Chapter 26: Twinmold's Remains.
Romani felt scared. Her blood poured out of her body and onto the cold marble floor beneath her. She felt her body shivering violently as the coldness set in. A small part of her welcomed the release of death, as opposed to the tremendous amount of pain she felt. However, she still felt scared. Scared to be alone. Scared to die. Scared of what would happen to Zak. Romani reached up her hand towards the green-tinted smoky sky. Some of her blood dripped off of her hand and fell onto her face, but she didn't have the energy left to wipe it off. Her vision faded, and she felt her consciousness slipping away. Terror built up in her throat as she waited for death.
An ancient song rang through the air, one she had never heard before. An earsplitting roar echoed out. She forced her eyes to focus as best she could. Two massive sets of feet stepped on either side of her. The owners of the feet were too tall for her to discern them through the smoke. They called out again, almost as if they were singing in response to the ancient song. As Romani drifted into unconsciousness, a huge hand reached down towards her.
Link stood in a similar place as the one where he fought the large mechanical bull. Underneath his feet the ground felt uneasy, as if he was standing on sand. The voice did not say anything this time, and Link pushed back the smoke with his sword swing. The orange energy struck a spike, which quivered in reaction. Two colossal snake monsters roared in response to Link's presence. They flew high into the air, clicking the spikes on their bodies together. Sparks rained down onto Link, who blocked with his shield. They twirled around one another before diving straight down at him. Link took off running, barely dodging them as they collided down on the spot where he was just standing. Due to their massive size, Link had a hard time deciding how exactly to deal with them. The tips of their tails vanished underneath the sand. The ground rumbled, and their heads erupted out directly in front of Link. He backflipped in an attempt to get out of the way, but got swept up anyway. One of the snake monsters pinched him in between its massive pincers as it soared up into the air. Link pulled out his sword and swung it around wildly, striking the pincer several times. The sword clanged harmlessly against it, but to Link's dismay. Thinking quickly, he pulled out a bomb, lit it, and dropped it down into the monster's mouth. After dropping several bombs, the monster finally shook its head back and forth. Link felt more of his bones shatter from the sheer force. He yelled out in pain. The other snake monster uncoiled and swelled up. Link managed to wrestle himself out of the monster's grip, and he fell down towards the ground below. The other snake monster swelled even further, and then it erupted, firing its spikes all over the place. Link pulled out his shield as one of the gigantic spike rocketed towards him. It slammed into him, knocking him around like a rag doll. He fell to the ground with a sickening thud. He gasped for air, the wind knocked out of him. The snake monsters spun around each other and dove down at him once more. Link pulled out his bow and an arrow and took quick aim at them. His arrow lit up with red magic right before he fired.
Romani opened her eyes. She found herself alone, still in the bizarre smoke-filled place tinted with green. The wound across her chest had been covered with thick yellow bandages, and she felt an unpleasant aftertaste of some kind of medicine on her tongue. She slowly scrambled to her feet, her wounds paining her. Romani headed over to the shattered remains of her bow. With a sigh, she kicked the splinters. As she headed away from her old bow remains, a bright light shined in front of her. Blinking, Romani squinted through the light to find a large wooden chest in front of her. She looked around suspiciously before lifting the lid of the chest. It swung open, revealing a treasure inside. Romani pulled out a sturdy bow from the depth of the chest. Additionally, she found a quiver full of arrows inside. As she strapped both of them onto her back, wincing from the pain of her wounds, the ancient song started playing again. It was different compared to before; the song was played entirely with the calls of strange voices. A pillar of orange light appeared. Romani immediately headed for it.
"Thanks," she whispered, "Whoever you are." The orange hands grabbed her and pulled her into the light.
Link fired several fire arrows at the snake monsters, which forced them away from him. Gaining an opening, Link managed to drag himself to his feet. He immediately started to fall forward again, his legs unable to support his weight. A hand grabbed him by the shoulder, and he managed to balance himself. He looked over his shoulder, expecting to see Zak, but instead saw Romani. The snake monsters roared out, preparing another assault.
"Are you okay?" Romani asked, concerned, "You don't look so well, grasshopper."
Link smiled weakly, "This is nothing. You don't look so good either. Grab that bow of yours and take aim. I've got a plan for these monsters."
The two of them fired fire arrows high into the sky. The snake monsters recoiled, avoiding their assault. They swarmed towards Romani, funneled close together from her fire arrow shots. Link stopped firing, instead pulling back an arrow shining with golden light. As the snake monsters approached Romani, blood stained the bandages on her chest as her wound opened.
"Grasshopper," she called out hesitantly, "Whatever it is you're planning, now is a good time..." The snake monsters' pincers approached Romani, milliseconds away from colliding with her. Link fired a light arrow. It flew straight through their encircled bodies until it shot out from their other end. The monsters fell in half, each half slamming into the ground on either side of the two of them. Link pulled out his ocarina and played Zak's song. Their bodies deteriorated, leaving nothing behind but a three eyed pincer mask. Romani fired a normal arrow into it, splitting it in half.
"Impressive," the voice admitted, "You two make a good team. However, it was my mistake to send a monster to do a person's job. This isn't over, yet."
Link played another song; the ancient song that Romani had heard earlier. The orange-colored smoky place dissipated, leaving them in Termina field. The white light from the mask disappeared. Link narrowed his eyes at the sinister glint coming from the happy-faced moon.