Alright, I owe you guys big time... So, here's chapter six, earlier than what I had anticipated and what I normally take to write a chapter. -looks away...-

Chapter 6

The sun was setting across the desert, thus causing the heat to go down and the critters to come out. This is no exaggeration in saying that Claire was yelping and screaming every five minutes. Now, she had made a pile of all the packs, raising her off the ground, and wrapping herself with the tent tarp. "Stupid scorpions, stupid spiders, stupid snakes..." she kept muttering. Yasl landed on her shoulder, making the girl jump. "Are they having any luck with the statues?" She asked.

Yasl jingled sadly. "I've never had to use them... so I don't know." Claire sighed.

Emri tapped her foot, staring up into the eroded face of Din. "Oh, don't stare at me like that. We're trying to figure it out! Great... I'm talking to a statue!" She threw her hands up in the air. "Shea! Having any luck?"

"...no, Nayru. I'm not as smart as you. And apparently, neither is Emri. We're trying to figure it out! Just give us a sign! I'm talking to a statue. I'm talking to a statue. Great, Emri!" Shea ran a hand through his hair. He pulled the tie out of his hair and tied it back up again. "This is vexing."

"Yes, yes it is." Emri had to agree. This was the hardest puzzle she had ever come across. "Use Rhairu's power... move to the rightful places... Daughter of Balance. Do they not know that you've been sealed off from Rhairu's power?"

Shea froze. "Emri... repeat that."

"What? You've been sealed off?"

The blonde looked at his hand. What if... he rested his hand on the base of the Nayru statue. He covered the Triforce with his palm, and closed his eyes. Exhaling nervously, Shea let himself go... he felt himself shrink backwards into the very fabric of space and time, towards the heavens. He felt light, like he was in water.

"So, you finally came to me. I knew you mortals would need my help." Rhairu appeared in a gradient of golden light. Shea had to block his eyes from the lighted figure walking towards him. The god's white hair flowed like liquid, golden eyes leering at him in a mocking fashion.

"You don't need to get cocky." Shea grumbled.

"I'm a god. I have a right to be cocky." Rhairu smirked, coming to stand in front of Shea. The heat from the light coming from him was burning... Shea endured the blinding light to look up at his golden eyes.

"I need your help."

The god raised his eyebrows. "I'm listening."

"You need to unblock me."

For some odd reason, Rhairu found this hilarious. The god started to laugh, doubling over and slapping his knee. But his laugh was surprisingly dark... it made Shea shiver. "Unblock my powers? Do you realize that that would completely defeat the purpose? What do you want afterwards? For me to just hand you the Triforce?"

"That would be nice..." Shea mumbled before regaining the stronger edge in his voice, "If you want me to do what you want, and that's find the Triforce thus redeeming myself and all that, you need to help me. I can't do this alone!"

Rhairu arched an eyebrow, one corner of his mouth quirking up. "Really? You're admitting that you can't do everything by yourself? Well, this is an improvement."

"Just quit avoiding it, and help me!" Shea was starting to get annoyed.

Rhairu let out a sigh, crossing his arms again. "Alright. I'll give you a small percentage of my energy, enough to move the statues. But when it's gone, it's gone. Understand, my persevering little incarnate?"

Shea nodded. "I understand."

"That's a good kid." Rhairu patted Shea on the head -much to the latter's chagrin- and began to glow again. "Now, this is the only time that I will aid you freely. The next time you come to me, it will be payed with a price."

Shea frowned. "You aren't as merciful as the books say you are..."

The god smiled maliciously. "I did that on purpose. Now go. Your body is freezing."

Shea opened his eyes with a gasp, finding himself passed out on the sand. True to Rhairu's word, he immediately felt cold, and dehydrated. "Water... I need water..."

"Shea! You're awake. Are you alright?" Emri and Claire's faces obscured his vision of the dark sky above. "You suddenly just... passed out. I was trying to talk to you about the markings on the bases of the statues and then you just... collapsed!" Emri explained as Claire helped Shea sit up.

