Linebeck's Agreement

Chapter 14: The Evil Glare of Untimely Demise

By Harmony283

Authors Note: This…is strange. I started on this chapter before I uploaded Chapter 13, and yet for some ODD reason this isn't out early like I hoped it would be. It didn't help matters much that my laptop (and those on dA already know this) kept eating bits and pieces of it. I swear. It even eats other Linebeck X Link stories I have saved on there—it's creepy. But anyways, in this chapter you get to see a bit more of Vaati's personality, and it basically leads up to what'll happen in the next chapter (which was supposed to happen in this chapter, but what's one more chapter anyway?)

A: Well it depends. If you think it is, then that's your own opinion, if it bugs you then either continue reading and ignore it or if you can't do that then stop reading. But thank you for the review none-the less.

One-Eyed Monster: E-Especially the ones that take practically two weeks to figure out what happens next (though again it wasn't supposed to be a cliffhanger--but still!) I'm glad you know what's going on now (that's always a good thing) though one detail in this chapter might throw you off it'll be explained in the next chapter (if things work out the way I'm planning them to). But anyways thanks so much for the review! -hugs- and I hope you like this next chapter!

"Where exactly did you find him again?" I asked, forcing a bottle of red potion to the fainted boy's lips. It had only been what, a few minutes since the boy woke up and he already fainted from stress? Or did he get hurt before? When Aryll first found him?

"It was in…the forest." Aryll looked down at her lap apologetically. She didn't seem to want to look me in the eyes, not that I'd force her to but it was just odd. Her brother did the same thing when he was sorry about whatever it is that he'd done.

"Yeah, yeah I know that." My voice was a little harsher than normal, but it was all I could do just to concentrate on them and not the horrible sounds of fighting going on around us, "But where did you find 'im? Did he just pop up out of nowhere?"

For a moment Aryll was silent, and I almost dared to wonder if I was right, when she spoke up. "N-Not really. I mean, he startled me when I first saw him. It really did look like he just came up out of nowhere. But I mean—how could he? He was h-hurt."

Ah, I nodded my head, "That's where the gash on his arm came from?" I eyed the wound in disgust. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but it needed to be cleaned.

She nodded her head, "I…don't know where it came from, but he was…hurt. And then that monster a-appeared out of no where." She shuddered, "Then you guys came."

I nodded my head and, after all the red potion was gone from the bottle in my hand, I helped the boy sit up. He was still out like a light, but he didn't look as pale anymore. Yet he was paler than even Link was. I had never seen anyone paler than him before.

"Will he be okay?" Aryll asked from next to me, "I mean…if he's okay now—or at least if he'll be okay, then I can watch him. They need someone who can shoot down air enemies right? Th-that's what Venus said…" she trailed off, looking down at the boy leaning against the tree trunk.

She was obviously interested in whoever he was. Heck I was too, but for obviously different reasons. Was it really a safe idea just to leave them here? The fighting was farther away but there was a chance a monster could—

No, I'm thinking down the wrong route again. I let out a sigh and stood up, "If you move from here don't expect me to come after you again. You shouldn't've even left the Inn in the first place."

She flinched at that and looked down at her lap again, "I know. I'm sorry I just—"

I stretched my arms over my head and picked up the bow from it's place on the ground, "You just what? Wanted to know where we were going? You could've waited y'know. I had to go and get this anyway."

She didn't say anything for a moment, but then, softly, she said, "I saw you leave, yeah. I wanted to follow you, but would you've let me if I asked?"

My answer was going to be no. She knew it was going to be no. No point in saying it, so instead I threw the pack over my shoulder, and walked away. If I didn't I'd probably end up forgiving her, the silly kid. She was just like her brother sometimes. Except her brother was better at it. That look. That Evil Pout of Doom, as Venus so lovely called it.

I shook my head, 'But right now's not the time to think about it.' I had to get to where they were. I had to.

I quickened my pace when the screeches of monsters just got louder. Louder and louder and louder.

Great. That Guardian beastie thing had children.

That's all I could think of when I saw three or four miniature monsters rolling around and attacking Link, Fae, and Venus. Venus of course looked up first, her eyes widening when she saw me. She whacked the one focusing on her with the hilt of the saber in her hand. She dashed over to me immediately and asked, "You still've got some bottles on you don't you?" I nodded my head and tossed one to her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Guard lady running towards us as well. Venus handed the bottle quickly off to her before turning back to me, "Get your bow ready—hide behind some of the trees! Shoot down the monster when I turn it around so you can—"

The deep howling cry of the monster she had been fighting tore her attention away from me. It spotted her again, and was rolling towards us. Crap.

