I'm so sorry I've not updated in ages, I've little excuse other than being rather busy. Thank you to: QuinKiloq1055, Fallen Dragonfly, Link's Ocarina Babe and La Generala for reviewing. You might know by now the last chapter wasn't really the end. Even I couldn't finish as story that badly, although I do try! Anyway, the last three chapters are finished (well two chapters and an epilogue) and just because I'm nice like that, (and I'm very excited to have finished this finally!) I'm posting them all this week. So here goes, onwards to the end, my pretties... :)


Chapter Thirty Seven – Beautiful Nightmare

"It's finally over."

Link couldn't help but think those words were going to be remembered for all time for all the wrong reasons. He looked around again and frowned. Another snow white bunny bounced in to view and looked inquiringly at him. A brightly coloured butterfly danced in its wake.

"Aw, cute!" Exclaimed Zelda, kneeling and beckoning the timid creature over. Its little pink nose sniffed the air and its cute long ears twitched back and forth. Its butterfly companion danced hither and thither in the soft breeze. Tentatively, the rabbit hopped towards Zelda. She smiled and cooed at the creature, encouraging it ever on. The butterfly, the bolder of the two, flitted its way over more confidently and landed on Zelda's outstretched fingers. She smiled delightedly and whispered to Link to 'Look! LOOK!"

In Link's humble opinion, all butterflies and rabbits were inherently evil. The only creatures worthy of becoming pets were things like Skultulas and Dodongos and possibly even Ghoma Larvae. He liked things that were the antithesis of cute and fluffy, like the snake he could see slithering through the long grass near the river or the scorpion on the rocks basking in the sun. Those things he could quite happily deal with.

"So…um…Zel, what are you going to do with the Chameleon Stone?" He asked, trying to keep his voice quiet and low so that he didn't inadvertently scare Zelda's new pets away and thus incur her wrath.

"I don't know." She answered, "I've not really thought about it."

"I see. And…um…what about us?"

"What do you mean: what about us?"

"Well, you know – I'm not actually Hylian by birth and I'm not really sure if I'll be allowed to stay here and was wondering if you…"

"Yes?"

"If you'd…um…consider…" Link gulped and wondered why his confidence had suddenly deserted him. 'How hard can it be asking a girl to marry you anyway?' he thought angrily.

"Aw, Link, LOOK!" interrupted Zelda, distracted again by the little white rabbit who had now been joined by a fluffy yellow chick and a fawn. Link started to feel sick. He was just beginning to question where the hell all these creatures were coming from given that most of them were not native to Hyrule when there was the thud of hooves and from the nearby trees a beautiful horse with a sparkling white coat appeared. Around its neck was a delicate bronze plaque declaring his name to be Dennis.

"Sparkly Dennis?" Zelda had tears in her eyes as she jumped to her feet (making all the other creatures dash for cover back in the copse of trees) and ran to the horse, throwing her arms around its glossy neck. Link looked on, bemused, as the horse seemed to smile.

"Oo- I wanna go for a ride!" exclaimed Zelda, hopping about in excitement as if she was a hyperactive five-year old.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Said Link, cautiously.

"Come on, what could possibly go wrong?" chided Zelda, gently as she hugged Sparkly Dennis again, "All my wishes have come true, the world is at peace! Nothing bad will happen." She grinned at Link and kissed the horse's nose and then without further ado, jumped on to his back.

"Zelda, wait…don't…ugh…" said Link as he watched her kick Dennis and gallop off, whooping with excitement. He pulled at his hair in frustration and after sighing he slumped against a nearby tree and sank into a seated position. In the intervening ten minutes or so when Zelda still didn't return, he puzzled over the strange turn of events. Something didn't feel right. It wasn't just because he himself was averse to the rather cheesy peace, rather, he could feel something very odd and mildly threatening in the air and he didn't trust it. He hoped Zelda and her sparkly horse would return soon, but there was no sign of her. He sighed again, bowed his head and closed his eyes. As he did another rabbit came into view. This one was black and had rather strange eyes. It hopped cautiously towards his feet. Link was too preoccupied with his suspicions to notice as the rabbit inched closer and closer to where Zelda had dropped the Chameleon Stone. It sniffed the glittering stone cautiously and looked up at Link. His eyes were open now but he was staring at the sky, completely oblivious to the presence of one, insignificant and rather strange little bunny.

