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Chapter VIII
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Back at Hyrule Castle, the Royal Advisory Staff and Benjamin were trying to come up with a plan for defense.
Benjamin scratched his head as he pondered. "If my guess is even close to being right, the troops of evil would outnumber us by at least a few dozen to one, and that's if we had every man and woman in Hyrule capable of fighting on our side."
Lexus pulled on her long black hair as two trains of thought were racing throughout her mind, one thinking about her friend Zelda and the other of how Hyrule or the rest of the world could possibly withstand an attack of this magnitude. "Benny, you know not every man and woman are going to fight. And then we still have to factor in that a lot of the Evil Realm inhabitants are either easily twice the size of the biggest Hylian, or can use magic power."
Lance nodded acknowledging the point his sister brought up. "On paper, we don't have any chance of successfully defending our peaceful land. But we do have our faith in the Triforce and in the three Goddesses. We could try to summon them and ask for their blessing, or even for a helping hand."
Delina, sobbing all the way through her words, added, "I don't think that will do us any good. We'll have no choice but to surrender, but those evil assholes won't have any mercy for us whatsoever. They probably won't even think a second thought about killing---" Delina stopped before she finished the sentence and covered her eyes with her hands.
Ander yawned apathetically and certainly didn't have a problem showing his impatience and vanity. "Why don't we hurry up and get through with this? I need to go admire the unmatched elegance and handsomeness of myself. Speaking of myself, what happened to the planning of my wedding to Zelda?"
Alexandria's expression definitely showed that she wanted to tear Ander's head off after what he said. She pushed her pink ponytailed hair behind her back and spoke out against Ander. "I can't believe you have the audacity to think about yourself or your so-called wedding with Princess Zelda when there's not likely to be any wedding. First, she does not want to marry you. Secondly, the world as we know it is probably going to change for the worse very soon, as in we are all going to die if we don't come up with something in time. Can you get that through your thick skull? Oh, that also includes Princess Zelda, in case you didn't know. Weren't you paying attention when the King and Link were explaining her prophecies? Are you even paying attention to this meeting, Tamiron?"
Ander chuckled. "Oh, did I hear my famous, noble name? You can feel free to call me the Royal Prince Tamiron you know, since the wedding's planning has already been started by my soon-to-be father-in-law, the King himself. You surely wouldn't defy your own King, would you?"
Benjamin slammed his gauntlets on table. "I've had enough of this. Tamiron, get your ass out. If all you're going to do is space out and think about yourself and how high up you are in your little fantasy dream world, then you can go to your own damn room where you can feel free to go f*ck yourself. We have business to take care of, not that you've really given a cow pie about business ever since you were born!"
Instead of listening to Benjamin, Ander was humming to himself combing his fingers through his long, thin red hair.
Benjamin growled violently, jumped up out of his chair and stormed over to the other side of the table where Ander sat. "Would you please get up out of your chair and take your bloody carcass out of this room?"
Ander ignored him, taking a file out of his pocket and smoothing down his finger nails.
Benjamin repeated, "GET up out of your goddamn chair, and GET THE HELL OUT!"
Ander yawned again, then Benjamin wrapped both hands around Ander's neck, picked him up out of the chair and dragged him out of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him.
Alexandria rolled her eyes and sighed. "I don't know how he's not out on the streets begging children for candy. He doesn't have a care in the world, not even for the well being of Zelda whom he wants to marry. Let alone does he have an ounce of compassion or patriotism for the King or this land in his closed mind. There's no doubt, the way I see it, that he's only pushing for this marriage to get in high nobility standing and promote himself socially. Deep down inside, I don't even think the King likes him, but it is practically law that princesses must marry the highest noble outside of the Royal Family, even if he is a snooty bastard."
Benjamin shook his head in disagreement. "That law is almost as old as the planet! I can't believe people still uphold it, especially in this day and age where practically everyone with a mind of their own has declared the right to have their own feelings. Zelda's, of course, being that she doesn't want to marry that punk ass SOB. As for that next highest noble crap, that's just bull. He's about as noble as flatulence at dinner time. If I were you, Alexandria, being the head of the Royal Advisory Staff, I'd advise the King that Tamiron is no good for this castle and should be inducted into servitude, if not thrown out."
