Chapter 10

"Oh my gosh! That's gonna be so awesome!" Kris said excitedly. "I wonder which one I'll get?"

"I hope I get fire!" Rune said. I laughed, and yawned.

"I'm gettin' kinda tired," I said sleepily.

"Yeah, we should get some sleep," Link said. We have a lot to do tomorrow, and we've already stayed up pretty late." I nodded, barely able to keep my eyes open. Why did I get so tired all of a sudden? I followed everyone back to the entrance. Rune face palmed.

"There was a ladder the whole time!" Everyone burst out laughing. We climbed up one at a time, and started walking back to the inn. I stumbled.

"Are you okay?" Sierra asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." We reached the inn, and went upstairs. I immediately collapsed in my bed. Everyone else lay down more slowly.

"Night night!" I sleepily called out, and immediately fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I didn't know what time it was. There were no windows in the room. I sat up in bed. Sierra and Kris were still asleep, and Rune was still curled up on the floor. Link was gone, his blanket in a heap on the floor. Wondering where he was, I got up out of bed. He wasn't downstairs. I walked out the door, and saw him standing next to Epona, adjusting her saddle.

"What are you doing?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"I told you, I have to go see Bo. I decided to get an early start."

"But it's so early! Have you even eaten yet?"

"No, but..."

"You have to at least get some breakfast! Come inside," I ordered him. "I'm not letting you leave until you eat!"

"How are you going to stop me?" he said, a little amused.

"Do you really want to find out?" I threatened.

"Fair enough," he sighed. I grabbed his arm and led him inside. Dragging him to the table, I made him sit while I got enough food for all of us. While he was eating, Midna popped out of his shadow. She had been either tired or bored last night and hadn't really shown up much, so I had sort of forgotten about her. I jumped back, tripped on a chair, and fell to the ground.

"Midna!" Link scolded.

"Sorry," she said, laughing. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't take forever to eat! We are on a time limit you know."

"I know, I'm hurrying!" he said, and crammed half a slice of bread in his mouth.

"Let him eat! Jeez, the guy got up really early, he won't have any energy left without food!" I said, getting up off the floor. Midna groaned.

"I knew I should have gotten you up earlier!"

"You woke him up? This early?" I yelled. "Link, why did you let her?"

"The twilight will keep spreading if we don't hurry!" he said, worry in his voice as he continued eating quickly.

"Stop eating so fast, you'll choke! How do you know that the twilight will spread?" I asked him, knowing full well that Midna was just telling him that because she wanted to get the fused shadows as quickly as possible.

"Midna told me. She lives in the twilight, so she knows a lot about it." Exasperated, I sighed. Honestly, I know he's the hero of time, but that boy was so naive!

"Link, she..." I tried to tell him that she was just using him, but the words would not come out of my mouth! "She..." I tried again, but I literally could not speak!

"She what?" he asked me, puzzled.

"I- it's nothing." I gave up trying to tell him. Why couldn't I talk whenever I tried to tell him about Midna? Just then, the other girls came downstairs. Rune was practically dragging Sierra, who was still half asleep.

"Yay, breakfast!" Kris said happily, and sat down. Rune and Sierra sat on the stairs, and I brought them some food. I turned back to Midna.

"You need to stop rushing! We'll never get anything done if we can't at least take care of ourselves!"

"What do you mean?" Sierra asked.

"Link got up really early, and was going to leave without eating, because Midna told him the twilight was going to spread if he didn't hurry!"

"But..." Rune began, but seemed to meet the same speech barrier I did. She looked at me, confused. Later, I mouthed.

"Well, we need to get those fused shadows fast!" Midna said. "You guys were so busy messing around last night that you were tired this morning! It's your own fault, ya know."

"Yes, maybe we did stay up a little late, but there's really no need to rush, or we'll mess something up."

"But... Ugh!" Midna groaned, unable to respond.

"You know what, how about you stay here with us?" Rune suggested. "It'll give Link a break, and we'll probably find something useful to do."

"Like what?" Midna snapped, clearly not happy with the arrangements.

"Like figuring out another way to get past those gorons!" Rune said. "I was planning on trying again after Link left."

"Okay, just be careful," Link said. "I don't want you getting killed while I'm gone."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine!" Rune smiled.

"It's settled then. Link will go talk to Bo," I smiled a little at his name, "Midna will stay here with us; you can stay in other people's shadows, right?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she grumbled.

