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"Bong, Bong! The time is now 8:00 AM." Link awoke from a pleasant sleep and glared at Cloud's latest invention: an alarm clock. Hyrule would be better off without alarm clocks.

Cloud was back to full strength now, and Link's marriage was but a few short days away. He was getting nervous because he had rarely kissed Zelda for fear it would be considered improper. He was suddenly aware of the fact that it was horribly cold. But it's summer! he thought. He got out of bed and put two overcoats on, and was still a little chilly.

Outside his room, Zelda paced back and forth with an excited smile on her face. "Link!" she said when she saw him. "Sarah has a surprise for me! She said to invite Impa, Saria, and Nabooru so it must be something for a girl."

Just then Cloud walked in. "Well, looks like you decided to get up after all," he said jokingly to Link. Cloud didn't have any extra clothes on today.

"Aren't you freezing?" asked Link.

"Not really. Since I'm a cyborg I don't feel hot or cold."

For a second Link envied Cloud.

"Hi, everyone!" said a new voice. At the door were Saria, Impa, and Nabooru.

"Did we miss the surprise?" asked Impa. She looked as serious as ever.

"No, not yet," replied Zelda, "But Sarah should be back any time now."

"Right," said another voice.

"Sarah! There you are. We were getting worried," said Zelda. Sarah was carrying a box.

"Is that the suprise?" asked NaboorU.

"Yes," answered Sarah, and she opened the box.

"Perfumes!" cried Zelda happily. Link groaned inwardly. Zelda always went a little crazy over perfumes and usually wanted Link to try them on. He was in for a stinky morning.
 
 

Cloud laughed to himself. I wonder how Sarah knew that Zelda loved that stuff so much.

"We need a guinea pig," Zelda told the other ladies quietly. Impa and NaboorU stepped back, showing they had matured past this sort of thing.

"Turncoat," Sarah muttered.

Zelda turned to face Link, but he had left a few seconds earlier. She looked over at Cloud. "Could you come here?" she asked sweetly.

Cloud began backing away. He hated perfumes. Something about the chemicals made his synthetic skin turn strange colors. So he fixed a spot in his mind, pictured himself there, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he was standing in the place he had pictured. He was next to Zora River, right before it flowed into Hyrule Castle. He looked around. Something wasn't right here. The sun was shining brightly, despite the fact his internal thermometer said it was 2 degrees, the trees were bent from the weight of the ice that had formed on their limbs.

Must have been some freezing rain last night. Then he looked at the river. It was gently flowing into- Wait! Thats it! Why isn't the river frozen? Something is definitely wrong.....
 
 

"Let us go!" yelled Ruto. Being chained to a wall was beginning to dry her out.

Black Dragon walked over. The Water Sage was the only one he'd been able to capture, but another would soon be here. Then a flash of bright light illuminated the dark room, and Darunia appeared on the wall, his hands already in the chains.

"Soon, I wil drain all your power, and I will be unstoppable." Black Dragon laughed, then changed into a large white dragon, contrary to his name. An aura of light surrounded him, and the air seemed to freeze.

But, unbeknownst to him, a small black bat was watching him....
 
 

The other Sages had left and Zelda was studying today's schedule when in came Link. "Another tough day ahead?" he asked.

Zelda nodded glumly. "Ever since my father got too old to finish his work, I've had to take most of the burden, and today I have a diplomat from some backwater continent coming."

Just then, Cloud appeared beside her, making Zelda drop her papers. "Sorry," he apologized. "I'll try to keep teleporting to a minimum. I just wanted to tell you that the diplomat, or as I prefer, dip has arrived. Arek of Ithamor. He's a real jerk, stuck up, you know the type. Thinks he's better than all the people in Hyrule. He tried to order me around, but didn't get much of a result." Cloud smiled, then his face hardened. "I don't trust this guy. I think I know the continents around here, but Ithamor is not one. I feel like I've heard it before, though."

"How are you going to guard us?" asked Link. "They won't allow weapons in the main chamber."

Cloud grinned. "I may have to break that rule. Just a moment." He disappeared.

"I wonder how long he'll-" began Zelda, but was cut off when Cloud reappeared, now holding a cane with a golden circlet near the top just where the hilt would be on a sword.

