Chapter 22, The forest temple.
Kokiri forest.
Link wondered through the Lost woods trying to find the old ruins that Saria had shown him seven years ago, the woods seemed much darker than they had before and there was a mist that made it difficult to see.
"Link, do you know where you're going" asked Navi, "Kind of" answered Link, "Excellent, so we're lost" said Navi, "We're not lost, we just don't know where we are" said Link, "That's what lost means genius" said Navi.
As much as Link hated to admit it Navi was right, they was lost, Saria seemed to be the only person who could navigate the Lost woods and without her Link had no idea where he was going, Link sat against a tree, he was now hopelessly lost, "Where are you Saria" he thought.
While Link tried to think of a way out of the Lost woods he was sure that he heard something amongst the silence of the woods, Link tried to listen closer to the sound, it sounded like music, music from an ocarina.
"Navi do you hear that" whispered Link, "I don't hear anything" answered Navi, Link focused on the music, it sounded just like the song that Saria would always play, "Saria" thought Link.
Link jumped up to his feet and started to run, "Come on Navi, it sounds like its coming from this direction" he said, "Link come back, I can't hear anything" shouted Navi, however Link didn't stop, "Great, now he's going insane" thought Navi as she flew after Link.
Link followed the music, it seemed to be getting louder and yet it didn't sound as if someone was playing the song, it was as if the wind itself was playing the music.
Soon Link came to a very familiar area, it was the large stone maze, Link knew that the ruins was just on the other side of this maze, at this point Navi caught up to Link and she was amazed that they had actually found something by following imaginary music, "My life is just getting weirder and weirder" she thought.
Link walked into the maze, he turned a corner but then quickly retreated with a panicked look on his face, "What's wrong Link" asked Navi, "We might have a problem" said Link.
Suddenly a large brown creature with the face of a bulldog and wilding a spear emerged from the maze and took a swing at Link, Link ducked under the spear, the creature tried a downwards stab on Link, however the attack missed and the creature's spear got stuck in the ground.
Link drew the Master sword and plunged the blade deep into the creature's gut, Link took two big swings and left two large gashes in the creature finishing it off.
"What was that thing" asked Link, "It was a Moblin, I've heard about them, their terrible creatures that lack any form of a conscience, they'll kill anything" explained Navi, "I just hope that there aren't any more.
Unfortunately the entire maze was filled with Moblins all armed the same as the first, and Link was forced to fight his way through them one by one.
Finally after defeating what felt like the fiftieth Moblin Link came to the end of the maze, "I hope I never see another Moblin again" he thought, unfortunately for Link there was another Moblin waiting for him halfway down the path to the ruins.
This Moblin was larger than the others and it was armed with a very large club, as soon as the Moblin saw Link it began to charge at him with its club held high.
Link scowled he was tired of fighting Moblins for one day, Link pulled his bow from his back, he pulled back an arrow and fired, Link's aim was true and the arrow struck the Moblin in the throat, the Moblin fell dead before it had even reached Link.
Link continued on his way and he reached the old ruins where he and Saria had played together seven years ago.
Everything looked the same as it had done when Link was last here, it was as if this place was untouched by time, but there was one thing that was different, Saria was nowhere in sight.
Link walked around the area and memories of his time with Saria came rushing back, a smile filled with nostalgia appeared on Link's face, however this smile disappeared when Link noticed that there was something lying on the ground.
Link approached the object and he immediately recognised what it was, it was Saria's ocarina, or at least what was left of it, the ocarina was lying in the grass broken into pieces.
Link knelt down and picked up the broken ocarina, "I don't like the looks of this, maybe we should go back" said Navi as she looked at the ocarina.
Link wasn't listening to Navi, he was too busy looking at the doorway halfway up the wall, the one that he and Saria could never reach before, Link didn't know why but he could sense that there was something inside wating for him.
"We need to get up there" said Link as he pointed at the doorway, "How, you can't fly, and I can't exactly carry you" said Navi, Link thought hard, he needed to think of a way up to the doorway.
Just then there was a thud that caught Link's attention, Link looked up and saw that someone had just thrown a dagger into the wall above the doorway and there was a long robe attached to the dagger that Link could use to climb up to reach said doorway.
Link looked around for whoever had thrown the dagger however whoever it was seemed to be gone now.
Link grabbed a hold of the robe and climbed up, as he reached the doorway he got a good look at the dagger and noticed that it had a Sheikah symbol carved onto its blade.
