A billion apologies for taking so long!


Chapter 26: Pirates and Sea Monsters

In the dark and cold depths of the Lanayru Sea, a huge ominous shadow moved through the water.

It was obscured by the darkness of the deep, but it had one glowing yellow eye that could be seen in the shadows. As the creature swam from place to place, a very deep but somewhat feminine voice could be heard.

"Aaaaalwaaaaayyys huuuuuuungryyyyyy…mooooooooooreee! Neeeeeeed moooooore!"

She spotted the silhouette of a large ship moving across the surface above. Her one eye locked on to it, and she said "Yeeeeeeeeeees, mooooooooooore fooooooooood!"

She slowly and steadily moved towards it, but the closer she got, the more she could feel an unusual presence onboard.

"Zeeeeeeeeeeldaaaaaa, IIIIIIII haaaaaaaaaveeee foooouuuuuuuund yoooooouuuuuu."


The sun shone brightly on the Strongest Side as the pirate ship was sailing with its most resent catch to port.

On the deck, Blackeye, Bandanna and Deadbeak were chatting.

"I swear the captain ain't doing anything on this ship, the only thing he ever do is to sit in his quarters and live of his bounty." Blackeye complained.

Deadbeak suggested "Then maybe you should be captain, master."

"Aye, wouldn't that be something, Captain Blackeye, the most feared pirate in the ocean. I like the sound of that."

Bandanna then killed the mood by asking "What difference would that make? You already act like you arrre the captain."

"Aye, but if I be the real captain, I get all the fame and glory that I deserve, instead of all of it going to that bloated pig in the captain's quarters."

"Uh huh, and what will I get out of it?"

"You could be First Mate."

"Now that be nice, kinda."

Deadbeak asked "So when are we going to start the mutiny, master?"

Blackeye froze at the question and gasped out "Uh…mutiny?"

"How else would you become captain?"

"Well…arr…uhm…"

Bandanna then burst out into laughter "Gahahahahahahaha! You're too scared to do anything so bold, aren't ya?"

Deadbeak immediately flew at him and grabbed the pirate's head with his talons while threatening "You dare insult master, you scurvy…!"

Blackeye physically dragged the bird away and said "Hey, back off Deadbeak!"

And the Kargarok did as ordered and left him alone, but as soon as Bandanna was about to say his thanks for that, Blackeye took out a knife and aimed it at other pirate's neck.

"No one ever calls me coward, savvy?!"

"O-of course First Mate."

"Good…" then he returned his knife to his belt and walked away.

Deadbeak landed on his shoulder and asked "What was the point of keeping me on a leach when you were going to say the same thing?"

"That be the difference between me and that landlubber Broken Horn, I like to take care of things personally."


In the brig a few floors down, Zelda, Linebeck and the Gerudo Pirate Aveil were making up an escape plan.

"Linebeck's boat is the key. If we can get to it without getting ourselves killed, we might be able to escape." Aveil pointed out.

Zelda noted "I'm not sure that will work, they might as well shoot us to pieces with their cannons before we get any far."

"Then we need to do some form of sabotage aboard before we leave to prevent them from doing that."

"We could cut off the rope that connects to the rudder, then they would be unable to steer."

The Gerudo crossed her arms and said "You would make a terrible pirate, girl. Just about every soul who sails these seas knows of the Strongest Side, and that it has cannons in every compass direction."

"Well I'm not from around these parts. I came from a farm in Southern Hyrule actually."

"Never been to Hyrule before…but that's beside the point. I think a good distraction will be enough to keep their attention from us. Perhaps we can take their assortment of bombs and let them go off all over the place?"

"You know where they keep them?"

"That I do."

"Then that's the plan, so let's do it!"

Linebeck then gave off an "Ahem." and pointed out "Haven't you both missed the most important obstacle to this plan? How are we supposed to get out of this cell?" then he put his hand on the door handle "I mean it's not like it's…" then to his surprise, the door was "…open?"

Aveil suggested "I bet the last guy forgot to lock when he put in you two, let's go." She then made it for the door to the next room with Zelda and Linebeck following.


Two guards were just outside playing some kind of card game, but they stopped abruptly when the door opened to reveal the prisoners out of their cage.

Aveil teased "Having fun?"

Before they could react, she jumped on top of the table and kicked one of the guards in the face so he fell off his chair. Then she grabbed said chair and tossed it in the head of the other one.

