Chapter 30 Oh snap...

Chapter 30

 

Oh snap….

 

 

“Gerad calm down.” Calhan said soothingly as Gerad paced back and forth in front of his body.

“Calm down?! Calhan! My soul has been separated from my body for crying out loud!” Gerad yelled as he stopped pacing to face Calhan, “How the hell can I calm down?!”

“Gerad if you don’t calm down, I can’t put you back together.” Calhan continued as Gerad began pacing again.

“Great, first the woman I love stabs me, with her arm of all things, then tries to eat my soul and manages to do this to me.” Gerad grumbled but calmed down slightly.

“Yeah, women do strange things when they’re in love.” Calhan agreed patronizingly.

Gerad stopped pacing, “Ha ha, very funny.”

“I do try.” Calhan said amusingly to himself, “Luckily we’re in here and not in the real world; otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do this without repercussions.”

“What do you mean?” Gerad asked as Calhan began drawing symbols in the air. The symbols glowed different colors and began to float through the air toward Gerad’s body.

“Oh, just that it’d shorten my remaining time considerably if I had to do it over there. This way, I only spent a little bit of the time by bringing you here.” Calhan replied not looking up from what he was doing.

“How much time did you spend?” Gerad asked as the symbols began to spin around him.

“Oh, about a year.” Calhan replied.

“Wha-“ Gerad was interrupted by Calhan casting the spell.

There was a bright flash of light and searing pain through all of Gerad’s nerves. As the light and pain faded Gerad felt himself get slightly heavier as his sense of gravity returned.

“A little bit of a warning would have been nice, Calhan.” Gerad said through his teeth, his joints, toes, and fingers were still tingling.

Calhan chuckled, “You still wouldn’t have been prepared. Ready to go back?”

“Is this one gonna hurt too?” Gerad asked sarcastically.

“Nah,” Calhan said waving a hand, “At least not as much.”

 

Sheik was still sitting leaned against G-Link looking up at the sky when he saw a bright light getting closer and closer.

“Duck!” Sheik cried as he tried to jump sideways, all he managed was a roll.

G-Link closed up on the spot as the others saw what Sheik had seen and dove out of the way. The comet hit the stone floor of the courtyard a few feet from G-link’s head. The rest of the group slowly approached the crater as G-Link sat up.

“Not gonna hurt my butt.” Gerad coughed as he climbed out of the hole along with Calhan.

“I never said it wouldn’t hurt.” Calhan corrected as he dusted himself off.

“You also never said we’d appear forty feet up, inside a giant chunk of rock and crash to the ground.” Gerad said shaking the dust out of his hair.

“Details.” Calhan replied.

Gerad sighed in exasperation as the rest of the group watched in amusement.

“Welcome back.” Meria smirked.

“It’s good to be back.” Gerad sighed rubbing his shoulder, “How is everyone else?”

“A few bumps and bruises, Dahrin’s back to normal, as is Aerica.” Meria answered looking to where Aerica sat against the wall.

Gerad began to walk to her but a gentle hand on his shoulder stopped him. He looked down at his sister and she shook her head gently. Gerad sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

“Well, we can now say that the forest temple is corrupted, same probably goes for the rest of them. We should leave as soon as possible and head to the next one.” Calhan mused to himself.

“What is the next one?” Gerad asked.

“Spirit and Wind are the two remaining elements.” Calhan answered.

“What about Light?” Selene asked, “It’s one of the elements, but does it even have a temple?”

“Yeah I always did wonder about that.” Sheik mused; he had gained some muscle control but was still a little shaky.

“Sure you did.” Dahrin picked. Sheik stuck his tongue out at him as Dahrin laughed.

“At any rate,” Selene interrupted before their jesting could go any further, “Is there one?”

Calhan closed his eyes in thought, pinching the bridge of his nose.

The group waited for an answer, Aerica joined the small circle they had subconsciously made with Meko on her shoulder.

“Yes and no.” Calhan finally answered.

“Meaning?” Selene pressed.

“Yes in the sense that there is one, and no in the sense that it’s not here anymore.” Calhan replied dropping his hands to his sides.

“So, no scary monsters from the past that the Light sage betrayed for you.” Sheik joked with his normal goofy grin spread wide across his face.

