Yay, another chapter! This one might be slightly shorter. I left out most of the temple. Because.
I have so many characters I can’t fit them all comfortably in the screen. Seriously. I guess that means I’m too unfocused, and I should be writing more about Link and what he’s thinking and feeling. But… Saria! and Midna! and Franz! and Navi! These people are all important! And Rana, too, I guess. Lol j/k I like her too. She’s going through a difficult spot, but she seems to be getting better. We’ll see how things end up by the final chapter. Can’t wait for it! (and continued apologies to people who anti-ship Link/OC. I don’t mind other ships, just this story happens to be a Link/OC ship.)
“And fun was had by all” is possibly the most OOC line in this whole story, but it’s also one of the ones I’ve enjoyed writing the most so far. Heh.
I gave Franz his magic whistle in character development, but now it just seems like an excuse for Link to be lazy. To which I say, lol, why not.
It is stupidly hot in here. Agh. I didn’t go anywhere all day and I am happy with this decision. I did read the Portal 2: The Final Hours thingy, and it was pretty cool. : )
Chapter 14: It’s Always Spiders
They touched down in the Spirit’s Spring at Kakariko, ejected from Midna’s portal in the sky. Rana was still firmly held in his arms, the two fairies fluttered anxiously beside him, and Midna hovered in front of him, watching Rana’s face. It was hot, though the sun was setting, and he wished he could instantaneously shed his heavy winter clothes.
He turned, disoriented, as Talo yelled from a watchtower on a rocky height. “Hey! Link just appeared in town!”
He trotted towards the hotel as faces appeared – lots of faces. Kakariko was full of people. Renado came to meet him. “What happened?”
“She got hit by a slab of ice and knocked into a bookshelf. Naeri thinks she has a concussion.”
Renado took her from him easily. “I will see to her. Wait a while.”
Link went into the hotel, and waved to the people there: Colin, Ralis, Jakob, Luda.
Unexpectedly, Naeri followed him. “Link, can I talk to you?”
Was this the dressing down he was expecting? “Yes, certainly.”
“Can we talk outside? Away from the others.” So he got up again and followed the fairy.
Naeri led him just inside the entrance to the graveyard. “Rana is not doing well, and she’s not listening to me. She’s eating too much, and not moving enough. I want to ask you to tell her to get a grip on herself.”
It was as much as he’d ever heard from the quiet fairy at one time before, and he took his time before he answered. “I don’t know if I can. A long time ago, back in the first months after I thought she was dead, I was much the same. I forgot about it… I’ve been rather hard on her, haven’t I?”
“It’s true about him being the same,” Navi told her friend. “He was moping and moping and moping. He wouldn’t even crack a smile! Except he did the opposite. He stopped eating and started working out like crazy.”
“At least Rana knows you’re alive,” Naeri conceded. “But this is a really bad time for her to be losing her edge. She’s not going to survive this war if she doesn’t take care of herself.”
“She just needs time, a lot of it, probably. She changes her feelings very slowly, doesn’t she?”
“She starts a thing quickly, and is slow to end it,” was how Naeri put it.
“So it’s not her fault.”
“I don’t care whose fault it is. I just need her to pay attention before she’s a fraction too slow or too foolish to avoid getting killed. Yes, she seems foolish, but half of it’s an unconscious act, believe me. She’s not as dumb as she seems. Usually. But now she’s not paying attention when she fights, and you’re right – it was really stupid of her to keep going up the mountain when she started losing strength – which she started losing because she hasn’t been exercising.”
Link blinked at the outpouring of information. “I’ll talk to her, but I don’t know if it will help. I hurt her so much she’ll probably just do the opposite. She doesn’t like being told what to do, either.”
“Well, neither do you,” Navi pointed out. “I don’t think anyone does.”
“Rana doesn’t like being told what to do, but sometimes she wants guidance and no one gives it to her. And she doesn’t always tell people when she wants it, because she has as much pride as anyone. It would be much easier if Zelda were here to help… but in the meantime, help me keep her alive until Zelda gets back to smack some sense into her.”
Link smiled. “Should I ask?”
“Zelda and Rana would spar occasionally when Zelda wasn’t swamped with work,” Naeri informed him. “Thanks for your help. I really don’t know what to do with her.”
