Chapter 9: Fantasies come true
Brilliant colors blended together beautifully across the forest floors and wise old trees. Shining and glittering colors surrounded young Karina and her horse. These colors made her journey even more fruitful. But they were nothing compared to colors of Koriri.
Karina saddened. She slumped down on Olpa. The soft mane of Olpa tickled Karina's tanned face and made her smile a bit. Then, she heard a sound in the bushes. "Who's there?" she cried. Her blade sliced the air and most of the branches of the bush.
"Don't kill me!"
It was some sort of small creature with gray hair and charcoal eyes standing fearfully against a tree trunk.
"I'll give you something in return of my safety."
Karina had never seen a creature with fragile hands and a raggedy face.
" I have a stone that you might be interested in-" Karina watched the creature desperately search through its pockets. She wondered why it had holes between its teeth.
"Why do you look so weird?"
The creature paused from searching the item and stared at her. "What do you mean?"
"Why do you look so weird?" She sighed. " I mean, your hands look like they are going to break and your skin appears that it's about to fall off. What happen to your teeth? It seems like you're missing some. And your hair. It's so thin and gray. I have never seen a creature like you before." Karina's eyes blinked in wonder, she never meant to be at all rude to her.
The creature's face began turning to a seething red and her eyes bulge oddly out of her sockets. "How DARE you!!!!!"
Karina blinked, confusion still plaguing her mind.
"Don't you know how to treat your elders? Imagine the disrespect to an old little lady like me. . . Where's your mother, child? I want to give her a piece of my mind."
Karina knew what a mother meant and smiled. " You mean a mother that supposed to take care and nurse you while you're little?"
The little old lady raised an eyebrow. "Of course."
"I don't have one."
"What about your father?"
"He died," Karina replied thinking of the Deku tree.
" It's no use talking to a stubborn child like you. Have this stone anyway though. It has brought so much burden in my path."
The old lady tossed a ruby stone to Karina. She grinned her yellow old teeth. "May I warn you that this stone can bring you a whole world of trouble."
"Thank you, old lady."
The old lady muttered something under her breath and continued on her way.
The ruby stone was the stone that Karina had seen in the many books of the library. This was the second stone in the collection. "Olpa, you see this? We are going to finish in no time. Then, I could rub it in Link's face that I got the stones all by myself with no help from him. This is so great!"
Things seemed to be going her way as she adventured aimlessly through the now thin forest when flashes of red was seen by the corner of her eye. She halted Olpa in her sudden fear.
Karina saw nothing. "It must have been my imagination."
However, she starting to see hundreds of them, flashing through the trees, bushes, and strange orange plants. Hundreds of pairs of ruby eyes appeared out of nowhere and they all surrounded her with their glare.
Olpa began to claw the ground anxiously. "Everything is gonna be okay, Olpa."
Then, they jumped on her with their massive bodies and made Olpa stumble to the ground. Karina screamed and ran as soon as she hit the earth. She forgot about Olpa and went back for her but there were too many of them then and they covered her vision entirely with their black bodies made of rock.
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"That pesky old lady thought she could get away with our ruby. I dare say!"
An angry voice awoken Karina and for a minute or so, she stared at the earth ceiling.
"I can't believe that our fellow gorons got this poor girl confused with that lady. I can imagine how terrified she must have been to see the gorons when they jumped on her. Dear goddesses!"
"I fully understand," another voice said. "We should have been more careful. This girl, though, resembles someone, that mean princess, I think. I still can remember when she tried shutting us gorons within these earth walls without no food thinking we were potentially dangerous to society."
Karina yawned and stretched a little.
"Ah! So you have awoken."
Karina groaned as she saw it was another strange creature.
"Do you feel alright?"
The man who spoke to her had large lips and rough looking skin but she would be wise this time and not say anything, for now she had truly learn her lesson.
She nodded.
"Do you want a cup of water?"
She nodded again.
"Hungry?"
Again she did the same.
"Are you mute by any chance?" the frustrated man said.
"Maybe. . ." Karina replied quietly.
The man heaved out a tired sigh. "Well, then to start things off, why don't you tell us your name?"
"Karina."
"Where do you come from?"
"I don't like answering so many questions. Can I leave now?"
The man hunched his shoulders and gave up. "Yes, you may but do not leave outside of this city."
"Why not?"
"I still need to ask you questions."
"Why?"
He gave her an annoyed look. "Stop asking so many questions and leave!"
Karina slipped off the rock bed and stared at him straight in the eye with a hint of amusement. These childish antics did work even at her mature age (which wasn't that mature at all). "Okay but one more thing, what's your name?"
"Faro! Are you happy?! Now leave! I have other patients to deal with!" A round creature was next to the exasperated man and he stared at her with his large black eyes.
"Don't wander around too much, young one," he said.
