(Okay... here's my disclaimer. All alone. Vulnerable. Open to editing.)
I do not own the Legend of Zelda.
(...You're kidding me. The one time I invite somebody/something to come in and mess with me and nothing happens?
…
Alright then. Since something is clearly doing all this on purpose, I accept the challenge. This means war.)
Dusk slid to a stop right outside the doors of the library (he knew it was a library because he could smell the ink and parchment wafting from the interior) and came to the somewhat embarrassing realization that he'd forgotten to pace himself so that everyone else could keep up. Unsurprisingly, Realm was the first one to catch up with him – though how he'd managed to do that without getting lost on the way was beyond Dusk. Everyone else straggled up in varying stages of catching their breath.
"He's in here?" Blue asked, once they'd all stopped wheezing. Dusk nodded in reply, since he hadn't reclaimed his weapon from Wind yet and was thus still a wolf and unable to talk.
"Hey, it's a library," Sketch said, reading the sign posted to the immediate right of the door. "Wonder what a guy presumably carrying a village's worth of small Picori/Minish creatures would be doing here?"
"One way to find out," Wind replied. Dusk flicked an ear, then pushed his way through the group until he reached Wind's side, where he nudged at his own Master Sword with his nose. The Curse Stone solidified and fell to the ground, and Wind handed the sword back to Dusk, who slid it into it's scabbard.
"Just a heads-up," Dusk said, "this is the local Link. He smells just like us."
"...Why do you know that?" Sketch asked.
"Because I am literally half-canine and I notice these sorts of things," Dusk told him. "And before you ask: no I can't smell your fear, yes I can smell when you're lying, and no I won't use my nose to help you cheat in whatever chance game you're thinking of."
Sketch blinked, and closed his mouth slowly.
"Can I ask what we smell like?" Vio requested.
"Green things, mostly," Dusk replied, after a moment of thought. "It's like – um – life? Or something. I'm not sure how to put it into words. But we do all have different undertones – Wind, for example, smells a little bit salty, and Steam kinda has this metallic sorta edge."
"Cool," Vio breathed.
"Wait, so I've got the ocean in my scent?" Wind repeated. Dusk shrugged.
"Kinda? I don't – I really don't know how to fully communicate it to you guys. It's just... not something a normal person has a reference for."
"Can we go through the door now?" Lore interjected. "I love a good rambling sidetrack conversation just as much as the next guy, but I also don't have a whole lot of self-restraint. And I really wanna meet the new guy."
With that, he pushed the doors open and strutted inside as though making a Grand Entrance, leaving the rest of the group to exchange bewildered looks with one another before following him through. There was... a lot about Lore that needed time to get used to, and it was fairly safe to say that nobody had gotten enough time yet.
The interior of the library was covered in books, to a rather astonishing degree. Shelves were crammed into every inch of wall space and spanned the entire vertical stretch to the ceiling. Books were similarly crammed onto the shelves. Interestingly enough though, the lack of empty space in no way meant that the building was messy. All the tomes were religiously organized by what looked like genre, then author, then by series by the author, and then alphabetically if there happened to be more than one series. There was also a profound lack of dust.
It was, without a doubt, the nicest library any of the Links had ever been in.
"I may need to live here," Vio decided quietly.
"No," Green vetoed firmly.
"...Dangit."
Several book-crammed shelves were also scattered around the floorspace, which turned the building into a little mini-maze of literature. The group scattered out to search, though both Blue and Green stalked after Vio to make sure that their brother didn't get himself too 'distracted'. Still, it was a fairly small building, and so it only took a couple minutes before Dusk (who'd been tracking by scent; he wasn't as good in human form, but he still had plenty of wolf characteristics that bled over) found their target in the back.
He was short, probably only ten or eleven years old at the most, with bright blond hair poking messily out from under his green hat. The typical sword-and-shield combo hung off his back, along with a pouch strapped to his waist that probably carried all his other stuff. He had wide, expressive eyes and a very round face, which only cemented how young he probably actually was. And of course, he was effectively identical to every single other person in the group.
