Chapter 6: Colin!           Chapter 8: The Goron’s Hostility

Chapter 7: Charging Rescue

   He had almost filled the golden vine with Tears he found all the way from the bottom of a chicken coop to the top of a look-out tower on a cliff overhanging the east side of the village. He was returning to the Spring, pouncing on the last dark insect on the way, when a black and red portal opened in the sky and trapped him with three black monsters.

   “What’s going on out there?” Barnes wailed from where he shivered by the wall. Talo jumped up and opened the shutter a tiny crack, and then flung it open, staring open-mouthed in excitement.
   “They’re all confused! Look, look!” And then Talo saw it: some kind of shadow, dancing among the black creatures.  “There’s a shadow dog fighting them!” he cried.
   Colin timidly sidled up to him, peering out in time to see the black creatures fall and implode. He caught a brief glimpse of brilliant blue eyes looking directly at him, and then the shadow melted away into nothingness. “Did you see the eyes?” he asked.
   “What eyes?” Talo asked scornfully. “Well, those monsters are dead! We’re a little more safe now!”
   “I wonder what…” Colin said softly to himself.
   Link was standing in front of the Spirit’s Pool, the filled Vessel of Light dropping in.
   “Thank you, Hero,” Eldin whispered, revealing his true form, a giant owl with a sphere of light clasped in his talons. All around, the Twilight rippled away as though a strong wind was blowing it.
   “You have done well to restore light to this area. You have found some of what you seek, have you not? And there is more you must do. The Gorons are restless. This you must hold in mind. A darkness still lurks under the mountain you fought so hard to free three years ago, and it is rising insidiously.”
   “I will defeat it,” Link said.”
   “It wields great physical power, and it will possess any who touch it, as it possessed the Chieftain of the Gorons. Bear this in mind!”
   “Thank you,” Navi called, as Ordona vanished in golden showers.
   As Link turned away from the pool, he saw Renado’s door standing open, and in the doorway…
   Colin.
   The boy stared at Link, smiling slowly. Link smiled back warmly.
   Then Colin was pushed over by Talo and Beth, hurrying up to him, giggling. “See, I told you Green would come!” Talo said. Even Malo waded past Colin unconcernedly.
   Link, his hands captured by the children, smiled down at them, and walked slowly over to Colin and knelt in front of him. Colin brightened and hopped up.
   “I knew you were coming for us, Green,” he said.
   To the children’s surprise, Link blushed and looked away. “Actually, there’s a long story I need to tell you, but the short version is this: my true name is not Green. I’m Link.”
   “Whaaaaat!?!” Talo and Beth shrieked. “No kidding?”
   “I’m serious,” Link replied, smiling.
   “I believe him,” Colin whispered immediately. “I-I always wanted to be like the Hero, and then you came and I wished I was like you… it makes sense!”
   “Here’s the reason he was a silly boy for ten years or so,” came a voice behind him, and Rana draped her arms over his shoulders. “He can get rather dramatic when he gets in the mood. You’re Colin, right?”
   “Y-yes, I am!”
   Link saw the mayor, Renado, standing in the doorway of his house. “Um, hello!” Navi called.
   Renado bowed his head to them. “Greetings, Hero. I am glad you have returned to save us. I am Renado, and this is my daughter, Luda.”
   “Hello!” Luda said cheerfully. Barnes stomped past the mayor and down the street, presumably toward his shop.
   “I’ve been looking for these children. Can you tell me where another girl is, Ilia?”
   “We don’t know where she is!” Talo cried.
   “The monsters took us and left us for dead,” Malo recounted, “but Mr. Renado saved us and took us into his home. We never saw Ilia.”
   Link felt cold and looked at Renado.
   “It is as they say. I saw no trace of the girl, though they spoke of her to me.”
   Link said nothing.
   Navi sighed. “We have to hurry. But we have another mission too. Eldin, the Light Spirit, told us that there is a new evil under Death Mountain. We have to stop it.”
   “The Gorons have been unfriendly as of late,” Renado answered. “You will have difficulty making it to Goron City, let alone inside the mountain.”
   “We have to go anyway,” Rana said. “Besides, he’s the Hero, and sworn brother to Darunia himself! I know Darbus is the new leader of the Gorons. But he has to listen to the Sage of Fire. He’s his cousin!”
   “I see I cannot stop you. But I will pray for your safety,” Renado said in return.

