Prologue

This Is the final chapter in the saga of Link and Tigress (maybe). Link, Tigress, Minion, Rachel, and Joe all decided to give their powers up and place them in different places all around the land of Evena to protect the area in which they stay at. Just the spirits of the heroes stayed in the temples; the people, however, lived in the land of Evena. Mitch and Ashley were king and queen. Joe was their bodyguard. Rachel, who learned she had a talent more for leading than stealing, became the general of the army. Minion just wanted a simple life, no special perks or privileges, just to get along like the next man on the street. Because of his wish Link insisted that he receive something for helping them on their quest, so he gave him the Hero's Medallion. Minion finally met a woman to marry and they had a child, whose name was Yango and that is where this story begins.

Chapter 1

Temple of Tigress

Yango

I ran as fast as I could, weaving through the tall metal buildings. The guards were close on my heels, they were waving their laser sabers around and shouting, "Get back here Yango!" I was well known in this city as a thief, but one that was never caught. I knew that the sabers were on stun and with one tap I would take a nap, but I was so wanted, I didn't want to take that chance. I rounded a corner, into a large street and weaved between the parked hover cars. I rounded into what I knew was a dead end alley. As soon as I got to the end of the alley I jumped to the top of one of the buildings. "Now we got him, he just walked into a dead end," I heard the lizard leader shout. They ran down the alley and stopped in surprise. They looked around but they couldn't find me. I jumped and bounced on all five of the guard's heads, slamming their helmets on their heads. "You guards need to loosen up," I said with a laugh. I ran down the street and into a building that hasn't been used by anyone but me for several years.

The land had come under control of an evil king named Voldoro. He was a great wizard and he hated the human race. That's why his guards were mutants. He was also known as the Creature King. My father, Minion Leah, had told me it was not always like it is now. The king and queen were the best in the land and they were guarded by Joe, who was a kind stallator. Before that there was a great evil called Vizzera and he threatened the land until Link and Tigress came and beat him. "Who was Link and Tigress, father?" I had asked him. "Link and Tigress were the greatest heroes ever known," my father told me with a smile I knew he had when he was remembering. "Link was only a young man, but he was the best swordsman ever and Tigress was a tiger mutant, but she was kind and beautiful." It has been several years since my father died because of Voldoro. He had sent most of the food to the mutants and left none for the humans. My father caught a terrible disease because of lack of food. Just before he died he gave me a medallion he called the Hero's Medallion. I asked him what it was for and he told me, "It will open the doors to your destiny." I looked at the medallion my father gave me. It had a symbol on it with tree triangles on it stacked on top of each other like a pyramid, two on bottom and one stacked on top of the other two. It had a sword that stabbed into the middle of the bottom. I sat down, cooked and ate the dragon meat I stole. I only steal to eat, and since all the food booths are run by mutants I always get in trouble. My father had also given me his bow and quiver, to become as good an archer as he was. I was already good but I was not as good as my father, yet. I had heard there was an archery contest on the human side of the town. I decided I was going to sign up.

I arrived at the archer field where there were many different archers with different style bows. Mine was one of a kind, it was my father's bow. All the archer's heads turned to see me. I was the youngest one that carried a bow, except a young woman I saw out of the corner of my eye. I approached the front desk and said, "I would like to join the tournament." "Do you have the 50 gold entrance fee?" the man asked. "I'll pay for the lad, Deca" an older man said. He wasn't too old but around his late 40s, but he had the remains of a strong warrior, possibly still a warrior. The man paid Deca the 50 gold and he led me to a booth. "What's your name?" I asked. "You can just call me Mike," Mike said. "Thanks Mike for the money," I told him. He was looking at me with a look that said Where have I seen that face before? "Don't worry about it, you remind me of some one I once knew," he said with a look that meant he still couldn't place my face. "Good luck on the tournament," he told me and walked into the spectator's area.

"Welcome to the first archers tournament," I herd Deca say over the loud speaker. "Archers, take your mark," Deca said as all the archers stepped up to the line that marked how far away we could stand to the targets. The target came up about 50 yards down the field. I was on the far end so I went first. I pulled back the bow string with an arrow and let fly with a fast flying arrow. There was a "thunk", I looked and I had hit the bulls-eye. There were a total of 20 people. The target jumped up 20 yards each time. Every one but two people were left when the target reached 160 yards: me and, to my surprise, the young woman that was about my age I had seen earlier. We were moved to the middle, because everyone else was gone. I looked at her and saw that she was very beautiful. She was about as tall as me, maybe a little shorter, and wore a black cloak with a hood but the hood was down. She wore a dark forest green tunic, with tight, brown pants. "Now we are down to the final round, the 160 yard target," I heard Deca shout again, "There are two people left, Yango Leah and Tara." I turned to Tara and said "Good luck." She turned to me with a smile and said "You will need it." I turned to the target and focused. "First shooting will be Tara," Deca said. Tara stepped up to the line and drew back her bow. She shot the arrow and it hit on the very edge of the bulls-eye. The crowd cheered and Tara stepped back looking pleased with herself. "Beat that, Yango," She said to me as we passed.

I stepped up to the line and looked at the target. "Next is Yango," Deca said. I grabbed my medallion and placed it between my hands and mumbled "Father help me." I'll try but remember you asked for it. I heard my father's voice in my head. I had a surprised look on my face. Listen you can't make that shot with your power. So aim at an angle so that the arrow will bounce off the ground. I took aim toward the ground and heard Tara shout "What are you doing? You'll never make the shot that way!" I glanced back "Just watch me," I said and aimed it again. I let loose with the arrow and as it hit the ground it bounced like a stone skipping on water. The arrow kept going, the whole 160 yards and on the final bounce it jumped right into the middle of the bulls-eye. The crowd was silent, and then they all cheered. "How did you do that?" Tara asked at my side. "My father helped me," I said looking at my medallion. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw Mike standing behind me. "Come with me Yango," he said with a solid face on. "Can Tara come too?" I asked. I don't know what I was saying, I think I'm in love. "I don't care, just come with me," he said.

Tara and I followed him to a part of town I had never seen before. There was a huge structure with giant pillars that had ever burning fire balls in a ring around the pillars. There were giant double doors with no handle. Mike led us to the top of stairs to the double doors. "So why are we here?" I asked Mike. "Do you see the hole in the middle of the double doors?" Mike asked me pointing. "Yea, it looks like my medallion, only the triangle thing is carved in not out," I told him. We were still about 50 feet from the doors. Mike looked at me in surprise. "It's an archer's eye," I explained to him. He nodded and approached the double doors. "Place your medallion in the hole," Mike told me. I placed my father's gift into the hole and a light shone out around the edge of my medallion. The double doors swung inward and in front of the threshold there were steps leading to a pedestal. The rest of the room was huge and lit by a single light that shone on the pedestal and on an emblem carved out of the metal wall. The emblem was a circle with a silhouette of a tiger's face roaring at me, or any one else that looked at it. On the pedestal was a long staff made out of a material I had never seen. On the top of the staff was a carved dragon claw holding a clear orb. I approached it and looked at the material the staff was made of. It was as beautiful as diamond, but, somehow, I knew it could not be broken. "Go on, touch it," Mike said as he was climbing the stairs. I reached a trembling hand out and touched it, nothing happened. "Nothing happened," I told Mike. "Exactly, if anyone else would have touched it, it would have sent him flying back in pain," Mike said, "now pull it out." I grabbed it this time and lifted. The staff gave way and it came out in my hands. There was a fireball that came from the tiger on the wall. The ball shifted into a beautiful woman.

She had the look of a tiger standing on two legs with the body shape of a girl. There was an ax hanging on a hook on her hip by a leather strap. It was huge, maybe 3 feet from blade to blade. The handle had a tiger head made of steel on the end. The double-sided blade was slid over the rest of the handle. In the very center of the blade there was a gem. "The gem is called the 'Tiger's Eye'" Mike whispered to me. She just floated there. I took an even closer look and saw she was foggy, like a ghost. "I'm Tigress- The Tiger Demoness," she said. "Tigress, it's me, Mike," he said stepping forward. "You can't get in here without the Hero's Medallion, but only one can hold the key and it's not you, but the one who is able to hold it is dead," Tigress said. "So how did you get in here?" She asked him. Her eyes fell on me and they grew, "You're Minion Leah's son aren't you?" I looked at her in confusion and surprise, "Yes I'm Yango Leah," was all I could say. "I don't expect you to know everything. Knowing Mike he just led you here without saying anything about where you were going," she said looking at Mike. "Oh come on Mom," Mike complained. "Well I guess it's up to me to catch you up. You're the destined one to free the humans from the cruelty of Voldoro. There are 7 other temples like this one, one of them has the spirit of your father in it. Your father told you of the heroes that had protected this world right?" She looked at me and I just nodded my head. "Well your father was actually one of those heroes, but all he wanted to do was live a simple life. Back to the temples, each one contains one of the heroes. Once you've visited the temple and released the spirit of the heroes they will let you use their powers and the staff can transform into their weapon. six of them will give you a medallion that is used to control an element. I will give you the Fire Medallion." There was a flash of light and a medallion with a flame on it appeared and it floated down into my staff. The orb glowed red and then died down. "Now for my powers," there was a beam of red fiery light that connected the staff and Tigress. The staff transformed into the same battle ax Tigress was holding and then back again. I felt the power within my body, concentrated on Tigress' form and I felt power and speed like nothing I had ever felt before. "Now let me warn you, Voldoro will soon know you're here and will make a move to stop you once he finds out. Do not be reckless and try to beat him with just my powers, you need the help from all eight of us," Tigress said. "I don't think the pheasant/thief look is going to cut it striking fear into the mutants," Tara said. "Oh, you already have a girlfriend? Much more successful than your dad. I agree with her though," Tigress said giving me a wink.

She started to glow and in a flash of light there was a man about 6 ft tall with long blonde hair. I wore a skintight breastplate, that showed all my muscles in my upper body. It also had the emblem on it of who's powers I was using (ex. if I was using Tigress' powers it would have the tiger in the circle). A black cape hung on my back down to my heels by two gold clasps. The cape changed color when I used my different powers (ex. if I was using the fire medallion, the cape would be red). "If she's going to help you she needs a little better defense," Tigress said floating over to Tara. There was a flash of light and the new Tara stood there. She wore a tight dragon scale breast armor with the royal symbol, for pants she wore tights, and her red hair was down to the middle of her back. Her bow was huge and it did not need arrows, but it could still use them. She just pulled back the string and an arrow of power appeared there. She was capable of using the medallions too. "Oh yea, here I'll give you the power to change anyone else that wants to join you," Tigress said waving her hand toward me. "Ok I think you're all set to kick mutant butt, but you need to find all 8 temples before you have a chance of fighting and beating Voldoro. One is deep in the forest, two are in the desert, but not the same sand, one is on an island in the middle of the ocean. One is in a cave, high in the snowy heights, another one is in the middle of a large deadly plain. The last one is high in the sky, above with the stars," Tigress warned one more time, "Give my regards to Link and tell him I love him, " she added on. "Well it looks like I stumbled into a great adventure, let's go Tara," I said. Tara grabbed my hand and we walked out on our quest.

Chapter 2

The Hero Yango

Yango

I walked down the street with my staff in hand. I had made it look like a normal wooden staff and I looked normal. I approached a table that had some of the finest food on it. I was familiar with it. It was run by a mutant hawk. The hawk knew me, and he kept his eyes on me. Using Tigress' speed I snatched the finest piece of food on the table and ran. I counted in my head 1...2...3...4...5...now "Stop, Yango!!" I heard the guard shout and I smiled. I saw Tara on a roof I had told her to wait for me on. "Catch Tara, and cover me," I said as I tossed the meat up to her. I turned around to face the guards, the same group that I slammed their helmets onto their heads the other day. "Hello fellas, I don't think there is any chance of forgiveness, so I think I'll just pound you instead," I said. They started laughing. I transformed into the form Tigress gave me. "So you think it's funny that I want to pound you?" I said. They looked up at me and all of their mouths dropped. I held my staff in front of me and it looked like there was a flame inside the orb and my cape turned red. The emblem of Tigress appeared on my chest and that's when their mouths really dropped. "Bring it on," I said.

A frog mutant and a lizard mutant charged me, their sabers brightly shining, which meant they had them on kill. They stabbed at me, but I jumped above them. I came back down slamming the staff between them and into the ground and a wave of fire came out and knocked them both into the buildings on either side. I heard a shot of an arrow and the cry of a lion mutant. I turned around and saw Tara's bow aimed at the limp form of a lion mutant that had tried to sneak up on me. I turned toward the remaining two. There was a bug mutant and a wolf mutant. I charged them and transformed my staff into the ax of Tigress. I turned the ax so that the blade was horizontal. They tried to slice me, but I ducked the sabers and ran the ax blades through their sides. I stopped behind them, stood up straight and I turned my head to look at them. They both fell on their knees then on their faces, dead. Suddenly some one hit me. The next thing I knew I was being kissed by Tara and I kissed back. There was a cheer around me. I looked and saw that the human population of this area had gathered and had watched the whole battle. "You did it Yango, you defeated the guards in this sector!" I heard one of them say. "Thanks a lot guys, but I have just begun. I'm not yet powerful enough to kill Voldoro, so I'm going on a quest to find more power so I can get rid of that evil king once and for all," I said transforming into my hero form as I raised my staff high above the crowd. The crowd let loose a loud cheer; so loud I swore it should have gotten the attention of Voldoro.

Voldoro

I looked out of the window of my castle. I saw a large crowd gathered and a young man standing there. He had long beautiful golden hair and his body looked strong. He wore a tight chest armor, and his pants were black made of the finest cloth. They hung loosely, but not too much so. His cape was black with two gold clasps. It's when I looked at what was on his chest that made me worry. It was a tiger looking forward in a circle. I recognized the symbol as the one belonging to Tigress, whose temple was in a part of town that nobody went to. "Adviser!" I shouted. "Yes master?" A timid bird mutant said out of the darkest corner of the room. "What do you make of this lad?" I asked him. "He is the son of one destined to defeat you," the bird said. "Well we need to get rid of him!!" I shouted at the bird. He cringed back in fear and said "Sir if I may say so. If you beat him to the temples of the rest of the heroes then you will stop him from being able to beat you. Unless he has all the powers of the heroes then he will not stand a chance against you," he told me stepping out from the shadows. "Yes, If he cannot beat me than I will be able to complete my final spell," I sad rubbing my chin with my claw, thoughtfully walking to my throne and sitting. "You're right, I'm way too powerful for that wimp," I said jumping up spreading my wings.

