Chapter Twenty-Two: The Eastern Temple: Part Two

"Sooo… How do we get back?"

Link glanced at Patience after she voiced the question before staring at the cannonballs once more as they rushed past the quartet. There was no portal on this side of the room, so Faith and he couldn't carry Patience and Hope across again. He looked to Faith, immediately mentally cursing himself for expecting her to automatically know the answer.

However, she did catch his eyes as she finished adjusting her bow and quiver of arrows, acquired from the last room, on her person. The middle sister broke the gaze when she turned to the cannonballs' pathway and stepped closer to it.

"Simple," Faith said in response to Patience's question, watching the balls pass by. As soon as there was a big enough opening in between two balls, Faith slipped in between them, sprinting in time with their rolls. "We run. Really fast!"

Hope looked as if she were on the verge of having a heart attack at seeing her younger sister almost get run over by a cannonball. Patience didn't seem to help by shrugging and following Faith at the earliest opportunity. Link could only shrug when Hope looked at him helplessly. To the young man's "After you" gesture, the eldest sister sighed and mimicked her sisters' actions. Link released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when Hope was safely with Faith and Patience. He joined them as soon as he could, only to find Patience opening a treasure chest in between the switches by the room's original entrance; he figured Faith triggered the switches with her arrows.

"Oh, good, a bracelet," Hope said, obviously more pleased than Patience; the youngest just stared at the jewelry with disdain before handing the item to the eldest.

"You can have it, then," Patience said. Hope took it, albeit reluctantly.

"But it halves the damage you take, doesn't it? Don't you want it?"

Hope's words fell on deaf ears, for Patience had gotten up and followed Faith out of the room, back to the cross room, before Hope finished speaking. Link stepped closer to Hope and gently clasped the bracelet around her wrist.

"Patience usually tries to run away and hide, anyway," he said, and Hope rolled her eyes.

"I suppose you're right," she said, a smile flitting along her lips as the pair entered the cross room. The block, which they assumed had been in the middle of the room again, had already been pushed out of the way by Faith and Patience, and the other two jogged to catch up with the younger ladies in the main room with the gap to the east.

"For the love of chocolate, Patience, will you just pick a switch?!"

Link winced at Faith's harsh tone that reached his ears as soon as he and Hope entered the room. Faith was on the right side of the giant gap, and a four small blocks were in front of her like a fence that was separating her form the gap. Alternately, one block would disappear, then reappear while another turned invisible. After a few moments, one block disappeared and stayed that way until Faith shot an arrow through the hole in the fence to let the weapon soar across the gap. Link watched as the other blocks took turns disappearing to allow Faith to shoot more arrows, and after her fourth arrow flew across the gap, a bridge suddenly appeared, covering the chasm.

"Those are my Force Gems!" Patience abruptly emerged from a small room that had been to the left of the chasm and dashed across the bridge to catch the floating Force Gems. Faith came down from her spot and watched with apparently mild interest as Patience chased down the Gems.

"The door at the end of the chasm didn't open, did it?" the middle sister asked, coming to stand near Hope at the beginning of the bridge.

"No." Link shook his head before glancing to the right side of the room. "There's a door over there, too. There must be something to open it."

"Anyone got a match?" Patience asked, catching back up to the group. "There are unlit torches by the door at the end of the bridge and it's dark."

"Maybe the room to the right has something we can use," Hope said while Link and Faith tried to find a trigger to make the door open. Eventually, the door did open, sparking a small argument between Link and Faith over who had accidentally stepped on the hidden switch. They were cut off by Patience ordering them to exterminate the rats on the lower level of the new room. Faith leaped down the small wall (after sticking her tongue out at Link) and began getting rid of the oversized rodents. Link rolled his eyes and joined the middle sister after a few seconds, turning to watch Patience and Hope climb down the wall safely.

"Alright," the young man said once the rodents were vanquished, "do we want to go to the north room or the east room first?"

"Let's go north," Patience said, and the rest didn't find any reason to argue. In the new room, empty pedestals were straight ahead of the group, while long, wide hallways stretched out to the left and right. Another door, barred shut, was at the end of the left hallway, leading south into what Link figured was atop the wall in the previous room.

