Chapter Twenty Three – Shadow Link appears
Bursting from the surface of the water Link began gasping hard for air. He was underwater far longer than he hoped he was going to be, and even though the water had been lowered he didn't take into account how long the entryway into the temple would be and almost drowned. He pulled himself out of the water and collapsed on the ground as he continued to gasp for air. His energy was completely used up, but he knew he had to figure something out fast since he didn't have time to take a nap with monsters all over the place; and he had to stop the most powerful monster he's ever faced so far, Morpha.
Suddenly he realized he still had the magic beans he got from his friend just before he put him into the river. His friend seemed to really enjoy them, so he hoped they would be able to help restore his energy. Upon eating one of the beans he realized he suddenly felt much better and his energy was completely back. For some reason he felt a strong fire of courage within him welling up to the point he felt invincible.
Getting up he moved further into the temple and noticed a lot of water that surrounded a large square pillar in the middle of the room with a walkway around it. Looking into the water he noticed how clear it was, and that it was very deep. If the water wasn't there and he didn't have the fire burning within him he would have been freighted to even be standing there. The floor looked so far away, and as he continued to look down he didn't realize he was moving closer and closer to the water.
Without warning a giant tentacle appear out of nowhere from within the water and grabbed him by the head and pulled him in and he was pulled to the bottom of the room with such speed he didn't have time to react. As he was dragged down to the bottom he knew there was no way he could reach the surface again before he ran out of air. Once he was released he quickly looked around to see what grabbed him, but nothing was there. As he was looking around he noticed something moved around a corner of the corridor he was near and vanished. With courage burning within him he felt he could take on anything and despite his normal fear of facing danger he felt his body moving on its own towards the danger. He quickly swam after whatever kind of monster it was and found himself hoping it was a big one.
As he moved through the corridor he turned a corner and spotting the most beautiful zora he ever saw. She was completely naked while facing away from him and didn't notice he was behind her, but he was so transfixed by her beauty he forgot he was quickly running out of air. As the realization of his desperate need for air finally hit he started looking around desperately for a pocket for air, or anything that might allow him to breathe.
His frantic movements suddenly gained the attention of the female zora and she slowly turned around and spotted him. "How dare you follow me in here!" She shouted. "This is my privet chambers, and you're not allowed in here." After a moment she began to laugh. "Don't you remember who I am?" She said smiling, but Link wasn't able to figure out where he would know her from at that moment since he was struggling so hard to find any air at all. Suddenly she swam over to him and seemed to be kissing him then began to breath air into his lungs. "I pulled you underwater with me so we could be together again. I knew you would follow me down this corridor if I let you catch a glimpse of me while I was swimming away. I waited seven long years to see you again, and I feel I'm finally ready to have you fulfill the promise you made to me all those years ago. I hope you still remembered the promise you made to me because once spring returns in my kingdom and all my fellow servants wake up we will have a grand wedding. I'm sure my dad will be glad to find out you're the man I chose to marry. He's been trying to get me to marry for many years now, but I told him my heart belongs to another."
Thinking back to the last time he was with a female zora, he suddenly remembered the mean princess that kept treating him bad the entire time he was trying to save her from being eaten, then out of nowhere she forced him to accept the marriage proposal from her just so he could complete his mission from Princess Zelda. He found it hard to believe this was the same girl from all those years ago, and he completely forgot about accepting the offer for marriage by taking the spiritual stone from her; plus he never imaged he would ever run into her again, but now that he had he was glad he was going to marry her. It seemed her temper finally mellowed out and she turned into an exceedingly attractive zora woman.
"I'm sorry we can't talk longer, but I have to help restore the temple to its former splendor before time runs out. Since Morpha's here I can't relax until I finish my job. You're always welcome to help, but please try to stay out of the main chamber as that's where the boss is working, and he doesn't like people getting in his way."
Without another word she gave one final kiss to Link then with a hard kick of her legs swam over him and out of the room leaving him completely lost in thought. It appeared she still loved him, but wasn't aware her people had been freed from their crystal imprisonment Morpha trapped them in, but she seemed really determined to stop Morpha, so he knew his only option was to stop Morpha and free everyone so he could get married to the beautiful zora princess.
He continued to stare at the corridor she swam down for a moment before he suddenly realized he was once again running out of air. The kiss must have left him feeling lightheaded because the room was now spinning and he was starting to feel funny. With as much speed as he could muster he left that room and returned to the main room, but he was still too far down to be able to reach the surface before drowning.
In the middle of the room was a large pillar that had a door. He wasn't sure where it led, but it was the only place close enough that might have air inside. As he turned the handle on the door it burst inward and he was sucked in with the rushing water. The room was completely empty of water until the door was opened, but now it was filling quickly. Link was finally able to reach the surface of the water and gasped for air, but as the water continued to fill the room he noticed there were large spikes on the ceiling at the top of the room and he was being push up toward them. He needed to find a way out of there fast, and just as he was about to give up hope he noticed another door a little higher than he currently was. He needed the water to rise a little more, but not too much or he wouldn't be able to open the door.
As he waited he watched the door draw closer, and with all his strength he launched himself out of the water and grabbed for the handle, but his hands were too slippery and he missed and fell back into the water. Quickly resurfacing he tried once again, and this time he managed to grab onto the handle, but it was hard to turn while he was hanging from it. The water was getting closer and he was almost completely out of time. With one final desperate turn he realized the door was locked and he was trapped in there. He fell back into the water unsure of what to do now. There were no other ways out except going back down, but the water rushing in was moving much too fast for him to be able to swim against.
