The Legend of Zelda: Rings of Dualty

by FerreTrip

The Master Sword has -always- been carried by just Link. But when a threat so large, one alone is too little, comes, it's time to initiate a Plan B the goddesses made in three rings. Link must now share the legendary blade with...a lizalfos! This is gonna be different...A tale with dungeons original ones and other game mechanics woven into the plot. Please review if read!

2. The Forest of Peril

Link closed up the shop behind Bardin, then turned and scampered over to catch up. "Let's get going home, eh, Link?" he asked him, smiling. "We had a good day. Thanks for helping me when you had a sparring match going, but I needed the help. A few more customers than I'm able to handle at once, you know?" He chuckled and went on inside the house after unlocking it. "Again, nice sword he gave you," he complimented over his shoulder. "Go ahead and change out into your night clothes, Link. Come in when you're tired, but don't stay out long. I'll probably be awake tallying up our income today." He disappeared into the house.

Link took off his smock and went outside to admire the starry sky above him that night. He got up to the roof of the house by jumping across some ledges that were convienently nearby his house that led to his roof. He lay down and gazed at the beautiful array of stars. Out here in the country, where there weren't tons of lanterns burning and blotting out the stars, he could see stars as if they were a sandy beach with blackness slivered between each grain of white sand, stellar clouds of stars like water flowing amoung the grains in patches. He sighed and smiled.

Suddenly, a streak fired across the sky. A shooting star! Quickly, Link wished for something. He decided on someday meeting a friendly creature, like a goron or a zora, and making friends with something extraordinary by bumpkin standards. He then returned to gazing until he became sleepy and retired to bed.

The next morning, he got up on time and was able to get the shop ready with his grandfather before people were even ready to go out shopping. He then went out and did a few jobs for people. One of them was taking care of a pesky bird that was divebombing people. Link tried to procure a ranged weapon from his grandfather, but Bardin said they were too valuable to let go for even a moment, since you never knew when someone wanted a bow or a slingshot. The only option Link had left was to, in a burst of inspiration, first trick the bird into slamming into a wall, then whack it with his sword.

However, he was just one step behind the fowl. Despite luring the bird to dive at him when he was nearby a wall and jumping aside at the last second, the bird, smart as it was, saw through the ruse and veered sharply at the last moment, slamming into poor Link and knocking him down painfully. After a few moments' thought, Link decided to try and trick the bird another way. He went home and retrieved his favorite wooden sheild he made all on his own one day. He grabbed it and put it on his back via a strap to hold it. Then, he finally confronted the bird one last time.

He waited until the last possible moment, and instead of jumping, he pulled out his sheild right before the bird slammed into him. The bird made a comic "SKWWWAAAACK!" as it realized it couldn't veer away in time. WHAM! It slammed into the sheild, and, stunned, fell to the ground. Link then drew his wooden sword and gave it a good, solid smack. Finally, the bird, hit by something quite painful to add to its headache, gave in and took off to a new place to have fun raising heck.

Deciding that his sheild's services may be needed elsewhere, Link decided to, as well, keep the object with him. His grandfather, after he told the story, said that he deserved it. You see, the bird was very nearby the shop, and was scaring customers away. It was then another day of normalcy, at least until, around lunchtime, the new shipment of items came in. After putting them up, Bardin confronted his grandson.

"Link?" he asked. Link turned after grabbing the last bag of the new products. "Keep those." Link let out an exhausted sigh. He knew that if his grandfather let him keep something from the shop, then he was going to have to do something with them. Bardin smirked. "Don't worry, it's not too bad this time," he assured him.

'Yeah, right,' Link thought. But, as always, he kept it to himself.

Bardin smiled. "I think you'd better show people that new item we've got, since it could really help them out when you're not around," he suggested. "They're called Deku Nuts. Although they're found in the forest all over the place, you can't really get them without risking yourself a bit, from all the things that have been flying around there lately," he explained. "If you chuck one and it smashes against a solid surface, it'll emit a bright flash. It's sure to stun anyone or anything around for at least a moment while they try and see properly again." Bardin brought his fist up with a smirk. "And, while they're sittin' ducks, WHAM!" He swung the fist in a hook. "People can just whack 'em off their property or away from them! However, if you aren't careful, you'll be stunned, too." He mimed the movement. He drew back his arm and, with his other arm, sheilded his eyes. He then mimed throwing an object down and in front of him. "You have to keep your eyes shut. It won't work on things that don't have eyes, but fortunately, even Keese have eyes, though they rely mainly on sound, as far as we can tell," he explained.

Link nodded and looked at his new item, then put the bag in a pocket in his smock. He promised to go and show people how to use them.

Bardin smiled. "Ahhhh! Good boy, Link, good boy!" He patted his shoulder. "Now, I've got a sign up telling about how there'll be a demonstration soon. Just go out in the road by the sign and wait a bit. I'll wave when it's time to start."

Link nodded and went out to wait.

A few minutes later, he was surrounded by a small ring of people. A brave, willing member of the audience-Betta, of course, since he was the only one in town who really could stand being a punching bag-was ready to be the target. But people didn't know at first what to do, so Link, smart boy, didn't do anything before people could see again after launching his first one. What happened was the nut sailed down and burst on the ground with a loud SNAP! and an accompanying flash, and everyone just stood there, trying to see again. After a few moments, people, complaining loudly, could see again. Their interest was piqued, though, since, well, how could you use such an object? Then, he got one out slowly, so that everyone could cover their eyes in time. He tossed it, and after the snap, people opened their eyes to see a very still-standing Betta. Link quickly stepped forth and began whailing on the poor guy. Betta soon blocked some blows after recovering. Then, a sparring match began, and Link, after a few moments, reached into his bag and thereby alerted others to sheild their eyes. SNAP! Open your eyes, now! Betta, look, he's totally frozen from the flash! (His eyes probably hurt, by now, too.) And Link, look, he's getting in some good hits while he can! Hey, we can use this to stun those pesky crows and kick them away from our crops when we see them!

The demonstration worked. People were interested. Link only used up five of his twenty nuts, and Bardin said he could keep them. Bardin said they were in packs of twenty each for 30 rupees per pack. Seeing as the math came out to about 1.25 rupees per nut, the masses rushed to get some. Link had his hands full selling them with his grandfather. Finally, after some time, a few hours, actually, of working at the shop and helping some people out with how to use their new tool, Link finally was allowed to rest. For once, he accepted the break to rest. His rest came right when work was just about over. His energy was all back right when night fell.

He helped close, then walked back home with Bardin. Bardin smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Link," he said, smiling broadly, "you've done a fantastic job today. I think you should have something when we get home. It's simple, and it may seem worthless, but if you use your imagination, you'll never leave home without it." They got home, and before Link took his smock off, a knock on his door came, and, upon answering it, he found an empty bottle presented to him.

Confused, the young assitant looked questioningly at his grandfather. Bardin smiled. "Go on, take it!" he said. Link, not knowing that he was taking something that is worth more than its price tag would ever say, whether it was sold there or at the capital of Hyrule, took the cork-bearing glass container and put it in his smock's pocket. "As I said, it may seem worthless," Bardi restated, smiling and holding a finger up, "but, if you use your imagination, you'll never leave home without it." He winked at him and went to his room for bed. "I advise you get some rest, Link, since we've got quite a day tomorrow...You never know what'll happen inside a shop," he advised over his shoulder. "Good night!"

Link bade the same, but went out to admire the stars before taking his smock off to go to bed. Up on the roof, he removed his sword and sheild briefly so he could gaze at the heavens.

The stars twinkled. Their light, with the beautiful light of the moon, shone down and illuminated the land in an eerie, yet beautiful, aura. Link looked down and around the village, the peaceful village, the li-on sleeps to-night, when suddenly, his eyes snapped right onto the shop. He saw a figure there, trying to sneak in through a window. Gathering up his stuff again, Link jumped off the roof and rolled on the ground to absorb the impact of his fall. He ran to the theif and drew a deku nut. He shouted to get the guy's attention, then tossed the nut. SNAP! The flash faded, and Link looked up again. Amazingly, the guy was moving! He couldn't see his features, since he was wrapped in cloths. He DID get to see a bag over his shoulder, though. THE TILL! All the cash they'd made that day was in that sack! Link smacked his forehead, wondering how stupid his grandfather was getting with time. He would've stationed Link if he had his wits, Link knew. Alarmed and annoyed, he took off after the theif.

He followed him through to the forest. Problem was, the forest's trees were so thick, the moonlight was blocked off. He could barely see a thing! But, by snapping off deku nuts and looking up right as the light faded, he could get a glimpse of where he was. Of course, he'd lost the theif after a few minutes. Problem is, the theif wasn't the only person he'd lost; he lost himself in the woods! And he wanted to conserve his nuts for when they were needed the most. So, he remembered that Betta was camped out here, and he wondered if there was a fire outside the tent. It wasn't too late for him, was it? Quickly, Link ran and fumbled his way along. Finally, he caught sight of a fire ahead.