"I'll have this. Now let's go."
 
 

Cloud stood in the conference room with his sensors scanning all life forms around to prevent an assassin from entering, and scanning for any dimensional rip. If those Dimension Z doctors had given him the ability to yawn, he would disrupt the meeting. He glanced at Link. He looked like he was about to go to sleep. Zelda was "listening " to Arek's babble, which consisted of about 90% gusty compliments (maybe this guy was a suitor in disguise) and 10% deception. Cloud toyed with the idea of telling Arek to hurry up or have his skull bashed in, but that wouldn't be very diplomatic.

Zelda began to shiver as the fire in the hearth became smaller. Arek took this as his chance. "Won't your Highness come sit near me?" he asked innocently. Link immediately woke up.

Zelda forced a smile and replied, "No, but thanks. Cloud, would you?" she pointed towards the dwindling fire.

She sure knows how to make a point, Cloud thought just before sending a large fireball at the fireplace. The wood flared up brighter than it had before. Of the assemblage, only Arek wasn't fazed.

"A simple carnival trick, nothing more," he said with a wave of his hand.

"Don't insult my guardian, Arek!" Zelda said angrily.

"This?" Arek asked incredulously and pointed towards Cloud. "Ha! I challenge you to a fight, Guardian! Winner gets the position."

Cloud slowly looked down at Arek, and Link realized he had never noticed how tall Cloud was. Cloud looked as emotionless as ever and said, "I do not fight for the fun of it. I only fight to kill."

"See?" Arek looked triumphant. "He's a coward."

Sarah entered. She had been listening through the door. "Fight him, Cloud, but don't kill him," she said hotly.

"I second that!" agreed Zelda.

Cloud nodded. "Very well." It looked as if he could do some skull bashing after all. Cloud looked back at Arek. "We will start when you decide, as to keep me from having an 'unfair advantage' on my part."

"Fine," Arek replied.
 
 

"Begin!" Arek suddenly shouted and punched Cloud in the chest. There was a clang and Arek began waving his hand in pain. Cloud reached over, grabbed Arek's collar, and lifted him into the air.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"I'm just getting warmed up!" Arek cried defiantly.

Cloud shrugged and threw him against a wall. "Do you yield?"

"Fine! Fine, I yield!"

Cloud resumed his stance next to Zelda. She was trying to keep from laughing. Arek sat down dejectedly, and Cloud began scanning again.

It was exactly 10.4 minutes afterwards (according to Link's Gossip watch ) when the attack began. A rip, like the one that had appeared in Zelda's bedroom, opened, and strange beasts dropped out. They had green skin, red armor, spears, and long tusks growing out of their mouths.

"Orcs!" Cloud exclaimed. But Link wasn't looking at those things. He was watching something with four arms and weapon in each hand. It had a skull for a face, and scale armor. Cloud looked incredulously at it. "An Evilar! But those died out with Black Dra- " he paused. "Well, never mind," he finished.

Then he reached for his cane, grabbed the gold circlet and twisted it. Link watched as part of the cane slid to the ground, revealing a long blade. "En garde!" Cloud yelled before leaping into the group of monsters. "Run!" he screamed and slashed one of the orcs in half. It blew apart into dust-like particles.

"And let you have all the fun?" asked Sarah. "Fat chance." She then pulled out a small cylinder, and pressed a button on it. The item elongated till it was as long as she was. She brandished her new weapon and rushed into the fray.

Link headed out of the room, intending to get his weapon, the Master Sword. The real Master Sword was still in the Temple of Time, so after the attempt on Zelda's life, he had had Biggoron forge him a sword out of Mithral, which was lighter than most metals, and had named it in honor of Link's legendary blade. Luckily, the conference room was near his quarters, and he was able to retrieve his weapon. Then he headed back.
 
 

It was a fierce battle, and when the orcs began fighting back, Arek leapt under the table. Not a good day... he thought. Just then he saw his chance. An unconscious orc rolled about three feet from Zelda, who had her back to wall, and Arek crawled out from his hiding place and ran in front of Zelda.

"I'll protect you, my dear!" he cried heroically.

