Chpaetr twntey one:
(Did you see what I did there?)
-
Aife could not stop sneezing.
"ACHOO!" She squeaked out, and then grumbled a few curses at the stupid air.
She continued to stomp down the dusty stairs and when she finally reached the bottom, she sneezed again.
"Urgh!" Dust fluttered about as she yelled.
The new hall she found was lit by torches that alined down the walls. Sand fell along the walls and onto the floor, and then sank below through the large gapes and holes that were in the cracked and broken tiles. The walls were decorated with strange figures, and boxy designs that laced the bottom and the top of the wall. But most of the engraving was either worn away with time or cracked from whatever lingered down here. Shadows danced across the hall, making it look even smaller.
This is where she was starting to feel claustrophobic.
Sand was building up on different areas down the hall and the roof was very low. She grumbled to herself as she started down the hall. She made a turn to her left only to be struck by a bone.
"What the hell?" She looked up to see a skeleton bouncing in front of her with another bone in hand.
The thing threw another bone at her and she quickly dodged to the side while pulling out her sword as she advance towards the skeleton. She took a long stride towards the creature and with a single fluent motion she cut off its head, making it fall to the ground and bobble in place.
Aife stomped her boot on top of the skull and smiled proudly at the bones that were shattered around the room.
She took in a deep breath and regretted it the moment more dust came in.
"Ugh... This sword better be worth it..." She sneezed again and groaned in annoyance.
She continued down the long and awkwardly shaped hallways, finding a few more skeletons and other sand like creatures that didn't take very long to get rid of.
She heard something hiss beside her and she looked down to see a snake slither along the sand down the hall.
The snake was thin and brown, blending in perfectly with the sand it raced across. It's strange skin appeared like leather diamonds indented every so slightly into its skin.
Aife frowned slightly and continued down the dust polluted hall.
After a few minutes Aife made a turn to her left to see that the hall looked slightly smaller.
'Are you kidding me?' She thought, glaring at the small hallway.
She had to bend her head slightly to stop it from brushing against the low roof. She could feel the sickening sand brush past her arms as it fell from the roof and tumble to the floor, filling her boots in the process.
"Stupid Lokomo sword... Making me get sand in my boots..."
Aife sighed and tried to stay somewhat positive. "Maybe this won't be so bad... I mean... It's a sword made of tears... How could that not be awesome? A little sand isn't so bad..."
Aife squinted her eyes as she turned to her right to go down the new hall.
The hall had shrunk slightly.
Aife took in a deep breath and let out a long dramatic sigh and then sneezed. She now had to bend her head farther down to an awkward point as she moved down the hall.
That's when the sand in front of Aife began to tremor and rise. Aife glared at the strange sand blob creature that snaked towards her. Its body was entirely made of sand and a few pebbles here and there, it had strange black pits for its eyes and mouth.
Aife sliced her sword through it, though it did not cause any damage to the creature. Her sword only cut through it as though it were a regular pile of sand.
Aife growled a curse to herself as she thrusted her sword into the sand blobs eye, and she somehow managed to snake around the creature while whipping her blade back and forth at it.
That's when she saw, from the corner of her eye, another sand blob creature appear.
The blob opened its mouth to an incredible size and Aife had barely enough time to roll away as the creature snapped its jaw close, barely missing Aifes back.
More were appearing around her, raising from the sand and moving towards her.
She growled and made her sword whip around in a giant arc, hitting the majority of the sand creatures and pushing them back slightly as they slowly slithered towards her.
Though it hardly helped. They continued towards her and she continued slashing her sword back and forth at them to no avail.
She sneezed. "Oh, bugger it all." She growled and forced the energy around her outwards in a mind blast.
The sand creatures staggered for a moment, and Aife did not hesitate to slash her sword through one and quickly raced through the hole she had created, one that was already filling up with sand again.
She started to run down the hall, pumping her legs harder. Knowing she could never defeat those things, who were now chasing her down the hall as they continued to multiply.
She noticed how the roof was finally raising as she raced through the sand filled hall, and feeling somewhat gratified.
She breathed a sigh of relief. 'I must be close to being done, right?' She thought hopefully.
She continued racing through the halls, and made a sharp turn to her left, not really paying attention to what was around her.
That's when the floor beneath her disappeared.
She screamed at the shock of no longer touching solid ground, and she plummeted to wherever gravity was pulling her. She landed with an 'oof' and groaned as her leg started to throb from the pain of landing in an awkward position.
She opened her eyes to see she was in some sort of pit, sand covered the entire area, and the walls were completely smooth. She cursed as she realized that all of the exits/entrances were above her. And the smooth walls would make it impossible to climb up there.
