Chapter 9 - Heroic Feats

Mira took a lantern hanging from the rock wall that the miners used for everyday work and carried it as she and Link headed into the mines. Nissa, who'd gone with them when Hayden had come running to the cabin Mira lived in, also helped to see a bit with her natural purple glow. Hearing the children had ridden on a trolley caused the both of them to think that following the tracks would more than likely lead them to the right area. As they got farther inside of the mine shaft, the darkness of the cave thwarted by the lantern Mira had grabbed, they eventually saw a soft light in the distance, and headed toward it to find three other miners standing around a rock slide.

"That's it, set it down carefully!"

Mira stepped up to the old man who'd just said that to the two younger men whom had just moved a rather large boulder and unblocked the rockslide nearly completely. There was a hole in the floor now, one which showed that the rock slide had apparently broken through the bottom of the cavern and down into another level of the mines, and she asked, "Did you just clear it out?"

Looking over at her, the older miner with bushy brows and a beard on his face, as well as having a fake wooden left leg, nodded his head, his voice a gruff one as he replied, "Yeah, just now, Mira. Where'd you come from?"

"Hayden came to get me while he was looking for Archer."

"It's a good thing, those kids could be hurt pretty badly. Did you bring any potion?"

Mira nodded in reply, and she and Link both looked down when one of the miner's got their attention. "Boss, it's another level of the mine shaft down there, I didn't even know there was another level here. Oh, hey Mira."

"Hello, Rowe," Mira nodded in reply.

The older miner which everyone called Boss simply since it was easy to remember, especially with how he usually acted anyway, shook his head and walked forward, looking down, "These are old mines, Rowe, there could be all types of caverns about that we don't know of yet. But apparently, the rockslide broke through the floor. Sadly, I can't go down there, I might end up losing my leg." Clearing his throat, the man called out, "Mylo!? Itis!? You boys down there?"

No reply came back to him except that of his echoed voice. In hearing the echo, Mira said, "It must be a big cave. If they were alright from the fall, they might have wandered off to hide. Milton said you heard strange sounds. It could have scared them."

"We did," Rowe said as he stood up.

"Then they could've hidden." Link agreed, moving toward the hole. As he did, Rowe stared at him quietly, and so did his younger brother, Ranald, who was standing near by.

"You're...you're..."

"Yes, Rowe, this is Link. He might not remember you though."

Rowe knew it wasn't the right time, but he couldn't help himself, just staring away. "We thought you–"

Link put his hand on Rowe's and told Mira, "I think I remember him. Rowe and Ranald?" When he asked, the two young men nodded, and Link gave him a smile, "Don't worry, you'll find out how I got here later. Let's concentrate on getting those kids out first."

Rowe was still dumbfounded, but Ranald had a big grin on his face as if he couldn't be happier to see Link. Link couldn't help a very soft chuckle, deciding he'd think about the two brothers, one of which used to pick on him because of his ears all of the time, later, and for now he turned to climb down into the hole. When he did, Rowe grabbed him again.

"Hold on, Link. You don't know how steady it is."

Looking over at Rowe, Link replied, "Neither did Mylo and Itis, but they didn't have a choice over it."

Rowe sighed and let go of Link's arm slowly, watched as the young man took the pick axe and turned it in his hand at the ready incase he went sliding so that he could catch himself. "Mira," Link started, "wait here."

Mira folded her arms over her chest as Link worked his way down the rocky slope, asking, "Well, incase you forgot," she held up the lantern, "it's a little dark down there. Besides, Mylo and Itis don't know you. But they do know me."

Without arguing, she turned to Rowe and said, "Give me your pick axe please."

Link, staring back up, sighed out his breath as Rowe shook his head, telling her, "No, you give me your lantern and I'll go with him. This isn't a place for a, well, girl." He cleared his throat as if he didn't mean it insultingly but couldn't really say it any other way.

"Rowe," Mira said sternly, her tone fairly commanding in its own right. "The twins don't know you very well either. They come to have lunch at my home almost every day though. I'm going down there with Link, girl or not."

When she told him that, he looked contrite and took the pick axe off of his belt, then handed it to her somewhat slowly.

