Fan Fiction ❯ Professional Hero ❯ World of Water ( Chapter 35 )

Chapter 35 - World of Water

The Hero of Time, along with his children and friends, appeared in a bright light on the central island of Lake Hylia surrounded by large icebergs floating in the lake. The young children were in awe of the huge amount of water that surrounded them.

"Wow, it's even bigger than in the Zora fountain," Mikau whistled.

"You haven't seen the ocean yet," Mikau-zora grinned, "although there's less ice there. Come to think of it, last time we were here, it wasn't this cold, right?"

"True," Zora nodded, "I think this ice is part of the magic to gain control of the temple."

"Just like the ice in the Dodongo's cavern?" Darmani asked.

"Could be," Link said as he kneeled near the shore of the island and checked the ice, "pretty sturdy. It's gonna be though getting through this."

"Not for me," Goro held up his hammer.

"You think queen Ruto is already here?" Madakar asked.

"We saw her leave when we were at Zora fountain," Mikau answered, "so she should already be at the temple."

"Let's hope that monster that killed Nabooru hasn't gotten her already," Link said grim and cracked his knuckles, "Goro, you said you could breathe under water right? Fine then, Mikau, Zora, Goro, you guys come with me, Madakar, you stay here with the kids."

"Where's the temple?" Mikau-zora asked.

"Right underneath us." Goro said as he pounded the ice with his hammer.

"How come we can't come?" Darmani asked.

"Can you breathe under water?" Link asked.

"Well, no," Darmani admitted, "but we can dive deep, thanks to the scales we got from the Zora."

"That won't be enough," Link told him, "I don't want you to get hurt, so stay here, and protect the others."

"Like we can't take care of ourselves," Mikau objected.

"No you can't," Link turned to him harshly, "none of you can. The only way I'm sure you will survive is if you all stay together and look out for each other, you understand? I don't want anyone of you step up and face danger alone. You have to fight along side each other and rely on one another. You get that?"

"Stay close and protect each other." Malon nodded.

"Exactly," Link smiled as he hugged his children, "stay close to each other and stay alert. Make sure you stay alive, and I'll make sure I'll stay alive."

Link got up and turned to Madakar.

"Keep them alive," he simply said and jumped into the water, followed by the two Zora and the Goron.

"I will," Madakar nodded.

Link and Goro sank to the bottom, while Mikau and Zora cleaved through the cold water towards the Water Temple. The entrance of the temple was frozen up but Goro quickly unblocked the doorway with his megaton hammer. The inside of the temple was an awesome sight. All levels were connected by stairs seemingly carved from the ice with numerous ice sculptures at the walls and stairs.

"Whoever did this," Mikau said, "he sure has some fucking taste. I mean, this is fucking awesome."

"You're right," Link nodded at a nearby wall, "but that's a bit less awesome."

Against the wall was a frozen Zora pinned to the wall by a large spear in his chest. The wall had started to grow around him, making him part of the decoration.

"Fuck, the ice is alive." Zora exclaimed.

"That means we have to be alert at all times," Link scouted the hall, "keep an eye out for Ruto and possible enemies."

"Deal." Mikau readied his bow.

Just before they were at the bottom, a shrieking sound made Link and the others look back. A huge ice sculpture of a Wolfos ran down the stairs but a fire arrow of Link stopped it in its tracks.

"Fuck," Mikau shook his head, "you really got to teach us that shit, man."

"I will one day," Link said as he readied his bow, "but now we don't have the time. Let's keep going."

A howling made them look up again. Goro glanced at Link who nodded.

"That's a real Wolfos," Link agreed with Goro, "and he's attacking someone."

The Wolfos shielded himself from the attacks of the two Zora soldiers and then slashed wildly around him to drive back his opponents. An arrow entered his skull and the beast fell dead. The Zora soldiers looked surprised at the direction of which the arrow came and saw two unknown Zora standing in the doorway.

"Finally something that's not made of ice," one of them said to the other, "and you got to kill it with one shot."