   Link led the way to Death Mountain Trail, and found the bottom of it looking quite different. At some point, an earthquake had made a cliff in the trail, lifting up the further side, and a ladder and climbing netting were fastened to the cliff.
   Link hauled himself up to the top of the cliff and saw a Goron watching him
   “Hey! No humans allowed!” roared the Goron. Before Link could say a word, the Goron had curled up and was charging at him.
   “Wait! I’m-“ Link began, before he was taken completely off guard by the Goron hitting him squarely in the stomach.    He went flailing off the side of the cliff, taking Rana down with him. They landed side by side, and Link curled up, his stomach and back bruised heavily and painfully.
   The Goron looked at them momentarily. “Don’t even think about trying that again! Darn humans.” And he walked away.
   Link gritted his teeth as he slowly sat up. Rana, less bruised, was up already, and gave him a hand to help him to his feet, and a sympathetic smile.
   “Well, that didn’t go to plan,” she said.
   “They won’t listen to us!” Navi cried indignantly. Link reached out and cupped her in his hand, trying to sooth her.
   “Naeri?” Rana asked. “What is it?”
   Naeri was fluttering in slight agitation. “Either Link needs to use his agility, or he needs to use his Iron Boots. Did you keep those?”
   “No,” Link said. “I haven’t seen them since I got back.”
   Rana thought. “Let’s ask Renado. Maybe he will know.”
   They limped back to Kakariko together.

   “Iron Boots?” Renado said thoughtfully. “I might know. My old friend Bo took an interest in them. He said they’d be good for sumo wrestling. It’s his passion. Perhaps he has them.”
   “Wouldn’t they just glue your feet to the floor so you’d fall over whenever you tried to move?” Navi asked skeptically.
   Renado gazed evenly at her. “I do not know the technicalities of sumo, and I know nothing about the Boots. Perhaps you are right; perhaps Bo has found a way around it. He’s the mayor of Ordon, but you knew that, yes?”
   “Yes,” Link said. “Thank you, Renado. That’s a big help.”
   Renado bowed. “I only wish to be of service.”
   Link nodded and set off down the street. “We’ll be back later.”
   He was halfway through the town when a galloping and a wild high whinny filled his ears. He whirled, and there was Epona, dashing madly down the street, her eyes wide and frightened. A couple Bokoblins clung to her back. As she careened from side to side, they lost their grip and fell, dying when they crashed into the ground.
   Link reached out to her, and then his eyes widened and he dove out of the way as Epona charged blindly through the space where he had been standing.
   He picked himself up and raced after her. Grabbing at the saddle, he hauled himself partway up. He was dragged along, dangling across his horse’s back.
   “Epona!” he kept calling in as soothing a voice as he could manage. The jolting of her irregular stride hurt his bruised stomach and jarred his back.
   She threw him off on to the hard ground and pranced around distractedly. He grabbed the saddlehorn again and mounted a little more successfully this time.
   He leaned forward and stroked her neck calmingly, calling her name softly over and over again.
   With one last rear, she stopped stock still and stood quietly under him.
   “Good girl, Epona, good girl,” he whispered to her, and dismounted again, leading her over to the spirit spring to let her drink. It was then that he saw she had a cruel, crude bit in her mouth. He never used a bit, and the iron bar that had been tied tightly to the bridle had made her mouth bleed. No wonder she had gone wild. He stroked her head, and she tried to stand still, but tossed her head anxiously as each twitch jolted the bar in her mouth. He cut the cords holding the bar and tossed them away, pulling the bar away gently. Epona hastily dipped her nose into the spirit spring until the blood stopped, and then damply nuzzled his cheek. He laughed.
   Then he had some water himself, and then took off his tunic, chainmail, and undershirt, and bathed his hurt body in it.
   Rana stared, and then caught herself staring and looked away, blushing furiously. She plunged into the deeper part of the pool and splashed around a bit. Link pretended he hadn’t seen her blushing and dressed again, and then reached out to Epona.
   “Now we can go and get Falone, and then be twice as fast!” he called cheerfully to Rana. “We can go to Ordon, get the boots, and be back in a couple of hours!”
   “Yay!” Rana cheered, splashing some more, and then skipping out of the pool, dripping. “How am I going to ride? Am I riding with you?”
   “I certainly hope so,” Link said, mounting, and reaching down to lift Rana and set her in front of him. The happy look on her face warmed him as they set off at a moderate pace to the west.

