Prologue

It has been 7 years since Link opened the Door of Time and pulled the Master Sword. After Link was sent back in time, the Triforce parts remained with their owners. Using the combined power of the Triforce parts of Courage and Wisdom, Link and Zelda protected Hyrule from being conquered by Ganondorf, holder of the Triforce of Power. After several terrorist attacks on Hyrule, Ganon was finally driven out by Link, now a knight of Hyrule. Though weak from countless battles against Hyrule’s hero, Ganondorf has summoned all of his creatures for another attack.

Chapter One
Summons

“Where are they?” A Lizalfos hissed impatiently. A nearby Moblin grunted and looked around. The Lizalfos shook its head and jumped to a rock near a sleeping Dinolfos. He looked around impatiently for any sign of the latecomers but all he saw was the rest of the army summoned by Ganondorf. Not a bone to be seen. “Those boneysss better get here sssoon!” He hissed.

“Sslivik! Quit worrying about them! Ganon is here!” Another Lizalfos hissed at him. Sslivik shook his head and slipped on the rock. He managed to regain his footing before a Like-Like that was below the rock was able to eat his foot. The strange tube like creature snapped in annoyance over losing its lunch. Sslivik simply hissed at the Like-Like and sat down on the rock.

“My loyal minions!” Ganondorf yelled out to the crowds of creatures that belonged only in nightmares. “The Hylians have hunted you down to near extinction!” This brought an angry roar from the seething crowd. “The Gorons, Zoras, and Sheikahs helped the Hylians in their hunt!” The crowd roared again. Ganon turned to a group of evil Deku Shrubs. “The Kokiri shoot your people without mercy!” The Shrubs rustled their leaves at this and screeched madly. “The time has come to make them pay!!” The entire audience shouted and roared with approval. Ganon looked around with an evil grin and noticed there was something missing. He saw Moblins, Lizalfos, Dinolfos, Like Likes, Deku Shrubs, Skulltulas, Iron Knuckles, ReDeads, Gibdos, and even some Deku Babas. Where were the Stalfos? Hmm…

Suddenly, the crowds were filled with the living skeletons as the Stalfos pushed their way to the front. Skeletons of all shapes and sizes streamed between the gaps of the crowds. Bony jaws snapped at the more stubborn creatures that wouldn’t move fast enough. Small 'Stal-children' brushed past the Lizalfos eager to join their parents up front.

Leading the group was the mysterious Stal-King, identified by the golden crown atop his skull. Now most people would think of the Stalfos King as being a colossal skeleton with a hammer able to smash Death Mountain to pieces, however that is not the case. The King was actually fairly small for a Stalfos. He stood eight feet tall but was thin as a skinny Hylian. Unlike Hylians however, he had sharp razor-like teeth. Red eyes glared from the eye-sockets of his skull, contrasting to the typical absence of eyes in the normal Stalfos. It was the King’s unparalleled cunning that was what actually made him dangerous. What was not widely known was the fact that the king was once a powerful sorcerer before he joined the ranks of the undead.

“You are late!” Ganon grumbled at the King.

“Yes, we are sorry about that, but we needed to get something… valuable.” The Stalfos replied with a grin. Even Ganondorf had to grimace at the sight of the translucent muscles pulling the decayed pieces of skin and tendons into a smile over his jaws and teeth.

“Indeed, what is it that was so… valuable?” The Stalfos didn’t reply but brought his bony claws up and snapped his fingers. Elite Stalfos, no bigger than the king but extremely fast and agile, leaped around and put their sword blades to Ganon’s neck. Ganondorf was more surprised than angry, as he demanded an explanation.

“Your plan is excellent, but I don’t think you are fit to lead it! Unlike the rest of your generals, I know a thing or two about leadership!” He growled. “That crowd out there probably doesn’t realize that you are the weakest you have ever been!” A hushed silence ran through the mob of creatures as they heard this. “Face it Ganon! Link has defeated you too many times!”

“So you think that gives you reason to betray me?” He snarled. “Fool! I had hoped you were smarter than that!!” With a yell, a shockwave knocked the elite stalfos away from Ganon and he laughed at the skeleton King who was looking at his fallen comrades. “I have the Triforce of Power! What do you have? Nothing!!” The glowing triangle appeared on Ganondorf’s hand as he called on its power. The Stal-King smirked and raised a white translucent crystal that he had in his hand. A blast of power shot from the evil king’s hand but the Stalfos absorbed it easily with the crystal. Ganon quickly came to the realization that he couldn’t stop using the Triforce and watched hopelessly as the crystal absorbed his piece. After the Triforce of Power had been sucked away from him, he fell to the ground, gasping. Weakly, he looked up and saw the Stalfos King absorbing the energy from the crystal. The Triforce symbol appeared brightly on his bony hand and the new holder of Power laughed.

“The Stalfos will no longer be pawns of this game!”

Chapter Two
Breakfast & Plans

Link suddenly sat straight up in his bed. He wiped the cold sweat from his brow as he remembered the nightmare. It was… was… The memory had faded within seconds. What was that about? He remembered vaguely about a… He shook his head and lay back down. What ever it was, he didn’t want to see it again! He was sure of that! Troubled, he looked around his tree house. He had just built a new bed for himself replacing the smaller one that he had before. But other than that, nothing was out of the ordinary. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.



Saria was up early that morning and was already making breakfast when Link ducked under her door. The green haired Kokiri turned to see a green clothed giant twice as tall as she was, standing just inside her door.

“Hey Link! What do you want for breakfast?”

“Uh, got any eggs?” Link asked, He stretched and hit his head on the ceiling. “Ow!” Saria winced at the thud and tried not to laugh.

“You’re getting too tall! Stop growing!” She said, failing to stifle her laugh.

“Hmph! You wish…” Saria shook her head and turned back to her cooking.

“You’re in luck! I got some eggs yesterday!”

“Really? Where?”

“I found a Zora nest in the Lost Woods near the shortcut!” Saria couldn’t help laughing as Link’s face turned as green as his tunic.

“You’re kidding right?”

“Yes! Jeez, you’re so gullible! I ordered some Cucco eggs from Lon Lon Ranch.” Link’s stomach went from sick to growling as he thought of those eggs. “Scrambled?”

“Yes please!”

“So, what are you going to do today?” Saria asked him as she broke three eggs onto a frying pan.

“Well, I’ll probably go see Zelda.” Link said, slightly smirking.

“Of course you’re going to do that!” Saria said rolling her eyes. Link had been obsessed with Princess Zelda ever since he met her seven years ago. She knew there was a deeper connection between them but other than that, she just loved to tease them about it. “I mean what are you going to do?” She picked up a short deku stick and started stirring the eggs.

“Well… We’ll think of something… Maybe we’ll go to Lake Hylia or something.” He replied, not letting on any more.

“Uh-huh, well, your eggs are done.” She moved to the table and scraped the yellow eggs onto Link’s plate. “Enjoy!” She watched Link gobble up all three eggs in an impressive time. Shaking her head she turned back to the stove and started cooking some more. "I assume you are going to want seconds!" Link only responded with a nod.



An hour later, Link was walking along the marble halls of Hyrule Castle. After checking the princess's room, he went on a search. She usually ate breakfast in her own dining room, so Link was surprised to find Zelda in the main courtyard feasting on eggs.

"Link! You hungry?" She tagged down a servant and he set another plate at the small table.

"Well, Saria made some eggs this morning but I don't think I would mind a little more!" He said starting to dig into the new pile of eggs.

"How many eggs did you have at Saria's?" She asked with a curious tone.

"Six, why?" He replied as he dug into his ninth egg of the day. Zelda just stared at him. "What?"

"Hello Link!" King Harkanian said as he entered the courtyard. "How are you today?"

"Oh, uh, hello sir!" Link stood up and saluted before Zelda yanked him down by the arm. The king merely shook his head.

"Link, how many times have I told you not to do that?" Zelda said rolling her eyes. "You're like family here for crying out loud!"

"Yes you are, and if things progress right, you can start calling me 'Dad'!" The king chuckled, as both Link and Zelda turned slightly red, especially Link. After her father left, Zelda turned to Link.

"So, what should we do today? How does a picnic at Lake Hylia sound?"

"Sounds great!" With that, Link and Zelda raced up the stairs to pack.

Chapter Three
Hylia Encounter

"What are we going to do sir?" A stalfos said with a gravelly voice. The king stared at the glowing triangle on the back of his bony hand with awe. A small three-dimensional map hovered in front of his eyes showing the location of the other two pieces. They were apparently side-by-side at the Great Lake. Hmm... "Sir?" The other stalfos finally got his attention.

"What? Oh, we'll follow Ganondorf's original plan with a few added twists!" The Stal-king grinned. "Our first twist is to collect the Triforces of Wisdom and Courage." He pulled out the Absorption Crystal. "This little relic will allow me to do just that!"

=||=

Link and Zelda sat on the shore of Lake Hylia, gazing out over the crystal clear water. After finishing their lunch, Link turned to the princess.

“Zelda?”

“Yes Link?”

“I’ve wanted to say this for long time…”

“What?” She asked, a slight smile forming on her lips. Link pulled out a small box from his tunic and opened it.

“Will you marry me?” The princess’s small smile widened to an excited grin.

“Yes!” She hugged him tight and looked at the ring. It was a gold band with seven small diamonds gleaming in the sunlight. “Yes I will!” They kissed for a few moments and embraced each other. After getting over the initial excitement, Zelda rested her head on Link's shoulder and stared at a dark spot under the surface of the water.

"That's the Water Temple isn't it?"

"Yep, that's the entrance!"

"Think we could explore it?" She asked with a mischievous smile.

"Uh...” Link thought about all the trouble he had just trying to get through that place. "Too dangerous...” She rolled her eyes.

"Jeez.... You're almost as bad as Impa....” She muttered.

"Actually, it's more of the fact that the place is a maze! I was in that place for a week! I spent one whole day trying to figure out which door this one dumb key was for!" Link cried. Zelda smiled and nuzzled against him. "Anyway, you need a Zora tunic and a pair of iron boots to move around that place!"

"I could afford a Zora tunic, but I've never seen any iron boots..." She said, disappointed. Link reached into his travel pack and pulled out some boots that looked like they were encased in armor.

"Now you have, however I haven't seen any other pairs."

"Hmm…” Zelda tapped the metal lightly. "The royal blacksmith could probably make me a pair!" Link stared at her.

"Don't you think he would be curious about why you'd be asking for armored boots?"

"Yes, that's why I would need to silence him...with a gold rupee!" She giggled. "Works every time!" Link shook his head and smiled. He stared out across the lake and his mind drifted back to his nightmare. What was that about? He couldn't remember anything about it so he couldn't imagine why it was troubling him. "What is it?" Zelda asked. She must have noticed his concern, Link thought.

"Oh, nothing. I just had a nightmare that I can't remember, that's all." He gave her a comforting smile.

"You had a nightmare too?" Zelda asked straightening up. Link turned to her, surprised.

"What was yours about?"

"I... I don't remember...” Zelda leaned in closer to him. Strange coincidence... He thought, as he massaged her hand. It was so soft and gentle...and glowing! He took a closer look and noticed that her Triforce of Wisdom was glowing quite brightly. Zelda noticed this as well and they both looked at the back of Link's hand. His Triforce of Courage was also glowing with extraordinary brightness. They looked at each other.

"The only time they glow like this is when Power is nearby..." Link muttered. They both slowly turned around expecting to see Ganondorf. Instead, they saw a Stalfos who was wearing a crown. Zelda whimpered and tried to hide behind Link. This stalfos was definitely a scary sight. Razor sharp teeth glistened in the sunlight and a red glow came from the eye sockets. It also looked like it still had some dead skin on its face, giving it a more decayed look. How the heck did that get so close? Link thought.

"Esa okat sakon askat dakora na eck!" The Stal-King spoke in a grating voice. Zelda yelped and held Link tighter. She had seen a stalfos before, but seeing a talking one was a bit much. The stalfos laughed and then spoke in modern Hylian. "Don't be afraid! I’m sorry for interrupting your romantic moment, but I have a proposition for you." He snapped his fingers and some other Stalfos came up dragging someone. Zelda held her breath at the sight of more living skeletons but then became too focused on whom they were dragging.

"Ganondorf!" She glared at their long time enemy.

"I will make a deal with you!" The Stalfos with the crown continued. "I am giving you Ganondorf so that you can... dispose of him. In return, I want the Hylians to stop hunting my people!" Ganon glared at the Stalfos King and said something through the gag around his mouth. "If you two focus your Triforce energy, you can dispel the Triforce of Power and eliminate the greatest threat against Hyrule for all time!" Link stared at him confused.

"Uh-huh... How the heck are you holding him tied up like that? Unless that's Phantom Ganon, the Triforce of Power would let him out of his binds. Or is this a really dumb trap?" The King gave them a sickly smile. With his left hand, he pulled out the crystal and showed it to them.

"We found this crystal deep in the Dodongo Caverns. It has the ability to neutralize the Triforce pieces. It does nothing against the full Triforce of course, but it will render a single piece inoperative." Link stared at him uneasily. There wasn't something right about this... "You better take my offer on this!" He growled. "Because you won't get another chance!" Link looked at Zelda and could tell that she was just as uneasy about this as he was.

"Well I suppose it’s worth a try..." Link mumbled. This is too good to be true. He thought. There has to be a catch... Link and Zelda pointed their right arms at Ganondorf and began to focus. At the last second, Zelda noticed something strange and quickly put her arm down.

"Link! Stop!"

"Uh..." Link tried to stop but he suddenly felt like something was draining the power from him. "Help!" Zelda looked at the stalfos and the crystal in his hand, which was starting to glow noticeably even in the sunlight. Zelda quickly reached into Link's pocket and grabbed what looked like an oversized pistachio nut.

"Take this!" The Stal- King tried to shield himself from the Deku Nut, but he still caught the full blast.

"Aarrgghh!" The stunned skeleton dropped the crystal, releasing Link from the draining tether. Ganondorf was blinking from the blast but seemed to be laughing at the Stalfos.

"Come on! Let's go!" Zelda grabbed the emotionally drained Link and pulled him away. As they were passing the Stal-King, the princess noticed the crystal lying on the ground. After glancing at the stunned skeleton, she dove for the glowing crystal and grabbed it. "Aaahhh!!" She screamed as a magical barrier covering the crystal seared her hand. Zelda dropped the crystal and ran for Epona. Link was just getting on the horse and with difficulty in his drained state, pulled Zelda up onto the horse. The Stalfos King glared at the retreating horse and cursed. Ganondorf laughed at him uncontrollably.

"You see... why... they are... so hard to... beat?" He said, broken up by laughter. The Crystal was lying a few inches from his hand. This is my chance to get my power back! Ganon thought greedily. "Aahh!" The Stalfos simply stared at him as he wrung his hand.

"The crystal is 'Power protected' you idiot. Only the one who has the Triforce of Power can touch it. A simple measure that I'm sure you would have overlooked if you kept it!" Ganon glared at him with the deepest hatred he had, something normally reserved for Link and Zelda. The stalfos simply smirked and viciously kicked him in the face with a steel-toed boot. Ganondorf yelped as the impact broke his large nose. The king leaned in close. "Listen to me; you are now the pawn in this game! Its time you learned your place!" With a pained grimace, Ganondorf braced as the stalfos kicked him again.

Chapter Four
Refuge in Kokiri Forest

Link, feeling a bit stronger by now, galloped toward the Kokiri Forest with Zelda holding onto him tight. Trees rushed past them and the light vanished as they entered the Lost Woods. As the horse clomped over the bridge, Link breathed a sigh of relief. They would never find them now. Entering Kokiri Forest, the child-like watchman nearly had a heart attack as the large horse galloped out of the tunnel.

"How is your hand?" He asked Zelda, who was still grasping her burned palm.

"It doesn't hurt as much but still...” She winced as she separated her hands to get off the horse.

"Let's get you up into the tree house and I'll see what I can do." He picked her up and walked over to the ladder. She was as light as a feather but by the time they reached the ladder, he was exhausted.

"Link? Are you okay?"

"Uh...” He stopped to take a breath. "Just feeling really drained... What was that that crystal?"

"I'm not sure..."Zelda replied, shaking her head. Link leaned against the ladder trying to regain his breath. "I've never heard of anything like this before, but I think that thing has the ability to absorb Triforce power, or even the Triforce Piece itself! When we were about to obliterate Ganondorf, I suddenly noticed that the Triforce wasn't glowing on his hand." She stopped for a second to think.

"Do you think it was Phantom Ganon?" Zelda shook her head again.

"No. Did you see the way he was glaring at us? I could sense the same hatred coming from him as the real Ganondorf. It was definitely him. What I find curious though is that the Stalfos had his hand behind his back. Do they normally do that?" Link looked perplexed for a second and shook his head. Suddenly a new wave of tiredness swept over him and he gasped for a few seconds. Concerned, Zelda pulled out a bottle with a green liquid. “Here, this will help your magic power.” The princess heard the sound of footsteps and turned to see Saria running up to them.

"Hey Link!" Saria skidded to a stop right before she would have crashed into the ladder. "Hello your highness!" She gave the princess a respectful curtsey. Zelda gave the Kokiri girl a smile and was about to say something back when Link suddenly collapsed. "Link! What happened?"

"I don't know..." Zelda quickly checked his pulse and to her relief found a pretty healthy heartbeat. "A stalfos had a crystal of some sort that steals magic energy. More specifically Triforce Energy. The Triforce of Courage must be rejuvenating its lost energy from his life force! I hope the crystal didn't take too much power..." She looked at Saria and to her surprise; the green haired girl's face was very pale.

"St-Stalf-fos?" Saria stammered. "Wh-where?" She looked nervously at the forest entrance.

"Lake Hylia." Zelda looked curiously at Saria who was practically hyperventilating. "Have you seen one before?" Saria calmed down a little bit and nodded.

"Th-there are some in the darker corners of the Lost Woods. Supposedly they are the remains of travelers who became lost in these woods. I never really believed those stories until I ran into one when I was returning home from the Sacred Forest Meadow. I was just walking along humming my favorite song when I suddenly came face to face with a living skeleton! I-I kinda freaked and I ran as fast as I could back home. I remember it chased me until I got out of the woods." She gave Zelda a weak smile. "I didn't leave my house for two weeks!" Zelda gave Saria a comforting hug and looked over at Link, who was already getting up.

"Oy... Think one of you could help me up this ladder?" He asked wearily. The two girls looked at each other for a second and shrugged. "Oh, forget it!" Link said exasperated. He grabbed a rung and slowly climbed the ladder.

“Zelda?” The kokiri asked, noticing Zelda’s finger. “Did Link…”

“Propose? Yes!” A grin appeared on both their faces.

“Well! I hope you invite me to the wedding!”

“Oh of course you’re invited!”

The rest of the afternoon, the trio talked on endlessly about the important day.

________________________________________

In the ominous new Stalfos Tower, the Stal-King glared at the back of his hand. The top triangle glowed the brightest as usual, but the Triforce of Courage still glowed very dimly. It was brighter than the dark Wisdom slot but not by much. He looked at the crystal in his other hand. He had managed to get about ten percent of the Courage Triforce's power, but it wasn't enough. He growled and blasted a stone statue to pieces with a power blast. The first plan may not have worked, but his backup would! They'll wish they had never been born! He thought, clenching his teeth.

"Guard!!" A stalfos just outside the door hurried into the room. "Time for 'Plan B'. Summon the children to the throne room!" The guard looked confused for a second.

"The children?"

"Yes, I have a...game for them." He smirked. The guard saluted and walked out the door.
Twenty minutes later, the first stalchild walked into the throne room, noticeably grumpy not being able to terrorize travelers in Hyrule field. The Stal-King chuckled to himself. They'll have fun tonight! After all the stalchildren had come, the King began to pace in front of them.

"We are going to play a game tonight!" The skeleton children looked at each other excitedly. Something that the king called a 'game' had to be far better than patrolling the fields! The King held his fist in front of him and the Triforce projected an image of the peaceful Kokiri Forest. "This is the home of a child-like race. I feel they have outlived their usefulness! It is my pleasure to let you do the honors!" He grinned as the children began to whisper excitedly amongst themselves. "Dismissed!!!" The stalchildren saluted and eagerly ran out the door.

Chapter Five
Battle of Kokiri Forest

Zelda stroked Link's face affectionately as he slept on his bed, regaining his strength. She had asked the owl Kaepora Gaebora to deliver the news of her staying in the forest for a while a few hours before. Now she was caring for her hero like he had done for her a thousand times before. After giving him a gentle kiss, Zelda walked out onto the balcony of the tree house. The moon shone dimly through the hazy sky and fairies flew around the magical forest. So beautiful... Zelda thought as a fairy flew by. A Kokiri boy wandered into view with a fairy following close by. The sight vividly reminded the princess of the day when she first met Link. She regretted the pain that she had put him through during the following adventure and the years when he was locked away in the Sacred Realm. Zelda realized that she had given him and herself another chance to truly live, but that incident still haunted her that day. It was now the same year that Link was released from the realm and defeated Ganondorf in the other timeline. Seven years. Had it really been that long? The years she spent with Link had passed much faster than the seven years that she had waited for him with little hope.

A Kokiri girl ran up to the boy and gave him a peck on the cheek. Zelda smiled as the boy became noticeably redder even from this distance. The girl grabbed the boy by the hand and they started chasing each other across the field. Ah, to be kids for your entire life. What it must be like! Zelda thought as she watched the Kokiri play. Another Kokiri walked up to them and gave them a scolding. Even from this distance, Zelda could tell that it was Mido, the supposed leader of the Kokiri. Link had told her about the times when Mido used to pick on him mercilessly until Link grew a foot taller than him. After that, he was one of the nicest people he had ever met!

Moonlight suddenly flashed into Zelda's eyes. What? Zelda looked closer and noticed that the moonlight was being reflected off Link’s old Kokiri sword strapped to Mido's waist. Link used that sword when he was ten years old, the time when Zelda first met him. To a fully-grown Hylian, the sword was no bigger than a dagger. But why was Mido wearing it now? Curious, she climbed down the ladder and approached the Kokiri. The boy and girl stopped arguing with Mido as the princess walked up. Mido looked in her direction with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"What's that for?" Zelda asked, pointing at the small sword.

"Oh, uh...defense." He replied.

"Defense against what?"

"Anything... I just have a bad feeling about tonight... Now I must get going!" Mido walked off, casting the other two Kokiri a small glare. Zelda looked at the two kids with a sympathetic glance as they sulked off to their houses. Zelda turned back to Link's house and quickly climbed up the ladder, wincing as the bandages rubbed against her burned hand. Back on the balcony, she saw Link had woken up and was now standing at the door. They kissed and looked out into the forest from the doorway. Soon, they saw Saria come skipping along the path with a basket full of wildflowers.

"Hey Link! Zelda!" Saria said happily as she started coming up the ladder.

"Good evening Saria." Link said, tiredness still straining his voice. The green haired Kokiri finished climbing the ladder, slightly out of breath.

"I was wondering if you--agh!" Saria's smiling face suddenly contorted with pain. A look of shock replaced her expression and she slowly sank to her knees and fell forward. Zelda screamed at the sight of a wicked looking dagger sticking out of Saria's back. A second later, a stalchild jumped up from its hiding place on the ladder and screeched at them loudly in challenge. Link's shock of seeing his best friend murdered was quickly replaced by seething anger. With a furious yell, Link slashed the small skeleton to pieces. Screams echoed through the forest as more and more stalchildren appeared. Link jumped off the balcony into the swarm of skeletons. Zelda stared at Saria in despair. How had she not foreseen this? Her hopes lifted when she saw Saria try to get up, she was still alive! Another stalchild suddenly jumped onto the balcony and glared at Zelda. It jumped at her, knife in hand, with a loud screech.

"Hyah!" Zelda kicked the knife out of the skeleton's hand and watched it go off the edge. The stalchild searched frantically for a weapon and noticed Saria lying face down.

"Scree!!" The tiny stalfos jumped onto Saria's back and to Zelda's horror, violently yanked the jagged blade out of her back. Oblivious to Saria's scream, the skeleton lunged at Zelda with the dagger. "Now you die!!!" The stalchild screeched at her as it swung madly. Zelda felt the blade cut her cheek. Confident in its victory, the stalchild raised the dagger to deliver the finishing blow. Zelda made a fist and punched it squarely in the jaw. The impact of her fingers against bone hurt like hell, but it was worth it. The blow took off the creature's head and the skull shattered on the ground. To her complete surprise, the little skeleton body continued to walk around aimlessly, swinging the blade like a madman. Zelda glared at it and when it had its back to her, she kicked hard into its backbone, obliterating it. Hmph! She suddenly heard Saria scream in agony as she tried to get up.

