Chapter 8 Dying

Hello again. I am very proud of how this chapter turned out. Oh, and for those of you interested, a Role Playing Zelda forum opened up if any of you want to become members of it. We need more characters from the actual game, we have too many OC. No one has fully guessed the double meanings behind the names. They aren't as difficult as you guys are making them out to be actually. Try guessing again, I'll give you guys probably until the final chapter.

'Steady Link.' Link put a hand to his forhead as he felt the emotions and memories of the past coming back to him.

"KOHOLINT ISLAND... IS JUST ONE OF THOSE DREAMS!"

Link squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to banish the despair that he knew would come as a result of the awakening memories.

"BUT VERILY IT IS THE NATURE OF DREAMS TO END!"

It was coming, he knew it. Link tried to stem the flow of memories.

"I SAY THE WORLD SHALL DISAPPEAR LINK! AND IT WILL DISAPPEAR! IT MUST COME TO AN END!"

The memories washed over his soul, cutting into him again, reminding him of what he lost.

"THEY ARE DREAMS! DREAMS! THEY AREN'T REALLY PEOPLE! I CAN MAKE THEM WHATEVER I WANT!"

"I know! We can grab some pieces of wood and fashion some sort of raft. Then you and I can escape together!"

"I care too much about you. I don't want to live... without you."

Link closed his eyes as the tears began to come.

"I won't disappear! I am alive. At least, I believe myself to be alive. So when the island disappears I will not, for I am greater than a dream."

"WHAT ONCE WAS LOVE SOON IS FROZEN!"

"I'll never forget you Marin. I'll never forget you."

"...goodbye...Link..."

"Link," the Captain asked. "Are you okay?"

Link bowed his head so the others wouldn't see the tears pouring down his cheeks.

"Its too much," Link said. "This island shouldn't exist."

"Is this the island that you said you came from?" the Captain asked.

"Y-yes," Link said hesitantly, looking over at the bones which lay on the shore.

"Then I guess it does exist," the Captain. "But I thought you said that it disappeared."

"It did," Link said.

"Then we must be ready for whatever we may meet on this island. Truly this is a strange island, to disappear and still exist. But tell me Link, does this look like Koholint Island?"

"Sort of," Link said. "But there is something different about it. The Toronbo shores were filled with monsters. And..."

"They are gone," the Captain said. "The Nightmares were defeated, and the Wind Fish cleansed its island."

"That doesn't make any sense," Link said. "Then why did the island disappear?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Link," the Captain said.

"Then I guess we'd better..." Link turned for the path, and then stopped.

He then let out a scream, and fell to the ground in a faint. The Captain looked over to the path, and saw a transparent red haired maiden walking down the path. She was moaning and wailing like she was dead. Transparent tears flowed down her cheeks as she walked her path of despair, crying onto the broken shore of the voiceless island.

'Rainstorm! Wake up!'

Then, with tear stained eyes, the ghostly figure looked up at the Captain, and gave him a pitying glance.

"Its a ghost," one of the crew members said, "a dead woman come to haunt us!"

"Shhh!" Captain Samir said. "She's saying something.

"...burning me...lost...dying...help..." the red haired maiden said in a faint, barely understandable voice.

Then she disappeared. The men just stood there, speechless.

"Pretty little thing," the Captain said. "Did you guys by any chance notice her hair?"

"You mean that it was red?" Jessie said. "It could have been Marin, that girl that Link told us about!"

"No," the Captain said. "Did you notice the flower in her hair. It was dying."

"You're right," Rohan said. "But have you noticed, everything on this island is dying, or is dead. All we've seen so far are human bones, some dead grass, and some sort of ghost. We also heard a raven call, but ravens eat the dead."

"What's that she said before she disappeared?" Captain Samir asked.

"Uh," Jessie said, "she said that something was burning her, that she was dying and was lost, and then she asked for help."

"Painful memories. They plague us for eternity, never letting up on there attacks. Why do they stay with us for so long? They always hold the same pain too. But why? Why can't we just forget about them?"

"Shade?"

"It is me," Shade said. "Windstorm, you are a mix of emotions."

"I am an emotional person when it comes to Marin," Link said.

"I know how you feel Storm."

"What makes you, a bodiless entity, think that you know my pain?"

"I have seen thousands of people fall. I have seen people I tried so hard to save, fall off into darkness. I have watched as former allies were seduced by darkness. I know what pain you suffer from. I have felt the loss when seeing my friends fall to darkness."

"Have any of your friends ever disappeared into absolute nothingness?"

"Have any of your friends turned against you? Have any of your friends fallen into a spiritual struggle, telling you they could handle themselves, before falling into the clutches of evil creatures?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I told you I fight evil, do you think that I am the only one of my kind? No. There are more creatures like me."

Link was pulled forward, and found himself facing the dark humanoid Nightmare. But Shade was sitting down this time, and he seemed sad.

"But warriors of good can still fall to evil. Warriors of good can easily be seduced by dark powers, and become demons."

"I don't know what you speak of."

"You may understand when all of this is finished."

Suddenly the darkness grabbed Link, and pulled him back again.

They took him to a cliff which overlooked a city. He saw a women walk to the edge of the town, and look up at him. In her arms she clutched a baby who slept soundly against her chest. She locked eyes with him, as if to make sure he knew that she existed. Then, a streak of magic energy shot down from the sky, and slammed into the center of the city.

The result was an explosion so massive that it consumed the entire city. As the lady was consumed by the fire, her eyes became pleading, and she held a hand out to him as if begging for help. But it was too late. She was consumed in the fire. Link shrieked in anger at the injustice of this, but his cries were silenced when he saw the mighty nightmare walk over the ruins of the city, firing more bolts of fire down upon the survivors. Link screamed out of sadness and pain.

A splash of water, voices. Link's eyes slowly opened up, and he found himself looking up into darkness. Once again he thought that he could just barely see two figures standing over his body, fighting over him again.

"Link?" the darkness cleared, as well as the two creatures.

Link found himself looking up into the eyes of Captain Samir.

"Hi Captain," Link said softly. "I am followed by a spirit who I don't know if he is my friend or enemy... Captain, help me."

Link's head then fell backwards, and he fell unconscious again. The Captain picked Link up, and carried him over to where the crew had set up camp. Without a word, he laid him down on a blanket and pulled another one up over him.

"My boy," the Captain whispered to Link. "You truly are an interesting person. Your life is a story that would make a shark burst into tears."

I must apologize for the part with the woman and her baby. Do you guys think that part was distasteful? Because I don't think I would ever put that part in a movie, because it would be so depressing when the woman and her baby died. Now an inspirational quote, and farewell.

"That's it, goodbye! I'm not going to spend my time arguing with a man whoes lining up to be a hot lunch!" Matt Hooper from the movie Jaws.