A/N - I know I said chapters would be coming at a faster rate but I guess I lied. I knew what was going to happen in this chapter, but I was having trouble finding the right words. Also I was busy finishing my novel - which I did! The first draft is done, now I have lots of editing and revising ahead of me. Anyways, enjoy the chapter, and please leave a review; I love hearing from my readers!

Chapter Twelve

The Beast

I swim with one hand held out in front of me to make sure I don't run into anything, because the tunnel has turned dark as pitch. I can see the faintest glimmer of light if I turn my head back the way I came, but in front of me, there is only blackness. A current shifts against my face, but it's so light that I can't tell which way it flows, and every so often, something slimy brushes against my leg. I flinch every time, convinced they're tentacles searching for their next meal.

The darkness is like a physical entity all around me, pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe through the mask. I can't really tell if I'm moving, and I hope to Din I'm not just stuck in place, the image of myself swimming at a standstill for all eternity lodged in my head. A sharper current brushes my face, short like something swimming by. I freeze. The current comes again, flowing over my side, and I spin to face it without thinking, my breath rasping quickly through the mask.

The current disappears, and I'm left staring into the darkness with no idea which direction I'm supposed to be heading and the terrible, lurking feeling that I'm not alone. Even though the current has fallen still, this feeling lurks within my stomach, within my bones, and I try to breathe quietly, to barely move my limbs as I float. I strain my ears, wondering if I'll be able to hear it through all this water.

Minutes pass, and nothing jumps out at me or wraps a slimy tentacle around my ankle, so I pick a direction and start swimming. My hand, stretched out in front of me, bumps into a cold, rock wall, so now I've narrowed it down to two directions, and I've gone so far down the tunnel that I can no longer see the glimmer of light from where I started. There's nothing to do but pick another direction at random and hope it's the right one.

I stay close to the wall as I swim, fingers brushing the rock. That errant current comes back, just a whisper across my face, and my heart jumps because I swear I see something flicker even through the darkness. So I flatten myself against the wall, and I will my eyes to work better, and the blackness closes in, and the tip of something brushes my foot. My whole leg jerks up, and I bang my head on the wall. A laugh, cold but filled with mirth, slides through the water around me, coils like a snake through grass, twists like a reed in the wind. I push myself down the wall until my feet touch the silty floor – it makes me feel more grounded, more in control though that anxious part of my mind knows it won't make any difference – and I close my useless eyes, trying to focus on my ears and the way the water touches my skin.

A featherweight touches my face, like a delicate brushstroke over a canvas, and that laugh comes again, right in my ear. I lash out with my fist, movements sluggish through the water, but find nothing. Better to get moving. I keep my feet in the silt and a hand on the water as I walk with painful slowness down the tunnel, every step dragging through the water. The hair on the back of my neck prickles as my hair floats around my face.

Something slams into my back from behind, sending me tumbling forward, all the air rushing from my lungs. My shoulder bashes into the wall, a burst of pain racing over my skin, and then I sink into the silt. A strong current rushes over my head. I dig my hand down into the mud, searching for something, anything, and my fingers touch something metallic. I pull my discovery free with a squelching sound. I'm holding onto some kind of handle, and with my other hand, I can feel some kind of claw device.

The current passes by again, closer and stronger than before, and my heart clenches. I don't like this darkness, so all encompassing and oppressive, impenetrable. It makes me feel like I haven't a body, like I'm just a thought, floating in a void.

A thought that's about to be eaten by whatever creature is making this current.

The water shifts around me again, and I point the device up and push the button on the side. The sound of clanking metal echoes through the tunnel, there's a squelching thud and a rumble of pain, and suddenly, I'm yanked off my feet. Water rushes past my face, stinging my eyes, and I cling to the handle for dear life, praying the force of the surging water isn't going to rip my mask away.

