When I woke up the next morning to the sound of the bathroom door closing and the shower sputtering to life. The events of the two days before slammed to the forefront of my mind. Thinking about it, I was lucky it ended the way it had. If he hadn't been careful, who knew what might have happened.
"I'll have to make sure she's okay," I mumbled to myself as I dug through my bag for a change of clothes, as well as the map we had made to guide us towards where the pieces of the Triforce were probably hidden. "Hopefully a short trip today," I said, tracing through the Necluda region. "Still a lot of area to cover. Plenty of hollows and ponds. I just hope we're looking in the right place."
"We are, I'm sure of it," said a voice from over my shoulder. I startled, turning to see Zelda peeking over my shoulder. I hadn't even heard her come out of the bathroom. Her still damp hair was slightly tangled as strands of it fell off her shoulder and onto mine.
"That's an awful lot of confidence when we're looking for one particular cave in a mountain range known for hiding hidden crevices. Where do you want to start looking?" I asked, gesturing to the large area we had to search. Zelda grabbed the map from me, looking it over before pointing to a specific spot.
"Here. We'll start in this area, around Mount Rozudo, and work our way south-west. Meda Mountain, Mount Taran, Breman Peak, and Taran Pass are all in roughly the same area. I figure it might take us a day or two, but we should be able to find it."
"And what if it's not there?" I still wasn't sure we were looking in the right place. The poem really had been vague when it came to detailing the location of the Triforce of Wisdom.
"We cut our losses and make for the desert. We all but know that's where Power is hidden. Then we either figure out where else Wisdom might be or head back to the castle and see if anyone's had any other ideas." Zelda spoke with confidence and assurance, making me wonder if events were going to turn out the way she said purely from force of will. Knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised. In the face of that, I had to concede.
"Alright, Miss Know-it-all, have it your way," I said smiling as I plucked the map from her grip and rolled it back up. "I'm…" I stopped, hesitant to broach the topic of last night with her. "…going to take a shower," I said quickly, making a beeline for the bathroom. For being the new holder of the Triforce of Courage, I sure was a coward. 'There'll be plenty of time later,' I reasoned with myself as I hopped in the shower, my thoughts quickly replaced with shock and curses as the cold water hit me right in the face.
"Mmm, this really is fantastic," Zelda said, enthusiastically digging into what was left of her breakfast. We had stopped by a nearby café to get some real food instead of the mixture of snacks and fast food that usually fueled our journeys across the country. We had managed to snag a table outside and were watching the people as they passed, opening shops, getting breakfast, doing early morning shopping, or just walking down the street.
"Yeah, it was pretty good," I said, absentmindedly playing with my long, green sock-hat. I had decided (thanks to Zelda's very persistent suggestion) to wear my full heroing outfit as we explored the Hyrulean countryside. I wasn't necessarily thrilled to wear it in public, but it didn't stand out too much. Plenty of people were wearing traditional Sheikah robes, so I think most people probably assumed I was just wearing something related. At any rate, they didn't stare too much.
I mostly watched the people pass, not quite ready to talk to Zelda about the night before, and since that was inevitably where the conversation was going to go, I thought it best to just not talk much. The only problem with that was that Zelda was hardly oblivious.
"Okay," Zelda said, nibbling on the last of her scone. "What's up with you? You've been sulky all morning." I kept watching the street, my eyes fixating on a red-haired man to keep from glancing at Zelda. I felt like I had seen him before but couldn't place it. Unfortunately, he quickly passed out of sight.
"Look, if it's about last night…Link, would you please look at me?" she asked, exasperation growing in her voice. I glanced at her but couldn't bring myself to hold eye contact with her for more than a second before turning back to the street. "I'm sorry for what I did, I guess I wasn't thinking clearly. In fact, I need to thank you for stopping me and for comforting me. It was…just…can we just forget about it?" she asked, but I was only half listening.
My attention was caught on the tall man with the red hair I had seen a moment earlier. I thought he had moved on, but he was still there, wandering aimlessly and constantly looking at something in his hand. In the minute I had been watching him, he had walked past us on the other side of the street twice already. On the second pass, I got a look at what looked like a black compass in his hand. He glanced up every couple seconds, clearly looking for something.
It wasn't just his hair that had caught my attention though. His clothes were clearly not Hylian-made, the fabric a mixture of oranges, reds, and blacks, and looked loose and breathable. He had an abnormal amount of skin showing too, all of it the rich brown of someone who wasn't a stranger to the sun. His long red hair reached down to his lower back and was barely restrained by a few bands in the unruly strands and a gem with a series of chains on his forehead. Decorative earrings hung from his notably rounded ears.
