Negative Forces 4

The next day, the pair woke late. After walking all the previous night, and spending all day in the city they hadn't a spark of energy between them. By noon they had plans laid out to go to the coast and find a map of the surrounding sea and locate the island they were looking for. On their way, Sky practiced her swordsmanship with Link's expert guidance. She was still clumsy, but could probably keep herself alive if needs be, and that was good enough for now. He was almost impressed by the progress she'd made until the sword slipped clean out of her hand and clattered against a cliffside with a hollow rattle. Sky jumped, and ducked, and then stood up straight and looked at Link with deliberately comical nonchalance. He couldn't help laughing, she seemed to be less awkward and embarrassed when he joined in with her making a joke of her own mishaps. She giggled, and went to pick up her sword. Standing by the cliff face where the sword had hit, Sky pressed her ear against the rock and tapped;
'ting, ting ting'
"This bit is hollow! There's a cave in there!" she seemed amazed be her own discovery.
"Stand back little one," Link had adopted the nickname her family had called her by, and picked her up under one arm and rolled a lit bomb at the wall. Ducking behind a hillock, they only heard the blast. They looked over the hill at the newly opened maw in the once rough cliff side.

Link walked slowly in through the mouth of the cave, Sky kept close behind him. Inside was a fairly deep hole, with various ledges sticking out of its walls. It would be simple enough to climb down. But there was no telling what was down there in the dark.
"HAH" Sky's cry shattered the silence, and Link jumped round to see what had happened,
she had been attacked by something reaching down from the ceiling, and swung at it. The thing was nothing more than a large spider, but it was quite deftly sliced down one side. Sky prodded the thing's body to make sure it was dead then turned back to face Link. Seeing no horror in his eyes, she relaxed a little.
He looked at her, and felt a swell of pride. He'd taught her that! He complimented her quick response and recommended that they stay side by side further into the dark chasm. In the vanishing light, her determined frown of concentration really looked like the face of expertise. Between them they made short work of the small and even medium sized enemies that were crawling out of the dark to assail them. At the bottom of the pit they were making their way almost entirely by touch when something not made of rock or stone was in their path. A large chest, made of wood and metal was buried in the dirt. Link immediately started to dig it out and Sky followed suit. Soon, it was uncovered, and what little light there was glinted off the polished metal edges.
Just then, there was a huge roar from beneath them, and the whole chasm quaked. Link took up his sword and jumped to his feet, ready. The ground crumbled away and they fell down further than they could have climbed. A creature circled them, huge and squishy with thick skin. For all the world it was an earth worm, but one with an enormous set of jaws at both ends of its body. Sky trembled at the kneed as she stood, back to back with Link.
"The thin skinned spot directly between the heads," he said to her "looks like our best bet. But if you can get past it, hide, hide somewhere safe, and leave it to me."
With that, he ran at the aforementioned weak spot and landed one solid hit before one of the heads reached around and grabbed him, pulling him off. Sky ran under the head as it lifted, to get out to the other side of the encircling worm and made her own attack on the weak spot. The creature reared up both heads in agony, it had not expected that. She watched from outside, as Link followed the sore point around as the worm continued to circle. Keeping in line with him, they attacked together, causing the beast too much confusion to grab either of them in either of its massively jawed, blind heads. It didn't take much more before the thing let its final cry rock the cave and it reared up and swayed. Before it fell, Sky spotted a small gap in the rock wall and curled up into it to avoid being crushed under the worm's giant corpse.
Link still stood in the centre of the room, as though transfixed by something.

As the beast fell, so did the walls around him, it was a familiar illusion and one he had no desire to see. The rest of the world fell away as the foggy expanse appeared around him and he stood face to face with his own shadow.
"Hello Link", the dark form greeted him with a sickening smile and his red eyes flickered, "fancy meeting you here!"
Link drew his sword, ready to fight.
"There's no need for that, I'm not here, you can't touch me. This is an illusion. But I have a real form now, we will meet again. For a real fight, hand to Hand, face to face. The dark powers are rising, it gives me the strength to rise. Sorry, gives US the power to rise."
He was about to protest when the illusion vanished and he was back in the bottom of the deep cave.

Sky saw the illusion flicker in and out of view. Now that it was gone, she crawled out of the gap she'd taken shelter in and walked slowly over to Link. The twisted look on his face told her to snap him out of it, but for some reason she still felt it nessicary to creep slowly towards him in case of startling him. She laid a hand on his arm, and gently got his attention.
"Link? Are you alright?"
"Uh... yes. Sorry, just thought I saw something" he said, turning to her and forcing a smile, her warm hand was a nice reality check after the cold fog and her now familiar voice was soothing after the raw echo of the shadow's. "Nice work fighting that beast!" Sky smiled back at him, and turned to the chest that had fallen unopened with them.
"Lets open this thing then get out of here" she pulled at the lid and it wouldn't budge, "hnnng... I think it's locked" she said, crestfallen. Link felt along the edge of it as if looking for something, and then ultimately kicked the lid clean off, getting a startled cry from Sky.
"You're just too little" he teased with a genuine grin, and took the treasure out from inside.

They climbed back up out of the cave. Slowly but surely winding towards the light of the outside world. Stumbling out of the cave, the light blinded them for a few minutes.
"Lets see, what is this thing" Link pulled the treasure they'd found out of his bag to inspect it properly in the light.
"A telescope?" asked Sky. Link turned it over in his hands and looked through it.
"Yep! This is cool, I can see the coast from here" He handed it over to Sky, for her to see too "We should probably get going, to get there before sundown".

The sun was starting to set over the horizon by the time the pair reached the shore. Orange and pink settled in the sky over the sea. The two took turns to look through the telescope and scout around for anything they could see.
"You have a GIANT EYE" Link laughed, looking at Sky's face through the telescope.
"Hey! Give that here" she grabbed it off him and looked through it the wrong way to make him appear tiny, "oooh, I'm a tiny little pixie-sized Link." She pretended to squash him with her thumb.
They both laughed childishly, Link enjoyed the company immensely. He was used to travelling alone, but now that he had someone to share the days with, the days themselves felt shorter and less exhausting. There was still a long way to go, and fights to be won, but times like these took his mind off it, and lightened the load. Sky handed the telescope back to Link and asked him;
"Is it true what they say about hylian boys?" with a cheeky grin and a sideways look.
He was taken aback by the question, having no knowledge of what it was that was said 'about hylian boys', or who had supposedly said it,
"I.. I don't know... what is it?" he asked dumbly.
"You've never heard? It's something kids used to say in school..."
Link looked at her awkwardly, he hadn't been part of a normal school or normal childhood. He explained this to Sky, but asked her to tell him anyway. He was genuinely interested, having missed such parts of growing up.
"well, you know, it's what they say about a Hylian's ears..." she continued, what had started off as a joke was turning awkward now that she knew Link had no idea what she was getting at, "they say ' the longer his ears are, the bigger...' well, you know". Link's eyes widened as he realised what she meant. Blushing a little, he laughed;
"Do they really say that?"
Sky's face flushed red, but she was indeed glad to hear him laugh with the good humour she'd hoped for.
"Yes they do, and I thought I'd ask if it was true!"
"Well, I'm not telling," he replied cheekily, nudging her. "You're full of surprises."

A lone house stood on the edge of the sand. Link and Sky, tired from their walk, approached it in hopes of shelter for the night.