The rabbit almost forgot not to chuckle maniacally as its soft little paws touched the Chameleon Stone. Suddenly, there was a 'poof' noise and the world filled with smoke. Drawn from his reverie, Link was just in time to see the cute little rabbit transform into a very malevolent looking Ganondorf who had the glittering Chameleon Stone in his hands. He laughed his best 'bad-guy-mwhahahahah-laugh and said, "Yoink!"

"What the-," Started Link, but he had vanished, leaving him only the Gerudo's voice on the wind shouting: "Sucker!"

"WAIT, GANONDORF! BLAST!" He yelled after her. "Hell and Damnation, I'm going to kill Zelda for this!"


Nabooru was too busy glaring at the shiny yellow neck of Sir Kwaksalot to notice the very odd change that had happened to the world over the last few minutes. She was far too angry with the rubber monstrosity to notice that the sun had darkened and the birds had stopped singing, or that various nefarious-looking woodland creatures were popping up here there and everywhere. She and Sir K. were apparently on a mission and until the mission was fulfilled he was pretending not to understand her.

There is nothing quite as annoying as knowing somebody (or in Sir K.'s case – something) understood you perfectly well yet insisted that it no longer spoke a word of its mother tongue. She had resorted to muttering various dark and foul Gerudo curses under her breath. The giant rubber duck feigned ignorance and ran along on its quest perfectly happily, his oddly shaped body making curious squeaking noises every time one of his red feet hit the floor.

She had ended up riding on his back for the sake of ease but had regretted her acceptance of his offer almost instantly when she realised just how irritating he could be. At least if she had opted to run, she could have accidentally lost sight of him and ran the other way. Now she was well and truly stuck with him. She did contemplate jumping from his back in a bid for freedom (so desperate for escape was she) but given the rate they were travelling, which was actually surprisingly fast, she didn't rate her chances of surviving such a fall without developing various disfiguring scars on her otherwise lovely body, so she decided to stick it out. They were heading south of the castle, following the trial of the thin river that ran from under the castle down to the great lake. It hadn't been that long ago since the black dragon had passed overhead, and Nabooru was convinced the said black dragon had been chasing a unicorn but because Sir K. had decided he could no longer comprehend Hylian, she had been left to talk this over with herself.

It was not too long after the dragon had swooped off into the distance and vanished out of sight that all the cutesy woodland creatures began to appear. Nabooru had not really taken much note of this, she was far too concerned with making the Rubber Duck of Doom understand just how much she hated him right now. Nor had she noticed when a beautifully sparkly white horse had pranced past them with a grinning Zelda perched on its back. Nor had she noticed when the said white horse and its rider suddenly vanished.

She did, however, notice when Link suddenly appeared from the copse of trees ahead of them. It was probably because he was sprinting at them, sword drawn, yelling at the top of his voice.

"YAY, it's Linkie!" announced the rubber duck, conveniently forgetting that he had forgotten how to speak Hylian. He stopped abruptly, sending the hapless Nabooru on her first ever flying lesson. A few beautifully nasty verbs tumbled from her lips as she picked herself up.

"Good Goddess, what have they done to you, Zelda?" came Link's voice, sounding a little distraught.

"Not that I know why you'd even think it was, but this is not Zelda." Announced Nabooru, she dusted down her clothes and smiled quite pleasantly at him. "This, apparently, is that rubber duck you saved."

"SCQUAVED." Corrected the said rubber duck, primly.

"Oh." Link, for once in his life, was nonplussed. Then again, he'd never before met a hero-worshiping rubber duck that had grown to epic proportions and had scary-evil red eyes. "Wow. You are Sir Kwaksalot?"

