"This must be it. It has to be," Midna said, staring at the giant door that loomed ominously before her and Link.
"It is," Link mumbled feebly. He'd been getting worse... Each room they went through, every monster they snuck by, it seemed like every time a little bit more of his strength faded. Midna didn't know what to do. She doubted that this was just because he drunk the dirty water. Could it?
"How are you so sure?" She turned to look at him, noting how pale he'd become and the glazed over look that captivated his eyes. Could Midna really trust his judgment?
"It's somewhere behind this door. I can feel it calling."
"So now you have a spiritual attachment to your sword? Wonderful..." He didn't respond. Instead he simply closed his eyes.
"Hey! Don't do that! Stay awake! You don't have time to take a nap!"
"It seems like I'm dying, Midna. I should just go find Gerudo while I still have some strength to."
"Shut up! You stupid drama queen! It won't take much longer. The sword is just behind this door! You said so yourself!"
"A door that doesn't have a crack underneath it to fit us, unlike all the others," he pointed out unhelpfully.
"Our sizes are going to change back at any moment." He looked like he was going to be sick, perhaps at her words but maybe just cause he wasn't feeling well.
"Come on! Just a little bit longer and it will all be fine." They started to grow taller, till the room was back to its normal size. Thankfully, this room didn't have any monsters, just a maze-like tile pattern on the floor they'd had to navigate.
"This is what you get for drinking strange water, Link! This is why Hylians don't do that. Your stomachs are too weak to handle it. Twili don't even need water. We've evolved past that!" Link glared at her. She'd hoped he would get better when he returned to his normal size, but if anything he looked worse.
"Fine. I'll be quiet now. Time to open the door so we can deal with whatever is inside." She reached and grabbed the handle. It was a strange handle, like someone had bolted a metal wheel to the door. When she rotated the wheel, it made a low creaking noise. There was a loud click as a mechanism shifted and unlocked the door when she'd turned the wheel as far as it would go.
"Ready?" she asked Link, carefully studying his expression. He forced himself to smile and then grab the handle.
"Together?" he asked softly. Well, at least he wasn't trying to do it all on his own. Small improvements!
"Together," she agreed, gripping the handle tighter. Together they both pulled and opened the door. Then together, they gasped in surprise at what was beyond.
Water. A wall of shining blue wavering over the door, current sweeping over it and waves bubbling up. There was no way they could get into the room. Not if it was all water like that. Link would surely perish.
"That was not what I expected..." She'd expected light. A tremendous, death dealing amount of light. She'd been ready to hurry into Link's shadow. They were in the tower of a Light Spirit, right? So light would have made sense. Yet there was water instead... Water wasn't something she'd had a plan for.
"That's strange. It's just a curtain of water over the door." Link had stuck his hand through the blue wall while Midna had been considering their best course of action. The water parted beneath his hand.
"Oh... Then there's no point in staring at it any longer! We should get going." Link kept the water away while Midna entered the room. He followed behind her.
The walls, the ceiling, and the floor of the room were covered in water. The water was only about an inch thick and a pleasant, almost peaceful shade of blue. Midna glanced over and noticed that the water around Link's feet swirled with red. A pang of guilt shot through her, for she felt personally responsible for that. She pushed her feelings aside, promising herself that she'd help him later. She had more concerning things to deal with at the moment.
In the center of the room was a large blue monster, frozen in ice. Sprinkles of cold emanated from the ice, fogging the outside and preventing her from being able to tell exactly what was inside. She wasn't too concerned with that though, most of her attention was on Ganondorf. Or rather the phantom that looked remarkably similar to the possessor of the power triforce.
Phantom Ganondorf wore armor darker than the longest night with a collar of metal that circled around his neck in a fine mesh. A spiky crown haloed his head and was woven into his flaming red hair. His whole demeanor was fire. With little embers burning in the coals of his eyes and his cloak flickering behind him like a furious flame, his whole demeanor screamed fire. There was a slight contradiction to his fiery form though, he was tinted a slight blue and outlined in azure. A blue flame. Magic in its maliciousness.
"You still live? How amusing... Welcome to my new castle. Welcome to your destruction." It hardly counted as a villain monologue worthy of her ears, but Midna gave him props for trying. She readied her magic, calling it to her fingertips. Behind her, Link had gotten out his shield and dagger, managing to push through his weakness with such success that it managed to surprise her.
