh, fruh h-h-horons! Hruuf, frier hruhfragon!" the thing squeeked, legs trembling.
Link squinted, trying to recognize the words. Now here was his opposite, such a cowardly beast... Was it afraid of him? He always thought about the fact that in all his 'hyrule saving' he'd probably slain many innocent creatures, but the thought always made him depressed. "The... Gorons! The Gorons?" he said, searching his mind for matches to the sounds the Deku was describing. He still wasn't sure what the heck was going on, but if he panicked as well, it wouldn't help anything. He saw the Deku nod vigorously, almost grinning a bit. "Second word..." he let the 'Hruuf, frier hruhfragon' repeat in his mind, though obviously, it wasn't perfect. "Frier?..." Link said, confused. It had to be something that made sense to him, a random Deku wouldn't just dig up to him and throw an anxiety party just to mutter nonsense. As Link expected, the Deku shook his head. "Frier.. Fire?... Fire... fragon.... Dragon! Fire Dragon!" The Deku nodded, and Link thought. He'd blurted it out so fast he wasn't thinking. Fire dragon? Hell, that couldn't be good.
"Wait a minute... Volvagia?..." Link said, eyes widening just a bit. Volvagia? Was this some kind of a trick? Trust slipped, but then, he wasn't about to sit back and let the thing devour the entire Goron race.
"Hruff; Mrresash fhrom h-h--horon boss!"
This made sense to Link almost immediately. After saying this though, the shrub looked left and right, hopping backwards into it's hole. Before Link could speak, the thing had disappeared into the earth of Hyrule Field. He felt it now, the weight on his shoulders of a task. And he wasn't happy... This wasn't exactly what he wanted... He began to feel as if it were his fault, (If what the Deku said was true). How had Volvagia returned?... "No time for that..." Said Link to himself, looking from the field to the forest entrance. He needed some of his weapons if he was going to go check this out... And, a horse? Should he go straight to Death Mountain and walk slowly, or detour to the Ranch, pick up Epona, and travel faster?... No time to debate. In seconds he was off to the Kokiri Forest, trying to ignore the land and it's inhabitants as he sprinted straight to his treehouse. Sweating and huffing as he climbed the ladder, he thrust the door open and flew inside the small, cylinder hut. Scruffling quickly under his bed with his arm, he pulled out random items until it was empty, then began picking things from it... his shield of course, bow and arrow.. Hookshot... Two bottles, boomerang... The rest, he shoved under his bed in a hurry. If this -was- some kind of a joke, I'd be pretty embarassing... On the bright side; at least he wasn't bored.
The young boy's legs carried him quickly out and across the field. His ribs were burning, his legs were acheing, but he couldn't stop, he'd wasted enough time... Running quickly up the small hill that led to Lon Lon Ranch, he made his way inside, running straight at the huge field where horses ran. After looking quickly left and right, he made a sharp turn for the stalls where he saw Malon, brushing a large horse's maw.
"Malon! I need Epona!" he said quickly, trying to take the time to rest from his run. This resulted in an obvious show of fatigue as he bent over, hands on his knees to pant.
"Link?" The red-head that was just about Link's side turned around, temporarily abandoning her task of brushing. She was surprised to see him in this condition... Setting the brush down on a fence and leaving the horse waiting, she skipped over to him quickly. "What for?..."
"No time!" was all Link could manage from between his heaves of breath.
"Uh... Okay, she's out in the field..." Malon said slowly, but she was worried... Of course, she couldn't go with him. But she wasn't about to continue brushing a horse while something potentially terrible was going on. Link nodded, rising quickly from the leisure of rest to make a turn into the field. Malon went after him, though not in such a vigorous run. She stopped at the stable doors and turned to watch him.
