15. The Spirit of Youth

I played the Prelude of Light to get to the Temple of Time, then put the Master Sword into the Pedestal to travel back to the past. I didn't say a word to Navi the whole time, and she didn't say one to me. I think she knew how confused I was, and she knew me well enough by now to know that I didn't want to talk about it.

It hurt, that was the strange part. The memory of what had happened with Sheik actually hurt, and I just couldn't talk about it. So I did what I usually do when something hurts: sulked mentally and threw myself into an activity.

In this case the activity was saving Hyrule, so I think I was justified in my actions. Anyway, once I was short again I played the Requiem of Spirit and found myself on a Triforce pedestal near the Colossus.

Pointedly not looking at the spot where Sheik had kissed me, I went into the Colossus to look around.

The stone thingies were gone, and there was a red-haired Gerudo woman standing on the left side of the platform at the top of the stairs.

"Hi," I said.

"What do you want?" the woman asked, scowling. She was quite tall, though maybe that was just a perspective difference, and very pretty. I was sure that if I saw her as a teenager I would be hot for her, but very thankful that I wasn't now.

"Nothing, really," I answered. It was none of her business anyway.

The woman scowled even more. "You're not one of the servants of Ganondorf are you?"

I scowled too. "I hate Ganondorf."

"Then you're all right by me!" She clapped me on the shoulder and smiled.

I stared up at her. "Umm…Huh?"

"First of all, let me introduce myself," the woman struck a little pose and smiled smugly. "I'm Nabooru of the Gerudo. I'm a lone wolf thief."

I didn't really think that was something she should be proud of, besides it was too much like Ganondorf. Something of my feeling must have shown on my face because she quickly waved her hands at me, as though to brush away my fears.

"But don't get me wrong!" she exclaimed. "Though we're both thieves, I'm completely different from Ganondorf. With his followers, he stole from women and children, and even killed people! A kid like you may not know this, but the Gerudo race consists only of women. Only one man is born every hundred years…"

I'd suspected something like that, but it was nice to have it confirmed. It certainly explained a lot.

"Even though our laws say that the lone male Gerudo must become King of the Gerudo, I'll never bow to such an evil man!"

I had the sudden urge to say "You go girl!" but suppressed it.

"I came here to find a treasure that's supposed to be hidden in the Temple, but the only entrance I can find is much too small to get through." She gestured toward a small hole in the wall behind her.

I crouched down and peered through it. "I'll bet I could fit through that."

"I'll bet you could," she smiled smugly again, I got the feeling I just done what she'd wanted. "Now listen," she crouched down so she was at my eye level. "I'm looking for the Silver Gauntlets, can you remember that?"

"Of course," I frowned at her. "Do you think I'm stupid or something?"

She laughed. "Guess not. Anyway, once you find them, I need you to bring them to me. They won't fit a kid like you anyway. Got it?"

"Yup."

"When you get back, I promise I'll have a great surprise for you," she smiled in a way that was definitely reminiscent of her second-in-command.

"Umm…right. Bye Ma'am." I ducked down the hole before she could be offended.

I stood up in a room full of Keese and an Armos statue. The Keese went down easily enough, I was still pretty good with a slingshot, and I already knew how to take out an Armos statue. Once they were gone the doors unlocked, and I went left.

A Stalfos, a chasm, and a switch awaited me. I knocked the Stalfos into the chasm and hit the switch with my boomerang to lower the bridge.

Then there were psycho pots, a blade trap and something called an Anubis that mirrored my actions. I hit a switch that turned on some fire and made the Anubis float into it.

Keese, a Wallmaster, silver rupees, skulltulas (including a gold one), and a Lizalfos tried to block me next. The Lizalfos was rather hard, but I finished it off, then set a Bombchu to blow up a wall and let some sunlight into this dank place.

When the sunlight hit the sun face symbol on the floor it lit up and a door opened.

The sun switch was an important discovery, since I ran into another one not far away (after, that is, I ran into some Beamos and some puzzles). This switch was on a block that I had to move under a ray of sunlight coming from the ceiling.

