Chapter 2 Afraid of the Dark
I have returned with the second chapter to this book. Happy are we? This is getting exciting for me. This story is even darker than 'Darkness Fall's on Mineral Town.' I'm very happy that I had this very most wonderful idea.
A flash of lighting. A roar of thunder. Link immediately awoke from his sleep, and sat up in his bed. He looked to the window, where the curtain was drawn back, so the light from the bright snakes of light shot through the room each time they struck. Link looked around the dark room, searching the darkness all the while hoping not to see the face of a hidden enemy.
"Link," said Navi in a motherly tone as she floated out from his hat. "Are you okay? You look a little distressed."
"Don't worry about me Navi," Link said coldly. "I'm fine."
Navi was surprised at the harshness in Link's tone.
"Are you afraid of the dark?" Navi said, trying to say it without causing offense, but Link took this completely the wrong way.
"I am not afraid of the dark!" Link said angrily, even though he knew it wasn't true.
"Then what are you afraid of?" Navi asked, clearly concerned.
Link didn't say anything, but he knew what the answer was. Navi did as well.
"You should be afraid Link," Navi said. "After all, you know it's out there."
"I am not afraid," Link said as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
"It is foolish to never feel fear," Navi said.
"What reason would I have to be afraid?"
"You know why you should be afraid," Navi said. "It is still out there. It is looking for you. Who knows how long it will be until it finds you."
"I have avoided it so far. Why should it catch up to me now."
"Because it will not give up. It has no reason to give up. Sooner or later, you will have to face it."
Link layed back down in the bed, and pulled the covers up to his chin. He then tried to get back asleep, but sleep was not easy.
Link awoke again the next morning, but not to song birds. As he opened his eyes he noticed the dark gray haze visible through the window. It was a dark morning.
"Doesn't it ever clear up around here?" Link asked, looking out the window at the dark clouds covering the sky.
Link then dressed himself before walking out from his room into the kitchen. The gatekeeper was sitting at the table. Two places were set, one for him, and one for Link. Both plates had two pieces of bacon on them as well as two fried eggs and a piece of bread.
"Up and awake I see," the gatekeeper said. "You are a late sleeper I see."
"Yeah," Link said in response to the man's odd comment.
"I've been up since it was just getting light again," the man said. "The job as a gatekeeper can be demanding at times. Gotta open the gates early in the morning, and gotta close them late at night. But I adapt you see. I adapt. I gotta turn back people who have been tainted by the darkness, even when they really need a place to stay. But I don't have a choice. A line must be drawn somewhere, and I can't compromise the safety of the village. You think one of them's gonna be okay, and then he goes and kills someone. Then we all rally together, and hunt down the killer and stop him before he can kill anymore. Or then their are those who have tried to bring Poes into the town with them. You can often feel the presence within them."
"So then shouldn't you be out... screening the new arrivals?" Link asked.
"Nah, not many people come to this town very often. Only every once in a while. Their is a guard at the entrance who watches for new arrivals during the day. He calls me up each time a new person arrives. Then I have to go through the long process of checking them. You meet a nice man, who tells a horrible story about his family all being murdered by the Poes, and how he has come to take refuge in our town. Then you check him, and find that he carries a Poe with him. The Poes are not his enemies, one is his friend. He may not know that this creature which travels with him is a Poe, or is evil, but even still, we must turn him back. Sooner or later, unless he realizes the identity of his "friend," and gets rid of it, the Poe will slowly turn him evil. It will poison his soul, and turn him against us."
Link looked up at this. There was that word again. Soul. Link had often heard people speaking at funerals, saying the dead man/woman had "gone to a better place." Link always was angered when they said this. He did not believe in souls. He disbelieved in them so much that he had come to resent those who did.
"Or maybe their brain," Link challenged, with a smirk.
"Excuse me?" the gatekeeper asked, not understanding what Link meant.
"Maybe the Poe poisons his brain."
"True true," the man said, "it does that. But it also strikes at the soul."
Link rolled his eyes.
"Unfortunately," the man continued, "some Poes have still managed to penetrate our village. Luckily the number is down to a minimum, considering the rest of Hyrule, but it is still significant. They are concentrated in the graveyard, and don't dare leave it. For when they leave, they are discovered, and I am called upon to get rid of the Poe."
"So these Poes, they live in the graveyard?"
"Oh yeah," the Gatekeeper said nodding. "Every once in a while I go in there to cast some of them away. We gotta keep the numbers of them down, or they could invade the town."
"How do you... cast them away?" Link asked. "You keep saying that, but I don't understand what you mean?"
