A/N: This is just a really short chapter that I rushed out mainly so I could tell you guys something. Some of you may wonder what I have been doing when I'm not agonizing over my fanfictions in a vain attempt to overcome my writer's block. In answer to that, I have been illustrating and coloring the monsters from this story. I am proud to announce that the first, the forest medallion monster, is done! You can see it at http(colon slash slash)www(dot)deviantart(dot)com(slash)view(slash)20756402(slash)

Hah, didn't know I was an artist too, did ya?

Also, a warning for the squeamish. Ganondorf might have a lot more grit than some of the people reading, so if the sight of blood or pain makes you sick, you might want to skip any paragraphs or lines marked by a number 13 in parentheses.

Chapter 9: The Curses Spread

From his perch on the roof of the hospital, Ganondorf glared up at the rainbow colored sky with a mixture of irritation and bemusement. It was obvious why the sages had wanted to erect a barrier, but if this was the best they could do, why bother? It was a most pitifully weak display of magic if he'd ever seen one. Still, he'd humor them. On the off chance that it did manage to contain the medallions, having them all in one area would be a big help. It made rounding them up that much easier. Of course, there was still the question of what to do with them once he found them. From what his phantom told him, they were quite heavily ensconced within their hosts, and it would take a good deal of energy to remove them…possibly more than he could spare. He was still weak from the final battle against that Hylian brat, Link. It was a surprise that he had been able to conjure as many of his monstrous minions as he had, all things considering. But he hadn't had the time to dwell on it. Nor did he now, for the door behind him had just screeched open.

"Milord?"

Stalfos, he thought without even turning to look. Only his skeletal warriors had that strange echoing lisp.

"Yes?"

He was glad the minion could not see his face and therefore missed the wince of pain in his eyes as he spoke. He didn't know why, but a few minutes ago his mouth had become strangely and suddenly sore.

"We have duplicated the crystals sir, as you ordered, and have sent teams out to find the medallions with them."

But?

"But one of them doesn't seem to be working, sir."

Not wishing to speak again, Ganondorf simply turned and raised an inquiring eyebrow. The stalfos opened its fleshless jaw to answer the questioning stare, but was shocked into silence when its master suddenly yelped in pain and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"M-milord?"

(13) Ganondorf was too distracted to even think of answering. He staggered back against the ledge, his eyes squeezed shut as he tried to ignore the pain which would have had lesser men screaming in agony by now. It felt like knives were tearing out of his gums, prying up his teeth in the process. His tongue tasted iron and he felt warm liquid trickling between his fingers and down his chin. He didn't have to draw his hand away and see the splashes of crimson to know he was bleeding. With a presence of mind few could fathom, he reached back into his mouth and felt his teeth. Something was definitely prying them up- they were loose. The stalfos could only watch with a sense of abstract horror as it watched its master reach into his mouth and tear something out with a sickly squelchy ripping sound. It had never actually been a human, but it knew it could not be normal behavior for one to suddenly yank one's teeth out. Ganondorf stared at the muddy white spots amidst the red puddle in his hand. The stabbing pains had not yet extinguished; in fact they had gotten worse. A fresh wave of raw agony rent through his mouth, but his tortured exclamation was muffled by his hand as he doubled over. The trembling knuckles of his other hand turned white from gripping the short brick wall so tightly. Suddenly the pain spread to his fingers, and he jerked his hand away from his mouth with a startled grunt. Several small round punctures dotted the already blood spattered flesh, and a suspicion blossomed in Ganondorf's mind.

(13)"Minion, your sword! Give me your sword!" He demanded, blood spitting from his mouth and flooding down his chin.

The stalfos obliged without question. Ganondorf held up the sword and examined his reflection, pulling back his ruddy lip to get a good look at the inside of his mouth. His suspicions were instantly confirmed.

He had just sprouted fangs.

(A/N: I always thought the way teeth just magically turn into fangs in vampire movies was terribly unrealistic. This is how I think it really should happen.)

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'whap whap whap'

Jack glanced askance, then returned his eyes to the sky. When the barrier had first appeared, it had blotted out the sky entirely. Now clouds were drifting in below the shimmering rainbow dome, obscuring the glistening colors with a motley gray. He wondered if it was going to rain again.

'whap whap whap'

Jack frowned, peeking again at Julie. He knew from what he had overheard of Zelda and Link's mental conversations that she was slowly turning into a monster, yet somehow it just didn't bother him. He felt worried over the prospect of course, but more for her sake than for his own. Suddenly it hit him that he hardly even knew her, and yet already he trusted her implicitly. It had never occurred to him, when running alongside her in pursuit of that scream, that maybe it was all an elaborate hoax. Until now, it hadn't even registered how impossible everything that was happening around him really was. The instant he had seen those monsters on the TV screen, he had just known they were stalfos. He hadn't questioned the fact. He had accepted it and moved on. He was like that, never questioning, never second guessing, hardly ever stopping to think. His parents often berated him for being rash and impulsive, for never considering the consequences of his actions. It was true, he didn't plan ahead. He simply saw what needed to be done, and did it.

'whap whap whap'

Now that the excitement had finally lulled, Jack had time to think. For all its improbability, he still didn't question the idea that the legend of Zelda characters had found their way into his world. The thought was too exciting, too enthralling to give up. How many kids his age would kill to be in his shoes right now? To be caught in the middle of an adventure with his favorite fictional characters?

'whap whap whap'

That's all he really wanted, adventure. Excitement. Just like any teenage boy. Although, when he thought about it, not all teenage boys were the same. You couldn't fit people in boxes the way the movies said you could. Take him, for example. He loved running, but he was too introverted to be considered a jock. He also loved video games, but he wasn't any computer nerd either. He didn't know the difference between a kilobyte and a hard drive. He didn't like putting a lot of thought into things, preferring instead to go with his gut instinct. But that didn't mean he couldn't think, he was actually pretty smart. But there is a major difference between understanding quantum physics (if that's possible) and making an informed decision that has nothing to do with brains.

'whap whap whap'

It was actually a question of confidence. It took confidence in one's self in order to judge, to question things. He lacked that. So in the end, he trusted his gut more than his mind. Because he had more confidence in the instincts developed by years of human evolution than in his own mind. Sad perhaps, to some, but true.

'whap whap whap'

Jack looked again at Julie, then stopped walking and set his hands on his hips.

"Alright I give. Why do you keep slapping your hand against your leg like that?"

Julie looked up from her deformed hand, her dull blue eyes wide and startled. She looked sheepishly back at the limb she had been periodically whacking against her thigh.

"I think it's going numb."

No need to question what "it" was.

"Let me see."

He took the purple limb in hand and began poking around, pinching a few pressure points.

"Do you feel that?"

"No."

"How about that?"

"No."

"That?"

"Nothing."

"How about…this!"

Julie shrieked with laughter as his hand thrust into her abdomen, tickling her.

"Woah! You didn't tell me you were a flailer." Jack chuckled as he jumped back to avoid her flailing limbs. Julie was the kind of person who jumped and thrashed about wildly whenever tickled or surprised, much to the chagrin of her more mischievous friends.

"You didn't say you were going to tickle me!" she scolded him, but a smile was cracking at her lips.

Jack smiled back, but there was a touch of worry clouding his eyes. Something hadn't felt right when he'd tickled her. His hand had brushed her side, and it had felt…

"Don't think that I'm a pervert or anything, but…"

Delicately he felt along her side. It was hard to tell with the tunic in the way, but there was definitely something wrong with the skin there. It felt… cold, stiff. He remembered with a guilty start that this was the side that had been burned a short while ago, and here he'd gone and tickled her…but why hadn't jumping around hurt her injuries? In fact, she hadn't seemed in pain at all for a while now.

A warm, gentle pressure against his hand broke into his thoughts. Julie's normal hand was on top of his, pressing it gently into her side. He looked up with a start, but she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were distant, haunted. He understood instantly that he should not jump to conclusions about her actions. She pressed his hand harder into her side, her eyes darting with panic. Finally she looked up at him. When she spoke, her voice was a hoarse whisper.

"I can't feel your hand."

His eyes looked back to her side, then traveled along to her shoulder. Her side and shoulder had been injured…and now her side felt strange. He didn't need to reassure her of his intentions before he peeled down the tunic over her formerly injured shoulder.

His eyes were greeted not by the soft, pink flesh of human skin, but by a mass of distorted purple and black skin as cold and smooth as polished leather. It looked alien, like some nasty extraterrestrial parasite was attached to her shoulder. It was obvious immediately that whatever this weird skin condition was, it was more advanced here than in her arm. Therefore it must have started in her shoulder, where her injury was.

There was something significant about that. He could feel there was something significant about that. But he couldn't fathom what. At any rate, one thing was certain.

"It's spreading."

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It wouldn't have surprised me if I'd sprouted wings or something. And I was expecting some sort of ability to manipulate light. But this? This is just…weird.

The musical tinkle of Zelda's laughter filled Link's head in response to his mute musing. Link had almost extricated himself from the tree. He'd stopped just a little while ago, when he caught sight of his hand while reaching out for a branch. At present he was sitting against the trunk, one leg dangling off the branch as he continued to examine his hand. The once rough, callous-heavy skin was now cool and smooth as glass all the way up to his elbow. He even experimentally flicked himself, to receive a light echoing 'ting' sound.

What the heck does glass have to do with light?

Don't tell me you've never heard of a prism.

Link blinked.

A prism…

Ok, that sort of made sense. But it was still strange. Shaking his head, he put his fingerless gold gauntlet back on and continued scaling down the tree. Tree climbing had always been natural for him. He had discovered this the first day he had scrambled up an oak in attempt to flee Mido and his gang of bullies. It worried him though, the thought of having a glass limb. What if he shattered? How fragile was this new… "skin"? He could just imagine himself raising his sword to parry a blow, only to have his arm crack in half from the force. He suppressed a shudder at the thought. Zelda laughed again.

Don't worry Link, I'm sure you won't 'crack' under the pressure. It is in the nature of the medallions to augment strength, not weaken it. You're probably even stronger now than you were before.

Hmm…

Link paused, hanging from a branch with one arm like a monkey. He plopped down on a lower limb and crouched again, drawing the Kokiri sword from his boot. Now that he was an adult, he used it as a dagger instead of a sword. He steeled himself, then in one fluid movement cut a long line down his glassy arm. Both the steel of the sword and the crystalline skin rang loudly as they scraped against each other, but not so much as a scratch appeared on the transparent flesh. An awed grin broke out of Link's face as he held up his arm.

"Cool."

I told you.

Link chuckled and tucked the Kokiri sword into his boot.

I never doubted you.

Liar.

Link wasn't sure if she could see him, but he stuck his tongue out anyway.

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A/N: And that's it. told ya it was short, and rushed. Really just a weird introspective chapter about the characters and how they're reacting to their transformations. But hey, you guys got an update two days in a row, so you shouldn't be complaining!