Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series do not, repeat, not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Miyamoto. (May he continue to make exellent games for the rest of his days3) What does belong to me are Cleo, Finn, Joseph, Emetaly, Pacha, Paulo, Prince Hassan, Abner, and Oi and Ollo.

Tendaji also belongs to me.


Chapter 10

Cleo had opened her mouth before the witch doctor spoke, kept it open for a few stunned seconds and then closed it again. This is definitely no ordinary Mumbo Jumbo, she thought.

The witch doctor's face was impassive. "I am Tendaji. What name is yours?"

"Cata-I mean Cleo!" she hastily said. Those eyes were distracting her and she felt her face growing hot with embarrassment.

Tendaji stood up and walked over to her. Before she knew it, he grabbed her face gently by her lower jaw and examined her closely with his good eye. She felt a chill go though her, but not in a fearful way. There was just something about him that necessitated reverence. He turned her face slightly one way, then the other and finally, stared intensely into her eyes. "I see... no fear... no form of doubt. Instead I see... ...sadness... loss... anger... ... Your mind is clouded... with too many emotions... all of them confusing..." He finally let go of her and turned his attention to an herbal mixture in a bowl. "But I also see a strong spirit, full of bravery and heart. The heart is like an iron sword, ready to fight at will and also like a sword it can rust in the water falling from those clouds like rain... Without right emotions to keep it sharp and gleaming, it will corrode until it is damaged beyond repair."

Cleo was silent for a moment before speaking. "W-why are you telling me this? What's it got to do with the circlet?" she asked in a respectful manner.

Tendaji finished mixing with the masher and looked back up at Cleo. "In time, all will be clear." Then he grabbed a pair of flints. With one tap, the whole bowl sparked for a second and started smoking with a strange smell. "Now give me a lock of your hair."

Cleo was hesitant for a moment before holding out a thin strand. He pulled out a short dagger and chopped it off, then dropped it in the embers. The smoke turned blue and took a peculiar shape. She thought she saw a humanoid figure draped in a mantle and it disappeared leaving behind a familiar pattern. Cleo wasn't sure if that was a real image or just part of her imagination.

"I see now..." said Tendaji, to himself. He seemed to be able to "see" more than what Cleo could. He pushed the bowl aside to leave some space and threw some nuts on the ground. He looked at their positions carefully as though they had an answer. "To seek the treasure in the fiery pit of Kilimanjaro, you must find the Fire Coral Earrings. They will protect you from the intense heat."

"Where are they?"

"They are buried and apart. One is under a tree, one is under a rock and before you can find them both, you must seek the help from a friend you have not yet met. A friend who's loyalty is as strong as his mind. It is what the message tells me."

"Well it's not a very clear message. Can I at least know what fire coral is supposed to look like?"

Tendaji didn't answer, instead he reached back behind him and pulled out a piece of tomatoey red stone. Cleo, looked at it for a moment before pulling out the fox mask. "I see you are accompanied by the Kitsune Spirit." She didn't respond to Tendaji, she just put it on to turn. He held the stone out to her as she took a good sniff at it and memorized it's scent.

After that, the witch doctor asked for Cleo's piece of fruit she'd gotten earlier so he could finish a potion he was working on. When he was finished, he gave her, in return, some red potion. He said that she was free to come back for more later and asked for her to pick up whatever natural ingredients she could find. Then she dismissed herself when a native woman came in with her sick child.

"So that's what we have to do is it, hoo hoo?"

"Yeah, but I still don't get the new friend part. Who is he talking about anyway, do you know?"

"I'm not quite sure."

"Some help you are."

Cleo was running across the savanna on all fours while talking to Kaepora. She was following the scent through the shrubbery, dodging dust devils and avoiding large predators. At one point, she ran into a cobra and was forced to kill it when it stubbornly blocked her way because she was in its territory. She reached the tree where one of the earrings was supposed to be buried, but the ground was too hard to dig. She tried looking for the other under the rock, the ground there was hard too. Cleo was getting frustrated.

"Ugh! This is stupid! I'm just wasting time!"

Kaepora landed next to her. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out."

"Damn it, I really wish Tendaji would tell me specifically who we're supposed to turn to instead of giving me this walla walla bing ba-" FFFWT! Kaepora suddenly fell, completely still. "Kaepora! What happened to you?!" Cleo cried out in a panic. She spotted something strange protruding from his neck. By the time she realized it was a dart, she was hit with one as well.

