'Ello my Eager Eggheads, I'd like to apologize for the delay. I love how I say "I'll update once a month!" And then nearly three months later I update. As usual, hasn't really been checked over. Talk more at the bottom.
They had left the Spirit Pillars not long after they had set themselves a route. But as night fell, they were lucky enough to come across a caravan of Hylians returning to Goron City after delivering some Goron Iron. The friendly bunch invited them to travel along with them, and for once, all three of the teens were on the same page. Zelda, of course, loved the idea, and Itaav and Link were in no mood to argue with free food.
For the most part, though, Itaav and Link kept rather silent, while Zelda did all the chattering. Link had to admit, he wasn't fond that she was getting so much attention, but Itaav, who was moody again, just told Link to relax. The blond boy, of course, couldn't, but it seemed his worries were for naught. It grew later in the night, and the members of the caravan all went their separate ways to get sleep. The trio ended up finding their own patch around the caravan and settling there.
Link had opened up the map and started looking at the course the caravan mentioned they were taking. It was actually relaxing, as he could hear Zelda singing a song softly to herself. In fact, as he listened to her sing, he could feel some of his worries lift. He was barely paying attention to the map, more pretending to look at it while just listening to the girl's voice. By the time she stopped singing, he felt more relaxed and at peace than he had been for a very long time since this adventure started. He glanced at her, seeing she was curled up in a ball, fast asleep. Itaav was sprawled out a few feet away also dead to the world.
Suppose I should see about some sleep too… he thought to himself. It'd been a pretty rough two days for them after all, and the caravan would probably be taking off early. Rolling up the map and sticking it through his belt, he lay back on the grass and stared up at the night sky, waiting for sleep to come.
It didn't.
He just stared at the stars, wondering if they looked any different here on the mainland than they did from the Pride. The ship was always moving after all. If he knew his constellations, would he notice any missing or see new ones? But he frowned, knowing that questions about constellations and stars weren't what were really keeping him up.
Raising his left hand up above him, he just stared at the back of hand. He knew Princess Zelda had one on the back of her hand. Itaav had showed it to him. But Link couldn't really believe that there was one on the back of his hand. It was hard to think that the Guardians of Dragonroost were wrong about these things, but they had to be in this case. There was no way he was the Hero incarnate.
"Link?" He jerked a bit in surprise, looking over to see Zelda, still curled up in her ball, but with her big blue eyes looking right at him, not delirious from sleep. It seems she hadn't been asleep. "Is something wrong?"
The blond boy wasn't sure how to answer her. After a moment he lowered his hand, looked back to the sky and said, "Yes. No. I don't know."
The girl picked herself up and crawled closer to him. "Tell me."
His brow furrowed; he didn't want to burden her with his own issues. But who else could he talk to about this? Itaav, he supposed, but... well, Link honestly wasn't sure he wanted to. While they were acting like everything was back to normal, it wasn't. And even if he did want to, his friend wouldn't really understand because… well, he didn't understand the words that had come out of Medli's and Laruto's mouths. Zelda was the only one he could speak to about this, and even if he didn't, he might just act as moody and angry as Itaav seemed to lately.
"I think they made a mistake." He finally said to her.
"Who?" She asked.
"The Guardians," Link clarified. "I can't possibly be the Hero. I'm an orphan Scaler from the Pride. Until recently, nothing in my life was extraordinary. I'm just a normal guy doing what's right."
Frowning, the princess said, "But that does make you a hero." The boy forked an eyebrow and turned his head to look at the girl. He wasn't sure what to say that wouldn't make him sound like Itaav. But Zelda went on to say, "On the Pride, I learned a lot about the Heroes of the past. They all started off with normal lives, nothing special. They grew into becoming Heroes; but they didn't train for it, they were just doing what they perceived was the right thing to do. Like… Like the story about the Hero of Time – he was just a boy from the forest who did what he thought was right. And the Hero of the Four Sword just wanted to save his friend. I think what made them heroes was because they did the right thing and… If Bleak taught me anything, it's that doing the right thing is…" she frowned, and with a sigh continued, "It's not common."
