I felt . . . fuzzy.

I felt like my limbs weren't there, like I was . . . dead.

But then I felt pain.

Pain? How could I feel pain if I was dead?

Unless I was alive . . . but that, too, was impossible!

I felt like something was on top of me . . . I vaguely heard a voice say, "Wake up! Are you okay? WAKE UP!"

I murmured, "I'm spree as a birrrrd . . . and live as a . . . deadbolt . . . filled with . . . uhhh . . . cookies . . . yeah . . ."

"Cookies? Yeah, cookies is ice . . ." (or at least, that's what I heard.)

"Cookies is ice? Y'got bad grammar, bunbee . . . oh, my head . . ."

"Bumbdee, eh? I think you're mean, dummy!" (or maybe he said, "I think you mean dummy.")

"My head . . ." I moaned. "It . . . oh . . . Huh?"

Suddenly, I was aware of moaning and shuffling. I felt enormous pressure on my legs, chest, and arms. The pressure was certainly from someone on top of me, and I realized that I recognized the voice.

"Link!" I tried to get up.

"Sh, sh!" Link covered my mouth with his hand. "Stay down. Re-dead. Their eyesight is based on movement, and they can hear normal speech well, but not whispers. Just . . . Oh, Rebecca, you're okay!" He kissed me on the lips, and I suddenly felt awkward. Link barraged me with more kisses until I asked him to stop. But, apparently, he knew that I wasn't really annoyed (I guess my laughing gave that away) and gave me one last long kiss. In spite of myself, I giggled.

"What was that for?" I asked, laughing.

Link moved his head just enough for me to see the almost-full moon. He smiled. "Did I ever tell you how beautiful you look in the moonlight? How your eyes sparkle like the stars that surround the moon? How the blue glow of the waxing gibbous flatters you perfectly?"

I shook my head. I was happy that I was being complimented like this.

"Well, you do, they do, and it does." Link laughed quietly. "Well, enough talk. Look over there . . . slowly."

I turned my head sideways. Luckily, Link's hand muffled my shriek considerably. I saw two mummified feet dragging along the ground, followed by a huge, ancient blade. I looked up and just about fainted. The rest of the Re-dead was just as gruesome as its feet—rotting bandages, bones sticking out, and the head—merely a wrapped-up skull. I shuddered and almost retched.

Link used the hand that covered my mouth to turn my head towards him. "And there are ten."

I gasped. "Ten?"

Link nodded and smiled a lopsided smile. "Guess you didn't know about Re-dead and anti-death spells when you decided to jump from that window, huh?"

I opened my mouth to say, "I didn't want to die!" but figured that would sound stupid.

Link leaned forward to put his mouth to my ear. "Don't move," he whispered, and rolled sideways, slowly. I gasped for air. Link was now lying parallel to me. He reached back and slowly pulled out two swords. He handed one to me, and it flamed in my hands. I smiled. I had FIRESTORM once more.

Link held out his hand and put it over my chest. "Stay still . . . Wait for it . . . wait for it . . ." As he spoke, the Re-dead came closer and closer . . . until Link yelled, "NOW!" and leapt up.

I jumped up and felt compelled to yell, "FIRESTORM!" so I did. Suddenly, a pillar of fire engulfed three of the Re-dead. I suddenly felt exhausted. I heard an unearthly scream, and my muscles seized up. I couldn't move. I saw a Re-dead try to lift its sword. I desperately tried to move. The Re-dead succeeded in lifting its sword. The momentum carried the huge blade forward . . . closer and closer . . .

CLANG!

Link had leapt in front of the sword, blocking it with his sword. I found I was able to move again. I held up FIRESTORM and yelled its name. Four Re-dead erupted in flames and incinerated, including the one that Link was fighting. There were three left.

I moved quickly, slashing and stabbing at a Re-dead until it collapsed and died. (If it was alive before, then had died, then become a Re-dead . . . then it was a re-dead Re-dead . . . or a Re-re-dead . . .) Link stabbed one once, killing it instantly. One left.

