UPDATE THAT TOOK FOREVER! IT BURNS!
So sorry about the wait! This would have been up sooner, but my laptop deleted everything I wrote on this chapter, so I had to re-write it. And I am not happy. But since you've all waited so patiently for this chapter (again, so sorry about that!) I'll just get on with it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Legend of Zelda, Okami or Spyro.
"Well this is fantastic." Ammy snapped. "There are two hidden evils in our worlds that we don't even know about, there's a mentally insane psychopath trying to take over Hyrule, there's a dragon and human in the form of a wolf stuck in a land they don't know, and the only people who know how to get them home insist on talking in riddles so that we have know idea what they mean. Just peachy."
Link flattened his ears at Ammy's rant, not used to seeing her even slightly annoyed despite the fact that he'd only known her for a day. She didn't seem like the type of wolf who got angry easily, so this already seemed extremely out of character. Spyro, on the other hand, sniggered at the psychopath remark before attempting to calm her down.
"Ammy, chill. It's not like it's the end of the world, right? I mean, if it was the end of the world, then what would be the point in bringing us all together? I hardly doubt it was just to say a quick 'hello' before we all die."
Link suppressed a snort, but Ammy only glared at them both. "And what would you know about that, Spyro?" She growled. "As I recall, you had the option to enter the portal. You could have, oh, I don't know, walked away like a normal person?! We'd have one less person to worry about!"
Spyro gulped slightly and backed away. Link quickly recovered from the shock of seeing Ammy snap at one of her friends (acquaintances? Colleagues?) and decided to step in.
"Ammy, I think he would have been dragged in anyway. I mean, if he wasn't supposed to be with us, the portal wouldn't have appeared. Maybe, uh, maybe one of his enemies teamed up with ours? Yeah, that's probably it." He soothed, hoping to calm her.
It half worked. Ammy got off Spyro's back, but she only got angrier.
"Ugh! Bad guys and their stupid alliances!" She groaned. Link blinked at the choice of words, surprised that she wasn't cursing at the situation – which was probably something to do with the fact she was a goddess – but didn't have a chance to say anything to reassure her, since she took off so fast that Link had to remind himself that she hadn't used the Veil of Mist.
Link and Spyro simply stared at Ammy's figure darting away from them, speechless. It took a moment for Link to snap out of it and start to run after her, only to be stopped by Minda flinging herself on his back and ordering him to stop. Spyro rolled his eyes and walked up to the other wolf. "Link, she'll be okay, she's only stressed. I mean, think about it, she's kind of got a lot to deal with right now, like showing us around Nippon, and she probably feels the need to protect us."
Link's ears flattened even further against his head. "But I don't understand. She wasn't like this yesterday. And she wasn't like this earlier. In fact, she was perfectly fine until the fight." For some reason, that made him stop, thinking about why that might mean something.
"It was probably just the realisation of everything that the battle brought on." Spyro soothed. But Link wasn't listening. Instead, his eyes widened as he realised something.
"Spyro, did Ammy get hurt during the battle? Like, at all, by any of the demons?" He asked. Spyro's face twisted into one of confusion as he tried to remember what happened only a few minutes ago.
"Well, I thought I saw one of the demons slash her leg when she wasn't looking, but she didn't seem to notice, and I didn't notice any wound or any blood." He said finally, before adding, "Why do you want to know?"
Link's look seemed to say everything, because Spyro's eyes also widened as they shared a worried glance, both thinking of the same thing. In a way that could be considered extremely creepy, the two boys spoke at the same time. "Demon poison."
"But that's impossible!" Spyro cried. "Demon poison doesn't exist, right? I mean, I've never heard of it. It was just a random thought of yours, right Link? It's just an old fairy tale that people stopped telling, because no one got scared of it."
Link sighed and shook his head. "I don't know where the idea came from, Spyro. I just... kind of heard a voice in my head that said 'demon poison' and I wondered if that's what it was. I'm not sure if it was someone trying to tell me something, or if I'm just being paranoid." He explained.
