Chapter 11

The Oracle of Seasons had her hands bound, and was being pushed along by the Goriyas that had captured her and Link. The Goriyas were dragging the mortally wounded hero along like a piece of meat, not really caring wither he was alive or dead. When they finally stopped to set up camp for the night, Din sat beside The Hero's unmoving form, and cradled his head in her lap. The Oracle did her best to stop the profuse bleeding from his wounds... but she was no physician.

Meanwhile, the monsters set up camp. They were joined by the two surviving Tinsuits from the first patrol Link and Din had slaughtered, and were sitting around the campfire, gloating about their 'victory' over the hero and the Oracle.

"We Goriya do great in battle!" One of the Monsters proclaimed. "Council of Generals reward us well for stopping hero!"

"Bah! You snarling savages didn't do anything!" The Doomknocker sneered "It was my Tinsuits who bravely gave their lives to to wound the Hero! You clowns are too stupid to even speak in cohesive sentences!"

The two Tin Suits moved to back up the Doomknocker. Although Tinsuits were too low on the Darknut hierarchy to even have a suit of armor, they were unwaveringly loyal to their commanding officer.

"Doomknocker not make fun of Goriya! Our commander Guma gave his life to stop hero in ambush, too!" The Goriyas waved their boomerangs menacingly.

As the monsters argued amongst themselves, Din spied the Gorriya's pile of stolen loot taken during raids. In the Pile, she spotted a bottle of red potion... the perfect way to heal the Hero's wounds. If only she could reach it without the monsters noticing.

"Hold on, Link." Din thought to herself, looking at the unconscious. "I'm not going to let you die on me!"

---

Link awoke in an ethereal void, a dreamlike region filled with mist and smoke. Beneath his feet, he could see the entire kingdom of Hyrule stretching out before him.

"W-where am I?" The Link asked, still groggy. "Am I... dead?"

"You are in a place between life and death." A deep voice boomed. "And I have been here for over a thousand years."

Before Link even turned around, he already knew who it was. "Hero's Shade... my uncle told be about you." He crossed his arms over his chest. "So tell me, 'honorasble ancestor', what pearls of wisdom do you have for me?" Link's tone was respectful, but to the point.

"Well, you seem to have gotten yourself into a situation, haven't you?" The Shade said sarcastically.

"Eh, nothing I can't handle." Link shrugged.

The Shade shook his skeletal head. "I'm referring to your relationship with the girl, Din"

Link gave a look of Surprise. "Wha?... how did?"

The Shade seemed to smirk. "Yes, I know of your feelings for the Oracle. It seems men in our family have a thing for read heads." The Spirit thought back to a red-haired Ranch Girl from a thousand years earlier.

Link looked away. "Yeah... well, it seems all I sucseeded in doing was making her mad at me."

"Well, maybe yelling at her for dancing- to give money to a staving farmer for his family- wasn't such a hot idea."

"But.."

"Dancing is her life, boy... her means of self-expression." The Shade replied. "It doesn't matter what other people think, she needs to be who she is."

"But other people treat her like dirt!" Link replied angrily. "They make degrading remarks behind her back... I can't stand it!"

"They say those things because she looks like a gerudo, not because of her dancing." The Shade shrugged. "Some people are just idiots."

Link looked his ancestor in the eye. "So what should I do?"

"Apologize... and tell her how you feel about her." The shade looked down at the Kingdom they were floating above. "Now, I believe you'll need a little something to get out of this mess."

The Hero's Shade raised his hand to the sky, and a powerful-looking sword floated down into his grasp. "Normally, I'm not supposed to interfere like this, but I think the Goddesses will make an exception in this case." He held the sword up to Link. "Recognize this blade, boy?"

"The Master Sword!" Link replied, stunned.

The Shade nodded. "We know not who originally made this blade, or why... only that it has served many generations of our family well. It was reforged by the minish twice... once when the flood waters dulled the blade, and it was given as a gift the Hero of men... and a second time when the Sorcerer Vaati broke it in half."

Link simply stared at the Blade. "I used the sword twice... once when I saved Zelda and the seven maidens, and again when I drew the sword from it's pedestal to Save Holodrum and Labyrnia. "

"Yes."The Shade chuckled. "The people of Holodrum called it the Noble Sword."

"But.. I lost the sword during the storm that washed me up on Kolnohoit Island!" The Hero exclaimed. "The Seashell Sword version I used on Kolnohoit was only a dream!"

"The Master Sword can never be lost, my boy... never be destroyed." The Shade handed the sword to Link. "Now, it's time for you to go back, you know what you need to do...."

---

Din quietly crept past the arguing monsters, and quickly grabbed the red potion from the pile. Her dancer's reflexes served her well, as she tiptoed back over to where the Hero lay. Prying his mouth open, she forced the red liquid down his throat.

"What do you think you're doing, my Dear?" The Doomknocker hissed. Finally noticing what she was doing, the giant armored jackal-man had snuck up behind her.

"None of your business, dog-face!" The Oracle spat at him. The Doomkocker grabbed her by the throat, and began to choke her. Unable to breathe, the light began to fade from Din's eyes....

ZAP!

A Sword Beam caught the Doomknocker squarely in the back, causing him to drop Din. Gasping for air, the Oracle looked up to see the Hero back on his feet... and wielding the blade of Evil's bane.

"Link!" Din screamed. "You're alive!"

"Thanks to you!" Link replied. "And now... they're gonna get it!"

The Doomknocker threw a mace at Link, which the Hero vaporized with a sword beam. The Goriyas threw their boomerangs at the Hero, but several more sword zaps destroyed them, as well.

"My turn." Rolling behind a tree for cover, Link hit them with a barrage of sword beam blasts. Trapped out in the open, all of the Goriya fell before the brutal two Tinsuits dove at Link, only to be cut down by the Hero's great spin attack.

During this stuggle, the Doomknocker tried to smash Din with his mace, but the Oracle dodged out of the way. Her eyes flashing with anger, she spoke but one word...

"burn!"

An intense fire shot forth from her fingertips, and struck the Doomknocker straight in the chest. Although the blazing inferno did not catch the monster's armor on fire, the Jackal-man within was roasted alive inside the heated metal, like a chicken in an oven. The Doomknocker let out an unholy scream, then dropped to th ground.

Link ran over to the still-shaking Oracle. "Din, are you all right?" He looked over at the scorched armor. "Ewww, smells like barbecued dog!"

"I'm all right, Link." Din replied in a broken voice. "Let's get out of here!"

As the dead monster's body and armor vanished in a puff of smoke, Link and Din ran, leaving the camp site far behind them.