Ganondorf flicked the slime off his hands as he walked toward the light. He bristled like a wet cat, and had the same love of water. Once he got to the light shaft, he cursed again, for it was too small for him to squeeze through.
Conjuring up a ball of fire, he walked back to the opening where he had fallen through. "Link, Zelda, it's going to take me a few minutes to get out of here. Perhaps you should go on ahead to the temple." He listened for a few moments, but heard no acknowledgement from either. Scowling, he yelled, "Hey! Are you listening?! Don't tell me you've wandered off!"
He listened, hard, and his ears picked up a soft, shrill scream. He recognized it as Zelda's.
"Curse them," he said aloud. "Can't they do anything themselves?" He scanned the dark pit for anything to help him up to the entrance. Some tiled ruins lay about, the last remains of the bath or whatever it had been, but they were too heavy to move and too short for him to stand on.
"If you help us, we'll help you." A tiny, hoarse voice piped up somewhere near Ganondorf's feet. He jumped ever so slightly, then lowered his flame down toward the floor. "Who's there?"
A grotesque-looking creature, covered in furry slime, kneeled at his feet. It had long, green, dragonfly-like wings folded over its back, which dragged along the ground as if broken. Its matted hair held strips of algae and small red mites, that trundled down its neck and over its green-stained body.
More of these creatures walked toward him, with drawn, weary faces and emaciated bodies. "Help us and we'll help you," the one at his feet repeated.
"All right," Ganondorf replied. "What do you want me to do? Speak quickly, now!"
The creature pointed to its left, at the far wall, which had hard-packed earth instead of tile. "Our spring was covered up. We have no magic without it. But if you punch through to the water, we can help you escape."
Ganondorf walked over to the wall, holding up his little flame. He frowned at the gritty earth. "I may look strong, but I don't think I can drill a hole with my bare fists."
"You have Power," the little algae-imp stated, pointing to the back of his hand. Do you not know how to use it?"
Glancing at the mark, Ganondorf said, "Not really…but then I haven't tried."
"You will understand, once you try."
Skeptical, Ganondorf summoned a shield of energy around his fist, to protect it from fracturing upon hitting the hard earth. To his surprise, the mark glowed ever so slightly and he felt a rush of strength. He slammed his fist into the wall, and pulled it out of the six-inch hole he had created with much satisfaction.
He drew upon the mark's power again, this time channeling it into both hands. The magic rushed through his veins like adrenaline, spurring him on and unleashing an unbridled joy in the back of his mind, something that cried greedily as he punched the earth for more power, more, ecstasy, thrill, insatiable hunger, unstoppable force…
"Yowch!" He jerked out of his trance as something bit him, hard, on his marked hand. He raised his other hand to swat the offender and stopped completely, jolted back to earth.
A bright, shining creature hovered there, its dragonfly wings now pearly and translucent, its hair clean, its body so light he could barely see its outline. Another fairy, like the one the Kokiri had.
It gestured toward the hole in the wall, where sparkling clear water now gushed into the little cavern. "You have set our spring running again, and for that we thank you. You must be careful with your power, or it will consume you once more."
Ganondorf stared at the cavern, which had reverted back to its original form, clean pastel tiles surrounding a pool of clear water. The rest of the fairies hung twinkling in the air. "That which is beautiful can be easily tainted. It is easier to tear something apart, to let it lie in ruin, than it is to rebuild again. But anyone can fall victim to the darkness, even the just. Do you understand?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "I understand you offered to get me out of here," he said at last. "I have a couple of kids to look after."
He found himself in a swirling mass of sparkling lights as the fairies lifted him up and out of the cavern. "If ever you or your friends become weary in battle," said the only one that had spoken this entire time, "return here, and we will heal your wounds."
Ganondorf brightened. "That's good to know."
"We will assist you in any way you can, Chosen Three, as long as you work towards Hyrule's resurrection. Go now!"
---
Link hacked the giant spider apart to make sure, absolutely sure, that it was really, really dead. "Ooh, that was a close one!" the disembodied voice of the demon-child echoed in the halls of the forgotten Temple.
Zelda hissed through her teeth, an uncharacteristic show of anger that had been bubbling to the surface ever since the Skullkid - as he had introduced himself - had taken her pack of sigils. Whether they wanted to "play" or not, they were forced to take part in his game, or forfeit their quest.
"Where next?" Link asked Zelda. He had gotten lost very early on, but she didn't lose her sense of direction.
"We haven't tried this door yet." She opened it and stepped into what at one point might have been a garden courtyard, but it was brown and desolate now. Long-dead ivy hung on the walls, its curled, brown leaves turning to dust at a gentle touch. Another scummy pool sat on one end, the algae the only greenery they had seen since entering.