"Uhhh, shit." She grumbled and tried to stand.
Her leg gave out and she let out a noise of pain, and closed her eyes against the throbbing in her leg, that grew worse as she tried to stand up straight.
She tried to force her right leg to stand up properly and support her, but it continued to throb and scream at her to sit down.
She clenched her teeth as she tried to take a step foreword but ended up falling as her leg gave out.
"Dammit!" She yelled.
She glared down at her stupid leg. It wasn't broken, just a little out of place from falling partially on it. 'Great...'
But she had to get out of there now. Though how she was going to do that was still the problem.
She pushed her arms straight so that they held her up, and she took her good leg and tried to force herself to stand.
She managed to use her sword as a cane and was able to stand up rather awkwardly. She glared down at the throbbing in her leg and then looked up to scan the area.
The walls would be of no use to her, they were far too smooth for her to climb them, and she doubted her sword would do much damage to them either. They had strange spiral like markings on them, different shades of brown colored them. The floor was covered in sand, and not much else.
'Maybe, I could make I giant sand castle to get out of here and-' She sighed angrily and closed her eyes for a second, but not before she saw something move in front of her. Her eyes flew open as she watched the patch of sand in front of her tremble.
And then, streams of sand were flowing towards the middle, though, there was no evidence as to how it was moving.
That's when the sand started to build up, similar to those sand blob things, only this one was forming the shape of a man like creature. It was growing taller and arm like shapes extended from its torso, and stretched outwards.
Aifes eyes twitched and she held back a gasp as she carefully scooted further back from the creature, feeling the rough sand tumble towards the creature from under her feet.
The sand man thing started to grow a head like shape and a large gaping mouth appeared. It screamed up into the air as sand continued to flow into it, making it grow even larger. Aife looked down and realized that every speck of sand in the pit was apart of the sand creature.
'That's... Kind of gross...'
Aife glanced up at the creature that towered over her with rubies for eyes which glared at her.
"Uh... Hi! Is this your sand? My bad... I'll just get out of your hair here and be in my way... Well, actually, I'll get out of your sand..." Aife smiled lightly at the creature that continued to glare at her.
The creature screamed at her, making sand fall from its mouth, and slammed its hand down towards her. Aife screamed and barely had enough time to roll out of the way and clutch her sword to her chest as the enormous sand hand came crashing down towards her.
She hit the stone floor hard and rolled a little bit away from the giant fist. Pain shot through her leg and she gasped and clutched it when she finally stopped moving.
The sand figure slowly started to spin to face her exact direction and Aife tried to scoot away to the edge of the pit.
Her back hit the wall and she was breathing heavily, she clutched her sword with her one hand and pushed away her hair that fell in front of her vision. She blinked a few times and tried to stand up as the creature turned towards her full on.
She was able to stand but her leg begged her to sit, just to rest. But she wouldn't allow herself to give into such weakness.
She quickly took in the creatures shape. Long arms, but not long enough to graze against the walls. It's torso was attached to the remaining sand in the middle of the room, sand continuously flowing towards it from the cracks in the floor. And then there was it's head. It almost looked a bit mis-shaped...
The sand man raised its arm up again and slammed it down towards Aife and she barely jumped out of the way. Sand exploded up into the air as it's large fist smashed into the hard stone floor. Making it impossible to see.
Aife glanced back at the creature to see that its arm was completely flat, but it slowly started to build up again into a regular arm.
She quickly raced over to it, limping as she did so, and whipped her sword across and down the creatures arm. The thing screeched out, even its voice sounded like sand scrapping against sand, as half its arm was cut off. Which immediately fell to the floor in a heap of plain, non-moving sand.
Aife let out a shaky laugh and coughed a few times as dust and sand fluttered about her. She looked over to see the sand man, still screeching, and waving its arm about in pain.
And then, its arm started to grow back.
"Are you kidding me?!" Aife snarled and moved back from the creature as its new armed formed.
Which had some long, jagged stone spikes poking out all over the new arm.
"SHIT!" Aife screamed and raced away as the creature started to turn towards her.
'Shit shit shit shit shit!' Her leg throbbed and she ended up limp-running away from the bloody sand creature.
She felt something catch on her boot and of course, she had to trip then.
She looked behind her to see a medium sized stone sitting there trying to look innocent.
She glared at the stupid rock and then glared over to the sand creature that turned towards her.
She pushed herself up, her leg screaming in protest, and she moved towards the stone.
"Okay... This is ridiculous..." She grabbed the hard stone and waited until the sand creatures eyes were in view.
That's when she threw the heavy rock at the creatures red crystal eye.
