Wow, so sorry for not updating in ages. I had a really bad case of writer's block (well - that and the fact I got distracted by games (again)). It took ages to come up with a concept for this and for ages I had only 3 pages written but I have been working like mad this week and managed to add another 10 pages today. It was fun to write the latter half!
Anyway, so as not to waffle, I shall take the time to express my thanks to those of you who kindly reviewed the last chapter: QuinKilo1055, Fallen Dragonfly, Irelandgal131, la generala, Booklover13 and Link's Ocarina Babe! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!! and sorry for not replying personally to all your reviews.
So here's chapter 36 – please enjoy!
Chapter 36 – Famous last words
Impa gazed at the fruits of her labour and for the first time that day was struck by worry. It had been disturbingly easy to whip up the frenzied support of the townspeople and now she found herself marching side by side with Nabooru, heading straight for the castle. She couldn't quite remember if this is what she had been intending or not. And why Nabooru had chosen to come along when it meant attacking her own kind she couldn't fathom. She had inkling that it was something to do with Link, but when the name of the heathen idiot (which was Impa's new pet name for him) came into conversation, Nabooru had only blushed very slightly and had said nothing. 'Very suspicious', thought Impa, 'but not necessarily a bad thing'. Link who was (in her opinion) a typical male who therefore thought with his loins not his brain, might be weaned away from his unfortunate passion for her ward if she could somehow encourage him to cast his eyes in the direction of the frankly gorgeous Gerudo. If Zelda could be made to watch whilst this happened, then all the better, thought Impa.
It was only when she thought this through a little more thoroughly that she finally gave in and gave Link, and by extension all male-kind, a little credit. As much as she hated him (for reasons that were now unclear to her) she had to admit that most men she knew who fell in love were loyal to their beloved. She had not thought of this problem before but now it crossed her mind, she did begin to wonder what exactly would happen if there was genuine affection between her ward and the idiot? Realising that such thoughts were: (a) too stupid to dwell on, (b) irrelevant because there was no way Zelda could love such a twerp and, (c) she had far more important things to think of right now, she snapped out of her reveries. As she realised, she had worse things to worry about at that moment in time. Namely, what the hell was she doing leading an army into battle?!
She glanced at Rauru who was marching, or rather being pushed along by the crowd, standing at her side and saw that his skin had gone as white as his beard. He stared straight ahead and seemed to be talking to himself. It took a moment for her to realise that he was praying. Kru had somehow managed to worm his way out of the whole thing and was nowhere to be seen and behind her, helping the judges lead the way, was almost the entire Hylian population.
Quite how Rauru's speech had gone from hopelessly dull to charismatic and impassioned had completely passed her by. All she knew was that one moment, her colleague had been talking to an disinterested audience about their predicament, the next moment he had suddenly gained incomparable amounts of charisma, wit and charm and he was stirring the crowd with a rousing rendition of the trials of the rightful Princess (Zelda) at the usurper Ganondorf's hands and the next moment, his audience had gone berserk.
It was probably the alcohol.
As one, the Hylians had risen to the challenge, grabbed whatever weapons they could find, from damp dishcloths to particularly lethal kunai and had called for their leaders to march them to victory. The Hylians were going to take back Hyrule for the Hylians and they were going to have a Hylian Queen on the throne and have Hylian heirs. They didn't want Gerudo rule anymore.
Nabooru watched the antics of the crowd from a safe distance, realised the direction they were going in and sighed. Clearly it was her duty as second in command of the Gerudo army to prepare her own troops for the drunken rabble that was going to attack en masse, but she honestly couldn't see how she could do it without being murdered herself. And she felt slightly responsible for the judges too.
If she was wondering what her native subordinates would think of her leading a rebel army into her King's castle, she was soon to find out. To her it seemed that the massive castle gates were reached in no time at all. She glanced at the judges and smiled to herself – never before had she seen such a pair of reluctant generals. As Impa thought, she didn't believe Rauru had actually intended to stir up such a mob. Impa's original idea was to recruit a few likely-looking men to storm the castle and aid Link. Unfortunately, his impassioned words had lead the crowd to take the words 'Who will rise to this most dangerous of challenges?' to mean 'Fight! FIGHT! FIGHT!' and apparently that is what they intended to do. They were certainly chanting those words. Nevertheless, the judges had made their bed and now they would have to lie in it. War was upon them all.
