Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda or any of the concepts from Inuyasha that I have put in this ficcie!
Ocarina of Time: The Three Goddesses Reincarnated
Chapter Thirteen: The Forest Temple"This is neat." Tessa said, looking at the temple ahead of herself and Link. Link looked around cautiously, waiting for anything to happen, watching for anything that might attack the both of them. Navi swirled around cautiously as they approached the temple. Two howls were heard, and both Link and Tessa stiffened, before turning around. Two wolfos were charging after them, and Link began to run, and Tessa followed suit. There was a mad dash for the door, and Navi was zipping along ahead of them, but had to wait for Link to open the door to the temple. He fiddled with the doorknob, and the wolfos were advancing rather quickly.
"Link…don't you know how to open a door?" Tessa asked shakily. Link frowned, and finally got the door open, as the wolfos were about to pounce. They were in the air as soon as they dashed inside, and crashed into the door as Link slammed it closed.
"Battle tip number one, always avoid unnecessary confrontations." Link advised Tessa. Tessa nodded to show that she understood, trying to stop her panting from her increased heart rate.
"I can see why." She said finally. In any case, shouldn't we begin searching around?" Link didn't say anything, but continued on forward at her words. Tessa followed, the only light provided for them being Navi, so they made sure to stay somewhat close, so as not to bump into too many foreign object. Their path had been clear so far, but then they noticed an eerie light coming from the passage ahead. Navi headed for it, and so did Link and Tessa. The light seemed to be composed of four different colors. There was red, blue, green, and purple, all mixed together, providing the sense that they weren't alone.
Finally, they reached the end of the passageway and a room was illuminated before them. It was huge, with four giant torches for light centered in the middle as a square, each with a different colored fire. Tessa stared at the lights, entranced, as did Link, until four ghostly figures flew into the room, a slight wind-like sound accompanied them, and made Tessa's spine tingle with warning. They were short, and squat, and each the same color as one of the flames. They took hold of the flames with handheld lanterns, and cackled, before spinning and disappearing into thin air, leaving Tessa and Link in complete darkness.
"Well…that sucked…" Tessa muttered. "Now I'm blind again." Link rolled his eyes, unseen to Tessa, and waited for Navi to increase the intensity of her own light. It wasn't much, but it helped to illuminate at least a few feet ahead of them, and so they headed down the staircase again, ready for anything. Tessa felt the sudden urge to clamp onto Link's arm, but realized that it would prove to Link how terrified she was. She didn't mind the dark at all, but she didn't know what was lurking in the shadow, unlike her world where there weren't that many surprises. Navi told them to wait, as she flew around the room. She located the nearest door, to their right, and so they all walked through it. Torches illuminated the short passageway in front of them, or so they thought at first.
"Oh…that…is just…wrong…" Tessa stared at the skull head bouncing around in front of them. The skull was engulfed in flames, and its jaw was hanging open, closing every time it hit the floor. "Honestly…"
Link rolled his eyes again at Tessa, and walked towards the skull, drawing out the Master Sword. The skull now seemed to hover slightly in the air, and cackled a little bit, before landing on the ground again. Tessa twitched, and waited for Link to just split the thing in half. That didn't happen, for suddenly the skull shot forward and grabbed onto Link's leg with its teeth. Link shouted, and tried kicking the thing off, but it just latched on tighter, fire spreading faintly onto Link's clothes. Tessa's eyes widened, and she shot forward, and grabbed the skull with her bare hands, barely registering the burn on her hands, and she maneuvered her fingers on the skull's teeth, her left hand gripping its jaw, and her right hand gripping its top row of teeth. She began to pull the clenching jaw off of Link's leg, and was applying all of her strength to doing so. It took a moment, but finally it seemed to be working. Link readied his sword, and when Tessa had finally pried the skull off of Link's leg, she tossed it into the air, and Link swiped the skull clean in half.
It was then that Tessa registered the burning sensation on her fingers. She looked down, and grimaced at her burned sleeves, and slightly scorched torso, but nothing had been revealed that she wanted to hide, so she didn't make a fuss. Link patted the flames out, and frowned at the burn marks all over him.
"Ah…" Tessa looked at her fingers, and noticed they were red from the extended contact with fire, and there were teeth marks on each hand from where she had gripped onto the skull. "No broken skin, I don't need rabies shots." Tessa looked over at Link's leg. "You, however, had better not be infected." Tessa grinned at him. She highly doubted that something without blood, muscles, or even a body could have rabies, so she was perfectly sure he was safe. Link, however, didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about, but realized that it was something from her world, and that he probably didn't want to know. Instead, he continued towards the door ahead of him, which led to another passageway, except this one was twisted. Tessa looked horrified as Link just began running forward, at one point on the ceiling. "How in the hell…"
Navi zoomed right on after Link, turning with the walls, ceiling, and floor. Tessa frowned, but followed after Navi, timidly at first, and then realized that she wouldn't fall down if she walked on the carpet, but was still freaked when she ended up on the ceiling. 'My world makes much more sense…' Tessa thought inside of her head, as they reached the end. Tessa had then realized that her hair hadn't moved from her shoulder's when she was upside down. 'Maybe gravity works different depending on the magic or something…'
They were in a wide room, that had stairs heading up the side, on the floor, some on the ceiling, and two doors placed at odd angles. She simply frowned at them. 'You have got to be kidding me.' Link walked forward, and Tessa continued looking on, standing in her spot at the doorway.
