Chapter 4: The third stone and… The Princess?
Link screamed out his lungs, dark was fast approaching again. He had spent the entire day, searching for an entrance or a hole that would let him keep looking. He didn't have the strength to keep looking. He was hungry, and most of all, he was more worried for his friend. Luna's smiling face haunted him in his memory, and then both Saria and Luna's face appeared laughing together, walking away from him. Link sat up and remembered something Saria had said to him: "Things are not what they always appear" She had told him smiling. Link took a deep breath and glared at the waterfall in front of him. He yelled as he dove through the water fall, preparing to fall down, he was surprised when his face collided with a wall with a deep 'thump'.
A hard rock meet his face only feet away from where he was standing. A large, long extending cave loomed before him, and somewhere in the distance, he could hear splashed and hope flapped through him. He ran, ignoring the rocks that stuck out and smacked him in the face. In a matter of minutes he came face to well, entrance with a large cave. Large, fish shaped people swam about in the water. Some lazed on the little walkway there was. The entire cavern was filled with pools of water and white, fish people swimming about. He gazed excitedly, knowing Luna loved water she might be at the top of the majestic waterfall he saw laid out before him. He ran down the long, narrow path in front of him and began up a small rocky staircase. He stopped just before getting off the staircase because he heard strange voices. "Its not like the human would have survived that" Said a familiar voice.
"The… girl was carried away by the river of water that the gerudo man formed. My bet is that he has her locked away somewhere. Where else could our water tunnels lead to Majesty?" The person asked. He stuck his head a little way up and realized just who that voice was. He gasped quietly as the girl from the mountain stood before a large fish man who sat on a waterfall-made throne.
"None the less" The big fish croaked out. "We have nothing to gain from searching for another human. You are all that we feel we should keep around. She means nothing."
The girl in the black cloak spat. "Don't you get it, she is just as important as the princess from Hyrule castle. If we can't rescue one, we should at least save the one we can reach" She huffed but the king simply scooted a few inches and looked away. "Fine, I'll go search for her, and when, because of my efforts the world is saved, I'll be sure to mention nothing about how helpful the zora's were" She spat turning around.
Link gulped as he turned on his heel and skillfully darted down the staircase. He was almost to the bottom and his hope at not being found sky rocketed. Though, a small dent in the staircase caused him to fall flat on him face. He rolled down the rest of the way and rammed right into a rock wall. "Damn" He grunted as the girl walked down.
"You" She said, spotting Link's rolled over body. "You were traveling with her right? The Luna girl?" She asked, picking Link up by the shirt and placing him on the wall. "Where is she?" The girl demanded.
Link shook his head sadly. "I'm not sure, she was carried off by water…" He looked at her, waiting for her name
"Mari idiot" She said letting him go. "My name is Mari and because of you the world is in more danger than ever now." She scolded him with her angry look. "I expect you to help" She scolded him again.
He took a deep breath. "I will do whatever I can, however I can" He told her, a fire building in his eyes. "There was a thing though, that she and I were looking for" He said, hinting to the so-called Zoras. "I believe they have a stone that the princess of Hyrule needs." He told her.
Mari sighed. "No, it isn't here anymore. Actually your dear friend, Luna, has it" She told him. She watched the look of shock spread across his face. "You see. The river she was carried down as ejected from this very place. The river water that carried her off you see, had the pendant in it, it was a sort of guardian. The only way we know for sure that she has it, is because the Zoras sense it is with her. They can't see her, but they described her perfectly from their seer." She explained.
Link nodded. "So where do we go to find her?" He asked, searching for an answer, his mind wandering back to the conversation that he overheard, about them being unsure.
She sighed. "The only place we haven't checked yet is a place called Lon Lon Ranch. They house horses there that drink water irrigated from a stray canal that leads from here" She said walking towards the waterfall, but stopping short. "Oh, yeah, if I remember, I got a letter saying that they found a stranded kid. Nothing more than that though" She said. "See" She told him. "I'm sort of friends with them, so I know this stuff" She strutted, "Come on" She darted through the waterfall.
Link stood still. His thoughts drifted to Luna, and the days they had all played. He, Saria, and Luna were not liked by the village. Luna because of her powers and her ability to age, and Link with his ability to age as well, and Saria, who was their personal savior, because she had in fact befriended them. He already lost one friend, he swore to himself he wouldn't lose another. If he had to raid this ranch to get her back, he would more than happily do it. He heard Mari yelling impatiently and sucked in a deep breath of air. This was his journey, and he would make it complete no matter the cost, with all of his friends with him in the end.
