Link ran through the village, he didn’t care if he woke anyone up; he had important things to do. He stumbled down the stairs, nearly tripping over a stone, then ran across the field and stood outside of the castle walls. The draw bridge was closed. He had to get in some how.

“Hey! Is anyone in there? This is Link, I need you to open the bridge for me,” Link yelled. “Hello? Anyone in there? “Ugh they must be sleeping,” he thought. Link looked for some rope or anything lying around that he could use to get in. He noticed a few stones lying near the moat. He picked one up. “Hopefully this won’t hurt anyone.” He chucked it over the bridge. It made a loud crack as it landed. “Is anyone in there awake?” He asked. He picked up another stone and threw it even higher.

“Ouch, son of a -,” A person yelled.

“Sorry!”

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me Link.”

“What do you want?”

“Will you please open the bridge; I need to talk to Zelda.”

There was no response. Link thought the guard had fallen asleep again. He began to pace back and forth. “Op-,” Link said. The bridge started to come down. Link jumped up onto the bridge as it was about 2 feet away from touching down. Link felt a shockwave travel through his body as the bridge hit ground. The guard was standing with his helmet of rubbing his head with both hands while his spear was sitting in front of him. “Thank you,” Link said. The guard just looked at him, he was still half asleep.

When Link entered the market he realized something, Zelda was probably still sleeping. It would be hours before she woke up. Link wandered around the market. The place was quiet. All of the lights were out except for the lights in one small building. The building was made of brown brick. It didn’t have any overhang and it didn’t have any glass over the small windows, they were just holes in the brick. Link decided to see what was going on inside. He opened the rickety door and walked inside. The place smelled like sawdust. The inside walls were also made of brick. To his right were various tools and piles of scrap metal and wood sitting in front of a door with a window made out of hazy glass. In front of him was a wooden table with scratches and cuts in it. It had a large sheet of paper with elaborate sketches on it. To his left was a long hallway with a stationary cross bow at its entrance. At the end of the hall was a thick sheet of wood with a target drawn on it. A short elderly man, about five feet tall walked out of the door. He had a pair of glasses with thick circular frames. He had a white jacket with a black tie and black pants. He wore a small index card size piece of metal on his chest. It had something engraved on it but Link couldn’t quite make out what it said. His hair was balding and he had little tufts of grey hair on the sides of his head. The unfinished wooden floor creaked and bent as he walked on it. He walked in a straight line along the wall until he got directly in front of Link. He stopped, turned his head and looked at Link.

“Link, is that you?” he said. Link nodded his head. The old man walked up to Link faster than he was walking before. Link noticed that he had a slight limp. He grabbed Link’s hand with both hands and shook vigorously. “What an honor it is to finally meet you face to face. My name is Arthur Corith. You are a great person, you could be a king. I sense the good in you.”

“I take it that you build weapons in this facility?”

“Why yes, I am a professional weapons manufacturer. Every weapon in Hyrule is first built in this place then, if the weapon works well, and is approved by the army and the navy, its designs get taken to the factories were they are produced in large quantities.”

“Very interesting…” Link said.

“Yes, it most defiantly is. Here is our latest creation over here.” Arthur walked over to the stationary cross bow. Now Link had a closer look at it. It looked just like any ordinary crossbow, only it sat on a wooden post and it had a pulley with a cable connected to it to pull the string on the bow. About two feet down on the post were a bunch of gears and pulleys connected to the cable. A crank was connected to the gears and pulleys. The entire crossbow was made out of a certain kind of metal that Link didn’t recognize. It must have been some type of an alloy. “Now here is where the fun begins,” said Arthur. He limped his way over to the corner of the room. He grabbed a stool and a few arrows and brought them back to the crossbow. He set the stool down in front of the crossbow and loaded an arrow. “Watch this,” he said. He began turning the crank. The cable began to pull back the string. He was working up a sweat by doing this. The bow bent to the point were Link was about to run away form it in fear of it breaking and parts flying everywhere. “Ready… aim… fire!” he said. He pulled the trigger and the arrow went flying at the target so fast that no one could see it.

