Chapter 18: A Poisonous Predicament
After a while of trekking through the Kenyan savannah, Elena eventually led Link and company to where Kakariko Village was supposed to be.
"If I remember correctly, we're almost there," said Elena.
"We are going in the right direction, I can see some buildings nearby," answered Link as he pointed in front of the group.
After a couple more minutes of walking. Link and the others found themselves in a small village with a small amount of plants littering the otherwise rocky ground and a medium sized river with a waterfall flowing nearby. A few buildings were scattered across the landscape. But what was the most prominent feature was a large mountain that could be seen right behind the village.
"That's Death Mountain, we finally made it to Kakariko!" exclaimed Zelda.
"Death Mountain sounds deadly," commented Alex.
"Not really, the volcano in there isn't active anymore otherwise it would be," replied Link.
"That used to be an active volcano, that creeps me out just thinking about it," gasped Chun-Li.
"Does anyone live here or are all these buildings abandoned?" asked Ken.
"There are inhabitants, just not many is all," answered Zelda.
"Ah, I see, well I wonder if anyone here can help us on our quest," pondered Ryu as he sat down on what seemed to be a rock but was surprised when he found himself being launched into the air and crashing down onto Alex.
"What the…did that rock just throw me off of it?" asked Ryu.
As Ryu and Alex got off the ground, everyone saw a large brown skinned creature with large black eyes sit up and let out a loud yawn.
"That's not a rock Ryu, that's a Goron. Gorons are a tribe that lives on Death Mountain, they sumo wrestle for recreation and eat rocks," informed Link.
"Hey, brother Link, long time no see, how is everything!" bellowed the Goron.
"It's ok, we came here to see if anything out of the ordinary has happened here since we fused with that other world," said Link.
"Well, nothing too crazy, a few visitors here and there, but nothing bad thus far," answered the Goron.
"Is Renado at home?" asked Zelda.
"Yes he is, I'm sure he'd be happy to see you," answered the Goron.
With that, the heroes headed towards the house that was sitting near the pond and knocked on the door.
"Just a moment," chimed a deep voice from within the abode.
A few seconds later, the door creaked open and standing in the doorway was a tall man with long brown hair done in a dreadlock like hairstyle, he had dark brown eyes and large lips defining his face. He was clothed in white and blue robes with many tribal designs etched onto them. He was known as the shaman of Kakariko Village, Renado. Behind him was a young girl with short black hair and also big brown eyes in clothing similar to Renado's, it was his daughter Luda.
"Link, and Princess Zelda, I'm happy to see you again, and you've brought new friends along I see," spoke Renado.
"Yes, we've been travelling with Link and Zelda on a journey to save the fused world," answered Ken.
"Except for me, I just led them to the village," chimed in Elena.
"Ah yes, I can see, the six of you have been through some tough adventures thus far. From what I can tell, it will only get tougher, but you will have many friends to help you along the way," said Renado.
"Well that's good to hear, at least that will make the journey bearable," piped up Chun-Li.
"Do you know anything about where we should head next though?" asked Alex.
"What exactly are you looking to find though?" inquired Renado.
Link reached into his pouch and pulled out one of the Secret Texts and showed it to Renado who studied it.
"We've found three thus far. We were wondering if you knew anything about where to find the next one," stated Link.
"Unfortunately, I'm not too well versed in matters of the other world aside from things that other travellers would tell me," answered Renado.
"Ah, I understand, our world is big and full of things that are foreign to you," commented Ken.
"The same can be said for you in regards in regards to our world," responded Luda.
"I wish I could be of more help to you guys in your quest, but I still have much to learn about your world," piped up Renado.
"That's ok, you did what you could. We'll find where we need to go eventually," said Ryu.
"Hopefully soon though, we don't need Urien and Ganondorf getting ahold of any of those Secret Texts," added Chun-Li.
"Did you say Ganondorf, he now has someone aiding him," gasped Renado.
"Yes, and this Urien is himself a very dangerous person, the reason they want these texts is to gain the power to rule this fused world," answered Zelda.
"So if there is one in this area, we might be under attack soon," said Luda.
"Correct, but hopefully you won't have to worry about that," commented Alex.
Just then, loud beastly roars could be heard outside as well as the shrieking of a man who then started pounding on Renado's door. Renado quickly opened the door and let the man in. He was a bespectacled fellow who was bald on the top of his head but had tufts of red hair coming from the sides of his head. He also had a neatly trimmed mustache and beard and was wearing a white tank top along with blue pants and brown boots.
"Barnes, what's going on outside?" asked Renado.
"There are monsters outside, tons of them I might add! I don't know what they're doing here but they can't just be passing through peacefully!" exclaimed Barnes in a scared tone.
"I was afraid this was going to happen," sighed Link.
"Why should we worry though, the six of us should be able to plow through them easily," remarked Ken.
"He's right you know, let's get out there and put these bad monsters to bed," suggested Chun-Li.
"I'll stay here in case any of them get past you, now be safe you guys," called out Elena.
Link and the others nodded and ran outside to see a whole plethora of various monsters including Bulblins riding on Bullbos, Kargarocs, Goriyas, and Dynalfos.
"Many different flavors of ugly, no big deal though," said Alex.
"Still, something's up though, they're not going around tearing stuff up like they normally do, they must have a plan," noted Ryu.
At that moment, a Bulblin blew a large horn and the ones that were riding a Bullbo charged forward in hopes of trampling over Link and company. Zelda threw out a Din's Fire and let it explode just short of the Bullbos startling them and making them throw the Bulblins off of them. However, another group of Bulblins started to shoot flaming arrows at the heroes in addition to the Goriyas throwing their boomerangs at them knocking each of them back.
