A/N: Unfortunately I don't think there'll be any cutesy moments between Link and Rose this chapter. There's quite a lot of fighting though, for those of you who enjoy stuff like that! :)

Here's our review replies!

SimplySupreme: I'm getting better, it's not nearly as bad as yesterday, but still kinda sucky. Also, yes for long chapters. And character development is always a good thing to have. And could it possibly be foreshadowing? *evil laughs* (I'm joking. I swear.)

Keep Calm and be Ninja: Indeed he has! Though he realized it, it may take a little longer to sink in. That process has only just started, though he finds out more from the sages later.

Godofmadness43: Of course it does, and Rose knows it. I suppose it's harder than I thought to convey sarcasm via text, but she very well knows there's many things that could go wrong here, not to mention her nightmares.

Quick question also - chapter 6 of this story is going to have the Stallord battle and I decided to name it 'Why Flying Skeletons Aren't Allowed'. Should I change that? Let me know!


Chapter 3: Showdown

After making our way through a maze of rocks and meeting up with the Hero's Shade again, we'd found our way to the bulblin fortress. I counted three more guard towers this time around, and took them out quickly. It was harder to see now as the night grew darker, but with the help of the hawkeye, they were hardly a problem.

An errant thought ran through my head as I took aim at the last of the tower bulblins I could see; what if I got a crossbow?

I knew that a crossbow was different from a regular bow and arrow, but it sounded cool. I could find a place in castle town, maybe we could get one in the Castle Town Malo Mart when it opened, if it wasn't already. I knew there was one in the Link's Crossbow Training game, and non-canonical spin-off or not, it had to have come from somewhere.

Getting back on task, though promising myself to bring up the idea of a crossbow later, I loosed the third arrow, and the tower bulblin fell.

"They catch us, they'll raise all hell." I whispered. "Basically, don't let them catch you. If they do, take them out before they raise an alarm."

The sand worked in our favour as we moved towards the entrance to the fortress, quieting our footsteps. There was one bulbin in sight, save for the ones I'd shot down, once we reached the front gate. It was sleeping. That was the other advantage to waiting til dark, it meant more would be sleeping. But, as I'd quickly learned upon coming to Hyrule, I couldn't expect things to flow quite the same way as they had in the videogame. So I wouldn't let myself get too cocky, I'd be careful. I may not have thought much of my importance in this quest, but I still knew it would hurt Link - and my other friends, of course - if I died. I couldn't put it on Link to have to tell them something like that for one, and for two... what could happen to the Spiritus Potens if I died?

"Rose?"

I blinked, shaking my head. If I was telling myself to be careful, not getting lost in my thoughts was the first step.

"Sorry about that. I was distracted." I apologized, before we were moving forward again.

The fortress had high walls, so unless you looked through the cracks and broken pieces, you couldn't see what was ahead of you. It was really inconvenient, and may have made me more than a little paranoid about more tower guards. Two times it was a wasted arrow, and once it was worth it.

The next bulblin we came across looked to be on the brink of sleep, and very nearly noticed us. We hadn't seen it at first, it was hidden by a barrel when we rounded the corner, but we were very lucky we had been able to take it out before it raised the alarm. There was another tower some distance away ahead of us, barely visible above another wall, but it didn't look like we'd been seen.

The walls grew shorter, then, and it appeared we'd found the bulblin campsites amidst the ruins. Tents, fires, and - a dead bulbo, roasting above one of the fires.

I guessed that was what happened when the animal outlived it's usefulness.

Having taken out the tower guards in this section of the camp, it was no trouble to take the two bulblins in this part of the camp out with swords, instead of using the arrows we were slowly running out of. I'd forgotten my quiver in Kakariko village. Wait... no, I'd left it on purpose, since Bethany had expressed interest in archery practice, and Scott just so happened to have a bow and a quiver with no arrows. I'd wanted to save him the rupees, and he'd wanted to teach her.

That lack of a quiver aside, we'd also had a lot of enemies to shoot in the last two days. And, while I was getting better, I still wasn't a perfect shot, so...

The path ahead of us came to a halt, suddenly shifting to our left and to a lower level. More high walls where we could be caught off guard, lovely. I nearly fell more than a few times, as the decline on loose sand made for rather disagreeable stability.

There was another bulblin, sleeping in front of a locked gate. I was pretty sure we were going to have another showdown with the King Bulblin in there, but I couldn't tell one hundred percent. Funny, you'd think after having played this through at least a dozen times, I would know for sure. We continued forward after taking it out, there was only one more tower left, then we wouldn't have to worry as much about alarms. Seeing as I was almost out of arrows, I took a more hands-on approach with the final tower.

Well, if magic counts as 'hands-on'.

