::::::::::::: cAPTEr. TwentY::::::::
Aife woke up and stared blankly at the seat in front of her. She could vaguely remember the strange dreams she had... Flashes of blue and orange... She remembered something black burning her hand... And then red eyes. That's what seemed to shine out the most. Pure crimson eyes.
She shuddered slightly and then carefully moved Byrnes head off of her shoulder.
She carefully leaned him against the wall as she stood.
"Aife..." Byrne murmured as his eyes slowly opened.
"Shh. Byrne, your back wounds seem pretty bad... Can you remove your shirt so I can help?" She asked.
He weakly nodded and started to pull up the end of his shirt, she helped him tug it off so that his mask remained on. She knew that he wouldn't be comfortable taking it off in front of others, even if it was just Anjean (who was sleeping in the first passenger seat).
He gasped and groaned as his bare back brushed slightly against the seat.
"Lean forward." She said.
He did, and she was able to see the long red gashes along his back, red lines criss-crossing over his spine.
She slowly brought her hand to place it gently on his back. She felt his muscles stiffen and he took a quick intake of breath.
"Sorry." She muttered. "Just... Relax."
She waited until his shoulders loosened before she started concentrating on the magic inside her blood.
She forced the energy straight to her palms, and she felt her hands grow warm. A soothing tingling feeling grew in her palms and she carefully placed them over his back.
He hissed again as her hands made contact with his wounds. But his muscles slowly relaxed as she radiated the heat from her hands into his back. She wasn't healing his wounds, just allowing his muscles to lose any soreness with the warmth of her magic.
He let out a sigh, and she removed her hands from his back as he sat up.
She sat down beside him and he nuzzled his face into her neck, his silk black hair tickled her skin.
"Thank you." He murmured softly into her neck.
"I'm not sure I helped much... But you're welcome."
He pulled back and she couldn't help her eyes trailing down to his chest.
She gasped as she saw a large black splotch and scratches spiraling all around his chest from the spot where Malladus had hit him.
"Byrne..." She slowly brought her hand to it.
He gasped and groaned as her fingers barely grazed over it, she immediately pulled back and winced for him.
"Sorry!" She whispered.
"It's okay." He wheezed out.
She sighed and he carefully pulled his shirt over his head again.
"Aife..." Byrne started as he reached his hand over to rest it against her cheek. "Forgive me... I was such a fool..."
"Hey... Shh.. It's okay." She reminded him.
"No. It's not." He told her. "I... Cole could have... Killed you there... And I-" He swallowed hard as he brought his head closer to hers. "I can't live without you." He whispered, closing his eyes.
She felt tears prick at her eyes, and she wanted to tell him what she felt... But those three words choked her, so instead, she kissed his forehead. Not realizing that that was her last chance to tell him.
"Please rest. It'll be okay..." She whispered back. Though she didn't even believe her own words.
He nodded and closed his eyes and rested his head carefully against the wall as he held her hand, gently tracing circles over her palm with his finger.
She let out a long sigh, and heard the passenger cart door open.
Link entered and walked up to her.
"Aife? Are you coming?" He asked.
"Uh, yeah. You go ahead. I'll be there in a sec." She told him.
Link nodded, and gave Byrne a wary glance before leaving.
She sighed and looked over at Byrne. The wound on his chest was what worried her the most. The dark cuts looked painful, and she worried for him. That wound will not help him during the finale battle.
'Then I won't let him fight.' She thought determinedly.
She moved off the seat and opened up the back door. She glanced back at Byrne before entering the bright light outside.
The first thing she noticed when stepping onto the platform was how bright everything was. Then a wave of heat hit her. She blinked a few times and slowly, her surroundings became more clear.
Sand was everywhere. There were, of course, a few stone paths around the area but there was a ton of sand covering the Sand Sanctum.
"This heat is crazy..." Aife muttered as she walked up to the two kids. "This is why I prefer the snow..."
"Oh, I would just melt... If I had a body, that is. Tee hee!" Zelda giggled. "Seriously, though, I can't help but wonder what's become of my poor body..."
"They're going to get a ton of tattoos." Aife muttered.
"What?!" Zelda stared at her in horror.
"And piercings... I hear they're becoming quite popular..." She added. "Maybe a nose ring... A lip ring... And... Ooh! And a huge snake tattoo that can run down your neck and then curve to your spine!"
Link laughed and Zelda pouted and muttered a 'they would not' in a very childish tone.
"So where is the Sand Sanctuary?" Link questioned.
Aife glanced around only to see flat sand everywhere.
She frowned and walked forward and the two kids followed behind.
