Chapter Twenty-One: Turn Back Time – Bottom of the Well

Title: Legend of Zelda - The True Force

Chapter: 21

Author: Hikari no Vikki

Genre: Action/Adventure

Disclaimer: If I owned Zelda, there would be a Majora's Mask 3DS remake by now. And there isn't, is there? Yeah, that's right.

Description: A modern Hyrule is in chaos. After reconstruction from the receding sea, the New Hyrule is literally built from the ashes of the Old Kingdom. However, history is destined, or rather, determined to repeat itself.

Author's Notes-

Bottom of the Well time! (dances) Enjoy!

Obi-Wan couldn't put down why he was so on edge. Even Anakin could feel the disturbance in the force, which was saying something. That his padawan was uneasy and jumpy because of it was also very disconcerting.

Mostly because he was the one piloting the gondola speeder that they were taking back to Orca and his brother to return as they'd promised.

Once they were back on land he felt that he could breathe a little better, though the unusually hot temperature had even made Orca comment on the state of the weather. Once their business was concluded, he glanced up at the path, and frowned at the color of the sky over Kakariko. It looked… wrong to Obi-Wan, even though he knew it had been overcast since this morning.

It was Link who recognized the smell before any of the others, and they heard his sharp intake of breath before the words came to identify what it was.

"Fire!" Link gasped, "The village is on fire!"

They took no time to dawdle, not knowing the extent of the damage due to the unyielding grayness of the skies above them and being unable to see much from the village footpath.

However, when they got to the village, they almost wished they hadn't come.

Buildings everywhere had fire in at least one place, whether bursting from a window or two or curling in bright ribbons of flame from the rooftops above. The usual bustle of the village was still there, though now it had become something akin to anarchy rather than organized chaos with most of the citizens rushing about to put out fires or slay some of the creatures that were running about and destroying whatever lay in their path.

"Lizafols?" Navi asked quietly, before coughing from the smoke that hung in the air. Link looked at her sharply but kept his voice under control.

"Navi, get in my hat and stay there until it's safe." She blinked up at him, the dust making it hard to see. "What about you?" she asked, honest worried. "I'll be fine," he told her, "my lungs are bigger than yours, and they can take more of this smoke than yours can." Realizing the truth of his logic, she obeyed, and then Link began looking around frantically to figure out where to go.

"What now?" he muttered. "There's too much going on!"

Anakin, who had been watching the people of the town put out fires with conventional methods such as fire hoses, red canned extinguishers, and magical methods if they could use them, managed to see through the chaos to the well at the very end of the main thoroughfare, and frowned at it,

"Why isn't anyone using the well?" he asked, truly puzzled. Ashei, who knew about the well Anakin was referring to, appeared confused at why he was even asking the question. "What? That well doesn't have any water in it… hasn't for years." This brought the well to Obi-Wan's attention, and he pointed in its direction. "Then why is Sheik standing in front of it?"

Link turned to the direction Obi-Wan was pointing and saw through the smoke and heat to the well where someone wearing traditional Sheikah garb was indeed standing. "Come on," he said to his companions, "let's follow him. I think the villagers have the fires under control."

They all nodded and followed after him.

Sheik stared at the top of the covered well as it rattled furiously. The seal wasn't going to hold for much longer now, but if he could at least get it to head for the Shadow Temple as he'd been instructed…

He blinked, hearing hurried footsteps behind him. Having a pretty good idea of who it was, he whirled towards them, holding out his left palm in a 'stop, come no closer' motion.

"Get back, Link! All of you!"

Just as soon as he said this, the wooden posts above the well and its covering exploded into the air to land several yards away and add to the blazing carnage. Link and the two Jedi turned to watch the explosion but something held Ashei's gaze as Sheik's snapped back to the edge of the stone wall of the well's edge.

"Sheik!" she called out, but it was too late: the giant… thing that crawled from the well grabbed Sheik around the waist and waved him around like he was nothing more than a rag doll, throwing him some distance away down the fiery thoroughfare.

Link and the others ran after him to check and see if he was all right, but Ashei stood alone, her eyes combing the area for the fuzzy black shape of the dark spirit that was now loose somewhere in the village. She gasped when she finally saw it, coming towards the place where Sheik lay and her friends were helping up after he'd been thrown, the tips of the fingers on its large ghostly hands morphing into sharp, deadly claws.

"No!" she screamed, reaching for her sword and the Force and anything at all that might be of help.