"Look out!" Zelda dodged to the side as a purplish-black carnivorous plant jerked its head toward them, gnashing its teeth. Zelda had read about plants that ate insects because their soil was too poor to support green life, but she had never heard of anything like this.
Link cut the mouth from its stem, then sank his sword into the bud. The plant wriggled feebly, then lay still. Flicking bright purple sticky sap from his sword, he turned and asked the same question he had been asking since they entered. "Where next?"
Zelda pointed. "It looks like there once was a wooden ladder, that led to the balcony up there. But there's no way to get up there now."
Eerie giggles echoed throughout the room. Link rolled his eyes. "I think that's our little playmate's way of saying we need to find a way up there."
"You need a special tool to do that." Both Hylians whirled round to face the owner of a new voice. A Kokiri girl stood there, with a friendly smile on her face; but they could see right through her to the wall on the other side of the room.
Link's eyes bulged out of his head. "Are you a ghost? Who are you?"
"In life, I was Saria, the Forest Sage," she replied with a strange, kindly melancholy. "Even after my death, I guarded this place with the power of my spirit. But my spirit has grown weak, and the Temple is now dying."
"We're trying to restore it," Zelda informed her, "but the Skullkid from the forest took our sigils. We need to get them back."
"Oh, he did, did he?" A glimpse of a smile hovered around her lips. "I suppose some things never change. Well, I can help you get them back, if you like. It's the least I can do."
They all jumped as the low, booming voice of a man burst through the tomblike silence of the Temple. "Link! Zelda! Where are you?"
"We're in here!" Link called back after opening the door again.
They heard the jingle of armor and finally Ganondorf stepped through the door, frowning like a thundercloud. "Are you no better than ordinary children?" he admonished them. "I told you to wait!"
"Our sigils were stolen," Zelda told him. "By some creature…a little demon-child. He doesn't seem dangerous, but he is quite a nuisance."
Ganondorf scanned the room. "Well, we had to come in here anyway. I'll just have to give that kid a piece of my mind when…Who's that?"
As he pointed to Saria, the ghost flinched, her eyes already wide and staring.
"That is the guardian spirit of this Temple," Zelda informed him. "Saria, are you all right?"
The ghost wavered slightly, then settled back down to her former manner. "Yes. It is just…your companion, he resembles the one who killed me, the first time."
Link's eyebrows went up. "The first time?"
"There are many here who have some special role to play, ordained to them by the Goddesses," Saria explained. "I am one, and so is the Skullkid. And as are you."
"So you know that we're…" Zelda trailed off.
"I don't know all the details," Saria admitted. "I just know that I have met ones like you before." She gave Link a small smile that he didn't return. "Come…I said I would help you find a tool that you needed. This way."
Saria floated over to a small switch near the pool. "This drains the pool and leads to the underground chamber. The item you need is there."
Link pressed the button and the scummy water slowly whirled down an unseen pipe. They descended down the ladder that appeared, slipping a little on green slime. Link got to the chest first and opened it, a heavy metal contraption stored inside. He lifted it with some difficulty. "Er…what is it?"
"It's called a Hookshot," Sarai's ghost appeared suddenly from behind, making them all jump. "You wear it on your hand, and there's a trigger that shoots a grappling hook. Then you press the trigger again for the chain to pull you up."
Link climbed the stairs and strapped the object onto his hand. He aimed it at the high door, then pressed the trigger. With a loud rattling sound, the pointed tip burst from Link's hand and buried itself into the wall just above the door.
"YAAAAAHHHH!" Upon hitting the trigger again, Link flew through the air and his scream ended abruptly when he collided with the wall, landing on a small balcony in front of the door. Zelda ran to the side of the wall, while Ganondorf nearly fell over laughing.
"I'm all right," Link announced, getting gingerly to his feet.
"What about us?" Ganondorf demanded. Link dropped the hookshot so Ganondorf could catch it. He fastened it to his arm, then turned to Zelda. "Excuse me," he said quickly, then lifted her up into the crook of one arm. He fired the hookshot and suddenly Zelda found herself on the ledge next to Link.
Saria floated through the door, so they opened it and followed her, ready to fight or flee at a moment's notice. They entered a long, long, hallway, filled with…nothing. As they reached the other end, they noticed what looked like a human eye staring out from a diamond-shaped gold decoration over the doorway. Tall enough to reach it, Ganondorf tapped the eye and it shut. But nothing happened. "I wonder what this was for," he muttered.
