Thank you for the reviews, I'm really sorry not much is happening at the moment, I've been so busy. But hey! We reached the magic number of 100 reviews! At only 15 chapters! Thank you to all the readers and everybody! Yay!!!! Hmm you all have ideas on Dark Link then, don't you? For some reason ff.net isn't registering all your reviews, no idea why though, you're on the review page good and clear but your not registered in the stats section 0_o. So so so so sos ososososososososososos sorry for not cranking out these chapters like I used to, I'm almost dry on ideas (almost!) so please leave comments and such in a review and inspire me!
Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda!
* * *
It was a vertical rock face.
We spent around two hours on that mountain. Two hours of climbing, Sao went first, finding the way, practically a mountain goat. We had one rope to hold us if we fell and that was being held by Sao, so if he fell then it would be my job to hold him up. Unfortunately I doubted that I could hold such a weight on my own.
It was a sorry state we ended up at the top in, my fingers were bleeding from the sharp rock and my elbows and knees were grazed. Sao seemed perfectly fine but more than happy to help me patch up.
But it was a mixed blessing as we looked down in to the canyon, not only did it seem that we could see the trail clearly made by the captives but also it seemed like a straight run of rock to nearly everywhere in the canyon and a jumpable distance across the sides at places ahead if we needed to cross.
We were also safe from bomb-chu.
I was obviously going end up the beaten woman that Anju had seen in me because by list of injuries seemed to piling up every hour.
The sun was hot and as we walked across the flat plain of rock with our huge bags and weapons it seemed like the whole world was wobbling and I frequently had to be pulled back from the edge of the cliff by Sao.
I was glad I wasn't going this alone.
It would be even better if Link were here, where was he anyway? It was turning into the big Me and Sao Adventure. Well, he was cute...and Link was married...but then, Sao had said Lucy was cute too. So he obviously wasn't interested in any more than friendship.
I was glad of that, I guess, because if there was something more than that it might have got in the way.
Dark Link? Hmm, good looking, evil. But wasn't that always the way? Anyway, Link would hate me for thinking like this, but then...wasn't Dark Link, Link? Too confusing, best not to think about him.
We spent the day travelling along the top of the canyon and following the trails below, it turned out that the maze of the canyons was impossible to navigate from inside even though these tracks seemed to know where they were going.
"I bet he's got a big underground lair or something," Sao said as we once again checking the route of the tracks "He's making us follow him. Using them as bait. We'll have a tough time leading them out of these canyons too. That's if we can even get close. You ought to stay here, it might be dangerous"
"No way. It's all my fault, all of this" I replied "So I may as well follow to help clear up this mess"
"How is it your fault? You can't help the way you were born"
I smiled "Thanks but, it's me he's after and if we don't get there he's going to kill them. Just because I'm a seer and he's planning to..."
Sao looked at me "Planning to what?"
"Planning to release Reika and Gannondorf with my powers"
"How do you know?"
"Well..." I shrugged, and lied "It's just obvious, what else would he want? And anyway, history repeats itself, and Reika wanted Seer blood to release Gannondorf the first time"
Sao didn't look convinced, "You're hiding something from me"
I looked into the canyon "No, I'm not"
I just hoped I was a good a liar as I thought I was. I didn't really want to lie but then, what else could I do? Say I was a liability because I was letting people in my head when I slept? Say I was falling for the bad guy?
Why was it that all of the bad people were good looking? It was completely a Sod's Law.
I looked at a small bird in the sky, jumping when a larger one swooped out of no where to catch it in it's claw. A black bird.
I felt just like the small one. Being torn between three larger birds. Whom did I owe loyalty? Link because he was the one I counted on all the time? Sao because he had helped me thus far, or Dark Link, just because he had a slight power as a love interest but wanted to kill me?
I remember once when I was small, watching my sister cry over a boy at school. I don't know why it stuck with me, perhaps it was the heartbreak she thought she was feeling, just over a crush. Or maybe it was the fact that this was perhaps all women's fate. It always is the woman who gets hurt, after all.
Then big yellow sun began to make it's way slowly towards the ground, in a long arc as the daytime moon appeared to take it's place, in a blue sky overhead.
