Chapter 3

Help! Thieves!

The next day Link and Zelda went to some old ruins that had been rumored to tell of the Temple of Time. When they got to the spot they didn't see anything.

"Darn! I thought for sure that it would be here." Link said frustrated. Just then Link saw a small cave and went to see it. He kicked some dirt away and the cave proved to be quite roomy. "Hey Zelda I found the cave!" Link shouted.

"That's great let's go take a look."

So when they went in and found the inscription they were looking for. It read, "The Temple of Time is a holy place where only those who find the three pieces of the Triforce may enter. The locations of the pieces are in the Temple of Fire, the Temple of Earth, and the Temple of Water. Only then can you take the test of time. If you manage to enter you will have an opportunity to get to the Golden Realm."

"Well I guess I have to find those three temples"

"Let me come along with you. I've been in these woods for so long, please." Zelda begged.

"I don't know, it's going to be dangerous, you could get hurt or even killed." Link protested.

"But I can help you. I mean you'd be dead if I hadn't saved you." she insisted.

"Good point, fine come along." Link agreed. So the two of them set off on the long journey ahead of them. They stopped at a town along the way and Zelda bought some new clothes. She bought a light pink dress.

"Well, what do you think?" Zelda asked.

"It… um looks… nice" Link said nervously. The only girl he knew was Saria, but she wore the same style cloths as Link did. As they were leaving the town they noticed a sign. It had an arrow pointing down a certain trail. It read this way to the Desert of Zinn.

"You don't think the Temple of Fire would be, do you." asked Zelda.

"It's a good place to start." Link suggested. So the two set off down the road. After a while of walking the scenery became very dry and the vegetation became very sparse. Soon there was nothing but sand dunes. The two trudged along in the dry beating sun.

"I'm so thirsty… I need water." Zelda said dryly.

The two of them had been walking almost all day and the sun was starting to set.

"Link… help." Zelda said weakly. As Link turned to see her she collapsed.

"Zelda!" Link shouted. He picked up her unconscious body and began to walk again. Two hours later Link saw a small oasis in the distance. He ran towards it and to his luck he found a small lake in the middle. He immediately splashed some on Zelda's face to wake her up. It worked, she weakly opened her eyes. Link cupped his hand and poured the water into her mouth. After a while she started to rejuvenate.

"Where are we." she asked weakly.

"I found an oasis I figured we should stop here for a while to rest up, Zelda." said Link. Little did they know that a band of criminals was using the oasis as a hideout.

"Hey Boss a couple of travelers found our hide-out. From the look

of it they got some rupees on 'em" said one of the bandits.

"Then how about we pay them a little visit. Send in the men!" said the head bandit.

The next morning Link woke up with a big bump on the back of his head. He found that his money had been taken along with all his weapons. Then he looked over and saw that Zelda was also missing. After looking around for a while he discovered tracks in the sand. "Hmm, it looks like three or four big sets of tracks, and look one pair looks like its been dragged which meant that whoever was here took Zelda by force." Link thought to himself.

He followed the tracks to a hidden tunnel, whoever these thieves were they weren't very smart. Link cautiously entered the tunnel, without his weapons he was at a huge disadvantage. Then Link heard someone walking his way so he ran to hide, but he was too late the thief had spotted him. "Hey, you stop right there!" yelled the thief. He was really large around the waist and had a small baldhead. Link would have laughed if he hadn't seen that the fat guy had his weapons.

"Try and make me." Link said. The thief looked at Link and said.

"Ahh, so you came back for the girl and your weapons. Well you can try if you get past me." So the fight began, Link waited for the thief to lunge. When he did Link swung to the side, but he didn't move enough and got knocked to the floor. The thief was running toward him so Link kicked him just below the knees making him crash to the ground hard. He rocked back and forth trying to get up. When he finally managed to get up Link and the thief started throwing blows at each other. Then Link saw a deep crack in the cave floor and began to get the thief into position to push him into it. With a couple of powerful punches he got the thief right into position. And then tripped the thief who fell into the huge crack never to be seen again. Then he took back his weapons. Which the thief dropped when he fell.

Link was walking through the tunnels he heard someone struggling in some chains and began to hurry in the direction it was coming from. At that moment he felt a sharp sting and when he looked he saw a dart sticking into his leg. Then he began to feel weak and disoriented. Just then the leader of the thieves approached Link. His skin was an unnatural light blue color and his long white hair was bound in ponytail. He wore what looked like a pirate hat and light armor. His eyes were the strangest things about him, they didn't have irises or pupils, they were just white balls.

"Well, well what have we here. A poisoned elf looking for his girl, heh, heh, heh. Too bad you will never make it to her. Now prepare to fight!" the leader of the thieves shouted in a raspy voice. With that Link drew his sword. But he felt very weak because of the poison. The leader of the thieves, whose name was Crevase, drew two swords. One seemed to glow with a dark aura.

With that he started advancing to the poisoned Link. Then he swung his mighty blade, which shattered Link's shield to splinters on the ground.

"Now what?" Link said aloud.

"Now you and your girlie DIE!" Crevase yelled.

"Link, help me. Please don't give up." said a familiar voice.

It seemed that the sound of Zelda's voice seemed to rejuvenate Link. Because with that he got up and started to fight. Link attacked again and again with no breaks so that he didn't give Crevase a chance to attack. Link struck a blow that was extremely painful for Crevase. His smaller sword fell from his bleeding arm. In agony he began swinging wildly. Link dodged all the wild slices. One of his swings struck a rock and got his sword stuck. Link took the opportunity to strike. He didn't believe in backstabbing so he kicked the thief over and then stabbed him.

"Hey, you did it Link. Now how about getting me out of these chains." said Zelda. As he walked towards her he noticed that she had been struggling so much that she actually made her wrists bleed. He untied her he went to where the thief was and looked at the sword. It had stopped glowing red and black and looked just like any other sword, but Link knew what he saw. So he took hold of the sword's hilt. As he did the sword began to glow again, but this time started glowing with a bright white and yellow light.

"I've read about this mythical sword that searches the heart of its user and reflects it as an aura of either light or darkness. This depends on the intentions of those who try to harness its unmatched power." explained Zelda. "So those with good intentions, like yourself, it'll glow white and becomes more powerful against those who wish to do evil." she explained.

So after they spent the night back at the oasis they set out for the temple. The next day they were walking and noticed a strange pair of tracks that seemed to have been turned into glass because of heat. They just kept following the tracks until they came upon a huge castle structure.