In seconds, she was getting drowsy. She heard footsteps approaching and looked up in time to see people coming at her. "Got 'em!" one of them said. "This one's a beauty!" said another. "It's pelt's definitely worth a few bucks." Poachers, was Cleo's final thought before she succumbed to the sedation. She collapsed on the ground, out cold.


... ... ...Cleo... ...Cleo... the time is coming Cleo... ...time to awaken...

A voice was calling to her, a voice she hadn't heard before... it sounded strange... sounded... alien...

...It's time Cleo... ... you must awaken...

Alien... except... it was also...

"Cleo-chan, Cleo-chan! You must wake up!" Cleo opened her eyes groggily in the semi-darkness. She had just woken up at the sound of Akairo's voice in her head. She got up with a start as an exhaust roared beneath her and hit her head on thin bars.

"Ow!" After shaking herself, Cleo found that she was in a cage on the back of a jeep, its engine rumbling. She looked around and saw Kaepora in another cage, still unconscious. She quickly checked the door on her own cage and, thankfully, it was a standard flip slide door. She fiddled with it with her paw for a couple of seconds and she was out. The back of the jeep was so full of cages that the rear gate wouldn't close, instead there was a bungee cord to hold them in. Cleo walked along the open gate to Kaepora's cage. But before she could start picking the lock, the jeep jerked forward, causing her to slide right off.

She hit the ground hard and saw the vehicle driving away. "No, Kaepora!" She bolted after it as fast as she could even though it was clearly faster than her. She can't lose it, she can't lose Kaepora, not just because she needed him but because he was her friend. She ran for quite a while, maybe half an hour, following the smell of the exhaust after losing sight of it, before she finally caught up. The jeep was parked near a large rock and she heard the men's excited voices. They weren't in or at the vehicle, which was perfect for Cleo. She took the mask off so she could grab Kaepora's cage and run. But something made her stop.

When she came up to the jeep, Cleo spotted them, the Poachers, near a pit, doing something that caused her to momentarily forget Kaepora. They were gathered around what, at first seemed to be a large gray boulder covered in a net, but, when it moved and made a trumpet sound, she realized it was a bull elephant. She hid behind the rock to listen to what they were saying.

"Man that thing put up a fight!"

"Well it's ours now! Good job boys!"

One of them got a gun ready, Cleo knew it was no dart gun. The elephant struggled again, bellowing in what was clearly fear. "Now quit yer belly achin', we just want your tusks. Nothin' personal." She could not stand for this, however. It was time to act. "Say good-night Dumbo!"

"NO!" Cleo ran out at them, in a war cry, catching them all off guard. She charged at the one with the gun and knocked it from his hands with her sword, then she hit it again, breaking it in half. Ignoring their exclamations of "What are you doing?!", she stood between the poachers and the elephant. "You leave him ALONE!"

"You little brat!" said the one pulling out a smaller gun. Cleo was ready, she blocked his fire with her shield and countered with her sling shot. The special Deku Nuts knocked him completely off his feet. The other poachers closed in with their knives and Cleo fought back, hitting them with the flat side of her sword.

"Man, what's up with this kid?! She's a monster!"

"C'mon, let's get outta here!" They ran for the jeep and drove off before Cleo could stop them.

"You're the real monsters!" she shouted at their retreating backs. They were gone, along with Kaepora. "Don't worry, I'll save you... somehow." Now it was time to turn her attention to the elephant who continued to struggle. "It's all right," Cleo tried to say, soothingly. "I'm gonna get you outta here big guy." She used her sword once more to cut him loose. When he was free, he got up so fast that she was knocked backwards.

They were too close to the pit and she fell in it with a hard thud! Rubbing her rear, she looked up and realized, with a sinking feeling, the serious situation she was in. The pit was deep, too deep and the walls were too soft and unstable to climb. She was trapped.

"Now what?" Cleo groaned. She wished Kaepora was with her now, but he wasn't. She couldn't get out on her own, she had to think of something fast. Before she could, however, a shadow loomed over her and she looked up. The bull elephant was walking dangerously close to the edge. "No! Go back! You're gonna fall in too!" she tried calling to him, even though he didn't seem to understand her.

He was walking back and forth restlessly, making panicked noises. Then he bent his front knees to lean foward and lowered his trunk into the pit. What was he doing? The trunk was reaching out to her and she then understood that he was trying to help her. Cleo tried to reach back but quickly realized that his trunk wasn't long enough. After several attempts, the elephant seemed to have given up and left her.

But in just a few minutes, he came right back, holding a sturdy branch. He held it down for her and she grabbed on. He backed up slowly while Cleo held on tight. After an intense near fall, she was finally out.