“Be patient with her,” Link said. “You know her better than I do. I imagine no one was more frustrated with me than Navi ten years ago…”
“Although that would be because no one else knew you were around ten years ago,” Navi interrupted. “Man, Naeri, these humans, huh?”
Link looked at his fairy. “I bet you wish you’d stayed with the new Great Deku Tree and the other Kokiri, rather than running around after me and my crazy mood swings, huh?”
“You don’t mood swing. And dealing with you growing up has been weird on occasion. But Link, you’re my best friend. We’re partners. I wouldn’t want to trade it for anything.”
He smiled and reached up for her to sit on his hand. “I wouldn’t either. Thanks.”
In the morning, he woke in his room to see two fairies. “Rana’s awake,” Naeri said.
“And Franz and Shad are here!” Navi squeaked. “I like Shad. He’s a dork.”
Link smiled. “Any chance I can have breakfast first?”
They let him have breakfast, but by the time he finished and went to check on Rana, she had gone from her room. Franz was there, though. “Hello, Link!”
“Hi, Franz. Where is Rana?”
Franz frowned. “I told her not to go too far. She said she needed time to think. Her fairy friend tried to persuade her to stay a moment, but she was resolute.”
“I’m supposed to talk to her, that’s why,” Link said. “She’s still having a rough time. We did get a chance to talk the day before yesterday, though.”
“Yes, weren’t you going to the mountain? How did you get back so fast?”
“Midna recovered some power and used it to move us straight here. So how have you been?”
“Well, I only just got here. I was slightly side-tracked by your delightful scholarly friend here.” They had gone down into the living area of the hotel, and Shad looked over the edge of his book at Link, and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“Ah, hello,” he said, and went back to reading.
“He told me some pretty interesting things about statues,” Franz said. “But I won’t bore you with the details. What are you planning to do now?”
“I need to go to the forest next, to see Saria and find the next piece of Mirror. Hopefully Midna will be able to take us there…”
“’Fraid not,” Midna said, popping out of the floor and flopping down beside him on the couch. “I thought I’d be all right after a night’s rest, but apparently not. I need another Mirror piece, or the Fused Shadows, or my proper form, to teleport you anywhere. I can take myself places, but an extra person is currently out of the question.”
“Well then, may I come with you?” Franz asked. “I allowed myself to be side-tracked because Rusl sent another message saying the situation had been resolved… for now, at least. And the forest can’t be as bad as fighting the undead.”
“I don’t know,” Link said thoughtfully. “How good are you with spiders?”
“I’m all right with them…”
“What about spiders as big as a horse?”
Franz twitched. “That is a good question. Is anyone good with spiders as big as a horse?”
“That’s a good counter-question. The short answer is no. But if you really want to come, I’m not going to stop you. I imagine Jakob would have other ideas, though.”
“Really, must you banter so?” Shad asked. “I really can’t concentrate on this chapter.”
“I’m sorry,” Link said. “What are you reading?”
“The history of the Temple of Time. I’m looking for references to the Dominion Rod; I believe they are connected somehow. And of course the Dominion Rod is connected to the owl statues in Hyrule, which are probably connected to the City in the Sky.”
“That sounds convoluted,” Link said. “But tell me more about the Temple of Time.”
“Well… at the beginning of recorded history, it was probably in the forest, which is where it now stands. It has stood at various places in Hyrule, but it seems it has come full circle in its physical journey. It sometimes has housed the Master Sword, which you now wield, so you know that. It’s said that in the twenty-first century, it was connected to Hyrule Castle, through a secret passage, which substantiates…”
“What is this Dominion Rod, and how is it connected?” Navi interrupted just as Shad took a deep breath to continue on a long, jargon-filled thesis.
He frowned at her. “I was coming to that. The Dominion Rod is said to have a magic power over statues, that it could bring them to life, even. Back in some golden age of Hyrule, there were living statues that spoke and did the bidding of their masters. But time passed, and the magic faded, and the Dominion Rod was sealed within a part of the Temple of Time which no one has seen since… well, it was sealed, which was not a recorded event. I’m guessing second century.”
Link glanced at Franz. “I think we should check that out.”
