Chapter Four: A challenge
Link swallowed hard, seeing the figure standing before him. Even without the color needed to see the figure entirely, the voice told Link everything that he needed to know. His heart began racing, feeling like it was going to pound out of his chest. He looked at the fearsome man, knowing that he had gained far more power than Link was ready to tangle with. He was just starting out on his quest, after all. The man threw his head back and let out a loud laugh before pointing his sword at Link, a cold presence falling over the young man. Link felt like a fly compared to this man's new, fearsome power.
The Gerudo man asked, "You are honestly going to try and ruin this forest that I have been creating? I admire your air of confidence, but you should know that, so long as I am the ruler of this forest, there will be no destroying these trees. They are beautiful and useful to me all at the same time! I can cover this land, conquer it through a sea of magic trees! I can kill whomever I want by sewing the proper seed into their house or body, watching a new, blood soaked tree spring forth from the seed, destroying the person completely. I could even do it to you, if I didn't want the satisfaction of murdering you myself, of course."
Link held his ground, even as fear gripped him. He managed to hold strong as he said, "I am not going down without a fight."
The gerudo man just let out another laugh and then asked, "What is it with you young heroes? Always throwing your life to the wind as if it never mattered and then wondering why it is that you have brought these terrible things upon yourselves! But no matter…if you want to try and stop this forest from spreading, I'll let you try."
Link quirked one of his eyebrows, still tensed and nervous about this proposition. "What are you saying?" Link asked, the others in the room staying silent as the two confronted each other with words. "You aren't going to just attempt to kill me right now?" Link said, feeling ready for a fight, his hand slowly reaching for his sword at his side.
The grin already plastered on the man's face widened. "Because if I wanted to, I could kill you now," he said before vanishing. Link gasped as he suddenly felt a chill across his throat. He realized that the blade of that sword was now resting against his throat. "One swipe, Link…that is all it would take now. You see? You have so little power as compared to me. Even with the goddess, Farore, you're nothing compared to me." He slid the blade along his throat, but it did not cut Link's throat. Link stepped forward and spun around to find himself facing the man, whose expression had faded from its amusement and he now held a very threatening demeanor. Link's heart was racing now as he realized just how outmatched he was.
"That is why I am giving you a chance to try, Link," said the man in a very serious tone. No hint of sarcasm could be found in him. "It would be no fun just killing you for the sake of it, not when you've been chosen to become my most feared enemy. Why strike you down where you stand, as easy as that might be? I want to see if the goddesses have placed their faith correctly, as they have done time and again. If they have, I might just step back and let things resume their course."
Link began to back off, no longer even daring to reach for his sword. "And if they haven't?" he asked, realizing that fear was overtaking him.
At this, the man merely shrugged his shoulders before throwing the blade down at Link's feet. It fell down in an unnatural way, as if the hilt were being dragged through the air until it now pointed in a particular direction. "Follow the hilt of that blade. It will take you to your destination. But be wary now, for I shall warn the guardians there that you are to come for them." Link looked up to reply but the man was gone, the only trace of him left being the sword that now rested at Link's feet, the hilt pointing to the east.
A heavy silence fell over the room as no one spoke, nor dared even breathe unless it was in a quiet tone. Everyone feared that if another sound were uttered, the monster that had just been there would appear, perhaps to change his mind and destroy their chance at surviving this nightmare. Link finally spoke, asking, "Can you tell me what I will find to the east, if this sword points me in the right direction?"
The elder took a moment to think before responding. "The only thing I can conclude is the ancient temple. Once named the Temple of Life, it has now fallen to ruin, corrupted by darkness. It was sealed away, with this same type of dark forest surrounding it. Now, I fear that the barrier has been broken, and this forest has decided to spread in an attempt to corrupt the very life of this land." He looked to Link and then said, "You are truly our last hope, Link. Please, be careful." He shook his head and let out a heavy sigh. "I don't know what I would tell your mother if you were to die. Hell I still do not know what to say about you being chosen as the hero. That may well truly devastate her, the images of her son trying to perform such dangerous tasks laid before him."
