Chapter Nine – Kaigara
Link walked into the semi-darkness. Near the far end of the room, Link could just barely see something moving. Suddenly, the lights flared on and Link could now easily see a large bottle sitting at the far end. A plume of smoke rose from it and started to take shape.
"HO HO HO! I'm your bad guy this time!! HO HO HO!" A strange clown-looking person formed in the smoke.
"What is this, a circus act?" Link asked, taunting the thing.
The thing growled and hurled a fireball at Link. Link ducked and drew his sword. At that, the thing turned back into smoke and sank into the bottle.
"NYAH NYAH! You can't hurt me as long as I have my bottle!" The bottle started hopping towards Link. Link hacked at it with his sword, but all it did was stop the bottle. The thing inside echoed a surprised noise out.
". . . .! I can't move! But I am still all right. Your little sword won't break this bottle!"
Link pulled out the Staff of Nevara and concentrated on the Bomb Bag. "Yeah, that's why I plan to do this!" With that, he pulled a Bomb out and shoved it down into the bottle.
There was a muffled explosion and the smoke shot out of the bottle. It reformed into the clown-thing and hurled more fireballs at Link. Link dodged them all and jumped on the bottle. Shoving another Bomb in it, he laughed and jumped back when the clown-thing launched a fireball at him again. The fireball collided with the bottle just as the Bomb went off. The bottle shattered into pieces.
"Waaaah! You- you broke my bottle! Why, you... You make me hopping mad!!!" It threw even more fireballs at Link.
Link dodged them all, but the enemy was hovering in the air. Nothing Link had could reach it. Unless…
Link groaned, his head hurting again. From somewhere, he could hear organ music. He felt the searing heat of a magic blast fly near him, but he swung his sword and it flew back. There was the sound of sparks, and Link let fly an arrow.
The genie, as he now knew it was, threw another fireball at him, but Link attacked it with his sword. The fireball bounced back at the genie and hit it. Flames spread across the genie, but it quickly recovered.
It growled and threw another fireball. Link, again, hit it back, but this time the genie knocked it back as well. Again, Link hit the fireball, and this time the genie was caught off guard. As the flames spread over it again, Link pulled out the staff of Nevara. He concentrated on a bow, and the Staff became one, arrow and all. Link aimed the arrow at the flaming genie and concentrated again.
By some force of magic, the arrow froze over. Link launched it and it struck the genie in its chest. The ice instantly spread across the genie, freezing the flames and genie alike. The frozen genie fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
A door clanged open to Link's left. He walked in through the door and it slammed shut behind him again.
In front of Link, on a pedestal, stood a statue of a woman far more beautiful than any Link had before seen. She wore a beautiful light blue dress that seemed, even in stone, to skim the floor around her. Her long golden hair wrapped naturally around her waist. She held in her hands a shell that looked remarkably like a horn.
"The Conch Horn," Link whispered, stepping up the steps toward the statue. When he reached the top of the stairs, the statue seemed to shimmer. Link backed up in surprise as it turned to look at him.
"Link… Hero of Time, you have returned to me. I am Kaigara, the spirit of the Conch Horn."
The statue shook and it shattered, revealing a woman even more beautiful than the statue ever could have been. The Conch Horn seemed to shine; a rainbow of colors danced across it. She held the Conch Horn with one hand now next to her side. Link had backed up when she had shattered the statue, and she stepped closer to him.
"Child of Hyrule, you were brought to this island by an evil man, but your presence here stirs an even greater evil. If you were to find a boat or ship, a way to leave, would you?"
Link shook his head. "No. I told Malon that I would find her father."
"Even if doing so meant that you will never set foot on another land? Even if it costs you your life?"
Link nodded. "Malon is a friend, and who am I to subject her father to death if it means I can keep my life? What would my life be worth, then, if I am not willing to risk it for friends?"
The woman nodded. "Very well. I expected no less. You are indeed worthy of the Triforce Shard you possess. My powers are limited, but I will do what I can to help you in your quest." She stepped up next to Link, directly in front of him. She placed her left hand on his hand and lifted the Conch Horn to her mouth with the other. She then played the Horn.
The room was filled with a deep echo. The sound almost drove Link to his knees, but her hand seemed to be keeping him frozen in the spot. Images flashed through his head, some he recognized, such as his fight with the Genie and Shadow Ganon, but others he did not recognize, such as a race against time in some volcano and a chance meeting with an agonizingly familiar woman dressed in battle armor outside a courtyard. Some images, though, he knew not to be his, such as a desperate flight into the Bottle Grotto, trying to escape a large black blob shaped like a large Moldorm, or a deal struck with a beautiful woman for the shell she endlessly guarded for fear of what it could do. They all passed into him, and he passed out.