Oh my! An extra chunky long chapter! And early too! I've been thinking, since I've managed to cut down to one story again (yay!) that I might go back to doing one update a week again. Let's see. I'll tell you next Saturday, or whenever I update next.
"Is it somehow getting darker?" Zelda asked warily.
"Everything seems fine to me." Link grunted.
Vega rolled his eyes. "You're a wolf, you don't rely on sight."
The wolf-page grunted and walked up beside Makar, who seemed to be getting clumsier the deeper they went into the forest.
"So, you agree with me, then?" The witch asked the silvertop.
"Yes. It has been getting darker, for what reasons I don't have the faintest." He said.
Zelda thought for a moment about the words of Kaepora Gaebora. "That giant owl said that the Deku Tree's reach was limited here… Makar, was it always like this?" She asked.
The squat Korok shakily said, "N-no… I kind of remember venturing this far a few times before… But it was never like this…"
Even Link became intrigued by that statement. "How long ago was your last visit?"
The small forest creature thought it over for a moment, pausing in his tracks. "A few years ago, I think. Longer than I thought…"
"Do you know how many years, exactly?"
"Six, I think."
A low growl escaped from the collared wolf.
"And what seems to have gotten your goat?" Vega asked the wolf curiously.
After a moment, Link's ears twitched and he said, "Nothing."
He's lying. Zelda thought.
Nice one… couldn't figure that out.
Vega's sarcasm could get quite annoying sometimes, but Zelda didn't dwell on it too much. The last thing both of them wanted at the moment was to be annoyed with each other.
For a while, there was silence amidst the group, with the exception of Makar's jingling noises. The forest seemed to get thicker and thicker, becoming increasingly difficult to traverse and it also seemed to be getting darker and darker. No one in their small group was quite sure how, given that even before there was no sunlight coming in through the trees… If anything, the darkness didn't even have to do with lighting but more of a heavy feeling that kept getting stronger and stronger as they passed through.
All four members of the group paused.
Something moved.
Link turned on one of his paws and growled into the darkness.
"W-what is it?" Makar asked nervously.
Vega ignored the squat Korok and gritted his teeth. "Ducky… do you sense anything?"
Zelda didn't need to feel his worry and concern to feel it on her own. Something had moved, and was still moving in the darkness. Worst of all, she had no idea what it was. Whatever it was, it wasn't magical. Actually, that was wrong too. There was something magical about it, but nothing she was used to. Much like she wasn't used to the silvertop's magic. The only difference was, what she was feeling now was evil. Just plain evil. And it was everywhere.
"No…" She said in barely a whisper.
"Bender, can you see it, then?" The star asked the wolf.
So concentrated was Link, he didn't even think about the beginning of the star's question. "I can't see it… but I smell it. It reeks of fear and death."
"I do so hate it when ominous warnings play out…" The silver-white haired man said under his breath.
Makar squeaked something, probably not anything coherent, and shuffled near Zelda's leg, shivering uncontrollably.
Whatever had moved was not trying to hide its presence anymore. It was shuffling around them, making noise. And from the amount of noise it was making, it sounded absolutely massive. There were the sounds of cracking wood and rustling leaves and bushes everywhere; and then following all that was the sound of something dragging along behind it. Perhaps a part of its body? Whatever the case, it sent shivers up the spines of the three humanoids and almost caused the small Korok to faint.
They weren't completely blind however. Link, with his canine senses, followed the creature with his own gaze, growling lowly the whole time. Both Zelda and Vega shifted movement with the wolf beside them, going in circles. Had they been going fast, they surely would have been dizzy. But the creature was taking its time circling them, mocking them.
A strange cackling then sounded around them. The voice was warbly, raspy… old. "What is this I smell? I smell magic… great, great magic. Delicious, delicious magic… I haven't sensed such magic since the Old Days… And I am hungry." The voice seemed to crackle with each word. Then, out of the darkness a light appeared… and pupil rolled down. It was an eye, and it was staring right at them. It looked at the small group with malicious glee. A horrible hiss then escaped from the eye's direction. "I will eat your life-force and your delicious magic!"
Link barked. A claw came smashing down upon them.
Vega cursed. Loudly. But he still managed to throw out a shield before them, causing the monster's giant pointed claw to slide down the invisible wall with an ear piercing screech.
"Korok," the star croaked, struggling to hold the shield before them. "A light! Make a light!"
Despite the fear evident in the little creature's demeanor, he shakily produced a leaf that cast a greenish glow around their area.
Zelda screamed.
"What in the name of the goddesses is that?!" Despite being a wolf, Link's bark/growl sounded surprised and disgusted. Mostly disgusted.