"Yep."

"And…er…why are you here again?"

"I've come to be a hero to my hero."

"O…kay…" Link desperately tried to catch Nabooru's eyes in a plea for help but she was absorbed in studying her fingernails. "Right…well…" he scratched his head and tried to think of something – anything – that could make the situation less ridiculous. "Sir K., uh – you don't mind if I call you that do you? Good, well…um…listen – I am really very flattered that you came to help me, an' all but I've really, really got to hurry! I think Zelda's been kidnapped by Saeru and-,"

"Actually it was a Sparkle-dorf." Interrupted Sir K.

"A Sparkle…what?"

"Sparkle-dorf. That pretty horsey thing that ran past was the singy-bath-man in disguise. Hey, do you know any good bath-time songs, Link? I used to like the one that goes 'Rubber Ducks, so yellow and sweet, bobbing 'round my head and feet, so prettttttttty and yellow, so subbbbbbbblime, so mellow. Sit on my hand and give me a kiiiiiiiiiiiiiss… I do hope no-one sees me like thiiiiiiiiiis.'" Sir K.'s little rendition of one of Ganondorf's more "inspired" bath-time songs left both humans wincing as the last high note threatened to shred their ear drums. Sir K. looked at Link expectantly.

"I'm really sorry but I have got to save Zelda."

"Not even one little song for me? The lonely, heroic duck who has come to scquave you?" If the duck's beak had not been quite so rigid, it would have quivered at this moment and if they could, the red eyes would have filled with tears.

"I – I – um more of a shower kinda guy… I prefer not to take baths, sorry."

"WHAT? You…YOU…" Sir Kwaksalot's eyes began to throb with colour and Link, sensibly, started to back away.

"I'm joking" stammered Link, "I just love baths really, I meant I don't really sing in the bath...er…much…so, eh…sorry."

"You don't sing?"

"Not really. I can play a reedy-notey-tuney-makey-thing though," he explained hastily, "Listen please, Sir K., I've really got to save – uh, scquave – Zelda, if I don't really bad things will happen. I have to get to the castle. If you honestly have come to play at being a hero to a hero in distress then please take me to the castle. If you do, I promise I will take as many baths with you as you like and I will sing (even though you may well regret that offer) but please, I beg of you, help me now."

Sir Kwaksalot considered this desperate plea for, what seemed to Link, an incredibly long time. Link turned to Nabooru and grimaced at her.

"I wouldn't worry too much - you'll get there in time. I'm quite certain that Saeru will want to gloat over your defeat before bringing the proverbial axe down on you." Remarked the Gerudo woman, calmly, "I mean that's what all baddies do, isn't it? I don't know what is being planned at the castle, but I'm quite certain part of it involved a pact between Ganondorf and Saeru that allowed him to use some of her power for a limited amount of time, and I'm quite certain that my king hasn't got nearly enough imagination to use it properly."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when we went head-to-head with you and Zelda to get the last of the Signet Rings? Well when we were doing that, Ganondorf told me that he'd seen the goddess Saeru in his Seeing Stone and they'd made a bargain to power-share, or something. Basically he had to lure you and Zelda into a trap and get all the Signet Rings and in return, he could use the Chameleon Stone in any way he desired for a short period before returning it to Saeru for eternity."

"But Zelda has already made a wish for peace surely any further wish should be confined to operate within those parameters."

"Maybe, I don't know. Having limited knowledge of the Chameleon Stone I couldn't tell you for sure but what I gathered from Ganondorf is that it does have the power to grant wishes but only one at a time."

"So each wish would supersede the last?" Link frowned and tried to remember exactly what Zelda had wished for. She'd asked for world peace, that had come pretty early on in the list of her demands (he meant wishes), and then what? "She said something about the Gerudo's returning to the desert, then something about Amber being alive and then…oh dung."

"What?"

"Sparkly Dennis – her last wish was for a sparkly white horse with a long mane and tail called Dennis. I really don't know where the heck that one came from, but that was the last thing she wished for."