A slight whooshing sound went above her head, and Tessa looked up before her breath locked itself in her throat, preventing her scream. A giant, grimy, brown hand without an attached body gripped itself onto Tessa's hair, and began to pull her up. Tessa screamed, and Link turned around to see Tessa a few feet in the air, and climbing. Without thinking, he reached back and grabbed a small sword and threw it up to Tessa, sheath and all. Tessa grabbed it, tears protruding at the corners of her eyes from the pain of all of her hair lifting her. She unsheathed the sword, and shoved it upwards, into the hand's palm, and it let go, writhing with pain. Tessa crashed down to the ground, and saw Link jump in front of her, sword readied. Tessa crouched behind Link, and froze when she realized her back was wet. She reached her hand back, and it came back stained red.
"Oh…that isn't right…" Tessa's eye twitched. Link dived forward, and sliced the thumb off of the hand, and it came with the forefinger, both of them falling ungracefully towards the ground. Link landed on the ground below him, next to the two fingers, and jumped up again, stabbing the Master Sword through the same wound that Tessa had made, and increasing the intensity of the wound. The hand dropped down the ground, limp. Link sheathed his bloody sword, and offered a hand to Tessa. She took it, and he pulled her up from her sitting position.
"Are you all right?" Link asked, seeming genuinely concerned.
"I'm fine, my scalp hurts like a bitch, and I'm traumatized for life, but that's life for you." Tessa shrugged. "I never want to see another dismembered body part again. This place seems to be full of them." Tessa muttered, glaring at the hand.
"Well, you seem to be yourself in the least." Link grinned a little bit, relieved that Tessa was all right. Tessa looked at the sword and sheath in each of her hands, and sheathed the sword. "You should probably keep that. You're smaller than I am, so it should work for you." Tessa glared at him for the small comment.
"I'm not small." Link's lip twitched into a smile.
"In any case, that is the Kokiri Sword, I've had it for about…umm…" Link thought. "I guess you could say seven years, or a few months, depending on what time scheme your going on." Tessa nodded in understanding. She tied the sheath so that it went around her waist, and both her and Link continued forward. Tessa's stomach growled when they entered the next passageway. Link turned to face her, an eyebrow raised.
"Sorry…I haven't eaten anything since…" Tessa thought back. "Umm…we ate at Malon's ranch…right?" Link nodded. "Well, since we left there. I have a right to be hungry."
Link simply rolled his eyes, and continued forward. Navi giggled a little bit, and Tessa grinned. 'I know what I'm doing when we're done in here, at least.'
They continued on for a while, until they reached a round room. At first, Tessa was confused with the room. It started off with a giant, round hole in the center, and she wondered the purpose of the hole, until the ceiling above them dropped a round piece, and filled the hole with itself. On the ceiling peace were two armored skeletons.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Tessa groaned at the creatures. "First, a skull, then a hand, and now skeletons. Whoever created these is sick-minded." Tessa unsheathed her sword, but wasn't sure as to what she could do. She had never really used a sword in her life. However, before she could do anything, the skeletons had advanced on Link and Tessa, then split off. Link attacked the one nearest him, and the other one kept on walking towards Tessa, who was backing away with shaking legs. "Okay, umm…maybe I should tell you this, but I'm not that fun to kill. Honestly! You'd have a lot more fun killing your friend, it adds all kinds of drama to the story!" Tessa gulped when the skeleton didn't seem to pay attention to her words. "Maybe you should listen to Julius Caesar, maybe that will get you to comply." Tessa grumbled, and then squeaked when the skeleton raised its sword. Tessa dropped and dove between the skeleton's legs, and cut through its lower spinal cord with her sword. It roared, and its beady glowing red eyes were on her in a heartbeat.
"Okay…that just made it madder…go figure…" Tessa decided to go for the skeleton's ribs, but missed, and just drove it through the spinal cord again, this time at a higher point. It went clean through, and the skeleton toppled in half, though its sword landed a deep gash in her shoulder. She winced as she noticed that the skeleton was trying to put itself back together. She shoved her sword through its skull, and then stepped on it, crushing it into pieces. The skeleton suddenly turned to dust, and Tessa turned around to see Link jogging toward her.