Something deep inside herself responded to her call for aid, and the symbol of the Light Medallion glowed on the pommel of the white blade, showering the ground around her with a spattering of sparks. Ashei threw the sword straight at the spot of ground right in front of her friends, and the black thing hit it dead on, screeching in pain. It fled, flying towards the graveyard with all possible haste, taking the chaos of the fire with it, as though it had been what had brought it there in the first place.

Rain began to fall and the fires around the village fizzled into nothing after mere moments; the people of the village rejoicing in all manner of celebration.

Ashei fell to her knees, gasping for breath as a wave of exhaustion hit her. What had just happened? But the thought went away as quickly as it had come when Link suddenly appeared close by her side, helping her up by tugging her left arm around his neck. She blinked, watching Sheik and the Jedi approach them, Sheik holding her white short sword in his right hand.

"Looks like you're still in one piece… my, that was some spell. Did you know that you could work Light magic at all?"

Ashei took the sword when Sheik offered it to her, shaking her head. "No… I didn't. Doesn't that kind of magic… run in families?" Sheik raised a fine golden eyebrow. "Perhaps it does. It has a unique energy signature that allows only certain people to use it, and it most certainly happens to follow solid genetic lines rather than being a force that anyone can use," he said smoothly.

He shot a look toward the direction of the Jedi beside him, who couldn't see his eyes, and a smile formed beneath the fabric of his cowl.

"But," he said softly as that smile fell, "this is not the time for that discussion." He flicked his head towards the graveyard at the back of the village. "The chaos you saw just now was caused by the coming of that evil shadow spirit, which has just now broken free of its confines after so many years of being imprisoned in that well."

"So that's why no one could use it…" Ashei mused, apparently only having known that it couldn't be used, rather than the reason why.

"That's… part of it, yes," he said slowly, "but nonetheless, it was Impa, the leader of Kakariko Village, who sealed the evil shadow spirit in the bottom of the well all those years ago… and today that seal broke because the darkness that fuels the spirit grew to be too great, and now it has escaped into the world…" His single visible eye closed as he sighed deeply, and he stared forlornly after the graveyard entrance.

"I believe Impa has gone to the Shadow Temple in an attempt to seal it again, but…" – here, his right hand balled into a fist – "she will be in danger without any help!" Sheik looked up sharply in Link's direction.

"Link! Impa is one of the six sages! Destroy the evil shadow spirit and save her!" He paused a moment to take a deep breath and calm down before continuing. "You recall that I told you of the entrance in the graveyard, yes? It is, in fact, beneath it, and you cannot reach it without Nocturne of Shadow."

Link nodded, having already fished out the Ocarina from one of his pockets.

"I'm ready."

Sheik nodded and pulled out his harp out of seemingly nowhere, since his traditional garb hardly left anything to the imagination, let alone allowed a place to hide a harp on his person.

"This is melody that will draw you into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time… listen to it, Link."

And so Sheik began picking out the melody on the strings of his harp, with Link picking it up in a round after a few bars on the repeat of Sheik's playing. Then Sheik began strumming the harp gently in a mysterious second melody that stole away the breath of all who heard it, tracing a shiver down every spine, raising gooseflesh and making hairs stand on end.

When it was finished, all was silent except for the rain.

"You will need an item to traverse the Temple, as it is full of traps and illusions that try even the best of us who can see through them." Sheik said finally after the last of the song's effects were gone. "And that item lies at the bottom of the well. There should be several of them in fact, but you cannot get them in the present time. You will need to utilize the features of that sword and go back to the day you drew it in order to investigate the windmill that powers the well."

Ashei frowned. "Turn back time? But… that was seven years ago. The well was still in operation then."

A grin formed beneath Sheik's cowl.

"That is true, little Sheikah. But… should one make the windmill go faster than it should… the well will dry up, and allow the access you seek." Sheik chuckled. "Simply ask the windmill's caretaker about how to play the Song of Storms. I believe that should do the trick." And with that, he disappeared in usual flash of light.

Ashei turned to Link.

"When he said… 'that sword…' he meant the Master Sword, didn't he?"

Link nodded slowly. "Don't you remember? He told me before when we were walking through the forest after defeating Phantom Ganon. I didn't think anything of it then, but… it looks like I have to do it now." Ashei frowned at him, and he reached up to squeeze her left shoulder as a sign of comfort.

"Don't worry about me. Even as a child I'm still capable of looking after myself. And besides, it won't seem like more than anywhere than a few hours to a day to you, depending on how long it takes me to get back here from the Temple." Ashei tilted her head at him, confused.

"Don't you have to walk there from here?"

Link shook his head and held up his Ocarina. "There's a warp point inside the Temple. It'll make the journey a little faster. I'll be back before you know it."