"Come on there Lee" An old, gruffly man called. His blue shirt horribly discarded with his brown shorts. He stood about 6"1 from the ground. He was indeed the tallest person on the ranch. "The horses don't feed themselves" He called to an invisible helper hiding in a giant sized barn. More haystacks marked the wall of the barn. "You had better not be on those horses again young one, or I'll make you pick up their leftovers" He yelled, dropping the four rolls of haystacks he carried on his shoulders. His arms fell limp at his sides, marks from years of shoving haystacks more than marred his skin. He grumpily headed over to the barn and opened a door.
He soon fell back on his back as a giant, brown blur blazed past him. "YEEEHAH" A tiny person on the horse yelled as the giant horse galloped across the wide open prairie. The tiny person's hair blazed behind her, a slightly ice-blue tint could easily fool any fish into thinking it was a puddle. Her baggy farm cloths covered her body, the only bright colored item was a blue necklace she had around her neck. As she rode, her eyes flew open as she glanced happily at the grass quickly passing her. Her eyes contained their own sea-blue color. The only kind of shoes she wore were tiny, flip flops. "NEVER GRAMPS" She yelled, riding around the small, but roomy area. She laughed when a giant black horse rode up behind her. The old man caught her horse and halted it. He huffed and she grinned. "Sorry, too much temptation" She smiled happily, seeming to glow.
"None the less" He half-scolded, half-worried about her. "You coulda been hurt Lee. Do you know how hard it is to stay on that horse, especially when it rides that fast?" He asked, helping her down.
"I know gramps, but… I really wanted to ride her again" She said, putting her cut hand on the horse's mane, happily petting it, getting a happy grunt from the oversized horse.
Gramps sighed. He never could stay mad at her, in the few days he had known her, and she was like a beacon. Before she had come, he did nothing but wallow over his nieces, Malon's, death. The very horse Lee now rode, was the very horse that had trampled Malon, though he couldn't bring himself to get rid of it. "Listen, just be careful" He said, suspicion in his voice. She smiled and sighed. Honestly, he wandered how a little thing like this could survive a violent river like that. And when the water was high too. The bumps and scratches that littered parts of her body were only proof that rocks could very easily destroy her. "Sometimes I wander where you came from" He sighed as they walked back to the barn.
Lee looked down, and slowed her walk. "I'm sorry" He noticed his mistake at mentioning the one thing she had a hard time dealing with. "If I could remember, maybe I could go back" She tried to smile "Maybe I have someone precious to me who is waiting" She said, fighting tears.
He stopped, and dropped the horse's mane. "Oh Lee" He said falling to his old knees, the cracking hurting him, but not as much as what he had said. "I promise, we will find your memory" He said, clutching her damaged hand.
She bent down lightly to him, her face glowing. "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't care" She smiled, pulling his head up. "You are the one who fished me out of the river, I'd be shark bait if it weren't for you" She laughed to him. He sighed and looked down again, she sighed just the same, but launched herself into a hug with him. "Thanks gramps" She added to tease him. He looked up and smiled, but then looked up more.
"Looks like rain" He told her, "Best for us to get inside" He told her, grabbing the horse to pull himself up. Lee ran up to the door of the barn and opened it for the tired horses. "Go ahead and get inside, start dinner too please?" He half-begged, her meals were everything, love and hate, sadness and sorrow, somehow all filled his one plate, and a few measly morsels of her food made him feel like a new man. She nodded and happily skipped into the house.
She danced over to the kitchen, wandering what kind of food he would like. She decided to go with the fish. A nice, grilled fish sent his sights soaring, and she knew he needed that. A crash from the barn made her sigh. Old gramps better not have broken anything she thought to herself as she walked over to the door. She opened the door to see it had just started to rain. The sky itself was a deep, dark color. Light drops of cold water splashed her on the face. She, however was almost sent into shock when she saw the barn. The door itself had been torn right off its hinges. Horses raced out of the barn, scurrying and panicking. She ran over to the door and just as a bolt of lightning light the sky she stood in the door. "GRAMPS!!!" She yelled, unaware of their unexpected guest.
