AN: Please remember to read and review. Constructive criticism is something I love, because I can improve my story slightly and you can enjoy it more. Everybody's happy.
Excuse any spelling mistakes and bad grammar.
Funnily, not much bad language in this chapter. Not that I've been counting.
You know the drill. Zelda © Nintendo.
Chapter 9: The dangers of a hookshot
"Rhian! I've been waiting at your front door for hours!" Kyle yells to me.
Kyle? I pick myself up off the floor, stepping over Link who is so indulged in gaping open-mouthed at the book that he probably doesn't even know I've moved, and look out my window. "Hours?" I ask suspiciously, not bothering to say sorry.
"Well…" Kyle begins, gaze falling to the floor and shifting his feet.
"Liar." I say simply, narrowing my eyes and considering throwing something at his head just because it would be funny.
"Alright, so I've not been waiting here for hours. Point is, I have been waiting here." He snaps back, head whipping up to stare at me. I roll my eyes, and look at Link. Still gaping at the book. Stupid fairy boy.
"Why?" I ask Kyle, when the thought hits me that I don't know why he would want to wait at my house. Kyle coughs something inaudible, causing me to turn and glare at him. Silence, it's like he's waiting for me to figure something out.
"You don't remember?" The boy says finally, breaking the silence. He winces, and I can only snort in laughter when I realise all this looking up is hurting his neck.
"Obviously." I say, turning and walking away from my window. Once again I have to step over Link, and nearly end up treading on his head as he moves to sit up. "Shit!" I manage as I crash to the floor.
Somewhere outside the house I hear Kyle yell a "Ha!" as if he knew what just happened. Somewhere behind me I hear Link ask "What are you doing?"
"I'll give you 'what are you doing'." I say sharply in reply to Link's question, righting myself and rolling my eyes. "I wish you'd stay still when people are trying to step over you, because you don't have the decency to move."
Link blinks, lost in his stupidity, and all I can do is narrow my eyes, and say the word "Dense." right in his face. At that, he pouts and folds his arms, exactly how a child of nine or ten might. I smirk, and then resume going downstairs to let Kyle in.
"Link, Kyle. Kyle, Link." I say with a proud, matter-of-factly tone, pointing to the appropriate person for the name.
"Hiya Kyle!" Link states in a friendly way, pulling an innocent smile and a closing his eyes, and then offering Kyle a hand to shake.
Aw, he looks cute when he does that… Please tell me I did not think what I think I just thought. I slap a hand to my head, and turn away from Link quickly so he might not catch the beginnings of a blush. Do I laugh or do I cry at what I just thought?
I would have probably continued wallowing in my self-pity had Kyle not muttered an oath and punched me gently between the shoulder blades. "Ou-ch!" I say, expression each and every letter. It didn't actually hurt that much, but I did it for added affect anyway.
Kyle shakes his head in a I-pity-you-so-much-words-cannot-describe way. And he then follows that up with a long sigh, and I dread what's coming next. "I really thought you were beyond that."
I squint to show my confusion. "What?" I ask him, my own stupidity probably quite evident.
"Cosplayers."
Oh. My. God. I feel myself physically keel slightly, and then I regain myself. "He," I say, pointing at Link as if he's just offended me in some way, "is no cosplayer."
"Er, cos-"
"Shut up Link. Not now." I say fiercely, and Link recoils like I've just bitten him and I might just do so again.
Kyle throws Link a horrible look, the I-can't-believe-you-would-corrupt-my-friend-like-that look that I never thought possible of Kyle, and then pats me on the back. "Come on now, Rhian. Own up, why is a cosplayer in your house?"
"He is NOT a cosplayer!" I snarl, pushing Kyle away from me. "Look, I mean just look at him Kyle!"
"I am. And I see someone who, while they look exactly like Link from Ocarina of Time, is a cosplayer."
I let out a half growl, half sob, and bury my face in my hands. Then, without warning and without asking permission from Link, I march over to the Hero, and take his bottomless pocket. I hold it in my fist, and it fits neatly. "See this?" I say to Kyle.
"Hey that's mine." Link cuts in.
Death glare time. Link is silenced.
"Yeah, it's a.. purse kind of thing."
"About as big as a wallet, right?"
"Yeah. What are you getting at?"
I go to thrust my arm into it and Link shouts a few words of protest. Too late, I do so anyway and my entire arm disappears. And I yelp and recoil, a small bit of blood drips from the palm of my hand.
