A Link to the Past

Chapter Fifteen: A Test of Wisdom

Quickly dragged down into the water, so deep that he lost sight of the sun, Link was holding his breath as much as he could while the Zora pulled him along, but his lungs were already burning from the effort. The water was cold, seeming to push down on the young man's body for a couple seconds while the journey continued, but then surprisingly the fish-like creature pulling him along started heading back upward. Just when he thought that his chest was going to burst if he didn't take a breath, Link's head suddenly broke the surface, allowing him to take a gasping, coughing breath as he was dragged up onto the rocky shore, but what was going to happen now?

Was the Zora going to eat him? Did he have the strength left to fight it off if the fish-like creature tried? Reaching with a shaky hand to grab the hilt of his sword, the young man was surprised when instead of attacking him, the Zora simply let go of Link's ankle before there was a small splash when it dove back into the water., allowing him to sit up and take a look around at his new surroundings. Darker than outside, the young man could see the light of the sun again, but now it was coming in through a wall of falling water, meaning that this place must've been a cave hidden behind that same waterfall that he had just gone over. The stone floor was covered with mud and loose gravel, while moss and aquatic plants grew along the sides of the stone walls, with the waterfall as the only visible way back out.

Now that he caught his breath, Link was wondering what the point was of the fish-like creature bringing him to this place, especially since he had been left armed. It took a few minutes before the young man was able to get to his feet, still a bit shaky and needing to lean on the wall in order to do so, but except for that one Zora he had seen, there wasn't much to this place. Just a rocky island stretching to the back wall of the cave, and it might have gone farther but it was too dark to see beyond that point. Well, he wasn't going to just stand there and wait for the Zora to come back and eat him, so Link doze back into the water and swam for the exit, only to find himself being spun around and thrown backwards by the power of the waterfall.

He couldn't hold his breath long enough to swim below the moving water, so he tried to swim across the surface, but was just as easily pushed down, spun, and thrown backwards as soon as he made contact, leaving the young man no option other than to go back to the stone island for now. Now Link was really in a bad situation, since even if he managed to kill the Zora when it came back, he still wouldn't be able to get out after that… not unless there really was another way out back in the darkness of the cave. The young man didn't like the idea of having to wander through the darkness, but it was better than starving to death, so he started walking toward the darkness, only to gasp and stop in his tracks when a pair of large, glowing red eyes opened in front of him.

"So, you're the one the statues moved for." A gurgling, almost female sounding voice declared. "I remember when the knights put them in… outlasted the castle… never thought they would move again."

During the speaking, the ground shook a little as the eyes moved closer, forcing Link to back away as its form came into view, revealing that the voice and the eyes belonged to the biggest Zora that he had ever imagined; fins and claws like the smaller one, and grinning with a mouth full of sharpened, jagged teeth that made the young man feel uneasy. This creature's claws and teeth were longer than his hand, and now it was just sitting there looking down at him as if deciding whether or not to eat him. Link considered drawing his sword to protect himself, but he would be in a lot of trouble if this big Zora decided to attack.

"Brave young hero seeking the Master Sword." The Zora continued before he could do anything. "The statues are not able to leave the old castle… so you must've run away from the fight, yes? Why did you run from them… if you're so brave?"

"I was going to go back." Link found himself answering. "I'm going to defeat them and get the treasure of wisdom, but there were so many, and I couldn't hurt them… there didn't… there didn't seem to be any way to win."

In response to this, the large Zora laughed, gurgling and making a kind of hissing noise at the same time while the young man took a step back, his hand on the hilt of his sword now in case it came after him. However, instead of attacking, the fish-like creature commented that maybe the Knights of Hylia knew what they were talking about after all. The Zora had doubted them and their way of thinking, asking it to guard one of their sacred treasures while the trial to attain it was a good distance away at the old castle, yet lo and behold that the only person worthy to activate the stone guardians in hundreds of years had found his way right to it after all.

"Courage without wisdom is a shortcut to the grave, he told me." The large Zora continued, taking something out from behind its scale-covered body. "What good is a warrior to their cause if they get themselves killed, when it is far wiser to retreat and share the knowledge gained? The statues cannot be defeated… they are hiding no treasure… you would have died bravely if you stayed… brave and foolish… wisdom means knowing the difference, wouldn't you agree?"

