"Here we are," Cyphas announced. The small group was standing before a pool which looked almost identical to the last Swamp Fairy pool. Everyone but Link and Cyphas stared into its depths curiously, for it was impossible to tell how deep it was due to a mystifying illusion. "Hey, vine! Get out here and take us down! Hurry up!" Cyphas yelled. Link wasn't very happy about seeing the vine again, but was getting used to it and wasn't scared or anything. The vine emerged from the middle of the pool and instatly began twisting until a magic bubble appeared, and then it made it as big as possible. It was only big enough for two people and a griffon. "Kay...Link, you and Zelda go down with Naltha. Me and Kars will come down in the next bubble." Link and Zelda stepped inot the bubble with Naltha, and the vine took them down. As they descended, Link noticed that this pool was deeper than the other one, and looked slightly bluer. They finally reached the bottom and the vine deposited them on the floor of a green room which looked a lot like the old one had, except a bit bigger. The vine went back up to the pool, to retrieve Cyphas and Kars.
"So this is the fairies' main room, huh? It's pretty." Zelda commented, looking around. It was a magically lighted green room, with real vines crawling up all the walls and golden vines drawn onto half of the room's walls (the fairies were not yet done decorating). There were two exits with stone archways, and just as Zelda looked at one a fairy flew from it.
"Hey, it's Link and Zelda and..." The blonde fairy looked scared as she examined Naltha.
"Hi, Saysa. Good to see you," Link greeted. "I see you already know Zelda; well, this griffon's name is Naltha. Another griffon will be coming down, and his name is Kars. Ah, here he is." Just as Link said it, the vine lowered a good sized magic bubble to the floor of the room, which contained Kars and Cyphas. The bubble popped, and the vine left. Saysa sat staring at the griffons for a moment, then spoke.
"Queen Kayl has already made you guys a breakfast. Just follow me, 'kay?" The group followed the tiny fairy into a larger room that had natural stone walls and ceiling. Kayl and some other fairies were sitting on oversized mushrooms around a small, flat rock. Although it was small, it made a perfect table that could fit a large number of fairies. Beside the fairy-sized rock there was a much bigger one, obviously made for humans and covered with food. Cyphas walked up to it and plopped herself down on a giant mushroom/chair.
"Hi, Link! Welcome! Go ahead and sit down, and your friend, too. Sorry we don't have anything nicer that befits such a hero..."
"Oh, nonsense. This is perfectly fine, and I think I actually like it more than a normal table," Link said, sitting on a soft but strong mushroom. "It's kinda cool." Zelda sat next to him, and the griffons sat next to them, but not on mushrooms
"Your, ah..." Kayl looked at the creatures curiously.
"Griffons," Link said.
"Ah, griffons. They're welcome to eat whatever they want, too." Kayl said, smiling.
"Thank you." Naltha surprised Kayl with the ability to speak. "And we're not 'Links' griffons."
"Yeah, I don't own them or anything. They're not pets, they're friends." Link looked over at Kayl.
"Oh, sorry about that." With that, everyone started eating breakfast. The food was pretty good, and there was lots to go around.
"Hey Kayl - eh, Queen Kayl I mean - where's the rest of the fairies?" Link asked between bites of boar bacon.
"They are creating and decorating a room on the other side of the main room. They'll be here when you leave, so they can all see you before you go. By the way, you don't have to call me Queen Kayl if you don't want to." Cyphas seemed a bit irrtated when she said that because she, who had been living with or near the fairies since she was four, still had to call her Queen Kayl.
"It's alright. I'll call you Queen unless it bothers you." Link said.
"You're so polite, Link." Zelda commented.
"Uh...sure." Link said quietly, looking at his plate. He felt like he was being complimented by a mother or something. He wondered what his mother was like before she died, and felt a pang of sadness as he thought of her fate. Killed trying to save him in a terrible war started by greedy men. Link was glad that Hyrule was unified under King Daphnes now. Soon everyone was finished eating, and Link rose.
"We had better get going, Zelda. We can't forget why we came here in the first place." Link turned to Kayl. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, Queen Kayl. It's been great to see you again, sorry we can't stay longer. Our mission is very serious."
"It's alright, Link. Maybe you can visit another time. Or maybe we could visit you, if your castle is still to the east..?"
"Yep. You can't miss it. Big and white and beautiful."
"Okay. We'd better get you to the surface, then." Kayl and the fairies with her flew back to the main room, everyone following. "Can you wait here amoment?" Kayl requested, then flew into the stone archway opposite the one they had just come out of. A minute later she resturned, followed by hundreds of fairies. The flying mass combined with two griffons and three humans crowded the large room. The fairies all started yapping at once.
"Liiink! Sogoodtoseeyouhow'veyoubeenwhycantyoustay-"
"Quiet, sisters! He can't hear you if you all talk at once!" Kayl yelled above the din. One small red-haired fairy flew up close to Link. In her arms she held two little green puffs.
"My name's Geda, and this is for you!" She gestured to the green puffs. "This is a rare and special moss that us fairies use for many things. We make special types of clothes out of it, we make soft fairy bedding out of it, and some old fairies use it for fake hair. I want you to have it, with the permission of the Queen, of course." Kayl nodded, and Geda handed Link the two green puffs. Link stared at them, wondering what he could possibly do with two small puffs of moss. He decided that she was giving it to him as a kind of souvenir, and it wasn't meant to be used for anything by him.
"Uh, thanks...I mean, thank you very much, Geda." Link said, smiling and putting the puffs in his pocket. The red-haired fairy looked extremely pleased. The other fairies got a bit jealous and all started talking at once.
"OhLinkperhapsyouwouldlikesomeofmymosshowaboutsomefairyleavesorfairywater-" All together, they were very loud.
"No, thank you! We really must be going, and you're a bit loud!" Link said, backing away from the overwhelming group of swarming girls. Suddenly all the fairies went silent and stopped moving around, hovering in place. "Alright, you're overdoing it. I didn't mean you had to be silent." Link told them, failing to notice the malicious looks on their faces.
"That sound I heard this morning!" Kayl screamed. Without warning, Queen Kayl began biting Cyphas's ear and all the others flew around madly, scratching at each other and the griffons and humans. Link pulled Zelda and Cyphas (who had taken Queen Kayl off her ear very painfully) close to him and casted Nayru's Love, protecting them from harm. Zelda casted a larger version of Nayru's Love on the griffons, so the fairies wouldn't attack them and they wouldn't feel inclined to tear the fairies apart. A few minutes passed, and the humans and griffons could do nothing but watch the fairies fight each other. The crazy attack and frenzy of fairy blood lasted for about five minutes, during which many fairies fell to the ground, still and bleeding. Finally it stopped, and all the fairies fluttered to the ground, panting and looking confused. Link and Zelda relaxed their spells (Link was glad, because he was about to run out of mana and knew that Zelda couldn't cast two of the same spell at once) and tried to help the fairies. Zelda used her power and Link used his Arlia; and between them they managed to heal all the fairies before any died from their wounds.
"What just happened to us..." Queen Kayl muttered.
"That sound you just heard is the reason we're in this swamp," Link explained. All the fairies were listening to him. "This sound has to be stopped because it makes people really violent to each other! It's a good thing none of you were armed, or this could have been very deadly." Link wondered why Cyphas hadn't also gone crazy because she grew up with the fairies. After all, he was raised with the Kokiri and heard the noise when they did. He then remembered that he had been with the Kokiri since just after birth and Cyphas had been dropped on the fairies when she was four. She also didn't spend all her time with the fairies because she told him she explored the swamp and wasn't usually in the cave. Link had been constantly with the Kokiris in the forest until he was eight. That explained it, then.
"Thank you for healing us, I don't think we would have been quick enough to prevent deaths without your help. You've saved us again, Link, but this time you had help. Thank you too, Princess Zelda." Queen Kayl said.
"Any time." The princess responded. "Thank you for a fine breakfast."
"Guess it's time for you to leave again, Link. I wish you good luck with your mission." Link thanked her, then had to put his hands over his ears as every fairy strong enough to speak bade him farewell.
"Goodbyebecarefulgoodluckthanksagainsafejourney-"
"iQuiet!/i" Kayl ordered, somehow screaming louder than the rest of them. Link wondered if the way fairies chose queens was based on how loud they could scream.
"So long, Link." Cyphas said, and Link turned to her. "I can't go with you. My place is here with the Swamp Fairies. Maybe we'll meet again someday, and sorry for being mean to you. I'll try to be nice." She shook hands with him. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"No problem." Link said, wondering what this woman's definition of nice was. "Take care." Cyphas nodded, and Kayl called the vine. First it took Link, Zelda, and Kars up, then came back for Naltha. Once the group of four was reunited at the top, they made preparations to leave, such as making sure their gear was secure. In a matter of minutes they were prepared, and Naltha and Kars managed to find a gap in the canopy big enough to get through. Once they were in the misty sky, Zelda renewed her spell, and told the griffons which way to fly. This time both humans stayed alert rather than sleeping, but it was difficult with such unchanging surroundings. Zelda was making sure they were flying exactly the way her enchantment was pointing when she heard a very brief high-pitched whistle coming from far away. She looked over at Link, who didn't look like he had heard anything.
"We'd better be on our guard, Link. I think we might reach our goal today." Link nodded and smiled, glad that Zelda predicted they would find their goal. But even with this knowledge exciting him, he thought flying was getting very dull. No matter how much they flew, the environment stayed the same: nothing but moist, grey mist. iAt least it's not stinky anymore,/i Link thought, boredly looking around after an hour of flying. iI usually don't like unnecessary talking, but if I don't chat I'm gonna get hypnotized by this mist.../i
"Hey Zelda, man or woman?" Link watched Zelda, who was flying on his left.
"Link, this is hardly the time to play games." She said sternly.
"But I'm bored! We've been flying for an hour doing nothing but staring ahead. This will keep us awake." Zelda sighed.
"Impatient men...very well. Woman."
"Over twenty or under twenty?"
"Under. Link, this is even more boring than staring at mist."
"Oh, c'mon! Is her hair red?"
"Yes."
"It's Malon."
"Yes." Zelda stared ahead, seemingly bored. "Man or woman." She said in a lifeless tone.
"Man."
"Over or under twenty."
"iWay/i over." Link said, his voice heaped with exaggeration. Zelda almost giggled, but not quite.
"Does he have grey hair?"
"Nope, but he should." Zelda couldn't stop herself from giggling a bit.
"Is he a wrinkly old brown prune?" She asked, grinning.
"He will be if I ever see him again." Zelda had to laugh out loud.
"It's Ganondorf!"
"Yeah."
"Heh heh! You know, I don't think he's that old. I think he's only thirty or forty. Maybe even younger."
"Maybe, but you can't really tell with Gerudo. None of them look old, but I bet some are. He looks young, but who knows... " Link said, wondering about it himself. He supposed it didn't really matter, because they would never see Ganondorf again anyway. "Do you think Gerudos will go extinct because Ganondork's in the sacred realm?"
"Link, that's immature. I don't know, really. I guess it would seem so."
"That's kind of sad... even though they're all thieves, some are nice, like Nabooru. Hey, maybe they can make babies with Hylians, you think so?"
"It's entirely possible. If zoras can, I don't see any reason why Gerudos can't. Except maybe they'll let their pride get in the way..." Zelda said, thoughtful. Link and Zelda kept talking while time drifted by like clouds. A few hours passed, and slowly the mist started thinning. They flew on for another hour, and the mist kept getting less and less unpenatrable until they could even see the tops of trees a couple hundred feet below. A few minutes ago Link had gone silent, but now he asked:
"Hey Zelda, do you think we're getting close to the end of the swamp? Maybe that's why the mist is clearing up."
"I think maybe we are. I've been watching the ground, and the trees are thinning, too."
"Wow, cool. We're going to find out what's on the other side of Ganon's Swamp." Abruptly the last clinging tendrils and puffs of mist cleared up as the griffons flew out of them, and the two griffonriders looked down. Gone were the trees and muddy pits of the swamp. The land flattened out and dried up, then dropped suddenly into steep, rocky cliffs running down hundreds of feet. Endless rippling blue extended from the bottoms of those cliffs, reaching out as far as the eye could see. There was a beautiful ocean on the other side of Ganon's Swamp.
buSection 5
Blue Catbirds and Kadien's Castle/u/b
"Good morning, Lady! I have exellent news! I found the frequency for the snakes!" The water-type dragon half slithered, half walked exitedly up to her mistress.
"Great work, Remorie! What exactly happened?" The woman asked.