Suddenly, my ride and I burst out of the dark tunnel and into a vast underwater cavern lit by the weak rays of glowing moss. I'm hanging off an impossibly massive armored eel, blood red ridges running down both sides of its undulating body, stabilizing fins flapping. Strange, clear tentacles wave off its head, but when it turns, the head is actually just two mouths, one full of dagger-like teeth and the other pink and fleshy with dozens of tiny triangular teeth made for shredding.

I see Tall Link down below, swimming towards what looks like a slab of stone in the center of the cavern. "Tall Link!" I yell, my voice gurgling a little.

I don't know if he actually hears me or if the giant eel monster catches his attention, but he looks up, and even from all the way up here, I can see his eyes widen. The eel rolls, whipping me through the water, and my finger tightens over the button on the handle, depressing it. With a clank, the claws detach from the eel's body, and I'm free-floating, swirling and disoriented. The eel's tail smacks me in the chest – somehow, I'm not impaled by any of its spikes – and I shoot towards the cavern floor, crashing right into Tall Link, and we go down in a tangle of limbs.

"Get off!" Tall Link grunts and dumps me into the mud.

I float a couple of inches off the ground and pump my arms to propel myself into an upright position. "What is that?" I ask, staring up at the eel which twists and swims at the top of the cavern. Sheik probably knows what it is, but Sheik's not here. Oh Din. Sheik's not here, and we're about to face off against a giant, spikey eel monster with razor teeth. We're so dead.

"It must be the beast Rutela told us about," Tall Link says. He points at the white slab of stone. "I think Link is buried here. It must be trying to steal the Master Sword."

"It's a giant eel. It doesn't have hands. What's it going to do with a sword?"

Tall Link ignores me. "We need to lure it down here somehow. We're at a disadvantage in the water."

No, really? I hold up my strange claw device, and Tall Link nods approvingly. "That works."

He holds my hips to keep me steady in the water as I aim, but since he has no way to anchor himself, we still bob around. I point the device at the ceiling, tongue poked out between my teeth as I watch the way the creature moves. It swims in a big circle around the top of the cavern, twisting around itself, not a movement wasted. I let out a slow breath as I press the button, and the force of the chain shooting out pushes us both down. My feet brush the silty floor. The chain stiffens as it cuts through the water, but it reaches the end of it's length with a clank without hitting anything. It retracts automatically, whizzing back towards us at an alarming speed. It slams into its holder, knocking us back.

"Shit," I say.

"Try again." Tall Link lets go of my hips. I'm a little surprised he doesn't say he'll do it himself.

I take another deep breath and continue to watch the eel, feeling the shift of currents against my face, gauging the way the glowing moss casts shadows across the water. A deep calm settles over me. My hands don't shake. My thoughts are empty. I press the button. The chain leaps away once more, and this time, I know it will hit. The claw latches onto the eel about halfway down its long body. Already, I can feel myself being pulled towards it.

"Uh, what now?" I say.

"Reel it in."

I should've known how that would end, but I got a little bit overexcited. The eel monster weighs many, many times me. I don't reel it in. It reels me in.

I'm yanked away from Tall Link, and I let out a yelp of surprise. Tall Link grabs my bare foot before I can get too far away. The eel gets very big, very fast, and then I slam into its scaly side, Tall Link crushing me against it. My legs flail as the beast rolls, and I cling to the claw device as Tall Link clings to me. He crawls up my legs, gripping fistfuls of my pants until his chest is pressed into my back.

"Stab it," I wheeze.

Tall Link slides an arm under me so he doesn't float away – the eel still twisting and turning, seemingly unaware of our presence – and reaches for the hilt of his sword. With a grunt, he frees it. The eel goes into a barrel roll, and we're lifted away from its body until we're perpendicular to it, and when we bang back down, Tall Link's sword skids off its scales and is jolted from his hand. My claw device is hooked between two of the ridges and under a scale, and that's how its hanging on. "Shit," Tall Link says, craning his neck to watch the sword float away.

"Are you holding on tight?" I ask.

"Uh, yes?"

"Good."

