I haven't mentioned it but we're about two or three chapters from the end. I'm trying to get it to last until chapter 50... because 50 is a nice solid number that's much easier to remember than 49. I can easily say I like numbers that end in five or zero. So yeah... here's to hoping I can stretch it out a bit until 50!
Oh, and be warned: Someone's a bit of a potty-mouth in this chapter.
Link had jumped down first. Despite how dark the pit looked, it wasn't that deep. Zelda jumped down a moment later and let a little flame flicker from the palm of her hand. Link considered telling her to stay behind, but knew doing so would be useless. They looked at each other, nodded and walked ahead down the only path Zelda's flame and the glow of the Master Sword showed.
The dark hallway went on and on. How much time they spent just walking, they didn't know but it felt like an eternity. They were sick to their stomachs with the knowledge that ahead of them was evil incarnate, waiting for them. It probably wouldn't take him long to figure out that the two had come for him were the very people he was searching for.
The hall finally seemed to have a light at the end, faint but enough to identify as an opening. They didn't speed up, but just continued to walk.
The end of the hall was not what they had expected.
There was a hole high in the ceiling, allowing a view of the night sky, a new moon. There were only stars dotting the blue-black sky, but they seemed to illuminate the whole room. It was a very spacious circular room with a dais in the middle. Within the dais was etched Hyrule's traditional hawk-Triforce symbol. On the walls were etchings of columns with multiple designs both on the pseudo-columns and the walls. Standing at the back of the dais was Ganon, smiling pleasantly. Vega was glaring at the man, seemingly having been thrown on the floor and still unable to move.
"I figured out who you two are." Dragmire said, raising his voice so it carried to the two teenagers. "The exact two needed to complete the Triforce." Link and Zelda said nothing, and the Gerudo continued, "The king's illegitimate heir and Odran's favorite pageboy. There's always someone to bear a Triforce it seems, no matter how unworthy."
"Look who's talking." Vega spat.
Dragmire sighed and glanced at the silvertop with disdain. "You're useless now. You can leave." And he released the binding spell.
The first thing the star did was lunge at the dark man, who merely stepped aside and avoided the attack. He had forgotten all pain and was about to lunge again when Zelda shouted, "No, Vega!"
He looked back at her, surprised.
The witch looked at him worriedly. "Leave. This is our fate, not yours."
Link nodded and then said with a smirk, "You were always complaining about how you never wanted to get caught up in this. Now is your chance. Go on, leave." He said.
Vega just stared at them blankly. He wanted to say something but… all he could do was open and close his mouth because no sounds were coming out.
"Leave!" Zelda shouted again.
"You're beat to hell! You'll just be a burden!" Link yelled out after her.
The star flinched like a wounded dog, and hesitantly began to wander out. A burden…? Was he just a burden now? As he limped away, he stared at the floor ahead of him. The only exception was when he was passing the two adolescents that he had come to call friends. He paused and stared at them sadly. They ignored him, their full attention on the Gerudo ahead of them. With a heavy heart, Vega exited wordlessly.
After a moment, Ganon spoke again. "Now that you've saved your dear friend, what do you plan to do?"
Link held the Master Sword in front of him readily. "We're going to beat you, of course."
"Big words from a child." He said matter-of-factly. "You obviously don't know what you're up against.
"And those are big words from you." Zelda said firmly.
Ganondorf chuckled. "I suppose they are, but they're true. But I'll allow you a choice: Hand over your pieces of the Triforce and live, or don't and force my hand. If I kill you two, your Triforces will become mine just as easily as if you'd hand them over. I'd rather avoid unnecessary killing, so I suggest you go with the first option."
"Not much of a choice," Link said with a sneer, his grip on the Blade of Evil's Bane tightening, "Because we're willing to fight."
The Gerudo shrugged. "Fine then." And with the speed that he had countered Eugen with, he jumped back and waved an arm to the side.
Before Link or Zelda could react in any way, shape, or form to Ganon's action, something seemed to fall on the dais before them. It really hadn't so much fallen as it had just appeared out of thin air. What it was, neither could identify immediately. It appeared to be just a lump of deep scarlet. After a moment in which nothing happened, Zelda and Link just looked at each other in confusion. If it was a distraction of some sort it was lousy, because Ganondorf had remained in the back of the room, smiling quite satisfactorily. The only thing about him that wasn't remaining still in any way were the hands held out in front of him, fingers moving ever slightly.
Then something snorted.
Their focus returned to the scarlet lump, which was now twitching. Yellow eyes opened on the lump and snort began to form on the scarlet mass. The nose forming on the lump snorted again, as it stood on newly forming hooves. Tusks grew from the mouth of the snout, a ruddy tail formed at the back, the back was slightly hunched with a mohawk of hair serving as a small mane crawling down its back. What had once been a lump was now a scarlet boar, snorting angrily and stomping its hooves just as irately.
And it left them no time to gawk. With an angry boar scream, it lowered a thick head at them and charged.
Link grabbed Zelda and jumped off to the side. They landed roughly, but were otherwise unscathed. Zelda was quick to get up and stare at the boar, though, which was skidding to a halt before it hit the wall. She compared the movement s of the boar with Ganon's hands.
"It's not real…"
"What?" Link asked he scrambled up.
Zelda couldn't answer immediately with the boar coming in for a second charge. They ran away to the side, just barely managing to escape the boar's furious rampage.
"It's not real!" She repeated. "It's just a magical construct being controlled by Dragmire! Just a puppet!"
"So we just have to get to the puppeteer!" Link concluded.