"Isn't there anything in here?" Hope asked when the four met in the middle of the room after inspecting separate corners of the room.

"Of course there is," Faith said. As if on cue, the door that they had entered abruptly slammed shut and familiar, odd chants echoed around the room.

"I want your magic book!" Before the other three could pinpoint the location of any wizard-like creatures, Patience had darted in a seemingly random direction with her sword flourishing. With a battle cry, the youngest swung her sword and its tip connected with one of the enemies before its spell was completed.

Link's sword was out the instant he heard the strange music, but before he could do anything else, he was suddenly pushed out of a literal line of fire. He vaguely heard Faith say something about watching his surroundings before seeing her team up with Hope against a second wizard, while Patience was chasing after her own.

Music to his left alerted Link to his own danger, and he stopped staring at the sisters in time to roll away from erupting flames eating him. The wizard disappeared and Link stood still, alert, and was able to pinpoint the next spot the enemy would appear with the help of its chants. It was vanquished in mid-syllable. A couple of other cries indicated that the other two creatures were also destroyed. Link didn't bat an eyelash at those cries, yet his stomach twisted when he turned to see Faith leaning against Hope. Judging by the middle sister's scowl, it wasn't by Faith's choice, either.

"…You're limping," Hope was saying as Link drew closer to the pair.

"Well, I was burned," Faith snapped, "but that doesn't mean I can't walk!" She attempted to push away from her older sister, muttering, "I can take care of myself…"

Link was there to catch Faith when she stumbled. Despite her protests, he lowered her to a sitting position, noticing the nasty burn on her right leg. "We'll find a heart container to help heal that--"

"What, I'm just supposed to wait here?!" Before Link could respond to the irritated sister, Patience's voice piped up from the northern end of the room.

"Um…" The other three looked at the youngest to find her carrying a Moon Pearl back to them. "This may be a bad time to say that my bad dude dropped this-- Eep!"

The Moon Pearl suddenly disappeared form her hands when she got to the middle of the room, revealing a neutral, gray portal.

"Faith, you're waiting here." Link didn't giver her a chance to speak; instead, he stood up and went over to the portal, glancing at the other sisters. "Someone else stay, too."

"I don't need a babysitter--!"

"The other come and join me," Link finished saying, speaking over Faith, before vanishing into the portal.

He emerged into a portion of the Dark World that was identical as the room in the Light World, except for the lack of doors. The young man took a quick look around a found a set of four levers hanging on the wall to the right.

"Dude, I wouldn't be surprised if Faith threw her sword at you." Patience caught up to Link's side, and he couldn't resist the urge to roll his eyes at her words.

"She'll get over it," he said, praying to the goddesses that he was right. "I mean, we have to watch out for her if she won't watch out for herself, right?"

Patience blinked up at him as they stopped by the levers. "I guess so," she said. "Hope and Faith never seemed like the types that needed to be taken cared of, though. Faith is the protector against bullies, and Hope is like Mom. I'm like Daddy, the fun one!"

Link chuckled as the pair pulled a couple of the levers out of the wall. "And who did Faith get her stubborn streak from, may I ask?"

"We don't know." Patience frowned at the room when the four pulled-out levers did nothing.

"…Oh." Link wasn't sure how to respond to that; fortunately, Patience was already on her way to the portal, figuring that the levers must have done something in the Light World if they hadn't affected the Dark World. The pair emerged back into the room with the two older sisters, and Link found Hope taking a bomb bag that had appeared on the previously-empty pedestals and Faith giving him the silent treatment.

He sighed inaudibly at Faith pointedly not looking at him while he also took a bomb bag. The quartet then made their way back to the room that had the rats in it, opting to travel into the eastern room, moving a bit slowly due to Faith needing Hope's shoulder to help her walk. At the end of the hallway, there was a small square room, with cannonballs crisscrossing each other's pathways by the room's walls.

"Leave me here," Faith said, moving away from Hope to lean against the corridor's wall. "There should be plenty of things to blow up in that room. Be careful of the balls."

