Once more, welcome dear readers. You may have gotten hooked at the cliffhanger in the last chapter. The battle with Phantom Ganon begins.

Chapter 5

Dead Man's Volley

I stood there in amazement. How can Ganondorf have known we would be here? Why is he here? The horse he was riding levitated into the air, and I saw the man's face dissolve to reveal a more unholy visage (A/N: I honestly have no clue how to describe Phantom Ganon's face). I realized that this was not Ganondorf. Just some phantasmal imposter.

Phantom Ganon rode into one of the portraits in the room, and vanished from view. Link and I positioned ourselves so that we were standing back-to-back in the center of the arena. The Hero of Time had his bow ready, but I felt useless without some long-range weapon I could use. All I had on me was two Chaos Emeralds and some dirt. The only Chaos ability I knew was Chaos Control, and I really, really, REALLY, do not enjoy using that. Besides, it would be of minimal use in this situation anyway.

Link spotted the phantom prepare to come through one of the pictures in front of him, and quickly nicked an arrow. I also saw another phantom run towards me in another portrait, but I had nothing to use. Or did I? I pulled out one of the emeralds and focused on forming its energy into a bullet of some kind. I pointed the diamond at the portrait, but when the fiend reached the edge of the picture, it immediately turned around and ran away. I heard a dark portal open behind me, followed by the sound of an arrow hitting a horse, and realized that link must have received the true phantom.

The evil specter fled back into the painting, and we prepared ourselves for the next round. This time, I was facing the real deal, and I'll admit, my attempt at using the Chaos Spear was incredibly pathetic. Nonetheless, it was enough to force the fiend to flee back to the safety of the altered canvas.

We continued this process for 30 minutes. I was amazed at Link's proficiency with a bow and arrow, despite his claims that he had never used them before. How is it that he seems to know exactly how to use whatever tool he touches, without any form of training whatsoever. Like he said earlier, you're too absorbed in the action to give it any thought.

At his last arrow, the horse vanished, and the evil spirit floated over, some lance-like weapon ready. Link drew his sword while I stored away the emerald and entered a fighting stance. The phantom eventual raised his weapon, charged some strange energy into it, and threw the resulting orb at Link. The hero knocked it back with a well timed slash, and the ghost went down to our level. I quickly did a Homing Attack at him while Link swiped away at it. It soon got up again, and prepared another energy ball. Again, Link sent the orb back, but the phantom was now wise to this and he swept his lance, sending the ball back at Link. He again slashed at it, and they were pounding the deadly magic back and forth like a volleyball.

At some point during this, the ball was sent at me. Caught off-guard, I instinctively kicked at it. It was a lot harder then either of the other fighters were hitting it, so the Phantom had no time to react. He went down right away. I smiled at the action I just performed. And Knuckles thought I was crazy for wanting to keep my shoes so perfectly polished I could see my reflection in them.

Link launched a barrage of sword slashes on the demon, but it soon rose again, and we went back to the little game of Dead Man's Volley. I thought the name was fairly creative, seeing the circumstances we were under. Neither me nor Link were willing to let the phantom win, and we persisted until the phantom finally went down. As it began fading away, it was lifted up, and a dark portal opened in the center of the room.

"Well done, Hero of Time." Ganondorf's voice sounded over the hum of the vortex. "However, you and the speedy rat have only destroyed my phantom. When you two fight the real me, it will be much more difficult." I did not know which was more insulting, the way he was underestimating us, or the fact that he had called me a rat. I'm a hedgehog, you bonehead! "What a useless creation. I will banish it to the void between dimensions!" With that, the ghost was completely gone, and the evil vortex closed. A gateway of light replaced it, and the two of us gratefully entered.

The Chamber of The Sages was the most wondrous place I had ever been to. We entered on the Triforce mark in the center, facing the green platform with a wind vortex on it. Upon the platform stood a Kokiri girl, with short green hair, and a gentle smile on her face. This was Saria, Link's childhood friend, and Sage of the Forest. After a fairly touching moment between her and Link, she granted us her gifts. For Link, the Forest Medallion, and for me, the green Chaos Emerald. I briefly wondered why she had it. I then remembered that Link had said he received the yellow emerald from Rauru. Perhaps each of the sages would be safeguarding an emerald, protecting it from the Gerudo tyrant. It made perfect sense when I thought about it. Saria soon sent us on our way. The last thing she said to the Hero of Time was "You and I… will always be friends."

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