Disclaimer: Link went out to kill some monsters, and forgot to leave the right to own him with us.
Dargon: Not so much of a disclaimer.
Link: I HAVE NO RIGHTS
Red's POV
I yelped and bolted upright. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, tingeing the sky an orangish-pinkish color.
Green glanced over to me. "Nightmare?"
I felt suddenly ashamed of myself for being scared over a simple nightmare. "Uh, no," I tried to lie. "Uh, it was…" I stopped, knowing I couldn't really lie. "Yes, it was," I mumbled.
"What about?"
"Um, I don't remember."
"Hm," Green said. "You sure?"
I thought for a long while. "No. I think it was like slowly being ripped apart."
Green winced. "Ouch."
I suddenly sat up. "I don't remember what happened last night. What did we do?"
"Well, Vio got engaged in a fight with a monster - "
"Oh, I remember that."
"Oh. Well, after we cleared the ocean and landed, you fell asleep and we decided to camp out here before moving any further."
"Oops. Sorry," I apologized, blushing.
"Nah, it was way past midnight, anyways."
"Can't you guys be any quieter while talking?" Blue asked grumpily. He stretched and raised his head. "We're getting closer to the hag," he announced.
"That's strange. The witch hasn't moved a single inch from before," Vio said, looking concerned. "She's stopped trying to run away from us."
"Well, I'm perfectly fine with that," Blue said. "If she stays right where she is."
"Nonetheless, she's not very far," Vio stated. "We should be able to catch up to her at least today."
"What do we do when we find her?" I asked.
"Dangle her from 50,000 feet in the air and demand we get our bodies back or she becomes a grease spot on the ground," Blue suggested.
"That was actually close to what I had in mind," Green said.
With renewed energy of being close to getting our old bodies back, we took off in the direction of the witch.
Blue's POV
Apparently, according to Vio and our senses, the witch was hiding in an active volcano. Way to go. Perfect place for a hideout. Only gets better and better. We stared down into the mouth of the volcano, where red-hot lava bubbled, frothing and creating billowing, thick gases and steam that rose up into the air.
"Now what?" Red asked.
Vio paced around the perimeter of the crater, searching for some way in. Finally, he found what he was looking for. "There," he said triumphantly, pointing to some kind of a carved set of stairs made out of hardened magma slabs leading from the mouth of the crater to deep inside the mountain.
"I don't think this is a good idea," Red murmured.
"Come on, Red, you baby," I teased. "Dare you to take a swan dive to the lava."
"Uh, no way!"
"Blue, since I know you'd want to go first, do you want to go first?" Vio asked.
"Sure." I tentatively place one foot on the top of the rock stairs. The rock seemed to be stable, so I gingerly put my other foot on the rock, testing my weight on it. It held, so I motioned to the others to follow. "Try not to walk too close to the edge," I heard Vio advising us. "Keep to the wall." We began the descent down the stairs, with the others trailing close behind, while to our left the hole opened up into a mass boiling pit of lava. The heat was immense, and the air around us was difficult to breathe and move in, pressing in on us and making movement sluggish. I briefly considered jumping on the stairs to scare Red, who was practically quivering behind me, but thought better of it. We followed the stairs down until it led onto a rocky cliff suspended over a lake of liquid inferno, spewing splashes of lava. There, with her back turned to us, chanting, was the old hag.
Finally. I growled, a sound deep in my throat, and lunged for her, without waiting for Vio to form some kind of attack plan. I grabbed her by the throat, wheeling her around to face me. "Give us our bodies back. NOW." I hissed.
The hag cackled. "Ah, so you've found me out, haven't you?"
I heard movement behind me and knew the others were behind me. I gripped the hag harder. "Do it. Or would you like to become part of the festivities below?" I held her out over the open lake of lava below.
"You wouldn't kill me," she said hoarsely. "Not if I was the only one who could turn you back. After all, a witch can't do much if she's dead." She began to cackle again.
