* * *
'I'm scared....This is so stupid....I can't do this....SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!'
April clung to the narrow, invisible path in the sky for dear life. She estimated that she must be at least a thousand feet in the air...But then, again, one always tends to exaggerate when they are in a sticky situation.
"That's...IT!" April stopped her slow climb forward and turned back to Malon. "I can't go forward anymore! I'm gonna fall and die!"
"Do you hon'stly think I like this any better than you!? Now, just keep goin'!"
April swore under her breath, but continued her crawl.
"You do notice that we've only gone about twenty feet, right...?"
* * *
Impa was rushing down the stairs in the house as Lon Lon. When she got to the bottom of them, she quickly threw open the door, and stepped outside. Night had set in, and the moon didn't seem to be around at the time. Although, she was too busy looking at the sight to her right to be concerned with what was in the sky.
Three riders, all on horses that obviously had not come from Lon Lon, were riding in the ranch from the gates. The one in the front seemed to be the leader, and Impa thought she knew right away who it was.
Although they were too far away at the moment to have been able to see her clearly, she decided that it was best not to risk anything. She retreated back into the house and prepared to use a spell she was all-too familiar with. She had a pretty good idea that this spell would lead her to where Zelda was.
* * *
"I'm gonna fall..."
"No, you are not! You're such a baby! Just keep going, and we're on solid ground, THEN you can bug the living Dark Realm out of me!"
April whimpered and continued to crawl forward.
Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, and then it again went dark. The light seemed to have come from behind them, and both girls turned their heads to see what could have caused it.
They turned back, and April made out a figure in the blackness of the night. But, before either of them had time to panic, they heard a familiar voice from the shadow.
"Zelda? Malon?"
"Oh, my God! Impa! Don't scare me like that!" April sighed in relief.
"How did you...?" Malon began.
"I was just about to ask you girls the same question."
April answered for everyone. "It's all that stupid book's fault! I knew that I never should have picked the thing up in the first place."
Malon finished her thoughts. "Somehow, an ancient Sheikah transferred energy for a spell to Zelda, and we just kind of ended up here..."
"Nobody just "ends up" changing the air for their purposes. Not even some of those most skilled in magic can master this skill."
"Change the air? What is that supposed to mean?" April asked.
"It's what you did. What we are standing on right now is a platform of warped air, somehow made by you girls. Are you sure it was the book that did it?"
"Yeah," April said. "We read it, and it was like it was talking to us through all those years, you know? But, anyway, that Seer said that we were in danger where we were. I don't really know what I did, but when I remembered that vision I had earlier, we were here."
"Something bad is happening at my home..." Malon said suddenly.
"I think we kind of figured that out, before," April started. "That book told me..."
"...That it was dangerous." Impa finished. Her tone darkened, and she said, "I think that Ganondorf has figured out where we were."
April bit her tongue at the mention of him.
"That book was saying that there were other things that needed to be said, but that it could wait." Malon started to stand up on the narrow path. "But obviously, Zelda's life was in danger if she stayed there any longer..."
Before Malon could say anything else, April suddenly burst out, "The book! Oh, great!! I left it there...And I think I really needed to know what else was in it..."
"I could get it for you."
April turned her head quickly to where Malon was. "No way. No way in all of hell. Do you know how insane that guy is? He'd kill you as soon as look at you if he knew that you had been dealing with me! And you want to go back down there!? I don't think so!"
"Hey!" Malon turned towards April. "My home, and possible the people there, are in danger, too! I want to go down there and see what's going on!"
"But....You might get hurt! Or....worse!" April tried reasoning with the girl.
But, Malon was as stubborn as she was. "My family might get hurt, or worse. And if there's anything I can do to prevent it, I'm going to!"
"Zelda," Impa interrupted. "If Malon thinks that its best for her to go back, even if we don't agree with her, we should respect her wishes..."
"What is this!?" April asked, indignant. "Everyone decides to go insane day!? Fine! Malon, if you want to go, then do! I'm not stopping you!"
Malon only managed to keep her annoyed look for a moment longer. Then, she said, "It's not like I'm abandoning you, ya know. We both have something to protect." She raised her eyebrows.
April sighed. "Impa, can you take her down there?" she asked, avoiding Malon's eyes.
"Yes, and we'll get that book, too," her guardian answered.
"Good, then." She looked at Malon. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
Malon nodded, and then turned around towards Impa. Within seconds, they were both gone. April was now only halfway curious as to how Impa, and herself for that matter, had managed to perform that trick.