“Amazing,” Link said astonished.

“Go look for that arrow now.” Link walked over to the target. He saw a bunch of holes, but no arrow.

“It must’ve gone into the target, I can’t get it out.”

“Why don’t you go look on the other side?” Link walked along side the target. There had to be a good five or six feet of layers of wood and cardboard. Link looked on the other side. There were exit holes all over. Link felt something below his feet. He looked down and saw the arrow. It was still intact, but the tip was bent up. This arrow was made of solid metal.

“That arrow went though that whole target?” Link said as he came down the hallway.

“Yes it did. Would you like to give it a try?”

“Certainly,” Link said. “That is astounding. I wonder if this old man is playing some kind of joke on me. I have never seen anything like that happen before. I will get to see once I try this thing out.” Link sat down on the stool. Arthur handed him an arrow. Link loaded it and began to turn the crank. It wasn’t as difficult as Link thought it would be. He turned the crank without breaking a sweat. He aimed it at the center of the target and pulled the trigger. The string snapped forward and the arrow was gone. Link got up and ran to the other side of the target. Sure enough, the arrow was protruding from the cardboard. “I don’t believe it,” Link said in utter shock.

“How soon will this weapon be approved?” Link asked.

“Very soon, I actually built this a long time ago, but I got sick for a few years so I couldn’t take it to the military. Plus, we were generally at peace at the time so there was no need for the weapon then. War seems imminent now, I don’t know why but I can feel that something bad will happen soon.” How did he know that there was going to be a war? Link recalled what the goddesses told him about the people knowing the part they had to play. It made sense that the old man was just not aware of what was actually going to happen but he knew that he had to get those crossbows developed shortly.

“Well, thank you for showing me that crossbow, I found it very interesting,” said Link.

“You’re welcome. I don’t usually get to talk to people very often.”

“I have to get going now.” Link walked to the door and stepped outside. “Thanks again,” he said thought the door as he closed it.

It was still early in the morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet. Link decided to go to his room and get a couple hours of sleep before he talked to Zelda. He went into his room and took his soggy boots off and lied down on his bed. After what seemed like a moment, there was a knock on his door. He stood up groggily and walked to the door. Zelda stood in front of him.

“Link, someone has spotted a standing army in the Kokiri forest. I have no idea where they came from. We weren’t invaded by anyone so there is no logical way the could of gotten there; it is like they came from outer space,” she said that all in one breath of air, he could tell she was scared.

“They came from the past; that is Ganondorf’s army. He is here with my dark reflection.”

“I don’t know what to do,” said Zelda almost in tears. You mean Ganondorf created an army in the past and brought them into the future?”

“Yes,” he said soothingly. Ganondorf is using his evil to control them.”

“In that case, we better get to the root of the problem,” said Zelda with increasing bravery. Link couldn’t believe it. Just a moment ago she was almost crying, and now it seemed like she wanted to go to Ganondorf and try to seal him into the Evil Realm. Link smiled at her because of the combination of bravery and wisdom she had.

“That sounds like a plan,” he said.

“The army is on high alert, we can go out and try to find Ganondorf, if their army sees us, they will just be walking into a trap.”

Zelda and Link walked to the entrance of the castle, there were six escorts waiting for them. Two of them had spears; four of them had bows and arrows.

“Lets get going,” said Zelda as they walked out of the castle.

Chapter 9

He sat silently in the bushes careful not to make a sound. He knew that Link and Zelda would be coming this way. He could sense Link getting closer and closer. It was like his mind was connected to his. He needed to stop them both. His master awaited the power they held. There they were, just exiting the castle walls, oblivious to his existence. They had six guards with them. He didn’t care. If they caught him his army would destroy them. Link and Zelda would be dead, and their power would belong to his master. His shots would have to be quick and accurate. He could probably easily take out the guards, they looked brave and intelligent but on the inside they were, dumb, weak, and cowardly. They were getting closer, almost in range. He got down on his left knee, and picked up his bow which was already loaded with an arrow. The sun was just beginning to rise. It cast long looming shadows of the trees across the field. He pointed the bow through the leaves, as carefully as he could without making any suspicious movement in the bushes.