We'd made barely any progress in this day, it was amazing how much you could get done in a game and then do only a minuscule amount of it in real life. It was disappointing. But somehow I imagined that we were getting closer to our destination.
It had been around two days since our start from Clock Town and the bad people had only had a short night's head start from us, so we must have been catching up pretty fast since there were only two of us making good time compared to a whole train of people, most of whom were probably resisting.
Lucy undoubtedly was.
Sao also seemed to be feeling this closeness to the end. He seemed more urgent, and kept telling me to make more speed to get over the largest amount of land possible before we lost light.
In fact, even after the sun went down we were still moving. I wondered if Link was moving somewhere too.
He had little kids somewhere too, I smiled, Tate had been so cute, and it was obvious he was going to be a little Link clone when he grew up. That would be something to see, maybe he wouldn't have to fight for his life like his father did though.
Did Sao have kids? I wondered because it had only seemed to be men in his Tribe where we'd been before. And they'd said they'd been cut off from the village in Snowhead. He might do, it was possible, after all, Hyrule and Termina seemed to be sort of stuck in Medieval Times, so that would mean young marridges. I decided to ask.
"Sao?"
"Mmmm?"
He didn't stop, we kept on moving fast, sort of a half walk, half run in the moonlight even though we were both hungry and tired.
"Do you have any children?"
He didn't reply. He only seemed about my age but as soon as I'd asked his features had aged. And he had seemed a whole lot older.
"One"
My jaw dropped, so he did have children. I wondered who he had had them with. What was she like? How weird, I'd never really imagined him having kids, but then, everyone here seemed to be having kids Link, Kestrel, Anju. Glad it wasn't me, I didn't want the trouble, or the hassle of regaining a figure.
I looked over to him, he seemed unfazed by the question but looked sort of hard in the dim light, his face was positively stony.
"Really?"
"A girl, Aki, three" he said calmly, looking into the darkness for enemies
"Will I get to meet her?" I asked, smiling
Sao didn't look at me or even smile "She's dead" he said flatly
Dead.
Wow.
I stared. I felt my heart ache for him, he looked like he didn't care, the way he said it. Poor guy, I wished I hadn't brought it up.
"Her mother's dead too"
Another gasp from me, he'd volunteered the information himself as well. I looked at the moon, poor guy, I wondered how they'd died and how long they'd been in a family together. What a blow, and I'd just brought it all up.
Stupid, stupid me.
I felt very guilty right then, but he said nothing else and I didn't either.
* * *
We ran through the night, but at one point we had had to stop because I'd fainted from hunger and fatigue, unfortunately I wasn't allowed a rest and once I'd come around and been given food we were off again.
I felt like a wreck and must have looked like it too, the rate my injuries kept going, my fingertips were sore, my face ached and my arms and legs yelled at me to low down.
But, at last, when it seemed like we'd never stop running, we came across our first bit of luck.
The tracks were ending, they had spread out and began to heard down into a small canyon and ahead of that we could see an entrance to cavern, I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the same cave that Kafei used to hang out in front of to get his sun mask back.
We slowed down to get a better view. As we drew nearer the rock ace we could see tiny windows carved out of the rock, a perfectly hidden fortress was imbedded into the cliff.
He was here.
Lucy was here.
I could feel it.
The air practically hummed.
"Look over there" Sao spoke his first words since the child talk
"Where?"
"On the plateau above the cliff"
Just about the fortress a large carving was placed, we couldn't see it very well from where we are but I could take a pretty good guess and say that it was a triforce marked into the soil.
"What do we do?" I asked Sao "I hadn't really thought about what we were going to do to get them out"
"We're going to kill Shadow Man" Sao said darkly
I looked at him "We are?"
Sao shot me a look of disbelief mixed in with 'are you stupid?' and replied "What? You were having second thoughts? After what he did to the camp and your friend?"
I felt my stomach and shoulder tenderly and replied "Violence solves nothing"
"Oh that's a change, coming from you" Sao said, raising an eyebrow "I thought you wanted to kill him before he killed you"
I swung round on him and said harshly "I never said that! I barely even know you, don't even think about saying that you think you know what I want"
Sao stared. I stared, where had that come from? Why had it come? Was I afraid for Dark Link? How could that be?
I'd thought earlier that maybe Dark Link had saved me from the bomb-chu, now that the wounds he had dealt me at the camp came back to mind, had he healed me those as well? Strange boy.