The claw lets go, and as we drift away, I point it towards the eel's head and shoot the claw towards it. The metal hooks catch on the ridge just behind the first set of teeth. Please don't eat me, I think, and then I let the chain pull us forward. We're jerked to a stop, those long fangs just a few inches away. A green scum coats them, poison, probably.

"Give me your hat," I say.

"Why?"

"Because I have a really bad idea."

Tall Link shrugs and passes the triangular, green hat over. I stick my hand inside and flex my fist. Supposedly, this thing is magical, and I really hope that's actually true as I reach for one of the fangs. I wrap my fingers around the base, cringing as I wait for the burn of venom eating away at my skin, but it doesn't come, so I give the fang a tremendous yank. It comes free with a wet pop.

The eel roars and convulses, twisting its body into knots, and the claw shakes free. I have no free hand with which to catch myself, but Tall Link grabs the base of one of the eel's spikes, and he flings his free hand out to me. "Toss me the fang!"

I shove the hat towards him, and it floats across the space between us with agonizing slowness, seeming to stall halfway across. Then the current shifts, brushing the hat closer to Tall Link, and he's able to wrap his fist around it. The eel contorts to face me, to show me those two, gaping mouths and those rows of teeth. It lunges towards me, head snapping forward like that of a loaded spring, and my fist tightens around the claw device in fear, finger pressing the button on the side, and then I'm suddenly zooming towards the bottom of the cavern. The eel's mouth shuts just a foot away from my flailing leg, but it doesn't shut like a normal mouth, it squeezes shut from all directions.

My back slams into the corner of the stone slab, and I tumble off, sinking into the silt, and by the time I shake myself loose and swim over the slab, the eel is so twisted up and curling around itself so that I can't see Tall Link. And it's moving too fast for me to get a lock on it with the claw device.

Suddenly, the eel shrieks, its mouths stretching towards the ceiling as that flexible jaw works. I see Tall Link rip the fang free, raise it over his head, and stab it back down again. The eel's second yell makes the water around me tremble. Its long body sinks as it thrashes, and by the time it reaches the bottom of the cavern, it's completely still, and its mass causes great plums of silt to puff up through the water.

"Tall Link!" I yell, voice garbled as I swim towards the corpse. I spy the shining hilt of his sword and pull it free.

Tall Link appears over the top of the eel, floating down towards me. "I'm okay."

Relief floods me. I'd been convinced the creature had squashed him. I pass him his sword, and together, we swim towards the white slab of stone. The eel's body curls around it almost protectively, but we go up and over it, and at Tall Link's touch, the top of the box dissolves away to nothing. I stare inside, speechless, breathless.

The Hero Chosen by the Gods lies before us, untouched by the ravages of time. I can see hints of Tall Link's face in his, in the sharp cheekbones, but also hints of my own face in the gentle jawline. His dark gold hair waves about his forehead, and his eyes are shut. The Master Sword, encased in its blue and gold sheath, lies on his chest, his hands closed over it just below the winged hilt. He wears a simple traveler's garb, and there is a metal shield bearing the Hylian crest propped next to him.

"Do we just…take it?" Tall Link asks.

"I guess?" I say, but that seems a little sacrilegious.

Tall Link reaches a hand toward the Master Sword, but his fingers pause just above it. "Isn't there supposed to be a spirit or a ghost or something telling us it's our destiny to take the sword?"

I shrug. "Maybe it's sleeping?"

Tall Link takes a deep breath then wraps a hand around the sword, lifting it out of the tomb. He pulls it to his chest and cradles it reverently.

After three beats, the cavern begins to rumble, the water around us trembling. Giant rocks crack off the ceiling and sink towards us, plummeting through the water with surprising quickness. I lunge out of the way of one, feet sinking into the silt, movements launching with painful slowness.

"Put it on!" Tall Link yells, shoving the Master Sword towards me.

I panic as the weapon floats through the space between us. "What? No, I–"

"You have to. I need my hands free, and we need to move, now."

