I don't own Legend of Zelda. If I did the games would tie in together better and there would be a few different ones added in.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Labyrinth--Enter the Dungeon

Link:14 Romani:14

10 weeks to break curse

This chapter begins right after Ch. 30 and occurs at the same time as Ch. 32

When Romani felt something grab her leg by her ankle, she instinctively swung her sword at it. She felt the grip slacken and looked down, but all she saw was a large yellow insect-like leg with a pincer-like claw. The body it should have been attached to was nowhere to be seen. The ranch girl was immediately on her guard since an obviously large bug just vanished into thin air.

Tael was still pointing out potential threats that neither could see. Right now Romani wished she had her own lens of truth. When she took a few steps back away from where she had been grabbed, she felt another thing try to grab her ankles from behind her. She swung her sword and turned around. She couldn't see her target, but she did see the dirt behind her shuffle and settle.

Instantly getting an idea, Romani pulled out a bomb and dropped it where she was standing. She then quickly ran back to the place she entered the flat lands from and saw the explosion. She heard several high-pitched shrieks in the blast and when the smoke cleared, she saw several holes in random areas. From those holes arose yellow tekites.

Tael seemed less than pleased. "Those are Trapdoor Tekites. They hide underground and snatch unsuspecting passerby. They're all over the area... or should I say under the area?"

"They're just bugs. You just step on them or swat them. Nothing to worry about." She told the under-confident fairy. Sometimes she was surprised Tatl and Tael were related. Romani quickly threw another bomb at the irritated tekites, who couldn't survive the second blast. She figured there were plenty more in the area, but didn't want to waste bombs that would be difficult to acquire more of outside the mountains and Clocktown. So she pull her goron mask on and swiftly rolled thru the area. The trapdoor tekites weren't able to grab her as she moved thru.

When she stopped, Tael was glad to say that the surrounding area had no sensable threats in it. They were still in the flat lands between the mountains and the canyon, and it looked like they had headed further east . It wasn't where they wanted to go, but they would just have to deal with it. They decided that they had to immediately search for familiar ground or at least some sort of oasis.

The trip to find such a place took several days, and by then Romani had run out of water. Even though there was barely any direct sunlight in the sky now, Ikana and it's border was an arid area. Luckily they found a pocket forest with a small spring, and Romani half-believed it was a gift from the goddesses. She and her fairy partner immediately took a long drink then refilled their canteens, then took a bath. It had been quite a while since she last cleaned herself and didn't like how her skin felt. Afterwards she ate some of the berries growing in the bushes and hunted for two guays which she cooked.

The next day Romani decided to follow the small trickle of water that flowed from the spring to some unknown location. The weirdest thing was that the area around the trickle looked like it was a canal that had been dug there but most of the water had dried up eons ago. Probably because the spring was pretty low when she got there, like it was nearly dried up itself. But if it was a canal, then there had to be a settlement of some sort nearby.

The dry canal led to what could only be described as a ghost town. Most buildings were made out of stone and they looked half-buried in the sand. Few of them were in good shape, but most were enterable. Romani had a feeling this might have been an earlier Terminan settlement, where people lived before Clocktown was founded. Curiosity got the better of the young ranch girl and she walked thru the ruins. It was a shame that she couldn't read the ancient runes on a stone pillar that read "The dead now claim this land and will challenge the living if they catch them here."

Thanks to the passing of time and her own naivety, it was impossible for Romani to determine what places were what by sight alone, but she sensed a similar structure to Clocktown. In fact, in the center was a large sundial with the foundation for a tower just south of it. There appeared to be no outer wall surrounding the town, but maybe it had been eroded away. In the north end she discovered a flat area surrounded by old houses and filled with several dead trees and one faded statue resembling a great fairy. An area there looked dug out with ropes outlining it with modern tools still in somewhat good condition. Maybe some archeaologists had been there not too long ago or still were there.

Romani stopped looking around when she could have sworn she heard a whistle behind her. Turning around, she saw a poe. Thinking little of the intruder, she pulled out an arrow and got ready to fre. but before she did, and whirlwind of sand instantly formed around her and blinded her. It also felt like the sand was rather sharp, but that was probably more from the wind than anything else. Before she could do anything, she felt the ground beneath her simply disappear and she started falling.

When she landed, Romani saw she was in some kind of dungeon-like room without any windows. A few torch's on the walls lit without cause and lit the area better. Tael, who had kept close to the ranch girl, took cover under her shield. Two pillars of flames appeared and disappeared all in an instant. Where they were now stood two men, one in a black tunic, the other in a white tunic. The one with the black tunic wore a mask that only covered the left side of his face, the top half was red and the bottom half was green. The one in the white tunic wore a similar blue-and-purple mask that only covered the right side of his face. Romani saw each had one skeleton foot and one flesh foot, the bony one matching their masked side of their face, and when they uncrossed their arms, the same thing was true of their arms. They both looked like mirror versions of half-dead half-alive people.

"Welcome newcomer to our test." The black tunic wearer said in a gentle soothing voice.

"Already we have a new one. This must be our lucky week, don't you agree?" The white tunic wearer said in a gruffer abrasive voice.

"Let me guess: I don't have a choice about this, and you don't expect me to get out of here alive am I right?" Romani started off.

Both greeters nodded. "Correct. However, if you by chance do make it out, the surface world is your reward. Along with one of our great treasures." The black tunic wearer replied. "Allow us to introduce us. I am Jackal, and my partner here is Vulture. We are scavenger ghouls and this is our lair. You've been brought here by our undead allies to be challenged as is custom for the trespassers of the deadlands."

"What do I have to do?" Romani asked fiercely, expecting battle.

A door opened behind Jackal and Vulture. "Why, simply find the way out. Of course, you won't be the only thing in there. There are plenty of beasts in there, both undead and not. And even we might pop up and make things tougher. Your only help being what's on your person. Now have fun girlie." Vulture answered her.

"Say, since we told you our names, the polite thing to do would be to tell us yours." Jackal commented, refolding his arms.

Romani pulled out her bronze sword and brandished it in front of her. "Sorry, but I make it a point that my enemies don't know too much about me." Vulture snapped his fingers and the door closed. Romani irritably sighed. "Fine. My name is Romani Romani, and I was trained by the best. I won't fail your test." She noticed that for a brief moment the ghouls looked surprised by her name. "I know it sounds weird but I'm proud of it. My parents wouldn't give me a stupid name."

Jackal smirked. "You, little girl, just might make things interesting. Best of luck." He finished in a mocking tone. Both ghouls disappeared in flames like when the arrived, and the door reopened. With little other option, Romani entered, followed by a cautious Tael.

The first thing they saw was a long corridor made of stone. Once she was inside the door she used to enter closed. This didn't bother her since she figured the way out definitely wasn't that direction anyway. So she just kept going forward. After about eight steps, the corridor branched into three more hallways, going left, right, and straight.

"Looks like we're in some kind of maze." Tael thought outloud.

"No surprise they wouldn't make this easy." Romani added. Not sure where to go, she put her sword on it's tip and let go. It fell pointing forward, so she decided that was the best direction to go. She started feeling someone or something was watching her, and was on her guard with her sword still unsheathed.

Next chapter will be posted when this fic has 46 reviews total. And as for Romani's name, I always figured that ranches were named after the family's that owned them, so her full name would be Romani Romani. This means that Cremia is Cremia Romani and Malon is Malon Lonlon. Link has no last name due to his Kokiri past and while Hylians and Terminans have last names in my story, Kokiri don't.