Risk and Instinct

It took some doing to get Link back to the hotel room. Kira found Ganondorf's discoveries fascinating, sure, but she couldn't shake the underlying feeling of uneasiness that coiled in her belly. And she hated the suspicion that it had more to do with Link than with the Gerudo king. For someone who had been so close to either bolting or attacking when he first saw Ganondorf, Link was remarkably comfortable around him now. He hung off Ganondorf's every word.

She understood why he hadn't wanted to leave. They were making progress, more than she'd ever expected when she finally decided to go with him on his quest to find a way home. Even more than that, Tatl regained strength in Ganondorf's little room. That alone was enough to convince her that he was on the right track. Her stomach twisted, reminded of Aven, that he might still be here if she'd fought a little harder at the beginning.

Right path or not, Kira felt a creeping feeling of wariness that she couldn't ignore. So when her stomach's rumbling grew insistent enough that she thought she could convince Link to break for lunch, she'd enticed him away with the promise of McDonald's.

Back in the hotel room, she sat watching Link devour the second of his two Big Macs while she picked away at her salad. She didn't much like McDonald's herself, but she did get a kick out of how much Link enjoyed it. Burgers had changed his life. After seven years here, Kira could stomach the occasional chicken or fish, but she still wasn't a big meat eater. Frankly she was a little surprised Link was. He may not actually be Kokiri, but he'd been raised like one.

Link finished his burger and cleaned up the little desk he'd used as his table, tossing his trash into the bin between the desk and the TV stand. Then he reclined against the chair's back, his lips turned up in a stupid grin. Tatl was recovered enough that Kira could actually make her out through Link's hair if she tried, but her glow was still very faint. "We should get back over there," Link said, turning to meet Kira's eyes.

"Not yet," Kira said, her voice firm. When he looked ready to protest, she cut him off. "Link, we should talk some things through first. Please?"

She'd worried he would argue, but his expression softened. "You were right, Kirali. He can't hurt us here, but he can help us get home. I don't like him any more than you do, but this is our best chance."

Kira shook her head, running her fork through the remnants of her salad. "Where did all of your caution go, Link?" When he didn't answer, she looked up again, catching his stare with her own. "This is the man who poisoned the Great Deku Tree. You might not remember it, but he turned Hyrule into a dark, broken place. Maybe you were right. Do we really want to take him back there?"

His jaw flexed. There was a hint of flare to his nostrils as he watched her. "What do you suggest, then? We just give up on getting home? I can't do that."

She held his gaze for a long moment before finally sighing and looking down at the plastic bowl in her lap. Carefully, burning time more than anything, she closed the bowl up and settled it back into the plastic McDonald's bag she'd spread over her lap like a fancy dinner napkin. There was a cool ache to the knowledge that staying here would never be good enough for Link. And there was a hot wellspring of temper rising in her gut because he would do anything, risk anything, even letting that monster back into Hyrule. She took the words he'd argued the last time they were in this room and threw them back at him. "He is here for a reason. He said himself you and the princess exiled him here after defeating him. Do we really want him back in Hylia?" Her jaw clenched. "You said if anything felt wrong, we'd leave, and I agreed. What if it feels wrong to me?"

Link hesitated, weighing her words. She watched reluctance seep into his expression, his posture. "I don't remember it, you know," he said.

"Remember what?"

He got up, readjusting himself so that he straddled the back of the chair with his arms folded over the top. "Fighting him. Sealing him away. I get… flashes, sometimes. Bits and pieces. But it's like a dream."

Kira tucked away a surge of annoyance. It felt like he was avoiding the subject, but she went with it. Brushing her hair behind one ear, she said, "When the princess turned back time, it must have suppressed the memories."

"When I first saw him he felt so dangerous. Evil. I wanted nothing to do with him. It was like an instinct deep in my gut." He paused, his eyes staring off into the middle distance. "I don't feel so strongly anymore. Maybe because I can't remember actually fighting him."

"Then trust my instincts," she said quickly, shifting forward on the bed so she could lean and touch Link's arm. "I may not have seen him before, but I saw what he did to our home. We can't trust him."

Something in Link's gaze grew firm. He trapped her eyes with his own. "No," he said, but it sounded like agreement, not contradiction. "But we can't give up, either. We'll just have to be careful." He shifted one of his arms free, putting that hand over hers. "I beat him once, you know. I may not be able to remember it, but I think the situation favors me a bit more now than it did then."

"Probably," Kira agreed. She sighed. This would be the best she would get out of him, she realized. A compromise. "So we're doing this, then?"

He nodded. "Let's go."

According to Ganondorf, gods had once mingled among the mortals on Earth, and sealing the magic away had been a botched attempt at keeping the gods from meddling in human lives. Botched in the sense that it had sealed away more than they'd intended, though successful in blocking the gods' access to the world. Even the Hylian Goddesses had no influence here aside from, as Ganondorf had put it, dumping their trash. He suspected they didn't even know what was in this realm, though Link didn't know how that could be possible.

