Chapter 40

Vaati was standing in front of the door to Volvagia's chamber. He was afraid to enter and tell his father what had happened with Dark Link. He thought of his father's reaction to the news. He would surly get yelled at for being so irresponsible. Vaati sighed. His father never used to be so angry, but ever since he entered the Sacred Realm and touched the triforce, his moods just got worse and worse. He used to be so calm and caring before he became the evil king. He sighed heavily. His father would find out sooner or later if he told him lies. He figured it was time to go inside and tell him the bad news. He used his evil magic and teleported inside the chamber. He saw his father staring down into the lava pits with his back to him. He grunted as he heard the sound of a spell being cast.

"It's about time you two showed up. Did you catch those..."

He turned around and immediately noticed Dark Link was missing. He glared at Vaati.

"Where is Dark Link? Why is he not with you?"

Vaati stammered a reply.

"W-well you see um..."

Ganondorf cut him off.

"Oh great. What did you mess up this time? What happened to Dark Link?"

Vaati stared at the ground and avoided his father's angry stare.

"A spell was cast by Link or one of his friends. It was aimed at me, but Dark Link pushed me out of the way and it hit him. Before I knew it, Dark Link was casting spells at me and he trying to injure me. I had to retreat. I'm sorry, father."

Ganondorf dashed over and grabbed Vaati and lifted him off his feet and shook him as he screamed at him.

"You idiot! Do you realize how much effort I put into every evil minion I create? What good are you? Now Dark Link is freed from evil! He has all the new magic I bestowed upon him to now use against us!"

Ganondorf threw Vaati on the ground. He groaned and lifted his head up.

"I'm very sorry. I never meant for this to happen."

Ganondorf glared at Vaati.

"It never should have happened in the first place! Now I'm going to have to teach you a lesson!"

Vaati gulped.

"A l-lesson?"

Ganondorf grinned evilly. He raised his hand and it began to glow dark blue. Within seconds, a ball of energy was formed in his hand. He tossed it at Vaati. He saw it coming towards him and he flinched, expecting it to cause pain. He heard it hit him, but it didn't hurt. He opened his eyes and looked at his father in confusion.

"What did you cast at me?"

Ganondorf began to laugh.

" A spell that temporarily disabled your powers. I don't want you to escape or fight back."

Vaati was confused.

"What's going on?"

Ganondorf started to laugh even harder.

"I'm punishing you Are you ready?"

Vaati shook his head nervously.

"No! Please don't hurt me! It won't happen again I promise."

Ganondorf didn't reply. Instead, he started to form a ball of dark energy. Vaati looked around the chamber. Surly, there was a way to escape the room. He started to walk away from his father. Ganondorf grinned.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Ganondorf held up his other hand and suddenly, Vaati went flying towards the nearest wall. He hit the wall with a loud Thud! He tried to get up and move again, but he was unable to. The spell his father had cast rooted him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle. Ganondorf cast a ball of dark energy at Vaati. He groaned in pain. The evil king sneered.

"Weakling! You can't even handle that? You'll just love this next one!"

Vaati's agonized cries could be heard all through the chamber.

Link and his friends just entered a room. They looked around and gasped. There was a rickety bridge constructed over a huge lava pit. A few of the planks to the bridge were missing. Brad gulped nervously.

"Usually, I'm ready for anything. But I wasn't expecting anything like this!"

Link patted him on the shoulder.

"I know what you mean. You, me and Charlie are going to carefully cross this bridge."

He turned to Argus.

"You are invulnerable to the lava right?"

Argus nodded.

"Yes, I am, brother. We gorons bathe in lava. It's like a hot spring to us."

Link nodded.

"That's good. Then you wouldn't mind wading through the lava instead of taking the bridge across? No offense, but you are a little heavy and I don't want you breaking the bridge."

Argus smiled.

"None taken. I understand, brother. I know you aren't insulting me. I weigh almost as much as a boulder. Stand back while I jump in the lava."

Everyone stood back as Argus jumped into the lava. He made a big splash. Some of the lava hit a few planks on the bridge and burned holes in them. Link glared at Argus. He shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry guys. I guess I got carried away."

Brad groaned.

"Don't wreck our bridge, Argus. We need that to cross to the other side! Do we have to cross that bridge, Link? I'm not looking forward to this."

Link sighed.

"Neither am I, but we have to. Don't worry. We'll help each other out as we cross."

Brad turned to Charlie.

"You have new powers now. Can't you just teleport us across?"

