Disclaimer: I own nothing but the character Mortivore!

(Author's note: This so fricking Alternate Universe it can barely be described as Zelda! I wrote this in roughly a day, so it might not be top quality. Sheik and Zelda are different people in this, and it probably doesn't make much sense. Say it sucks if you want, but I like it!)

Defilement

By Saxophone

Part one

One

· Link had given up his past; he needed to save his future. After the memory extraction was completed Link was informed of his new job: Gladiator. Link was usually quite a calm person (Though at times he can be fierce.) which made him want to question the machine's judgement. Link lived in Hyrule, north of Termina. Link had lost memory of almost everything. He no longer knew anyone. It was as if he had cheated death and wound up in a new world. He had no friends, no family, no memories, no life. All he knew were the essentials. Education, his name, his birth date, his extraction date, his… As M walked down to the stadium to see the other gladiators, his thoughts turned to the extraction. Why had Link wanted to forget? Was it a painful memory? Was it a social problem? Did he just want a fresh start? What was it? When Link arrived at the stadium, he quickly found that few of the gladiators, including Link, were nowhere near as macho as your average gladiator. A strange woman in a frilly dress and a clearly visible dagger in her pocket. "Hey there shuag," she said. "I'm Nabooru. I'll be your new agent." "Do I absolutely have to have you as my agent?" "Believe me, shuag, they're all my clients" Nabooru said in her drawling southern voice while pointing to the crowd of people behind her. "I guess I don't have a choice, then." Link said. Link signed the contracts and was put in the waiting room waiting to get into- what else -a waiting room. Several other people were there with him. "Great, another newcomer. They die so quickly these days." A young man about Link's age said. "Oh, don't worry about it. Sheik's just tryin' ta intimidate ya. I'm Zelda. What's your name?" She asked. "I'm Link." Link replied. Sheik was a little taller then Link, and carried a razor sharp Katana. Zelda was also quite tall, but had a dress instead of Sheik's many bandages. Zelda also looked like a skilled magician, and had long blonde hair. "What are you staring at me for?" Zelda asked in a confrontational voice. There was a silence, only broken by the announcer announcing "And now, making his debut at the stadium, Link vs. some monsters left over from the Ganon wars!" Link walked through the long corridor. It seemed endless. When Link finally reached the ring a crowd greeted him with applause. A monster cougar then appeared out of a cave. Link drew his sword. It was a rather odd sword. It glowed when he touched it and was probably magic. Then 2 more cougars approached, and still 6 more. 9 monster cougars in a trap-filled arena. A short, calm moment or 2, and a cougar made a dive for Link. He ran out of the way, and attempted to slash the beast. Link was expecting a "splat", the sound of metal ripping through flesh, but instead heard a "thud" like when you hit a hammer on hardwood. The cougar looked up at him as if to say "Is that the best you can do?" Another then knocked down Link from behind. It made a slash at his neck but the bones in its neck were smashed by Link's sword. It shambled around and dropped off its feet. 3 Cougars then corned Link by an overhanging gargoyle head. 1 pounced at Link, but hit the wall and loosened the gargoyle. Now Link had a plan. Link got the cougars to ram the gargoyle head some more times, but was hit by one in a 2-way attack. It clawed at his face, and put a gash across his stomach. Link sliced at its eyes to get it off him. Feeling a little fatigue, he did not pay enough attention, and a cougar grabbed his arm. Link had to grab a nearby club and break its head into pieces. 