A/N: are you ready for more? Here it is!

Link looked around the dark grim looking room that he had entered. It seemed to be like a dark pit, mossy and decayed, with a deep pool of murky water. Link leaned over the edge of the cliff where he was standing and saw that there were tunnel entrances underwater; however, he wasn't able to see how deep the water was. There was an old battered chandelier hanging in the middle of the room, its blue fire torches casting a ghostly light.

"Brrrr… this place gives me the creeps!" said Laila.

"Yes, it does," agreed Link. "Wait, what's that?" He pointed at a dark shadow moving along the wall.

"I don't know, you better be ready for anything, I'll go check."

Link reached for his bow but he noticed that he didn't have it. He then remembered that he had left it in Zora's Domain, when he tossed it to the floor when fighting the Gerudo. He withdrew his sword and held up his shield as Laila fluttered towards the dark figure that kept crawling along the wall in Link's direction. When the soft flow illuminated it, Laila and Link both jumped in fear as the creature roared and jumped towards them.

It seemed to be some sort of black medium sized bat-like beast, with large fangs and bright red fiery eyes. Laila flew back towards Link and he raised his shield to protect himself. The beast flew up into the ceiling of the room and dashed at Link, who jumped sideways and rolled on the floor, and hid inside his hat.

"Laila, what is this thing?" asked Link.

"I don't know!" she replied in a scared voice. "It must be some sort of specter of the darkness!"

The foul beast slammed one of its talons towards Link, and he jumped again to evade it. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to evade it, he gave a step backwards for momentum and jumped into the murky water below, diving fast as deep as he could go.

He was almost by the entrance of the first tunnel when he turned around, but the creature was nowhere to be seen. He looked into the tunnel ahead and saw that it was pitch-black inside.

"Laila, I need your help please," he thought.

"What is it, Link?" asked Laila, coming out from his hat.

"Can you shed some light inside the tunnel?" he asked.

"Sure! Tell the little fairy to get into the dark creepy tunnel first, right?" she replied annoyed.

She entered the tunnel and Link saw the rough rocky surface inside was full of algae and dead coral remains. He dashed right behind, following her as closely as possible. At the end of the tunnel, Link noticed that there was light above him, so he shot upwards and broke the surface.

"Link, what is this place?" asked Laila.

He looked around and saw that they were in a small round room. It seemed to be empty, save for a large stone coffin in the middle of it.

"Seems to be some sort of tomb," murmured Link. He climbed out of the water and walked towards the coffin. There was an inscription engraved on it in Zora's script, so Link read it out loud:

Here lies Priestess Ruto IX, descendant of the Sage that once protected the land of Hyrule, former ruler of the Zora. May her soul rest and go into crystal waters and find peace.

"And who is serving as priest, now?" asked Laila.

"I have a feeling that it was the old Zora that we met before," replied Link.

He was about to turn around when he saw a bright light above the coffin and the ghostly figure of a young female Zora appeared from it.

"Fear not, Hero, as I've been waiting for you to come," she said.

"Who… who are you?" asked Link.

"I am Princess Ruto, former Sage of Water. I used to guard the Water Temple, back in the old days of the Hero of Time," she replied. "I passed away many ages ago, killed by the Evil King when we tried to execute him, but the darkness that now covers the world has brought me from my eternal rest."

Link stared at her and waited for her to continue.

"You are a descendant of the old Hero of legends. You are the incarnation of the Hero of Time, the Hero of Twilight, and you have been chosen to lift the curse that has been set upon this temple. For this, I will give you a treasure. It is a shard of the key that opens the entrance to the door where the monster has been sealed. You must find the other shard hidden in this temple and then fight the evil beast of darkness."

Link nodded and looked at Laila, who also nodded at him.

"Hero, I must warn you," said the spirit of Princess Ruto, "the evil beast of darkness is very powerful, so you will need aid of the only weapon that will help you defeat it: The Golden Spear. It was forged ages ago and now it has been lost inside this sanctuary. Only if you find it, will you be able to penetrate the creature's armor."

