Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Other Fan Fiction ❯ Back In Her Hands ❯ Darkest Depths ( Chapter 14 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Back In Her Hands
a Legend of Zelda romance fic
Chapter 14: Darkest Depths
5-17-2005
by Grey

Disclaimer: I don't own the Zelda series or any of its characters; Nintendo and the series' creator Shigeru Miyamoto do. So don't sue me or anything.

This fic is dedicated to CubedCinder128, for what I hope are obvious reasons.

******

Beyond the mansion's double doors was a narrow hallway, which looked identical to the entrance hallway in Saria's temple. *Unbelievable,* thought Link. *I wonder which temple the next one will mimic...*

Link looked up, expecting to see a Skulltulla, like there was in the Forest Temple's first hallway. Instead, he saw three Bio Deku Babas drop down from the ceiling. Now the three of them were lined up in a row, blocking his path.

With practiced quickness, Link drew his Great Fairy Sword and slashed at the first one. Three swipes were all it took to finish it off, but the one behind it then lurched forward, its maw wide open. It clamped its jaws down onto Link's left hand, but thanks to his magnetic gauntlet, it didn't do much damage.

Link quickly shook it off and ran it through with his sword. Now the final plant monster was closing in on him. He jumped backwards to give himself some room, then pulled out his hookshot and fired. The creature stopped dead in its tracks once it was struck with the hookshot, giving Link the opportunity to safely finish it off with his sword.

"Something tells me this one's gonna be harder than the first," Link thought aloud as he walked across the hallway and went through the door at the other side. If that was the reception at the entrance....

He stepped out into an expansive room that brought back even more memories. Beyond the hallway there was what looked almost exactly like the central room in the Forest Temple, complete with an elevator in the center. Link cautiously crept up to it, expecting a gang of Poe quadruplets to appear out of nowhere and snatch up the torch flames, as had happened before in Saria's temple.

But nothing of the sort happened. The torches remained lit as Link stepped into the elevator area. As he got a good look at the inside of the elevator unit, he saw that there would be an entirely different obstacle to overcome if he wanted to use the elevator. On the floor of the elevaror was a golden circular pad with a keyhole in the center; to use this elevator, Link would obviously have to find the boss key first.

*OK, Saria must be down there. Whatever took Saria has got to be at the bottom of this shaft, just like last time,* Link reasoned. *Just find the boss key, and I can go and fight whatever took her. Simple.* Of course, he knew that it wouldn't be as simple as that; the process of FINDING the boss key was always a challenge. And if this place was anywhere near as tough as the Forest Temple it mimicked....

Link couldn't believe how, all of a sudden, the stakes had been raised so much higher. What had been simply a quest to get Zelda back to normal had now turned into a desperate fight to save his oldest friend. And now, Saria was trapped in a place that resembled the Forest Temple, where he had had to go and rescue her before. The sense of deja vu the situation evoked in Link was more than just a little unsettling.

But Link had succeeded the last time, and he was determined to win again, no matter what sort of dangers awaited him.

Link looked up from the elevator floor and surveyed the room again; unlike the other elevator room, there were no northwest and northeast doors, which had led to outdoor courtyards. There were only doors to the left and right (and the one on the right was once again inaccessible) , and one straight ahead.

Link decided to check out the door straight ahead and briskly darted in that direction. As he climbed the stairs, however, a Skulltulla, which had been concealed by a dense patch of overhanging vines, dropped down onto Link, who was painfully flung backward. As soon as he got back up, Link promptly retaliated by firing his hookshot at it, and the giant arachnid's body crashed lifelessly to the floor and eventually burned up in a flash of white flame.

However, something was left behind on the stairs after its body had burned away. Curious, Link walked back up the stairs and bent down to take a look. On the stair were about half a dozen seeds, which sort of looked like Deku seeds, except they were a little bigger and were a darker shade of yellow.

These seeds were practically useless to him, since he no longer had his slingshot. Nevertheless, Link decided to pocket them anyway, then he went through the door.

