Disclaimer- I don't own the Legend of Zelda or Harry Potter.
AN: These chapters aren't going to be a walkthrough of the temples (no way am I writing any puzzles...) The layouts are going to change a bit. Oh, and I'm thinking of changing the summary, so that it gives just a brief description and then a chapter summary. Let me know what you think!
Chapter 6 The Phantom Forest
Harry, Ginny, and Link decided to stay the night at Kakariko, as it was too dark to go venturing back into Hyrule field. However, since there was no inn in Kakariko and no spare rooms, the trio was forced to spend the night under the stars. Hedwig perched on a tree above them, like a silent watch.
Link didn't have a sleeping bag, but he chose the grass, remembering the naps he used to take every day, in the Lost Woods. Ginny had quickly fallen asleep, but Harry was still a bit restless.
"Hey, Link?" Harry asked quietly, the green clad elf having his eyes closed.
Without opening his eyes, Link answered. "Yeah Harry?"
"What are the Lost Woods like?" Harry asked, deciding that if he couldn't sleep, doing something productive was the best plan.
"They're dangerous to many people. If you get lost, you'll turn into a Skull Kid." Link said, his eyes opening, staring into the skies and reflecting their twinkle within his sapphire depths, "But if you stick with me, I think I can get you in. Only a few people have ever gotten through."
"So, where are we headed to after that?" Harry asked.
"We'll head over to what Sheik called the temple of the Forest. I think I know where it is." Link answered softly. Yeah, and the fact that there are no other forests, anywhere, in Hyrule makes it an easy guess. Same with all the others, he added mentally to himself, thinking Sheik's riddle kind of sucked.
"Are there any safe places in the Lost Woods?"
Link smiled for a moment, reminiscing. "There is the Kokiri village."
"Kokiri?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"It's the village where I'm from," Link said, but now he seemed a little sad, "The Kokiri are eternally young, so it's not as big as Kakariko."
"But, how are you-" Harry inquired, knowing that if Link was from that village there was no way he could have grown up, but Link sighed.
"I don't know."
"Sorry." Harry said, feeling he overstepped his bounds.
"Its fine." Link said, offering a smile. "Why can't you sleep?"
"I don't know. Feeling a little restless." Harry said, touching the hilt of his blade, feeling the cool hilt, letting the memory of Dumbledore presenting him the sword wash over him.
"Where'd you get the sword?" Link asked, eyeing the Sword of Gryffindor curiously.
"This… was a gift from my mentor." Harry said, smiling softly, "He said I was kind of destined for it."
Link seemed to find this amusing, and found a new connection with the wizard. "My sword, the Master Sword," Link said, touching the deep blue hilt on his back, "I was destined for it too. Part of the job as the Hero of Time and all."
"I guess destiny has a habit of choosing people." Harry sighed, feeling that sometimes destiny was unfair.
"Yeah. I didn't ask for the sword, or this task, and I'll be whatever you're destined for, you didn't ask for it either." Link looked into the stars, lost in them.
"You're right. All I really want to do is live my life in peace." Harry said, and Link nodded.
"Exactly."
There was silence again, until Link broke it. "Man, that was pretty heavy." He chuckled.
Harry chuckled too, grinning. "That was pretty heavy, and I'm still not sleepy." Harry felt the weight of his sword for a moment and considered. He didn't have enough instruction on how to use it, and Link looked like he could use the blade pretty well. "Hey Link, do you think you could show me some of your sword moves?"
Link seemed slightly startled, but grinned. "Sure. Let's head away, so we don't wake Ginny or Navi." Link set his hat down, with the sleeping fairy inside.
Harry looked back at the redhead fondly, and nodded. "You sure they'll be alright?" Harry asked.
Link seemed to smirk for a moment, before answering, "Navi will be up if there's any trouble, and we'll be close by." He assured Harry, and the two walked in silence, reaching a secluded area of the village.
Link gripped the hilt of his sword with his left hand and pulled it free, grinning. "Well, I was never really taught how to use a sword, I just kind of make it up on the fly. Why don't you show me some of your moves first?"
Harry nodded, doing the katas that Remus had instructed him in, moving in swift, if slightly mechanical movements.
Link began offering suggestions. "You're a little mechanical. You fight with your head, you're thinking too much. Let it flow out from you."
Harry looked at Link, puzzled. "How?"
Link grinned, pulling his shield free and onto his right hand, and asked Harry to set himself up for a spar. The wizard nodded, readying himself. Link looked at him for a moment, before saying, "Come at me."
Harry seemed startled. "You want me to make the first move?"
"Yeah. Just come at me." Link said, gripping his sword.
Harry rushed Link, slashing forwards. Link leapt backwards and then slashed forwards in one movement, forcing Harry to retreat. "Again." Link ordered.
Harry rushed again, striking with the smooth mechanical ways he used in Inuyasha's world and taught to him by Remus, but again, Link dodged, this time to the side, and slashed forwards again, forcing Harry to retreat.
They continued this dance for a while, Harry rushing, Link easily countering, with Harry, no matter how he changed tactics, unable to break through Link's on the fly defensive maneuvers. Finally, Link dodged another slash by leaping backwards, and leapt into the air, coming at the wizard with a downward slash that knocked the Sword of Gryffindor from his grasp.
"Ouch," Harry muttered, wincing at his hand, which had felt the shockwave of the attack. "How'd you do that?"
"You kept trying to follow a pre-planned pattern, thinking your movements through. That's fine, but you're only using half your force. To get better, you need to learn to modify your style on the fly, to adapt. That's how I survived. Adapt, or die." Link said seriously, wanting to teach the young wizard to survive. "If you only use your head, you'll eventually lose. But if you only use your heart, you could also lose. The trick is to use them both."
Harry seemed to absorb the information, storing it and drilling it into his fighting style.
"Now lets try again."
By the time Link and Harry had finished, Harry had finally managed to disarm Link, using both his head and heart. Link laughed, obviously pleased. "You're a quick learner. I'll be glad to have you at my back." Link said, grinning.
"Me too." Harry agreed, and the two went to sleep at last, having learned more about each other and themselves.
The group, after a quick breakfast and bath in the stream (with both Link and Harry grumbling about how Ginny forced them out almost a mile away before she began) set off the next morning, ready to face whatever waited in the Lost Woods and the temple within. A few hours before noon they reached the entrance to the Lost Woods.
"Creepy." Ginny muttered, rubbing her arms, looking at the foreboding woods which gave of a feeling ranging from definitely creepy to downright terrifying.
Harry, on the other hand, could feel a familiar, elusive aura emanating from the woods themselves. Something about the very air within the woods seemed… familiar.
"Come on guys. Let's get moving." Link said. "We'll need something to keep you two from getting lost in there. We should leave Epona and Hedwig behind," He added, looking at the roan mare and the snowy white owl.
Hedwig hooted in agreement, seemingly wary of the woods. Epona nuzzled her master's hand, but did nothing else.
"I've got something." Ginny said, pulling out the shrunken backpack and bringing it back to normal size, before reaching in and grabbing a rope, courtesy of Kagome. "This one should work."
Link grinned and tied it around himself, and Ginny and Harry followed suit. Harry still couldn't shake the feeling that he had visited something like this before…
Harry shrugged of the feeling and headed into the woods.
As the Link, Ginny, Harry, and Navi made their way through the Lost Woods, not lost thanks to Link's guidance and their rope, that strange feeling kept popping up in Harry.