While thinking to herself all the insulting things she could say about Malon's stupidity, she crawled back to the area that had more space for her to sit. She sat on the "floor", her chin resting in her hands. It wasn't until this moment that she started to think of what was going to happen, next. She had known since they had arrived at Lon Lon that they were going to have to leave eventually, but she hadn't really considered what they would do when they did.
"Yeah, real smart, Miss Holder of the Triforce of Wisdom..." she muttered to herself.
She tried to turn over the situation in her mind; tried to think of anything else but Malon at the moment. Even though she didn't approve of her decision and thought it was stupid, she knew that she would miss the girl. And if she hadn't been so busy trying to be angry, she probably would have been crying.
There was another flash, and Impa was back. She had the book, too. "Zelda...?" she called.
"Here," she responded.
Impa walked over and sat down in front of her. At the same time, April covered her face with her hands and sighed. The Sheikah looked at the girl in front of her. That simple gesture had made her look a lot older than she was, and Impa almost had to wonder if this was the same girl who had been here moments before. After a moment, there came a muffled, "What are we going to do...?" from her.
When she had asked that question, she felt tears burning at the corners of her eyes, but she refused to let herself cry. For once, she was going to be the strong one.
Suddenly, she felt a hand close around her arm and helped her stand up. She looked up at Impa.
"We are going to go to my people for help," the women said, in answer to April's question.
April was immediately confused. "But, I thought...?"
"...That there were no more Sheikah left in Hyrule, but me and Monoka? You would be right. But, what about outside of Hyrule? There, you will find them. But, only if you know where to look."
"And, where do you look?" April asked.
"First, you need to go through the Temple of Shadows, built by ancient people to protect the barrier between Hyrule and its Mirror..."
April's eyes widened. 'Temple of Shadows? That sounds an awfully lot like the....Shadow Temple....HOLY CRAP!! That was my least favorite Temple in the game. It's so creepy! How am I going to go through it without having a heart attack?' April snapped back into reality when she remembered something she wanted to ask Impa.
"What do you mean, between Hyrule and its Mirror?" she asked Impa.
"Hyrule's Mirror, its Shadow Dimension...There are many names for it, but it's basically a reflection of Hyrule, in that the people are Sheikah, and not Hylian. It's boundaries only go out to where Hyrule Castle Town would be, because the other areas in Hyrule were added to Hyrule's territory centuries after these dimensions existed. After you reach there, you would only wind up back in the normal Hyrule. Nobody's really sure how it works..."
"Okay, that explains some things, such as why there aren't any Sheikah in Kakariko left..." April said this more to herself than to Impa.
"In addition," the Sheikah added. "The people there are also sort of "reflections" of the people in Hyrule. You may have heard myths that the Sheikahs are Shadows of the Hylians. This is somewhat true. People - Hylians, that is - born in Hyrule, have a sort of reflection of themselves in Hyrule's Mirror."
"Kind of like a twin?" April asked.
"Not quite, but its close enough for people who don't know how else to explain it. You see, this other person would be basically the same age as them, and would sometimes look similar...The whole system of the dimensions is very complicated."
April shrugged. "That's okay. As long as we can get help from the people there, and I don't get my head chopped off by any demented Stalfos in the Shadow Temple, then it's okay."
"Stalfos aren't the only thing we have to worry about..." Impa said, quietly.
April's eyes widened.
Impa glanced at her and laughed, slightly. "But, I don't think we have to worry about It too much, because the thing hasn't been seen for centuries."
"It!?" April asked.
"A demon, created from the very shadows of Hyrule's bloody history. Although, it has been sealed in the Temple of Shadows as a kind of "guardian" and cannot break free from the seal, unless something upsets the balance that keeps it there..."
'Damn,' April thought. 'That thing, I think it might be what I know as Bongo Bongo, that creepy Shadow Temple boss that I could never beat...And if its true that that's where it is, I really hope that it doesn't decide to have two residents of Hyrule for a midnight snack...'
"So, when do we leave?" April asked.
"Right now."
* * *
The entrance to the Temple of Shadows loomed in front of April, and the feeling emanating from it nearly made her faint. It felt like a thousand tormented souls calling out for help from the only source of light...And April did not like the fact that the Temple was known for its air of death and blood.
She remembered that it really hadn't taken them long to get there. Impa had taken a small instrument from somewhere, and it kind of resembled the Ocarina of Time. It was smaller, however, and April noticed that it was more blue in color than was the Ocarina of Time.
Impa had told April to hold onto her as she began to play a haunting, and yet familiar, song. April tried placing its name, and then she remembered the scene from the game where you learn that song from Sheik. It was the Nocturne of Shadow.
