Chapter Nine: The Trials of the Desert

Title: LoZ: The Time Keeper

Chapter: 9

Author: Hikari no Vikki

Genre: Romance

Parings: Link x Zelda / OC x Shadow

Disclaimer: (holds up sign that says, 'I NO OWN!')

Description: Previously known as Divine Impurity. Following the events of Ocarina of Time, a girl with a legacy she knows nothing about joins the fight against Ganon. She falls in love with the Hero's shadow, and finds herself caught up in a war that seems impossible to win.

Author's Notes-

So, no one took the bait. It doesn't matter, really. I guess this was sort of for personal enjoyment from the start, but it's also for anyone who wants to read it. You wouldn't believe what this story used to be a LONG time ago. It's hardly recognizable now. It was originally an YGO/HP crossover (that I never finished) way back when I had this infatuation with Yugi. Now it's Dark Link, but that seems a little more suitable for the circumstances (and a little more believable).

When Shadow awoke it was just after dawn. It was a brief awakening, with him knowing he was awake before he even opened his eyes, and he sat up. Somehow – though it baffled him thoroughly on exactly how it might've happened – he found himself without his belt, tunic top, and undershirt, leaving his well-muscled chest bare.

Link was on the bed opposite him, and Shadow could just see him over the table in the middle of the small room, with his arm over the side and drooling into the pillow, lying of course on his stomach.

Link had – he supposed – removed the same garments he was missing, and was clad only in his leggings and pants. As he tried to string his thoughts together, he watched Link sleep. Indeed, he could see why he was once infatuated with the young man; he was beautiful. Handsome.

He had a well-chiseled face, the same muscles Shadow had (from all that fighting, he surmised), and that sun-kissed blond hair that splayed like feathers in every direction. But there was a different feeling that stirred in his heart when he gazed at his lighter half. Comradeship, if he could summarize it as such. A sort of family bonding feeling. Not quite an emptiness so much as a… a wave of admiration. Something along those lines.

But then Shadow realized something else; Victoria wasn't here.

He got up instantly to investigate, but remembered to dress before walking out in front of (whoever was awake at this hour) women half naked. While they wouldn't think certain things about him, he knew a great many would still whistle at the muscles he'd built up. He was already blushing at the mere thought!

Only after he had the pieces of his tunic in the proper places did he venture out to look for her, thanking Din for his insight at dressing before leaving, but obviously keeping the thought to himself.

He asked around, and some had seen her, some hadn't. The Training Ground Gerudo hadn't seen her come into train, but she did think she might've gone to the archery range to practice her shooting. "She's a damn good fighter," said the Gerudo, "I wouldn't put it past her to shoot well too."

So that's where Shadow went.

Gallop! Gallop!

Shadow's long ears swiveled toward the sound coming from the range. Someone was definitely there, though he wasn't sure if it was Victoria.

"Yah!"

His ears shot up. That was her voice. She was here! He broke from his jog into a quick, bolting run, hoping to get a glimpse of her on a horse. Sure, she'd been on a horse before, alone, but not when he was around.

He arrived brilliantly at the entrance, stepping through shadow with grace and care. When he caught sight of the dust trail the horse had left behind, he stopped. From here he could see her, her hair unbound, flying flames incarnate, a bow held skillfully in her hands.

She looked amazing.

In her reality, however, she was just barely making her cut. She hit nearly every target at least twice, and shot all the pots, all the while, directing and spurring the horse on with just her legs.

At the end of her run, she was sweaty, but it was a good sweat, touched by the cool morning breeze that wafted through the still-in-shadow range.

"You're really good, girl," the Archery Gerudo complimented, "I don't think you ever really lost your touch; you just needed to feel the bow in your hands again. Sometimes that's all you really need, you know?" Victoria nodded. She felt the same way. The feeling of the cool wood in her hands, partially bandaged or not, was unfamiliar at first, but gradually fell back into her usual pattern from when she was a child.

Suddenly there was a clapping from the entrance, and Victoria caught a familiar aura before she turned.

"Ah!" she smiled, recognizing it at last, "Shadow! It's good that you're up! Is Link with you?" Shadow shook his head. "No. Still sleeping. But, if you ask me, he deserves it, with all that he does.

"That was beautiful by the way, what you did just now."

She blushed fiercely, her right hand jumping to her face to try to cover it. "Please, I'm not… well, I didn't mean…" After a few unsuccessful tries, she gave up.

Then she out her hand back down and smiled weakly.

Shadow, thoroughly amused now, shook his head with a smile on his face. "You know, it's okay to take a little praise every now and then." He walked closer, their chests only a foot away from the other. The Archery Gerudo (who he was pretty sure was called Pashli) eased away, grinning and holding back snickers.

Neither of them cared to notice.

"You're so beautiful, Victoria, do you know that?" She didn't blush this time. She just stared into his eyes – which had changed back to blue from the red they'd been only a moment ago – with a ghost of a secret smile glistening on her lips. "You're so beautiful," he went on, "I can't say much more than that. You make me feel like a actually deserve you; more like a person and less like the animal I used to be treated like." He stopped to take a few breaths, but when he wanted to continue, he found he could only say, "Well? Say something."