"Rune will try to get past the gorons again, and Sierra, you should figure out how to use your new powers!"

"Oh, yeah! That'll be fun!" Sierra said excitedly, fully awake now.

"Great, I can help you figure it out if you like," Kris suggested. "I don't really know that much about element powers, but it'll be easier with two people, right?"

"Right!" Sierra smiled.

"Alrighty then! See you guys later!" Rune finished her food and left for death mountain.

"I'd better get going too. Bye!" Link left as well.

"C'mon Sierra, we can go practice by the spring!" Kris and Sierra enthusiastically went off to their practice.

"Guess it's just you and me now, huh?" I said to Midna.

"Hmph, I'm going with Rune. At least she's trying to get something done!" Midna floated off.

"Now what do I do?" I wondered out loud. I went outside, and saw Link on top of Epona, ready to go.

"Hi there! Huh, I guess you don't have anything to do since the other are busy," Link said as I walked up to him and Epona. "Would you like to come with me?"

"I'd love to, but I would probably slow you down."

"Not at all, you'd be very helpful! You're a capable warrior!"

"Oh, I meant Epona would be slower carrying two people."

"Oh, right." He sat there kind of awkwardly.

"Go on!" I exclaimed, "You have a long way to go!"

"Right. Bye!" He turned Epona toward the exit, and galloped off. I turned around. I sighed. I didn't have anything else to do, so I guessed I could go check on the others.

I walked over to death mountain trail. I heard the rumbling of a goron, and a grunt as someone hit the ground. I ran over to the entrance. Rune was getting up off the ground.

"Way to go," Midna said sarcastically.

"Hey, I almost had it!" Rune retorted. I walked over to them.

"Hi guys! No luck so far?"

"Nope," Rune said. "I've only tried once, but those guys are brutal!"

"Yeah, I figured they would be. Be careful, that would stink if you got seriously injured so early on!"

"Yeah, it would! I'll try not to get hurt. I'll stop if I get too sore."

"Good!" We stood in silence for a few seconds.

"I have a question." Rune said. "Earlier, when I was trying to tell Link about... You know..."

"Yeah," I said, knowing where she was going.

"I couldn't say it. The words just would come out of my mouth! What was that all about?"

"I don't know! The same thing happened to me!" I said, confused.

"Maybe it means... I don't know, something to do with the game. We can't talk if we try to tell him something about what's going to happen!"

"Yeah, that makes sense! We can't tell him about the future, because it would be too easy! He still has to become the hero, and he can't do that if we just tell him everything!"

"What are you girls talking about?" Midna asked, irritated.

"Umm, nothing..." Rune said. "Just... Well, we told you we were from another world, right?"

"Yeah," she replied.

"It's about something from our world. You wouldn't get it." Midna scowled, and disappeared into Rune's shadow.

"Wow, I forgot how irritating she was in the beginning."

"Yeah, well, I think she's pretty cool," Rune replied.

"Come to think of it, I seem to be forgetting a lot of stuff about the game," I said. "I can usually remember exactly what happens next, but I keep forgetting important details!"

"Yeah, me too! Maybe our memories were sort of dulled so it wouldn't be too easy for us," Rune guessed.

"Yeah, that makes sense. I can't remember what happens after this. I think it's the fire dungeon."

"Yep, that's what I remember." Rune smiled.

"Well, I'm gonna go see how Sierra and Kris are doing. Bye!" I started jogging away, and waved back to Rune.

"Bye Lily!" Rune started climbing the rope again, and Midna came out of her shadow. Back at the village, I could see Sierra and Kris by the spring. I walked down the village path toward them.

"Figured anything out yet?" I asked them.

"Yes! Watch this!" Sierra raised her arms, and a huge chunk of the ground rose up with them. Kris happened to be standing on that patch of earth, and she fell as it lifted her up.

"Haha, wheee!" Kris laughed as she rose on the patch of earth.

"Basically, I can throw around rocks and dirt. I can build off of that and learn combat!" Sierra sounded really excited.

"Yeah, we've been working on moves from the Last Airbender!" Kris said, kneeling on the floating earth.

"Sounds like you guys are having fun!" I laughed.

"Yep!" they both said at the same time, and laughed. Malo and Beth ran out of the sanctuary.

"Give it back!" Beth yelled, chasing after Malo, who was clutching a doll.

