AN: BAM! New chapter, despite FOUR EXAMS . . . this is because I love you people . . . *sleeps for a year*
Thanks for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following!
Chapter 31
Spring semester arrived, and the snow finally began to melt. As everyone was getting busy studying, Shadow found himself with a lot of free time on his hands—he didn't have to study much. Rather, he chose not to. He came from a much more prestigious school than Hyrule Castle High, so he was used to a larger amount of work and had learned how to study incredibly efficiently. At least well enough to pass. The rest of his days he spent playing his guitar. Since he couldn't run, or skateboard, or . . . do hardly ANYTHING physical, he'd had to find some way to vent his frustrations. He found himself practicing for hours a day and into the night—in the garage, or else Link, Aryll, and possibly even Granny would kill him. Whenever Link, Sheik, and their friends came over, Shadow was practicing. Some days it was electric guitar, other days acoustic. His voice was getting lower—he could almost sing some of his favorite songs in their original key! Granny's cooking had done him good. He no longer looked like a skinny waif, and his skin wasn't as unhealthily pale. He was getting rather fit, too—even though he couldn't do exercise on his own, he worked with a physical therapist to make sure his heart and body healed properly and continued to stay healthy. He had training three times a week. The purple in his hair had finally faded completely and grown out. His hair was even longer than before. Ganondorf had taken him shopping for new clothes, since he'd outgrown his older ones. He was really going to miss that Save the Cuccos shirt . . .
Even though his dad was tolerant of his vegan ideals now, it didn't mean that Ganondorf was going to let his son run around in cheap T-shirts from Malo-Mart. He'd said something about Shadow growing up and needing to look like an adult, or whatever. Which meant Shadow had to earn his own money so he could buy his own digs.
So he did the only thing he knew how. He put an ad in the paper, offering his services as a guitar teacher.
It didn't take long for him to get his first student. He was not expecting it to be a classmate. He was definitely not expecting it to be Nabooru.
"So . . . how long have you played?" Shadow asked.
"Um, not at all," Nabs responded. It was pretty obvious, actually, from the way she gingerly and awkwardly held her guitar case in both hands.
"Okay, well . . . the weather's nice, so let's go outside."
"Outside? . . . Will anybody be watching?"
Shadow paused to consider. "No, I don't think so. But don't worry about it, we got a fence, and nobody's going to care."
"O-okay, if you say so. Um, one question."
"Yeah?"
". . . Is Link here?" Her cheeks reddened slightly.
Shadow mentally raised an eyebrow. "Ah, no, he's at work."
She nodded, hiding her disappointment.
"Good, now 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 4 . . . down, down up down, down up—almost! Look, watch me again." Shadow demonstrated the strumming pattern on his own guitar, and Nabooru watched him intently. "Okay, now you try. We'll go slow."
Nabooru fumbled with her pick, resettling her pink leopard-print guitar in her lap like she'd just learned how to do. "Um . . . so . . . down down up . . . uh, down. Down, up, no down—aaaugh! This is hard!"
Shadow laughed. "It's okay, it's just your first day."
"You're a good teacher."
"Thanks!"
"Okay, do I HAVE to trim my nails?"
Shadow grinned. "On your left hand? Yes! Right hand, no. See?" He held out his own hands. "You want long nails on your strumming hand for when you start finger picking."
"Dude, that is WEIRD looking!"
Shadow laughed. "Yeah, but I'm still better at this than you."
"Touche."
At the end of the lesson, Shadow found himself asking, "So . . . how did you and Sheik become friends anyway?"
Nabooru smirked as she zipped up her guitar case. "You mean as such an inviting, accepting person, why on earth would Sheik befriend a racist, man-hating transphobe like me?"
Shadow scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well . . . yeah." He gave a sheepish grin.
"Fair enough," Nabs replied. "I don't remember how we met, honestly. We've been friends since we were kids. I guess in the end we care about each other, and that's more important to us than what either of us believes."
"I guess."
"As for why she lets me be so man-hatingly racist . . . well," she stuck her tongue out. "You'll have to ask her." She shook her head. "I mean him. God, I'm terrible . . ."
"It's okay. Link keeps calling him 'Zelda.' Crazy, right?"
"Wow, even Link? That makes me feel a bit better . . . where does Link work, anyway?"
"He works for that school research program? With Shad?"
". . . How's that going? Since the breakup I mean?"
"Uh . . . okay, I guess. Link was pretty down for a while, but he seems fine now. I haven't heard him complaining about working with Shad or anything."
Nabooru smiled. "That's good! Um . . . is he . . . dating anyone new?"
Shadow shrugged. "I dunno. We don't really talk much about that kind of stuff. Guys, you know?"
She punched his arm. "Right. Well, see you at school!"
"Yup."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Sheik exclaimed, glaring at Vio and Midna. Vio stared back at her blankly, wondering why she was upset. Midna shrugged, squirming in her seat as the eyes of the cafeteria glanced their way.
"I had to . . . test things. Tell my people first, you know? This IS more our domain than yours."
Sheik calmed a little. "That makes sense. I sometimes forget you're a princess."