A burst of confidence entered Link and he said, "Do not worry. I will prove to you that I am the hero and that the faith of the goddesses is not unfounded. I will not only stop this forest from spreading. I shall destroy it forever!" He spoke in a loud and confident voice, but doubts crept into his mind. Could he uphold his oath now? Anxious thoughts began to tell him that he may well not yet be prepared to end this forest's spread. He looked down at his left hand, which now bore the symbol that Farore had given him. He also looked back at the pendant, noticing that it was glowing as well. Though he could not see the color to it, he could guess that the vibrant green was there. Perhaps Farore was giving him the strength to carry on with his quest.
The elder nodded his head slowly, saying, "Do not worry, Link. You are being guided by a divine will. And, if you are ever in doubt, remember that we have complete faith and confidence in you." With that, the elder turned to a table, took out a large sheet of paper and began drawing on it with a pen. He drew with amazing speed, though he did not seem to be rushing or being hasty with the map whatsoever. Soon, he walked back to Link with the paper and handed him a map that detailed the path that he would have to take to reach the temple. "Stay vigilant, Link, and keep your sword ready at all times. There is no telling what all dangers await you out in this dark forest."
The farewells were said by the townspeople, most praying for his safe return. There were some that begged for him not to go, that it was simply too dangerous. Link did not see all of the townspeople there; most prominent was his mother, who had not shown up at all. Feeling sad that she had to miss his undertaking this task, he determined that he would show his success to her after all was said and done. He turned and faced the forest and, for a moment, felt daunted. The forest seemed to glare at him with invisible eyes, warning him not to attempt the journey. Once again, he felt the warmth of confidence spread through him and he began moving his legs, taking strides down to the forest and stepping into the trees. Now Link could see the details up close. The trunk of the trees was definitely gnarled and shriveled, the like of which reminded him of extremely wrinkled skin. There was also a strange substance coating the outside of the trees, though Link could not identify what it was thanks to the lack of color in his vision.
Each stride that Link took into the forest, the confidence slowly diminished. There was something evil at work, trying to destroy what little determination he had to keep going forward. The doubting thoughts began to plague his mind once more, nagging at him with each step he took. All that Link could hear was what sounds he made, with his footsteps, his breathing, his clothes making noise as he walked, his sword and shield both swinging to and fro. There was no other life in this forest, nothing that made sound. The familiar chirping of birds was gone, the chatter of squirrels that one might expect in a forest was not there. There were no bugs either, as much as he would normally detest them. He now yearned for something to make noise other than himself.
He was granted that wish, though he soon wished that it hadn't been granted. A noise like a loud roar, deep and bellowing, echoed through the forest somewhere off to his left. His head spun, followed by his body, but he could not make out what was there. Perhaps fortunately, the roar was rather distant, but then he heard a voice in his head. It was Farore, her voice filled with worry and urgency. "Run, Link! Run as fast as you can and don't stop until you reach the temple!" Link could only follow her words and took off running through the forest. He didn't dare look behind him and was glad that he didn't, for fear began overtaking him. He could hear something behind him, the sharp sound of a blade dragging along the ground as he ran. Soon, the temple came into view but he paid no mind to it. He dashed between two tall, obsidian towers before a long, narrow bridge. He was about halfway across it when he heard it cracking underfoot. Panicking he quickened his pace before leaping forward and landing on the only part of the bridge that stayed up. The bellow could be heard right behind him, but it quickly receded, going downwards. Whatever thing had been chasing him, it had fallen down into the abyss below. Dread still filling his mind, Link stood and walked to the huge doors before him and threw himself against one, desperately trying to open it up. It took all his might but he pushed it open step by step and now walked inside.
He now relaxed against the wall, shuddering as his senses came back to him. "What in the world was that thing?" he asked but got no response. Farore had only talked to him just in time to get him to run but now had left him to his senses. Perhaps it was for the best, as divine intervention such as that was often frowned upon, at least so he had heard. He now wondered briefly if that was true, but then remembered where he was. He was inside the corrupted temple. Looking out over the entrance he found that it was completely barren, save for stairs barred by hideous black walls of thorny sticks. There were many doors on this floor, but most of them were all covered in those thorns, save for two of them. Link looked between the two of them and then he took his shield onto his right arm, looking around the room, fearful that something was going to jump out in this unnatural darkness.
