A/N: Finally, another update! Sorry if this chapter is a little tedious . . . I wrote most of it a while ago and when I read it over I realized I'd made the fight with Stallord really, really detailed, but I didn't want to redo the whole thing. Oh, and the end might be kind of abrupt because I just wanted to get this chapter done so I could update. Anyway, enough of my rambling. Read on!
Disclaimer: Me?! Own Zelda?! Pff, I wish!
Dinosaurs and Mirrors
Link's POV . . .
I stepped into a huge, round room. The door slammed shut behind me as I walked towards the center, where I could see something sticking out of a huge pit. It was full of sand which, surprisingly, wasn't moving, unlike all of the other sand scattered around the rundown temple. As I cautiously walked forward, I saw that the thing that was sticking out of the pit was actually a giant skeleton, probably from some old dinosaur that had gotten stuck in the sand. I warily went up to it, and then I jumped back slightly as a figure suddenly appeared on top of the skeleton's head.
The figure looked almost exactly like Zant, except for the long, orange hair sticking out from the bottom of the helmet she was wearing. I assumed this had to be Zanta.
"You still live . . . How astonishing." Her voice was high and whiney, and it made me cringe when she spoke. "No wonder some call you Hero. But this is truly a bittersweet reunion- hey wait, you're not Lily!"
"Took you long enough," I muttered, and then I said louder: "No, I'm Link."
"Are you a boy?!" I frowned at the question.
"Of course I'm a boy!"
Zanta tilted her head to one side, as if she were confused.
"Then . . . why are you wearing a dress?"
I groaned and took out my sword, pointing it at the Twili.
"Look, I don't know why you all think this is a dress, but it is a TUNIC!" I thrust my sword towards her threateningly, but she just laughed at me.
"Whatever, weirdo. Now, where's Lily and Mika? Did that little brat finally die in the temple?" I could hear the evil smile in Zanta's voice.
"Wait," I whispered to Mika as I saw him moving around in my shadow like he was about to come out and start screaming at Zanta. Just then, we all turned to look at the other side of the pit as we heard a loud bang. A door in the wall that I wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't looking for it opened, and out stepped Lily. I sighed with relief as she saw me, smiled, and pointed to her shadow on the ground.
"There you are!" Our heads snapped up to Zanta as she spoke, and I saw Lily flinch and take out her sword. "I thought you were dead!"
"No, but you will be!" Lily tried to sound threatening, but Zanta merely chuckled darkly.
"You talk pretty tough. But let's see how you do with an even tougher enemy!" Zanta put her hands together and a sword materialized in her hands. She quickly spun it around and thrust the blade deep into the head of the dinosaur.
"You and Stallord play nice!" Zanta cackled, and then she warped away. Lily and I looked across the pit at each other for a split second, before the dinosaur, Stallord, started to shake. A red glow appeared in his eyes and he rose up off the ground with a mighty roar that made the whole floor rock. That was when the sand started to move. Lily gave out a yelp as the sand under her feet shifted and she was nearly knocked over.
"Link, do something!" Mika yelled from my shadow.
"I'm on it!" I quickly got out my spinner and jumped on. I rode around the pit and when I was a few feet away from Lily, my shadow jumped to her and her shadow jumped to me. Lily still hadn't gotten her balance, and she pitched forward just as I was about to grab her hand.
"You missed, you idiot!" I was only slightly relieved to see Midna pop out of my shadow and float next to me as I continued to travel around the pit.
"Hey, she moved! It's not my fault, it's hers! Ow!" I almost lost my balance as Midna smacked me on the head.
"Don't argue, just go get her! It looks like that skeleton's going to do something big!" I glanced over and saw Stallord standing up straighter, as if he was charging up for something. I quickly sped up and turned my gaze back to Lily. She had gotten her balance back and was trying to make her way over to the edge of the pit. Poor girl. I guessed she hadn't gotten used to the sand before because Mika kept helping her up as she almost fell over several times.
"Lily, hold out your hand!" Lily looked over at me as I called out to her. Mika and Midna went back into the shadows as I came near Lily again. My back suddenly felt extremely hot, and when I looked back I saw that Stallord was breathing out a huge cloud of steamy, purple gas that I was pretty sure wouldn't have a good effect if it touched me. I looked back at Lily. If I didn't grab her this time, she'd be toast!
