Chapter two: Decisions

Zelda awoke the next morning, well rested. She stared out her window at the sun that was peeking over the far mountains, and thought about what Link had described to her last night. A shadow? It didn't make sense to her. It also didn't make sense to her that the shadow wanted three sapphires. She had no knowledge of any sapphires that were hidden in Hyrule.

She rolled over, and thought harder. But, still she could think of no stories that mentioned anything about them. She gazed at the peak of Death Mountain which was clear from her window.

Link had been awake for several hours, laying on the squashy red couch in Zelda's quarters outside of her room. He had been thinking deeply like the princess had.

The shadow that had murdered Malachai had incredible strength. Link had felt the evil power radiating from the shadow when he had seen it. He had only felt that kind of power once before.

In the presence of Ganondorf.

But this shadow was not Ganondorf. It couldn't be. This thing was different. It was a shadow, for one thing, and it's power was far beyond Ganondorf.

Link got up and paced around the room. He could not stand just lying on the couch. He had to do something.

Malon woke up and heard Ingo downstairs, rummaging through their cupboards. She furiously rose to her feet, all sleepiness gone. This was the final straw. If he was going to go through their own food without asking, she would not put up with it. She dressed quickly and ran down the stairs. She dashed into their kitchen, to find Ingo, sure enough, digging through the pantry.

Malon was about to scream at him, when she saw him pull a piece of paper out. She stopped, and stayed quiet. He did not know she was there. What was he up to?

"His lordship will be most pleased," Ingo whispered to himself. "Once he get's this, everything will go as planned–"

Malon, using her feeble magic skills, shouted a word, and a beam of light shot from her palm. It hit the paper Ingo was holding, and the paper flew from Ingo's hand and zoomed down the beam of light, and into Malon's. He whirled around the face her, his face contorted with rage.

"What the hell is this?!" she demanded, shaking the paper at him.

"Give it back to me, girl," Ingo snarled, advancing slowly on her, "or I will be forced to kill you."

Malon was frightened, but did not back down. She peered down at the paper quickly, to see it was a map of Hyrule. But it looked different. Certain places were circled, and words written in a different language were written all over the edges. And, Malon noticed that it showed things beyond the mountain range behind Death Mountain. She did not have time to look it over more, for Ingo suddenly rushed forward and slammed his elbow into Malon's head. She flew to the side and crashed into a cupboard, breaking it to pieces. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Ingo rushing out of the house, holding the map.

"I'm going to Death Mountain today," Link told Zelda, as he slung his shield up onto his back. "I'm going to look for answers there. And I might even look beyond the mountain. Perhaps something lies beyond the borders of Hyrule."

"What gives you that idea?" the princess questioned.

"I don't know," Link replied, "but I'm going to look nevertheless. I have a feeling that the shadow–whatever it was–won't stay in the same place for long. I don't think it wants to be discovered."

"Oh Link, please be careful," Zelda said. She hugged him tightly. He hugged her back. He enjoyed hugging her. It always made him feel better about things. When they broke apart, Link strapped his sword to his back. He was ready to go.

"Here," Zelda said, handing him a small scrap of parchment, "this is a song for your ocarina. If you play it, you can talk to me. It's much like Saria's Song. So I'm calling it Zelda's Song."

Link smiled. "Sounds logical to me."

He gave her a swift kiss on the cheek, said "I'll be back before sundown," and walked out of the room. She stared after him, wishing he would stay.

Malon opened her eyes.

The house was empty. Talon was on his way to Hylia Lake to get water for the day, so he had not witnessed the violence shone by Ingo. The ranch girl tried to sit up, but her head ached so badly that she immediately fell back onto the destroyed pieces of the cupboard. She clutched her head where she had been hit by Ingo, and felt a warm liquid roll down her fingers. She looked at her hand and saw it was streaked with dark red blood. She groaned, and gingerly pushed herself to her feet slowly. She almost fell over, but held steady. The room swam and spun before her bleary eyes. She leaned against the wall, trying to clear her muddled thinking.

Ingo.......a map........he hit me........

She stumbled over to another cupboard, and fished out a bandage. She tied it over the bleeding bump, she as she tied it off, she yelled in agony.

She sat down in a nearby chair, her legs shaking violently. She sat there for ten minutes, and, once she had regained her ability to walk, she stood up, and walked outside.

Ingo was nowhere to be seen. No big surprise. She had not expected him to stick around after what he had done.

Malon walked over to the stables, and got a horse out. She climbed on top of it, and, hoping she was strong enough to ride after being hit so violently, galloped out of the ranch.

Every bounce hurt, and she gritted her teeth, fighting back the urge to scream out a curse. But she had to reach the castle.

She had to tell Link what had happened.

Link rode up the steep paths of Death Mountain upon Epona. He was going to talk with Darunia, and perhaps have him join him on his quest beyond the mountain. He didn't know how he was going to explain the evil he had witnessed the night before, but he had to somehow.

He knew his brother would understand.

As he rode up, the elf noticed that Epona was riding as close to the craggly brown walls of Death Mountain as she could.

"Don't worry," Link said, patting her side as they rode, "you won't fall."

He knew he had done nothing to reassure her, because she kept on galloping right by the wall.

When they arrived at the entrance to Goron City, Link dismounted, and Epona seemed a little relieved to be on a ledge that had more to walk on. He smiled as he watched her walk slowly around the ledge, then entered the city at a run.