"Hey Link, this doesn't seem all that easy to lose your way." Ginny commented quietly.
Link shook his head. "Normally it twists and turns and you never know where you are. Its naturally chaotic, its just smoother for those who the Great Deku Tree accepted."
"Although you two seem to be keeping a clear head and the path doesn't seem that hard, even with Link guiding you." Navi chipped in.
"That is kind of strange. You sure you've never been here before?" Link asked.
Ginny shook her head, and Harry said no. "But," Harry added, "I get the feeling I've been near something like these woods before. I just don't remember where."
Link scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Any thoughts Navi?" He asked his partner fairy.
"Well, the Lost Woods are more than just a haunted woods. They have hidden doorways to other worlds, endless labyrinths, and are constantly twisting and turning chaotically." Navi recited what all fairies knew about the Lost Woods, their ancestral home.
Harry started at the mention of other worlds. "Doorways to other worlds…" He closed his eyes, before snapping them open. "That's it!" He shouted, and blushed a moment later for his mistake. "They feel like the chaos between worlds."
Ginny seemed thoughtful, and agreed with Harry after a moment.
"Hn." Link said, "Maybe you'd be able to survive without me then. But let's not find out," He added, grinning.
"Lets." Ginny and Harry agreed simultaneously, which caused Link to burst out laughing.
Eventually, Link, Harry, Ginny, and Navi made their way to the Kokiri village. Link actually stopped in shock. "Monsters… here?" He whispered. In several areas, living shrubs with squid faces walked around menacingly. Definitely monsters. Quickly, he tore off in the direction of a certain house of a green haired girl that had been his only friend for years.
Navi muttered something about idiots, and followed him.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other, as if to say, We'd better go after him.
They caught up to Link cutting a plant-shrub-thing that spat seeds at them. He had stopped in front of one house, looking scared and furious at the same time. Just as they got there, he tore off again, trying to find someone to answer his questions.
They finally caught up to Link lifting a young girl clad in green into the air by her collar, with Navi screaming at him to stop, and Link screaming. "Where is she!" He bellowed.
The girl trembled in fear and pointed back into the Lost Woods, but a direction they hadn't gone before. "Saria said something was there, and she went to her secret place. Mido went with her."
Link stopped. The two people he interacted with most, one his best friend, one his childhood bully, were in the Lost Woods. Saria was in the Lost Woods.
"Link!" Harry ordered sharply. "Put her down."
Trembling, Link set the girl down. "Sorry about that," He whispered softly, apologizing with his eyes and his words. The little girl nodded, and left.
"You okay?" Ginny asked concernedly.
"Just… it's a shock, you know, coming back and finding everything changed." Link whispered, before a sarcastic, self-depreciating grin spread across his face, "Suppose that's what's to be expected after seven years."
Link walked towards the Lost Woods, seemingly lost himself, with a concerned Ginny and Harry trailing behind him and a worried Navi.
Link eventually led them to an entrance where there was a pool of water, some grass, and a little boy dressed up like Link was.
"That's Mido." Navi whispered to Harry and Ginny when they asked her who he was.
"You shall not pass," the boy named Mido growled, "No one but Saria or Saria's friends can get through here."
"Step aside," Link bit back knowing Mido's name.
"You shall not pass!" Mido shouted.
Now, Link was perfectly prepared to beat the hell out of Mido, but somehow, he knew he wouldn't. So how would he get out of- "Saria's song." He whispered to himself.
"What are you-" Harry began, before Link lifted the Ocarina of Time (the name for the blue ocarina he had used earlier, he had told them back in Kakariko) to his lips and began to play a song. A song of deep bond, a deep friendship, a connection, that swirled around them and reminded Harry and Ginny of the friends they had left behind.
The little elf's eyes widened. "That was… Saria's song!"
Link nodded. "Now step aside. You know that that song is only for Saria's friends."
"How did you learn it?" Mido said suspiciously.
"I got it from-" Link changed his mind at the last second, "Link. He knew I'd need that song."
As Harry and Ginny looked on, dumbfounded, Mido bowed and let them pass, whispering to Link, "Please tell Link I'm sorry."
Link swallowed. "Sure." He said shakily, leading his friends into the forest.
"What was that?" Ginny asked, looking at Link in puzzlement. Harry agreed with the sentiment whole-heartedly.
Link sighed. "Mido, that boy, was a childhood bully of mine. I didn't want him to know it was me."
Harry nodded sympathetically while Ginny contemplated the thought.
"Can we go?" Navi asked impatiently.
"Sure." Link chuckled, leading the group forwards fearlessly and confidently.
Ten seconds later, Harry and Ginny were pressing themselves against the wall, while Link groaned in pain at where he had been bashed into a pool of water by a giant pig with a spear.
"What in Din's name was that!" Link sputtered.
"That would be a Moblin. They're pretty stupid." Navi commented, as the creature turned and left without glancing at Link again. "See? He's already forgotten he attacked you."
Link growled angrily. "I haven't." He grabbed the Master Sword, but Navi added quickly.
"It's also stronger than you, so you're best off using something from long range." Navi said.
Before Link could pull out his hookshot, Ginny fired an arrow at the Moblin, nailing it right between his shoulder blades, causing it to squeal out in pain and topple over.
Harry whistled. "Nice shot Gin."
Ginny blushed, and helped Link out of the pool. "I think we'd better be careful." Link muttered, nursing his bruised ribs. Ginny used a healing spell while Harry peeked out behind the next corner. Sure enough, another Moblin was patrolling nearby.
"Who wants this one?" Harry asked, gripping his staff tightly as he watched the monster turn around.
"Me." Link said through gritted teeth. "Its payback time." He whispered, like a prayer, right before firing his hookshot mechanism straight into the back of the Moblin. It cried out in pain once, squealing, before falling to the floor in pain.
Ginny, Harry, and Link braced themselves for another one of the pig-like creatures to come around to check out what was going on, but nothing happened.
"I don't think you guys get how stupid they are." Navi said, probably (they couldn't see) rolling her eyes.
The three of them ignored her, and walked out cautiously. Harry took out the next Moblin, using a powerful Force Spell to knock it right into the wall with a large bang.
The other Moblins didn't even blink, it seemed.
"Damn, how thick can you get?" Ginny commented as they finished of the last one, before exiting the maze.
"Dunno." Link answered, taking the lead slowly, shield raised. Still, they were prepared to face another Moblin, or whatever else came their way.
Except what was actually there.
"Holy Merlin!" This time, it was Harry making the loud cry of amazement. "That thing's bloody huge!"
'That thing' in question was a giant Moblin, and by gigantic, it nearly filled up the entire alley like clearing, wielding a gigantic club. It stared right at them, and after a moment of breathless silence, Link realized something.
"It doesn't notice us?" Link whispered in amazement.
"Damn, they really are thick." Harry muttered, before concentrating on a spell. Ginny fired off an arrow, which only slashed into a skin deep cut on its shoulder, while Link's hookshot buried itself in its gut, but did little damage as Link pulled it back.
The giant Moblin noticed those blows, and raised its club.
"Scatter!" Link ordered, just before the club landed right where he had been a second ago, causing a large plume of dust to shoot out and shockwaves racing through the earth.
Harry fired off a Stunner, which hit the pig creature right between the eyes, sending it into unconsciousness, and when it hit the floor, it created another shockwave and kicked up more dust. "Another one bites the dust," Harry grinned.