With Farore's Wind, I came up behind the bulblin and... shoved it off the edge. That made matters much simpler. There was two more on the ground, one of which I hadn't noticed sitting beside a pillar on the ground to my right, and the other which had the key to the locked gate. It was standing in front of another cooking bulbo. Not that I liked those particular animals, but still. I'd prefer that they lived rather than the bulblins eat them.

Link was taking care of the surprise bulblin, and I shot a fireball at the one holding the key. It was almost funny, considering it had been standing in front of the fire. It's charred back could be attributed to that if anybody investigated. Which... they wouldn't, but it was convenient if someone had.

I climbed down the tower, rejoining Link to grab the key. "I think that's the last of them." I said, though my voice was kept low in case I was wrong. There was really no way to tell, without looking in the tents. Or, if we got ambushed, which I really didn't want to happen. It was enough with the King Bulbin fight coming up.

"Yeah. You think this'll work on that gate back there?" Link pointed with his thumb in the direction we'd come from. I nodded, and we turned back in that direction.

A particularly strong gust of wind blew in from the desert, and it seemed the towers were shoddier than they looked. I turned at the sound of a wooden creak, wondering briefly where it was coming from before I was suddenly tackled to the sand a second time, moments before something threw sand up in the air and shook the ground, having landed right where I'd been standing.

Link was hovering above me in a sense, propped up on elbows and knees, to keep his weight off me but still shield me.

My heartbeat thundered in my ears, my breathing increased and adrenaline pulsed with each beat- because I'd been right there and if Link hadn't tackled me-

"Are you okay?" he asked, sitting up when the dust settled.

"Y-yeah, I just... wasn't expecting that." I turned my head, looking towards the collapsed mess of wood that had been one of the bulblin towers. "Wow. Nice reaction-time, thanks." I said gratefully, as he pulled me to stand up.

"No trouble. Come on, I think it's safe now. Well..." he stopped, and I laughed.

"'Safe' is relative, but I think you're right." I agreed.

The simple padlock could have been broken with a sword, but the key made it easier.

The moment we stepped inside the enclosure, two bulblins dropped from out of utterly nowhere -thinking on it now, they were probably on the roof of the makeshift stable- and pulled the wooden doors shut behind us, locking it again.

See, that wouldn't have happened if we broke the lock.

Venturing in further while not turning my back to our apparent guards, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong with this picture. Why hadn't they killed us yet, for one? Not that I was complaining, but those things always attacked, King Bulblin or no.

"Rose, these things can break through that gate easily, come on!" Link grabbed my wrist, pulling me towards the boar/bulbo/warthog in the south -forward for us, currently- corner. It was too dark to see much of anything, unless we looked really close. A foot appeared from the shadows, followed by an unfortunately familiar body and head, holding a giant battleaxe. King Bulbin.

Now he decided to show. I wouldn't exactly be disappointed if he hadn't, though. He couldn't have just decided to give us a rest for once?

The horns on his helmet, formerly reaching nearly a foot above the King Bulblin's stature, were chipped and broken heavily from our previous fights. All of his fancy armor was gone, along with the shields he thought would protect him when last we met.

With an animalistic growl, he swung the battleaxe's flat side, smacking the bulbo out of the way like it was nothing, before swinging it in our direction. It was too fast, I couldn't raise Nayru's Love in time, and the air was knocked out of my lungs twice when we were sent flying back. Once from the hit, which I was sure wasn't good for either mine or Link's previous cracked ribs, and twice on the landing, a good few yards away. My whole torso seemed numb for a fraction of a second before pain kicked in.

'Gods, it hurts to breathe.' I thought, even as I gasped for air. Link didn't look much better off beside me, but he was making a better show of hiding it.

"Surprised?" King Bulblin sneered. I struggled to take in enough air to form a sentence, but managed a sarcastic remark a few seconds after.

"Hm... no, can't say I am. Also, 'surprised' is a super overused word, you should think of another one." My voice was little more than a wheeze, but I knew he'd heard what I said. I had absolutely no idea what I thought I was doing. Well, aside from pissing him off and being a smart-aleck. And if my goal had been to piss him off, it certainly worked. With another much angrier growl, King Bulblin swung the axe downward. If I hadn't rolled to my left, he'd have cut me right in two.

"Oh, now that," I paused as I shifted onto one knee, still breathing heavily. "That was a cheap shot." I laughed humorlessly, more a huff of air than a laugh really. "Hitting your opponents while they're down, can't expect much in the way of honour from the king of trolls I guess."

Goading him wasn't the best idea, but if I could just distract him long enough for Link to recover and get at him, it would definitely be worth it.

Anger lit up the bulblin's dark eyes, and he ripped the axe from the ground and swung it at me again with a full-out roar. I ducked and rolled just in time, and now had him exactly where I wanted him; between me and Link. He couldn't focus on both of us, probably thought Link was still recovering from the blow, when actually he was picking his sword up.