The old man lay, withered and beaten on the floor, a large, black, cloaked figure stood next to his body, the black horse from earlier lay dead in front of Gramps. "So, you were here" The black, cloaked man said turning. His eyes were the color of blood, his smile even more wicked than death. His eyes narrowed into slits sticking to the sides of his face. His teeth pointed and she faintly wandered if he ever broke his lip on his teeth. His hair was styled back, like an open flame. He wore pure-black armor that heavily defined and protected his stomach, arms and legs. His boots were ones that could easily kick someone to death in matter of seconds and at this point she recognized the slice in Gramps' stomach and how it matched the imprint look of the sharp boot. Another bolt of lightning filled the sky, causing his dark skin to glow faintly as Lee was frozen in place. Her eyes torn between the corpse of the one man who had saved her and the corpse of the family horse and the evil-doer who had committed the crime. Anger welt up inside her and she felt her legs move.
She raced herself towards the man, throwing her tear filled face into his neck in hopes to destroy his veins. But a strong hand caught her own neck. And she glared, breathlessly up into his face. "It is about time I get this" He said, grabbing her hand and twisting it behind her back forcing her to look at the dead man. "See him? He died because of you. He simply refused to tell me you were here, so what other choice did I have but to destroy him." He leaned into her ear. "You're the reason he died" He taunted hearing the last bit of her breath catch.
Her face turned ice cold. Her vision began to fade, and from nowhere the smiling face of a boy with golden hair, and a green tunic with the weirdest looking green hat stared at her. She felt so attached to this image she willed herself to live. The anger only built as she was forced to stare into the dead corpse's face. With a start the man dropped her and shambled back into the darkness.
His hand was frozen in the shape of her neck. "No" He whispered. "I'm too late this time" He told himself.
Lee stood, her hands clenched at both of her sides, her hair began to wave frantically from strand to strand. She turned to face the hideous man, her eyes now a strong, but dead blue. She glared as her anger continued to rise. She felt her hand, ice-cold as if she held some sort of stick. She grabbed this ice cold stick and pulled it to her face. Realizing she had an arrow in her hands, her dead, blue eyes turned towards the cowering man and she felt the ice cold shape of another object in her hand. She pulled up her hand and materialized another object. This object was about half her size, and stood regularly like a long bow decorated with ice flowers and drops. She pulled the ice arrow into the bow. "For Gramps" She said, launching it her eyes still a dead blue ice color. The arrow itself transformed itself into an easily discounted ice-beam that shot straight through the barn itself. The man in black whirled himself into his black cloak and disappeared as the arrow screeched past him. Lee spat and stopped herself as she somehow, felt someone behind her. Knowing it was the same man she whirled herself on her heel and drew her bow again. "Die" She said as she realized who stood there.
A blond haired, green dressed boy, just about her age stood in the doorway. The lighting flashed again and she could see his benevolent face. His lips rested still, perfect. His eyes were simple cuts in his eyes, a deep blue in his own eyes. He inched closer as she stood petrified. Was this that boy from her vision. Her anger rose and fell all together, she couldn't get her head to stop pounding. Images of this boy, herself except in a blue outfit similar to his, and another girl, playing around in trees. She saw a giant spider with a sword coming out of it, the dead face of this girl, fighting a poison infection as she died, this boy laying dead on the ground, and then a very angry version of herself, in a blue tunic her eyes a blazing red walking towards the spider, the spider lay dead, she carried her two accomplices', she was burying one, she was in a giant cavern with a ball rolling at her, and finally, this boy's chest surrounding her, making her neck burn as something materialized around her neck, this boy walked away and this burning sensation lead her to the edge of a lava filled lake, then she was swept away by a river of water.
By now, the boy had his arms around her as she clutched her head tightly. He grunted, fighting tears of his own. He had found her, Link had found his Luna, though he could tell something was different about her. She held her head as if someone was pounding on it with a hammer. He clutched her tighter seeing the dead, old man and a giant horse. She fell limp in his arms and for a moment, he thought her, ice body that was as if she was stuck into a freezer had died. But slowly, he felt heat course through her. He picked her up gingerly, carrying her away from the grotesque scene of carnage that Ganon, he thought angrily, had cause. He carried her into the nearby house, quickly moving out of the rain as Mari looked away from them. She walked over to the corpse and took a nearby shovel. She didn't know how Luna felt but she had an idea, she took his body and the horse's body to the prairie to rest.
Link carried her to a large bed and gingerly set her cringing body down. He saw cuts and bruises littering her body, and he had a feeling Ganon had done it, but he always knew the river may have caused it. He took some nearby blankets and quickly covered her up. He sighed as her cringing stopped. He got up to find some more pillows, but a small hand caught the loose of his shirt, refusing to let him leave. He looked down to see Luna's hand holding onto his shirt as if for dear life. He smiled and sat down, taking her head and cradling it in his lap. He leaned back against the wall, the room, barren and plain, yet more homey than not. He closed his eyes and listened closely as he heard the sound of Mari burying the corpses, the rain pattering against the window, the small horses and large horses roaming the field, though not leaving, and he felt peaceful holding onto her.