He was also talking to a book.
"Oh, tōcxūnlleełe!" Lore declared, which made everybody flinch and startled the newest Link a good six inches into the air. "Finally, someone who can understand my weirdness!"
The new Link spun around, gaped at them all, and not-very-subtly hid the book behind his back. "Don't scare me like that!" he gasped.
"Yeah, sorry," Dusk replied, wincing. "I apologize for..." he glanced at Lore, who was now going off on an eloquent tangent about curio shops, "...him."
Much to absolutely everyone's surprise, the hat on the newest Link's head was the one to reply. "Well, I should think so!" the hat squawked, lifting itself up to pin them all with a disapproving glare. "How very rude of you all! Young folks these days have absolutely no concept of manners!"
Lore broke off his tangent to gape at the hat. So did everyone else.
"...What?" Sketch said.
"Vio, his hat just talked," Red said.
Vio blinked in response. "I.. was not expecting that."
"I want one," Lore declared.
The new Link, meanwhile, slipped the book discreetly-ish back onto the shelf. "Ah, sorry, but Ezlo is one of a kind," he said, with a confused and sheepish smile. "Also, Ezlo?"
"What is it?" the hat – Ezlo – answered imperiously.
"Could you maybe not scold the library patrons? I'm pretty sure I'm just in the way of whatever books they're interested in."
"Well there's more polite ways of doing it!" Ezlo sniffed. "Honestly, the decline of common decency in the youth is appalling."
Link made a carefully noncommittal noise, which sounded very well practiced. "If you say so, Ezlo."
"I do say so," Ezlo replied. "Now, onward Link! We have a job to do!"
"Sure," Link agreed, then turned his attention to the group. "Hey, sorry about being in your way. And, uh, nice to meet you all, I think? But I kinda need to leave now, so..."
He trailed off suddenly, fixating on everyone's faces in a way which the Links were becoming more and more familiar with the more people they collected. His eyes grew very large.
"That's my face?" Link said. "Why – why are there other people with my face?"
"That's a bit complicated," Wind said, smiling apologetically. "Just to be sure, though – your name is Link?"
"Uh – yeah..."
"Ditto," Wind told him. "For all of us, actually."
Link's jaw dropped.
"Why did you need to check?" Steam asked. "He literally could be your twin. He could also stand next to the Four Sword group and make them a quintet instead. He looks almost exactly like them, it was blatantly obvious who he was."
"I was just making sure," Wind defended himself. "Better safe than sorry, right?"
"I look like who now?" Link said, sounding very much like he was only asking questions on autopilot.
"Over here," Green said, raising an arm. Link followed the voice, saw Green and the rest of the Four Sword sets clustered around him, and blinked. Hard.
"I am having the strangest day," Link said faintly.
"We hear that," the Four agreed, which only made Link blink even harder. He was also beginning to resemble a fish. Dusk took that as his cue to reign everyone in.
"Okay, let's all take about three steps back," he said. "We can introduce ourselves properly and give Link some breathing room." He thought for a moment, then said, "Ah... anybody want to take this round?"
"I can give it a shot," Ocarina said. "So, uh... hi there!" He waved, a bit awkwardly, and Link waved back in a blank sort of fashion. "I'm Ocarina, and this is my older-but-younger self, Mask."
"'Sup," Mask said with a how-you-doin' nod. Dusk closed his eyes resignedly.
"That's not helping..."
Ocarina twitched a little, but valiantly moved on. "We're the Hero of Time – and before you ask, yes we're the same person, yes it's very confusing, and yes, it's perfectly normal to have a headache right now."
"...Okay," Link said.
"Anyways, that's Dusk, our Temporary Leader," Ocarina continued, pointing. "Next to him is Lore, our Leader in Training-"
"I'm LiT!" Lore interjected.
"...what he said," Ocarina agreed, confusedly. "Um. Next to Lore is Steam, that's the Four, over there is Wind, there's Realm, Sketch is behind them, and then Green, Vio, Blue, and Red are on the other side."