Link made his way into the field, looking around at some 14 horses that ran free around him. He dug into the inner pocket of his tunic... His Ocarina! He had left it! "Rgh, no matter..." Link mumbled, rising to stand straight. He raised his hand to his face, positioning his fingers in his mouth, and whistled loudly. All the horses paused to look at him, but the only one that ran toward him was Epona. Link was happy to see her, Epona was probably the only friend he had that knew what he went through... Or at least, if horses could tell that. Epona was almost skipping, nickering joyfully as she strode up to Link and nuzzled his short blonde locks. As she looked at him, she seemed disappointed at his scared and tired face. Link rubbed her nose gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. The last thing he needed was to scare the poor young filly... Slowly he mounted, trying to be as calm as possible, but Epona felt the boy's sweat, shivers and shudders. Gently Link grabbed Epona's almost achromatic mane, nudgeing her in the side with his boot. Epona normally would have began walking at such a weak kick, but she leapt up instead, galloping straight out of the Ranch as Malon looked on.
On the field, over the bridge, up the stone steps... As they strode quickly through Kakariko, villagers stared as they could at the soaring pair. Link could appear almost weak, but not having to run through this himself was a replenishing rest. Sweaty hands gripped Epona's thick hair... Up the mountain trail, Link noticed that nothing seemed to be different. It was probably true, he'd probably went through this for nothing. "Oh, Goddesses..." he muttered under his breath while he got off Epona, parking her in the shade at the Goron City entrance. He -had- to at least check if anything was wrong... As he entered however, from light of day to darkness of shadow, then light of cave fire... He was greated by a crowd of Gorons. "He's here!" some shouted, leaping up and down. They weren't leaps of joy, though... Just more anxiety and panic... "So... It's true then?" said Link, looking around at them all. "I got a message from a Deku Scrub..."
Darunia walked foreward, the Gorons that blocked his way moving respectfully to the side. "I sent the Scrub... A creature has come, a great Fire-Breathing dragon... But it isn't Volvagia..." he said, that determined look still on his face, as always. "I brought everyone inside... We were hopeing that you could play the hero for us once more..." he said, glareing straight at Link, who returned the glare. Link nodded, thinking for a moment. "I'm going to need a child-size Red Tunic, though..." he muttered, thumb and index-finger on his chin.
One of the Gorons approached, holding a folded up, crimson Tunic, as if Link's wish were granted. "Already thought of," Darunia said, a hunt of pride in his voice. "Down in my room, there's a statue. If you move this, (And you can with your bracelets), you'll find an entrance to the temple where the dragon's lair lies..."
Link felt like winking, he knew all this. He knew every step of the way. He took the Red Tunic and threw it over his green one, quickly makeing his way down the tunnels to the bottom floor, hearing cries of "Good Luck!" from behind. In Darunia's room, he went straight for the statue.
About a minute later, Link emerged into the volcano... And thankfully, the woodbridge was intact. Running across the pass, he leaped down the hole that was the temple entrance... Grand idea, as he fell face-first into the hard ground after a long scream. He'd forgotten how long the drop was... Still, he got up quickly, somehow both determined and worried at the same time. Out the left-hand door, across the bridge, and through the door that should have been Volvagia's lair.
And he witnessed it. He witnessed it all.
It was his worst nightmare... Exactly what he'd hoped to not be true...
The dragon was massive, and indeed left him in awe. But that wasn't what scared him. The quadropedal western winged dragon took alot of the room space. It's scales were dark grey, and currently, it's head was in the air as it swallowed something. Link couldn't make it out, but it appeared to be hind legs, shakeing as screams emerged from the thing's mouth. The legs were kicking as slowly the dragon forced it inward, swallowing whatever it was whole, and alive...
Link could only let out a gasp. ... If only... he'd been here just a few minutes earlier... He'd spent so much time dawdling, so much time wasted. He stopped at the ranch just to get Epona and make his life easier. But makeing his life easier costed the life of another... Was it a child the monster had taken? It was young, as Link tried to decipher what it was. Those were too bulky to be the legs of a human... Was it a monster the dragon had swallowed? It couldn't have been an enemy, he'd never seen a monster take it's own.
He felt terrible, unable to move, like dropping to his knees as he watched in horror. Forked tongue slipped around the dragon's lips as it closed it's mouth, the lump seen going down it's throat. It turned now to look down at Link, the motionless child, deadly talons moving foreward as it stepped. Link squinted at it, he wasn't sure what to feel. Revenge? Sorrow? He felt more angry at himself than the dragon right now. But he wasn't about to sit around and let himself get killed because of it.
