Linebeck's Agreement

Linebeck's Agreement

Chapter 13: Five Times the Charm

By Harmony283

Authors Notes: I'm on a roll aren't I? This is the, what, third chapter I've written this week? I officially love spring break XD It's done me so much good. But anyway, in this chapter you get to hear more about the Blessing Temple that the Guardian Beast thing (The monster that got squashed by the tree in Chapter 10/11) was guarding. Oh and you meet Farore (or Fae, as he's refered to in this chapter), because he decided to randomly show up early.

Note/Warning: Bad language. BAAAD Language. And it's all his fault –shakes head- Oh and mild violence later on, mostly involving arrows. And you'll probably recognize a character near the end of this (they're from another Zelda game), but just for the sake of it can you guess who it is? (really it should be obvious...)

I blinked as I let the words slowly sink in. That took at least a good five minutes or so. But when they did I remembered how to swallow again, "What?" I stared at Link, and then at Tetra, they both looked serious, and Claire looked peeved. I shook my head in disbelief, "You're going to what?"

"We want to go to the Temple." Tetra stated, sounding more confident than she obviously felt, her hands were shaking even though she had her arms crossed, "I know there was something weird about it when we saw it the first time." Link just nodded his head in agreement.

All while I tried hard not to spit out my food. Or what little I had eaten of it, "But that's—"

"And I keep saying no." Claire cut me off, "Especially not without Harlee's approval and guidance! She can't even walk that well yet! She's….she's not even up yet! Of course you can't go!"

"Why do we need her to come with us? She doesn't have to." Tetra shot back, "It's just a temple, Link you've been in them before right?" Link again just nodded his head. He was almost like a puppet and not an actual fighter. That was just…sad. In so many ways.

"Yeah well," Claire snapped, "This isn't like your average Temple or Dungeon! This is a Blessing Temple!"

"Still a temple," Tetra smugly replied, "You just added 'Blessing' to it."

"No I didn't!" Claire hissed back, raising the fork next to her uneaten plate of eggs, "You don't even know anything about…about…!" she was so angry now she couldn't even finish her own sentence.

Not that she needed to, it was already clear what she wanted to say. Then there was the fact that she was right. Neither of them knew what lay inside the temples. Heck even I really didn't. Not that I had paid attention when I heard any.

"Wha's goin' on here?" Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around me, I didn't even have to turn around to see who it was.

"What does it look like?" I asked back, not really wanting her to answer, though already knowing she would.

"Like someone's about to get the evil pout of doom." She mumbled, straightening up and stretching her arms up over her head. We had only been here for what, six days, and she already was noticing things like the "Evil Pout of Doom."

But, "Do you have to come up with a nickname even for that?" I asked, watching as she sat down in the chair next to mine. No one seemed to notice her arrival, Tetra was still arguing about how the temple was different, and Link was just standing there listening.

"Of course I do!" Venus grinned cheekily, grabbing a banana out of a huge bowl in the center of the room, "If I didn't then who would? Besides the look is evil." She pointed the banana at me, "there's no way to fight it right?"

I turned to look back over at Link, who almost looked like he was ready to pout, "Well…"

"See? See?" she was peeling the banana now, "there really isn't is there? You said so yourself!"

Now I was getting irritated, "I didn't even say anything about it." Though she did have a point. Link…that look, whatever it was nicknamed there really wasn't a way to fight it. I had lost many a rupee because of that look.

Venus just laughed, "No but I know you."

"Too well." I muttered under my breath, but thankfully she hadn't heard. Because at that precise moment someone—a man in his early…thirties, I think—came running in. His green hair was damp, and clinging to his forehead. His eyes flashed nervously as he looked around the room, panting. I had the faintest feeling that I knew him

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shiiit." I flinched at his language, there were kids here, but that didn't seem to bother him, "Vennie!"

And it clicked, 'Talk about a bad time for irony.' But then again irony never was my friend.

"Fae?" Venus immediately dropped the banana—or the banana peel—on the table top as she shot out of her chair and ran over to him, "What the...? What did you do?"

