Wide, pale green eyes stared back at him, unblinking. At least, he assumed they were looking at him. It was impossible to tell since the great fish had no pupils.
Link tilted to the side, but Jabu-Jabu eyes didn't follow the movement. "Is he dead?" he whispered to Navi, lest he offend the fish deity.
Navi's wings shivered. "No. Try giving him the fish."
Link pulled out a bottle, a small blue fish swimming inside it. When he'd been unsuccessful in getting Jabu-Jabu to open his mouth or even react in any way, Link had asked the zora guard Sidas for help.
The zora had chuckled and advised him to catch a fish and offer it to the zora guardian. Now that he had brought the offering, Link felt even sillier than before, trying to communicate with a giant fish.
With a sigh, he uncorked the bottle and dumped the little fish into a water-filled stone bowl in front of Jabu-Jabu. The huge green eyes blinked, then glowed brighter.
With a start, Link realized the fish had started to move its fins, disrupting the water around it. Jabu-Jabu's cavernous mouth opened, revealing the long dark tunnel of its throat and a row of surprisingly sharp teeth.
"Do you feel that?" Navi asked, her wings fluttering anxiously.
A slight wind had picked up, and the fish in the bowl was unceremoniously caught up and catapulted into the giant fish's mouth. The wind intensified, and Link heard an unpleasant sucking sound.
His boots left the ground before he noticed what was happening.
"Wait!" he shouted, but Jabu-Jabu either did not hear him or did not care.
Link was flung into the beast's mouth by the force of it sucking in air, Navi barrelling behind him.
They landed on a slimy, plushy surface. Link pushed onto his knees. "Gross," he complained. He glanced back they way they had come. Jabu-Jabu's mouth had closed. "No way out now," he added.
Navi was bobbing up and down in a tizzy. "He won't eat us," she assured herself. "He's sick. I can feel it everywhere. We'll be safe in here."
Link wasn't about to ask how they could possibly survive inside a fish's belly. Looking at the slimy walls around them, he shuddered. Best to find Princess Ruto as quickly as possible and get out of here.
Through the glow of Navi's wings, they found their way to the end of the tunnel to a dead end. Two flaps of skin blocked their way, looking reddened and inflamed. At their approach, they pulled aside with another disgusting sound, allowing them through into another fleshy room.
"This is the weirdest and grossest thing I've ever done," Link muttered to himself, trying to ignore each squelch made by his footsteps.
A faint hum could be heard up ahead, growing louder and more insistent. Sharp hisses punctuated the sound, crackling in the air.
"Uh oh," said Navi.
Out of practice, Link drew his sword and plucked his Kokiri shield from his back. Glowing blue orbs floated around them, ten times the size of Navi.
"Electrified jellyfish," Navi explained. "They're what's making Jabu-Jabu sick."
The jellyfish moved through the air as smoothly as through water, bunching and releasing, their blue bodies crawling with electric currents. Link held out his shield as one came too close.
A stray tentacle tapped his sword, sending a jolt into Link's arm. He shouted at the sharp pain, surprised.
"Run!" Navi urged. "We can't hurt them!"
Link ran blindly, trying to see an exit in the semi-darkness. More jellyfish were converging on them from all sides, tentacles waving maliciously.
His foot slid on the slimy floor and then dropped. With a yelp, Link fell into a gash in the floor, escaping the advancing jellyfish.
Link groaned when he hit a decidedly harder surface, but at least this area had some light in it. And no jellyfish.
"That wasn't very heroic," said a condescending female voice. Only it wasn't Navi's.
Getting his bearings, Link stood up. A zora stood there, her arms crossed, elbow-fins jutting out. She was clearly still a child; maybe older than the ones he had seen in Zora's Domain. Her eyes were a deep violet color, her skin a pastel blue, but her expression was aggressively disappointed.
"I was falling," Link defended himself. "I wasn't trying to be heroic."
The girl tilted her head, which was vaguely triangular and had no long fin at the back like other zoras. "Weren't you?" she asked. She tipped up her nose in a very snooty way. "Well, even if my father didn't send you to rescue me, I don't need you. I've been visiting Jabu-Jabu since I was a baby and I don't need your help."
Link scratched the back of his head. "I'm here to find Princess Ruto—"
The girl laughed, and somehow made it sound mocking. "I'm Princess Ruto," she said with a regal sweep of her fins. "You may as address me as Princess Ruto or Your Highness."
Navi rolled her eyes. "Um, your highness," Link continued. "I was told that you have the third spiritual stone. I need it for—"
Ruto's violet eyes grew wide. "My mother's stone!" she gasped. "I can't give that to you." She raked her eyes over Link, looking at him for once. "You're a forest boy, aren't you? What are you doing here?"
Link sighed and re-explained himself and his quest to find the spiritual stone. Thankfully, Ruto did not interrupt again.
The zora princess nodded. "I understand," she said. "But I can't give it to you." She gave him a sheepish look. "I lost it. When I came to see Jabu-Jabu this morning, he surprised me and sucked me in. But he's different today…there are jellyfish everywhere! I dropped my mother's stone and I've been looking for it ever since."