Sao looked sort of hurt, and a little betrayed as he stared down into the ravine. We watched a lone Stalfos come out of the cave and look around, before heading inside again.
"That's definitely the place" Sao said coldly, drawing his large curved sword and checking his other weapons were in reach "Do what you want, girl. I'm going to kill Shadow Man"
Sao began to make his way over the edge, without a second person he'd die if he fell, but his anger was fuelling his climbing ability and in a little while he had practically slid to the bottom.
I stared after him, clenching my fists in frustration, what had I done? I'd wrecked our relationship again! And I needed his help.
He obviously didn't need mine. What had I said though? I had completely turned around on my revenge scheme, I needed to kill Dark Link to stop him doing what he was going to do, and he was going to kill me to use in his evil scheme and probably kill everyone else too.
Yet I was reluctant to head in there.
I watched Sao walk confidently below me into the darkness.
It was going to be hard to get down there.
But I wasn't going to let Sao face it alone, I needed to stop Dark Link and save Lucy.
"Where's Link when you need him?" I said out loud and began to head toward the edge of the cliff
I looked over the edge and swayed, a long way down.
Adjusting all my equipment I began to sit and slide myself over the edge carefully. I began to make my way slowly down.
A rock slipped and I fell.
Luckily my nails and feet were dug into the rock, so I slid at a high speed down the rock face, dust and stones littering my fall and blinding me in the free fall. I could feel my skin being ripped and burned by the friction but held on as best I could.
Falling near the bottom I hit the dirt with agonising force and lay there for a moment, unsure whether it was too late to yell or too early to burst into tears.
Once more I was utterly alone.
In pain.
And alone.
Again.
I really wasn't doing that well this time around. Too bad, if they fates were trying to get me to quit then NO WAY. I was taking Lucy home with me.
I pulled myself up and drew my sword, ignoring the blood that was now dribbling down my arms, too bad, if I was going to die trying then it was better than not trying at all.
I pulled myself together, dusted myself off and marched toward the cave. I was going in, too bad if Dark Link was in my way.
I looked up at the sky before I went in, taking a last look at the light, then headed into the blackness beyond.
* * *
It was cold in the dark. I walked with my hand on the stone wall, half more afraid of that because who knew what could be sitting on the wall, a spike? An animal? It was even scarier than the dark.
Almost.
The dark was very stuffy, the heat from outside, suddenly evaporating in the shadow, gave way to a coldness that made you sweat with chills. It was worse in a way. I was glad I'd brought all Link's weapons.
The sound of my feet echoed along the hall so I thought once of twice that Sao or an enemy was coming towards me.
I had to be careful where I put my feet and once of twice I heard my feet slide a stone that seemed to fall somewhere, and it was a long time before I heard it hit anything, water or otherwise. I kept wiping the sweat off my hands on my trousers and tried to keep a clear head.
I listened, but I've never been good at hearing because I was always daydreaming. Couldn't day dream now. One daydream and I was over a cliff in the dark or something.
I would have thought that the enemy would have put lamps up or something so they themselves could see where they were going, obviously they could see in the dark or they were trying to spite me. It was hard going, every so often I'd fall down and bruise my already pained legs.
It was also wet in the tunnel, I assumed it was a tunnel because it seemed to be going somewhere.
I couldn't be sure but it felt like there were footsteps behind me, it might have been my own footsteps echoing back towards me but it sounded a little too out of time with my feet and their echo to be me.
I shuffled the sword in my hand and tried to speed up carefully, where did Sao go? He couldn't be that far ahead, he hadn't been in long before I'd come after him.
He was going to kill Dark Link. I was going to kill Dark Link, and Dark Link wanted to kill me! But could I kill someone who looked so much like Link? Did Sao hate Dark Link for kidnapping his people and burning his camp, well obviously? Did Dark Link actually save me from the wounds he himself had inflicted and from the bombchu? Did I hate Dark Link enough to kill him? I hadn't killed Reika and I had hated her.
My head literally swam in these questions. There were too many to answer by myself.
Dark Link. I did a silent sort of swoon in the dark and then slapped myself for being so stupid, sure he looked like Link and sure I had liked Link when he looked like that, but Dark Link was EVIL. Hence the name. And he was going to kill me, not a great favour factor.