I faltered. I knew she was right. But I had to get her to turn us back into our old selves.
"Now that you've finally gotten here," the hag sneered, "Why don't we test your fighting abilities, hmmm?" Suddenly, I felt something tear my shoulder open, and I whipped around, releasing the hag, to find myself face-to-face with a snarling wolf. I threw the wolf off of me, sending it flying over the cliff and into the pit of lava below. I turned to see that the hag had summoned a whole pack of wolves that were fighting against Vio, Red, and Green. A wolf lunged at me and I dodged sideways, causing it to shoot past me and slam into the far wall. I walked over to it and snapped its neck for good measure, then tossed it to the side. I glanced around and saw Green dealing with two wolves, but a third was approaching him from behind, claws outstretched, fangs bared, and ready to pounce. I intercepted the attacking wolf in midair just as it leaped, knocking it down to the ground with such force that it crumpled and lay there, unmoving.
Green glanced behind at me, having finished off the two wolves that had been attacking him from the front. "Thanks," he said.
"No problem," I answered, as I whipped around and pounced upon another wolf, slashing at its muzzle. The wolf howled in agony as it gripped its torn snout, backing away. I swept my long tail around me, knocking the wolf's feet out from under him and sweeping him straight into Vio, who looked pleased to have a visitor.
As Vio polished him off, I looked around to see that there were no more enemies left. The ground was littered with unconscious and dead wolves. Now that the main threat was over, I glanced around. Where was the hag? There was no sign of the old witch. I looked out over the cliff and saw something dangling from a small rock ledge suspended over the pit of lava below, silhouetted against the smoke that drifted up from the lava.
Oh, no…
I dashed to the edge of the cliff. The witch had hung herself by the neck with a piece of long, thin rope. Her eyes wide open, aimed at a far-off point but not seeing. Her mouth was stretched into a crooked grin.
Suddenly, the deceased body began to speak. Come in two days, or any chance to lose the curse will be lost.
As I watched, the string snapped and the witch's corpse plummeted down to the fiery lake of fire below.
Serves you right, I thought bitterly. All of a sudden, the mountain became to rumble ominously; first a slight rumble, then a vibrating roar. I whipped around to look at Vio, whose eyes said one thing: Run. We all sprinted for the stairs. Just as we reached the bottom, the world blew up.
Vio's POV
Sure, we knew it was an active volcano. But we decided to go in anyways.
Lava…
Extremely hot. Can burn your skin right off.
Fire.
Burning.
I opened my eyes slowly. The world was a blue haze of ripples, bubbles floating up around me towards the surface.
Bubbles?
I finally realized I was underwater.
I gave a yelp of surprise, accidentally swallowing a lungful of water, and kicked up towards the surface. I had already experienced my fair share of being underwater, and I did not want to have to go through it again. My head broke through the surface of the water and I gasped, sucking in a lungful of air. I turned around and saw a rocky shore. I paddled towards it and dragged myself onto shore, flopping onto the rocks, trying to catch my breath. My lungs were filled with water. I must've swallowed a ton of water while passed out, I thought.
Then the pain flared.
All of the scratches and cuts I had received from the wolves ached, slicing through me. And there was something else...
Burning…
The volcano exploded, I realized. And eruptions mean lava. Lava means…
Burns.
I didn't want to look down at myself. But I knew I would have to if I wanted to assess the damage done. Tentatively, I slowly looked down.
Oh, jeez.
My scales had been burnt black in almost all places. Some of the blackened patches of scales had even been singed completely off, leaving burnt, raw skin exposed underneath. My wings had been ripped and torn into shreds. I wanted to curl up into a small ball and hide, but I knew I had to find the others. I glanced around. Was that...Green?
I loped to the limp figure. He was lying in a pool of blood that had stained the rocks underneath with a reddish tinge. "Green," I murmured. I grasped his shoulders with my claws and shook him gently. "Green?"
His eyes fluttered. "Huh…?"
"Are you okay?"
Green slowly raised himself up. As he flopped over on his side, I saw a huge gash streaking along his side. "What happened?" I asked, touching the slash gently. He winced.
"Oh." He twisted to look at it. "OH. I think it might have been a wolf."
"Hey!"
We both turned. Blue was in the water, dragging Red with him. He hauled Red over to where Green and I were.
"No, I'm okay," Red protested weakly as Blue let go of him.
"You're definitely not okay."
"What?" Green asked.
"I may have twisted my ankle," Red said.
"Can dragons twist their ankles?" Green wondered aloud. Then he quickly said, "Don't answer that, Vio," He said pointedly, aiming his gaze towards me, knowing that I had been about to launch into a lecture.
Blue sighed. "Well, I guess that's that, anyways."
"What?" Red asked.
"The old hag's dead. Who's gonna turn us back?"
We grew silent as we suddenly realized that, with the witch having committed suicide, she couldn't turn us back into our old selves. End of line: We were stuck as dragons. Forever.
Blue cursed. "I wasn't expecting to live my life like this."
"No, stop!" Red cried. "There has to be a way."
"Red," Green said tiredly. "There's no way."
Red didn't answer, his jaw set. "Think. Just think."
I knew how desperate Red was to find some way out of this situation, but it already seemed hopeless.
Green suddenly started. "Hold on. What if…?"
"What?" Blue snapped.
Green looked at all of us. And then, as if by magic…
"Zelda," We all said automatically.
"Exactly," Green said. "We can go to the castle and ask for her help, if she can help us."
"But we're dragons," Blue countered. "They're not gonna like it when four dragons suddenly swoop down from the sky. They'll probably shoot first, then ask questions later."
"Yeah." Green grinned. "Which is why we're going to sneak in, break, and enter."
Green's POV
"I don't think this is a good idea," Red murmured.
"Of course it's not. Last time we were nearly blown up," Blue said. "You said the same thing last time, and yet, here you are, following our plan again."
We were hidden in the outskirts of the forest right next to Hyrule Castle. Guards were patrolling all over the perimeter of the castle, which made it even harder to not be spotted.
"So, what's the plan?" Red asked.
"Okay, so that's the window to Zelda's chambers," I said, pointing to a huge window at the back of the castle that dwarfed the other ones. "If we're lucky, she might be there. She's either in her room or the Throne room. We can't get to the Throne room, 'cause then we'd have to get through all of the guards inside the castle."
"How do we get to the window without them knowing we're here?" Blue waved to the guards. "I think I would notice if a great big dragon was flapping around my castle."
"You don't have a castle." Red pointed out helpfully.
"It's a form of figurative speech." Blue turned to me and waited for my answer.
"We do it the old fashioned way: a diversion."
"Make it be Red," Blue said automatically.
"Hey!" Red whimpered in protest.
"Well, if you'd like to volunteer, then we'd be perfectly fine with that," I said.
"Fine. Maybe. What do I have to do?" Red asked.
"Maybe show up, blast fire, roar a bit, get their attention. Then lead them away from the castle and lose them somewhere out in these woods. While they're trying to find their way back, come back to the castle."
"Sure," Red shrugged.
I turned to the others. "Would it be better if we all went to go talk to Zelda, or if one person went?"
"I think you should," Vio said. "Too many dragons at a time will probably look like a horde of monsters to her."
I nodded. "Okay. Let's get this thing going."
Exactly a minute after, Red began the diversion, shooting out of the forest and over the castle. The guards yelled and charged after him, throwing spears and shooting arrows. The projectiles that managed to hit Red merely bounced off of his scaly armor. Red swooped around the castle for a bit, roaring and shooting flames at the air, then turned and flew away into the forest. The guards, not wanting to let the beast get away and looking for a little excitement after an uneventful day, charged after him. Blue nudged me. I looked at him.
