Dead quiet. Medli was trapped in the dead quiet. She was sitting in a cage fixed to a wall. Ahead of her, she could just make out the staring eyes of a giant sun statue on the wall.
"Well, at least I'm not lost in space somewhere. I thought I was going to suffocate!" she said, giving a nervous laugh. "Now, how can I pass the time up here?"
With an idea, she bought her harp out and began playing.
Twing, twang, twang… twong twong… TWOINK!
She found that she was so frightened, she kept making silly mistakes.
Plink, plonk, plink, PYOING!
"Aargh! Again!" Medli strapped her harp to her back in frustration.
Rumble!
No, shaking reader, that was not another coffin opening. It was a push-up door sliding open. Medli froze. What if this was the dark doppelgänger that she had been warned about?
Clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff.
That was unmistakably the sound of Link's boots on the stone floor. The question was: Which Link was it?
Medli focused on the little moving shape on the ground below her. Her eyes had well adjusted to the darkness by now so she could make out even small details.
The figure was wearing Link's clothes but he was glowing purple. Something was hovering over his head. He was staggering back and forth as if he was dizzy. His hair was a complete mess.
Medli didn't dare move and hardly to breathe. No doubt about it, this was one of the dark duo!
The shadow shouted across the room, his words incoherent.
"OUHABSDH!"
This did not seem at all like a dark copy of Link. He sounded absolutely terrified and helpless. She could hear it in his voice. Finally, she worked out the courage to call out.
"Link?"
The figure looked in the opposite direction of where Medli's voice came from before struggling to look in her direction. He then looked at the ground, then upwards above her.
"What's wrong?" she asked, shrugging. She followed his gaze. Up above her was… a wide open space that she could easily have flown out of. The cage lacked a ceiling.
"Oh, seriously? How did I not notice that?" She extended her wings and flew out of the cage, landing in front of him. "Thank you, Link!"
Medli studied his face. His hair was all sticking up like he had been attacked. His face was as white as a sheet and was covered in scratches and his whole body was glowing purple.
"Link? Are you all right?" She gently touched his arm. The boy gasped and fell backwards onto the floor as if he was afraid of her, "Hey, Link, what's wrong? What happened?" Medli crouched down to his level. Her friend was still breathing heavily and his eyes were spinning in a daze.
As if to answer her, something red and wispy floated out of Link towards the ceiling.
"OK, that's enough mind-twisting for today! I'll be back tomorrow!" cackled the wisp as it disappeared out of sight.
Link looked down at his hand and moved it about. He seemed very surprised when he realised it did what he wanted.
"Ghosts..." he breathed. "Zombies..."
Medli helped Link to stand up. She knew exactly what these things were.
"Poes and Redeads." mumbled Medli. "What did they do to you?"
"Zombies… bite and scratch. Sharp teeth and claws… heavy." wheezed Link. Medli sat him down.
"Look, just sit here and calm down. Take some deep breaths. They'll help."
Link took big breaths and big exhales. Finally, he settled.
"Now, tell me. What happened?" asked Medli gently as she stood up. Link stood up with her.
"Well… those… zombie things… They were… biting and scratching… jumping on me… they were heavy." explained Link, his voice breaking.
"Oh, no." whimpered Medli. "What about the Poes? The ghosts?"
"I am honestly not sure. I… One of them just… flew at me and disappeared. Then I tried to move my leg forward to run away and it went backwards! The wrong way! I couldn't talk! I had to breathe out to breathe in! Everything was… reversed!"
"Oh… You poor thing." Medli gave him a very gentle hug. Link needed that after what he had been through. When she stopped, they were ready to forget about the traumatic events and move on, but…
Clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff, clff.
Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack.
The children froze again, this time without a Redead's help. No mistaking it, those were the sounds of soft and hard boots on the floor in the other room.
The dark duo were coming to check the room.
