LAST WEEK FOR THE POLL! VOTE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!

I am back...with another chapter! *Random music* Oh yeah! Cuz I'm awesome! :P *Cough!*

So the plot that was ever so subtly hinted at, is finally starting to take place! Hoorah!

I had so many reviews! You guys make me wanna write my little heart out! But life gets busy (and I don't wanna die of 'writing my little heart out'). Thank you SO much! People that have reviewed since the last chapter: Esparia, twinxie100, DJMasterJay (I know you can't read this right now, but you do deserve to be mentioned...), ShadowNinja1011, madlink007, Opal223, Fabula Nova780, Bleachshowlover1, BirdyTakeFlight, Deila, DarkfallenAngelWings, and ArianandXaia.

Disclaimer: If you don't know this by now...I don't own Legend of Zelda! Is this seriously required for every chapter?

Chapter 7

(Link's POV)

We finished cleaning up for lunch and headed to something I had been looking forward to all day. The swimming pool. Sheik and I ran into our cabin and grabbed our swim trunks to change into.

"Is Link Avalon in here?" a female voice asked, knocking on the door.

"Yeah! Come in!" I shouted. A tall and thin Gerudo woman stepped into the room. She was wearing a red bikini top and a pair of white athletic shorts that had red stripea on the sides. I glanced over at Sheik, next to me, who was looking the woman up and down.

"Well, hello there!" Sheik whispered under his breath. I elbowed him so he would shut his mouth.

The lady stepped toward us. "You are Link Avalon?"

I furrowed my brows. "Uh, yeah. I am. Why?"

"Follow me," the woman said. I made no effort to move.

Sheik elbowed me this time. "Dude! She's asking you to go with her! If I were you I'd do that! If you know what I mean," he hissed beside me.

I glared at him and took a step forward. "First tell me who you are and where we're going."

"Fair enough," the woman agreed. "I am Nabooru Spirit and we are going to talk to Ganondorf. Mr. Dragmire, I mean."

"The boss-man's calling you out! Looks like you better go!" Sheik called out as I walked out the door. I rolled my eyes and shut it behind me. Nabooru contuined to walk and I followed behind her.

I moistened my lips. "So am I in trouble or something?" Nabooru said nothing in response.

"Do you work here?" No reply.

"Where exactly is he?" Nothing.

"How much longer until we get there?" Nope.

"Are you even listening?!"

After walking for quite a while in silence, we stopped at a cabin with a picture of a...pig on the door, I guess. Nabooru gently tapped the door and whispered, "Good luck."

"WHAT?!" I heard the voice bellow. "GHIRAHIM! IF IT'S YOU ASKING TO GET RID OF THAT TWILI GIRL AGAIN, I SWEAR I'LL-" Ganondorf opened the door and saw us standing there.

"My lord," Nabooru said, kneeling down. I raised a brow, but did nothing else.

The man snarled at me. "I see Nabs here did her job!" I looked over at 'Nabs' from the corner of my eye, who made something that resembled a disgusted face, but it was hard to tell because of her position. Is he even going to allow her to stand back up again?

"Where is the girl?" Ganondorf asked. "DON'T TELL ME YOU FORGOT THE GIRL!" Someone's short-tempered.

Nabooru cringed and lowered her head even further. "I-I couldn't find her."

"Who is it?" I suddenly asked. The two of them seemed to have temporarily forgotten I was there, based on their expressions.

Ganondorf narrowed his eyes at me. "What is it to you, punk?"

As I gulped, his fiery eyes never left me. "I thought I could help find this person if I knew who it was." Although, I already had an idea of who the girl might just be.

The giant leaned back to ponder the suggestion for a moment. "Fine. Her name is Zelda Har-something-or-other." I knew it! "You and Nabooru will find the girl and bring her to me, are we clear?"

Nabooru and I both agreed and when Ganondorf slammed the door shut she finally rose to her feet. "You know, I actually do know where Zelda is."

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. She was in her cabin, but I, uh, forgot to talk to her." We started to head to Zelda's cabin. When we arrived I knocked at the door.

"Come in!" someone shouted. I opened the door and stepped inside. Midna and Aryll were sitting on their bunks, looking at me and Nabooru.