They dodged another charge of the boar, both noting that it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so. A fourth charge would hit them.
"But he's not exactly going to let us get near him." Zelda said. The boar was making for another charge, stamping its hoof on the ground before it came at them. Pressed for ideas, the witch just said the first thing that came to her mind, "I'll try to disintegrate it with fire! While it's burning you can go around and get him!"
Link just nodded. He really couldn't see what else they could do, because he had a feeling that, Master Sword or not, to physically try and beat that thing was out of the question.
The boar made for its next charge, screaming bloody murder. Zelda stayed in place and sent all her fire power at it. Had Link not been paying so much attention on trying to get to Ganon, he would've been in awe at the power that the witch was unleashing. So instead, he was in only in awe at the sweat suddenly pouring from his face while sneaking and keeping his gaze on the Gerudo puppeteer. At least until he noticed Ganon suddenly yank on the invisible strings of his boar and a sucking noise came from behind.
The page found himself immediately abandoning his original intention to see what was going on and if Zelda was in any danger. She was. The sucking sound was coming from the boar. It had opened its tusked mouth and was sucking the fire that Zelda had launched at it. After clamping its mouth shut, it snorted. Flames belched from its nostrils, almost like a warning. Link immediately ran back to Zelda and dragged her out of the way before the boar unleashed what was clearly not a warning snort.
"It's a dragon?!" Link blurted out as he ran.
"Magical construct!" Zelda corrected him as if she hadn't just had two streams of nostril fire aimed right at her. "A really powerful one!"
With a scream, the boar began to chase them with nostrils still literally flaring. There was no way they could outrun it.
"Maybe if we split it up suddenly, it'll get confused!" Link said.
"It's a puppet – it doesn't have a mind of its own!" The witch reminded him.
The flames behind them stopped; the boar had run out of Zelda's magic. But it still gained speed on them. Its thick head made contact with their backs, and then it swung its head to the side, sending the two adolescents skidding on the boar shredded dais. Both cried out in pain as torn stones shredded the flesh on their sides. The boar had caught up to them quickly enough, but stopped in front of them and just stamped a hoof.
"Is that really all you two have?" Ganondorf asked from the back. With an almost disappointed sigh, he went on to say, "I expected more from Triforce bearers. But if you're going to be this pitiful I'll give you a bit of time to try and plan something."
The dragged themselves up and stared daggers at the Gerudo, who merely smiled pleasantly. They weren't worried about the boar looming over them. As long as Ganon held the unseen strings, it wouldn't do anything.
"Let's use that arrogance to our advantage Link." Zelda said softly to him. "Just be careful what you say. He might be using the construct to listen in on us."
Gritting his teeth, he looked back over at Dragmire. "I doubt it. He's full of himself and probably really does want to give us a fighting chance."
"Whatever the case, it's better to be safe than sorry." She said. After a moment she pursed her lips and went on, "As long as his puppet's around, I don't think we'll be able to get to him."
"We could try attacking it now," Link suggested, but he caught himself before the witch could tell him, "But he's probably thought of that already… It has got to have some sort of weakness."
"Not any that I can immediately see…" She groaned. She chewed her thumbnail, trying to think of something before Dragmire's patience wore out. Both she and Link were pulling complete blanks… until Zelda finally came up with what she labeled as a desperation plan. "I do my best to try and get his attention so that the boar aims mostly for me, and you attack its legs."
"No." Link said right off the bat. "Absolutely not."
She frowned and then snapped, "Now is not the time to judge what I can do just because my reproductive organs are inside of me!"
"It has nothing to do with that!" He spat back. He was completely honest this time. The moment she jumped down the trapdoor with him he was opposed to her coming along, and not just because she was a girl.
She had been about to tell him not to lie and that she knew he was really thinking she couldn't do it, but Dragmire took the time to announce, "Time's up. I hope you've prepared something."
The boar did its stomach wrenching scream and stamped its hooves again. It looked as if it was about to smash its head down on them, but even if they moved at that exact moment, they wouldn't have been able to escape. Both were thinking, I'm going to die. Both embraced each other and shut their eyes tightly. The boar's head lowered at an alarming speed. There was a thundering smash…
But it wasn't because the boar had crushed Link, Zelda, and the floor under them with a sweep of its thick skull. It was actually because a wall of stardust had come in between the puppet and its intended targets.
"Bloody friggin' idiots! That is the last time I listen to your bollocks!"
There was no guessing as to who it was. Both opened their eyes and looked behind them, mouths agape. And just as they had expected, Vega was there and looking extremely angry.
"Not tied into your damned fate – I was tied into your damned fate the day you cursed me, ducky! Telling me to stay away…" He growled in frustration, "You might as well tell me to fuck off! But I suppose you didn't need me to get your asses out of the fire! Now get up and stop gawking!"
The two just stared at him blankly for a moment before scrambling up while Ganondorf stared at the star with annoyance. None of these kids seemed to know when to give up.
It's very, very difficult to come up with fight scenes with Ganon because you always think back to the games. Well, I do at least. So to be different, I decided to have not go Mr. Piggy. The closet we get to that is Mr. Puppet, who is a combination of the TP Piggy Ganon and Puppet Ganon from WW. Did I mentioned that I hated Puppet Ganon. Like I really did. It was probably because I was fighting it for an hour before I realized my Light Arrows weren't working because I had no magic power... AREN'T I SMART GAIZ?!
I'm sorry, I rambled. Anyways, since I'm so near to the end, expect another chapter within the next few days. I think I might end up crapping myself because I'm so nervous about writing the end chapters. D: