Okay, wow.

It's been waaaaaay over a year since I've updated this thing. Actually, it's been a good while since I've updated any of my stories. Hehehehe. Oops. I figured better late than never, and who knows? Even if I've lost some people, maybe I'll get a following of completely new readers!

Or not.

Either way, it's here. And I'll warn you-it ends on a cliffhanger. Don't worry though, I've gone into this kind of sort of Zelda-obsessing streak and hope to pump out the end of this fic by, say, February or so. Maybe March. It depends on how busy I get, being in high school with finals and all. .

So, read, and please please review. It's what keeps me going. Besides, if you don't review, then I don't think you're reading, and why should I put up my work if no one reads it?

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The graveyard?

She's got to be kidding.

Of course, I voice none of this as we make our way to the graveyard, Skye and Zelda chatting a few steps ahead of me. Navi's under my hat, listening intently to the conversation in front of us. I shuffle along behind them, somehow still in the stupid tunic that was my Halloween costume.

I bet it smells by now.

I bring an arm up to my face and take a wiff.

Oh yeah, it smells.

I really need to remember to change out of this thing next time I get home.

"This place is so different," Zelda says, looking around at the suburban part of Kakariko. I blink, realizing that we're near the graveyard. "Do you know where we're going?" She turns to me.

"Skye should, but if she doesn't, I do," I say.

"This way," Skye says to Zelda, and they turn, Skye shouting at me not to fall behind. "You said we need to look for an older part of the graveyard?"

Zelda nods. "A really old part of the graveyard," she says. "One that was around over a hundred years ago. Or, at least, I think it was a hundred years ago, I don't remember. When you know five or six lifetimes, the years start to blend."

"I can imagine," Skye says, looking shocked.

I don't say anything, but I'm sure it was over one hundred years ago. I mean, she's an age-old princess for crying out loud! "Erm, Zelda? How much farther is it to this Temple of Shadow place?"

"I'm not sure," Zelda replies. "As I said, we're looking for an old graveyard, but. . . ." She looks around at the cemetary that seems to have popped up around us out of nowhere in the last few moments. "I'm not sure this is it."

Skye hunches down and looks at one of the gravestones. "You're right. The years on this thing are recent."

Navi gulps. "H-how recent?"

"A couple years ago," Skye answers, looking at the headstones around her. She smirks. "You aren't telling me you're afraid of ghosts, are you?" Her grin widens as Navi turns a bright pink.

I think she's blushing.

"O-of course not!" She stutters, but out of fear or anger, I can't tell.

"She's not scared of ghosts!" I say, drawing abreast (or as about as abreast as you can be of a fairy) to Navi. I look over to the fairy. "Are you?"

"Nope!" Navi says, sticking her nose into the air in front of her. "Where would you get an idea like that? Honestly! I went through the Shadow Temple once before with you!" She crosses her tiny arms and glares at the other two females in the group. "See? Link believes in me!"

"He's the only one," Skye snickers.

"Shut up!" Navi shrieks.

"Come on, please," Zelda says, a pained look on her face. "We need to get to the Temple of Shadow. . . . "

"Let them bicker," I say, walking over and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. I don't notice her blush as I lead her away from Skye, who's grinning at Navi devilishly and the fairy who is glaring at her in return. "It's not worth the time. They'll catch up to us when they notice we're gone."

"You're sure?" Zelda asks, looking back at the other two.

"Yep."

An hour later, we run into the forest.

I blink stupidly as I stare into the treetops, wondering where the graveyard went and how we didn't notice that it was gone. Skye's crossing her arms, irritated, and I get the feeling that her irritation is aimed at Zelda. Navi's glaring at Skye, but because she's still mad at my partner or if it's because my partner's mad at Zelda, I'm not sure. The princess herself is looking around somewhat hopelessly at our surroundings.

"So . . . " Skye begins, and I wince. Zelda's going to get the telling-off of her life now. "We've been through the entire graveyard, and nothing strikes you as familiar. Are we sure you're not just playing dress-up and trying to fool us?"