She tried to hold out her hand as I came up to her, but she tripped and went forward again. Fortunately, I managed to grab the front of her tunic and pull her up onto the spinner before the purple gas descended around her. I sighed with relief again when she was on the spinner behind me, managing to stay balanced. However, the relief didn't last long.
"HOW DARE YOU GRAB ME THERE?!" Lily screamed, pounding on my back with her fists.
"I just saved your life!" I was shocked that she didn't realize she would've been roasted had I not grabbed her.
"YOU GRABBED MY CHEST, THAT'S WHAT YOU DID, YOU PERVERT!" She yelped and quickly grabbed onto my shoulders as she nearly fell backwards off the spinner. When she'd regained her balance, she glared at me. "Just because you're saving my life does not mean you get permission to try and grab my chest!"
"Wha- I did no such thing!" I yelled at her, trying to glare back at her while still keeping my eye on the dinosaur. The spinner seemed to be just too fast for him to catch.
"Well your hand was close enough!"
"GUYS!" Lily and I looked at Mika as he came out of the shadows. "Can we please focus on the giant, Hero-eating dinosaur in the center of the room instead of on Link grabbing Lily's chest?!"
"But I didn't grab her-"
"LINK!" I winced as Midna came up and screamed in my ear. "JUST GET THE FREAKIN' DINOSAUR BEFORE HE KILLS US ALL!"
I let out an annoyed breath as I tried to think of a plan. Lily was still holding onto my shoulders because every time she let go, she almost fell off the spinner. It was just big enough to fit the both of us, but not exactly comfortably.
"What do I do . . .," I muttered to myself as I looked at the dinosaur. I had to find some way to kill it, presumably by getting the sword stuck in its head out. But, the problem was just that: it was stuck in his head, and Lily and I were all the way on the floor. The only people who could fly up there were Midna and Mika, but I didn't want to put them in any danger.
I heard Lily give a snort behind me when she heard my question, and I frowned at her.
"Alright, let's see you come up with an idea then!"
"Okay, how about this: use the spinner to glide across the sand and over to Stallord's spine. When you get there, hack into it with the spinner and see what happens. My guess is his spine will crack and he'll fall over." I stared slightly openmouthed at Lily as she finished. She smiled at me. "But that's just a suggestion."
"T-that's actually pretty good . . ." I admitted, and Lily smiled even more. "But . . . it's going to be kind of hard to maneuver the spinner across the sand with both of us on it, isn't it?"
"Okay, then you go be a diversion." I looked at Lily, confused.
"What?"
"Go distract Stallord so I can go hit him in the spine!"
"Wha- no! Why do I have to be the distraction?!"
"You've already had your turn with the spinner! It's my turn! Besides, this thing is rightfully mine, seeing as I was the one who was supposed to find it in the first place."
"Yeah, but I was the one who actually won it!"
"Both of you stop arguing and decide who's going to be a distraction before Mika and I push one of you off the stupid thing!" Midna snarled, and by the look on her face I knew she meant it. I glanced back at Lily, saw she wasn't going to give in, and slumped my shoulders in defeat.
"Alright, I'll be a distraction," I said. "Hold on one more second."
Lily gripped my shoulders tighter as I slowed the spinner to a stop. I quickly helped her up out of the pit and over to a little niche in the wall with a pot in it. Mika took the spinner and stowed it back in his invisible storage space.
"Okay, on three, you run out and start being distracting, and I'll wait until you have Stallord's attention, and then I'll run out and try to hit him," Lily said, watching the dinosaur look around to see where its prey went.
"Uh, alright, but what do I-"
"Ready? THREE!" I cried out in surprise as Lily shoved me with such force that I nearly fell flat onto my face. She pushed me out into Stallord's view and then sprinted back to the niche in the wall.
"Oh yeah, that's real funny- hey!" I whipped around as Midna tugged on my chin to make me face forward. I gulped as I saw Stallord staring down at me, his red eyes gleaming. "Um, hi?"
"RAAAAAAAAAAR!"
I jumped back as the skeleton roared at me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Lily dart around the room so she was behind him.
"AH! Midna, get out here and help me!" Midna came out of my shadow again and hit me on the back of my head. "Ow! What the heck was that for?!"
"Stop bugging me and keep distracting the stupid dinosaur!" Midna yelled at me, pointing to Stallord who was starting to turn around as Lily hid in another gap in the wall. The imp went back into my shadow, leaving me to come up with a brilliant plan.