"On second thought," Venus turned back to face me, "Let's climb up the actual tree. How does that sound? Or maybe a rock…there's a rock over there with vines on it…"

She didn't have to tell me twice before I dashed off towards the rock. I trusted rock over tree any day. It wouldn't be destroyed as easily. I climbed up the vines as quickly as I could, and when I reached the top I realized something. I could probably shoot down every one of the monsters from up here.

"Argh, why'd you have to choose the stupid rock!" Venus shouted over from the tree she had jumped onto. She was trying to get the monster distracted, but she was failing miserably. I would've laughed if I had known this wasn't dangerous.

So I readied my bow and shot the thing in the back of the neck, right where it's weakness was, 'You'd think that they wouldn't have such an obvious weakness…but then again, they probably aren't used to people around here carrying bows and arrows on them.' I thought as I turned my attention away from Venus and to the others.

It looked like, out of everyone, Tetra was having the most problems. Then again, she probably didn't fight that much to begin with. I readied my bow again, this time even more careful at how I aimed it—the monster was practically right up on her most of the time—and released the arrow. A few seconds later and the monster disappeared in a poof of black and purple smoke.

And a few seconds after that I saw a flash of purple dart through the trees, followed by a flash of blue. For a second I just stared at that spot of forest until the purple flash and the blue flash stumbled through the trees.

The purple was that boy, the one I left with Aryll—who was standing right behind him looking scared.

The blue was her. Fae's sister—

"Nayru?" Fae asked, sheathing his two swords after successfully cut down the monster in his way. Practically a minute later and Link delivered the final blow to the monster in front of him. And now everything was quiet. Quiet until that boy collapsed again.

But at least he didn't pass out. He just leaned against the tree, looking even paler than he already did. His eyes locked on mine for a moment, before moving to Link, who was walking closer to him. He visibly flinched when Link got close and I had to wonder, somewhere in the back of my mind that still wasn't buzzing from the just-seconds-ago-ended attack.

That guy didn't like Link. He couldn't've met him before. That was impossible if he came tumbling through the forest. Or wait, I didn't know that. They could've met, but Link didn't look like he knew him.

"Here let me see him." Nayru asked gently, but Aryll stepped forward, looking unsure. "He's hurt…even more hurt than a potion can heal." Nayru added on, pushing a strand of her sky-blue hair away from her matching eyes. She was worried, I hadn't seen her that worried in a while. She was always calm. All three of them were always calm. Always calm, cool, collected never worrying over something unless it needed to be worried over.

And she was worried now.

"Please," She insisted, and finally Aryll seemed to step aside, though why she was so keen on protecting someone she met not even an hour ago I didn't know. But when Nayru tried to reach out and touch the boy he slapped her hand away, the look in his eyes nothing short of deadly.

"Hey now." Fae stepped forward, "You shouldn't even be standing. You did give him a Red Potion right?" he asked, directing the question at me. I nodded my head as I began to climb down the vines on the side of the rock.

When I managed to get over to them—after having to side step a bunch of small potholes created from the monsters—I could tell the boy was staring at me again. But the deadly look had faded. He really did need to see a proper healer.

"Look, will you please at least let me see," Nayru held her hand out, ready to brush away some of the boy's bangs, but he turned his face away at the last minute. She let out a sigh and said, "Fine then, your arm." He seemed to comply well enough now, for whatever reason, and waited as she held a hand over his wound. In a few seconds the wound looked like it was almost healing up.

And the boy didn't like that. He didn't like it at all. He jerked his hand away and pushed himself away from the tree, taking a few steps backwards…

before tripping and falling rather clumsily over a root. That had to be just a little bit embarrassing. And because of his pale face it was easy to see—his cheeks literally flamed with humiliation. I almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

But the look Venus was suddenly giving him, and then the look she gave me told me she wanted me to do something about this. And she knew I didn't want to. She was right. I really didn't want to. I didn't even know the kid, he'd probably just push me away if I tried to help him. Plus that might not even be what she meant. Did I even want to know what she meant?