******

Zelda sat in front of the huge mansion, staring at it vacantly. To say that she was worried about Saria would have been a gross understatement. Link had spoken with her mentally, but she had actually felt her vociferous, forceful emotions. She had felt Saria's feelings of pure terror before their bond was severed; whatever was in that mansion had her terrified beyond reason.

And once again, that sense of anger began welling up within her. She couldn't do a thing to help Saria, or even help Link get the bottom of things. It had been bad enough before when Link had went into the first sanctuary, but now the life of a Sage was in jeopardy!

*I'll just have to trust in Link, like I always have,* Zelda thought. *He rescued Saria before. He can do it again.* She was genuinely confident in Link's courage and power, but the whole situation still vexed her, especially since there were so many unclear variables. Who or what had brought Saria to this mansion, and for what purpose?

As Zelda was considering this, she heard something swoop down from the sky behind her, and her instincts told her it was something hostile. She started to stand up, but before she could get back on her feet, she felt a burning, white-hot pain in her back. It was as if her entire backside had been set on fire.

"YEOWW!!" she shrilled as she got up and whirled around to face whatever had attacked her. Hovering a few dozen feet away from her was the Termina version of Twinrova. Koume and Kotake had merged together, and obviously were after Zelda again.

"Hee hee hee, thought you could get away from us, did you?" said Twinrova mockingly as she prepared a blast of icy magic.

*Ugh, those idiots don't know when to quit!* Zelda thought furiously as she drew upon her own magic. Using the power of Din's Fire, she filled the air in front of her with billowing flame, and Twinrova became enveloped in the fire.

"Augh!" screamed the sorceress fusion as she fluttered down to the ground, having been stunned by Zelda's magic. Zelda smiled down wickedly at her fallen enemy; even the copies of Ganondorf's most trusted followers could be knocked out with a single spell from her.

But what to do now? Zelda didn't believe their actions quite warranted death, so no stomping Twinrova flat like the Wizzrobe. But unless she did something, Twinrova would continue to pester her.

As she was considering her options, Twinrova was able to recover and began levitating again. "Oh no you don't," Zelda said menacingly as she reached down and snatched up Twinrova in her huge fist. She didn't even try to be gentle; she was squeezing Twinrova so hard, her bloodshot eyes were bugging out.

For a moment, Zelda just stared at her captive. Twinrova was looking up fearfully at the princess, finally realizing just how powerless she really was against her. "Have a nice flight," Zelda said suddenly, then tossed her up into the air. A second later, she backhanded Twinrova with her hand charged with magical energy. The impact caused Twinrova to be propelled like a rocket into the night sky, leaving a trail of white, magical sparks behind her.

"Wow," said Zelda, amazed by her display of power. "I wonder how far away they'll land?"

******

At the Goron racetrack, several Gorons were still at it, rolling along the path in an effort to make it to the finish line first. The sun had gone down over an hour ago, but many of the Gorons wanted as much practice as possible. The Termina Cup race was only days away.

All of a sudden, the cloudy night sky was lit up when what looked like a meteor sped down toward the Earth. Then the brightly-lit object crashed into the middle of the Goron racetrack with a loud crash, leaving an impact crater fifteen feet in diameter and ten feet deep.

When the racing Gorons reached the impact crater, they were forced to stop, sincee it blocked their progress. Curiously, they peaked down into it, and saw two Gerudo hags yelling vehemently at each other.

******

"DAMNIT!!" Link cursed as he stared at what lied beyond his reach. At one corner of the room he was in, there was a pit that led down to the second floor. But in the center of that pit there was a circular pillar, which was level with the floor. On that pillar was a crystal switch, but Link couldn't activate it. Surrounding the switch was a cylindrical dome, and nothing seemed to be able to break through it. He had tried everything: magic arrows, charged spin attacks, tossing bombs, his Zora form's fin boomerangs, hookshot.... you name it, he tried it.

