I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter! Things have happened between the last one and now. For starters, I got a job! Which took up the majority of my time, so I had much less to work on my story. Then, it got so horrible that I had to quit and start looking for something else.
After that, well, procrastination took over again (I need someone to keep that in check, really T.T). I've been playing games and watching animes lately, and then OrangeStreakedStar reminded me about this story.
So here we are! Hopefully I'll be able to update more often, but at this point I'm not sure I can guarantee anything. I'll try to keep them coming at least every week.
"What's with all these flying jellyfish?" Saria asked, as Malon fought off another one. This was the tenth one they'd run into so far.
"I don't know." Ruto answered "I've been going inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly since I was little, but this is the first time I've seen these things here."
"You've been here before?" Malon asked.
"Yeah. I prepare and present his meals to him."
"Oh. And you have to go inside him for that?"
"I'd rather not go into the details. Let's just find my stone."
"Good idea." Saria said. Soon, they came to a room with a raised platform in it. In the center of the platform was a blue gleam, but that was all they could tell from where they were.
"That's it! Come on, help me get up there!" Ruto said, and the others lifted her up onto the platform. She picked up the blue stone "I finally found my mother's stone..."
Malon folded her arms "Hey, we helped too..." She complained to herself.
Ruto turned to them "Okay, I'm ready to go back now."
"But how will we-" Saria started, but she was interrupted by the platform suddenly raising, and slotting itself into a hole in the ceiling "Ruto!"
They could hear Ruto from where they were "W-what's this? An octopus?"
The three girls looked at each other. Zelda was the first to speak "That can't be good."
The platform lowered again, but it wasn't Ruto on it this time; It was a huge Octorok.
"AHH! What's that thing?!" Malon screamed.
"Too big to fight normally, I'm guessing." Zelda answered "We need to find a weak spot somewhere."
The two girls nodded, and Saria started to say something, but stopped herself as she realized that Alta wasn't there "...Oh... Right..."
The Octorok jumped off the platform and started chasing them. The girls started running, but the room just led them in a circle.
"What do we do?!" Malon asked, panicking.
"I don't see anything that looks like a weak spot..." Zelda answered "And we can't run like this forever."
"Neither can he, though." Saria replied "Though, I don't think we can run for longer than him..."
"We can't risk finding out."
Saria had an idea "Wait, we've only seen the front while looking for weak spots, right?" The others nodded in response "Well... What about the back?"
"We can't exactly get around him to check, can we? The platform is too high to climb, and he's not going to just let us get behind him."
"I think we can get behind him." Saria said, starting to run faster than the Octorok by getting as close to the platform as she could without hurting herself.
"Hey... Good idea!" Malon replied, as she and Zelda followed suit. They soon caught up to the Octorok, who didn't even notice them behind it. Everyone stayed quiet so they wouldn't attract its attention.
"I don't see anything..." Saria whispered to herself "Wait... Aha, that looks promising." She noticed a large slit in its back. She gained on it until she was right behind it, and jumped at it, thrusting her sword into the opening.
The Octorok stopped and whirled around, trying to get Saria - Who had grabbed onto it just after she attacked - off of it. Saria pulled her sword out and attacked again, just before hitting the wall. She fell to the ground and looked up at the giant Octorok staring down at her. It didn't look happy.
Before either could do anything, Zelda grabbed Saria's sword, which was still impaled in the Octorok, and attacked with it and her own together. The Octorok fell, and the platform lowered so they could climb on top of it.
"Nice going, Zelda!" Malon congratulated.
Saria walked around the Octorok to Zelda, who handed the former her sword.
"Thanks, Princess." Saria said "I can't say we'd know what to do without you."
Zelda nodded, and they all walked onto the platform.
"I hope Ruto's okay." Malon said "Was she eaten by the Octorok?"
"I can't say for sure, but I have a feeling we'll see her up ahead." Zelda replied, as the platform raised up to the ceiling, where the girls ended up in a hallway. It felt like they'd been inside Jabu-Jabu forever, but now this part of their adventure was coming to a close, finally.
At least, that's what they'd hoped. Their hopes were dashed when they found a huge, tentacled monster in the middle of a large room, surrounded by giant jellyfish.
Saria sighed "I should've known that wasn't the end of it..."
"How'll we fight this one?" Malon asked.
"First things first." Zelda answered "Malon, take care of the jellyfish. You're the only one that can fight them." She turned to Saria "Saria and I will see if we can find its-" She was interrupted by most of the jellyfish bearing down on the monster, forming a kind of armor around its lower half "...Weak spot."
"I think this guy just found it out for us." Saria said "It makes our job easier, at least.".
Malon readied her hammer "Now all we need to do is get rid of the jellyfish."
"Easier said than done." Saria said, as she avoided one of the jellyfish that stayed behind "We can't exactly kill these things easily."
Malon swung her hammer at another, knocking it back "We can still try! Maybe they'll die if I hit them hard enough!"
Zelda noticed something "Wait, perhaps you don't have to do that. Look." She said, pointing to the jellyfish Malon attacked. It was just recovering from the hit, and started sparking "Did you see that?"
"Yeah, that's why we can't attack them." Saria commented.
Zelda shook her head "No, not that. Did you see how it stopped sparking when Malon hit it?"
"Maybe... Can you hit another one, Malon?"
Malon nodded "Mm, sure!" She said, as she ran towards a jellyfish, and Saria followed. Malon hit the jellyfish as hard as she could, and it fell down and ran into the wall. Saria took this chance to attack with her sword, which killed the jellyfish.
"Their electricity stops working if they're stunned!" Malon declared.
"This might be true for the other jellyfish we saw before, too." Zelda noted to herself "We noticed it this time because these ones are on a larger scale..."
Malon and Saria ran off to take care of the other jellyfish, while Zelda examined the main creature from where she was. She didn't approach it, as the jellyfish on its body could come off at any time.
And come off they did. As Saria and Malon finished off the last of the free-floating jellyfish, the others detached themselves from the monster, which connected them to it with electric energy and started spinning quickly.
"Woah, look out!" Malon shouted as she tackled Saria to the ground, where the jellyfish zipped over them.
Zelda decided to take a chance and rush in, ducking whenever a jellyfish approached, and dodging electric sparks coming from tentacles on top of the monster. She closed in and attacked the spot that the jellyfish were protecting before.
The connections between the jellyfish and the monster severed, and they become free-floating again. Saria and Malon immediately got to work killing them, while Zelda attacked the monster at whatever opportunity she could get between dodging electric shots.
Soon, the monster fell, and after a moment Ruto crawled out of its remains "Ugh, what was that?"
"Ruto!" Malon yelled, running over "You're okay!"
"Yeah, I am. What took you guys so long?"
"You're welcome." Saria replied "We killed the Octorok and the big jellyfish guy as fast as we could."
"Let's just go back." Zelda intervened, walking to the exit "Come on."
"Aren't we still stuck here, though?" Malon asked.
"I get the feeling Lord Jabu-Jabu will be more willing to let us out now that we've killed the monster inside him." Zelda reasoned, as they headed back to Jabu-Jabu's mouth.
"You were amazing, Zelda!" Malon praised as they walked "Me and Saria couldn't really do much."
"Yeah, thanks again, Zelda." Saria said.
Zelda smiled. It was the first time she had in a while.