"Let her go down there, Rowe," came Boss's gruff voice. "We'll stay up here and make sure Archer doesn't go tearing down there getting himself killed trying to rescue his kids. After all, it'll take all of us to do so."

"That's true, he's a big guy after all," Rowe grumbled out.

Seeing that Mira was in fact coming with him, Link stayed right where he was on the narrow slope of rocks, and waited as she put the pick axe on the pouched belt she wore, then stepped down slowly, taking his outstretched hand. As she moved, Nissa flew downwards past Link, and she started checking out the slope while they began to work down it.

Turning, Link, pulled his axe from the rocks and slowly began to move, stumbling only once and catching himself. Mira went sliding when he did, Nissa calling out, "Be careful!," but with their hands in one another's, Mira didn't go too far. Finally, he stepped down onto a much more solid surface, and helped Mira down with him.

"That scared me," Nissa breathed out.

The miners above them could see how far the cave went down through the light of their torch, which was a good twenty feet, and looking back up, Link called, "Get some rope ready to help pull us back up just incase we need it."

"We're on it," Boss called back, "by the way, what's your name again?"

"Link," he called up.

"Alright, you and Mira be careful."

Giving the man a nod, Link turned and cast his gaze around the cave, the walls somehow seeming to sparkle with the promise of gems embedded in them, not to mention spying the toppled over trolley, which Nissa had shot over to when they spotted it. Both of them moved toward it quickly, and Mira let Link pull it up, wondering if the two boys might've been beneath it.

Grunting with his effort, Link pushed the metal vehicle over with a loud thud, but no one was under it. It was a relief even though their search went on to know that the children hadn't been crushed in the fall.

Pushing himself to his feet, Link looked over at Mira and asked, "How old are the twins?"

With a slightly sheepish glance, Mira replied, "Seven."

Sighing, Link looked ahead again and started moving, wondering why seven year olds seemed to be doomed around these parts, especially since these mines were located in the walls of Death Mountain where he'd fallen when he was the same age. Mira called both childrens names as he considered this, and Nissa flittered on ahead just a bit. Instead of replies from the kids, they heard a lowly made scrambling sound, and Link turned around, pulling his dagger from its sheath on his belt, holding it ready in his right hand, the pick axe in his left. Mira had turned around with him, but they didn't see anything even though the sound had seemed to come from behind them both.

"Well that was strange," Mira pointed out, slowly looking back in their original direction. "Let's keep going. If something's down here, and it wants to show itself, it will."

"I agree," Link replied, his voice somewhat soft. Continuing forward, they found themselves facing two different tunnels. "So, which way do we try first?" He asked.

Nissa zipped back and forth between the two entrances, and with a lowly made grumble, she said, "I don't like this. Both of them look creepy and it's all dark down here. Kinda scarey if you ask me."

"You don't have to stay, Nissa," Mira told her, "you can always fly back out."

"No, you might need me. Open your pouch. I'll stay in there for a while."

Smiling, Mira nodded and opened the pouch on her belt, letting the fairy slip inside of it. Once she had, and shut the cover again, she looked at Link and said, "Let's just go down the right path?"

"Sounds like a good choice to me," he replied, heading down that direction with her. As they walked, they heard the yell of a child from directly before them both. Mira gasped when the sound hit her ears, and she and Link both ran forward more quickly to try and find the child who'd just made the noise.

"Mylo!? Itis! Where are you!?"

"Mira!?"

The tunnel they were in came to a dead end, though there was a hole in the rock wall, and Mira saw a child putting his hands on the edge of the hole after the voice had called out her name. The child's voice went on, asking, "Are you in there!?"

"Itis," Mira said as she went over to him, reaching through the hole and taking his hand. "Are you hurt? Where's your brother?"

"I don't know, we got split up. Mira, I'm scared, something's in here with us. I think it got Mylo."

The little boy was crying, and Mira, though she couldn't see him through the hole, found his head and rubbed his hair gently, saying to him, "Don't worry, I have an old friend with me I want you to meet. So you sit tight right there, and we'll find another way around to you, okay?"

