Shuddering, Saria stumbled. Where was she? The world had suddenly disappeared from the Kokiri's view, only to be replaced by white mist. No, not white. It changed color often, but very gradually. Saria floated, her will to remain awake fading. Her last thought before she fell unconscious was of Link.
Link didn't know whether he was alive or not. His mind was a mass of white haze, interrupted infrequently by images. Sometimes he saw Miles, others, Saria, and still others, Tanizau. Even Akrir made his appearance, his long, bored face floating across Link's vision.
And finally, there was Zelda.
The images of her began to appear more frequently, overshadowing the rest. The multiple images floated together, coalescing….
Zelda was standing over his cot, looking down at him with sympathy. Link bolted out of the bed, away from her, wary. This was another trap.
"Link," she scolded, "lay down. You're hurt."
Gingerly, he touched the bandages that stretched from his right shoulder to his jaw, keeping his eyes on the monster. The wound ached a little, but he felt no blood loss at rising. How long had he been under?
The world swam before him as the apparition took a step forward, remaining in Zelda's guise.
"Link, listen to me," she pleaded. "You need to rest."
Link realized as the wall bumped him that he'd been stepping backward. On she came. He had no weapons, no defense, clad only in a medical loincloth. As she stepped forward, he raised his fist.
"You wouldn't hit me, would you?" She inquired, suddenly concerned.
His gaze never wavered, and she stopped walking.
Zelda scanned the once-hero. He was acting strange. She could understand if he didn't want to see her, but to the point of violence?
Suddenly, Zelda felt the urge to look into his eyes again. She searched them, the watery blue that she'd dreamt about for the past three days, and finally, she understood. There was something there, something that she had never seen in his eyes, and it terrified her to her roots.
Link's eyes were full of fear.
Zelda took a step back, regaining her composure. What could possibly scare Link so badly? Link, of all people? He had been born with the virtue of Courage, the anti-fear, the ability to nonchalantly waltz through nightmares that would have other people gibbering for their mothers. Part of her didn't want to know.
Gazing at the fallen hero again, she tried a different approach. She walked to the room's doorway, turning and facing the other Hylian. She gestured to his green clothing, lying in the corner of the room furthest from her.
"Get dressed."
She turned her back, trusting him not to harm her. Whatever had happened back in that clearing had obviously scarred him, and it had something to do with her.
Link's throat cleared. She turned, and he stood in that corner, garbed in green as he had always been. She nodded.
"Follow me."
She turned and walked down the corridor, knowing Link would follow eventually. When she got to the first corner she needed to turn down, she turned around and waited.
Link's head poked cautiously out of the door frame, and with building resolve, he stepped slowly out into the corridor. Zelda waited until he stopped a few feet away from her before continuing down the bend. It led upward, and light made its presence known, intensifying as they spiraled upward. The path led to the Grand Chamber of the Royal Castle of Hyrule. There was no one in attendance, as it was past midnight. Zelda led the wary hero through the secret escape path behind the throne. The path was lit now, and it ended not in a sanctuary, but outside.
The two of them climbed out of the open hatch in the ground of the plains surrounding the Castle, Link keeping his distance still. Stepping away from her, he gazed up at the stars, breathing in the fresh air. He tested the ground, walking with his hands out, as if he expected to meet a barrier. Finding none, he walked further, and further, until Zelda could barely see him.
He returned then, standing directly before her.
"Zelda?" It was the first word he had spoken since that day, seven years ago, when she'd had him exiled.
"Yes, Link," she confirmed. "I am real."
Link frowned. "Prove you aren't just a shape shifter."
Zelda slid the silky elbow-length glove off of her left hand. Holding it up, she clenched her fist. The Triforce symbol appeared, the top and right triangles dark, and the left one glowing. Link's gauntlet flew as he threw it off, holding his own left hand up. His was the same, except the glowing triangle was the right one. The symbols pulsed, resonating. No other being could mimic that mark, that connection.
Link flew into Zelda's arms, her shoulder instantly soaked as he buried his face, trembling. She held him there for a few minutes, then pulled him away. His eyes were downcast.
"Link, what happened?" She prodded.
"She was so real," he muttered. "You… you were so real."
"What happened?" She repeated.
"I can't…" Link couldn't finish, but she knew what he meant.
"Then let me," she said gently.
Link nodded solemnly. Zelda was an accomplished telepath of famous power and skill, and at this range, she could even gaze into memories. The Hylian boy sat down, and the princess joined him.
