Morning came to Hyrule Field without incident. Both sides were rethinking strategy and resting their tired forces. Off in the distance, a lone horse carrying a rider could be seen heading toward the Hylian camp. Nick stepped out of his tent and waited for the messenger.
"Do you think our reinforcements have arrived?" Charles asked Nick.
"Possibly. But there's also a chance that the enemy has received reinforcements. In that case, may the Goddesses have mercy on us all."
The rider approached swiftly. As soon as he came upon Nick, he dismounted and saluted.
"Sir Nick, urgent message from the Castle." The messenger held out a piece of parchment. Nick took it from his hand and began to read it.
"The army of Malaank has arrived at the Castle and will be here soon. We shall ready our forces at once for an attack. You are dismissed." The messenger saluted one last time before mounting and returning to the Castle.
"We attack in two hours," Nick informed Charles, "Get the others ready."
"Of course."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They awoke on one of the hard floors of Goron City. After obtaining the Necklace of Wisdom, they had taken the shortcuts to arrive in Goron City in a few hours. Exhausted from their adventure, they had fallen asleep almost as soon as they got there. Link yawned and stood up.
"Good morning, Zel," he said as he gave her a quick kiss.
"Morning," she simply replied. "What do we do now?"
"We're going to have to get you a Goron Tunic so that you can be protected from the heat in Death Mountain. We need to go see Darunia." He reached down and helped his wife up onto her feet. After some stretching, they headed down the stairs to Darunia's Chamber. Most of the Goron were still asleep on the city floors, but Darunia would be up. His door was open and the two walked in.
"Darunia?" Link called out. "Darunia, are you there?"
"Yes, Brother, I am here!" the big Goron answered. When Link approached and was standing in front of him, Darunia gave the Hylian two pounds on the shoulder.
"Ah! Darunia! I told you to stop that! It hurts!"
"Oh, sorry Brother. What brings you here? Is it that tower?"
"Yeah, we need to find one more Amulet of the Goddesses before we can destroy the barrier that's protecting it. But first, we need another Goron Tunic, for Zel."
Darunia glanced over at Zelda and looked her up and down. Slightly embarrassed by the sudden attention from the Sage of Fire, Zelda looked away.
"We should have something that would fit her. Follow me, Princess." He headed out of his room, Zelda not far behind him.
Link quickly changed into his Goron Tunic and took the liberty of sitting in Darunia's chair. He didn't think that the big guy would mind it. He was his sworn Brother, after all. As he sat there waiting for Zelda to get back, he began to drift off. Before he knew it, he was fast asleep.
He walked through the tower with ease, battling various enemies on his way to the top. He didn't know where his friends were, or even Zelda, but he knew what he had to do. At the top was sure to be Ganondorf. He would kill the Evil King once and for all. He steadily climbed the stairs to the final room and opened the door. He had to take a step back as he saw the horror in front of him. Everyone he ever loved or cared for, was hanging on the wall, prisoners of Ganondorf. In the middle of it all stood the Gerudo, ready for battle with the Hero. He stood still as the Hero charged toward him, Master Sword out in front. Just as he got there, the Gerudo stepped aside and out of reach of his foe. The Hero turned around in time to see the evil man's sword pierce through his chest. A look of shock fell upon his face as he fell to his knees, sword still in his chest. He fell over backwards, looking up toward the ceiling, disappointed in himself. As the world became dark, he could hear Zelda's cries. "Link! Link! Link…"
"Link!" The Princess was shaking him awake. "Link! Wake up! Link!"
"Huh? Wha…?"
"You fell asleep. Come on, get up. We need to get going!" She helped him to his feet.
"Oh, ok. Sorry, must've dozed off there. I'm fine now, though."
"You sure, Brother?"
"Of course I'm sure. But now we have to go. Thank you, Darunia," he smiled as he waved goodbye to the Goron.
"Good luck, Brother! Come back in one piece!"
Link and Zelda walked through the passageway in the back of Darunia's Chamber into the Death Mountain Crater. He had forgotten how hot it was in there, but he was immediately thankful for the Goron Tunic. Even with it on, he was sweating. He looked over at Zelda, who seemed to be in the same level of discomfort as himself.
