Author's Note: Aw, geez, I think I'm gonna die from school... Ugh, maybe I'm gonna have to update this monthly. Sorry that the time length is long, but like I said in the previous note, school's an ass. And so are the teachers. XP Man, I'm gonna look forward to Christmas Break.

Kokiri-Warrior: Yayz for dragon lovers!! :D Oh and don't worry, how can a LoZ fanfic continue without our beloved hero, Link?

The Great Ahtnamas: Yayz again for more dragon lovers!! XD Uh-uh! Can't give away what the yellowy glowing thing is yet :3

OK, here be Chapter 9!

Chapter 9 - A Young Girl vs. A Freaking Dragon!

Sepherene and I stared up at the mighty creature that just tore through the sky. I could've sworn that it was the size of my house! Its great feet and nails easily crushed the stone underneath like it was nothing; its dark nails looked like it could slice an entire building cleanly in half; its bright, red scales shone against what light was provided in the area and was similar to armor. The dragon's wings were folded, however it was so large that I was pretty sure that it could cause something much worse than a mere hurricane. I only stood, frozen, at the sight of it. Its slitted, golden eyes darted left and right, up and down...

Until those two eyes fell upon me.

I started to hyperventilate. It narrowed its eyes at me and turned its head towards my direction. It cracked open its mouth, revealing its monstrous fangs; I couldn't tell whether it was curled back into a snarl or a menacing smile.

"Hm..." it started, "So you're the trespasser of the Forbidden Gateway..." I began to tremble as well. Am I going to die right here, right now?! It raised its head slightly and inhaled deeply. I widened my eyes in fear as I realized what it was about to do. "Those who have seen this place... Must be ELIMINATED!" With that horrible, horrible statement, it unleashed a fiery breath. I instantly ran for the nearest stone "wave" and covered my ears and eyes as the fire swept over and past me like a jet. I screamed like a frightened girl who just saw death as it did this. Well... Isn't aren't I a frightened girl right now?

It was easy to feel the heat right behind my back. It was like a pillar of flames coming at me, but thankfully, the rocks were able to redirect it above me, if not around me. Once the first ordeal was over, I slowly cracked my eyes open and slowly slid down the rock. My fingers tightened around the sides of my head, my sight was getting blurry with tears of fear, and my breathing became uneven. How could I possibly face something like this?!

"I'm going to die! I'm going to die!" was all that I could think of. Oh, why did Princess Zelda have to send me to a place like this?! A tiny hand touched my wrist; looking up from my scared position, I noticed Kappa in front of me, staring at me with its tiny dark eyes.

"My Mistress requests me to protect you, and so I shall," it said without moving its mouth at all. Yeah, I forgot that it could talk telepathically as well. That did little to help me though. I was still shaking in fear of what I just experienced.

"Theresa!" came Sepherene's voice. Her ghost kneeled down next to me and spoke telepathically also; probably to keep the dragon from hearing. "Stay in a safe place, Kappa and I will take care of this!"

"Wha...?" I started, but before I could finish, a booming, thunderous roar interrupted our conversation. I closed my ears tightly again, hoping to decrease the volume of the sound at least a little bit, but the attempt was a little foolish. It didn't do much, really.

"Do NOT think you can escape me! Do not underestimate a dragon's sense of smell!" After that, I heard the sound of more stone being crushed underneath its weight, and the sound was coming closer and closer to me. I knew I had to move.

I looked to see where it was headed. As I expected, it was heading towards my direction. Its line of sight was directly at me, but either way it was in the right track. Doing my best to stifle my scream, I ran past four or five waves, hoping to find a way to stay away from its sight. But I had to heed its warning of its sense of smell. Hey, technically it's an animal, okay? Somehow, I was able to reach the side of the dragon as it continued to walk past me. I was well away from it, thank God! It was quite hypocritical, actually, that it walked right past me despite it bragging about its sharp senses. Huh, maybe its space is limited? I'm not quite sure, I think the game creators do this on purpose to some bosses in order for the player to get a chance to kill it. Maybe the rules of the videogame still apply to this world?! I heard a gasp from Sepherene. Alarmed, I turned towards her immediately.