Cloud looked up at the posing Arek. Zelda looked unimpressed. Cloud laughed to himself and gripped one of the orcs with his mind. Then he tossed it towards Arek. The orc promptly lifted off the ground and slammed into the diplomat of Ithamor.

Link stabbed two orcs while the Hyrulian guards engaged the others. Cloud headed for the Evilar. It tried to cut him in two, but Cloud danced back out of reach. Then the monster charged, swinging all his weapons: a sword, a mace, a spear, and a long dagger. Cloud shot forth some fire that burned its twin right arms, but the Evilar scored a hit with it's mace. Both stumbled backwards, holding their wounds.

Then the Evilar stiffened, and slowly slumped to the ground. Behind it was Sarah. She was holding a poisoned knife. "Thought you could use some help," she said.

The Hyrulian Royal guards had managed to down the rest of the orcs. Zelda looked at her barely conscious diplomat. "Looks like the discussions are off," she stated the obvious.
 
 

Deep below the surface, Ganondorf sat on a throne. He had many outposts like this, far below the surface. A small black bat flew down to him and landed on his arm. It chittered in his ear. "The Blackest Dragon has captured the Sages!" it informed him in the language of bats which Ganondorf only half-spoke.

"Stop me if I'm wrong," he told the little bat. "The weirdest flagon-"

He was interrupted by the bat. "The Blackest Dragon," it repeated.

"Oh! The Blackest Dragon. Go on."

"Has captured the Sages."

"Has ruptured the mages?" The bat seemed to wince, then it said the sentence again. "Has captured the Sages?"

"Yes!" the bat said.

"Really?" asked Ganondorf. "If you're right, and Link and Cloud are able to defeat him, all parties will be weakened... and I could kill them all!" He patted the bat on the head.

"Aw, shucks, it was nothing." The bat said sheepishly.
 
 

"Cloud!" Link said irritably. "Tell me right now if Black Dragon has any other types of troops. I don't like surprises."

"None," replied Cloud. "All he uses are those orcs and the occasional Evilar. "

"We need to find out where Black Dragon is," Zelda told them. "Saria should be able to locate him. The trees tell her all that happens in Hyrule. I may be able to contact her."

She then closed her eyes. Saria. She sent the thought across miles of empty land. Saria, can you hear me? Zelda transmitted for over a minute before finally getting an answer.

Zelda? Zelda, help us! We're being held captive! All the Sages! We need you to come to-

Zelda, for a split second, saw a large dragon. It grabbed her mental form, and began clawing her. She screamed and was jerked back to reality. When she opened her eyes she was on the ground with Link and Cloud trying to wake her.

Then she slowly sank back into unconsiousness....
 
 

"Do something!" cried Link.

Cloud was kneeling next to Zelda, inspecting her closely. "Her heart's stopped!" he said as calmly as he could. Then he turned to Link. "I'm going to try something from another dimension. Don't be alarmed!"

He looked back at Zelda. Sparks began to fly from his palms. He then placed his hands on her chest, and, with a silent prayer, he released the electricity.

Zelda's body convulsed, and her eyes flew open.

"Wha?" she began. "What happened?"

Link reeled with relief. "You.. you were unconscious!" he told her.

Cloud leaned back and slowly exhaled. "Don't scare us like that, girl!" he said with a smile.

"Scared myself, too," she replied.

"What happened?" demanded Link.

"Black Dragon heard me contact Saria. They're all his prisoners."

"So much for getting the Sages to help," said Cloud. "Looks like we'll have to find them on our own." He looked out a nearby window. The trees were hung down low from the ice that had formed on their limbs. His mind drifted back to the fact of Zora River not being frozen. It had something to do with those trees... trees... trees? "That's it!" he exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" asked Link.

"He used the same ploy in my realm. I'm going to kill that-" Cloud broke off into a language Link didn't understand. "Jalkhfufa ahfhsdjklhr kitkuitreakfdaos luekvhnskah vaner!" he informed Zelda and Link.

"What?" asked Link again. Cloud regained some of his temper. "Never mind. Listen, we must prove my theory. To the kitchen!" he cried, and started down the hall. On the way he asked Zelda some questions. "When was the last shipment of food supposed to arrive?"