I was a frightful creature, with claws as hard as diamonds and wings as strong as a griffin. I had the eyes of a hawk with an my upper body was as strong as 100 tigers. My legs were strong back legs of the mountain lion, one of the furthest jumping beasts around. My mouth was a strong beak filled with layered shark teeth, and my fangs were venom filled viper fangs. My skin was thick crocodile hide and completely black. I was the best of all animals. "Have my spy follow them and when they reach the next temple have him tell me and I'll send one of my most powerful mutants to defeat him," I told the bird and he whistled. A chameleon mutant came as fast as he could (considering he was mixed with the speed of a cheetah, that was pretty fast). "Follow that boy and when he reaches the next temple, contact me by this," I said tossing him a small communicator. He grabbed the devise, saluted, and ran off. "In a matter of months my master spell will wipe the land of Evena clean of human scum," I said and laughed evilly.

Chapter 3

Temple of Link

Tara

I don't know what it was about that boy but I fell in love with him immediately. I think he was also in love with me. We were walking along a forest path in the Forest of Odolwa, just a little off the tunneled path that most people used for speed. It seemed that Voldoro had relocated these temples so not to get much attention, or at least relocated the paths. We were in our hero forms and Yango had the Tigress emblem on his chest. There was a rustle in the tree above us. We looked up and prepared for battle. Down dropped the strangest creature that I have ever seen.

It had three or four tails that looked like ribbons, its mouth was flat, but it was full of sharp pointy teeth. Its eyes had no pupils and were a yellowish color. Its tongue was drooling with slime and I bet it was really sticky. Its ears were huge and looked like a bat's. The rest of its body looked like a squirrel's with red fur. "No one passes this point by order of Barit," the little creature said, with a harsh, scratchy voice. "Who is Barit?" I asked him. "I'm Barit, one of a kind and you'll never see another animal that looks like me anywhere else in this forest," the little guy said. "Listen we're on our way to the Temple of Link. If you will not get out of our way we will do anything in our power," Yango told Barit. "You looking for temple?" Barit asked, his huge bat-like ears perked up. "Link a great hero, I will let you pass if after you visit Link you free my people," Barit continued. "I thought you said that you were the only one in this forest?" Yango asked him. "I am, human come and capture the rest of my species, we are a rare animal," Barit said with a sad look in his eyes. "Very well we will help you free your species," Yango said. "Yea, Barit very happy, I let you through now," Barit said as he jumped into the tree he fell from. We started to walk away when Barit fell from the tree again. "I forgot to tell you where to find humans," he said, "You head due east from temple for about 20 miles and you find small village." With that he jumped into the tree again.

We reached the clearing that the temple of Link was in when suddenly a giant tree stepped in our way. This tree had a face and it spoke, "By order of Voldoro, no one shall pass to the temple," the tree said. "I'm sick and tired of these delays!" Yango said. His staff turned into the ax of Tigress and his cape turned red. He drew back the ax and it caught on fire. He swung with all his might and cut straight through the tree. It fell and began to wither. Yango stepped over it and kept walking. I just stood there surprised at what Yango did. I finally snapped out of it and ran to catch up to Yango. We walked up to the temple and looked at it. It looked a lot like Tigress' but the fire was dim and it was overgrown with vines and trees. We walked up to the doors and they looked the same as Tigress' doors. Yango stepped up to the door and placed the medallion he wore around his neck in the hole on the door. The doors swung open, and inside were 3 doors that led out of a room. We took the first step in and the door slammed behind us. A giant Komodo dragon mutant landed and the room was lit up by his fire he was shooting into the torches around the room. "Welcome, I'm Fayro, from Voldoro and he sent me to stop you," the monster said. "Well Fayro, I hope for your sake that you're as strong as Voldoro thinks you are, because I will have to beat you down now," Yango said. "I like to leave it up to chance whether or not we will battle," Fayro said, "You pick one door. It that door leads to Link's chamber we will not fight and you will go in unharmed. If, however you do not choose the right door, we will fight." Fayro finished. Yango's orb started to look like there was a flame in it. He pointed it at the left door and shot a fireball out of it. The door exploded and there was nothing but a blank room. "You lose, now, let's go," Fayro said.

Tigress' emblem appeared on Yango's chest and his cape turned red. Fayro circled Yango shooting fireballs at him in all directions. Yango used the staff and shot more fireballs to counter the ones that Fayro shot. Yango, using the speed and strength of Tigress, charged at Fayro and tried to hit him with the staff. Fayro dodged or blocked every attack Yango tried to land. Fayro grabbed Yango's staff, but Yango held on to it too. They sat there struggling with the staff. "Yango move your head," I shouted as I pulled back my bowstring and an arrow of power appeared there. Yango cocked his head to the side and I saw a clear view of Fayro's face. I shot my arrow and it hit Fayro right in the face and he flew backwards. Yango rushed up and smashed him over the head with a fire covered staff that killed him.

As soon as he was dead the middle doors swung open and inside it looked just like where I got my staff, except no staff. Another thing different was that instead of the tiger emblem there was the same triangle design with the sword as the one on my Hero's Medallion. I placed my staff into the hole that was in a rock, pulled it back out and Link appeared. He was the same ghost figure that Tigress was. "Hey, Minion, it's about time you got here, I've been stuck........" He stopped when he saw me. "Okay, you're not Minion," he said. "No but I am his son," I said transforming back into my original form and Link's face looked relieved. "Oh, now I see the similarity, and who's this young lady?" Link said looking at Tara. "This is my girlfriend, Tara. She's helping me find all you guys," I said. "You two remind me of Ashley and myself. We were the last Link and Tigress," he said. "Well here you go, my sword skill, gauntlets, my sword and the electric medallion," Link said and there was a flash of light. I could now use Link's Master Sword and his skill with it, and his golden gauntlets, which was like an upgrade of strength from Tigress' strength. I could now control electricity. Whenever I used it my cape turned yellow and it looked like a ball of electricity that shot out lightning bolts to the edge of the orb. "Thank you Link, and oh, Tigress said hi and she loves you," I told him. "I need to tell you one more thing about this quest you're going on. Once you've released all of us we can come and help you since we're all free from these temples that Voldoro locked us in," Link told me. "Once you've completed this task of getting rid of Voldoro, you will be king, and we will be able to come to the castle to help you in your duties. It will feel good to get out of here." With that Link waved and disappeared. "Well we have found 2 of 8 temples, let's go help Barit," We kissed, left the temple and walked due east.

Chapter 4

Three's a Crowd

Yango

We headed for the village that Barit told us to go to when we received Link's powers. About 10 miles into the 20 we were supposed to go I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked and saw an old oak tree. It was huge, large enough to be a small house for a full size man. I approached the tree and knocked on the wood, which sounded hollow. "What is it Yango?" Tara asked me. I crouched and saw small human footprints that were around the tree. I took a look around the tree. The area was full of fruit trees and vegetable gardens. "I think we've crossed onto someone's home, and he's not entirely human," I told Tara. "You've got that right!!!" Said a voice from above. I looked up and a dwarf jumped down on me swinging an down on me.

I quickly raised my staff to block him, but he took a horizontal swing for my belly. I jumped back and he barely missed my gut. This guy was a good fighter. He landed and said "Hey, you're not a mutant!" I laughed and said "No, I'm not a mutant." I took a good look at him. He had a bearded face and somewhat long brown hair for a dwarf. He wore hermit's clothes with some rough brown skins. The only thing of value was his necklace. It had a dragon head looking at you with his mouth open. In his mouth was a beautiful ruby and it was glowing. "What is your name?" I asked him. "I'm called the Hermit Dwarf, but my name is Minot," he said rising up, as tall as a dwarf can manage, in pride. "You are an excellent master with that blade you hold," I said eyeing the ax. "It's one of my hobbies. My home was sacked and nearly destroyed by Voldoro's minions so I trained with the ax and visited one of the fairies to make me this necklace that glows whenever it is around a mutant," He said, his eyes blazing in anger. "We are trying to find powers to destroy Voldoro, because he has become king of the land and is torturing all the humans," I said. "How would you like to join us?" "If you're out to kill Voldoro then of course I'm in!" he said his face brightening. I pointed the orb part of my staff at Minot and there was a flash of light. When the light faded Minot stood there with a full body of flexible armor. His head was covered with a helmet that if he tapped the side of his head then a visor fell down that only slits had for his eyes. The helmet had two sides of the visor darker that the middle, and that was right down the middle and expanded to included the eye holes. There was a short black cape coming out of the armor that stopped about halfway down his back. His ax was an actual battle ax, but it was only one sided and had fancy designs of fire on the blade. "You can now use the medallions we can, and the fire will bear a resemblance to the element you're using (ex- if you use fire the fire will look like fire, electricity will look like electricity in the design of fire)," I told him once I was done. "This is way better than those mutant bear skins," Minot said with pleasure. Both Tara and I looked at him in surprise. Those were mutant bear skins? "Your first chance to use your powers will be soon. We are saving a race of forest animals that are captured by a village of humans." I told him. "Aren't you forgetting something, I need to know who you are," Minot said as we were walking away. We stopped in our tracks, and turned around, "Oops that wasn't nice of us," Tara said. "I'm Yango and this is my girlfriend Tara," I said putting my arm around Tara. "Alright now we're set, let's go free these animals," Minot said and followed after us.

We arrived at the village that Barit told us to go to. Barit met us at the gate of the town. "Good to see you kept your promise to me," Barit said to us. "I like honest people. My people is trapped in steel cages, men are heavily armed, mostly with guns, if you get close they will not be able to do much," Barit finished the run down of what we'd meet. "I see you added new person to your group," Barit said looking at Minot. "Oh yea, Barit, Minot, Minot, Barit," I introduced them to each other. We entered the village and walked down the street looking around. It looked more like a military camp than a village. The "houses" were half cylinders laid down on the ground with double doors and two windows at the ends of each building. All the men were big strong men that immediately reminded me of stupid, but very strong, bouncers. They were armed to the teeth with guns and army knives. The women however were skinny and sexy but you wouldn't want them for a dance. They too looked strong and were armed to the teeth. They all wore camo or black tank tops, with camo pants. "Let's just attack them and get this over with," Minot whispered to us. "No if we attack it will be for no reason, we need to see one of the creatures in captivity," I explained to Minot. I headed for the building that housed the leader and knocked on the front door. The door opened and framed in the door was the biggest man I had ever seen. He had an army cut and his beard was long and ruffled, but it still looked "macho". "Hello, I'm Yango and this is Tara, and this is Minot," I told him, "We have heard that you have captured an entire race of creatures that are illegal to capture," I finished. "Yea, what's it to ya," the man said in a rough voice. "You do know I'm going to have to put a stop to this operation, don't you," I warned him. "Not if I have something to say about it," he said calmly and snapped his fingers. Suddenly we were surrounded by hundreds of the same people we had seen throughout the camp.

I transformed my sword into Link's and the triangle design appeared on my chest and my cape turned yellow. Minot tapped his head and his visor fell down and his ax's head design looked like real fire. I slammed the ground and an electric shock shot out whipping out the first ring of people. Minot spun in a circle with his ax extended. "FIRE RING!!!" he shouted and a giant ring of fire shot out and took out the next tree rows. Tara pulled back an arrow and shouted "JET ARROW!!!" An arrow shot out faster than usual and dug itself straight through a full line of army thugs. We kept fighting them off like this and they were so surprised they never fired a shot. After we whipped out all of the army I turned to the leader. "Okay fine I'll release the animals," he said with a sad look on his face. All the animals were released and Barit was so happy that he told us how to get to the next temple. "You need to head south into the desert of wind, a barren wasteland with white sand and strong winds blow all the time," Barit told us. "Thanks a lot, Barit," I said as we headed off to the south. Chapter 5

Temple of Rachel

Minot

Yango told me that they had come from a city in the north. They had traveled south to about the middle of Evena to find the temple of Link. My mouth dropped when I heard his name. Yango looked at me, "You seem surprised," he told me. "No wonder you're so good! You are blessed with the spirits of Link and Tigress, the strongest couple around!" he said in surprise. He continued to tell me that he thought that there were two temples in the south. One in the Desert of Wind and one in the Twinamold Desert. We were headed for the desert in the southeast.

We reached the desert and we stopped in surprise. There was a line of forest and it just stopped and turned into a desert full of white sand. I looked at a tree who'se braches would have reached over into the Desert of Wind and it just stopped. Yango took one step into the desert and suddenly there was an outburst of sand. Giant worms with wind armor shot out of the ground. They were horrendous creatures, with 8 eyes lined up in rows on their head. Their teeth were so long that they were hanging out of the mouth. Yango transformed his staff into Tigress' ax and stood ready, but the wind was blowing up so much sand that he couldn't see. Suddenly Yango flew back into the forest. He was scratched and bruised all over. He slowly got on his feet. "Okay, this time I have a plan," he said. His cape turned yellow, and an emblem of a tiger in a circle appeared on his chest. The staff turned into Tigress' ax again. He stepped into the sand again. The same scene happened with the worms again, but this time Yango was ready. As the wind closed in on him he used the electric medallion to cause an electric shield. The wind was shot out of the way, and we could see what was going on. Yango used the electricity to move like lightning and Tigress' strength to slice the armor. He sped around, stopping for only a second to cut a worm down to size. When all the sand settled Yango stood there with all the dead worms lying around him. "That was almost too easy," Yango said. Suddenly a dark shadow came out of nowhere and hit Yango in the back of the neck, knocking him out.

The beast pointed at the limp form of Yango and he flew into the land area. Tara pulled back an arrow that had a giant flame lit on it. She shot it at the beast but he just grabbed it and blew out the fire like a candle on a cake. He pointed at her and she fell to the ground gasping for air until she was knocked out. I looked at my necklace and it was glowing. The monster stepped out of the shadows and it was a mutant worm, like the ones that had jumped out of the sand before. Suddenly visions came back to me, visions that reminded me of the destruction of my home. I remembered the army of mutants that came. I remember that they were led by the same mutant that faced me now. I tapped my helmet and the visor came down over my head. "Ah, so you remember me dwarf, I'm glad," he said. His voice sounded like giant wind tunnel. "I still haven't paid you back for my home yet," I said. He started to charge me, "And you never will," he said. He slammed one tornado fist down on the ground where I had just been standing. I shot a fireball and aimed behind him. He just watched it pass over him and hit a tree. The tree burst into flames. "You missed, I didn't think you were that bad an aim," he taunted me. "I'm not," I responded," I flew at him and kicked him in the chest and he flew back into the fire. "The fire need's oxygen to keep going, and you're the biggest source of oxygen there is," I told him. He slowly stumbled out of the fire without his armor. I jumped up and sliced him in half with a blazing fire ax. Immediately the wind cleared and a temple appeared not two miles from the edge of the desert.