"You're not the only one," Midna scoffed, thinking of her elders and Zant. "In any case, I only told a few that I trust. I'm not sure how the others would react to what's going on, or if they'd try to hold it to themselves and use it against Hyrule, or something."
Sheik deadpanned. "Against Hyrule? Wait, are you serious?"
"Honestly? I don't know. That's why I've come to you. The council's gonna hate me, but Ganondorf isn't under Twilight Realm jurisdiction. But I wanted to come to you first, because . . . should I go to the king or the queen?"
"Mom. Definitely!"
Midna nodded.
Sheik was still dumbfounded. "I still can't believe you trapped Krad! . . . Or that Krad is real!"
Vio raised an eyebrow. "Really? What have you been thinking all this time, that it was all in your head?"
Sheik scratched the symbol of the Triforce on the back of his hand nervously. "Well I mean . . . it's impossible. Why hasn't a shadow being been discovered by professionals yet?"
"Maybe he has."
Sighing, Sheik sat back and tapped his chin. "You know, I think we owe a visit to the Observatory."
Midna interrupted. "After we tell your mom about Krad."
"Okay, okay!"
I've got to bring Aryll out here!
This was the last thought he should be having, but Link wasn't bothered. Master Darunia was yelling from the back of the boat, trying to control the rudder, and Shad was trying to hold the sail down. Link was hanging onto the ropes, standing near the bow, shouting out directions to Darunia. Saltwater sprayed into their faces, their hands slippery and wet, their tiny dinghy tossed to and fro by the bay's turbulent waves. The tide was coming in—the stupidest time to set sail. But that was the only way to make it to the ruins in the cavern at the end of the bay. At high tide, it was covered by the sea, at low tide, it was too high to approach by boat. And approached by boat it had to be. There were too many sharp rocks inside to go by foot or to climb. The ropes would be broken. Their dinghy was reinforced with sheets of steel on the bottom to protect it.
The dinghy rose up, and then down. Link balanced himself with the rocking of the boat.
"HANG ON, LINK! YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THROWN OFF!"
Darunia was always getting on him for only holding the rope with one hand. The air felt amazing in his face.
A giant wave approached.
"DANG IT, LINK! HOLD THE DANG ROPE!"
At the last second, Link leapt back into the boat, grabbing the handles by the mast as pounds of pressure in the form of water splashed over him. When he surfaced, Darunia was screaming something unintelligible. Link recognized the tone. Someone (Shad) had fallen overboard.
"SCRAP IT, LINK! WE GOTTA GET GLASSES BOY AND HEAD BACK TO SHORE!"
"Not yet, D man!" Link grabbed the anchor and tied an empty gas container to it. He located the redhead bobbing in the water with his life vest, then he aimed and threw the anchor with the chain in Shad's direction. Shad caught hold of it, and Link began reeling in the anchor.
Within almost a minute, Link was pulling Shad back on board, the soaking wet scholar-in-training sputtering, "Very dashing, Hero."
Link smirked.
"TOO LATE!" Darunia yelled, pointing at the cavern just ahead. "WE'RE GOING TO MISS THE SWITCH!" In order to get the ancient gate to open, a switch in the ground beneath the cavern had to be pulled. The ocean had almost covered the switch, and it would be impossible to swim in the waves and not be dashed against the rocks.
Link snatched up a free rope and tied a loop. He ran toward the bow of the ship.
"WHAT THE [BLEEP] DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, LINK?!"
Using the momentum from the next wave that sent the bow into the air, Link rose with the bow and it sent him up in the air. He threw the rope up, and it cleared the waves and landed straight on the switch. As the boat came down the wave, Link matched it's flow and landed surefooted back on the bow. Then he leapt back into the boat and pulled on the rope with all of his might.
A satisfying and ominous creaking sound reached his ears, and they watched the gate rise. "HYYYYAAAAA!" Link crowed.
Darunia said nothing at first. Then he started barking orders. "BACK ON THE SAIL, SHAD! LINK, MIND THE BOW! WE'LL GET THERE YET!"
Their boat tottered on the next few waves as Darunia tried to control the rudder and Shad manhandled the sails with a red, puffing face.
One big wave blew them up and into the cavern. They rode the wave past the threshold and up into the cavern main. The cavern was huge. They settled in a little puddle in the middle of the big entry cavern and held on for dear life as the rest of the tide came in. The height of the cavern was higher than the door, so once the door was closed up, no more water came in. They'd have a few several hours of air, and they had air tanks in case they ran out.
When the water finally became still enough for them to drop anchor, Shad and Link began rolling up the sail. Darunia turned on the four huge spotlights on either end of the dinghy, lighting up the cavern.
Link rounded his shoulders, and sighed, crossing his arms in a content way. Suddenly, a force smacked into his back and nearly sent him flying off the boat. "OOF!" He turned around. Darunia had given him one of his famous "back pats."
"Never do that again," Darunia started. "But . . . good job, Link." He pointed a fat finger in Link's face and gritted his teeth. "But NEVER AGAIN. Not while I'm captain."
Link grinned. "Yes, captain!" He couldn't help grinning. Boating was by far his favorite activity, and now a whole cavern of mysteries awaited him.
He loved life.