Link rushes over, and grabs my hand. "Stupid." He says, though in a good willed manner. "The hookshot doesn't always remain point down."
I slap Link's hands away from me in a futile attempt to have him leave me be, and although he steps away so I might glare at Kyle, Link refuses to let go of my left hand, which now seems to be bleeding intensely unless my eyes are deceiving me.
"This is gonna need a bandage, Rhian."
"Oh bugger off Link."
Kyle has gone pale, and he seems to twitch every now and then. "Believe me yet?"
"N-no." He stutters. He's already starting to believe me, even if he does deny it. Besides, the poor guy's shaking like a leaf in winds gale force 4 and up.
"Fine." I say, snatching my hand away from Link, diving back just as recklessly into the pocket, and this time pulling out the hookshot. Link snaps another few words of wisdom at me this time in a more irritable manner, now looking disgruntled that not only have I invaded his personal pocket with no bottom to it, but I've also got blood on his hookshot. I ignore his whining though, and throw the hookshot at Kyle.
Kyle hits the floor with a muted thud, and I burst into tears of laughter no sooner has he done so. "You idiot, Kyle!" I laugh, gripping my stomach with my good hand so I don't get blood on my clothes.
Link looks utterly shocked at my behaviour and drops to one knee beside Kyle, probably wanting to check the guy's still alive after the hookshot connected with his head. He breathes a sigh of relief when he notes Kyle's eyes are now open, and he looks furious.
"That," he bellows, standing up and punching me across the face, "HURT!!!". I am laughing so much I can't defend myself from the hit. In fact I can't even move to nullify the blow. I end up hitting the floor, and nearly biting my tongue. Lucky thing I didn't, because I might have ended up biting in clean in half.
No longer am I laughing. Instead I'm pulling myself up, being careful to keep my bloody hand away from my clothes, and now failing miserably, and looking at Kyle in shock of my own. "What was that for?" I ask finally, expression melting into a pained frown.
"That hurt!" He repeats, not quite so loud, and then throwing a threatening glare at the hookshot, which Link has picked up and is cleaning.
"You were meant to catch it." I say, not being able to resist a smirk at the look on his face, and the big read, ever so slightly hookshot shaped mark on his forehead.
Kyle takes a threatening step forward, but thankfully Link pulls him back. "For the love of Nayru, quit fighting!" He sneers, looking from Kyle to me.
Kyle goes pale again, and he shakes Link off him. I snigger. "Your face Kyle. But now do you believe that this is Link?"
Link looks at Kyle pitifully as he notes the mark on his head, and looks at me in disgust. "What?" I add to Link, pouting in a childish manner and disowning any responsibility I might have had in the past five minutes.
"Am I dead?" Kyle asks abruptly.
"…"
"So is this, like, hell?"
I sigh as Link shakes his head and throws another pitiful look in Kyle's direction. Then, I stand and walk forward, until my nose physically presses against Kyle. "Sadly Kyle, it's not. This just happens to be earth, Rhian's house. Ya know, where you just met Link, the Hero of Time." I say, patting him on the shoulder. And then with all the speed of a striking snake, I slap Kyle across his face.
"Ow!" He says, and I've just about lost count of how many times he's said 'ow' today. "Oh! Rhian! Link!"
"Well done, Kyle. Welcome to the real world."
"Are you alright?" Link says, pushing me away from Kyle and throwing a scowl at me as he does so.
Kyle throws Link a stupid grin, as if he'd been friends with him all his life. "Never better! Although.. I've a bit of a headache. Hey! Can I use your hookshot?"
Link blinks and takes a sudden step back, clutching his hookshot to his chest defensively while being careful not to stab himself like I did. "No." He says, before stuffing the hookshot away in his pocket.
I watch the scene unfold before my eyes with a mixture of feelings, mainly amusement and annoyance. Link, right now, seems to loathe my very presence. Doubtless he totally disagrees with me throwing the hookshot at someone's face. Still, it's not like Kyle's dead. Kyle, obviously having come to terms with all this Link business, is far too busy pestering the poor guy to use his items. To the point that he's trying to reach into Link's pocket, and Link is arguing against such actions. He's failing too.