“Lucky me.” Selene said sarcastically.

“Indeed.” Calhan agreed.

“So that shortens the list of people who want to kill us,” Meria said folding her arms across her chest, “how many more does that leave?”

“Well, there’s, Arachnis, Claire, Zara/Lara, and Krell, so far.” Sheik replied counting off on his fingers.

“Don’t forget Ganondorf.” Lucius piped in.

“Yeah, the one responsible for this whole mess.” Dahrin agreed.

“So we can safely assume there’s one in the Spirit temple. What about Wind, does it have a temple?” Meria asked turning to Calhan.

“Yes.” Calhan replied writing something down in his pocket book.

“Where is it then?” Selene asked.

“I’m sorry?” Calhan asked apologetically looking up from his notes, “Where’s what?”

“The Wind temple.” Gerad reminded him, “You said it existed and now we’re asking where it is.”

“Oh,” Calhan said surprised, “it’s not important, we’ll get there eventually. We need to go to the Spirit Temple first. If my calculations are correct, and following the pattern of things so far, that should be where Ganondorf is headed next or has already been.” Calhan said putting his book back into the small bag on his hip.

“Set pattern? But we’ve been the ones waking up the monsters, not Ganondorf.” Selene said hesitantly.

“Yeah, I woke up Arachnis with my sage powers.” Sheik said.

“And I woke up Claire with mine, or set her loose as the case was.” Selene replied.

“Originally Krell was set loose by Charkosh and myself, but I had resealed him. So someone had to have broken the seal, and it wasn’t me.” Aerica said quietly.

“It could have been Ganondorf.” Gerad suggested.

“That is my point. Ganondorf has visited all these places before us and has either weakened or broken the seals. That’s why all these monsters have been reviving.” Calhan said.

“Great, I thought it was just our knack to have insanely horrible luck, but no it has to be something like the greatest enemy of mankind is loose once more and wreaking havoc.” Sheik said sarcastically.

“It’s ‘cause we’re special.” Selene chuckled.

“Special or not, it’s our job now. How do we get to the Spirit Temple?” Lucius asked turning to Calhan.

“Well, first we have to get out of here. So, Aerica if you would do the honors of leading us out?” Calhan asked turning to her and bowing slightly.

“We should take the tunnel to Zora’s Domain or Death Mountain; it would be faster than traversing through Kokiri Valley. Especially the way it’s overgrown.” Aerica replied in an emotionless voice.

“And not to mention the blown up bridge.” Sheik inserted quietly.

“Alright, we’ll go to Zora’s Domain using the tunnel, circle back this way to pick up the horses, then head to the Gerudo Fortress, sound like a plan?” Gerad asked.

The others nodded in agreement and the group set out with Aerica in the lead. Lucius poked G-Link who had curled up and gone to sleep.

“I’m coming.” G-Link mumbled.

“Just making sure, wouldn’t want you to become a permanent fixture here; you wouldn’t match the rest of the rocks.” Lucius teased.

“Ha, ha.” G-Link replied sarcastically.

 

The black crow with the silver collar circled them once and headed in the direction of Zora’s Domain.

 

Aerica pulled hard at the vines that covered the cave entrance to no avail. Gerad unsheathed his sword and sliced at them when Aerica stepped back out of breath. The vines didn’t cut.

“Now what?” Sheik asked.

Aerica sighed and gathered her sage energy. She took control of the vines and moved them out of the way. She swayed slightly when her energy dissipated. Gerad steadied her but she shied away from him.

“This is the entrance to the tunnel, we just follow it straight through.” Aerica said entering the cave. The others followed; Selene patted Gerad on the arm as she passed him.

“It’s kind of dark in here.” Sheik’s voice echoed.

“Oh wait!” Selene said digging into her pack. She pulled out the torch globe and passed her hand in front of it to activate it. The soft white glow of the torch illuminated the tunnel making it easier to traverse the rocky ground.

Despite this it was still slow going down the tunnel that twisted and curved every which way. No one spoke during the whole trip through the tunnel all of them too busy keeping track of their feet.

Finally, as Gerad helped Selene then Meria over a bulge in the tunnel floor, they could just see light beaming around the next bend.

