Nintendo created all the characters and places and stuff. I just made the story up. The cover was done by Zeliga of DeviantART.
Chapter Two - The Bottom Of The Well
Link washed his hands in the sink using a bar of soap that Pippa had nearly swallowed thinking it was food once. He was unsure if the taste of lavender was changing her appetite slightly as the Cuccos outside were getting a little braver with her around them now. Every night he would have to brush her coat free of feathers when she had pounced on one, wanting them to play with her. Of course, the Cuccos were used to her bouncing around, falling over her feet when she got excited, as pups often do.
He carried out the bucket and walked the short distance to the well. A stone well that kept every person and animal well watered. He tied the bucket to the small string that was attached to the wooden post above the well itself.
"Morning, Link!" a cheery voice came from behind him, startling him and making him fall headfirst into the well with a shallow splash. "Whoops. Are you alright?"
Link glanced up at her with a silent moan. But his frown suddenly changed to horror as the water had dried up; almost every drop had vanished from the well, apart from the shallow puddle that Link had crashed into. His feet were just off the ground, kicking the little stones that occupied the floor; but his waist was above the water level. He had known that the water was emptying from the well, but the clouds were thick with rain and the wind was to cool for drought.
"I know, right? That brain of yours is working; isn't it?" the cheery voice giggled cannonballing into the water. Soaking him even more and renewing his frown. "Don't give me that look. It's fun."
Link brushed his hair out of his eyes and stared at the person in front of him. A charming, if not loud young girl at fourteen years old swum before him, she had short curly red hair that stopped at her shoulders and bright green eyes; her clothes consisted of a bright blue dress with a darker blue edging and V-neck collar and a pair of brown sandals. Link sighed, as the girl lay a hand on his shoulder and splashed more water in his face.
Link lowered his shoulders and cocked his head to the side.
"What?" the girl smirked following his gaze to the wall behind her. There was a small crack in the bricks that built it up the well. Link put a hand to his chin in thought and leaned against the wall, staring into the crack. "That's where all the water's going?" the girl smirked putting an eye to the hole, Link threw his arms into the air.
The girl began to pull out a loose brick and dropped in the water, then another, and another. Link grabbed her wrist gently and pulled her back as more of the water around them began to trickle through the gap she had made. She glanced at him; closing her eyes as a little brown rock fell from the top of the well next to Link. Link let out a noticeable tut as the little brown rock was not a little brown rock, but a wet puppy covered in white feathers.
Pippa barked at the two-legged as she swum in the wet, spitting out a few feathers as her master scooped her up. Master pointed to some square stones that were higher up and knelt down to push some of the grey stones that were in the wet. Master had a nice furless face for being a two-legged; it always wore happiness, or at least most of the time. The corners of his mouth would turn upward and sometimes it would open when he was really happy with her, though his tongue never lolled over his teeth like hers. She could tell Master was tired, he was yawning a lot and his eyes were never fully open unless he was barking at someone in his silent voice. He needed rest. She barked for his attention as the she-two-legged continued to move more grey stones; he looked at her with his grey eyes. They were bright but dull at the same time. She whined at him, tilting her head to the side. Master stroked her head, using his short brush like nails to dig into her coat. It was lovely. She relaxed in his arms with a sigh as the she-two-legged clambered into the hole she had made. Master was a little more reluctant to follow.
Link cradled the pup in his arms and climbed through the hole to where his friend was. She ran on ahead leaving him to look around the old well. The bricks were slimy and damp with the water that was constantly flowing through and all light had vanished from within as the remains of soaked torches hung on the walls, clogged with mildew.
"Come on, Link!" the girl shouted from the end of the corridor. Link put Pippa down on the ground and yanked out a torch from the wall; feeling for a dry spot on the wall beneath it, he ran the end up the bricks to light it. The walls were so damp that the bricks crumbled at his touch. With a defeated sigh he lowered his arm and looked at the wall curiously, the torch strike may not have made the torch light but had made a straight white line that was visible in the dark. His hand tightened on the torch as he followed the girl. Pippa at his heels.
"Where's your brother, Rosie? It doesn't take him that long to get water." Link's mother asked braiding her orange hair in her shaking fingers
"I don't know." Rosie shrugged washing her hands "Pippa's gone looking for him so I wouldn't worry."
"Ah, Pippa, she loves him." her mother sighed leaning back on her pillow "They have been inseparable since he found her."
"Why did you let him keep her, Mother?" Rosie complained
Her mother looked appalled. "You know Link's condition. Having a friend that is about as silent as him makes their bond strong. I am never going to ask him to put her out. He's trained her well."
"I wouldn't call it a 'condition'" Rosie snorted, her mother sliced the air with her hand
"Link doesn't have a proper voice, Rosie. I told you this when you were very young. Though he makes sounds like grunts and gasps, he doesn't have the power to speak words."
"Mother, I've heard it all before."
"Then you should be reminded of it."
"Mother, you should get some rest, save your strength."
"You have no idea what your brother does for us." her mother grunted shutting her eyes.
For she had worked out why Link would sneak off at dawn for the medicine when it would only take him half the day to get to town and back, it also made sense why he was always doing chores when he came home. To pay back for his criminal acts and clear his mind. Though Link had a good reason for stealing, she knew he would never steal unless he had to; that was why Rosie could never know why he always took his bow to get the medicine. She would hate herself if he got caught or if Pippa got snatched. "And that is something that you should never find out."