The unfortunate maiden guarding the main gates was certainly surprised to see her. "L-Lady Nabooru?" Exclaimed the young guard, her face a picture of almost comic shock. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Amazingly enough, I'm demanding entrance to the castle! I-we want to see King Ganondorf." Nabooru studied her fingers as she spoke.
"Er…what?"
Nabooru glanced up at the guard and her gold eyes flashed dangerously, "You heard me."
"Er, L-Lady Nab-Nabooru…um…why are you with such a r-rabble?" Queried the guard nervously.
Nabooru looked behind her at the Hylians and then back at the guard as she pondered the question. It was one she had great difficulty in answering.
Suddenly the guard's face disappeared from the spy hole and a heated discussion could be heard from behind the doors. As the two guards spoke in rapid Gerudo, Nabooru had no difficulty understanding their words, she was just a little confused by them. She was even more confused when the guard's young face was replaced by one of the Gerudo matrons in the spy hole.
"Ah, Captain Nabooru," Said the older woman, "I am glad you are here." She looked over Nabooru's shoulders and gazed blankly at the make-shift Hylian army behind her, taking especial note of the uncomfortable-looking judges and their improvised weapons. "Are these people with you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Nabooru scratched her head and tried to figure out how to answer the question? Should she say that she believed their King had lost the plot and she was converting to the winning team? Did she admit she had a crush on the guy that Ganondorf was holding captive? Did she explain that she felt sorry for the judges? Or did she just shrug and smile. The latter option seemed the most plausible so that is what she did. "Why are you glad I'm here anyway, Karista?" She asked, quickly diverting attention from her self.
There was a sigh from behind the heavy oak doors and slowly they opened. "I think you'd better see for yourself, Captain." Answered Karista. She and her guards stood to one side and allowed the Hylian mob entrance to the castle without resistance. Surprised by this, the army didn't immediately attack.
"To be honest, we're getting a bit sick of being here anyway so, um…yeah – we surrender." Said Karista, laying down her scimitar with bored ease.
"Er…excellent." Announced Impa, finding her voice and confidence once again. "We demand to see the Usurper King Ganondorf."
"Fine, go right ahead but be warned – there is a queue." Said the guard, morosely. She pointed in the direction of the grand staircase and rolled her eyes – she added in Gerudo to Nabooru, "The reason we're leaving is up there too. Go see for yourself! He was that way the last time we checked."
Nabooru glanced once at the guards, frowning and turned back to Impa, "I think it would be best if just we three go, the rest of you secure the castle." The crowd agreed to the plan with heartfelt cries of victory and Nabooru rubbed her temples.
"What is going on?" Wondered Rauru, aloud.
"I don't know but we're going to find out." Stated Nabooru. "Come on!"
"How the hell did you get your filthy hands on that?" Demanded Link, lunging towards the Chameleon Stone.
"Ah-ah-ah! Naughty!" Giggled Saeru, vanishing from before him and appearing in another spot in the room an instant later. "Does it really matter, Link?" She smirked and snuggled the glittering stone to her breast.
"It matters to me! How the hell did you get your hands on it?"
"I handed it over to her." Said Ganondorf.
"YOU!" Link swung at the hapless Gerudo King.
"Oi! Don't be naughty!" Yelled Saeru, projecting a barrier around Ganondorf to deflect Link's blow. Robbed of a very natural urge to murder Ganondorf, Link swung around and shot a death glare at the sniggering goddess. "You know you look like a caged tiger – all snarling and roaring but you must know by now that you cannot harm either of us when you're in my realm." She informed him.
Link sighed and lowered his sword amid Saeru's congratulations for being a 'good boy'. He shrugged and turned to her, "I know it's useless us fighting – we're never gonna escape here Reptile Rock or not – but I'll never tolerate you."