"It was a method of keeping intruders out," Saria explained. "The magic that powered this temple would make the unwanted visitor lose all sense of direction, as if he were falling in a dream. An arrow to the eye would set things right again." She sighed heavily. "But the magic that lived here has thinned, and my own feeble power is not enough."
`"Intriguing," Ganondorf said with great interest. "Ingenious, the people who built these temples." He tapped the eye again out of curiosity.
"Well, if we can find the Skullkid and our sigils, we can set this place right again, just as we did with the Spirit Temple."
Saria's melancholy face brightened. "You have already restored a Temple? That is good news!"
"Where next?" Link asked. Zelda fought the urge to roll her eyes.
"This way." Saria floated down a flight of stairs. "This is the central chamber. I'm pretty sure Skullkid is in here." She floated through the door with a hello, that suddenly broke into a terrified scream.
The Three burst into the room to see Saria curled on the floor, in the middle of a huge room framed with moldy oil paintings. Before her stood a horse with demonic eyes, and astride it was…Ganondorf?
It looked exactly like him, but instead of a face it had a horned skull, with glowing eyes that mirrored the horse's. As both Link and Ganondorf strode forward, weapons in hand, the Phantom raised its spear and swiped at them. It missed, and spurred its horse forward…into one of the paintings.
"What on earth?" Ganondorf demanded. "Come out, impostor! What sorcery is this?!"
Link tried to pat the trembling Saria on the ground, but his hand went right through her. "Saria, it's okay, we'll take care of it!" He wondered how a ghost could be afraid, as she was already dead.
"Little help?!" Ganondorf demanded as the Phantom swiped at him. Ganondorf cut through it with his sword, but it had no effect, and rode back into another painting without harm.
"Link!" Zelda bent down next to him and Saria. "If the magic eyes could be put out with arrows, maybe magic demons in this temple can too!"
Link pulled the small bow from his shoulder and a crude, hand-fletched arrow from its place on his belt. He let loose on the demon, which cried out in pain as the arrow found its mark. When it leaped into another painting, the arrow bounced off and landed on the ground. Link quickly snatched it and loaded his bow once more.
Ganondorf ripped a curve of wood from the sheath of his broadsword and wrapped a thick string around the tips. He dug a bolt of metal from his pocket and shook it once, the collapsible material straightening into an arrow. Both he and Link fired at once as the demon emerged once more from the painting.
"Ow!" A childish voice cried out in pain, and suddenly the demon disappeared. In its place a small figure sat on the floor, pulling the arrows from its body without any apparent ill effects. "That was fun!" he exclaimed, grinning up at them all.
"Am I to assume that this is the Skullkid?" Ganondorf asked dryly, as the other two stared with open mouths. Saria uncurled from her ball on the floor and stood, then wagged her finger at the child.
"You scared me to death!" she admonished him.
Completely unruffled, the Skullkid stood on its head and laughed at her. "Can't scare you to death, you're already dead!"
"You know what I mean. You took that form on purpose!"
Skullkid giggled. "Uh huh, it was the scariest one I could think of. I saw these three chasing off the Skulltillas and everything else, I had to think of something good."
Zelda cleared her throat. "Um excuse me…but since we won the game, you should give us our sigils back."
Skullkid pulled the bag out of nowhere. "Here you go! It was a good game. You should come back and play again!"
"Yeah, that'll happen," Link muttered under his breath.
Ganondorf snatched the pack before Zelda could take it. He rifled through it, then held out the Forest sigil to Saria. "Take this in return for whatever my ancestor did."
She held out her hands in awe and relief. Amazingly enough, it did not pass through her transparent hands. In fact, she seemed to grow slightly more solid. "You're really returning this?"
"Well, me and the other two. They did most of the work, anyway."
Saria held it to her chest and bowed. "Thank you all. With this, I can restore the Temple to its former glory."
They blinked, and found themselves outside the Temple entrance. They almost did not recognize it; they could barely see the walls for the creeping ivy and lush greenery. Bushes along the sides of the walls bore bright red flowers, butterflies hovering around them. They could hear birdsong in the eaves of the trees above them.
"Amazing," Zelda said breathlessly, unable to speak further. Link stood mute.
Ganondorf made a face. "It's still suffocating, just in a different way." He gestured toward the others to follow. "Come, I found a place where fairies live. Perhaps it will come in handy if any of us are injured."
"Oh!" Zelda reached into her pocket and pulled out a little bottle. "We can catch one and store it in this."
Ganondorf stared at her. "It's perfectly acceptable for people to imprison fairies in bottles? And they say my ancestor was the cruel one."