Link glanced at the middle sister, just staring at the wall opposite her, as she slunk down to the floor. Shaking his head to himself, he followed Hope, after she told Patience to wait with Faith, into the square room.

Dividing the room up, Link blew up the cracked walls in the north wall while Hope took the south, both careful to avoid the roaming cannonballs. One of the rooms he uncovered contained a Force Fairy, glad to be set free, while his second room oddly contained some old pots. The third room, however, granted him a heart container.

"Are you going to give that to Faith?" He nearly jumped at Hope suddenly being beside him.

"Of course," he said. "I just pray that it's enough for the burn. Did you find anything useful?"

She nodded as the pair waited for an opening in the line of cannonballs before the room to return to Faith and Patience. "A couple of large Force Gems and a small key."

Once the pair returned to the younger sisters, Link used the heart container on Faith's burn. There was still a bit of scarring on the leg, but she was able to walk without a limp.

"Told ya we'd find one," Link said, but all she did was give him a nod in response before turning to Hope.

"There's a locked door back in the rat room," was all she said before leading the way to said room. Patience trotted after her, but Hope stopped Link from following with a hand on his arm.

"I don't think she's mad at you patronizing her," the eldest said. "It's her stupid pride now. Please forgive her behavior."

Link blinked, musing on the subject for a moment. Seeing Hope's pleading, blue eyes, though, made him give her a crooked smile and say, "Don't worry, there's nothing to forgive. I understand."

Hope beamed at him, and the two went to catch up to the other half of their quartet.

"Oooo… pots!" Smash!

The instant Hope unlocked the doors, Patience went to town shattering the rows of pots in front of the group. After a few seconds, she also uncovered a row of foot switches, and the quartet stepped on them in hopes that the spikes at the end of the room would disappear. Their prayer was answered, but an unexpected guest also appeared.

"Whoa…" Patience stared up at the massive cannonball that had caused an earthquake when it dropped in behind them. "Is it growing--?"

Hope jerked Patience to run along behind her as the group went farther down the hallway, smashing and leaping over pots that got in their way. "No, it's chasing us!"

Those words spurred Patience onward, and she almost overtook Hope in their run. "I'm waiting for the Indiana Jones theme to start-- Why are we running to a dead end?!"

"Brace yourselves." As Faith reached the dead end, a trap door opened beneath her, sending her into the dark abyss below. Link heard Hope try to stifle a gasp, but he couldn't allow her fear of heights to give her any second thoughts. Grabbing Hope's free arm, Link pulled both her and Patience after Faith.

"Are you all alright?" Faith asked as soon as the three landed in a heap in front of her.

"I'm fine!" Patience answered perkily.

"Of course you are." Link sat up, wincing slightly. "I broke your fall!"

"And I thank you, Link." Patience gave the young man a gallant bow. Link just shook his head at her antics, and got to his feet slowly, satisfied that he would only have a few bruises from the fall.

Turning to Hope, feeling her arm shake in his grasp, he asked, "Are you okay?" She just nodded, her face crimson, most likely due to the unexpected run, as she pulled away from him.

"Glad you can all move," Faith was looking back up at where the quartet had fallen through, "because we all have to scatter now!"

The others darted away as soon as they noticed the giant cannonball following them down the trap door. Link saw Faith and Hope make their way to the northwest section of the room, the former pushing a block out of the way so the pair could take refuge behind the low wall on the room's outskirts.

"Ahhh!"

Link turned toward the scream, seeing Patience at the other end of the room with the cannonball right behind her.

"It's chasing me!" The youngest seemed about to drive herself into a corner. Link made his way over to her, crossing in front of the cannonball in hopes that it would become fixated on him instead.

When it seemed to work, the young man said, "Your sisters are over there!" and pointed vaguely in the direction the other two were in while leading the cannonball away. Patience didn't need to be told twice, dashing away at the earliest opportunity.

Link didn't have time to see if she made it to Hope and Faith; he was too preoccupied not getting run over. After he lapped the room once, he noticed the purple-clad girl behind the fence with her sisters, watching him with wide eyes. On his next round about the room, he sprinted toward the three sisters. Right as he was about to reach the trio, Link unceremoniously tripped on air particles.

