Link's Awakening

Chapter Twenty One: Yarna Desert

I wanted to stay there in Animal Village with Marin, but the call of that music was just too strong for me to ignore, leading me to explore the path that led between the two rocky hills. To this day, I don't completely understand why I was so determined to find all of the Instruments of the Sirens, since there didn't exactly seem to be a time limit on the task, so why didn't I stay and at least spend the whole afternoon with her? Agahnim made no move to stop me, even though he could clearly see what I was doing, and before I knew it, a whole new landscape had opened up in front of me.

For a good portion of the walk between the beach and Animal Village, the air had been drying out while the terrain transitioned from grassy to sandy, but after traveling down the path between the two rocky hills on the far side of the village, the transformation finished up real fast. The sky was clear now, and instead of even a single blade of grass, there was nothing on the ground but sand and rocks, and the air was so dry in this place that Link coughed a little after that first deep breath. It was a desert that now filled the young man's vision, a huge box canyon desert that was bordered on all sides by rocky hills that were so steep that climbing them looked impossible.

A few large cactuses broke up the monotony of the brown landscape as he started into the desert, nearly losing his footing when some of the small rocks shifted under his weight, but except for his own clumsiness, so far there were no other threats in sight. Moving down a shallow decline, where it was even harder to keep his balance on the mixture of gravel and sand, Link couldn't see any other paths to travel except the one he was on, bringing him slowly down into an area that became flat again, although a lot less rocky, and… that was about it.

No, wait a second, there was one distinguishable feature, and that was the large boulder in the very center. Aside from that, there was only the sand, the way the young man came down, and the border wall of the whole desert, so he started toward it after faintly hearing the Ballad of the Wind Fish faintly once again the next time the wind blew. Link wished that he had a scarf or something, since every time the breeze kicked up some sand, it seemed to go right for his mouth, and now that the rocks were gone, it was even harder to keep his balance on the completely smooth, and very soft powder on the ground.

The young man's feet sunk in deeply with each step that he took, making this the most difficult terrain that he had ever needed to walk across, including the swamp where his boots had been constantly filled with water. However, the whole effort seemed worth it after getting close enough to the boulder to see why it was important, and that reason was largely because of the object sitting on the very top. It was gold colored, and shimmering as the light of the afternoon sun shined down onto it… from where Link was standing, squinting his eyes to try and get a better look, the object looked like a small harp… and then something moved.

No, not up near the instrument, but on the ground toward the other side of the boulder, where just for a second, the young man thought he saw some of the sand move out of the corner of his eye. Taking his eyes down from the harp, Link drew his sword and watched the dirt closely, although now it looked like he had imagined it. Maybe the movement had been a trick of the light, or just because something had tried to kill him every other time one of the instruments had been found, because everything was still.

A little more wind blew, shifting some of the powder on the surface, but that was about it, so the young man turned his attention back to how he was going to get up to the top of the boulder, when once again something moved. This time he was sure that he had seen something shifting the sand from below, so Link ran toward it, stumbling a little as he moved across the soft sand, and then stabbing his blade into the part that he had seen move. His plan had been to attack whatever it was, instead of getting taken by surprise like the other times, but when the young man's sword went into the ground, it hit nothing but sand.

More movement, pushing up some more sand a short distance away, so Link followed it, struggling to keep from falling on his face as he rushed toward the disturbed spot, this time leaping and jamming the sword down with all his might… only to hit nothing again. Now the young man was getting angry, it was like whatever was hiding underneath the dirt was playing with him, so he jumped up and started running as soon as he saw the movement again, not toward it, but on a direct line toward the large boulder.

As far as he was concerned, if the hidden creature didn't want to show itself, that was fine as long as it didn't get between him and the harp. However, as soon as he got close to the boulder again, the underground disturbance reappeared, this time leaving a long and very visible trail as it quickly pursued him. Stopping in his tracks, Link turned around and raised his blade in preparation to try stabbing it again, but this time the creature didn't stay underground… this time the dirt was kicked up in all directions as a large set of teeth came flying right toward him.