Zelda thought for a moment. "Sometime last night," she answered.

"But did it?"

"No... now that I think about it the wagon never arrived. All that came was the milk shipment from Lon Lon Ranch."

Cloud nodded. "Just as I thought. Those trees are hanging down and blocking the caravan route. He's going to starve all of Hyrule!"

"Wait," Link interrupted. "Lon Lon Ranch isn't blocked by trees. We can still get food from there."

"True," Cloud began, but he stopped in mid-sentence. "That's his next target! We must move quickly. There's no ice on the ground, for some reason, and-" he stopped again. "And that's how it's possible for only the trees to become frozen, but the river is still not! He's using the powers of a snow dragon."

"Snow dragon? What's that?"asked Zelda.

"Another type of dragon. You'd be surprised to know how many different types of dragons there are. The only similarity is that they're all evil. Anyway, snow dragons can control ice. They can form ice all around you."

"And now he's formed ice on the trees," continued Link.

"Well, at least we now where he's headed," said Zelda.

"Yes. We must hurry to Lon Lon!"

Once they were outside the castle, Link pointed at the stables. "We can get some horses there."

After they finally got outside, Cloud looked in the direction of Lon Lon. "Time for the fight," said Cloud with more than a little excitement.

But Lon Lon was gone. In its place was a large hill that went up at a forty five degree angle for about a mile. The hill was actually made out of ice, preventing any type of climbing. Link looked up at the very top of the hill to see Lon Lon Ranch. He tapped Cloud and pointed. "Wow. Black Dragon made a mountain of ice," Cloud said softly. He turned to the rest of them. "I may have to break some more rules."

Zelda smiled. "Don't worry, we won't press charges."

"Thanks ever so much."

"All right," said Link, "when do we go?"

Cloud elbowed him in the ribs. "We'll talk about that later," he whispered. "Excuse us," Cloud said to Zelda. Then he led Link to an empty room. "Listen, we're going to have to leave those two behind."

"Sarah and Zelda?"

"Yes. They'd just slow us down. Best I know, they couldn't help us in a fight, and they would be in great danger. We'll leave in one hour. Be ready."
 
 

Ganondorf had been gathering his army as quickly as possible, and he would soon attack Lon Lon. Thanks to his spying bat, he had learned Black Dragon's next target. Soon, he would have the Sages, that traitor Black Dragon, Link, Zelda, and Cloud!
 
 

Link had everything he needed to survive the harsh weather, and survive any attacks from Black Dragon. Cloud came in to his room. "Good, you're ready. I brought something from my world that will get us up that cliff," Cloud told him, then added,

"Don't worry about Zelda and Sarah. I left them a note. "

After they got outside, Link got a good look at his mode of transportation. It was large and gray. It hovered in the air, the hum of its engines the only sound nearby. There was a pod about as long as Link attached to the left side of the contraption. "Where am I supposed to ride?" he asked.

"Well, I sit in that seat for the driver, and you sit in that pod."

"That little pod?"

"Yes," Cloud replied cheerfully. "Oh, by the way, I need your help. We'll have to fight Black Dragon as a snow dragon and defeat him to change him into his real form. Snow dragons are only weak against rain, and I've heard rumors about a song that can bring rain. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

"Yes! "answered Link. "The Song of Storms. Zelda has the ocarina... but we might ask the guy that taught me the song. I don't know his name, but he lives in the windmill of Kakariko Village."
 
 

"No!"was the response of the man in the windmill when Cloud asked to borrow his music maker. "Not in a million years! You can't have this family heirloom!"

Cloud sighed. "I don't want to have it," he said from between clenched teeth, "I only want to borrow it, and I'll pay you well."

"Never! Not for 500 rupees!"

"How about 1000 rupees?"asked Link.

"Well..." said the man uncertainly. "All right, but you'd better have it back in one piece."

"Right," said Link.
 
 

Black Dragon was growing impatient. They should be here by now. What's keeping them? He shifted his large, white, snow dragon body. He might soon go after them if they didn't get here quickly.
 
 

Link looked nervously at the vehicle. They had walked to Kakariko, and now Link had to ride in that thing Cloud called a "land rover." Cloud explained that in a certain dimension, the land rover was a type of jeep, but his dimension had advanced the design. Link didn't know what Cloud was talking about, but he would occasionally nod.

