Zelda was very glad for the warm jacket she wears as they stand before the Goddess statue in the shrine dedicated to Nayru.

"So, how are we supposed to activate this sealing power that is locked away here?"

Colin was reading through the prince's journal While Zelda explores the area. It was much more open than she had expected it to be, consisting of the Goddess statue and a platform. Columns seemed to have been erected at one point but the place was open to the sky above.

"It says here that there should be a guardian that protects the shrine and serves the Goddess."

"Wouldn't we have seen it on our way up here though?"

"I would have assumed so, but where is it?" Colin looks around as Zelda had been, searching for any sign that there was anyone else here. Zelda, meanwhile, was currently in the shallow spring surrounding the platform that Colin was standing on. There was a cliff face that rose up behind the statue and she figured that if there was anywhere for a secret door to be hidden, that would be enough, as she comes up to the point directly behind the statue she sees a faint outline etched into the stone of the crest of the royal family.

"Colin, I think I found something." Reaching out she lays her left hand over the mark and notices the back of her hand begin to glow. She yanks it back in surprise as Colin comes up behind her.

"You found something?"

"Yeah." She nods to the wall with the mark, holding her left hand back at her side. "It's the mark of the royal family, isn't it?"

Colin moves forward and inspects the mark before nodding. "It is, but that doesn't tell us how to open it." He then notices how she is holding her left hand.

"Is everything alright?" He nods his chin at the hand she is holding and she blushes a bit in embarrassment at how she is acting.

"I, well, when I reached out to touch it earlier my hand began to glow. It was weird."

"Glow? Huh." Colin studies the mark a bit longer before stepping back from the wall. "Show me."

Zelda reaches out for the emblem on the wall once again and her hand begins to glow, eventually coalescing into the familiar mark of the triforce. Just as it is fully visible the light seems to expand, engulfing Zelda completely before fading away, taking her with it.

"Zelda!" Colin looks around frantically for his sister before pulling out the book and reading through it again. Near the back, in a part he hadn't reached before now is a message from the prince that seems to be directed at him.

'Colin, I know I have placed a heavy burden on you by tasking you with guiding the hero. I also know, that if I am right about who the hero is, I have burdened you further. I know it will not be easy for you to but your sister in danger and that you may feel the need to be at her side at all times as she gathers the power to seal this evil, but you can not. The shrines that she must visit to awaken the power of sealing held by the three guardians are something that only the Hero of Legend is permitted to enter. She must go alone.'

Colin stares at the message for several long moments before the cold of the spring and the freezing temperatures draws his attention to the need to stay warm. He makes his way back over to the platform in front of the Goddess statue before gathering a bundle of wood and starting a fire. If the prince said that the temple would only allow the hero to enter then he would just wait here for his sister to come out.

Zelda blinks and looks around after the bright golden light fades from her vision. Looking around she takes note that this was not the same place she was before. To begin with it was closed in on all sides with blue lit torches mounted on the walls surrounding her. The wall in front of her has a door set in it. Looking around the otherwise bare space she carefully steps toward the door.

"Where am I?"

Pushing open the door she looks out into a large room that seemingly has no floor other than what is directly on the other side of the door. Stepping forward she looks over the edge of the floor and sees a long deep shaft that goes down several stories.

"Ok." Looking to either side she realizes there is a staircase that spirals around the shaft from the platform she is on. "So, I need to go down. Great."

Keeping one hand on the wall she begins her descent of the stairs. After a little while she comes across a large block of ice blocking the stairs and a door set into the wall. Heaving a sigh she opens the door and peers inside before quickly slamming the door closed.

"Ok, what was that thing." Steeling herself she opens the door once more to look at the creature inside. The creature looks like a large wolf, but it is hunched over and standing more like a large ape, knuckles dragging the ground. To her surprise the creature doesn't move. A closer look shows that what she thought was a living creature is actually a frozen statue. With caution Zelda enters the room and goes to inspect the wolf statue.

"This is weird." She pulls out her sword and prods the statue, the sound it makes isn't that of metal on stone, but rather metal on ice or wood. Blinking she looks up and realizes how much detail the statue has and begins to back away from it.

