A/N: In continuing with my two chapters per page theme, here's chapters five and six!

Chapter 5

As I walked down the hallway, something caught my eye. Actually, it was pretty hard not to notice it. A big, overgrown spider in the shape of a skull watched me from its perch on the ceiling. A skulltula. When I said big, I mean BIG, too. A skulltula is at least as big as the average person, and pretty intimidating. That is, unless you happen to know that the skulltula is more bark than it is bite. Sure, they can give you a bit of a sting, throwing you backwards while they're at it, but they can be easily taken down from a distance. I aimed my hookshot at it and it went down with a single hit. It fell to the ground and disappeared. I continued on and stepped into the next room, which was, consequently, the "heart" of the Forest Temple.

I scanned the main room, and sure enough, the four torches, which usually keep the elevator running, were put out. If my memory served me correctly, the torches' flames were probably in the possession on the Poe Sisters; Amy, Jo, Beth, and Meg. I had an idea of where to find them, maybe in a picture frame. At least, in my "past experiences," the first three sisters liked to pretend they were pictures, hiding in a frame.

Aside from the flameless torches and the out-of-commission elevator, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. And yet, something in this room made me uneasy. What was it? I looked around again, finding nothing. All I saw was couple of doors, which were all locked. I tried to focus, just listened for a minute. I heard nothing except for the rhythmic background music and the sound of Navi's wings. Wait, that was it. The music. Something was wrong with it, something... different.

"Hey, Navi," I said suddenly. "Do you hear that sound?"

"What?" she asked. She listened for a minute. "You mean that swishing sound?"

"Yeah. It sounds like it's coming from right . . . above . . ."

I looked up. There was a torch, floating in the air close to the ceiling. "Torches don't just float like that," Navi observed.

"Thank you, Navi," I replied sarcastically. "I really had no idea that torches were not supposed to float in mid air all by themselves." Navi didn't answer.

Suddenly, it clicked. "Show yourself, poe!" I yelled. A poe materialized, her hand carrying the torch.

"I was wondering how long it would take for you to figure it out," she giggled. It was Amy, the

youngest of the Poe Sisters.

"Hello, Amy," I sighed.

"Hello, Link," she replied, "Long time, no see."

"What?" I asked, surprised. "How... How do you..."

"How do I remember you?" She finished for me. "Well, I am a ghost, after all. Ghosts can remember everything. Past, present, even a little bit of the future. Or things that happened, and yet at the same time did not happen."

"So, you can remember what was actually erased after I beat Ganon." I realized. "Which means that you also remember fighting me. You know that in one-on-one combat, you'll lose."

"Very good!" she applauded. "So you're not so dense after all. Yes, I do remember losing to you. That's why I'm trying a different approach this time. I won't make the same mistakes twice."

"No," I agreed. "You're probably going to make new ones." I grabbed for my bow, and quickly fired an arrow in her direction. Too quickly. The arrow missed its mark by about a foot.

"Ha!" Amy laughed. "You're not a very good marksman, are you?"

"That's what you think," I muttered under my breath. I fired another arrow. This one hit its mark. Amy dropped the torch, clutching her middle.

"No!" she exclaimed. The torch itself dropped to the ground and abruptly disappeared. It's flame, however, stayed floating in the air, gently drifting over to one of the torches that were supposed to run the elevator. With one of the four torches lit, the room seemed somewhat brighter.

"You . . ." Amy gasped. "I was only careless! I'll get you next time!" And with that, she disappeared. Not defeated, I was sure of that. I knew I'd be seeing her again soon. However, she did leave another thing behind. A large, silver key. I quickly grabbed it. I would need it, since every other door in the room was locked.

Chapter 6

I randomly picked a door, the one on my right. This door led into another section of courtyard.

"Well," I started, "What do I-"

"Shh!" Navi whispered. "There's someone here!" Sure enough, she was right. I could hear voices coming from around the corner. I wasn't close enough to understand, so I edged a little closer.

"Wait, guys!" a voice said. "You got it all wrong!" I peeked around the corner, and an odd sight met my eyes. A mob of Stalfos, maybe five or six, had cornered someone, or something. But whatever it was I couldn't see it, because the stalfos were blocking my view. Stalfos are skeletons, fallen warriors with unfinished buisness. Each equipped with a sword and shield, they are one of the more challenging enemies. Timing is everything with these guys, or they could block your hit.

"Really!" the voice said again, more pleading this time. "It wasn't my fault!"

"Yeah, right," grunted one of the stalfos. "Just like it wasn't your fault last time." I could see that the mob was focusing on whatever it was they had cornered, so I chanced stepping out into the open. Nothing. They probably wouldn't have noticed if a bomb had exploded from behind them.

Now that I was almost right behind them, I could see that what they had cornered was a Deku Scrub. One of the stalfos challenged it while the others watched on in amusement. "I say we teach him a lesson," the leader said, indicating the quivering Deku Scrub.

