There is one little thing I want to get off my chest before I start. ER??? What in the heck does that mean? Er, it was good? Er, it sucked? What? What? What? *sigh* I am so confused.
*glares* And you know who I'm talking to.
Anyway.
Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.
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"Left!"
Link turned sharply around the corner, his feet sliding slightly across the floor due to the fact he didn't slow down a drop to take it. Navi had said she had felt at least ten Dark Soarans in the same general area as Zyte, and some other extremely dark presence elsewhere in the temple.
Link came upon another three way passage. "Which way?"
"Straight!" This time it was Leyann who shouted the direction, "I can feel her now!"
Link continued going straight. "Either of you know if Zyte's ok?"
Both fairies were silent. Link skidded to stop to turn and face them, only to find that both of them were frozen to the spot.
"Well? Answer me!"
The color seemed to drain from Leyann's form, "I can't feel her, nothing, nothing at all."
"Leyann what happened to her?"
"She's not there, I can't feel her." Leyann continued to stutter, not noticing Link had asked her a question.
"She was there one moment, and then she was gone the next, I can't feel a shred of her mind, like she was just snuffed out," Navi whispered.
"She can't be." Link whispered.
Tiny sparkling tears started falling from Leyann, she floated slowly to the ground. "I have failed, protect your partner, that's all I was told to do, protect your partner no matter what, and now I've failed even that."
"Leyann."
"I was always the oddball guardian, a lone fairy in a sea of many, I thought I would never get a partner. But then one day I felt her, that first blissful moment when you first feel their presence, I was so happy. But then when I found her, I was so worried, what if she hated me? I wasn't a pyre lizard or a kytel, I was a stupid fairy. But then she turned out to be different too, we, we were a perfect match, each of our souls completed the others, and now I've lost her!" Leyann dissolved into her sobs.
"Leyann snap out of it!" Navi burst, "there's still a chance!"
Leyann was silent for a moment, shocked by Navi's sudden outburst, "you, you're sure?"
"Yes, I still know where the room Zyte's in is, if we hurry we might still be able to save her."
Leyann rose shakily from the ground, "then what are we standing around here for? Let's go!"
"Right." Navi turned to Link, "ok, just three more straights, a right, one more straight, and a left, that's the room."
Link nodded, "then let's go." He turned and started running, the fairies trailing closely behind him.
*****
Just a few minutes later Link burst into the room. His blood was pounding in his ears and he was gasping for breath, but he was here.
His eyes wandered around the room for a moment, taking in the various broken statues while still looking for any signs of Zyte.
"Zyte? Are you here?"
He unsheathed his sword as a precaution and began to walk through the statues, alert of any movement. The fairies floated near him, utterly silent as they too looked. Link suddenly slipped, looking down he found he that he had stepped in a small dark pool of blood.
"Zyte?" he called again, this time with a tinge of urgency in his voice.
Leyann in the mean time had wandered away from the two, nervously flitting here and there looking for Zyte.
Link suddenly heard Leyann scream. "Leyann?" He hurried in the direction of her scream.
When he reached the spot, Link nearly dropped his sword in shear disbelief. Zyte was sprawled across the floor, her swords lying several feet away from her. The entire left side of her face was covered blood from a gash on her forehead, and she was bleeding from various other cuts, some small, and some serious looking. One of her wings had a long gash running down the back, which had probably hurt so much she couldn't fly. Link was about to bow his head in respect when he could have sworn he saw her move. He looked again, her wings trembled slightly as she breathed in. She was still alive!
"Leyann! She's still alive, she's breathing!"
"She is! Zyte you're ok!" Leyann, who was crying with joy now, darted toward Zyte.
There was a sudden screech and a black blur shot toward Leyann. Barely missing the creature's talons Leyann shrieked and darted back to Link, nervously hovering around his shoulder from the near miss.
The creature landed on a headless statue overlooking Zyte, where Link could get a good look at it. The creature turned out to be a pitch black gerahk, its evil yellow eyes seeming to bore into Link's soul.
"Annoying boy, trying to take away Master's prize when Zannat wasn't looking, Master warned me about you, yes he did." Link steadied his sword, something told him that something very bad was about to happen.