Link frowned. "Your father and the other zoras have been looking for you," he explained. "We need to get out of here."
"Not without my mother's stone," Ruto argued. "It's all I have from her. I'm not leaving without it."
"Then let us help you," Navi offered. "Once we find it, we can get out of here and your father won't have to worry."
Ruto huffed. "Fine, you really want to help? The least you can do is carry me. My feet hurt from searching all day."
Link stowed his sword and shield and turned his back to her. "Climb on my back," he said. "We'll look everywhere you haven't yet. Just tell me where to go."
Her eyes widened again, as if she was surprised he'd agreed to her request. Nonetheless, she climbed onto Link's back and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"That way," Ruto pointed to another opening in the wall. "There are spots like this all over that weren't there before."
Link hefted his cargo further up and started walking, Navi bobbing along with them. Luckily, Ruto had a small white crystal with her she used to light their way. The light it gave off was brilliant as the sun, the same used in Zora's Domain to light up the caves with daylight.
When they came across another horde of jellyfish, Ruto had handed him a zora weapon she called a boomerang, a curved piece of bone that had been smoothed and sharpened on one edge. The weapon arced through air, slicing into the dastardly jellyfish and spinning back into Link's waiting hand.
If I had had this in Kokiri Forest, I could have knocked the hat off Mido's stupid head, Link thought with glee.
As they ventured deeper into the belly of the fish, there were fewer jellyfish but more signs of distress. Angry red gashes or splotches of greenish tinge were all over the fleshy walls, and there were more holes in the floor that sucked and flapped as if they were struggling to breathe.
In one room there was a huge purplish-red blob suctioned to the floor and ceiling, pulsing with energy.
"Maybe this is what's causing him to be sick," Link said, letting Ruto slide off his back.
"Don't touch it!" Navi shouted when Ruto extended a hand. "It's electrified."
The mass shifted, revealing a pocket in its fleshy, bulbous body. Something shiny was stuck fast in its side.
Ruto gasped and reached for the object. "My mother's stone!"
Without warning the mass moved again, trapping Ruto's hand. She shrieked as it sprouted more tentacles from its body, each one equipped with a sharp stinger. Link grabbed her arm and ripped it free, but the beast had already woken.
Its bigger tentacles latched into the ceiling, while its smaller ones twisted like periscopes, searching for a target. The stingers crackled with electricity, ready to strike.
"It's draining life force from Jabu-Jabu," Navi explained hurriedly to Link. "You need to detach it the anemone's tentacles."
Link turned to Ruto and handed her his Kokiri shield. "Take this and keep your crystal up high. Stay out of the centre," he warned.
Gripping his sword in one hand and the boomerang in the other, Link advanced on the life-sucking monster. It growled, though it didn't seem to have a mouth, and began swinging its stingers around, shooting beams of electricity at Link.
Link hurled the boomerang at the attached tentacles. It sliced through easily, making the monster howl in anger. Once it was detached from the ceiling, it began to move around the room, chasing after Link.
More jellyfish, bigger than before, joined their master's side to attack Link. He threw the boomerang again and again, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid a jolt from one of the stingers.
The force rattled his teeth and scrambled his brain. Link dropped to a knee, trying to get his focus back. He could hear Ruto shouting at him but couldn't make out words.
The giant anemone monster was advancing. Reacting on instinct, Link plunged his sword into its bloated centre. It screeched and retreated, taking its jellyfish friends with it.
Desperate, it suckered its tentacles into the walls and ceiling, trying to draw life force from its host. Link hacked at the limbs, causing them to shrink away in pain. Retrieving the boomerang he'd dropped, he tossed it at the remaining jellyfish, who had huddled around the monster's body to protect it.
With its bodyguards dispatched the monster whirled angrily, its stingers poised and ready. Link rolled out of the way of another zap, ducking under its waving tentacles and hitting it again with his sword.
Fatally hit this time, the parasitic monster howled, its stingers releasing a final bolt of energy in all directions. Link dropped to his belly as one string of electricity singed the top of his head.
The monster collapsed, its bloated body disintegrating without life force from its host. Panting, Link stood up and used his sword to sift through the dissolving chunks of flesh until he saw a shiny blue object.
He picked it up and wiped it on his shirt before it was snatched out of his hands by Ruto.
"You did it!" she said, awed. She glanced at Link, pasting on an indifferent expression. "That was pretty cool, what you did," she said airily. "Maybe you are a little heroic."
Link shrugged. "Thanks. Is that the third stone?" he asked.
"Yes." She curled her hands protectively around it. "I'll show it to you later," she snapped, suddenly agitated. "For now, can we please get out of here?"
When Link, Ruto and Navi emerged from Jabu-Jabu's belly, Sidas was waiting for them.
"Princess Ruto!" he exclaimed. "Thank the goddesses you are safe! Your father's been so worried!"
The guard captain caught himself, then turned to Link. "When you didn't come back I grew concerned. Did you find her highness? Did you save our princess?"
Before Link could answer, Ruto jumped in with an exaggerated telling of their encounter with the parasitic monster, explaining Link's valiant rescue of her and her own bravery in the face of danger.