But then, he was cute. And Link was taken by Zelda...with kids. That did make him a no-no, hell, he was too old anyway!
I found myself grinning at my thoughts and forgot to be careful with my movements, I put my foot down on to nothing and fell through.
I yelled with surprise and put out my hands to grab something, anything that I could, anything that could save my. Flinging my arms wildly as I slipped into what seemed like a bottomless pit someone grabbed my wrists and pulled me back.
I fell on top of them and we both went flying to the floor in the dark. Strange sensation really, it still felt like I was falling into the bottomless pit. It wouldn't have been so frightening if I could see what I had been falling into. My heart was racing and for a moment I forgot that I was lying on someone. I remembered and found it was a guy, whoever it was, because there was an obvious lack of chest.
I pulled off quickly and was amazed to find my sword hadn't disappeared forever because it was on the ground, pulling it up I backed against the wall and was silent for a moment, waiting for them to move.
They seemed a little breathless because for a moment there was nothing but the sound of our breathing. Were they going to say something? For all I knew it was a Stalfos or something, yet the feel of them had been human-like.
I heard a groan and the shuffle of rocks and fabric as they moved up off the floor, I waited as my heart seemed to pull itself out of my ribcage with fright.
"Are you alright?" a gruff voice asked, it sounded so raw that I couldn't tell whether it was human
I didn't say anything, was this person friendly or not? They'd saved me sure, but then hadn't Dark Link? And he wanted to kill me! I tried to still my breathing so they wouldn't find me.
The person groaned and said warily "You still here?"
I kicked a stone near my feet for a reply.
"Is that all I get?" they said in a disgruntled tone, "You could at least say thank you"
Dark Link?
It definitely sounded like Link, I felt a sudden urge to thank him, even if he was going to kill me later on. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him tightly and then I was suddenly shocked to find his chest was moving, so I hadn't imagined him breathing earlier.
Breathing?
I pulled back, "Link?" I said loudly
"Well I was just expecting a thank you but then a hug's good too"
I almost broke into tears and went back to hug him again, it was really Link, I could feel his shield and weapons across his back and his larger bulk than Dark Link. I silently cried for a moment into his shoulder as he scolded me for disappearing.
"I thought you were dead" he said, his arms still around me, I felt that same sort of warmness that I always associated with him, and realised that Dark Link had not held that warmth "I came back and you were gone, I knew Dark Link had been and I thought he'd taken you"
"No, I was almost dead but then I was saved, by these people, they brought Lucy here too, Lucy was taken and Sao's people, one of the people who saved me, Sao's people were taken by Dark Link and so was Lucy, and Dark Link's going to kill me unless I go to him and Lucy and the others will die unless I go but I don't want to die"
"What are you talking about?" Link said through the Dark, I could feel his hair on my forehead and for a second I wished that he liked me and Dark Link didn't, Dark Link didn't anyway, he was going to kill me
I explained to Link what had happened more slowly but in short hand version up to the point where he'd caught me.
"How did you know I was here?" I asked afterwards
"I didn't I followed a large set of tracks, I also followed a trail of Stalfos. I saw you coming in here just as I got here myself"
"Wow"
"I'll tell you about it later. You said Lucy needs rescuing? How long has she been here, WHY is she here?"
"Dark Link is going to release Reika and Ganondorf"
"Goddesses, doesn't it EVER stop?"
"Nope, anyway it all ties back to when we were here last time. Apparently I'm some sort of seer person who can travel between worlds and Reika wanted a seer to release Gannondorf last time. Anyway so she was looking for one when we turned up on her doorstep! Anyway so we defeated her, right? And now Dark Link wants a seer to release both Reika and Gannondorf into Termina!"
"Oh"
"Oh? It's a bit worse than 'oh'!"
"Yeah, it is. I guess we need to rescue Lucy"
"Sao, the person I was with, came in here before me to rescue his tribe and Lucy" I said "And kill Dark Link"
Link pushed me away, and said darkly "He won't be able to"
"Why not"
"Only I can kill him" Link replied, it was strange not being able to see him while he spoke, I wanted to make sure it was really him "It's all to do with the opposite thing"
"Right" I said, "I think we ought to get going"
"Where to?"