She stopped suddenly beside one of the stone paths.
"Here." She announced.
"What? There's nothing but sand here!" Zelda exclaimed.
"Yeah... It is a 'Sand' Sanctuary..." She sighed. "Link do you have any bombs? Or a shovel?" 'I want a shovel. Please say you have a shovel...'
Link nodded and pulled out a blue bomb. 'Dammit!'
'Wait... Where does he keep all that stuff?' She wondered.
"Thanks." She lit it and placed on the ground beside her feet.
"Gah!" Both Link and Zelda jumped out of the way of the sparking bomb and Aife laughed at them as she slowly moved out of range of the bomb.
It exploded and through the dust of the sand appeared a stairway descending into the ground.
Aife gave them a coy smile as the kids gaped at the new stairs.
"What the-? How did you know-?" Link stuttered.
"I know Rael... But why he hides his doorways in the sand, I shall never understand." She told them and started walking down the stairs.
The entered a hallway and made a turn to their right and entered the actual sanctum. Sand fell from the ceiling and fell around the circle where Rael was. The Lokomo had a sandy mane like hair, with the same colored beard. He also had red eyeliner around his deep brown eyes.
"Hello Rael!" Aife called out and waved her arm dramatically in the air at him. Wincing inwardly at her sore side.
"Oh, hello there, Aife. Goodness, I havent see you for a while, you're all grown up! Oh! You had us all worried sick! How was your little adventure?"
She smiled at him as they climbed up the stairs.
"Ah, that's what I've heard..." She told him. "Oh, it was fabulous!" She said as she flopped her hand forward in a dramatic way. "Being kiddnapped and having to help resurrect Malladus was lovely..." She sniffled and Rael laughed as he turned to Zelda.
"So wonderful you could make it, Your Highness." He smiled towards Zelda and then turned to Link. "And you too, young man! Call me Rael; it's my name! I am the guardian of the Sand Realm!" He said pleasantly.
"The Lokomo of this realm is awfully different from Embrose, don't you think?" Zelda whispered over to Link.
"Hm? Oh, you mean Embrose. Yes. He can be a bit stuffy at times." Rael said.
"Dude, he's 'stuffy' all the time." Aife put in. "He doesn't even let me play his drums..." She mumbled childishly.
Rael rolled his eyes and smiled, then looked back to Link.
"Anyways, you came here to fix the tracks, right?"
"Exactly." Link chirped.
"Now that's music to my ears. After all, you are a key competent in restoring this area's lost Spirit Tracks. I take it you've heard of the Lokomo's songs then."
"Of course." Link said.
"Very good. Now just repeat after me until you've got a handle on it."
Rael pulled out his clarinet/horn and began to play a few different notes. Link listened intently then tried to repeat them. It took him a few times before he nodded with more determination in his eyes.
"That was music to my ears. Would you care to try a real performance now?"
"Yes!" Link said excitedly.
Rael brought his clairinet/horn to his lips and began to play the same notes as before.
After Rael finished, Link brought his flute to his mouth and played the notes he was told to use. They came out beautifully, each one was played perfectly, the timing, and how long each was carried out for.
Rael started playing a more complicated tune, adding a few more notes and dragging out the last one as Link followed in with his part. Rael returned back to the original tune and Link followed after.
Their instruments started to glow every so slightly as the new Spirits Tracks were being activated.
Zelda started swaying with the song with her eyes closed and Aife smiled at how beautiful the song sounded with the two parts coming together in harmony.
When it was finally over Link gave Zelda a cheesy grin.
Aife started clapping.
"That was excellent!" Aife cheered dramatically.
Rael smiled and spoke up. "Now, there is something I must tell you. In order to reach the Sand Temple, you must pass three trials. First, you will encounter the great eye that looms in the shadows."
"Ooh... Spooky." Aife giggled as Rael squinted his eyes at her in fake annoyance.
"Then you will need to navigate through the twisted tunnels. And finally, you will face the impenetrable temple. What awaits you there, you'll have to see with your own eyes, young man."
"You did it! Nice job, Link!" Zelda chirped. "But I wonder what these trials will be like... Anyways, let's get going to the Sand Temple! Thank you so much, Rael!" Zelda said as she turned to the Lokomo.
"Stay safe as you retrieve the Bow of Light." Rael told them, then he turned to Aife. "And stop getting into so much trouble, missy!"
"What? But that's the best part of my day..." She complained.
He rolled his eyes and waved at them as they left the room.
"Was he also one of your mentors?" Link asked Aife as they reached up the stairs.
