Well, second chapter. Here goes! I hope I get reviews for this too... -sigh-hopes-
On the Road To Life
By: Kaitsurin "Rainie" Kisake
Chapter 2: Nothing's Ever Easy
"Hehehehehahahaha!" Ganondorf laughed in a strange, almost venomous way. He, of course, was stuck watching the young Wind hero and Princess of Hyrule while having to suffer in what seemed to be the solitary confinement parallel to purgatory after death. Though he DID have something up his sleeve, he decided to wait until he worked all the little kinks out in his plans, first.
"Once I send this Phantom Ganon into that stupid red boat, I can break that stupid little boy and the princess apart... One..." He cracked his knuckles, "By..." and did it again, "One!" Picking up a writing utensil, he snapped it in half and laughed maniacally again, transporting his Phantom Ganon into the King of Red Lions. The boat's eyes were now red instead of their normally dead-looking yellow now that the King was gone. The evil man noticed this, but he brushed it off, thinking that this trait would be overlooked.
"No matter; nobody will notice..."
"Did you hear something?"
"You're probably just hearing the ocean, Senza."
"Alright then Miss..." the other pirate said, unconvinced. He spotted Link with a sack over his back and waved. Seeing this, Link grinned and waved his arm enthusiastically, running back to the ship to begin the quest.
"So...uh...where do we go now?" asked Mako.
"Hmm...I don't know..."
"What?" Tetra demanded. "What do you mean, 'I don't know'?"
"King didn't tell me."
"Oh, great Goddesses... Do you at least have a theory of how to help him come back to life or anything?"
"Yes… Basically we have to go back down to Ancient Hyrule, find Ganondorf's statue, reunite the three Triforce pieces, and wish for him to be alive again."
"…But something that complex has got to have a catch… A sacrifice or something… That's usually how it works, right?" Mako asked as he stepped into the conversation.
"Well, we'll take that as it comes." Tetra said determinedly.
"Right. Well, let's go wherever the wind takes us then..."
"U-uh..." Gonzo stuttered. "I-I think t-the w-w-wind's taking us to our d-d-doom..." He pointed.
Link looked to what he was pointing at, and saw the biggest giant squid he'd ever seen, along with a huge pack of Seahats.
"Oh...my..." he began running around looking for his Hero's Bow while the pirates prepared the cannon.
"FIRE!" He heard Tetra scream as he fired at the seahat nearest the boat and killed it. Unfortunately, she and the pirates missed their target.
"FIRE!" she shrieked again. This time, they hit a Seahat, which was, luckily for them, right in front of one of the Giant squid's eyes, and the Seahat took it out for them.
"FIRE!"
He shot another arrow at an eye and hit a bull's eye.
"Fire!" He could hear Tetra's voice growing weaker from all the shouting.
"MISS TETRA! WE'RE RUNNING LOW ON AMMO!" someone yelled. Link didn't dare look back. He had to concentrate on killing the squid and the seahats before they got sucked in!
Tetra ran down to the King of Red Lions and grabbed Link's bag of bombs, all 99 in tact. At this time, the Phantom Ganon shifted sharply, so that she fell into the water.
"Oh no..." she sputtered, "I just remembered... I can't swim!"
Link ran to look for his friend, having heard her as he scurried back to his boat for a couple more supplies of arrows. Too late, though. By the time he saw her, the only thing that showed was her arm trying to clasp onto something. She had already sank down under!
"LINK!" Gonzo shouted, trying to pull him back from diving in. "Are you NUTS!"
He shoved the pirate away, and, determination in his eyes, jumped into the icy cold waters of the Great Sea.
"Oh no!" The pirates yelled in unison as they were beginning to get pulled into the center of the whirlpool.
"SAY YER PRAYERS, LADS!" someone yelled as they hung onto the deck as the boat swirled out of control into the center and came out in a faraway part of the Great Sea...Far away from Tetra and Link.
"Eh? Where is this place?" Link made out pinkish, lavender, and white fluffy clouds. He didn't need answers, however, because something told him that it was the Otherworld.
"Well," he mused out loud"at least now I can talk to King of Red Lions -"
"And explain to me why you acted so foolishly."
Uh oh...
Cough, sputter.
"Oh...My head...Where am I?" Tetra woke up after being washed up on a seemingly deserted island. Link was nowhere in sight.
"Link?" She called. "Link?"
She ran all over the isle, calling his name over and over.
"Great...Just great...I don't have any transportation, I can't find Link, he has the sea chart, and I have nothing to live in! Well...Guess I'd better get started on the living arrangements..."
"Err...Uh...That is...I mean...Erm...Eh..."
"Ugh...Sometimes, you act a bit too rashly for my liking..."