I took another glance back at the kid, and then at Venus again. Her eyes narrowed and they looked almost dangerous. Not to mention the less than friendly look everyone else was giving the guy. Even Link looked upset, though that was probably because of how he had reacted to him. He probably thought he did something wrong. Heck he probably could have, just from walking near him, but that was—

"What's your name?" Venus suddenly asked, stepping closer to the boy with one of her trademark smiles on her face. The smile that everyone saw at one point, but that no one could ever directly read.

The boy eyed her for a moment, trying to lessen the blush on his cheeks—and succeeding, a little—before speaking, his voice shaky, "V-Vaati." A split second after he said that he looked like he was mentally slapping himself.

Yup he definitely was the suspicious little brat.

"And how old are you?" Venus asked again, walking even closer, her smile getting just a little wider.

Vaati's eyes narrowed, "None of your business." His reply was cold, almost as cold as his eyes were, but because he actually spoke almost a full sentence I noticed something else.

Venus was interested now, "Don't you know never to say that?" she teased, "It just makes me wanna know even more!" her unreadable smile turned to a devilish smirk, "Lemme guess, you can't be older than fourteen." Immediately Vaati's face pinched up, either he was offended, or she had guessed right. This seemed to cheer Venus up even more and again she said, "So if you're not older than fourteen then…hmm, are you twelve maybe?"

Now he looked angry, "I'm older than that!"

Venus raised an eyebrow at that, "Really now?"

Vaati hissed something unintelligible under his breath before saying, in a much calmer tone than before, "If you must know—I'm sixteen." He looked away as he said it. He obviously wasn't telling the whole truth.

"Well yer awfully short for a sixteen year old." Fae remarked offhandedly, he didn't mean anything by it, I could tell from the look on his face. But the grin didn't help him.

Vaati hissed something else unintelligible under his breath and suddenly the wind picked up. It swayed the trees and I heard a screech from not too far off. At first I thought it was another monster, but from the sudden swarm of black I realized—

It was only bats. But it was a huge flock of them. And the sun was out. And Vaati still looked pissed off. And the bats were coming right at us. And…and, "Oh craaaap." I managed to duck just in time as the bats swooped over us and continued flying off to wherever they were going.

When I looked back up everyone was still flinching, or still ducking. Well, everyone except Vaati, and Venus.

And she had that look on her face again. That smirk that said she had just come up with something that you were not going to like under any circumstance. Ever. The smirk just got wider when she noticed me staring at her and she said, rather loudly, "Well gee, you've got a thing for bats don't'cha…Violet."

If the kid hadn't been hurt he probably would've pounced on her and then beat the crap out of her. But when he tried to stand he winced. So instead he settled for a less-than-friendly glare, "Don't. Call. Me. That."

"Oh but why—" before Venus could even finish her sentence a strong gust of wind blew through the trees. I heard a few loud crashes off in the distance and then I heard something I didn't want to hear.

A loud cry from a monster mixed with the high pitched scream of a girl. Crap. That wasn't good. But the scream abruptly stopped, and for a few seconds it was dead quiet. That never meant anything good. Never. Well, that, and the fact that the Guard lady was running towards us as fast as she could dragging Harlee along behind her.

And she had my jacket in her arms, as well as a bag slung around her shoulders that I hadn't seen when I last saw her at the inn. Bits of navy blue thread were falling out and that's when I got it. No matter how stupid, and insanely not safe as it was—she was sewing. She was trying to fix my jacket. At a time like this. She was still trying to fix it. She was dedicated, yeah, I'd give her brownie points for that.

If she stayed alive to receive them. Sewing wasn't a from of defense. Or at least it wasn't that I knew of. Unless she used the needles, which probably wouldn't work anyway.

"What are you gawking at!" The Guard shouted at us, shaking her spear-staff thing in the air frantically, "Run! The stupid thing's coming at us!"

"But running towards the village—" Link practically screamed to be heard over the loud pounding footsteps of the monster that was obviously closing in on us.

"Then split up!" the Guard reached us and stopped for a second, "I'll take the kids." She motioned towards Aryll and Vaati, "And whoever else wants to come." She was panting hard, and she didn't look like she could hold off whatever monster had attacked them before. If she tried to then…it would be bad, very bad.

"That's all fine and good." Fae started, walking towards her, "But where the he—" Venus glared at the back of his head and he cleared his throat loudly before continuing, "—ck will you go? What place is safe enough? Not the village that'd just kill the vegetable garden since none of 'em know how to fight—"

"The Grave yard…" Nayru murmured, "You can go to the graveyard, right? It's away from town and I heard that a lot of monsters don't like the dead."