Charlie shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I haven't tried out all my powers yet. The only power I used was my dark energy I cast at Vaati. Let me try and concentrate."

Charlie closed his eyes and concentrated. Suddenly, he disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, and he reappeared on the other side of the bridge. He waved over to them.

"I have an idea! I'll be right there!"

He disappeared and he reappeared in front of Brad. He held out his hand.

"Hold my hand, pal. I'm going to try to teleport us across. I'm not sure if this will work, but it's worth a try."

Brad grabbed hold of Charlie's hand. Charlie closed his eyes and concentrated. Charlie disappeared in a cloud of smoke, but left Brad behind. Charlie reappeared on the other side again. Charlie yelled over.

"Sorry, Brad! I guess I need to practice with these new powers of mine! You're going to have to cross the bridge."

Izzy, Navi and Valerie flew over beside Brad.

"You can do it, Brad. Don't let this lava pit stop you. You're a tough Kokiri", said Izzy.

"Link is nervous too. Just take your time and you'll be fine", Navi explained.

"I could put a shield around you. I'm not entirely sure it will protect you if you fall in the lava though."

Brad shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't worry about it, Valerie. Thanks for cheering me up, guys. Let's get this over with, Link."

Link nodded and he and Brad carefully stepped on the bridge. It wobbled back and forth. Brad was sure it was going to break. Then suddenly, it stopped wobbling. They wasted no time and continued to cross the unsafe bridge. About halfway across, they ran into problems. Brad was behind Link, and he was trying to cross carefully. He was trying to look around Link to see how much further they had to go to be across. He failed to look down and see the loose plank on the bridge. As soon as he stepped on it, it broke, and his foot was hanging down dangerously close to the lava. Brad screamed out in panic.

"Help me, Link! I'm going to fall in the lava! My foot is almost touching the lava."

Link turned around when he heard the scream. He gasped. If he didn't do something, Brad would be a goner. Link grabbed Brad's hand and pulled him up out of the hole. He then lifted Brad up and set him on his shoulders. Brad was nervous about being on his shoulders.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea? Won't I weigh you down a little?"

Link smiled and shook his head.

"You are light as a feather, Brad. I will get you across. Just hold onto my shoulders tightly."

Link continued to cross the bridge with Brad holding on tightly. They didn't have much further to go now. Suddenly, something long and scaly jumped out of the lava and crossed the bridge in front of them and landed in the lava on the other side of the bridge with a small splash. Brad's eyes went wide with terror. He tried to urge Link to cross the bridge quickly.

"Let's go! I don't want that thing to grab me and drag me into the lava! Step on it, pal!"

Link nodded.

"Ok. I don't want that thing to hurt me either. Hang on. I'm going to run the rest of the way across."

Link started to run. As he ran, the bridge began to shake violently. After a few minutes, they made it across the bridge. Link put Brad back onto the ground. Suddenly, Link and brad heard a loud splash. Charlie pointed behind them.

"Guys! Look at the bridge!"

They turned around to look at the bridge and they gasped in surprise. The bridge wasn't there! There was something in the lava that was on fire. Brad groaned.

"This is just great. How are we going to get back now? Maybe running wasn't such a good idea after all, Link. It broke the bridge!"

Suddenly, Navi, Izzy and Valerie flew across the lava towards them. Navi landed on Link's head while the other two flew around him in circles.

"We saw what happened to the bridge. Is everyone alright?"

Brad nodded.

"Yeah. We're alright. We have a big problem though. How the hell do we get out of here?"

Link smiled and patted him on the back.

"Don't worry, buddy. We will find another way out of here."

Brad turned around and faced Link.

"How can you be so sure? What if we never get out of here? I don't want to be stuck in here forever."

Argus turned him around, so they were face to face.

"Look, Brad. I don't know you very well, but in the short time we've known each other, I've never seen you crack under pressure. You need to calm down. We are all going to work together and find a way to leave this place. Before we can even think about that, we need to rescue my tribe and kill that dragon... Again."

Brad smiled. Argus was right. There had to be another way out. Besides, there was more at stake than just escaping.

"I'm sorry, everyone. I wasn't trying to complain a lot. After that bridge fell into the lava, I guess I kind of flipped out a little."

Link smiled and looked around at everybody.

"Okay, everybody. Brad seems to be feeling better now. Let's get moving and rescue Argus's tribe."

Everyone cheered at Link as they got ready to enter the next room, unsure of what dangers awaited them.