If you read my review for the most recent chappy of Sci-Phy, you'll understand why I'm typing this now. Link is really angry at me since I didn't update at all last week. I'm not even going to try to blame field hockey camp, since he's already angry enough. For that reason, I will do my best on this chappy (gotta make amends with the Hylian, ya know?)… but then again, don't I always? Onward to chappy 11!

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Chapter 11 Red, Link, and the Star… AGAIN

"So you're tellin' me that when Green touched the star, he and you were both encased in eggs and the baby fell off?" Red said, unbelieving.

"That's what I'm tellin' you!" Link fairly shouted. "Don't laugh! It's not like anything else that's happened here makes any sense!" he added when he saw Red holding back fits of laughter. "I know I don't believe in the author… but do ya hafta assume that what I say is false?" Link asked, putting his hands on his hips and putting on one of those straight-eye-browed expressions that would be written on a computer as 'T.T'. The more he thought about the author, the more sense it made to him, but he tried not to think about it: the thought always managed to freak him out.

"That looks kinda girly." Red giggled.

Link slapped him across the airbag-like nose. "SHUT UP!"

"I could say something about what time of month it is, but I'm not going to for certain reasons." This time, Link punched him in the face.

*

"Why exactly are you so annoyed all of a sudden?" Red asked after being punched for the third time. They were nearing a small green block and two little creatures about the Yoshi's height that were wearing a type of glove that Link had never seen before… at least he thought they were gloves.

"I don't know!" Link shouted.

"Are you okay?" Red said, all pretense of teasing gone. "You're not hungry, are you?"

"That makes a whole lot of sense!" Link said sarcastically. "Assume that I'm PMSing, even though I'm a GUY, then the next second you assume that I'm hungry. What's YOUR problem?!?"

"Ah, just take this fruit!" Red said, thoroughly sick of Link's attitude. He thrust a pallie at the Hylian. Now that he thought about it, Link was kinda hungry. Maybe that was in fact the reason why he was so irritable. He started eating the fruit and when he finished, felt much better. He didn't remember why he was angry. Red had ground-pounded the two green creatures and they had exploded. He had also obtained several eggs from the green block. Link didn't understand where the eggs came from, but didn't really want to know. They advanced to find a yellow creature with a long piece of wood. "Baseball boys," Red said in disgust as he ground-pounded the yellow being. It exploded and Red and Link came to a block in the path and a winged cloud. Red threw an egg at the cloud, causing the barrier to recede.

"Wish I could get rid of barriers that easily," Link said.

Red just smiled as he jumped over the remains of the barrier. Along the way, there were dips in the ground. Situated right in the middle of the gaps were green flowers that resembled cacti. The flowers shot out yellow spiky balls which reminded Link all too much of the spiked ball that had initially caused the series of wounds on his abdomen. He looked down self-consciously to see that the scabs were miniscule. Some of the wounds had healed completely. He smiled and looked back over at Red. The Yoshi was preparing to leap across the first gap. "Be careful. I get the feeling that those things hurt when they hit you."

"If they didn't hurt I'd be worried that they were poisoned," Red responded, smirking.

"I'm serious."

"Aren't you always?"

"No, not always."

"Name one time that you weren't serious around me."

"Hmmm. Oh, I know! When I called you Nursey. I was goofin' around with ya. And there was the time when you said 'Can it Peanut Gallery!'"

"Fine, ya got me there. But still, you're usually serious. That point can't be dulled."

"Aw, nuts, you're right, Nursey!" Link joked.

"I'm gonna hurt you one of these days," Red vowed.

"I know, but I'm pretty sure if you tried, you'd find yourself on your butt and in two pieces soon enough."

"I guess you've got a point… or four of 'em. The conversational point and three swords… or at least two and a dagger."

"Gotcha," Link sneered and pointed his fingers one at a time at the Yoshi's heart as if they were guns (even though he didn't know what the devices were), then put on a more hospitable smile. By this time they'd advanced through quite a few of the cactus-flower things and Red had thrown an egg at a winged cloud to produce a flower allowing them to climb up to a higher platform. Link and Red jumped from wooden platform to wooden platform, gaining altitude. They dodged the projectiles from two of the cactus-flowers and reached the top. There were two flying Shy Guys randomly floating above them.

"I can see my house!" one of the Shy Guys yelled.

"That's what they ALL say!" The obviously veteran flier said.

"SO?!? Hey look at the tiny ants down there! They're so cute! I could just put them both in my pocket!"

"Saul, I could just knock you outta the sky," the second one said, clearly exasperated with the newbie.

"What? You never had the idea before, Martin?"

"No. It's not whatcha do the first time you fly," Martin retorted.

"It's what I do the first time I flied… flew," the Shy Guy corrected itself.

They continued to argue about a trivial topic until it annoyed Link enough that he commented on it.

"I wish I had a bow," Link said. "Just so I could shut them up."

"You'll get your chance. You'll get your chance," Red said, patting Link's arm. He would have given the Hylian the friendly gesture on the head, but his height, or lack thereof to be painfully accurate, prevented that.

"I hope so," Link growled.