"Run." said Link bluntly. He took Medli's hand and ran across to the door on the left of the room. He threw it upwards and pulled her inside. The door slammed shut and a set of bars lowered over the exit. They couldn't get out but the dark lookalikes couldn't get in.
The room was rather large. It had three alcoves suspended in the air and a strange, differently coloured wall sat below a sun switch.
"Is this the… panic room or something?" asked Link. Medli looked around the place. She looked promising but then her face fell.
"No," she whispered, "it's the burial room! And we're trapped in here!"
Link looked around and his heart stopped. Three coffins lay at the far end of the room in the alcoves.
"Please, not more Redeads! No more Redeads! I can't take any more Redeads!"
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Link began breathing heavily as the lid on the first coffin slowly slid sideways.
Instead of a zombie, a skeleton wielding a mace rose out of the coffin like Nosferatu.
"I'll make you beg for death!" it boasted in a deep voice. Link was so relieved. ANYTHING was better than a Redead.
"Medli, stay back! I can handle this clown!" declared Link. Medli backed against the wall as Link charged the skeleton head on.
"Take this!" roared the skeleton as it swung its mace. Not going to be caught out, Link just about blocked the full force of the swing.
"How about you take this!" shouted Link as he swung at the monster. Immediately, it was split in half. Its top half landed on its hands while the bottom half landed on its feet.
"Um… See you in a few hours!" stuttered the top half as it began scuttling away on its hands. Its lower half chased after Link to attack.
"Hey! Come back here!" Link chased the top half around the room. Finally, he cornered it and slashed off its head. That too, began bouncing across the room as a last ditch effort to escape.
"Oh, what? It's persistent, I'll give it that!" moaned Link. He took out his Skull Hammer, approached the head and pounded it as hard as he could. When he lifted the hammer up, all that was left was a small crater.
"Link, that was incredible!" said Medli breathlessly. Before Link could respond, more gruff voices came from the other two coffins.
"What on earth are you doing out there?"
"Yeah! We're trying to get some shut-eye in here!"
The lids from the other two coffins dragged open and two more skeletons came rising out, one wielding a sword and a shield, the other wielding his bony fists.
"What have you done to our brother?" growled the sword skeleton.
"This isn't a place for you, kid, and we're about to show you that the easy way! You DON'T want to know the hard way!"
Link approached the monster with the weapons first, keeping an eye on the other one to make sure it didn't go after Medli.
"Oh… whoops! I left my weapons in my coffin! Bear with me!" said the weaponless skeleton. In an instant, he ripped off his left arm and began spinning it around like a set of nunchucks.
"Hiyah!" The sword skeleton swung his weapon at Link, who rolled out of the way. The weapon flew out of the monster's grasp. It spun over to the other skeleton, digging straight into its head and causing it to crumble into dust.
"Oops! Butterfingers!" grumbled the now swordless skeleton as he removed his shield to fight with his fists.
Link aimed an attack up high, sending the skeleton's head tumbling to the floor. One jumping attack with the hammer: gone.
The rest of the skeleton crumbled into little pieces.
"Good work, Link!" chimed Medli as she walked over to check on him, then she noticed the skeleton's discarded shield. "Oh, look at this!" She picked the shield up and showed it to Link.
The boy studied the shield. Its edge was made of some kind of hard plastic that was a similar shade of blue to the Master Sword. The front was a very reflective panel with lines that drew a picture of two winged figures. A golden triangle sat between them.
Link looked at his face in the shield. Everything was looking good. He wasn't bleeding anywhere new and his hair was back in its regular quiff. "Thank you, Medli." he said as he unstrapped his old shield from his back and put it in his bag. It had served him well, and he didn't want it damaged any further. He strapped the new shield to his back. "This feels so much better!"
Another rumbling sound came from overhead. This time, it was from a hole opening up in the ceiling. Light began to shine down into the room from an artificial source. Link craned his neck to look at the reflective surface. He then focused on the sun above the oddly coloured square of wall.
