A/n: Sigh, sorry it took so long to post, but I have way too much homework… I think I want to cry. I've barely had any time to eat, let alone write.
I thank you all for sticking with this story though, and thank you so much for your comments. Please forgive me for making you wait so long, I'm just time deficient right now.
Hyperfoxchild- don't worry, I understand, I'm just happy to know that you are in fact still reading, and I hope that others are too.
Thank you all and I hope you like this chapter.
Chapter 12: The Mystery Begins to Unwind
A puff of red cloud rose from the cauldron before Devoren. The three of them, Devoren, Jabono, and Vereor, now sat in a dark room of the inn. The only light came from the fire heating the little black cauldron, and from little Nit, hiding in the corner. She shook with fear from the punishment she had received for being so friendly.
The flames cast a red light on the sternly drawn faces of Devoren and Vereor. Jabono was nervous, his two new companions made him feel rather uncomfortable. He wiped the sweat from his brow and kept himself from saying anything. The hope of finding his daughter was enough to keep him quiet.
Devoren smiled deviously as he added the necklace of the poor man's daughter into his strange stew. It bubbled and now radiated a white light. Devoren stared into the liquid with great interest. Jabono glanced at it was well, but he saw nothing but the white glow. Devoren, however, saw his daughter's whereabouts.
"She is in Termina…" Devoren said after a moment of staring into the cauldron. Jabono gasped, sweat continued to drop down his brow as he wondered where Termina was, and what kind of place it was.
"Is she all right? What is she doing?" came the questions of a worried father.
"She is fine, and appears to be having a meal with two, no three other people." Devoren waved his hand over the cauldron in a slightly irritated manner. He glared at Vereor who whimpered in return. "She doesn't appear to be with the one whom we seek." Jabono jerked his head.
"Who are you looking for? If you help me find my daughter, I'm sure we can hunt him down for you."
"Yes, you will." Devoren replied mysteriously. His dark and menacing tone worried Jabono. Devoren rose from his seat and took a step near the old man. Fear was within him, but he did not move. Jabono watched Devoren dumbly as he waved his hand across his eyes.
He quickly fell into a trance, his eyes were now glazed with white. Devoren turned back to his pet, Vereor.
"I did not see the one who released me with her." He barked angrily.
"I assure you master. This body remembers seeing her with the one."
"This may be so, but if that is true than it may be hard to separate him from his other three companions. My powers are not yet strong enough to take on the force of four plus the power that may be wielded by that sword."
"These little twits are of no threat to us master. How could they ever pose a threat to you?"
"Looks are deceiving. I saw them each very clearly. The young lad I saw with them may be clumsy, but he is still strong. Red eyes I saw on are girl are distinct marks of an ancient race of fire. They were very powerful indeed. The other girl was dressed in Zoran attire. When I last walked the earth they were a young race but very reclusive. They would not have given her such dress had she not proven herself to them with some feat of valor. This man's daughter may pose a threat on us as well, she is a bounty hunter and is trained to handle a sword. If all these are with the one we seek, then he is well guarded and we do, in fact, have need to worry."
A moment of silence passed between them. Devoren sat in a chair rubbing his temples. Vereor glanced at Jabono, who remained in the static trance.
"We must turn them on each other…" Vereor said, ending the silence. Devoren grinned at the idea.
"Exactly, so it is possible that this contemptible little man can be of some use to us."
Devoren turned back to the paralytic Jabono. He raised his hand over his eyes.
"From hence forth Jabono of men, you shall be servant to me. You shall trust me fully and without question, for I am your master. You will tell me everything you know, and will do as I say. Awaken, and begin your servitude."
The white that had clouded Jabono's eyes dissolved back into his normal brown. He blinked and seemed as he had before.
"You shall come with us to Termina." Devoren ordered. "Do not converse with your daughter until I say so. She has fallen under the spell of her captors and believes them to be her friends."
Jabono nodded, and as the spell wrapped itself around him, he dumbly followed Devoren and Vereor out of the inn, without any questions asked. Nit shyly followed behind them.
Link walked through the tall wooden doors that still stood as the entrance to the Clock Tower. Nothing much there had changed, save the freshly painted letters of 'The Shrub Club' that were displayed across the door. Tatl shivered and rushed into Link's hat.