However, there was an opening in the glass dome. On the very top, Link could see a tiny hole, no more than two inches in diameter. But he had no way of firing a projectile into that hole. None of his long-distance weapons or tools had that sort of trajectory.

Still cursing, Link turned away from the tantalizing switch. It was then that he noticed some cracks in the wall behind him. Deciding to come back to the domed switch later, he took out a bomb and tossed it at the wall. Within a few seconds the bomb detonated and blew a hole in the wall, revealing a long, dark tunnel.

As Link walked through the tunnel, he couldn't help thinking about how vexing this sanctuary was, not to mention how different its design was from Saria's temple. The entrance and elevator room were throwbacks to the Forest Temple, sure, but beyond that, this mansion had a completely different layout. In addition, this mansion had three upper levels, as opposed to the Forest Temple's two, meaning there was more ground to cover.

Plus, it was more heavily infested with monsters, and had far more confusing puzzles and deadlier traps. Well before he found the domed switch, Link had come across two other switches beyond his reach.... a switch hidden behind glass barriers that he couldn't hit with any of his weapons, and another switch that erected some sort of forcefield around itself whenever he faced it directly....

Soon, Link came to the end of the winding tunnel and had to blow that open with a bomb as well. When he stepped through the freshly-opened passage, he found himself in a small, square room with some pots scattered about. There was a thin, rectangular, glassless window to his left and a locked door to his right.

And Link was fresh out of keys.

"Oh great!" Link huffed exasperatedly. This was one of the parts about adventuring that he always found most annoying: coming so far only to realize he had missed a key somewhere.

*Ugh, if only there was a way to just break through it!* he thought as he stared at the lock and chains that prevented him from going any further. But he knew it was useless to entertain such thoughts. Even a Goron wouldn't have the strength to pry off the magical lock.


Sighing in defeat, Link turned away from the door and back to the tunnel. But then he again noticed the window out of the corner of his eye....

Link slowly walked up to it and peered outside. It was still dark out, and all he could make out were the tops of swamp cypress trees. Obviously, this window faced the outside of the mansion, instead of its interior courtyard.

This gave Link an idea. Maybe HE couldn't break through a locked door, but he had brought along someone who could....

"Zelda!! ZELDA!!" he called out as loudly as he could, hoping that somehow she would hear him. But Link knew that wasn't likely. Zelda was so huge she could only hear him whenever he was close enough to her head.

"ZELDA!!!" he called out again and patiently waited for a while. But still, there was nothing. Giving up on the hope of cutting a corner, Link turned away from the window and went back to the tunnel entrance. But just as he was about to go back through the tunnel, Link could hear some faint rumbling sounds, which were steadily becoming louder.

Link rushed back to the window and looked outside, only to see a gigantic eye staring back at him. "Link, is that you? Were you calling me?" Zelda asked him, her booming voice reverberating throughout the room.

"Uh, yeah," said Link. "You know how you said you feel bad about not being able to help me out? Well, I know a way you can." And then Link explained about the locked door.

"OK, Link. Find a safe spot," said Zelda, and Link could see her head move away from the window, and that she was rearing back her fist. Knowing what was coming, Link dashed back into the tunnel. All of a sudden, the entire mansion shook violently, and the tunnel was filled with a terrible crashing noise.

Link turned around, and saw that Zelda's muddied, gloved fist had smashed right through the wall and through the locked door as well. She had also smashed open the pots that had been in the room, and the floor was now littered with magic jars, rupees and bombs along with the debris from the walls.

Zelda took her arm back out of the sanctuary as Link continued to stare dumbly at her display of brute strength. He then saw her gigantic face peering into the hole she had punched through the wall. "Link, please hurry!" she said in a heavy tone. "Something terrible's happening, I'm sure of it. Go get whatever's in that room."

"I'm on it," replied Link, who gathered up the goods from the jars and then darted through the entrance Zelda had made for him.

