Okay, here's a question: why, on average, am I getting only one review per, oh, let's say 400 hits? Honestly, NO one can review? You read from start to current and you have NOTHING to say about the story? I mean really, even if it's as little as "I like this" or something along those lines; just say SOMEthing! I was so proud of my numbers this month, but once I thought about it, the hit/review ratio (or even visitor/review ratio!) was just abysmal! I'm actually a little hurt that almost no one has ANY feedback after 20+ chapters. You all have nothing at all to say?

Okay, I'm done ranting. I was just REALLY surprised, that's all. Here's this week's chapter; on time, believe it or not. It was originally going to feature part of the next chapter, but I decided to cut it to make them more balanced. I don't really have anything to comment on, except for the grappling hook. I was playing Mega Man 4 yesterday, and there's this one item that lets you grapple to the ceiling and just hang there for no reason. I was having far too much fun with it, and it carried over here. I wish I could do this in the game… Anyway, enough of that, so let's just dive into the chapter. As usual, read, REVIEW (even once, it's not that hard!), and enjoy!

Chapter 21: A Fairy's Wrath

"Well, this is… cold," Link commented as they strolled through the temple's entrance room and examined the architecture.

"It's a cave of ice, you moron! Of course it's cold!" Ciela retorted. "Now where is this boss? If this is a temple, then it's got to have a massive treasure, which means a massive guardian to protect it."

Linebeck's eyes lit up. "Let's kill the guardian and take the treasure! And then look for Aroo later. Or we could just leave at that point, and tell everyone that Aroo died."

"With Link rampaging around and annihilating everything that moves, we can't even be sure that it's a lie," the fairy commented. Link crossed his arms.

"Unless the real Aroo was in the Estates, then he has to be somewhere. And I doubt he would be in the Estates when there's an imposter there as well. But wait; there were only five real Anouki. If he was there, then that means someone else was missing! It's so devious, it has to be the answer! Guys, we're looking for the wrong-" Ciela slapped Link before he could finish.

"No we're not, we're looking for Aroo. Now shut up," the fairy ordered, and Link closed his mouth. They walked further into the temple and noticed many etchings on the walls. Almost all of them depicted a two-headed dragon and some random stick figure getting killed, to Linebeck's dismay. The word Gleeok was also written everywhere, and even Link was able to put the two together.

"So Gleeok is the big dragon-thing, right?" he asked uncertainly, and Ciela sighed.

"Yes Link. Gleeok is the big dragon-thing."

"Okay, just checking," the hero replied, and they wandered around some more before coming across the boss door. Ciela made a satisfied noise that she found it within five minutes of being leader, before turning to Link.

"Alright, here's the entrance to Gleeok's chamber. Bust in, slay its heads off, and let's get rich." Linebeck cheered as the fairy said this, though Link shook his head.

"Not a chance in hell. A giant dragon, okay, sure. A giant two-headed dragon? Not gonna happen pal, no way. I'll be busy looking at one and then the other one will eat me! Nope, not getting killed so you two can get rich. Not worth it," he said, crossing his arms in disagreement.

Ciela stared at him in disbelief. "You've taken down how many giant monsters in your time as a hero? Like four since you've been trying to rescue Tetra, never mind how many you did in this 'last adventure' you're constantly mentioning. This is right up your alley!" Linebeck just wandered around with a bored expression throughout all of this.

"And that's exactly why I'm not going in there," Link countered. "I've fought enough giant guardians to know when I'm in over my head. You don't know what it's like, you've never fought one of those things! You go in there and kill it if you're so sure it can be done!"

"Fine, I will!"

"Good!"

"Watch me!"

And with that, Ciela flew toward the door and slipped through the keyhole. Link remained fixed on the spot where she had been floating as Linebeck came over to him. "Okay, I'm back because it sounds like you guys are done. What'd I miss this time?"

Link was silent for a moment before bursting into laughter. "She thinks she can go and kill Gleeok herself! I give her ten seconds before she's eaten!"

Linebeck's eyes lit up as he thought about something Link obviously didn't consider. "I'll take that bet. I give her five minutes, and if she's still alive, you owe me 50 rupees."

Link looked at him for a moment before grabbing his outstretched hand. "Deal. Now, what to do in the meantime? I guess we could go- Ooh! Go look in those chests!" He ran towards the two chests he just spotted, and Linebeck followed with mild curiosity.

Throwing one open, Link pulled out the boss key. "Why do they keep doing this?" he asked quizzically. "What is the purpose of putting this right beside the door?"

"This has happened before?" Linebeck asked, puzzled. Link nodded. "Yeah, it happened back in the Temple of Fire too. Stupid strategy."

Putting the key to the side, he opened up the other chest. "Aww, sweet! Grappling hook!" he cried, raising it into the air as the 'BA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAA!' played. Linebeck looked around the room.

"What was that?" he asked, and Link shrugged. "I hadn't done that in a while, I missed it."

Linebeck shook his head. "Alright, so what's so good about having a grappling hook?"

"Because I can do this!" With that, Link threw the hook at the ceiling. When it clamped, he climbed to the top and gathered the rope behind him. "Now you can't get me!" he taunted with a laugh. Linebeck simply facepalmed.

"Well, I'm taking the key to see how Sparkles is doing. Feel free to join me when you decide to grow up," the captain told the ceiling-clinging boy, and walked off with the key. Link remained up at the top for a moment more, humming the theme to Spider-Man, before crying, "Wait! Don't leave me in a temple alone!"

Linebeck arrived at the boss door and inserted the key as Link caught up with him, shoving the hook in to his pocket. Neri quickly flew out as if she had been waiting right at the opening, but the green-clad boy quickly grabbed her and stuffed her back in before she got anywhere.