He was thinking though... What was he to do? He was sure the dragon's scales would easily reflect a blade... 'I'm not ready to die yet... This is a risk, though... And I'm not sure how smart this thing is, but if I make it too obvious it won't fall for it...' he thought, hatching a plan inside, yes indeed. Finally, he was thinking before he acted. 'I can still save that thing, whatever it is, I won't give up here... And I might be able to kill the dragon in the process...'
His plan was to let the dragon swallow him, then break out from inside with his sword... Surely, there weren't any of those scales inside. He was scared though, heck, who wouldn't be? There wasn't a choice now, and he had to hypotheticly yell 'Hey you, don't I look tasty?!' without the Dragon noticing his plan. There was also the risk that the dragon might prefer it's humans in pieces rather than whole... He didn't like the idea of being swallowed either, but ironicly, it'd happened to him once before.
The dragon gave a dominatingly sarcastic grin, amused by the way such a young child would wander so willingly into it's midst. He wanted to test it though, see just how easy this meal would be... The dragon raised a talon, swipeing at Link gently and slowly to see what he would do.
Link let himself limply fall to the ground at gravity's will. It was a horrifying experience to have to play dead, closing your eyes and letting fate guide you while you're on a platform in the middle of a volcano surrounded by lava. He swallowed hard, trying to make his body as limp as possible...
The dragon was both surprised and confused. Showing a bit of personality here, it gave a malefic grin, nudgeing Link with a claw. What a foolish boy... When Link made no response, the dragon placed it's long, sharp claws into the collar area of Link's tunic, raising him high. Eyes closed, Link began to sweat as he could feel the dragon's very breath. His sword and shield were gently on his back... His plan was working so far... But was this bravery and courage, as his triforce listed? Or was it just plain stupidity? It was too late for him to turn back now, too late to reconsider once he thought of the dangers this imposed. In the end, it didn't matter though, he would either live, or die... Die like this, such a pitifully stupid death after being on so many heroic adventures... He felt himself dropped onto a wet surface after being carried through the air a bit more. He opened an eye and peered around seeing just as he expected. He was inside the dragon's mouth, settled on it's forked tongue. Teeth were curved around him, outlineing it's jaws...
Slowly, the mouth snapped shut, and everything went dark.
He felt like curling up to make himself smaller, but he wasn't 'allowed' to move if he had 'passed out'. Why? One thought was going through his mind. 'Please... don't... chew...' It was a horrid thought, if he was going to die, he'd rather not be grinded before doing so. Instead though, he whinced, closeing his eyes as he was sucked backwards in a wave of saliva. Something grabbed his left leg as he heard an unexplainable clatter of metal on the floor from far away (probably from outside), and it pulled him even father downward... Soon his entire body was going down it's throat, himself letting out yelps each time the muscles had contracted, squeezing his poor body. 'Stay awake....' he told himself, and that was the only thing that did keep him alive. The thought scared him, because he knew somewhere deep inside that if he really did pass out, he wouldn't ever wake up.
Finally the pain ended, and he felt himself thrown onto something... It was a liquid, but it stung him bad. First things first however; obviously he noticed something he had overlooked... there was no air. It was pitch black, and he had to let himself feel around in the darkness. His mind was racing, suffocateing with a backfired plan was a horrible way to die. He walked around shallow liquid he couldn't see, hands streached out infront of him. If he was alive; here, right now, that other thing had to be...
It wasn't standing, though. Link's next step led him to bump into something, almost tripping over it. That acid was eating through his boots... dripping from above... and his lungs were screaming for precious oxygen...
Quickly he knelt over now, the panic of having no air kicking in. Whatever the thing he tripped over was, it was still warm, and to Link, that meant it was still alive. 'Air!' he told himself, trying to somehow trick his lungs into lasting longer, 'It's comming soon!' And yes, he had the swallowed one, so all he had to do now was cut loose! These beautifully determined thoughts raced through his mind as he put his hand over his shoulder, ready to grab his--.
