Link held his breath as he swam through the water.
Out of habit, not necessity. Since he had obtained the blue tunic from the Zora King, he was able to stay underwater for as long as he needed to.
And that proved necessary in the water temple, since it was located at the bottom of Lake Hylia.
Suddenly Link's head shot above the surface and he immediately drew a deep breath to fill his still-full lungs. Even as he did it, Link realized how absurd the action was. Why would he need to refill his lungs if the air hadn't been depleted?
This Zora tunic was messing with his head, and Link vowed to avoid the confusing garment after he completed this dungeon.
His musings were interrupted when one of the jumping monsters landed directly atop his head. It forced him back underwater, and if not for the blue tunic Link probably would have started gagging on the water.
Carefully staying submerged until he was out of the monster's reach, Link climbed onto one of the floating platforms. Surveying the room he was in, Link headed directly for a nearby door and, after unlocking it with one of the keys he had found, headed through the door.
On the other side, Link was greeted by a familiar sight.
It was Princess Ruto. The very same princess Ruto he had been forced to save from the belly of Jabu Jabu.
For a moment, Link wondered if he could slip back out of the room before she noticed him.
Before he had the chance to try, Ruto spun around and addressed him.
"Link! I've been expecting you."
"Uh, hi princess."
"Just call me Ruto, but don't. There's no time for niceties. I've got something to tell you, but it's going to have to wait. I'm not sure, but I think he's listening somehow. Just take this, and I'll try and help you when I can."
Ruto handed Link a faded piece of parchment.
Before he could unroll it and figure out what it was, Ruto dove into a nearby body of water and vanished.
Carefully unrolling the parchment, Link found that it was a map of the temple. One of the rooms had a mass of tightly spaced miniscule letters written in it.
"Meet me here." It said, "And hurry."
Link rolled the map up and tucked it into his backpack, then he dove into the same water the Ruto had.
With the help of the heavy metallic boots, Link quickly sank to the bottom and began to walk toward a door on the other side of the room.
Between the door and himself, however, was one of the giant oyster-like creatures that inhabited the temple. Drawing his sword, Link approached it cautiously.
However eyeless it was, the thing watched him, and Link knew it.
He jumped forward suddenly, lashing out and hoping to catch it off guard. Link aimed too low, and his blade slid off the creature's tough shell.
Taking advantage of his loss of balance, the oyster-thing launched itself forward, snapping ferociously.
Link was able to dodge its attack by rolling clumsily out of the way. Once he was behind it, Link readied his sword and prepared to attack again. As soon as the oyster-thing turned to face him, Link lashed out and jabbed his blade deep inside the creature.
Twisting the weapon and wrenching it from the beast, Link stabbed it in again and watched as the monster seemed to melt into a goo-ish substance.
Link continued on his way to the door, stepping through it to find himself face to face with Ruto again.
"It's a lie" She said matter of factly.
While the suit somehow allowed him to breathe underwater, speech was a technique only available to him on dry land.
"Rauru, the sage of light. While you were in the temple of time, he messed with your memories, added some, stole some. He couldn't accept that you weren't perfect, and he tried to force you into saving Hyrule against your will. Even though you were doing it on your own before, that wasn't good enough for him. I don't know how much time I have left here, but I need to tell you this."
Link tried to say "why?" but his words disappeared into the water around them.
Luckily for him, Ruto could read lips. "Because I couldn't stand the thought of him doing anything so unfair to my fiancé. "
Link tried to object, but once again his words were lost.
Ruto smiled and said, "Don't worry, I heard about the girl from the ranch. Malon, isn't that her name? All I've got to say is, she's a lucky girl."
As Link watched, Ruto started to fade away, growing more and more transparent by the second.
"Damnit," She said in a very unladylike fashion, however it seemed perfectly Rutolike. "I don't think I'll ever see you again. Not anytime soon. Before I go, just promise me this. Don't let Rauru's crazy scheme get between you and Malon. It's already too late for me, but I don't see why Rauru has to take you away from both of us."
Link smiled, and mouthed the word, "Thank-you".
"Oh, and one more thing before I go." Ruto said with a wry smile, as she leaned forward and kissed Link directly on the lips.
He stumbled backward surprised.
"I think I've been waiting long enough that I deserve that. Just don't start thinking I like you or anything."
She leaned back and let out a laugh, before winking out of existence.
For a few moments, Link just stood where he was, feeling sad and confused, and a little scared.
He missed Ruto more than he thought he would.
Even though he knew she was perfectly fine, Link stood still for a while, mourning her.
Eventually he decided to move on. Complete the temple and return to Malon. Defeat the final monstrous creature, then be free of this damn blue tunic.
Holding the golden key in his hand, Link stared at the large door in front of him. The lock lay on the ground, already removed. All he had left to do was push the door open and face whatever was on the other side.