"Uh, okay, uh . . . HEY UGLY!" Stallord turned around as I took a bomb and threw it at him. It didn't hurt him in any way, but I didn't think it would've anyway. "Yeah, I'm talkin' to you! You wanna piece of this?! Huh?! Do you want- OH, HOLY GODDESSES!"
I started to run around the pit as Stallord breathed out another cloud of purple gas. I looked over and tried to see what Lily was doing, but at that moment I tripped and fell, landing hard on my knees. I tried to stand up, but I only managed to cry out in pain and fall back down. The purple gas was almost upon me, and I closed my eyes and prayed to the Gods that Lily got to Stallord soon . . .
* * *
Lily's POV . . .
What an idiot.
I told Link to go and distract Stallord, but all he managed to do was insult him, waste a bomb, and then fall down and get hurt. Hmph, some Hero he was.
But, at least he'd given me enough time to sneak around the back of the dinosaur and get on the spinner track. As soon as I saw the skeleton breathe out some more of that purple stuff, I jumped off the track and rode across the sand to his spine. I hit it, and the gas immediately stopped coming from his mouth, his head whipped back in surprise, and his spine crumbled.
And it was just in time, too. A few seconds later, and Link would've been fried.
The impact of hitting Stallord's spine sent me rocketing back to the track, where I readied myself for another attack. I had to jump off the track sooner than I'd planned because these weird spike things appeared out of nowhere and started to come up behind me. I had a feeling that it'd be wise not to run into them.
Still, I was able to make it to the spine again, ignoring the dead soldiers that popped up out of the sand to just stand there uselessly, staring at me. I hit the dinosaur's spine again and it crumpled once more. One more hit should do it . . .
As I got back onto the track, I caught a glimpse of Link staggering over to the niche in the wall where we'd been before. He looked alright, just a little weak in the knees. I focused my attention back on Stallord and jumped off the track. However, this time I hit some dead guards with shields that appeared around the spine as soon as I got close to it.
"Goddesses damn it!" I cursed as I shot back towards the track. No choice but to get the guards first. I jumped off the track again and hit two more guards. They shattered into pieces like the first one, leaving a big enough gap for me to squeeze through. I did just that, and this time Stallord let out a mighty roar before crashing down to the ground, the light in his eyes growing dim.
I heard Link whoop happily as I continued around the track towards where he was sitting. I put the spinner away and ran over to him . . .
* * *
Link's POV . . .
I stood up as Lily ran over to me, using the wall for support.
"Good job!" I smiled at her as she reached me and grabbed my elbow to help me stand up fully. My knees still hurt a little, but it was bearable and they had stopped bleeding.
"Thanks. You okay?" Lily looked at me, concern in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. It's just a couple scratches. So, you wanna go check out that sword?"
"Yeah, sure. Let's go."
I followed Lily back out towards the pit. While we'd been talking, all the sand had mysteriously disappeared and all that was left of Stallord was his head, the sword still lodged firmly in his skull. There was also a spot for the spinner to fit into in the middle of the floor. When we got close to the dinosaur's head, Mika came out of Lily's shadow and floated over to the head, examining it.
"Is it . . . dead?" he asked, looking back at us.
"Well, yeah, I think so," Lily replied as we came to a stop. Mika bit his lip and shook his head.
"I don't feel very relieved for some reason . . ."
"Yeah, why is only his head left instead of it disappearing with the rest of him?" Midna said, joining Mika by Stallord's side.
"It looks okay," I said.
"Hey, Link, what's this?" I glanced over and saw Lily looking at the hole in the floor where the spinner would go.
"That's for the spinner." I walked over and held out my hand. "I'll take care of it. Just let me see the spinner for a minute."
"No, I'm not letting you have it again!" I sighed at Lily's stubbornness.
"Just give it to me."
"No!"
"Lily, give it to him." Lily looked shocked at Midna's interjection.
"But-"
"Me and Mika are sick of hearing you two argue all the time!" She floated right next to Lily to whisper in her ear. "Plus, if it's a trap, Link'll fall into it instead of you."
"HEY! I heard that!" I yelled angrily, glaring at Midna. She grinned and winked, giggling as she went into my shadow.
"Well, here you go, Link." Mika floated over and held out the spinner to me. "Just like you wanted."
"You all are so mean to me," I grumbled as I snatched the weapon from Mika. I put it into the slot and, forgetting that I'd just gotten injured like the genius I am, started to jump up and down.