"Such haughtiness doesn't suit you, you know. You'd need to be a better person before you can say such things without all those around you falling about laughing." Remarked Saeru.
"Well you're gonna have to get used to it, aren't you? Zelda's probably sealed us down here already so we're doomed to an eternity with each other. We're never getting out." Link sighed and wished the thought didn't depress him quite so much.
Saeru's eyes glowed in the darkness and she whispered one syllable: "No?"
"NO!"
"Yeah…about that…," began Saeru, her face a vision of beautiful mischief, "you don't really believe she'll do it, do you?"
"I don't see why she wouldn't."
"Dense, dense, dense idiot!" Sighed Saeru, mockingly, "I have to admit, your plan was quite clever and you risked so much to pull it off too but there's one tiny little thing you missed." She held up the Chameleon Stone and pointed it at him.
"It's useless to you unlocked." He snorted.
"That's what you'd think, given that its power's all sealed away with those horribly gaudy signet rings but the thing is - you seem to have forgotten Ganondorf took all the signet rings bar one from you."
"But only Zelda can unlock its power."
"Very true. Again, I am impressed by your knowledge but, Link, do try and remember that I am a goddess. I do have some power at my disposal! I have the signet rings – and I can certainly use their power, can't I?"
Link just stared at the goddess, a scowl marring his features.
"Exactly!" Smiled the goddess, irritatingly, "Each of these rings contains a facet of my power," she explained, pressing each signet ring into place on the Chameleon stone, "and with them and the Chameleon Stone I have enough power to blast through anything." She smirked at him before she closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Her hair and clothes began to sway behind her and the room began to tremble. Softly she began to mutter strange sounding words and each of the signet rings began to glow. She seemed to be drawing everything in the room, from Ganondorf, to the nightmare creatures to the darkness itself, to her, and the temperature began to drop.
Link felt himself being tugged towards her too and was about to begin an epic struggle against her will when he had a sudden idea. Instead of fighting against the strong pull, he began pushing towards it, drawing closer to Saeru quickly. Her voice got louder as he approached, and the dark words more horrible. His vision was getting blurred and his steps were marred by the trembling earth but he pressed on – focussing on the Chameleon Stone. Ten paces…five paces…two paces…one…
There was an almighty roar and all of a sudden the floor dropped away from them all. The nightmare creatures were blasted away into nothing and smoke and shimmers filled his vision. It was impossible to tell whether he was flying or falling. Link's body felt both light and heavy and his head began to spin. He could feel the Chameleon Stone pulsing where his fingers rested, thudding steadily like a heartbeat. Its silver-grey depths seemed to be streaming across everything, cutting through the nothingness that surrounded them all.
There was another roaring, tearing noise that seemed loud enough to make the whole world shudder and then a burning pure white light filled the room – it was too bright to gaze on, even with his eyes closed. He gritted his teeth and held on to the Chameleon Stone, even as it pulsated and shuddered more and more violently. Suddenly the light and noise was gone. Link, Ganondorf and Saeru dropped out of nothing and crashed onto a hard floor.
For a moment, Link blinked in surprise, unable to move or speak. In one stunned part of his mind, he registered that his hands were still gripped onto a pulsating rock but the thought that drifted almost idly through his mind was that they had just broken the seal between dark and light. Zelda really had sealed them all away. As his brain tried to organise his thoughts, he heard the sound of moaning coming from his right. He forced his eyes to open and blinked away the flashing lights and headache he could feel. Saeru was dragging herself to her feet drunkenly, her face bewildered and stunned. Ganondorf was out for the count some distance from her.
Saeru blinked slowly and cradled her head in her hands, shaking it slowly. Link realised it would be a good time to make his escape. Though he realised it, he was in no position to do so, his body just could not comply with his urgent calls to stand and run. Saeru moaned again and raised her head, looking around her feet. She had clearly noted the lack of Chameleon Stone on her person. Being a goddess, she was blessed with much faster recovery time than Link and her eyes, when they turned to him and widened slightly, showed little sign of bedazzlement.
"…you…" she snarled, staggering to her feet.
Link willed his body to work with more urgency but there was no response.
"How…dare…you!" whispered Saeru, in a most menacing tone. She raised her hand shakily and dark magic began to pool in her palm.
Link managed to worm his way slowly backwards but it was to no avail, his body was too stunned to move with any alacrity. Saeru swung her hand forward and the ball of magic slammed in to Link, making him scream out in pain as he was flung back against the wall. He landed in a heap and could feel and smell burning. He knew it was his own skin, he could feel the tingle of pain intensifying as his body realised what had happened. Compulsively, he gripped the Chameleon Stone tighter. Saeru balled her power in her hand again and glared at him.
"Drop it, Link." She ordered, coldly.
"No chance." He retorted, his voice sounding weak even in his own ears. He maintained his grip on the Chameleon Stone and attempted to stand. Another bolt of dark magic slammed into him again. His head smashed against the wall with a sickening thud and he slumped forward, completely unconscious, his body singed.
Saeru sneered at him and stumbled forward, "Such an idiot." She muttered as she hastened her steps towards the now discarded Chameleon Stone. Suddenly, a cry pierced the stillness of the room. Saeru gasped and glanced up. As she raised her head, there was an explosion and part of the stone roof (fortunately a part not directly above any of the inhabitants) dropped. Huge stones and slates poured in through the hole and in their wake there was another wild screech and a massive golden feathered falcon flew through the gap, screeching.
The falcon plummeted towards Saeru, and then suddenly altered course, almost knocking the goddess off her feet as it sped around the room towards Link. It hovered carefully above him as it grabbed him in one strong talon and carefully lifted the Chameleon Stone in the other.
Saeru, recovered from her surprise, screamed at it and flung a ball of dark energy in the bird's direction. The bird flapped its massive golden wings and the magic hit the wall behind them, making it explode. The bird cried once more and with another massive flap of its wings, sped back towards the hole in the ceiling, calling triumphantly.
Saeru watched as it folded its wings and shot out of the hole and screamed with frustration. She was so close to reaching her goal. SO CLOSE! She stamped her foot and glared at the hole. At her side Ganondorf was finally coming around. She glanced once at him and suddenly marched back to his side. She shook him awake and ignored his protests about headaches and confusion.
"Our power is escaping." She said, coldly. This instantly revived Ganondorf's evil-glands and he forced himself to stand. Saeru didn't bother explaining the situation to him. Instead, she closed her eyes and transformed her body into a particularly horrible looking dragon and grabbed the hapless King in one paw and shot off through the hole after that pesky falcon.
After eliciting no response from behind the closed throne room door, Nabooru took matters into her own hands and unlocked it using her master key. She was worried but not surprised to see the throne room was completely empty. There was no sign of Ganondorf's guards or Ganondorf himself but there was a yellow blob on his throne. Stepping forward to take a closer look, she realised it was one of his many rubber ducks. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Behind her Impa snorted.
"Baby's bath time, huh?" she sniggered.
Nabooru ignored the comment and cast her eyes around the room once again. Nothing had changed so why did she have the weirdest feeling that she was being watched?
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
The peace was suddenly shattered by those words, screamed in a wheezy, high-pitched voice from behind her. Nabooru jumped and swung around only to see Rauru hastily dropping the pretty yellow duck back on the throne. It landed on its side.
"What the hell, Rauru!" exclaimed Impa, covering her heart with a hand.
"S-sorry!"
"Oh my goddess…" gasped Nabooru. To her amazement, the unblinking rubber duck had just righted himself and was sat with perfect blankness on the soft velvet of the throne watching the three intruders.
"What is it?" Asked Impa.
"I am a rubber duck of doom." Answered the duck, although the question was not necessarily directed at him.
"A rubber duck of…oh Goddess…" snorted Impa, trying not to laugh.
"Yes – a rubber duck of doom, and not just any rubber duck I am the only rubber duck of doom and I am sitting on this softly floory thingy…"
"That's a throne." Said Nabooru, grinning.