"I prepared the Siren's Shell for getting its frequency changed, but instead of going to sleep I studied it. I tried casting a few spells on it, and discovered I had the power to change the frequency just like you, if I used your smaller version of the shell while casting. I took the large shell to the snake pool and played it for about one second, and every single snake in the pool swamp over to the shore I was sitting on! Of course when I stopped they went back to normal swimming, but I'm sure the magical sound made them come. Now when you use your magic to project the amplified sound across the sea, every sea snake will come to you! It'll take a while to round up them all, but you have very healthy lungs, don't you, Lady?" The woman laughed with glee.
"Finally things are going my way! I'm going to blow on the shell as soon as I'm done perfecting my mutation spell. You will be handsomely rewarded when all this is over, Remorie." The dragon she was talking to nodded eagerly, grinning.
"Wow, it's beautiful." Zelda said, looking down at the golden ripples reflecting the sun. Big waves crashed up against the sharp-rocked cliffs, making ocean spray drops fly like millions of white-clear crystals. Link searched the blue, cloud-strewn sky for seagulls, but didn't see any.
"Sure is...but shouldn't there be some seabirds around? I don't see any animals at all!" Link asked his friend, looking at her as her golden hair flew wild in the wind.
"It is kind of strange, but maybe they heard us coming and flew away. I don't know. Hey look! My enchantment is getting brighter!" Zelda stared wonderingly at her spell, and Link glanced at it, too. "This means we're getting closer. We're probably within three miles of whatever made the sound."
"That's nice and dandy, but me and Kars are getting tired!" Naltha complained, looking over at her white-feathered companion.
"Yeah, and I don't particularly like the idea of flying over water when I'm tired." Kars said, looking wide-eyed at the water.
"Okay, I say we rest on the tops of the cliffs for a while, then fly out and find the spot the sound is coming from." Zelda said, and the two griffons turned around, swooping back towards the rocky cliffs. They had almost reached the cliffs when Link got a sudden and disturbing feeling they were being watched. He twisted sharply and looked at the sky behind and above them. At first he could barely see because of sun glare, but he shaded his eyes and gasped when he saw five flying creatures swooping at them from above.
"Zelda, we have company!" He yelled to her over the rushing wind, and she looked up at them, squinting.
"They look like griffons!" She replied. Naltha and Kars heard and wheeled around, in a u-turn almost sharp enough to throw their riders. Naltha and Kars watched the approaching griffons cautiously, not knowing what to expect. The griffons could be friends or foes, but by the formation they were flying in, they could be preparing for an attack. As they got closer, the two mountain griffons saw the sea griffons clearly. The one leading the five had midnight blue feathers for its bird half and sky blue fur for its cat half. It had some strange, fin-looking feathers sticking up on the back of its head, and it had a very strange tail. Instead of the traditional lion tail, it had a very furry tail, which was at least as long as its body. The other griffons looked similar, with varying shades of blue, grey, white, or black for cat and birds halfs, but each one had a different tail and each one had the same fin-looking feathers on its head. The mountain griffons thought the tails were especially strange because of their variety. They were all as long as the leader's, but one had fur only on the very end, while another had evenly spaced puffs of fur along its tail. The tail of the griffon on the right had fur running down the sides of its tail but the top and bottom was bare, and the last griffon's tail had fur only on the top and end. It was quite an odd sight.
As the griffons neared, the leader let out a war cry and the formation dived towards Naltha and Kars. Naltha and Kars's riders had to cling tightly to their feathers as they dived away from the five sea griffons. As Link held onto Kars, he realized that they were diving towards the sharp-rocked cliffs. Before they hit the cliffs Kars pulled sharply up, Naltha following. The two flew quickly to the right, flying dangerously close to the razor-sharp rocks of the cliff in an attempt to lose their persuers. The group of blue griffons followed, holding formation with surprising discipline.
"I've heard tales of sea griffons, but I thought they were only legend!" Naltha growled. "Can't you shoot something at them, Zelda?" Immediately the princess terminated her sound enchantment and casted a small fireball of Din's Fire at the blue griffons. Link shot an arrow at the same time, but both projectiles were skillfully dodged. While Link kept shooting arrows at the griffons, Zelda casted a larger ball of fire at them. This time when one was about to dodge it, Zelda made it explode. The closest griffon was hit and its wing caught fire.
"Oweeee!" The griffon, completely losing its discipline, spiraled out of formation and into the sea. Its head surfaced moments later, and it glared irritably up at Zelda. The four remaining griffons screamed their anger and sped up, using the air currents of the sea they had grown up and practiced with very effectively to increase their velocity.
"Not good!" Naltha yelled, as her and Kars tried to also speed up. They were not really used to the air currents of the sea and were rapidly tiring, so they could do nothing as the gap between them and their pursuers gradually shrunk. As the griffons got closer, however, it became harder for the quick griffons to dodge Link's arrows. One well-aimed arrow hit some feathers off the leader's wing, and he sqwaked in indignation. Link yelled at it.
"Hey, leave us alone! What did we ever do to you?! I wouldn't be shooting at you if you'd go away!" Link ducked as an ice ball flew over his head. "They have ice magic! Hey, how come you guys don't have magic, Kars?" Link asked his mount.
"We're a whole different species of griffon, that's why! Now be quiet and let me fly!" Kars and Naltha flew in different directions. They didn't really think it would confuse the sea griffons, but they were running out of options. Two sea griffons followed Zelda and Naltha and the other two, which included the leader, flew after Link and Kars. "Great, now we have the fastest one on our tail! Why did you have to tick them off with your arrows?" Kars spiraled upward, then plunged down toward the sea, but the experienced griffons could not be shaken, and followed closely.
"If I hadn't been shooting at them, they would have reached us a long time ago! And I hope you're watching what you wish for, because I'm almost out of arrows. I only brought thirty to begin with!" Link said, firing another arrow that the lead griffon had to go out of his way to dodge. Finally Link decided to shoot a light arrow at the sea griffons, and fitted the shining arrow to his bowstring. As he let it go both griffons flew out of the arrow's way, but one hadn't closed his eyes and stopped pursuing when he was temporarily blinded by the bright light. Only the leader, biggest of them all, was left. The wagon-sized griffon flew as fast as he could, and caught up with Kars in a matter of seconds. He bit the fleeing griffons tail, and Kars yelped in pain. Link thought this griffon had just given him a nice opportunity to stop it. Without thinking he leaped off of Kars's back and landed on the lead sea griffon's.
"Link, are you CRAZY?!" Kars shouted as the sea griffon fell behind, trying to shake its unwelcome rider. Kars flew around it, waiting to jump in if Link fell. Link was holding on very well, completely forgetting fear of how high he was. With one hand holding tightly to the sea griffons feathers, the other pulled his dagger out of his boot.
"Hey, sea griffon! You'd better stop trying to shake me or I'll stab you!" He yelled. To his surprise, the griffon stopped pulling quick maneuvers and flew straight and level.
"Get off my back, you stinking human..." The griffon growled, but made to effort to make him.
"Sure, but first you have to stop trying to kill me and my friends!"
"We weren't trying to kill you, you idiot!" The griffon went silent as he felt the tip of Link's dagger touch his neck lightly.
"Oh yeah? What do you call swooping at us, biting Kars's poor tail, and throwing an ice ball at me?"
"We're trying to capture you. It's not the same thing." The griffon argued quietly.
"Well, that's bad enough. Now tell your friends to leave Zelda alone!" The griffon flew toward Zelda and Naltha, who were being closely followed by two of his comrades. Link put his dagger away so he could hold on with both hands and the lead griffon was about to reluctantly tell his griffons to let up, but then Link heard an eagle-like cry above him.
"Link, look out!" Kars called, but it was a too late. Link looked up just in time to see the formerly blinded griffon hit him. The big griffon's claws left three long, deep slashes in Link's chest and threw him off the griffon. Link screamed as he fell, but Kars managed to fly fast enough to get under him before he hit the water.
"Thanks, Kars..." Link said, his chest bleeding all over the griffon's feathers.
"No problem, but after this you're going to wash me!" The sea griffons had once again dropped into place behind Kars, and were not going to waste time. They were quickly gaining, and Link and Kars looked back at them. "Oh man, they're going to catch us this time! Shoot an arrow or somethi-" Kars stopped talking as he heard rushing wind in front of him. He looked ahead and saw he was flying straight for Naltha. "Yikes!" He yelled, and Naltha, who had been looking at her pursuing griffons, looked in front of her and saw Kars. The two had to swerve sharply towards the cliffs to avoid hitting each other or flying into more sea griffons, and knew they couldn't stop as a rock wall rose to meet them. At the same time they spotted a cave in the rock wall, and both girffons, going way faster than they should, plunged into the cave. Within they tried to come to a quick stop, nearly tripping over each other and throwing their riders. Once they had stopped they heard an eagle's cry, but it was coming from inside the cave. They looked deeper in the cave and saw a mother and father griffon with their babies. Both looked extremely angry and began advancing toward them. The two mountain griffons were backing toward the exit but just then the leader sea griffon and his three followers blocked it off.
"Uh-oh...looks like we're caught." Link said, knowing there was no way they could fight off six large, angry sea griffons. They surrendered.
"Who are these miserable creatures?" Kozin, the chief and King of the sea griffons, glared down at Naltha, Kars, Link and Zelda. All had been chained. "You look like griffons from the northeast and humans, am I right?" The huge griffon demanded. He was almost as large as Cazan, who was the leader of the mountain griffons. The four captives nodded.
"Sorry for trespassing, but we won't be here very long. You didn't have to make your guards attack us!" Link growled, struggling against his chains for show. He could easily break out with his gauntlets because the group had been chained hastily and nothing had been removed from him except his sword, which a griffon next to him held carelessly by the scabbard strap. He didn't break out, though, because there were still more griffons in the room than he could fight off.
"Silence, fool! Do not speak unless I give you permission. You have caught me in an especially bad mood, foreigners. Sea snakes, which are the main diet of us sea griffons, have all somehow vanished from this part of the shore. We must fly farther to find them, and to make up for it we've had to feed on sea gulls. iSea gulls!/i I tell you when I find the source of this mischief it will be dealt with harshly; and until then, all tresspassers will be incarcerated!" Kozin frowned at the blood dripping from Link's slashes onto his clean floor.
"We're here to investigate something strange, and maybe it has something to do with your missing snakes," Link suggested, but the griffon next to him silenced him by hitting him to the ground with a large paw. It didn't really hurt, so Link sat up and kept talking. "As soon as we stop the source of a weird sound we've been hearing, it may bring back your snakes, who knows?" Link looked at the griffon next to him, which seemed like it was about to strike him again. Link kicked the Master Sword hanging from its beak so it bumped into the creature's chest, and the griffon received a brief but painful shock from the sword's magic and dropped it, backing away from Link.
"How dare you shock my servant!" The King seemed about to get mad, but then thought about what Link had been saying.
"You seriously think you can stop this problem and end the starvation of my people?" Kozin asked, large green eyes fixed on Link, who was still seated quiet comfortably on the floor. "No promises, but if I find the source of your plight, I'll do my best to stop it so you can have your snakes back." Link thought for a moment. "But I'll only do it if you let us go!" Kozin looked thoughtful as he turned the request over in his mind.
"Sounds fair enough, but I need some insurance. We'll keep your female griffon here with us until you fix our problem. If you don't, you're simply trespassers and will face my wrath when you return! Guards, release all but the red female." Link looked like he was about to protest, but then decided that this was probably the best deal they were going to get. He was surprised they had struck a deal at all after he zapped the guard griffon. Other guard griffons unlocked Zelda and Kars, and as one came over to him he just broke out of his chains, scaring the creature. He laughed good-naturedly and picked up the Master Sword, re-equipping it.
"You'd better not hurt Naltha while we're gone," Link said, turning and walking toward the exit with Zelda and Kars beside him. Kozin laughed.
"Is that a threat, human? You're pretty funny. Don't worry, I wont hurt her unless you give me a reason to, such as threatening me again." Link glanced irritably back at the haughty griffon, but stopped himself before he did anything dumb. Kozin grinned. "By the way, there is a dangerous undersea insect you might want to watch out for. They are usually under control because of the sea snakes, but seeing as how they're all gone, you might run into some. The human hand-sized insects are called cidids and swim quite quickly. They sting their prey to permanently paralyze it, but they prey on creatures much smaller then humans; so if the poison effects you at all, it will probably only paralyze you for a few minutes." Link nodded his thanks for the warning, then left the large cave with his friends. Kars, though tired, had enough energy to fly out of the cave and to the top of the cliffs with Zelda and Link on him. The three rested there until Kars felt he could fly normally again, and Zelda healed Link's wounds. Then Zelda renewed her sound spell and Kars carried the two Hylians over the water.
"Hey Zelda, do you have a spell for breathing underwater?" Link asked, putting on his zora tunic. Link wondered how the tunic let him breathe underwater, but had forgotten to ask the zoras when he got it.