It wasn't a campfire, though.

Before him stood two mysteriously lit braziers, and between them, an entrance to someplace he had a feeling he knew what it was. The Forest of Peril. Stepping forward slowly, Link found that this was really his best bet to get a fire to see by. Reluctantly, he reached out with his wooden sword to make a makeshift torch. But, before he reached the brazier, he heard the distinctive ring of rupee on hard ground. He stopped and looked in the entrance. Someone swore, and Link knew he'd found his man. But...in there? Link was unsure. This late at night, lost, and without anything to protect-He suddenly realized that he could do this. He had a weapon that he was going to waste by turning it into a torch. And he had a scary, dark, dangerous, and frikkin' cool forest ahead of him he could explore as he searched for the theif. Not only did this excite him somewhat, he also knew that he HAD to get that money back, or else his grandfather would have a heart attack! So, resolutely, Link strode into the Forest of Peril.

And vines crept up behind him and blocked his way out.

.

Link found himself in a room, eventually, after the pathway led him in. There were torches lit, for some odd reason, and there was a door in front of him that he could see just fine. A door that was made of vines laced together. He knew, though, from the stories that these vines were like doors. So, he went forth and tried to open it, but some annoying keese came down to harangue him. Soundly, he defeated them, but before he could advance, he saw a bright light from somewhere. He turned and gasped when a chest materialized in front of him. He blinked a moment after it solidified, then tapped it with his sword. Solid. He sheathed his weapon and shield and tried to open the chest. To his surprise, it was unlocked, and also, all that resided within it was a single, metal key. 'This isn't anything like what I've heard about this place,' he wondered, taking the key(cuz he knew that keys could be useful, if you knew where to use them). 'Appearing chests? Torches without anyone to man them? I know about these doors...' He pressed on the vines, and they unraveled before him. He ran forth and on to the other side, and the vines closed behind him as soon as he did. He turned and opened them again to check, and saw they did. After a moment, they shut. He nodded and turned, then gasped. '...but a huge place like THIS?'

This room was huge. Greenish water was below, with lilly pads around, and some growths provided places to climb up. In fact, all around him were branches, vines, growths, ALL of it parts of trees! And above him, there was a ceiling of densely-grown wood. Torches illuminated this place, too. Astounded, Link fell right on his ass. 'This...This isn't a forest,' he realized. 'This is...This is NOT natural! It's a building of sorts!' He looked and saw three 'doors' around. One on either side of him and one in front, all connected by a crossroads of entangled wood. The door to his right had chains across it with a lock in the center, as well as thick vines stretching from ceiling to floor that formed a wall between him and the door in front in a semi-circle. The door to his left just had a lock on it with similar chains. Where they came from, Link decided not to wonder. But he though he had an idea after spying someone in front of him. The theif! He rushed to him, but was too slow. The theif disappeared behind a HUGE door of vines in front of Link, which then closed, and chains shot across it with a HUGE lock on it. Link skidded and swore. 'The key I got is way too small for that thing!' he asserted, and turned to the only availible option. The singly-locked door. 'If there's a lock, there's a key,' he knew, and went and tried unlocking that door. The key stuck fast after unlocking it, but the door was unlocked. Hoping to find another door, Link went into the next room.

'My goal here is to find the key big enough to get to him,' he thought. 'It's got to be in his little hideout here, HAS to be...' He looked around the room. It was smaller, and had the same water below. He saw things swimming in it and decided against falling off. (He also recalled there being about five of those things before in the room he'd just left.) There were only two small places where he could fall off. He looked up and saw that there were some monsters-moblins, he assumed from stories his grandfather told-in front of him. There was also, for some reason, a huge block of wood in the center of the room. A door directly across from him was barred by thorny vines that wrapped it tight. The things spotted him, and Link raised his sheild for a fight. 'And look, minions...' He blocked a hit and struck in counterattack. 'Looks like that big day's starting early, grandfather...'

There were three of the piglike enemies. They attacked with spears and one threw javelins at him. Link grunted in pain as a javelin struck his leg. They were very small for javelins, though, and they didn't do that much. Link easily pulled it out without too much pain, but he was NOT happy. He was too busy with the ones weilding spears in front of him to raise his shield up to block. After the moblin missed him once and hit him another time, Link said, "That's it!" and launched a deku nut. Instantly, every moblin was practically frozen, stunned by the attack. Link took this chance to run over and attack the javelin moblin. He was able to easily defeat it with two full combos. He turned and faced the melee moblins with a much more relieved feeling. He was able to defeat them quite easily, too, with two full combos, as well. When everyone was defeated, he sheathed his sword(which, oddly, was not bloody at all, although he was able to cut them a bit).

He was still stuck, however, since the thorny vines hadn't disappeared from the door. He looked around to see if there was anything he could do and saw the block from before. He tilted his head curiously. 'Why is there one of these here?' he asked himself. 'I wonder if it's supposed to be so incongruous...' He experimentially pushed against it. It was a bit heavier than he thought, so he put his weight against it and pushed it forwards. After it had traveled the length of itself, it stopped abruptly as a THUNK was heard. Link looked to the left of him, to the door, and saw the thorny vines creep back into the wall. He raised his eyebrow at this, but was glad to find a way out of the room.

The next room was a bit larger, and had a small corner to his right and two more corners ahead of him (well, sort of corners, since the wall opposite him forming the edges of the dungeon were freeform instead of straight) that were filled with water. Only the ones in front of him had any vines leading back up. 'How would I get back up if I fell in the one to the right of me?' he wondered. He didn't have much more time to take in the room, as he found the room infested with about eight keese. He yelped and held up his shield to block one. It bounced away on the ground, as if in a temper tantrum, making the shopkeep's grandson blink for a moment. Link found his spin attack very useful, as well as his deku nuts.

After all had been defeated, he noticed that the door to his right, next to the pit with no way back up, unbarred. (It had been barred by the same thorny vines as before.) He was about to go over when, suddenly, a large chest across from the entrance materialized. As he looked at it, he noticed that, on branches from the close-grown wall of trees that hung out above the two larger pits at the far ends of the room, there were crystal globes, of all things. 'What on...?' he wondered before shrugging and going to the chest.

As he opened it, a flash of light came out. It was bright, but Link didn't mind it. He opened it just a crack at first, peering in before pushing the lid the rest of the way out. He smiled in excitement, wondering what was inside. He leaned down inside the chest to get whatever it was before coming up and turning around, holding out the item in front of him. 'It's a map,' he observed. 'Now, maybe I can get my bearings and find out how big this place is.' He opened up the map and found that, indeed, it was of the place, since there was a title atop it in plain Hylian, reading, "Forest of Peril."

It seemed that there were two floors to the forest, 1F and 2F. 2F only had two rooms, one of which was part of a room on 1F since they appeared to layer on each other. In fact, each floor on the map had a separate sheet of parchment. The sheets of parchment were on top of each other, kept together by what seemed to be animal glue. He found that the main part of the dungeon was shaped like some sort of squared "C" with the ends facing up, where he assumed north was. He found a large, circular chamber in the center of the hole of the "C" full of nothing but a circle and five strangely-shaped islands around it in the center, leaving lots of empty space around it in the room. He also noticed some blue and blue-green parts that signified water and water that traveled underneath the green platforms. Black signified part of a room below, which helped him gather that one room of 2F was part of a room on 1F. He saw that there were two rooms in this branch of the "C", a long one with a few cracks of water and a large, circular one almost as big as the main room. 'I'll have to explore this place until I find a key that is definitely big enough to get to the chamber the thief went into,' Link groaned as he put the map away in his smock.

He turned to the opened door and entered it. He found himself on a small neck of the wineskinesque "island" of short, floor-vine-topped trees that started the southern(?) end of the room. Ahead of him lay an island that was more amorphously shaped, and on a little half-circle island at the far end of the room was a door that was, for once, clear. He saw another semicircular island to his right, in the middle between the two main islands. Above it hung a large, rectangular platform of wood slats. The platform was tied up with a pyramid of vines connecting from the corners to a thick, main vine above the center. The main vine went up to the ceiling. He also noticed to his left a bit was a square of wood planks, about the size of one of the block he had pushed before. Another square was ahead and to the left of it. The little "river" dividing the main platforms was about as wide as a block. Another crystal globe, in reach this time, was next to the door on the other side.

Before he could try and figure out a way to solve the apparant puzzle or reach the door, though, he saw that he had about four keese and two moblins, one on each main island, to deal with. He did, eventually. He could jump across the gap to the other island and grab the edge of the vines to catch himself, so he had no trouble. He pulled himself up chin-up style as was his preference. After all the enemies in the room had been defeated, he heard a sound and looked up to see a large chest appear on the hanging platform. 'Well, great, how do I lower it?' he wondered. He looked to the crystal globe.

He tried pushing it, but it wouldn't budge. Seeing as he had nothing else to do to it, he whacked it. A bright blue light lit up inside of it and he heard a THUNK behind him. He turned and saw that a block had appeared where the first square of slats he had noticed was. He noticed the other square and wondered if he should push it there. 'Since it didn't lower the platform, what have I to lose?' He hopped over and pushed the block.