"But if -"
"I know, I know, you intended well...I just meant...Well if you were awake, you'd see. Plus, I feel like I'm playing the 'father figure' role right now...concern about you as well as Tetra is my responsibility and right."
Link looked down. "Sorry for worrying you like that."
"It's alright, but that's not what you're here for."
"Oh… So, what do you mean about the 'If I was awake, I'd see' thing?"
"Did you know you've ended up on some uncharted island?"
"...I have?"
"Yes, you have."
"Is Tetra there?"
"Actually, she's washed up way down south by Diamond Isle. You're practically washed right off the Great Sea's sea chart."
"Oh, no..."
"Listen, Link. If you ever find the pirates - which won't be easy, but I don't doubt that you can and will - you're going to have to be really, REALLY careful around the King of Red Lions. The boat, I mean..."
"What? What are you talking about? You're saying I should be careful around you?"
"No... I'm saying you should be careful around the only part of me that actually physically exists right now."
"Oh. I get it, but...Why?"
The King made a face, as if saying, 'You're actually asking me why?'
"I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count."
"Oh..." Link sighed. "What did he do this time?"
"Oh nothing, really. It just is really unsettling to know that I can't occupy that space because it's already been taken up by one of Ganondorf's evil doppelgangers." he muttered, as the young boy shuddered slightly while he remembered making his mentor angry once in a blue moon. Link's thoughts now turned to the Phantom Ganon, which would have looked like 'o.O;' if it actually was afacial expression.
"I know what you're thinking. But I don't want you to slice me to bits just to get rid of it."
Despite himself, Link smiled a bit, the corners of his mouth curving upward ever so slightly.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't DREAM of doing that."
"Uh huh..." King of Red Lions smirked and caught track of time. It was nearly nightfall in the islands of the Great Sea already.
"Wow. Time flies when you're having fun, eh?"
"Yeah...But I want to stay and talk to you more..." he sounded anxious now.
"You'll be doing that every two days once you find the right melody on that baton I gave you." He tried to reason with him. To calm him.
"I know… But...It won't be the same as when you were alive..."
"Oh goddesses, Link. Am I really that necessary to have around?"
Link nodded.
And there's me, thinking that I was probably the most boring thing on the sea.
"You're not."
King stared.
'Pardon?"
"You're not the most boring thing on the sea."
"How did -"
"I... I can sense what you're thinking, sometimes. Ordinarily it would've been because I was about to get a long lecture from you..." he smiled smugly, but personally he thought those long lectures were to his benefit. "But I got past that and... well... there's your answer."
"You got all that from some lectures I gave you?" King of Red Lions phrased it like a statement rather than a question.
"Isn't it just a bit pleasing to know that your future Hero was listening to your every word?" Even though I hadn't...
"Well actually you hadn't...But it's time for you to leave, Link."
"Already?"
"Yes."
"Aww..."
"I don't want you to go either… But you have to if I'm going to come back. "
"Aww...Okay...It's for your own good."
"Hmm...Link?"
"Mhm?"
"'Night, kid."
"G'night, King of Red Lions."
Link left the Otherworld, silently musing over what King of Red Lions had said.
King of Red Lions never told him that the island was not as inhabited as he thought.
Tetra wandered the island again, picking up wood for a temporary shelter and a fire. There were fruits on the trees, strangely, and they tasted delicious, so she would eat those until she found someone, or someone found her.
"I wonder if Link and my crew are okay..." she said to herself multiple times. "They better be! I'm worried sick!"
"Oh man..."
About a dozen attempts and Link still hadn't managed to build a fire. He wished King of Red Lions was here. Then he wouldn't even have to build this thing in the first place! He heard his stomach growl...rather loudly, so he decided to go look for some food. On his way, he passed some ruins. And, looking through them, he saw something that made him more excited by the minute. There were directions, marked in gold, instead of carved in the stone like everything else.
>
He tried it on the Wind Waker, and nothing happened. Then he pulled out the Dream Caller. Hoping that this was not a joke played by his most trusted advisor, he directed the baton in the specifically marked directions. He waited...and waited...and waited...and still no effect. Something told him that he was obviously doing something wrong, and so for extra emphasis, he wrote 'Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule' in the air with the Dream Caller. The words flashed in gold lettering for a few moments before shimmering away.
King of Red Lions was suddenly pulled out of the Otherworld, into Link's world, through a dimensional portal he swore he'd never go through again had he had the choice to, except to come back to life, of course.
Link was about to throw the Dream Caller on the grass, when he heard a 'whoosh'ing sound. He turned around, expecting to see King of Red Lions floating in midair, ready to talk to him. Instead, unfortunately, he saw…
"BLOODY DIN! A REDEAD!"