Through the door that opened after a couple more puzzles and up a staircase I found a very fancy room full of pillars, with a red carpet on the floor and a big suit of armor sitting on a big chair like a throne toward the back.

"Wow," I said, examining the armor from a distance. "Can you imagine the size of the guy who could have worn-"

"Um, Link?"

"What?"

"He's still wearing it."

"What!" I jumped away at first, then noticed that the armored guy wasn't moving, so I went close to investigate. "Wow, look at this guy."

"Oh hell," Navi said. "I know what he is."

"Oh yeah, what?"

"An Iron Knuckle. They're beyond tough. Link…I don't know if you can handle this guy."

"What are you talking about? Of course I can."

"Well, maybe in the future you could, but now? Link, I just don't know…"

Beyond the Knuckle's throne was a locked door, of the type that only unlocks when you've done something to trigger it. "Well it looks like I have to, now doesn't it?"

"Hmm…"

I drew my sword and walked up to the Knuckle. "Hey big guy," I said to him. "Wake up!" I swung the sword and hit him, hard. Immediately the Iron Knuckle grunted and looked at me.

I got a very sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The Iron Knuckle leapt to his feet and roared, swinging his enormous axe wildly, smashing his own throne as he tried to hit me.

I was already long gone though, having fled to the other end of the room and hidden behind a pillar. "That was not the best idea I've had in awhile," I said, grinning nervously.

"Not by a long shot," Navi agreed dryly.

"Oh well," I sighed and hefted my shield. "Let's do this."

The Iron Knuckle was just as tough as Navi had said, maybe even tougher. I got right in front of him so he tried to split me down the middle, then jumped to the side and jump attacked him while he recovered his axe from where it stuck in the floor. He tried to chop my head off once or twice, so I did a back flip to get out of the way. I used whatever chances I got to hit him, stabbing and slicing whenever I could. I got hit by the axe only once, and it hurt so bad that I decided not to get hit again. Sometimes I hid behind pillars and waited for the Iron Knuckle to smash it to pieces then chucked the larger chunks at his head. Eventually, some of his armor fell off, making him a bit faster and a bit angrier, and making it obvious that he was not human.

I just kept it up until he died, then entered the door behind his throne (or behind where it used to be before he smashed it into gravel) finding myself on the right hand of the giant goddess statue on the outside the temple. Very odd.

What was even odder was the gigantic owl standing in front of me.

"Kaepora Gaebora!" I exclaimed. "Wow, I haven't seen you in…uh, awhile."

"Well met, Link," Kaepora Gaebora greeted me. "Something has happened, hasn't it?"

"A lot has happened, actually." I looked around. "What are you doing here?"

"Two witches named Twinrova are here in the Temple. They are powerful sorceresses and servants on Ganondorf. In order to defeat them, you will have to turn their own magic against them."

"Umm…huh?"

"Good luck to you, Hero of Time…" Kaepora Gaebora flapped his giant wings and took off, disappearing into the sky faster then you would have thought something that big could disappear.

"Yeearggh! Let me go!" a woman's voice screamed.

Quickly, I ran over to the edge of the hand and looked down to where the voice had come from. Nabooru was sinking into a black pit of quicksand, with two very old women with enormous heads flying around her on broomsticks.

Flying around her on broomsticks!

"Foolish traitor!" one of the witches crowed.

"You will pay for your insolence!" the other one shouted.

"You will serve the great Ganondorf…"

"…And you will like it!"

"No!" Nabooru screamed. Then the black pit sucked her up completely and drained away, and the witches spun away into the Temple.

"Holy crap!" I exclaimed. "They just totally kidnapped Nabooru!"

"Look!" Navi exclaimed. A chest had appeared on the opposite hand of the goddess.

I hooked onto it with the Longshot and swung across the gap. I opened it without even thinking what could be inside, and so was sort of surprised to see silver gloves, sort of like the leather ones my adult self wore.

"The Silver Gauntlets!" Navi bobbed around them wildly. "They'll make you stronger!"

"Stronger?" I tried putting one on, but it was much too big. "Well, I guess I'll just have to be stronger when I'm older."