I ran over to where Yango and Tara lay, unconscious and pretty beat. I woke Yango and Tara up, and they couldn't stand. I used an electric orb to lift them up and I carried their weapons for them to the door of the temple. "Yango, can you manage to place the medallion into the door?" I asked him. "Yea...I think....so," he said. He reached out a trembling hand and placed the Hero's Medallion into the door. There were beams of light that came out around the medallion and the door swung open. I floated them inside and approached the stairs. I climbed them to a pedestal sticking up out of the flat floor that I came to at the top of the stairs. On the wall behind the pedestal was a dagger stabbing up into a skull carved into the wall, the sign of the thief. I stabbed the staff into the hole but nothing happened. "Must....let me...touch the...staff," Yango mumbled. I pulled the orb closer and let Yango touch the staff. The emblem shone brightly and out came a ghostly form of the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She wore a brown cloak with a hood and she wore an all black and gray skin tight outfit. At her side was a pouch, and she held a spear. The spear's point was on top of what looked like a half moon, but the two points only made it halfway up the original point so it didn't look like a pitchfork. "This doesn't look good," the woman said when she saw Yango and Tara. I had let them drop once she had appeared. She shot a pink beam of light that hit the two and they were instantly healed. They got up and looked at where they were. "Nice emblem," Tara said in sarcasm. "I'm Rachel-The Banished Thief, also the wife of Joe," she said to us. "And you must be Yango Leah," she said. "You're good," Yango said in surprise, for he was still in his hero form. "Tigress told me you were coming," she said. "Link is the only one that seems to not know who I am," I remarked. "That's because Link is never told what's going on. It's a little joke we've had ever since we all died. I'm suppose to give you some things so here they are," Rachel said. There was a flash of light and when it cleared Rachel said, "You can now let your staff transform into my spear, and you can use the power of wind now, too," Rachel said, "You also have something new to carry, my pouch. It holds one dagger, but it keeps replacing itself once you throw it. You can also pull out more than one at a time," Rachel finished and was about to turn around to leave. "Oh yea, I forgot, my powers include camouflage so you can sneak around, and this includes not being able to be heard too," she said as she spun back around. She turned back around and disappeared back into the emblem on the wall. "Thank you Rachel," Yango shouted after her. We turned around and left the temple. When we got outside they turned to me. "Thank you Minot, if it wasn't for you we would have been dead," Tara said. "Not a problem, I owed a debt to that mutant anyway," I said waving my hand. "That was a mutant?" Yango asked, "Does anyone else get the feeling that Voldoro knows what temple we will visit before we get there?" Tara looked at him, "Yea it seems that way doesn't it." We left the Desert of Wind and stopped. "So we want to head for the Gyrog Ocean or the Twinamold desert?" Yango asked us. "I say we head for the Gyrog Ocean next, the water may help us against the rock," Tara said. "I agree," I said. So we headed further south to the Gyrog Ocean.

Chapter 6

Something Fishy......

Yango

As we were headed for the ocean, something hit me. "Hey does anyone know how we will get to the island where the temple sits?" I asked the rest of the group. "I think there is a small village just on the shore that has a boat shop," Minot said. "Alright that sounds good. When we get there we should get refreshments and get some rest and then we'll get a boat," Yango said. We came out of the forest onto the softest sand I had ever felt on a beach. I looked up and down the beach and to my right I saw a small village in the distance. "Look at the ocean, it's so beautiful!" Tara said taking my hand. I looked at it. It was near night so the sun was setting. The ocean was painted with red, orange, yellow, and even some purple. "We need to get to that village before dark," I heard Minot say as he started out ahead. We followed after Minot. "Why do we have to be there before dark?" I asked Minot. "There is some kind of monster..." He began. "You're afraid of a monster?!?!" Tara said in surprise. "No, it's just that the villagers put a force field around the village so the monster doesn't get in," Minot fished. "Oh," Tara said sounding like she was feeling stupid. We made it to the village just as they were about to close the force field. "Hurry get in here if you don't want to be stuck out there all night with the monster," a man said as we approached. "We are not afraid of the monster. We just want to come in for a boat and relaxation," I told the man. "If you are not afraid of the monster then stay out here and beat it. Anything you want will be yours for free," the man said. "Very well, we will kill this monster for you," Yango said. We heard a half roar, half scream behind us. "Well, that's the monster and my cue to leave," the man said and ran back into the town. We saw a shimmer as the force field went up. "They still don't trust us to pull this off!" Minot said in disbelief. "Well it appears to me that this town is full of a bunch of cowards," I told him and faced the way the monster was coming.

I didn't change my staff into a weapon, but I did change my cape to red. A little fireball appeared inside the orb of my staff. I concentrated on it and the fire grew brighter so we could see what we were up against in the dark. I saw a fin break the surface of the sand like a shark. My eyes shrank and I shouted "EVERYBODY, JUMP!!!!!" They all leapt high into the air just as a huge pair of jaws opened up right where we were. It was a giant funnel of sand leading down into a perfect round mouth lined with teeth. The mouth found no victims so the funnel disappeared like nothing was there in the first place. "What was THAT!?!?!" Tara asked looking at where the mouth had been. "It's a land shark. It swims the sand, letting it's fin come up once in awhile to sense prey. If it finds some it gets under it and opens its mouth. When it opens it anything between it and its prey would cause a funnel, even if we were standing on steel. No one has ever seen a full body of a land shark," I told them. They were all looking at me with opened mouths, "My dad was into mythical creatures, okay?" I said to them. "So how do we beat it, Mr. Encyclopedia?" Minot asked me. "Our best bet is let it attack again and when we jump we attack down with either fire of electricity," I said. "How do we know when it will attack again?" Tara asked. "When the fin appears above the surface of the sand, it's then it looks for prey," I told them looking for the fin. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and I spun around just in time to see the top of the fin dip below the surface. "Jump!" I shouted again. We all jumped and the funnel opened up again, but this time we all fired a blast of electricity. The power hit the mouth and the land shark surfaced. It was huge, 20 feet long at least. He had no side fins, his tail fins made a cross and they were spinning rapidly. He used that to propel himself through the sand. His mouth was gaping, trying to find the prey that had threatened him. His mouth opened and it was at least 10 feet across and was shaped in a funnel. As it closed it looked like an arrow head, probably to propel himself through the sand with no resistance. I changed my staff into Rachel's spear and threw it right where his heart would be, like a harpoon. I threw it so hard it went all the way through the beast and landed in the sand on the other side. The land shark slowed down and rolled on his side. I retrieved my spear and changed it back. I walked up to the shark, touched it and I began to bleed. "This shark has tiny teeth all along his body," I told them. I picked up a handful of sand and dropped it on the skin of the shark. The sand just slipped off like it had nothing to grip. I assumed that was for speed also. This monster was built for speed.

"You did it!" The same man shouted behind us. "Of course we did," Tara said. "I'm Gravis, the leader of this town," he said. "According to my promise, you may have anything you want for free, until you leave." We followed him into the town and there was a loud cheer as all of the town welcomed us. "We'll need to use a boat, preferably the fastest one you have," I told Gravis, "A good night's rest and some food too," I finished. "We'll worry about the boat in the morning, but now we have a party set up for you and then you rest," Gravis told us. He led us into a giant building. I nearly could have kicked my mouth I was so surprised. There were long tables, and they had every kind of sea food there was, plus some other foods. "I see you like our feast for you," Gravis said. "Yango come here," Tara whispered in my ear. I went over to where she wanted to talk. "There's something not right about this, how could they get a feast this big ready in 10 minutes?" Tara said. "You're right. It's like they expected us to beat the monster, but they seem to have doubted us at first," I said. "Hey what's with the big hush-hush?" Minot asked. "Do you sense something wrong with this picture?" I asked him. "Yea, it dose seem a little fishy," Minot said giving a little chuckle to his own pun. I rolled my eyes and walked up to Gravis. "How did you get this feast ready so fast?" I asked him. "We knew you would beat the monster," Gravis said with the fakest smile I have ever seen. "But you didn't think we were going to beat the land shark when we first said we would," I pointed out to him. "Now," was all he said. Suddenly I was surrounded by laser guns and harpoon guns.

"Sorry Yango, but we had to get rid of the shark somehow," Gravis said. "Could someone fill me in?" Minot asked. "Voldoro placed this shark here to keep us in check and when you showed up he told us that you would get rid of the shark, but we had to capture you for him. So in return for him not giving us another guardian we have to capture you," Gravis explained. I just laughed, "Minot was right, you are just a bunch of cowards," I said. "So there's no hope changing your mind?" Tara asked Gravis, looking at me with a smile. "I'm sorry but we don't want another guardian like the land shark," Gravis said. "Trust me, it will be easier if you just let us finish our quest, but if you insist." My cape turned red and my staff transformed into the Master Sword and the Triforce appeared on my chest. They all opened fire on me but I used my sword to block all of the blasts. The smoke cleared and I heard a gasp from the circle around me. "My turn," I said. I ran in a circle slicing so fast that they could not see me. When I stopped in the middle of the circle again all the ends of their guns dropped or melted. "Now that was just a warning. If you want to keep trying I will have to take more extreme measures," I said holding my sword out in front of me. "We give up, we'll let you continue your quest, but once Voldoro finds out we let you go he'll definitely send another guardian, as strong or stronger than the land shark," Gravis said. "Okay, here's what I'll do. I'll give one of you powers to defend your town," I said, "Any volunteers?" I asked. Several hands shot up and I picked a young man that was about 5'5". He looked like he swam a lot and had an impressive shot with the harpoon. I knew he was good when he threw his harpoon. It was as faster and better aimed that any harpoon gun that was shot at me. "What's your name?" I asked him. "I'm Ray, but my friends call me 'Sting Ray'," he said. "Alright Ray, I can't guarantee what powers you will have or what you will look like when I'm done, but I am almost sure it will have something to do with your nickname," I said concentrating on the power that Tigress gave me. There was a flash of light and there stood Sting Ray.

Like I had said he ended up with powers that had something to do with his nickname. He was bare chest with large muscles. He had a goatee with a bald head. On his back there were the "wings" of a sting ray. He held a trident made of gold. "You have powers to send electric shocks at your enemies. Your trident comes back when you throw it. You can glide out of the water and you are the fastest thing in the sea once you get in the water. You also have a pair of lungs and gills so you can stay out of water and in the water as long as you want. That should handle anything that comes at you," I told him. "Thank you Yango," Ray told me. "Yes thank you," Gravis agreed. "You have allowed us to not try to kill you and avoid Voldoro's servants that he sends," he continued shaking my hand. "No problem. Now about that boat and goodnight's rest?" I asked him. "Of course, first you must have the best room," Gravis said and snapped his fingers. Two lovely ladies walked up and told us to follow them. I started to goggle but Tara jabbed me in the ribs with the point of her bow. "Ouch!" I said. We followed and they led us to a room fit for a king. "This will be your room, Yango," one of the maids said. "Goodnight Tara," I said and kissed her. The two maids walked off to different rooms where Tara and Minot would be sleeping. I changed into my real form and climbed into bed with my staff in hand.

Chapter 7

Temple of Minion

Tara

I was up early in the morning. I stretched, yawned and went to the bathroom to clean up. I didn't want Yango to see how bad I looked in the morning. I transformed into my hero form when I was done cleaning. I went into the main hall where we were last night. There was no one in the main hall but there was a healthy, quick breakfast sitting on one of the tables. There was a low level fire disk the breakfast was sitting on to keep it warm. I smiled to myself. Yango always made sure I had the best. I sat down and ate the breakfast, then I went outside. I looked around and everyone was going about their normal business, like nothing happened last night. I saw a splash out in the water and saw a school of dolphins. I took a closer look and saw that Sting Ray was jumping with them. I waved and shouted "How goes it?" He waved back and shouted, "These powers are great, I love them!" I continued to walk and several people said "Hi" as I passed. I saw several fishermen repairing there cyber nets (it sent a grid out between four balls that they dropped into the water, two sink, two float. The grid caught the fish and they could not break through), doing several repairs on the visibility of the grid probably.

I reached the public docks and saw Yango looking at the boats to get to the island. His back was faced to me and I ran up and pushed him into the water. "Whoa!!" Yango said as he balanced and stumbled into the water. "Gotcha!" I said. "Very funny," he said as he climbed out and his cape turned white and he used the wind powers to dry himself off. "Your no fun," I said. "Oh, I'm not?" Yango said. "If I was no fun would I do this," He said as he dropped down and used his staff to trip me into the water. I fell into the water with a big splash. I climbed out and Yango was already halfway down the street running. I chased after him into a dead-in ally, I found nothing and scratched my head, wondering where he was. Suddenly something hit me and I was on the ground with Yango's face looking at me. "I pulled that one on the guards back home all the time," He said. I kissed him for a long time and when we were finished he asked "Tara, will you marry me?" I must have looked surprise. "Yes, but what about the fire stone?" I asked. The fire stone was what was traditionally used for engagements. Yango stood up and held out his staff and his cape turned red and a small fire ball appeared in the orb on the staff. The fireball shaped into a ring with a small stone that looked like a flame. The ring floated out and came onto my ring finger. I threw my arms around him and kissed him again.

We went back to the boats and Minot was already there. "What took you two so long, I have already picked out a hover boat that will get us there in about half an hour," Minot scolded. I held up my hand and showed him the ring. He looked at Yango and said "You didn't! You did!" He said in almost as much surprise as I had been in. "Gravis, we'll be back as soon as we finish our business on the island we're headed to. Once we get back I want a wedding prepared for Tara and me," Yango said jumping in the boat. "Sure thing Yango," Gravis said, "Good luck."

We sped off toward the island that Sting Ray informed Minot was southeast from the docks. We gazed at the ocean. It was the first time we had actually seen the ocean. Slowly I noticed the sky was becoming darker as we were coming closer to the island. I then saw a mountain stick up out of nowhere, and as we got closer the mountain was coming out of an island. We got closer and I saw a building that looked just like the other temples we had visited. We landed the boat and got out onto the island. Suddenly a wall of water rose up to stop us from entering the temple. "Oh come on is that the best they can do?" Minot said and stuck a hand into the water. "Ouch!!" Minot said as he yanked his hand back out. "That wall is filled with piranhas!" Minot exclaimed. "Very observant," we heard a bubbly voice behind us. We spun around and there standing on the water was a mutant shark. He had armor on all his body except his head. On his head was a crown. Sticking out of his body at his arms and legs were fins. He held a harpoon in one hand and a shield in the other. "I'm Quora, king of the seas and servant to Voldoro," he said with a toothy grin. I don't know if you've ever seen a shark, but even if you have you've never seen one smile. It was scary. "We kind of guessed you were from Voldoro, you are a mutant," Yango said.

