Alright, time for chapter 33, and time for Link and Saria to reunite! But just what is it that lies within the Forest Temple...?
Link, Aviel, Kesuta and Korume all ran into the Forest Temple with Saria's fairy Faete following after them, determined to have Link's childhood friend. Upon entering, a feral beast creature called a Wolfos got in their way, howling and ready for battle, but Kesuta simply set it on fire with her magic and Link ran through it with his sword, destroying it and allowing them to head inside.
They soon reached the main room of the temple, it was hexagonal in shape with five other doors on each wall, besides the door the four just came through. Having once been in the Forest Temple before in the dark future, Link slowly and cautiously walked ahead of the group taking the time to look around at the interior.
'Weird... this place looks different then before...' Link thought to himself, 'Is this another part of the curse?'
It was then he looked at the center of the room, where there were four empty torches circling a type of marble floor, and in the center was a familiar sight that brought faint tears to his eyes.
"S-Saria!" Link called out. Before any of the others could say anything, Link sprinted down to the center of the room and knelt down to Saria. He took that time to look her over and realized with great relief she was just sleeping, she didn't even have any injuries on her. The only really unusual thing was she had a strange stick with some kind of plants raveled around it beside her.
"Saria, please wake up!" Link shouted, taking the girl giving her a shake.
The Kokiri girl stirred and opened her eyes slowly, gazing up at the Hylian male looking down at her.
"Link...?" she whispered.
"I'm so glad you're safe Saria..." whispered Link, before hugging her tightly in his arms, "I was beginning to fear the worst for you."
"L-Link?!" Saria gasped out with wide eyes and her face flushed red from the tight hug Link was giving her, "What are you doing here?!"
It was then that Aviel, Kesuta, Korume and Faete all approached the two. Faete in particular flew forward and up to Saria's face, doing her best to hug her cheek.
"Why do you think we're here?" Link answered Saria's question, pulling himself back and sporting a goofy grin, "I came here to save you."
"Saria, I'm so glad you're okay!: Faete cried out.
"Y-You... came for me...?" Saria stammered.
"Of course I did." Link nodded, he then sighed, his grin going away and replaced with an apologetic look, "Listen, Saria... I'm sorry about neglecting you lately, I have no excuse for treating you like that when we're supposed to be best friends..."
Saria's eyes widened at hearing his words, and she herself teared up at it, before lunging forward and throwing her own arms around Link.
"No, No Link it's fine! I'm just happy you're here..." Saria admitted. While she wanted him not to worry about her or get involved in her mess, in a weird way, she felt like she had been doing the very thing to Link that he was guilt-tripping himself over, in trying to keep him out of her affairs, she was shutting him out as well.
But now the two were reunited, and it felt like that divide between them had quickly closed up.
Faete couldn't help but smile seeing the two embrace like that. As much as she resented Link before for causing so much grief for Saria, she was happy seeing the two of them now as they were.
This all didn't go unnoticed by Aviel, Kesuta and Korume either, who were all relieved to see Link's old friend was fine and the two were making things up to each other.
Saria stood herself up and dusted her clothes off, gripping her staff in one hand, as she took a look up at the three Gerudo women, "So you're all Link's friends?"
"Yep, I'm Aviel!" the bird girl nodded, waving her wings, "Link's devoted bodyguard!"
"I'm Kesuta, mistress of fire and Link's future bride," the fire mystic introduced herself.
"And I am Korume, master of ice who stands by our king's side." Korume rhymed, doing a polite bow.
"Pleased to finally meet you all." Saria smiled pleasantly, "Link's told me a lot about you three."
"Aww, she's so cute and sweet!" Aviel said with sparkling eyes.
Saria couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed by Aviel's words, then turned to Link, "I'm glad to see you have so many great friends to look out for you..."
"Yeah, same here." nodded Link.
It was in that moment that Saria thought of the strange dreams she had, and her desire to want to look out for Link's well-being, then looked over at the three girls, her thoughts drifted to the others that Link had told her about, namely Nabooru and Nemisa, who he often spoke about how strong and brave they were...
'Maybe... he just doesn't need me after all...' Saria thought to herself with a somewhat heavy heart. She was at least happy to see he had so much support in his new life, and yet...
"Say Saria, what's that thing you're holding?" Aviel asked, tilting her head.
"Whatever it is, I'm detecting a powerful and mystical energy from it..." Kesuta said.
