A few quick notes:
1. This story is rated T due to some very violent content.
2. The story is actually completed, and I intend to post a new chapter weekly.
3. I don't own any Legend of Zelda character or setting. I'm just borrowing them and I hope Nintendo won't mind too much.
4. Thank you so much for reading (and for reviewing)!
5. I have created a forum for this story (yes, I'm desperate for feedback). You can find it under the "My Forums" link on my profile page.
Chapter 11: The Pendant of Power
Link wasn't talking, afraid he'd yell at Zelda for her injury and knowing, even now that he was so furious with her, that he wasn't being fair. It wasn't like she had injured herself on purpose, or like she had been careless. She had been thrown in the air by a giant worm and landed badly, that was all. It was only bad luck, and no fault of hers; besides, she was the one in pain, and it would have been really low to pick on her at that point.
His arms quickly got tired of carrying her in a cradle position, and his neck was getting tired of his efforts not to look her in the face and to keep her out of his field of vision, while still seeing the ground in front of him so he wouldn't trip on a rock. He put her down.
"Can you get on my back?" He asked, crouching in front of her, with his back to her, without waiting for an answer.
Zelda carefully got to her knees and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He secured her legs with his arms, got up with some effort, and started walking again, still not saying a word. Zelda frowned at the back of his head.
"I said I was sorry!" She said bitterly.
"I know." Link replied.
"Look, I'd rather you yell at me and get it out of your system than not talk to me for days."
"I don't WANT to yell at you!" Link hissed. "You didn't do anything wrong!"
"So yell at the sand, or the sky, whatever you want! You're making me feel a lot worse being quiet and seething like that than you ever could if you just let it out!" Zelda begged.
Link sighed, stopped, put her down and turned towards her.
"I can't even believe I'm still alive!" He growled. "That worm was trying to EAT ME!" He stopped, aware that his tone was rising. Zelda gestured him to continue.
"And now, you say Ganon knows where we are, and where we're going!" He took a deep breath, determined not to yell, especially since he had already complained about the rest before.
"And you want me to go to Death Mountain alone? Din-blasted DEATH MOUNTAIN? If Ganon left that worm here, I bet he put a whole bunch of monsters on the mountain, AND on the way there! I bet I'm always going to be running away from them! And forget about sleeping: they'd get me for sure! I can't stay awake that long! Death Mountain is at least 15 days away! And what about food?"
He stopped, apparently waiting for an answer. Zelda obliged.
"You'll have to hide as well as you can and sleep." She said. "As for food, you can always go into the past."
"Okay, maybe you're right and I CAN go there alone. But what about you? You can't even walk! What are you going to do? I can give you the travel food, but what are you going to drink? Our two water pouches won't last that long! And how are you going to hide to sleep? If I leave, you're going to die. I can't do that!"
Zelda sighed.
"Let's go the Lost Woods." She said, repeating her earlier advice. "We'll try to think of something on the way there."
"Argh!" Link yelled. "There is nothing to think about! We have to stay together!"
"Maybe the Deku Tree knows of a safe place for me to wait for you." Zelda said. "If we cannot figure out how to safely separate, we won't. I promise."
"Really?" Link asked, looking a bit calmer already.
"Really." Zelda said. "I don't WANT to die, you know. Besides, I think you'll still need me before the end."
Link relaxed.
"Alright." He said.
He crouched in front of her again and helped her on his back.
They slept in the same cave they had the night before. By the following morning, Zelda's ankle looked even worse than before. Link helped her on his back and they set off towards the entrance of the desert.
They were within view of the gap in the mountains that would lead them back in Hyrule Fields when Link stopped in front of a cave with a wide entrance.
"What's wrong?" Zelda asked.
"Nothing." Link replied. "That cave just…" he paused, not knowing how to explain himself. "It's like it's calling to me." He finally said.
Zelda twisted herself to try and look inside the cave, but it was too dark in there to see anything.
"Your instincts have always led us right." She said. "Maybe you should take a look. Who knows, maybe there's something in there that you need. Just be ready to run."
Link laughed.
"I'm always ready to do that." He said mockingly.
Despite saying that, he felt no danger whatsoever from the cave, and he walked in without the slightest worry.
Once inside, shaded from the harsh light of the desert, they both saw another light source, within the cave itself. Link walked towards it and they soon found themselves in front of an opening set on the back wall of the cave. On the other side of the opening was a forest.
"This isn't possible." Zelda said. "We're facing east. Even if the mountain was very thin here, we'd be seeing the fields, not a forest."
Link, who had turned his head to look at her while she was talking, looked back at the opening and gasped.
"It changed!" He exclaimed.
Zelda's eyes widened. She closed her eyes, to see for herself. When she opened them again, the forest they could see through the opening looked completely unfamiliar.
"The Lost Woods…" She said.
"We can't be there yet, can we?" Link asked. "You don't think it's a trick, do you?"
"It was calling to you. I don't think Ganon could pull off something that convincing."
"But why would the Lost Woods be calling me?"
"I don't know, but they always have, haven't they? You've never been afraid of them, and you ran straight there when you ran away. You feel completely safe in them, even though legend has it that most people who dare to enter run back out in sheer terror."
"So you think that's really the Lost Woods?" Link asked.
"Yes. It has to be." Zelda said. "I don't know how it's possible, because they don't stretch all the way to the East of the Desert - they stop at least a day's walk north of here – but that's obviously the Lost Woods through this door. I mean… look at it! It can't be anything else!"