"Show off," Ginny muttered good-naturedly, and slapped his arm.
The foursome made their way up the stairs, and there, at the end of the line, was a meadow.
"That's what's up here?" Ginny asked.
Link seemed disappointed. "This was where Saria always used to go… this is the Sacred Forest Meadow." He paused, and lifted his ocarina to his lips. "Maybe I should try Saria's song."
He played that same song again, one of friendship and connection, and somewhere, Saria heard.
Link? Is that you? Her voice came, soft and surprised, still child-like but not with the innocence of a child.
Yeah, it's me Saria. Link whispered softly, still playing the song.
Thank the goddesses, you're alive! Saria cried out in relief.
Saria, where are you? Link asked, closing his eyes and playing the song still.
I'm in the Forest Temple Link! I've been captured, but don't try and rescue me. Save yourself!
Link damn near broke his ocarina when he heard she was captured, and almost stopped playing, which would have broken the connection. I'm coming for you Saria, don't you worry. Link assured her, I'm coming. He stopped playing before his old friend could protest anymore.
Harry and Ginny and Navi had been watching silently, unsure of what to do. "Saria's been captured." Link managed to say bitterly, "I'm going in there to save her."
"We're coming to." Harry and Ginny said simultaneously. "We made a pact, remember?"
"Thanks." Link said, smiling at them.
"No problem." They chimed in unison, causing Link to laugh out loud. Silence settled over the meadow after that, and Link was about to ask what they should do to find this 'temple of the forest', when a voice rang out.
"You made it."
Four simultaneous shrieks sounded, ringing out through the forest in surprise. "Faore, Naryu, and Din Sheik, don't do that!" Link swore loudly.
Sheik seemed to be smirking, in spite of the fact that they could not see his face. Instead of answering, he began speaking, as if he was reciting a rhyme, a riddle, or words that would become clear in time. "The flow of time is always cruel...Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it...A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days...In order to come back here again, play the Minuet of Forest."
"Okay, in English now." Ginny muttered.
Sheik didn't even respond, but raised a harp up. Link, as if in a trance, raised the deep blue of the Ocarina of Time up in his hands. Together, the two played a melody of deep, echoing stillness, perfect stillness and yet patient growth, of life, of friendship all in one haunting melody. The song of the forest.
Harry, Ginny, and Navi could only stand (or hover, in Navi's case), and listen, closing their eyes and letting the peaceful growth of friendship, of life itself, slowly take them over.
All too soon, the song was over. "That was nice." Ginny whispered in awe.
"Hey Sheik, whose the-" Link began, but instead of answering, the sneaky Sheikah simply grabbed a nut from his pouch. "Link, Harry, Ginny, Navi, I'll see you later." The Sheikah said simply, before raising the nut into the air. Link's eyes widened and he shielded his eyes, but Harry and Ginny weren't too lucky, getting the full blinding flash of a Deku Nut. When the light cleared, Sheik was gone.
"Damned mysterious Sheikah." Link muttered.
"So… what now?" Harry asked.
"Navi, do you remember anything about a temple?" Link asked the blue fairy.
Navi seemed to turn contemplative for a moment. "I remember something about a temple in this meadow, but the entrance was out of reach." She turned, and flew up towards a large stone opening on the cliff face. "Here it is!" She chirped, "But it's too far."
Link grinned impishly, holding up the hookshot and pointing towards the branch right above the entrance. Turning towards Harry and Ginny, he commented, "I'll send it back to you guys once I'm up there."
Harry grinned mischievously. "No need." He grabbed Ginny's hand and winked at both of them, before disappearing with a crack, the sound of displaced air.
"Holy-" Link began, before Harry's loud bark of laughter behind him startled him out of using his expletive. He turned to see both offworlders standing at the entrance, one looking pleased, one not.
Ginny smacked Harry's arm. "Warn me next time!" She scowled, but Harry's irrepressible grin made it impossible to stay mad at him for a while. At least for her.
"How did you-" Link began again, but Harry answered easily.
"Magic." He supplied simply. It was enough. Link nodded, and raised his hookshot, firing the sharp grappling hook straight into the branch, puncturing the wood, before being pulled roughly up to the branch. He released the lock on the firing mechanism, and dropped down to join them.
Ginny watched impassively, checking her bow, while Harry seemed to be checking a non-existent watch and whistling, bored. "Took you long enough." Harry said mock annoyed, rolling his eyes in exaggeration.
"My way's cooler." Link muttered sullenly, glancing at the ground, before looking up and grinning.
"No way mate." Harry argued, "You looked like you were going to piss yourself on the way up here."
"I was not!"
"Sure you were."
Ginny and Navi exchanged a glance. "Boys." They scoffed in unison, shaking their heads.
"All you did was make a loud cracking noise!"
"Oh yeah, and you simply flying through the air terrified is so much cooler."
"Hyrule is doomed," Navi muttered helplessly, and Ginny giggled, while the boys continued to argue over whose method of travel was cooler.
The argument over what was cooler was cut short by the drop of two werewolf like creatures, silver furred with blood stained black claws and yellow eyes, their features definitely canine but upright.
As Link blocked a slash from one of them, separating the two creatures as Harry and Ginny tackled the other one, Ginny called out, "What are these things!"
"Wolfos!" Navi supplied, "They're monsters that dwell in the forest!" Link was too busy to reply, as he was avoiding being eviscerated.
Harry blasted the creature back with a powerful Force Spell, while Ginny pierced its shoulder as it got up with an arrow. Before Harry or Ginny could fire off another attack, the Wolfos sprang right for Harry, who narrowly avoided being mauled to death by raising the Sacred Tree Staff up, letting the Wolfos bite into the wood, covering in drool, before Harry managed to throw it off, the staff flying into the grass. Harry unsheathed the Sword of Gryffindor as Ginny fired off a Stunning Spell, but the Wolfos loped towards them, avoiding it narrowly.
Harry stepped in front of the Wolfos and slashed at it, and the creature jumped backwards, letting Ginny fire a Disarming Charm at it, sending the Wolfos flying into the wall. Before it could rise, Harry rammed his sword into its chest, transfixing it there.
He stood in shock for a moment. He had actually taken a creature's life. Before, he had been fighting demons and Voldemort. With demons, he could do it maybe, and Voldemort was required, but the shock of his first kill was rapidly soaking into him.
"Harry?" Ginny asked, but Link touched her shoulder and shushed her.
She turned towards him, looking confused. "You haven't given that Moblin you took down much thought, but Harry's coming down with the realization he just killed something." Link whispered. "I remember my first time. Took me a little bit to come to grips with it."
"But it's a monster." Ginny said stubbornly.
"I know. It's an evil creature imported from the depths of Dark World, but Harry doesn't understand that." Link said softly. "Let me talk to him."
Ginny nodded, and the green clad elf walked over to Harry slowly, surely.
"You okay?" Link asked.
"I just killed something, how do you think I feel?" Harry said bitterly.
"Harry, I remember my first kill. I went through the same thing. But Harry, you can't let it get to you. These creatures are evil. They aren't from this world, and they would have killed you and me and Ginny without a second thought." Link consoled.
"But I don't want to kill them." Harry said quietly, looking at the ground.
"Evil needs to be fought Harry. To kill those Wolfos, to kill anything Evil, that isn't unjust. You're helping society, helping people live without those terrors. You are killing something evil so that it can't harm anyone else and no one else has to do it." Link remembered the day Navi told him those words, consoling him.
