Chapter 24
The water was very deep; Kris had to struggle to see the bottom. Link put on his iron boots to sink to the bottom, and she just swam downward. As they got closer, they saw a small pit in the center of the room, with what looked like a pink tentacle sticking out. As soon as their feet touched the bottom, an eye ball floated into the tentacle from the bottom.
"Ew." Kris grimaced at the eyeball. It looked at them for a few seconds, then sunk back through the tentacle. The sand made a low rumbling sound, and several more tentacles emerged, followed by a gaping mouth lined with teeth like daggers. The eyeball started floating in and out of the tentacles, still watching them.
"Um, that's kind of creepy," Kris said, her voice wavering. Midna appeared, seemingly unbothered by the water.
"That eyeball looks pretty important. Why don't you see if you can yank it out?" She disappeared again, her advice given. Link pulled out the clawshot. He looked at it for a few seconds, shrugged, then walked closer to the monster, aiming the clawshot.
"Um, Link, I don't thank that's such a good..." Kris began. Suddenly, the tentacle closest to Link jerked toward him. It wrapped around his waist and pulled him toward the monsters mouth. Kris shrieked, and, thinking quickly, drew her scythe. She moved the water around her and shot toward the tentacle. She used all of her momentum to slice at the tentacle. It remained intact, but let go of Link just before he reached the monster's mouth. As she sped past, Kris's arm brushed by one of the teeth. A small stream of blood flowed from a cut on her arm. Link swam over and touched her arm gently. "I'm okay! Don't get so close next time!" He nodded, his eyes apologetic. They swam a few feet away from the monster, far enough so it couldn't grab them, but still within the clawshot's range. Link waited until the eye floated close to them, then fired the clawshot. It grabbed the eyeball and yanked it out of the tentacle. Kris sliced at it several times with her scythe, before it jumped back into the monster's mouth and floated back into the tentacles. Several round fish swam out of the gaping mouth. "Hey, those look like the water bombs!" Kris pointed out. One swam too close and tried to bite her. She slashed at it, and the fish started sparking. "Ahhh, they are the water bombs!" She smacked it away, where it exploded. Link tried to grab the eyeball again, accidentally grabbing a few bomb fish in the process. Kris drew her hammer and hit them away from her and Link. Finally, he managed to grab onto the eyeball, and they hit it together, doing twice the damage. The eyeball bounced back into the monster's mouth, and it sunk back into the sand. "Yay!" Kris held her hand up to high-five Link. He did it, but still looked suspiciously at the sand. Suddenly, the whole room shook, and the monster burst out of the sand again. This time, however, its body followed its mouth, revealing its true form. The monster was a giant, long fish, at least five times longer than Link and Kris. It swam around the huge room, which suddenly seemed a lot smaller. A few pillars stood at the edges of the room; the fish smashed into them and them collapsed. Midna appeared, looking a bit surprised.
"Wow, that thing is big! That's Morpheel, the huge aquatic monster. Hey, look at its back! See the eyeball? Maybe you could latch onto it again!" She flipped back into Link's shadow. As the fish swam around the room, Link struggled to keep up with it, trying to get close enough to grab the eye with the clawshot. Kris watched him for a few seconds, then used the water to propel him forward. He nearly inhaled water, but recovered quickly and grabbed the eye with the clawshot. Instead of yanking it out, however, he was pulled forward onto Morpheel. Be nearly fell of as it jerked around, but he held on, and pulled himself up in front of the eye. Link drew his sword and stabbed it straight into the eye. Purple liquid spilled out as Morpheel thrashed around and threw him off. He bumped into Kris, which stopped him from being thrown through the water. Without even bothering to take the clawshot, Kris propelled herself straight toward Morpheel's eye, drawing her scythe again. She easily grabbed onto the fish and stabbed the eye again. After a few more slashes, she too was thrown off. Morpheel seemed disoriented as it swam around, and kept smashing into pillars.
"We've almost got it! One more hit should finish it!" Kris shouted over the crumbling of rock and the gargantuan fish moving through the water. Link nodded, and started swimming after the fish. Kris propelled him forward again, and he stabbed his sword repeatedly into the eye. Morpheel shrieked, and Link was thrown off its back as it thrashed around. The monster slammed into the wall of the underwater room, creating a fissure. The water quickly flowed out through the cracks, and would have swept away Kris and Link, but Kris kept the water around them still as the rest of the water quickly drained out of the room. Soon, there was nothing left on the sandy floor but a few puddles. The huge fish exploded, filling nearly half the room with black squares. They flew toward the center, and the last fused shadow appeared. Midna grabbed it with her hair.
"Well, that's the last of them. I'm grateful to all of you for helping me get them. I know I've been a little bossy lately, but I really don't think I could have done it without you." Midna looked at the floor shyly. Link smiled at her, and Kris spoke up.
"It's okay! We were glad to do it, if it means saving this world!" Midna smiled gratefully, and floated over to a patch of dry sand. A small blue portal appeared.
"Kris, your arm!" Link pointed.
"What's wrong with my arm?" Kris looked at both arms, which looked perfectly fine.
"Didn't you get cut?"
"Huh? Oh, I did. But my arm looks fine!"
