Chapter 3: The First Team Battle


Soon, Byrna found herself standing on the platform in the center of the conflict area, facing the tall man in front of her, and looking him straight in the eye. However, she felt strange, because although she'd volunteered for that battle, she didn't really want to fight him.

"I hope you know it's not personal." Byrna said after only a moment, but the man nodded quickly in response.

"We all realize that." he said sadly, "It's the same on both sides in that respect. All I really want is to get back to what I was doing before this business began."

With that, Byrna entered one of the teleporters, and the tall man stepped into the other. Then, both disappeared from that world, and were transported somewhere else.


Byrna looked around in surprise, as she was deposited in her new battleground. She'd expected to be facing her enemy almost at once, but no matter where she looked, he was nowhere to be seen. What she did see was a jungle all around her, full of green foliage, and the cries of birds. The smell of smoke nearby indicated that there was civilization in that place as well, although Byrna couldn't see any signs of tall castles or small houses in that jungle area. At once, Byrna put on her goggles, and started looking around more carefully. With her goggles on, Byrna found that she could see a small series of tents and log cabins to her left, arranged around what looked like a beach. Byrna couldn't tell if her enemy was nearby or not, but he had to be around somewhere, and if she didn't find him first...

Suddenly, a log came crashing down near Byrna's legs, and she spun around, to find another large piece of wood headed in her direction. Swiftly, she fired with the gun attached to her left hand, splitting the wood down the middle, but it seemed to change course in mid-air at that point, colliding with the side of her head, and knocking her to the ground in horrible pain.

As she lay there, however, Byrna heard a voice, and she could see that the leaves on the ground in front of her were depressed in two places, as if something was there; something that she couldn't see.

"Are you having a tough time finding me?" the voice asked in some amusement, and that was the moment when Byrna realized what had really happened. Her enemy had become invisible somehow.

"This rainforest contains some very rare chemicals." the voice said, changing topics quickly in genuine curiosity, "I'll bet if I were to use the resources here, I could come up with a hundred things more impressive than invisibility."

Suddenly, Byrna felt something hard collide with her chin, knocking her back along the ground again, though she started trying to get her footing back a moment later, still aching from the attacks.

"At this rate, though," Byrna heard her opponent say in frustration, "it might take forever to defeat you, so I have another idea."

Swiftly, Byrna got to her feet and looked around. Her enemy had to be around somewhere, even if she couldn't see him with her eyes. Finally, in one lucky moment, she was able to spot the impressions of his feet in the leaves, and started firing her weapons as fast as she could. She heard him yell, as a few small red spots fell to the ground nearby, but she could tell that she hadn't given him a very serious wound, and as she rushed forward, to try to finish him off, she could see that he wasn't in the same spot anymore. Byrna could hear him dashing off to one side nearby, but she knew that she couldn't track him by noise alone; at least not well enough to fight him effectively.

Swiftly, she placed her hand in the top of the metal pack she was wearing, and spoke the word "seek." At once, the view on her goggles changed. Byrna had built her goggles specifically to track hard-to-find life-forms, and in that case, she'd set them to show her anything with enough life-energy as a blue, nebulous shape. In short, if it was alive and active, she could probably spot it.

Byrna tried to scan the surrounding jungle in the hopes of tracking down her enemy, but apparently, her opponent had gotten behind some trees. Suddenly, though, she heard a noise; like the cork being pulled from a bottle, and in seconds, the very forest around her seemed to come to life, and start moving around on its own. It was only then that Byrna realized that she had much more immediate problems than locating her enemy.

The trees swayed as though they were caught in a terrible wind, changing the shape of their branches and trunks, as they lashed out at Byrna. The champion from Hyrule tried to fight back with the guns attached to her wrists, but although she was making holes in the surrounding foliage, they weren't very big holes, and they were sealing themselves back up again almost at once. Eventually, one vine grabbed Byrna by the arm, and lifted her into the air. She could feel wooden tree limbs colliding with her repeatedly, and those blows hurt a lot, but not nearly as much as they would have without her armor. Still, she had to stop that onslaught somehow, and she only knew of one way.

Carefully, Byrna twisted her left arm in a very precise way, and at once, the nozzle of her gun flipped around, and a blast of flame erupted from her weapon, incinerating the tree limbs that surrounded her in an instant.

In that first moment, Byrna had only thought about how to get free of the rampaging jungle, but seeing the blaze that she'd started, as it began to spread out from the first tree, and towards the others in the area, she realized in dismay that the fire was going to do a lot of damage to that jungle, and there wasn't much that she could have done to stop it. The thought made her feel pretty rotten, but as the blaze surrounded her, Byrna quickly realized that in the middle of a fight like that, she couldn't afford to worry about the damage that she and her foe were doing. All that really mattered was winning that fight.

In that respect, the fire was doing more good than harm, because Byrna could see her enemy's outline in the thick smoke, and he was rushing towards the beach as fast as he could, with drops of liquid appearing on the ground behind him; a kind of clear liquid, like water, although as soon as she saw it, Byrna started to realize just how that man had stumbled across such fascinating powers.

Swiftly, Byrna leapt out of the flaming forest as fast as she could, and began to dash across the beach, shouting aloud to her enemy, whose footprints she could already see in the wet sand in front of her.

"I know the secret of your power!"

Byrna's enemy had just kept running while she'd shouted to him, but soon, his feet had ended up in the water, and she watched in amazement as they slowly started to become visible again. That only validated her in the conclusions she'd drawn, however. Obviously, the source of his power was...

"Chemistry!" she yelled across the beach, cautiously taking another step closer to her opponent, who was standing perfectly still in the shallow water, "I never paid much attention to it before, but obviously, chemistry can do a lot of things I've never considered before."

"In my whole world, nobody knows more about chemicals than I do." she heard him yell back, "You've seen only a tiny portion of what I can do with them."

"For example," the chemist continued, holding up a small bottle, with a blue liquid inside of it, "this chemical causes water to absorb nearby air, and increase its total volume for about five minutes, just like another one of my chemicals made those plants back there misbehave, and the one you're currently standing in..."

As the chemist said that, however, Byrna realized in dismay that she was indeed standing where he'd dropped the bits of liquid on the beach, and she was beginning to feel as though the machine on her back was getting heavier and heavier.

"...increases the effects of gravity on whoever or whatever gets it underneath them." the chemist replied with a confident grin, "I've used it to crush rocks and stone walls in the past, and I'm sure it can crush you, but just in case..."

With those words, he dropped the bottle that he'd been holding into the ocean, and smiled as the water level began to rise all around him.

"I can swim if it comes to that." the man said in an uncaring tone of voice, "but you, with your heavy metal armor, and more to the point, with my chemical weighing you down... Well, I suppose you'll probably drown in less than three minutes. Good luck, though."

Byrna felt the crushing pressure coming down on her back all at once, as her enemy fell silent, and the water rose up the shore towards her. Her armor was powerful, but it was having difficulty withstanding that incredible assault. She needed some way of defeating the chemist quickly, so that he couldn't use any more of his concoctions on her, but without being able to lift her arms, much less fire her weapons anymore, Byrna couldn't think of any way to escape, much less stop him. She knew that she had to think quickly, though, if she wanted to survive.

Suddenly, something happened to Byrna that she couldn't explain, however. She felt, in a moment, like she was looking all around herself at once; at the waves, at her enemy, who was swiftly turning visible, thanks to the water washing away his invisibility potion, at the flaming forest behind her, and at every function of her armor, which she'd once thought was powerful enough to vanquish any foe, and as she took it all in, the time came for action, because she realized what she had to do, in order to make it out of that fight alive, and it wasn't going to be easy.

Already on her hands and knees, Byrna twisted her arms around, and blasts of flame erupted downward from them, hotter and faster than any she'd ever had a reason to produce. They fired down with enormous force, like an explosion of power, causing her to be vaulted into the air by their strength; like a large bullet herself, and she could see the shocked expression on the chemist's face in that one, last moment before her head hit his chin with the force of a war hammer.

Both fighters plummeted backwards into the water at once, and as Byrna plunged downward into it, she could feel the weight of her armor lessening, as though the chemical that that man had used against her was being washed away. As fast as she could, Byrna got to her feet, and rushed back to shore, only to find, however, that the chemist was already standing there, with two more bottles in his hands. One seemed to be filled with a red liquid, and the other was full of a powder, which was a greyish-white color. Byrna felt terrible dread filling her when she saw that, however. She'd hurt her enemy, but she hadn't been fast enough to finish him off, and suddenly, he was armed again, and ready to go on the attack.

"You're a worthy opponent," the chemist said angrily, glaring at Byrna hard, "and your intuition is excellent, but you have to know when you're outclassed. The chemical compound in my left hand is a concoction I made myself, for releasing the hidden potential of any living organism. It only lasts for a few minutes, and I'm afraid it sometimes makes its drinker quite violent. As for the powder, it's nothing more than a pure element, which I myself collected; magnesium."

Byrna wasn't a chemical expert, but she knew what magnesium was. That element, in its pure form, almost invariably burst into flame upon making contact with open air. It sometimes required a bit of coaxing, but the sand below them had been sitting in the sun for so long, that Byrna knew that another fire was inevitable, if he uncorked that bottle.

"Before I kill you, though," the chemist continued firmly, "I think you've earned the right to know my name. I'm Dirk Porre."

"I'm Byrna." she replied, though she didn't drop her guard for even a second in the face of that unorthodox introduction.

"Alright, then." Dirk said, and with that, he downed the red potion, and spread the powder out in front of him on the sand, where it burst into flames almost as soon as it left the bottle, making it seem, in an instant, as though the beach itself was on fire.

Beyond the high, white flames of the magnesium, a terrible transformation was taking place, however. Dirk's muscles, hands, feet and shoulders seemed to grow to nearly twice their natural size in moments, and Byrna could see a look of fury descend over his face; even worse than the one he'd been wearing before. It only took her a moment, however, to realize that that grotesque transformation was the intended result of his greatest potion, but Byrna knew that the longer the fight continued for, the more of an advantage Dirk was going to have. She'd barely been clinging to life, and fighting defensively for most of the battle, and he kept finding new ways to trump her. If Byrna was going to win that fight, she knew that she had to move quickly.

Once again, flame came from Byrna's arm guns, and she shot through the air like a hylian bullet, over the flames, towards her foe, but at the last second, the huge creature that Dirk had become grabbed her out of the air with one hand, and punched her hard with the other, knocking her backwards, and denting the front of her armor. Then, before she had time to plan a counter-move of any sort, that horrible, inhuman behemoth came leaping at her over the flames, and struck out with an arm that measured almost three feet long! Given how badly the monster's first attack had damaged her armor, it was all she could do to roll out of the way of that second one.

Byrna could feel her stomach aching from the inside, as though something sharp was trying to pierce it, but she knew that she had to ignore the pain if she wanted to live. She got to her feet as swiftly as possible, and began to rush back towards the forest as fast as she could, having come up with another idea. There, she could see that her enemy was leaping after her in enormous, bounding strides. The hylian champion fired backwards at him for a moment, but the bullets never got past the beast's first layer of skin, and before long, he was between her and the smoking forest; a move that made her wince for a moment in frustration. She'd had a good idea for stopping him, but it wasn't going to work unless she could get out of his reach somehow.

With only a moment to think her next move over, Byrna took flight again, by aiming both hands downward, that time flying directly up, so that she could see him staring angrily at her, as he reached behind himself, grabbing a tree right out of the ground with his monstrous strength, and using it to swing at her in mid-air. She responded to that attack with another blast of flame, setting the entire tree ablaze, and forcing the beast to drop the flaming tree, and wade into the jungle foliage in search of another.

As soon as Byrna saw that, she changed direction in mid-air, and plummeted towards Dirk again. As he reached for another tree, she collided with his back, knocking him over; into the underbrush, and denting one of her armor's shoulders on his inhumanly-tough flesh. Slowly, she started trying to get out of the forest herself after that, but her foe was very quick, and soon, he'd grabbed her from behind, and held her in one powerful fist by the back of her armored torso. As Byrna felt her enemy's fist starting to close around her, however, and the life slowly draining out of her, she noticed something else. The vines and branches of the plants around them were starting to wrap themselves around Dirk's body.

As soon as Dirk saw what was happening, his grip began to loosen, until he eventually let go entirely, and Byrna fell to the ground, and began to crawl forward, since it was only a few feet to the boundaries of the forest. However, Dirk's power had been so vastly increased, that he threw the renegade plants in all directions in a rage, and started after Byrna again. He'd barely gone a few feet, when the vines redoubled their efforts, however, and Byrna had reached the edge of the forest by that point. The vines and branches of the forest followed Byrna too, as she scrambled to her feet, leapt over the flaming beach, and watched as the vines burst into flames, igniting that entire section of the forest, with Dirk still inside.