"A Throne? You mean like Gannykins sits on – does that make me King Rubber Duck of Doom. Squeak! King Kwaksalot sounds….QUACKING GREAT!" the duck's voice emphasised his excitement, which was a good thing because his body language did not hint at anything but a serious case of paralysis.
"Yes, you are now a king."
"And if you are standing before me that makes you my subjects."
"I can't believe I'm having this conversation," sniggered Nabooru. She approached the throne and knelt mockingly. "I am yours to command."
"Really! That's a good thing." Replied Kwaksalot, "I've got a lot of ordering about to do today! I am guarding the throne for Zelda on behalf of Link because she has gone to sqwave him from something horrible but now that you are here you can do that and I can go and play duck in yellow armour and be my hero's hero."
"Er…what…?" Stammered Nabooru.
Kwaksalot squeaked as if chuckling and suddenly his inanimate body gained a life of its own and he began to grow. His wings unglued from his sides and his painted on legs stretched, he hopped down from the throne and blinked. His large black eyes flashed brightly and then slowly began to dim into a nasty crimson colour. He grinned at Nabooru, "Link sqwaved me so I must return the favour."
"You know I thought the Rubber Ducks of Doom were just a bad joke." Sighed Nabooru. "You know one of those things Ganondorf said after he'd eaten one too many magic mushrooms he got from that bloke in town Mario, or something!"
"Well you thought wrong." Stated Kwaksalot, testing his new found legs by stalking around the room without bending his knees, he seemed very pleased with himself. Impa glanced once at Rauru and turned away, biting her lip. She was determined not to giggle. Kwaksalot took a couple more stately paces and halted in front of Nabooru. Given that he was now towering above her, she was a little disturbed. Being faced with a life-sized rubber duck that could talk and had freaky red eyes was the stuff of some people's nightmares. "Anyways, my new slaves, it is time to follow me. We are going to save Linky."
"…are…are we?" Asked Impa, choking back another giggle. She gazed up at the rubber duck and her lips twitched again, "Tell you what, King Kwaksalot, us older folk will just slow you down. Why don't just you and Nabooru go, we'll forego the treat."
Kwaksalot studied her face for a long moment, his red eyes glistening eerily. "I remember you don't like my master, do you?" He suddenly remarked. "No, you won't help him. Come, loyal subject Nabooru. You may come with me."
"Gee thanks." Muttered Nabooru.
The golden falcon cried and soared to the left, narrowly avoiding the blast of flame from behind, sunlight glinted off her wings. Glancing behind she saw the huge black dragon spin as it altered direction. Clasped securely in its right claw, the falcon could see Ganondorf looking an alarming shade of green, his eyes wide open and his mouth set into an unhappy line. The falcon smiled to herself and with a flap of her wings, she adjusted course again, soaring higher and higher.
The dragon kept up with her up, both creatures climbing higher and higher until they were smothered by clouds. As the temperature dropped and water seeped onto his clothes and skin, Link woke up.
He was a little alarmed to nothing but white surrounding him and not for the first time in his life he guessed that he had died and was currently traversing the passage to the sacred realm, unless he was going to be one of the unluckier mortals to be condemned to the naughty twilight realm. Thinking about it, Link presumed that was where he was going but when suddenly the white around him vanished and the sun shone into his eyes, both blinding and beautiful, he thought that being so nice to Zelda might have bought him a ticket to the decent afterlife. It was just as he had this thought that he realised that he was suddenly plummeting down. The white surrounded him again for a second and then it was gone and then there was Hyrule spread before him. He would have appreciated the majesty of the country and marvelled at the view had it not been flying towards him at two-hundred miles an hour.
A strange noise filled his ear – it sounded kind of birdlike and then there was a flash of orange to his left. 'Yep, I'm off to the Twilight Realm' he sighed, and hoped that it would be fun and he'd like their ruler. Of course Link's plans sort of shot through his mind at a rapid pace but they went something along the lines of how he would meet the beautiful ruler of Twilight (he reckoned she'd be a hot damsel about his own age with a dark personality), woo her and was just planning on what to name their eighth child, when he snapped back to reality and realised the cry he heard wasn't just birdlike. It was a bird.