"Aahhh!!!" The pain was excruciating! Saria had never felt anything like it! The worst pain she had ever felt before was from skinning her knee. It hurt like hell to breathe and moving meant torture. She coughed up blood, bringing a whole new level of pain. Tears ran down her face as the pain knocked her down again, causing even more agony. Losing hope, she vaguely felt a pair of hands pick her up and hold her like a baby.

"Y-you'll be alright! Please tell me you'll be alright!" She dimly heard Zelda's sobbing voice tell her. She curled up against Zelda and cried.


Link caught up with Mido, who was furiously swinging the Kokiri sword against the wall of living bones. The Hylian hero joined the battle taking out stalchildren three at a time with one swipe of his sword.

"Mido! Hit the ground!" Mido looked at Link confused. How would slicing the ground help? Oh... He thought as Link put his sword behind him and it began to glow. The Kokiri leader dove for the ground just in time to avoid Link's deadly spin attack. Link listened to the screeches of the dying skeletons with satisfaction. That's for Saria! He thought. After completing the move, he looked at the Lost Woods entrance and his heart fell. Stalchildren came pouring through the tunnel like locusts. He and Mido couldn't hold back this storm alone. They needed more fighters! He looked back at a small group of frightened Kokiri hiding behind a tree stump. "Mido! Go to my house and grab the leather bag!" The normally stuck up Kokiri nodded and sprinted for the tree house. Link slashed skeleton after skeleton and barely managed to keep the evil tide at bay. Oh no...

Three fully-grown Stalfos warriors came through the tunnel and leaped over the stalchildren. Link swallowed, it would take a while to get rid of these guys and while he was distracted, the stalchildren could get past him and slaughter the helpless Kokiri! What was taking Mido so long??


Mido raced up the ladder and was shocked to see Zelda cradling Saria, who was obviously in extreme pain. He gaped at the sight of a nasty stab wound in the middle of her back. How dare they attack her! She is the most peaceful of all of us!! Becoming angry, he stormed into the house and looked all over for a leather bag. He finally found it on a rather high shelf and tried to reach it. Blast my height!! He cursed. He looked around again and to his delight found an old walking staff carved from a deku stick.

Grabbing the stick, he poked it through a strap on the bag and pulled it off the shelf. A bottle filled with a blue liquid was also knocked off and it rolled out the door. The bag hit the floor with a metallic clang. What the... He opened the bag and to his shock, found it to be filled with gold and silver daggers. He heaved the heavy bag onto his shoulder and ran out the door. Saria was drinking the blue liquid out of the bottle and her wound was healing rapidly. Passing Zelda and Saria, Mido took out two daggers and tossed them to Zelda. She caught both daggers by the hilt and put them onto her belt. Mido slid down the ladder and ran back to Link.

"Run for the trees!" Link yelled at the Kokiri he was defending. They all looked at each other and began to climb the nearest tree. Three Kokiri, the "Know-it-all Brothers", stayed put on the fence shooting at the stalchildren with slingshots. The closest Stalfos swung his jagged sword at the Hylian and blocked the counter attack with his shield. Stalchildren ran past the distracted Link and surrounded the tree. His fears were confirmed when the stalchildren started climbing. The terrified Kokiri stared at the stalchildren as they climbed up, their jagged daggers between their bony jaws, pirate style. A Kokiri boy kicked the lead skeleton, taking off its head.

"Yeah!" The elfish children kicked the skeletal children off the tree with ease, until a stalchild leaped to the top of the tree and dropped down through the canopy.

"Screee!!" It slashed a Kokiri girl across the throat and stabbed a boy in the chest and pushed them off the tree before another girl kicked it hard in the back, destroying it. Twang! An arrow shot into the tree and hit a Kokiri in the torso, sending him flying out of the leaves and into the mob of skeletons. Link looked up at the Lost Woods entrance and saw three stalfos archers lined up on the ledge. Out of the corner of his eye, Link saw Mido, with a bag over his shoulder, running as fast as he could toward them. Link blocked a hard blow and was nearly knocked off his feet. Suddenly, the other two Stalfos attacked. Link barely had enough time to block an incoming blow with his sword. What was going on? They had never triple teamed him before, usually they attacked one at a time!

"Mido! Give a dagger to each...of the...Kokiri!" Link said with a strained voice. He saw Mido nod and dash up the tree right next to the surprised stalchildren. An attacking Stalfos suddenly head butted him and the hard skull nearly knocked him out!

Stunned, Link fell to his knees and the stalfos reared up for a decapitating blow. A green haired Kokiri jumped onto the Stalfos's back and beheaded it with a shiny gold dagger. It's head gone; the stalfos swung its sword madly, taking out a couple stalchildren. With a slight concussion, Link finished off the skeleton with a vertical slash.

"Saria? I thought you were dead!" Link said to the unusually grim faced girl.

"Watch out!!" Saria's warning alerted Link about the remaining Stalfos jumping at him.

"Whoa!" The loud clang of two swords hitting his shield made the ringing in his head worse.


Zelda chopped a stalchild in two and whirled around to see Stalfos archers firing arrows into a tree. For every arrow that went in, a shot Kokiri fell out. Enraged, Zelda took her bow out and fired an arrow into an archer's head. The archers stopped firing and they looked at their injured comrade. The stalfos felt the arrow embedded in his skull and shrugged. A second later, they were back to firing arrows. Zelda concentrated on her new arrow and it glowed with light. She aimed at the archer again and fired. This time, a blinding flash of light incinerated the skeleton. The other two stopped firing at the tree and started shooting at her. She ducked behind a stump and heard the thumping of arrows hitting wood. Zelda charged up another arrow with light and fired. One archer left... she thought with a smile. The thumping of arrows stopped and she saw another Kokiri fall from the tree. She charged up another light arrow and fired. Suddenly she felt intense pain! Shocked, Zelda looked down and found an arrow embedded in her ribcage. She numbly noted that her last arrow had hit its mark. She looked over at Link and moved to help, but screaming pain overwhelmed her. Zelda collapsed and the world went black.

Chapter Six
Battle of the Lost Woods

Link, Saria, Mido, and all the other Kokiri slashed away at the skeletons. In one wave, the small army overwhelmed the two adult stalfos and cut them to pieces. The surprisingly strong Kokiri drove the army of stalchildren deep into the mysterious Lost Woods. Saria sliced through stalchildren with her dagger without remorse. A few hours ago she would have tried to be lenient but now she didn't care. They had invaded their haven, killed her fellow Kokiri, and backstabbed her. She hated them so much that it scared her. The other Kokiri were unused to having weapons. Before they were being helplessly slaughtered, but with these new daggers in hand, they quickly realized the power that they now had. It concerned Link that his pacifist brothers and sisters from growing up were so eagerly cutting down their enemies. True, the Stalfos were skeletons that deserved to be dead, but it still bothered him. Suddenly, all the stalchildren retreated into the ground, disappearing as quickly as they had appeared. The Kokiri looked around confused.

An Iron Knuckle ran out of a tunnel and swung its large axe, chopping down a tree with a 13-inch diameter. It roared and clanked loudly as it charged toward the group. The Kokiri froze and stared at their measly daggers compared to the monstrous axe. Saria looked nervously at Link.

“What do we do now?” She asked him. A Kokiri boy looking for glory rushed out at the living suit of armor with his dagger. “Nooo!!!” Saria turned away as the Iron Knuckle swung its axe at the unfortunate Kokiri. Link rushed forward at the metal suit and slashed it across the breastplate. The Iron Knuckle brought its axe up and Link rolled to the side as it chopped the ground where he was. While the Knuckle was trying to get its axe out of the ground, Link hit it with a flurry of moves. The suit of armor roared as chunks of its armor fell and it executed a quick spin attack with its axe.

“Whoa!” Link ducked and felt the axe pass inches over his head. The Hylian thrust his sword up into the empty helmet and twisted. The metal beast roared and punched Link in the face with a metal gauntlet. “Aah!” His concussion grew worse and he collapsed onto the ground. The Kokiri rushed at the Knuckle and stabbed at it with their daggers. Covered with the green elves, the Iron Knuckle stumbled and collapsed.

Link sat up trying to shake the ringing out of his ears. Unsuccessful, he looked over at the dead suit of armor in wonder. The Kokiri’s celebration was short lived as four Dinolfos leaped through the tunnel. The leader roared and torched a tree with its fire breath. The other three followed their leader’s example and advanced on the Kokiri, burning anything that got in their way. Link stood up shakily and tried to clear his head. At that moment, the Dinolfos charged.

“Aaahh!!” A Kokiri girl got torched when a Dino got too close. Link attacked a Dino managing to decapitate it before it had a chance to burn Saria. Mido ran under a Dinolfos and slashed upward at its vulnerable belly. With a screechy roar, it collapsed. The leader burned a tree that two Kokiri had climbed for safety. Five Kokiri rushed the third Dino and finished it off with their daggers. The leader looked at its dead comrades and the advancing Kokiri.

Fwoosh! Flames blasted the group apart, torching five of the Kokiri. The burning elf children quickly jumped into a nearby stream and put the flames out. Link slashed at the Dino leader but it blocked with its shield. Blocking a counter-attack, he stabbed at the lizard but missed. The hero raised his Mirror shield as the Dinolfos breathed. He heard it yelp as the flames were deflected back at it. Link felt someone jump up onto his shoulders. What the… Saria flipped off of Link’s shoulders and landed on the creature’s head. Dodging the Dino’s stabs to get her off, Saria took her dagger and jammed it down. With a screech, the Dinolfos fell to the ground.

"Well done...” The Stal-King spoke, suddenly standing before them. "But I have made my point! Give me the Triforce pieces or I will attack all the peaceful races of Hyrule." He summoned up an image of the tree that they had hid in. The Kokiri stared at the gruesome image, shocked at the number of their kind lying dead at its base. The King looked straight at Link. "Specifically the people you care about!" He snapped his fingers and the princess appeared behind Link, still unconscious. The Hylian turned around and saw Zelda lying motionless on the ground with an arrow sticking out of her side. Oh no... Link ran over to her and nervously checked her pulse. He let out the breath that he didn't even know that he was holding. She was alive, but that arrow wound didn't look too good. "So, I will give you the chance to save everyone else you care about... Give me the Triforce parts... Now!" Link looked at the Stal-King incredulously.

"If we give you the Triforce Parts, you'll just hunt us all to extinction anyway! So what's the point of giving away the only piece of hope we have left?" The King simply gave them a sickly smile. He raised his palm, the Triforce of Power glowing through his hand. He picked Saria up telekinetically and pulled her to him.

"Your friend here is a Sage isn't she?" The Stal-King grinned as Link turned pale. Saria felt cold skinless fingers close around her neck, causing terrorto run down her spine, scaring her stiff. What happened to my dagger? Saria thought with dread. "You see,” The King continued. “I know quite a bit about your 'hope' through the Triforce. Seven Sages, using their combined power, protect this world from evil users of the Triforce. Your friend here is the Sage of Forest if I'm not mistaken. Kill her...” Saria felt the fingers squeeze tighter cutting off her air. "...And the link is broken. So much for your hope!" Link stared helplessly as Saria's face started turning purple from suffocation. He grabbed Zelda's bow and readied a light arrow.

"Release her."

"Or what? You'll shoot me? Go ahead, and risk hitting your friend!" Link glared at him before letting the arrow fly. A brilliant flash of light blinded everyone for a second but when it disappeared, the Stal-King was still there, choking Saria. Link could see a slight disturbance rippling as if he had thrown a stone into a vertical wall of water. "Fool, did you really think I would leave myself undefended?" The Stal-King sneered at him. "The Power Triforce is creating this shield. There is only one way you could dispel it." The Triforce of Courage. Link thought. He probably has that crystal ready just for that. He thought bitterly. Saria was slipping into unconsciousness but on her way out, she kicked the Stal-King’s knee hard, knocking it painfully backward. "Arrgh!"

The pain made him lose concentration of the Power field and Link took the opportunity. The light arrow hit the stalfos and the shock of it caused him to drop his hostage. Link fired another arrow into the King's head. The blast knocked his crown off and he frantically warped out. Too bad he didn't drop the crystal this time... He ran over to Saria, lying comatose on the ground. After checking her pulse, he suddenly noticed the crown lying in the middle of a circular patch of dead grass. Curious, he walked over to it. As he bent down to pick it up, Zelda woke up with a groan. Forgetting all about the crown, Link ran over to help his fiancée.

After everyone had left for home, Mido walked carefully up to the golden crown. The crown had four peaks with the largest in front. Each peak had a nasty looking skull carved into the sides. The points of the peaks were razor sharp. Mido didn't notice these things however; he was transfixed on the large ruby at the center of the front peak. The ruby was blood red and very reflective. Mido took a closer look at the ruby and then focused on his own reflection. His scream echoed through the forest as he dashed all the way back to the safety of his house.

Chapter Seven
Plagues of the Crown

Link carefully removed Zelda's bandage from her side and was relieved to find that the blue potion had done its work well. Not even a scar remained from the wound. Saria was also in excellent condition and was outside playing with the other Kokiri. It was two days after the battle and already things were cheering up. The number of Kokiri was noticeably smaller however. The morning after the battle, they had a small funeral for their fallen brothers and sisters, burying them at the top of the hill. The final count of the Kokiri casualties shocked them all, nearly half of their total population.


Saria walked along the path away from the others and looked around at the damaged forest. The most painful thing to see was the mounds at what used to be the “Kokiri Training Center”. Now it was the “Kokiri Graveyard”. Saria thought bitterly. She sadly watched the fairy partners of the fallen hover slowly over the graves in mourning. Shaking her head, she turned around toward her house. She took two steps and suddenly noticed something strange. Mido’s door was closed. Curious, Saria walked up to the house and knocked.

“Go away!!” Mido yelled with a frantic voice.

“It’s Saria, is there something wrong?”

“You might say that! Just don’t come in!” Saria shook her head over this strange event. She turned the knob and tried to push in. It was locked! Kokiri hated being cooped up in their houses let alone locking themselves in! She remembered the time when she had been chased by a Stalfos and didn’t leave her house for two weeks. Even then, she hadn’t locked the door! Worried, she went around the forest to find any other strange phenomenon.

Saria walked into the Lost Woods and found the site where the Stal-King had nearly choked her to death. Looking around the area, she noticed a golden crown lying in the exact center of a perfect circle of dead grass. Curious, she looked closer at it. This was the same crown that the Stalfos King was wearing! Saria reached forward and as she picked it up, an electric shock zapped through her and blew her back twenty feet into a tree. The crown continued to electrocute her until she managed to drop it. Had Saria been watching, the crown killed the grass within a foot radius.

However, all Saria cared about was getting away from thing. It felt like the shock had done something to her lungs, she could barely breathe! Slightly twitching, she staggered out of the Lost Woods as fast as she could toward Link’s house. She vaguely noticed the other Kokiri giving her astonished looks.



“How are you doing?” Link asked Zelda who was getting up from the bed.

“A lot better, thanks.” Zelda replied with a grin. “I feel like I can take on an Iron Knuckle!” She put up her fists as an example.

“Hmm, sorry, you missed your chance!” Link laughed. Zelda stared at him.

“When was there an Iron Knuckle?”

“Between the time you were shot and when you woke up.” The princess stared at him in disbelief.

“Darn, I wanted to see one!”

“Stick with me and you’ll probably get tired of them!” Link commented. Zelda gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. A moment later, they heard someone coming up the ladder and saw Saria come running into the room.

“Some—(gasp)—thing’s wrong!” Link and Zelda stared at Saria. Her face was flushed like she had just run a marathon. Her green hair was sticking out everywhere and singed. She was also twitching noticeably. Gasping, she just pointed out the door.

“What is it?” Link asked with a shocked tone. Saria took a moment to catch her breath and looked back up at the tall Hylians.

“The cr—(gasp) It—” Saria gasped for a few seconds as Link began to worry if Saria was asthmatic. She had never shown any signs of this problem before. “It…”

“Calm down.” Link said soothingly

“Crown…(gasp) In woods…” Saria managed to wheeze out before she crashed to the floor. Link and Zelda both went over and checked her vital signs.

“Her heartbeat is okay if not a bit irregular, but her breathing doesn’t sound too good…” Zelda said nervously. Saria barely heard it. Images shattered her mind, becoming more and more terrifying as they came. Link nearly had a heart attack when the little girl suddenly let out a loud wail. They managed to steady her and they carried the trembling girl over to the bed.

“Oh Goddesses… Link, look at her hands!” Zelda said prying open her fists. Link saw strange nasty burn marks scarring her palms.

“What would burn her like that?” Link wondered. He noticed a spark flash on a metal bracelet that he had given Saria, several years back. Curious, Link tapped the bracelet and regretted it. Bzztt!! “Aah!” A tiny lightning bolt sprang from the bracelet and zapped him. “What the…”

“I would have thought you would have understood the rule of ‘Don’t touch what you don’t understand’ by now!” Zelda scolded him as she bandaged his finger.

“I’m forgetful.” He winced as she wrapped the last bits of the bandage around the burn. Zelda simply shook her head and grabbed a pair of leather working gloves on a table. Putting on the gloves, she picked up something that looked like wooden pliers and removed the bracelet from Saria’s arm. The metal ring zapped furiously as Zelda dropped it onto the wooden table. Right as the bracelet left her skin, Saria stopped trembling. Zelda carefully touched Saria’s forehead half-expecting a shock but none came.

“Link, get a damp rag!” He nodded and ran out the door. A minute later, he came back with a damp cloth and put it on Saria’s forehead. Revived by the cool water, the kokiri girl flinched, interrupting the steady flow of images through her mind.

“Link?” She muttered practically inaudibly. Terrifying images of death and torture continued to shatter her innocent mind. Zelda removed the rag and felt her forehead for fever. She got something she didn’t quite expect.

“Aahh!!!” Zelda jerked her hand away with a shriek as a grisly image of a decaying skull intruded into her consciousness. “What the hell was that??” She managed to gasp out after finally purging the graphic picture. Link didn’t respond for he was looking at Saria with fear. Saria had awakened, revealing glowing red eyes.

Chapter Eight
Destalfication

Saria lay on the bed, her red eyes staring into space. Her skin seemed a bit loose, Link noted with concern. Zelda swallowed nervously and moved closer to Link.

“What’s happening to her?”

“I have no idea but I guarantee that stalfos has something to do with it!”

A loud crash sounded outside the tree house and Link and Zelda ran to the deck, where they beheld a frightening scene. The door to Mido’s house had been shattered from the inside. Kokiri from all over the forest looked at the house with alarm. One of the younger kokiri girls carefully advanced toward the broken door.

“Aaaahhh!!!” The girl’s scream echoed through the forest as a stalchild leaped out of the hole. The girl tried to get away, but the stalchild pounced and slammed a dagger into her chest. The rest of the forest stood still, looking at the stalchild’s green clothes.

Link heard the cry and jumped off the twenty-foot high deck. By the time he reached Mido’s house, the stalchild was standing triumphantly on a dead kokiri. The Stal-Mido glared at Link with glowing red eyes, eyes that looked like Saria’s. Link braced his shield as Stal-Mido pounced at him with a dagger, screeching.

Clang!

The skeleton bounced off the shield and landed on its behind. With a growl, the stalchild jumped back up to its feet and dashed for Link’s legs.

“Whoa!” Link dropped his shield and the stalfos Mido ran into it. Lying on the ground again, the skeleton scratched its skull, which was still wearing Mido’s green hat.

“Scree!!” Stal-Mido jumped again at Link’s head but was suddenly hit in mid-air. Saria rolled off the surprised Mido and took up a fighting stance. The other Kokiri watched this new display with fascination. Many were shocked at Saria’s appearance. Her skin was gray and almost seemed detached from her bones. Her normally green hair was more of a slate-green. The red glow in her eyes was gone, however, and she looked like she was in extreme pain. The Stal-Mido sized up his new opponent and swung.

“Alarsa De Stalfos!!!”

There was a large flash as an energy bolt slammed into the skeleton. Stal-Mido sparked for a second and collapsed onto his back. Two seconds later, Mido began screaming in pain. His flesh was regenerating at a remarkable rate but that only increased the agony. The now slightly fleshy skeleton convulsed as muscles and sinew reattached themselves. A gruesome sight to say the least. Saria seemed to be undergoing the same “de-stalfication” process but she was much farther along. The girl finally was able to stop clenching her teeth in pain as her skin tightened back into place. Her green hair resumed its normal brilliance. Mido continued screaming as nerves sprouted out of the back of his skull and slipped into his backbone. Zelda turned away from the gruesome sight that she had caused. True, it was healing him but it was still disturbing to hear such screams of agony.

After about ten minutes of intense pain, a fully regenerated Mido shakily got up to his feet. “Ow…” He said before sulking into his house in shame. The rest of the Kokiri elves just stared open mouthed at the whole spectacle. Almost ceremoniously they picked up the dead girl and carried her to the new graveyard. Yet another casualty to the stalfos.


“How did you do that?” Link asked Zelda, amazed. They were eating eggs and vegetables for dinner with Saria.

“Who cares? At least it worked! It gives me the chills to know that I almost ended up as one of those monsters!” Saria quipped as she took a bite of celery. The kokiri never ate meat, but Saria took an exception to the occasional egg.

“Well, I was just wondering if it would work on anything else?”

“Its exhausting to say the least.” Zelda replied after swallowing some berries. “…and disturbing.” Link shuddered in agreement, remembering the Mido transformation. He thought for a moment.

“We need to get out of here, before the Stal-King completely obliterates this forest.” Link declared finally. Saria grew sad and nodded in agreement.

“Link? Zelda?” She asked him, innocently. “Can I go with you guys?”

Chapter Nine
Stalfos Revolution

The Stalfos Tower rose above the peaks of the great Hylian Mountains. Nearby, Death Mountain erupted violently, filling the air with smoke. At the base of the black tower, skeletons and monsters of all shapes and sizes came pouring out across the black sand. The Stal-King, a new crown shining on his head, rode out upon a black dragon, leading his army of undead like a fearsome phantom.

Within two hours, the army emerged onto Hyrule field and paused, taking in the view that they would soon destroy. To the right, Kakariko lay in a small valley at the base of the volcano. To the left, the cave leading to Zora’s domain gaped at the army. He would take care of those fish later, the King decided. Right now, his target lay practically in front of him, the grand Hyrule Castle, with Lon Lon Ranch on the way.

“Conquer Hyrule!!!” The Stal-King shouted to his army. A murmur went through the mob and they eagerly stepped into the Hylian sun. Upon contact, the rays disintegrated the first three stalfos that stepped into the light. With a disgusted sigh, the Stal-King halted the army and raised his right hand. The Triforce of Power glowed brightly as dark clouds snuffed out the sun. Once the field was as dark as night, the evil army charged out onto the field with a heart-chilling cry.


Malon tried to calm the horses down after the sun disappeared but to no avail. She looked up nervously at the ominous black clouds that had come out of nowhere. A bone-chilling cry came with the wind as the farm girl tried to get her horses inside the barn.

“One, two, three, four, five…” She counted. Five? Where was Epona? She slapped herself on the head as she remembered that Link had taken her three days ago. Why he never returned she had no idea. Suddenly Malon heard a whinny outside the barn. The colt! What’s with my memory lately? She wondered as she ran to the barn door. Images of Link flooded her mind as she pulled on the heavy door. Great… I’m being distracted by a guy I can’t have…

She finally opened the door and soon forgot all about her hero as a black dragon flew over the ranch. The small white colt was running frantically around the corral with a high whinny. The dragon landed in the middle of the ranch causing a small shockwave that knocked the farm girl off her feet. With a mighty roar, the dragon thrashed its head around violently. Eying the colt, the black monster roasted it with one breath. Malon barely noticed the death of the colt for her eyes were fixed upon something far more frightening. Upon the dragon’s back, the Stal-King created a ball of flame and shot it at the farmhouse, engulfing the building in fifty feet high flames.

"Father!!!" Malon screamed in terror. Ingo, the ranch hand soon came out carrying a fat sleeping Talon. Exhausted, the wiry man put down the fat ranch owner roughly.

“I ought to get a raise for that!!” Ingo spat at the lazy man who was still sleeping through the cries of the dragon and crackling of the burning house. “But I probably won’t… Hey girl! Help me with your fath—” Ingo’s wide eyes grew wider as he saw the Dragon roaring furiously. “Holy…” The Stal-King got off his dragon and approached the trembling farmers.

“I require horses for my officers.” The King said in a grating voice.

