Disclaimer: You lot know the drill and I'm sorry for the wait. I've been getting sick again, but I hope this chapter can at least satisfy some of you guys. I think many of you have caught on to what I'm doing but I hope you stick it out to the end. I've gotten several comments on grammar and I know mine could be better. Once I've finished writing I'm going to do a complete editing overhaul to get all the grammar down and add some fun, but unimportant, details. Until then, enjoy the new chapter.
Chain drove her heels into the snowy white mare, pushing Ivan on as fast as she could. The mare's hoofbeats marked the passage of time as they raced at a breakneck pace towards the northern forests. Chain did her best to take as few breaks as she could, but the horse quickly tired out and her progress slowed to an infuriating crawl. Ivan was Zelda's mare, a horse gifted to the Princess when she was only a little girl. The horse was a majestic beast that suited a rider of high status. Ivan's pure white coat was glossy and her slim legs supported her perfectly proportioned body. Yet she was a horse for a casual rider and the hard sprint soon had the horse's head drooping from exhaustion.
Chain cursed as she jumped off the horse's back and led it to a river to drink. Soon both the mount and rider enjoyed the taste of the cool spring and Chain let the horse graze as she pulled out her map to check her location. She was far behind Link and the distance between them was only growing larger. Chain pushed her fist into her forehead and reminded herself that she was going to the Hero's Temple. For all she knew, Link might have gone to a completely different location.
Chain glanced up towards Ivan just in time to see the mare heading back in the direction of the castle. Scrambling to her feet, she dashed after the horse and launched herself at the reins. Ivan whinnied and reared, her hooves kicking at the air as she tried to free herself from Chain's grasp. "Hey, listen you stupid horse! We have to go rescue Zelda and she's not that way." Chain spent several minutes wrestling with Ivan until the horse finally surrendered. She mounted the uncooperative beast and kicked it in the gut to get it going. Ivan nickered and whinnied unhappily, but moved obediently. "Yeah? Well your name is stupid." A part of her wondered if she was going off the deep end as she traded insults with the horse the entire time they were in Hyrule Field.
Once in the forest, both horse and rider fell silent as they traveled along forgotten trails and pushed through the undergrowth. The branches seemed to swallow the sun and soon it was as dark as night in the depths of the woods. The ghostly eyes of a poe appeared in the gloom and the lamp it held glowed eerily. Chain instantly took off her bow, shooting the demonic creature and not even looking back as it dissipated into particles of black magic. "No. Just no. I don't do poes." Ivan snorted in agreement and they continued onward.
An eternity seemed to pass before the forest opened up into a small clearing. In the center of the clearing was a slightly raised platform with a golden triforce design embedded into the polished stone. The triforce pointed towards the entrance to what Chain hoped was the Hero's temple. The building was made of smooth marble, with several pillars supporting the roof. Vines traveled up the pillars and wrapped themselves around the temple. The front face of the roof was large enough to hold a half obscured triforce. The vines were encroaching on everything, even the double wooden doors were partially blocked. Chain dismounted from Ivan and let the horse graze in the clearing as she made her way towards the temple. She unsheathed a sword and began to cut the vines away, removing them as best she could to clear her way into the temple. Yet, even when the entrance was no longer barred, the doors required a heavy hand before they would budge.
Light from the door flooded into the dark room and illuminated a portion of the floor. Dust swirled in the newly disturbed air, passing in and out of the shadows like shimmering motes of gold. Chain stepped into the dark room, squinting as she tried to peer through the haze. The faint outlines of seven other doors, each one closed, were visible in the dim. An unlit torch sat on a nearby wall, resting in a metallic bracket. Rolling her eyes, Chain pulled out her flint and striker. "I don't have time for this!" exclaimed chain with an exasperated groan. Thankfully, the universe was kind to her temper and the torch lit easily on the second try. She pulled it off the wall and glanced around the room. It was a perfectly rounded room and somewhat small. All of the doors were non descript and completely identical. The only decorations were the empty metal torch brackets that sat between each of the doors.
Chain glanced back at her door and carefully closed it, shutting off the only source of outside light. The torch fire wavered and danced, casting bouncing shadows of her frame along the walls. Biting her lip, she chose a door at random and yanked it open. Before her was a set of stairs that led up, climbing high and steep through the narrow hallway. "Up it is then… I have got to stop talking to myself" With a quick shudder, Chain entered through the door and her footsteps echoed as she climbed the marble staircase. The air inside the hallway was stagnant and stale. The walls seemed to close in on her as she walked passed, reaching for her through the shadows. Without any warning, the hallway began to twist and turn and various flights of stairs led her up and down. It wasn't long before Chain completely lost her sense of direction and had no idea where she was in regards to the rounded room.
