Chapter 6
Guess Who’s coming
To Dinner?

    When I was unconscious, I had a weird dream. In this dream, Lux and I found a piece of the Triforce ourselves, but the triangle was upside down, compared to how the other two were on the Triforce. I decided to touch this piece, which exploded into a surge of electricity and all that electricity went into me. I looked down at my right hand and the full Triforce was on it, but only the middle was glowing.
    Suddenly, Zelda and Link appeared and their hands, Zelda’s right and Link’s left, were glowing and they also had the Triforce on their hands. We suddenly heard this huge laugh, however, and behind me was Ganondorf. He replaced the piece of Triforce that was behind me. He shot me with this terrible power and I woke up all of the sudden.
    I had sat up extremely quick. I found myself laying in a nice, soft bed. I looked at the table to my right and there was my hat. I looked behind me and noticed there was a small line of blood on my pillow. I felt my right cheek, which stung a little. The bleeding had stopped, but I still felt a stinging feeling on that cheek.
    I sat on the edge of the bed. A window was open and it smelled to me like a nice, spring afternoon. Because of this nice weather, I decided to get up. I was a bit sore, or rather extremely sore, but I would get over it. I grabbed my hat and underneath it I found the Thunderstone and a note.

    I thought you would like this back, Thunderstones can only be used once, but I think that this item will always be important for you and Lux. I will be honest, there’s a mysterious aura from that Thunderstone and I think that is why Ganondorf had this stone. I do not know why he had it exactly, but I would stay on your toes.
    Now, get some rest and join us at dinner at 6:30. My father is excited to meet you. There should be a wardrobe in this room, so pick out a dress that you would like and be proper for dinner.

Sincerely,
Princess Zelda


    I put the stone and the note down on the end table. I had to get dressed so I represented myself well in front of the King of Hyrule. There was a wardrobe across from me, so I peeked inside. It was filled with gorgeous dresses of almost every color. They were all rather long, but that was fine. Back on home, I’d always see older girls wearing short skirted dresses.
    I picked out my favorite dress. It was a dark yellow, almost like a goldenrod color. There were even long, golden gloves that came with the dress. When I was little, I remember wanting those kinds of gloves, for princesses always wore them. After I put on the dress, I slipped the gloves on.
    Under all the dresses in the wardrobe, there were several pairs of dress shoes. I chose the black ones only because I didn’t want to look too yellow. I slipped the shoes on. I never really wore dress shoes, and I discovered how uncomfortable they were. They were hard to walk in and I could feel the leather rub against my feet. I knew I would have terrible blisters, but I needed to look decent. My boots definitely weren’t the pair of shoes to wear with the dress I had on.
    I decided to take a stroll around the castle a bit. I left the room and stepped out into a huge hallway. It had a high ceiling and everything. The floor was a black marble and the walls were actually smooth and they were a white color. My footsteps echoed as I walked. The hall way was empty, so that was understandable.
    I had never been in an actual castle before, which I guess was alright. As far as I knew, there were no castles in Ohio, or at least there weren’t any castles in my town. I was excited to actually walk around. I had to find Link anyway and sitting in my room wouldn’t help me find him.
    
    I walked for about an hour and still couldn’t find Link. The castle was beautiful, but I was having trouble soaking it in. My feet hurt so badly. I had to find a seat and take the shoes off. I cam to these two double doors and opened one of them. They were extremely heavy and the pressure I put on my feet to move the doors made the shoes cut into my skin a little.
    The room I entered was a huge chapel. There were several rows of pews and a huge organ. It wasn’t being played at the time which was because there was no service that evening. There was a huge stain glass window on the other side of the church. I expected Jesus to be on it or something, but it was a huge Triforce. Flying around it were three women. They were colored for one was blue, one was green, and the last was red.
    Sitting at a pew was Zelda’s attendant, Impa. She turned around and motioned for me to sit with her. I didn’t want to be rude, so I sat down with her. I still wanted to be proper, so I kept my shoes on, despite the fact that it felt like a thousand mice were chewing on my poor feet.
    “Hello, child,” Impa said, “what brings you hear?”
    “Ah, I was just looking around,” I said.
    “It’s rather a coincidence that you made your way here, I suppose,” Impa said. “This is a chapel that honors the Goddess of the Triforce.”
    “Is that the triangle on the window?” I asked and I pointed to it.
    “Yes, child. It’s the sacred symbol of our kingdom. However, this sacred symbol had caused terrible wars to befall this kingdom.”
    “Wars?”
    “Why yes. Hyrule is one of the most purest and desirable kingdoms around this world. We’ve had several people try to take it from us. But usually, they’re only after one thing.”