“Uh, w-well, it’s up to this lazy bum!” Ingo replied with a glare at the sleeping Talon. The king clacked his teeth together and stared at the comatose rancher. With lightning speed, he viciously kicked him in the gut. Talon woke up gasping.

“How dare you hit my—“ Malon froze as the King turned to her with a steel gaze.

“You were saying?”

“Uh… n-nothing…”

“Good. Now,” He turned to Talon, whose wide eyes from being kicked in the stomach grew even wider as he realized that he was talking to a skeleton. “I need your horses! Give me them and I’ll let you live…for now!” He snapped his bony fingers and six elite stalfos leaped over the wall. “Give me horses for my officers. Now!”

“Uh… As you wish…” Ingo mumbled as he opened the door. “We have six fine horses!” The rancher said proudly as five horses came out. After waiting a few seconds for the sixth horse, the king gave them a steely glare.

“Don’t you know how to count?” He said finally. Ingo began to look worried as he counted five horses every time.

“Uh… I thought we had six horses…” He took at step back and grabbed Malon by the arm. “Where is Epona??” He hissed into her ear.

“Well…” The king grumbled. “I guess one of my officers will have to go on foot. You three will be our prisoners for this disgrace!” He nodded to one of the elites and the skeleton drew a blood red sword. With a single leap, it landed behind the ranchers, poking them forward with its sword. The other elites each leapt onto a frightened horse. “Hmm…” The king mused. “I think these horses could have a new look!”

“Wh-what do you mean by new l-look?” Malon stammered out, concerned about her horses. The King gave a nod to his elites and all of them drew their swords and stabbed their steeds. Malon’s shrieking increased as the stalfos incinerated their dead horses’ hide with purple flames, leaving a skeletal corpse. The farm girl watched horrified as her beloved horses’ skeletons got up and walked to their new masters. The five elites jumped onto their new stal-horses and rode them over the wall.

“Now, you three will come with us!” The King jumped onto his dragon and took off. The remaining elite pushed them at sword point out of the ranch.


Thunder rolled as the Stalfos army approached the Castle Town gates. Stalfos, Moblins, Lizalfos, and other creatures screamed at the closed gates, nearly shattering them with the force of their cry. The Stal-King rode forth upon his dragon, taking the liberty to torch a couple thatched roof cottages.

“Bar the Gates!! Alert the King!” The guards cried out frantically. King Harkanian was alert about it at the sound of the first cry. He had been in his fireside room wishing his daughter would come home. Now he was relieved about the owl’s news. He ran to the closest window and stared down at his kingdom with horror. A massive army was at the moat! The scene brightened as a dragon torched the armory, detonating the fifty barrels of gunpowder. Screams echoed up to the king’s ears as his subjects tried to get to the safety of the castle. The guards at the castle gate stayed put.

“Guard!” He yelled.

“Yes my lord?”

“Allow the peasants into the castle! We’ll squeeze them into the dungeons if we have to!”

“Yes sir!” The guard ran out the door to deliver the order. When the gate received the order, the peasants poured into the castle grounds.

“Everyone this way!!” A guard yelled out, ushering the Hylian subjects into the long deserted dungeon.


“Yaaahhhhh!!!” A guard at the drawbridge burst into a pillar of flame. The dragon whipped its head around and torched a couple more guards that were running for some crossbows.

“SURRENDER!!!!!!” The Stal-King yelled at them.

“Fire!” The Stal-King snapped his head to the left to see a dozen archers releasing their arrows.

“Argh!” The dragon was able to dodge in time but still got three arrows in its side. With an angry roar, the dragon landed on a roof and torched the archers. The Stal-King jumped off the dragon and leapt up to the gate house.

“Aahh!!” The terrified guard stabbed at him with a spear. The King glared at the guard before decapitating him with a swift horizontal slash. The skeleton walked up to the drawbridge and portcullis controls and found another guard with a sword.

“Hyah!” The guard drove his sword into the King’s ribcage. With a deadly growl, the stalfos punched the guard with his Triforce enhanced fist, sending him through the wall into the gullet of a hungry Like Like. “Aah!!” The king ignored the screams of the guard who was being eaten alive, and pulled on the drawbridge crankshaft. The drawbridge finally hit the ground with a clank and the evil army surged forward. A guard jabbed a moblin with a spear, killing it instantly. The moblin was quickly avenged when an Iron Knuckle chopped the poor guard in half. Lizalfos leaped up to the battlement and began swordplay with the surprised soldiers.

“Take thisss!!!” Sslivik the Lizalfos hissed as he ran a guard through. An arrow bounced off the stone wall, two inches from his head. When he looked in the archers direction, he found them slumped over the wall with arrows sticking out of them. Stalfos archers knocked their arrows again and shot at another group of Hylians.

“To the castle!!!!” The Stal-King roared. Fire keese swooped down, torching the rest of the thatched roofs. Sslivik saw a small peasant come running out of a burning house and run for the castle. Unable to resist, he sprinted after the peasant and jumped in front of it. He held his sword point two inches from the girl’s face, for that’s what she was. “Where do you thhhink you’rre going??” He hissed. The girl didn’t say a word, but turned tail and fled toward the battle. Sslivik hissed angrily and gave pursuit. The girl dodged into an alleyway and found that a Like Like blocked her way. Sslivik approached from behind. “You’rre trapped! (Hiss) I can give you a quicker deathhh than that Like Like!!”

“I won’t be a trophy!” She snapped back at him before she dove into a burning building. Sslivik gaped as the building collapsed, crushing its new inhabitant. Whether she hoped to escape through the building or commit suicide, Sslivik never figured out.

The Stalfos King flew over the castle, his dragon torching the proud banners. King Harkanian ran down the twisting stairs of his watchtower as the dragon torched the spire. Reaching the ground floor, the out-of-breath king ran across the courtyard, only to find the doors slam shut. He slowly turned around to face the Stal-King, who jumped off his dragon and landed in front of Harkanian. The skeleton drew his sword and pointed it at the Hylian’s defiant chest.

“The great King of Hyrule… But not for long! Surrender and I might let you live!”

“And just who the hell are you??” The Hylian roared back at him.

“Your worst nightmare….” The stalfos growled, moving the sword closer to the king.

“And what happens if I surrender?”

“If you’re trying to save your pathetic country, don’t even bother! With a sweep of my hand I could set the entire kingdom on fire! The only thing that will save your life…and your daughter’s life is to surrender!” At the mention of Zelda, Harkanian put up his hands in defeat.

Chapter Ten
Ambush!!

Link, Zelda, and Saria walked out of the forest and into the field. Saria stared at all the open space; it was like walking into the largest room you had ever seen. Black clouds covered the entire sky blotting out the sun.

“I never imagined it was this big! Though I did imagine it a bit brighter…”

“It normally is…” Link stared into the thundering clouds and was able to discern a flying shape.

“Hoo! Hoot!!” An enormous owl landed on a tree branch in front of the travelers. “Hoo! I bring news!!” Kaepora Gaebora, the wise owl, cried. “Kakariko has been attacked!!!” In an instant, Link jumped onto Epona and waited only for Saria and Zelda to get on. “Wait!!” The owl watched the dust cloud from the galloping horse dissipate in the distance. He hooted sadly. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you that you will run into a trap on that road!” Knowing that all chances of catching up were slim, the owl gave pursuit anyway.

Link pushed Epona to the limit as they galloped toward the pall of smoke in the distance. Zelda sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his waist, holding on for dear life. Saria, who had never been on a horse in her life, sat in front of Link, her small hands gripping the horse’s mane. “Hyah! Hyah!” Epona ran faster, breaking her original speed record. As they rode over the hill, they could see a dragon hovering over Kakariko, sending the occasional fireball into the burning town.

Fffftt!!

“Aaah!” An arrow slammed into Link’s shoulder. Fffftt!! Fffftt!! Two more arrows hit Epona in the side, causing the wounded horse to topple over. Zelda got to her feet quickly and saw two Stalfos archers standing at the top of the bluff wall. Fffftt!!

“Aaahh!” The arrow hit her in the wrist as she was reaching for her bow. She staggered back as agony screamed through her arm. Fffftt!! “Aaahhh!!” Another arrow hit her in the shoulder, knocking her to the ground.

Link’s right leg was stuck underneath the horse; it felt like it was broken. Grimacing through the pain, he reached for his bow and pulled it out of his inventory bag. The sight of the laughing skeletons gleefully shooting his fiancée with two more arrows was too much. With an enraged yell, he yanked his broken leg out from under Epona and took aim with vengeance. Fffftt!! The arrow hit the Stalfos’ skull with so much force that it decapitated it. The other Stalfos glanced at its defeated companion and defiantly shot another arrow at Zelda, who was trying to get up.

Fffftt!!

“Aaaahhhh!!!!” Zelda screamed as the fifth arrow hit her in the back. Link blasted the last archer’s head off and limped as fast as he could to her side.

“Oh man…” He tenderly felt her wounds. None of the arrows had hit anything vital, instead they had hit where it hurt the most. Those stalfos have a deadly aim! Link thought as he cradled Zelda in his arms. The princess did her best to try to accept the pain but didn’t succeed. She buried her face into Link’s tunic and sobbed.

“It’ll be alright.” Link choked out. Saria came around the bluff and the sight of the injured couple made her feel even more like a coward. She had run away as soon as the horse fell.



“They fell for the trap sire.” A stalfos growled. The Stal-King nodded and turned to a Moblin who was carrying a black sphere.

“Very good, Moblak, set that on the pedestal over there.” The Moblin grunted and hefted the heavy object onto the small raised surface at the center of the room. The Stal-King looked at the flawless obsidian ball with great interest. “Thank you, that will be all.” The moblin grunted and moved off. “Stal’korsa, wait a moment.” The stalfos stopped just as it reached the door.

“Yes sire?” The Stal-king beckoned him to stand by the sphere.

“Do you know what this is?”

“I don’t have much interest in artifacts sire.”

“Of course you don’t. It seems I’m the only one who even remotely cares about the power of these things. So, I’m going to give you a little history lesson.” He pointed around the room and the stalfos soldier became aware that the room was full of artifacts. “Every single piece here can do unique things.” He picked up a long device that looked like a staff. Pointing one end of the staff at the wall, a bright flash of light left a hole the size of a plate straight through the steel wall. The stalfos’s jaw dropped, literally. After he picked his jaw up off the floor and reattached it, he looked at the sphere.

“What does this do?”

The king put his hand onto the sphere and concentrated. The smooth black surface became transparent and a scene played before the stalfos. They recognized Link immediately by his green tunic. He seemed to be cradling someone. The princess, the king realized, amused. A third person entered the picture at a reluctant pace. This third person was noticeably smaller and had green hair.

“Well, well, well…” He could clearly see that several arrows had hit Zelda but he still wasn’t pleased by what he saw. “Those archers were supposed to incapacitate them and bring them to me alive!! Obviously they weren’t as skilled as I had hoped.”

“Sire, look!” The stalfos pointed at something at the edge of the sphere’s vision. It was a stalfos archer crouching low, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

“Hmm…” The Stal-King picked up another device and spoke into it. “Kill the sage, she’s more dangerous alive!!” The archer in the field jerked slightly as the King’s voice reached his ears. “Kill the sage, the green haired girl!” The archer nodded and crept closer to the bluff cliff.


“Link! I’m sorry!” Saria began running toward the injured couple. Link was pulling the last arrow out of Zelda’s back when he heard Saria’s call.

Ffffttt!!!

“Aah!” Link’s head snapped up at the sound and he watched horrified as Saria stared stupidly at the arrowhead sticking out of her chest. With a small whimper, Saria sank to her knees and fell forward, the shaft of the arrow embedded in her back.

“Noooo!!!!” He ran to his best friend and picked up her already lifeless body. The stalfos archer, no longer in hiding, stood at the top of the cliff, laughing its skull off. “Why you!!” Link pulled out his hookshot and pulled the doomed skeleton to him and furiously slashed it to powder. Zelda crawled over to Saria’s corpse and pulled out a bottle. Opening the bottle over the body, Zelda dodged out of the way as the fairy began swirling around. Taking the hint, the fairy swirled around Saria, regenerating her wounds and incinerating the arrow. With a gasp, she opened her eyes as life pulsed in her veins once again.


“IDIOT!!!!!!!” The Stal-king screamed at the ball. In a rage, he picked up one of the lesser artifacts and slammed it into the wall, causing a small explosion. “What is it with sages anyway?? Does fate make them invincible?!?”

“Uh, I don’t know sire…”

“Shut up.”

“Shutting up sire.”

Chapter Eleven
Kakariko Rescue

After Link had gotten over his rage he looked behind his shoulder and nearly had a heart attack seeing Saria standing behind him perfectly healthy. Zelda was propping herself against a rock and putting away an empty bottle. After helping Zelda up, he looked over at Kakariko in time to see the dragon taking off toward what looked like a tall black needle in the distance. Hmm…

When the trio arrived at Kakariko, they found the village in ruins.

“Wait here, I’ll be back.” Link said to the girls and sprinted off into the destroyed town. Buildings were flaming infernos, too hot to get even near them. The potion shop was the only building that wasn’t on fire. Coincidence? Link didn’t ponder about it. He kicked open the door and found the place abandoned. Several bottles were lying around and Link found one filled with a blue liquid. Perfect! He went out the door with the bottle in hand. With a quick spell, he teleported the potion to Zelda so she could heal herself.

The Spider House had crumbled to rubble. Impa’s house was badly burned, but was still standing. As he ran toward it, he noticed something that made his stomach lurch. Several burned skeletons littered the ground, and they weren’t dead stalfos. Link looked up at the windmill and watched as its burning arms slowly spun around, creating a swirling smoke pall.

“Link!” The hero spun around at the familiar voice.

“Impa? Boy, am I glad to see you!!”

“The same.”

“Where is everyone?” Impa shook her head sadly.

“I don’t know. That army killed everyone who got in their way. Then just fifteen minutes ago they suddenly retreated.”

“Aah!!” Link jerked toward the scream. It sounded like it had come from the graveyard! At a run, Link and Impa jumped over the scorched skeletons and found that about half the town had taken refuge in the graveyard. Guarding the crowd were four Stalfos. One had just killed one of the villagers. Apparently the man tried to put up a fight with his fists.

“Yona sal krosak!!” The stalfos yelled before he charged. Link blocked the blow and delivered a slash to the creature’s bony skull. As the beast howled in pain, the other three attacked.


“Aah!!” Link barely managed to block all three blows. Impa drew two long daggers and attacked the stalfos closest to her. Link finished off one of the skeletons but another delivered a hard blow to his shield, stunning him. “Whoa!” Link managed get out of his daze seconds before his head was impaled.

“Nosa!! Krelgrak!!” Link’s heart fell as he saw the dead stalfos suddenly come back to life. As its bones came back together, the regenerated stalfos took a look at the battle and decided to attack Impa.

“Look out!!” Link cried out in warning. The shiekah warrior managed to turn in time to block the incoming blow. The two stalfos attacking Link took advantage of the distraction and slashed their crooked swords at Link’s exposed head. The Hero of Time ducked and rolled out of the way.

Clang!

The force of their swords hitting each other stunned the stalfos long enough for Link to get behind one of them. With a vertical slash to its backbone, he obliterated it. A second later, Impa destroyed its regeneration partner and both stalfos were incinerated. The remaining stalfos realized they were alone and went on the defensive. Each of them grabbed a villager hostage and held their swords at the hostages’ necks.

“Raksgar aslak negkrag! Leshslak!”

“Uh… What did they say?” Link asked Impa.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“I thought you were the Sage of the Dead!”

“Sage of Shadow. There’s a difference.”

“Sounds the same to me…”

“Nakgreshlak! Halkag noka sleshug!”

“Man, they have an ugly language…” Link muttered, as he watched the stalfos closely.

“Hey! We finally found you!” Saria said running up behind them with Zelda. “Uh-oh…” The kokiri finished with a glance at the hostage-armed stalfos.

“Got any spells up your sleeve, sweetheart?” Link said to Zelda, not taking his eyes off the stalfos.

“Uh…” Zelda thought for a second and finally made a waving motion. “Welese Narendil!!” A flash blinded everyone including the stalfos.

“Thanks, you could have warned me!” Link complained as he desperately tried to see past the blur now covering his eyes.

“Oops…”

The stalfos recovered from the flash much sooner than Link, who was still staggering around.

“Hyagash snakglag!!”

“Whoa!!” The blind Link managed to move his shield toward the sound and the skeleton’s sword clanged harmlessly on his shield. He was now able to discern a fuzzy image of the skeleton and he kept the creature in front of him. “Hyah!” He thrust forward but the Stalfos dodged out of the way, leaving Link’s field of vision. “Uh…” The stalfos took advantage of Link’s position and delivered a blow to his back.

“Aaahh!!!” Zelda, who was shooting arrows at the stalfos turned white as a sheet as she saw the blow. Not noticing that Impa managed to kill her foe, she only saw Link fall to his knees with a nasty gash in his back.

“Nooo!!!” She dropped her bow and ran to her fiancé’s side.

“Klrelgrageth!!” Zelda looked up with a gasp. She had forgotten about the stalfos! The jagged red sword came down at Zelda’s exposed head and was blocked by two daggers.

“Princess! Get out of here!” Impa yelled at Zelda as the stalfos analyzed its new foe. As the Shadow sage locked in combat with the skeleton, Zelda dragged Link to safety. Saria had taken up Zelda’s bow, which was about the size of a longbow to her, and was shooting at the remaining stalfos, being careful not to hit Impa. Her aim was remarkable. Arrow after arrow hit the creature in the head. With a roar of pain the stalfos leaped away from Impa and landed next the Saria.

Oh great, I’m going to die again! Saria thought fearfully as the blood red sword came down.

Clang!!

The sword hit two daggers once again. Frustrated out of its skull, the stalfos decided to finish off the shiekah first. After delivering a vicious kick to Saria’s face, he began fighting Impa. The sound of the stalfos’s regeneration partner starting to come to life made the Shiekah warrior attack faster, managing to behead the skeleton and obliterate both the stalfos.

The battle over, Impa helped a half-conscious Saria to her feet and a cry of victory rose from the liberated villagers.

Chapter Twelve
Kakariko Crisis

“Bulgfagesh.” A stalfos reported to the Stal-King. The king rolled his red eyes and began gazing into the obsidian sphere. The Kakariko graveyard appeared and he could see that the remaining survivors were in celebration. Zelda had propped Link against a gravestone and was nursing him back to health with a red potion. The king smirked.

“Kala na salfeth ne aso na eck! Lofa soliman hasefel nor nathe mor eckos!!” The stalfos watched their king in fascination, as the ancient language seemed to take form and surround the king as a blood red fog. “Holfas solath thesa nopath aka solan feros eck na galthad!! Holomendrakion!!!!!”

With the last word, the red mist swirled into a funnel and disappeared into the sphere.


Zelda watched the celebrating townsfolk with a smile. Link, his wounds healed, got up off the ground and they gave each other a long kiss.

“Being carefree today princess?” Impa said in a serious tone, however, a twinkle in her eyes betrayed the optimism behind the mask.

“Yeah, why not?” Zelda replied and gave Link another kiss. Impa shook her head amused and looked up at the sky—and froze. A red fog came raining down on the celebrating townsfolk. Cries of joy soon turned to cries of pain as the red raindrops burned whatever they came into contact with.

“Aaaahhhh!” A townsman screamed as a single drop burned straight through his arm. Reacting quickly, Link used his shield as a metal umbrella and shielded Zelda from the lethal drops. Saria, still slightly dazed, screamed as a drop hit her hand. Link pulled out his hookshot and pulled the green haired girl to the safety of the “umbrella.”

“Kolsa falkath!!!” The Stal-king’s voice rang out and the deadly shower became a downpour. Impa, under a shield herself, tried to rescue as many of her neighbors as she could but was forced to watch the unlucky ones literally disintegrate painfully under the lethal rainstorm.

“My cuccos!!” Anju the Cucco girl screamed as the chickens began to melt. Impa managed to hold her under the large shield, as she attempted to make the suicide run to help her doomed chickens.

“No! What are you crazy??” Impa yelled at her.


The Shiekah warrior had been able to rescue five of the townsfolk. The rest perished horribly under the torrent. The Stal-king watched the gruesome scene with an uncontainable glee.

“Haha!! That will teach them to celebrate early!! The stalfos don’t just give up!” The king crowed.

“Sire, what about the survivors?” one of the skeleton observers asked cautiously.

“Heh heh, watch, here comes my favorite part!”


Zelda held Link tighter as she saw the disintegrated corpses move. The new stalfos, about 15 of them, advanced on the survivors. Somehow, each of the corpses managed to get a blood red sword of their own.

“Oh crap… What’s with all the dead coming alive nowadays??” Link complained. Zelda did a mental calculation in her head. She, Link, Saria, and Impa were the only ones who could fight, and from the looks of Saria’s hand, she was out of the fight. The red rain was still pouring down so none of them could leave the safety of the shields.

“Link, I’ll use my bow and take out as many as I can, keep me covered.” Link nodded and held the shield steady. Zelda took aim with her bow and charged it up with light. Fffttt!! A stalfos was incinerated.

“What about that de-stalfication spell?”

“Won’t work, these people literally had their flesh burned off of them.” She fired another arrow into the wall of advancing stalfos. “Ok, lets start backing up…” The two survivor groups slowly retreated into the tunnel back to the town, forcing the stalfos into a bottleneck. Fffttt!!! Fffttt!!! Two more stalfos disintegrated. Fffttt!!!

“Uh-oh…” Link’s eyes widened as he saw the red cloud beginning to sink.

“Uh-oh what?” Fffttt!!! Zelda looked upward. “Oh…”

“RUN!!” Out from underneath the cloud, the survivors broke into a run. The Stalfos gave pursuit, hampered only by Link and Zelda both firing light arrows into their midst. The red cloud blew forward with a gust of wind.

“Whoa!!” Link pulled Zelda to the ground and raised his shield in defense. Zelda buried her face in his chest as the lethal wind howled past.

Impa picked Saria up and tossed her up to the ledge in front of her house. After jumping up herself, she turned to help the others up just in time to see them disintegrate within the red wind. Turning away from the gruesome sight, she quickly picked up Saria and carried her into the safety of the house. She quickly looked over at a hole in the corner of the room and was relieved that she had gotten that repaired a long time ago.

“Well well…” Impa’s head snapped up toward the upper level of her home, where the Stal-King was standing. “I sure hope Link and Zelda make it through this storm… I need them alive to get their Triforce pieces!” He grinned. Saria nearly gagged at the sight of the rotten sinews pulling the almost transparent dead muscle across his skull. “You two on the other hand…” He raised his fist, the Triforce mark glowing bright, and unleashed a beam of raw energy.


Link looked over his shield after the wind had died down. The red mist had dissipated and the sun shone brightly on the now dead town. Slowly getting up, Link and Zelda pulled out of their embrace and looked around.

“Oh man…” Link said, after seeing some more stalfos get up. With a gasp, Zelda threw her arms around him. Link held her close; ready to defend her to the last. There were now ten stalfos total, slowly advancing on the terrified couple.

“What are we going to do?” Zelda whimpered as she hugged Link tighter. Link didn’t respond, he just glared at his foes.

“Halt!!” A snarling voice yelled out above them. An elite stalfos jumped off the rooftop and landed within three feet of the couple. After the sinister skeleton straightened himself up, he glared at Link. “If you wish to live, you will come with us to the Stalfos Tower!!”

“And if we don’t? Your master wants us alive!” Link shot back. The elite glared at him, pieces of dead skin tightening into a sneer.

“Of course. What I mean is, my master will let you live through the extraction process if you come voluntarily. If not, we will force you to the tower and there you will die!”

“You’ll have to kill us first!!” The hero shouted at him in defiance.

“No we won’t.” The elite snapped his fingers and an archer on the roof shot a blunt arrow at Link’s head, rendering him unconscious. “You’ll come along peacefully won’t you princess?”

“Never.” Zelda said defiantly. With a disgusted sigh the elite snapped his fingers again. This time the archer didn’t respond. He was staring at the gate to Death Mountain. Balls of rock came rolling into the village, quickly approaching the stalfos.

“Gorons!!!”


Saria screamed as energy bolt after energy bolt hit. Impa took the pain a bit better as she kept chanting a counter spell. Several impacts against the house distracted the King for a second and several of his own bolts hit him.

“Argh!” He froze the two sages and blasted an immense hole in the wall to see what was going on. Gorons were slamming stalfos into the wall, smashing them to bits. The Elite jumped and dodged the rolling creatures but was ultimately annihilated by a rolling ball with large spikes. The Spiked Goron leaped up into the house and uncurled himself. Darunia smashed a foolish stalfos that jumped up with him and glared at the Stalfos King.

“Release them!”

“You wish!” The stal-king snarled back before he ran over to Saria’s frozen form and picked her up by the neck. “One more step and I’ll crush her neck! Without her all of you are worthless!!” Darunia glowered at the skeleton but stayed still.

“You coward. A Goron would never take a hostage!”

“I suppose you’re right, only a coward would hide behind a hostage!” The Stal-King replied in a musing tone. At the moment, Saria woke up and found the stalfos’s hand around her throat.

“Aah!!” The Stal-king jerked his hand violently, snapping the girl’s neck.

“There, hostage-less! Happy? Of course, now I’m invincible!!” The stalfos blasted the large goron with a Power blast. Darunia braced and took the shattering blow. Enraged, the Goron rolled up and smashed into the Stal-King before he could react. Bones flew everywhere. Free of the freezing spell, Impa ran to Saria’s side and carefully felt her neck. It was broken. Moving quickly, she pulled out a bottled fairy. Whap!! A bone hand flew out of nowhere and knocked the bottle out of Impa’s hand. The bottle shattered and the fairy flew free. It hovered for a second and flew into the wall, never to be seen again. The bones reassembled themselves and the Stal-King was whole.

“Your pathetic friend isn’t coming back to life this time!!” The sound of a fairy healing someone reached the king’s ears. “What the…” He turned to find Zelda holding an open bottle over Saria’s body. A second later, the Kokiri stood up, mad as hell.

“Dalen Falselat!!” She practically screeched at him.

“Argh!!” A green energy bolt hit the King. Vines sprang out of the stalfos’s ribcage and tied him up until he looked like a skeleton garden. Saria walked up to the immobile stal-king with a sneer on her face.

“You think I’m the weakest sage? You thought wrong!!” She picked up a rock from the destroyed wall and smashed his face so hard his jaw went flying. He glared at her with blood red eyes. The jaw flew back and reattached itself.

“When I get the full Triforce, I’ll enjoy ramming those words down your throat!!”

“You’ll never get the full Triforce!” Zelda screamed at him.

“Indeed princess… We’ll see about that!!” With a yell, the Triforce of Power incinerated the vines and the Stal-King disappeared to the safety of his tower.

Chapter Thirteen
Ascent

“Alsagrath!!” A fireball erupted from the Stal-King’s hand and blasted a statue of Zelda to pieces. With an unsatisfied grunt, he snapped his fingers and the statue reappeared. “Solgonakag!” Lightning shot out from the king’s hand and zapped the statue with a trillion volts. The statue came to life, screamed in agony, and collapsed on the ground sparking. After a few seconds, the statue dissolved to dust. “Hmm… I like that one!” He looked at the dust pile sorrowfully. “Too bad that really wasn’t you, princess!”

“Sire, our troops report that the Kakariko survivors are climbing the mountain.”

“Oh? Maybe they’ll save me the trouble and boil to death. Has Dodongo Caverns been completely excavated of artifacts?”

“Aye sire. Last shipment has been delivered to the storeroom. I am curious about this artifact sire.” The stalfos offered a small metal object to his master. After a small glare at the guard for daring to touch an artifact, the King took it.

It looked like a bracelet of a strange design. The gilded surface was adorned by blood rubies and a detailed depiction of a skull was imprinted on the thickest part of the band. Long spindly tendrils sprouting from the side quivered faintly as if straining to bind themselves around something.

“Hmm… Very interesting…”

“What is it, sire?”

“I’m actually not sure but it seems to be a weapon of some kind…” He slipped the device on his Triforce arm and the tendrils clasped around his bony wrist, sealing the bracelet on his arm. “Hmm?” He aimed his arm at the wall and as he did so, he could feel the device’s power practically warping time and space. It let off a shrill whine before…

Ka-BOOM!!

The stalfos guard jumped at the sound and stared at the immense hole in the wall. The king stared curiously at the hole and the valley beyond and his rotten tendons slowly pulled his dead face muscles into a grin.


Death Mountain towered over the travelers as they looked up at the discouraging climb. Skulltulas covered every inch of the cliff. Link took out his bow and blasted a spider to oblivion. This was going to take a while… There had to be at least two hundred of them! His face fell as the destroyed Skulltula was quickly replaced by three more.

“We’ll never make it up this!!”

“No… But we must get the Forger Crystal from Biggoron!” Darunia said with a sigh. He looked to the right thoughtfully. “There is an old path this way, though I don’t know if it is still travelable.”

“Lets go then!” Zelda replied urgently. She had gotten rid of her dress in Kakariko and was now dressed in a shiekah uniform; very similar to the one she wore as Shiek, her disguise in the alternate timeline. She didn’t wrap her head in a turban this time though, Link thought thankfully.

“There are some dangers to this trail, princess. That’s why we stopped using it.”

“What kind of dangers?” Saria asked, staring at the immense cliff the entire time.

“I haven’t been there since I was as young as my son, so it’s probably even worse now…” Darunia muttered. “It’s been about oh… Three hundred years…” Link did a double take.

“Three hundred years??”

“Yes, Gorons do live about five hundred years. Didn’t you know that?” The Goron leader replied as if everyone knew that information.

“Uh… no. How old is Biggoron?” Link asked curiously.

“Ah, he’s still a teenager in our standards. About a hundred.”

“Really? How did he get so big?” Darunia rolled his eyes.

“That whole family is made up of gluttons. Its said that Biggoron’s great grandfather ate all the rock at the top off the mountain, creating the Death Mountain Crater, but I seriously doubt that story’s sources.”

“Uh…” Link and Zelda looked at each other with dumbfounded looks.

“Anyhow, what’s your opinion Impa?” The goron asked, turning to the Shiekah.

“It appears that this second trail is our only option.” She replied coolly.

“Hmm. Very well, come along!” Darunia walked over to a crack in the wall and gave it a powerful punch. The wall crumbled revealing a tunnel leading off into the darkness.


“The Skulltulas have done their job sire.” General Stalakor reported as he gazed into the obsidian ball. The Stal-King barely heard the elite’s words as he fired his new toy at the living Zelda statue.

Ka-BOOM!!

The statue was obliterated as was three feet of solid stone, exposing the black desert below.

“Yes, very good.” The Stal-King said as he repaired the wall with a careless wave of his hand and looked at the ball. Link’s group was following Darunia into a dark tunnel. “Excellent, the others will never survive that trip! Assemble your troops for the next stage General!” The elite saluted and walked briskly out of the room.


Zelda stumbled through the pitch-black tunnel, wondering if she’d ever see daylight again. Link was in front of her, having as much trouble as her on the uneven tunnel, despite his lamp. Rocks crumbled as Darunia plowed through stalactites, causing even more damage to the old tunnel.

“Aaah!!” Saria shrieked as rocks began showering down. Impa picked her up and ran through the cave-in.

“No going back now…” Impa muttered grimly. She carried the girl quickly to catch up with Link’s retreating lamp.

“Hmm…” Darunia mumbled as he came to a halt. A large stone blocked the way. Link leaned in with his lamp, observing the rough black surface. Darunia delivered a hard blow but the stone remained intact.
“Hey wait!” Link said as the Goron wound up for another punch. Link dashed to the bottom of the rock and dug his hands underneath. The gold plates on his gauntlets seemed to glow brightly as he slowly lifted the immense stone. With a heave, he threw the black granite pillar forward and the rock crumbled, revealing a large valley. After a stare of astonishment at Link, Darunia turned to the unfamiliar valley.

“Whoa…” The valley was far from a happy one. Dark storm clouds covered the landscape. Black sand blew around with the random gusts of wind. At the far end of the valley rose a menacing tower. A black dragon was perched on a cliff next to the tower, blasting fireballs at the valley floor. Whatever was down there wasn’t going to last long! They couldn’t see any details at this distance, not that any of them particularly wanted to.

“That wasn’t here three hundred years ago…” Darunia muttered. Link only nodded and finally managed to pry his eyes away from the terrifying sight. He focused on the cliff face at the back of Death Mountain.

“Come on, let’s climb.”

“Uh…” Saria said looking at the five hundred foot climb.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Want someone to carry you?”

“I can climb up myself, thank you very much!” Saria replied indignantly. “I’m older than you, for crying out loud!”

“Suit yourself…” Link muttered. He wasn’t about to go into a fight with his best friend at the moment. He noticed that ever since they had left the forest, the kokiri girl had become increasingly more irritable. Must be homesick… Link thought. “Ok, Darunia, mind climbing below everyone? You can catch falling climbers the easiest.” Not to mention I don’t want a couple tons of Goron to come crashing into me… Link added silently.

“Very well. Link, you lead the way.” Darunia grumbled.

“Right, uh… This way!” Link grasped a handhold and began pulling himself up. Next came Zelda, then Saria, Impa, and Darunia.

After an hour of free climbing, Zelda stopped for a second. Wiping the sweat from her face, she looked around. The surface of the volcano was becoming hot to the touch. Less rock between her and the magma inside, she presumed. The air was hot and dry, scorching any traveler’s skin. Zelda took a painful swallow through her parched throat and looked up at Link who had stopped and was looking down at her. She increased her climbing rate and caught up with him. Handholds were becoming sparse, they noticed.

“How are you holding up?” Link practically croaked through his dry throat.

“Been better…” She croaked back. “Got any water? Mine’s dry.” Link took out his canteen and shook it.

“Got a couple more gulps. Here.” Zelda took the leather canteen and took a single gulp.

“Thanks.” Link took a gulp and put the container away.

“Will you two move??” Saria snapped at them. Surprised at the tone of her voice, both the hylians looked down at the girl. Saria’s face was red from the heat and, to Link’s surprise, she was scowling. He couldn’t remember a time in his life when he had seen Saria with a scowl.

“Saria? Are you alright?”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean???” Link and Zelda looked at each other with surprised looks. “Move it.” Saria pushed past the hylians roughly.

Gripping the large handgrips with her small hands, Saria pulled her light form up the mountainside. Saria had always liked climbing; the Great Deku Tree had always let her climb to his highest branches and giving her a view of the immense canopy of the forest. Curious, she looked away from the cliff wall. The view was more incredible than she could have imagined! Snowcapped mountains surrounded the volcano, spread out as far as the eye could see. The forest curved in from the west and she felt a desperate longing for home. She looked down at the tower and was instantly hit by a wave of vertigo. Fear struck her heart as she felt her hands slip on the handgrip.

“Aaaahh!!!” Link looked up and to his horror saw Saria slipping down the mountain. She fell away from the cliff and was out of Link’s reach by the time she passed him. Realization that she was going to die went through her mind and her life began flashing before her eyes. The first time she saw the Deku Tree. The first time she saw Link as a baby. The time she found the Sacred Forest Meadow. The time when Link left the forest to save the world. A beefy orange arm… Huh?

Darunia snatched the falling Kokiri out of the air and pulled her back in his arm.

“You better watch your step!” The Goron said to her. “You don’t want to end up down there!!” Saria smiled weakly at him and rode on his back the rest of the way.

Link’s moments of panic slowly wore off after Darunia caught his falling friend. Zelda’s face was pale from the shock and he imagined that he looked the same.

“She’s alright!!” Darunia yelled up. “We must keep moving!!” Link nodded and continued the ascent. Within another half hour, the climbers had reached the summit.

“Man, Its much easier coming the other way!” Link complained as he stood before the familiar entrance to the crater.

“Why do you think the trail we just used was closed?”

“Hmph…”

“MAY I HELP YOU?” Link spun around at the loud voice and found Biggoron looking at the travelers. Zelda and Saria gaped at the immense Goron.

“Biggoron!” Darunia commanded. “We need the Forger’s Crystal!!”

“ER…” The Goron leader glared at the obese adolescent.

“What do you mean by ‘er’?” Darunia said menacingly.

“THE STALFOS CAME FOR IT… SO I THREW IT INTO THE CRATER TO KEEP IT FROM THEM…” Darunia sagged visibly.

“Destroyed then?”

“NO, IT IS INDESTRUCTABLE. THOUGH NOW IT’S AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MAGMA POOL…” Link pulled away from the group as Darunia and Biggoron bickered on. Zelda followed him and they went through the tunnel into the inferno.

Chapter Fourteen
Inferno

The heat was incredible! Magma bubbled in an immense lake at the bottom of the crater. Zelda could feel her skin becoming singed through her clothes. Link had switched to a goron tunic but the heat was still unbearable.

“Seems hotter than usual! Get out of here!!” Link yelled to Zelda. The princess barely heard him. The heat pounded on her senses and made her extremely dizzy. Her exposed face felt like it was on fire.

“I can’t…” She collapsed onto the hot rocks and tried to get up as the rocks seared her hands. Link ran over to her and picked her up in his arms. Her face was red as if she had extreme sunburn. Casting a glance at the Fire Temple, he noticed two Stalfos patrolling the cinder cone platform. Looking for the crystal, he presumed as he ran out the tunnel.

The travelers saw Link came running out of the tunnel, carrying Zelda. Both of them were drenched in sweat.

“What happened?” Darunia asked as Link set the unconscious princess down on the cool rocks.

“The crater… It’s hotter than I remember…” Link panted.

“THE CRYSTAL MUST HAVE CAUSED SOMETHING…” Biggoron mumbled, giving Darunia a guilty look.

“I saw two Stalfos…” Link managed to add before collapsing next to Zelda.

“What were they doing?” Darunia asked him. Too late, Link passed out. He would have to find out for himself. After telling Saria and Impa to stay put, Darunia rolled into the crater.


It is hotter in here. The Goron leader noted. By no means too hot for a Goron, but he estimated that the temperature had risen by at least a hundred degrees. Creeping slowly to the cliff face, Darunia noticed the two Stalfos. They seemed to just be standing around, or guarding something. His eyes moved to focus on the Fire Temple entrance where another Stalfos was coming out of the well. Using his Sage powers, Darunia listened in on the conversation.

“The crystal has not yet been found.” The stalfos said; his words translated through the hearing power.

“You sure you saw it go down there?” Another Stalfos grumbled.

“Yes, it landed on that platform down there.” He pointed to a small platform, hovering a few inches above the magma pool. “A Fire Keese flew down, picked it up, and flew down the well into the Fire Temple.”

“Ugh… Well, you better find it. I don’t want to report to the master that we were outsmarted by a bat!”

“I’ll find it. Notify me if you see anything!”

“Aye sir!” The third stalfos said with dripping sarcasm.

The skeleton soldier climbed back down the well, leaving the other two on guard duty.

“How long do you think this’ll take?” One of the guards grumbled. “I want to kill something, but here, everything is roasted by the time it gets to you!”

“Ah, shut up!”

Having heard enough, Darunia crept backwards until he was out of sight of the stalfos, and raced back to the tunnel.

“I don’t think that the crystal ended up in the magma pool, Biggoron.” Darunia said, coming out of the tunnel.

“WHAT?”

“Those Stalfos are searching the temple for it. We better go and find it before they do!”

“Let’s go then!” Link jumped back to his feet, slightly embarrassed that he had passed out. Zelda was waking up as well and she gave Darunia a groggy look.

“Well, this time, wear double layers of Goron tunics!” He began pulling out the red clothing from a small backpack. “You two left too quickly for me to get these out!”

“Yeah, uh, sorry…”

“What about me?” Saria asked him as adult sized tunics came out of the bag.

“Just your luck, I had a couple special ones made for you.” The goron pulled out two child-sized tunics. “Put both of those on.” In three minutes, Link, Zelda, Saria, and Impa were wearing double layers of red tunics. “Ok! Follow me!”

The double tunics made it considerably cooler than last time. Zelda noted as they entered the blistering heat again. Saria was beyond comfort; she had never been so hot in her life! And I thought the outside was bad… She grumbled silently. She absentmindedly pulled of one of the tunics in an effort to make herself cooler. Big mistake! She realized as the heat went from uncomfortable to scalding. Saria pulled the extra tunic back on and ran to catch up with the others, who were peering over the cliff. Darunia used his listening spell again allowing all of them to hear the Stalfos conversation.

“Stalkag! What the hell are you doing?” One of the guards yelled at the other one, who was staring at the lava.

“Watching for Red Bubbles.” Stalkag replied.

“Bubbles? What the hell for?”

“I want to kill one. Don’t you want to kill something for once, Stalvok?” Stalvok rolled his rotten eyes and looked back at the Temple.

“How long is this going to take?”

“As long as it takes.” Stalvok glared at the other guard.

“If you say something that obvious again, I’ll kill you myself!”

“Too bad, I’m already dead.” Stalkag shot back.

“Arrgghh!!”

Darunia looked up and gave a nod. Link and Zelda looked up as well and saw Biggoron looking into the crater. Noticing the signal, Biggoron stepped into the crater.

“If you say one more word…” Stalvok glowered at the other skeleton. Stalkag simply stared upward. “What the hell’s the matter with you?” Stalkag didn’t answer; he just dashed for the platform edge and jumped into the lava. “What the hell?” Stalvok caught a glimpse of something and looked up to see a giant foot. His eyes brightened in surprise just as Biggoron crushed him.

“Wall, wall, wall.” Stalkag thought as he desperately swam through the lava to get to the rough climbable wall. “Uh-oh.” His legs began melting.

“Good work Biggoron! Let’s get down there before the others come!” Darunia moved over to a rock on the ledge and smashed it with a punch, revealing a ladder. The travelers climbed down the rickety ladder. Link crawled down it, expecting the ladder to incinerate because of the heat. After all of them had gotten down the ladder, they crossed a wooden bridge. Using his Megaton Hammer, he smashed the obstructing rocks. Zelda was still on the far end of the bridge when the extreme heat jumped by another fifty degrees. Having endured to the last, the bridge burst in flames.

“Aaah!!!” Link spun around toward the horrifying sight of flames engulfing his girlfriend. Zelda leapt from the bridge and managed to grab hold of the ledge precariously. “Help!!” Link dashed to the edge and grabbed one of her hands just as the other slipped. “Aah!” Something had jumped up from the flames and grabbed her leg. She looked down and saw a half melted Stalfos gripping her left leg with a burning arm. Using her other foot, she kicked the Stalfos repeatedly in the head.

“Ah! OW!” Stalkag yelped as Zelda’s boot hit him in the skull. “Ooh! You’ll pay for that!!” He growled as he increased his grip on her shin. Zelda shrieked as the Stalfos’s grip crushed her shinbone. “You’re mine!” Stalkag growled, giving her injured leg a twist. Getting annoyed at her other leg hitting him in the head, his teeth grew razor sharp and he bit the boot. Zelda yelped and stopped kicking for a second. Sure of victory, Stalkag began climbing up to the ledge, using Zelda like a rope.

Link tried to pull Zelda up but the Stalfos weighed a ton. He was beginning to slip toward the ledge. Using a mental swap spell, he switched to his Iron Boots without letting go of Zelda’s arm. He could see Stalkag pulling himself up and making sure to crush Zelda’s ribs on the way.

“If I fall, your girl falls too!” Stalkag growled at him as he wrapped a bony hand around Zelda’s neck.

“Go to hell!” Link cried. Red with rage, he kicked down at the Stalfos’s skull with his metal boot.

“Aarrgghh!!!!!” Stalkag screamed as the impact broke his skull in half. After a violent death convulsion, his separate bones fell into the lava.

Link pulled Zelda onto the ledge. In shock from her wounds, the princess simply rested her head on Link’s chest and gasped for air. Impa moved quickly, pulling a blue potion out of her pouch. Force-feeding the princess with the thick blue liquid, Impa sighed with relief as Zelda’s mangled leg took on its normal shape. Zelda blinked for a few seconds.

“Ow…” Link gave an exhausted chuckle of relief and hugged Zelda tight.


Stalgor, the squad leader, searched room after room of the Fire Temple frantically. He had to find that crystal, the master would destroy him if he didn’t! He tried to open a door, but the door began to wiggle. Uh-oh… He thought as he dodged to the left before the fake door trap smashed him. That was close… He rolled into an alcove and nearly got run over by a rolling rock, worn smooth after centuries of rolling. What is with this place? Stalgor wondered as he passed by each ancient booby trap. Whoa! He back flipped away from a wall of flame that burst out of nowhere. Hmm…

Flap, flap, flap

Stalgor snapped around at the sound of the Fire Keese.

Flap, flap, flap

There! The stalfos glared at the flying torch as it glided into a small hole. Aha! Stalgor reached the hole and peered inside. There it was! Glittering in the light of a hundred flaming wings. Oh… The stalfos ducked as fifty Fire Keese erupted from the deceptively large alcove.

“Skrit skreet skri-itit!! Skit skreet!” The Keese screeched angrily.

“Er…” Stalgor reached into the hole with his long bony arm and caught the crystal. “Haha!!!” He pulled the crystal out and concentrated. The crystal glowed and a nasty looking blade appeared before him. Grasping the blade by the hilt, Stalgor swung the jagged black sword and lightning bolts shot out, electrifying all the Keese in a second.

“Screeeeeeeee!” The flaming bats fell to the ground and burned their own corpses.


“How much hotter does it get?” Saria asked, panting. She wiped sweat from her face and gave a heavy sigh.

“Never been this hot before…” Link muttered as he tapped a wall with his sword.

“How much longer are you going to do that? It’s annoying!” Saria groaned. Link didn’t respond except hit the wall again. It sounded a bit different to Zelda. Link pulled out a bomb without warning and set it next to the wall.

“MOVE!!” He picked up Saria and moved to a safe distance.

KA-BOOOM!!!

The wall shattered revealing a treasure chest. “That’s why I was tapping the wall!” Link informed Saria, who was staring at the chest, dumbfounded. He kicked open the chest and retrieved a small key. They walked around a corner and found a locked door. Inserting the key, he turned it and the lock fell off.

“Wimpy lock.” Zelda muttered. Link rolled his eyes and stepped into the room. The door slammed down after they all got through and iron bars bolted the door down.

“Who are you?” A deep voice echoed through the room. A stalfos walked around a pillar in the center of the room. He was holding a gnarled black sword in his right hand and a crystal in his left.

“Be careful Brother…” Darunia muttered to Link as the crystal came into view.

“What exactly does that crystal do?” Link whispered back.

“It has the power to forge what ever weapon the user wishes. Don’t underestimate that sword he has.”

Link nodded and glared at the stalfos. “Give us the crystal or we’ll take it from your lifeless pile of bones!” The stalfos simply stared at him incredulously for a few seconds.

“You want this?” He finally replied with a sneer. He waved the crystal in front of them. “Hahaha, I’d love to see you try!” He swung his sword at Link, blasting him with a lightning bolt.

“Aaaahhhhh!!!” The shocking agony brought him to his knees. A blast like that would have killed a man with a lesser will. Tapping into the Triforce of Courage, Link shot a bolt of energy at the stalfos. The skeleton waved the crystal and an iron wall appeared, blocking the blast. Stalgor leapt over the wall and waved the crystal again. Razor blades appeared out of thin air and buzzed toward the Hero.

“Whoa!!” Link hit the ground and the blades collided with the stone wall. Zelda sent an energy blast at the stalfos but the skeleton blocked it with a new shield. Annoyed at the double-teaming, he waved the crystal and everyone but Link was sealed behind a steel wall.

“Hahaha! I wonder how long your friends will last behind there? They’ll probably die of thirst or heat in a few days!” Stalgor practically spat at him. Link lunged for the crystal but the stalfos pulled back. “Nuh-uh! You’d better watch yourself! Or I’ll impale your friends with long pointy spikes!!” His teeth turned razor sharp to enunciate his point. Link grimaced at the thought but said nothing. The stalfos circled around the raised pedestal and swung his sword, releasing the electrical torrent again.

“Aaaahhh!!!” Zelda winced at her fiancé’s scream and beat on the steel wall. The seal was light proof but not soundproof. In fact, it seemed like the wall amplified the sound from the other room. Link screamed again and the steel wall amplified the sound, hurting her ears and her heart.

“Hagrathalsonaka!!!!!” The stalfos waved the crystal again and iron javelins hurtled toward Link.

“Unh!!” The Hero flew back as four javelins hit him in the leg, shoulder, arm, and stomach. “Aahh!”

“Hahahahahaha!!!!!!” Stalgor screeched in laughter at his opponent.

Zelda beat on the wall again in despair. Darunia had already tried smashing the wall down but had only bruised his fist; Gorons were not bruised easily.

“Hahaha!! Doesn’t Link want to fight? Haha!!” Zelda could feel her cheeks going hot with anger as she heard the stalfos’s taunting.

“Leave him alone!!!” Zelda screamed through the wall.