3 all pounce at once, but they miss, and hit the wall. The gargoyle gives way, and falls on the beasts heads, crushing them under a creature almost as grotesque as they were. 5 down, 4 to go. Link ran to the other side, but a cougar cut him off. It attempted to attack his knees, but Link waved his sword at it even though he opposed no real threat to them. The cougar backed away. Link frantically looked for a weapon on the ground or something like that, but was ambushed from behind by another cougar. Then Link saw it, a strange device on the ground. Link sliced the beast's neck, and threw it off him. Now he grabbed the weapon, and tried to figure out how to work it. He tried some spells, said some odd gibberish, and then a bright bluish light appeared. All of a sudden a beam of red and purple light bolted out of the rod, hit a cougar, and the beast's very fiber of being was torn out as it sort of swirled a little, and was sucked into a tiny ball of nothing. The other 2 cougars were stunned, gave each other terrified glances, and retreated back to the cave they came from. The audience roared with applause, and Link was led to the medical ward because of a deep cut discovered from 1 of the several times he was mauled. The doctor rubbed an odd white, slimy creature on all of the cuts and they instantly healed. Almost as soon as Link had left for the waiting room again, Nabooru came in. "I like your style, shuag. You did a great job out there." "Thank you." Link said. Link had finally reached the waiting room. He heard the announcer's voice change. "We have 2 announcers?" Link asked. "Heck yeah we do!" Sheik replied. "We've got Impa, the normal announcer in the morning, and Malon, a lady announcer in the evening, and Sashrala at night." "Who's Sashrala?" Link asked. "Sashrala is an old guy. He really makes the fights dramatic though." Sheik explained. "Would Sheik report to the ring already? I've been calling him for 10 minutes now." Said the impatient announcer. "Sorry I gotta kill some monster now. See ya." Sheik called out as he ran down the hall. Now it was just Link, Zelda, and the voices he could hear in another waiting room. Link looked up and down Zelda. Her beautiful sapphire eyes, how they flew across the magazine she was reading, it was almost hypnotic. Then Nabooru burst in. "I have a new assignment for one of you." She then laughed an evil laugh that certainly didn't fit her character. "He'll do it!" Zelda quickly yelled. She obviously didn't want a special assignment. "All right Link, follow me." Nabooru said with a diabolical grin. Nabooru led him into a room with many other people dressed like her. A couple of them were also smoking cigars. Most drank some form of alcohol-whether it was whiskey or wine-straight from the bottle. There was a long list of names, and some were crossed out. "Where are we?" Link asked. "We're just in the match planning room, shuag. Now I have a special assignment for you." She said. "I want you to go to the Shadow Temple." "You mean that place with all the undead monsters?" Link asked. "Precisely, shuag. Now I need you to do a little work for me, and a little reward will be in it for you." Nabooru continued. "To put it bluntly, you gotta rob a store, dust off somebody, who won't pay their, now what's the word I'm looking for… Oh yes, they won't pay their "rent". Now get going!" Link left the stadium for The Shadow Temple.

