"And what about me? You expect me to stay up here, don't you?" Sheik asked, irritated that Link would once again have all the fun.
"There's no choice. Your spell ran out and I don't have two zora tunics. Even if I did, it wouldn't work for you. The tunics are made for men, and unless they fit you perfectly and are in good condition, they don't work. Trust me, I tried to put it on when I was a kid."
"Alright. But next time you go on an adventure, I want to come!" She said, knowing that her father probably wouldn't let her go on Link's next adventure but wanting to go anyway. Link rested for about fifteen minutes, then asked Kars to carry him over the ocean again. Kars took him to the spot in the water he had pulled them out of, and Link jumped in, donning his iron boots again. He sunk to the bottom and looked at the coral castle before him, wondering if there were any ways into the castle other than the last one he had used. He saw that entrance in front of him, looking deceptively inviting. Link searched the front of the castle, but found no other enctrance. Just as he was about to go into the first one, a spot above and to the left caught his eye. It was a scattering of holes, but none were large enough to fit through. However, they seemed to be connected on the inside, as if they were really a web-like covering for a larger hole. Link took off the boots and swam over to the holes. He grabbed the coral stretched over the larger opening and pulled it off. He found that the hole was large enough for him to go into, so he entered it. After a few feet of half-crouching, half-walking through the small tunnel, it angled upward and was no longer filled with water. Link kept going, walking down the tunnel in a straight path, though there were many branching tunnels going off from the main one. For five minutes he walked, then he heard something. It was like nothing he had ever heard before.
The thing it reminded him most of was the last time he was in the Ethereal Forest and had heard Thesaya's singing, but this was much more beautiful. It sounded like birds chirping, water dripping, music playing...all the most pleasant things Link had ever heard. It was a very strange and lovely melody coming from the mouth of a woman. Link then realized what he was doing. He was being hypnotized by the song! He resisted, but the song was so beautiful...how could he want to resist such a thing? He shook his head to clear it. iThis Kadien must be a siren. I've heard of thier songs from the Know-It-All Brothers. They sing beautifully until a man comes to them, and then they kill him. I can't let myself get trapped in that beautiful song...so beautiful.../iLink closed his eyes, just listening to the song. Then it stopped.
"There, that ought to do it, Remorie." A woman's voice replaced the singing. "Now let's go back to my room so I can play the Siren's Shell. The voice was coming through the wall of coral to Link's right, and he knew that the sea dragon and her master must be there. He could faintly heard their footsteps through the wall, and followed them in his small tunnel. The footsteps were very quiet, and it would have been much harder for Link to track them if the woman and her pet dragon hadn't been talking. They talked about the Siren's Shell, and how they had it on the frequency that would bring sea snakes to them. They also mentioned that all normal Hylians would be able to hear it, so many would be killed before Lady Kadien had the pleasure of killing them. iSo they do mean to hurt us with that magical sound. The Siren's Shell, the big version, must make the sound that can be heard in Hyrule. I've got to stop them!/i Link thought urgently. He followed the footsteps and talking for about half an hour, losing them a couple times but always finding them again.
"Ah, Remorie...finally my dream is going to come true. I'll conquer the kingdom next to us, and then the world...I'm so happy!" Then Link lost the voices. He strained his ears and walked around a bit, but could not find them. iNot good! I have to find them before they blow on that shell, or Hyrule's in big trouble!/i Link was running (as well as he could with the low ceiling) through the tunnel when he heard the singing again. It immediately invaded his head, giving him the feeling that he was floating on air. He walked down a branch in the tunnel that the lovely sound seemed to be coming from, and followed it to its end. He found that the passage angled downward and dropped into a large room, but he wasn't paying attention to that. The singing was very loud, and he found that he couldn't resist listening to it. Fortunately, it stopped again. "Here goes, Remorie. After I play this of about ten minutes every sea snake within a twenty mile radius will be swimming toward us!" Link looked down on the room below him and saw from a bird's eye view a woman raise a shell to her lips. It was a large shell, almost the size of her head, and had spikes coming out of the sides. The inside was pink and the outside was a rough, rainbowy white, like the coral fortress.
