Nature Sage - Ch 7
Sorry. One thing I'm really bad at is endings. :deep breath: Here it goes..
Princess Zelda awoke with a start. Her dream had been so vivid.. so real.. She decided to go talk to Malon.
She knocked on the door of one of the guest suites. "Come on in," Malon said, in a cheerful voice. Zelda did.
"Hey, last night I had a dream, and I wanted to talk to you about it," she said. Malon smiled. She was so understanding.
"Go ahead," she said, continuing to brush her hair.
Zelda took a deep breath. "Well, supposedly, yesterday you defeated Ganondorf's Evil Realm, and it's back to being the size of a tiny little speck. Now, in my dream, he wasn't gone. Just.. not where we thought he was." Malon kept nodding thoughtfully, her brush gliding more slowly through her hair. "And there was this circle of gems.. but we didn't have all of them. There were so many of them, but only eight of us.."
"Do you know where this place is?" Malon asked, putting down her brush.
"Yes, I do. Come with me," the Princess said, leading Malon out of the room.
Zelda took Malon out behind the castle. There was a moss-covered hillside, with what looked like a handle coming from it. "Oh, my gosh!" Zelda gasped. "There is a handle in this hill!"
Malon raised an eyebrow. "You mean, after all this time you've lived here, you never noticed a shiny, gold thing sticking out of the ground?"
"Well, soorrrrry. I'm not the most observant person in the world," Zelda scoffed. "Let's just go in."
She went over and opened the 'door' in the hillside. A beautiful, white light poured from inside. A voice called to her, as well.
"Princess! At last, you've arrived!" Navi cheered. "You must come inside, and quickly!" The girls shrugged and followed Link's guardian fairy into the chamber.
"Here is the Circle of Nature Gems," Navi said. "All of the Nature Sages have to put their respective gems into these slots. Then, it is said that a legendary magic rod will appear inside of it."
Malon ran her hand along the openings in the circle. "But there's so many," she said softly. "We've only got seven!"
"Well, the largest slot is for the Princess Zelda," Navi explained. "But the rest are all Nature Sages, such as yourself."
Zelda paused. "I don't know what any of their 'respective gems' are! I don't even know what mine is!"
"Well, the first three are fairly obvious, don't you think?" Navi asked, landing on the slot for Zelda's Gem. "Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald.. the Three Spiritual Stones?"
"So there are Spiritual Stones for each one of these twelve Sages?" Malon asked hopefully.
"No," Navi laughed, "that would make them far too easy to find!"
The Sages' faces fell. "Then how do we know which exact gems are ours?" Zelda demanded.
"They will let you know," Navi said. She snapped her tiny fingers. "Freya! Come tend to the Sages in their quest!"
Another fairy flew in, but this one was a very vivid green color. It was unlike any fairy either of the girls had ever seen. Then again, it was one of the only fairies the girls had ever seen.
"I'm Freya," the fairy said politely, "and it seems Navi wants me to guide you. Perhaps you are truly guiding me, for - "
"Freya!" Navi yelled. "Fairies don't talk unless required to do so!"
"Sorry."
Zelda and Malon returned to Hyrule Castle with Freya flying silently close behind. They immediately found Link waiting for them in the main hallway.
"I finally figured it out!" he said, grinning. "I'm the Ice Sage! With my powers of snow and blizzards, I prevent winter from ever coming to Hyrule!"
Zelda rolled her eyes. "Link, get over it. You're not a Sage. You're the Hero of Time."
Link slouched and went back to his room.
"Maybe there really is an Ice Sage," Malon reasoned. "It's worth a thought. Who could it be?"
"Probably Ganondorf," Ruto said, just then walking into the room. "Darkness is - "
"Darkness!" Malon and Zelda cried together. "The opposite of light!"
Ruto paused. "Um, yeah. And up is the opposite of down.."
"That means that Ganondorf could be the Sage of Darkness. Rauru has no room in is good heart for evil.." Malon began.
"And the opposite of a good heart is an evil one," Zelda finished.
"What are you talking about?" Ruto asked finally.
"Smoke Sage? No, who would want that?"
"Sky Sage?"
"Definitely!"
Ruto cleared her throat. "WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT!?!?!"
"There are four new Sages that we have to find," Malon explained. "We're trying to figure out what they are. I think we have them."