Two

As Link left the outskirts of Hyrule field, he saw the sun setting and knew what was coming. Link needed to find shelter quickly, and almost half a kilometer from The Shadow Temple was a small city with an inn. Once inside, a young woman greeted him, but there was something peculiar about her appearance. "Welcome to the Singing Tiger Inn. May I find you a room, its just 5 rupees a night." What a deal! Then he noticed it: that young woman had an extra little finger on her left hand. So that's what seemed strange. "All right, but first I'll sign the guest book." There were only 3 other names there, and the most recent one was 6 years ago. "Excuse me, miss why are there only 3 other names in this guest book?" Link asked. "Well, we don't get much business here, being in the middle of nowhere, and all. But we make enough to get around." She explained. "Who is "We"?" Link asked. "Oh, just the staff and I. You know, the cook, the maids, the guy who feeds my dogs." She explained, sounding slightly annoyed. Link was convinced. As he went upstairs to his room, he asked "What kind of dogs do you have?" "Only the very best in German Shepherds!" She exclaimed proudly. When Link got to his room, he checked the time. It was 9:30, and time for some rest. Link removed his light armor and slowly fell asleep. When he awoke, he heard the barking of many dogs. Link did every thing we all normally do in the morning, and headed downstairs for some breakfast, and then he met the young woman again. She was making eggs. "I hope your hungry, cause I just finished an omelet!" She said. "Thank you." Link said. He sat down in the dining room next to a couple of stuffed German Shepherds. After he finished, he called out "I thought you said the dogs needed to be fed." "Oh, I stuff all my little pets when they pass away. In my room there's a stuffed chicken." She replied from the other room. Link thought of this as a strange hobby, and he thought of her as a strange woman, but at 5 Rupees a night, who gives a darn! "Now would you like a cup of tea?" asked the woman. "Oh, certainly." Link answered. She fetched him some tea, but when Link took a drink, it tasted faintly of pickled walnuts. After a few minutes of doing who-knows-what, the woman returned with her own cup of tea. "Why did you hesitate in arriving?" Link asked. "Well is it really any of your beeswax?" The now annoyed woman asked. "Oh, sorry. I was just curious." Link said. "If you really wanted to know, I was slipping some honey in my tea. It appears to be my antidote for weariness. I get up really early in the morning, you know." She said. After a moment or 2 of silence, and tea drinking, Link noticed an odd smell coming from the woman. He couldn't put a finger on what exactly it was. Link thought maybe new leather, but she didn't have a piece of leather on her. The silence was broken when she said, "I remember my last customer like it was yesterday. He was like you, friendly, talkative, and sometimes asked a little too many questions." Sounding nice at first, but then adding a twinge of fury to her voice. Link asked in remote fear "Was there any other customers here since 6 years ago?" Sounding pleasant now, the woman replied "Only you, Link only you." "Well, where is that person?" Link asked. "Well they're still here." She responded. Then it all hit Link like a brick wall, "How could she live with such a low income?" He thought. "She must only charge a low fee because she doesn't need to. She must attract unwary travelers here, kill them, take their stuff, and have a real job elsewhere." "May I see him right now?" Link asked, just to make sure his frightening thoughts weren't true. "Why, certainly!" She exclaimed, and led him up to a room. There was a figure resting in it, but it did not move. The woman lifted the covers, revealing a stuffed human looking as though it was sleeping. "Why here he is!" She said, cheerfully. This woman was a psycho, and Link could tell. He bolted out of there, as quickly as possible, as the woman screamed about futility, and how the poison was already circulating. After an hour of getting back on track, Link was finally at The Shadow Temple.
Three