"Stop right there!" Link shouted, jumping down in front of the woman. His eyes widened as he looked up at the tall female. Momentarily surprised, he asked, "What are you?" The woman laughed, her large, round, yellow eyes fixed on the Hylian. The slits in those eyes were very long and thin, reptilian looking.
"I, my young and very foolish friend, am Kadien, a siren. Have you never seen one before?" The top half of the woman appeared to be almost normal. Her face and arms were the color of a normal human's skin, and she had very blackish hair, with a red-orange tint. It was long and hung passed her waist, which was where she lost her resemblance to a human. Her bottom half was that of a water dragon. Her greenish blue-scaled haunches were bent in a half crouch, but still the woman towered over Link. She had a dragon tail, and the dragon scales came up from her dragon half, covering her chest and shoulders. She had a sea shell necklace, and her circular, large yellow eyes looked very misplaced on her human face. The odd creature laughed a hideous, high-pitched laugh, which opened her mouth wide enough for Link to see her teeth, which were as sharp as her nails. She then casted a spell which wrapped sea weed all around Link. "You are too late, Hylian. This shell will bring me enough sea snakes to make a great army out of, once I mutate them all to be large and fierce like the ones you met earlier. Now watch as I play the song of your kingdom's doom." The creature raised the shell to her mouth again, and began blowing on it. Link had the hearing of a Kokiri and couldn't hear it, but knew that innocent Hyrulian citizens would. He easily broke out of the sea weeds and shot an arrow at the shell. The projectile hit the shell out of her hands and it fell to the ground, clattering as a piece of it chipped off.
"Dumb human!" Remorie growled, jumping between Link and Kadien. Kadien picked up the shell and the chipped piece, frowning.
"Remorie, kill him while I fix this, will you?" She asked, seaching the shell for the chipped spot. The young sea dragon snapped at Link, who quickly took out his shield and blocked her strike. She growled as her nose slammed into the hard metal. She pulled her head back and put a small clawed hand on her snout, discovering that she had a bloody nose.
"Why you..!!! You'll pay for that!" She shouted.
"You did it to yourself," Link muttered, taking out his sword. The dragon casted a quick spell and a curved, split-blade sword appeared in her paw. "Now I've seen everything. A dragon that would rather fight with a sword than its claws and teeth!" Link slashed at the dragon and it reared up, rising above Link on its serpentine body. Remorie opened her mouth and her dragon breath came out, which was ice. Link moved in time to prevent getting frozen, but his sword had become encased in ice. The dragon quickly hit it out of his hands, and the frozen blade crashed to the ground. Link backfliped as Remorie tried to cut him with the sword. He then got out his bow and shot an arrow into the dragon's shoulder.
"Aaarggg! I'll kill you!" The dragon roared, breathing more ice at Link.
"We'll see about that!" Link yelled, easily dodging the blue, sparkling stream of breath. Remorie slithered rather than ran to the side of Link as he dodged, and managed to cut his shoulder with the sword, making two deep cuts in it. Link yelled and stopped, putting a hand over the wound, and Remorie dropped her sword. Grinning, the snake-like dragon quickly coiled around the bleeding Hylian, holding him tight.
"Are you finished fixing the shell, My Lady?" Remorie asked her master, looking over at her.
"Almost. I'm fixing it right now. What are you waiting for? If you're not going to sting him or freeze him, squeeze the life out of him!"
"That's not very nice," Link gasped, grimacing as the dragon started trying to crush him. He struggled in the coils but found that he could barely move an inch.
"Hahahah! I wonder what humans taste like?" The dragon pondered, listening to Link scream as she squeezed him very hard. As Link's hands were pushed up against his sides, he felt something metal digging into his arm. He remembered that he had put the dagger that he usually kept in his boot in his belt, and his hand could almost reach it. He struggled to get a hold on it, but it was very difficult under the tightening coils. Link tried to get a breath so he could use his gauntlets, but it was useless since the dragon's tight hold had compressed his lungs. He could feel that he didn't have much time before he went unconscious. "Stop resisting, you idiot. You'll only die tired," Remorie mocked. Link strained with all his remaining strength, and managed to get his fingers around the knife. He had just enough room next to his hand to pull the thing out of his belt and stick it into Remorie's scales. "Aahhhh! Curse you!" The dragon let go of Link and limped away from him, examining her stab wound. Link breathed deeply, picking up his bloody dagger, which had fallen out of the dragon.