"It doesn't let me breathe underwater, but it does create a shield around me that gives me air for a while. I've never really tested it, though, so I don't know how long I can maintain it." Her enchantment began flashing, and after Kars had flown a few hundred feet out to sea, the needle of it started angling downward. After a short while it was pointing directly down and Kars stopped flying forward, circling slowly over the water.
"Well, here's where we go for a swim." Zelda said, then terminated her spell and transformed into Sheik. "The source of the sound should be directly below us."
"Alright! Let's go!" Link said, happily jumping off the griffon (they were only twenty-five feet above the water, so it wasn't very scary). Sheik followed, chanting a spell as she fell. Just before she hit the water blue magic surrounded her, shining dully. Link put on his iron boots and Sheik held onto him as they both sunk steadily. Link looked down and realized they were sinking towards a very pointy-looking coral tower. He swam far to the side of it, and Sheik and Link couldn't belive what they saw as they sank past it. Before them stood a grand castle constructed completely of rigid coral. The coral was maily white but had rainbow patterns dancing up and down it as the surface of the sea shifted the light. As Link and the princess sank deeper, they saw how huge the castle was. It wasn't nearly as big as the great Hyrule Castle, but still pretty big for an undersea structure. Link and Sheik knew instinctively that the sound had to be coming from inside the strange castle, so as soon as they hit the sea floor Link began walking up to it.
The two Hylians searched for an entrance but to their surprise, they could not find a door. The first time they looked at the shimmering castle it had seemed porous and full of openings, but apon closer examination they found only shallow depressions. Finally Link spotted a suspicious-looking piece of coral that was jutting out from the castle. He walked over to it, moving slowly from water resistance, iron boots, and pulling Sheik (who would have floated if she wasn't hanging on). They reached the protrusion, which was at about the level of their heads, and Link looked under it. He discovered that the bottom was an opening that led up and into the castle, so he took off the iron boots and the two Hylians entered. Sheik's spell began blinking, and she gave Link an urgent look. He swam quickly through the bluish, poorly-lit cave the entrance had lead them to, until it enventually opened up into a fair-sized room which was half filled with water. The pair reached the surface and climbed out of the water.
"Wow, that was cool!" Link exclaimed, having never seen anything so beautiful underwater. He also thought it was cool that they in a coral castle filled with air hundreds of feet below a sea he had never seen.
"Good thing we found this room..." Sheik said as her spell wore off. "Whew, I don't know if I can do that again for a while, so I kinda hope we can stay here long and let my water magic regenerate." Link looked over her and saw her remove her sheikah hat/bandage thing. Now her face and hair looked like Zelda, but she was still wearing Sheik clothes and red eyes.
"Hey, that looks cool." Link comented, thinking her hair out looked better than the mummyish hat covering her face.
"I just hope my hair doesn't get in the way," She muttered, walking up behind Link. "Lead the way."
"Uh, of course." Link said, smiling and drawing his sword.
"Nope. Put that away." Zelda ordered.
"What? But we might run into a monster or something..."
"Like I told you, we don't know if the source of the sound is meaning to do creatures harm. What if it's just a mermaid, playing a wierd sound and unaware of the havoc it's causing?"
"I'd love to have your optimistic attitude, Zelda, but I really don't feel like it's safe down here." Link said, not sheathing his sword.
"So you can just take it out if we see any trouble. I don't want to walk in on a mermaid and scare the wits out of her with a drawn blade! This castle might have no hostile inhabitants at all." Link grimaced and put the sword away.
"Whatever you say, princess...but I don't think mermaids even exist."
"A month or two ago you didn't know griffons existed, either." She pointed out.
"Yeah, you're right. Well, I hope you're right about the sound, too. Let's go." Link started down the hall in front of them, Sheik following. The hall was easily big enough for the two of them to walk side by side. The entire thing, like the rest of the castle, was made of whitish coral. The strange thing was how the hall and the room they had just left were lit. Weird, barnacle-like creatures were clinging to the ceiling, and each one gave off a bright, white glow. Link and Sheik had only been walking a few minutes, when both heard a peculiar clicking sound. It was coming from around the bend in the tunnel in front of them, and seemed to be drawing nearer.
"Now can I draw my sword?" Link asked Sheik.
"No," She said, eyes on the curve. Suddenly scores of hand-sized red and yellow insects came around the bend, each clicking and shuddering in a strange, threatening sort of way. "Okay, inow/i you can!" She said, thinking of a spell she could use. At first she thought of an ice spell, but remembered that the magic she called apon for chanting spells was still regenerating. She instead told Link to cast Nayru's Love on himself so she could use the dome version of Din's Fire, which a Great Fairy gave to her and used a different sort of mana then chanting spells. As soon as Link was enveloped by blue protective magic, Zelda casted the spell, and became surrounded by fire. The fire expanded outward in a dome-like shape, incinerating all the insects. When the magic and insects were gone, Link took off Nayru's Love and the two Hylians moved on. They followed the path for a while, about twenty minutes, and just as they began to grow anxious the path in front of them split into two ways.
"Which way, princess?" Link asked, looking back at her.
"I hate it when you call me that. I don't know, which way do your instincts tell you to go?"
"I don't know if we should follow my instincts. They don't always lead me to safe paths, in fact it might lead us to an evil monster. But then again, in this case they might lead the right way. I think we should choose the iright/i path." Link said, grinning at Sheik. She frowned at the lame pun. The two of them were about to go right when Link stopped, looking closer at the left path. It was very long, and he thought he could see something moving far down it. The thing seemed to be getting closer, and Link stared in wonder as a young sea dragon approached them. When it was still about a fifty yards away, it stopped.
"So you made it past the cidids, eh? Well you can be sure that you'll never escape Lady Kadien's Castle alive!" The relatively small dragon roared. It was a bit bigger than Taig, but shaped more like a sleek, long, snake.
"Zelda, I think the inhabitants of this castle are hostile!" Link declared, drawing the Master Sword. At the sight of the sword, the dragon turned and ran off. "Wait, who's Kadien? We just want to talk to her!" Link called after the fleeing beast.
"And hack her to pieces, if I left it up to iyou/i." Zelda said, looking at Link and his sword meaningfully.
"Hey, the dragon just made it very plain that it means us harm. Should we follow it?" He asked, not wanting to do anything the princess wouldn't like.
"Yes, let's hurry!" Link and Zelda ran down the tunnel the dragon had left. Zelda was normally slower than Link because of her dress, but with ninja-like sheikah clothes on, she ran faster than him. They soon entered a rather large coral room, with rainbow-white walls that had strange, sharp-looking formations growing out of them. They stopped when they saw the young, serpent-like water dragon before them.
"Hah, humans are so easy to lead into traps! Mark the words of Remorie, you will lose your lives in this room!" A strong metal gate slammed behind the Hylians, and they turned to face the dragon. There was a passage behind the beast, and the female dragon moved out of the way as three monsters emerged from the passage. They looked vaguely like sea snakes, but had many differences. The biggest one, black and white striped, had a head as large as Link, and two long horns coming from the back of its skull. It looked extremely ill-tempered, and so did its two companions. The other two black and yellow snakes were much smaller, having heads the size of a human head, but were still obviously much bigger and meaner then a normal sea snake. One even had sharp, needle-looking spikes running down its spine. "If you know anything about sea snakes," Remorie said boastfully, "You know they are the most poisonous snakes in the world, and their venom can probably kill a human your size in less than a minute. These ones have been mutated into ferocious beasts, see if you can live through an encounter with them!" The dragon scampered into the tunnel the snakes had come from, disappearing around a bend.
"Swell. Zelda, I hope you don't think we're going to get through this without a fight anymore." Link said, pointing his sword at the advancing snakes.
"Nope! Let's give it to 'em!" Sheik took out her fighting chain, and began whipping at the nearest snake, which hissed and recoiled. The largest one was not intimidated and lunged forward, only to recieve a large slash on his snout from the Master Sword. Hissing, it reared up and prepared to strike at Link again. Meanwhile both smaller snakes were slithering toward Sheik, who was actually doing quite a good job of whipping them with her chain whenever they got close. Despite Sheik's skills, the snakes were relentless, and seemed to be trying to wear her out. The large snake struck at Link ferociously, and he rolled away from Sheik as he dodged the huge fangs of the black and white striped beast. He jumped to his feet and gave the snake another large slash on its nose, making it hiss in rage. The snake whipped its huge tail around behind Link and whacked him in the back of the head, throwing him to the ground and stunning him. Luckily, he recovered in time to roll out of the way of another strike. The snake growled as its teeth hit hard coral instead of flesh,and it glared at Link, who had jumped to his feet. Link took a swing at the monster's face, but the snake dodged. Link risked a glance over at Sheik, who looked a little tired but unwounded.
That split second glance was a big mistake. The biggest mutated sea snake lunged at Link and pinned him to the ground with its huge weight. It began trying to coil around him, but Link put slashes in the coils on top of him, making the snake jump off. Giving up the constriction idea, it wrapped its tail around his boot and threw him into a nearby wall. This wouldn't have been so bad except the snake threw him into a particulary sharp coral formation, and it put a large slash in the warrior's chest as he collided with it. Link groaned as he fell to the ground, getting slowly to his feet.
"Rotten snake!" Link yelled, getting out his bow and aiming a fire arrow at the monster's face. He paused as he heard Sheik scream. Link looked over at her and discovered she was being crushed in the coils of both of the smaller sea snakes. iSheesh, I didn't think sea snakes even killed their prey by constriction! Oh well, it's not like they're normal sea snakes./i Link re-aimed his arrow for one of the smaller snakes and let it go. The snake let out a horrible shriek as its scaley skin was pierced and burned by the arrow, and it got off the princess, dying. The other one was a bit scared and loosened its hold a bit, but didn't let go. Link was about to kill the other small snake but the big one slithered in front of him, striking at his legs. Link jumped back and put his bow away, drawing the Master Sword once again. Link crouched and sent magic energy into his sword, powering it up for the spin attack. The giant snake lunged for his head, but just as it was about to hit him, Link released the attack. The snake had put itself in a very bad position, and the attack severed its head.
Link wiped the sweat off his forehead and vaulted over the snake, towards Sheik. The snake on her was scared of Link on leaped off her, getting as far away from the warrior as possible.
"D-don't kill meee!" It pleaded, its flat, reptillian head swaying back and forth in fear. Link hesitated, wanting to kill the beast that had tried to crush his friend, but not wanting to destroy an animal begging for its life.
"I can't believe it!" Link and Sheik (who had gotten to her feet) heard a familiar voice in the passage that had not been blocked. They looked over at it and saw Remorie, clutching a very small, shiney and spikey shell. "You guys aren't dead yet? You must be real warriors!" The water dragon glared at the last remaining sea snake. "Bite them, you useless aquatic minion!"
"But if I try, that green guy's gonna kill me!" The snake screetched, shivering in fear. Link took a step toward the dragon, forgetting the snake.
"Hey, dragon, whoever Kadien is, I have a feeling we want to talk to her. Where is she?" He asked, glaring at her menacingly.
"Hmpf! Like I'd tell a low-class creature like you where Lady Kadien is! Hm, green guy? You must be a Kokiri, yes?" Link watched curiously as the dragon chanted and some colorless, wavy magic left her hand and entered the small shell in her other hand. She then raised the pretty thing to her scaley lips and blew.
"Aaahhh!" Link yelled, falling to his knees and covering his pointy ears. "Zelda, get away from me! It's the sound..." Sheik couldn't hear a thing but knew Link's nice personality was about to fly out the window. She backed up, only to find herself pressed against the steel door closing off the exit. She wished there really was a window. Link stopped screaming and got up, looking insanely at her.
"No, Link! Use your rage against the dragon, not me, ack!" Sheik jumped aside as Link put away his sword and threw a dagger at the spot she had been standing in. It slammed against the metal door with a clang, then fell to the floor. "Link, stop! Control yourself!" But Link was in an evil trance because of the mini Siren's Shell, and could not hear his friend. He threw a punch at her, but the quick girl dodged. Sheik looked into Link's eyes, but could not find Link there. Suddenly he closed his eyes and put a hand on the side of his head, apparently in great pain. He then yelled and jumped at the princess. She was surprised and didn't jump out of the way in time to avoid his body throwing hers to the ground and pinning her. "No, Link! No, no, no!" She was silenced as the crazed Link put a hand over her mouth, grinning at her. She was beyond terrified, but had the presence of mind to look over at Remorie, who was still playing the small shell. iIf I can only stop that dragon.../i
As Link put a strong hand on her neck, Sheik shot a fireball at Remorie. The flaming sphere hit the dragon's paws, forcing her to drop the shell. Link blinked a few times, then looked down at the frightened princess. Gasping in horror, he got off her and helped her to her feet.
