The Story of a Shadow
Chapter XII
Near miss


Dark’s heart beat rapidly. He was so tired and could feel his body shaking. His hands twitched and his back tensed as he felt the cold touch of an iron rod slide down from the back of his neck to his hips.
    “Don’t worry, kid. It wont be cold much longer.” The evil voice came from Barg, who had Dark on the floor. His hands and feet were tied together but Barg had not bothered to do anything else. He knew Dark was to worn out to do anything, and he was right. Dark just wanted it all to end. He knew it was his fault for getting mixed up with Barg in the first place. He had seemed like just a drunken sailor, but now he had turned into a sadistic creep. Dark wondered if this was how Malon felt when Dark turned on her. Maybe he deserved the punishment ahead. He was to weak to struggle anyway and had just laid down and closed his eyes. Maybe He wouldn’t survive this and it would all be over soon. But he had a feeling Barg would make sure he stayed alive.


      “Any last words, kid?” Said the evil sailor as he waved the now red hot iron bar in front of his face.
     “Yeah I do: Why?” He flinched at his own words as he recalled Malon saying the same thing to him in the prison cell. Barg leaned down to Dark’s level, Iron rode still in hand. He ginned evilly.
     “Because I can. Kid. I have the power to and no little devil shadow is going to take that from me.” He gently smacked Dark’s cheek and raised himself back up.
     “That stone is turning you into a maniac!” Growled Dark.
     “Silence!” Hissed Barg as he lowered the iron tool  onto Dark’s backbone. Dark cried out as the heat began to melt his skin, more black mist poured out of Dark. Then Barg lifted Dark up to his feet. Dark stood weakly with his face toward the ground. His shoulders were caved in and his legs looked as if they would give at any moment.

     “Stand like a man!” Barked the pirate. When Dark did not move, Barg dropped the iron rod and grabbed Dark by the hair. He dragged the defeated youth over to a pool of water. Dark immediately began to panic and Barg noticed his sudden perk up.

     “So you do care about your life! Good this will be more fun.” Then he shoved Dark into the pool. The water was deep and Dark sank like a rock to the bottom and he struggled to move up as water engulfed into his lungs. But being bound by the ropes Dark could hardly move. The water stung his eyes and the gashes on his body as they tried to clean out the infected wounds.
     ’It’s just water’ thought Dark over and over to himself. Why was he so weak? Why couldn’t he beat this man? Barg was nothing! And yet here he was barely alive. Ha! That was a laugh! He wasn’t even alive to begin with! Then why was he dieing? Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing except the feeling he felt when he was with Malon. Every decision he made while he was around her felt so right. (except the one, of course) Maybe that was it! Maybe he lived because he DID love. He kept telling himself he could not live and he could not love and yet here he was, dieing for the one he loved! It all made sense now. He did have a reason to live, to fight! Water wasn’t his problem it was all the doubt he felt in that room while he wondered about his purpose.

     Suddenly the water felt soothing on his body. And he was… breathing?  He was breathing under water! It looked so clear, an ice blue. Then he saw her. Smiling at him was Nyaru. She was in the water with him. She swam around to his hands and unbound the rope, then moved to his feet. When he was free she smiled again at him.


     “Well done, Dark. Only one step left.” Her voice was like a soft chorus of bells that soothed the pain. She swam up to him one last time and gently kissed him on the lips. It was like nothing Dark had ever felt before and he could feel his wounds healing. His shoulder closed completely and the burn on his back disappeared. All his burses and scars disappeared, too.  Then she swam away, giving him one last warm smile and Dark winked playfully back at her.
     With his new found strength Dark sunk to the bottom of the pool. He bent his legs , and then using his arms, he pushed off the ground and soared to the top of the water. He bust out of the water and twirled in  the air and landed on the ground, his back turned to Barg.
    What the…?” exclaimed Barg and Dark turned around and smiled devilishly at him.
     “I’m back.”   
    “How..how did you….” Stuttered the sea dog.
    “You’ve been a bad boy, captain. Bad boys must be punished.” He walked closer to Barg who was franticly trying to search for his stone. Dark went to punch Barg when all of a sudden there was a loud booming sound coming from the next room. Both Dark and Barg stopped there actions to look at the wall where the noise was coming from. In seconds  the wall burst into pieces with a thundering explosion. Dark lifted his arm over his eyes in defense from the exploded wall. The smoke cleared, reveling a smiling Link, and Sheik and Malon and Navi.
     “Miss me?” Asked Link, his eyes were filled with excitement, like a child on Christmas day.
     “I told you to get out of here!” insisted Dark, he didn’t shout but was angry that they had not taken Malon to safety
     “Never mind that!” Said Zelda, who was still in her Sheiken outfit. “We need to get out of here.” She pointed to an angry Barg, who had found his precious stone. He squeezed it and held it out.
     “RUN!” Dark shouted, grabbing Malon by the wrist as he flew from the room. Link and Zelda followed.
     Dark could hear the sound of the stone’s energy and pulled Malon to the ground. The beam of yellow light whizzed past the top of Dark’s head. And crashed through the wall ahead.
     “Link!” The shadow yelled, hoping he had sensed it in time, too.
     “We’re ok. Go left!”
     Dark got to his feet and helped Malon up. She looked at him thankfully and then he slipped his hand to hers. He smiled when she did not flinch or pull away.
     They raced down the corridor, not looking back. Dark concentrated his senses behind him, hoping to reacted in time to dodge whatever came their way.
     Link and Zelda had finally caught up to them and The two warriors ran side by side, while the girls ran right behind.
     “You look better.” Said Link, taking his gaze off the hall for a moment to look over his shadow.
     “Thanks, you don’t look to bad yourself, handsome, even.” Dark smiled
     “Shadow….” Link warned
     “Sorry, habit.”
    “Turn here.” The two boys ran in sync with each other. Both had the same running style and it looked like Link’s shadow was running with him. (which, in essence, it was)
    “I don’t hear him.” commented Zelda from behind Link. And Link looked back for a moment to see that no one was chasing them, there weren’t even any guards around. Link shook his head, as if he was worried it was a trap.      
        Dark and party came out the castle in on piece, there were guards on the outside of the castle, and Link quickly went to action, not bothering to stop and fight, just enough to get through the gate and out of there.
     “We made it!” huffed Zelda, still running  with everyone. They made their way through a deserted castle market and out to Hyrule field, stopping only once they were outside.
     “Now what?” Asked Dark. he was still afraid to apologize, and he wondered if he was just being prideful.
     “We got a plan.” announced Link. His face was serious and red from running. Malon rested her hands on her thighs and breathed deeply. Dark wanted nothing more then to pick Malon up him his arms and take her away. But he  knew if Link would have a cow. He knew if he wanted Malon he needed to make friends with Link. Or at least come to an understanding with him. In a way Dark had a great deal of respect for Link. Dark knew he caused a great deal of pain and worry for his other self and yet the hero came back to rescue him.  
     “What is the plan?” Asked Dark           
     “In time, Shadow. Right now we need to get as far away from here as possible.”          

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