"I don't understand you evil creatures. You try to suffocate me and then complain when you get stabbed? No offense, but what a wimp!" Link put his dagger away in his boot and ran over to his sword. He freed it by breaking the ice with his hammer, then sheathed it, turning towards the moping dragon.
"You cut my beautiful scales...say goodbye, human!" The dragon once again tried to freeze Link, but he got out his mirror shield and the ice reflected back towards the dragon. She let out one last shriek before she was frozen solid. Kadien had finished fixing the shell, and let out a cry of anger as she saw her pet freeze.
"Remorie! You will die for this, Hylian. Just who the heck are you?!" She demanded, walking toward Link.
"I'm Link, and I'll protect Hyrule as long as I live!"
"Well, that won't be very long! Wait, Link..? I've heard that somewhere...oh yeah. Link?! iYou/i are the legendary Hero of Time?!" Kadien looked outraged.
"Wow, everyone's heard of me, haven't they? Well yeah, I'm Link. Now be good and let me destroy that shell, or I'll have to fight you, Kadien."
"Are you serious? 'Be good and let me destroy that shell'? You're ridiculous! Do you actually think I'll do what you ask?" Kadien stood up straight, to her full height. She was about eight feet tall, and she stared down at Link. Her tail started swishing angrily, and she started to glow blue. "Do you have any idea what I can do to you? Prepare to die!" The half-dragon, half-woman siren began chanting, and the room started quickly filling with clear, blue water. It filled up until there was only a foot of air left at the very top, and Kadien grinned at Link, expecting him to swim for it. Instead he stayed where he was, breathing by means of the zora's tunic. "What? You can breathe underwater? Impossible!" Link could somehow hear the siren's voice very clearly underwater. To his surprise, she could also hear his.
"Nice tunic, huh? You should really consider getting some clothes. They might look better than just scales." Link said, taking out his hookshot, which was by far the easiest weapon to use underwater. He started to float upward, and put on the iron boots.
"I don't need clothes! And thanks for telling me what helps you breathe underwater, idiot." She said, swimming around. She was a very good swimmer with her water dragon half.
"Oops." Link said, pointing his hookshot at her in case she came close. She did swim close, and Link fired. Unfortunately the hookshot was much slower than the siren underwater, and she easily swam out of the way. She swam behind Link and raked his back with her dragon claws, giving him and his tunic three long slashes. Bubbles came from Link's mouth as he was roughly pushed forward from the strike, and he almost choked on the water he was breathing. iThat was weird. The tunic almost failed...oh, it's because she ripped it. I can't let her do that again./i Link took off the boots so he could move easier, but had to constantly swim slightly downwards or he would float to the top. Kadien swam in front of him, aiming the spines on her tail for his chest. Link swam backwards, and the spines missed him. Link shot his hookshot into the siren's tail, and it pulled her close. Link was about to attack her, but as the hookshot pulled her over to him she kicked him away with her dragon foot.
The strong kick caused Link to flip backwards in the water, and as he righted himself he found Kadien right in his face. She dragged her sharp, claw-like fingernails through Link's chest, giving him and his blue suit five more scratches. That was all the tunic could take, and it stopped working.
"Blast!" Link yelled as Kadien grabbed him in a tight embrace that he knew she would hold until he was dead. He struggled and found that the siren didn't have super strength because she almost couldn't hold him, and he wasn't even using the gauntlets. He tried to kick her a few times, but the skilled swimmer was not affected much. Although she ialmost/i let go, she didn't, and held tight until Link started tiring after a score of seconds. He had gotten a good breath before his tunic stoppped working, so he could stay underwater for a little over two minutes, but time was running out and he couldn't shake Kadien.
"Hahahaha..." Kadien's formerly high-pitched laughing was replaced by deep, evil laughing. "Go ahead, Link, let some water into your lungs. You'll die very quickly, almost painlessly. You should be grateful that this is my favorite way to kill people and I'm not torturing you slowly or anything. Just die already!"
iLike I have a choice! /iLink thought irritably. Link twisted repeatedly in Kadien's grasp, but she held tight and Link was getting very drowzy and the water around him seemed to be getting darker. He could feel that he was weakening.i I have to get to the surface! I can't take much more of this. /iHe struggled violently one last time, but then couldn't struggle any more. He consentrated all his mind on not trying to breathe. He knew the moment he tried to do that would be the moment he died. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and Kadien started laughing again.
"Give it up! You can't get free, hahahahah!" Link couldn't take it anymore. He opened his mouth, bubbles came rising out, and he started choking on water. By now, Kadien was laughing so hard she wasn't paying attention. Link managed to get one arm out of her hold, then took out his dagger and stuck it in her dragon leg. She screetched in pain, letting him go. Link swam quickly to the top, gasping and coughing out water. Kadien was still trying to pull the dagger out and do the least amount of damage to her scales. She also swam upward, and her head surfaced ten feet in front of Link. "You are very lucky. This time, you're FINISHED!" The siren yanked the dagger out of her leg and threw it at Link, but he simply caught it and put it in his boot. Kadien started chanting again, and Link saw that the water level was rising again. Soon there would be nothing in the room but water. While Kadien was concentrating on her spell, Link swam up to her and punched her in the face. Her water spells required a great deal of power and concentration, and Kadien lost both as she was thrown back by the strong fist in her face. To Link's surprise, the punch not only disrupted the water level from rising, but also made it drop. The water was almost completely gone by the time Kadien got a hold of herself. She stood on the coral ground as the last of her magic water disappeared.
"Why you...!!! You're really asking for it!" Kadien growled, shaking a fist in rage. She lunged at Link but he had seen it coming and sidestepped. He kicked her foot as she passed him, which sent her sprawling on her face. She jumped up and pointed a thin arm at Link, chanting an ice spell. Link's feet froze to the ground, and the ice started climbing up his ankles. Link quickly casted Din's Fire, which both melted the ice and singed Kadien before she could jump out of range. "Shoot, you really are the Hero of Time. I guess it's time to get serious. I wonder if you've noticed, there are no exits to this room except the one in the ceiling, and while my water dragon was trying to crush you I casted a growing spell on that hole. That doesn't make the hole grow, it makes coral grow over the hole. Your last escape rout is shrinking by the minute."
"What?" Link looked up at the hole he had entered through, and found that it was indeed closing up. "I can just hit it with a bomb when I'm done with you." Link said, glaring at her. "And if that's the only exit or entrance, how did you get into his room? Teleportation?"
"Why, yes, actually. You'll find that us sirens are able to learn scores of useful spells, and I hope you have about thirty bombs, because that's what it'll take to get out of here!" Link only had fifteen bombs left, so he hoped the siren was bluffing. He looked around the room, scanning for any way she and her pet could have enterred the room, other than teleportation. While he was looking, Kadien did a summoning spell and a long whip made of seaweed materialized in her hand. Link turned his attention back to her, realizing that she had been telling the truth. There were no ways out except the ceiling, but he could still throw a bomb at it, or even a bombchu. He had ten of those. Seeing the siren's new toy, Link took out his sword and shield.
"You really do have a lot of magic, don't you? Well, I don't have all day, Kadien. Let's do this!" Link rushed forward, and Kadien lashed at him with the long, greenish whip. It snapped on his shield, and the pressure from it threw him off-balance for a second, but then he ran at her again. He tried cutting her legs, but she jumped over him and he skidded to a stop, quickly turning around. Kadien punched him in the forehead, and the suprisingly strong punch threw him to his back. "Huh? You weren't very strong in the water..."
"Of course not. In the water I am a fast and skilled swimmer, but my strength isn't so great. On land, I can use the ground for leverage and use all my strength, which makes me much stronger. Die!" She lashed at Link again, whith the whip, but once again he blocked it with his shield. It make a loud snap but didn't do anything, and Link got to his feet. He took out his bow and aimed an arrow for Kadien, but she quickly chanted a shield spell, grinning at him from behind it. Link smiled back, and aimed his arrow for the Siren's Shell, on the ground behind Kadien; then let it fly.