Yup I knew him alright, and I had the strangest urge to pick something up and throw it at him. Just to see if he could dodge it of course, 'This is just too…too ironic. To think he'd show up right after I mentioned him last night.'

Not that it had done me any good. Link had no idea what I was talking about, and I really didn't want to say. But now I was going to have to say, and he was really going to meet them. Unless they didn't say tell him their names, which I doubted.

"Well?" Venus grated out, "what did you do?"

Fae shook his head sheepishly and said, "Well I was checkin' out the battle scene from yesterday. Y'know, since you ran into me and told me about it?" Venus nodded her head, "A-And…the door to the place—it was open! And monsters were crawlin' out of it like it was some kind of tomb! Or…or cage…or something!" That's when I noticed the two swords by his side. They were the same ones he always had with him, but that meant—

"So you killed some of them and the others got mad?" Venus deduced, letting out a sigh, "and the reason you ran back to this town was because?"

"B-Because!" Fae let out a groan and shook his head, "Because it's not exactly secret that Harlee's here. We need her."

"Need me for what?" I almost jumped when I heard Harlee's voice echo in from somewhere behind me. When I turned around I saw she had my jacket in her hands, and it almost looked brand new. Or at least it had been washed profusely. "What's wrong?" She asked again, her brown eyes widening, "I heard…monsters…earlier. Crying from the forest…?"

In one fell swoop Fae jumped over the table, and landed on the other side, grabbing Harlee's arm in a tight grip, "Do you really need to know that? You just need to come with me! It's urgent!"

But before he could even move he had the blade of a very pointy spear centimeters away from his neck.

"And just where are you taking her, exactly?" The guard asked, her voice even colder than normal.

"To the Blessing Temple, where else?" Fae asked, looking completely calm even though he was still breathing hard.

"Why?" both Harlee and the guard asked at the exact same time.

"Do I have to explain everything? Or do you two just not have ears?" he rudely replied back, "The doors freakin' open and the stupid monsters in it are comin' out like it's some sort of…of torture chamber!" He ignored the shocked looks on both of their faces, "Don't tell me that's not something you can fix!"

"Maybe she can," I felt the words tumble out of my mouth and I wanted to mentally slap myself for it, "but yelling and taking her there by force—when she's sick—won't do anyone any good."

He opened his mouth to reply, turning to face me, but then he stopped. He stopped and just stared. Then he opened his mouth again but shut it just as quickly. I didn't even dare look over my shoulder. I already knew Venus was glaring at him.

But Link and Tetra were also looking at him, slightly shocked at the obviously sudden interruption by someone who they had no idea who the hell he was or whatever.

Then quietly he muttered under his breath, "shit," then louder he said, "Fine. Anyone else got a free arm to spare? Anyone who can preferably fight and stay alive? We need as much muscle as we can get."

And now he was asking for help, even though he could easily take down those monsters by himself.

"We'll go." Tetra immediately spoke up, "I think we're used to monsters by now." Fae didn't even give them a second glance—to see that they really did just look like two little kids—before nodding his head in approval.

"Okay, ya can take care of the ground enemies. But there's tons of flying ones too." He was looking at me again, but his eyes quickly flickered to Venus, who was still standing behind me. She was angry, even more angry than she had been before, "Really." Fae continued, "we at least need someone with good eyes."

Finally Venus let out a long sigh, "Fine, fine. But first we need something to shoot with. Becky you've still got what I was using when I found you guys, right?" I felt myself nodding my head even though I really didn't want to. She smiled approvingly at this before continuing, "Good. I've got arrows at my place, with potions." She eyed Link and Tetra, "Why don't you two come with me? You might need the potions more than I ever will."

Her woman's intuition was kicking in again, and at the right time too, 'If only she knew how many times that kid got hurt!' I thought as I slowly got up from my chair. There wasn't any use just sitting here till they left. Venus' would probably just yell at me for being late.

