Chapter 14

Zelda

(A.N.: Sorry I haven't updated in so long! I've just gotten back to school and I've been organising things left right and centre. But I'll try my best to update at least once a week from now on. Just a warning, depending on how you interpret my writing, you may see a hint of MidnaxZelda in this chapter, but that's not the way it's intended. Sort of. Just... Interpret it how you'd like to interpret it, 'kay?)

Midna was right.
Arbiter's Grounds was a horrible place, and it was, as expected, filled with animated skeletons and quick sand. There were scarab beetles crawling all over the place, and at several points, there was something crawling all over me, which I guessed were the invisible rats she had been talking about. When we first made it down into the torch-lit, sand covered dungeon, she had been floating by my side, but around the third room we went into, the imp's form became insubstantial and retreated to my shadow, and there she had remained for most of the rest of the trip, occasionally pointing out what to do next, or what Link had done at such points in time.
At first, I had wondered why there was so much sand around. Of course, we were in a desert, but I never expected there to have been so much sand in an underground structure. When I put one foot into the sand and it began to be sucked downwards, I instantly snatched my foot away and took a step back. Midna, silently, floated over to a platform just across a small patch of sand from where I stood. "Run to here!" She said.
I hesitated, looking around the room. I couldn't see a way to get from the platform she was standing on to the doorway on the other side of the room, and despite trusting her, I couldn't bring myself to follow blindly after her. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I couldn't forget." Her voice was sombre and she looked down at the sand with an expression of both sadness and disdain.
Deciding to trust her memory, I followed. Wading through the quick-sand was probably among one of the most curious experiences of my life – if was both panicking but calm, slow but over in a second. Knowing that if I wasn't fast enough I'd be dragged down into a sink-hole that fell down so far all I could see was blackness made my heart beat as if my life had never been in danger before, but at the same time I was simply wading through deep sand.
Midna led me the rest of the way across the room, stopping only for a moment at the doorway on the other side to mention how curious it was that the door was still open, yet none of the monsters from deeper inside were trying to escape. We headed on, reducing walking skeletons to the piles of bones they should have been with ease, and soon come into what I could only determine as a main room – some kind of central point.
I remember hearing Midna growl in frustration. "They're gone again!"
"What's gone?" I had no idea what she was talking about. I watched her float over to the door at the far end of the room, where she stared at what looked like bowls that stood atop four pillars at the sides of the doors steps. "What's the matter?" I asked, following her to the other side of the room. It was then that I noticed that the bowls were filled with oil. "They're supposed to be lit. Do you want me to light them?"
She shook her head. "No, we find them." She said, Cryptically, looking back at me. "When Link came through here, Poes stole the flames. We have to find them. "
"I don't think I can take on a ghost," murmured hastily.
"You won't have to. This is my quest. I'll destroy them." The last words were spoken in a low growl as she made her way to one of the doors in the side of the room. I had no choice but to follow her. When I stood at the door, she retreated back to my shadow as I pulled the heavy stone slab upwards.

We found the Poes rather easily. Although I couldn't see them, they weren't silent, as I thought they would be. All I could see was a floating lantern that was alight with a blue flame, and the lanterns appeared to make a sound similar to a heavy chain being shifted about.
I had just walked into a circular room filled with the sound of chains, but no chains were to be seen. Sensing my hesitation, Midna emerged from my shadow and rested on hand on my shoulder, looking around behind me.
We quietly walked into the centre of the room together. The walls of the room held lanterns that gave off a cold light that seemed almost blue, and the noise seemed to echo off every wall and filled my ears.
I turned round to find myself face to face with a floating, flaming, blue lantern. I stared. Nothing was holding the lantern, and it was floating as if it were being carried. A ghost! I scrambled backwards only to notice that there were anther two either side of me. Turning again, I saw one more behind me.
"I can see them!" Midna cried. The giant hand shot out from behind the crumbling remains of the fused shadow on her head as she lashed at thin air – presumably the poe she could see. Yet nothing happened. Her hand hesitated and retreated slightly. There was a moment in which the clanking sound of chains got louder, then, for a moment, I saw something, a hand held the lantern from the sleeve of a musky white robe, which revealed only the hand and a decaying face. Before either Midna or I had time to react, the spectral being lashed at us with his lantern, and I saw out of the corner of my eye, the others did too.
I heard Midna's scream, soon accompanied by my own. The lanterns were both spectral and physically real – I felt three burning sensations pass through my skin and presumed the other had hit Midna. It was a searing pain. It both burned and froze at the same time, and I knew it hadpassed through me, but it felt as if it was stuck beneath my skin. I remember falling to my knees, clawing my sides, trying to get the feeling out from under my skin, but it was no use. My gaze was trained to the ground when I heard the sound growing louder once again, and I braced myself for having my body penetrated on a spiritual level once again.
But it never happened. I heard Midna cry out once again, but in anger rather than fear, and I looked up in time to see the lanterns smashing on the floor, setting free four small, blue flames. The feeling beginning to fade, I looked up and watched as the flames danced around us. It was almost beautiful – they reminded me of the fairies that had graced the spirit's springs of late. After a moment of watching them dance around the floating darkness of the Twilight, Midna and I watched as they darted off and disappeared though the walls.
A long pause ensued as we both stared at the wall. "Are you okay?" Midna's voice was soft and genuinely worried. I looked up at her from where I still knelt on the floor and nodded. "I'm sorry. That was my fault. I should have remembered that there's nothing to do to harm them until they make their forms physical enough to be felt..." She looked at her feet, sheepishly.
I stood up and walked over to one of the robes that were lying on the floor in a completely physical state. I lifted one sleeve. "It's okay. I don't think they did any real damage."
As I turned to look back at her, her hand was suddenly on my cheek as she looked carefully at me. Her eyes flicked back and forth over my face showing only concern. "You still seem pretty shaken, though."
I lifted my hand to my face and placed it over hers, smiling at her, despite how shaky I felt. "I'll be okay."
She smiled back at me, slipped her hand out from under mine and floated over to the door. "Shall we go?" She asked. I didn't need to answer her. I simply followed.