"Yeah!" another agreed, and the leader brought down his sword. He missed on purpose. They were teasing it! Poking and kicking at it. The little Deku started spitting deku nuts in defense. The leader stalfos blocked them with his shield, and the mob began to laugh as the deku nuts bounced away harmlessly. What could a little deku scrub do to them?

Suddenly, the leader froze in mid-laugh. Literally. One of the deku nuts hit home, briefly freezing the closest stalfos, the leader of the group. The whole mob silenced. The leader snapped back to his senses, shaking himself.

"You'll pay for that!" he promised. He raised his sword. The deku scrub grimaced, bracing itself for the swipe that would end it all.

I couldn't just stand back and watch. He'd kill it! On the other hand, a mob of six stalfos is nothing to laugh at. I weighed the two choices.

"It's just a deku scrub, Link," Navi said. "It's none of your buisness anyway. Just leave it alone..." She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than me. I had already made up my mind anyway.

"This is why you will regret ever knowing me!" The leader yelled.

"I don't think so!" I yelled back. Everything stopped as four, five, all six stalfos turned to look at me.

"Did you say something, worm?" The leader scowled, but he took his sword away from the deku scrub. It breathed a small sigh of relief, but still looked terrified.

"Yes," I answered. "I did. You'd better pick on someone your own size!"

"Like you, for instance?" He snarled back.

"Exactly," With all of the Stalfos currently facing me, the deku began to edge away. It tiptoed to the edge of the mob, then raced as fast as it could over to me, trying to hide behind me. The mob began to close in on me.

I was a little less cocky now. I had fought stalfos before, even as many as three at a time once. But six?

The leader lunged at me. Navi turned bright red, and flew in front of the undead skeleton's face, blinding him. He missed me, and hit the dirt. I was starting to think that maybe this wouldn't be so bad. The other five of the stalfos were merely watching their leader and I duke it out, waiting to see who would win.

While he was still trying to get his bony butt back off the ground, I took the opportunity to hack him with my sword. Enraged, he quickly got to his feet and delivered a retaliating blow with his sword.

"Argh!" I grunted. The skeletal warrior's cocky smile faded as I jumped back up and stuck him once, twice, three more times with my sword. And yet, he was still standing! It was obvious why this guy had been appointed leader, he seemed a lot stronger than the average stalfos.

So far, the deku scrub had been cowering behind a nearby bush. It was shaking like a leaf, watching the battle. It wasn't going to be of any help.

The stalfos recovered from the blows surprisingly fast, and hit me in the side of the head with the blunt of his sword. The next thing I knew, I was down on the ground.

"Link!" Navi cried. She rushed at the leader's face, distracting him for the moment. I used that moment to get back to my feet, but the world was spinning. I saw at least four identical stalfos in front of me, each one trying to shoo the fairy that was Navi. I knew I wouldn't be able to hurt him until I fully recovered from the hit. It was time to use another approach. I took out my Nayru's love crystal and activated it, forming a protective barrier around me.

The leader finally managed to get rid of Navi. He smirked, seeing that I was still dizzy. I took it that he didn't realize what the blue thing around me was. Even as my head started to clear up a little, I saw a blurry stalfos charging at me.

I felt nothing, but my head was finally clear. It was a good thing too, because Nayru's love was starting to wear off. When I looked again, I saw the stalfos once again getting back up off the ground.

I backed up a bit, far enough so that he couldn't reach me with his sword.

"Aww, look," he sneered. "The coward's running away!" The mob behind him laughed at this.

I took out my bow and aimed an arrow at the laughing stalfos leader. He was still laughing as I took him down and out with a single well-aimed shot to the skull. The other five stalfos in the mob gasped in horror as their fallen leader slowly faded into nothing.

"You," said one of the remaining stalfos. "You're gonna pay for that!"

The other five charged at me, and all hell broke loose.

***

I swiped my sword again and again, half the time not even sure if I was hitting my mark. I could smell blood. Probably mine, because I don't think undead skeletons bleed. I felt the impact of another sword, but the pain didn't follow. I was too caught up in the battle to feel pain. The pain would come. Later, after the adrenaline rush of the battle wore off.

I had managed to take out two of the six, but the other three were still fighting hard, and I was wearing out. Three against one, not my idea of a fair fight. Well, maybe three against two. Navi helped me the best she could.

"Behind you!" Navi shouted. I whipped around just in time to see the sword heading my way. I dodged, just in time. The blade sliced past me, embedding itself in the dirt. I would have aimed for the stalfos while he was still trying to yank his sword out of the ground, except that would have made me a clear target for the others.

I took out my Din's Fire crystal, and threw it to the ground. It released a circle of fire, starting at me and spreading outwards. Two of the stalfos had enough sense to block the hit, but the one who was concentrating on removing his sword from the dirt wasn't so lucky. When the fire ceased all that was left of him was a pile of charred ashes, the same kind you might find in a burnt-out fire pit.