Link was mainly asking because he thought he would have been foolish to do what felt right and just walk right through the opening without checking with Zelda first. Now that he had her blessing, he walked through the opening without so much as a hesitation.
Once in the forest, there was no way to have any more doubt that they were indeed in the Lost Woods. Each time they blinked, their surroundings looked completely new again.
Zelda spent the next little while thinking aloud on how this could be possible. Link let her babble, but he didn't really care about the how: he was just happy they had shaved at least a day off their trip.
Finding the Deku Tree again was a little bit more difficult. Link first headed for the Master Sword, finding the far end of the corridor within an hour, but neither of them could remember how far back towards their mapped exit they had camped the night they had been attacked, so they had to go very slowly towards that exit, examining, and sometimes calling out, to every big tree they saw on the way. They had hoped the turned-to-stone-monsters would make it easy, but there were none to be seen: the forest had consumed them completely.
They got all the way to the edge of the forest without finding the tree, and they both started wondering if they had dreamed the whole incident. Link asked Zelda if she remembered it too, and she replied that she had been about to ask the same thing. Working on the assumption they were not both crazy, they turned around and started walking back towards the Master Sword. They stopped by every big tree and talked to each for several minutes.
Until, finally, one talked back. Link had been telling a tree that they really needed some advice and that he was really tired of carrying Zelda around the forest and that he really wished the Deku Tree wasn't so hard to find, and suddenly, knots and branches on the trunk of the tree had looked just like a face, of which the mouth moved as the tree talked.
"I'm sorry you had such trouble finding me, Hero." It said kindly. "Although I don't see why you did."
Link almost dropped Zelda in surprise. He deposited her on the ground with a sigh of relief and smiled at the tree.
"Why we were looking for you?" He asked. "Like I said, we need some advice and... well, we don't know who else to ask." He finished, a bit embarrassed. It seemed like he was the neediest hero ever.
"No, no. I heard you the first time you said that." The Tree said. "I was wondering why you had trouble finding me. Couldn't you see me?"
"Err..." Link said.
"You looked like an ordinary tree until you started talking." Zelda interfered. "It must be part of the magic of the Woods... just like how it always looks different."
It was hard to say whether the Deku Tree's features moved at all, other than his mouth opening, but he still somehow looked astonished.
"Are you telling me the Lost Woods' magic is affecting you?" It asked. "Oh dear... how do you find your way around at all?"
"We drew a map and Link's instincts can take him to the Master Sword." Zelda replied thoughtfully. "Do you mean that the magic should not affect us?"
"It shouldn't affect the Hero." The Deku Tree explained. "The Lost Woods are an ally to the Hero: the magic should not be fully effective on him. Past heroes only reported finding the forest big and maze-like, none of them ever suffered the complete confusion everyone else suffers. But it WAS reinforced..." The tree trailed off.
"Because of Ganon?" Zelda asked. "Because he found the Master Sword once, and left the pendants there so that the Hero would face him unprepared?"
"Yes." The Deku Tree answered. "Ganon's magic was stronger than that of the Lost Woods, but he thankfully lost interest in them after defeating the Hero. My ancestors spent centuries strengthening the magic so that even Ganon could not defeat it. He cannot even come IN here anymore. I never imagined that it would also affect you." He said, looking at Link.
"It doesn't matter." Link said, feeling it wasn't fair for the Great Deku Tree to feel bad about their being lost when without him, they would be dead. "We still managed."
"You'll manage better with this." The Tree said.
A leaf detached itself from a branch directly above Link and floated down to him. Link plucked it from the air it and looked at the tree questioningly.
"Go on, try it and look around." The tree instructed.
Link looked quizzically at the tree for a second, then at the leaf, and finally, turned his head this way and that, looking around for something different. It all looked different on the right, as it should. The left was the same, that is, nothing looked familiar at all. He looked to the right again, just in case the leaf took a second to kick in, but it all looked just like it had before. He looked back at the tree and opened his mouth to say that he didn't see any difference, but before he had said a word, his head caught up with his eyes.
His mouth hung opened and he looked back to the left, than to the right. He closed his eyes, then opened them and looked again. It all looked the same. Up to date, he had never been able to so much as blink in the Lost Woods without his surroundings looking completely foreign when he opened his eyes again, and glancing sideways made the view ahead look completely new - the effect was dizzying and Link had trained himself not to glance sideways.
"Link?" Zelda called from the forest floor.
"It's not changing anymore..." He whispered in an awed voice.
Zelda's eyes widened.
"You're immune to the magic!" She exclaimed. "That's perfect! We can move a lot faster without checking our maps, and we can exit anywhere instead of always in the same spot! And the Lost Woods extend far to the North, almost all the way to Death Mountain! It will be a lot safer for you in here!
"This is great!" Link said, beaming at the tree. "Thanks!"
"You are welcome. It is my fault you needed it in the first place. And what advice were you seeking?" The tree asked.
"I injured my ankle and I can't walk." Zelda answered. "Link needs to go to the Tower of Hera on Death Mountain, but I don't think he should carry me all the way there and he doesn't think it's wise to leave me behind."
"You will be safe in my branches." The Deku Tree answered. "You would be well hidden and even if Ganon's minions were to find you, they would not be able to bring me down."
"The thing is," Link said. "Death Mountain is really far. I'd be gone for at least 30 days. She's going to run out of water, and maybe of food, too."
"I don't think I can climb, either." Zelda said with a sigh.
The Deku Tree did not answer. Instead, with a noise of strained wood, he lowered a long, high branch all the way to the ground right in front of her.
