Link leapt across the stagnate river and felt the decrepit bridge groan beneath his weight. For a moment he thought it might give way beneath him, but it held firm. Nevertheless, he moved on, leaving the rotted wood for dead city ahead.
As he walked, Link took notice of the cobblestones below his feet. Most of them were chipped and cracked, many more were missing entirely.
A sickly stench permeated the air and drew Link's attention away from the floor. Ahead of him was a crowd of redeads, dead bodies that refused to die. Some milled about restlessly while others stood perfectly still, almost as if they were merely a group of demented statues left by some terrible artist.
A tinge of pain stabbed at Link as he realized that he was that artist. Long before, many years ago, he had allowed tragedy to fall upon the town. Link had played a part in the downfall of this once great place.
But no, it wasn't him. The guilt he bore wasn't his to bear and he had held onto it for far too long.
Glaring out above the grey rooftops of the broken city, Link shuddered at the sight of the mighty tower. It was a monument, a tribute to the twisted man within. The twisted man who had done the dark deed, leeched the life away from this once vibrant place.
He could remember how it had been. Children playing in the square, laughter ringing in the air.
Life, it had been everywhere. Now this was a dead place.
And somewhere in that tower was Ganondorf. The man, no, the monster that celebrated all this death and decay.
Link could feel his hands shaking at the thought of such a twisted man, who took joy out of misery, pleasure out of pain.
Link took hold of his sword and held it tightly in both hands. He didn't even bother trying to avoid the rotted creatures in the square. Link walked out among them, brandishing his sword.
Looking at their frail forms, his face was blank emotionless, both his pain at their fate and his hatred for their creator seethed within him.
A shriek filled his ears as they took notice of him. A needle of fear crept into his heart but Link shattered it.
He knew what he had to do, and he wasn't going to be stopped by these fickle demonic creatures.
Looking upon these damned creations, Link knew that nothing could stop him, neither pain nor fear.
Nothing would stop him from striking back at Ganondorf and making him pay.
His footsteps echoed off the stone steps.
The stairway wound in a tight spiral, heading endlessly upward.
Then suddenly it let out into a larger room. It was decorated ornately and a massive door was set in the far wall.
This was it, Link deep in his soul that Ganondorf waited behind this door.
Taking hold of the cold iron handle, Link put his weight against the door and wrenched it open. Link saw a massive man bent over a black piano. Heavy, melancholy notes poured from the instrument, filling the air with their sinister echoes.
As he stepped into the room, the door slammed shut behind him with a thud.
"So glad to have you joining us." A baritone voice growled over the piano.
"Us?" Link murmured.
The air in front of Link began to shimmer, and to his surprise a girl appeared and dropped to the ground.
She was unconscious, lying on the stone directly between Link and Ganondorf. Her blonde hair was splayed out on the floor around her head.
For a moment Link was puzzled, then he recognized her.
"Zelda!" Link exclaimed, astonished.
For a moment Link let his attention drift away from Ganondorf, but it returned immediately as the man began to speak.
"It's so nice to have all three of them together again," He said, a twisted smile spreading over his face. "It's almost like being whole again."
Before Link could start to wonder, a burning sensation shot from his hand and drew Link's attention. The skin on the back of his hand was squirming, then something began to materialize before his eyes.
A golden triangle.
One third of the triforce.
Before the pain had faded, something else covered Link's body. It was slick and icy, burrowing into him and trying to take control of his body.
Within moments Link was having difficulty breathing, struggling just to keep himself alive.
"And this is where it ends." Ganondorf said jovially, "All this time and you're just going to drop dead right there."
Link didn't want to believe him, but the burning in his lungs and the faintness in his head drove the idea home. He would die right here, no fight, no chance, just death.
His hands were shaking, everything was shaking. His body disappeared beneath him and Link fell to the floor, racked by convulsions.
His thoughts were fragmented, a single word, a feeling, a moment of memory.
Nothing more could pass through his mind, dying as it was.
The word was a name, a precious one: Malon.
The feeling had no name, only warmth.
He remembered the last time he'd been with her.
He remembered the promise.
He WOULD return to her.
Link took control of his body, forcing the icy death to retreat. The convulsions ceased and Link took a deep breath. His lungs burned from the suffocation, and the air soothed their hungry need.
Link coughed once then propped himself up on his hands and knees, then climbing shakily to his feet.
The whole time his eyes were locked on the beast of a man who stood before him, challenging his right to live, to return to Malon and be truly happy for the first time in years.
For the first time ever.
His eyes filled with anger and concrete hatred, Link snaked one arm over his shoulder and wrapped his fingers around the hilt he found there.
The sword slid from its resting place with a raspy hiss.
