Chapter 4 Sheikah Witch

Hey everybody. Hows it going on? Come on people, I only so far got one reviewer who has reviewed for all three chapters, and more than just that person have read this story, so why didn't you guys leave some nice reviews? C'mon, be nice. Okay, so Ri2 is my only reviewer, so this chapter is dedicated to Ri2. All hail Ri2. Noble reviewer of this story. And Ri2, several of your questions will be answered in this one.

It took a while for it to happen. Perhaps ten minutes. But finally, Link groaned for a final time, and opened his eyes. Navi bounced up and down in the air with glee.

"You're awake!" she said excitedly. "I was so worried!"

"What happened?" Link mumbled.

He then looked down, and saw with horror that the yellow blade was still protruding out of his stomach.

"Holy crap!" Link tried to leap up to his feet, but tumbled back down in a heap when a pain shot through his stomach.

"This is one of the thing's that I tried to warn you about," Navi said. "Don't you remember fighting the Poes?"

"I think I do," Link said. "I remember that I killed one, and the other one slashed me with its torch and... and then... chaos. That's all I remember."

"What do you mean by chaos?"

"It felt like something was tearing at me, trying to pull me away from something that I didn't want to lose. And then, all of a sudden, I awoke here."

"The second Poe stabbed you through the stomach with that," Navi gestured at the yellow blade which jutted out from Link's stomach.

"Is it some kind of weapon?" Link asked. "If it is, then why doesn't blood pour out from the wound?"

"This weapon does not attack the body," Navi said. "It attacks the soul. You have been hooked by a Hergon blade. In the tongue of fairies and Poes Hergon means certain death. It was lucky enough that I was able to fight the Poes off before they could use it properly. This blade was designed to hook into the souls of a Poe's victim. Then all the Poe must do is pull the blade out, along with the soul, and the person will be dead. It's like fishing, except with a much deadlier hook. Once the bond's between your body and your spirit are severed, then you will be completely dead. No hospital or medic will ever be able to help you ever again."

"Or any fairy," Link said. "Can't you take this out of me Navi?"

Navi sighed, and shook her head.

"This is beyond my skill to heal. The blade is lodged fast, and I cannot even touch it without hurting myself. It is tainted with evil."

"But you're a fairy!" Link said. "Don't you have special powers?"

"My power's are those endowed by the Lord of Light."

"Oh right," Link said sarcastically. "Tell me, is this Lord of Light some kind of King of Fairies?"

"I guess you could say that," Navi said. "But he is King of more than just the fairies."

"Wait. What happened to the Poes?"

"I banished them from this world," Navi said.

"You what? You can fight? Why didn't you tell me before! You could have been more help when we were fighting Volvagia."

"He is a physical being," Navi said. "There is little I can do against them. But Poes, and other spiritual beings that are not on the side I am on, are against me. And I can, and will fight them."

"Then why didn't you fight them when we were out in Hyrule Field?"

"Because there were too many of them. When they are together like that, even I cannot withstand their power. And they would not attack me, unless I attacked them. So in order to prevent myself from being taken by the power's of darkness, I did not fight them."

"How can I get this blade out of me," Link said, gesturing at the Hergon blade. "It's burning me."

"Only the Lord of Light can remove it," Navi said. "You will have to come to terms with the Lord of Light before you can get it removed."

"Dangit!" Link shouted. "There has to be a way to get it out!"

He could feel the sword hooked in his stomach. He could feel it like a hot metal pike sticking into him. He could feel it like he felt when his heart began to burn in fury or in pain. He could feel it when he felt he had been hurt one to many times.

Link then turned and looked over at the altar.

"What's that anyways?" Link asked.

"I think it's an altar to Ganon," Navi said.

"Do you mean Ganondorf?" Link said, annoyed.

"No I mean Ganon," Navi said. "Ganon the dark creature. Ganon the demon from far away. Ganon has come to Hyrule and manifested itself as Ganondorf, the King of the Gerudo's. You know a male Gerudo is only born every five hundred years. Ganondorf was born prematurely. Only three hundred years had passed."

"Oh," Link said. "I gotta go see if I can get this thing removed. But first, let's get out of this tomb."

Link forgot to consider the fact that there was an altar to Ganon in the middle of the tomb of the Sheikah, of all people. The Sheikah who had saved the King of Hyrule in the Torenian wars. The warrior's who had stopped the kidnappers of Princess Zelda when she was a child. And as such, her guardian was one of them. One of the Sheikah. Impa, who was well respected and loved in Hyrule Castle.

Link used his hookshot to pull himself out of the grave, and Navi just flew out. But immediately after they were out, the gravestone reappeared over the hole, as if it had never disappeared. Link wondered if perhaps the coffins had been shut again as well.