And then he turned on his heel and nodded at the two Jedi.

"Why don't you see what you can do to help the villagers in the meantime? I'm sure there's still plenty of things to fix after that fire." Obi-Wan nodded. He didn't claim to understand exactly how 'turning back time' was supposed to do much of anything, and he was a smart man, but he trusted the young man's judgment, and would wait until he got back from his errand.

"We'll shack up at Impa's house if you're not back by nightfall, in case you need to find us then." Obi-Wan said. Link nodded and then raised the Ocarina to his lips and played the Prelude of Light.

.oOo.

Link stared down at the hands that had been his as a child, baffled that striking the Master Sword into the pedestal had actually worked – though it felt wrong.

Maybe it was the fact that he was so small, or that his voice wasn't at the right pitch. (He had forgotten how high it had been as a child, and the sound of his child voice was as foreign to him as his adult voice had been the first time he heard it.) But that wasn't what really bothered him. Nor was it the fact that some of the things that had been taken from his hat were now back again, like his slingshot and his boomerang. It was something else.

Something he couldn't quite put a finger on.

But his train of thought was interrupted when, not a moment after he set foot outside the temple, he began to register the smell of smoke and fire. In that moment, he was an adult again, remembering the recent events (in his experience) in Kakariko and the fire that had been consuming it.

It was Navi that brought him back to the (current) present.

"Link! That fire… do you think… what Sheik said about returning to 'the day you drew the sword…' did he really…?"

Link blinked, and he suddenly realized that the Temple courtyard was as beautiful as he'd remembered it being. If the sky above him hadn't been full of soot and the air tainted slightly with the stain of darkness, he might have believed the events of his recent memory were nothing more than a dream.

But…

"I think he meant exactly that, Navi," Link replied, and then shook his head at the wrongness of his child voice. "And I sound like a duck on helium. Let's… hurry up and get this over with, okay?" Navi giggled. "You do sound funny. I forgot how high your voice used to be…" Link glared at her gently.

"Shut up!"

The mood was ruined though, after he exited the courtyard and entered the main square, where the fighting that had still been going on when he'd entered. It appeared to be beginning to shift in balance towards the victory of Ganondorf's soldiers, with mages and soldiers beginning to flee or die. Navi frowned at the scenes around them: the dead and the dying, blood and bits of flesh spattering the streets that were still streets instead of dusty flagstones and tattered rags that, in the future, would later be looked and walked upon only by screeching, moving corpses.

"It's so different still," she whispered to him as he snuck through the gruesome chaos, "it still looks like a city that people could live in… if they just happened to come back and clean up all the blood…"

Link nodded, not trusting himself to speak until they reached the south gate.

"I kind of wonder why no one did come back… huh. Too many bad memories or something, I guess. Or maybe Ganondorf forbade it…" He shook his head and turned back toward Hyrule Field, frowning when he noticed the rosy orange-red shades of the sunset painted across the wide expanse of the plains.

"Huh. That's odd. I guess it must have been almost sundown before I drew the sword." Link sighed. "Skullkids be damned… I'm getting to Kakariko tonight." Navi grinned at him. "Not so scary now are they?"

Link chuckled. "Not after that thing in the Water Temple, no not really."

But he kept his sword hand at the ready just in case.

.oOo.

Ashei sighed in frustration as she lifted up another box and turned up nothing. She was helping Miss Anju hunt down her flock of Cuccos that had run off during the chaos if the fire, and not having much luck with it.

"Need some help?" a male voice asked from behind.

She glanced around, and her eyebrows rose in surprise when she saw Anakin leaning into the side of a nearby building, the sun peeking through the clouds and hitting his short padawan hair and braid at just the right angle, turning it from dark brown to hazel bronze in an instant.

"Yeah, actually," she said with a sigh, "these damned Cuccos are freaking everywhere damn it…"

It was a testament to her frustration exactly how much this Cucco hunting was beginning to wear on her nerves, considering the unusual amount of curses she was letting past her guard. Anakin noticed this, having been somewhat observant of the behaviors and speaking habits of his traveling companions, and he agreed to help without complaint.

This wasn't why he'd offered to help, though, because speaking of being observant, he'd definitely noticed what had been going on with Ashei and Link since the incident in the Water Temple, and he was honestly curious as to how things had changed since last night after the two had shared a room.

"I actually wanted to ask you something," he began as they walked up the western road towards Death Mountain, "what's up with you and Link?"