"So, you're too strong even for mental manipulation, I must have underestimated you." Ganondorf said, remaining unshaken despite having been overpowered. "I promise not to do it again."
The ground beneath Link's feet began to quiver, then a moment later it started to slip away like sand in an hourglass.
Link leapt away from the growing hole, but the new surface began to fall as he landed. It was too late jump again and Link found himself hanging onto the edge of a second pit.
With some effort he was able to pull himself up and away from the empty pit. Surprisingly, this new surface held his weight, if only for the moment.
Looking up at Ganondorf, Link saw a burning sphere of crackling energy hurdling toward him. Link was able to roll onto his stomach, and thus the missile impacted his shield.
Even so, Link found himself skidding across the ground until a painful collision with the wall stopped him.
Climbing to his feet, Link saw a second bolt flying toward him from the corner of his eye. Despite the protest from his aching body, Link whipped his sword up to meet the attack.
After a moment of sizzling impact and anxiety, the golden sphere reversed its trajectory and flew toward Ganondorf.
The red haired man gritted his teeth in frustration and prepared to catch the energy, absorb it, and attack the youth in some other fashion.
However, as the energy disappeared into his own body, Ganondorf saw a trio of arrows that had been following it. They were already too near to avoid and they buried themselves deep in his body.
He growled in pain and collapsed to one knee for a moment while he dealt with the pain. It was only a moment that he was weakened, but it was enough for Link.
In that time, Link had crossed the distance between them and replaced the fairy bow with a gleaming white sword.
Before Ganondorf was able to stand back up, Link brought the sword down and drove it through the center of his back.
Ganondorf collapsed to his hands and knees, his mouth emitting a wordless moan.
Wrenching the sword from the man's body, Link drove it in again. This time, Ganondorf fell all the way to the ground. Link watched him, waiting for the man to continue struggling, but he didn't.
Ganondorf was dead.
Link stepped back from the man's broken body and breathed heavily. It was over, done. The evil man was dead.
Suddenly the floor began to shake beneath him. Link jumped to another spot but found that the floor wasn't falling away. Dust began to fall around him, and a few small pieces of stone bounced off the floor.
The building was collapsing.
"Huh?" A voice murmured softly, "What's going on?"
He turned around to see a drowsy Zelda climbing slowly to her feet.
Link darted toward her and grabbed her wrist, pulling her toward a staircase he hadn't seen before.
"Link!" She exclaimed, "Where's Ganondorf?"
"He's dead," Link said, "Just run!"
Malon gazed out toward the ruinous town, toward the tower specifically.
Link was somewhere in there. Maybe he was dead, killed by that man Ganondorf or one of the other monsters of that place. Or maybe he was already heading home. Maybe he would walk over the crest of that hill any second now.
But Malon couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible had happened and she would never see Link again. She tried to ignore it, to focus on something else but no matter what she did, Malon's thoughts always turned back to that terrible idea.
If only Link would come back now, and all the tortuous waiting would be over.
Or maybe the waiting would go on forever, because he was dead.
No, she shouldn't think like that, he'd promised her that we would return.
But what did that mean? He wouldn't die on purpose.
He'd done so many dangerous things before, he would be fine now.
But what if Ganondorf was as strong as Link had thought, and he was overpowered. What if Link was killed and he never came back. What would she do if this morning was the last time she would ever see him.
They escaped the building, running out onto the burnt black surface of the floating island. Behind them there was the thunderous sound of falling stone smashing against the ground. The pair of them ran to the edge of the island, getting as far away from the destruction as they could. They held their hands tightly over their ears, trying to block out the cacophony.
Then suddenly everything became quiet.
Link looked up first, looked at the ruined skeleton of the tower. It was no more than piles of gravel and a few larger pieces. It was as if much of the structure's mass had simply disappeared.
Looking down at the boiling lava several hundred meters below, Link guessed at where it could have disappeared to.
Suddenly the air shook with a beastly growl and some of the rubble shifted slightly.
A feeling of unease took hold of Link's heart and he knew it wouldn't leave him until he investigated.
"Wait here." Link said, "I've got to check this out."
Zelda nodded, saying only, "Be careful."
Link pulled his sword out in readiness. He was advancing on the area, then just as suddenly as the roar, a monstrous creature erupted from the pile of rubble.
Link jumped back from the creature, trying to keep his distance.
From the corner of his eye, Link could see a wall of solid flame jump up from the floor. It surrounded the two of them, sealing them in.
In each of its beastly hands, the creature held an equally massive blade. The beast's yellow eyes were full of hatred.
What was this thing? Where had it come from? It obviously wasn't friendly, but Link knew nothing beyond that.
