A/N: finally into the next dungeon! Enjoy!

Joy, the Kokiri priestess of Faron, was on her knees by the shrine of the Spirit of Faron. Tears were flowing down her cheeks. As priestess of the forest, she was extremely sensitive to what happened in the Faron Woods so, eventually, she had great sorrow in her heart, due to the sadness that flowed from the small village not far from there, which she knew was Link's hometown.

Both she and Faron had tried hard to avoid the tragedy that had occurred, but their efforts were futile. Even though the curse of the forest had been lifted, the other spirits were still powerless and there was still too much darkness in the world for them to intervene.

She simply resigned herself to lower her head and pray for Link's father, and that the Gods gave Link enough strength to overcome his loss when he finally found out.

Link reached the bottom of the lake and looked at the rocky façade of the underwater Sanctuary. He tried going for the entrance, but he found a large rock blocking the way.

"There must be a way to move or destroy this rock," thought Link.

Laila fluttered towards the rock and then she began twirling in her place. Link noticed that he was also capable of hearing her thoughts:

"Link, look at this!"

"What is it?" asked Link, swimming towards her. She was pointing at a circule that was carved into the rock, and a vertical slit was cut in the middle of it. "Is that a lock?" asked Link.

"There is an inscription below," she replied.

Link dived a bit more and read the writing carved into the rock:

"May this rock, set upon the entrance of this hallowed Sanctuary keep the Darkness from spreading into the world. Thou who art worthy of the title of Hero, only thou shalt be able to cross the threshold of Darkness and enter."

"Link, how did you...?" asked Laila's voice in Link's mind.

"What?" asked Link, looking up at Laila.

"You just read Zora script!"

"I guess... I guess that it must have something to do with the Zora Armor abilities."

"Well, anyways, how are you going to get inside?"

Link looked at the 'lock' carved into the rock. It was about as wide as...

"My sword!" thought Link. He unsheathed his sword and held it in front of him. Slowly, he inserted the blade into the slit up to the hilt. The Triforce started to glow in his hand while he sunk the sword into the rock.

There was a flash of light when the hilt touched the rock. The emblem of the Zora Royalty began to form in thin lines of light surrounding the lock and Link recoiled, pulling out the sword, when the rock began to crack along the bright lines.

Link watched as the boulder crumbled into pieces and then turned to dust, leaving an opening behind it which was adorned by an ornamented archway: the door of the Sanctuary.

Both Link and Laila stared at the door and then looked at each other. They nodded in silence and Link entered the Sanctuary, with Laila following him closely.

"How long have we been going?" asked Link. He had been swimming through the tunnel for a while now.

"I don't think there's too much left to this path," replied Laila's voice in his mind.

She was right, as Link was soon able to see light ahead. He kicked harder and dashed forward until he reached a small pond and he finally surfaced. He climbed out of the water and gazed at the Sanctuary interiors.

The pond where he had surfaced was located in the middle of a sort of circular atrium. There was a single door in front of him, which was locked by a rusty padlock. Two more doors led to rooms both on his left and right. Behind him, there was a large gold and silver door, adorned with coral and Zora script. It had a single lock in the middle, made of pure gold.

The whole room itself was lit by blue fire torches, and seemed to be, as he had seen in the Forest Temple, as abandoned as if nobody had been there in decades. A cold shiver ran through his skin.

Link had never been to that place before, so he didn't know where to start this time. He lowered the mask of his armor and was finally relieved of being able to speak again.

"Ok," he said. "What should I do now?"

"Well, maybe you should start with finding a map of this place," replied Laila. "I hate this place already! The dampness and smell of fish is getting on my nerves."

Link looked at the two doors that weren't locked, and he picked the one to his right. He walked up to it and opened it. He had just crossed the threshold when he felt his skin on fire. He fell on the ground on his knees, closed his eyes and held his head screaming in pain. He could hear Laila calling him, her voice slowly fading away. He already knew what had happened before he opened his eyes. As the feeling started to pass, he gazed around at the dark room surrounding him. Shadows crept along the walls and specter-like creatures roamed around the room.

"Great…" thought Link with sarcasm. He looked around trying to find a mirror so he could return to normal but there was none. Right ahead, there was a dark wooden door. He walked up to it and opened it.