I stabbed it, and Link stabbed it, both at the same time. The creature shrieked and slumped to the ground.

I was panting. I hadn't expected this. I looked over at Link, who was, too, breathing heavily. He looked at me, and smiled. "Heh. We . . . we won!"

I looked at my sword. "How did you escape, Link?"

Link looked at me apologetically. "I slipped out past the guards. I wanted to go back and get you, but Ganondorf almost caught me as it was. Oh, I'm so sorry . . ." His eyes rolled back into his head and he completely passed out. I sniffed the air and smelled a strange smell, then passed out as well.

When I woke up, I was back in Ganondorf's castle. I was in a high-security dungeon cell. Torches flickered on the walls and a plate of bread and water was on a table. As for the furniture, there was only a cot and a chamber pot.

I tried to move and realized that I was chained to a stake in the stone floor. The chain was on a shackle on my leg.

I looked at the door—a heavy wooden door with a window about 6" x 12"—and stood up. Luckily, the chain reached to the door. I looked through the window to see a sleeping figure in a chair. Upon closer inspection (er, squinting) I saw that it was . . . Link!

"Link!" I breathed.

Link woke up and looked at me. Then my heart sank. It wasn't Link. It looked like him, though . . . with grey skin, black clothes, and red eyes.

The dark mirror of Link looked from me to the cell to my left. I looked at the wall to my left and saw a window in the wall, which I walked over to and looked through. I saw the REAL Link on the floor. He was in bad shape—his clothes were bloodied and torn, and his bare feet had terribly mangled bottoms. I winced at this sight, but nonetheless called, "Link!"

Link stirred, then looked up at me. He immediately sprang up and hobbled over to me. "Rebecca!"

I put my hands on the wall below the window. "What did they do to you?"

"They forced me down onto hot coals and whipped me. They wanted me to tell them what I knew about what exactly you will be able to accomplish. I knew that if I told them, they could harness your power. I didn't tell them anything . . . until Armondorf threatened to kill you. He almost did, too. You were still asleep from that sleeping gas, and Armondorf had his sword to your neck. I . . . I told them everything after that. I'm sorry."

I put my chin on the sill. "We have to get out of here."

Link put his chin on the sill as well. "I'll do everything in my power to get us out of here." He kissed me and left the window.

I inspected the wall around the window. The stone bricks were held together with mortar; the ultra-standard kind. I felt some cracks in one of the bricks, and, surprisingly, the brick moved. Excited, I pushed the brick in all the way. Glowing lines extended through the mortar. I looked at the bricks, smiling. The bricks shifted, rearranging themselves until an archway revealed itself. The passage was ten feet tall, four feet wide, and went all the way into Link's cell.

I saw Link's head poke around the corner. He was grinning. "How did . . . I mean, what . . . er . . . uh . . . oh, never mind!" Link walked through the passage and embraced me. I laughed, and he did, too. I tried to walk further to go through the archway, but the shackle on my leg prevented that. I sadly looked at the metal stake in the ground. "Stupid chain!" I pulled angrily.

Suddenly, the shackle on my leg burst into flames. In a few moments, the shackle disintegrated into a pile of ashes. I grinned. "Wow. I wonder what else I can do?"

Link sighed. "By the time of the blue moon—that is, in two days, you will be able to—"

"Wait . . . my birthday's during the blue moon?"

Link nodded. "Yeah . . . that's one reason Ganondorf wants you. No other holder of the Triforce of Wisdom has had their birthday fall on the Blue Moon. Also, it's said that Hyleans are twice as powerful during the Blue Moon. So, anyway, by the blue moon, you will be able to . . . well, that is, only here . . ."

I looked back at Link quizzically. "Why only here?"

Link seemed to realize that he almost gave something away. "There's . . . the . . . um . . . oh! The highest concentration of power here—there being the holder and the heir and all."

"Wait—how . . . the holder . . . ? Er . . . uh . . ." I shook my head. "So many unanswered questions . . ."

