A/n: Thank you guys so much for the wonderfully encouraging reviews. I'm so glad you liked the story, and yes, Arian is hiding something which won't be revealed for an excruciatingly long time… sorry. Well, I hope you like this chapter. We are beginning the major plot! I'm so excited. I've never had this many reviews. I feel loved… okay, enough with the tangent, and on with the story.

Chapter 7: Lost in the Dark

The group weaved their way through the thick crowd of castle town market place. Naomi and Link led the way, Aura and Amy trailed just behind them and Arian brought up the rear, avoiding eye contact whenever Aura or Amy was to look back.

"What do you think is the matter with him? He wouldn't leave Naomi's side when we were walking towards the Inn." Amy said discreetly to Aura. Aura shrugged her shoulders. She had already thought that there was something strange about him, now she thought that he simply was strange.

"MY NECKLACE!" Shouted a strange woman from the crowd. Several people were then shoved brutally to the ground by an unknown force. A floating necklace then became visible to the group. Amy gasped in surprise and alarm, for she could see more than just a necklace.

"The stone!" she exclaimed as she began running after the floating necklace.

"What? Amy!" Aura shouted as she began following after the girl. Naomi quickly followed, and after her went Arian. Link rolled his eyes again and then he too followed the mysteriously floating necklace.

"Why huff are we cough running?" Aura gasped out as she ran by Amy's side.

"My stone. cough it makes people invisible." panted Amy. Aura shook her head but continued to run. Soon they saw the mysterious necklace drop to the ground. Aura stopped but Amy continued to run.

"Don't worry, I can see him. This way!" She called, not knowing why she wished to include Aura and Naomi in her hunt.

Amy followed the red apparition of a man, only seen by her, into a cave. Aura and Naomi quickly followed. Soon after Arian dived in, and much later followed Link.

The inside of the cave was dark and eerie, but the three girls were able to stay together. Arian soon caught up after increasing his speed. His fear for Naomi's safety increased his stamina, but Link had already fallen too far behind. Now Link walked, thinking 'that Amy-girl is so loud, I should be able to find them by listening for her high-pitched rants.'

He could still hear the echoes of Arian and the girls running and shouting. Most of the voices were garbled from bouncing off the rock walls of the cave, but the last shout he heard echoed loud and clear. "Look out!" rang one of the girls voices, followed by silence. Link's eyes widened and he cursed his carelessness. Quickly drawing his sword, he called out Arian's name. When no answer came he hastened his pace towards where he had last heard them running. His haste caused him to neglect Navi's warning.

"Watch out!" Navi called. "This cave has many cracks on the floor that are sure to—Link!"

"Is everyone alright?" called Arian. They had all slid down a sharp incline into a deeper part of the cave. Slowly the group got on their feet, rubbing their new bruises.

"I lost him…" Amy sighed as she desperately looked around, but her eyes could now see nothing but darkness.

Naomi soon brought forth a torch, using the supplies the Zora's had given her. They looked back up the steep incline, which they had fallen down, and realized that climbing back up was not an option. Arian attempted several times to crawl his way to the top, but the rocks were too smooth and slippery to provide any kind of grip.

"It's no use." Aura said as Arian came tumbling back down for the third time. "We'll have to try to find another way out."

"But where's Link?" Naomi asked as she held the torch higher, but she could see no figure at the top of the incline.

"He probably left us." Amy interrupted. "I told you he was no good, but we can do better without him. Come on."

"Link! Link!" Navi called as she flew down the hole. "Are you alright?"

The Hylian had already gotten up and was now dusting off his tunic. Navi quickly found him and began circling around his head.

"Link! You can't hook shot back up. There are only rocks up there." Navi informed him. Link sighed, and soon became alarmed when he realized he had dropped his sword.

"Navi, was my sword up there?" Link asked worriedly when he saw it was nowhere to be found on the ground.

"No Link…" Navi said rather downcast. "It's right here…" She floated above little shards of steel, the remainder of Link's Hylian sword. He heaved an angry sigh.

"If I were allowed to take the master sword, this wouldn't happen. But no, 'It's sacred, Link.' This is the last time I listen to princess Zelda." Link then stormed off down the tunnel, cursing angrily as he walked.

This time he stepped cautiously and remained within Navi's light. This strange tunnel led to a door. Cobwebs covered writing on the stone portal.

"Can you read it, Navi?" Link asked when he realized that the writing didn't seem to be Kokiri or Hylian. Navi shimmered around it for a few moments but then returned to Link perplexed.

