To Jade: Glad you liked it. But you're not getting a DS! That's TERRIBLE! I have pity on you…
To T-Bone: I've got mine too! But with only a Metroid demo… oh well, only a few more days till the UK release… And I'm glad you kept up with the fight last chap. As for whether Link was in a trance… well you'll have to wait and find out won't you?
To Youkai-Joseph: Gasp! You were gonna skip a chapter! Am I really that slow! Oo Well here's the latest one, hope you enjoy it too. That is, if you're even gonna read it! TT … cries… OK! I'll try to update faster! TT Chapter 8: Desert ObstaclesDeep inside the Spirit Temple…
Kiva was walking down the steps to the dungeons, accompanied by two of her guards. She was hardly concentrating on the matter at hand as she stepped down the dimly lit staircase tough. She was still thinking about what happened down at the witch's chamber. That old bag had no right to treat her, the leader of this entire band of Ganon's supporters, in such a barbaric matter. Yet she dared not stand against the sorceress, because she feared that she would gain the same punishment again. She had attempted to hide the scorch marks inflicted on her by wearing her Princess robe. This was one of the only things that she had left that reminded her that she was destined to be the next Gerudo Queen. But she was exiled from the Gerudo tribe along with the rest of her band members when Naburoo found out that they still supported Ganondorf, and wished to bring him back.
Feeling a surge of pain jolt through her arm when she grazed it along the claustrophobic walls, she felt the urge to shout out in pain or swear loudly. But the two guards following her made Kiva hold it back.
Just wait until the great Lord himself returns. She thought to herself. He'll give that hag what she deserves for harming his very on Royal Lineage.
She reached the bottom of the stairway, ordered the two following her to leave, and strode down along the dungeon cells until she came across one of her more trusted spies. The sleek Gerudo was peering into the cell beside her, a grin was evident on her expression. It widened when she noticed that her leader had arrived. Kiva was still skeptical.
"I hope that you have good news for me, Ferline." She warned, "I'm not in the mood for any more disappointments."
The woman merely looked reassured and took a step back to allow Kiva to look at the captive inside for herself. She did so, and saw the limp figure of Malon lying on the floor of the cell, still unconscious. Kiva had no idea why this girl was here so she turned around to glare at Ferline menacingly, waiting for a damn good reason why the girl had been kidnapped.
"Allow me to explain," said Ferline, "I had followed the Hero of Time towards a farm ranch, were he planned to rest. And I learned that the worker there that sells us our food supplies was not very fond of his presence at all. So I persuaded him to murder our enemy during the night…" She was cut off by her Leader's haste, "So you've killed him?" she tried to keep her outburst calm, but a sense of anxiety could be heard from her voice.
"No, I'm afraid not. The fool failed even such an easy task, but during the commotion that followed, I managed to bring back her." The spy pointed back towards Malon, who now was starting to finally come back to her senses, but was not yet noticed.
Malon hadn't any idea what was going on. She tried opening her eyes to get a look of where she was, but since the blurred vision of gray stone was all that came to view, she assumed that she was lying down on the ground. She tried to move and get up but it was then that she also realized that her arms and legs were tied up, restricting her movements. She was a bout to call out for help, but the sound of two women talking nearby stopped her from doing so, and instead she decided to listen before she tried anything desperate.
"I still don't know where you're going with this," said Kiva. "Please hurry up and quit these pointless games" she was loosing her patience.
Ferline decided to cut to the chase, "Well, as I decided to kill the heretic myself, I found out that this kid was already being used as a hostage. It was obvious that he cared for her safety, so I figured that we'd have a much better chance of killing him if I led him over here where we could ambush him." Ferline seemed pretty confident in her plan. Kiva stood there for a slight moment then stepped up to Ferline and gave her a harsh slap across the face.