"Theresa, do you see it?!" I quickly looked where her eyes were staring in either shock, surprise, or even... joy? Moving on, I squinted to see what it was that she was so excited about. And then I understood as soon as I saw it...

It was a soul.

Last time, Sepherene's was a bright, cerulean blue color; now, this one was a deep, blood-red hue. It was somewhat mesmerizing, in a way, but it was enough to draw my attention from the gargantuan beast that was headed towards me.

"Move!" Before I knew it, I got knocked down by Kappa using the top of my head as a boost for it to jump high enough for a clear shot. Easily getting the idea, I ducked and covered my head, but managed to see what was going on. The dragon used its fire once more and was headed right for Kappa! I gasped at the sight and jumped to terrible conclusions; however, what unfolded before my eyes was jaw-dropping.

Kappa fired a shot of compressed water and vaporized the fire! Whoa, how could that little thing possibly do something like that?! My amazement soon faded with shock, though, as my savior dropped to the ground. I only realized that the water in its head had been drained.

"Kappa!!" I yelled. I completely forgot about my fear as it was replaced with concern and alarm. I got up and sprinted to it as it struggled to stand. The fire dragon was already preparing for its next attack! A part of my mind told me I wouldn't make it, and I knew it was true... It was a foolish action, but I made my back face towards the beast in order to protect my helpless ally. So, this is how I'm gonna die, huh? Burn to a crisp with some sea monkey that I only knew for about a day or two, moreover it nearly killed me! But it protected me from that last attack, so now I have to do the same... I shut my eyes tightly and waited for my death, and held Kappa close like a child, yet...

The attack never came.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened. I blinked slowly, trying to take in what just happened, and tried to comprehend why this was happening. I looked down at Kappa to check on it, see if it's okay, y'know? It showed no sign of exhaustion or pain, but rather, looked as surprised as I was. I layed it down softly on the floor before turning around, slowly, to face my enemy and find out what was going on.

The dragon was... staring at me?

No, seriously! No joke, it was looking straight at me! I had no idea why, but I stayed in place, both out of fear and curiosity. Just in case, I held onto Kappa's left arm if I had to continue running. For a moment there, it looked like it was rather curious about me as I was about it. Suddenly, as soon as that look came upon its face, that same look disappeared. Its fierce glare returned as the dragon resumed its inhale. I immediately carried Kappa in my arms and sprinted once more; I'm pretty sure that I was having an adrenaline rush because honestly, I'm not the best athlete. Or rather, I'm not an athlete at all, and there's NO way I could be running this fast!

I slid to the outer part of another wave so the fire would split in two. Once again, I felt intense heat on both sides, but I held my protective position over Kappa.

"I F**KIN' KNEW IT!!"I thought to myself. At first I thought the dragon was having a change of heart or something, like how they do it in those manga when some character does something heroic and the enemy hesitates. Well, for a monster like this, there was something in the back of my mind that just assumed that it was too good to be true. I was sweating madly from being scared and this freakin' heat. I've been to Arizona and I've never felt this hot before! I took off my tiny jacket (even though it was short-sleeved) in an attempt to cool myself at least a little bit. Sadly it hardly did anything. Once the fire stopped, I looked over the rock to see what it was doing.

It was headed towards me again.

Carrying Kappa again, I made a run for it to a new shelter. The ground shook as the monster made its way toward me, I just hoped I wouldn't trip or anything. Then, the rumbling ceased. As I continued to run, I looked over my shoulder to see what happened: the dragon was inhaling again, most likely for another shot. Quickly turning, I slid to the protection of another wave, once more escaping a fiery death. I was starting to get tired, and I noticed my running was getting slower; I knew I couldn't keep this up much longer, I have to come up with a plan! But as I thought of this, something hit me. Not literally, but an idea came to me instantly.

