Chapter 52

Link and his friends were astounded by the view as they slowly made their way down to the bottom floor of the temple. The walls of the old temple gave off a blueish hue as they passed. Ralis was the first to land in the sand on the bottom floor. He quickly scanned his surroundings, he was looking for a particular passageway. He turned and smiled as he saw the correct passageway as he waited for everyone else to descend. Link, Charlie and Brad, along with the three fairies Navi, Izzy and Valerie carefully landed beside Ralis. They looked around in facination at the underwater temple as the walls gleamed and shined oddly. Link turned to Ralis.

"Do you know where to go in here?""

The zora nodded eagerly.

"Yes, it's not far to go now. See the passageway ahead of me?"

Everyone looked as Ralis pointed at a passageway leading away from the main room of the temple. They stood silent and were about to walk towards the passageway when suddenly, they could hear faint crying. Brad sprang to action as he ran towards the passageway, urging everyone to follow.

"Guys, it sounds like someone is in trouble. Let's go see if they need help."

Ralis shook his head.

"Wait, Brad! You don't know this place. You shouldn't run into the unknown blindly!"

Brad wasn't listening. He ran ahead as he rounded the corner at the end of the passageway. What he saw made him stop in his tracks. There was a female zora standing in front of a pedestal, muttering softly. Upon hearing the commotion, she turned around and cried out in shock.

"You're not Ralis! Who are you and what are you doing in this temple?"

Upon hearing yelling, Link and his friends quickened their pace as they rounded the corner. Upon seeing the rest of the party, the female zora began to panic.

"Three more zoras? How is this even possible? Ralis and I are the only ones that managed to escape!"

Ruto narrowed her eyes.

"Which means you three zoras and your fairy friends must be working for that fiend Ganondorf! Do your worst. You'll never get away with your evil plans."

Brad looked at her oddly.

"Evil plans? I think you have the wrong idea, lady. We are not evil. In fact, we came 'here to fight off evil."

Ruto smirked as she pointed at Charlie, his red eyes and shadow appearance gave Ruto the creeps.

"What about that zora? He doesn't look very friendly to me."

Ralis stepped forward as he raised his hands defensively.

"Wait, Ruto! It's me, Ralis. These other zoras are transformed humans. We are all on the same side here!"

Ruto looked at him coldly.

"Ralis, what have you done? Why did you transform humans into zoras? Don't you remember what happened ten years ago when we had that mother and son visit our domain?"

Ralis grimaced as he remembered the details. Those two were curious about everything the zoras made and ate and the son had accidentally eaten one of the magic scales. He remembered watching in horror as the young boy began to scream and grow gills all over his body. Before too long, he was a zora, and the mother had left the domain crying. She never did return to see her son, and her son got accepted into the zora tribe. He glanced at Ruto reflectively.

"Yes, that was a tragedy. It all worked out for the best though."

Brad rubbed the back of his head.

"So, we aren't the first to use those scales. What happened to the boy? Did he ever get returned to normal?"

Ralis and Ruto looked at each other and sighed. Ralis cleared his throat.

"No, he didn't. We offered many times to take him to a great fairy. They have magical powers, and I figured that she would be able to turn him back into a human again."

Navi flexed her wings as she floated slowly around Link's head.

"So, what happened? Did he get himself changed back? Surely there has to be happy ending here."

Ruto nodded.

"I guess it depends how you look at it. The boy was excited about being a zora and as a result, he never sought a cure, and he became one of our residents."

Link nodded as he processed the information.

"So, a great fairy might be our solution to becoming human again."

Ralis shrugged as he sighed deeply.

"That's not guaranteed though, Link. We've never actually taken anyone transformed to the great fairy. So, we don't really know if that's the answer or not. We were just told by our doctor at the time."

Brad chuckled.

"Well, it sounds like we might have a lead on turning back into humans."

Izzy laughed.

"Aw that's no fun. I wanted to see what Fado thought of your new form. Behold, your leader is now a zora!"

Izzy floated a distance away, chuckling to herself at her own joke. Brad grinned.

"Very funny, Izzy. I'm not about to do that. Even though she would likely accept me for who I am."

Ruto stepped forward impatiently.

"As exciting as this all is, why are you all here? What's going on, Ralis?"

