Chapter 14: The Desperate Battle

    The interior of the Water Temple was rich and gorgeous. Carved intricately from blue marble and inlaid with bronze and gold, the walls reflected the water’s reflection of torchlight. A massive pillar took up a great deal of the space of the main chamber, which was almost completely filled with water; yet the room had the impression of vast space, though the top of the hill was only a few meters above their heads.
    Link stared around in wonder, a smile passing over his face. Navi flew forward into the open space and turned back.
    “It’s very pretty. Rana would love it. Ruto, too…”
    “I think so,” Link answered, and dove in headfirst. Swimming down to the bottom of the chamber, where he immediately planned to start, was out of the question, so with a bubbly sigh he asked Navi for his heavy boots.
    As he sank, he caught glimpses of corridors and walkways, submerged but probably very convenient for a Zora. Down on the bottom, he clunked around slowly, seeing the many doors and yet more corridors branching off from the main room.
    He picked the closest entrance, but the door was locked. So was the next one, and Link stopped to rest his legs for a few moments before going to the next one.
    That hallway was not blocked by anything at first, but eventually he came to an empty room behind a door at the end of it. He was going to turn around when Navi tapped his ear.
    “Look up!” she chirped. Link did so, and saw he could still keep going. It must have been obvious for a Zora, but a Zora he was not, though he was still going to do his best.
    As he pulled himself out of a well-like vertical passage, he heard a squeal and his eyes widened. He straightened up just in time for a tall, slim, lovely Princess Ruto to fling herself bodily into him and knock them both back into the water.
    “Link!” she screamed happily, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You came back! And you have very good timing, too, although you’re a terrible fiancé to just disappear like that and leave me waiting for seven years. Why, I’m seventeen and we haven’t even been on one date! It’s just awful! And Zora’s Domain is frozen, so there’s nowhere with enough water to have a decent date anyway, and Daddy’s stuck, so he can’t approve.”
    Link’s eyes were round with astonishment, making him look extremely young and foolish, but he was able to climb out of the water again.
    When he was standing again, Ruto managed to back him against the wall with her arms around him.
    “And let’s see, so now you are here, so you can help me free the Temple from the clutches of those awful monsters that took it over, and then do whatever it is that heroes to do free the land from evil like Ganondorf, and then we can get married!”
    “Wait, Ruto. Slow down! You… t-think I’m e-engaged to you?” he stammered out.
    “Well, duh! I gave you the Zora’s Sapphire.”
    “But… I didn’t understand then… I… Princess, I would help you even if you hadn’t given it to me. I needed it in order to unseal the Master Sword, so I could defeat Ganondorf. I honestly didn’t know I was going to disappear for seven years.”
    “So… now that you know, can we get on with our current quest, darling?” She whipped away from him and swirled gracefully over to an intricate carving on the wall. “I know that to get where we need to go next, I need to change the water level, and that this carving is the lock and that the Princess of Hyrule’s Melody is the key, but I can’t make it work. What do you think?”
    “Maybe it needs the Ocarina of Time,” Navi suggested. Ruto pouted.
    “Well, we don’t have that.”
    “Actually, we do. Let me try,” Link said, pulling it out and stepping close to the panel.
    After he finished the last note, there was a swish, and the water behind him drained away. To where, he had no idea, though he was curious. His mind was more occupied with getting Ruto’s perceptions straight without mentally damaging either of them more than necessary…
    “That was neat! Let’s go!” Navi sang, zooming ahead. “Wait. Where are we going?”
    “How do we get down?” Ruto asked. “We can light the magic torches out in the main hall now, but if we break our necks getting down, it won’t be worth it. I’d use the Longshot, but a strange black shadowy creature just snatched it out of my hand when I wasn’t looking. Then it darted off where I couldn’t follow. And anyway I wouldn’t be able to use it here. How do we get down again?”
    Link looked around for somewhere to dangle his hookshot from, just in case, but he couldn’t find anything close to the hole. “Just follow me,” he said at last, and jumped.
    He landed safely, and turned to catch Ruto. Somehow, she landed in a heap in his arms, in the general position he thought might be safest. Apparently she thought so too, and more, because she tittered and kissed his cheek.
    His face immediately flamed red.
    He put the Zora princess down and started walking back out to the main chamber, pushing his wet hair out of his eyes. She followed him, babbling the same way she used to. He missed Rana more than ever.
    Travelling around the dungeon, though Ruto had unlocked a great deal of the locked doors, he still found some places she had not, and discovered at least one whole room she hadn’t even known existed.     The Zora, on the other hand, actually impressed him with her elbow-fin boomerangs, though when he asked her how she could detach fins, she winked and smiled at him secretively.
    When they reached a new passage that branched in two paths, Link went left, and persuaded Ruto to go right.
    After dodging many traps, climbing up waterfalls, and finding out simply how to move forward, he opened a door and found himself outside.
    “What?” Navi said. Behind them, the door locked, trapping them out of the Temple. Ahead there was a short wall of sandstone with another door, also locked. The space between the two doors was covered in silvery water, mirroring the silver-grey clouded sky. Halfway between the two doors there was a small, dead tree on a sandy island. A few bits of old pillars stuck out of the water, and the wind made ripples around them.
    Link walked forward carefully, relaxing a bit as he found the water was only ankle deep all the way through. The shallow lake seemed to stretch for eternity on all sides, and he wondered where in Hyrule he was, and how he was going to get back.
    Something stirred in his wake as he made his way over to the other door.
    Link sighed as he tested the barred door. No, he was stuck, all right. He turned around to go elsewhere… and forgot where he had been intending to go.
    A black-clad figure with crimson eyes waited for him under the tree. He stared silently at Link.
    Link walked closer, cautiously, drawing his sword.
    The figure drew its obsidian blade in return.
    Darkness seemed to radiate from the black Hylian like heat off a fire; Link attacked first, with a strong downward stroke. Two shouts rang out as the other parried perfectly, and sparks flew.