    “The Triforce?”
    “Correct,” Impa said, and she smiled. “Unfortunately, our symbol had caused many wars, even several civil wars.”
    “Between whom?” I asked.
    Impa’s face seemed to darken and she replied, “The Gerudos.”
    “Who are the ’Gerudos?’”
    “They’re a human race that live in the desert. It’s a barren, wasteland, now full of criminals. The Gerudos use to be peaceful and offered to help our kingdom. Someone got a hold of the Triforce of Power, and went mad. That was over one hundred years ago, however.”
    “Where’s the Triforce of Power now?” I asked.
    “No one knows. I have heard that it was destroyed years ago by an ancestor to our current king, because that one piece seemed to drive people mad, unlike the other two pieces. I’ve also heard that Din, the Goddess of Power, came down to Hyrule for a short second and took the Triforce of Power, so law would return to this kingdom.”
    “Wow,” I said.
    “I know where you got that cut,” Impa said. “Ganon attacked you, didn’t he?”
    “Yeah,” I said and I touched my right cheek. The blood had dried quite well.
    “I suspected that was why you were so wounded. Ganon is very questionable, but the King of Hyrule trusts him. I am very disappointed in my king, honestly, for he has been ignoring the nightmares that Zelda has had that showed this man as an enemy.”
    I suddenly remembered the dream I had. Ganondorf was in mine and Zelda’s dream. I also remembered that a couple days ago, Link had a nightmare that he didn’t tell me about. I began to wonder if all of our dreams had some sort of connection, but I wasn’t sure why or how the dreams were happening.
    “Are you okay, Ashley?” Impa asked and I suddenly snapped back to reality.
    “Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” I said quickly.
    There was a small pause and then Impa said, “Did you get your Thunderstone back?”
    “Oh, yeah,” I said.
    “Now, I want to talk to you about that stone. I’m not quite sure why Ganon had it, but I think that it is extremely important to his demise. I think there’s a great reason for why you were sent here. You’re not just an assistant, I think you too, are a hero that will go down in all the legends.”
    “I just feel that there’s something…unique about this stone,” I said.
    “I feel the same way as well,” Impa said. “Zelda told me that she felt a certain aura from that stone. She said it was an electric kind of aura, which may only be because it’s a Thunderstone, but there’s just something about it. It must be unique if Ganon had it, but I’m not sure why yet.”
    “Well, when I put the stone on Lux, my Raichu, it blasted out this electric power and blew my backwards. Afterwards, I started shooting bolts of lightning out of my hand. There was no pain at all and it was extremely hard to control.”
    Impa looked impressed and said, “Can you use this power?”
    “I can try, but I don’t know if I can really control it yet.”
    I stretched out my arm and thought hard about what I wanted to do. I wanted to harness this power and make it my own. I felt the power start to happen in my palm and saw a light. Instead of playing it cool however, I became extremely anxious and panicked. The lightning bolted from my hand and hit a metal stand and bounced back.
    Impa and I ducked between pews quickly and I heard a lot of static above my head, but it passed extremely quick. I stood up and saw that the bolt hit a stone pillar. The pillar was fine, but the bolt had burnt it a little and a black circle was on it now.
    “Damn,” I mumbled.
    Impa’s face was blank. I don’t know what she was thinking, but I bet she was terribly shocked. I wasn’t sure what she was going to do next, but I would be patient to hear what she had to say. The sight of my lightning stuff must have been quite the surprise.
    “That must be why Ganon had that stone,” she said. Impa then grabbed my wrists and held them up. “I can’t tell you anything right now, for it’s not my place, but you will play an extremely important role in not only saving Hyrule, but in saving this dimension as well.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked. I was eager to hear what I was suppose to do. Even though my name was just randomly drawn out of Mario’s hat, something about me was different. At home, I was a regular, old kid, but here, there was something peculiar.
    “Ms. Brandt, it is not my place to tell you anything,” Impa said seriously. “All of that information will come in due time, but right now I am afraid you’re too young to bear it.”
    “I can bear. I can bear anything!”
    “You are an ambitious child, but that also makes you foolish. I cannot tell you because it is not my place to do so.”
     I admitted defeat and sat back down on the pew. I turned my hand around so the palm was facing me. I held out my pointing finger and watched as a little spark of electricity came from it.
    “I would practice your special ability by yourself once you leave this castle,” Impa said. “Don’t use your powers in front of the King tonight. It is almost time for dinner, so try not to be late. The dining hall is down a hall way to your right. There you reach the lobby of the castle. In between the double staircase should be another hall wall which leads to the ball room. On the right in this room is a huge double door. Enter that door and you will have entered the dining hall.”
