Chapter 13:
Interlude and Dialogue
"Hey! Guys! Guys, are you alright? Come on, talk to me, please!!"
"Uhm…?"
When they heard the fairy's voice, the boys opened their eyes.
They still were within the sanctuary, right before the big stone altar. And Eyne was floating in the air before them, obviously very relieved:
"Guys...?"
"We're alright, Eyne…", Kaze stated. He was still a little dizzy because of what happened, but quite fine otherwise. And Toki nodded agreeing.
Eyne sighed gladly:
"Wheew… I was sooo~ worried, you know? There was this weird, weird girl for a short moment and suddenly, you weren't doing anything anymore, except talking to yourself! And then, you were all synched up while doing that! Every move, ever word every move of your eyes, all the same! That was so very, very creepy! I thought something went wrong!"
She sounded almost like crying.
But Toki just laughed:
"Hehe, don't worry, we're fine! Saria… the sage just wanted to talk to us one on one!"
"Huh?"
Eyne seemed slightly confused:
"One… on one? But you're two… hm?"
"Oh, yeah…"
Toki remembered that Eyne had no clue what just happened, since she probably didn't pick up a lot from their seemingly random rambling while "All synched up".
"Should we explain it to her?"
Kaze shrugged:
"How if we don't quite get it ourselves?"
„What, what, what?", Eyne asked, floating up and down like a bouncing rubber ball. "Come on, what did the sage tell you, huh, huh, huh?!"
"Uhm…"
"Well, you see…"
---- 20 Minutes and a heck lot of Exposition you all already know now later ---
Eyne whistled in awe:
"Wooow… you are… two incarnations of one person? That sounds very cool!"
"I think it's very weird…", Kaze stated „If if that does explain a lot… where I got my talent for sword play from, for example… You know, Orca always claimed my father was horrible with weapons. Also, why I suddenly developed that weird obsession for this clothes once I wore them. It was so strange: Every time I thought about switching them for different ones, something held me back. Now I know what that was: That "something" was you!"
For some reason, he threw Toki a reproachful look, but Toki just crossed his arms without any guilt:
"Kokiri clothes are easy to wash, comfortable and looking neat!"
"Is the skirt looking neat as well in your eyes?", Kaze asked teasing.
"It's a TUNIC!"
"YEAH, try explaining that to the people who always give me the weird looks when I pass by in that stuff!"
Now it was Kaze who crossed his arms:
"And you know what the irony is? I saw a girl Kokiri just now. And she was wearing pants."
"I liked the tunic better! It seemed much cooler to me!"
"Cooler?"
"Sorry for growing up in a forest and not being informed about the newest trends, OK?!"
"Ehem…"
Eyne tried to draw the two fighting parties attention towards herself:
"Uhm, excuse me, but don't you think that we've got much, much more important things to worry about now? Saving the world from Apocalypse, for example! It's just my opinion, but I'd really, really rather hurry up now, please!"
"…"
The two boys alternately looked at each other and at Eyne, before bursting into laughter:
"Ha Ha!! Now we're getting really silly… we're fighting over something as unimportant as the tunic?", Kaze asked.
"Hey, it was you who started!", Toki just answered.
They boys tried to focused again and finally nodded at each other.
"Let's get out of here first!"
"Alright."
They left the temple and ran back to the cliff.
"I… I still can't believe it…", Kaze finally said, when they were already near the exit of the woods:
"I am… the one who saved Hyrule a thousand years ago… that was me! I am you!"
"So what?", Toki asked with a shrug: „You did accomplish quite a few things in this epoch yet as well, didn't you?"
"Yes, of course, but that about you, that's an ancient legend! That has such a… mysterious touch to it…"
He looked up to the tops of the trees:
"I always thought that I was just a kid, who had yet not seen too much of the world… But now, I find out, that I've already been around for… ages… and that I actually saw much more than I thought… awesome. I just wish, I could remember it all…"
Toki pat him on the shoulder, but sighed:
"Oh… be careful what you wish for, OK? Some things… There are things you don't want to have seen…"
A short silence. Kaze didn't know… Should he ask now, or rather not…? Finally, he decided to do it:
"And... those things… Have something to do with the mask from before, right?"
Toki quickly looked up:
„I-i told you not to talk about that anymore!"
„But I want to know!", Kaze demanded: "You are me, so it's my right to know what happened back then! And maybe we can find out how you died if you tell me everything that happened after you left Hyrule!"
"Is it really that important to you?!"
"YES!"
"…"
"Come on, please!!"
"I…"
"Please!!"