The ghost of a smile grew. "Why say something, when one act in particular is so much sweeter?" With that, she closed the gap between them and then first rays of the sunlight to make their way into the range shone upon their tender kiss.

Victoria slid her hands over his shoulders and around his neck, interlinking their fingers so she all but hung from his neck to keep her standing. "We should go back," Shadow whispered into her hair, "the day of the desert may be hot and dry, but it's short this time of year. And if the river is as bad as Namali says it is, we need to get moving." A pause. They broke away, only slightly. "And we need to wake Link if he isn't up already."

She smiled.

They met him as he came out of the room they'd been staying in, dressed and with the rest of their belongings in his hat.

"I suppose the both of you are ready?" he asked them, "I've had something to eat already, so if either of you haven't…" Shadow's stomach growled. "I haven't," he muttered guiltily, "but I don't think I'll need much. Just some thick bread will do I think." Link dug in his hat and tossed him a wrist-to-elbow length loaf littered with desert spices. Shadow inhaled it quickly.

When they approached the gate, Namali greeted them.

"I still don't have a chance of talking you out of this?" She asked as they approached. Shadow shook his head. "Sorry, no. How bad is it out there anyway?" Namali clapped for the gate to be raised. As it did so, Namali looked out at the desert.

"It looks nice and calm now, but once you get past the river, if you get past it at all, the wind picks up immensely and you can hardly see. It's like it's fueled by magic." Victoria frowned.

"It very well might be," she muttered absently, her eyes focused on the distant sand, "preventing would-be heroes from reaching the Temple." Namali looked back at the Sheikah. "Or perhaps the temple itself is trying to keep others away," she continued, "and only the true heroes will make it through to safety." Namali chuckled. "You amaze me, Sheikah, you really do. And perhaps you're right. I just hope that the three of you are these heroes. Not being able to go to the Colossus to perform our water rituals and such has been taxing on us." Victoria nodded. "I understand.'

And without another word, they stepped into the desert.

"You mentioned three trials," Link said as they stood at the banks of the river, "what are they?"

"There are actually only two, but the poles just beyond this river are sometimes like a third trial in themselves. The first is this river of sand, which, now that I'm looking at it, truly is a powerful force." His eyes narrowed as he studied it. "It's never been a particularly fast river because, well, it's sand. But it's not completely made of sand. Down below, if you know where to enter, is the real river. Somehow, the sand on the top drags you down, and once you get past the layer of sand, you're in the water and you're done for. Unless you can find the entrance to the other side of the sand. It isn't that hard if you have a good, full store of air in your lungs, or a Zora's tunic, you can make it pretty quick because even though it's pitch dark below, the holes given you a column of light to see by."

Link nodded. "So unless we can find some other way to cross above the river, we go under it. Then there are the poles. We should hold hands or link something to keep us together. That way if we end up back at the start, we're together." Shadow nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

'Too bad plans don't always go as planned,' Victoria thought, an icy feeling of foreboding trickling down her spine.

"And the last trial is the Phantom Guide. A ghost will guide us the rest of the way; provided we keep up and avoid the traps of the desert." Link scoffed. "That sounds fun." Shadow grinned. "It's easier than it sounds, trust me."

The icy feeling strengthened, like somehow she knew it was a lie.

"Let's go," she said icily, "we need to keep moving." Something didn't feel right. "So where's this entrance to the underground river?" Shadow pointed to a watery hole to their left about waist size or bigger. "But I don't know if we'll fit." He studied the boxes at their feet and across the river.

"Hey, do you think the Hookshot could reach those boxes over there?"

Link squinted. "Maybe. But barely." For the first time, Victoria noticed Link was wearing his Goron Tunic, probably to cope with the blistering heat. She found she quite liked it, her element being fire, and Shadow didn't seem to be phased, and acted as he usually did, thinking and guiding Link towards a better decision.

"We should go for it. Or better yet, give me the Longshot and you use your Hover Boots to get across." Link shuffled his gold-feathered feet. "Are you sure that'll work? They only stay above ground for so long…" Shadow waved a finger. "But they're so light the sand won't even know you're walking on it, as long as you keep moving, of course."

Link coughed. "Well that's helpful."

"Let's just do something," Victoria hissed. "Easy, love. We're moving." Link had by now given him the Longshot and was walking across the river, running whenever it slowed down enough to let him, but otherwise moving slowly but surely. He handed it to her.

"Is something wrong, Victoria?" he asked her, his eyebrows furrowing. She frowned. "I don't know. I just know something doesn't feel right. The winds… the sand… it feels wrong. There's bad magic here, I can feel it."

"Well you go ahead. That way if I get stuck in the sand or something you can help fish me out." At this, she scowled. "Don't say that." And then she shot off, landing safely next to Link as he just made it over the edge. Shadow gripped the Hookshot. "This better work," he cursed himself under his breath, hoping this wasn't a time when his stupidity could be fatal.

He aimed at the box to Victoria's left as she stood, poised and watching.

