Krista: Yes, I'm finally putting this up! Thanks to lil-dragon-blue, lilBlondi, and Links1fangirl for the reviews and I'm sorry this took so long! But this is one of my longest chapters, so that should make some of you a little happy.


Chapter Nine: Cave of No Return: Part Three

The next room just had a locked door at the other end and a small part of land across a chasm. Hope looked at the chasm and smiled back at her sisters.

"Hey girls, guess what we get to do?"

"HUMAN SLINGSHOT!" Faith and Patience cried out together, startling Link.

"The what?" he asked.

"You'll see," Hope smiled at him. She looked at her sisters. "Who's going over?"

"I will!" Faith volunteered. Hope and Patience interlocked their fingers and hands, and made their palms facing up and as flat as possible. Faith placed a foot on their hands with her back to the chasm.

"You ready?" Patience asked. Her older sister grinned.

"Always am," she replied.

"Alright, then," Hope said, "on the count of three. One...two...THREE!" Link's eyes widened when Hope and Patience pushed up with their hands. Faith jumped at the right moment and did a back flip to get her body over the chasm.

"TA-DA!!" she said when she landed on the other side. "Now let's see what's over here."

Link grinned. "Not bad," he said. "Where did you three learn that?"

"We took a gymnastics course together one summer," Patience responded, keeping close to Hope and her lamp. Link nodded to the answer, but suddenly thought of something.

"How is Faith going to get back over here?" he asked. Hope frowned.

"Crap, I didn't think of that," she replied.

"Didn't think about what?" Faith was standing right next to her.

"She's not sure how you're going to get back here," Link explained. Faith arched her eyebrows at Patience, who shrugged. Link did a double take at Faith.

"Hey, how'd you get back here?"

"There was a switch there that made a bridge over the chasm," Faith answered.

"Was there anything good over there?" Hope asked.

"Ooohh, yeah!"

"I didn't like the sound of that!"

"Shut up, Patience!" Faith snapped. "There was a blue bracelet and THIS!" She held up the bow she found, along with the quiver of arrows on her back.

"Cool!" Patience exclaimed. "Can I play with them, Faith?"

"...No."

"But, why--"

"ALRIGHT, Link, let's go open that locked door, shall we?" Hope ordered, leading them toward the door.

"Uh, sure...right..." Link stammered, suddenly unsure as to who was the leader of this little group. The next room was dark, except for four torches burning right in front of them.

"Yipe, it's darker in here! Me no like it!" Patience complained.

"Make sense when you talk," Hope scolded.

"Actually, that's the most sense she's made in a while," Faith remarked.

"Will you please stop clinging to my arm, Patience?" Link asked. "I think you're cutting off the blood circulation."

"I'm not hanging onto anybody!" she shouted back.

"You're not?" Link asked. "Hope, is it you?"

"No, it's not me."

"...Faith?"

"Why the heck would I hang onto anyone?!"

"Then who...or what, is?"

"Hang on, Link," Faith said. "If I do this right, you'll be able to see in a minute." She aimed an arrow so it would go over a lit torch, catch on fire, and soar across the room. Letting it fly, the four watched as three more torches lit up. They also realized that there was a giant hole in between the two small land masses on each side of the room. Faith did the same thing to the other three torches closest to them. When all sixteen were lit, they noticed what was clinging to Link and why it was so dark.

"Goddesses, it's a whole colony of Keese!" Link slashed the one on his arm.

"Great observation, Link! We never would have guessed!" Faith shouted as she shot arrows as fast as she could at the bat-like monsters.

"Come on, you two have swords!" Link yelled at Hope and Patience, who were just watching the other two fight. "Use them!" Those three used their swords to get at the closer Keese, while Faith shot at the ones farther away. After a few minutes, there was only one Keese, but it was in the back of the room. Only an arrow would be able to reach it.

"Uh, Faith?" Hope asked. "Did you hear the narrator? Only an arrow can reach it!"

"Chill, will ya?" she responded. "Otherwise, Patience will get mad at you guys for making me forget this."

"Why'd you say 'guys'?" Link asked. "I didn't say anything!" Faith didn't answer as Patience started skipping around Hope and Link.

