A/N: Hello my amazing readers! I'm so sorry this took so long. I have too many WIP fics, I admit it. Plus working on certain things when the inspiration for that thing is there. It is never always there lol

This one is a little shorter than usual, my apologies. Grab a snack, a drink, stretch, and get comfy! I hope you enjoy~

Beta'd by RenegadeBladesman. Huge thanks, as always, for dealing with me, my rants, and various thrown documents!

WARNING: Anthropomorphising and philosophising

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Propensity for Projectiles

This palace, which he'd heard called Midoro Palace or even Swamp Palace, was much like the one in the desert. Just located in a swamp instead. Inside was the odd device that let him travel up and down the various floors of the building, so he hopped inside and got right down to exploring.

It was standard fare. Those crazy mace throwers, Bubbles, Stalfos - and they knew the Downward Thrust technique? Rude! - Bots, statues of dragon heads that spat little balls of fire, and even Ropes. Wow, he hadn't seen a Rope in ages! They were still easy enough to take down with one good swing or two, though these ones had learned to spit projectiles too.

What was with all the monsters and their insatiable need to spit and throw things at him?

At least the Zora didn't really use their fireballs much anymore. Not against Link at any rate.

Collect this key, collect that key, switch floors, the tops of the pillars were dripping fire down on him…

Link paused and looked up. Okay, so those statues that looked like dragon heads he could understand. There were statues in the dungeons when he was ten that resembled fish that spat fire at him alongside dragon ones. The statues that looked like knights were also understandable.

But the pillars?

No.

That felt like a step too far.

He would need to be extra careful now or he'd end up with charred clothing at best and third-degree burns at worst.

Link hastily raised his shield and stabbed wildly as what looked like a skeletal dragon's head, topped with a single, swirled horn, came swooping at him. It flew through the air with ease, circling him like some demented scavenger bird. He struck it down only to have another fly right at his feet, forcing him to jump. It wheeled around and came for his head but only met a sharp blade.

Locked doors, more enemies, things that spat fire that were attached to the ceiling and not even on top of a pillar? He groaned. Ledges, lava, more enemies, including those orange armoured knights…

CRASH

A large stone block, nicely shaped into a cube, fell from somewhere up above and almost squashed him. Another followed, then two more in quick succession, and Link cursed the void that the ceiling in this room seemed to be. Half a dozen more stone blocks tried to flatten him, but he dodged and dived, scurrying out of the room as quick as his feet would carry him.

This palace wasn't just full of enemies that wanted him dead. Oh no, the building itself seemed rather determined to end him on its own.

Two red armoured knights, a locked door and a pedestal that proudly displayed a glove. Wait… Someone in Saria had mentioned a handy glove in a swamp! Was this it? He wondered what it could do, apart from being shiny. He slipped it on, and it felt like a second skin, snug and barely there.

The next enemy he slashed at taught him what the glove did. It gave his arm, and therefore his sword, a nice boost of strength. Even the blocks that had disappeared and started falling from the ceiling again crumbled beneath a blow from his blade. Link continued on with a grin, past more enemies, up and down more floors, gathering more keys, unlocking more doors.

This place had flying eyeball monsters that dripped fire. Why was it always rocks and fire?!

He reached a grand room that instantly reminded him of the one with the Palace Guardian. The teen cast Shield and stepped forward to meet a tall, intimidating figure that looked like a fully covered knight in blue armour. Link didn't like that one bit. Blue enemies always seemed to be stronger than the others and he'd already expected a tough battle.

Then his world seemed to shrink down to nothing but a few feet in all directions, dominated by the whistle of steel swinging through the air, the clash of steel on steel that jarred hearing, muscles, and joints alike, and the ever-present need to stay nimble and keep his feet moving as needed. His field of vision was dominated by blue, his mind focused on the deadly dance of battle, desperate not to misstep.

Slash, lean, stab, dodge, shield, swipe. The armour could certainly take a beating. Link got in a solid strike against the helmet, and it clattered to the ground as the monster knight doubled over. It straightened back up quickly, revealing another helmet that had been beneath the first. This one had no faceplate, leaving it a little more vulnerable, but there was only darkness visible inside it.

A few more blows and dodges back and forth, then Link managed another hit to its head. It doubled over once more, the second helmet noisily banging onto the floor and bouncing a few feet away. When it stood straight there was a skeletal head, bare, bone white, with dark, empty looking eye sockets. No big deal, one more strike to the noggin should do it.

Something grazed his shoulder, making him hiss and jump to the side, leaving a burning path across his skin. Link looked up. Floating around the large room were the two helmets. As he watched, one spat an orb of energy at him, forcing him to duck, then roll as the knight's sword tried to separate parts of him from his torso. Then the other helmet fired, and Link swore.

Between the three he had little to no breathing room, and it was quickly wearing him down. He tried batting the helmets out of the air, but they were too high, and he couldn't spare the time, concentration, or magic on the Jump spell. More dodging, more shielding, more parrying and attacking. All of the extra movement and keeping his senses on high alert left him panting heavily, his head aching as pain throbbed behind his eyes and ran up his skull all the way down to the start of his spine.