He stepped towards the first door, the one closest to him on his left and tried the door. Upon the handle refusing to turn, he looked at the doorhandle to see a keyhole. "Locked," he muttered under his breath as he turned to the door that was off farther to his right. He started across the hallway, his footsteps echoing in the eerie silence of this enormous hallway. He began to fear that something was going to jump out and attack him. He had just reached the door when he heard chains clinking behind him. He spun around but saw nothing. Something had simply made him jump. "Some hero I am, jumping at noises in the shadows," he muttered to himself, feeling ashamed that he felt so afraid. He knew that he had to put aside his fear if he wanted to move forward here and did his best, turning back around and turning the knob on this door. It swung inwards, revealing a long hallway with armored statues on all sides, all with weapons covered in thorns. The floor was perfectly smooth, however, save for a few stones that seemed slightly out of place. He chose to step over the stones, his mind telling him that the stones would most likely trigger a trap.
He started to step over the stones when he heard one of the statues creak. He jumped back out of instinct as the axe fell down and clanged nice and loud, echoing through the halls. The loud noise made Link cringe, fearing that there might be some creature that would hear the loud noise and come to investigate. However, he stood there for about half a minute, ready to find a spot to hide if nothing came around to find him, but Link heard no other noise, other than the statue creaking as it lifted the axe back into position.
Curious, Link now went back over and this time stepped onto the stone, having it quietly sink into the ground. The statues did not move as he passed between them now. As soon as he stepped off the stone, it lifted in the same, eerily quiet manner. He would have expected it to have the sound of stone grinding against stone as it went down and lifted back up. Instead, everything seemed deathly quiet, save for that loud echo that he could swear he still heard echoing through the castle.
He proceeded down the hall, stepping down on the stones to pass between the statues. Passing the final one, he let out a sigh of relief before quickly covering his mouth as the sigh came out as extremely loud, louder than his footsteps had been so far. He looked back at the statues in a state of fear and then back at the door in front of him. He reached forward and began to slowly draw it open, though he feared what lay beyond. The next room was very dark, almost to the point that Link could not see. Something in his head told him that this might be a good place to hide, should he be found by that thing again. That is, if the monster survived the fall off of that bridge into the endless abyss.
He looked around briefly before spotting a lantern that was currently unlit. He carefully picked it up and checked to see what oil was still inside, finding that it was actually full as it was. Link put it in his pack before continuing to look around the room. The lantern, however, had been the only thing he could have seen. He pulled the lantern back out in contemplation, wondering whether or not it would be a good idea to light the lantern to be able to see. He finally chanced it, lighting the lantern and hearing the small roar of the flames as they erupted within. Light shone into the room, revealing that it was a storeroom of some sort, though all of the shelves were empty. Save for one that had a letter on it. He stepped closer to the letter and found it folded in half, the words, "To my dearest son" written in ink across the top. Link carefully took the letter and unfolded it to read what it said.
"My son, I am sorry to have left you in such a hurry, but I needed to leave this damned castle to seek help for the master. I think he's going insane. Every day he goes out into the garden, I have told you this. It is here that he seeks help from the spirits of the world to give him comfort in his nightmares. However, today was different. At first, he expressed that he did not want to go out to the garden, though he never specified why. After going into the garden again, he stopped in the middle. Then without warning, he took out a knife and began cutting all the plants, screaming out in rage. A servant went out to stop him and, well, there's now a reason why the master needs help. He's been chained in the dungeon and is rapidly worsening, roaring now instead of shouting. I can only hope that I might find a cure for him, else all of us might die," Link muttered quietly to himself as he read the paper. No sooner had he finished than he heard a loud roar similar to the one he had heard outside. This one was much deeper and was coming from the depths of the temple. The letter in his hand also turned to dust, falling away out of his hands.
"I'd better get going. There's no telling what might come out of here if I don't figure out a way to stop it. What was that thing that was chasing me, then? Was that the master of this area having been corrupted?" he muttered as he stepped out into the hallway and stopped, his eyes fixated on the statues. They were no longer standing on the pedestals but rather stood in the middle of the hall, all facing him directly, weapons drawn. Link drew his sword and then said, "Bring it!" It was all he could do to make sure his voice didn't crack out of his growing state of fear and dread.