"I'll tell you what happened if you get me some water..." Shea's breathed out. His heart raced. Claire gave him the canteen, and water had never tasted so good. True, it was a little metallic in taste, and a little warm, but the liquid served its purpose.

Emri crouched by him, and put a hand on Shea's shoulder. "Alright. What happened?"

"I let myself go to Rhairu."

The two girls gasped, and Emri's face contorted into a mixture of concern, and anger. "Shea! Why? Do you know what would happen if he were to completely overtake your body?"

"I do know." Shea snapped back, "But he didn't make any motions to overtake me. I went to him to ask for his help. You had given me an idea, and I thought it couldn't hurt-"

"But it could have hurt! Shea, you were out for an hour. Any longer, and you could have had gotten hypothermia. An hour itself is dangerous, even at night. Claire and I nearly lost our arms because we were rubbing you ferociously to keep you warm! We were about to resort to the next alternative but..." Emri trailed off before continuing, "But what did Rhairu say?"

Shea took another gulp of water, feeling a new appreciation for Emri and Claire. "He gave me a little bit of power, but when its gone, its gone. So, I have to use it wisely."

"That you do, if Rhairu was this generous." Emri agreed.

Claire frowned. "But what happens the next time? When you need to go to Rhairu?"

"That's the problem." Shea shook his head. "I don't know what he'll do the next time. 'The next time you come to me, it will be payed with a price.'"

Emri looked at Claire, before looking at Shea worriedly. "Alright, well, let's figure out these statues." Emri grunted as she helped Shea stand.

Shea stood shakily. "Ok, Emri. What was this about the bases?"

Emri pointed to the base of one of the statues. "There's a triforce engraved on it-"

"-yeah, I know that."

"-but there are also other things that have been weathered away. Like the runes on the platform, the same type of runes are on the statues." Emri finished.

Shea walked over to the statue. Sure enough, there were runes on the statue, albeit hard to read. "Emri, can you read these?"

"Barely. And they all say the same thing: I am empty, for time has taken it away. I am a powerless goddess, so I am weak. I can't read it past there. The runes get too complicated."

Great. More riddles. Shea rolled his eyes. "Well, we should set up camp, and sleep on this. I don't want to waste any of the power that Rhairu gave me."

"Good idea."

--

The next morning, Shea was the first one up. Exiting the tent that all three of them had to share (don't get him wrong, it was very awkward indeed), he was surprised to find that he had beaten the sun. Well, more time to figure out the statue puzzle.

Walking over to the nearest one, he stared at it intently. "I am empty... I am a powerless goddess..." he muttered to himself. Shea scratched his head. "How can rock be empty?" He rested his hand on the Triforce that was engraved into the rock. "So annoying..."

"You're up early." A squeak came from behind him.

Shea turned around. "Yeah. The statues were bothering me." He stared at the fairy. "Yasl... how old are you?"

"I'm twenty, in fairy years," Yasl chirped, before asking, "Why?"

"Then you know Ancient!" Shea exclaimed excitedly. "You can read it fluently, can't you?"

The little fairy shivered nervously. "I don't know if I can remember..."

Shea pushed the fairy over to the statue, "Well, try. We already know the first part. We need you to translate the second."

"Umm... um..." Yasl hummed as he read, zooming back and forth over the runes. "I am a powerless goddess, so I am weak. Fill me with the light, and I will do your bidding. Light is knowledge, and the absence of knowledge is darkness. Peace is the presence of light, and without peace, there is chaos."

Shea thought, rolling it around in his head. "The last part sounds like a warning. 'Fill me with the light, and I will do your bidding,' though..." His eyes widened, "The rock is hollow... fill it with light... do my bidding. I got it! Emri, Claire, wake up!" He ran over to the tent, and started banging on the tarp. "Wake up! I figured out the riddle!"

Claire shot out of the tent, holding a stick. "Where's the fire?" She still looked dazed from sleep.

Emri stumbled out, rubbing her eyes. Shea knew that he was going to pay for such a rude awakening, but that can wait. The grey-eyed girl looked at him tiredly. "What?"

Shea, on the other hand, looked absolutely ecstatic. "The answer to the riddle! How to make the statues move!"