Ashei, who had actually managed to finally catch one of the Cuccos that happened to wander across her path, accidentally squeezed it a little too hard and it let out and ear-splitting screech that almost made her drop it.

"What?" she coughed, looking back at Anakin incredulously.

He shrugged, picking up another Cucco that had wandered over towards the sound of its brethren's distress. "You heard me," he said simply. She shot him a dry but slightly amused look. "You have no tact, you know that right?" Anakin laughed and grinned at her.

"Yeah. It's why I know I'll never be a great at negotiations like my master is… but…" here his face became serious again, "you didn't answer the question."

Ashei sighed, dropping her Cucco back into Anju's Cucco pen when they'd walked back, about four (now five) Cuccos wandering about in it. Knowing that there were a total of seven, she motioned for Anakin to continue holding onto the Cucco in his arms after she explained they seemed to be attracted to the cries of their fellow Cuccos in pain.

"Come on, the last one is behind the Potion Shop," she said to Anakin, "and keep that one with you."

As they walked back down the western road towards the Potion Shop, Ashei sighed again in an admission of defeat. "We… well, Link and I… ugh." She put her face in her hands and rubbed her forehead to ease the tightness of the coming headache that had been brought on by the chasing of those stupid Cuccos…

"It's kind of complicated," she tried again as they walked through the Potion's Shop to get to the alley behind it. "We know that we have feelings for each other, but… neither one of us really knows what it's like to be loved, you know?" She motioned for Anakin to squeeze the Cucco, which he did, enticing the nearby Cucco straight into Ashei's arms.

Anakin nodded at her response.

"I kind of get that. Then again, we're not really allowed to make attachments like that. Apparently things don't end well or something. But… there's something else, isn't there?" Ashei shot him a confused look, not sure how to respond because she wasn't sure what he was getting at.

Thankfully she didn't have to ask because right as soon as she and Anakin returned the two remaining Cuccos back to the pen, Anju came rounding the corner with a smile on her face.

"Oh! Thank the goddesses that you found them!" she exclaimed, reaching down to pet one. "I don't know what I would do without them!"

Ashei returned Anju's smile with one of her own.

"That's good to know. You breed them, don't you? And then you sell their eggs or offspring in the markets here?" Anju nodded. "Yes. They're how I make a living. Or… well, how I used to make a living." She sighed. "Impa left me everything she had when she left for the Shadow Temple, and I could live comfortably off of that for the rest of my days if I wanted to. But… these little ones… they're my babies. Perhaps I might move them in the house instead of keeping them out here… I don't think I could stand to live in that house anymore with all that quiet."

Ashei nodded. "You could get some allergy medicine made for you so you can touch them more often without having so many attacks…"

Anju laughed softly and nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I think I might do that." Her smile became less genuine as her thoughts turned back to Impa. "Because, as much as I want to believe that Lady Impa will come back this time… I… really don't think she's going to." She shook her head in reluctant acceptance, at least until a slight smile came back to her face again.

"What was that I heard you and Anakin discussing a moment ago? Something about you and that young man, Link?"

Ashei's cheeks blushed a bright crimson with embarrassment as Anju brought up their earlier conversation. "Miss Anju!" she hissed, "Shush! The village gossips will hear!" Anju simply giggled some more, and then asked when she was done, "Well, did you ever talk to him about what you and I discussed?"

Ashei sighed, once again resigned to talking about something she'd rather keep between her and Link.

"Yes, I did. Last night, in fact."

Anju giggled again, and this drew the attention of a nearby woman with dark brown hair wearing blue work clothes and a soot stained apron who tapped the shoulder of a woman next to her with bright auburn hair tied into a bun and they began to whisper amongst each other until they saw Ashei glaring at them murderously until they scurried around the corner into a nearby alley to begin their gossiping out of her sight.

"Ugh," Ashei groaned, "Anakin, remind me to track them down later so I can wipe their memories or something… I'd rather not like to hear anything strange involving me… or you."

Anakin seemed surprised. "Why me?" Ashei gave him another dry look.

"Simply because you happen to be standing next to me with Miss Anju giggling about something like a star struck school girl…"

And while Anakin blanched at the thought of being talked about like that with Ashei as the one he was 'involved' with, Ashei turned back to Anju, folding her arms and frowning severely.

"What, in the name of Din's good earth was that for?"

Anju giggled softer as she gestured grandly to the town with the sweep of her left hand.

"It's like this, Lady Ashei, this town has been through a lot since Ganondorf came to power. There's not a whole lot to talk about except who has lost what at his hands, or how worse one's neighbors are fairing in comparison to you. It's been such a sorrowful and somber town these past seven years, and you and your group have changed that." She smiled softly at Ashei by way of an apology.