"Oh, this?" Saria said, "This is my Deku Staff, it was a gift from the Great Deku Tree. It allows me to create and control plant life in many different ways. I believe he gave this to me to protect the village, and I've been using it to fight off the monsters that have been attacking the village."
"Impressive..." Korume muttered, looking Saria's weapon over fondly, "I bet you can cause all kinds of destruction from it... Kukuku..."
"Uh, yeah I guess?" Saria said awkwardly.
"Keeheehee, but it's that destructive power that lets you protect people you care for, which is how destructive power should be used!" Kesuta put her hands to her hips and grinned widely.
Saria smiled lightly at their words, "Yes, that's right..."
"Huh, so that's what Mido meant when he said you were protecting the village." Link had to admit he was impressed to see Saria was working so hard on getting stronger, he could tell just by looking at her and when he held her for that brief moment that she was more physically fit then before.
"Yeah, you must be really tough to battle monsters like the ones we fought in the village by yourself." Aviel said.
"Oh, so there was another attack? I was afraid of that." sighed Saria, "Thank you all for looking out for everyone when I couldn't do anything..."
"Aw come on, it's not your fault!" Aviel said, hugging her with her bird wings. Saria was caught off guard by Aviel's soft hug, "It couldn't be helped with what happened to you!"
"Thank you..." Saria said with a light blush.
Because of how isolated the Kokiri were from the rest of Hyrule, Saria knew very little of the Gerudo people. All had she known about them before was their evil king Ganondorf who cursed and killed the Great Deku Tree. She had to admit she was concerned about Link's well-being when he mentioned he was living with the demon king's tribe, but she was surprised to hear the girls turned out to be such good people, and she was happy to finally meet some of them first hand...
"But why haven't you told me anything about these attacks before?" Link then asked, "If you're having monster problems like that, I could have came here to help you."
"Well... it's just that..." Saria muttered, then started to trail off.
"Come to think of it, just what is the source of the curse on this land of grass and wood?" Kesuta asked looking around.
"...I'm not sure, but I'm feeling some powerful sensations, and they're not very good." Korume rhymed with a shutter.
"Eeeheheheheh! Looks like our esteemed guest has some friends over!" cackled a voice, as he group looked up to see five floating beings appeared over them.
They were known as Poes, strange ghostly creatures born from lost souls who had been cursed by dark magic, they wore tattered cloaks that matched the color of the lantern they held, red, blue, green, purple, and black.
"Uh oh..." Link muttered.
"M-Maybe we should get out of here," Aviel said, turning to the entrance to the temple, only for everyone to see the door was now shut and locked, "...or not."
"Curses, we're trapped..." Korume muttered.
"Gruhuhuhu... we probably should have kept a better eye on her." the blue Poe known as Beth said.
"Teeheeheehee!" cackled another in green known as Amy, "But now we have many more little playmates!"
"Flahahahaa!" laughed the red one known as Joelle, "Yes, I look forward to their destruction!"
"..." the black hooded one didn't say a word but just floated there.
'The Poe sisters... never thought I'd see them again... ' Link thought to himself, recalling fighting these creatures back whe he came to this temple in the dark future. He took a look at the black one in particular '...but since when were there five of them...?'
"Keaheheheheh! Our little friend won't be too happy when he sees this, we should deal with them before he-" the purple one known as Meg was cut off by a new voice.
"No need Meg, I already know." as before them all a new creature floated into the room. It was clearly a Skull Kid like Link's friend, but this one was holding a small scythe in one hand, and covering it's face was a skull-shaped mask.
"Ah, Straw Kid, you arrived. My apologizes for allowing these intruders into this place." Meg said, twirling her lantern.
"Eeeheheheh, no problem, this just makes everything more fun!" cackled the creature known as Straw Kid.
"He looks like Link's friend," Aviel said, "Only really, really creepy..."
"Another Skull Kid...?" Link asked, unsheathing his sword. He had to admit in that moment he was a little unnerved by the sight of the masked creature, it brought back some traumatic memories from long ago, but Link held his ground, "What do you want from Saria?"
"So you're the one she was talking about..." chuckled Straw Kid, who then snapped his fingers, "Well we'll just deal with the lot of you and then we can proceed!"