“Aah! SHUT UP!!!” Everyone clasped their hands over their ears as the amplified yell came through. “You faint so soon Link? Hahahaha!!” The stalfos cackled. Zelda suddenly realized something. After whispering to the others to cover their ears, Zelda began concentrating on a rare spell. This particular spell was uncommon because as most spells were based on light, this one was sound.

A tone resonated through the wall stronger than a pipe organ blaring at full volume.

“Aaahhh!!!” Stalgor futilely covered the ear holes in his skull with holey hands. “SHUT UP!! SHUT UP! SHUTUP! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!!!!! ARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!” The intense tone vibrated his skull bones apart and Stalgor let out one last scream before crumbling into a lifeless pile of bones. Link, who had woken up from the sound and was plugging his ears uselessly, yelled at the top of his lungs.

“ZELDA!! STOP!!”

Chapter Fifteen
Escape from the Crater

“So how do you use this thing?” Zelda asked Darunia as she waved the crystal around. Link had telekinetically pulled the crystal to him and crumbled Stalgor’s wall. Now that they were free and his wounds healed, their only problem was the locked door.

“You imagine what weapon you want and the crystal will create it.” Darunia replied.

“Oh.” She focused for a moment and a slender rapier formed out of thin air. “Cool!” She picked up the new sword and swung it around with ease.

“Whoa!” Link cried as he ducked under a close blow.

“Oh! Sorry! Sorry…” She muttered as she slipped the sword into an ornate sheath that had appeared out of nowhere.

“I don’t get it… These bars should have disappeared after defeating that Stalfos. Unless there is a switch somewhere…”

“Wait a minute. Can we think up a weapon that’ll smash through those bars?” Saria offered helpfully.

“Good idea.” Link replied. “Zelda, think of something that can do that.”

“Like what?”

“Anything!”

“Oh, right.” She waved the crystal and an immense hammer appeared.

“Uh… Darunia?” The Goron moved to the hammer and hefted it with effort. “Wow… must be heavy.” Link muttered.

“Approximately fifty tons in fact.” Darunia wheezed. With a yell, he swung the mighty hammer into the door. Rather than shattering the bars, the door and the surrounding wall crumbled to rubble. Three iron bars remained standing intact, but useless.

“Well, that works too. Zelda, mind thinking of something a bit lighter?” Impa said, breaking her usual silence. Zelda nodded and waved the crystal. The hammer changed from fifty tons to a quarter ton and Darunia nearly back flipped from the unnecessary force he was exerting on the weapon.

“Yes, much better.” The goron grumbled as he got back onto his feet.

“Lets go! This place is too hot!!” Saria gasped out. Indeed, the temperature seemed to be rising at an alarming rate again. The normally 5000-degree environment seemed to be approaching the double goron tunic limit of a million degrees! Darunia noted with alarm. The tunics wouldn’t help them much longer! His orange-brown skin actually paled somewhat as he finally figured it out.

“Saria’s right! We need to go! Death Mountain is about to have a tremendous eruption!!!” Within two seconds, every one was on the run for the temple entrance. A dull roar echoed through the immense temple as earthquakes began shaking the structure.

“Watch out!!” Link pulled Zelda back just as a rock landed on her former position. Saria frantically climbed over the immense rocks. She was at a bit of a disadvantage. Being small, the large rocks blocked her way like boulders.

“Help!!” Darunia heard the kokiri’s cry and turned around. With rocks raining down on his head, he cleared out the way for Saria and picked her up.

“There it is!” Link and Zelda ran for the entrance. “Aaahh!!” Lava began pouring down the well and blocking the exit. Zelda found herself surrounded by flowing lava, her little “island” quickly shrinking. “Help!!” Link, who was standing safely on the stairwell, whipped out his hookshot and fired at Zelda. “Aahh!” She yelped more out of surprise than anything else, as she was pulled off the ground. “Ow…” She touched the sharp hook still embedded in her back with a wince.

“Oops, sorry…” Link pulled out the hook as carefully as he could but she still yelped with pain. He gave her a blue potion. “Sorry.”

“I’ve had worse.” She pointed out through clenched teeth before gulping down the thick medicine. “So, now what?” They looked around the new lava lake and watched it creep up the steps one by one. The others had arrived about thirty seconds behind Link and Zelda and were staring horrified at the blocked off exit.

“Think the ocarina will work?”

“Uh, you could try, just don’t play the Bolero of Fire.” Link nodded and pulled out the small blue instrument and began to play. The slow scaling notes of the Serenade of Water rang out from the holes of the ocarina and a blue light spiraled around the group, whisking them away from the melting temple.

=][=

“Jolgarnakaslakorthana’ekos!!!!!” The Stal-King yelled at the Obsidian Sphere, sending a torrent of magic into the image of Death Mountain. The eruption he was causing was imminent. The explosion would destroy half of Hyrule!! He laughed like a madman as the volcano began to explode.

=][=

The massive explosion ripped the mountain to shreds, sending a powerful shockwave in every direction. Link and his followers, standing on a small island in the middle of Lake Hylia, stared open mouthed at the enormous pall of smoke and ash in the direction of the former volcano. A minute later, the shockwave ripped through the area, knocking the travelers flat. A small tsunami about ten feet high rose out of the lake and washed them off the island and into the middle of the deep lake.

“Help!” Saria futilely tried to keep herself above the choppy water but her small frame had no buoyancy. She slipped under the water, where she saw Darunia literally dropping like a rock into the depths. Impa was having difficulty swimming as well, burdened by metal armor. Link and Zelda were the only ones able to stay afloat. Saria held her breath desperately, despite their screaming for air. A blue creature flew past so quickly the currents spun the kokiri until she was even dizzier. Her consciousness began to darken and another of the blue swimmers grabbed her and began pulling her to the surface. Then the world went dark.

Darunia tried to move in the liquid environment but it was too dense. He had never particularly thought about the fact the Gorons needed to breathe at least every hour. From the looks of things, he wasn’t going to reach air anytime soon! Then hope arrived in the form of several blue swimmers. Zoras! Six Zoras grabbed Darunia by the arms and they began the difficult swim back to the surface.

=][=

“Blasted Felgrathaka Zoras!!!!” The Stal-King practically screeched at the sphere. “They are the next on my list!” He growled, his red eyes narrowing to slits. Then the image of a Zora female appearing clicked through his mind. “On the other hand, this could be interesting!” He mumbled with a mischievous grin.

=][=

“Hi Link!”

“Oh no…” Link muttered as he recognized the annoying voice.

“About time you came back, I was beginning to think that you were going to leave me at the altar!” Ruto continued. Zelda woke up with a groan and looked up at the Zoras.

“What? What is she talking about?” Zelda muttered to Link.

“Our wedding of course!” Ruto cut in. “I’ve been waiting for seven years!”

“Uh…” Link muttered something under his breath.

“What do you mean your wedding?” Zelda replied angrily. She put up her hand, her diamond ring glittering brightly in the sun. Ruto gasped and turned to Link who was watching in a daze.

“Link! You can’t be engaged to two people at once! You proposed to me first so I take priority! Not to mention your other fiancée is a heartless witch!!” Ruto sniffed. Link simply stared agape at the psychotic fish and gave Zelda, who was looking angrier by the second, a helpless look.

“Okay, first, I never proposed to you Ru—“

“Yes you did! You practically yanked the Zora’s sapphire from my hands, indicating that you were desperately in love with me!!”

“Uh… no… I wasn’t, I just needed the spiritual stone!” Ruto simply laughed at him and began calling him adoring names like “cute” and moved way too close for Link’s comfort zone.

“Uh… Zel? Some help?” Zelda rolled her eyes and walked up. She tried to pull the psycho fish off her fiancé but Ruto remained determined to protect her prize. After being kicked back by Ruto’s swimming enhanced leg, the princess practically was steaming with anger.

“GET OFF HIM!!!” She charged up a power ball and blasted the Zora princess flat onto her back. Immediately, the other Zoras snapped their fingers and spears appeared in their hands.

“Kelesh Salani Frelesh!” The Zoras chanted in their native language. Determined to protect their princess, they pointed their spears at Zelda and began advancing.

“Oops… Uh… Link?” Link tried to get up to help but Ruto pushed him down to the ground and pinned him with her foot. He used all of his strength to try and get up but Ruto’s powerful swimming muscles kept him pinned.

“Darunia! Impa!” Ruto snapped her head around toward the goron and gasped. A beefy arm wrapped around her waist and she was yanked into the air, freeing Link. In a flash, he was on his feet and he ran to Zelda’s side. The advancing Zoras halted and looked at each other helplessly. Any harm to Link, the Zora princess would no doubt be furious. Impa also appeared at Zelda’s side, brandishing twin sheikah daggers.

“Er, Fasulat?”

“PUT ME DOWN!!!” Ruto screeched at Darunia who was holding her high in the air.

“As long as you drop your quest for love! We’ve got bigger problems!! See that mountain??” He jerked his head toward the pall of smoke and ash rising from the ruins of Death Mountain, now a dead mountain indeed.

Chapter Sixteen
Aquatic Attack

Led by Ruto, the soaked travelers marched up the long tunnel leading to the heart of Zora’s Domain. King Zora, Ruto’s obese father, was waiting for them at the end. Saria and Zelda, who had never seen the Zora monarch before, gaped at the fat king until they noticed his fisheye glaring at them.

“Father, I bring you these guests.” Ruto spoke to him with as she kneeled on the raised platform. Link noticed the slight contempt in her voice as she spoke, obviously still mad about the earlier events.

“Welcome.” King Zora replied in a booming voice. “Darunia, it has been too long my friend. I am sorry to hear about your home.”

“Indeed it has.” The goron replied with a bow of his rocky head. “I only hope my people were able to get away from the mountain in time.” The two leaders were silent for a moment until a messenger that came running up the tunnel broke the peace. The slightly exhausted Zora stopped on the raised platform next to Darunia and kneeled.

“My lord!” He cried in a raspy voice. “There are stalfos at the waterfall gate! They are climbing the cliff!” The reaction was instantaneous. Link already had his sword out by the end of the messenger’s speech and several Zora guards were hissing in the direction of the gate.

“They are attempting to enter our domain by going through Jabu Jabu’s shrine!” King Zora exclaimed. “You must defend Jabu Jabu at all costs! Now let me move out of the way…” The fat Zora began shifting across the wide waterfall that served as his throne…very slowly. After thirty seconds of straining to budge an inch, Link cast a meaningful glance at Darunia. Taking the hint, the Goron walked up the ramp up to King Zora’s side.

“Don’t take this personally, your highness.” Darunia said to the obese fish as he began pushing him out of the way.

“Whatever works…” King Zora muttered as the warriors filed through, his dignity somewhat insulted.

Running down the flooded tunnel, Zelda was taken by surprise as Ruto suddenly grabbed the Forger Crystal out of her belt.

“What’s this?” She asked imperiously. After Zelda told her, Ruto gave the crystal a wave and an intricate Zoran javelin appeared. “Excellent.” The Zora princess, satisfied with her new weapon, carelessly tossed the crystal back to Zelda. The Hylian princess waved the crystal and a gilded double bladed staff appeared in front of her. With a satisfied smile, she grabbed the staff and followed Link out the tunnel.

Two Dinolfos stood on the feeding platform of Jabu Jabu, burning the fish’s scales wherever their fiery breaths touched. At the sight of their deity in pain, the Zoras went berserk. In a single wave of fury, the Zoras flattened the Dinolfos and skewered their corpses with a dozen spears. Ffftt!! A Zora warrior fell, an arrow embedded in his back.

“On the wall!!” Link yelled at the others, pointing at the dozen Stalfos that had just climbed over the dam. Ffftt!! Another of the Zoras fell. Link drew his bow and aimed at the stalfos archer. Whump!! “Aah!” The hylian found himself flat on his back, staring at the red eye of a Blue Tektite. The tektite charged at his face again, its small jaws snapping hungrily. Link swung his sword and dismembered both of its front legs in a single swipe. Its red eye glowing with anger, the tektite furiously scrabbled its back legs in an attempt to charge at him. With a swift stroke at its back, Link easily cleaved the creature in two. Ffftt!! Link looked back at the archer as the skeleton sniper took out another Zora. After a quick check for Tektites, Link obliterated the archer with a light arrow.

“Oh, hell no…” Link muttered as twenty stalfos jumped over the dam. He sprinted to the dam and climbed to the top of it, disposing of two stalfos along the way. Someone jumped into the middle of the fray and Link stared agape as Zelda began spinning around with the grace of a ballet dancer as her swift bladed staff cut down the stalfos like weeds.

“Algrasath!!” An Elite Stalfos nearby yelled at her, sending an azure ball of power into her midst. The blast knocked her off her feet and slammed her into the wall of the dam, knocking her out.

“No!” Link fired a light arrow at the Elite but the swift skeleton flipped over it and landed on the dam. The two foes glared at each other for a few seconds, measuring each other up. The Stalfos wore the elegant bronze breastplate of a general. General Stalakor parried Link’s first strike and delivered a counterstrike so fast that sent Link toppling off the dam. Catching the edge with a single hand; his sword flew out of his other hand and disappeared at the bottom of the waterfall. He looked up at his opponent’s skull, facing the end.

“The Stalfos will rule forever!!” The elite roared as it plunged its blood-red sword into Link’s arm. As he screamed in agony, his injured arm lost its grip on the dam and the Hylian plummeted down the waterfall into the freezing waters of Zora’s River.

= || =

A Stalfos launched itself into Darunia, who was delivering colossal punches in all directions, and knocked the Goron off his feet. His rocky back began sliding down the sloped ground toward the deadly water. Unsuccessfully, he groped at the slick ground and found himself sinking rapidly into the depths of Jabu Jabu’s lake.

Another Stalfos leapt onto Ruto, knocking the Zora Princess face down on the cold rocks. With a deft swipe, the skeleton’s sword chopped off her hand, sending the javelin into the depths. Before the Stalfos could decapitate the unconscious Zora, two daggers cut through its vital backbone. Impa looked over at Zelda’s unconscious form and watched helplessly as General Stalakor jumped down from the dam and grabbed her wrist, teleporting her with him to the Stal-King’s tower. Seconds later, a sword clanged down hard on her helmet.

Saria watched hopelessly as Impa crashed to the ground. Gripping her dagger, the Kokiri jabbed at a nearby Stalfos and before the skeleton could respond, she jumped into its ribcage. Surprised at the girl inside its chest, the Stalfos began punching at her with steel gauntlets, breaking its own ribs. As it roared in pain, Saria stabbed her dagger upward into its skull and the skeleton broke apart, freeing her from the bony cage. As the last Stalfos went down, a half-hearted cheer came from the Zora survivors. They had won the battle but at great cost.

Jabu Jabu dived into the deep water and soon surfaced, carrying a groggy Darunia in his mouth. A Zora survivor revived Ruto and administered a blue potion, regrowing her missing hand. Saria looked around the battlefield, her spirits sinking like a rock. Link and Zelda were nowhere to be found…

Chapter Seventeen
Separation

“Unnnhhh…” Zelda awoke with a groan. Was she still asleep? It was pitch black in the room and it had a musty smell. “Link?” She called out into the darkness. No answer. Her hands were chained to the ceiling as she hung in the middle of nowhere. From the darkness, she had no way of telling how far down the floor was. It could’ve been two feet or a bottomless pit. She shuddered at the thought; not very many people knew that the princess had an incredible fear of heights, despite her recklessness. A breeze blew through from nowhere, chilling her to the bone. “What the…” she mumbled as she felt the wind hit bare skin.

“I hope you don’t mind the darkness!” Zelda snapped her head around in the dark trying to locate the all-too-familiar grating voice. “We undead just can’t understand your love for the sun.”

“What do you want from me?” Zelda snapped.

“Oh quite simple… You can figure it out can’t you?” The Stal-King sneered.

“You’ll never get the rest of the Triforce!” She snarled back.

“We’ll see about that…” The sound of a whip being cracked echoed through room.

“Aaaahhh!!!!” Pain suddenly ran from her neck down to her lower back. The lash stung like a brand as it slowly faded.

“Get the picture?” The voice continued over the princess’s sobbing. It sounded like the stalfos was walking around her. Zelda bit her lip and braced for a frontal attack. The pain of the whip hitting her stomach was still unexpected.

“Aaahhh!!”

“Am I—(whip crack)—getting through—(whip crack)—to you?” The stalfos furnished his statement by delivering a hard punch to her solar plexus. Zelda only whimpered and wheezed as she tried to curl up in a fetal position. “Hmm… I shall come back every hour. Every session will be worse than the one before. This will continue until you surrender the Triforce of Wisdom.” The skeleton spoke like a college professor outlining a semester plan.

“Go—(wheeze)—to hell…” Zelda managed to gasp out. A quiet chuckle echoed around the cell. With a snap, a small flame appeared in the darkness. The bony hand, guiding the flame, drew closer to Zelda’s face. The Stalfos then moved his face into the light, giving Zelda a real good look at his decaying flesh, rotting against his bony skull. Zelda looked away in revulsion, but another bony hand grabbed her by her jaw, forcing her to look at the putrefied face.

“I’M ALREADY IN HELL!!” He roared into her ear before backhanding her across the face. The king pivoted around, stormed out into a dark hallway and slammed the door shut, plunging the princess into total darkness. After recovering from the stunning blow, Zelda shivered from the sudden cold and lingering pain. Concentrating, she tried to connect to Link telepathically but her mind hit an iron wall. The king was blocking her, she quickly realized. Frustrated out of her mind, she let out a scream of anguish. The scream echoed around the room but soon died down, leaving only her pitiful sobs of despair.

= || =

Link drifted along Zora’s River, scarlet blood staining the crystal water. Finally, the injured warrior was pulled into a pooling tributary, beaching on the small lake’s sandy shore. The unconscious Hylian lay for hours, soaking in his own blood until a rickety old farm wagon pulled up.

“By the Trifo’ce! Marie! Come and ‘elp me!” The old driver of the wagon said in a heavy accent as he jumped out of his seat and ran as fast as he could to Link’s unconscious form.

“Petre! You’ll give ye-self a heart attack, runnin’ like that!” The driver’s wife cried after him as she chased behind him. “Oh my…” She gasped at the bloody scene.

“’Elp me gett’em into da cart.” The old couple each took an arm and carefully moved the young man to the back of the wagon. “Marie, see whot you can-do about those wounds, I’ll get us ‘ome!” His wife nodded and looked closely at a cut on his arm. Petre clambered back into his seat and gave the reins a sharp crack. In the back of the wagon, the old lady stared at the wound on the young warrior’s arm. The slash was tinged with a deep purple and appeared to be sprawling across his arm like an ever growing spider.

“Whot’in Hyrule could’ve caused that?” She muttered as she picked up some spare rags in the wagon for bandages.

= || =

General Stalakor marched down the stony passageways of the tower dungeons, smirking at the numerous prisoners who feebly pleaded for freedom. He stopped in front of a cell where a frail girl dressed in tattered farm robes was staring blankly out of the cell bars. The elite gave the door a kick and the girl fell backward with a yelp. The girl’s normally bright red hair had turned to a filthy rusty color; her brown eyes stared gloomily at the stalfos from the floor. Stalakor glared at the silent prisoner and gave the door another kick. Seeing no reaction, the general was about to kick again when a messenger came walking up.

“Sir, the King wishes to speak with you.” Stalakor gave a nod of acknowledgement and with another glare at the girl, turned and followed the messenger out the heavy dungeon door.

After listening for any more guards, Malon slowly rose off the floor. After a visual check of the corridor through the bars, she moved to the back of her cell where she moved the small pile of threshes that served as her bed. She carefully picked up two metal nails, hidden under the hay, off the floor. Making no sound, Malon crept back to the gate and after another check for guards; she poked one of the nails into the lock, attempting to pick it.

= || =

“My Lord.” Stalakor said with a humble kneel as he entered the throne room. The Stal-King, who was staring out a window replied without turning around.

“General.” His grating voice was tinged with a slight annoyance. “Tell me. What were your orders?”

“To retrieve the princess and…” The General hesitated slightly. “and the hero…”

“In my dungeon, I have the princess…” The king finally turned around, his eyes glowing with a red anger. “But no hero. Where is he?” Stalakor cast a dubious glance at the Obsidian Sphere sitting on a pedestal to the left. “I want to hear it from you.” The Stal-King continued, correctly interpreting the hesitation.

“At the Zora’s shrine, we dueled. I won and he was knocked off the falls.” The General replied, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.

“I see…” Stalakor heard the king reply. From the tone of his voice, he knew he wasn’t out of trouble yet.

“After he was knocked off the falls, it was either going after the hero or taking the princess who had been incapacitated in the battle.” Stalakor finished. He cast a cautious look upward at the King who appeared to be considering his subordinate’s fate.

“Very well. Retrieve the hero and all harm will be repaired.” Stalakor straightened up at these words and bowed respectfully.

“Yes my lord.” When the General was halfway to the door, the King spoke up again.

“By the way. I was watching. You had many opportunities to prevent his fall and never do anything as stupid as lying to me again! You’re dismissed.” With the warning now imprinted in his skull, Stalakor marched out of the room without another word.

Chapter Eighteen
Breakout

Link awoke with a start. For a few seconds, he blinked uncomprehendingly at the unfamiliar thatched ceiling. Huh? He tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Intense pain slashed through his brain, blinding him of all senses. He rolled off the bed and landed on the hard wood floor with a thud. The migraine still stabbing at his consciousness, Link slowly got to his elbows and knees. With bloodshot eyes, he looked around his new accommodations. Within seconds, the only door opened with a bang.

“Oh! Are you alright?” An old woman said from the now open doorway. She was carrying an old wooden tray with what looked like a steaming bowl of soup. “Petre! He’s awake!” The woman suddenly shouted out the door before the confused hero could respond.

“Er…” Link managed to croak out before an even more elderly man came clambering up some stairs outside the door and poked his head in.

“Whot’choo doin’ on the floor? Come on Marie, let’s ‘elp ’im up.” The old man spoke with a heavy Cockney-like accent as he picked him up by the arm and helped him back on the bed.

“Here you go dear.” Marie said, offering Link the soup like a grandmother. Link cautiously took a sip of the hot broth, its warmth spreading to the tips of his fingers.

“Where’s Zelda?” He croaked out after downing the hot soup a bit too fast. The old couple simply stared at him.

“Well, there’s no Zelda ‘round here. ‘Cept the princess ‘o course, but—“ Marie started.

“Yes, her! Where is she?” Link pressed. They simply stared at him. Petre scratched his bald scalp thoughtfully and muttered under his breath.

“Bump on the ‘ead I reckon…” He cleared his throat and replied louder. “Well, I reckon she’s up at the castle but tha’ was attacked not three days ago!”

“No, she’s not at the cast—Wait, what did you say?” He replied impatiently.

“The castle was attacked three days ago. By an ‘orrible army o’ monsters.” He and his wife shuddered as they remembered the day.

“What kind of monsters…?” Link asked slowly, already suspecting the answer.

“All kinds.” The man replied with a dark look. “Most o’ them those awful skelo-tons. Whatter they called? O yeah, Sta’foes.” He looked out a window that Link just noticed and continued. “Lucky our farm was just outta the way.” The Hero stared out the window, recognizing the cliff wall. If he was where he thought he was, they were in the shrubby plain near the entrance of Lake Hylia. White sheep, Petre’s livestock, were munching on the shrubs without a care in the world. In the distance, he could still see the smoking ruins of Death Mountain, now lower than ever.

“Where did you find me?” He asked the farmers curiously.

=][=

ch-click!

Malon’s eyes opened at the soft sound. She had finally picked the lock. Looking carefully into the corridor for guards, she gently pushed the gate open. After wincing after a particularly loud creak, the gate was open enough for the farm girl to squeeze through. Once she was out she carefully closed the gate and reattached the lock.

Click!

She flinched at the sound of the lock and was frozen in fear by the next sound. The grunting snore of a Moblin guard, sleeping in a nook next to her cell. For what seemed like hours, Malon stood frozen, not daring to make a sound.

“Psst! Hey girl!” A hoarse voice whispered behind her. She looked around frantically, trying to tell the speaker to shut up when the Moblin grunted its loudest yet. Terror overcoming the need for stealth, she dashed to the next guard nook and hid in it. The Moblin was the only guard on duty thankfully. With a spectacular snort, the Moblin woke up. After a quick check for superiors, he glared around the dungeon, trying to see what had woken him up. After a few guttural curses, the oversized pig closed its eyes and went back to sleep. Malon let out a silent breath of relief. That was too close… She was about to creep toward the door when…

BANG!