The room behind had no visible exit. It was entirely circular and the only thing he was able to see was a mirror stuck to the opposite wall. He walked up to it and stared at his dark reflection, touched the glass and he felt the known feeling of life being sucked out of him as he returned to his normal self. He then turned around and saw the armored statue that was now in the middle of the room.

"What is that?" he thought.

He walked up to the statue. It looked like a Zora, but was clad in a heavy armor from head to feet. Two swords were in its hands and crossed in front of its chest. Link raised a hand and touched, and recoiled fast as the statue began to twitch. He gave a few steps back as a dark shadow crept through the floor, into the statue and the it moved as if it had come to life, held up both swords and started walking up towards Link.

He unsheathed his sword and held up his shield and waited for the living armor to strike. He could see two red glowing eyes through the slits in the armor's helmet. It slashed both swords and Link blocked one with his shield and parried the other. He jumped sideways to avoid a vertical slash and swung his own sword. The statue shook with the impact of Link's blade and swung its swords again. Link blocked the impact with his shield and flung it forward, hitting the armor and making it lose balance. He then jumped over it, made a somersault and performed a helm-splitting move by swinging his sword downward.

The armor shook and screamed in rage, as it shattered into the floor. Link saw the pieces of the armor turn into dust, gather into a gust of wind and shape into a chest. He opened it and found what he was looking for: a map of the Water Sanctuary.

"Excellent! Now back to Laila." He went for the door through which he had entered, but it wasn't there. "What the…?" He looked around the room and saw that the only possible way out was a small trapdoor on the farthest side of the room. He opened the trapdoor and saw a dark tunnel, flooded with murky water. He raised his mask and jumped in.

He was barely able to see anything beyond arm reach. The soft glow of the gem in his diadem illuminated the way, but the murkiness was still preventing him to see much. The tunnel was very wide, maybe 8 feet in diameter, and he noticed that it was entirely carved into the rock, as he could feel the rough surface of the stones when he reached for the walls. He then felt some vibrations in the water, and opened his eyes wide when he saw the shoal of skullfish that were swimming fast towards him snapping their sharp-fanged jaws.

He kicked hard against the wall to gain momentum and drew out his sword. He swung it hard and sliced two of the evil bony fries with one strike, but the rest of them began gnawing at his armor. He swung his sword back and forth, but the skullfish were swimming in a random unpredictable pattern, so he was having a hard time trying to repel them. He felt one of them sink its jaws into his leg and he screamed in pain, creating a cloud of bubbles that didn't help improve his field of view. The water around his leg was becoming warmer, and he looked down just in time to see the blood pouring out of his leg.

The Triforce in his hand began to glow and, once again, he felt like he knew what to do. He curled into fetal position and he felt how the energy concentrated into his core. He then stretched his limbs in an x-shaped position and the energy blasted out of him, in a sort of expansive wave. He saw how the remaining skullfish shattered, and their bones sank into the bottom of the tunnel.

He resumed his swimming through the tunnel, pain throbbing from his leg, and finally saw some light ahead. He kicked hard, sending a jolt of pain through his leg, and reached the end of the tunnel. He broke the surface of the water and climbed out. He sat on the floor and held his leg tightly. He then remembered the small vial, fumbled inside of his satchel and took out the small flask containing the red potion. He uncorked it and swallowed it in one single gulp. He felt immediately how the pain began to subside and he saw his leg, the bite slowly fading away as his skin regenerated around it.

He stood up and put some weight on his leg, verified that he could walk without limping, and then looked around, storing the empty vial in his satchel. He was now on one side of a mossy room, small droplets of water falling from the ceiling. The whole room was also circular and in the middle of it was a shallow murky pond. A walkway surrounded the pond and there was a ledge about thirty feet above the opposite side of the room. Right in front of him, there was a rocky walkway that arched a couple feet above the pond and barely five feet into it. At the end of it, there was a small altar.

"This must be the shrine where they worshiped the Lanayru Spirit," though Link, walking around the pond. He then saw a chandelier, hanging over the ledge above. He reached for the Rope of Faron and reeled himself up by hooking it to the chandelier. He landed on the ledge and he was hit in the chest by a strange creature. He fell backwards, slipped and nearly fell from the ledge, but he grabbed the edge on time. He pulled himself up again and the creature lunged at him again, hitting him on the face and making him fall down.