Harry found that the words resounded into the core of his confusion on the prophecy. If he didn't kill Voldemort, then Voldemort would not just kill him, but everyone he cared about. That could not be allowed to happen. "Thanks." Harry managed to say, blinking.
"No problem. Now come on." Link grasped Harry's shoulder, and the two of them went back over to where Ginny was waiting and smiling.
Molly Weasley glanced at the clock. Unlike muggle clocks, hers had a more practical use than telling time. They told her the whereabouts and condition of her family.
She glanced at four hands on the clock, pointing to work. If the twin's joke shop could be called work, anyway. The other two were Arthur and Percy, her prodigal son.
Molly wished Percy would come back home, deeply, but it paled in comparison to another yearn in her heart. That yearn came from two other hands on the clock, pointing towards lost, sometimes shifting to mortal peril.
The two hands in question were her youngest daughter's hand on the clock, and Harry Potter's hand.
She remembered how happy they had all been, that fateful night, before they disappeared. Molly remembered the shocked, stammering face of the Boy-Who-Lived, blushing as he accepted her gift, the gift that symbolized something Molly had always wanted to say, and hoped Harry knew. That Harry Potter was as much a Weasley as if Molly had birthed him herself. She loved that child, as much as she loved any of her children.
It all came back to that first day, September 1st, 1991. The day she first saw the Boy-Who-Lived. She didn't know, of course. He was always a mysterious, confident boy in her mind, powerful and wise as Dumbledore. The truth was far more different, and something she found much more endearing.
She met a stuttering, scared little boy, all alone in the world, with no one to hold his hand and help him find his way, to tell him good luck and hug him and to let him know he was loved. She had taken him into her heart that day, and it only grew when she learned more and more about his life. Besides being an orphan, he grew up unloved, in a cupboard of all things, nearly starved and driven to slave labor at age six. Horrible things that no childhood should have.
And yet he rose out of those challenges, untouched, untainted, still able to be innocent that day, still able to be brave and fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Amazing.
Molly had every confidence that Ginny would be safe with Harry. It was Harry who defied death, defeated a Basilisk and the sixteen year old form of You-Know-Who with nothing a sword and a basilisk fang, who brought Ginny back when no one else dared to. Maybe it would even be good for both of them…
A thought cut through that idea, slicing through it as easily as a Dementor, making a chill run down her spine and the fear rise up again like a leviathan from the depths.
If they survive.
She prayed that Harry would pull off another miracle and bring him and her daughter back home again. That, and watching over the remnants of her family, was all she could do.
"So what now?" Ginny asked, looking around. She pointed towards the door. "There's the next room, let's go."
Unfortunately, it turned out that it was locked. "Well, that's just great," Ginny muttered sarcastically, pulling out her wand and saying, "Alohamora!"
The door didn't budge an inch when she tried to move it. Frustrated, she kicked the door sullenly, much like a petulant child. "Maybe we should blast it down?" Ginny said, glaring at the door.
"Wait." Link said, noticing a slight glare out of the corner of his eye. "There's something up there." He pointed up to a large natural alcove made of branches.
"And how do you propose to reach it?" Harry asked, "Its kind of high, and your hookshot can't latch onto anything. Better let me do it."
With a loud crack, Harry Apparated onto the alcove, and appeared in front of a large treasure chest, just like in the movies. "Hey, does anyone want to tell me how a treasure chest got here?" Harry asked in amazement.
"Don't ask," Link answered, cupping his hands over his mouth, "I found a torch inside of a giant tree, as well as treasure chests."
Harry looked at him in consternation for a moment, before shaking his head and passing it off as just how this world was. After a few moments of attempting to use his hands to open it, he kicked it open roughly. He pulled out a large, shiny silver key. "Shiny." Harry grinned, before Apparating back down towards them.
Link yawned, and checked his watch in an imitation of Harry. "Took you long enough," He mocked.
Harry mock glared at him, before the two of them burst out into laughter, walking towards the entrance, while Ginny and Navi looked at each other. "Boys." They snorted.
The group made their way into a long hallway in silence, until a gigantic and strange looking skull/spider like creature descended down, right in front of them.
"Sweet Merlin!" Ginny yelled, stumbling backwards with the others. She grabbed her bow and Harry scrambled for his staff when the creature gave a loud cry of agony and fell to the floor, dead.
Link had shot it with his hookshot. "I hate spiders," He muttered, rubbing his hands together unconsciously.
Ginny giggled as Harry studied the creature, trying to use it to distract himself from laughing. "Let's go," Navi ordered impatiently.
The foursome came into a new room, where a platform that looked suspiciously like a lift sat, with four torches, one at each corner. "I feel something down there, Link..." Navi whispered quietly.
"That looks like a lift... maybe it can take us down below?" Harry guessed.
"That looks a little too easy..." Link said slowly, softly, shaking his head.
He was correct in his assessment as four child-size creatures, each of them hooded and cloaked, one green, one purple, one blue, and one red, floated towards the torches.
"What in Din's name-" Link breathed, grabbing the Master Sword.
"Its a Poe..." Navi whispered, "An evil ghost... I think these are the Poe sisters."
"Can I kill 'em?" Link asked, eyeing them warily as the four Poes moved ever closer to the torches.
"Yeah." Navi said quietly as they touched the torches.
"Good." Link said, gritting his teeth and lashing out the Master Sword from its sheath, causing Harry to point his staff at them and Ginny to nock an arrow into her bow, aiming it at the Poes, but the sister phantoms simply grabbed the torches, one per ghost, and took them away, before vanishing into the blackness.
Ginny approached and touched the lift carefully, but it didn't budge. She shook her head.
"Damn." Link swore. "I hate it when I'm right."
"So... where to first boys?" Ginny asked, looking around the room. Besides the lift, there was an open doorway right in front of them, a solid blue block on the western side, and a locked door.
"Should we split up?" Harry asked, looking around the creepy looking temple nervously.
"Its better if we stick together," Navi chirped, "Less chances of dying."
The two offworlders gulped, and tightened their grips on their respective weapons while Link chuckled. "Let's head forward first. The open doorways are always the easiest." Link said, and the foursome made their way into the doorway.
When they got inside, as absurd as it was, a skull with bat wings and blue fire engulfing its skull flew towards them.
"Dear Merlin! Are all your enemies this weird?" Ginny asked incredulously, leaping backwards.
"I think Ganondorf got a bit bored!" Link answered, raising his shield. Stupidly, the skull ran right into it, and the flames promptly disappeared and it fell to the floor. "Okay... that was pathetic." Link muttered, rolling his eyes.
Then the skull started hopping around, and bit him on the foot.
"SON OF A-"
Link's expletive was drowned out as Harry and Ginny toppled over, in an uproar of laughter, with Navi giggling and her blue light shining brighter than ever, before she fell to the floor, rolling around like a tiny spark of moving light. Link viciously stomped on the skull a few dozen too many times to be necessary, and glared at them. "Oh ha, ha, lets all make fun of Link now," He muttered sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
The foursome arrived in the next room, and it was empty. "No enemies?" Harry asked, looking around in confusion. Every room had enemies so far.
As if to answer his question, two skeletal warriors burnishing a rusted round shield and wavy sword each were spat out of the ground like a bad piece of food. Each of them had glowing red eyes that burned with supernatural fury and undiluted hatred.