Now with both of them knocked out, she started to rummage through the crates nearby, clearly looking for something.

"That was…impressive." Zelda complimented.

The Gerudo opened one of the crates and answered "You haven't seen anything yet, girl. Maybe I should tell you about the one time I fought off a bunch of Stalfos with only a broken bottle and an oar. Or perhaps when I used a live Octorok as a cannon against a pack of hungry Gyorgs?"

She took out Zelda's sword and bow and gave them to her while Zelda asked "Really?"

"Yeah, I have been through a lot of…adventures and hardship."

She then picked up a blue sapphire wrapped to a headband and put it on her forehead while muttering "Why do no one ever think my gem is valuable?"

She then took out a pair of scimitars from another crate. And when she took a firm grip on the handles, the blades on them magically transformed into gold.

Linebeck gasped out "Are those…?"

Aveil admired them for a while before saying "Ah I missed you beauties. My mother gave these to me, just as her mother, and her mother before her gave it to her. They are infused with sacred tears of light and only give their power to the family of the one who forged them. Goddess of Sands, these pirates are idiots for placing these right next to my cell."

"Not to mention forgetting to lock the door."

A fourth voice then said "Plot twist: they didn't forget to lock it."

All three of them turned to the direction of the voice and saw a figure in a black coat and hat standing in the corner of the room. Linebeck and Aveil didn't recognise him, but Zelda did.

"Trickster!? What are you doing here?"

The Trickster stepped out and opened his palm, which sent all of the cards from the guards' game flying into his hand while answering "Just keeping you entertained."

Then he raised his head so his 'face' could be seen, but that revealed something very unsettling. Zelda could see that none other than Majora's Mask itself was on his face, albeit mostly covered by his red bandanna.

When she noticed, she warned "That mask, you have to take it off!"

"I don't think so, my dear."

"Do you even know what it is?"

Linebeck then added "I think a better question is: who are you?"

The Trickster answered "I am the famous, or infamous depending on whom you ask, Trickster of Darkwood. And I am perfectly aware of what this mask is, the question is: do you?"

Zelda answered "It's Majora's Mask, isn't it?"

"Indeed, but what do you know about it?"

"That it will drive you insane!"

"I'm already insane. Do you honestly think it can get any worse?"

"Yes."

"Don't be such a killjoy; I'm just trying to have a little fun with you. Hehihihihihihehe!"

Then he pulled out a dice from his sleeve and asked "What number do you wish for?"

Aveil gave Zelda a quizzical look and whispered "What's up with this guy?"

Before Zelda could answer, the Trickster tossed the dice at her, which caused the girl to catch it on reflex.

"Be careful, the result of your throw is a secret to everybody, and a magician never reveals his secrets." the mysterious man warned.

Zelda complained "Why is everything a secret to everybody? Can't you just tell me what this dice is for?!"

"What's the fun in that?"

"I got a feeling this guy is not trustworthy." Linebeck added.

Aveil took his suggestion to heart and pointed her swords at the mysterious troublemaker while threatening "Tell us who you are or I will show how sharp this sword is!"

He just scoffed and snapped his fingers, thus teleporting himself behind her while saying "I can see how sharp it is from over here, but if I am not to take it literally will I ask: do you think you actually can kill me? I got real magic now, a little boring, but impressive."

Zelda carefully observed the dice in her hand, she had no idea if she wanted a large or a small number, or if that even mattered. From what she had seen so far was the Trickster not a very predictable sort. And if he was now corrupted by Majora's Mask, then he could be very dangerous.

She finally took her chances and tossed the small cube on the table where the guards were playing and it landed on…1.

The Trickster picked it up and said "That settles it then, you now have one minute until the bombs on the gundeck detonates. Au revoir, Hehihihihihehehe!" then he was gone.

Linebeck noted "It seems that the whole bombing plan will get a lot easier if that weirdo will do it for us."

Zelda pointed out "The only problem is that the gundeck is just above us."

Aveil then pointed out the obvious "Then we should…RUN!"


All three of them dashed for the door that led into the open subdeck. The only problem was that there were a lot of Bulblins there who were not so keen on letting them escape.

After opening the door and seeing the opposition, Aveil ordered "Captain, stay behind us. Blondie, be ready to put that sword to good use."

Zelda took out her sword and the two of them stormed towards the stairs to the deck above with their swords ready while Linebeck was trying to follow behind them.