"You will. Later."

"Wait a minute! I've got Din's Fire! I can just fry the things!" Link said, suiting action to words.

In moments, the Shy Guys lay in a heap of ash and Link and Red had advanced to a staircase. Red leapt off the edge of the staircase after giving a moderate look to see if it was a short enough drop. Link swallowed and taking a deep breath, followed suit. The unsettling feeling of freefall threatened to overcome Link, but he closed his eyes and counted to three. By the time he opened his eyes, the ground was only a few feet away from him. He tucked and rolled, just to ensure that he would escape relatively unscathed. The technique seemed to work, though he could feel that there would probably be new bruises on his shoulder and rump and the pain of the previous bruises flared up, though he was happy anyway. It was good to know that he could survive such a fall.

"Hey, Red, next time ya do that, try to warn me first," Link chuckled, giving Red a radiant grin.

"You know you liked it."

"Yeah, it was fun," Link admitted.

They continued on, only to find that the way was blocked by a wall. Red looked up back at the way they'd come to find a pinkish cloud with an arrow on it hovering high above their heads. Red threw an egg at it and the projectile redirected itself so it hit a dirt barrier, breaking it. A star bounced out and fell onto Red, who had moved into the path of the falling object. The second it hit, the baby jumped off of Red's back and Red and Link were both encased in eggs. Link mentally prepared himself for another beating like the first. This wasn't as bad as before, perhaps because he knew what to expect. After a little while, both of the eggs vanished, revealing Link and Red. Red scooped up the baby and placed him back on his back.

"Now do ya believe me?" Link asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah. It makes sense now," Red replied.

*

They came to two blue watermelons. Link pulled out the Kokiri Sword and grabbed one of the blue watermelons. He cut a piece from one and felt a slight chill from the fruit. Red ate the watermelon whole and spewed icy air at a few Shy Guys that were congregating around randomly. They froze under a thin sheet of ice.

"Whoa!" Link exclaimed. "That's cool. I wanna try it!" He gobbled up the slice and felt the cold cause his mouth to tingle. He blew a stream of icy air at a man-and-Yoshi-eating plant and it froze. "What are those things, anyway?" he asked as he ran it over, shattering the ice and the frozen plant.

"Piranha Plants," Red responded.

"Good ta know." Link sliced off another piece of the blue watermelon. This slice was noticeably bigger than the last one. He finished it quickly and blew more icy air. The cycle went on until the watermelon was gone. Link suddenly felt more energized. Maybe it wasn't the lack of sleep that had zapped his energy. Perhaps it had been the lack of food. "That was somehow more refreshing than a regular watermelon."

"They have their ways."

"I guess so."

They continued, climbing and coming to a maze. There were mice everywhere. "Wow. This place could use a few nice rattraps," Link said.

"You know about rattraps?" Red asked, astonished that the Hylian knew of such devices.

"Yeah, never used 'em myself 'cauz I think they're cruel, but when ya got this big of a colony, it's time to take some sort of action."

"Even if that action involves a hungry Yoshi?" Red asked.

"You're gonna eat them? You don't know where they've been."

"You didn't know where the fruit I handed you had been."

The thought turned Link's stomach. "Point taken." The Hylian moaned and Red almost felt bad for him… almost. It wasn't like he'd actually done anything to the fruit, he was just pointing out that he could have put it in something disgusting before giving it to him.

"Then again, you were really hungry. Hungry enough that it affected you're normal outlook. I didn't think you'd lose your cool over an empty stomach."

"I didn't think I would either." Link smiled. "If you wanna, go for it, but I won't hold the bucket for ya when ya barf."

"How pleasant."

"I try."

They navigated the maze filled with mice; Red stopped occasionally to grab a mouse or two with his tongue. The trip was uneventful. Eventually they came to Sky who was sitting on a log next to a stand of trees that Link was almost certain he had seen before. He pushed the thought from his mind. He must be going crazy.

"Hey, Sword-boy. Hey, Red. What's up, you two funny guys, you?" Sky asked teasingly. She hadn't forgotten her vow to hurt Red one of these days. She wasn't the type to do something like that.

"You know the usual: the sky, the clouds, the treetops," Red answered.

Sky lashed out with a fist and hit his huge nose dead on. Mario whimpered from his position on Red's back. Link walked around and picked up the baby. He cuddled Mario, who began burbling and cooing. Link tickled the baby's little belly and Mario laughed, a sound completely incongruous with Red's yelp of pain. Link looked up to see a dark red blotch on Red's nose and felt sorry for the Yoshi. Since Link had hit his nose earlier, it made Sky's punch hurt even worse. Red stalked off and Sky called after him, "Don't be a smart-mouth!"

She turned her attention back to Link. "Well, let's go Sword-boy. Red can't seem to handle anything these days." Link chuckled as he started off with Sky. He handed the baby to her and they began their leg of the journey together.

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This was a really fun chappy to write… even though I was under a death threat provided by Link until I finished it. XD Ya gotta love it when Link gets persistent. :) The anger issues in the beginning of the chappy were inspired by his anger with me, which makes me laugh.