"So, while it might perhaps inconvenience you for a little while, I can assure you that just allowing them to gossip about something happy for once will more than make up for it. Besides," Anju said with a wink, "it'll blow over in a week or two." Then she giggled again.

"Oh, by the way… did you finally kiss him?"

Ashei groaned and buried her face in her hands, and Anju couldn't help but burst out in a fit of laughter and tears.

"You did! You did, didn't you?"

It so happened that at that time, Obi-Wan was walking down their way from the direction of the well, and came to stand by Anakin to watch the two women with a considerable amount of curiosity. He nudged his padawan in the arm. "What's that all about?" he asked quietly. Anakin made a sound of amusement in the back of his throat and grinned.

"Apparently Ashei and Link talked about their feelings last night and I'm fairly certain that their discussion ended in a kiss. Anju's been busy teasing Ashei about it for the past five minutes…"

He shook his head with a soft chuckle. "Women are weird."

"Which is why you should never get involved with one," Obi-Wan said dryly, "your current circumstances not withstanding."

Anakin nodded. "Agreed."

.oOo.

"Take that, you bag of bones!" Link yelled, tossing a Deku Nut behind him at the pursuing band of Stalchildren. Night had happened to fall while he was traveling to Kakariko Village straight from Castle Town, and since he hadn't bothered to stay on the marked path in order to take the fastest route there, a couple of Stalkids had thus erupted from the ground for whatever reason and began chasing him as he ran the remaining distance to the village.

He hadn't been that far from the village when night had fallen, but navigating through the saplings that would eventually become the forest surrounding the village had made the last leg of the journey a little harder than it had been previously.

But he made it there nonetheless, and once he caught his breath after leaning up against the side of the trailhead he entered the Kakariko Village of the current present.

"It's still just a little village, isn't it?" Navi said to him as she perched on his shoulder while he walked through the streets and alleyways. Link nodded to her in response. "But now all the people that managed to come here when they fled Castle Town are taking residence, and so it will probably expand very quickly as apartments are built for the refugees…"

He glanced over down the western thoroughfare at the many parked horses and speeders that crowed the still tiny street.

"But yeah, you're right. It still looks so tiny in comparison to the Kakariko Village that I'm used to as an adult."

Finally he managed to find the windmill, since he wasn't really as familiar with the Kakariko of his childhood as much as he was with the Kakariko of his adulthood, despite its smaller size. So he scrambled up the steps leading up to the windmill's entrance, and he quickly made his way inside.

Upon closing the door, Link began to hear that strange lilting song again being played with that peculiar instrument the windmill's caretaker had with him.

"What was it Sheik said?" he asked Navi quietly while still standing next to the entrance, "That we should ask him to teach us the Song of Storms?" Navi nodded as she fluttered aloft in the right side of his vision.

"Yeah, I believe that was it."

Link climbed up on the spinning center of the windmill and rode it until he could jump off on the solid ground where the windmill's caretaker sat happily spinning the handle of his strange instrument. At first, he seemed flustered, not expecting much of anything beyond the monotonous (but apparently very enjoyable) life as the windmill's caretaker, but he quickly flashed a happy smile at Link, which made him slightly wary of him considering how he had reacted to seeing him in the future.

"Oh, hello!" the man cried out, pausing in playing his instrument to run a hand through his short, dark hair. His deep blue eyes were bright with laughter, as if he were watching something that amused him greatly. "And who might you be, little one? Or shall you remain nameless?"

Link blinked up at him owlishly.

"I think I'll remain nameless if you don't mind. All I wanted to ask you about was if you knew how to play the Song of Storms… and who are you exactly, and what are you playing?"

The man laughed. "So many questions! It is good, I suppose, that today's youth are so hungry for knowledge." He chuckled softly. "I am Guru-Guru, the caretaker of this windmill. I also happen to know how to play that song you just asked about, since I play it all the time! I love that song!" Link nodded. "But, your instrument… what is it?"

Guru-Guru paused to look down at the boxed contraption that he wore over his body like one of those large drums Link had seen in books when he was younger. "Ah, this? This is a phonograph. The windmill seems to respond to my playing it quite well, and so I make sure to practice all the time!"

The man laughed again, and then nodded when he was finished.

"But you wanted to learn the Song of Storms didn't you? Well, I can teach it to you as long as you have something to play it on." Link nodded and pulled out the Ocarina from one of his pockets.