The zora prince stood forward.

"We came to help destroy the monster in here. I want our home to be normal again, Ruto. Let's destroy this creature."

"Ruto nodded as she sighed deeply.

"Fine. If you want to help me, that's fine. Just don't get in my way, okay?"

She looked upwards. There was a passage leading upwards.

"If we go up here, we can get a better view of this place. Follow me."

She started to swim upwards. Link as his friends followed her upwards. Link spotted a ledge to climb up onto, and he swam for it eagerly and pulled himself out of the water. He was in a square room, with Ruto standing beside the only door in the room. She groaned impatiently.

"Seriously, how long does it take you guys to get moving? We've got more of this temple to explore, so hurry up!"

Ralis and Link's friends groaned as they pulled themselves out of the water. They slowly made their way towards the door and they entered the next room. Link stopped in his tracks. They were on a small ledge, and Link almost kept walking. He gasped as he stopped quickly and looked at his friends crowded on the small ledge.

"That was close. Hey, isn't this the main room we started in?"

They looked around the huge, square room and all hit the same conclusion. Ralis laughed.

"My sister got you turned around, huh? This is indeed the room we started in. We need to go up onto the ledge on the right hand side over there."

Ralis pointed at a ledge that was close by. All they needed to do was simply dive into the water and swim over to it. Ruto dove in first and swam towards the ledge. Everyone else followed suit, and they were on a ledge with a door leading into another room. Ruto held up her hands in caution.

"Wait. This is as far as I could make it on my own. I'm not entirely sure how to cross this. Look."

Everyone gasped in shock as they observed a very large chasm, with a door and ledge on the other side. Brad chuckled as he viewed the hole, looking to see if it went anywhere.

"Well, I guess this is a stumper. How do we get across? I don't think there's anything in that chasm. Who knows where you'd end up if you fell in there!"

Charlie stepped forward, observing the distance from their current position to the ledge on the other side. He glanced over at his companions.

"Guys, I might be able to teleport us over. I just don't have the power to teleport all of us at once."

Ruto stared at him oddly.

"Wait, you can teleport? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

Charlie groaned.

"Because it takes a toll on my body to do so. I'd rather not risk it, but I don't see another way across, do you?"

Ruto shook her head.

"I guess not. Any other option would probably lead to us falling down that hole. Now, if you can teleport, can you get us over there?"

Charlie nodded.

"I should be able to if I concentrate. Afterwards though, I'm going to need a break."

Link nodded understandingly.

"Don't worry, Charlie. If you can get us across, we'll all take a rest before moving on."

Charlie smiled as he walked over to Ruto.

"Well, ready to get started, princess?"

Ruto glared at him.

"Let's just get this over with!"

Charlie nodded as he began to focus his energy. Suddenly, a cloak of shadow enveloped him and Ruto and within minutes, they disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the chasm! Ruto gasped in shock as she looked at Link and his companions on the opposite side of her. She turned to charlie, an expression of shock and awe on her face.

"Wait! How did you do that?"

Charlie grinned as he wiped his brow.

"Neat power, isn't it? I've got Ganondorf to thank for this power. He tried to turn me evil like himself, but he was stopped, and I just so happened to retain my powers. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to get everyone else across."

He nodded as he focused and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reappeared on the other side. He turned to Link.

"do you want to teleport next?"

Link nodded silently as Charlie closed his eyes and focused once more. He and Link then disappeared and reappeared on the other side. He continued this until everyone, except the fairies that could fly, were across the chasm. When it was all over, Charlie was exhausted. He sat wearily on the ledge and looked down, wiping sweat from his brow as he did.

"Well, at least we all made it over here safely. I'm glad nobody ended up falling in there."

Brad smiled as he patted him on the back lightly.

"Thanks for your help, buddy. You did us all a service by getting us over here. Are you going to be okay?"

Charlie nodded as he sighed wearily.

"Yeah. I just need to rest for a bit. Teleport magic drains my energy, and I need to rest after using it a lot. I hope you guys understand."

Link nodded as he sat down beside him.

"Don't worry about it. If one of my friends is too tired to advance, then we stop until they feel better. You really helped us out, Charlie. Take a rest."