Pippa barked at Master, her paws were soaked with trotting in the shallow water around them. Master needed rest. Now. But no matter how much she tugged at his chewy-paws, he never swayed from following the she-two-legged. Master picked her up and placed her on his shoulder, she liked being up here, though it was still as dark as on the floor. The she-two-legged shouted something in two-legged language that she could not understand. Master rolled his eyes and began to run, slow, but fast for a two-legged. They came to a hole where there was wet, Master knelt down and dipped his furless paws into the wet and stuck his tongue out. The wet smelled bad, though the two-legged could not smell it, she could; it smelled like rotten meat, a smell that had caught her nose before, but hoped that she would never smell again. For some reason though, the scent of rotten meat was moving and not with the air like normal scents. This one was moving in steps like a two-legged or feathered dog. Pippa yapped at Master, falling off his shoulder in alarm. Master turned his head and caught her before she hit the stone floor. She continued to yap, backing up slightly and raising her head up high to carry the sound of her howls.
"What's up with Pippa?" the girl asked folding her arms. Link glanced at the howling pup and held out a hand. Pippa whined and ducked her tail in between her legs. Link's ears flicked up as something bashed into the wall cracking the bricks slightly and crumbling some dust from them into the stinking water.
Link grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her back as a brick crashed into the water to reveal a skeletal arm and hand clawing at the bricks at the scent of the living. The girl let out a scream, Link let out an audible scream as well. Pippa barked them back to focus. Link nodded and crouched down so she could jump up on his back.
They skidded through the twisted tunnels they had crossed through using Link's markings till the bright morning light blinded them at the bottom of the well. Footsteps echoed within with roars of the skeletal monsters that followed their hot-footed trail. Link glanced around for a second; his gaze fell on the rope that the bucket was attached to then to his friend. Without another moment of thought he untied the bucket from the rope and tied it around his friend's waist. Before she could say a word of complaint; Pippa hopped from his shoulder onto hers as Link got her standing on his shoulders. The pup leapt for the swinging rope above and her jaws snapped shut. The little weight she carried brought the rope into the girl's reach that then lowered it into Link's. Pippa growled as Link hoisted the girl back up to the top of the well; the skeletal figures were starting to approach. Roaring their battle cries as they had found a boy. Pippa charged, narrowly dodging a rusty sword that struck the stones instead of her. Pippa snarled at a skeletal figure, barking her warnings and threats at their deaf ears. Link edged backwards till his hands touched the walls; his heart thumping against his chest.
"Link! Grab on!" the girl shouted from above lowering the rope to him. A skeletal figure however was leaning over him; staring through tiny green ovals they called eyes. It roared in his face, a roar so loud and powerful that Link's hair blew in its breath from its toothless jaw. It suddenly let out a scream in shock as Pippa dug her teeth into the skeletal figure's left leg, going for the ankle bone more than the leg itself as she was too small to reach otherwise. She clung on as the skeletal figure as it thumped her with its shield arm, forcing her to roll into Link's feet; her jaws still clinging onto the monster's foot.
Link picked up his irritable and sore pup in his arms, scratching her behind the ears to comfort her as he turned his back on the skeletal figure that raised its sword
"Link, catch!" the girl shouted as a bow clonked on the skeletal figure's forehead. The quiver of arrows and tool-pouch bashing into it shortly after. Link opened his tool-pouch with his free hand and sprinkled his arrow tips with black powder, striking them up the wall he let them hiss in his hand. Before the skeletal figure could react, the bricks exploded around them. Covering it and its friend in debris.
Link leaned against a wall in the tunnel with a silent laugh of nervousness, clinging onto his most treasured of possessions: his beautiful long bow and quiver and his trusty pup. He heard Pippa give a sigh of relief as she chewed the foot to pieces, but never swallowing it. Link looked up from her; most of the exit was blocked off, barely any room to squeeze through; so that only left the option to walk through the tunnels to find an exit.
He placed Pippa on the floor and pulled out a small worn out candle, no bigger than a tea-light from the tool-pouch and lit it by making sparks on the wall with a clean arrow. Next he felt around for a torch and touched the orange flame to the wood, it lit up almost immediately.
And Pippa wanted to carry it.
Of course, the stick was much bigger than her and she kept dropping it, so Link was sure to bring another lit one, just in case. Pippa looked offended, after all; sticks were a dog's thing.
They wandered around for what seemed like forever till they came to the place the skeletal figures came from. Beyond the water, there was a dark blue chest and stone sign to the side of it. Link lifted a finger to his face at Pippa. She plonked her backside down in slight annoyance; she wanted to follow him across the water but one torch out was enough.
Link rubbed his fingers across the sign, the words almost unreadable with age combating them.
The key to water is ice and the key to ice is wood.
Link glanced over at the chest, his eyes swerving from the sign and it for about a minute. He opened the chest and coughed with the dust that had erupted from inside. Though, he had not expected the chest to be a tunnel to somewhere.
Link rolled his eyes at the sound of Pippa's whines and tapped his left hip. He dropped the torch and dived into the water, her tongue lying over her teeth as he placed her on his stomach and strapped his bow over his shoulder.
They slid down the tunnel with a sharp intake of his breath.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
That place gives me the creeps. A little more on Link and Pippa's relationship there. Pippa gets her very own POV in this story so that's why some of the language is odd. It's early! Whoo!
You have to work out what she is talking about but to the people who are already rushing to comment that it makes no sense, I'll give you a hint, because it's only going to get harder.
Pippa's vocab
Master - Link
Two-legged - human
He/she-two-legged - male/female human
Chewy-paws - shoes or boots
Feathered dog - birds
Paws - feet or hands
Wet - water or liquid
If you still don't understand, I am open to your questions anytime.