He looked up and saw the massive body of a gold-feathered beast and saw powerful talons gripping him tightly but not so tightly that it hurt. He shrugged when he realised he was going to end his days as bird food but guessed there were worse ways to go. He decided that the view of Hyrule looking so pretty would be a good last thought so he focussed on that. Down, down, down they plummeted and then suddenly, the falcon spread her wings and they soared off again.
"Woo…" sighed Link, watching the world idly as it tilted almost vertically before his vision. The bird spun around and blasted back towards the sky and then doubled back. Link wasn't too surprised to suddenly start to feel sick. As the bird righted herself again, Link saw a large black shape lunge into his vision range on the right. Before he could wonder what it was, there was another blast of fire and the bird screeched again, darting to the left. Link felt the heat of the flame as it passed by his foot and grimaced.
They were flying lower and lower and fire was blasting all around them. Link looked up and saw they were heading back towards the castle. In fact they were heading right towards one of the towers. 'Not good' he thought, and pictured his new death as being splatted against a tower. He started imagining how he would look completely flattened, spread-eagled on the white stone, his body sliding down to the floor, leaving a vile trail of blood and guts after him. He found this image amusing.
The falcon sped up again, aiming for the tower. Link began debating on which was more entertaining - being splatted against the cool grass of Hyrule field or squished against a shiny white tower for the world to see. He'd just decided on the field as preferable, when the falcon dodged left, narrowly missing the tower.
Judging by the crash following them, Link guessed the black thing had not quite got the falcon's manoeuvrability. He would have cheered had he not been quite sure that the golden falcon only wanted to protect him from the black thing so she could eat him. He realised she was coming in to land and realised the end was nigh.
At least she was taking him in gently, though Link thought if he had been a falcon, it would have been easier to splat his meal over the floor rather than have the botheration of picking it to pieces later, but who was he to argue the case? When she was about two feet off the floor, Link felt her talons suddenly release him. The propulsion of her flight sent him tumbling forward. He noticed the Chameleon Stone rolling along side him and watched it with interest. The falcon's shadow passed over his head and then vanished. As he finally stopped rolling and groggily pulled himself to his feet, he looked up and saw the falcon was tumbling along the ground.
As she tumbled, her gold feathers flew from her body (he noticed some of them were smouldering) and she seemed to shrink. After a couple more rolls, he realised it was not a falcon but a girl. She blinked as she righted herself and dragged herself to seated position, panting slightly and glanced at him.
"Z-Zelda!?" He stammered, stumbling towards her.
She smiled and ran forward right past his open arms. He was about to object when he realised she was running to get the Chameleon Stone before…
He looked up again and saw the black blob rushing towards them. Only he realised this time it was a rather nasty looking scary black dragon that appeared to be carrying a green version of Ganondorf. He allowed himself one moment to be completely alarmed, shocked and dismayed and then sprinted after Zelda. She grabbed the heart-shaped stone and gazed up in defiance at the dragon. The dragon roared, shaking the ground so much that a few of the nearby trees lost branches and swiped at her.
Just as the tail was about to hit her, Link pounced on Zelda and knocked her off her feet. The tail soared over their heads. Zelda looked at her finger and smiled to herself. Suddenly her body began to shake violently. Link rolled to one side and watched in horror as Zelda's body moved of its own accord so that she was kneeling on all fours. A marble light of gold and silver swirled about her body for a moment and then her limbs stretched to twice their normal size. Her hands and feet shrunk back on themselves and formed into diamond hooves. Her back and neck grew longer and longer and her clothes and skin melded into a glistening golden coat. Finally her face contorted and stretched and in between her eyes a long horn began to grow.
"Er…" began Link, not entirely sure of what to make of the Zeldacorn before him.
"Get on, idiot." She said, quite clearly, although her voice had become more sugary and stupid somehow.
"Could you…er…not be a unicorn, please?" He whispered.
There was a roar from behind them. The dragon had swung around and was charging towards them.