Impossibly fast for things without muscles, the first one jumped and dive-bombed Link in midair, causing the Hero of Time to dodge to the side with ease, but the creature moved again with impossibly fast reflexes, right after him.
"No enemies!" Link mocked, still able to do so as he blocked a powerful blow from the undead warrior.
Harry was unable to retort as he found himself similarly avoiding being skewered, as Ginny's arrow was deflected by the skeleton's rusted, but still usable shield.
"Navi? What are these things?" Link gritted out, having caught the Master Sword and his opponent's sword in a block and a stalemate.
"Stalfos! Be careful, these things are a lot stronger and smarter than a Moblin!" Navi chirped worriedly.
Harry fired a Force Spell that was blocked by the Stalfos, and Ginny's arrow met a similar fate. However, Harry's spell had sent it backwards, allowing him to draw his sword, which was better suited for this quick, nimble opponent.
Link avoided another slash from the Stalfos, and decided that a swordfight would last a lot longer, unless he cheated. So, when the undead warrior's attack was parried, he grabbed a Deku Nut and slammed it right in front of the Stalfos. Before the light even cleared, Link skewered the skeletal warrior in its chest cavity, and it collapsed into dust.
Harry, meanwhile, had a stalemate with the Stalfos, each eying (if the undead could) each other warily, waiting for the time to strike, while Ginny waited patiently for her time to strike as well. Harry was injured and more tired than the undead was, if the undead could tire, and had taken considerably more blows than his opposite number.
Finally, the skeletal warrior leapt right for him, holding his blade high in the air in a manner similar to Link's the previous night. Harry let Link's words pass over him once more with this memory... To get better, you need to learn to modify your style on the fly, to adapt. That's how I survived. Adapt, or die
"Adapt or die,"Harry whispered, and, letting instinct guide him, he rolled forward and avoided the blow. A loud whistling noise and a subsequent clang of fast metal on solid metal told him Ginny had fired again and had been foiled. Quickly, Harry slashed forward, and cut off part of the skeleton's ribs before the creature retreated.
Glaring at him, the skeleton slashed at him once, twice, thrice, but Harry avoided the first, blocked the second, and parried the third, and lashed out with a bit of wandless magic, namely a Banishing Charm, to send it flying away, and Harry wandlessly summoned his staff and fired an Incendio at the Stalfos before it could even touch the ground.
The charred hulk of the Stalfos fell to the earth, touched it, and then disintegrated. "Well, that was easy." Link muttered, rubbing his sore arms. "There's nothing in here..."
As if Fate itself wanted to disprove him, a treasure chest appeared out of thin air.
"Okay, how in the hell does that keep happening?" Ginny demanded, and Harry shook his head in disbelief as Link kicked the treasure chest open and pulled out another silver key.
"Looks like that locked door isn't going to be locked anymore." Link declared, holding the key high up in the air.
"Don't do that," Navi muttered, "You're embarrassing me."
As the foursome made their way back into the big room with the lift, Link seemed drawn towards the blue block in the northwest alcove of the room. "That color... it reminds me of something..." Link muttered, rubbing his head as he stepped closer.
"It kind of looks like the color of the ocarina." Harry commented, studying the block curiously.
"The ocarina?" Link's eyes widened, and he lifted up the Ocarina of Time from his pouch slowly and carefully, remembering how precious a gift it was from Princess Zelda (any gift would have been precious to him from her), and put it to his lips and began to play.
This time, the song was echoing, long, haunting, wearying, rejuvenating, replenishing, ageless, its notes stretching from the bowels of the Beginning to the endless reaches of Eternity. It was patient, slow, and yet each note seemed to slip by like water in their fingers, swift and timeless. The Song of Time.
In front of them, the blue block disappeared in a flash of light. "Maybe Dumbledore was right..." Harry muttered to himself, remembering his mentor's words during his first year about music.
The four of them pushed onwards down the now opened passageway. Inside, they killed off more of the spider creatures, called Skulltula, then Harry Apparated Link, and then Ginny up onto the ledge above them. Another one of those flying flaming blue skulls attacked, and Link shattered it with his hookshot. They fought a giant plant as well, going farther down, and then Link used his hookshot (because he wanted to use it for something other than killing) and went over to another balcony, and hit a switch. Down below, a level below them, a well drained of water.
"So... who wants to jump first?" Link asked warily, eying the wet stone floor a good drop down. He slowly raised his hand, saying, "Not me."
"Or... we could use magic." Harry interrupted.
Link flushed and nodded at them. Harry cast a Feather Fall Charm on him and Link, and Ginny did the same for herself. The three of them jumped down, with Navi floating behind them, her tiny wings capable of flight.
The foursome quickly made their way down a hallway and up a flight of stairs into a new room. There, three more Stalfos popped up, each just as the previous ones had been, with rusted shields and wavy swords and hellish eyes and a sadistic grin.
Harry tangled with one of the Stalfos, while Ginny fired spell after spell at another, and Link dealt with the last one.
Harry finished his off with another round of wandless magic, just like before, and used the Sword of Gryffindor to skewer it to the ground. Ginny managed to light her opponent ablaze with an Incendio spell, and Link slashed his Stalfos' head off.
As if to reward them, a treasure chest appeared, just like before. Inside, Link found a finely crafted wooden bow. "That's our reward?" Link asked skeptically. "I nearly got killed over this?"
"We almost got killed over this." Harry butted in.
"Still, a weapon's a weapon." Link shrugged, and took it, along with a quiver of arrows that lay inside. "Wonder why it's here though..."
The foursome made their way back into the stairwell, which went up a few flights higher. However, Link felt a sudden chill when he glanced at a portrait at the end of the hall.
On it, that red ghost he had seen back in the main chamber glared at him evilly with its eerie eyes. Link, deciding to test his aim with a bow and arrow (only having ever used a slingshot before), raised it, and before anyone could say anything, he fired an arrow at it.
As if reacting to the arrow, the ghost inside screeched and disappeared.
"Okay... call me crazy... but did that portrait just move?" Link asked.
"If you are, then we all are." Harry retorted, rubbing his eyes. Although commonplace in his world, he doubted moving portraits existed anywhere else.
"I think... that the red Poe Sister lives in those paintings. To get her out, you should keep doing that." Navi commented, bobbing up and down uncertainly.
"Sure." Link said, "I could use some more target practice."
After two more shots at two different paintings, the red Poe Sister charged out of her painting and straight for them. Link quickly sliced her into pieces, if ghosts could be put into those terms.
"One down." Link said happily, as a fire began to rise out of the Poe, before disappearing into thin air.
"That looked like one of the torch lights..." Ginny commented.
"Guess we need to kill the other Poes..." Link muttered, his eyes studying the floor, before looking up. "Do you think ghosts can be killed?"
Ginny and Harry looked at him dumbfounded. Navi just rolled her eyes and hit him on the head. "Idiot." The fairy muttered, mostly to herself.
The foursome made their way up the flight of stairs, until they reached a locked door. Link opened it with a key, and they made their way into a second chamber.
This time, it was Ginny (who insisted on helping out) who repeated the process of shoot the ghost, go to the next painting, shoot again, etc. Finally, the blue ghost screamed in anger and rushed out at her, but Harry cut her down with a powerful Incendio spell.
As they watched the second flame disappear from there, a treasure chest appeared out of thin air, but by this time, none of the four really wanted to make a comment. Link pulled out another key, and the foursome was on their way once more. They opened another locked door, and they found themselves in a room straight out of Alice in Wonderland, or at least that's what Harry thought.