Before the cannonball could crush Link, he was abruptly hauled to his feet and yanked behind the fence. The cannonball collided with the fence, vibrating the entire room, and continued to try to roll them over, but the fence held on, refusing to let it pass.

"Thanks." Link looked up along the arm that had tugged him to safety, meeting Faith's face. She just gave him a curt nod, not meeting his gaze, before leading the way up the set of stairs in the corner of the room. Link mentally sighed while smiling at Hope's worried look to pretend he was okay, and allowing the other two sisters to go upstairs first.

The quartet emerged into a smaller room that led into a rectangular room whose walls were full of cracked and ivy-covered walls. One of Hope's bombs revealed a similar room with a lantern held hostage behind a fence of immovable blocks. Behind the lantern, however, an entrance was clearly visible. Thus, the four continued to slash ivy and blow up walls throughout the maze of rooms in an attempt to obtain the common lantern. Despite the few times when Faith and Patience (the ivy-slashers) got separated from Hope and Link (whom blew up the walls), the quartet kept moving without too much trouble. Even when they were split up, it was easy to follow the sounds of explosions, and Patience's loud musings as to where Hope and Link went, to find one another again.

Eventually, the four were able to reach the lantern, and Patience eagerly replaced her slingshot with it. Once the quartet got out of the maze-like group of rooms, the youngest immediately lit the torches in the smaller room.

"Isn't the power of fire amazing?" she asked after two big green Force Gems fell from the ceiling, and a shortcut back to the room that had the rats emerged, due to the lit torches. The other three didn't know how to respond; any of them could have easily launched into a lecture on how dangerous fire was, yet none of them could deny the appreciated gifts from above because of the flames. So they stayed silent as Patience lit the way back to the room with the gap.

"I told you guys that we needed matches," the youngest said after the door beyond the new bridge opened once its torches were lit.

"I don't think we would have spent all that time trying to get the lamp if we hadn't agreed with you," Faith said as the four emerged into the new room.

Patience didn't respond, for her eyes were too focused on the many Force Gems resting in the three small alcoves of the new room. "Oooo, look how shiny they are! Can I pick them up? I want to get them--"

"Alright, alright." Link's tone was a cross between exasperation and amusement. "Go ahead; we're not stopping you."

She was off before he finished speaking.

Patience apparently chose to get the smaller-valued Force Gems first, taking the small red ones and big blue Gems before moving onto the middle alcove to snatch the big red Force Gem. However, as she was reaching it, a trap door opened beneath her and sent the girl tumbling down.

"Patience?!" Hope was the first over to the edge of the trap door.

"Don't worry!" Patience's voice, although a bit muffled, reached the other three's ears. "The Force Gems are fine!"

"Yes, of course, because that's exactly what I was worried about," Hope muttered under her breath.

"Heads up, Patience!" Faith stepped atop the door, and Link and Hope heard a short-lived, startled scream from the Patience as the middle sister fell. Link swore the next few sounds that Hope and he heard were the beginnings of an arguments; he thought Patience accused Faith of trying to flatten the youngest, but he didn't dwell on it for too long. Instead, he turned to Hope.

"Shall I pull you along again?" he asked.

"And give me another heart attack?" she shot back.

"How long are we going to wait up here, then?" Link crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, giving Hope a crooked smile. It faltered, however, when she suddenly looked about to panic.

"You don't think they'll be able to come back up here?" she asked.

He blinked and took a quick look around before answering, "I don't think there's any other way for us to go but down--"

"Are you two coming down or what?!" Faith's voice, loud and clear despite having a floor separate them, made Link stumble and almost fall into the trap door. Rather pointlessly, Link looked back at Hope and gestured to the door.

"After you," he said. She glanced at him uneasily before hesitantly holding his arm.

"My legs won't move," she muttered. "Pull away."

Link, instead of allowing her hand to remain where it was, moved his arm to around her waist to hold her more securely. Without giving her any warning, he pulled the two of them over the door, and they fell together. Once the pair was almost to the bottom, Link tucked their bodies into a roll to avoid getting hurt upon impacting the floor.