Spyro groaned. "Well I hope to the Chronicler that it was you being paranoid. I'm not exactly eager to be searching for the cure for demon poison. If there is a cure for it. I mean, uh, there might not be a cure because it might not exist. But then if it does exist and there isn't a cure, then we'll, uh..."
Link rolled his eyes at Spyro's rambling. "Look, calm down. I'm sure that we'll find out from Ammy when she gets back." Those words struck him with another thought. "Oh no. Spyro! What are we gonna do? Ammy's gone, she's the only one who knows this place, Issun is with her, and it'll be night soon!"
Spyro groaned again and slammed his head into a nearby tree. "Curse Ammy! Why did she have to run off like this? She knows that we don't know our way around here. If only we hadn't gotten into that fight."
"Which one?" Link asked. "The fight with the demons, or our argument?"
Spyro sent him a glare. "The first. I mean, the second, I mean, both – oh, does it really matter? We're basically stuck here until she comes back, or until we go looking for her. I, personally, would not like to attempt the latter."
Link sighed. "Alright, alright. Calm down. Give her a few minutes, she probably just needs time to cool off, then she'll come back. I'm sure of it. Just don't get your scales in a twist, it'll be too much of a pain to put them all back properly."
Spyro snorted in amusement, and soon the two had made a few ridiculous comments that had sent them rolling on the floor in fits of laughter for no reason whatsoever. It felt good, Link realised, to just relax, have a good laugh and forget about duties for a while. Especially with friends. They really did lighten up the mood, if you found the right ones.
By the time that the two finally tried to get their breaths back, which succeeded in making them laugh harder more than actually calm down, darkness was beginning to fall, the sun falling. It wasn't until the moon had risen that Link finally managed to get himself together, leaving Spyro helpless to his fate that was rolling around in the dirt trying to breath. Link realised, with a sinking heart, than Ammy had still not returned. Her absence was seriously beginning to scare him to the point where he physically dragged Spyro onto his feet by his horns to explain the problem.
Spyro simply sighed and stretched his wings, which were slightly stiff due to being constantly crushed for hours, silently cursing the fact that he had to go out and look for the she-wolf. If they got attacked or killed, he was blaming her.
Link, however, simply got an idea.
"Spyro!" He suddenly cried, making the dragon jump out of his skin. "That's it! You're wings! You can fly over the land and keep an eye out for Ammy. We'll have more luck if you lead us using a birds-eye view."
Spyro grumbled something about not being a brother, and how it wasn't fair that he had to do all of the work, but he took off all the same, leaping into the sky and taking the lead, with Link following closely behind, both keeping their eyes on the other while looking out for their missing goddess. All the while, Link couldn't stop thinking about Ammy. He so desperately wanted to find her, for her to tease then about being worried, for her to tell them her plan to open the portal, for her to laugh and tell them that they were idiots, because demon poison didn't exist.
Thankfully, it wasn't too long before they found her. They had to wander around for a bit, narrowly dodging demon scrolls, trying to avoid people, and, in Link's case, nearly getting run over by a postman that was sprinting too fast to be natural. The only thing Link could think of for that was how grateful he was that the guy wasn't a complete weirdo like the postman he had back home. After ten to fifteen minutes of searching, Spyro finally called down to Link. "I've found her!"
Link immediately changed his direction and followed Spyro, who was flying a bit lower now that he knew where she was. Relief washed away all of the worry that Link felt, only to have that worry fight back when he saw her.
Ammy was sat on a path that clearly led to some island in the distance, staring out to see with a blank look on her face. She didn't move when the two boys approached her, and her ear didn't even twitched when Spyro yelled. Worry changed to panic as Link darted over to Ammy, standing in front of her and trying to break her out of the trance she seemed to be in.
"Ammy? Ammy! Ammy, please, answer me. Snap out of it!" He yelled, only for Ammy to stare at him blankly, as if she was staring right through him. Tears began to pool in his eyes – why he didn't know – and his pleas became a bit more desperate. "Ammy, please, I'm begging you. Wake up!"
Spyro would question how he did it later, but something in Link's voice brought Ammy to her senses. Her eyes snapped back into focus, and she looked dazed, maybe a little shaken up. Yet Link didn't really care. Instead, he tackled the girl and pinned her to the ground, almost shaking with relief and slight annoyance. "Don't space out like that! You scared me! And it didn't help knowing that you had run off somewhere. You've been gone for hours."