He abruptly stopped walking, not budging an inch when someone bumped into him, and turned in place, moving the compass this way and that. He slowly turned until he was directly facing us before looking up and meeting my eyes. A sinister looking smile split his face.
I finally recognized him. And the words of a certain superfluous demon came to mind.
"Zelda, we need to go," I said quietly, not breaking eye contact with the man as I pulled out a few rupees to pay for our meal.
"What? Why? And what are you looking at?" she asked, turning to see the man still looking at us. "Is that…?" she murmured.
"Yeah, that's Ganondorf Dragmire. And judging from what I remember Keritan saying at the school, I don't think him being here is a coincidence." I finally looked away from Ganondorf to see Zelda looking just as worried as I felt. "I think we should probably run," I said. I caught a flash from where Ganondorf was standing and saw that he had a growing, crackling ball of magic in his hand and was poised to throw it. "Yeah, definitely run!" I shouted, hauling Zelda to her feet as we sprinted out of the way, just in time to avoid the ball of electricity that slammed into the metal table and chairs we had been in a moment before, all of which promptly exploded in a shower of sparks.
"Head towards the main street," Zelda said, her hand gripping my own tightly. "We need to get out of here fast." I glanced over my shoulder as we took a sharp left to see that, for how big the guy was, Ganondorf was fast, not to mention only a few yards behind us. He was also hurling more magic at us that we only dodged thanks to our abrupt left turn.
"He's still shooting at us! Can you put up a shield or something?" Not a second later, a glowing barrier appeared around us. We made it another dozen steps before another crackling orb slammed into it and the whole thing shattered like one of those fancy eggs. "Is that a no then?" I asked, my voice laced with sarcasm.
"Give me a minute," she shot back, making a hand gesture behind us. I heard a thud like someone had just run into a plate glass window and managed to see that our pursuer had been stopped by another glowing shield, this one placed specifically to block him. Unfortunately, it only slowed him down for a second before he shattered it with a punch. Zelda threw another one, but this time he wasn't even phased, blasting through it like it wasn't there. "Okay, fine," Zelda grumbled, somewhat breathlessly, ducking under another orb that crashed into a store and showered us with shingles and wood. "That's a no."
"Fantastic." I tugged Zelda to the left, out of the way of yet another sparking ball of death. I ran through our options as we continued to veer through the relatively small streets of Kakariko. I really didn't want to confront the guy. With his speed and bulk, I didn't doubt he could go toe to toe with me in a fight. Running was becoming less and less appealing, and since he seemed to be operating on an 'violently electrocute first, ask questions to the blackened corpses later' approach, talking didn't seem like a good idea. We probably couldn't stop him with anything less than a steamroller.
"What do you think he wants?" Zelda asked, shaking me out of my thoughts as we pitched around another corner, more electric orbs crashing around us. Zelda would periodically throw up a shield to block some shots, but it was just making her tire more quickly. She was stumbling more often, and I knew if we didn't get away quickly, we'd be in a significant amount of trouble. Well, more significant.
"You know, I'm not sure. Maybe he just didn't like our breakfast choices. He wants to kill us Zelda, what does it look like?!" I shouted and dodging away from a street post that promptly exploded. We took another turn and I could see the main road ahead of us.
I finally got an idea. Still holding onto Zelda's hand, I reached into one of my pockets and fished out the Sheikah Slate. Tapping an icon on the screen with my nose, I immediately threw the tablet as far ahead of us as I could. Just as I had hoped, it dissolved to take the form of the Master Cycle Zero, purring and ready to go. With one last burst of speed, we reached it. Clambering on, I willed it to shift to its smaller, faster form and gunned it.
We tore out of the side street, engine revving, sending people scrambling out of the way as we accelerated down the main road. "Did we lose him?" I asked Zelda, too focused on not crashing into the slow-moving traffic to check myself. I felt her shift behind me and heard the loud roar of an engine behind us. She quickly turned back to face forward.
"No, we definitely didn't lose him." I risked a glance backwards to see the Gerudo King on a large motorcycle of his own, having a slightly harder time navigating the traffic, but still hot on our tail. "We've got to get rid of him, or he'll follow us right to the Triforce," Zelda said as we floored it onto the highway. We hugged a turn, trying to gain a little speed on our pursuer, but he matched us curve for curve. We had just hit a long, thankfully empty straightaway when Zelda suddenly yelled in my ear.