The statues collapsed, falling harmlessly to the floor, pieces of armor scattering all about. A loud voice echoed through the room, "What a pitiful excuse of a hero you are. Look at how fearfully you crawl through the temple, cowering against everything you come up against. And yet you haven't left yet. Oh, that's right, you can't leave!" the voice said before malicious laughter "But if you do make it through this temple in the end, I will still hold you in respect. You might even live to grow out of this baby that you are. But for now, you must continue on."
Link growled, wondering if the man who put him up to this challenge sought amusement at mocking him at every turn. He then said to himself, "I won't let him get away with this." He stepped past all of the armor and walked back out into the main hall. So far he had not found a key of any form, though that stopped when his foot stepped onto something out of place. He lifted his foot and looked down to see exactly what it was he had been searching for. He stooped down to pick it up when he heard that terrible roar again, this time just past one of the walls. A stone collapsed off the wall as a long, blood covered blade burst partway through the wall before retracting back. Link found that he had instinctively raised his shield and had his sword ready, but his legs were poised were to run, not fight. He heard the blade dragging along the ground for a second, heading away from the wall. Link quickly reached down and took the key into his hand, standing up and running to the door out into the main hall.
He dashed across the hall to the locked door, keeping the key in his hands the entire time. He just arrived at the door when steel bars slammed down in front of him, blocking his access to the door. Then the splintering of wood greeted his ears and he spun around, seeing a shadow with glowing red eyes with that same, blood covered blade for an arm. "It was a fun run, Link, but now your end draws near!" the man's voice echoed, the direction indicating to Link that it was coming from the beast itself.
Link stood straight, turning to face the beast as focused his glance entirely on the beast. A sense of calm swept over his being as he raised his shield and readied his sword. He bent his knees some as he began approaching the beast, keeping a wide and stable stance. The beast just glowered at him, though it began to retreat as Link advanced. It made a move forward, to which Link reacted by simply stopping for a brief second before moving forward again, ready to face his opponent. The beast lashed at him with its sword, making a wild swing as if the beast itself were panicking in Link's presence. Link used his shield and deflected the blow before bringing his own blade around in a very hard and swift swing, cleaving the monster in two. With a horrible roar, it vanished, leaving nothing behind but a glowing shard that flew into Lin. His vision turned black and white, though at least now he could see another color besides shades of darkness.
"How is this possible?! You have defeated a beast that you should have been cowering in front of! Perhaps there is more to you than meets the eye," the voice declared. Link growled, wanting to kill this arrogant monster that once was a man.
However, unlike before, he said nothing out loud as he turned back to the door. The bars slid back into the archway above the door, giving Link full access to continue on. For a second, he remembered that he had been holding the key in his hand. What had he done with it when he had put his focus on the monster? He looked at his hands, not seeing the key clasped firmly along with either the hilt of his sword or the grip of his shield. He sheathed his sword and began searching his pockets, finding it in one of the pockets on his green tunic. "Hm, must have put it away subconsciously," he muttered to himself as he put the key in the giant, chained padlock on the door and turned it. The contraption spun before detaching from the chains and vanishing into a puff of smoke. The door opened automatically in front of him, opening into a room with a staircase leading down into a lower level of the castle. Taking a deep breath, he stepped down into the depths of the temple, ready to face what dangers awaited him.
It was getting too dark to see, even with the help of his vision now. Link still felt wary of taking his lantern, fearful that the light would attract something that he could not kill, or worse, something that would sneak up on him while it could see him. However, he pushed all those worried thoughts aside and drew his lantern. He lit it again, the flame emitting its glow and producing a bright white light. He hung the lantern on his belt and then peered into the eerily dark room.
It expanded out into a rather large, open room with what looked like an empty pit in the middle of it. Six pillars surrounded the opening in a hexagonal pattern, extending up to the roof, which was covered in thick, black, twisted vines that spread all across the roof. As Link approached the pit, a bright fire lit up inside, though he could not see what color it was. "Well done. You've actually mustered up enough guts to make it down here. But be warned, things will actually try to kill you down here. You'd best be prepared. And, seeing how you handled yourself previously, I'm wondering if you aren't just going to run and hide like the coward you are."