Shad looked perplexed. “What does that have to do with saving Hyrule from Zant?”
“I don’t know yet. But there’s only so many significant places in the collective Faron woods for the Mirror shard to be, so I’m certainly going to check with Saria to see if the Temple of Time has twigged her interest yet.”
Beth giggled from behind him. “You said ‘twigged’ about the forest. Haha.”
“Hello, Beth,” Link said. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Ilia’s still trying to remember stuff, but she feels like she’s close. She says her mind is running around in circles at the point where she found Ralis, but she can’t remember before that.”
“I understand. You’re doing fine. Tell her not to worry herself sick.”
“Perhaps being relaxed about it would help her better?” Shad asked. “Sometimes we remember things in the dead of night because our brains are free to wander down paths that we don’t usually think to wander down.”
“I’ll tell her that!” Beth said. “Maybe she’ll play with the other kids and me, then. Okay, thanks! Bye!”
She crossed paths with Rana through the front door. Rana was covered with sweat, and her hair stuck limply to her forehead.
“You all right?” Link asked.
She nodded. “I realized something.” She looked warily at Franz and Shad, though the latter wasn’t paying the least bit of attention anymore, but continued. “I need to be stronger. I was completely useless in the last fight. It would have been much better if I hadn’t even been there. So if I’m stronger, then I can actually be of use to… someone. Worthy of being of use.”
Link frowned at her and stood, moving over to stand beside her. “Rana, you’re not ‘unworthy’ of anything. The last fight was just crazy, anyway, and…”
“Stop lying to make me feel better,” she cut him off. “I was a useless liability, and telling me otherwise is not going to change that.”
He shut his mouth. Maybe it was true she hadn’t done anything in the fight itself, but that hardly meant she was useless. But she wasn’t in the mood to listen, it was clear, although if she had been working out, that was a step in the right direction.
“So where are you going next?” she asked. “I want to come. I want to prove myself. …If that’s okay.”
“Well, I’m going to the forest to ask Saria where the next Mirror piece might be. But there’s no need for you to come…”
“But I want to…”
“Is it true there are spiders big as horses in the forest?” Franz asked from behind them.
“What, you don’t believe me?” Link asked.
Rana nodded. “The first giant monster me and him fought was called Queen Gohma, a huge spider monster that lived under the old Deku Tree. It was about as big as a… well, you could pack it into one of the bedrooms here, but that wouldn’t leave any room for anything else in that room.”
Franz’s eyes opened wide. “Wow. And you defeated it? It was your first monster… how old were you?”
“I was ten, and he was twelve,” Rana said, slipping back in time – and into child-like chatter mode. “We totally defeated it! It was awesome, he stabbed it in the eye and it twitched like crazy.” She looked down at the floor. “And it bit me and I almost died before we got to Hyrule Castle Town and found a healer. Who is dead now because of Zant’s attack.”
“And so began a long tradition,” Naeri said.
“Of me following after Link, getting in the way, and getting hurt through my own incompetence,” Rana finished.
“Not what I was going to say,” Naeri said.
“But it’s true,” Rana insisted.
“Not usually,” Link said mildly. “But I was going to go alone on this one, anyway.”
“May I come?” Franz asked. “Not that I haven’t had enough of the forest already.”
Link looked at him. “Are we doing this again? But this time you’ll have to reason with your bodyguard. I don’t think he’d be happy to be left behind again. No, I’m going alone.”
“And if there’s a secret place under this Temple of Time?” Franz demanded. “I know you are capable of doing it all yourself, but wouldn’t you rather have company?”
“Ahem,” said Navi.
“Ah… I apologize. I meant other humans.”
“I know,” Navi said, smiling cheekily. “But I was checking to make sure you remembered.”
“I’m not going to argue with anyone,” Link said. “I’m just going to go.”
“In that case,” Franz said, “I’m just going to come with you. Jakob will worry. But he’s in good hands here.”
“He’s healed,” Link pointed out. “He’s not going to like that.”
“Too bad!” Franz cried, sounding almost drunk with excitement. “I’m going on an adventure!”
Link looked at Rana. “I suppose you’re going to come whether I want you to or not, too.”