"Well this tunnel ought to go somewhere"
"Let's go then"
* * *
OK, read, review and be happy. I'm sorry about the lack of activity, I plan to get this back on it's feet soon but I'm entering exam period so I'm a bit snowed under at the moment!
Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda!
* * *
It was a vertical rock face.
We spent around two hours on that mountain. Two hours of climbing, Sao went first, finding the way, practically a mountain goat. We had one rope to hold us if we fell and that was being held by Sao, so if he fell then it would be my job to hold him up. Unfortunately I doubted that I could hold such a weight on my own.
It was a sorry state we ended up at the top in, my fingers were bleeding from the sharp rock and my elbows and knees were grazed. Sao seemed perfectly fine but more than happy to help me patch up.
But it was a mixed blessing as we looked down in to the canyon, not only did it seem that we could see the trail clearly made by the captives but also it seemed like a straight run of rock to nearly everywhere in the canyon and a jumpable distance across the sides at places ahead if we needed to cross.
We were also safe from bomb-chu.
I was obviously going end up the beaten woman that Anju had seen in me because by list of injuries seemed to piling up every hour.
The sun was hot and as we walked across the flat plain of rock with our huge bags and weapons it seemed like the whole world was wobbling and I frequently had to be pulled back from the edge of the cliff by Sao.
I was glad I wasn't going this alone.
It would be even better if Link were here, where was he anyway? It was turning into the big Me and Sao Adventure. Well, he was cute...and Link was married...but then, Sao had said Lucy was cute too. So he obviously wasn't interested in any more than friendship.
I was glad of that, I guess, because if there was something more than that it might have got in the way.
Dark Link? Hmm, good looking, evil. But wasn't that always the way? Anyway, Link would hate me for thinking like this, but then...wasn't Dark Link, Link? Too confusing, best not to think about him.
We spent the day travelling along the top of the canyon and following the trails below, it turned out that the maze of the canyons was impossible to navigate from inside even though these tracks seemed to know where they were going.
"I bet he's got a big underground lair or something," Sao said as we once again checking the route of the tracks "He's making us follow him. Using them as bait. We'll have a tough time leading them out of these canyons too. That's if we can even get close. You ought to stay here, it might be dangerous"
"No way. It's all my fault, all of this" I replied "So I may as well follow to help clear up this mess"
"How is it your fault? You can't help the way you were born"
I smiled "Thanks but, it's me he's after and if we don't get there he's going to kill them. Just because I'm a seer and he's planning to..."
Sao looked at me "Planning to what?"
"Planning to release Reika and Gannondorf with my powers"
"How do you know?"
"Well..." I shrugged, and lied "It's just obvious, what else would he want? And anyway, history repeats itself, and Reika wanted Seer blood to release Gannondorf the first time"
Sao didn't look convinced, "You're hiding something from me"
I looked into the canyon "No, I'm not"
I just hoped I was a good a liar as I thought I was. I didn't really want to lie but then, what else could I do? Say I was a liability because I was letting people in my head when I slept? Say I was falling for the bad guy?
Why was it that all of the bad people were good looking? It was completely a Sod's Law.
I looked at a small bird in the sky, jumping when a larger one swooped out of no where to catch it in it's claw. A black bird.
I felt just like the small one. Being torn between three larger birds. Whom did I owe loyalty? Link because he was the one I counted on all the time? Sao because he had helped me thus far, or Dark Link, just because he had a slight power as a love interest but wanted to kill me?
I remember once when I was small, watching my sister cry over a boy at school. I don't know why it stuck with me, perhaps it was the heartbreak she thought she was feeling, just over a crush. Or maybe it was the fact that this was perhaps all women's fate. It always is the woman who gets hurt, after all.
Then big yellow sun began to make it's way slowly towards the ground, in a long arc as the daytime moon appeared to take it's place, in a blue sky overhead.
We'd made barely any progress in this day, it was amazing how much you could get done in a game and then do only a minuscule amount of it in real life. It was disappointing. But somehow I imagined that we were getting closer to our destination.
It had been around two days since our start from Clock Town and the bad people had only had a short night's head start from us, so we must have been catching up pretty fast since there were only two of us making good time compared to a whole train of people, most of whom were probably resisting.