My hands grab around the sword, and I sling the strap over my head, securing the belt around my waist. We spin and take off towards the tunnel we came through, ducking and weaving as the cavern comes down around our heads. The Master Sword is a weight across my back. We make it into the mouth of the tunnel, but the rain of stone doesn't stop. If anything, it gets worse because of the narrow confines. A rock strikes me in the shoulder, and I'm pushed into the silt, lost in the darkness of the water, but I point the claw device out in front of me and pull the trigger. The hooks bite into something, and then I'm whizzing through the water, Tall Link grabbing hold as I fly by.

The tunnel continues to collapse around us, rocks striking my outstretched arm, my legs, my back. I can hear Tall Link grunting in pain, too. Then we shoot out of the tunnel, and I press the button to release the claws before we crash into the oncoming wall. We drift to a halt, and Tall Link lets go of my waist, panting.

The temple seems stable here, so we swim to the surface, pulling the masks off as our heads break out into the air. With trembling arms, I drag myself out of the pool and collapse on the marble floor, every inch of my body aching. When I sit up, I take the Master Sword off and rest it across my knees. Rutela is nowhere in sight.

"We did it," Tall Link says, a little incredulously.

I nod. I don't have the breath to speak yet.

Tall Link scoots back until he's sitting beside me. "Look, I'm sorry I've been acting like such a dick."

"It's fine."

"No, it's not." He shakes his head. "I've been a complete ass to you, and I'm sorry. I've got no excuse. I was afraid."

I look over at him, shocked. "You? Afraid? But you're always so confident, so self-assured. You always seem like you know what you're doing."

He sees my expression and nods. "Yeah, I was afraid. I am afraid. It's a lot, you know, to suddenly learn that you have to live up to the legacy of the greatest hero who's ever lived. It was terrifying, is terrifying. I knew what I was doing in Ordon Village; ranching makes sense to me, but this is a whole other set of rules."

"Everyone in Ordon Village looks up to you. I was always jealous of you, of the way my father would go to you for help and ignore me. I was useless." This is the first time I've said this aloud, and I look down at the ground, away from Tall Link.

"I always felt a little weird about how your father seemed to chose me over you. I'm sorry for that." Tall Link tries to duck his head to look at me, but I curl away.

"You're the son he always wanted. Not me. Sleepy Link. Should've been Useless Link." I spit the name out.

Tall Link puts his hand on mine. "Sleepy Link, you're anything but useless. You've been doing everything I'm supposed to be doing. You killed the white wolfos, you convinced that woman to let us go – she just laughed at me – it was your idea to wrangle those birds while I was just paralyzed by my fear of heights. You've saved my life, I don't know how many times. You jumped into a frigid lake to save me, and you're the reason we defeated that eel." He sighs and buries his head in his hand free hand. "You're so much better at this than me. Really, you are," he adds when I make a scoffing sound in the back of my throat. "I've been lashing out at because I was afraid that I wasn't worthy, afraid of doing something wrong. I was afraid that Zelda and Sheik made a mistake and the hero's tunic was actually supposed to go you, which I know is a terrible thing to say because you'd make a great hero. Maybe a better hero than me. I'm sorry.""I've always looked up to you," I say because I don't know what else to say, because what do you say when someone bares their soul to you like this? "And if it makes you feel any better, I've been scared out of my mind this entire time."

Tall Link laughs, a bright sound in this gloomy temple. "I'm glad we're on the same page. Will you accept my apology, Sleepy Link?"

I nod. "You're my hero, you know."

He turns bright red and looks away from me. He claps his hands and hops to his feet with a groan, reaching a hand down to help me up as well. "Where's Rutela, do you think?"

I go to take his hand, but before I can, a shocked look freezes onto his face, and a warm splatter hits my cheeks. Suddenly, there's a gaping hole in his chest near where his heart should be, ragged and bloody, sharp, white bits of his ribcage poking out at odd angles. His mouth works, trying to say something, his shaking fingers trying to reach the wound but not making it much past his waist, blood already seeping from his lips. I sit, shocked and paralyzed, as a closed, translucent fist pulls out of the hole, and then Tall Link collapses, face first, into my lap.