Sorry for the long wait. Updates are going to be a bit slow now since I have a project in Linear electric circuits due to the third of January.
But after I'm done with it, I'm going to publish in my usual quick pace.
Dark opened his eyes slowly, wishing he could stay in bed for eternity. His head indeed felt much better, but mentally he was unprepared for the task that was forced upon him; he never wished to be a hero, and would definitely prefer his relatively peaceful life in the castle. He got out of bed, rubbing his eyes, grabbed his sword and walked down to the lobby where Link was already pacing restlessly. It was quarter to one.
"Don't you ever sleep?" Dark asked in a tired voice. Link turned to look at him with blankly and before he managed to answer Barak's voice was heard behind them.
"Sleeping is for pussies." The sorcerer stated with a large smirk, walking towards Link, "A strong macho man like our Link," he said while punching Link's shoulder, "doesn't need this kind of luxury."
Dark snorted, looking at Link's raging face while Barak wore a smug expression; apparently he drove sick pleasure from annoying Link. "Let's get going." Link barked and the other men followed silently, letting him lead the way. Dark took a look around for the first time; clock town was not much different than the towns in Hyrule, but it was nicely decorated for the festival. They followed Link to the north part of the city, and Dark heard Barak gasp dramatically from behind. He turned to see what Barak's amethyst eyes were looking at, a large balloon shaped as the dreadful Majora's mask. With a furious hiss the sorcerer lifted his hand, firing a red beam at the disturbing object, blowing it up.
"Hey did you blow it up?" a child called out, walking towards the three of them.
"I did." Barak replied with self satisfactory.
"Not bad for an old guy." The kid said, looking at Barak with narrowed eyes, and the sorcerer was deeply offended for being called old.
"I'm going to talk to the Great Fairy." Link said coldly, giving Barak and Dark a degrading glare, "You can keep on babysitting."
The child gave him a nasty look, and Link walked away, unbothered. "I can tell you the secret code for the hideout that leads to observatory." The boy said excited, and Dark noticed how Barak's ears pricked as the boy mention the observatory. "But that won't be easy. You will have to pass my test."
"Speak." Barak said, curious.
The child look around, and yelled "Guys, line up!" and a moment later four more children joined him, standing in a straight row. "If you can find all of us by nightfall, I'll teach you the code." The kid said, challenging them.
"You really think I would play hide and seek with you?" Barak snorted, looking at them scornfully.
The child looked hurt and disappointed and Dark found himself saying. "I'll do it." Barak looked at him with cocked eyebrow and the boy cheered and instructed him, "Close your eyes and don't pick! Count until sixty and then start searching."
Dark nodded and did as he was told, slowly counting until sixty so they would have enough time to find a good hiding. When he opened his eyes, none of the boys was in sight, and Barak said dryly, "Four of them ran to other parts of the town, but you should check those bushes for the fifth one." The sorcerer motioned with his head towards the wild flora in the eastern corner.
Dark nodded and ran to were Barak had directed him, and dove head first into that hedge, landing on his hands and rolling gracefully to soften the hit. Indeed the first kid was hiding there, and Dark grabbed his arm before he managed to run away. Needless to say, the other four were not that easy to find. Clock Town was rather big with plenty of places to hide, and the boys knew that town much better than he did. However, Dark had the senses of a predator, he saw the slightest movement in the crowd, heard the weakest noise in the tumult, and he was quite lucky as well.
He found one of the boys by pure coincidence; he sat on a medium wooden box to fasten the straps of his boot tighter, when he heard breathing from underneath him. He opened the box to reveal a furious boy, flushed and sweaty from sitting in a box during that hot, sunny day. Another boy he spotted at the roof of the inn; he ran quickly up the stairs and the moment he reached the top, the boy floated down using a Cucco. Dark made the riskiest jump of his life, leaping off the three story high roof to the central plaza, landing like a cat and quickly raising to his feet to catch the evasive kid.
Those kids were incredibly fast and furtive, thinking quickly and using the town properties for their advantage. Dark found himself actually enjoying that game, and a great satisfaction filled him each time he found another kid. He ran after the last one through half of the town, and managed to catch him only because he recalled a short cut some other kid used before. He should up at the end of the boulevard, and he kid ran straight to him, still expecting Dark to show up behind him. "How did you do that?" the boy demanded to know in a whiny voice.
Dark shrugged his shoulders with a secretive expression and said nothing until the boy said, "Fine, let's return to the north part, where all the others gather." Dark followed him back to where they had began their play, strangely proud of himself though it was only a children's game.
When he reached the north part, Link waited there with a dark expression. "Please do explain yourself." The blue eyed soldier demanded coldly.
"I fell no need to report you, Link." Dark said calmly, standing up against Link for the first time. "What did the Great Fairy tell you?"