Sword. He snatched around at the air, eyes widening in the darkness. It had to have fallen somewhere!!! He fell to his knees, dipping his hands around in the acid, ignoreing the pain. But then he remembered the clatter he'd heard just before he was swallowed... The dragon was smart enough to disarm him, and he was stupid enough not to notice... This was it, he was going to die, and this thing was going to terrorize Hyrule. It was all pain, the great suffering of having no air, and the great stinging of the acid beneith him...
(To be continued.)
Well, well, well. I have to give you many thanks for looking at this :3 I'm sorry to present you all with such a cliffhanger at the end... But trust me anyways, this story DOES have an ending. It may be about 3 chapters long, but with this first one, it's already almost halfway through. I have the story layout in me head. Anyway, this is my first ever Fanfic, and I will probably make -A chapter a day-. Or something close to it. Anyways, I'm going to write a set every day. I won't let this story die... If you read it, get bored, and leave, you'll miss the ending, and the flying monkeys will attack you. 3
Enjoy! x)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Link, the Hero of Time...
Well, our young hero lay lazily between the trees that border the passage to the Kokiri Forest entrance. Yeah, he had to stay there, he dared not go anywhere and just ask to be given a house. And he hated it, he hated the Kokiri Forest... None of the Kokiri treated him normally after they learned he wasn't a Kokiri himself. Most stared at him as he passed, some gave him dirty looks, seeing him as some kind of a traitor. And then there was Mido.
Link wavered the thought away, stareing at the gentle blue sky of afternoon as thankfully, clouds momentarily blocked the sun which would blind a clear sight. Everything was so... peaceful. And boreing. He felt like the only one in Hyrule who actually had nothing to do. Sure, Zelda had princess duties, as did Ruto. Malon was takeing care of horses. The Kokiri were... He wasn't sure what kept the Kokiri from going bored out of their minds, but they seemed to enjoy the forest. Again, he hated it. He only went there to sleep in his treehouse, but he always spent the time outside.
He almost wished he had a friend who had as little to do as he did.
Legs were straight as he gazed up at the usual sky and clouds, arms behind him to hold him up. Traveling the streams of time, fighting deadly monsters, slaying the King of Evil. Yeah, he deserved a rest. But he didn't want this much rest... Perhaps he was just spoiled, used to always having an adventurous task before him. He wanted something to happen though, no matter how much he tried to deny it in guilt, he wanted something to happen.
And something would happen.
Link had felt it before it happened. He felt the ground shake a bit, as if something was traveling under it. Link rose, his hand on his Kokiri Sword as he stepped back slowly in preparation. He only had with him his sword, he saw no use in carrying the shield or any of his other weapons... The shakeing stopped suddenly, and a single member of the bark people, those nut-shooting monsters, the Deku hopped out of the ground.
Link lowered his eyelids as soon as it did; it couldn't be anything that exciteing, could it? But he didn't have his shield... it didn't matter, it was just a Scrub... But at second look, the creature wasn't looking for a battle. It was huffing and shivering, trying to find it's words...
"Hrruff! Huurelp rountain!"
Getting on one knee, Link tilted his head a bit to the side, placing one hand on the Deku's shoulder to try to calm it down. He barely understood what it had said, but the panic was beginning to make him nervous.
"Calm down! Tell me now, what happened?!"
The walking bush looked as if it were about to cry. It continued shivering at the feel of Link's touch, sniffling from inside that huge hole in it's face. Even Link wasn't sure how Deku spoke, (He decided they probably have their mouths hidden under a sheet of wood) but the Deku tried again, more slowly. "Fruh, fruh h-h-horons! Hruuf, frier hruhfragon!" the thing squeeked, legs trembling.