As soon as Link stepped through that hole, however, it was like he had been transported to some other area. It was as if he was now outside during daylight, and a light fog seemed to linger everywhere. In addition, he was wading in clear water that came up to his ankles. *Wait a minute, this seems... familiar...*

Eventually, Link remembered where he had seen this sort of thing before: in the room in the Water Temple where he had fought his shadowy double.

"Uh oh," Link muttered as he turned to look behind him. The hole Zelda had made with her fist, it was gone! All he could see was an endless stretch of ankle-high water, obscured slightly by fog.

When he turned back to look in front of him, he saw that three shadow figures had materialized inside the room while he was looking the other way. Despite the fog, Link could easily make out their shapes: one had the form of a Deku scrub, one had the physique of a Goron warrior, and one had the outline of a male Zora.

Last time, Link merely had to contend with a dark copy of himself. This time, however, THREE shadowy creatues were after him, and they had taken the forms granted by his transformation masks!

Link didn't even have time to draw his sword before he found himself under attack. The Dark Scrub spat out inky-black bubbles at him and Dark Mikau sent out its fin boomerangs at the same time. Link leaped to the right, avoiding both attacks. But then Dark Darmani moved in and landed a haymaker on him, knocking him flat on his back.

"Urgh," Link grunted, feeling as if he had been snapped in half. Luckily for him, he was able to recover and roll out of the way, just as Dark Darmani was about to bring his clamped fists down onto him.

Link stood back up and drew his sword, then launched himself at Dark Darmani. He tried a downward slice with his sword, but it parried the blow with its forearm.

Then, seemingly from nowhere, the Dark Scrub collided into Link while spinning. Link managed to stay on his feet, but the impact from its magical spin stung a lot. A second later, Dark Mikau moved in and connected with a three-hit combo, and Link was once again knocked down into the water.

*This is not good!* Link thought panickingly after he had risen again, barely sidestepping another spin attack from the Dark Scrub. *It was hard enough when I had to fight only one. How can I beat THREE of them?!*

But then Link reasoned that each shadow creature might still have the inherent weaknesses of the race it mimicked. If so, perhaps he could exploit them....

The Dark Scrub was once again closing in while doing its spinning move. Link pulled out his bow as he sidestepped to evade the attack, then let a fire arrow fly while it was still engaged in its spinning attack. As soon as the arrow struck it, it became enveloped in flame, and within seconds its body vanished in a puff of black smoke. One down, two to go.

As soon as Link had fired the arrow, though, Dark Darmani was moving in again, and Dark Mikau had sent the fin boomerangs his way. Link quickly took his shield out to deflect the boomerangs, and then he backflipped to avoid another crushing haymaker from the shadowy Goron.

Dark Mikau dashed toward Link and tried to land another three-hit combo. But Link was ready. He had a single arrow in his hand, and concentrated his magic energy into it and powered it up as an ice arrow. As Dark Mikau threw a punch, Link ducked and stabbed it in its midsection with his ice arrow. The shadowy Zora then vanished in the same manner that the Dark Scrub had. Now only Dark Darmani remained....

And it was already upon him. Just as Dark Mikau's form had evaporated, the shadow Goron had closed in on Link and hit him with an flaming uppercut. Link was painfully propelled several feet into the air and landed hard on his back a few feet away, creating a huge splash. And Dark Darmani didn't let up for a second, immediately moving towards Link again with its fist reared back, meaning to strike him while he was still down.

But Link had other plans. He remained on the ground and let Dark Darmani get close, and once it got close enough and started to bring its fist down, Link leaped upwards with his sword drawn. Once he was directly over Dark Darmani, he angled his sword downwards and as gravity took him down, the tip of his sword went straight into Dark Darmani's back. And this caused Link to bounce upwards slightly, only to come back down with another stab. Link was able to hit Dark Darmani repeatedly in this manner, and after landing six consecutive hits, its body vanished just as the other two shadow figures had.

As soon as it did, the room's illusion vanished as well. Gone was the endless expanse of water shrouded in fog, and Link was now standing in another square room that happened to have a huge hole in one of the walls. And in the center of the room, there was a large treasure chest. "Whew," said Link as he walked over to the chest and opened it, anxious to claim his prize.