"Okay," she heard whimpered out, and she patted the little boy's head one more time before she pulled her arm back.

"Nissa's coming through to stay with you until we get there, alright?" As she spoke, the little fairy poked her head out of the pouch she'd dove into earlier and headed toward the hole in the wall.

Looking down, she said, "Hey Itis! When we get out of here, maybe we can go to the playground and swing for a little while."

Seeing that Nissa was with Itis now trying to calm him down, Mira turned to face Link. "I think we should have went left."

"Come on," he said in reply, turning to leave that particular tunnel with her and go down the opposite one instead. Once they reached the so-called fork in the road again, they headed into the left hole instead of the right one, and worked their way through it at a moderate pace. Mira continued holding the lantern high so they could both see, and after a few steps, she heard a crunch. Looking over at Link, he pulled his foot up and off of the floor to see a rather largely sized spider beneath his boot which he'd just crushed.

"Ew," Mira cringed, "um, Link, I'm kind of scared of spiders."

"Most girls are," Link smirked at her, "not scared now are you?"

Mira gave him a bland look, beginning to walk a little further down into the tunnel as she scolded him a little bit. "That's not funny. It could have been a chicken you know."

"Don't joke like that. Chicken's are evil. Spider's just want a meal."

"Uh huh," Mira drew out on a somewhat clipped tone, though she couldn't help but think it was indeed funny to tease him like that. A little sense of humor never hurt after all when they were in a place like this, especially as they come across a few bones, including skulls, which were laying in sporadic positions against the walls. Definitely warning signs that this place could cause them some terrible harm if they let it.

Another thing the two were unable to help but realize was that as they went, the tunnel was turning more and more into a mesh of webs covering the walls rather than rocky as a cavern should be. Mira clenched her fist over the signs of more spiders in the vicinity, then pulled out her pick axe for protection. Spiders, she thought to herself, shivering over the thought of them. How Link could hate chickens and then say spiders were only looking for a meal she just couldn't wrap her head around, glancing over at him to see that he still had the same stance as before, completely unafraid.

Men, she though with a roll of her eyes. She'd never met a single one who was even remotely afraid of a spider, or at least, who acted as such when attempting to squash it as she did usually.

While Mira considered this, Link had looked at the skeletons, wondering just how long they'd been down there. It would have taken several spiders to make the kind of web some of the bones were wrapped up in as well - or a really big one. Deciding not to let Mira on to that thought in particular, catching a glimpse of her from the corner of his eye holding her pick axe so tightly, he pushed forward quietly, ready for almost anything.

At the end of the tunnel, there were two different directions, a left and a right once again, and toward the right, Mira spotted Itis just down the corridor, Nissa glowing as she sat on his shoulder, the boy cowering in fear. Moving toward him, she leaned down and put her hand on his shoulder as Nissa flew into the air.

"Itis, it's me, come here."

Looking up, the child reached for Mira quickly, and hugged his arms around her neck. Link watched Mira lift the child from the web covered floor and stand up straight with him as he sniffled and hugged her tightly. Shushing him, telling him it was alright, she pulled her head back and asked him, "Where was the last place you saw Mylo?"

Itis reached his hand up and pointed in the direction his brother had been taken in. "It took him."

Giving a concerned glance to Link, Mira asked the boy, "What took him?"

"The monster."

Hearing the words, Link told Mira, "We don't have any time, let's go."

Nodding, Mira put Itis down and grabbed his hand, saying, "Stay right next to me, Itis. Don't wander anywhere no matter how scared you are."

"Yes ma'am," the child replied and he held onto her hand as she started walking off behind Link, heading in the direction that Itis said Mylo was in as Nissa flew toward Mira's shoulder and sat on it for safety. After all, the webs could have wrapped her up easily, and it was kind of hard to see.

Rounding a corner several yards up the web covered tunnel, more spiders settled in the web along the way which Mira desperately tried to ignore, Link and Mira both gasped when they saw what had become of the little boy. He was wrapped up in a web almost completely, unconscious, laying near what looked to be a pulsing sac, probably of spider eggs. Mira felt Itis grabbing her leg tighter, and Link looked over at her, saying, "I'll get him, wait here."

