Chapter 6

Infiltration

"You what us to do WHAT?" Sheik demanded, His eye twitching slightly.

When taking a short break at Hyrule Lake, Link and Sheik had located a bottle written by the missing Zora Princess, Ruto. They had decided that they should take it to the girl's father so that he could do something to save her from the whale's stomach the note said she was in. No offence to the king but… he was large and had the mobility of fish sticks in tarter sauce.

"I want you to go and save the princess," the king said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"From inside the whale behind you?" Link said skeptically and much calmer than Sheik.

"That is where Ruto says she is in this note so, yes."

The boys looked at each other before groaning and agreeing. As they waited for the king to move, Link pulled out a deck of cards and began playing go fish with Navi as Sheik stood to the side and watched.

"Got any twos?"

"Go fish. Any Fours?"

"Nope. Nines?"

"Darn it, I just picked it up."

"Wait a minute…" Sheik cut in. "How can you pick up and hold cards that are as big as you with hands as small as yours?" Link looked at her curiously as well.

"Er… I just can. Oh look! We can go though now."

"Don't change the subject," Sheik growled. Navi whimpered and backed away from him.

Link just sighed and walked up the path leading to the king's throne after he collected his cards. Navi flew after him quickly to get further away from Sheik who was still glaring slightly at her. The boys waded through the gates behind the king into a large body of water.

A ridiculous looking whale floated in the deeper water nearby. Link and Sheik looked at each other and walked to the edge of the water, looking around. Nothing else seemed to stand out so they reluctantly walked over to the front of the whale.

"So… How do we get it to swallow us like it did the Princess?" Sheik asked.

"Offer a fish?" Link suggested pulling out a large jar that held a small fish in it. He dumped the fish and the water out of the jar and stuffed the empty thing back into his bag.

Before they could do anything else, the whale opened its mouth wide and began inhaling everything in front of it. Sheik yelled and tried to grab onto one of the pillars surrounding them. His fingers just barely brushed the surface when he lost his balance and was sucked in. Link lost his grip on the ground and soon followed. When the ten year olds were safely in its mouth, the wale closed it and sat there just as calmly as before. Inside, Link and Sheik were picking themselves up off of the tongue.

"That was unpleasant," Link growled as he tried to free himself from the saliva.

"No kidding," Sheik groaned from next to him. "Now wh-?" he was cut off by a scream from deeper in.

Without a word, they ran in that direction, not even noticing that their littlest traveling companion was not present. They slipped and slid across the slippery innards until they ran straight into the princess they were supposed to be saving. Link let out a startled yelp as something a head shorter than him collided with his chest and let out another scream. He looked down quickly as he sat up. A young Zora girl their age was clutching to his tunic tightly.

"Link! Bari!" Sheik yelled.

Link tried to stand to pull out his boomerang but the girl whimpered and held him tighter. "Hey," He said to her as the Bari floated closer. "If you don't want to die, you have to let go. I need to fight." The girl shook her head vigorously. "I promise we'll protect you but we can't do that if you don't let go." She looked up at him with her big purple eyes. "Please."

She nodded and let go of him. Link stood up quickly and pulled out his boomerang. Sheik was already dispatching the giant jellyfish but more were coming from further in the whale's intestines. Link began working as well, while keeping his eye on the girl behind him.

"Something has to be controlling these things," Sheik said as he backed up next to Link and caught his boomerang. "These things don't go after prey in such big groups unless there's something giving them orders."

"T-there's a large thing attached to the ceiling up ahead," the girl said quietly.

The boys looked at each other. "We'll clear a path," Link said catching the boomerang. "If we destroy all the Bari in front of us and run ahead, then there won't be any behind us."

"Then one of us can keep the other Bari from getting behind us while the other fights the ring leader," Sheik finished. "Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that?"

Link just rolled his eyes and turned to the Zora. "You up for this?" She nodded shakily. "Alright. Let's go."

The boys began taking out the Bari as quickly as they could while moving forward. They moved slowly but eventually made it to the stomach where the "large thing" sat surrounded by more Bari. Link nodded to Sheik and ran ahead. Sheik stood protectively in front of the Zora and destroyed any Bari that dared come too close.

