A Link to the Past

Chapter Thirty Four: The Bridge

One of the things that Link hated the most about his adventures in the Dark World so far was that he was basically being led around like a blind man with no idea where he was going or what he was to face each time that a crystal was located. During his trials to prove himself worthy of the Master Sword, at least the young man had been told where each challenge was to take place, but there in Ganondorf's dimly lit world, the vibrating crystals in his pocket could have been leading him halfway across the world for all he knew. With no other guidance, Link left Hinox's now partly destroyed palance, discovering that the servants who had been tending the grounds on his way in were nowhere to be found.

They must've run away when the explosions started, the young man thought as he headed south through the hedges, and it was a good thing he left when he did, because a few minutes later the goat guards who had been patrolling the area rushed toward the palace's front door. It was strange that the patrol had waited until now to enter when they probably could've helped the one-eyed monster defeat Link, but then again they probably didn't want to get hit by one of Hinox's bombs, and waited until everything stopped before investigating. The young man was a good distance away by the time the guards came out again, leaving the palace grounds and heading south east in the directions where his house was in Hyrule.

Even though this place was radically different in most ways, the landscape itself was very similar to Hyrule, and that was good because at least it gave Link some sort of idea how to navigate it. For instance pretty soon he should come up to the bridge he had once slept under, and from there his house was to the west, while further south was the dunes, as well as Lake Hylia and the cisterns that kept the province from flooding, but which of these places were the crystals leading him to? All of the guards who normally patrolled the area were nowhere to be seen, probably busy with the palace or maybe taking other prisoners to the Village of Outcasts, meaning that for now he didn't have to deal with them while pondering how he was going to retrieve the other crystals.

Soon the wooden bridge came into view, although in this world it was made of stone blocks, while the water flowing underneath it was murky yet very fast moving with the smell of dying plants around it. The young man was happy that he didn't have to spend the night sleeping underneath this one, feeling the whole bridge shift just a bit when he stepped onto it as if the structure hadn't been built or even put in place properly, but it was holding. Not wanting to push his luck, Link kept walking toward the other side at a brisk pace, although forced to stop near the middle when there was a gust of wind, and suddenly… suddenly he was no longer the only person standing on the bridge.

"Hello again, boy." A deep voice said with a snort. "I see you've been busy."

When the figure first appeared in his path, Link thought it was Agahnim since the wizard had no problem vanishing and reappearing at will, but this creature was taller and stockier than Agahnim, with a face much closer resembling a warthog than a man, tusks and all. Jumping back and drawing his sword as soon as he realized that Ganondorf once again stood before him, the young man was surprised that this creature didn't immediately shy away from it's blue blade like everyone else so far in this world, instead holding his clawed hands out so that a kind of trident weapon appeared in them. The warthog monster chuckled to himself a bit while slowly turning the trident toward Link, vanishing and reappearing to the side so that the young man had to quickly dodge, only to bump right into Ganondorf the next time he vanished like that.

"Whatever is the matter, boy? Are you scared?" The warthog monster asked when the young man awkwardly stumbled back a bit. "Your grandfather wasn't afraid of me, not while holding that same weapon… but then again, he was a bit slow… tell me, does stupidity run in your family?"

There was plenty that Link would've liked to say to Ganondorf, but instead he rushed forward with a mighty swing of the Master Sword, hoping to take his enemy by surprise. But as if expecting this very action, the warthog monster simply adjusted his trident's position to neatly parry the blue blade, along with the next two attacks that the young man attempted. Sparks flew each time their weapons clashed, but Ganondorf's weapon must've been either made or enhanced with magic because no matter how hard the blue blade struck it, the trident didn't appear to be breaking or even damaged at all. The warthog monster was also a lot quicker than would be expected of someone his size, not only deflecting three more stab attempts, but then turning the weapon around and jabbing the blunt bottom into Link's stomach.

Ganondorf laughed when the wind was knocked out of the young man, feeling the bridge continue to shake and vibrate as he stumbled backwards before falling down, but with a burst of power from the glove, Link was back on his feet. Running faster than he should have been able to, the young man slashed at his enemy, the force of this blow powerful enough to drive the warthog monster back a step… before he pushed back, and Link's feet left the ground for a second before he ended up on his back again. This time the young man wasn't so quick to get up, grabbing onto the guard wall of the bridge with one hand while keeping the sword pointed at Ganondorf with the other, but this didn't stop the warthog monster from attacking again.