Dropping the key and letting it fall to the cold wet floor below, Link did just that.
Stepping through the door, Link saw a large pool of water in the center of the room. Several platforms stuck out of the pool.
Pulling the sword and shield from his back, Link stepped out and onto the centermost platform.
The water around him sloshed around in the pool. Some of it splashed up on to the platform.
As he looked deeper, Link saw some sort of orb floating around in the water. That must be it, whatever it was.
It just sat there, floating. Link watched it, feeling a sense of suspicion float over him.
Suddenly the shape darted out of the water and lashed toward his head. Ducking away from the assault, Link nearly fell into the water. As he struggled to maintain his balance, a shapeless mass of water rose up from the rest and locked itself around his ankle.
His feet were pulled out from under him and Link felt himself being sucked into the water.
As the icy liquid flooded over his head, Link felt a pressure wrench his mouth open and force its way down his throat and into his lungs.
With a sickening sensation, Link realized he was drowning.
Whipping his blade out in front of his body, Link felt it hit something and presence lessened. He was able to drag himself to the surface and then out of the water.
Just breathing was an effort. Lying there on the cold, slick tiles, Link's mind raced to figure out the creature in the room with him.
Before his lungs had fully recovered, Link forced himself to his feet and held the sword out in front of him. The blade had hurt it before, hopefully it would work again.
Providing him with a chance to test his theory, a long tendril rose from the water and began to probe the room for him.
Link took a step toward it, then another, then he leapt through the air, his sword brandished in front of him. Cutting through the liquid tentacle, Link disappointedly heard his sword clatter against the tile without making a mark on the limb.
Suddenly something extremely solid hit him squarely in the chest and knocked Link against the far wall. It wrapped around his legs and lifted him into the air. Still dazed from the impact, Link watched as the floor fell away from him and he was dangling in midair.
Link began to panic when he realized his sword and shield were on the other side of the room. He reached hurriedly for his backpack and caught the fairybow as it fell. By some stroke of luck he had also caught an arrow with the same hand.
Stringing the arrow, Link took aim at the orb that floated inside the animated miasma of water and let go. The shaft pinned the purple thing against the far wall and Link fell from his elevated position. He dropped to the hard floor below and scrambled toward his sword.
Taking the blade up in his hands, Link jabbed it deep inside the orb. It squirmed for a moment and Link heard a shrieking noise pierce his ears. Groaning, Link involuntarily let go of his weapon and cupped his hands over his ears. From the corner of his vision, Link saw the orb leap back into the water.
He cursed and dove for his sword. He was able to grab it just as something wrapped around his ankle and dragged him into the water. Once again, the water forced its way into his lungs and Link felt his throat burning and his head pounding.
Link flailed his sword around frantically, hoping to somehow free himself.
Then the orb floated in front of him.
It paused there, not moving at all, as if it was going to watch him die.
Lashing out at the thing, Link's sword missed by a miniscule inch.
Link could almost hear it laughing with derision at the failed attack. It floated away from him and out of his reach.
Link knew he only had a few more moments before all was lost.
Before he would die.
Suddenly a thought sparked in his mind and Link knew he couldn't die. He had promised Malon that he would return. He couldn't break that promise.
But how would he get out of this?
Link racked his brain for an answer to that question.
Malon sat in the barn carefully replacing the hinge on one of the stall doors. All the horses were out in the pasture, so Malon was left in silence and solitude.
As she patiently removed the broken hinge, her thought ran wild. Thinking about the boy she had known, and the man he had become. And whether or not he was okay.
When they had been in the forest, Link had hardly noticed his injury. What if something worse happened to him and he just pressed ahead instead of taking care of it?
What if that injury cost him his life?
She'd been there last time to help him, but she wouldn't be able to help him if he got hurt now.
Malon stopped and took a deep breath.
All that worrying wasn't going to help Link any, and it was driving her insane.
Forcing herself to think of something else, Malon wondered how her dad was doing with the window.
As she busied herself with other thoughts, Malon noticed a bird fly in through the open barn door. It was large and black, making a throaty croaking noise.
It was a crow.
Malon looked at it and the bird seemed to look back at her.
"Hey, why don't you go back outside?" Malon teased the bird.
It croaked back at her as if in response, and Malon felt a chill run down her spine.
Stepping away from her chore, Malon waved a hand at the bird, trying to scare it out of the barn. It hopped to another perch and croaked again.
This time when Malon advanced on the bird, it leapt toward her and started scratching and pecking viciously.
Backing away from the bird in a panic, Malon felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. For a moment she thought it was her father's and felt comforted.
But then she noticed the pointed nails, the bony fingers, and the icy sense of dread that was creeping up her spine.
Twisting around in a fright, Malon saw a pair of glowing red eyes that she had hoped never to see again in her life.