"Who's she?" Midna suddenly asked.

Nabooru stepped forward. "I am Nabooru Spirit. Is Zelda here?"

The Twili narrowed her eyes. "Maybe...why does it concern you?"

"Zelda isn't here," Aryll answered.

"Where is she?" I asked the girls. They both looked at each other then faced me again.

Aryll slid off her bunk. "Zelda's at the pool all ready."

"You guys let her go by herself?!" I exclaimed.

The two girls started giggling. "Someone's over protective!" Midna said in a sing-songy voice.

Aryll smiled and turned to me again. "Relax! Sheik went with her!"

Nabooru walked past me. "If she's at the pool with 'Sheik' why are you guys here?" Midna and Aryll shared another glance.

"We let Zelda go ahead while we waited for Malon to come back from the bathroom," Midna explained.

Aryll nodded. "She went there to check on Ruto, who left a while ago and never came back."

"What about the other girl? The short blonde?" I asked. "I forgot her name."

The blonde that I did know, gasped. "Mila!"

Midna squinted. "Oh yeah. There was another one. Oh well!"

"Midna!" Aryll squealed.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked.

Nabooru cleared her throat. "Girls. Let's go make a trip to the bathroom."

I started to feel a little left out. "What about me?"

Nabooru smiled. A Gerudo smile. There was something about it you couldn't trust. "You can come too!"

"Just not actually in the bathroom," Midna clarified. I nodded and we exited the cabin and headed over to the bathroom.

(Time skip!)

"Neither Ruto or Mila were in there!" Aryll said as she stepped out from the bathroom.

"What about Malon?" I asked.

"She, Midna, and Nabooru will come out in just a sec!" she answered.

I furrowed my brows. "Is there a reason you're not all together?"

The blonde shrugged. "They told me to go ahead to you while they searched the stalls one last time."

Malon, Midna, and Nabooru walked out of the restroom. "Did Aryll tell you we couldn't find anyone?" Midna asked. I nodded in response.

"Link!" Nabooru randomly cried out. "We have to go get Zelda!"

My eyes widened. I completely forgot why I originally went there. "Shoot! Let's go to the pool!" We left the others behind and took off.

"Do you work here?" I finally asked Nabooru, as we were jogging to the pool.

She shook her head. "Actually, no, I don't. But I somehow became Ganondorf's right hand woman. And I came here to have fun!"

"That's kind of creepy."

"Exactly! So now I'm doing all these favors for him and I have no say about any of it!" Nabooru exclaimed.

"And what's with the whole 'Lord Ganondorf' thing?" I questioned the Gerudo.

She shrugged. "He said it would please him more; let me tell you something, that man should not be unpleased!"

"Is there a reason why he calls you 'Nabs' or whatever, too?" I asked her.

She cringed and looked away. "I'm pretty sure he's a pedophile. A creeper. A rapist. Whatever you wanna call him. It all fits. I mean, have you seen the way he eyeballs the little girls around here?" I shook my head and she faced me again. "It's pretty creepy. Take my word for it."

"I will," I told her. "Why don't you just tell him that you didn't come here to work for him?"

Nabooru shook her head and looked at me. "It doesn't work that way. I will tell you this once again, that man should not be unpleased!"

There was an awkward silence for a little while until Nabooru spoke again. "How old are you, Link?"

"Sixteen."

"Alright. I'm seventeen," she said.

There was another pause, but Nabooru interuptted it. "Are you and Zelda dating or something?"

This got my immediate attention. "What? No! We're just friends! Just friends!" I turned to her. "Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "You just seem to be pretty protective of her."

"I am not-"

"And I saw your skit. The kissing part was adorable, by the way!"

"That means nothing!"

"Plus, you blush a lot whenever she's mentioned!"

"I do not!" As if on cue I felt my face start to heat up.

Nabooru smiled at me. "So I'm guessing you like her, then?"

I looked away nervously. "No! Why do you say that?"

"Must I go through the list again?" Nabooru asked.

"Fine. Maybe I do have a little crush on her...what's it to you?" I asked her.

Nabooru turned the opposite direction from me. "No reason..."