"Alright," she replied quietly, reaching down to pick Itis up from the ground as Nissa flew into Mira's pouch once more. Mira began watching as Link climbed onto the slightly sticky web hanging from the top of the cave, its strands connected to the walls in cross-like patterns, and reached for Mylo's foot. Grabbing it, he used his dagger to cut away the webbing as he tugged the little boy toward himself.

Mira was heavily worried about the child, holding the lantern up as high as she could so that the light would spread across the room better. Link finally managed to get the boy down from the tough webs when she noticed the flame inside of the lamp flickering a bit, saw a shadow moving, and she looked back behind herself. When she did, she saw a black streak as a large spider, bigger than she was, jumped down from the ceiling of the cave and right in front of her.

The movement startled her completely. Yelling, Mira stumbled back onto the floor, the jolt of the fall causing Nissa to leave her pouch, and the sound drew Link's attention.

The large arachnid's mandibles flexed as it neared Mira who was pushing herself backwards away from it as quickly as possible, and it reared back to lunge at her with a loud screech. As it did so, the front of its face met the blade of Link's dagger as he threw himself in front of Mira and Itis to protect them, green gook bleeding from the creature while it squealed over its new wound.

Jerking itself back, free of the dagger Link had just stabbed it with, it raised a front leg, moving to swipe at Link from the right, pushing him into a wall.

Hitting it with a grunt, Link pushing himself to the side just before a sharp appendage could stab him, causing it to penetrate the rock wall he'd been knocked against. The spider began to step back, trying to attack him again as he dodged low, calling out the words, "Mira, get Mylo out of the web!"

Mira had already worked her way to her feet by this time, and she turned to run to the unconscious twin still hanging from the white threads he'd been wrapped in. As she went, Itis asked, "Mira, is he going to be alright? His eyes are closed!"

"Yes," she said, pulling Mylo down to the floor, cradling him against her side as she started tearing the webbing from his body. As this happened, Nissa had lifted up a bit and watched Link battling the large spider whose movements were quickly, making it difficult for the seventeen year old to actually hit it with his weapon.

A gruesome sound caught their attention though, and Mira looked up to spy the egg sack bursting and the same types of baby spiders that Link had stepped on before began to emerge from it. She'd just finished getting Mylo free from the webbing he'd been wrapped in when this happened, and she stood up slowly while the eggs hatched.

Though baby spiders, they were still fairly large, as big as an adult's hand, and they looked troublesome themselves. Narrowing her brows, Mira closed her eyes and took a deep breath, lifting her head back. Once she had, she lifted her hand and then drew it back to her chest as a small red orb emerged from her palm. Concentrating, seeing life through the eyes of the light she'd created, the orb headed directly into the egg sack, disappearing. Mira's brow's flinched, and suddenly the sack burst into flames, setting the baby spiders on fire.

As it did, there were the sounds of shrills coming from the smaller arachnids, and Mira opened her eyes to see that the egg sack had been completely destroyed, the fire she'd started working it's way to the rest of the web, making it disintegrate from the walls.

Turning back as the web was being destroyed, only a slight bit of smoke filling the tunnel, she looked to see that Link was fending off the parent spider with his dagger. But as it's children were destroyed, it seemed to become distracted, letting an angry screech, its web burned away. Link took full advantage of his opportunity.

He moved to jump onto the creature's back. When he did, the large spider bucked to try to throw him, but he managed to slam his pick axe down into its torso and keep himself on it, flipping his dagger around in his opposite hand.

Once pointing down, Link turned his arm, and then slammed it into the top of the spider's skull, blade first. Mira couldn't help but smile seeing this, watching Link overcome the creature who'd tried to harm them, and she breathed a sigh of relief as finally it's limbs slowly stopped moving and its body came to rest.

Link didn't jerk his dagger out of the spider until it had stopped moving completely, finally pulling it free before he pushed himself up and hopped down from the creatures back. Looking over, he saw Mira kneeling down to Mylo on the floor of the cavern before she pulled a vial of green liquid from her pouch where Nissa had been hiding before. Twisting the cap off in her gloved hands, Mira lifted the boys head and gently dropped a good bit of the liquid into his mouth.