"Hey!" Navi squeaked. "Don't mess up my room, got that!" Link passed Navi a look to tell her to be quiet. He didn't want to bring much attention to himself. While the Sun's Spices seemed a cheery place for the townspeople, this was a dreary place for the town's scum. The brutes that lingered in the dark passages of the alleys conversed at the unkempt tables as they drank their beers. Little deku shrubs hobbled from one table to another to bring more drinks and clear other tables. The poor little shrubs were too often abused by their drunken customers and now walked with permanent tears dwindling in their red eyes.
It wasn't Navi's loud voice that brought attention to them, but the shine of the fairy and mostly Link's attire. It seemed that the customers here had a strict uniform of black and dirty. Link unfortunately noticed the grimy people eyeing him, and whispering to their companies.
"Link." Navi said in as hushed a voice she could conjure. "All the people here seem to be thieves. It would be best if we kept a low profile." Link slowly turned to Navi with a dull expression due to the obviousness of her admonishment. The little fairy didn't seem to notice.
"Look!" She exclaimed. "There's the skull kid!"
Across the room the skull kid was serving other kinds of alcoholic drinks from behind a bar. His black hollow eyes found Link. Skull kid continued to shake the drink he was making as he turned to speak quietly to a large man sitting at a bar stool. The fiendish man turned around and spotted Link as well.
Link's eyes grew wide when the man began walking over to him. He reached for his sword and suddenly remembered the restaurant etiquette he had always used.
"Why aren't you pulling out your sword?!" Navi squeaked.
"I've never used my sword in a public place before… it's impolite." Navi did not respond, and slowly turned back to the large man pushing across the room towards Link.
Link knew that his sword would be particularly helpful in this situation, but he was not going to abandon his strict morals for a troll such as this.
The big man held up his club and pointed it at Link. The Hylian backed away, running into a bigger man behind him. Link turned and looked up into a roughly drawn face.
"Watch out!" Navi squeaked when the original ogre swung his club at Link. He rolled to dodge the attack. The tall man behind him tried to grab the Hylian, but he was able to slip through his fingers. They were big but very slow.
This fight had now become a game to Link. He jumped and dodged the attacks from most everyone in the club. It was rather comedic now that everyone was after one small man dressed in green. Tatl now flew out of his hat and was helping Navi in keeping Link aware of attacks at all sides.
Link was able to punch one man in the face. The power of his gauntlets made the man fly back into the crowd, but he was up again in only a moment. They swarmed around Link, making it impossible to escape.
"You should've drawn your sword Link!" Navi squeaked. Link now decided to discard his etiquette that he had always kept. His hand reached for the hilt of his sword.
"Link watch out!" Screamed an all too slow Tatl. Link felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. The knock from the club took out his vision. Link fainted soon afterwards.
It was only a moment, so Link thought. In fact it had been a whole ten minutes. True this wasn't very long at all, but Link was a hard one to keep down. Navi and Tatl were now in a jar together and Link stared into the black eyes of the skull kid. He suddenly was reminded of when the skull kid had been taken over by the Mask of Majora. He had turned Link into a little deku shrub and taken his belongings. Link quickly felt for his ocarina, it was still there, but what was the skull kid up to this time?
"It has been such a long time, Link." The skull kid said, but his tone was not of the happy child as it was when Link had left him. Now it was dark and seemingly not his own.
"Who are you?" Link asked automatically. Something in his gut told him that this question would cut deeply into the mystery. It definitely stirred something in the shadows around him. The outlines of several hooded figures appeared. A different voice answered Link.
"We are the Night's Army, waiting for our master to arrive." A deep and sinister voice echoed about the room. The dark outline of a tall man appeared behind the skull kid. "And while we wait, we thought we ought to find a nice 'hero' for him to feast upon when he arrives." Link grimaced at the thought, while his hand automatically reached for his sword. In a flash he had pulled the black blade out in front of him, with his shield in his right hand. The strange man began laughing, a reaction that Link certainly did not expect.
"So you have the Black Sword?" The man smiled malevolently. "Now how did you get your hands on that?"
Link didn't know how to respond, he remained still, and silent as he waited for the opportune moment to strike.
"What are the odds, that the little hero of Termina, would be the one to have the sword?" The man continued. He observed the bewildered face of the Hylian and continued to explain himself. "Yes, yes, the skull kid has told us all about you. You have quite a reputation in these parts, you little do-gooder." He laughed as he watched Link tense up. "I dare you to attack us… Go ahead, just try." The man stepped closer to Link and crossed his arms.