The huge room stretched out before him. He stepped to the side on the top ledge he was standing on to let around six baby gorons roll past him. He looked out over the room, and down onto the bottom floor. It seemed very far from where he was. Looking around, he saw that all the gorons seemed happy. This was a very peaceful colony. The room was lit up with a slight tinge of yellow that filled every part of the large place. At it was warm. Not hot, but just pleasantly warm enough for comfort. He kicked a loose stone off the ledge, and looked down to watch it fall to the far floor.

One goron stopped rolling, seeing it falling, and it faced upward, opening it's huge cavernous mouth. The rock fell in, and he gulped it down with a huge smile.

He kept on rolling.

Link couldn't help but laugh in spite of his worry. He loved the gorons, and always had.

He made his way down the stairs and to the main floor, where many gorons were gathered, just talking and rolling, and eating huge handfuls of the finest rock. He walked through all of these, and reached the large stone door that blocked Darunia's chamber, the fire sage, and Link's own sworn brother. He knocked on the ancient door, sending bits of rubble down on his hat.

The door swung open into darkness. Had he been younger, this would have frightened him, but he had done this too many times over the years to be afraid of it. He walked purposely into the darkness, and within five seconds of walking, found himself standing in the throne room of the king goron.

Link looked over at Darunia, sitting in his rock throne. He had a plate of rubble beside him, and two guard gorons stood on either side of him.

"BROTHER!" he bellowed, jumping up, and hitting the floor with a loud carrying BOOM! Rocks fell from the ceiling, and Link looked up at it curiously. But before another thought crossed his mind, a pair of huge strong arms wrapped around him, and he found his face being shoved into Darunia's chest as the huge goron king hugged him.

"Hey, brother," Link replied with a grin when they broke apart. "How's life treatin' you?"

"Never better," Darunia replied with a similar grin set on his face. "Would you like some of these?"

He reached for the plate of rubble, but stopped himself with a chuckle.

"Of course, I keep forgetting. Elves don't eat rock, now do they?"

"No," Link said with a laugh, "we eat regular food."

"Well, doesn't mean we don't drink!" Darunia boomed, "would you like some tea? Anything?"

"Yeah, tea, thanks," the elf replied. He sat down at the opposite table, and Darunia snapped his huge sausage-shaped fingers.

Two more gorons entered the throne room, carrying a plate of tea. They handed one cup to Link, and the other to Darunia, (who's cup was at least three times the size of Links,) and rushed out again.

"So, brother," the goron king said, "what brings you to Goron City?"

Link frowned, and took a gulp of tea. "Unfortunately Darunia, this matter is not fun. It's very serious. So serious in fact, that a man died last night for knowing it."

Darunia stared for a second, then immediately turned serious.

"Died? Wow, that's not something I've heard for a long time happen in Hyrule. What happened?"

Link quickly explained what he had witnessed the night before. When he was done explaining, Darunia was up out of his throne and pacing around the room.

"This isn't good Link," the fire sage said solemnly. "That shadow has incredible power, and I don't really know what it is. We need to find out where it came from and why, and what the hell these 'sapphires' he spoke of are."

"Well I'm venturing out beyond Death Mountain soon," Link said. "Will you come with me and help me look for answers?"

Darunia looked surprised at the thought of leaving Hyrule, but said quickly "of course. But I need to bring protection."

"Protection? But your fists should provide en–"

Darunia drew out twin axes from a nearby cabinet and twirled them expertly.

"Fists aren't enough protection from what lies out there," he stated darkly, taking two sheaths from the wall, strapping them to the sides of his belt and putting the axes into them.

"Ok," Link said, "it's good that you've got weapons now. When shall we leave?"

Darunia frowned for a second, then replied "whenever you see fit, brother."

"Then now," he said, getting up. Darunia stood up without a moments hesitation.

"Then let us go," the goron king said, "and let us find the answers that we need."

Malon charged through the castle halls, knocking guards aside as she did. She ran as fast as she could in a dress toward Zelda's Quarters, where she was sure that Link was staying.

When she reached the doors and opened them, she did not find Link in the room, only the princess herself, who was sitting on a couch.

"Malon?" Zelda said, surprised. She got up and looked the ranch girl up and down. She was sweating, and panting.

"Link..." she gasped, leaning against a wall, "I need....to see....Link!"

"He left early this morning for Death Mountain," Zelda said with a slight frown, "why do you need him?"

Malon collapsed into a chair, gasping for air. "I need to tell him....what.....Ingo...."

"Malon," Zelda said, "take a deep breath...and please tell me what happened that is so urgent."

Malon took a few steadying breaths and explained what had happened at Lon Lon Ranch. She found herself shaking as she relayed the information to her. Once she had finished, Zelda was even more worried than she had been before.

"This can't be a coincidence," she muttered, standing up. She looked around absently, thinking about things. Malachai, as Link had explained it, had called the shadow "my lord". And Ingo, as Malon explained it, had called a mysterious being "his lordship". Both were familiar, and she was almost entirely sure that the two things were tied in with each other.

"Um, your highness?" Malon said, tentatively. "What can't be a coincidence?"

Zelda turned back and looked at Malon, sitting there, looking both frightened and puzzled. Zelda told Malon about what Link had witnessed the previous night, and once she was done telling this to her, she was even more distressed.

"Something big is happening in Hyrule," Zelda stated with dread, "and this must have been planned for a while. Whatever is happening, we need to investigate. We can't leave all of this up to Link."

Malon hesitated for a second, then stood up. "Your right," she said, "its time for me to do something worthwhile besides work on the ranch."

Zelda nodded knowingly, and started for the door.

"Wait," Malon said, "what are we going to do?"

Zelda looked back at her and gave her a slight smile, as if she should already have known the answer.

"We're going after Ingo."