Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction ❯ The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess ❯ The Big Day ( Chapter 4 )

A.N.- None of these characters belong to me, they are the property of Nintento. Noticed a few spelling errors so I figued I better go through and fix that asap. Also if something seems weird with the page it could be because my vista program doesn’t like this site or something stupid like that. At any rate enjoy.

Link sat on the slope at the ranch with his eyes closed enjoying the sun.
“ Hey, Link!” Fado called from the barn, shaking Link out of his reverie and running up to meet him, “ So almost time for you to get goin’, huh, Link?”
“ Yeah,” Link said, looking up at the position of the sun, “ It’s about that time.”
“ So how’s about we finish up early today, bud?”
“ Sounds like a good idea,” Link said, picking a piece of horse grass and calling Epona to the ranch.
As soon as she had come Link climbed up into the saddle and readied himself to herd the goats in.
“ Okay then!” Fado said, seeing that he was ready, “ Let’s get started!”
Link nodded, set to work, and ended up finishing his chores in record time.
“ Hoo, boy, but y’all can herd!” Fado said, whistling in amazement, “ Well, that about wraps ‘er up for today, so how’s about y’all head on over to the mayor’s place?”
“ Thanks Fado,” Link said, leading Epona over to the gate and urging her to jump over it. Epona cleared the fence with ease and settled into an easy trot on the way to Mayor Bo and Ilia’s house.
Ilia was waiting for him outside of her house as he rode out of the ranch, and ran up to meet him when he got close enough. Seeing Mayor Bo waiting for him as well Link dismounted so that he could more easily talk to him.
“ Well, nice work,” Bo said, pulling Link off to the side, “The royal gift Rusl told you about is ready for your trip to Hyrule Castle.”
“ That’s good to know,” Link said.
“ Now, the royal family requested this gift specifically, so it’s real special. It’d be…bad…if the representative of Ordon were to be late for such an occasion, you get me lad?”
“ I understand sir,” Link said, nodding.
“ The path before you is a long one, my sweet horse…but please bear Link safely along it,” Ilia said, stroking Epona gently, “ Wait…what’s this?”
Link and Bo turned around from their talk to see what it was that Ilia had noticed.
“ What happened?” she asked, looking up from Epona’s leg, “ She’s injured, isn’t she?”
Link cringed guiltily realizing that it must have happenned yesterday when he had to use Epona to jump the fence into Faron Woods.
“ Ilia,” he began, “ I can explain…”
“ Link! How could you! You were pushing Epona too hard again!” she scolded, leaning right into his face, “ I bet you hurt her leg jumping fences, didn’t you?”
“ Now,now,” Bo said, trying to mediate the situation, “ Illia, there’s no reason to get so hot with him…”
“ FATHER!” she said, turning on him, “ How can you be so easy on him? You’re the MAYOR! You should start acting like one!” Having given them a piece of her mind she turned back to Epona. “ You poor thing…” she said, as Link and Bo risked a guilty glance at each other, “ It’ll be all right, Epona. I’ll take you to the forest spring right now.”
“ W-wait!” Link said, dumbfounded by what was happening.
“ Once we soothe you in the Spirit’s Spring, you’ll feel better in no time!”
Link and Bo watched in stupified silence as Ilia led Epona off to the Spirit’s Spring.
“ W-Wait!” Bo called out, “ Ilia! Why, without Epona…The gift won’t get delivered in time! Oh, this won’t do…”
“ Mayor Bo?” Link said, hoping that he would have some idea to diffuse the situation.
“ What’s a father to do…” he mumbled, “ There’s no way you’ll be able to deliver out town’s gift without Epona….”
“ WHOAAAAA! A GOAT GOT LOOSE!!” Fado shouted down from the ranch, “ IT’S HEADIN’ FOR TOWN!! SOMEBODY STOP IT!!!”
Following the same tactic that he had used to stop the goat from yesterday Link made sure that this one stayed in he village as well.
“ Sorry to always be puttin’ you through this, Link…” Bo apologized, “ Well…You’d better get goin’ and figure out what you’re gonna do about Epona. Maybe you can head up to where Ilia is and see if she won’t give the horse back.”
“ I’ll do that Mayor,” Link said, heading off.
On the way he noticed Rusl and Uli outside of their house and figured while he was already in town he might as wel say goodbye to everyone. The extra time he spent doing so might even give Ilia a little time to cool down.
“ The time has come, “ Rusl said, sticking his sword in the ground as he saw Link approach.