Everyone waved when their name was called, and Link, who was beginning to get over his surprise, waved back and mouthed all the names to himself in what was probably an attempt to memorize them.
"We're all Link – or, versions of Link – from different times and possibly dimensions across Hyrule's history. Except that now there's all these holes that are somehow erasing actual reality, and we all kinda got involved in trying to figure out how to stop them. And on the way we kept meeting ourself. Which is where you come in," Ocarina concluded. "Nice to meet you!"
Link took a moment to absorb all that. Then he blinked, smiled shyly, and said, "Nice to meet you all too."
Ocarina, not entirely sure what to do now, smiled back, and in doing so made the mistake of letting a short silence drift into the conversation. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem. However, normally, Red wouldn't have been waiting for the opportunity to pounce with a nickname ready to be assigned.
"Do you have any nicknames I should be aware of?" Red asked, thus illustrating the above point perfectly. Link, not expecting the sudden topic change, blinked again before answering, "Um... no?"
"Finally!" Red squealed. "Ocarina and Mask and the Four named themselves before I could get to it and I was really bummed about that, but now I can use my ideas! What's your Hero title?"
"Hero of-," Link started, then stopped, looked briefly worried, then changed whatever he'd been about to say to, "...size. Hero of Size."
"No, you're not," Vio said suddenly.
Link looked incredibly uncomfortably. "Um, I'm pretty sure I am...?"
"No, you're not," Vio repeated. "I've read about you, in the history books back home. You're the one who forged the Four Sword in the first place, you – you're the Hero of the Minish, right?"
"Minish aren't real," Link said, very quickly.
"Really?" Lore asked. "Well dang. Now I'm really confused about who was living in that little tiny village in that clover patch in the woods."
"...Um," Link said, looking very much like he'd rather be having any other conversation but this one. He floundered for a minute, but then got cut off by Ezlo lifting himself up again.
"There's no use trying to hide it anymore, Link," he sighed.
"But-" Link started, before Ezlo swung himself down to glare Link in the eye. "...Um. I mean. Okay."
He took a deep breath. "Sorry. Um. Yes, I'm the Hero of the Minish. But they're not the most... brave? Of people? And they really prefer not to be seen, so I'm kinda not supposed to reveal they exist to regular people, so. Sorry for lying."
"You're kinda crap at it," Blue said bluntly.
Link wilted. "Yeah, I know."
"I resent being called a 'regular people'," Lore declared irately.
"That's actually a fair point, we're technically you," Wind agreed.
"Which is why I decided to rescue Link from his floundering," Ezlo agreed archly. "Now! Link, aren't you going to introduce yourselves to the Picori population?"
Link shrugged. "If they want to," he said, then turned back to the bookshelf and said, "Do you guys feel okay with coming out? I can vouch for the other people."
There was a very high-pitched squeak, and then a diminutive humanoid creature opened a door in the spine of one of the books and walked out. Everyone stared.
"...It's like a mouse decided to wear clothes," Blue muttered.
The Picori bowed to Link and chattered something in the same high-pitched voice.
"No problem, glad I could help," Link said. "Will you be okay here?"
Another chattered reply.
"Oh, they did? That was nice of them."
The Picori nodded, then chittered something else.
"I will. See you later."
The Picori made another little bow, then waved goodbye and went back into the book, closing the tiny door behind it. It was so well-fitted that, once the opening was gone, it was honestly impossible to tell where it had been.
"That is some really impressive engineering," Steam noted, leaning in to try and find the door again.
"Are they supposed to be translucent?" Lore asked.
"He looked solid to me," Green said. Then he frowned, and asked, "He was a he, right?"
"He was a he," Link agreed. "And, Picori become harder to see the older you get. How old are you?"
"Sixteen," Lore said.
"Yeah, so you're kinda halfway through aging out. That's probably why he was see-through for you."
"Neat," Lore decided. "Also, what language was he speaking?"
