Chapter 3
Simple, but Useful Magic
I was in the heart of the castle town by now, and I stood there in the middle of the plaza and studied the locations on the scroll. The first palace, Parapa, was in a desert past a cave northeast of Rauru. The map still smelled of the box that it came from, and felt fragile and musty to the touch. When I was done looking at the many palaces, I carefully rolled the scroll up, placed it safely in a pouch, and strolled the streets back out to the wild roads. Seeing as how home was on the way, I could stock up on a few traveling supplies before I went to the palace. The city was now at its busiest and I had to push by the large crowd of people. Their chattering filled the air and muffled even the sound of the large, decorative fountain that was nearby.
Once when I left the gates and back onto the dirt roads, my ears still ringed and the calm now seemed sudden and lonely. I felt like I was once again exposed to the many monsters that were probably already stalking me. That last thought compelled me to glance around, but I saw nothing. I allowed my shoulders to relax with the exhale of my breath, and I took up the pace back to Rauru.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
By the time I was back home the sun had exploded thousands of colors in the sky. And I was so exhausted from the trip because I was attacked so much on the way. If this is the rate of how many monsters will fight, it will take forever to get anywhere!
The thought angered me, but I held my calm and walked to the other end of town to my small, wooden house. It was nothing special, but it was comfortable on the small occasions I was here. It was not a ramshackle of a house, and the wooden walls were quite fine and sturdy. The house only had one of every room that was important, it didn't have anything extra, but I didn't need such luxuries anyway. Now that I stood before my front door, I finally realized how tired I was. I shouldn't have been surprised, it has been a long day from the start of morning. I looked at the single dummy that stood to the side of the house as I was making my way up to the door. Its wooden armor was quite scratched up from my sword when I would train against it. I hardly needed that training, for now I was quite the expert swordsman, but I practiced in the yard in between journeys just to keep up with my sword. I tore my eyes from the dummy and to the door handle of my home and went in.
The broom I was using earlier was still lying on the floor, and the pile of dust sat beside it, but I left it there as I was too tired to finish the work. The house was already becoming quite dark, but I didn't bother with a candle. Instead, I came into my bedroom and decided that it was late enough that I should rest and gather supplies in the morning. I placed my equipment down on the floor and crawled under the simple blanket. The only sounds that I could hear were coming from outside. Crickets were already gathering for their nightly performance of music, and the few remaining chirps from birds were retreating for the rest of the night. I listened to the many sounds until it all seemed to fade with my consciousness.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I woke up sometime in the morning. The chirping of birds and dawn sunshine seeped through the window, but my sleep was not restful. And I woke up with a panicking urge to get moving, like I needed to find the Triforce right away to wake Zelda! But I had to remind myself that this journey will not be finished anytime soon and it may take me weeks to complete this. The only thing I can do is just to keep moving forward as quick as I can.
I stood up and strapped the weapons back on my tunic, and walked to the living room. I ate the last breakfast I would have at home for a while and headed for the door, but I stopped when I saw an unlit candle resting on a shelf. I found that candle in a dungeon called 'Demon', and took it from a wizzrobe, or a hooded magic user. It was no ordinary candle, it could be lit with a simple thought, and if I was going in a cave, I might need it. I reached for the handle and removed it off the shelf.
People were already up and going into their daily chores as I moved to the east. I was ready for my first challenge.
"Hello, Link!" A lady in a long purple dress called. She was Grace, the daughter of the wise man in town. The elder was an old wizard who gave me the magical sword so long ago. "Oh, are you heading out again?" She asked, noticing my weapons.
"Yes, I am." I replied. "And I don't know when I'll be back. It might be a long time…"
"Good thing I caught you then. Father wanted to see you." I was beginning to feel inpatient.
"Um, I have something I need to do. Sorry."
But she stopped me again. "Just wait for a minute! He said it would be very helpful on your journey. He mastered a spell that you might like to learn."
I let out a sigh. A spell I might want to learn? I'm not a magic user! But the wise man normally gave good advice, besides, Grace was a nice woman, but once she made up her mind, there was nothing you could do to change it. I said nothing more, but just beckoned her to lead me.