"Medli, I have an idea." announced Link. He stepped into the ray of light and took his new shield off. As he aimed it around, he noticed that a beam of light was launching off of his shield and painting the wall ahead of him with the design of his shield.
It was working.
"Okay, now for phase two." mused Link. He aimed his shield at the sun on the wall. Suddenly, it lit up and seemed to burn with fire. The once-closed face on the sun was now wide-eyed and beaming. Then, the oddly-coloured wall showed its purpose. It lowered into the ground quickly, revealing another one behind it. This one fell as well but stopped slightly higher up than the previous. Another wall was behind that, which fell slightly higher up than the last and so on, and so on, and so on. Eventually, these walls formed stairs.
"That's our key out of here!" said Medli, excitement taking over her. "Let's go!"
The children walked up the stairs and down a corridor before they ended up in the room they were last in.
"You're a great fighter!" trilled Medli as they peered over the edge. The corridor abruptly ended off the ground above the door they came in through, which was still barred off.
Suddenly, Link's eyes widened and he pulled Medli back out of sight.
Out of sight of what, you asked?
"What's wrong? What did you see?" asked Medli.
"It's them… our dark imposters."
Link and Medli got down and crawled to the edge, only peeking over until they could see the two. They were standing back to back, blankly staring off into nothing.
"There's you," whispered Medli, a little wobble in her voice, "and there's me."
Dark Link was wearing Link's clothes, only they were black. His hair was grey. Dark Medli was almost completely black. She had white hair as the messenger had said but the rest of her was black.
The two quickly turned their heads, their blood red eyes flashing as they did so.
Dark Link drew his sword.
Dark Medli unstrapped her harp from her back.
"We've been spotted!" gasped Link. He jumped down and flipped his sword into a fighting position. "Come at me, you imposters!"
…
…
…
There was a short pause before the two abruptly lunged at him.
Dark Medli flew off into the air while Dark Link stayed to fight.
"Hah! Is your friend too cowardly?!" taunted Link.
CLANG! CLANG! CLINK! CLANG!
The two clashed their swords elegantly. Link made sure to keep an eye on Dark Medli in case she pounced. Knocking Dark Link off balance with a decisive blow, Link tried to stab him but Dark Link leaped into the air, landing on his sword. Link stared in shock at the doppelgänger before he violently kicked the former in the face. Link stumbled backwards as his nose started to bleed.
"Argh!" cried Medli as she was punted from behind onto the floor. Dark Medli had performed a sneak attack.
Link helped her up and immediately blocked a blow from Dark Link. "Stand strong, Medli!"
Medli nodded. "Right!" She faced her doppelgänger and watched for an attack as Link faced his and did the same.
Dark Medli flew up into the air. Medli shot up after her.
"Right you..." murmured a battle-ready Link. "Let's roll."
CLINK! CLANK! CLANK! SHING!
The two clashed once again. This time, Link waited for his dark self to thrust at him. As he did, Link leaped into the air and landed on the imposter's sword. His weight caused Dark Link's sword to be pinned to the floor. The dark monster seemed to try and let his sword go but he couldn't. It was as if he was bound to it. Taking advantage of the situation, Link lifted his sword and destroyed his dark imposter.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrr-"
His scream cut of into nothing as he disappeared in a massive puff of dark magic. The magic shot up into the air and vanished into Dark Medli. She screamed furiously, now flashing red.
"Oh no! What have I done? I've just made her stronger!" panted Link.
Squawking like a bird of prey, Dark Medli shot at her pure self like a bullet, crashing into her at full force. Medli shouted as she flew across the room and into the wall.
"Medli! No!" shouted Link as he ran to her aid.
Dark Medli squawked again, flying at Link this time. Using his fast reactions, Link blocked the attack and perfectly parried her by thrusting his shield. Dark Medli tumbled through the air but soon got back on her wings. She pulled out her harp and began playing a very twisted song. It sounded like that feeling of knowing you can't win something.
