(The problem here, is that nobody else can get on my account to mess with my chapters. So how the heck does this keep happening?)

I do not, nor will I even own Knuckles the Echidna.

(And for that matter, why is everything altered to Sonic characters? That doesn't even make sense! I don't even have a story about the Sonic characters!)

"You are kidding me," Sketch said blankly. "How in Hyrule did that even get up there?"

Realm just shrugged and began climbing the tree, albeit with some difficulty because it was a palm tree and didn't have any helpful branches on the way up.

"He was on the ground the whole time," Sketch continued in disbelief. "He was asleep on the ground the whole time. How the heck did his sword get lodged in a coconut that's still in the tree?"

"Sometimes it just happens," Realm replied from a few feet above Sketch's head, and hoisted himself up a few more inches.

"HOW!?"

Realm shrugged again. Sketch stared, then pressed his hands over his face.

"I do not have the sanity to deal with this," he groaned.

"You could always do what I do," Wind offered.

"And what's that?"

Wind made to reply, then paused. "...I was going to say that I go sailing because it helps clear my head, but then I remembered why that was a bad idea for you."

"Great," Sketch said through his fingers.

"Can one of you spot me?" Realm called from above. "There's a palm frond in my face and I can't see where I'm reaching anymore."

"Move your hand to the left," Wind advised.

"This is my life now," Sketch told himself, lifting his head out of his hands and shaking it in bewilderment.

"Personally," Dusk said to Sketch quietly, "I just accept the weirdness and go with it. That way when a woman-bird pops out of a pot in the middle of a frozen arctic mountain on the kitchen floor of a Yeti's mansion and offers to let you use her as an item, you can just smile and nod."

Sketch blinked. "...Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Dusk replied.

"Got it!" Realm announced cheerfully from the treetop, and a few seconds later landed in the sand with a muted thump. He sheathed his weapon in a fluid motion and said, "That went much quicker than usual."

"I don't want to know your usual," Sketch immediately declared.

Realm was entirely unoffended by this and just chuckled. "Suit yourself. Hey, has anyone found my shield yet?"

"Steam saw something shiny in the water," Dusk said, pointing, "so the others went to investigate. I don't know what they're going to find, though..."

"Eh, wouldn't be the weirdest place. Once I had to get my shield out of a Like-Like that was inside a Lynel that was inside a Dragon" Realm replied, and proceeded to march off to join the shield search like he hadn't just said something completely insane.

"...This is going to be an interesting adventure, isn't it?" Wind observed.

"Tell me about it," Sketch agreed.

Ocarina glanced down at Mask.

Mask raised an eyebrow.

Ocarina mirrored him, then cleared his throat and said, "So... you've beaten Ganondorf already?"

"No, I will not tell you his attack patterns," Mask said.

"Oh, come on! It would be a huge help!"

"And mess up our timeline, cause a paradox, and probably melt the universe even faster than it already is," Mask shot back. "If I had to beat up the creep on my own, so do you."

"That is so not fair."

"That's exactly the definition of fair!"

"Doesn't mean I have to like it..." Ocarina muttered.

Mask let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, I'm just trying to stave off the probably inevitable paradox for as long as I can. Can you at least get behind me on that?"

"But if it's inevitable, why bother?"

"Because," Mask said in the tone of voice which told his counterpart that he was keeping a tight reign on his emotions, "paradoxes tend to be world-ending, and I happen to be living in the world that would be ending, and I would personally rather not go through that for the fifty-seventh time in a row!"

"Fifty-seventh time in-"

"Spoilers!" Mask snapped, then rubbed his eyes and let out another sigh. "I just... I already deal with this kind of mess way too much for my liking, can you just trust me on this and not ask me for future knowledge?"

Ocarina was quiet for a minute. "...Yeah. Sure."

"Thank you."

"...But can you just tell me one thing that I should watch out for-"

"Oh for the Love of Nayru!" Mask threw up his hands. "You want spoilers? Fine, here's a spoiler. He's going to try and kill you. Don't let him do that."

Ocarina scowled. "I literally already knew that!"

"Well then, you should have been more specific."

"You are such a jerk."

Mask flashed a smug smile. "Well then, you should start taking notes for your turn."

"I can't believe I grow into you," Ocarina griped.

"And I can't believe I grew out of you, so we're even. Now, don't you have a villain to beat up?"