"Um..." Link frowned, thinking. "I think they call it Jabber? Ezlo, is that right?"
"It is," Ezlo said.
"Yeah, Jabber," Link said.
"I request lessons," Lore informed him.
Link winced. "Oh. Um. That... might not be possible, actually. I only understand them because I ate this Nut that let me speak their language. I don't... actually know how to do it, there's just this sorta translating magic floating around in my brain."
Lore gaped and looked terrible scandalized. "That's cheating! Cāna-uyo ton utjēs od tōtah, ti si tōcpomlee cāsleegiar to nīleedar-yūvoneełer owūh teh darh yūwa!"
Link blinked. "...what?"
"I will learn Jabber one way or another," Lore vowed, seemingly oblivious. "First, I'm gonna need your hat."
"He's not mine!" Link protested. "And I really don't think you'd get along!"
"I am right here," Ezlo squawked.
"Second," Lore continued, ignoring this, "I'm gonna need another one of those Nuts."
"I ate the last one," Link said.
"Third-" Lore started, then stopped as Link's reply made it through his brain. "What do you mean, you ate the last one!?"
"I mean that I ate the last one," Link repeated, confused.
Lore blinked.
"...Okay, scratch numbers two through six," he said. "I'm just gonna need your hat."
"OR," Ezlo broke in archly, "you leave me on Link's head, where I belong, and we schedule daily lessons instead."
"That works too!" Lore declared. "Pleasure doing business with you."
"What just happened?" Link asked faintly.
"You met Lore," Dusk told him apologetically. "If it helps, he does that to everyone."
"That doesn't really make me feel less blindsided, but thanks," Link said. "Why-"
"Ohmigosh, I forgot about your nickname!" Red burst out, which effectively cut off anything else Link was going to say. "Your title is the Hero of the Minish, right?"
"Yeah..." Link said, looking vaguely apologetic.
"Okay, do you want to be called Minish?"
"Er... no, not really," Link replied. "Because I'm... well, not."
"Okay, well... do you have anything special?"
"I have a cranky talking hat, does that count?" Link asked.
"I forbid you to name yourself after me!" Ezlo squawked. "And who are you calling cranky!?"
Link blanched, apparently having not thought that through.
"That answers that then," Red muttered, with a sympathetic wince. "Oh, can you do anything special?"
"Define 'special'?"
"Anything that a normal person wouldn't be able to do," Red clarified.
"Well..." Link thought for a moment. "I can shrink to Picori size with the portals, does that work?"
"Absolutely!" Red decided. "So... shrinking, small, tiny... Vio!"
"Yeah, yeah," Vio grumbled good naturedly. "Lets see... mite, nano, micro, speck, patch, shrimp, tiny, pint... I can't think of any more. Can you use one of those?"
"Speck," Red said, nodding decisively.
"You're naming me Speck?" Link asked, slightly incredulous. He was promptly hit with the surprisingly accurate image of an adorable puppy at full power. How were Red's eyes even getting that big? Link internally cursed his weakness to adorable puppies.
"...I can get used to it," he said feebly.
"Yay!" Red cheered. Steam draped an arm over the newly named Speck's shoulder.
"If it makes you feel any better," he said, "we've all got a weakness for adorable puppies. Red, unfortunately, happens to have a really good adorable puppy impersonation."
"Makes it really hard to stay mad at him," Blue grumbled.
"I concur with that," Speck said ruefully. On his head, Ezlo made a 'Hmph!' noise.
"Link, take notes," he declared. "This seems like a most effective reformation tactic to use on my wayward student."
"If you think Vaati will let us, Ezlo," Speck replied neutrally.
"Just bring Red," Blue told them. "Knowing him, he'll have your Vaati reformed and begging forgiveness in five minutes flat."
Speck raised his eyebrows in slight disbelief.
"It is scary what he can do with that face when he wants to use it," Blue defended himself, shivering.
"Why are so many of your powers utterly redundant?" Demise growled, as Hyrule Ganon finished explaining the extent of his abilities. Unfortunately for him, he was the third – and last – Ganon to go, and thus because his power set was more or less identical to the two other Ganons before, him, Demise had tuned out the subsequent explanation after the first two sentences.