It was then the five other doors of the temples opened up,and long tendrils made from straw shot out from them. The tendrils snared Link, Saria, Aviel, Kesuta and Korume, and the heroes didn't even have a chance to fight back as they were all quickly pulled into different rooms.
"Saria!" shouted Faete, being left behind, as she shot off to the door Saria had been yanked into, only to bounce off the door harmlessly as it slammed shut along with the other doors.
"Eeeheheheh..." chuckled Straw Kid, as he loomed over the fairy, before snatching her up in his grasp. The fairy struggled to break free while Straw Kid turned to the Poe sisters, "Alright girls, go ahead and have some fun with them all."
The Poe sisters all nodded and vanished from the room, leaving Faete worried for the safety of Saria and her friends...
In one of the rooms, Aviel slowly got up and looked around, seeing numerous mirrors all over the place. She saw her normal reflection in some, but some of the other mirrors were distorted and bizarre, creating different warped images of her.
"What the heck?" Aviel asked, "What is all this...?"
"Gruhuhuhu..." cackled a dark voice, jolting Aviel out of her trance, as she saw a Poe appear before her, it was the blue one Beth, the Poe flicked at a thin strand of ratty hair sticking out from her cloak as she laughed. "Welcome to my room, little one. I am Beth of the Poe sisters, and this is my realm of mirrors. They will assault you with ghastly and horrific images of your own self, and eventually drive you to complete madness!" she laughed out.
"Woah! Look at this one, and this one!" Aviel spoke up, as Beth saw the Gerudo girl looking at herself in one mirror which made her look really tall and lanky, then she moved to another mirror that made her look short and fat, then to another one that made her look long and wobbly, "Hee hee, I look like a Chuchu in this one! This place is a lot of fun!"
"Hey, pay attention!" shouted Beth in annoyance, "You're supposed to be going insane!"
Aviel paused, then quickly turned towards Beth, aiming her crossbow at her with her eyes narrowed, "Not going to happen, now let us all out of here or you'll regret it Ms. Bertha!"
"The name is Beth! And it's you who will be regretting it!" Beth shouted, lunging at Aviel, who instinctively fired an arrow at the Poe.
However, Beth disappeared in that instinct, and the arrow ricocheted off a mirror. Aviel looked around as the arrow bounced off many of the oddly shaped mirrors in the room, before it came right at her. Aviel managed to step out of the way of the arrow hitting her directly, but it still grazed her arm.
"Ugh... looks like I can't afford to miss around here, I'll have to get one precise shot." Aviel said, she stood up and looked around the room, only to now see Beth appear in all the mirrors.
"So go ahead and pick then, which one of us is the real one, and which one will send one of your very own arrows through your heart? Gruhuhuhu!" Beth cackled.
Aviel narrowed her eyes, and pulled up her goggles over them. She gazed around at all the mirrors, trying to figure out which Poe was the real one and not a mirror.
"What's the matter? Is the madness slipping in all ready?" cackled Beth, "Soon you'll be-"
It was then that an arrow was fired and shot right into Beth, knocking her to the ground, her lantern shattered, and her ghostly form started to waver. Aviel walked up to the Poe and stared down at her.
"Looks like I gotcha!" grinned Aviel.
"N-No... how did you possibly know...?" the Poe asked weakly.
"That little strand of hair sticking out from your cloak." Aviel sad, adjusting her goggles, "Yours was on the right side, but all your reflections had the strand on the left."
"Curses..." Beth muttered before she disappeared, as well as all the mirrors in the room vanishing with her, leaving Aviel alone to see the doorway out of the room.
"I better go meet up with everyone!" Aviel said, running off out the door.
Meanwhile, in another room, Kesuta found herself in a room facing off with the red cloaked Poe called Joelle. Littered throughout the room were numerous barrels with markings unfamiliar to Kesuta on them.
"Alright you little pest, lemme out or I'll roast you!' Kesuta snarled, igniting her hands with fire.
"Flahahahaa! Flames of destruction, I love it!" laughed Joelle with insane glee, "But trust me on this when I say you don't want to set off even one of these barrels!"
"What do you mean?" Kesuta asked in confusion, looking around at them all.
"These are Powder Kegs, barrels filled to the brim with explosive material that react to flames, the slightest little ember touching them will make them go boom-boom-boom!" Joelle laughed, "And even as a fire elemental, you'll go up with them all! Flahahahaa, boom-boomy-boom!"
"Ugh..." Kesuta muttered, "You got to be kidding me..."