"Get in," Cloud said shortly. Link shrugged and clambered into the pod. Cloud sat down and pressed a few buttons. The engine roared to life. He then reached down to a small stick at his left side with notches along it's path forward. Each notch had a number from 1 to 10. Cloud reached down to the stick, jammed it to the slot marked 10, and pressed down a small pedal. The land rover blazed forward, flying at high speeds up the hill.

"Listen!"Cloud yelled over the noise of the machine. "When we reach Black Dragon, You'll have to play the Song of Storms on that music box. The rain will freeze around him, and he'll have to change back to his normal form. The ice will melt extremely quickly. Ice made by a snow dragon will never melt until the dragon is dead or has simply disappeared. Since Black Dragon will change back, all the ice, including this mountain of it, will melt. You'll have to rescue Malon, Talon, and, unfortunately, Ingo. I'll distract Black Dragon. Don't try to help. You don't know his traditional attacks, just like I haven't studied Ganondorf's moves. The men in Dimension Z call it the, 'Each to his Own' theory, so stay out of my way. Remember, you must get Malon, Talon, and Ingo out of there. Use the land rover, I'll show you how."

And Cloud proceeded to show Link the accelerator, the brake, the starter, and the shields. "What about these?" Link yelled over the engine and pointed at a row of buttons.

"Those are the power boost and the heavy lasers. Hang on, we're going through the gate!" Link looked ahead. The gates to Lon Lon were closed, but Cloud barreled through them, sending splinters everywhere. "Tell Talon I'll pay for that gate," Cloud said.

In the middle of the horse pasture stood a large white dragon. "Ah, I thought you'd never get here. I've been waiting for three hours," It said in a strange language.

"What did it say?" whispered Link.

"Well, best I can tell, the gist of it is, 'let's get down to the fighting,'" Cloud replied. "I don't know if you can understand me," he yelled to the snow dragon, "but I wanted to tell you that since you messed with the weather, we'll mess with it some ourselves! Remember, what goes around, comes around!"

Link smiled and began turning the handle of the box. Cloud had unknowingly repeated the words of the man in the windmill. Link could still hear that happy voice... Go around! Go around! Go around and around and around! The music maker began the lilting Song of Storms. A drop of rain hit him on the nose.
 
 

Cloud leapt forward and fired a ball of energy at the dragon. It sent Black Dragon flying backwards. Cloud saw the Sages chained to a stone wall. He had to get to them. Drawing his swords, he bolted for the captives. But something flashed past his line of sight. It was an icicle!

The snow dragon was firing ultra-sharp shards of ice at him. More icicles embedded themselves in the ground near him. Black Dragon had found his range. Cloud began jerking and twisting like a bee hive had fallen down his pants. The projectiles scraped him, and he had to bend his body in ways not humanly possible. He ended up bent over backwards with his head peering out from between his legs. The last time he had seen anything like this, it was at the circus. Then he contorted himself into roughly a hoop, and began rolling towards the Sages. Black Dragon was unable to pursue because the rain had frozen his legs to the ground, so he contiued to shoot icicles.
 
 

Link turned the handle of the music maker faster, causing more rain to fall. Cloud had reached the Sages, and was obliterating the projectiles with one hand, and freeing the hostages with the other. Once he finally got the last one free, Rarau, The Sages teleported away, and Cloud turned back towards the snow dragon. The transformed Black Dragon had been completly frozen.

The snow dragon slowly changed back into Black Dragon and the ice around him began to melt. Black Dragon pulled two hand-axes and charged Cloud.

Link tossed the music maker away and rushed for the house. He slashed through the door and found Malon, Talon, and Ingo tied in the corner.

"Link!" Malon cried. "Am I glad to see you! Get us out of here!" Link cut their bonds and led them out the door.

Cloud was dancing away from Black Dragon's attacks, slowly leading him to a wall. When he finally got there, Black Dragon swung with one of his axes, but Cloud dodged. The weapon stuck in the wall, and Black Dragon slashed with the other one, but it embedded itself in the wall also.

