10. He's Not Fcking Dead Yet?!
"Ganondorf, pitiful man," I said, looking toward the body. "Without a strong, righteous mind, he could not control the Triforce. Wait a second." Something was wrong. I stepped away from Link and peered at the ground. "Where is he?"
"What?" Link looked too, and noticed what I had. Ganondorf wasn't there. "He's gone!" he exclaimed.
The ground shook again, insistently. "And now he's trying to bring the castle down around us!" I growled.
"What?!" Link exclaimed again. I noticed that he was looking rather worn.
"Here," I took his hand and closed my eyes, concentrating. I poured my power into him, soothing his wounds and relaxing his muscles.
"I didn't know you could do that," Link said, smiling.
I smiled back, and didn't let go of his hand. Then the castle rumbled again and I swore harshly; there wasn't time for that now. Would there ever be time for it?
I hiked up my skirts and started picking my way through the rubble toward the path I knew was there, cursing all the while.
There is an art to cursing, a rhythm that you only pick up with practice. I'd had seven years by then and was pretty damn close to perfecting it.
"Come on!" I called back to Link. "There's a path!"
He came over and looked at it. "We have to go down that?" he asked, dismayed. Evan I had to admit that the path didn't look close to stable, but we didn't have much choice.
The tower rumbled again.
"Never mind." He grabbed my elbow and pulled me after him. "Let's get out of here."
I laughed merrily, Link was sooo cute! But I stopped when pieces of the wall started falling around us.
After that, we just ran. Link was careful to stay on the outside edge of the path, between me and the drop. I don't think he even noticed it, but I appreciated it all the same.
The path curved through the castle, but was blocked by iron bars. I paused and cast the spell to raise them, then we charged through the castle, paused while I raised some more bars, then kept on charging.
The next time we had to go indoors Link ran a little bit ahead of me. I grabbed my skirts and tried to keep up, but stopped abruptly when fire sprang up in front of me. Instinctively I dodged, but swore when I realized I was surrounded.
Link turned when he heard me, he looked all wavery through the flames, but before he could try to help a pair of Stalfos appeared and held him off. I discovered that none of my spells were working at about the same time Link defeated the Stalfos and rushed to my side.
I swore again and tried to beat the flames out of my skirt. "This was brand new," I muttered.
"You okay?" Link asked desperately.
"Fine, come on." I grabbed Link's hand and pulled him to the next set of bars.
Then we went back to charging through. We were going so fast, so intent on escaping, that I barely even noticed the ReDeads on the bridge above the Water Hall until we were past them.
Finally we reached the exit, and ran as far from the castle as we could without taking a dip in the lava.
Then we turned and looked back, as what had once been my home shuddered, fell to pieces, and collapsed into itself; leaving nothing but black ruins.
"It's over," I sighed with relief. "It's finally over."
I looked at Link, and he looked at me. Maybe there was time for it now. I reached out and took his hand, and we stepped closer together.
"Zel, I was…so worried," Link said.
"So was I," I replied. "You've taken such huge risks…" I bit my lip, nervous. "Link, I-"
There was a crash among the ruins.
"What was that?" I exclaimed.
Link drew his sword and released my hand. "I don't know," he said. All of a sudden he looked very heroic, walking out among the ruins, on alert. He looked around, but there didn't seem to be anything out there so he started to turn back.
A massive black shape rose up from the ruins and smacked Link so hard that he lost his grip on the sword. It went flying, sticking in the ground near me and immediately catching fire.
Link clambered to his feet and looked behind him. What I can only describe as a gigantic pig of evil stood behind him, wielding two enormous swords.
Navi shouted something, I couldn't hear it from where I was, then bobbed off behind what Ganon had become.
Ganon roared and swung at Link with one of his swords. He managed to roll away, but things were looking desperate. If Ganon had survived both being run through and the castle collapsing on him, what hope did Link have of defeating him like this?
Navi popped up beside Link and said something to him. Link grinned, said something back, then pulled out his bow and shot a Light Arrow in piggy-Ganon's face.
While he was temporarily blinded Link ran around behind him and slashed at the ball on the end of his tail with his giant sword. Ganon bellowed with rage and pain and whirled around, where Link was ready with another Light Arrow. This was looking a lot better. Link had a plan, and it was working.
Then I remembered the Master Sword, the sword that can destroy evil, I had to get it to him! I started casting spells to put out fires, but they didn't work. So I started in on spells that fought evil.
Link somehow wound up close to me and the Sword. "How you doing?" I asked him.
"Not bad, not really," he answered. He was slightly out of breath but seemed all right. "Can you do anything to get the Sword out?"
"I'm trying," I said. "If you keep him busy I should be able to bring down the flames."
"Thanks," he flashed me a smile that nearly melted me into a puddle, then ran back close to Ganon.
The battle seemed to last for hours. I'd tried the fire-extinguishing spells, I'd tried the evil-destroying spells, I'd tried ice spells, water spells, sand spells, but nothing worked. Finally, I did the one thing I hadn't tried. I gritted my teeth, reached through the flames, grabbed it and pulled.
"Link!" I called. "Catch!" I chucked it at him and he caught it automatically.
Ganon loomed over Link, but now he had the instrument of his defeat. Link leapt in to the air, higher than I thought possible, and brought the sword that can destroy evil right down between his eyes.
It was time.
My gloves were still smoldering.