She looked hard at him for a minute, then shook her head. “I guess I won’t.”
“All right. Stay here and protect them. And keep exercising, it’s good for you.”
She smiled. “I really need a bath now. And I just had one yesterday.”
He patted her shoulder awkwardly. “All right. Have a nice one.”
He went outside and sighed. Epona was still in the Castle Town, and Midna was too tired to teleport. He supposed he was walking.
At least, he supposed so until Franz went to the stables and led out his own horse, Pwin, and Epona followed.
Link frowned at him. “Wait, how did you know I wanted Epona?”
Franz grinned. “I had an idea you wouldn’t be stopping at the castle on the way back. I didn’t know you’d be coming here, but I knew I would run into you pretty soon. Shad rode her, and she was gentle as a lamb with him.”
“What is with people predicting my movements,” Link mumbled to himself.
“Link, everyone predicts your movements, even the bad guys,” Navi said. “Just be glad you haven’t been assassinated yet. Although that would be hard with me around.”
“Why, you’d do it first?”
She giggled.
“Maybe it’s your Triforce,” Franz suggested, mounting Pwin. “It seems to resonate with certain people.”
“Maybe,” Link said. “Good to know I have a divine tracking device on me.”
“Oh, stop teasing,” Navi said. “You like being special.”
He smiled. “You got me. But aren’t we all special, Navi? I just happen to be inordinately, unhealthily brave. You happen to be inordinately crazy, and a fairy.”
“Good to know you think of me as special for my species,” Navi quipped, and he decided to stop teasing her. “Anyway, what are you waiting for? Jakob?”
“Ah, no,” Franz said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Malon was surprised to see them, but Link wanted to introduce her to Franz. She admired his horse, fed them, and then they were on their way again.
Night was falling under the great trees by the time Epona clopped across the bridge that led to Kokiri Village. The children were fascinated by Epona as always, and clustered around her, but not too close. Their fairies lit up the night like over-sized fireflies.
“Navi,” he said. “Go tell Saria – or Nati – that I’d like to talk to her, but not now if she’s tired.”
“Got it!” she zoomed away.
She returned as he and Franz were brushing down their horses. “She’s not asleep yet, and she’d like to see you.”
“Hi!” Saria said from behind Navi. “Ooh, hi, Epona. Hi, Franz! What’s up, Link, Navi?”
“I’m looking for a piece of the Mirror of Twilight,” Link said. “I’ve been told there’s a piece in the forest somewhere. I have a hunch it’s in the Temple of Time. What do you think?”
“I’m not sure what a Mirror of Twilight is,” Saria said, her finger in her chin. “Is this something that happened recently, or a long time ago?”
“Recently. Last week or so.”
“Hmm. I’m going to need an hour or two to check, okay? I’ll start at the Temple of Time and work from there.” She ran off into the dark.
“She’s not going there alone, is she?” Franz cried.
Link stopped him with a raised hand. “No, she’s just going to meditate. I think.”
“All right.” Franz yawned. “Sorry.”
“You go to bed. I’ll go to bed in a minute.”
But as he finished with Epona and turned to go, he saw the golden wolf on the edge of the village, and went to follow.
“Good evening, Hero,” said the Hero from the past, once Link had entered the spirit world. “How are you doing?”
“I’m all right,” Link said. “Lots of things on my mind.”
“That is normal. But are you coming closer to finding your spirit?”
“Closer. Not there yet.” Link sighed and ran a hand through his hair and down the back of his hat. “That’s part of it. I still don’t know… how to deal with my ex-girlfriend. I don’t want her to be unhappy, but…”
“Don’t ask me for relationship advice…”
Link grinned. “No, no, I won’t. But maybe you can help me with something else. Do you know anything about the Mirror of Twilight?”
“That thing?” asked the skeletal Hero in surprise. “I used that when I was a kid. I needed to go to the Dark World. Is that what they call it now?”
“I guess they call it the Twilight World now. I don’t really know.” Link chuckled. “You’d better ask your Wisdom counterpart, Hero.”
“Yeah… but my wife isn’t here right now.”
“You married…”
“The Princess Zelda of my time, yes. That was after many adventures, and many kidnap attempts on her from many villains. In fact, I went to the Dark World to rescue her that one time. But come! We are wasting time.”