"I've never seen or heard of this writing before. I have no idea of what it says."

"Well this doorway might be our way out."

"Or it might lead to a fire breathing dragon that will be released to wreak havoc on Hyrule which will awaken the evil powers of Ganandorf and cause the apocalypse!"

"Okay, just for that, I'm opening the door." Link said as he gripped the edges of stone. "To prove to you, that you are paranoid." He grunted. The large slab moved slightly, but Link had trouble getting it to move the rest of the way. Then behind the stone there was some kind of barrier. Navi stared at it with wonder.

"Shoot it Link." Navi said, marveling at the possible reactions. Link instinctively pulled out the light arrow, but instead of shooting the barrier, Link shot the strange symbol engraved on the back of the stone. Instantly the barrier was dispelled.

"See, it's a good thing I don't always listen to you." He said as he walked through. Navi examined the symbol, but it came to no avail. This too was strange to her.

Amy led the way through the tunnel. She now held Naomi's torch. Arian, Naomi, and Aura followed. Their path led to a more modernized portion of the vast caves. Small tracks with mine carts showed that people had once been there, but the composition and building technique of the mine showed no evidence of belonging to a modern civilization. The cobwebs and rot growing in the wood revealed that no one had used this mine shaft for quiet a while.

"He went this way." Amy said after examining a footprint in the soot that had gathered on the ground. The footprints continued to follow the tracks until they passed under a stone archway. Sunlight showed down from a large gap in the tall ceiling. But strangely enough, the footprints ended in the dead center of the rounded chasm. The four walked into the sunlight and examined their surroundings.

"It looks like a crater, or maybe even a dormant volcano of some sort." Naomi stated as she investigated the rounded open top.

"Maybe there's a way to climb up and out of here." Arian said as he examined the sides. His statement was answered with laughter.

"Then find it fast my little demons, time is not on you side!" Cackled a man's voice from somewhere on the top of the crater.

"How did he get up there?!" Amy screeched in anger.

"Quick the doors!" Arian called as he ran back towards the archway, but he was forced to stop abruptly as a large stone dropped over their opening.

"The top is closing in!"

"Jump, Link!"

Link leapt over a collapsing chasm and landed safely on the other side, just in time to be shot at by a magnitude of arrows. He made it through this trial and ran through a door on the other side. It instantly shut behind him, leaving him in darkness for only a few moments. The old and rusted torches on either side of the wall burst to life in his presence. Link quickly held up the megaton hammer, his substitution for a sword, but nothing more attacked him.

"I think we finally made it, Link." Navi said as she began to fly down the tunnel.

"It doesn't make sense. Why would they have guarded something so heavily if it were just the way out?"

"They've done it before, but then again, they could be hiding something." Navi thought as she floated around Link's hat.

"Well to protect it with that many traps and trials, it must be very powerful."

"Or evil…" Navi shuddered.

"No, I'd just say powerful, you know, like the triforce."

Link walked down the tunnel into a strange room of black mirrors. Only images of Link, Navi, and a mysterious sword appeared on the smooth black surface. The sword had been placed upright in a black marble stone.

It was a strange-looking weapon, its blade perfectly black but at the same time metallic. The hilt had precious metals forged into it, and it shined eerily in the light of the fire. Something seemed slightly wrong with this blade, perhaps it was magical. But what kind of magic would that be?

"I wonder if I could use this sword as my replacement sword." Link laughed a little. Navi flew around the room.

"EEK!" The fairy flew back when her light uncovered a strange statue in a dark crevice just behind the sword. Navi shook off her fear and took a closer look at it. "It seems so life-like." Navi stated. Link began to walk towards his fairy.

"Maybe it is alive."

"No." Navi flew back to Link. "It's made of the same stone as that sword's holder. Maybe he tried to take the sword and then was turned to stone! Don't take the sword Link!!!"

"Navi… please. If he tried to take the sword, then why is he holding one?"

"Oh… yeah…" Link sighed and rolled his eyes.

"But don't worry, I won't take the sword. I can use the hammer until we can get another one forged." He said. This was a promise he intended to keep, until the laughter began to shake the room. Pieces of the rock ceiling began to crack off and fall. Link had no choice but to stow away his hammer and pull out his shield. A black mass began to appear at the entrance and seemingly the only exit to the room.

"Link…" It hissed in a nearly undistinguishable voice. "It has been quite a long time…"

"Ganondorf?" Link called with widened eyes, the laughter began again, mocking his surprise. He then caught sight of the sword, which still stood between him and his old foe.