It kind of makes me wonder what I'm going to do about tomorrow. I mean, my best friend Kyle, the epitome of tolerance and understanding, had a practical fit that ended up in… a little bit of a fisticuff. Nothing serious no, but Kyle is the most accepting person I have ever known. Ever in seventeen years. And Link? It would only take two or three fan girls and the poor hero will be mentally incapable of looking any women in the eye again. Mental scarring is not the worst thing he could suffer. Depending how 'true to form' some of these fan girls are, he might run screaming from Zelda the next time he sees it. And I'd hate for it to be me who is the reason Link can no longer serve as the hero… Nintendo would kill me, I'd render Link incapable of every further Legend of Zelda game. Ever. Wow.
I return to the real world, much like Kyle was made to do earlier, and with a heavy sigh, begin to approach Kyle. Who is still trying to invade Link's pocket. "Kyle man! Snap out of it! You look like your molesting the poor sod." I say to him, before grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him off Link.
"Was not." Kyle spits venomously in his defence. "I just wanted to see if he really carried everything he does in the game."
I offer a sorry stare at Link, who looks flustered and thoroughly bewildered, and can only dread to think what he'll look like tomorrow.
It smirked. It had found her. Out of all the girls in this planet, Dark Link had found the one girl with the book. He had only ended up needing to interrogate two people too. An impressive record when you consider Dark Link's interrogations are more based upon you escaping with your life.
The first girl had not been so lucky, not that Dark Link had cared. In fact, to his sweet delight, it gave him reason to run her through and be done with her. Yes, that was how things should be done. Run them through and be done with them.
Just like that blasted Hero. Him. The one who was Dark Link's only real reason for ever existing. And he hated the Hero with every ounce of hate he had in him. And since he was the mirror image of the epitome of kindness, that was a lot of hate. He wished that he could have run the Hero through before any of this ever happened. But he hadn't even reached the Water Temple before this girl… this Rhian, sucked him into this mess. And brought Dark Link along with him.
The young Shadow gnashed his teeth as if trying to intimidate someone. He would kill her. How dare she, a human who knew nothing in the ways of magic (or so Ganondorf had said) summon him, one of the highest Shadows ever created. It through Dark Link off his mission, and in the end was one big distraction. But now Dark Link knew who she was. She knew she had the Hero with her too. And that was perfect in every meaning of the word.
He, Dark Link, could kill two birds with one stone; return with the book, and tell Ganondorf that the Hero was dead. He would be released. He had to be. Ganondorf had promised Dark link his freedom at the day of his 'birth'. Kill the Hero, and you go free. And now he had to get a book. Which the Hero was guarding. It was as if destiny was on his side.
And that made Dark Link burst out with laughter, although to anyone's ears the laughter would have been hollow, and would have echoed despite there being a lack of anything to cause an echo. Destiny was working against her own servant, because Ganondorf has said this girl, whomever she may be, was said to be "Destiny's Child". Like the hero, but slightly different. Either Ganondorf was wrong, which Dark Link doubted, or destiny had other ideas for her 'daughter'.
"Rhian?"
I groan and feebly push away the hands on my shoulder. I don't want to wake up, so I won't.
"Rhian." That annoying voice.
"Oh shoo." I mumble, once again flicking away those pesky hands.
"Get up already!" The voice yells suddenly.
"Wha?!" I yell back as I sit up faster than… something that sits up at super speed, and then in my confusion topple from my bed. Thump. I've hit the floor. And that's a wake up call I have never really liked.
"Rhian?" Asks Link, a little more nervous than before. It's because he just knows that I'm going to be a bitch to him because he made me fall out of bed. In fact no, he woke me up. No-one but me, and I shall repeat me, wakes me up.
"You bastard." I mutter as I stand up, and readjust my pyjama shirt. "Now what?"
"Your mum says it's about time we left if we wanted to go shopping before… er, she called it road traffic." Link replies, a little more confused when speaking of traffic.
"Link, my favourite Hero of Time. Today you're going on a bus. It's the ride of a life time, believe me." I say, sarcastically.
"A what?"
Another long chapter. Yay! Okay, so finally Kyle gets to meet Link, and Rhian and our Hero get a taste of what things might be like in the future. Although I doubt Rhian will always throw the hookshot at people's heads. That's right kids, playing with hookshots is dangerous, and you shouldn't do it at home… in fact, you shouldn't do it AT ALL.
And Dark Link has found out who he's after. And who this girl is with. And there's finally a connection between the name of this story, and the story itself. Hurrah! I quite enjoyed writing this chapter, for reasons unknown to me. It was just fun to write.
Remember to read and review, and if you'd like to give any comments on what you think will happen (or what you might like to happen) then don't be afraid to say so.
Shadou Wolf