He found himself blushing a bit at her words, "Th-that doesn't mean that I'm-"
But the girl gave him a sharp look that he never thought he'd ever see grace her pretty face, "Don't be ridiculous. You've saved Itaav and me, and you didn't hesitate to come to my aid or comfort me when I was feeling badly; you even do things that you don't really want to just because someone asks! Link, you're very heroic!" She told him matter-of-factly.
Even though he was red as a tomato at this point, he still tried to argue back. But all he could do was open and close his mouth as words failed to come out. Zelda then took his hand, which only made him more flustered; but not long after she took his hand, he felt a warmth flow from her hand into his – tingly, almost electric. When there was a faint, golden glow on the back of his hand shaped in a crest of three triangles, he went deathly still.
"See?" She said, her hand not leaving his.
He didn't respond, his eyes wide as he still stared at the crest. It looked nearly identical to the one he'd seen on her hand all those nights ago in Itaav's hangar, save that the triangle opposite of hers was the one glowing most emphatically. Eventually, when her monosyllabic question made it into his head, he could only nod. He saw it… and even though it was right there, he still wanted to doubt it.
The girl's fingers wrapped around his palm softly, snapping Link back into some sort of reality. He looked at her, blush returning to his face. Zelda was smiling at him serenely. "I have faith in you, Link. You should have faith in yourself."
And it was as she looked at him with those sparkling blue eyes that smiled with her soft pink lips that he realized he really wanted to kiss her.
"You love that Marin girl, don't you?"
Laruto's words made him freeze. He took his hand back quickly, said a shaky, "Y-yeah… Thanks, Zelda… I mean, Marin… Yeah, um, gotta wake up early tomorrow so… Gonna go to sleep now."
The princess just looked at him sweetly, utterly oblivious, and nodded, "Of course, you're welcome, Link. Good night."
"Yeah, good night." He said again before quickly turning over on his side and away from her.
"Even though you say you don't like Marin in that way, I know you do…"
And the more Laruto's words echoed in his brain, the more he was realizing the Zora girl had been right.
Bright and early the next morning, the trio left with the caravan. Much like the night before, Zelda had been the most talkative, but eventually Link had joined Zelda and Itaav managed to strike conversation with a Hylian who was apparently a tinkerer. For around three days, the trio had slipped back into a carefree mindset, temporarily forgetting their troubles as they travelled to Goron City. But as the journey continued, it was a bit sobering to see that they were approaching their destination. The grassy land they had come to shore on was drying out and the landscape becoming craggy.
And as the caravan approached a great mountain, the three teens knew that they had arrived at Goron City. Their new friends in the caravan had even told them so as they drove up to the gate of the city, which really wasn't so much of a gate as much as it was a bottleneck that led into the base of the mountain. After Itaav asked where Groose could be found, they bid their new friends goodbye and walked into Goron City.
When a view of the city proper came to them as they entered the city, Link and Zelda paused and gaped open mouthed for a moment. Itaav just smirked and nodded in approval, "I like this place." And precisely why he liked it was evident in the mode of cargo transportation throughout the City – winding railways snaked their ways in the mountain, around the mountain, and probably even under the mountain. Gorons and Hylians mingled together in the streets; stalls were mushed next to each other, spaced out with the disturbance of doorway into the mountain.
"Right, my guess is this is the marketplace – Groose is over in the industrial sector; they said that was over on the north end of the city, past the Darunia Monument." Itaav said, suspending the wonder in Zelda and Link so they could get to business.
The pale boy lead the way through the streets, the broad roads ensuring that there weren't crowds despite the number of Hylians and Gorons in the streets. Occasionally, Itaav would stop and look around, as if trying to get his bearings. It lead Zelda to wonder why he didn't just ask anyone, but she was so caught up in her own fascination with all the sights around her she rather didn't mind the pauses the Engineer took. The most distracting and interesting, she found, was comprised of mostly Gorons with a few watching Hylians. There was laughing, hooting, and cheering from all of them as she watched two Gorons trying to push each other out of a ring. There was no time to try to understand it before Link caught her attention and they moved on.