"Wretched little wench!" King Bulblin roared. Just as he'd gone to take another swing, Link struck. I couldn't see precisely what was happening, both because it was dark and because I was in front of him, not behind. From what I gathered, it wasn't pleasant.

I took this distraction as an opportunity, launching my own strike, which ended in a nasty slash across the monster's thick hide.

Taking one last swing, King Bulblin spun, knocking us both down long enough to get to the far wall. Both Link and I managed -barely- to raise our shields in time for them to take the brunt of the attack, but we were still sent flying back.

With one last sound like a wounded animal, he turned to leave. I was briefly confused, until a section of the wall raised like a portcullis, dropping behind the King Bulblin after he hobbled out. I heard a sound like flint on steel, moments before the door that had just dropped closed caught fire.

Whatever was in this place, it was most definitely flammable, because the flames on the door spread like gasoline had been splashed on everything. I was briefly taken aback - we were in a room made of stone, after all - but as the flames I caught on to the fact that the roof was very much made of wood, and the tapestries previously hidden in the dark were very much flammable.

"Why does everybody had to keep trying to set us on fire?" I demanded of thin air, glaring at the ceiling.

"That's a question for another time, we need to get out of here!" Link exclaimed, kicking and shoving at the locked gate from which we'd come. The two bulblins that had been outside were nowhere to be found. Otherwise, I figured they would have stopped Link.

"You just went right past our ticket out of here!" I called to him, going to the now-recovered bulbo that had been knocked out of the way earlier. "It's fine, and like you said before, they can charge through those gates like nothing."

Link gave me a boost up onto the saddle, before climbing on in front of me. We were barely able to guide the disoriented animal, and I was surprised it didn't seem to be in any sort of panic for self-preservation, considering it was in a burning building. That wasn't the problem, but the fact that it wasn't charging was a very big one.

"We don't have time for this, move!" I shouted as a part of the roof crumbled somewhere behind us.

The boar reared up, just like that, and charged for the gate.

'Are you kidding me?' I thought absently, before raising Nayru's Love over Link and I to protect us from the flying pieces of gate and fence as the boar just continued right on charging through one, two, three, four, five...six fences. It calmed down on the other side, and I practically let myself fall off the second it stopped.

"I'll never complain again when we have to ride somewhere on Epona ever again." I vowed, and Link weakly chuckled.

"I know what you mean." he responded, sliding off the uncomfortable saddle, turning to face me completely and... stopping. He was looking past me, and up. I turned around as well, and realized that at long last, after two days in the desert, the tiny thing in the distance had grown into a massive... thing. It architecturally resembled a Colosseum, with its round structure and sky-scraping pillars, all with the crest of Hyrule at the very top on one side, the mark that I assumed was of the sages on the other.

In short, it was quite the sight.

"We had some stuff like this back on Earth. There's an ancient Colosseum in Rome, it kinda reminds me of it. It was a gladiatorial ring though, not a prison. Well...no, let's not get into that."

Shaking my head, I started forward alongside Link, past the many pillars that seemed to serve as little more than decoration and up the stairs. Link stopped me at the entrance, having Midna shift him into the wolf before going to our right, where it appeared there was an Imp Poe.

Right, I forgot he'd run into Jovani, the gold-greedy man in Castle Town who'd turned himself into gold. We needed to collect poe souls to free him, a total of 80 if I was correct.

The entranceway to the prison itself was really quite fancy for a prison. Then again, it had been built long before our time, maybe that was just the way of things back then.I paused just short of the entryway when Link and I made to go inside. I shivered; the whole place, while quite an architectural marvel, was practically radiating with malevolence and evil. It was unsettling, to say the least, for my magical half.

"Rose?" Link's tone was questioning, and I read into what he didn't say; Are you okay? As much as I was tired of hearing the question, it was touching that he worried.

"...Yeah. Just... worried about what we'll find inside. Foreknowledge or no, bad stuff can still happen." I admitted my worries. Worries that had only been made stronger because of my nightmares the previous night. They were both very real possibilities, the only difference was magic.

That, and the corridor past the entryway was pitch black, and I had worries that I'd either trip and fall down the stairs, or that-

Wait.

Din's fire. Of course.

I formed a little ball of fire in my hand, the light it gave off was little more than candlelight, but it provided enough that we could see ahead of us. Still though, I was hesitant to go in.

"Hey," I felt a hand under my chin, tipping my head to look Link in the eyes. "It's going to be okay. We're going to get through this, get to the mirror, and we will be okay." The look in his eyes left no room for argument, so I only nodded.

Sending my little fireball ahead of us a few feet to light the stairway, we took the first steps in together, and began to descend the staircase into the Arbiters' Grounds, where many known -and probably more unknown- horrors waited for us, not even including Death Sword and the Stallord.


A/N: Two chapters in one day! Granted, this one's about two thousand words shorter than the last, but still, it seemed like a good place to leave off. Leave a review down below and let me know what you thought!