Chapter 31

As soon as they entered the Forest Temple, everyone gasped in awe. The room they were now in was covered in vines and all sorts of different trees. Link saw a door at the far end of the room and proceeded to walk towards it when suddenly, a big wolf appeared out of nowhere and began to dash towards Link with amazing speed. Brad ran up to Link and pushed him lightly out of the way.

"Let me handle this. I've dealt with these wolves before."

Link, Charlie and the two fairies stood to one side as Brad pulled out his scimitar and advanced on the wolf. As soon as Link was out of the way, the wolf charged towards Brad instead. He watched the wolf's movements carefully. Then at the last second, he jumped into the air and brought his sword crashing down into the beast's back. The wolf cried in agony and disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke. Brad turned to his astonished friends.

"I've fought those wolves before. In fact, there used to be a lot of them in the Sacred Forest Meadow before I killed them all. I'm not sure, but I think they were created by either Ganondorf or Vaati. We better be careful. If those wolves are in here, who knows what else lurks within."

Charlie smiled.

"Brad to the rescue again. Thanks for your help. We made a good decision when we let you come along with us eh, Link?"

Link smiled.

"Of course we did. I don't regret it for a second. Not after how he saved us from Vaati like he did."

Brad scratched the back of his head lightly, a sign of embarrassment with Kokiri.

"Don't worry about it, guys. I'm glad to help in any way I can."

Izzy flew around in excitement.

"I wouldn't have expected anything less from my pal. He was leader of the Kokiri clan before and now, he's saving everyone's lives!"

Brad smiled at Izzy.

"Thank you very much. I'm glad you chose me as a friend. Now, let's explore the rest of this temple, shall we?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, and they proceeded through the next door.

The next room was enormous. There were at least four doors in each direction. In the center of the room, there was a platform with a small roof. Around the platform, there were four torches, one at each corner of the platform. One was a normal orange. The second one was bright blue. The third one was a very bright green and the last one was a dark purple. Link began to walk towards the platform when Brad suddenly pulled him back. Link looked at him oddly.

"Why did you do that for? I want to investigate that platform."

Brad nodded.

"I know but hold on. Something isn't quite right about those torches."

Suddenly, the flames from the torch holders began to float into the air. The platform then sank into the floor. Shortly after, four ghosts appeared, and they were holding the torches inside four lanterns! The ghosts were barely visible, but everyone was able to just make them out. They looked ugly and deformed. The one ghost holding the blue flame was missing a head. The ghost holding the orange flame had hooks for hands. The ghost holding the green flame had a twisted body. The final ghost was the only one of the four that looked like a normal person. It was wearing old-looking rags and it had a beard. They all rose to the top of the room and disappeared. Link gasped in shock.

"Man, those ghosts were creepy! Thanks for pulling me back, Brad. I got to learn to observe things more carefully."

Brad walked towards the platform.

"No problem. Those torches must've been holding this platform up somehow. I think we need to find those ghosts as we explore this place. I have a feeling that they were trying to stop us from moving forward. Let's hope we come across them."

Link nodded in agreement.

"That's a good idea. If we see them, let's kill them. I don't know where that platform goes, but I imagine it's our destination."

Link, Charlie, Brad and the two faires moved forward through the dark temple.

Back at his castle, Ganondorf was furious. Once again, his incompetent son was defeated by the kid in green with the help of his friends. Vaati stood in front of him. Ganondorf gave him a stern lecture.

"You're useless! How many times have you failed to kill those kids?! Not only were you almost killed, but you were also back to normal briefly. I saw the whole thing. Max begged the kid in green to end his life, but he refused. I guess I'm going to have to show you how it's done. Is my creation ready?"

Vaati bowed to his father.

"Yes, Father. It's in the other room. Do you want to see it?"

Ganondorf sneered. Stupid kid! He was the one who made it! Why would he need to see it?

"No, you idiot! Just make sure it arrives at the Forest Temple right away! I made sure the flames were stolen from the torches keeping that platform open. I summoned four ghosts to do my bidding. Now those fools must track those ghosts down. While they are doing that, I want you to teleport my creation below where that platform leads. Now go and don't disappoint me this time!"

Vaati sighed and was about to leave when Ganondorf called to him.

"Wait! I have been too hard on you lately. I apologize. When you return from your task, I want you to take a rest. My creation should easily deal with those fools. That is if they manage to find those ghosts first!"

Vaati smiled. His father was being nice to him again! He nodded and walked off to do his task.

Link and his friends tried most of the doors in the room where the torches were stolen, but they were all locked and required keys. They continued to explore the room and they came up to a blue block with strange symbols on it. Link looked at it oddly. He turned to Brad.

"Have you ever come across anything like this before?"

Brad and Izzy studied the block carefully. It was a circle with a lot of vertical lines around it. Brad turned to Link and shook his head.

"Nope. I haven't seen anything like this in the forest at all. It looks like a giant stone block to me and that's it. How about you, Izzy? Can you figure anything out about that block?"

Izzy wasn't listening. She was studying the symbols closely. She turned to Brad.

"I think I've deciphered another inscription I found on this block. At least some of it. Take a look at the right side of this block. There is some Hylian writing."

Link looked to where Izzy was pointing. It looked like a bunch of funny scribbles to him. He turned to Izzy.

"What have you deciphered so far?"