Minutes dragged on, with no end to the confusing twists and undulating flights. After ascending and descending what felt like the hundredth staircase, Chain was about ready to turn around and go back the way she came when the ground suddenly gave way to a slippery slope. She let out an involuntary scream as she tumbled into the darkness that seemed to swallow her whole. Her legs and free hand desperately scrambled for purchase, her fingers digging into the smooth stone as she fought to prevent the torch from burning her. Without warning, the floor appeared to fly up to meet her and she fell into the pit with a thunk.
Chain stood and her back cracked loudly in complaint. Wincing, she pushed herself to her feet. The room was less of a room and more of a cavern clawed out of the earth. A wooden ladder stood at the end of the cavern and lead up into the darkness. The only problem was what lay between her and the ladder. The remnants of impossibly large snake skins littered the floor. Some of them were large enough for her to walk through with an inch to spare. Chain felt a chill run down her spine and she couldn't figure out if she was happy the snake was nowhere to be seen, or frightened.
Puffing up her chest, Chain made her way past the old skins. Her gaze focused on the ladder, not wandering or wavering as her heels clicked against the stone floor. The shadows of the old skins seemed to writhe and slither along the walls as she passed them. Her free hand gripped the hilt of her left sword and her ears listened to every sound that echoed in the chamber. Yet, she made it to the other side unharassed. She released her hand on the sword and grabbed hold of a high rung on the ladder. A chill run up the back of her neck, a feeling of dread that the thing that had made those skins was here and that she was not as alone. She spun on her heels quickly and glanced around the room, her stance slightly lower and her hand tight around the handle of the torch.
Silence greeting her and she turned back to the ladder with a crease in her brows. Awkwardly, she began to climb. She had to use one elbow to climb and nearly singed her hair a few times in the process. The ladder met the ceiling and with a little persuasion, the panel above her head was lifted out of place. Climbing through the hole, Chain found herself in the entrance hall of the temple. "This place is still creepy the second time around." Hoisting herself to her feet, she kicked the stone back into place and looked around the room. Light from the torch cast her shadow on the walls behind her and she looked over her shoulder to watch her other selves dance in the wobbling light. It was almost hypnotic to watch them move as they weaved and snaked along the flat surface. A hollow feeling clutched at her breast and her downcast eyes became unfocused. All at once she became all too aware of the missing presence by her side. Her shadow, her other half, her twin. While they had been separated before, it was never at such a great distance. Chain instinctively stuck her hand out for support, but her fingers brushed only air. She swallowed and took a deep breath as a single tear dripped down her cheek. "Zelda… first Zelda, then Link." Her words were soft, unsure. She repeated the phrase again, stronger and more confidently. "Zelda, then Link."
Snapping her head up, Chain made for the nearest door and plunged through without thinking. The light of the afternoon sun burned her eyes and she let out a growl as she stumbled back into the temple, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. She squinted and blinked, trying to get her vision to focus after being blinded. Red dots swirled in front of her and she shook her head as she mostly closed the door. Once again, Chain found herself in the entrance hall. Heat ran up her collar and she stomped one foot in aggravation. With an angry roar, she ran to each door and yanked them open, leaving nothing in the way of surprises. Most of the doors led to similar hallways that she had gone done before. The long narrow corridors quickly twisted beyond her field of view and made it impossible to tell where they led or even to what end they met. The only exceptions were the front door and the door that stood exactly opposite of it. This final door led down a straight, short corridor that opened up into a large illuminated room beyond. Chain peered down the hallway and shook her head. "What idiot builds a temple like this?"
Chain pushed through to the straight hallway and her eyes grew wide as it opened up into a perfectly circular room. The halls and roof were a dome with a single hole at the top. A ray of light broke through the chamber and descended to the floor at an angle away from her. Although there were no torches in the room, something kept the room dimly lit in a soft glow. A thick layer of mist hugged the ground and rose up to her waist. It was only broken by the single ray of light. Chain stepped into the room and she felt like she was wading as the mist swallowed her lower half and clung to her body. She scanned the room but it had no other entrance and showed no signs of the Princess or her captors. Chain's heart plummeted again as a sense of defeat washed over her. She was about to turn around when movement caught her eye.