"Navi," Link said. "Tell me truthfully. Isn't there a way to get this sword out of me?"

"Not without the Lord of Light," Navi said.

"I don't believe in no dang Lord of Light," Link said furiously. "I don't believe in anything but what I can see and touch."

"There is a way to remove it."

Link and Navi both jumped as they heard the strange voice. They both turned, and saw a cloaked figure walking towards them. The strange person had her hood pulled up over her head, hiding her face from view. Her voice sounded like that of an old person, but she walked down the pathway through the graveyard with ease.

"Through the blue fire of Yenarame you will be freed from it's grip," she said. "All I must do is touch your forehead, and you will be healed."

The strange old lady came closer and closer, with her hand outstretched.

"Link," Navi said. "Is this such a good idea?"

"She says she can heal me," Link said. "I'll take this blue fire of Yenarame if it will heal me."

The lady was closer.

"One thing bother's me," Navi said.

"What's that," Link said angrily. "Your Lord of Light ain't a part of this? C'mon Navi! I can't possibly believe that just because something doesn't have your Lord of Light means that it isn't good!"

"All power's that do not come from the Lord of Light come from one other source, and that is Ganon."

"Sure Navi," Link said. "Right. That's so old age. That was the past, this is the present. We are no longer bound to stupid laws like that."

"Call them stupid if you want," Navi said, "but that still doesn't change the fact that the Yenarame means eternal slavery in Fairy and Poe tongue."

"What?" Link said, turning to his fairy.

Suddenly a figure charged into the Graveyard, right up to the old cloaked woman, who was now reaching out towards Link's face. The old lady whirled around, and tossed off her cloak. The other man stopped right before her, and looked her in the eye. It was the Gatekeeper. But the old lady didn't look so old anymore. In fact, she looked rather young, considering she was middle aged. Her hair was silver colored, and her eyes looked similar to those of Impa. Her hair was cut short, in a small poney tail.

"Enja," the Gatekeeper said seriously. "How many times have I warned you about the spell of Yenarame? It is of darkness, not of light. It holds a power that you do not understand. Time after time I have warned you, but you refuse to listen to me. This is the last straw. Leave this village, and don't come back until you have given up your evil ways, and stopped your practice in the dark arts."

"Why should I listen to you Gatekeeper?" the girl said. "After all, you are just an old man who opens the gate every morning and every night. What do you know about magic?"

"More than you know," the Gatekeeper said, "that's for sure."

"Fine then!" the lady challenged. "Show me how great your Lord of Light is. Show me his powers! Throw yourself off of the top of Death Mountain, and the Lord of Light will save you, right? If he is so great, then let him show his greatness."

"I will not tempt him," the Gatekeeper said. "I will not waste his power on some trivial matter. You know that. Now, out!"

The lady, whose name obviously was Enja walked over towards the exit, as if obeying the Gatekeeper's commands. The Gatekeeper turned to follow her. Then, a pain shot through Link's stomach through the Hergon blade, and he fell to the ground and moaned. As soon as he moaned, a dark presence came upon Enja, and her eyes took on a look of pure evil. The Gatekeeper fell to the ground, and a bolt of black flame shot over him. Enja drew her hand around, and fired another blast at the Gatekeeper, who rolled to the side to escape it's wrath. Enja then shot another blast towards the Gatekeeper, and both Link and Navi knew that he could not dodge this one. The Gatekeeper just held his hand up as if somehow that could keep the black flame away from his face. Enja cried out in bloodlust as the fire consumed the Gatekeeper. The fire grew stronger, thicker, and mightier, scorching through the air and grass. Enja laughed, and increased the power. The Gatekeeper was gone, lost from sight as the fire cascaded into him.

Link was lost for words. So far, one of the only people who had been nice to him since he had traveled seven years into the future had just been incinerated. As much as Link disagreed with this man, he still felt badly as he watched him burn. Navi seemed even more shocked than Link. Enja then dropped her hands, and the fire diminished. But imagine her surprise when she saw the Gatekeeper sitting on the ground, unharmed by the flames. He was still holding his hand up, and from it a shining shield of white light had formed around him.

"The Lord of Light has spared me from your flames," the Gatekeeper said as he stood back up, the white shield still encircling him.

He then began walking towards Enja.

"Poe, spirit of darkness," he said, "I command you in the name of the Lord of Light to leave this girl and never return to her."

Enja shuddered, and backed away.

"What's he doing?" Link asked.

"Shhh," Navi said. "He's facing down the Poe which is in that girl."

"What?"