"Yeah, he was great... Though I haven't seen him for almost a year. So it was nice to see him again." She told Link.
Link smiled kindly and they boarded the train. Link moved up to the front of the train and Zelda followed, and Aife headed to the passenger cart to see Byrne was still asleep.
She moved to sit beside him and she pulled off her boots to dump out the sand that got in there. 'How the hell did all this sand even get in here?' She questioned mentally as she pulled her boots back on. 'Stupid sand... At least snow melts after a minute...' She then wondered how much sand was in Raels hair...
She closed her eyes against the throbbing pain that was still in her side and leaned back into the seat.
When she opened her eyes, Anjean was there beside her.
"Aife. I wanted to ask you about you and Byrne." Aife frowned. "I know it's not any of my business..."
'You're right. It isn't.' Aife thought, getting ready for some long lecture.
"... But I want you to understand what you're getting into to. Byrne has a rather colorful past. Are you certain about him?" Anjean questioned.
"Yes." Aife told her. "But my relationship with him is nothing to be concerned of. I've had to deal with this guy for almost two weeks. I know what I'm doing." Aife told her.
Anjean smiled and closed her eyes. "Very well, dear. I only wanted to make sure you were certain about him."
Aife nodded.
"Oh, and another thing, dear. About your sword..."
"What?" Aife held her sword to her chest as though it were some kind of baby. "Don't dis my sword!" She got out defensively.
"Dear, your sword is hardly fit for the coming battle."
"I- I thought you wouldn't want me to be apart of that fight?" She asked, confused.
"Oh yes. But you wouldn't listen to me, would you?" Anjean winked at her.
"Heh. I suppose not... Anyways, what was that you were saying?"
"There is another weapon within the Sand temple that may be of use to you." Anjean started.
"But shouldn't Link be the one to use it?" Aife asked.
"No. He will receive his own. This one, I think, was made especially for you. This one was forged by the Tears of Light and the Tears of Darkness, directly from the Spirits and the Demon King." Anjean explained. "I want you to enter the Sand Temple and retrieve it."
Aife thought about this for a moment, then she nodded.
"Alright." She told her. "My poor training sword has dealt with enough adventuring."
Anjean only smiled and moved away to the front of the cart.
Aife let out a sigh and leaned her head against the seat. 'What is with all these tears? First the darkness ones... And now there are tears of light?... Well, maybe it'll be a cool sword... A sword of... Opposite tears...'
Slowly she let her head flop over on Byrnes shoulder, feeling drained.
After a minute she jumped suddenly at the feeling of something slamming against the train.
/ Link POV \\
Link winced slightly when the giant eye bug creature threw itself onto the passenger cart.
Zelda screamed at him to pay attention.
He frowned and quickly tried to find the eye that hid itself within the darkness.
Slowly, a large yellow colored eye appeared and Link fired his cannon at it. The creature crawled around the cave, moving upside down as it scurried onto the top of the cave, readying itself to drop on top of the train. He continued pulling the trigger to fire out the cannon balls at the large creature until it fell onto the floor of the cave, making dust and dirt swirl above it.
Link mentally fist pumped the air.
He heard the large bug thing wake up and its strange legs started tapping along the walls as it approached them.
Link frowned. The eye wasn't visible.
Panic filled him and he saw a few explosive barrels scattered around the cave.
He watched as the giant bug scurried up behind him and Link quickly shot the barrel that the creature raced over, causing it to explode and reveal the yellow eye.
Link fired some more cannon balls at the eye and the creature stumbled to the ground.
He sighed in relief and readied the cannon for another round.
The large creature screamed through the darkness as it got up. It scurried over to the train and started crawling on the roof of the tunnel to try and jump on top of the train. Link continued the same pattern as before for a while longer.
After being sick of fighting the bug creature for so long, Link blew up all of the barrels and eventually hit one that forced the yellow eye to appear.
He quickly fired out as many shots as the cannon could handle until the large bug creature screamed out again and started to wobble and it fell to the ground.
Link sighed again and quickly moved to the front of the train to turn the train down the new path and they were finally out of the dark cave.
"These must be the twisted tunnels coming up. Be careful Link." Zelda warned.
He nodded and looked forward at the new coming tunnel.
/\/\/\
"Go back! No no no! Turn around and go that way!" Zelda nagged.
Link pulled the train to a sudden halt and groaned into the handle.
Zelda had been nagging/bossing him around for the past half hour, and her 'advice' was not helping at all.
These blasted tunnels kept returning them to where they had first started. No matter which way the went, or tried going back into another one.