Link, in the meantime, was less excited. Goron City seemed like an interesting place, but the fact that they were going to see Groose Badon was more than enough to dampen his spirits. On the Pride, Groose had been an Above Deck Engineer. Unlike Itaav, Groose wasn't magically inclined, but wasn't put below deck because his technical genius was on par with Itaav's. In fact, both Engineers had regularly exchanged ideas and brainstormed, and Groose did have a part in some of the structure of the late Helmaroc. Point was, when Link met Groose, there were bad first impressions all around. Groose thought very highly of himself and his pompadour, so when Link couldn't take hearing any more of it that first day, his sarcastic comment of, "Yeah, nice hair," did not go over well.
It was amazing how one comment could ignite a mutual hatred between the two, a hatred that Itaav found absolutely hilarious and would egg both parties on with no attempts to halt furthering dislike. Eventually, Groose began to feel stifled by the Pride and left, which was just fine to Link. One less pain in the ass to deal with.
But Link knew dealing with the pain in the ass would come to pass soon as the crowds died down and they seemed to be entering the industrial sector – which was aptly named. There were smithies dotted throughout the roads here, along with various metal constructs out for sale like piping, bars, supports and so on. Zelda was fascinated, and wanted to stop by and look at every shop and smithy, but Itaav kept moving on and she and Link kept following.
Their destination was not difficult to find; it was one of the biggest spaces, fenced in and filled with all sorts of metal structures for sale, including railing supplies. Over the gate was a sign that read, "Grooseland". The trio stood in front of the gate, looking at the sign for a moment. Link felt the strong desire to throw up from the self-centeredness of it all.
"Pfft, the guy's still a huge dweeb." Itaav chuckled before walking in. The princess, puzzled over Link's scowl and Itaav's mention of 'dweeb' simply followed the two boys in. The open space of clutter within "Grooseland" had a few potential customers already browsing the wares, but it seemed the Groose they were looking for wasn't out in the open. A muffled clanging sound hinted that someone was likely in the open cave doing their metalcraft. Itaav didn't even bother to look through the space, however, heading straight for the open wall (much to the princess's dismay).
As the paler boy was about to enter the shade of the smithy's alcove where the clanging was coming from, an irritating tooting noise made him pause in his steps. It wasn't half a second later that two more tooting sounds of different tones made themselves known, and the sources of the sounds came from the shade and started pushing Itaav back towards the sunny area.
"Crap, I hate Miniblins," Itaav scowled as the three little monsters, a blue, a red, and a yellow, tooted their grating calls and pushed were seemingly threating to clobber him with tongs, bellows, and a hammer.
Zelda immediately hid herself behind Link at the sight of the creatures with a squeak. She'd gotten over Moe the Moblin quickly, but something about Miniblins was so much more shocking. Luckily for her, the creatures were focused completely on Itaav, consistently edging him back until the clanging stopped.
"Hey! Hey, you three, back off the potential customers!" A voice called out from the smithy, getting closer. But the Miniblins ignored, and fnally out of the alcove came a large young man with bright red hair in a pompadour. "Hey! I said back off!" The fellow would go on to chatter aggressively at the Miniblins in his best imitations of their toots.
Those weird sounds coming from the redhead's mouth caught the attention of the Miniblins. The little creatures backed off from Itaav, hanging their heads in some sort of shame before scuttling back into the alcove of a smithy. The redhead's scowling gaze followed them, before turning to face the trio. He looked as if he ws aout to go on apologetically about the behavior of his subordinates, but upon seeing Itaav his jaw dropped. A big grin came on his face and he said, "Well, well, well… Look what the Pride finally spat up!"
Itaav grinned back. "That ol' ship? No way it could hold me back."
"You still hang out with that loser?"
"Right here." Link said in a deadpan voice.
But just as Link spoke, Zelda was finally inching away from his back since the Miniblins were gone. The sneer that Groose directed to Link had vanished, turning into a puzzled look. "And, uh, who's this little lady?" He asked.
The girl looked at Groose, just noticing him. She'd been so alarmed by the Miniblins, she had mostly been focused on them and not why they'd left in the first place. The princess stifled a giggle upon seeing him, mostly because his hair was ridiculous. How did it stand up like that? Stifling her laughter, she said stepped up and did the best curtsey she could muster, "I'm Marin. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Groose."