"You alright, Zel?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just really hot in here."
"Tell me about it. Let's just try to find the Ring of Power quickly and get the hell out of here." She nodded. "We head over that way, toward the Fire Temple," he said as he pointed across the broken bridge. They walked up to the ledge and Link pulled out his hookshot. Grabbing a hold of Zelda around the waist, he fired it at the wood over the remaining bridge. Safely across, they headed for the entrance to the Fire Temple. But as they got to the ladder that goes down to the entrance, they realized that it was blocked up.
"Darunia must've done that. I don't know why. Maybe to stop intruders?" Zelda didn't respond to the question. She just stared at the sealed opening, wondering where they needed to go to find the Amulet.
"There must be a secret entrance somewhere around here. What do you think, Link?"
"Well, neither of the other two Amulets were actually in the Temple, but nearby them. So maybe…"
"Maybe? Maybe what?" She looked at Link quizzically, wondering as to what he was getting at. He pulled out the Master Sword and began hitting it against each section of wall.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking for a false wall, what else?" He continued to hit each section, getting nothing except a solid sound. Finally, he hit a wall that sounded different from the rest, almost hollow. Making sure he heard it correctly, he hit it again. The same hollow sound could be heard. He pulled out a bomb, placed it next to the wall, and stepped back. The bomb exploded, bringing the wall down with it. Beyond the new entrance lay another ladder. He slowly walked up to it and glanced down.
"It's a long way down, Zel. Much longer than the one for the Temple."
"It'll take more than that to stop us. We need to find that Amulet."
Link smiled at his wife's courageousness. He couldn't help but think once again that he was the luckiest guy in the world. Still delighted by his wife, he stepped onto the ladder and began the journey downward. Zelda soon followed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jacob and John stood near the front of the Hylian army. They had survived the first skirmish in the Fields, but the oncoming battle looked to be more deadly than the last. The army of men had nearly doubled with the arrival of the army from Malaank. But it seemed that the opposition's numbers had risen quite a bit as well. The two armies faced each other in the light of day, the sun high above in its noon position.
"How you doing, Jacob? Holding up?"
"Yeah, John. But I have a bad feeling about this."
"Join the club. I've had nothing but bad thoughts and fear. Let's just get this over with and go home."
The two teenagers spoke no more and readied themselves for the inevitable. The silence of the fields was remarkable considering the amount of people, and creatures, that were currently on it. All heads turned toward the enemy when Sir Nick shouted out orders to prepare. Each man had a look of determination, mixed with fear. As Nick gave the final order, they charged as fast as they could toward the tower.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Link was relieved when his foot finally came into contact with a hard floor. They had been climbing down that ladder for the last five minutes. He let go of the rungs and stepped back, allowing Zelda to finish the descent.
He could feel the intense heat of the place already, even with the Goron Tunic on. They were in a large, empty room, lit by the glow of lava far below. The room consisted of one walkway about 10 feet wide, suspended over the lava. At the far end of the room was a door with iron bars over it. Link had seen plenty of these doors throughout his previous quest and knew that there must be some puzzle to solve, or some giant creature to beat. He prayed for a puzzle.
Zelda joined him at the start of the mysterious bridge. It seemed like it was just floating there; he couldn't find any supports for it at all. He turned to face Zelda and saw that she was just as confused as he was.
"Link… what's holding this up?"
"I have no idea, Zel. But we need that Amulet, so we must try to cross. I hope it's strong."
Carefully, he lifted one foot into the air and closed his eyes. Zelda looked on with a sense of fear. Fear that her beloved husband, the Hero of Time, would plummet to his death if the bridge gave way. Unable to take it anymore, she turned away from him and covered her eyes. Link slowly lurched forward until his foot fell onto the bridge. He let out a laugh of relief when the bridge held its ground. Hearing this, Zelda whirled around with a big smile across her face. She joined him once again and they began to walk across the mysterious bridge.
