CHAPTER 12


The yellow syrupy liquid of the pit splashed as he fell face first into it. Sage got up to his knees and was brought down by a kick to his head from an armored foot.
"Master, it is gone."
......
"Yes, Master."


Chained to a table, Sage looked up to see a grinning Gaul'ramm.
"Ah, I see you are awake, Sage." Sage pulled his chains, his injured joints screamed at the effort. "Don't even try, you can't get out."
Poes flew around the table as Gaul'ramm continued. "You should feel honored by Ganon's request. It is not everyday he chooses someone to assist in his...endevors."
"Tae hell wi' ye!"
Gaul'ramm didn't take offence to Sage's outburst, or at least he didn't show it. "Stubborn to the end I see, very well."
Gaul'ramm signaled and a poe floated up the to knight with a long, thin tube. "This is the last chance you are going to get before things get," he smiled. "messy."
Sage spat at him, but missed.
"You know, a simple 'no' would have sufficed."
"You're nae worth the trouble, ye slimy piece of sh-"
"Alright," Gaul'ramm interrupted. "But, remember, you brought this on yourself."
Gaul'ramm signaled to a different poe. The yellowed eyed ghost floated over with a bottle with a black...liquid? Sage pondered, or at least as much as his pained racked mind allowed him to. It swirled and billowed like smoke from a fire.
"A rather nasty little thing it is." Gaul'ramm said, peering into the bottle.
"Yer nae gaen tae get awa' wi' this!" The poe shoved the tube down Sage's throat, gagging him. He could see Gaul'ramm open the bottle and started pouring it down the tube.
'Oh God, it burns! Em! Link! Zelda! pl-please,...save....me'

******

Sage's eyes flung open. He ran his shaking hand through his messed hair.
'Man, that'll be in there fer a while.' Sage thought, remembering the dream about his possession.
Emily stirred and looked up at him. "You Okay?"
After kissing the top of her head, Sage said. "Aye, I'm fine, just a bad dream that's all. Gae back tae sleep."
Nodding sleepily, Emily closed her eyes, yawned once and fell asleep.
Listening to Emily's peacefull breathing, Sage leaned his head against the cavern wall, waiting for sleep. It did not come easy.

******

A few hours later, Link roused the group. Everyone was stiff from sleeping on the rocky floor, but sleep was sleep as far as they were concerned. The rest seemed to help Link the most, although his eyes were still red from crying for Perrin's death.
The heat kept growing as they continued down the corridor. Every once in a while they would be confronted by a pack of moblins or a squad of stalfos, but were not that much of a problem.
Soon, the four came to a large room with a circular pillar sticking out of a lava pit.
"Great, dead end." Emily complained.
A shrill roar came from beneath the molten rock.
"Uh, oh..." Link said worriedly.
"Uh, oh? Why Uh oh??" Sage asked unsure.
The high pitched roar came again. "I know that roar," Link said, drawing the master sword. "Its-"
A huge red Asian style dragon flew up from the lava. It's green eyes glowed eerily in the lava colored light. It's orange-yellow shaded hair flowed down from the top of the dragon's head, running the length of it's body.
"Volvagia." Link continued, groaning.
"Link, how!?" Zelda asked amazed at the fire dragon ascending from the lava. "I thought you destroyed it when you-"
"I did!, Ganon must've reincarnated it again!"
As Volvagia hovered above them, Sage leaned over to Link. "How, exactly dae we beat this thing?"
Link opened his mouth, but another voice answered Sage's question.
"Like this!!"
The four looked over and saw a rotund brown figure that had three spikes of hair coming from his head. He had two streaks of white on each of his cheeks. In his meaty hands he held a huge, shinning hammer.
"Why is there a giant potato running our way?" Sage asked.
"Its not a potato, Sage." Emily stated. "Its a Goron!"
"Darunia!" Link and Zelda called out the same time.
Jumping and rolling from a swipe of Volvagia's hand, he reached the group.
"Darunia, what are you doing here?" Link asked happily.
"This is Death Mountain, is it not Brother? I just happened to be in the neighborhood..."
"So you thought that you'd drop in?" Zelda asked Darunia jokingly.
"You might say that your majesty."
Volvagia's cry brought them back to the danger that faced them.
"Any ideas?" Emily asked looking at the rest.
After all of them dived from a blast of fire from the mouth of Volvagia, Link stood. "Hmm, I think that I do." Link explained quickly. "Sage and I will distract that freak," Sage nodded, "then, Zel and Em will hit it with a blast of ice powers to cool it down, so to speak. That's where you come in." He said pointing to the leader of the Gorons. "When Volvagia is stunned you smash it's brains out with the megaton hammer."
"Everyone know what to do?" Link asked looking at each his companions. After everyone nodded, Link gave the go ahead.
Swords in hand, Sage and Link ran out onto the center of the rock pillar. Link shouted. "Hey, firebug, remember me?"
Seeing Link and Sage, the fire dragon screamed and dove head long at the two spewing fire.
"Yikes! Close one! I'll take that as a yes!" Sage shouted jumping out of the way.
Turning, Volvagia made another attempt to get it's revenge on Link.
"Zel! Em! Now!"
"You ready?" Zelda asked Emily.
Nodding solemnly Emily, along with Zelda started to channel the arctic winds. Their auras turned pure white as they brought up their hands and shouted "Arctic Ice Blast!"
The air directed from the freezing lands of the world of Hyrule blasted Volvagia. Shuddering from the force of the blast it let out an ear piercing yell.. Snow started to swirl around the mystical fire dragon, chilling the air around it. Waving it's claws, Volvagia started to descend from its lofty position in the cavern. The dragon's body finally hit the ground writhing in agony.
Darunia twirled the megaton hammer above his head, and slammed it down on Volvagia's head repeatedly until nothing was left but a mushy pile of blood, bone, and brain. Lifting the hammer from the splattered head, Darunia said. "Nice plan, Brother!" Link beamed triumphantly.
After they congratulated each other on how well they did in their part of the plan, Darunia said. "Well, Brother, it was a wonderful experience helping you defeat that ugly monster again, but I must return to the Chamber of Sages to rest."
"Thank you Darunia, I hope to see you again soon!" Link said waving as Darunia stared to fade from view.
"Good bye Brother! And, try not to let this happen again, Okay?" Darunia answered teasingly, his voice echoing through out the cavern.
Shaking his head with a smile on his face, Link followed the others as they left the cavern.