The room defied the laws of physics blatantly. It was twisted. Literally. The walls, the angles, everything was skewed and turned and topsy turvy.
"Okay... that's new." Ginny blinked. Harry simply looked on open mouthed, while Link seemed to struggle to sum up how he felt about the room. Still, they needed to press on.
The doorway was on the ceiling, however, and there was no other path. "Damn... what now..." Harry muttered, frustrated.
Link, however, knew how these accursed places worked. He looked around for a switch, something to... and then he spotted it. Right above (or below, depending on your viewpoint) the doorway's entrance, was a single eye in a silver diamond. Link fired an arrow at it, and was rewarded when the room shifted on its axis, until the doorway was placed right in front of them.
"Merlin. Hogwarts has got nothing on this..." Ginny commented breathlessly to Harry, who had to agree.
What they had not noticed, however, too busy gaping at the blatant disregard for the laws of physics, was that there was a very fancy treasure chest where the ceiling once was, and now it was in front of them. "Well, at least it didn't appear out of thin air..." Link shrugged, and kicked it open.
"Why do you always kick it open" Harry asked curiously.
"Dunno." Link shrugged. "Guess I just want to emphasize the fact that I'm tall enough now to actually kick them, instead of opening them and clambering inside."
"Yeah, you were pretty puny back then." Navi quipped.
"Shut up Navi." Link shot back, scowling, but his tone was teasing.
Inside, they found a very ornate key with a skull and horns on top of its head. "Okay... well that's cheery." Link muttered, pocketing the key. "Must be important."
The four of them made their way down the newly righted hall quickly, sensing that the end would be soon. Inside, they found another portrait of a ghost, but this time, the green one simply rushed out at them and attacked, lashing out with its tiny but sharp claws, its lack of ties with most of the laws of physics allowing it to move speedily and with great agility, making the battle long and difficult for the Link, Harry, and Ginny.
Finally, Link's slashes, Harry's spells, and Ginny's arrows brought the green Poe down for the count, and she disappeared in a scream, as her flame disappeared as well.
Her portrait disappeared, and behind it, there was an open door. "I'm just no going to comment anymore about how stuff disappears and appears," Harry muttered, walking through the doorway, shaking his head. "This world is just too weird."
"Poor Harry, trying to follow the laws of nature." Ginny comforted him mockingly, patting his shoulder condescendingly.
Harry mock glared at Ginny, as Link gave a bark of laughter, before he stopped cold. "Hey, sorry to interrupt this flirting session but... this room looking a little familiar?"
Before Harry and Ginny could protest, they noticed it too. They were right back in the main room. "Well... where's that last Poe?" Ginny asked.
In an answer to her question, the final ghost, the purple Poe Sister appeared in front of them, glaring at them with all the hatred her undead eyes could muster. It was obvious she was pissed off about that whole deal about killing her sisters, or whatever you do when you re-kill a ghost.
Before Link, Harry, and Ginny could bring her down like the last one, she began spinning around them rapidly, too fast for the eye to see, making them see multiples of her and then get very dizzy.
When she stopped, however, each of them rubbed their eyes in disbelief. Were there was once one purple Poe Sister, there was now four.
"They can't all be real... right?" Harry managed weakly.
"Let's hope so." Link muttered darkly, grabbing his bow and an arrow and stretching the bowstring taught, "Let's hope so."
The four purple ghosts began cackling and swinging down at them, slashing with their ghostly claws, which, as Link discovered, really, really stung. He gave a low hiss of pain, and fired an arrow at one of them, but it passed right through. An illusion.
"Looks like they aren't all real," Link muttered, dodging another swoop by one of the ghosts, not willing to take the chance at getting slashed again.
Harry groaned as his Force Spell passed through one of the illusions too, but Ginny managed to hit the correct one, which screeched in pain, before slashing at the redhead, who was forced to drop her bow and roll aside. Before she could grab it, the real one swooped down on her again.
This time, Harry's Force Spell didn't miss, and sent the ghost flying through the air. Two arrows from Link later, the last Poe Sister was going to the Great Beyond.
The lift seemed to groan alive again as the four flames danced on their respective torches. "Well, let's get down people." Link grinned, causing Harry, Ginny, and Navi to roll their eyes, but they complied and the four of them stepped onto the lift, which gave a loud groan and a shudder, before beginning its descent down into the darkness.
When the lift finally stopped, the four of them found themselves in a pretty bare room with only one door. Unfortunately, it was barred by iron bars that looked a lot stronger than anything they had seen before.
"Our magic doesn't seem to work on the locks here..." Ginny muttered.
Harry fired a Force Spell at the door, which shuddered under the impact, but didn't budge an inch. "Nor does trying to force our way in." Harry added wryly.
"Well, that's just great." Link muttered, scanning the room for five minutes before finding nothing that could help them continue on. Images of a destroyed Hyrule passed back through the Hero of Time's mind, and he growled in frustration. He couldn't stop Ganondorf back then, and he still couldn't now, it seemed. He was failing everyone, he was failing Saria, and he was failing Zelda. "Damn it!" Link swore, punching the wall.
And strangely enough, the wall sank under the force of his blow, even just a little. Suddenly, the wall in front of them, the one with the barred door, turned.
Harry opened his mouth, but closed it, shaking his head. "I don't even understand how that works..." Harry muttered to himself.
After another three pushes on the switch, an open doorway lay in front of them. "Why didn't they just disable that..." Harry muttered to himself once more.
"Don't ask." Link said wryly, grinning at him.
They made their way down a carpeted hallway, which ended with a large, foreboding doorway with a gigantic golden lock on it. "Think that scary key would work?" Link asked rhetorically, shoving the key into the hole and twisting it. The door groaned for a moment in protest, but then swung open, and invite into darkness.
"And into the darkness we go," Link muttered to himself. "Yippee."
The three warriors made their way into the room, Link in the lead, Harry and Ginny covering his right and left flanks, respectively. They were cautious. This was the room that the puzzles and monsters had tried hard to keep them away from.
Whatever was in here was either really important, or really dangerous. "Hey Link… I got a bad feeling about this." Navi whispered, bobbing up and down.
Link's face wore a sarcastic half-grin on it. "Well, we've beaten all the puzzles. That means something really dangerous is in here."
Harry and Ginny simultaneously gulped, and both grabbed their respective weapons instinctively.
The three came into a large, spacious room with the only thing of notice were the three identical paintings of a creepy looking woods that led up to a spooky mansion/castle under a moonlit sky.
"Definitely something bad…." Link muttered, grabbing the Master Sword so tightly his knuckles went white. He turned towards the others. "Weapons out."
Harry gripped his staff, and Ginny removed her bow and placed it pointing downwards.
Suddenly, a loud laughter was heard, echoing throughout the room like a giant's laugh.
"Oh shit…" Link muttered, cobalt eyes flying wide and stepping back instinctively. He heard that laugh before. "Ganondorf." He whispered.
"Isn't that-" Ginny started, before an apparition appeared directly in front of them. All three of them lifted their weapons, Harry pointing his staff, Ginny raising her bow and placing an arrow on it, stretching the material tightly, and Link raised the Master Sword.