Emri waved her hand incoherently. "Yeah, yeah. Spit it out so we can- Wait, you what? Claire, put that stick down before you hurt someone. Shea! How'd you...?"

"I had Yasl translate the last part of the runes. It said 'Fill me with the light, and I will do your bidding.' Rhairu is the god of Peace and Restoration, right? The runes also said something about light being peace. They are telling me to fill the statues with Rhairu's power. Fill them with the light!"

Claire tilted her head, thoughtfully. "That actually makes sense..."

Emri looked at Shea skeptically. "Shea, you have limited access to Rhairu's power at the moment. And when that reserve is gone, you have to go to him again. And the next time you do, you have to pay a price, and we don't know what that is yet. I don't think that we should risk it..."

Shea arched an eyebrow. "Emri, are you saying that I am inept at solving riddles?"

"No, no! That's not-"

"You are!" Shea stared at Emri as she stammered. "You're implying it, at least."

"That's not what I'm saying at all! I'm merely saying that we should look for other options so we don't blow the only chance we got." Emri sniffed.

Shea locked his jaw, peering into Emri's eyes. "Alright. What are your ideas?"

"Well," she elongated, turning away from Shea's accusing gaze to look at a statue, "well... well..." she struggled before sighing, "I got nothing." she admitted.

Shea smirked. "So. Who was wrong?"

Emri didn't answer.

"Who wasn't right?"

"Lets just get these statues moved."

Claire laughed as Shea continued smirking and Emri continued scowling.

Emri stood off to the side, "Alright, smart-one. Do whatever it is you do..." She had already decided that today would not be a good day.

To be perfectly honest, Shea had no idea what he had to do. And he sure wasn't going to look like an idiot again. Here goes nothing... well, everything... Shea put his hand on the triforce, and searched for the reserve that Rhairu had given him. Ah... there it was. It was a golden pool of substance in his mind. He pushed, he pushed it... he felt it flow through his veins, and through his fingertips, and into the rock. He cut it off before it all left him. Taking a deep, hopeful breath, he removed his hand...

The triforce was glowing. The triforce on the rock was now illuminated.

"Haha!" Shea jumped into the air, punching his fist into the sky. "We did it! Yes!"

Emri looked over his shoulder, and Claire the other. They looked at each other before screaming, "Yes! Shea, go do whatever it is you did to the other two!"

"Wait." Shea stopped, "We need to see if it actually works..." he cleared his throat, "Statue of Farore."

There was a rumble, and the statue... move its head. The statue of Farore looked at him, the places where the eyes would be were now filled with green light. Shea couldn't keep from smiling. "Retake your spot on the Triforce over there... please."

The statue didn't move. Shea's shoulders fell. He was about to turn around to trudge back to the tent when there was a grinding noise. He looked up and the statue started to slide over the platform. As soon as the base crossed the line of the Courage part of the triforce, that entire section glowed.

Now very pleased with himself, Shea jogged over to Din, and repeated the process. It took this statue considerably longer to make its trip across the platform, but was able to light up its section of the triforce. Repeating the ritual with Nayru, Shea stood back as the Triforce glowed with greater intensity. There was a rumble, and the three onlookers fell to the ground. The sand shook, and the three statues glowed with their individual light. "You have proven yourselves worthy. Enter into the Daughter's Domain."

There was a crack, and the middle of the platform disappeared, grinding away under the rest of it, until the middle section of the Triforce was gone, leaving a large staircase. Shea, Claire, and Emri started down, but there was yet another groan from the ground: "Only he who controls the Light may enter."

"I think they mean you, Shea." Claire whispered in the blonde's ear.

Emri put a hand on his shoulder, "Find out what's wrong with the fairy. We'll be waiting out here. Yasl, go with him."

"Naturally." The fairy squeaked.

Descending into the darkness, Yasl took his place on Shea's shoulder. The rock shut himself away from the outside world... suddenly, he felt alone. The only light that was in the tunnel was Yasl, there, perched on his shoulder. He's like a parrot... He thought dryly.

"Yasl," his voice echoed, "describe this tunnel to me. I don't want to run into any-"

Something hard hit him on the face. "... walls."