Yango changed his cape to yellow and raised his staff to the sky. There was a giant lightning strike that shot through the clouds and connected with Yango's staff, but other than that nothing happened. "Now let's get this started," Yango said and changed his staff into Link's sword and the Triforce appeared on his chest. I drew back my string and an arrow made of pure electricity appeared. Minot tapped his helmet his visor came down and his ax's fire looked like it was made of electricity. "Triforce move, let's go!" Yango shouted. We lined up in front of him, then we charged. Minot and I went to opposite sides and made it look like a triangle. Yango sliced at Quora, but he blocked it with his harpoon. Minot then sliced at him with his ax, but he blocked that with his shield. Now it was my turn. I shot the arrow, but Quora moved so that the arrow hit Yango instead. "NO!!!!" I screamed. Yango screamed in pain and then fell silent. I noticed that his emblem had changed to Tigress', I wondered why. Quora then slammed his shield into a tree and let Minot fall, crushed. Then he approached me, harpoon ready. I kept falling back shooting arrows at him over and over. He kept dodging the arrows then he picked up the pace and was practically running at me. Then out of nowhere a golden trident landed right in front of Quora. "Weren't you ever taught never to hit girls?" I looked at who was speaking and to my great relief it was Sting Ray. Quora picked up the trident and there was a shock that went through his body and he dropped the trident which flew back to Sting Ray. "I knew there was someone new in the sea, but I wasn't sure who or what," Quora said. "I'm Sting Ray, you must be the evil King of the Sea, Quora that gave up his nobility to serve Voldoro," Sting Ray said. "So the fish are spreading the news," Quora said. "These are my friends, and they will be pretty mad at you for doing what you did," Sting Ray said.

Suddenly the Master Sword came down and sliced the harpoon in half. "How did you survive that arrow!?!?!" Quora said in surprise and anger. "I have a question for you, how many lives does a cat have?" Yango asked Quora. "Nine is the typical amount of lives for a catfish," Quora answered. "Well land cats are the same, and I have the powers of Tigress, which means I have nine lives. Actually eight lives now, thanks to you," Yango said. There was a blast of fire that knocked the crown off Quora's head. The crown flew spinning into the sand and landed in front of Sting Ray. I looked and Minot was standing on the shield and he was using the air powers to make the shield hover. "This armor is made by magic and it is indestructible," Minot said before Quora could say anything. "I couldn't even hear you coming, how did you do that?" Quora asked Yango. I was wondering the same thing. "I'm silent, silent as a thief," he answered as he winked at me. Of course, Rachel's powers of the thief. "Now Quora, can we get on and kick your butt?" Yango asked. Quora was about to say something but Minot said, "That was a rhetorical question, of course we are going to kick your butt whether you like it or not." Yango charged Quora and I saw Quora start to defend, but Yango jumped into the air at the last second. He shot fireball after fireball, but Quora was dodging them. I could tell that Yango was having fun making him "dance". Yango stopped and Minot charged forward on the shield slicing at him. Quora was stumbling back keeping away from the deadly blade. He kept falling back, right into a sword. The Master Sword went straight through his chest. Yango pulled it out. Quora fell over and fell apart into drops of water. The water wall that was full of piranhas disappeared too. I ran up to Yango and kissed him. "I almost killed you!!!" I said through tears. "It's alright," Yango said wiping the tears from my eyes. Yango turned to Sting Ray, "I guess you're the new King of the Sea," he said as Sting Ray picked up the crown and placed it on his head. "I like this shield," Minot said, "I want to keep it."

We turned to the temple door and walked up to it. "Now let's see who we had to go through so much trouble for," Yango said. We entered the temple. It looked the same as all the other temples, except for the emblem of course. It was the picture of a profile of a hawk's head. When Yango saw this he stopped dead in surprise. Yango rushed up to the pedestal and slammed the staff into the hole. There was a flash of light and a man stood there, he was the same ghostly form as the other heroes. He wore a dragon scale breast armor with the royal symbol, for pants he wore tights, his hair was to his shoulders and his facial fair was a goatee. Yango fell to his knees like he was worshiping this man. "You made it to my temple, I'm Minion Leah," The man said. "Isn't Leah Yango's last name too?" Minot asked me. "Yea, it is," I answered. "It has been so long, father," Yango said and Minion looked surprise. "You are my son? Last I remembered my son was smaller and was not wearing such majestic clothing," Minion told us. "I am your son, see," Yango said changing into his normal form. "You are my son!" Minion said in surprise, "Tigress told me you had finally started your quest, but she did not tell me she changed your form." Minion floated down to look at Yango in his original form. "I believe you came here for a reason," Minion said. "I want to show you something," Yango said calling me up. I approached the pedestal and Minion looked at me. "This is my fiancé, Tara," Yango told his father. "Wow, I had a fiancé, when I was about 30. You have your mother's charm. She had many boyfriends before she married me," Minion said. Yango went up to his hero form and said, "Now I hate to come and leave, but the faster I find the other temples, the faster I can see you anytime I want, so if you give me my powers that you have for me, I can continue with my quest." "Very well, I give you my Hero's Bow, the water medallion, the vision of a hawk, my special technique, Rain of Arrow," Minion said. "Mr. Leah, could you please make it so this shield shrinks to fit my size," Minot said showing him the shield he picked up from Quora. "Yea, no problem, you can make it shrink so you can use it and grow to its original size so you can hover on it too," Minion said. Yango turned around and left the temple and Minot followed.

I started to leave but Minion stopped me. "Tara, take this as a gift from me," Minion said holding out an arrow. "This arrow is called the light arrow, it will defeat darkness anywhere it is. You can shoot this arrow in a dark room and it will light the whole room. I used this arrow to defeat Vizzera, the other evil that threatened to destroy human life. Also you can use the same arrow technique as Yango," Minion told me as he handed me the arrow. "Sir aren't you hurt by your son's rudeness?" I asked him. "No, he wasn't being rude, he just has his eyes set on finishing his quest. He doesn't want to stop for anything, besides he's right. The faster he finds all the temples, the faster we will be able to see each other no matter what," Minion explained. "He isn't a boy any more, he's a man, and I need to treat him like one, and you're a young woman and the perfect one for my son. Good luck," he said and put a hand on my shoulder. "I understand, thank you, dad," I said. As I left I heard Minion cry with pure joy. Yango and Minot were sitting in the boat, waiting for me. I climbed in and we sped off toward the seaside village again. Once we got there, there was a loud cheer and I saw that everyone was dressed up for a wedding. The place was beautiful. It was the biggest wedding I had ever been to, and it was mine. We got married that day and we spent another night there, and what a wonderful night it was.

Chapter 8

The Master-less Sword

Minot

The next day we left the little village by the sea. That place was going to be a landmark once Yango, Tara, and I defeated Voldoro. We headed down the beach until we came to a cliff side and it was too rocky to walk on. We went around, and walked on top of the cliff instead. The top of the hill was covered in lush grass and there was a nice pathway that led somewhere I couldn't see yet. I looked down and my head snapped back up again from the sight I saw. We were maybe 50 feet in the air and below us were jagged rocks that were really sharp, not to mention the crushing pressure of the water slamming against the side of the cliff. I took a step away from the cliff's side. I enlarged my shield and used my wind powers to make it hover again. The holders for the arms turned so that I could use them for foot straps, and they were the perfect size for my small feet. "Hey look, it's a lighthouse," Yango pointed out. He had the emblem of a hawk on his chest and I knew that the house was quite a ways off. I sped up and Yango changed the hawk into a tiger emblem on his chest and raced me to the house. This was about 10:00 in the morning and the sun was well in the sky. We made it to the lighthouse and we stopped at the door. Yango was panting hard. I reached out to turn the door and let myself in, but someone stoped me. There was a hand on my wrist. I looked up and it was an old man.

This old man was not the kind that would be hunched over and barely able to walk. This old man was in good shape and he had white hair with a semi-long beard and mustache. He was partly bald, with hair on the back and sides of his head. He wore warrior's clothes, a chain mail tunic, with a pair of black tights under his mail and on his legs. At his side was a hilt, but this hilt had nothing in it. "Don't go in there," he said. "Why not?" Tara asked as she approached. "There is a mutant bat in there. He cannot be killed except by one weapon, the Vampire Sword," the old man said. His voice was strong like a great warrior had once been in there. "Let me guess, that is what's suppose to be in your empty hilt," Yango said. "Yes, I'm Matt Maver and I have been cursed by Voldoro. This bat will live in my house and my sword will be hidden from me and I will never be able to live in the light house and trim the light for the sailors," Matt said. "Already I have seen 2 ships wreck against the cliff, because the light has not been on," he said with a mix of sadness and anger in his voice. "So you have no idea where the sword is?" I asked. "I have some idea, but it is very general," Matt said. "I think it is somewhere in the Twinamold desert. Come with me." We followed him another half a mile until we hit an area that was a completely barren desert. "I think it is somewhere in about the first 5x10 mile area of this desert," Matt said. I saw the picture of a hawk appear on Yango's chest and he looked around. "You were right, it is about 2 miles that way," Yango said pointing to the northeast corner of the area. He started to head toward that part of the desert he had pointed out. We followed him about 1 mile in the direction he pointed.

On the way I asked Matt, "You aren't dressed like a lighthouse keeper. What were you before you became a lighthouse keeper?" He looked at me and said "There used to be wind colonies that floated high above the land of Evena. At first there was an evil leader named Compo, a servant of Vizzera." "I've heard of Vizzera the evil shadow monster," I spoke up. "Yes, well I was working for Compo, but then Link showed up and he ended up being Mitch, my best friend in school." As soon as he said that my mouth dropped. "You knew Link!?!?" I said in surprise. "Yes, well Link and his group beat Compo and they gave me the position to lead the air colonies, and a bag of sleeping sand," Matt finished. "We're here," Yango said. I looked ahead and there was a small cave that just came out of the ground and inside it I saw a sword that was glowing and just floating there. "That's it, that's the Vampire Sword!!" Matt called out and started to run for it. Yango grabbed his cape and stopped him. "Not so fast, there is something not right here," Yango said. He looked around on the ground for something. "I found it," Yango said bending down. He started to wipe away sand in a certain area. "Found what?" I asked. "This," he said lifting up a metal plate. It read "Caution, do not step into the cave." Tara picked up a fist sized rock and threw it into the cave. There was a flash of light and the rock was gone. "Did anyone see what happened?" I asked in amazement. "Before the flash I think I saw the sword move just a little," Yango said. "Are you saying that the sword attacks anyone or anything that enters the cave?" Matt asked. "That's exactly what I'm saying," Yango responded, changing his staff into the Master Sword. "You're not going in there are you?" Tara asked, sounding worried. "I am the best swordsman, and there is no way I'm going to let a sword with no wielder beat me," Yango said as the emblem of Link appeared on his chest. Yango put both hands on his sword and charged into the cave.

There was a flash of light, just like when we threw the stone in. I could barely see through the light and I saw the sword attack Yango all on its own. Yango blocked it and hit it so hard that it spun. Then Yango slammed the sword down into the ground and it was stabbed into a rock and was unable to get loose. Then the light cleared and we all saw that the sword was stuck in the rock. "You beat it!" Matt said, "But how if that bright light was in your eyes the whole time?" He asked. "I have the powers of Link, including his swords skill, so I could sense every move the sword made, even though I could not see it," Yango said. "Did you say 'the powers of Link'?" Matt asked. "Yes you see I'm on a quest to find the powers and ability of all 8 of the great heroes," Yango explained. "I knew I recognized that sword from somewhere. I was Mitch's best friend, Mitch was the last Link; and probably the one you met," Matt said. He walked over to the sword and pulled it out of the stone. "Come let us go back to the lighthouse and kill the cursed monster that has kept me out of my house," Matt said sheathing his sword and walking back toward the lighthouse. We followed him back and when we got there Matt opened the door and walked in. We followed, but only to the threshold. "So you came back," said a hissing voice. "Yes, but this time it will be different," Matt said drawing his sword. "What? How did you manage to get a hold of that!?!? No matter though, I will still beat you," said the voice again. With a screech a giant mutant bat came swooping down.

His face looked just like a bat's and his body was covered in dark armor. His wings were from his wrists to his waist. Matt tried to slice at him but the bat flew straight up and he missed. The bat took an arch right back down again and ended up behind him. "Matt, behind you!" I shouted. He turned around just in time to block a hit from a metal pole the bat had found somewhere in the rafters when he flew up. The bat just kept giving Matt something to block and he was unable to lay a single hit with the sword. I said before that Matt was in really good shape for an old man, but he was still an old man. The bat finally knocked the sword out of Matt's hand. The sword spun and stabbed right into the doorframe side that was right next to me. "I told you it wouldn't make a difference," the bat said throwing the pole away. "I brought something else too," Matt said and he reached into his chain mail. He pulled out a bag of something. "So what is that, some garlic?" He said and laughed. "No it's sleeping sand," Matt said as he threw some of it into the vampire's eyes. The bat just fanned away the powder and it had no effect. "You fool, vampires can only be killed by garlic and wood stakes stabbed through the heart, and your sword!" he said, "Other than that nothing has any effect on us." I needed to do something. I looked around and saw the Vampire sword stabbed into the doorframe next to me. "I grabbed the hilt and pulled it out. It was about a normal sized sword for a normal man, but since I was a dwarf, I had to hold it two-handed. I jumped on my shield and made it hover. "Hey! Blood breath," I shouted. The bat turned around and saw all of us for the first time. "Yango, Tara, and Minot!" he said in surprise. "It's good to see we are known by the mutant community," I said. I charged with the sword ready to swing. He charged at me too and at the last second he pulled up. But I had seen this move already, I flipped the sword so that it was in a stabbing position in my hand. I heard him flap up behind me, for we dwarfs are very good at hearing. I stabbed the sword behind me between my arm and body. I felt the sword go all the way through something and I knew it was the vampire's body. "Unbelievable," the bat muttered and fell dead.

"You did it Minot!" Tara said. "Of course I did it," I responded. "Thank you, you saved my life," Matt said. "Would you like to do the honors?" Yango asked me. "Gladly," I answered. I hovered my shield up to the top level and all of them followed me. I pulled out my ax and the fire carving looked like electricity. I swung my ax down into the ground and electric power flowed through the entire house and the big light came to life and shone brightly over the dark sea. It took us all day to find the sword and kill the bat mutant? I thought. "As a gift of restoring my house to me, I give you my sword," Matt said. "It is actually not called the Vampire Sword, it is called the Mutant Sword; it has a taste for mutant blood. It is unbreakable, as you saw it is sharp enough to slice through rock," Matt said giving the sword to Yango. Yango took a look around. "Tara you get to carry this sword. You are the only one without a short range weapon. So Tara ended up wearing the Mutant Sword. "Thank you again, Minot," Matt said. "Good-bye, Matt," we all said, heading back to the Twinamold Desert.

