*Link's P.O.V.*

I sliced the vines to open the way through the hallway. It had been a good fifteen to twenty minutes since Zelda and I had argued. Since then, neither of us had spoken a word.

Basically, the argument had gotten us nowhere but extremely ticked with each other. We had just wasted time by doing that. Zelda was also staying a good ten feet behind me, which I was okay with. 'The farther away she is, the better.'

There hadn't been many issues with monsters since the skulltula incident. The only real issue was watching my steps for any debris since the whole place was in ruins. I was starting to doubt that there was any evil in this place, despite what the Great Deku Tree had said.

'Has this whole thing become a waste of time?' I wondered.

We passed through another door to a somewhat dark room. There were platforms sticking up at random places, and the floor below the platforms seemed like a long drop. 'Well,' I thought, 'don't want to fall down, now, do we?'

As I jumped from platform to platform, I noticed something strange. Although the room was poorly lit, I could see a shadow growing underneath my feet. I stopped on the next platform and just stood there and watched the shadow grow for a couple of seconds. Then I felt a presence above me. Thinking fast, I grabbed my sword and swung it above me. I felt the blade come in contact with something. I looked up to see my sword slicing through a disembodied hand. Once it was cut through, the hand disintegrated into dark smoke.

'What in the world was that?' I wondered. 'And why are all the monsters disappearing into smoke?'

I just shrugged the question off and continued with jumping on the platforms. Eventually, I reached a floor that wasn't a platform and started walking forward. There was another door to go through. I opened it and saw that there was a very large gap in the floor, where the floor just seemed to fall out, and that the room was a bit darker than the previous.

'Now it's starting to seem that each room is getting darker and darker,' I thought. I hoped that wasn't the case, as I had very poor night vision.

I stepped into the room and walked over to the gap. I couldn't see the bottom, nor did I want to find out where it was, either. I looked across the room to figure out that the other side of the gap was too far for me to jump, so I looked around to see if there was a way across. The gap was as long as the room, and there wasn't any kind of bridge of some sort. The gap also was pretty wide the whole way, even though the width would vary in size. I squinted my eyes to look across the dark room and saw something I could use the hookshot to get across. As I pulled it out and prepared to release the chain, I heard the floor cracking. Then I heard Zelda scream.

'What is she squealing about this time?' I thought as I looked towards where the scream came from.

I immediately took my thought back as I saw her holding on for dear life. She was dangling from the floor where it seemed to fall out from under her and she had managed to grab the edge just in time. I rushed over to help her out of her predicament. She looked at me, her eyes full of fear. I crouched and held out a hand.

"Here, grab my hand. I'll pull you out."

She shakily reached up one of her hands and grabbed mine. I tightened my grip around her hand and pulled her up. She was shaking badly once I got her completely out.

"Hey, um...are you okay?" I asked Zelda. "You're pretty shaken up."

She didn't respond. She just wrapped her arms around herself and shook her head.

"Well, I'm going to use the hookshot to get to the other side, then I'll toss it over. You can manage that, right?"

She shrugged. "I guess," she said with a shaky voice.

"Okay." 'Wow, that fall must have terrified her...'

I pointed the hookshot over to where I could use it, and as soon as I released the chain, the floor fell from under us. Without thinking, I grabbed Zelda after hearing her scream and held her tightly as the hookshot dragged us across the air and to the other side. We landed on sturdier floor as well.

After the shock of actually making it wore off, I let go of Zelda and sighed, putting my hands on my knees and looking back across the gap. 'That was too close,' I thought.

I stood back up and asked Zelda again if she was okay. The next thing I knew, she hugged me tightly. She was still shaking terribly.

"Um..." Even though I still wasn't very fond of her, I could feel my ear tips heat up. But I became distracted from that when I noticed that Zelda, the one person who I thought would never show kindness or weakness, was crying.

"What's wrong?"

She loosened her arms a bit. "I-I'm sorry..." She then backed away. "I didn't mean to do that. I was just..." She looked away, then turned around completely.

"Scared?" I finished for her.

She stayed silent for a moment. "...Yeah."

It was weird seeing Zelda like that, but it was definitely better than her always trying to be tough. 'Maybe Will was right,' I thought. 'Maybe she is not what I make her out to be...'

"But don't EVER grab me like that again!" She suddenly shouted and turned back around to look at me.

'Then again...'

I sighed. "Are we really going to go through this again? I saved your life back there."

Zelda looked as if she was about to spit back a reply, but then she looked down at the ground.

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks." Then she turned back around and walked to the next door.

'Did she just...thank me?' I wondered as she walked away. I started to follow her as I saw something move out the corner of my eye. A large, dark figure scurried across the ceiling and through a hole in the wall into the room we were about to go in.

"Wait," I whispered. "Something up there just went into that room."

Zelda glanced at me, then up at the ceiling. "What was it?"

"I don't know, I couldn't make it out. Be careful entering that room."

She nodded and opened the door slowly. It creaked a bit the more it opened. As we both entered the room, I noticed it was almost pitch black. I drew my sword and shield, then examined the room to see if I could see anything.

"Do you see anything?" Zelda asked.

"I can't see anything, more like it," I replied. "It's pitch black in here."

"Not really. Are you telling me you can't see the faint outline of rocks?"

"There are rocks?" I sighed. "Look, my night vision is terrible. If there is anything in here, I probably won't be able to focus on it, so let me know if you see anything."

"Okay."