Lance added, "I've really grown to dislike that guy. Something in my heart tells me his loyalties are elsewhere, he may even be a spy for Ganondorf."
Delina looked up, flipping her shoulder-length brown hair out of her eyes, and remarked, "We're not getting any farther in the plan of defense, guys."
Lexus folded her hands and sat back as she thought of a simple, yet brilliant idea. "What if we were to summon help from other lands on the planet?"
***
Link and Zelda sharply inhaled after hearing the voice.
After a moment's contemplation, relief was written all over Link's face. "That's no voice of a green faced, red haired evil dude!"
Link and Zelda relaxed, relieved that there was no danger---yet.
A tiny fairy surrounded in a sphere of bright blue light that illuminated the cave for what looked like miles started spinning around Link and Zelda excitedly and spoke in a squeaky, cheerful voice. "How was my Ganondorf impression?"
Zelda giggled, replying. "Horrible, Navi. Horrible."
Link looked at Zelda with an eyebrow raised. The fairy was Link's guide when he last went on a time travel adventure and saved Hyrule from falling into the evil rule of Ganondorf. Link questioned Zelda telepathically. You two know each other?
Zelda ignored Link and carried on a conversation with the blue fairy. "Have you been watching us the whole time?"
Navi responded, "Not the whole time. Just since I saw the sparks flying from that nasty fight that just happened a few minutes ago. I've been lurking around in this cave ever since I felt an evil aroma coming from it. Ganondorf has been fighting with a little kid called Aidon, who has a gift of being able to create reality from illusion. He's been planning to use Aidon under this mind control spell to break the seal on the Evil Realm for the past few days now. Do you know this kid?"
Zelda nodded. "Yeah, you could say that." Her facial expression turned sad. "To keep a long story short, I've been having prophecies of my death, and in these prophecies, the death was at the hands of Aidon. I don't know if you know this, but Aidon is the descendant of a fourth Goddess, the Goddess of Spirit. When a Goddess decides to end a person's life, it's pretty hard to keep it from happening."
Link added, "But for all we know, those prophecies are an illusion, maybe--"
Navi interrupted, "Oh that's horrible, Zelda! That's exactly what Ganondorf has been ranting about since I started coming down here. There must be a way to prevent it. If we can manage to break the spell on Aidon before he gets you, we might be able to save you. Aidon is fighting to gain control but Ganondorf's power is too strong for him to keep it off for long."
Link spoke up again, "Sorry to butt in on you two girls, but we really need to start trying to enter the Temple of Life to get the Blade of Spirit. It's already 4:00 PM Thursday"
Zelda sighed. "He's right, we should get going. Do you have any idea how we might open these doors, Navi?"
Navi flew over to the doors, inspecting each one for a moment, then squeaked. "I think you have to use your power of the Triforce to open the door. There may be something behind each of them that you can do to open the door to the Blade of Spirit."
Link looked at the back of his hands, noting that the symbol on it matched the door on the right, for the Triforce of Courage.
Link walked up to the door. "I have an idea."
An anxious Zelda walked in front of him, examining the Triforce marking on the door, and asked, "Well what is it?"
Link placed his hand in the center of the large golden Triforce symbol, which suddenly pressed in. Link jerked his hand back, startled. "It moved!" Link exclaimed.
The door began raising, shaking the entire cave with a deafening grinding and rumbling noise. Zelda jumped behind Link. A cloud of dust and smoke cleared, revealing a long brick-laid hallway that had a huge twenty foot gap in the walkway just before what looked like a floor switch. Navi flew inside to take a closer look, followed by Link and Zelda.
The tiny fairy squeaked, "How do you like your Heroes of Time, well done or extra crispy?"
Link, wiping the sweat off his face that was beginning to bead, looked down at the deep pit of the gap to see a bed of fire-breathing eels swimming in a pool of lava. "I'm supposed to jump across this?"
Zelda's mouth dropped wide open. "You're the one with the Triforce of Courage."
Link shook his head. "I feel more like a chicken shit than the Hero of Time at the moment..."
Zelda frowned. "Come on, Link. You single handedly defeated Ganondorf, the King of Evil before. Why can't you jump a twenty foot long gap?"