It was quite some time before the magnesium jungle fire began to die down, but when it finally did, Dirk was there, in the midst of the ashes; back to his original size, and lying, covered in burns, on the ground. As near as Byrna could tell from looking at him, he was still alive, but the victory was hers.


Moments later, Byrna and the charred chemist re-appeared on the platforms in the center of the teleport area, each pretty beat-up, but each destined to survive for the time being. Without any hesitation at all, Link helped Byrna to the floor near the rest of their team, speaking what he hoped were reassuring words to her.

"Relax. I'll take care of the next one."

Moments later, true to his word, Link was stepping up to the teleporters in the center of the arena, but he could see that the opposing team was feeling pretty disconcerted by Dirk's defeat. Link would have expected them to start taking the hylian team seriously by that point, and because of that, he felt pretty chagrined when he got to the teleporters, and found that his opponent was the little boy dressed in the purple.

"Hi!" the boy said with a bright, sunny smile, "I'm Mikey! Nice to meet ya!"

"I'm Link." The Hero of Time said to the smiling boy, without coming even close to smiling back, "Look Mikey. Do you have any idea what you're being asked to do?"

"You bet!" the little boy said, as though accepting an invitation to play tag, "I'm gonna beat you inta the ground, and everybody'll watch."

"And you don't see any problem with that?" Link asked curiously, suddenly feeling very worried. Given the kid's jovial attitude and small size, he didn't seem to understand the danger he was putting himself in by fighting somebody like Link. However, the boy's reply was about the last thing that Link had wanted to hear.

"Not really." Mikey said, putting both hands up in the air and stretching, "It's not like you'd be the first person I've pounded into the dirt, and I just wanna get back home and play anyways, so this is the quickest way, right?"

"Apparently, it's the only sure way." Link replied flatly, though he wasn't feeling any better about having to fight such a young boy, "I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into."

So, casting a glance back at his companions, as if to say "please let this cup pass from me," Link stepped onto one teleporter, and Mikey onto the other, and in moments, they were both gone.


When Link reappeared, he was in for a bit of a shock. It was raining in the world he'd found himself in, and muddy under his boots. For miles as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but one enormous plane with small tufts of grass, which were apparently enjoying the summer shower more than he was. Link caught a glimpse of some small tents made of straw nearby, but he could tell that Mikey wasn't one of the people who usually lived there. However, in the rain, Link had a difficult time determining the location of his enemy until Mikey was practically on top of him.

Like an owl on a vole, Mikey descended on Link from the sky, flying through the air and colliding with him hard! Link managed to duck to one side, so he only recieved a glancing blow from his enemy, but even that glancing blow was so powerful, that Link was knocked on his back, and blood dripped down his lip in moments. It was obvious that not only could that child fly, but his strength was of a superhuman level; perhaps even great enough to have overcome the likes of Raid. Link didn't know what other kinds of powers he might have. He'd obviously underestimated the boy, but since he knew some of the child's abilities, he was ready to begin preparing for Mikey's next attack.

Soon, there was a red flash in the clouds, then moments later, another, and the boy dove from the clouds above, towards Link with both fists outstretched, and a delighted smile on his face.

As fast as he could, Link responded, ducking to one side at the last minute, and aiming a kick at Mikey's chest, but the kick didn't seem to have done any noticeable damage. In fact, the moment that Link's kick made contact with his enemy's body, a horrible pain cut through his foot, and into his leg. Soon, Mikey vanished into the clouds again in another red flash, and Link collapsed to the ground with three busted toes.

"Blast!" Link thought to himself, more frustrated with himself than with his enemy, "I should have suspected that someone with strength like that would have pretty tough skin too."

Still, Link was used to ignoring pain in the middle of a fight, so swiftly, he was on his feet again, searching around for the second red flash that would herald the return of his enemy.

When Mikey plunged down out of the clouds again, Link sensed him at once, and let fly with one powerful punch, directly into the boy's face.

Link's golden gauntlets had, in the past, given him almost immeasurable strength, so he'd decided to pit that strength against the endurance of that little boy. Link's arms were longer than Mikey's, though, and because of that, Mikey got the full impact of his opponent's punch, while Mikey's fists didn't connect at all. He was, instead, knocked from the air by the titanic blow, and collapsed to the ground, where he sat for a moment, rubbing his cheek, before a truly nasty look appeared in his eyes.

"Okay." the young boy exclaimed, "You asked for it!"

As Mikey said that, he drew a fairly large sword from behind his back, and in response, Link drew his own sword and shield, preparing for his enemy's next attack. Quickly, the two were fighting as best they could, each wielding invulnerable blades; backed up by superhuman strength, and each with an advantage. Link's advantage was his ability to use his shield and sheath to block attacks midway through his own jabs and swings. Mikey's was his power of flight. Both had mastered similar sword techniques, but Link had more combat experience than any child could ever have obtained, and in time, was able to catch Mikey off-guard again, by elbowing him in the face with the blunt end of his mirror shield. He then grabbed Mikey by the ankles, and threw him clear across the field, dashing after him as he went; finally ready to take the young boy seriously as a fighter.

Mikey, however, was beginning to lose his composure by that point in the battle. His jolly, childish demeanor was fading away into a sort of timid look, as though he was beginning to feel fear for the first time during that battle. However it wasn't Link he was afraid of. The Hero of Time could tell that much. As Mikey landed hard on the ground and hit his head on a rock, it was knocked aside by the impact, and after a moment, he started to look dazed. Mikey was obviously too tough to be hurt by a simple crash landing like that, but Link could see that there was something very wrong with him. It looked as if Mikey had been fighting for self-control that whole time, and was just starting to lose that fight, but Link had no way of knowing what form that loss would take.

As Link approached the young boy who lay on the ground, facing the small rock that had recently been knocked aside by his impact with it, he'd started to worry again. The boy didn't seem to be moving; he was just staring at a small hole that had been under the rock, as if he was more captivated by the contents of that hole than by the fight he'd just been involved in moments before. From the look on the boy's face, however, Link was starting to see that Mikey wasn't fascinated by the contents of that hole in the ground, so much as terrified. On the one hand, Link knew that if he struck then, he could finish the fight, but as he approached the boy, he also glanced towards the hole in the ground himself, and at once, a voice seemed to emerge from it, and force itself into his mind.

"Come to my land, Link. Come with me, and I'll show you wonders like nothing you've ever seen!"

Once those words had shot through his head, Link felt some horrible force, tinted only slightly with the silver lining of a child's innocence, wrapping itself around his mind and after that, he only saw horror. In just a moment, Link was nearly consumed by sounds, feelings and sights so grotesque and horrible, that they would have driven most souls to the breaking point. It was madness of the worst kind, and not even during Zelda's attack on his mind had Link felt so helpless. For a time, he imagined himself dashing madly through multicolored roads, searching for a way out, and finding only chaos and insanity wherever he went. A force had been unleashed in Link's mind that was so horrible, that he couldn't help but scream aloud!

For a moment, that scream gave Link a glimpse of what was real, overlayed on the illusions. He could see the boy lying on his back on the ground, convulsing with psychic power, probably experiencing the same thing that Link was, but Link could tell that he was the cause of it, because of all the psychic energy pouring out of him and into the Hero of Time. That boy probably hadn't even intended to use that power, because he certainly couldn't control it. Still, Link had to break free if he was going to claim victory in his fight, and the only way to do that seemed to be through Mikey's power. However, Link wondered how he could he be victorious, knowing that madness was threatening both he and his enemy?

"It's..." he heard Mikey cry out into the screaming madness, "It's another world; insanity and chaos. It's... It's at this conflict!"

Link screamed again for a moment involuntarily, and fell to his knees as another wave of psychic chaos washed over him. Some strange psychic presence obviously inhabited the body of that super-powered young boy, and it seemed to have knowledge of times of horror and chaos in another world, which it wanted to share with him, but both he and Link were so used to their own lifestyles, that it was nearly driving them mad, even to hear about it in the abstract. Link understood at once what was happening, but he couldn't think of any way to really stop it.

"The mirror world... has to stop!" the child gasped in desperation, "I can't take it anymore!"

However, the moment that the boy said that, an idea occurred to Link; something he'd never considered before.

"Mirror world?" Link thought silently to himself, "It must be a metaphor for another world that's opposite to his, but then again... These illusions feel more real than any passing thought. When he's in a fit like this, does he really travel to another world, or is that the reason why he's in pain? Is something trying to pull him into another world, and we're in pain because we can't pass through? How could we fix that? How could we travel to that world? What do they want from him? There must be some reason they want someone as powerful as him to come to their world. As much as they're suffering, it couldn't just be malice. If they're really hurting this badly; if the people in this other world really are living in that much chaos, they must be looking for a hero. That has to be the answer; they need Mikey to be their hero, and he has to face this. He has the power to help them, if he'll just face his own suffering."

As soon as the idea had entered Link's head, he was sure that it was correct, and just like that, a fresh plan had formed in his mind. Pushing past the psychic emanations and illusions, Link struggled to discern the real from the artificial. At last, he looked down, and saw his own body, with both his sword and shield in his hands. That was when he knew that he was seeing reality, at least for the time being. Swiftly, Link put his sword away, and gripping his shield in both hands, held it in front of Mikey's face, which was still twisted into a horrible contortion of terror, as the little boy kept both eyes tightly shut.

"Look!" Link yelled, "Mikey, look! Take a good look at the place you're being tortured by!"

"No!" Mikey yelled back, "It's too painful; too horrible! I can't watch!"

"Pain and horror are part of life!" Link exclaimed over the sounds of the psychic whirlwind of agony that surrounded the two of them, choking out the words of wisdom as best he could, "Everyone has problems, but as long as you run from them, they'll only get worse and worse! You have to stare your fears in the face if you ever want them to stop!"

It was clear that Mikey had never been told that before. All his life, in fact, seemed to have been spent in accumulating personal pleasure, and no one in his world, apparently, had seen any problem with that. However, that instant, things were different. He had a problem that no one but he could solve, and he could only do something about it if he was willing to drive away from pleasure, and into pain; something which, apparently, very few of his people ever did.

However, Mikey was still a champion of his people. He could handle the task he'd been given. He could look up, and see the nature of his pain, to save the people who needed help. That was what a champion was.

In that one moment of confidence and courage; unrivaled by anyone in his entire world, the young boy named Mikey opened his eyes. Link, in turn, looked away, as a blinding light spread out across the plains, engulfing everything.


It took some time before Link was willing to open his own eyes again, but when he did, he found himself in a very strange-looking room, with bizarre, alien furniture, and doorways of some very unusual sizes and shapes on the far side. He could see several animals standing on their hind legs on the opposite side of the room as well, and in the center was Mikey; the boy who was going to be their savior.

"You're a genius." Mikey said to Link with a broad smile again, "I don't know how you figured out so much about me. Since I was really young, I've had these psychic visions, and as I got older, they got worse and worse, and I started to project them on anyone nearby; not on purpose, though. One of my teachers died of fright when she fell into them. That was when I started trying to ignore them, because it wasn't any fun. Of course, people in my world just do whatever feels good, so nobody ever taught me how to face my problems, except you."

"I'm sorry we had to fight." Link replied after spending a couple of seconds in stunned silence, "I wish I could have taken you to Hyrule, to learn more of our morals and proverbs."

"Me too," Mikey said with a grin, "but these guys called me here for a reason. The animals behind me are the people who live in this world. It's a world that's really far away from any of the others; even mine, and their world was so chaotic, they couldn't live in peace. They needed someone to fix things for them, so they called out with their minds to me."

"And you answered that call." Link finished, smiling happily, "Not at first, maybe, because you knew that trying to help the people of an alien world would be painful, but now you know that you can't ignore this. It's your calling."

"They say everybody here is a champion," Mikey remarked in amazement, "but you'll always be my hero. Just remember; when you get your wish... I want you to make sure that my world survives."

"I promise." Link replied with a solemn nod. Then, the light in the area grew unnaturally bright again, and as he felt himself being whisked back to the conflict area, Link heard two more words, which seemed to have been spoken to him from the midst of the light itself.

"Thank you."


In seconds, Link had appeared mere inches from the rest of his team in a blinding flash, although in spite of the bright light that had surrounded him a moment before, they could all see that he was still very upset by what he'd just seen and done. The evil Zelda declared, for a moment, that there would be a short debate as to who'd really won the fight, but Link knew that it would eventually be declared a draw, since neither of them had really been hurt. What concerned him, though, was that before fighting with Mikey, he could have fooled himself into thinking that their opponents were just fabrications or illusions of some kind, but he couldn't do that anymore. Link knew for certain that they were all real, and all just as worried about their worlds as he was about his.