"Zelda, I'm so sorry..." Link turned away from her, staring at the ground in shame.
"It's okay, Link...you couldn't control yourself..." Sheik said, temporarily unable to shake the fear she had felt when she had looked into his crazy, bloodlusting eyes. It just wasn't Link! She wondered if would ever be able to forget those Linkless eyes. She put a hand on her friend's shoulder, and he turned towards her. She looked into his blue, sorrowful eyes, just to reassure herself that her friend was back, freed formt he spell. But he looked terribly sad. "Hey, it's really alright. You didn't hurt me," She said, trying to smile. The corners of Link's mouth twitched, but he couldn't bring himself to smile after what had almost done.
"Accursed humans!" Remorie growled, picking up her shell and running away again. This time a thick metal door slamed behind her, sealed with a large lock. Link and Sheik had forgotten about the last sea snake, which chose that moment to strike. Both Hylians screamed as the beast bit Link's shoulder, long teeth digging deep. Link's dagger happened to be laying next to Sheik's feet, and she quickly grabbed it and stuck it into the snake's neck. It fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Wow, I've never stabbed anything in the neck before," Sheik said, not liking the feeling it gave her. She caught Link as he fell forward, half-conscious from the quick-spreading venom. Sheik layed him on the ground, trying to work up some magic to heal him. She hadn't regenerated much chanting magic yet, and knew that if she used some now it would take a very long time to regenerate; but didn't care at all. She chanted an anti-venom spell, and used what little magic she had to get rid of all the deadly sea snake poison.
"Thank you..." Link said, weakly getting to his feet. He managed to smile at her, and both felt a wave of relief that the other was okay. Link got out his Arlia and used it on his chest and shoulder wounds. It didn't heal all of either wound, but reduced the pain greatly and stopped most of the bleeding by making the wounds smaller. Link's attention was drawn to the center of the room as a small chest magically appeared. He walked over to it and kicked it open, revealing a small key. He picked it up and looked over at Sheik. "I would expect this type of thing from a temple or dungeon in Hyrule, but in a coral castle? It seems too simple..." He said, looking over at the lock on the steel door blocking thier way forward. "It could be a trap." Sheik brushed her long, golden hair out of her face, also looking at the large lock.
"I don't have any spells I can use right now that will break that lock. Do you think you can break it with any of your weapons?" She followed Link as they both walked over to the door. Link got out the Megaton Hammer, but could not break the door with it. He then tried three bombs, but even the combined explosion didn't put a dent in the reinforced steel. Link then tried to break it with the power of the Golden Gauntlets, but even that proved useless.
"I guess we have no choice but to try the key," Link said, taking it out and looking at Sheik for approval. She nodded, and Link put the key into the lock. It fit perfectly and he turned it. The Hylians heard a click, but the lock did not open. Instead two holes in the coral ceiling above the Hylians opened up, and purplish gas came pouring out. Link put the key away and instincively held his breath, but Sheik accidentally breathed some as she tried to hold hers. She coughed hard a few times, nearly falling over. She then choked on the fumes and did fall over, unconscious. iZelda! I have to get us out of here before this stuff kills her!/i Link glanced around urgently, looking for any way to escape. The way back was blocked by a steel door, and the way forward was blocked with a steel door with a lock on it. There were no other ways out. Link, struggling to hold his breath, looked up at the holes spewing gas. They were about the size of his bombs, so he got out two unlit bombs and shoved them into the holes. This stopped more gas from entering the room, but there was still the problem of the gas inside the room. Link searched the walls, but found no holes. Evetually he had to breathe, and coughed as he inhaled the foul-smelling purple fumes. He stumbled forward as his whole body was racked by a violent cough, and he hit a coral wall. Surprisingly, the wall gave a little under his weight. He quickly got out a lit bomb and placed it next to the wall.
Link choked on the purple gas and fell backwards, his world going black.
"Stupid human! He just blew a hole in my coral fortress! Water is leaking in now..." The angry wonam looked over at the water dragon beside her. "I have no choice but to open the door or he could blow another hole, or my purple gas could go into the hole he blew and contaminate the newly grown coral. It's better if the purple gas goes out the door than through the hole. Do you know how long it takes to grow coral walls?" She asked her serpentine servant.
"Um, no." Remorie said, staring into the magical, shimmering, floating sphere of water that showed the purple fume-filled room. It was like a crystal ball, except water.
"It will take me at least twenty minutes to repair the damage he just did in three seconds!" The woman growled, opening the reinforced steel doors magically and watching the purple gas float out of them and diffuse in the open air.
"But Lady, if you had kept the gas in there for a few minutes, the intruders would die!" The dragon pointed out.
"Yes, and so would my new coral. I love my castle, Remorie. And let's not forget that there's more than one way to skin a cat." The woman said, making the magic orb of water dissappear. "Come, Remorie. It's time to give our little visitors a good washing."
buSection 6
The Siren's Magic/u/b
Link opened his eyes, and the ceiling came in to focus very slowly. He managed to sit up, but his head felt like a cow had been dropped on it. He looked around at his surroundings, finding that nothing had changed. There was three snake corpses and an opened chest...wait, something ihad/i changed! The steel door had been opened. There was also a large hole in the wall in front of him, through which water was leaking slowly. Link stood up and quickly found Sheik, walking unsteadily over to her.
"Zelda, are you okay? Hey, Zelda!" The princess didn't move and Link shook her shoulder a bit. She didn't wake up, but Link knew that at least she was breathing. She seemed to be fine, so he sat next to her and waited for her to wake up. She woke in about five minutes, and Link helped her sit up. "How do you feel?" He asked her.
"My head and lungs hurt, but I'm alright. We have to keep going." The two of them stood up. Sheik looked dizzy at first, but quickly regained her composure. Link then drew his sword and started walking towards the exit. "Hold on, Link. You're forgetting your dagger," Sheik said, gesturing towards one of the dead snakes. Link retrieved his small weapon from the beast's neck, cleaned it, and stuck it in his belt. The Hylians then left, going down the passageway that had been opened. It looked pretty much the same as the other tunnels they had been traveling in, but was slightly bigger. As they walked Link looked closely at the light-emitting barnicles on the ceiling, wondering if the light was natural of if they had been enchanted. He also thought about Sheik and her magic.
"Zelda, just how long do you think it'll take to get back all your magic?" He asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead on the tunnel.
"All of it? I'd say an hour or so. It's too bad the water breathing spell isn't one a Great Fairy gave to me, because if it was I could use it right now. You see there's two types of magic; the kind you have to chant and requires magic from within, and the kind you can cast without talking, which you need magic from a Great Fairy to cast. Those usually require gestures of your hands, though."
"Okay." Link said, not sure what she was talking about but knowing that she probably knew a lot more about magic than anyone else he knew. Except perhaps Feelock or Sahoriel, but they obviously weren't around. Sheik and Link kept walking for about twenty minutes, but nothing happened and the tunnel remained the same: a twisting, rainbowy-white coral passage lit by glowing barnicles. Eventually the passage in front of them opened up into a large room. The room was big enough that just barnicles on the ceiling was not enough, and there was some on the walls, too. There was a huge pool in the middle of the room, and it, too, had barnicles in it. Although the pool was dim because the shellfish didn't give off a whole lot of light, Link could see that there were creatures swimming in it. They seemed to be un-mutated sea snakes. "Well, I don't see a way to get around this..." Link said, stepping up to the edge of the pool. A few sea snakes glanced up at him, but none looked like they were going to attack him.
"I don't have any levitation spells except the kind I chant for. I have a little bit of magic now, probably enough to get us over, but then how will we get back?" Sheik pondered.
"Hey, I know! I ido/i have a way to get over! I'll just shoot some ice arrows in there and make us a bridge across." Link said, putting away his sword and getting out his bow. Suddenly, without Link shooting an arrow into it, the whole pool froze over. "What the..? Wierd pool!" Link exclaimed. He then noticed two figures standing on the other side of the pool. He squinted but the room was dimly lit, and the reflecting ripples of the water under the ice distorted the outlines of the two figures. All Link could be sure of was that one stood on two legs and the other four. Link put away his bow and was about to dash over the lake to the two figures, which he guessed must be Remorie and Kadien, when he heard the rushing of a lot of water.
"Hey, who are those two on the other side of the pool?" Sheik asked, also trying vainly to see them. "I don't like the sound of that water..." She muttered, eyes on the two creatures on the other side of the frozen pool of sea snakes. Abruptly the two figures were covered in watery-looking shields. Behind them Sheik saw water. A ilot/i of water. A lot of water speeding towards her and Link. "Run, Link!" Sheik said, and dashed back the way they had come.
"Run?" Link then saw the water, and ran after his friend. "Zelda, is it such a good idea to run this way? When we were in that one room the way forward was opened, but the way back was still sealed!" Sheik frowned, thinking of that.
"You're right...what are we going to do?"
"Don't you have a really powerful explosion spell?" He asked, straining to keep up with her.
"Yes, but I need full mana to use it! Oh no, we're going to be trapped!" The two Hylians could not outrun the water, and it reached them with a rushing sound louder than any water Link had ever heard. They were swept up in the current, being stirred around in the rapids as they sped towards the room they had left. It had taken them twenty minutes to walk to the pool, but it only took about three minutes for the rushing water to get them back there. The whole time they were tossed in the waves, which were much too strong to swim against. Fortunately neither was injured before they reached the room with the snake corpses. The room that was sealed. The water pushed them into the room at the same time, and Link observed that Sheik was headed straight for a sharp formation sticking out of the wall. He managed to swim just hard enough to get over to her and grab her, pulling her away from the sharp protrusion. The two were then pressed up against the steel door blocking their way out.
"Now what?" Link asked, knowing very well that neither of them had a plan. The water level was steadily rising, and the current was still to strong to let them swim out. Link still had his zora tunic on and knew he could help Zelda breathe underwater with it, but didn't relish the idea of giving her mouth-to-mouth underwater. He looked around once again for a way out, and suddenly got a very good idea. Link got out his bow and hit the steel door with an ice arrow. The whole thing froze over, even the portion beneath the water level. He then got out the Megaton Hammer, and straining to keep his balance in the rushing water, hit the frozen door with all his might. The gauntlets helped a great deal, and the door shattered. Immediately the water carried Sheik and Link out the door, pushing them toward the opening they had first enterred the castle through. They reached it very quickly, and Sheik managed to get her head above water long enough to chant her spell for breathing underwater. She knew she couldn't maintain it for long, but had no choice.
The water shoved the two Hylians out into the open ocean, as if the castle itself had spit them out. They swam upwards, but since Link was the stronger swimmer Sheik held onto him. Without warning, Sheik's enchantment disappeared. Not good! Link thought, looking up and seeing that they were still far from the surface. He swam as fast as he could, but knew that if he didn't do something, the princess would drown. He swam for a little while longer, and just when Sheik was about to pass out, he pulled her close to him and put his lips on hers, giving her some air. She looked startled but kept swimming, and after a few moments and another couple of long mouth-to-mouth breaths, they finally reached the top. Sheik breathed gratefully, and exhausted, she stared over at Link.
"Thanks," She said, smiling at him.
"You're welcome..." He said, turning away to hide his blushing. iIt wasn't a kiss or anything,/i he reasoned, irritated at his own feelings. iI had to do it to save her life, that's all.../iKars had been flying overhead and spotted the two Hylians, then dove down and hovered over them.
"Boy, do you two look washed up! Did you get eaten by a whale or something?" He picked them up in his large bird claws, careful not to scratch them or be to rough, and flew over to the cliffs above the sea. He put them down and landed next to them. "So, did you stop the sound and get the sea snakes back?" The griffon inquired.
"No, we didn't manage to do either." Sheik said, sounding dissappointed.
"I'm going back down there. Just let me rest a minute," Link said, sitting on the ground. Sheik sat next to him. Link looked over at her, and discovered she was staring at his face. "What..," he asked, not liking the look on her face.
"Oh, nothing." She said mischeviously. Link frowned and looked at the ground, resting his head on his hands.
"I think that person we saw standing on the other side of the lake was Kadien. She must be the one behind the sound we've been hearing, and that annoying dragon must be her servant. I think if I talk with and maybe defeat that woman we can rest assure that we'll never hear the sound again. If I defeat her, I think I'll have a chance to destroy her shell." Link said, turning his gaze the the beautiful blue ocean. He knew now that the beauty was very deceptive.
"Nicely done, Lady Kadien! You are truley powerful!" Remorie complimented, watching their water shields fade and the tidal wave spell water dissapear. The ice on the sea snake pool then disappeared, and the snakes resumed their swimming as if nothing had happened.
"Thank you, Remorie, but without your research of the Siren's Shell and the mini shell I wouldn't have drawn them here so I could have fun getting rid of them in the first place. I do hope they drowned..."
