Chapter 9

Dante finally came back holding something in his hand. It was the stone! The stone was a green sphere that gave off an otherworldly glow. It had a design carved in it, a circle on the far left and two crescents on the right, each one getting bigger. Dante put it in his bag. "How did you persuade her to give it to us?" I asked.

"I just told her how dire our situation is," He said.

"Now that we have, what exactly are we suppose to do with it?" Zelda asked.

"Keep it away from Obsidian. Valion told us to meet him at The Temple Of Time once we've collected all three," Dante said. We headed out of the forest and to our next destination, Death Mountain. It it said that Death mountain is the home of the Gorons, a race of rock people. When we exited the forest, I decided to ask the question that had been on my mind. "How did you get out of that room?" I asked Dante.

He shrugged and said, "I have no idea. The last thing I remembered was a bunch of rocks falling on me, then waking up in the foyer. Then Yillian came and showed me where you guys were."

That's strange. I wonder who could of saved him from that? We walked until nightfall and then set up camp. After we finished setting up the tents, I laid my sleeping bag on the ground and went straight to bed.

The dream I had that night was weird. I was standing in a temple and in front of me was the complete Triforce floating above an altar. It was glowing bright, lighting up the room around me. A woman appeared in the center of the Triforce, she looked like a demon. Her skin was completely dark and her sclera was black and her iris completely red. Her hair shot up like she had been shocked, the color was orange.

She placed her hand on the Triforce and it started changing colors. It started to turn black and a purple aura surrounded it. Cracks began to form and pieces of the Triforce began to fall off. The room around me started to fade away. I started falling into an endless dark void. A voice whispered in my ear, "Don't let the darkness in."

I woke up, my left hand was burning. Light shot through the opening of the tent, it was day. Zelda popped her head in and said, "Come on, let's get going!"

I grabbed my stuff and we headed out. I couldn't stop thinking about that dream, it was so vivid. Don't let the darkness in, those words kept repeating in my head. I looked down at the Triforce on my hand. Why was it changing colors? What the hell is going on? "Everything alright?" Dante asked breaking my trance.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

I decided not to tell them about it, it was probably nothing. I didn't want to make a big deal about it. As we were riding, I could see what appeared to be a ranch up ahead. "Lon Lon Ranch! My friend Malon stays there we should go visit!" Zelda said.

"We've got to stock up on food anyways, it couldn't hurt to stop by," Dante said. Stopped in front of the entrance and entered. When we entered their was a barn to my right and a house to my left. In the back was a huge open field filled with different sorts of animals. Pigs, cow, sheep, and chicken. There were also horses running around as well.

Standing in the middle of the huge open field was a girl about my age. She had long orange hair that stretched down to her waist and wore a white dress. A man walked out of the house and greeted us. "Hello there! Name's Talon, nice to meet you," He said. He looked over to Zelda and said, "Oh my! Princess Zelda! It's nice to see you again! What brings you here today?" He asked.

Dante approached him and asked him, "We were hoping if you could spare us some supplies. You see, we're running low and..." I tuned out of the conversation. For some reason, I felt really weird. My chest started hurting, it felt like someone was hitting it with a hammer. I started to feel really dizzy and everything started to spin.

"Link!" Zelda cried out as I fell to the floor.

When I came to, I was laying in a bed. Zelda was sleeping in a chair next to me. I pulled the covers off and went outside. It was dark out, stars light up the sky. My left hand was burning like before, I wondered what had happened.

"Hey there sleepy head," I heard Dante say. I turned around and saw him sitting down by the door. "What are you doing out here?" I asked. He shrugged, "Looking at the stars. Thinking about mom and dad."

I sat down next to him. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I'm fine, what happened?"

"I don't know, you just suddenly fell to the floor. Talon helped carry you to the guest room, you had a terrible fever. We were all worried about, especially Zelda. She told me this happened back at the dungeon, when you thought I had died."

