Lost Legends 23

Chapter 23: The Final Trial

At first, things seemed to be quiet. Kaikara had time to get used to the strange surroundings: the grass that was no color of grass she had ever seen, the turbulent skies, the twisted and gnarly trees. There was an ethereal quality to the air, which seemed to make everything blur…but not go out of focus. It was something that Kaikara could not even understand, much less explain. She spent the first good half-hour of her journey being irritated at this fact.

Once she was tired of being irritated, she let herself enjoy the beauty of the place. It was alien, yes, but gorgeous. Everything looked healthy—healthier than it could ever be in the real world. The grass was vibrant and green. (It was also moving, although there was no wind, and that was fairly creepy.) The soil was dark and fertile looking, and the trees, though gnarled, seemed brown and full of life.

Birds flew through the air, some familiar, others not. She saw a bright flash of orange and saw a bird larger than any she had ever seen in her life streak not ten meters above her head. It seemed to look at her and grin with its prehistoric beak before flying off. Another was all black, about the size of a raven, but there was something…off about it…it also looked prehistoric.

Kaikara shook her head and tried to concentrate. She did not think that being distracted was a great idea here.

At first, she thought that maybe whoever was administering the trial had fallen asleep or made a mistake—nothing happened. That was before she found the door.

The door was thickly made and beautiful. It was carven from top to bottom with what looked like historical scenes. The wood was stained with such precision that the scenes looked alive. Kaikara was not normally one to admire craftsmanship (she usually did not even notice) but this took her breath away.

Kaikara recognized two scenes from her own time's history, but the others were a mystery. There was a little boat, stained red, with a young boy about her age at the rudder. There was a giant spider, far larger than the Skulltulas she and Trow had encountered, fighting a warrior in green. A warrior in yellow rode a green bird that was startlingly similar to the orange one she had seen only minutes before. The sky around the carven warrior was blue, the clouds tinted white.

Even the doorknob had a carving: the Triforce.

"Wow."

So. Here was this door, standing by itself with no jamb, no wall, and certainly no building—and it depicted scenes that seemed to be history of places she had never heard of. She could have passed it by, but she would never have forgiven herself for not investigating, trial or no.

Besides, who said this was not part of the trial?

The time for thinking was over. With the familiar twist of the gut that came whenever Kaikara discovered something new, something amazing Kaikara grasped the decorated knob. She yelped as it suddenly glowed, sparking a sudden heat on the back of her hand. As the Triforce on the doorknob glowed, so did the one on her hand, normally invisible to the eye, but apparent to any who were sensitive to its energy.

That did it. No way would she pass up seeing what was behind this door. She turned the knob and stepped through.

At first, there was nothing. She was slightly uneased to find she was standing on nothing at all, surrounded by grayness, as she had been so many weeks (months? years?) ago in Woodvalley when she had that first vision of the Goddesses. But she felt solid land beneath her feet, and she realized after a moment that she was no longer naked. She was dressed in the clothing she had begun with: her blue shorts and blue and gold tunic, but the Master Sword and her shield were strapped to her back. She had nothing else, but the presence of the weapons was enough.

Land began to materialize around her: There was grass and dirt—not so different than the many fields she and Trow had traversed—and there were cliffs surrounding the little field in the circle. She soon saw that it was a spiral that lad up to something she could not quite see. Strange flumes of steam burst from the ground everywhere.

But none of that mattered. What happened next took all of Kaikara's attention.

In the center of the spiral was a stake…a thing of black stone that sat embedded in the dry-looking soil. As she watched, a circle of darkness began to spread on the ground like an ink stain, and it grew. Black, evil looking smoke began to rise from the ground as the stain grew, and Kaikara stumbled backward, terrified of falling into what looked like a it of darkness.

The circle stopped growing, but there was no relief. Something was coming from below.