Malon jumped back with a shriek that was fortunately muffled by the door that had just slammed open. The Moblin was startled so badly that he jumped about three feet before landing on his feet in a full salute. Malon carefully peered around the nook wall and caught a glimpse of the Stal-King coming through the door, escorted by the stalfos general and two Lizalfos, before a bandaged hand suddenly grabbed her around the mouth and pulled her back. Her cry of surprise had been muffled enough by the bandages that the Stal-King hadn’t heard a thing.

“Invisibilis!” A voice behind her hissed. Immediately, she felt as if the world was becoming somewhat muffled, somewhat unimportant. She was about to look behind her to see who had spoken when the Stal-King strode past as if she and her captor didn’t exist.

“Where’s the girl?” A stalfos’ grating voice suddenly cut through the feeling of irrelevance. The Stal-King halted and turned around to face the Stalfos that had spoken. “There was a girl in here earlier.” General Stalakor reiterated, glaring at the Moblin who was now staring at the empty cell with a stupefied look.

“Unnh…” The Moblin looked at the stalfos elite fearfully. “There—(grunt) wasn’t uh… (grunt) a girl, (grunt-grunt) erm, here…”The Moblin lied in a completely unconvincing tone. With a venomous hiss, Stalakor wrapped his strong bony fingers around the pig’s think windpipe and slowly began to squeeze.

“No girl? Was I hallucinating?” He hissed at him with seething red eyes. “We have an escaped prisoner, my lord.” He continued to the Stal-King who was watching the show with a slight hint of boredom.

“Very well. It will be up to you to find her, General. I, on the other hand, have an appointment with the princess. Good hunting.” The Stal-King swiveled around and walked around the corner toward the deeper dungeons. Stalakor looked back at the Moblin, who’s eyes were practically popping from fear and suffocation. With a growl, Stalakor drew his blood-red sword and slashed the guard’s throat in punishment. “Burn that thing.” He said to the two accompanying Lizalfos, pointing at the dead Moblin. As the lizards dragged the body out, Stalakor looked around for the escaped prisoner (once looking straight through Malon), and finally stormed out the door, slamming it closed with a bang.

“Visibilis.” The voice behind Malon spoke in a weary voice as he lowered his hand from her mouth. The feeling of irrelevance evaporated like a dream. The farm girl turned to see a white-haired boy no older than she was. He was leaning against the wall of the guard nook, clearly exhausted. He was wearing a dirty blue outfit with the faint symbol of an eye on his chest. His pointed face was pale, with spiky silver tattoos surrounding his tired red eyes.

“Thanks.” Malon said to him, uncertainly. “Who are you?”

“I’m Quin… of the Shiekah…” He gasped out.

“I’m Malon… Are you alright?” She replied with a concerned look. He nodded, taking a couple more breaths.

“I’m… fine. Just not used to doing magic yet, not one that…continuous anyway. I’ll be alright in a few minutes.” Quin sat down heavily into the guard seat and recuperated while Malon took a cautious look around the dungeon.

It was all clear, but she couldn’t help thinking about what the Stal-King had said. ‘I have an appointment with the princess.’ Had Zelda been captured? Her thoughts turned to Link. She knew that he loved Zelda dearly, and would be extremely worried about her. Perhaps he would come here and rescue them all! Wherever ‘here’ is… She thought as she helped Quin to his feet.

Chapter Nineteen
Strange Alliance

General Stalakor prowled the dungeons for any sign of the escaped prisoners. By now, he had discovered the disappearance of yet another prisoner. A Sheikah they had captured in Kakariko. Cursing the guards’ stupidity, he continued his search. Cell after cell, room after room, crate after crate, he searched. Finally, after smashing a crate to smithereens in frustration, a stalfos guard gave him some good news.

“Sire, we found this in the lower dungeons.” The stalfos dropped a small piece of cloth into the general’s bony hand. It appeared to be a piece of a tattered white dress with a thin red line in a zigzag pattern. “We think it got caught on a crate and ripped.”

“Lower dungeons? Odd way to escape… Of course, nothing can leave the tower unless the King opens the doors.” He mused over the cloth for a few moments before something dawned on his mind. “The princess…”

“Sire?”

“The princess. That’s where they are going!” Stalakor practically crowed as he dashed down the stairwell.

=][=

Malon and Quin silently crept through the lower dungeons, dodging the guards behind crates, using invisibilis sparingly. Horror lay inside the lower dungeon cells. Malon stared at a man, a Hylian soldier, who looked like he hadn’t eaten in a month. A dehydrated Zora being hung upside down, inches away from tantalizing water which he couldn’t reach. Small children with blank stares, holding the darkened corpses of their fairy partners in their hands. Forest children Malon thought sadly, remembering Link’s fairy from long ago.

“Solnakag!” Malon turned sharply at the Stal-King’s distant voice, which was followed by a faint scream.

“Come on, this way.” Quin whispered, taking her by the hand. Only pausing to dodge guards, the fugitives weaved their way through the complex dungeons, following the voice. “Aah!” Quin tripped as a hand suddenly grabbed his ankle. Glaring at the prisoner that had grabbed him, the Shiekah suddenly let out a gasp. Glaring back was none other than the former King of Evil, Ganondorf.

=][=

The soft notes of a song drifted through the air as Link played his Ocarina. Sincerely hoping that it was still heard, Link played the song again. This time, his ears were rewarded by the familiar whinny of Link’s mare, Epona, as she galloped toward her master, nearly trampling a sheep that bleated angrily at her.

“Amazin’” Petre said in admiration as Link patted the auburn steed. “Tha’s a fine ‘orse ya got there. She fast?”

“You have no idea.” He replied with a grin, remembering a horserace with Ingo in the alternate timeline. He fed Epona a carrot.

“So, wher’yoo plannin’ on takin’ tha’ ‘orse, boy?” The farmer asked him in his nearly indecipherable dialect with a glare that a father would give a guilty son.

“I told you.” Link replied coolly. “I’m going to go rescue the love of my life, even if I have to ride through Stalfos Valley to do it.”

“Come to ya senses boy…” Petre muttered. “Nothin’ can survive that trip. I’ve ‘eard thar’s a great dragon guardin’ that ‘orrible place! Yew’ll be crispier than one o’ Marie’s crumpets!” He leaned in close and put his hand up by his mouth as if his wife was reading his lips. “And tha’s sayin’ somethin’!” With a chuckle, Link mounted his horse and looked back down at the old man.

“I thank you for helping me back to health, but I must get going.” He turned Epona around and yelled over his shoulder. “Tell Marie I said good-bye!” With that, he urged Epona forward into a gallop.

“May the Goddesses ‘ave mercy on ya’ soul.” Petre muttered as he watched Link disappear over the hill.

=][=

“You!” Quin hissed at Ganondorf, whose grip on his ankle had not loosened.

“Boy.” He hissed back. “Get me out of this cell. Now.” Ganondorf was in worse shape than Malon or Quin. His black clothes were filthy and his large nose looked like it had been broken several times without being splinted correctly. His scowling dark face was gaunt and pale from the constant darkness. “Get me out, or I will alert the guards of your presence…” He let the threat hang in the air.

“Fine.” Quin hissed back, clearly loathing the idea of helping the Gerudo. He flipped around so he could reach the lock (Ganondorf still had his fist around his ankle), and pulled out a knife. He jabbed the knife into the keyhole and in less than a minute, the lock clicked open. As Ganondorf silently crept out, Malon asked where the knife had come from. “Nicked it off a guard. Come on and be quiet!” He replied in a hushed voice with a glare at the Gerudo king, who had bumped into a crate.

=][=

“Solnakag!!” The Stal-King roared, sending another torrent of electricity into the princess’s writhing body.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!” Zelda screamed and screamed as the pain came in unending waves.

“Give me the Triforce!” He hissed into her ear as she sobbed during a break in the pain. With a burst of rage, he backhanded her across the cheekbone, the bracelet on his wrist smashing into her flesh. “Salrosa!!” At first, Zelda thought whatever the spell was hadn’t worked, then…

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!” What felt like a long knife, stabbed through her shoulder. The king withdrew his finger and touched her arm, sending stabbing pain through it.

“Why do you resist? I’m going to get the Triforce eventually.” The skeleton spoke in her ear. He ‘stabbed’ her in the back.

“Aaaggghhh!!” Zelda clenched her teeth and when the pain had died down enough, she replied in a ragged voice. “I’ll die before I give it to you… So just get it over with and kill me…” The Stal-King scowled and drew his finger across her neck, giving her the impression of living through a decapitation.

“The problem with that princess…” He hissed at her after she stopped screaming. “…Is that I would have to search for the new bearer of Wisdom. Searching for one new bearer is frustrating enough; don’t make my life harder by making it two.” Behind her, the king’s decayed face smirked, waiting for her to get the gist.

“T-two? But—“

“Yes princess, your beloved hero is dead.” The king sneered. “Did I forget to mention that little bit of info? He got into a little duel with one of my generals on the waterfall…” His sneer turned to a scowl. “…and lost.”

“I-I don’t believe you.” Zelda replied hysterically, vigorously shaking her head in denial.

“No?” The skeleton replied softly. He raised his hand and pressed it against her forehead. Oblivious to the screams he was causing by touching her, he pushed a mental memory into her sub-conscious.

General Stalakor leapt onto the top of the dam, flipping over Link’s arrow. The hero attacked but the elite parried and delivered a counter-strike so powerful that it knocked Link’s sword out of his hand. With a snarl, Stalakor drove his sword through the hero’s heart. Link’s face contorted in pain for a few seconds before relaxing into an unmistakably dead expression. Almost in slow motion, the hero toppled off the falls, dropping to his watery grave.

“Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!” Zelda wailed in anguish as the fake memory played over and over in her mind. With a satisfied smirk, the Stal-King spoke one more thing.

“Your only love is dead. Give me the Triforce, and I will let you join him.” With that, the king walked out of the cell, leaving Zelda behind in her newfound misery.

Chapter Twenty
Truth Hurts

Epona’s hooves galloped across the field faster than ever. Her rider stared straight forward at his destination with such focus that he didn’t even notice the Big Poe that had appeared to his right and begun lobbing gobs of flame at him with wicked cackles. All that mattered to Link was getting to Zora’s River. He had to know if everyone was alright. If he didn’t find them, at least he might find some clue as to where they had gone. At the thought of seeing Zelda again, he pushed Epona even harder.

The water sprayed refreshingly into Link’s face as the horse splashed across the river. He drove his steed up the gradual slope, jumping creeks and galloping across bridges. Finally arriving at the base of the waterfall, he looked up at the spot where he had dueled the Stalfos General. Had anyone survived? Link dismounted and walked up the mass of arches in front of the falls. Coming to the place where a stone plaque bearing the Triforce lay, he pulled out his blue ocarina and brought it to his lips. The soothing tones of Zelda’s Lullaby could barely be heard over the crashing of the falls. Nevertheless, something heard because as always, the waterfall began to part, revealing a tunnel into the Zora haven.

As he stepped into the watery cave, a green missile suddenly slammed into his stomach, nearly knocking him over.

“You’re alive!” A familiar girl’s voice said from somewhere around his navel. Link finally managed to detach Saria from his middle and held her up to eye-level. She was wearing the brightest grin he had ever seen.

“Of course I’m alive.” Link replied with an identical grin. “You didn’t think a fall off the waterfall would kill me did you?” Saria didn’t reply, instead she hugged him around the neck so tightly that he suddenly had a rather limited amount of air. “Agh! That might though!” He added in a choked voice.

“Oh! Sorry!” Saria let go and dropped nimbly to the ground. “Come on! Everyone’s excited to see you!” She grabbed his hand and dragged him up the ramp to the throne room. There, the Zoras and other sages greeted him with relieved smiles. Ruto immediately started telling the servants to bring food to feed her ‘fiancée’. Link quickly dodged out of the way of Ruto’s affectionate hug and looked around for Zelda.

“Nabooru! Rauru! When did you two get here?” Link exclaimed when he saw the Gerudo sage standing next to a man wearing large orange robes and a bushy white mustache.

“King Zora summoned us, seeing that the other sages were already here, he saw the domain to be a good meeting place.” Rauru answered in a deep voice. “Glad to see you are well Link.

“Thanks. Where’s Zelda?” Link asked, unable to spot her in the grinning crowd. All of the grins disappeared in a flash; most of them took troubled expressions with the exception of Ruto, who was humming to herself, noticeably happy about Zelda being out of the way between her and Link. “She’s not…dead?” Link asked the solemn group, his heart sinking fast.

“No…” Impa spoke in a wavering voice, the most emotional voice he had ever heard the Shiekah use. “At least not when we last saw her. She was captured by a Stalfos…” Link’s heart hit the bottom…hard. His worst fear had been confirmed.

“I’ll help you get her back brother.” Darunia spoke up with determination.

“Me too.” Saria said fiercely. Link looked into each of the sages faces as they all voiced their support. Ruto was the hardest one to convince but after five glares from the other sages, she gave in.

“I’ll uh… help too…” Ruto said in a dejected voice. “But Link… When we rescue her, can’t you just tell Zelda the truth and say that you love me? I mean, all this quarreling because you deceived Zelda in making her think that you love her!” The Zora princess laughed but was suddenly silenced by the terrible glare that Link was giving her.

“No Ruto. Clearly, its you I deceived.” Link shot at her with a fierce look. “I made you think I loved you because I took the Sapphire from you when my intent was to give it to Zelda so we could reach the Triforce before Ganon.”

“B-but…” Ruto stammered. “Y-you saved me from Jabu-Jabu’s belly…”

“I rescued you, the same way I would have rescued your father or the King of Hyrule. Do I have a romantic relationship with them? Of course not! It’s the same with you!” Link turned away from Ruto, and began walking down the ramp, the other five sages in tow, each of them giving the Zora princess a sorry but satisfied look.

Ruto watched as the obsession of her life turned his back on her and for the first time, she realized that he was right. Tears splashed out of her eyes (even the ones on the back of her head), as she turned to her father who was looking at her with one large fisheye.

“He’s right you know…” The Zora king spoke softly after a few moments. “Too long have you pined after him. It could never be. Let him go and move on.”

“You’re right father… It could never be… I see that now.” She splashed her face with the water flooding the room, clearing the tears. “I still have a promise to fulfill though. I must help him find his real love.” She said gloomily. “I’ll see you when I return, father.” She stood up and dejectedly walked down the ramp, following the others.

= || =

Stalakor glared at the Obsidian Ball, trying to figure out how to use it. He realized that he’d probably get into a lot of trouble if the King caught him trying to use it but how else was he supposed to find the escaped prisoners? Or Link for that matter. Besides, everyday he spent more time torturing the princess, he’d have another hour at least.

He placed his fingertips onto the smooth surface, a slight pinging noise erupted as the dry bones tapped the obsidian. Hmm… He tried concentrating but nothing appeared in the inky depths of the sphere. The skeleton rapped it hard with a bony knuckle, sending a resonating ping through the room. What was it that the king did to activate this stupid object? Stalakor fumed as one experimentation failed after another.

“General?” Stalakor jumped slightly at the voice and spun around to face the Lizalfos that had just entered the dark room.

“What do you want?” He snapped at the lizard. It didn’t seem put off by the general’s tone when it replied.

“I’m guarding the artifffactsss sssir. King’sss ordersss.” The Lizalfos stood at attention like all the other creatures that were now considered inferior to the Stalfos, namely everything. Stalakor suddenly noticed the long scar that ran down the lizard’s neck.

“Sslivik? You were the informant for the coup weren’t you?” The general asked him, recognizing the lizard.

“Yesss sssir.” He replied happily.

“Ah. At ease.” The lizard stopped saluting but remained standing straight. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to use this would you?” Stalakor asked rhetorically, pointing at the sphere.

“Yesss sssir.” Stalakor froze. He hadn’t actually thought Sslivik would know. “I fffound it sssir. And it showed me my home cave. I sssuppossse it ssshowsss what you desssire… Though only ifff itsss real…” Sslivik mumbled off, trying to make sense of his own words. Stalakor contemplated the words for a moment and looked at the sphere, wanting to see the escaped girl. Like magic, a liquid image bubbled into view and he saw her crouching behind a crate. He couldn’t see where she was but then a second figure came into view, it was the sheikah boy!

“So… They’re together…” Stalakor mused as he watched the cautious couple waiting for their next move. The stalfos’s non-existent stomach lurched at the next image.

“What are you doing!?” A voice behind him roared. Stalakor swiveled around and saw the Stal-King walk through the doors. Sslivik was down on the floor in a full kneel as the skeleton king approached. “You’d better have a good reason touching that!”

“What I’ve just discovered justifies my actions.” Stalakor growled. “Ganondorf has escaped.”

Chapter Twenty One
As we walk through the Valley of Death…

Link galloped across Hyrule Field as fast as Epona could go. Behind him, six glowing orbs of color sped after him, each bearing the essence of a sage. Link jumped the outcropping over Zora’s River and galloped up the steps to Kakariko.

“What the…!” A guard cried as he jumped out of the way of the stampeding horse and pursuing orbs of light. Epona ran through the rebuilding town, scattering the replenished chickens. Survivors that had hidden in their houses during the massacre looked at the horse and lights in amazement as Link rode up the steps toward the ruin of Death Mountain. Giving a small salute to a guard wearing a yellow mask, Link jumped the high gate blocking the path, before the stupefied guard could stop him.

High above, ash clouded the air, destroying any visibility. The smoking ruins of the mountain could barely be seen, a gaping hole into the crater. Link rode up to Dodongo’s cavern where he suddenly stopped. The eruption had blown the entire mountain side out, Goron City and Dodongo’s Cavern were gone. Instead, there was a gaping hole of lava in between Link and the Stalfos Tower, standing tall through the ashy distance. The sages each appeared out of their orbs and gaped at the destruction.

“I’m sorry Darunia.” Link said sympathetically to the Fire sage. To his surprise, Darunia grinned. All around them, rocks began moving and unfolding themselves into ash covered gorons. Even Biggoron, whom Link had mistaken for a boulder, stood up and with a great stretch, shook the ash off of his back like an avalanche. He squinted at the sages.

“YOU WOULDN’T HAVE SOME EYE DROPS ON YOU DO YOU? THAT WAS SOME EXPLOSION!!” Biggoron said to them in his booming voice. Fortunately, Ruto had some of the eyeball frog potion and she gave the small bottle to him. After some thunderous drips, Biggoron looked back with refreshed eyes and noticed Link. “YOU! I HAVE SOMETHING FOR YOU!” The immense goron fumbled around in its colossal rock bag and pulled out a sword that looked like a needle in his large hand. Link took the sword (It was about four feet long) and nearly collapsed from the weight of it. He had to use the golden gauntlets to hold it with two hands.

“Hey, (puff) thanks!” He gave the sword a mighty swing at a rock and it chopped it in half. “Whoa…”

“MAY IT SERVE YOU WELL. I WILL HELP YOU ACROSS THE CRATER.” Biggoron picked Link up, careful not to squish him with his incredible strength. Once Biggoron had him in his palm (which was about the size of a barge), the living colossus stepped into the crater. The lava toiled and hissed around Biggoron’s feet, unable to damage the thick rock hide. Link looked back at the sages who had once again assumed the shape of colorful orbs and were following behind at a matched pace.

It took an hour to reach the other side of the crater and Link wasted no time in hitting the road, not that there was much of a road… After thanking Biggoron, Link ran into the cloud of heavy ash. Unable to follow Link in their orb forms, the sages resumed their normal shapes and joined the Hero through the biting ash.

“How much farther is it?” Saria exclaimed after an hour of walking. Black sand was blowing around in unpredictable patterns, thoroughly blocking any view of the tower. She covered her face with her hands and touched something sticky. With a gasp, she drew her hands away from her face and gaped in horror at the blood that covered them. The sand was ripping all of their faces to shreds. Realizing this, Link reached into his bag and pulled out seven rags and told the others to cover their faces. Ruto was having the most trouble with the sand, as an amphibian, her skin was much more vulnerable to the sharp grains and also the fact that she didn’t wear much for coverings… Link pulled out his Zora Tunic and helped Ruto get it on. Now that they were all fairly protected from the sandy wind, they trudged on. After another hour, they still couldn’t see where they were going. Link looked around, vainly trying to locate any familiar landmarks. Nabooru came walking up to him.

“The wind is messing up our direction! Fortunately, that kind of thing happens often in the wastelands!” The Gerudo yelled through the howling wind. “We need to keep our eyes—“ Nabooru didn’t finish her thought for that moment, a fireball suddenly ripped through the sand and exploded not twenty feet from the sand blasted travelers. “The dragon! Come ON!!” Nabooru grabbed Link by the arm and began dragging him away from the fireball crater.

FWOOSH!!!

“Aaahhhh!!!” Saria was blown onto her back from the force of the second fireball that had impacted less than ten feet away. Darunia picked her and Ruto up and pulled them through the storm, following Link and Nabooru. Rauru yelled an incantation and sent a power ball at the invisible dragon. The beast retaliated by blasting Rauru’s now vacant location with a fireball. Rauru sent up another power ball in a different location, distracting the dragon as the others staggered past. Link looked up at the blurred sky trying to see the dragon. For a second he thought he saw the great black dragon sprawled over the cliff, its glowing red eyes searching the black valley below it.

FWOOSH!!!

Rauru narrowly dodged the fire attack and blasted the dragon with a powerful beam of light. As the dragon shrieked in pain, it torched a few carrion birds that were circling overhead. Rauru fired another power ball and quickly moved out of the way of the dragon’s retaliatory attack. Fed up with the game, the dragon launched off the cliff and swooped over the valley, sending a fireball directly at Rauru. Unable to move out of the way in time, the Light Sage quickly cast Nayru’s Love and took the now harmless hit.

“Watch out!!” Link cried as the dragon swooped overhead. Everyone instinctively ducked and hugged the cliff wall. Ruto glared at the dragon, which was breathing a spout of flame at Rauru. As the fire lizard swooped around again, Ruto concentrated on the beast’s mouth and shot a cold blast of ice.

SCREEE!!!!

The dragon shrieked loudly as the painfully cold ice froze its throat. After passing the valley in an angry swoop, the dragon flew back to its perch in order to thaw its windpipe. It landed on the cliff with a thunderous crash, sending chunks of rock crashing down upon Link and the sages.

“Watch out!!” Link grabbed Saria and pulled her away from the imminent impact site of a boulder the size of Biggoron’s fist. Rocks showered down on Impa’s helmet, nearly knocking her out. Darunia grabbed a rock in midair and stuffed it into his mouth for an afternoon snack.

“Ain’t top sirloin but it’ll do…” Link heard Darunia mutter as he swallowed the crushed rock. Up above, the dragon was still shrieking loudly, attempting to thaw its throat by breathing its fire-lung and melting it from the inside. By the time they heard a successful fireball hit the ground, it was nearly a mile behind them. Link groped forward for another twenty minutes before the black base of the tower finally came into view.

“Come on!!” Link yelled back through the sand at the sages. He touched the black wall of the tower and immediately a chill went through his spine.

“Link? Are you alright? Saria asked him concernedly when the hero suddenly locked up. The other sages came trudging up and one by one they stared at Link. His hand was touching the wall. With a choked sound, Link fell over sideways, twitching.

“No one touch the wall!” Darunia yelled as he kneeled down to take a closer look at the hero. “The walls are cursed…” Saria looked up at the goron with a horrified look.

“He’ll be alright, w-won’t he?” The kokiri stammered.

“Of course he’ll be alright.” A voice quite different from the one she had been expecting replied. Everyone looked back at the wall, where a door had formed. Stalakor came walking out, two swords bared. “For the time being…” The stalfos general jerked his skull in an authoritive nod and the sages soon found themselves surrounded by the skeleton warriors. “Inside.” He barked imperiously before entering the dark tunnel. With the other stalfos holding them at sword point, the other sages had no other option but to follow.

Chapter Twenty Two
The Failure of a Hero…

“Inside.” Stalakor barked at his new prisoners. Another stalfos picked up Link’s prone form and the others began advancing on the sages threateningly. Clearly out of any other options, the sages filed into the dark corridor after the skeleton general. Saria shuddered at the sudden cold, all of the heat of the black desert evaporated as the cold stone walls plummeted the temperature to near freezing. With an echoing slam, the door and only source of light slammed shut. Plunging them all into darkness, they had to try and perceive the world with their other senses. The floor was cold and slimy, as if it was covered in some rotting substance. A putrid stench hung in the air, growing stronger as they marched deeper into the dark tower’s dungeons. Sounds of screams wafted up the tunnel, causing Saria to gasp. Opening her mouth, she discovered that the air even tasted foul. With a small gagging noise, she shut her mouth and didn’t dare to open it until the general opened a door, enveloping them in a glorious dim light. At least she thought it was glorious until she saw what was causing the green luminescence.