"Most likely, Lady. However I think maybe it's a bad idea to underestimate them, because they idid/i kill all of your newly mutated sea snakes and blow a small hole in your castle..."
"Well, who cares. If they come back I will deal with them myself, and if they don't, I'll blow on the shell when I'm done with the wall. Come, we will go repair the wall. You know, after that I am in such a good mood I think I'm going to sing!"
"Your voice is beautiful, Lady. Shall we?" The two went to repair the wall.
"So this is the fairies' main room, huh? It's pretty." Zelda commented, looking around. It was a magically lighted green room, with real vines crawling up all the walls and golden vines drawn onto half of the room's walls (the fairies were not yet done decorating). There were two exits with stone archways, and just as Zelda looked at one a fairy flew from it.
"Hey, it's Link and Zelda and..." The blonde fairy looked scared as she examined Naltha.
"Hi, Saysa. Good to see you," Link greeted. "I see you already know Zelda; well, this griffon's name is Naltha. Another griffon will be coming down, and his name is Kars. Ah, here he is." Just as Link said it, the vine lowered a good sized magic bubble to the floor of the room, which contained Kars and Cyphas. The bubble popped, and the vine left. Saysa sat staring at the griffons for a moment, then spoke.
"Queen Kayl has already made you guys a breakfast. Just follow me, 'kay?" The group followed the tiny fairy into a larger room that had natural stone walls and ceiling. Kayl and some other fairies were sitting on oversized mushrooms around a small, flat rock. Although it was small, it made a perfect table that could fit a large number of fairies. Beside the fairy-sized rock there was a much bigger one, obviously made for humans and covered with food. Cyphas walked up to it and plopped herself down on a giant mushroom/chair.
"Hi, Link! Welcome! Go ahead and sit down, and your friend, too. Sorry we don't have anything nicer that befits such a hero..."
"Oh, nonsense. This is perfectly fine, and I think I actually like it more than a normal table," Link said, sitting on a soft but strong mushroom. "It's kinda cool." Zelda sat next to him, and the griffons sat next to them, but not on mushrooms
"Your, ah..." Kayl looked at the creatures curiously.
"Griffons," Link said.
"Ah, griffons. They're welcome to eat whatever they want, too." Kayl said, smiling.
"Thank you." Naltha surprised Kayl with the ability to speak. "And we're not 'Links' griffons."
"Yeah, I don't own them or anything. They're not pets, they're friends." Link looked over at Kayl.
"Oh, sorry about that." With that, everyone started eating breakfast. The food was pretty good, and there was lots to go around.
"Hey Kayl - eh, Queen Kayl I mean - where's the rest of the fairies?" Link asked between bites of boar bacon.
"They are creating and decorating a room on the other side of the main room. They'll be here when you leave, so they can all see you before you go. By the way, you don't have to call me Queen Kayl if you don't want to." Cyphas seemed a bit irrtated when she said that because she, who had been living with or near the fairies since she was four, still had to call her Queen Kayl.
"It's alright. I'll call you Queen unless it bothers you." Link said.
"You're so polite, Link." Zelda commented.
"Uh...sure." Link said quietly, looking at his plate. He felt like he was being complimented by a mother or something. He wondered what his mother was like before she died, and felt a pang of sadness as he thought of her fate. Killed trying to save him in a terrible war started by greedy men. Link was glad that Hyrule was unified under King Daphnes now. Soon everyone was finished eating, and Link rose.
"We had better get going, Zelda. We can't forget why we came here in the first place." Link turned to Kayl. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, Queen Kayl. It's been great to see you again, sorry we can't stay longer. Our mission is very serious."
"It's alright, Link. Maybe you can visit another time. Or maybe we could visit you, if your castle is still to the east..?"
"Yep. You can't miss it. Big and white and beautiful."
"Okay. We'd better get you to the surface, then." Kayl and the fairies with her flew back to the main room, everyone following. "Can you wait here amoment?" Kayl requested, then flew into the stone archway opposite the one they had just come out of. A minute later she resturned, followed by hundreds of fairies. The flying mass combined with two griffons and three humans crowded the large room. The fairies all started yapping at once.
"Liiink! Sogoodtoseeyouhow'veyoubeenwhycantyoustay-"
"Quiet, sisters! He can't hear you if you all talk at once!" Kayl yelled above the din. One small red-haired fairy flew up close to Link. In her arms she held two little green puffs.
"My name's Geda, and this is for you!" She gestured to the green puffs. "This is a rare and special moss that us fairies use for many things. We make special types of clothes out of it, we make soft fairy bedding out of it, and some old fairies use it for fake hair. I want you to have it, with the permission of the Queen, of course." Kayl nodded, and Geda handed Link the two green puffs. Link stared at them, wondering what he could possibly do with two small puffs of moss. He decided that she was giving it to him as a kind of souvenir, and it wasn't meant to be used for anything by him.
"Uh, thanks...I mean, thank you very much, Geda." Link said, smiling and putting the puffs in his pocket. The red-haired fairy looked extremely pleased. The other fairies got a bit jealous and all started talking at once.
"OhLinkperhapsyouwouldlikesomeofmymosshowaboutsomefairyleavesorfairywater-" All together, they were very loud.
"No, thank you! We really must be going, and you're a bit loud!" Link said, backing away from the overwhelming group of swarming girls. Suddenly all the fairies went silent and stopped moving around, hovering in place. "Alright, you're overdoing it. I didn't mean you had to be silent." Link told them, failing to notice the malicious looks on their faces.
"That sound I heard this morning!" Kayl screamed. Without warning, Queen Kayl began biting Cyphas's ear and all the others flew around madly, scratching at each other and the griffons and humans. Link pulled Zelda and Cyphas (who had taken Queen Kayl off her ear very painfully) close to him and casted Nayru's Love, protecting them from harm. Zelda casted a larger version of Nayru's Love on the griffons, so the fairies wouldn't attack them and they wouldn't feel inclined to tear the fairies apart. A few minutes passed, and the humans and griffons could do nothing but watch the fairies fight each other. The crazy attack and frenzy of fairy blood lasted for about five minutes, during which many fairies fell to the ground, still and bleeding. Finally it stopped, and all the fairies fluttered to the ground, panting and looking confused. Link and Zelda relaxed their spells (Link was glad, because he was about to run out of mana and knew that Zelda couldn't cast two of the same spell at once) and tried to help the fairies. Zelda used her power and Link used his Arlia; and between them they managed to heal all the fairies before any died from their wounds.
"What just happened to us..." Queen Kayl muttered.
"That sound you just heard is the reason we're in this swamp," Link explained. All the fairies were listening to him. "This sound has to be stopped because it makes people really violent to each other! It's a good thing none of you were armed, or this could have been very deadly." Link wondered why Cyphas hadn't also gone crazy because she grew up with the fairies. After all, he was raised with the Kokiri and heard the noise when they did. He then remembered that he had been with the Kokiri since just after birth and Cyphas had been dropped on the fairies when she was four. She also didn't spend all her time with the fairies because she told him she explored the swamp and wasn't usually in the cave. Link had been constantly with the Kokiris in the forest until he was eight. That explained it, then.
"Thank you for healing us, I don't think we would have been quick enough to prevent deaths without your help. You've saved us again, Link, but this time you had help. Thank you too, Princess Zelda." Queen Kayl said.
"Any time." The princess responded. "Thank you for a fine breakfast."
"Guess it's time for you to leave again, Link. I wish you good luck with your mission." Link thanked her, then had to put his hands over his ears as every fairy strong enough to speak bade him farewell.
"Goodbyebecarefulgoodluckthanksagainsafejourney-"
"iQuiet!/i" Kayl ordered, somehow screaming louder than the rest of them. Link wondered if the way fairies chose queens was based on how loud they could scream.
"So long, Link." Cyphas said, and Link turned to her. "I can't go with you. My place is here with the Swamp Fairies. Maybe we'll meet again someday, and sorry for being mean to you. I'll try to be nice." She shook hands with him. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"
"No problem." Link said, wondering what this woman's definition of nice was. "Take care." Cyphas nodded, and Kayl called the vine. First it took Link, Zelda, and Kars up, then came back for Naltha. Once the group of four was reunited at the top, they made preparations to leave, such as making sure their gear was secure. In a matter of minutes they were prepared, and Naltha and Kars managed to find a gap in the canopy big enough to get through. Once they were in the misty sky, Zelda renewed her spell, and told the griffons which way to fly. This time both humans stayed alert rather than sleeping, but it was difficult with such unchanging surroundings. Zelda was making sure they were flying exactly the way her enchantment was pointing when she heard a very brief high-pitched whistle coming from far away. She looked over at Link, who didn't look like he had heard anything.
"We'd better be on our guard, Link. I think we might reach our goal today." Link nodded and smiled, glad that Zelda predicted they would find their goal. But even with this knowledge exciting him, he thought flying was getting very dull. No matter how much they flew, the environment stayed the same: nothing but moist, grey mist. iAt least it's not stinky anymore,/i Link thought, boredly looking around after an hour of flying. iI usually don't like unnecessary talking, but if I don't chat I'm gonna get hypnotized by this mist.../i
"Hey Zelda, man or woman?" Link watched Zelda, who was flying on his left.
"Link, this is hardly the time to play games." She said sternly.
"But I'm bored! We've been flying for an hour doing nothing but staring ahead. This will keep us awake." Zelda sighed.
"Impatient men...very well. Woman."
"Over twenty or under twenty?"
"Under. Link, this is even more boring than staring at mist."
"Oh, c'mon! Is her hair red?"
"Yes."
"It's Malon."
"Yes." Zelda stared ahead, seemingly bored. "Man or woman." She said in a lifeless tone.
"Man."
"Over or under twenty."
"iWay/i over." Link said, his voice heaped with exaggeration. Zelda almost giggled, but not quite.
"Does he have grey hair?"
"Nope, but he should." Zelda couldn't stop herself from giggling a bit.
"Is he a wrinkly old brown prune?" She asked, grinning.
"He will be if I ever see him again." Zelda had to laugh out loud.
"It's Ganondorf!"
"Yeah."
"Heh heh! You know, I don't think he's that old. I think he's only thirty or forty. Maybe even younger."
"Maybe, but you can't really tell with Gerudo. None of them look old, but I bet some are. He looks young, but who knows... " Link said, wondering about it himself. He supposed it didn't really matter, because they would never see Ganondorf again anyway. "Do you think Gerudos will go extinct because Ganondork's in the sacred realm?"
"Link, that's immature. I don't know, really. I guess it would seem so."
"That's kind of sad... even though they're all thieves, some are nice, like Nabooru. Hey, maybe they can make babies with Hylians, you think so?"
"It's entirely possible. If zoras can, I don't see any reason why Gerudos can't. Except maybe they'll let their pride get in the way..." Zelda said, thoughtful. Link and Zelda kept talking while time drifted by like clouds. A few hours passed, and slowly the mist started thinning. They flew on for another hour, and the mist kept getting less and less unpenatrable until they could even see the tops of trees a couple hundred feet below. A few minutes ago Link had gone silent, but now he asked:
"Hey Zelda, do you think we're getting close to the end of the swamp? Maybe that's why the mist is clearing up."
"I think maybe we are. I've been watching the ground, and the trees are thinning, too."
"Wow, cool. We're going to find out what's on the other side of Ganon's Swamp." Abruptly the last clinging tendrils and puffs of mist cleared up as the griffons flew out of them, and the two griffonriders looked down. Gone were the trees and muddy pits of the swamp. The land flattened out and dried up, then dropped suddenly into steep, rocky cliffs running down hundreds of feet. Endless rippling blue extended from the bottoms of those cliffs, reaching out as far as the eye could see. There was a beautiful ocean on the other side of Ganon's Swamp.
buSection 5
Blue Catbirds and Kadien's Castle/u/b
"Good morning, Lady! I have exellent news! I found the frequency for the snakes!" The water-type dragon half slithered, half walked exitedly up to her mistress.
"Great work, Remorie! What exactly happened?" The woman asked.
"I prepared the Siren's Shell for getting its frequency changed, but instead of going to sleep I studied it. I tried casting a few spells on it, and discovered I had the power to change the frequency just like you, if I used your smaller version of the shell while casting. I took the large shell to the snake pool and played it for about one second, and every single snake in the pool swamp over to the shore I was sitting on! Of course when I stopped they went back to normal swimming, but I'm sure the magical sound made them come. Now when you use your magic to project the amplified sound across the sea, every sea snake will come to you! It'll take a while to round up them all, but you have very healthy lungs, don't you, Lady?" The woman laughed with glee.
"Finally things are going my way! I'm going to blow on the shell as soon as I'm done perfecting my mutation spell. You will be handsomely rewarded when all this is over, Remorie." The dragon she was talking to nodded eagerly, grinning.