"Owowowow!" I gasped and fell back off the spinner, ungracefully landing on my butt. Lily bent down as I held my knees.
"You okay?" I looked up at her. The pain in my knees was intense; my eyes were starting to tear up.
"Not really," I answered truthfully. "I don't think I can use that spinner thing right now. You have to use it."
"Uh, okay. How?"
"Just put in into that slot in the floor and start bouncing up and down. You should hear gears starting to turn, and then something should happen, like maybe a wall will move or something."
"Alright, I'll try it."
I curled up into a ball as Lily went over to the spinner slot, wishing the pain would go away. It was ebbing away, but very slowly. I looked up as Midna came out of my shadow and put her hand on my shoulder.
"Are you really okay?" She actually looked kind of concerned.
"Yeah, I'm getting better." I gave her a half smile. "I'll be back on my feet in no time!"
"Okay, just try not to push yourself too hard. You know, most injuries like that get worse if you try and run around on them."
"Thanks for the advice, but I'll take my chances." I took a deep breath and stood up, Midna trying to help pull me up by my elbow. I swayed violently for a minute, but then the worst of the pain went away and I let out the breath I was holding. "I need to get out of this temple before I get stuck here."
Just then, I was knocked back off my feet as the floor under me started to tremble violently.
"AH! What did I do?!" Lily yelped, jumping off the spinner as the floor started to rise into the air.
"It's okay. I think it's supposed to do that," I replied. She came over to me and we stood near the edge of the platform, watching the ground disappear beneath us. When it stopped, Lily let out the breath she'd been holding and I turned around just in time to see the head of Stallord float up into the air, the red glow returning to his eyes.
"LILY, WATCH OUT!" I pushed her out of the way as the head shot forward, right towards me, knocking me off the platform. I screamed and scrunched my eyes shut, just in time to catch a glimpse of Stallord coming after me before I hit the bottom . . .
* * *
Lily's POV . . .
"LINK!" I yelped as he was pushed off the platform. I jumped to my feet and ran to the edge as Stallord went in after him. I peered down and saw Link gingerly getting to his feet, wincing as Midna helped him up.
"I'm okay!" he called up to me. Just then, Stallord's head shot a fireball out of its mouth that Link only just managed to dodge.
"Hang on, I'll help you!" I said to him. He jumped on the spinner track running along the wall of the platform and started to ride along it, and Stallord's head disappeared around the bend. I started to run along the edge of the platform in time with Link.
"Just leave it to me! I can do it!" he yelled up at me. I sighed exasperatedly and ran a little ahead of him to see where Stallord was, trying to think of a plan.
"Aha! I got it!" I ran back to Link. "Link, Stallord's head is just around the corner. I'll shoot an arrow at the sword and hopefully that'll make him fall down. When he's on the ground, then you can go and slash at the sword!"
"Okay, we'll try it! AH! There he is!"
Mika handed me my bow from his invisible storage space. I knocked an arrow and aimed, firing it at the point where the sword touched the skull. Stallord roared when he was hit, and he fell sideways onto the ground. Link quickly jumped off the spinner and ran over to the head, slashing at the sword. As I predicted, the head got up again, so we repeated this process two more times until, finally, the head let out a mighty groan and exploded, the sword flying up and lodging itself onto the top of the platform. Link rode his way up to the top and came to stand next to me. He patted my shoulder and smiled as the sword exploded. Two heart containers fell out.
"Hey, someone must know we're here!" Link remarked as we went over to pick up a heart container.
"Yeah, but that's not necessarily a good thing," Midna said, coming out of the shadows along with Mika.
"Well, besides that, you guys did it!" Mika exclaimed, smiling happily. "We're almost at the Twilight Mirror! Now we'll be able to kill Zanta and everything'll go back to normal!"
"And hopefully we'll get to find a way back to our realm," Midna added, and Mika nodded.
"Of course! I didn't forget about you two! Now come on, let's go! The Mirror's waiting!"
He and Midna went back into the shadows as a bridge appeared, leading us off the platform and over to a flight of stairs. Link and I looked at each other.
"After you," he said, gesturing for me to go first. I nodded and started walking, smiling as I felt that soon, all of this would be over for good . . .
A/N: Well, there you go. As I said before in the author's note, I'm not sure when the next chapter's going to be up, but it may be a little while. Hang in there! And please review, of course!