Link stepped into the doorway and made his way inside of the Forest temple.
Forest temple.
The inside of the temple was not what Link had expected, he had thought that it would be a crumbling ruin, but instead it was in excellent condition, all of the walls and doors was intact and there seemed to be very little damage.
Something that Link found to be odd was how decorated this temple was, there was expensive red and blue carpets on the floor and the walls was covered with magnificent painting.
In fact the more that Link looked at this place the less it resembled a temple and the more it resembled a mansion.
Navi could feel something that she knew was a bad sign, for a moment she wondered if she should tell Link or not, but in the end she decided that he had the right to know.
"Link, I can't feel Leaf's presence anywhere in here" said Navi, Link felt like a rock had just dropped into his stomach, he knew that Leaf would never leave Saria's side, all that Link could do was hope that Navi was wrong.
Link began to explore the temple, however he soon found that there was countless twists and turns that seemed to lead to nowhere, twice Link found himself back at the entrance after making absolutely no progress.
While Link was exploring the temple he failed to notice that there was several painting that would move while he wasn't looking, and there was many others that always kept an eye on him no matter where he was.
After another failed attempt to find Saria Link found himself back at the main entrance again, despite this Link wasn't going to give up, however unbeknown to Link there was four sets of eyes watching him.
"Come my sisters, let us gather around this man" said a female voice, Link spun around but found nothing, "Hmm, who could he be, who would venture into our home" said another voice.
Link drew his sword and shield, he didn't know who or what was in this temple but he doubted that it was friendly, "Does this man fancy himself a hero" said a third voice, "This land needs no hero" said a forth.
Suddenly a blue fire ball burst from a nearby wall, Link saw the attack and leapt out of the way just in time, "Wonderful aim Beth" said the first voice.
"Come out and face me" shouted Link becoming very annoyed, "Hmm, should we show him who we are" said the forth voice, "Why not, it won't make a difference in the end" said the first Voice.
At these words four ghost girls emerged from the walls, one was green, one was blue, one was red, and the last one was purple.
"He's such a handsome one, can we keep him" said the green ghost who appeared to be the youngest, "No Amy, we must destroy him for trespassing in our home" said the purple one who seemed to be the oldest, "Meg's right, let's burn him to ash" said the red one.
The red ghost Joelle throw two red fire balls which Link dodged, then it began to rain purple fire curtesy of Meg, Link only just avoided being set alight.
Amy the green ghost lunged at Link only to be sliced in half by the Master sword, as Amy dissolved into green fire one of four torches in the centre of the room burst into life with a green flame.
"Amy no" screamed the blue ghost Beth as she unleashed wave after wave of blue fire in an attempt to avenge her sister, Link jumped over each wave of fire until he was close enough to attack then he carved Beth into pieces.
The second torch lit with a blue fire.
"Link behind you" warned Navi, Link turned around to see Joelle sneaking up behind him, Joelle fired an powerful twister like burst of red fire directly at Link, Link only survived by blocking the attack with his shield.
However Joelle didn't stop, she continued to pour more power into her fire hoping to burn straight through Link's shield, Link gripped the Master sword and then throw it with all of his might hitting Joelle in the head.
Joelle dissolved and the third torch lit with a red flame.
The final ghost Meg watched in horror as her last sister fell, "No, my sisters, I'll destroy you for this" she halved screamed halved cried, Meg raised both of her hands and a multitude of purple fire shot out of her body in all directions.
Link had to quickly duck behind a corner to avoid being incinerated, Meg continued to throw everything she had at Link, she had completely lost all sense and reason in her grief.
Link readied his bow and an arrow, he knew that he would have only a single shot at this, Link jumped out of the corner and fired his arrow, for a second nothing happened and Link feared that he had missed his target, but then all of the purple fire began to slowly vanish.
Link looked up and saw Meg floating there with an arrow in her chest, the ghost slowly fell to the ground, Meg looked up and instead of her eyes showing anger or rage they just showed relief, "Sisters, we can finally rest and be together again" she said as she dissolved into purple fire.
With all of the Poe sisters destroyed the temple became deathly silent, the last torch lit itself with purple fire and a passage opened in the centre of the floor, Link retrieved the Master sword and then looked at the passage and saw that it led to a staircase going down.
Link took a deep breath as he looked at the staircase, he couldn't rest yet he had to find Saria.