"Woah wait a second!" Claire's voice echoed throughout the room, "What's…? You're…you're going too fast!" She sounded almost scared, her voice higher pitched than normal, "You're going way, way, waaaaay too fast!"

And now everything was frozen.

"Well we do need to hurry." Fae finally broke the silence, "it's simple really, we need to l-e-a-v-e!"

"Didn't you hear she was sick though?" Fae almost rolled his eyes at that.

"That was yester-year," he was going to say something unpleasant on the end of that—just because he was irritated, but with another pointed glare from Venus he shut his mouth fast. Not that she couldn't already guess what he was going to say to her. Or maybe she couldn't.

"Yo hurry, hurry!" Suddenly I was being slapped on the shoulder by none other than Fae, "get the bow or whatever!" and then he was dragging Harlee out of the room…

And apparently I just missed a whole half of that conversation. Or whatever else they had just said.

"L-Linebeck?" Link stared back at me from the doorway, and all I could do was shake my head and walk past him, out of the room. "Linebeck." I stopped when he called my name again.

I turned and looked over my shoulder at him, "Hnn? What's up, kid?" he frowned, "Link." I quickly corrected.

But all he did was shake his head, bowing it quickly before rushing past me, following Tetra as she walked out the door.

'Guess I'll just…get that now, and,' I let out a sigh, running a hand through my hair, "guess it's up to me again to tell Aryll what's goin' on." I almost felt sorry for her, really I did. She was just a kid, not even a teenager yet and even though she was with us she had no idea what was going on half the time.

But then again maybe it was better that she didn't know.

I let another sigh as I made my way up the stairs, suddenly glad the room we decided to stay in was so close. I turned the knob to my room and suddenly I had a pink ball of light slammed into my face.

"Ack—Linebeck…! Sorry!" Sakura squealed, fluttering away from me immediately, "I-I didn't know—a-and…!"

I rubbed my nose, which itched a little at the impact and asked, "And didn't know what?"

"Th-that you were, uh, coming back!" she was flying in circles now, "I-I mean…everyone else was leaving! A-And Aryll's—"she made some sort of panicked squeak before she slowly began to float down to the ground. Thankfully I managed to catch her.

"A-And Aryll…" she continued weakly, "She…l-left too…I was sleeping and she…she…"

I could already tell, when I glanced through the door to their room, she was gone. And the window was open. I let out a groan, "Where'd she go now? Wait," I put a hand up to stop Sakura from answering, "Probably after her brother."

"But she left before I woke up!" Sakura exclaimed, her voice rising in pitch despite how exhausted she looked.

I just shook my head, "What time did you wake up?" the fairy immediately went silent, "See?" I let out a sigh, "If you just woke up then they just left and she probably saw them."

'Now go find that girl so she can go and do whatever stupid thing she needs to do.' Venus' voice suddenly rang out in my mind. That instantly had me worried. Why was I thinking about that now of all ti—

"I-Is something wrong?" Sakura hesitantly asked, slowly rising out of my hand. "Y-You look serious. Is Aryll okay?! I'm coming with you if you're going after her!"

That almost made me smile. "You'd probably follow me if I didn't agree. Then you'd get trapped and hurt again. Fine, I have to go with them anyway." Immediately she perked up and began flittering around my head as I walked over to where the heirloom—the bow—lay, nice and untouched on the chair next to my bed. I took a deep breath before picking it up again, "I'm really going to use this again." I grimaced at the thought, "I really am."

"Is that a bad thing?" my grip tightened on the ancient wood as Sakura asked that. "I-I mean, u-um…!" she continued, stuttering like she had just said something she wasn't supposed to.

"We should go." I offered for her and she quickly nodded her head, or body, before hiding herself in the small bag I decided to pick up. I'd probably end up being the one carrying the potions, I knew it.

And when I reached Venus' home a few minutes later, standing in the doorway staring in, I definitely knew it was going to be me. Or at least I was going to be blackmailed into it. Especially if the pictures of me on the floor, and in Link's hands were anything to go by.