At the top of the domed outer dungeon, a horrid green crystal the size of a tree was glowing, illuminating the large room with a sickly green light. For a while, Saria couldn’t place what was so horrid about the crystal that was causing her stomach to clench. Unnatural… As a child of the forest, everything she saw and perceive was natural, even tools wrought by hands were still composed of natural components. This crystal however, Saria could tell there was nothing natural about it. It had been wrought entirely by magic, evil magic at that.

“Welcome.” The sages looked toward the source of the familiar voice of the Stal King who was entering the room, a whip in hand. It was covered in blood. For several long moments they glared at each other. Surprisingly, it was Impa, the quietest of them all who broke the silence, her voice cracking with a mixture of anger and dread.

“What did you do to her?” She pointed at the King’s whip. The blood on it appeared to be glowing in the eerie crystal’s light. The King did his skin crawling smirk as the sages caught on.

“Oh, nothing much… just tortured her out of her mind.” His smirk became a maniacal grin.

“You bastard…” Link’s disoriented voice spoke, the effects of the curse was apparently wearing off as he glared at the stalfos king with slightly crossed eyes. “You…” He proceeded to call the King some rather obscene things that made Saria gape at him despite their current situation. “I’m going to kill you!!” Link concluded at the end of his cuss rant. He lunged forward, only to have his legs give out and land flat on his face against the moldy floor.

“Hahahaha!!” The King crowed. “Kill me as you are? Fool. If you didn’t have what I needed, I’d squash you like the mortal insect you are! Solnakag!!” With the last word, lightning shot out of the Stal-King’s bony fingers and blasted Link with unimaginable energy. The force of it sent the helpless hero crashing against the wall, screaming in agony. “Like it?” The skeleton sneered after ceasing the torrent. “Your girlfriend has been on the receiving end of that one for a week!” With an angry growl, Link sprang to his feet, fueled by blind rage. He knocked the stalfos guards out of the way, taking their swords, and charged at the skeleton monarch.

CLANG!!!

Both swords clashed hard on Stalakor’s blade that had risen in the Stal-King’s defense. Laughing, the skeleton king sat down in a stone throne that had appeared out of nowhere to watch the fight.

CLANG!!!

Link’s swords hit Stalakor’s again as the enraged hero tried to charge at the king again. With a deft swipe at Link’s legs, Stalakor incapacitated the Hylian. Thinking the battle was over the skeleton general began to turn away when he had to block one of Link’s swords. Though down, Link slashed at the stalfos furiously, the skeleton blocking his every blow. Frustrated, Link threw one of the swords at the general’s head. Stalakor barely had time to deflect the projectile with a block.

“Foolish move.” Stalakor growled. “Didn’t anybody ever teach you tactics?” Link stabbed at the skeleton in fury. Slamming his foot down on Link’s blade, the stalfos effectively disarmed his opponent. The stalfos picked up Link’s sword and began advancing on the hero who had managed to get to his knees. Stalakor positioned his swords, “scissor-style” around the Hylian’s neck. “Cooperate, or you’ll never see your princess again!” He growled.

“Damn you.” Link muttered under his breath. Satisfied, Stalakor removed the blades and several other stalfos approached and bound the hero’s hands.

“Very entertaining…” the Stal-king sneered. “Though I had hoped for better.” With a nod of the monarch’s skull, the other stalfos bound the other sages and led them off to the dungeons. “As for you….” The king continued turning his attention back on Link. “You will give me the Triforce of Courage!”

Link scoffed. “You are still trying to wring them out of us with begging?”

“No.” The king sneered. “Merely giving you a chance. Now that I have the both of you, things will be much easier…” With a snap of his fingers, the remaining guards shackled the hero and dragged him to the depths of the dungeons…

Screams echoed up the dark tunnel as the stalfos pushed Link through it. Mixed emotions passed his mind as they went deeper and deeper into the depths of the tower. Hope to see Zelda again, fear of what had been done to her, sick from the horrid stench of decay, not to mention being sore as hell from his duel with Stalakor. Coming to an empty cell, the guards roughly shoved him in.

“Gruka snarkak.” One of the skeletons barked at a moblin who promptly saluted. “Solkag gruelkak.” The stalfos continued and the moblin grunted in affirmation. After the skeletons exited the room, Link watched wearily from his cell as the moblin just as promptly sat back down and fell asleep, grunting loud snores.

=||=

What seemed like hours later, light flooded the dark dungeon, rousing Link from his stupefied state. The moblin was still snoring loudly, apparently not having heard the door. Closing the door silently, the three figures that entered slowly crept along the dungeon wall. Link squinted at the newcomers as the light from the door was extinguished as it closed. As they crept past his cell, he stared in surprise as he recognized the red-haired girl in the middle of the line. Malon looked at him, spotting the hero with a very audible gasp.

“Kr-snork!” The moblin guard suddenly snorted loudly, clearly irritated by the disturbance of its sleep. The large man at the back of the trio quickly dashed at the guard and killed the pig with a lethal blow to the neck.

“Ganondorf??” Link spoke incredulously as the large man returned to break the hero’s shackles. The gerudo’s jewel that was embedded in his forehead glowed a dim orange as he crushed the shackles with a makeshift hammer.

“Yeah kid. I bet you never thought I’d bust you out of here eh?” Ganon replied, chuckling a soft version of his evil laugh. Once he was free from the shackles, he collapsed to the ground. Ever since the battle with Stalakor, he seemed to be growing weaker and weaker.

“Link? Are you alright?” Malon asked him with concern. After a shake of his head, Quin and the farm girl each took an arm and began helping the weary hero along.

“Ah, how very brave and extremely foolish.” The quartet halted at the dreaded voice that spoke behind them. Ganondorf turned toward the Stal-King with a feral growl. The King was walking toward them with his decayed skin pulled tight into a triumphant grin. Behind them, the stalfos general that Link had fought was glaring at them with burning hatred.

“Allow me.” Stalakor growled, stepping forward, only to be stopped by the Stal-King.

“Take the others and put them into cells, and watch them personally. The moblins have let them escape too many times.” The skeleton king looked at Link. “You on the other hand…are coming with me.” With a wave of his boney hand, Link was pulled forward out of Quin and Malon’s grips. The skeletal fingers clasped around Link’s arm with an incredible amount of force.

It’s time to pay a visit to your fiancée. And it won’t be a happy one…” With an evil smirk, the skeleton led Link down toward the deepest dungeons…

Chapter Twenty Three
The Rise of the Stalfos

“Zelda!!” Link cried as he saw the mangled body of his lover crumpled on the black floor. He tried to run to her but the iron grip of the Stal-King held him painfully in place.

“I’m afraid you are dead to her…” He heard the skeleton whisper into his ear. “And she is dead to you, unless you give me the Triforce of Courage!!” He snapped his fingers and within seconds, four ominous shapes emerged from the shadows. Giant Stalfos stepped into the dim light, each wielding a blood-red axe. Zelda stirred and looked up wearily at the colossal skeletons that were advancing on her. Feeling no fear of the axes, she simply got to her knees, relieved that the pain would finally go away.

“No!” Link cried, trying to wrench his arm out of the Stal-King’s grip. “You need her alive anyway!” The expression on the King’s face erased all traces of hope in Link as the skeleton raised his right hand. Slowly, the glow of both Power and Wisdom appeared on the Stalfos’s skeletal hand.

“No, I don’t need her alive…but you do. Give it to me or I’ll kill her.” Link watched hopelessly as the colossal skeletons raised their four axes as one, ready to chop her to pieces.

“ZELDA!!! NO!!!!” Link screamed at her, begging her to dodge out of the way. Behind his yell he poured in all his magic and love, staggering the King’s defenses. Zelda’s head jerked toward him and though she couldn’t see him through the King’s magic, she understood the truth in an instant.

“Aaahh!!” She dodged out of the way as an axe slammed into the ground where she had been kneeling. After a stunned stare at the new crater, she regained her senses in time to dodge another axe.

Meanwhile, Link was fighting his way out of the Stal-King’s grip, though not with much success. The powerful fingers were grasping around his bicep, each movement he made caused them to go tighter. With a sickening crunch, the fingers crushed the bone, causing him to cry out in agony.

“Give me the Triforce or I will break you!!!” The King hissed in his ear with a feral growl. A skeletal hand grabbed his shoulder and crushed the socket as if it was crumbling clay.

“Aaarrrgggghhhh!!!!” Link fell to the floor, the agony ripping through his body like a million blades. Flat on his back, he stared up at the Stal-King’s face, those evil eyes glowing with an infinite hate, the decayed face twisted into a feral scowl of untapped rage.

“No!!” The voice of Zelda’s slightly strangled cry reached his ears and both opponents turned to look at her. Link stared in horror as the Stal-King’s scowl turned to one of evil glee. The giant stalfos had Zelda trapped, one of them held a long knife to her neck, clearly barely containing itself to cut her throat before the King’s consent.

“Well, it appears we’re back to our offer. This time there will be no pointless bantering and conditionals.” He raised his Triforce hand and prepared to snap. “Not another word or move except you giving me the Triforce, or she’s dead.” With a despairing look at Zelda’s terrified face, he hung his head and raising his uninjured right arm, he nodded.

The Stal-King grinned madly as a golden glow appeared around Link’s hand, slowly taking the shape of a triangle. Cackling with glee, the skeleton closed his fingers around the hovering triangle, absorbing it into him. His eyes widened as the power had had was suddenly increased a thousand-fold as the Triforce parts, reunited once again, combined their power.

“HAHAHA!!!! YES!!!!” The Stal-King crowed as the power filled him. “GODS!!! FREE THE STALFOS FROM THIS CURSE AND LET US RULE HYRULE FOREVER!!!!!” Acknowledging his wish, the full Triforce on his hand glowed brightly. A golden glow enveloped every stalfos in the room and, Link knew, the world. The glow grew brighter as the skeletons suddenly began growing back their skin and flesh. Link watched the Stal-King, whom was beginning to de-stalficate like Mido had, only in a much faster and painless way.

The decayed skin of the stalfos drew itself taut, the holes regenerating. Muscles slithered down its arms and legs and inflated, the skin crawling over the exposed muscles and tapering itself like fast healing wounds at the fingers and toes. Link could see the other stalfos undergoing the same process, organs growing and their skin stretching. Long gray hair suddenly sprouted from the Stal-King’s new scalp, flowing under his crown, making him look rather distinguished. His battle armor became covered by flowing robes of purple and gold. A golden necklace bearing a skull appeared around his now muscular neck.

= || =

Malon was glaring at the stalfos general who was watching them when suddenly the skeleton began glowing. Slightly confused, Stalakor looked at his hands and suddenly jerked into a rigid posture as the de-stalfication process began.

= || =

The transformation complete, the former stalfos collapsed to the ground, looking at their hands in exultation. Link stared at them, they looked like Hylians, though their ears were oddly shaped, Much more pointed and slightly curled forward, nearly giving them the impression of a ram with small thin fleshy horns. One by one, the regenerated skeletons stood up, raising their arms in salute to their King.

“Long live King Stalfosokor!!” Stalfosokor? The Stal-King raised his now skinned arms and let out a cry of triumph, followed by the others. His eyes were still glowing red, Link noted with a dreaded feeling. Using the stalfos’s distraction of their regenerated bodies, the hero crawled over the princess, who was sobbing pitifully at their failure. The pain that throbbed in his destroyed shoulder disappeared as Zelda healed him between choking sobs. Taking her into his arms, the reunited lovers felt little joy as the results of their failure roared in triumph.

= || =

Stalakor stood up, shaking his head. He brought his hand up to his skull and touched hair. Hair? He looked at his hand and stared at the flesh now covering it. An evil smile crept across his new lips as he flexed the new hand.

= || =

The Stal-King turned to look at Link and Zelda, his red eyes glowing with malice. His un-decayed face twisted into a sneer as he motioned the giants forward. The fleshed giants looked strikingly like trolls, and had about the same intelligence. Nevertheless, the monstrosities stepped forward, anticipation of blood showing up clearly on their stupid faces.

His face set with determination, Link stood to face the brutes. He could feel Zelda stand up as well (though she had to use him for support). The hero turned to the princess who looked at him with understanding as they melted into each others arms. If they were going to die, then they would go in a loving embrace.

“How precious…” The Stal-King sneered. His voice was different. It was no longer the grating voice of a monster but the sickening sultry voice of a deceiver. “Kill them.”

Zelda hugged Link tighter as the giants and warriors that had come back from the undead began to advance, their weapons glinting in the dim light….

Chapter Twenty Four
Retribution

The giants brought their axes down on the couple with a crash. For a moment, there was silence as the dumb brutes tried to figure out why there wasn’t mangled bodies before them when Link attacked. With a hard kick at the giant’s knees, Link finished off with a roundhouse at the stunned brute’s middle, doubling it over. With a golden gauntlet enforced punch, he knocked the giant out cold.

“Anybody else?” Link taunted at them as Zelda took a fighting stance beside him. The tattered remains of her sheikah outfit were perhaps a little less than modest though with the present company, she didn’t care. Two stalfos warriors leapt at the Hylians, swords drawn. With an aimed punch at the solar plexus, one of the warriors went down, gasping. “Not used to injuries are you?”

“Link! Watch out!!” The Hylian ducked in time for the other stalfos’s sword to slash through the air formerly occupied by his head. Link slammed his fist into the warrior’s face, breaking the nose.

“Aagghhh!!!” The stalfos staggered back, blue blood pouring down his face. Zelda stopped another stalfos’s advance with a Sheikah Judo Chop to his midriff. Unused to the incapacitating pain, the stalfos warriors dropped like flies against the fighting duo.

“Solnakag!!!” The King’s unfamiliar voice yelled over the din of battle, blasting the couple with a torrent of lightning far greater than the bolts he had used before. Screaming from the pain, the two Hylians barely felt a pair of hands grab each of their backs, pulling them out of the torrent into a long sloped tunnel. Soon the tunnel sloped straight down and deposited them into a storeroom.

“What the…” Link mumbled, confused over the sudden situation change. Quin and Impa sat up as well as Zelda. “Impa! Uh, where are we?”

“The stalfos‘storeroom. We must hurry. The Stal-King will know where we have gone.” Impa picked up the weakened hero as Quin picked up Zelda. Silently, the two Sheikah crept back out into the dungeons, avoiding the guards with invisibilis. Most of the guards were too busy marveling at their new flesh that they probably wouldn’t have noticed them anyway. Prisoners were either sulking in their cells or staring wide-eyed at the guards, waiting to see if anything else happened to them, hopefully death.

= || =

Stalakor slowly got up from the ground, the back of his head throbbing in pain. Chuckling softly in disbelief, he tried to remember what happened as he looked around at the now-empty cells. Evidentially, the sheikah boy had snuck out of his cell while the general was distracted by the return of his flesh. Stalakor touched the bruised scalp gingerly; aftermath of a well placed Sheikah Judo Punch.

= || =

One of the prisoners stared out of the cell. He looked like he had been in there a year, though who knows the time when stuck in a rotten cell for who knows how long. The old man reached for the bars, curious. He thought he had seen…no, must have been his imagination. I’m finally going senile… The old man thought, pulling at his long dirty beard. He nearly yelped out loud when four figures suddenly appeared out of thin air behind some crates from the guards.

“Okay, give me a few minutes to rest.” A woman in armor said in an exhausted voice. The old man stared at them. He recognized three of them instantly; the sheikah boy came up blank in his mind but the other three…

“Zelda?” The old man croaked. Immediately, the four figures spun to face him. Link didn’t recognize the man at all, and from the looks of their faces, neither did Impa or the shiekah boy. Zelda on the other hand…

“Daddy?” The princess edged forward toward the wiry old man with wide eyes. The prisoner nodded silently, tears coming to his familiar blue eyes, eyes that matched Zelda’s. As Impa and the shiekah boy bowed in salute, Link stared at the man with a small gape. This wiry old man was unrecognizable compared to the jolly king that had joked with them on the day he had proposed to Zelda. Of course, anyone would have passed him over without his elegant robes and trimmed beard that usually adorned him. Quin stepped to the gate and with swift deftness, whipped out a pick and unlocked the gate, opening it noiselessly.

“SCREE!!!” Everyone jumped as the Lizalfos that had happened to be looking at the king’s cell cried in alarm. “Essscaping Prisssonersss!!!!” The lizard jumped over the crate, nearly landing on the frail king. “Thheiffing traitorssss!!! Milasssorka!!” It cursed at them, drawing a long sword. Link instinctively reached for his own sword, quickly being reminded by the empty sheath that he didn’t have any weapons on him. Having nothing else, he raised his fist, glaring at the creature’s scaly neck. It had a jagged scar running along its throat.

Sslivik thrust his sword forward at the defenseless Link, confident of victory. When the hero dodged to the right and grabbed his wrist, the Lizalfos hissed in anger, shaking the weakened Link off with ease. The lizard tried a horizontal swipe that ended up crashing into some cell bars. Link sprung from his duck at the creature’s chest, managing to knock him off his balance. With a crash, Sslivik fell to the ground, and was immediately pounced onto by the two sheikah.

“Ssssliii!!!! Getssss Offffff!!!!!!!” Sslivik desperately tried to ward off the three hylians that were punching the daylights out of him. With a swish of his tail, he leapt to his feet with a snarl, throwing off the sheikah. Link lunged at the big lizard again, attacking his sword. Sslivik easily threw him off. Sharp… I need something sharp… Link looked around frantically as the Lizalfos attacked the dodging Zelda. Aha! The hylian hero leapt forward, grabbing a flaming torch off the wall. With a back flip, Link jumped off the wall and landed in front of the Lizalfos, taking it by surprise.

“Hyah!!” Link cried, thrusting the torch at Sslivik who instinctively backed off. The lizard thrust his sword forward with another snarl. Link swung the torch wildly, forcing the Lizalfos back some more steps. Tired of the game, Sslivik rushed forward, tackling Link with his powerful feet. The torch went flying…into the hands of Zelda’s father.

“Sælëą Aërændiil!!!” The king spoke in a commanding voice, the torch’s flames turning white hot. “Söælnæsë!!!” The flames curled into a fireball and launched at the surprised Lizalfos. Sslivik watched the fireball, coming too fast to dodge and yet too slow to keep his life from flashing in front of his glassy eyes.

FWOOSH!!!!

The fireball slammed into the Lizalfos’s chest, enveloping him into white-blue flames. With a screeching death cry, the creature dropped its sword from its burning hand and it clattered on the floor with a surprisingly loud noise. A few seconds later, all that remained of the Stalfos’s informant was a pile of black ashes. As Link picked up the dead Lizalfos’s sword, he stared at the Hylian monarch in wonder.

“Zelda’s not the only one who can use magic Link.” The king said with a twinkle in his eye. “In fact, all of the Royal family can use magic. At least the ones of direct ancestry.”

“Oh…” Link managed to say, still staring at the king in disbelief. Shaking his head in amazement, he took another torch from the wall and handed it to Impa, who in turn began walking down a darkened corridor…

Chapter Twenty Five
Rebellion

As the escaped prisoners emerged from the tunnel, a green missile slammed into Link’s midriff…again.

“Saria!” Link wheezed. “Stop doing that!!”

“Sorry! I’m just happy to see you’re alright!” The grinning Kokiri said, detaching herself from him, rather reluctantly. “Oh Zelda!!” She cried, spotting the weary princess. Careful not to bowl her over, Saria gave her a much less enthusiastic but still genuine hug. The rest of the sages were in the room (yet another storeroom) as well as some additional prisoners, Hylian soldiers for the most part. Ruto appeared to be fawning over the dehydrated Zora that Malon had seen dangling just out of reach of water.

Seeing Zelda, Ruto stood up and determinedly walked up to Zelda, who was sitting on a crate, exhausted. Expecting trouble, Link tensed, ready to pry the Zora off his fiancée if she decided to ‘put her out of the way’. To his surprise, Ruto did nothing of the sort. Instead, she looked down at her finned feet and in a shameful voice, spoke. “I’m sorry…”

“I know…” Zelda replied softly, a small comforting smile on her weary face. The two princesses hugged, making up for their past arguments.

“Link, Zelda, I would like you to meet Quin.” Malon spoke up, introducing them to the boy that had helped them escape. Link noticed that she appeared to holding onto the shiekah’s arm. The boy silently nodded in acknowledgement. “And these are Doran, Garius, Nomarion, Frakson, and Jorus.” She continued, pointing at each of the Hylian soldiers.

“Pleased to meet you.” Link replied, holding out his right hand while keeping the left around Zelda.

“And you, Sir Link.” They each replied with a salute. Link chuckled softly to himself; it had been awhile since anyone had acknowledged his knighthood and called him “sir.”

“Now that the introductions are done…” King Harkanian of Hyrule grumbled. “Shall we get down to business?”

= || =

“Find them! And bring them to me! Alive!!” King Stalfosokor roared at the warriors picking themselves off the floor. “General Stalakor!! How did that boy escape under your watch?!” He spat venomously at the tall black haired man that had walked into the room, wearing the golden breastplate of the Stalfos’s head general.

“I was rather distracted by the unexpected return of flesh.” Stalakor drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The Stal-King’s red eyes glared at the contemptuous warrior. “You got your stupid little Triforce. My part of the deal is done. Now may you go to hell…” He finished with a cruel smile. With a flick of his wrist, diamond shards shot at the Obsidian Sphere. The sharp crystals cracked the smooth surface, rendering the artifact useless. “I don’t want you following me.”

“You fool…” The monarch seethed. “You treacherous FOOL!!!” In a rage, the Stal-King blasted the general with a massive surge of power from the power bracelet he had set on his arm so many days ago. The force of the bracelet combined with the full power of the Triforce hit the general, slamming the ex-skeleton against the black wall.

“AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Pain! Horrible twisting burning shocking pain!! A cry of pain so loud and yet so quiet that his mind didn’t even fathom the act. Grotesque waves of pure pain ripped through his new flesh as the power of the blow stripped it away. After what seemed like hours, the pain finally ended.

“That is why you should never cross me…” Stalfosokor smirked at the charred remains of the familiar skeleton of his former general. With a swish of his robes, the King stormed out of the room.

After the heavy doors slammed shut, the scorched skeleton stirred. Lifting his skull with difficulty, the blackened Stalfos glared at the door with burned out eye-sockets. With a guttural chuckle, he began to get up, an unnatural glow replacing his eyes.

You are the fool, King. Your arrogance has made me more powerful than ever before!!

The skeleton stood up jerkily and threw back its skull as a maniacal laugh escaped its jaws.

= || =

“After Impa and Quin incapacitate the guards, the rest of us shall charge into the throne room, taking the stalfos by surprise.” The King of Hyrule explained as he drew attack plans on a crude blueprint of the tower in the dirt.

“Won’t he see us coming, sire?” One of the soldiers asked.

“I don’t know. He hasn’t been able to find us yet here, though it seemed like he could spot a mosquito in Hyrule Field before.” Link spoke up, musing.

“We’ll charge in and hope to take the stalfos by surprise.” The King reiterated, rolling his eyes.

“Good enough.” Rauru spoke. The sages all nodded in approval. “Then what?”

“Link and Zelda, you said that the Stal-King took your Triforce pieces by using some sort of crystal?” They nodded.

“Yes sir.” Link paused for a moment, the notion of the idea hitting him full force. “Wait, do you think we could use it on him? Are we even sure it will affect the full Triforce?”

“No harm in trying.” The King shrugged.

“No harm except for the stalfos to blast us out of existence if it doesn’t work.” Impa commented dryly.

“Yes well…” The King mumbled off trying to think of a solution to that kink.

“I’ll do it.” Zelda said, standing up. “I’ll get the crystal.”

“Zelda…” Link began. She cut him off with a fierce stare.

“I am going to do it. I’m sick of the people I love getting hurt at my expense. The crystal is my responsibility. It’s my kingdom and I’m not going to let that skeleton bastard torture my people any longer!” Zelda finished her speech, breathing slightly harder than usual. She still had the ferocious gleam in her eyes, destroying any retaliatory comment that Link had in his throat.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Saria spoke softly.

“Then we won’t have much of a chance will we?” Zelda replied coolly. “If the crystal doesn’t work, then nothing will!”


(A/N Short Chapter, I know. Don't worry, the next few chapters will be longer and have a lot more action in them. The end is near!! Please Review and tell me what you think of the story so far!)

Chapter Twenty Six
The Showdown Begins

Saria crawled through a small tunnel, designed for Keese patrol-bats. The cramped tunnel was the only way into the throne room, for the heavy doors that were normally used was guarded by over a hundred stalfos and moblins. Too much for the shiekah needless to say. Now, Saria was squeezing her way through the narrow tunnel of “Plan B.”

