Here's chapter twenty-nine! Okay, I need to thank alllll of you guys who reviewed the last chapter and gave me your opinion on what I should do with the Triforce! All of your feedback helped so much! I have to thank some specific people: LoneMouse444 (luv ya sis), littleharwood90, fishylishy, Ber, sippurp123, yotyson, SirBoomstick, x-LightUp-x, Anonym, madchickenlover, Marilynn Lake, Luigi's Friend, SaintPellegrino, MikieJoe, Luthien Surion, catsrae, Zelda-Sheik, Linkster48, Merhaha, NinjaSheik, WindTalker17, Shawn, The Pilot, Starmaid15, and Pegasus6644. I love you all! And to find out which one I choose, keep reading ;) Haha enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Clue

Link's worry about Ordona's health augmented with each moment, and he watched anxiously as Zelda exposed the Orb. The princess was silent, her face serene and tranquil. For the first time, Link noticed her slightly unkempt condition. Her hair had fallen out of its braids and flowed freely around her face and down her back, held back only by her golden tiara. There were slight tears in her once pristine dress, and Link saw splotches of dirt covering her porcelain skin. Nevertheless, she was flawless in his eyes.

For a few moments after Zelda pulled out the incomplete sphere, there was deafening, unnecessarily suspenseful silence. The stillness made Link fidgety, and the butterflies in his churning stomach were fluttering relentlessly. His eyes moved from Zelda, to the Orb, to Ordona and then back to the Orb. Nothing was happening…

Suddenly, the black sphere began trembling slightly in Zelda's slender fingers. Then it flashed white, sending the call to its missing brother and final piece. Right as Ordona began writhing, Zelda screamed.

Link's eyes widened in horror as the Orb fell from her hands and into the black water. With a yelp, she crumpled to the ground and became senseless. Reflexively, Link moved to her aid, but then he saw Ordona. While the Orb shook and its silver details glowed, Ordona was letting out her hoarse cry. There was worry and relief at the same time when the bugs filed out of her weak and defenseless body. As the creatures landed in the water, Link protectively drew his sword and stood above Zelda.

His mind was racing as the bugs scuttled in the water, screeching and making Link's skin crawl. As he prepared for another epic battle, he remembered Faron and his wise words. Then, with heavy breathing and the need to protect the girl he loved Link bent down towards the water. He was a bit skeptical when he placed his blade on the surface of the spring water. But immediately, he felt light and power rushing through his veins, flowing from the blue hilt of the Master Sword. The black water became golden, as was Ordona's body, and the bugs began writhing and shrieking in agony when the golden light reached their hopeless bodies. A satisfied smile appeared on Link's face; this time, he made sure all of the bugs were dead.

Ordona was nearly back to normal, and while Link knelt beside Zelda, the last piece of the Orb began forming.

"The power of the Orb…calling to its final piece…was too much for her…" Ordona stated as Link worriedly stroked Zelda's wet hair. She shifted slightly. "The Triforce inside her… it reacted to the Orb's divine power…" Ordona continued "And now it can be completed…"

Right as she said those words, there was a small splash, and Link turned to see the fourth and final piece floating in the water. And that's when he also noticed the world around him becoming brighter. The waterfall began flowing again, and color was returning to Link's precious home province. He found himself smiling from ear to ear and looking around in wonder. The relief was indescribable, and he could just imagine the relief of the villagers, his close friends. The tears were gone.

"You have done well, O Chosen Ones…" Ordona said, now returned to her former self. But Link could still sense a slight lack of energy in her voice. With a nod, Link picked up the Orb and its final piece and stuffed them in his tunic. He wanted Zelda to be awake for the completion of the Orb. Then, he scooped up the princess, his strong arms easily supporting her frail body.

"Ordona," Link began, bowing his head. "Please, I have a request."

"Anything you need, brave youth…" the light spirit replied.

"What is the cure of the plague?"

Ordona sighed, her voice now clear and silky. Link stared at her with hopeful eyes. Now was his chance to get the answer he needed.

