Chapter 3: The Ancients

As Link was about to fall asleep he heard another echo, this time from inside the well. He quickly stood up and pulled out his sword.

"Who's there?" He whispered. His voice echoed through the well and vanished into some unseen hole.

"Come."

"Where?" Link asked, puzzled and more afraid than he had been in a long time.

"Follow." Link saw a flash of something in the corner of his eye and he went in that direction. There was a doorway hidden in the well that he had overlooked this whole time. It was too dark for him to even see himself, and now he was walking blind into some foreign, or more foreign really, area with some unknown person who only said one word at a time. This was not Link's day.

"Here," The figure said when they had walked quite a ways down into the secret passage. Link was handed a dim torch, just enough to see himself and about a foot in front of himself. The light from the torch reflected off his sword and he could see many other things, but he soon got scared of what he was seeing and put away his sword. There were too many dead bodies and shadow figures for him to watch it. He just kept following the hovering thing in front of him and hoped it would all be over soon. He suddenly liked the sound of dull, boring peace.

"This...Home of Ancients," The thing said once they had stopped walking. They were now in a dimly lit, circular room that was very damp and musty. There were small pools of what Link hoped was water scattered throughout the room.

"Why you here outsider?" The Ancient said.

"I...was put here. I'm on a quest. I need to find the Garos," Link explained. He spoke slowly like the Ancient, he didn't want to confuse them and get on their bad side when they first met.

"Do not speak their name in here!" The Ancient shouted at Link.

"I...I'm sorry...I didn't know. What's so bad about them?" Link asked.

"They...made us...how we are. We were...humans," The Ancient replied.

"I see...how did they make you...shadows?" Link asked, mesmerized by this story.

"...The one you seek...Potio. He has great power...evil and dark power. Greater than any man has seen and ever will see. He banished us to the dark realms," The Ancient said. It hung its head.

"You mean he put you and all your people in the shadows? How could he get a power like this?" Link asked.

"No one knows. They all still think he's some saint. He's really a Demon here to terrorize our little world and prevent us from a future," The Ancient answered.

"Why would he prevent you from a future? That would mean destroying himself even. And he doesn't even know the future; it's a good place. If this is the same Hyrule as I know, then the future is still there, so he must have failed," Link said assuringly.

"Well all the same, you're here to destroy him, and even though I'm sure that's a suicide mission, I'll help you out in anyway I can. I'll have my whole race help you," The Ancient said. Link was sure that this shadow thing would have been smiling if it had a face. But Link did and he couldn't have smiled wider.

"Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help. But now how do I get to the surface to actually do something?" Link asked.

"There is another opening to the left of the big room in front of us. From there you're on your own, no one has been past there since we had been banished here. It's too bright for us. But please, take this with you." The Ancient floated off and came back with a package in a skin cloth. Link didn't know what kind of animal it was made of, or what kind of animals even existed now, but he took the package carefully and opened it. Inside was a very well crafted bow. Next to it was a quiver of bone tipped arrows.

Link was amazed that he would get a gift this nice from a stranger, and even more amazed that they had the ability to make things like these in this age. He knew there was an abundance of bone in this well but he had no idea how they got the wood or fibers for the bow. And the beautiful red feathers that were neatly tied to the back of each arrow, there must have been forty of them, were amazing. Link knew now that this civilization was more advanced than any of this time should be, and he wondered if that had something to do with why they were down here. He had gotten so many questions already in this damp cave of a well, and he hoped to find answers once he got out.