"Now die little one!" Joelle then lunged at Kesuta with her lantern, but the fire mystic swung her leg up and kicked the Poe backwards, before lashing her flame whip at the Poe, who quickly dodged it, allowing embers from the whip to fly straight at a Powder Keg. As soon as embers fell onto the keg, it exploded and sent Kesuta flying back.
"Kyyyaaa!" screamed Kesuta impacting to the ground.
""Flahahahaa! Boom boom boom! So much fun!" cheered Joelle clapping her hands.
"Damnit... I was lucky that one wasn't close enough to the other kegs, but I can't just throw fire around like normal.." she reflected on what Korume said earlier about keeping her fire under control as they were fighting the plant monsters in the village, "I wish Korume was here..."
Kesuta forced herself up, and quickly dodged a swipe of Joelle's shadowy claw, she tried to counter with a fireball, but hesitated because of the numerous kegs around them, forcing herself to just dodge another claw swipe.
"What's wrong little one, too afraid to bring about destruction? Then you're worthless, just die!" Joelle shouted swiping at Kesuta again.
'There has to be a way I can fight using my magic..' Kesuta thought to herself, then it hit her, "Wait... my magic.."
Joelle then lunged at her again and managed to strike the fire mystic, knocking her backwards to the ground beside some of the barrels.
"Now die!" Joelle shouted, coming down at Kesuta from above.
"You fell for it." snickered Kesuta, as she brought her hands up and started to conjure a fireball.
"Flahahahaa! Do that and you'll go boom-boom-BOOM!" Joelle shouted, only to see something unusual conjuring from Kesuta's hands, rather then the usual orange fire Kesuta used, it was blue fire.
Kesuta released her attack and blasted the blue fire into the Poe, sending her flying into the air ad impacting into the ground, the lantern broke, and her body started to break apart. The embers from the blue fire fell on top of the kegs, but nothing happened.
"Y-You can cast blue fire...?" Joelle groaned, "But how did you know it wouldn't ignite the kegs...?"
Kesuta stared down at Joelle and gave the Poe a slightly sadistic little grin, "I didn't."
"Fla-fla-hahahaa!" laughed out Joelle, "It seems I met my match in chaos and destruction..." And with that Joelle's form vanished.
"May the death goddess Nerif carry your lost soul to the world of spirits, and rest in peace." Kesuta said, putting her hands together and bowing her head. And with that she dusted herself off and left the room to find the others.
In another room, Korume stood, looking over where she was. It appeared to be a closed off area with a giant plant hedge that reached up to the ceiling. She also couldn't help but notice the hedges had some sort of vines with purple thorns coiled around them.
"Hmm... now where could I be now then...?" Korume said, glancing around.
"Teeheeheehee!" giggled the green Poe Sister Amy, appearing before her, "I'm Amy, and I'll be your little playma-"
It was then Amy had to dodge an ice spear that was tossed right at her, and she looked down to Korume who was narrowing her eyes.
"Hey, don't attack me before I can tell you what I- ack!" Amy was forced to dodge several more spears being thrown at her.
"Stop moving you little pest, and just let me impale you." Korume said coldly.
"Grrr... that's it!" Amy said, disappearing before more spears were tossed at her.
Korume looked around a bit for Amy, until she heard the Poe call out.
"Okay now!" shouted Amy, "Teeheeheehee! My little game is simple, just navigate through this hedge maze until you get to the end, then you can decide my fate!"
"So all I have to do is get to the other side?" Korume asked, examining the walls of the hedge maze
"Oh it's far more complicated then you might think!" giggled Amy, "Not only are the vines covering this place poisonous to the touch, but every dead end has a nasty little surprise, either man-eating plants, vines to construct the life out of you, and even pitfalls into thorn spikes!"
"Hmm... okay, I should be able to handle this." Korume nodded.
On the other end of the maze, Amy giggled to herself as she imagined Korume's troubles going through the maze, "Little does that foolish girl know is that this maze has no way to this side, it's all closed off! She'll suffer through it until she dies of my traps! Teeheeheehee! Teeheehe-"
Amy's giggling was cut off though, by a large blast of polar ice wind that shot clear through the hedge maze, barely missing Amy's body. The Poe floated there in disbelief seeing the large gaping icy hole in her maze, and Korume slowly walking down the path she made, all the plants and traps completely frozen in ice.