"I realized that." The Deku Tree said, sounding insulted. "And you, Hero, do you think I do not know how far Death Mountain is? Even if you did have to take the long way there, I would take care of the Princess until you came back. She would not go hungry or thirsty."
"The 'long' way? You mean there's a short way?" Link asked.
"Not all the way." The Deku Tree said, his tone once again kindly. "As I've told you, the Lost Woods are meant to be your allies. One of the ways they can help you is by providing you with shortcuts to many distant locations: in this case, to Death Mountain. You will find, somewhere in the forest, a door that opens to the ancient city of the Gorons. This city is on Death Mountain itself, although much closer to the base than the Tower of Hera. You will need to climb the rest of the way, but at least you won't have to walk all the way North to Death Mountain. I expect you can be at the Tower before the sun sets."
"There is one of those going to the Desert, too, isn't there?" Zelda asked. "That's what we found! That's how we got back!"
Link did not answer. His eyes had widened and his lips were quivering. Zelda had no trouble guessing what was bothering him.
"Gorons are extinct, Link. There is nothing to worry about." She said.
"We don't know that for sure!" Link complained. "I used to think Moblins and Stalfos weren't real, and they are! It could be the same for the Gorons! A whole city of rock monsters..." Link shivered violently.
"Gorons are no monsters." The Deku Tree intervened. "As for whether there are any of them left, I don't know. Even when they were thriving, they never came into the forest: they have no use for vegetation other than their own crops."
Link looked unconvinced but sighed resignedly. He cast a look at Zelda, who was still sitting with her leg extended, next to the branch the tree had lowered.
"We have a bit of food." He said, talking to the Deku Tree. "I can leave it with her. That would save you a bit of trouble, right?"
"It's no trouble." The tree said. "My sap will keep her safe from thirst and hunger. Keep your food, you will need it more than she will."
Link nodded and cast his mind about for something else to say that would keep him here for a few more moments. He thought of asking whether one of those magic doors went to the Eastern Palace but decided he didn't want to know. He could think of nothing else to say, so he helped Zelda on to the branch.
"Take care." She said.
Link nodded grimly and turned back to the tree.
"Where's that magic door?" He asked.
"You will find it west of here. Good luck, child. The tower is a fortress that has been shrouded in black magic almost since the day it was built. Be careful."
Link swallowed, waved at Zelda, and started walking west.
He was tempted to rush back several times. He had grown accustomed to Zelda's company, and he now felt very alone. He also dearly wished he didn't have to go on Death Mountain and anywhere near a city of rock monsters: the very thought terrified him. He could see it now: he'd find the door, go through and get ran over by a rock monster in boulder form. If he survived that and was lucky enough for the Gorons not to have noticed him (because if he was noticed, he would surely be eaten), he would climb to the summit of Death Mountain, losing a lot of blood and perhaps a limb or two to various monsters along the way, only to find an army of worst monsters waiting for him at the Tower of Hera.
He stopped walking and stood there for a while, shaking and breathing harshly. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to relax. A rock hit him on the shin.
"Ow!" He cried out, rubbing his shin and looking around for where the rock may have come from. There was nothing around but a large, low flower on the ground. Link stared at it: it looked very odd.
Just as he was about to shrug the matter of and get on his way, somewhat grateful that at least, he had stopped shaking, a wooden face with a long snout popped out of the flower and spit another rock at him. Link was still bent in two, rubbing his shin, and that rock got him on the forehead.
He fell backward, momentarily stunned. Another rock hit his leg.
"OW!" He screamed, as much in anger as in pain. He picked up a rock of his own and angrily hurled it at the flower. The thing that had spit the rocks tried to sink back in, but was not quick enough and the rock hit it on the snout. It squealed, popped out of the flower and started running around in all directions, not actually getting anywhere in its panic.
Link was staring at it wide eyed. Now that he had had the chance to get even with it, the shock of what 'it' was had finally registered.
"A Deku Scrub...?" He asked of nobody in particular.
The wooden creature darted close to him, apparently not too sure of what it was running from anymore. Link grabbed it and lifted it in the air, snout pointing away. The creature looked at him sideways, shivering.
"You ARE a Deku Scrub!" Link exclaimed. "It's okay, I won't hurt you! Just don't spit more rocks at me." He added, frowning meaningfully while thinking there wasn't much point talking to the thing, who could surely not speak.
"No hurt!" The creature squeaked.
Link almost dropped it in surprise.
"You let me go and me give you something nice!" The creature begged.
"You don't have to give me... wait. Like what?" He asked, suddenly thinking it wasn't wise to refuse something that could prove useful.
"Anything you want!" The Deku Scrub squeaked. "Leaves! Nuts! Seeds! Fruits! Anything! Please!"
Link sighed. It figured: the poor thing only had stuff it had found in the forest.
"You not lost!" The Deku Scrub continued. "Me find way for you! Magic doors to far away!"
Link's eyes widened. Could the Deku Scrub save him the trouble of looking all over the place for the door he needed?
"You know where the door to Death Mountain is?" He asked.
"Yes! Yes!" The Deku Scrub exclaimed. "But you no hurt me!"
"Deal." Link said, smiling. "Bring me to that door."
He let the Deku Scrub down, dearly hoping the thing wouldn't just take off, but his worries were not justified: the scrub hopped away fairly slowly, and Link could more than easily keep up. Even at the slow pace, they soon found themselves next to a stone archway standing by itself in the middle of a small clearing.
"Door to big mountain!" The Deku Scrub squealed, turning back towards him. "You no hurt me now!"