If this trend continued then he would simply go for a flurry of harsh attacks on the head of whatever large monster lurked at the end of each palace.

A good blow to the skull and the thing fell, toppling over with as much noise and the least amount of grace it could possibly manage. A golden key dropped from the ceiling the moment the monster faded into oblivion, and Link snatched it up, crossing the chamber and opening the locked gate barring a corridor that led, if he had to guess, to the place he needed to put a crystal.

He was correct. Another vaguely creepy statue head, another crystal slotted into its forehead, and another warping exit later, Link stood outside Midoro Palace. He gazed out at the swampland he had to traverse again and sighed.

What must it be like to live life as a boot? Especially on the foot of someone like himself that slogged over varied terrain, was frequently attacked, and often travelled for long stretches of time between breaks. Did other boots belonging to more stay-at-home townsfolk get jealous of the ones that went on adventures? Or did they count themselves lucky that wear and tear from old age and the occasional scuffing was the worst they had to deal with?

The question popped back into his mind occasionally as he made his way back to Ruto to ask Error about a palace. He well and truly hoped Error, whoever that was, could tell him about a new palace and not the ones in the desert or swamp. Someone in the harbour town had told him to ask Error of Ruto, so that's what he would do.

Did his boots enjoy going back over familiar terrain? Did they like retracing their steps? Maybe they wanted new places and treading where they had already trodden was boring and annoying. What is it with the shoes?

Once back in the Town of Ruto, Link scoured the place until he came across a house with an open door. Peeking in, he saw a man standing inside and watching him closely. "Uh…hello?"

The man nodded. "Hello. I am Error. What brings you here?"

Link shuffled inside and stopped only a couple of feet away from the door. "I was told to ask you about the palace," he said, tone unsure.

Error, and what sort of a name was that anyway, raised an eyebrow and stroked his short beard. "South of King's Tomb in Mido is a tunnel," he said gravely.

"Does that tunnel lead to the palace?" A flat stare, then the second eyebrow rose to join the first and Link gulped quietly. "Thank you for your help!"

He almost lunged out of the door and had to shake his head. There were so many strange people in Hyrule, conveniently forgetting to count himself among that number as he was also in Hyrule and most definitely counted as strange. And now, to go all the way back to the Harbour Town of Mido. At least he had a shortcut now, so he didn't need to circle all the way around and try to navigate Death Mountain again.

On the way to Mido he saw the rows and rows of crosses. So many graves. But…aren't I meant to be looking for a tomb? What better place than a graveyard? So much for his wish to never set foot there. He scowled at the sky and shook a fist at it, sharply reminded of a moment years ago when he'd done the same thing over a book.

What he wouldn't give to be riled up over a book instead of a graveyard.

Over the sand, which was almost as hot as the desert, then he slipped between crosses and other grave markers. A king was an important figure, so the grave would likely be bigger and more grandiose. He plodded on, row after row after row, until he reached a cleared space decorated by short pillars that surrounded a chest-high structure of stone bricks. On top of the structure was a rounded gravestone, guarded by little serpentine statues. Oddest of all was the old woman that stood nearby. He stared at her in curiosity.

"This is King's Tomb," she said, waving one wrinkled hand at the structure.

Helpful. But why was she there? Did she wander out there every day from Mido just to inform anyone that might appear that this was King's Tomb? He gave her a polite nod and a smile, quickly found which direction was south, and headed off, eyes busily scanning for a tunnel, hidden or otherwise.

So many graves made Link feel on edge more with every step he took among them. But there, finally, a tunnel entrance that was partly hidden from sight by shadows. He wasted no time entering. And fell down a vertical shaft. There was something scrabbling around below him, something with skittering legs, so Link balanced on the cross guard of his sword and speared one straight through with the downward thrust. Another came at him, so he cut it down, then another and another, unintentionally sending him across the ground.

With the Lowders now gone, Link stared at the wall he was faced with. He craned his neck back and saw an edge to it way out of reach. The teen shoved magic down to his feet and jumped as hard as he could, his fingers scrabbling half a dozen feet short. He tried again to the same results. Link growled, slapping a hand against the cliff wall, stumped and frustrated.

How was he supposed to get up there? Sprout wings and fly? Ha!

Link held his face in his hands, eyes shut, and groaned very loudly in an effort not to scream. He did have wings. He had a spell now that transformed him into a fairy! Did he have enough magic after using Jump? –There was only one way to find out and he had no potions to take if he overextended his magic.

After once last scan for enemies - the coast was clear - Link pulled in a few deep breaths that he let go slowly, focusing on his magic while he planted his feet in a solid stance. He bid it to follow his blood, spreading to every part of his body. Hair, eyes, fingernails, toenails, and everything in between. When the magic encompassed his entire body Link willed it to shrink and compress, taking his body with it. The world lurched, a violent heave that almost sent him stumbling had he not been braced for it, though he shut his eyes. The air became constricting, like being caught in a hug that was far too tight, and not just a pair of arms locked around his chest. Everything spun and flew and whizzed by, making his brain hurt and giving him vertigo.