Link walked along, thinking about Ganondorf, and how he was going to defeat Ganondorf. He didn’t look forward to the ordeal, but it had to be done. He wondered what happened to the Kokiri when the army took over their forest. He hoped to the goddesses that none of them were hurt in any way or killed. He turned his head and looked at Zelda. She was so beautiful. He had loved her since they first met, and that was before he even liked girls. If anyone hurt her they would pay dearly. He would take on the whole enemy army to save her. He would die for her.

He pulled the string back on the bow, they were in range now. He was deciding which one he should take out first. Probably Link. He would never run from a fight. He could read Link like a book. Link lived within him. He had it all figured out now, he would kill Zelda first, and Link would come and engage him in a fight. He would kill him in the fight, the army would take over Hyrule, and his master would have the power of the goddesses. He looked down the shaft of the arrow; he had it aimed right at the side of Zelda’s head. Good, she was walking slowly, and she would be an easy shot.

Link was beginning to feel funny. The thought of anyone hurting Zelda was overwhelming. He could feel the evil intensions of someone close by. Link closed his eyes. He could see a blurry image before him. It grew increasingly clearer. He saw Zelda, but from a different perspective. Something else came into view. It was an arrow pointing straight at her. It looked like he was going to shoot Zelda. He opened his eyes, not believing of what he saw. Why would he think of something like that? That wasn’t something he would even think of. The image was still clear in the back of his head. He could tell when the arrow was going to be let loose. He could almost feel himself gripping the string. He had to do something fast. Something terrible was about to happen. “Zelda get down!” He put his arm around her shoulder and fell on the ground, taking her with him. Zelda let out a loud scream. A split second later an arrow went flying past one of the guard’s head. They all heard it sail by and they responded immediately. They drew their arrows and formed a perimeter around Link and Zelda. “Thank the goddesses you’re alive. He gave Zelda a hug and they stood up.

“What just happened?” Zelda asked. She knew something bad just happened, she could tell by how the guards were acting.

“Someone tried to kill you,” Link said, trying to hold back his anger.

“Oh my goodness, Link it’s you!” Link whipped his head around and saw immediately what Zelda was talking about. There was his reflection.

“I have to stop him,” Link said as his reflection began to run up the stairs to Kakariko Village.

“You do what you must, I will be hiding in the room on the top floor of the castle, trust me, I will be safe there,” she said placing her hand on Link’s shoulder ensuring him that she would be okay.

He looked into her eyes for a moment; he sure hoped she would be okay. “Zelda, I love you,” he said.

“Thank you, I feel the same way too…” they just stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. The trance they were in was suddenly broken by reality. “Hurry Link, you have to stop him!” Link ran after his reflection. He sped through the village, kicking a chicken accidentally. “Sorry sir,” he said. His mind was only on one thing, saving Hyrule. He could tell where his reflection was going; he was heading up Death Mountain. He ran as fast as he could along the trail. He could feel the adrenaline kicking in. He ran faster than he ever did in his life. He passed Goron city and came upon an end to the trail. Then he realized the trail didn’t end, it just came to a point where there was a one in a half foot ledge of rock. On one side there was a wall, and on the other side there was a shear drop off. Link looked up a steep hill to his left. “That’s where he went,” he thought. He raced up the hill, not stopping for a breath. He stumbled over a rock and nearly lost his balance, but he kept on going. Finally, the mountain became less steep. There were a few large boulders scattered around. They were about twice the size of him. He could sense his reflection’s presence around here. He ran towards a boulder and skidded to a halt as his reflection came out from behind the rock. Link quickly grabbed his sword and shield. His reflection did the same.

“Brave of you Link,” he complemented in a slightly mordant tone. “But unfortunately bravery does not outweigh stupidity. Look down there.” Link turned his head and saw Ganondorf’s army attacking Hyrule castle. The Hylians were courageously defending it. “Within hours, everything you fought for will be gone, and the Triforce will belong completely to Ganondorf.”