The redhead grinned, looking impressed, though Link scowled, wishing that Zelda hadn't been so polite.
"Nice to meet you too, Marin. I gotta say, you look freaky close to this girl I know… Are you related to a girl named Hilda who lives around here?" There was a slight fluttering in the redhead's voice when he mentioned the name Hilda.
"Hilda?" Zelda thought for a moment, "I'm afraid not."
"Who's Hilda?" Itaav asked Groose slyly. Link just rolled his eyes. He didn't like this small talk – he just wanted to get whatever information they could from the oaf and leave.
But Groose just sniffed indignantly at Itaav, "Hilda's none of your business." Though after a moment he sighed, irritated, "Besides, she's with that Ravio guy. That smart mouthed, sneaky bastard. Don't see what she likes him for."
"I think I want to meet this Ravio guy." Link commented happily.
"Tch, yeah. Reminds me a bit of you, actually." Groose jeered, taking a hostile step towards Link.
Zelda quickly came into between both of them, "Now, now, let's all be friendly. I mean, Mr. Groose, we came all this way to see you and Itaav is your good friend, right?" She looked hopefully over to the purple haired boy, who had just been standing there and looking on at the growing hostility between the blond haired boy and the red haired one with a grin on his face.
After seeing Zelda's pleading face, however, the pale boy rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, chill out both of you. Groose, we actually need a hand on something."
Link's and Groose's eyes were still locked in a deathly staring contest, but eventually the redhead was the first to break away and look to his pale friend. A relieved Zelda shot Link a disappointed look, but the boy didn't seem to notice. As for Groose, he still looked surly and unhappy, but said, "What do you need?"
"Just got a couple of questions. Do the Gorons here have anything like some sacred pearl or something?" The Engineer asked.
He thought it over for a moment. "Yeah, I think I remember hearing something like that. It's some sort of treasure to them, I think. The Goron Elders are probably in charge of something like that, though I don't think they'll be doing much talking about it."
"Why not?" Zelda asked curiously before Itaav could.
"Well, little lady, the chief's missing." Groose said simply.
"That figures." Itaav grumbled.
"You could still try talking to them about it," Groose mentioned, "Again, no idea how well that'll go over, but the Gorons are as laid back as they come. The only reason they're strung up now is because the Chief's gone."
"And no one knows where he might be?" Link asked.
While Groose didn't look at Link, he still responded haughtily, "That's the definition of missing, dumbass."
"That's not a very nice thing to say, Mister Groose." Zelda said quietly.
The bigger fellow looked as if he'd been struck, and with an apologetic blush mumbled, "Yeah well… It's still the definition of missing…"
"Listen it doesn't friggin matter," Itaav snapped, exasperated. He looked to Link and said, "Well, what do we do now?"
Groose looked between the two, "Hey, wait a minute, what's going on? Come to think of it, how'd you guys even get here?"
For a brief second, Link considered telling the redhead it was none of his business. But even he realized that would have been stupid. They didn't have to tell him the whole truth, but certainly they could manage something. "It's a long story." Link said, Itaav and Zelda nodding in agreement.
The redhead looked back and forth from all member of the trio. A part of him really didn't care about anything that had to do with Link, but Itaav was his friend and Marin… Well, Hilda was taken but maybe… He looked back to his smithy and shouted, "Hey, bozos! We're closing shop for the day! Start kicking folks out!" The three Miniblins from before shot out of the smithy "meeping" with their respective trinkets, heading towards the exploring customers and herding them out. "All right, you three. Come inside."
From the state of the house they were lead into, it was easy to guess that the space was needed because it housed the Miniblins as well as the big redhead. Groose lived right by the smithy, easy access and always made sure thieves would have a hard time trying to steal anything, he said. The space was way bigger than anything on the Pride, save for perhaps Inner Wall living spaces, and it was certainly much larger than the small home Moe and Maggie shared on Bleak. Luckily, despite the messiness of the place, the scattered nuts, bolts, and what seemed like random pieces of upholstery, there were clear paths to each room. But they stayed simply in the living room, the Miniblins eventually coming inside but leaving them alone as Link and Itaav took turns telling the story without certain details. When Zelda caught on to what was being left out (demons were replaced with gangsters, the entirety of Dragonroost was blamed on the Gerudo and Zelda was simply a noble and not the princess) she would even occasionally tell parts of the story, though she mostly spoke of her side of the Bleak experience.