"You idiot! Naburoo and her guards are scattered all over the place! How the hell are we to "ambush him" if we can't even show ourselves anywhere near the entrance of this damn Temple" Kiva was clearly annoyed, but she calmed herself down to ask another question. "When did you tell him to get here?"
The slightly cowering spy straightened up again, if a little shook up. "N-no later than sunrise." She replied.
Malon had let out a gasp in reaction to hearing what they were planning, and she likely would have been noticed too, if it weren't for the gag over her mouth. Nevertheless, she tried her best to stay still so that she could hear the rest…
The leader gave out a small sigh, "Okay, we have only one hour left, he's likely already made it here by now."
"I doubt that," interjected Ferline, "he seemed unable to teleport with Deku Nuts, so he would be travelling by foot."
"Then perhaps we can cut him off at the desert." Kiva had quickly come to a decision. "Alright, round up half of our troops, and have them standing at the foot of the secret entrance, ready for a surprise attack after we sneak out past those fools above."
"What about her." The anxious spy was pointing towards her, assumed sleeping, captive.
"Never mind about the girl, we have no need for her. The Hero is already heading our way, so the Great Lord will decide what to do with her once that damn elf is out of the picture and he is brought back among us as King. Now leave, that's an order!"
Back to Link, at the Gerudo grounds…
Link was again focused on his task, he had already stalled far too much, and he doubted he would make it the whole way across the desert in time.
Time. Link was the very person that was supposed to have legendary power over such a thing, and yet so far, time was most certainly not on his side. He'd have thought that he could use his ocarina to teleport straight towards the spirit temple, but it didn't work that way. Apparently when Link teleported himself across Hyrule, it felt like mere seconds for him to get to his destination. But when he tried using the technique when he was sent on an errand to transport frog-eyes, he discovered that time in the world around him sped up much faster. Meaning that if he tried it now, he'd probably end up at the Spirit Temple next morning.
Shuddering at the thought that he'd be too late, Link quickened his pace as he swiftly made his way across the Gerudo Hideout. He didn't want to let anyone know he was there, otherwise he would have to explain what was going on, which would take away more precious time.
He reached the gate into the desert, but it was closed. Navi, who was following, called out above the harsh winds that had picked up from the other side of the gate. "Link, you'll have to climb up that ladder and turn the gate crank from up there to open it." Link took a glance upwards at the daunting task. "To hell with that!" shouted Link. He scaled the tall ladder with speed that showed he had climbed them many times before. When he reached the top of the thin stone tower, he simply ran past the wheel crank that would have slowly opened the gate, and instead jumped off the other side. Navi though her elfish friend had gone insane, "LINK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
Link was falling fast, but there were two Gerudo flag posts sticking out the side of the lookout tower, one placed right underneath him. He grabbed onto the first one that he fell past. His fall had abruptly halted, making the thin wooden post creak and bend under the stress of extra weight. He let go so that he could grab the next one that was another few meters below him. But when he did, the pole snapped like a twig, allowing Link to fall at an increasing speed to the ground.
"Crap!" Link hit the sandy banks hard, falling on his back. Navi flew through the iron bars to the other side and tried to find where he landed. But the raging sandstorm had already affected their surroundings, and Link was mostly covered in sand. Finally spotting Link's blue hat from the Zora tunic sticking out from the sand, Navi quickly darted over to it to see if Link was even alive anymore. But he forced himself out from under the cold sand before she could even reach him. Link got to his feet and tried to spit out the salty grains in his mouth.
"Blergh!" The taste was pretty bad, "Remind me not to do that again, Navi." He began heading forward again, perhaps at a slightly slower pace because his back felt as though it should have broken back there.
"Link you idiot!" yelled Navi "You could've killed yourself! And look! You've lost your shield!" Navi had only noticed at this point that Link was without a defensive weapon.