“ It sure has,” he said.
“ Well, Link…Can I at least interest you in one serious sword lesson once you return from hyrule?” he asked, “ You have talent with a blade. If you were to get proper instruction, I bet you could be a very skilled swordsman.”
Link felt himself swell with pride at Rusl’s compliments of his skills; even if they were a little unpolished.
“ You can let me know once you return, but I want you to give it some serious considerations,” Rusl said, patting him on the back and sending him on his way.
Link waved goodbye to him and Uli and went on with his goodbyes. He stopped by Talo and Malo’s house to say farewell to their mother and caught their father, Jaggle, in the same place that he was yesterday.
“ Yo, Link,” he said, waving down at him, “ Sorry if my little tykes were causing you trouble yesterday.”
“ It’s all right Jaggle,” he said, waving back, “ They didn’t really give me any trouble at all.”
“ Well I gave them a ferocious scolding, so I hope you forgive them anyways. Oh, and hey…You be careful on your trip to Hyrule Castle, Link!”
“ I’ll do that,” Link said, waving goodbye, “ G’bye Jaggle!”
He waved goodbye to Hanch on his way out as well and asked him to give his regards to Sera, which he said he would.
Link was on his way to the spring when Colin stopped him just outside the village.
“…Link, are you going to see Ilia?” he asked.
“ Yeah, why?”
“ Maybe it’s just me but those guys don’t normally let me through…” he said, glancing over at Talo and Malo, “ Um, Link, you think…You think we can go to see Ilia together?”
“ I don’t see why not Colin,” Link said, putting his hand on Colin’s shoulder, “ Come on let’s go.”
“ Hey, we’ve been waiting for you, y’know, Link,” Talo said as they approached, “ Yesterday was sooooo much fun!”
“ You really thought so?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow skeptically at him.
“ Yeah chasing that monkey was great! I was just telling Malo here about how we wanted to show it to him, but we let it go instead!”
“ Oh, YOU didn’t get caught, Talo?” Malo said sarcastically.
“ Oh! Colin!” Talo said, noticing that he stood nervously by Link’s side, “ Way to spoil everything by telling your dad. Nice job.”
“ Yeah,” his brother added, “ thanks a lot! We got scolded by our dad something awful, I thought it was never gonna end…”
“ I bet you’re trying to go see Ilia, aren’t you?” Talo said scornfully, “ Well, there’s no way I’m gonna let you pass!”
“ Talo…” Link said, seeing that Colin was hurt by what he had said.
“ Oh, hey, neat! Link! Lemme borrow that wooden sword!” Talo asked, “ If I’d had that wooden sword yesterday, I could’ve handled it all alone, definitely!”
“ I don’t know Talo…” Link said, reaching over his shoulder and feeling the handle of his sword.
“ C’mon! Let me borrow that wooden sword right now!”
Link glanced down at the obviously uncomfortable Colin and then back up at the eager Talo. Seeing that handing over his wooden sword would likely be the only way for Colin to accompany him to see Ilia he handed it over.
“ Whoa!” Talo said, holding the weapon in his hands, “ YESSSS! With this thing…I’ll show ‘em!”
Holding the sword close to him Talo ran off to practice on the scarecrow with Malo right behind him.
“ Link,” Colin said, causing Link to look down at him, “ Thanks…those guys are always teasing me…” They both looked over at Talo swinging the wooden sword erratically at the scarecrow. “ What’s so fun about swinging something like that around? I hate it…It’s scary…”
“ You know, Colin, it really isn’t as bad as you think.”
“ But when I grow up, I’m gonna be just like you, Link!” he said, shyly dragging his foot around in the dirt, “ I don’t want to learn about swords or anything, but could you teach me to ride a horse sometime?”
“ Sure thing Colin,” Link said, smiling down at him.
“ Can you?!” he said in disbelief, “ You have to promise!”
“ I pomise.”
Smiling brightly Colin ran off ahead of Link to the spirit’s spring. Link looked back at Talo, Malo, and Beth standing around the entrance to his house. He felt a wave a nostalgia sweep over him, and he realized how much he would miss his home during the short time that he would be gone. But then again, if he didn’t get Epona back from Ilia he wouldn’t be leaving at all.
Link stared at the gate to the Spirit’s Spring in shock. He couldn’t believe that Ilia would actually have gone so far as to lock him out so that he couldn’t get to Epona. But it looked like she certianly didn’t have a problem with letting Colin in with her.
“ Link!” Colin said as he noticed him standing on the other side of the locked gate.