Lucy undoubtedly was.
Sao also seemed to be feeling this closeness to the end. He seemed more urgent, and kept telling me to make more speed to get over the largest amount of land possible before we lost light.
In fact, even after the sun went down we were still moving. I wondered if Link was moving somewhere too.
He had little kids somewhere too, I smiled, Tate had been so cute, and it was obvious he was going to be a little Link clone when he grew up. That would be something to see, maybe he wouldn't have to fight for his life like his father did though.
Did Sao have kids? I wondered because it had only seemed to be men in his Tribe where we'd been before. And they'd said they'd been cut off from the village in Snowhead. He might do, it was possible, after all, Hyrule and Termina seemed to be sort of stuck in Medieval Times, so that would mean young marridges. I decided to ask.
"Sao?"
"Mmmm?"
He didn't stop, we kept on moving fast, sort of a half walk, half run in the moonlight even though we were both hungry and tired.
"Do you have any children?"
He didn't reply. He only seemed about my age but as soon as I'd asked his features had aged. And he had seemed a whole lot older.
"One"
My jaw dropped, so he did have children. I wondered who he had had them with. What was she like? How weird, I'd never really imagined him having kids, but then, everyone here seemed to be having kids Link, Kestrel, Anju. Glad it wasn't me, I didn't want the trouble, or the hassle of regaining a figure.
I looked over to him, he seemed unfazed by the question but looked sort of hard in the dim light, his face was positively stony.
"Really?"
"A girl, Aki, three" he said calmly, looking into the darkness for enemies
"Will I get to meet her?" I asked, smiling
Sao didn't look at me or even smile "She's dead" he said flatly
Dead.
Wow.
I stared. I felt my heart ache for him, he looked like he didn't care, the way he said it. Poor guy, I wished I hadn't brought it up.
"Her mother's dead too"
Another gasp from me, he'd volunteered the information himself as well. I looked at the moon, poor guy, I wondered how they'd died and how long they'd been in a family together. What a blow, and I'd just brought it all up.
Stupid, stupid me.
I felt very guilty right then, but he said nothing else and I didn't either.
* * *
We ran through the night, but at one point we had had to stop because I'd fainted from hunger and fatigue, unfortunately I wasn't allowed a rest and once I'd come around and been given food we were off again.
I felt like a wreck and must have looked like it too, the rate my injuries kept going, my fingertips were sore, my face ached and my arms and legs yelled at me to low down.
But, at last, when it seemed like we'd never stop running, we came across our first bit of luck.
The tracks were ending, they had spread out and began to heard down into a small canyon and ahead of that we could see an entrance to cavern, I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the same cave that Kafei used to hang out in front of to get his sun mask back.
We slowed down to get a better view. As we drew nearer the rock ace we could see tiny windows carved out of the rock, a perfectly hidden fortress was imbedded into the cliff.
He was here.
Lucy was here.
I could feel it.
The air practically hummed.
"Look over there" Sao spoke his first words since the child talk
"Where?"
"On the plateau above the cliff"
Just about the fortress a large carving was placed, we couldn't see it very well from where we are but I could take a pretty good guess and say that it was a triforce marked into the soil.
"What do we do?" I asked Sao "I hadn't really thought about what we were going to do to get them out"
"We're going to kill Shadow Man" Sao said darkly
I looked at him "We are?"
Sao shot me a look of disbelief mixed in with 'are you stupid?' and replied "What? You were having second thoughts? After what he did to the camp and your friend?"
I felt my stomach and shoulder tenderly and replied "Violence solves nothing"
"Oh that's a change, coming from you" Sao said, raising an eyebrow "I thought you wanted to kill him before he killed you"
I swung round on him and said harshly "I never said that! I barely even know you, don't even think about saying that you think you know what I want"
Sao stared. I stared, where had that come from? Why had it come? Was I afraid for Dark Link? How could that be?
I'd thought earlier that maybe Dark Link had saved me from the bomb-chu, now that the wounds he had dealt me at the camp came back to mind, had he healed me those as well? Strange boy.
Sao looked sort of hurt, and a little betrayed as he stared down into the ravine. We watched a lone Stalfos come out of the cave and look around, before heading inside again.