"You better not tell her!" I yelled. "If you tell her I swear I'll-"

"Oh look! Here's the pool!" Nabooru interrupted me. I saw that she was right and dropped the argument. We walked over to the gate and went inside. It was loud and wet.

"Do you see Zelda?" Nabooru asked me. I shook my head. Then I spotted to familiar looking blonde heads. One of which was dipping her toes in the water, sitting next to the other who was talking with a group of girls. Zelda and Sheik.

"I see her!" I told Nabooru. "Follow me!" We quickly made our way over to the edge of the pool where they were sitting. Zelda looked up at me and smiled and I felt the butterflies start flitting around in my stomach.

"Hey Link!" the pretty blonde greeted. Sheik glanced over his shoulder and saw me.

"Dude! How'd it go? What'd the boss-man want, anyway?" he questioned.

"Zelda," I replied.

Zelda's head shot up and her eyes widened. "Me?"

Sheik stood up and brushed himself off. "Well isn't that nice! The big guy doesn't just look like a creeper, he is a-" He stopped himself when he finally noticed Nabooru. "It's Nabooti, right?" he asked.

"Nabooru," she corrected. Sheik looked away, embarrassedly and I stifled my laughter. "It's a Gerudo name. I don't blame you for mispronouncing it. Sometimes simple minds can't handle tough words."

Sheik nodded in agreement. "True, true. Wait a minute! Did you just call me-"

"Okay!" I interrupted. "Are we going to leave now?"

"Sounds good," Zelda said, standing up. "Although you already know, I will formally introduce myself. I'm Zelda Harkinian." She stretched out her hand towards Nabs.

Nabooru grinned and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you! I'm Nabooru, as you also know!"

"Now that that's taken care of, let's go!" I said, attempting to leave.

Sheik looked a little hurt. "What about me?"

Nabooru smiled slyly at him. "Stay here. The girls are loving the abs!" She winked and walked off without out us.

"That means she was checking me out, right?" he asked.

Zelda rolled her eyes and shook her head in defeat. "Why don't you just stick to Midna?" She turned to me and whispered so he couldn't hear, "She's into stupid and muscular." I grinned at her joke.

His eyes widened and he turned beet red. "Right. Midna. Is she coming?" I nodded and after Zelda grabbed her towel, we finally started walking off.

"Wait!" Sheik called out to us. "Do you think Midna will like this?" He gestured to his bare chest.

Zelda rolled her eyes once again and replied sarcastically, "I'm sure she'd enjoy the fact that you're hitting on every girl you see!"

Sheik frowned at her comment. "I do not hit on every girl! Only the hot ones! Like Nabooru! And I don't hit on you because I don't roll that way! I also don't hit on Link's sister because-"

"That's it!" I stopped him. "We are leaving! Goodbye!" We started walking once again and jogged up to Nabooru.

"That took you guys a little while longer than I expected!" she commented.

Zelda sighed. "I blame Sheik."

Nabooru nodded. "Sheik. He was the cute blonde guy with the abs, right?"

"I don't know what world you're from to believe that," Zelda muttered and I chuckled at that.

"We all know that there's only one cute blonde guy with abs and you're looking at him!" I added.

Nabooru rolled her eyes and turned toward me. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ego, how could I forget you?"

"I was wondering the same thing!"

"Well I can't say for a fact that you're a cute blonde guy with abs. I got to see em' to believe it!"

"I'm not just gonna take off my shirt and say, 'Hey! Look at my abs! Doesn't my chest look sexy?'" Zelda started laughing and nearly fell over.

"I'm sorry, Link. Looks like you're gonna have to stick with a simpler title of 'Cute Blonde Guy'!" Nabooru countered.

"Can't you just take my word for it?" I asked, jokingly.

Nabooru sighed. "Oh all right, Mr. Cute Blonde Guy Who Pretends To Have Abs But Won't Admit He Doesn't. That good enough?" Zelda was laughing so hard I could see tears in her eyes. She stopped walking and fell over, banging her head into my chest.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa Blondie! You do not need another head injury!" I exclaimed as I helped her up. She was bright red and stopped laughing.

"So...how were they?" Nabooru asked. I raised an eyebrow and Zelda asked, "What?"