Sidas smiled indulgently, accustomed to Ruto's nature. "Your father will love to hear that story," he told her. "And he'll be so relieved to see you."
Ruto waved her fins. "Yes, yes," she said. "I will see my father in a moment. If you could give Link and I a moment, Sidas?"
Sidas chuckled and shot Link a look from the corner of his eye. "Of course, Princess." He bowed and left.
Ruto turned to Link with a gleam in her eyes. "This is what I wanted to show you." She opened her hand, revealing three brilliant sapphires set in gold. The design resembled three figures holding the three stones in upraised arms, arranged in a triangle.
"It's meant to represent the three goddesses," Ruto explained. "As well as the three tenets of Nayru's Wisdom. But anyways…" she said dismissively. "My mother told me only to give this stone to the man who I'm going to marry."
"But you'll give it to me?" Link asked.
A faint pink blush tinged Ruto's pale cheeks. "Yes," she said. "It's yours. Take it."
She took Link's hand and placed the precious stone in it.
"I'll take care of it," he promised with a smile, knowing how much the stone meant to her. Link had never known his mother, but he imagined if he had any of her possessions he would hate to lose it.
Ruto's blush deepened. "I have to go see my father," she said, then paused. "Thanks for helping me." Ruto stood on her toes and kissed Link's cheek, then turned and ran back towards Zora's Domain.
"That was weird," Navi commented. "But you have three spiritual stones! You should bring them back to Princess Zelda."
"Yeah," Link agreed, rubbing the spot Ruto had kissed him. "But there's one thing we need to do first."
~oOo~
Hyrule's great rolling plains spread out before him, a vast green carpet. Castle Town stood out like a beacon, the peaks of Death Mountain just visible on the northeast horizon.
Ganondorf stood at the top of a crest, the strong wind whipping his cloak around his legs. Nabooru marched up to his side with her usual brusqueness.
"In position," she reported, sounding a bit bored. "Awaiting your command."
He grunted in response, not bothering to let her in on his plans. With his army amassed so close to the capital, the Hylians would be already preparing for an attack. One that would never come.
With a sneer, the Gerudo leader turned away from the view. He faced Nabooru.
"Keep our armies on alert. Do no attack the capital until after."
A frown creased her brow. "After what, my lord?"
Without replying, he beckoned to Alatar, who was hunched at the base of the hill, waiting his command.
The man hurried to the king's side, his face paler from the exertion. "All is ready, my lord."
Nabooru's frustration and curiosity was palpable, but she said nothing as Alatar drew out his staff, leaning on it as he withdrew a small knife from his robes.
The blade was wicked in both shape and colour; flint gray with a jagged edge and vicious point. Without hesitation the sorcerer dragged the tip along his forearm, murmuring in a forgotten tongue.
Nabooru stared at Ganondorf's profile, but he was starting at the castle with vengeful intent. Alatar continued to chant in that old, familiar but twisted language, drops of his blood painting the grass.
A shadow passed over them, and the once blue sky became black and angry with storm clouds. A wave of heavy energy rolled over them, nearly driving Nabooru to her knees. Shivers broke out on her skin as the temperature plummeted. The skies opened and rain began to fall in thick sheets.
The air felt charged and dense, as if Alatar's spell had dropped a blanket over the earth. With a rumble like thunder and snap like lightning, a chasm opened at the sorcerer's feet, stretching until was several hundred feet long.
Nabooru stared, shocked, as more cracks appeared, growing larger with every whoosh of magical energy Alatar released. He was sweeping his staff in a horizontal pattern, his chanting low and echoing.
From the voids he'd created, shadows began to crawl out and take shape. They stood, solidifying into existence.
Hundreds of skeletal creatures stood there, their maws open in ear-splitting shrieks that echoed in the sky. The army of stalfos turned as one towards their master, awaiting his order now that they were free from their prison.
Alatar smiled, raising his staff above his head. His words blasted across the plain, calling out to each nightmarish creature. Their eyes lit up with an unearthly red glow, they turned their sights to the white castle in the distance.
~oOo~
The blinding halo of light faded and extinguished. His feet touched the ground again. He blinked.
A ticklish, tingling sensation ran down his arms, into his toes. Link flexed his fingers experimentally.
The Great Fairy smiled in amusement. "Feels good to have your magic, doesn't it?" she asked.
She shook out her long, magenta hair. It floated, mesmerising, around her. Link could only nod, staring at his fingertips, where a small spark materialized and winked out.
"Should you ever need it, use the Din's Fire spell," the fairy advised. "You may need it."
"Thank you," Link said humbly, remembering his manners. The Great Fairy waved a hand.
The fairy's ethereal face drew into an expression of concern, her musical voice dampened with gravity. "Link, there are trials ahead for you, and all of Hyrule. You must be cautious."
Link nodded again. He knew his quest was nearly over. The three Spiritual Stones were in his possession. All that was needed was to return them to Princess Zelda.
The great fairy smiled, but her eyes were still sad. "Come to see me again, when you are weary of your battles." With that, she spun, a twist of magenta and emerald, and plunged into the waters of her fountain.