"Wha-, no fair! You ruined my maze, you li-!" Amy's words were cut off by Korume casually walking by and impaling her with an ice spear, causing her to fall to the ground and disappear like the other Poes.
"Please be safe everyone," Korume whispered, leaving out the door, "I'm coming..."
As the three Gerudo were handling their own situations, Link got himself up from a carpeted floor and looked around the room he was trapped in. There wasn't much to the room itself, there was some furniture but it was laying around and destroyed. He looked up and saw a picture of some mysterious person, but he couldn't tell who it was because there were savage claw marks torn across it. He then noticed a pile of animal bones in the corner, but couldn't quite make out what they used to belong to.
One particular thing that stood out though, a large somewhat familiar looking treasure chest in the comer. His curiosity peaked upon seeing it, and his experience in adventuring urged him to open it. Before he did though, Link looked around for any threats, gripping his sword and preparing himself for anything that came at him first.
"I've been looking forward to this... finally, after so long I can finally kill you, boy." said a dark voice suddenly.
Link looked around to see who it could be, until the black cloaked Poe appeared before him. It narrowed it's eyes coldly at Link.
"So who are you?" Link asked.
"Heh, you and I go back a long way..." chuckled the Poe, "But I don't blame you for not recognizing me."
Suddenly the Poe lunged at Link with it's claw, but Link quickly jumped away to avoid it, before running at the Poe with his sword, who quickly disappeared.
"In another time, I used to be a much grander and stronger being, I commanded the Poe Sisters with a mighty fist... until you ended my reign over this temple..." hissed the Poe, before rushing at Link, who quickly brought up his shield to block his attack, "And my master banished me to that rift between dimensions for my failure..."
"You..." Link muttered in thought, when it suddenly occurred to him, "Wait, you're Phantom Ganon?" He was referring to one of the cruel monsters he fought back in the dark future, a creature that took on Ganondorf's appearance and cursed the Forest Temple.
"Correct, I took on the likeness of my previous master to intimidate you. But when I failed in battle, I was sealed away by that bastard, it took me what felt like ages to escape the rift, only to find myself back in the Forest Temple in this new future... and my body had been turned into a Poe..." the former phantom of Ganondorf hissed.
The Poe clashed at Link with it's claws wildly, but Link deflected them with his sword and shield.
"But that's not why I want to kill you so much..." the Poe said backing up, lowering his head.
"Huh...?" Link asked.
"When I went to the Poe Sisters for establish my dominance over this temple, they had accepted me... but rather then allow me to rule over them..." he started with a cold muttering.
It was then that the Poe raised it's head up with tears streaming down it's eyes and a mournful look in it's normally eerie eyes.
"They made me their little flunkie! Those cruel women torment me day-in and day-out, playing stupid pranks on me!"
Link stood there blankly as the Poe sobbed uncontrollably.
"They jump out of mirrors to spook me, they flip my bedroom upside down, they tie me up with poison vines, they hide explosives in my food, I try to keep a cute little Skulluta as a pet and they fed my poor Shelly to a damn frog! They mock me with shadowy clones when I try to lash out against them! " the Phantom cried out, "They even started calling me 'Phanny'!"
"Phanny?" Link muttered, thinking to himself, "Oh, short for phantom." he realized. "Sounds like you have rough life, want me to just kill you and put you out of your misery?" the Hylian proposed.
"No... you're the one who's the reason I'm like this, only your death will satisfy me now!"the Poe now known as Phanny said, lunging at Link with his claws. Link swung his sword but the Poe moved his claws outwards and to Link's sides suddenly, grabbing his arms, and raising him into the air.
"Grk.. damnit...!" Link said struggling with the Poe's arms.
"Once I kill you, I'll make you a Poe as well, and those bitches will have a new little victim to torment!" Phanny shouted hysterically and anxiously, pulling on Link's arms in an attempt to rip them off his body.
"I need to figure out a quick way out of this..." Link muttered.
As he was being pulled on, he looked around for a way to break free, when he saw a lone small Skulluta crawling down from the ceiling, and he grinned a bit.
"Hey Phanny look, it's Shelly!" Link shouted out.
"Where?!" exclaimed Phanny, letting go of Link, looking u in the direction Link gestured, and saw the Skulluta hanging overhead, but then he realized, "Wait, that's not Shel-"
That's when Link slashed across Phanny's body from behind, and he fell to the ground. Before Link could dash in for another attack, the Poe quickly disappeared, then reappeared a distance away.