"You already have the first clue to that question, Hero…" she said, catching Link off-guard. He furrowed his brow in confusion trying to process what Ordona was telling him. "The first clue… it will help you more than I can…" Her eyes discreetly moved to Zelda.

I already have a clue to the cure…How? He thought confusedly.

Link narrowed his eyes pensively, and then he had a strange thought. He glanced down at Zelda's peaceful face leaning against his chest, and he sucked in an anxious breath.

Is she hiding something from me? He looked back up at Ordona. She simply looked at him with a wise expression. Link was still completely lost.

"But—" Link's persistent question was interrupted by a familiar, ominous sound. His sparkling blue eyes widened, and he held his breath. This could not be happening.

"Go, Hero…" Ordona warned hurriedly as the guardians' footsteps got closer to the spring. "They are searching for you… You have something they want…" She was, of course, referring to the Orb.

Link then realized that the Guardians of the Source were searching far and wide for him and Zelda. They were relentless in their quest to find the Orb and kill them. Being guardians, their only job was to protect the Source. And right now, the only threat was them.

Ordona began fading, and Link's protective instincts returned when he thought about the helpless girl in his arms. He couldn't let anything bad happen to her.

When Ordona had completely disappeared, Link turned around to face the spring's entrance. There, he was horrified at what he saw. A swarm of the guardians' shadows on the ground was approaching the spring, and Link was cornered. In a few moments, they would be surrounded if he didn't find a way out. His heart pounded uncomfortably, and Zelda shifted in his arms, still unconscious from the Orb's power. Link inwardly cursed himself for not being quicker, but there was nothing he could do about it now. The group of guardians was approaching — fast. Link couldn't fight them, and there was no way to escape.

Simply following his instincts, Link scurried to the corner, on the same side of the entrance, and pressed his back against the wall. Hopefully, when the guardians first walked in, they wouldn't see him against the wall…

"Go! Find them! They have the last piece, we must find them!" An authoritative, booming voice reached Link's ears. It was coming from right outside the spring, and in another instant, a dozen guardians filed into the spring with their swords raised. Link closed his eyes for a moment, leaning his head against the wall and listening to the water splash beneath their feet. He then began sidling against the wall, inching his way toward the open gate. Nobody had noticed him yet, but they were eventually going to… and if Zelda woke up and made an accidental sound…

"FIND THEM!" the lead guardian shouted, raising his sword just as Link was turning the corner. His heart was near bursting, but he escaped the spring right before they turned around. But they were soon going to come rushing out.

Heaving a momentary sigh of relief, Link peeked back around the corner to the spring, and saw the guardians all frantically looking around. With wide eyes, Link ran. He sprinted as fast as he could while carrying Zelda, towards the place where Epona was, across the bridge. He stumbled a few times, but refused to stop. When he reached the bridge, he heard the guardians' footsteps erupting from the spring. They were hurrying behind him.

Frantically, Link ran across the bridge, and then lifted Zelda up into Epona's saddle. The princess seemed as if she was sleeping, and her expressions gave the impression that she was having a nightmare. While she leaned forward, against Epona's neck, Link turned back around. He could see the group of guardians turning the corner, and he mounted Epona hurriedly, sitting behind Zelda, and then galloped off. His next destination was Kakariko Village.

ZELDA POV

"ZELDA!" She hears Link's shouts, and she feels his warm arms around her. He is still glowing. Everything around is still full of light...

The dream continues right where it left off, with Zelda lying in Link's arms, dying. She has just sacrificed herself for him and for the sake of Hyrule, preventing the darkness from taking over, and the Guardian of the Source has disappeared. Zelda looks up into Link's eyes, and sees tears running down his beautiful, shining face. The pain is relentless and excruciating, and she finds trouble breathing and keeping her eyesight from becoming blurry. The world around her is spinning, and the light is getting too bright for her to feel comfortable. The only thing keeping her conscious is Link's face above her and his arms wrapped around her cold body.

