"Don't make me activate your collar." Keeta growled, as Melissa struggled.
Usually she would comply, but she had become quite sick. They had blindfolded her eyes and bound her hands just before Keeta slung her over his boney shoulder. The shoulder blade was now digging into her stomach, and if that wasn't enough, she was bombarded with the worst smell she could imagine. Igos hadn't been so bad, but these two reeked of death and decay.
"I can't help it. This is so uncomfortable. If you would just let me walk..." She started, but had to stop to keep herself from gagging.
"Do I look like some mindless re-dead? I will not have you slow us down." the stalfos responded coldly, continuing to move swiftly forward.
"Well you sure smell like one." she mumbled to herself, earning a swift blow to the head.
When she regained consciousness again, she found herself in another cell. It wasn't a closed off room like the last one had been. Instead she was surrounded by metal bars. She rubbed her head, sitting herself up.
"You're awake!" a girl's voice exclaimed behind her.
After being attack hugged, she turned her head to see Heather crying into her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Melissa asked, a little thrown off by the girls behavior.
Heather looked up at her like a lost puppy for a second, before gushing out the gist of what she already knew.
"It's... it's been Terrible! We... we got captured. Link... he tried to fend off an entire army of stalfos. Th...They just came from out of no where and that wizard... he seemed to be leading them. They knocked Link out, put this collar on me, and Impa... the wizard... he... he stabbed her! I..." Heather stuttered, tears falling from her eyes.
"Please calm down. Everything's going to be okay. Impa is fine." Melissa shushed, looking to Captain Keeta sitting by the far wall.
If Heather kept this up he might come over to investigate and she would rather the skeleton and it's rotten smell stay put.
"I saw the wizard stab her in the chest with some weird black stone spike. How could she be fine after that?" Heather sniffled, gaining a little composer.
"Well..." Melissa paused trying to think of how to explain it. "Ganon was also stabbed with one of those, but it doesn't kill like you think. The spikes seem to work like a spell, brain washing, transforming, or what ever Agahnim wants. When removed they don't seem to leave a wound, so Impa wasn't physically hurt at all. She, Nabooro, and Ganon are probably on their way to rescue us as we speak."
Heather looked quite relieved at that news and Melissa wished she could feel the same. Ganon was going to let her have it when he found her and waiting for the inevitable only made her antsy. Trying to distract her mind, she studied the cell again.
"Where is Link?" Melissa asked, realizing the hero was no where to be seen.
Melissa followed Heather's gaze to the cell beside them.
"He hasn't moved since they brought us here. I can't tell if he's okay." She replied looking on the verge of tears again.
Melissa peered into the cell. He looked bruised up, and there was a gash down his right arm. Considering how long he had been here with an untreated wound, she wouldn't be surprised if he had an infection. What troubled her most was the fact that he had never woken up. That meant the hero probably had a head concussion. She could see he was still breathing so that was a good sign, but she knew Link wouldn't survive much longer if not looked after properly.
"So, how did you get caught?" Heather asked pulling her attention back.
"I... well... can you keep a secret?" Melissa asked not sure she wanted this information getting back to Ganon quite yet.
"Why would the means by which you were caught need to be a secret?" Heather frowned sitting back.
"Just promise." Melissa sighed, trying not to be agitated.
"Okay, okay I promise." Heather snapped. "Now what is the secret?"
Melissa shook her head. She hadn't expected Heather to be civil for long, but the girl could at least try.
"What?" Heather demanded, seeing the hesitancy on Melissa's face.
"Well, I saw someone I recognized from home." Melissa answered reluctantly.
"Oh? Who?" she asked, looking very interested.
"Well of all people, I saw my fiancé...or would that be ex- fiancé?" Melissa replied unsure.
"Ex?" Heather repeated with a raised eyebrow.
Melissa wasn't about to spill all the details. She could only imagine what the girl would say if she knew who Melissa was now engaged to. Better to keep that to herself for now.
"It's kinda complicated. Anyways, I blindly rushed after him and lost track of where I was going. I ended up at a dead end and that's when I was caught." Melissa looked down.
"...and you want to keep this a secret why?" Heather asked, giving her a suspicious look.
" If you could have seen the look he gave me before pushing me into that stall, you wouldn't be asking me that. He was furious that I might have blown our cover. Now think. What would he do if he knew Jimmy was the reason I broke my promise." Melissa replied upset, putting her head in her hands. "He has been so patient with my stupidity so far, but there is no way I'm getting out of this without some form of punishment."
"Well sitting in this cell won't accomplish anything. If we could escape, and he sees a rescue isn't needed, maybe you won't be in trouble. Only problem is we have no magic or weapon to accomplish this goal." Heather said, pushing herself up off the ground.
"Oh what I wouldn't give to be able to get this stupid collar off." Melissa mumbled frustrated.
"You and me both. Believe me when I say, I have tried everything, but every time you fight it, the shocks get stronger." Heather huffed.
Had it been stronger the last time she had been shocked? She thought it had felt about the same as the first, but then she had no clue how many times Heather had attempted to remove her collar.
"Do you see that?" Heather whispered, pointing to Link's utility belt.
" The idiots forgot to take it off him when they brought us here. I have tried to reach him, but my arms don't seem to be long enough. Your arms, on the other hand, look a little longer than mine. If we could just get the magic pouch that carries all his weapons we might be able to get out of here." Heather responded, sounding hopeful.