"Nooooo!" Kadien screetched as the shell was shattered into at least twenty pieces by the well-aimed arrow. "I can't fix that...you've just ruined my life, you stinking Hylian! BLAST YOU! All my dreams of making a grand sea snake army and conquering the world...gone!" Kadien looked both devistated and indescibably angry at the same time.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you. No one should have the right to rule over great kingdoms unless they are wise and righteous, like Daphnes Hyrule. Why don't you give up that fantasy of taking over and be good? I'm tired of trying to defeat a lady," Link said truthfully. He despised fighting females. As he stared at Kadien, all the emotion drained from her face. She looked like a stone statue, just staring at the shards of the Siren's Shell. The seaweed whip dropped from her hand, and then she had a thoughtful look on her face, as if she was really considering the idea of being good. Link waited for her to respond, but when she didn't, he looked up at the closing coral hole, putting away his sword and shield. He was sure his hookshot could probably stick to it, and was about to try it when he felt something strong and thin wrap around his neck. He put his hands on what he discovered was the whip and looked over at Kadien, who was now glaring at him madly. She, of course, had the handle of the whip in her hand. She yanked on it hard, pulling Link to the ground, and began to drag him closer. Link coughed, trying to get a good hold on the whip so he could pull it off. As he was dragged up next to Kadien's feet, she grinned down at him.
"No, I can't have you getting free, little Hylian." She kicked him in the side hard enough to flip him over, so he was now resting on his chest. Kadien pulled both his arms behind his back and tied them with some magic ropes. She then lifted him off the ground by the whip, letting him hang. "Wow, Hylian. You feel heavy but you must not be too heavy since you neck hasn't broken. Oh well, you'll be dead in a few minutes anyway." Link gasped, the annoying whip was strangling him, but he couldn't reach any of his weapons with his hands tied. Then he remembered his dagger. The next time Kadien closed her eyes to laugh insanely, he pulled it from his boot and started trying to cut the ropes on his wrists with it. Kadien stopped laughing and focused on Link, determined to stay alert this time. She had already failed to do that, because Link was cutting the ropes and she didn't even see it. iHow did such a dull-sensed creature get so powerful?/i Link wondered. The whip holding him in the air was very painful, but it wasn't killing him yet. He almost had the ropes cut...
"You don't look very worried. You are hiding something from me..." Kadien said quietly, surprising Link. He immediately pretended to be worried, and Kadien smirked. "Yes, you're definately up to something." Kadien was about to turn Link around, when the whip started really hurting. Link started choking and coughing, then got worried for real as he realized he might not be able to cut the ropes before he blacked out. He was already getting quite drowzy, and his tired hands worked slowly to free themselves. Luckily Kadien had forgotten about turning him around, prefering to watch his face. That was a big mistake, and Link finally felt the ropes slide off his hands. He immediately brought his dagger up and cut Kadien's face, then cut the whip. He fell to the ground, coughing and holding his sore neck, which he discovered was bleeding.
"My face! My beautiful face! Alright, I can't beat you this way. Time to cheat!" Kadien growled, looking down at the Hylian she loathed. She began to sing.
buSection 7
Fear of Heights/u/b
"Hey, no fair!" Link yelled, but then stopped talking to listen to the lovely singing. It was the most beautiful sound he'd every heard, and he couldn't resist. He stood up, gazing into space as the musical voice of the siren called out to him. iSo pretty...it makes me want to lay down and listen to it forever...but I can't!/i Link tried to get out of the trance the song was putting him in, but found that he didn't really want to snap out of it. He tried to convince himself that he did, but it was no use. Kadien walked up to the helpless warrior and bit his shoulder with her sharp teeth. They were covered in stinging jellyfish fluid, and the pain brought Link awake instantly.
"Eeeaaugh!" Link yelled, as the stinging fluid entered the bite wound and made his shoulder feel like it was burning. He punched Kadien's face off him and backed away, putting a hand over the bite. The fluid then got on his hand, stinging it as well. "Yow, that's some really nasty saliva!" Link said, flinching and wondering if the fluid would stop any time soon. It did, and Link could only feel the bite. He was about to attack the siren, but she began singing again. "Oh no, not this time, Kadien!" Link easily resisted the song, taking out his sword and giving the siren a large slash across her midsection. She growled in fury, then picked something up that had been laying by her feet. It was the mini version of the Siren's Shell, in perfect condition and still set to the Kokiri frequency. "I wouldn't blow on that if I were you, Kadien. If you drive me into an insane bloodlust, you're the only person around for me to attack!"