What was inside was certainly a funny-looking piece of equipment. The item consisted of a metallic, blue sphere that was roughly the size of his fist. On one side there was what looked like a long musical horn, and on the adjacent side of the sphere was a hole. And on one side, perpendicular to the horn-like attachment and hole, there was a single button.

*What the heck is this thing?* Link thought curiously as he reached down to grab it. But then, it began floating, and soon it was levitating above the treasure chest. It then moved toward Link and attached itself to the bottom of his magnetic gauntlet, with the horn-like part facing outward, right underneath his hand.

*What the.... how did.... * Link thought, more confused than ever as he stared at the strange item that had attached itself to his guantlet. Curious, he pressed in the button, which was now positioned directly underneath his forearm.

Nothing happened. However, Link heard a distinctive sound within the weird item. It sounded as if some sort of spring was inside the device; it sounded similar to the spring-loaded mechanism used in his hookshot. *A spring? Hmmm, maybe it's used to fire something. But what?*

Link considered it for a moment. Then he remembered something he had found earlier: the seeds left behind by the Skulltulla in the elevator room. And he had found plenty more seeds after that.

Convinced that he had figured out its function, Link hastily took out a single seed and popped it through the device's hole. Then he held out his left arm and pressed in the button on the bottom.

The seed was fired out of the trumpet-like part at an extreme velocity, and Link could barely see it. When the seed struck the wall, it rebounded off of it and came flying back, whizzing by Link's right arm. Link then heard it ricochet off the wall behind him and come back. This time, the seed hit the treasure chest and it cracked open, letting out a huge cloud of sallow gas that engulfed everything within a ten foot radius. The gas instantly made Link's eyes water and he started coughing uncontrollably after accidentally breathing it in.

After about a minute, though, the gas dissipated and Link was able to breathe freely and see clearly again. *OK, it's a seed shooter,* he thought. *I'll definitely have to be careful how I use it, though.*

Confident that his task in the room was complete, Link exited it through the hole Zelda's fist had made. Once he stepped back out into the previous room, he was greeted with the sight of Zelda's huge face peering through the hole in the sanctuary wall, which had an expression of nervousness.

"Oh Link, I got so worried!" said the princess once she saw Link exit the room. "Once you went in there, the hole I made disappeared, and when I tried to punch through again I got shocked with some sort of dark magic! Wha-what happened in there?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," said Link confidently, smiling. Truthfully, though, he didn't feel so hot. He could still feel where the shadow monsters had hit him, and they had hit hard.

Zelda smiled back at him. "Well, as long as you're OK," she said sweetly. "Find anything important?"

"Yeah, a seed shooter," answered Link, holding up his left arm to show the princess his new weapon. "And I saw plenty of places in here where I'll need this."

"That's good," said Zelda. "The sooner we get Saria out of here, the better."

"I know," said Link morbidly. "I'm going back down to the lower levels. Oh, and keep listening in case I need you to do some radical remodeling again, OK?"

"OK Link," said Zelda. Link nodded, then turned to go back down the dark tunnel.

Once he came out of the tunnel, he was back in the room with the domed switch that he had been unable figure out. But now Link smiled to himself, knowing he had the means of solving this puzzle. He stood at the edge of the hole in the floor, in front of the switch, and reached upwards with his left arm. He then popped another seed into the shooter attachment and pressed the firing button. The seed bounced off the ceiling and, since Link had angled the shot perfectly, went through the hole in the top of the dome.

Link heard the familiar sound of a crystal switch being activated. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small chest materialize near the hole in the floor. He pried it open with his foot and, just as he had expected, it contained a small key. Link quickly snatched it up, then continued his trek back through the rest of the sanctuary.

******

Zelda knelt by the walls of the Giants' sanctuary, still looking through the hole she had made. Just one punch from her, and a wall of solid concrete brick had crumbled! That was one of the advantages of being a giantess: you had the strength to do just about anything. *At least I was able to help Link out this time,* she thought.