The chain link embedded itself in the wood rather well, but something very wrong lodged itself in his mind. The – suspected but unknown – Sheikah side of him sped up along the link, finding the knot in its well-worn chain. It wasn't made for this. But his mind, though of Shiekah descent, was untrained, and could only interpret the danger as a split-second need for help.

"Victoria!" His cry sounded just as the chain locked and would proceed no further. His body, no longer propelled by the previously moving link sank into the river. 'No…' the water under the sand caught his boots, and he clung to the chain with all his might, for his life depended on it. Victoria grasped the chain before it left the wooden box, and was pulling for all her natural strength would let her. She forced pure magic energy into her hands, but it was simply not enough.

They were slipping. Victoria knew she would follow Shadow to death's door if need be. And that, at the moment, was a very possible path.

But Shadow's magic intervened. Though the shadows had little power aboveground in the hot, beating sun, below the river they reigned victorious. They were anxious to save one of the kindest masters they'd ever known, and propelled him onward, though the river was certainly angry at having its prey taken from it.

Victoria sensed the magic from the below the sand, and pulled once more, tugging fiercely with renewed vigor. One last jerk shot Shadow over the edge and into Victoria (landing in a very questionable position) but they were otherwise well and safe.

Once the tendrils had left, Victoria got up and held the tattered Hookshot in her hands.

"It's completely shot. And when I say shot," she said with a half bitter smile, "I'm not referring to what it does. I think it's time to pitch it." With that, she set it aflame, the flecks of the remaining metal disappearing into the winds.

"So what now?" Shadow asked, half arrogantly, grateful that she saved him but irritated that the Hookshot had outlived its usefulness.

Victoria held the Longshot in front of her, and left it levitating in midair. "This," she answered, waving her hands from a crossing motion to an open, inviting one. She concentrated, the spell moving through her mind like thick water, reluctant but persistent, and eventually it broke though. The Longshot began a sort of mitosis, and in mere moments, became two of the same item.

"That would have been so much more useful if we'd been able to do that before," Shadow muttered, staring at the Longshot copy she gave him. "I couldn't have done it before. It's hard conjuring a spell like that, especially when I have to rely on a limited magic source for the necessary instructions. And," she held up a finger, "splitting matter like that is harder with weapons and such than clothing." She flipped a lock of hair that had escaped her binding ponytail out of her face. "Because you have to take other matter and transfigure it into something it wasn't before and all I have to work with here is sand." Shadow looked mildly surprised.

"So you're not really… duplicating it?" Victoria shook her head.

"Not in the way you're thinking of. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it's the same with matter. Now come on, we look like idiots just standing here." She grinned. "It was you after all that said the desert day is a fleeting one, yes?" Shadow scowl at her sharp memory.

Though the sand stung their eyes (in the cases of Link and Shadow, as Victoria used her Sheikah's cowl to protect her) they traversed the poles through Shadow's lead, linking hands, and finally they came to a calm spot where the sandy winds weren't quite so battering, where the second trial, the Phantom Guide, was supposed to be.

"The guide is supposed to keep you from danger, as well as losing your way, so it shouldn't be so hard."

Link acknowledged Shadow's bit of speech with a grunt as they ran up the stone spiral. They came to the octagonal top, which had to one (the north?) side a raised stone slab upon which the words, "One with the eye of truth shall be guided to the Spirit Temple with an inviting ghost," were written.

Link blinked, the Lens of Truth – still in eye-sling form – flashing to reveal the ghost to him.

"I'll be your guide on the way," it said, floating off, "but coming back, I won't play!" They had no choice but to follow it at this point, as it was a fast ghost, and its words rang with a brittle, biting truth. "I'll show you the only way to go, so follow me and don't be slow!"

And then the ghost cackled, amused by their attempts to keep up.

"You didn't happen to mention our guide had a sick sense of humor!" Link shot back as he ran after the ghost.

"I find it rather fascinating it has a sense of humor at all," Victoria said, marveling at it as she ran, "because so few of them do." Shadow chuckled. "I don't think that's what he meant, love." He was only a pace or so behind her.

"Hmm. Doesn't matter. I don't think we'll hit anything bad, really, except for…" "AHH!" She laughed as Link jumped/ran comically out of the way of a couple of Leevers that had appeared out of the sand. "Ah, I hate these things even more than ceiling masters! Dammit…"

She laughed again, a little quieter. "I think you're right about him hating pretty much anything that wasn't to kill him; some more than others."

Shadow laughed. "I'm thinking I should rephrase that to anything that wants to embarrass him in front of either of us." Again, she laughed. The Leevers didn't seem to be bothering them as much as they were Link, but it was still challenging to keep up with the ghost laughing at them all the way to a pair of posts sticking out of the sand.

Then they ran through them as the ghost disappeared. Victoria and Link stopped, looking up at the giant, enormous, awesome stone structure they had arrived at; the Desert Colossus.

"Welcome, my friends," Shadow said dramatically, "to the Spirit Temple."

This chapter sort of flowed better than the last one. I don't do traveling scenes so well, but I'm making an effort to get better at them, so yeah. And you can tell I'm running out of things to say for the disclaimer, huh? XD