   Bo readily handed over the Iron Boots, which he had obtained directly from the Princess; he didn’t say how. But though he was heavily disappointed not to hear of Ilia, he was glad that the other children had been found and pledged to do all he could to help. Rana stopped by Lon Lon Ranch and borrowed Falone, a golden horse with white spots on her hindquarters.
   Then they rode back to Kakariko, laughing in the sunshine, though rain-clouds gathered in the north. “We’ll find Ilia soon,” Rana said. “This lot weren’t far off, so she can’t be!”
   “What do you mean they weren’t far off?” Navi demanded; Link laughed.
   Epona abruptly stopped and shivered, flaring her nostrils.
   “What’s the matter?” Link asked, bending over her neck. “Is something wrong?”
   “Something’s wrong, Link,” Navi said, floating closer to his head. “Let’s go quickly.”
   Without speaking, Link urged Epona on, into a gallop. She tossed her head nervously and whinnied as they entered the gate of Kakariko Village.
   They came shooting around the bend in the road, Rana and Falone slowly falling back. Talo and Beth were huddling in the door of Renado’s house as the horses flashed past. Renado stood behind them. A great Moblin, on an armoured boar, was fleeing away down the road. Link urged Epona faster.
   The Moblin led them to North Hyrule Field, where he stopped and turned to face Link.
   As he did so, Link clenched his teeth in rage. The Moblin had taken a great long-handled axe and bound a child to the top of it, displaying him like a standard.
   It was Colin.
   The boy hung limp and apparently unconscious, but Link could see the bonds were cruelly tight. He drew his sword and charged, and the Moblin blew on a great horn. More boars and small Moblins crested the hills around them and tried to surround Epona. Some of them had bows, some of them clubs, and all their boars had sharp tusks. They were the same group that had attacked Colin and Ilia at the Spring, back when it had all started…
   Link drew his sword and charged ahead through the crowd. The Moblin turned and bolted. Rana came up behind them, finally, and began to fight the smaller Moblins.
   The Moblin leader’s boar was faster than Link had expected, but still not fast enough. Staying back far enough to protect Epona from the tusks of the boar, Link leaned forward and sliced at the Moblin, and almost got a crude pauldron in his face for his trouble. The broken bit of armour flew over his head and hit a pursuing Moblin archer, knocking him off his giant boar.
   Link struck again, and again, knocking more armour away until he could see a bare spot large enough to strike.
   The Moblin leader bellowed and peeled away, moving faster, still with no weapon drawn. Link and Epona fell back, already weary, until the following group of Moblins, with Rana nipping at their heels, surrounded them.
   The Hylian struck out and knocked several Moblins off of their mounts, and then set himself to chase the leader again.
   The Moblin leader saw him coming, and headed for a large stone bridge to the north. Link hadn’t noticed it before, and was slightly confused trying to find it in his memories. It was familiar, but different and grander than he remembered.
   A barrier was set up in the mouth of the bridge under an archway almost like a tunnel. The Moblin leader’s boar jumped over it. Link followed as fast as Epona could go; she leaped over the barrier gracefully. He looked around quickly, fully expecting an ambush, but none came. At the far end of the bridge, the Moblin leader turned to face him.
   Flaming arrows shot down from above, and Link brought his shield up, but they were not aimed at him. Epona whinnied and started forward as the barricade behind her burst into flames. The one behind the Moblin boss was set alight also.
   The boar reared up, roaring, and charged across the bridge.
   Link took a deep breath and kicked Epona forward. He was caught in a very deadly joust, a desperate gamble by the enemy, with Colin’s life hanging in the balance above both of them. Epona was at a disadvantage to the boar’s tusks.
Link rode steadily to one side of the bridge, and then swerved as hard as he could make Epona go, dodging the deadly tusks. That seemed to be all the Moblin was content to wield at the moment, as he made no move otherwise.
   The Hylian reached the other flaming end of the bridge and wheeled; Epona understood him and spun, galloping smoothly back towards the way they had come.
   Link braced his whole body apprehensively; surely the Moblin would realize he was doing the same thing again, and would prepare for it…
   He ducked across the bridge again. Epona stumbled for a heart-stopping moment on the very edge of the other side… but Link, sweeping for the Moblin with his sword, managed to just counterbalance her slip and catch the Moblin in the side with the tip of the sword.
   The Moblin boss flinched and tumbled from his boar, bouncing off the edge of the bridge and falling down, down, down to the river far below.
   Link pulled Epona to a stop and she reared in excitement. Quickly he leapt off and moved cautiously towards the Moblin’s boar. With its rider gone, it stood quietly, snorting noisily at Link as he drew closer.
   He climbed onto its back quickly and brought down the huge axe out of its stand. Rana, having cleared away most of the flaming barricade somehow, ran up and caught the end of it as it came swinging down.
   “Heavy,” Link grunted, almost dropping it completely.
   “It’s down!” Rana cried, setting the end down on the bridge and moving to take more of the handle from him. “You can come down now.”
   The boar grunted and moved slowly away in search of food after Link jumped off and knelt beside Colin’s body. He cut the ropes and lifted the boy lightly.
   “He doesn’t weigh much, does he?” Navi commented as Rana took Colin just long enough for Link to mount Epona. “We’d better go quickly.”

Chapter 6: Colin!          Chapter 8: The Goron’s Hostility