Chapter 20
Anguis

In the painful condition Link currently found himself in, he was hoping this was going to be a short temple…he didn't know how much longer he felt like keeping this up. That last battle had certainly worn him down pretty badly.

"Come on, surely you can move faster than that!" Vera berated him snappishly.

"Did you just fight three freakishly huge statues? I don't think so!" Link only snapped in reply as he trudged on into the next room.

"I helped you so back off!"

"Yeah, yeah…whatever…" Link muttered. "Please just do me a favor and shut the heck up already!"

"Ok, fine! Sheesh…" she exclaimed, making sure she got the last word in before the 'official' shut up time began.

Link scanned the room before him, there were no statues…there wasn't really much of anything, just the same gold coat over the walls and floor, and a lone door all the way on the opposite side of the room.

So far, so good… He thought as he took another step forward and nothing happened. He continued walking towards the door, but that's when he heard a low rumbling from behind him. And that definitely doesn't sound so good…

Link's eyes darted to Vera who completely ignored his questioning look. From behind him the rumbling sounded again, and so he turned to see if he could find what was making that noise…He was about halfway across the room and nothing was behind him. His pace immediately quickened…However, upon taking his next step, the stone he had set his foot on collapsed downwards.

Following this course of action, there was not only that same rumbling sound, but also a distinct boom. Much to Link's horror, the floor had begun to fall away…leaving nothing in its place. The falling floor stones were advancing almost too quickly in his direction. Link instantly took off at a full sprint. After that last battle, he wasn't about to let some bottomless pit swallow him up, even though the floor was disappearing row by row at a very fast speed. All he had to do was reach the door, turn the handle, and hopefully be safe on the other side…

Link almost didn't make it in time.

Just as the very floor stones beneath him gave out, he made one heck of a jump and his hands clutched the doorknob right when the entire floor of the room gave away and fell into the black abyss that had been revealed. Link was left hanging there for a second but then the doorknob started turning under his weight and he felt himself slipping. Vera merely fluttered around him in circles doing nothing. Then again, there wasn't really anything she could do with her being so small and all.

The doorknob turned and the door swung open, Link clung to it for dear life as he was left suspended over the pit below. Link kept himself calm and fought to control his breathing as he hung there like that. Thinking rationally, Link swung his body towards the opening now in the wall and the door carried him towards it. His blood nearly ran cold as the top hinge of the door started to break. Exerting his strength, he tried swinging his body again towards the opening again…this time his feet touched solid ground. It wasn't long after that when Link was fully returned to the ground.

Link knelt there as Vera flew about him with a smirk on her face.

"What's up with you?" he snarled at her. She only burst out laughing at this comment, thus making Link rather angry. "I asked you a question!"

"Hahaha! I shut up just like you said, so it's all your fault. If you had only let me talk then I could have warned you about that trap, but did you want to listen to me? I don't think so!" she continued laughing, loud and obnoxiously.

"Maybe instead of mocking me, you could have just told me that in the first place!" Link growled, becoming angrier by the second.

"Whatever," she replied, shrugging this comment off.

Link was about to retort back when there suddenly came a loud shriek-like noise. Two lizalfos dropped down from somewhere above and stood facing him with their daggers ready. Link stood and drew out his own sword; he had a cocky attitude about him as he figured these things weren't going to be much of a challenge. Here was a monster that was definitely not very original on the part of whoever had sent them here. All he really had to do was keep his wits about him and not get stabbed, but stab in return.

"Be careful…" Vera cautioned as she dropped back several feet.

"I can handle these things just fine," Link replied as he advanced forward.

The overgrown lizards, that Link saw lizalfos to be, jumped at him together and swung their daggers simultaneously. Their weapons only sliced through air as Link nimbly dodged. Link quickly retaliated against this assault by swinging his own sword. His sword connected at neck level and the one he had struck was left without a head as it plopped to the floor, soon followed by its lifeless body.

"Told ya this would be easy," Link said arrogantly to Vera. In another quick swipe, Link finished off the other lizalfos. "Yup, definitely easy."

"I advise you not to get too big headed over this," Vera warned.

