Chapter Thirteen – Mountain Hike
Link sighed as he sat down on a nearby rock. "You sure you saw him come up this way?"
Richard nodded. "Yes. I can see an astonishingly large amount of things from my castle."
"Must be useful. Easy to make sure Koholint is safe, at least."
Richard nodded, weaving his way up the mountain. "It helps." He stopped when he saw a cave that seemed suspended above the ground on the cliff. He threw a rope up there, weighted down with a piece of metal, and tugged at it. He nodded and scaled the rope. Link quickly followed.
Link found himself in a dark cave. Richard stood beside the entrance, and with a sharp kick, sent the rope falling down the mountain.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?" Link asked, surprised.
Richard shushed him. "Don't worry, there's another way out." He walked forward into the dark cave.
"Okay," Link replied, carefully following.
----
Link shoved his sword forward, cutting into and through the Tekkite. It let out a squeal of pain and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Richard, ahead of him, carved open a Like Like that had literally popped out of the floor.
"Come on!" Richard shouted. "Push through!"
Link nodded, though he knew Richard didn't see. Jumping over another Like Like, he ran forward, his feet barely touching the floor save to propel him forward. He caught up with Richard and they raced down the corridor, stopping only when the corridor ended. It opened to reveal a large cavern.
There was no light in the cavern, but Richard plunged in, undaunted. Link, however, stood in the entrance and cupped his hands together.
"Goddess Din, of Fire," he whispered, "help me. Lead me and guide me, here and now. Let your power light even the darkest places."
As Link whispered, a small drop of flaming red liquid appeared in his hands. It swelled, rising up, almost spilling over Link's hands. Suddenly, Link hurled the liquid into the air and the room seemed to burst into flame.
Richard shouted in surprise as he spun around. He quickly discovered that these bits of 'fire' were no more than glowing liquid suspended in the air. However, they glowed strong enough to light up most of the room, save some of the shadowed corners.
"Let's split up," Richard said, heading toward the far end of the cavern. "I'll look over here."
Link nodded and started looking for clues to Talon's presence. He searched for what seemed like hours with no success.
Just as he began to lose hope, he heard Richard shout, "Link! I found them!"
Link rushed over. He saw Richard standing in front of a closed cell door built into the cave wall. Obviously, Richard was excited, or frustrated, because when he pulled the cell door open, it looked like he about took it off its hinges.
"Go on, Link," Richard said. "That exit's around here somewhere, I think. Well, it used to be. I'll go look for it. You make sure Talon's okay."
Link nodded and walked into the room. With a clang, he heard the cell door slam shut.
Link spun around, only to see Richard laughing. "I can't believe you fell for that! The great Hero of Time willingly walks into a cell, only to be captured! That's great!" Richard started to walk off.
"Richard!" Link shouted.
Richard glanced back. "Get used to this cave. You're stuck in here until Ganondorf decides to drop by."
Link stared in shock as Richard vanished into the darkness, laughing. Richard's working for Ganondorf? There's no way! He knows that Ganondorf is evil! But, if he's sided with Ganondorf, then that means…
"Kaigara!" he gasped, realizing that now the spirits of the Instruments were in peril.
"Kaigara?" a voice asked weakly from behind him. "Given… up on Malon… already?"
Link rushed over to Talon. Quickly untying him, he checked to see how Talon was faring. "No offence, sir, but we've got more important things to worry about than my love life."
Talon sat up, rubbing his wrists wearily. "I'm sure. Such as, how do we get out of here?"
A third voice chuckled. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Link and Talon both looked over to where the voice was. Behind another set of bars was a surprisingly familiar person.
"Richard!" Link exclaimed. "I thought you just left!"
Richard chuckled again. He held up his hands, which were bound together by some sort of metal bar that had been twisted around his wrists. "Sure, Link. Unless you remember teaching me how to bend metal around my own wrists, I've been stuck here, too." He groaned. "I'm a prisoner. Just like you, it seems."
"Then who was the one who tricked me in here?"
"Dethl," Richard whispered. "He visited me, a week ago, as you. He came to the gate and I saw him. Thinking it was you, I opened the gate and let him in. I showed him the castle and explained a few things, such as how I had created the tame Iron Knuckles that protect my castle."
Link chuckled. "An Ocarina blessed by a fairy and a magic song from a frog, right?"
Richard nodded. "I take it he found you at the castle and did the same thing to you?"
Link nodded.
"Anyway, so he says that he's found a really cool secret place. Intrigued, I follow. He leads me up here, then suddenly shoves me in here. Right before my eyes, he shifted and became this weird bird-man. I've seen strange things, especially since I walked along the Goron paths to get to Hyrule that one time we met. I've never seen anyone like him before. He looked just like a regular human, but his lower half was covered in really old-looking blue feathers. That, and he had two wings that grew out of his back. Suddenly, he laughed, and became me! That was the scariest thing I've ever seen."
Link stood up slowly. He smashed his sword against the bars, but all that resulted was the loud echo of metal on metal. He sighed and sat back down, thinking.
After quite some time, he yawned and fell asleep.