It seemed like hours before Venus, who was sorting through some pictures and smiling, looked up to see me. She blinked a few times before saying rather loudly, "Linebeck! Perfect timing, you won't believe what I found!" she held up one of the pictures in her hands: it was me when I was younger—about twelve, or maybe thirteen—leaning against the railing of a ship with an annoyed expression on my face.

"I thought I told you to burn those." I grated out, but all she did was laugh and continue sorting through them.

"Y'know you were actually pretty cute when you were a kid." Tetra remarked offhandedly, eyeing one picture in Link's hands, "And apparently," she smirked, "you got in trouble a lot."

I really didn't want to know what picture she was looking at, but I didn't even get a chance to move before Venus snatched it from her hands and made a tsking noise, "Oopsie, you weren't supposed to see that one!" Her voice was higher pitched than normal and I could've sworn she was teasing me.

My hand tightened on the heirloom bow in my hand, "Venus you said you would burn those."

She shrugged her shoulders and replied simply, "I did. A few of them. But you were just so…so…cute when you were little." As if to prove another point she held up another picture, this time it was me with Farore, he had his arm slung around my shoulders but I was pouting about something.

Dammit if that wasn't embarrassing—

I had to be relieved though, Fae, Harlee, Claire, and that Guard lady weren't anywhere in sight. If they were then, "Where'd the others go?" I don't know why I asked when they were probably waiting for us at the Blessing Temple. Not to mention I had to find Aryll, since she wasn't here either…

"They went on ahead." Venus finally put the pictures in her hands down, "We had to wait for you. Oh, and you brought a bag? Good. You can carry these then!" She waved her hand at some bottles filled with red liquid lined up neatly on the counter. "I know you can't say no either." She added on just to spite me, "And as an added bonus, I found some arrows for you to use. I've got plenty of extras if you run out, oh and I trust you haven't forgotten how to…?"

I let out a sigh and shook my head as I picked up one of the bottles and stuffed into the small bag at my side. I'd be able to fit them all in here but, 'Aryll would get mad if I squashed Sakura.' At that thought I paused, 'Wait…when'd I start caring about a fairy

I placed the last potion in my pack before turning back around…and having a bunch of arrows dumped in my arms. But Venus didn't look like she was trying to tease me, or force me to carry them. She looked almost curious.

"So are you going to use that thing without complaining?" I felt both Tetra and Link's eyes on my back. Both curious, wondering exactly what the big deal was. And I knew with them watching that I wasn't going to get out of this. Not even if I wanted to. I let out a deep sigh and nodded my head. Then, almost gently, Venus walked over to the large chest she had next to her couch. She took a key from her pocket and slowly stuck it in the lock, turning it until I heard a soft 'click'. Then slowly she pulled out a long case, opening it and taking out a thin string that looked vaguely familiar.

I felt a hole in my stomach form, "Just give it already." I muttered hurriedly, nearly snatching it out of her hands when she got close enough. In one quick movement the string was attached, I tugged on it to make sure it was tight enough and then I nodded my head, "Okay I'm good. Let's go."

But before I even stepped forward Link asked, "Does Aryll know?"

That almost made me freeze as my mind went totally blank. Crap. I Didn't want him to ask that. Of course she knew they were leaving. She probably saw them out the bedroom window. She could even be close by. But all I could do was shrug and say, when my mouth started working again, "She's…she wasn't in her room when I went to get this."

Link's eyes widened, "Wha…?"

"But I'm sure she isn't far if she saw you leave." I quickly added on before he could say anymore, "We'll probably find her somewhere around town. She's probably even looking for you now, or waiting for you."

Link's eyes darkened a bit at that, "But she can't come. She'll," he paused, "she'll get hurt." At least he was trying to phrase it nicely, but in other words, she'd just get in the way.

"Well we certainly can't have that happening now can we?" Venus said with a shake of her head, "Okay then, that's another thing for you to do Becky, find 'her." She grinned but it was half-hearted and her voice too serious for it, "We don't want her to get hurt do we?"

