Lydia calculated everything in her head. Lots of new spells + none of Link’s snoring + a good nights sleep + a blue-skied morning = a great mood!  She was indeed in a very good mood, despite Navi’s annoying tapping-on-the-window-loudly wake up call.   She figured she probably wouldn’t even argue with Link today.  She told Gordon that and he said "Yeah, fat chance."  She thought he was probably right.

As the group got prepared to fly out of Kakariko, Lydia spoke up. "Let’s not fly this time," she said. "Let’s walk it."

"Why?" Gordon asked. "Flying will be a lot faster."

"But we can’t fight any monsters up in the air. That’s no fun with all these new powers.  Besides, I’d like to actually experience this place, and sometimes you do that by walking in it.  Through all the trees, fields, …the sunshine…"  Her eyes became more and more starry as she spoke.

Link looked at her. "We really should fly there."

Lydia glared at him. "We’re walking."

Link threw his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay..."

Gordon rolled his eyes.

The trio headed toward the river. However, monsters weren’t the first test of their magic. The group had turned the same corner they had before to get to Zora’s River from the field, but this time the path was blocked by huge boulders.

"Wh...what’s this?" Link wondered. "Where’d these things come from?"

"They weren’t here before, were they?" Lydia asked.

"No...... I’ll bet it’s Ganondorf trying to stop us again."

"Do you really think so?" Gordon asked. "Why doesn’t he just come after us himself instead of sending these stupid road blocks?"

"You have to understand how the twisted mind of a maniac works," Link answered. "He probably figures that coming after us himself is too boring. I’m sure he would rather see us struggle past problem after problem, and then come after us. Hopefully, we’ll have the Triforce by then. He’s only hurting himself by wasting time."

"First the Tektite army," Lydia said, "and how this."

Gordon crossed his arms. "What’ll he think of next? I’ll bet he sends a zombie army after us."

"We’ll worry about that when it comes!" Lydia said cheerfully. "As for now, I’m gonna blast these boulders out of our way with one shot! Step aside guys."

Lydia moved forward and the boys stepped behind her. She threw her hands in front of her, toward the boulders.

"Damu Brass!"

Link and Gordon waited. And waited. And waited, but nothing happened.

Link looked at Lydia. She had a mixed look of disbelief and embarassment on her face. "What’s wrong?" he asked.

"I...uh...." Lydia stuttered, "I...forgot the words somewhere near the end and was trying to wing it, but it didn’t work!"

Link chucked. "You say you aced all those ….social studies…… tests?"

Lydia whirled around toward him. "Shut up, man!" she snapped. "Hmph.   So much for my good mood."  She reached into her bag and pulled out the big spellbook. As she read through the spell again, she heard a voice behind her.

"Damu Brass!"

A large explosion followed.  Lydia turned around to see that Gordon had gotten impatient and had taken care of the roadblock himself.  She looked back at Link, and then slugged his arm when she saw that he was trying really hard not to laugh at her.

As they continued, Lydia and Gordon chatted amoungst each other as Link walked in silence a few steps in front. Lydia stopped talking abrubtly after she suddenly ran right into Link.

"What’s the mat—"

Lydia stopped midsentence when she saw why Link stopped so quickly. The trio was heading right for a pack of nine or ten skinny, flaky zombies blocking the path.  They looked like humanoid-shaped muscle masses, and the faces were like skulls.  No visible nose, a gaping mouth, and dark holes for eyes.

Link snarled. "Redeads...."

Gordon laughed. "See?" he said. "Told you he’d send zombies next."

Lydia smacked her fist into her hand. "No need for a big fight. I can nail these guys really quick."

"I can stop them for you with my Ocarina," Link said.

Lydia smirked. "No need."

She walked forward toward the ugly, restless souls. They limped toward her slowly. Lydia chanted something as she walked.

She shot her fist up in the air.

A white beam of light appeared around the Redeads. Through it, Link could see them all groaning loudly, obviously in a lot of pain. When the beam of light disappeared, the Redeads disappeared with it.

Lydia whirled around and flashed a V with her fingers. "Victory!"

Farther up the river, the trio ran into monster after monster; nothing that couldn’t be finished off with a quick Flare Arrow. It was pretty smooth sailing, even though Link kept complaining about feeling useless. However, he saw his chance to be useful again when a large monster very unusual to the river area jumped them.

"This is new," Gordon said. "What’s this thing?" He stared at the monster. It was a giant lizard, at least twice as tall as any of them, and was holding a small dagger.

"It’s a Lizalfos," Link replied. "This is definitely Ganondorf’s doing."

"Why do you say that?" Lydia asked.

"I’ve never seen a Lizalfos outside of Death Mountain. They live in hot areas, not at the river."

"It won’t be here long!" Lydia shouted and strolled forward.