He pushed it towards the east(?) one length, aligning it with the other plank patch, and pushed it about three more lengths away. Nothing happened when he put it on the other patch. In a groan of exasperation, he fell against the side of the block. This pushed it off the edge, where it fell straight down to the river below. With a great SPLASH!, he found he had made a platform. This was lucky, since he stumbled forwards and after the block when he had pushed it off. He found himself looking at a door to a room not marked on his map. The door was absolutely normal, too-not made of vines. Curious, he entered.

He discovered a red-carpeted study, still lit by candles somehow. It seemed a bit dusty, however, and unused for quite some time. In it, parchment sheets of all sorts were around, and one huge sheet was spread out on a desk. Nothing but a border was on it, and a vauge shape Link knew to be the shape of the land of Hyrule. An unfinished map that he could fill in on his own with one of his many skills he picked up from helping many people with many things, as well as being around cool stuff, for all his life. (Or he could just attach the maps of the areas he already had a map for to this one, like the map of his hometown.) He took it, just in case it came in use later. And besides, maybe someone would want it if he didn't need it later on, and he could put it in the shop.

He found nothing else in the room except an exit leading off under a skinnyish part of the second island, which the study was inside, it appeared. The door opened out and he fell into a pool of water. Grumbling and unable to reach the door again, he swam to a bunch of thinner vines that he could climb up and did so. He found that the room was the way he had left it-free of enemies. Having nothing else to do, he checked to see if everything was fine-which it was, since his smock was actually made of waterproofed material and had buttonable pockets to keep everything in-before entering the door.

The dead end he found was one that consisted of both a circular room and the door he entered through letting the thick, thorny vines shoot over it, barring him in. And, to make matters worse, a rank-smelling, sharp-toothed, and well-armed axe-weilding giant of a moblin was in that room. Link saw behind it was a mini-room with a big chest in it, fenced off with vines as thick as his leg covered with fist-sized thorns and bearing a door in the center with a padlock over it. And, lo and behold, on the beast was a key, around its belt. Link nodded, knowing that he could only escape by defeating this thing.

He advanced forward, and barely evaded a charge. He tried blocking an axe swing, but it caused him to lose his balance. In the time it took to regain it, he was charged right to the ground. But, as he got up, he saw the great moblin crash into the wall. It fell on its butt, dazed a moment. Sorry he had to trick this thing to defeat it, Link went and took his potshots, the only way he could win without dying. He actually got some slashes in on the thing, despite his sword being made of wood. The moblin got up, though, and swung his axe in a circle to blow Link away. Although in pain, Link was confident he could pull through this fight now. He just had to run right when he was done with a full combination attack(he'd been stupid and tried slashing a bit more after it, and that's how he got hurt), and sidestep the charge. He kept his distance, trying to lure the stupid beast into charging.

It worked, and unlike the bird earlier that day, this thing wasn't smart enough to veer away at the last second. WHAM! Head-first slam into the wall. Link slashed and stabbed in a combination, then ran away. He dived and rolled to dodge the axe, then got up again and ran away, baiting the thing once more. A third and final time, it crashed, and Link gave one last combo. The last hit, he jumped and drove his sword right through the thing's chest. Revulsed at the gore on his blade as he was, Link pulled his sword out and leapt back. With a mighty roar, the moblin swayed, swinging aimlessly, before finally falling down for good. With a large puff of smoke, it burst out of existence like every monster Link defeated in the forest. He had a feeling it was to pay back for them being evil. On the ground, it left behind its key. With it, Link unlocked the door to the chest.

He opened it, and upon looking in, he saw a different thing. He reached in and took it out. He turned and held it up, looking at his prize. It was something he'd only seen used by Betta, and that was once. Ever since, he'd wanted one. It was a boomerang. But it felt...different. Strong. Magical. He walked out and looked at the tufts of grass that grew all over that had stuff always hidden inside. He held the item and tried to remember how it was thrown. He tried it, and it sailed away, then began to curve around back to him. It curved and went right back, and Link caught it expertly. With a cry of joy, Link spent some time having fun with it some more. He threw it and cut some of the grass. He threw it and caught it again. Then, he wondered what'd happen if he threw it and then moved. He did, and began moving away as it returned. He gasped as it homed in on him. Amazed, he looked at it. Plain wood, it seemed, with a gem set at the origin of the angle. Each side of the 'rang had a green stripe painted on it. Link tried throwing it at a wall, and it bounced right back to him. It was MAGIC! He remembered that Betta had to stand still, and when he accidentally hit something with it, the boomerang fell down.

Wondering what else it could do, Link looked around. He saw a few crystal globes he recognized as the switches he could hit with his sword to activate things like opening the doors. He saw a few above the entrance to the room. He looked at each one in turn, then threw the boomerang. As if responding to his thoughts, it went for the first one immediately and smacked into the ones he'd picked in the order he picked it in. As it hit each one, yellow light shone from them. At the last one, it returned to him, and the thick vines blocking the entrance went right back into the forest. As well, the switches all became green. Grinning, Link put the boomerang away and went right on back, knowing that this new tool could allow him to find the key he needed. Washing off the blade of his wooden sword in the short little cracks of water beside the door, he continued. (It appeared that larger enemies needed to have the blood washed off.)

The enemies had returned, and he had to fight them off again. He found that the boomerang could "target" up to five things, and while it defeated keese with one blow, larger enemies like moblins were only stunned. He watched as the chest returned. The vines gave him an idea. So, he "locked onto" the four corner vines and let fly.

To his dismay, as soon as one vine had been cut, the platform tilted down in the direction of the cut vine and the chest slid right off! It flew into the water, where, strangely, it vanished with a flash. Link blinked for a moment at this, then had an idea. Hoping it would work, he exited the room through the door he'd just come out and reentered it. Everything had been reset! 'It has to be magic,' he thought. So, after defeating everyone again, he decided to, this time, target the main vine only. It cut a little bit, but he didn't cut it. So, he targeted it multiple times, hoping it would work. It did! The boomerang flew around it, going back and forth as it hacked away at the vine. Then, on its fourth pass, the vine snapped and the whole platform fell straight down. The boomerang, now target-less, flew back to its owner's southpaw.

Link jumped over to the chest and opened it to find...a compass? He raised an eyebrow at it. 'What's a compass doing here?' he thought. Suddenly, it and something from his smock began to glow. He brought out the dungeon map and watched as not only a compass appeared on the map (North being, as he had thought, the top of the map) but square markings signifying chests appeared in spots around the dungeon, as well. A big skull appeared in the center of the big, circular room behind the large door. Not just that, he now saw, magically, a red arrow pointing from the door he had just left and a yellow arrow right above where he was on the map pointing in the direction he faced at the moment.

He smiled broadly. "This is really cool!" he couldn't help but comment. "Now I can loot this place to add some money to my grandfather's till once I get it...or..." He sniggered as he put the compass away with his map. "...my own wallet..." He blinked and frowned, though, recalling that his child's wallet could hold only 100 rupees. 'I need to convince grandfather to get me an adult wallet,' he thought.

He continued back to the room he obtained his map and found the keese had returned. He took five out with his boomerang and spin attacked the other four, catching his boomerang right after sheathing his sword. He smirked. 'Not bad.' He looked around at the two switches and glanced at his map. 'There's another chest in the southern corner of the room,' he noticed. 'I bet if I hit those switches...' He threw his boomerang at each of them, deciding to go one at a time. They glowed blue as it hit them. When both were alight, a small chest like the one he had seen at the entrance appeared. He kicked it open and found another small key.

'Great! Now I can open that one door once I take down the vines around it,' he thought. He found nothing but the moblins again in the next room, so he decided to just ignore them and continue through. He didn't even mind the door he entered through barring itself again, since he was finished with that part of the dungeon.

Back in the main room, he noticed that there was a chest directly in the center of the thick plus sign that the vines formed for a platform. The platform was mostly teal, but a circle of green lay beneath the intersection. However, Link looked over the edge and found that it was only the thick vine bridges below. He DID see another, circular platform beneath the vines, though. It was a gigantic tree stump surrounded by the water. He saw that there were more of those things in the water. They were like small sharks, fins hanging out of the water. Sadly, Link got to see them up close.

"Woa-oAh-WOOAAHAUGH!" SPLASH! Link surfaced, grimacing that he was soaked, but the grimace became a yelp of fear as the sharks came at him. They were more like big, reddish, sharkfinned pirrahnas, actually, and they took a bite out of him before he got to the safety of the stump. He stood in the center of it, panting as the fish swam away. They dispersed around the little moat, and he found that there were vines at the southern bridge he could climb again. However, finding there were five of them and they were really only about as large as keese, he had an idea. "I hope you work in water," he said to his new friend as he stood in place and turned around, looking at the enemies in turn, targeting them. Some were underwater entirely, some had a fin up. He then let fly.

