Chapter 10: Challenge
"Cut it out already! I can walk!" Edward yelled, he had been poked and prodded towards Lake Hylia for hours, and it was starting to get old. They had finally started to see the edge of the lake but Edward saw something else, he couldn't clearly see what it was yet, so he ignored it. Link growled at the Zora behind him when he was poked in the back, so they decided to poke Ed instead. Midna had hidden in Ed's shadow when they were captured.
Ed was starting to make out the shape of a crowd as the proceeded. "Oh, god." Edward grumbled as he started to clearly make out everything. It seemed to be an enormous ring of seats around the lake, banners and signs hung from trees and hundreds of people cheered and whistled as Edward was brought forward.
There were Zoras, humans, and even a few gorons mixed in the crowd. "I thought this would be a private competition." Edward looked at all the people, they were all looking at him. This made him feel small….smaller. "This way," a Zora solider said, he poked Ed in the back to make him move toward a giant throne were the king would sit, beside it was a smaller throne were the princess would sit.
Edward groaned and reluctantly stepped up to it. A large horn was blown and everyone went silent. "Presenting his royal majesty, King Zora, and his daughter Princess Rumon." There was a large blast of cheering as Rumon and the King stepped out and sat on the thrones. The King held up a hand to stopped the cheering and it subsided.
The King looked down a Edward. Ed cringed. "Uh, Hey your Majesty. What's up?" The King half-grinned. "You broke your promise, Edward Elric, why?" Edward thought about his answer. "Well, I kinda lost track of time…" The king just shook his head. "Well, we'll just have to start the compaction now."
"Why do you have so many people here? I thought this was private." The King looked surprised. "I couldn't keep them out, so many people heard about this." Edward eyes widened. That could mean Zant heard about it, these people could be in danger. But there not going to leave without seeing the competition, so I'll have to make this quick.
Edward clapped his hands. "Well, let's get this over with. What do I do first?" The King stood up and cleared his throat. "THE GAMES WILL KNOW BEGIN! OUR COMPEDITOR, EDWARD ELRIC, SHALL COMPLETE FIVE ROUNDS OF COMPETITION! IF HE FAILS TO COMPLETE THEM, HE WILL LOSE THE COMPETITION AND MARRY MY DAUGHTER, PRINCESS RUMON!" They all cheered as the princess stood up and bowed.
She sat down, looked at Edward and gave him a wink. Ed turned a little pink. The King silenced everyone. "THE FIRST COMPETITION WILL BE A FLIGHT MATCH, OUR COMPEDITIOR WILL CLIMB INTO THE LAKES CANNON, SHOT UP TO THE COCCO'S HOUSE AND JUMP OUT OF THE HOUSE WHILE HOLDING ON TO A COCCO AND LAND AT THE TOP OF THE SPINNING PLATFORM."
Edward looked at him like he was crazy. "You're crazy!" Edward said. "a cucco couldn't support my weight for that long, and the acceleration I would get from being shot out of a cannon could kill me!" The Zora King seemed not to noticed Edward's complaints.
"LET THE FIRST ROUND BEGIN!" The King sat down and nodded to the soldiers to start. They blew a horn that seemed to be right next to Ed's hear. "AHH HELL! What was that for?" Edward rubbed his ear. "The time's started, better get moving." The King said. "I have a time limit?"
Edward looked around wildly for the cannon, seeing it he ran off in that direction, followed by Link. There was cheering and whistling as Edward ran across the wooden planks to the island with the cannon.
Ed jumped on to the island and ran up to the cannon, but the entrance was blocked by a creepy looking clown guy. " 'Scuse me." Edward tried to go passed him but was blocked.
"I'm letting you up that easily, you have to pay." The man grunted. "WHAT? Didn't they hire you for the competition?" Edward asked, frantic. "No one hires me, I'm self imploded."he said as-a-matter-of-factly. "Look, I don't have any money, and I have to get threw!" The man thought about this. "Well, If you can pay, you have to answer a riddle." you got to be kidding… "What is the color gold and the tiniest thing I've ever seen?" Was the riddle. Edward looked down, thinking.