"Yeah, it did. I wasn't out of it as long though, nor did I have a fever. It's when the Triforce started acting up," I said. He seemed confused. "What's wrong with the Triforce?" He asked.

"You haven't noticed?" I showed him the back of my left hand, but I was more surprised than I should have been. The black that had covered the Triforce was now receding. Most of it had disappeared, maybe my body was fighting it back. That explains why I passed out earlier I guess. "That's weird, part of the Triforce has lost it's light. How did this happen?" He asked. I shrugged. I was just as confused as he was.

"Well, anyway. I'd better get some sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Goodnight," He said. He got up and went into the house. I sat and looked at the stars for a while. My mind went back to the dream I had last night. What was going on? Why is this happening? \

"Ouch!" I heard someone squeal from the barn. I got up and went to go check it out. It was the girl from earlier, she was sitting on the ground clinging to her barefoot. I rushed over to see what was wrong. "Everything alright?" I asked.

"Got a splinter in my foot I think. Think you could pull it out?" She asked. I looked at the bottom of her foot and found a piece of wood sticking out of it. It wasn't that deep, I tugged on it and it came right out. "What were you doing out here with no shoes on?" I asked.

"I lost my shoes somewhere, can't seem to find them. I bet Ingo had something to do with it though," She said.

"Who's Ingo?" I asked.

"My twin brother. Oh yeah, you're the boy who passed out earlier. I don't think we had a chance to meet. My name's Malon!"

"Link," I exchanged. I helped her up, then carried her to her room. "What were you doing in the barn?" I asked.

"Talking to animals, I couldn't sleep."

We sat in an awkward silence for a while. "So how do you know Zelda?" She asked.

"Her and I are childhood friends. After my parents died, My brother and I went to live in the castle."

"I'm sorry to hear," She said.

"Yeah, well once we moved in I never talked. It wasn't after she broke down and cried that I realized she cared for me so deeply. So after that I started talking more and we became the best of friends. What about you? How do you know Zelda?" I asked.

"Impa use to work here on the barn with us until she moved to New Port to join the army. We she was appointed to Zelda's caretaker, she'd stop by and let her visit."

"Impa," I said to myself. I always heard stories about her, but never met her.

Apparently she was banished before I moved in and no one's seen her since. "What are you doing in here?" A boy asked. I looked up at the entrance and a boy stood there. He wore pink trousers held up with pink suspenders and wore a green shirt. He wore a green cap and had orange hair stretched to the top of his eyebrows.

"We're just talking, Ingo," Malon said. He scowled and said, "Well he better not try anything, or else."

He threw Malon's shoes on the ground an took off. "He seems very protective of you," I said. She curled up on her bed and looked down. "He has a right to be," She said in a sorrowful voice. I didn't want to ask what happened, it seemed personal. "It happened three years ago," She started anyway.

"These two men came to my ranch demanding food and resources . But my father refused to give them anything, so they grabbed me and dragged me into the barn. They started doing horrible things to me. They... They-"

"Stop, you don't have to say it," I said.

"Anyways... Ingo tried to do something about it and they started beating him. Finally, my father gave them what they came for. They left and never returned."

"I'm sorry to hear that. That's just horrible," I said. We decided to talk about something else. She ended up falling asleep and I headed to my room. Standing in front of the door was Ingo. "Everything alright?" I asked.

"Listen, My father and my sister may trust you, but I don't. Not for one second. So if you try anything, I will put you down," He said then left. I went into my room and went to sleep.

I woke up to horses stomping their feet outside. I thought it was just our horses, but when I looked outside I saw soldiers from the castle. I went outside to see what was going on. Everyone was gathered around in front of the soldiers. I found Dante and asked, "What's going on?"

He shrugged, "They just arrived."

One of the soldiers stood out and unrolled a piece of paper. He cleared his throat and said, "Dante of New Port! You are to be taken into custody for the kidnapping of Princess Zelda!"