They are not! Hyrule Ganon cried indignantly. My Trident performs a boomerang pattern!
So does mine, Lorule Ganon pointed out. And mine can do it in 2-D, so ha!
Why, you-!
A loud CRASH indicated that Hyrule Ganon had apparently tackled his more purple counterpart, and ensuing snarls gave Demise the vague impression of a brawl. He ignored this with the skill born of not having any other choice but to learn to ignore it.
"Is there anyone else?" the Demon King asked over the cacophony. "Or are we finally done?"
We are done, Majora informed him, in a dangerously bored tone of voice. Will there be burning now?
"Eventually," Demise promised. "No victory comes without a strategy, first. Go set someone on fire if you need a distraction."
Mmm. Perhaps later.
Demise pretended not to hear the almost-silent sigh of relief that the rest of the villains in his head released.
Wait, so are we actually going to do something now? Picori Vaati asked eagerly.
"We are indeed," Demise answered. "And we shall start with the battleground. I think... I know a place."
So saying, Demise casually ripped a hole through to the side of reality and stepped out of the nether. In its place was a cheerfully green woods, with whimsically-growing trees and occasionally carnivorous flowers. Personally, Demise could have done with a few more carnivorous flowers, and a few less whimsical trees, but he hadn't paid attention to the creation of the world until it was over – at which point, he'd decided he hated it, and had dedicated his existence to getting rid of it. Which, granted, wasn't going all that well, but – that was what the Plan was for.
...Your battleground choice is abysmal, Veran commented, knocking Demise out of his musings.
"This is not the place I had in mind," Demise snapped. "But I cannot transport to the actual location because there is a Goddess Servant guarding it, and because of her there is a sacred barrier that I cannot breach without physical form. This is the closest I can manifest; from here, we take the long way."
Better start walking, then, Veran said haughtily. Demise, with difficulty, refrained from replying, and instead strode forwards-
-only for the bushes he was about to push through explode in a chorus of frantic squeaking, as several Kikwi abandoned their hiding spots and scurried off as fast as they could manage. Demise squeezed his eyes shut in irritation.
"Killing them... will only... delay my goal," he told himself, with effort, and forced himself to move on.
Five minutes later, he stepped on another one. Eight minutes after that, he tripped over a different one. Pushing through some undergrowth resulted in his boot colliding with yet another one two minutes after that, sending the terrified creature soaring into the middle distance. And then, a fourth one somehow fell out of a tree right onto Demise's head.
"Killing them... is a waste... of magic," Demise recited, struggling very much to keep his temper and only barely succeeding. The Kikwi on his head squeaked in terror, went limp, and then slowly fell off and hit the grass with a muted thump. As if on a reflex, the bushy tail of the creature popped open on impact, though since the thing had actually passed out from stress and was more-or-less upside down, the effectiveness of this was somewhat suspect.
"Waste of time..." Demise growled, gritting his teeth and moving on. "Waste of magic... waste of space..."
Kikwis had definitely moved up a few spaces on his list of What To Kill First. Still underneath the Hero, the Goddesses, and such, but now in front of the Gorons.
And considering how much Demise despised Gorons, that was really saying something.
Still, the Kikwis were not actually his most pressing problem, at the moment. Demise knew where he was going – he'd spend a couple millennia sealed in it, so he felt that he knew the place pretty well – but as to how it connected with the rest of the world...
Well.
Demise really only paid attention to something if he was about to eradicate it. As such, he'd never particularly noticed the areas surrounding the Sealed Grounds, just that they existed, and he hated them.
Navigating said surrounding areas... was a bit of a different story.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is a Dungeon Temple, Veran noted offhandedly. Not, I presume, what we are looking for?
"Shut up,"Demise snarled, whipping around and stalking away from the structure that was most definitely not the sacred building he'd been seeking. "It's around here somewhere!"