The fact that it needs to stop to inhale might give me an advantage! I ran backwards this time to get a better view of my enemy; once again, it chased me, but made a type of annoyed look, if not angry. Truly, it's frustrating when you do your best to get rid of something smaller than you and fail. I know that feeling when I have to kill an ant and it keeps running away.

Anyways, as it got closer to me (I run slower when I go backwards) it stopped in its tracks and took a breath. Again, I went to a new wave. Good! I was correct! Well, for sure I can just run and hide whenever it tries to attack, but sooner or later, I'm gonna have to stop and then I'll be dead... But moving on with my plan, I set down Kappa gently onto the ground as large flames went past me in front and behind me. Suddenly, I drew my right foot quickly as I felt heat get the tips of my toes.

"OOOWW!" I cried. I instantly took off my right shoe and checked if there was any damage. Actually, it was just the top of the shoe that was on fire, and there was a tiny fire on the tip of my toes, but I quickly blew it out. My toes barely made it. But still, oh God, that was friggin' hot!

"Are you okay?!"Sepherene asked, appearing before me once more.

"Yeah, don't worry about me," I insisted, throwing my shoe to the side, "Can you distract the dragon for me?" The fires subsided, signaling me to take Kappa, stand up and run again, which I did. Sepherene floated alongside me as well.

"What are you thinking?!"

"Just do it! I have an idea!" My sight on the corner of my eye showed that the dragon stopped and inhaled. I slid once more to protect Kappa and myself from death. We barely made it to the safety of the rock, but I felt a sharp sting on my right thigh; I think all that sliding on cement was starting to leave scrapes over my skin. Okay, now moving on with my plan, I swung my bag in front of me and searched through the inside. Finally, I found what I was looking for: bombs. I was careful not to take it out, however; I assumed that if everything here went by the game, the wick of the bomb will ignite as soon as I take it out.

"Theresa---" But I noticed the attack stopped, and I quickly yelled,

"GO! Distract it now!" She seemed to flinch a little, but flew away from me and upwards to the dragon's line of sight. I took deep breaths myself to try to calm down. After all, what I'm going to be doing was something from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Take a guess! Which boss did LoZ gamers have to defeat by throwing bombs in its mouth?

Finally getting the guts to carry out my plan, I left Kappa in the safety of the rock and ran towards my foe. Don't get me wrong, I'm not brave or anything. I just know that I'm gonna die here if I don't do anything. My heart was beating so fast from fear and anxiety. As I ran towards it, I realized just how huge it is. It was about the size of my house (perhaps 1 1/2 stories or something, heck, maybe it's even bigger than my house!) and its feet was about the size of my front yard. And, God, how sharp those nails looked! Not to mention how sharp its teeth looked!

Its yellow, pupil-slitted eyes instantly came down on me. (I'm guessing it smelled me?) I thought I would stop right away, but somehow, my legs kept going. It's like they had a mind of their own, and their objective was to head right to the enemy! My heart was beating faster and faster by the second, I really thought that I was going to die of a heart attack right there! But anyways, Sepherene flew away as it lowered its head and sucked in air.

"NOW!" I thought. And I took out a bomb quickly, and my theory was right, it did ignite on its own! Dropping my bag and taking the bomb in both hands, I threw it as far and high as I could, but I looked like a real idiot since I jumped and threw at the same time. My hair, sweat, and dust was getting in my eyes, but I brushed them away to see if I succeeded.

The dragon's mouth was closed, and it was staring into space as it tilted its head. The bomb was nowhere in sight, so I guessed it ate it.

And just as planned, the dragon jerked its head as a muffled explosion was heard in its stomach. Success! It opened its mouth, letting dark smoke escape from its insides. It was... panting? No really, it looked like it was breathing hard! I grabbed my bag and ran for it, all the way back to Kappa. And the whole time, I didn't feel the ground shake; what was going on?