Link was about to pull out his bow and arrows to snipe her out of the air but a massive, red thunderbolt flew through the air and crashed into him. Paralysed, he collapsed to his knees and planted his sword into the ground.
"Link!" cried Medli, standing up and taking off at Dark Medli. Before she could cast any more dark spells, Medli tackled her in the air. They struggled furiously, ripping and tearing wildly at each other. Feathers of white and black flew everywhere. Finally, Medli grabbed hold of her enemy's wing, whirled her around vertically and threw her down into the blue fog below. Her scream cut off as she hit the ground and vapourised.
Medli let out a sigh of relief but then heard electrical noises from back on the ground.
BZZZZZZZZZZT. BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!
"Link! Are you all right?" panted Medli as she landed and ran over to her friend, who was crackling and twitching.
The defeat of the gruesome twosome must have broken the paralysis because Link rose back up. "Yeah. I'm fine. Thanks to YOU! What on earth did you just do?"
Medli rubbed her arm sheepishly. "Well, I don't know myself, to be honest."
CLICK! Rumble rumble rumble!
Part of the ceiling moved, revealing two beams of light shining down on the floor.
"Medli, does your instrument reflect light?" asked Link. Medli took her harp off and looked at the reflection.
"I suppose so. Let me check." The girl walked to a beam of light and held her harp out. Light shone across the room, splashing a drawing of an old man with a big nose onto the wall. "Oh, I say! It does!"
"Great! I have a plan!" said Link as he looked over at the giant sun statue on the other side of the fog. He shone light from his Mirror Shield onto one of its eyes.
Half of the sun lit up and the right half of its mouth curled into a smile.
"Now you do the same with the other eye!" instructed Link.
"Oh, I get it!" Medli aimed a beam of light at the other eye of the sun. The other half of the sun lit up. The other half of its mouth smiled. With an almighty puff, the sun blew all of the blue fog out of the room, revealing a staircase that lead down underground.
"Link, Jalhalla is just down these stairs and across a rope bridge. Are you ready?"
CRASH!
Before Link could respond, the door crashed down and a horde of Redeads and Poes charged into the room.
Link didn't need a second to answer Medli.
"Yes! Yes! Let's get out of here!"
As the Redeads all screamed and the Poes all laughed, Medli took off towards the staircase, taking Link by the hand. He half ran, half fell down the stairs as the monsters gave chase.
"Oh, no! The bridge is out!"
Link looked ahead. The bridge had been cut down, and not by accident.
"What are we going to do?" he said breathlessly. Medli glanced at him over her shoulder.
"Just hold on! I've got it covered!" she replied. She began beating her wings as she continued sprinting towards the gap. With an almighty leap, she flapped across the chasm. Link dangled by her hand, holding on for dear life.
Medli just about made it to the other side without falling into the fog below. The Poes floated after them, but the Redeads either stepped too far and plummeted off the edge or just stopped and screamed. The children dashed to the giant rolling door on the other side and shoved it to the left as hard as they could. With a strain of effort, the door rolled to the left.
"In! In!" shouted Link as they sprinted into the room. The rolling door rolled back, covering the exit. They stood there for a moment to see if the Poes would come through after them, but they didn't. All they did was taunt them and leave.
"You should have just stayed out here. You may have survived."
"It's safer out here than it is in there..."
Link breathed a sigh of relief. "Good! No more of those blasted ghosts in here!" he laughed triumphantly.
"Um… Link?" Medli tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the centre of the room.
Fifteen Poes were dancing around a rather fat, ceramic mask in the middle.
"Oh, seriously?" groaned Link.
"That's Jalhalla! Or it WILL be Jalhalla! We need to stop them before they-" said Medli, but it was too late. The Poes froze when they saw the companions and then all darted to the mask. All of them dived into an opening at the top. After a nerve-wracking pause, a giant, see-through body formed under the mask.