"Argh, so much stuff flying all over the place, this is gonna be tough," grumbled Alex as he barely missed being hit by a flaming arrow.
"We must push forward though regardless!" exclaimed Zelda barricading herself with Naryu's Love.
"Shinkuu Hadoken!" hollered Ryu releasing a supercharged Hadoken at the crowd of monsters wiping out a good sized chunk of the ones unlucky to be hit by the projectile.
"That should give us a little bit of breathing room," said Ken as he dodged a Goriya's boomerang.
"Yeah, but not much, there's still tons of these beasts alive and kicking," added Chun-Li.
Link fired off a Bomb Arrow making the large group scatter to avoid getting blasted. Although a small portion were caught in the blast, many of the monsters still remained, but now that they were split up, the six heroes all ran at one of the groups in an effort to defeat all the monsters before they could regroup. Chun-Li leapt into a group of Goriyas and before one of the dog like creatures could chuck his boomerang, she unleashed an EX Spinning Bird Kick sending most of them up in smoke. Alex leapt into the air with an Air Knee Raid taking out a Kargaroc that was swooping down at him. As two Dynalfos tried to surround him and cut him down, Alex grabbed both lizards and smashed their heads together and then chopped them both in the neck defeating both of them.
Ken and Ryu stood back to back as a group of Bulblins began to surround them wielding clubs and some still shooting flaming arrows at the two martial arts masters.
"Tatsumakisenpuukyaku!" yelled Ken and Ryu in unison.
The two warriors spun in opposite directions as they took out most of the Bulblins that surrounded them. As a flock of Kargarocs descended upon them, they were met by dual Shoryukens which disposed of the foul feathered creatures.
Link was busy sword fighting with some Dynalfos, as he parried a strike from one of them; he ducked under a slash from another and then cut both of them with a horizontal slash of his own. When a third Dynalfos leapt at him, Link back flipped away and nailed the Dynalfos in the head with his shield stunning it before cutting it down.
"Looks like we might win this after all," said Zelda as she fired a magic blast at a Kargaroc destroying it.
One of the Bulblins blew its horn again and the remaining Bullbos began charging at the occupied heroes. Link was able to dodge the ram attempt and make the Bullbos take out the beasts he was fighting. However the others all got rammed and as Zelda and the others got surrounded by most of the remaining monsters Link tried to run over to help them, however a group of Bulblins grabbed Link and held him down as the other monsters cornered Zelda, Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Alex.
"Did these guys just get smarter or is it just me?" asked Chun-Li.
"It seems they did all right, but I still don't understand their strategy," answered Ken.
At that moment a Kargaroc flew into the air and dropped an orb shaped object down onto the ground. The orb cracked open and a dark purple mist sprayed the five.
"Curses, I have to help them somehow," grumbled Link.
At that moment, a Bulblin found himself going flying and as the others turned around to see what caused it, they saw a group of Gorons behind them and they delivered palm strikes to each of the Bulblins making them release Link.
"Don't worry brother, we're here to help," said one of the Gorons.
"Then let's help my friends!" exclaimed Link.
The Gorons all rolled into balls and rolled towards the remaining monsters bowling most of them over. The ones that weren't decimated ran away laughing hoarsely and Link and the others.
"What was that all about?" pondered Link.
"Just what was that purple stuff we got sprayed with?" inquired Alex.
"I don't know, but I'm starting to feel sick," groaned Zelda as she dropped to one knee as did Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, and Alex.
"You guys, are you all right?" asked Link.
"We're…" the others started to speak before passing out completely.
"Hey, Renado, something's wrong with Zelda and the others!" exclaimed Link.
Renado, Luda, Barnes, and Elena all ran out to see what was the matter with the five heroes that had just fainted. As Renado examined them, he let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
"This is not good, your friends have been poisoned," informed Renado.
"Poison, oh my God! Do you have an antidote?" said Elena.
"By the looks of that liquid they were sprayed with, it's a very rare poison, they won't succumb to it for a while, but since the poison is rare, the antidote is as well," answered Renado.
"Well, where may I find this antidote, I'm not going to let them die!" exclaimed Link.
"According to old documents, it's hidden within the depths of the Palace of Darkness guarded by many beasts," informed Renado.
"That's where I'm going then, do you know where the Palace of Darkness is?" asked Link.
"Yes, while out exploring the landscape around me, I did find the grounds leading to it just a few minutes east of here. Who knows, you might even find one of those Secret Texts you're searching for," answered Renado.
"Even if I don't I'm still going there, I have to save my companions," said Link sternly.
"Very well, let me give you these, with them you'll be able to run faster shortening your trip," said Renado pulling out a pair of red boots with small wings on them.
"These are the Pegasus Boots, you'll also be able to perform a potent Dash Attack with these equipped," piped up Luda.
Shortly after receiving them from Renado, Link wasted no time in donning the Pegasus Boots.
"Good luck Link, I hope you find the antidote, I will look after your friends while you are away," said Renado.
"Thank you, now I must be off," replied Link as he took off running east to get to the Palace of Darkness.
Author's Note: You know I've been thinking, the heroes have breezing through this quest too easy so I decided to throw a curve ball. So Link will be going solo in this next dungeon since I do want to make the journey more difficult for our heroes. So yeah, A Link to the Past is getting some love with this next dungeon, well it is my second favorite Zelda game, Twilight Princess being number one, at least until I play Skyward Sword and am able to pass judgment on it. Anyways, I'm off to go work on the next chapter, so until then, please read and review.