Worlds
Apart
Part I
By Miss Lydia
Chapter 10
"I....I thought you said you weren't crazy enough to try that!" Gordon yelled.
"I lied," Lydia replied.
Link was smiling. "Wow, that was a really bold move. Nice job!"
Lydia smiled back. "Listen, though," she said, "we'd better talk about it later. First, we need to get out of here. As soon as Ganondorf notices that the rune's gone, he'll be back, and I guarantee he'll be as mad as a hornet."
"Right. We'll go hide in the forest for now," Link said.
"Do you think he'll notice right away?" Gordon wondered
As the trio took off and flew toward Kokiri Forest at top speed, they heard a loud scream of frustration far in the distance, coming from the north.
"Does that answer your question?" Lydia asked. "Hurry, we gotta get out of here!"
"You mean you were planning to do that?" Link asked loudly. "You really are a crazy girl."
Lydia leaned against the wall of the treehouse. "Yup. That's why I wanted to know what the rune looked like," she said. She looked at the Sorcerer's Rune, still glowing in her palm. "The plan worked quite well."
"A plan? You actually had a plan? That's unusual."
Lydia glared at Link. "Yes, Long Ears, an actual plan. Why do you think I didn't just grab his arm and shove a Digger Volt down his throat?"
"You wanted him to drop his guard, I'll bet," Gordon said.
"Right. I made him think I was a weakling, and that I wouldn't try to fight back. In any other situation, I would have. But I was hoping he wouldn't give me his full attention."
"And when he turned around to talk to us..." Link began.
"That was my chance to grab the rune," Lydia finished. "Right. Actually, to be honest, I didn't think my little plan would work that well."
"Well, it did, and that's what's important."
"So," Gordon asked, "what's our next move?"
"We can defeat Ganondorf if we get the Triforce," Link said.
"And to do that, we need that spiritual stone. I see. So our next move is the fountain?"
"Yup. We need to go there and fix the fountain." Link stood up and turned to Lydia. "So let's get going."
Lydia didn't say anything. She didn't even look up. She was staring oddly at the rune in her hand.
"Um, hello?" Link said. "Are you asleep?"
She still didn't move. She just continued to stare at the rune.
Link got a little frustrated and pulled her hair. "Wake up!"
Lydia snapped alert again. She shook herself off and said, "Oh yeah, sorry. Were you saying something?"
Link rolled his eyes. "We need to go to the fountain, restore it, and get that stone."
"Yeah....right," she replied blankly, and looked at the rune again.
"What's so interesting all of a sudden?" Link asked as he crouched down beside her.
"I'm feeling way too much energy coming out of this thing," she said slowly. "A rune shouldn't have nearly this much power radiating from it."
"Too much power?" Gordon asked. "Do you think he did something to it?"
Lydia half-shrugged. "I'm not....really sure..." she said. "It's almost like extra power has been sealed into it. Maybe...."
"Maybe what?"
"Nothing....just a thought." Lydia turned her head toward Link. "How does that fountain work? Where does all that water come from?"
Link tilted his head a bit. "Magic, I've always assumed. Some kind of magic the goddesses of Hyrule put on it. Din probably did it."
Lydia looked at the rune again. "Hmm...."
"Well," Link said, "we need to move fast. Hyrule's drying up. The only water left is in Lake Hylia, and it's only half full now. Come ON."
Link pulled Lydia out of the house by her arm, and everyone took off for Zora's fountain, flying low so Ganondorf wouldn't see them. The entire trip, Lydia didn't say anything. She was deep in thought the whole time. The only thing her brain was doing aside from deep thought was making sure her arm didn't let go of Link's. She was so deep into her thinking that Gordon even had to warn her about a passing tree so she wouldn't run into it. She barely dodged it, but didn't fly up high enough for poor Link avoid the branches and leaves.
When they finally landed safely at the fountain, Lydia strayed away and stood at the shore of the empty fountain. Link followed, pulling leaves and twigs out of his shirt and hair.
"Thanks for that close-up view of the tree," he said to her sarcastically.
Lydia came out of her thought trance long enough to apologize, then went back into thought again.
Gordon helped Link pull out the leaves as Lydia continued to stare at the rune.
"Link?" she finally said, "would you say that Ganondorf is a powerhound?"
"Yeah, he is. All he wants is power."
Lydia looked up with a proud smile on her face. "Yes! It all comes together!"
"Huh?"
"It all makes sense now!"
"What does?" Gordon asked.
"What's been going on! All of them were bits of pieces of a puzzle, and they all fit together."
"Explanation please?"
"Okay. We may as well have a seat."
Everyone sat down in a circle on the ground.
"This is what I think is happening." Lydia began, poking her open palm with one finger. "Ganondorf wants to take over Hyrule. The only way he can do that is by gaining as much power as possible. He had a lot of power on his own, but he wanted more, so he worked to get the Sorcerer's Rune. Gordon and I came to Hyrule at that point. So he had the rune. It's power could easily enable him to begin to take over Hyrule, but it wasn't enough. He still wanted more power. So he went after the magic power sealed in Zora's Fountain!"
"Oh, I see!" Link said. "We were on our way there, but he didn't want us getting in the way of sucking the power from the fountain. That's why he sent those troops of monsters after us. And when the Zora's put up a fight, he locked them up in the Ice Cavern. He drained all the magic from the fountain, and sealed it in the Sorcerer's Rune."