The other Zora just grinned and shrugged. Queen Ruto motioned her guards to let her pass and stepped forward. One of her guards stepped up next to her. The gold lines on his sapphire blue armour, along with his sword, betrayed the fact he was a general.

"I am Ruto, queen of the Zora," she declared, ignoring the Zora, "who might you be?"

"They're with me," Link said as he stepped in the corridor, "these are Link and Mikau, heroes of the Great Bay of Tempora."

"Link?" Ruto's eyes grew wide, "is that really you?"

"In the flesh," he nodded, "what's the trouble at the Temple?"

"We don't know," Ruto admitted, "all of a sudden ice was beginning to form in the temple and this is the result. Lake Hylia is almost completely frozen. But where have you been?"

"Don't worry, we'll take care of the temple," Link avoided the question, "you just get out to safety."

"We can take care of ourselves here," the general said and laid his arm on Ruto's shoulder, "you're help is appreciated but maybe unnecessary."

"Believe me, Djeran," Link responded, "all the help you can get is necessary. And don't let your pride stand in the way of protecting your wife properly."

Djeran glared at Link and took a step back.

"I think it's better they stay here," Zora turned to Link, "don't forget, that thing is still out there."

"What thing?" Ruto asked.

"I don't know who or what it is," Link told her, "but some monster just killed Nabooru at the Spirit Temple and he said he was after the sages."

"Nabooru? Dead?" Ruto said in disbelief as she turned to the general.

"Don't worry," Link assured her, "we'll do our best to protect you."

"Uhm," Mikau whispered to Link, "you do mean , we'll protect you, right?"

"Don't make promises you maybe can't keep," Link hissed back.

"Fuck." Zora sighed.

"What was that?" Mikau suddenly said out loud.

"What was what?" Malon asked, following his gaze.

"I don't know," her brother answered, "but I thought something fell from that waterfall there and disappeared underneath the ice."

"Do you think it's that monster from the desert?" Darmani asked.

"I have no idea, it was gone too fast. Maybe it was nothing."

"But probably it was something," Madakar sounded grim and shook his head, "if only we had a way of contacting Link."

"I say we try to get down there." Mikau walked to the hole in the ice.

"If that thing is indeed down there," Madakar grabbed the boy and pulled him back, "it is foolish to in. Your father left you here to stay out of danger and now it may have become more dangerous, you're going after him?"

"Then what should we do?" Dekaru asked.

"We wait here," Madakar told the children and drew his sword, "and work on our swordskills, something tells me we're gonna need them to survive."

The four children sighed but drew their swords to practise. High up the tree a small owl watched them and seemed to nod.

Slowly Link, Goro, the two Zora brothers and Ruto and her guardians climbed the ice wall leading to the main room of the Temple.

"Man," Zora grunted, "it would have been better if there was a stair here as well."

"Come on," Goro laughed, "don't tell me you're getting tired of a bit climbing! I used to climb wall like these when I was ten."

"We're fish," Zora shot back, "we swim, don't climb."

"We're almost there," Link ended the conversation, "Ruto, you can follow?"

"I'm fine!" the Zora queen grunted as she pulled herself up on an iceledge, "just tell me we're really almost there and you're not making it up to shut those two up."

"Don't worry," Link grinned, "we're really almost there."

With that he reached the top of the wall and pulled himself up. Link took some deep breathes and then reached down the ledge to help the others up.

"That's the door to the inner chamber?" Mikau asked as he nodded towards the large doors at the end of the hall.

"Yes it is," Ruto panted, "in there the source of this ice lies."

"Nice wording," Zora whispered.

"Shut the fuck up!" Mikau nudged his brother, "that's fucking royalty you're dissing. Now open the fucking door so we can kill this motherfucker."

