Chapter Fourteen: Hyrule Castle: Part Five
"Hm..." Faith was up the short staircase and looking around the room. The room seemed simple and empty, save for the traditional crimson carpet on the floor and two statues placed in the center as decorations. Patience was walking around the opposite side of the room as her older sister, eyeing the royal-blue curtains hanging around.
"I don't think the curtains match the carpet," the youngest said. She turned to grin at Faith, who returned the expression, as Link and Hope ascended the stairs. Without another word to each other, Patience whipped out her trusty fire rod and set the curtains on her side of the room ablaze. The sound of slashes and fabric tearing indicated that Faith had taken her sword to the offending drapes.
Link sighed, watching the two girls and their maniac grins. "Does anyone realize how much destruction we're causing this historical castle?" he mused. "I mean, we've smashed no doubt priceless vases, killed the lawns and gardens..."
"...Blown up walls," Hope added, fingering her bomb bag.
"Not to mention steal a countless amount of treasure from various chests." Faith's smirk was evident from her tone.
"HEY!" Patience paused in her rampage against the curtains to gaze at the others with narrowed eyes. "Force gems are always up for grabs! Finder's keepers! 'Sides, we kind of need them to power up our swords to save the world, don't we?" She glanced back at the damaged curtains and blinked at seeing a hidden entrance revealed. A second later, and she was through the entrance without another thought.
"Patience?" Hope almost looked as if she was going to run after her youngest sister, but turned around to speak to Faith. However, Faith was also nowhere in the room, and the only clue as to where the middle sister disappeared to was the pathway to another entrance that had been hidden behind a curtain. With a sigh, Hope looked to Link, who was waiting for the eldest. "Well? Who do you want to follow this time?"
The young man gave her an amused smile. "Faith or Patience...? Hothead or Wild Child...? Not much of a choice you're giving me..."
Before Hope could reply, a whoop of delight came from Patience's door, no doubt indicating that she had found some sort of force gem. Faith's voice suddenly came through her entrance as well.
"I don't care who catches up with me," she shouted. "Just make sure one of you hurries it up! The hallways lead to the roof, and there are two switches on each side of it! SO MOVE IT!"
Hope hesitated for only a moment at Faith's commanding tone. "I'll take Wild Child," she said, and practically flew through the entrance on Patience's side. Link blinked, hardly realizing what had happened, but sighed as he trudged through the door that Faith had. A battle cry greeted him, and Link brought up his sword just in time to block the enemy soldier's weapon. With a twist and a well-aimed stab, however, the soldier disappeared.
"Are you done playing?" Faith's slightly-irritated voice floated down to him, and the young man looked up to see her sitting on the ledge that separated the room into top and bottom halves.
"You could have warned me, you know," he said, ascending the staircase and catching up to her.
She gave him a crooked smile and merely agreed. "I could have." She led the way outdoors and onto the roof, pointing rather needlessly to the two switches on one side of a stone barrier.
"Faith, Link!" Patience called from the other side of the barrier, waving enthusiastically to the other two. Hope was right behind her.
"Patience, you just saw them," she said calmly. "Now get over here and step on the other switch."
As soon as the four switches were pressed, the stone barrier vanished. The four went into the next area, and were immediately ambushed by a battalion of guards. However, with the beams of energy emitting from their swords quickly took care of the opposition, and the quartet moved on.
"Whoa..." Patience went wide-eyed at the giant, horned statues and equally enormous throne in the next room. "Alright, Link, how does Zelda expect to rule from a chair that's ten times the size of her?"
"It's not that big..." Link said.
"Uh, dude, yeah, it is. Look at it!" The young girl began to make her way toward the throne, but screamed when the statues began to glow red and start bouncing near her. She dashed behind Hope as the eldest tossed a bomb at one, while Link and Faith shot the other with their arrows. When the statues were vanquished, Patience looked at Link.
"Well, I think you should scout the rest of the room," she said.
Link raised an eyebrow. "Why me?"
"You should do it because there may be other scary things in here and you've lived the longest."
The Hylian sighed, rubbing his temple as if he felt a headache coming on. Absentmindedly, he wondered why a headache hadn't invaded long ago. He shot a glare at Faith, who seemed to be swallowing a laugh at Patience's logic, and walked closer to the throne cautiously, keeping his delicate ears alert for any odd sounds. As he reached the majestic chair, he turned around and shrugged to the girls.
"Nothing else is coming alive to attack us," he informed them.
"And there seems to be no other door 'round here," Hope said, looking around. She glanced at her sisters, who seemed to be regarding her as if they were waiting for permission for something. "Well, go ahead."
"YAY!" Patience dashed into the center of the room with her fire rod, narrowly missing a bewildered-Link with the flame as she aimed at the curtains. However, she failed to miss the throne.
"Well, I suppose we can add 'burning the throne room down' to that list of destruction we're causing this castle..." Faith said, glancing at all the smoke curling up into the sky. She had been the first to catch her breath after the group had dived out of the hidden entrance behind the throne that was discovered after the fire ate the curtains shielding it.
"Indeed," Link agreed dryly, trying to fill his lungs with clear air. He glanced up ahead, noting that the four where on the topmost roof of the castle. As soon as everyone was set, the four cautiously walked forward into the seemingly clear rooftop.
Hope's gasp alerted the others to the swirling mass of shadows coiling up in the center of the roof. Link unsheathed his sword and tensed, ready for a fight, and soon heard the other girls do the same. He figured it was Shadow Link showing up again, but realized how wrong he was as the shadows began to take some form of a horned beast. With a mechanical laugh, the shadow beast waved his giant, dark sword and hurled a green ball of sizzling energy at the four.
"HIT THE DECK!" At Patience's sudden shout, the quartet dived to the floor, watching as the energy ball split up and rampaged over their heads in multiple pieces before disappearing.
Faith huffed as the shadow beast laughed again, wondering if this would be the same as in the game. He threw a crimson ball this time, and she jumped up to greet it, smacking the energy back toward the beast. He hit it again, causing the ball to turn blue.
Hope's eyes widened as the energy came straight at her, but she seemed to recall this part of the game. Swinging her sword, the weapon connected with the ball and sent it straight back to its maker. However, the shadow beast actually ducked, missing the energy, and the ball again exploded. The quartet dropped to the ground as well to miss the mini projectiles. As soon as the mini balls of energy disappeared, the shadow beast revved up another of the irritating balls.
Faith glanced at the other three. "I hope you all know how to play ping-pong."