    Impa started to walk down the aisle of pews and opened the huge double doors to exit the chapel. Then she said, “Oh, and Ash. Try to not be late to this dinner.”
    I rolled my eyes, but I knew that I got ready at the last second and barely made it to the destination. Unfortunately, my feet would get no rest, but the bleeding had stopped on my foot. I would wrap it in a bandage after dinner for I didn’t want a huge bandage around my foot. That just wasn’t proper.
    I stood up and stretched a bit. After straightening myself up to leave, I realized that I had heard snoring. Suddenly, my mind flashed a vision of Malon.
    “Oh crap,” I said and I ran towards the source of the snoring. On one of the pews laid a fat, bushy looking man. He had a big nose and a moustache. He looked a bit like Mario, except not as short.
    I nudged the man a little bit, but he still laid there. For fun, I decided to go behind the pew and lift it a bit. It was extremely heavy with Talon on it, but I was able to lift it just enough for him to slide off.
    “Whoa,” I heard him yell right after I heard him plop on the floor. “What in tar nation?”
    “Talon?” I asked.
    The man turned and saw me. He quickly stood up and brushed himself off. He held out his hand and said, “Yes, I’m Talon, the owner of the glorious Lon Lon Ranch.”
    I shook his hand which was quite dirty and got dry dirt on my gloves.
    “Well, can I just say that your daughter, Malon, has been waiting in the castle market for you?” I said.
    “Oh no, my baby girl,” Talon said quickly. He took off running and started to yell at himself: “Oh, she’s gonna kill me!”
    I’ll admit my dear reader, I was amused. I wiped the dirt from my glove on the fabric of the pew in front of me and decided it was time to arrive for dinner. I hadn’t seen Link, Lux, or the two fairies for quite awhile. Though the fairies and Lux probably couldn’t have dinner with us, I at least wanted to see Link and see that he was okay.
    I also wanted to see if he actually dressed up.

    I would have to say my reader that one of the most awkward parts of my life would take part at that dinner table, the one I just arrived to. Link was sitting about six chairs down to where the King of Hyrule would sit.
    Link was actually dressed up nicely. He wore a forest green top that reminded me of what an old, Renaissance kind of poet would wear. He actually had on nice fitting pants and the ends of each pant leg were tucked into these nice, black leather boots. Since he didn’t wear that ridiculous, floppy hat, I could see his blonde hair, which made his blue eyes pop even more.
    Link saw me and stood up and bowed or something.
    “Uh, you don’t need to do that, sir,” I said.
    “Well, I was told that men have to bow to nice ladies,” Link said.
    “Well, we’re only twelve,” I stated.
    Link nodded and pulled out the chair on his right and I sat down. He actually pushed it back for me. This surprised me, seeing as he was a fairy boy and probably hadn’t learned proper table etiquette. I mean, I really hadn’t either, but I knew some of it.
    As expected, we weren’t the only ones at dinner. Most of the seats filled up, except for the King and Queen’s seat, two seats beside the Queen that were probably Zelda and Impa’s seats, and the seat right in front of me.
    The huge double doors opened and someone announced the entering of the King, Queen, Princess, and Royal Attendant. Everyone around me stood up and bowed. I sat there looking awkward for a second, but quickly stood up to bow myself, knocking over my chair in the process. The King noticed but said no words. He just raised his hands.
    The King of Hyrule, or Daphnes, was a rather big man with a nicely trimmed, white beard. He didn’t look that old and I guess he was maybe in his forties or so. He had these furry looking white eye brows and brown, beady eyes.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” his big voice boomed and echoed through the dining hall, “we have a guest for dinner this evening so please remain standing to welcome our Royal Guest.”
    Oh shit, I thought. Link glanced at me and I gave him a look of distress. He seemed to know what I was thinking and whispered, “Nah, it’s not him, Ashley.”
    If you see my connection reader, I was extremely scared that this ‘Royal Guest’ was none other than Ganondorf. Link seemed to beg to differ it was him, but I just had this idea…
    “Please welcome our guest, Mr. Ganondorf Dragmire,” the King boomed.
    I gave Link an irritated glance and all of the people around us bowed. Link began to bow, but I just stood straight. Ganondorf saw this and glared at me. He gave me a snotty looking smirk and nodded to the people. I had a fixed stare on him and watched his every step. He mad his way around the table and sat at the only seat available.
    The one across from me…
    “Oh, yes,” the King said suddenly, “I would also like to introduce my daughter’s Royal Guests, Link and Ashley.”