"You did it, Theresa!" Sepherene praised. I lifted Kappa to get ready to run; I expected it to put up more of a fight than that. According to the usual gameplay, I'm gonna have to throw in two more bombs before it gives up. My legs were trembling and it was completely obvious. My knees were shaking so much! I was so scared and thought I was gonna die right there! How many times must I see death while I'm here?!

"Theresa, it looks like it doesn't want to fight..." she said, peering around the corner of our hideout, "Hey! We should investigate on that soul there!" I completely forgot about that! I turned around to see that we were actually closer to it than before. I must have been running towards it this whole time without knowing it. But first, I needed to see if what Sepherene said was true. I looked with her, still holding Kappa in my arms. But then, the ground shook uncontrollably for, like, three seconds. But during those three seconds, the ground forced me to jump, and pebbles and dust came my way. I was lucky to not get anything in my eyes! We kept staring after that, and then when the dust cleared up...

We saw that the dragon was lying down.

Both of us were very confused. Maybe it wanted to rest? But we didn't just keep staring, we took advantage of the moment! I ran the opposite direction to reach the imprisoned soul, and thankfully, it wasn't that long of a run, even in my current state. I've never felt this exhausted, and I've DEFINITELY never felt this dirty. I mean, seriously, I left my jacket somewhere, I'm covered in dust, the end of my black dress was torn in some areas, and I'm missing a shoe! Some experience this is...

Anyway, we finally reached the soul. But we walked farther from it so that I could place my bag and Kappa in a safer distance, just in case. Sepherene decided to stay back and watch over Kappa, which was fine by me. Kappa wasn't in any bad shape other than dirty, though. It was just deprived of movement since it lost the water in its head. Sadly, I didn't think I had any water in my bag.

You could say I limped over to the soul. Again, I'm really, really tired! I haven't felt this tired even when I ran in Track and Field! It was only a good twenty feet away, or something.

This soul was different from Sepherene's, and the color wasn't the only difference. It looked menacing, but I knew I had to free it as I did with Sepherene, or at least I felt it was right to do so. Now, another thing that was different: it never spoke a word. Not at all throughout the whole time I was facing against the dragon, whereas Sepherene did her best to keep Kappa from killing me and Link. And not only that, her soul was held down by three chains; this one was held down by two. Good, maybe it'll be easier for me to free it! And for the final difference:

As I limped closer and closer to it, I felt... angry.

I was clenching my fists now, and bit my lower lip as I continued towards it. Thoughts raced through my mind about what just happened to me.

"Link wasn't here to help me..."

"I nearly died here..."

"No. It's Zelda's fault for this! If she had done better with her spell, I wouldn't have gone through one of the worst experiences of my life!"

I did my best to calm myself down, but it was very difficult. And by time I reached it, my nails were on the verge of cutting my own skin, and I had the feeling that punching someone would be the only way for me to relax. But I had to focus. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I did my best to push my anger away, and reached for one of the ominously glowing chains.

I got a good grip on it, however my hand clung like a magnet to the thing! A really, really strong magnet... A burning sensation shot up my right arm, and I screamed in agony and pain. There was nothing burning, there was nothing on fire, but I sure felt like I just put my whole right arm in a fireplace! I clenched my teeth, groaned loudly, screamed, and nothing could take the pain away. Hell, I was kneeling and my eyes were tight shut. It was like nothing could pull me away from the wretched chain!

Cracking open one eye, I checked to see if anything was happening. Thankfully, it was nearly disintegrated, so it was almost over. Eventually, there was no trace of the chain I just held. However, along with my exhaustion from running, I felt even more effete than ever before. I was now in a four-legged position, staring at the ground and watching beads of sweat fall. I was breathing so hard, it was like I was born with tiny, tiny lungs. I didn't think I'd survive this, especially as I realized...

There's one chain left.