"And is that was what she got?"

"When I catch up with her I am going to wring her neck." Muttered Link, darkly, "Oi, Sir K., have you decided if you're going to take me to the castle or not?"

Sir K., pulled rudely from his reverie, where he was singing bath-time songs to himself, rather than actually contemplating whether or not to accept the terms of Link's bargain, jumped slightly. "Oh…uh…sure, Linkie." He said.

"Great, well there's no time like the present, eh? Are you coming, Nabs?"


And I wish for a legion of Poes, and a new carpet for my throne room. I want my hair to grow back over that teeny-tiny bald spot that I've noticed – more luscious than before, if you will. Oh, and I want my guards to wear something a little less – skimpy. Let's have 'em looking like soldiers, eh? I think, yeah, the castle's walls should be black marble, not white. I want to have brown skin, not this stupid greeny colour. I wish that I could fly like a sparrow when I wanted. And I want…eh, why are you glaring at me?"

Saeru was indeed glaring at the Gerudo king; her golden eyes were so narrowed that they appeared to be two lines of light on her otherwise dark face. She moistened her lips and crossed her legs. She was seated back on her black satin throne in the hidden part of the castle. Ganondorf sat in front of her, holding her heart in his hands, and she was rapidly loosing patience.

"I have told you many, many times the rules of this particular game, King Ganondorf," she said with deceptive sweetness, "You have one hour to use my power as you see fit, and I do not begrudge that, but if you insist on making wish after wish after wish, the stone will lose the will to exist and will no longer work. In other words, Idiot, you need to decide on one thing and one thing alone that you would like and I will grant that request. I am not a Hylian Goddess of creation, I do not have the power to give you everything you could possibly want, only the one thing that you need."

"Oh." Ganondorf took these words to heart and admitted to feeling a little cheated. What was the point of having something that could grant every wish you ever had if it could only cope with one wish at a time? "I don't really know what I want." He decided, eventually. "I mean, I've not really had the time to think this through and it's quite a momentous decision."

"You have ten minutes remaining." Said Saeru, calmly, "and then I'm taking my power back. If you have not made your mind up by then, then it is your loss."

"But ten minutes is…oh alright, I'll think of something."

The goddess rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her hands. She wondered how such a powerful, beautiful creature as she always got lumped with the idiots. The only man she'd ever actually had a decent bond with, who wasn't a complete tool, was Lefestra and he'd abandoned her for some half-bred Gerudo princess and look where that had got them both! 'At least he had been dependable', thought Saeru, glumly. That reliability had been passed down to his descendants too, which was also a good thing. Saeru was pretty certain that at any moment, Link would come bursting through the doors to save his precious Zelda and then they could have some fun. She didn't have a grudge against Link himself, but she had harbouring a grudge against his ancestor for over a thousand years and she was going to have her revenge.

She had planned out the upcoming battle, for she didn't doubt that the little Calatian would fight, to minute detail. All she had to do was bide her time and wait, like a spider sitting on a web, waiting for a hapless fly to land. She didn't like that analogy but couldn't think of a better one at that moment. She looked up and saw Zelda, suspended in midair trapped in a pink diamond and shrugged. The diamond had been Ganondorf's idea and she thought it was really very predictable, but it kept the Hylian out of mischief. She was like a fisherman, she decided – she had her bait at the end of a line, was in the perfect position and now all she had to do was wait for the Hylian Loach – no, she mean Calatian Loach – to bite and then she could play with them both on her line – string…oh blast, she hated analogies and similes.

Either way, this afternoon was going to be fun.


Contrary to her expectations, Ganondorf came up with quite a good wish for such an idiotic man – he wished for the power to change the laws of nature. This was nine minutes into the ten minute deadline. Saeru happily granted his request, giving him access to some rather fantastical magic power, and he spent the remaining minute of his god-ship conjuring pieces of buttered toast and dropping them on to the floor in an attempt to disprove the fact that toast always lands butter side down. Even his phenomenal magic powers couldn't alter this particular fate.