Now holding out its stretched claw, there was something in the palm of its hand… something that looked like a boot… blue in color, but also having some kind of extensions around the toes that almost looked like the flipper of a fish. Catching the boot after the creature tossed it to him, Link noted that its texture felt leathery but flimsy and segmented, like the scales of a fish, and it also shared some of the features of the glove that the young man had discovered under the surface of the dunes. So he slipped his boot off and put on the flipper, not nearly as surprised this time when it began to shift and compress down to fit him just like the glove had done. By the time the flipper stopped moving it was almost like wearing a second skin, fitting the shape of his foot perfectly while the fins had vanished.

"Not since the Knights of Hylia has one been able to wear that boot." The large Zora explained while he put his regular boot on over it. "Their champion, the one who held the Master Sword, could swim and breathe like a fish, probably why he was the only one to survive that last battle. Now flee from this place, heir to the knights… the Master Sword awaits you."

With that, the large Zora backed away, vanishing back into the darkness of the cave until its glowing red eyes closed and there was nothing but darkness. Not wanting to waste any more time, Link turned away and dove into the water, finding it much easier to swim now, going down below where the current from the waterfall could affect him, and strangest at all… the young man didn't need to hold his breath. Just like the fish-like creature told him, Link was able to not only swim faster and deeper than anyone else in the kingdom, but he was also breathing underwater. It was odd, not a thing done with his nose and mouth, but nevertheless his lungs were filling with air and letting it back out the whole time he was under, stopping only after coming back up to the surface.

Of course, he had to duck back down just as quickly in order to avoid being spotted by the guards who were patrolling the road that the river ran next to. All right, maybe the young man would just stay underwater for a while, keeping only his eyes above the water so that he could both watch for more guards, as well as find out exactly where he was since everything looked the same under water. Turns out that he wasn't very far away now from where he had stayed the night before entering the old Lord's castle, and climbed up onto the hidden back underneath that same bridge in order to take a break, and now all he had to do was get back to the library where hopefully the old man would be able to tell him more.

Unfortunately, the river didn't go any farther in that direction, so Link was going to have to get back to Kakariko Village on foot. The guards were still watching the young man's house, but now the nightly check points had been abandoned until sunset, meaning that he could walk on the roads as long as there wasn't a patrol coming. Part of him wanted to simply fight the traitors off, since they betrayed their King, and he had the power of that glove to make things easier, but if they were really under some kind of spell from Agahnim, then none of this was really their fault. For now, Link would only fight them when he had to, and that meant more hiding behind trees and crawling through tall grass all the way back to the village limits.

Only a single patrol of three guards was seen walking through the southernmost part of the village, with the rest probably searching other places in the kingdom since he hadn't been found yet. This made it relatively easy for the young man to sneak past the few houses between himself and the library, and good thing he was almost there too, because now the rain was picking up again. Would this storm never end, he asked himself? A light sprinkle only minutes ago, the gray clouds had blackened in a hurry, bringing with it strong winds and a pouring rain that soaked him almost as quickly as the river, but for now that was all behind him as he passed through the doorway of the library, closing and locking the door behind him and calling out to Sahasrahla that he had recovered the treasure of wisdom.

"Truly?" The old man asked, seeming to appear out of nowhere within the book cases. "Tell me, what was the challenge? What was the prize this time?"

So Link told him everything that happened since leaving the village yesterday; sleeping under the bridge, finding the ruins of the old Lord's castle, and almost getting killed by the guardian statues. The part that surprised Sahasrahla the most was how the treasure was actually hidden in the lair of a giant Zora, which could only be reached by running away from the fight, as well as the fact that now the young man could breathe underwater and swim like a fish. According to the old book there was now only one more test that stood between him and the Master Sword, but still no mention of where the sword itself was hidden.

"We will worry about the blade after you complete the tests." The old man said, reading through the obscure language on the pages. "The only challenge remaining is the test of power, and for that you must go up into the mountains… I believe this drawing is the Tower of Hera, the oldest standing construction in the province, and… oh… Link, if you survive this test you must go to Princess Zelda and tell her what you seek."

The young man wondered why the Princess needed to know what he was doing, but hardly anything about this whole quest made any sense, so he remained inside the library long enough for the rain to let up a little, before heading north toward the mountains.