"Something about Observatory." Link spat, clearly displeased with Dark. Meanwhile the rest of the boys gathered and their leader addressed Dark, "You passed our test. And as promised, I shall teach you the secret code." He stated and the boys rearranged their position, standing in line with their backs to Dark, a number printed on each shirt. Dark engraved the code in his memory and turned to Link with a smug expression.
"Now that I got us the password, we can go to your observatory." Dark said to Link, "Are you still mad at my misbehave?"
Link shook his head and mumbled something incoherent, appearing defeated, while Barak seemed delighted. Dark, still filled with self satisfaction, led the way to the eastern part of the town, where the hideout entrance was located. Dark whispered the code to the boy guarding on the entrance and all three men went down the steep slope, careful not to skid on the slippery stone. It became drastically colder as they lowered to a underground hall, a disturbing scent of moss hitting their noses, they had to jump from one platform to another to avoid walking in the murky water. Dark and Link led the way, as Barak dawdled behind them, unsatisfied with the place. Dark felt something very wrong about this place, as if someone knew they were coming here, and prepared for them some unpleasant surprises.
He walked into a narrow passage and inner sense ordered him to step aside, thrusting his sword upwards to the dark ceiling; a huge spider fell trembling on the floor in his death throes, and Dark looked disgusted on the sticky liquid covering his sword. He tried to clean the sword on the spider's still trembling body, but this green colored liquid stubbornly clang to his sword and he noted to himself to clean his sword later.
"Good instincts, Kid," Link said with a tight smile, granting Dark a friend punch in the shoulder.
"Kid?" Dark raised an eyebrow, as the Hylian soldier seemed approximately his age. Barak snickered behind them and said, "Don't let his looks fool you, Link is actually ancient."
The blue eyed soldier twisted his lips into an unpleasant smirk, and asked, "How old do I look?"
Dark shrugged, and said hesitating, "In your late or mid twenties I guess."
The sorcerer and the soldier broke into hysterical laughter, and Barak had to support his body using the wall so he would not fall off his feet. "Dark, Link was in his twenties when you fifteenth great grandfather was still breast feeding."
Dark raised an eyebrow at them, not sure if he believed what he was being told. Barak saw his expression of confusion and started to explain, "You are familiar with the legends of Hyrule, Aren't you? Well, during all of Hyrule's wars and crises during the last five hundred years, the was only one hero, the Hero of Time," Barak said, without the slightest hint of cynicism or contempt, pointing at Link.
"Actually, there was only one princess as well," Link said, suppressing a laugh, "Zelda kept the title 'Princess' since she felt 'Queen' was somewhat pompous. But she isn't a prince for half a millennium." the soldier said with a wide grin, "We have been making fun of her for being a pedophile, courting some who is twenty times younger than her."
Dark felt his cheeks burn, as Barak and Link both giggled uncontrollably. "And what about you?" Dark inquired, his gaze lingering on Barak,unable to believe his boyish figure and flawless features belonged to such an old man.
Barak sighed deeply, rubbing his chin and replied, "As old as they are."
"That is absolutely ridiculous," Dark stated with a wave of his hand, "But we will delve into it once we leave this disgusting place."
and with that he marched forward, to enter another room with a large balloon floating near on of the walls, shaped exactly as the one they saw in north Clock Town, designed to resemble the Mask of Majora. It pooped a second later, when Barak aimed one of his magical attack at it, and revealed a ladder and a secret passage behind it. They climbed on the ladder and walked through the pathway, to reach the bottom floor of the observatory, an octagonal room with many boxes, jars and a surprisingly, a scarecrow.
Dark walked to the scarecrow, wondering why would this thing even be in the lower floor of an observatory, and jumped backwards with a gasp when the wooden man opened his mouth and talked, "Hey baby, do you wanna dance with me? When can forget time and dance until dawn..."
"I...I think I'm going to this tempting offer..." Dark stuttered, looking wide eyed at the scarecrow.
"Well, that's too bad, you should come by whenever you feel like dancing. I know of mysterious song that allows you to manipulate the flow of time..." the scarecrow continued to chat casually when Dark felt Barak's hand closing on his arm with a death grip. "If you play the song backwards you can slow the flow of time. If you play each note twice in a row, you can move half a day forward through time."
Barak's grip on his hand tightened even more, if that was even possible, "Are we going to be saved by a stupid scarecrow?" Barak whispered with a shaky voice. "He's obviously talking about the Song of Time. Which means what I found in the prophecies is accurate, we can probably go backwards through time with some kind of version of that song. Now we just have to find that damned ocarina."
"So what are we waiting for? Let's go up to the observatory." Dark said with a new hope in his voice, leading them up the spiral stairs.
...the rest is in the next chapter!
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