"Link, take the sword! As long as these rocks are falling, you can't take out the hammer or bow and arrow." Rang Navi's voice.

Link ran straight towards the giant mass that might have once been Ganon. He leapt towards the sword, grabbing it from the stone and rolling back up to his feet, but now there was nothing to fight.

"Link! What did you do?" Navi yelled. Link looked back at her with surprise. Now both Link and Navi looked at their reflections. The images slowly faded into black and were absorbed into the rest of the mirror.

"Navi… you, you told me to get the sword… Ganon, I saw him…" Link stuttered. This strange situation had him baffled.

"What do you think is going to happen?" Navi asked as she circled around Link's hat again.

"We'll just sit here for a minute or two. If anything bad were to happen, it should happen shortly."

Link and Navi stood in the room on full guard, but nothing seemed to be happening, until a little white light began to show itself in the wall. Soon there were many cracks, rocks rolled off the wall, opening a path for Link to get out.

"Well I guess the sword wasn't evil. They're helping us get out." Link laughed as he and Navi went over to the shattering wall. When there was enough space for Link and Navi to enter the assembling tunnel they entered. Both were taken by surprise when the tunnel began to close behind them, but Link knew that they would not be trapped since the wall continued to break away in front of them.

A thin stream of sunlight was all that was left from the once large hollow. The small gap continued to become smaller as the two great slides slowly came together. Naomi lit the torch again since Amy had extinguished it when they had walked into the sunlight. She held it up so Arian and Aura could investigate the rock wall for a way out. When none could be found, they looked back up to the last of the light coming from the ceiling in despair. All flinched as the two stones pounded together, entrapping them in darkness. It was soon after that they heard another mechanism beginning to work. One of the walls was starting to open. Naomi ran towards it to get a closer look, holding the torch in front of her.

The opening was large and stood a few feet from the ground. Arian and Aura watched it from the dark corner and Amy began to step into the light of Naomi's torch. It was only Amy who noticed that the light did not seep into the black crevice even though they were very near it.

"Naomi, I don't think that this is our way out." Amy whispered to Naomi.

"Why not?"

"I'm just thinking, why would the thief lock us in here only to set us free?"

A clawed hand reached out from the crevice and grabbed the slow moving stone walls. Naomi screeched and dropped the torch just as a bright yellow eye opened, searching for its prey. The fire was smothered and left them in the dark once more. Nothing could be seen, except for the glowing yellow eye of the creature. The dark mass screamed a warning call, declaring death upon all that were in the cave. Shortly afterwards, a roaring growl resounded about them.

"Are there two creatures?!" Amy yelled. She reached for Naomi's arm in the dark, when she found it she pulled Naomi away from the creature who was hopefully still struggling to release itself from the small cave.

The sound of the mechanism stopped and silence swept through the darkness. The creature seemed to have closed its eyes, making it invisible to those whom could not see in the dark. Amy pulled Naomi to the corner of the wall and set her down. She then pulled out her sword. The sound of Aura's double swords being unsheathed soon followed.

"Safe for now." Amy whispered. Naomi's hand on her shoulder startled her and she jumped foreword. Naomi's voice settled her nerves.

"There was something moving within the wall behind me." She said as her hand ran down Amy's arm to find her hand. "Feel." Naomi commanded, placing Amy's hand on the rock. Sure enough there were vibrations coming from within the stone.

"Do you think the creature dug itself in there?" whispered Amy. Their hands were soon pushed back as the stone from the wall swelled and fell to the ground as if something were burrowing out of it. Amy stepped back and pointed her sword at the breaking rock. Naomi stumbled back and felt herself being caught by someone.

"Don't worry." Whispered Arian into Naomi's ear. "The creature is on the ceiling, I think he's waiting to pounce so keep up your guard." Naomi nodded dumbly and squeaked quietly so he would know that she heard him. Arian then righted her and left Naomi leaning against the wall wishing she had something she could use for a guard.

Amy used her sharp sense of hearing to listen for whatever could be burrowing out of the rock. She crouched down into the position she always did when she was ready to attack. Suddenly, light burst into the room and Amy lunged at the figure that had made its way in. Though temporarily blinded, Amy still saw another blade clash against hers. When her vision cleared, she saw Link in front of her, an angry expression on his face.

"Sheath your sword, you moron." He growled at her. Amy scowled at him.

"Oh, great. It's you again. Don't you ever die?" She groaned.