Chain froze, her every sense on high alert as she watched the mist carefully. It sat, undisturbed and still. Her heart pounded in her ears and counted the seconds as they ticked by. There! Off to her left the mist had bulged slightly as something slid through it. Another bulge appeared to her right and the two creatures seemed to move like mirror images of one another. Large, ovular bodies erupted from the mist like swimming eels before slipping back underneath the haze. Undulating, they circled the back walls before turning and sliding into the middle. Everything went still for a moment and Chain began to slowly slide back to towards the door as one hand carefully unsheathed a sword.
Suddenly, two giant snakes erupted from the haze in an explosion of mist. Their bodies wrapped around one another twice before their great heads turned towards Chain. Each snake looked like it could easily swallow her whole and rose fifteen feet into the air. One snake was mostly white with black circles going down its spine. Its right eye was gold while the left was a rich sapphire color. The snake's mouth opened wide into a sinister snarl as it flashed a forked white tongue and a set of needle thin fangs at her. The other snake was black with white circles decorating its spine. The black snakes eyes were a mirror image of the white snake, with a sapphire right eye and a golden left one. The black snake smiled wickedly and its black tongue flicked out from between its partially parted lips. Both snakes had a single, identical marking on the back of their heads where the skull met the nape of the neck. Chain only saw a the marking for a second, but the emerald eye pattern became etched into her memory and sent yet another shiver down her spine.
A low hiss erupted from both snakes and their deadly fangs flexed forward as drops of venom dripped from the tips. The white snake launched forward, unraveling itself from the other in an instant as it sped towards her with a gaping jaw. Chain dove to the side just in time to avoid the crashing jaw of the white snake. She tossed her torch at the giant serpent and yanked her other sword loose from her hip. The black snake slid beneath the mist as the white snake rose high into the air to strike again. Chain's eyes flicked back and forth between the white monster and the mist as she hugged the wall and began to back up. The white snake lunged once more and Chain was forced to roll away from the wall. The mist swirled around her and bubbled as the head of the black serpent shot out from the haze. Chain slashed at the head and a hiss of pain erupted from the serpent as crimson dripped down her blade. The black snake backed off slightly but a white blur sped towards Chain. The white serpent's tail struck her and hurled her painfully into the center of the room. Air fled from her lungs as she fell hard on her back and Chain struggled to breathe.
The sound of skin sliding across the floor drew closer while Chain worked to push herself off the ground. It was only by some miracle that she still had her swords but the bow was a broken mess on the floor. Untangling herself as she stood, Chain took her ready stance while the snakes drew closer. Smiling and scowling, the pair came at her from either side. With shaking breaths she stepped back, watching the giant serpents and waiting for the next attack. The black serpent lunged forward and Chain went to block it; but the dark serpent feinted away before her blades even touched him. Realizing her mistake, Chain twisted just in time to see the white snake's massive maw. Chain swung her swords as the jaws threatened to clamp on her and they sliced the inside of the creature's mouth. The snake wailed as it withdrew, shaking its head with pain.
Movement caught her eye but instead of another gaping jaw, she saw the black snake rush to its white counterpart. The green false eye became visible on the black snake's head and Chain rushed forward. Leaping atop the snakes back she aimed the point of one sword for the center of the emerald pattern. The blade whistled through the air as it descended and then the blade was gone as white whip lashed through the air. Another hiss of pain came from the white snake as blood dripped down the tip of its tail and her sword clattered uselessly into the fog. The black snake beneath her began to writhe and wiggle as it threw her from its back and she tumbled into the fog and lost her other sword. Chain rolled to her feet and unclipped her hookshot in one last desperate attempt. Yet the dual serpents rose before her and hissed with anger and pain. Chain rose the hookshot and pointed it at the white serpent as she steeled herself for the next round.
Suddenly, a golden light blinded her as the back of her hand became painfully hot. Her fingers tensed around the hookshot hilt as she gritted her teeth. The imprint of the triforce etched itself into the back of her hand with only the lower right triangle filled. The mist fled from her body and she was suddenly standing in the center of a clear circle. The two serpents seemed taken aback, their snarls gone as they exchanged what Chain could have sworn was a confused look.
Slowly, the fog settled down and ebbed away until it was only ankle high. The serpent's lowered themselves and seemed to relax slightly as a soft look came to their eyes. Then, they began to speak. "We apologize," they said, their voices were old and soft. Each word was hummed together in perfect unison that felt easy on the ear. Neither masculine, nor feminine the snakes spoke almost as one. "We did not know."