How are you this bad at directions? Twilight Ganondorf asked.
"You try being sealed for a couple thousand years, see how well you remember the surrounding geography," Demise snapped.
Actually, Twilight Ganondorf began, sounding very smug-
Don't you start, your imprisonment only lasted a couple hundred years, at best, Ocean Ganondorf cut in.
It counts!
It does not!
Twilight Ganondorf bellowed something incoherent. This was immediately followed by a hollow BOOM, and the subsequent (and increasingly familiar) sounds of a one-on-one war.
Demise sighed, tuned them out with the ease of practice, and got back to trying to remember what the way to the Sealed Grounds looked like.
Meanwhile, the Chosen Hero was... confused.
He'd been under the impression that there was supposed to be a Final Showdown. Ghirahim had certainly made it seem that way, what with the kidnapping, and magic-stealing, and seal breaking and whatnot. The Demon Lord had even gone out of his way to put up what Link had to admit was the best fight he'd received from the villain. Heck, there had even been a 'Tremble before my Final Form!' moment.
Not that Link had trembled. He'd been too busy wondering why Ghirahim's obvious weak spot was squarely in the center of his chest and glowing bright orange to stand out from the otherwise-blackened skin armor.
("It's for the aesthetics!" Ghirahim had howled, terribly affronted at the perceived insult to his fashion. The fight had gotten rather more difficult after that.)
The point was, Ghirahim had gone through a lot of trouble to build up anticipation. The only problem was that... well, the demon's Master hadn't seemed to have gotten the memo.
There had been an uncomfortable amount of flamboyant gesturing, posturing, and very sparkly diamonds in the ensuing rant that Ghirahim had gone off on once he realized that his Master didn't seem to be coming. Still, at the very least, he'd been distracted enough for Link to knock Ghirahim out. He was currently wrapped up in Impa's sealing magic in a dark and thoroughly ignored corner of the Sealed Temple, which was because he hadn't once shut up about the apparently-tangled-mess that was his hair ever since he'd woken back up from being knocked out.
But, because everyone else was doing their utmost best to ignore him, his complaints were going unheeded. In fact, because everyone else had more important things to worry about, they weren't even paying attention anyways.
Link was, of course, confused, but also apprehensive. Demise – as Ghirahim declared his Master's name to be – hadn't shown, which was... worrying. Because if Demise wasn't in the Seal that Ghirahim had just broken open, then where was he? Link had gone through entirely too much overcomplicated crap on this quest already, and had no illusions about what kind of overcomplicated crap he was probably going to have to deal with in order to answer that question. Optimism was... not necessarily Link's cup of tea.
Fi was also confused – but that was it. However, she did keep on saying, "This does not compute," at random, muttered intervals. All her projections about the situation indicated that Demise ought to be where Ghirahim had said. She wasn't taking the outlier very well.
Zelda was only partly conscious, because Ghirahim had just stolen her magic and such, but she was lucid enough to be worried. Hylia's memories pretty clearly indicated that Demise would not pass up an opportunity to raze the world to the ground, and so when Link had explained the situation to her, the discrepancy between her expectation and what was actually happening was noticeably large. Demise, Zelda had assumed, would leap at the opportunity... except for the part where he hadn't. And possibly wasn't even in the area. Which was almost more terrifying than knowing exactly where he was.
Groose, on the other hand, was ecstatic. But then again, he was Groose. Somehow, that explained just about everything Groose did. He tended to take things at face value, anyway.
And Impa was just rolling with it. Maybe it was because she was a Servant of the Goddess, and was used to things happening for no apparent reason because they would eventually mean something important in the future. Whatever the reason, Link had yet to find something that really, truly fazed her, and this seemed to be no exception.
Still. The god of destruction was MIA, and until Link could manage to find him, he was going on full alert. And the first thing to do, he decided, would be to make sure he was fully stocked on healing items for whenever the actual Face-Off with the Demon King happened. With that in mind, Link left the Sealed Temple (with strict instructions to alert him if Demise showed up), mounted his Loftwing, and made a beeline for the Skyloft Bazaar.