"You try to defy me once more? Try is all you shall be able to do. I fear the water will be stained with your blood by the time I am finished with you..." With that, Lord Phantom Ganondorf disappeared in a puff of blue. Like the whiff of smoke before a fire says its final goodbye.
"Well... That was easy?" Midna looked at Link with an almost disappointed shrug. She wasn't too concerned about Ganondorf anymore... There were more pressing matters to attend to. Like how Link had started shaking uncontrollably. Or how the ice around the monster had begun to crack, splintering in little chunks that became lost in the water. It quickly became clear what had been trapped inside the ice. It was like a monster she had helped Link fight before. The Stallord, but different. This monster wasn't made of fossilized bone, instead it had blue skin that was stretched so thin you could see the bones supporting it beneath. Two horns rose out of the top of its head and were made of a bone so old it was almost translucent. The talons at the ends of its hands were like shards of ice. The strangest thing about it was that its eyes were a red that boiled with unbridled hatred.
"Stalliege," Link said softly, "It doesn't belong here. Its home is in the Zora's fountain. It..." But he didn't get to finish his thought. The ice around the monster had finished falling, causing the water level to rise considerably. The Stalliege raised its head to the ceiling and roared with an anger so filled with sadness that Midna blinked back tears from her eyes.
"Okay then. Don't do anything stupid... Link!" He was gone. A wave had reached up and plucked him from where he stood. She couldn't see where he was now.
A claw scraped across her back and sent her flying. She might not have been able to see Link, but the Stalliege could definitely still see her. Midna turned back to the monster. She could feel the currents tug at her, pulling her closer, pulling her farther, pulling her apart. She tried to fight against it. That wasn't smart, she should have paid more attention to the monster. A wall of ice knocked her off her feet, forcing her beneath the waves, giving her fully up to the powerful currents. She fought for air as the water filled her lungs with a chaotic rage. She honestly hadn't realized she needed air. Maybe she didn't, but she definitely missed it.
She forced her starlit red eyes open, the water stung like a thousand bees. Maybe she had been stupid not to have a plan in case they faced water, but could she really be to blame!? She was in the middle of a desert!
The water burned her skin, digging into her scratched back. It felt almost like light. Water light. She'd never heard of something like that before. Whatever the water was, it only caused her steadily increasing discomfort, not death. The water light blurred her vision, she couldn't tell if the Stalliege was in front of her or if that was just more blue. She didn't know which way was up or down. All directions became one. All directions led to death. Midna couldn't stand the helplessness she felt while trapped in the current. It wouldn't do. She was the Queen of Twilight! She couldn't be disoriented that easily.
Magic materialized at her fingertips. With a few halfhearted waves of her hands, a bubble of air formed around her.
"That's better," she coughed. As much as she wanted to take a moment to feed her desperate lungs with air, she still had things to do. And she still couldn't find Link. Her body ached from the light and begged for the comforting rays of twilight.
Frost began to form around her protective bubble. The stupid Stalliege! Thinking it could best her in this little game! It was wrong and Midna intended to prove it. She'd finally spotted it. She'd seen a flash of an almost electric blue in the water. A tail, possibly. Her magic sparked through the bubble and hit the tail. A muffled screech filled her ears. It cut off abruptly and then all was silent.
"Did I kill it?" Midna wondered aloud. It didn't really matter, she needed to find Link. It seemed like the water level was dropping. Midna's bubble found the floor and popped suddenly. The water reached up to her waist, but that was okay. The head of the Stalliege floated on the other side of the room. Just the head, the rest of the body was gone. Disappeared. That was okay as well. Midna didn't care. It's eyes still burned with a red hot hatred, even in death. Midna didn't care.
Link stood a little ways off, looking like he hadn't moved or even been affected by the water changes. Midna swam over. He wasn't there. Well, he was but it seemed like his mind was somewhere else. He was shaking like he was freezing cold, but his skin looked burned.
"Link!" He didn't move even when she called his name. His eyes were closed and his face held a grim pain filled expression.
"I killed the Stalliege..." She shook his shoulder gently. "What did you do to help..." Then she shook him roughly, since gentle hadn't gotten her a reaction.
"Please tell me what's wrong!"