    We didn’t get bowed to, but we got some warm applause. The King smiled warmly at us and motioned for all of us to sit down. I sat down in the nice, cushioned chair and then faced Ganondorf…but only at a dinner table…
    These servants brought out a lot of food. It was really only a salad with beets and what not in it, but I knew this would be a formal dinner, so meals would be split up. Link, I knew, had no idea what a salad was because he ate leaves in that dump of a forest his whole life.
    I will tell you, Ganondorf was getting really annoying. He did that thing where he stared at you while he ate. He put on his angry, but eating face and I could tell because he wrinkled his brow, which was where those two orange looking caterpillar eyebrows sat.
    I decided that two could play that game, so I wielded my fork in my hand and began to eat, staring directly at Ganondorf. I didn’t practice doing such as much as he must have, because I kept missing my mouth and lettuce kept falling on my dress.
    Unfortunately for me, Ganondorf was unable to laugh quietly to himself, so that monkey headed freak belted out this huge boom of laughter, which caused everyone to stop eating and look directly at both of us.
    “Oh, pardon me, this young lady here is a funny little thing,” Ganondorf said quickly.
    I sat my fork down and looked over at Link. I didn’t think it was possible, but it seemed Link had never used a fork before. He was holding it upside down, trying to poke the lettuce with the wrong side of the thing. Then he began to sniff the lettuce like a dog would.
    “Link, it’s fine,” I said.
    Link’s face bolted up when I said that and I continued, “Link, you’re also holding the fork wrong.” I grabbed the fork from his right hand and placed it right side up in his left hand. I then motioned the fork down and got Link some lettuce.
    “Now, I’m not feeding you, so you can figure out the rest,” I said and I turned to face Ganondorf, who was drinking wine and staring at me.
    “You know, dude,” I began, “it seems that you eyes are blood shot. Do you think it might be because, well, you’re always staring at people. I think you have, ya know, dry eyes.”
    “Well, I think you have an ugly face,” Ganondorf said.
    I was appalled. I expected this Ganondorf guy to have much better comebacks then that. I expected him to punch me in the face or something, but after what he said, he then said this: “Boooyah! I just got you so bad.”
    Suddenly, I had realized something. The only reason why Ganondorf wouldn’t get violent was only because he was in front of the King. (or at least I hoped that was the reason, otherwise he was really bad at this evil thing) He couldn’t touch me, no matter what I did to him.
    Ganondorf started back on his lettuce, and he was smirking while he ate it. I looked down at mine and picked up a beet with my hand and then threw it right at his wine glass. I played the game basketball back at home, so I had a decent shot. I heard the beet plop and some wine spill over the glass.
    “Boooyah,” I said quietly.
    Ganondorf became tense. I could make him angry; I seemed to be doing great at that in Hyrule.
    Even though I had to be all proper and stuff, I still had some tricks up my sleeve. I kept my slingshot under my dress. It was held on by a harness on my leg, like those badass women do in movies with their guns. I took it out and grabbed a beet from my salad. It was the biggest beet in the salad, too.
    I loaded it up in my slingshot and pulled the string back. It was under the table, so I didn’t know where I would hit, but I was trying to hit Ganondorf’s crotch. My father at home always told me that if I got into a fight to always hit a boy in the crotch area and I would win.
    I let go of the string and watched as Ganondorf crumpled up for a second. Bulls eye, I thought.
    “You rotten piece of crap,” he said and I just smiled.
    The servants came just in time and took our salads away. I was excited because I now got more ammo for the dinner. It seemed Ganondorf had already been defeated, but I knew better. I wouldn’t let my defenses down.
    The next course was an appetizer sort of deal. It was fried potatoes or something. I didn’t really have time to check out what Hylian food was like and all, but this course looked like potatoes to me.
    Ganondorf seemed to have fully recovered from the beet I shot him with, so I knew that more stuff was coming my way. He, too, had more ammo to use with the appetizer. Anyone could just throw food, but it took inventive minds to find better ways at utilizing food as an ammo, so I put my brain to work.
    “You know, my dear,” Ganondorf said quietly, “I have powers that are deadly.” He held up his hand and pointed his finger upwards. A little purple ball thing floated on top. “This here is a dark type of power. I would bet it’s the most powerful of every type known to man.”
    I didn’t know what that ‘type’ mumojumbo meant, but Ganondorf didn’t know that I had electric powers. I held up my hand and pointed my finger. A ball of lightning floated at the tip of my finger. I was all tensed up because I still didn’t have full control of the power.
    Ganondorf had a shocked look on his face but he quickly recovered and said, “So you have my Thunderstone.”
    “Why yes sir,” I said,
    “You brat, I was given permission from King Bowser to keep that from you,” Ganondorf said.