Ocarina frowned. "We haven't gotten to the Castle yet, though."

Mask raised an eyebrow and pointed to Hyrule Castle, which the two of them had walked up to seconds ago without really noticing. It was gray and dismal-looking, with a lot of yellow clouds doing a swirly-thing around the tallest spires for no readily discernible reason.

"This is a lot less depressing than I remember it being," Mask noted.

"Personally, I think it's pretty bad," Ocarina replied.

"I've seen worse," Mask said. "I've seen a lot worse."

Ocarina briefly wondered exactly what he was in for in his future, then thought about asking, then realized that all he would get in answer was "Spoilers," and just kept quiet. Besides, he was currently standing in front of the stronghold of his greatest enemy and his stomach was doing backflips. He swallowed nervously.

"I know you won't – can't – tell me much," Ocarina said slowly, "but can you at least tell me how much I should brace myself?"

Mask considered that, then sighed.

"A lot," he said. "Brace yourself a lot."

Ocarina nodded, then checked his Adventure Bag to see what he had in the name of healing items. Which meant that he checked his Adventure Bag to see what he had in the name of Red Potion.

He had three, for the interested. Ocarina frowned at them.

"Maybe I should go buy a fourth," he muttered.

"Hey, you'll be fine," Mask said. "The laws of time basically guarantee you win. I'm kinda the physical embodiment of the proof."

"That doesn't exactly make me feel better."

"Want me to be your cheerleader? I' think I can improvise a thing or two."

"Please don't."

"You can do it, Past Me! I know because I was there!" Mask yelled, using his hands to funnel the sound straight into Ocarina's face.

"...You're enjoying this, aren't you." Ocarina accused levelly.

"Wouldn't you?"

Ocarina suddenly found himself torn between agreeing that he would, and holding onto his annoyance for the sheer sake of not giving his older self the satisfaction. It was truly odd just how quickly having his future self hanging around was becoming 'normal' in his mind. Part of him wondered if he ought to be taking notes for when he grew older and did this the second time around. Then he ran that thought through his head again and raised a finger in confusion.

"Question," he said. "If you're me in the future, does that mean you remember this from my point of view?"

Mask paused, thinking it over.

"...No," he said at length, looking just as surprised as he sounded. "It's... weird, there's like two sets of memories from the events the two of us have already experienced, but I've got nothing as far as what happens beyond this. Huh."

"So... this is the first time that you're experiencing this too?" Ocarina clarified.

Mask inhaled sharply "Ah, crap. We're living in a paradox right now, aren't we?"

"Maybe?"

"Time travel hates me," Mask groaned. "And I'm beginning to return the favor. Can we just get a move on with your whole Final Battle so we can hopefully fix whatever's wrong and avoid universal collapse?"

Ocarina shrugged hopefully, then drew his sword and hoisted his shield and marched determinedly over the Sages' Bridge and through the doors on the other side. Mask watched him go and ran a hand through his bangs.

"Goddesses above, please don't let this come back to bite us," he muttered.

Abruptly, Ocarina let out a yelp, which was followed rapidly by the sound of a laser being fired multiple times and multiple objects subsequently breaking. Mask poked his head through the doors to see Ocarina sprinting madly across the entrance hall and just barely staying a few inches ahead of the aim of the Beamos intent on incinerating him. Mask winced.

"Potential paradox notwithstanding, mayyyyybe I should have warned him about that."

"If it were near the sandbar with the hole on it, I would understand how it got there," Steam complained. "But that was nowhere near any of the places we've been!"

"Oh thank Din," Sketch breathed. "I'm not the only one who thinks this is insane."

"I wouldn't say my life is insane," Realm said thoughtfully, drying off the last of the saltwater from his shield. "Just... very mentally taxing."

Steam planted his face in his hand. "Realm, we haven't left this beach. At all. So how, just, how, did your shield get from your back to the bottom of the ocean floor four feet underwater on the other side of the island?"

Realm just shrugged.

"He's insane," Sketch said decisively. "All of this is absolutely insane."

"Hello pot, my name's kettle," Realm grinned, and swing his shield onto his back where it belonged – though whether or not it would stay there was another issue entirely. "You turn into a literal piece of art. Remember your own insanity before pointing out someone else's."