Link was hardly paying much attention, "It got blown up by my mirror dark side!" the dry winds were hard to shout over. Not only because they were really loud as they whipped over the desert landscape, but also because sand was getting blown in his face all of the time, and Link had already had enough mouthfuls of it to do him for more than a lifetime. Navi had no idea what Link was talking about but she decided to hide in his sandy, yet "safer than outside" hat for shelter from the dusty storm.
Link had gone as far as the quicksand trench. Stepping over it to cross would surely result in a one way trip under ground, and he hadn't got his Pegasus' boots to help him walk on the unstable torrent of sand. Trying to run over it was not an option this time, and would be a very stupid move. But beyond the trench, Link could barely spot one of the flag posts that marked the route across the desert. Hoping it would reach; Link took out his hookshot and carefully aimed for the thin pole on the other side. He steadied his hand and pulled the trigger. As it zipped through the air, Link lost sight of the hook, but the thud of iron penetrating wood told him it was a direct hit. He let go of the trigger, and the chain pulled him roughly through the air with it.
Reaching the other side, he caught sight of the stone underground bunker, which was used to provide shelter in the desert from such weather hazards that was being experienced at the moment. He ran towards it, intent on going past it onto the path to the Spirit Temple since he knew the way by heart and didn't need to summon the ghostly guide to help show the route.
But as he reached the entrance to catch his breath for a second, two Gerudos jumped off the roof of the structure above him. One landed on Link's back, catching him completely by surprise, and executed a maneuver that flipped Link backwards. He hit the ground on his back, but he managed to roll and land awkwardly on his hands and knees, trying to spot the attacker who was sleazy enough to pull such a trick. But before he knew it, the second Gerudo had landed in front of him and she threw a strong scented powder in his face.
Link couldn't believe he had to suffer the same eye-stinging pain for the second time in one night. He wasn't in a good enough position to take out his weapon, so instead he tripped up the assassin who was foolish enough to gloat in front of her victim for even a second, and she hit the ground too. Link quickly got up and unsheathed the sword on his back.
Taking a look around, he didn't see any enemies about the place, even the one that was supposed to be in front of him had vanished without him noticing. It was at this point that Link took notice that his eyes, were in fact not stinging like hell, but he was starting to feel a little dizzy…
Sleeping powder!
Link guessed that he probably had only a few seconds before it would take full effect. Luckily, he had a blue potion that he received from Saria, which he took out of his belt pocket and downed in one gulp. It would prevent him from being knocked out, but the powder still made him almost nauseous and likely would continue to affect him for next few minutes at least. But as Link caught sight of another three camouflaged bandits advancing towards him in the disorientating conditions surrounding him, he doubted he would even last that long. Even Navi was having trouble on marking over the thieves' location, so Link decided to head inside the stone shelter. He jumped the whole way down to the bottom and landed hard on his feet, making him stiffen for a moment, but he recovered and prepared himself for the others to come after him. None came; it was as if they had drove him in here on purpose, so he alarmingly turned around to expect some kind of trap.
Standing on the other side of the underground, torch-lit room was another Gerudo, but her clothing gave Link the impression that she was probably the leader of this group that had been giving him all of this trouble.
"So you're the fool who locked the almighty King away from us," Kiva remarked to one of her two guards standing nearby, "He's much more handsome than I expected."
Link had no time for this! The Sun had already risen by now, "Where's Malon!" he demanded, keeping his eye on all of them.
Kiva sighed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling, "That doesn't matter, If I were you, I'd be much more worried about yourself." She snapped her fingers, making a pair of dark, evil looking knights, wearing black metal armor, to appear in a swirl of dark purple smoke. Both of them were wielding large, deadly axes that shimmered in the torch light due to their sharpness.
Darknauts.