He was just pondering the merits of introducing a cat to the equation (given that cats always land on their feet – thus counter-balancing the toast theory) when Saeru announced that his ten minutes were up and that it was time to hand back her power.

Exactly twelve point two five three seconds after this announcement, Link and Nabooru burst through the door. Link had told Sir Kwaksalot about his long-lost 'brother' Tingle and had urged him to run to the Lost Woods announcing himself to be a bath-fairy. Sir Kwaksalot had agreed to the plan only after forcing Link to sing one song, which he did so badly that Sir K. lost all his admiration for his hero in one fell swoop, he had trundled off to the forest, never to be seen again (for which Link was profusely thankful).

"Saeru, what have you done with Zelda?" Demanded Link, at exactly the same time as Nabooru exclaimed, "My Lord, why are you buttering that cat?"

"There's a good reason." Muttered Ganondorf, in his best sullen-evil-bad-guy tone.

"I'm sure there is, Sugar. Have you been taking the happy pills again?" Nabooru smirked at his glare and marched over, hips sashaying all the way. "We're leaving, by the way."

"We are? I mean – WHAT? No, I will not have my life dictated to by a bunch of women…!"

"Ganondorf…"

"W-what?"

"Remember who you are speaking to." Nabooru raised one eyebrow at him and he blushed and muttered an apology. She took his arm and patted it lovingly, "There-there, all's forgiven, okay." She leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, making sure as she moved that he had a good eyeful of her rather low cut top. Ganondorf gulped and dragged his eyes back to her. She explained, "We're being kicked out by a Hylian Mob don't cha know!"

"K-Kicked out?"

Nabooru trailed her fingers lightly up his arms and gazed innocently up at him. "Uh-huh, and we've gotta leave right now otherwise they'll be locking you in the dungeon to rot. The Judges have risen up against you and our army has been defeated."

"Oh. Well that's a bummer."

"Tell me about it! So anyways, we should be going now, 'kay."

"But what about my power?"

"Nah, you don't need that. You've got an entire army of women that'll do anything you wish for you. And believe me, Dearest, we Gerudo are better than anything alive at getting what we want." Nabooru rubbed her head against his shoulder and smiled, "maybe next time you should go for something a little less lame than the Chameleon Stone, Sugar. It can only grant one wish at a time, pathetic really." She ignored Saeru's death glare from across the room and gazed up at her King.

"I suppose…yeah, okay next time we're going for the Triforce."

"An excellent choice, but I think we'll leave that for now, Ganny. Tell you what, let's go back home and think about it for a while. When we get back to the desert I'll set up your old harem for you if you'd like, or we could have it with just you and me for a bit - some 'Alone time'. Would you like that?" Ganondorf grinned and nodded. "Well, your wish is my command, my King." Nabooru winked at him and turned to Link. "So, I guess this is goodbye, eh? It's been nice meeting you again, Link. You'll have to come visit me in the desert sometime, promise?"

Link nodded dumbly and glanced at Saeru. The goddess was as bewildered by this masterful display of woman-getting-her-own-way-by-seduction as he was. Ganondorf had turned from megalomaniac to jelly in the space of a minute. Link almost felt sorry for him. Nabooru was hanging on to her King's arm, smiling up at him. Her left hand slid down his arm as she rested her head on his shoulder and then, with a motion too quick to follow, she yanked the Chameleon Stone from his grasp and threw it to Link.

He caught it on reflex and he didn't realise at first what she had done.

"You'll be needing that, my friend!" shouted Nabooru, as she pulled a smoke bomb from her waistband. "Good bye and good luck!"

Ganondorf had barely time to squeak his protest before they both vanished into the air. "O…kay…" sighed Link, peering down at the Chameleon Stone. This day had gone from bad to weird and he was starting to get a little 'crazied' out. There was, after all, only so much his mind could take in.

