Chapter Three, Part Five: Stone, Stolen

Link leapt at Veran with a yell and she deflected his blade while his feet were still in the air. He fell to the ground and scrambled to block a vicious swipe at his ribs. Link skipped away; wondering how he was going to beat this woman. She was too tall and - as much as he hated to admit it - he was too short. He pulled out his slingshot. "Where'd you get that?" Veran laughed when she saw the little thing. "A toy store?"

"The Great Deku Tree," Link answered. "And it always flies true!" With that he let a seed fly.

Veran ducked and the seed flew harmlessly over her head. She began to laugh... until Link's next missile connected with the center of her crown. "Ow! What the hell are those things?"

"Deku Seeds," Link told her as he charged towards the thief. Veran sprung away and slashed at Link's face. Link blocked it on his shield and tried to stab her, but his reach was too short.

"Shorty." Veran smirked.

Link was tempted to fling his sword at her, but he knew if he did that, he'd probably just lose the sword. So he held onto it and backed away from Veran. They circled each other, searching for openings. Link began to circle closer slowly. Veran let him come, wanting to get rid of this pesky green gnat. She attacked his right side and he caught it on his shield. The wood was holding up surprisingly well, Veran's sword wasn't leaving any marks on it. Link used his shield to push Veran's sword away and followed it to get closer to the woman. She dodged his attacked, but his sword still cut through her cloak. Something fell out and landed on the ground with a thud. The fight froze. Link and Veran stared at the glittering stone and then up at each other. For once, Link's short stature was a good thing. He was able to drop to the ground faster and grab the fist-sized stone. Veran yelled with frustration as he somersaulted away. "Give it back, boy!" she yelled.

"Stealing is wrong!" Link shouted. He started to run for Epona.

"Get back here!" Veran commanded, running after him.

"Not likely!" Link answered.

"Hurry, Link!" Ciela yelled frantically. Link was fast but Veran was older, stronger, and - though Link would loathe to admit it - a whole lot taller. Link also didn't have much of a lead in the first place. Veran was nearly on him, her fingers reaching for his collar. "Faster!" Ciela yelled. The boy tried to pour on spped, but there wasn't enough time. Veran's fingers were only millimeters from grabbing Link, less than a half a second. Time! Ciela thought suddenly.

If asked, Ciela would never really be able to explain what happened next. She felt a strange tug and then there was a flash and the whole world except for her, Link, and Epona bled to black and white. Ciela suddenly felt woozy and nauseous, her vision went gray and fuzzy and she fell to the ground.

Link didnt' know what had just happened, but he knew to take advantage of it. He saw Ciela fall so he scooped her up and tucked her in his pocket. He whistled for Epona and hopped on her back. He took one last look at the strange scene behind him then urged Epona to take off. They left the frozen scene behind and they were just disappearing over a hill when there was another flash of light and the color returned to the world.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Link heard Veran roar.

He grinned to himself as he rode away.

"Goddamnit!" Veran roared as she stormed back to her horse. How had that happened? She had been reaching out to grab him and suddenly he had just... not been there. It was a form of magic unlike any she had ever seen. With teleportation there was always an indicator of some sort; a flash of light or a noise. But he had just... disappeared. Goddamnit! She was not looking forward to telling her boss about this. Hopefully he wouldn't do anything too terrible.

She stalked back to the caravan and stormed towards her wagon. "Veran?" Mado, her right-hand man, asked cautiously.

"Shut it," she snapped. He drew back and she disappeared into her wagon. She pulled a simple wooded box out of a drawer and slid its lid off. She gingerly lifted a blue crystal out of its resting spot atop a velvet pillow and placed the gem on her bed. She grimanced before passing her hand over its surface. The crystal's sky blue color deepened to a midnight blue and began to swirl. "What?" a cold, cruel, male voice snapped.

"Um..." she hesitated. "We have a problem."

The man sighed. "Figures. What happened?"

"Um... the stone kind of got stolen. From me, I mean."

The man sighed again. Veran was suddenly very glad that he wasn't there in person. "Veran, aren't you a Gerudo?"

"Yessir."

"So, doesn't that make you a master thief."

She paused and winced before answering. "Yessir."

"SO HOW THE HELL DID SOMEONE STEAL SOMETHING FROM YOU?"

Veran flinched. "Well, sir, I'm not entirely sure what happened."

Silence from the man. At any moment, Veran expected some kind of angry power to explode out of the crystal and strike her down. Nothing like that, though, instead the man spoke again, obviously trying to control his temper. "Do you at least know who took it?"

Vrean nodded eagerly, glad that she knew the answer, before she remembered that he couldn't see her. "Uh, yessir. It was a young Kokiri boy named," she whracked her brain for the name, "Link! His name was Link!"

Silence from the other side again. Then the man began to laugh. It was a cruel, heart-chilling sound. "How perfect! How utterly splendid! Ha ha ha, this is great!"

"Sir?" Veran asked cautiously.

"Don't worry about it, Veran," the man said as his laugh died down. "Just go ahead and come on back."

"Yessir."

The connection went dead. Veran stared at the crystal for a long time afterwards, deep in thought.

Link stopped after an hour of riding and carefully jumped down from Epona so he didn't jostle Ciela. He pulled Ciela out of his pocket and gently laid her on the ground. The fairy groaned and her color pulsed a little brighter. "Hey, Ciela," Link whispered.

"Five more minutes, Oshus," Link muttered.

Oshus? Who's that? Link wondered. "Ciela, it's me, Link," he said, a little louder. "You need to wake up."

Ciela yawned but otherwise ignored him.