"It's not the length of the gap that scares me, it's what'll eat me if I don't make it! Somehow I don't think those hot-headed worms would exactly want to form a welcoming committee for me."
The pool of lava began rising. Zelda ran back, shouting. "We don't have much time! Hurry!"
Link put down his shield and sheathed his sword, took a deep breath, clenched his fists and backed up to good distance. He started yelling to build up adrenaline, the Triforce of Courage on the back of his hand gleamed brightly, and he ran at full force, then closed his eyes as he leapt off the edge throwing out his arms to reach for the other side of the gap. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he was repeatedly reciting to the Goddesses prayers of grace over and over in his head. The extreme heat emanating from the rising pool full of lava eels was singing the hair on his arms and boiling away the sweat dripping off his face. Link's hands hit the other side of the gap and he grabbed on as tight as his trembling fingers could manage. He moaned in pain as the rest of his body slammed hard into the brick wall and he could feel the tremendous heat from the lava just inches from his boots. Link pulled himself up fast and crawled over towards the floor switch. The lava was rising faster and was only inches away from flooding over into the floor level of the cave.
Navi chimed. "Hurry! Step on the switch!"
Zelda held her breath as Link grabbed the wall and pulled himself up and walked over the switch which made a loud clanking noise just as the lava reached the top of the pit. The pool of lava froze solid, trapping and killing the eels underneath it. A bright glimmering and a short high pitched noise came from behind them. The Triforce of Courage lit up brightly on the raised Triforce platform they were just standing on. Link walked back across the hardened lava floor laughing nervously, and outside the door, which slammed down hard behind the three with a big crashing sound.
"Heh... Well, that was easy wasn't it?" Link let out a deep sigh of relief as he dusted his green tunic off.
Zelda exhaled. "I'm glad you're OK Link, but we'd better hurry and open the other two doors. I have a feeling something bad is going to happen soon."
Link picked up his shield and they walked over to the door on the far left.
A bright flash of red light appeared farther back in the cave. Link and Zelda felt their stomachs churn and twist and their hearts began beating at their chests as a sudden rush of fear came over them. They jumped, and turned to see what happened. Their mouths dropped open, they stopped breathing and dropped to the floor to try to hide. Just in front of the Triforce platform stood a partially see-through image of Ganondorf, facing away from them, completely decked out with bronze armor on his chest and shoulders, wearing a flowing red cape. Across from him, on the other side of the platform, was the child of the Goddess of Spirit, Aidon, with his normal bright blue eyes wide open as he noticed Link, Zelda and Navi.
Link whispered in his shaking voice to the blue fairy that was lighting up the end of the cave that they were at. "Navi, get in my item pouch, he saw us!"
Navi flew inside Link's pouch and dove under his spare shield to block her light from shining out of the bag.
Ganondorf boomed in a strong voice, "What in the hell did you do, Aidon, this Triforce of Courage wasn't glowing when we were here before!"
Aidon's small, innocent voice stammered. "I-I didn't do anything, I swear. But I'll find who did."
Ganondorf scratched his head in amazement. "Maybe Link has something to do with this. Maybe Link was here, and turned the first key to the door to the Temple of Life."
Aidon came up with a brilliant plan. "You can't do anything here because you're still locked away in the Evil Realm. But--hear me out, sir--if you were to give me the Triforce of Power, I could find them and force them to help me complete this puzzle and get to the Temple of Life first where we will be able to take the Blade of Spirit and guarantee our victory over Hyrule."
Link and Zelda quietly gasped. Aidon winked, glancing briefly in their direction. They looked at each other dumbfounded, then communicated telepathically.
Link, what in the hell did he mean by that? Is he on our side?!
We can't trust him! We don't know if he's toying around with us in a mind game trying to get us to think he's going to help us.
Ganondorf cackled. "So you ARE useful for something! Since you seem to have come to your senses now, perhaps I can entrust you with my Triforce of Power."
Ganondorf raised his arms and a large lightning bolt shot up from the ground into him. A spinning Triangle, glowing brightly and emanating a high pitched whining sound, appeared a few inches above his head and slowly hovered over Aidon's, then slightly floated down to the back of his hand, shrinking down to a very tiny size until it almost disappeared.