Something or someone landed on the ground next to her, and she only barely held in a scream. She leapt to one side, drawing her sword without thinking. Who stood before her was a young man in green garb, a uniform identical to that which she had worn since it was given to her by He Who Soars, the Great Fairy who had told her of her destiny. He looked momentarily surprised, but recovered quickly. He looked like he might be four or five years older than she was.

"The white digits on the feet!" he cried. "Go for those, knock it down!"

Kaikara's mind whirled with confusion—not fear, not yet, but confusion. "I-I-"

The figure before her was having none of it. "Move!" he snarled. Without seeing if Kaikara would obey, he sprang toward the hulking mass that had climbed from the dark pit behind her. She turned, slow with horror, and now the fear came. What had crawled from the pit was a tremendous, horrifying leviathan covered in armored scales and with a mouth so big it could have devoured Kaikara's entire house back home in one swallow. That mouth was filed with huge, needle-sharp teeth.

Kaikara did not thing she could speak, but she managed to squeak, "Wh-aht? What is it?"

And the warrior answered: "The Imprisoned! The apocalypse that will destroy the land! Either help me fight it or get out of the way!" The young man sprang at the beast, his own sword drawn, and attacked the beast the only way he could: at its feet.

The child in Kaikara wanted to run. But the warrior in her wanted to fight. Suddenly, she did not care who the warrior was, or where this horrifying abomination had come from. All she cared about was that it was evil and it was trying to destroy the land…

…whatever land it was.

"Wait—who are you?"

He turned to her, glaring with annoyance and determination both. "Link." Then he completed ignored her and began to fight.

Kaikara could not let her mind fix on that name—Link, the hero of all the legends…if she did that, she would die. She shook her head, narrowed her eyes and readied her sword. Kaikara watched the older boy for only a moment before getting the idea. Its toes (they looked like strange, white fruits) were vulnerable and she ran to the boy's side to fight.

The battle had a vague but terrifying quality to it. She was there, and she was getting hurt (the Imprisoned sent out debilitating energy waves with every step and one swing of its tail could knock them both several feet away) but the dream-like quality was making her dizzy.

Still, she did not stop fighting. She stopped trying to understand what this was, stopped caring where or when she was—all she cared about was that this young warrior was fighting a force of evil so potent she could even feel its dark and hateful energy herself. She had a vague hope that Trow would not fight this beast, as she believed his sensitive mind would be overwhelmed with such evil, and then all thought was gone. She plunged the Master Sword into the nearest of the whitish protrusions and the abomination howled….

It did not fight back. Whatever it was focused on, that took all of it attention. The older boy slashed, his swings stronger and more powerful than her, but she was quick, and was able to avoid the stomping feet and bursts of painful energy better.

Finally, the thing fell. Kaikara thought it was over, but Link did not relax. He ran at the thing's head, and Kaikara saw that the stone spike she had seen was sticking out of the abomination's skull. She grimaced as Link slammed the thing with his sword, driving it farther into the beast's skull. After three times the beast stood once more….

Kaikara could not keep track of how long she and Link fought the beast—only that when the thing finally burst into black particles and reinforced the seal that apparently kept it beneath the ground, that Kaikara felt like she was going to collapse.

Link, who had some sort of parachute-looking bit of cloth used the steam fumaroles to float up to where she stood, shaking. His expression was much more sympathetic now than it had been, now that the threat had been neutralized. "You fight really well," he said. Kaikara managed a weak grin. "What's your name?"

Kaikara managed to sheath her sword and strand up somewhat straight. "Kaikara…was that a Gate of Time I went through?"

The expression on Link's face turned to surprise. "You came through the Gate of Time? But…how did you know of it?"

Kaikara opened her mouth to explain, but the scene around her began to ripple, and then fade…the colors grayed out until she was surrounded by the same featureless nothingness as she had when she first stepped through the door.