"Well, I've got most of it figured out. It says, "In order to remove this block, play the." That's all I got deciphered and there is another small bit I couldn't figure out. Do you want to try, Navi?"

Navi nodded.

"Sure. I'll see if I can decipher the rest."

She went over to the Hylain writing. After a few minutes, she laughed in excitement.

"Got it! It says, "In order to remove this block, play the Song of Time."

Charlie laughed aloud.

"Good job, Navi. Play the song, Link and let's see what happens."

Link smiled at Navi and pulled out his ocarina and he played the Song of Time. Suddenly, the block vanished in a flash of blue light, revealing an unlocked door on the other side! Link opened the door, and everyone walked into the next room.

The next room resembled a small courtyard. There was a well at the far end of the room, but they didn't know which way to go. Link and Brad began to walk forward and explore the area with Navi and Izzy. Charlie was behind everybody else. Suddenly, Charlie spotted movement in the ground beside Link, Brad and the two fairies. A huge monstrous plant poked its head out of the ground and turned its head towards Link and Brad. Charlie looked nervously in the direction of them. They didn't seem to notice it. Suddenly, the plant lunged at Link's head. Charlie ran towards Link with amazing speed.

"Link! Watch out behind you!"

Charlie pushed Link out of the way. The plant brought its gaping mouth down and buried its sharp teeth into Charlie's back. He roared in pain. Brad turned around to see what the commotion was, and he saw the plant attacking Charlie. He roared in rage, and he quickly pulled out his sword. He was very upset that he let his guard down. He held his sword in both hands. Suddenly, his hands began to glow orange. Brad was confused. He never concentrated, yet his hands were glowing because of his fire powers. He saw something else glowing in the corner of his eye. He looked at his sword. To his surprise, his sword was glowing bright orange! He slowly began to realize that he made the sword glow orange with his powers. He grinned. He faced the plant, and he started spinning with his red-hot blade. He moved away from Charlie and luckily, the plant released its hold on Charlie's back and followed him. The plant got very close to Brad and tried to lunge at him. It struck something hard and made a loud Clang. It pulled back. Brad stopped spinning and turned towards the plant. It was on fire. It struck Brad's red hot spinning blade and caught on fire. It shrieked as the fire spread down the plant's body. Within minutes, the plant was burned black from the fire and lying on the ground dead.

Brad turned around and walked over to Where Charlie was. Link was already beside him. Brad looked at Link. His face had a worried look to it.

"Is Charlie going to be okay?"

Link shook his head sadly.

"I'm not sure. He got hit bad. Look at these teeth marks."

Brad looked at Charlie's back. There were at least fifteen horizontal teeth marks across Charlie's back. They all looked very deep and serious. They were still bleeding badly. Link took a deep breath.

"He's out cold. I've tried to wake him up, but I haven't got any response. He needs medical help immediately. That was amazing how your sword ended up glowing red hot from your fire powers."

Brad smiled and nodded silently.

Navi flew over to Charlie.

"I hope he is going to be alright. He is going to be alright, isn't he?"

Link shook his head.

"It's too soon to know. We got to get out of here somehow and get him to a doctor."

Suddenly, a man wearing silver armor and a blue cape appeared in front of them. He bowed to them.

"Greetings. Can you good people please tell me where I am?"

Link looked up from Charlie's still body.

"You are in the Forest Temple. Who are you anyway?"

He nodded wisely.

"The Forest Temple. Okay. Can you tell me where I can find a boy named Link?"

"My name's Link."

He sighed in relief.

"Well at least this teleport spell worked. My name is Ralph and I've been looking for you. Viscen sent me. He wants to know how you are doing in your quest. Do you have the support of the Kokiri people?"

Brad spoke up for him.

"Yes, he does. He shall have it after we find my friend Saria. But first, we need to get our pal Charlie to a doctor."

He pointed to the still form of Charlie lying on the ground. Ralph walked up to him and examined his wounds.

"Oh my! These wounds are horrific! What happened?"

Link explained to Ralph what had transpired.

"He was bitten by a giant plant. I almost got bitten, but Charlie pushed me out of the way. What a brave guy."

Ralph scratched his chin.

"Alright. Hang on. I am going to teleport us to Kakariko. There is a skilled doctor there that should be able to tend to those wounds."

Ralph waved his hands and suddenly, they disappeared from the Forest Temple. Link closed his eyes during the teleporting. When he opened them again, they were in Kakariko! Brad walked around and gasped in awe.

"Wow! This is amazing! I haven't been anywhere else. So, where is this doctor?"

Ralph nodded.

"Follow me. She lives behind the Hyrule Resistance building. Before Doctor Frederick passed away, He taught her all he knew about medicine and remedies to help people. Her name is Anju."

Link gasped in shock. He remembered Anju! He and Charlie helped her out in the past with her chickens. So, she was a doctor now Link shrugged. If she could help Charlie, he didn't care. He picked up Charlie and Followed Ralph. Link smiled at him.

"So how do you know Viscen?"

Ralph grinned.

"Me and him go way back. We have been best friends for years. He just recently taught me that teleport spell. He told me about you and your quest to gain the support of the Kokiris and he told me that the teleport spell should take me to where you are. I'm now glad I found you when I did."

Link took Ralph's hand and shook it.

"Thank you very much for your help, Ralph. Without you, Charlie may have died in that temple."

Ralph grinned.

"Think nothing of it. Now, let's get your friend to the doctor."