But Yasl didn't have to answer, because Shea turned his head and there was a brilliant blue light, marking the end of his underground venture. Water reached his ears, and he broke into a jog... the fairy's domain.

Blue crystal lined the walls, and came towards the center to form a pool. Water fell from the back wall down into the pool. Shea looked down when sloshing sounds were made when he walked. Yasl left his shoulder and zoomed around. "Mother?"

"Yasl! You're back!" More little yellow spheres zoomed out of hidden crevices, swirling around Yasl. Shea had a hard time keeping track of his fairy when he was surrounded by similar looking ones.

The cave seemed to explode into a million little voices as the fairies came to greet their brother. But one voice, frail as it might have been, rang out above them all. "Clear the pool... I wish to see him..."

The fairies went quiet and Yasl returned to Shea's shoulder. "Mother..."

A glowing yellow light descended from the source of the waterfall, and it solidified in the pool. A young woman with golden hair and eyes sat there, scantily clad in a pale yellow wrap. Shea couldn't tell if her skin was supposed to be pure white and almost translucent, or if it was a result of her getting her power drained. Because this, without doubt, was the Great Fairy of Balance.

The fairy coughed, light as a crystal bell, and gazed with those eerie eyes into Shea's own. "So, my dear son Yasl has found you... Shea." Her mouth didn't move, but Shea heard her voice in his mind as clearly as if she had said it. "I'm sorry I do not talk. The Man in the Black Cloak has drained me so -and continues to- that I cannot waste what energy I have left on petty words."

Shea opened his mouth, but was shushed by the fairy raising her hand. "Do not talk, for we have little time. You have come here to find the Triforce before he does. That is well, because my Father would never allow such filthy hands on his precious Triforce." The fairy's voice took on a haughty tone before she physically coughed again. The shimmering light around her faltered. "Never mind me, my children. I am fine." She reassured the fairies that swarmed around her. The fairies backed away and the Great Fairy spoke once more-

"I am forbidden in giving the direct place where you are to find the Triforce, for the place is never the same. It all depends on you, Shea. Your journey will come out depending on your actions. Your mother, even, cannot find the place, because the future is never set in stone. Your actions will decide the fate of you, the fate of Hyrule... and the fate of your friends. You have received that dream from Rhairu a few weeks back, yes? Do not take that vision lightly.

"The least I can do, or all that I am enabled to do, physically and divinely, is tell and send you to the place where you will start your journey. Journey, not quest. If you think this is where your quest begins, you are quite mistaken. Your quest starts not with a place, or a task, but when you decide. Your quest is yours to find and complete. It all comes down to your actions, and your decisions." The fairy stared at Shea, letting all she said sink into him.

Shea rolled her cryptic speech around in his mind. When he waited for her to speak, he found her staring at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to say something in response. "But... I don't understand everything. The dream that Rhairu sent me, your warnings..."

The fairy laughed, high, like a babbling stream before speaking, "You aren't expected to understand it all, right now. Truth is revealed a little at a time. If it were all revealed at once, do you think that your people would be advancing like they are? One baby step at a time. That's how you get things done."

Shea nodded, then asked intently. "What about the new evil?"

The fairy looked down, swirling her hand in the water. "His name is Derrick, and a descendent of Ganon. You could say that he is a distant cousin of one of your friends." She looked up into Shea's shocked eyes before continuing, "Although, he lacks the abilities his relative does. Abilities and powers that he has always lusted after. When Derrick turned twenty," she paused as an image swirled up from the blue depths. An inky black highlighted with fiery accents swirled until a battle scene appeared. One man was on a rearing black horse, holding a large sword. A hood was over his face. Shea watched as he cut down the Exelians that came after him. The fairy started to speak once more, "When Derrick turned twenty, he rebelled against the Exelians. He was stopped, and arrested. As punishment, he was tried and sent into exile."