Chapter 9

Temple of Joe

Yango

"How are we going to find the next temple?" Minot asked me. We were headed on the same path Matt had led us on to get to the cave. "I think I saw a huge rock off in the distance, let's try there first," I replied. It was day again and I was tired. "I think we should rest, I got no sleep yesterday and I just faced the ugliest thing I have ever seen," Minot complained. "Alright, we'll take a break," I said. "Good," Minot said and plopped right down and fell asleep. "He wasn't joking!" Tara said, looking at him in surprise. It was evening and the sun was setting. Then I felt something looking at us. I perked up and transformed my staff into my father's bow, also a quiver of endless arrows appeared on my back. "What's wrong?" Tara asked me. "Have you ever felt like someone's watching you?" I said, not in humor. I spun around and let loose with an arrow. I saw just in time a pair of sickly yellow eyes with green pupils glowing in the dark, but they ducked away into the shadows before my arrow got there. Those eyes reminded me of something, but I couldn't quite place it. "What was that!?" Tara asked, she had seen the eyes too. "I don't know, I've seen those types of eyes before, but I can't remember who or what they belonged to," I said back. When it was dark I sent out a fireball and it just hovered there without wood. Tara leaned up against me and I put my arm around her. "Yango, I love you," Tara said, sounding like she was tired. "I love you too, Tara," I said back and we kissed. She got closer to me and I put my other arm around her too and we fell asleep.

The next morning we woke up to the smell to something baking. "Good morning, you two lovebirds," Minot said. I looked at him and saw he was cooking breakfast over the fire I had made. "That smells good, what is it?" Tara asked. "When I woke up, I saw you two sleeping. I decided to make breakfast for you, and living alone for most of my life I know how to cook, I had to know how. So I went out and found a small dragon, killed it and I'm cooking it now. If dragon's meat is not to your taste, we also have some rabbit's meat. I also found a mixed fruit grove and gathered many types of fruit. I also used more fruit to make a fruit juice," Minot said setting it all out in front of us. I looked at the breakfast in amazement. "Thanks a lot Minot," Tara said. "You really didn't have to," I said. "Yes I do, I've found this quest very exciting, and I like to thank you, and we dwarves go a long way when it comes to thanks," he told me. Without another word I ate the food that Minot had made. "Now let's get moving, or we'll never make it to the next temple by dark and then I will be compelled to make breakfast for you again," Minot said after we had eaten and let it settle for a while. We got up and started moving toward the desert. We finally made it to the desert and we headed for the cave we had found the Mutant Sword in. Once we got there I looked around with the power my dad had given me. "I see nothing. No wait! There is a large rock that is a perfect cube," I said from on top of the cave. "That's rather odd, should we check it out?" Tara asked. "I think it would be a good idea," Minot said, "I mean how many perfect rock formations do you see every day," he continued. "Yea, I think it is kind of fishy myself," Tara said. "Then it's agreed, we head for the rock cube," I said. I jumped off of the cave and started walking. We walked for about 5 miles. That took most of the day. By the time we arrived at the cube the sun was halfway covered by the cube. I looked carefully at the cube and saw nothing special about it, besides it was a cube. "I see nothing special about it, but something tells me that it is one of the temples I have to find," I said. "Very obsssservant," said a voice from the top of the cube. I looked up and saw a mutant standing in front of the sun, so I couldn't tell what kind of mutant it was. The mutant jumped down and landed in front of the cube.

It was a king cobra mutant, who wore sickly green armor. The skin on his head was folded down. His eye's were the same ones that I shot at that last night. "You were the one spying on us," I said. "Yessss, I am the one who wasssss in the bush," he said. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Minot asked, his anger for mutants showing. "I'm Kabro, sssssent here by Voldoro to desssstroy you before you become a threat to him," he said, his voice was a harsh whisper. "Well we kind of guessed all of it but your name," I said. Kabro burst into laughter. "A sssense of humor, I like that in my victimsssss," Kabro said and a ball and chain appeared in his hands. The ball was at least 2 feet in diameter and the spikes were a foot long. The chain was thick, with huge links, so if the ball failed the chain could do some damage. He spread his flaps of skin out and now he really looked like a king cobra. He opened his mouth and hissed, his fangs were huge. It was show time. I used Tigress' ax and powers, along with the power of lightning. I saw Minot draw his ax and change it to water. "Tara shoot a fire arrow at him when I say," I told her. "Minot shoot the sand beneath his feet with water," I told him. "Got it," Minot said and shot a water ball at his feet. "Tara, shoot the wet sand," I shouted. She drew back an arrow, but I saw Kabro's eyes glow and Tara would not fire the arrow. "Tara what's wrong?" I asked in surprise. "I don't know," she said shaking her head like she was driving something out of it. "It's his eyes, they have hypnotism powers," Minot said. "Very good, Minot," Kabro said.

He then spit a sickly green colored slime at us. "JUMP!!!!" I shouted. We all jumped and there was a rock behind us that disintegrated as soon as the spit hit it. "It's acid!" Tara said. "I have an idea," Minot said. He jumped on his shield and circled around Kabro so Minot was in front of the temple. "Come on, just try and hit me," Minot taunted. "You'll pay for that sssmart remark," Kabro said. He started spiting at Minot with bursts of acid. Minot dodged them all and they hit the cube, putting a bunch of holes in it. "Come on is that the best you got?" Minot asked, egging Kabro on. "You missserable dwarf!" Kabro said and he swung his ball and chain above his head and he flung it at Minot, but Minot dodged just in time and the ball hit the wall of the cube that now looked like Swiss cheese. The impact on the weakened wall made it crumble and inside was another temple, just as I had guessed. Kabro just looked at it open mouthed and since he was a snake, an opened mouth was wide open. "Now you did it Minot, he's boiling mad now," I said as he floated back. "It's all right, I know how to beat him," Tara said. "Have I ever told you that I love you?" I said. "Only10 times every day ," Tara said with a smile. "You use the wind power to blow sand in his eyes. If we don't do that, he will make us stop attacking. When he's blind you attack him any other way you want," Tara said getting serious. "I'll cause the wind," Minot volunteered. "You.....you.....you," Kabro said shaking in rage. Minot stood right behind him, and shouted, "Hey, deadly breath!!" This startled Kabro so much that he spun around, wide eyed, ball and chain spinning wildly. Minot jumped to the side, but Kabro was not letting him get away this easy. He chased after him, his eyes wide open and his mouth sputtering venom. Kabro was mad. Minot turned and used a small gust to blow sand right into Kabro's eyes. He fell to the ground groping around for something. Minot landed right in front of me and shouted, "I'm over here." Kabro flung the ball at him as fast as he could. Minot jumped out of the way and now it was my turn. I jumped on the ball and ran along the chain toward Kabro. I jumped at the last moment and I pulled back my ax, the blade glinted in the setting sun. I brought it down right through Kabro's middle. Kabro fell in half and turned into a pool of acid. I stood there looking at the pool until is was absorbed into the sand.

I walked up to the temple doors and placed the medallion into the hole and the doors opened. The emblem this time was a full picture of a horse that was rearing up on its hind legs. I placed the staff into the hole and out came one of the strangest creatures I had ever seen. He stood 9 feet tall, his legs were like the hind legs of a horse. His upper torso was a very muscular build, and his face looked like a black stallion. His entire body was covered in black, shiny horse hair. He held a long-handle sledge hammer. "I am Joe- The Mighty Stallator," he said. I remembered my dad telling me of a stallator that was a body guard for the king and queen. "You must be Yango and Company, I'm glad you came and freed my temple from its rock prison," Joe said. Joe looked at us and then he said, "You look tired, let me refresh you," then we felt like we did just before we came into the desert and nearly baked to death. "Thank you Joe," Tara said. "Now, I believe you're here for something." There was a flash of light and a medallion with a cracked boulder on it was floating in front of us. Three brown lights went out from it and came to us and faded. "You now have the ability to control rock. You have my incredible strength and you can use my hammer, but my hammer is so heavy only my strength can handle it properly," he said looking at me. "I'm a man of few words, so I will see you once you free the last 3 of us," Joe said and disappeared. We left the temple and the desert and headed for the Plain of Bongo-Bongo. This area had small tremors every now and then, usually in a pattern, like a slow drum beat.

Voldoro

"Master, I have bad news," the little communicator beeped. "Kabro was beaten by Yango, too." I let out a roar of anger and frustration. What am I doing wrong I thought. "They are now headed for the Plain of Bongo-Bongo," the beeper said again. "Thank you, you will be richly rewarded when you return," I told the spy. "Advisor, send out Mollie to the Plain of Bongo-Bongo," I told the little bird. "Are you sure, master?" the bird asked. Usually I would have gotten mad because he questioned my command, but I decided to remain cool and answer him. "The humans are reaching the last two hero's temples. We need to beat these humans before they reach them, so I decided to start sending out the more powerful mutants," I said with a hint of frustration in my voice. "Of course master, forgive my questioning," the little bird said and ran off to get Mollie.

 

Chapter 10

Dead Spies Tell No Tales

Tara

We left the desert behind us gladly. "That was just weird," Minot said. "Yea, I really think that was one of the strangest mutants we will face," Yango said. "He had a real temperament problem," I said, putting my two cents in. "So how do you know where all the temples are going to be, Yango?" Minot asked. "When I visited the temple of Tigress, she told me this '....you need to find all 8 temples before you have a chance of fighting and beating Voldoro. One is deep in the forest, two are in the desert, but not the same sand, one is on an island in the middle of the ocean. One is in a cave, high in the snowy heights, another one is in the middle of a large deadly plain. The last one is high in the sky, above with the stars....' so I've been figuring out where she meant by those locations and been headed there," Yango said. "Makes sense," Minot said. We walked a little further and Yango stopped dead in his tracks. "Shhhhh, I hear something," Yango warned us. We stopped and I saw Yango's chest showing the emblem of Minion. Yango listened carefully with the ears of a hawk and scanned the brush with his sharp eyes. Yango stood up straight after several minutes. "It must have been nothing," he said, but the way he said it made me think that there was something. I looked at Minot and he gave a small nod. Apparently Yango had heard something. He just didn't want that something to know he had heard it. We continued on without giving a second thought about the noise. "There is a small village about 1 mile away from the plain, we'll stop there for refreshments and a good night's sleep," Yango said looking to the west at the setting sun.

When we arrived at the village, the guard greeted us with a nod and we headed for the bar. We entered the bar and sat right in front of the bartender. "What'll it be?" He asked. "I'll take a dragon fire," Minot said. "I'll take a milk," I said. "I'll take a cold fire," Yango asked. "Coming up," the bartender said and set to work. I saw some guys playing darts over in a corner. "I'll give you five gold pieces to beat those guys in a game of darts," a man offered Yango. "Ask my wife, she'll do just as good," Yango said tilting his head toward me. The man came over to me and held out the five gold pieces. I scooped up the gold and walked over to the group of guys. "Hey look, here comes a chick," the leader said. "You boys want to play darts?" I asked them. "You're not worth wasting our time on," the leader said again. "Oh, I'm not? Well if you're scared to get beat by me then ok," I said. "Hey, this lady thinks she can beat us," the man shouted out over the whole bar. Suddenly there was a crowd surrounding us. "Alright it's you and me, a three dart throw, one time only, highest total points win," he said handing me three darts. "You first," I said. He stepped up to the line and threw his three darts. One got the bull's eye and the other 2 got in the 20 point area. "Not bad, my turn," I said as he removed his darts from the board. "I choose to throw all three darts at the same time," I said. At this the whole bar started laughing. I just lined up and held all three of my darts like I was throwing a dagger. "That's impossible," someone said. I just threw my darts and all three hit the bull's eye. At this there was complete silence. "Looks like I won," I said and walked over to my seat and sat and drank my milk. "Did you just show me up?" the leader said just behind me. "Well if 'showing you up' is beating you then I guess I did," I responded. "You know what I do to people who show me up? I pound them," he said and his gang agreed with him. "Get her, Bruno," a huge man stepped up and growled. "I wouldn't," Yango warned calmly, still drinking his cold fire. "Why, who are you?" the leader asked. "I'm Yango, her husband," Yango said. "Oh, so what are you going to do about it," the man asked. "I'll take out your whole gang," Yango said with a smile. "Are you saying that you will beat all of us?" he said. "Basically, yes I am," Yango said.

He got up and faced the gang, there were about 20 guys, one of them was a woman. He gave his staff to me to hold it and took off his cape, folded it and handed it to Minot. "Get him!" The boss shouted. First was a young man with a thick chain. He swung the chain and tried to hit him. Yango grabbed the chain, pulled the man toward him and punched him in the face. "He's wasn't getting up for a while," I said. A man stepped up with a machine gun. He opened fire on Yango but Yango changed his emblem to Tigress and dodged all the bullets. The man was too surprised to do anything about what happened next. Yango appeared beside him and kneed him in the gut. Another guy tried to attack him with his fists, but Yango just kicked him with the same leg that he had kneed the other guy with. "Is this all you've got?" Yango said. "That's it, Bruno get him!" The boss shouted. The big man stepped up and cracked his knuckles grinning. "How about we settle this match with an arm wrestle?" Yango asked. "The giant just smiled and offered Yango a seat at a table. Yango put his elbow on the table and so did Bruno. They clasped hands. "Start!" Minot said. Bruno put all he had into forcing Yango's hand down, but it didn't budge. "You can use two hands if you like," Yango offered. The emblem of Tigress was replaced by the emblem of Link. Bruno started to use both hands to try to get Yango's hand down. "I'm getting tired of this," Yango said and with a twitch of his arm, Yango sent Bruno flying into a wall. "That's it, everyone, GET HIM!!!!"

In a matter of minutes Yango had managed to knock out the whole gang, 20 guys total. Yango calmly picked up he staff and put his cape back on. We all walked out of the bar with half the town staring at Yango. We checked into a hotel and went up to our room. "What did you hear in the forest, Yango?" Minot asked. "There is a spy out there. That is how Voldoro knows what temples we are going to," Yango said. "Now it makes sense," I said. "He seems to be a chameleon mutant, so he blends in perfectly," Yango explained further. "We need to destroy him," Minot said. "Agreed, but we too need to be as quiet as he has been until he reveals himself," I said. "Also about as invisible, so we'll go under cover in the dark," Yango said. "Yango and I can use our capes for cover, since they are black, Minot you may have to use your own money and buy one on your own," I said.