Link squinted, trying to recognize the words. Now here was his opposite, such a cowardly beast... Was it afraid of him? He always thought about the fact that in all his 'hyrule saving' he'd probably slain many innocent creatures, but the thought always made him depressed. "The... Gorons! The Gorons?" he said, searching his mind for matches to the sounds the Deku was describing. He still wasn't sure what the heck was going on, but if he panicked as well, it wouldn't help anything. He saw the Deku nod vigorously, almost grinning a bit. "Second word..." he let the 'Hruuf, frier hruhfragon' repeat in his mind, though obviously, it wasn't perfect. "Frier?..." Link said, confused. It had to be something that made sense to him, a random Deku wouldn't just dig up to him and throw an anxiety party just to mutter nonsense. As Link expected, the Deku shook his head. "Frier.. Fire?... Fire... fragon.... Dragon! Fire Dragon!" The Deku nodded, and Link thought. He'd blurted it out so fast he wasn't thinking. Fire dragon? Hell, that couldn't be good.
"Wait a minute... Volvagia?..." Link said, eyes widening just a bit. Volvagia? Was this some kind of a trick? Trust slipped, but then, he wasn't about to sit back and let the thing devour the entire Goron race.
"Hruff; Mrresash fhrom h-h--horon boss!"
This made sense to Link almost immediately. After saying this though, the shrub looked left and right, hopping backwards into it's hole. Before Link could speak, the thing had disappeared into the earth of Hyrule Field. He felt it now, the weight on his shoulders of a task. And he wasn't happy... This wasn't exactly what he wanted... He began to feel as if it were his fault, (If what the Deku said was true). How had Volvagia returned?... "No time for that..." Said Link to himself, looking from the field to the forest entrance. He needed some of his weapons if he was going to go check this out... And, a horse? Should he go straight to Death Mountain and walk slowly, or detour to the Ranch, pick up Epona, and travel faster?... No time to debate. In seconds he was off to the Kokiri Forest, trying to ignore the land and it's inhabitants as he sprinted straight to his treehouse. Sweating and huffing as he climbed the ladder, he thrust the door open and flew inside the small, cylinder hut. Scruffling quickly under his bed with his arm, he pulled out random items until it was empty, then began picking things from it... his shield of course, bow and arrow.. Hookshot... Two bottles, boomerang... The rest, he shoved under his bed in a hurry. If this -was- some kind of a joke, I'd be pretty embarassing... On the bright side; at least he wasn't bored.
The young boy's legs carried him quickly out and across the field. His ribs were burning, his legs were acheing, but he couldn't stop, he'd wasted enough time... Running quickly up the small hill that led to Lon Lon Ranch, he made his way inside, running straight at the huge field where horses ran. After looking quickly left and right, he made a sharp turn for the stalls where he saw Malon, brushing a large horse's maw.
"Malon! I need Epona!" he said quickly, trying to take the time to rest from his run. This resulted in an obvious show of fatigue as he bent over, hands on his knees to pant.
"Link?" The red-head that was just about Link's side turned around, temporarily abandoning her task of brushing. She was surprised to see him in this condition... Setting the brush down on a fence and leaving the horse waiting, she skipped over to him quickly. "What for?..."
"No time!" was all Link could manage from between his heaves of breath.
"Uh... Okay, she's out in the field..." Malon said slowly, but she was worried... Of course, she couldn't go with him. But she wasn't about to continue brushing a horse while something potentially terrible was going on. Link nodded, rising quickly from the leisure of rest to make a turn into the field. Malon went after him, though not in such a vigorous run. She stopped at the stable doors and turned to watch him.
Link made his way into the field, looking around at some 14 horses that ran free around him. He dug into the inner pocket of his tunic... His Ocarina! He had left it! "Rgh, no matter..." Link mumbled, rising to stand straight. He raised his hand to his face, positioning his fingers in his mouth, and whistled loudly. All the horses paused to look at him, but the only one that ran toward him was Epona. Link was happy to see her, Epona was probably the only friend he had that knew what he went through... Or at least, if horses could tell that. Epona was almost skipping, nickering joyfully as she strode up to Link and nuzzled his short blonde locks. As she looked at him, she seemed disappointed at his scared and tired face. Link rubbed her nose gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. The last thing he needed was to scare the poor young filly... Slowly he mounted, trying to be as calm as possible, but Epona felt the boy's sweat, shivers and shudders. Gently Link grabbed Epona's almost achromatic mane, nudgeing her in the side with his boot. Epona normally would have began walking at such a weak kick, but she leapt up instead, galloping straight out of the Ranch as Malon looked on.