"Grrr.. you little brat, I won't forget this!" Phanny shouted in a hissy fit, as he escaped through the shredded portrait on the wall, which then disappeared. Most of the things in the room seemed to vanish as well, and the doorway out opened up, letting Link know even though the Poe wasn't destroyed, it was long gone now.
Link let out a sigh of relief upon the victory, spinning his sword in his hand and sheathing it. It was then he remembered the strange chest in the room. He walked over to it and opened it up, and saw inside of it was a sight most familiar to him.
"It's been a long time since I held this..." Link smiled, reaching into the chest and pulling out a beautifully designed bow.
This was the Fairy Bow, a legendary treasure of the Forest Temple, and a weapon Link had once wielded in the dark future. There was even a decently sized quiver of arrows in the chest as well, which he hoisted onto his back.
"Alright, time to get back to Saria and everyone." Link nodded, turning and running off.
Saria meanwhile was slowly getting up to her feet, holding her Deku Staff. She was in a type of octagonal shaped room, with seemingly nothing inside of it aside from a small grass garden in the center. Naturally the room was closed off, preventing Saria's escape.
"Ugh... I gotta get out of here..." Saria groaned, "I need to find Link.."
"Keaheheheh! You think you'll ever see that boy again, child?"
It was then that a purple Poe materialized in front of Saria. The girl stepped back and held up her staff instinctively.
"I am Meg, the leader of the Poe Sisters, and you're not leaving this temple until we're done with you!" the Poe cackled.
"Just what do you want with me...?" Saria asked, pointing her staff at the Poe.
"It's not me who wants you, but Straw Kid." Meg said, "We arranged a deal, that we help him with his goal, and in exchange we get full control of the Lost Woods! As for what he wants, that's for you to find out!"
Saria rushed at Meg with her staff and swung it, but the Poe vanished and reappeared behind her, Saria flipped around and backed up from the ghostly being.
"You're the ones who cursed Kokiri Forest aren't you?" Saria realized, "You sent those monsters to the village!"
"Yes.. that's actually part of Straw Kid's plan." chuckled Meg, "He asked us to create a threat to torment those children!"
"You monsters..." Saria said, squeezing the staff in anger, "Me, Link and our friends are going to stop you, and we'll all go back together!"
"Heh, together? Not likely!" chuckled Meg darkly, her eyes gave off an eerie gleam, making her eyes appear as a single pupil, which unnerved Saria a bit, "Do you really think you'll ever stand alongside that boy?"
"W-What are you talking about...?" Saria asked, before running at the Poe and swinging her staff, but the Poe swatted Saria away.
"See for yourself, my terrifying power!" Meg said, dipping her hands into the ground, and causing small pools of dark energy to appear around Saria. She looked around nervously as strange forms started to rise up from the darkness, and took on somewhat familiar forms.
"Saria... where did you go...?" groaned a voice, as some of the shadows took on the form of Kokiri people, slowly wandering towards her.
"Please Saria... we need you..." said another, rising up and slowly lumbering towards her.
"Don't leave us..." said one crawling along the ground.
"You'll abandon us all for him...?"
"Why did you go away... you've doomed us all..."
"It's your destiny to protect us..."
Saria gulped as she saw the dark creatures surround her, she closed her eyes tightly and wielded her staff, swinging it around her, as two large spiked nuts tied to vines grew out of both ends of the staff, and Saria used it to knock the creatures away, reducing them to puddles.
"I... know I have to protect them..." Saria said, "That's why I was given this staff, that's what the Great Deku Tree wanted me to do!"
"Keaheheheh, but is that truly all you want...?" chuckled Meg, "But it doesn't matter what you want, because you're not needed!"
"I..." Saria stammered, before hearing a new laugh behind her. She turned to see a dark form that had taken on the likeness of three people at once.
"Back off you little girl, Link is ours now!" said a voice from the darkness with an appearance very much like Aviel, the creature having a gleefully demented expression.
"Kukuku... you're nothing compared to us, you can't protect Link from anything. So just hurry up and die." said the dark Korume.
"Keeheehee! You have no choice but to stay here for the rest of your days anyway, so just go into the corner and be alone forever!" the Kesuta lookalike laughed sadistically.