"They are: the Sage of Ice, Sage of Sky, Sage of Smoke, and Sage of Darkness," Zelda added triumphantly.
"Sage of Smoke? Who would want that?"
Malon turned to their new fairy companion. "How, exactly, are we supposed to find these Gems and Sages?"
Freya glowed a bit brighter. "Well, the Gems will contact you. The Sages will be awaiting you at the end of your path. At least, that's what the legends say.." She giggled.
"Maybe the Sage of Clouds. Not smoke!" Ruto said.
Zelda paused for a moment. "Come to think of it, I don't recall there being a hill behind the castle.."
"Sage of Air!" Link yelled, coming back down the stairs. "That's me! Can I have my medallion?"
"I'll lead you to the first gemstone," Freya said proudly. "Organize a team of four or five, and we'll be off in a few hours."
"You know where that is?" Malon asked hopefully.
"Of course!" the fairy laughed. "How else would you start off an adventure?"
A young maiden sat sharpening her dagger in the forest on the other side of Death Mountain. She had a small area cleared out, with a rock in the center. She sat there in a long, dark cloak, with a veil over her face.
She heard voices approaching, and turned around. Five people, it sounded like, were making their way through the forest to New Grove Village, which was a ways down the mountain. It was strange; no one had come through these woods for more than five years.
A brilliant, green fairy shot into view, then turned back to wait for the others. The girl thought that fairies were amazing creatures, and went nearer to it. It turned around, frightened.
"Yaaaaah!" Freya yelled, flying back to Zelda.
"What? What happened?" Malon asked, trying to comfort the poor thing.
"Th - there was a girl trying to capture me!"
"I wasn't trying to capture you," she said, annoyed. "I simply wanted a closer look. I've never seen a real, live fairy before."
Zelda smiled warmly, as she had been taught to do when meeting people, though she didn't trust this girl one bit. "I am Zelda, the Princess of Hyrule. What's your name?"
The girl stared at Zelda for a moment, seemingly deciding on the spot what her name was going to be. "Leona," she said finally. "I live down in New Grove. What do you want, Princess?" she asked, in a slightly harsh tone.
Zelda looked as if she was about to say something very rude, so Malon decided to take over. "We're looking for some Gemstones. I'm Malon, the girl from the farm, and this is Nabooru and Link. Oh, and Freya, the fairy."
Leona looked at Link. "I am honored and happy to meet you, Hero of Time. I have worked tirelessly to be as skilled as you."
"Now, let's watch his head grow too big for his body, causing him to topple over, his head hitting the ground and exploding like a melon," Nabooru whispered. Zelda and Malon giggled quietly.
"Well, I am extremely good with a sword," Link said, shaking Leona's hand. "But I'm sure you're a formidable enemy," he added.
"I've just finished polishing this moonstone," she said, holding it out for Link to see. "Perhaps it will help you?"
"Maybe," Link considered , lifting it from her hand. "I don't know if any of the Sa - OWWW! Hey!"
Zelda smiled sweetly, patting him on the shoulder. "We don't want to ruin any surprises," she said through gritted teeth. "Thank you for the Gem. Now, shall we resume our journey?"
Everyone nodded.
"Good. Leona, perhaps you could do us the pleasure of lunch sometime?"
"Oh, I couldn't," she said, readjusting her veil. "My trainer says to spend some more time in the mountains."
"What a pity. So, let's go," the Princess said, starting down the mountain.
Everyone followed Zelda down, but Leona grabbed Malon's shoulder as she was about to leave. "I just want to warn you, girl of the farm," she said quietly. "The town down there may...not be very friendly to Zelda. She deserves it, but not you or Link. Nabooru.. she's royal trash. Just watch your back, okay?." With that, she went back to her cleared area on this unknown side of Death Mountain.
Malon watched her walk away, then went to catch up with her fellow Sages and Link.
-+-chapter seven: complete-+-
This obviously is no longer the end of the story. It was going to be, but some people thought that chapter six did not really show an ending.. so I came up with this brilliant idea and now have quite a few more chapters in store for you wonderful people! =) There's kind of a lot going on towards the beginning, and I realize it's a little hard to follow.. but there's like 25 Sages staying there (most of them asleep still), what do you expect? And, I figure that just because Link wasn't allowed to go to the other side of Death Mountain in the game doesn't mean it's not part of Hyrule, right?
So, as always, please review and chapter eight out soon!