~Chapter Thirteen- The Fear at the Bottom~
Warro clenched his teeth, his eyes did not blink, his skin was pale, and was trembling. He got a bad vibe from this place and the Spirit Pendant was sensing something. He clutched the pendant tightly and took a deep breath. He turned and saw that Zelda was just as nervous as he was. She clung to Impa’s are tightly. In fact, if Kuro was here, Warro would probably do the same thing as Kuro. He groaned remembering how Link had gone off to Death Mountain with her.
“S-So, what are we looking for, Impa?” Warro asked. “I thought we were heading to the Shadow Temple.”
“The Shadow Temple is the home to many illusions,” Impa explained. “The monster I sealed down here was not a monster at first. He became that way from our form of execution.”
“Execu—“
“She means she killed them, Warro,” Zelda said with a waver in her voice. “This place smells worse than the sewers. What happened down here?”
“I’ll let what you see tell the story,” Impa said. “If you can see them, that is.” She nodded her head over to Warro, telling Zelda to stick with him. “We’ll be splitting up after this. Warro, here’s your chance to redeem yourself.” She climbed down a ladder and waited for Warro and Zelda to climb down.
“You better not look up,” Zelda said as Warro began to climb down. She turned around and began to go down herself.
“Why?” Warro asked, looking up and seeing under Zelda’s skirt.
“Because—“ Zelda looked down and turned red. “YOU LOOKED!” She extended a foot and gave Warro a boot to the head, knocking him from the ladder. Warro landed on his back at the bottom of the ladder. As he tried to recover, Zelda had finished climbing down and stepped on Warro’s stomach, intentionally knocking the wind out of him, as she walked over to Impa, who was chuckling.
“You have much to learn about women, Warro.”
“I’ll say,” Zelda sighed. “Honestly, Warro, if I tell you not to look up, would you think it’d be a good idea to look up?”
“It’s instinct,” Warro groaned, getting onto his feet. “When people speak to me, I look in their direction.” He clutched the spirit pendant and his face grew even paler. “Something… Something just spoke to me.”
“I could imagine,” Impa said. “There is a skeleton here.” Impa stepped aside and showed a skeleton lying against the wall. Warro’s eye suddenly widened and his mouth opened up; a voice other than his own came out.
“Find the Eye of Truth,” he said, “then the path will be clear.”
“Impa, is that going to be the creepiest thing we see down here?” Zelda asked. Impa looked over to Zelda and tilted her head.
“You mean the Spirit Pendant allowing possession?”
“If this place is as concentrated with spirits as you say, wouldn’t he keep getting these messages?” Zelda looked over as the possession over Warro was released. He fell forward onto his knees, panting.
“Don’t say that,” Warro panted. “The Skull Kids said that if you mention something, the spirits might actually—“ His eyes widened as he was possessed again.
“Find the Eye of Truth, then the path will be clear.”
“That was the exact same thing,” Zelda muttered. “Could it be that…”
“It’s not a spirit that is possessing him,” Impa said. “He is involuntarily reading and imprint that the spirit of that skeleton left behind. It’s best to keep going.”
“But there’s a wall just ahead of us!” Zelda pointed behind Impa, where there was a wall.
“‘Find the Eye of Truth, then the path will be clear,’” Impa recited. “Things are not always what they seem, Princess.” Impa placed a hand against the wall and her arm went through it as if she were a ghost. “It’s an illusion. Now, come and take Warro with you.” Zelda nodded, picking up Warro and dragging him through the wall with Impa and she. The illusion led to a large room with a corridor that was filled with shallow water that flowed into a pool with a treasure chest below. “We’re going to split up and look for the source of the water.” Impa turned around and looked at Warro. “Try to keep the spirits out of your head, alright? I know it will be hard, but you’ll get stronger in the long run. Take Zelda and take the left path, I’ll go to the right.”
“G-Got it…” Warro shuddered. His sweat felt cold and he could feel himself turning paler with every second.
“Breathe, Warro,” Impa said. “Just calm down and breathe. You’ll be hit again, if you’re not calmed down.” She placed her hands on Warro’s shoulders. “Besides, you’re our substitute—our replacement Link. You have a lot on your shoulders, right now. Just don’t focus on talking or anything else. Just keep your mind focused on the goal. That is how Link does it.”