"That's definitely the place" Sao said coldly, drawing his large curved sword and checking his other weapons were in reach "Do what you want, girl. I'm going to kill Shadow Man"
Sao began to make his way over the edge, without a second person he'd die if he fell, but his anger was fuelling his climbing ability and in a little while he had practically slid to the bottom.
I stared after him, clenching my fists in frustration, what had I done? I'd wrecked our relationship again! And I needed his help.
He obviously didn't need mine. What had I said though? I had completely turned around on my revenge scheme, I needed to kill Dark Link to stop him doing what he was going to do, and he was going to kill me to use in his evil scheme and probably kill everyone else too.
Yet I was reluctant to head in there.
I watched Sao walk confidently below me into the darkness.
It was going to be hard to get down there.
But I wasn't going to let Sao face it alone, I needed to stop Dark Link and save Lucy.
"Where's Link when you need him?" I said out loud and began to head toward the edge of the cliff
I looked over the edge and swayed, a long way down.
Adjusting all my equipment I began to sit and slide myself over the edge carefully. I began to make my way slowly down.
A rock slipped and I fell.
Luckily my nails and feet were dug into the rock, so I slid at a high speed down the rock face, dust and stones littering my fall and blinding me in the free fall. I could feel my skin being ripped and burned by the friction but held on as best I could.
Falling near the bottom I hit the dirt with agonising force and lay there for a moment, unsure whether it was too late to yell or too early to burst into tears.
Once more I was utterly alone.
In pain.
And alone.
Again.
I really wasn't doing that well this time around. Too bad, if they fates were trying to get me to quit then NO WAY. I was taking Lucy home with me.
I pulled myself up and drew my sword, ignoring the blood that was now dribbling down my arms, too bad, if I was going to die trying then it was better than not trying at all.
I pulled myself together, dusted myself off and marched toward the cave. I was going in, too bad if Dark Link was in my way.
I looked up at the sky before I went in, taking a last look at the light, then headed into the blackness beyond.
* * *
It was cold in the dark. I walked with my hand on the stone wall, half more afraid of that because who knew what could be sitting on the wall, a spike? An animal? It was even scarier than the dark.
Almost.
The dark was very stuffy, the heat from outside, suddenly evaporating in the shadow, gave way to a coldness that made you sweat with chills. It was worse in a way. I was glad I'd brought all Link's weapons.
The sound of my feet echoed along the hall so I thought once of twice that Sao or an enemy was coming towards me.
I had to be careful where I put my feet and once of twice I heard my feet slide a stone that seemed to fall somewhere, and it was a long time before I heard it hit anything, water or otherwise. I kept wiping the sweat off my hands on my trousers and tried to keep a clear head.
I listened, but I've never been good at hearing because I was always daydreaming. Couldn't day dream now. One daydream and I was over a cliff in the dark or something.
I would have thought that the enemy would have put lamps up or something so they themselves could see where they were going, obviously they could see in the dark or they were trying to spite me. It was hard going, every so often I'd fall down and bruise my already pained legs.
It was also wet in the tunnel, I assumed it was a tunnel because it seemed to be going somewhere.
I couldn't be sure but it felt like there were footsteps behind me, it might have been my own footsteps echoing back towards me but it sounded a little too out of time with my feet and their echo to be me.
I shuffled the sword in my hand and tried to speed up carefully, where did Sao go? He couldn't be that far ahead, he hadn't been in long before I'd come after him.
He was going to kill Dark Link. I was going to kill Dark Link, and Dark Link wanted to kill me! But could I kill someone who looked so much like Link? Did Sao hate Dark Link for kidnapping his people and burning his camp, well obviously? Did Dark Link actually save me from the wounds he himself had inflicted and from the bombchu? Did I hate Dark Link enough to kill him? I hadn't killed Reika and I had hated her.
My head literally swam in these questions. There were too many to answer by myself.
Dark Link. I did a silent sort of swoon in the dark and then slapped myself for being so stupid, sure he looked like Link and sure I had liked Link when he looked like that, but Dark Link was EVIL. Hence the name. And he was going to kill me, not a great favour factor.
But then, he was cute. And Link was taken by Zelda...with kids. That did make him a no-no, hell, he was too old anyway!
I found myself grinning at my thoughts and forgot to be careful with my movements, I put my foot down on to nothing and fell through.