"Link! Come on, just try going this way!" Zelda gestured over to the tunnel on their right.
"I'm going to go talk with Aife. Maybe she'll be helpful." Link muttered.
"What? And I'm not?" Zelda pouted.
Link tried to give her a comforting smile as he moved towards the passenger cart.
Link smiled at Anjean as he passed by the old Lokomo. He walked straight up to Aife, who was still sitting next to the unconscious Byrne with her eyes closed, and she was leaning her head against his shoulder.
He frowned. He didn't understand why she was so... Close, with him. He kidnapped her and used her to help him and Cole resurrect Malladus... And some how... There was this softness to her gaze ever time she glanced at him. He wasn't sure what he felt of that. He wasn't even sure if he trusted Byrne yet. He knew Aife wouldn't be a fool and fall for just anyone... But he wasn't sure if he trusted her on this one.
He had saw how horrified she looked when Malladus had knocked Byrne down. And Byrne did try to defend her when Cole was taunting her... He looked absolutely furious when Cole was bugging him about Aife... Link shook his head and knew he could dwell on this later.
"Aife?" Link asked softly.
Aife slowly opened her eyes and her gaze flickered over to Byrne as she lifted her head, then she glanced at Link. "Oh, hey. What's up?" She asked. "Where are we?"
"The twisted tunnels... And we can't get through them..." He explained.
She smirked. "And you want me to help you out with that?"
He nodded.
"Oh. Alright." She stood and then winced slightly. "I suppose I can help... Was Zelda giving you directions?"
"Uh, yes?"
"See? There's your problem. Don't take directions from ghosts." She smirked and shook her head, her wavy hair flickering as she followed Link down the passenger cart.
Link smiled slightly and moved to the controls as Aife moved up beside him.
He handed her some maps and she carefully scanned over them.
"Now, what have you tried so far?"
Link started the train up again and it lurched foreword into the first section. Where three new tunnels appeared.
"We've been trying every different combination. We tried going trough all of these tunnels. And eventually we ended up back at the beginning." He told her.
She pursed her lips and grabbed the control handle.
"Alright... What does this do?" She asked.
"That'll make you go backwards." He told her.
She pulled the lever down.
"That's not going to help." Zelda pointed out. "Moving backwards will only bring us where we've started."
"Hun', these tunnels are magic. They do not apply to the same rules as your average tunnel." Aife told her as they suddenly appeared in a new section.
Aife pulled the train to a sudden hault and pulled the lever back again.
And again, that worked. They appeared in a new section with a few other tunnels around.
"Alright..." Aife frowned.
"Now where?" Zelda asked.
"Hmm... Let's try... Over there." Aife pointed towards the one in front of them.
"Are you sure?" Link asked.
"Nope." She chirped and grinned at him as Zelda started ranting about how Aife didn't even know how to drive a train, and how she isn't going to help at all.
But she stopped talking when Aife turned to the floating girl with a smirk as they reached the end of the twisted tunnels.
"See? Magic hands!" Aife said as she waved her fingers about in the air with sparks of magic surrounding them. "Alright kids, I'm going back inside, this heat is killing me... Will you be okay now?"
Link nodded. "Yep. There's only one trial left. I think we can handle it." She nodded and smiled as she entered back into the passenger cart.
Zelda sighed and grumbled something about how she was just lucky.
Link rolled his eyes while smirking as he turned the train towards the enormous Sand Temple.
/ Aife POV \\\\
Aife plopped her self down across from Byrne and watched his chest rise and fall shakily with each ragged breath he took.
She winced slightly for him.
That's when something slammed against the side of the train, making Aife jump and Byrne stir.
Aife heard Zelda yelling in the front of the train at Link to pay attention. She held back a giggle. 'Poor Link...'
She sighed and watched the train make a sharp turn, just barely dodging another cannon ball that was fired at them.
Aife looked at Byrne to see him watching her.
"Hey." She said.
"Hey." He replied.
She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it. She bit her lower lip before she finally spoke up.
"Byrne, I-"
"Let's just leave." He cut her off.
"What?"
"What if we... Just left. Found some where to live and..." He continued.
"Byrne we can't just leave. Not when-..." She started, cutting him off.
He sighed angrily and then winced at the pain that shot through his chest.
"I know but... What if we did... Just leave. Just forget about everything and get out of here?" He said.
"Byrne... We can't... It's almost over. Then we can do what ever the hell we want." She added softly.
He nodded, though he didn't look convinced.
"Hey..." She started as she reached for his hand. "After all this, you can show me the view at the top of the tower." She pulled back and gave him a warm smile.