What came next was a vast and shallow lake of water…the water reflected the clouds above, making her dizzy, and the sounds of another battle came to her. She staggered to her feet to see that Link was there once more, fighting a battle with a man who stood twice his height or more—whose skin was like that of the abomination, whose hair was ablaze. The man held a sword that looked very familiar to Kaikara—it looked very much like the daggers Ghirahim liked to throw at her.

But again there was no time for thought…once more she rushed into battle. Kaikara did not know what was going on, but she knew she was fighting against evil. And that was enough.

A pattern began to make itself known. Every time Kaikara finished a battle, another scene would appear. Sometimes it was a fight, sometimes it was a historical turning point, and sometimes it did not seem to be important at all…a little boy in green clothes saying goodbye to a little girl with green clothes (and hair for some reason)…an Ocarina being played, a woman who had white hair like Kaikara escaping with a child who looked like a princess atop a swift horse….

She began to understand. She was seeing, and in some strange, dream-like way, participating in the history of the land that was her home. She had seen the beginnings of the beast that came to call itself Ganondorf, and who had caused mayhem and death and terror over generations. She saw the resurrection of Ghirahim, his form emerging from a sword she recognized as the one the Imprisoned had used while in human form… She saw him begin the quest that had brought him, finally, to Kaikara's home village, looking for the Master Sword and the Triforce itself….

Kaikara sailed the seas on the strange boat she had seen carved on the door. She fought monsters and men alike, always side-by-side with another who dressed in the green clothes of the Hero…the Hero whose existence she had scoffed at once upon a time. She saw the might of the enemy, and what would happen if the beast known as Ganondorf were to get a hold of all of the pieces of the Triforce.

She already had an idea of what would happen with such as him in charge—she had seen it. She and Trow had been to a time and place where Ghirahim and his mater had won, and it was terrible enough. But if Ganondorf were to gain the power of the entire Triforce….

Hyrule would be devastated.

Kaikara vowed that she would die before letting that happen. She was terrified, but yet more determined…Ganondorf was still the same abomination against everything that was good, fair, and kind. He could never, ever be allowed to win.

Ever.

The last battle Kaikara fought in that dream-realm was against a beast nearly as big as the one she had first glimpsed climbing out of the it of darkness….it had tusks and a snout like the wild boars she sometimes saw in the fields, but its eyes lacked any natural look—they were neither creature nor human—they were flat, yellow, and evil. Kaikara did not fight Link here, at least not that she could tell. Her ally was a wolf, a gray wolf, much like those Ghirahim had unleashed on Woodvalley that day long ago. But this wolf was not evil—in his eyes was human awareness. On his back was a strange, imp-like creature who only winked at Kaikara before focusing on the battle.

She had a feeling that the Hero and the wolf were one in the same.

Kaikara never got to ask any questions. As she turned wearily toward the wolf and his companion, the scene began to fade once more.

"Not again," she whispered. She was utterly exhausted, down to the very center of her bones, and she knew she could not endure any more fighting. It already seemed as if she had fought forever…it seemed like she had seen centuries of time go by, fought countless battles, and understood more than any one person should have to know.

But there were no more battlefields. Kaikara's surroundings went gray once more and she collapsed, unable to stand any longer. She closed her eyes, somehow not alarmed, and let herself lose consciousness.

When Kaikara woke, she was nude once more, lying in a soft patch of grass. The sun shone down on her, warm and comforting, and none of the pain from her endless battles remained. Baffled, Kaikara sat up, looking herself over, and saw no scars, no blood, and no indication that she had fought at all.

Soft hooting from nearby caught her attention. She smiled to see Zaeraja sitting on the branch of a fairly normal-looking tree. "You have passed your test," he said simply. "And in the mortal realm, your blade had been strengthened once more. You are ready."

Kaikara was still a little disoriented. She had spent a lifetime, it seemed, fighting the battles against the Imprisoned One. A lifetime learning of its hatred, its incarnations, its bloodlust and lack of mercy. To be suddenly back on the soft grass, with no physical proof of her fights, was dizzying.