Flap-flap-flap

Oh no…

Saria raised her arms in defense as the bats suddenly flew into her. Cries of ‘skrii-skit-skii-skrii!!’ filled the tunnel. “Aah!” One of the bats landed of her arm and proceeded to bite a chunk out. With a surge of anger, she smashed the bat into the wall. The other Keese attacked relentlessly, ending up sandwiched between the wall and her arm. After the whole patrol was neutralized, Saria pushed the bat corpses in front of her, sweeping them into a side tunnel when she came to one. Farther ahead, she could hear voices. Crawling as fast as she could, she finally came to a grate overlooking the throne room.

“My liege.” Spoke a rather handsome soldier who was kneeling in front of a very distinguished man sitting in a throne. Long grey hair flowed from the man’s scalp, under a crown. Saria’s stomach clenched. The crown. It was the same crown that she had picked up in the forest, nearly turning her into a stal-child. The distinguished man was without a doubt, the Stal-King. Looking over at the soldier, she noticed his ears. They were swept forward like horns; the Stal-King had similar ears. The kneeling stalfos was wearing a silver breastplate.

“Rise Stalvokor, General of the Stalfos.” The King spoke, motioning the soldier to stand. Saria watched the debacle, confused. What happened to the last one? Little matter. Saria tried to open the grate and frowned, it was stuck. She pushed harder, hoping it would give. With a crack, the grate snapped and despite Saria’s attempt to grab it, fell to the ground.

CRASH!

The sound of the grate hitting the stone floor after a thirty foot drop echoed round the chamber. White-faced, Saria quickly retreated into the tunnel out of sight. The stalfos had undoubtedly heard it and were prowling for the source of the sound.

“Sire!” A gruff voice rose into the tunnel. Saria tried to control her breathing but instead was experiencing a fit of hyperventilation. “A grate. Looks like it fell from that tunnel up there.” The Kokiri girl could imagine the King staring up at the tunnel, piecing two and two together. She heard a sniffing sound. “Kokiri!” The forest sage nearly had a heart attack right there. Frantically, she crawled backward, cold sweat beading on her ashen face.

“Search the area! That sage must be found!” Saria’s breathing slowed as the footsteps became more distant. Evidentially they thought she had already come out of the tunnel. Cautiously, she crept forward. Once she reached the hole, there was no trace of the stalfos. Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked down at the ground, causing her to catch her breath again. Time to use the gift from the Deku Tree Sprout. She thought, staring down the ominous thirty feet. She found the object and pushed herself out of the hole.

Gasping slightly to the disorientating sense of free fall, she quickly pulled out the object and held on tight as it billowed out, taking in the air. The large Deku Leaf slowed her descent as she floated silently down into the heart of the Stalfos Tower. Once she touched the ground, she put the Deku Leaf away and pulled out another object.

Breathing unevenly with apprehension, Saria slapped the wooden mask she had gotten from Link to her face. She let out a gasp as the mask suddenly tightened around her head. The mask grew tighter and tighter until she was sure that it would crush her skull. She cried out in pain as the mask suddenly sent a shock through her spine and nerves, causing her to black out for a second. When Saria opened her eyes, she stared at her reflection in the smooth black surface of the floor. Glowing yellow eyes and a tunnel-like mouth stared back. The transformation was complete, she was a Deku Shrub.

“What are you doing in here?” A gruff voice behind her spoke up. With a trilling shriek she spun around to see the new General, Stalvokor, glaring at her suspiciously.

“Cleaning.” She quickly replied in a shrill voice. To prove her story, she began scrubbing the floor with her hands. Fortunately, the new General was so thick that he didn’t think much about her lack of cleaning tools. With a huff, the stalfos turned around and began sniffing the air, searching for the elusive Kokiri. After the fleshed skeleton walked off, Saria waddled over to a postern gate. Beyond the postern, she could see the shadows of her ‘invisibilized’ friends, prepared to strike. Saria looked around for the general, not seeing him; she activated the posterns one-way controls, opening the thick grate. By the time the stalfos had reacted to the clanking noise of the postern, the rebels were already inside the throne room.

“Ha ha ha ha ha.” The Stal-King chuckled as the rebels decloaked themselves, prepared for battle. “I must applaud your exploits in getting in here, but ultimately, they’re foolish. You cannot hope to beat me.” Zelda’s eyes searched the room, looking for the crystal. Nothing.

“You will pay for what you have done to my kingdom.” Harkanian boomed, stepping forward with a glare that would fry lesser men’s courage. The Stal-King merely snorted and sat back in his throne.

“Stalvokor, here’s your chance to prove yourself.”

“Yes my lord.” A stalfos wearing a silver breastplate drew a blood red sword, the mean stupid look of a brute upon his face. Link calmly drew his own sword. Inwardly wishing for the trusty Master Sword, he swung his sword in a taunt, beckoning the brute to attack first. The stalfos general complied without hesitation. “Ygrah!!” He cried in a guttural battle cry as he charged. Link deflected his first blow easily but was mildly surprised at how fast the second blow came. Blocking blow after blow, Link soon found himself on the defensive. The General may have been stupid, but he was fast.

As they fought, Zelda continued her search for the crystal. After five long minutes of searching, she watched horrified at her fiancé who was beginning to tire. Why aren’t the soldiers helping? She wondered as she looked over at the Hylian warriors. They appeared to be stiff, shaking slightly as if they were trying to break out of the grasp of some unseen force. The sages, her father, and Ganondorf were trying to cast spells but their magic was nullified by some sort of field. Saria had managed to take the Deku mask off but her attacks didn’t do any better. Zelda’s eye caught a glimmer off to the left. Over on a pedestal was a black sphere, small shards poking out of cracked points on the smooth surface. She didn’t think much on the object for there, lying next to it, was the shimmering crystal that had stolen Wisdom from her as she desperately tried to use it to ward off the King’s tortures. Now the balance will be tipped in our favor… Zelda slowly started edging to the left, hoping the Stal-King would be distracted by the fight long enough for her to reach the pedestal.

Sweat poured down Link’s face as he blocked a relentless blow after blow. Didn’t this guy ever get tired? Straining against the stalfos’s strength as their swords locked, he caught sight of Zelda edging slowly toward a pedestal. He pushed the stalfos back with renewed energy.

“Hrothgrath!!” Stalvokor growled as he lunged. Bad move. Link thought with a grin as he side-stepped the attack and brought his sword onto the stalfos’s outstretched arm. The blade bit into the brute’s vambrace, denting it into his flesh. With a roar of pain, Stalvokor staggered back. A feral growl escaped his lips as he tore the damaged armguard off. Here we go again…

Link blocked his enraged blows easily, though he was beginning to get worried that the fight would last too much longer. When Zelda gets the crystal, I’ll finish it. Link parried the angry blows, delivering another painful swipe at the brute whenever he started calming down. Soon, the general was in frenzy, madly swinging his sword in an uncoordinated manner. Come on Zelda… It was easy enough to continue dodging the terrible swordsmanship but the Stal-King would no doubt begin to suspect why he was stalling.

Zelda edged closer and closer to the pedestal, just ten feet away. Was she far enough out of the Stal-King’s sight? Deciding to chance it, she broke into a run for the pedestal, her swift feet making no noise. Five feet, three feet, one foot, her fingers closed around the crystal, sincerely hoping it wasn’t still “power-protected.” Feeling the cool crystal surface rather than the searing pain of the shield, her worries evaporated. With a triumphant smile, she waved the crystal at Link.

The Hylian hero saw the signal and ducked under Stalvokor’s clumsy swing. With the speed of an arrow, he lunged forward, his blade sinking into the stalfos’s side, between the pieces of armor. Stalvokor’s brutish face twisted in pain and confusion. With a choking sound, the ex-skeleton toppled to the ground unmoving. Link wiped the blue blood off his sword on the fallen’s battle tunic. With a glare, he turned toward the Stal-King whom did not look too concerned with the death of his general.

“Really Link… I was expecting more from you. But of course, you were stalling for your girlfriend to grab my crystal.” He spoke dryly. Link could see Zelda go white as she heard this. With a snap of the Stal-King’s fingers, an explosion sent Zelda flying, the crystal landing some twenty feet away from her. In a rage, Link charged at the Stal-King but suddenly found himself struggling in midair. “Don’t be an idiot and make the same stupid mistake the General did.” The King waved his hand carelessly and Link was flung into a wall so hard it broke three of his ribs. “Now… You shall all feel the power of the Triforce!!!”

Chapter Twenty Seven
The Fall of Kings…

The Stal-King raised his arm and three golden triangles appeared on the back of his hand. Looking like a terrible wizard, King Stalfosokor looked to the ceiling, which had become obscured by stormy clouds. “EЯRÆŘÖDZŮ!!!!!” The magical word, backed by the horrifying power of the Triforce, changed the clouds to a deep red color. A second later, torrents of lightning blasted everyone in the vicinity.

“AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Pain screamed through their bodies, tearing at their flesh. Behind the agony, the Triforce did its evil work. Link began to feel extremely afraid as the Triforce of Courage hungrily sapped up what little courage was left in him. His thoughts were torn away by the ravenous Triforce of Wisdom. Devious Triforce of Power weakened his strength even further than the lightning was willing to go. Suddenly, the pain stopped. Gasping for breath, he weakly looked around from the floor at the others. They were all trembling on the floor, unable to rise. The Stal-King was the only one unaffected, laughing at his diminished foes. In his glee of triumph, he didn’t see Zelda weakly wrap her fingers around the faceted edges of the Absorption Crystal.

“And now…” Stalfosokor gloated. “You will all die…” He raised his arm at the ceiling again and uttered an even more terrible word. Except this time, the effect was odd… Instead of fueling the clouds above with deadly energy, the power seemed to arc away from the clouds. Realizing his mistake, the stalfos spun around to face Zelda, who was pointing the glowing crystal at him with a triumphant smirk. “NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!”

The King tried to break the tether of power but the Crystal continued to draw its power from him. With a scream of rage, the Stal-King charged at Zelda, slamming her into the wall. The crystal flew out of her fingers, clattering across the floor, still drawing power. With a cry, the stalfos dove for the crystal, to have it kicked away by a wincing Link. The evil king promptly retaliated by sweeping Link’s feet out from under him, causing him to crash painfully to the floor. Ignoring the whimpering hero, Stalfosokor reached for the crystal, when it was picked up by stern looking Harkanian.

The Kings glared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. The Triforce was nearly completely absorbed when the Stal-King lunged for the crystal. An energy bolt from the Hylian King sent the weakened stalfos staggering back. As the last of the Triforce was sucked away from him, the wizard staggered again as if he was experiencing some horrible pain. Everyone in the room watched as his skin began to slacken, turning gray and translucent. His swept ears withered as well as his straight nose. The long grey hair turned deathly white and fell out. With a cry of pain, Salfosokor collapsed as his skin decayed away, leaving his all too familiar skeleton.

“DADDY!! WATCH OUT!!!!” Zelda cried out in horror. While the others were watching the death of the Stal-King, the crystal had been cracking from the power it contained. By the time Harkanian looked at the Crystal, it was too late. With the force of a powder keg, the crystal shattered, sending shards in every direction. Most everyone was behind some sort of shelter, the sages were behind the throne and Zelda was shielded by the pedestal. Link barely managed raise his shield in time, though some shards impacted painfully into his leg. Unfortunately for the King of Hyrule, he caught the brunt of the blast, sending him crashing against the wall, impaled by hundreds of shards. The Triforce pieces broke apart with a brilliant flash as they returned to their destined owners. Not noticing or caring, Zelda ran to her father as Link limped to where he lay. By the time he reached the dying king, Zelda’s face was streaming with tears.

“Link…” Harkanian spoke weakly.

“Yes sire?” Link replied, choking back his own tears.

“Take care of my daughter… I had hoped…” He gave a shuddering gasp. “Link… Zelda… There is… something… Open… locket…” Link had no clue what the dying monarch was talking about. Zelda on the other hand gave a small gasp. She fumbled around her neck, pulling a gold chain off. She had worn this necklace for as long as Link could remember, oddly, the stalfos hadn’t taken it from her. She tried to open the locket on the chain but her fingers were trembling from grief. His hand a little more steady, Link took the locket and pried it open.

To his shock, a small white fairy about the size of a thumbnail flew out of the locket and began swirling around them. Hope filled Link and Zelda as the fairy flew in circles about them, rejuvenating their energy. The fairy landed on the king’s face and kissed his nose lightly. A smile appeared on the king’s face and he closed his eyes as he departed the world. At the same moment, a blue fairy of the same size flew out of the king’s sapphire brooch. The two fairies seemed to dance in the air, eventually meeting together for a kiss. The moment their tiny lips touched, they faded out of existence.

Link and Zelda stared at each other, dumbstruck. As one, they looked down at the King, his face looking so calm and content. The sages and soldiers had witnessed the death of the king, though Link and Zelda only noticed them when Impa suddenly spoke up, her voice sad.

“King Harkanian was a good king and always served his kingdom first. And yet he was also a loving father, always looking out for his daughter’s happiness.” Zelda’s tears flowed faster at this and Link took her into a comforting embrace. “He always thought of you as a son, Link. He knighted you so you could marry his daughter, whom he knew you loved, when the time came.” Link was soon crying as much as Zelda. The Sage of Shadow fell silent and bowed her head in mourning. All around them sniffles and solemn prayers filled the silence. Even Ganondorf was mourning the king he had fought against for so long.

“How touching…” A grating voice croaked from behind them. All of their heads swung around to face the Stal-King who was shakily bringing himself to his feet. “About time that old fool died.” Zelda let out a cry of grief and rage as she tried to attack the skeleton, only to be restrained by Link and Impa.

“Let me go!! Let me rip his filthy skull off!!!” Zelda screamed, trembling with rage. She soon broke down into uncontrollable sobs in Link’s arms.

“Yes… Restrain that little witch…” The Stal-King snarled, clearing enjoying torturing the grieving Hylians. “Her father obviously didn’t do a very good job in giving her manners.” Something inside Link snapped and he turned to attack the skeleton…but Saria got there first.

The kokiri girl leapt at the skeleton king, and climbed inside his ribcage. The king cried out in alarm and tried to grab the girl between his ribs. She drew a golden dagger and with a cruel smile of satisfaction, she stabbed the blade upward into the skeleton’s skull.

“Aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!” Saria twisted the dagger, sending the skeleton into convulsions.

“This is for my friends!” She hissed at him as she twisted the dagger again. “This is for Hyrule!” She twisted again. “And this is for me!!!” She pulled the dagger out of his skull and severed his neck. The skull fell to the stone floor and shattered, destroying his life force. The rest of his skeleton vaporized, dropping Saria to the ground.

The mighty Stal-King was finally destroyed.

CRASH!!!

The roof of the tower suddenly exploded, exposing the blue sky and blinding sunlight. Rising over the edge of the tower came the mighty black dragon of the Stal-King. However, sitting on its back was a skeleton, charred as black as the dragon. Seeing the survivors, Stalakor threw back his skull and let out a maniacal cackle…

Chapter Twenty Eight
The Triforce Phantom

Link and Zelda stared at the enormous dragon in horror. Its scales were darker than a starless sky. Its glaring red eyes darted from one sage to another. Its head, armed with six horns, thrashed about madly. With a terrifying roar, the dark creature beat its immense wings, sending a powerful wind that nearly bowled the sages over. The black skeleton on its back cackled at them somewhat maniacally. Link could see that it was wearing a rather charred gold breastplate. Stalakor…

“Hahahaha! Did you foolish Hylians think it was over? Hahahaha!!!” Link furrowed his brows. The skeleton sounded insane. The Hylian hero raised his shield as Stalakor swooped down, the dragon’s claws swiping at him. One of the talons smashed into the shield, knocking him flat. As he shakily got to his feet, he stared at his shield dumbstruck. There was a deep dent as if a small comet had hit it. The dragon roared in frustration, flames darting out of its mouth. Its head shot forward, attempting to nab Link. A second before he would have been bitten, Zelda slammed into Link, pushing him out of the way. The dragon growled and turned toward the sages.

FWOOSH!!!!

The flames blasted against the shield of water that Ruto summoned in the nick of time. Eyes flaming with anger, the dragon blasted its fiery breaths at the sages, only to have them doused by the steaming water.

“Ganondorf!!” Link called out. Seconds later, the Gerudo was at his side. “Never thought I’d ever say this, but we need your help.” Ganondorf nodded in understanding. As one, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf raised their fists, calling on their Triforce parts. The power combined into one and shot at the deranged skeleton. To their utmost shock, Stalakor blocked the attack. The sages threw in their power, but the skeleton deflected it as if it was a pesky fairy. Laughing madly, Stalakor raised his hand as the symbol of the Triforce appeared on its back.

“How…?” Zelda whispered softly in disbelief. Link merely looked from his hand to the skeleton, trying to figure out why there were two Triforces. Ganondorf looked dumbfounded as well; the sages clueless.

“Hahahaha! The Stal-King tried to destroy me, but he used too much power and imprinted the power of the Triforce upon me!” He raised his fist in triumph, the phantom of the Triforce glowing brightly. He lowered the hand and set it against the dragon’s scales, causing the creature to shudder. “Shruikah! Attack!!!” The dragon reared its ugly head and ice instead of fire shot out. Darunia quickly retaliated by erecting a shield of fire. The black creature swooped around this time spat a beam of dark energy. Prepared, Rauru countered with a light beam.

As the dragon fired back with sunlight so bright that it would burn your eyes out, followed up by a shadow blast from Impa, Stalakor flipped off the dragon and landed feet first in front of the slightly startled hero. Zelda slipped her hand in Link’s, whispering a vow to never leave his side. Stalakor pulled his sword out of its sheath and pulled it apart, revealing two identical swords. “Let us finish what we started…” He snarled before attacking with a lunge.

Link side-stepped the strike, but before he could bring his sword down on the stalfos’s outstretched arm, the other blade blocked it with a metallic clash. He tried to counterattack but the second sword forced him on the defensive. The stalfos general was coordinated, quick, balanced, and at the same time insane. Somehow, as Link found out, those traits combined well. Stalakor smashed his sword into what was left of Link’s shield, sending him flying.

“Aarrrgghh!!!” Stalakor roared in pain as Zelda shot him in the back with a light arrow. With a feral hiss, he leapt at the princess and bashed her across the face with a metal gauntlet. He turned to find an enraged Link charging at him with his sword.

CLANG!!!

Stalakor blocked the angry blow with ease and countered with a swipe at his shield arm, cutting the frayed bonds. The bent shield clattered to the ground as the two mighty warriors continued their epic duel. Blow after blow, Link staggered back in desperate defense. He momentarily saw the dragon shoot biting sand at the sages as Saria grew an oak tree as a shield.

CLANG!!!

Link stumbled as the stalfos’s blade slammed down on his tired sword. Zelda, who was still dizzy from the stalfos’s backhand, stared horrified at her fiancé’s predicament. She grabbed her bow off the ground and shot the skeleton again. The distraction allowed Link to regain his footing and strike at his opponent’s head. Stalakor howled in pain and rage, striking at Link with a predictable counterattack. Link easily blocked the blow and knocked the sword out of his hand and off the tower. Snarling, Stalakor back flipped away, gaining time to recompose himself. Holding the remaining sword out from in front of him, he cackled as a blade suddenly slid out of the other end of the hilt.

“Crap…” Link muttered to himself as Stalakor began swinging the double bladed staff-sword in martial-art frenzy. Link could barely block the fierce blows of the deadly weapon, forcing him back, step by step. Zelda charged up a power ball and launched it at the skeleton’s back. The stalfos flipped over the projectile causing it to hit Link, knocking him down. The princess shrieked in horror of what she had just done. Before she could get her defenses back up, Stalakor blasted her with the Phantom Triforce, knocking her off the tower.

“ZELDA!!!! NOOO!!!!!!!” She heard Link cry as she felt herself fall. Calling on the Triforce of Wisdom, she closed her eyes and began to spin through the air. With a flash of green light, Farore’s Wind dropped her back onto the top of tower, unknown to the black skeleton.

“ǼRÖNÏŒS!!!!!” She yelled before sending a beam of blue energy into the back of the skeleton. Stalakor screamed in rage and pain as the electrical torrent electrocuted his bones, cracking them. Insanity overcoming everything else, Stalakor swiveled around and threw the staff sword at Zelda, who nimbly dodged. Furiously, the skeleton tackled the princess, his burned claws wrapped around her slender throat. His teeth elongated, his sharp fangs lengthening three inches, and he laughed as Zelda shrieked in fear. Tightening his grip, he cackled mercilessly as the princess’s face started turning blue.

Link pounced on the skeleton and swung his sword straight and true at the stalfos’s neck. The head came off and the skeleton body let go of Zelda’s neck as it fumbled around with its skull. Gaining a firm grip on its cranium, the stalfos began swinging at Link madly, using its own head as a bludgeon. The Hylian got walloped once after staring at the odd sight, and Zelda, coughing, blasted the skeleton with some more energy. As Stalakor’s body turned to attack the princess again, Link slashed at his vulnerable spine.

“SCREEEE!!!!!!” A blood-curdling cry filled the air as the deranged skeleton fell to pieces. At the same moment, there was a shocking flash as the phantom Triforce broke apart, dispersing its energy in the form of several shockwaves, knocking them off the tower as the structure began to collapse. Link caught Zelda and embraced her in the free-fall to inevitable doom. A roar above them as well as a passing shadow filled Link’s mind as he slowly began to black out. His last memory was the dragon, now free from its spell and covered in brilliant blue scales, catching him and Zelda…

Epilogue
Peace and Love

One week later…


Link nervously tugged at his white tunic, trying to make it look perfect. No matter how many times he fixed it, something looked wrong in the mirror. You can face off walking skeletons without flinching but you’re scared to get married… He thought to himself dryly. Finally deciding to forget about the tunic, he turned around to face the Goron, who was dressed in a red honorary robe adorned with flames, behind him.

“You look fine Link.” Darunia chuckled, giving his sworn brother a friendly pat on the back, sending him crashing to the floor. “Oh! Sorry!”

“No problem Darunia.” Link laughed, getting up off the floor. “I’m ready.” He said after brushing off his tunic once more. Darunia nodded and guided him through the door into the main chamber of the Temple of Time. The vast hall was packed with people from all over Hyrule and Termina. Link could see Talon, Ingo, and Malon, who was sitting next to Quin. People he had seen and helped from castle town and Kakariko had come. Link even spotted old Petre and Marie grinning from the crowd. There were also a contingent of Zoras, Gorons, and Gerudos, who were standing near the back. Even Ganondorf had come, hopefully not up to anything bad.

Link was sweating bullets as Darunia pushed him to the front, where Rauru, wearing robes adorning a blazing sun, stood in front of the Altar of the Spiritual Stones. As Link reached the altar and turned around, the Zora band, the Indigo-Go’s, began performing the traditional Hylian wedding march. As the slow notes of the song echoed around the temple, the door at the back opened.

First came Saria, who was garbed in an emerald green dress with a brooch in the shape of a leaf. Her shining face was peering over the large bouquet of flowers that she carried. After her came Ruto, who (thankfully) was wearing a silky blue dress that looked as if it was made of water as she walked. After the Zora came Nabooru, She was dressed in her normal attire with the exception of an orange shawl adorned with the symbol of the Spirit Medallion.

Link’s heart started racing as Zelda came through the archway. Wearing a stunning white dress with straps that came around her slender neck, she beamed at him from behind a bouquet of red roses. Atop her head was a beautiful tiara of diamonds that stood out against her golden hair. Link was surprised that he didn’t faint out of happiness and excitement right then. The princess was being escorted by Impa, who was wearing a purple cape over her usual armor.

As Zelda reached the altar, Rauru motioned for the bride and groom to take hands. The Sage of Light then turned around to face the Door of Time.

“Here we stand before the Door of Time to celebrate the wondrous sacred ceremony of matrimony to unite two lovers like many others over the centuries.” He spoke in ancient Hylian. Turning to the couple before him, he smiled. “Link." He said in modern Hylian. "Do you take Princess Zelda of Hyrule to be your wedded wife and vow to protect and cherish her in through times of toil and evils?” Link gave Zelda a warm smile before answering with a firm “I do.” “Do you Princess Zelda, take Sir Link, the Hero of Time, to be your wedded husband and vow to protect and cherish him through times of toil and evils?”

“I do.” Zelda replied confidently with an ecstatic grin.

“Subjects of Hyrule!" Rauru cried out to the crowd. "I give you your highness Princess Zelda of Hyrule and her husband, Sir Link of Hyrule!” The Temple erupted in cheers as Link and Zelda embraced in a passionate kiss…

THE END