Toki hesitated for another few seconds… Finally, he gave in. He looked to the floor and whispered:
"I was out in the woods at the outskirt of Hyrule, searching for Navi, when I got distracted by a pair of fairies. They and a Skullkid from the Lost Woods knocked me unconscious and robbed me… I followed them to this strange place, I never saw before and demanded to get my stuff and my horse back, but they put a curse on me. However, there was an accident and one of the fairies, Tatl, got separate from the two others. She tagged along with me, to get back to them, and we went out, traveling all over this place, Termina… and there we saw… horrible things…"
He paused a moment:
"There were cursed people…people suffering in inhuman ways… a man who had been half transformed into a gibdo… a bride, who was waiting for her groom and knew that they'd both die… a girl getting kidnapped and traumatized by ghosts… People slowly dying right before my eyes… that's not even half of what I had to see there…
And the worst thing was:
I couldn't help all of them…"
Suddenly, he burst into tears:
"Every time I saved Romani, the time for everything else ran out and I had to undo it! Every time I helped Anju and Kafei, I didn't make it back to the clock tower in time and had to undo it! Same with a dozen other people! No matter how many times I saved them, the time just wasn't enough and I had to undo it and undo it over and over again, until Tatl finally convinced me to give up! And then there were the people whom I couldn't save at all, not even temporarily! Mikau died even though I gave my best to save him! Darmani was already dead when I arrived! They left behind so many friends, who loved them. And then I came and made it just worse by giving them false hope for those people to return! I felt so horrible, but I had no other choice! And then I realized… that curse that had been put on me… was cast by using the soul of a dead Deku-child. A dead Child! It was with me all along, but I couldn't help it! I couldn't do anything at all!"
„Toki…"
Kaze was sorry, that he asked him to tell.
This sounded… so horrible. Maybe it was really for the better, that he couldn't remember all those things….
But Toki… he had no other choice but to remember…
He seemed incredibly down:
"…For every person I saved in Termina… there was another one I couldn't save. For every saved life, there was one that stayed ruined or was erased, no matter what I did. That was when I realized that … that even I couldn't help everyone, no matter how much I wanted… it had probably been the same in Hyrule as well, I just didn't realize, because there, the people didn't drop dead right before my eyes… but in Termina, I got the full picture of how unfair life really is…"
"But… you did you're best, didn't you?!", Kaze asked "No, I know, you surely did everything that was in your power! If you hadn't been there, much more would have happened, am I right?"
Toki looked at the other boy for a short moment:
"And yet, I failed to…"
"OH, don't come me with "failed"!!"
He put one hand onto the other boy's shoulder:
"You can't have failed, because there's no such thing as "failing". Somebody told me that… not too long ago!", he smiled at him "Look… I cannot claim to know what you had to go through… But you must not feel guilty for what happened to those people! Especially not if you managed to save even one person! You didn't mean to abandon them! You would never willingly abandon anybody!"
Kaze winked:
"Nobody knows that better than me!"
"I can't add much to that…", Eyne stated in shame "But… I think you should listen to him! He is right, if you tried your best, you have no reason to feel guilty! You are not a failure, no, no!!"
Finally, Toki wiped away the ears… he looked the other boy and at the fairy and smiled:
"…OK. You win. Thank's, guys… Ha ha…"
"You're welcome!", Kaze answered.
They continued their way, until finally reaching the cliff…
Where they encountered a… slight…
OK, whom am I kidding?
A-not-so-slight-at-all problem.
"Uh Oh…"
"Uhm, yeah, I should have thought about that…"
Toki gulped, while Kaze tried to figure out, how many days they could survive without any supplies whatsoever.
Because
The wind was blowing right into their faces, the very wrong direction
The other cliff was ABOVE them, making it impossible to reach with the Deku-Leaf
There wasn't even a Deku Flower on this Cliff
They still had no boat.
"That's bad… that's very, very bad…", Eyne realized: "We are stuck here!"
"No.", Toki turned to her "He and I are stuck here. You can fly!"
"But I can't just go without you!", Eyne said „The Queen wanted me to take you to her! I have to take you to the queen, otherwise, I cannot return, no!"
"Well, great, and how are you planning on getting us off that rock?", Kaze asked "We've got one Deku Leaf and I lost my Wind Waker."
"And we still haven't figure out, how to get a boat!", Toki added.
"Boat…", Eyne slowly repeated "Boat, Boat… Of course! Tee Hee!"
Suddenly, without any warning, she flew of, leaving the boys behind.
"H-Hey!", Kaze shouted after her: "Where are you going?! You can't just leave us like that!"
"Oh, let her be.", Toki sighed "Name one useful thing she did yet."
"She warned us of the approaching end of the world.", Kaze answered in a low voice.
"Two useful things!"
Kaze just sighed:
"Great, really great, now we are fairy-less as well… Can't your Ocarina somehow bail us out of this?"
"If you can tell me, which ones of Sheik's warp points were not flooded, yes. Otherwise, I wouldn't think of using the Ocarina as a good idea, unless you are a fan of pitifully drowning."
"Great."
Kaze thought…
Of course, they could use that weird mask to make Toki lighter, so the Dekuleaf may carry bot hof them… but even then, the cliff was still too high up and they'd just float slower towards their watery demise. Just splendid.
"UHH!"
The young boy threw himself into the grass beneath him.
Well, that much about "Awakening the remaining sages."
"We are dead.", he stated with voice devoid of emotion.
"The world is dead.", Toki stated, joining him in the grass.
Kaze sighed:
"We're one awesome hero, really. Badly equipped and even our fairy---"
"HEEE~EEY!!"