But Zelda didn't take much solace from that. Sure, she had saved Link the trouble of finding the key for that door, and thus he would be able to reach Saria sooner. But the fact that she couldn't do more still rankled.

What was worse was the cold feeling of dread she still had. Even though something was interfering with her Sage's bond with Saria and she couldn't sense anything, Zelda's instincts told her that something horrific was being done to Saria. And if Link didn't rescue her soon, Zelda feared it would be too late.

******

Link slowly advanced through the long hallway that ran directly underneath the mansion, which was almost exactly like the passageway on the sublevel of Saria's temple. The bricks were a noxious reddish-brown color, and on several areas along the walls, patches of slimy moss and toxic molds were growing out from between the bricks. Not only that, grimy swamp water was dripping down from the top of the hallway as well.

But for Link, the most nauseating things in that hallway were the filthy Dexihands that came out of the walls and ceiling, trying to strangle him. His boomerang made short work of them, but the sheer number of them made getting through the hallway a very slow process.

*Ugh, I don't have time to waste!* he thought angrily as he tossed his boomerang again, which sliced off another Dexihand. After acquiring the seed shooter, he had gotten through the other areas of the mansion pretty quickly, but the insane amount of monsters everywhere was slowing him down. Link couldn't help but to think that if the mansion wasn't so infested with hostiles, he'd already have the boss key.

Eventually, a tired and aching Link made it to the other end of the hallway, where there was a locked door. Fortunately, Link still had a key this time, and he quickly unlocked it and went through the door. Link found himself inside another spacious, square room that had a large chest in the middle, and this one had the familiar blue paint and golden casings of those chests which contained boss keys.

But there was nothing else in the room that would keep him from reaching the chest. No ring of fire around the chest, no enemies guarding it, nothing. It was just sitting there in the middle of the room. This worried Link. Surely, the boss key couldn't be this easy to take!

He looked through the Lens of Truth to see if there was any sort of hidden trap, but the lens revealed nothing unusual. Still, Link was certain that there must be some nasty surprise awaiting him, but what else could he do? He needed that key to go and rescue Saria.

Link cautiously crept toward the chest with his sword and shield out, anticipating some sort of trap to be sprung on him at any second. But nothing of the sort happened as he got closer to the chest. *OK, so far so good,* he thought as he continued to tiptoe towards the chest, now only six feet away from it. Now he was only four feet away... three feet... two feet... one...

The instant Link stepped directly in front of the treasure chest, thick, wooden roots shot out of the ground surrounding it, and tightly wrapped themselves around it. Link yelped in surprise and stumbled backward, watching as a thick wooden stem came up out of the ground underneath the chest, raising it up about four fet from the ground. *Knew it,* Link thought irritably, preparing to charge forward and cut through the roots.

Then, something began sprouting out of the roots covering the front of the chest. Within seconds, Link found himself facing what looked like the head of a Big Deku Baba, snarling and snapping. This one looked a little different though; it was a pale shade of teal with black spots, instead of the usual violent shade of purple. Furthermore, this one had rows of pointy, razor-sharp teeth.

Link reared back his left arm to stab through it, but then he noticed that fire was building up within its mouth. He reacted just in time, bringing up his Mirror Shield just as the flower head spat out a fireball. The fireball harmlessly struck his shield, and then he brought his sword down on the flower head with a mighty downward slash. But his blade was unable to cut through the flower, and the plant monster didn't even seem to be hurt.

The flower head was building up another fireball, and Link, noticing this, brought up his shield again and walked backward. It spat out another ball of flame, but Link sidestepped to the right, and it harmlessly flew past and smacked into the wall behind him. Link carefully began to circle around the root-covered chest, and saw that not only the front of it had sprouted a flame-spewing flower, but there were flowers on the right side and back as well, and there was probably one coming out of the left side too.