"You are wrong, Hylian. You were around twenty or thirty feet away from this shell when Remorie played it. You are very close now, and you'll find it has quite a different effect when you're right next to it. She blew on the shell hard, and Link felt like his head would explode from the loudness of the shrieking song of the Siren's Shell in his ears. It was just as bad as the real siren's shell, except this time Link didn't black out or feel violent. He only felt pain, and tried to cover his ears, dropping to his knees. His hands did nothing to muffle the noise, and Link thought frantically of all his items, wondering if he had anything he could stick in his ears. Link looked down at the ground, knowing he had nothing. He vaguely noted the shining coral under his knees as the sound filled his head with agony. It was shining a greenish color and was bumpy. It almost looked like lichen or moss...iMoss!/i Link remembered Geda and her present. (this is at the beginning of chap 13. If you missed it the first time when I posted it incorrectly, it's updated now) He took out the two little puffs of moss and stuck them in his ears. Instantly, all was silent for the Hylian. He took out his bow and destroyed the small shell in Kadien's hands.
"What? How..? Curse you! I'll kill you and store your bones in Davy Jone's locker!" But Link couldn't hear her. He took the moss out and put it back in his pocket.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"Die, human! I know just what to do to you!" She started chanting, and Link couldn't do anything but take out his shield before the spell took effect. It was a mutation spell, and it's victim writhed as arms and legs disappeared and nose became scaley snout. Kadien had turned into a hideously deformed sea snake. "What? Noooooo!" She looked over at Link, who held his mirror shield. In it, she saw her ugly face. "Aaaahhhhh!" With an awful shriek, the snake exploded in a blue, clearish wave of magic.
"Whoa..." Link muttered, staring at the space Kadien had just stood in. He hadn't known that his shield deflected mutaion spells like that. He was pulled from his thoughts as the coral castle started shuddering, and a chunk of ceiling coral nearly fell on him as it was shaken loose. "Time to go!" Link searched again for the hole in the ceiling. It was still there, but only big enough that Link could just barely sqeeze through it if he could even get up there. Link shot his hookshot at the hole, but it bounced off the tough coral inside and around it. "Uh-oh! I thought the coral was kindof soft! She must have been growing really tough coral up there, and that's why she told me I needed thirty bombs! That's not good..." Link stopped talking to himself and ran over to the closest wall, putting a bomb next to it. The bomb blew a hole, but the hole was not connected to anything. He blew another hole oinside the first on, and another,making a wide tunnel with bomb explosions. After using up all fifteen bombs and six bombchus, and nearly getting crushed twice in the process, he finally blew a tunnel that led into a room. Link ran inot the room and discovered it was the room with a pool full of hundreds, maybe thousands of sea snakes; and he was on the wrong side of the pool.
With all the shaking the castle was doing, it shook loose some glowing barnicles from the ceiling of the room, and they fell into the snake pool, sinking slowly. One fell past a hole in the pool, which had been grown over by soft coral. Link shot an ice arrow at the hole and the arrow plunged into the water and stuck into the coral, freezing it. He then hit it with an arrow, which broke it. The sea snakes were now free, and they all eagerly swam out the new passage. Link swam across the pool, now almost completely empty of sea snakes, and dashed down the hall on the other side. Falling coral fell on him once or twice, but never big enough to do any damage. After a few minutes of exhausting sprinting, Link came to the room he and Zelda had defeated the mutated snakes in. To his dismay, it was completely filled with crumbled coral because it's roof had caved in. Link used his last four bomchus in an effort to blow through the debris, but it didn't do much. He then ran over to the pile and began throwing aside chunks of coral, but knew he would never get out before the coral directly over him came crashing down. Suddenly he heard a voice.
"Link, get away from the coral pile, you moron! Hurry up!" Surprised, Link obeyed the muffled voice that seemed to be coming from the other side of the pile. There was a huge explosion that knocked Link to the ground, but he got up and saw that the way forward was clear. Befire him stood Cyphas and Sheik. "Come on, Link! Let's go!" Cyphas dragged him to his feet and the three of them ran as fast as they could toward the exit of the castle.