Link nodded once more.

"Go, Hero… and save the land that the Goddesses love so much…" finished the spirit of Princes Ruto before slowly fading away.

Link saw a bright light appear again and a small golden shard appeared on top of the coffin. He picked it up and saw that it was the half of the key that Princess Ruto had mentioned. He put it in his pouch and walked back towards the tunnel, diving into it and swimming back towards the main room.

When he exited the dark tunnel, he looked around. There were several other entrances that he needed to explore, so he dived further down and went for the next tunnel. It seemed to be slightly illuminated be soft-glowing crystals that were embedded to the rocky inner walls.

"Link, this one seems to be clearer than the previous one," he heard Laila's voice in his head.

"Let's go for it," replied Link. "I need to find the Golden Spear fast. The longer I take, the more the darkness will spread."

They entered the tunnel and followed it for a few minutes and then reached another circular room. This one was bigger than the one where they had met Princess Ruto's spirit, had a higher ceiling, also rocky and mossy, and some tall pillars supported the structure. There was a door at the farthest end, with a silver padlock shaped like a clamshell.

"What do you reckon you'll find beyond that door?" asked Laila.

"The Golden Spear, I hope," guessed Link.

They walked forward into the room and, without a warning, the room began to shake and rocks started to fall from the ceiling. Link ran and dodged the falling rocks until the ground stopped shaking.

"What was that?" asked Laila. Then, she yelled, "LINK, LOOK OUT!"

Link received full impact of the heavy mace that was swung at him and flew back a few feet before slamming onto the ground. He got up seeing sparks in front of his eyes and stared at the lizard-like creature that was in front of him: it seemed like a giant overgrown lizard, with a heavy steel helmet and an iron mace in his hand. Its eyes were glowing yellow and its muscled body seemed to be perfectly fit for battle.

Link drew out his weapons and went into a defensive stance. He felt a jolt of pain in his chest: a broken rib.

"Link, it's a dinolfos, like the ones that attacked Kakariko Village," explained Laila.

Link had to jump sideways and roll on the floor, pain jolting again, when the dinolfos took a deep breath and shot a blaze of flames towards him; once again, he lamented not having his bow. The beast charged at him, jumped and flung its mace forward, but Link rolled forward and, ignoring the pain, he performed a spin attack, hitting the creature on his back.

The dinolfos screamed in rage and flung his mace again. Even though he blocked it with his shield, the impact sent him flying towards the wall. He felt another sharp jab of pain as he hit the rocks and fell on the ground. He looked up and saw the lizard running towards him. He gripped his sword tight and ran as well, bracing for collision. The dinolfos raised his mace, but Link rolled forward, jumped, and sunk his sword into the beast's heart. They both fell on the floor, as Link relinquished his sword, and the dinolfos lay still.

Link got up in pain. His head throbbed and his broken rib sent continuous jolts into his nervous system. He walked up to the carcass of the beast that he had just fought and retrieved his sword. He noticed the small bag tied up to its waist and picked it up. Inside, he found a small silver key.

"Do you think it'll work?" asked Laila, fluttering towards him.

"Only one way to find out," replied Link. He gave a few steps and then held his side in pain.

"Link!" yelled Laila. "Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine," he replied. He walked up to the door and inserted the key on the padlock, turned it, and unlocked it.

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

The room inside was very small, and the only thing that there was seemed to be a small pond of murky water. Link stepped into it and sank.

"A tunnel?" he thought.

"Where will it lead?" asked Laila's voice in his mind.

"Let's find out," replied Link, and he shot forward.

After a couple minutes of painful swimming, though he tried very hard to ignore it, they reached another underground cavern, like a giant rocky bubble full of water. When he had advanced almost to the center of the water-flooded cave he heard a heavy bubbling sound and turned around, just in time to see a set of bars emerging from the edge of the entrance, blocking the exit.