*Alright, so there's four fire-breathing flowers, but my sword is useless. What now?* he pondered as he continued to circle the plant monster with his shield in front of him. Link decided to try his arrows next. He powered up a fire arrow and shot it at the flower on the right side, but it merely bounced off its thick, waxy exterior and disintegrated into ashes.

Link then tried an ice arrow, and this time there was some effect. The entire flower became encased in a block of ice. But a second later, the flower in front of the chest turned and let out a stream of flame, which quickly melted the ice.

*Ugh, so arrows are useless too!* he thought, now getting a little worried. His sword and arrows didn't work, and he could already tell that his boomerang, hookshot and seed shooter would be useless too. It was too dangerous to try fighting as a Zora or Deku Scrub, and he doubted a Goron's strength would be of much use. That left only his....

"BOMBS!!" Link cried out as he fished out a bomb and lit the fuse. He carefully closed in on the right-side flower, which was opening its mouth, ready to spit out another fireball. Link tossed the bomb into its open maw, and its flower pod reflexively shut. A second later, the bomb exploded, blowing off the flower completely.

*Gotcha,* Link thought smugly as he moved to the back of the chest with another bomb in hand, ready to repeat the process.

It wasn't long before Link blew all four flowers off, and once he did, the stem and the roots surrounding the chest under it withered and died. The treasure chest fell to the floor, and Link wasted no time in retrieving the boss key, playing the Song of Soaring, and warping back to the mansion's entrance.

After swiftly dealing with the respawned Bio Deku Babas in the front hallway, Link was back in the main elevator room, boss key in hand. "Hold on Saria, I'm coming!" Link said resolutely as he stepped into the elevator unit and inserted the key into the lock.

The elevator immediately began moving downward, and Link was thrown into total darkness as the light was cut off. This unnerved him at first, but he forced himself to remain calm and focus on the task ahead of him. Something - or perhaps someone - was keeping Saria prisoner below the swamp mansion, and whatever it was, Link was determined to hunt it down and kill it.

The elevator continued moving downward at a steady pace, with Link still in it, completely in the dark. Now he was beginning to get unnerved again. The elevator in Saria's temple only took a few seconds to reach the lowest level. What was taking this one so long? Just how far down did this elevator shaft go?

It took about two minutes before the elevator finally came to a stop. The elevator had come down in front of yet another narrow hallway lit by wall-mounted torches. Link dashed through the hallway, determined to liberate Saria as soon as possible.

The narrow hallway went on for what seemed like forever, but eventually, Link could see light that wasn't coming from the torches. He then stepped out into what looked like some sort of gigantic, underground colosseum, which was illuminated in a similar manner as the rooms from the previous sanctuary, though not as brightly. The basic structure was similar to the center of Goron City, but on a much more massive scale. It looked like there were about four or five levels to this colosseum-like structure, and the pillars and platforms had plant life in abundance, with vines wrapped around the pillars and moss covering the floors.

The main floor of the colosseum was huge; Link guessed it was about three hundred feet in diameter. He warily stepped out into the colosseum and looked all around, expecting some giant monster to emerge and immediately attack him. Any creature that resided in a place this spacious had to be colossal indeed.

But no giant beast showed itself as Link cautiously stepped into the colosseum. However, he did see a strange, black mass in the very center of the colosseum. Link squinted, trying to make out what it was, and he thought he could see a bunch of black tendrils coming out of the ground, and they appeared to be wrapped around something.

Link ran towards the object in the colosseum's center, and as he got nearer, he could see they were indeed shadowy tendrils, and they were wrapped around a person. When he was about fifty feet away, Link could make out who was ensnared in the tendrils: Saria.

"Saria!!" Link called out to his friend as he took out his bow. "Saria, I'm coming!!" As he continued to run toward the mass of tendrils, he powered up a light arrow and fired it. Once it hit the area below Saria, the tendrils relinquished their hold on her and let her fall to the ground. They began whipping about violently, obviously affected adversely by the light arrow's energy.

Link had now run up to where Saria had fallen, and he fired another light arrow down at the base of the mass of tendrils before they could grab hold of her again. This time, they were vaporized altogether.

