Chapter 11
What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?
Ganondorf's castle was huge, with dark towers and sharp angles reaching high up. The whole structure reeked of evil power. I was starting to wonder if it had been such a good idea to come here.
Link walked cautiously through the halls, and I followed close behind him. I felt like we were being watched, and I kept turning around to see if something was following us. It was probably the sixth or seventh time that I had looked over my shoulder, when I saw a shadow disappear around a corner. I gasped and turned to tell Link, but he was gone.
Oh, nice job, Lya, I thought, now you're all by yourself, and there's something waiting for you around that corner…I shouldn't go back there, but…I need to know what that was.
And so, my infinite curiosity once again got the best of me, and I headed back to where I had seen the shadow go around the corner. I stayed close to the wall, and peeked around the corner. There was nothing there. I sighed and decided to go find Link.
I turned around and came face to face with Ganondorf himself.
"You can't keep me here!" I shouted as Ganondorf locked me in a small cell in the corner of a large room. There was a piano against one wall, and the whole room just had a gloomy feeling. "Link will come to rescue me!"
"I'm counting on it," Ganondorf said as he started playing the piano. Creepy music, I thought with a shiver, Link, hurry up and get me out of here… In the meantime, I tested the strength of the bars of my cell. Ganondorf noticed me pulling at them and laughed. "Don't waste your energy. You won't break out of there." I sat back and glared at him through the bars. "Aren't you the least bit curious?" he asked.
"Curious about what?" I asked sharply. The way he was looking at me made me feel sick.
"How you got here," he smirked at me. I just stared blankly at him. "You've been trying to figure it out, but you couldn't find anyone who knew anything about that portal." He turned back to the piano and played more of his music that sounded like the soundtrack to a really cheesy horror movie.
"What do you know about that?" I was afraid that I already knew the answer to my question, but I had to know.
He threw his head back and laughed loudly. Now I really felt sick. "I know," he laughed more, "I know everything about that!" He stopped playing and stood up. He came over to my little prison cell and leered in at me. "I was the one who ordered the lizalfos to go through the portal and destroy anything they found. Of course, they didn't follow my orders the way that I planned. They decided to wander through the forest and terrorize everyone before they destroyed anything. And they left the portal unguarded. But don't worry; they were punished for disobeying me. Your world is safe. For now."
"'For now,' what's that supposed to mean?" my voice quavered as I asked this.
"It means you had better do exactly as I say if you want to keep your world safe."
I looked away and closed my eyes. I didn't really have much back on Earth that I felt was worth anything to me, but I had my friends. I still wasn't sure what had happened to Steven, but there was a good chance that he was okay, and I knew that Hannah was still there. I couldn't let anything happen to them.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked quietly.
"You will help me to get rid of your hero, Link."
"What? No!" I cried out, "Anything but that!"
Ganondorf opened the door to the cell and stood over me. "You will do it, or you can watch your old world go up in flames, just like that village in the mountains," he said menacingly. "And just like the rest of Hyrule. It will all burn, if you don't do this."
I looked up at him, my eyes full of fear. I can't let him destroy all of those lives, I thought, but I can't help him get rid of Link. Oh, what am I supposed to do?
It's one life or thousands, no, millions if he goes to Earth too. I have to…
But, I can't betray Link.
"No." I stood up and glared at him. "No, I won't do it."
He looked down at me with an amused expression. "Why don't you think about it for a little bit? I'll hold off the attack on your world for a while. In the meantime, you should consider what your options are. One life or many." He walked out of the cell and slammed the door behind him, then left the room.
A few minutes later, a man in a full suit of armor came and stood in the center of the room. I just sat in the corner and watched him, but he didn't move again. It was probably close to half an hour later when Link burst through one of the doors.
The guy in the armor charged at him and they fought for a while before Link finally beat him. I wasn't really paying attention, but when the door of the cell opened I was out of there like a shot. I grabbed Link by the hand and ran out of the Ganondorf's castle.
We were out the door and quite a ways away when Link finally got me to stop.
"Whoa! Hold on! What's wrong?" He made me turn and face him. "What happened back there?"
"I…" I wanted to tell him, and I was about to, when Ganondorf's voice forced its way into my mind. Tell him what I said and I'll make sure that everyone you ever met will suffer greatly, in Hyrule and your world. I gasped and clapped my hands over my ears, trying to block out his voice, but that was impossible. You will go back to that little village and observe everything about him. Then you will report back to me. I fell to my knees with my hands still over my ears. I felt like I couldn't breathe. Don't try to fight it, you have no choice.
Then his voice was gone, and I could breathe again.
"Lya! Lya!" Link was shaking me and calling my name over and over again. I looked up at him and saw how worried he was. "What happened?"
"I…I don't know."
He tried to help me stand up, but I couldn't, so he ended up carrying me. I had started shivering uncontrollably, and tears were streaming down my face. Why is this happening?
I'm the voice inside your head you refuse to hear,
I'm the face that you have to face, mirroring your stare,
I'm what's left, I'm what's right, I'm the enemy,
I'm the hand that'll take you down, bring you to your knees
Song Lyrics: "The Pretender" by Foo Fighters
