Chapter 23
Horacio awoke to find the droning, meaningless mix of sounds still at high volume. The back of his head throbbed painfully, and it took him a full minute to register his surroundings. Tael, the purple fairy, was frantically trying to wake him out of his stupor. He seemed to be yelling something, but Horacio couldn't hear it through the blaring noise.
Finally he discovered the existence of the rest of his body and pushed himself into an upright position, rubbing the back of his head. His hand came back smeared with blood. Somehow its bright color brought Horacio completely back into reality.
"I said COME ON!" Horacio could barely hear the young fairy's screams. He spun around to find several Fungistuls entering the courtyard.
Horacio jumped up and scrambled to the nearest door. Tael shot into the hallway after him, oblivious to the fact that they were heading right back into Horacio's original cell. They were already around the last corner of the hallway before Horacio realized his mistake.
"Turn around! Hurry!" Horacio caught Tael in midair and thrust him in the opposite direction. It was too late. Three dull red Fungistuls burst around the corner and rammed into Horacio, knocking him backwards to the other side of the gate. Before he could get up, the bars slammed into the floor, sending small chips of rock flipping into the air.
One Fungistul grabbed the remains of the swamp flower's vine that Horacio had used as a lasso. He tugged it through the bars and wound it around one hand, snickering; the thorns didn't seem to bother him. After nodding to the other two, he left back down the passageway. The other two stuck around. Great, Horacio thought, we have guards now.
"Um, you can let me go now," Tael squeaked from Horacio's hand after the alarm was turned off.
"Sorry," Horacio quickly released his clutch on the fairy to find that the skin on his hand looked perfectly fine and didn't hurt a bit anymore. "You can heal?"
"What?" Tael asked, fluttering his wings to get the kinks out.
"My palm. It was all torn up. Did you heal it?"
"You mean that one?" Tael winced, pointing to Horacio's other hand. Horacio turned his head and realized he had been looking at his left hand. His right hand still suffered from the huge gash, but it just felt numb now.
"Oh. Never mind," he said, turning away. "I forgot which hand it was for a minute."
"Don't worry about it. Sorry, but I can't help," Tael admitted.
Suddenly there was a metallic tapping noise coming from down below the balcony. Horacio turned around, but the guards seemed to be too busy chatting in some strange language to notice anything. He peered over the edge of the balcony and saw a flash of movement behind the grating underneath the ledge. Tael looked at him questioningly, and Horacio put a finger to his lips. The tapping sound returned, a little louder this time. One of the guards turned to look and then went back to his conversation.
"I'll see what that is," Horacio whispered to Tael. Horacio descended down the mushroom steps casually, his ears perked to notice any shift in the Fungistuls' conversation. Tael followed close behind. As they came closer to the bottom, the inside of the drainage tunnel became visible. A blond boy wearing a green tunic stood waist-deep just behind the grating.
"Guys! Hurry up!" Link hissed through the bars as loudly as he could without the guards hearing. "This tunnel leads outside."
"Link! How'd you get away from Freid?" Tael asked, though he didn't really care as long as he knew Link was safe. "I was so worried when he took you off somewhere! Is this where he took you?"
"Escape now, talk later. Come on," Link whispered. With the combined force of Horacio pulling and Link pushing on the grating after Tael had unscrewed it, they wrenched it free. They all crowded into the small passageway, set the grating back in its original position, and then trudged through the sludge into the dark depths of the sewers.
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Fungistul Vaults, year 506
Gary skidded to a halt and hid against the wall of the corner he had just gone around. A minute passed and there were no sounds other than the constant dripping of water and the heavy thumping of his heart. He was satisfied nobody was following him, so he turned to the hallway ahead of him again. His foot froze in midair. The tunnel widened into a dome-shaped room just ahead. In the center was a cylindrical stone pedestal illuminated by a shaft of light that shone down from a hole in the ceiling.
Floating in the center of the shaft of light was a tiny, dark purple bead of some sort. No one seemed to be around, so Gary cautiously crept up to the pedestal to examine the object. The bead looked slightly translucent, shiny, and was about the size of a marble, if not slightly smaller. Could this be the pearl the Fungistuls were talking about earlier?
Why weren't there any guards? The Fungistuls' biggest weapon, just floating around freely like this? This was his chance to destroy it and keep the war from even happening! Without a second thought, he thrust his hand out and grabbed the pearl from the air. Instantly there was an enormous blaring noise filling the air. There was an alarm; he should have known!
Gary's legs propelled his body through the tunnels even faster than when he had come from the opposite direction. It was too late. The entrance to the tunnel was completely blocked by two gigantic Fungistuls standing in his way. As Gary slipped and fell backwards, the Fungistuls slowly advanced toward him. There was no way out. Without fully realizing what he was doing, he quickly popped the pearl into his mouth and swallowed.
