6/22/03

ME: *sigh* What a crazy couple of months. I almost completely forgot about my stories. @_@ Finals, summer school, confirmation at church… -_-; ß(tired)  Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda. …yea. -_-;

Key

"blah" = dialogue    

'italics' = thoughts

"*italics*" = exaggeration

------ = scene change

~*~*~ = time/ p.o.v. change (3rd person perspective)

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The Legend of Zelda: Save the Past

Chapter 10: The Chamber of Sages

'Ugh, my head…' Malon slowly opened her eyes. Her head was spinning, and she had a hard time focusing. She managed to push herself into a sitting position. Finally, her eyes opened all the way, and gasped at what laid before her.

The room literally was glowing a soft blue. Even the platform she was sitting on was blue. It was as if she was sitting on light. All around the room, there were floating platforms and paths similar to the one she was on. She just sat there, taking in the scenery. She didn't even notice her company standing not too far from her. That is, until they spoke.

"So, you're finally awake?" a voice asked. Malon turned towards the voice and froze.

Standing not too far from her was a young girl, around her age. However, this stranger was obviously the opposite of herself. She was wearing an elegant purple dress made of silk. Upon her head, she wore a beautiful headdress. And her face practically radiated gracefulness. It was obvious that this wasn't any ordinary person.

"Hello?" the girl asked again. "Are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Malon apologized, still a little dazed.

"You were out for a pretty long time. I was beginning to think that something went wrong."

"Er, what do you mean? In fact, who are you?"

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Zelda." A warm smile spread across her face in greetings.

Malon's face immediately paled again. There was only one 'Zelda' that she knew of in all of Hyrule.

"You mean, you're the princess?" she squeaked. Zelda nodded, the smile still on her face. Malon quickly dropped her head in a mix of shame and embarrassment. She just practically insulted the princess of Hyrule, in a way. She began to talk in a rapid-fire style, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so rude. Please forgive me…"

The sound of giggling made her stop. Her gaze slowly began to towards the source, which happened to be Zelda. She was obviously fighting the urge to laugh, but was quickly losing the fight. Finally, she calmed down enough to speak.

"You don't need to act like that," Zelda assured with a grin. "In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't. I know what you may think, and I'm not the kind of person that others say I am."

"What do you mean?" Malon said, trying to act oblivious. However, she knew all too well what Zelda was talking about.

"Don't think I don't know. I used to like to go play in Hyrule Castle Town when I was younger. I always had to wear plain clothes so people wouldn't recognize me. Also, I was always escorted and watched by my caretaker, Impa. I didn't mind though. It was great until about a year ago. I was walking around the main area when I heard a couple of older boys talking about me. I decided to listen, and was horrified at what I heard."

Zelda hesitated for a second before continuing. The expression on her face began to fall. "A lot of people thought I was stuck up and had people arrested and placed into the dungeon whenever I felt like it. They said I had guards harm the servants whenever they made even the slightest mistake. I never returned to town after that day. 'An evil, stuck up, spoiled brat.' That's what everybody thought I was."

"I'm sorry. I just… no, there is no excuse for my actions," Malon apologized.

"Really, it's ok. I mean, I don't know many people outside the castle, so I guess I shouldn't be surprise about the reactions I may get."

"… I just thought of something. Why are you telling me all this?" Malon asked.

"Because you're a friend of Link, are you not?" Zelda remarked. This triggered a thought that Malon completely forgot about.

"Do you know where he is? And where in Hyrule are we?"

Zelda hesitated from responding to both of Malon's questions. 'I don't think I should tell her the truth. However, it's pretty obvious that we aren't in any ordinary place. And she's already involved in this whole war, so what's there to lose.'

"You may not believe me, but we are inside the sacred realm. Actually, the Chamber of Sages to be more specific," Zelda responded. Malon froze into a shock state. "And Link… is over there." Zelda said while pointing behind her. Over there was a path that led to a large platform above them. "That's the platform where the sages are, too."

"What about my dad?"

"On another platform, sleeping. However, his doesn't connect to the sage's platform. "

"It doesn't matter. If he's asleep, he won't be waking up anytime soon," a grinning Malon remarked. Zelda giggled a little. "But why does mine connect to it?"

"Because, unfortunately, you are as involved with this whole thing as the rest of us. You already know all about Link's adventures through time, the sages, and of course, Ganondorf. Thus we felt that there was no use in keeping you away when you know about everything anyways."

Malon understood. However, one question still poked in the back of her mind. "Princess…"

"Please, just call me Zelda."

"…Zelda, why didn't fairy-boy come down with you? And why were my father and me placed on these platforms?"