"How did you get down here?" Link asked, panting as he ran beside Sheik.
"Cyphas has this weird device that lets me breathe underwater and she gave it to me. I would have used my spell because my magic regenerated, but she told me to save it for that explosion I just made. She's half zora, so she swam down here with me pretty easily, in like a minute and a half. What happened to your tunic?"
"It doesn't work but I can hold my breath for two minutes if she can get us to the surface that fast. Thanks for coming."
"I told you I'd get you out of trouble some time! Now do you know how I feel?" Link grinned but didn't talk, wanting to save his breath for running. The three companions, after much running and dodging, finally reached the exit of the castle. They swam out into the ocean, and Cyphas grabbed them both, speeding towards the surface of the water with her fins. Link noticed for the first time that she had taken her boots off, and had fins next to her ankles that were just like the ones on her forearms. The escaping sea snakes and cidids were everywhere, but ignored Cyphas as she speeded past because they were preoccupied with getting as far away from the colaspsing castle as possible.
Cyphas was almost to the top, when she had to swim through a whole school of cidids. There was no way around it, so she just swam through it heedlessly. She obviously hadn't been warned of the insects' powerful sting. Some cidids stuck onto the three swimers as they swam past, and Link busied himself with brushing them off Cyphas and Zelda. There didn't seem to be any on him, but he didn't see the one on his back. Just as Link brushed the last cidid off Cyphas, the frightened insect stung him. iThat sucks!/i Link thought as his body started to get ridgid from the paralyzing venom. He lost control of body and blacked out as water rushed in.
"He's not breathing, princess! Get off him, you're not helping! You can't heal that sort of thing, now imove!/i" Sheik took her hands off the motionless Link and backed up, panicking. She had healed all his cuts and bruises, but he was still motionless.
"What can we do?!" She yelled, looking around at all the griffons surrounding them. Kars had flown them to the cave they were in, and Naltha and some sea griffons were in it.
"Hit his stomach," a sea griffon suggested casually. "It'll get the water out of him. If he's been uncouncious that long, it's the only thing that will work." Cyphas glared at the beast.
"iHit/i him? Yeah, that will do a lot of good!" She growled. Sheik put a hand over her mouth, looking down worriedly at Link.
"I'm serious! CPR won't work at this point you have to hit him hard or he'll die. Trust me." The griffon said, not really caring if Link lived or died but getting irritated at all the chaos around him.
"What the heck is CPR? Dangit, I have no choice. Forgive me, Link!" Cyphas raised a strong fist and drove it very hard into the Hylian's stomach. He curled up, coughing out lots of water and gasping for air. As soon as Link felt like he could move without spewing more water, he looked around at all the creatures surrounding him. Kozin stood in a corner of the cave.
"I saved...your snakes..." Link said, still gasping.
"Yeah! You're all right!" Sheik almost hugged him, but stopped herself as she became conscious of all the watching griffons. The King of sea griffons laughed.
"So you did, my good hero. Release Naltha." He ordered, and the griffons holding her did so. Link turned to Cyphas. "Thanks..." He said, holding his stomach.
"Sure. I'll punch you anytime you want, heh heh." She stared down at the confused Link. "Just kidding, sheesh!" Link started laughing but stopped as he realized how much his head hurt.
"Well, I'm certain you strange creatures will be wanting to get back to Hyrule. Naltha told me all about it, and it sounds like a rather nice place. My griffons are the fastest creatures in the sky when they cast haste spells on themselves, so they can get you home in no time. I want them to go to Hyrule and talk with your King, I am interested in trading with or maybe joining your country," The King revealed. A dozen minuted later, the Hylians and half-Hylian were seated on sea griffons with haste spells, and Naltha and Kars were flying behind with their gear, also enchanted. Even though both the sea griffons and mountain griffons were enchanted with haste spells, Naltha and Kars were a little faster that their blue cousins when they weren't flying over water. The two mountain griffons hung behind so they wouldn't pass the beasts.
"Why did you come to the ocean, Cyphas?" Link asked the halfbreed, who was seated on a griffon next to him.