“There is no way that is ever going to happen!” Link said through his gritted teeth. He took his sword and clashed it against his reflection’s sword. His reflections sword didn’t move. Link blocked three quick jabs from his enemy’s sword with his sword and shield. He managed to push him back a few feet after his failed attempt. Link took an underhand swing with his sword and had it going straight at his neck. His reflection simply blocked it with his sword. “Ooh,” said Link’s dark side as Link had his sword pressed against his sword, so close to his neck.

“This almost disappoints me. I never knew how bad of a swordsman I could be.”

Link simply fumed in anger. He parried another swing from his reflection and did a chain of attacks on him. He swung to his right, then to his left, then underhand, then he spun around with blinding speed and his sword was once again stopped in mid air by his dark side. His reflection gave him a wicked smile as he dropped his shield, took a step back and drew his second sword.

“So sure of yourself are you?” Link said glaring at him. The reflection simply nodded with a maniacal smile. He started hitting Link with both swords, driving Link back towards the steep part of the mountain, all Link could do was block, he was growing wearier by the second. Finally, when they got near the slope, Link did an overhand attack, but it was blocked. His reflection blocked the attack with his left sword, holding his left arm to his far right and the sword was horizontal. In one swift movement, he switched the grip on his sword in his right hand, so the blade was pointing down instead of up. He pushed Link’s sword up in the air, spun around to his right, and dug his sword into the back of Link’s upper right forearm. Link screamed in agony as the cold steel hit his bone. Blood was oozing slowly from the wound. His reflection removed the sword, and used the spike on the handle to put a huge gash in Link’s forehead. Link eyes showed a state of pure shock. He stepped back a few steps and caught his heal on a rock. He tried to keep his balance but he went tumbling down the steep, rocky slope.

Link’s reflection had to go find Zelda now; he would have to bring his master back to extract the Triforce of Courage from Link. Ganondorf’s troops were coming up the side of Death Mountain that he had climbed earlier. He would have to find a longer way down. He needed to meet with Ganondorf who was in Kokiri Forest playing general. He ran around to the other side of the volcano. There was a fairly steep rocky slope, but he could make it down alive.

The sound of the enemy troops approaching was beyond frightening. They sounded like thunder, thunder that could tear you apart in seconds. Many of the civilians had fled. The Hylian soldiers were gathered inside the castle walls. They wished each other good luck and hoped they would return safely. Their general blew the whistle; that was their signal to attack. The cavalry were the first into battle. Most of them carried large spears, but the more skilled ones carried bows. The front line of the infantry was filled with swordsmen and spearmen. Then beyond that there was a large assortment of archers, spearmen and swordsmen. The enemies were set up in a similar formation. The two legions approached each other at a rapid pace. The cavalry looked at their enemies with deride. The Dark Hylian Knights wore black armor and their helmets completely covered their faces. One Hylian had a certain enemy picked out and his enemy was probably thinking the same thing. They stared at each other as they came closer and closer, their spears ready to kill. They each aimed for the chest. As they got within killing range of one another the dark Hylian moved to his left, causing the Hylian soldier to miss him entirely. A split second after that, he plunged his spear into the right side of the Hylian’s neck. He pulled back on the reigns of his horse. He was gagging and gasping for breath as the blood entered his windpipe. He couldn’t go like this, not now. But that seemed to be what destiny had brought him. He was covered in his own blood now. He breathed his last final breath and fell lifelessly on the ground. Now the battle seemed to be easily matched, one good guy would die, then a bad guy. Each side knew they had to get the upper hand. The fighting went on as each soldier’s life was taken one by one. Two men were in the middle of a sword fight when suddenly, something shot through the dark Hylian’s chest. It emerged out his back and went into the leg of another person.

