Chapter four:
Everything changes.
Zelda promised Hawkins that she wouldn't run away this time.
And Sidon decided that he wanted to come along as well.
"A strange kid eh? I wonder if Gutter was somewhat telling the truth. Also what's with that talk of fairies, I wonder might there still be some out there." Mr Hawkins was thinking to himself.
Mr Hawkins got four guards to come with him, Zelda and Sidon.
The small group went by horse since they'd be way faster.
On their way however they found a wounded goron.
He looked exhausted and collapsed on the ground in front of them.
The group quickly got of their horses and ran over to the goron.
Mr Hawkins immediately recognized the goron, it was the chiefs son Daru.
He was named after the great guardian Daruk.
"Mr Daru! Are you alright?!" Hawkins asked.
"Urg… My head is killing me mate..." He said while holding his head.
"We can get you too the caste! There the medics will help you. What happened anyways?" Hawkins asked.
"I ran into an ambush on my way to see the king.." Daru said.
"My goodness! You two help Mr Daru back to the castle! Me, princess Zelda, prince Sidon and the other two guards shall continue on our quest." Hawkins then ordered.
"My my, princess Zelda! Prince Sidon! It's an honor to meet you two." Daru said.
"It's an honor to meet you too!" Sidon said.
"Just get to the castle as quickly as you can. Before you end up in a worse state." Zelda said.
"Don't worry princess I'm tough! But I shall do as I'm ordered." And with that the goron along with the two guards left.
"We can ask him what happened later, that way he can still rest. And we can look for the kid." Mr Hawkins said with a determent look.
And thus, the five people entered the forest.
While in the lost woods all five could sense something wasn't right.
A cold air swooped by as the leaves on the trees started falling.
The grass turned a darker color as black dot floated in the sky above.
Almost as if they had entered some kind of twilight realm.. yet not entirely.
Surely whatever it was affected the area around them but they themselves were fine.
Some trees and plants were also spared.
However they soon entered the clearing that was made by Skull kids last attack to scare of Botrick and Gutter.
It was an empty field but something weird was going on.
Mr. Hawkins held Zelda and Sidon back as all five of them were hiding in a nearby bush.
A strange man was standing in the middle of the field.
"A dark power rises here too, huh? I wonder if I can use it… To bring her back.." The strange man said.
The man wore a chameleon mask and wore a black robe with long sleeves.
The five watched as the man pulled out a broken mirror shard.
"I wonder.. with the power I have now.. and the dark power that lingers here… perhaps.. I could open a portal.. perhaps I could access the twilight."
"Zant!" Another guy appeared.
"Ah Ghirahim, fancy meeting you here." Zant said.
"Really Zant? What are you even doing here? Our orders were to gather an army!" Ghirahim said as he crossed his arms.
"That is exactly why I'm here! Can't you feel it? This dark energy? I have no idea where it came from but it is just perfect! I can use it to bring her back.." Zant explained.
"Oh no! Not her! Last time you tried to get her to your side she used the boy to defeat not only you but our boss as well!" Ghirahim said.
"This time however, the boy is already dealt with. Besides we both are twice as strong now and we learned from out fights and mistakes. She can't harm us even if she tried." Zant added.
"True and I'd much like to meet her. Perhaps she will be of use even if she fights back, we might even harvest a bit of her power while we're at it." Ghirahim was finally convinced.
"Alright then, step back and enjoy the show." Zant said as he raised his arms and gathered some of the dark magic that lingered around.
"Mr. Hawkins? Shouldn't we stop them? They seem like trouble." Zelda asked quietly.
"Ssssssh, we can't risk it. We don't know who or even what they are. It's better to observe." Mr. Hawkins said.
"But they said that they were raising an army. I agree with the princess, let's confront them." Sidon said.
"Hush! Do you want them to find out we're here!" Mr. Hawkins whispered loudly.
The three were so busy arguing that they hadn't noticed Ghirahim was approaching.
"Want who to find out you're here?" Ghirahim said while he laughed.
"Aaaah!" Sidon and Zelda both got jump scared.
"We don't want the shady guy's to know we're here. Now could you please stop interrupting our conversation." Mr. Hawkins said while being oblivious to Ghirahim.
Just after Mr. Hawkins spoke however he became quiet as realization hit him.
"….Uhm...hi mister… shady guy… uhm… we were just leaving. Don't mind us.." Mr. Hawkins said as he slowly pushed Sidon and Zelda back while also backing off himself.
"Awh don't leave, we were just about to get this party started." Ghirahim said as he put an arm around Mr. Hawkins and did his weird tongue thingy.
Mr. Hawkins tried to get his face as far away from him as he answered. "No really, it's getting quite late and we have places to be so.."
Mr. Hawkins then managed to get out of Ghirahim's grip as he backed off again.
"Awh don't be like that. You can spare a minute can't you?" Ghirahim asked.
Meanwhile Zant was readying an attack in the background.
The two soldier noticed this however and pushed the princess, prince and Mr. Hawkins out of the way.
As a result the two soldiers were hit by the attack that lifted them in the air.
They couldn't move a muscle they were stuck, held by magic in mid air.
Meanwhile Mr. Hawkins pushed Zelda and Sidon away from the field and further into the woods.
They ran as fast as they could with Ghirahim following closely behind.