She always had a bounce in her quick step, and I didn't walk for too long before we came to the elder's house. Grace walked up to the door and knocked on it several times. We waited for a few seconds for the door to creak as it opened. "Grace, my dear, what can I do for you?" The wise man said. He had a long white beard that seemed to flow down with the red robes he was wearing.
"Hello, father, I found Link. He was just leaving town."
"I see, thank you. Do you two want to come in?" He asked. I nodded and walked into the house, but Grace said she should be on her way and left. The elder then closed the door. "So you're leaving town again, huh? I remember when I wanted to explore the world in my adventurous youth! Well, that spell can help keep you safe."
"I don't know… You know I'm not a magic user, so I might not be able to learn it." I stated.
He walked to a bookshelf and began to ruffle through it. "Oh, nonsense! This is a simple spell, Link! Even you can learn it if you try hard enough. Maybe one day you will become a wizard if you do plenty studying." I just shrugged as he pulled a scroll down from the shelf and unraveled it.
"This is called 'Shield'. When cast it will defend you better. A large gash could have been a small cut with this! To cast it you have to focus and say the words written here. Do you want me to start?" He asked as he handed it to me.
"No, I'll try it." I assured him, but still feeling like this was a waste of time. I looked down at the scroll, and studied the words for a moment before closing my eyes and saying them out loud.
But nothing happened…
The wise man's laughter caught my attention. "How do I know if it worked?" I asked.
"You'll know. You will always know when a spell works. Here, let me cast it." Like a master, he said the words without the scroll and his red robes mysteriously faded to blue! "Now, even without a shield, I am defended."
I decided to try once more and took a deep breath before saying the words again, but still nothing happened. "What am I doing wrong?"
"Focus," He replied. "Simple focus, don't just say the words, feel them. Concentrate on the sound of the words on the scroll and try again."
I said the words once more, but this time, I closed my eyes to better focus on just the casting and I said the words more slowly. I heard clapping coming from the elder, and when I opened my eyes to look down at my tunic, I saw it had changed from its usual green to a rusty red. "Very well done, I knew you could do it! Keep on practicing and you will be able to cast it without the scroll, and you will be able to learn new magic."
My impatience of being told to cast magic was subsiding. Something about being able to cast a spell successfully was quite an amazing feeling! I took the wise man up on his offer and slipped the scroll down in my bag. "One more thing," He continued, holding up a finger to hold my attention. "There is an elder in every town in the kingdom of Hyrule, and they know powerful spells too. If you wish to learn more magic when you're on your journey, you can stop and ask them." Well, shield does sound pretty useful, and if a lot of the spells are like that, I just might take his advice. "Good luck." He said as I moved back to the door, I waved my farewell and was in town again.
Without stopping for anymore distractions, I picked back up my walk to the wild yet again. That spell did seem helpful, but the meeting took up some of my time, and I wanted to be on the road already! I sighed to myself. Instead of worrying about lost time, I just have to make the best of the time I had now. Besides, how much trouble can I really find even amongst the monsters? I was confidant that I could find the Triforce in no time flat. All what I had to do was to use my swordsmanship to fight the guardian in every palace. And since I was an expert fighter, I shouldn't find to much trouble with that. As I dwelt on those thoughts of rescue, I was perfectly comfortable when I came on the dangerous paths.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I followed the dirt road as long as it would take me, and when it ended, I veered off into a forest as I made my way for the cave before the desert palace. The forest was dense, and I found that I was looking down at my map every few moments, hoping I was not leading myself off course. The deelers made it hard to keep moving as the red spiders would drop from their webs above my head, but if I knew they were coming, they were easy to be rid of.
The moblins were more of a problem, especially when there were deelers nearby. The blue skinned monstrous pigs would fight me with their weapons and I would have to be careful not to become too distracted in the battle or the deelers will attack. In the end, I was never happier to come across the cave! Maybe it's safer in there than it was in the forest?
The seeping darkness was so solid, I couldn't see anything through it. Thank the goddesses I brought the candle. With no source of fuel, a red flame engulfed the infinite wick and was strong enough to light almost every corner in the tunnel. I took caution as I walked in… It was so quiet in there that I held my breath at the slight shuffling of pebbles beneath my feet. I hoped the light from the candle wouldn't catch any unwanted attention.