"You take those who wallow in the mud," the Gatekeeper said, his face filled with righteous indignation. "You rule over those who have fallen out. You persecute those who have no hope. But now your days of terror are done. Too long have you had a grip on our world, forcing people to do as you wish. Forcing people to help the powers of evil. But now that has all come to an end!"

The Gatekeeper came closer. Enja picked up a rock from the ground, and chucked it at the Gatekeeper. He moved his head to the side, and it shot past his ear.

"In the name of the Lord of Light I rebuke you!" the Gatekeeper shouted. "Go back to the darkness from which you turned against the world. Leave this world, and never return. Nio cay entrana."

Enja shrieked.

"Nu hera thorda," the Gatekeeper said. "I send you back! Back to your dark world!"

"If I go," Enja said, in a deep, raspy voice that did not belong to her, "Enja will die!"

"You will not kill her!" the Gatekeeper shouted, pointing towards Enja, "you will never kill any one again. Now! Begone! Before I call upon the Lord of Light to let his wrath fall upon you!"

Enja shrieked, and fell to the ground. Her body then began to shake, as if in a seizure. Then, with a final shudder, she lay still. The Gatekeeper ran to her side, and placed his hand against her neck.

"Is she dead?" Link asked.

"No," the Gatekeeper replied. "She is more alive than she was five minutes ago. She has been freed. But now she must decide what she will do with her freedom."

Enja groaned, and opened her eyes.

"What..."

"I have freed you from the Poe that had taken you," the Gatekeeper said. "You are now free."

"You took away him?" Enja said, outraged. "You took away my guardian! He gave me divine power! He taught me the ways of peace!"

"He taught you the ways of evil, cleverly disguised as the ways of good," the Gatekeeper said. "A Poe does not work for the good of man."

"You lie!" Enja snapped. "He was not a Poe!"

With that, she leapt to her feet, and punched the Gatekeeper lightly in the shoulder. Then her eyes widened as if she had expected him to falter, and fall to the ground in pain and agony. But the Gatekeeper did not move.

"My powers..."

"Gone," the Gatekeeper said. "Black sorcery disappears with its source. You are no longer a way for the Poe to channel his dark energies."

Enja shouted, and smacked the Gatekeeper on his right cheek. She then struck him on the left cheek. The Gatekeeper just took all this in stride, without moving, or attempting to stop her.

"If you knew the truth you would thank me," the Gatekeeper said, wincing under her blows.

Enja stopped, and ran towards the exit of the graveyard. A dark shadow stepped out from behind a gravestone, and followed after her. The Gatekeeper immediately raised his hand into the air, and a beam of bright light shot out of it, and struck the shadow. The shadow moaned, and dissolved in a fury of blue fire. Enja turned around, and gasped when she saw the bolt of bright light dissolve the Poe. Then the Poe's remains disappeared, and its spirit appeared in its place. Enja turned, and ran as fast as she could for the exit.

Link didn't know what to think of all this. Now he wasn't sure that he could trust this Gatekeeper any more. He had just cast away this girl's guardian, or whatever it was.

"What was that shadow," Link asked.

"A 'guardian' as she would say," the Gatekeeper said. "It was a Poe. It wanted to take her now that I had removed her old Poe."

"I thought she said it was a guardian."

"She thinks that it was a guardian."

"Who was that girl?" Navi asked.

"One of the last remaining members of the Sheikah," the Gatekeeper said.

"But I thought the Sheikah were good?" Link said.

"Did you read the gravestone?"

"Yes."

"Note that it said: "now fallen into darkness..." The Sheikah were once a great and wonderful people. But in the later years, they began delving into black sorcery, and witchcraft. They opened the door to the Poes and the dark forces of Ganon. That is how they first entered our village. It was because of the Sheikah. The King warned his guardians to cease their witchcraft and devilry, but they did not listen."

"What happened to them? I entered their tomb, and the bodies were far from intact."

"They subjected themselves to the powers of Ganon, and that power consumed them. And then it destroyed them. I don't know what will happen to Enja. She will most likely leave the village, and wander Hyrule. Unless she turns from the ways of Ganon, he will find her and he will take her."

The Gatekeeper then noticed the yellow blade extending out from Link's stomach.

"Oh no," he said in terror as he saw the blade. "This is not good. You shouldn't have come out here Link. The Poe's are attracted to this place because it is a place of death. The Poe's sometimes feed off of the corpses."

"Is that why the Sheikah bones were the way they were."

"What were they like?" the Gatekeeper asked. "I have never been down there."

"In some coffins there were no bones. In others there were only a few, and they were most often broken in pieces."