Sketch had to admit that the brunet teen had a point.

"Anyways, that should be everything I misplaced," Realm continued. "Are we all good to go?"

"We should be," Dusk replied. "Sketch, do you still want that lift?"

"...Yeah," Sketch admitted. Dusk wordlessly knelt down and helped his shorter counterpart climb up onto his shoulders before standing back up and wading into the surf towards the sandbar.

"Oh, before I forget," he said over his shoulder (and Sketch), "when you all follow me, could you do it single-file? I'd rather not repeat our usual pile-up while I've got a passenger."

Blue elbowed Vio in the ribs. "He's talking to you."

"Oh, and I suppose you were entirely blameless in all those situations?"

"Hey, I was on the bottom. That means you were the one causing the pain."

"No, it means you tripped me, and if you'd be more careful then I wouldn't have to watch my feet!"

"Well clearly you don't do a very good job, because despite you apparently watching your feet you still trip one me anyways!"

"Why are you even on the ground is what I want to know! There should be no reason for you to lose your balance, yet there you are, laying right where I'm going to step! Honestly, you should be grateful I've only ever landed on your leg and not your head."

"Okay, now you're-"

"NOW IS NOT THE TIME!" Green bellowed, shutting both of his bickering siblings up. "Do you two ever take a break?!"

"Blue started it," Vio accused levelly.

"Vio needed the reminder," Blue retorted

"You two are going to be the death of me, I swear to Nayru," Green groaned. "Alright. Vio, you go first. Blue, you go last. And so help me, if I see either one of you within ten feet of the other while we go through that hole, I will smite you myself. Clear?"

"Clear," his brothers muttered sullenly, moving to their respective assigned positions while Green took a calming breath and Red smiled happily. Sketch visibly decided not to ask, while Wind just watched and shrugged. Everyone else took it in stride, having seen it all before and not finding anything to be concerned about.

"Alright then, let's go," Dusk said, and waded out into the ocean with an increasingly tense Sketch on his shoulders and the rest of the group on his heels. One by one they jumped into the hole – and in actual orderly fashion, for once.

Five days.

Link had been walking for five days.

And he still hadn't reached Hyrule yet.

The only reason he hadn't just flopped down and called it quits for the day was that he could see the Black Tower waaaaay far off in the distance, and he knew that Hyrule was only about a day-or-so's worth of travel from there.

"Whoever's idea it was," Link grumbled, "to make Labrynna twice as long as it is wide deserves a good kick in the shin."

For no readily discernible reason, Farore decided that Din needed to have her shin kicked right that instant.

"Oi! What was that for!?" Din snapped. Farore shrugged.

"Apparently you deserved it," she said.

"What did I do!?"

Link tilted his head curiously.

"I suddenly feel vindicated," he observed. "Wonder why."

Then the feeling wore off. He peered at the Black Tower, which was still waaaaay far off in the distance, and sighed.

"Walking," he grumbled, setting off yet again. "Who even invented walking?"

Sketch clambered down off Dusk's shoulders and observed his surroundings with a mixture of relief and confusion.

"I'm home," he said, bewildered. "This is my Hyrule. I thought I wasn't going to be seeing this again until we fixed the universe?"

"It could be that the connections between times are more linear than we thought," Vio offered. "Or maybe the goddesses are streamlining our destinations. You never know."

"Yeah..." Sketch stared up at his house with a conflicted expression. "Hey, um... do we have time for me to, you know, take care of my villain real quick...?"

"Are you sure he'll be there?" Steam asked. "It seems like everyone's villain up and vanished right when these holes popped up."

Sketch frowned. "Okay, new question. Do we have time for me to go and check if I should take care of my villain real quick?"

Nobody answered for a moment. Then Dusk cleared his throat and said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been under the impression that the universe is ending."

"More or less," Vio agreed.

"So, is there any point in saving one period of Hyrule when all periods of Hyrule will be obliterated?"

Sketch grimaced. "...Good point. It just... it rubs me the wrong way, to just up and go somewhere else and leave this job unfinished."

"Tell me about it," Steam growled in agreement, eliciting nods from everyone else. "You're not the only one who had to leave their country undefended from a possible threat."

"All the more reason why we should take care of this threat as soon as possible," Dusk stated. "Now, any ideas on where we go from here?"