The morning came swiftly to Luna. She shook her head slightly still a little disoriented and confused. Had all of that really happened last night? Had she really lost the man who saved her life. The thought sunk into her head and she wanted to reach up and wiped the stray tears falling down her face. As she did so, she noticed her hand was slightly heavier and hard to move. She lifted it up to her face with a small grunt and looked to see another person's hand intertwined with hers. Her hope soared as she knew the only one around was gramps. She threw up her painful head just in time to see herself flinging someone new across the room. Her eyes bulged as she realized that it wasn't gramps.
This new person's head slammed against the wall and she immediately cringed. "OK" He yelled standing up, holding onto his head. He bent down to pick up his green cap and looked her in the face. "Gee, thanks Luna" He sighed.
She gave him a confused look and stood up from the bed, if not wobbling slightly. She paced herself towards the umbrella bucket and grabbed the longest one. "What do you want?" She accused. "How did you get in here? And why were you in my bed?" She asked, inching towards him, the deadly umbrella pointing towards him.
He stuttered. "L..listen" He said to her. "It's me. Remember from the forest?" He asked and she dropped the umbrella. "Yeah" He said, slightly nervous. "Remember Luna, we were out on a journey to retrieve the three gemstones from the specific places? We already had two. When we got the two, a giant river washed you away. Then I found you here. Remember?" He asked again hopefully.
She sat down on the bed. "Sorry… Link" She hesitated. "Guess I was just slow this morning" She sighed. "So about the stones then, were was the last on again?" She asked him.
He held back a scoff. "Umm" He said, seeing her agitated look. Yup, this was definitely the Luna he knew. "Kind of… around your neck" He laughed when she reached up to her necklace. She laughed with him when she realized they had all the stones. And her relief soared as she realized that, even though they came for Saria, she couldn't wait to get back home, and relax. Link smiled. "Mari left by the way" He said softly. "You remember Mari right?" Luna nodded. "Yeah, she said now that we have all the stones she doesn't need to worry about the princess." He smiled. "She put some horses out front for us to choose from to ride back to the castle" He smiled again. "Then… we can go home" He said as she stood up.
"Then hurry it up" She told him. "I can't wait to go back to a peaceful place" She laughed. They walked through the littered house, Luna ignoring the remembrance of last night. They walked outside and off in the distance a gravestone had been placed. Luna knew that dear old gramps was there and he would forever watch over this place. Luna made if a point in her mind to come back here every day if she could, to tend to the remaining horses. Luna and Link picked a horse. Link choose Epona, and Luna choose Swiftstar, one of the new horses to the barn. Barley old enough to be ridden, but Luna and Swiftstar shared a special connection.
They rode towards the castle with swiftness, the sky grew darker and darker, but the shinning hope on their faces made them think nothing of it. They got to the gate of Hyrule Castle Town and tied to the horses to a nearby post letting them eat their fill of grass. With Link carrying the two stones, Fire and Forest, Luna happily totted around the third, water, carefree around her neck. Both stopped in astonishment at the sight of the front gate. Link had just barley caught Luna before she stuck a giant, broken wooden piece through her foot. They both stared horridly at the trashed bridge. It littered the surrounding river with broken wooden pieces, and the grand, red designs that had lighted up the bridge with star like designs was now barley there. Half the bridge caved in on one side of the castle town, while the other half caved in on the side to the field. They could see the only way to cross was to take a second or two of a swim. As they both were about the jump across a light galloping noise came swiftly from the town side and as Luna and Link peered hard into the darkened town, the realized a white horse was flying towards them. Zelda flew by with her nurse maid, Impa. Zelda noticed them as Impa made the horse fly by the broken gate. Zelda turned around sharply in the white horse as Impa concentrated on continuing forward, and threw a tiny blue object in the littered river. She turned around just soon enough to disappear in the distance with Impa.
Luna and Link stared at each other, and were about to turn around when a large, powerful snort lashed out behind them. They both gulped being able to tell that something tall was there.