Now that He was in The Temple, all he had to do was follow Nabooru's instructions. Link pulled out the slip of paper with the instructions Nabooru had giver him. The first note told him to go and "Dust off" someone who wouldn't pay their "rent". Link was unfamiliar with mob slang, but was pretty sure he had to kill someone Nabooru had been blackmailing. He went to the address listed on the note, and came to an old, tower. It was, surprisingly in good condition for such an old building that has a meteor sticking out of it. Link went to the room listed on the note, and came to an old man in a filthy apartment covered in old rags. "This isn't right." Link thought. "Nabooru is a sick fool." With a paranoid quaking, the old man turned off the television, and said "He- Hello, sonny. What ca- can I get for you?" A great fear was in his eyes; one that you only see when you know the end is near. "May I sit down?" asked Link. "Why cer- certainly." He answered. He wiped the old dirty plates off his table, and sat down with Link. There was an awkward silence only broken by a bird hitting the window in the sunless sky outside. "S- so why have you come here?" asked the old man. "I'm here to help." Link said. "Nabooru sent me" He was interrupted. "You'll never take me alive!" The old man screamed, pulling out a war hammer, ready to beat Link on the head at any moment. To the old man's surprise, Link didn't draw his sword, which stopped the old man from killing someone at the last minute. "Wait! I'm not gonna kill you!" Link shouted at the last minute. The old man was dumbstruck. The fear drained out of his face and was replaced with a look of utter confusion. "Like I said, Nabooru sent me to kill you, but I won't, I'm not that cruel. I'm going to help you fake your death, and get someplace safe." he explained. So they bought some blood and meat from the butcher's, and made it look like the old man had fallen out of a window. Link then helped the old man pack up and leave The Shadow Temple to go to The lost woods to begin a new life. Now that Link had completed his task, he headed on the long road home. When he passed up the Singing Tiger Inn that weird woman waved to him as if they were best of friends, and asked for his address. At this, Link just walked faster, and wished to the world that there were a law enforcement agency, or even a group of vigilantes to save any soul that would wander into that psycho's domain. Night had almost come by the time he was back at the stadium, and the maid showed him to his room. In the morning at the breakfast table, Nabooru approached him. "So, shuag. Did you dust off that geezer, Rauru?" She asked. "Nope, he'd jumped out the window when he heard I was in town." Link said after finishing his orange juice. Nabooru looked very pleased; she looked frighteningly pleased. She said in a sadistically gleeful voice "That's good shuag, that's good." Link went into the waiting room with the usual Sheik, Zelda, and a bunch of people he didn't know. This time he noticed the sheer size of Sheik's katana; It was long as a man's arm. A few minutes later the announcer's booming voice called out "Now, for our next fight, it's Link vs. Zelda!" Both the combatants began to walk towards the entrance to the arena. Zelda looked very nervous, and Link was unsure of what to do. "Begin!" the announcer bellowed, but Link just froze. Zelda did the same. Several long seconds passed and a few members of the audience booed. Soon even more did so, and not knowing what she was doing, Zelda began to start running behind some rubble, and shot fireballs at Link. She was a lousy shot, however, and Link was unharmed. He decided he would satisfy the audience, but didn't want to hurt Zelda, so he searched the ground for a weapon, and found a battle axe, which was close enough. He smashed the rubble Zelda was hiding behind, and she was both stunned and uncovered from her hiding place. Link picked up Zelda, and hung her on a gargoyle overlooking the arena. Link left the now-rioting crowd, and declared the fight a draw.