"Normally we just find the local Link and recruit him," Green remembered. "But since we kinda already did that..."

"No need to thank me," Sketch grinned.

"...I guess we should just hop back through the hole and see where we go next?" Green finished questioningly.

"Won't we end up back at the beach though?" Realm asked.

"Actually, that's been proving to be extremely unlikely," Vio answered. "These holes don't appear to follow any of the laws of physics. If they did, then we-" he gestured to his three brothers, "-and Steam should have ended back in our Hyrule the first time we jumped through. But we landed in Realm's time instead. As far as I can tell, we end up wherever we need to be next. I'm suspecting divine intervention, but 'temporal shenanigans' are also in the running as a viable explanation."

He received more than a few stares at that.

"...So what you're saying is," Blue said slowly, "the goddesses are the ones doing the steering."

Vio sighed. "That's putting it a bit bluntly, but yes. Something or someone else is determining our destination."

"...So, the author."

It took approximately six seconds for Vio to execute a flying tackle directly at Blue's stomach, following closely by Red who took the much more moderate approach of swatting Blue in the shoulder with his hat.

"...Ow," Blue wheezed.

"I did warn you about breaking things," Vio replied.

"I didn't think you were serious..."

"What just happened?" Sketch asked, sounding quite lost.

"I have no idea," Wind replied, equally lost.

Dusk sighed, then stuck his fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistled to reclaim everyone's attention. Then he fidgeted a little, because he was now the central focus and he didn't have very much experience with that. "So, back through the hole then?"

Everyone gave a general agreement and started filing back through the hole.

Link looked up at what used to be a perfectly functional Black Tower and tilted his head exactly thirty-six-point-two-four-two degrees to the left in confusion. He looked to his left and found a tumbleweed, then looked to his right and found two more tumbleweeds. Then he checked behind himself just to make sure nobody else was around and found a lack of both people and tumbleweeds.

"...Weird," Link decided, and stared up at the former Black Tower again.

There was a large colorless void hovering asymmetrically at the middle of the Tower, happily eating away at the stonework of said Tower and growing ever larger in the process. Despite having been all over the continent and rarely, if ever, being surprised by anything anymore, Link had to admit that this was something he hadn't seen before. Therefore, the only logical explanation was that someone was pranking him.

The only problem was that the only things around were tumbleweeds. Link knew he was a bit odd in the head sometimes, but even he could admit that tumbleweeds did not roll around pulling practical jokes on random passerby.

He stared up at the Tower and the hole eating the Tower. This was... new.

This was new. Link just about exploded with sheer happiness upon realizing this fact. He hadn't come across anything new in ages.

And now he had a whole bunch of new stuff to mess with!

"Oh, this is gonna be fun," Link grinned, and plopped down on the ground to sort through his stuff. The first thing to do was to get a closer look, and for that he needed his Hookshot. He'd accumulated a lot of random junk over the course of his adventures, and finding what he needed nowadays usually took a couple moments.

He had only just pulled out the desired item with a triumphant flourish when a violet-colored humanoid materialized from within the hole and promptly fell about thirteen feet to land haphazardly on the ground mere inches from Link's position. The Hero stared at the new arrival for a moment before beaming in delight. All sorts of new things were happening today!

The humanoid let out a groan and slowly sat up, which let Link see that it was a small blond boy wearing an entirely violet outfit. This kick-started Link's protective Hero instincts, because he hadn't spent all that time saving all those countries for nothing and falling a dozen feet onto hard earth wasn't the best idea for one's health.

"Yeh, tōlgiarh-uyo?" Link asked, putting away his Hookshot and pulling out a Red Potion instead.

The boy blinked and frowned in confusion. After a moment, so did Link. He was in Labrynna, right? So this boy should be native Labrynnian, right? Link quickly ran over his question in his head to make sure he hadn't mixed up the present and future tenses again. Upon discovering that he hadn't, his confused frown deepened. Maaaybe he was actually in Holodrum and hadn't realized... but that would mean that he had been walking in the wrong direction this entire time. Link began cursing the Windfish inside his head for the umpteenth time that day.

"Uh," the violet boy started, "...Noffay, um, aye?"

So he was in Labrynna! Link beamed and mentally apologized to the Windfish, then thought better of it and focused his attention on the blond boy instead. For a native Labrynnian, he had terrible pronunciation.