He wondered how much Red Potion he could buy before the vendor sold out.
It had, admittedly, taken quite a few minutes, but Speck had finally gotten his head wrapped around the situation. It was still weird, obviously, and it was probably going to take him a few days before looking at his face on someone else's body stopped freaking him out, but for the most part, he'd adjusted to the idea fairly well.
Which meant, of course, that now he was curious.
"So, uh, can I ask exactly how all of this happened?" Speck asked, gesturing to... everyone. "I know you gave me the two-minute version earlier, but I don't think I processed it very well, and I also get the feeling that you left a lot of stuff out?"
"That's not how this works," Lore told him, frowning. "See, there's a pattern. You tell your story first, and then we tell you ours. But I go first, so I can get a nap in during the rest of it, because it takes a while."
"What he means," Dusk corrected resignedly, "is that we're curious too, and your turn is going to take a lot less time so it makes more sense for you to go first."
"Oh," Speck said. "Okay. Uh... Okay. So, everything kinda started off the day of the Picori Festival, which is basically a celebration of this old legend we've got about how the Picori race forged the Royal Family a sacred sword to help keep evil at bay." He reached around his back and tapped the pommel of the weapon he was carrying and continued, "That's what this is, actually, modifications notwithstanding. Anyways, during the festival there's this tournament, and Vaati – he's my villain-"
"Same," Blue sighed. "Sorry, continue."
"Oh, okay. Uh – so Vaati entered the tournament and won, which gave him the honor of viewing the Picori Sword in person. And then he kinda snapped it in half."
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that's bad," Ocarina said.
"Very bad," Speck agreed. "See, the Sword was holding this thing called the Bound Chest shut, and inside the Chest was a whole bunch of demons and monsters and things. When Vaati broke the Sword, he let all that stuff out."
"Okay yeah, that's bad," Ocarina decided.
"Then in the confusion," Speck went on, "he turned Princess Zelda to stone, and used that as leverage combined with all the monsters he'd just let loose to try and force the King to tell him the location of the Light Force."
"Light Force?" Lore repeated. "And that would be...?"
"...That triangle-shaped magic power-up stuff that monsters and grass and stuff drops when you kill it?" Speck replied, tilting his voice up in confusion. "It's kind of everywhere?"
"It's triangle-shaped?" Dusk clarified. "Does it look like this?"
He held up his hand, Triforce glowing faintly on the back as it tended to do nowadays. After a moment, Realm put his own hand up too. Since he'd really only gotten his about a week or so ago, he tended to forget it was there.
Speck examined the marks, frowning. "Um... not really. Force is just triangles. It doesn't do that... stacking thing."
Dusk frowned. "...Weird. Why – wait, no continue your story, I'll ask questions later. Location of the Light Force, you said?"
"Yeah, Vaati wanted the Light Force," Speck agreed. "Except that literally nobody knew where it actually was, because it was a legend and the legend didn't say where the Light Force ended up. So Vaati gave us an ultimatum instead, which is how I ended up getting send off with the broken Blade to get it fixed by the Picori. Since only children could see them, and for some reason I was the only child available at the time..."
"Makes perfect sense," Lore said, nodding in agreement.
"Basically, the King wasn't about to hand over something like the Light Force to the villain who'd just petrified his daughter," Speck summarized. "The Picori Blade is a sealing weapon, so if we fixed it we would be able to fight and seal away Vaati with it, hence me getting sent off with it. I ended up in the woods looking for the Picori population, and that's where I met Ezlo."
"And a good thing he did," Ezlo sniffed proudly from his perch on Speck's head. "Link would have been lost for a week if it hadn't been for me."
"Only a week? That must be nice," Realm commented. Speck gave him an odd look before frowning up at Ezlo.
"Er... Ezlo, I saved you."
"Nonsense."
"You were surrounded by monsters. They were going to rip your seams apart."
"I was lulling them into a false sense of security," Ezlo informed Speck haughtily.
