Chapter 27: A Promise Kept

Answering the Sworn Oath Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.

Featured Music: "Bittersweet Victory" - Fire Emblem 9: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Fire Temple" - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time OST. Scene 4.

With great difficulty Link, Navi and their comrades manage to successfully infiltrate the deeply infected Kokiri Forest and Lost Woods; in working together with the rebellion's leader Sheik and fellow soldier Raynard, Link hoped to free his homeland of the ruthless tyranny that king Ganondorf has inflicted upon it.

In entering the divine Forest Temple however, Sheik and Raynard are met with a dilemma; a former man of the Hylianis Militaris Ordinis and current right-hand of the great king of evil – a man by the name of 'Scaverin'. In a desperate and fiery fight indeed, Sheik and Raynard manage to swat away the formerly religious devout and soon learn that Ganondorf's death-like hold on the temples is deeper than they feared.

While exploring the profound corridors of the Forest Temple, the group of four heroes soon find themselves at the epicentre of the divine building; in doing so they not only uncover more than their enemy would have liked but are drawn into confrontation with one of his many pawns. A ghost-like clone of the man himself and made entirely in his own image, Phantom Ganon manages to prove more than a match for the poor teamwork and co-ordination that Sheik, Raynard and even Link display. By picking off the two weaker warriors the devious phantasm hopes to lower the allies' fighting strength by one of the oldest tactics in the book; divide and conquer.

In spite of this however, the poor echoed warlock cannot plan for the appearance of the hateful second side of Link; the demonic Kage Narumono. Although the match soon evens out between them for a time, Kage manages to overturn it completely and utterly with a mere raise in his meteoric-like Aegir. Although successful, the demonic champion soon finds himself reverting just as quickly however when the Great Deku Tree's last trump card reveals itself.

Navi, the fairy.

In washing her calming blue light over his hellfire rage she not only saves the lives of Sheik and Raynard but perhaps her own as well.

His consciousness very slowly regaining, the re-awakened and re-invigorated Hero of Time at last finds himself in a reunion with his closest friend...

Scene 1

Gloop...

Again, the sound of water splashing around him reverberated across the walls of the area he seemed to reside in.

Glup...

"Link..."

The sound of a dull hum echoed on in the bright white space that the green-garbed youth inhabited. When, at last, the whiteness began to dissipate alongside his grogginess, the listening Hero of Time realised where he was.

Chamber of the Sages.

At long last the familiar sight of his oldest companion standing before him was like the most beautiful oasis in the harshest of deserts.

Link held back the urge to leap over the small island he stood in the centre and hug the smiling Saria.

"S-Saria..." The youth managed to breathe out his tone bewildered, almost as if unable to believe it. A smile very slowly graced his complexion. "You don't know how long I've-"

"Thank you...," she cut into him, surprising him a second time; with a light blink, Link merely dropped his smile in favour of an unsure frown. "Thanks to you... I was able to awaken."

Link's eyebrows rose in recognition as she spoke.

Awaken, he thought.

That sounds frighteningly similar to what Rauru told me earlier in the Temple of Time.

Perhaps reading his very thoughts, the little emerald-haired Kokiri girl at last gave voice. "I am Saria... Sage of the divine Forest Temple."

"B-But-" Link began, sky-blue eyes widening in his reply. "I-!"

"I always believed you would come for me...," she claimed, interrupting him once more. In spite of her doing so, Link could only stare back wordlessly, his mouth hung open in display of his shock. "Because I know you... I raised you...," Saria reiterated in her melancholic smile, tilting her head ever so slightly as she spoke. "And I..."

Her soft voice, trailing off at the end of her similarly indecisive sentence, left the listening Link wide-eyed and realising the meaning of her words.

She feels the same way I do, he thought.

Or used to.

Again, she appeared to know just how he ruminated for she shook her head very softly in her demure and sad smile.

"No...," she restarted. "You don't have to explain it to me... it's destiny that keeps us apart," she explained in an emphatic slow shake of her green-haired head. "Link... I know how angry you are with Zelda... and Rauru... you have every right to be."

Realising exactly what she was referring to, the listening Hero of Time found his initially sad frown very gradually morphing into a bitter one; his lips being pulled back in emphasis as if in full display of his disgust.

"I need you Link; this country's princess needs you," Saria pleaded tenderly, her hands joined at her chest. Link's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he listened. "Please... help us."