After a few minutes of aimlessly walking around, I heard something scuffling around.

"Do you hear that?" I asked her.

"Yeah. It's coming from the ceiling."

Then, I heard what sounded like rocks moving before something heavy landed near me. I felt the ground shake. I turned to face whatever it was, and saw what it seemed to be a giant arachnid type rock monster with a yellow and orange eyeball peeking through the rocks. The eye was so bright, I didn't have trouble focusing on it.

"What in Hyrule is that?" Zelda shouted. The monster turned towards her, being alerted by her sound, and charged towards her. She gasped and ran away. I ran towards the monster and hit it with my sword, attempting to distract it. It worked, and it turned towards me and glared at me with its yellow and orange gaze. I glared right back at it, formulating ideas in my head. Suddenly, a small rock went zipping by the monster's leg. I saw Zelda throwing rocks at it.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"It's got to have a weak spot!" She shouted back. "That skulltula did; why not this freak too? Help me find it!"

I immediately thought of something. I sheathed my sword, put away my shield, and pulled out the hookshot, and aimed it at the monster's eye. Once it hit it, the monster shrieked and recoiled. I retreived the chain and Zelda gasped.

"Link, do that again when you get a chance! I think I found a weak spot!"

"The eye? That was simple."

"No, something else, but you have to hit the eye. Do it again!"

I sighed and readied the hookshot again. The monster looked at me again and I hit it with the hookshot again.

"Okay, keep the chain in its eye! Oh, and I need your sword."

"What? Why?"

"Can you just toss it over here?" She looked at me. She was almost behind the monster.

"Fine." I switched the hookshot to my right hand and pulled out my sword. I tossed it low to the ground and she ran over to pick it up where it had landed. Then, the monster jerked around and got the chain out of its eye. Zelda dodged the monster and got behind it.

"Do that again, but try to keep it in longer!"

I repeated the hookshot action and again got the chain in the monster's eye. This time, I moved with it to attempt to keep the chain there. Suddenly, it screeched and collapsed onto the ground, also disappearing into smoke like everything else had done.

Zelda walked over to me. "Here's your sword back." I looked at it. It was covered in a dark liquid.

"There was an opening in the back of it. When you hit the eye, it was revealed, but only if the eye had something in it. So, while you had the thing distracted, I attacked the opening. Turns out, it was some kind of heart. I figured that out when I stabbed it and a heart-like object came with the sword."

I gave her a disgusted look as I took the sword back and pulled out a cloth from my pouch and wiped off the liquid from my sword. I didn't want any kind of blood to stain it. Suddenly, a bright green light enveloped the room. I shielded my eyes from the sudden light until it dimmed down. There was now a woman in the room with green hair, pale skin, and a light green dress. She looked up at us with her bright green eyes.

"I am the spirit of Farore."

I gasped. "As in the Goddess Farore?"

She nodded. "I've been trapped here for a very, very long time. Ever since the dictators have taken over the lovely land of Hyrule."

"How?" Zelda asked. "If you're a goddess, how could you have been trapped here for over three hundred years?"

"It's all Ganondorf's doing." Farore sighed. "After all, he's the one who started the dictatorship. He has this thing all planned out. That's just how badly he wants Hyrule...he's willing to wait centuries for it. It's strange though. We had thought the Hero of Twilight finally killed him. But, that's not the case. He also managed to get ahold of the Triforce of Power again. I'm not sure how, though. But, thankfully, we had managed to create both of your destinies before he got a hold of us and kept us each in different temples." She looked away. "The two of you were also supposed to be blessed with a piece of the Triforce, but seeing our predicament, we weren't able to give them to you. I can only hope that they are still in the Sacred Realm without Ganondorf ever having touched them." She looked back at us. "Well, I hoped I answered your question." She smiled. "I would love to help you out some more, but I really need to return to the Sacred Realm now. I will hopefully be able to give you, Link, the Triforce of Courage once I return."

I stood there, shocked. Not only was I in the presence of the Goddess Farore herself, but she was going to give me a piece of the legendary Triforce. "Y-you don't have to do that..."

"Oh, but I must. I had already chosen you long before you were born, anyway."

"Well, may we at least ask one more question?" Zelda asked.

"I suppose, but I must hurry, so I'll have to make it quick."

"Where can we find your sisters?"

Farore looked down and closed her eyes. "I can somewhat feel their presence in a volcano...and the depths of a lake. That's all I can tell. Now, I must go. Thank you for saving me, and please hurry to my beloved sisters." With that, she disappeared and a blue circle appeared where she once stood.

"What is that?" Zelda wondered aloud.

I shrugged. "Let's find out." I sheathed my sword and walked over, Zelda following close behind. Once my foot set inside it, a blue diamond shape enveloped around us and lifted upwards. I don't remember what happened then, but then I ended up back in front of the tree we used to get up into the temple with.

"Hey, you guys did come back!" Folan said and walked towards us. "Come on, we have to go tell the Great Deku Tree!" He started running excitedly.

I started after him, but Zelda stopped me.

"Hey, um...sorry for being rude in there."

I tilted my head.

"I know, I was wrong to snap at you when you saved me twice. And since I don't really plan on going back to Graces, I guess I'll stick with you throughout the journey. Even Farore mentioned how this was all planned, so it seems like I can't get out of this even though I want to. Don't get me wrong, I still hate you, but…um...truce? At least for until this is all over?" She held out her hand. I looked at it, then back at her. I smiled and shook her hand.

"Truce."