"I won't." Link promised, smiling down at the little creature. "And you don't spit any more rocks at me."
"Me won't!" It squealed, and then hopped away out of the clearing.
Link, left alone, stared at the doorway. It stood in the middle of nothing, and the inside was black as ink. He walked around it, and the doorway looked the same from the other side.
It really was very dark in there.
Link was trying to decide whether to proceed slowly and carefully or to run for it. He didn't know whether he was very grateful that the Deku Tree had told him about that doorway after all.
Why did it have to be so dark? Link asked himself miserably. It was bad enough that it lead to a city full of rock monsters or, possibly, rock monster ghosts; for crying out loud, it was bad enough that it lead on Death Mountain! Death Mountain, the not quite sleeping volcano crawling with monsters! Why did it have to be pitch black when it was still daytime?
The answer presented itself suddenly, courtesy of Link's past memories, and was anything but a relief: it was dark because the city was INSIDE Death Mountain, and quite possibly caved in.
Link gulped. Up to that moment, he had thought that he'd have to go through some kind of corridor, which happened to be extremely dark, and that he would emerge in an open air city on Death Mountain. The realization that it was the city itself that was completely dark, and the thought that it was inside the mountain and that the roof of it could come crashing down any moment was almost enough to send him back running to the Deku Tree and Zelda to beg not to be made to go there. The only thing that kept him from doing just that was that he knew there was nothing for it, no matter how much he begged: he needed the Master Sword, therefore he needed the last pendant, therefore he HAD to go on Death Mountain, and to save as many people from Ganon as possible, he had to get there as quickly as possible. Therefore, he had to go through that door into the cavern-city of the rock monsters. He could go and beg Zelda and the tree as much as he pleased, he'd still have to go in the end and he would just have wasted a lot of time.
He unsheathed his sword. He then looked at it in surprise, wondering why he had done that. He started to put it back in its sheath, but stopped and took it back out, shrugging. Mere weeks ago, he would have called anybody crazy for suggesting he'd ever feel safer with a naked blade in his hand, but the fact was that he did. He took a deep breath and stepped into the doorway.
As soon as he had stepped in, Link was in complete darkness. He turned his head around, and could see the bright clearing, only a step away, but the brightness did not go past the edge of the door at all, and everything around was completely black.
He whimpered before he could help himself. He frowned at himself, swallowed his saliva, turned his head back forward and away from the only light around, and took another step. His foot landed on a rock, slipped and he almost fell. He cursed and took another, more cautious, step.
He proceeded one cautious step at a time, more and more tempted to turn back and go back to the Lost Woods, until he spotted a bit of light ahead and to the left. He turned that way and kept walking, suddenly wondering if he'd find the way back or if he'd have to walk back to the Lost Woods the long way. He made a mental note to try and find a torch: with any luck, there would be some in the Tower.
He was still walking very carefully and slowly, not taking his weight off one foot until the other was solidly on the ground ahead. He hadn't tripped on anything since that first time right off the doorway, and was starting to consider accelerating, when his foot failed to find ground in front of him. His eyes widened in the darkness and his breathing, which was already a bit fast, accelerated even more.
He re-sheathed his sword, kneeled down very carefully and with his hands, searched in front of him, wondering if the lack of ground was due to a shallow hole in the path or to there not being a path anymore. He quickly found where the hole started, but found no bottom to it and following the edge of it with his fingers, he found that it was very wide and that he could not find the other side of it either. Crawling on his knees, he followed the only side of the hole that he could find, which thankfully led him towards the light. As he got closer to the source of the light, his eyes were slowly able to confirm his guess that the hole was actually the edge of a ledge he had been walking on. He continued to proceed on his hands and knees, feeling his way along, until he could see well enough to get up again and walk to the light, which turned out to be seeping from a partly crumbled doorway to the outside. The light was only dim because the doorway was oriented eastward and the sun was just past his zenith, putting the doorway in the shade.
After carefully moving a few rocks, hoping that it wouldn't cause the whole wall to come crashing down, Link managed to walk, crouching, through the opening. He found himself on a wide rocky path.
He blinked in the shadowy light, and took a moment to evaluate his surroundings. It didn't seem right, somehow. The path looked normal enough, and there were only a few tektites on it, which, though not exactly cuddly, were still not monsters – as far as Link was concerned, anything that ever ended up on the menu was not a monster, and tektites were eaten almost as often as cuckoos.
Link frowned. Death Mountain, or at least this part of it, did not look threatening at all. Where were the crevasses filled with molten lava? What had happened to the constant avalanches and to the armies of monsters? He took a hesitant step forward, looking all around for signs of the dangers he had expected. He found none.
Link gulped. This was too easy, and considering that Ganon had made things easy to lure him before, in his past life, there was a good chance that's what he was doing again. Link started walking down the path, killing the occasional tektite that tried to attack him and encountering nothing more dangerous.
The path eventually branched out, with one way going down the mountain and the other going up. Link took the latter, feeling more uneasy each minute that nothing threatened him. The path eventually narrowed and had Link been afraid of heights, he would definitely have been nervous: on his left, the mountainside was like a wall of rock; on his right, the path was delimited by a cliff which seemed to go all the way down the mountain.
He made it to the summit in the late afternoon, and the Tower of Hera came into view.
Link took a good long look at it, certain that nothing good waited for him in there. He would have liked to believe that he had beaten Ganon to the Tower, that the pig hadn't had a chance to set a trap for him here, but he couldn't count on that. As far as he knew, Ganon could have been here before even going to the desert.