"Ok, not a statue. What could have frozen it so solid though?" Looking around at each wall she only notices a couple of doors opposite the one she entered through. Between them is a relief of a closed eye. Her shoulders slump as she looks between the two doors. "I guess I have to pick one."

Moving to the one on the left she gives wide berth to the frozen beast in the middle of the room. Once at the door she checks it to see if it's unlocked and is surprised to find it is. Sword still in hand she opens it and looks in. The room she looks into is mostly bare, except for the floor which seems to have a grid like pattern on it made of deeply cut grooves and a chest on the opposite side from her.

Stepping fully into the room she looks around for anything else and spotting none she begins making her way across the room. She manages to jump back when one of the squares on the floor gives out under her weight, just before a large spear of ice comes crashing down from the ceiling. After getting her breathing under control she looks up and sees that the ceiling is covered in the sharp points of giant icicles. Scurrying back to the wall by the door in a crab crawl she looks around for any clues about how to get across.

"Great, I'm almost positive that whatever is in that chest I'm going to need down here." Biting her lower lip, she looks at the floor again. The remains of the icicle that had fallen was several squares in, so those first few were safe. Which probably meant there was a pattern to the switches hidden on the floor.

With no clues in the current room Zelda makes her way back out into the previous room and goes to the second door and finds it locked.

"Grrr." She kicks the door and looks around for some way to open it. She looks up at the relief of the eye between the two doors, maybe the switch was up there. It was too high for her to reach though.

"Just wonderful, what am I supposed to do now?" Looking around she tries to see if maybe she had missed something when she notices the floor under the wolf creature. It looked different than the rest of the floor around it. "Oh, please don't be the switch." Realizing that whether the spot was the switch or not she would need to move the frozen monster regardless.

"Maybe I can," She looks at the sword in her hand then back at the wolf. It could work, hopefully she wouldn't break the sword. "I really don't want to be known as the hero that broke the Master Sword." Gripping the sword tightly she swings it at one of the creature's arms. The sound of shattering glass fills the silence of the room and the wolf creature shakes shards of ice from its fur before its focus turns to her.

"Ok, this may be worse than breaking the Master Sword." She hastily pulls her shield from her back and holds it to block a swing of the creature's claws as it growls at her. The attack almost rips her arm off when it impacts the shield, causing Zelda to stumble back. She manages to keep her feet under her, but only because she impacts the wall behind her and is able to brace herself against it.

The wolf creature growls at her before charging. With a spin to the side she moves out of the way, just in time for it to impact the wall, stunning it. With adrenaline racing through her she turns and swings with her sword once again, slashing the thing's back. It lets out a howl of pain and in that moment Zelda manages a second slash across its back which results in it collapsing to the ground and dissolving into a black mist.

Zelda stands there for a long moment, panting and gripping her sword with white knuckles. After she manages to calm herself down she notices the floor under where the wolf had been, is raised just slightly and glances up at the relief of the eye to find it open. Sword still in hand she walks over to the door on the right and finds it is now unlocked. Heaving a sigh, she braces herself as she opens the door and looks in. This room is smaller than the one next to it and opposite the door is a small chest.

Checking the floor for any obvious traps this time, Zelda makes her way over to the chest with no issues and manages to open it. Inside is a roll of parchment. Picking it up, she unrolls it and looks it over. It's a grid similar to the floor in the other room with several of the squares marked by skulls. Running on a hunch she looks in the area where the icicle had fallen and sees a skull on that square.

"So, it's a guide to the traps in that room." With another sigh, she rolls the parchment back up and heads back out into the first room before heading over to the door on the left. Trying the door, she finds its locked. "Really! I mean really!" Growing more and more frustrated at the whole situation, she stomps over to the switch and stands on it. The eye closes and she can just hear the sound of a lock releasing while another clicks into place. Stepping off the switch releases it and the eye opens once again. "This is ridiculous!"