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Link had decided not to mess with the Fungistuls; who knew what they were capable of? The crystal chamber was enough to make him more than worried. His only choice was to helplessly follow the purple Fungistul up winding stairs and then to another flat area with a soft, rubbery floor. It was so dark compared to the crystal that he could only stumble along behind the Fungistul blindly. He could hear muffled laughter on either side. It sounded like some kind of audience.
Suddenly he ran straight into the back of the Fungistul. The laughter's volume rose for a few seconds and then continued in short spurts when Link stood still, wondering what was going on. Then a booming voice echoed through the room, saying a single word in some unfamiliar language. The audience went silent. Link stood awkwardly for a few more seconds, and then the voice spoke again.
"Sit," it said.
Where? Link felt around behind him for a chair in the blackness, blushing as the laughter slowly grew back. The loud voice said a few more words in the other language and the audience stopped again.
"The floor will be fine," said the voice.
"I'd prefer to stand, thank you," Link said, surprised at how loud his voice was amplified in the room. There was a low murmur throughout the audience all around him.
"Do you realize who you are speaking to, peasant?" The booming voice spoke again, this time showing more anger. The audience was silent to hear Link's reaction. He winced inside, trying not to show it on the outside. How could he be so stupid? This was obviously the Fungistul king, Mushi.
"I'm sorry, sire. I can't see," Link replied.
"Now SIT!" King Mushi demanded. Link obeyed this time. "We are gathered here today to decide what is to be done with this boy. For those who do not know, he has stolen our newest Pearl of Darkness. He is obviously a spy sent by the humans to gather information on our long-awaited attack."
Link sat silently. He didn't know what was going on, but he may find out some valuable information if he listened. As for stealing the pearl, he could only assume Dark Link had gotten here first. The Fungistuls probably mistook Link to be him.
"I demand an answer from you. Where have you hidden the pearl?" Mushi practically screamed.
"I don't have it, sire," Link answered truthfully. The crowd began murmuring again.
"Silence," the king yelled at the audience and then addressed Link again. "Ninety-nine years ago, our first pearl was stolen by a young man only about five years older than you. We never found him. For years, we waited for the humans to attack. They never did. Now you are trying to steal it again. I demand to know why and where you have hidden it."
"I don't have it anymore," Link said again. That wouldn't get him anywhere. Maybe if he diverted the attention to someone else, he could get away. "Freid took it from me, sire."
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Dark Link paused, holding Horacio and Tael back. This was it. They had reached the branch where he would lead them the wrong way and close them in. Now that he held the Pearl of Darkness, he was able to freely move between the two worlds, rather than remain stuck in between. This way, he could look and sound exactly like Link or he could disappear into a shadow on the ground. He stood still for a moment.
"Link, what are you doing? Do you remember which way leads out?" Tael asked.
"Uhh, yeah, it's this way," Dark Link said, pointing down the darker tunnel.
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" Horacio asked, pushing past him and heading straight down the dark tunnel. Dark hadn't been expecting it to be this easy.
They trust him, he thought. Even when he tells them the wrong thing, they don't even question him. So this is what it feels like to have friends. He stood in the muck, watching them enter the passageway.
"Aren't you coming?" Tael asked, turning back to look at Dark Link.
"Wait...the exit...I just remembered; it's this way," Dark said, heading into the other tunnel. Horacio and Tael looked at each other for a few seconds and then followed him.
Whatever these three have between them...it's better than what I have. Why does it feel so good to lead them outside? What am I even thinking? I wasn't created to feel anything. I must be losing it...
Soon enough, the trio rounded a corner to find light streaming in through a grating at the end of the tunnel. Through it they could see the swamp. Dark Link and Horacio pushed the grating off and then the three looked up to make sure no Fungistuls were in sight. The grating was at the base of a sloped wall of the old Moblin temple, which was now Fungistul property.
"Watch out, the ground drops out right here. If we crawl along this wall, we'll come around to some docks. We can use a boat there to escape," Dark Link said.
"Sounds like you've looked around a lot," Horacio said.
"It took a while to find your cell. I passed the docks on the way," Dark Link replied and then motioned for the two to follow him. Suddenly something snapped inside him. He shouldn't be helping them! He was trying to kill Link! Why was he helping Link's friends?
Horacio stared at Dark Link's strange expression for a few seconds. Without warning, Dark Link dove into the swamp. There wasn't even a splash; he had moved into the dark world before he hit the water. Horacio and Tael gawked at the shadow on the surface of the water moving away from the temple.
"Was that just - " Tael began.
"Then Link is still captive. Hurry, Tael. We're getting out of here," Horacio said, his face turning a chalky white color. He stumbled across the sloped wall of the temple in the direction Dark Link had indicated. Tael followed.
"Why do you think he helped us?" Tael asked quietly.
"I don't know. He must be planning to do something with us. He's not a real person; he can't have real emotions," Horacio replied.
"You saw his face. I think he's changing somehow; breaking away from Ganon's hold. I just wonder how he could develop emotions when he wasn't even created with any except hate."
"I don't know, Tael. Let's just get out of here, and fast. Link still needs our help."
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