Link pulled himself onto the beach and collapsed in exhaustion.
His lungs burned because the blue tunic lay in tatters around him. Apparently the magic depended on a mostly whole tunic, and fighting the creature beneath the lake had ruined that possibility.
Link could still feel the suffocating presence around him, forcefully filling his lungs with water. He had been lucky to escape.
For Link, luck came in the shape of an explosive Deku seed that had floated past him just before he drowned.
Slicing it in half with his sword, Link released a blinding flash that somehow stunned the eyeless monster.
Kicking off the edge of the pool, Link barreled through the water and was able to deliver a final blow to the malevolent thing.
All at once the water around him lost its animation and Link simply floated to the water's surface.
Luck…
As he climbed out of the water, a white light burned around him.
Link stood in the chamber of sages just for a moment. Long enough to see Ruto smile at him and whisper, "Good luck."
Link smiled back, then he was gone.
He next reappeared about forty feet underwater, floating freely in Lake Hylia.
Link had probably used up his luck by not drowning before he reached the shore.
Once he had caught his breath, Link struggled to his feet. Standing still for a moment, Link caught his balance and started to walk away from the lake. The cool morning air chilled his wet and half bare body, causing Link to start shivering after a few minutes.
One hand was locked in a death grip around the hilt of his sword, though the rest of his arm was limp, letting the blade drag through the dirt. It left a semi constant trail behind him, marking his progress with a miniscule trench.
At first he wasn't sure where he was headed, his feet wandering as freely as his mind. Walking aimlessly, he finally decided on a destination, the ranch. Of course that was where he should go, he had promised Malon.
So Link marched across the grassy plains with his eyes locked on the horizon, locked on the ranch. Just putting one foot ahead of the other, Link made his way back to Malon.
A feeble grin crossed Link's face at the thought of her. Of her smile and her hair. He felt something for her, what was it? Like a fire in his chest. Was this what it was like to, as he had heard it said before, like-like someone?
It took Link only a few moments to realize that he did, in fact, like-like Malon. Or whatever grownups called it…
He started to warm up, not because of the thought of Malon, but because the sun was rising above the peak of Death Mountain. Something felt weird inside of Link and he knew that he wanted to be with Malon again as soon as possible.
Forcing his tired muscles to carry him, just for a little longer, Link started to run. He ran across the field and felt the sunshine burning on the back of his neck. Somehow a different light was cast over everything he saw, making the whole world seem brighter.
Link ran faster and faster until he was sprinting despite the irritable protests of his exhausted muscles.
Link knew it was minutes, but it felt like hours before he had reached the front gates of Lon Lon Ranch. He stopped just outside to catch his breath before entering.
He walked through the gates, and into the barn where he was sure Malon would be. When she was nowhere to be seen, Link left the barn and went to the field. Though Epona was sure to greet him, Malon remained absent.
Link started to walk back toward the house when he heard Talon call out to him, "Hey Link! Are yah lookin' for Malon?"
"Yeah, you know where she is?"
"She should be in the barn."
"Are you sure? I looked there already."
"Huh," Talon pondered from a distance, "Did yah check inside the stalls? She's in there fixing one of the hinges."
"Oh, "Link said dumbly, "I'll go look again then. Thanks."
"Anytime."
Link ran back to the barn and reentered, positive that he had somehow overlooked Malon and she would be standing in plain sight when he returned.
She wasn't, and Link called out her name before proceeding to check each stall.
When he swung the last one open, it dropped to the floor. Two decrepit and rusted hinges were attached to the side. Carved into the door was a small pictogram carved into the wood.
A skull with colored in eyes
A bird
A drawbridge
Link's hand shook as he began to comprehend the implications of the three pictures.
He turned and ran out of the barn. For a moment he considered saddling up Epona and riding to the town, but then he remembered that he didn't know how to saddle a horse, or how to truly ride a horse.
Link sprinted out the front gates faster than he had sprinted toward them just minutes before.
The city, Malon was in the abandoned ruins of castle town. The town with a drawbridge out front.
Link pumped his arms, trying to gain any additional speed he could. Trying to reach the town by any means necessary.
He bird, a black bird, a crow, a bird of death.
His heart was already pounding in his ears, but Link didn't know if it was from exhaustion or fear. Link hadn't been truly terrified for a long time. Because he didn't care about his own safety, but somehow it knew that.
The skull, with colored eyes. Red eyes. A skeleton with red eyes that had almost killed him before, almost killed Malon before. And it had seen how much he cared about her. Now it was trying to hurt him however it could.
But Link couldn't let that happen. It wouldn't happen, he wouldn't let it happen.
Far overhead a crow cawed, and Link hated it for what it meant. The first time he heard a crow cawing, the Deku tree had died. The second, he had almost died. But he couldn't let Malon get hurt by that thing.
If that happened, then nothing would be okay ever again.