On the field, over the bridge, up the stone steps... As they strode quickly through Kakariko, villagers stared as they could at the soaring pair. Link could appear almost weak, but not having to run through this himself was a replenishing rest. Sweaty hands gripped Epona's thick hair... Up the mountain trail, Link noticed that nothing seemed to be different. It was probably true, he'd probably went through this for nothing. "Oh, Goddesses..." he muttered under his breath while he got off Epona, parking her in the shade at the Goron City entrance. He -had- to at least check if anything was wrong... As he entered however, from light of day to darkness of shadow, then light of cave fire... He was greated by a crowd of Gorons. "He's here!" some shouted, leaping up and down. They weren't leaps of joy, though... Just more anxiety and panic... "So... It's true then?" said Link, looking around at them all. "I got a message from a Deku Scrub..."
Darunia walked foreward, the Gorons that blocked his way moving respectfully to the side. "I sent the Scrub... A creature has come, a great Fire-Breathing dragon... But it isn't Volvagia..." he said, that determined look still on his face, as always. "I brought everyone inside... We were hopeing that you could play the hero for us once more..." he said, glareing straight at Link, who returned the glare. Link nodded, thinking for a moment. "I'm going to need a child-size Red Tunic, though..." he muttered, thumb and index-finger on his chin.
One of the Gorons approached, holding a folded up, crimson Tunic, as if Link's wish were granted. "Already thought of," Darunia said, a hunt of pride in his voice. "Down in my room, there's a statue. If you move this, (And you can with your bracelets), you'll find an entrance to the temple where the dragon's lair lies..."
Link felt like winking, he knew all this. He knew every step of the way. He took the Red Tunic and threw it over his green one, quickly makeing his way down the tunnels to the bottom floor, hearing cries of "Good Luck!" from behind. In Darunia's room, he went straight for the statue.
About a minute later, Link emerged into the volcano... And thankfully, the woodbridge was intact. Running across the pass, he leaped down the hole that was the temple entrance... Grand idea, as he fell face-first into the hard ground after a long scream. He'd forgotten how long the drop was... Still, he got up quickly, somehow both determined and worried at the same time. Out the left-hand door, across the bridge, and through the door that should have been Volvagia's lair.
And he witnessed it. He witnessed it all.
It was his worst nightmare... Exactly what he'd hoped to not be true...
The dragon was massive, and indeed left him in awe. But that wasn't what scared him. The quadropedal western winged dragon took alot of the room space. It's scales were dark grey, and currently, it's head was in the air as it swallowed something. Link couldn't make it out, but it appeared to be hind legs, shakeing as screams emerged from the thing's mouth. The legs were kicking as slowly the dragon forced it inward, swallowing whatever it was whole, and alive...
Link could only let out a gasp. ... If only... he'd been here just a few minutes earlier... He'd spent so much time dawdling, so much time wasted. He stopped at the ranch just to get Epona and make his life easier. But makeing his life easier costed the life of another... Was it a child the monster had taken? It was young, as Link tried to decipher what it was. Those were too bulky to be the legs of a human... Was it a monster the dragon had swallowed? It couldn't have been an enemy, he'd never seen a monster take it's own.
He felt terrible, unable to move, like dropping to his knees as he watched in horror. Forked tongue slipped around the dragon's lips as it closed it's mouth, the lump seen going down it's throat. It turned now to look down at Link, the motionless child, deadly talons moving foreward as it stepped. Link squinted at it, he wasn't sure what to feel. Revenge? Sorrow? He felt more angry at himself than the dragon right now. But he wasn't about to sit around and let himself get killed because of it.
He was thinking though... What was he to do? He was sure the dragon's scales would easily reflect a blade... 'I'm not ready to die yet... This is a risk, though... And I'm not sure how smart this thing is, but if I make it too obvious it won't fall for it...' he thought, hatching a plan inside, yes indeed. Finally, he was thinking before he acted. 'I can still save that thing, whatever it is, I won't give up here... And I might be able to kill the dragon in the process...'