"We have to get that wish." Link told his team shortly, just after having rejoined them, "We're not just fighting for the fate of one world, but five thousand, full of people with histories, dreams and desires for their future. We can't afford to fail."


Mark had originally intended to help Talon with his cuccos, but when he'd found out that they could, at times, be deadly, he decided that it would be better if he were to work in an area like farming or book-minding; librarian duties at the castle; something he already had a significant talent for, and which was relatively safe.

It took him several hours before he'd decided which of those jobs he wanted to do, but it didn't take very long for it to be arranged, once he met with a hylian employer in charge of Kakariko service management. Mark's job was to manage a small farmland area in the hills near Kakariko. His tasks were simple enough, of course; plant seeds, bring water to them from the river, and keep the dirt and plants well-arranged. It would also be his job to harvest the fruits and vegetables from the farm when the time came, but in the meantime, he only had to be in the area to make sure that wild animals didn't get at the food. As a result, Mark was entirely at liberty to chat with any of the hylians who happened to walk by the hillside farm, and he always had amazing stories to tell about himself, his world, and its history.

As something of a history student, Mark was in a position to tell those people all about the cultures of the ancient Egyptians, the Sumerians and Mesopotamians in the cradle of civilization, the Greeks and Romans, and the fall of the Roman Empire, the grand escapades of the feudal lords during the first millennium, and their many knights. He told people about the legends of King Arthur, and the quest of him and his teacher Merlin to bring peace and justice to the people. He told them about the voyages and mistakes of Christopher Columbus, of the formation of America, and how it had declared its independence. He told them about Abraham Lincoln; America's greatest president, who abolished the practice of slavery, and did what was right for the people of his nation. He told them about the two World Wars, and the wars that had happened since then; how the people of Earth had quickly learned more, and the information age had begun. He told them about how the space program was started, and what the governments of the Earth were doing to help the homeless and poverty-stricken in their own countries.

Mark told all of those stories to the people of Hyrule, and he told them with great pride. His eyes would often seem to glaze over when he was speaking about skyscrapers, television, or cellular phones, and most of all, he'd stress the absolute dominance of efficiency in his culture, and of the many things that people had done to make their lives more productive.

On his first day as a farmer, both children and adults listened to Mark's tales all morning with rapt attention.


"The next one is my fight." Ruto said grimly, noticing that Link was out of breath from his own struggle. She stepped up to the teleporters, and there, she saw that on the other team, one of the fighters was approaching, though he looked very grave indeed; they both did. The champions on the other team must have thought that they could still claim victory, but it was obvious that neither was optimistic after those first two failures against the hylian team.

The fighter who approached Ruto from the opposing side was the one dressed in the swimsuit, with the smoking breath. He only said one thing, however, as he and Ruto stepped onto the platforms opposite one another.

"I'm Jack. You?"

"Ruto." she said, simplifying her formerly-lengthy royal title a bit coldly.

Jack didn't reply to her, though, but instead, he stepped into the teleporter in front of him. She stepped into hers, though she was chagrined by what she'd perceived as rudeness on his part. Still, one of them would have to immobilize the other fairly soon. That was far from the most civilized situation that she could imagine.


In moments, Ruto found herself on a rocky island with a wooden sailing ship, which seemed almost to be built directly through the heart of the rock. Beyond the ship, she could see an ocean that stretched on for miles in every direction, and for a moment, she lost herself in the vastness of the living water. Forgetting for the moment about her opponent, Ruto leapt from the rocky land mass, and into the ocean.

Ruto's life had largely been sheltered and even, some might say, confined. She had, as a child, never really journeyed out of the Zora's Domain, and even as an adult, she'd never entered a body of water any larger than Lake Hylia, but once inside that huge ocean, she could tell that living her life in such a small environment had been a mistake. The water extended for meters below her as she swam, and yet, every square yard of it seemed to teem with life and love, like nothing she'd ever experienced before. That ocean was stretching on and on in all directions, and the feeling of absolute freedom was incredible. She swam this way and that, faster than any shark, for minutes that felt like hours, because they were so full of joy and freedom. For a while, Ruto wondered if she could ever go back to the small-lake swimming she'd done in the past, as the fish brushed by her arms and legs. She didn't ever want it to end.

Suddenly, however, in the midst of all that joy, Ruto saw a flickering blue light pass by overhead, and had only a second to react, before a chunk of ice the size of her room in the Zora's Domain came crashing down on top of her from above. Reacting as fast as she could, Ruto took the initial impact with her feet, before twisting around, and shattering the ice to pieces with a single, mighty punch. Of course, that attack hadn't really hurt her, but it had jarred her back out of the euphoria she'd just been feeling, and reminded her of why she was really there. Ruto had a job to do, and a very dangerous enemy to defeat.

Quickly, Ruto swam directly up as fast as she could, and vaulted out of the ocean's surface in a wet spray, then looked around for her foe. She didn't have far to look, though. He was flying around above the ocean's surface, not more than a few yards away; a glowing blue aura surrounding him, and he spun around to look at her the moment she'd emerged from the water.

Ruto could see that Jack was changing the shape of his aura with every second, so that it branched out over the area that they'd appeared in, and shards of ice began to fall from the sky before Ruto hit the water again. Obviously, Ruto realized, the aura around Jack had only one purpose; to create ice, and freeze water solid in any area that he wanted.

As soon as Ruto splashed back into the ocean, she was followed by a rain of icicles from the sky, which began to chip away at her scaly hide the moment they hit. That hurt, but the wounds that Ruto was receiving were mostly negligible. Still, she knew that she couldn't withstand that assault forever, and having only a few seconds to plan out a course of action, she dove further underwater with all the speed she could manage.

At five meters below the surface of the water, the icicles began to slow down, and at seven, they started to melt, blunting their edges, but Ruto could tell that her enemy wasn't going to stop with an attack like that. Indeed, she was absolutely right, because no more than thirty seconds after the icicle rain started melting, a wall of ice that looked like the bottom of an iceberg descended on Ruto from above, which seemed to continue on in all four directions, as far as she could see.

At once, Ruto began to attack the iceberg with her fists, putting deep cracks into its base with her well-hydrated muscles, but she didn't seem to be making much headway against the huge mountain of ice, and it was bearing down on her faster and faster. However, soon, she heard a horrifying lurching and cracking sound from overhead, and as she looked up, she could see that the entire iceberg was quivering, and that the large hole she'd made in its base was shaking more than any other part of it.

She had some idea of what was going on then, however. Swiftly, Ruto reached both hands up, grabbing onto the painfully-cold ice, and all at once, the ice seemed to move off to the side, faster than anything that Ruto had ever seen or felt, and she felt the water's surface pass her by as the ice scooped her up in the huge, spoon-shaped crater she'd made in it.

Somehow, Ruto later realized, she must have destroyed enough of the iceberg's lower mass, that its balance in the water had reversed, flipping it over, and her with it. Once she was on the surface of the water again, though, standing on top of the iceberg, Ruto looked quickly around for her foe, despite the intense pain in both her hands and feet from the cold ice underneath her. There, she saw her enemy, sitting in mid-air, apparently expecting her to pass out at any moment from the pain, but he was very wrong about that.

Bracing both feet against the ice, Ruto crossed her arms in front of her face, then shoved them out to the sides, causing the fins on the sides of her arms to detach, and go flying through the air towards her enemy like sharp-edged boomerangs.

Although razor-sharp objects were headed his way with incredible speed, however, Jack didn't look the least bit worried, and it soon became obvious why. Ruto hadn't been able to tell because of his aura, but Jack had apparently assumed an ethereal form. As Ruto's fins passed directly through him, doing no damage at all, each was frozen solid, and when they re-connected to her arms, their ice started to spread down her hands, and up towards her shoulders.

She fell to the surface of the iceberg in horrible agony for a moment, to say nothing of the terror that she was starting to feel as well. Things were definitely getting bad, in spite of the powers she'd discovered during her exile. Not only could Jack create ice with his aura, but he was completely untouchable, and he apparently had the ability to reshape existing ice, and even cause it to grow. As the icy pain in Ruto's arms increased second-by-second, her vision began to blur...

Ruto found herself falling into darkness. In the past, she might have been protected by the authority of her father, or simply smashed the source of her pain, or maybe she would have been defended by some well-meaning soul, but that was one of the few times since her early childhood when she'd been forced into an unfair situation, in which she was totally outclassed, and unable to use her authority to get out of it. She couldn't run to anyone but herself, and she couldn't cry, because her eyes wouldn't respond. She might otherwise have screamed at the world, raging at the unfairness of it all, then shut down in the face of odds that she thought were unfair, and indeed, for a few moments, it was her instinct to do just that, but in that moment, something else was there, on top of her old instincts. Words, like echoes of her recent past haunted her memories, and resurfaced just then, when she knew that she was losing that fight.

"If you're not contented, just do something about it."

"You have to do the right thing now, even if you didn't always when you were younger."

"You were lazy, arrogant, self-righteous, childish, and at the same time, you took yourself much too seriously. You were so concerned with how you appeared to other people, that there was no room for anything else. Every moment you spent trying to win me over was painful for me, and I've gone through worse pains since then, but I always kept going. I never made excuses for myself as to why I couldn't continue. I did what needed to be done. That's the biggest reason we don't belong together, Ruto. I buckle down and get the job done, but no matter who you were, or what kind of power you had, you were always a whiner."

"No!" Ruto cried out in determination into her own thoughts, "I won't! I won't be a whiner anymore! I'm through crying! I don't care how invulnerable this guy is, or how much pain I'm in, or how much power he has! I'm not going to lose!"

The scream that echoed through her head at once escaped her mouth in a whimper, then a cry, then a shout of defiance, as the zora champion smashed both arms against the ground.

Ice and shattered scales flew in all directions, as Ruto's arms were torn up by the impact of the shattering ice, but her determination to win had grown much stronger than that sort of pain a few moments before. In an instant, Ruto had rolled off to one side, and leapt directly at her enemy, both arms outstretched in rage. Suddenly, however, when she was only about halfway towards him, his aura changed shape and enveloped her, covering her in a jagged ice crystal, which increased the weight of her environment, causing her to fall downward at an angle, instead of continuing up towards her foe.

Summoning up her massive willpower again, however, Ruto shattered the ice with a single motion of her muscles, and most of her scales were torn up as well, in the process, forcing her through virtually unimaginable pain once more. However, she was still determined to win, and still thinking carefully about how to claim victory. Obviously, her enemy had seen her, even though he hadn't looked at her.

Maybe, she thought, he had some kind of power, which alerted him to nearby attackers. Maybe he could see out of any piece of ice, like an extra eye. Maybe it didn't matter! Ruto reached both hands downward, yanking a large chunk of ice out of the ground, and hurling it through the air towards her enemy, who, to her surprise, ducked underneath it, as if, for a moment, he was afraid of being hit by that chunk of frozen water.

Ruto could barely believe what she was seeing, so she looked at Jack much more closely, and in that moment, she could almost swear that he was chanting to himself somehow. Just as Ruto kept telling herself that she had to win, and put her victory in that competition first, Jack seemed to be reciting the exact same thing, but he wasn't injured at all, and it didn't really seem like he was in any danger of losing. Something else seemed to be influencing his behavior, though; some inner conflict that was wearing on his self-control, even in the midst of a fight for his very life.

Dashing back and forth, to avoid the ice formations that were trying to creep up and swallow her feet, Ruto continued to throw chunks of ice at her enemy, who, for a while, kept dodging them, but once it became apparent that he couldn't change the direction of the ice chunks in mid-air with his powers, Ruto was sure that she'd found Jack's weakness, in spite of her own injuries, and she had every intention of exploiting it.

Summoning up every ounce of strength left in her battle-worn body, Ruto reached down, and yanked up a chunk of ice the size of most boulders, but instead of throwing it, she just dropped it next to her, got behind it, and punched it with all her might, shattering the entire boulder on impact. Shards of ice flew in all directions, impossible for someone the size of Jack to dodge, and in a moment, a change started to come over him.

As the first ice shard passed into Jack, it seemed to dissolve into nothing, but Ruto could see him gritting his teeth in something like a cross between a flinch and a smile as it vanished. From then on, Ruto seemed to have a much easier time hitting Jack with the ice shards, and each time, though they didn't seem to do any visible damage, Jack's attempts to dodge them grew more and more halfhearted. Ruto didn't know why that was, but she suspected that the adding of solid ice to his incorporeal form was a dangerous thing for him, and indeed, after only the first ten or so shards had vanished into him, he began to descend from the sky, and couldn't seem to fly any longer.