"Woohoo, so you got my heart." Saeru's voice drifted across to him. She sounded pretty annoyed. To be fair to her, her grand plans of revenge had not included having her heart stolen from her at the last moment by yet another Gerudo woman. She was beginning to dislike the nation of Desert Dwellers. She wondered if she could somehow inflict a plague of ants on them when she got her power back. There was another person to add to her 'must exact revenge upon in some vile and disgusting manner' list.

"Eh? Oh, so I have." Link met the Goddess's eyes a little apologetically and took a firmer grip on the Chameleon Stone. It sparkled magnificently in his hand, and on some deep level, he could feel it interacting with his soul. Its warmth seemed to seep into his blood and it trembled and throbbed in his hand as if it had a mind of its own. As his eyes met Saeru's he felt it jerk sharply and the throbbing, beating quickened. Her eyes narrowed at him, and the Stone pulsed steadily.

"Well, you have it – what are you going to do now, Son of Lefestra?"

"I actually have a name, you know." He smirked. "I don't really know what I'll do now. I was expecting a fight – you know, after all that's happened, I doubt very much that our story will end like this. Why don't you tell me what you want me to do?"

"You know very well what I want you to do."

The Chameleon Stone quivered. Still gazing at her, Link raised an eyebrow quizzically. His smirk deepened into a grin.

Saeru gasped, "I don't mean anything like that, you-you…freak. How dare you even imagine that I would desire you - I mean - I would want you to...GRRR! I am a goddess and I am extremely angry. I would be careful about what you insinuate, boy."

"I'm not the one insinuating anything." He smiled, resting his other hand over the Chameleon Stone so that it lay cupped in his hands. "Let's rephrase the question, shall we: what do you want me to do with the Chameleon Stone?"

"What do you think, Fool?"

"There's no need to get all crabby. I asked you a perfectly polite question, and given the circumstances, I reckon it was a pretty good deal from your standpoint. I could easily steal your power right now, you know."

"And dare I ask, why are you being so considerate all of a sudden?"

"Because, well two reasons: firstly, you've got Zelda and I'm quite certain you've got something nasty planned for her if I don't co-operate, secondly, I kinda feel sorry for you. I mean, it was my ancestor's fault you got so screwed anyway and I guess I should try and make amends somehow. So tell me, what do you, Saeru – Goddess of Dreams, want me to do with your power."

"I want you…" Saeru paused and for a second, Link felt the whole world stop spinning. Her large, golden eyes peered at him and he could feel her power, emanating from the Stone, tearing through his body, searching for deceit and untruth. He kept his gaze fixed on her, not allowing her to intimate him, nor sway his mood. He was not afraid of her but she knew he feared what she could do to Zelda. Suddenly she smiled, her teeth flashed white in the darkness of her beautiful face and she tilted her head. "I want you, Link, son of Lefestra, to make a wish."

"A… wish?" Link closed his mouth abruptly and considered Saeru's face. She smiled sweetly at him but her eyes flashed dangerously. If he wasn't already on his guard, that look would have persuaded him to be extremely cautious about what he said or did next. His eyes moved from her face to the glittering Chameleon Stone, resting comfortably in his palm. It shone with a beautiful light all of its own and offered him the world. If his adventure had taught him anything, it was to be careful what he wished for and as he thought of this, he remembered just what he and Zelda had gone through to get thus far.

"Can't make up your mind, Hero? Are you so torn between your duty and your desire? Remind me again, why did you so desperately crave the Chameleon Stone? Why did you fight so hard to get it back?" Saeru's voice buzzed in his ear, echoing with his own thoughts.

"All those months ago-," he began, slowly as if he was unaware he was speaking his thoughts aloud, "-I had little thought of my duty. The 'Stone had been lost years ago when Calatia fell to the Hylians and I had wandered, cast as a vagabond, for a long time and when I accepted the job of assassinating King Ganondorf, I accepted to sate my desire for money and adventure. But my fate led me to Zelda and in her I knew lay the power to recover my nation's treasure – your heart - and I used her selfishly, drawing you out from your hiding place, unlocking your power."

"Why?" whispered the goddess.