"This country's princess can go to hell for all I care," he spat back venomously and bitterly, lowering his blonde head in a scowl as he did so. "She used me; I'm not gonna let her take advantage of me like that anymore." He elaborated on in a hardened and angry tone of voice. Though she flinched in response, Saria soldiered on regardless.

"Then... if not for her..."

Link's brow furrowed when he began to comprehend the direction where she was taking this in.

And he didn't like it.

"Saria... you can't be serious..."

"Things are bad out there now Link...," she responded, a sad frown adorned on her comely complexion. She wore a similar kind of expression to the last day he saw her; that fateful day on the Lost Woods' bridge. "It's not like when we were kids..."

Link sighed audibly as he briefly shut his eyes in a frustrated frown. "I know Saria... I get that, but..."

"Ganondorf's reign has been absolute these past seven years," the little Kokiri claimed, her tone as low as the morale she spoke of. "Now that you're here... you're the only one that even stands a chance against-"

"No!" Link called out in interruption, his tone irritated and frustrated. "Trust me...," he continued on eyes narrowing as he relaxed his firm stance by lowering his eyes to the ground, as if in disappointment. "I've tried that route..." He finished in a pained mutter, the sting of his horrible defeat on Hyrule Field still fresh in his mind.

"But you're stronger now...," Saria countered, furrowing her own brow as she leaned her body forward on the platform she stood on. "You're not the little boy I raised anymore; you're the Hero of Time," the Kokiri whispered out, this time in a light smile. "That's got to count for something... right?"

Though he disagreed with her, Link opted to keep his response to himself and turned his eyes away from hers in a silent frown.

"Please, Link... as a last request..."

"'Last request...?'" Link repeated curiously, re-turning his head to face hers inquisitively. "You mean...?"

She nodded sombrely. "This... will be the last time I get to see you," the small Kokiri managed out, her voice half-breaking in tone as she spoke. "Now that I'm the Forest Sage... I have to stay here... and perform my duties."

A puncturing mixture of betrayal, hurt and horror washed over his bewildered form as he stared back at her.

In spite of his surprise, he should have seen it coming.

When he had met with Rauru the Light Sage had explained this very phenomenon.

Her lower lip trembled as she faced him, a saddened frown adorned on her face. "Link...," she started, audibly sniffling mid-speech. "I will... always love you..."

Unable to find the words with which to respond to the one person he trusted above all else, Link could only stare back in a permanently horrified frown.

"Make sure you get enough sleep...," she mothered over him in a chuckling smile, as if attempting to switch the gloomy atmosphere. "And don't forget to wash yourself every day... okay?"

"S-Saria... no..." Link mouthed out his voice low, whispering and terrified at the prospect of what was inevitably coming.

"I'll miss you...," the little Kokiri girl managed out, her voice breaking as she raised her hands skyward. His eyes narrowed, Link traced the skyline to find a shining item high above them. "Goodbye... Link..."

"No, Saria wait!"

In spite of his abruptly distressed tone and attempt to leap over to his companion, the same milky whiteness that covered his vision when he finished up with Rauru afflicted him now.

FLASH-SHIIIING

The sight of a green coin-shaped medallion descending down to meet him was the last thing he saw.

"I will always be... your friend..."

As the obstruction that was the inky abyss eventually faded, Link at last found himself in a place he recognised; the shining sound of the light-blue warp had taken him into the heart of Kokiri Forest. Indeed, the youth now found himself directly opposite the greyed out form of the once magnificent Great Deku Tree. Sensing the forms of his comrades Sheik and Raynard to his two sides he briefly acknowledged the two young men before re-turning his face forward. His morale still at a heightened low however the young Link soon dropped himself to one knee, a scowl twitching away in an unhealthy mixture of hurt and anger.

The sting of betrayal was left deep within him, like the magical scar Ganondorf gifted him with seven years back.

"What the hell?" Raynard muttered out in a questioning blink, sweeping his re-invigorated eyes across the grassy landscape. "Weren't we in-?"

"The Forest Temple...," Sheik finished for him, fiery eye narrowed in agreement before swiftly resting on the kneeling Hero of Time. "Link what happened?"

"S-Saria...," he merely stammered back, a whispering tone to his breaking voice. "S-She told me..."

The bright blue sight of Navi hovering up to shake her head at the watching Sheik made it somewhat clear.

"So... Saria was the..." Sheik murmured on out in slow realisation, his hot-crimson eye lowering, as if in thought.

"The what?" The foul-mouthed Raynard shot back cluelessly, frowning in an annoyed expression of his own. "What the hell is going-?"