"Relax."
Link obeyed, and Zelda felt her mind enter the clearing. She watched, disgusted, as the corpses of Saria and the others rose up. She saw Link's hesitation as he cut the first down. She viewed the whole thing up until her appearance.
Shocked, she could only look on as the doppelganger embraced the man she loved, kissing him passionately. A small part of her heart was set on fire, that another being had taken advantage of the man she desired.
What happened next was horrifying beyond words.
Gasping, she pulled out, and nearly retched on the ground beside herself. Link was immediately there, helping her up on unsteady feet.
"Link…" there were no words for it, but the Hylian hero had never needed words to convey his thoughts. He understood.
"When we visit that clearing again," she promised, "we go together."
"It was you, wasn't it?"
Zelda was confused. "What?"
"You took me out of that clearing…" Link paused, remembering the flash of light.
Zelda was silent for a moment. "I awoke a few nights ago in a horrible sweat." She looked into his eyes. "I knew you were dying. I don't know how I knew where you'd be, but I panicked and teleported there and back. You've been out for three days."
"Thank you," he muttered. "Without you, I wouldn't be standing here."
"I will always be there for you," the princess told him, pausing. "Because… because I love you."
"Last time you said that, you tried to kill me," the hero retorted, evading the statement.
She punched him in the left arm. "That's not funny!"
"Speaking of funny," Link grinned, "there's someone I'd like you to meet."
Akrir's ears perked up at the sound of Link's whistle. The self-amused horse was sitting on the face of a Moblin who'd tried to eat him. Link could wait.
He was having fun.
The Moblin squirmed and wriggled, trying to get out from under the horse's rump, but Akrir maintained his position almost dutifully. He was waiting. Something was coming that would make the Moblin sorry, that would make it carry the story to other Moblins. They were never going to eat horses again.
Here it came. Akrir could feel it. It was almost here. He waited gleefully, impatiently. Finally! It was here! The horse stretched its neck out, pulling back its lips.
The plains echoed and the ground rumbled with the force of the horse's fart.
"This is not funny!" Tanizau shouted in irritation as she dodged a blast of lava.
Miles swung Wrath toward the lava she was about to land on, solidifying a platform for her. "I just think it's amusing that you can't find a happy medium."
"My happy medium is OUTSIDE!"
Immediately after stepping outside the temple, they had been assaulted by the cavern itself. The platforms had melted, and the lava had begun squirting itself at them. Miles suddenly felt thankful that Link had parted with the ice stone.
Suddenly, reality shifted for a second. Miles' vision became distorted, warped as if something had grabbed the scene and twisted it. He stumbled, losing his equilibrium for a split second. Within the fabric of the world, he heard something break.
The lava lurched upward, a spherical mound making itself present. Tanizau gripped Miles' arm in horror as an evil face drew itself in the boiling mass. Lava gushed upward from the lake as it floated above, forming two leg-like appendages that flowed from the lava into the monster. Still flowing, the lava mass pushed out two nubs on either side that developed into brutally clawed hands, allowing the claws to cool into razor sharp obsidian.
The cavern shook as the being waded through the lava toward them. It was easily a quarter of the height of the volcano itself, and was terrifying to gaze upon. Miles flourished Wrath and drew the clawshot out. This was going to be tough.
The monster kicked, sending a wave of lava at them. Miles transferred Wrath to Tanizau as he grabbed her around the waist, shooting the clawshot up and to his left. The wave missed them by inches as they sailed upward. The Sheikah fighter released the claws before they reached their destination, sending it out toward the far wall of the cavern. It was a long shot, so they began to fall before it pulled them forward. A chunk of lava splattered against the wall where they had been, sizzling. They rocketed over the lava monster, where Tanizau struck with Wrath, and again Miles released the claws in favor of another target. The being roared, and its claws missed them by more than ten feet as the clawshot latched onto a vertical pillar to their right, swinging them in a circle. He performed another claw release as a mass of solid rock was sent at them. The edge of the mass glanced off of Tanizau's arm, but it was enough to dislodge her. She cried out, her fingers finding purchase on Miles' belt.
Miles caught Wrath and swung it downward, creating a platform for them to land on. He swung twice more, shaking a storm of slush from the sword. The two of them landed in a rapidly melting snowdrift, and as Miles rose, he pulled his trousers up.