The pirates drew their own swords and tried to position themselves between the prisoners and the exit while one shouted "THE PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED!"

When Aveil reached them, the Gerudo spun around like a tornado with her twin blades, thus cutting most of her opponents down. The ones who survived were quickly dispatched by Zelda's sword.

Then they ran up the stairs as fast as they could while every single pirate on the lower deck ran after them.

By the time the trio got on the deck outside, the bombs below them detonated and the majority of the pirates who pursued them were blown up in the process. The explosion was not enough to sink the ship, but it destroyed their entire supply of ammunition for their cannons.

All of the Bulblins on the top deck took notice of the three escaped prisoners and half of them took out their swords and pointed them at them while others prepared explosive arrows and also aimed at them.

After seeing that they were completely surrounded, Linebeck asked "Was this part of the plan?"

Zelda answered "Not really…"

Among the crowds of Bulbin pirates, Blackeye stepped forward and said "I be impressed by your ill-fated escape attempt, but now it would be best for you to drop those weapons and quietly walk back to the brig."

Aveil grinned and said "I don't think so, this is my time to get my revenge, and no amount of brainless goblins are going to stop me from doing that!"

"How about I put it this way, drop your weapons…or else!"

The pirates started to walk a little closer to the prisoners and growled a little in an attempt to scare them. But Aveil wasn't deterred by it and still kept the grin on her face.

Zelda whispered "They do outnumber us, and they have archers...with bomb arrows."

The Gerudo just answered "Been through a lot worse than this."

Blackeye said "I'm not going to-" then he stopped mid-sentence as a huge noise echoed through the entire ship.

Deadbeak who had been sitting next to him asked "What was that, master?"

Then without any more warning, several huge purplish tentacles with white suction cops erupted from the ocean around the ship, causing almost everybody aboard (particularly Linebeck) to panic.

Aveil muttered calmly "So that's the sea monster?"

The tentacles then started to attack the ship by both smacking into it and grabbing the crewmembers one-by-one and pulling them under.

Blackeye shouted "Forget the prisoners, kill that kraken!" while the pirates were desperately trying to either attack the tentacles or flee from them.

Suffice to say, the entire ship turned into complete chaos. Bomb arrows flew in all directions, Bulblins desperately tried to evade the tentacles, others tried to fight back at them, while most were plucked off their feet and dragged into the abyss.

But that chaos was also a distraction; one that Aveil was intent on using.

She ran towards the side of the ship that Linebeck's boat was tied up to, cut down one Bulblin that was in her way, kicked off another into the water behind him and took a firm grip on the rope that tied the two boats together.

Several ropes held the S.S. Linebeck in place on the starboard side of the Strongest Side, so much that the boat wasn't even touching the water.

Meanwhile, Zelda had switched to her bow to fight off the mysterious creature attacking the ship and sent an arrow at anything that got too close to her, while Linebeck was covering behind the mast in an attempt to avoid the monster.

Aveil turned to them and shouted "Over here!"

Linebeck immediately ran towards her, and when he reached the boat, the Gerudo grabbed his arm and threw him aboard. His landing was not the most pleasant one he ever had.

"Zelda, come on!" Aveil shouted when she noticed Zelda wasn't moving from her position.

The princess snapped out of it and started to run towards her. But before she could reach the boat, another tentacle erupted from the water and ripped apart the ropes and sending the S.S. Linebeck into the air.

Linebeck himself was onboard and had to hold onto the side of the boat to prevent himself from falling off. The boat finally landed a good distance away from the pirate ship, but it was now freed from it.

The monster finally revealed herself when her head erupted from the sea on the port side of the ship. She had two tentacles that were thicker than the rest that served as her arms, a huge single eye, a massive mouth, and 'hair' that was made out of more tentacles.

She stared directly at Zelda with her huge single eye and said in a very deep voice "Zeeeeeeeeeldaaaaaaa, yoooooouuuuuu wiiiiiiiiiill cooooooooooome wiiiiith meeeeeeeee!"

Zelda said "This isn't good…" to herself as she stared into the eye of the sea monster.


At the same time, the door to the captain's quarters opened and a very tired and annoyed Broken Horn stepped out.

"What in thar great Malladus' name is going on on me ship!?" he asked in anger.

The sea monster answered him by smacking him in the face with her tentacle so he fell back into the door he came from.

"IIII aaaaaaam Tentalus, aaaaaaaand IIIIIII wooooon't faaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiil Vaaaaaatiiii!"