Zant however stayed with the guards/soldiers.
He turned his head. "Hmmm I wonder..."
Chills were sent down the spines of the caught soldiers.
"Yes… You could be of use to me…." And with that Zant used some more magic and the guards started screaming in pain.
Meanwhile Zelda, Sidon and Mr. Hawkins were still being chased by Ghirahim.
"Neyhahaaha! I will catch you eventually! You should just give up while you can!~" Ghirahim said in a playful manner.
He was using his magic to move forward quicker, however taking turns was hard while he used his magic so he had to really time when to use it.
A couple of times he had just barely missed grabbing onto one of them.
He was getting closer by the minute.
Zelda then notice something out of the corner of her eye.
It was him, Skull kid.
He gestured over to them to follow him.
"This way!" Zelda called out as they made a run for it.
Sidon and Mr. Hawkins had no idea Skull kid was there since he'd disappear out of sight very quickly.
Ghirahim was right on their trail though and it didn't help that he could even teleport.
Then Skull kid had completely vanished from sight.
Zelda looked around but didn't see him.
She had no other choice but to just run forward as even she didn't exactly know that part of the forest.
Then suddenly a hand pulled Zelda aside.
It was Skull kid, he put her beneath a large tree root and then he gestured at Zelda to be quiet.
Zelda nodded as she looked curiously at him.
Not long after Mr. Hawkins and Sidon joined Zelda under the tree root, as soon as they did Skull kid disappeared again.
The three were holding their breaths as they head footstep right above them.
Ghirahim was standing on top of the tree root.
"Oooh princess?~" Ghirahim said in a creepy manner. "Why don't you come out? I know who you are princess..."
Zelda felt her heartbeat quicken, how did he know?
She was sure that she had surely never met him before.
Mr. Hawkins and Sidon looked at Zelda with a confused expression.
Just by their expressions Zelda could tell what they were thinking. "Do you know that guy?"
Zelda shuck her hear left and right as if to say. "No, I have no idea who he is."
"Zelda! The proud princess of Hyrule! Daughter of king Rhoam! If you come out I might even be able to let you see your father again!" Ghirahim said in a challenging way.
Zelda's eyes turned to a mix of fear, anger and sadness.
Her dad had disappeared and this guy acted as if he was responsible for that.
She wanted to stand up but Mr. Hawkins held her back.
He looked her in the eye with the same mix of feelings and shook his head.
Zelda knew what he meant. "Not now, don't fall for it."
So she calmed herself and the three waited.
Then in the distance they heard the guards scream in agony.
Ghirahim turned towards the sound. "It sure sounds like Zant is having fun. Oh well we'll get the princess later."
And with that Ghirahim finally turned around and started walking back.
The three let out their breaths as they noticed he was gone.
"We have to go back! We have to safe them!" Sidon said as he wanted to rescue the guards.
"No we cannot! Those two knew what they were doing! They swore to protect their princess! I will not have their lives thrown away for nothing!" Mr. Hawkins said in a suborn tone.
"They gave their lives for us! It is only fair to do the same! Princess what do you think?" Sidon said.
However the princess was too distracted to even pay attention to them.
She saw Skull kid sneaking into the direction of the clearing where Zant and Ghirahim were at.
"Princess?" Sidon asked again but to no avail.
Zelda just started sneakily following Skull kid again.
The other two looked at each other and lifter their shoulders as they followed Zelda.
Skull kid found a nearby tree where he climbed in.
Zelda started climbing as well, as a result Sidon and Mr. Hawkins followed.
However Mr. Hawkins had some trouble getting up there so Sidon was stuck helping him.
That gave Skull kid enough time to jump to another tree, giving him full cover from Zelda and her friends as well as from Zant and Ghirahim.
Zelda looked forward for a bit and saw that they were pretty close to the clearing.
The leaves gave them cover but they could look through it.
Eventually Sidon and Mr. Hawkins managed to climb up the tree as well.
They had a great view over the clearing and saw Zant standing with one arm stretched out.
As their eye's followed the direction of Zant's outstretched arm they could see the two soldiers being surrounded by dark power.
The soldiers screamed some more as they were consumed by the dark energy.
They started.. changing.
Their bodies morphed into horrible black monsters.
It looked like they had shield covering their face.
Mr. Hawkins, Sidon, Zelda and even Skull kid looked in horror at the sight before them.
Zant lowered his arm and by doing so lowered the now struggling monsters.
"Very interesting… I thought you could only do that with the people of the twilight realm?" Ghirahim asked.
"Normally yes, but with this strange power that lingers here I can even do it to the people of the light. Well that would mean that opening a portal to the twilight won't be much of a problem either." Zant answered.
"Then we can get your army from the twilight and perhaps even control the twilight princess herself!" Ghirahim added.
"So it would seem." Zant said as he had a smirk on his face, although thanks to his mask no one could see that.
Zant lifted up both his hands and started gathering more power.
With his magic he placed the mirror shard in front of him and it started glowing.
The cracks in the shard itself were slowly getting restored.
Then the Full shard started expanding, forming a big round mirror.
But it did more than that, it itself was turning into a portal opening a gateway that was meant to remain closed.
Not long after Zant and his two new minions entered the twilight realm and left Ghirahim to guard the portal.
Ghirahim smiled in a most evil way, he knew what was bound to happen.