"I do not know. At some point I imagine I thought I could restore my homeland, reclaim the crown even – honour the memory of all the other knights, my friends, who had been killed one-by-one by the Hylians but things changed somewhere along the way and now…"

"And now…?" Saeru repeated his words gently, bewitching him with her voice as she slid over the distance between them. His eyes were fixed intently on the Chameleon Stone. It seemed that all the light in the dark chamber came from him.

"Now…now I remember what it was I first wished for," he snorted quietly with laughter and shook his head, "I have the power of the world in my hand and all I want is what I wanted then."

"And what is that? I can make anything you dream of become a reality."

"Anything I could dream of? Oh, my dreams were never grand, Saeru. I just wanted the means to buy a little farm in the west of Hyrule where I could raise a family and be happy. "

"Is that a wish?"

"It – it…is not a wish. It is a dream." Link's vision suddenly refocused and he lifted his eyes from the Stone back to the Goddess. If he was alarmed to see how close she had drifted he did not show it. His blue eyes seemed to spark in the bright glitter of the Chameleon Stone and his voice was steady, "Nothing you could offer me is worthwhile, Saeru. Dreams are naught but ideas and desires that are never meant to become tangible. They are the starting point from which you must build the solid foundation of what you wish to become your reality, experience and hard work are the only things that should be used to make the impossible possible, not magic or wishes or pacts with the gods."

"Well use my power that as your foundation and the building blocks – consider it a little head-start in this quest of yours. I could give you anything, anything you desire, Link. All it will take is one little request."

"There is nothing you could give me that I want." His eyes were still fixed on hers and he smiled a little, "Oh I know what you would say – you offer me two things, Zelda's heart, and money. You could give me them both yet if you did, how would that really benefit me? I want to win Zelda for my own sake, not because you bewitch her into loving me and I want to earn my dream, not just be granted it for the mere asking for it. I have been selfish my whole life and I think, just this once, I can cope with being unselfish."

"Very noble, but what do you mean?"

"I mean: I am not going to make a wish."

"You aren't?" He shook his head, pleased he had made the right decision, for although she scorned his choice, he saw he had surprised her.

"Not even if I tell you that the only way to save your precious Zelda is to wish for her release?"

"Is that the best you can come up with?" he laughed, "You won't do that. Not whilst I hold your heart."

"Very true, but for just how long do you think you can hold my heart, Little Fool?" Saeru took a step away from him, her golden eyes glowing oddly. The Chameleon Stone began to tremble and throb with anger in his hand. Link's eyes remained on hers, his stance relaxed. "I offered you the world and, fool that you are, you declined. I will ask you once again: will you make a wish?"

"I will not."

"Very well, Link, and just for the sake of formalities, will you return my power to me?"

"I think not."

"Excellent, then we have reached a decision. If you will not make a wish and you will not voluntarily return my power to me, there is but one option left to me." Saeru's beautiful appearance suddenly seemed to slip from her in a thick gloop onto the floor, and from the dark folds of her billowing clothes, a new body appeared, grotesque and wicked in appearance. It seemed to be made of all the worst aspects of a nightmare, both woman and beast, she grew the hairy legs of a spider, the lithe body of a snake and the venomous tail of a scorpion. From her back and all along her sides, long slender spikes grew, each as sharp and beautiful as a sword and from her writhing back sprouted the sinuous black wings of a dragon. She seemed to suddenly fill the void of darkness of the empty throne room, and from her mouth, long yellowy fangs protruded, blood and saliva dripping from them in equal measure. Only her eyes remained the same, beautiful and golden, sparkling and shining and ultimately mesmerising.

"It seems to me you made a bad choice." She whispered; her voice hoarse and deep in the darkness made the walls tremble. Link drew his trusty old sword and tried not to notice how tiny it looked in comparison to the fallen Goddess. For once in his life, he completely agreed with her.


Oh dear, Link is in deep-doo-doo :) I'll post the next chapter in a couple of days, just to keep the joy of suspense going for as long as I can. As always, it would be nice to hear your opinions on this chapter.