His eyes smiled back, and then a dark look passed over them.
"Is that all you want to see?" He asked in a husky and suggestive voice.
Warmth crept up to her cheeks and she bit her lip to refrain from giggling.
She looked away. "Well, I don't know. You'll just have to show me when the time comes..." She told him while smirking as she watched the doors to the Sand Temple opened through her window.
Sand fell off of the old stone doors as they slowly opened, revealing a new set of tracks going into a dark entrance.
Aife let out a shaky breath and looked back at Byrne as she stood. The train entered the new temple and came to a stop.
"You're going with them." Byrne said, it wasn't a question.
"Yeah... I'm off to get a snazzy new sword!" She chirped while grabbing her old sword.
(A/N: Aifes sword probably looks like the ones that have cracks/chips in it, with spiderwebs and some band-aides to hold it all together... ^^)
Byrne closed his eyes. "Just be careful." He told her.
"I will." She said as her hand trailed over his shoulder as she exited out of the train.
Aife walked towards the front of the train to see Link and Zelda.
"Whew, we made!" Zelda exclaimed. "Now for the real challenge... Are you ready?"
"Of course!" Link chirped.
"Uh, no." Aife put in as she walked up to them.
"Well we can't quit now." Zelda told her. "Wait... Are you coming with us?"
"Heh, no, lucky for you I'll be adventuring on my own. I have to find this snazzy new sword made from tears..." Aife told them.
"Oh, well, come on Link. We better hurry." Zelda said.
"Good luck Aife!" Link chirped and turned to leave.
"Hey Link!" Aife called after him, he turned. "Race you to the end!" Link nodded and he started to run towards the entrance.
Aife snickered and started towards the entrance as well.
The first thing Aife noticed in the Sand Temple was how dusty it was... And the air was very stagnant.
She sneezed.
"Uhh... Shit." She sneezed again and cursed.
She faced palmed herself when she realized that she didn't have a map.
"Alright, Aife, try and remember... If I were a sword made of crying spirits and demons, where would I be?" She questioned.
She groaned and decided to wonder a bit. 'Wondering fixes everything!'
The room had old brown stone tiles, some were a bit darker then others and everything was coated with a thin layer of dust and sand. There were strange patches of sand and a weird hammer thing.
Aife sneezed again as she walked up to the hammer.
"Whoa..." She poked it.
Nothing happened. She sighed and saw a purple switch (insert troll face here...), she smiled wickedly and kicked it.
The hammer came slamming down onto the weird wooden platform, barely missing her.
"Huh... That's pretty cool..." She saw a large boulder a few feet away and she grinned evilly at her new victim.
Eventually she was able to push the enormous rock over onto the wooden platform and once it was on she gave the rock a small pat.
"I'm sorry it has to come to this..." She told the rock.
She whipped her sword at the purple switch and the hammer smashed against the large rock, making it fly into the wall in front of it.
The rock shattered against the wall, which now had a large gaping hole in it.
She raced over to the new hole to see a set of stairs going down.
"Awesome." She started down the stairs to the lower levels.
She sneezed again.
"Dammit!" She yelled and continued down the dusty stairs, loathing every speck of dust that floated around her aimlessly.
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-
A/N: UHH! Finally done! Well... This only took me about 2 weeks to write. Maybe 3... :(
Anyway, umm... Now that I'm finally over my writers block I should be able to write more... Unless my teachers decide to drown me in homework.
Ack! I have the ending all planned out but this stupid temple is just killing me, and then I found out that Link still needs the compass of light (which is in the fricken tower!) uhhh... Any ideas for a new Sand Temple boss? I can't think of any right now... Well, if I don't think of anything and no one else thinks of something, then I'll make her fight the regular boss with Link... (I love that boss.) But really, I want her to fight something awesome! It may or may not be her last boss fight... *nudge nudge* Srsly, if I can't think of anything, and someone does have an idea for a wicked sand boss, Please! Tell me! Just PM me or something.
Gah! *grabs IPod* Globus! I need you!
'One sails the sea... Of life and believes, the storms will lead you home... These open roads will call you with a promise, you'll walk the earth alone...' ;)
("The Promise")
Hmm my question for you is:
If you had to choose ONE thing to fight with in the zombie apocalypse, what would it be?
Me? Oh, it would be a cricket bat. Just like in Shawn of the Dead. Those things are wicked heavy (so I've heard)...
(Oh and her so-called dream... That's a little peek into the next fanfic I'm working on... :)
RE Reviews:
Guest: Hah! Thanks! Ahh, that show creeps me out... ;)
Sorry for the super long authors note!