Closing her eyes, she tries to think about this logically. The switch had been pressed when she came in because the monster was standing on it. It also needed to have some weight on it to unlock the left door and only one door could be unlocked at a time. So, what did she have that could weigh down the switch so she could go through the left door.

"That chest!" Rushing back into the room on the right she picks up the chest and carries it out into the first room, setting it down on the switch in the floor. The switch goes down, the eye closes and she hears the locks change positions. "Yes!" Happy that she figured it out she goes into the room on the left and pulls out the map of the floor before carefully making her way across the room to the chest on the other side.

Opening the chest, she finds inside it a rod with a red orb on one end and made of a reddish metal. Curious she picks it up and gives it an experimental swing. Fire shoots from the end of it and bounces around the floor in front of her, causing her to jump back with a start. The fire burns itself out quickly, but she looks at the rod and then looks toward the door she came through. There was that large block of ice blocking the stairs.

Link hisses as a sharp pain shoots up from his hand, causing him to drop the pitchfork he was using to muck out the barn. Inspecting his hand shows that he had ripped open a blister and it was bleeding and oozing. Dorin had told him he didn't need to help around the farm, but Link had insisted. It would have seemed odd if he wasn't doing something, the anonymity he gained by taking his former knight's name would only go so far if he was seen sitting around while everyone else did their part.

Inspecting his hand, he realizes he'll need to wash it and dress it before getting back to work. He did find it odd that even though he had spent his life with a sword in hand the callouses from that were not the same as one gains from working on a farm. Walking to a corner of the barn he finds a water bucket and pump. A few quick pumps and he has enough water in the bucket to clean his wound before going into the house for a bandage. As he is washing his hands he spots something interesting tucked in behind the wall by the water pump. Finishing with his hands he stands up and goes over to what he had noticed.

It's a wooden sword. Its sized a bit small, something you might give a young knight in training. Looking it over he finds that the wood along the blade is dented and scuffed and the leather grip of the handle is worn and slightly shiny from wear. A smile spreads on his face and he feels a great worry rise from his shoulders. If this was Zelda's as he suspected, then she would be somewhat familiar with a sword. It was something he had been concerned about since he began to suspect that Colin's sister was the hero. No normal farmgirl would have the background to wield a sword with confidence, but it looks like she may not be so normal.

Zelda was tired. She was sweaty and filthy and grimy and just wanted to lay down and rest for the next decade, but she couldn't do that just yet. It had been hours since she was sent to this strange place and she had been forced to fight monsters, dodge traps and overcome obstacles to get to this point, this point being the bottom of that shaft she had started at the top of, and she was a bit fed up with whoever designed this place. Before her stood a large set of double doors and she just knew, just absolutely was positive that on the other side of those doors had to be another monster for her to fight.

"I swear to the Three if I have to fight the guardian of this place to 'prove' myself to it then I will straight up kill it, sealing power be damned."

Steeling herself she walks up to the doors and pushes them open. Inside is a large open room with a pool of water taking up most of the floor other than the platform she walks out onto. The ceiling is vaulted and seems to extend up almost as far as the shaft she had descended. Zelda puffs and sees her breath fog in the chill air.

"Ok, so where's the guardian?"

As if in answer to her question the water begins to stir and bubble. Soon she sees a large bulge begin to raise up from the center and she braces herself for another fight, sword and shield held at the ready. As the water sloughs off Zelda finds herself swallowing her nerves. What was revealed was the head of a massive dragon. It fills the space of the room and she can only imagine how deep that pool of water must be for it to have the rest of its body coiled underneath. The dragon's scales are white with purple and blue accents, a crown of blue horn crests its head as it locks an eye with Zelda.

"Hero of Legend, you have overcome many trials to come to this point." The voice is much softer than Zelda would have thought for such a large being, its gentle and she gets a feeling of calm from it. "I am Naydra, Guardian of the Spring of Wisdom and servant of the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru. What do you seek?"

Zelda is stunned, this dragon was a servant of the goddess, this was the being whose help they sought. What was she supposed to ask it for?

"Hyrule is in peril. A great evil has invaded and I seek your assistance in seal it away so it may be stopped." She hopes she said that right and hadn't just offended it by saying something stupid.