They all sat down on the ledge and rested, waiting for Charlie to recover his strength.

Meanwhile, in another realm completely, Midna the Twilight Princess sat on her throne comfortably. She was a tall creature. She was approximately 6 feet in height and she had gray and black tones to her skin around most of her body. She refelcted on how she and Link had defeated Zant the pretender king and then Ganondorf, the king of evil. She smiled fondly. It may not have been the easiest adventure, but she missed Link ,and she missed his wolf form as he looked mystical as a wolf, silver and blue coloring to his fur. Her thought were interrupted as one of her servants called to her.

"Your highness, we have a problem. There is a shadow wreaking havoc nearby. We need your assistance."

Midna nodded as she sighed wearily. Ever since she came back to the twilght realm, there has been one problem after the other. For starters, not all of her people were turned normal again after Zant's tirade, and she herself had to take them down, as there was very little chance of them recovering after being turned into a monster for an extended period of time. Secondly, there had been a lot of disturbances in the air, causing random shifts in weather. She quickly made her way outside her castle and spotted the shadow. She ran over to it, focusing her power as she did.

"Stop right there, beast. I want you to get out of my realm. If you don't comply, I'll send you out of here myself!"

She cried as she formed a large shadow ball and sent it flying towards the creature. It simply laughed as it dodged the attack with ease.

"You have to do better than that to stop me, Twilight Princess!"

She groaned as she surveyed the area. That's when she saw it. A large boulder. She closed her eyes and focused. The large boulder quickly started to levitate as she held it in front of her. She hurled it towards the creature with a cry. When it got closer, Midna cried again as the boulder shattered into many pieces. She then held the pieces level with the monster and let them fly towards it. The shadow grinned as he disappeared mere seconds before it could hit him. Midna cursed angerily.

"I can't believe I missed. I've got to get rid of this thing before things get even worse!"

She looked around frantically, but couldn't find anything else to use as a weapon. She sighed. There was only one way to get rid of it. She had to open a portal out of her realm and knock the creature into it and seal it again. She quickly focused and created a portal behind the creature. It noticed what she was doing and snickered evilly.

"Do you really think you've got the strength to banish me? Let's find out, shall we?"

The creature laughed as Midna rushed forward and began to attack the shadow relentlessly. The evil being grunted as he realized he was being pulled towards the portal. He glared at her in anger.

"If I go down, I'm bringing you with me!"

The shadow launched a tentacle towards Midna and quickly wrapped her tight. She struggled against her bonds.

"Let me go! I'm not about to get banished from my own realm!"

The shadow grinned evilly as he pulled the tentacle tighter. She winced in pain.

"Well, you're coming with me, whether you like it or not!"

The shadow maintained its grip as it began to get pulled into the portal. Midna struggled hard against her binds. She had no idea where her portal would take her. When she entered the portal, a weird feeling began to overome her. She groaned in pain as she felt her body being twisted. When the pain was over, She opened her red eyes slowly and looked at herself. She spat in disgust. She appeared to resemble an imp once more! She was now three feet tall and she had a very small figure. She cursed in anger.

"You've got to be kidding me! I don't want to be this stupid imp again!"

She glared at the shadow creature, who was still pulling her along through the unknown land within the portal. She glanced around as she struggled to get free. There were many portals in this area. Midna didn't understand. Just where did the portal take her? Suddenly, off in the distance, she glimpsed a glowing green portal. This one looked different from all the other portals they had passed. She tried to get free once more as she tried casting a shadow ball at the creature. It groaned in pain as it laughed.

"Ugh, you still haven't given up? It's over, Midna. I've taken most of your former powers and reduced you to a mere imp."

Midna glared at the shadow creature as the glowing green portal got closer. She had an idea. She would push him into the portal. Even if she went with him, it was better than the current situation. She began to struggle harder, trying to get the shadow closer to the portal. It was working. They were drifting closer to the green portal. Midna smiled as she finally released herself from his grip and concentrated enough to form a shadow ball. She then quickly hit the creature in the chest. It groaned as it flew backwards towards the portal. Midna tried to free herself, but it was no use. She was swallowed by the big green portal, as was the shadow creature. Midna's vision began to fade, and everything went black as Midna passed out, floating in the green portal.