Link approached the parasite thing in the middle of the stomach while avoiding the acidic stomach juices at all cost. When he got closer the creature released the Bari surrounding it and sent them toward Link. The boy was able to dispatch them quickly enough and moved even closer. He brought out his Katana and began slashing the vulnerable part of the parasite's body. It tried to fight back with beams of electricity but Link moved too quickly to be hit.

"LINK! BEHIND YOU!" Sheik shouted, panicked.

Link turned around and saw an electrified tentacle heading his way. Without thinking, Link back flipped and landed on top of the Bari, jumped off and threw his boomerang at it. The creature exploded sending goop everywhere.

Unfortunately, Link's landing wasn't as graceful as he hoped. One of his feet landed in the acidic liquid destroying his boot and burning his foot horribly. He hissed and pulled his foot out quickly.

"Link! You okay?" Sheik called after seeing how close his friend was to the liquid.

"Got my foot," Link called back as he dodged another electrical blast. "I'll be fine. Concentrate on your own fight." Sheik did so reluctantly as Link ran back toward the parasite. It fell with little more resistance. Both the parasite and the Bari began to bulge before exploding.

A goop covered Link walked gingerly over to Sheik and the Zora girl. "You know," he said to Sheik as the Sheikah swung Links arm over his shoulder, "we really need to learn how to fight these monsters and not get covered in their guts every time the boss gets killed."

Sheik chuckled as the group hobbled toward the mouth again. They looked around when they made it to the whale's teeth. "How do we get out of here?" Sheik asked no one in particular. "We can't exactly pull out another fish and get the same results…"

"Don't worry," The Zora girl said walking over to the side of its mouth. "I know how to get him to open up." She tickled the whale on the inside of the jaw. They all stumbled as the whale moved and open its mouth. "See?"

"How do you-?"

She giggled. "As Jabu-Jabu's future caretaker, I have to learn how to clean his teeth, inside and out."

Sheik looked disgusted but Link elbowed him in the gut. "So the Royal Zora Family is the caretaker of Jabu-Jabu?" Link asked politely. She looked at him confused as they climbed out into the fresh air. "We found Princess Ruto's note and seeing as you are the only Zora girl inside Jabu-Jabu…"

"Oh," she said. "Yes. I am Princess Ruto. Members of our royal family don't always act as caretakers. I just wanted to do something that I felt would actually have meaning."

"Gotcha."

"Um…" she said, suddenly blushing as they stood on the stone outside. "Thank you so much for saving me. That thing suddenly attacked me when I was cleaning his teeth alone. If there's anything I can do for you…"

Link blinked as he leaned on Sheik for support. "Actually," Sheik said slowly. "we were sent by Princess Zelda to gather the Spiritual Stones. If you could maybe talk your father into letting us have it that would be great."

Ruto giggled. "I don't need my father's permission to give it away. They say that I'm supposed to give it to the man I become engaged to." She handed three sapphires surrounded by gold to Link and grabbed onto his arm.

Link blushed furiously and tried to worm his arm out of her grip. "Ah…" Sheik snickered next to him. Link coughed. "Ruto, I'm very flattered but, we're only ten and members of two different races. I don't think this will work out very well, and Sheik and I need to get these stones to Princess Zelda to keep them protected from Ganondorf."

Ruto giggled again before pulling away. "I know. Maybe when we get older it'll work out. Come back and visit soon okay?"

Link forced a smile. "I'll see what I can do." Ruto nodded and skipped off toward the exit. "Shut up Sheik, it's not funny."

"OUCH! Hey, where's Navi?"

Yay! Chapter 6 is up!

On a sadder note, school's really been interfering with typing new chapters. I have about three chapters lined up after this so far, however, unless I can find more time to type, the updates might slow down so that you don't have to wait a month for each chapter or something. Stupid homework! X( I'll do my best to not let that happen.

Like I said before, if you have any questions or see any mistakes, please leave them in reviews. Thanks for reading. :)