"I know," said the Owl sympathetically, as if she had expressed her confusion. Zaeraja glided from his branch to land on the ground next to her. "You will be all right in a moment—it takes a little bit of time to shake off the effects of the pocket zones."

"Pocket zones…." It wasn't a question, but Zaeraja answered her, anyway.

"Yes. The Spirit Realm has many, many lands, and many, many pocket zones. Some zones are the worlds where people dream. Some are places where evil is kept locked away—others are homelands of the denizens of the Realm. There are fairy fountains where dwell the Great Fairies and the lesser little ones you will sometimes meet on the surface. The fountains in the mortal world connect back here."

That made sense. He Who Soars had said something similar, if she remembered right.

The Owl continued: "The door your curiosity propelled you through was a realm of my own making, designed to both teach and test."

"How long…?" Kaikara asked. She looked at herself as if she expected to be an old lady.

Zaeraja chuckled. "One minute of the clock, no more."

She stared. That was impossible! Time had passed in that realm! Days had turned to nights, weather changed, there was travel time, and…. She frowned, suddenly thinking of dreams she had had. Her favorite ones, the most vivid ones, had always seemed real until she woke. Sometime, within the world of her dream, days would pass, but in reality she had slept for no more than an hour for an afternoon nap, or three hours before having to wake to use the privy.

Kaikara began to understand. It was difficult, but she was getting back her presence of mind. Her time in the realm had seemed endless, but her mind was beginning to recognize it for what it was: a dream. An extraordinary dream, but a dream nonetheless. "Okay," she said, putting a hand to her hear and taking in a deep breath. "Okay."

"You did not shy from your battles, and did not hide from the knowledge…and you stood bold in the face of Demise's hatred." Kaikara gave the Owl a confused glance—the name Demise had not come through in the testing realm. "The one called the Imprisoned," said the Owl. "His true name was, and still is, Demise."

Kaikara suddenly realized something—a lot of things, in fact. She realized why of late Ghirahim had not made any moves against her and Trow, she understood why he was so happy she had discovered the Gates of Time…and she understood why he was so damned interested in her and Trow. She looked at Zaeraja in horror.

"He wants the Triforce," said Kaikara, indignation joining the shock. "Again!"

Zaeraja nodded. "Yes. And you and Trow hold the pieces he needs. To approach Ganondorf's territory will put you and Trow in grave danger."

The rest of the realization hit her and she let herself fall back into the soft grass. "But I have to."

Zaeraja did not answer; there was no need. In order to save her world, and the others that would fall like dominos were Ghirahim and his master allowed to triumph, Kaikara and Trow had to put within reach the one thing that could make Demise all-powerful again.

The spirit Owl continued: "I cannot accompany you any further than this on your journey—now it is up to you. Remember your courage, and remember the things you have learned along the way. May the blessings of the Goddesses go with you."

The young warrior smiled, an expression infinitely complex. It was filled with fear, hope, determination…even anger. But it was still a smile nonetheless…because what Kaikara felt most was hope. She would succeed.

The world began to fade, and after a period of nothingness, Kaikara once again felt solid land beneath her feet. She stumbled a bit before catching her balance, and looked back to see that her weapons and armor were back. The hilt of the Master Sword gleamed with energy and she knew she was ready.

Kaikara grinned and turned around, expecting that Trow would have finished his trial, eager to know what he'd had to do to get through it, and anxious to see whether he was all right or not.

Trow wasn't there.

On the ground was a tattered, blue tunic: Trow's. There was a new bloodstain on it, and a black throwing dagger pinned it and a piece of parchment to the rocky ground. Feeling suddenly cold and shaky, Kaikara bent slowly and grabbed the parchment from the dagger, ripping it nearly in two…it was a note, scrawled in a loopy, precise script:

Want your cute little friend back in one piece? Come and get him.

The note needed no signature. The dagger she held in her hands belonged to Ghirahim.