Chapter 18: Lord Jabu-Jabu

He walked out of the tunnel to Zora's Fountain, a small lake atop a waterfall. To the right was a platform where a giant fish that looked like some kind of whale was wading, facing the platform; Lord Jabu-Jabu.

"So that's Lord Jabu-Jabu, huh?" he said to himself and smirked, "Heh, just looks like a big and harmless fish."

Even though he had seen it so many times when he played the game, he had ever thought he would ever actually see it up close. Now that he was near it, he didn't really see anything grand about it. He walked up to it and glared into one of the two large sapphire spheres for eyes.

"Alright, Jabu-Jabu open up!"

It stared at him blankly

"Don't try and act stupid in front of me! I know you understand me… now open up!"

Its disregard towards him irritated him

"Listen fish, I know your worshipped here as some kind of god to these Zoras, but I see past your false god status! Now… open, I do not want to force my way in; but if you do so much as even continue this stupid charade then so be it!"

Jabu-Jabu seemed to understand what he said but still didn't respond. Maiku felt a sharp tingling in the back of his head that worked its way to the fore head; he realized that Jabu Jabu was communicating with him via telepathy. "Yes, Lord Jabu-Jabu… I understand… Ruto was swallowed up by you? Why? Oh, I see… it was an accident. Do not worry, I'll save her and cure you of the disease that the man from the desert named Ganondorf had put upon you, okay? I am glad that you understand, and I'll do my best."

Jabu-Jabu opened its mouth wide; he glanced into those massive and cavernous jaws, gulped, and entered.

*                      *                      *

As soon as he entered, Jabu-Jabu closed its mouth, temporarily leaving him in complete darkness. His eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, enabling him to see some aspects of the mouth. Damn, he thought to himself, now I do wish that Navi wasn't eaten... damn unreliable fairy. Wait a minute... my sword is illuminated because of internal energy within it.

He drew his sword; the light from the light illuminated the surroundings. He saw two Octroroks and those weird bubble things, along with the thing jutting out from the roof of the mouth.

I have no time for these damn underlings, I have to find Princess Ruto and get her out of here!

He ran past the Octoroks and dodged the bubbles, stopping at what seemed to be a door with a thick yellowish membrane covering it.

I don't want to mess around with that think on the ceiling, so I'll try and slash it down…

He slashed that the membrane, cutting it a little bit. He slashed a few more times and finally cut it down. He entered the next section. He looked around as soon as he entered and saw Princess Ruto.

He realized that she was older now than she was in the game, she was her adult self; he also noticed that she was a lot more attractive than the other way had perceived her as. She had a perfect body, nothing but perfection. Her amethyst eyes were so beautiful and enticing, he felt calm by just gazing into her eyes; he smiled.

"Princess Ruto!" he said and approached her

"What?" she said, her voice was very nice and innocent, "What are you doing here? Who are you?"

"My name is Maiku; I am new to this country. I have talked to your father, the King… he is very worried about you; he asked me to bring you back so c'mon."

She put a hand to her chest "But… how did you know where I was?"

"I found a note written by you in Lake Hylia."

"Do not lie!"

"I'm serious."

"I didn't write anything… well… it doesn't really matter now, anyway."

"But- your father is worried to death about you!"

"I don't care; I lost my most precious possession! I must find it!"

"Which is….?"

"Why should you care?"

"I can help you find it. I am a fighting Zora and can protect you as you search."

"You are a foreign born Zora… I do not know if I can trust you…"

"You can trust me, Ruto. I'll protect you no matter what!"

"Hmmm… All right, but you have to carry me. Is that all right with you?"

"Yeah sure."

"Okay…. Bodyguard, do your job."

"Yes princess." He rested Ruto's back on one arm and rested her legs on the other; she was pretty heavy, but he was surprised to find that he was able to lift her without even straining a muscle very much. "Don't worry Ruto. We'll get out of her in a minute." He said reassuringly, "I'll find your most precious possession alone, avoiding risking your life, only mine."

"You don't have to do that… uh… what did you say your name was again?"

"Maiku…"

"Okay Maiku, you don't have to do this for me."

He shook his head, "Don't worry about it, anything for you…. Ruto"

"Thanks…"

He walked towards the entrance, but the yellowish membrane came back, even thicker this time. "What?"

The soft muscle tissue on which he standing on started to absorb him and Ruto into the lower area of Jabu-Jabu's stomach. He fell, noticed that Ruto was not in his arms, and landed on his stomach; Ruto fell through and landed on his back. "Agh… my back…. Ruto…. Please….. Get… Off…!"

"Maiku? Oh!" she got off, "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" She held out a hand to help him up.

He smiled at her concern, "Ugh…. Yeah… just great…" he grasped her hand and stood up with her help, "Where are we?"

"We are in the lower stomach of Jabu-Jabu." She looked at him, "Well? Aren't you going to continue escorting me out?"

"Oh… uh… yeah." Once again he held her in his arms, not once in his life as his human self had he ever felt so important; he loved the feeling of Ruto's soft body in his arms; not once had he experienced feel the closeness he was feeling, being this close to anyone made up for the loneliness throughout his life. He sensed that Ruto was getting impatient and realized that he had been standing there for five minutes just thinking about things. He continued on through the lower stomach of Jabu-Jabu, protecting Ruto in the process.

After a while, he and Ruto entered an area with a high platform in the center. Ruto spotted what she was looking for. "Maiku, over there!" she said, he kneeled and she stood up. He gave her a boost onto the platform; she approached it and picked it up, the Spiritual Stone of Water.

"Okay, Maiku, take me home."

"At once Princess Ruto."

Ruto started to walk towards the edge but it started to rise. Maiku grabbed onto a spike on the bottom and grasped tightly.

"Ruto!" he yelled

"Maiku! Help me!!" she screamed, the platform stopped, "Agh! What is that, an octopus?"

"Ruto?! Are you okay? What's happening up there?!"

"Let go of me! Maiku! Please help me!!!"

"Ruto!" The platform started to shake, "Huh?"

The shaking became more violent, causing him to lose his grip; he fell and plummeted to the ground, landing of his back. The platform lowered faster and he rolled to his side out of the way of the falling platform. He stood up, drew his sword, and saw a large octorok on the platform; it slid off of the platform and into the ankle deep water and charged at him and he ran away from it, noticing that the platform was spinning; the octorok caught up to him.

He jumped onto the wall and performed a triangle jump, landed on the platform and moved his feet so that he would stay in once place. He timed the octoroks' rotation carefully and leapt onto the top of it; he stabbed it repeatedly about twenty times and killed it. The platform finally stopped as the octorok died, he stepped onto the platform and was raised to the upper level.

"Ruto?" he called out, but did not see her, "Damn it, I have to look for her now…"

After what seemed like an hour he reached a pitch black chamber. He was nearly blinded as a bright flash of light filled the area. In the center of the room, a huge parasite thing was pulsating with eight amebas attached to it. He was not at all terrified like he had been with King Dondongo but he was partially afraid of the electricity that the amebas produced.

He waited for its basic attack, the spinning ameba attack; he timed the spin carefully, rolled on his side under the amebas, stood up and charged the thing sword first. He thrust the sword into it and withdrew energy from his body into the sword, discharging it through the thing that was Barinade. He withdrew the sword, and watched as the amebas withered away and as it blew up.

A pillar of light formed in the center of the chamber, he smiled when he saw her and she smiled back at him. He ran into the light and was transported out.