“ If you came to take Epona back, you can FORGET it!” Ilia huffed, turning to face him, “ Why don’t you think about what you’ve done for a change!”
“ Ilia…” Link said.
“ I won’t open the gate until you change your attitude!” she said, turning back to grooming Epona.
“ Ilia,” Colin said, sticking up for Link, “ You don’t know what happened yesterday…Listen I don’t know if she’ll listen to me, but let me try to explain about Talo and the monkey, OK? You crawl in here through the tunnel in back while I do, Link.”
“ Thanks, Colin,” Link said, heading around to the tunnel behind the spring.
He crawled through with little difficulty, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and looked up in time to overhear Colin finish explaining things to Ilia.
“ I had no idea….I hadn’t heard the details about Talo’s capture…But, Colin…” she said, noticing that Link was now standing just offshore from the water. She walked over to Epona’s side but backed away when she snorted in response to Link’s presence.
“ So you still prefer your master over me, huh, Epona?” Ilia said, glancing over at Link, “ Don’t worry about your horse, Link. Fortunatly, it looks like the injury isn’t too serious, you two can go on together.” She paused for a moment and turned fully to look at him. “ But, Link…Can you at least promise me this? No matter what happens on your journey, don’t try to do anything out of your league. Please. Just come home safely.”
“ Sure thing Ilia,” Link said, smiling and nodding.
Just then they heard the thunder of hoofbeats that sounded like an animal much heavier than a horse. Epona let out a startled whinnie, while two bulbin riders on top of a bulbo crashed through the gate and into the Spirit’s Spring. Link and Ilia gasped in shock and surprise and moved to get themselves and Colin quickly out of the way. Ilia and Colin went one way while Link was knocked the other by the monsters. The archer on the back of the bulbo fired off an arrow, striking Ilia down.
“ Ilia!” Link shouted, moving to help her.
He didn’t get far as another bulbo carrying its rider and a club wielder came charging in. The club weilder struck Link on the back of the head, knocking him unconcsious and causing him to twist and fall so that he landed in the spring on his back.The bulbins had dismounted and colleced the unconcsious forms of Colin and Ilia, checking the backs of their left hands for something.
Just then King Bulbin riding atop of Lord Bulbo entered into the spring nearly stepping on Link’s unconcsious form. Surveying the spring for any others, but paying no heed to the half-submerged Link, he nodded his head in satisfaction. Pulling out some kind of horn he blew into it and caused a giant red and black portal to appear in the sky. Smiling and chuckling evily he signaled the other bulbin riders to leave, taking the bodies of Colin and Ilia with them.

Link blinked his eyes a few times as he came to, trying to remember where he was. He rubbed his throbbing head tenderly, but was surprised to find that the wound he had received was already healing. That’s when he remembered.
“ Colin! Ilia!” he shouted, standing up and looking around the area of the spring frantically.
When he didn’t see them, but did see the broken remains of the gate, he ran out after them. Link headed for Faron Woods, the only place that he could think of that they might have been taken to. He stopped short when he saw what had become of the woods though. For now there was a massive black wall that streatched high into the sky with strange glowing orange markings all over it.
“ What the…” he gasped out, staring at the wall in mixed shock in horror.
Out of nowhere an inky black arm reached through the wall and grabbed Link by the neck. Pulling him through the portal as it retracted.
“ Gyaaaah!” was all that was heard from Link before he was gone.

Link struggled frantically to break the creature’s hold on him as it drew him closer for inspection. He reached up and tugged at the creature’s thumb; no longer trying to get it to let go of him, but trying to get it to loosen its grip so that he could breathe at the very least.
As he did this the mark of the triforce on his left hand started to glow with power. The creature looked at it curiously and made to touch it with its free hand, but was repelled by the massive amounts of energy that emenated from it. Screaching in pain the creature tossed Link away from it.
Link landed hard on his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He strugled to get to his feet, but found that he couldn’t. His vision was bluring and his heartbeat sounded like a drum in his ears. All the while his triforce mark sent waves of power coursing through his body causing him unbelievable amounts of agonizing pain.
“ Aaaaauuuuggggghhhhhh!” Link screamed as a final wave of power washed through him, transforming him into a blue-eyed, black-and-white wolf. After the transformation Link succumbed to the pain and passed out.
Once he was out the creature that had pulled him in took him by his hind leg and dragged him away. During all of this a mysterious figure in an unusual headdress sat on top of a tree branch watching thoughfully.