Halfway across the bridge, they both stopped dead in their tracks. From the depths below, they could hear a horrible sound, though they couldn't place their fingers on it. The sound seemed all too familiar to Link, yet he still couldn't quite remember. The sound grew louder and louder in the large room and Link forced himself to look down into the depths. He swore he could see the lava moving in waves, but he had no clue what the source could be. Zelda moved beside him, also gazing down. The lava remained still for a minute or so and Link had given up on it. As he turned to make his way to the door, Zelda screamed.
"What? What is it?" He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her straight in the face. Unable to say a word, Zelda simply pointed down in the direction of the pool of lava below. Quickly, he laid his body on the bridge once more and peered over the edge. At first, there was nothing, just like he thought. When he was about to get up, something caught his eye. A tail, he thought. Oh no…
He jumped up just in time as a large dragon leaped from the lava in their direction. It flew steadily upwards, right toward the middle of the mysterious bridge. The dragon came crashing through it, sending Link and Zelda in opposite directions. Link landed with a thud near the ladder they had come down, while Zelda landed next to the door. The middle of the bridge was completely gone, shattered by the dragon. It flew around the top of the room, breathing fire at its two victims. Link threw his shield up in the way of the flames, saving himself from a fiery death. Zelda had placed a protective barrier around herself, deflected all the flames in every direction.
It all came back to Link: his fight with Volvagia and the Megaton Hammer. I wish I had it right now! he thought, but it was much too heavy for him to drag around if he wasn't even sure he was going to need it. Hindsight is both a blessing and a curse.
The dragon continued its onslaughts of the two heroes. Its flames were hotter than the rest of the room, guaranteeing that its meals would be well cooked. Desperately, Link tried to come up with a plan. One hit him and he reached for his bow… then realized that Zelda had it.
"Zel!" he yelled over the loudness of the dragon, "Use the bow and arrows!"
Faintly, he could hear her respond from across the way. "Now what?"
"Shoot!" He saw her place an arrow onto the bow and release. The arrow flew true and hit the dragon square in its chest and stuck in. The dragon didn't even flinch. She reached into the quiver and fired several more arrows with the same effect. Link could feel the room becoming hotter and realized that if they didn't stop this dragon soon, they would be killed by the heat alone. Heat… too hot… need something cold… cold…COLD!
"Use the Ice Arrows!" he yelled across to her. He didn't get a response back, but soon he could see the cool blue glow of the Ice Arrows. She let one go, and it too hit the dragon on the mark. The dragon staggered some under the pain of the cold Ice Arrow. Its path became lower, closer to the bridge, closer to Link.
"Keep firing!" And she did, and each time the dragon was hit, its height above them fell. It also began to move closer to Link, fearing Zelda and the Ice Arrows. Cold, blue spots could be seen on the dragon around the arrows. It shot out its flames less often, trying to take a defensive position instead. Link moved slowly toward the edge of the bridge and drew out the Master Sword. He stood there, waiting for the dragon to get close enough. Waiting… waiting… When the dragon was within reach, he held the Sword high in the air and brought the blade down on the dragon's head, instantly beheading it. The carcass of the dragon fell back into the lava below and was consumed by it. The iron bars on the door rose up.
Link and Zelda both nearly fell over in exhaustion, but realizing that their goal was behind the door, they fought it off. Link tried to figure out a way to get across the gap in the middle of the bridge and soon found what he needed. On the far wall, next to the door, was a single tall torch. Link didn't know why a torch would even be in here, but he also didn't care. He aimed his hookshot at it and was pulled over the gap and landed next to Zelda.
"Shall we?" He held out his arm as if they were prepared to go out on the dance floor.
"I would be delighted," she replied, placing her arm in his. They walked over to the door and walked through.
This room was significantly smaller than the last, but was well lit. In the center of the room was the object that they had come for: the final Amulet of the Goddesses. Din's Ring of Power radiated its reddish light over the entire room. Knowing that one could not hold Power without having Wisdom, Link stopped and let Zelda approach the pedestal.
She lifted the Ring from the pedestal and looked in wonder at it. It too was made of the purest gold they had ever seen, and the gem in the middle of it seemed to be of another world. Its beauty, and the beauty of the other two Amulets, could only be surpassed by the Triforce and the Goddesses themselves. She turned around to Link and smiled. Their search for the three Amulets was over.
It was now time to face Ganondorf.