From then on, Ruto started to throw larger chunks at him again, and the iceberg was starting to diminish; the water rising up around her feet, causing much of her old strength to return. However, when she'd thrown about five large ice chunks into Jack's body, something strange seemed to happen to him.

The extra mass, which had before seemed to simply dissipate on contact with him, had made him more and more solid, until his whole body seemed to almost be made of ice, and his mass and volume were steadily increasing with every second. At last, Ruto leapt across what was left of the iceberg, and landed on the other side, leaping forward again, as Jack collapsed forcefully onto the massive glacier, seeming to melt into it, and causing both himself and his aura to vanish almost completely.

Ruto, noticing that the ice was dissolving under her feet, leapt into the delicious, salty waves below her, and swam further and further down, as far as she possibly could. She was swimming for no more than a minute and a half, though, before she found herself back at the teleport area, next to a seventy-foot giant, which seemed to be made entirely of ice, and was laying on its back on the ground. The giant's eyes were open, but it seemed to be struggling to even move its massive jaw.

"In your ethereal form," Ruto correctly guessed, "any ice you touch is absorbed into you, and the more ice, the more mass. Eventually, you become too enormous to even move your own icy muscles, and per the terms of the conflict, I've immobilized you."

"You only... have half... the story." the ice giant that Jack had become muttered to her in a voice that was disappointed, but still somehow pleased, as it struggled to breathe in and out, "The... absorbing... of fresh ice... is a... merging of... soul and... matter. It's the most... incredible... pleasure I've... come across, and... my people... value... pleasure... above all... else. I've spent most... of my free... time doing... this to... myself through... my entire... life. I had to... fight the... desire for... pleasure just... as I fought... you. It was a... battle I... could never... have won."

Then, consumed by the terrible pain that was coursing through her every nerve, Ruto herself collapsed under her numerous injuries, and Link had to carry her back to her team area. She was unconscious in moments, but Link could tell that she'd survive. The zora princess had proven to have more willpower than anyone had suspected, and she'd won her first real fight.


"I'll take the next one." Stalflare said quickly, looking grim, "We'll need someone to come out of this uninjured besides Link."

At that point, without waiting for a reply from anyone, Stalflare walked up to the teleporters, to find that the last visible fighter on the opposing team wasn't stepping forward. Instead, she was digging something out of her pockets, as if trying to get hold of some kind of weapon inside.

Stalflare had been expected many different types of possible weapons or creatures to emerge from that woman's pocket, but what she eventually produced was one of the last things he would have expected; a small, metal vase.

The vase that the woman was holding was about a foot tall; about four inches wide at its thickest point, and less than an inch and a half at its narrowest. It had an unusual-looking lid, fastened onto it with several latches, and as Stalflare watched, the woman undid them, and opened the vase, putting it carefully onto the ground in front of her. Then, she raised both arms towards the sky, and started reciting words, which sounded like the beginning of some kind of spell.

"Oh, mighty genie Kodacho!" the woman recited loudly, "I beseech you to hear my words, and come forth to grant my every wish!"

As that short speech ended, a terrible shadow passed over the area where both teams were standing. Stalflare looked up in confusion, to see that dark clouds had blotted out the sun, turning the sky almost completely black! As that happened, there was thunder in the distance, and in seconds, some of the clouds had begun to encircle the vase. Lightening struck on the horizon in several places, as the smoke cleared again, and the clouds started to fade away once more. At the end of that awesome display, an incredible being stepped forth from the remnants of the smoke, however, grinning from ear to ear.

He was dressed in long pants, which tightened around his ankles, and sandals of a beautiful, red color. His chest was bare, but jeweled armlets and beautiful metal rings were on his arms and fingers. He was completely bald, but a gem seemed to have somehow been placed into a recess in his forehead. It was a magnificent opal, and it looked almost priceless, but Stalflare suspected that the being himself was more valuable than any gemstone. Somehow, he knew, that man was their group's most powerful champion.

"I, Kodacho, mighty genie of the sacred jar of Karah, step forth from my home since time immemorial to grant my master any wish she may desire." The genie said, his words echoing through the clouds, as though each cloud in the sky overhead was making his voice even louder. Even Stalflare started to feel a bit intimidated by the sight.

The woman didn't look nearly as impressed as Stalflare, however. In moments, she'd pointed at the teleporters, then at Stalflare, saying, "Enter one of those, then defeat that creature. I don't care how."

In response, though, the genie grinned mischievously, saying "I will do as you command."

Stalflare barely saw the genie lift a finger, but suddenly, he was standing on one of the teleporters. Anybody with any sense would have found a feat like that intimidating, but Stalflare boldly got up on the other platform, looking as brave as he could. A mere feat of speed, after all, wasn't going to scare him into surrendering that fight.


Soon, Stalflare found himself standing right in front of the genie, in the middle of what looked like a town. The buildings were painted impractically-bright, loud colors, with symbols of some unknown meaning all over them, and there was a sort of statue in the center of town, which resembled a pink snowman with no arms, and a bright green top hat. The genie however, didn't seem to find any of that surprising. In fact, he looked a lot more surprised by Stalflare than by their surroundings.

"You seem to think that you have a chance for success in this fight." the genie said casually, his voice no longer echoing through the sky, for the moment, "Do you not know enough about me, or are you simply too proud to admit that you could ever fail?"

"I can't afford to fail for the sake of my people." Stalflare replied, his scowl deepening, "If I don't defeat you, then my world might not survive."

No more words were spoken between the two of them at that point, however, because in seconds, the fight had begun in earnest. Both Stalflare and the genie took flight in a single, swift motion as the battle began. Stalflare dashed forward, to deliver a punch, and was blocked by the genie's left arm. Unfortunately, the genie's strength and speed seemed just as prodigious as Stalflare's, and the worst part was that he still didn't look like he was trying very hard.

Quickly, the genie countered Stalflare's attack with an elbow strike, which seemed to extend outward much further than any elbow that Stalflare had ever seen, but the greide zwooda blocked the attack quickly, and attempted another kick. For a while, the two fighters struck out in mid-air, with simple punches and kicks of enormous power, shattering nearby stones and bricks with the force of their impact, but neither managed to hit the other directly, or get a clean blow against their enemy's head or chest. At last, they both backed off from each other again, neither one terribly winded, but neither making any headway either. That was when Stalflare realized that no matter how hard he fought, there was no way that he could beat Kodacho without using any of his other powers.

"Magic, then." Stalflare said, summoning up an aura of flames around his body.

"A mistake on your part." the genie boasted, holding both hands outward in front of him, his fingers twitching in some kind of magical gesture. As Kodacho spoke, his palms began to glow, and Stalflare could see that the light flowing from his hands was gathering into a series of five small, shining balls in front of him; shining balls that must have been much more dangerous than they looked, because Stalflare could feel some of their power from where he was, and they felt absolutely monstrous.

"The shining dazzle bombs are the genie's greatest weapon in combat." Kodacho explained aloud, as the bright balls began to circle around him on their own, "They can vanquish any foe, no matter how powerful."

Stalflare leapt forward quickly, not even listening to his enemy's boasts; his flame aura changing shape around him to attack the genie. Kodacho had conjured up a strange-looking club in moments, however, and was gesturing to his dazzle orbs to attack his foe.

At the genie's silent command, the orbs seemed to move through the air on their own, headed in Stalflare's direction. Although Stalflare did his best to attack Kodacho from where he was, however, three of the orbs collided with the greide zwooda's flame aura at once, and detonated.

Deafening explosions went off in an instant in front of Stalflare, blowing him backwards through the air with their force. Stalflare's flame aura did very little to protect him from those horrible explosions, although the fact that he didn't take any of them head-on was a consolation, because he could tell that if he had, he would have been dead. Stalflare could feel every inch of his skin aching from some kind of enchantment, which he'd been narrowly missed by.

By that point, Stalflare really was scared. In seconds, he'd scrambled to his feet in desperation, just in time to see the two other dazzle-orbs headed in his direction. Swiftly casting a shielding spell, in an attempt to defend himself from the attack, Stalflare held up both palms, and from them came huge flashes of light, sending light-beams into the hearts of the enemy's orbs. Once again, the projectiles were detonated before hitting Stalflare, and once again, the explosion was painful, but with his shield up, he managed to avoid much more of the damage from the attack.

Quickly, Stalflare got to his feet, and started searching around for his enemy, but in moments, he realized in horror that Kodacho had been behind him. Swiftly, Stalfare spun around, and fired off his light flashes again, hitting the genie directly in the face and eyes with the full force of one of his strongest magical attacks; a spell that would have decimated a small house. It took several seconds for those lights to fade away.

However, as the blinding lights finally did start to diminish, Stalflare felt a lump form in his throat from the impact of what he was seeing. There stood Kodacho, right at the center of a crater that Stalflare's latest attack had made, but there wasn't so much as a single scratch or burn-mark on him. He didn't even seem to have been blinded.

"As strong as your attacks may be against mortals," the genie said calmly, looking more irritated than injured, "I have existed for millennia. You will not be able to harm me with magic of that class."

For several moments, Stalflare could only stare in horror, as Kodacho rose into the air again, seemingly without any effort at all, summoning up three more dazzle orbs to his hands as he flew higher and higher. However, by that point, Stalflare was quickly running out of options, and he knew that if he even wanted to have a chance against Kodacho he had to do something drastic.

Quickly, Stalflare pulled his staff out of his belt, where it had been fastened up to that point in the fight, and cast a new type of shielding spell on it, which he'd been working on recently. Originally, he'd intended for the spell to enable weak mages to overcome powerful ones, but he'd never expected to wind up using it himself, and by that point, he wasn't completely sure that it was going to work anyway. Still, it was the only real chance he had.

Swinging his staff around like a mace, Stalflare struck out as hard as he could at the first of the oncoming dazzle orbs, and was actually amazed when the staff succeeded in knocking the magical bomb back towards its master. Quickly, Stalflare struck the other two dazzle orbs as well, knocking them back towards Kodacho, but it seemed that he was even more stunned that Stalflare, and could barely react to the mighty, magical bombs headed in his direction.

At the last moment, Kodacho started trying to detonate the dazzle bombs early, just like Stalflare had in the past. One detonated almost at once, another was knocked back in Stalflare's direction, but the third grazed the genie's left hip a moment later, and he screamed in agony, like nothing that anyone had felt in a thousand years.

The last dazzle orb exploded at Stalflare's feet in seconds, knocking him backwards again, through a brick wall and two wooden ones, before he came to rest at the base of a large, metal barrier, which he'd dented with his head a second before. Stalflare could feel the injuries that that final explosion had given him, and he knew that he couldn't possibly get up. His legs had been fractured in several places, and he could feel that one of his wings was busted as well. Stalflare was in no shape to keep fighting, and his only real hope at that point was that his enemy was also incapacitated, and the fight could be called a draw.

However, even as Stalflare hoped for the best, he looked up, and saw something that forced him to recognize the truth about that fight's outcome. The genie was floating over Stalflare, with his left leg, and most of the left side of his torso up to the arm totally missing. The genie was obviously injured, but his magic was great enough to keep him up and active. Obviously, Stalflare had lost.

"You're better than I thought you'd be." the genie remarked, sounding more contemplative than angry, in spite of his obvious wounds, "You must have something powerful to fight for."

"Do you?" Stalflare gasped out, barely able to breathe by that point, much less speak. However, as he heard that, Kodacho's eyes flashed bright yellow.

"What?"

"I'm fighting for my people, and for my teammates." Stalflare repeated in slow, gasping breaths, "What do you fight for?"

"I fight for the same reason I do everything; to give pleasure to my masters."

"Pleasure?" Stalflare asked, fascinated by his enemy's reply, in spite of the pain traveling through his whole body, "Don't you have a deeper purpose than that? Is that really your only reason to exist?"

For a moment, the genie just looked confused, and obviously, there was something about Stalflare that he wasn't able to understand.

"What deeper purpose is there than the enjoyment of life?"

"Joy and pleasure are different things, Kodacho." Stalflare explained, as some of his powers returned, and he started involuntarily healing some of the damage that had been done to his lungs, "Even I know that, and I spend most of my life in self-actualization. To really enjoy life, you must learn to appreciate things like honor, justice and the satisfaction of accomplishments. That is the gerudo creed; to accomplish great things, and earn one's place in the world. We take great pride in our individual accomplishments, and in our accomplishments as a race, and it gives us joy, far beyond anything that simple pleasures could provide."

For a moment, the genie was silent, frowning as though he was deep in some futile, but compelling train of though, but at last, he merely said, "I cannot change my lot in life. Serving my master is all that I can do."

