Chapter 4: Riddles and Answers
Despite Krix's warning, Damien decided he had to go into town to buy more food, and perhaps try and get some information about the goings-on of the land of Termina. Leaving Krix at the entrance (since he refused to go back in), he strolled into East Clock Town, looking around at his suddenly strange and alien surroundings with tourist-like interest.
Large shops sat around the perimeter of the area, and the ground was paved in cobblestones. The walls and shop fronts were brightly painted, and tall torches stood in the squares to provide light during the night. Colorful flags fluttered in the wind, and townspeople drifted through the streets, going about their daily routines. Damien strolled as he looked, and people stared at him; the Carnival of Time had ended months ago, and there weren't usually visitors any other time of the year. But he didn't care; he simply kept walking, and wandered deeper into Clock Town.
He was amazed to see how big the town really was, as he continued to explore the other areas. None of the towns in Hyrule were this big, not even Kakariko Village. He found a food stall in the square of South Clock Town, and after purchasing what he needed, he stood eating an apple as he gazed up at the giant clock tower that loomed above the town.
Something bothered him about the clock tower. It wasn't the way it looked, or the way it steadily counted down the minutes of the day. It was a strange sort of ominous feeling that washed over him as he looked at it, the presence of something foreboding, silently watching all that occurred below. His hand drifted subconsciously to the hilt of his sword; he thought he saw the silhouette of a figure standing at the very top of the tower, turning to look down at him.
"Sir?" Damien turned to see the lady running the food stall looking at him. "Sir, is there anything else you need?"
He gave her a small smile. "No, I'm set, thanks." She nodded, turning to another customer that had just walked up. He glanced back at the tower, but nobody was there. Shouldering his pack, he shook off the weird feeling and strolled back towards North Clock Town.
When he got there, he was annoyed to see that he had gotten turned around; he had meant to go to East Clock Town. He was about to turn and leave, when someone called out to him. "You there! Do you need a map?" Glancing around, he didn't see anyone aside from him in the area. "Up here!" He looked up, and was startled and slightly disturbed to see a middle-aged man wearing green spandex tied to a big red balloon, floating above the town. "Hello there!" said the man, waving energetically at him. "Tingle has maps for sale! Tingle would show them to you, but…" he looked around himself, "he is having trouble getting down." He gave Damien a sheepish grin.
Damien just stared uncomfortably at him. This guy was definitely on the odd side. But he'd been wrong about people before… Besides, a map might come in handy, in case Krix got them lost somewhere. With a shrug, he looked around on the ground for a rock, and finding one, he aimed carefully and chucked it at the big red balloon.
The man in green's eyes grew wide in terror, but the rock missed him, popping the balloon. With a cry of fear, the man plummeted to the ground, landing hard on his feet. Damien winced, thinking that he had hurt him, but the man seemed to take the pain pretty well, and recovered quickly. Walking over, Damien saw the man draw not one, but five different scrolls of paper from his bag, displaying each for Damien to see. They were marked separately; Field, Canyon, Sea, Mountain, and Swamp. "These are maps that Tingle made himself," the man said proudly. "Tingle is selling maps to help his father. Would you like to see one?"
Cautiously, Damien drew one from the pile, the one marked Field. Opening it, he was surprised to see that, though a bit sloppy, the map was fairly accurate, showing the town and the surrounding Termina Field. The other maps were similarly made; Tingle beamed as Damien nodded his approval. "You like, yes?" the strange man asked. "The map of town is for 5 rupees, the others are for 40 each. But you may buy all of them for a bargain, yes, good bargain! Just 150 rupees!"
Damien frowned as he realized that that was all the money he had left, 150 rupees. If he bought all the maps, he'd be broke, but then again, he wasn't sure how much he could trust Krix to keep them from getting lost, despite the confidence the kid had in himself. So he reluctantly handed over the money he had, and Tingle grinned from ear to ear as he handed over the pile of maps.
"Hurray! You make Tingle so happy!" said Tingle, jumping from one foot to the other in his joy. Damien just smiled awkwardly as he stuffed the maps into his pack, hoping he hadn't just made a mistake. "So happy, in fact, that Tingle must give you this as well!" He held out another yellowed scroll of parchment, and Damien gave him an annoyed look. "You may have it free of charge!" the man insisted. "It is a treasure map of great value. Tingle found it in his wanderings. It will show you the greatest treasure in the world."