Zelda frowns, and looks as if she's going to cry. "No! I swear it! Perhaps they moved it. . . . "

"Come on, Skye!" Navi scolds. "You should know better than that! Even if she's joking around with you, I'm not!"

"I don't believe it," Skye says, rather scathingly. Her eyes narrow, and I shiver, remembering how she was before I broke her of Twinrova's spell. "I should go home right now and forget this whole thing ever happened!"

"Skye, please," I say. "You've just been away from home too long, you're tired, you're hungry, just stay with us, please?"
"No," Skye snaps. "You'd be well to do what I am." She marches off.

"Skye!" I shout, making a move after her, but something stopped me. I looked back, and Zelda was latched onto my arm with a very timid look on her face. "What? What's wrong?"

"Please don't leave me alone." If I didn't know better, I'd say she looks scared. Very scared.

"I . . . won't," I say.

I'm confused.

Very confused.

Why is she acting like this?

"Thank you," Zelda says. She looks down at the ground for a moment, then lifts her face up to stare at mine. "Let's go then. Your friend doesn't have to come if she doesn't want to." She crosses her arms and marches forward.

"Hey, Zelda, are you sure that's even the right way?"

"I'm fine!"

"She's fine."

"Navi! Don't side with her!" I glare at the fairy, and manage to run strait into Zelda, who's stopped walking after her mad tirade into the forest. "Umph!" I look up at the solid figure that managed to knock me down. "Hey . . . what's up? Why'd we stop?"

"Something's . . . here. . . . "

"What's here?"

"It feels . . . so familiar," Zelda says, crossing her arms over her chest and closing her eyes. "It feels . . . like the Temple of Shadow."

"Around here?" I yelp, looking about us. "But . . . this is just a clearing in some forest! This isn't even a graveyard!"

A tiny hand slaps me, and I look up to see Navi floating there. "Think, Link. It's been some hundreds, maybe even a thousand years since the time we're talking about. The graveyard could have expanded, then moved as the graves got older and were forgotten."

"That seems to be the case," Zelda says as she kneels on the ground, pulling the underbrush aside from the space in front of her. My mouth falls open as a headstone is revealed. Zelda frowns. "This was the one in front of the temple. . . . Navi?"

"Gotcha," Navi says, flying up into the sky. I missed the unspoken question, because I had no idea what she was doing as her head whipped from side to side, as if she were looking for something.

"Hey," I say, "What's going on?"

"Just a minute," Zelda says, looking up at Navi, who, after a moment, comes down, nodding.

"It's there," Navi says. "We might have a little trouble getting to it, though."

"Getting to what!" I shriek in demand, insanely irritated with myself for not knowing something I should know, and at them for discussing something without informing me what it is. "What are we getting to?"

"The Temple of Shadow," Zelda explains after a moment. "I'm sorry, I keep forgetting you don't remember. Perhaps it would be better if you changed out of your tunic. . . . "

"It might," I huff. "It just might." There's silence for a few moments, and I can feel Zelda's discomfort radiating from her. "I'm sorry, I'm tired, I'm hungry. Let's just get this over with, okay?"

"Sounds good," Navi replies.

"There's a ledge," Zelda offers. "That the Temple of Shadow is on. Previously, it was inaccessable, but I think that with all these vines and undergrowth, we might be able to climb up it." To demonstrate, she grabs a handful of the vines, finds a foothold, and begins to haul herself up.

"How high is this ledge?" I ask, following her lead.

"Just high enough to be annoying," Zelda replies, and I look up.

And instantly look back down.

She's wearing a dress, you dolt, my mind says to me.

We climb, and within five minutes, Zelda offers me her hand to help me up over the edge of the cliff. Up here, the trees are still fairly thick, but not as much as the rest of the forest, and I get the same feeling here that I did in the Temple of Time. Zelda frowns, but before I can ask her, she walks forward, and pulls some vines away, revealing a cave entrance.