"Tōcxūnlleełe!" Link said emphatically. "Yeh, oknīw-uyo uolwūd ton fi veah-uyo ea ucācoossōnni?"

The boy furrowed his eyebrows and mouthed several of Link's words to himself, then tentatively opened his mouth to answer – but then another boy in blue abruptly landed on top of him, followed rapidly by about six more boys in green and one in red.

"...Ow," the violet boy wheezed from the bottom of the pile he was now stuck under.

"What the heck!" one of the green boys exclaimed. "Why is the hole in the middle of the air!?"

"Beats me," the boy in blue groaned. "I can't feel my feet..."

The rest of the pile began trying to un-pile themselves, which let Link simply stare and grin uncontrollably at his good fortune. This was turning out to be the most interesting day he'd had in weeks!

"You know, purple boy," Link said, crouching down to meet said purple boy's eyes, "you really should have told me you were Hyrulean from the get-go. Now I have to apologize for calling your pronunciation terrible."

"Just a minute," the violet boy gasped, and pounded weakly on the blue boy right above him. "Blue, I can't breathe."

"Well I can't move, Realm's on top of me."

Link grinned. "Let me help you out with that." He stood up and gave the pile-up a fierce scrutiny – then he reached out and, very precisely, poked his index finger right between someone's arm and someone else's leg.

The entire pile toppled.

"And they said paying full price for that trick was a mistake," Link said in a satisfied tone of voice.

"Who's 'they'?" One of the boys in green asked.

"Oh, They's a close relative of Them," Link replied. "Nice family. Bit hard to tell apart though. What brings Hyruleans to Labrynna?"

The boy in purple made a noise of realization. "So that's what you were speaking! I knew I recognized it somehow, I just couldn't remember what it was!"

"Yeah, your accent needs work," Link informed him. "And your diction. And your pronunciation. And probably almost everything else."

"I guess a native would know best," the violet boy agreed.

Link burst out laughing. "Who, me? Native? Oh, no no no no no. I'm Hyrulean like the rest of you. I just picked up the language."

"Then why did you talk to me in Labrynnian?"

"Because I assumed you were Labrynnian. We're in Labrynna. Unless we're in Holodrum. But I'm pretty sure we're in Labrynna, because otherwise there would be a lot more tiny people in cloaks. You haven't seen any tiny people in cloaks, have you?"

One of the boys in green raised an eyebrow. "Are you sane?"

Link shrugged. "Maybe. Depends on if I think insanity would be more fun at the time."

"Ooookay."

Link ignored the awkward pause with the skill born of being someone who simply does not care and said, "So, I repeat my earlier question. What brings Hyruleans – other than me – to Labrynna?"

"We're trying to save the universe and our dimensional transportation dropped us here," the boy in red chirped.

Link beamed. "Ooh, saving the universe? Heck yes, count me in."

The tallest boy in green did a double take – and so did everyone else. "Sorry, what?"

"Count me in," Link repeated. "I've been so bored lately you wouldn't believe it! Save a country, get a bit of wanderlust. Save another country, get a little stir-crazy. Save another country, buy a boat and go exploring just for something to do. Save a dream country... and now nothing really surprises me anymore. You guys have no idea how stoked I am that you showed up, because this is literally the most exciting thing that's happened to me in weeks. So count me in, sign me up, do whatever! I don't care, I'm just coming for the ride."

"...Weird question," one of the shorter boys in green began, "but is your name Link, by any chance?"

If possible, Link's beam grew even wider. "And you're psychic! Oh, this day just gets better and better."

"Nobody's psychic," the green boy replied wryly. "We just all happen to also be Link."

"...Cool," Link decided. "How's that work? No, wait, lemme guess. I'm gonna say... different dimensions and/or times adjacent to each other within our known universe which is currently being threatened by reality-devouring voids that for some reason function as portals for your specific group and that lets you hop from one time period or dimension to the next collecting all the different incarnations of yourselves to eventually find the source of the problem and kick it's butt with the collective power of all your versions combined?"

"...How did you do that?"

"Oh, I was just guessing. If I was wrong about that one, my next guess was going to be Cuccos."

"Okay, why would Cuccos be-"

"Oh, they'd find a way," Link said darkly, his face suddenly cast in shadow despite the fact that the sun was shining cheerfully enough to make a pessimist cringe. "The Cuccos always find a way..."