The boomerang appeared to be not just aerodynamic, but hyrdrodynamic, too! In fact, as soon as it hit the water, it changed shape with a flash from its gem. The gem had been green before, but now it was blue. The arms of the boomerang turned from wood to some strange, olive brown material with a soft light green, finlike webbing forming the "cutting" edge (the tapered end of the "wing" that makes a side of a boomerang; he returning ones we're most familiar with are basically two airplane wings together!) of the boomerang. It cut through the water, smacking each of the enemies in turn and, as Link had hoped, defeating them. As he caught the boomerang, he looked at its new shape. "Woah," he said. "It can travel through air AND through water?" He started after the gem turned green once more and the boomerang became wooden again. He was about to put it away when he heard a sound.

"Huh? Isn't that a chest?" he muttered. Then he yelped as he felt himself slowly rise up. The chest was materializing right underneath him, and he was being pushed up by it! When it finished materializing, Link found himself standing on top of a large chest. "That was different," he chuckled before he hopped down to open it.

Inside, he found, to his confusion, something that looked like a large, clear, crystal heart. However, inside of it was a small, red heart. He raised an eyebrow. "What the heck is THIS?" he wondered aloud. He wondered if he should absorb it like a normal heart (things that Betta had mentioned once he found in patches of small grass or clay pots he sometimes cut and broke after discovering that they sometimes contained rupees) to restore his energy, so he tried. It shattered apart and absorbed into his body, just like a normal heart. It filled his energy up to full, though, instead of a small bit. He smiled at this. "Well, I suppose that's a good reward," he said before jumping back into the water and leisurely swimming over to the vines and climbing back up.

He found that, on the eastern wall, five globe switches were ready for him to hit with his boomerang. So, taking his time, he hit them individually. They glowed yellow when he hit them. However, when he looked back at the first after hitting the last, he saw that it had gone out! In turn, the others went out, as well. He groaned. "Oh, I see," he muttered. He then targeted the five and let fly. The boomerang bounced off of each one and, when the last was hit after a much shorter time than before, they all turned green. The vines that had stretched all the way down to even below the vine bridges and blocked the way to the locked door receeded, and Link was happy to go and find that large key he needed.

After he opened that door, though, he found that not only did it seal shut behind him with thorny vines, but the one opposite from him was, too. He was trapped! The room he was in must have had a puzzle, though. He looked and saw that there were six pits with water in them, a teal zig-zag going between them signifying that they were connected. As well, there was a teal line that went out the door behind him. He had never seen any hole there when he was down there because of the vines covering it, so he felt it made sense. 'Though, with so much water and lower areas, how can this all be on the first floor?' he couldn't help but wonder. He shrugged. 'Oh, well, it makes things a bit easier sometimes, I guess, with the teal on the map...'

The pits were triangular and three poked from each side. It looked like he was in the mouth of some beast. On the zig-zagging path that they created were switches, one at each end and one at each angle, all of them near the walls. A wall of those vines were blocking the way through and the edges of the pits around, giving him a "W" of a path. This gave him five switches, which, after hitting one and recognizing the yellow light, he identified as boomerang switches. He went to the blocking vines and targeted the switches. After the last one was hit, the five turned green and the vines went up.

The doors were still locked, though.

"What?" Link saw that the other switches were green, as well, and they did nothing when he hit them with a sword attack or a boomerang smack. He looked at his map. "Great," he muttered. "I'm going to have to get wet again..."

He jumped into the nearest pit and swam across the enemy-free waters under the tunnel. He entered the next room and found himself coming into the open again inside a room with two javelin-throwing moblins. He swam to the nearest vines and started to climb, but the attacks knocked him off. Narrowing his gaze, he brought up his boomerang and knocked the two silly. They were both on a side of the room, standing on an edge while they sniped him. He would have been in range if he went up the vines by his entrance or the ones a bit across. As soon as he had hit them, the moblins lost their balance and fell into the water, where they were instantly defeated. Link blinked. "Guess they can't swim," he muttered before he climbed up the western vines. He decided to collect the items they left behind with his boomerang, since it also carried back items like rupees and hearts. He got them in time before they were lost too far in the water and looked around the room.

It was vaugely rectangular and was mostly water. The water spread across from one end of the room to the other, stopped only by the thickest parts of vine platform "land" that composed the northern and southern ends and making a sort of river between the second-thickest parts of vine platform "land" that made the eastern and western parts. The northern end was cordoned off by thick, thorny vine fences like the ones that surrounded the chest with his Boomerang, with only a small opening that he could not jump to even if he tried. The southern half, in its southeastern corner, had a little "island" below the level of the main floor (while still on the same floor) with a large stump slice in the center. He found a chest marking there on his map, but didn't find any there.

According to his compass, he currently stood directly above the diagonal river that had served as his entrance. He found that the place where this river met the same waterway in the other room was where the door was. The door, on this side, was unlocked. He even tested it by opening it but not going through. 'Must be a one-way door.' He shrugged and continued to survey the room.

The water also spread around five little islets. One was against a wall in the northwest corner of the room between the western and northern "landmasses". One was against a wall in the northeast corner and was considerably smaller. One oval-shaped islet was a little to the west of the northeastern one just mentioned. Two circular ones were in the southern half and made the water form a sort of moat between them and the "mainland", which made skinny, catwalk-like ledges to the west or east, depending on if it was the more southwestern one or the more eastern one(this one was more south than north, but was north enough to be considered more east than southeast). On the middle of each islet was a crystal orb switch, elevated by a shortish (but taller than Link) tree stump. On the northwestern one, though, it was more towards the southeastern end of the platform-the middle spot would have caused the small chest sitting there to be inaccessable.

Link hopped over to the chest and kicked it open. He frowned a little disappointedly as all he brought up was a measly yellow (10) rupee. He then noticed that in a location on the mainland near each switch was a signpost. He jumped back to the mainland and read the sign by the one on the islet he was just on.

"I finally got here and stopped to withdraw before flying straight home."

He tilted his head with a puzzled expression before he went and read the one most south of him (near the southwestern islet).

"Managing to avoid being blown around again, I made it down here for a scenic view before changing course."

Link raised an eyebrow and walked to the one near the eastern islet. Here, he finally had an idea of what these posts were talking about.

"Sparrow's Day Out

"This is my nest, where I left."

He nodded to himself. 'I have the feeling these switches are to be hit in a certain order as described by the story on these signposts,' he thought as he went to a signpost in front of the northeastern, wall-touching islet.

"I was blown here and had to wait a second before leaving."

He finally read the one near the oblong islet, whose shape and switch made it resemble an eye somewhat.

"I first stopped here, at my friend's nest, for a visit."

He put a hand to his chin and thought. 'Alright...' He turned south and looked at the eastern one. 'Sparrow began down there...and then first visited his (I think) friend up here.' He looked at the eye-shaped one. 'If I remember correctly, since he referred to avoiding being blown around again down there,' he continued, looking at the southwestern islet, 'and he said that he was simply blown over here,' and he looked at the northeastern islet, 'that means that, from his friend's nest, he was blown to the east up to the northeastern islet.' He looked over at the islet where the chest was. 'I remember he 'finally' got over where that yellow rupee was before returning home, so he went there last. Thus...' He got his boomerang out.

"...He went from his nest to his friend's, got blown northeast, flew southwest, and went to the northwest...before he went back home!" he concluded, deciding to add that last part because it couldn't hurt, and targeted the corresponding switches in order. He noticed that, when he targeted the first switch again, he could suddenly see little lights floating in front of the switches that shone to him wherever he would move. The ones in front of the four others were red and he saw that there was one each. There were two grey lights and one green light in front of the first one. Now that he thought of it, he remembered that he imagined little green lights in front of each thing he targeted every time he used his boomerang's lock-on feature. 'I guess they were real,' he thought. He decided not to think about it too much and just threw the boomerang.

It flew first to the eastern circular islet, then the eye islet, then the northeastern islet, then the southwestern circular islet, and finally to the northwestern islet before returning first to the eastern circular islet, then to Link's hand. These switches turned pink when hit, but all were green when the boomerang hit the first one again. When the boomerang was caught again, a rumble was felt as a huge, thick bridge of vines grew from the southern landmass to the northern, meeting in the center and lacing together. He could now cross to the other side by walking across the vines through the gap in the thorn fences on the northern side and, at last, exit the room.

Link grinned as he put his boomerang away. "That was a fun little brainteaser," he commented. He didn't see a chest materialize in the southeastern corner, but the bridge was up and that was good for now. He went across and then to the door. (Phew! THAT was a hell of a room to describe! I need to draw more-detailed maps and post them online somewhere, then post a link in these chapters...though how I'll do the more-complex rooms such as the next and one in the next dungeon, I don't know...)

The next room found him facing MORE water. This time, ledges lined the walls circularesque room, each higher than the other. One ledge was actually alone in the center of the room. From each ledge was a wood slat suspension bridge that connected directly to the edge of each ledge and went right across to meet another, lower ledge-and I mean right across. They never met the ledge-only the air above. A vine from each corner of this open end hung the ladder up and kept it there.