"LEFT!" Not pausing to think, I leaned left, barely managing to avoid another death orb. I chanced another look just in time to see Ganondorf launch more deadly magic at us from his upraised hand. I did my best to avoid them, using a combination of quick glances, keen senses, and instructions from Zelda to keep us from being flash barbequed. It was far from a perfect solution though.
"Any way you could knock the bike out from under him?" I asked Zelda, who immediately shot the idea down.
"He's got enough force and magic behind him that anything I try just breaks immediately. He's too strong for us to beat." I almost immediately came up with an idea.
"Too strong for us, but not for him. Do you think you could reflect his magic back at him?" I heard some vaguely magical sounds behind me for a moment before Zelda said that she couldn't, something about their magic interfering with each other. "Well," I said, coming up with another idea and knowing that Zelda wouldn't like it. "How confident are you driving?"
It took a minute of convincing and a bit of awkward shuffling, but Zelda ended up in front of me on the bike, gripping the handlebars with a white-knuckled grip. Holding my balance on two out jutting spikes on the chassis, I hefted the Hylian Shield just in time for one of the magic balls to impact it. Unfortunately, it didn't reflect the ball like I had hoped. Instead, the electricity arced across the surface, most of the energy absorbed by the absurdly sturdy shield. A few stray tendrils still managed to jump across to my shoulder and chest, leaving me momentarily overcome with horrible pain before it dispersed. I certainly didn't want to be hit by one of those blasts head on.
A few more failed attempts at bouncing the crackling spheres back, left me searching for another option, something I was desperately in need of. Zelda, not being as confident driving the Master Cycle, was basically just driving straight, leaving me to either block Ganondorf's magic or hope he missed. Which he didn't.
We managed to avoid another two balls, but I could see a curve coming up ahead, which would force us to slow down, giving Ganondorf all the time he would need to land a crippling blow. Out of options, I reached around in my pouches, desperate for anything that would let me stop the next ball of electricity that was currently approaching my face. My fingers wrapped around something and, without hesitation, I swung it at the orb of death.
In the following seconds, it was hard to say who was more surprised. Ganondorf stared in shock as his own magic suddenly flew back at him, his astonishment not leaving him any time to block or dodge. It slammed into his chest, bright lines of electricity coursing across his body and into his bike. He lost control almost immediately, the motorcycle pitching sideways and throwing Ganondorf into the ditch and shrubbery next to the highway hard as the vehicle bounced into the air before exploding.
I did a double take at the absurd effectiveness of the clear, empty bottle in my left hand.
"Link?! Did it work? Can you take over now?" Zelda yelled, a tinge of panic creeping into her voice as the curve in the road approached. I came back to my senses just in time to switch back with her and pull around the curve of the highway, leaving a likely very injured Ganondorf in the dust. Hopefully that would get him off our backs long enough to put a reasonable distance between us.
On the plus side, our high-speed chase had covered much more distance than we would have in that time, leaving us with only a short drive to where we disembarked the Master Cycle and started walking up and down the mountains.
"I suppose the convex surface would have aided in adjusting the flow of magic and redirected it. Glass is known to be a decent conductor of magic, after all. Though usually with anything other than the purest of glass, the effects of large amounts of energy always overload the structure and cause it to fail. Maybe the Triforce helped?"
"Zelda," I said, interrupting the girl's musings as we descended another hill. "I think we should both just agree that perfectly reflecting ridiculously powerful magic with a glass bottle makes no sense and leave it at that. Because as impressive as it is that you're managing to get an idea of how it might work, we've kind of got bigger fish to fry."
"You're right, certain species of fish are known to have magic-reflective scales. Maybe if we put a bunch of them in that jar, we could reflect something even more powerful." I just shook my head and kissed her on the forehead. If nothing else, that at least managed to shake her out of her thoughts.
"Huh, what? What did you do that for?" she asked, disoriented from the abrupt break in her train of thought. I couldn't help but chuckle and ruffle her hair.
"Don't worry about it. We're coming up on some more pools, keep an eye out for anything that could be the cave." Zelda looked at me like I was the crazy one as she fixed her hair, but ultimately started scanning for alcoves in the rock.
We had kept up the same routine for most of the day, examining hollow after hollow in hopes of finding the right one. Zelda was still sure we were in the right place, but with every false alarm, I grew increasingly worried that we were looking in the wrong area. We really needed to get this done as soon as possible. Ganondorf, who was supposed to be missing, directly attacking us didn't bode well for the future. I got the feeling we were rapidly running out of time.