"...Are you sure you're sane?"

"Not a clue. Now! How do we do this, is there a numbering system or whatever?"

The violet boy raised an eyebrow. "A numbering system for...?"

"Well, we can't all be Link, that would be impossibly confusing," Link said. "So, who's Number One and how many Rupees do I have to pay you in order to be the new Number One?"

"How many Rupees do you have?"

"Blue!"

"What, it was a valid question!"

"Nobody's Number One, we all have nicknames," one of the other green boys said. "Speaking of which, I'm Steam."

Link nodded. "Gotcha. What about the rest of you?"

Everyone quickly introduced themselves, some of which gave Link a good snicker. Named for their clothing, really? Link wished he'd thought of that, there were some fantastic possibilities for pranks and confusion.

"So that's us," Dusk said. "What about you?"

Link grinned. "Glad you asked. I'm Link, Hero of Legend, and single-handedly responsible for saving Hyrule, Labrynna, Holodrum, Subrosia, and a flying whale, but not necessarily in that order. I'm multilingual and if any of you know a language I haven't heard of, I immediately request lessons."

"So that's why you've got an accent," Wind snapped his fingers. "You said you were Hyrulean, but you talk like a foreigner. It was a little confusing."

"Oh, I can drop that," Link said, abruptly sounding entirely Hyrulean. "I can also adopt a different one, if you'd prefer. Labrynnian just happens to have really nice vowel acoustics."

Wind blinked. "Uh... no, however you want to talk is fine."

"Nice of you," Link said, suddenly with an accent again. "Funny thing, I don't actually have a default pronunciation anymore – I think I put so much effort into other languages that I just integrated all of them. Nowadays I just pick whichever one I feel like at the time. Say, when do I get a nickname?"

"Are you always this... random?" Green asked.

"Eh, depends on my mood. Seriously though, nickname? Don't leave me out of the party."

"Finally, someone who appreciates my nicknames!" Red enthused. "Okay, you said your title was the Hero of Legend?"

"That's me!" Link beamed.

"Vio, words that mean legend please!"

Vio sighed. "You know, you really ought to try a thesaurus."

Red frowned. "I don't think that's a very good nickname. Are there any others?"

"No, Red, a thesaurus is a list of – actually, never mind," Vio let out another sigh, then thought for a moment. " Myth, fable, lore, saga, story, epic, tale, fiction, fantasy, anecdote, ballad... should I keep going?"

"I liked Lore," Link put in. "Can I use it?"

"Absolutely!" Red beamed.

"Awesome," Lore declared.

"Quick question," Realm said. "Why exactly are you so okay with all this? I think you're the only one who hasn't freaked out when we explained all this to you."

"Well," Lore said, "that is a very long and complicated story and it starts about six years ago back before I stopped caring about my sanity. See, I had this dream one night where Princess Zelda spoke to me through telepathic transmission and told me she was being held captive in the Castle dungeons and needed to be rescued. I assume she was going for someone a bit more experienced than a ten-year-old, but then again I did get the job done so what do I know."

Sketch and Wind exchanged glances, then promptly sat down as this seemed like a story with a long haul.

"Now, I knew that wasn't normal, so I woke up my uncle and asked him about it. He decided that Hyrule Castle was in danger and went out to see what the problem was, and naturally I went against all natural instinct and instruction and followed him. Good thing I did, because he'd gone and tripped and stabbed himself in the foot because he forgot to bring a torch and didn't see the rock until it was too late. He gave me his weapon, told me to go save the Princess, and passed out from blood loss."

"Is he okay?" Green asked.

"Oh, he's fine, he just has this weird overly-dramatic hero complex. Granted, I haven't seen him since I bought a boat and ended up saving a flying whale, but last I checked he just has a bit of a sore ankle on rainy days. Where was I?"

"Your uncle passed out," Realm supplied.

"Oh yeah. Basically I dragged him out of the way so people wouldn't step on him and then I bumbled my way into the Castle dungeon. Zelda really should have provided a mental map or something, because I would have gotten to her so much faster if I'd known where I was going."

"I hear that," Realm said. "So it took you about a week, then?"

Lore blinked. "Say what?"

"He's not exactly normal, we'll tell you about it later," Dusk said quickly. "You were saying?"