Link ignored her as his gaze focused on the large treasure chest that was appearing. He walked up to it and pried the top open. There was a brief flash of blinding light and then the contents of the chest were revealed to him. Inside it was a bow and a large quiver full of arrows…all golden in color. He picked it up and examined the newly acquired items.

Minus the gold color, they looked just like an ordinary set of bow and arrows…

Wow…this'll make me as strong as a god for sure…

He sighed and eventually adjusted the items onto his back to where he would still have easy access to all of his weapons.

Once again there was a door on the far side of the room. He headed towards it and entered the next room. As usual, Vera followed closely behind…it seemed to him as if she were using him as her test dummy to make sure nothing would jump out at her.

The previous excitement with the whole floor thing and then the aspect of actually having simple enemies had made him completely forget the painful aches his body had been going through. Now they struck him with full force, causing his footing to falter and then for him to trip and fall. He felt suddenly drained of his energy as he lay there on his stomach. The searing pain from Link's rib cage seemed to confirm that he had definitely broken or cracked something in that battle against the statues…and he didn't think lying there like that was helping it.

Vera was baffled by his sudden fall, "What the heck was that about?" she snapped, thinking it was just him having stupidly tripped over his own two feet.

Link struggled to stand and finally accomplished doing so, he had to lean against the door frame for a few seconds to recover somewhat.

"Ok…don't answer me…" she trailed off.

Link shook himself from that sudden lapse of pain and forced himself to continue onward, hoping to push such a thing as pain to the back of his mind. After all, he had a temple to focus on completing. He had experienced great pain before; he would just have to endure it and that was that…well that's how he wanted things to be anyway…

His eyes roved over the new room he had entered, unlike all the other rooms, this room appeared to be well-furnished. Link hoped this to be a sign he was nearing the temple's end.

Maybe he was just feeling a bit feverish, but the temperature around him had certainly risen…that much he was sure of. It was hot.

Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he carried on walking…the enemy would surely reveal themselves soon. And right he was; only it turned out to be far from something he would have expected.

First there was a large, menacing shadow on the gold wall in front of him, and then there was that booming voice from back at the beginning of the battle against the statues.

"You were warned not to trespass here, but did you listen? NO! It is quite impressive you were able to get pass my minions…but you will not get pass me!"

Link sighed, "Whatever…just show yourself already you coward."

There was a low growl and then from a sudden puff of smoke, a giant…reptile appeared.

It had the head and mouth of an alligator-like creature, but a body that resembled that of the lizalfos…only bigger…and scalier, with a long tail to match its grayish-green skin.

Link gulped, this was certainly…unexpected. He had a feeling now that the heat wasn't just him; this cold blooded animal had to love heat…maybe that's why this place was called the Sun Temple? This creature before him used it to generate heat?

Link drew his sword, "Why did you come to Hyrule and bring this place with you?"

"In hopes of a tasty treat…I heard that the Hero of Time would not only give me a show with his pathetic attempts to fight, but also make a good feast. That is why my temple appeared before you," its deep voice rang out as it grinned.

Link began backing away slowly, a plan formulating into his mind. "And what makes you think you can do something like that?"

"I am the great Anguis, I am surprised my reputation doesn't proceed me. I can do whatever I want."

"We'll see about that…I'm surprised I haven't heard of you either, especially with you being a giant reptilian freak and all," Link jibed.

"Link, you idiot! There's no reason to make it mad!" Vera muttered to him, but it was too late.

Claws suddenly sprouted on Anguis' 'hands' and his mouth evolved into a nasty sneer with every last one of his sharp teeth visible, "For such impudence I shall make your death very slow and painful!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

First of all, I would like to say thank you to my reviewers. Y'all are totally awesome! Make sure you check out reviewer replies…You know the drill: go to my profile page and then click homepage.

For those of you into Kingdom Hearts, I am writing a joint fanfic with Jupiter-Lightning in that category called Who's to Say. It's on Jupiter's account so if you're interested, feel free to check it out sometime.

-blondie91

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda. I do own all the things I made-up in this fic though.