When the world stopped spinning in a most unsettling manner the teenager opened his eyes and carefully, oh so carefully, stood up straight from the hunched over position he'd found himself in. The vertigo faded quickly, and he stretched, trying to relieve the tingling remnants of magic still tickling his hands and feet. His back muscles spasmed and something twitched, making him turn his head. He grinned.

Wings, shapely and gossamer, translucent except for thin veins, and showing off a subtle iridescence that contained all of the colours of the rainbow when they caught the light, sprouted from his back. Now he could fly. Hopefully. He'd transformed before while learning the spell, but he'd never tried to fly. "You'll know what to do when the time comes," he'd been told.

The time had definitely come, and there was no inkling in his mind of the process beyond 'flap wings' as he'd seen other fairies do. Yeah, okay, he could start there. When he concentrated on moving his wings, they twitched and fluttered, quickly settling into a rhythm as he stared at them, entranced. His body felt strange, a sort of light yet heavy feeling that left him bobbing. Link looked down to see the ground a fair distance below.

His wings stuttered as he gasped in shock, falling a little before he got himself under control. He was in the air! He was flying! It was nothing like he imagined, somehow managing to be both better and worse. Perhaps it would be better outside where he could feel more than cool, partly unmoving air, mostly stirred into life by his own passing.

Link went higher, grinning in glee as he flew upward, the rocky cliff quickly going by. The only downside was that he was now only around three or so inches tall, not counting his wings, and it made distances appear so much larger and further than he knew they were. The cliff seemed to go on and on forever and he nearly stopped dead when it finally ended, almost falling out of the air as a result. He fluttered over the ledge a good distance from the edge and delicately touched down.

He'd done it. He had actually turned into a fairy and flown up a cliff. His back ached dully, and he frowned. New muscles that had never been used before were bound to hurt, and surely his wings needed some new muscles in his back to move them. If he wanted to fly for any decent length of time then he would need to train up his wings like he'd trained up his legs and sword arm.

The ledge went on until it was lost to the darkness, his magic candle only able to do so much. It might be quicker to fly. He flicked his wings and hissed at the pain, shelving the idea. Definitely need to work on that. Walking that distance while the height of someone's thumb or palm was a daunting prospect, so Link cast out for the magic in his extremities and began pulling it back towards his chest, back to the core of pulsing light that rested near his heart. It was slippery and did not want to be compressed once more, but Link only tightened his mental hold on it, dragging it all the way. He would let it out again when needed or he could spare the magic.

The world grew smaller as his body grew larger, his balance thoroughly upset by the switch and the sudden loss of wings. Wow, who knew how much fairies relied on them for balance? He wobbled away on shaky legs but regained his equilibrium after half a dozen steps or so. Which was fortunate, as several enemies tried to attack him further on though he dispatched them with ease.

Then he was out, the cave giving way to a beach that wrapped around some mountains. Not wishing to try and climb, or even fly over them, Link followed the beach and realised he was on an island. Water surrounded him on all sides, though no Zora popped up to attack or say hello. Off in the distance he could make out some graves - the end of the graveyard he'd been in presumably. Walking around further and there it was – sitting almost exactly opposite from the cave across the tiny mountain range, a gleaming palace.

Link scrunched his nose as he approached this one. The Island Palace was…red. A kind of newly dried blood colour that was very off-putting. The stones, the pillars, the knight statue guarding the entrance, all of it looked as though something had bled all over it, staining each square inch. How many centuries of life had this palace seen, taken, and claimed the colour for its own?

His gaze dropped down to the sand at his feet and he glanced around, expecting to see signs of a struggle and clumps of sand stained by red droplets, but the sand was pristine. It looked decidedly odd next to the red stone it nestled against and Link frowned, tilting his head this way and that as if to help make sense of it.

He tried to shake off the ominous images and thoughts his imagination was happily sharing with him and walked up the steps, across the airy entrance, and into a small hallway with a lift device.

Yeah, this palace should be fun.

A/N: The glove you get in Midoro Palace gives Link the ability to break blocks with his sword so you can go through certain wall obstacles, make yourself a path through a chunk of blocks, make ledges to jump on to get higher without wasting magic etc. Super handy! And yes, just about everything in that place spits at you. Fire - fire everywhere!

Trying to hit an enemy while being fired at by laser shooting flying enemies? Not fun at all. Very hard to keep track and dodge effectively. Thanks, I hate them.

Error will only reveal his message about the tunnel after a certain point, so you can't just poke him the first time you're in Ruto because he'll only tell you, "I am Error." Which is a great line, no lie, but supremely unhelpful. The old lady that stands at the tomb is more helpful with her first line lol

There's a hidden magic potion in the graveyard but I made Link miss it because I'm evil. Fear me. But now we're at the Island Palance! It's a horrible colour and it's hard for me and my frequent headaches to look at, so I had to transfer some of my discomfort to Link. Fear me. Again.

It may be a little shorter than usual, but I'd still love your thoughts on it~!