"Poes can't be destroyed by physical attacks," the gatekeeper said, causing Link to roll his eyes. "So they must be cast away through other means."
"Other means?"
"Do you remember last night when I healed you?" the man said.
"Yes."
"Did you notice I was murmuring something? Well, what I murmured was no magic spell or black sorcery. Such tools come from the powers of evil. I was not chanting some sort of divination. I was calling upon the Lord of Light."
"Lord of Light?"
"Ganondwarf's enemy. All who are with the Lord of Light are against Ganondwarf. That's what I meant last night when I said that you had to ally yourself with the powers of good to fight Ganondwarf. You are no true enemy of his unless you are allied with his enemy."
"I am the enemy of Ganondwarf," Link snapped. "I am his greatest enemy. I am collecting the Six Medallions which will cast him away from this world!"
The gatekeeper shook his head.
"I'm afraid those Medallions will be no more than children's toys when wielded by someone who is not an ally of good. The Medallions only obey the commands of good."
Link stood up, and turned for the door.
"Where are you going?" the gatekeeper asked.
Link turned.
"To prove once and for all that these Poes can, and will be defeated by physical attacks."
"No," the gatekeeper said, standing up. "If you go out there you will be massacred."
"Don't do this Link," Navi said, popping out of his hat. "What the man says is true. Believe him."
Link ignored her pleas, and turned for the door. Link walked through the town, warily watching the dark gray mourning sky. This certainly wasn't natural darkness that had come upon the land. And those clouds did not appear to have formed naturally. Finally, at the far end of the town, Link found the entrance to the graveyard. He calmly walked forward, into the domain of the dead.
"Don't do this Link," Navi said.
"Quiet," Link replied, as he quietly stepped towards the ancient graveyard, careful not to make any noise.
The air was misty, and seemed darker than it had been back in the village. Now an unnatural silence hung overhead, for no one came in here. The silence seemed suspenseful, and sacred, so Link was careful not to disturb it. Before him stood the lonely grave stones of those long dead. Cold, gray tablets carved out of rock, with the names of those lying deep in the ground below them etched in the smooth surface. Link took a step forward. The eerie silence consumed him. Another step. Then a low, mournful howl echoed from somewhere far away, erasing the silence from the cold land. Then it happened. Link's attention was turned towards the ground in front of one of the stones. A hazy, clear gas seemed to be flowing out from a hole in the ground. It hissed as it came out, slowly rising up from the stone, and forming into a shape. It was a Poe. It cackled like some demon, and slowly began to float around the graveyard. Its face was cold, black, and lifeless. Its eyes glowed yellow in the misty air. In its rotten hands it clutched an ancient lantern, from which a dark flame emerged.
Link drew his sword. The Poe turned to the Hero of Time as it heard the cold steel of his blade sliding through the scabbard. The Poe chuckled evilly, and began floating towards Link.
"It's a Spirit," Navi whispered. "It cannot be killed."
Link raised his sword above his head, and ran towards the Poe. Then he leaped, and stabbed, but the Poe was not there to receive the blow.
"Where did it go?" Link asked, as he pulled his blade up from the earth.
Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his back as the Poe burned him with its supernatural flame. Link screamed, and swung his blade around again. This time his blade connected with his enemy. The Poe screeched as its flesh began to dissolve in a strange blue flame. Then, it winked out, and was gone. But a strange purple flame appeared in its place. The purple flame had a face in it.
"That's it," Navi said, "that's the Poe's spirit! I told you, but you didn't listen to me. You destroyed its physical form, but it is still here! You can not destroy a spirit!"
"We'll see about that," Link said, pulling an empty bottle from his back pack. He then swept the Poe Spirit into the flask, and quickly shoved the lid back on the bottle.
"I've got it here in this cup," Link said. "It can't escape from here. It is my prisoner."
"You cannot bind a spirit anymore than you can bind a soul," Navi said. "You do not have the authority."
"Shut up," Link said, before walking off through the graveyard.
"You don't believe me?" Navi said, flying after Link. "Then why is there a reason to be afraid of the dark?"
Link stopped walking, and turned to look at the tiny fairy. For a moment, silence reigned as Link gathered his thought's together.
"Do not speak about that," Link said. "I am not afraid of the dark."
Silent, haunting memories slowly moved through Link's brain. He knew what Navi referred to, but he didn't want to believe it.
Like it? Now more problems arrive. More spiritual battles and crap. Who is right? Navi, or Link? And why is it necessary to be afraid of the dark? What more awaits them in the cold graveyard? See you gents and ladies later.