"Link's friends are nothing like that!" shouted Saria, rushing at the dark clones and swinging her staff, releasing a barrage of Deku Seeds from the pods growing on it, which exploded on the clones and destroyed them.
'Hmph, that staff of hers has more power then I thought... or perhaps that power is coming from...' Meg thought to herself, 'Well time to up the ante."
"Alright you monster, I'll beat you and go back to Link!" Saria said turning to the Poe.
"Tsk, you're a real annoying and clingy girl, you know that?" said a voice most familiar to Saria that made her break out into a cold sweat, she turned to see a dark version of Link, towering over her, "A little brat like you means nothing to me. I've come to meet real, strong women, with real hot bodies to boot, and you're nothing more then a weak little kid who will never grow up!"
"S-Shut up!" Saria shouted out, her eyes filling with tears. Even though it was a fake, hearing those words spoken with Link's voice hurt her badly. She tried to fight the Link clone with her staff, but it grabbed the staff and tossed her away.
"Those seven years I was gone from Hyrule were total bliss without feeling like I had to talk to some annoying snot-nosed brat! I only ever call you now out of obligation, just so you think I care about you. In reality I just pine for the day I never feel like I have to see or talk to you again!"
"No, you're not Link... he would never say those things..." Saria sniffled, "He came here to save me when he didn't have to... he cares about me... and... I care about him!"
With that Saria swung out her Deku Staff, causing some vines to shoot out from it and snare the dark Link like lasso ropes, binding the creature and immobilizing it.
As the shadowy Link tried to break free of the vines, it looked to see Saria run out with her staff, as the spiked boas formed on the ends, she swung it forward and smacked the dark Link around seveal times before she swung it down and crushed the lookalike, destroying it.
Saria gulped and staggered back, turning to Meg to prepare another attack, but it was then another voice came up...
"He was right you know, even if Link does supposedly care about you, it doesn't really mean anything." said yet another voice, Saria turned to see... herself, as a dark creature like the others. The dark Saria grinned widely, slowly walking towards her.
"You keep going on about how he's your friend, he';; always be your friend... and that's all you have to say? You keep telling yourself that to assure yourself, when it means absolutely nothing. What's the point of him being your best friend when you never see him or talk to him anymore? Is it just the memories you had together? Those memories just serve as nothing but to remind you of how much you miss him! Frankly, it's just better to forget about those memories, and him completely, he doesn't need you anyways." the dark Saria cackled.
"No... I'll never give up on him." Saria said hanging her head down, "I want to protect him from whatever is coming, to stand by his side..." she took a deep breath, "But as important as he is to me, my friends in the village are important to me too!"
Saria looked up at Meg and the dark Saria with determination in her eyes.
"If I can't help him in person, then I'll do whatever I can to encourage him, and lend him as much strength as I possibly can." Saria said, her staff giving off a faint green glow, and the plants in the garden seemed to react to it, "That's what a true friend does."
With that, Saria rose up her staff, releasing a powerful burst of green energy, as large thorn-covered vines shot out of the dirt in the garden, and all came down to smash her dark doppelganger, destroying it in seconds.
"W-What?' Meg exclaimed in shock, she was about to lunge out and attack Saria with her claws, but then Saria then sent the vines out right at the Poe, smacking Meg around wildly before smashing her into the ground, leaving the Poe badly beaten.
"Y-You... you may have fought off my power..." hissed Meg, laying on the ground, struggling to get up, as her lantern was cracking apart, "But say what empty words you will, he'll still never see you as his-"
Meg's words were cut off by Saria swinging down her staff and smashing Meg into the ground one last time, destroying her Poe form and causing her to disappear to the world of spirits like the other Poes.
Saria took a deep breath, sniffling as she wiped some tears from her eyes, the battle was tough, but the words she heard was an even harder pain to endure.
"I... have to go find everyone..." Saria said, turning to leave Meg's room, and back to her friends.
Well that ends the chapter. Sorry if it seemed like I put Saria through the wringer too hard at the end, but it was necessary for her personal struggle. Next time the heroes take on the threat of Straw Kid, learn some disturbing truths, and someone will ultimately make an important choice...
I will say at this point I'm plotting out the script for the next arc after this, but I'm having trouble putting it together, so it might take a while. I'm almost done writing out the next chapter though, so you got that to look forward to at least.
As always, like, follow, review, you know what to do.