Ironically, I had gotten lost in my thoughts when I heard a yell from Zelda over to my right. Running over, I saw her standing at the very back of a pool with a large, naturally formed stone arch hiding it in shade. "There's a cave further back here," she called. "I think it could be what we're looking for." I waded through the pool to her and saw that there was indeed a small entrance hidden behind a large boulder, so well hidden, you'd almost never find it unless you were looking for it.
We managed to squeeze through, though the opening was small enough that I had to pass the Master Sword and Hylian Shield through separately. Not for the first time, I thanked the Goddesses for my magical pouches. It would have been completely impossible to fit a bulky backpack through the slim passage.
Once we were through, Zelda summoned a small ball of light to illuminate our surroundings. A rough-cut tunnel burrowed deeper into the mountain, a small trickle of water dripping from the ceiling and crisscrossing along the floor as it followed the passage down. We walked in silence, both of us on edge for any lurking threats. Steadily, the walls smoothed out, becoming more refined the deeper we ventured.
"Do you hear that?" Zelda eventually asked, breaking the silence of the cave. I listened for a minute before I heard what she was talking about. A dull roar echoed faintly towards us, barely audible.
"Yeah, I do. Let's find out what it is," I said, both of us resuming our journey. The roar grew, from barely discernable to an all-consuming thundering rush that made conversation nearly impossible. Finally, we saw light ahead. It danced and flickered as if reflecting on something. We jumped down one last ledge before looking to see what we had stumbled upon.
A large room stood before us, part of the walls smoothed out, betraying the work of hylian hands. A wide stone bridge spanned a deep gap in the middle of the room, leading to a familiar looking door with a series of triangles arranged over it. From multiple points around the room, torrents of water poured in, clearly the source of the roar that I now recognized as that of a waterfall, though distorted due to the sound echoing. The large spouts of water all dumped into the central basin, the thousands of gallons disappearing into some unseen point.
Zelda and I could only exchange looks thanks to the incessant crash of the water and made our way across the sturdy bridge, stray droplets of water splashing up to land on us. We pried the door open before letting it close behind us. Thankfully, the sealed entrance cut out most of the noise from the waterfalls, leaving us able to hear again.
"Geez, I get that it's a nice sight, but I don't think whoever built this place had a proper appreciation for just how loud hundreds of gallons of water are," Zelda said, her voice seeming to echo strangely as my ears struggled to adjust to the difference in noise. Before I could formulate a response though, a chunk of stone sailed into my peripheral vision and crashed into Zelda's arm, sending her crumbling to the floor in pain.
I immediately spun to see a dark shape disappear into a large channel of water that passed through the middle of the new room we were in. I frantically searched for the attacker, initially unable to see anything in the dark water. After a second though, I was able to make out a form moving around under the rippling surface.
I ripped the Master Sword from my back, the power of the Triforce surging into the blade as I swung it. A wide beam of energy flew from the edge, sailing across the water just as the shape emerged from the depths again. I caught a glimpse of a bulbous, almost balloon-like form and a large mouth before the arc of magic cut the monster in half, its separated pieces drifting apart as it crumbled away.
I waited a second to see if we would be attacked again. Only when I was sure we were safe did I turn back to Zelda, who was holding her injured arm to her chest.
"Are you okay?" I asked frantically, gently probing her arm to feel for breaks. Thank the Goddesses, there didn't seem to be any.
"I'll be okay," Zelda whispered, eyes still clenched in pain. I rolled up her sleeve to find a rapidly forming bruise on her bicep. I poked at the edge, quickly withdrawing when I heard Zelda hiss in pain again. "It'll probably heal in an hour or two, so don't worry about it." I mentally thanked Hylia for giving Zelda magical healing powers. Seeing her in pain hurt a very specific part of my heart and soul.
"Do you want to wait for it to heal before we move on?" I asked, not wanting to push her forward if she was hurting too much. She quickly shook her head.
"We don't have time to wait around. I can still walk and use magic, so we should keep going. We can't waste a single minute." Impressed not for the first time at her strength and determination, I pulled her to her feet by her uninjured arm. We turned again to face the other side of the room, watching the shifting stream of water that separated us from our way forward.
"Well," I said, a little resigned. "Ready to get wet?"
Eugh. This took so long to do. Not even for a good reason either. It's far from the most challenging thing I've written and I've had plenty of time. I just...couldn't write it. I'm terribly sorry for keeping you all waiting for so long, only to give you what is, in my mind, a bit of a boring chapter. I'll have to ask that you forgive any changes in tone, since this was written over the course of roughly two months. So it goes. Thank you to everyone who has been reading this story in the meantime though. I do love seeing that people are still enjoying this story.