The dragon shifts its head as if tilting it in thought. "You seek my aid in your quest to stop this evil?" It eyes Zelda in consideration of her request. After several minutes, it lowers its head so its chin is nearly touching the platform on which Zelda stands. "I will grant you this aid, but know that it will not come easy. My power is sealed here, for now. If I am to help you then you must first help me. There are two temples in Hyrule, I need for you to go to them and place my power in the center of each."

Zelda furrows her brow, the request doesn't seem that difficult, but, "How am I supposed to place your power at these temples? And how will I find them?"

If Zelda didn't know better she'd think the dragon was laughing at her. It then opens its mouth and a gentle if cold breeze flows over her. She shivers from the chill.

"I have given you a part of my power, it resides within you. To unleash it hold back your blade and hold, the power will gather there and you may then unleash it in a powerful wave by swinging your blade around. This will momentarily freeze your opponent. By unlocking the other two temples the duration that your opponent is stopped will increase. As for the temples' locations. One is located in Lake Hylia, the other is in the Zora's Domain."

Zelda looks down at herself in surprise. A bright light then begins to surround her and she feels herself getting lighter, very similar to when she was brought into this place.

"Go forth now Hero. Save this land of Hyrule."

Night had fallen while Colin waited for Zelda. Worry still gnawed at him, but he was trying to ignore it. He had used the hours since Zelda was whisked away to go over a map of Hyrule and mark the locations of the other two temples they would need to visit. He notes that one is to the North in the Akala region while the other is south in the northern part of the Faron woods. Of course, he would take them to the one in the middle first. Now the question became if they would go North first or if they should head South.

AS he is pondering this a light begins to form in front of the Goddess statue near him. After a while he looks up and sees a form gathering in the light before the light fades away to reveal Zelda.

"Zelda!" Colin is on his feet and holding her tightly before her feet have even fully settled on the ground. "I was worried. Are you alright?" He releases her from the tight embrace and holds her back by her shoulders, inspecting her for any injuries. He makes note that he tunic seems to have been ripped in a few places and she has scuffs on her cheek.

"I'm fine, really Colin. I'm sorry I took so long getting out of there." She smiles at him and that's all he needs to know she really is fine.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he manages to let her stand fully on her own. "I'm glad to hear that. Did you manage to find the Guardian and ask it for help regarding the evil?"

Zelda nods and almost collapses next to the fire Colin had started. "I did, they're willing to help us. I just have to help them first."

"Help them?"

"I need to unseal two temples and leave a portion of Naydra's power in each, then they will be able to help us."

"Who's Naydra?" Colin furrows his brow in confusion, not familiar with the name.

"Naydra is the guardian we came to ask for help. They're this massive dragon. I'm pretty sure their head was the size of our house or maybe the barn. They were really pretty though and they had a kind voice."

They sit in silence for a moment as Colin tries to wrap his head around all the information Zelda had shared with him.

"I wonder if the other two guardians will be dragons also, and if they'll need me to unseal temples for them."

That has Colin thinking. "Did they tell you where the temples are that need unsealed?"

Zelda nods, "They did. One is in Lake Hylia, the other is in Zora's Domain."

Colin pulls out the map he had been thinking over earlier and looks at where they now needed to go. "Zora's Domain is near the temple in the North the prince told us to go to. We should be able to go to one and then the other. From there we can see what other temples we need to go to and mark them on the map as well."

"That sounds like a plan, but can we rest before we head out. I'm exhausted and hungry. And I really just want a bath."

Colin chuckles at his sister. "Sure, we can rest. Do you want to rest here or go down the mountain first?"

"Sleep first, I don't think I could make it down if we went now." Zelda crawls over to where Colin is sitting and leans against him. "Just give me an hour or two and then we can go down and be on our way."

Colin wraps an arm around his sister with a smile and rubs her shoulder. "Yeah, we can do that. You just rest."

It may have not been something he was completely comfortable with still, but it looked like Zelda was handling things rather well. He just hoped that she would continue to be able to handle things as their journey continues.