"You threw it at me!" he yelled back, and kept running. I grabbed the doll from him as he ran past, not noticing me. "Hey!" he complained. I tossed the doll to Beth.

"Unless you want them to have it, don't throw it at anyone," I advised.

"Thanks!" said Beth, and ran off with Talo chasing her. I laughed at the two children.

"Hmm, I wonder where Colin is?" I said aloud.

"Oh, I think he's in the sanctuary," Sierra said.

"Okay, I'm gonna go say hi to him. Good luck with the earthbending!" I called, and ran over to the building. Inside, the candles were still lit, giving the place a warm glow. Colin was sitting alone on the floor. "Why aren't you outside playing?" I asked him. "It's really nice outside, and I don't usually say that!" The little boy smiled.

"I don't really feel like playing."

"Well, what do you feel like doing?"

"I don't really know." I thought for a minute.

"Do you want to go explore some of the empty houses?" I suggested.

"Okay. Um, I forgot your name," he said, looking down.

"I'm Lily. Link told me your name was Colin." This wasn't true of course, but I didn't want to confuse him with stories about another world.

"Yep," he said. Didn't this kid ever smile? I wondered why he seemed so unhappy. I offered my hand to him, and he stood up. He grabbed it, and we went outside. Sierra and Kris were busy with their practicing. Talo and Beth had stopped running, and were sitting on one of the porches catching their breath.

"Hey, Colin, you finally came outside!" Talo called out to us. He and Beth laughed. Colin looked down and blushed.

"Hey, leave him alone!" I let go of Colin's hand, and started walking slowly toward them. The other kids got up and ran off. I stuck my tongue out at their retreating backs, and Colin laughed.

"Thanks for helping me," he said.

"Yeah, I just hope I didn't scare them too bad. What do you think?"

"I think they looked pretty scared." Colin smiled. "I think I wanna be your friend!"

"Of course you can be my friend!" I smiled. "C'mon, lets go explore the houses! We found a lot of cool stuff in the inn last night!"

"Okay, I'll race you!" Colin took off running, and I followed him, laughing. For the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon, we explored inside the empty houses. We found several rupees, and divided them between us. Late in the afternoon, Talo and Beth came up to us.

"We're sorry for making fun of you," Beth said. "Say sorry Talo!" She whacked him on the arm.

"Ow! Sorry," he said, rubbing his arm. Beth smiled.

"You wanna play with us? We're playing pirates!" she asked him.

"Sure!" Colin smiled. "We found some rupees in the old buildings, that can be our treasure!"

"How about this," I suggested. "I'll take the rupees and go hide them somewhere. Someone can come with me and we'll be the bad pirates, and the other too are the good pirates who have to gets their treasure back!"

"Yeah! I'll be the bad pirate!" Talo volunteered. We both ran off. "Let's go hide it in that house!" Talo pointed.

"Okay!" We found a chest to hide it in, and some old sticks to use for swords. A few minutes later, Beth and Colin came in.

"Give us back our treasure!" Beth yelled.

"Never!" I said in a rough voice. Beth and Colin, wielding "swords", ran forward, and an epic battle ensued. Colin and Beth won, and grabbed the rupees from the chest.

"Hooray, we won!" Beth cheered. Colin gave me back my rupees. "Hey, what are you doing?" Beth asked him.

"They're her's," he said.

"I don't really need them, you guys can split them."

"Hey, I want some!" Talo ran forward. I smiled.

"Once you guys are done, let's go outside. There's something cool I want to show you!" They finished quickly, and I led them outside. Sierra and Kris were walking back to the inn. "Hey guys! Done with practice?" I said to them.

"Yeah," Sierra panted. "I'm completely exhausted!"

"Heehee, I'm not!" Kris laughed, clearly still full of energy.

"Well, maybe you can show the kids your skills later, once you've rested," I suggested.

"Okay," Sierra panted, and sat down on the porch. Rune came stumbling up to us, hair all messed up and clothes torn and dusty.

"Heh, no luck?" Sierra asked.

"Nope." Midna popped out of her shadow.

"Wah!" Talo jumped back. "What is that thing?"

"'That 'thing' can hear you. My name is Midna."

"You just came out of her shadow!" Beth said, shocked.

"Yeah, got a problem?" Midna stared at Beth, and she was silent. "Anyways, we couldn't get past the gorons, so I guess we'll just have to wait for Link."