Damien rolled his eyes, then relented and took the scroll, putting it beside his maps. "It is for you," explained the little man, "because you are the only one Tingle has sold a map to in a very long time. Nobody wants to see new places, so nobody wants maps! But you have bought five of my maps, so Tingle can send the money to his father, and he will not be so ashamed of him." Damien sighed heavily. Was he here to solve everyone's problems? It was turning out that way. "Tingle tingle, kooloo limpah!" the little man said, tossing confetti and doing a backflip. "Those are Tingle's magic words. Don't steal them!"
"I won't," Damien assured him, already heading quickly towards the exit and pulling out his town map, eager not to get sidetracked again.
Krix was waiting impatiently for him when he finally left through the correct exit to the field. "I guess you were right," Damien said to him, trying to erase his memory of Tingle from his mind. "People are really weird here."
"Told you," said Krix, arms crossed. "I know everything, remember? You just have to trust me, ok?"
"Sure kid."
"I'm not a kid. I can tear your arms off without even breaking a sweat, and don't you forget it." He began to stroll off in a southerly direction, and Damien followed wearily, rubbing the side of his head.
"Where are we going now?"
"To the swamp witches'. They're the only ones in Termina weirder than the townspeople, but they're a lot smarter. I get all my really strange information from them. Maybe they'll know where to find this Deity guy."
As they slowly made ground over the field, Damien let his thoughts wander. He thought about what the Fierce Deity had said the first day they met in the forest, and what he said at their second meeting. It all seemed like a big riddle to him. The god called himself Kain, and said that they had met before, but Damien didn't remember that. Actually, he didn't really remember anything before a couple years ago. He used to remember things that Link had once experienced, but those memories were almost completely gone. Even his battle with Link and his days spent in the Water Temple seemed like a dream.
As for the rest of his message, Fierce Deity had implied that Damien might be changed by this place. It was true, he had felt a little different since the moment he stepped out of the tunnel, but he couldn't quite place how. He suspected that it was just the unusual level of dark energy in the land, and that he could handle. He'd been in plenty of dark places before, and it hadn't done anything to him then. At least, he was pretty sure it hadn't…
"Hey!" He looked to see Krix had stopped, and was standing near the entrance to another road that wound away from the field and into a swamp. "Do you have to walk so slowly? It will be nightfall by the time we get there if you don't hurry up." So Damien ran to catch up with him, and they entered the swamp together.
"You daydream too much," said Krix, arms crossed as he walked beside Damien. "If you want to kill a god, you have to pay atten-…"
A howl cut across his words, and the earth exploded in front of the two as a pair of Wolfos erupted from the ground, eyes ablaze with the craving to kill. These were normal Wolfos, not like the giant shadowy creature Damien killed in the Lost Woods, but they were enough of a threat that he drew his sword, preparing for an easy fight.
He never got the chance; Krix leapt past him in a blur, and his twin blades stabbed and sliced through the air, dancing in the dim sunlight. The Wolfos howled in defeat and sank to the ground, unmoving. Krix stood over their bodies like the shadow of death, swords dripping with fresh blood. He turned to Damien with a cocky smile. "Too easy."
Damien just stared in awe at him as he cleaned his blades on the rough grass. "How did you do that?" he asked. He had killed them so quickly; it was almost surreal.
The swords disappeared under Krix's cloak as he hid them again. "We Garo are trained to kill quickly and silently," he said simply. "We don't charge into battle without thinking, like most warriors. We pick out the enemy's weak point and strike true, so we don't waste energy hacking things to death." He shrugged. "I told you, I'm the best fighter in the world. All Garos are. Well, were, I mean." He looked at the ground, saddened by the thought, but before Damien could ask about it, he shook it off. "Come on, this way," he said, and they headed down the road once again, ignoring the monsters that now fled from them in fear.
When they reached the end of the road, they saw what looked like a lake stretching around a small mountain. A building sat on stilts above the water a little ways offshore, connected to land by a long dock, to which was tied several small boats, as well as a larger boat stationed under the building. A sign was posted above the door, reading: Swamp Tourist Center and Boat Rentals. Krix led the way down the dock, and they climbed up the ladder to the entrance, passing through the door into a large room.
At one side of the room stood a large, burly man, who was mumbling something about fairies. Krix ignored him, and crossed the room to a small dark window, where two bright eyes could be seen looking out at them. "Hello, Miss Koume," he said to the figure owning the eyes.
"Krix!" said a creaky voice happily, drawing out the "i" in his name. "We haven't seen you in a while, dearie. Have you come to stay for tea?"
"That would be nice. Is Miss Kotake there?"