"Nope. Get on." Ordered Zelda,. Link sighed and dragged himself onto her smooth back. Zelda pawed the ground for effect and Link heard her chuckling something about him being a dead weight.
"Where's the Stone?" He began to ask, but as she chose that moment to jump into a gallop, he thought better of talking and just concentrated on trying to stay on board. He gripped her flaxen mane tightly and tried not to think of death by bad horse-riding.
"Horn." Answered Zelda, snorting at him.
"Hence the unicorn." He muttered.
Zelda swerved to avoid the dragon's claws and galloped towards the castle. "Nope…" she answered, as she jumped over a fence. A blast of fire to her left caused her to jump to the right. Link almost fell off. "…who's best at fighting dragons?" she asked, as she effortlessly doubled back on herself and galloped off in the opposite direction.
"Um…"
"A knight in shining armour? Yes?" Zelda neatly hopped over another wall and landed in a shallow stream. She turned and began to gallop downstream. Sunlight glinted off the water and was magnified and reflected by her golden coat. Link suddenly realised her strategy. From above it would be almost impossible to aim properly at the fast moving target. "Dragons see in monochrome," she explained, panting slightly, "All Saeru will see is a sparkling white blob. She'll find it difficult to hit me this way."
"Fine, but still – why a unicorn?" Asked Link, he was regrettably aware of how wet his pants were and was trying not to think of the amount of water that had got into his boots. After all, this was all so they could escape.
"Horn is a substitute spear which you don't have. Can use telepat..thy.." Gasped Zelda, "Also incredible speed and dexterity but not much…sta-stamina…" her steps floundered and for a horrible moment Link saw her golden coat go strangely translucent. Her breathing was laboured and he could feel their pace slowing.
The dragon soared lazily above them, Saeru had realised that she could not hit Zelda in the water and was just biding her time until she inevitably lost her form. Link looked around them and saw a knot of trees just beyond the east riverbank. "Zel, stop!" he shouted and tapped her neck to indicate the direction she should head.
"NO! I must k-keep goi…ng…" she stammered, her body lost its colour again and Link slapped her neck hard and tugged her mane. "DO IT!" She made a show of tossing her head around and half-bucking but she realised he was right and drawing the last of her strength she jumped over the river bank and dashed towards the copse of trees. As she ran, Saeru roared and shot a massive fireball towards her. It struck Zelda on the rump and Link heard her screech with pain. The blow sent her and tumbling forward, and as she rolled her unicorn body vanished, leaving her back in her usual form, clutching the Chameleon Stone to her breast, a good few metres away from the protection of the trees.
Link, who had had chance to catch his breath during the ride, had managed to land on his feet and dashed to her side, drawing his sword, he stood over her prone body and glared at Saeru. She threw her head back and smoke pooled from her mouth as she hovered above him.
"Give us the Chameleon Stone and you can live." Called a strange-sounding voice. Link frowned and looked around. "Up here, moron." Came the same voice. Link looked up and saw it was Ganondorf talking; only he really didn't sound very good at all. His skin was still that very odd shade of green and it clashed horribly with his bright orange hair. He was trying to sound menacing but to be fair, when one is feeling so dreadfully ill, it is hard to put your heart into being an evil megalomaniac.
"Um…no…" retorted Link. "You can fight me for it but I'm not just giving away, especially after all Zelda's efforts to get it from you."
Ganondorf attempted an evil laugh but ended up almost retching. Saeru shook him violently, as if he was a toy that had ceased to work and lowered her snakelike head so she could properly glare at him.
"I wanna go home…" Moaned Ganondorf, pitifully. A blast of smoke poured from Saeru's nostrils and she shook him again.
"That's not he…lpin…g…bleaghhhhhhhhh…" Ganondorf gave into nature and emptied the contents of possibly his entire digestive system onto Saeru's paws. It narrowly avoided hitting Link but he backed away just in case, cringing. Saeru gazed at her paw in a confused manner and suddenly realised what had happened. The smoke pouring from her mouth suddenly stopped and compulsively her claws unclasped allowing Ganondorf to plummet the ten feet or so to the floor. She floated rather quickly down after him and transformed back into her goddess form.
