Thy Father's Footsteps

This is so stupid. Aden rolled his head slowly, trying to ease the tension that had taken root in his neck like a weed –a stubborn weed. "It should be close by…" He nicked another glance at Gale, she nodded and smiled, looking around just like any other time, but nothing changed. He could see it in her bearing; the wonders of this world held no wonder for her, she was so used to her subconscious repression that she simply didn't care anymore.

So why am I doing this? Why, oh Gods almighty, am I taking her to a portal that leads to a nightmare version of our own world? Even if he found it, the portal was likely closed; his mother said that the Dark World had vanished after Ganon's death, so where would it lead to? It was probably just an ordinary stone by now. She shows me all of Hyrule at once and how do I reciprocate? I take her to a rock… This is all so stupid! "Almost there."

"You sure the thing still works?" She asked sweetly. "I mean I've heard so much about the Golden Land, I'd just hate for us to trudge all the way up here and find nothing…"

"I'll bet you would." It was impossible to tell whether she was being sarcastic or not. She probably wanted there to be nothing so she could hold it over his head.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?"

"Yes, I do." Sort of… Zelda had said that it was directly in the shadow of the tower, but having never been here it was still difficult to find something that might not even be here anymore, and as time ticked away their patience Aden began to wonder if perhaps it had vanished.

Then he saw them: a pentagram of stones, both great and small, and at the epicenter was the portal.

To Aden it looked as though someone had dug a square depression into the mountain floor and filled it with some kind of pristine metal. The tile fit perfectly into the rock as if it was made specifically for the purpose of being there.

"So this is it huh?" Gale said quietly. Kneeling before the portal she placed a delicate palm squarely on its center. Nothing happened. "Damn. And here I was, hoping I'd disappear…"

"Want to see the Dark World?"

"Heck no!" The redhead grinned, rising from her crouch. "I want the Triforce –all the money in the world, mine!"

"That seems remarkably shallow…"

"And just what would you wish for?"

"Power." He blurted before thinking, "I… I'd get revenge on Sainen!" He said, hoping she wouldn't see through his halfhearted attempt.

"That," Gale said with a small smile, "is very shortsighted."

"Not to mention impossible."

Both thieves whirled, Aden drawing his sword with the motion. Of all the places he'd thought they'd meet, Death Mountain was not one of them; Sainen was striding up the way they'd come, the most insufferable smile on his face. Unlike their previous encounter he was fully dressed in a dark red mail tunic, completely cleaned, and shaven.

"You're incapable of killing me." He said, his smile fading slightly. "Oh wait, I forgot, Miko did say to practice my manners. "Hello, how are you Gale?"

"Same as always, I suppose. How are you?" She asked, taking out her bow and two arrows.

"Oh I'm feeling great, just great…" He continued in light tones. "I came to kill you. I'm actually not supposed to be here, but, well… for you my dear, I couldn't resist. Besides, I was tired of listening to Gibdos-brain."

Aden tightened his grip on his sword. "What is Blind up to these days?"

Sainen didn't respond or even look his way. "It really is beautiful up here. The sights are to die for…"

"Care to die for them? I'll help if you do."

"Really," he said without pause, "you can look at the whole kingdom from up here."

"Careful, at this altitude you could slip and fall. Wouldn't that be a tragedy…"

The doppelganger merely took a deep breath. "So, how about it, honey? Care to go for a walk? See what we can see? We could trade a few sob stories."

Aden knew exactly what he was doing; Sainen was trying to get under his skin by ignoring him, but it wasn't going to work because there was something very wrong with this picture, and it was setting alarm bells of in his head.

"Where's your sword?!" No response. "Hey you freak of magic, I asked you a question!"

"What, this?" He asked motioning towards his weaponless back with his chin. "I'm a little old to be playing with toys don't you think?"

"If you don't have a weapon, how do you plan to kill us?" Gale asked. "Not barehanded I hope."

Sainen widened his stance. "Oh I was wondering when you'd ask… It gives me a chance to show off; you see I've been going through a few changes, and I've learned several new tricks. Take this one for instance…"

Aden blinked; the ground had begun to gently thrum beneath his feet. "Gale…"

"Yeah?"

"Shoot him."

Gale didn't waste time with questions. Setting one arrow in place she took aim and fired, but to no avail, the arrow veered wildly off course before snapping like a dead twig.

"Just to let you know…" Sainen said quietly, "this magic was excruciatingly difficult to obtain, so I hope you savor the moment." As he spoke the ground between both parties began to fracture, and the wind began to increase. "This is what is known as 'Summoning!'"

Aden shut his eyes as a blast of wind struck him and Gale, knocking them back several steps. When he was able to open his eyes again he had to wait for the dust to clear, and when it did, he wished it hadn't.

Sainen was standing beside what could only be described as the world's biggest turtle. The gray stone shell was the size of a small house, its sickle-shaped claws as long as a man's forearm, and its cobra-like heads –all three of them- glared angrily down upon the world. It was a creature without pity or fear, a monster that would trample the whole kingdom if given the chance, starting with the two residents in front of it.

"For the last moments of your lives, you may refer to this beast as Trinexx." Sainen said with a smile. "It's a legendary monster with powers beyond those of mere mortals… Blind fused its power into my soul. I can call it any time I wish, and it will follow any order I give it -like 'kill those two idiots, and let's try to be quick about it!'"

"Shall we run for our lives?" Gale darted away without waiting for an answer. Aden followed suite, not needing to check if it was after them; something that big, they simply weren't ready for it. But with two sides blocked by cliffs and that thing cutting off the only path back there was only one way: dead south, to a ledge that quite possibly had nothing beneath it.

