A Link to the Past
Chapter Fourteen: Stonewall Guardians
There was no time to think as the pursuing statue leapt up high for the kill, forcing Link to dive sideways so that it broke apart more of the tile floor sections upon impact instead of his body, but now that the young man was getting closer to the blocked entrance of the old Lord's castle, he was starting to realize that this was a bad idea. As if waiting for him to come closer, the stationary wall of statues suddenly came to life, advancing forward one short leap at a time as a single column in an attempt to box him in. The only thing Link could do right now was run, trying to use the intact walls and raised earth of the castle's remains in order to break sight with them in the hopes that some kind of hiding place could be found.
He didn't plan on staying in the ruins any longer than he had to, so after ducking down into what remained of the kitchen's fireplace and then climbing his way up into what was left of its chimney, the young man could only hope to go unnoticed by his pursuers, just long enough for him to think of something at least. Pressing his feet into a worn out ledge and his back into the other side of the chimney to keep from falling, Link relied on sound so know that the statues had followed him into the kitchen only a few seconds after ducking into his hiding place. At first it was only the one that had been first chasing him, but the others were close behind, each of them making what was left of the building shake as they bounced around, and then… and then everything went quiet.
Not daring to make a sound or to poke his head out down below to see what had happened with the statues, all he needed to know is that they hadn't been heard leaving the kitchen, meaning that they were still out there… but also that now was his only opportunity to come up with some kind of plan. A sword was useless against this kind of enemy, as probably were any other weapons that could be found in this place, so off hand the young man didn't know how he was supposed to stop his pursuers, let alone break them open to see if there was a treasure inside. What he needed was some way to knock them over, or maybe knock each other over… would that damage them?
This was so frustrating, and the option of running away was gone since the statues were blocking the entrance… well, there was the hole at the other end of the castle where the river was flowing, but… no, Link couldn't run away. Having already proven his courage at the dunes, there was no way that acting like a coward now would ever make him worthy to get the Master Sword… no, this was a test of wisdom just like the old man said, and therefore there had to be a way to defeat them… something he wasn't seeing. So far the only plans the young man could think of were knocking them down or getting them to destroy each other, but neither of those would happen by hiding in a chimney, so it was time to come out of hiding.
"They're just… sitting there." Link whispered to himself after taking a look. "Waiting for me to come out like they have all the time in the world."
Instead of peeking out from down below, the young man climbed up in order to poke his head out of the top of the broken chimney, which was only a few feet higher, and realizing that the statues probably did have all the time in the world, unlike himself. A line of them blocked the entrance to the kitchen just like they had done at the front door, with the original pursuer resting slightly forward as if stopping as soon as it lost track of him, and all would have to be awake in order for him to have a chance of getting out of this room. All right, well, now he needed to get their attention, so the young man called out to his pursuer while pulling a loose brick from on top of the chimney and tossing it.
Breaking into several pieces when it struck the statue's head, the pursuer ignored that harmless attack, but came to life real fast once it heard Link's voice. Shaking a little before jumping forward, the statue rammed itself right into the broken fireplace, shattering the base as it plowed through, and causing the young man to cry out, holding on for dear life as what was left of the chimney slowly crashed to the floor. Leaping away from the bricks at the last second, he had no choice but to roll right toward the other statues, which all came to life in turn. This time however, when they all leapt forward, two of them tried to crush him at the same time, colliding in the air and landing on both sides of him, which was the only reason the young man was able to get out of the kitchen, or survive at all.
Scrambling down the ruined hallway and on all fours for a moment while rounding the corner, the statues were in hot pursuit, colliding with each other and ramming through what remained of walls and corners in order to reach their target. For a moment Link had hope when one of them broke through a large piece of intact wall, causing it to fall on some of the others, but they just kept coming, jumping up from the rubble as if it was just more rain, and continuing the chase. So far nothing was knocking them down or damaging them, not even hitting each other, and now even more of the stone guardians were coming out from the woodwork, appearing from every hallway and exposed room all the way back to the front door which of course had another line of statues protecting it.
"I won't run away!" He found himself yelling, his thoughts returning to the broken wall and the river below. "I'm not a coward! The kingdom needs me, don't you understand that?! I need to get the Master Sword!"
Now desperately charging at the original pursuer, the young man swung his silver sword, striking the statue while it kept jumping, moving around and struck the stone enemy again and again while moving around it to avoid being crushed, even trying to hit it underneath in the middle of a leap, but nothing was working, and now… and now Link was getting tired. It was becoming harder and harder to avoid the statue's jumps, forcing him back toward the far end of the old Lord's castle, and with no luck finding the pursuer's weakness, he kept having to retreat farther back. How was he supposed to beat them? How was he supposed to break them open and get the ancient treasure?
Even with the power of the glove, the young man was slowing down, with one of the statues bumping into him as it leapt, and coming down only inches from his foot when he grabbed onto a section of wall in order to steady himself. That wall was soon destroyed too, forcing Link into the very last room of the castle, where an easy escape was found, and all of the statues were closing in on him. Forming a wall at the entrance while half a dozen more slowly advanced, Link was desperately trying to find a way to get out of this… maybe getting up on top of the raised earth, or hiding inside the other chimney… no, this wasn't the right room for the chimney, and the natural walls of raised earth were too steep and high.
Putting his sword away so that he would be able to move faster once the advancing guardians reached him, the young man was considering running and sliding underneath the statues to head back toward the front of the castle, but that plan was ended when he saw even more of them join the wall to prevent escape. Looking back at the river flowing below just outside the broken wall, Link imagined having to return to Sahasrahla, and then Princess Zelda to report that he failed the challenge of wisdom… and with no weapon to defeat Agahnim, the wizard would have no trouble conquering Hyrule forever if he didn't find some way to get the treasure from these damned statues.
Now crashing to the floor just inches from him, and nowhere left to run, everything seemed to slow down when the statue leapt up one more time, with the young man's brain trying to decide… should he run underneath and keep fighting… or was it time to run? He wanted to fight, wanted to get the treasure and save Princess Zelda from Agahnim, but there just wasn't a way to win here, not that he could see. So instead of running underneath the guardian, Link turned away and leapt through the hole in the broken wall, hearing the crash of the statue landing just before making a splash of his own. The river was deeper then he imagined, spinning and flipping around with the current until finally getting back to the surface… and seeing that the old Lord's castle was being left far behind.
He tried swimming over to the shore on either side, but the current was so swift that it became a struggle just to stay afloat, not that the young man had ever been the strongest swimmer. He knew how to swim, sure, but not against a current like this, and now Link was getting scared, even more so than his stone pursuers… now he was scared that he would drown, and then there would be no way for him to help the Princess. Still the water pulled him along faster, the young man trying to grab onto some of the tall grass, an exposed root, or even a tree branch when the river turned, but he just couldn't reach it… and then he discovered the reason that the current was moving so fast.
Just when he was almost close enough to grab for an exposed root, the river and all of its water seemed to vanish out from underneath him, and it wasn't until after falling for a second or two that Link realized he had gone over a waterfall. Splash! Hitting the water much harder this time, the young man was disoriented for a second after spinning around underwater, trying his best to swim up toward the light coming from the cloudy sky above. He was almost there, too, when suddenly he couldn't get up any farther due to the fact that something had gotten caught on his ankle. Looking back down, Link was startled to see the fins and fish-like features of a Zora, its sharpened teeth grinning at him just before the fish creature headed down into the darkness, its clawed hand dragging him along from where it was gripped tightly around his ankle.