Link didn't understand, how could anyone other Ganondorf command these foul creatures, never mind summon them. He would have to think about later though, because she ordered both of the guards and Darknauts to get him. The two Gerudos had already reached Link in a second so he waved his sword around to keep them at bay. He knew that the heavy knights may have been much more powerful but they sure weren't quick, so he dared to do something so risky as to run straight for one of them, the two bandits hot on his heels. The mindless minion raised its axe and took a swipe for Link, but he already had rolled to the side, predicting the move and had avoided it by far. It was a different story for the Gerudo who had unwittingly followed too closely to Link. She only barely escaped from being halved in two, but as the Darknaut swung around to face Link again, it dragged its axe with it and the woman got knocked out as she was hit on the head with the flat side of the axe.
It would take a while for the two Darknauts to catch up as they lumbered across the room towards Link, who was fending against the other Gerudo. This one was definitely skillful; she parried all of Link's jabs with his sword, and had attempted the odd attack with one of her scimitars when Link let up his defense for even a second. This would have been much easier if he had his shield, using his sword to attack and block at the same time was difficult, especially since his adversary was wielding two weapons.
The Darknauts had caught up by now though and one took another large swipe at its target. Both of the agile combatants dodged out of the way, the Gerudo was showing clear signs of annoyance towards the minion's lack of intelligence, and decided to stand aside while the other two imbeciles continued there attempts to take the elf down.
Link was not in a good situation at all. The Darknauts may have been slower than most warriors, but their attacks had devastating potential with each blow. There was no telling when one may get a lucky hit, and then it would be all over. One swung its axe sideways while Link vaulted over its head and landed behind it, the axe smashed into the solid stone wall and got stuck. The heavy demon knight grabbed the axe handle with both of its hands and tried to yank it back out. This gave Link some time to focus on the other one that was closing in fast and brought its axe downwards, aiming for his head. Link ducked to the side and inflicted some minimal damage with his sword before the enemy could recover.
This is no good! Thought Link. I could only hurt these guys with the Master Sword, but what do it do this time?
Dodging again from another close encounter, Link guessed that he'd get nowhere unless he removed the thick armor that his foes were wearing, or at least find a weak spot that was unprotected from it. Taking a more searchful look on the Darknaut as it yet again stepped towards him for another attack, he noticed two glowing red beads where its eyes should've been. So he tried taking out his bow for a different approach in tactics, just before jumping out of the way of another swipe. The monster seemed to have enough smarts to figure out what Link was up to, so it began to form its slow march to a much quicker jog, barely giving Link enough time to take out an arrow as well before having to dodge again. He readied the shot and leveled his aim, which was hard to keep steady because of the faint feeling from that powder. Just as the Darknaut raised its weapon for the final time, Link let the arrow shoot straight at its head. The projectile zipped straight into the narrow slit in the demon's helmet and an unnatural shriek of agonizing pain told Link that he had struck it right between the eyes.
With a loud thud, the huge axe fell on the stone ground as the pitiful monster clawed at the air, probably hoping to grab Link before it inevitably disappeared into whatever hellish place that was the afterlife for all demonic forms. Link managed to stay out of the way though, and the Darknaut finally hit the ground before it exploded into a large burst of purple fire, and vanished. Link couldn't take in his small victory though, because the other knight had given up on retrieving its own axe and instead stepped over to where its fallen brethren was and picked up the weapon that had been dropped there. The Gerudo had also decided that it was now safe enough for her to take her own turn as well.
She got to Link first and began to attack with both swords in hand whilst Link had his own out again, barely managing to defend himself. The second opponent had arrived at this point, and unfortunately, it seemed to have taught itself a new trick from its break from the fight. The Darknaut hammered its axe into the ground with great force, not aiming for Link in particular. It made the entire floor vibrate with the force of a minor earthquake and Link lost his balance and fell. It would have given the Gerudo a huge opportunity kill the Hero of Time, but she had fallen too.
The Darknaut showed no signs of boasting while standing above his adversary; it simply gripped the axe and readied the weapon above itself. Links head was pointing towards the evil knight, so he saw an upside-down view of it, about to bring the axe down on his chest. The Gerudo had fallen at his feet, so thinking quickly, he kicked at her to send himself sliding right under and between the Darknaut's legs right before the axe came crashing down onto the stone floor again.