Ganondorf gave a sinister laugh as his image faded away. "Use it proudly, my loyal apprentice. Don't try anything funny, either. I'll be watching you."
Just as Ganondorf disappeared, their fear tapered off.
Aidon looked at the back of his wrist which now contained the Triforce of Power symbol.
Link and Zelda stood up, and Navi flew out of Link's bag, shaking herself off. Link pulled up his shield and grabbed his sword.
Aidon looked around the platform he was standing on. Before anyone even spoke, Aidon began communicating to them telepathically. I'm not going to kill anyone, and I'm not toying you around in any mind games. I'm sure you heard what I told Ganondorf, well I really am trying to help you, because you need my Triforce of Power to get to the Temple of Life, and Ganondorf wouldn't exactly be cooperative.
Zelda responded with a question. Why aren't you that evil kid I saw in my prophecy? You spoke like Ganondorf and you murdered me. A knot formed at the top of Zelda's throat after the last word.
Ganondorf had me under a mind control spell. He has very strong sorcery power, but I can sometimes fight it off. I've been playing bad guy in hopes that he wouldn't force me into the mind control spell again and I would get you a message soon enough.
Link scoffed as he began walking towards Aidon with his sword ready to slice away at him. Aidon turned away.
Link accused Aidon, I bet Ganondorf's controlling you now, you rotten bastard.
Zelda held Link back, much to his frustration.
Aidon knelt down to the platform with the ancient Hylian scripture written on it, pretending to read it. He doesn't know how to use telepathic messages. If I were under the spell now, I wouldn't be communicating to you, because he'd have complete control over me and wouldn't know how to receive your thoughts.
Zelda inquired the young child again. Do you know who your mother or father is?
Aidon turned to inspect the glowing Triforce of Courage under his feet. I don't have a biological father and I've never seen or heard my mother, but I feel like I know her somehow. The first person I remember seeing is Ganondorf, but I know he's not my father.
Link raised an eyebrow and curiously asked, Why are you ignoring us like that?
Ganondorf sees what I see... if he sees that I know you're here and I'm not doing anything about it, he'll know something's up.
Navi's tiny fairy lungs exerted a sneeze. "oops."
Aidon paused, then stood up. He knows someone's here now, so play along when I start barking orders.
Aidon walked over to where Link and Zelda were standing, staring up at Link with a demanding attitude. "You! How did you light that Triforce?"
Link looked at Zelda with a disgusted expression on his face. Should we really go along with this kid? I mean listen to him. He doesn't even SOUND serious.
Aidon raised his voice. "Answer me!"
Zelda nudged Link with her elbow.
Link clenched his fist around his sword and frowned angrily. "You lay a hand on Zelda and you will regret it for the last 3 seconds of your life you'll have left!"
Aidon contacted him telepathically, That's good, keep acting like that and we'll be fine.
Link shuddered and replied, I'm serious, smart ass!
Aidon unsheathed his shining blue sword, that Zelda recalled was the one used to killed her, and raised it up to Link's neck. "You do not answer my question. That is not a very intelligent choice. If you don't answer me now, you won't have a chance to protect Zelda."
Link's eyes locked onto the sharp blade of the sword and he stuttered nervously as he spoke. "I-I..I just put my hand in the--on the door and it opened, and there was a-a floor switch at the end of the room."
Aidon sent them another message telepathically. Just play along so Ganondorf doesn't take control of me again. He won't try to as long as you listen to me and make it look like I'm not trying to help.
Zelda turned to Link. We don't have much of a choice, Link. Ganondorf will place him under his mind control spell again.
Link quivered with anger, almost shouting his words. Why are you defending him? He's the one that kills you in your dream, remember?!
Like I said, we don't have much of a choice. If Ganondorf suspects anything, he'll take control of Aidon's mind and then he really WILL kill me. Please, just do it, Link. For me?
Half-grumbling, half-smirking, Link commented on the remark with a sigh. I'd do it for you any day... I mean, fine!
Aidon faced the door next to them, for the Triforce of Wisdom, and shouted. "Zelda. Open this one!"
Zelda hesitantly touched her hand briefly to the center of the Triforce symbol and was greeted startlingly by another tremendous rumbling noise as the door scraped across the rock wall and lifted off the ground to reveal large glass wall sections, each containing a pack of horned Wolfos. Zelda's heart skipped a beat as she turned back around to face Link.