Goro grinned as he readied his hammer and reached for the door. Just before he could open it, the door burst wide open and a gust of wind knocked Goro to the ground. A huge icepath formed from inside to the middle of the great hall with on top a white shape. In the middle of the hall, the path turned so the creature on top of it faced the heroes. An being, made of shards of ice, stood there, challenging them, grinning in their faces. Link let out a roar, unsheathed his Goronsword and jumped to the path. He barely made the distance and could grab a small ledge with his free hand. Quickly he pulled himself on the path and dodged the first attack of the ice being. It was a lot smaller than him, just the height of a child, but was fast like hell. Link parried the blows but was unable to land any attacks himself. Suddenly the ice being ducked and shot forward. Link was to late to dodge and a small red stripe appeared on his chest. The ice being seemed to laugh as he held his clawed hand in front of him, letting a small line of blood drip down. Link started to laugh out loud, which puzzled the ice being.

"You do know this is just a diversion?" Link grinned.

The ice being suddenly looked at the others and saw Mikau and Zora charge up a fire arrow. It's eyes grew wide when they let go of the arrows and a huge fireball filled the great hall, melting everything in it. When the steam had cleared up a bit they looked down. A small figure stood up and started waving.

"I'm alright," they heard Link shout, "uhm, does anyone have a fairy?"

"Man, I hope the others go as easy as this one," Mikau sighed as they made their way to the temple entrance.

"Don't count on it," Link shook his head, flexing his right arm, "we got lucky this time."

"We did," Djeran nodded, "you got here. There's no way we could have beaten that thing if it weren't for the fire arrows."

"But next time," Ruto turned to Link, "tell us when you plan on doing something stupid like that."

"There was no plan," Link admitted, "just improvisation. We were really lucky that Goro had a fairy, or I still would have had a broken arm. That was a deep fall."

"You bet," Zora told him, "at least four stories high."

"Nothing I haven't done before," Link sighed, "but then there was water at the bottom."

"Like that?" Goro nodded.

The ice everywhere was starting to melt and the hall quickly filled with water.

"Like that," Link grinned, "Let's get out of here."

Suddenly the gate of the temple opened and a huge figure barged in, gripping Ruto.

"Not again!" Link shrieked but was thrown to the wall by the large monstrosity. He heard something snap as he hit the wall and he prayed it was his spine instead of Ruto's.

By the time he got up, the monster had turned and fled outside, leaving Ruto's broken body in the hands of Djeran.

"Fuck, that was fast." Mikau whispered.

"How… how is she?" Goro asked, knowing the answer.

"She's dead," Djeran cried, "that thing killed my wife."

"Another sage down." Link muttered and then let out a load cry.

"He's gonna go after the other sages," Zora said, "who's the closest one… Fuck! The kids!"

Links eyes widened and darted out the temple into the cold water of Lake Hylia.

"Mikau! Darmani! Malon! Dekaru!"

The four children turned and saw Link emerging from the water, followed by the others.

"Dad! You made it! Look, the ice is melting."

"Thank the Goddesses you're alright," Link muttered as he grabbed his children and hugged them, "that monster from the Spirit temple appeared there and killed Ruto. I was so scared he had hurt any of you."

"We saw it enter the lake," Mikau admitted, "but grandpa told us not to go after you."

"He was right," Link nodded towards Madakar, "that thing is way too dangerous for you. We have to continue now to Kakariko village to save the Shadow temple and make sure that monster doesn't get to Impa."

"Speaking of which," Zora pointed to the shore and readied his bow.

He shot a fire arrow at the huge figure that had just climbed onto shore. Just before the arrow hit, the monster turned and grabbed the arrow.

"He plucked it right out of the air?" Mikau-Zora stammered, "nobody can do that to one of our arrows."

The monster turned and dashed out of the gate, towards Hyrule field.

"We've got no time to lose," Link said as they watched the monster disappear, "we go to Kakariko and get to Impa before that thing does."

With that he took his ocarina and started to play the Nocturne of Shadow.

AN: here you have it, the second sage is dead. I'm sure you'll think many will follow, but that would be telling, right? I'm sorry to say, however, that I don't seem to have as much time as I used to have, so please excuse me if I miss an update, but I'll do my best to keep my loyal readers happy. Well, not happy, but at least satisfied. The story's close to an end and you may rest assure, I will finish it. Anyway, keep reading and reviewing.