| Curick and
Karrot led the troops in the direction of the Sanctuary,
knowing that Ganon would not be pleased if they did not
retrieve the piece of the Tetraforce quickly. However,
they ran into a small problem on the way there: Link.
Link had left Aunt Mary’s as quickly as possible
with Anna and Istas, sensing something was wrong. As
Ganon’s army marched, they ran into Link, Anna, and
Istas, all prepared to fight. “Dis ain’t good, Curick,” Karrot said, halting his part of the army. “Shut up, Karrot, and just go battle them!” Curick snarled. With a battle cry, Curick and Karrot led their troops into battle. However, most of the army was not well trained, turning the tide of battle in favor of Link, Istas, and Anna. Within moments, half of the army was destroyed, and Curick and Karrot knew they were sorely beaten. However, Karrot, the stupider and thus more stubborn of the two, charged at Link. Link simply stabbed outward with his sword. Karrot was destroyed within moments. Curick began to lead a retreat, but he was destroyed when Link managed to reach him before he could flee. Now, with both their leaders dead, the remaining army fled for the hills. Ganon watched all of this with deep disapproval. He sighed. Idiots, the whole lot of them, he thought fiercely. Blast. Now, he needed to call upon another of his minions. Thank the goddesses this one had a brain in her head. He was about to call his minion forth when the remainder of the army appeared. “Master Ganon, our leaders are dead, what are we going to do?” a stalfos whined. “Stop your wretched sniveling, I have a new leader for you all,” Ganon announced. With this, he called his minion forth. She was one of the top ranking minions he had, despite the fact she was new to his army. “You called, Master Ganon?” the minion said, appearing in front of him. “Yes, take the remaining army and go attack that Sanctuary!” Ganon thundered. “ I will carry out your wishes, Master Ganon,” the new minion said, and, with this, the new leader and the army disappeared. ************** “We have to hurry,” Anna said as she, Link, and Istas ran as fast as they could to the Sanctuary. Link was slightly worried. Ganon’s army had been a fair amount larger than the last time he had seen it, and also, a bit stronger. Thank Din they had managed to destroy the two apparent leaders of the army, Curick and Karrot. Now, it would take Ganon some time to find a new leader to replace the two lost ones, thus buying them some time. However, if they did not hurry, Ganon would still be able to send out someone to gather the pieces of the Tetraforce for him. However, once the three of them had finally reached the Sanctuary, it was clear that they were too late to stop Ganon’s army from invading. Stalfos and moblins, a whole mass of them, were flooding through the Sanctuary’s open doors to its interior. “We’re too late to stop them!” Link said, drawing his sword. Together, the three of them raced toward the Sanctuary. Link, who was at the head of the group, managed to take out most of the enemies that blocked their way to the door. As soon as they got inside the Sanctuary, all they could see was utter chaos. Moblins and stalfos swarmed around the inside of the Sanctuary, breaking the stained glass, cutting the drapes, and running in and out of the rows of benches along the sides of the Sanctuary, hacking them apart with their sharp weapons.<BR> There, at the head of the room, was the kindly old man who kept order in the Sanctuary. A person wearing dark clothes held him up by the shirtfront. “Tell me, old man, what you did with that Tetraforce piece?!” a voice shouted. Anna gasped. The voice, the clothes, were all too familiar.... Link and Istas, in the meantime, were desperately trying to fend off the moblins and stalfos so they could defeat the leader who held the old man by the shirt. The leader of the army flung the old man down to the floor, then turned to face Link and Istas. Anna ran up to join them. As she drew closer, she could see that her suspicions had been confirmed. “Ah, if it isn’t Anna. Such a shame you didn’t turn to my side while you had the chance!” the new leader of the army sneered. “The Dark Faerie! What are you doing here?” Anna cried, startled to see her old nemisis. “Well, if it weren’t for the