Ammy's eyes widened slightly at the knowledge of how long she had gone, but she soon smiled warmly, making Link and Spyro inwardly sigh with relief, knowing she was back to normal. "Aww, so nice to know you boys care about me." She teased, pushing Link off of her. "I was fine, really. I was just lost in thought."
Link raised an eyebrow, or at least, a wolf's equivalent to an eyebrow, clearly not believing the story. Ammy sighed slightly as she got to her paws. "On the bright side." She added. "I think I know how to get to Spyro's world now. Which means that we can get Link home quicker."
Link's tail swayed slightly at the mention of going home. And if Ammy had an idea on how to move on quicker, then it didn't matter if she was right or wrong. All he needed was to go back to Hyrule, get the last fused shadow and defeat Zant. Then life should go back to normal, more or less. And while he would miss his new friends, he really just wanted to get everything over with. Everything else was really none of his concern.
"Great!" He barked. "So, what do we have to do?"
Ammy smiled sheepishly, which made Link realize that, if she was human, she would be rubbing her neck or back with her hand. "Well, Link, you see, uh, there may be a few complications with getting to Spyro's world..."
Link's tail drooped. "Why? What's happened?"
Ammy sighed. "Well, you see, the island over there should be where an old enemy of mine is hidden. But the entrance has been blocked by some kind of forcefield... again... and no one can get in. But there is a way to open it. Something from Spyro's world has appeared somewhere in Nippon that will open up the path. Unfortunately, we don't know where it is. Plus, someone else is looking for it to try and get in. If they grab it first, then disaster will fall upon all of our worlds. And to make it worse, no one knows what the thing from Spyro's world is. So we're gonna have to rely on him. Otherwise you'll never get home."
Link whined slightly, his ears flattening for a moment before springing back up. "Well then, we're just gonna have to start looking for it, right Spyro? And we might as well start now, otherwise we'll waste time."
Spyro nodded eagerly, and stretched his wings out. "Lets go, then. The sooner we move on with this, the better. We need to get Link home before everything there gets out of control." With that, he took off into the sky, with Ammy laughing and running behind him, shortly followed by Link.
In the excitement of the good news, Spyro realised, they had forgotten to ask Ammy about the demon poison. Then again, it didn't really matter, right? Her outburst was probably from stress, like he had originally assumed, and when she zoned out she was getting a message telling her how to open that portal. So it was probably nothing. Demon poison probably didn't even exist. They just randomly created it with their anxious minds.
What Ammy didn't tell them was her vision of a burning land, and her in the centre of a vortex of fire, forced to watch her friends die.
Link stayed close to Ammy's side, talking to her to get his mind off of things. With everything going on, he really just wanted a chance to relax and have fun. With Ammy, that was possible. Something about her care-free nature set off a relaxing atmosphere that could instantly calm anyone down. She had a friendly vibe that made it impossible to hate her. Well, unless you were her enemy, of course.
So then why had she snapped like that earlier?
He shouldn't really think about it, Link knew he shouldn't really think about it, or Ammy would get suspicious and ask questions, but he couldn't help it. Usually she was only fierce in battle, from what they had seen, and for her to act like that scared him. It didn't seem normal, at all. Then again, he had only just met her, so maybe this wasn't an unusual thing?
He hoped so, otherwise they were going to be in serious trouble.
"Hey, Link, are you okay?" Ammy's voice snapped Link out of his thoughts, and his head turned towards her curiously. "You just seem to be a bit distracted. Do you want to talk about whatever is on your mind?"
Link shook his head, smiling at her. "Thanks, Ammy, but I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm just thinking about what the thing from Spyro's world might be. And where it's hidden itself. Because I really hope we don't have to spend days looking for it. Like you said, we don't know how time runs in our other... worlds, as you put it."
Ammy laughed. "What? So you want me to start calling them the Alternative Universe of Time and Space Zones?"