Taking down the barrier, Ganondorf predicted, would not be very difficult. It would just require more power than he could wring through the gaps in the barrier on his own. The ocarina was a powerful channel for magic, which would help. Link just wasn't sure exactly how it would help.

He and Kirali made their way back to the bus after their lunchtime discussion. Only one of Ganondorfs… friends?... was around when they passed through. She waved as they passed, making no move to stop them, so they stepped up into the bus without asking permission.

As they approached Ganondorf's tiny room, his muffled voice seeped through the door. "...that will work?" A pause. Then a rumble of laughter. "I don't need to get it, it just needs to work."

Link exchanged a glance with Kirali, then raised his fist to knock on the door. Were they interrupting a conversation?

The door came open right away and Ganondorf stepped back, ushering them in. "I have it worked out, I think," he said, a breathless excitement in his voice that seemed completely at odds with his imposing appearance and his dark legacy.

"Who were you talking to?" Kirali asked, glancing around. Not that anyone could hide in this small space.

"Hmm?" He raised an eyebrow, red on green. "Oh, myself. I do that sometimes. Helps me to think."

Link shook his head and sidled past Ganondorf. He ducked under the top bunk to get out of the way. A moment later Kirali joined him, one of her knees brushing his. "What did you work out?" Link asked, his fingers going to the ocarina in his pocket.

"How to translate the barrier spell to music."

"But if you don't get it, how do you know it will work?" Kirali asked. Link didn't need to look to know she wore a frown. It hung in her voice.

Ganondorf turned a hard look on her. "It's not polite to eavesdrop." The words were strict, controlled. They set Link's nerves on edge. But suddenly the Gerudo was relaxed. He gave them a grin and snapped shut one of the books on his desk. "I found something in an old book on ritual magic. I don't know music myself, but it looked like a pretty direct translation." He picked up a piece of paper with broad scribbling on it, waving it toward them. "This book could be a load of manure for all I know, of course, but it's worth a shot."

Link pulled the ocarina from his pocket with one hand, reaching for the paper with the other. Ganondorf had drawn a rough musical scale with notes scribbled on, barely legible, but after a moment spent eyeing it he thought he'd interpreted the mess. He let his fingers move over the ocarina, running through the shapes of the notes a few times to get comfortable with it. Finally he nodded to Ganondorf. "So, I play this. What then?"

"I'll work through the original version of the spell as you play. Together, hopefully we'll have the power to bring down the barrier."

Kirali's fingers dug into Link's thigh and he looked over at her, offering a reassuring smile. It didn't help. There was urgency in her stare and she mouthed something he couldn't make out. His eyebrows furrowed and he leaned close. "You don't even have your sword," she murmured in his ear.

"Really?" Ganondorf asked. "Are we kids spreading rumors?"

Link shook his head. "Is this really the best place to do this? Shouldn't we go somewhere… I don't know… with more space?" If they left, he could go to the car to get his sword.

But Ganondorf shook his head. "The barrier is already thin here. This is the best place. Ready?"

Kirali's fingers still threatened to bruise his thigh, but he nodded. What was the worst that could happen? They were just bringing magic back into the world, not magically warping back to Hyrule on the spot. "Let's do this."

"Start playing, then. I'll do my part."

Link shot another reassuring look Kirali's way and then raised the ocarina to his lips. He focused on the notes scribbled over the page in his lap, and the first clear note split the air. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ganondorf's arms moving, but he could only spare a glance or two without losing his place in the music.

As the melody went on, Ganondorf's fingers began to trail light through the air. Shortly the trails began to stick until he was actually weaving a design that hovered before him, a square inscribed on a circle with twisting lines running through them. Those lines, when Link spared a glance, reminded him of rope unraveling.

For that matter, so did the song. It started as a tight, patterned melody that gradually grew more erratic, looser. The notes that had spiraled a narrow range near the beginning shot higher and lower until the melody trailed to an end on the lowest note the ocarina could produce. As the sound dispersed from the air, so did the light of Ganondorf's spell, twisting apart from the center outward.

As the last of the light faded, power welled in its place. A feeling like the air charging before a lightning strike. It built, tingling in Link's fingertips, until it seemed to fill the space between them, completely invisible but as thunderous as the feeling of teetering at the edge of an infinite drop.

And then, when it grew so strong Link thought his lungs might collapse, the tension broke, rolling outward in a series of waves that plowed through Link and left him shuddering like the rush of a thousand Din's Fire cast at once.

When his senses came back, it was to the sound of Ganondorf's laughter. He looked and found the Gerudo king standing, rolling the ocarina in his hands. Link looked down, dumbfounded, to see that his fingers were empty. "Much obliged, child," Ganondorf said. His voice was smoother, crisper than he usually spoke.

And then he disappeared, like a wisp of smoke dispersing into the air.

I'm about 6 chapters ahead of where I'm posting. I'll try to keep you updated as I post. :] I'm leaving myself a cushion so I can be sure to post every week. However I'm waiting to get into basic training for the Air Force, at which time there will be a necessary break of about two months before I can resume posting.