The gerahk continued on, oblivious to Link's change in position. "That girl was hard to get, she was, took out six Soarans before the remaining four decided to all attack at once," the gerahk smirked, "watching her pain was worth it though, Zannat thinks." The gerahk suddenly looked up at Link, annoyance lining his feathered face, "Zannat doesn't like people trying to steal hard-earned things from Master, Zannat should teach you a lesson." The gerahk's face took on a look of giddy delight. "Yes! Zannat will get rid of you, Zannat will make Master proud!"
Zannat opened his wings wide and started growing. Link backed up, this was not good.
Zannat continued to grow, black feathers melting into black scales. His beak turned into a gaping maw of teeth. Clawed forelegs grew from his chest as his taloned feet grew thick and bulky with muscles. His black tail feathers twisted together and lengthened further, forming a scaly black tail. The wings on his back were now larger and featherless, but still held their claws. The only thing that remained of him were his great yellow eyes, eyes that seemed to burn with an inner fire of vengeance. His transformation complete, Zannat looked down at Link, he was now an immense black dragon, and looked ready to dish out some pain.
"Zannat will make you pay!" he roared, drawing in a deep breath. The air took on a slightly sulphuric hint and Link dove to the side, barely missing the jet of fire that streamed from Zannat's mouth.
"You will not get away from Zannat that easily!" Another stream of fire shot at Link.
Link dodged again, but this was no good, he could keep dodging forever, sooner or later he would get hit. A sudden thought in his mind, he quickly sheathed his sword and brought out his bow. Bringing out an arrow he quickly summoned ice to its tip and took aim at Zannat.
The dragon laughed, "foolish boy thinks an arrow can hurt Zannat? Zannat will destroy him!"
Zannat opened his mouth again, and at that precise moment Link let the arrow fly. Striking the roof of Zannat's open mouth it froze his entire mouth and throat solid. Zannat screamed in pain at this new predicament, during which Link took the chance to fire another arrow, which hit one of Zannat's wings and froze it solid. Just as Link was grabbing another arrow Zannat rushed toward him, his frozen mouth ready to crush Link.
Link stumbled backward, but it was too late, Zannat was almost on top of him. Just as Zannat's jaws were about to snap shut a loop of shadows appeared, pulling back Zannat's head and closing his jaw shut. Another loop wrapped around his neck, while more slithered around his legs and wings, binding Zannat to the spot.
Link was shocked, there was only one person here who could have done anything close to that. His eyes went back to Zyte, and he felt his jaw drop.
Zyte had miraculously managed to get up on one knee. While one arm steadied her against the floor the other was stretched out toward Zannat. Her face turned slightly pained as she shakily stood up, her hand still outstretched. Closing her eyes shadows started to swarm around both her and Zannat, enveloping them both in darkness.
For a brief moment nothing happened, then the clump of shadows where Zyte had stood starting growing, forming a mirror image of Zannat. Both groups of shadows suddenly burst forward. Zannat stumbled forward, shaking his head as if trying to clear it. The black dragon snarled and glared over at Zyte, now in a dragon form as well. At first Zyte's form didn't seem to differ from Zannat's, but then she took a step forward into the light and the tips of her scales glowed the maroon color of dried blood.
"You will pay for that shadow twister!" he roared, and lunged forward.
Zyte twisted her massive bulk to avoid his attack and slapped his face with a wing, the claws leaving trails of blood streaming down his face. Zannat struck out with his own wing in retaliation, but just as it neared Zyte's side it was hit with another ice arrow, Link was not about to let Zyte do all the fighting.
Zyte flashed Link a toothy smile, "Thanks for the assist."
"Anytime." Link quickly dodged as another stream of fire was shot at him. He snatched another arrow from his quiver and let it fly, this one hitting Zannat right at the base of his neck. Zyte quickly stepped in with a swipe of her claws, leaving a large wound in Zannat's side.
Zannat stepped backward, his wounds painful. That boy was really starting to tic him off, and how dare that girl copy the form his master had given him. A sudden thought in his mind, he silently drew fire into the back of his throat and lunged head on toward the girl. Rearing up on his back legs he slashed both his arms toward her chest, she would have no choice but to block both. The girl, rearing up as well, caught his claws in her own, and they were both locked in claw to claw combat. Out of the corner of his eye Zannat saw the boy taking aim with yet another of those accursed arrows.
