The Encounter

The Encounter is the fourteenth chapter of My Inner Life. In this chapter, Dark Link finally makes his first appearance after having been hyped up in the previous chapter. The Encounter is the first of two chapters to take place in the Water Temple, the second one being The Final Fight.

Summary
After the couple decide they will head to the Water Temple to defeat Dark Link, Jenna and Link 'grabble' their weapons, Jenna apparently owning a couple of chakrams (misspelled 'charkams') that she calls 'Phoenix Circles' despite having had no prior combat training besides the mention of a bow in the first chapter proper. These weapons are of course, jeweled and expensive-looking. Before the couple heads out of the house, Jenna kisses Link Jr. temporarily goodbye and says 'a few words' to Princess Ruto. The two then head into their stables and each of them saddle up a horse to ride. Jenna reminds the readers that Epona is carrying a foal, so Link uses the stallion, Midnight Star, as his steed instead, while Jenna uses another mare, Star Dancer, as hers. They then ride off towards Lake Hylia.

Jenna mentions that the storm has grown worse and the snow is knee-deep. The visibility has also gotten worse, such that Jenna can no longer clearly see Link in front of her. They yell to each other over the 'howling wind' and Link advises Jenna to follow the sound of his voice.

Once they reach the fences outside of Lake Hylia, the storm calms down a bit to the point where the two are able to see ahead of them. Link and Jenna then spend the better part of two paragraphs jumping over the fence, with more of Link's Queen's misogyny creeping through. Link claims that he knows his big strong stallion can jump the fence, but shows doubt that Jenna's mare can pull it off. This is despite the fact that not only are mares more lithe and agile than stallions, Link himself rode Epona, a female horse, in OOT.

They reach the edge of the lake and dismount their horses. Jenna notices that the lake is frozen and wonders how they can enter the temple, considering the entrance is underwater. Link pulls out his bow and shoots fire arrows to create a hole in the ice through which they can travel, with Jenna gushing all the while about how amazing her husband is. He reaches into one of the horses' saddlebags and gives Jenna a Zora tunic (which he now has two of) and puts on his own. He then puts on his iron boots, Jenna somehow not being able to understand what the iron boots are despite their obvious name and function. However, he only has one pair, giving Jenna an excuse to cling onto Link once more. They head down to the bottom of the lake and into the Water Temple. Jenna apparently feels uneasy doing this, but maintains confidence in Link's abilities. Jenna notes the 'blood red jewel' above the temple door and feels a shiver down her spine, once again assuring us that she is nervous.

Once inside, Link suggests that they head for 'that strange room' (which could be literally any room in the temple). As they go deeper into the temple, Jenna reveals to us a new Mary Sue power as her 'cat-like instincts' kick in and she sniffs the air (underwater, mind you) and smells something 'fowl'. Link notes that they're close to finding Dark Link, and the latter (currently an unknown voice) sneers from somewhere in the temple that they're 'closer then [they] think'. Link engages in a shouting match with the unknown voice, then Link and Jenna are knocked out cold with blows to the head.

Once they wake up, they find themselves in a room somewhere in the temple, bound up with rope. Link slightly struggles against the ropes and then gives up easily. Dark Link then introduces himself, where it is revealed that (surprise, surprise!) his dialogue is of the poorly written, clichéd mustache-twirling villain variety, and pretty much every single one of his lines is sneered because he is evil. Links wonders out loud what Dark Link is going to do with Link and Jenna, the author holding our hands on Link's emotions as she doesn't know how to portray the emotion of anger through actually showing it. Dark Link admits that he hasn't decided what to do with them like any actually good villain would. He then turns to fawning over Jenna's beauty, and after she is at first afraid of what he'll do, he drops another 'subtle' hint that he wants to have his way with her. She realises what this means and spits in his face, and he then back-hands her in the face in response. Link seems only mildly furious that his wife was hit by a stranger. Dark Link then decides, for no good reason, to wander off and leave Link and Jenna alone for a while, though not before 'seductively' running a hand down Jenna's face.

Link is disheartened, but Jenna defiantly refuses to concede to defeat. They chat for a while, and then Jenna notices that her Phoenix Circles were not removed along with the other weapons, but were simply lying on a table, in a further display of Dark Link's incompetence as a villain. This, of course, is a thinly-veiled opportunity to let Jenna outshine the Hero of Time. Her 'cat-like instincts' kick in again (these should just be reflexes unless she is biologically a cat) and she 'gracefully' leans forward and gnaws at the ropes binding her, somehow managing to break them without breaking her teeth. The ropes have chafed against her wrists and caused her only a small amount of pain. Because Link sees the ropes being defeated by being nibbled on a bit, he of course, does not follow suit and instead waits for Jenna to retrieve her weapons and cut his ropes with them herself. Link fawns over Jenna and they get distracted for a moment with kissing. They then head out of the room.

Link points Jenna towards a lit room at the end of a corridor. Inside, they see a table with all their weapons lay on it. Jenna retrieves all the weapons and hands Link his weapons because she has decided that he is now too incompetent to merely take a few objects off of a table. Link swings the Master Sword around, enjoying the whooshing sound perhaps a little too much. Just as they decide to leave, Dark Link returns and enters the room. He is surprised that they managed to escape despite not having taken any further measures to prevent this. After a brief sneer-off with Link, Dark Link draws out 'a sword with a remarkably likeness to the Master Sword.'

Jenna begins to think that this is one battle Link cannot win alone, even though he did just that in canon. She then begins a scuffle with Dark Link, where Link's Queen shows that she has no idea that chakrams are actually throwing weapons, and that they cannot be used as swords or daggers. Jenna makes a 'daring charge' towards Dark Link, and jumps 'gracefully' (ugh) into the air and aims her weapons at Dark Link's face, though he blocks the attempted attack. She then high-kicks Dark Link in the face, which sends him flying into a wall and of course, draws blood. He utters the line 'So…you want to play rough do you? I can show you just how rough I can play!' while wiping the blood from his mouth. Jenna and Link are then blinded by a white light (presumably some Deku Nuts). During her loss of vision, Jenna hears Dark Link evilly laughing and feels herself being carried away.

Once she wakes up, she finds herself in Dark Link's illusory room (where Link and Dark Link fought in OOT), where she attempts to poetically describe the tree in the center of the room. She also reminds the readers that the cold water over the room's floor is indeed, cold. Dark Link emerges from behind the tree and she sneers at him while raising her weapons, wondering where Link is. Dark Link snaps his fingers (no, really) and the room lights up. Jenna then notices Link chained to a wall and reduced to a damsel-in-distress. She wonders what he did to Link (despite it being obvious) and calls Dark Link a bastard, and he then says that she must defeat him to save her husband. After Jenna poises herself into a 'fighting stance', the chapter ends.