Never Gunna Happen- Chptr 3

Completely disoriented, Vio stumbled to the ground and tried to clear away the haze from his scrambled mind. What.. what happened? He remembered following Princess Zelda into the priestess' room, then his mind blanked out and dropped him here.

He flopped back, rubbing his temples to try and fight down the headache that was quickly forming. The ground he was lying on was  cold and hard, seeming more like stone than earth. With a groan he rolled onto his stomach, eyes reluctnantly opening.

Taking a moment to focus, Vio realized he was on a cobblestone path. Pushing himself to his knees, he turned and took in his surroundings. No castle in sight.. where was he?

The lad stood up, dusting himself off and feeling the last of the mind-numbing fuzz leaving. His icy eyes darted to the thick treeline the path lead into. He turned on his heel, almost falling back again as he was met with a thick cylindrical building-- that could only be the Sky-High Tower.

Vio stared in near disbelief at the grand entrance, one larger than life door having crumbled while the other remained crooked on one hinge. He'd never actually seen this part of the temple, having been transported directing inside.

Back then, when he and the other Links had been fighting Gufuu, this had been a bustling, busy, noisy place; now it lay in terrible disrepair, a thick, deadly silence having settled over it. Apparently no one had ever returned to reclaim the so-called "Light Temple".

He swallowed dryly, looking at the terrible condition of the base and only able to imagine how horrible -and dangerous- the actual temple was.  Falling from that hieght.. well, after the day's worth of falling, you would be dead. His knees shook slightly as he stepped closer, hearing something crunch beneath his boots.

Leaping back, Vio's eyes landed on a small shard of glass. He inspected it closer and immediately knew what it was.

His first shard of the mirror.

The violet Link picked it up with the utmost care, hiding it away in a thick animal-hide bag and hoping it was well made enough to hold glass. He took a quick yet thurough look around, making sure there weren't any more little friends hiding in the long grass before hesitantly approaching the entrance.

Vio clambered over the near-destroyed door, plucking a splinter from his hand with a small wince. The inside wasn't nearly as bad as he'd thought, considering ninety percent of the structure was made of heavy stone.

Tapestries, tables and the like, of course, lay in heaps of thread and splinters, but the large stairs that spiraled into oblivion towards the top of the tower seemed fine. He was cautious regardless, one hand on his bow -having left his Four Sword behind- lest an enemy appear.

~~~

It seemed like hours when the boy finally sprawled out across the steps, sweat beading his forehead and gasping breaths fleeting from him. He inched towards the edge of the stairs, looking down at his progress. Neither the top or bottom was in sight.

Vio exhaled loudly, wiping his brow with the back of his hand and taking the moment to relax. His legs felt weak from the constant stair-stepping, his right arm likewise as it'd been moving from stone to stone on the wall to keep his balance. It'd certaintly wiped him out. With a groan the lad layed back, one arm cast over his eyes.

"C'mon, yah whimp!" A familiar voice teased, dragging him along as he'd had to sit down for a break. "We aint got all day, Vio!"

He sat up, eyes wide and breathing ragged as he hurriedly looked around. For a moment he was frantically looking for the voice, scrambling up a few steps as though trying to catch up, then realizing with a start that the small slitted windows no longer had filtering sunlight coming through them.

"O-oh..." Vio murmured, blushing as he realized he'd merely fallen asleep. A few tears pricked along the bottom of his eyes, his hopes having flared and shattered in the course of a few seconds. He wiped them away with renewed determination, standing up to continue his lonely hike to the top of the Sky-High Tower.