“I thought time doesn’t pass in the spirit world.”
“Whether it does or not, you’re not here except so I can pass on my knowledge and skills to you. Let’s look at your jumping attacks, shall we?”
The next afternoon, they were at the Temple of Time, at an undetermined time in the past. Saria had detected ‘weird echoes’ from the Temple, and once they arrived, she told him to try playing the Song of Time and striking the Pedestal of Time with the Master Sword.
It was a long shot, but it worked, and now the three of them wandered through gleaming marble stone corridors, in a part of the Temple that could only be reached in the past from a mysterious portal that looked exactly like any other wall in the Temple – until you got up close to it and found it was a door. Link brandished his sword in his left hand and the Dominion Rod in his right hand – he had found that, too. Shad would have a field day when he got back. Oocco, the small bird-like creature, had joined them too, at least for the time being.
They were looking for a particular statue, one that matched a statue in the entrance hall to this maze. The whole place was filled with technology he had never seen before, including lightening fences, a strange type of Beamos, and striking switches shaped like diamonds. There was also a concentration of Lizalfos and small – only knee-high – spiders. He had also duelled a fearsome warrior, an animated set of armour with a sword longer than Link was tall, while the others were locked out of that room. At first the armour had been slow and brutal, and Link easily dodged its blows, but after he hacked away at it for long enough, its armour fell off, and it drew a slimmer sword. Then the battle had become fierce.
There were plenty of traps, and Franz revealed that he carried a magic tool with him: a small whistle with which he could slow time around him – or, from Link’s point of view, by which Franz could move very, very fast. This allowed him to get around the rolling spikes and swinging blades more easily than the others, even than Saria, who was small and light and nimble.
“Why are we even looking for this statue again?” Saria asked. She carried the Kokiri Sword, and she knew how to use it, but Link tried to keep her back from the larger monsters and particularly from the quick Lizalfos. She was the Sage, and she had magic powers, and he trusted her, but she was still child-sized.
Link put away his weapons, turned, and gave her a piggyback. “Because we need to know what was behind that big important door across the entrance hall. Standard dungeoneering procedure.”
“Oh, right. Man, this place is so big. Are we even sure the statue still exists?”
“Pretty sure. This place isn’t that old yet, and everything else is still here.”
“I guess. Thanks for the lift! I kind of like you as an adult.”
He laughed. “I’ll come visit lots after the kingdom gets put back together, and I’ll take you for rides all the time. You want to ride on Epona?”
“Sure! I like her. She’s pretty.”
“Do all Light-side girls like horses?” asked Midna curiously, floating around near his elbow. “Because one-hundred percent of all the females you’ve met since I met you have loved horses.”
“Possibly…”
“There it is!” squawked Oocco in great excitement. “Oh, there it is! Be a dear and go get it, would you?”
Link looked around. There was the missing statue, looking quite happy on a suitable ledge in an alcove at the end of a hall.
Link fished the Dominion Rod out of his belt without dropping Saria. “Do you want to give this a try, Franz?” Franz had proven his worth in this Temple. He had been clever around the traps, and he hadn’t made a noise when confronted with either the large spiders or the Lizalfos. He was a bit more shy of the Beamos, but that was understandable. Link didn’t like them either, and shot them through the eye before they could spot the group.
“I’d love to,” said the prince, and took it with gleaming eyes. He frowned at the statue, and at the rod, which had a glowing, pale-blue ball of magic on the end, and then he pointed the rod at the statue. The ball twitched, but didn’t go anywhere. He flicked it hard in the direction of the statue, and the ball shot out and nestled in a hole in the statue’s chest. It flickered like a heartbeat and turned green.
Franz turned to them in surprise. “It’s throbbing!”
“Is it?” asked Saria. “Lemme see!”
They passed the rod around, feeling how it quivered in time with the pulsing light, and then Franz turned back to the statue, which had been turning around in circles as the rod moved.
At length, they began the long trek back to the beginning of the Temple, Franz carrying the rod and bashing the monsters that got in their way with the statue’s hammer, which he could manipulate by swinging the rod. The statue hopped obediently after them, mimicking his every move.