great Ganon, I wouldn’t be here now,” the Dark Faerie said, narrowing her eyes at Anna. Anna glared at the Dark Faerie. “As I said before,” the Dark Faerie reiterated, “it’s too bad you didn’t turn to my side, the winning side, while you had the chance!” “I would have never done such a thing! It was your wicked magic that caused it!” Anna said. Link remembered the night he had seen Anna as an evil faerie. The Dark Faerie had used her magic to turn Anna against them...... “Enough with this idle chatter!” the Dark Faerie boomed. She turned to where the old man lay on the floor, gasping and wheezing. “Where is that piece?!” the Dark Faerie yelled at him. The old man, his skin pale with fright, shook his head, trying to stand up. “TELL ME NOW, OLD MAN!” The Dark Faerie snapped, forming a magic sphere with one hand. The old man backed up in fright. “Leave him alone!” Anna said. The Dark Faerie turned, a wicked smile spreading across her thin lips. “Oh, so perhaps I should hit YOU with this instead!” the Dark Faerie cackled, throwing the ball of energy at Anna. Anna dodged out of the way, then fired a blast of her own energy at the Dark Faerie. The Dark Faerie used her magic to create a shield to block the energy. Quickly, before Anna had time to react, the Dark Faerie formed another ball of energy, which she promptly fired in Anna’s direction. Anna felt it hit her, throw her backward. The searing pain ripped through her, causing her to fall onto her back. Coughing up blood, she felt her legs go weak. She collapsed on the red carpet of the Sanctuary. Then, she was still. “Anna!” Istas and Link cried at the same time. Istas felt rage build up inside him, a pure hatred for the Dark Faerie. The Dark Faerie cackled. “Give up now, Link! You will never win, Ganon will get all the pieces of the Tetraforce, no matter what it takes. He will rule the world, and the Chosen One of the Tetraforce will never be revealed!” the Dark Faerie shrieked, firing blasts of energy at them both. Link deflected them with his sword, and Istas blocked the ones aimed at him with the shield Link had given him along with the sword. Istas glanced behind him momentarily during a brief pause in the confrontation. Anna was still laying inert on the carpet, a trail of blood running from the corner of her mouth. His rage, his hatred for the Dark Faerie increased tenfold. He turned to where the Dark Faerie floated just above the Sanctuary’s altar. “You, you wicked being! I will make you pay for what you did to Anna!” he cried. The Dark Faerie laughed at him. “I don’t know who you are, foolish boy, but no one speaks to me that way!” she answered. The rest of Ganon’s army stopped their destruction for a moment to see what was going on. All was still and silent in the room. Suddenly, Istas could feel the rage inside of him well up and intensify. Closing his eyes, he focused all the energy he had into one big mass inside him. Opening his eyes, he glared at the Dark Faerie. The Dark Faerie glanced down at him. Fool, she thought, snickering. Suddenly, she emitted a sharp cry of pain. Holding her hand to her side, she glared down at Istas, who had held out his hands in front of him. “You!” the Dark Faerie thundered. “How dare you hit me with a magic sphere! Oh, you’ll pay dearly!” Ganon had watched the entire episode from his crystal ball. “Dark Faerie! This is no time for petty revenge, you fool! Grab that piece of the Tetraforce and get out of there!” Ganon told her. The Dark Faerie was the only one who could hear Ganon’s request. Mumbling a reply, she glared down at Istas. “You got lucky this time,” she warned, then floated down to the old man, drawing a dagger. “Give me that piece, or you won’t live to see sunset!” the Dark Faerie threatened. The old man reached into his pocket with a trembling hand, producing the piece the Dark Faerie was looking for. She reached out, preparing to snatch it, when Link ran in, slashing with his sword. The Dark Faerie avoided his attacks, then snatched the piece from the old man’s hand. “Oh, here’s a little going away present!” the Dark Faerie said to Link, and hit him with some magic spheres, knocking him backward. Link, dazed, could only watch as the Dark Faerie made off with her ill-gotten prize. Waiting for his head to clear, Link watched