"Where is Link? I haven't seen him all day," Colin asked.

"He's gone to Ordon to let your parents know you're okay," Rune said. It was part of the truth, Link probably would tell the kids' parents to stop them from worrying. "He should be back sometime soon."

"Okay!" Colin smiled. The kid seemed happier without the others picking on him, but he was still shy.

"Well, I'm gonna go see if I can find some new clothes," Rune said, gesturing to her torn up, dirty tunic.

"Oh, that's already taken care of!" Sierra said, pulling off her bag. "There's an extra set of clothes in here for each of us! And also some clothes that I think are supposed to be for casual wear."

"Cool!" Rune said. "We can try on the other clothes later, Link should be back soon and we'll be able to go into the mountain." She grabbed the bag and went inside the hotel to change.

"I just realized, we never had lunch!" I laughed. "Lets go get something to eat! You guys wanna come with us?" I asked the kids.

"Sure!" Colin agreed.

"Nah, we found some stuff to eat in one of the houses. We'll stay out here and wait for Link!" Talo said, and he and Beth went and sat in the middle of the street. We went inside, and started eating a very late lunch. After a few minutes, Rune came down in a fresh set of clothes, and joined us.

"Do any of you guys hear that?" Rune asked. A low rumbling sound seemed to be coming from outside. Colin got up and opened the door to see. He gasped, and charged outside. We all quickly got up to see what was happening. A huge green bulbin, along with several others, was riding a boar, straight toward Beth. I called out to her, but she was frozen in fear. I started toward her, but Colin had already reached her. He shoved her out if the way, and the boar crashed into him.

"No!" I yelled. The huge bulbin picked up the unconscious boy. I drew my sword and stepped forward. "Hey, pick on someone your own size, fatty!" I yelled. I had no idea how I'd worked up the courage to say that, but I was ready to do anything it took to save my new friend. The big bulbin laughed, and signaled to one of the smaller bulbins. It shot a flaming arrow at me. I quickly jumped out of the way, the arrow grazing my arm. It hit the inn, and flames started licking up the wood.

"Oh no!" Sierra yelled. She and Kris started trying to put out the fire. I looked back at the bulbin, furious. Before I could attack, however, I heard a loud whinny. Epona came running forward, with Link on her back! He stopped short at the sight of the huge bulbin. It held Colin's body up, taunting Link. Then, it rode away, heading toward the north field. Link rode up toward us.

"What happened?" he yelled over the crackling of flames.

"They took Colin! I tried to fight them, but they shot a fire arrow at the inn!" I yelled back. A look of determination and fury came over Link's face.

"I'm going after him," he said firmly, and turned Epona toward the north field. As he rode forward, Rune and I looked at each other.

"We can't let him do this alone! C'mon!" Rune said. I nodded, and we both ran off. I stopped, and ran back to Sierra.

"Is there a bow in your bag?" I asked her.

"Yeah, here!" she pulled it out and tossed it to me, then continued putting out the fire.

"Thanks!" I called.

"Good luck!" Kris called, as I charged after Rune.

Out on the field, Link was chasing King Bulbin on his horse. The monster had Colin strapped to a pole on the front of his boar. He blew a large horn, and several bulbins riding on boars started chasing Link. He was forced to slow down so he could swing his sword, and the distance between him and the bulbin increased.

"We've got to get rid of those goblin things!" Rune said.

"They're called bulbins. Looks like there's two of them on each boar," I said, thinking quickly, "one to steer, and one firing those fire arrows."

"That's all I need to know." Rune smiled, and charged forward. She swung her sword at a passing boar, and the two bulbins on top fell to the ground. The boar got up, and reared, preparing to charge. Rune jumped on its back, and grabbed its reins as it hit the ground and charged forward. The bulbin who fell down started chasing her, but she was too busy trying to stay on to stop them.

