____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Raya, a descendant of Link, has found some of her mother's stories to be true. The ocarina, for instance, really is magic and may indeed have been used by Link. She used it to revive Sprite, the fairy princess who is now her travelling companion. Sprite claims to have known Link personally, but Raya doubts if she's telling the truth, or is incredibly senile. They are making their way into the pits, not knowing what is in store for them. Little do they know that someone is watching them and waiting to ambush.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
They climbed for hours. It was getting so dark that Raya couldn't see the rungs of the ladder. She shuddered to think that her next step could be thin air. Sprite entertained her with stories and occasionally told fairy jokes or sang songs. Right now, she was sleeping. She didn't snore, but she talked constantly, annoying Raya.
Raya had heard that an animal called a 'bat' resided in caves and ate small insects. She also heard that bats drank the blood of elves. Either way, she did not want to come face-to-face with one of them.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of flapping wings and eerie squeeks. Something brushed against her. She screamed, waking Sprite.
"Wha!?! Wha!?! What's goin' on?"
"I don't know." said Raya, "Something brushed against me. I think it was a 'bat'."
"Bats? I never saw any of them around here."
She pulled at Raya's hair and scanned the place nervously.
"I don't like it here," she said, "I wanna go home."
"Go ahead. You go. I'll continue alone."
"Oh, no, you don't. If you really wanna go down there, I'm coming with you. I might have to heal you."
"But you said-"
"Fine! But if you get eaten by a gleeok or something, don't go crying to me!"
"Ok! Ok! Don't have kittens!"
Raya didn't know what a 'kitten' was, but she had heard her mother use that word before in the fashion she had just used it.
"But I can't have kittens. I'm a fairy!"
"Look, this is no time to be squabbling. We gotta find my ancestors."
"Ok. I'll protect you."
So they continued. Raya saw a bright light eminating from the bottom of the pit. When they reached the bottom, she found it was a torch. There were tunnels in the pit. Raya took the torch, looked at the map and went into the tunnel to the right of the ladder. She sensed that something was watching her.
Suddenly, a creature she thought only existed in the tales her mother told her jumped out in front of her and barked, "Die, M'haara!"
Sprite screamed.
"Moblin!!!!!"
Raya had no time to think. She drew her sword and slashed the moblin. It disappeared without a trace. Raya was shaken. She had never had to deal with such an aggressive opponent. No one did. She caught her breath while Sprite just hovered in the air with her legs crossed.
"I almost wet my pants," Sprite said, "I didn't know those things still existed."
"Neither did I." said Raya, "But something tells me we're being watched. That moblin knew my name. Someone wants us dead."
_____________________________________________________________________________________
"That fool! He ruined it! Just like a moblin!"
Daneeva shook her head and looked at Raya and Sprite through her moniter in disgust. Then she turned around and looked in deadly anger at the bottle holding Queen Talia. The perfect outlet for her anger. She took the bottle and dashed it to the floor, killing the fairy inside.
Daneeva looked at the limp, bleeding corpse with satisfaction. Anger vented, she walked out of her private lab, deliberately stepping on the body. Daneeva flicked the mess off her heel and then transformed into a copy of the dead fairy. She had duties to attend to. She had to keep up appearances-for awhile. She would also have to clean the blood and broken glass from the floor. Her plans would come to fruition in time...
_____________________________________________________________________________________
There were more moblins and some creatures called wizzrobes. That crash-course Raya's mother gave her sure came in handy. She found she liked fighting monsters. But something was amiss. The usually talkative Sprite had suddenly become agitated and withdrawn. When asked what was wrong, the ancient fairy would say that everything was fine, that she might just be getting the heebie-jeebies from the dark, unfamilliar area. Raya doubted that that was it. She was worried about Sprite.
"Sprite, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Did I say something was wrong?"
"You've been so quiet." Raya said, "It's not like you. Something is wrong."
Finally, the fairy said, "I don't know. I think I'm going crazy, but I feel that something terrible has happened in my kingdom. I just can't shake that feeling."
She obviously had no understanding of the fairies, Sprite thought. Back in the good old days, people knew to follow the fairy's every gut feeling. But the new initiates didn't know squat.
"There, there," Raya said, "It's probably nothing. Maybe you're just tired."
The fairy yawned.
"Maybe you're right." she said.
She curled up and fell asleep in Raya's hair.
Maybe we should both take a nap, thought Raya. After a couple hours, Raya woke up to find that her torch had burnt out. She just lay awake until the fairy woke up. Sprite wasn't too happy.