as the rest of Ganon’s army swarmed out of the Sanctuary to follow the Dark Faerie’s retreat. Istas crouched beside where Anna lay. She still did not move, and Link, who was still partially dazed, stumbled over, fearing she was dead. “Anna?” Istas questioned, shaking her gently. She moaned softly in reply. Istas breathed a sigh of relief. His heart’s incessant pounding had begun to slow a little. Anna slowly opened her eyes. “Istas?” she questioned gently. “Yes, it’s me. Everything’s okay,” he soothed her. She smiled at him faintly. Slowly, he helped her sit up. “Where’s the Dark Faerie?” Anna asked him. “She’s gone. She and her army left,” Link said in reply. “They got away with that Tetraforce piece, then,” Anna concluded, sighing. “Look what they did to my Sanctuary, the heathens!” the old man raged. Slowly, Istas and Link helped Anna up. Together, they helped the old man fix some of the damage done to the Sanctuary. Finally, they left, starting out into the sunset. “Where do we go next?” Link asked Anna. Anna looked at the map in her pants pocket. She still wore the clothes Istas had given to her. Unrolling the faded map, she scanned it, running her finger along the different points until she reached the place where the next piece was. “The next place we have to go is to the castle,” she said, squinting down at the map. “Yes, it is said that the castle has a piece in their museum,” Link said. He remembered that Zelda had told him about finding a piece in the castle museum recently. She had never shown it to him, but he knew it had to be in the museum somewhere. Together, they began toward the castle. *********** “Here you are, Master Ganon, the piece of the Tetraforce you requested,” the Dark Faerie said, holding the golden shard out to where Ganon sat on his throne. “Splendid,” Ganon said, accepting the piece. “You’re more worth my time than those two poor excuses for riff-raff, Curick and Karrot.” The Dark Faerie glared at Ganon. “Why didn’t you let me get my revenge on that pest and her brother?” she asked, on the verge of whining. Ganon glanced up at her in disgust. “As I told you before, I have no time for ridiculous stupidity such as that,” Ganon said, his red eyes flashing dully. “Or,” he added, “are you questioning my orders?” “Of course not, Master Ganon,” the Dark Faerie said, not wishing to anger him. She had just been accepted into Ganon’s army, but in the short time she had served Ganon, she could see what he did to those who did not obey, and it was not something she wished to experience firsthand. She had been fortunate to not have been destroyed by that girl, Anna, and her brother, Link, when they had last battled. Back then, the Dark Faerie had lived by herself in the dark little hole in the ground. Anna had stumbled in, and had served the Dark Faerie for a time. Then, Link had to come and spoil her plans. He had come close to destroying her, too. However, she had managed to escape. She had seen them all out cold from the effects of throwing Anna’s good pendant at the evil one the Dark Faerie had created. She should have gotten her revenge then, but she had been weak, making such a course of action not possible. Shortly thereafter, she had met Ganon, and had been taken into his army. Oh, but revenge would be hers, and when it was, it would be made all the sweeter. The more time that passed, the sweeter the revenge would be. Once her new master, Ganon, had the Tetraforce, the dark side would triumph. She was sure of this. Pathetic fools that Anna, Link, and that boy were, thinking they could ever defeat her or Ganon.....She vanished from Ganon’s chamber then, thinking of the day when revenge against Link and Anna would be hers. Ganon, in the meantime, held the piece of the Tetraforce in his hand. Hyrule would be his within a short amount of time. He looked up at Zelda. “Do you see this, princess? My first step to taking over this pathetic world,” Ganon taunted. “You are a fool, Ganon! You can have the Tetraforce and still be nothing but a bitter, foolish....” Zelda trailed off, at loss for words. “Oh Princess Zelda, you needn’t waste your time with such flowery words,” Ganon said, examining the piece of Tetraforce in his hand. He smiled to himself. Hyrule was one step closer to being his, all his..... |
 |