Link quickly grabbed onto Saria then used Nayru's Love to stop them from feeling the fall. At the bottom of the pit it was pitch black with only a small ray of light shinning down through the hole they fell through. Faint drips of water could be heard in the distance along with low moaning, Link immediately recognised the moaning and drew his sword
"Sar do you remember the monsters I told you about that haunted the Shadow Temple?"
Saria nodded thinking she was glad she wasn't Sage of shadows.
"Well I think you're about to see them for yourself first hand."
Out of the darkness crept four tall rotted bodies followed by a shorter lighter figure. The four tall figures Link easily remembered as redeads but the fifth took a little more thinking about.
The short monster has creamy white skin with red here and there; it had night black eyes that could pierce through anyone's soul. Long white arms followed by its side waving wildly through the air, the last thing about it were its teeth, which took over half its face when it grinned evilly.
Link looked at it closely. "Ooh that's dead hand how could I forget anything as ugly as that?"
Back at the top of the pit Darunia had quickly pulled Zelda back on to her feet when Alfos appeared in a thick cloud of purple smoke laughing evilly. Darunia and Zelda both started to power up their magic but were cut off as Alfos shot his freezing spell at them adding two more victims to his statue collection.
"Mwhahaha three out of the four Sages in the contest frozen, this is getting too easy." Alfos then noticed he had frozen Princess Zelda who he knew Ganondorf had been after for many years, if he brought his master the Triforce of Wisdom he would be greatly rewarded.
Alfos stretched out a long bony arm ready to suck the Triforce power from Zelda when suddenly the ground began to shake causing some small trees to tumble over.
Alfos looked in the direction of the noise and was shocked to see that the volcano was slightly shaking sending rocks tumbling down its side. Alfos forgot all about Zelda and vanished in another cloud of smoke.
The redeads were circling the pair with the dead hand cackling on the outer edge waving its arms madly through the air acting like a cheerleader encouraging the redeads on.
Link was thinking about just using his sword but he knew if a person got too close to a redead they would became paralysed giving the monster enough time to attack. While Link was trying to come up with an answer Saria took out her ocarina. Link wondered what she was doing.
"Um Sar this is no time for a song."
Then it hit him if they played The Sun's song the redeads would freeze for a short time
"If you teach me the song Link I can play it and you can get rid of them."
Link didn't know if just anyone could use The Sun's song but Saria was a Sage so there was a good chance it would work.
"Ok this one's easy just put your fingers over the right hole, then the bottom one and finally the top hole, make sure to repeat it just like your song."
Saria began to play the song, Link smiled as the notes echoed through the cave as a bright yellow light surrounded her causing the redeads to shriek and freeze on the spot.
Link took his sword and slashed it through the monsters making them fall to the ground and transform into dust blowing away in the breeze.
The dead hand also screamed in pain at the music but was stronger than the redeadsso it was able to keep standing. The monster was relieved when the music had stopped and looked for the thing that made such a terrible sound. It spotted Saria's ocarina and threw itself towards it. Saria shot a green blast at the hand, which stunned it making it spin out of control enabling Link to spin slash its body sending the thing crashing to the floor.
Placing a light arrow in his bow Link quickly let the arrow fly into the monster which then followed the redeads to the land of dust.
Mido hacked through the long grass with his dagger. Since Saria had played The Sun's song the day had ended making way for the night. The moon sparkled off the edge of Mido's dagger as he continued wondering around looking for his master.
Suddenly Mido felt a sharp kick in his back and he tumbled to the floor, his dagger flying out of his hand landing a few feet away from him.
"You fool! You are absolutely useless!" Alfos screamed tossing an energy blast at Mido making himcry out in pain.
"I ask you to do one simple thing and you can't even do that. I give you a magical dagger to destroy that medalling pair and you don't even figure how to use it, instead you let them fall down a pit which they will surely get out of by morning."
The rumbling started upfor a second time,Alfos gave Mido one last blast then vanished again.
Mido rubbed his head and noticed Alfos had not collected the dagger. Slowly Mido crawled over to the weapon and put it in his pocket.
Under the ground the rumbling began to become strong as the roofs began to cave in causing most of the pit entrance to become blocked up.
"Oh no this is bad." Saria said looking at Link. Link didn't like to say it but it was bad, very bad since the hole had blocked up sealing their only exit. Saria turned around and stared into the darkness.
"Hey Link look at those metal lines on the floor going into that cave, maybe there's a way out through there?"
Link turned to the direction she was pointing and noticed the metal lines as well.
"They could be an old railway," He thought out loud.
Link took out a deku stick and handed it Saria while he got a fire arrow from his quiver and lit the stick so the cave wasn't so dark. The two made their way over to the track but found that it only went so far before a pile of rocks cut the rest of it awaynot allowinganyone to follow it further. Link took out a bomb motioning for Saria to stand back while he threw down the bomb and stood back himself. A few seconds later there was a small explosion and a new entrance was revealed.
"Good thinking Link." Saria grinned as they walked through.
Link smiled. "It's what I do best."
When they entered the cave they saw that the track ran on as far as they could see in the dim light. The cave was dull and quiet with a small wind blowing through it.