The tower had stood up to time a lot better than the other two Wonders in that it was still, mostly, standing. Big chunks were missing from the upper floors, and it looked like the current top floor was missing a ceiling. It was impossible to say whether the tower had once been taller, but there were still many stories left. There were no windows and only one door, which was actually just a doorframe - the door itself was missing. The bricks were black with grime, and whenever a speck of color managed to peek through the coating of dust and dirt, it was a bloody red. As admirable as it was that it still stood so high after so many years, the fact was that the Tower was among the ugliest things Link had ever seen.
It wasn't merely ugly, either: it looked downright evil. Link would not have been able to explain how a building could possibly be good or evil, but he was nonetheless certain that this Tower was no good at all. It oozed evil and it was beyond unwelcoming: it was repelling. Link could almost feel the air thickening between the tower and himself.
He walked to it slowly, reluctantly. When he made it to the entrance, he stopped altogether and stared at the empty doorframe. He could see some light inside the tower, a red dancing glow he guessed was produced by flames. Despite his need for a torch in order to find his way back inside the Goron City, this was not reassuring to Link in the least. For one thing, he hated fire. He had already not been looking forward to having to carry a torch, and the only thing that had made that thought tolerable was that it would dispel the darkness, of which he was just as afraid. For another thing, fires burning meant someone had been to the Tower recently, and might even still be there.
Link gulped. Night was falling, and despite the distant glow of the flames, the inside of the Tower still looked very dark. Link thought it would probably be wiser to wait until morning, so that the light of day could light at least the front room of the Tower, and so he'd be rested: the hike up the mountain had not been easy and he was genuinely tired.
He clenched his teeth, ashamed of himself. He was only rationalizing, looking for an excuse not to go in just yet. He couldn't allow himself to do that. Each night until he faced Ganon meant more victims, and he was absolutely sick of it.
He took a deep breath and stepped into the tower.
The flames, at least, were all under control. The distant walls were lined with lit torches and nothing else than these torches was burning. In front of Link were two stairways, both leading down. A third stairway was behind these two and led to the above floor.
Link unsheathed his sword and walked to the nearest torch. He wasn't in any hurry to carry a flaming stick around with him, but he couldn't assume all the rooms would be lit or that they would all have torches that could be carried, so unless he wanted to risk having to backtrack all the way here from halfway up the tower (which he most definitely did not), he needed to get a torch now. He grabbed it carefully, holding it as far away from himself as he could. He walked to the staircase leading up, because it felt like the right one and when it came to finding things, he was learning to just trust his instincts.
There was a door at the top of the stairs. Link put his hand on it to push it open but stopped before applying any pressure: this reminded him of entering Ganon's room. His teeth started shattering.
"It's just a door." He thought. "It doesn't even LOOK like that other one, and Ganon can't be here."
He tried to sound certain to himself of that last assertion, but failed miserably. In fact, he didn't know that Ganon wasn't in the Tower. It was possible the sun had set since he had first come in, and even if it hadn't, Zelda could be wrong about Ganon not being around during the day. Come to think of it, if Ganon knew Link was on his way here, wouldn't it make sense for the pig to wait for him right by the pendant?
Link gulped. If Ganon was indeed behind that door, or anywhere between the pendant and Link, the battle was lost, whatever Link did. If he chose to open the door and go after the pendant, Ganon would kill him right there and then. If he ran for it back to the Lost Woods, he would never get the final pendant, he would never get the Master Sword, and he would never be able to defeat Ganon, who would find him sooner or later, tear him to pieces, and in the meantime, kill a lot people.
Link's only hope was that Ganon wasn't there, for whatever reason. Maybe he hadn't reached Death Mountain yet, seeing he had been in the Desert just two nights ago. Link clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from shattering and pushed the door with his foot, his sword at the ready in his left hand and his torch in his right hand, still held as far as his arm could stretch.
Ganon was not in the room, but that was very little comfort to Link: there were a good dozen re-deads sulking around a chest that Link was sure contained the pendant.
Link would have really loved for the Hero of Time, who had happily strolled into a city he knew to be full of re-deads, to be here with him right now. Obviously, his past self had known of some way to deal with the living dead creatures, while his present self didn't have the slightest clue.
The re-deads did not seem to have noticed him yet. Link tiptoed back out the door and closed it softly in front of him. Since his past self could not be there, he'd just have to ask him how to deal with re-deads.
He looked around for a hook for his torch, found one and carefully hung the torch in it, then concentrated on finding his past self right after he had defeated a bunch of the things, just in case the Hero of Time had only been bragging and had never actually even seen a re-dead. Almost immediately, he found himself transported from the dark and smelly tower to some equally dark and smelly place, with his past self, one he didn't think he had seen before and who seemed just a bit older than he was, sitting against a wall and drinking something red from a small bottle.
Link coughed to get his attention. His past self looked up, groaned, got up and unsheathed his sword.
"A ghost now?" He sighed. "Ah! You must be getting desperate!" He yelled challengingly at the ceiling, seemingly addressing the dungeon or someone on an upper floor.
"I'm not a ghost." Link said, taking a step back and raising his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I'm you from the future, and I need you to..."
"My future self?" The past Link said, looking more than dubious. "Right."
He started advancing on Link, sword first. Link automatically forgot that nothing could touch him and backed away right through a wall, finding himself in another room, this one full of... well, he didn't know what they were, but they looked like bandaged up re-deads. He hurriedly passed back through the wall, only to find himself almost right on top of his past self's sword, which he recognized as the one he was working so hard to earn.