So Minot went to the local tailor and bought a black cloak with a hood. Once it was dark we went out into the forest with our cloaks wrapped around us. It was a moonless and starless night so it was blacker than usual. Yango had used Rachel's thief powers so he never made a sound. Minot was hovering on his shield and he didn't make a sound. I bought a pair of magical shoes that would not let my feet be heard, even a spy could be thrown off guard by our appearance (or lack there of, as the case may be). We knew the spy was not expecting us so he should not be in camouflage. "What!?!" I heard a voice say and a second later the chameleon appeared. "I saw them enter the forest and now they're not here!" he said to himself. I looked at where I knew Yango was. I put a look on my face that said "I want to kill him now." Yango just returned the look with one that said "Not yet, let's see what he does now." The spy pulled out a little box with one button on it. "Master I lost them, they entered the forest and just disappeared," He said into the box pressing the button. The roar that came from the box was terrifying, and it was only coming from a mini walky-talky. I knew that the roar was Voldoro's. "THEN FIND THEM YOU FOOL, I DON'T WANT YOU TO LOSE SIGHT OF THEM!!!!" I heard Voldoro shout through the box. I looked at Yango again in the same way I did before. This time the look I received said "Go ahead." So that's what I did. I drew the sword Matt gave me and snuck up behind the spy. I kept the sword under the cloak so he would not see it. I put my mouth to his ear and said "Ever feel like someone is watching you?" He spun around with a look of surprise and bewilderment "Who was that?" As soon as he was facing me I threw my cloak of and stabbed him. The look on his face was one of horror and surprise. He had had no idea what was coming.

I put the sword in my sheath again and I noticed the box on the ground. I picked it up and handed it to Yango. "Have you found them yet?!" Voldoro's annoyed voice came out of the small speaker. "Oh yea, he found us," Yango said with a smile. "What!! Who is this?" Voldoro said. "Only your worst nightmare," Yango said. "Yango," Voldoro's voice was full of hatred. "The one and only," Yango responded. There was a roar much louder than I had heard earlier, Voldoro was mad. I heard a voice in the background saying something. "You're right, I really don't need that spy anyway. You see Yango, you have only 2 temples left to reach and I know where both of those are and that you are headed for the one in Bongo-Bongo Plain," Voldoro said with a calm voice. I could tell he had a smile pulling at his mouth (I didn't know what kind of mouth he had or if it was capable of a smile, no one had ever seen Voldoro). Something sounded wrong about the number of temples we had left. I did the math and saw that Voldoro must not realize that there are 8 temples, he thought there were only 7. The look on Yango's face told me he had figured the same thing, but he was not about to tell Voldoro that. "A lot of good that will do you if we kick your mutant's butt, just like the other ones," Yango said. "I'm sending more powerful mutants," Voldoro sounded a little less cockier by Yango's cut down. "I don't know why I'm bothering with you, we need to find more temples to kick your butt," Yango said. Voldoro was mid-roar when Yango smashed the little black box. "Man he gets annoying," Yango said. "Did anybody else catch Voldoro's mistake?" Minot asked. "Yea, that means he is either leading us on or he really does not know where the last temple is or whether it even exists," I said. "Now let's see this new more powerful mutant Voldoro is giving us the honor to beat," Yango said. "After a goodnight's sleep," Minot said and headed toward the village.

Chapter 11

Temple Of Tigro

Minot

That night we slept soundly and in the morning we went to the local restaurant and got breakfast. After that we asked around for information about the Plain of Bongo-Bongo. "What do you know about the Bongo-Bongo Plain?" Yango asked a hunter. "Certainly, it has small tremors every once in a while. It is also huge, maybe 100 miles square," the hunter said. "Have you ever seen a large building there?" I asked him. "Actually, yes I have, but for some odd reason I'm afraid to go near it," the hunter said with a look on his face like he just discovered this thought. After we gathered enough information we headed for the Plain. We reached the edge of the Plain and saw nothing. "Where is the temple?" I asked looking around. The plain was actually closer to a small hill, enough of a hill, however, to keep us from seeing to the other side of the plain. "Minot go to the top of the hill and tell me if you see the temple over there," Yango told me. "Sure thing," I said and jumped on my shield. I sped off for the top of the hill. When I got there I stood with my mouth open. That hunter wasn't kidding about size, it was huge. Now dwarfs have pretty good eyes, better than humans. I could barely see the trees on the other side of the forest, and already I was only 10 yards from the edge of the forest. There was a small rumbling in the ground beneath my feet and I buckled. It must have been one of the small tremors everyone was talking about. I sped back to Yango and Tara. "So what did you see?" Yango asked me. "Miles and miles of grass and land, but no temple. The hill actually seems to stand by itself, the rest of the plain is flat, " I said. "You're kidding!?!" Tara asked me with disbelief. "No joke, there is nothing out there. I looked down, "However there is a path right beneath us," I pointed out. "Let's follow it," Yango said. We walked down the path and came to the foot of the hill. After that it just disappeared. Tara got down to look at it. "It looks like dirt has been piled onto this path and has grown grass," she said. "I'll give you one guess what's under this hill," I said. Tara and Yango looked at each other and said at the same time "The temple." "That was a no-brainer, so who is behind this?" I asked. "I am," a female's voice said from a tunnel that had suddenly appeared in the hill. Out stepped a mutant mole, a female mutant mole.

Might I add a very hot female mutant mole. "I've heard of you, your Mollie one of Voldoro's two strongest mutants. You were in control of the south side of the town," Yango said. She wore a tank top with a loose pair pants. Her head was a mole's and the only other interesting thing about her was her hands. They were like spoons or shovels and had 4 long sharp claws on each hand. I tapped my helmet and the visor came down. Tara pulled back her bow and aimed. Yango transformed his staff into Joe's hammer and he could not lift it until Joe's emblem appeared on his chest then he lifted it with ease. His cape also turned brown and the fire carving in my ax looked like there was water flowing through it instead of fire. She just laughed and she dug under ground faster than I had ever seen. I looked at where she had gone under and there was no hole. We looked around, I held my shield in front of me. We walked around the hill looking everywhere for her to come up. I heard Tara scream from the other side of the hill. I ran up that hill as fast as I could. I saw Tara was in a whirlpool of dirt and Mollie's hands holding Tara's feet. "YANGO!!!" I called, but he was already there. He grabbed Tara's hand, and using Joe's amazing strength, yanked her out from the whirlpool. I ran down the hill to Tara but Mollie jumped up right in front of me and started slashing me. I raised my shield and was driven back. She slashed and started pushing me back, keeping her hand on my shield. I pushed her hand to the side with my shield and swung horizontally at her stomach. She jumped back and I made a slice in her shirt. She did a back flip and dug into the ground again. I went down to Tara and Yango, "I have an idea, let's go into the forest," I told them. We ran into the forest as fast as we could so Mollie wouldn't jump up and attack us again. "You guys remember the Land Shark, right?" I asked once we were in the forest. "Yea of course we do, why?" Yango said. "Mollie is almost like the land shark, only smarter. She hears the movement above ground and attacks where she heard it. Now here's the plan. Tara you jump into a tree just on the edge of the forest, Yango you use Rachel's thief powers to make no noise above ground. I'll hover on my shield and not touch the ground. Now since this place has tremors on a regular pattern, Mollie is probably used to it so she will not be thrown off guard. Yango I want you to slam the ground with Joe's hammer, it may help to put more power into it if you use the power of rock too. Once Mollie has been thrown off guard by Yango's attack, Tara you jump from the tree and finish it with the Mutant Sword," I told them. I looked at them and they returned with a look of half amazement. "Dwarves have a talent for strategy," I explained. I jumped on my shield and made it hover, "Are we ready?" I asked. Yango braced his hammer and Tara drew her sword. "Stations," Yango said and the emblem of Rachel appeared on his chest and his staff went to normal. "Since I came up with this plan and I really can't do anything helpful, I will be on top of the hill," I said. Tara jumped into a tree and Yango stepped out into the Plain and waited. I went up just behind the top of the hill so I could not be seen, but I could see.

After a while Mollie came out from under ground. "I guess I was too much for them, they must have gone crying home," she said to herself. "Think again!" Yango shouted and he transformed his staff into Joe's hammer and the emblem on his chest turning into the horse. He slammed the ground with the hammer and shouted, "STALLION SLAM!!!". What looked like a river of rock flowed toward Mollie and she stumbled, but did not fall. "Minot your plan isn't working," Yango shouted. I sped down the hill and approached Mollie. I turned so my shield was facing toward Mollie. "Hey gravel for brains!" I shouted and knocked Mollie on her butt. "Now Tara!!!" I shouted. Tara came flying through the air and her sword was drawn back. She came down and swung horizontally, cutting Mollie in half. Mollie fell apart into gravel and so did her mole hill. As we had suspected, the temple was under the mound. Yango turned to me, "I thought you said you couldn't do anything helpful?" he asked me with a smile. "Very funny, now shut up and open the doors," I said.

Yango opened the doors and we walked in. All was the same as the other temples, except the emblem, of course. It was a circle and it looked like a tiger was slashing through and its eyes were in the darkness. Yango placed the staff into the hole and out came one of the scariest heroes I had ever seen. She held a stick with one double-sided battleaxe on either end. Her teeth were as big as knives and her fangs were twice as big. She easily stood 8 ft tall. Her neck was hunched over and her arms were down to her knees. "I'm Tigro- The Evolved Demon," the beast said, her voice sounding like a mix of tiger roar and human speech. "I am a more powerful version of Tigress, so all you will get is an upgraded version of Tigress, and maybe some new attacks, like Fire Claw, and Fire Vortex. You will get no medallion from me, or the next temple," Tigro said. "Thank you Tigro," Yango said. "No, thank you for getting that mutant out of my area, for that I will give you something," she said. There was a flash of light and a pair of gauntlets came down. "These are magic gloves, the right one will produce an energy shield, you can shape however you want. The left one can absorb an attack and fire it back at where it came from, or elsewhere," Tigro said. "We must go find the last two temples, see you later," Yango said. "The next one is the temple of Oni Link, and the last one is the temple of Liger," Tigro put in as we left. I turned back and waved goodbye.

Chapter 12

Love and Betrayal,

In the Smallest Form

Yango

We walked across the plain. About halfway across the plain I looked around. This was the lowest point in Evena, for that reason it was also called Bongo-Bongo Valley. There were mountains on either side of the plain that shaped into a horseshoe. The only way in was the opening north of the mountain range, the way we came in. There were no mountains in that direction and that is where the village was. Past the plain is the continuation of Odolwa's Forest, the wood that covered the entire land. At the head of the plain is the Goht Mountain, the giant mountain that overshadowed half of the plain and all of the forest inside the mountain range ("all of the forest inside the mountain range" is about 50 miles). "So which way should we take?" I asked. "Which ways can we take?" Minot asked. "We can travel through the forest or over the mountains," I answered. "I want to take the mountain, we can't be ambushed there," Tara said. "I want to take the Forest road, it's easier to travel on," Minot put in. "That's perfect," I said. "Why don't you pick Yango?" Tara asked. "Because either way I'll make someone mad at me," I said. "Don't take the mountain road, there is an ambush," said a voice. "Thank yo............" I stopped short and turned around. There was a beautiful woman standing there. She was rather short, and wore animal skin clothing. Her dark hair was tied in a braid that came down to about the middle of her back. I saw a small dagger at her side, but that was the only weapon I saw. "Who are you and what do you mean?" I asked her. "I am Lido, half-human, half-dwarf, I was warning you not to take mountain road because Voldoro's best army is waiting for you there," she said. "Group huddle," I said. We huddled together. "What do you say?" I asked. "Let's trust her," Minot spoke up right away. We looked at him strangely. "I wanted to go the forest road anyway," Minot said matter-of-factly. "Nice cover," Tara said and continued, "I actually agree with Minot on this one." "It's settled, we take the forest road," I said. "We are going to take the forest road," I told Lido. "Very well, may I accompany you?" she asked. "Very well," I said, "you can accompany us to the foot of the mountain."

We headed off into the forest and walked until nightfall. We made it to a clearing and made camp. "I'll hunt for the food," Lido volunteered. "Fine, take Minot with you," I said. I still didn't trust her, even though I had seen the army on the mountain road when we passed. Lido came back with the food. "Did she do anything?" I whispered to Minot. "Don't think so," was his reply. We ate the food and it tasted great. I went to sleep with a full stomach and full trust in Lido.

I woke up and the sun's rays were just coming over the mountain. I tried to get up, but for some reason I couldn't. "What's going on?" I shouted. "You are a prisoner of Voldoro, master of animal and darkness," said a voice. I looked and it was a bear mutant, from the looks of it, a general. "Are we all here?" I called out. "I'm here," Tara said. "Here," I heard Minot call out. "What about Lido?" I said. "Right here," she said. "I looked up and she was standing on the right side of the general. "What?!?!" I said. "I cooked some sleepy berries into the food, the general just stood on the mountain to convince you I was right," she said. There was a table by the general with our weapons on it. "No!" Minot said. I heard the general laugh, "It was child's play to tie you all up and now I'm guaranteed a promotion," He gloated. "You are an idiot," I said. "What!" the general spat. "You don't realize who you're messing with," I said. "General what about my payment?" Lido asked. "I've changed my mind about that, you did well but you don't get anything," the general said. "What!" Lido said. Lido started to reach for our weapons, but the guards grabbed her and took her out of the clearing. I assumed she was going to be forced to leave and that she really didn't want to betray us. By now I had brought up the emblem of Tigro on my armor. "So you think you have us down?" I asked. "Yes, I do," said the general. "Well think again," with that I burst out of the chains with Tigro's strength.

"WHAT!?!?!?!?!?" The general shouted. I grabbed the weapons and I changed my weapon to Tigro's ax. My cape turned red and I melted the chains off my friends. "Catch," I said and tossed them their weapons. The army was so surprised I did all this without any disturbance. "STOP THEM!!!!!!!!!" The general shouted, and since he was a bear, it was really loud. "Ah, yes the most famous words of a villain," I said. The whole army charged at us. "FIRE VORTEX!!!" I shouted as I spun my weapon around. A giant tornado of fire extended from the weapon and toasted a lot of mutants. With a war cry I saw Minot go in slicing mutants like he was running through a forest and making a path by cutting trees. Tara shot straight up into the air and shouted "RAIN OF ARROW!!" and from the one arrow thousands of arrows fell down taking out all the rest of the army except the general. "That's it!" he said. He pulled out a giant broad sword. He tried to charge me but I side stepped him and he hit a tree. I reached into Rachel's pouch and pulled out a dagger. I threw it into the general's back and he fell over dead. "That was easy," I said. "Lido didn't want to betray us, she just wanted some money," Minot said in one breath. "I know Minot, she will probably be too afraid to show herself to us right now, but I know she's watching," I said. I took out a small bag of money and placed it in the clearing. "This is for you, Lido," I shouted into the forest. We left the clearing and walked toward the mountain. We arrived at the foot of the Mountain by dark and made camp there. In the morning we started to climb Goht Mountain.