After several minutes of silence, I saw a hard bluish shell that was covering the rest of a large beetle. The shell was actually quite beautiful with the variety of randomly colored flecks on it. But I had to be careful; this was a lowder, and while it looked harmless, lowders would attack anything moving as it was said that they eat life energy. This beetle would be hard to move around when this tunnel was so narrow. But other than waiting for it to move on its own, I had to take the risk.
I walked slowly towards the back of the lowder, and hoped that it would never even notice me. But sneaking up on such a monster was like trying to sneak up to a fly! Just after the first two steps, it turned around like it knew I was there. I froze in hesitation, and for a while we simply stared at each other. But then its tiny millions of legs started to shuffle forward like rhythmic waves and the closer the beetle came to me, the faster it ran.
I slid my sword from its sheath and waited for when the lowder was close enough. Then I dropped my sword heavily on its head. The shell protecting the beast was no match for the mighty blow and the lowder was crushed.
Looks like they did more than eat life energy, it seemed as if it can sense it as well. That would give them more of an advantage of hunting for their food if so. But I was not a researcher and had more important things on my mind. I stopped my pondering there and continued across the cave quietly and cautiously watched for any more monsters. But I didn't encounter anything else and soon came to the end of the tunnel.
I could see the Parapa palace towering in the distance past the sand dunes in the wide open desert. From the safety of the cave, I could see the monsters lurking underneath the hot sun, leevers and geldarms mostly.
I took a step forward onto the sand and almost at once, I could feel the heat beating down on me, but luckily, the sun will be sinking below the horizon in just a few hours. So I fought the desert environment, but if the heat wasn't enough, the monsters were. The tall, skinny bugs like large centipedes, geldarms, stood straight up, attempting to block my path by tunneling up from the sand and just being in my way of travel. And the leevers, such strange creatures, were burrowing from under the sand to stab me with the sharp blades on their mound like bodies.
It was a tough trip for me, and I quickly grew exhausted and was running out of water… The palace was so close, but I have never felt so far from it. The air and sand were good at deceiving travelers as I began to make out things that weren't really there. I pulled my sword from its sheath and slashed uselessly against a geldarm only for it to vanish back underground with the rest of the floating dust.
Soon, I couldn't tell which enemies were real and not. I looked to the towering temple past the dunes and let out a sigh. It's was going to take me forever to reach it! Come on, Link, I urged myself on, you have been in some rough situations before! This was not going to kill you! But the more I walked, the harder it was for me to keep going. I knew that I had to cross the desert, but I had forgotten just how tiring and hot it was.
I felt as if I was losing my mind, and I was even more convinced when I thought I heard a malicious laugh that seemed to stretch and echo across the dunes. For the first time in a long time, I felt fear grip me helplessly and I was forced to stop and focus on where it was coming from.
The sand seemed to swirl around a form in front of me. And as I shielded my eyes from the shifting sand, the air cleared and the figure came into view. It was a large and monstrous beast that much resembled a moblin. He was covered from in heavy, and dark armor, leaving only his boar shaped head free for me to see him. I held my breath as I recognized him to be Ganon, the prince of darkness I fought so long ago. I suddenly felt afraid, and instantly drew my sword.
"Ganon, you're alive?! How did you get here?" I cried out, quite shocked. But he only taunted me by punching his fist into the other one before dispelling again into the hot air. I waited for him to reappear like he did in our battle. But as I stood in the middle of the desert, glancing all around me, everything seemed to return to what it was before, and I realized that I was just seeing things.
And perhaps I was still delusional, because I thought I saw green trees next to an oasis… Delusional or not, I chose to see if it was real, and as I neared it, not only did the vision stay, but it neared to me as well. I placed my hand on the wood of the palm tree. The texture was strong and healthy, and dark green grass grew around a small pool of water even in the stifling condition. I bent low and trapped the clear, reflective water in my cupped hands. The liquid felt cooling as it hit my face, and I drank from the pool before refilling the water skin. I then left the small desert paradise behind and continued the trip feeling refreshed.
Sunset colors seeped into the sand and the temperature began to drop. The sand shifted beneath my brown boots as I placed one foot in front of the other. But finally, with the sky already dark, I stepped up the brick platform just before the Parapa palace door…
