I woke up early the next morning, way before I normally do, with the moon still low on the horizon and no hint of light to be seen at all. I looked around and saw that the campfire was still burning from the night before, though it was really more like embers at this point. I set up the fire again, laying logs on it and blowing the embers so that they would spread the heat. Once I had a fire going once more, Midna popped out of my shadow.
She yawned as she emerged. "What're you doing awake so early?" She asked me.
"Dunno, just woke up and wanted some warmth from the fire. I figured that I would relight the embers of last night's fire." She nodded, and we sat there in silence for a moment.
"Hey so…" She began to say. "While we were free falling through the air, I felt you break down the wall in your mind to the magic, how are you doing?" I was surprised; this must be the first time that she seemed to care for my well-being.
"I'm actually doing quite well. While we were falling, my magic was going on a rampage in my head, and it wasn't until after I tore down the wall that it flooded in and calmed down. I really don't know how to explain it, but it appears docile at the moment."
She nodded, and sighed with relief. "That's good. I was going to have you wait at least another week before I had you attempt anything like that, but I'm glad that everything worked out." She gave a half-hearted laugh. "Eee hee… Anyways, I saw you use your magic to slow your magic and move the water, how on earth did you do that without being trained?"
I pondered this for a moment. I had actually had barely any training in how to control my magic, but the instinct to save my life had made my magic act by itself. "I'm not sure myself… All I know is that I was panicking and my magic seemed to use my subconscious understanding of the way physics worked to save all of our lives."
"Hmm." She said. "Well, anyways, now that you have control over all of your magic, you're going to have to train hard to learn what to do with it!" She gave a soft grin, and I smiled back at her.
She then proceeded to have me meditate for another hour, saying that I actually needed to get used to the feel of my magic now that I had access to all of it. Even though before I was spending time with it in my head, I needed to learn to understand my magic myself.
After we were done, I felt quite refreshed, rather than the slightly tired state I usually was in after meditating. "It's because you don't need to worry about the wall in your mind hold you back from your magic anymore." Midna told me. I just shrugged and guessed that she was right.
Once the sun rose, Zach and I made our way towards the house in the middle of the lake. "Hello! This is my cannon shooting ride!" Said the man up front. "For a small fee of ten rupees, I will shoot you up to my family's house near the bridge up there! Completely safe and free of worries, my cannon is magically equipped to make sure that you land safely!"
Since we had no other way up, we took him up on the deal and got blasted through the air before landing softly on a porch attached to a house.
Midna got out and said, "Now that I remember, didn't the queen in Zora's Domain ask you to save her kid? She said she would get you the power to swim like a Zora, and the last Fused Shadow is on the bottom of the lake, so you really need that ability!"
Zach nodded, and we headed on the road back to Castle Town. It took us less than a day's travel, thanks to the cannon ride that we had gotten on. As we approached the west entrance, we saw the golden wolf and approached it.
Once more it jumped at Zach's head, and once more we were in the land of white, the skeleton warrior in front of us. "We meet again." It said. "You two look a little more like heroes than you did before, do you feel ready to learn your next skill?" We nodded, and it progressed. "Excellent. But first, I must test the two of you to make sure that you have mastered the last skill I taught you, the ending blow. Now then, come at me!"
And so we did. For a skeleton warrior, he was surprisingly easy to knock down, probably he was letting us, and we drove our blades into him, where his stomach would be if he had one.
"Excellent. It appears that you are certainly capable of performing my lost art. Very well, my second skill is called the shield smash! Let it be hewn into your minds!" It turned to me, and suddenly I was outfitted with a glowing shield, lightweight and compact. "I understand that you will not always have a shield, but there will be circumstances where you will need this skill to succeed, so I need you both to learn it. Now, no matter how well-tempered a blade is, if a foe is clad in armor and bears a shield, the sword will do it no harm. When facing such a foe, you must thrust your shield against the defenses of your enemy, causing the fiend to recoil, giving you the opportunity to strike!"
The skeleton warrior had us thrust our shields against him, giving us the chance to strike him. We practiced the movement until it no longer felt clunky, and we smiled when he stopped engaging us.
"Nice work!" He said to us. "The shield smash I have just taught you can also be used to repel an enemy's projectile attacks. Would you like to practice? Then repel my magical attack with your shield attack!"