"I guess I can try." Melissa said looking to Keeta, who seemed to be preoccupying himself with a game of cards
Maybe Heather was right. Maybe, if she could prove she wasn't the helpless girl everyone thought she was, Ganon would forgive her a little. Confident the stalfos was looking the other way, Melissa approached the bars. She reached for the hero, but found he was just barely out of reach.
"Don't give up. You almost have him." Heather encouraged, making Melissa stretch till it hurt.
She wasn't ready to give up, but this seemed hopeless. If only she had her magic, but then a thought occurred to her. After her last shock she remembered felling a draining sensation, but wouldn't all that energy be gone with the first shock? If the collar was supposed to leave her powerless, why had her energy returned?
Going on a hunch she reached for the energy that allowed her to use magic. To her surprise she could feel it again faintly. It might be enough to do something simple, but would the collar shock her if she tried to call on it?
Melissa shook her head. What was there to think about? If she could get just one spell out it would be worth it, but what element to use? She didn't think she would be able to sustain a flame long and hot enough to melt any bars, so that was out of the question. She looked to the stone floor. If only it had been dirt, maybe she could have used the ground to move Link closer.
"What are you doing now?" Heather asked, watching Melissa just sit there.
"Hold on. I'm thinking." Melissa retorted not meaning to sound so angry, but she couldn't help it.
She need to think of an element she could use, but was finding it hard to concentrate. Heather's talking only seemed to make it worse which frustrated her more.
"Think!" Melissa mumbled to herself. "Earth and fire are a no go. So what does that leave me? Light? Water? Shadow?"
There didn't seem to be much light or water to work with. There did seem to be plenty of shadow, but she no longer had the energy to control it. Dang it! What could she use?
"Heather? Name some elements for me." Melissa asked drawing a blank.
" I don't know what good it will do, but there is fire, water, earth, air, light, and shadow." Heather responded back haughtily.
Air? Why hadn't she thought of that before? Air was all around them and was never in short supply. This could be perfect! Now if she could just find the element's energy, she might be able to levitate something.
She felt for what she thought could be the air's energy. "Gather beneath him and bring him closer." she whispered hopeful, but nothing happened.
"Please tell me you're not trying to do magic?" Heather scoffed. "I thought you were smarter than that. Do you think the wizard would have made it that easy?"
But Melissa didn't want to hear it. She just kept pulling on the energy with all her will till she felt a surge rush through her. The room flashed white and that was when her collar kicked in. She tried to hold in the scream without much luck. Heather was right. This was much worse than last time.
"What's going on!" Keeta roared, before Melissa felt someone drag her away from the bars.
"You're a fool." Heather whispered. "You know that right?"
Melissa could only groan in response, as the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard.
"Ha! You thought you could break your collar did you?" Keeta jeered. "It must have given you quite a shock! I've never seen it light the whole room up before. Well serves you right. Maybe you'll think twice next time."
After Keeta's jabs gained him no reaction, he retreated back to his card game disappointed. Melissa didn't notice though. Her only thoughts were if the spell had worked or not. Her eyes eventually focused enough to see Link against the bars, but the pouch was nowhere to be seen. That of course made her frown. All that pain had been for nothing.
"Don't look so disappointed."She heard Heather laugh softly.
Turning her head back, she saw Heather pulling out a metal gauntlet from the bag she had thought was missing. The girl must have grabbed it when she had pulled her away.
"This..." Heather whispered, holding up the item with a half smile. "... is the Titan's Mitt. With it I can probably bend the bars. Not to mention it will give us a little edge against monsters."
"Do you think you can lead us out of here?" Melissa asked wondering if they were just going to be wandering aimlessly.
"That monster of a captain didn't realize my blindfold had slipped till we got down here, so I think I can pretty much retrace back to where they caught us. The only problem is from there we need the lens of truth. Impa had used it before to get us to the triforce statue, but I think the wizard took it from her. There are quite a few invisible traps, so we will just have to be extra careful." Heather admitted.
Melissa remembered the shadow temple from the game. It had a lot of walls, pitfalls, and floor spikes that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. One wrong move and it would be game over, only this was no longer a game. There would be no retry, or start over from save.
"It will be okay. I remember where a fair amount of traps are. We can avoid most of them easily." Heather tried to reassure her.
Melissa really didn't like the sound of this, but what choice did she have? It was either follow the girl and most likely help carry Link, or show Ganon how much of a coward she was, by staying in the dungeon.
"Maybe if I had a weapon I would feel a little better about this." Melissa replied, feeling like she had no choice.
If she had to do this she wanted to at least be able to defend herself.
"There wouldn't happen to be something in there that I could use would there? Perhaps a bow. I'm not the best and I don't know if it will be any good against a stalfos, but it's the only thing I have been allowed to train with." Melissa replied slowly sitting herself up.
" Actually I think there is." Heather said, rummaging some more, before pulling out Link's bow. "You can leave the skeletons to me. There will be other creatures to deal with that could use your expertise. Re-dead and gibdo are pretty much like zombies. One well placed shot to the head can take them down."
Melissa accepted it, really wishing she could avoid seeing one of those creatures again. Her main concern was whether she would be accurate enough to hit one in the head.
"Are you ready?" Heather whispered slipping her hand into the mitt, which seemed to activate the blue jewel on top with a pale glow.
Melissa nodded saying a silent prayer that every thing would work out.
"Alright cross your fingers. " Heather said, before placing her hands on the bars.