"…Link," she croaks, lifting a hand to his cheek. She wipes a tear from his cheek, and he puts his hand on hers. Zelda then finds herself crying, the warm tears stinging her eyes. This is her last chance to tell him the truth.

"Why did you do this?" he asks with pain evident in his hoarse voice. Zelda takes a deep breath.

"I love you."

A sob escapes Link's lips. He strokes her hair, and her cheek, and her neck, letting the tears become more forceful.

"I love you, too," he whispers, kissing her sweating forehead. Zelda sucks in a breath as the pain increases. His lips on her skin give her relief for a moment. "Please don't leave me,"

"This is…" Zelda pauses to catch her breath. "How it…has to be…" She closes her eyes tightly, trying to block out the pain.

"No it's not," Link shakes his head, sniffling quietly. "You didn't have to do this."

"Link," Zelda's eyelids flutter, and she feels herself drifting away from him. He's slowly getting farther and farther away, and it's breaking her heart.

Suddenly, the Triforce on her hand starts shining bright blue, and then Link's starts glowing green. Above them, the shape of it appears. Zelda blinks droopily, but Link narrows his eyes at the strange sight. It's an incomplete Triforce, with two on the bottom, but the top triangle is missing. Link sighs, and turns back to Zelda.

"Power is the key," he says. "The key…"

"The key…to what?" Zelda asks in a disoriented manner, barely holding onto life. Then, the surroundings change. The princess breathes out heavily, knowing that her time is coming. But around them is a scene that Zelda has never seen, neither in real life or books. Link gasps, but he is still glowing. The sky is golden, with no clouds, and Zelda and Link are now on a bed of grass. But it's unusual grass. It's a more vibrant green, and seems to have more life than the grass in Hyrule. The rest is blurry for Zelda.

"Oh, my goodness…" Link breathes. Then he turns back to Zelda, who is dangerously near death, and his blue eyes widen. "Zelda!"

Everything becomes black.

Her eyes blink open, and Zelda is in a completely different place. Link is gone, and she's a lone in this dark area. Her pain is gone, and she's completely healed. This time, it's a place that she recognizes, in a situation that she's been in before. She is standing in the library… at Death Mountain. Suddenly, something appears in her formerly empty hand. Her eyes move downward to see a small piece of paper in her hand. With curiosity written on her confused features, she walks out of the library and into the general area of Death Mountain.

All of the Gorons are still sick and dying, lying on their mats, making her heart wrench. But as soon as Zelda sees them, the paper in her hand starts shimmering and shaking. Gasping, Zelda unravels it and stares at the glimmering word written inside the paper:

CURE

With a gasp, Zelda jolted up, sweating. But after a few moments of disorientation, she realized that the wind was blowing in her face, and she was leaning forward while moving at a breakneck pace; her surroundings were rushing by in a blur, and she had a feeling of exhilaration inside her. Then the princess noticed the pair of arms reaching around her, holding onto the reins of the horse she was riding. Blinking dazedly, Zelda turned around to find Link seated behind her on Epona's saddle, an intense expression on his gorgeous face.

The dream returned to Zelda's racing mind, and she cringed at the memory of her in Link's arms, dying. Every aspect of the dream started replaying in her head, and she found herself breathing heavily. Link was silent, and just kept leading Epona through Hyrule Field.

"Link," she said his name quietly, and he looked at her with a determined expression. "What happened?"

"…Guardians," he whispered. Then, he glanced backwards. Zelda's heart wrenched as her hair billowed around her pale face, and she tried to follow his gaze. But there was nothing there. Link let out a deep sigh of relief, and then pulled back on Epona's reins. The reliable mare slowed to a walk, leaving Zelda breathless.

Link looked absolutely winded. Zelda felt guilty not remembering what happened, but after she pulled out the Orb, everything was fuzzy. She didn't remember the actual event; she could only remember the terrible, haunting dream. Now, that was all she could think about. Her brain habitually took it apart, bit by bit, until she understood it. They rode on in silence, and Zelda couldn't help but lean back against Link's chest, letting the warmth of his body comfort her. He happily let her lean into him, and she closed her eyes for a few moments, trying to make sense of her prophetic dream. She felt his lips press against the back of her neck, and smiled.

"I had another dream," she stated, breaking the silence. Link furrowed his brow curiously, but didn't say anything. Of course, Zelda was going to leave out the part about her death. "It showed me something about the Triforce," At this, Link took a deep breath and stared at her intently.

"And we were in this place, and I'm still trying to figure all of it out. The sky was golden, and the grass was greener than anything I've ever seen." The description rung bells inside Zelda's brain, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Link seemed just as perplexed, if not more.

"And then I was at Death Mountain…" Zelda paused, narrowing her eyes pensively. Suddenly, she remembered with an epiphany, but kept her mouth shut. Link looked at her suspiciously, raising his eyebrows.

The library… and the piece of paper… Discreetly, Zelda reached into her cape and pulled out a small, torn piece of crumpled paper. When she and Link had been at Death Mountain, she had found this piece of paper in the library, inside an old book about Hyrule's history, and the words had caught her attention. It wasn't even a whole piece of paper: it was small and ripped, only showing the bottom corner of a paragraph. It read:

the Orb, after created was—

people were still sick and dying—

goddesses used the power of the Tri—

after it was defeated, the Source—

cured by what is known today as—

That was where it ended. When she had found it, Zelda hadn't understood anything, and she had completely forgotten about it until her dream brought it back to her attention. Now, she saw the importance of the paper and its information.

Suddenly, she gasped as a realization came to her mature mind.

The book in the Castle Library, with the missing page! She thought. This is a piece of that missing paper. This is how we find the cure.

Link cleared his throat, bringing the princess back to reality. She glanced back at him, fidgeting with the paper in her hand. He smiled crookedly, raising an eyebrow. With a sigh, Zelda finally handed him the paper. Epona whinnied with a bob of her massive head, surprising Zelda as Link's eyes scanned the paper.

She bit her lower lip when Link looked back up at her with a slightly angry expression on his usually docile face. He held up the paper, staring at her accusingly.

"I forgot about it until my dream," Zelda admitted. "And I was going to tell you, but—"

Link just rolled his eyes with a scoff, but she sensed playfulness in his actions and couldn't help smiling. He grinned back, but then took on a strange expression; it was the look of somebody who'd just had an epiphany.

"What is it?"

"The first clue…" he mumbled to himself, confusing the princess. Then he looked up at Zelda. "Ordona told me that this would lead us to finding the cure."

"But we need the paper to be whole," Zelda reminded him. With a loud groan of frustration, Link crumpled the paper up in his tight fist and squeezed it. "I know, it's frustrating, but we can do it. We've come this far."

Calming himself down as only he could, Link nodded and closed his eyes, giving Zelda the paper. She nervously sighed, tucking it back in her cloak and examining his face. She could tell that there was a lot on his mind.

"Why don't we take a little break from this? I'm sure it'll help," she suggested caringly. "And I'm sure Ilia will be happy to see you. Let's go to Kakariko Village."

He flashed his bright white teeth gratefully, making Zelda's heart fly. Satisfied in making him happy, she turned back around and returned to her position against Link's chest. She just scanned the blue, cloudless sky, and she couldn't stop thinking about how Ilia would react to Link's return. Jealousy sneakily entered her thoughts, and she suddenly found herself reluctant to go to Kakariko Village. She didn't want anything to interfere with the love she had for this man. But like she said, a break would be helpful, so maybe visiting Kakariko Village was a good thing… for now.

All right, I have another problem. You see, this story is very long as it is, and to be honest, it still has a long way to go. So I was wondering, should I:

(A) Write until Chapter thirty or thirty-one and then make a second story.

(B) Just keep it all in one story but have it reaaally long.

Sorry to ask you guys again, but I really value your opinions. Don't worry, this is probably the last time I'll do this haha. And this choice isn't as major as the other one, so... yeah. Thanks again, I'll update soon! :D