Chapter 6
In Front of the East Palace
It stood towering in front of us, with its sand colored bricks and grated windows. I stared up at the capped towers and elaborate double doors. A quick wind blew the crows on the roof into a flurry.
"Link?"
I turned my head to look at Shadow. I gave her a small smile.
"Let's go inside."
Inside the East Palace, nothing was in good shape. We were standing inside the main room. The walls were cracked, the floors were covered in sand and gravel, and the air had a musty scent. Almost all of the furniture was demolished, and on a large alter at the back of the hall was a huge statue of Din. She was shrouded in many gowns, and her eyes had no pupils. She appeared to be flying to the front of the room, with her hands cupped in front of her face. A plaque was positioned at the base of the alter. Shadow rushed over to read it.
"In honor of Din, the great goddess of power." She read. "Guardian of Gorons and Gerudans."
She paused. "The rest is smudged out."
We continued through the temple, stopping occasionally to examine passageways that could lead us to the pendant.
We finally reached a great hall.
"This place is like a ghost town." I murmured.
A blue-ish shimmer suddenly appeared, and hovered around us for a second before vanishing.
"Thank you, captain obvious." Shadow said with the tone of sarcasm.
"Ah..."
We began to search the room, trying to dig up some sort of clue. Something caught my eye.
It was a small octorock, with a pink body and orange legs. It was adorable, with its little puckered lips and scuttling legs.
"Hey, Shadow!" I called. Shadow stepped over to me.
"What, did you find something?"
"No, but look at this baby octorock! Isn't it cute?!" I said, petting its head.
"I've heard that baby octorocks can be really irritable."
"But look at this guy! He couldn't possibly be a threat!"
"Uhm, Link? I...wouldn't do that..." She said, as I began to scratch its head.
"It's such a cute wittle ting!" I crooned.
Suddenly, the octorock made a loud hissing noise. It started to grow, and soon its head touched the temple ceiling. Its legs turned into long, flailing tentacles, and its puckered lips became a cave. It let out a loud, violent wail.
"IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL A 'CUTE WITTLE TING'?!?!?!" Shadow yelled over the noise.
"I-I didn't know it was old enough to transform!" I called back.
"Here, just-just take a shadow blade, fight that thing off!" Shadow formed a sword, then tossed it over to me.
"Why can't you fight?!"
"'Cause I already saved your butt from certain doom in the Twilight Realm, now get moving!"
I decided against arguing, but my decision might have been aided by a large tentacle crashing down over my head. With a yelp, I dived out of the way.
And so I began to fight. I dodged one arm here, another arm there. Every now and then, I'd get a bit of one cut off. And every time, the Giant Octorock would become even madder.
"Link! Quit fooling around and actually do some damage!" Shadow yelled.
So I attempted. An arm came crashing down, and when it landed, I hopped on top of it, and quickly climbed up to its body. I scrambled up so I was on its top lip, and tried to stab it in the eye.
The next thing I knew, everything was dark.
Shadow later told me that I had slipped on some blood on my shoe, and fallen into its mouth. But I swear the Octorock had decided to swallow me.
Shadow's Point Of View
I watched as the idiot slipped, and a small splash indicated blood as the cause. I watched as he fell into the monster's stomach, with a terrified look on his face. The Octorock let a satisfied grin creep across its ghastly face.
"All right, Link." I muttered to myself as I focused magic into my arms. "I'm coming to save you, but don't think I'll enjoy it."
"Hey, you big brute!" I called up to the Octorock. "Down here!"
It slowly turned its body so it faced me, and made an infuriated face.
"Look at me! I can run faster!" It attempted to lash out with an arm, but I was quicker. "Gotta catch me!" I yelled.
And the chase was on. Brag, duck, run. Brag, duck, run. It went on and on. I had to make sure the Octorock really thought it was a chase.
Finally, it caught me. The monster lifted me up to eye level, and grinned hugely. I lowered me so I could see it's gaping chasm of a mouth.
"That's what I was hoping you would do." I muttered. I lifted my arm so it was pointing into the creature's mouth.
A wave of Shadow magic surged from arm. It poured down its throat ripping open its throat, stomach, and so on. Dark energy poisoned the light dweller, and it exploded with a loud bang! Like an overinflated balloon.
Link's Point of View
I was dropped to the ground, along with Shadow, as pieces of Octorock rained down on top of us.
"Ewww..." I said, wiping gunk off of my arms. "I thought monsters were supposed to go poof when you kill them, but this one-"
"Let me guess," Shadow said, standing up next to me. "This one a'sploded, right?"
I nodded slowly. Then, I noticed something behind Shadow. It was a blue, shimmering light, with a bit of a weak twist of wind circling it.
"Shadow, look behind you!" I called. She turned around.
And the simmer began to materialize. Slowly, blue hair grew from the top, and beautiful shawls were draped around a turquoise gown. A female's perfect face sprouted like a blossom under the hair. The figure radiated perfect calm.
"Greetings, Link and Shadow." Nayru said, landing softly on the ground.
"Oh my va-" Shadow stopped midsentence. "Oh my gosh." Nayru chuckled.