Nabooru let out a loud breath. "Link's abs, I mean! How were they? When you fell on him?"

Zelda's face was still a little red as she smiled. "Rock solid."

"BAM! I've got me some real abs!"

We kept walking a little ways further and we stopped at Zelda's cabin so she could quickly change out of her bathing suit.

"I'm done!" she exclaimed as she stepped out of her cabin. "Ther was no way I was wearing that in front of...whatever he goes by."

I smirked at her. "It's because of what Sheik was saying, wasn't it?"

"And I just don't feel comfortable walking around all day in practically nothing," she added.

"Hey!" Nabooru exclaimed besides me. "Some of us have the right figure for it!" I placed my head in the palm of my hand.

"And some of us are more humble about our bodies," I replied into my hand.

Nabooru faked a hurt expression and faced me. "Oh I'm sorry Mr. Rock-Solid-Abs! I forgot how humble you were, trying to justify the fact you were the only cute blonde guy with abs!"

I bobbed my head up and down. "Yes! Exactly! Which is why I couldn't take off my shirt and make Sheik look bad!"

"Enough about the abs!" Zelda suddenly yelled. We both turned our attention to the normally calm blonde's outburst. "You two argue like an old married couple!"

I smiled jokingly. "Don't pretend that wasn't us a few days ago."

Zeldas rosy lips were pulled tightly into a thin, grim line. "A few days ago when I said I hated you I meant it. That wasn't me joking around! So in that case, no, we didn't fight like an old married couple."

"Wow! Looks like you've got a serious love-hate relationship going on here. With mostly love," Nabooru commented. "Old married couple love!" We both gave her the silencing death glare.

"Not funny," I told her, trying to hide my blush. Nabooru gave a signature Gerudo smile and replied, "But your blush is!" Of course that just made me redder.

Zelda shook her head, but couldn't help smiling. "I think we could easily be friends. Have you met Midna? The two of you would get along just perfect!"

Nabooru nodded. "Yeah. She seems cool!" Just after she said that we approached his cabin.

Before she knocked on it Zelda asked, "Is that a...pig on the door?" I shrugged in response and then she tapped lightly on the door.

"Nabbie-Boo?! Is that you?! It took you long enough!" Mr. Dragmire's voice bellowed.

"Nabbie-Boo?" Zelda quietly asked. The Gerudo shook her head and looked away out of embarrassment. The door flung wide open and Ganondorf stood in the doorway.

"Come in Ms. Har...Har...Har-"

"Harkinian," Zelda told him.

"That's what I said. Oh, and you too Mr. Avi-whatever," Ganondorf barked. As he moved out of the way Zelda and I stepped inside. "You can just wait right there Nabs!" he called outside. The man gestured for us to sit down in two of the seats as he shur the door and took one of his own.

His cabin resembled something of the stereotypical Principal's (Desk with name plate, a few chairs along the wall, cabinets with pictures on them, etc.) except there was a bed in the back. So the man does sleep. Surprising.

Mr. Dragmire cleared his throat. "I'm sure you two know just why you're in here." Zelda and I shook our heads. "I'll give you a hint: it has to do with your behavior earlier today."

"But sir," Zelda started, "Link and I did nothing-"

Ganondorf shook his head and wagged his finger. "No excuses, darling. I heard all about what you two did!" He shifted his mouth into a wicked green revealing un-humanely sharp teeth. I didn't like his smile...or his pet names...or te way everything sounded so creepy when he said it.

"Care to tell us what we did wrong?" I asked him. The man shot up straight in his chair and narrowed his eyes at me.

"You know what you did, boy." Ganondorf had always reeked evil, but when he said that he was completely dripping with it. I shook my head somewhat defiantly. He lowered his head and glared at me with eyes I swear could've killed somebody.

"Need a refresher?" Zelda and I glanced at each other. Then we saw what our friend Ganny was doing. He kept making kissy faces and smacked his lips against each other, openly mocking us. "Do you know now?" We both nodded with embarrassment.

Zelda pursed her lips and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry sir, but it was just for the skit." I nodded and agreed with her.

