Suggested soundtrack: Bon Jovi, Dead or Alive (of course)

AN: Okay, so I couldn't leave that sad ending from last chapter until Saturday! There will still be an update on Saturday, though.


Chapter 4:

Turns out, Shadow DIDN'T wake Link up with stones against his window, but not because he didn't try. He was locked in his bedroom, window made of bulletproof glass. His dad had turned off the wi-fi in his room and the electricity, so all Shadow could really do was sit in the dark on his bed and blubber like an idiot . . .

It's not fair, he thought, mentally speaking to his dad, Mr. Dragmire. He rolled onto his stomach. What did they ever do to you?

He pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through his messages. He didn't dare reply, or his dad would notice he'd forgotten to ban phone service, but the messages made him feel better all the same. He hated making his friends worry, though.

Saturday

6:03 P.M. Link: Hey Shadow you OK?

6:34 Link: Shaaaadoooooow

7:01 Zelda: BROOOOOOOOOO

7:56 Link: :(

7:57 Zelda: I WIL B HERE 4 U WHEN U ESCAPE HELL OK BRO?!

9:00 Link: Helloooooooo

10:13 Zelda: BROOOOOOOOOOO

12:00 Link: Well, goodnight I guess. See you on Monday!

2:00 Zelda: SRSLY SHADOW smh TEXT ME BAAAAAAAAACK!

2:02 Zelda: BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! #$%

Shadow smiled. Zelda sure was neat. Link, too.


A random beep woke Sheik up on Monday morning. Not a consistent set of them. Blurry minded, he considered this for two whole minutes before deciding that unequivocally it was NOT his alarm, and he had every right to ignore it. Probably a prank text. Or a telemarketer. Or spam. Or-

He bounced straight up and grabbed his phone.

6:03 a.m. Shadow: M OK thx 4 th msgs

Sheik's fingers flew over the keypad, sucking breath through his teeth as he bit his lower lip.

6:14 le me: AFDKFJASL! #$%&YWAK! R U comin 2 Skl?

6:57 le me: AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!


Shadow had gotten one message out before his dad shut off his phone service. What, had the animal killer been up all night? Shadow stuck his tongue out. "Serves you right!" He threw the useless mobile device at his door. "I HATE YOU!"

A booming voice replied. "GET READY FOR SCHOOL!"


Link and Zelda practically pounced on Shadow at lunch. "I THOUGHT YOU DIED!" Zelda shouted. "I THOUGHT HE'D TAKEN YOU TO DO EXPERIMENTS ON YOU!"

It was obvious Link hadn't thought of that, but NOW he did, and he slammed his fists onto the lunch table while screaming with wide, horrified eyes, "YEAH!"

Shadow blushed sheepishly at their horrified expressions. "Sorry, my dad turned my phone and internet off . . ."

"Oh ouch."

"I was locked in my room all weekend. Didn't let me out AT ALL." He stuck his tongue out.

Link gaped. "Not even to use the bathroom?"

Shadow snorted at the look on Link's face. "I have my own bathroom connected to my room." He brightened. "Story time! So I get grounded a lot, and Dad got sick of having to let me out to use the bathroom, so he built one next to my room!"

Zelda laughed incredulously. "Seriously?! He's treating you like a prisoner."

"Are you still grounded?" Link asked.

Shadow grimaced and nodded. "Dad dropped me off and is picking me up right after school. With my luck he'll be doing it for weeks."

"Aaaw." Link was disappointed. "Hey, Grandma wanted to send cookies over. Y'know, to say thank you for helping Aryll. Your dad hates me, but maybe Zelda could bring them over?"

"Wait, my dad hates you?"

"Yeah, he kinda told me to stay away from you."

"Jerk face. Now I'll be your friend even if you turn into a giant tree-eating robot chihuahua."

Link laughed, but didn't miss the fact that Shadow had avoided telling them his address, AND avoided the topic of cookies. "She has a great vegan chocolate chip cookie recipe," he said. "No butter, no milk, no eggs . . . just peanut butter and chocolaty goodness!"