    Half an hour later, Link was approaching exhaustion. He had tried every technique he knew, every weapon he had, and every time, Shadow Link batted the attack away as casually as a leaf. Both were soaked. Link was bleeding in countless places, and the Master Sword sagged in his weary hand.
    Shadow Link circled him as swiftly as when they had begun, a slight mocking smile on his face. Navi was too tired to follow and fell to the water; Link swung his shield around just in time to block the blow and counterattacked pathetically.
    He was as shocked as his enemy when he felt his blade connect and slice. Shadow Link cried out in a deep voice and collapsed into nothing.
    “Was that it?” cried Navi in a relieved voice, fluttering up to Link’s shoulder. He pulled himself to his feet with more energy and looked around. The doors had not unlocked…
    A sudden whoosh behind him was not much of a warning, but Link took it and rolled forward, just in time. Shadow Link’s sword thudded with a chunk into the sand behind him.
    “Navi,” Link panted, “don’t help me target him. It’s as if he can read my mind through you.”
    “All right. Will you be all right?”
    Link nodded hopefully and went back to work.
    Shadow Link was not smiling anymore, and when Link cut him again, his deep scream held more anger than pain. The hero, from experience, spun around and found his adversary right where he expected him to be. He was even prepared for the flurry of blows that angry Shadow Link rained down on him, and jumped backwards so his shield wouldn’t get beaten out of his hand.
    Once again, he caught Shadow Link with the Master Sword, and the shadow vanished. This time he did not reappear right away.
    “Where is he?” panted Link.
    A maddened yell behind him, again, told him. Link whirled and was knocked off his feet by the dark man, hurling himself at the Hylian bodily. They fell to the sand. Both swords were accidentally flung away. Shadow Link hit Link over the head with his black shield and groped for his sword.
    “Link!” screamed Navi, and her voice brought his consciousness back to the surface. Shadow Link was kneeling on his chest, his sword poised to strike. Wide blue eyes stared into furious ruby ones.
    Then Link let loose Din’s Fire with his last strength.
    Shadow Link was blasted away, wailed, crumpled, and was gone.
    Link tried to get up and failed. His attention was distracted by the open space around him; it was open no longer. It was a wide chamber of blue marble, much the same as the rest of the Temple. There was no tree in the centre, and both doors were now unlocked.
    “I’m too tired, Navi,” Link whispered. “I need to rest.”
    “You can sleep,” Navi whispered back. “We’re safe now. I’ll keep watch.”
    “No, you sleep too. It must be late at nigh…” Link trailed off in the middle of a sentence and Navi saw that he was asleep. She smiled. He was still handsome, soaking wet, his blonde hair in his eyes, his mouth hanging open, sprawled on his back where he had fallen.
    She settled herself comfortably on his chest near his heart and fell asleep with the comforting rhythmic thud in her little fairy ears.



Chapter 13: The Realm of Silence    Contents    Chapter 15: The Deathful Water and Avoiding Marriage