Four

"What the heck was that all about?" Zelda asked. "I have no idea." Sheik said, just as confused as Zelda. Neither one of them had any idea as to why Link just did that. They were on their way to Nabooru's "office" to request a rematch. When they got there, the usual people were there. "Good morning, sir and miss. What is your business with Nabooru?" Said a strange man who looked nothing like the other people there. He didn't drink or smoke; he wasn't carrying any blades with him like all the other members of Nabooru's gang. "I'd like to schedule and rematch for Zelda, and request a match myself." Sheik said. "Very well, you may enter." He said. When they entered Nabooru's real office, her back was turned on them, and she was drinking a bottle of whiskey. When she noticed that there were other people there she quickly turned around, and hid the whiskey under her desk as if nothing had ever happened. With a slight loopiness in her voice, she said, "Hello, hello, who the heck are you?" "Well, I'm Sheik and this is Zelda. We'd like to request a few battles." He said. "Rigged or fair?" Nabooru said, with no idea of who exactly she was talking to. Nabooru was obviously drunk. "Fair, please. I just want to see what's going on." Zelda said. "Alright, who do you want to, to fight?" The drunk woman asked, now stumbling over her own words. "We'd both like to fight Link in 2 separate matches." Sheik said. "Okay, let me find a pen, she reached into her desk, pulled out a pen, but could barely write a single word in her intoxicated state. "Here, let me write it down." Sheik offered. He took the pen, and recorded the fights on the schedule. They left, leaving Nabooru to get back to that whiskey. After a while she got up to take a nap, but fell over on the way there. Nabooru just wanted to sleep, so she just dozed off right on the floor next to the bar. All this time, Link was still in the waiting room. For Link, life was a series of waiting rooms, until now. Impa was the normal announcer for the morning, but she seemed to be working longer then she normally did. Then a young woman with long, red hair came in. The woman said "Excuse me, I'm lost. Could somebody help me find the announcer's box?" To Link, her voice was sweeter then the singing of 1000 angels in 1000 choirs, all singing the same beautiful song. Link hesitated for a moment. The young woman didn't expect an answer, so she was amazed when after doing nothing, Link got up and said "Sure, I'll help you." As they walked to they announcer's box, the young woman said "So what's your name? I'm Malon." "You mean the announcer?" Link asked. "Yep." She replied. "Well, I'm Link." Link said. They saw Zelda and Sheik chatting away on the way there. Link was dreadfully attracted to Malon, and couldn't help but give her a hug on the way out. "Bye, Link." Malon said after their parting. Link could not believe what he had just done; it was his first new memory of giving someone a hug. He was overjoyed with delight. Link walked back to the waiting room with such joyful thoughts, that he was utterly astonished to find Sheik and Zelda ready to duel when he got back to the waiting room.