"I decided your butt would need saving sometime soon. I came to help you with your mission...because I, too, heard the sound. I heard it for a brief second just after you and Zelda left. I decided I had to help you get rid of it before it drove me crazy and I started attacking my fairy friends. Looks like I didn't show up a moment too soon!"
"Definately not. So, are you coming to Hyrule with us?"
"No. I asked this griffon to drop me off. We should be reaching the drop-off spot in a few minutes. I sure will miss getting you out of trouble..." She said, snickering. Link laughed, and soon the griffons came to the drop-ff point. They put Cyphas on the ground, and Link and Sheik waved as the formation rose to the skies again. Even though they were flying through mist, the griffons knew where they were going because there was mist over the ocean often, and they had grown up training to see in the mist. It only took a few hours to reach Hyrule, and the griffons didn't meet any resistance on the way. As soon as they were out of the mist and in the open air of Hyrule, the sea griffons couldn't resist doing a few tricks. Sheik yelled in exitement as her girffon did a barrel-roll. Link screamed in terror and clung for dear life to his griffons as it did two loops. The female griffon giggled at her frightened passenger and flew straight. The other griffons followed her example, and soon they were all headed for Hyrule Castle. The blue griffons and their passengers landed in the Hyrule Castle courtyard, and the King was there to greet them.
"Welcome, my friends from the water." The King said, observing the griffons' aquatic-looking features. Then he spotted Zelda and Link. "Where ihave/i you been?! I told you to stay here, and you deliberately disobeyed my orders!" Sheik slid off her mount reluctantly, but Link was all too happy to get off his.
"It's my fault, father. I convinced Link to came with me to the swamp..."
"But it was my idea in the first place, Zelda. I'm the one who let you come along-"
"You're both grounded!" The King growled. Link and Sheik looked at him. "Oh, I'm just joking. I'm sure you two just saved Hyrule from a terrible catastrophe, and you both came back in one piece. Just don't get any ideas about disobeying me again!"
"Yes, father." Zelda said, walking toward her room. She really wanted to take a nap.
"Yes, King Daphnes." Link said, following her. His room was next to hers and he was going to take a nap, too. As they left, King Daphnes talked with the sea griffons.
"Well, I'm glad that's over." Sheik said, turning back into Zelda.
"Yeah," Link agreed. "I'm glad you didn't have to fight Kadien! She was terrible." Zelda glared at him.
"Are you saying I'm too weak to have been able to help you? After I had Cyphas swim down there with me so I could blow you out of-"
"No, no! Of course not! I'm just glad you didn't get hurt, at least, not very bad." Zelda grinned.
"Well, fine then. In that case, I'm glad you didn't die. But you proably ialmost/i died at least ten times! You really ought to be more careful. Din, Faore, and Nayru must really favor you." She said, smiling over at him. "You worry me sometimes..."
"I'm sorry, but you know there's no other way. I'm really grateful you came down there to save me..." He said, smiling back. He vaguely noted how pretty Zelda's smile was...
"There you are!" Both Chain and Impa stood in front of Link and Zelda. Impa was about to chew them out for sneaking out, but decided against it when she saw how tired they looked. She thought a mild repremanding would do. "Thank you for saving Hyrule, but don't take Zelda on such a dangerous trip ever again." She said to Link sternly. "Well, did you have a nice flight?" Impa asked Link.
"I hate flying...I mean, well I'm not scared of heights anymore!" Link declared.
"Oh really..." Chain said, grinning at Impa in a way Link definately didn't like. Impa walked up to Link and picked him up, walking over to the nearest window.
"Don't worry, Link...I just want you to see Death Mountain!" She said, holding him out of it.
"Whaaa! Okay, okay, I see it! Don't drop meee!"
hullo, thanks for reading! Want to know exactly what Kadien looks like? Go to devintart.com and sign up (It's a really great site, and worth the trouble). then when you're on your devart homepage go tot he browser bar thingie and erase your name. Replace it with Talonclawfange and you'll be taken to my page, where you can look at my fanfiction pictures, including a very detailed one of Kadien. As for the next story...Link's attacked by a black assasin in his sleep, and Hyrule is being seiged by oddly violent storms. Can link find out why? Will he even survive!? Sorry, got carried away. See ya next time. -Talonclawfange