Dark by S. Park

Part ten Close Calls

I paused for a moment and sheathed my sword so that I could wipe the sweat off of my forehead. Link halted beside me and did the same.

"I don't think I've ever seen so many stalfos," I said.

"No, me neither. I'm just glad there are two of us. They're much easier when you can get behind them."

"Yeah."

"Ready for the next room?"

"Sure."

He opened the door and we went through. We'd been through a dozen or so such doors. So far all had simply lead into more square, mostly unadorned chambers full of walking skeletons. Some had had pillars set in columns across them, a few had held a few keese as well, and one had been empty of anything we could discover. This one, however, held a treasure chest.

Link grinned. I grinned too. "Let's see what's in it!"

"Go ahead," he said, gesturing. "Though it might be empty."

I walked up to the chest, not forgetting to scan the room as I went for any danger that might emerge. But there was nothing here, just the chest itself. I reached down and lifted the lid. It was not empty. Inside was a blue rod, topped with a crystal sphere.

I picked it up, and it felt warm in my hand. "Interesting."

"What is it?"

I held it up for Link to look at. "Some kind of magic wand or something."

"Can you figure out what it does?"

I looked at it. It was completely plain, there was no switch or button. I swung it experimentally through the air, and jumped as it emitted a wave of energy that crossed the room and hit the far wall with a peculiar echoing sound. "Some kind of magic wand, I guess," I said.

"Do you want to keep it?"

I started to speak, then stopped. I didn't know what the energy from the wand did, but it was probably a weapon of some kind. One that Link wouldn't be about to counter. My hand tightened on the rod. Of course I wanted it! I could use it to kill him. I could do it right now, while he stood there, too far away to stop me. I started to lift my hand. Link's eyes went wide, and I could sense his sudden fear. No doubt he had sensed my sudden rage. I wanted so badly to kill him! I fought the urge, and my hand trembled, the wand shaking in my grip.

Link moved swiftly, dashing across the room while I still struggled with myself. He put his hand over mine, and with a sigh I let go of the wand and let him take it.

"I think you had better open the chests from now on," I said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think."

"Neither did I," I growled. Hatred still burned in me, and I was angry at myself for failing again as much as I was angry at Link for being so careless.

"Let's go," said Link, gesturing at a second door that led deeper into the temple.

Beyond the door was another unadorned room, and another double handful of stalfos. For a moment everything was chaos as Link and I darted among them. The animate skeletons were dangerous, but stupid, and between the two of us we soon had the room cleared.

The door beyond it was larger than any of the previous doors. It was rusty, and swung open with a squeal of protesting hinges. Beyond it lay a much larger chamber than the ones we'd fought our way though. It was dark, and we went through the door cautiously, side by side.

Something moved in the darkness.

Something big.

Link pulled out his bow and shot a fire arrow into the gloom. And by that flash of light we both clearly saw it. It was huge, a vast crab-like creature with a giant, staring eye. It gave a shriek of rage and charged, and the whole chamber seemed suddenly filled with gigantic, thrashing, chitinous legs. I dodged one and hacked at it with my sword, but the blade just bounced off. I caught a glimpse of Link, and the Master Sword seemed to be faring no better. I tried to strike at the body of the thing, but I could barely reach it, it was above my head, and my sword tip just grated across more armor there.

"Its eye!" said Link. I looked up and realized that the creature was attacking us blindly, with its single huge eye closed. That must be a point of vulnerability then. Given that it was twice as tall as I was, I had nothing that could reach the eye even were it open. But Link had sheathed his sword again and gotten out his bow and nocked an arrow, and I grinned. Of course. I dodged a flailing leg, trying to get some distance from it.

Then I heard Link cry out. I looked over at him, and ice suddenly poured through my veins. One of those huge, flailing limbs had caught him across the chest. It flung him across the room where he hit one wall with a sickening cracking sound and slid down to lie still, so very, horribly still.

Ice flashed to fire inside me. He was dead, and I had failed my purpose. He was dead, and I had failed my friend. Rage like I'd never known filled me, the world turning red around me.

With an inarticulate howl of anger I dove across the room and scooped up the bow and arrow that Link had dropped when the thing struck him. At the sound its huge eye snapped open, no doubt to see what sort of hideous, shrieking monster had entered the room, and I didn't hesitate, I fired. The arrow hit home, sinking into its eye to the quills.