"Don't you know about the magic powder?" she said.
"What magic Powder?"
The fairy sighed.
"I'll show you."
Typical elf, Sprite thought.
Just as Raya was going to open her mouth to say that it was pitch black, the torch lit back up again.
"How'd you do that?"
"I used some magic powder." said Sprite.
The fairy produced a small pouch and sprinkled the powder on a nearby torch. The torch lit up, startling Raya.
"Cool trick. Do you know any more?"
"Uh-huh." she said, "Hold out your sword."
Raya set down the torch and held out her sword.
"Now concentrate. Focus all your mental energy on the wall."
She did. Suddenly, she could feel the sword pulsate. A bolt of energy shot out of the sword and hit the wall, opening it. In the room was a well between two statues.
"Sprinkle some powder into the well."
Raya did, and a bat came out, much to her chagrin. She backed up against the wall as the bat shot a bolt of energy at her. When the bat disappeared, she felt stronger, and able to continue.
"Well, well," said Sprite, "You just woke a mad batter."
"My mother told me about mad batters. Said they could make you stronger."
Raya and Sprite continued through the tunnels of the pits, watching their backs for more asassans.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, back at the Fairy kingdom, Daneeva, disguised as Queen Talia, sat on the throne, faking interest in the court jester. She found the fool to be rather boring, and couldn't wait for 'night' to come. The Mine-Shaft night was based on a chronometer, and was almost there for the Main Hyrule Region.
She watched the idiot, doing her best to supress a yawn. First thing she was going to do after taking over the mine shaft was to have the good-for-nothing clutz be-headed. Of course, she knew she should enjoy the idiot while she can, because there were mountains of paperwork with her(or Talia's) name on it. That would all end when she and her superior enslaved the world. She created so many assasins that the brat didn't stand a chance.
She laughed to herself, and the jester, satisfied that he finally got a laugh out of the unusually sullen queen, pirrouetted out of the throne room.
Complacent little twit, she thought, you don't know what you're in for. She sighed and walked to her room to sign the tax papers. Then she could get out of the uncomfortable disguise for awhile. The disguise always made her a little stiff.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, Raya and Sprite got closer to the tombs of Link and Zelda. They found many treasures along the way, and also many enemies. They all knew Raya's family name, and they all single-mindedly attacked her. How could anyone know that she was there? To do that, one would have to have a sophisticated piece of surveilance equipement and more cameras than even the Counsel could afford.
She opened a door and walked into a room that was supposed to be filled with treasures. A powerful stench permeated the room and almost knocked Raya and Sprite over. In the room was a large three-headed monster. A gleeok from the legends!
Raya slashed at the gleeok with her sword and felt a stinging pain in her right leg. The monster had shot her with it's lasers. Panicing, Raya powered up her sword and shot at one of the heads, blinding it. The gleeok was furious. It let out a deafening roar and sank its teeth into her side. Raya felt her life-force draining from her, and with one last ounce of strength, she drove her sword into the gleeok.
The gleeok roared in pain and crumpled to the floor, moaning as it slowly dissolved into a puddle of slime.
Raya watched the monster through half-closed eyes. She could feel that she was bleeding from her side, but nothing below her waist. Her legs were numb and she couldn't get up. The world started spinning and her vision was fading. She coughed out something that tasted salty. She was dying.
"Sprite...Sprite..." she said in a weak voice, "Sprite! Mother! Save me..."
Then everything went black.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Daneeva looked at the monitor and laughed. Her plan had worked. The map she gave Raya never said anything about monsters. No one had known that they existed down there. She rounded them up and trained them-all behind the backs of the mine shaft officials. Now that Raya was dead, there was no stopping her.
She put her fairy-disguise on, hopefully for the last time. After she took over the kingdom she would no longer need it.
In the throne room, she said she had an announcement to make and that all of the fairy kingdom and the mine shaft were to be there. The whole mine shaft was stirring. Everyone wanted to know what the queen had to say.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Only Marin smelled something fishy, though she told no one, not even her lover. She called the local officials and said she wasn't feeling well and could not come. Then she huddled by her comm-unit, just knowing that something bad had happend and something worse was about to happen. Marin was ashamed that she didn't follow Raya down to the pits. She was afraid of the pits, because of those horror stories about the bloodthirsty creatures that lived there. She had to ovecome that fear.