"I suppose I should be flattered," he threw out, whimsically, as he used Wrath to freeze another wave of lava. In answer, Tanizau grabbed him by the belt and collar, heaving him upward with the full force of the Silver Gauntlets. Afterward, she pulled out the Hover Boots, which had become combat sandals in the Gerudo fashion to suit her feet, and slipped them on. She ran, stepping on air to ascend to the top of the wave as Miles flew over her, flipping and gaining footing on the frozen wave.
Miles looked her over once more, again noting the heavy hammer she carried. She looked at him, and he hit upon an idea.
"The hit you scored on its head melted instantly," he explained to her as he froze another wave.
"And?" Tanizau turned her gaze to the monster now that it was using projectiles.
"Look at the way—" he grunted as he froze a chunk of lava in midair, ducking as it shattered on the wall behind him. "—the lava flows upward into it."
"It draws its strength from the lava," Tanizau commented, understanding. They met each other's eyes, sharing the same plan.
Miles reinforced the Gerudo vixen's platform, diving off and solidifying the area of the molten sea he landed on. He skated along, holding out Wrath to freeze the lava before him. He made a large circle around the monster, who tried to turn at the same speed at which he moved. Miles began using broader strokes with Wrath, winding in tighter circles around the monster. After the fourth circle, he was directly under the monster, and completed a fifth around its legs before he skidded to a halt. With one motion, he froze the monster's whole lower body, popping the ice stone out and catching it within the clawshot as he fired it between the monster's legs, its chain a thick, solid line of smooth ice that became part of Tanizau's wave on contact.
The Gerudo girl jumped onto the frozen chain, brandishing the huge hammer as she slid toward the creature. Gritting her teeth, and with the Silver Gauntlets to aid her, she swung with all of her might at the monster's crotch, knocking it off its legs. It landed squarely on its round back as Miles transferred the stone back into Wrath. Sliding to a stop, Tanizau threw the boy up and over the creature, where he rained down lightning fast lances of ice on the creature to keep it from melting the ice island he'd created. Using the Hover Boots, Tanizau leapt high in the air as Miles landed on the other side, tossing the ice stone upward. It met the head of the hammer, infusing it with ice as she brought it down with all of the fury she could muster. Miles threw himself to the icy ground as the monster shattered in all directions, and scraped his face as the whole volcano shook. His world went black for half a second.
Shaking his head, he pulled himself up… and gaped. The entire interior of the volcano save for the inside of the very peak was frozen solid. Directly at his feet began a fifty foot wide, twenty foot deep crater of ice. Tanizau crouched in the center, in the same position she'd set upon the monster in. Slowly, she stood, knocking the stone out of the hammer.
Miles slid down the walls of the crater, hugging the Gerudo girl as he reached her, and they both shook with laughter and relief. Wordlessly, she handed over the stone, and he placed it in the clawshot, since their only way out was up, and the claws couldn't grasp the ice. Still grinning, he aimed it upward when the atmosphere suddenly darkened. It wasn't an ominous darkening, and the pair soon saw why. The fading figure of Darunia coalesced in front of them.
"My thanks to you, friends of my brother," he echoed. "My spirit was being subverted, and the seal was broken for near a minute. But you have dealt with the spirit that was responsible for this. How can I repay this kindness?"
"An easy way out?" Tanizau suggested.
"Too easy," the elderly Goron chuckled. The world faded to white…
… and they found themselves on the slopes of Death Mountain.
Darunia spoke to them once more. "I am fading back into the Sacred Realm, to reinstate my seal. Do not interrupt me, brother of my brother, because I do not have much time. The spirit you defeated was one of three. This one drew its power from the fires of the earth itself. The second draws it from the memories and fears of a person, turning them against him. The third draws its power from resistance itself, and grows stronger as each victim it kills struggles against death. Each seeks to cover the world in its own influence. The first demon, you have disposed of, filling it with its opposite. The same must be done with the other two."
The pair nodded in unison, not quite understanding, but absorbing the information. Darunia opened his mouth again, but the Goron disappeared from their view, completing his passage to the Sacred Realm.
They stood together in silence for awhile. Suddenly, Miles turned to Tanizau.
"For some reason, I'm starving."
She punched him in the shoulder.
Notes from HylianShield: I felt the need for a battle that was a bit more... epic. I must admit, I got a little carried away with the Spiderman aspect of it, but it was fun to write. I can only hope it was fun to read, too.
I hope everyone's enjoying this story. I've put a lot of work into it, and even at 8 full chapters and 85 pages at size 12 font, I'm not finished yet. Perhaps I'll split it into two books.