Hey. Sorry for taking so long. I've had to settle back into school... (sigh) Another year starting... It's two days in, and I've already got homework! Anyway, here's the chapter. Also, some of you might be uncomfortable with one of the scenes in here. I beg that you don't flame me, but this is something that happens in the world.

Oh, and I want to change the name of the story. This one really doesn't apply much anymore. It just doesn't make any sense. If you could review me with any ideas that'd be much appreciated.

Anyway, here's the chapter!

To Find The Future, Find The Past

Chapter Thirty Seven

Bloodshed in the Forest

Linn heaved in a breath as he pulled himself and Link up and out of the hole that lead to the Fire Temple with great effort. He gasped in a few more breaths, and put his ear to Link's face to make sure he was still breathing. He panicked as he found that he was not. He felt for a pulse, and found it to be very faint. He figured that the best thing he could do for Link would be to get him back to the city.

Linn made his way over to the bridge that lead to Goron City. It had been restored over the years so that it actually connected. He hurried back into Darunia's chambers, shouting out for someone to help him. Gorons and the rest of the Sages came rushing in to see what happened. There was a mad rush to tend to Link's injuries.

OUTSET ISLAND

Zelda woke a little earlier than Zel and Dark Linn. She padded down the hall, and into the kitchen of the house. There, sitting at the table, were Linque and Tetra. They were talking in hushed tones, and eating their breakfast in between. Zelda sat down next to Linque, and the two of them stopped talking immeadiately. Zelda didn't notice, though. She just smiled brightly, and began to eat.

"Morning, Zelda." Linque greeted. Zelda smiled.

"Morning." Zelda chirped.

"Hey, Zelda," Tetra gave a look to her husband before continuing, "Us and the crew have to set sail soon. Will you come? You don't have to. But it'd be safer for you."

"Yeah, I think I will." Zelda nodded, but was interrupted by Zel, who took that moment to barge into the room.

"No, thanks." She said, turnning her nose up at Tetra and Linque, "Zelda and I have to find a way back. We won't be able to do it on a mangy Pirate's Ship." Tetra flared up.

"Well, excuse me, Miss 'I Think I'm Too Good For Everything'!" Tetra raged, "But I'm just trying to help!"

"That's enough!" Zelda stood up, "I'm going with them, Zel, you don't have to come. In fact, I think it'd be better if you cooled down before we bring the topic up again." Zel huffed.

"Whatever!" She positively shouted, and stormed out of the house. Zelda shot Tetra and Linque an apologetic look, and scurried off after her. She saw Zel squeezing through the crevass in the rock again, to go up on top of the mountain. Silently, she followed her.

She had a bad feeling about this.

ZEL

Zel climbed to the topmost point of the island, and stopped to catch her breath. She jumped about a foot in the air when she saw how far up she'd come, but quickly gathered her wits. In a reckless rage, she darted across the rickety old rope bridge, and straight into the Forest.

There, she met Dark Linn.

Last night, she hadn't thought to keep an eye on him. Now, though, it was just him and her, and he had a hungry look in his eyes. Zel began to quiver with fear.

"Hello, Princess," Dark Linn said in a fluid voice, knowing that they were quite alone, and he was not going to be caught, "Fancy meeting you here..."

"Leave me alone!" Zel shreiked, not liking the look in his eyes. He smirked, her terror clearly amusing him.

"Now, why would I want to do that?" He inquired, as if they were talking about selling lobsters, "Especially since I now have the chance to finish the job my master set me so many years ago... And a chance to have a little fun, too." He finished, unbuckling his belt.

He dived for her.

Zel screamed.

ZELDA

Zelda heard a scream from the forest. Fear clutching at her heart, she sped off to the source of the scream. It was so dark, she could barely see.

She could hear a struggle a little way up the path. Slowly and carefully, she picked her way through the dense foliage to the source of the noise. The scene that greeted her was horrible.

Zel was on the ground, frantically trying to fight off Dark Linn, who was attempting to force himself onto her. She was struggling with all of her might, but he seemed to be gaining the upped hand. Zel was crying, and it looked like he had hit her several times.

Rooted to the spot, unable to move, Zelda watched as Dark Linn, a look of almost pained excitement etched across his now cold and twisted features, ripped off the top of Zel's blouse. She watched, horrified, as Dark Linn bent down and bit Zel's left breast.

Zel's scream of pain, fear and outrage seemed to wake her from her terrified stupor. She grabbed a nearby fallen branch, and quietly advanced on him from behind. Busy with what he was doing, Dark Linn didn't notice her. With an almighty swing, there was a sickening crunching sound as the wood of the branch made contact with Dark Linn's skull.

Dark Linn was sent hurtling across the clearing, and landed in a heap on the ground. Zelda, not caring how uncouth it was, beat him over and over with the branch, sending blood everywhere.

She didn't care how it splattered all over her face, into her hair, and all over her clothes. She didn't care that he was yelling in pain, begging for her to stop. She didn't listen to Zel's horrified screams as she beat him over, and over, and over again. She only stopped when she could see that he had stopped moving completely.