'Wow, she sure is full of questions. Don't blame her, though.' "Link is still asleep. Actually, the sages have been doing something with him since I woke up. He was hovering and glowing in the air. But the sages wouldn't tell me what they were doing. Most of them were focusing and couldn't hear me, except Impa. But all she said was 'You'll see'. She then said you were down here, and to wait for you to wake up. As for why you weren't on the platform, I don't know. I guess they thought it would be better for you to wake up away from all of them. That way, you could get used to things beforehand."

Malon pondered this for a second. "Hmm, I guess you have a point. Um, can I go up?" she asked nervously.

"I don't see why not," Zelda responded excitedly. "Come on, let's go. Watch your step though."

Carefully, the two girls made their way up the twisty path. During the trip, however, a thought came to Zelda.

"Malon, did you just call Link 'fairy-boy'?"

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Darkness. No matter where Link turned, it was dark. He was nowhere.

"Where, where am I? What's going on?!"

Link began to run, but couldn't tell where he was going. In fact, he wasn't sure if he even was going anywhere.

"Where is everybody?!!" Link yelled.

Silence.

Defeated, he fell to his knees. Slowly, he began to wonder.

'Is this a dream? If it is, then why can't I wake up? Are the others ok? What if Ganondorf…'

Suddenly, he felt a soft breeze blow past him. He snapped out of his trance and looked around. Through the darkness, a voice filled the area.

"Do you really think you can defeat him?" a deep voice asked.

"Who's there?" Link yelled.

"Look at you. Dragged into this little game. Do you really believe a kid like you could defeat Ganon?"

"Shut up! Show yourself you coward!"

"As you wish." Suddenly, a figure began to approach though the darkness. Link turned to the figure and reached for his sword, only to find it missing. In fact, all his weapons were gone.

"What the…" he gasped. All his stuff was gone. Deciding to try his luck with his own fists, he got into a fighting stance and prepared to attack. However, when the figure was close enough for Link to see what he looked like, he practically lost his balance in shock.

He was looking at a perfect copy of himself as an adult (17).

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"What's going on?" asked Zelda. She and Malon arrived only to see the sages watching Link, who was lying on the ground in the middle. Well, everybody except Nabooru, who had her eyes closed and seemed to be thinking about something.

"We kind of hit a slight… *snag*," replied Impa.

"What do you mean? What were you guys doing in the first place?!"

"Link…has hidden powers," said Saria. "He never knew about them, even in the alternate timeline. We were trying to awaken them, but…"

"What happened?"

This time, Rauru spoke up. "We don't know what happened. Things were going normal, then all of a sudden, we seemed to run into some sort of wall."

"Couldn't you do anything?" Malon, who was quiet up till now, asked worriedly.

"No, unfortunately. We tried everything, but nothing worked," explained Ruto. "We think it's some sort of magic. Really, really strong magic."

"Ganondorf?" asked Zelda.

"Maybe-" Impa started, but was cut off.

"I don't think so," said Nabooru. "Even if Ganondorf is evil and strong, there's no way any Gerudo could perform a spell like that without touching the person. Besides, he has plenty of spells that could've killed him by now."

"I guess so," said Impa. Nabooru then brought up another interesting point.

"Besides, when we encountered the 'wall', did you guys feel an evil aura?" The rest of the sages shook their heads. "Neither did I. Something tells me this interference wasn't caused by somebody who wants to stop us."

"Then who is it? And if they want to help, why did they stop us?"

"I don't know, but I do know that there's a chance they didn't really stop us from helping him. You guys said yourself we were *trying* to awaken the powers. But what if we couldn't do it at all? What if we were the ones who would've been interfering?"

This made everybody rethink the current situation.

"If what your saying is true," reasoned Malon, "then that must mean…"

Zelda looked at Link worriedly, and finished Malon's statement. "This is something that he must deal with… alone."

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ME: In all honesty, this chapter is VERY different than what I was planning just a week ago. In fact, the whole 'Link fighting with image of himself' scene came to me while I was writing.

Zelda: Link…

Malon: Fairy-boy…

ME: *sigh* Looks like this story's converting back to the shoujo-style*** from the first couple of chapters. This chapter was originally going to be longer and start the final leg of the adventure, but since I've slacked off so long I decided just to leave it here and upload it sooner rather than later. Stay tuned for the next update (whenever that is ¬_¬;)

*Stay cool and see ya later*

*TimeSage*

*** = In Japan, the term 'shoujo manga' means 'girl-comic'. These are the type of anime/manga that focus more on life than action, and they're sometimes drawn in a really cutesy-style. Examples of shoujo anime include: Card Captor Sakura, Love Hina, and others of similar nature. However, many males are known to read/watch them since they usually are funnier and focus more on a suspenseful plot than the 'boy-comics'.