    “King Bowser?” I said. I was confused. Just who was I suppose to fight against here?
    Ganondorf’s face grew dark and a smirk formed on his lips. “You’ll meet him soon, child.”
    Even though I was listening to Ganondorf, I still had an intense lock on my electric power that rested on my finger. Then, childishly, Ganondorf pointed out of no where and shouted, “Whoa, what’s that?”
    I quickly looked behind me and saw there was nothing there. I looked forward and looked at my finger. The ball of lightning was gone. I heard a nasty, cracking sound up above me and looked. On the ceiling, there was a huge chandelier that was hit by my electric attack. The chandelier’s chain was slowly breaking so I started to yell at everyone to run.
    Fortunately, ol’ Daphnes saw the chandelier too, and he yelled for everyone to run as well. I pushed back my chair and stood up quickly. Link and Ganondorf had already taken off with everyone else that was seated at the table. I just looked up at the chandelier. I didn’t know what to do, but I spread my legs shoulder width apart and put my left foot back a little. I held out my hand, closed my eyes, and shot out an electric shock.
    I paused and waited to hear a crash, but I heard no such thing. I opened my eyes and looked up. My electricity didn’t shoot the chandelier, but it created a yellow net around it. The net sparked as I gazed at it. I tightened my grip, bringing my pinky and ring finger closer to my palm. The chandelier moved a bit and I pulled it down softly. I laid it beside me and released my power, which slipped right back into the palm of my hand.
    I paused; amazed at what had just happened. About a second or so passed and then I was engulfed in a bunch of applause from the surrounding people.
    Ganondorf made his way through the crowd and stood by King Daphnes who said, “I have never witnessed such an amazing power.”
    I turned to face everyone who were clumped up in a corner. They had looks of being in total awe on their faces. Except, of course, Ganondorf, who glared at me.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” the King said, “unfortunately, I do suppose our dinner will be canceled for tonight. You may all return to your respected quarters, except for Ms. Ashley. I would like to have a chat with you.”
    I walked over to the King who put his arm around my shoulder and lead me to a door.
    “Ashley,” the King said, “I would personally like to talk to you.”
    The King had two guards open these huge double doors and behind those doors was a rather large throne room. The guards entered the room with us. I looked behind me before they shut the doors and waved to Link who was looking rather confused.
    I walked on a blue carpet and stood and watched as King Daphnes sat down on his throne. He adjusted his crown a bit and got comfortable and then said, “So, what I just witness was very impressive.”
    “Thank you, sir,” I said. I was actually being recognized by this dude and It made me feel really good.
    “Now, after witnessing your power, I have a favor to ask of you.”
    “Whatever do you need?” I asked.
    “My friend you sat across from, Ganondorf Dragmire. He said that he is having trouble in the desert where his people live. They’re called the Gerudos. Could you please go and investigate what these people are up to?”
    “Um, I guess so,” I said. I was a bit confused, but I would help the King.
    “Alright,” the King said, “but reaching this destination will be no easy feat. I would like for you to go to Lon Lon Ranch and get yourself a horse. I’m sure that Talon, the owner, would have a pony for you and that fairy boy to use.”
    “I’m sure they do.”
    “Now, I just want you to go to the Gerudo’s fortress and talk to the leader, Nabooru. I guess she has been creating trouble for Ganondorf and he needs some help. He’s a very honorable guest to me and may help me solve some conflicts that are going on in other countries. He’s already planned my army to take over a nearby evil kingdom.”
    The King was taking suggestions from Ganondorf? That was a scary mess, my reader. I wasn’t sure what to think, but I knew I had to do something, even if it went against the King’s orders.
    “Alright, thank you Ms. Brandt. You are dismissed.”
    I nodded and went for the double doors and the guards opened the doors for me. Link was waiting outside of them, chatting with Zelda.
    “Oh, hello Ashley dear,” Zelda said cheerfully. “What did Father talk to you about, may I ask?”
    “He wants me to help Ganondorf,” I said. “Your father believes that Ganondorf will help Hyrule progress as a kingdom.”
    Zelda gasped and said, “You’re not serious!”
    “I am,” I said. “Link, you and I have to go to Lon Lon Ranch tomorrow. Get your stuff ready for the morning and get some sleep.”
    I was a bit disappointed, so I walked out of the room. All I heard was a faint ‘Ashley’ from Link, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk. I made it to my room, however and took off my black dress shoes. Lux was lying at the end of the bed, taking a nap.
    I laid down and woke Lux, but he just sighed and got comfortable again. I put my head on the soft pillow and pulled the covers over my head. I then drifted into a worried and uncomfortable sleep.