It wailed in pain, though the sound was no louder in my ears than my own cry of rage, and fell. But its death wasn't enough for me, I screamed again and drew my sword, and began to hack at the massive carapace. I swung it over and over again, my hands soon numb from the impact of it against the rock hard chitin. And then with a sudden metallic snap, my sword shattered. I stopped and stared blankly at the stub in my head.

And in the sudden silence I heard a faint groan.

I dropped the hilt with a clang and scrambled across the room. Kneeling at Link's side I looked down. He was terribly battered, but his chest rose and fell ever so faintly. His breathing sounded labored, wrong somehow, but he was still alive! And that meant there was a chance. Frantically I scrabbled at his belt, my fingers still numbed, panic making me even more clumsy still. I got his item bag open and reached for a jar. I felt one under my fingers and pulled it out. Empty. I cursed and threw it aside. I felt a second and pulled that free. It glowed with pink light.

Thank the goddesses! A healing fairy. I fumbled at the cork, managed to pull it, and upended the jar over him.

The little pink glow fluttered down to him, touched, and vanished in a sparkle of soft light.

Immediately the sound of his breathing eased, strengthened.

I felt weak with relief. Link opened his eyes and looked up at me. He smiled. "Thanks." He sat up and ran his fingers through his hair. He'd lost his hat somewhere.

I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him, shaking in reaction to what had just happened. I realized I was crying.

He put his own arms around me and stroked my hair. "It's all right Dark, shh, it's all right. I'm fine. I've had close calls like that before. It's all right."

"It's not all right. Don't ever do that to me again, Link. I thought you were dead."

I felt as much as heard him chuckle softly. "I thought you wanted me dead."

"I want to kill you myself," I snapped, aware as I said it that it was totally irrational. "Nobody else gets to, only me."

"Oh Dark," he said, and hugged me tighter. I buried my head against his shoulder, still shaking, and he continued to stroke my hair until finally I calmed.

At length I let go of him and straightened. "Are you all right?" asked Link.

"Yeah," I said, though on some level I knew I wasn't. Physically I was fine, but my reactions just then hadn't been exactly normal. Something was wrong with me, and it might go deeper somehow than just Ganondorf's darkness within me. I shook off that thought and got to my feet. Link rose as well, looking around. He went and picked up his bow, stowing it again in his bag. I regarded the useless hilt of my broken sword, muttered a curse, and kicked it across the room.

"You need a weapon," said Link. "You can't go on unarmed."

"Yeah." I considered that. Link carried quite a few, but could I use any of them? I knew how, of course. But the distance weapons were not safe in my hands, all it would take was one moment of inattention and I could shoot him in the back, and he wouldn't be able to block it. Of those weapons that remained all were either ineffectual in most circumstances or, like the hammer, something I couldn't be trusted with. I sighed.

Link looked thoughtful, no doubt going through the same chain of logic in his head. "Hmm. Well, I think there's only one thing I can give you," he said. I looked at him curiously, wondering what he'd thought of. My conclusion had been that there was nothing. What had I missed? Then to my surprise he drew the Master Sword and offered it to me, hilt first.

"What?"

"Here. I have plenty of other things I can use."

I reached out, then hesitated. This was the holy blade, the power of light that had felled Ganondorf. "Are you sure?" I asked nervously.

"I'm sure," he said.

Slowly I closed my hand over the hilt. When it didn't burn my fingers I grew a little bit more confident, and tightened my grip. The blade felt... good. Right. It was exactly the right weight and balance, which my broken sword hadn't been. I swung it experimentally through the air and smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, why don't we see what this thing was guarding?"

I sheathed the sword and followed as Link picked his way around the monster's carcass and into the room beyond. It was another plain chamber, with no other doors, and no further monsters either, only a single pedestal at the center. We both went to it, but it was empty. I brushed a layer of dust from it, and found that the flat stone top was engraved with the triforce symbol.

"Interesting," said Link.

"Yeah. Does that mean that the triforce rested here once?"

"Possibly. Or a piece of it. Or something else related to it, who knows? Whatever it was, it's gone now." Link regarded the back of his own hand for a moment, where the triforce mark showed that he bore one of the three pieces still. Then he shrugged. "Let's go back."