Chapter 10

Separation Anxiety

As soon as we stepped into the hungry opening, I brought out my candle. The magical fire on the wick stood in bravery to the magnified sound of the breeze that sailed with the trapped air. My companion eyed the candle that lit itself with a focusing expression before he broke the contact and looked ahead. It was like he just accepted the strange items I carried, and perhaps even knew I had more.

As we followed the cave's tunnels, shrieks of aches echoed all throughout the dark. I quickly realized that I probably woke them with the light from my candle, and they were not happy about that. They began to drop from the ceiling and swooped low to fight us off. "Already?" The prince asked, the sound of his bouncing voice was followed by a slight sing of his rapier. I wove the candle above me to distract them, and slashed at the ones that came too close. Shrieks overlapped on top of all the other sounds in the cave, and it was loud enough that I believed no matter where you were in the tunnels, you would be able to hear their cries of attack. But we soon learned that we had attracted more than just aches.

At first I thought them to be all the same, but as more approached the ground, one of the bats transformed into an acheman, the humanoid form of an ache. As soon as the creature was on the ground, all the other aches retreated back to the ceiling. "Leave humans!" It screeched. "This is our territory!"

"We're just passing through." The prince explained. "We didn't mean to invade! Please just let us go. We won't bother anyone."

But the monster didn't seem convinced. Without another response, it opened its mouth wide and shot a fireball free. The acheman then gave out an alarming scream and returned to the ceiling. The flame was closer towards me, and I tried to jump out of the way in time, but I reacted too late. The fire missile shoved me and lit my sleeve on fire! I briefly saw my companion rushing to help me put out the flames, but he wasn't able to. The aches were swooping down once more, forcing the prince to stay away. I rolled to the ground when I couldn't reach all of the fire, and luckily, the flames were completely depleted when I came back up to my feet. The candle remained in my left hand, and was still lit. Nothing would be able to snuff it, not when it was my will that kept it on fire. But now that the bigger fire on me was out, the creatures were free to attack me as well. Even the acheman was coming back down.

But that wasn't the only one.

By now, we were surrounded by perhaps a hundred aches and achemen. Fire and swooping bats were everywhere! I swung the candle at the horde, but now they didn't seem to care about the fire. It was quite easy to cast a few of them aflame, but they never slowed. Instead, I struck at any one monster as they came too close, but my main focus was trying to move forward as quickly as possible. "This way!" I yelled above shrieks to my companion.

"I'm trying. Just go! I'll be right behind you!" He yelled back, and I could barely hear him. The chaos was too much! We had no choice but to try and escape as soon as possible. It was hard to run as the bats and dark corners made it hard to see. They crashed into me repeatedly, and the shrieks and cries were quite deafening. They swarmed like a living cloud of shadow!

I continued to thrash the candle and sword and just ran down any hall that I came next to. When, suddenly, the group all at once vanished. I was so relieved! It was like a clean, free breath after almost drowning at the bottom of a river. The shrieks still cried just as loudly in my ears, and I couldn't tell if they were still calling when they retreated, or if this feeling was just a memory.

The prince tumbled forward, but was able to correct himself in time before he landed on the floor. "Where are they going?" He gasped. "How could they just give up right now?"

"No idea." I answered and was surprised when my voice came out as unsteady as his. "But I'm not standing around long enough to ponder why." I took a breath before turning to the passage in front of us, but it turned out to be a dead end. I sighed, I did not want to go back and risk another attack on us.

"Link," My companion pointed up at the top of the wall. I followed his gaze and noticed that it wasn't a dead end after all, but only a tall ledge. Wonderful! ...But how can we reach it? I thought. "Hoist me up on your back." The prince stated. "Then maybe I can grasp onto the edge."

So commanding! "No, it's too high." I simply replied, but then a thought crossed my mind. What if I could jump up there? "Hold on a minute." I brought out the newest scroll and scanned the words to the chant.

"What are you doing?" He asked, coming nearer. Not only was he still commanding things of me, but then he has to ruin my focus too. I held up my free hand, beckoning him to keep quiet. But if he noticed, he pretended not to. "You're not thinking to cast that, are you? You're a swordsman, not a wizard."