"We'll go to the Graveyard then." The Guard practically shouted at us, acting like she was the one who came up with that idea, "anyone else want to come?"

Nayru didn't seem to mind though and actually smiled, or tried to, "I'll go. Venus, why don't you come too? After all…" she trailed off, looking down at her feet.

Venus made a weird face, giving Nayru a warning glance before saying, "If Linebeck goes, I'll go. I'm not useless and I'm not old. Ya don't have to worry about lil' ole me!" She was trying to be cheerful, but it sounded forced. Way too forced, and not like her at all.

Then again it was the graveyard. Nayru wouldn't have mentioned the graveyard if there wasn't something about it that interested…her…

Oh. Crap. I wanted to mentally slap myself, or throw a bucket of cold water on me—or something. My hands were shaking now. Crap. That wasn't good. No one could see them though. Right? But Venus was still looking at me, as if saying 'you should go', but not really saying it.

She wouldn't force me but if she didn't answer then the least that would happen was me being called a scaredy-cat. 'Not that I should care anymore. Link already knows I hate stuff like this.'

But something in the back of my head told me this was different. To go to safety, or to go and fight some big bad monster that would probably kill me, it was obvious. Or it should be.

Pros about the Big bad monster: Not going to the graveyard, maybe actually helping out.

Cons about the Big Bad Monster: Getting killed.

Pros about going to the Graveyard: Staying alive and being safe

Cons about going to the Graveyard: her grave was there.

Din's grave was there. I didn't want to see her grave. But I didn't even know for sure that she was even buried there. The look on Venus' face, though, told me that she was. There was no doubt about it. But why the heck they decided to listen to me—to let me choose where to bury her after that…after she…died…

"Linebeck?" Link was next to me now, looking worried, "Are you…okay…?"

I shook my head and tried to smile, or at least reassure him I was fine. The last thing I needed was the kid worrying about me when he needed to worry more about himself. I ran my fingers through his bangs before I could stop myself, and said, "Yeah kid, I'm good. Sure I'll go to the Graveyard. It's not like any ghost's going to come out and attack me."

"Well there are Poe's." Tetra pointed out, grinning, "Are you sure you can take on a few Poe's?" she was trying to make fun of me, and I probably should've been mad but I wasn't. At least if there were Poe's to fight off I'd be concentrating on that and not—

"But the Poes are very nice and harmless!" Nayru stated, looking offended, "They won't attack unless you provoke them!"

Tetra was about to reply to that, the look on her face saying that she'd probably say something less than pleasant, when suddenly another gust of wind rattled the trees. The branches creaked and groaned and I could've sworn the wind would just knock them over like dominos.

And I really did not feel like playing "Dodge the Tree" again today. Did it once. Never want to do it again. Not that I could say that, I'd probably end up having to 'miraculously' jump out of the way at just the right time again. Joy.

"Let's not worry about the stupid Poes right now!" the Guard hissed, "We're going! Come on you two." She snapped at Aryll and Vaati. She turned away quickly and grabbed onto Harlee's wrist again, not even looking as Vaati gave her another one of his glares. The kid definitely loved to glare a lot.

"I guess that means we're off now, doesn't it?" Venus asked, though not really expecting anyone to answer, "But y'need to quit with the "Evil Glare of Untimely Demise" Violet." Before anyone could really respond to that she was already off and running, immediately taking the lead without even glancing back to see if we were following her.

She didn't even see the glare Vaati was giving her again, or the fact that—even though he was wounded—he immediately started to run after her. He looked like he wanted to strangle her, or at least he was mad enough to. He didn't get too far though, but again it wasn't because of his wounds. He didn't even seem to feel them anymore.

It was Aryll. She had practically pounced on him. And he definitely didn't like it. He shrugged her off easily, but the 'I'm going to strangle you' look had disappeared from his eyes. Or eye, since I couldn't see the other one. Made me wonder again why he chose to hide it, but—

"You should go." Link mumbled from next to me, when I looked down at him it surprised me. Made me want to respect the kid even more now, "Go. Hurry it's—"

A loud roar coming from the direction of the Temple—or where I assumed the temple was from here—made me more than make up my mind. I ruffled his hair again, accidentally pushing his cap down over his eyes before turning and following the others, running as fast as my legs would take me.