When she was satisfied that the streets were empty, she cautiously walked out of her house and proceeded to the entrance to the pits. No one was watching. Marin climbed down. Just then, she heard a voice above her. It was one of the young fairies, a little boy named Dom.
"Marin! Marin! I had a dream last night that the queen was in trouble and someone was hurting her really bad! I told my mommy I had a tummy ache today when I was really feeling fine and she let me stay home."
Marin listened, because it was possible that the child was having the same nagging feeling as she was. Maybe that feeling was right, so she just silently nodded and listened intently as the boy continued.
"I even tookt some medicine from my mommy's medicine cabinet. Please don't tell her it was me or I will be in big trouble and my daddy will give me a spanking."
"Don't worry," Marin said, "Nobody's getting a spanking. You could be right. The queen could be in trouble."
She looked down into the blackness.
"One of my friends could be in trouble too. So I'm glad you brought some medicine," she said.
Dom sat on Marin's shoulder as she climbed down the ladder.
"I'm scared," said Dom, "I hear there are monsters down here."
"Don't worry," said Marin, "I won't let anything happen to you."
Suddenly, her fear went away. She knew what she had to do.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Raya woke up to a loud buzzing sound. It was Sprite, beating her wings in Raya's face. Raya tried to sit up, but she felt a sharp pain in her back and lay down again.
"Just relax while I heal those wounds, yadda, yadda, yadda..."said Sprite, "You took a lot of damage from the gleeok. Never seen one so hungry."
Raya felt dizzy and sick. She closed her eyes again. She could only guess the extent of her injuries. She was too tired to even talk.
Sprite took a vial of some kind of potion and gave it to Raya.
"Drink this." she said.
She tipped the vial to Raya's mouth, making sure not to give her too much at a time and make her choke. Whatever it was, it tasted good, like mint, one of the plants that was used to flavor food. Raya felt the potion work, revitalizing her body and closing the wounds in her stomach and right leg.
"What is this stuff?" she asked.
"It's healing potion. Supposed to cure what ales you, from bug bites to gleeok bites. You're lucky I'm around. Otherwise you'd be dead by now."
Then, Raya sensed something terribly wrong.
"I think we should go back and see what's going on up there."
"You mean, to the surface-" Raya asked, groggily.
"No, the fairy kingdom. Maybe your hunch was right."
They slowly made their way back, and on the way, they bumped into Marin and Dom.
"Oh, Raya! Thank God you're alive!" Marin cried.
"We thought you were in trouble." said Dom.
Raya told them what happened. Dom asked her if she needed some medicine. She said she was fine now. Marin told her that the queen had an announcement to make and that she and Dom smelled something fishy. Dom told them about his dream and even pantomimed the whole thing.
"I dreamed that some mean lady tookt the queen and locked her up in a bottle and then she got mad and killed her and squished her like a bug!"
"Yeah, and now the queen, or a very good facimile is making some strange announcement," said Marin, "This is totally unlike her. She hates public speaking!"
"Uh, huh," said Dom, "But she does like little boys and girls like me. And she gives us candy even when it isn't snack-time or dessert."
"Well, little buddy," said Raya, "How about you stay at Marin's house and be a good fairy while I go and rescue the queen?"
Dom thought about it.
"She'll give you some candy, and she'll read you stories."
"I'm not that good with kids-"
"Please! I really need to get to the bottom of this. And I think Dom likes you. Just keep him entertained."
Marin sighed and gave in.
They decided to head for the palace before it was too late. Marin insisted on climbing up first, just in case someone was waiting for them at the top. Raya looked up and averted her eyes. Marin was not wearing any underwear.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the palace, everyone was wondering what the queen had to say. It was rather odd since she never cared for making speaches.
A hush fell on the crowd as the 'queen' flew into the banquet hall and sat down in the middle of the table.
"I have sad news," she said, "Your queen is dead."
The people looked at each other, bewildered. 'Talia' continued.
"So she has decided that Daneeva Dragmire will be your new queen."
The ersatz queen flew off the table and transformed into the witch Daneeva. A guard ran to stop her, but she began to dissolve even as she screamed, "Traitor!!!"
"Anyone else care to try that?"
No one answered. Daneeva waved her hands and an army of stalfos appeared.
"Take them to the dungens. Seperate the fairies, women, and children under twelve. If anyone tries anything funny, kill them!"
Then she sang 'The Frog's Song Of Soul' and 'The Ballad Of The Wind-Fish' in her low, tenor voice. She even bewitched some of the people because she was so beautiful.