"How the bleeding hell am I supposed to know?!" Vega snapped. Even he was having an unpleasant time looking at the monster. It resembled a giant, armor-plated spider. What didn't make it a spider was that its legs were all clawed and it had only one eye, not to mention it had to be the size of small cottage. Its hard, scaly, plate-like skin was a sickly green-black color, the sheer creepiness enhanced by the green light of Makar's leaf. And now that it was closer, the rank smell of its body was stinging their very eyes. It stunk of corpses.
Wolf-Link immediately jumped from the shields at the claw, clamping on its leg with his fangs and not letting go. The monster seemed more annoyed than in pain. It shrieked and shook the leg on which Link was latched onto. The collared wolf did not let go and if anything clamped his jaws even tighter on the claw-leg. The witch and the star used Link's distraction to their advantage. Vega unleashed one of his golden flame-lances, glittering stardust following its trail to the monster. Zelda sent her own fire blast in the direction of the star's lance. By comparison, hers looked absolutely unrefined but it was really no time to be thinking about such things like that. Unrefined was better than no magical defenses at all.
The monster hissed at the fire and stepped back, ignoring the wolf still latched on its leg. However, after the sting of the fire had left, a flash of anger passed through the creature's eye. It lunged at them – powerfully; the lunge was so sudden that Link lost his grip and fell roughly on his side.
Zelda and Vega launched another series of fire blasts and lances, but the creature did not even acknowledge them. It rammed right through the wall of flames, thrusting its very thorax at the two. Once again, the star quickly put up a shield, but this one was sloppy and almost failed. Both spellcasters nearly retched at the foul stench of the beat, this time seeming stronger than before.
Zelda did end up retching when she saw where the stench was coming from. Makar fainted.
The thorax of the spider-like creature wasn't even really a thorax. It was a mouth, a large gaping mouth with double layers of serrated, yellowing teeth with steaming saliva dripping down from them. A small, stumpy tongue wiggled toward the shield but it didn't reach and the sticky saliva dripped down to the grass, burning it.
"Shit!" Vega both said it aloud and thought it.
The witch groggily stood, but her face was stern and staring right at the gaping mouth.
"Give me your life; your magic!" The mouth hissed, spraying its acid-like saliva and bad breath at them. But as soon as it finished speaking, it clamped its mouth shut, leaving its thorax protected and armor plated.
Just as the star's shield was about to crumble under the pressure of the giant arachnid-like creature's weight, wolf-Link jumped onto the thing's back and began chomping down on it. Luckily for the collared wolf, he had been biting down on a sensitive place near the creature's eye, causing it to howl out in pain. It flailed around and way from the silvertop and the blond, trying to throw Link off of itself.
Hit the eye! Zelda's thoughts permeated through to Vega.
Rather than pointing out that obvious statement, the star prepared another fire lance, waiting for the creature to flail at the right angle to hit the eye without hitting the idiot wolf. He gritted his teeth when that wasn't happening.
Zelda managed to spot an opportunity for herself and threw a blast of fire towards the monster's eye. The monster screeched shrilly at the heat harming its eye, but Link was forced to let go. The flames had not burned his skin, but they did singe off a patch of his fur.
"Ducky, control your flames!" The star snapped.
Zelda winced but kept her attention on the screaming creature, which was now retreating back into the trees.
The monster did not immediately reappear, but no one moved a muscle in case it should return. But after standing still for a bit, the creature did not come back.
The young witch scuttled carefully to the fallen Makar taking his lit up leaf and fanning him with it, trying to ignore the star's growing irritation. Link shook off his burnt fur.
The witch sensed Vega's peak of irritation. He didn't hide his anger any more.
"Where did you learn to control your magic? Or have you even attempted to do so?" he snapped.
She flinched, but didn't say anything. As irritated as she was, it was from Vega's side. She was feeling more ashamed, but she wondered if the star could feel that at all through his own emotion. She felt a small twinge of guilt surge through her, but the star said nothing to confirm it. He just stared at the witch harshly.
Growling at Vega, Link stepped in front of Zelda.
"Oh drop it, Nancy." The star said flatly. "She almost killed you and you know it."
Before the wolf could say anything to that, Zelda snapped on her own.
"It's not like I haven't tried!" She cried, her tone sounding more distressed than angry. Her face was focused below her, at the unconscious Korok she held in her arms. But somehow, both star and wolf felt that she was looking more at nothing than the creature.
Link, feeling sorry for the girl, walked gingerly towards her, nudging her arm in a comforting doggy-like fashion. He didn't like to see girls in distress. The wolf struggled momentarily to find something nice to say. All he could come up with was, "You… you can control it just fine…"
"No, I can't!" She choked.
Vega winced as he could sense the overwhelming sadness and frustration in the girl. He felt his eyes stinging, and he realized that the girl was probably crying. All of a sudden, he felt even guiltier for what he had just started in the girl.
