Chapter Two

Skull Mask

Link pocketed the Skull Mask and used the Ocarina to warp to the Lost Woods before the shop owner could do his 'have faith' thing again. Link saw Saria sitting over on a tree stump and went over to talk to her. He took the mask out his pocket and looked at it.

The mask was like a flattened skeleton with horns that were not pointy. Rather round and dull, actually. Saria looked at the mask in Link's hand and frowned.

"That mask…makes me sad. It is depressing, don't you think?" Saria said, Link nodding. "This mask makes me sad for death. Like the fact that we'll all be skeletons someday."

Link sat on the soft grass next to Saria for a while, talking with her. The fact that he needed a new shield and money didn't concern him. He hadn't seen her in so long. He showed her all his new equipment, including the stuff he couldn't use. She liked the

"I really must get going, I have to save Hyrule," Link said brightly. Saria laughed and said goodbye.

"Anytime you wish to speak to me, use Saria's song…" she called after him. Link waved goodbye and walked down the stairs.

Something just occurred to Link as a Deku Nut hit him in the stomach. He didn't have a Deku Shield! He ran past the Deku Scrubs up the wooden ladder. He quickly ran over the tops of the walls of the maze, and dropped down to the ground by the entrance to the other maze.

Link was just about to enter the tunnel maze when something moved in his pocket. He took it out. It was the Stone of Agony one of the cured Skulltula kids had given him…but he never knew what it did.

"The said when it rumbles, there's a secret around. It's never worked before now," Link murmured, getting a bomb out and putting it on the ground.

"That should uncover some secrets!" Link screeched as he ran for cover. The bomb went off and he went flying into a wall.

"Ow," he stated as he walked shakily to where he had placed the bomb. There was a seemingly bottomless black hole in the ground, and he leapt into it.

A bright light blinded Link and a familiar sound entered Link's ears. The sound of trapped souls moaning in droning agony. He blinked twice and two shapes came into view.

"Re-Re-Re-Redeads!! Aah!" Link cried, backing up a little. One tall, brown, featureless form was standing, on sitting with its arms wrapped around its bent knees. The only true feature of the undead Redeads before him was their faces. Their eyes and mouths were round, black holes, and the skin of their faces was shriveled and wrinkly.

As the moaning grew louder, Link edged towards the Redeads. He readied Din's Fire, vaguely wondering if it would work on Redeads.

The flames awakened the Redeads, but did nothing else. Link shrieked and ran, but one of the dead forms latched onto him, sucking out his energy slowly.

"Get…the hell…off!!!" Link cried; jabbing his sword blindly, for the Redead had covered his eyes. Link felt weaker, but he couldn't give up. He swished the sword, and heard a moan.

His Kokiri sword was embedded in the Redead's chest. He unstuck his little dagger and ran for his life.

"Life…"

"Life, give us your life…"

"Give us your soul…"

"Your energy…"

"Your being…"

Link ran towards the light portal as the Redeads called after him. All this trouble for money! He'd have to ask Zelda, wherever she was in the future, for a Saving-Hyrule salary.

Link sat outside the hole, panting. He drank a full bottle of milk that he won at Lon Lon. He felt much better. He sat up and walked lazily through the tunnel maze, subconsciously hiding the fact that he was severely shaken.

Even though he walked with a calm stride, his face was screwed up with a look of surprise, horror, and relief to be alive. He put the Skull Mask on, and kept walking.

Coming to a clearing where he had won his forty-seed Deku Nut bag. He jumped over the fence, and rolled when he landed. He went over to the stump and sat and waited for the Skull Twins. They appeared and took a step back.

"What's with your face?"

"Yeah, you turning into a Stalfos?"

"That'd be cool, we could play all day!"

"Hey, yeah!"

"Yeah!"

Link quickly removed his mask and the Skull Twins looked disappointed. At least, they looked as disappointed as they could with masks on. Link began to leave.

"Hey, Link!" one of the twins called. Link turned, and stopped walking.

"You seen that faceless fool over on the lone stump, huh?"

"Yeah, isn't he ugly?"

"Yeah, he has no face!"

"He's a disgrace to Stalfos everywhere!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Yeah!

Link sighed and walked away, climbing the wooden ladder. The Skull Twins shrugged and flipped off the stump and disappeared.

"Jeez, if the Skull Twins talk about that kid over there, he must have it really tough," Link thought aloud, suddenly going over towards the kid's stump.

Link stepped onto the smaller stump and waited. Within moments the faceless Stalfos appeared. His eyes were sad looking, and but he managed a friendly tone.

"Hey, Link," he said, sitting down on the stump.

"Hello," Link replied. The Skull Mask in his pocket was poking him, so he took it out. The faceless kid jumped off the tree stump and hurried to the mask.

"Hey! This looks just like the mask the Skull Twins wear!" the kid turned to Link. "Can I buy from you? I'll give you ten rupees I st-…I mean, found they other day!"

This clicked with Link, the mask was worth thirty, but this kid was only giving him ten rupees. The kid fitted the mask to his face, and tossed two blue rupees at Link.

"You can call me Skull Face! Bye!" Skull Face called, happily vanishing into the forest.

"Wait! Oh…guess I need to pay the rest…argh, I'll come back here someday!" Link grumbled, warping to the Temple of Time grudgingly.

"Is something wrong? You don't have the mask, but you don't look happy," the owner of the Mask shop commented as Link stormed in.

"I'm happy," Link said, forcing a gruesome fake grin onto his face. He slammed thirty rupees on the counter. "Give the next mask, please."

The shop owner handed Link the new mask.

"Just have faith…"