And so we fought once more, him targeting us back and forth, allowing us to hit his magical attack with our shields, bouncing it right back at him. We quickly learned how bounce the magic back at our foes with our shields, and it was quite the learning experience.
"Perfect!" He finally said. "When your enemies assail you with projectiles, this is how you will defeat them with ease! Your training is complete, you two have learned the second of my hidden skills, the shield smash! I have five more secrets to teach you, in time. The path to becoming true heroes is a long one, but once you two have grasped all of the hidden skills, you shall be worthy of walking it. You must persist on the lonely paths of the sword to obtain true courage and earn the strength to conquer the great evils of this world. Do no forget you discipline with the blade before we meet again!"
The world faded, and once more we were at the entrance to Castle Town. We crossed the bridge and entered town. We already knew where Prince Ralis was, so we headed towards Telma's bar. Once we got there, we heard loud voices coming from inside, so we walked in.
"That is a Zora child! This is beyond my expertise! Hmmmph!" Said the doctor as he stormed towards us, or rather the door, slamming it shut behind him. Ilia ran up to the door and shouted after him,
"Doctor, wait! If something isn't done, this child will surely…" She turned away, and walked back to the Zora child. "This isn't good. A human doctor won't do, huh?"
Telma spoke up. "That old coot reminded me, though. I've heard of a shaman in Kakariko Village, in the Eldin lands, who has tended both Zoras and Gorons alike."
"Is that true? Perhaps if we take him there…" Ilia said, trailing off.
"Inadvisable, it's too dangerous!" Said a guard who had been pouring over the map from earlier, clearly having overheard. But we can't turn a blind eye to a pretty girl in need, either! We'd best escort you! Am I right boys?!" They all cheered and raised their spears.
"Well, isn't that nice." Telma said. "To reach Kakariko, we've got to cross two plains that are each infested by dangerous monsters. But we're safe now!" She looked over, and only one soldier was left, the others having taken off through the door near us. "Cowards!" Telma called. "Don't ever show your faces around here again!"
Then she noticed Zach and I. "Oh my!" She said, walking over. "Looks like we've got two young swordsmen left!" I held out my hand, and the lady took mine and gave me a handshake.
"We'll help out, we actually know exactly how to get the Kakariko, seeing as how we just fought monsters on the way here."
Telma smiled. "How kind of you. See that?" She called to Ilia. "These brave young men will escort us, so let's get ready to go, pronto!" Ilia nodded, and rushed into the next room, presumably to grab a couple of supplies. "Now." Telma started. "You two know that girl, don't you?" Zach nodded, stepping forward.
"She was one of the children taken from Ordon Village by monsters. We're just some travelers who promised the parents that we'd see the children all returned to them safely. The rest of the children are ironically in Kakariko, so us helping you is actually just us fulfilling part of our promise.
"It's a shame then. She can't even remember her own name right now. Bless her heart though… She found this poor boy collapsed on the road, so she did all she could to save him. More courage in that girl than in all the soldiers of Hyrule, for sure! You two lend her some of your strength, all right?"
We got suited up, and Telma lent us her own personal horse from the Town stables. We discussed how to get to Kakariko, and we told her about how the bridge in the east had been completely destroyed by the twilight monsters.
"Then our only option is to cross the bridge in the west." She said, pointing at it on the map. "I've heard pray tell that a huge monster on a boar rides there on the bridge, completely armed and covered in armor. You'll be very hard pressed to defeat him."
Zach smiled. "This is why we've got these." He said, pulling out some unlit bombs and arrows from his backpack. We'll shoot him with bomb arrows straight to the face, and knock him off the bridge so hard that nobody sees him this side of the country ever again!" I had to agree, bomb arrows to the face seemed like an excellent plan.
"I'll leave you two to deal with the monster then. Zach, you can ride my horse, since yours is in Kakariko. Russell, you will stay with us to protect the carriage in case any other monsters attack us." We nodded, and headed out to do what we planned. It was actually quite anticlimactic once the plan got put in place, and there were no monsters on the road to the bridge, so we all watched as Zach shot five bomb arrows into both the boar's face and the monster's face, blinding both of them.
The boar charged into the side of the bridge, knocking the monster overboard, and once more it became calm with the absence of its rider. We searched the wild boar and found a large key on it, clearly this was going to be important for later, and made our way through the fields.