"You have both done well. I am proud." She said fluently. "Shadow, it was quite clever of you to kill the demon with your Shadow Magic. You knew that otherworldly powers would not mix with the Light monster."
"And me? What about me?" I said, rushing forward like a five-year old trying to get a present.
Nayru raised an eyebrow. "You were courageous, I'll give you that, but my strong suit is wisdom, not courage.
"Wait a minute," Shadow said. "Were you watching us the whole time?"
Nayru nodded.
"But why didn't you just help us?"
"Because," Nayru said. "I had to make sure that you really were strong enough for this quest. If I had helped, I may as well have been sending some curious villagers on this adventure."
"Wait a minute." I said. "So, this means we really are chosen to save Hyrule?"
Shadow looked at me. "Do you even know why Hyrule is in danger?"
"Yes." I lied.
"Let me explain." Nayru said.
"Link, when you witnessed Din steal your friend Jine, you saw a dark magic radiate off of her, correct?"
I nodded. "It was Black Magic, right?"
"Yes." She responded. "You see, that was not actually Din."
"First she's not Sila, then she's not Din, who is this lady?!" I cried.
"Patience. Allow me to reword my sentence. The person you saw was Din, but she was not reacting of her own free will."
"Whatever could take away her ability to think by herself?" Shadow asked.
"An awful weapon of the Twilight Realm. It is an evil Mask, something that belongs to a witch by the name of Majora."
"How did it affect Din?" I asked, confused as to how an evil mask could control such a powerful deity.
"You see," Nayru began. "Din is not the villain here."
"So, we should be going after this witch, then?" I asked.
"No. Majora has not done anything wrong. Majora was originally on a quest to deliver the mask to the temple of Shadow."
I turned to Shadow. "Everything is named after you!" I cried. A corner of Shadow's mouth twitched upwards.
"But as she was walking, she was ambushed by a small army of evil beings, which was led by a horrific woman by the name of Veran."
"I-I've heard of her!" Shadow said. "Hundreds of years ago, she nearly destroyed Labrynna until Sir Raven came and killed her." She looked thoughtful for a minute. "But I thought Veran was only a spirit that would possess people. In fact, didn't she control your body?"
"Yes, she did." Nayru said. "Only a select few have actually seen the shape of her humanoid soul."
"So, if Veran doesn't have a body, how did she attack Majora?"
"There is a leader." She replied. "Veran worships him, giving him everything he desires."
"His name?" Shadow said, narrowing her eyes.
"We don't know." Was the response. "We do know that he has seen her spiritual form, and supplied her with a body that looks like it. He gave her a small army, and she set off, ambushing Majora in Hyrule Field and taking the mask."
"Then what?"
"This group of evil people, consisting of monsters and other villains like Veran, stole a book from Hyrule Castle's Sacred Library."
"I heard about that." I said. "Jine told me someone took a book of ancient rituals and spells, but no one could find the theif."
"That's right. They all returned to their hideout, set the book on the table, and performed a spell."
"What did it do?" Shadow asked.
"This spell was given to the Hylians when the goddesses left Hyrule. The spell was to be used when the Hylians were in the apocalypse. We supplied the people with the hero of time, to save them when possible. But we knew that every world had to come to an end, and this spell was used to call on us three holy Goddesses. There was a separate line for each specific goddess, and the evil clan called on"
"Don't tell me." Shadow whispered.
"They called on Din." Nayru finished. "She appeared, of course, but was attacked with the mask and the monsters until she had no energy left. They put the mask to her face, and with some black magic, the mask sank into her face."
"That's disgusting." I said.
"So they sent Din away, controlled by the mask, to kidnap the princesses."
I pinched my brow. Something about this was beginning to sound very familiar.
"When they had Princesses Jine and Akaya, Din was led back to the hideout, and the princesses were trapped. In the main room, they did one more thing with Din. With stimulated magic, Veran sucked out Din's soul, and fed it into her own body."
I think my eye twitched. "Absolutely repulsive." Shadow said.
"So now, Hyrule is counting on you two to gather the other pendants. Here, Link." Nayru handed me a sword. "Three pendants combined with this sword will make the Master Sword, enabling defeat of Veran. And Shadow;" Nayru handed Shadow what looked like a small, glimmering plate with a chain attached. "For your efforts, I will award you with the Pendant of Wisdom."
Shadow grinned at me like a bragging child. "Look at what I got Link! I got the Pendant of Wisdom! She how sparkly and Sacred and Holy it is!? Aw, what did you get, a wittle sword? Too bad." I glared at her.
Nayru chuckled. "Good luck, you two, and be careful.
Outside the East Palace
"So, where do we go now, Shadow?" I asked. "We don't have a map of the temples, and Nayru didn't tell us where to go next, so..."
Shadow thought for a minute. "I once stayed at a really nice village when I was roaming around Hyrule Field."
"What was it called?"
She thought again. "I believe its name was Kakariko Village."
"Do you remember where it is?"
"I remember it being at the base of the mountains."
I searched for Death Mountain. It stood out from the other mountains, because of the huge boulders that constantly rolled down its sides. "There it is." I said, pointing. "Shall we head off?"
Shadow nodded to me. "We shall."
Back to Part 5 | Continue to Part 7
