Before the Game Begins...
The Death of the Queen
Chapter 7: Sun Song
Queen Gohma hovered over her newly made servant. The present to her from the powerful new king satisfied her greatly. She might indeed seriously consider an alliance with him. Instead of transforming the man into the usual bony creature, he had been made into a beautiful dark, eight-legged spider. His nasty unnatural hair color was gone. He was faster and stronger than he ever could be as a human. He could spin webs to catch unwary prey. Indeed, she thought, she had saved the man from being one of Ganondorf's unimaginative creations, and if the spell had been correctly cast, other, smaller humans were at this moment being transformed into spiders.
"You and your children will serve me until I die." the arachnid queen intoned. "The only way out for you is to gather 100 spider tokens, then you and your family may go free."
Now the Queen loved to dangle hope infront of someone hopelessly entangled, for she knew that no one could possibly gather 100 spider tokens from the places she intended on hiding them. Besides, the family would be trapped as spiders and unable to do anything whatsoever should she die. If she wasn't there to bid them do anything, then nothing is what they would do. They could never gather the tokens themselves, because she would never order them to do so, and if she wasn't around, they could never leave to look for the tokens on their own.
Ganondorf removed his hand from the creature, now that Queen Gohma had made the last words of the spell compelling to the unfortunate man. He didn't quite like the option that she had given the warrior. It was better that these cursed creatures suffer endlessly, and everyone around them suffer too. He shrugged. Amateur. he thought, and turned away from the scene to retreat into his tent. It was late. He was tired. Once again he had saved everyone's asses. He removed the gauntlets, which now seemed to irritate him if he wore them too long. He washed up and donned a new shirt.
He sprawled on his bed, not interested in women or torture anymore, but dwelt greatly upon the darkness that had risen up out of him like black lightning and plowed a hole in the ground where that man had been standing. He tried summoning the same dark power, but found that his arm had gone a little numb. All he could manage was a little white ball of light. His arm burned with pain that made him cry out. He stopped trying to summon the dark power. He gasped, beads of sweat breaking out on his brow. Still, this new power opened up a whole new avenue of possibility.
He thought, too, about the man: his quickness, his motive for charging the entire army on his own, his insane strength. Had the man been a roaming Hyrulian, stranded with the army between him and his home? Given the man's strength, he doubted it was that random. Had he been one of the elite Hyrulian army that had snuck out of the stronghold to gather reinforcements or supplies from nearby villages? That was more likely. Although, the more he thought of the way the man stood, the way he attacked, why would someone so highly trained...? I guess its no mystery. The Hyrulians probably still needed to get some news out to the surrounding villages and ask for help. Of course they would send their most skilled warrior. But he felt that there was still some unanswered questions, and he was missing something important.
Ganondorf knew that without the silver gauntlets, the white-haired man would have given him a real fight for his life. He cast a glance at the gauntlets that he had carelessly dropped onto the floor.
And what did he mean by those last word of his: "He will defeat you!"? Who will defeat him? Since carrying the medallion, he had come to recognise truth when it surfaced. He found the man's last words disturbing. The white-haired warrior had spoken with great certainty and conviction.
Ganondorf fell into a deep sleep brought on by exhaustion.
The queen awoke to an empty house. The sounds of chickens clucking as they foraged for their breakfast could be heard outside the open window. She looked over at her son. He slept peacefully, his blonde hair tousled, his pouting lips slack, his little fingers curled and twitching. She felt reassured by the sight of him sleeping beside her. All was right in the world with his presence.
She gazed around the house, but no one seemed to be in. The place was usually bustling with all those boys, the older ones shouting instructions to the younger ones, the younger ones chorusing things like: "I'm telling Dad!" and Impo wasn't back from his reconasance. He should have been back late last night. She decided that she wouldn't panic until lunchtime, so she got up and got ready. She made breakfast for herself and her little prince. She glanced out the window, wondering if the boys had gone out for a morning hike.
After they ate, she decided to step outside for a moment to see if any of the boys were about. It was really odd that none had come in to check in on her as Impo had instructed before he had left. She opened the door, and was faced with the thickest spider web she had ever seen. A chicken had been entangled in it and hung there in exhaustion at knee height. She froze for a moment, then slowly backed away. She searched the kitchen for a knife, and hacked at the sticky stuff, her face set in a grimace of disgust.
When she finally stepped outside, she was greeted with the sight of the entire village draped in gigantic webs. People were struggling to cut the webs away. Children had to be kept indoors, since they were most likely caught up in the tangle and the least able to extricate themselves. She began to realize that something very horrible had happened.
Gigantic spiders had been spotted by the grave-digger last night. He figured that maybe the spiders had eaten the boys, and probably Impo as well, if he had returned. He spectulated at great length along these lines of thought, but it was only a good guess at best, for no bodies were ever recovered, and no sinister marks of blood were ever found.
The Queen felt alone and vunerable. Bit by bit the villagers cleaned up the spider webs, but Impo and the boys never returned. The Queen spent several more days in the village waiting for them to return, on the off chance that they had engaged the spiders in battle, and might soon return. She knew, deep in her heart that Impo would never stay away from the Prince of his own volition. Only death would keep him from that duty. Although he had never voiced what was in his heart regarding his duty, she knew that he thought of the Prince as the future King, to be protected at all cost.
One day, while her son was napping, the Queen took it upon herself to visit the graveyard. She felt a certain need for guidance, and felt that visiting the site of her ancestor's resting place would help her find some direction. She had been there for several minutes, arranging flowers and placing offerings of food and water (as was the custom of her people), when the grave digger approached.
They struck up a conversation, and it came to light that someone, recently, had entered the graveyard using the Ocarina of Time and the Song of Requiem. The queen was startled, to say the least. She had forgotten that one of the gateways from the Temple of Time opened into the graveyard. Not too many people visited in this manner. Most usually walked. Only those who knew the Song of Requiem and had the Ocarina of Time could travel in this manner. Dampe, the gravedigger, went on to say that when he questioned the two, he found that they were royal musicians sent by the King to work out a way to avoid the creatures that roamed Hyrule Field at night.
The Queen's heart lifted with hope. Someone in this place carried the Ocarina of Time! If she could get in touch with them, maybe she and her son could get back into Hyrule!
But the Queen was told by the gravedigger that the two had stayed only one day and one night within the confines of the Royal Family's grave. Then they had left. Her hopes plunged. She quietly instructed Dampe that if the two ever returned, they were to take a message back to the King for her. "Let him know that we are alive and well, but that Impo did not return from reconnaisance. Tell him not to worry. I will do as we planned."
She could do nothing more than that. She did not know if the musicians had succeeded in their mission or not. She did not know if they would ever return. It looked as if fate was not on her side. She had missed her chance to return to the side of the King. She was alone. She was the sole protector of the Heir to Hyrule now. His life was more important than ever, and she vowed to do everything in her power to protect him. She would travel to the Forest Temple herself, knowing that the place was full of danger. Besides skullkids, wolves, and the Kokiri, she knew that the forest surrounding the temple was a maze; that took the wanderer to places they did not intend on going.
She set her shoulders determinedly, and prepared to take her child to the top of Death Mountain and ask Darunia for help.