I gritted my teeth and growled in frustration. Ugh, I didn't want to have to go through this! Besides, just how many more souls will I run into? I sighed softly to myself, realizing that I have to do this. Moreover, it'll be over soon. Just as I reached out for the final piece of imprisonment, suddenly, something wrapped around my torso. A tiny gasp escaped me, and before I knew it, I was being pulled back at a great speed. Wind blew my hair forward and obscured my sight; soon enough, I was turned to face a horrifying thing:

It was the dragon.

It was its gargantuan hand that grabbed my torso and legs. I had no way of escape, not that I had any energy to do so in the first place. Really, I was at the point of passing out. I didn't even attempt to slip out of its grip. I was mainly focusing on staying awake. For some reason, I felt obligated to free that soul, but right now, that seemed impossible.

The dragon's golden, slitted eyes stared straight at me. My eyelids were heavy, and my head was swaying. I did my best to keep looking at it; was it going to kill me? As I thought of this, the strangest thing happened.

The very thing that was trying to burn me alive earlier was laughing. Not an evil, triumphant laugh, but a hearty laugh.

Its mouth was wide open and its head faced the sky as it continued. Somehow, I was able to cover my ears in time despite how tired I was. Now my mind was completely focused on it. Why was it laughing? I intended to find out.

"Why..." I started. The giant creature slowly ceased its moment of happiness and looked at me once more. It waited patiently for me to continue. I cracked open my lips, however no words came out. Damn, I didn't even have the energy to speak?! Hell, I could hardly even hold my head up to face it.

"You are wondering why I express amusement after attempting to kill you, aren't you?" it asked, holding a cocky grin. With the little energy I had left, if I even had any, I slowly nodded. Its smile grew.

"BAHAHAH!!! It is because... The great sorcerer my master has been waiting for... Is a mere CHILD!" It looked as though it was holding back its chuckle, but boy, was he smiling. His great teeth revealed themselves to me, however I could not admire it, or fear it, like the dragon-lover or coward that I am. Well, maybe I'm not such a dragon-lover anymore since now I'm pretty much traumatized by this deadly experience. (Anyways) I couldn't retort. I couldn't defend myself and yell at it for calling me a child. Seriously, I don't consider 15 years old to be a child's age! I tried once again to speak.

"What... do you..." But words failed me. I ended up bending my head backward towards the sky; my eyes were closing. Geez, how many times am I gonna get K.O'd? I've lost count... I felt myself being let down slowly onto the ground, and the grip around me was loosening. Ah... This is comfortable. I've never wanted to sleep more in my life. Ah, bliss...

But then, I felt something softly touch where my heart is located. It was slightly sharp, but nothing that would've pierced my skin. I cracked an eye open to find out that it was the dragon's dark nail. Oh God, what's it gonna do?

"You must not rest yet, O great sorcerer..." I heard. I felt something warm engulf me, and I felt more and more energy come into me. Soon, my eyes were wide open, and I felt really refreshed. It was as though I never fought him in the first place! I even felt like I could face anything. Its nail lifted from my chest as I sat up and looked up at it with awe. What did it do to me? I stared at my hands. I felt a power I've never felt before... The great creature turned its head and looked past me. I turned around and found that it was looking towards the red soul.

"Please, free my master from his eternal bounds," it said. It then bowed its head to me. "And we shall aid you when you call." I had absolutely no idea what it was talking about. Aid me? Sort of like how Kappa protected me? I wasn't sure... Did it mean that I would have to face more battles? How much longer will it be until I finally reach my goal? As I stood, I looked at the ground, distraught rather than excited to have a dragon as an ally.

I walked to the soul and held the final chain without hesitation. Thankfully, I didn't feel pain anymore. That power that the dragon gave me... Is that what's giving me the ability to tolerate this? However, as I did this, I only thought of negative questions. What happens if there is no way to return to my family? What happens... if I die?

There were neither remains nor evidence that the chains ever existed as I rested my hand. I only stared, emotionless, as the soul began to take shape.

Whew! *wipes forehead* Finally, done with this chapter!

Yayz! Theresa gets a dragon ally! =D I wish dragons were real...

Review, please! X3