CRUMPLE-FRUP

Gasping with shock and astonishment, the three young men snapped their heads toward the source of the sudden noise and movement only to find a plant-like creature shooting up from the grass beneath them. Having been kneeling just opposite of it and closest in position to it, Link found himself similarly wheezing with consternation as he fell backward rather unceremoniously to his rear. Kneeling down on his own level to join him, as if for support, the narrow-eyed Sheik glared on down at the oddly-formed sprout before them.

It appeared to be a kind of plant-like creature, similar to many seen in the Kokiri Forest.

"Hi there!"

Surprised even further, the three men comically exchanged looks with one another as if to question their very own sanity. Seemingly sensing their inward thoughts, the sprout's eyes briefly shut before chuckling as it continued, a higher-pitched kind of male-like voice.

"It's okay," the dismissed the team of men's bewilderment in a well-meaning laugh. "I'm sure you all must have many questions for me."

"Can say that again..." The listening Raynard muttered on out in his narrow-eyed folded-armed expression.

"You all did your best to help us... we of the Kokiri Forest cannot thank you enough," the unnamed sprout smiled at the three before it. "Thanks to your efforts... the evil energy that Ganondorf breathed into our sacred woodland has been banished."

"We're glad... to have helped." Sheik responded, exchanging a frowning nod with the silent Raynard.

"And it is you that the Kokiri Forest have much to thank for most of all, Link," the plant-like creature smiled on in the blonde's direction; narrowing his oceanic eyes he re-raised his head up from his earlier melancholy to stare back at it. "I am the successor to your old mentor... the Great Deku Tree and thanks to you I can grow and flourish!" He announced warmly, a happy tone to his voice.

Similarly smiling behind the white scarf he wore, Sheik turned his fiery eye down on his comrade below him. "Isn't that wonderful Link?" He asked, placing a hand on the youth's shoulder.

In spite of this friendly atmosphere, Link found himself filled with a growing sense of anger as he listened; shaking the Sheikah leader's hand off of his shoulder he glared on quietly back at the Deku Sprout.

"Did you all know that this was going to happen?"

His enquiry, so off putting and startling, managed to take the listening group off guard.

"Well of course Link; now that you've lifted the curse off of-"

"No."

His interruption, biting and venomous, cut through the Deku Sprout's words.

"Did you know about Saria?" He pressed, eyes narrowing once more.

"W-Well...," the sprout started, its voice less sure of itself. "Of course; if she hadn't awoken as a Sage then-"

TMP

In standing up abruptly, the firm-formed youth managed to intensify the already confrontational air in his sudden movement.

"So the end justifies the means does it?" Link shot over in a hard-glaring glower. "It's fine to lie to someone if it means you're getting what you want."

The frowning Navi began to hover nearby, a concerned tone in her voice. "Link they didn't lie to us, they-"

Swiftly silencing the floating fairy with a swivelling scowl, Link re-faced his partner very briefly before soon about-turning to continue on.

"Lying to us... and keeping important information from us...," he began once more in a hushed angry whisper. "Are very similar things, Navi..."

"Hey; enough of this," the disgruntled Raynard shot out with as he advanced on his comrade. Placing a muscled hand on the swordsman's right shoulder he frowned on in his approach. "Job's not over."

"Get your hand... off me... Raynard..."

His voice, hissing and furious, made the listening dark-haired mercenary furrow his brow in listening. Unperturbed but exchanging a silent nod with the watching Sheik Raynard chose to obey his shaky companion's order.

"Link... I know you must be feeling-"

"Manipulated?" The angry youth interrupted the Deku Sprout once more, eyes glaring down at the wooden creature beneath him. "Used? Exploited?"

"Yes...," the sprout acquiesced, a calm tone in its patient voice. "We're sorry but we needed your help Link," he claimed, a concerned shift in its pitch. "Please... you have to understand..."

Narrowing his eyes in a glare, the former Kokiri growled in voiceless anger. Readying to about-turn to leave, Link made a disgusted turn of his scowl before at last turning around.

"I also have more to tell you... if you will listen."

Halting mid-speech, the hard-eyed Link stood at the foot of the small hill that led back to the hub of Kokiri Forest. Turning his straw-haired head back to face the group staring back at him he merely watched back as if to signify his response.

"In spite of all the years you have spent living in this safe haven...," the Deku Sprout started one last time, its voice firm. "You are, as you have probably now deduced, not a Kokiri; not by blood anyway."