"Will this do?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Guru-Guru, "That is quite the Ocarina! Yes, yes, that will do splendidly. Come closer and have a listen."

Link did so, cradling the ceramic instrument in his hands as he listened.

The windmill man began to turn the handle of the instrument, the phonograph as he'd called it, drawing out that lilting melody he'd heard when he'd first entered the windmill. Once Guru-Guru had gone through the entire thing, he nodded to Link for him to repeat it with him.

"Now we play it together!"

And so Link pressed the Ocarina to his lips and played along with the man, becoming consumed in the fast pace the song brought along with it. Soon he was lost in the music more than he'd ever been, and it took him sometime to register the look of shock on Guru-Guru's face, as well as the fact the he was… being.. rained on?

Link looked up.

Only he had to blink to beat back droplets of water falling from the ceiling at a light, but considerable pace, and then he turned around to see the inside of the windmill spinning around like crazy! "Go around, go around, go around," the man behind him muttered crazily. "What? It's going way too fast!"

"Link?" Navi whispered to him from underneath his hat, "I think we should leave now…" Link nodded, scrambling out of there before anything else weird happened.

Link stopped outside to catch his breath, since the windmill had been spinning very fast and it had taken a lot out of him. Something was nagging at his mind though, about the very first time he'd entered the windmill, back when he was an adult.

"Hey, Navi?" he asked quietly. She appeared out of his hat and floated in the air before him.

"Yeah?" Link frowned.

"When we met that man before, in the future, didn't he say something about… an Ocarina kid?" Navi blinked at him. "I… um… yeah. I think he did." Link turned around to look at the windmill door behind him. "So then… what he said… we really did… meet him…"

Navi folded her arms and huffed softly. "And I thought he was just crazy."

Link turned back around to give her a look. "Well, I wouldn't count that out just yet. Even before we played that song the man was creepy." Navi couldn't disagree with him on that one. Just then though, Link looked up when he heard the sound of water receding, and he climbed down to the well to investigate.

"Oh look!" he said to Navi as he glanced over the side, "The water's gone away, just like Sheik said it would!"

Navi glanced down the long, dark tunnel and grimaced.

"How much do you want to bet the whole thing is full of spiders?" Link laughed. "Come now, Navi. It's been full of water all this time. What do you think is down there?" Navi grumbled, fluttering down by Link so he could have a little light to see by,

"Death," she answered, "Death and despair."

"Pessimist," he said to her as they reached the bottom, and together they entered the darkness that was the Bottom of the Well.

.oOo.

"I told you there were spiders! What did I tell you?"

Link glanced in Navi's direction with a blank un-amused expression while the Skulltula crumbled in a blaze of bright blue fire before them.

"Really, Navi? It's just a Skulltula."

Navi folded her arms and glared at him. "Just a Skulltula, huh." Link sighed, exasperated. "It wasn't even going to eat you. You're probably too small." But still he shook his head and smiled a little. "It's nice to know you haven't changed about that, though. I'm not about to turn into your spider killer either, so if we see any more of them in here, you're just gonna have to suck it up, okay?" Navi sighed, unfolding her arms and releasing her glare.

"Fine, fine. I'll be quiet about it."

Link smiled, satisfied with their agreement, only to come to a complete stop when faced with a wall and a skeleton.

"Umm… Navi?"

Navi fluttered around the head of the skeleton, tilting her head as though listening intently. "Hey, I hear something… that's weird. It's like I can hear the spirits whispering in the other room…"

Link raised a fine golden eyebrow, his expression skeptical.

"Uh, well… what do they say?" Navi frowned as she listened, her face twisting in confusion. "Look for the eye of truth… that's what they are saying." She paused, crossing her arms and floating towards the wall behind her to lean on it so she could think.

However, Navi appeared to pass right through the wall, shocking Link.

"Navi!" he called, and without thought, he went through the same direction. He came through to find a whole new area sprawled out before him, and he blinked in surprise. "It was… an illusion." A sound drew his attention to the water before him and he noticed Navi crawling out of the murky liquid, coughing a little.

"Pheh… ugh. Yeah, I'd say so…"

Link picked up Navi and helped dry her off. "Do you think Sheik was referring to illusions like that when he mentioned that the Shadow Temple was full of them?" Navi nodded. "I'd bet my wings and magic he did. I'll also bet that this place is full of them too, so watch where you step."

Link nodded, and he reached out to the Force to ask if it would guide him through the well until they found what it was they were looking for. It agreed, and his senses sharpened even further with the flood of its calming presence, much more so until he could sense the Green Bubble that approached them even before he saw the green glow of its flames against the walls as it passed in front of them, following the path of the water before them.