At that moment the door opened and a member of Morpha appeared. "What's going on in here?" the man said as he noticed Link floating in the rising water. "Give me your hand and I'll get you out of here." Link was hesitant to take the hand of one of Morpha's minions, but he really needed to get out of there, so he grabbed hold and was pulled out just in time. "I need to report this mess to the boss." The man said as he closed the door just before the water was able to start pouring out. "I need you to stay here while I let my boss know what just happened. A lot of people are in danger now because of this."
The worker took off while Link was still breathing hard. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he understood people were in danger and needed his help, but he was too tired to keep going. Pulling out the bag of beans again he decided to take three this time and hoped by taking more it would help him more than last time; and just like before the moment he swallowed the beans his body was overflowing with energy and power. His focus was much higher and he was ready to take on anything.
As he made his way through the different corridors he found himself feeling dizzy again, and very lightheaded. He had to place his hand on the wall to keep from falling to the ground as he forced himself to keep going. He wasn't sure where the people were that needed his help, but he was determined to find them, even if it meant putting his own life in danger to save them.
When the dizzy feeling finally subsided he removed his hand from the wall just as a giant creature that looked like a giant spider, but with only four legs instead of eight, appeared ahead of him and was heading in his direction fast. It had a single giant glowing red eye that seemed to be focusing on him, so he quickly pulled out the master sword and waited as the creature continued to jump closer and closer to him. Once it was within striking distance he swung his sword as hard as possible, and the creature let out a scream and burst into green flames as it vanished into nothingness.
Link was impressed with how powerful his attack was, but before he was able to celebrate too much there were suddenly hundreds of the creatures heading towards him from the direction the first appeared from. With a grin of accepting the challenge Link charged towards the creatures and began slicing through them with ease. He raced through hallway after hallway until he finally defeated them all. He felt really proud of what he was able to accomplish, but he was now out of breath and his energy was once again dropping really low, so he decided to eat a small handful of beans and kept going.
He still hadn't run into any of the people that were in danger, but hoped the monsters he had to fight through didn't get to them first. Upon entering the next room he was shocked to find himself outside again. He was standing on top of a still sheet of water, and the water seemed to go on forever. On the opposite side of where he entered was another door that seemed to be floating above the water just like the door he came through, and in between the doors was a tiny island that was very out of place. The only thing on the island was a dead tree, but he couldn't see the reflection of the island or the tree in the water, and the island seemed to be the only land for as far as he could see.
Since there wasn't anything in that room he decided to hurry through and keep going; plus he didn't like the weird feeling he was getting while in there. It felt like the tree was watching him as he quickly walked across the island. He past the tree, and made his way over to the door and just as he was about to open the door he heard a noise from behind him that made him quickly turn around just in time to see a shadow emerge from inside the tree and began charging towards him.
With lightning speed Link drew his sword and tried to slash at the shadow, but it went right through it and the shadow started to transform to look like him. The dark shadow now had a shadow sword that looked just like the master sword, and with every attack Link tried, Shadow Link seemed to already know what he was about to do and was able to block everything he threw at it. The power from the magic beans was helping his strength immensely, but even that didn't seem to be enough to defeat this creature.
Shadow Link continued to move around waiting for Link to attack, but once it realized he wasn't going to attack, it moved in and swung its sword into Link's side. The sword seemed to pass right through his body, but instead of being sliced in two there was just sever pain that radiated through that part of his body. He fell to the ground grasping his side as Shadow Link attacked once again and slashed through his arm, and once again sent searing pain coursing through his body. His arm and side were hurting really bad, but he forced himself to get back up. He still didn't understand why he wasn't being cut by the sword, but damage was still somehow happening to him, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to survive much longer if he didn't figure out a way to defeat Shadow Link soon.
As the fight was dragging on it seemed Shadow Link was learning and its fighting ability was continuing to grow stronger while Link's own power and strength were draining faster and faster. The only thing he could figure was the shadow must have been absorbing his power somehow. He was now barely able to stand, but with one final act of desperation he decided to listen to Malon's mom and use the special attack she told him about all those years ago.
Drawing his sword back behind him he started to scream, "ERRR!" and was amazed to see the master sword was starting to glow. As Shadow Link moved in to attack Link once again, Link unleashed his attack as he quickly spun around in a circle screaming, "YAH!" and a blade of what appeared to be made of flames emerged from the master sword and encircled him. Shadow Link was hit by the flames that came from his blade and the attack was so powerful the shadow was destroyed instantly. As the shadow vanished back into nothingness he collapsed to the ground exhausted and in a lot of pain.
The cool water he was floating in felt nice and the clear blue sky overhead was very relaxing. He closed his eyes and felt like he was floating miles away from where he was just fighting Shadow Link and before he knew it, when he opened his eyes the sky had vanished and there was a ceiling above him once again. Upon sitting up he was surprised to see he was in a room with only a shallow pool of water that covered the floor of the entire room. He wasn't sure how he got there, but it seemed he was back in the water temple once again.
Sitting up in the water he still felt pain surging through his body, and his energy was very low once again. He wasn't sure about taking any more of the magic beans, but he still needed to defeat Morpha, and that was going to require far more strength than he had at that time, so he ate half a handful of the beans and once again he was surging with power and energy, and with every passing second it continued to rise higher and higher. Jumping back to his feet he took off out of the room and continued through the door on the opposite side of the room he entered from.