It was large and grey with clown paint slashed all over it.
The Protector of the Seal.
JALHALLA.
The ghost materialised a giant lantern out of thin air and shook it like an evil grave digger, laughing madly.
"HUR HUR HUR HUR HUR!"
CLANGACLANGACLANGACLANGA!
He turned his small eyes onto the children, who proceeded to dart in opposite directions. First, he focused on attacking Link.
"Here, boy! Some red hot embers!" he cackled, shaking his lantern. Several hot embers leaped from the fire inside.
"Ow! Ow! That's hot!" shrieked Link as he hopped up and down, slapping himself all over to put the flames out.
"Some more? All right! Ha ha haaa!" laughed Jalhalla as he began to take a breath in. In a second, he had filled his lungs with air and blown into his lantern as hard as he could. A jet of flames roared through the air and set the area surrounding Link on fire.
"AAAAAAAARGH! I'm on fire! Medli? MEDLI!" he shouted over the rising flames.
"Link, where are you? I'm coming!" called Medli.
"In the fire! Ow! Please! I'm medium rare!"
After an agonising wait of three seconds, Link felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist. Next thing he knew, he was being lifted from the ground. Medli strained and groaned because of her lack of physical strength and Link's weight, but she just managed to hold him above the licking flames.
"Oh? What have we here? A flying lesson? Wouldn't it be a shame if I… SHOT YOU DOWN?"
Medli rose higher and higher, still holding Link like a seatbelt. Link could hear her heavy breathing in his ear. It was clear that she couldn't hold him much longer. "We need to find some light! Light solidifies ghosts!" she panted.
"Medli, just hold on a second!" panted Link as he reached into his bag. He pulled out a bomb, which lit automatically immediately. "Just over there!" Link pointed to the area above the massive ghost as it took another big gulp of air.
Medli panicked at the sight of the bomb but flew as hard as she could to the spot of the ceiling that Link had pointed out. Link could see small particles of light trying to break into the room. If he were to help, then maybe he could get the upper hand. The boy paused for a second, waiting for the bomb's fuse to burn down before he threw it at the ceiling.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The bomb exploded, sending the two flipping through the air from the shockwave.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" screamed Jalhalla as he thrashed wildly in the light. Before he knew it, he was no longer intangible.
"How dare you?"
In one second, Jalhalla had lost every single shred of comedy in his personality. He shook his lantern furiously to try and burn the children out of the air. Medli zipped in and out of the fiery charcoal.
Like some weird mutation of Cupid, Link drew his bow and fired. An arrow flew through the air and pierced into Jalhalla's stomach. With the sound of a balloon bursting, Jalhalla exploded into fifteen Poes, who scuttled around to escape.
"You can put me down now!" said Link. Medli did so and let her arms hang loose from exhaustion. "I can handle this!"
Link dashed into the circle of light. Holding his shield up, he spun around. In one fell swoop, all of the Poes exploded into ashes due to the light.
The mask opened its eyes again.
"Are you ready for round two? If I can just… Oh..." The mask quickly realised that it had no paraphernalia to regrow to normal. "Crud!"
The mask began scuttling around the room before it floated up to escape. Link could see that it was quickly fading into nothing.
"Oh, no you don't!" he grunted, lighting another bomb and kicking it at the ceiling like a football. With a loud boom, it blew another hole in the ceiling, making another hole of light directly above the mask.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The mask screamed and solidified before it fell to the floor, shattering into shards of ceramic. The two children panted from exhaustion. Link almost sank to the floor before he realised that he still had to leave the temple first.
And Medli.
Ouch.
"It is time, Link." said Medli, solemnly. "Place the Master Sword in the middle of those golden triangles and conduct the Earth God's Lyric."
Link walked into the Triforce emblem on the floor and placed his sword upside down into the little slit in the middle. He then stepped to face his friend and began conducting her.