"And without the magic power," Gordon said, "Zora's Fountain dried up. He took all that magic away and put it in the rune to make it even more powerful. I get it now! His main objective wasn't to just kill the Zoras. That was just a side effect. He just wanted more power!"
"Right!" Lydia shouted, and jumped to her feet, energetic as ever. "All the magic of the fountain is in this little rock we have here. We just have to release that sealed power. The fountain will refill itself, and the abnormal radiation from this rune will stop. Maybe we could even use it to boost our magic power. But first things first....."
She turned around to face the empty fountain. She reared her arm back and heaved the Sorcerer's Rune as far as she could. Link and Gordon stood up to watch as the rune landed in the empty fountain and rolled down to the center. It stopped in the center and sat still.
Link was about to say something when the rune suddenly started glowing bright red. A beam of red light shot up and spread all over the empty fountain. Lydia's eyes brightened as water began to rush into the fountain from absolutely nowhere. Within a minute, the fountain was completely refilled with fresh water. It began to rush down Zora's River, which had dried up completely, and continued it's course through Hyrule.
Lydia jumped in the air. "Yes!"
"Wow!" Link shouted. "I didn't think it'd be that easy!"
Lydia stopped jumping and blushed red. "I...didn't think it would work, actually."
Gordon shook his head. "Leave it to you to try anything. But what about the rune?"
Lydia looked at the fountain. "Oh, yeah," she said. "Almost forgot. Let me try something."
She held her hand out straight and began concentrating hard. A faint glow could be seen from the bottom of the fountain. Suddenly, the Sorcerer's Rune shot out of the fountain like a bullet and landed hard in Lydia's right hand. She winced and quickly tossed the rune into her other hand.
"Owww...!" she complained as she shook her hand. "That really hurt..."
"So I guess the rune is yours." Gordon said. He looked at the stone in Lydia's left hand. It was no longer glowing red. "It must be at it's normal magic level, now that the extra power has been put back into the fountain. You can probably even use it."
Lydia nursed her sore hand. "If owning a rune is always this painful," she said, "I don't want it."
"Hey!" Link said. "We have to go see the Zoras fast! We need that stone! Come on!"
Lydia nodded and grabbed his arm. "Ray Wing!"
Lake Hylia came into sight. Gordon was pleased to see the Zoras, who were standing in a group, waiting for them. Lydia was pleased to see that the lake was slowly refilling to its normal depth. Link was pleased that Lydia hadn't dragged him through another tree on their way there.
They landed in front of King Zora and he spoke immediately. "It's very obvious that you've restored the fountain. I don't think the people of Hyrule could ever thank you enough."
Link looked up at him. "I'd say we'd have to give most of the credit to Lydia over there," he said. Lydia looked at him. "She did it pretty much by herself."
"No, that's not true," said Lydia. "If you and Gordon hadn't been there to distract Ganondorf, I never would've gotten the chance to get the rune from him."
King Zora's little eyes widened slightly. "You actually were able to steal the Sorcerer's Rune from Ganondorf?"
"Uh-huh," Link replied. "That's where the magic from the fountain went. We put the magic back and the fountain refilled itself."
"Well, isn't that commendable!" King Zora laughed. "Then I guess there's only one thing for us to do now. As I promised, I'll give this to you."
Link stepped forward smiling. The King pulled out a shiny, blue stone. It was the Spiritual Stone of Water. Link took it and held it up. The sun shone through it, making it look like it glowed.
"All right!" Link shouted and held a fist up in the air. "Now we can get the Triforce and stop Ganondorf for good!"
"Great!" Lydia shouted. "Where do we go now?"
Link lowered his fist. "Zelda once told me that the entrance to the Sacred Realm is in the Temple of Time, near the castle," he said. "That's our next stop!"
"O-kay!" Gordon said. "Let's go!"
"Ray Wing!"
They turned and waved good-bye to the Zoras, who were heading back to Zora's Domain. Everyone was feeling very confident now. The tables seemed to have turned in their favor. They had the third stone, and the Sorcerer's Rune.
"We pretty much have this one in the bag!" Link said as they neared the center of Hyrule Field. "There's no way Ganondorf can stop us now!"
A dark, booming voice spoke suddenly. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, boy."
Lydia recognized it. It was Ganondorf's voice. The familiar dark, swirling clouds appeared. The trio landed this time to avoid being knocked out of the sky.
"Oh...crap...." Lydia muttered.
The black ball fell out of the sky and swooped toward them. They'd all seen that trick already, so they were able to jump aside and let it pass by harmlessly this time.
Everyone turned and drew their weapons as the black ball took the shape of the six-foot man. Ganondorf materialized in front of them with a mean snarl molded on his face. His eyes were glowing red.
"I underestimated you..." he said slowly. "I commend you for obtaining the rune from me. However, in doing so you've assured your own deaths. I have decided not to wait. I will kill you all now." Magic power began to rise from the ground and swirl around Ganondorf.
Link raised his sword. "We're not as weak as you may make us out to be!"
Gordon stared at Ganondorf as the power around him continued to rise. "You can't kill us that easily!"
Lydia smirked. "You are going to find out that we're more than flies buzzing around your plans, mucking them up," she shouted.
"You won't destroy Hyrule!" Link yelled. "We won't let you!"
With that, all three charged at Ganondorf, ready to attack.