The ledges themselves numbered in eight. The first, which was a little higher than the water and could be a place to climb out from if Link fell in, had no bridge to it and was the one the shopkeep's grandson had entered onto. There were two ledges directly across from him: the one in the center and the one up highest up. Two ledges were on his right, and the last three on his left were, along with the eigth and highest ledge, on 2F. The first four were on 1F. After he tested the vines suspending the bridge leading from him to the second ledge (the second-lowest), he had an idea about what it was he needed to do.

He estimated he could probably jump from each one to a short distance below each ledge. The ledges were equally-spaced in both distance apart in the room and height, and so the bridges were of equal distance, as well. So, all he had to do was sever the vines holding each bridge up, jump over, and use the fallen bridge as a ladder to climb up. He had to swim over to the first one, unfortunately, but he was getting used to being wet a lot of the time. He climbed up, finding the bridge sturdy enough, and tried his idea with the next bridge. He cut the vines, waited for the bridge to stop swaying enough, and jumped off the ledge.

He was right! He barely caught the ladder, but he could always get off the ledge faster and therefore jump farther to get a better amount of leeway. So, happily, he continued across the room, finding it thankfully free of enemies. While he climbed his way up to the second floor, he noticed that two more suspended bridges-these ones totally suspended, without a ledge to hold them-above him and level with the final ledge. They went over to the first ledge. He surmised that he could use these as a shortcut-walk to the first ledge from the second floor and fall to the deep water below as in front of the ledge as he could get. It was a scary thing to do, but he was brave enough to do THAT if he got this far.

Moving on, he reached the last ledge and opened the door to the only other room on 2F. He yelped as he found an outragous amount of overgrowth around him and coming at his arms and face. Grass grew long from below him and tickled his nose (though how grass could grow from super-thick vines he had no clue). The room, shaped somewhat like a cookie with a bite taken out (but sans the individual toothmarks), had water to the left and right of him, in the pointed parts of the cookie that resulted from the curved bite. He couldn't see them well now, but there were also walls of those thorny fences. He discovered this when, slashing blindly at the growth and running forward, he painfully slammed into one.

He then took a moment to calm himself and do a spin attack to free himself of the overgrowth for a moment. He looked at his map and found that there were no markings for these fences except for the part he was now at. He then saw that the room, therefore, was pretty open. 'This gives me the feeling I'm inside of a garden maze,' he thought. 'And the walls aren't just corn stalks or hedges.'

He shrugged and got his sword out again after putting his map back. He walked along, doing spin attacks to clear the harmless, but annoying, vegetation. He was able to see the fences better as he got closer to them, both in reality and on his map. (He could see them normally if he stopped and looked hard, but they blended in with the . As soon as he had approached them, the thorn fences were shown on the map, represented as straight lines with a zigzag running from one end to the other. 'That's handy,' he thought. 'Must be the power of the compass.' He went and continued exploring the southwestern portion of the room he was in.

After taking three lefts (and making a right), he found a switch almost by accident. He saw something in front of him through the foliage and struck out with a horizontal swing, hitting the crystal globe switch. It glowed green and he heard, somewhere in the northern part of the room, the sound of a vine snaking away somewhere. He had also nearly decapitated a signpost. He read it.

"First, I flew over a pond before stopping here and altering my course."

'Another order of switches?' he wondered. 'But this switch went green-that means it's fine, if I'm getting this right.' He shrugged and went back to the entrance of the little spiral. He had discovered that he was thinking right in that it was a maze. There were walls of thorn fence around him, making corridors that gave him enough space to comfortably do a spin attack if he went in the center. There was a square of this amount of space where the switch was, so, since these mazes often went in a gridlike fashion with square spaces, he decided to think of these as "spaces". The corridors were then one space each, and the fences lined the edges of the spaces. He decided to go forward and find out if he could go behind the wall that was almost directly in front of the entrance (two spaces away). He could and found an intersection going east, west (where he had come from) and north.

He went north and decided to explore all the way. You could imagine his surprise when he was suddenly attacked by a deku baba at a dead end. He was able to defeat it, but he wasn't too happy. So, he went down back to the second intersection that was the space right above the first described just above. This one went north (he just got finished exploring there), south, and west. He went west, since his map indicated a chest directly that way. He found ten deku nuts, which helped, since he often used them in battle. The chest took up a space of its own. In fact, as he would later find, everything but the signposts took up a single space for itself if there was anything there.

After getting the nuts, he looked and saw that he was in a wide hall of two spaces wide east-to-west. The space just east of the nut chest was the western edge and, if he went north, met him with first a locked door-within-the-room, much like the one in front of the boomerang chest, then another deku baba in a dead end. After defeating that and going one space in front of it, he went east then north through a one-space corridor. He found partial spaces ahead due to his reaching the edge of the circular room and a chest containing a red (20) rupee, which made him happier than the yellow rupee did.

Discovering nothing more in that area of the room, he decided to return to the place behind the first fence (the one he ran into before). Going east one space from the intersection leading to the area he had just explored, he heard a rustle of leaves. He looked left (north) and heard the sound of something being spat at him. He couldn't see the hard, unopening deku nut flying at him like a bullet and was hit. He growled and sat up. 'Rustling and spitting nuts,' he reviewed. 'Deku scrub.' He stood up and walked forwards with his shield up. The nuts met the wall of his wooden sheild and broke, but the one firing them a space north from the space where Link had been shot at disappeared as soon as Link got there. He couldn't truly do anything except clear grass, so he did and moved to clear a swath of open spaces with his spin attack across the two-space wide hall going four spaces north (starting with the space the scrub hid in being the southwestern corner of it).

As he went along, he discovered that the space east of the deku scrub was the line of fire for ANOTHER scrub. He found that it was in the third space north. He tried his best to ignore them for the moment before he went west after reaching the northwestern corner. He found another switch and signpost.

"Robin's Day Out"

'Eh?'

"Here my nest is, where I left."

'Robin? I wonder...is this...!' He raised his eyebrows. 'Yes, this HAS to be what will trigger that one chest to appear!' He nodded and hit the switch.

He heard something and looked at the wall right north of the northwestern corner of what he found was the central hallway. He saw four thick vines stretching parallel to the floor across a distance of one space's width, a space up near the ceiling where he soon assumed one more had been after seeing one on the bottom slither into the thorny growth of the fences around him. 'There must be a total of five single-strike switches in this room,' Link thought as he peered through the remaining vines. 'That looks like a large chest, but it's...different...'

He grunted as the deku scrub that had first hit him struck him in the butt with a nut. He turned and saw that he had an easy way to do things if he found a way to deflect nuts with his shield or something: By standing in the spot the second scrub was, he could now see the first clearly after taking care of so much overgrowth and hit it from afar. He went to the second scrub, which (with a groan) receeded before it could fire a nut at him and raised his shield to the first. Before he used his boomerang, he had an idea, using a technique that Betta had taught him once.

The nut came at him, but before it hit, he thrust his shield out. It whacked the nut and sent it flying right back at the scrub. It hit the scrub, which squeaked and jumped out of its hole before wildly jumping around. Link took the opportunity to rush over and defeat it with a jump attack. He then spun around and blocked another nut. He repeated the process with the other one and cleared the hallway.

After that, he continued onwards through the maze. He went up to behind the eastern fence of the central hallway and soon found that a deku scrub shot at him from the other end, in a little one-space dead end that went from a three-way intersection whose only new way was east. After clearing the corridor, backing away with his shield up from the north until the scrub came up and shot at him again and defeating the mean little thing, he went through this new way. He went down a classic maze staple, a switchback corridor, going east, then west, and east again before meeting another switch and sign.

"After my good deed for the day, I flapped here to pay a visit to a friend."

'A friend...' Link nodded. 'She must mean Sparrow!' He looked at his map and, using an inkpen full of ink he had filched from the study, marked on the map the spots of the signposts. 'The one near the vines I'm working on said that's the nest, and the one in the southwest said that she flew there first-first two down. I haven't gotten anything about a good deed, but that might mean this is fourth, seeing as there's still a 'finally' kind of sign...' He put his map away before going back out of the switchback area.

He ended up nearby the door, finding himself in a two-space wide (north-to-south) hallway that would stretch to the eastern wall of the room and another deku baba. Then, a corridor that went around the wall (and thus wasn't quite two spaces wide or one space wide) led him north. He found a deku baba in the center of a 2x2 space square-thus breaking the each-object-has-one-space norm to this room-right north of the switchback area. It guarded a chest that was in its own little dead end, right east of the deku scrub "turret" that had fired at him a few moments before. Inside the chest was a small key, which he knew to use on the locked area on the west side of the room. He continued to explore this area, though, since the path went around the north fence of the deku scrub's square. He had to semi-blindly defeat a deku scrub in a little fence corner before looping around and finding another switch in the final complete two-space (east-to-west) wide hallway. He hit it and read the signpost accompanying it.

"Finally, after I was blown here, I simply glided the last, short distance home."