"I don't think you're comfortable with a sword." Link smiled at her. Tessa glared at him, and punched his shoulder lightly.
"Go figure." Tessa growled lightly. Then, she noticed that Link was holding a bow and a quiver full of arrows. She cocked her head quizzically at him.
"How's your shot? The skeleton I fought was armed with this." Link handed her the bow and arrows. "Try hitting the center of the door." He advised her. Link jogged slightly to the side, and Navi accompanied him. Tessa frowned at the weapon in her hand, and tried to remember what her old neighbor, Tom had done. But his bow was much more complicated, this was just a plain, wooden bow. She cocked an arrow, remembering his finger positions, and drew the arrow back. She narrowed her vision, and aimed the bow. Then, Link jogged in front of her. She was so startled she almost loosed the arrow. Link placed some red liquid from a vial on his fingertips, and made a somewhat small circle at a random point on the door. "Aim for this instead. It will give me a more accurate telling." Link grinned, and jogged out of the way again. Tessa almost growled at him again, but adjusted her bow to aim for the circle, and loosed it.
Tessa blinked, and then she blinked again. 'I hit it in the dead center?' Tessa couldn't believe her luck one bit. 'That must have been a fluke…' Tessa decided, but Link seemed to think otherwise.
"You're keeping that, and the sword, just in case." Link decided, and went to pull the arrow out of the door, but frowned. "…You are definitely keeping that bow and set of arrows. How on earth did you get this planted in so deep?"
Tessa's eyes widened, and she jogged forward to see what he was talking about. The shaft was dug deeply into the wooden door, and it wouldn't come out no matter what. "Well…that was a waste of an arrow." Tessa murmured, amazed with what she saw.
"You have plenty left." Link shrugged. Tessa grinned despite herself, and opened the door. She twitched slightly when she saw the arrow sticking out on the other side of the door.
Then, they heard a cackle from inside of the room. They turned, and saw the red ghost travel up the stairway, and melt into a picture. Tessa felt goose bumps rise on her arms. 'I really hate ghosts.' Tessa thought. Link ran forward to expect the portrait, but stopped when the ghost cackled, and disappeared. Tessa ran forward to meet up with Link, and saw that the ghost had moved to another portrait, one of three. The two that it wasn't occupying were completely empty, except for a navy-blue background. She frowned, and cocked an arrow. "I want to try my arrow again." Tessa said, and Link nodded. 'That had to have been a fluke.' Tessa thought, aiming at the second portrait. She loosed the arrow, and it imbedded itself into the portrait, and then the portrait burst into red flames, and the ghost had moved to the third portrait.
"…I have an idea…" Link murmured. "Tessa…you need to hit the Poe, and when it has to go to the last portrait, it will have nowhere to go after being hit with the third arrow. Then, I'll fight it." Tessa raised her eyebrow at Link, but shrugged.
"Poe…?" She asked.
"That's what they're called." He smirked. "Hit it."
Tessa did, and then the third time she stuck her tongue out at it, in an immature manner, before shooting. The portrait burst into flames, and the Poe drew itself out of the potrait, and into the third-dimensional world. Link swung his sword at it, but it simply became intangible, and floated down the steps. Link charged after it. The Poe suddenly turned to face link, swinging its lantern. Link growled, and blocked the spinning lantern with his shield, and plunged his sword through the Poe. It screeched so loud, Tessa could have sworn her eardrums were bleeding, but then it vanished in a puff of smoke. Its lantern crashed onto the floor, and the fire that was burning inside of it flew around the room, first igniting a torch, and then traveling through the door.
"That was odd." Tessa muttered, and waited for Link to walk up the stairs. They entered the next room, and had the same situation, except with the green Poe. Finally, they were done with that, when they came to a black and white checkered room. Tessa looked up at the ceiling, and noticed that it had two layers, and wondered how the second layer stayed up.
She also noticed the spiders, giant skull-like spiders, and gave a little squeak. Link gave her a questioning glance.
"Spiders…skull spiders…I hate spiders…" Tessa pointed a shaking finger towards the giant skull spider, and he sighed.
"Don't worry, I've fought those before. They're skulltullas, not very tough, but they can be a pain in the neck if you're caught with them in the wrong situation." Link examined the detached ceiling. "Hold on a second. He walked forward, until he was under the detached ceiling, and there was an unhooking sound, before the ceiling began to fall. Link dived out of the way, and back to Tessa. It slammed to the ground at full force, and then began to rise again, slowly. Tessa felt sweaty, and her throat was dry.
"Well…we're at a dead-end." Tessa murmured. Link frowned, and looked at the ceiling, and then lowered his head to face the passageway in front of him.
"Tessa, are you very fast?" Link asked. Tessa began to laugh.
"Me…fast…" She spoke her words in between laughs. "That's…freaking…funny!" Link rolled his eyes.