“But I’m not Link,” Warro muttered, as the group split up, in search of a way to drain the water. As Warro and Zelda stepped into the knee-high water, they shuddered at how cold it was. “Is it alright if we talk?” Warro looked over at Zelda, who had turned even paler than he was.
“Wh-what?” she shivered.
“Talking, you know,” Warro smiled, trying to forget that he and Zelda were in a very creepy place. “Kuro and I spoke all the time when we wandered around the Forest Temple. It helps calming me down, and Impa said needed to calm myself down, right?”
“I suppose,” Zelda responded. “So, let me start by asking a question. When we met, why did you touch me—“
“Oh, that,” Warro laughed nervously. “The Skull Kids always woke me up like that, so I thought that’s how—“
“What did I tell you about interrupting me?” Zelda asked. Warro placed a hand to his chin, thinking. He recalled what Kuro told him back in the Forest Temple.
“Is it that it’s rude and interrupting can sometimes lead to exclusion of important details?” Warro asked. “That’s what Kuro told me. I forgot what you said.”
“At least she’s teaching you something,” Zelda sighed. “Link told me that the Skull Kids were very mischievous, so now that I know you were friends with them…”
“They’re just lonely, that’s all,” Warro said. “When outsiders come into the forest, they always treat them horribly. It’s the same with the wolfos. They are really nice, if you don’t attack them right away. Everyone is a little scared at first, you know?”
“Surprisingly, yes, I do know,” Zelda chuckled. “I was about to call the guards on Link, when I first met him. Now, look at us.” Zelda stopped as she heard something suspicious. “Warro, can you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Warro stopped just ahead of her and listened. The sound of water falling somewhere was close by. It had to be the water source! “I hear it. Follow me!” Warro waded through the water toward where the sound came from, when suddenly he was sucked under the water. Holding his breath, he felt himself falling lower and lower until he was spit of the water onto the muddy ground. Warro found his hat next to him, he wringed the water out of it and stood up as Zelda was thrown next to him. “That floor was an illusion,” Warro groaned.
“It seems so,” Zelda coughed. “And we fell for it.”
“Ah-hah, that’s funny, Princess,” Warro laughed, getting her joke.
“I didn’t intend the pun, Warro,” Zelda chuckled.
“Pun?”
“Forget it,” Zelda sighed. “We have to find a way out of here.” She began to wander around the area they had fallen into. Warro followed after her, when a groan made them both stop in their tracks. It sounded like the moan of a dead. It groaned again and the color drained from Warro and Zelda’s faces.
“What was that?” Warro asked, reaching for his sword.
“To think that this place was tainted enough to have ReDeads,” Zelda muttered. “Keep slow and quiet from this point, Warro. ReDeads respond to sound and will approach the source after paralyzing them, which means that they make their victims not able to move.”
“Right.” Warro walked slowly alongside Zelda. As they turned around the corner, they saw someone standing up ahead. The groan echoed again; it came from the standing person up ahead. Is that a ReDead? Thought Warro as Zelda motioned him over to the wall, so that they could walk along the perimeter of the room. Warro nodded and followed her, briskly walking, looking back at the ReDead, getting a better look at it, which he now regretted it. Just the appearance scared him. It had no eyes and its face seemed almost wooden. Its body was emaciated and that groan... “Whoa,” Warro said as he slipped on the mud. He fell flat into the mud. “Ow…”
The scream that followed was so loud. It sounded as if a woman had been stabbed by a jagged sword and the blade was being ripped out slowly as other horrific, painful methods were used to derive pain from her. The scream made him feel as if his very soul had been knocked into a daze.
“Warro!” Zelda yelled. “Look out!” Warro looked up and noticed that the princess was paralyzed. Just as he noticed, he felt something yank him up off the ground by the collar of his shirt. His bones felt stiff and his body would not move at all. Suddenly a pair of legs wrapped around his waist and arms while a pair of bony hands wrapped around his neck, choking him. It was the ReDead! Its nails dug into his skin as it became harder and harder for him to breath. The stench made it even more to bear.