Before April could say anything, a purple light engulfed both of them, and April felt herself being carried away to someplace...When she finally opened her eyes, again, they were in some kind of graveyard. It took her a moment to realize that they must be in the graveyard of Kakariko. She finally did realize this, and was able to recover from the shock of being there in a matter of seconds.
She turned away from the graveyard to see what looked like a doorway in the wall opening up.
"Wow," she had said. "No wonder you can't get into the Temple from the graveyard unless you play that thing..."
Sooner then she would have liked, they were walking in towards the entrance of the Temple. And this lands them at their present place.
"What does that writing on the platform thing say?" April asked Impa.
"It's written in an ancient Sheikah language. I can read most of what it says, but the words carved on the stone are forbidden from being spoken. Nobody else I know of can decipher it, and that's why not many people are taught the way to the Temple."
"Why can't you say what's on there?" April had asked.
"It's the seal that keeps the Shadow Beast within the confines of the Temple...And not even the people who built the Temple knew what would happen if they allowed the spell to be recited again."
"That's really creepy, I mean...This thing is supposed to stay sealed in here, but nobody even knows what would happen if you say what's on here..." April looked towards yet another sealed stone door on the far wall of the room which was the entrance to the Shadow Temple. "So, how do we get in there?"
"That door," Impa said. "Can only be opened one of two ways. The first way is to use Din's Fire to light all those torches surrounding the platform...And that spell can only be performed by a select few."
'Link,' April thought immediately.
"And, the other way is to give the password." Impa finished.
"Password? Oh, I know! Like...open sesame!!" She giggled.
"Not...quite." Impa turned towards the wall and began saying something in a language that she knew for sure she had never heard. The odd thing was that she could understand what it meant.
Surprised by this, she glanced down at the platform under her, and looked at the words written on it harder than she had the first time. She was almost surprised, this time, that she knew exactly what they said. She thought that they must be written in the same language that the 'password' was in, because this Temple must have been built during the time that the language was used by the Sheikah.
'I wonder,' she silently asked herself. 'Does the Triforce of Wisdom allow me to understand and read all of these different languages...?'
As if in answer to her question, time seemed to slow down and then stop. April stared to panic, but when she saw a familiar blue glow begin to form in the middle of the circular platform, she realized that she was being paid a visit by a certain Goddess.
"Nayru?" she asked, although she already knew that that was who it was.
"Yes, child. It is I," the Goddess Nayru said in response.
"I guess...what, you heard my question?"
"Partially."
"What? What do you...?"
"I heard what you asked....And the answer to that question is yes, the Triforce does allow you to understand all written and spoken languages. And, before you ask, the reason why you were able to read the book before you obtained the piece was because that was written in Hylian...Or, as you would call it, English."
"Oh," April said, a little overwhelmed. "But, what did you mean, partially?"
"The answer to you other question," Nayru answered, straight to the point. "Your unspoken question about telling the Sheikah woman about the Triforce. And..." The Goddess interrupted April before she could even ask. "Yes, about everything else. About the fact that you are not the real Zelda. No matter how difficult it may seem, you have to tell her about the Triforce. There will be a seer where you are going who will be able to help you with this. Although," The Goddess eyes seemed to shine almost mischievously at this point. "The future of Hyrule would be in danger if you were to tell her about the other truth."
"So, are you saying that I should keep it a secret?" April asked, almost not believing.
"Not so much keep it a secret as conveniently forget to mention to anyone who you really are. I know that you are just as strong as the original Princess Hyrule, and that you will not have any more difficult of a time handling the situation than she would have. But, if anyone knew that you were not really her, Destiny only knows how anybody would react."
"I get it then," April said. "And I'll make sure I do whatever I can to help Hyrule...I mean, I don't know exactly what Zelda did during those seven years, but...I'll do whatever it takes."
"Good," Nayru said, and then started to fade out. Time seemed to slip back into focus and April heard Impa finish the password.
She turned towards the opening stone doorway, and swallowed mentally. She walked up to Impa, and wordlessly, the two of them entered the heart of the Temple of Shadows. The stone door slammed back into place behind them, and the light was taken away. There was no turning back from here...
* * *
**Hey, that was a pretty long chapter! ^-^ I hope you guys like how I'm writing this, because I sure am enjoying working on it. And I think it's only going to get better from here. I pretty much know what's going to happen. I think it will be interesting. *giggles* Ah, the ideas that keep popping into my head! And SUMMER encourages them!! YAAAAY!! ^___^ I think I will end on this happy note.
Thank you for reading, and please review!
SailorZelda~