"And here's why I'm glad I have you," I say. "Otherwise, I'd be lost."

"And I'm chopped liver?" Navi questions.

"More or less," I comment. She smacks me lightly as we begin to desend into the cave. There are stairs, which, under normal circumstances, I would think was weird, but, with everything that's happened over the past forty-eight hours or so, I don't. "So, Zel, is this stone down in this cave?"

"The cave leads to the Temple of Shadow," Zelda says. "And the stone should be in the temple."

"Should be?"

"They might have been retrieved over the years," she explains. "Haven't I told you all of this before?"

"Yeah, you might have," I say. "But I forget things easily, so you should prepare to say it again." We came to the bottom of the stairs, into a large cavern with another cave door leading into darkness.

Guess that's why they call it the Temple of Shadow.

Sure is dark.

And scary.

But I'm not scared. Nope.

"Come on," I say. "Let's go." I lead the way into the temple, Zelda and Navi following close behind. I instantly register it as odd that there was enough light around us to brighten where we were walking, but everything beyond a certain point was black. Navi occasionally tried to fly ahead, thinking to make the light bigger, but flew back almost instantly, claiming the dark gave her the shivers.

"You'd think," Zelda says after a while, breaking the silence and looking around. "That this place would have more traps."

"Traps?" I question, my voice catching on the word.

"Nothing serious," Navi reassures me. "Just really really big holes and false walls. Things like that."

"Oh, I feel so much better knowing that's it," I say sarcastically. "I'm guessing that this stone is at the bottom of the dungeon?"

"Bongo Bongo's layer, more than likely," Zelda says. "Let's just hope he's not alive after this long."

Alive?
Oh, boy, I hope he's not alive.

"So, how do we get there?"

"POE!" Navi screeches, and Zelda and I duck as the ghost flies over us. "Anyone wanna guess we follow that thing?"

"Can't hurt too much, can it?" I retort, getting to my feet and giving chase.

"Well, actually, it can," Navi replies, but she and Zelda are at my heels anyway. The Poe leads us through a series of dusty hallways, some of which have caved in, and we have to make our way around the rubble.

"Watch out!" Zelda yelps, suddenly pulling me away from where I was about to step.

"What?" I ask. There's a dull thud, and a black platform, the bottom of which is covered by spikes, lands where I had just been. "Thanks."

"I don't remember this in the temple," Navi says. "Obviously the Sheikah updated it before they died out."

"More than likely," Zelda replies. "Link, be on your guard."

"Yeah, I kind of realized that after I nearly got smushed," I retort. Looking back at the black platform, I shake my head. "Come on, let's get out of here."

The temple, I soon realize, is pretty much empty and deserted. I guess Ganondorf and the Sheikahs found it pretty useless to guard after some point. There are still some traps, but they're easy to spot, and even easier to avoid (as long as you aren't in a dress, like Zelda is) Finally, after digging our way through another collapsed part of a tunnel, we find ourselves in a dead end.

"What now?"

"There's a hole in the floor," Zelda states, pointing.

That's odd, why would there be a random hole here?"

"That must be the hole that leads to Bongo-Bongo's layer," Navi says, hovering above us, looking down at the entrace with a trace of curiosity and fear.

"You remember it?" I ask.

"Hard to forget," Navi replies, wincing. "At one point during the fight, he grabbed me and threw me all the way across the room into the wall. It hurt."

"Sounds like," I comment. I notice that Zelda's silent, and all Navi and I are doing is prolonging the wait time. No matter how much we stand up here and chat, that thing's either down there waiting for us or has left the stone for us. Or neither, but I don't want to think about what would happen if that was the case. I swallow hard.

It's now or never.

"Let's go," I mumble, my lips barely forming the words. "Or we'll never get around to it." I take a deep breath. "I'll jump first, okay? If I shout that it's safe, follow me." I exhale quickly, then take another deep breath, gathering up my courage. I shut my eyes tight, mumble a prayer to the goddesses, and jump.