Zelda in the meantime aimed her bow at the monster's head, but when she unleashed an arrow, one of Tentalus' 'hair tentacles' blocked its path.

Tentalus screamed in irritation and sent out many more tentacles with the intention of catching Zelda, but when the first tentacle shot out towards her, Aveil sliced it in half by throwing one of her swords at it, then the blade returned to her like a boomerang.

"That thing wants you, girl. Get out of its sight!" the former pirate queen encouraged.

Zelda took her suggestion and ran to the other end of the ship while Tentalus was desperately trying to follow the young woman with her gaze.


As Aveil was distracted by the giant monster and keeping track of Zelda she only noticed the huge war axe flying at her at the last minute.

She hastily dodged the attack and leaped back to get a good look of the attacker.

It was none other than Captain Broken Horn who had grabbed his huge war axe and swung around wildly at the Gerudo while declaring "No one escapes me ship alive!"

Aveil answered him by saying "That includes you!" and tossed one of her swords at his direction.

The blade didn't kill him, but it did cut off his one remaining horn. And when he saw it fell to the floor under him, he pleaded "Me horn…" in slight despair.

The missing blade returned to Aveil's possession with its strange boomerang-like properties and she put on a smug smile while asking "You gonna cry now?"

That was the trigger, Broken Horn[s] face turned into one of anger and he charged right towards her and slammed his axe as hard as he could.

The only problem was that he had a terrible aim and hit the mast instead.


At the same time, Tentalus moved to the starboard side of the ship, slammed two of her tentacles on either side of Zelda to block her escape and then tried to grab her with a third one.

But before the monster could collect her prize, the mast that Broken Horns just slammed into broke off from the ship and the crow's nest at the top of it slammed directly into Tentalus head, thus knocking her out and making her fall back into the water.

Both Aveil and Broken Horns just stared in bewilderment at the downed mast, but Aveil snapped out of it first and grabbed the captain's golden gem necklace while saying "This doesn't belong to you!"

It took him a few seconds to notice that it was gone, and when he did, he got even more furious at the Gerudo. He once again tried to swing his axe at her, but this time she jumped on top of it, kicked him the face, jumped on top of the recently downed mast and climbed up on it.

When Broken Horns had recovered from the kick to the face, he started to climb up after her.


On the upper deck, Blackeye, Bandanna and Deadbeak got up on their feet after Tentalus' attack ended.

Bandanna guessed "I think it's gone…"

"It will come back, mark my words." Blackeye warned.

"But how can we survive another attack without them guns working?"

The First Mate turned to his left and saw that the S.S. Linebeck was out in the open water, intact.

"Deadbeak, get that boat back here!"

The Kargaroc answered "Yes, master." and flew off towards it.

Then Blackeye looked to the lower deck to see Zelda looking around desperately for any potential lifeboats. He deduced that the monster only attacked because she was aboard, and suggested "That monster said that it wanted her, why don't we give it what it wants so it can leave us in peace?"

Bandanna answered "Aye!" and both of them took out their swords.


Meanwhile on the S.S. Linebeck, the sailor finally got on his feet after clinging on to dear life when the boat was sent flying all over the place.

He then picked up his abandoned telescope from the floor and observed the pirate ship in the distance. He could see that Tentalus was no longer there, but he could also see that both Aveil and Zelda were still aboard.

'I could just turn away and run, no but what about the treasure? That Zelda is the only one who knows anything about it, and I can't just leave them there anyways. But what if the monster returns or if the pirates get on this boat? Why don't I just stay here and see what happens? Yeah, that sounds just peachy.'

During the time he pondered over that, Deadbeak landed behind him and grabbed the steering wheel with his beak and claws in an attempt to bring it back to the Strongest Side.

When Linebeck noticed that the boat was moving without him doing anything, he turned around and saw the big bird intruding on his space.

He pointed threateningly at Deadbeak and shouted "Hey, this is my boat!" in anger.

The Kargaroc glared at him and answered "So…?"

"So…get away from that wheel now!"

"Or what?"

"Or I'll…"

Linebeck then did a rash decision and charged towards the bird and tackled him to the floor. But Deadbeak kicked him in the face and flew into the air above him.

As Linebeck got back on his feet, Deadbeak stared menacingly at him while saying "You have made a very bad mistake, human…a very bad mistake…"

Linebeck swallowed heavily as the Kargaroc's expression turned more and more menacing.