Stalflare said nothing in response to that, though, because in his mind, the enemy who'd just defeated him was much less than a man. However, in seconds, Kodacho asked the former gerudo another question.

"Tell me the truth; you do have a fear of failure, don't you?"

Stalflare smiled wryly, however, when the genie asked him that. He was in so much pain, that every nerve in his body seemed to be on the verge of screaming aloud, but in spite of that, he replied to Kodacho's question with a satisfied grin.

"Not anymore."

Moments later, the two had vanished from the small, strange town, and were back in the stadium with their teams. Stalflare had been the first member of the hylian team to lose a battle decisively, but for some reason, he didn't feel so badly about it. He knew that he couldn't move, but Mikey wasn't leaving that arena either, so if anything, all his fight had done was tie up their score. As Darunia picked him up, and carried him back to their side of the arena, Stalflare could see that Jack's icy body had melted for the most part, and he was standing near the woman, who was looking quite pleased with her powerful servant. Kodacho had healed his own injuries somehow, and the dark clouds were vanishing from the sky, as she held up his jar, and he disappeared into it, in a funnel of magical smoke.

"Maybe if we survive this round," Stalflare realized silently, as he watched his enemy disappearing, "it will turn out that both of us were victorious in our fights, in one way or another. He's earned his team a point, but I've been through a failure, and really... it wasn't so much worse than victory."


By the time it was afternoon, Mark received a visit from Ramie. She'd heard a few of his stories from people who were repeating them around town in astonished tones, and she'd decided that the time had come to give herself another shot at understanding that strange visitor from another world. However, when Ramie finally got to Mark's farm, she gasped in surprise, because Mark seemed to have been digging a series of small trenches through the dirt.

"What are you doing that for?" Ramie asked curiously, though she was quickly starting to accept his strange ways.

"Oh. Hello." Mark said absent-mindedly, not stopping what he was doing for even a moment, "This is going to make the task of watering the plants easier. You see, this way, once these trenches are finished, I can pour water down one, and it will flow down the entire row, so I don't have to water each individual plant."

"That's quite intelligent." Ramie observed with a smile, but in a moment, she asked, "Why do you want to make the work easier? Do you have some place to be?"

"Well, not exactly." Mark confessed, "But people seem interested in my stories about my world, and I figure I can use the extra time to do some more explaining."

Ramie chuckled briefly when she thought about that, but it wasn't long before she replied to Mark's explanation aloud, with the same kind smile as before.

"Yes." she admitted, "I suppose you can. Not everyone has the gift of storytelling."

Mark smiled at her then. Having spent almost a full day in that new land, he'd started to learn that those people viewed things much differently than humans did.

"Actually," Ramie continued, "Your stories are the biggest reason I'm here. You see, I haven't been able to understand your people, and since we're friends, I think I ought to give it another go."

"Fine by me." Mark replied, finishing his last trench.

"Well," Ramie said patiently, "let's start with the basics. What's the thing about your people that's most different from us?"

Mark had to sit down and give that question some thought before he was able to come up with a reply that sounded reasonable. After about fifty seconds, though, he said "I suppose it's that money is much more important to humans than it is to hylians."

"Important in what way?"

"Well, on Earth, you can't get anything or go anywhere, or really do anything without money. You need money to get a house, a mode of transportation from one place to another, you need money to get food and clothes, and of course, if you want to buy a means of entertaining yourself, you need money for that too. Even if you're in terrible need, no one ever takes it easy on you unless you have a lot of money. In Hyrule, people don't seem to be as fixated on getting rich."

"Wait a minute." Ramie said, stopping him, "If your world's people were really that stingy, your species couldn't survive a single generation. What would your newborns eat?"

"Oh." Mark said with a smile over having something so simple to explain, "They eat food provided for them by their parents. Their parents buy food from stores and give it to their children."

"So food is only given to very young babies?"

"Well, no. Sometimes, a group of people will get together and give food to other people who are very hungry, because they don't have enough money to buy food for themselves. That's called charity."

Ramie was starting to look more and more skeptical as Mark explained things, but she told him to continue after a moment.

"Anyway, to be able to make a living for themselves, young human beings have to get an education, and obtain the qualifications they need for a job."

"That part I know." Ramie said with a smile, "The young ones are sent away to a school for a while, where they study the skills that one needs to do any of a number of jobs, and one job of their choosing. We do the same thing in Hyrule."

"Except that here, the child lives at the school." Mark added, "That sometimes happens on Earth too, but not very often."

"I see." Ramie continued, looking confused, but having an easier time, it seemed believing that, "So your children live at home mostly, and their parents look after them while working. Clever."

Mark could see that she was jumping to conclusions again, however.

"Well, not exactly." he replied, though he knew that he was going to have to explain it better than that, since Ramie was already looking confused again.

"You see," Mark said, trying to put the concept in its simplest terms, "Parents have jobs that take up large amounts of time, and earn certain amounts of money in proportion to several factors, like education, intelligence, popularity, cunning, friendships and so forth, but the very rich and very poor are hardly ever at home, and the only people allowed to bring their kids to work are teachers."

"I don't understand." Ramie muttered, looking very perplexed once again, "In that case, wouldn't the majority of parents be absent for most of their children's youth? How can a parent help to guide a child's development, and more to the point, how can a parent and child nurture a relationship if they so rarely spend time together? If the parent isn't guiding the child, and the teacher isn't, then who is?"

Mark was starting to suspect that Ramie was far more intelligent than he'd given her credit for, since she'd drawn all those apt conclusions. However, after a moment, he said, "Well, first off, many people who are so rich, that they're set for life will leave their jobs to others, and retire. That's the time of life when they just relax and spend time getting to know other people."

"You mean they contribute nothing?" Ramie asked, looking horrified, "That must make them feel terrible!"

For the first time in his life, Mark felt as though a hundred facts had been connected. The constant human search for wealth, and the struggle to obtain it had suddenly been simplified in the saying that real happiness comes from working towards something. Such an equation would certainly explain the many unhappy retired sports stars or musicians. Mark was amazed at the wisdom of Ramie, that she could see things in just a moment, which he, in all his life, hadn't been able to. Still, he paused for only a short time before continuing his explanations.

"We let our children entertain themselves when we aren't around, by giving them toys to play with or television to watch. Television is a type of plastic box with metal inside, and it shows moving pictures with sound. It presents the illusion that something is there, when really, it's just an image."

"Okay." Ramie replied with a knowing nod of her head, "I'm familiar with illusions, but how can you be sure that your child is being guided properly towards adulthood by those televisions? Every child needs different guidance, depending on their stage of development. Does your box do that too?"

"No." Mark admitted with a short tilt of his head, "Television doesn't guide children to become adults. If anything, it portrays an almost constant attitude of bitterness and insistent immaturity, which is sometimes translated into humor. There are some programs that are kid-friendly, but when parents aren't around, very few kids will willingly watch those."

A million things seemed to be rushing through Ramie's head at that point, and Mark could tell that it wouldn't be long before she stopped listening to his story again.

"You've given me a lot to think about." Ramie finally said, however, getting to her feet, while obviously trying to fake another friendly smile, "I'll see you again this evening, and ask you a few more questions; then you can tell me more."

"Okay." Mark replied. He could tell that Ramie still hadn't accepted what he'd just said, but really, he was just glad to be of any help he could in enlightening those people.


"I suppose the next one will be mine." Zelda said, stepping towards the platforms in the center of the area with a look of some concern on her face.

"What if it's another genie?" Link asked in worry.

Zelda frowned in response to that question, but she didn't reply to it aloud; merely stepping up to the teleporter. The woman on the opposite team seemed to have regained some of her confidence because of that last victory, and was digging around in her pocket for something. Soon, she'd pulled out what looked like a small, white ball of fur. It seemed to be alive, and was munching on something in the woman's hand. With a flick of her wrist, the woman gently tossed it onto the ground, and it hopped over to the teleporter without saying a word. Zelda was flabbergasted by the sight, however. She could barely even sense any power at all from that little creature, as if it was barely even a life-form in the conventional sense. Still, it probably had some secret that she wasn't aware of, and Zelda knew that she couldn't afford to get cocky, while fighting something, just because it seemed small and weak.

Wordlessly, the two beings entered their respective teleporters, and vanished from sight a moment later.


The two combatants appeared next to one another in the middle of a dusty old town, moments later. Virtually every building in the town seemed to be made entirely of wood. Zelda could tell at once that if there was a fire, the town wouldn't survive. Below them was sand and bare earth, as though the whole area was built on a plain without any grass. Zelda could see that her opponent was kind of resting at her feet, not really doing anything. It was a very bizarre creature, because she couldn't seem to make out any arms or legs of any sort on it, or even really any mouth. Still, after only taking a second or two to think it over, Zelda decided to finish the fight as quickly as she could.

Ducking off to one side for a moment, to fake out her enemy, Zelda moved in and kicked the small creature with her boot. The thing squealed in pain, and went flying for several yards like a football, before coming to rest just outside of town, and Zelda rushed to catch up to it, because although it had certainly seemed helpless during that first strike, she didn't want to take any chances with it.

However, as the princess got closer to where the tiny creature had landed, she was driven back away from it again by a blinding light, which she'd needed to shield her eyes from, and suddenly, the small creature was gone, and in its place was something that looked like a shining, white dove, dressed in a golden mantle. Zelda had never seen anything quite like it before, and she paused for a moment to look at it in amazement. Soon, however, the creature fired a beam of light from the tip of its beak, and Zelda had only a moment to duck to one side, avoiding the blast, then spin around, and give the new creature an elbow in the neck, knocking it sideways onto the ground again.

Once again, Zelda was forced to shield her eyes, as another blinding light erupted from the creature, and when the princess from Hyrule looked up again, she began to understand how that beast could be classified as a champion.

What stood there, in the midst of that town, was no longer a mere fuzz-ball, or even a bird, but a man in robes whiter than any spell could make them. From his back came two enormous, feathery wings, and his face seemed to shine with a golden light, that was fearful to see. For a moment, Zelda was worried that she'd die, just from looking at him.

Most frightening of all, the man seemed to hang in mid-air, and he must have been at least twelve feet tall.

The man's eyes were closed tightly, and for a moment, they remained that way, until finally, he pulled a pair of opaque goggles from the folds of his robes, and positioned them over his eyes. At once, the feeling of imminent danger began to vanish, and Zelda saw him, not as a lethal creature, but as a thing of wonderful beauty. More to the point, she saw a sort of intelligence in him, which she hadn't noticed in either of his previous forms.

"You seem very different from the others." Zelda remarked in amazement, however, once he'd put on his goggles, "What are you fighting for?"

"I fight for virtues." the flying giant said, in a voice that seemed to echo through the skies themselves, not unlike the voice of the genie, "I'm a defender of the innocent, and I'm not always in league with the others."

"Who do you defend?" Zelda asked, still awed by the being who floated overhead.

"Those who cannot defend themselves; children, animals, the poor, and those who dream of something better; everyone uncorrupted by the constant obsession with pleasure. I'm their ever-present guardian, looked upon as a horrible foe by those in power, who wish to corrupt the innocent."

"Then you must usually be the enemy of the others." Zelda correctly suggested, but soon, the Guardian replied, still looking sad.

"Today we have other enemies." the Guardian observed aloud, "Our very existence is being threatened. I must do what I can."

Soon, Guardian pulled a shining sword made of flames from his robes, and a shield, which seemed to almost radiate lucidity. When Zelda looked into the surface of that being's shield, she had a much easier time recognizing that none of the strange being's powers were illusions. It was all completely real. Still, she knew that she had to win somehow, and that wasn't going to be easy. She'd been trying to attack Guardian's mind at first, but his mental defenses were absolutely monstrous. In fact, they were much greater than hers, though she couldn't tell exactly how great. Obviously, the fight would have to be fought on physical terms.

Zelda's eyes began to glow, as she started to manifest her telekinetic powers, and lifted herself into the air. Quickly, she flew off to one side, throwing darts at her enemy, who incinerated them easily with his flaming sword, then charged directly at her. As Guardian approached Zelda, however, she could feel the terrible heat radiating from the shining aura that surrounded his body, so she cast a spell, and suddenly, a green glow had surrounded her, and she'd disappeared.

However, as the variation on the spell of "Farore's Wind" deposited Zelda elsewhere in the area, she could tell that her foe had already sensed her presence. Zelda dove to the ground quickly, as a beam of light cut through one of the nearby buildings, and she just barely managed to avoid having her head taken off by it. Where the beam hit the ground in front of her, however, instead of dissipating, it caused the ground to start glowing, and Zelda barely had time to find cover behind another nearby house, and activate a spell of protection before an explosion of light from the place where the beam had hit consumed everything for a mile, except her enemy, and, thanks to her spell of protection, herself.

