I Don't own LOZ. 'Nuff said.
Legend of Zelda: Quest for the ArcBlade
Chapter 4: Standing In The Dark
The entrance chamber of the tomb of the Royal family hadn't changed much. It was dark, dank, and dreary. Further down the main corridor Keese rested on the walls watchfully. Link hadn't seen Hyrulian Keese in some time, but he hadn't forgotten how annoying they could become if he got close. He realized the Mirror Relic was glowing brighter now, but the light wasn't bright enough to bother the Keese. Turning around, he faced the wall that was beyond the shining light that would take him back to the surface world. Link walked around the light instead, and stood in front of the wall and looked at the Mirror Relic. His eyes widened in surprise.
"Well, this is interesting," He mumbled. From the Relic's white center, he saw dark designs that had begun to block the light. However, he just couldn't figure it out. He looked up at the wall again, and saw the exact same designs shining out from the wall… with light that didn't shine. In the middle of the designs of the wall, there was a small hole that was never there before. Without thinking, Link took the Relic in his hand and pushed it into the hole. As he did, the wall split in half, and both sides swung open to reveal… Link blinked, and looked behind him, and in front of him again. He was looking into an exact replica of the entrance chamber, with a few minor differences. The walls were an eerie purple instead of blue, and there was no shining ray of light to take him to the surface like the one behind him. Link walked into the new chamber; it was indeed an exact duplicate. By the time he reached the widened chamber, he realized that there weren't any Keese, and the torches were already lit. Climbing the stairs, he saw the same designs on the door that had been on the walls. Again, he took out the Mirror Relic and pushed it into the little hole, and the door opened. He walked into the next room and the door closed behind him.
Link slowly walked down the slope, to see that the ReDeads were there, but there was something different about them. It looked like they were encased by a dark purple field, and they looked weak. Looking down, he saw the pools of ectoplasm were not green, like in Hyrule – but purple – the same shade that had encased the ReDeads. Ignoring them, he ran along the bedrock, trying to stay out of the ectoplasm. He kept running through the corridor, but stopped once he saw another giant gray stone slab against the wall, looming over him. Link walked up to it and searched it, but all he could find was some writing with a small indent in the wall that looked like something could be placed in next to it:
Ye who wishes to wander the world of the dead, heed my words.
And thou must, for thoust has reached this gate. Understand this, Soul of Sol
Thine shaln't pass beyond this point without seeking the wisdom across the
Mirror, seek the advice of the ones that rest there. Only then may you pass
This gate, in hopes of reaching the destination you seek.
Link read over these words again. They made scene… but then again, they didn't. "Across the Mirror?" He mumbled in wonderment. There're weren't any real mirrors. Except for… maybe, that wall he went through. "Now that I think about it… that wall-door I went through was kind of like a mirror… and there was a coffin like thing on the exact opposite side… sort of… but that's what makes most scene right now." He turned around and walked back through the corridor, past the ReDeads, and back through the 'Mirror'. Slowly, he took out his Hero's Bow (one of the few pieces of equipment that he had brought with him on such short notice) and loosened a few arrows at the Keese who were still clinging watchfully from the walls. They fell to the ground as an eerie wind blew from behind his back. Link turned around just as another cold gust came at him from up the tunnel. Shaking the chill off, he turned back around in surprise. The fallen Keese's bodies had been reduced to dust, and small ghosts of themselves mindlessly flew past him, as if they were following that cold wind. Turning around yet again, he watched the six ghostly Keese go through the Mirror and disappear.
"That… was freaky…" he whispered to the silent room. Without another thought, he climbed the aptly large steps and went through the door to the next room, which in his mind he had nicknamed the 'Moaning Room' since the only sound that was heard reverberating was the sad moaning from ReDeads - 'living' ReDeads - whom were given the lonely unspoken task of guarding the coffin further up the chamber. Recalling a historic thought from past experience here, Link took out the Ocarina of Time and played the… wait a minute. He thought over again - and remembered that it was the Song of the Sun that froze ReDeads, contrary to the Terminian ReDeads who froze to the melody - Song of the Storms. Keeping that in mind, he played the Song of the Sun and the expected response was inevitable - the constant moaning stopped, and chances were that it was now night time (and, even though the thought never dawned on Link, but he had actually helped Gannon by -in a way- taking longer then he had to…). Link then quickly ran through the first half of the chamber, through a narrow corridor, and reached the smaller of the two halves of the Moaning Room. He respectfully walked up to the coffin and looked around. Nothing. Link ran his fingers across the stone slab that made up the coffin. The feeling was cool and smooth, and oddly enough it wasn't dusty. Link didn't think too much about it, and continued looking around, still without finding a thing. Becoming frustrated, he walked over to one of the little collections of bones and skulls in the right hand corner of the room, and he gave the biggest skull there a good what-for and kicked all his frustration out on it. Slightly exhausted, relieved, and with a hurting food, he left the remaining shards from the ex-skull he had used as a soccer ball in pieces… and suddenly gave them a second glance. Among them was a small stone tablet. He picked it up and discovered writing on it, writing in the same hand that had written the previous message:
Whether the sun is in the sky,
Whether the moon hangs high,
Whether life continues or life ends,
Those excused from the physical plain wander on without cause.
Causeless was LandFall, The Caticlysim of my exempt mortal life.
The cause to which I am Watcher…
Is your cause due to fate?
Thus ended the strange message. Link couldn't figure out if the last sentence was speaking in general, or was it speaking to him? Was someone waiting for him beyond the mirror, in the Undead Realm? Then it hit him. If there was a someone, it might just be one of those Kage Musuko creatures. He savored the thought, it would save him a lot of time looking for one of them. Suddenly, he heard a sharp noise, similar to the sound of ice as it begins to crack and is about to break apart. Pocketing the small tablet, he rushed out to the main part of the Moaning Room to see that the effect of Sun's Song was starting to wear off on the ReDeads. Link hastily rushed through the Moaning Room, up the short ramp at the entrance, and he half jumped through the door. He heaved a sigh of relief and looked around the dark entrance chamber. Link pulled himself back together, and walked half-rushed through the Mirror, and all that way back to the reflection of the Royal Family's coffin. Slowly, Link took out the small tablet and held it up beside the previous message. Indeed, the hand that wrote it was uncannily identical. His eyes strayed away from the writing on the wall, and found the small indent next to it. After comparing the sizes of both the indent and the tablet, he made up his mind. Slowly, gently, carefully, Link placed the tablet into the indent. A perfect fit. Not a moment later, a grinding noise was heard from behind the walls. A startled Link took a step back and reflexively drew his sword and shield. As Link stood there defensively, the rear part of the wall rose and the front coffin part dropped into the floor, revealing a dark, but sparcely lit passageway. Link reshethed his sword and put away his shield.
"Well, here goes everything…" he said as he entered the dark passageway…
Ok, I'm done. Well, maybe this wasn't so much as a 'long' chapter, but there's a lot more reading material here. Oh well. Anyway, I think my writer's block is gone (I hope) and so I'll probably update more frequently. But for now, I'm going to visit my trailer for the labour day weekend be4 school starts again. -_-*
~Well, See Ya! Ja Ne! Aloha! Whut-3v4!