The was a loud smashing noise, like a window breaking, as the giant ruby eye shattered to the floor. The sand man screamed and gripped its missing eyes as it spun around the room madly.
"Awesome." She mentally fist pumped the air.
Then, the creature froze.
Aife barely had enough time to blink as it whipped towards her in a flash and brought it's face right up to hers.
Aife held her breath and she could see, what looked like, a skull like face inside the hole where its ruby eye use to be.
The creature screamed at her and sand blowed right into her face as its disgustingly warm breath blew back her hair.
When it finally stopped screaming, Aife couldn't hear anything. Everything was in a white noise like trance and she wobbled back slightly, hearing a faint whining noise in her ears. Her head grew dizzy and she tried to move back, but was too slow.
The giant creature slammed its arm into her, the non-spiky one thankfully, which threw her across the room as though she was just a rag doll.
She slammed against the wall across the room and screamed.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as pain shot through her entire body, blood covered her forehead and quickly rushed down her cheek. She couldn't move, she couldn't hear, and all the blood and tears made it impossible to see.
She cried out as her body twitched slightly and white hot pain shot through her body, making her black out for a second.
Her breathing grew ragged and she tried to move again, but her body was giving up on her.
'No. No no no no, goddess help me... It can't end like this...'
She felt anger start to flow though her veins which triggered her magic...
"NO!" She screamed and pushed herself up, her entire arms engulfed in a silver like flame of pure energy.
She stood before the giant sand creature and yelled at it as it screamed back at her, raising its fist.
She also raised her own arm and smashed it against the creatures giant sand arm, stopping it from crushing her.
She yelled out at the pain of all her magic being focused on holding back the creature, all her focus and strength poured into her hands and filled the veins in her arms to push the creature back.
Finally, she shot all of her magic out and the creatures arm exploded off with a loud pang as sand flew across the room and tumbled to the ground.
The creature screamed and whipped around and away from her as its shoulder, where it originally connected with its arm, glowed orange slightly from being completely burned off.
The little stump of its arm turned hard and clear, as it turned into glass.
Aife was breathing hard and sweating even harder as heat fell off her skin, as though fire danced across her entire body.
Though she wasn't finished yet.
The creature was still standing before her, and recovering from its tantrum.
It glared towards her and she cursed.
"Screw this." She scoffed and raced towards the creature.
It tried to swing its arm at her to knock her away from getting closer, but she managed to dodge and spin around it.
She held her sword over her head as she slammed it into the creatures torso.
But instead of ripping it out, Aife forced all of her magic into her sword, and into the creature.
Her silver magic swirled from her hands, into her sword, and then into the creatures lower torso.
Her magic exploded inside the creature and sand blew out towards her as the creatures head fell down. Aife was pushed back as sand flee straight at her, forming sharp pricks and cuts over her exposed skin.
Its head slammed into the hard stone floor as sand flew across the room, scattering across the floor to cover up the stone tiles.
The sand over its head fell as well, and exposed a disgusting skull with one ruby eye still in place.
Aife wanted to collapse. Her magic was drained and she wanted desperately to sleep or die... She didn't really care now, nor could she even think straight.
But she wasn't finished here.
The head shook itself awake and glared at her as it started to bobble towards her.
She growled and cursed and could barely lift her sword up towards the creature as it jumped towards her.
When it was close enough, Aife jabbed her sword forward and stabbed it into the creatures ruby eye, making it crack around her blade.
It started to crack even more, and Aife ripped her sword out mercilessly while making a jagged cut along the side of its skull as well.
The thing screamed at her and started to shake wildly while it screeched. More cracks grew along the skull and it started to bobble around the room pathetically.
Finally, it froze, and it exploded into sharp pieces of bones everywhere.
Aife dropped to the floor as the sharp bone pieces flew over her, barely missing her back as she pressed herself closer to the ground. Her sword flew against the wall and shattered into bits.
And then, it was over...
Aife felt like she could die.
She closed her eyes for a second longer and swallowed hard as she pushed herself up.
'Okay... Now I really need a new sword...' She thought as she glanced over at the shards of metal that use to be her sword.
Her entire body shook as she stood, threatening to crumble at any time.
There was a loud scraping noise, and the sand in the centre of the room started to tremor and shake as it slowly sank. Aife watched as a stairway now appeared, and the walls around the room started to crack and fall apart.
"Shit..." She breathed out and limped towards the door way.
A huge chunk of the wall fell, followed by other sharp looking tiles that crumpled to the ground. Aife moved faster and quickly limped down the spiral stairs as more of the strange pit began to crumble and fall apart.