Suddenly Saria looked around. “I feel that we’re not alone,” she said. “I feel… a fairy.”
There was a dark figure skulking in the shadows, and Franz swung at it with the hammer.
There was a squeak, an impressive but blurry manoeuvre, and Rana stood in front of them, eyes wide. “Gosh, you don’t have to kill me!”
“Sorry,” Franz replied uncertainly. “I thought you were…”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said, locking eyes with Link.
He sighed. “Why were you hiding?”
“I thought you would be mad that I came after all. But I’m not going back. I can help. I know you have plenty of help, but I want to be part of that.” She sounded worried, as if she wasn’t sure how he would take her pushing in on the group, but her eyes flashed with a defiance he had only seen overtly from her a few times before.
“Well. I guess I can’t scold you for wanting to help.” He smiled at her. “Join the party.”
Her face lit up, and she let out the nervous giggle she had been holding. Then she had to say hi to everyone, and took over the Saria-piggyback duties. The two girls and their three fairies chattered away, and after a moment, Midna joined them. Link wondered if Midna had had many friends in the Twilight Realm. It didn’t seem like it. He was glad she was making friends now. Although… putting the impish Twilight girl together with the Kokiri girl and the Kokiri-raised Hylian girl didn’t sound like a good idea in the short run. Someone was going to get pranked, hard. He just hoped it was the monsters.
They came back to the front hall, and Franz positioned the statue as a mirror image to the one that was already there. The door between them glowed with green light, and faded into nothingness.
The tunnel that sloped downward beyond was darker, damper, dingier, and unfinished-looking. Or perhaps partly broken. Either the time magic was wearing off, or the builders hadn’t finished this part… or it was far older even than the rest of it.
Franz gave the Dominion Rod back to Link and shot ahead with his magic whistle, disabling the traps so they could follow him more easily. Saria had to get down so both she and Rana could jump across the deep gaps in the floor.
Deeper and deeper the corridor delved, until they were halted by a huge locked door.
“Well drat,” said Saria. “Did anyone pick up a key further back?” Link and Franz looked at each other, and Midna shook her head.
“I did?” Rana said in a questioning tone, pulling a large black key out of her pocket. “I hoped I found it because you guys overlooked it, and not because you were looking for it and hadn’t gotten there yet.” She unlocked the door. It was stiff and she grunted as she finally got it to turn.
The next chamber was as big as an arena, without any of the seating. The only spectators were four statues around the edges of the room, sentinal-like.
Franz looked up and stifled a shocked noise.
Link looked up, with Midna in Navi’s usual place on his head, and agreed with his reaction – a massive spider was skittering around on the ceiling, even bigger than Gohma had been when he was twelve. Its eye clusters stared at them menacingly, and it made clacking noises with its mandibles.
The door locked behind them.
“Scatter!” Rana cried, as the spider crawled around on the ceiling some more. “What’s our strategy?”
“Franz and I shoot its eyes,” Link called back. “You three, wait until it’s down before you go in to attack it. Rana, take care of Saria.”
“I don’t think our swords can get through that armour,” Rana said. “Din’s Fire, perhaps?”
“I can do that,” Saria said, holding the Kokiri Sword and a Kokiri Shield firmly in front of her. “You guys just knock it down.”
Link fired a shot at the spiders eyes, and it flinched. An armoured plate on its back opened, and another large eyeball peered out at them. He fired again, and it fell to the floor, landing twitching frantically on its back.
“Get back!” Saria cried, running forward and doing the little hop, skip, and throwing motion that triggered Din’s Fire.
At the same time, Franz swung the Rod of Dominion and one of the statues at the edge of the room swung a huge armoured fist, pounding the spider into the floor. Even Link winced at the force of the blow.
But the spider’s armour was only cracked, not broken, and it flipped itself upright, hissing at them.
Link flung himself in front of Saria, almost colliding with Rana, who was trying to do the same. “Not while I’m here!” he shouted at it, stabbing at the eyes on its head. It hissed through its violently working mandibles and poked at him with a hairy armoured leg. He parried, but it was a heavy blow and he stumbled. It hopped to the side, and he followed it, keeping himself between it and the others. An arrow came whizzing over his shoulder and struck it ineffectually on the head.