"I say we follow it," Link said quietly.

"What, so we can burn ourselves?" Navi asked by way of a reply. Link shook his head. "Bubbles are kind of stupid, so it won't even know we're there if we follow behind it. Besides, as long as we follow the path of the water, we should be safe, because if there were pits in the path of the water, we'd know about them."

"Ah," Navi murmured, "that makes sense."

So they waited for the Green Bubble to come by again and they followed it along the path of the water, right up until Link noticed the giant triforce symbol in the floor that was… awfully hard to miss.

"Something tells me I should play that song the Princess taught me right here," he told Navi sarcastically. Navi made a similar sound of sarcastic agreement in her throat by way of a response. "You think?"

So he pulled out the Ocarina and quickly played it, watching as the fountain before him stopped spouting water and the water he was standing in drained away. He also stepped out of the path so that the Green Bubble could pass again, and they followed it back to the beginning where Link noticed a crawlspace below in the place where water had been moments before.

"If we needed to play the song to lower the water," Link mused, "then maybe it would be beneficial to us to investigate that crawlspace there?"

Navi nodded, floating beside him. "Sure, why not?"

So they entered it, coming into a small room with another Skulltula, which Navi did not complain about being there, as she'd promised. They climbed the wall behind it and entered the metal door at the end of the ledge above.

Swoosh! Shching!

Link turned around, surprised by the sound of metal bars rising up from the ground behind him. "Oh, I hate it when they do that…" he muttered, but then he frowned. What was making that sound? He looked down, suddenly realizing it was the shifting of his own footsteps; crunching on the ground he stood on.

Immediately the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he realized what it was he stood on…

Bones. Everywhere. Little ones, big ones, long ones, short ones… every kind of bone imaginable, and most of them were human. He gulped, and Navi whimpered a little when she noticed it too.

"What… what is this?" she asked in a tiny voice that shook with fear.

Link had no words, and he had even less when he turned around. Neither of them had the ability to gasp or squeak as they looked upon four skinny arms rising above the piles of bones that they now realized were in the walls too, the… bony hands attached to the arms also sporting blood-red claws.

"Umm… Navi? Can you hear those spirits now?"

Navi whimpered again, and Link had to take that as a no, since she couldn't seem to say much of anything else. Link sighed, and reached for the Force again, hoping it would calm him, but instead… he found something else. It didn't calm him… really… but he could sense something beneath the bones in the center of the room. It was like when he sensed the Green Bubble before, but this thing… it was intelligent.

Or at least it was more intelligent than the Green Bubble had been. It had the mind of a senseless killer: a hunter, waiting for prey. Link glanced the milk white arms that rose above the ground, wavering in the air with their claws twitching in anticipation.

He groaned. He was going to have to… no. Just… no.

Link turned around, but the door he'd used to enter was locked tight. He sighed deeply. There was no way around it, was there? He turned to the arm nearest him and he cleared his throat.

"Navi? I'm going to draw it out… if I can. I want you… to target it, so that I can… attack it… if – once, once I get free of… that." He shuddered, and Navi flittered in the air before him. "Are… are you sure?" Link looked at his fairy companion pitifully. "It doesn't seem like there's any other way…" Navi grimaced, but she nodded reluctantly.

"I'll do what I can," she said quietly.

And then Link stepped toward the arm, his right hand wrapped lightly around his throat at the suggestion of the Force that guided him.

It was a good thing that he'd listened to it too, for as soon as he stepped close to it, the hand reached for him, quick as lightning, the fingers being longer than he'd anticipated as they curled around his head, digging into the flesh of his neck. He could feel the blood trickling down as they dug in, but he grit his teeth, ignoring the sprayed dirt and sounds behind him, and reached up.

Calling upon Din's Fire, he used it to encompass his entire left hand and press it to the fingers that held him, and they whipped away from him in pain the moment he tried to pry them from his neck. Turning around, he looked for the monster that he knew had surfaced by now, and he froze when he saw it.

It… was this… grotesque thing: a white stump with a long neck and head with sharp teeth and stubby little arms, smeared all over with blood and other unmentionable colors of liquid. It took a single shout from Navi, who buzzed and jingled a bright, neon green around its head, "Get moving!" before he was able to actually do so, drawing his Kokiri Sword before it reached him.

He was lucky it wasn't very fast, but he supposed it didn't have to be if its prey couldn't fight back. But Link could, and as soon as it got close enough, its long neck bending down so that the head could reach, jaw unhinging in order to go in for a killing bite… he charged to the side and slashed – right across the weakest part of the neck where it bent to reach for him.