Link also laughed. Loudly. Loud enough that it made Spyro look down at them from the sky with the conclusion that they had some serious problems. Link didn't even know why he laughed so loud, since it wasn't even very funny. It was something about her, that just made it easier to laugh and smile. It made it easier to talk about his problems.
And it only made him feel more and more guilty about keeping his suspicion of demon poison a secret from her.
They travelled for a few more minutes, each keeping an eye out for any signs of something that was out of place. Although there seemed to be no such look so far in Shinshu Field. No matter where they looked, everything was exactly as it should be. The postman running around, the animals just standing there, and some weird dojo... thing that appeared to be there for no apparent reason. And it also trained wolves for combat if they had the money. Because that made sense. How the heck Ammy managed to pull that off the two boys had no idea. And they didn't really want to know. If they were honest, neither fancied walking in to ask an old man how Ammy managed to convince him to train her. Especially not if that old man could turn his head upside down.
Finally Ammy stretched and stopped, making Spyro come down from the sky to see what she had to say. "It's getting late, and you boys must be tired and hungry. How about we stop by Kamiki village and get some cherry cakes from Mrs Orange?"
Link nodded but laughed. "I didn't think you would be the type to break into people's houses and steal their food. That's not very nice, you know."
Ammy smirked and blinked innocently at him. "Who? Me? Come on, Link, look at this angelic face of mine, do I really look like the type of wolf to break into people's houses?" Ammy grinned as Link laughed again. "Besides, it's not exactly stealing. More like getting some supper from an old friend."
"Okay, can you two stop flirting and get us some supper?!" Spyro exclaimed, ignoring the way both Ammy and Link blushed. "I'm dying of starvation over here!"
Minda nodded eagerly in agreement, which made Link groan in annoyance. "Alright, alright. Both of you shut up for a minute or two." He turned to Ammy. "So, O Great Goddess of the Sun, which way to these famous cherry cakes?"
Ammy seemed to light up slightly, and she took off, doing her best to keep at a slow pace. "This way! Quickly!"
Ammy hadn't been lying when she said that the cherry cakes were delicious. After hearing her go on and on and on about them the whole trip there, everyone was glad that her promises did not disappoint. At first when they had arrived in Kamiki village, Link was not at all keen to go wandering around in plain sight, but a quick tease from Ammy about being terrified of his own kind soon fixed that. And even though Spyro had to force the wolf inside, Link did enter the house that belonged to Mrs Orange. One could only imagine how shocked Link looked when the old woman didn't even bat an eyelid about a wolf entering her precious home, although Ammy's constant stories about cherry cakes made it obvious that she had done this before, so it made sense that Mrs Orange didn't seem to care that two wolves and a dragon had broken into her house.
To put it simply, when they left, only one of them could move properly. Spyro had lost the ability to fly and Link walked slower than normal. Ammy alone had the energy to run around the village at whatever speed she wanted, leaping over fences and running across bridges gleefully. Even Minda slouched on Link's back, trying to stay awake, and Issun, Sparx and Navi had fallen asleep on their friends long ago.
Finally Ammy calmed down enough to walk over to her two friends, even though she still seemed a bit hyper. "Sorry about that, boys. But cherry cakes give me a lot of energy for some reason, no matter how much I eat. Whenever anyone else eats too much of them, they can get tired."
"Thanks for warning us beforehand."
Ammy only grinned at the dragon. "Whoops. Sorry, I forgot about that little piece of info. Either way, we should get some sleep. No offence, but you guys look awful, like your legs can't hold you up for five more seconds."
Exactly five seconds later, Link's legs gave way.
"Well, what do you know?"
Spyro chose to ignore Ammy's comment and instead settled down on the ground, closing his eyes with more willingness to fall asleep than he cared to show. He could hear Ammy lie down herself, and from the sounds of it, she was closer to Link than she should have been. But before Spyro could think about it further, he was pulled into the deep sea of sleep.
Sorry that this chapter is short! I have failed you all! *cries*
Yeah, I know that this chapter is awful and short and long overdue and I'm so ashamed but if you could just drop a review by... wait, why are you pointing those guns at me?
Yeah... I'll go hide in a corner now. *runs*