"No," the Gatekeeper replied. "Poe's feed off of the flesh, not the bones. They would never damage a skeleton. But the point is not what the Poe's do to the dead. The point is that you have a Hergon in your stomach. Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah yeah," Link said. "I heard enough about it from the fairy."

"Your fairy told you?" the Gatekeeper said, emphasizing the your. "This can't be healed by anyone but the Lord of Light."

"Then tell that idiot to get down here," Link said impatiently. "I haven't got all day. When is he gonna heal me?"

"You expect too much of others, Hero of Time," the Gatekeeper said. "You automatically expect that the Lord of Light should heal you, and you haven't even asked him too. When people are dying, and someone heals them, do they complain about how long it took for the person to heal them? No. They thank their healer profusely, and are very nice to them."

Link just turned for the exit.

"I gotta get out of this dang town!" he said. "All this Lord of Light crap makes me sick. You guy's ought to grow up and stop believing these children's stories. Especially you," he pointed at the Gatekeeper. "Imagine, a middle aged man believing in a mighty guy in the sky who will help him out in times of trouble."

"Then explain the Triforce," the Gatekeeper said softly. "Explain how it came into being."

"Well, the Princess told me a story back when I was a child," Link began. "She said that the Triforce was born at the beginning of time. It was forged as a test for the world. Would they embrace good, or evil. If they chose to follow evil, then the Triforce would be taken by the Dark Lord."

"The Dark Lord is Ganon," the Gatekeeper said.

"Right. Anyways, the world would then be plunged into darkness. Monster's would overrun the earth, and Ganon would take the throne."

"But there is something else in the legend," the Gatekeepers said with a smile. "The Triforce was created by the Lord of Light. For he knew that man would not follow him. He knew that in our desire for power, and our greed we would turn against him. Then he would allow his enemy, Ganon, to take the throne. But he left hope for the world of man. It is said that behind the doors of the Temple of Time exists the weapon which has the potential to strike down Ganon. One man will wield it, and in the name of the Lord of Light, he will seal away the darkness which took the land."

"Well that sure as heck ain't gonna be me," Link said with a huff. "I don't believe in the Lord of Light."

"That's what I'm worried about," the Gatekeeper said. "You hold the master sword, and you do not believe in the Lord of Light. So then who will strike down Ganondorf?"

"I will," Link said. "Without the help of your dang Lord of Light."

"You will never make it into Ganondorf's castle with that sword in your stomach," the Gatekeeper said. "Ganon is stronger than his Poe servants. He could yank your soul from your body with one mighty pull."

"Then I will remove it," Link said.

With that, he turned, and walked towards the exit.

"Where are you going Link?" Navi asked.

"Lon Lon Ranch," Link replied.

Navi flew after him. The Gatekeeper just stood there, watching the two of them go. He sighed heavily, and smiled. Link did not believe in the Lord of Light. But he carried the Master Sword, so there still was hope for him. There still was hope.

"Bless you Link, Hero of Time," the Gatekeeper said quietly to himself. "May you find welcoming arms away from harm. And bless you Navi. In the name of the Lord of Light, keep him always safe."

Now that Navi was gone, Poes began to come up from the gravestones to watch the two of them leave. Their cold, lifeless eyes watched them with a longing for a better life. A desire for acceptance, and a desire for pleasure. But bound they were, now that they had sold themselves away. And they would not turn from there ways. The Gatekeeper turned and glared at all of them. The Poes shrunk back out into the shadows again, not wishing to look upon the Gatekeeper.

Had to make my own Triforce legend. Sorry to those of you who preferred the original, but I'm not a big fan of the whole three Goddess legendy (not very interesting) and it was necessary for this story for me to change it. So whatcha guys think? Good eh? Bad eh? Suggestions? So now Link's got a hook in his soul, and he just saw a Sheikah that is supposedly bad, and Link is now beginning to wonder if he can really trust this gatekeeper guy. Yeah, what do you guys think about the Gatekeeper. Can he be trusted? And did you all like the whole "Poe takes control of person" thingy? Got idea for some of that part from LOTR The Two Towers when Saruman takes control of Theoden. Now inspirational quote from "Young Frankenstein", and I'm outa here.

Dr. Frankenstei: "Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I put in?"

Igor: "And you won't be angry?"

Dr. Frankenstei: "I will NOT be angry."

Igor: "Abby someone."

Dr. Frankenstein: "Abbey someone. Abby who?"

Igor: "Abby Normal."

Dr. Frankenstein: "Abby Normal?"

Igor: "I'm almost sure that was the name."

Dr. Frankenstein: "Are you saying that I put an abnormal brain into a seven and a half foot long, fifty four inch wide GORILLA? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME?"