He gave a look of total shock and collapsed. The Hylians in the back of the formation looked back to see orange streaks flying through the air at blinding speed. About twenty soldiers had set up crossbows on the castle walls and were firing them off at the enemy. “Prepare to die,” one dark Hylian cavalryman said while pointing a spear at the Hylian archer standing in front of him. The archer was big built and he looked frightened. He looked back with fear and rage in his eyes. Then something distracted him, an arrow hit the man behind him and he screamed and fell off his horse. He turned around remembering he was just in the middle of a confrontation. When he had turned back to face the archer, he had already pulled back on the string of the bow and had it aiming straight towards him, before he could react, the archer let the arrow go. It went into the bottom of his chin and came out the top of his head, taking his helmet off and revealing his face. Blood shot out of the top of his head like a fountain. He dropped the spear and it hit the ground on one end, then it bounced up and landed flatly. His eyes were pointing downward, and they were crossed. The arrow must have been the last thing he saw. The corners of his mouth and his nose oozed blood. The archer looked at him. His eyes contorted into a state of pure shock. He looked into the man’s eyes. The person that just tried to kill him was sitting on the horse lifelessly. The thing that scared him the most is the fact that he looked like a friend of his that disappeared. He rolled off the side of the horse. The archer collapsed onto the ground and began to cry.

Link was hanging on the edge of the cliff he had walked by on his way up the hill. He was grasping a protruding rock with his free hand. He had dropped his sword on the way down and he had sustained a few more injuries. He had some scratches and bruises on his legs and a cut across his left cheek. He could feel the fear coursing through him. “Don’t look down, don’t look down,” he thought to himself. His other arm daggled down, he was still holding his shield. He let go of his shield and turned his head and saw it bounce over the jagged rocks. “Damn, I shouldn’t have looked,” he thought aloud. He looked up. He had about three feet of cliff to climb up. He lifted his right arm and grabbed a small gap in the rock. A stream of blood had worked its way down his arm and off the end of his little finger. He had lost a little blood, but he would live. He felt around with his feet for another opening in the rock to use to brace himself. He felt something but it crumbled beneath his feet. His grip on the rocks was loosening; he didn’t want to die like this. When his hand was just about to slip he grabbed the rock again. He was breathing heavily, and he had to think of a way to get back up. He tried to look down at his feet without actually looking all the way down. Some of the rock was crumbling down there. He began to kick at it. The plan was successful. He had created a small crater in the rock to put his feet in. He looked up again, and he took note of a few rocks protruding on the face of the cliff, but they were above his reach. He then grabbed a dagger from his belt, one that he rarely used and he stuck it in a crack in the rock. It fit in tightly, which was good. He hoisted himself up by holding onto the handle of the dagger and kicking at the side of the cliff and grabbed the protruding rock with his free hand. Good, he was almost at the top. As fast as he could, he let go of his dagger and reached up and grabbed another rock. With all of his strength, he pulled himself up onto the flat ground.

His master sword didn’t lie too far ahead of him. He picked it up and looked back at the edge that had nearly fallen off and shuddered. He saw that Ganondorf’s troops were gaining on the castle walls. “I thought Zelda said she would be safe there. She is too close to the battle; I have to go to her before Ganondorf does.” While Link was amid his thoughts a giant boulder tumbled down the mountain side. He jumped to dodge it and he didn’t feel himself land. Link fell with his eyes closed. He could relate it the feeling he would get when he awoke from a bad dream and someone threw him up into the air. He slowly opened his eyes. An eerie calm began to take over him. He was falling head first to his death and he didn’t even seem to care. He turned his head and looked one way, and then another way. Everything was one gigantic blur. He decided to look down. It seemed as though he were traveling though space, out of the corner of his eye everything was distorted but he could see the ground getting closer and closer. The longer he fell the faster the ground became closer. “I’m going to die,” he thought. Then his perception of the world suddenly vanished.

Just as the Hylians thought the tide of the battle was turning, the dark Hylians began to fight harder. It became a rare occurrence that a Hylian would be able to take out a dark Hylian. The only dark Hylians that fell were the ones that were hit by the powerful crossbows. The battle was slowly growing closer and closer to the castle. Ganondorf had recently deployed new troops, the Zora. Suddenly, a giant barrel went flying through the air. It landed on a dark Hylian swordsman and exploded, causing bits and pieces of his armor to fly around and hit the nearby people. The soldier’s top half was almost blown completely off. The Hylians looked in disgust and some even began to vomit, while the dark Hylians didn’t even seem to notice the death of their comrade. The Gorons had set up catapults on the edge of Death Mountain, and were launching powder kegs and rocks from them. A dark Hylian soldier looked up to see a giant rock flying at him like a bowling ball from Hell, and it smashed right through his head.