I could still hear the roar of the monster, even though I was sure we were far enough away that it couldn't try and follow us anymore. Didn't matter, though. It still could. Or it's little monster buddies could. 'And that would be bad,' I looked to the left of me, Venus and Nayru were slowing down a bit, but that was probably just Venus. Nayru could run faster than me if she wanted to. And Aryll was actually being carried now, by Vaati, but they were still a good ways ahead of us. That kid—

"We're here!" the Guard shouted from around a sharp corner made from a wall of trees. I could barely see through them, but what I could see was just a bunch of blackish green shadows.

I made my way to the particular turn and looked ahead of me. She was right. We were here. At the silver gate of the old cemetery with its rows and rows of old tomb stones, some corroded, and others almost brand new. I nearly tripped over one of the huge roots of a tree nearby when I tried to slow down. Aryll and Vaati saw this, but only Aryll laughed.

"Well are you guys going to come in or not?" the Guard called from behind the gates, "the Gate's open—just push!" but Vaati, who was the closest, didn't even move. He had a pained expression on his face, like he didn't want to go through it.

"She's right, the gate really is unlocked," Nayru stated, walking ahead of me and over to the gate. She gave Vaati a weird look before pushing on the silver bars. A few seconds later and the door creaked and groaned but managed to open, making Vaati flinch. "It's easy, see?" she moved towards Vaati, like she suspected something, but he just shied away, ducking past her and hurrying into the Cemetery. Aryll immediately followed after him, though she actually looked scared just for the fact that it was a graveyard, and she must've heard about the monsters that loved to hide in Graveyards and in abandoned graves. Even I heard of them, but they didn't come out in daylight, and it was still daylight now.

'But it won't be soon.' I shook away the thought, and practically jumped when Venus placed a tired hand on my shoulder.

"I really need to work out more, don't I?" She said through a raspy laugh, "I mean seriously, how long has it been since I ran like that? What? Never?" she took a few deep breaths to try and calm down. It seemed to work and she straightened up, "But honestly Violet's a little…jumpy isn't 'e?"

Almost a split second later Nayru replied, "It's because I saw him here. That's why I was chasing him." Her tone was dull, but serious at the same time. "I thought he was here just to visit a grave, like I was, but instead he was looking up at a tree talking to the birds."

"And? What was he asking them?" Venus asked, sounding amused even though her expression was serious.

"I don't know." Nayru turned to look at us, her eyes strained and worried, "I couldn't understand him. At all. But the birds could. They liked him."

Venus raised an eyebrow at that, "Oh really now? What'd they say back to him, hmm? Did they tell him where the best place to eat was?"

"No." Nayru's eyes drifted to me and her eyes locked with my own, "He sounded so surprised when he heard his answer though. He repeated every word." She closed her eyes briefly, "He said 'In the Southern Ocean? But there is no Ocean. Not where I'm from. Reagand isn't a place I know of either. Could it be? I'm not in…'" her eyes opened, "Then he saw me and he ran."

"And from that little conversation you got that…?" Venus didn't seem to be getting it. Either that or she got it but didn't think she was right. She looked over at me and said, "What do you think, Becky?"

I tried not to cringe at the nickname and remarked, "I dunno. Whatever you think is probably right anyway."

"But what do you think?" she looked serious, "Don't tell me you forgot to use your brain in all these years we've been apart!" she made a horrified expression but even through it I could tell she still really wanted an answer.

So I shrugged and answered, "He's not from here?"

Nayru shook her head, "You're right." Then she looked over at Venus, "And Venus, you might not think you're right but you are. He…Vaati…he isn't from here. It's not that he isn't from Reagand, it's…he's not…" she took a deep breath to try and compose herself, however good it'd do, "He isn't from the Great Sea or any other island in it."

My mouth suddenly went dry. I was right. And Venus was right too. But…but…

"How?" The word fell and landed in shattered little pieces on the ground.

Silence was my only answer.

Like I said, this is more like a lead in for the next chapter, but I like it enough as it is. I also like the nickname I came up with for Vaati XD It's surprisingly simple and yet it suits him. I'm also happy that this chapter turned out to be this long, on account of the fact that most of my really late chapters tend to be really short. But yeah, anyway…

Questions, Comments, Loved it, have Critique send it via Review! Reviews are good for an authors soul (and creativity)! So they'd be greatly appreciated!

Oh and I have a 4 day weekend coming up, so hopefully that'll equal me and some personal time with the computer (more like with Microsoft Word) which will then (hopefully) mean more chapters! But we'll just have to see how things go.

Until the next chapter

-Harmony283