"Saria?! Saria, please answer me!!" Link creid out desperately as he knelt down beside Saria. She was unconscious and looked very pale. Link placed his fingers against the side of her neck, checking for a pulse. He could feel a pulse, but it was very faint. *She's alive!! I made it in time!!* he thought jubilantly as he picked Saria up. *But she looks very weak. If I take her back to the forest, maybe that'll revitalize her.*

Link stood up and looked all around nervously, his oldest friend still held in his arms. Something wasn't right. This had been too easy. Surely, whatever had abducted Saria wouldn't have made it so simple for him to rescue her! And this colosseum.... it was big enough to hold a dozen people at Zelda's size. This place was clearly meant to house something huge, but where was it?

"Uhhh... Link...." he heard his friend mutter. He turned his gaze back down to the Kokiri held in his arms. Saria's eyes were now slighltly opened and she was looking at him, but her gaze.... it looked cold and unfeeling.

"Saria?" Link said breathlessly, happy that his friend was awake. "Don't worry, I'm getting you out of here. I'm taking you back home."

"You came here?" she asked him, and her voice sounded cold and emotionless as well.

"Yeah, Zelda and I were on our way here already, then we found out someone kidnapped you and...."

"Zelda?" Saria asked acidly, as if the name was something loathsome.

"Uh yeah, she's right outside," said Link, confused by Saria's strange mood. "Why, what's...."

Saria jumped out of Link's arms and turned to face him with an icy, minacious stare. "You chose her over me. You chose a girl you barely knew over the one who's been there for you your entire life," she said, her voice filled with insane jealousy.

Link just stared at Saria, completely nonplussed. This wasn't like Saria at all. What was going on?

"You were closer to me than any of the Kokiri," Saria continued, her voice still saturated with hateful envy. "And when you came back as the Hero of Time, I came to realize just how much I cared for you. But you spurned me! You ran off with the princess!"

Link just continued to stare at Saria, not sure what to make of what she was saying. He had never realized she felt this way about him....

And then, as Link was still staring blankly at Saria, he noticed something odd. She looked a bit taller than normal. After a few seconds, however, Link could actually SEE that she was growing. And after a few more seconds, she grown as tall as Link.

"Uh-oh," Link spluttered, and backed away from Saria nervously. But Saria then lurched forward and backhanded Link across his torso. She now possessed enough physical strength to knock him several feet backward with her blow.

Link quickly got back on his feet, only to see that Saria had grown to be about twice as tall as him, and she was continuing to grow. And the look on her face.... it was as if she was relishing this turn of events, that she was gaining more and more power by the second.

"And now, little man, you're going to pay dearly for rejecting me!!" Saria screamed hysterically as her growth continued. Link nervously walked backwards, away from her expanding form, not believing what his eyes were telling him. When it was finally over, she had grown to the same proportions that Zelda had.

"Oh Goddesses... you've GOT to be *BLEEP*ing me!!!" Link blurted out, a surge of panic threatening to overtake him. He had come down here expecting to fight some titanic monster in order to save Saria, but the enemy he was meant to battle was actually Saria herself!!

"I loved you Link!! More than you'll ever know, more than Zelda ever could!!" Saria bellowed from high up, her hysterical voice echoing throughout the underground colosseum. "And if I can't have you.... NO ONE CAN!!!!"

******

Y'know, I don't know why I bother writing these blurbs at the end of every chapter anymore. I mean, I could say something outrageous, like that I could calculate pi or that I have porcupine-like quills for pubic hair, and no one would care.

But anyway, anyone read the new issue of EGM? When I read the article about the new Zelda, something caught my attention right away: Princess Zelda holding a rapier. Hot diggity! I hope this means that at some point she joins the fight as a separate A.I., like in the game Beyond Good & Evil. Or maybe she'll even be a playable second character! That would rock. I mean, it's pretty obvious by now that I have a thing for empowered females, isn't it?

So long,
Grey