"I look forward to that conversation," Lore grinned. "Anyways, I rescued Zelda and then we escaped by mucking our way through a sewer system – she wasn't a big fan of that, but then again it smelled awful so neither was I..."

Much to the dismay of the villains inside his head, Demise had discovered a solution to the bagpipes. He simply imagined that bagpipes didn't exist. And just to make sure that nothing else would happen, he also imagined that no musical instrument existed.

Because the villains were a rather unimaginative bunch, it did not occur to them that there were plenty of other objects they could use that made obnoxious noises. If it had, then they would have conjured airhorns.

But it didn't, and so the villains were all having a meeting as to what to annoy Demise with next.

We could try interpretive dance, Veran suggested.

First of all, Ocean Ganondorf growled, we cannot be seen, only heard. Second of all, I do not dance. And third, I am not sure that most of us even know how.

Well that would have been the point, Veran sniffed. Our dancing would have been so horrible as to make his eyes bleed rather than his ears.

Okay, there is no point in doing that because, as Ocean Ganondorf said, we can't be seen, Malladus pointed out. What if we try bad puns instead?

...Does anyone here even have a sense of humor?

I personally find burning people alive to be rather amusing, Majora volunteered. Shall I demonstrate?

I don't really think that's necessary, Onox said.

...If you insist.

There was a collective sigh of relief.

We could try singing, Original Ganon suggested. I have a terrible voice.

I know a song that never ends, Picori Vaati offered. We could start now and see how far we can get before we pass out.

"Don't you dare," Demise snarled.

That sounds promising, Twilight Ganondorf mused. How does it go?

It just repeats over and over, you'll pick it up soon enough. The sound of someone clearing their throat echoed through Demise's head.

This is the song that never ends; it just goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was; and they'll continue singing it forever just because: This is the song that never ends-

"May the goddesses find me and smite me now," Demise groaned.

So... hi. I'm back.

At the risk of dating myself... I am officially out of schooling to take. This is why I took a two-month break from updating; finals combined with my senior project combined with graduation equaled one very very very stressed-out Changeling. The worst part was probably that writing is my stress relief and I didn't even have time for that!

Anyways! Lore's back, everybody! I have missed writing this guy so much. You all literally have no idea how many times I've accidentally put him into conversations that he has no business being in.

Let's see... I think Ocarina and Mask are next. That should be fun.

Changeling

Labrynnian Translations

Yeh, tōlgiarh-uyo? (Hey, you alright?)

Uh... Noffay, um, aye? (Uh... I, um, fine?)(Basically, Vio has really bad pronunciation and forgot the possessive. What he wanted to say was 'Nōfei-Ai ma', or 'I am fine'.)

Tōcxūnlleełe! Yeh, oknīw-uyo uolwūd ton fi veah-uyo ea ucācoossōnni? (Excellent! Hey, you wouldn't know if you have a concussion?)

Thanks to KaineParker, matthewjaguilar12, and YueHamachi for favoriting/following!

jakeroo123:Yes. Yes it is.

XzDaFelixZ: Well, I went and looked at the game dialogue and all it told me was that Link had "come of age". I took that to mean he became a teenager. And yeah I remember his face... which I interpreted to mean he was opinionated about clothes. Hence the "Who are you, and why have you got my fashion sense?" line. The idea of a fashionable Link was too good to pass up.

LuckyLugia: 'Chibi-sama' will be showing up... oh, sometime soon. I'd daresay within the next five to ten chapters, easily. But he will be operating under a different name. And yes, I believe I might be slightly insane. However, I'm of the opinion that since I've acknowledged this fact, I don't need to be concerned. No, I've not read the Seven Swords saga. Maybe I should go check it out... And actually, yes that is already planned. Your guessing skills are surprisingly good... *stares suspiciously*

KnownForHardlyNothing: Yes. Yes I do. It's quite enjoyable to throw them in heaps like that. Plus the argumentative dialogue comes so easily.

Guest: At this point, most of the Links are just too used to being surprised to be surprised about having a sister. They were more concerned about her apparent kidnapping. I will keep this in mind though... clearly I need to do a better job at making them freak out. Can't have my readers being disappointed on me. Thanks for the input!

Find me on Tumblr at changeling-rin!

Find the fan-run ask blog on Tumblr at ask-the-dimensional-links!