"Sure you can," Link said, almost surprised at himself that he was really concerned for the witch, "I mean, you can change me into a wolf and back to human at will…"
"I lied…" Zelda whispered.
The wolf-page felt the panic rise in him for a moment. "About what?" he squeaked.
She glanced at him, her lips trembling. "Not about you… About something else." She closed her eyes tightly, as if trying to hold back tears, but they came down anyway. Facing back at Makar she continued in between sobs, "The witches I lived with, Maple and Syrup… I didn't leave them, they forced me to leave. They said my magic was too uncontrollable… that they couldn't keep me around because uncontrollable magic would end up drawing unpleasant things to me… I… I've tried… I didn't want to leave but…"
Had Link a human face, he would've frowned. Instead, he just nudged his head through the crook of one of her arms in a wolfy hug. Zelda kept facing down, sobbing silently over he still knocked out Makar.
… sorry… didn't know…
The young witch glanced over at the star. She couldn't see him too well since her vision was blurry from tears, but she knew she didn't have to see his face to know he was genuinely sorry for starting this whole thing.
Makar finally began to stir as a tear hit his leafy mask-face. He grumbled something and attempting to stand on his own. He then squeaked and fainted again.
The other three looked at the squat Korok strangely, but then they all perked up.
The arachnid monster… They could all sense it in their own way. But they had all been so distracted with each other they had noticed its return. Link leapt from Zelda's arm and circled around the area in a predatory fashion. Both Vega and Zelda kept their eyes open.
The blond witch shuddered as something soft fell onto her arm. She looked at her arm, trying to find what fell but seeing nothing. Slightly bothered by that, she lifted her arm a bit and felt whatever had fallen slip down. She froze as the green leaf-light caused a glimmer on the thread that had fallen on her… A soft, silky, almost transparent thread. Zelda shuddered, lifted the brim of her hat and slowly looked up.
Shit. Both Vega and Zelda thought it.
Slowly descending upon them were dozens, maybe scores, of tiny little one-eyed, armor plated spiders. And above them was the giant arachnid, its eye, now red and swollen, gleaming with malicious joy as its newly hatched babies descended upon them to exact revenge.
Worst of all, there were eggs above with the mother - hundreds of eggs, all hanging from the tops of the trees.
Before Zelda could launch a fire blast, Vega told her to stop via thought.
"Think about it." Said the star firmly.
Trying to temporarily shut out the baby monsters sifting down slowly, she did think about it and she did see the silvertop's point. If she used any kind of flame magic on these creatures, she would be spelling out the death of everyone present. Just because one could cast fire magic didn't mean that they were protected from the very flames they directed. In fact, sloppily directing them could kill the caster.
"What do we do?" She croaked hoarsely.
"Magic isn't the answer to everything, Ducky." Vega said plainly. "Change your little friend back."
The wolf-page immediately began wagging his tail at that comment. Zelda had a mind to refuse at first, but she realized it might be easier for Link to fight had he the advantage of height. Wolves were big animals, but not horribly tall. If he was human again, he would have the advantage of height… and a blade. With a nod, she reversed Link's transformation.
The page, now on two legs with a pair of arms, resisted jumping for joy at being back in his normal state. There were more pressing matters at stake at the moment. He would jump for joy if they made it through this situation.
He drew his sword as the first of the little arachnids drifted down, slicing it in two. Unlike its large parent up above, its armor was not strong enough to stand up to a blade. So he hacked and slashed at each one of the little monsters that came near him. He worried about his back, but he did manage to catch of glimpse of something hacking and slashing just behind him. But with what blade, he had to wonder.
As a larger more matured monster came down, he told himself he'd think about it later and keep slashing what he could.
What was behind him, hacking and slashing along with him, was actually Vega. Zelda watched, trying to keep her mouth closed at the spectacle. The star wasn't using a sword, at least not a true one. It was more like a shining extension of his arm. Like a blade made of stardust. And much like most of the magic that the star casted, the magical blade had a shimmering streak of magical residue follow it. Webs and greenish blood spattered everywhere as the two men killed the arachnid babies, but Zelda remained mostly untouched by the blood.
The initial feeling of wonder left, quickly.
As the two men around her fought off the hordes of little baby monsters, Zelda suddenly felt very useless. The men were fighting… she was just standing there tending to the knocked out little Korok. But it wasn't like Makar was going to go anywhere, and it wasn't like they could run anywhere. At the same time, she didn't have as much control over her Gift as Vega did to form an elemental blade. She gritted her teeth, angry at herself for not being able to control what she could do…
The great arachnid mother shifted above them in the tree tops. Zelda looked up at it. Its eye was staring right at her, and the eggs all around her were beginning to wiggle. She held in a gasp as she realized that all the eggs around the mother monster were stirring. The star and the page couldn't take all those things falling down. they would be overrun… She had to do something.