"Close!" said Cloud mockingly. "Try again!" But now both the axes were stuck. Black Dragon tried to pull them out, but failed. Cloud sighed. "I thought you were better than this. I'll give you one free bit of help. Hang on to your axes." And Cloud fired a large ball of energy that hit Black Dragon in the chest. Cloud's foe flew across the field. Unfortunately, he had lost his grip on the weapons, and they remained in the wall.

Black Dragon looked up. Cloud was still standing next to the wall. He smiled. The weapons began to glow a faint green, then they released their energy.

Cloud was blown forward and lost both his swords. He recovered quickly, leapt up and greeted a smirking Black Dragon with a right hook. Cloud's target was sent spinning backwards. Black Dragon retaliated with an uppercut that knocked Cloud flat on his back.

Black Dragon gave out a yell of triumph. He walked over to Cloud'd still body and drew back his foot to kick Cloud's head. But Cloud had other ideas. He kicked with both feet. His attack caught Black Dragon right in the stomach. Black Dragon doubled over, and had a good view of Cloud's feet sweeping his legs out from under him. Black Dragon tumbled to the ground.

Cloud flipped himself upright and his opponent did the same. Black Dragon's hand's began to glow green, while Cloud's were emitting a red aura. Finally, they both gripped each other's hands. Green energy flowed through Cloud's body, while red lightning lit up Black Dragon.

Link watched the two old foes battle and took this as his chance to leave. "Come on," he whispered to the ranch inhabitants. They followed him towards the land rover.

Black Dragon turned his head to see his victims leaving. "No!" he cried, right before releasing one of Cloud's hands and attempting to destroy the group heading for the land rover.

Cloud took this momentary distraction to his advantage. His hand shot over and grasped Black Dragon's forehead. Black Dragon screamed, and tried to tear the hand away, but Cloud's grip held firm. His foe slowly slumped to the ground.

Link had already made his escape with the ranch workers.
 
 

Cloud retrieved his two weapons and looked around. He was going to have to improvise an escape, so he took one of the gate fragments and chopped eight holes in a pattern like this.

Then he drew his backup weapons: two short swords, and pulled their blades off. He wished he had remembered these in the fight before, but it was too late for that now. He then strung some rope in the holes, and made some holes in the sword blades like this.

Then he put the other end of the rope in those holes, and pulled upwards with all his might. The blade imbedded itself in the thick wood. Finally, he repeated the process on the other sword. He now had a make-shift snowboard. Cloud had never snowboarded before in his life.

He ran to the exit of Lon Lon Ranch and leapt forward, shoving the snowboard under his feet. He landed with a jolt that rattled his teeth, and headed down the hill at top speed. Cloud immediately wished he had ridden the land rover. He suddenly realized he had no way to steer, so he drove one of his regular blades into the ice to form a rudder. He also had no way to stop, But there wasn't time to think about that now.

Cloud's attention drifted to a speck, far down the slope. A solitary Stalfos. What was that doing here? Oh well, one Stalfos wouldn't prove much of a threat. But more dots appeared on the horizon. A Lizfols here, a Stalfos there, an Iron Knuckle- Huh? Cloud thought. An Iron Knuckle? That thing always stays with.......Ganondorf....

Ganondorf's army had arrived.
 
 

All I have to do is capture Zelda, Link, and Cloud, and that fool of a king will trade his kingdom for their safe return, dreamed Ganondorf. He ignored Hyrule Castle, and sent all his troops up that ice mountain.
 
 

All right, thought Cloud. An old teacher of mine once said to always review a situation, and an answer might present itself. Going downhill on a make-shift snowboard, no way to stop, barly able to steer, and an army of horrible creatures blocking my path. Cloud paused. Well, no ideas yet. Just questionings of my own sanity.

He was going to have to get out of this the hard way. Cloud steered left to avoid an Iron Knuckle, but in the process, he careened into a Lizfols. It tripped and began rolling back down the hill. Cloud looked ahead. An Iron Knuckle had fallen and drove its axe deep into the ice. When it saw Cloud coming, it lifted its legs up to form a ramp. He suddenly found himself flying through the air.