Zelda was started to sweat by that point, as she looked up at the monstrous fighter, who was still standing in mid-air, as if nothing had happened at all. There was no way she could dodge an attack like that, and there wasn't any cover left, not that it would have done her much good anyway, since that foe seemed to have a kind of radar sense, that allowed him to home in on his enemy, even when he couldn't see her with his eyes.

At once, Zelda decided to go on the offensive, and changed the aura around her body as fast as she could. Moments later, a sea of fireballs encircled the head of the princess, and she began to reach up for them, and throw them at Guardian, who would sometimes block the attacks with his shield, and sometimes dodge them instead. At last, however, he did something that Zelda had never expected him to be capable of. The guardian rammed his sword directly into the ground, causing all the fireballs she'd summoned to be drawn directly to it, through some kind of attraction spell. As that happened, his sword grew to nearly ten feet in height, as though it was absorbing power from her attack, and a wall of bright, red magic extended from it in either direction, shining with incredible power. Guardian's sword had disappeared while forming that wall, but he'd summoned another in seconds, and charged at Zelda directly again. Having no other choice, Zelda activated her spell of protection again, and punched Guardian right in the face.

Zelda's enemy didn't even flinch, but instead, responded to Zelda's attack by hitting her in the stomach, and leaving behind a white, sparkling substance of some kind, which Zelda recognized from the last time she'd seen it in action, destroying the town around them. Quickly, Zelda backed off, reinforcing her spell of protection, and hoping for the best.

The attack felt like being hit with a battering ram. Zelda felt the impact, even through her protective field, and was knocked back through the air quite a long way, away from her opponent. However, the pain wasn't the worst part. Zelda couldn't think of any way to beat an enemy like Guardian, since none of her attacks seemed to be working against him, and his continual assault was starting to wear down her magic. Soon, she knew, she wouldn't have any power left, and if that happened, she'd be helpless.

Just then, however, Zelda remembered something that Impa had once told her about certain elements in the soil, and how to use them to one's advantage, and an idea started occurring to her.

Zelda began to cast a spell over the soil beneath her feet as quickly as she could, and watched as it began to transform itself into a mixture of certain elements. The soil was starting to smell terrible, but it was necessary for what she was planning. She knew that she couldn't use her fire anymore, though, because she didn't have enough magic for a fire spell, so she'd just have to rely on Guardian's flames.

Soon, Zelda stopped running and stood still, waiting for Guardian to approach, and when he was less than three feet from her, diving at her with his sword, she quickly leapt into the air over his head, and kicked him downward with both legs against the back of his neck, activating her spell of protection with her final ounce of power as she hurtled through the air. In the next moment, Guardian's flaming sword buried itself in the dirt, and the explosion could be seen and heard for miles.

The crater left by the explosion was quite impressive. Zelda had broken one arm, and about two ribs in the blast, due to the fact that her magic reserves had run dry as the explosion had ended, but her foe was losing consciousness, and back in the form of a white ball of fur. Even in that form, however, it seemed to have retained its intelligence, because it was speaking to her, although its voice had started to sound both weak and high-pitched.

"What? What happened?"

"You were much more powerful than me." Zelda explained quickly, "I knew that even with all of my magic, I couldn't beat you directly, so I had to find a way to outsmart you. The transformation of soil into gunpowder is a fairly advanced spell, even for the Shiekah. I'm one of only three who's ever accomplished it in this generation, but because you've never used a bomb before, relying on your powers, you couldn't have recognized the gunpowder by sight or smell. That's the reason why I won this fight."


In moments, Zelda and the small ball of fluff found themselves back in the teleport area with their teams. Though she was injured and drained, Zelda managed to hobble over to where the rest of her team was standing, though she didn't say another word about the way the fight had gone. Obviously, in spite of how dangerous that battle had been, Zelda didn't like having had to fight someone like Guardian.

"I suppose woman is my enemy." Darunia observed, as he walked up to the platforms, brandishing his hammer. In moments, the goron boss, and the female team leader stepped up to the platforms, both looking grim, though for different reasons.

"My name is Darunia." the goron said aloud, introducing himself directly, though he didn't smile as he did so, "What's yours?"

"I'm Eranod." the woman said, obviously trying her best to keep from blowing up at the goron before their fight could even begin, and pulling a staff of about three feet long from where it had previously been stored in her belt. On the tip of Eranod's staff, Darunia could see a small, black gem, and in seconds, Eranod was holding her staff parallel to Darunia's weapon. Neither one, however, said any more than that before stepping onto the platforms, and finding themselves elsewhere.


The place that the two fighters found themselves was pleasing to both of them. It was a mountain that was large and jagged at its top, and which gave them both a very full view of the sky. It was already evening in that place, and a mix of grey and red lined the horizon, as both fighters carefully observed their surroundings.

"The skies are very beautiful here." Eranod observed eagerly, as she looked up at the clouds, "You can almost reach up and touch them."

"As the strongest fighter of all the gorons, rock is my element." Darunia replied, "It seems like this is the best place for our fight, though I'm sure that was an accident."

Eranod didn't reply to that, but instead, she simply stepped back from the cliff face into the air. At once, before Darunia knew what was happening, a huge wind descended under his enemy, sweeping around underneath her, and moments later, to his amazement, Eranod was standing in mid-air, held up by a cushion made entirely of wind.

Darunia was astonished to see Eranod floating in place like that, but for the moment, he didn't worry about too many things at once, merely observing silently, "I see. She can fly."

Realizing that very shortly, Eranod might be out of his reach, Darunia dashed forward and swung at her with his hammer as quickly as he could, but just as he'd feared, Eranod was up, flying away from his mighty weapon in a fraction of a second. Darunia could see a confident smile on her face at that moment, however. No matter how important it was for her to win that fight, in her own mind, she was enjoying herself.

Quickly, Darunia grabbed a large chunk of rock from the nearby mountainside, and hurled it at her with incredible speed for someone so large and heavy, but she merely dodged it easily, and started using her powers to an even greater degree. Darunia could see the clouds gathering, and growing dark as rain began to fall, and hurricane winds started to strike the mountaintop from various sides, each in turn. He, large and heavy as he was, might well have been blown from the mountaintop, if he hadn't curled up, and sprouted metal spikes from his back and sides to anchor himself to the stone. It was an old, goron trick; most often used for swift travel from one place to another, but in that instance, it really paid off.

At last, it seemed that Eranod was getting tired of those tactics, so she developed a new one. Reaching upwards, she muttered something in a strange language, and suddenly, ten bolts of lightening seemed to descend on her from the sky, and vanish into her hands, making her palms shine like blue searchlights, but it didn't look as if she'd suffered any ill effect from the lightning bolts. Seconds later, she pointed at Darunia with one of her hands, and a bolt of raw electricity shot out from her forefinger at her enemy.

Darunia was incredibly surprised by the nature of the attack at first, and by the speed with which it was traveling, but fortunately, he was just able to roll out of its reach before it was too late. When the lightning bolt hit the ground where he'd been, however, there was an enormous flash of light, and suddenly, a crater of about a foot wide formed in the mountainside. It seemed that, far from being simple electricity, that attack was a spell of some sort, which changed electrical energy into a type of explosive force, capable of blasting holes in the side of a mountain.

"It destroys rocks." Darunia observed silently, "So it could destroy me. I'll have to watch out for that attack."

Quickly, Darunia continued to roll back and forth along the ground for a few moments, just barely getting out of the way of two more lightening attacks, when finally, he was hit in the arm by a large, flying piece of rock, and unrolled in shock for a moment.

By that point, Darunia could hear his attacker laughing as she began to direct the wind again, attempting to blow Darunia into the path of her lightning attacks. That time, evading the attacks was much more difficult. More than once, Darunia was hit by the edge of one of them, injuring an arm or a leg, and he knew that it was only a matter of time until that began to effect his rolling speed, and one of those spells hit him dead-on. Finally, exhausted and aching all over, Darunia unrolled, and fell to the ground. Eranod must have known that that was her big chance to hit her enemy, and there wasn't a thing he could do to hit back.

However, Darunia looked up into Eranod's eyes at that moment, and a flood of fresh emotions entered him all at once; things he'd never in his life felt or experienced. He was injured, and his opponent was a woman no stronger than a hylian. She probably couldn't have withstood even a single punch from him, but she'd overwhelmed him completely. Still the worst part of it all was the look in her eyes. Darunia was no genius, but he'd been around long enough to read the emotions of a person in their eyes, and what he saw in hers was that in beating up on her helpless enemy, she was having a great deal of fun.

Darunia probably understood better than anyone else in Hyrule what it was really like to have fun, and what having fun really meant, and the very idea that someone might find tormenting a helpless creature fun sent a horrible fury rushing through the old goron boss. It was at that moment when, for the first time, lightening struck in his brain, rather than on one of his limbs. He was still furious with his enemy, but a brilliant scheme was forming in his mind, and the time had come to execute it.

"You think this is fun, Eranod?" Darunia yelled over the storm, an with that, he slammed his hammer against the rock diagonally, causing a massive cloud of debris to rocket towards Eranod all at once; dust, dirt and tiny pebbles all headed towards Eranod like tiny bullets, threatening to knock her out of the air.

Reacting quickly, Eranod commanded a powerful wind to sweep all the dirt and gravel upwards, away from her, and into the sky, but for several moments, she couldn't see anything past all that flying dirt, and that was when something happened that she'd never anticipated.

In a blur of motion, Darunia came shooting up at Eranod through the debris that her own wind was carrying upward, until he was finally within a couple feet of her, and she didn't have even a moment to react before he delivered a single, mighty uppercut to her jaw, causing her entire head to shake like a rattle. Darunia kept frowning as he watched her fall to the ground, while he himself plummeted after her. The updraft she'd created had been just forceful enough to propel him up to her when he'd stepped into it, and with all that debris moving so fast, she hadn't been able to see what he'd been planning.

Quickly, Eranod fell on her back on the rocks, and Darunia could tell at once that all of her limbs had been paralyzed by the impact, though it might have injured her spine too. A moment later, when he crashed to the ground near her, it didn't do nearly as much damage to him, thanks to his tough, rocky hide, but his feelings of anger still hadn't died down, even though he knew that the outcome of the fight was in his hands again.

"You would have killed a helpless enemy, and thought that the whole thing was fun!" Darunia exclaimed, holding his hammer overhead, "And I could kill you now! Do you think that would be fun for me?"

For a moment, Eranod's eyes widened in mortal terror, but after a few seconds of watching her enemy in horror, she could see that Darunia's heart wasn't in it. Darunia loved good fun, and a nice game, but he was much too decent to be willing to murder someone. She'd lapsed into unconsciousness just moments later, as the goron boss slung his enormous hammer back over one shoulder, and found himself back in the area with the teleporters. Darunia was badly hurt by that point, but he knew that he could get back to the rooms they'd been given. Besides, Eranod was hurt much worse.


If Eranod had been conscious, she could probably have just wished for her genie to reach the exit first, but as it was, the fastest one there was Link. Darunia, despite his injuries, was able to carry Stalflare and Ruto. Byrna and Zelda, though each badly injured, were able to help each other to the exit.

Link felt a bit relieved that he and his friends had managed to make it through the first team battle intact, but at the same time, he also felt a little sad about what had just happened, and he made sure to voice his reasons aloud.

"I feel a little sorry for Eranod." Link said as he and his friends walked down the hallway, back towards their room, at the other end, "She looked like she was on the verge of death."

"She deserves what she gets." Darunia blurted out angrily, "We need to get back to Hyrule ourselves. The fairies there can heal our wounds, and we can prepare for the next fight there. We don't have time to worry about our enemies."

"Yes. You can definitely return home and heal up, if you'd like to."

At first, Link hadn't been sure who'd said that, but at last, he realized that the voice had come from the evil-looking guard they'd seen earlier. He'd crept in front of them just a moment before, and they'd all been so distracted by their own concerns and injuries that none of them had noticed.

"Is this the end of the first team battle?" Link asked the guard sternly, feeling very eager to know more, "Did we win?"

"For the moment." the guard replied with something that looked like a sneer, "You can heal as much as you'd like to, and arm yourselves with whatever you want before engaging in the second battle. You have three days before your next fight."

Link nodded after just a moment, however. He wasn't sure whether three days would be enough, given how powerful the last team had been, but at least, for the moment, things seemed to be going in Hyrule's favor.

"I have a personal request, first." Link said at last, looking back up into the eyes of the guard, "I want to take Eranod and Dirk back to Hyrule with me for a while."