Link growled in anger again, feeling rage welling up within him at this man's taunts. He calmed himself again and looked around the now brightly lit room. There were three doors, one at the far end and two on his left. The right side of the room simply had a huge wall, though it looked different. Instead of being made of marble, this wall seemed to be made of stone bricks carefully placed and sealed, as if it had been a wall recently made to cover something up. Link looked up at the ceiling again, noticing a pattern with the vines. They were spreading from various cracks at the top of that stone wall. Curiosity brought him to wonder what lied beyond, though his rational thinking told him he would probably rather not know.
He stepped to one of the doors on the left and then, remembering that it was well lit in this room, doused his lantern and put it back in his pack. He carefully opened up the door, cringing as it gave a loud creak, signifying to him that it was made of wood. It opened up into a rather large room with many desks. The desks were all covered with papers that were covered with illegible writings and drawings. The room was enormous as well, perhaps large enough for a group of students or monks that studied here. There was nothing more of interest in the room, however, save for one parchment on one of the far desks that was still legible, or appeared to be. Link approached it, making his way through the desks, careful of touching them for fear that they might collapse from being so time worn and having no upkeep.
He approached the parchment and looked at it, realizing that it was a map of the temple that he was in. He picked it up and looked at the side, looking for "B1", which as far as to his understanding, was where he was at. The map portrayed a large room in the middle with the hexagonal pattern in front of a dark circle, with an offshoot room to the left, a hallway that went eastward and then turned north into a rather large room that was scrawled on, though the language was not something that he recognized. The room directly north had a detail of a stair going down and then the next page, B2, showed in detail that there was one large door in front of a truly massive room with five doors, though he could see that only one of them was actually drawn in. He took special note of it, it was the one on the north-eastern side and it had the symbol of a fire drawn over it.
The door was suddenly kicked down, startling Link as he leaped back away from the desk, still holding the map. A skeleton walked in, wielding a blade that glowed red and also wielding a shield. It's skull turned to him, the eye sockets glowing red. "Hello, hero. I was told that you would be coming here for the flame that is the key to destroying this forest. I cannot allow that." It stepped into the room and began approaching him, raising it's shield and holding its sword at a ready position as it approached.
Link dropped the map and then pulled out his sword and shield, his heart racing this time. The unusual calm that had swept over him before wasn't there but he still felt confident in his abilities. The skeleton leaped over one of the desks and swung its sword in a wide arc, telegraphing its swing path rather easily. Link raised his shield and grunted as he felt the blade collide with his shield. He pushed out with his shield, swinging his sword in virtually the same fluid motion. He swung it in a wide arc and packed as much power into the swing as he could muster. It hit the bone, jerking to a stop, though he did hear a sickening crack. The skeleton was actually knocking down onto the desk, the old wood yielding under the sudden force and weight, crashing to the ground with the loud, echoing sound of splintered wood as it all collapsed.
Link followed suit as the skeleton attempted to recover from being knocked into the wood. He lifted his foot and brought it down on the skull and threw his entire body weight onto it. He felt the skull yield as bone scattered and splintered from his foot falling into contact with it. The skeleton did not move any further. Link sat there, his boot still on top of crushed bone. He lifted his foot finally and looked for the map again. He found it again, underneath the skeleton's sword. He retrieved it and quickly left the room, fearing that another skeleton was going to come into the room and try to kill him.
"You're doing quite well for an amateur. Perhaps you aren't as bad off as I thought you might have been," the voice spoke suddenly, startling Link again. He ignored the man as he continued to go on about how weak Link was. He was about to head north into the main room when the thought occurred to him that the door might well have been locked. He turned to the second eastern door again and followed the hallway down. He stopped right at the turn in the hallway. The vines that had been growing across the ceiling were now growing down across the walls and were soon in front of the door, growing into the room around it. He had a strong sense that going into this room would not be a good idea.
However, he felt that there would be something important beyond the door. He began walking forward, the ominous feeling growing as he continued approaching the door. He stepped on one of the vines and then pulled back as he felt the vine trying to wrap around his foot the moment it came into contact with the vines. He pulled out his lantern and lit it again, looking down at it, when he noticed that the vines on the floor crept away from him when he held his lantern up. He wondered about why the vines retracted from the light on the floor, yet none of the other vines had moved a single bit. He approached the door and tried the handle, finding that it moved easily and the door swung open, this one being absolutely quiet, not a single creak coming out of it whatsoever.