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
Link sneered at the ghost who was pretending to be his future self. That was just about the lamest ruse Ganon had come up with yet, and on top of that, the ghost did not seem to be a threat at all, other than a delaying tactic. It was almost insulting, especially seeing the ghost seemed to be in complete panic: Link found himself feeling almost sorry for him.
He frowned and slashed at it with the Master Sword. The ghost cried out and tensed up in expectation of the blow, but it went right through him.
"No! Please! Don't!" It started begging. "I need help! Please don't..."
Link frowned in puzzlement. What was the point of begging him for mercy when he had already tried to destroy it, with no success? The ghost had had his eyes closed, maybe he didn't realize that the Master Sword had passed through it? Link put the sword back in its sheath and took a step back from the ghost, trying to think of what he could use to destroy something completely immaterial. He talked to win himself some time to think before the ghost launched some kind of surprise attack on him.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"Re-deads." The ghost whimpered, still crouched protectively on himself. "I need to know how to kill them! There's a bunch of them in a room, and I think that's where the pendant is! And if I don't get it, I can't get the Master Sword, and then I can't win against Ganon…" Link slapped his hand to his mouth, horrified he had just blurted out that he was fighting Ganon. "Sorry." He said, looking up miserably at his past self, expecting him to be devastated at the news that his future self had to fight Ganon.
"Filthy liar you are, aren't you?" Link growled. "So that's the idea, is it? Ganon is trying to scare me by sending some ghost to pretend that my future self is trying to defeat him, which would mean I never will? Honestly! Even if I believed you were what you say you are, I'd still go after Ganon just the same! He's been sealed before, and if I can't destroy him, I'll at least do that!"
"No! I didn't even mean to tell you that!" The ghost whimpered. "I'm sorry! Please… just tell me about re-deads? I can tell you something I know, too!"
"Hmmph. What could you possibly know that would interest me?" Link asked.
"What's in that room." The ghost said, pointing behind him. "You want to know, trust me."
"Right." Link said. "I'll know once I open the door, so what's the point?"
Link swallowed. He would have liked to leave and try again, hoping for a different past self, but if he aimed for the same thing, chances were he'd just end up here again. It was better not to give up until he had no choice at all. He decided to just give up his information – he had intended to tell his past self no matter what anyway, and maybe said past self would see it as a show of good faith.
"Have you ever seen re-deads all covered up in bandages?" He asked.
"Gibdos? Yes." His past self sighed.
"There's a whole bunch in there. The room is about this size," Link said, gesturing at the room they were in now, "and it's packed with them."
His past self paled a bit.
"You're kidding, right?" He asked.
Link shook his head.
"Goddess blast it!" his past self cursed. "And I just used up a red potion even though I'm drained magically, too, because I figured I wouldn't need a spell for a while! Argh!"
He kicked the wall angrily. Link had no idea what a red potion was, but the part about being drained magically had him rather worried.
"You need magic to kill re-deads?" He asked.
"Din's fire." His past self confirmed moodily, glaring at the door to the next room. "But it only took out a few at a time and they kept grabbing me. I had to drink a potion by the time there was about half of them left, and I had to drink another one once they were all gone. Why didn't I drink a blue one?" He asked plaintively. "Now I have to anyway, so I wasted the red one, and that blue one is my last one! Urgh..."
He sank to a sitting position, hands holding his head as if he had a headache.
"There's nothing for it." He sighed. "I'm going to have to drink the blue potion so I can cast Farore's Wind and get out of here, and then I'll have to go buy some more potions. It's a waste of time, but it's still quicker than sitting here waiting to recuperate on my own..."
"Can't you kill re-deads without magic?" Link asked his past self plaintively.
"Are you really my future self?" His past self asked, looking threatening. "Because if I go into that other room and there's nothing there and you made me waste all that time, I swear on the Triforce, I'll hunt you down and find some way to hurt you."
Link swallowed and nodded.
"Magic's not the only way to get rid of them, is it?" He asked again.
His past self shrugged.
"No offence, but you don't look like much of a hero." He said. "Do you even realize you were terrified of my sword but it went right through you and you didn't feel it? If you're afraid of ME, you should probably just walk away very quietly if you see any re-deads."
Link blushed, remembering that the sword could indeed not possibly hurt him in the past: nothing could.
"I wish I could." He admitted. "But I can't get the Master Sword without that pendant."
"Pendant?" His past self asked. "What do you need a pendant for? And who are you fighting? You said Ganon, earlier." He said accusingly.
Link looked down.
"You're going to win, but he always comes back." He said softly. "I didn't mean to tell you. I'm sorry."
His past self sighed heavily.
"Figures." He said. "Is Princess Zelda going to be okay?"
"I don't know."
"Is it true the Master Sword can't hurt Ganon? Some old guy said that it couldn't, but it doesn't make any sense: he also said I needed it to defeat him."
"It's true." Link said. "Zelda figures we need something else, too, but we don't know what yet."
"You get to call her just Zelda?" His past self said, sounding very jealous. "Whatever." He said, shaking his head as if to chase a thought. "I need to get going."
He took out a small bottle filled with blue liquid from one of his pockets and uncorked it.
"Wait!" Link cried out. "How do I kill those re-deads?"
"Well, if you don't have Din's fire, just use normal fire." His past self said, rolling his eyes. "Your sword will work too, it'll just take longer. Bring lots of potions and you'll be fine."
He drank the blue liquid.