“Oh, smell that?” Sheik asked sniffing the air.

A breeze came down the tunnel bringing with it the scent of water and fresh air. The group hurried their pace and emerged into the bright sunlight beaming on the Zora River.

“Thank the goddesses!” Sheik sighed heavily as he stretched. The others grunted in agreement stretching out their muscles from being hunched over slightly for the trip through the tunnel.

Gerad rubbed his shoulder as he surveyed the area around him; the river flowed peacefully from the direction of Zora’s Domain. He could just barely hear the waterfall off somewhere to his right.

The group was on a ledge about halfway up the wall of the canyon. Gerad could kind of see a way down, but they would have to be careful.

“Ok, let’s get going.” Gerad said starting toward the ledge.

The rest of them followed as he slowly let himself down to the next shelf and the next one after that. The climbing trip was slow going, except for G-Link who had just curled up and rolled off giving the rest of them a fright; he was now waiting for them at the bottom of a crater.

The rest of the group finally made it to the canyon floor and Lucius walked over to his friend to find him asleep. Lucius rolled his eyes heaven ward seeking patience then kicked his friend in the side. It didn’t even budge him.

“We’re going.” Lucius called over his shoulder as he walked away slightly favoring his foot.

G-Link rolled after him Gerad thought he heard a chuckle come from G-Link as he fell into step behind the two of them.

“So we’re going to walk to the horses, get them, and then head straight for the Gerudo Fortress?” Sheik asked walking next to Meria.

“Sounds about right.” Gerad answered, he stumbled slightly but kept upright. Dahrin steadied Selene as she stumbled as well.

“Not to sound like I’m complaining, but I’m worn out.” Sheik said holding up a hand.

Gerad glanced back at the rest of the group and saw in them a reflection of how he felt. Meria was basically a zombie; she had used a lot of energy keeping the wall up. Selene didn’t look any better; she had dried blood streaked across her face. Glancing from face to face Gerad made his decision.

“We’ll stop for the night once we get to Hyrule Fields. But without gear it’s going to be a cold night.” Gerad said turning back to face forward.

The others nodded in agreement as they slowly trudged onward helping each other stay on their feet. The group made it to Hyrule Fields just as the sun was beginning to set. They walked slightly farther to a crevice in the rock wall and huddled down for the night sharing their warmth.

“I’ll never complain about having to pack blankets again.” Sheik said through shivering teeth.

“Heh, yeah right. The day you stop complaining is the day when Durongoes fly.” Dahrin retorted wrapping his arms more snuggly around Selene. The others chuckled in agreement as the night fell around them making the temperature fall even more.

No one slept well as the night seemed to drag on. Gerad watched out the entrance to the crevice as the Stalchildren wandered around. He rubbed his arms trying to warm them not having much effect.

He felt someone lean against his back and glanced over his shoulder to see Aerica. She wrapped her arms around his chest giving him some warmth. He smiled as he put his arms over hers and returned his gaze to Hyrule Fields.

The sun finally crept over the mountain ridge and slowly brightened the fields. Gerad started awake not realizing he had fallen asleep. Aerica had her head resting on his leg Meko curled on her shoulder. Calhan was asleep leaned against his other side snoring lightly.

Gerad nudged Calhan awake to get him off his shoulder which had gone numb. Calhan jerked awake and blinked bleary eyed in the dawn light.

“Mornin’.” Calhan yawned as he stretched.

Sheik sat up slowly, uncurling his body away from Meria who had fallen asleep in his arms, his white hair sticking up at odd angles. Gerad gently shook Aerica awake as the rest of the group slowly woke and filed out into the open field. Gerad was the last one to exit as he stretched his stiff sore muscles.

“Alright let’s get going.” Gerad yawned as he started walking toward Kokiri, “The sooner we get the horses the sooner we can get to Gerudo Fortress and stop Ganondorf.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t count on that little pup.” A deep baritone voice said from behind them.

Turning around and drawing their weapons the group faced an older man dressed in black armor. He had orange hair, olive skin, and amber eyes. He looked all the world to be an older version of Dahrin. Their eyes wide with freight the group took tentative steps backward.

“And I thought today was going to be a good day.” Sheik sighed as Ganondorf laughed.