Ganondorf'as fiery eyes flashed and he stood up. "It doesn't matter whether it was 'for the skit' or not. It was still PDA and it's not allowed!"

"You don't understand!" Zelda argued. "PDA stands for 'Public Display of Affection' and with him, there is no 'affection'!" Ouch! Hurtful!

As he sat back in his chair, Mr. Dragmire let out a huffy sigh. "Fine. You may go. Don't do it again! And you better have what I want next time I see you two!" He shooed us out. I tried to ask what he meant by 'what he wanted," but he hushed us and shooed us some more.

"Did you know what he meant by, 'having what he wants?'" I asked Zelda, as we walked away.

She shrugged and looked at me. "Honestly I was more worried about the whole 'next time I see you' thing."

I glanced around the area outside of Mr. Dragmire's cabin. "Where's Nabooru?"

Zelda looked around with me. After a few minutes of searching she said, "I don't see her around here. Maybe she's back at the pool."

(Time skip to the pool)

Zelda and I walked around the pool to see if Nabooru was there. Malon, Aryll, Sheik, Midna, and that kid Pipit were all hanging out together, but no Nabooru. We walked over to the group.

"Did Nabooru come back to the pool?" Zelda asked the group. They all either shrugged or shook their heads.

Midna stepped forward. "She didn't go back with you?"

"No," I replied. "So Mila, Ruto, and Nabooru are missing."

The Twili girl sighed. "I didn't care so much for the other two, but I kind of liked Nabooru!"

"Me too," Sheik said, nodding. "She was pretty hot." Zelda coughed and her eyes flickered to Midna for a second. "She's not really my type though," he covered.

"This is serious, guys!" Aryll interuptted. "People are missing and here we are joking around!"

Zelda nodded in agreement. "Let's gather some facts. What do we know?"

"They were all girls," Sheik noted. Of course he said that.

"Shoot!" Zelda exclaimed. "I don't have a pencil or paper! How do you guys feel about coming to my cabin?"

"Sounds good! Then we can discuss this privately too," I added.

Aryll looked down for a second, but slowly nodded her head. Something was wrong. The others started walking ahead while me and Aryll went at a slower pace.

"I know that look," I told her. "What's wrong?"

Aryll tried a fake smile. "Nothing! I'm perfectly fine!"

I gave her a 'you've got to be joking' look and she shrugged. "I'm your brother; I know something's wrong!"

"I guess, I'm, well-" She paused to take a deep breath and looked away. "I'm not very comfortable with the whole disappearing people thing."

I started laughing loudly. "No one is!"

I saw a look of hurt fall on Aryll's face. "I don't understand what's happening and I don't like it."

"Agreed," I said. "Were you close with Ruto or Mila? I'm guessing not so much with Nabooru though."

"I wasn't too close with them, but we had our share of bonding moments last night," Aryll explained.

"What happened?"

"None of your business!"

"Girl stuff?"

"Yes!"

"What kind of girl stuff?"

"Link!"

"Were you talking about boys? Gossiping about other girls? Clothes? Whether to go swimming or not?"

"LINK!" Aryll yelled. "Wait, swimming?"

I sighed and shook my head. "Correct me if I'm wrong, I am a dude, but girls sometimes don't like to go swimming because they're on their-"

"Link! We were just joking around and being goofy last night!" Aryll clarified, turning a bit red at the tips of her ears.

"So no talk about boys?" I asked. "No talk about me?" Aryll looked away and didn't answer. "Is that a no? To which question?"

"Oh look! It's my cabin!" Aryll pointed out and sure enough it was. We walked inside and everyone had already found their places to sit. Zelda was on the bottom bunk of the bed closest to the door, Midna on the top, Sheik sitting on the floor by the window, Pipit sitting on the bottom bunk of the bed next to that window, and Malon sitting on top. I 'accidentally' ended up on the bunk with Zelda and Aryll sat in the space in between Pipit and Sheik on the floor. Situated.

"So now that we're all here, let's go over the facts," Zelda suggested.

Sheik grinned. "I know I said it before, but I'll say it again: They were all girls." Zelda jotted that down on her notepad.

"We all just recently met them. For the most part anyway," Aryll added. Zelda also took note of that.