"Nope. The only way he could die was if he was blind and deaf… and mute… and… paralyzed…. And maybe in a coma… Possibly also severe head trauma… And… maybe if he was missing a limb…. No wait! All of them!" Navi piped up. Link rolled his eyes.

"Shut up, Navi." He snapped. Turning to Amy, he continued, "And it's not like I'm happy to see you either."

The voice of Arian broke their exchange of insults.

"Get down!" He called and shoved the two out of the way. Navi's light gave them a quick glimpse of the beast crashing into Arian. Link stared with mouth gaped for only a moment before turning to Amy again.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?!" Link growled and then ran towards the beast to help Arian before Amy could respond.

"Well… I thought… Well it would have been easier if you had died!" Amy yelled after him. She then joined Link and Aura in their battle with the beast. While the four of them fought against the beast, Naomi felt her way to where the thing had come from, it was an opening after all. After finding her torch she crawled up into the ledge. Using her pirate instincts she sniffed the air, and searched the cavern around her. There was fresh moss, but that could have grown from the opening that used to be above them. Soon, a light breeze came through; there was a way to the outside from here, but the air that came in the breeze was musty and carried soot, meaning that they must first travel through more of the mines.

Naomi then turned her attention to their battle against the creature. She could see Navi's light and within it there seemed to be much happening. There were many screams coming from the beast and shouts from her friends. Sparks flew from the swords hitting the beast's hide. It was possible that it wore a type of armor, but it could also be possible that its own flesh was impenetrable. Either way it seemed to Naomi that they were losing.

"Think…" Naomi commanded herself. She looked to the unlit torch she held in her hand. "One alone is more appealing than the armed many." And with that she lit the torch, and raised her voice to catch the attention of the beast and her friends. Her plan worked, but she had not looked far enough into it, for now the beast had flown in the air and was crawling on the ceiling towards her. She could see its eyes and nothing more. They were eyes that moved very quickly in her direction.

"Naomi! Run!" called one of her friends, her panic kept her from knowing who had called, but she obeyed their command and took off running deeper into the caverns after dropping the torch again.

Link whispered to Navi as the rest of them ran ahead to aid Naomi. After their conversation, the little blue fairy sped off ahead of them all, just as Amy turned around for one more crude comment.

"This isn't the time or the place." Link stopped her as he ran up into the taverns. Amy rolled her eyes and followed them.

Navi flew with all her might to find Naomi. Link knew that since the poor girl had dropped her torch, she would be running without any sense as to what lay ahead. The beast was flying above Navi, but it didn't seem very interested in eating a fairy as much as it was interested in what she was doing. At any rate it stayed clear of the tiny fairy's path. Link too had noticed that the creature seemed to dislike the fairy, but she wasn't a very good source of protection and didn't keep the monster at bay for long. The beast had continued to lunge out at Link.

Naomi was grateful to see once more, and was even happier to learn that the light source was Navi. The beast seemed to be able to see in the dark well, so Naomi didn't fear the light giving her position away.

"There's a way out from here." Naomi said to Navi. The little fairy listened intently. "It seems that we go that way, more than likely we should follow the old mine cart rails." She whispered. "Go tell the others where I am, if I do not make it out then tell them to go that way."

"Naomi!" Navi cried, "Look out!"

Naomi rolled away from a swiping paw. The beast now hung from the ceiling and had attempted to take Naomi from there. The pirate girl ran from the beast as the fairy flew back to Link and the others. Lucky for Naomi, they weren't very far, and she could still faintly see in the dim light supplied by the distant Navi. She could see the yellow eyes as well, now up-righted, but still high above her. Slowly the creature advanced upon her. Naomi could feel her heart pounding in her chest as her legs took automatic steps backwards.

"Be brave Naomi, be brave…" Naomi said to herself as she tried to compose her thoughts.

Bright light suddenly burst alive behind the beast, exposing its entire hideous corpus. It stood on its hind legs and between them Naomi could see Link pulling back an arrow beaming with light. He released it into the creature's back. Light filled the entire cavern as the creature arched its back in agony. Naomi saw that it was falling towards her, but to her back and sides she was blocked either by stone wall or an empty drop off. Gathering her courage she ran towards the massive creature as it fell upon her, sliding out from underneath it just as it smashed against the floor.

Naomi rolled into the Navi's light, joining the rest of the group. It was Arian who ran to help her to her feet.

"Good job Naomi." Amy congratulated as she sheathed her sword.

"It was all I could do for now. I'm pretty sure we can get out of the caves that way, but the beast seems to be blocking the exit." Naomi replied, slightly short of breath. Link examined the creature.