 

Chapter 13

Temple of Oni Link

Tara

We started to climb the mountain. It was easy at first because there was a path that led all the way up to the snow. But the path was not as easy up the snow. It was like there was a wall that shielded the lower half of the mountain. The snow that was falling just started when you were in the snow area. In the warm area there was no snow, it just stopped. We climbed on and the snow got harder and harder. It soon got to a point where the snow was so deep we couldn't go much further. "What do we do now?" Minot asked. "I think there is a cave over there," Yango said. We trudged over to the small opening that Yango pointed out. We brushed the snow out of the way of the entrance. It turned out that the cave was actually a tunnel. But further up the tunnel there was a giant bolder. I walked up to it and rubbed the stone looking for a way to destroy it. I turned to Yango, "Do you think you can destroy it?" I asked. "Of course," was the reply. The emblem of Joe appeared on his chest and his staff changed to Joe's hammer. He drew back the hammer for a mighty blow to crumble the rock.

"Hey don't do that!" said a voice. Yango stopped suddenly. "Who was that?" Minot asked. "It's me, the rock," said the voice. All three of us stared at the rock in amazement. "Yes, I am a talking rock," it said. "Oh man! How can we get across?" Minot asked. "Excuse me, but we need to get on the other side of you," I told the rock. "Sorry, you'll have to find another way around," it said. "Is there a path to the top of the mountain behind you?" Yango asked. "Of course there is, but you can't get there without moving me, and I can't move," the rock said. "Oh you can't?" Yango asked. He put down the hammer and walked up to the rock. He put both hands on it and pushed. The rock began to move and he pushed harder. The rock began to move faster until it was out of the way. "Hey that was pretty good," the rock said. "It was nothing," Yango said. He picked up the hammer and it changed back into his staff. His cape turned red and there was no emblem on his chest. "Let's move," Yango said. He started into the cave with his staff lighting the way. We walked down the path until we reached a solid wall, no stone.

"Now what?" Minot asked. "I don't know, you didn't see any other paths did you?" Yango asked. "Not me," I said. "Me either," Minot chimed in. I felt a slight brush of cold air on my arm. "Wait, feel that?" I asked. "Yea," Yango said. We looked up and saw that it was a vertical shaft, straight up. "We found the way up, now how do we get there?" I asked. "I can fly," said Minot and without a second to spare he jumped onto the shield and floated up. The emblem of Tigro appeared on Yango's chest and he extended claws and climbed right up. "How are you going to come up Tara?" Yango asked me. "You'll find out," I said. I pulled out an arrow and shot it right in front of me. "I don't think that will help you much," I heard Minot's voice from above. "Ha ha ha, just watch," I shouted back. I continued shooting arrows to form a ladder. I climbed out using the arrows as foot holds and hand holes. "Very nice, I'm sorry I doubted you," Minot said. "What's this, humbleness from a dwarf?" I mocked. "I did a better job," Minot mumbled. "That's better," Yango said. We all laughed. "Now can we get out of here?" I asked. "Sure, I think the snow gave us a break," Yango said. We headed out of the cave opening. We had a short way to walk until we reached the top. At the top of Goht Mountain it was just a flat plain, not even a peak. In the center of that plain was another temple. We headed toward it until a wall of solid ice came out of the ground and blocked our path. "Oh no, it's not that easy, you have to beat me first," came a voice from the air.

We looked up and a bald eagle mutant came swooping down and landed in front of the temple. "I am Areech, your next opponent, also your last," said the mutant. He wore thick clothing with a hood. Yango turned his staff into his father's bow and his father's emblem appeared in his chest. His cape also turned blue. I drew back my string and an arrow appeared there. Minot stood back in case we needed help. Areech took flight and we started shooting at him. "Is that the best you've got?" Areech mocked us. Suddenly I saw a lot of feathers come down at us. Yango stepped up and formed a shield in front of us with the gauntlet Tigro gave him. The feathers stuck in the shield. As Yango took down the shield, he grabbed a feather, launched it at Areech and it skimmed his wing. "Ouch! How dare you!!" Areech said. "Oh we have just begun to fight," I said. "So have I," Areech responded. He flew high into the air and opened his mouth. There came a horrible screeching sound and I saw sound rings come from his mouth at us. Yango tried to raise the shield again, but the sound just shattered it. The blast sent us falling back. "Yango use the other gauntlet!" Minot shouted. "Tara be ready," He called to me. I knew exactly what he was planning and I drew back my string and an arrow appeared there. "Come on Areech, try that fancy trick again!" Yango taunted. "My pleasure," Areech said as he prepared for another attack. The sound came again and so did the rings. Yango raised his other hand and the rings absorbed right into the gauntlet. "WHAT!" Areech shouted with surprise. "You know what, that was what all your other friends said before we destroyed them," Yango said with a laugh. "You'll pay for that!" Areech said. He started a dive, his talons gleaming. He got close enough and Yango shouted and pointed his fist at him and the blast rings hit Areech. He was screaming in pain from the intense sound. "Now, Tara!" Yango said. I took aim and let fly with an arrow. My aim was true and nailed him in the head. He fell to a pile of feathers and the wind blew them away. But as opposed to Quora, the wall did not drop. Minot stepped up and shot a fire blast at the ice wall and it melted. "I had to do something," he protested.

Yango walked up to the door and opened it. The emblem was the same as Link's, except the sword was different. It looked like a blade was split in half and twisted together in two big loops. He walked up and placed the staff into the pedestal. Out came a being beyond human comprehension. He was easily 10 ft tall, he had heavy armor, but he was so strong he could move with super speed. Like the emblem, his sword was twice as long as Link's and it looked like two blades that were twisted in two big loops. His hair was white and his face had battle paints on it. "I'm Oni Link- The Fallen Deity," he said. "You will receive my sword and my many attacks: Demon Blast, Magic Sword Wave, and Magic Disk," Oni Link said. "I am actually the strongest in the group, so you will receive my strength, but you still will not be able to use Joe's hammer without his power. I'm also a better swordsman than Link, that's about it. You have only one more temple to find, good luck," With that he disappeared. "That was short," Yango said. "Strange," Minot said. "Let's find the last temple," I said. "I like her idea," Minot said. "I knew I married you for a reason," Yango said with a look on his face like he had just discovered something. I hit him lightly and we headed back down the mountain.

 

 

 

Chapter 14

A Plot is Revealed

Minot

Getting down the mountain was a great deal easier then climbing it. When we made it to the exit we moved the rock back into place and walked on. When we got to the bottom of the mountain I said, "How do we get to the last temple?" We all looked at each other with a look that said we hade no idea. "I heard that the last temple was hidden from all human reach once Voldoro took over the rest of the heroes," I said. "That is just a legend, do you have any idea where they hid it?" Yango asked me. "I think I remember a poem, kind of went like this-

'Faraway, way up high

There the last temple you will find

There is nothing there to the naked eye

But use what you know and it will open

The chosen one is the only one who can enter

No one else, just the one

The power of this hero is greater than all the rest

Just follow the rock and find what no one else can' "

They just looked at me. "Look I don't remember it that well, it probably actually rhymed," I said. "It's all right. I know where it is any way, and that's all we needed," Yango said. "So where is it?" Tara asked. "It's hidden in the black sea, there is nothing there for miles. Many people believe there is nothing there until you reach the other side of Evena," Yango said. "Not even an island?" I asked. "Not even a small rock," Yango said. "Well let's get going if it's on the other side of the continent," Tara said. "I agree, let's move," Yango said. We left the mountain range only to encounter an army of mutants waiting for us.

"Halt, we have been ordered to capture you and take you to Voldoro!" said the mutant lizard, who I assumed was the general. "Not likely, fellas," Yango said. I tapped my helmet and the visor came down. Yango changed his staff into Oni Link's sword and the emblem of Oni Link on his chest. Tara drew back her bow and an arrow appeared there. "Guys, stand back, I can handle this by myself," Yango said. We both just looked at him like he was out of his mind. He faced us, he didn't look like himself. "I can handle it," he said with an authority in him that made us cringe. "But Yango, you've never been able to handle a whole army yourself before," Tara tried to reason with him. "I said I could handle it!!" He shouted at Tara and his eyes changed. He had no pupils, his eyes were just white. I saw the emblem of Oni Link glowing on his chest. "Whoa, he has never yelled at me like that," Tara said. "Something has happened to him," I said. Yango stepped up and faced the army. Tara took a step toward him, but I stopped her. "Don't Tara, let him go," I said. "Only you are going to face us?" the lizard said. "I don't need anybody else to beat you," Yango put in. The whole army laughed. "Oh you think I'm joking?" Yango said. Suddenly there was a flash of power and instead of Yango standing there, it was Oni Link, at least the body of Oni Link. Before anyone could figure it out, Yango/Oni Link charged the army and started to slice through the army like trees. He jumped back and his sword started to glow. "MAGIC SWORD WAVE!!!!!" He shouted. A semi circle of power extended from the sword as he swung it. It headed for the army that was now charging Yango/Oni Link. It took out the entire front lines. A magic disk appeared in his hands and he launched it toward the army and it took out 2 or 3 mutants. The rest of the battle was a blur. All I saw was a flashing sword and flying disks, and I can tell you this much, they were not coming from the mutants. When the smoke cleared, Yango/Oni Link stood there with the sword to the general's throat. "What is Voldoro's plan?" He asked. "He plans to use a spell to exterminate all human life from this miserable world," the Lizard spoke bravely, probably because he thought that if he said that he would live. "When will he do this?" Yango/Oni Link asked. "He needed enough power, he will have enough by next month," the general said, again bravely. "Thank you," Yango/Oni Link said, "Now goodbye!" He said and launched a disc at the general.

"Did you catch all that?" I asked Tara. "Not quite," was the reply. Yango/Oni Link changed back into Yango and he fell to his knees. We rushed up to him, "What was THAT!!" I asked him. "I don't know, it just happened," Yango said, slowly getting to his feet. "Maybe we should see Link about this," I said. "Yea good idea," Yango agreed. We headed off for Link's Temple discussing what the general had just told us. "So do you think we have enough time to gather all my powers and defeat Voldoro?" Yango said. "A month is plenty of time," I said. "It's about a two week journey across Evena, plus little stops here and there, we should be fine," Tara said. We continued to walk west until we reached the temple of Link. We had gone in a circle around Evena to reach the temples. Actually it was only a 2 day journey from the mountains to Link's temple. Yango's hometown was at the center of the north of Evena, only a day's journey to Link's temple. We made it there by the end of the second day from the mountains. Yango walked up to the door and opened it for us. "Alright let's go," Yango said.

We entered the temple and Yango summoned Link. "Hey didn't expect to see you again until you finished your quest," Link said. "We've run into a little bit of a problem," Yango said. "and it is....?" Link asked. "We found the temple of Oni Link and I received his powers, but we ran into an army of Voldoro's," Yango said. "I still don't see a problem," Link said. "Well I tried to use Oni Link's powers, but for some odd reason I turned into Oni Link," Yango finished. Yango stood there waiting for Link's response. "That is no problem!" Link said with a look of excitement. "I don't get it," I said. "Yango should not have been able to do that, but since he was so well fit for the job, he has always been able to do that, change into the actual body of the heroes," Link said. "But why....." Tara began. Link held out his hand. "I know what you're thinking, why did he do it with Oni Link and nobody else," Link said. Tara nodded. "Oni Link is a very powerful god, apparently he knew Yango could do this, and put something special in his package, and didn't tell you," Link said. "I'll try it now," Yango said. "Alright," Link said. The Emblem of Link appeared on his chest, and in a flash of power, there were two Links standing there. "Alright, it worked," Yango said and changed back. "Now this won't help much with heroes like your dad and I. However Tigro and Tigress have claws and Tigro's long arms come in handy," Link said. "Thanks a lot Link," Yango said. "You're welcome, just spend the night here," he said and disappeared.

We stayed the night and in the morning we said goodbye to Link. "Good luck and be careful, I hear the last hero is a little awe-inspiring," Link said and waved goodbye. We headed off for the Shore of Mystery and the Black Sea. We received no trouble, since Voldoro didn't know of the last temple. We made it to the shore and looked around. The water was overshadowed with black clouds, that made the water look black, maybe it was. "Now what do we do?" Tara asked. "The poem said 'But use what you know and it will open'" I said. We looked around some more and I saw something strange. "Hey look, there are three rocks lined up over there," I said. There were three perfectly square rocks, that had perfect holes in them, just like the pedestals in the temples. There was also a rock with something carved in it. "It read

 

Lies will destroy you

But the Lies will not survive

The truth may be painful,

But it will stand the test of strength"

I read. "That doesn't tell us anything, it's just a proverb," I complained. "No it does tell us something," Yango said. He drew back his staff and hit the middle rock. It crumbled on impact. He hit the one on the right and it also crumbled. "You see the fake rocks will be destroyed, while the truth will stand," he said. He hit the one on the left and it stayed. "Now I put my staff in it and it will let us in," Yango said. He put his staff in the hole and a shock ran up the staff and hit Yango. He screamed in pain, I tried to pull him back, but he was stuck. Finally it stopped and nothing happened. Then a golden gate appeared in front of the rock and a path raised out of the water into the darkness of the clouds. We took a step toward the gate. "So shall we go?" Tara asked. "Let's," Yango said. We all stepped through the gate. It felt like hitting a brick wall. Tara and I fell back and Yango was the only one that passed onto the path. "Of course, the line in the poem that says 'The chosen one is the only one who can enter, No one else, just the one'" I said. "Than Yango's on his own?" Tara asked. "Afraid so," I said, "but I don't want to find the last temple without you," Yango said. "You'll have to, now go!" I said. Yango walked off into the darkness of the clouds and disappeared.