The Darknaut had taken its time figuring out what just happened, allowing Link to get up on his feet from behind and grab for another arrow. It was then that Link realized that he didn't have any left! The knight had finally turned around to spot him and readied its axe again, so Link made up his mind and decided to improvise. He leapt at the slightly surprised demon and landed with one foot on its shoulder while grabbing its helmet for support, and with his free sword hand, he jammed it in the same spot as last time.
The result were a bit more gruesome though, as black blood began to spray out from the wound in the Darknaut's face while it screamed very loudly for something that had probably never used its voice before, grasping at the blade that was used for its demise. It died much more quickly though and had disappeared in flames not long after Link had landed on the floor again.
The elf was getting a little tired, taking in deeper breaths, but he leant over and picked up his sword, which was now stained black.
The Gerudo had only gotten up by now, and when she noticed Link standing in front of her, weapon in hand and his once clean blue tunic covered in demon blood, she apparently didn't fancy her odds for victory. Especially since both of her scimitars had been dropped due to the violent kick from before. She took out a Deku Nut and vamoosed out of there.
Link looked back at where Kiva was standing before the fight had even started, and found that she had left as well. The only person left was the bandit that had been knocked out at the start, but she was starting to come around quick, and Link didn't want to let his last lead to get away. The unarmed woman had only gotten as far as her hands and knees before Link grabbed her by the arm and demanded to find out what he should do next by repeating his question.
"Where's Malon?" said Link with a sense of urgency.
The Gerudo replied with shame due to her disappointing failure, "I… don't know, but I remember our leader mentioning something about a kid being held in one of our dungeon cells…" Thankfully, this group member seemed to be quite forward in giving information, which was good, because Link was certainly not in the mood to interrogate at the moment.
"Then take me there, now!" he took out a Deku Nut and forced it into her hand. The woman hesitated for a moment, as if to formulate a plan, but Link put more pressure on her by wrenching her other arm behind her back, threatening to break it, and she threw it down, making them both disappear…
Outside the Spirit Temple…
They both appeared again on the Triforce platform that was made of gray stone, just like they way Link could, only at a much faster speed. He definitely had to learn how to do that.
"Where's the fastest way there?" asked Link, his tone less harsh since the Gerudo was cooperating so well so far.
She pointed towards an area on the wall of the huge Temple, "Right there, touch that spot and an opening in the wall will appear, leading you to a stairway. Go straight down it, and at the end will be the entrance to the dungeons." She looked to the ground, ashamed of her weakness, and preparing for herself to be put out of her misery.
"Good…" Link began to run towards the place he was directed to, but he was stopped by the surprised thief. "Wait, your not going to kill me?"
Link stopped and turned around, "I don't like to murder people." He said simply.
"But you killed those two Darknauts." She was a bit confused. All of her time that she had spent with her fellow outcasts, she had been taught that the Hero of Time was really a ruthless killer who sought to only destroy great leaders like Ganondorf, and anyone else who would get in his way.
"Those were demons" replied Link. "They are not really alive, and don't deserve to exist among others."
He turned around again, touched the wall, and as it vanished to give way to a secret passage, he raced out of sight, finally seeing light at the end of his mission to rescue Malon, leaving the Gerudo with her life.
End Chapter
A/N: Okay, another chapter. Hope it didn't take that long. I'm in the middle of studying and doing coursework for my GCSE's right now, and I've got my DS (which TOTALLY rulz! Just to let you know) AND I've just recently got a new baby sister! So don't think too spitefully at my slow speed.
Next chapter should be up sooner than this one took though, so READ AND REVIEW! Thanks.
P.S. I forgot to mention earlier that from now on I'm gonna call Dark Link; Dark. Cause that way it causes less confusion and when I look back at that last chapter it just seems silly.