What came when we entered Hyrule field was the worst of it though, and we were riding for our lives. Smaller monsters rode boars and shot the carriage with fire arrows, and I kept using the gale boomerang's power to blow the fire out. Zach rode the horse like a pro, shooting the bow at monsters I didn't even see, and I heard explosions here and there as I rode up front with Telma.
We rode through the dark, since nighttime had come, and after a couple of hours of travel, we were finally through the danger. The key that we had taken off the boar from earlier being the key to the large gates that covered the entrance to the west Hyrule field and to Kakariko village to the south.
We got there and quickly unloaded Prince Ralis into Renaldo's care, giving him the lowdown of the situation. After another two hours of standing outside, hoping that the prince would be alright, Renaldo came outside.
"He has passed through the worst of it. As long as he rests, he should recover in due time." The shaman said. "Do you know the fate of his mother? Her welfare consumes him. He has been mumbling deliriously about her almost constantly." Zach and I shook our heads in sorrow and informed the man that she had died.
We walked inside to see Ilia and Colin talking, before Colin came out to see us. "It's true, isn't it?" He asked. "She's lost her memory, hadn't she?"
Renaldo spoke up. "Yes Colin, she has indeed lost her memory. And regaining it will be no simple task. But it will be all right child. If we give her some time, I'm sure that she will find her heart again. And so I'd like to ask you to stay in this village until then. It is our turn to show the courage that you have displayed." Colin smiled and ran back into the room.
Telma approached us, having overheard. "It's nice to see that there's still hope here. And it's always good to see happy results repay your efforts. Those skills of yours, any chance you're of the mind to put them to use for Hyrule? What hope there is in our kingdom is frail and dying, but there's still a group trying to do what it can. And I'm a member of that group." She said, giving us a smile and approached, extending her hand this time. I shook it first, and then Zach did.
"We've already introduced ourselves, but call me Telma. I'm going to stay here a little bit longer, I'm still worried about the children, but I want to see you two at my bar again, you hear? The bar is a sort of safe house for my friends. There's a passageway that leads to the castle from there, as well. If you ever need anything, just stop by and I'll see what I can do."
We nodded at the slightly older woman and watched as she walked off towards Renaldo. Suddenly, the visage of the Zora queen appeared before us before pointing at the village cemetery. We nodded and walked towards it, knowing that the queen was going to keep her promise. She followed us, and then disappeared into a stone at the far end of the cemetery, making it disappear and showing a path further inside. Zach and I followed the path and came across a large pool of water, as well as a gravestone that the Zora queen floated beside. As we approached, the queen spoke to us.
"I am deeply grateful to you two for aiding my son in his time of need. You were right to bring him here. Kakariko Village is a sacred place for the Zora people; it is where we take our eternal rest. My husband in life, King Zora, also rests his spirit here. It is no coincidence that my son found his salvation in this place. That which I have promised you reside within this grave. During his lifetime, my husband made garments specifically for the chosen hero of legend, in case he should ever return to stop another evil, garments that house the abilities of the Zora." She pushed aside the headstone, and we picked up the garments in question.
"This is the Zora Armor, and you shall use it to swim like a Zora, breathe underwater, and travel to the Temple beneath the Lake. Now, at last, I can join the king in slumber. And yet, my son knows nothing of my death. If you see him again, please pass on this message. Tell him not to grieve his mother's passing. Tell him she wanted him to be brave and live on as the king of our people. And, tell him that his mother loves him without end. Tell him this." And she faded away, turning towards the grave as she lost opacity and became invisible to our eyes.
Midna came out of my shadow. "Well then, it's good you finally found all of the children from Ordon, and you picked up the nifty Zora Armor. Although, there's two of you, and one suit of armor! Eee hee! But aren't you guys forgetting something kind of important? That last Fused Shadow… Remember what the light spirit said. He said you would need the Fused Shadows to defeat the dark overlord Zant and save the world. So even if you go back now with all of the people you saved, the whole tragedy would just repeat itself. So let's grab that shadow!" She disappeared back into my shadow, and I looked at Zach.
"Before we go, we should rest up, it is nighttime after all." Zach said, and I nodded. And so we headed back towards the town for some rest, unknowing that it was the last time that we would rest in quite some time.