Link was stunned by his willingness to be killed, but he brandished the sword, and quickly, but cautiously, struck at the man. Sparks flew as the sword hit an unseen barrier. Some force violently pushed Links arm back. The villainous man was laughing again.
"Such a weak wielder could never break this barrier, not even with the Black Sword." He scoffed. "You had best surrender it to us now, make it easier on all of us."
It was just after Link had left the group, that the soldier at east clock town, facing Ikana canyon, heard the small rumble of many tiny feet. He looked out into the distance. A man appeared to be running towards Clocktown with all of his strength. The soldier scratched his head, but then the answer came when hundreds of little bomachus came scurrying after him, the bombs on their tails flickering in the distance. The guard soon began to panic, for as the man grew closer, so did the bomachus. He turned to the town.
"Take cover!!!" He yelled to the unsuspecting townspeople and dashed to the side.
The man came running into the town, and soon after, the bomachus followed. They scattered, blowing up on anything that moved, and many things that didn't. Most of the people escaped this chaos, but many chickens unfortunately did not.
Arian, Amy, Aura, and Naomi were still sitting in the restaurant, wondering why it was taking Link so long to finish his business, when the wrath of the bomachus struck the town. They went running outside to see what was going on. What they saw was a billowing cloud of black smoke: the aftermath. Everything was now covered in a thick layer of black soot, save for a single man standing in the middle of it all; he was covered in dirt and soaked to the bone.
The man was bewildered, and somewhat in awe of everything around him. He looked around and shrugged.
"Um… Sorry…" He said to the dirty townspeople. The man then quickly left the scene of destruction.
Naomi whistled.
"Wow…" Amy muttered. "That was kinda weird."
"Yup…" Aura concurred. The four agreed to help clean up the mess the strange man had left behind.
The truant was the guard from the mountain caves. He zipped into South Clocktown. It was a busy marketplace at this time, making it easy for him to slip through unnoticed. He did not want a big scene, as it had been when the bomachus came rushing in. Curious civilians were the last thing he wanted. It was hard to explain his origin, and hard to remember after being asleep in stone for so many years.
He reached into his pocket, drawing out the strange device. It shimmered a deep red color. He took a few steps to the side, it grew dimmer. The man took a few more foreword, it became stronger. He took this path until the stone was growing brighter than it had ever been. He now stood at the doors of the clock tower.
The guard snuck through the rough place of the Shrub Club. No one even glanced at him. It was easy for the guard to make it into the back room, the deep red glow revealed that this was the door he was looking for.
Voices could be heard down the dark and narrow hallway that the door had exposed. There was light coming out of a room on the right. The guard slid up to the door and listened intently.
"Why should I give you the sword?" A man asked.
"We will get it from you one way or another. I just want this to be easier." Another voice answered in a far darker tone.
"And if I do give you the sword, will you let us go?"
The guard bit his hand to keep from shouting. He quickly looked around for another way in, it was probably not the brightest idea to go in through the front door, however…
He put his back to the wall and pressed his feet against the other side of the narrow hallway. He pulled himself up the wall to the ceiling. After situating himself above the door, he lowered his fist, and banged on the wood.
"What was that?" He heard the darker man say. The guard pulled up his scarf and covered his mouth and nose. Many burly men came running out of the door, the guard looked down and watched them look about the small hallway.
"You go that way." One said as he pointed one way down the hall. "We go this way, he couldn't have gone far." They split up. When all the thugs were out of sight, the guard slipped down and quietly went through the door. He pulled out his sword; the metal noisily slid across the sheath, announcing his entrance.
"And who are you?" Asked the man with the darker voice. The guard looked him up and down. The symbol he wore on his robes told the guard exactly who this man was.
"I am an enemy to your army and a member of the royal guard." he replied mechanically. The guard glanced at the man dressed in green, the one who held the Black sword.
"Well, Link," the dark master laughed. "It looks as if you won't be the only one to die today." The guard ignored the comment.
"Do not give him the sword, no matter what. They cannot freely take it from you." The guard ordered. He would have said more, had one of the army's henchmen not taken to sword with him. The dark master laughed. He whispered something in the little skull kid's ear, and then disappeared.
The guard continued to fight with the henchmen, as more stepped out of the darkness. As each moment passed, he became more and more outnumbered. Link desperately searched for a way out. It was then that he noticed four luminous stones encircling him on the floor.
"Take one of the stones!" He yelled to the guard when he found that he could not reach them through his invisible cage.