With no warning, one of the wicked knives shot toward Link's position. It was luck that he was able to escape death from the wicked blade. He jumped away from it, but wasn't able to completely escape harm. The blade dug into the flesh around his right side ribs.
Link stumbled as he landed and nearly fell to the ground.
Staring up at the creature, Link realized he had no idea of how to hurt it. The whole body was covered in armor of some sort, all except the head, but that was far out of his reach.
He had to find some way to get up there.
Taking a deep breath, Link darted forward, dodged the blades and rolled under the towering creature. His wound burned against the rough ground.
Wincing from the pain, Link found himself on the other side with no time to spare. He turned and leapt onto the beast's back, clinging to the blood red mane.
Link struggled to hold on as it flailed wildly, trying to get him loose. Each burst of movement racked Link's right side with pain, but he fought through it and held on tightly.
Pulling his sword arm back, Link swung it against the monster's skull.
However, instead of cutting straight through or at least damaging the brain, his sword just stuck in the outermost layer of its skull.
The monster roared in frenzied pain, reaching both arms around and trying to grab at Link.
Pushing his weight against the sword, Link managed to shove it a little bit deeper. Suddenly the frenzy stopped and the creature fell to the ground. Link was thrown off by the impact, and landed nearly ten feet away.
His breath was knocked out of his lungs and his wound throbbed painfully.
As Link pushed himself shakily to his feet, he saw the wall of flame dissipate quickly and fade away.
"Link!" Zelda screamed, "Hurry! Over here!"
Link looked back at his weapon, still lodged in the creature's skull, then he looked back at Zelda.
Gritting his teeth, Link abandoned his sword and ran over to Zelda.
"What?" He demanded, all too aware that the creature might wake up at any moment.
She shoved something into his hand.
Link looked down at what she had given him, "Arrows?" He muttered.
"Magical arrows." Zelda said quickly, "They'll weaken him, then you can kill him with the Master Sword."
"Him? Who is that? What is that?" Link asked.
"It's Ganondorf," She said, then quickly added when Link looked confused, "In another form. He's let the triforce consume him. He's given up what it means to be human in exchange for monstrous power."
Link nodded then turned away from her, returning to the dark thing that was Ganondorf. It had climbed to its feet, still carrying Link's sword embedded in its skull.
Ganondorf began to charge toward Link, holding its twin blades high.
Link raised his bow, fitted in an arrow, and loosed it.
The golden bolt buried itself in Ganondorf's chest, cutting through the plate armor.
Ganondorf stumbled for a moment, then roared furiously and headed toward Link again.
Link fired another arrow and it went straight through the monster's left hand. It howled in agony and dropped the weapon. It clattered loudly as it fell against the floor.
Now Ganondorf was moving more sluggishly, as if his limbs were too heavy to be moved effectively.
Link took aim and shot two arrows successively. True to their marks, the arrows embedded themselves in Ganondorf's knees.
With one last shriek of pain, the monster dropped to the ground. One hand was trying to lift him up while the other lay useless opposite it.
Link walked up to the beast that had once been a man, and, taking hold of his sword, wrenched it from the monstrous skull. Link raised the blade over his head, ignoring the protests from his wound, and drove it back into Ganondorf's skull.
This time, however, he didn't stop until his blade hit the hard stone below.
The creature stopped moving.
Ganondorf was dead.
Truly dead.
"I could send you back." She said, "To when you were young, innocent. Back to before this all happened."
"No."
"Why not? You could just be a kid again. Everything would be just as it was. You could go back to the forest and live like you used to. Isn't that what you've wanted since the start?"
"No, I, I've got something here, in this time. Something that's more important than a childhood."
"What's that?"
"A future. And now I've got to get back to it. I'm sure she's waiting for me. Goodbye Zelda."
"Goodbye Link."
He turned away from her, leaving the princess standing in the town square alone. He knew she wouldn't be alone for long, because sooner enough people would find out the dark king was dead and the good princess had returned. Then she would have a job to do, just as Link had had one. But now he had finished his, and just as he had told Zelda, he had to go back to Malon.
And this time, maybe, he wouldn't have to leave her again.
Next chapter is an epilogue, due on christmas. I'm so excited that I'm going to post it at 12:01. You can stay up with me and catch it as soon as its up, or you can get it when you wake up in the morning, or you can check it out later in the day, or you can blow me off and never read it.
Your Choice
FUN FACTS
This chapter marks the first time Zelda has had dialogue
Navi hasn't appeared in the story since chapter 15, poor fairy
Malon isn't a natural redhead(gasp) jk, that one was fake but I felt like I needed more than two
Anyway, see you on the 25th
29/30