'This makes number five,' Link thought, marking on his map. 'This makes me sure, now, that this is the one to get that chest to appear in the islet switch room! I wonder what it is...'

He made his way all the way back to the northwestern part of the room, opened the door, explored north, found a deku baba, and then went to the south to find the final switch and sign.

"I soared straight here to the bank to deposit for a stranger."

'Yup! The bank-that islet with the chest! I knew it!' He looked at his map. 'In fact, the signs' and switches' locations vaugely resemble that of the islets.' He smiled to himself as he jogged his way to the now-up-for-grabs big chest. 'I have to admit, as tiring and long as this night is becoming, I'm enjoying this just a little bit. I never expected a brain teaser like this...' He stopped and laughed after he thought about that. "Gee, thanks, Robin! That was REALLY nice of you!" he thanked sarcastically. 'Really, ten rupees is better than nothing, but still...' He shrugged and went to the big chest.

The around-six-space room that the chest was in was already clear and was, indeed, vines underneath. There were a few pots sitting around that held various things like a scant few deku nuts or some health-restoring hearts. Link noticed the chest appeared to be made of thick, woven sticks and vines instead of just plain wood. He shrugged and opened the chest.

He gasped and smiled as he pulled out what was inside. A large, ornate key that actually resembled the wooden-made padlock (incongruently on metal chains) that locked the large door to the thief in that it, too, was whittled entirely from wood was now in his possession. "YES!" he cheered as he held it up in victory. "I finally got the big key I need to get the shop till back!"

He wasted no more time as he raced back through the rooms he had puzzled out to get to the thief. Well, almost...When he returned to the room with the five islets, he discovered that the switches were dimmed, the moblins were back, and the bridge was gone.

After dealing with the moblins as before, Link jumped into the water, climbed up the eastern vines, and stood in one spot while he attempted his idea.

'The switch most in the middle of the room going east to west said that Robin's nest was there and was where she left,' he reviewed, targeting the eye islet (which was, indeed, the islet most in the middle of the room going east to west) first.

'She went first to the spot where she changed course, which not only was the place where Sparrow changed course and was in the most southwestern end of the room according to the maze room, but was also the only place given the mere description of being over water.' He targeted the southwestern circular islet's switch second.

'Then, since she went to her friend's after doing a good deed and had to go somewhere else before finally returning home, she went to the bank and dropped off that yellow rupee for a stranger who happened to be me,' he continued, targeting the northwestern switch third.

'Said good deed carried out, she visited her friend-Sparrow, who mentioned that her nest was the nest of a friend of his.' He targeted the eastern circular islet's switch fourth.

'''Finally', incedentially ending up in the same place where Sparrow was blown as well as the closest place home, she was blown off-course for a moment...' he went on, targeting the northeastern switch fifth.

'...before taking a short glide back home!' Finishing his logic, he targeted the eye islet's switch once more. "She started at home, went to the course correction place, deposited at the bank, visited her friend, got blown off-course, and finally went home!" he nutshelled before letting fly. He crowed in triumph as the switches lit up green before the boomerang returned to his hand. He heard the sound of a chest appearing and, wishing to reap the spoils of his problem-solving, went to the large container.

Inside, he discovered another strange heart-shaped gem. "That's it?" he thought, a little disappointed. He shrugged and absorbed it. "Oh, well, I might as well take it." He absorbed it and climbed up the vines leading back to the platform and went back into the zig-zag room that he had to swim under.

As expected, he was trapped in and faced with another five switches that would unlock the vines that hat moved from their original position to one a bit more west. Then, he grumbled and went into the waterway once more. He finally got back out to the main room, where he first had to speed over to the central stump and take out the sharklike fish (to no avail if he wanted another chest) before climbing back up the climbing vines and standing on the plus-shaped vine bridge, facing the door.

He raced to the big door and drew his key after taking some time to rest a bit. Before he went in, he heard a rustling in the grass nearby. He looked down and saw a mysterious light in the grass there. He cut the grass there, and saw, to his amazement, a bona-fide fairy! A glowing magenta orb with wings. He then remembered hearing from Betta that adventurers put any fairies like this in bottles and keep them with them in case they fall in combat. Should they have a noble heart, the fairy would come out of the bottle and restore their energy and then laugh at death in the face. Having a feeling of dread in his belly, Link decided it best to put this guy in his bottle. And as he swung it and corked it in, he remembered how he felt when he'd gotten his bottle.

"If you use your imagination, you'll never leave home without it."

He remembered his wise grandfather's words and smiled. But then, a thought occured to him. 'Did he...KNOW about this...?' He shook his head, though, saying to himself that it couldn't be, since Bardin isn't psychic, is he? Cutting more grass to discover some of those very helpful hearts, which restored people's physical health by magically healing wounds and restoring their life force, something adventurers found quite helpful, Link finally jumped up and jammed the key inside the lock, then leapt again and turned it before landing. The lock fell with him, and he barely moved his feet in time before they were crushed. The chains creeped back into the walls, and the giant mass of vines untangled. Darkness faced him, but Link pressed forth bravely, ready for anything now.

After a dark tunnel, he found himself in a very big room, much larger than the one before. He'd heard voices as he'd entered, and now, he saw the theif standing and facing what looked like a single stump in the middle of the room. Looking around, Link noticed that the branches and vines convoluted and meandered into more platforms, but they all, strangely, centered around the center of the room. Towards the stump. As he stepped in, the door behind him shut, the mass of vines retangling, and he had a feeling that they weren't going to unbind again. Looking back to his front, Link stepped forward softly, trying to eavesdrop on what looked like a man talking to himself.

"But we had a DEAL!" the theif, unhooded but back turned to Link, shouted, opening his arms to emphisize. "Look, I said before that I'm only doing this because I need that shard..."

'Shard?' Link thought, and creeped forward more.

The torches around the stump cast shadows going in all directions around the stump and the theif. A moment passed, and, amazingly, Link heard a voice come from the stump. "I have changed my mind," a growling voice rumbled. "And if you have a problem with that, then I would prepare to die."

The theif, instead of gulping or gasping or making ANY sign of fear, groaned in an exasperated manner. He put his face in his palm. Link also noticed the money was GONE. "I saw a friend of mine persuing me, and he's the shop's grandson," he said to the stump, which was obviously posessed. "I don't want him to get hurt..."

Link surpressed a gasp. He recognized the voice now, and he knew who the theif was talking about. He stepped forward, desire to get to the bottom of this overpowering any wisdom.

The theif started and turned to the noise of a foot crunching on a twig underfoot. Both gasped. Slowly, the man gibbered, "L...L...Link?"

Link had his mouth open, but he closed it and glared. And with that glare, he silently asked, "Why, Betta? Why?"

Betta looked down in shame. "I'm sorry, Link," he said. And this guy never lied, Link knew that. He never could hear anything but certainty in the man's voice when he spoke. Even now. "I had to. It was the only way that I could get-"

"ENOUGH!" the voice boomed. Suddenly, a vine came from the stump and bashed Betta right off. He rolled to the side, slamming into the far wall. He groaned, and struggled to get up. Link, however, was able to backflip away and draw his sword. "You have heard too much," the voice said, "and you have caused me great trouble. At first, I did not know whether to kill you inside me or not, but I decided to play with you." Slowly, the stump grew and grew, changing shape into that of some...THING...Link gazed up, open-jawed at the magnificent beast growing before him. The room was, beneath him, shrinking up to the center, revealing parched trees and stones that the branches covered. It continued, "However, you have gotten farther than you should. For that, I shall have to consume you within me. You...and after you, that coward of a fool who thought I would give up my shard to him!" The creature stopped growing and loomed over Link, easily twenty feet tall.

It was entirely of wood. Like a giant tree, actually. Rooted to one spot, it was like the upper body of a man. Branches formed two great arms. Hair of leafy branches came from a pair of red, glowing eyes and a gaping, drooling mouth with enormous fangs of what looked like glass, full of some violet gunk Link rather didn't know. The whole room, by now, was bare save for some ground around the monster. The trees around it, frail from lack of sun and water, were still standing and in their contorted shapes from the bindings. This thing was rooted, and Link absently began formulating some sort of plan involving using the trees around as platforms to climb up to the behemoth.

Looking down at Link with a rageful, hungry expression, it boomed, "Thank you for the rupees, shopkeep's boy; my minions shall spread rumors of a great treasure of a mountain of rupees here and lead fools to become food for myself. A pity they shall succumb at my entrance, for I prefer to eat my food with my own mouth. And for THAT, I thank you as well, DINNER!" And with that, Link jumped aside to evade a vine snapping up to get him and simultaneously recalled an urban myth he'd heard somewhere about this forest.

Within it lay the Leviathan of Wood: Ruedekul. And here it was. Ready to tear Link limb from limb. But there was one weakness it had, and Link was determined to not only get through this alive, but to exploit this weakness: It was rooted to its spot. It needed to draw food towards it, instead of going and getting it itself! Link knew that he had to try and defeat it. But, even with that weakness known, how do you defeat a Leviathan?