"Well. You're going to have to be fast." Link frowned. "That is, if you want to save Hyrule, and not be left here with the skulltullas." He said. Tessa's laughing stopped, and she looked rather unhappy.
"You have got to be kidding me."
"I'm not."
Tessa sighed, and got up. They walked to the edge of the floor before the falling ceiling, and stopped. Tessa grinned, and got herself down on the ground on all fours, her fingers barely before the line of the ceiling. Link raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing?"
"I was part of track in my freshman year, and I remember the fastest way to get started for a sprint was go from blocks. Granted, there aren't any blocks, but this still has got to be better than starting standing straight up." Tessa smiled. Link sighed.
"Does it give you that much of a boost?"
"Yeah, it was one of the things I was good at, coming out of blocks, the actual racing thing…well…I sucked at that." Tessa shrugged. "I'll race you!" Tessa grinned, making the event lighthearted almost immediately. Link shrugged, and imitated her position.
"I think I can actually see how this works." Link murmured, shifting slightly on his crouching position.
"On three…One…Two…THREE!" Tessa shouted, and they both exploded out of their imaginary blocks, and bolted for the doorway. They heard the clicking sound, and dug deeper to find energy to go faster. They could sense the ceiling falling, and they were almost at the doorway, and finally they made the final dive, just barely missing being squashed by the ceiling. The ceiling ended at about a block before the door, so they were very lucky indeed.
Tessa and Link were panting like they had just run a marathon, and they grinned at each other. Navi came out of Link's hat, slightly shaky, and plunked herself down on Tessa's head. "That was fun…" Tessa said wryly. Link and her looked at each other, and then they both broke out into laughter.
"I think I won." Link laughed. Tessa playfully punched him in the shoulder.
"As if." Tessa laughed. "I totally beat you." They stood up, and let out a few more moments of laughter, before opening the door. Navi, quite frankly, thought they were both insane, and decided to stay on Tessa's head. A blue light filled the room, and Tessa let out a grimace.
"Not another Poe." Tessa frowned. This time, it was a rather giant picture, and giant blocks were in front of the portrait. Tessa walked down to inspect the blocks with Link, and Tessa climbed on top of one of them.
"It's kind of a puzzle, except all of the pieces are squares…" Tessa murmured. "And…I think we have to push these together so that they form the Poe's picture." Link climbed on top of the block to see what she was talking about.
"Now it makes sense." Link said, and examined each block. He pointed to one that had the lantern. "We'll start with that one."
So, they began to work at pushing the blocks, the job required teamwork, and it took about a half hour at the most, but they finally finished the puzzle. As soon as the last piece was in place, they sunk into the ground, and the portrait burst into flames. The Poe came out, cackling.
"Not again." Tessa groaned, and went to sit down while Link battled the Poe. The battle was brief, and the same thing happened at the end. So, they continued on, just to find out they were in the same room that had the four torches that the Poes had first appeared in. Except, three of the four torches were lit, and the fourth, purple Poe seemed to be waiting for something in the center of the circle. Link and Tessa looked at each other, and approached the Poe. It immediately shot towards them, and then split into four and began to circle them. Tessa looked around, until she saw one of them act independently from the rest. It twirled a little bit. She notched an arrow and shot it, earning a screech, and the other three vanished, before it split again. This time, Link spotted the individual poe, and it went down with Tessa's arrow. The lantern crashed onto the ground, and the light flew back to the torch. Then, an elevator appeared in the center of the four torches.
"Wow…" Tessa frowned. "I thought I had an idea as to how far you had come in technology, but now you have elevators…" Tessa frowned. Link gave her a confused look.
"You know what this is?"
"…Maybe you don't know what it is then. It's probably magic. Never mind." Tessa sighed, and walked onto the elevator, Link following her. After a moment, the elevator shuddered, and began its descent into the ground. It became dark, and Tessa felt shivers run up her spine again, until a light appeared, and they stopped on the floor of another room, facing a door.
"…Do you think the sage is in there?" Tessa asked. Link frowned, and gave a slight nod.
"If not…there could be a very dangerous monster…" Link frowned, and turned to Tessa. "Are you sure you're ready for this?"
Tessa didn't answer, but stood there for a while, staring at the door. She faced Link with a slight, nervous smile. "As ready as I'll ever be." Tessa sighed. "I just hope it's not another skeleton, or other dismembered body part."
End of Chappie
YAY! Two chapters in one day! I feel all…accomplished…lately. And this was a long chapter for me. Haha, I'm pretty sure the quality of writing went down at the end, because I just wanted this done so that I could go grab a snack. In any case, my Internet isn't working, so I'm not sure when I'll post it (hopefully it will start working soon… . ) and then umm…yeah…I'm going to eat, and then work on Creation of Homunculi again. Haha. Review please! (Freedom of Speech information, not intended for Fanfiction net.)