"I can't drink potion!" Link said. He had absolutely no intention of pouring some kind of magic brew down his throat. His past experience with blue potion was nothing to encourage him, either: the stuff was just as bad as those blasted fairies.
"Better get some fairy spirits then." His past self said, throwing his arms up in the air. A glowing sphere appeared above him, engulfed him and he was gone.
Link came back cursing a blue streak.
"Better get some fairies!" He snarled, imitating, though badly, his past self.
He sulked for a bit, cursing magic and magic users, whoever's past selves they were. Magic that cheats on death was not natural, and he was not going to have any part of it: how would he be any different than those re-deads if he was only alive because of some magic brew or some fairy?
His eye fell on his torch, still burning brightly on its holder on the wall.
"They don't like fire..." He murmured to himself. "But he said he used DIN's fire. That's got to be stronger than a little torch…"
He scratched his head, thinking. He didn't really need to destroy all the re-deads, just to avoid them long enough to grab the pendant in the chest and get out. The torch might be enough to keep them off of him long enough to do that. As long as their so-called paralyzing scream didn't paralyze him for real, he could make it.
He took his torch off the wall and, hoping to go unnoticed for as long as possible, slowly opened the door.
None of the re-deads were looking his way. He forced his right leg to move forward, than his left. Now that he was fully inside the room, his legs moved much easier as Link was eager to get out again. In fact, he ran more than he walked to the chest, and made it to within hands reach of it.
But, just as he was about to open the chest, he heard the most horrible sound he had ever heard. 'Scream' hardly even came close to describing the horrible, evil, hungry sound.
Link's blood was instantly frozen in his veins, his mind went blank with pure panic and his body stiffened, paralyzed. The paralysis only added to his panic, and he felt like he might go insane, and that it would be a relief to do so. His panic grew and grew, until he deeply wished he would die so that he could escape.
Link felt something wrapping itself around him and the panic and paralysis all but disappeared, replaced by disgust and pain. He screamed and struggled frantically for what seemed like an eternity before the re-dead let go, leaving him exhausted, dizzy and feeling sick to his stomach. He wanted to curl up and sleep, but even more than that, he wanted to get out of here as fast as humanly possible. He scrambled to open the chest and made to grab the pendant which, thankfully, was indeed inside of it, shining softly despite the darkness of the room. Just as he closed his hand around it, another scream sounded.
As before, Link was completely paralyzed, mind and body alike. As before, he only regained his senses when a re-dead wrapped itself around him and started sucking away his life. As before, he screamed and struggled until the thing was off him, which seemed to take even longer than before.
Link stumbled to his feet, feeling sicker and weaker than he ever had. He started waving his torch around and tried to run for the door, but he tripped and the torch went flying out of his hands to the door, many steps away. Link struggled back to his feet, and another scream filled his head, once again driving all rational thoughts away and replacing them with pure panic, while paralyzing his body. The panic did not subside, this time, when a re-dead got hold of him. Link struggled, but he felt so weak and he was so terrified that his efforts were erratic, going back and forth from frantic yet weak to half-hearted. It seemed to take even longer for the monster to let go. When it did, Link collapsed on the floor and try as he might, he could not get up. He started crawling towards the door, just managing to drag himself on his arms and knees, convinced that any second, another re-dead would scream and then proceed to drain him of what little strength he had left.
He was right. Another scream resounded, and Link's mind went completely blank. He did not even notice when the re-dead grabbed him and he completely forgot to struggle, not that he had any strength left with which to struggle. The re-dead eventually let go, and Link lay there, unable to move, waiting for death.
It was only the thought that if a re-dead killed him, he might turn into one himself that got him going again. He dragged himself and managed to get a hold of his torch just in time to roll on his back with it and set a re-dead that was almost on top of him on fire. The monster's scream turned into a wail of pain, which, though it was still horrible, was at least not paralyzing. Link scooted out backward, using his backside, feet, and elbows. He dragged the torch along practically against himself, but he didn't care about being burnt: only about getting out.
Another scream sounded. Link didn't notice any difference in the intensity of the panic that was gripping him, but he was once again paralyzed. A re-dead, coming from his right (he was holding the torch with his left hand), lay on top of him. Link moaned weakly, tried to lift the torch, then everything went black.
He came to when the re-dead got up off of him, but he could not move. He tried wriggling his fingers, and barely managed after what seemed like an incredible effort. Once again, the thought of being turned into a re-dead was the only thing that gave him enough strength to slowly drag himself out of the door and kick it shut.
Once safely outside of the room, he passed out, feeling so miserable that he was half hoping he would never wake up.
He did not feel better at all when he came to. He had dreamt that Zelda had joined him inside the tower to help him out and although he felt silly for it, he was disappointed that it had only been a dream. He checked that he still had the pendant, found his right fist clenched around it; he found the torch lying next to him, his tunic singed by the close flame. He tried to get up and fell backward into the stairs. He tumbled down to the main floor, hitting his head a few times and his limbs plenty of time. He groaned weakly when he landed on the floor of the entrance room and lay there for a bit. He checked for the pendant again, found it still in his fist and with great difficulty, lifted his arm to put the chain around his neck where the other two pendants were still hanging. He felt a sharp pain when he lifted his arm and more of the same as he manoeuvred it to get the chain around his head: he had had broken arms before and recognized the sensation. If he'd had the energy, he would have cursed loudly, but as it was, he just groaned again.