******

Eventually, the four came back to where Sage had picked which tunnel to go to.
"Okay, sae I think we should take the right tunnel this time." Sage said jokingly.
"Really, you think?" Link said sarcastically.
"Link, don't start it." Zelda warned him as her aura glowed gold.
"Oh yes Linky, we wouldn't want you fighting now would we?" Ganon's voice came out of no where. "That way I could beat you all the easier! Mwhahahhaha!!"
"Ganon you Gerudo bastard! You are gonna pay for what you did to Perrin!" Link shouted at the top of his lungs at the ceiling.
"Oh, yes poor Perrin. I feel sorry, I really do." Ganon's voice hid laughter that almost made it to his lips. His voice grew dark. "Sorry that I didn't do it with my own hands! "
"Ganon, if there's killin' tae be dane, then I'm the one that's gaun tae be goin' it!"
"Oh, yes, I should be afraid of a man who wares a dress."
Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Sage sighed. "I give up, I'm nae gaun tae argue about that anymore."
"I will see you all very soon." And with that, the voice of Ganon disappeared.
"Well," Emily said in a false happiness. "Now after that uplifting little talk I say we get some sleep."
They all agreed fully and were soon asleep.

******

"Stop, thief!" A shopkeeper yelled.
Looking up from the piece of jewelry he was thinking of buying Zelda, Link saw a boy being pursued by a couple of soldiers and a very angry shopkeeper.
'This ought to be fun.' Link mussed as he put down the gold and jade chain.
He was amazed at the boys speed and agility ducking and weaving through the crowded market place. 'Hmm, this could be more entertaining than I first thought.'
Running through the crowd, the boy found a horse whose name just happened to be Epona. The boy jumped on the horse and rode off through the market place.
"Link!" A soldier said running up to him, out of breath. "That boy just stole Epona!"
Taking out his ocarina, Link said with a broad smile, "Not to worry." He played Epona's song.
Epona reared up and stopped. She then turned around and trotted back to Link. The boy frantically trying to turn Epona around all the way.
When Epona reached Link, the brown haired boy found spears pointing at his throat. A very nervous smile upon his lips. "Uh, hi." He said as he begun to raise his hands.
******

A soldier unlocked the rusty cell and Link walked in. The boy looked up from where he was sitting.
"I was quite impressed by your little show back there, too bad you decided to try and steal the wrong horse." Link said smiling.
The boy sat in silence, his head hung. Link frowned thoughtfully. 'Hmmm, this could be could be tricky' "Can you at least tell me your name, or can't you talk?"
Still looking down the thin boy mumbled. "Perrin."
"Well, Perrin." Link said as he put his hand on the boy's slender shoulder. "You've got two choices. One: you can stay down here for a few years. Or, Two: Be my student so that those skills of yours can benefit Hyrule instead of burden it."
Link started walking out of the cell, saying. "I hope you will make the right choice, Perrin."
Link, with tears in his eyes was looking down at Perrin's body again. "Perrin, I'm sorry I couldn't save you this time." The deceased Perrin's face started to morph and twist. Link's eyes widdened in terror for it was not the youthful Perrin's face that filled his eyes, but that of the sick and twisted face of Ganon.
"You killed him!" the face of Ganon said in Perrin's voice. "Its all your fault!"
"No! No! I-it was you, Ganon, that did it!" Link stammered, backing away from Perrin's body.
"You killed him, you killed him..." Ganon repeated over and over.
Link covered his ears and started rocking back and forth, tears streaming down his face. "No, its wasn't me, it wasn't me." Link said in an almost chanting tone.

******

"No! It wasn't me!" Link screamed as his eyes popped open. His breathing came in shallow gulps.
Zelda awoke with a start from Link's stomach where her head had been laying. "What wasn't you? Link...?"
The commotion woke Sage and Emily. "What's going on?" Sage said groggily.
Link buried his head in Zelda's shoulder, dampening her dirt faded collar. As Zelda sat stroking Link blonde hair assuring his that everything was alight.
"MWHAHAHAHAHAAA!!, did someone have a magic enduced nightmare?" Ganon's voice echoed on the stone walls. "I do so love to play with your mind Link, not that I have much to work with." After laughing more, Ganon continued. "I can't wait to see you all again. I just hope nothing bad happens to you on the way." His laughter faded away and they all sat quietly.