Five

Link heard Malon's voice say "Our next battle is Sheik vs. Link. This could get interesting!" Sheik was already there, so Link had to run as fast as he could to get there on time. When he got there, Malon shouted, "Begin!" out to the audience, and the battle was on. Sheik charged right at Link with that colossal Katana he'd seen before. Link ran out of the way, and Sheik's weapon was stuck in the wall. There were all sorts of debris around, and Sheik's blade was temporarily unusable, so he picked up a cinder block, and flung it at Link. Link hadn't expected this, and got hit right in the shoulder. Given this time of opportunity, Sheik searched the ground for weapons, and found a carpenter's hammer. Sheik decided to use the claw end of it to pry out his sword instead of looking like an idiot and hitting Link with it. Honestly, who goes around hitting people on the head with hammers? The maintenance crew probably dropped the darned thing. After recovering from getting hit by a brick, Link got up and saw his rival trying to pry out his sword from the wall with a hammer. The crowd was getting bored by now, and demanded that they fill up the arena with water, and cap the ceiling, so that if the battle goes on too long, both of the boring combatants would surely die. When Link noticed what was going on, and the arena already had the cap put on it; he wanted to end this quick, so he gave Sheik a hard slash in the thigh. He tried to get up, but couldn't move for that matter, and Link was declared the victor. But Sheik had had learned something today, and it was that bricks hurt. So as he was dragged off to the healing ward, he yelled, "This isn't over! Next time we fight, you'll kiss the brick!" The next day, Sheik was already healed, and his thigh had actually felt better. Sheik generally stayed away from Link for now, and when he talked to him it was always nothing more than a "Good morning" or an "Excuse me". Link didn't have to fight today, the crowd was bored stiff with him, and they considered voting for his execution, but decided to give him a second chance; just not now. After she got off work -which was a little later than Link- Malon decided to invite Link to Andre's, which was a local Restaurant. Some odd things were going on there. Nabooru and her friends never had to pay the bills (They still had to tip the waiter or waitress.), and it was the only place in town with a "smoking section". It was certainly a weird one. Well, the 2 of them were at Andre's. After a short wait to be seated they sat down, and ordered their food. At the end, the owner, Andre, gave them a bottle of expensive wine. Strangely enough, it was free, and strangely enough, right after they opened it Malon spotted a fly at the bottom of the bottle. It was disposed of. Neither Malon, nor Link knew if this was a date or not, but they had both grown very fond of each other. As the sun was setting, and the air grew unpleasantly cold, Link and Malon finally went home. The next day was completely uneventful until most of the people who had served Nabooru in some way or another were called to her office. She was playing hazard, and had to roll a couple 5s. If she won, she'd get all of Impa's money and a treasure map he had to throw in or else he wouldn't have anything left to bet but his shoes. If Nabooru lost everyone in the stadium would be dead broke. Zelda was there, and an idea popped in her head. She didn't like Link, and she found the best way to get back at him, and get Sheik to do much of her dirty work for her. You see, I don't mention this subject very much, but Sheik and Zelda have liked each other since before I started this story. I just didn't bring it up because Link never noticed it, and he IS the main character. Zelda approached Link with extreme caution, snuck up behind him, and right as Nabooru hurled those dice in the air, she gave him a big sloppy kiss. Before anyone knew it, Zelda was nowhere to be found, Impa was sobbing at her loss, and a crowd was carrying off Nabooru. Link was the only one in the room, and decided "Maybe this is better kept as a secret." Link went back to the waiting room, and Sheik was uncontrollably enraged and looked as though he was ready to kill Link at a moment's glance. For a while, nobody said anything. Then Link figured out what happened: Zelda had blamed HIM for what had happened in Nabooru's office! This was an outrage! Then another thing popped in his mind: What if they told Malon?!? She'd think he was 2 timing her, and hate him too. This could easily lead to impending disaster. Link thought about this, and a chill ran up his spine. He became so nervous that even though the room was quite cool, he began to sweat. Then, to end this awkward silence, Nabooru burst in, and said "Hey Link, yer comin' with me!" Link left as fast as he could. Nabooru appeared to be the only one cheerful at this point in time. All of her underlings were surly as usual. The map said that there was a hidden vault near The Shadow Temple. "Now, shuag, you're the only one here who's actually BEEN to The Shadow Temple, so you'll have to be my guide." Nabooru said. "What kind of a treasure is it?" Link asked. "We think it's the tomb of some ancient king, shuag. There were more than one existence of intelligent life here, you know. As soon as one dominant race dies out, a new one pops up in its place "Well then lets go find some treasure!" Nabooru exclaimed, and they were off. Some Gerudo with shovels were brought along. When they got there in the dead of the night, the Shovels started digging, and Link was looking forward to this; he wanted to see the treasure, and maybe even get some of it. Soon, they hit a boulder, which turned out to be the entrance to the vault. They unearthed the door that blocked the entrance, and busted the hinges open. There was no treasure, just a big stone coffin, writings on the wall, and a piece of paper on the ground. The walls were indecipherable, and the coffin was immobile, but the paper was in plain Hylian. Nabooru picked it up, and read it aloud. "'Rising moon, setting sun, dead and living, now are one'. Now that's strange. I've never seen anything like it." Then the coffin began to glow, and a dragon-like figure stood up on 2 legs, and said "So hungry…" and burned the Gerudo with shovels and flew off towards Hyrule. Strangely enough, it didn't eat the people it killed.

