Chapter Four: The Nightmares of Mt. Tamaranch

It took Tiger until sunset to reach the top of Mount Tamaranch, along the way fighting Moblins, spider monsters, and Like-Likes, just to name a few. He began to make his way up the steps to the shell, when he was stopped by an owl. The owl had helped the decendant of Link (Link in Link's Awakening) as a puppet, more-or-less, of the Wind Fish. Now, the owl acted upon the thoughts of travelers whom needed assistance.

"K.C...K.C..." was all the owl said, then it flew away.

Tiger cocked his head to the side. "O...kay." He continued up and saw the Wind Fish's shell. It has a hole where one just above his height could enter. He crawled in, and fell for what seemed like forever. Long the way he saw horrors the likes of which can not be described, for time's sake. After the abysmal fall, he landed safely on the ground, seeing a room with four ways to go. An 'S' was in the middle, signifying the start position. Tiger aimplessly walked from room to room, seeing that they were all identical. Getting mad, he sprinted in random directions. Finding a door, he smirked. "Too easy..." He walked in, and there was a bright flash of light.

He was at the beginning...

Tiger kicked the wall. "How am I supposed to find my way out of here now!"

That's when he remembered what the owl had said outside.

"K.C...K.C..."

That replayed in his mind for minutes, until his eyes shot open. He punched the wall hard, surprisingly not injuring himself. "K.C.: the Konami Code! God forgive me, for I am an idiot!" He looked straight ahead (which was up), and side stepped into the rooms: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right. As he entered the final room, he saw the 'S' again, and was about to explode. Just then, the doors sealed shut, and the 'S' turned into a skull. Two amorbus blobs of black poured from the eye sockets, turning into a humanoid figure...Ganondorf. Instead this time, the form wasn't a huge monster, or a phantom, instead it was a splitting image of the King of Evil himself, except in monotone grays and blacks.

"My past..." Tiger said to himself as the first Nightmare came after him, knocking him back with a shoulder block. The Nightmare pinned him down, and held its' hand infront of Tiger's face, a purple orb of evil energy forming. The end seemed to be neigh for the young warrior already.

But they say big things often come from small packages...

The Triforce on Tiger's hand began glowing estatically, and a wave of light blew the nightmare back, weakening it substancially. Tiger then went on the offensive, hitting him with everything he had, from kicks to the genitals to kicks to the head, from palm strikes to the stomach to punches right in the mouth. As the Nightmare fell to the ground, Tiger pinned it down and held his hand infront of the demon's face, the light of a Light Arrow concentrating into an orb much like Ganondorf's.

"The tables have turned, bitch!" Tiger yelled.

With that, the Nightmare resumed its' amorbus form, and went to the center of the room, taking an all too familiar shape: 5'5", black hat, boots, jeans, black shirt, long hair...the monster had transformed into none other than: Tiger.

The clone swiftly atacked the already worn out Tiger, hitting him with everything he could throw at it. From kicks to powerbombs, slamming Tiger's head into the wall to beating him within an inch of his life, the clone was doing one hell of a job against the young man. When it really turned ugly was when the arms turned into blades. It held both of them at Tiger's throat, ready to send his head flying backwards in a spray of blood and spinal fluid. That's when Tiger remembered what the croan said.

"...one of yourself,..."

"One of myself...defeat myself!" Tiger exclamed, and he closed his eyes, visualizing the clone to back off. When he opened his eyes, the demon did just that. Tiger smirked, this was about to get interesting.

Tiger's thoughts went ballistic, causing damage to the sorry monster that would make any other mortal's mind go hay-wire. The clone turned into a pretzel, got ripped in half, went flying into walls seemingly at random, just to name a few. After several hard slams against the walls, ceiling, and floor, the clone gave its' last breath of life before turning back into the blob state it once was. It cowered in the corner, seemingly frightened of Tiger, and obviously weaker than before.

Things then turned for the worst.

"What now, punk!" Tiger said in a pissed-off/cocky manner. "What now! What's up! Here you are, keeping my friend from waking up, doing God knows what else to the island, and now you're trying to kill me! Aww-naw son, it's about to get ugly!"

While Tiger was getting psyched up to kill it with his sword, the blob turned into another clone, this one completely unexpected, and at the last minute. Not only did it surprise Tiger, it blew him away. A bright flash of light appeared, and he ended up on the beach, wind in his face, the spray of the water, everything was as it was. He walked around, looking at the horizon, everything seemed normal. He looked to the sky, however, and saw that the marbly green was nowhere to be found. This made him kinda suspicious, but he shrugged it off.

He looked behind him and saw Marin looking at him. They ran towards each other and embraced, holding each other close and tight. They spoke of nothing, just kept there. When she placed her hand upon his cheek, however, something didn't feel right. His Triforce glowed brightly, and Marin's eyes began to glow red. Tiger pushed away from her, and she looked at him in a pissed off manner.

"What's wrong, my dear?" the Marin said in a strange tone of voice.

"You ain't Marin..." Tiger replied, realizing it was all a dream.

"Of course it ain't, bitch!" The shadow roared as they were suddenly in the room. The blob knocked Tiger back, and injested him. The blackness inside began to eat at Tiger like an acid, but so slowly that it'd take thousands of years to digest him. Tiger creamed in pain and agony, the Triforce glowing brighter and brighter as the pain intensified. "Give it up! You can never defeat me! Soon your succubus of a girlfriend will be all mine!" The demon said, following it with an evil cackle.

Wrong move...

Tiger unsheathed the sword, and began ripping at the insides of the demon. Writhing in pain and screaming in agony, the monster spit him out, and slid aagainst the corner, black goo bleeding from the mighty wound in the middle of it. Tiger seized the opportunity and made a break for it. With one flud movement, Tiger not only perfected Link's spin attack, he also disected the monster, both halves of gelatinous, black goo fell to te floor, sizzled for a few seconds, and finally disappeared. Tiger fell to his knees. At last, the fight was over.

All of a sudden, the smoke formed into the same skull design on the floor, and went through Tiger's body, sucking almost all the energy from him. Tiger fell to the floor, and passed out...