Shea let a wry grin slip. And exiled Hylian going into exile... a bit ironic. But he listened more to Derrick's story. "He, along with his followers, left the land that the Exelians had claimed when they themselves had been exiled. He has been wandering Hyrule and her neighboring countries, searching for power equal to the one prophesied to come into the Exelian's hands. Power that could destroy a mountain with a single glance, cause oceans to dry up with a word... because that was what Din's power was said to be able to do. Derrick couldn't find it. Until he heard of you. When you were born, he rode long and hard to Termina, searching the land until he found you and your family. Knowing that you were useless at your young age, he waited. He did research on Rhairu, and learned that his incarnate would have to be awakened. When you reached a ripe age, he continued to wait. When you left Termina, he still waited. When you were captured by Exelians, he waited, knowing that they would do the dirty work for him. And now, he is after you, and what was taken from this world.

"Derrick is a powerful sorcerer, having harnessed the darkest magic and even touching into necromancy, a sin in the eyes of the Heavenly Beings. He is a force to be reckoned with..." the fairy broke off into a series of coughs, breathing hard. "I haven't much time left... are you ready to learn where you must go?"

Shea nodded, and the fairy once more touched the blue water lightly with her finger. A new image replaced the horrible scowl of a man with hateful, red eyes in its crystal surface... a clearing, in a dense forest. It was raining. "This is the place where you need to go. I can send you to the nearest fairy point, but no further... Speaking and staying in this physical form for as long as I have is tiring... Pathetic, right?" She laughed sadly. "Go outside, and meet your friends. Yasl will remain with you. But go into the blue ring that appears at midnight tonight. That is the quickest way, and only way, I can aid you in your journey." The Great Fairy started to glow, and dissipate into the light, "You must not repeat anything I have said to you concerning you. But your friends should know of Derrick, and what they are up against. Good luck, Shea, and may Rhairu and the Goddesses be with you..."

--

Claire and Emri paced in front of where Shea would be coming up. It had been an hour since he went down with Yasl to meet the Great Fairy of Balance. They wondered what was going on, down there... they wondered what the Great Fairy was saying to him.

Soon, with the sun overhead, the ground rumbled, and they both shot out of the tent as Shea walked out from the cavern. The rock closed up behind him, and the statues shattered, never to be used again.

"Shea! What'd she say?"

"Where do we have to go?"

"Was she absolutely tragic looking?"

"What was it like?"

Shea put his hands up as the two girls ambushed him with questions. "I'll explain everything over lunch. We have to wait until midnight to get out of here... she's using the last of her power to send us away."

"What?!" Emri exclaimed, "But then she'll..."

Shea looked at Yasl, who hadn't said anything since the fairy appeared. Emri followed his gaze, and looked at the fairy sadly. "Yasl, I'm so sorry..."

Yasl shook, "She won't die... it's alright. I just hate seeing her in that state. And it will take a millennia for her to rest and get her powers back..." he sighed.

Claire rubbed her hands together, "Well, lets get that food cooking. Shea, start explaining now, because I have a feeling you have a lot to tell us."

--

"...so, let me get this straight. Derrick, the bad guy, is a relative of a certain person, who has always envied his distant cousin-"

"- also known as, Blaize." Claire cut in with sing-song tone.

"- and is now using dark magic, necromancy, and is searching for you, and the Triforce? Jeeze, this guy sure is ambitious." Emri finished, but not without a glare at Claire, who was shoving the jackrabbit meat into her mouth. "But nonetheless, we need to be on our toes. Who knows what kind of connections he has. His spies could be everywhere..."

Claire snorted. "This jackrabbit could have been a spy! One down, many to go!" She laughed maniacally.

Shea grinned, shaking his head while laughing a little bit. "Claire..."

"What? It's probably true." She muttered as she ripped the meat off of the bone with her teeth.

"But yeah. That's the basic gist of it." Shea looked at Emri. "I think we should take shifts until midnight. I don't want to miss the portal."

Emri nodded, "Good idea. I volunteer Claire to stay up first." She grinned as Claire, cheeks stuffed full, turned her head to face her. Claire tried to look angry, but her chipmunk cheeks made Emri burst into laughter. Shea chuckled as he stood up to go into the tent to rest up.

Alright. Leave some reviews now! Or else I'm not giving you the next chapter...