Chapter 16: To the Mountains!

Link lay motionless on the floor. Rinoma moved towards Link to try and help him, but Link slowly pushed himself up. Link continued walking towards the exit, now with his hand on the wall for support. Link stumbled, and fell to his knees, panting for breath.

"Stay here and rest a while, Link. You are no good to go and fight Ganondorf in this condition", suggested Rinoma.

"No..." said Link, still panting for breath. "Too much time...to give Ganondorf...I need to...stop him before...he gets much further. Did you see...which way...he went?"

"To the mountains but that's beyond the point. Look at yourself. You can barely talk. You can't walk. How exactly are you going to stop Ganondorf when you can't walk out of here? How are you going to climb a mountain when you don't even have the energy to say a sentence without panting for breath?"

"I'll...find a way"

Link picked himself up and limped out of the dungeon, using the Master Sword as a cane to support himself as he made his way out of the underground dungeon. Rinoma, knowing anything he tried to say would have no effect on Link at all, decided to help Link out of the dungeon. They reached where Link entered the dungeon, and now the moon was setting, and the sun was barely spreading its rays across the horizon onto Hyrule Field. Link tossed his grappling hook up, causing him much energy in the process. It hooked on the outside, and he began to climb up slowly. Link was a foot away from getting out of the dungeon, his body gave out and he fell flat on Rinoma.

"Owwww", moaned Rinoma. "You can get up now, Link".

But Link couldn't get up. He was unconscious; Rinoma tried to get Link off of him but was unsuccessful. Then, down from the rope appeared Denpolent, with a bottle in his hand.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you here?" asked Rinoma

"On my way to somewhere. But more to the point, it looks like you could use some help."

Denpolent pushed Linked off of Rinoma and Link's body hit the ground with a small thud. As he had done before, Denpolent elevated Link's head and poured a liquid down his throat. Moments later, Link got up and rubbed his head.

"What happened?" asked Link.

"Well, you thought you could get out of here under your own power, and in doing so fell from there and you were unconscious," replied Rinoma.

"And I came here and revived you"

"Thank you both for helping me. But really, I have got to be going. Evil waits for no man". Link began climbing the grappling hook.

"But..." tried Rinoma

"He'll be fine" interrupted Denpolent. "But I have to go where I was going to go. You'll be safe in here, I take it?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No, not really"

"Ok then".

Link finished his ascent and Denpolent followed him up. When Denpolent got up, Link too the grappling hook and packed it with him. Link mounted Epona and rode towards the mountains and Denpolent walked in the opposite direction. Link made his way through Kakariko Village. Link found a man and paid him some rupees to watch after Epona while he climbed the mountain. Link made his way up the mountain side, and passed the Volcano, where he had saved Sekim and defeated the dragon not too long before. Link slowed his pace; now feeling the sun beat down upon him.

Soon, Link arrived at a cave. He looked around and saw that he could go no further, and that the only path left was the cave. Link entered the cave, and ran his across the wall to help him find his way. After a long walk, and much tripping and nearly falling into two holes, Link emerged at the other end of the cave to come face to face with a straight ascent. Link looked on the rock face, and saw a many slabs of rock sticking out. Link climbed the rock face using these for support. Panting, Link reached the top and collapsed on the mountain, panting for breath. After regaining his composure, Link got up and looked around. He saw the Tower across a narrow, but long rope bridge. Below that, Link saw a deep chasm, and at the bottom, several jagged rocks. Link slowly walked across the rope bridge, being careful not to fall to his death. Out of the Tower came two Moblins, armed with swords. They went towards the rope bridge and began cutting the ends. Link went quicker and quicker across the bridge, hoping to make it before the rope bridge was cut. Link was only a few feet away from the other side when the rope finally separated, and fell back towards the other side. Link leapt in the air, and caught the edge of the side with his hand. Now dangling from one side, Link panicked. The moblins were closing in on him, with their swords raised, ready to take one swipe at the helpless Link.