"Go," he said, and I nodded and launched off, gliding up behind the castle and to the window. Please be there please be there please be there…
For a moment I almost lost hope. There was no sight of Zelda anywhere in the room, and I was petrified that we had taken a chance and lost. I reached one claw up and tapped against the window. T-Tap, tap-tap, tap. It was our secret combination, something we had thought of together when we were younger. Someone moved into my line of vision inside the castle curiously.
Zelda. She looked more curious than scared that there was a dragon right outside of her window. She ran up to the window. "Link…?" I heard her say, her voice muffled by the pane of glass between us. I nodded.
Zelda's POV
I gasped. I looked around wildly, then back at Link. "Move back!" I shouted. Link complied; he backtracked in the air a few feet away. I grabbed a wooden, ornate chair sitting near me and stepped away from the window. I took a deep breath, then hurled the chair at the window. The chair broke clean through, shattering the fragile glass. Glass fragments exploded out of the window frame, falling to the ground in a glittering shower that reflected in the sun.
Link moved warily to the shattered window. I grasped the sides of his snout between my hands. "How did this happen?" I asked, perplexed.
"The witch that was terrorizing Kakariko Village," he responded. "The four of us went after her, and she cursed us."
"How did you get rid of the guards?"
"No time," he said. "I can hear them coming back." He lowered his head. "Will you come with me? We need to talk."
I jumped on his back, and Link pulled away from the window and flew towards the forest.
Red's POV
A few miles into the forest, I gave them the slip-up. I knew they were getting tired, so I decided to lose them there. I hid in a well-concealed cave and waited until they gave up and went back to the castle. Then I slid back out and flew back to where the others were. Green was already back, with Princess Zelda. They all looked up as I spread out my wings, slowing my descent into the clearing they were standing in.
"So, you say that the witch hung herself?" Zelda asked.
"Yeah," Blue concluded. "All to make things a LOT better."
Zelda seemed to be lost in thought. Finally, she asked, "Well, why would she do that? Would a person really sacrifice their own lives just so that a curse placed on someone wouldn't be able to be undone?"
"Apparently," Blue said.
"Hold on," I stopped him, turning to Zelda. "So what you're saying is…"
Vio snapped his claws, making a sharp clacking sound. "That wasn't the witch. A decoy, really."
"At the volcano, the decoy said, 'Come in two days, or any chance to lose the curse will be lost'," Blue recollected. "I hadn't thought much of that before, but it may mean 'Find my real self in two days, or you're forever screwed as dragons'."
I blinked. "So...It wasn't really the witch? Is that possible?"
"Definitely, if she was an extremely talented magic user. It would have been significantly easy to create a double-clone. Is there any lead you might have on finding the real witch?"
"Ohhhhh. The trail. It split into two at the other village!" I realized.
"And Blue chose the WRONG one," Green said, half-jokingly, glaring pointedly at Blue.
"Hey, it was a fifty-fifty chance!" Blue protested.
Vio rolled his eyes, "This experience just proves that using the traditional 'eenie meenie miny moe' is very unreliable."
"Well, at least there's some hope that the real witch isn't dead."
"So let's go find her, then!"
"Okay, thanks!" I said to Zelda. We spread our wings, about to launch off, when Zelda suddenly shouted, "Hold on!" We stopped and looked at her. She rummaged around in her pockets and drew out a small bottle. "Use this for your scales. It's called silver sulfadiazine. It's an ointment for burns. I'm not sure if it will work on dragons, but it's worth a shot." She held it up to Vio, who lifted a talon and grasped the small canister in between two of his claws. He murmured a thanks, and we lifted off. I looked down as we soared up to see that Zelda was watching us. I thought I heard her say, Good luck, before we flew off into the unknown.
Dargon: Blue just gets more sarcastic with each millisecond.
Nike: We found the review needing thing a good idea, so...two more reviews for the next chappie!
Dargon: Review. Repeat. THANKS!
Nike: Please review with comments on our writing. Do you like the new cover? Dargon drew it!