His curiosity piqued, the Hero of Time turned the rest of his body 'round as he listened silently.

"You...," the sprout began its final sentence in a well-meaning smile. "Are a Hylian."

–

2

"Any response from king tyrant?" The firmly-frowning Raynard questioned next to his Sheikah commander, his buffed arms ever folded.

"No; we have been very fortunate so far," Sheik answered in a deft shake of his blonde head, his bandaged arms resting across the large table in the centre of the candlelit room. "Of all the men we routed in the Lost Woods it would appear that Ganondorf has sent no more."

"That's odd," the frowning tone of Navi added into the conversation, hovering over the map of Hyrule. "Wouldn't he want to recapture it as soon as possible?"

"Mm, not necessarily," Raynard responded, a light crease to his frown as he eyed the blue ball of light. "He might just not be interested; it's a place that's been undisturbed for years anyway."

"Quite so," Sheik agreed, a nod to back his words. "I imagine he'll have his hands full in the subjugation of the Gorons at any rate."

His small pointed ears drawn up by the inclusion of the word he recognised, Link narrowed his eyes from his corner in the room. Leaning his head up from his folded-armed frown he opened his mouth.

"How are they?"

Surprised, Sheik and Raynard swivelled around to face him; silent for a moment or two, they shared a pensive look before finally responding.

"Last my scouts reported they're not looking too good," Sheik informed him, a frowning shake of his head. "Ganondorf's men have already invaded by the looks of things; we've lost all contact so we can only assume the worst."

Lowering his oceanic eyes, Link sighed through his nose. "Darunia..." He mouthed out quietly and thoughtfully. Although the listening Raynard rose a curious eyebrow at the mention of the Goron chief's name, Sheik nodded once more in his inevitable response.

"Yes...," the Sheikah assassin and commanding officer began. "We're working against time; the longer we take the more Goron men are killed."

"He's killing them already?!" Raynard hissed out incredulously, amber eyes widened.

"It's all an effort to draw Daphnes' daughter out of hiding," the mysterious blonde claimed, his hot-red eye narrowing. "Especially now that the Hero of Time is with us." He stated; in listening, Raynard turned briefly to eye his new companion wordlessly. Although he acknowledged the duo before him, Link opted merely to turn his eyes away from them.

After last time he had very little else to say to them.

So long as it didn't involve work.

Leaning off the wall Link dusted himself off and made certain to check he was carrying all of his equipment, a firm frown on his face. Curious, Sheik double-took in his direction, raising a curious straw-haired eyebrow.

"What are you-?"

"Time's of the essence, right? Just like you said," Link interrupted with a cutting solid frown. "I'm going to make way for Death Mountain now."

"Wait for us," Sheik ordered him, a firm narrow of his eye. Though Link turned his frown into a light scowl of disapproving, he opted not to respond vocally. "There's little advantage in arriving one after the other."

"Are you okay?"

A loaded question.

Navi's enquiry, surely a genuine one, began to grate on the listening Link's nerves; heading the charge he marched on up the inclines and hills of the Death Mountain trail he had once traversed seven years previous, many things going through his mind.

Mainly the low morale and his greatly growing distrust of his allies.

"I'm as okay as 'okay' can be Navi," Link batted back to his guardian fairy as he climbed on up the initial hill before him; eyeing the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern he stepped on through the second incline leading in the opposite direction. "In the space of a single day I've just learned my whole life is a fucking lie," he cursed out violently and shockingly casually as if he were speaking of anything else entirely. "The one person I fought so hard to free turned out to be a prisoner of these Sages," the Hero of Time hissed on as he thought of the seemingly wise Rauru. "And on top of it all not even the Great Deku Tree trusted me...," he claimed, shaking his head before narrowing his eyes in her direction. "Did he?" He asked her, almost as if for confirmation.

The memory of their conversation with the Deku Tree Sprout came to his mind as he spoke; as Navi listened she visibly turned her eyes away from his, perhaps in shame.

"He assigned me to you to protect you Link," she re-explained softly as the duo of adventurers continued on up the hill. "He always loved you-"

"He can suffer in the afterlife for all I care."

His venomous breach, so cold and full of hatred for the deceased forest spirit, left the listening Navi in a sorrowful frown.

"I wish I could have met Zelda again... just once," Link continued to rant, his eyes narrowing as he stepped around a large silvery boulder. "I'd-"

"You wouldn't surely?"