"Wow, it's beautiful." Zelda said, looking down at the golden ripples reflecting the sun. Big waves crashed up against the sharp-rocked cliffs, making ocean spray drops fly like millions of white-clear crystals. Link searched the blue, cloud-strewn sky for seagulls, but didn't see any.
"Sure is...but shouldn't there be some seabirds around? I don't see any animals at all!" Link asked his friend, looking at her as her golden hair flew wild in the wind.
"It is kind of strange, but maybe they heard us coming and flew away. I don't know. Hey look! My enchantment is getting brighter!" Zelda stared wonderingly at her spell, and Link glanced at it, too. "This means we're getting closer. We're probably within three miles of whatever made the sound."
"That's nice and dandy, but me and Kars are getting tired!" Naltha complained, looking over at her white-feathered companion.
"Yeah, and I don't particularly like the idea of flying over water when I'm tired." Kars said, looking wide-eyed at the water.
"Okay, I say we rest on the tops of the cliffs for a while, then fly out and find the spot the sound is coming from." Zelda said, and the two griffons turned around, swooping back towards the rocky cliffs. They had almost reached the cliffs when Link got a sudden and disturbing feeling they were being watched. He twisted sharply and looked at the sky behind and above them. At first he could barely see because of sun glare, but he shaded his eyes and gasped when he saw five flying creatures swooping at them from above.
"Zelda, we have company!" He yelled to her over the rushing wind, and she looked up at them, squinting.
"They look like griffons!" She replied. Naltha and Kars heard and wheeled around, in a u-turn almost sharp enough to throw their riders. Naltha and Kars watched the approaching griffons cautiously, not knowing what to expect. The griffons could be friends or foes, but by the formation they were flying in, they could be preparing for an attack. As they got closer, the two mountain griffons saw the sea griffons clearly. The one leading the five had midnight blue feathers for its bird half and sky blue fur for its cat half. It had some strange, fin-looking feathers sticking up on the back of its head, and it had a very strange tail. Instead of the traditional lion tail, it had a very furry tail, which was at least as long as its body. The other griffons looked similar, with varying shades of blue, grey, white, or black for cat and birds halfs, but each one had a different tail and each one had the same fin-looking feathers on its head. The mountain griffons thought the tails were especially strange because of their variety. They were all as long as the leader's, but one had fur only on the very end, while another had evenly spaced puffs of fur along its tail. The tail of the griffon on the right had fur running down the sides of its tail but the top and bottom was bare, and the last griffon's tail had fur only on the top and end. It was quite an odd sight.
As the griffons neared, the leader let out a war cry and the formation dived towards Naltha and Kars. Naltha and Kars's riders had to cling tightly to their feathers as they dived away from the five sea griffons. As Link held onto Kars, he realized that they were diving towards the sharp-rocked cliffs. Before they hit the cliffs Kars pulled sharply up, Naltha following. The two flew quickly to the right, flying dangerously close to the razor-sharp rocks of the cliff in an attempt to lose their persuers. The group of blue griffons followed, holding formation with surprising discipline.
"I've heard tales of sea griffons, but I thought they were only legend!" Naltha growled. "Can't you shoot something at them, Zelda?" Immediately the princess terminated her sound enchantment and casted a small fireball of Din's Fire at the blue griffons. Link shot an arrow at the same time, but both projectiles were skillfully dodged. While Link kept shooting arrows at the griffons, Zelda casted a larger ball of fire at them. This time when one was about to dodge it, Zelda made it explode. The closest griffon was hit and its wing caught fire.
"Oweeee!" The griffon, completely losing its discipline, spiraled out of formation and into the sea. Its head surfaced moments later, and it glared irritably up at Zelda. The four remaining griffons screamed their anger and sped up, using the air currents of the sea they had grown up and practiced with very effectively to increase their velocity.
"Not good!" Naltha yelled, as her and Kars tried to also speed up. They were not really used to the air currents of the sea and were rapidly tiring, so they could do nothing as the gap between them and their pursuers gradually shrunk. As the griffons got closer, however, it became harder for the quick griffons to dodge Link's arrows. One well-aimed arrow hit some feathers off the leader's wing, and he sqwaked in indignation. Link yelled at it.
"Hey, leave us alone! What did we ever do to you?! I wouldn't be shooting at you if you'd go away!" Link ducked as an ice ball flew over his head. "They have ice magic! Hey, how come you guys don't have magic, Kars?" Link asked his mount.
"We're a whole different species of griffon, that's why! Now be quiet and let me fly!" Kars and Naltha flew in different directions. They didn't really think it would confuse the sea griffons, but they were running out of options. Two sea griffons followed Zelda and Naltha and the other two, which included the leader, flew after Link and Kars. "Great, now we have the fastest one on our tail! Why did you have to tick them off with your arrows?" Kars spiraled upward, then plunged down toward the sea, but the experienced griffons could not be shaken, and followed closely.
"If I hadn't been shooting at them, they would have reached us a long time ago! And I hope you're watching what you wish for, because I'm almost out of arrows. I only brought thirty to begin with!" Link said, firing another arrow that the lead griffon had to go out of his way to dodge. Finally Link decided to shoot a light arrow at the sea griffons, and fitted the shining arrow to his bowstring. As he let it go both griffons flew out of the arrow's way, but one hadn't closed his eyes and stopped pursuing when he was temporarily blinded by the bright light. Only the leader, biggest of them all, was left. The wagon-sized griffon flew as fast as he could, and caught up with Kars in a matter of seconds. He bit the fleeing griffons tail, and Kars yelped in pain. Link thought this griffon had just given him a nice opportunity to stop it. Without thinking he leaped off of Kars's back and landed on the lead sea griffon's.
"Link, are you CRAZY?!" Kars shouted as the sea griffon fell behind, trying to shake its unwelcome rider. Kars flew around it, waiting to jump in if Link fell. Link was holding on very well, completely forgetting fear of how high he was. With one hand holding tightly to the sea griffons feathers, the other pulled his dagger out of his boot.
"Hey, sea griffon! You'd better stop trying to shake me or I'll stab you!" He yelled. To his surprise, the griffon stopped pulling quick maneuvers and flew straight and level.
"Get off my back, you stinking human..." The griffon growled, but made to effort to make him.
"Sure, but first you have to stop trying to kill me and my friends!"
"We weren't trying to kill you, you idiot!" The griffon went silent as he felt the tip of Link's dagger touch his neck lightly.
"Oh yeah? What do you call swooping at us, biting Kars's poor tail, and throwing an ice ball at me?"
"We're trying to capture you. It's not the same thing." The griffon argued quietly.
"Well, that's bad enough. Now tell your friends to leave Zelda alone!" The griffon flew toward Zelda and Naltha, who were being closely followed by two of his comrades. Link put his dagger away so he could hold on with both hands and the lead griffon was about to reluctantly tell his griffons to let up, but then Link heard an eagle-like cry above him.
"Link, look out!" Kars called, but it was a too late. Link looked up just in time to see the formerly blinded griffon hit him. The big griffon's claws left three long, deep slashes in Link's chest and threw him off the griffon. Link screamed as he fell, but Kars managed to fly fast enough to get under him before he hit the water.
"Thanks, Kars..." Link said, his chest bleeding all over the griffon's feathers.
"No problem, but after this you're going to wash me!" The sea griffons had once again dropped into place behind Kars, and were not going to waste time. They were quickly gaining, and Link and Kars looked back at them. "Oh man, they're going to catch us this time! Shoot an arrow or somethi-" Kars stopped talking as he heard rushing wind in front of him. He looked ahead and saw he was flying straight for Naltha. "Yikes!" He yelled, and Naltha, who had been looking at her pursuing griffons, looked in front of her and saw Kars. The two had to swerve sharply towards the cliffs to avoid hitting each other or flying into more sea griffons, and knew they couldn't stop as a rock wall rose to meet them. At the same time they spotted a cave in the rock wall, and both girffons, going way faster than they should, plunged into the cave. Within they tried to come to a quick stop, nearly tripping over each other and throwing their riders. Once they had stopped they heard an eagle's cry, but it was coming from inside the cave. They looked deeper in the cave and saw a mother and father griffon with their babies. Both looked extremely angry and began advancing toward them. The two mountain griffons were backing toward the exit but just then the leader sea griffon and his three followers blocked it off.
"Uh-oh...looks like we're caught." Link said, knowing there was no way they could fight off six large, angry sea griffons. They surrendered.
"Who are these miserable creatures?" Kozin, the chief and King of the sea griffons, glared down at Naltha, Kars, Link and Zelda. All had been chained. "You look like griffons from the northeast and humans, am I right?" The huge griffon demanded. He was almost as large as Cazan, who was the leader of the mountain griffons. The four captives nodded.
"Sorry for trespassing, but we won't be here very long. You didn't have to make your guards attack us!" Link growled, struggling against his chains for show. He could easily break out with his gauntlets because the group had been chained hastily and nothing had been removed from him except his sword, which a griffon next to him held carelessly by the scabbard strap. He didn't break out, though, because there were still more griffons in the room than he could fight off.
"Silence, fool! Do not speak unless I give you permission. You have caught me in an especially bad mood, foreigners. Sea snakes, which are the main diet of us sea griffons, have all somehow vanished from this part of the shore. We must fly farther to find them, and to make up for it we've had to feed on sea gulls. iSea gulls!/i I tell you when I find the source of this mischief it will be dealt with harshly; and until then, all tresspassers will be incarcerated!" Kozin frowned at the blood dripping from Link's slashes onto his clean floor.
"We're here to investigate something strange, and maybe it has something to do with your missing snakes," Link suggested, but the griffon next to him silenced him by hitting him to the ground with a large paw. It didn't really hurt, so Link sat up and kept talking. "As soon as we stop the source of a weird sound we've been hearing, it may bring back your snakes, who knows?" Link looked at the griffon next to him, which seemed like it was about to strike him again. Link kicked the Master Sword hanging from its beak so it bumped into the creature's chest, and the griffon received a brief but painful shock from the sword's magic and dropped it, backing away from Link.
"How dare you shock my servant!" The King seemed about to get mad, but then thought about what Link had been saying.
"You seriously think you can stop this problem and end the starvation of my people?" Kozin asked, large green eyes fixed on Link, who was still seated quiet comfortably on the floor. "No promises, but if I find the source of your plight, I'll do my best to stop it so you can have your snakes back." Link thought for a moment. "But I'll only do it if you let us go!" Kozin looked thoughtful as he turned the request over in his mind.
"Sounds fair enough, but I need some insurance. We'll keep your female griffon here with us until you fix our problem. If you don't, you're simply trespassers and will face my wrath when you return! Guards, release all but the red female." Link looked like he was about to protest, but then decided that this was probably the best deal they were going to get. He was surprised they had struck a deal at all after he zapped the guard griffon. Other guard griffons unlocked Zelda and Kars, and as one came over to him he just broke out of his chains, scaring the creature. He laughed good-naturedly and picked up the Master Sword, re-equipping it.
"You'd better not hurt Naltha while we're gone," Link said, turning and walking toward the exit with Zelda and Kars beside him. Kozin laughed.
"Is that a threat, human? You're pretty funny. Don't worry, I wont hurt her unless you give me a reason to, such as threatening me again." Link glanced irritably back at the haughty griffon, but stopped himself before he did anything dumb. Kozin grinned. "By the way, there is a dangerous undersea insect you might want to watch out for. They are usually under control because of the sea snakes, but seeing as how they're all gone, you might run into some. The human hand-sized insects are called cidids and swim quite quickly. They sting their prey to permanently paralyze it, but they prey on creatures much smaller then humans; so if the poison effects you at all, it will probably only paralyze you for a few minutes." Link nodded his thanks for the warning, then left the large cave with his friends. Kars, though tired, had enough energy to fly out of the cave and to the top of the cliffs with Zelda and Link on him. The three rested there until Kars felt he could fly normally again, and Zelda healed Link's wounds. Then Zelda renewed her sound spell and Kars carried the two Hylians over the water.
"Hey Zelda, do you have a spell for breathing underwater?" Link asked, putting on his zora tunic. Link wondered how the tunic let him breathe underwater, but had forgotten to ask the zoras when he got it.
"It doesn't let me breathe underwater, but it does create a shield around me that gives me air for a while. I've never really tested it, though, so I don't know how long I can maintain it." Her enchantment began flashing, and after Kars had flown a few hundred feet out to sea, the needle of it started angling downward. After a short while it was pointing directly down and Kars stopped flying forward, circling slowly over the water.
"Well, here's where we go for a swim." Zelda said, then terminated her spell and transformed into Sheik. "The source of the sound should be directly below us."