Karina hardly paid any heed to the wise man and decided to search for the ruby stone that she no longer had in her possession.
A city divided into levels, she thought, how interesting. She had thought this as she found flowers remained in their buds and all kinds of rough skinned people walking in and out of places that had no doors. Everything had the color brown, dark and rich like good farming soil or light and hard like rock. Yes, that was what this city was made of. Rock.
After half an hour of searching aimlessly, she managed to set eyes on the beautiful gem adorning the simple brown room as its centerpiece. Nothing else was part of this relatively small room and the gem was emphasized even more.
Caught in her excitement, Karina didn't take the necessary precautions she must usually take before stealing something this valuable. Karina carefully picked it up and all of the sudden, a switch was heard through out the petite room plus new voices and shuffling feet now headed towards her direction.
Two stone statues appeared mysteriously out of the very air she breathed and their long spears pointed towards her by both sides. The voices she heard earlier were now closer. Fear gripped at her heart.
"Those gorons are so hardheaded!" Two giggling voices rang the air that was still filled with the soft drumbeats caused by the dripping water of the Lost Woods.
The earth Karina stood liquefied and she began immersing herself in quicksand.
"Getting the stones should be so. . ." Two Gerudos appeared in the entry way and stared at Karina in astonishment then at the stone that she had. "The stone!" They shouted together.
And the following events, were rather a blur for Karina. The Gerudos, in their struggle to acquire the stone, had yanked Karina out of the quicksand by the gem she held and in less than a second, Karina jumped up and made an escape through exit.
Karina held the ruby stone closed to her heart as she raced through the labyrinth she found herself in. Her heart felt as if it would blow up in her chest and the running feet just behind her grew louder by the second. A few minutes trailed by and she suddenly heard no one following her. She looked behind her and saw no one.
That's strange. . ., she thought but any further thought was cut off as she painfully crashed into some scrap metal.
She slowly got up and looked around her. This place that she had run into was darker and more mysterious than where she had came from. Weapons hung about and strange crawling creatures crept in between them.
Then there were the stone statues standing in a sort of ghastly manner with other implements of war. One, standing as rigid as the others, had a beautiful shield with sparkling gems like it would have once been owned by royalty itself. Karina took it in her hands and was impressed.
A statue was smashed into bits by the hard rock floor. The Gerudos had arrived with their air of mysterious danger.
"Little girl, we are going to ask you this once. Give us that gem," demanded the Gerudo with fluorescent green eyes.
Instead of cowering in fear, Karina stood boldly for once. Maybe it was the soup she drank that morning. "No! This is mine and I'm not planning to give it to either of you!" Karina stuck her tongue out and dropped the shield at her feet.
"Why you little …!" The Gerudos neared her and then made a jump for the glowing stone but failed as she ducked and rolled away. "Come back here! That belongs to us!"
One, without warning, flung a blade towards Karina's direction and Karina had to throw herself across the floor to miss the sharp weapon. She desperately got up with helped of a lever and sooner that she might have expected, she had opened a passageway to the outside world where the dull sky brought a little hope to her.
Karina pushed a statue towards the Gerudos before taking the nice shield she had found faced down. In front of her, laid a steep rocky slope that headed to the field of Hyrule where just a little towards the left, was a large lake and an extensive river.
The mountain she stood on reached the sky. Why did it have to be so high? The dizzying affect from lack of oxygen were already taking toll and the Gerudo warriors were almost at their feet. Karina quickly sat on the shield and pushed herself down the slope. Soon, she skidded down the mountainside and she could hear the terrible shrieks of the angry woman behind her.
Nothing could catch me now! she thought gleefully. I'm as fast as the wind.
The Gerudos weren't going to be defeated that easily. They let out a high pitched scream and in seconds, hundreds of other Gerudo warriors surface from behind rocks and just about everywhere.
Karina began to panic. How could this happen when things were going so smoothly? Now, her shield skidded out of control. She tried dodging various figures that came along the way –including the guy in green that was straight in her path.
She knew all the fun had to end sometime. As Karina came to a painful stop, the furious Gerudo warriors surrounded her, their glowing eyes staring. The Gerudo in hot pink spoke now. "Young girl, you have caused us a deal of trouble."
Another said, "She must be thrown in the dungeon for defying us!" Others mumbled in agreement.
This is not what I wished for, Karina thought. I never would have imagined that I would end up in a mountain and evil women would want to kill me because I have a stupid stone. This is not fair.
"We'll see what we can do." A pair of Gerudos grabbed Karina by the shoulders and she was hauled away by the mighty women, friends of Gandondorf.
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Note- Didn't I promise it to be early this time? Hope you enjoy it and I'll get other chapters up as fast as possible. Also review. I want to hear your comments.
-stargazer takile 10
Next chapter: And an adventure unfolds?