"It shouldn't be too hard to climb over."

"No, don't touch it. I have a feeling that it's going to wake up. That arrow of yours was powerful, but this creature is unworldly." Naomi said, her breathing became normal.

"Hold on! There's a map over here." Arian called from within the darkness. The others gathered around him, and saw that there was in fact a map, carved into the side of the wall.

"It's a map of the mine tracks." Aura stated. She let her finger travel the path that they suspected led away from the beast. "It forks and this track doubles back to join the one leading to the outside."

"Then let's follow that one, just to be safe." Naomi said. Link looked to Arian who seemed to be on Naomi's side. He knew that Amy would go for Naomi's idea as well just to spite him.

"Look, I think this is ridiculous, considering its dead, but just to humor you, I'll accompany you guys that way." Link grumbled.

"O great…" Amy muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"Let's not argue and just go. If Naomi's right then that thing could wake up again any second." Aura interrupted. The group took heed of her advice and began their trek along the tracks. Amy took one more look back at the creature. There was something wrong with this picture. Even by setting aside her lack of faith in Link, she still felt as if it were conscious of her every move. Amy continued to walk with her head turned until she smacked right into Link's shield.

"Must we keep bumping into each other like this?" Link said through gritted teeth. Amy glared but then decided to ignore his comment.

"Why did we stop?"

"Naomi decided to look at the mine carts." Aura replied exasperatedly.

"I'm sorry, but look at these. The way they are carved is fascinating. These must be at least a century old considering the way the dust has settled on them, but they are still just as sturdy as if they had just been built." Naomi said as she ran her hand across the strange metal holding the contraption together. She nudged it across the rail. "Amazing, it hasn't rusted at all. What kind of metal is this?"

Arian laughed lightly at Naomi's curiosity at such an inappropriate time, Aura and Link passed each other a questioning glance, but Amy still stood behind them, her eyes darting nervously back and forth.

Amy looked back at the beast once more and noticed that she saw one of its eyes opening. She backed away and ran into Link… again. He turned around angrily.

"What is it now?" He growled. Amy wasn't angry though; rather she was fearful.

"Link! The monster is still alive! Look!" She pointed to the glowing eye that was slowly twitching. Link saw it and cursed under his breath. Quickly, he turned back and looked towards the cart.

"Looks like we gotta get out of here fast!" Navi yelled. Link ran and shoved Arian, Amy, Aura, and Naomi into the small mine cart and started to push it on the old tracks. This caused a screeching noise loud enough for the monster to definitely have heard.

"Why am I on the bottom?!" Aura cried out, muffled by everyone else.

"No time!" Link yelled. "I'll face the beast alone! You guys go ahead!" He was about to give it one last shove down the slope ahead of them, when Amy's arm snatched his own.

"Oh no you don't!" She yelled, yanking him into the cart. Link yelled out profanities as the cart jerked suddenly, launching itself down the steep slope. Aura yelped as the weight of another person crushed her.

Navi screamed as she realized she might be left behind but Naomi lunged out to grab the little fairy and Arian caught Naomi before she fell out of the cart, pulling Naomi and Navi back in. Navi was then released from Naomi's grasp and hid herself deep within Link's hat. The cart went hurling along the tracks with several of its five passengers screaming. Link looked back and saw the dark mass of the creature moving as fast as it could to catch its prey while Amy looked ahead.

"There's the fork coming up! Which way?!" Amy yelled. Aura squirmed at the bottom of the cart.

"I don't know! I can't see!"

Arian and Naomi tried to move so Aura could get up. Aura finally poked her head above the large mine cart's rim to see the fork.

"RIGHT!!!" She screamed after realizing that they were nearly to the fork. Everyone leaned to the right and Link pulled out his hook shot and latched onto a wooden beam that ran across the top of the ceiling for support. He fastened the hook shot to the cart and tried to pull them towards it.

"You idiot!" Amy screamed, "You're going to cave us in!" Indeed the beam began to break, seeing as it was nearly a century old or possibly more. Link could not detach the hook shot from the beam, so instead he pulled it all the way in, causing the cart to become airborne for a moment. Out of shear luck it landed safely back on the track just ahead of the falling beam. They watched as the falling rock closed the narrow entrance behind them, hopefully stalling or even trapping the creature within the caves.

Aura's shrill cry directed their attention back to where they were going.

"The track has ended!!!" Aura yelled. The echo of their screams reverberated throughout the chasm as the mine cart plummeted into seemingly eternal darkness.

A/n: Please R&R!