"Damn. You actually finished it…" Groose commented, leaning back in his chair and taking in the rest of the story.
"And she died." Itaav finished bitterly. He, Zelda, and Link were sitting in the ruddy couch opposite of Groose's chair.
"Well crap. You three have been through a lot… And shit, Link… taking on the crime lord of Bleak. Guess you're not as much a wimp as I thought." It wasn't said as an insult; Groose was clearly still taking in the ginormity of the story he'd heard up until that point. In fact, throughout the story, it seemed as if he'd grown some respect for Link he hadn't had on the Pride.
"Thanks, I suppose." Link grudgingly said. While he knew Groose was trying, he was still sketchy about the fellow.
"And you, little lady – you're… Heck, I don't even know what to say about you. You're amazing!" Groose said, looking at her with admiration.
Zelda blushed. "I was just doing the right thing…"
"Still gutsy… gutsy for all of you… But why do you need that pearl?"
"The Guardians of Dragonroost want to make sure the Gerudo don't obtain them." Zelda piped in quickly. She really didn't like lying, but she understood why Itaav's friend shouldn't know too much. "So they charged us with warning the ones with the pearls."
Link and Itaav nodded along with the explanation, hoping that would be satisfactory. Evidently it was. Groose just let out an impressed whistle, "Man, you three sure got cut a mean slice… Guess this ain't just a friendly visit."
"No. We need to meet with these Elders and leave." Itaav said.
"All right; listen you three, you need any help at all, you got Groose on your side!" The big fellow announced proudly. "Granted, I'm not sure what I can do to help out but… Yeah, I can tell you where the Elders are anyways. They always convene at the temple up the mountain."
"The top?" Link asked. A mountain this size would take days to scale for a human.
"Huh? Drop the face, ol' Groose has got ya covered there." The redhead said, gliding his hand along his pompadour with a confident look on his face.
"What is it with you Engineers and deathtraps?" Link asked as he winced at the sight of one of the cargo wagon that traveled the rails of Goron City.
Groose had lead them to his own personal cargo transporter back in Grooseland, beaming with the same pride that Itaav had had with the Helmaroc. Link's comment even illicited a similar reaction to one Itaav would have had. "Hey, the Groosinator ain't a deathtrap – I'm losing the little respect I just got for you." Groose said in a huff.
"Don't take it personally, he can't appreciate genius when he sees it." Itaav added.
"You invented this rail system?" Zelda asked Groose eagerly.
The big fellow puffed out his chest proudly, "Kinda. The Gorons already had the basics down but I perfected it. The carts are reinforced, able to carry a bunch of different things aside from rocks and iron, but more importantly is that these carts are guaranteed not to derail. Even a Goron can't pry'em off the rails." He patted the cart proudly. "All you gotta do is keep pumping those see-saw levers up in the front there to keep it moving. That's what I got those Miniblins for – annoying chatter but they sure got some power in those little arms." Before anyone could make any other comment, Groose faced his home and shouted, "HEY BOZOS, TWO OF YOU GET OUT HERE BEFORE I BOX YOUR EARS IN!"
A chorus of Mininlin meeping came when two of the imps came charging out from the house, immediately taking their place on the front of the cargo crate's see-saw levers. "There ya go, easy access to the Temple." Groose said proudly.
"Thanks, man," Itaav said, "I owe you one."
"You always owe me one."
Link edged towards the cart, eyeing it warily. "You're sure this can carry all of us, no problem?"
Itaav hopped in and said, "Stop being a wimp; this thing's more secure than the Helmaroc."
"Ummmm…." Zelda inched towards Link, her gaze anxiously going from the blond boy to the Miniblins. "May… may I stay here… with Mister Groose?"