Back on the Strongest Side, Zelda was desperately looking for any way off the ship when Bandanna landed in the space right in front of her while Blackeye did the same from behind.

"Prepare to die!" Bandanna said as he lunged at her with his scimitar.

Zelda took out her sword and blocked the attack while asking "Is this really the time for this?"

Blackeye came at her from behind while answering "That monster wants you, and I be very happy to give you to it…in pieces, hahahahahaha!"

Zelda answered "You will regret your decision." and multitasked to defend herself from both attackers as they both tried to strike at her at the same time.

The princess ducked under one of Bandanna's attacks and positioned herself behind him while kicking the Bulblin in the back to send him crashing into Blackeye.

She then climbed up on a flight of stairs to reach the upper deck so she could get the high ground advantage over the two pirates below her.


Above her, Aveil was still climbing on top of the downed mast while the much heavier Broken Horns tried to keep up.

"You cowardly little sea rat, I will put your skeleton at the bow of me new ship!" the bloated Bulblin threatened.

Aveil rolled her eyes and answered "You and the idle threats again, why don't you try to put some truth in your words?"

"When I catch you, we'll see about that."

"Yeah, 'when you catch me'."


On the S.S. Linebeck, Deadbeak was now holding onto Linebeck's shoulders with his talons while repeatedly trying to peck the sailor in the head.

Linebeck shouted "Get off me you stupid bird!" while blocking the Kargaroc's pecking with his arms and stumbling around in circles.

On accident, he backed down onto the stairs to the lower deck and fell down. But fortunately for him, the bird on his shoulders took the blunt of the fall and when they both reached the lower level, Linebeck was fine…while Deadbeak…not so much.

The bird coughed out "You son of a…" and collapsed in pain.

Linebeck sat up and looked around to see the bird lying on the floor behind him. Then he got on his feat in pride and shouted "That's right, you don't mess with the spectacular Linebeck! You don't scare me Kargaroc, there is nothing in this ocean that can scare me!"

Just then, the boat bumped into something big, and it caused Linebeck to completely contradict his last statement and freeze in fear.


The bump was caused when Tentalus was charging towards the nearby pirate ship at full speed. She was now very angry and was planning to ram the ship head on.

Zelda turned to her right and saw the ominous disturbance in the water surface and mumbled "This really isn't good." just before the collision.

Tentalus rammed into the ship so hard that it was torn in half by the impact.

Blackeye and Bandanna were sent flying into the ocean while Zelda managed to grab hold of the railing on the upper deck.

The mast that Aveil and Broken Horns were climbing on to was sent into another mast and both of them were tangled in each other's ropes.

Aveil stabbed one of her swords into the mast and held on to it to prevent herself from falling down. Broken Horns on the other hand had far less luck and dropped his axe so that it got caught up in the mess of ropes below him. The pirate captain himself was only keeping himself from falling down by grabbing another rope.

With all of the survivors in very dicey situations, Tentalus only had to collect her 'helpless prey'. All of the tentacles on her head transformed to have mouths filled with sharp teeth at their ends. And then they slithered around like snakes to devour their prey.

Their first target seemed to be Aveil as the tentacles circled around her and tried to bite her. However, the Gerudo was not helpless as she still had one free hand with a golden scimitar in it.

Every time a tentacle got too close, she slashed it right in the teeth. The only problem was that they kept a certain distance and moved out of the way when she prepared to slash at them. It was almost as if they were deliberately trying to annoy her.

Tentalus then moved her head directly below her and said "It's poooooooooooiiiiintleeeeeees, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII eeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaat aaaaaaaaaaaall!"

That actually gave Aveil an idea, and after seeing Broken Horns desperately trying to hold on to the rope just above the giant monster's mouth, she now knew how to implement it.

"Yeah, eat this!" she said just before slicing off the rope that the pirate captain was holding on to, thus making him fall right into the open mouth of Tentalus while shouting "Noooooooooooooo!".

However, the huge Bulblin was just too big to swallow whole, even for Tentalus, and she started to cough in an attempt to clear her throat. This also caused all of her tentacles to stop attacking.

Zelda decided this would be an excellent time to finish the creature off and picked up one of the pirate's abandoned bomb arrows, loaded it in her own bow, then aimed for the eye of the monster. The only problem was that there was always a tentacle in the way of it.