"Request?" the guard asked, looking puzzled by the very notion, "They're your conquests. If you want them, they're yours."

Link had only rarely heard the term "conquest" before in his life, but he recognized that the guard was more or less answering him with a yes, and motioned for Darunia to start putting Hyrule's injured champions on the teleporter pads in their rooms, muttering "I'll get Eranod and Dirk."

"Take your time," Darunia muttered back, still angry about what had happened during his last fight.


That evening, as Mark was sitting on a bench near his farm, he was approached by Ramie again, who asked him if he wanted to see more of Hyrule, and try to familiarize himself with its people.

"Well, I have a job here." Mark admitted after a moment, "What's wrong? I'm not doing good enough?"

"No." Ramie replied in a hurry, looking embarrassed by the way her suggestion had been taken, "I'm not trying to get rid of you. It's just that the potatoes and radishes are usually delivered around Hyrule at this time of year, and the cart-man has expressed discontent with the work, so I figured that if you're up to it, you could take his job, and he could take yours."

"You mean a trade." Mark noted, though he had to admit that he found the idea interesting. He'd never driven a hylian cart before, and it sounded like an interesting idea.

"Well, it would be nice to get out and see more of your land," Mark continued after thinking about it for a few moments, "but I'd miss the people I've met around here. They're very nice people."

"Oh, the trip won't last for more than a couple of weeks." Ramie clarified quickly, "You just have to go there, unpack the food, get to know them for a couple days, and move onto the next place. That's the way all these kinds of deliveries are conducted."

It did sound like a nice way to learn a lot about Hyrule in a short period of time, and besides, if the regular cart-man would be happy as a farmer, everybody would win, so after a few moments, Mark said, "Alright. I'll go, but I have a feeling I'm going to miss this place, even if I'm only gone for a little while."


The next morning, Mark received his instructions from the cart-man, along with a map of the road, printed with numbers in the hylian written language, which Mark had just barely learned to read.

"The forest, then the river." the former cart-man explained, "Turn back from the river if they don't let you in, but they probably will. After that, go to the desert. Again, use caution, just like at the river, and if they won't let you in, then there's no harm done. After that, you deliver to Kakariko, then Goron City in the mountains, then you go further north, and deliver to the shiekah outpost there, then return for a final delivery at the castle. Once that's done, the job's over for this year, unless you plan on making deliveries of bread, fruits, meat and eggs later."

"I'll have to see how this works out before I make a choice like that." Mark admitted after a moment, receiving a nod from the cart-man in reply, and in just another moment, the man was handing him a small, leather satchel, which felt pretty heavy, in spite of its small size.

"Here's the pouch." the cart-man explained, "Give the horses one carrot each, every time they start to slow down, and one when they make it to their destination. Don't mistreat them, or they'll snub you forever."

Mark almost chuckled at the idea; since it was completely different from the type of horse-training he'd always heard of, but finally, he said "right," and slung the satchel over one shoulder, letting it hang over his left hip.

"Anytime you think you're ready, you can go." the cart-man said at last, "I'm off to take over your job. You don't have to give me instructions, though. I've done it before."

Mark just nodded swiftly a moment later, and in seconds, he was off. He knew that he'd miss the people of Kakariko, though, and Ramie in particular, and for a moment, he almost found himself wondering if she'd miss him too.


By late morning, Mark had arrived at Kokiri Forest, and been greeted by a very sad-looking kokiri girl with green hair. She'd shown him where to put the food, and left him to the task, which wound up taking less than half an hour, even though he had to leave his cart outside the forest, tying it to a tree root which was nearby, with some extra food left behind for the horses.

Mark spent that afternoon among the kokiri, getting to know a bit more about them. They were a society of ageless forest spirits, with the bodies and attitudes of children, for the most part, who were protected by the magic of the supernatural Deku Tree. A comparison that immediately formed in Mark's mind was of some kind of cosmic nursery school.

He had lunch that day with Mido and Saria; the green-haired girl. They both expressed their interest in seeing a new type of species from another world, but didn't seem to want to hear about tall buildings, money, or really, much at all about his people. However, Mido and Saria each had questions of their own sort to ask.

"Do humans pick leaders like we do?" Mido asked, mostly seeming to be brimming with childlike curiosity, rather than interrogating Mark in any kind of serious sense.

"Most humans don't." Mark admitted with a quick shake of his head, "They decide that using statistics. Only human children pick leaders as easily and quickly as you do."

"What kind of authority do children have in your world?" Mido asked, looking very interested by that point.

"None." Mark said just a moment later, feeling a little sorry for the poor forest leader, "They're born, and they grow to the age of eighteen, and through that whole time, they really don't have any control over their lives."

"That sounds terrible." Saria said after a moment, looking horrified, "If children don't control themselves, who does control them?"

"Well, mostly, they're controlled by their parents, teachers, and young adults we hire to look after them. Those are called baby-sitters."

"But surely," Saria objected quickly, looking even sadder than before, "all children must resent adults if they have no freedom at all. Aren't children even relied upon for advice in your world?"

"No." Mark admitted, though he was starting to feel a bit annoyed by that line of questioning, "In fact, we write fictional stories about children losing control and killing one another, and then force our children to read them in their early school educations. We do that to keep them from thinking they have any good advice for us."

"When do children start thinking of themselves as being advice-worthy?" Mido asked, finally looked skeptical of the whole idea.

"Most of them never do." Mark confessed at last, starting to feel just a little depressed as he realized that aloud, "Many people go through their entire lives, not worrying about how their lives are being run, because they just don't have that kind of self-confidence."

For a moment, they all sat together silently, thinking to themselves, although Mido and Saria didn't look like they were thinking very hard. At last, however, Mido asked another question.

"How long do your children go to school for?"

"They go to school for thirteen years at first," Mark explained, "then, if they want to get a decent job, they go to college."

"Goodness!" Saria exclaimed, nearly choking on her root tea, "You don't mean to tell me that so much knowledge is needed to do a chosen job in your world!"

"No. It's not like that at all." Mark replied with a smile, "In fact, most of those last six years are spent learning things that very few people ever use in a job, and as for colleges, each one teaches something different. Time spent at a college can be anywhere from a year and a half to more than five years."

"Does that make up for lost time?" Saria asked, looking worried by Mark's explanations.

"Well, sometimes." Mark replied, though he was starting to feel less and less sure of himself, even as he spoke, "You see, most colleges are set up so that when you graduate, the knowledge and degree you obtained will be useless in getting you the job you really want. Some things, like law or medicine, can produce reliable and decently-paying jobs, but most people come out of college discovering that the field they wanted to get into is already over-crowded with people just like them or better, and they wind up having to settle for something less. Every now and then, though, you'll come across someone who got out of college, and was lucky enough to be one of the first ones to get into their desired field, and for them, college is useful. Still, most of the time, college is another way of becoming a low-paid employee, which is something that you can realistically become without even graduating from high school."

"How can people spend so much time accomplishing so litt-" Saria began, but Mido gave her a look that said, "be gentle," and she calmed down after a moment.

"What about your forests?" Saria asked curiously, "What method have you adopted to care for them?"

"There are several human organizations that actively work to preserve all kinds of forests." Mark explained, "They protest against people who want to destroy the trees, so that they can build on their land. They do a lot of other good things too. You'd like them."

"Why would people have to protest against one another?" Mido asked, suddenly starting to look very upset himself, "I thought you said your people had been around for five thousand years. I mean, they must have had enough time to arrive at some reasonable conclusions that they can all agree on, right?"

"Humans don't really think like that." Mark said, trying to explain the complex emotions that drove human actions. For the next several minutes, he did his best to explain how the desire to obtain possessions for oneself could cause the rich to seek greater wealth, even if they already had all the money they'd ever need. He tried to describe how the wealthy would hire working men and women, and pay them only as much as the amount of trees they chopped down, and that in many situations, those trees were full of endangered animals and plants, and that many species died every year due to those "loggers." It was, he said, something worth protesting against.

When Mark finished his descriptions, however, he looked up from his tea at Mido and Saria, and he frowned deeply when he saw their faces. Mido was doing quite poorly at disguising a terrifying, immortal rage, and Saria had tightened every one of her muscles up. Her face was set into a mask of reason, as if she were trying her hardest to keep from fainting, although Saria had never fainted before in all her endless life.

"I think dinner is over." Mido said grouchily as he stood up; his cheerfulness and even his curiosity completely gone, "I'll show you to your room for tonight, but first, there's one more thing we need to be clear on."

Mido motioned Mark to come closer at first, but as soon as Mark was within a few inches of the kokiri leader, he hissed "Don't ever tell any other kokiri the things you just told us. We've never been warlike, but I don't know what the others would do if they heard what you just told me. I mean, I feel like sending you back where you came from, if you humans are as bad as you say."

"But you don't understand!" Mark exclaimed, becoming desperate to get through to the ancient kokiri, "America is the champion of good things; of life, liberty and justice!"

"Not from where I'm standing!" Mido shouted back, finally losing his composure, as his face became so scarlet, that it was growing difficult to tell the difference between his skin and his hair, "What about freedom and justice for your forests; for your children? You say you stand for wonderful things, but you reward the creation of new life with more than half a dozen years of mandatory and useless imprisonment. You say you stand for life, but every year, your people destroy entire species of unique and amazing life-forms, simply for their own personal gain. I don't want to hear anything else about your people Mark, and if you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of my way until it comes time for you to leave!"

"Mido..." Saria implored him quickly, though there was a type of coldness in her attitude as well, "Don't be rude. Remember, we asked him about this. If he's really telling the truth, then we shouldn't blame him for the things his people did."

Mark flushed at that remark, however, because he'd always been proud of the accomplishments of the human race, and he couldn't tell what was wrong with the two kokiri leaders. Why, he wondered, couldn't they understand what the whole purpose was? How was it that they were so quick to jump on all the little problems that the human race had, but absolutely wouldn't recognize that there could be a greater good? Why couldn't they see the whole point of the human race, and the actions of America?

Mark continued asking himself those kinds of questions that night, feeling indignant and worried the whole time, and they were the same thoughts that haunted his dreams after he fell asleep.


When Eranod finally woke up again, she had no idea where she was, or how long she'd been unconscious for. All she could tell was that she was in some kind of old-style house; made of brick and wood, and as she sat up and tried her best to look around, she saw that both Ruto and Darunia were sitting nearby. On top of that, each seemed to be in perfect health. They were definitely looking a lot better than they had on the day of the fight.

Quickly, Eranod sat bolt upright, worried that she'd been taken prisoner by the hylian team for some reason. Soon, she was on her feet, and rushing towards the door, but when she found it unlocked, simple reason dawned on her, and she realized that all of her injuries from the fight were gone. Feeling absolutely dumbfounded and puzzled, Eranod turned around to face the two champions of Hyrule; not really sure what to say.

"Why did you bring me here?" Eranod finally asked, though neither champion looked particularly nervous at being interrogated like that.

"For healing." Ruto explained with the sort of stoicism that indicated that she was probably of royal blood, "Link saw that you were injured, so he chose to bring you back here. Our healing facilities are very good. You can see that all my scales have already grown back in less than two days, and Darunia's completely recovered from what you tried to do to him."

"What about the others?" Eranod asked, however, still feeling worried about the members of her team, "Are they here too?"

"Dirk is." Ruto replied calmly, "Most of your team didn't need our help to recover. Jack, Guardian and Kodacho should be back on your world by now. Anytime you want, we can send you back to the dark castle, and you can use their teleporters to get home as well."

"And Mikey?"

However, when she was asked about Mikey, Ruto just shook her head sadly, since that was one question that she couldn't answer to Eranod's satisfaction.

"We're still not sure where he is, but Link seems to think that he wants to stay there."

Eranod looked at both of them for a few moments, still feeling stunned by what had just happened. She was having a hard time figuring out the hylian team's motives, but after thinking about it for a few moments, she decided to make a wild guess.

"You must have saved me because you couldn't bear to see someone in that kind of pain."

"Hardly." Darunia muttered bitterly, still obviously angry at her.

"Link saved you because he believed it was the right thing to do." Ruto explained, "He thought it was unfair that you should have to suffer for something that wasn't your doing."

"Besides," Ruto continued only a moment later, "we have the chance to learn a little more about you now. Isn't the chance for new information something that everyone wants?"

Eranod just felt confused, however, when Ruto asked her that. At last, she replied to the zora's question, though she was feeling more sarcastic than happy or grateful.

"You want to know about me? All right. Even before all this started, you didn't seem like the type to cause people unnecessary pain, and the way you saved me after I tried to kill you proves that to my satisfaction, so if you want, I'll tell you a little about my people."

