Chapter 9
Dead Lands

Nabooru seemed to know her own secret route through the wasteland, Link followed along blindly behind her, he felt helpless and pathetic out in the vast and sand blown world of the wasteland, as if he were nothing but a mere speck of sand like what he trekked upon. His eyes and face burned madly as sand assaulted him with sharp, stinging blows. They trekked along for what felt like hours, the sun eventually beginning to show its first few rays of daylight.

Then, in one more step, the wind left him and before him laid a place of peaceful, sunlight filled tranquility. They had reached the Desert Colossus, the sun was now high up in the sky, part of it still hidden behind the immense height of the Spirit Temple. Link paused for a second to take in the once familiar area before continuing to follow Nabooru. She had never changed her quick and steady pace once this entire trip, yet here she was now beginning to drag her feet as though she were heading to her doom.

"Ya know, if you're afraid no one ever said you had to come along…all ya gotta do is point me in the right direction is all," Link said, forcing back a smirk.

"Afraid, me!" angry fires flared up in Nabooru's eyes…someone was just a little on the edge. "I am not afraid for your information! Besides, we're almost there. The entrance is just behind the Spirit Temple. We'll see who's more scared when we arrive, the one who knows more or the foolish boy." but her voice tremored slightly, betraying the great fear she indeed felt, her hand even grasped the hilt of one of her scimitars.

"Whatever you say…" Link muttered. He began to wonder if he should become wary of their situation. He believed he was afraid of nothing and could not share her fear…at least, not yet anyways. They hadn't even entered this 'Dead Land' place so obviously he could not quite see what she was so afraid of.

Rounding the Spirit Temple, Nabooru suddenly came to an abrupt halt causing Link to stumble into her, "What now?" he questioned, not bothering to hide the agitation in his voice.

"Do you not sense it?" Nabooru rasped.

Link paused for a moment before speaking, "No…I sense nothing…"

Nabooru shuddered , but went on as she replied, "It is a shame you, the Hero of Time, is unable to sense the evil that draws near." she said shaking her head sadly.

Link pondered this statement but it was soon forgotten as he became confused by their destination. They were headed towards an extremely tall stone wall, "Uh…Nabooru? You're not intent on climbin' that thing are you?"

"Of course not, we're going through it." Nabooru said confidently.

Before Link could respond, she suddenly latched onto his arm and pulled him forward with a sharp jerk, Link shut his eyes tightly, expecting to feel pain as he collided with the stone, but the blow never came. He slowly opened his eyes and found himself with new surroundings.

The stone wall had disappeared from behind him and in its place was a swirling mist. What lay before him was another mystery in itself. The land that stretched before him was dark and lifeless; the little grass there was, was grey and wilted. Overhead a darkened sky loomed like a foreboding death cloud. In the distance Link could make out some sort of building, the temple, maybe? Death seemed to linger in the air, filling his lungs and gagging him, as though trying to squeeze the life from him to replace this place's own lifelessness.

He glanced sideways at Nabooru who still clutched his arm, she was frozen stiff, her eyes were wide with terror and her nails dug deeply and painfully into Link's arm. Suddenly, out of the dirt below Link, burst a rotted hand…

"Uh, N-naboru?" Link stammered, rooted to the spot and unable to summon the suddenly drained strength to even draw his sword.

She didn't respond and by this point, half a decaying body had pulled itself out of the ground in front of him. It looked human…yet it wasn't. The revealed skull was bent and deformed, but definitely looked like it had once belonged to a living human. The little flesh it possessed decorated its bones like the ragged strips of cloth. It seemed to have trouble pulling itself up so this took quite a bit of time, this time allowed Link to recover from this shock as he coaxed and reasoned with himself that he was stupid to think this was bad when he had seen much worse. In one swift swing of his quickly unsheathed blade, the thing lay decapitated in a withering heap hanging at the opening of the hole it had come up in two pieces…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Zen's maniacal laughter echoed all around him, stretching around every twist and turn of his currently taken over domain, sounding like melodic music to him as the echo reached his ears. Princess Zelda was held tightly in his arms, her attempts to get away were utterly pathetic and futile.

"Lemme go!" she screamed.

He only kissed her with a sadistic smirk on his face, "Now why would I do that my dear?"

"My father was right, you really are one sick bastard." she spat bitterly.

"That's no way a princess should talk," Zen teased, enjoying himself way too much, due to his twisted humor. "Besides, it could easily be arranged for your father to be a dead man…"

Zelda's eyes widened, "You wouldn't dare!"

He gave her a funny look, "You think there's anything I wouldn't dare do? Excuse me, but I hold all the cards in this game and guess where your boyfriend is right now?"

"W-where?" she stammered, fear suddenly shining brightly across her face.

"He seems to have found his way to the land of the dead…"

"Y-you killed him? H-he's dead?"

Zen didn't reply, what she assumed was far from the truth, but how easy this was to break her heart. Zelda's hope flickered and died and she no longer had the energy to hold herself up and could only fall into Zen's broad and muscular chest where her tears poured out like a twin set of rivers.

"How could you? How could you…" she sobbed.