"Mylo!," Itis called once she finished, "Wake up, Mylo!"

The little boy didn't respond, but he did cringe a bit. With a soft breath, Mira said to Link, "He's been poisoned, so I'll have to get some antidote for him, but the potion will be good for him until I do."

Bending down next to them, Link asked her, "Is he alright besides that?"

"He doesn't seem to be hurt," she said in response, reaching for Itis as he went over to her. "Could you carry him for me?"

"Of course," Link replied, reaching for Mylo in order to lift him up. Both of them turned, wasting no time in leaving the cavern so they could get help for Mylo. Archer had found them, and Boss, Rowe, and Ranald had been having a hard time keeping the man put until they heard Link's voice calling to Boss.

Getting a rope down to them to pull both of the children up, Itis hanging onto Mylo tightly to keep him from falling back down again, Archer, the big man that he was, hugged both of his children while simultaneously taking them to Shamrock, whom had brought over a bit of antidote when he'd heard one of the children had been poisoned.

Helping Mira and finally Link up out of the cavern, Rowe grinned at them both and said, "You two better watch out. Archer's liable to break both of your backs hugging you for saving his kids."

Walking off, chuckling softly, Mira sighed in a deep breath. Glancing over at Link, seeing that he was handing the pick axe he'd taken from Milton back to the man, who'd thanked him for his help, she waited until he turned around before she spoke to him.

"That was fairly impressive, Link."

Link cringed a slight bit, shrugging a shoulder. "It was nothing really. You should see one of the Gerudo when they're angry. It's a lot worse."

Grinning over the words, Mira couldn't help her admiration of his strength and courage. He was far too humble as well, and she reached up to place her hand on his shoulder, saying, "Link, honestly. This was a huge feat. If you hadn't come back today, I don't know how we would have helped those children in time. That spider could have even hurt some of the adults trying to rescue them."

Somehow, the words made Link chuckle softly. "Kind of like Archer might end up hurting us?"

Mira smiled, an amused light in her violet blue eyes as she took in a deep breath. Link watched her, wondering if this meant the celebration they were planning on holding tonight was going to be doubled because of the little boys being saved, and he shook his head slowly over the thought. After a moment more though, he left the cave with Mira and went back to her cabin in order to get ready for it. On the way there, several people called out their thanks to the both of them, but especially to Link, many of them trying to ask if there actually was a large spider in a cave down there.

The questions got Mira to consider it. Where had that spider come from? It wasn't natural, it seemed, or maybe it had been there for a long time now, growing and killing people to feed off of. Either way, it wasn't a pretty picture, and she was glad it had been taken care of instead of left there to harm someone else some day.

Link seemed to take his compliments all in stride, never conceited about it, or showing it off. He just told everyone it wasn't a big deal, and thanked them for the praise. Even Nissa commented to Mira about how humble he seemed to be about it.

"That's just because he's a good hearted person, Nissa. He's..."

"A hero?" Nissa supplied.

Nodding, Mira told her, "Yes, he's a hero." The words drew more of her previous thoughts she'd had earlier of the mark she'd found on her hand back to mind. It was all too coincidental. Did Link have one? She wished she could ask him to remove his left gauntlet without raising suspicion saying he didn't, but she knew that the time for now was to wait and see. Sighing out her breath, she watched her childhood friend turning from the small group of people he'd been talking with, including Shamrock, outside of her home as they started to leave, and head back up to where she stood on her front porch.

Standing there, leaning on the railing of the steps, he smiled up at her and asked, "The sun's going down pretty soon now. Are you ready to go? I think they'll skin us both if we're not there early."

"Skin us, break our backs, same thing," Mira chuckled, sweeping some of her bronzed golden hair over her shoulder and behind it. "Let me go change my shoes and tie my hair back. Then we can go."

Nodding as she turned to walk inside, Link looked back out at the road, Nissa moving to land next to him on the rail he was currently leaning on.

Seemed like it was time to have a huge celebration.