Okay, he thought. I can handle this. Cloud noticed something only slightly downhill from him. It was an Iron Knuckle. And he was hurtling towards it. Cloud threw his weight to the left. His vehicle tilted to a ninety degree angle, and just missed the Knuckle. Cloud needed to get to Hyrule Castle and fast.

Far ahead of him, Link had made it into the protection of the courtyard, and the guards had closed the drawbridge once more.

Good.

Cloud gripped the leg of a fallen Stalfos, and tossed the monster so its legs rested on the sign that pointed to Lon Lon Ranch. His plan was to ramp up onto Hyrule Village's drawbridge. The sharp blades on the jury-rigged snowboard would embed themselves in the bridge, and he could jump over the remaining bit of wall.

His planning was interrupted by a shout. "Hey!" It was Ganondorf.

Oh boy, Cloud thought.

"Stop!" Ganondorf hurled three energy balls at Cloud.

Cloud turned around till he was facing back up the slope. He was going to try something new. "Oh, momma," he muttered under his breath and held his hands out in position. Then he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. The shots were slowly catching up. Well, technically, I don't have a "momma" since I was turned cyborg. When I was human, I had "momma" but now, I guess my "momma" would be the workers who built this body. But if-

He was cut off by one of the attacks sizzling into the ice. Oh yeah. That's what I was doing. He grabbed both energy balls, ignoring the pain in his hands, and tossed them back up the hill. Ganondorf barely dodged the missles, but in his effort, he tripped and fell down the slope.

Cloud was able to pull off the first part of his plan: ramping into the drawbridge, but the guards instantly thought he was an Iron Knuckle and sent a bombchu down at him. He leapt over it and latched his hands over the ramparts. But he had forgotten that a bombchu will explode in a certain length of time if it doesn't hit a target.

FOOM!

"Yaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Cloud screamed as he flew high into the air right past the startled guards. Cloud flipped himself about so he faced down towards his landing point: the stone rampart floor. He attempted to fly, but it's hard to concentrate when you're dropping down towards a rock floor. CRUNCH!

"Look at that!" one of the guards exclaimed.

"Wow! I've never seen any thing like that!"

Cloud lifted his head and slowly got up. Were they talking about him? Luckily, he had been able to bring some of his flying power to bear, and soften the impact. It still hurt like dudalfjhnajds (don't ask what that means). He looked over the wall. The ice mountain had melted an it was all washing down Gerudo valley. The Gerudos were in for a shock. Lon Lon had crashed down with a soggy squish as it hit the muddy ground.

Just then, Link and the farm employees came up the stairs. "My ranch!" Talon cried.

Ingo crossed his arms. "Actually, that should be my ranch, since I poured so much energy into that-"

Cloud stopped him. "Shut up or I'll toss you over the wall." Ingo stopped. Cloud looked and saw what the guards were talking about. Ganondorf had just flown away. Looks like he survived, Cloud thought glumly. Then he turned to Link. "Zelda and Sarah are probably looking for us. We'd better go tell them we're okay."

"Right," Link replied. "Think they found your note?"

Cloud sighed. "I hope not. If they find out we went off without them, we'll have another storm to brave, a thousand times worse than this one."
 
 

Cloud was definitely correct about that. Zelda was ready to cut Link's head off. "YOU ARE AN IDIOT!!" she raged. "AN ABSOLUTE IDIOT! NEVER EVER LISTEN TO CLOUD AGAIN! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!"

"Take it easy! Calm down-"

"CALM DOWN?! HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN-"

"Wait a minute. Was it you who found the note?"

"No," Zelda said with much restraint. "Sarah did. And Cloud is in much worse trouble than you are."

Link listened for a second... and heard deadly quiet.... Yep, Cloud was in deeeeeeeep trouble. "Go ahead and yell," he told Zelda. "I just realized how lucky I really am."

"Thank you. Now, WHY IN HYRULE DID YOU GO WITH HIM?!"
 
 

"I don't believe this," Link muttered as he looked at the wreckage of the building. This one had been destroyed when some of the water splashed over the walls. The one building that simply was crucial to a wedding. The wedding chapel.

"The workers say it will take about a month to rebuild," Cloud told him. "Looks like you'll have to postpone that wedding." Link sighed heavily.