And that was the last thing she said before she ushered us out of her house and slammed the door. "I hope they aren't dead yet." I heard Tetra mutter under her breath, fiddling with the scarf tied around her neck. "Then we won't know what's in the temple." She looked like she was trying to get Link's attention, but the kid wasn't even looking at her. Instead he was looking at the hammer in his hand, his eyes fixed and serious.

'He had that look right before he went against Bellum.' I thought, looking up at the sky, 'It was on a clear day like this too.' Why I was remembering that now I didn't know. But when we reached the edge of town I suddenly got nervous.

The monster screams I heard echoing through the air really didn't help that any either. My hand tightened around the bow in my hand, the wood somehow feeling comforting even though it didn't really do anything. Well, it got Venus to look back at me but that was probably because I was lagging behind.

'I really don't want to do this…' the thought sprang into my head faster than I wanted it to, and it wouldn't leave, and it was making me even more nervous. It wasn't like I practiced with a bow and arrow every chance I got. Not like when I was younger. All I could do was probably point out where the monsters were hiding, or how high they were.

Knowing I could do that didn't help either. I would still be in the fighting ring. I'd still have to protect myself. I'd still probably see someone get hurt...and the blood…

That thought alone nearly made me freeze up. But thankfully the others had stopped too. When I looked around I saw immediately what they were staring at. A huge monster, that looked like the brother-or sister-to the Guardian of the Blessing Temple.

'How could I not have noticed that thing?!' I squashed the thought in my head immediately when I saw what was past the monster. Or rather, what the monster was looking at.

Aryll cowering against a half-snapped off tree and there was something…or someone…with her. Someone that looked like they were unconscious, or at least asleep. 'Probably unconscious, I don't think anyone could sleep through that.'

Link stepped forward and opened his mouth, "A-Ary—" only to have Tetra cover his mouth with her hands. From the struggling he did, and her grip on him, I could tell he probably did something like that before. Why I didn't need to think about that now.

Venus was jabbing me in the side, "Shoot it!" she hissed, "Before it turns around! We're far enough away…!"

Didn't need her to tell me that twice, I really didn't want that thing to turn around, but I didn't want to shoot—or try to shoot—it either. From the desperate look on Link's face, the slightly angry but nervous one on Tetra's, and the nearly-panicked and yet oddly calm look on Venus's face, though, I knew I was going to have to.

So I readied an arrow, my hands shaking far more than I wanted them to. The muscles in my right arm tensed and stung, but I knew the wound was already healed and wouldn't open again, even though the doctor said it would take at least a month to heal. Then I slowly aimed the arrow, right at that one sensitive spot on the back of the monsters neck.

One arrow in. I ignored the shocked expression on their faces.

Two arrows in. The monster screamed out in pain.

Three arrows in. The monster tried to turn around.

Four arrows in—one directly in the eye. The monster began to fall and Aryll screamed.

Five Arrows in—just for good measure. Suddenly the person Aryll was with opened their eyes, and a split second afterwards Aryll was up against another tree, staring in shock at where the monster lay—right where she had been sitting seconds before.

I slowly relaxed, almost dropping the bow on the ground as the monster poofed away in a mix of black and purple smoke. But I did drop the bow when the person with Aryll turned to look at me. Right at me, not at anyone else. The person—I couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl—looked like they hadn't been out in the sun since the day they were born. Their skin was too pale, it was almost purple. Their hair was just as pale, nearly the same shade of purple as the skin seemed to be, with long bangs covering one eye.

And their eyes. Their eyes were blood red.

A/N: And there ya have it, Chapter 13 finished. This chapter was a little harder to write than the last one, and (IMO) it's a little more confusing because it's faster paced. But, hey, you got to see some Linebeck action in the end, which is what I wanted. You also got to meet an OC, and another important character.

As always have questions, comments, CC? Send it to me via Reviews! Reviews are very inspirational, even the simple ones.

-Harmony283