Link started to panic a little. What if she was in a coma? WHat if she was stuck like that? What if she died or worse... became a zombie? A zombie fairy... an interesting idea. Could fairies rot? Focus! Link mentally slapped himself. THis was no time to get distracted. Ciela needed him! But the minutes passed and Link stilled had no idea what to do. He was just about to run screaming for help when Ciela spoke in a weak voice. "Link?"

Link yelped with joy. He scooped Ciela up and spun her around, laughing. "You're okay! You're not a zombie!"

"Of course I'm not a zombie! Now put me down before I throw up on you."

Link quickly set Ciela down. "What happened? What did you do back there? What was that?"

"Link, those were all the same questions. And I don't know what happened back there. Something weird, that's for sure."

"Well, whatever it was, it worked. We're home free now. We just gott get the stone back to Princess Zelda."

"I agree." Ciela flapped her wings woozily and tried to rise into the air. She made it about three inches before groaning and collapsing back to the ground.

"Woah, careful there," Link said. He scooped her up and tucked her gently in his pocket.

"Wait a second, Link," Ciela said. He took her back out of his pocket and she looked around. "Uh oh. What time is it?"

"I don't know. Almost dusk."

She jumped out of his hand and buzzed around frantically. "We've got to get somewhere safe!"

"Why?" Link asked, wondering what she was so freaked out about.

"Don't you remember that stroy I told you about the Stalchildren? They come out at night. We need to get somewhere safe!"

Link paled. "Oh no. Where can we go?"

"I donno," Ciela answered worriedly.

Suddenly Epona bumped Link's shoulder. She made eye contact with him then jerked her head towards something off in front of them. Understanding dawned in Link's mind and he grabbed Ciela out of the air. "Epona knows where to go!" He jumped off the horse who took off at a steady canter. A series of buildings surrounded by a tall fence loomed up in front of them. Link dept on eye on the sky and the other on the rapidly approaching buildings. Link figured Epona was taking them to Lon Lon Ranch and he was worried about seeing Indigo again. Partly because he would have to explain why he had Epona, but mostly for another reason he couldn't explain and wasn't sure he wanted too.

Epona carried him into the ranch and towards a small fenced in clearing. Faint, familiar music drifted to Link's ears. They rode into the fenced off portion and Link spotted a dark silouette in front of them. Epona rode right to it and neighed. Link realized with a jolt that it was Indigo. The singing stopped. "Epona!" Indigo yelped joyfully. She wrapped her arms around Epona's neck, not having noticed Link yet. Link slipped off Epona's back as quietly as he could, but the low thud was enough to get her attention. "Link," she said with surprise.

"Uh, hi," he said awkardly.

"What happened? Why is Epona with you?"

"It's kinda a long story," he answered sheepishly.

"I've got time."

He hesitated then told her part of the story, omitting the parts about Princess Zelda, and the Kokiri. Instead of going to the forest, he had been taking a walk when a gang of bandits had viciously attacked him and stolen something very important. Link had tried to chase them down, but the bandits were on horses. Suddenly, he'd had a flash of inspiration. Epona's Song! Maybe it could call her! He'd played it and low and behold, Epona had come! They had chased down the bandits and, after a long and heroic battle, Link had recovered the stolen item. In Link's version, he was a dashing and heroic figure who valiantly rushed into battle and defeated the bandits to reclaim his stolen item.

"Where'd you get that sword and shield?" Indigo asked once he was through.

"Er, what?"

"Those weapons. Where'd you get them?"

"Oh, uh, the Zoras."

Indigo seemed to accept it. "That's really brave, Link," she said, sliding closer to him with her hands clasped behind her back as she spoke. "You must have been really scared."

"Naw," Link said modestly. He shrugged and glanced down. There was a ladybug by his foot. He looked back up and jumped; Indigo was standing less than a half a foot in front of him and smiling slightly. He noticed she had really pretty blue eyes. And nice teeth. They were very straight and white.

"Well, it was really brave," she said again and moved a little closer to him.

"Uh, thanks." Link was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. He backed up a step, but Indigo came with him. She reached out and took his hand and Link's back went rigid. "I-" he started but Indigo placed a finger of her free hand on his lips. Then she wrapped his arms around his neck and moved in closer so there was barely a hairs-breadth of space between them. Link gulped slightly, his face flushing with heat. He knew he looked like a tomato. "I-" he tried again but this time Indigo stoppe dhim with her lips. They were soft, like a piece of silk, and warm. Link forze. He drew back and stumbled away, breaking her grip. He stared at her, wide-eyed.

Indigo also went bright red. "L-Link," she began, but the boy turned and ran, stumbling over his own feet in his haste.

Enia: End of -! What chapter is this? Chapter Three! End of Chapter Three! And Happy Halloween to everybody! My favorite holiday! 'Cept my parents won'tlet me go trick-or-treating. Damn them. My theory is that you're never to old to go trick-or-treating. We're watching a weird video in American Studies right now. It's about the ban on achohol. Well, I'll see you guys in December, k?

Samik: Aren't you forgetting something?

Enia: What?

Samik: Aren't you forgetting something?

Enia: Forgetting what?

Samik: Your wrap-up!

Enia: Right! I guess I kinda forgot about that with all the drama of the last coupla author's notes. So Link has successfully recovered the Kokiri Stone, he's fought his first boss, pursued some bandits, and had his first kiss forced upon him. And we find out a little bit more about Ciela. Not bad for a day's work. AND THERE ARE ONLY 19 DAYS LEFT UNTIL SKYWARD SWORD COMES OUT! EEEEEEE! So, I'll see you all in December (Nanowrimo). Have a good Thanksgiving, and November and remember: don't do drugs and live a happy life. Thank you and good-bye. Enia Silverson, signing off.