"...If you say so."
"I do say so," Ezlo sniffed. "And anyways, it isn't important. Get on with your story, boy!"
"Right, okay," Speck sighed. "So, I met Ezlo, and he helped me find the Picori by using his magic to let me shrink. There's these Portals, sort of, that have a natural magic that Ezlo can allow me to harness to change my size." Randomly, he pulled out a jar and held it out to everyone. "This is my Jar Portal, which I kinda just carry around for whenever I need to change size without a convenient natural Portal around. See the star-shaped crack?"
Everyone leaned in and examined the Jar, murmuring appropriately.
"So once I was Minish-sized, I was able to actually find the Picori Village, but then I ran into that language barrier, so I had to run around looking for the Jabber Nut because it had been so long since they'd had any visitors that almost nobody remembered where they'd put it, and I kinda couldn't understand them anyways. It took me forever to find it."
"I demand lessons," Lore reminded him.
"I know," Speck sighed. "You keep bringing it up every five minutes."
"Would you look at this," Farore said proudly, surveying her handiwork. "Almost all of Courage in one place and without practically any undesirable results. I am good."
"We're still herding them towards the source of the voids, right?" Din checked.
"We are," Nayru confirmed. "But... we may have a problem, there."
Her two sisters clustered in to see what Nayru was looking at. Farore let out a harsh breath, while Din clenched her hands into fists with enough force to turn them white.
"Demise," she hissed.
"Should have seen that coming," Farore muttered. "This is all he ever wanted, of course he'd be there to keep anything from stopping him."
"I... think it will be okay," Nayru hedged hesitantly. "Demise is only one deity, after all, and Courage is seventeen strong by this point. The numbers are in our favor."
"He's the Demon King," Din emphasized, gesturing vehemently to get her point across. "His sphere of influence is destruction. His hair is made of fire."
"All of which are valid points," Farore muttered.
"So..." Nayru bit at her lower lip for a moment. "Make a Plan B?"
"Just to be safe, let's make Plans through the rest of the alphabet as well," Farore decided. "Given that the consequences of failing is reality ceasing to exist, I feel as though 'overkill' may the the only appropriate reaction."
The interactions between Speck and Ezlo amuse me. He practically went on his adventure with his cranky grandfather, which, when compared to guides like Midna, Navi, Tatl, Ciela, Fi, etc., is disproportionately hilarious in my head.
In other news, Lore found a new language to learn, the guys have a new sibling, and Demise is Up To Something. I do believe I see the plot on the horizon.
Changeling
Labrynnian Translations:
-tōcxūnlleełe(an exclamation, most closely translating to excellent)
-Cāna-uyo ton utjēs od tōtah, ti si tōcpomlee cāsleegiar to nīleedar-yūvoneełer owūh teh darh yūwa!(You can't just do that, it's complete sacrilege to everyone who learned the hard way!)
Thanks to DrBananaFace for favoriting/following!
LuckyLugia: Actually, yes. You are strangely good at guessing my thought process... Essentially it just made it easier to keep track of who was who and who was coming next.
Zelda Fan: Wind's personality is a little more laid back than that, at least by my reasoning. And yeah... yeah they might be. It's certainly not out of Mask's character, at least. If you remember back in Chapter 7, Midna noted that she couldn't pass through the hole the way Dusk could. This applies to all the companions, since they don't have a Triforce or godly protection or anything. Mask left Tatl behind when he came through a hole. He hasn't really mentioned this because he got a bit distracted meeting his younger-but-older self. Same with Ciela, but with different circumstances. Navi... is actually a plot point. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I will simply tell you to keep reading! Also, just because characters aren't around now doesn't mean they won't pop up eventually. As for MC's Four Sword... I wasn't really planning to use it, since I was having enough problems with two sets of Four Sword Heroes but... this could be the basis of an excellent joke. I will think on this. (Long response is long. Sorry.)
Find me on Tumblr at changeling-rin!
Find the fan-run ask blog on Tumblr at ask-the-dimensional-links!