"Not a woman, no," Link answered her in an emphatic swing of his head. "But I'd love to hurt her emotionally for everything she's done to me," the former Kokiri admitted, a petty rage forming the tone of his voice. "If I'd known how things were gonna go when she asked me what she asked me seven years ago..."

Opting to remain silent for fear of response Navi merely listened to him, a knowing and saddened frown on her face.

"Saria...," Link murmured out nostalgically, eyes narrowed as he pressed on past the flowing red flag to his left. "If she hadn't asked me... then I would have left the rebellion." He confessed with a hardened shake of his blonde head.

The rest of the march to Goron City in the heart of Death Mountain was a silent one indeed; even as Raynard and Sheik followed from a respectable distance back, they merely conversed quietly with one another, keeping themselves away from the unsociable Hero of Time.

–

3

In stepping through to the mountainous city the group of four found themselves in a familiar spot indeed; recognising the nylon rope leading out to the platform in the centre, Link realised exactly where they were.

Memories of walking through the double-doors that Barkner once led him through in his childhood came rushing back to him, lowering his mood and morale even further.

He shook his head unrelentingly, glaring forward as he did.

"Stop thinking about that."

"Well...," Raynard started, his arms folded as he entered alongside the deeply frowning Link. Scanning his own amber eyes across the dark-brown of the Goron metropolis he took quick note of the population. "Looks as if your intel was right Sheik," the mercenary claimed in his hard-toned frown. "Doesn't look like there's many left."

Maybe none, Link thought to himself silently as he stepped toward the edge eyes watching.

"No I'm sure that-"

CRASH

The smashing echo, so boisterous and meaty, managed to take the group of men and guardian fairy off guard; turning their heads 'round to the bottom of the city they found the source of the commotion.

A solitary, small rolling Goron was left amidst the ghost town that was Goron City.

"Ah! There he is!" Sheik smiled in recognition, stepping past the surprised-expressed Link and Raynard; following him down the steps to the first floor the group of heroes eventually stepped closer to the slow-approaching Goron. "Link!"

"Yeah?" The named Hylian in response rose a blonde eyebrow next to him.

"Not you," Sheik answered, a deft shake of his head. "Him." He clarified with an appropriate nod of his head forward.

Seemingly gesturing toward the halting Goron, the shocked Link and Navi exchanged a similar surprised look with one another. Soon uncurling himself before them the little Goron rose up his head, as if being addressed; standing up to face the group he stood in a modestly-sized frown, eyes darting between the watching Raynard and Link.

"It's all right Link," Sheik spoke, his words seemingly directed toward the wary-expressed Goron. "They're friends; here to help."

Although still appearing to distrust the two strangers before him, the little Goron nodded in acknowledgement before at last opening his mouth.

"P-Pleased to meet you both...," he greeted, seemingly a young boy. "My name is Link."

"Your name is Link?" The Hero of Time blurted out without thinking, scrunching the right side of his face up as if attempting to process the conflicting information he was just fed. Visibly frustrated by the events transpiring the watching Sheik shut his eyes and sighed quietly through his nose, as if in some silent search for patience.

"Y-Yes...," the Goron answered for the irked Sheikah, nodding in his modest frown. "My Dad... he's the one who named me," he explained briefly. "The chief of the Gorons and our Big Brother."

"Darunia..." Navi's soft whisper came from the ex-Kokiri's left ear.

A chill ran up the youth's spine when he realised it.

He was silently hoping to avoid the Goron leader but now with this connection it may be impossible.

"Yeah...," the Hero of Time acknowledged in a forward nod of his own, creasing his frown lightly as he spoke. "I remember him... how is he?" He asked, his frown very slowly morphing into a weak smile.

The identically-named Goron's saddened frown told the Hylian a different story however; in shaking his rocky head, Link responded. "H-He and I... we may be the only Gorons left."

"What?!" Sheik hissed out, his fiery eye widened. "Where is everyone else?"

"T-Taken...," Goron Link hiccuped back, joining his hands together demurely. "That king sent his men to take our families... he's keeping them all in the Fire Temple!"

"That fits..." The listening Hero of Time muttered under his breath, lowering his sky-blue eyes as he did so.

"A-And that's not all," the distressed little Goron continued, shaking his head. "The dragon from ancient times has come back!" He shouted out, a terrified tone in his voice. "The one from the storybooks!"

"Volvagia...," Sheik sighed, briefly shutting his eyes in acceptance before softly running his bandaged thumb across his covered nose. "Ganondorf must be going to feed them to the dragon."