"She should be. I'll be getting off work soon, so why don't you just head on over? Oh, and bring your handsome friend, too." A sound that was a cackle of a giggle came from the window as Damien turned a little red in the face.
"See you soon!" said Krix, and he led Damien out of the building and back down the ladder. He was untying a boat from the dock when he heard Damien finally speak.
"Well, at least you're polite to somebody," he said pointedly. Krix gave him a look.
"You are not a nice old lady. You are a warrior. And I need to toughen you up a lot, if you want to fight like me and not get kicked around by that Fierce Deity person." He tossed the anchoring line into the boat and hopped in, motioning for Damien to follow, which he did. "You get to row," he told him.
"What?"
"We have to train those scrawny arms of yours, so row. You know how, right?" Blank stare. Krix sighed. "It's easy, just do this." He made a circular motion with his hands, leaning back a little, and Damien took the oars and mimicked him. The boat lurched forward. "Good, keep doing that. It's not far away." So Damien rowed the boat to the nearby shore, getting instructions from Krix on how to turn, or to watch out for rocks. It was humbling, having to be bossed around by someone half his age, and he prayed to the goddesses that nobody was watching.
When the water got shallow enough, they hoped out and dragged the boat onto the shore, then proceeded up the road to a clearing. There was another building, built up out of the water like the previous one, but it was shaped like a large jar with a handle. They splashed through the shallow pond and went up another ladder to the top before Krix turned to Damien. "Just to tell you, the witches are really ugly," he warned in a whisper, "but they're nice. And the tea is gross, but you can just pretend you drank it all and dump it in a plant when they look away." Damien nodded his thanks, wondering once again what he'd gotten himself into as they slipped inside.
The potion shop consisted of only a single, rather small room that was taken up mostly by large vats and the shop's counter. Cauldrons bubbled in corners, filling the air with a strong perfume and bathing the walls in rosy pink and poison green light. The witch behind the counter was nodding off as they approached her, and Krix prodded her gently with a finger. "Miss Kotake?"
She looked up groggily at him, blinking owlishly, then seemed to recognize him. "Ah, so there you are! I had a feeling you were coming today. Who's your friend?"
"His name is Damien. We have some important questions to ask you and Miss Koume, if you don't mind."
As if on cue, the door to the shop burst open, and there was another old lady that looked remarkably like the first. Krix saw Damien staring and explained that they were twins, but that wasn't it; he thought he recognized them from somewhere, but he couldn't place just where.
As the three others chatted like friends do, Damien felt something at the back of his mind. Slowly, a memory resurfaced from deep in his thoughts; he stood before Ganondorf in the Water Temple, and there were the twins, floating on wither side of them on their broomsticks, watching him with nasty smiles. Koume and Kotake…
His hand leapt to his sword and he drew it, leveling it at the two. "You!" he said, pulling Krix back protectively as they looked at him in confusion and mild alarm.
"What are you doing!" cried Krix, pulling out of his grasp
"They're allies of Ganondorf!" The witches looked at each other, obviously having no idea what he was talking about.
"Ganondorf?" Kotake echoed. "I've never heard of a Ganondorf before."
"Me either," said Koume, shrugging. He stared at them blankly, wondering what the heck was going on, when Krix forced his sword arm down.
"Are you crazy?" he said. "They are just a couple of nice old ladies! They are not enemies!" Damien saw this was true, and it was his turn to be confused. He sat down heavily onto a nearby crate and rubbed his head with his free hand, trying to sort it out in his mind.
"Poor thing," said Kotake, shaking her head. "The swamp fumes must be getting to him. Don't worry, you'll get used to it shortly."
Krix sat next to Damien, watching him in concern. The latter looked up at the witches, realizing he'd made a mistake. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just… thought you were somebody else. You see…" He explained about to witches named Kotake and Koume from his own world, who looked just like them. They were the mentors to Ganondorf, a powerful sorcerer that almost enslaved the land forever, but they had been killed by a great hero, and Ganondorf had been defeated as well. He was amazed at how much he remembered now; he didn't even realize he knew this information.
When he was finished, the sisters pondered this new information. "Interesting coincidence, eh?" Koume asked her sister.
"Or is it?" Kotake said, completing the thought. She looked Damien square in the eye. "Have you heard of the Legend of the Darkworld?" she asked him.
To Be Continued
A/N: Ooo, another mean nasty cliffhanger! I'm so evil. : K
So, longer chapter this time, lots of good stuff. Next chapter should be good as well. (shifty eyes) See you then!