There, behind the two, small children stood an gigantic horse. Its black hair was easily accented by the black and red outlined armor it wore. It seemed as if the horse itself was about to participate in an epic battle where only one would stand victorious. But it was not just the tall, towering horse Link and Luna worried about. There, on top, sat a large man, with enormous eyebrows and eyes that dipped at a slant. His eyes glared at them, a dark, almost black red stared them down with intense ferocity. His large, black cape swirled around his horse. He, himself was clothed heavily in armor, much like the horse's, with red outlining the edges. He glared down at them, his face slowly crept up in a grin. "Where are they?" He said, knowing they were both scared to death. Link stood next to Luna, but the slightest flinch he made towards the direction the princess had left gave Ganon a big hint, that he did not pass up. He made his horse whinny and took off, throwing a large, purple, ball emanating evil at Link. Luna made a dive and the rolled next to the destroyed bank. Ganon rode laughing into the distance, and Link's face was angry, yet strangely determined as he glared after Ganon.
Luna and Link stumbled up, both speechless. Link's head went from up and down, in sorrow and despair as he thought of what happened, Luna looked at him from the side. She felt somewhat shadowed in darkness as she realized that he must have had feelings for princess Zelda. She thought hard in her head, It isn't like I ever had a chance next to a princess She thought as she went over to the bank and sat down. She pulled her knees up to her chin as she put her head down. She didn't want to think about his feelings for her, after all Luna had been in love with Link since they meet in the grassy field back home. She remembered that scene clearly.
She had just begun running from Mido, back then, she didn't stand up to anyone and her mysterious powers made her one to fear. It was in that meadow that hundreds of flowers sprouted and grew. Some were white lillys with the ends of the petals just starting to curl from the ending season. Some were white roses that swayed easily in the wind. Most flowers, however had closed and much of the weeds now showed in this meadow. The tree line had quickly left her as she raced through the meadow. She had tripped and scraped harshly on the ground, destroying few flowers. Her tattered, dull-gray clothes had been even more dirtied now. She flipped her head up, fear rippling in her face as she saw the thing she had tripped over. A young boy, clothed much like her, though in complete green, stared at her. He grunted when he heard Mido and his little gang pass through the trees. This boy had stood up for her, and easily beat them away. It was a few days after that that he had found Luna again, this time purposely. He took his time to teach her a few tricks about evading Mido, it was at that time Luna had fallen in love with Link. Though she made it look like she was listening, she was really just paying attention to his soft, crystalline face, with the smoothest cheek bones ever, and eyes that, somehow, seemed more peaceful than his face. The blue in his eyes had always calmed her, but now, the blue in his eyes made her want to go home. They were filled with determination as he walked over to the river.
He gave her a glance, quick but sure and dove into the water to receive Zelda's gift to them. Luna watched him swim around, constantly bonking his head on different rocks under the river. On the inside she laughed a few times, but she made sure to keep her face straight when he finally came back up to the surface, a blue looking flute was in his hands. He crawled up onto the bank and stared at the object. He sat down on the bank, next to her. "I don't know what to do" He sighed.
She sighed. "Dumb butt" She said, taking the flute. "Look, there is a note" She said. She read the note out to him, "Please understand" She read, "Please take the three stones to the temple and place them on the altar, I shall speak to you soon" She finished. Luna sighed. "I guess we head to the temple then. She pointed to her necklace, "After all we have a promise to uphold" She said, feigning awesomeness.
"Right" Link said standing. They both crossed the damaged bridge together. "The temple is over here right?" He said to himself.
Luna gasped as soon as they entered the town. Each and every building was either burning or already burning. People scrambled, some burning and some even diving in the fountain for water to escaped the building. Link took a deep breath and he and Luna dove themselves through the burning town. It took them only minutes to reach the temple and both dove through the doors. They left the doors open and crossed the large room.
In the center of the room, between the giant doors to the burning buildings and a open pedestal for the stones was a raised, elegantly decorated platform. On its center was a triangle with three triangles pointing in opposite directions forming the corners of an even larger triangle. Swords began clashing outside and Luna stopped. Link however did not notice her stop. Luna took a long look at her necklace and broke it off, knowing it would still be ok. She placed the stone on the ground and walked back toward the gigantic doors where clashing was heard. She used every ounce of strength she had to pull the doors closed. They created a large creaking sound, which then caught Link's attention. He turned on his heels and saw Luna fading through the shrinking crack in the doors. "Goodbye… Link" She said, turning.
He ran to the doors, trying desperately to catch them before they closed, only to see himself fail. The doors slammed shut just as he reached them. He banged his hands on the door and fell to his knees. "Now what do I do?" He asked no one. "I don't have all of the stones, I've lost my best friend" He fell to the floor and then noticed a shinning object on the ground. He reached over and saw it was part of the water stone that Luna had around her neck. His mind was mad, though not as upset now that he could at least continue this part, but he didn't want to waste time because Luna may have needed help and he was the one to do it.