Chapter Ten: Lost in the Vast Midlands

Link and his fairy companion had been lost for three days. The river that Astralose had suggested they follow emptied into an immense lake on the edge of the Forest of Gormoth. It would not be able to lead them to Zora's Fountain. Navi had immediately become distrustful of Astralose's suggestion, but Link had thought otherwise. "Maybe it has been so long since he came this way that the landscape changed and the river's waters became trapped into that valley instead of being able to flow forward."

"Maybe," doubted Navi. Link proposed that they continue forward from the lake in the direction the river should have taken and Navi tentatively agreed. Three days later, they found themselves in the middle of the seemingly endless desert that lay between the Forest of Gormoth and the land of Hyrule. Link had filled his water skin up at the lake before they had left its sandy shores. He had noticed the last time he went to take a drink from his container that there was only enough water to last another day. He could only hope that they would reach Zora's Fountain not long after.

Suddenly, a wide canyon stretched out before his feet. There was no way to cross it; it was at least a quarter of a mile across. The ravine's sandstone cliffs stretched as far as his eyes could see east and west. "Well, now what do we do?" muttered Link.

"I think we should try and cross it."

"That's easy for you to say Navi. You can fly. There's no way that I'm going to be able to scale this canyon's walls. They have to be at least five hundred feet high. I'm not a Skullwalltulla. If I was, I would be able to just skitter right down it. No, we'll just have to go around it."

"All right," replied the fairy. Link could tell that he had offended her.

"Look. I'm sorry. I'm just a little tense right now. No food, almost no water, and we have no idea where we are. It's not a very good situation. I think the only bit of good news is that it's winter, so at least we don't have to worry about being cooked to death out here in the desert." Navi bobbed up and down in the air. Link knew that that was how she nodded. "All right then. Are you ready to go on?" She nodded again and Link began to follow the brink of the chasm westward.

This stage of their journey continued for many miles and well into nightfall. The travelers finally decided they should rest for the night. It was starting to become so dark that they risked accidentally stepping over the gorge's edge and falling to their deaths. Without any food, there was no meal in their future, so they curled up on the stony ground and fell asleep with their stomachs grumbling audibly.

They woke up early the next morning, even hungrier than when they had fallen asleep. Link looked around tiredly, hoping to see some desert rat or anything he could eat scampering through the rocks. He had no such luck though. He stood up weakly and crept up to the edge of the canyon and look down its outlying precipices. He was surprised to see that it was now only around fifty feet deep. "Good news Navi. We may be able to cross this thing soon."

"Great," she replied with very little if not completely absent enthusiasm.

"Well, are we ready to go on?" Navi did not reply but Link knew that she was, so he started walking. They walked until noon without trading any more speech. Without warning Link heard a very familiar, high-pitched, "Hey!" It came from behind him. He knew where he was going and what he was doing and was not in the mood for Navi's annoying hints, so he decided to ignore her. After all, he had done it many times before during his adventures through Hyrule. Unfortunately, she was not about to let him ignore her this time. "Hey!"

"Just ignore her. Just ignore her," thought Link.

"Hey!"

"It's just some stupid piece of worthless advice," he reasoned.

"Hey!"

"I'm not listening," he muttered.

"Hey!"

"All right, what!" shouted Link.

"Look!"

Link turned around and saw about fifty men approaching from the north. They were on horseback and were advancing very rapidly. Link laid his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready in case the strangers were coming to attack.

"Why didn't you listen to me?" asked Navi, clearly offended.

"Now's not the time for this Navi. Can we talk later?"

"Humph."

The riders were now only a hundred feet away. Link's grip tightened around his sword as the men stopped their steeds only fifteen feet away. "What do you want?" questioned Link when they did not greet him. He stared on curiously as the horses parted and an old man walked up through the gap created between them. "Astralose! I am glad to see you. We were lost. The river you said to follow ended at a lake four days ago."

"Oh, how unfortunate," said the old man as he moved toward Link. When he was in front of the Hero of Time, he laid his hands upon his shoulders lovingly. He caressed Link's shoulders tenderly and smiled softly. Unexpectedly, he then pushed back with all his might. Not expecting this sudden attack, Link fell backward several feet onto the hard ground. He felt a large stone crash into his back squarely, knocking the wind out of him.

"As I had hoped by sending him through the desert, he has grown extraordinarily weak. Release the Moligange." The beast moved surprisingly fast for having such strangely configured limbs. Within seconds, the terrible foe that Link had fought in the Forest of Gormoth was upon him. Link tried to unsheathe his blade. However, he was terribly weak from his lack of food and he could not even lift his sword above his head before the Moligange was upon him. It pinned him down with two of its three arms and allowed its tongue to dangle only inches above his face, dripping sultry, sticky saliva upon his lips.

With its third arm, the creature grasped Link's weapon and threw it backwards so that it landed at Astralose's feet. The old man picked it up and handed it back to one of his men. "I want him unconscious, but remember, not dead. We'll need him alive." The man nodded and approached Link, who was still struggling to free himself. Navi buzzed at the attacker's face in her best attempt to protect her friend, but to no avail. The man grabbed a hold of her and pinned her under his arm. Then, with one swift kick to the side of his head, Link knew no more.