Vanishing like he had done before, Link suddenly cried out in pain when he felt the prongs of that trident stabbing into his rear, but then his outcry was stopped when Ganondorf kicked him in the same area. Painfully freed from the trident's prongs, the young man was sent stumbling forward, this time making it to the very edge of the shaking bridge before falling on his face. The warthog monster wasn't far behind, reappearing so that he was standing right over Link with the trident raised for the kill, so the young man did the only thing he could think of, which was to desperately grab a handful of dirt with his free hand and toss it right into his enemy's eyes.

Ganondorf grunted in annoyance, closing his eyes as the finishing attack was halted, allowing Link to swing the blue blade so that it went right across the warthog monster's stocky legs. With his enemy off balance, blinded, and his weapon out of the way, the young man jumped to his feet with the Master Sword thrusting forward, stabbing the legendary weapon deep into Ganondorf's chest and driving him back toward the center of the now heavily shaking bridge, where Link pinned him against the guard wall. Twisting and pushing on the blue blade so that it sunk deeper and deeper into the warthog monster's chest, almost to the hilt now, Link kept screaming for his enemy to die, but… but something was wrong… no matter how deeply he was stabbed, nor how much the blade was twisted… he just wasn't dying.

The trident had fallen from Ganondorf's clawed hands at some point, leaving them free to grab onto the young man's wrists, just one of them big enough to grab onto both and squeeze so hard that Link screamed when he lost his grip on the Master Sword. Now that his wrists were restrained, there was nothing stopping the warthog monster from closing his other fist and slugging the young man in the face, using the trapped wrists to pull him back, and then punching him in the face again. Now his wrists were being yanked upward, with Ganondorf apparently possessing enough strength to lift Link off the ground, before punching him in the stomach so hard that he flew backwards into the top edge of the guard wall, the young man collapsing onto the bridge once he fell back down onto it.

Now the warthog monster grabbed onto the legendary weapon's hilt, grunting in pain, seeming to be more hurt by trying to wield the Master Sword than having its blade buried into his chest, and then Ganondorf slowly removed it from himself, his clawed hands smoldering after he was able to drop the blue blade onto the bridge. The wound was still there, the large hole in the center of his enemy's chest, but it was like the legendary weapon didn't have any real affect on him in the first place. But how was that possible? This was the sword of evil's bane, which was supposed to destroy anything that was, well… evil… and it had almost killed Ganondorf when Link's grandfather used it against him.

"Disheartening, isn't it?" The warthog monster laughed, looking down at his own wound for a moment. "That sword is the closest that I ever came to dying, so when I found the Triforce and realized what it was, my very first wish was that the Master Sword could never kill me, not in a thousand years. I suppose I should've wished that it couldn't hurt me, because that was quite painful, but, you know… hindsight."

"Too bad you can't make any more wishes." Link groaned, trying to use the guard wall to pull himself up again. "You're stuck… and if you need Agahnim to help you get out of here, then… maybe you aren't as powerful as you think. But why does he need you? What does he get of helping…

The young man's words were interrupted when Ganondorf swung his leg, putting his large boot right across Link's face, and then the warthog monster raised his leg again, stomping down hard onto the young man's back so that he was pressed into the stone… and now the stone was cracking. Not just small cracks, mind you, but big ones that were rapidly spreading throughout the stone surface until the whole thing collapsed. Reaching out for the hilt of the Master Sword to make one more attack against his enemy, the bridge simply fell out from under Link before he could manage the swing, and next thing he knew, he was in the water. It was cold, murky, and extremely fast moving so that by the time his head broke the surface…

BOOM! The young man didn't understand the watery explosion that briefly sent him under again, but next time Link came up for air he could see the figure on Ganondorf standing on what was left of the bridge, a large sphere of glowing energy forming in his clawed hand. It flew toward him in the same manner as Agahnim's fireballs, but when this sphere struck the water it exploded nearby with such force that Link was almost lifted out of the water. Twice more this happened, each one blasting so much water upward that it was like a brief rainstorm when it all came down, and then it all stopped… must've gotten out of range.

However, the young man was not out of danger. He was too sore and worn out to swim for shore, and even though thanks to the flipper it wasn't like he would drown, but if the river kept going the same way it did in Hyrule, then he was on his way to Lake Hylia, and in this world who knows what dangers awaited him there?