Chapter six! Yeah! Took me long enough, heh. Well, I apologize for that, and I blame school! I got a lot of that story written over February vacation, (well, actually, all of it), and it'll take me longer to get up chapters than it did before. (I wouldn't be writing this chapter right now if Marching Band hadn't been cancelled! Only the drummers didn't have to go, so, score one for me!) Anyways, enjoy. Oh! And the Malon thing in the last chapter will come into play LATER in the story for those who were asking. And the guy with the red eyes in the tavern was Sheik.

Disclaimer: how many words can you make out of "disclaimer?" A, aim, is, dim, I'm…

*Arden*

"What's wrong, Link?" I asked as we sped quickly away from the peaceful ranch.

"Nothing, it's just that I have a lot to show you," Link replied, slowing down towards the outer western side of Castle Town. I could tell he was lying. Oh well. "I want to show you the scariest place in all of Hyrule." I laughed.

"Link, I don't want to see your bedroom!" I retorted playfully as Epona came to a stop. Link laughed.

"No, not there, but I guess compared to my bedroom, the place I'm taking you to would be second scariest." I gasped.

"NOT THE HYRULE PUBLIC TOILETS!" I cried, jumping off Epona. He laughed again, and dismounted as well.

"No, not the Hyrule Public Toilets," he said. He whipped out his ocarina. "Come here," he said, beckoning me to stand next to him. I obeyed, and stood next to him. "Put your arms around me," he commanded.

"So we ARE going to your bedroom!" I joked. He shot me a weird look, so I grabbed onto his waist. He began to play a song, a song that sounded familiar. Soon, a purple light surrounded us, and we were whisked away quickly. I could see all of Hyrule in a blur as we passed by, faster and faster. I began to get dizzy so I shut my eyes. We were soon placed down, gently, and the purple light disappeared. Weird! "Am I dead?" I asked quietly, eyes still shut tight, holding on to Link's waist for dear life.

"No, unfortunately," Link said, pushing me off of him. I opened my eyes, and took a look around. We were up on some sort of ledge, and below us there was a graveyard.

"Unfortunately?!" I exclaimed, turning to face him. He was already descending the stairs that were behind us. I followed. "You want me dead?" He stopped short and turned around abruptly. He had an enormous grin on his face. I suddenly didn't feel safe anymore.

"When I said I was taking you to the scariest place in all of Hyrule, I didn't happen to mention that it was also the most dangerous place?"

"No."

"Didn't think so," Link said, continuing down the stairs.

"So, basically, me plus this place equals death?" I cried as we reached the bottom of the stairs. There was only a circle of torches lit, and our voices echoed in the darkness.

"That could be arranged," he said ominously. I felt the color in my face leave as we stepped inside. "Welcome to the Shadow Temple," he said, acting like some sort of sick tour guide.

"Very…uhm…unique place," I after noticing a human skeleton in the corner. "I love what they've done with the place!" I added. Sarcasm was my middle name. Well, actually, Marie was, but that's a different story. I quickly turned a corner.

"Wait!" Link screamed, grabbing the back of my tunic. Good thing he did, because I would have plummeted into eternal darkness if he didn't. I swayed back and forth, and eventually re-gained my balance. "You have to be careful here!" he exclaimed.

"Alright, man, I'm sorry, I'll be more careful! But it doesn't really look like I have to be anymore, because this is a dead end." There was a wall across from the gap in the floor, decorated with a lovely yellowed skull with red flaming eyes.

"No it's not," Link said. He took out some sort of looking glass, only it was purple, and it had some sort of eye decorated in the center of it. He held it up to his face, and smiled. "This place hasn't changed a bit since the last time I was here." He held the thing out to me, and I looked through it. Whoah, what a difference! The wall was gone, and I could see through to a larger room with a bird statue and torches. "That's the Eye of Truth," he said, smiling. "If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here right now." I handed it back to him carefully.

"You can lead, I'll follow," I said, standing behind him. He whipped out his longshot, grabbed me, and we flew across to the other side.

"Damn, it's harder to do that with all that extra weight," he said as we pulled ourselves up.

"All that extra weight? I don't weigh THAT much!" I exclaimed. I wasn't really offended, but as I've stated before, I love to pick fights. He just laughed and continued on. Well, to make a long story short, we went through the Shadow Temple, and I also got to see him in action with his Hover Boots, bow and arrow, and even get in a sword fight with this awful skeleton thing. Link called it a Stalfos. I called it ugly. I don't know what it called us, because it was laughing the entire time, but I'm sure he didn't call us friends. Oh! I forgot to mention the lovely guillotines! We also got to dodge some grim reaper things, sickles, and all! To top all that off, we got to take a cruise on a magical ship that floated on air! Yeah. What an experience. In the end we dropped down into a giant room with a bouncy floor, and Link said that's where he fought Bongo-Bongo, the boss of the temple or something. We went into some blue light, and were placed back out front of the temple.

"That was…different," I said, looking around quickly. Link smiled.

"Glad you liked it. Now, I want to show you a place that's very special to me," he said, taking my hand. He jumped off the ledge, and I followed. We passed through the graveyard and exited out of Kakariko. He called Epona once we reached the field, and we rode to the southern part of the field again. This time, we went into some hidden path that led into the forest. We got off Epona at the entrance to the forest, and walked through. We walked across a bridge, then entered another part of the forest. We could see houses all over the place, and tall trees aligning the boundaries of the wood. We could see little kids running around, playing. They had similar clothing on to Link, only much, much smaller.

"What is this place?" I asked, still acting like I was a stranger.

"This is Kokiri! I grew up here!" he said, happily.

"Oh," I said with a nod. "Very…um…interesting."

"Come on!" he said, grasping my arm and running to some sort of treehouse. We climbed the ladder, and walked through the small opening. There was a small bed, table and two chairs, and some other odds and ends. "This is my house!" he said, beaming.

"You live here?" I couldn't believe it. He was way too big to still live here!

"Well, I used to," he said. "Before…oh, nevermind."

"Do you have a new house now?" He nodded.

"And a place at the castle." I was shocked.

"At the castle?! What, are you royalty or something?" He shook his head.

"No, I'm not. But after I saved Hyrule, the king gave me a few rooms in the castle to have for myself. I don't go there much as I used to."

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, things change. Sadly, people do too," he said solemnly.

"Oh. Well then, where is your other house?"

"In Kakariko," he said. "I just have some stuff stored in there. The place is locked up. It isn't really livable right now." I stretched out, and hit my head on the low ceiling.

"Oww! Damn ceiling!" I cried, rubbing my head. Link laughed, and brought me into a quick headlock. "Ow ow ow ow ow!" I feared that he was going to give me a noogie, but he just pushed me outside.

"Come on, let's go," he said, descending the ladder. When we walked back out into Hyrule field, the sun had just begun to set. The sky was a lovely portrait with crimson, maroon and orange hues. I had never seen a sunset quite so beautiful before. I just stood there, gazing into it, taking in all those beautiful rays. Link stopped in front of me, blocking the direct sun. There was a soft glow of light illuminating his silhouette, and when he smiled at me, I couldn't help but smile back. My stomach felt all twisted and I was nervous. I wanted so badly to just be held by him, breathe in his scent, kiss his soft lips…

"Come on, let's go to the castle. I want you to meet someone."

Alrighty, well, *sigh* I don't know when I'll have the next chapter up, but keep checking! Again, I apologize for not updating as often as usual, but school keeps me busy. Thanks so much!