"And so little time. I'm surprised Dark Link—" At that moment, my cell door swung open, and there was Dark Link, red eyes flaring.

"Speak of the Devil," Link muttered.

We were trapped. No place to run, no place to hide. No weapon with which to fight.

Dark Link stepped forward and grabbed my arm in his cold grasp. He pulled out his sword and held it to my throat. He wordlessly took me through a series of doors, halls, and rooms. Most notably, he led me through a gigantic domed room with a Triforce in the middle of the floor and a six-foot-wide hole in the ceiling. After that, there was a door with no handle, which opened with a single touch from Dark Link's hand. Then there was . . . the room.

It was a porch, overlooking all of Hyrule. there was a stone rail, columns, and a stone stand, on which was my coin necklace. The porch was in the shape of a semicircle. The floor was stone tile. The whole place was beautiful, if an evil king's castle could, in any way, be beautiful.

But I could not focus on the grandeur of the room itself; because of the two other occupants of the room. One was Armondorf (groan) and the other was . . .

I recognized the stature, the shape, the silhouette. The seven-foot-tall stance, the fiery red hair, the long cape.

Armondorf's comment only confirmed my fears.

"Father, he brought her."

The other figure looked back at me, and I saw his eyes. I froze. He was looking at me with . . . respect? Mock reverence? Maybe . . . maybe even fear? But Ganondorf's emotions were understandably difficult to read.

Ganondorf's thin, cold lips curved into a smirk. "Well, bring her in! We can't have her standing there gawking all day, hm?" Hearing him in my head was scary, but matching those empty words to that face made me truly realize what the Hyleans feared about him.

Ganondorf held up his black-gloved hand and gestured to Dark Link to release me. (I guessed this because, after the dark king made the motion of clenching and unclenching his hand, Dark Link threw me to the ground, chuckling as he did so.) Ganondorf snapped his fingers, and my nightgown (yes, I was still wearing it) was replaced instantaneously with black armor. After that, Armondorf finally turned around. I saw that there were differences in facial features (Armondorf had a higher jawline, thinner brow, and an ever-so-slightly smaller chin—plus, Armondorf had a smaller beard) but the same Gerudo air hung thick around them.

I stood up indignantly and said, "What do you want you cursed son—er, and grandson—of a pig?"

Armondorf scowled, apparently ready to kill, but Ganondorf remained strangely calm. "You look much like your father. He was—and still is—a good man." He smiled so much his eerily white teeth showed. "By my standards."

I spat upon Ganondorf's boots. "Your words hold no comfort for me. Show him to me!"

Ganondorf turned around, revealing a magnificent, white blade at his side. The same strange runes as on FIRESTORM were carved into it. "You look like him, too . . . a little. You look more like your beautiful mother." Ganondorf took a long stride towards me and struck out his hand, catching my chin. He turned my head two ways, then let go. I growled.

"You have his same independent spirit as well," he went on, walking in a circle around me as he spoke. "Tall . . . he was, too . . . defiant . . . bold . . . but, otherwise, wise!" He laughed, and I flinched. He laughed loudly. Very loudly. VERY loudly. VERY—you get my drift?

I insisted, "Show him to me!"

Ganondorf stopped. "Mmm, persistent, are we? A little hasty. You deserve to wait, my dear. To wait a long time . . ."

I suddenly rushed at Ganondorf, catching him by surprise. I grabbed his sword. To my surprise and horror, the blade flared in my hands. Nonetheless, I kicked him over and pointed the sword at his chest. Ganondorf at first looked surprised, then he started to laugh.

"Go ahead! Kill me, and become even more like your father!"

"Who is he?" I said through gritted teeth. "Tell me!"

Ganondorf was silent for a while, staring at the sword. Then he looked at me and smirked. "Do you know why this sword flares as yours does? Why I am hunting you down? Why you can do certain things in my castle?"

I reviewed the facts in my mind, then dropped the sword in horror.

Ganondorf laughed. "Search your heart. You know it is true!

"Rebecca . . .

"I AM YOUR FATHER!"