Once she finished going down the stairs, something smashed into the entrance of the stairs. Aife looked up to see a large piece of tile pressed against the small entrance.
"Lovely... There better be another exit..." She grumbled.
She moved down the underground hall. This one looked a lot cleaner then the other ones, and the roof and walls were at a good distance away from her. They were decorated with the same kind of pattern as the Tower of Spirits walls.
There were a few more stairs that appeared in front of Aife as she made a turn to her left.
Aife gasped as she looked up to see a silvery light coming from the new set of stairs.
She took them two at a time and saw the sword floating over a stone table and a leather holder resting against the table.
The sword was absolutely stunning. Words could not describe the beauty of it.
The metal was a bright silver with a strip of black mixed with purple down the middle of it. Strange symbols and designs marked the silver metal in wispy patterns. The hilt had black leather wrappings and there was a black upside down triangle on the hilt just where the leather was cut off by the metal.
Aife stared at the sword as a strange silvery aura fell off it like mist.
She slowly reached towards the hilt and carefully wrapped her fingers around the soft wrappings of leather as she pulled it towards her. The symbols glowed a deep purple ever so slightly at her touch.
She carefully brought it up to her eyes so that she could get a better look at it.
The dark streak along the middle of the sword was moving. As though it was liquid darkness just swirling about in it. And the same went for the metal itself, it was so bright and pure that it looked as though it was wavering as well.
'Well... It is made of tears...' She smiled proudly at her new companion. "Thank you." She whispered up towards the heavens.
She couldn't help but giggle at the wicked looking blade.
"Freaking wicked..." She smiled against and hugged it to her chest.
She grabbed the sword holder and wrapped it over her shoulder so that it could hang over her back, and she slide her new sword inside the leather hilt.
Something blue caught her eyes and she turned to see a bright blue light appear beside her on the floor, and she cautiously poked it with her toe.
That's when everything around her turned dark as the blue light engulfed her.
/ :P
Aife gasped as she appeared in front of the Spirit Train.
"Whoah... teleporting light stuff..." She breathed out and then giggled.
She limped over to the train and opened up the back door without mercy as she stepped into the passenger cart, exhaustion slamming against her body.
She closed the door behind her and fell into the seat across from Byrne.
She was breathing hard and she positioned herself so that she was lying flat against the seat, face first so that she didn't lie on her new sword. She let her legs hang out in the middle of the aisle, and her arms crossed to make a sort of cushion for her head.
She could hear the familiar turning of wheels as Anjean moved towards her.
"Ah, your back. How did it go, dear?" Anjean asked pleasantly.
Aife groaned and turned her head toward Anjean.
The old Lokomo gasped as she saw the large cut on Aifes head.
"It went great." She chirped. "I got the sword and almost died!" She smiled and then flopped her head back against the seat, closing her eyes.
"Oh dear... Well you better drink this. Byrnes still unconscious, so it won't be of any use to him." Aife pried open one eye to see Anjean with her hand outstretched towards her with a red potion.
Aife weakly grabbed it and took the cork off with her teeth. She chugged it down with one gulp and almost threw up. It tasted disgusting. The red liquid tasted sweet and bitter at the same time, and Aife choked a little bit on it.
"Ugh..." She groaned and closed her eyes again as Anjean smiled at her "Thanks" Aife mumbled to her as the gross liquid started to grow warm in her veins and seep inside her body to where it hurt the most.
"Aife, that sword of yours contains the tears of both the spirits and the demons. You must use it cautiously." Anjean warned her.
Aife weakly nodded and closed her eyes, barely hearing Anjean move away.
She felt her muscles relax and sleep came and took her in a flash.
/:
It felt like she only slept for a second before someone slammed the passenger door close.
Aife groaned and sat up, forcing herself to sit up straight as she streched.
She glanced back to see Zedla and Link race to Anjean excitedly, both wearing giant grins.
"Anjean Anjean! We got the bow of light! We won't have any trouble defeating Malladus now!" Zelda chirped out, barely able to contain her excitement.
Anjean smiled warmly. "Good, and an arrow from that bow is sure to fell him."
"Right! Now all we need is to know where Malladus is." Zelda said as she continued to race towards Anjean.
"I'm sorry but I can't help you there." Anjean sighed.
Zelda flew past her and fell to the ground in shock.
"But, Anjean..." She started, looking confused and a little upset.
"While you two were busy obtaining to Bow of Light, and Aife with her sword, I have been searching for the Demon Train. That's the train that Malladus used to escape. But he and Cole have hidden it well..." Anjean explained, her eyes closed.
"There is a way to find it." A deep voice cut in.