He hit the floor on his back, his shield beneath him taking in most of the impact. He tried to stand up in pain just as he saw three spider-like creatures jumping from the ledge above and falling towards him. The three creatures had a thick blue shell-protected body, about four feet wide; four yellow long legs, fully articulated that allowed them to jump high and fast; they didn't seem to have any head, but a set of three red glowing eyes could be seen at the front of the body, the middle eye being bigger than the other two.

Link did a back flip and withdrew his sword as the creatures lunged at him. He slashed the air with his sword and managed to cut one of the creatures' legs, while another one dashed at him knocking him down into the murky pond of the shrine. The creatures surrounded him while he stood up, so he held his sword horizontally, crouching and covering his front with the shield, concentrated all of his strength in his arm, and twirled in the same place, spinning his sword around him.

Two of the creatures jumped back, but the crippled one wasn't so lucky, as it got the impact of Link's sword and its carapace was split open. The other two creatures jumped at Link, who did another back flip to avoid them, then built momentum and jumped over one of them; he fell on top of it and sunk his sword to the hilt into the creature's body. It screeched and wriggled until it fell motionless. Link recovered his sword and looked at the other one, which dashed at him. He held up his sword horizontally in front of him and it sunk into the creature's eyes when it collided with him.

He stood for a few seconds there, staring at the dead beasts, cleaned his sword and sheathed it. He then looked at the chandelier again reeled himself up one more time. He saw a small chest on one side of the balcony and a door in front of him. He walked towards the chest first and opened it. Inside, he found a bunch of fish-bones, some algae and a small rusty key.

"Excellent, now how the hell do I get back?" he thought, and pulled out the map. He examined it carefully, realizing that he had somehow gone through a tunnel under the atrium and that the room where he was led directly back there. He put the map away and opened the door in front of him.

Laila was fluttering in the middle of the atrium. She seemed to be desperate and was mumbling something to herself. When she saw the door open and Link coming out of it, she screamed in relief and dashed at him. Link saw her coming and slamming against his chest. She stood there and link could almost feel her tiny arms trying to hug him.

"Link! Goodness, I've been so worried!" she cried. "Don't you ever do that again!"

"What happened?" asked Link, clearly confused.

"Dark fog came out of the door when you opened it and you started to turn into a specter again. Then you walked into the room and… and…" she stuttered while pulling away from him.

"And what?" asked Link.

"And walked right through a damn wall!" she screamed. "I don't know what games you're playing Link, but I need to know what happened."

Link explained everything while Laila simply listened to him. When he finished recounting the events she finally spoke up again.

"Ok, first things first," she started. "Clearly the Sanctuary changes when you are a specter, as you are able to see and do things that you wouldn't be able to do in a normal situation. The armored statue is called a darknut, and it's a possessed armor that strikes you when you approach."

"Yeah, that I noticed," interrupted Link.

"The shelled spider-like things that you encountered, they were presumed to be extinct already. They are called blue tektites, and they used to dwell in the dark caves of Zora's River and the Snow Peak Mountain," finished Laila.

"Well, they seemed to be pretty much alive," said Link. "Anyways, let's try the key on that padlock."

He walked up to the door with the rusty padlock and inserted the key, turned it and unlocked the door.

"Ladies…" began Link.

"Don't even think about it," said Laila. Link was relieved to sense some humor in her voice.

"Let's go then," he said, and opened the door.

Garoth smiled when he saw Captain Leoni walk up to him, dragging a fair-looking girl along. He stood up and looked at them in amusement.

"We've brought you a present, my Lord," said Captain Leoni, tossing the girl to the floor in front of him.

Tara cried in pain and lay there sobbing in silence. Garoth climbed down the throne and looked at her.

"Who is this girl?" he asked.

"We're not sure," said Captain Leoni, "but she knows this Link boy and seems to be very close to him too, as she couldn't stop crying his name all the way here. His girlfriend, maybe?"

Tara couldn't even look up. She knew that she was in the presence of the dark warrior that had defeated Link so easily at the tournament, just a few days before. She could smell a strong fume coming from him and a wave of heat. She was too scared to move.

"Take her to the dungeons!" ordered Garoth, and Tara cried as Captain Leoni dragged her away.