At that point, Eranod began to tell the story of her people and her world, and it was certainly a pretty amazing story. She said that since the dawn of time, her people; the Renou, had been behaving like any other animal, and operated on the simple principle that pain was bad, and pleasure good. Unlike other animals, though, they lacked the need to prove themselves to one another, or indeed, to prove anything to anyone. They were all possessed of the most extraordinary apathy in all issues except one, in fact. Personal pleasure was what mattered to them.

Those people developed very few weapons, and many delights, ranging from new food, new flowers and new arts, all the way through a series of strange, orb-like devices; designed to present them with incredible illusions of delight. Since their world had begun, it seemed as though none of their people had ever raised a weapon against another. However, a short time later, their planet was bombarded by meteorites.

The Renou had atrophied over time, becoming so obsessed with personal sensations that they paid no attention to the things that they needed to do to maintain those sensations. The meteorites had threatened to change all that at first.

When the shower of strange, glowing rocks came down on their planet, it caused a number of horrifying situations for the Renou. Wherever the rocks came down, they'd effect the nearest life form, and when they did that, those life forms were transformed into monsters. Usually, the monsters were more or less harmless, but when they were confronted or hunted, they'd transform into massively-powerful beasts, and strike back, sometimes leveling whole cities.

"Guardian was one of the mightiest of those beasts." Eranod explained, "But the meteors affected a few Renou as well."

Apparently, Jack, Dirk, Eranod and Mikey had all been mutated by those meteors, and had been struggling against the beasts of their world for quite some time, to prevent their citizens from having to do the work themselves. That was how the Pleasure Clans had been formed. Those four had explored a hundred areas of their world, one of which they discovered Kodacho's jar in, but everywhere they went, they fought the horrible monsters, and everywhere they went, Renou with no special powers joined them in their quest; mostly because they thought it would be fun. Many believed in their cause too. The Pleasure Clans had grown to over one hundred members in the end, while the rest of the world seemed to be totally wrapped up in their constant, personal pleasure, totally unable to break free of their addiction for even a moment.

"Who provides those pleasurable things, anyway?" Ruto asked as Eranod finished her tale, but the Renou champion just shook her head.

"No one's sure." Eranod replied, "Even I don't really know. Honestly, it doesn't seem like most people care, as long as they keep supplying the entertainment."

At that point, Eranod continued her explanation, but there wasn't much left to say. Mikey was probably the first member of their species to ever take responsibility for a task that didn't involve personal enjoyment, Eranod explained as Ruto questioned her further; a fact that seemed to have worried the weather-witch.

"We can do what we do because we don't take away from the spirit of our people." Eranod explained, looking a bit scared, "If he ever shows up again, he'll be a totally different person. After all, he dove willingly into pain, and if people start to realize that one of their champions did that, it could cause lots of changes; maybe even damage the natural order we've been working so hard to protect."

Once Eranod's explanation was finished, she fell silent, and was deep in thought for a while. For a few moments, Ruto looked her in the eyes very carefully, as if searching for some kind of further explanation, but at last, a look of disgust spread over her face.

"You wretched fool." Ruto said in utter distain, "You knew all this time that the constant obsession with pleasure was killing your people slowly, and you would have let it happen. You're upset that Mikey might make that choice differently."

With a swift jerk of her neck, Eranod stared into Ruto's eyes for a few seconds, but when she saw that denying it wouldn't accomplish anything, she looked back downward again, hanging her head.

"I think you should leave Hyrule," Ruto said, no longer sounding disgusted, but definitely a little cold as she spoke, "and don't bother coming back. If we get our wish, we'll save your world and a hundred others, but I don't see why you fought so willingly for it. Pretty soon, your people are all going to be dead anyway, and all this time, all you've done is help them reach their grave."

Trembling in a mixture of rage and fear, Eranod got up to leave, when Darunia spoke aloud, distracting the Renou champion from Ruto's latest outburst.

"Dirk will be with you in a few minutes."

"Tell Link I said thank you." Eranod replied, starting to recover her composure just a little, and causing both Ruto and Darunia to stare at her open-mouthed. After what they'd just learned about her, they hadn't expected to hear that.

"I hope the other three members of your team are alright." Eranod continued, however, which only added to their surprise.

"Those three are fine." Ruto replied, however, when the shock had subsided, "In fact, right now, they're working on something really special for the next fight."


At that very moment, a flying, fast-moving object tunneled directly into the side of one of the mountains surrounding Hyrule, causing dirt to emerge in a large mound near Hyrule Field. Zelda was nearby, and casting a spell on the dirt as it emerged, swiftly turning it into a strong, metal alloy. Byrna gave directions, as fire spread out from the hands of both Stalflare and Zelda, melting the metal in mid-air, above a large tank that Byrna had made. Then, Stalflare was flying nonstop into the desert, where he flew in tight circles with incredible speed, kicking up a huge amount of sand, and by generating an airborne sandstorm, he was able to get about a ton of the sand back out to Hyrule Field. That was separated into three piles at once; two small ones and a large one. Zelda held the sand in the air with her telekinesis, as Stalflare melted it with his flames, and moments later, Zelda had used her power to mold the liquid sand into a pre-defined shape. The metal, meanwhile, was being poured from the tank into several pre-created molds by Byrna, and since his task, for the moment, was finished, Stalflare flew north again, trying to find some more rare elements.

Even with all of their power; their speed; their strength and skill, the first fight of the Conflict of Champions had still been a close call, and the champions of Hyrule were determined to make whatever effective weapons they could, in preparation for the next big battle.


"Link."

The voice had come from the young man named Grap, who stood behind the Hero of Time in the middle of a large, sparse plain, "I don't like this. No one's ever come out of that temple alive."

The two of them were standing together, in the midst of a barren wasteland, in front of a temple that was a few miles north of Death Mountain. It was shaped like a star of some kind, standing on its edge, and yet, the place looked incredibly intimidating, in the midst of that land, where there seemed to be so little left alive.

"That's why you're not coming with me." Link explained, handing his bag of belongings to Grap, "I'm going in there alone. If I come out alive, I'll tell you about it within a day."

Grap looked worried by that suggestion, but he seemed to realize that he couldn't even say a word of protect; not to someone like the Hero of Time, who'd been through so much already. In moments, Link had stepped forward, and vanished into the darkness.


Inside, Link could see diagrams on the walls, describing that only one who could pass the challenges was worthy to hold the treasure. They were a typical type of warning for old temples and caves of that sort, and he had no doubt that the warning was absolutely true. Slowly, Link crept stealthily through the first hallway, being very careful to remain silent as he moved on into the next room.

A diagram greeted Link in the middle of the next room, however. It was written on a stone tablet, which seemed to have been stood upright in the room's center, and its message looked surprisingly cryptic. It read "The blind spawn the blind; more and more blind when felled, until there is only darkness. Bring no light to the darkness, and you may pass."

Link was still pondering over that strange riddle, when a stalfo descended from above, and landed on the floor in front of him with a crash; right between himself and the doorway out. Link moved quickly in response, dashing forward, and cutting off the stalfo's head in one swipe before heading for the door. However, just as Link reached the doorway, it seemed to slam shut on its own. Quickly, Link spun around, and saw that instead of a dead stalfo, there were suddenly three living ones, and they were all headed right for him.

Link ducked back and forth, dodging the attacks of the stalfos as he considered his position carefully. A foe that multiplied when killed would, in theory, be invincible. Whole armies could have been decimated easily by just one foe with a power like that, but what about the riddle? Could the riddle have been referring to Link's new enemy? "More and more when felled" certainly seemed like an appropriate description of that creature, but what did it mean by calling those Stalfos "blind?" Was it possible, Link realized after just a moment, that the Stalfos really didn't have any sense of sight? If that was true, then surely, he could evade them all, just by being silent enough. They'd charged him before, but at the time, he'd been in a rush to get to the exit, and hadn't exactly been very quiet.

Link could see that all three were headed his way by that point, though, so as silently as he could, he crept along the side of the room to the left, watching as the three stalfos converged on where he'd been a moment before, and seemed to scramble around in confusion for a few seconds, before finally vanishing in dark puffs of smoke. The doorway to the next room opened up as soon as the stalfos were gone, but just to be on the safe side, Link didn't dare to make any noise until he was in the next room.

"Bring no light to the darkness" Link thought to himself, feeling almost amused as he thought about the riddle that he'd just resolved, "In other words, don't try to fight the enemy, and you'll prevail."

Quickly, Link stepped into the next room, and in spite of his caution, he gasped in surprise at what he saw. It was an absolutely beautiful room; fifty yards long, with a glass ceiling, and a lush garden in the center. The inscriptions on the walls read "A single shot to make the kill."

Link could see that fifty yards away on the other side of the room was a hole in one of the walls, and that beyond that hole was what seemed like a large button. Slowly, the Hero of Time took one step into that room, when suddenly, the walls began to close in on him! The plants that had been resting on the ground retreated downwards through holes in the floor, and the walls came closer and closer together with every second, giving Link less than three seconds to act before he would have been squashed flat.

Yanking out his bow, Link fitted an arrow into it, and with the words "a single shot" in his mind, he fired, watching as his arrow passed through the hole in the wall, hitting the switch dead-center. Once again, Link had made a bulls-eye at more than fifty yards, like he always did; only that time, he'd had the pressure of a time limit to deal with as well.

By that point, the walls had been less than a foot from Link's skin, but once his arrow had struck the button, they'd stopped; retreating back to their previous position, and the plants rose back up out of the floor, to return to where they'd been as well. Once again, the room looked just fine, and after a moment, Link walked forward, past the surprisingly-lush plants, and opened a door in one of the side walls, which led into the next room.

As Link stood in the doorway of the next room, he could see the inscriptions on the walls, reading "The assaults of your enemies; too great to be defeated, must be escaped. Your enemy is all around you."

As Link pondered that troubling riddle, he stepped forward into the room, and suddenly the door slammed shut behind him, and whole sections of the ceiling began to fall, as arrows and darts emerged from the walls, and razor-sharp spikes began to pop out of the floor. Moving as fast and planning as quickly as he could, Link ducked under projectiles, rolled out of reach of falling ceiling tiles, and leapt over spikes and pits, until he came to a pit that he couldn't leap over. A bridge had been there once, but by that point, it was gone; having crumbled ages ago, and the traps were still advancing on him from behind. Having only a moment to wish that he'd brought his hover boots along, Link leapt out towards the pit, and fired his hookshot upwards, where strangely, it caught on a stalactite, and he found himself swinging out across the pit, and through the final door at the end of the hall of death that he'd just escaped from.

In the last room, there were no inscriptions; no clues; just a pedestal on which a small pouch stood. Link looked at it from every angle, trying to determine if the offer of the pouch was genuine for several moments. After all, whoever had built that temple must have been a genius with traps and tricks, and had obviously designed it to train or test young warriors. He had a difficult time imagining that they would have left the treasure at the end unguarded. Besides, Link could see some kind of glass globules in the ceiling overhead, which were most likely some kind of monitoring devices.

There was a treasure in front of him; a reward of some sort, but obviously, there were traps in that room too, and they'd most likely be activated if he didn't pass that final test, whatever it was. What was particularly frustrating was that the designers of that temple didn't even seem to have left him any clues. However, in the end, Link decided to just do what he always did in those kinds of situations; he put aside his own feelings, and thought about the problem carefully.

It seemed like that temple was of shiekah design. They were the only ones with the magic and intelligence needed to design so many complex traps, and the ones most likely to want a foolproof test of skill, which was the only possible reason for that cave's existence. Surely, Link had already passed their skill tests. After all, the reward was right in front of him, so what were the ancient shiekah trying to test him on in that chamber? Grabbing a reward? No. That didn't make any sense. Anyone could grab a reward, but receiving one graciously was completely different.

It was only then that Link started to realize the true nature of that last room; it was a test of shiekah etiquette, just as lethal as the last three, and to pass it, he just needed to prove that he knew how the shiekah accepted rewards for skill and training.

Swiftly, Link walked up to the treasure, and sat before it in the exact same way that Impa had taught him years before; the shiekah means of sitting when accepting gifts from a mentor. Link sat there for a few moments, before reaching up and taking the pouch from the pedestal in the room's center, and at that moment, a hundred loud noises were heard, and darts and arrows collided with the walls all around him. However, not a single dart had touched Link at all. His posture had been absolutely right, and in seconds, all of the traps and doors behind him moved aside, allowing the Hero of Time to leave that old temple in peace.

Once outside the deadly temple, Link looked into the pouch, however, and in spite of the horrible situation he'd just been in, what he saw inside made him smile.

"Wow." Link remarked, "I haven't seen these since I was a kid..."