"It's a message... isn't it," Link asked, narrowing his oceanic eyes at his leader, receiving only a nod. "Anyone else that doesn't follow suit... will receive the same treatment."

"For Christ sake...," Raynard cursed out in a narrow-eyed hiss. "Man's a fucking animal..."

"Don't worry, Link..."

The worried little Goron widened his tearful eyes and stopped mid-sob to turn his head up to face the kneeling Sheikah above him. Placing one of his bandaged arms across the boy's shoulders he smiled through the clothes he wore.

"We'll rescue your father and all of your friends too." The resistance's leader spoke through his smiling tone, receiving an approving and cheerful nod in response.

The listening Hero of Time found himself exchanging an annoyed frown with the silent Raynard.

Circling his arms 'round in an attempt to return the blood flow to normal, Link winced in the new clothing he wore.

Having been gifted a new Goron Tunic by his unit's leader, the young Hylian was now resistant to the harsh atmosphere of the Death Mountain Crater he now explored through with his allies.

"It's over there...," Darunia's only son frowned as he pointed toward the broken pillars far-off into the distance. Standing just outside of the entrance to Goron City's throne room Sheik, Link, Raynard, Navi and the little Goron Link all stood close-by to the broken bridge overlooking the pit of boiling lava. "Dad went into that corridor..."

"Thank you, Link...," Sheik smiled down to the little Goron in an acknowledging nod. "You should go and wait for us in the city," he advised. "We'll return as soon as we find your father; I promise."

With a single and simple nod, the frowning little Goron at last about-turned to leave back the way he came, leaving the four allies alone once more.

"How much longer until we get inside?" Navi broke the silence in a wincing whimper. "This atmosphere... it's so oppressive."

"We still need to open the Fire Temple's doors... come on." Sheik informed the group as he acrobatically leapt across the distance, landing safely on the bridge's remaining ground. Following him wordlessly, the glaring Raynard leapt on forward with him, leaving the similarly frowning Link to hookshot on after him. Even as he marched on behind the two, the newly christened Hylian found his eyes moving in the direction of the familiar-looking podium to his right.

A similar stone-like design to the last one he remembered from the Sacred Forest Meadow.

They were definitely on the right track.

"It's something that grows over time..."

Surprised, the silent Link and Raynard swivelled their heads in their blonde leader's direction, his words cutting into the boiling air they walked through.

"True friendship...," Sheik murmured out, his gaze seemingly dreamlike; turning around to face the approaching pair behind him, the Sheikah frowned on behind the scarf he wore so well. "A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger in the years to come..."

Somehow, as he listened to him, Link felt that he was talking very personally in some regard.

It felt odd.

Odd... and strangely familiar.

"That passion can soon blossom into righteous power... if you let it," the young red-eyed man nodded forward, seemingly speaking to the listening Hero of Time. "And, through it, you'll know which way to go..."

Reaching back into his inventory, Link sensed where the conversation was heading. Nodding once more, Sheik seemingly silently approved.

"This song... is dedicated to the heart; listen... to the Bolero of Fire."

–

4

Even when they stepped inside the Fire Temple that they so envied for comfort, the group of heroes found no respite in terms of the temperature; still boiling hot they dealt with the near uninhabitable atmosphere as best they could. In stepping through Link took quick note of the large staircase laid out before him, decorated quite religiously with the apparent totem-like structures filled with fire up ahead. On the right and left behind the staircases however sat two large doors, one seemingly hidden beneath a tall edifice.

"Okay...," Sheik began, narrowing his fiery eye up at the similarly boiling-hot Keese flying overhead. "Now... I was hoping on a different course of action this-"

Stepping forward Link opted to interrupt the Sheikah, a hardened tone in his actions indeed; surprised, Sheik and Raynard both exchanged a look before turning to look over at the marching ex-Kokiri.

"Link I was hoping that we-"

"Same plan as before," the scorn youth spoke over his shoulder, seemingly as angry as ever. "We'll cover more ground that way."

"But Link, I'd rather-"

"I'll be fine," the Hero of Time firmly shot over his shoulder a second time, this time swivelling his head 'round to glare back at his leader with one oceanic eye narrowed. "Navi's with me, after all." He further clarified before pressing onward up the staircase. Although the watching Raynard merely huffed in his folded-armed glare, his dark-haired head tilted to the side, the listening Sheik watched on in a sad turn of his blood-red eye.