"Arise, O Great Gannondorf, my first father and soon to be king and father of my child!" she cried out.
Life came to Gannon's bones, and he appeared in the room.
"Where am I?" he roared, "Who are you?"
"It is only your humble descendant, Daneeva. I have revived you so together we can anihilate Link's bloodline."
"Bloodline?"
"It's been twenty millenia and the Links you know are both dead. One of their descendants has tried and failed to revive Link and Zelda, but her sisters remain. We must kill them before they kill us.
Ganon looked at her
"Agreed." he said, "I will enjoy eating the little brats-"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Not if I can help it!"
Daneeva whirled around and turned white at what she saw. It was Raya. Alive!
"But-but how? You were dead!"
"Almost dead. Fortunately my fairy knew some magic and revived me."
Daneeva screamed with rage and shot a blast of energy at Raya, but she blocked it with her shield. It hit one of the stalfos and dissolved it. Raya held her shield in position and swung her sword at Daneeva, who vanished.
"Behind you!" one of the hostages yelled, only to be silenced by the stalfos.
Raya turned around and swung at Daneeva, managing to wound her before she disappeared. She was ticked.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back at Marin's house, Dom was getting in to everything.
"No! No! Don't touch! Naughty fairy!"
Then Dom began to cry.
"There, there, don't cry." said Marin, "Here, You can watch TV, or you can play on my computer."
"I can?"
"Sure."
Then she watched in horror as Dom single-handedly erased her files... at least she had back-ups... right?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Come out and fight with some honor!" Raya screamed, "Don't disappear like a coward!"
Then Raya vanashed, to reappear in Daneeva's secret room. Daneeva shot another bolt of energy at Raya, who deflected it with her shield again. The bolt hit Daneeva, injuring her slightly. Then Raya shot a bolt from her sword at the witch. Weakened, Daneeva begged for mercy, but Raya didn't buy it. She fired a final blast at the sorceress, killing her and leaving nothing but ashes.
Back in the banquet hall, the stalfos melted away and Ganon disappeared, leaving the people relieved but worried about Raya. Why didn't she come back? Did Ganon finish the job?
Satisfied that it was over, Raya turned to leave the room, but then she remembered Ganon. Sure enough, he materialized in back of her and attacked her with his pitch-fork. He wounded Raya, but she forgot the pain and just hacked away at the giant pig. Seeing that she was too strong for him, he disappeared.
"I'll get you yet," he said, "See that spot on the floor?"
Raya turned and saw the broken glass and crushed body and knew what had happened. Dom was right...
"You mean-?"
"Yes. It was my beautiful descendant, Daneeva. When I recover, You're next! Ha ha ha ha!!!!"
Alone in the room, Raya looked at the crushed fairy. Then she remembered how she revived Sprite. She took out her ocarina and played The Frog's Song of Soul. The bones of the fairy started to knit together and the wounds healed. The queen became whole again and woke up to see Raya staring at her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Don't you know-" then she remembered. The Talia who gave her the map was really Daneeva.
"I'm Raya," she said, and she explained how Daneeva tricked her and almost had her killed. Then, she played Manbo's Mambo and reappeared in the banquet hall with the real queen.
"Don't worry," Raya said, "This one's the genuine article. Daneeva's gone forever. I'm not so sure about Ganon, though."
The people didn't care. They threw a big party in Raya's honor and gave her some new weapons that would aid her in her quest to defeat Ganon, revive her ancestors, and find the tri-force.
Talia told everyone about her ordeal in Daneeva's lab, how the witch kept her in the bottle with no food or water, and then killed her in a rage. The people were shocked. Never have they heard of such cruelty. At least now the queen was revived.
The grateful fairies healed Raya's wounds and gave her plenty of vials of mint-flavored healing potion.
After a few days, things went back to normal, but Raya knew that it wasn't over yet. She recognized Daneeva as Council member Janet Dragmar. 'Link' was right. The evil was the very thing that was keeping the peace in Hyrule, just like Aghanim twenty millenia ago. Daneeva was an infiltrator, and they evidently knew everything they needed to about the mine shaft. The council had to be disbanded or they would take over her new home.
And Raya would have to find the tri-force before Ganon did, otherwise it would be very difficult to get it back. From what her mother told her, it was hard enough for Link to recover the tri-force. Ganon almost killed him and Zelda. Where would she find silver arrows?
It was going to be a war to end all wars, she thought, as she practiced with her sword. She would need all the practice she could get and a full strike-force if she wanted to defeat Ganon.
To be continued...