“Rana!” he heard Naeri scream. “Don’t be suicidal!”
“I’m not, I promise!” Rana cried, and then she bounced through the right side of his vision and onto the spider’s back. It jerked even more violently, side to side, still attacking Link with its legs – which he dodged – but trying to throw Rana off as well. She hammered at the armour over the eye on its back. “You know, that Megaton Hammer would come in handy right about now. Aaaah!”
It skittered for the wall, throwing Rana off as it began to climb. Rana grunted and rolled awkwardly. Link ran to her. “You hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she said, climbing to her feet.
“I’ll get her back,” Midna said, swooping out of nowhere and using her hair to drag Rana over to where Saria was waiting tensely.
Link studied the spider as it crawled across the ceiling once more. Rana’s attack might not have been totally successful, but it was partly successful – the armour was split in the middle over the eye.
“Franz, Saria, get ready to do that fire-punching thing again!”
“Ooh, I like that,” Navi said. “You should make that official.”
“It’s official.” Link drew his second-to-last arrow to his jaw and fired it at the tiny gap. “Navi, we have more arrows, right?”
She paused. “Mayyybe. One minute.” She flew off, gathering the usable arrows he had already fired. The spider was spitting out baby spiders now, and a small pool of them was gathering in the centre of the chamber.
“We’ll deal with that,” Midna said, and she and Rana were off at them.
Navi came back, and he tried again. “Just don’t let the spider fall on you! Oh, you’re good.”
The spider fell over to the right, and Franz hammered it again – just barely.
Saria cast Din’s Fire, and it slowly rolled over, on fire, and advanced on them. Ooze was dripping down its face from his earlier attacks. He wasn’t sure if the slowness was from injury or from added menace, but quickly swapped his bow for his sword and shield anyway.
He skidded sideways to avoid a blow from its foot. With eight feet to keep track of, his senses were everywhere at once, tight to the breaking point.
Saria shouted in fear as it got right up to him, towering above him. “It’s all right,” he began to shout back, and then it knocked him down and pounced for the kill.
Time seemed to slow. There was a massive squelch, and just about the time he was realizing that it did not come from a giant fang piercing him anywhere, he also realized that he was about two metres further from its fangs than he remembered, and Franz was crouched over him with his arms under his shoulders. His whistle dangled from his mouth.
He looked up. The spider writhed, curled up, and died. It exploded in a cloud of flame.
“Well,” he began, and stopped. There was now a crowd of baby knee-high spiders where the one giant spider had been. The one giant eyeball was among them, on spidery legs of its own. It peered at them cautiously and began to back away. He scrambled to his feet. “Oh, this will be easy!”
And it was, and fun was had by all.
When they emerged, Oocco clucked over the Rod of Dominion. Its light had gone out. She flew away without a backward glance, ignoring Midna’s cry to come back and explain herself.
“You know,” Midna said over dinner at Kokiri Village, “these Mirror shards have been causing a lot of trouble since Zant split them up. I don’t know what the Mirror is like, but what if we’re assembling something truly terrible, here? What if it’s something we ultimately have to destroy?”
“I’m not so sure it’s an evil thing when it’s assembled,” Link said. “The Hero from the past seemed to know what it was, and he spoke of it as “that old thing”, which doesn’t sound like something evil.”
“Unless it’s minor evil that no one’s really afraid of and everyone’s actually kind of fond of,” Navi said. “Hey, it happens.”
“Usually that only happens with attractive people,” Rana said, and Midna giggled, and then grew sober.
“The real question is, how did the Mirror piece get back in time?” Link asked. “Did Zant go to all the trouble of finding a way back in time? If he did, why did he stop at hiding the Mirror piece, and not go around causing massive destruction, or taking over the kingdom then instead of now?”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Saria answered. “I think it’s more likely that he found the Temple of Time, but it repelled him. So he hid it quickly and fled, and the Temple drew the Mirror piece into itself to keep safe from evil things. And then it waited for you to come and figure it out.”
“This is such an unlikely series of events.”
“Are you really going to question it? Just be happy that we only have one more to get.”
“Yes, but how am I supposed to fly?”
“We’ll figure something out,” Navi said. “Go to bed.”