The dark Zora had begun to attack the Zora River and Lake Hylia. The Zora stood ready to defend themselves with their swords. The enemy Zora wielded staves that had an S-shaped blade on it. All of its sides were razor sharp. Each Zora, good and evil, had a small spring loaded spear gun that attached to their hand. These guns could fire six darts before they needed to be reloaded. The Zora had one solid line of swordsmen. The enemy quickly broke through that. The battle was underwater now. A dark Zora dove into the water with his spear gun and went after the first Zora he saw. He chased it through the water at lightning speed. They went around underwater obstacles such as pillars of rocks, and underwater caves. The dark Zora was right on top of his target. He aimed the dart right at the Zora’s back, but he did a barrel-roll and started to go straight for the bottom of the lake. He eyed a small opening, he remembered this cave, his friend and he used to race through this cave when they were younger, they weren’t supposed to because it was so dangerous. He knew he would have the upper hand in this situation. He entered the cave, the enemy closely following. He immediately took the passage on the right, for the left was just a dead end. They entered an area of total darkness. They sped though the large tunnel; they could feel each other forming currents in the water. The Zora took a sharp turn to the left and entered a narrow passageway. He felt something zoom past his head. He felt it again, this time it nicked the side of his head. The tunnel began to become narrower and narrower. He knew this tunnel well, at the end there is a pillar of rock, and you need to turn fast to avoid hitting it. They each could feel the rock close to their arms; sometimes it would even scrape off a piece of skin. The end of the tunnel was near. As soon as the Zora knew he was out of the tunnel then took a sharp turn towards the right leading him into another tunnel. He heard a loud “crack” echo through the cave. “I lost him.” He traveled through the tunnel until he saw light. The enemy was wining; his comrades were floating lifelessly in the water. He continued to fight. He would fight to the death, for his friends.

Ganondorf had joined the battle on the surface. He rode atop his horse, looking across the field as if nothing bad was going on. He stared at the charging Hylians with disgust; then an evil smile came across his face. He held his hand up in the air, and summoned lighting bolts to form a glowing yellow energy ball in his hand. The world seemed to turn black when he did this, making only Ganondorf and a few of the dark Hylians visible under its eerie luminosity. Ganondorf whipped the ball through the air and it hit a soldier on his horse. Both the soldier and the horse began to glow. Static like bolts bounced off of them. In a matter of seconds, they both collapsed onto the ground and twitched a few times, and then they became completely motionless. Upon seeing this, the Hylians went into full retreat. Some of them were picked off by the arrows. The ones that survived went beyond the castle walls. Hoping the enemy wouldn’t cause them anymore harm.

Link shot up from what felt like a deep sleep. As his eyes adjusted to the light he noticed he was in an area where everything was white. He had been here before. Link started to feel the fear he should have felt when he fell off of that cliff. He stood up shakily. “Am I dead,” he thought.

“No you are not dead; you are just frozen in your time. Time here is a thousand times faster that your time.” The voice repeated itself twice. Link knew were he was now, in the lair of the goddesses.

“Why am I here?” He asked.

“We have something very important to tell you Link. When Ganondorf created a copy of you and his army, he had managed to balance the force between good and evil. We are giving you all, those who keep the force into balance the power to throw the force out of balance.”

“But why would you want to do that?”

“Although we aren’t allowed to directly interfere with our creation’s problems, we can speed up the process that fixes them. We know how unbelievably impatient people can be. There is great risk though. If you allow yourself to loose evil will dominate the world for centuries, possibly millenniums. “If you win good will rule the world and it will have to be maintained and evil must be stopped from destroying it.”

“I will not fail you Goddesses, I know my destiny.” Suddenly the lair dispersed from his sight.