A man appeared, with dark skin almost green, crimson hair crowning his skull, tall, broad-shouldered, powerful looking. His horse was there as well, a nightmarish horse, black and looking just as powerful as its master, and just as cruel and vicious. Both horse and man wore armor, and their eyes were murderous pools of hellfire. Both master and horse were same way Link had dreamed and saw seven years ago.
It was Ganondorf Dragmire in all his unholy glory. Grinning, the man raised his hand high into the air, and Harry quickly prepared himself to cast a Shield Charm, and Link tightened his hold on his shield.
Instead of a spell, a flash of light appeared, and then a charcoal colored staff appeared in Ganondorf's hand, its triple bladed tip gleaming. The horse neighed, ready to help its master crush them. Ganondorf expertly spun the staff around, before resting, the triple bladed tip pointing right at the three warriors and the fairy.
As if things couldn't get any worse, gleaming spikes, like the teeth of the floor itself, shot up in front of the entryway, effectively trapping them within the room.
"Definitely something bad." Link muttered again, whipping the air with the Master Sword, readying himself for combat.
Harry raised a Shield Charm just as a blast of light flew from the staff of Ganondorf, and luckily for them, the shield held, although it shook and gave a loud cry of protest, akin to blades striking each other.
"Scatter!" Link barked, as a second blast of lightning streaked across the room towards them, cleaving the air.
Link rolled forward, while Harry leapt to the left, Ginny to the right. Navi flew right for Ganondorf, and as she reached him, she gasped in surprise. "Its not Ganondorf!" She declared as Link dodged another blast of lightning.
While Ganondorf fired a bolt of lightning at Ginny, who threw herself to one side, narrowly avoiding getting hit, Link answered. "What in Din's name do you mean!"
Harry managed to cast a Shield Charm and block the next lightning blast towards Ginny by stepping in front of her before casting his shield, the redhead having been slow in getting up.
"I mean," Navi yelled, wobbling in the air, "That it's a ghost version of Ganondorf."
Link's eyes widened and he dodge rolled another blast of lightning. "A ghost Ganondorf?" He said incredulously, staring at the-apparently- ghost version of his nemesis.
The ghost in question began laughing, that same cold, deep as the abyss laugh that the true Ganondorf had. "Nice work fairy. I had forgotten your blasted kind could see through illusions," He growled, "I am indeed not the real Ganondorf. I am Phantom Ganon, sent here to keep the Forest Temple sealed!"
Then the phantom did something unexpected. He grabbed his face and pulled brutally. Much to their horror, the face came off, a mask, and revealed a darkened skull face with the same hellfire eyes, but something new was there. Something Link had failed to notice the first time he looked at the phantom. The eyes were the same color, but lacking the vitality, the living hatred, the living fire Ganondorf possessed.
It was indeed a Phantom Ganon.
"Now prepare to become part of my kind!" Phantom Ganon shouted, raising his staff high into the air, and the four prepared themselves for the worst.
However, Phantom Ganon did the strangest and most unexpected thing.
He turned around and ran like a coward, straight into the paintings.
"Sweet Merlin, he can do that!" Ginny cried out incredulously.
"Apparently," Harry quipped again, grinning impishly despite the situation. Ginny rolled her eyes, and Link grinned.
"Looks like its time to relive killing the Poe Sisters..." Link muttered, grabbing his bow and aiming it at one of the spooky portraits, while Harry and Ginny followed his aim. The tiny figure of Phantom Ganon grew larger and larger, but before it left the painting, it spun around and turned on its heel.
"Oh-" That was all Ginny could manage before a blast of lightning nearly toasted her hair, and only her sudden shift in position had saved her.
"Okay. Each of us covers one painting, got it?" Link ordered briskly, aiming his bow at the center one.
Harry and Ginny nodded, taking up the right and left flanks respectively, aiming them carefully, waiting for the real snake in the grass to appear.
The real Phantom Ganon came through Ginny's portrait, and was promptly shot at by her arrow, but his horse took the blow instead of him. The phantom glared at her as his horse stumbled in midair, before collapsing to the ground and disappearing. Unfortunately, Phantom Ganon had not fallen with his horse.
"Holy crap, he can fly!" Link swore incredulously, ducking his head as the laughing Phantom Ganon sped across the air.
"Apparently," Harry answered dryly, before Navi could say the same thing. He fired a Force Spell, sending a powerful blast of air right at Phantom Ganon, who smacked the attack aside.
Ginny fired an arrow, which had the same fate as Harry's Force Spell.
"Okay, any ideas?" Ginny yelled as she fired another arrow at the phantom as it ran by, laughing and forcing her to leap aside as another lightning bolt flew at her.
"We kick its ass!" Link shot back, jumping back as Phantom Ganon charged towards him.
"How!" Harry asked incredulously as his Incedio Spell was knocked aside too.
"Damned if I know." Link yelled, before a powerful bolt of lightning forced him to jump back. Which was exactly what Phantom Ganon wanted, revealed when a second blast of lightning almost followed instantly after the first one, cleaving through the air and about to strike the Hero of Time.
Link swore, and, out of instinct, swung his blade protectively. When in doubt, hit something, was his motto on anything Ganondorf came up with. It had saved him before, and it would do so again.
Miraculously, when the Master Sword struck the lightning, said lightning rebounded back, right towards Phantom Ganon.
The phantom's eyes widened in surprise, right before the lightning nailed him in the chest and sent him flying straight into the wall, right off his high horse.
The phantom, though not truly present in the physical world, gasped in pain before he slid down realistically to the floor from the wall.
Harry and Ginny stared at Link in shock, the Hero of Time staring at the Master Sword in shock.
There was only one word for such a situation.
"Holy shit!"
Two words, actually.
"Er…" Those were the only words Link managed to say before an enraged Phantom Ganon unleashed another lightning bolt at Link, disrupting the momentary stillness of shock.
"Navi?" Link asked, as Phantom Ganon fired more lightning at his friends, who blocked with their own brand of magic. "What in the Three goddesses names just happened?"
"To quote you, 'damned if I know.'" Navi chirped.
Link rolled his eyes. "Thanks." He muttered, before taking a big chance, specifically the chance of living for the next five minutes, by stepping in front of his friends and taunting Phantom Ganon.
After the second questioning of why Ganondorf really wanted a reflection of himself, Ginny whispered incredulously, "What the hell are you doing!"
"Baiting him." Link said, barely moving his lips and not turning towards the two offworlders.
Navi drifted to them. "Just don't ask. I don't know how he's survived this long." She muttered.
Link ignored them, still baiting the phantom.
Why he was baiting him became apparent when an enraged Phantom Ganon launched a burst of lightning, which, as before, was sent flying back at him by Link and the Master Sword. Phantom Ganon's face would be forever etched in Link's mind, the skull looking on in shock once more.
Link wanted to make that face last in his mind, until the day that same look of shock was etched on the real Ganondorf's face as he died by Link's hand.
Harry blocked a powerful bolt of lightning with his Shield Charm, causing a loud screech of protest from his shield and a flash of light to nearly blind him.
Next to him, Ginny fired off an arrow, even if it was futile, she would still try. After all, she had brought down the horse.
Link avoided two more bursts of lightning, unable to swing his sword fast enough. It seemed Phantom Ganon had learned.
However, he eventually slipped up as the combined resistance of Harry's magic that protected them, Link's agility, and Ginny's constant arrow harassment made Phantom Ganon fire a powerful bolt of lightning right for Ginny, which Link easily smashed back at him.