I yelled with surprise and put out my hands to grab something, anything that I could, anything that could save my. Flinging my arms wildly as I slipped into what seemed like a bottomless pit someone grabbed my wrists and pulled me back.
I fell on top of them and we both went flying to the floor in the dark. Strange sensation really, it still felt like I was falling into the bottomless pit. It wouldn't have been so frightening if I could see what I had been falling into. My heart was racing and for a moment I forgot that I was lying on someone. I remembered and found it was a guy, whoever it was, because there was an obvious lack of chest.
I pulled off quickly and was amazed to find my sword hadn't disappeared forever because it was on the ground, pulling it up I backed against the wall and was silent for a moment, waiting for them to move.
They seemed a little breathless because for a moment there was nothing but the sound of our breathing. Were they going to say something? For all I knew it was a Stalfos or something, yet the feel of them had been human-like.
I heard a groan and the shuffle of rocks and fabric as they moved up off the floor, I waited as my heart seemed to pull itself out of my ribcage with fright.
"Are you alright?" a gruff voice asked, it sounded so raw that I couldn't tell whether it was human
I didn't say anything, was this person friendly or not? They'd saved me sure, but then hadn't Dark Link? And he wanted to kill me! I tried to still my breathing so they wouldn't find me.
The person groaned and said warily "You still here?"
I kicked a stone near my feet for a reply.
"Is that all I get?" they said in a disgruntled tone, "You could at least say thank you"
Dark Link?
It definitely sounded like Link, I felt a sudden urge to thank him, even if he was going to kill me later on. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him tightly and then I was suddenly shocked to find his chest was moving, so I hadn't imagined him breathing earlier.
Breathing?
I pulled back, "Link?" I said loudly
"Well I was just expecting a thank you but then a hug's good too"
I almost broke into tears and went back to hug him again, it was really Link, I could feel his shield and weapons across his back and his larger bulk than Dark Link. I silently cried for a moment into his shoulder as he scolded me for disappearing.
"I thought you were dead" he said, his arms still around me, I felt that same sort of warmness that I always associated with him, and realised that Dark Link had not held that warmth "I came back and you were gone, I knew Dark Link had been and I thought he'd taken you"
"No, I was almost dead but then I was saved, by these people, they brought Lucy here too, Lucy was taken and Sao's people, one of the people who saved me, Sao's people were taken by Dark Link and so was Lucy, and Dark Link's going to kill me unless I go to him and Lucy and the others will die unless I go but I don't want to die"
"What are you talking about?" Link said through the Dark, I could feel his hair on my forehead and for a second I wished that he liked me and Dark Link didn't, Dark Link didn't anyway, he was going to kill me
I explained to Link what had happened more slowly but in short hand version up to the point where he'd caught me.
"How did you know I was here?" I asked afterwards
"I didn't I followed a large set of tracks, I also followed a trail of Stalfos. I saw you coming in here just as I got here myself"
"Wow"
"I'll tell you about it later. You said Lucy needs rescuing? How long has she been here, WHY is she here?"
"Dark Link is going to release Reika and Ganondorf"
"Goddesses, doesn't it EVER stop?"
"Nope, anyway it all ties back to when we were here last time. Apparently I'm some sort of seer person who can travel between worlds and Reika wanted a seer to release Gannondorf last time. Anyway so she was looking for one when we turned up on her doorstep! Anyway so we defeated her, right? And now Dark Link wants a seer to release both Reika and Gannondorf into Termina!"
"Oh"
"Oh? It's a bit worse than 'oh'!"
"Yeah, it is. I guess we need to rescue Lucy"
"Sao, the person I was with, came in here before me to rescue his tribe and Lucy" I said "And kill Dark Link"
Link pushed me away, and said darkly "He won't be able to"
"Why not"
"Only I can kill him" Link replied, it was strange not being able to see him while he spoke, I wanted to make sure it was really him "It's all to do with the opposite thing"
"Right" I said, "I think we ought to get going"
"Where to?"
"Well this tunnel ought to go somewhere"
"Let's go then"
* * *
OK, read, review and be happy. I'm sorry about the lack of activity, I plan to get this back on it's feet soon but I'm entering exam period so I'm a bit snowed under at the moment!