Aveil noticed the problem from her viewpoint and remove her sword from the mast so she could climb down into the matrix of ropes below her. And when she saw that Broken Horn's axe was hanging just above Tentalus' head, she cut off the ropes that held it in place. With the axe freed, it fell right into the tentacle in front of her eye, cutting it off in the process.

With the eye exposed, Zelda released the explosive arrow directly into it.

The entire eye exploded at the impact and Tentalus let out a massive scream before she finally died. Then her body slowly slipped into the abyss.

When Aveil saw the monster defeated and the Strongest Side in pieces, she shouted "Yeah, we got it!"

Then she turned to Zelda and said "You see that, girl, we showed both all these wannabe pirates and that squid-monster what we're made of. We both deserve a drink for this."

Zelda was not so exited when she noted "You do realise we are sinking, right?"

Aveil looked down and noticed that the damage done to the ship was inevitably causing it to slowly sink into the ocean.

"Well…I guess it could be worse, somehow."

"Yeah…I've been trough worse than this, I mean what is a little sinking compared to almost getting eaten by a giant spider and having two evil sorcerers after me?"

"That's the spirit! Wait, what did you just say about two evil sorce-?"

Then a boat horn could be heard from the right side of the shipwreck, both women turned to that direction and saw that the S.S. Linebeck was heading towards them.

Linebeck himself was at the staring wheel and shouted "Don't just stand there, get on!"

Zelda carefully climbed over to a higher vantage point and jumped on, while Aveil decided to be dramatic and grabbed one of the ropes to swing herself onboard, and like a cat, she landed squarely on her feet.

"Thank Nayru you came, I thought we we're going to drown." Zelda said in gratitude.

Linebeck rebuffed by saying "Ah, it was nothing."

Aveil turned to him and asked "If it was 'nothing', then why did you take so long?"

"Hey!"

Zelda decided to prevent any potential arguing by suggesting "Why don't we leave these waters behind us and head for the Isle of Secrets?"

Aveil put a baffled look on her face and asked "Did you just say the Isle of Secrets?"

"Well, yes. That's where we are heading."

"Are you crazy? I am one of only four people ever to make it out of there alive, and all four of us found nothing of value and only escaped by the skin of out teeth."

"Then I take it you know what we are up against?"

"The temple on that island is heavily guarded by an army of monsters wielding swords that will drain the very life from your body and are clad in a suit of armour. And as if that isn't bad enough, they are also completely invulnerable."

Zelda knew that there was only one creature that fit that description and gasped out the word "Phantoms?"

"Indeed."


In the wreckage of the Strongest Side, Blackeye and Bandanna climbed up on a piece of floating debris while coughing up sea water, and when both of them had gotten a decent seat on it, Bandanna noted "Well, that escalated quickly."

Blackeye blurted out "You don't say…"

Deadbeak, who had sneaked out of the S.S. Linebeck when the others were distracted, flew over and landed on a piece debris next to them.

"So…master, what do we do now?" the bird asked hopelessly.

"Beats me, I guess we will be floating on this wreckage until we die a slow and grim death in our watery grave."

All three of them were silent until Bandanna asked "You know Blackeye, if we get stuck out here for long enough, can I eat the bird?"

Deadbeak asked "Master…?" in terror.


Author Notes

And there we have it, our heroes succeeded in escaping from the clutches of greedy pirates, with a little help of course.

And speaking of which, it seems like Zelda has found herself a new companion, this version of Aveil is actually a character I have planned to include for a while. So it is possible she will actually become a major character from here on.

I really tried to balance out if the Trickster was going to stay more in character or become more evil due to Majora's twisted magic, but it's actually quite hard.

Also, Tentalus is actually my favourite boss in Skyward Sword (except for the battles with Ghirahim), and I always thought of her as female, so that's why I wrote her like that. As for her annoying way of speaking, imagine if a whale tried to form human words. That's what it's supposed to sound like.

One thing that you may or may not have noticed is that I have changed the parts where I usually had Bold text with Italic. That change was to make it more professional, and it also allows me to filter out where I use the different versions.

Now I use Bold text in Author Notes, titles and when certain characters (like the mysterious Goddess of Darkness and Helmacucco) are talking. And I use Italics when someone is thinking or if someone is putting emphasis on [a] specific word[s].

If you have any further tips on how I should improve my grammar, feel free to tell me.


Finally I have to announce that chapter 3 Ghirahim Strikes has been completely rewritten and also changed its name to "Chapter 3: the Light Arrow".