The ball of light slammed into his chest, and the phantom was sent flying into the wall, unmoving for the moment. Link knew that this was his best chance, and began running towards the phantom, but the stirrings of Phantom Ganon forced Link to realize he'd never make it in time.
However, he hadn't counted on an extra burst of speed, courtesy of Harry's Leaping Spell, he turned to see the grinning wizard give him a thumbs up, and he grinned at him, before turning back towards his target.
Before Phantom Ganon could rise, Link ran the Master Sword right into his chest, straight into where his black heart would have been.
The phantom twitched once, before lying still.
The Forest Temple was free.
Link removed the Master Sword from the phantom's chest, vowing that the Master Sword would pierce the real Ganondorf's heart someday soon.
Very soon.
His musings were cut short when a terrible laugh boomed throughout the chamber, that same laugh that Phantom Ganon had, and it came from the said phantom.
"That's impossible..." Ginny whispered.
Jerkily, like a puppet in the hands of an inexperienced puppeteer, Phantom Ganon rose into the air, glaring at them with dead eyes. "So... You are the ones who defeated my phantom. Pah! He was nothing compared to me." The voice from within the Phantom boomed out arrogantly.
"Ganondorf!" Link spat hatefully.
"You... you're that boy from seven years ago... Well... you and these other brats might be fun... I'll see you soon..."
And with that message, the phantom exploded in a flash of light, and was gone.
"I really, really hate that accursed bastard." Link muttered.
Suddenly, a large blue pillar of light erupted from the floor, causing the Harry and Ginny to step back in uncertainty, but Link stepped forward. "You two stay here." He ordered, before stepping into the portal, and was gone in a flash of light.
Link found himself in a place he had been in once before. The Chamber of the Sages. "Did I do it?" Link asked.
"You did Link. Thank you."
Link spun around to face his old friend Saria.
"You... haven't aged a day." Link whispered softly. She looked the same as ever, dressed, as all Kokiri were, in all green clothing, from her skirt to her dress. Her viridian eyes and her forest green hair were unchanged. Nothing about her had changed.
But Link had.
Saria gave him that same sad smile she gave him the day he first departed from the Lost Woods. "Thank you Link. Thanks to your efforts, I have awakened as the Sage of the Forest."
"You're the..." Link echoed in awe and disbelief.
She giggled. "Yes Link, I am. I am glad of it too, because now I can help you on your quest."
"Great!" Link said, smiling. "Let's get out of here!"
But Saria still smiled that same, sad smile she gave him before. And it caused Link's blood to run cold for a moment, and he wanted to demand that Saria disprove what he had just thought. But he knew it was true.
"You're not coming back with me to Kokiri village, are you?" It wasn't a question, not really.
"No." She sounded so sad and so wistful in that moment that Link wanted to break this chamber and demand she come with him. "I will always be your friend Link. And as long as you play my song, I'll be with you."
Link closed his eyes in bitterness and to shut off the flow of tears that threatened to spill out of the ocean of his eyes. "I'll always play that song, Saria."
"Goodbye Link."
Link was engulfed in a flash of light for a moment, and reappeared right outside of the Great Deku Tree, where his quest first began.
"Where the bloody hell are we!"
And he wasn't alone, apparently. Stifling the burning pain in his chest at the thought of never seeing Saria again, he grinned at them. "We're at the Great Deku Tree Meadow."
"Original, isn't it?" Ginny asked wryly.
"I guess not." A new voice answered, child-like and innocent, yet full of ancient wisdom.
Harry and Ginny looked behind Link in shock, and the green clad elf turned slowly to see a small tree right at the base of the Great Deku Tree, with new, tender bark and a face.
"Flying flaming skulls, phantoms, and now talking trees?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. "This world is weird."
The tree laughed, shaking its boughs softly. "Perhaps."
"Who are you?" Link asked curiously.
"I am the Great Deku Tree Sprout!" The tree spouted happily.
Link glanced at the decaying Great Deku Tree, that gigantic tree with a canopy that obscured the sky, with some pain, and turned back towards the sprout. They kind of looked alike, like a great-great grandfather and his great-great grandson. Kind of.
"Uh... I can see the resemblance?" Link said awkwardly.
The sprout laughed again, and seemed to smile at him. "It is fine. I am young, and he is ancient. But now Link, I must impart upon you the truth about your heritage." Now the Deku Tree Sprout seemed hesitant and grave.
Link gulped. "What do you mean... I'm a Kokiri!" He protested, but even he knew he was lying.
"No Link, you are a Hylian. Sixteen years ago, Hyrule was embroiled in a bitter war. Fires and battles and death were commonplace, and peace was non-existent. During that time, a young Hylian woman made her way into the forest, and managed to make it here, to the Great Deku Tree. She pleaded with him to take in her son, and the Great Deku Tree was moved, and granted her wish."
"That's... not true. It can't be..." Link whispered, backing away slowly. This was too much. First Saria, and now this? His entire life had been a lie?
Harry and Ginny approached Link slowly. "Link... are you-" Harry began, but Link cut him off.
"I want to be alone for a while." Link declared, and turned slowly, and walked away.
"I hope he doesn't take this too hard..." Navi muttered, following him.
Harry and Ginny looked at each other, knowing that there was nothing they could do for their elfin friend.
Link's cobalt eyes began to bleed out tears, and he struggled to contain them, rushing back to his childhood home, trying to turn back time, so that he could just have pretended forever. He wanted to go back to the way things were.
Sheik's words rang true in his mind, echoing around him mockingly, taunting him about all that had happened. The flow of time is always cruel...Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it...A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days...
Thanks HellHound, Aishwarya, FroBoy, Emma Barrows, ThePianoFiend, TwistedNecro, Andrew Roberts, Silver Warrior, Shiniagami's Shadow, Tanydwr, korrd, mashimaromadness, and PinkyTheSnowman for reviewing!
Q&A
HellHound- I've known quite a few people who despise RPG's, but I personally am obsessed. Half my game collection contains those. Another quarter is giant fighting robots. They rock.
Aishwarya- I will never make up a world for them, they will be visiting multiple places. In this case, you were wrong, it was a game. With the variety I put in, I hope that everyone finds a world they particularly enjoy.
Andrew Roberts- Well, you could do a google search on the Legend of Zelda, you'll probably find some info, but I'll be working in info you need to know within the story. I won't leave a reader lost.
Silver Warrior- They'll have to wait when Link goes back in time. They can't follow. I can't really do an LOTR crossover here, what with how I'm working everything. I haven't played either Lunar game. As for the Buffy/Angel enemy, it's going to be in L.A., but will have the Buffy cast. The enemy is (explosion)
Shiniagami's Shadow- I don't mind, the Final Fantasy game I selected is…
Tanydwr- The Legend of Zelda is a video game. You'll pretty much get the plot piecemeal as I write this. I'm glad you liked the Link comment. There could be much more later on.
PinkyTheSnowman- I'm glad you liked it. I'm not into T.V. as much either anymore, but I still watch from time to time. Don't attack me! I won't be able to write!
AN: And we are done! That little scene with Molly was just too good to let go of. I'm thinking of doing something back in the HP world, so that Dumbledore and his end don't get bored. And I'm sorry if I kind of glazed over the latter half of the temple, I just couldn't stomach any more battle scenes in a row, not with a giant boss battle. Finally, the song "Smile Bomb", the intro to Yu Yu Hakusho, fits this story perfectly. Thanks for reading and please review!