Green coloured stomach contents covered her arm. Her eyes widened and she blinked in horror, "Gross!" she stammered and then dashed off the river to wash it off. In her disgust she had apparently forgotten Link and Zelda.
With their two enemies preoccupied for the moment, Link took the opportunity to gaze down at Zelda. She was slowly coming around and appeared to be confused to be gazing up at Link's legs. She felt the Chameleon Stone pulsating gently in her grasp and she sat up again. Carefully she rested the stone on her knees and drew the final signet ring from her hand. With delicate motion, she slotted the final ring into place. As it touched the stone fingers, all the signet rings seemed to sink into the stone. One by one they turned ninety degrees. As the final signet ring clicked into place, the stone fingers spread and the hands repositioned so that they were palm up. The heart shaped Chameleon Stone hovered a little above this, channels of multicoloured light pouring from each of the signet ring's into the grey heart of the stone, filling it with iridescent light. As the last of the light faded, the Chameleon Stone shone with a light of its own – a beautiful, gentle light that glistened with more majesty than a diamond.
"Th-this is…" stammered Zelda, gazing in wonder at the heart as it beat gently, sparkles and shimmers lighting the air all around it.
"Beautiful." Link finished the sentence for her and smiled slightly. "It is the heart of a goddess…"
"Yeah and it's my heart so you can just give it me back right now." Came Saeru's voice. She was marching over to them, hands on hips, looking anything but happy.
"I'm not giving this back after what you've done!" Snapped Zelda, rising to her feet. "No, I intend to use it as it should have been used."
"Really? And how's that?"
"It grants wishes, doesn't it? Well therefore I wish for peace – peace for all of us." Smiled Zelda. "And for everyone to be happy.
"That's it?" Stammered Saeru, "You've got an almighty power at your disposal and you wish for world peace? And no doubt you want some fluffy bunnies to run around Hyrule field and fairies and pixies dancing through the forests and every day you'll want everybody to go into the sunshine, holding hands singing and clapping their hands. And people won't walk any more, no they'll skip through fields, carrying flowers, singing tra-la-la-laaaa." The goddess scratched her head and glanced at Ganondorf. "What about him?"
"Well, I want everyone to be happy too." Added Zelda, gazing at him uneasily. "I suppose he could go back to the desert and live in peace there with Nabooru and the rest of his harem – I mean – guards. Oh and I want Amber to be alive again and I want a white horse with silver hooves and a long mane and tail called Sparkly Dennis."
Saeru raised an eyebrow and smirked, "You really want world peace?"
Zelda nodded and clasped her hands around the Chameleon Stone smiling gently.
"Very well, you've got it, Princess." Saeru waved her hand and a trail of glitter filled the air which was carried away by the breeze. Zelda sighed in sheer delight. Was it her or did the air feel that much cleaner and smell much sweeter now that she had got world peace and she was sure somewhere in the background she could hear the slightly cheesy music playing. Saeru was still smirking as she bowed to the pair of Hylians and turned to Ganondorf. "Come, Ganny. I feel this is where you and I skip into the sunset, never to be seen again."
"Eh?"
"We're the baddies, remember. Let's go." She grabbed Ganondorf by the collar and dragged him to his feet. "Tatty bye, Hero's of Hyrule!" She sang as she waved goodbye to the stunned pair. True to her word, she forced Ganondorf to skip off with her into the distance, holding his hand. A white bunny skipped across the trail behind them. Zelda watched this in bemusement and then turned to Link. A huge grin spread across her face, matched only by the smile on his face. She extended her hands to him, dropping the Chameleon Stone to the floor. "We did it!" She sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. "I can't believe it! We did it!"
Link couldn't help but look around uneasily. "Er…Zelda…you know…"
"What's the matter, you worrywart? We've done it! It's over, Link." She sighed and grinned again, "It's finally over!"
:)
-----Fin----
[Yeah right!]
Sorry again for taking forever to update this story. Your thoughts would be appreciated! Final chapter(s) coming up….