Why can't he remain quiet!? "Just wait and see." And finally, I seemed to convince him, or at least, I convinced him enough to back him away. Now I could study the words and gather the confidence to try and cast it in front of my judging companion. The words came out as an unintentional whisper like I was more concerned if he could hear me or not. But I knew he heard, and I couldn't let him decide that I can't cast a simple spell even if I tried.

I looked up at the ledge and spoke the words again, this time louder and free. Nothing appeared to have happened on the outside, but I knew that it worked. The magic made me feel lighter, like it was holding my weight up, and was only waiting for me to use it. The prince was patient now, he waited quietly and still, but still looked as if this was hopeless.

I was no prouder to prove him wrong!

I even felt like I didn't need to gather distance to clear this two-story jump. I embraced the spell's light feeling, and jumped straight up. I honestly didn't know what to expect, so the light feeling in my stomach came as a shock when I soared almost too close to the ceiling! I tried desperately not to scream as I flew up easily over the top of the high cliff and then began to fall just short of hitting my head! I positioned my stance in the air so I could land on my feet. But I couldn't keep it, and I gritted my teeth when I let a groan slip out from the urge to yell that still lingered. In the end, I had leaned too far forward to land nicely, and I met the ground on my belly and slid ahead a few inches on my face.

"Link!" His Highness yelled. My heart still pounded, and I remained where I was in the dirt, lying on my stomach, and trying to recover my wits. "Link, are you all right?!"

Once when I moved to stand up, I expected to find myself in a lot of pain. After all, I flew two stories to crash suddenly down, but the only evidence of my clumsy landing was dirt, I was covered in it. The elder in Ruto was right; the spell was hard to use as a novice, but I wondered why I couldn't feel the force of my landing? Did the spell protect me from it? I suppose it would make sense, after all, who would use a spell that will let you leap incredible distances if the landing would kill you everytime you used it?

Those thoughts made me realize just how foolish it was to cast a spell that I wasn't really sure about. If that fall wasn't protected, I would have been in a world of trouble right now! I brushed off the dirt from my tunic. The dust swirled into a small cloud as I did before it floated gently to the ground. My companion continued to call, and I turned to acknowledge him down the edge. "I'm fine," I answered. "Now it's your turn!" I moved to toss the spell down at him, but I shouldn't have been surprised when he wove his hands as he also shook his head.

"No way!" He declined. "I'm not even the slightest of a magic-user. I didn't think you were, but I see you have it in you."

What? "This is only my second spell, I thought just as you did, but everyone has to start somewhere."

"See? That's my problem; I'm not even interested in learning magic!" He called. I wanted to continue to argue his point, because now he was just slowing us down. But I knew he wouldn't change his mind. "Can you just lower some rope or something?"

The thoughts in my head seemed to slow down time. Here he was, the royal, annoying prince of Hyrule, stuck at the bottom of the cliff, and I was above it. I thought to yell at him that if I chose to do nothing about it, then he would be forced to stay, but I held my tongue. That statement was just too real! He waited quietly for me to do something, but I didn't know what I was doing.

I never wanted him on this quest... He only got in my way, and accused my actions and thoughts. Now may be my only chance to be rid of the endless pestering. I didn't know what to say. I looked behind me, fresh air tinged with a scent of clean rain brushed invitingly through the exit that led outside.

That led to the swamp.

"Link, we should be going." He spoke. "You know what? Just toss me the spell, I'll try to cast it."

"I don't need you to slow me down anymore." I responded, surprised that I spoke them aloud.

"What!?" He called. "What do you mean? You're not leaving me here!"

Again, I felt the command in his voice. "This is my quest!" I yelled. "Go home, I will come back with the Triforce to wake Zelda."

Now he caught on to my intentions. "No, Link!" He begged back as I turned my back on him and headed for the exit. "Link! Don't leave me here!"

His voice chased me until I was out of earshot. But I didn't turn, and I didn't yell anything back. My conscious nagged at me and tried to slow my steps, but I kept walking until I stood outside. The rain had slowed to a small sprinkle, and the sun glimpsed through small windows in the moving clouds when it could.

I still felt bad for leaving Zelda's brother behind, but I told myself not to. After all, he proved himself worthless, and now I could find the rest of the temples on my own without his pestering. My quest has been slowed enough already, I wasn't going back.