Suddenly, he looked up, the man was laughing at him! "What's so funny?" Edward growled, annoyed that he lost his train of thought. "The answers you, flea." He laughed like crazy as Edward fumed loudly. "All right, all right, I'll let you pass." he stepped aside. "Thanks for nothing, bastard." Edward grumbled and stepped into the cannon.
"Just leave the dog here, Blondie." Link stepped back to give them room. The man walked over to a large music box. He stretched him arms and grabbed the handle. He started to spin it faster and faster and faster.
Meanwhile, inside the cannon. Edward yelped as felt the cannon started to turn. From outside he heard an odd circus song start to play and he fell back in the tight space as the cannon leaned forward. "Uh, Midna?" "Yeah?" Edward gulped. "Don't cannons ?"
He was shot out of the cannon. He screamed and thought that he was going to die from the acceleration. But suddenly it was over, Edward opened his eyes. He was standing on his feet in the middle of a platform with a target painted on the floor.
Edward shook from fright, sunk to his knees, and hung his head. "I'll never understand how this time works." Edward mumbled. "FIVE MINUTES LEFT!" Edward yelped and leaped in the opposite direction of the booming voice. It was a speaker that hung at the top of the door. Edward shook his fist at it, "Stupid thing, trying to give me a heart attack." he grumbled and opened the door.
He looked around, "Where am I?" He saw a ladder and started to climbed down it. SCREECH! "GAH!" Edward yelped and fell back, smacking his back on the floor. "Damn," He rubbed his head, he had stepped on a cucco when he was stepping down. "Stupid pigeon." He grumbled.
There was an arrow pointing towards another creepy clown guy. Only this one was thin and happy. Edward rolled his eyes and walked up to him. "Hi, are you ready to fly?" The man asked, a little to cheerful. "Yeah, Yeah.. What do I have to do?"
"Just grab a cucco." He pointed to the cuccos running around. Edward tip toed up to one and snatched it. It cried and flailed, but Ed ignored it. He walked back over to the clown. "Alright, now can I go?" "Not so fast, you have to answer my riddle." Edward cut him off. "If you're going to say, 'what's golden and the smallest thing I've ever seen' don't even bother." The clown looked shocked.
"How did you guess my riddle?" He asked. Edward pushed him into the lake. He stepped up to the plank and took a deep breath. He looked down of the platform he was supposed to land on. He saw it, along with the crowds of people cheering him on.
Edward breathed in, and with a running start, jumped of the platform. There was an explosion of cheering as he jumped. "oh dear god, oh dear god, oh dear god….." Edward had shut his eyes tight and was relying Midna to tell him how to steer. "Just keep going and don't let go!" Midna said. "NO DUH!" Edward screamed, peeking open his eyes. He saw the platform becoming more visible.
He cringed as he descended, screaming in his head that it would be over soon. A sure enough Edward landed on the platform seconds later and was greeted with cheers from the crowd. He also heard happy barking from Link. "Wee-woo." Edward put down the panting chicken and stood straight as the platform spun round and round. "Hey look, your girlfriend's holding something up." Midna giggled.
Edward turned to look and Rumon, and saw that she was holding up a sign. It read. 'U R A Q T' Edward cocked his head. "Whatever that means. Hey look, money!" He opened the chest that sat on the platform. He was forced again to hold up his prize. YOU GOT A ORANGE RUPEE! IT'S WORTH 100 RUPEES!
Edward stared at the rupee. "Your currency is gemstone?" Edward knocked on the stone. "It's not a gemstone it's a rupee." Midna said. "Whatever." He jammed it into his pocket and started to jump down the platforms. He meet up with Link at the bottom. "That wasn't so bad." He assured Link. Link nodded. They all walked back over to the kings thrown, the crowd still going wild.
Edward bowed slightly went they reached him. "So, Kingie, impressed yet?" The King smiled, "Not yet, my boy. You still have two more challenges to complete." He stood up and silenced everyone again. "The challenger did well in the first round. But the next round is even more menacing and terrifying. It is a challenge of strength."
The challenges are taking longer to write than I thought, but the next one will be the last. Then they will go on to Death Mountain! DUH DUH DUH! Thanks for reading, I hope you'll read more!