Zen lifted her chin where her blue eyes met his intense golden ones, just as he could break a princess, he would break the Hero until he was naught but a shadow of the energetic boy he was…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Nabooru seemed to pick right then to come out of her trance and didn't seem to be surprised to see the dead and re-killed thing lying at Link's feet. She took a quick scan of the area and her gaze pin-pointed on the darker spot on the horizon of this land. Much to Link's dismay, she still hadn't let go of him…her grip had only become stronger…and much more painful.

"Nabooru, could ya just kinda sorta…LET GO!" Link snapped.

"Er…sorry…" she quickly pulled away and took off, leaving Link to stand there stunned for a few seconds at this sudden change in motion.

Link quickly caught up to her, "Is that thing up ahead the temple?"

"Yes, and that is where we must hurry to before things get very, very bad."

"How bad we talkin'?" Link asked.

"You'll see soon enough…there will be more to come, we live and they are dead, we can not traverse through here unnoticed…and unattacked." Nabooru solemnly explained.

Just as the last of this phrase was said, all around them, for miles out, hands suddenly burst out of the ground. "I see what you mean…" Link muttered, his sword clutched tightly in hand and Nabooru ready with her scimitars.

"Run…" whispered Nabooru as she shot off like a speeding arrow, nimbly dodging around the things as they pulled themselves from the ground. Link quickly followed behind her.

After a while of running, enough time for the things to completely pull themselves from the ground, they found themselves trapped and unable to run any further because of the blockades set up around them and the hands groping at them.

Instantly Link and Nabooru began hacking away, they stood back to back and spun in a circle taking out large quantities of the creatures…problem was, each time one went down, ten more seemed to pop up and take its place.

At the worst possible moment…Zen's plan went into action.

A faint image of Zelda burst into Link's mind, images where she was crying, pale, so pale in fact, she almost appeared dead. "How could you? How could you…"

"What?" he spoke the thought in his mind, becoming completely oblivious to the world around him despite the battle raging around him in the 'real' world.

"How could you? It's all your fault!" she wept bitterly. There were dark spots all over her bedraggled night gown, the image of her was so faint it was impossible to tell if these dark spots were dirt smudges, or dare he think it…blood.

"Zelda…" he whispered softly, how he wanted to embrace her, feel her in his arms again. But this wasn't the real Zelda, how could it be? This was only him suddenly lost within the corridors of his own mind, yet somehow this image of her seemed real, not just something created by his longing heart.

"How could you? How could you…"

But if this truly was just his longing heart talking, why would he be seeing her like this? Which meant much to his dismay, this had to be real. But what was she so upset about?

"It's your fault I'm dead! You weren't fast enough, you didn't stop him…It's all you fault! I thought you loved me!"

Link's heart sunk, Zelda was…dead?

"How could you? How could you…" she repeated these treacherous words again and he knew what she meant, it was his fault, tears rose unbidden to his eyes.

"No…Zelda I do lo---…"

But before he could finish this statement, he was suddenly jerked back into the 'real' world by a sharp jolt of pain. He blinked and found himself underneath a pile of squirming bones, a broken off arm had jabbed him in the side. Two strong arms pulled him from beneath the pile.

"That was the only way to protect you from them while you were…" Nabooru didn't finish the statement, maybe it meant she didn't even know what was up with him? There were still hordes of the things, but their numbers had depleted. "Come on, we must make a break for the temple, you are wasting valuable time when you should be in there fighting to save Hyrule and the princess."

Link fought to keep from crying, there was no princess to save anymore…He took off after Nabooru anyways, adrenaline being what kept him going despite the grief that lay heavily on his heart. Soon they found themselves dashing up carved stone steps.

"This is the temple, I must go back now."

"Nabooru…I don't think Zelda is…alive anymore…" Link said softly.

"How is that so?"

"She came to me in spirit form…"

"That is trickery, here in the land of the dead nothing can communicate in spirit unless it is within this temple or the Spirit Temple…Maybe if you were out away from here, but you are here and that can not be." Nabooru's words sprung new hope in him. "Besides, if you truly love her like you have said you do, you would have felt her death deep within your heart."

Link hadn't felt such a thing and his expression hardened, Zen was playing games with him, "You're right Nabooru, thank you. Are you gonna be ok gettin' back on your own?"

"I'll be all right." she quickly ran down the stairs and disappeared several feet away between the moving masses of the dead.

Just as Link turned to step through the archway and enter the temple, rotted hands burst from the ground and with powerful jerks, began to pull him under…

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Zen shoved Zelda away and slammed his fist down angrily into the wall. It cracked straight down to the ground and a huge chunk of it fell off. "I can't believe this, that pathetic Gerudo interfering with him…!"

Him? Link? Link's alive? Zelda thought hopefully, but then she could only whimper in fear as Zen fixed her with that creepy smile of his.

"And for this insolence, you will suffer…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

((throws confetti and gives virtual cookies to the reviewers)) I updated, whoo-hoo: )Well…I'm happy about it…lol. Thank you soo very much reviewers, with out y'all, this chappie probably woulda taken another two or three weeks without bein' updated…school just seems to suck the inspiration outta me so yup yup, THANK YOU!…Anywayz…

-blondie91

Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda. ((sniff)) But…I do own all me made-up stuff so I guess that's a plus…lol.