"We're gonna get more force gems, we're gonna get more force gems," she sang. Faith tripped her as a 'subtle' way of telling her to stop, then aimed an arrow for the crystal switch across the hole, and let it fly. Unfortunately, the Keese went in front of it and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. So, tons of force gems started to fall from the ceiling. Faith hurriedly shot another arrow. It hit the switch and made a bridge over the large chasm, catching most of the gems.

"That was close," Hope commented to Faith, who just muttered something like, "stupid bat". Those two heard snickering behind them and they turned to look at Link.

"What?" Faith demanded.

"Patience's face." Link laughed. "She looked like she was going to pass out while she watched the gems fall!" Hope and Faith turned to see Patience gathering as much force gems as she could. They all crossed the bridge, waited for Patience to grab two more floating gems, watched Patience fall down the chasm trying to get the gems and reappear next to them, then moved on to the next room.

"This is a room?" Hope asked. "All it has is a staircase." Alright, fine, skip the 'room' part. Anyway, the four went down the staircase into an area that had doors open on both sides and a mage laughing to himself sitting in between them. Or was it a "her"? The quartet decided to try the left side first, and ended up in the same place.

"Back again, are we?" the mage laughed.

"Um, okay, could you not talk to us?" Faith asked as they went through the right door.

"That was rude!" Hope scolded as Link and Patience got the force gems out of the treasure chests that were there.

"I don't care!" Faith said. "I just want to get out of this cave!" They left the empty chests and emerged in a room like the first, except there was no mage. After trying to get through the underground maze numerous times, they finally got it right and climbed some stairs into another empty room. All there was were two levers on each side of a closed door. Trying the left lever first, the only thing that happened was a treasure chest appearing. Patience, obviously thinking it was a force gem (honestly, if you didn't figure that out for yourself, I don't know where you've been these past eight chapters!), opened it, and got a heart container instead. The door opened when they pulled the right lever. Going into the next room, they came face-to-face with the boss.

"YOU?" Patience exclaimed.

"You sound so surprised," Shadow Link smirked. "I told you I'd be back."

"Well, yeah, I know," Patience said, scratching her head in thought. "I just thought that bosses were supposed to be smarter."

"Good help must be hard to find," Hope commented dryly.

"You do know that the main villain always sends his weaker minions to try to beat the hero first, right?" Faith smirked at Shadow Link.

"Shut up!" he yelled as he threw a bomb at them. Hope pulled out her shield and deflected it. Link went right after his evil twin and tried to slash at him with his sword. Shadow Link jumped up and threw another bomb down on them. Everyone held up their shields.

Everyone, that is, except Patience.

She had decided to try a different approach. Standing under it, Patience caught the bomb, and then threw it at Shadow Link when he landed. Stunned by the explosion, Link then went in and hit him with the sword. Shadow Link tried to get away, but he ran right into Hope's sword.

"That's it!" he shouted. Jumping away, he transformed himself into an exact copy of Link, green tunic and all. Only the real Link would be able to hurt him. Unfortunately, Shadow Link kept tossing bombs and wouldn't let Link near him.

"TIME OUT!" They stopped fighting and turned around. "Cool, it actually worked."

"What, Faith?" Link glared at her. Shadow Link looked bored.

"Hang on; I need to aim this right." She had an arrow out.

"You do know I'll just move out of the way, right?" Shadow Link asked, tossing a bomb up in the air and then catching it. She gave him a sly smile.

"Oh, I'm not aiming for you." The arrow soared through the air and hit the bomb. Again, the explosion stunned Shadow Link. The real Link started hitting him like there was no tomorrow. Soon, Shadow Link threw a big green force gem out as a sign of surrender.

"I'll be back," he growled. He swirled around and went into the ground like before.

"Is everybody okay?" Hope asked.

"I'm fine!" Patience grinned as she picked up the force gem, finally powering up their swords. Link and Faith just nodded.

"Come on," Link said and led them into the very last room. The barrier of darkness was in it. After destroying it, the four were instantly transported outside.


Krista: Yeah, I don't think this was one of my funnier chapters. I gotta play the next level to try and get ideas. If anybody has any, feel free to put them in your review. Cya!