As she played, the spirit of Laruto slowly came into vision and played alongside her. Link suppressed his surprise in favour of conducting.
Finally, the trio finished and Laruto vanished in gold light, passing on to the next world.
"You may… take the Master Sword now, Link." murmured Medli.
Link did not need to be told again. He entered the triangle once more and pulled out the sword.
Nothing seemed too different.
Link moved it around to see if it had worked when suddenly,
WHOOOOSH!
With a gust of wind, the bird on the hilt of the sword spread its wings, the jewel just before the blade lit into a very faint yellow and the blade got a little more shiny.
No doubt about it, the praying had worked.
"Thank you, Medli." said Link, sheathing his new sword.
"I've only done my job." she said, her smile dropping a little. "Now you have to find the next sage, the sage of Wind, and bring them to their temple."
The Triforce on the floor began to light up. It now appeared to be a portal. Stepping in it would surely whisk Link outside.
"So… This… is where we say... goodbye, I suppose." said Link, his voice cracking. He began to dig in his Spoils Bag. "Here. Something to remember us all by. I hope you... I hope... I hope you like it." Link took out one of the golden feathers that he had pinched from the bird, but he was unable to keep himself together any longer. He was like an old toy that had its seams falling apart with every second. In moments, he found himself hiding his face and quietly crying uncontrollably. "Oh dear... I'm sorry about this, Medli. It's just that..."
"Don't worry." said Medli, her voice shaking a little. "I understand. Thank you." Link felt Medli picking the feather from his loosening fingers before tying it into her hair and wiping a tear from his cheek. Link couldn't help but notice that her own eyes were watering and her lip was trembling. "It was an honour to have you on Dragon Roost and it was an honour for you to help me through this temple. You are the best kind of friend and I thank you for your services."
Link gave her a teary smile and opened his arms into a shrugging motion, which Medli took as an opportunity to give him one more hug. A huge, tight hug like she was best at doing. Finding it in him to smile a tiny bit, Link returned her gesture, slowly hugging her back until they both calmed themselves down.
"Medli... I… I'm glad I met you." Link breathed, stepping back and wiping his eyes.
"I'm glad as well. I'm glad we met you. I will forever think of you as the Hero that saved Dragon Roost Island."
"And... I hope I'm right in this, but I feel that this isn't our last goodbye. We'll meet again some day."
"Yes… I'm getting that feeling too." Medli replied, wiping more tears from her face. She then stood with an upright posture and took some deep breaths to calm herself.
Link slowly walked towards the glowing Triforce, taking one last look at his friend over his shoulder. There she stood, out of the blue, twinkling light. She was skinny, pale and frail, but she wasn't as frail as she used to be, having proven herself. she held her harp in one arm and stood delicately, looking at him with her crimson eyes. There was something accepting and angelic in her expression as if she was in some kind of trance, but Link, deep down, knew she wasn't. She had accepted her fate to stay in the Earth Temple for the rest of her life, for always and for always.
Seeing this expression didn't help Link keep in his emotions, to say the least. To get everything over with, he waved his friend goodbye and stepped into the Triforce. He slowly began to rise from the ground.
"Link?" squeaked Medli's voice from outside the vortex. Link stopped hanging limply and turned upside down, swimming back the way he came to counter the current.
"Yes?" he panted. He was slowly but surely losing his battle with the inverted gravity. Medli put a hand over her heart one more time.
"Seeing as I'm not coming back home, can you please look after Prince Komali for me?"
Link smiled at her and tried to reply, but...
ZZZZT!
A flash of light made Link close his eyes. When he opened them again, he was back in the cave of Headstone Island.
"Yes, miss. I will do that." whispered Link softly as he slowly walked out of the cave. Even though the King waited outside, he still got an overwhelming feeling of loneliness. "Goodbye, Medli. Thank you for everything."