Chapter 15

The Temple of Liger

Yango

I walked up the path into the clouds and came up on a completely different world. "Whoa!" I said. It was amazing. It looked like I was in outer space, only the stars were all different colors. The path was made of small stars squeezed together. The path led all the way up to a platform. On that platform was the last temple. "WHO DARES ENTER MY DOMAIN?!" Came a loud voice from everywhere at once. I looked around and couldn't see anybody or anything that could make that sound. I decided to answer. "I'm Yango Leah, son of Minion Leah," I shouted back. "YOU ARE THE CHOSEN ONE, BUT I MUST SEE IF YOU ARE WORTHY," said the voice again. On the road appeared a dragon, a griffin, a troll, and a phoenix. "DEFEAT ALL THESE BEASTS ANDYOU MAY CONTINUE TO THE TEMPLE," said the voice.

"Let's see who would be the best to use?" I said. The emblem of Tigro appeared on my chest and in a flash of power I was Tigro and the double-ax appeared in my hand instead of my staff. With a mighty roar I charged the beasts. I raced for the dragon and he tried to slice me with his foot claw, but I was running so fast I ran under it. I was under the belly of the dragon and I jumped toward the dragon from underneath. "FIRE CLAW!!!!" I shouted. Fiery claws extended from my hand and I sliced the dragon in the gut. I turned toward the griffin. He charged toward me and I rushed at him. I swung my ax, but the griffin dodged and I clipped his wing. I spun around and used the other end of my weapon and sliced the griffin in half down the middle. I faced the troll. With a roar the troll swung his spiked club. "Now that's a face not even a mother could love!" I said with a laugh. I changed my emblem to Oni Link's and changed my weapon too. My whole body began to glow. "DEMON BLAST!!!!!" I shouted. A giant blast of power flew toward the troll and he disintegrated. I faced the phoenix and with a screech he launched a fiery beam at me. "I can't get near him without being burned, and most long distance attacks will also get burned," I said to myself. Then an idea appeared in my head. I changed my emblem to my father's and his bow and arrow. I also changed my cape to blue. I lined up three arrows on my bow. "ARROW WAVE!!!!" I launched the arrows at the phoenix and with the help of my water medallion, I created a tidal wave that crashed on top of the phoenix. When the water cleared all that sat there was a large bird with wet feathers. He opened his mouth to screech and I shot an arrow into his mouth and out the back of his head. "VERY IMPRESSIVE," said the voice, "I AM LIGER- THE ULTIMATE HERO, YOU MAY NOW ENTER MY TEMPLE," finished the voice. I changed back to normal and walked up to the temple door. "This is it Yango," I said to myself.

I placed the medallion into the hole and a light, brighter than any other lights of the other temples, surrounded me and the doors opened. I walked up to the pedestal and looked around. There was a light that was not in any other temples. It came from the emblem. It showed a sword slashing through and in the slash were eyes that looked part human and part cat. I slammed my staff into the pedestal and out came Liger. He wielded a weapon that looked like a battle ax with a 6ft blade extending from it. The ax had the Tiger's Eye right where Tigress had it on her ax. He wore a tunic that looked like it was on fire, but it did not burn. He wore tight pants that had hooked blades that came out at his shins. "I'm Liger- The Ultimate Hero," Liger said. I bowed before him and I shook. There was something about him, even as a spirit, that made you want to bow before him. "Stand up, hero," Liger said. I stood, but I still shook. He floated down to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Yango, there is no reason to be afraid of me, I'm only a spirit," he said, "yet you are not, you are the only one that could have beaten those beasts of mine," Liger said. "Now, I believe, you are hear for this," he showed me a medallion that looked like it had a blast of power on it. I nodded my head. "Now I give you the medallion of power, my weapon, and my special techniques, Tiger Inferno, Demon Vortex, and Tiger's Eye. That's a special one, it's used to take a mass number of opponents. It's actually Tigress' attack but she failed to give it to you, " Liger finished. "Thank you Liger, I will not fail," I said, my voice was strong. "Just one more question," Liger asked as he was turning to leave. "Shoot," I said. "How are you able to transform into the hero whose powers you are using?" he asked. "I could always do it, but Oni Link brought it out of me," I responded. "Oh yes of course, strong-willed Oni Link," Liger said with a laugh and walked back into the emblem. I left the temple and walked back down the path. "GOOD LUCK, YANGO- THE GREATEST OF HEROES," Liger's voice said just before I left. I turned to the temple and bowed. I saw the stars formed a constellation of Liger's head and he smiled at me, I smiled back and walked out.

"Yango it is so good to see you're alright," Tara said. She rushed up and kissed me just after I crossed the border. Minot walked up to me. "It is good to see you again, but we only have 5 more days until Voldoro launches his spell," Minot said. "Oh come on," I said. "Oh who am I kidding," Minot said. He picked me up in a giant hug. "It's good to see you again!" Minot said. "Oh man you dwarves can really hug," I said as he put me down, "but we do need to get going, you spent quite a bit of time in there. "Oh come on it had to have only been several hours," I said. "Actually try around several days," Tara said. "Oh man, we need to move," I said. So we left right away, and made it to Voldoro's place in 4 days.

We were just outside of the city and saw that Voldoro had the place heavily guarded. All the rest of the army that we had not destroyed was at the gate. "Alright guys, I'll handle this one by myself again," I said. "Yango, Oni Link may have been able to take out one army, but several armies?" Minot said. "You're right, Oni Link will not be able to handle this, Liger however....." I said. "Who's Liger?" Tara asked me. "You'll find out," I said. The emblem of Liger appeared on my chest and in an explosion of light went out from me. I stood there holding my sword. "Wow," said both of them at the same time, that was all they were able to say. I walked down the hill and stood in front of the city gate. The guard saw me and sounded the alarm. In a mater of seconds all of the armies of Voldoro appeared in front of me. "Well, I can give you this, you're well-organized," I said. "We can do more than that," said a monkey mutant in the front. "I assume you're the head general around here," I said. "Yes, who are you?" he asked me. I changed back to my original form. A murmur ran through the army. "Yango!" his voice was full of hate and surprise. I changed back to Liger and pulled my sword in front of me. "Everybody, fire on my mark," said the general. All the mutants aimed for me. "FIRE!!!" The general shouted. All of the army fired every weapon they had at me. When the smoke cleared I stood there leaning on my sword. "Is that the best you've got?" I asked. They all just stared. "My turn," I said. I pulled my sword in front of my face so I was looking through the gem. "TIGER'S EYE!!!!" I shouted. A sheet of fire came out of the gem and washed over the army. When the fire was done all I saw were ashes of the mutants. My cape turned to white and I blew away the ashes.

I changed back and Tara and Minot came rushing down. "You seem to be getting awful selfish about taking out the armies, aren't you?" Tara asked. "Well I have two reasons for doing that," I said. "Oh, what are they?" Minot asked. "1: I'm tired of these armies and really don't want to put too much effort into beating them, and 2: I wanted to try out that attack, Liger said it would take out a mass number," I explained. "Well if you're done, we need to continue, we have maybe half a day," Tara said and we entered the city.

Chapter 16

Yango vs. Voldoro

Yango

We entered the city and walked down the streets. Voldoro made quick work of chaining up the population of this town. "Alright here is the plan, there are bound to be guards at Voldoro's tower, so you two can take them out and I'll go ahead to Voldoro. Join me when you're ready," I said. We kept going until we reached the tower. "Oh yea Liger gave me the medallion of power. Here, you two need it," I said and I transferred the power to their weapons. We walked right up the tower and the mutants saw us. "It's Yango and his partners!" One of them said. "Oh, you're a smart one," Tara said. I ran right through the crowd and right into the tower. I heard one of this say, "Let Voldoro take care of him, let's get the others." I ran up the rest of the tower. I reached the top and I opened the doors into the main room. "Welcome Yango," a voice came from the shadows.

"Voldoro," I said, my voice was calm, but was full of hatred. "Yes it is me," said Voldoro. "You train pretty weak mutants," I said. "You will find I'm not that easy," Voldoro said. "Show yourself!" I commanded. He stepped out of the shadows. He was a frightful creature. He had claws as hard as diamonds, his wings were as strong as a griffin's. He had the eyes of a hawk, his upper body was as strong as 100 tigers. His legs were strong back legs of the mountain lion, one of the furthest jumping beasts around. His mouth was a strong beak filled with layered shark teeth and his fangs were venom filled viper fangs. His skin was thick crocodile hide and was completely black. "My you're impressive," I said. "It's time I shut that smart-aleck mouth of yours!" Voldoro snapped.

I changed into Liger's form and carried his weapon. My cape changed into a gold color. "Let's get this over with," I said. Voldoro laughed. I charged at him and sliced with my sword, but he dodged and ended up behind me. "TIGER INFERNO!!!!" I shouted and a tiger made of fire came out of my back and hit Voldoro head on. He flew back and into the wall. With a roar that shook the tower he lunged at me to bite me with his fangs. I brought my sword around and he bit the blade. I used the sword and pushed him into another wall. "Oh come on," I taunted. With lightning fast speeds he ran at me and I stabbed at him, but he ducked under it. I turned my blade down, so the ax part was vertical. He kept running and I sliced his shoulder. He stumbled back. I jumped into the air and spun my legs around and hit Voldoro several times with my bladed legs. Voldoro was on the ground breathing hard. "You have got to be kidding me, this is the great Voldoro!?!?" I mocked. "Oh, I have not yet started to fight," Voldoro said. All of a sudden it was so dark I could not see my own hand, even thought it could be right in front of my face. "What's going on!?!?" I asked. All of a sudden I was hit from behind and I fell on the floor. I got up and I was hit harder in the front. I flew back and hit the wall. "TIGER INFERNO!!!!!" I shouted. The tiger came out of my chest, but this time the darkness swallowed it up. "Nothing can break this darkness!" Voldoro said. "Yango what's going on!?!?!" I heard Tara's voice from the front door. "Voldoro has cast some kind of darkness spell. He's hiding in the darkness and I can't see a thing," I shouted back. Voldoro grabbed me by the head and began to crush it. I screamed in pain.

Tara

I couldn't see anything, but I could hear. Yango was in trouble. I had to do something but what? Then I remembered something that Minion told me. "This arrow is called the light arrow. It will defeat darkness anywhere it is. You can shoot this arrow in a dark room and it will light the whole room...." I reached into my quiver and pulled out the arrow in the side pocket, separate from the other arrows. I placed it in my bow and drew it back. I didn't care where I shot it, as long as it landed in the room. I aimed in the general direction of Yango's screaming. When I let go I heard the arrow fly through the air and land with a thunk.

Yango

I heard something fly toward us and I jerked myself loose. The arrow landed right between us and the room suddenly exploded into light. "AHHHHHHHHH!!!" shouted Voldoro. He was covering his eyes and was stumbling back. "Thanks Tara," I said and turned toward Voldoro. "You're finished!" I said. I was mad. I pointed my sword at Voldoro and the ax part began to spin and glow. "DEMON VORTEX!!!!!!" I shouted and a tornado of what looked like spirits launched at Voldoro. I'll give Voldoro this much, he had endurance. "You won't die, will you?" I said and continued hitting him with a beam of the Demon Vortex. Out of nowhere, a beam of power came. I looked around and saw that Tara was helping with the power that Liger had given us. She just smiled at me and turned back to her shooting. Then from the other side of me I saw another beam hit Voldoro. "Just in case," said Minot. But no matter how much we hit him he continued to live. I mean he felt pain, but he would not die. "You two keep him down, I'm going to try something," I shouted. "Sure thing," Tara said. I stopped firing at him and got my sword ready. I charged up to him and shouted. The beams stopped hitting him and Minot charged him with his ax and Tara drew the Mutant Sword and charged too. "On my mark," I said. We all drew back our weapons and my cape changed to a glowing gold color to symbolize me using the medallion of power. My sword glowed with power as I flexed my muscles to land the final blow. I saw that Tara and Minot did this also. "NOW!!!!" I shouted and we all sliced at the same time. "What!!!!" I said in confusion. Our blades had just bounced off of him. Use the attack 'ELEMENTAL BLADE' to finish him for good, said the voice of Link in my mind. "Hey, use all of your medallions at the same time and then slice him," I said. Voldoro was slowly getting to his feet. We drew back our weapons and they began to glow with a rainbow glow. "ELEMENTAL BLADE!!!!" We all shouted at the same time. We sliced him with our powered up swords and divided him in three parts. With a scream of anger and pain, Voldoro fell. "Yango, you are the best hero of all time and in the end I'm glad I lost to you," Voldoro said and died.

We looked out the window and the city was looking a whole lot better, for anything that had to do with mutants disappeared. "It's over, let's get out of here," I said. We walked out of the tower and faced a crowd full of people. They all gave a cheer when we came out. "Don't you think you should summon the 8 heroes?" Minot said. "Oh yes," I said. Then out of my mouth came these words-

By the power of the forces of good

I summon the 8 forces of the heroic realm

Link for courage

Tigress for nobility

Rachel for dignity

Joe for heart

Minion for spirit

Tigro for power

Oni Link for diligence

And Liger with the power of all these heroes combined

He is the greatest of them all

I summon you to be free of your bindings!

The weirdest thing about it is I had never even heard the poem, much less memorized it. "The poem is wrong about one thing," said Link as he appeared before me. "What's that?" I asked. "Liger is not the greatest hero," Tigress said. "No? Who is then?" I asked. "You are, Yango, you are," said Rachel. "You have made me proud my son." Guess who said that? "I agree with my fellow heroes," said Tigro. "You brought out a power we didn't even know you had," Oni Link said. "But you did that didn't you?" I said to Oni Link. "No Oni Link did not make you do that, it was your will to finish Voldoro's reign that pushed you to transform," Liger said. "Liger, they are saying I'm the greatest hero," I said. It was kind of a complaint. I did not want to take that title away from Liger. "They are absolutely right, you are the only one with enough skill and knowledge to have been able finish this quest," Liger said. "We will make you our king, if you accept it," said one of the humans. The rest of the crowd agreed. I looked at Tara, "Only if Tara will accompany me as my queen. "We will gladly accept Tara as our queen," said the same man. "Then I accept," I said. Everyone there, heroes and human alike bowed to us, even Minot bowed. "Long live King Yango!" Everyone shouted. I looked around and the whole kingdom was there, not just our city.

It was so. I was king and Tara was queen. The heroes were always handy so I could call on them for advise. As for Minot he went back to Goht Mountain and found Lido. Eventually they got married and raised a small, in stature, but healthy family. We finally had kids, Tara and me

that is. People asked us why we didn't have them when we were first married. This was my response, "You try to fight evil with a baby on your hands!" The people declared the time of our reign a Golden Age in time.

 

 

Epilogue

"Zenta come here, honey," Zenta heard his mom shout. The 10 year old boy put down the last issue of The Adventures of Link comic book, and shouted, "I'm coming Mom!" and ran into the kitchen.

 

The

End

 

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