As Zelda watched all this, she could not help feeling helpless. Even when it was not Link, she could do nothing to help anyone. She was always the damsel in distress and seeing Warro like this just made her fear more for Link. What if he ended up in a situation just like this? She couldn’t let Warro die. If he died, she’d be no help to anyone in this journey. What was she to do, though? She could only heal people with her magic and she had not mastered any offensive spells yet. What was she going to do?
Warro’s eyes watered as the grip became so tight it was impossible to breath. He looked up as the ReDead’s head leaned back with its mouth open. His eyes widened as it came down. “No!” he yelled, his voice suddenly sounding different. His eyes narrowed and turned to an even deeper red than they were before as he spread his arms out. He broke free of the ReDead with a sudden burst of energy and he turned around, gasping for breath. “You little b*****d,” he muttered, rubbing his neck. “I’ll make sure to repay all of my debts!” He pulled his sword from its scabbard as the ReDead opened its mouth to scream again, when suddenly Warro leaned forward. “Let’s see how you like it now!” he yelled, before screaming exactly like a ReDead, female voice and all. The ReDead froze in place as Warro ran towards it with amazing swiftness and slashed it in half. He flicked the blood off his sword and put his sword away. His eyes relaxed and the red became less rich. Warro turned around and saw the ReDead lying on the ground. He placed a hand to his neck and looked at the blood on his fingers. “We should get out of here,” he said.
Zelda could not break her eyes away from Warro. Not only had he taken down a ReDead by himself, he escaped its fatal attack and screamed just like it. It even paralyzed her! She could sense something in that brief moment Warro fought the ReDead. Just what was he? “Y-yes,” she stuttered. It was amazing, to say the least, though. This boy… he was actually better than Link at fighting. It was no problem for her, however, because this was the only the first time it happened. Link will always and forever be the best in her eyes. “There’s a ladder over there.” She pointed to the end of the room, where an iron ladder was against the wall, leading into a compartment in the ceiling. As they climbed up, Warro made sure he was the first to climb up, so that he did not make the same mistake he had made earlier. At the top, he sat against the wall and waited for Zelda. When she made it to the top, he stood up and said,
“The spirits are telling me the same thing about the eye of truth. Since there was an illusion in the last room, there has to be one in here.” He stood up and felt around the walls with one hand while the other was against his neck.
“Let me heal you,” Zelda said. “Those wounds look like they could distract you.”
“It’s fine, Princess” Warro said. “I’ll wrap it up later. Kuro taught me ways to deal with wounds.”
Zelda took a step back. She was trying to be nice to him and he did not get it. He was still rejecting her! He was really close to Kuro, it seemed. He always seemed to bring her up somehow. Just why was she getting so worked up over this anyways? She nodded and just complied with his wish to not be healed. It would be his fault if that wound became worse, anyways. She felt along the walls with him and fell through the wall almost immediately fell through the fake wall and into the knee-deep water. The water began to drain. “Impa must have found a way to drain the water,” she muttered as Warro came behind her and hefted her up to her feet.
“Well, let’s go meet her at the entrance,” Warro said. “That chest at the bottom of that pool had to be the—“
“Warro, that pool can’t be drained. All the water was flowing into it, not from it,” Zelda laughed. “However, we should meet Impa there. Think you can lead the way?”
“What happened to you two?” Impa asked, looking at how soaked and muddy Warro and Zelda were. “You two look like you went through the Lost Woods on a very stormy night!” The three stood by the pool, which surprisingly had been emptied somehow.
“What happened to the water?” Zelda asked, pointing at the pool.
“You’re avoiding the question, Princess,” Impa said. “Where did you and Warro go?”
“We fell through a fake floor and ended up encountering a ReDead,” Warro said. “I don’t know how we did it, but we took care of it.”
“What do you mean you don’t know, Warro?” Zelda asked. “You did it yourself. You broke free of the ReDead and cut through it like it was a Keese.”
Warro shuddered. “The only thing worse than Keese are ReDeads, now…” He rubbed his neck. “Anyways, we can get the Lens, now, right?” He did not understand it. He did not remember doing anything to the ReDead.
“Yes, we can get it, now,” Impa said. “And thank you for saving the Princess. Link would never forgive me if I told him that I let you take care of her and she died.”
Warro shuddered again. If that was the case, Link would not forgive him either. After Impa got the Lens of Truth, they exited the well with their next destination being the Graveyard, where the Shadow Temple sat.
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