"Well, it's not important, but they all had different hair colors," Malon offered. She really hadn't said anything and I nearly forgot about her. "A blondie and bluie and a reddie."

While writing that down, Zelda said, "Thank you. Even if it is something as simple as their hairstyles, it does count for something."

There was an awkward pause for a moment when no one said anything. Pipit started swinging his feet back and forth. "They all seemed like 'high maintenance' kind of girls," he suddenly said.

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked.

"They seem like the type of girls who cares a lot about their appearance and spend a lot of time on it and stuff."

Zelda squinted her eyes for a second. "I'll go ahead and write that down, I guess."

Another pause. Aryll walked over the the bunk me and Zelda were sitting on. My sister leaned in and whispered something in Zelda's ear. While she was saying that, I couldn't help but notice her eyes flicker to me for a second.

"Nabooru too, actually," Zelda said out loud.

"Really?" Aryll asked, eyes widening.

Zelda leaned into Aryll and whispered something back. I picked up the words 'Link' and 'going to Ganondorf' in seperate sentences. I have no idea why they were suddenly talking about me, but whatever.

"It could easily be connected!" Aryll said aloud.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Zelda countered. "It could just be a coincedince. But even if it isn't a coincedince, why would that be a cause?"

Aryll shrugged as she walked back to her former place. "It was just an idea. I mean, Malon said something about their hairstyles!" Zelda went ahead and wrote whatever they were talking about down.

"I'm not the only one who feels left out, right?" Midna asked.

"I feel the same," said Pipit. I was about to say something to when I realized I was sitting next to Zelda. And Zelda had the notes. How could I get a glance at the notes without looking suspicious? Suddenly an idea came to mind.

I started fluffing Zelda's long silky hair. This was going to be great.

"Link...why are you playing with my hair...?" she slowly asked, quizzically. I ignored her comment and contuined to thread my fingers through her hair. Sheik gave me an amused look and Midna giggled. Aryll and Pipit started having their own conversation, minding their own business.

"There's something in your hair," I told her. I pretended to pull something out and throw it aside.

"Well, uh, is it out yet?" Zelda asked, somewhat warily.

"It's out," I confirmed, but still played with her blonde hair. "Your hair is so soft and silky. I could just chop it off and use it as a pillow!" That didn't sound stupid.

Zelda glanced at me kind of apprehensively. "Okay..."

"Can I braid your hair?" I asked suddenly.

She gave me a strange look but slowly agreed. Everyone else in the room that I could see gave me a very similar look. She turned the other way when I started to pull out her ponytail. Across the room Sheik started making kissy faces at us. Zelda must've done something to make him stop because he did, very suddenly.

I fluffed around with Zelda'a hair, twisting it in strange ways. "Do you even know how to braid hair?" she asked.

"Nope!" I told her. "But I am determined to figure it out!" After a few more minutes of pointless twisting and twirling Zelda finally moved into a position where I could see the notepad.

The paper read, "All 3 girls find Link cute." Even Zelda's handwriting was beautiful...but that's beside the fact. They all find me cute? It was a strange similarity, but I said nothing. There was also the hair thing too, I guess.

"You know what?" I asked Zelda. "I can't figure this out! Sorry!" I can't tell if the noise Zelda made after I said that was a sigh of disappointment or relief. Most likely the latter.

"Now what?" Pipit asked suddenly. We all looked around the room, but no one said anything else.

"What time is it?" Midna finally interrupted the silence.

I looked at the watch on my wrist. "Almost 2:45."

Midna hopped off the bed. "Well the next activity, a craft I think, is coming up at 3:00."

"We may as well go down to the mess hall," Sheik stated. Mess hall it is then.

Ohhhh! Stuff is actually starting to happen! *Gasp* It was going a little slower than I liked before, but it finally picked up! Hooray!

Well you can congratulate me for putting this chapter out! Yay! I've had it typed up for a while actually, but...things happened. Also, I'm sorry if I haven't done a whole lot of reading on here. Like I said, things happened. If you want to know details I can PM you, I guess.

Thanks for reading this chapter! I would also love it if you could review!

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays,

~Gliss~

P.S. As I said earlier, this is the last week for the poll!