The room beyond the door was hideous. Black vines spread all across the room, crawling down from the ceiling across the walls and spreading out across the floor. Link stared inside the room for a moment, the light of his lantern revealing that there were details underneath the vines, but they were covered up and only barely distinguishable form between gaps between the black, thorn covered strands. Link looked at the ceiling, noticing that there was a hole that they were slithering in from. Link now followed the vines down to where he was standing and that's when he noticed that the vines were receding from around him in a circle around him. The light from his lantern seemed to be doing the trick. He just hoped that he would not run out of the lantern oil at a crucial moment, if his theory was correct.
Taking another look at the room, without paying as much attention to the vines, he could see several posts where torches would be lit from. An idea came to mind as he walked into the room and started to use his lantern to light the torches. The first torch that lit up, a large amount of the vines slithered back away from the newly lit torch, a hissing sound emanating from them. As Link lit the torches, the hissing became louder until all of the torches were lit. They suddenly brightened and the room became intensely bright, a loud shriek coming from the hole as the vines all rapidly receded into the hole that was now directly above him. Link looked up into the hole, noticing that no matter how bright the room was, none of the light stretched too far into the hole…it was almost as if there were a shadow veil blocking all viewing access. Perhaps that was where the source of the vines hid itself from further harm.
Link now looked down at the design, noticing it to be a sun with the symbol of Hyrule resting right beneath it. The sun itself was actually glowing in the light, as if created to magically emit light. As Link stood on it, the sun continued to glow with a bright light, with it glowing stronger and stronger until it didn't seem to be getting any stronger in its radiance. He stepped off the sun, worried for a moment that all of the lights were going to go out. Much to his pleasant surprise, nothing happened to the sun, it stayed at the same radiance that it had been at.
Then the voice rang out again, echoing nice and loud, "Well, you managed to light this place up again. What's the matter? Scared of the dark?" But Link could hear that there was some fear in that voice, as if the man knew that Link was getting closer, step by step, to surviving this hell hole. Link doused his lantern, not seeing another use for it now. He walked out of the now brightly lit hallway and found that all of the areas of the castle were now brightly colored, the vines on the ceiling having receded as well, though there were still hints of them near the wall that was different from all the rest of the walls. Again, Link's curiosity piqued as he looked at the wall. He began to truly wonder what was inside and why it was hiding from the light, yet when there was no hint of that light, it crawled out to dominate whatever it could find. In particular, why did it originate from both that hole in the ceiling as well as from behind this wall?
He decided it would still be best not to question these things as he turned to the north. It was there that he was hopefully going to find a key that would allow him to move forward. Link studied the map of that room, memorizing what room it would be in comparison to the door into this large room. He had a feeling he was going to have to make a split second decision as to which room to get to and he was not going to have time to memorize the map.
He walked through the northern door and was greeted by an extremely bright light that his eyes slowly adjusted to, showing that the room was pure white, unnaturally so, and gleaming nice and bright. He stepped inside when the voice rang out, "Normally there would have been quite a bit to worry about in here, though I must have forgotten that you are being watched and protected by the goddess. That's the only reason that the sun symbol even activated, boy, was that you are specially chosen…bah, if the goddesses have to coddle you, then what use are you to them?" said the voice, followed by mad laughter before it faded into nothingness.
Link listened to the voice again before looking down at his hand. Was that the truth? Was he being coddled by the goddesses as he had said? He shook his head, knowing that the doubts that remained in his mind had to go. This was not the way of a hero! The hero was fearless, never backing down in the face of danger or panicking. That was the way the legends were always told about the legendary heroes. He was supposed to become just like them, looking at danger without fear. Yet, he was nowhere even close to becoming like the hero.
As his eyes finally adjusted to the bright light, he saw the room in its entirety, It was a large, circular room with pillars rising up to a ceiling far higher than what had been present, perhaps even reaching as high as the temple was tall. However, Link saw a figure standing in the middle of the room that he did not fully recognize. It was a burning shade of green, facing away from him. Link started walking forward, drawing his sword out of some fear at this point. He finally reached the figure, who turned around and looked right at him. Link stopped dead in his tracks. The figure was that of the legendary hero, a scar visible across his throat.
I have to get this chapter in so that I have SOMETHING still going with this story. Still, I apologize for the long wait. This was a LONG chapter. DX