He smirked, flames licking the edge of his mouth, "say goodbye to your little friend shadow twister." He twisted his head around to face the boy and let the flame loose, with the girl occupied with him and the boy about to fire, he wouldn't get away.
"Link!" Smacking Zannat in the face again with her wing Zyte wrenched her claws from his and propelled herself forward, hoping she could get there in time.
Link was shocked at first when the flames came streaming toward him. Fumbling with his bow he freed a hand to cast Nayru's Love, even though he wasn't sure he could cast it in time. A massive shape suddenly appeared in front of him, taking the full force of the flames. The stench of charred flesh was soon heavy in the air and the shape shuddered, slumping to the ground with a moan of pain.
Across the room the black dragon laughed, "foolish children are no match for Zannat."
Link felt rage begin to boil up in him, Zyte had just put herself through more pain to save him, and Zannat was enjoying the fact she was in pain.
"Link." Zyte whispered.
"I'm here."
"I don't think I can last much longer, this might be our last chance to stop him. I going to grab him and hold him as still as I can, fire an arrow right in his forehead, put as much power as you can into it."
"Will do, be careful though."
Zyte staggered back to her feet, "No promises," she whispered, and lunged forward. Zannat, not expecting this sudden attack, didn't have time to move out of the way as Zyte rammed into him, pinning him to the ground.
"Now!"
Link let one more arrow fly, pouring power into it as he did. The arrow soared through the air and struck Zannat right in his forehead. Zannat roared in pain, throwing Zyte off of him as he staggered around the room in agony. Zyte bounded forward again and released a jet of flame right in his face.
Zannat stood still for a moment, his mouth still open in a scream of pain, before toppling backward, reducing a number a statues to rubble. Then the dragon's form began to fade away, like smoke into air, leaving in its place the black gerahk.
Zyte rumbled a sigh of relief and slumped to the floor, resting her head on the ground. In less than a blink of an eye Leyann was hovering in front of Zyte's face. But far from comforting her, it looked as if she was scolding her.
Wondering what this was about Link cautiously walked over, catching the end of what Leyann was saying.
"-be so stupid? You know what happens when you're that hurt when you shadow twist."
Zyte gave a low chuckle, "better to die fighting than waiting for it to come." That being said Zyte closed her eyes, her massive form shivering slightly.
*Something's wrong,* Link thought, *that burn wasn't bad enough to hurt her like this, and Zannat didn't land any other blows, so why is she hurt so badly?*
A shadow suddenly detached itself from Zyte's wing and fell to the floor, evaporating as it hit the stone. After that another fell, and another, but it wasn't like the way Zyte changed back from her other forms, when she did that her entire body was covered with shadows, now they were falling away individually.
"Leyann, what's happening to her?"
"She no longer has the strength to keep up that form, she doesn't even have the strength to change back, so the shadows are leaving on their own accord, taking with them what little strength Zyte has left."
The dragon continued to get paler and paler before starting to turn translucent. Link could start to see Zyte standing within the remaining shadows. As the last few melted away Zyte was left standing on the floor, several of the more severe cuts had healed along with the gash on her wing. Zyte started to lean forward, unable to stand any longer. Without even thinking Link rushed forward, catching her before she could fall.
"Come on Zyte, don't black out on me."
"Sorry." she murmured, "for not paying closer attention to my surroundings."
Link couldn't believe his ears, Zyte was apologizing for something he had failed to do. "Zyte, you're too nice for your own good sometimes."
Zyte gave a sad sort of smile, "can't help it, way I was raised."
Link chuckled, "one of these days it's going to backfire on you."
Zyte was silent at this, but her eyes suddenly flicked open. "The stone, we have to destroy the stone."
"Stone? What stone?"
"The one on the platform, we have to destroy it." Link finally noticed the pool of water on the opposite side of the room, along with the shimmering stone on its pedestal. "Before the Dark Soarans attacked, Zannat asked me if I had any last requests, I asked him to tell me what that stone was and what it was used for. It's a soul stone, it holds the captured souls of every Light Soarans that has been turned into a Dark Soaran. If the stone is destroyed the souls will be released, the Dark Soarans will get their souls back, they won't be mindless killers anymore. We must destroy it to free the Dark Soarans."
"That, I'm afraid, is something I cannot let you do."
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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?
Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.