There was no time for the young man to react, and if he hadn't lost footing in the loose sand and stumbled sideways at that exact moment, the jaws of the monster would probably have finished him, instead of just passing by while Link was knocked the rest of the way over upon being bumped by the long, segmented body that followed. Hitting the soft dirt and rolling over in case the monster came back at him, the young man looked just in time to see the creature dive back underneath the dirt, vanishing as easily as if it were a fish going back underwater… and then the visible trail curved back toward him.

Moving much faster this time, the creature seemed to sense his movements even before he made them, giving Link just barely enough time to stop and leap in the opposite direction just before the monster broke the surface again, its jaws snapping hungrily at the spot where he would have originally landed. Like the last time, the creature vanished underground again, and the young man knew that if he didn't think of something fast, its speed was going to overwhelm him. But what was he supposed to do? Without his long lost shield to defend himself with, there was only the sword he had stolen from Prince Richard, and… and the boulder.

Changing direction again, Link circled away from the visible trail as far as he could, and then ran toward the boulder, not looking back as he awkwardly moved across the sand, even though he could almost feel the monster closing in behind him. Somehow the young man managed to reach the rock before it caught up to him, grabbing onto the rough surface and scrambling upward, but only climbing a short distance before the monster slammed into the boulder with enough force to make him lose his grip.

There was no way to stop himself from falling, resulting in Link landing on the back of the creature's exposed head, but it must have been dazed from hitting the rock, because its jaws were moving a lot slower than before when it tried to grab him. Not wanting to give the monster a chance to recover, the young man raised his sword and stabbed it down into the top of the thing's head so that it shrieked. Pulling the blade out and stabbing it again, and again, and again, the already dazed monster couldn't fight back as it took wound after wound, and as soon as it stopped moving, Link got back onto the boulder and resumed his efforts to climb it.

So far the segmented creature still wasn't moving, and the boulder really wasn't that hard to scale now that he wasn't being chased, so it wasn't long before he was pulling himself up onto the top. The harp was just sitting there, wedged in between a couple of rocks as if it were some kind of makeshift altar, so the young man crawled over to the instrument and grabbed into its frame… just in time for the monster to roar as it leapt up at him. On his knees and holding onto the instrument, there was no way for Link to get out of the way, nor was he able to reach his sword as those big sharp teeth came closer…

"Ether!" A voice yelled.

Suddenly there was a flash of light as if thunder had struck, but it was cold, coming along with enough wind to blow the young man right off the boulder so that he tumbled down into the… snow? Yes, the warm brown sand had been replaced by freezing white snow, with the boulder and all the cactuses in this whole part of the desert now covered with a thick layer of frost, and as for the segmented monster… it was frozen solid. Blue colored now, with icicles hanging down from its body, the creature was locked into the same position it had been in while attacking him, but then it fell off the boulder, shattering into a hundred pieces upon hitting the ground.

"I'm having trouble understanding your thought process, Junior." Agahnim said, his hands still crackling a little from the spell he had just performed. "Are you telling me that you would rather get chased around the desert by this thing, instead of enjoying the honey festival with Marin?"

"I… I don't know." Link replied, slowly getting up to his knees. "I heard the music again, and it led me here, and… I don't know, Agahnim, I just keep feeling like this is something I'm supposed to do."

The wizard just stared at him for a moment, before reminding him that he had also heard the call of the instruments when he had first arrived. According to Agahnim, this was nothing but part of the owl's plot to wake the Wind Fish, and thereby destroy the whole island. Link didn't like the owl very much, but the animal didn't seem like it was evil or anything like that, and then the young man suggested that maybe gathering the instruments and waking the Wind Fish wouldn't do anything more than allow everyone who was trapped there to leave the island. If that was true, then they could both return to Hyrule again, the wizard with his family, and Link with Marin.

"I see why you might think that, Junior, but I can't take the risk." Agahnim continued as the sunlight began melting all the conjured snow. "Gather the instruments if you wish, I won't stop you, but… if I can't talk any sense into you, then I'll stop protecting you as well. I just hope that by the time you are finished, that you come to your senses, or… or I'm afraid you and I will have a problem."

With that, the wizard vanished, leaving the young man sitting there among the melting snow, with the reclaimed harp in his possession. By Link's count, this was the fifth instrument, meaning that only three remained before he would have to make the choice that Agahnim spoke of.