She promptly dropped the bloody branch next to the broken and battered body, and ran to Zel's side. Gathering the crying girl in her arms, she rocked her over and over, contemplating what she had just done. There was no feeling in her heart at all for the horrible creature that dared call himself a man.

"What's going on here?" A man's yell came from the mouth of the forest, "We heard screams!"

Zelda carefully led Zel, who was clutching the front of her blouse over her bruised chest, to the voices. She quickly explained what had happened, and that Dark Linn was somewhere back in the clearing. She led Zel down, back into the village, and straight back into bed.

As she sat there, watching Zel fall into a fitful slumber, she couldn't help but blame herself. After all, hadn't she been the one that had insisted they trust him? Wasn't she the one that had suggested that he come with them?

She stood up, and slowly walked over to the window. She stared as she saw a few of the men bring Dark Linn back down the mountain. She couldn't see whether he was alive or dead. As much as she didn't care about him, she didn't want to be haunted with a murder at her hands for the rest of her life. Turning away from the window, she began to tend to the cuts and bruises that Dark Linn had left on Zel's body.

LINN

There was an uneasy feeling in his gut as Linn made his way to the centre of the Temple. Everything had been unusually quiet so far, and he had encountered no creatures at all. Instead of making him feel safer, it just made him heighten his guard.

He sighed, and moved back into the room where the bridge once was. Standing on one of the stones standing in the middle of the lava pit, he was in deep thought.

All of a sudden, there was a deep roaring noise from deep within the bowels of the Temple. He looked around frantically as the roaring got louder. After a few terrifying seconds, he looked up.

The resident dragon, Volvagia, had returned from his lair deep in the Temple, and was coming crashing down to him in the lava pit. Linn froze with fear, and raised his sword on pure instinct. The blade sunk into the dragon's neck up to the hilt, and the thing's blood dripped down his arms, and into the lava below. The world seemed to freeze for a moment, and then the dragon was falling, falling, falling...

... and landed in the lava pit below.

It dissolved into ashes that were then swallowed by the lava.

Linn then blacked out.

LINK

Link woke to the taste of red potions. It was clear that they had been desperate enough to wake him that they would risk him choking. Link sighed as he felt his injuries fade away. Much more pleasnt than a fairy. The only downfall of the potion was that there were still scars.

"Link!" Ruto cried, seeing him wake up, "Link! What happened?"

"Volvagia." Link muttered, "Volvagia attacked me." He looked around, "Where's Linn?" Ruto bit her lip.

"Well..." She looked at Nabouro and Impa for help, "When he found you and brought you back here, he went off to the Temple..."

"Alone?"

"Well, yes..."

"And you let him?"

"Well, he didn't give us much of a chioce-"

"Impa!" Link thundered, "You are the damned Sage of Shadow! Don't give me that 'he didn't give us a choice' crap! You could have stopped him if you wanted to!"

"Link!" Impa drew herself up to her full height, looking very intimidating as she did so, "If you wanted to go into the Temple, would you have let us stop you?" Link shook his head, "Well, that's exactly what went on. Linn wouldn't rest, so we had no chioce. He kept attacking various poles."

"I'm going after him." Link declared, standing up. He winced as he felt a terrible pain lace up his leg, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't handle.

"But, Link..."

"You're injured..."

"They're right, you shouldn't go..."

"Just one more night..."

"You need rest..."

"I'm going." Link said flatly, and equiped his sword and shield. He attempted to stride out the door, but he blacked out again halfway there.

ZELDA

Zel had woken up a little while ago, and was refusing to speak, eat, move... refusing to show any signs of life at all. Zelda sank into a pit of self-hate for putting her in this situation. She was just glad that she had followed Zel into the forest... otherwise... Zelda shivered, drawing her cloak tighter around her. She didn't what to go into what would have happened if she hadn't followed.

Dark Linn was still alive, but only just. Tetra had said that, if Zelda hadn't inflicted enough damage to kill him, that she'd do it herself. Zelda had laughed weakly at that.

Zelda quietly opened the door to Zel's room. She was still laying in bed, but there was something different about her this time. She had tears streaking down her face again. Zelda sat on the bed, and put her hand on the other girl's arm.

"You'll be ok, Zel." She whispered reassuringly, "I know you will. You're a strong woman." And, for the first time since the incident, Zel looked Zelda in the eye.

Zelda saw the emotions hidden in Zel's deep brown eyes. She saw the sadness and loss that was hidden deep in the brown pools. Her eyes held a thousand emotions, all of them jumbling into one.

Pain.

Well, thanks for reading this far, if you have. I'm not sure how this will be accepted by you guys, but I felt as if it was something of a character-building thing. I've only just realised how shallow my story is, and I'll be doing my best to deepen it.

Now review, and remember to suggest any new titles for me that apply to the story. If you send me the one that I'll use, I'll send you a sneak peak of the next chapter.

Anyway, gotta go now... Homework beckons!