He looked next for his torch, but that was gone: he had dropped it somewhere on the stairs. He looked up and saw it, still burning, about halfway up the staircase. He looked around for a closer one, and saw one on the wall just a few paces to the left. He crept there and once he was right under it, looked up at it and felt a wave of despair wash over him: it was much too high for him to reach unless he managed to get to his feet, and he didn't think he'd ever manage to do that.
Movement near the torch caught his eyes and he squinted in the darkness, trying to discern what it was. He had to stare for a while before he made out a pair of leathery wings folded over each other. He yelped and jerked back before he could help it.
This, of course, woke the sleeping keese. It squeaked and Link heard it take flight before seeing it plunge right into the flame. He goggled at the flames, unable to believe his luck: had the keese actually went and hurled itself into an open flame?
It turned out it did, but it also turned out that was no good luck at all: the keese emerged from the flame as a winged ball of fire that was aiming straight for him. Link screamed and tried to back away on his feet and hands, but the keese was faster and it impacted him on the chest before flying back into the flame.
Link looked down in horror at his burning tunic and as frantically as his diminished strength allowed, patted the fire out. He then took out his sword and waited for the keese to come back. He couldn't hear it coming because his heart was pounding into his ears, he could not get up to get a better view and a better position to use his sword in, and he could barely lift said sword.
The keese came back, screeching, and hit his arm before Link could so much as lift his sword. Link howled in pain as his arm caught fire and rolled on hit to extinguish it. In so doing, he cut himself on his sword. He shoved it in its sheath with a growl of pain and anger.
The extra pain, added to the embarrassment of losing to a keese AND cutting himself with his sword while being unable to hit the keese with it, gave him the adrenaline boost he needed to get on his feet, using the wall as support, and grab the torch. It was too heavy to hold with his broken arm, so he had to hold it with his sword arm, as painfully scorched and cut as it was.
He looked around for the door to the outside of the tower, and found, thankfully, that he could follow the wall to it. He proceeded as fast as he could, leaning on the wall for support, hoping the keese would not come back. He looked around for it and saw it heading his way, still in flames.
Link dropped the torch and unsheathed his sword. He waited for the keese to be close enough, than gave a big wide swipe. He felt the sword connecting with the keese, which fell to the floor with a small thump. He re-sheathed his sword, slumped to his knees to grab the torch back from the floor, amazed himself by managing to scramble back to his feet and continued around the room towards the door, leaning heavily on the wall. His legs felt like jelly, he could hardly believe they were supporting him, and it took all his willpower to take each step.
He stopped when he saw a pile of bones on the floor, about halfway to the exit. Bones made him nervous, and to make things worse, he thought that particular pile had just shuddered very slightly. It was right in his way, and he could not go around it without letting go of the wall, which meant he'd most likely fall off his useless legs and have to crawl to the exit, while holding a flaming torch.
He was weighing his options when the pile shuddered again. He gulped and chose to test his feet: he took his weight off the wall and straightened up, as slowly and silently as he could. His legs immediately gave out and he crashed down to his knees. He held back a yelp of pain and without bothering to check on the pile of bones, started crawling towards the door as quickly as he could.
He heard the bones rattling behind him and tried to accelerate, but a bony hand closed on his ankle and Link heard his own bones crack. He howled and turned around, kicking weakly with his other leg. The Stalfos seemed to smile as he let go of his ankle and grabbed his other one. Link jerked it back before the hand could close on it and swung his torch at the bony arm.
The result was better than he had expected from a desperate attempt to push the monster away: the Stalfos howled in pain and jumped back several steps. Link seized the opportunity to gain a bit of ground, scooting backward once again: his broken angle hurt like the Dark World each time he put weight on it, but he barely noticed, so eager was he to get away from the Stalfos.
It wasn't long, however, before the monster had regained his composure. It took out its sword and advanced towards Link. Link tried to scoot away faster, but the Stalfos was on top of him in seconds. It wasted no time to drive its sword into Link's good leg.
Link thought he might pass out from the pain, which just added to his growing list of injury and his feeling ill and being utterly exhausted. The Stalfos had its sword out of his leg and above his head, ready to plunge it somewhere else. In an effort to avoid the blow, Link rolled on his broken arm so that he wouldn't roll on the burning torch and as he crushed the already broken bones, everything turned black.
He brutally regained consciousness when the Stalfos's sword ran through his midsection, just a bit off center. It felt even worse than it ever had in his dreams. Link rolled back to his back, crushing his broken arm again but in too much pain and too afraid to be killed by the Stalfos to pass out again. He swung his torch toward the monster's head and knocked it clean off its shoulders. The pile of bone crumbled and Link pushed the torch away from himself, rolled on his relatively good arm, grabbed the torch again and finally managed to crawl out of the tower. It was morning outside, which meant he had been unconscious at the top of the stairs all night.
Nevertheless, he desperately wanted to sleep. He knew he had two gaping wounds, not to mention a broken arm, a broken ankle, a burn, and a pounding headache he figured was from his bad fall in the stairs, but none of it seemed to matter as much as his need to rest.
He shook himself awake and started crawling down the hill, towards the narrow pathway that would lead him back to the underground city. Every movement hurt and his clothes were sticking uncomfortably to his wounds. He didn't even seriously think of bandaging them: as far as he knew, the only purpose of bandages was to collect the blood so it didn't go everywhere. They certainly didn't stop the blood, as evidenced by the fact they constantly filled up with it and had to be changed. Ganon already knew where he was, so Link didn't care whether he left a trail or not. Therefore, he saw no sense in bothering to bandage himself up.
He crawled as well as he could, but he didn't get very far: he was getting even more tired with each step, and he soon collapsed, dead to the world.