Gale dove off it with not even a pausing to consider the danger, Aden took one look back; Sainen was standing with his arms crossed, smirking as his monster began to turn. Praying there was something soft to break his fall, Aden jumped.

The rock walls were hard and unforgiving, battering his tiny body, but the drop wasn't a long one. With a painful thud he landed face down and rolled over.

"Oh, by the Triforce, you've gotta be kidding!" The Trinexx had already reached the ledge and was starting to make its way down, its hooked feet easily gripping the side. Aden jumped up and ran after Gale; the ground behind him shaking as the creature landed.

"Aw, can we not get a break?!" He found Gale standing before a large crevice, spanned by a large wooden bridge, mostly; the center was missing, leaving a gap far too wide to jump. The redhead turned to him. "Quick, rope, now!"

"I don't have any, I thought you'd have brought that –you're the marksman!"

"You moron! You really are stupid! You were the one that went shopping for supplies, how can you think we wouldn't need rope to climb a-!" The planks rattled and the Trinexx scuttled around the corner.

"Okay…" Aden said as they backed onto the bridge, "Get ready to run…"

"Where?"

Good question. They were over a pit that seemed to have no bottom, with a giant three-headed turtle closing in on them. Gale fired an arrow, but the shaft bounced off the creature's armored skull. The Trinexx took another step and stopped, weaving its central head from side to side.

"It's too heavy," Gale said, "if it tries to advance, the bridge will collapse, possibly killing it too."

"So it does have a sense of self-preservation after all, good. We might be able to use that to escape." As soon as he said it all three heads zeroed in on him, and he could've sworn the other two were laughing as the right head reared back, opened its mouth, and breathed a stream of white hot flames.

Aden sheathed his sword as the sweet scent of burning oak filled the air. "Jump!" Grabbing Gale by the arm, he turned and dove as far as he could over the pit. With an angry hiss, the beast's middle thrust out like a stabbing sword and bashed them in midair, propelling them into the planks on the other side.

The horizontal planks rammed into Aden's middle, crushing the wind form his lungs, but he was still able to get his fingers hooked into the wood. Gale wasn't as fortunate and smashed face first into the bridge. Without anything to grab onto, gravity took over and she plummeted into the darkness without so much as a scream.

"Now now, my cute and cuddly killing machine…" Sainen said striding up beside his pet. "I distinctly remember telling you to destroy him, didn't I? So what do you think you should do?" Without pause, the left head rose up.

Aden tried to reflate his empty lungs, hoping to think of a way out. The right head was red –fire, and the center one was meant for crushing, so it was covered in metal, but the left was bright blue.

Oh Triforce… The left head spat out a stream of frigid air and tiny shards that stabbed into him like dozens of tiny hornets. Aden felt his grip on the frozen wood weaken, then he was holding onto air.

The unyielding ledges bashed into his ribs, arms, legs… up became down, and the world was reduced to pain and the sound of breaking bones on rock, then a stone collided with his head, and the darkness swallowed him up.

-8-

Where was he? Was he even still living? Aden wasn't sure, everything felt so clouded and heavy. Like his weight was too much to bear. He opened his eyes as the events of the fall came to him.

He was staring up at a pinprick of light, the crevice opening, shining down into hundreds of prismatic crystals and bathing everything in soft indigo light.

"I fell…" Aden tried to move, and screamed as his mind registered the trauma his body had been put through. The world down here was icy, yet his body burned with pain, he couldn't even tell where it came from; his whole form just seemed to be gripped by pain.

Damn it! Don't move, don't even twitch. Eventually the pain subsided to a semi-unbearable level, enough to roll over, but the action left him completely exhausted. Worse, he could feel shards of wet glass digging into his hip; the potions for just such occasions were no doubt gone. "Meaning I'm about to die…" From somewhere a hysterical laugh bubbled painfully up. "Damn it… Damn it!" Here he was, dying, and all he could do was laugh and cry, until the cold and his injuries finally did their work.

"Hmph. There's only so much I can do…" Aden raised his head to a pair of transparent boots, raising his head higher he smiled.

Great, now I'm hallucinating… Ah well, least ways I got someone to talk to.

The apparition regarded him coldly for a moment. "You're pathetic." Aden's smile vanished. "I can't believe this is all you have. I faced far worse in my day…"

"Yeah well, sorry to disappoint, but I'm not you. I'm not crazy enough to pretend I can keep going when I can't." The phantom shook his head in disgust, and Aden found himself unable to meet his eyes. "Why'd you even do it anyway? You were left just like this but you never stopped… you just kept going, like a cockroach. Even when it killed you, and fairies had to bring you back, you just wouldn't quit. Tell me… Tell me why!"

"Look over your shoulder, and then you tell me."

Aden turned his head, neck popping. Gale was lying unconscious on her side, in her own blood. Without a word he began to crawl.

"Still think you can't keep moving? Still think it isn't worth it? You've already seen that power for your ego only goes so far, trust me, I know." Aden grabbed the nearest crystal and pulled himself to his unsteady feet. His left leg was broken so he unbuckled his sword and hobbled over to Gale.

She wasn't especially heavy but as he slung her over his shoulder he still cried out in pain.

The ghost turned on his heel and slowly walked off into the dark. "If it's power you want, find something worth protecting, and devote everything to it. Struggle till you can struggle no more, then get back up and keep fighting, and then I'll take back what I said, kid…"

Aden slowly followed. The pain was red hot through his body and his vision blurred, his ears rang with a stagnant tone that blotted out thought, but he kept moving. It's just one foot in front of the other. Left, then right. Left, and right. Left, right… Left… Right…

Eternity passed, and he had no idea if he was even moving or how long those words repeated in his head.

-8-

Well, a little later than I wanted, but it's up! So you all have the floor, I'm listening.