His plan was to let the dragon swallow him, then break out from inside with his sword... Surely, there weren't any of those scales inside. He was scared though, heck, who wouldn't be? There wasn't a choice now, and he had to hypotheticly yell 'Hey you, don't I look tasty?!' without the Dragon noticing his plan. There was also the risk that the dragon might prefer it's humans in pieces rather than whole... He didn't like the idea of being swallowed either, but ironicly, it'd happened to him once before.
The dragon gave a dominatingly sarcastic grin, amused by the way such a young child would wander so willingly into it's midst. He wanted to test it though, see just how easy this meal would be... The dragon raised a talon, swipeing at Link gently and slowly to see what he would do.
Link let himself limply fall to the ground at gravity's will. It was a horrifying experience to have to play dead, closing your eyes and letting fate guide you while you're on a platform in the middle of a volcano surrounded by lava. He swallowed hard, trying to make his body as limp as possible...
The dragon was both surprised and confused. Showing a bit of personality here, it gave a malefic grin, nudgeing Link with a claw. What a foolish boy... When Link made no response, the dragon placed it's long, sharp claws into the collar area of Link's tunic, raising him high. Eyes closed, Link began to sweat as he could feel the dragon's very breath. His sword and shield were gently on his back... His plan was working so far... But was this bravery and courage, as his triforce listed? Or was it just plain stupidity? It was too late for him to turn back now, too late to reconsider once he thought of the dangers this imposed. In the end, it didn't matter though, he would either live, or die... Die like this, such a pitifully stupid death after being on so many heroic adventures... He felt himself dropped onto a wet surface after being carried through the air a bit more. He opened an eye and peered around seeing just as he expected. He was inside the dragon's mouth, settled on it's forked tongue. Teeth were curved around him, outlineing it's jaws...
Slowly, the mouth snapped shut, and everything went dark.
He felt like curling up to make himself smaller, but he wasn't 'allowed' to move if he had 'passed out'. Why? One thought was going through his mind. 'Please... don't... chew...' It was a horrid thought, if he was going to die, he'd rather not be grinded before doing so. Instead though, he whinced, closeing his eyes as he was sucked backwards in a wave of saliva. Something grabbed his left leg as he heard an unexplainable clatter of metal on the floor from far away (probably from outside), and it pulled him even father downward... Soon his entire body was going down it's throat, himself letting out yelps each time the muscles had contracted, squeezing his poor body. 'Stay awake....' he told himself, and that was the only thing that did keep him alive. The thought scared him, because he knew somewhere deep inside that if he really did pass out, he wouldn't ever wake up.
Finally the pain ended, and he felt himself thrown onto something... It was a liquid, but it stung him bad. First things first however; obviously he noticed something he had overlooked... there was no air. It was pitch black, and he had to let himself feel around in the darkness. His mind was racing, suffocateing with a backfired plan was a horrible way to die. He walked around shallow liquid he couldn't see, hands streached out infront of him. If he was alive; here, right now, that other thing had to be...
It wasn't standing, though. Link's next step led him to bump into something, almost tripping over it. That acid was eating through his boots... dripping from above... and his lungs were screaming for precious oxygen...
Quickly he knelt over now, the panic of having no air kicking in. Whatever the thing he tripped over was, it was still warm, and to Link, that meant it was still alive. 'Air!' he told himself, trying to somehow trick his lungs into lasting longer, 'It's comming soon!' And yes, he had the swallowed one, so all he had to do now was cut loose! These beautifully determined thoughts raced through his mind as he put his hand over his shoulder, ready to grab his--.
Sword. He snatched around at the air, eyes widening in the darkness. It had to have fallen somewhere!!! He fell to his knees, dipping his hands around in the acid, ignoreing the pain. But then he remembered the clatter he'd heard just before he was swallowed... The dragon was smart enough to disarm him, and he was stupid enough not to notice... This was it, he was going to die, and this thing was going to terrorize Hyrule. It was all pain, the great suffering of having no air, and the great stinging of the acid beneith him...
(To be continued.)