Also, before the reviews, I'd like to apologize once again for the dubious content of the ending of the last chapter before I changed it. Retrospective is a beautiful and unrelenting teacher, one that has taught me well. You didn't come to this story for that kind of content, so this story will not contain such content. You can read on knowing this story has gotten as spicy as it is going to. If you can handle the hot spring scene, you'll have no problem with the rest of what gets written here. That doesn't mean the Zelink will stop, of course. Once that train gets going, nothing can stop it. So look forward to more of cuteness and not as much sexiness. Not in this story at least. I've got plans for the future...
Journey onwards to the reviews! Starting with...*Scrolls because damn, there were a lot this time* Nightwing! Glad you thought it was cute, hope I didn't annoy you too much by changing it. My problem with American TV stems from all the boring, tired tropes. I can predict so many of them just because I can see them coming so easily and find so many of the contrivances just that, not to mention boring. At least anime is almost always throwing something bullshit crazy into the mix. Garion, yes it did. I'll eventually get around to more Zelda chapters for 'Revival of the Goddess' and we'll get to see more of that. Because who doesn't love hormones? (He asked ironically) I'm not sure what to think of your obsession with Link's massages, especially since I don't really like people touching me like that, but let your imagination run wild. But not too wild. You know what, regulate yourself, I'm not your parent. Foopuff, yep, sorry I broke you. Though I'm not sure why a five-year-old is reading this...oh well, sounds like someone else's problem. Sorry to trigger you? I guess? But yes, I think I can agree that you may have a problem. And your story. *Frantically flips pages of notes* Yeah, I did do that, didn't I? Sorry, memory is shit, but yeah, keep it up! And good for you for (mostly) practicing proper firework safety measures. I just hope you made sure to pick the fingers you don't use as much. Imagine loosing a thumb. Or don't, 'cause that's gross. I haven't seen 'Your Name' though I've heard it's really good. Wolfy, thanks for the encouragement! Sorry to keep you waiting so long, I hope you haven't been sitting on your couch this whole time. Though I'm not much better I guess. Twilit Lord, correct, that's why I changed it, complaints or no. Cheers for the reality check. Daaazer, (that's a lot of 'a's) thank you! Glad you're enjoying. Silverblood, how dare you not take time out of your own life to give me, a random stranger on the Internet, gratification for a job well done. Though that last part is debatable. Hope you are/did enjoy your summer. I'm going back to school next week, because apparently college hates me. *Sigh...* Yes, /action/. (It's hard to write italics when you're already writing in italics you know) If you liked that, keep an eye out. I've got another story in the works (i.e. actually being written, not just vague ideas) that will have similar *ahem* /action/. And you know, I always thought the same thing, but once you get your mind in the gutter, it's surprising just how easy it is. Almost concerningly so. Foopuff again, yeah, me too. Sand Seal, thanks for the honest response. All of your feedback keeps this story from flying completely off the rails. Please calm down, I'd get in a lot of trouble if you ordered a nuclear strike on me. Plus, the whole vaporized in an explosion as hot as the fucking Sun bit. Oracle, understandable, unfortunately there is no effective way to convey sarcasm in text. A true tragedy of our age. Thank you all the same. Ancalagon, that's a hell of a name you've got there. Thank you for continuing to read! I sometimes wonder what someone was thinking when they first discover something, like 'let's try combining all this stuff. Hey look, weird looking liquid. Let's try drinking it and see if I stop coughing.' Weird stuff. I see Link's 'experiment' as the natural extension of that. Twilit Lord the second, y'all gotta calm down.
Geez, you guys always demand so much of me, leaving so many reviews. What do you mean, it's my fault for choosing to respond to each one of you? I don't see your point and will therefore assume you are an idiot and wrong. This is the Internet after all. On a more serious note, like I said above, school is starting for me again. This will either lead to more drive to write or the drastic decrease in time to do said writing, all of which is at the whim of my inspiration. Sooo...story shall continue! Eventually! I make no promises. However, thank you to everyone who has been favoriting and following 'Revival of the Gods', I see every one of the notifications and am always thankful. Even more so to those of you who choose to review. So keep doing the things and I'll see you all next time. The long awaited water dungeon is here! Get ready for some obnoxious puzzles! And above all, remember, if you don't get water on your shirt while washing the dishes, you aren't doing it right! Cheers!
~Aro