"Alright! Let's go!" Link said, happily jumping off the griffon (they were only twenty-five feet above the water, so it wasn't very scary). Sheik followed, chanting a spell as she fell. Just before she hit the water blue magic surrounded her, shining dully. Link put on his iron boots and Sheik held onto him as they both sunk steadily. Link looked down and realized they were sinking towards a very pointy-looking coral tower. He swam far to the side of it, and Sheik and Link couldn't belive what they saw as they sank past it. Before them stood a grand castle constructed completely of rigid coral. The coral was maily white but had rainbow patterns dancing up and down it as the surface of the sea shifted the light. As Link and the princess sank deeper, they saw how huge the castle was. It wasn't nearly as big as the great Hyrule Castle, but still pretty big for an undersea structure. Link and Sheik knew instinctively that the sound had to be coming from inside the strange castle, so as soon as they hit the sea floor Link began walking up to it.
The two Hylians searched for an entrance but to their surprise, they could not find a door. The first time they looked at the shimmering castle it had seemed porous and full of openings, but apon closer examination they found only shallow depressions. Finally Link spotted a suspicious-looking piece of coral that was jutting out from the castle. He walked over to it, moving slowly from water resistance, iron boots, and pulling Sheik (who would have floated if she wasn't hanging on). They reached the protrusion, which was at about the level of their heads, and Link looked under it. He discovered that the bottom was an opening that led up and into the castle, so he took off the iron boots and the two Hylians entered. Sheik's spell began blinking, and she gave Link an urgent look. He swam quickly through the bluish, poorly-lit cave the entrance had lead them to, until it enventually opened up into a fair-sized room which was half filled with water. The pair reached the surface and climbed out of the water.
"Wow, that was cool!" Link exclaimed, having never seen anything so beautiful underwater. He also thought it was cool that they in a coral castle filled with air hundreds of feet below a sea he had never seen.
"Good thing we found this room..." Sheik said as her spell wore off. "Whew, I don't know if I can do that again for a while, so I kinda hope we can stay here long and let my water magic regenerate." Link looked over her and saw her remove her sheikah hat/bandage thing. Now her face and hair looked like Zelda, but she was still wearing Sheik clothes and red eyes.
"Hey, that looks cool." Link comented, thinking her hair out looked better than the mummyish hat covering her face.
"I just hope my hair doesn't get in the way," She muttered, walking up behind Link. "Lead the way."
"Uh, of course." Link said, smiling and drawing his sword.
"Nope. Put that away." Zelda ordered.
"What? But we might run into a monster or something..."
"Like I told you, we don't know if the source of the sound is meaning to do creatures harm. What if it's just a mermaid, playing a wierd sound and unaware of the havoc it's causing?"
"I'd love to have your optimistic attitude, Zelda, but I really don't feel like it's safe down here." Link said, not sheathing his sword.
"So you can just take it out if we see any trouble. I don't want to walk in on a mermaid and scare the wits out of her with a drawn blade! This castle might have no hostile inhabitants at all." Link grimaced and put the sword away.
"Whatever you say, princess...but I don't think mermaids even exist."
"A month or two ago you didn't know griffons existed, either." She pointed out.
"Yeah, you're right. Well, I hope you're right about the sound, too. Let's go." Link started down the hall in front of them, Sheik following. The hall was easily big enough for the two of them to walk side by side. The entire thing, like the rest of the castle, was made of whitish coral. The strange thing was how the hall and the room they had just left were lit. Weird, barnacle-like creatures were clinging to the ceiling, and each one gave off a bright, white glow. Link and Sheik had only been walking a few minutes, when both heard a peculiar clicking sound. It was coming from around the bend in the tunnel in front of them, and seemed to be drawing nearer.
"Now can I draw my sword?" Link asked Sheik.
"No," She said, eyes on the curve. Suddenly scores of hand-sized red and yellow insects came around the bend, each clicking and shuddering in a strange, threatening sort of way. "Okay, inow/i you can!" She said, thinking of a spell she could use. At first she thought of an ice spell, but remembered that the magic she called apon for chanting spells was still regenerating. She instead told Link to cast Nayru's Love on himself so she could use the dome version of Din's Fire, which a Great Fairy gave to her and used a different sort of mana then chanting spells. As soon as Link was enveloped by blue protective magic, Zelda casted the spell, and became surrounded by fire. The fire expanded outward in a dome-like shape, incinerating all the insects. When the magic and insects were gone, Link took off Nayru's Love and the two Hylians moved on. They followed the path for a while, about twenty minutes, and just as they began to grow anxious the path in front of them split into two ways.
"Which way, princess?" Link asked, looking back at her.
"I hate it when you call me that. I don't know, which way do your instincts tell you to go?"
"I don't know if we should follow my instincts. They don't always lead me to safe paths, in fact it might lead us to an evil monster. But then again, in this case they might lead the right way. I think we should choose the iright/i path." Link said, grinning at Sheik. She frowned at the lame pun. The two of them were about to go right when Link stopped, looking closer at the left path. It was very long, and he thought he could see something moving far down it. The thing seemed to be getting closer, and Link stared in wonder as a young sea dragon approached them. When it was still about a fifty yards away, it stopped.
"So you made it past the cidids, eh? Well you can be sure that you'll never escape Lady Kadien's Castle alive!" The relatively small dragon roared. It was a bit bigger than Taig, but shaped more like a sleek, long, snake.
"Zelda, I think the inhabitants of this castle are hostile!" Link declared, drawing the Master Sword. At the sight of the sword, the dragon turned and ran off. "Wait, who's Kadien? We just want to talk to her!" Link called after the fleeing beast.
"And hack her to pieces, if I left it up to iyou/i." Zelda said, looking at Link and his sword meaningfully.
"Hey, the dragon just made it very plain that it means us harm. Should we follow it?" He asked, not wanting to do anything the princess wouldn't like.
"Yes, let's hurry!" Link and Zelda ran down the tunnel the dragon had left. Zelda was normally slower than Link because of her dress, but with ninja-like sheikah clothes on, she ran faster than him. They soon entered a rather large coral room, with rainbow-white walls that had strange, sharp-looking formations growing out of them. They stopped when they saw the young, serpent-like water dragon before them.
"Hah, humans are so easy to lead into traps! Mark the words of Remorie, you will lose your lives in this room!" A strong metal gate slammed behind the Hylians, and they turned to face the dragon. There was a passage behind the beast, and the female dragon moved out of the way as three monsters emerged from the passage. They looked vaguely like sea snakes, but had many differences. The biggest one, black and white striped, had a head as large as Link, and two long horns coming from the back of its skull. It looked extremely ill-tempered, and so did its two companions. The other two black and yellow snakes were much smaller, having heads the size of a human head, but were still obviously much bigger and meaner then a normal sea snake. One even had sharp, needle-looking spikes running down its spine. "If you know anything about sea snakes," Remorie said boastfully, "You know they are the most poisonous snakes in the world, and their venom can probably kill a human your size in less than a minute. These ones have been mutated into ferocious beasts, see if you can live through an encounter with them!" The dragon scampered into the tunnel the snakes had come from, disappearing around a bend.
"Swell. Zelda, I hope you don't think we're going to get through this without a fight anymore." Link said, pointing his sword at the advancing snakes.
"Nope! Let's give it to 'em!" Sheik took out her fighting chain, and began whipping at the nearest snake, which hissed and recoiled. The largest one was not intimidated and lunged forward, only to recieve a large slash on his snout from the Master Sword. Hissing, it reared up and prepared to strike at Link again. Meanwhile both smaller snakes were slithering toward Sheik, who was actually doing quite a good job of whipping them with her chain whenever they got close. Despite Sheik's skills, the snakes were relentless, and seemed to be trying to wear her out. The large snake struck at Link ferociously, and he rolled away from Sheik as he dodged the huge fangs of the black and white striped beast. He jumped to his feet and gave the snake another large slash on its nose, making it hiss in rage. The snake whipped its huge tail around behind Link and whacked him in the back of the head, throwing him to the ground and stunning him. Luckily, he recovered in time to roll out of the way of another strike. The snake growled as its teeth hit hard coral instead of flesh,and it glared at Link, who had jumped to his feet. Link took a swing at the monster's face, but the snake dodged. Link risked a glance over at Sheik, who looked a little tired but unwounded.
That split second glance was a big mistake. The biggest mutated sea snake lunged at Link and pinned him to the ground with its huge weight. It began trying to coil around him, but Link put slashes in the coils on top of him, making the snake jump off. Giving up the constriction idea, it wrapped its tail around his boot and threw him into a nearby wall. This wouldn't have been so bad except the snake threw him into a particulary sharp coral formation, and it put a large slash in the warrior's chest as he collided with it. Link groaned as he fell to the ground, getting slowly to his feet.
"Rotten snake!" Link yelled, getting out his bow and aiming a fire arrow at the monster's face. He paused as he heard Sheik scream. Link looked over at her and discovered she was being crushed in the coils of both of the smaller sea snakes. iSheesh, I didn't think sea snakes even killed their prey by constriction! Oh well, it's not like they're normal sea snakes./i Link re-aimed his arrow for one of the smaller snakes and let it go. The snake let out a horrible shriek as its scaley skin was pierced and burned by the arrow, and it got off the princess, dying. The other one was a bit scared and loosened its hold a bit, but didn't let go. Link was about to kill the other small snake but the big one slithered in front of him, striking at his legs. Link jumped back and put his bow away, drawing the Master Sword once again. Link crouched and sent magic energy into his sword, powering it up for the spin attack. The giant snake lunged for his head, but just as it was about to hit him, Link released the attack. The snake had put itself in a very bad position, and the attack severed its head.
Link wiped the sweat off his forehead and vaulted over the snake, towards Sheik. The snake on her was scared of Link on leaped off her, getting as far away from the warrior as possible.
"D-don't kill meee!" It pleaded, its flat, reptillian head swaying back and forth in fear. Link hesitated, wanting to kill the beast that had tried to crush his friend, but not wanting to destroy an animal begging for its life.
"I can't believe it!" Link and Sheik (who had gotten to her feet) heard a familiar voice in the passage that had not been blocked. They looked over at it and saw Remorie, clutching a very small, shiney and spikey shell. "You guys aren't dead yet? You must be real warriors!" The water dragon glared at the last remaining sea snake. "Bite them, you useless aquatic minion!"
"But if I try, that green guy's gonna kill me!" The snake screetched, shivering in fear. Link took a step toward the dragon, forgetting the snake.
"Hey, dragon, whoever Kadien is, I have a feeling we want to talk to her. Where is she?" He asked, glaring at her menacingly.
"Hmpf! Like I'd tell a low-class creature like you where Lady Kadien is! Hm, green guy? You must be a Kokiri, yes?" Link watched curiously as the dragon chanted and some colorless, wavy magic left her hand and entered the small shell in her other hand. She then raised the pretty thing to her scaley lips and blew.
"Aaahhh!" Link yelled, falling to his knees and covering his pointy ears. "Zelda, get away from me! It's the sound..." Sheik couldn't hear a thing but knew Link's nice personality was about to fly out the window. She backed up, only to find herself pressed against the steel door closing off the exit. She wished there really was a window. Link stopped screaming and got up, looking insanely at her.
"No, Link! Use your rage against the dragon, not me, ack!" Sheik jumped aside as Link put away his sword and threw a dagger at the spot she had been standing in. It slammed against the metal door with a clang, then fell to the floor. "Link, stop! Control yourself!" But Link was in an evil trance because of the mini Siren's Shell, and could not hear his friend. He threw a punch at her, but the quick girl dodged. Sheik looked into Link's eyes, but could not find Link there. Suddenly he closed his eyes and put a hand on the side of his head, apparently in great pain. He then yelled and jumped at the princess. She was surprised and didn't jump out of the way in time to avoid his body throwing hers to the ground and pinning her. "No, Link! No, no, no!" She was silenced as the crazed Link put a hand over her mouth, grinning at her. She was beyond terrified, but had the presence of mind to look over at Remorie, who was still playing the small shell. iIf I can only stop that dragon.../i
As Link put a strong hand on her neck, Sheik shot a fireball at Remorie. The flaming sphere hit the dragon's paws, forcing her to drop the shell. Link blinked a few times, then looked down at the frightened princess. Gasping in horror, he got off her and helped her to her feet.
"Zelda, I'm so sorry..." Link turned away from her, staring at the ground in shame.
"It's okay, Link...you couldn't control yourself..." Sheik said, temporarily unable to shake the fear she had felt when she had looked into his crazy, bloodlusting eyes. It just wasn't Link! She wondered if would ever be able to forget those Linkless eyes. She put a hand on her friend's shoulder, and he turned towards her. She looked into his blue, sorrowful eyes, just to reassure herself that her friend was back, freed formt he spell. But he looked terribly sad. "Hey, it's really alright. You didn't hurt me," She said, trying to smile. The corners of Link's mouth twitched, but he couldn't bring himself to smile after what had almost done.