The guard dodged another attack, only to be smacked on the back by a club. He landed in front of one of the luminous rocks.
"Take that thing!" Link yelled as he pointed to the rock. The guard gave him a questioning look, but took the stone nevertheless. He was then forced to roll out of the way of yet another attack by club. The guard threw the stone at one of his adversaries. It was able to take him down as it broke into pieces on his face.
The clanking of swords joined the chaos, but it was not his own. The guard turned to see that Link had joined in the battle. He was able to wield the Black Sword, barely. Every now and again, the sword would swing of its own accord, sometimes to his benefit, and sometimes not.
The guard ran to Link's side as the Hylian tried to pull to sword out of the wooden wall after a most unfortunate swing.
"I swear I'm a better swordsman than this." Link told the guard. He was rather embarrassed about his inability to control his weapon. The guard nodded.
"Had you not stolen it from a member of the royal family, it may have had a better wielder."
Link was in shock. He was not a thief, and had no idea what the man was talking about, but their opponents did not give him time to argue his case. Link and the guard stood back to back, fighting whoever came towards them.
"Move towards the door." The guard ordered. Link scowled, he wasn't used to taking orders that weren't from a fairy… speaking of which.
"I'll be right back." Link said as he dove through the legs of one of the larger enemies. He dodged a blade and rolled to a little jar that sat on a table. Link quickly grabbed it in one hand, and took to fighting his way back; the unruly sword made it harder than it should have been.
"Watch my back for a moment." Link said as he put the Black Sword back in his scabbard. The guard didn't know what to think, but he didn't seem to have a choice on the matter. He took on three at once as Link struggled to open the bottle with two little fairies in it. The top popped off and little Navi and little Tatl flew out.
"Thanks Link!" Tatl squeaked.
"Now lets go to the door." Navi advised, taking on her role as Link's official fairy. She flew around each of his adversaries, helping him to better target their weak spots. Her fairy shine helped to weaken their eye sight as well. Tatl, having nothing else to do, did the same for the guard.
They slowly worked their way towards the door. It was just within reach, when all of their adversaries suddenly, and most unpredictably, stopped fighting. Link and the guard paused momentarily, not knowing what to expect. A little voice came from behind them.
"I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to let you escape." the skull kid said, he stood between them and the only way out. "Not before I have my fun."
"I'll get that Naomi." Arian took the large beam from her and carried it to the pile of wreckage they had gathered. There were a few dirty spots left but Aura and Amy had swept away most of the soot.
"That creep still isn't back." Amy muttered to Aura. She sighed as she put away the broom.
"Maybe he stopped to talk with someone?" Aura suggested with an irritated tone, pouring the collected soot into the trash.
"Or maybe he…" Amy was about to go off on another one of her conspiracy tangents when Naomi interrupted them.
"I do believe that Link has been gone long enough. We should go see if he needs help, and if he doesn't, then maybe we'll find something to do on the way there." Naomi didn't wait for them to agree with her before she began walking down the stairs into South Clocktown.
The others didn't seem to mind leaving, and Amy especially wanted to see what Link was up to. She hurried to Naomi's side as did Aura. Arian looked at the clock hanging high on one of the great walls surrounding the town, and then followed the girls out.
A loud explosion met them as they filed into South Clocktown. The guard and Link were thrown out of the Clock Tower. Behind them trailed a wall of smoke. The both of them got to their feet. The guard fled, disappearing quickly among the crowd of people that were gathering to see the spectacle. Link now realized that everyone was looking at him, and him alone, for an explanation.
"Uh… don't worry, they have it covered… a pipe blew… a big pipe…" Link then slipped through the crowd to Arian's side. Tatl and Navi silently floated above his head.
"This is a little more complicated than I thought." Link whispered to him. Arian nodded as he stared wide-eyed at the gaping hole they had crashed through. The little skull kid stuck his head out the big hole. He laughed, and disappeared into the darkness. Arian seemed to be the only one who noticed this as the rest of the towns people encircled Link.
He was unexpectedly pulled from the crowd by Amy. Link was glad to see her, although he refused to show it. Naomi and Aura pushed the crowd back, and ordered them to go away.
"It's getting near dinner time." She said without her usual scornful attitude. "We should probably find a place to stay for the night. I think there was an inn up those stairs in West Clocktown." Link nodded and followed her and Arian up the stairs. Naomi and Aura followed after dispersing the crowd.
A/n: Please R&R! and thank you.