"Why?" Link asked, somewhat taken aback. "We can't just leave you behind."
But the girl fidgeted, "I'm just not so sure…"
"Link, she'll be fine with Groose." Itaav said, recognizing the girl's fear of the Miniblins. He looked over to Groose, "Right?"
The redhead looked surprised, "Yeah, sure. I don't mind." In fact, Link noted, he actually looked pretty happy about it.
"But what if-" Link began to object, but Itaav cut him off, "Just get in the damned cart, if worse comes to worst, we'll come pick her up. Right?" This time he looked to Zelda.
She nodded happily, "Yes! Don't worry Link, everything will be fine!"
The blond boy looked pained, but he finally said, "All right, fine. We'll be back later then." He gingerly entered the cart, really wishing Zelda was coming with them. The Scaler had to remind himself that he couldn't be so paranoid. Cole wasn't aware of what they were up to, and the Gerudo were probably just as lost as the demon was, if not more. And it was just a little bit. Maybe an hour or two at most just speaking with the Elders.
The Miniblins began pumping the see-saw up and down, the cart moving slowly at first before the momentum picked up. Zelda waved them off, wishing them luck, and the cart began to get rather speedy as the Miniblins happily meeped away as they continued pushing the levers up and down. "Relax, Link," Itaav assured, "We're just gonna talk to a bunch of old farts for a sec. They're probably gonna turn us down anyways, so it should be over pretty fast."
That didn't put Link at ease, however. "Then what are we gonna do?"
Itaav shrugged. "Cross that bridge when we get to it."
SO AFTER FOREVER, here's a chapter. I'm just not going to make any promises for when the next chapter is. It'll just happen, there. Anyways, I had to cut this chapter short. It was supposed to be longer, but if I kept going it would've been too long!
ANYWAYS, in this chapter, I'm really glad I waited for A Link Between Worlds to be out. First an foremost, let me say I have NOT played it yet! So I swear if anyone leaves a spoiler in a review, I'LL CUT YA. Anyways, a pairing from that game I'm already fond of is HildaRavio. I DON'T KNOW WHY. But maybe it's because I have a headcanon that's Hilda's a dom and Ravio is a sassy sub (thanks tumblr!). But a problem I had in the chapter was that I didn't want Groose to be as head over heels about Zelda as he was in Skyward Sword. She already has two guys and a possible third (Blind) after her. So I decided that while he won't pursue her, he is somewhat interested but is more focused on Hilda and how to get Ravio out of the way. Ohohoho.
I don't have much else to say honestly.
Sky Arrow, Oh. Um, belated happy birthday? AM I TOO TOO LATE? -sweats nervously- ANYWAYS, yes, I'm swinging both ways on the pairing here on purpose. Love triangles! A part of me is actually thinking of just ending the story without her ending up with either of them, but at the same time I really like the way I plan to end it. In all likelihood, it's not going to change. As for Groose, I decided that I didn't want him being head over heels for Zelda. We already have two guys interested in her, and I have hinted that Blind may or may not be interested. I really don't want to add anyone else to the mix. SO, I decided with the realse of a Link BBetween Worlds, I'd have him primarily ineterested in Hilda! Mwahahaha!
fleets, I actually was planning on him not being in the costume throughout the diration of the story, but eventually I said, "EFF IT" because why not. XD As for Valoo and Jabun, all I'll say is that they know but they're not going to do anything about it, mostly because they don't know how to deal with it. Vaati, after all, was before their time. Not to mention a reincarnation doesn't necessarily mean he'll turn out the exact same, so they don't know what to do or if they should do anything at all. Right now, their prime concern is the more immediate threat of Malladus. I actually really, really, really like Ganondorf... But only as he appeared in Wind Waker. Because he has an actual personality. At the same time, this Ganondorf is descended from that one, so it's not him and it's a completely different character. Sorta. EH. WE'LL GET THERE WHEN WE GET THERE. I have actually only ever come across one in the Legend of Korra section. I was reading it for a while, but I really was unimpressed with the writer's style so I stopped... Last I checked, she was at around 140 chapters. I don't think mine will be quite THAT long, but it'll be long. XD Thanks, dear~