"No, wait a sec." Link said.

Lydia stopped and turned around. "Whazamatter?"

"You know I hate feeling useless. Let me play with MY new magic for a change."

"Okay, sorry," Lydia said through a smile as she moved away.

The Lizalfos had grown tired of the humans talking and moved toward them with its dagger ready. Link also moved forward with his sword drawn. He glared at the monster with mean eyes.

"You’ll be sorry you ever left the mountains, pal," Link scorned, and he threw his blade in the air. "Blade Haut!"

He brought the blade down on the ground and a huge tremor wave shot out of it and moved toward the Lizalfos. The lizard ran toward the right, trying to dodge it, but noticed a little too late that the tremor wave had also turned and followed him. The Lizalfos shrieked as it was thrown back into the wall, steaming.

Link wasted no time. He ran forward holding his sword to his side, going in for the kill.

"Astral Vine!"

The red coating of magic reappeared on the blade, and Link struck the Lizalfos down. The monster disintigrated on the spot.

Lydia scoffed. "I thought warriors weren’t supposed to hit an enemy when he’s down."

“All’s fair when Ganondorf is involved, I guess,” her brother replied.

Link only shrugged. "Ganondorf really is playing with us. As threatening as they look, a Lizalfos isn’t really tough if you’re good with defense. Why isn’t he trying any harder?"

Link was thinking so hard that he forgot to keep walking. He hardly noticed Lydia literally pulling him by the arm as they kept going toward the domain.

Something was very wrong in Zora’s Domain. That was for sure. The problem was obvious to them the minute the trio set foot in the Domain.

"There’s...no water!" Gordon shouted.

Zora’s Domain was completely dried up. A place that had once been completely full of water was as dry as a bone. Not only that, there weren’t any more Zoras than drops of water in the whole domain.

"The water’s gone...and so are the Zoras!" Lydia said. "What happened here?"

Link sighed. "So much for Ganondorf not trying hard to stop us. He knows the Zoras have the last stone."

“Why that…lousy…,” Lydia grumbled through clenched teeth.

"Where do you think they all went?" Gordon asked.

"If they’re all okay, that is," Lydia added.

"If they are all okay," Link replied, "I think they’d go to the nearest place with a lot of water."

"Where’s that?"

"Lake Hylia."

"This is the most beautiful place yet!!"

Lydia admired the scene almost immediately. Lake Hylia was indeed beautiful. The water of Lake Hylia was so clear and blue that you could see the bottom, and the grass at the shores was a nice shade of green. To top it off, their Ray Wing spell gave them a spectacular view. There was only one thing ruining the scene, and Lydia’s spirits fell when she noticed it.

"I don’t see any Zoras...." she said.

After landed on the north side of the lake, Link walked forward and knelt down by the shore, peering into the water.

"You’re right," he said, "I don’t see any Zoras anywhere."

"What happened?" Gordon asked. "What happened to the Zoras?"

Link paused in thought. "Ganondorf," he finally said.

"Huh?" Lydia murmured.

"Why do you think we hit an unusually high number of monsters on our way to the domain this morning?  And monsters that aren’t supposed to be in that region?  Ganondorf was slowing us down. He probably only had to slow us down enough to give himself the time to finish his dirty work at the domain."

"You mean we just missed him?"

"That’s my guess."

Lydia immediately started cursing herself. "I’m sorry," she started. "It’s my fault. I’m the one who insisted we would walk to Zora’s Domain instead of just Ray Winging there. I was selfish and made all of us take the slow way, and now the Zoras are gone."

Gordon shook his head. "No, it wasn’t your fault. There was no way of preventing this."

Link stood up. "He’s right."

"But," Lydia protested, "if we had just flown there we may have gotten there in time to stop him."

"Stop scolding yourself," Gordon said. "Ganondorf still would’ve found a way to slow us down if we had flown instead."

“And even if we had gotten there before he was done,” Link added, “we couldn’t beat him as we are now.”

Lydia looked up meekly. "You guys...really aren’t mad at me for this?"

Link smiled. "There’s no time for that," he said. "We have to find the Zoras and fix the domain."

"But where do we start?" Gordon wondered.

Link’s face fell. He shook his head and sighed. "I don’t know. I just don’t know."

Lydia went to bed that night feeling very guilty. Link had kept telling her that the whole Zora thing wasn’t her fault, but she still felt responsible for their disappearance. If only we had just flown there, she kept thinking. I was selfish and made the group walk. Now the Zoras are gone. It’s all my fault. All my fault.

As she drifted off to sleep, one thought stayed hard in her mind, as if etched in stone. I’ll get to the bottom of this, she thought, and I’ll fix it. Whatever did this to the Zoras will pay dearly. I’ll see to that, definitely.