"Yeah, how did it heal so fast?"
"Ooo, maybe it has something to do with my water powers!" Kris smiled. "I guess water can heal me; I never felt anything a few minutes after I got cut!"
"That's amazing! You're really lucky!" Link grinned, impressed.
"Heehee, thanks!" Kris giggled.
"Are you ready to go?" Link and Kris looked at each other, and simultaneously nodded. They walked into the portal, and Midna transported the three of them out of the water temple.
As soon as we reached the lake, Rune jumped off of Nightmare and ran to the water's edge.
"Where are they?" she asked frantically. Sierra and I dismounted more slowly.
"Hmm, I think they come out in the spring." I looked over toward the entrance to Lanayru's spring. Rune ran over, and after calling a quick goodbye to the horses, Sierra and I followed her. When we got there, the spring was empty.
"Are we too late?" Sierra asked worriedly.
"I don't think so. They shouldn't have finished that early," I reasoned. Rune walked to the edge of the spring. As she did, a cloud of black squares floated down behind her.
"Rune!" I called excitedly. She turned around, just as Link and Kris materialized in front of her.
"You're okay!" Rune hugged Link. Kris ran over and hugged me and Sierra.
"Well, yeah. The temple wasn't that hard." Link blushed, and hugged her back.
"I didn't think you guys would meet us here! You must've been really bored!" Kris laughed.
"Actually, that's not why we're here," Sierra began.
"I had this feeling that something bad would happen, so we came to warn you!" Rune pulled away, speaking faster than normal. "Remember that guy who spread the twilight? Lily guessed that he might come here."
"How do you know that?" Link looked at me questioningly. I froze, staring at the space behind them. Zant had appeared. Rune caught on and jerked around.
"You!" She angrily drew her katanas. Link noticed and put a hand on her arm to stop her. He pulled her back toward the rest of us. I drew my sword, Kris pulled out her hammer, Sierra drew a short sword, and Link drew his. The five of us stood, ready for a fight. Zant said nothing, but sent out some sort of magic energy. It threw us all backward onto the ground. Lanayru rose up to defend his spring, but Zant simply used the same spell to knock him back. The form of the huge snake faded, and I felt the pain of transformation again. The area darkened into twilight, and I looked down at my dog paws. The others had also transformed, except for Midna and Rune. Midna was in her solid form, and Rune had already recovered and picked up her swords. She charged at the twilight king, but he teleported toward the entrance of the spring, behind us. Rune's momentum wouldn't allow for such a sudden stop, and she fell into the water.
"Pathetic." Zant's voice was deep and emotionless. "Even the hero and four wielders of the elements have no hope of standing against me. Although," He walked toward me as I tried to stand, disoriented from the previous attack, "I sense one is missing from your group." I growled at him, and he laughed coldly. I suddenly felt dizzy again, and fell to the ground. Midna glared at Zant, the only one of us still standing. Zant merely looked at her, and Midna flew toward the edge of the spring, unable to move on her own. She struggled against the magic, and the three fused shadows appeared near her. They floated toward Zant and disappeared.
Hey, we worked hard for those! Kris yelled furiously, but Zant could not hear her.
"You really thought you could use this old, broken magic against me?" Zant threw Midna against the wall, then back toward him. He whispered to her, but I could not make out what he was saying. I remembered that he had tried to convince her to join him in the game. I tried to stand but I felt sick. I saw the bottom of Zant's helmet fold upward, revealing his mouth. His skin was very pale, and his mouth seemed to have slits on the edges. I shuddered. Midna scowled, and jerked free of the spell. Rune finally managed to get her arms over the edge of the spring. She watched in shock as a red ball of magic grew in front of Zant.
"My power is that of the twilight king, and you WILL respect it!" Link noticed the magic, and jumped at Zant, only to be thrown back again when he hit the ball. I felt strong enough to stand, and ran over to Link. A shard of rock was embedded in his forehead, and as I watched, it sunk into his head with an orange glow. Rune pulled herself up over the edge of the spring and ran to Link's side. Zant laughed coldly, and another ball of red formed. A movement seemed to catch his eye. Sierra and Kris were standing up slowly, evidently still a bit dizzy. He aimed the ball of magic at them.
Watch out! I yelled, but the effects of the spell were still slowing them down too much for them to react. I quickly made a decision, and jumped in front of them. The shard flew straight at me and I fell to the ground. It slowly sunk into my chest and I whimpered in pain. It felt like a dagger was slowly being pressed into my heart. Sierra stood over me.
Lily, are you okay? I groaned. Midna glared at Zant, furious. He threw her toward the spring.
"Fine, then! I shall return you to the light you covet!" The land returned to light, and Lanayru appeared. I vaguely noticed Kris and Sierra near me turn back into a human and a zora. Lanayru glared at Midna, and shot a beam of light at her.
"No!" Rune ran toward the light spirit. Midna screamed, and her body faded. "Midna!" Rune glared at Zant, raising her sword. She briefly looked around and saw that we were in no condition to fight. "I'll be seeing you again soon. I wouldn't count on surviving the encounter, if I were you," Rune threatened. I felt warm light surround me, and saw the same light engulf the others. We all were transported away, leaving Zant standing in the spring alone.