It hadn't missed him completely though, for even as it fell, the jaws of the creature raked against his uncovered arm and blood dripped in rivulets to the floor, covering the bones and the twitching corpse of the creature's body.

Link hissed, grasping his injured arm as he pressed himself against the wall to watch the creature's baiting arms disintegrate along with the creature itself, and he had to bite his tongue to keep from howling at the stinging sensation the teeth had left behind was painful enough to send spots dancing along the edges of his sight.

"Navi," he breathed, "that bottle… of red potion… do we still have it?"

Navi nodded, and she dug into the hat quickly to bring out the bottle of red liquid, uncorking and spreading half of it onto the wound itself and forcing Link to drink the rest. He lay there for a little while as he waited for the potion to take effect, which it did eventually, but he still shuddered from the twitches of phantom pain as he watched a chest appear in the center of the room.

"I guess… that's what we're looking for?"

Navi scowled. "Better be. We can't take facing another one of those."

Link nodded shakily in agreement as he walked over to his sword, picking it up and sheathing it, not bothering to clean it off. Then he turned to the chest, and flicked the switch, opening it.

"Yes!" he cried out in relief, "These must be what the spirits were referring to." He scooped up the lenses that looked like half a set of goggles, only purple and ringed with tiny red spikes. There were switches on the sides of each of them, and a set of instructions described a way to turn them on using nothing but the energy of one's thoughts. Lucky for them, there happened to be exactly four.

"Stuff them in your hat and let's get out of here," Navi told him.

"Just play the Ocarina and get to the Temple." Link, not wanting to spend another moment there, nodded in agreement. So once he stuffed the lenses in his hat, he pressed the Ocarina to his lips, and after a few moments, he was gone in a trail of light.

.oOo.

It was almost night again when he got back, trudging through the front door of Impa's house, a haunted look in his eyes. Mentally exhausted as he was, he hadn't even bothered to search for Obi-Wan or Anakin. The only one he wanted right now was Ashei.

Ashei was alone in the house, busying patching up places on the inside with her magic when she felt him. Though she wanted to run to him, she sensed that something… wasn't right. So when he finally rounded the last corner and entered the dining room where she was, she stopped what she was doing and walked over to him slowly.

"Are you… okay?" she asked him softly.

Link blinked at her, and it was a long time before he could speak.

"No… not really. But… I got what we needed." He shuddered. "That… wasn't pleasant." Ashei sighed, and reached for the Force instinctively while reaching up to touch the left side of his face, rubbing her thumb over the skin, which was rougher than she'd expected it to be.

"Hey… you'll be okay. I promise that you will. You hear me?" She said this gently, but her eyes were hard and demanding.

Link leaned into her touch, feeling the soothing presence of the Force that she brought with it. "Ahh… thank you. I needed that." And then he let her move in close for a hug, and he relaxed slightly. "May I… may I kiss you again?" he whispered, and she stepped away, smiling at him again. The smile was what did it, and as she pressed her lips against his for a few brief moments, it was the smile that erased the fear and despair that had been eating at his heart the entire way back to Kakariko.

"So," she whispered to him as they stood there, foreheads pressed close together in the silence, "would you like to help me make dinner? Anju's out, and… Obi-Wan and Anakin will be back from whatever they've been doing since lunch soon."

Link stepped away and nodded. "Sure. It'll help keep my mind off… things. Thank you, by the way. I don't… I don't know what I'd do without you."

She smiled at him again, and his heart lightened at the brightness it brought.

"Hmm. I don't know. You'd probably be okay… but… would you like to tell me about what happened?" Link grimaced. "Not really… but I probably should. It's not something I think I should keep to myself. And… I would like it very much if I could share a bed with you again tonight." He rubbed on side of his face with his right hand.

"I have a feeling I'm going to need someone tonight to hold onto… and I don't think Anakin or Obi-Wan will want to volunteer."

Ashei grinned. Despite whatever had happened to him when he'd gone back in time, he still had the ability to make jokes. It was a good sign, she thought.

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do."

And so Ashei took Link's hand and led him to the kitchen where the ingredients for tonight's diner were waiting to be prepared.

Gwah… the Dead Hand is scary. Well, Shadow Temple is up next! (This one might take longer, but now I have a post for the New Year!) Hopefully the Link/OC stuff isn't too much for you. I would want someone to hug if I had nightmares from that thing. (Like Link said, I don't think Anakin would volunteer, lol!)

Happy New Year, y'all! :D

- Hikari no Vikki