The door slid open with a rumble and the men were greeted with roaring. They cautiously proceeded forward and up a flight of stairs before coming out into a large cavern. They were standing on a chunk of ice while the rest of the room was coated in chilling water. This was quickly observed however, as their attention was drawn to the thrashing that was going on in the middle of the room.

Gleeok was throwing its heads around, trying to hit the small fairy that was darting in between them. The remains of what looked like masks floated in the water around them as Ciela quickly dove in close and proceeded to punch the life out of the red head. It roared and tried to bite the nuisance, who sped out of the way, and quickly breathed a blast of fire in her direction. However, she dodged effortlessly and began attacking the blue head. Linebeck and Link stared in fascination at the effortlessness of the fight.

The blue head quickly fell, breathing an icy blast before dropping lifelessly at the feet of the men, while Ciela went back to the red head. It was a few seconds later that it fell as well, lying beside its brethren. Suddenly, they both exploded in flash of light, and sand appeared where they once were. It quickly collected into the Hourglass that Link had drawn, which read 18:00 before flipping down. Link pocketed the Hourglass as Linebeck turned to him.

"She's alive. You owe me 50 rupees," he smirked, holding out his hand. Link groaned and pulled out his wallet. "How did you know?"

"Easy, I just remembered when she kicked your ass two chapters ago when you were freaking. I didn't think a two-headed dragon was that different," he replied. Ciela flew over to them as a bridge appeared across the water.

"There, problem solved," she said. "Now, pathway open. Let's collect that treasure." Linebeck needed nothing else said, and ran across the bridge and disappeared through the doorway on the other side. Link and Ciela quickly followed, but not before they heard the captain yell, "Oh come on!"

The duo caught up to the captain, who was holding a blue crystalline object in his hands. "The Azurine," he said with a dull expression to his companions. Link threw his hands in the air.

"Sweet, that's bizarrely convenient!" he cried, taking the metal and doing the 'BA-DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAA!' again.

"Stop that," Ciela told him. "And what's that doing here? The Chief never mentioned that he didn't have the metal on hand! What the hell, he could have just told us it was here instead of doing all of that crap with the Yook!"

"And in hindsight, since the kid slaughtered everyone anyway, that really was just a setback," Linebeck added, and the fairy cried in frustration.

"Whatever, let's just get out of here. Look, there's another door, let's see where it goes," said Ciela, and she flew through the door with the other two following.

It led into another cave with an exit at the other end. The noticeable thing though was an Anouki gathering ice off of the ceiling in the middle of the room. The trio just stared at him before Linebeck finally asked, "Um… Who are you?"

The Anouki looked over in surprise. "Oh guy! I didn't expect visitors guy. I'm Aroo guy. Can I help you guy?"

"Yeah, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be missing!" Ciela demanded. Aroo looked confused.

"Missing guy? No, I've just been here, collecting ice guy. My tea was too hot, I was trying to cool it down guy. And there's no better or cleaner ice than in this cave guy," the Anouki explained, and everyone collapsed.

"Son of a bitch! Everything we did here was entirely pointless! We could've just come here, grabbed the metal, and left!" Ciela cried, frustrated. Linebeck shrugged.

"Oh well, we have the metal now, and we found Aroo. Now, let's go find the Chief. Maybe he'll give us something since we found his missing penguin…thing," he replied, and Ciela sighed.

"He damn well better," she muttered. "C'mon Aroo. We need you as proof to the Chief that we found you."

"Oh, that silly Chief guy," Aroo laughed as he followed them out of the cave, ice in hand. "He always assumes I've been kidnapped when I leave to get cooling ice guy." Seeing that Ciela was about to explode from more pointless stupidity, Link and Linebeck grabbed the unaware Anouki and raced ahead of the fairy.

Once they finally arrived out at the village, Link approached the Chief as Linebeck explained to Aroo that he would have to scrub down his house interior. "Look, we found Aroo," the hero told the elder, gesturing to the confused Anouki.

"Oh, wonderful guy! And the Yook have told me that they're ready to end the war guy! They say that they've been under some sort of mind-control, but it's been lifted guy. What great news for everything guy!" the Chief exclaimed, clapping his flippers together. "Now then, the metal is kept safe in-"

"Yeah, we know, we got that too," Link told him as Linebeck strolled over to them and Ciela finally caught up. "We were hoping for something as thanks for rescuing Aroo."

"Oh, of course guy!" the elder agreed. "I shall tell you the location of the lost Cobble Kingdom guy." Link looked expectantly at the Chief. Hadn't Zauz said something about a kingdom? I wonder if they're the same one. I mean, how many kingdoms could there be?

"North guy," the Chief said simply. Ciela and Linebeck just stared at him with flat expressions, while Link quickly weighed the odds. Seeing that it was at least a place to start, he grabbed the captain and the fairy and led them toward the ship. "Thanks, we'll go check it out," he called over his shoulder.

"Good luck guy!" came the elder's response, and Ciela scoffed.

"Yeah, thanks for the huge prize for doing what you wanted. Dick," she muttered as they boarded the S.S. Linebeck. "Why did you suddenly want to leave?"

"Because Zauz mentioned a kingdom before too, and I think they're the same one," Link explained. "Which means that it's our best bet at finding the last pure metal and getting that sword forged."

"So, we are going north then?" Linebeck clarified, and Link nodded.

"It's time we checked out the Northeastern Sea," he said, and Linebeck shrugged before going below deck. Within moments they were pulling away from the Isle of Frost and headed north towards their new destination. Link stared determinedly out over the bow, his thoughts on the petrified girl below deck. The sooner they found that last metal, the better.