"Accursed humans!" Remorie growled, picking up her shell and running away again. This time a thick metal door slamed behind her, sealed with a large lock. Link and Sheik had forgotten about the last sea snake, which chose that moment to strike. Both Hylians screamed as the beast bit Link's shoulder, long teeth digging deep. Link's dagger happened to be laying next to Sheik's feet, and she quickly grabbed it and stuck it into the snake's neck. It fell to the ground, lifeless.
"Wow, I've never stabbed anything in the neck before," Sheik said, not liking the feeling it gave her. She caught Link as he fell forward, half-conscious from the quick-spreading venom. Sheik layed him on the ground, trying to work up some magic to heal him. She hadn't regenerated much chanting magic yet, and knew that if she used some now it would take a very long time to regenerate; but didn't care at all. She chanted an anti-venom spell, and used what little magic she had to get rid of all the deadly sea snake poison.
"Thank you..." Link said, weakly getting to his feet. He managed to smile at her, and both felt a wave of relief that the other was okay. Link got out his Arlia and used it on his chest and shoulder wounds. It didn't heal all of either wound, but reduced the pain greatly and stopped most of the bleeding by making the wounds smaller. Link's attention was drawn to the center of the room as a small chest magically appeared. He walked over to it and kicked it open, revealing a small key. He picked it up and looked over at Sheik. "I would expect this type of thing from a temple or dungeon in Hyrule, but in a coral castle? It seems too simple..." He said, looking over at the lock on the steel door blocking thier way forward. "It could be a trap." Sheik brushed her long, golden hair out of her face, also looking at the large lock.
"I don't have any spells I can use right now that will break that lock. Do you think you can break it with any of your weapons?" She followed Link as they both walked over to the door. Link got out the Megaton Hammer, but could not break the door with it. He then tried three bombs, but even the combined explosion didn't put a dent in the reinforced steel. Link then tried to break it with the power of the Golden Gauntlets, but even that proved useless.
"I guess we have no choice but to try the key," Link said, taking it out and looking at Sheik for approval. She nodded, and Link put the key into the lock. It fit perfectly and he turned it. The Hylians heard a click, but the lock did not open. Instead two holes in the coral ceiling above the Hylians opened up, and purplish gas came pouring out. Link put the key away and instincively held his breath, but Sheik accidentally breathed some as she tried to hold hers. She coughed hard a few times, nearly falling over. She then choked on the fumes and did fall over, unconscious. iZelda! I have to get us out of here before this stuff kills her!/i Link glanced around urgently, looking for any way to escape. The way back was blocked by a steel door, and the way forward was blocked with a steel door with a lock on it. There were no other ways out. Link, struggling to hold his breath, looked up at the holes spewing gas. They were about the size of his bombs, so he got out two unlit bombs and shoved them into the holes. This stopped more gas from entering the room, but there was still the problem of the gas inside the room. Link searched the walls, but found no holes. Evetually he had to breathe, and coughed as he inhaled the foul-smelling purple fumes. He stumbled forward as his whole body was racked by a violent cough, and he hit a coral wall. Surprisingly, the wall gave a little under his weight. He quickly got out a lit bomb and placed it next to the wall.
Link choked on the purple gas and fell backwards, his world going black.
"Stupid human! He just blew a hole in my coral fortress! Water is leaking in now..." The angry wonam looked over at the water dragon beside her. "I have no choice but to open the door or he could blow another hole, or my purple gas could go into the hole he blew and contaminate the newly grown coral. It's better if the purple gas goes out the door than through the hole. Do you know how long it takes to grow coral walls?" She asked her serpentine servant.
"Um, no." Remorie said, staring into the magical, shimmering, floating sphere of water that showed the purple fume-filled room. It was like a crystal ball, except water.
"It will take me at least twenty minutes to repair the damage he just did in three seconds!" The woman growled, opening the reinforced steel doors magically and watching the purple gas float out of them and diffuse in the open air.
"But Lady, if you had kept the gas in there for a few minutes, the intruders would die!" The dragon pointed out.
"Yes, and so would my new coral. I love my castle, Remorie. And let's not forget that there's more than one way to skin a cat." The woman said, making the magic orb of water dissappear. "Come, Remorie. It's time to give our little visitors a good washing."
buSection 6
The Siren's Magic/u/b
Link opened his eyes, and the ceiling came in to focus very slowly. He managed to sit up, but his head felt like a cow had been dropped on it. He looked around at his surroundings, finding that nothing had changed. There was three snake corpses and an opened chest...wait, something ihad/i changed! The steel door had been opened. There was also a large hole in the wall in front of him, through which water was leaking slowly. Link stood up and quickly found Sheik, walking unsteadily over to her.
"Zelda, are you okay? Hey, Zelda!" The princess didn't move and Link shook her shoulder a bit. She didn't wake up, but Link knew that at least she was breathing. She seemed to be fine, so he sat next to her and waited for her to wake up. She woke in about five minutes, and Link helped her sit up. "How do you feel?" He asked her.
"My head and lungs hurt, but I'm alright. We have to keep going." The two of them stood up. Sheik looked dizzy at first, but quickly regained her composure. Link then drew his sword and started walking towards the exit. "Hold on, Link. You're forgetting your dagger," Sheik said, gesturing towards one of the dead snakes. Link retrieved his small weapon from the beast's neck, cleaned it, and stuck it in his belt. The Hylians then left, going down the passageway that had been opened. It looked pretty much the same as the other tunnels they had been traveling in, but was slightly bigger. As they walked Link looked closely at the light-emitting barnicles on the ceiling, wondering if the light was natural of if they had been enchanted. He also thought about Sheik and her magic.
"Zelda, just how long do you think it'll take to get back all your magic?" He asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead on the tunnel.
"All of it? I'd say an hour or so. It's too bad the water breathing spell isn't one a Great Fairy gave to me, because if it was I could use it right now. You see there's two types of magic; the kind you have to chant and requires magic from within, and the kind you can cast without talking, which you need magic from a Great Fairy to cast. Those usually require gestures of your hands, though."
"Okay." Link said, not sure what she was talking about but knowing that she probably knew a lot more about magic than anyone else he knew. Except perhaps Feelock or Sahoriel, but they obviously weren't around. Sheik and Link kept walking for about twenty minutes, but nothing happened and the tunnel remained the same: a twisting, rainbowy-white coral passage lit by glowing barnicles. Eventually the passage in front of them opened up into a large room. The room was big enough that just barnicles on the ceiling was not enough, and there was some on the walls, too. There was a huge pool in the middle of the room, and it, too, had barnicles in it. Although the pool was dim because the shellfish didn't give off a whole lot of light, Link could see that there were creatures swimming in it. They seemed to be un-mutated sea snakes. "Well, I don't see a way to get around this..." Link said, stepping up to the edge of the pool. A few sea snakes glanced up at him, but none looked like they were going to attack him.
"I don't have any levitation spells except the kind I chant for. I have a little bit of magic now, probably enough to get us over, but then how will we get back?" Sheik pondered.
"Hey, I know! I ido/i have a way to get over! I'll just shoot some ice arrows in there and make us a bridge across." Link said, putting away his sword and getting out his bow. Suddenly, without Link shooting an arrow into it, the whole pool froze over. "What the..? Wierd pool!" Link exclaimed. He then noticed two figures standing on the other side of the pool. He squinted but the room was dimly lit, and the reflecting ripples of the water under the ice distorted the outlines of the two figures. All Link could be sure of was that one stood on two legs and the other four. Link put away his bow and was about to dash over the lake to the two figures, which he guessed must be Remorie and Kadien, when he heard the rushing of a lot of water.
"Hey, who are those two on the other side of the pool?" Sheik asked, also trying vainly to see them. "I don't like the sound of that water..." She muttered, eyes on the two creatures on the other side of the frozen pool of sea snakes. Abruptly the two figures were covered in watery-looking shields. Behind them Sheik saw water. A ilot/i of water. A lot of water speeding towards her and Link. "Run, Link!" Sheik said, and dashed back the way they had come.
"Run?" Link then saw the water, and ran after his friend. "Zelda, is it such a good idea to run this way? When we were in that one room the way forward was opened, but the way back was still sealed!" Sheik frowned, thinking of that.
"You're right...what are we going to do?"
"Don't you have a really powerful explosion spell?" He asked, straining to keep up with her.
"Yes, but I need full mana to use it! Oh no, we're going to be trapped!" The two Hylians could not outrun the water, and it reached them with a rushing sound louder than any water Link had ever heard. They were swept up in the current, being stirred around in the rapids as they sped towards the room they had left. It had taken them twenty minutes to walk to the pool, but it only took about three minutes for the rushing water to get them back there. The whole time they were tossed in the waves, which were much too strong to swim against. Fortunately neither was injured before they reached the room with the snake corpses. The room that was sealed. The water pushed them into the room at the same time, and Link observed that Sheik was headed straight for a sharp formation sticking out of the wall. He managed to swim just hard enough to get over to her and grab her, pulling her away from the sharp protrusion. The two were then pressed up against the steel door blocking their way out.
"Now what?" Link asked, knowing very well that neither of them had a plan. The water level was steadily rising, and the current was still to strong to let them swim out. Link still had his zora tunic on and knew he could help Zelda breathe underwater with it, but didn't relish the idea of giving her mouth-to-mouth underwater. He looked around once again for a way out, and suddenly got a very good idea. Link got out his bow and hit the steel door with an ice arrow. The whole thing froze over, even the portion beneath the water level. He then got out the Megaton Hammer, and straining to keep his balance in the rushing water, hit the frozen door with all his might. The gauntlets helped a great deal, and the door shattered. Immediately the water carried Sheik and Link out the door, pushing them toward the opening they had first enterred the castle through. They reached it very quickly, and Sheik managed to get her head above water long enough to chant her spell for breathing underwater. She knew she couldn't maintain it for long, but had no choice.
The water shoved the two Hylians out into the open ocean, as if the castle itself had spit them out. They swam upwards, but since Link was the stronger swimmer Sheik held onto him. Without warning, Sheik's enchantment disappeared. Not good! Link thought, looking up and seeing that they were still far from the surface. He swam as fast as he could, but knew that if he didn't do something, the princess would drown. He swam for a little while longer, and just when Sheik was about to pass out, he pulled her close to him and put his lips on hers, giving her some air. She looked startled but kept swimming, and after a few moments and another couple of long mouth-to-mouth breaths, they finally reached the top. Sheik breathed gratefully, and exhausted, she stared over at Link.
"Thanks," She said, smiling at him.
"You're welcome..." He said, turning away to hide his blushing. iIt wasn't a kiss or anything,/i he reasoned, irritated at his own feelings. iI had to do it to save her life, that's all.../iKars had been flying overhead and spotted the two Hylians, then dove down and hovered over them.
"Boy, do you two look washed up! Did you get eaten by a whale or something?" He picked them up in his large bird claws, careful not to scratch them or be to rough, and flew over to the cliffs above the sea. He put them down and landed next to them. "So, did you stop the sound and get the sea snakes back?" The griffon inquired.
"No, we didn't manage to do either." Sheik said, sounding dissappointed.
"I'm going back down there. Just let me rest a minute," Link said, sitting on the ground. Sheik sat next to him. Link looked over at her, and discovered she was staring at his face. "What..," he asked, not liking the look on her face.
"Oh, nothing." She said mischeviously. Link frowned and looked at the ground, resting his head on his hands.
"I think that person we saw standing on the other side of the lake was Kadien. She must be the one behind the sound we've been hearing, and that annoying dragon must be her servant. I think if I talk with and maybe defeat that woman we can rest assure that we'll never hear the sound again. If I defeat her, I think I'll have a chance to destroy her shell." Link said, turning his gaze the the beautiful blue ocean. He knew now that the beauty was very deceptive.
"Nicely done, Lady Kadien! You are truley powerful!" Remorie complimented, watching their water shields fade and the tidal wave spell water dissapear. The ice on the sea snake pool then disappeared, and the snakes resumed their swimming as if nothing had happened.
"Thank you, Remorie, but without your research of the Siren's Shell and the mini shell I wouldn't have drawn them here so I could have fun getting rid of them in the first place. I do hope they drowned..."
"Most likely, Lady. However I think maybe it's a bad idea to underestimate them, because they idid/i kill all of your newly mutated sea snakes and blow a small hole in your castle..."
"Well, who cares. If they come back I will deal with them myself, and if they don't, I'll blow on the shell when I'm done with the wall. Come, we will go repair the wall. You know, after that I am in such a good mood I think I'm going to sing!"
"Your voice is beautiful, Lady. Shall we?" The two went to repair the wall.