The two boys quickly jumped up again, as the heard the voice. In the distance, they saw something…
A merchant's boat… and something beside it was shining dark blue:
"BOOOOOYS! I GOT YOU A BOAT!!", Eyne shouted as loud as she could.
Kaze smiled in relieve:
"Eyne!"
And Toki shortly jumped:
"I take everything back I said about her!"
-~-
"Oh, it's the young Silvermember!!", Beedle exclaimed in joy upon seing the green-clad boy. "Long time no see!"
"Silvermember?", Toki whispered to Kaze
"I used to shop on this ship quite a lot, when I was still sailing around this part of the ocean by myself.", he replied quickly.
"Well…", Beedle continued "How are the travels going? And, most importantly: How can I help you today?"
But Kaze had to turn down the offer right away:
"Uhm, sorry, Beedle, but I'm broke. I… left my money on the ship."
Of course, it's not like he had any other choice. It's not like he had been prepared for "leaving" the ship this way. He could be glad to still have most of his equipment on him…
"Oh. I see."
A disappointed look took over all of the merchant's face when he heard the word "broke"…
Until Toki asked a question:
"Uhm… do you happen to sell bottled milk?"
Quickly, the men turned around to the young boy in joy:
"Well, of course we are selling milk! Only best quality!"
Milk? Well, that was new to Kaze… he should probably have checked Beedle's newletters more often.
"Great!!" Toki quickly pulled out a red rupee out of his pocket:
"One please!"
"Of course! Just a moment!"
Beddle immediately ran into the cabin in the back of the ship.
Kaze threw Toki a confused look:
"What do you need the milk for?"
"To drink it, duh." Toki rolled his eyes "We might get hungry on the way to the next island and… just between you and me: I looo~ve milk!"
"Hm… Actually, I like soup better..", Kaze stated.
"Plain old Soup? And Saria's sure that we're the same?"
"Well, you didn't grow up with my Grandma's cooking!"
Just at the thought, Kaze's eyes lit up like two stars:
"Mmmmmmm… Grandma's soup! Oh yeah, that'd be something right now… Ahhh…"
„Keep on dreaming. We're not coming back to your island anytime soon as it looks now.", Toki laughed.
"Oh… that's right…"
Kaze sighed:
"You know… I should have taken a bottle of her soup with me… or a barrel… or two…"
Now it was Toki who gave Kaze a skeptical look:
"Uhm… no offense, but that makes it sound like you were… kind of addicted to that stuff…"
"Hey! I'm not the one ordering a bottle of milk in the middle of the ocean!"
"Yes, you are…", Toki said, slowly alternately pointing at the other boy and himself with his finger: "Somehow… at least… I think…"
Kaze shock his head:
"Look, don't try to make any sense of it like this. That's not gonna make it any less complicated."
"I know…"
"One bottle of milk, right here!!"
Beedle was returning to the room, causing Toki to smile in glee as he spotted the snow-white liquid in the bottle the men had brought:
"Oh! Thank you very much!"
He quickly paid the money and hurried to get a zip of the purchased milk:
"Mmmm! Hey, that tastes just like back home… Haha, I guess, Malon saved the cows!"
"Listen, my little costumers…" Beedle started "Tomorrow, I'll board in Port Monee to restock up my resources. I'll leave you off the ship there. From there on, you'll have to go on alone. Is that alright?"
"Alright!", Toki agreed.
"And thanks for your help, Mister!", Kaze added.
Eyne quickly bowed in midair:
"We would have been so absolutely stuck without you!"
"Oh, no need to thank me! You can't just leave children out alone in the middle of nowhere, can you? Especially not two such fine costumers as you! Without young people like you, coming and buying every now and then, I'd be ruined!"
The two boys looked at each other upon that statement.
And laughed.
---Note
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet:
The Filler-chapter! XD
Seriously, this chapter is so filler, even the name I gave it is screaming "FILLER!!" all over and it, most literally, is one of the most uninteresting and most unnecessary chapters in the whole fanfic… Well, except for the Majora's Mask Angst maybe, which I do need to set up later plot points. I'm also setting up LonLonMilk n' ElixirSoup jokes here, which will become a running gag later on. Seriously, just go replay Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker and make the boys drink some of the stuff! It looks sooo overdone!
Epic drinking, brought to you by Nintendo.
Heck, actually, the only Link who can even remotely drink ANYTHING without looking like a giant show-off is, ironically, Twilight Princess Link, whom I generally consider the biggest Show-off among all the Links!
Mr. "comes with 30 Epic Horse n' Sword poses included" -.-
Oh, while we're at drinking… Next chapter is one of my favorites and by this hint I just gave, you might already guess why…
So, go, grab yourself a bowl of soup and a glass of milk and enjoy! ;-)
(By the way, you might want to look back to chapter 1 (Timeless Stories), since I added a little something in the beginning. It's not plot-relevant or anything, just a quote from a song that inspired a lot of the first half of the fanfiction. I added it for atmosphere and to mark the beginning of said first half. Second half, which will likely be published as it's own fanfiction, will start of with a similar quote from a song which inspired the second half.)