Laying Makar down, and perhaps not as gently as would be nice, she stood. It may end up killing them all, but she had to try something.
Not fire! She heard the star plead.
But what else could she do?
The mother monster turned in her place again. "I'll eat you first little female." Said the creature in sadistic delight.
A twinge of anger flared through her. Her defiance suddenly ran through her and she narrowed her eyes at the armor plated beast before her. Hell if I'm dying by being eaten by an overgrown spider!
Fire was useful for destruction, but she recalled a mage from a long, long time ago who caused great destruction through another kind of magic. Zelda smirked. While it wasn't the young witch's specialty, she had practiced it, and it was easier to control than fire.
She whistled.
Whistling was the best way for her to do this kind of magic. Everyone had their own way of doing magic. For wind magic, she needed to whistle.
Closing her eyes, she let the sound escape her lips, the whistle charged with her will. Whether or not the other two of the group knew what she was doing, she didn't pay any attention. In fact, at that very moment, she felt like her own person again rather than being connected to Vega constantly.
Wind was freedom after all.
Zelda had no idea what kind of tune she whistled, but she did know that a gust of wind was flowing through the forest, somehow winding its way unblocked through the trees. The baby spiders' webs blew with the wind, tangling them up with each other. But she didn't stop there; she threw her hands in the air, causing an updraft. She whistled a higher note. Just as her own whistle sharpened, so did the wind, or at least it seemed to. Whatever actually happened, slices could be heard. Dozens and dozens of squishy slices. She opened her eyes and stopped whistling as globules of what was left of the babies and eggs and all her companions. Vega even paused and grimaced.
Link didn't stop, however. The large mother monster screeched in rage at the death of her children. She unhooked her claws, about to slam down to them. Somewhere in between that time, Link threw his sword into the eye of the beast. It screeched again, this time in pain. The sword still in its eye it slammed into the floor, but not nearly as gracefully as it had originally planned. It flailed and crashed into trees, unable to see. Green blood oozed from what was left of its eye. It went on that way for a good chunk of time, until it finally lost too much blood and sagged down.
It twitched… and then it became still. Link, Vega, and Zelda reluctantly walked near it. The page kicked it.
No reaction.
At least not an immediate one.
Perhaps a full three seconds after Link kicked it, the dying arachnid lunged forward. But it did not lunge to the collared page. It lunged in Zelda's direction, its ugly thorax opening up revealing its hideous mouth. The witch squealed and fell on her butt. She pushed herself back as quickly as she could away from the mouth and its smell of corpses.
"I want… your life-force…" Were the giant monster's last hissing words before it finally, truly fell and died.
And they all knew it died this time because it turned to ashes. And as it turned to ashes, the part of the forest they were in that had seemed so dark drastically lightened… The feeling of the Deku Tree's presence seemed to return.
This time, Vega was the one to kick at the remains in a "just in case" measure.
Link and Zelda sighed in relief.
"It's finally dead…" Said the page. He glanced over at Zelda, still seemingly shocked. "And I guess I wouldn't have been able to kill it had it not been for you…"
That caught the witch's attention. She smiled broadly, but before she could properly say anything to that Vega had to ruin the moment.
"That's all well and good but do any of you realize that the creature hadn't inhabited this space until six years previous? And how it mentioned the Old Days?" The star said. He glanced at the two, concern adding lines to his seemingly young face. "How did this thing get here?"
The good mood that Link and Zelda were in was ruined, then. It was a disturbing thought. That creature had been old… and deadly, that was obvious. And it hadn't always been in the forest…
… impossible… not even… not… refuse to be tied… fate!
Vega's bitter thoughts permeated through her mind but she said nothing. She just watched the star, the anger in face as he stared back at the ashes that had once been a great demon of some sort. Despite being the one that asked the disturbing question, Zelda had a feeling that Vega knew more about what was going on then he was letting on.
And she wasn't sure which was more disturbing: How the creature was brought to the forest or how much the star knew exactly.
You see, I could've split this chapter in two, but if I did that... Well, I'd feel bad if I left you guys with a cliffhanger.
ANYWAYS, in case no one figured it out from chaoter title... That big monster is Gohma. Now since they don't know what the moster is, I didn't use the whole name throughout the chpater for that reason. I also hope no one minds if I personlized Gohma a bit. They never ever show a whole mouth bit, but I'm suure it has to eat SOMEHOW. And wouldn't it just be creepier if it could talk? I kind of wish I was able to add that creepy looking text just to make her speech seem that much more creepier. But I can't... Oh well.