Betta watched in wonder as Link bravely faced this beast. "Link..." he whispered in amazement. He was too hurt to get up and help, he knew. "Don't...die..."

Another vine from the floor shot towards Link, and he had to roll under an arch it made to evede it. Indeed, it swung where he was originally. For a plant, it moved fast. Link looked around. He had to find its weakpoint, but where was it? Wait, those teeth...They looked familiar. Link spotted a giant tree and jumped to it. It was old, and a great vine from the beast would bring it crashing down. But it was taller than Ruedekul, and as Link navigated it as fast as he could go, he found that it provided a perfect place to go and get to him. The branches and impressed trunk all made perfect stepping stones, but he had to be careful not to fall from being struck by the beast. As he got higher, the tree was punched by the leviathan, and it shook. Link had to hold still to keep on, and he almost got hit by a vine potshot from the beast. Despite these dangers, Link bravely climbed until he was level with the beast's face. He then had a crazy idea. He jumped right down to the thing's shoulder and got his boomerang out. Quickly, he targeted the three teeth visible. He tossed the weapon and jumped and grabbed the hair of the beast to evade a smash on the shoulder from the opposite hand. Then, with a mighty roar, Ruedekul bowed his head and revealed, within the tangled vines and branches of his hair, a soft-looking, pulsing red mass. As Link's boomerang returned to him, he moved to a safe standing position. He grabbed his rang, put it away, and got his sword out. With a warcry, he landed a jump attack on the mass. The beast roared and his head shook a bit, but not too much. Link kept his footing in and landed a combo attack on the beast. Blood spurted out the obviously weak mass.

Finally, after a combo, Link was thrown off the beast. He barely grabbed the trailing hair to slow his fall and was able to roll safely away. In a rage, Ruedekul smashed the tree Link was on with countless vines and both fists at once. The dead wood splintered with a loud boom, and pieces fell down to the ground. Only a few remained. And Link knew he had to hurry up the trees, or else he'd have no way of beating this thing. He could try climbing up its back, but vines would smack him off before he got there. He had to try using the trees again. He risked the beast figuring his strategy out and destroying them, but that was a risk he'd have to take. He and his grandfather worked hard for those rupees, and Link was determined to get them back, as well as have breathing time to talk to Betta.

As Link climbed up another tree, Ruedekul roared, "YOU SHALL PAY FOR THAT, HUMAN!" and whamed the tree so much, it shook Link off. He slammed into the ground and got up again quickly, running back to the same tree. He was in great pain, and his lunch was fighting to escape him, but he wasn't going to be sick at a time like this. This time, when the beast tried shaking him off again, he jumped to another tree and continued climbing up that one. He jumped from tree to tree before, finally, Ruedekul tried to fake him out and grabbed both trees he was using. In a burst of inspiration, Link leapt up and jammed his sword in the hand above him holding the trunk. He held on and climbed up as the hand, which now hurt, was brought back to the beast. He pulled it out and was about to run across to the shoulder again when he thought, 'Wait, I have a perfect shot here!' So, he pulled his boomerang out and got the now four teeth visible to him. Remembering that, too, Ruedekul's arms fell limp when it was stunned, Link ran across the arm to the shoulder and jumped onto the hair before the boomerang was done. Catching the returning tool, he raced to the weak point. Again, he landed hits on it. And again, he fell down and caught Ruedekul's hair on the way to take no damage.

The hair's owner was now furious, not to mention on its last legs. "I SHALL NOT LOSE TO A CHILD WITH A WOODEN SWORD! I AM THE iMASTER/i OF WOOD!" it shrieked, and it broke the two trees Link was using before. But then, it got smart and, before Link could get to them in time, broke the remaining two trees. And then, as his heart sank low to his stomach, the young swordsman backed away as he realized that he was officially screwed. Chuckling, the Leviathan of Wood slowly turned to face its food. "Brave effort, dinner, but not brave enough!" it gloated, and snagged Link with a vine. Struggling, Link was helpless in the tight, thick vine. He was brought forth to the beast's mouth, about to be consumed. 'What'll I do?' he thought furiously, analyzing all the things he could do. But then, he had an idea. A risky one, but it was an idea. He looked to the right of the leviathan's face, out into the distance. And, with all his might, he screamed, "LOCUSTS!"

Ruedekul gasped and spun its head around. It loosened its grasp just for a moment, and Link wormed his way out enough to pull his boomerang out, get his arms free, and get ready. Realizing it'd been tricked, the beast growled and turned back, five teeth bared. "ENOUGH! YOU ARE NOW MINE!" it roared, but while it was speaking, Link was targeting the five teeth with his boomerang. By the time Ruedekul finished its sentence, Link had thrown his boomerang. Ruedekul only had time to register that Link had thrown something before it felt a pain in its mouth. And it overwhelmed it finally, as the fluid in its teeth finally seeped out of cracks in the glass fangs. This fluid held a chemical that kept it from feeling the pain that it constantly felt from being so contorted. It hurt a LOT to twist oneself as much as it did, even in its true form. While the teeth were replaced with new ones, Link could have time to slash its weakpoint, its exposed fleshy brain. And Link did so. The vine let him free and it fell. Link rushed and jumped onto the giant's arm, scrambled up it as it fell, and jumped onto the shoulder. With great haste, he soared up to the hair, scurried up it like a monkey, and then, with an almighty roar, leapt and plunged his wooden sword through the center of the brain's weakened membrane. It cut through, and it penetrated. To ensure its death, Link twitched the sword around in there to destroy as much as possible before backflipping back out.

An earth-shaking roar resounded from the maw of the Leviathan. Its body swayed about, throwing Link down. He grabbed a strand of hair and swung down, a la Tarzan(minus the yell and chest-pounding), to the place he began the fight. Then, he watched as the mass of wood swung around and around, flailing about. Pieces of wood fell, one at a time, then more, and more, and finally, as the sun's rays above dramatically began to shine upon the world, the whole beast just stopped, erect, like a tree, before exploding into a thousand pieces. Rudekul was no more. Link defended himself with his sheild, and then returned to find nothing but a large heart-shaped object fall, tinging as it bounced off the ground, where the Leviathan once stood. With a flourish, Link sheathed, sorta, his blade, not bothering to wipe it off.

He stood there, panting, for a few moments, body screaming in pain at him from his efforts. His stomach still churned, but his joy at his victory kept it down. He'd jump up and down like a little kid to express his emotions, but he had no more energy. But just as Betta was about to get up and speak to him, something shined in the growing daylight. Link and Betta looked up and gasped as a beautiful object began to float down to Link. Slowly rotating, the magic within it let it gently float down to Link's open hands. Link looked down and saw, still hovering in his hands and rotating, a single bronze ring. It bore a green gem in it, in the shape of a small triangle. Amazed, Link felt some sort of power from it. Having a feeling about it, he decided not to put it on. He instead closed his hands around it carefully. The glow it gave off faded, and he felt it fall into his palms.

"Link..."

Link turned to the voice. "Betta," he said, running to him.

Betta limped over to him, holding his arm. "That..." he gasped, still amazed that this 16-year-old boy had done this. "I can't believe you were able to get that from it!" he blurted out, falling onto Link, who caught him and strained to support him. "That...I...I can't believe that I had to steal your money to get that..." He looked away, breathing heavilly. "I'm sorry..."

Link patted his shoulder. "It's okay," he said softly. "This thing...I feel something weird about it. What is it?" he asked. He opened his hand and picked out the ring and held it in his fingers, up to the light.

Betta sighed, then coughed. "No, I'm okay," he insisted, when Link looked at him with alarm. "Just winded. And my arm's broken. But that..." He paused. "That's the bronze Ring of Dualty. If anyone besides the chosen ones who are able to weild evil's bane tries to wear any of the Rings of Dualty, they'll become an evil beast, hellbent on doing wrong and satisfying only its own needs." He came and lifted his hand, but then let it drop. "And I think you deserve it more than I do," he mumbled. "I mean, I just wasted all your money."

Link furrowed his brow. "Where would it be?" he asked, looking around.

"I gave it to Ruedekul," Betta replied. "It probably was all destroyed when-WOAH!" Link had left him, causing him to have to catch himself before he fell down completely, and was walking forward to the site of the stump. There was a hole in the ground. It was surrounded by a ring of light that became more of a pillar of light, really, ascending upwards.

Link looked down. "There! It's the money!" he cried. He bent down to get it. He grasped it, and then, immediately, he began to float up. "What the-?" he shouted, clutching the bag tight and looking around at the ground falling away. "What's going on?" he shouted down.

Betta looked up and let out a laugh. "I've seen those in caves in places," he replied. "They're magic beams of ascending light that take you back to where you entered the cave, or in this case, forest. I'll see you in a bit!" he called after the disappearing young man.