"So, that's what took you two so long." Link glanced over at Patience when she spoke, confused at her grin and a bit startled at Faith's annoyed expression, while he helped Hope to her feet, nodding to her murmured thanks.

Faith's eyebrow slowly rose at the pair and she didn't even turn to Patience as the middle sister asked, "What do you mean?"

"They were trying to imitate a Batman roll," Patience said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It wasn't too bad. It would have been cooler if Link had a cape, though."

Faith blinked and looked at her younger sister with some of the confusion that Link felt, but Patience was skipping toward the large block that was obstructing the quartet's way. Link looked at Hope, whom just waved off his questioning glance, signaling that he wasn't to worry about the new terms he just learned.

The four pushed the block out of the way together, allowing them access back upstairs into a hallway that would have been a dead-end if not for their bombs. Emerging through the new entrance, they descended down some ladders into a cave. The group moved along quickly, only a Keese here and there the only things that bothered them. Patience did find a treasure chest, but since it was just a key, she passed it to Hope. At the end of the tunnel, the four climbed up another ladder to return to the temple.

Explosions set their senses on fire the instant they entered the room. Link coughed, blocking the entrance to shield the girls, and a cold laugh reached his ears. His sword was out of its sheathe immediately, yet when the smoke cleared, all that met Link's eyes was a room with a northern door and the walls outlined with rows of bomb flowers.

"Link…?" The young man warily moved aside so the sisters could come in. Hope took a quick look around before eyeing his unsheathed sword. "What happened?"

"I heard Shadow Link," he said. "He seems to be gone now, though…"

"Did he plant all these?" Patience seemed to be contemplating whether or not to poke one of the bomb flowers.

"Don't know, don't care." Link tried to peer through the northern door without upsetting the bomb flowers in front of it. "Any ideas on how to get through this?"

Patience raised her hand.

"Ideas that don't involve us getting blown up?" Hope asked.

The youngest's hand slowly went down. "So, human sacrifices are out?"

Link didn't even want to know which of them Patience had intended to 'sacrifice.' Yes, he was sure any of the Force Fairies they had set free would return in an instant to help if they sensed any of the four dying, but… He shook his head, driving the thought out of his mind.

"Light a bomb."

His eyes snapped to Faith. "…What?"

"Light a bomb," she repeated, "and set it by the others. It'll set off a messy chain reaction, but we should be able to get through before the bombs regrow."

Without a better idea, Link tried it. Setting one of his own bombs, he dashed back to the middle of the room with the sisters, just out of reach of the explosions. Immediately after the bombs detonated, they raced blindly through the smoke toward the door, each holding onto another so they wouldn't get separated.

"Let's never do that again," Hope said once the quartet caught their breaths in the next room.

"I agree," Link said, his tone dry as he exterminated a rat that had gotten too close.

"We've already done something like that," Patience said brightly. "Remember when we burned down the castle's throne room?"

"I believe you mean," Faith said with a small chuckle," when you burned down the throne room."

Link shook his head at Patience pondering on the memory before she started to laugh and agree. Her laughing ceased when Hope used the key on a large treasure chest to gain an enormous gem worth one thousand Force, effectively powering up their swords. Patience pouted as the group moved into the next room, but jumped and let out a startled yelp when the door slammed shut behind them.

The quartet moved cautiously forward noting that the ordinary room meant that something unordinary was going to happen. The room was huge, the floor littered with rocks while a bigger stone was embedded in the middle of the room. A few holes were scattered about as well.

Sidestepping one of those holes, Link nudged a good-sized rock with his foot. "Think we have to blow these up--?"

"Look out!" Link stumbled backwards at Hope's warning just as the rock he had nudged… opened its eye?

While that rock, and several others, stared at the girls and him as they floated upwards to hover in the air, the quartet huddled together. The large stone made the room tremble when it raised itself, glaring at the four with an angry, bloodshot eye.

"Time to rock and roll!" The other three turned to Patience with skeptical looks and raised eyebrows. She shrugged, and no one else could say anything; the rocks were ready to play, whether the quartet was or not.