Six

Link and Nabooru headed for the city, with plenty of her minions' close behind. As they passed the Singing Tiger Inn, Link once again remembered his stay, and told Nabooru to never rent any of their rooms. When they got there, the city was already taken over by that monster. Nabooru ran to some far off land, and deserted her inferiors to die. Link went back to the stadium, where there was only one member of the crowd, and he'd seen this beast before in that vault. It turns out that its name was Mortivore, and it enjoyed the sight of death. It almost appeared as though death fed it. Sheik was even more furious then Link had ever seen him, Malon wouldn't even talk to him, and Mortivore had an iron grip on the city like no one had seen before. Then one day, Mortivore saw the anger in Sheik's eyes, and scheduled to put him in the arena with Link in a fight to the death. All that week Sheik was wearing an evil grin, and couldn't wait until the big fight. Mortivore was worse then Nabooru. Nabooru was just corrupt and greedy, while Mortivore took glee in seeing death. He personally executed innocent people for no apparent reason. When asked why, he told them that death made him stronger, and then he would kill the next person who asked the question. He had a small minion that was always with him. He was exceptionally loyal, but had no freedom. He always had to ask his master before doing anything, and if he didn't he'd be beat on the back with a heavy leather whip. This minion looked like a dot of light, and was named Tatl. She also had tiny wings. Tatl was almost the exact same color as Malon's eyes. As for Mortivore himself, he looked like a small, black dragon (7' 5" on 2 legs is pretty small for a dragon.) That had one broken horn, and silver left eye. His other eye was black as filth. He never went on 4 legs like most dragons, but on 2 legs like a human. His wings were excessively large, and he rarely ever used them for flying. Now that's enough about the bad guys. I need to continue to the rest of the story. Well, it was the day of the big fight between Link and Sheik, and Link was so nervous he was just about ready to vomit. Sheik was getting a brick ready for the battle. Sheik looked as though he may have a strategy ready to beat Link this time. The waiting rooms elevator music wasn't doing a good job of calming anyone. They were all either excited about this match or in Link's case, afraid for his life. Then he heard Impa's voice bellow over the microphone saying "Now, our next match is against Link and Sheik! Let the blood spill!" As Link left, he heard Zelda tell Sheik "Break a leg." And Sheik says, "It won't be mine, that's for sure." Link left, before they'd start kissing, and found the arena to be carnage-stricken, and stained with blood. Now the matches were like the ones real gladiator fought back before civilized people took control. This was all real. Sheik finally arrived for the match. Impa consulted Mortivore for when to start, and she got smacked in the face. "Begin!" Mortivore roared. The first thing that happened was Sheik yelled "Hey Link, kiss this!" Seconds later, Link was hit in the face with a brick. Sheik charged right at Link, but tripped over a severed arm. Link got a great slash at Sheik's back, but found that he just cut through part of his bandages. Sheik made a slash right at Link's torso, but he jumped backward just in time. Sheik tried similar attempts at slicing Link to pieces, but he did similar evasive maneuvers. Finally, Link was corned under a gargoyle, but Sheik didn't hit him. Link actually blocked with his sword. Sheik did a powerful horizontal slash, but Link ducked. The force of the impact detached the gargoyle from its wall, and sent it crashing down on Link. Sheik removed the debris from on top of Link. He was still alive, but unconscious. Sheik prepared for the final blow, but just as he was about to behead him, he realized something that made him stop: He felt pity for Link. He felt pity for this young man who got his memory erased, he felt pity for his half dead body, he felt pity for the one who, at his hands, would die young. Sheik stopped, and sheathed his sword. "What do you think your doing? He's not dead yet!" Mortivore roared. "I do not wish to kill him." Sheik said. "Then I'll kill him myself!" Mortivore snarled. Mortivore spread out his over-sized wings, and flew over to Link. Sheik gave Mortivore a deep cut on the shoulder. "You'll regret that, vermin." Mortivore said to Sheik. He turned around, and let out a bolt of fire. In the nick of time Sheik ran out of the way, and severed one of Mortivore's hands. Mortivore charged right at Sheik in an attempt to skewer him with his horn, only to find a Katana in his head. Then it was noticed that Nabooru was in the audience. She dragged off Mortivore, and said she'd bury it under The Temple of Time.

Seven

It turns out Nabooru was telling the truth, she was going to bury it under The Temple of Time. Of course before she would do this, she exploited it for as much money as possible. For 30 days, it was in a museum, with 90% of the profit going to her. She then sold it to a traveling freak show for 180 days. After that, she finally made the Temples pay to have it interred under their foundation. As for Mortivore's minion, she was buried alive next to Mortivore in a different vault in a small box. Link was taken to the healing ward, where he quickly recovered. Sheik still disliked Link to some point, but no where near as much as he used to. Since Zelda's plan had spiraled out of control, she told everyone the truth. Now that Malon knew the truth, she asked Link out on another visit to Andre's. That weird lady at the Singing Tiger Inn got a little more business from Nabooru trying to kill some of her insubordinate lackeys, which gave the place a mysterious reputation. But that's not important right now. We need to get back to Andre's. "I'm sorry I ever believed Zelda. At least she apologized." Malon said. "Oh, it's okay. Everything's good now." Link said. They had finished their meals, and the waiter brought them their bill. Link paid, and they left. They'd definitely grown to like each other very much, maybe even love each other already. It appears that we have reached a happy ending--for now. To be continued...

Saxophone