Everyone turned to look at Byrne.
"Oh, Byrne? I didn't realize you were awake..." Anjean started.
But Byrne only shook his head, his eyes guarded, and turned to face Zelda.
"The area where Malladus was resurrected... Below that altar is a hidden section of tracks." Aife noticed how everyone grew in closer to hear him. "Somewhere down there is the Compass of Light. Only it can lead you to the Demon Train." Byrne explained.
Aife didn't quite know what to say. 'He's actually helping them...' Was the only thing that she could really process.
"Byrne..." Zelda started and leaned in a bit closer.
But he turned towards Link to meet his determined expression.
"The demon train comes from the Dark Realm. But even Cole didn't know it's exact location at first. He had me build a compass using the spirits' power to find the Demon Train in the Dark Realm. Since the compass uses the power of the spirits, Cole and Malladus can't touch it. That's why it should still be where we left it." Byrne told him.
Zelda stared at Byrne in shock, and then her gaze softened.
"... Thank you." She told him kindly and then turned to Link. "Let's go link. We must get the compass as soon as we can." She told him with a bit more confidence.
Link nodded and Anjean turned towards them.
"Before you go, please take this, Link. I think you're the one who is meant to use it." Anjean told him as she lifted her hand up, then a light blue orb appeared and a fancy looking sword appeared.
It had a blue handle with leather wrapping around the handle with a golden triangle on it, and zigzag lines were engraved into the bright silver metal.
"This Lokomo Sword was a gift from one of the spirits." Anjean started again. "As such, it is filled with sacred energy. It felled many evil creatures in its lifetime. Until now, only the spirits have wielded this blade... Use it wisely!" She told him.
Link grabbed the sword, and, as any child would do, he started swing it around dramatically in different poses until he stopped and held it above his head. Looking determined and confident.
"Link, princess, it's in your hands now." Anjean told them as she bowed her head.
Link and Zelda nodded at the exact same time and Anjean turned to go back to her seat in the front.
Aife smiled warmly at Byrne, who's gaze softened when he glanced at her, and then it grew worried.
She was going to ask him what was wrong when Link intercepted then.
"Aife! Did you see this?" Link asked excitedly as he brought his blade right up to her face.
She giggled at the blade that was almost pressed against her nose and she gently pushed it away.
"Yeah, that's really cool Link." She told him.
"Hey! Where's your new sword?" He asked, his eyes gleaming with interest.
"Oh... This?" She asked as she pulled out her wicked looking blade.
Links eyes widened and he carefully touched the metal with his small hand.
"Whoa... Aife, that's pretty awesome." He smiled at her with the kind of smile that would melt a mothers heart in a second.
Aife couldn't help but ruffle his blonde hair.
"Thanks, kiddo, now you better go and get that compass."
He nodded and turned to race over to the engine.
Zelda creeped up to Aife, with something like an evil child sparkle filled her eyes.
"Can we talk about that thing now?" She asked a little impatiently.
Aifes eyes widened. "No!" She told her, blushing.
Zelda only giggled and then smiled warmly at Byrne as she too left to go to the engine.
Aife shook her head and felt sand fall on her lap.
"Uhhh..." She brought her hands up and wildly shook her hair until most of the sand was on the floor. 'Ewe...'
Byrne mumbled something.
"What?" Aife asked.
"What happened to your head?" He asked again.
"Oh," She reached up carefully and pressed her fingers where the cut should have been, but the potion had already closed up the wound. "I'm fine... Just a mean sand creature that couldn't handle my awesomeness..." She told him.
He nodded and then closed his eyes, though he did look slightly amused.
"Byrne?" She asked softly.
He opened his eyes to look at her.
She smiled warmly at him. "Thank you... For helping them."
He blinked and then nodded.
"I-..." He stopped suddenly and looked away. "You should sleep. When they find the compass... There will be no more time for resting." He told her, his eyes looking distant.
She nodded and tried to relax her stiff muscles.
But there was something sick and dark growing in her stomach as the train edged closer to the tower.
/
A/N: *gasps for air* Done! Omg... It took me over three weeks to write this chapter... Uhhh... First of all I am so sorry it took me forever to finish this chapter... I've just been super busy and I had a wicked writers block... But winter break is coming soon so I should be able to write more...
Alright, a huge thanks goes out to my brother who thought of the 'sand man' thing... Sorry NekoKitty13 I just couldn't think of anything to write about for your ideas! Which is a shame because they were awesome... ;)
Whatever, I wrote most of this today, so I will edit this later... I just felt bad for not updating this story for a while...
Anyways... Just a few more chapters left... :'(
-Whisp