THERE were the eyes. The 'I want cookies' eyes. Link grinned evilly. "Come to the dark side, Shadow!"


Ganondorf was true to his word. For the next week Shadow popped up just as school started and was made to leave just after. The three decided to split before Shadow reached the doors so Ganondorf wouldn't know they were still hanging out. Otherwise he might lock Shadow up forever. So far so good.

Link was searching the internet Wednesday night, on the living room computer. His searches included, "My friend is a vegan and I think he's going to die a horrible diseased or underfed death," "why is my vegan friend pale?" and "is veganism even humanly possible?"

He sighed as he glanced over all the results, visiting dozens of websites. Rubbing his eyes, he leaned back in his seat.

Aryll was playing color games with her new caretaker, Romani, who had stayed later because Granny had Tingle Bingo Night and Link had homework. He met Romani on Sunday when she stopped by for a couple of hours. Romani was in her twenties, he guessed? She had milky skin and long, red hair, and really kind blue eyes. She also had an amazing figure. Link blushed and returned his attention to his computer screen.

"How's the homework going?" Romani called.

"Um, fine," Link responded, hiding behind a hand and quickly closing out of all the web pages he'd been looking at.

"Are you studying veganism for a health class?" Romani asked. "You know, there's a great Natural Foods store on Main Street. They've got a huge selection of vegan foodstuffs."

Link's ears pricked. "Really?"

"Yeah. You should check it out!"

The walk to Main Street was not very long, and there was still lots of daylight left . . . Link got up. "Thanks, Miss Romani. I'll do that."


Zelda let Shadow do all the talking. It was Thursday, and he was still grounded, and she could tell he REALLY hadn't had anyone to talk to much, but apparently Shadow had earned his internet back today, so maybe that would change and they could chat online or something.

Shadow sure could talk A LOT. Not even food in his mouth could stop the tirade.

"BLAH! And then I was like, maybe if I put tomatoes into flour and roasted them, or slathered peanut butter on them, or something. I know, gross! But in my house you get desperate for variety. SHEESH! Dad doesn't even stock up on apples or oranges. OR BANANAS! How can you NOT buy bananas?! They're so cheap! AAAUGH! I don't think he's gone grocery shopping ALL WEEK. This morning he tried to feed me cereal WITH MILK. Yuck! Tried to convince me it was coconut milk. Like, NOOOOO Dad, that has a distinctly DIFFERENT flavor! And there was NO way he'd buy coconut milk!"

Link walked up to them and sat down. "Hey you two!"

"Sup!" Shadow said around a mouthful of lettuce.

"Hey," said Zelda. "Shadow was telling me all his diet woes."

"Oh!" Link unzipped his backpack and pulled out a bag of snacks. "Speaking of diet, I picked these up for you. Thought you might need them, since, ya know, you're locked up and such."

Shadow eyed the bag cautiously. On the front was printed, "Rabbitland Bread Snacks!"

"I got it from the vegan store," Link explained.

Shadow took the bag and inspected every inch of it. Made of recycled material, check. No GMOs or antibiotics, check. No animal products . . . check. No animal testing? . . . check. They were little bread pretzels fortified with extra vitamin B12.

"I was reading up on veganism," Link continued, "and I guess it's really hard to get vitamin B12 if you're a vegan, and not getting it can make you really sick, and pale," he added pointedly. "And I know how much you hate supplements, so . . ."

Shadow slowly opened the bag, which made a pop! Then put one hand in and pulled one pretzel out. He looked it over, then sniffed it, and finally took a small bite. He chewed thoughtfully before saying, "Not bad."

Link grinned. "So do you think we've waited long enough to bring cookies by?"

Shadow stuffed another pretzel in his mouth. "Nah. I'd waif uftil fadurday."

"No, Saturday is Aryll's day. How about Sunday?"

"Okay. What does your sister have again?"

"Autism."

"Oooh . . . what is that?"