Link and Saria followed the tracks which soon turned into a bridge surrounded by a massive drop on both sides. In the middle of the track they came across an old mine cart.
"You think it still works?" Saria asked walking up to it.
Link came up behind her.
"Don't see why not, let's try it!" Link leapt in and stood up putting out his hand for Saria.
"All aboard." Link smiled puling Saria up into the cart.
The two sat opposite each other and looked around the cart.
"So does this thing go on its own or are we supposed to do something?" Saria asked looking over at Link.
Link scanned the front of the inside of the cart and noticed a small oval hollow shape carved onto one of the front sides, he knelt down to get a closer look.
"Hey this looks like the same shape as yourlocket maybe they are linked somehow?" Link wondered running a hand along the hallow carving.
"You think so?" Saria replied. She took off thelocket and handed it to Link who placed it into the carving which was a perfect fit. Suddenly the cart began to shake and slowly rattle its way along the track going deeper into the cave.
Mido clambered up ledge after ledge as he made his way up one side of the volcano. The rumbling had become less now so he wasn't worried about it erupting while he was on it. He pulled himself up another ledge and stopped to gaze at the view of the large forest he had just come through.
"I hope the others are ok, I bet that hooded weirdo has found them all and frozen them too." Mido sighed and stood up grabbing onto the next ledge. If he was the last person that wasn't frozen he might as well get to the top.
Alfos quickly moved up the volcano using magical blasts to knock rocks down so he could use them to climb on. He was nearly at the top just a few more ledges and the fifty points would be his.
The cart began to speed up racing along the track crashing through old wooden barriers and rocks in its path. The track started to spiral upward going faster and faster until an exit came into view. The cart crashed into another barrier sending the pair flying out of the cave which was actually the inside of volcano and landing on a ledge near the top.
"Oof." Saria mumbled getting up. "Remind me never to go in one of those again." As she got up she let out a scream as a bony hand appeared on the edge of the ledge pulling up none other than Alfos Red.
"Mwhahaha so this is where you are, I knew you would escape from that pit but I never imagined you would get up here so quick. I'm going to put an end to the both of you right now!"
He lifted himself onto the ledge and prepared to power up a spell.
Mido was getting very near the top as he climbed a large boulder he heard a scream followed by crazy laughing. He made his way across a few ledges to see Alfos climbing onto a ledge and Link and Saria looking shocked. Alfos had his back to Mido and just as he was powering up his spell Mido leapt out of nowhere onto Alfos's back, grabbed the whistle from the wizard's neck and blew it as hard as he could. Alfos span around throwing Mido to the ground.
"You stupid boy! Now they will think I have chosen to give up." There was a crack followed by a bright flash of light as one of the staff appeared.
"Impa?" Link gasped. "What are you doing here?"
Impa grabbed Alfos by his sleeve and turned to the others.
"Well when they said trained staff who did you expect? Rauru?"
Impa clung to Alfos's sleeve tightly and explained he shouldn't have blown his whistle if he hadn't wanted to leave but he kept yelling in protest anyway. Alfos turned to Link muttering under his breath.
"I might not be able to win enough points to beat you in this pathetic competition but believe me, I will get my revenge."
Impa threw down a deku nut and the two were gone in a flash.
"Wow Mido that was a smart move." Saria said going up to him. Link who had still been standing by the cave hole remembered thelocket and walked over to the cart to take it out.
A few minutes later the three had reached the top of the volcano and received a big smile from the tour guide as he ran up to them looking relieved. Link and Saria both were given fifty points each but since Mido wasn't in the competition he wouldn't have any.
"Did you three see anyone else on your way up here?" The tour guide asked. Mido then realised Alfos had frozen a lot of people in the forest trying so hard to win.
Ruto opened her eyes and noticed she was standing on the edge of the pit she had recklessly tried getting over. She also realised it was early morning and no one was around. The Zora Princess had no idea what she had been doing for the past day but had the feeling a spell had worn off over her. She decided it was no good trying to find her way to the finish now so she took out her whistle and gave it a quick blow.
Zelda looked up from where she had fallen on the grass and wondered if she had been asleep for the past few hours. She heard Darunia moving a few metres away from her and stood up. She thought there was no use going on so she removed her whistle from her pocket and gave it a blow. Darunia doing the same since he didn't want to be left alone in the middle of nowhere.
Later that day the group gathered on the beach to wait for a new boat to arrive. The tour guide walked among them clueless as to what had gone on during the past few days. Alfos was not included in the group as he had vanished after Impa had brought him back down to the beach.
Ruto sat down on a log and began to moan about not having enough points to win anymore. Mido sat beside her.
"It's funny really, you were desperate to gain more points and didn't win and I didn't want any but I could have won them." He grinned as Ruto sent him a glare.
Soon the boat arrived and the group boarded it. The inside wasn't much different to the first boat except it was a bit larger with more seats.
"I wonder what happened to the captain of the other boat?" Link thought aloud as Saria sat next to him leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Yeah I was thinking that as well. He probably used a lifeboat or something and got away."
Link agreed as he put his arm around her glad that the island challenge was over.