A few moments later, after a flash of light, Link fell, then slowed to a halt above the ground, in front of the entrance to the Forest of Peril. He landed, on the bag of rupees, after a second of floating there. Link blinked. "That was different," he mumbled, and then got off the bag. He tugged on it and heaved it up on his back. He wondered if he should return to the spot he left his friend. Then, a beam of light appeared in front of him. Coming down it, like Link did, was Betta. He landed and then walked to Link, holding the heart-shaped object from before.

Before Link could ask, Betta explained, "This thing should also go to you, and it's something you'll find helpful. It's called a Heart Container to adventurers, and it makes you feel even more energetic and able to take hits. In other words, it magically improves your physical defense. Just let it absorb into your body, like you would a normal heart." He tossed it to Link.

Link squeaked, unable to catch it, but followed orders and let it hit. Like he'd let a heart break apart and absorb into his body, healing it, the heart container shattered into many pieces and faded within himself. He suddenly felt a surge of energy. All the pain he'd felt before was gone. His fatigue disappeared. With renewed vigor, he adjusted the heavy bag of rupees on his back. "Thanks, Betta," he said. "I needed that."

Betta smiled. "No problem, Link," he replied. He looked up as dawn came in full. "Wow...I can't believe that I was standing there, arguing with a talking tree stump, for that long," he mumbled. "And you must have been lost for quite some time in that maze," he added, looking to Link.

Link nodded. "I can't believe it's day now, either," he said. "Long night...Whoo, now I feel sleepy," he laughed, telling the truth.

Betta laughed. "Let's go," he said. "I'll lead you out and we'll explain to your grandfather together."

They only took a few steps, but they heard the distant scream with perfect clarity: "WHERE'S MY MONEY?" Cringing, the two looked at each other. "Can you run?" Link asked. Betta nodded. "Good, cuz that's a good idea about now..." The two ran as fast as their jelly legs could carry them back to the village.

"...And that's the whole story," Link finished. He and Betta had just explained what had happened. They were inside Bardin's Bargins, in the back where the goods were kept.

Bardin stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I had a feeling that Link was going to go out sometime," he said after a moment, "which is why I gave him the bottle. But an adventure to go after a rupee theif? From MY shop?" He chuckled. "THAT was unplanned." He looked at Betta. "Why, again, did you take all of our hard-earned rupees?" he asked.

Betta looked down in shame. "I had to pay a bribe to that lying beast, the Leviathan of Wood, Ruedekul, to get its Ring of Dualty," he repeated. "And...I wanted the ring because I wanted to keep it out of the hands of darkness."

Link and Bardin went, "Huh?" at this, and looked at him, motioning to go on.

Betta sighed. "Now," he began, looking at them each in turn, "this may sound a little far-fetched, but here's what I know: A lot of evil creatures are working together to gather the three Rings of Dualty. I don't know what happens when all three are worn at once, but it's probably something bad. However, I DO have an idea that, if an individual ring can be safely worn by the one destined to weild evil's bane, then that person can wear the three rings at once safely. I don't know what happens, but...it must be something amazing," he said, shrugging. "And here's the really far-fetched part," he continued. "You see, I got that information from an interesting contact I have somewhere up in the mountains." He paused a moment. "He's a friendly scholar named Ko, and he...he's a lizafos," he spat out.

Link tilted his head, confused, but Bardin gasped. "A LIZAFOS?" he boomed, apalled at Betta. He looked at him like he was crazy. "You're trusting one of THOSE scaly fiends?...I didn't know they could even speak Hylian!"

Betta nodded. "Ko learned how to, because he wanted to read more books than the few that his people wrote, which really were only records, not really any fiction." he explained. "He's really friendly, and in fact hates how most of the people in his village are evil. He's a monster, but a GOOD monster!" he insisted. "And trust me, he's as good of a liar as I am, meaning he just plain sucks."

Link and Bardin made "Hmmmm..."s and crossed their arms, debating silently with each other through glances. Finally, Bardin turned to Betta again. "Well, you have a point, you can't lie worth shit," he admitted. "So, okay, there's a good lizafos that gave you information. What else did he say?" he asked.

Betta shrugged and shook his head. "That's all he really said," he confessed. "But it's important. VERY. We NEED to keep that ring secret." He looked at Link. "And I think you're the most well-suited one to do so," he told him.

Link started. "Me?" he asked, putting a hand to his chest. "I'm just a-"

Betta laughed. "You're just a young man who, single-handedly, not only conquered the Forest of Peril, but also defeated one of the legendary Leviathans, the Leviathan of Wood, Ruedekul! And with a weapon that isn't even a real sword, no less!" He just laughed and laughed. "Link, my boy," he said through laughter, "you're not just anything, you're SOMETHING!" He clapped the young man's shoulder. "And I think that you deserve this sword, too, more than I deserve to swing it around and call myself an adventurer," he added, unbuckling his sword.

Link and Bardin gasped. "Betta!" Link breathed, looking as his friend got his sheathed blade from his side. "You...That's your favorite sword! You're...You're giving it to me?"

Betta nodded, smiling fondly. "And I'm not accepting 'no' as an answer, Link," he answered. He held out his sword to Link. "I was cowardly enough to follow the beast's bribe and steal your money. You, on the other hand, were so brave, you went on in after me with nothing more than a wooden sheild, a wooden sword, and your work clothes! That's barely any armor whatsoever!" He laughed. "Not even a full tunic, you loon! Just a smock and a shirt and a pair of trousers! You ARE brave!" He laughed again.

Link gave a small smile. "Hey, I didn't have time to change when I saw you raiding our shop, what else could I have done?" he asked, shrugging.

Betta sighed. "I know." He wiggled the sword in front of Link. "Go on. She's yours. May you slay more beasts with her than I did. I HAVE slain things, trust me," he assured them. "I'm just not as brave as you, Link."

Link gulped down a thankful tightening in his throat and took the blade. It was heavier than his wooden sword, but he could take it, he knew, with a bit of practice. A REAL sword! And Betta's! He drew it and gasped at the shining blade gleaming back at him. "Thank you, Betta," he said emphatically, bowing. "I'll take good care of it...her," he corrected. He then replaced his crappy-ass wooden sword with a real man's sword, Betta's sword. He put the sword back over his shoulder and gave a small laugh of wonder as he felt the powerful weight on his shoulder.

Betta smiled. "Link..."

Bardin sighed. "Link," he said, and his grandson turned to him, "I'm sorry, but if you're going to keep that ring, and monsters are going to be searching for it..." He shook his head. His expression was grim.

Betta had the same expression. His look of happy pride had faded.

Link felt a sinking weight in his gut as he looked at their faces. "What?" he asked. "What am I going to have to do?" He had a feeling he knew what. But he didn't want to accept it.

Bardin took a deep breath and looked away. Slowly, he answered in an undertone so that Link barely heard him, "You're going to have to leave the village for a while."

Link stood statuesque. ...Leave? He...He couldn't do that! He didn't know what lay outside the village! And...people needed him there...He muttered these reasons.

Betta chuckled and smirked. "The best thing you can do for them now," he said, "is keep them out of danger." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry for all this. It's my fault. If I hadn't gone and been stupid enough to steal those rupees, then you..." He trailed off.

Link shook his head. "No, Betta," he said, "you didn't know that that thing would lie to you. It's not all your fault. It's more mine. I was stupid enough to rush in after you," he reasoned, looking down and away. "And you know what?" he added. "I...I'm going to take this. I'm going to leave. But I promise," he said, looking back with a smile, eyes wet. "I'm going to return. Kochyrae won't be without me too long."

Bardin, also starting to cry, smiled weakly. "Grandson...Link..." He couldn't help but hug him. "I'll miss you the most. Be careful." He let go and stepped back. "I'll refill your deku nuts before you go. And..." He paused. Then, he went and rummaged through a crate, then brought out something that made Link gasp. "Here. A bow and arrows. You deserve them."

Link took them. "Grandfather...Thank you," he said breathilly, looking at the finely-crafted bow. "This is one of our high-quality ones, too! This one can shoot so far, it can take out an apple on a fence when it's as big as a grain of sand!" He wiped a tear away. "And...for free?" he added.

Bardin laughed. "Hey, I'm not gonna let Betta have the only gift for you," he reasoned. "Now...Get home and put on your sturdiest clothes. I'm sorry, but you'll have to camp outside town instead of rest here. You've got many days ahead of you of sleepless nights, I can tell." He looked sorry, and turned to try and hide it. "Go on, Link. Go on your adventure."

"Yeah, don't worry, either," Betta added. "You'll be fine. You're a fantastic adventurer. Just...stay alive, alright?" he asked.

Link sniffed and nodded. 'Don't cry, don't cry...' "I will, I promise," he said, and walked to the door. He turned one last time. "Good-bye," he said. "...For now."

And he walked out. The next time he was seen was later, when he came to get his free deku nut refill. This was done silently. And with one last hug goodbye. A hug from a smock-wearing shopkeep to a green tunic and conical cap-wearing swordsman. And as he turned to go, from behind, Link looked, to his grandfather, like one of the legendary heroes, walking out of a store from which valuable items were purchased and into the afternoon sun.