Ganondorf flipped the over easy eggs expertly from the pan to the plate. Then he took the plate and set it next to the pancakes. He poured orange juice and secretly put in some vitamin powder, hoping Shadow would at least be fooled enough to drink it. I mean, orange juice! That's his thing, right? So what if there's some extra stuff put in it that he might find disagreeable. It's for his own good!

Preparing himself with a deep, full breath, letting it out slowly, Ganondorf picked up the tray full of breakfast and made his way to his son's bedroom. He knocked on the door, and when no one answered, he opened it and went inside.

Shadow's room was a mess. Of course. He was sprawled all over his bed . . . covers, snoring lightly. "Wake up!" Ganondorf said, as . . . nicely as he could manage. Shadow started and wiped his eyes. "Time to eat." Ganondorf set the tray on the end of the bed.

At first Shadow was disoriented and just stared bleary-eyed at Ganondorf, then at the food tray. He let out an almighty shriek that rose to a pitch probably only dogs could hear, leaped away from the tray while pointing at it, shouting, "MURDER! MURDER!"

Same thing EVERY time! Ganondorf groaned. "EGGS AREN'T MURDER! No animals even DIED to bring you these eggs!"

"But they're probably sitting in some poor cage, forced to eat their own feces!"

Ganondorf held in his cry of rage. "Would it help if I said they were cage free?!"

Shadow blew out of his nose derisively, then fell half off the side of his bed to reach under its voluminous depths. "No." He pulled up a bag of snacks and started eating them instead. Ganondorf was about to burn a fuse. They're probably dehydrated bananas or something!

Can the boy even SEE how sickly he looks, or how much skinnier he's gotten?! His thought process paused. Shadow had stuffed, what, four . . . no, five of those things in his mouth. Wow, he's really digging in. Well, okay . . . at least he's EATING. Ganondorf hadn't actually SEEN him eat in . . . in . . . he had called the school, not to check on his grades or behavior, just to see what and if the kid was eating.

A dark, ominous organ chord blared, followed by a resolving chord. Who in the blazes is ringing my doorbell on a weekend?!

"Oh!" Shadow cried with sudden enthusiasm. "That could be Zelda." He threw his snack bag away, hopped off the bed, and ran out of the room before Ganondorf could even comprehend what he'd said.

". . . Zelda?" But he was already too curious about the snacks his son couldn't stop stuffing his face with. He decided to walk over and examine the snack bag. What kind of disastrous food thing has he gotten now?

The first thing he noticed when he picked it up was the note stuck to the front of it:

"For all your B vitamin needs :P –Link"

A twinge of discomfort—guilt?—entered Ganondorf's heart. Of course. Bread snacks. Why hadn't I thought of that? He gave a long-suffering sigh. It's not like I have a lot of time to figure out all this stupid vegan crap! But still . . . how interesting that not his father, but a brand new friend could get Shadow to eat what was best for him. Ganondorf dropped the bag of snacks and lumbered out of the room.

Out in the entry way, Shadow was speaking animatedly to whoever was at the door. Ganondorf knew it wasn't Zelda even before he saw the green hoodie.

Link.

"Did you get the snacks in your locker?" Link was asking.

"Yeah! I think I've almost eaten them all, can you get me more?"

Link grinned. "Sure thing!" His expression fell and he paled. "Oh, uh, h-hello Mr. Dragmire! Sir!"

Shadow glanced at his dad, and hesitantly moved aside. Ganondorf filled the doorway. Literally filled it. Link looked very small, eyes big and wide. He held a small paper plate of cookies in both hands, and proffered them up at Ganondorf, who was a good two heads or more taller than him. "Uh, my Grandma made cookies. For Shadow. Because he found Aryll. Last Saturday. Um. Sorry they're kind of . . . you know, not fancy or anything." He apparently couldn't help looking at the expensive, huge house he'd found.