Alright, I thought, time to see if I'm any good with a bow. I fitted an arrow to the bowstring and pulled it back as far as I could. I had practiced archery a few times back at home, but never a moving target. I aimed for one of the bulbins running on the ground, and let go of the bowstring. The arrow shot forward, and hit the bulbin right in the chest. It fell to the ground and exploded. "Yes!" I cheered, and grabbed another arrow. I aimed for the second bulbin, and let the arrow lose. "Headshot!" I yelled, as the bulbin fell. By this time, Rune had recovered, and was chasing after the bulbins trying to hit Link. She drew her sword, and sliced at one of them. It fell, but the archer was still riding, its arrow aimed at her. I carefully aimed, and shot the monster. Wow, this bow was pretty easy to aim, or I got really lucky! I continued shooting the bulbins from my place on the field, while Rune slashed at them from on top of the boar. Link started getting closer to the huge bulbin. He caught up, and slashed at it several times, chunks of its armor falling off. It pulled forward, trying to avoid his sword, and took out the horn. It blew it again, and another wave of bulbins came riding forward. Rune and I started shooting and slashing them, while Link tried to catch up to the large bulbin again.

King Bulbin, however, seemed to find a weakness in our tactics. He swerved around, narrowly avoiding Link's sword. I was busy with the smaller bulbins, and didn't notice him getting closer.

"Lily, look out!" Link yelled. I turned, and finally noticed King Bulbin charging straight toward me! I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the boars thundering hooves. Link sped past me, and knocked off more of the bulbin's armor. Relieved, I turned back to the small bulbins, only to see them headed toward me too! I had no time to run, the group of boars thundered around me. I tried my best to dodge them, but I felt one of them grab the back of my tunic. I screamed, sure it was going to throw me, as it swung me around. I landed, not on the ground, but on the back of the boar. It wasn't a bulbin that grabbed me, it was Rune!

"You okay?" she yelled over the trampling of hooves.

"Yeah, thanks!" I yelled back.

"Good!" She smiled, turned back around, and stabbed the bulbin on the boar next to us. Its rider gone, the boar swerved, and I shot the archer still on its back. Just like the bulbin teams, Rune and I fought together, with her steering and me shooting from the back of the monster. It was really bumpy, so I missed a lot more than on the ground, but we took out most of them. However, one pair got behind us. Rune tried turning the boar around, but they kept following right behind us. I couldn't turn around enough to shoot them without danger of falling off. The archer took aim, and I frantically tried to draw my sword and at least attempt to stop the arrow. Suddenly, the earth below the boar caved, it tripped, and the bulbins went flying. I twisted around, and saw Sierra standing on a rise, the sun setting behind her. Kris was already near the fallen bulbins, holding a grey scythe with a red handle. She slashed the bulbins as they got up, and turned to wave at us. Rune stopped the boar, and we both got off. Sierra lifted a piece of earth, and floated over toward us.

"So, I take it you put the fire out?" Rune smiled.

"Yeah, I had the idea of smothering it with earth!" Sierra said.

"Wow, that was amazing!" I said. "You saved us! And the sun was going down behind you, and it looked so cool!"

"Thanks!" Sierra laughed.

"Where's Link?" Kris asked. I looked around. Link and King Bulbin were no longer riding around the field.

"He's over there!" Rune pointed over to the bridge. We ran over to it, and found the way onto the bridge blocked by a burning wall. Rune climbed onto a platform sticking off of the side of the bridge. We followed her, still not able to get on the bridge, but we could see everything that was happening. Link and King Bulbin were charging toward each other in a sort of jousting match.

"They're going to crash!" Kris yelled.

"No, they aren't! Watch," I said. Right before Link and King Bulbin crashed, Link swerved to the side, and slashed the monster with his sword as he sped by. The bulbin roared in pain, and stopped his boar at the other end of the bridge. Link stopped Epona, and turned around. They charged at each other again. I looked over at Rune; she was tensed up, with a dead serious expression on her face. She was still holding her sword, and twirling it around in her hands.

"What if he doesn't make it?" she said nervously.

"He will! He has to..." I looked back at the fight, suddenly nervous. None of them would survive a fall off that bridge. Only one would walk away. We can't lose Link this early in the game! I thought frantically. The two fighters reached each other. King Bulbin swung at Link, but he ducked. Link swung his sword so hard that it sent the monster flying off the bridge, into the dark chasm below. As the sun sank behind them, Epona reared into the air, and Link raised his sword triumphantly. The four of us watching the battle cheered, and I beamed. Up until this point, he had seemed kind of hesitant, afraid of his fate, I thought. But now, his courage showed in his face, and I knew, without a doubt, he would face any challenge that stood in his way. He was truly the hero, and my friends and I would be there to see him become who he was meant to be. As I cheered, my heart swelled up with pride for our new friend.