"You're not going in there, Zelda! You'll be killed!"
"Link, give me a sword and shield, I'm going in there."
Aidon growled. "Spare me your lovers quarrel and get on with the show!"
Zelda grinned mischievously and told Link, If you don't give me a sword and shield, you won't get to see more of me, you horny little devil.
Link's face lit up as he sat down his own sword and shield and grabbed his bag, shuffling through it to dig out his old Hero Shield and the tiny Kokiri sword he used a few years ago in Termina. Dusting them off, he handed the items to Zelda, and picked his Great Fairy sword and Hylian shield back up.
"You'll need some practice with that sword and shield before you go in there."
Zelda shook her head. "I don't need practice."
Link readied his shield and planted his feet to balance his weight. "Swing the sword at me."
"I don't want to hurt you!"
Link shouted. "SWING THE SWORD AT ME NOW!"
Zelda mumbled something and swung her sword as hard as she could, resulting in a loud CLANK as the blade came into contact with Link's shield.
Link lowered his shield and raised his sword. "Raise your shield and put your feet in a diagonal position."
Zelda slid one foot a few steps back and held out her shield in front of her, cringing in wait of the impact. Link swung and made direct contact with the shield, nearly throwing Zelda off balance.
"That tingled a lot."
Link nodded and spoke. "Now just block me with your shield as you try to get me with your sword."
Before he could raise his shield, Zelda slashed Link across his chest. "Oh no, I'm sorry!"
"I'm fine," Link began, putting away his sword and clutching his bleeding wound. "Agh, nice one. Where'd you learn that slash technique?"
"I took a few fencing lessons a while back---"
Thunderous slamming noises coming from the hallway in front of them interrupted them. Link turned his attention to the end of the hallway.
"OK, enough practice! Those walls are coming down. Whatever you're going to do you should probably hurry it up! Good luck, Zelda!"
Zelda filled her lungs with air as her Triforce of Wisdom activated. She walked into the hallway and sung something in ancient Hylian. A pink ball of light flashed at her slippers and she started to levitate just as the last wall fell to the floor. The Wolfos strangely completely ignored everyone except Zelda. She kept rising into the air until she was near the ceiling, then walked cautiously on air past the raging and horned Wolfos who were scratching at her feet. One Wolfos climbed on top of another and leapt straight towards her in a desperate attempt at goring her in mid-air and preventing her from reaching the switch. Zelda, terrified, closed her eyes and swung her sword blindly, beheading the Wolfos who then fell to the floor of the hallway, deprived of life. After a few minutes, Zelda had reached the switch. She dropped herself and fell to the floor groaning in pain and hitting the switch. The hallway floor fell away, leaving the Wolfos to howl just before they fell into the pool of lava full of fire-breathing eels below. Zelda levitated herself and walked over the large gap to the other side, then lowered back to the floor, dropped her sword and shield, exhausted, and fell into Link's arms as the door slammed down hard behind her.
The Triforce of Wisdom on the large platform shone brightly and illuminated the cave more.
Link, astounded, stuttered, "H-how did--how did you do that?"
Zelda was ecstatic that she made it out alive although she was out of breath from heavily using her magic power. She reached into Link's bag, grabbed a bottle of magic potion, pulled off the cork and chugged down the green fluid. Her skin glowed as she was rejuvenated with magic energy.
Well, I know Wolfos aren't too smart. I figured if I levitated into the air, most of them wouldn't think of jumping off of one another like that one whose head I sliced off, and thus I wouldn't have much trouble getting to the other side.
Aidon walked over to the door for the Triforce of Power communicating telepathically. Very wise.
"I just place my hand in the center, like this?"
Before Link or Zelda could answer, Aidon had placed his hand in the center of the Triforce marking and the door raised. Beyond the hallway in the large room stood two heavily armored knights easily three times Aidon's size, one silver and one golden.
The silver knight spoke in a deep voice that sent echoes back and forth through the large room. "It seems our next victim will be a young child bearing the Triforce of Power."
The golden knight unsheathed his large sword and responded. "He will regret this day, the one who dares enter our domain!"