For a moment Ganondorf considered shutting the door in his face. Hadn't I said to stay away?! The last thing he needed was Shadow becoming friends with beggars. Well okay, Link wasn't THAT much of a beggar, but pretty close, and with poordom came really bad decisions. And Shadow was NOT the most street smart egg in the carton. Nothing good can come from these two spending time together. Ganondorf warred with himself. But, Link did get Shadow to eat. His shoulders relaxed and he released some pent up air. Then, to Link and Shadow's surprise, he stepped aside and said, "Come in."

Shadow was ecstatic. Link had no sooner crossed the threshold than Shadow grabbed his hand and pulled him behind him to his room, almost making Link drop the cookies on the way. Shadow chided him, as if it HADN'T been his own fault they almost fell. "Careful, those are gold!" They disappeared into his room and he shut the door.

Ganondorf watched them go, a bit sadly. Then threw the front door shut in frustration.


Link got the feeling that Shadow never actually made his bed. He wasn't even sure there WAS a bed underneath all the pillows, plushies, tiny blankets and pillowcases, and clothes. They all sat in a big messy pile at one end of the room. A desk with a laptop sat in a corner, and there were two doors besides the one they came in. One Link guessed was a closet from what little he could see inside, which meant the other door must be to the Grounded Bathroom. Shadow's skull skateboard was lying against the wall on the other side of the room from the desk, and there was an electric guitar hanging out on a stand next to an amp.

Shadow was currently sat on his bed after cautiously throwing a tray full of food down what looked like a laundry chute. He munched on Granny's cookies. Link sat down next to him on what looked like a mini bean bag on top of a mound of clothing and grabbed a cookie for himself. "So this is your house."

"I know," Shadow replied. "Isn't it evil?"

"It is a bit intimidating."

"You'll like the yard, though. Tons of awesome trees! There's even a few you can climb. Can't tell secrets to them, though. Pretty sure Dad has microphones everywhere."

"That's disturbing . . ." Link's eyes had not really quit staring at the electric guitar since he'd spotted it. "So, you play?"

"Yeah! You?"

"A little bit. I can't afford a guitar, though."

"You wanna give it a go?"

Link stood up and walked to it wondrously, not even remembering to be grateful in his haste. "Sure . . ."


"Sheik. Hasn't he told you about me?"

Ganondorf stared at the young man at the door quizzically. "No," he stated simply.

"Oh! That's odd. Well. Is that his room? Has Link already got here?" He walked past the stunned Ganondorf and walked to the room the guitar music came out of. Not bothering to knock, he walked inside. "Hi guuuuuuys!"

"Hey!" The other boys answered in sync as Sheik shut the door. Then Link commented. "Wow, I've never seen you dressed like that before, Zelda—"

"SHH! To Mr. Dragmire I'm Sheik! There's no WAY my parents would approve of me being here!"

Shadow nodded conspiratorially. "Riiiight, that's the ONLY reason you're dressed as a guy."

"Oh shut uuuUUUOH MY DEKU NUTS is that a Rauru 500?" Sheik gestured madly at the guitar.

Shadow grinned proudly. "Yep!"

Link played a few riffs. Sheik's eyes practically sparkled when he recognized the song, and opened his mouth to start singing.

"It's all the same, only the names will change

Everyday, it seems we're wastin' away

Another place where the faces are so cold

I drive all night just to get back home!"

Shadow ran to Sheik's side and joined him on the chorus:

"I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride

I'm wanted dead or alive

Wanted dead or aliiiiiiiiive!"

"OH MY GOSH THIS IS AWESOME YOU GUYS!" Sheik cried. "There's a talent show at the school in a few weeks. Do you want to do it?"

Link glanced at Shadow, who simply grinned and shrugged, so Link said, "Yeah, sure! We'll need a bassist, though."

"And a drummer," Shadow answered. "And an extra guitar because there's no way I'm standing on stage and only singing."

Sheik scoffed. "Coward. I know someone who loves the drums. I don't know about a bassist, though."

"We should keep a lookout."

All three looked back and forth at each other, then yelled together, "I'M WANTED, DEAD OR ALIIIIVE!"