"Link, look out!" screamed Laila's voice in his head.

Link turned around as he saw a group of four squid-like creatures swimming fast towards him. They had three tentacles protruding from their big wide-yellow-eyed heads and had snouts that resembled pipes. He raised his shield in time, as they began spitting rocks at high speed. He blocked the projectiles and swam forward, sword in hand.

"Link, careful!" warned Laila. "Those are octoroks."

Link slashed with his sword cutting one of the octoroks in half and leaving a cloud of entrails floating in the murky water. Another octorok spat a burst of rocks at Link and he blocked them with his shield, but he didn't see the other two coming from behind. He received the impact of the rocks shot by them on his back and he was turned around in pain.

Laila pointed Link in the proper direction and he raised his sword and stabbed another octorok, which slowly sank to the bottom of the cavern.

"Two more to go," thought Link.

He blocked another burst of rocks with his shield and slashed again, but the two remaining octoroks had started to circle him in random patterns. He started slashing through the water but wasn't able to hit any. He received another burst of rocks on his back and closed his eyes in pain. Another burst hit him on the head and he was now seeing tiny sparks of light in front of his eyes. His head and side were throbbing in pain and he could sense how he was starting to lose consciousness. He slashed the water again and, this time, he felt how his blade cut through the gelatinous body of the octorok.

"Link! Link!" He could hear Laila calling him.

Another burst of rocks. He could feel the water getting warmer near his head and he realized that he was bleeding. He slashed with his sword, but nothing. He could feel his limbs growing heavy. Another rock hit him on the head and he slashed forward, feeling how the last of his foes was cut in half.

"Link!" called Laila.

The pain was starting to fade away; he felt his grip on his sword fail and his sight began to darken as he saw the blade sinking into the bottom of the cavern. His limbs felt numb, his eyelids grew heavy; he noticed how he started to lose his senses.

"LINK! WAKE UP!" cried Laila in his head, her voice sounding like if she were far away.

He began sinking to the bottom of the cavern. He didn't feel the pain anymore. He closed his eyes, and lay still.

Joy opened her eyes wide. Tears began flowing as she ran into the shrine of Faron. The spirit was already waiting for her, and looked down at the Kokiri priestess as she fell on her knees crying.

"You felt it too?" he asked.

"I can't see Link anymore," she cried.

Faron closed his eyes, while Joy let her tears flow for the fallen Hero.

Garoth was standing by the window of the throne room laughing hard. His evil laughter was full of malice and he walked up to the throne and sat down. He had felt a light fading away: the Hero had fallen.

Zelda woke up crying. Viacka ran towards her and held her tight.

"What's wrong, my Lady?" she asked softly.

"Just a dream…" replied Zelda. "Another horrible nightmare."

Zelda looked at Viacka and started recounting her dream:

She was walking through a dark mournful town in the middle of a lake. The lake had entirely dried up and dark clouds loomed above in the skies. Zelda saw a dark shape rising from the bottom of the lakebed and shot bursts of dark energy at the small houses. People ran all around the streets, screaming in fear, but all along she stayed still. Then, there was a sudden glow in the skies and she saw three golden triangles descending in circles: Power, Wisdom and Courage, the pieces of the Triforce combined and began glowing with glory; but then, when Zelda started to feel hope again, the bottom right triangle, the Triforce of Courage, cracked and shattered into tiny pieces.

The remaining triangles stopped glowing and the dark shapeless creature looked at Zelda, its red eyes glowing in the shadows, and shot another beam of energy straight towards her.

"What do you think it means?" asked Viacka.

"I don't know…" replied Zelda. "And I don't think I want to…"

A/N: sorry to leave you hanging in like this with such ending. Don't worry, this unexpected turn will continue on the next chapter: LAILA'S SECRET AND THE GOLDEN SPEAR. Se ya'!