The next morning, Impa followed Zelda to the gym to watch her train. Summer
was skipping along behind them.
"Just out of curiousity, why is it people love watching us train?" she
asked.
"I dunno," Summer answered. "It's cool. We can see you do your moves closer
up!" Impa nodded her head.
By the time they reached the door, they could hear Link and Marth's heavy
grunts. The two of them were having a small sword fight, and Peach was
floating above them. Zelda had always coveted that move of Peach's, and
thought it must be magnificent to be able to fly like that.
Spotting Zelda from the corner of her eye, Peach lowered to the ground and
walked over to her. "Hi, Zellie," she said. "Ready for the tournament
tomorrow?"
"You bet I am, girlfriend!" she responded. They began to walk over to a
wall with ropes hanging from the ceiling by it. "Are we doing team battles
first, or free for all?"
"Team. I guess we're alternating, because I remember last year the first
matches were free-for-all." They both chose a rope and began climbing. "You
know, I don't know why I practice climbing ropes," Peach said. "I mean its
pretty pointless. Most of the time, I can just float."
Zelda laughed. "That's a cheap trick," she said.
"Only as cheap as your Sheik move!" Peach retaliated. Zelda supposed that
was right.
"I guess I ought to work on that." Sliding down the rope, Zelda began her
graceful transformation into Sheik. She looked over at Marth and Link, who
were still fighting. Aiming as well as she could, she released a number of
small darts. They each landed in the back of Link's belt.
"Woah-ho!" he said. "What was that?" he turned, and saw a shadow flying
above him. He looked up, and saw Sheik flipping in the air, and landing
between the two swordsmen. There was applause from Impa and Summer.
"Gotcha, Link!" Sheik laughed, and morphed back into Zelda.
"That still creeps me out," said Fox said, entering the gym with Falco at
his side. "I mean that whole sex change thing. It's just so unnatural!"
"So what?" Zelda questioned. "It means I've got practically double as many
moves as you."
Fox and Falco whipped out their guns and shot a line directly over Zelda's
head. "That was a warning, Princess!" they laughed.
Peach came marching over to them. "FOX! FALCO! THERE WILL BE NO SHOOTING
THOSE WEAPONS UNTIL YOU ARE ON THE BATTLE GROUNDS!!" she shouted angrily.
Fox rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay."
"PIKACHU!"
"PICHU!"
"PIKACHU!"
"PICHU!"
Zelda laughed. "I wonder what those two are up to?" she asked, heading
outside. She saw, to her horror, Pikachu and Pichu were terrorizing a
family of squirrels into a tree.
Link watched from inside the gym as Zelda tried to calmly explain to the
two pokemon that they were frightening some very close relations. He had to
grin when Pichu got annoyed, and shot a bolt of lightning between her legs
(again). She was enraged at this, and probably would have started attacking
him if Peach hadn't run outside to stop the madness.
"So.why don't you-a do it, all-a ready?"
Link turned, and saw Mario behind him. "Oh, hi Mario. What are you, uh,
talking about?" The plumber laughed.
"You are-a such a bad-a actor, Link!" he exclaimed. "You know-a what I mean-
a! Just ask-a her-a out on a date, all-a ready!"
Link looked horrified. "Who, Zelda?!"
Mario rolled his eyes. "Noo, Samus! Of-a course, Zelda! She-a wants you to!
I did-a a little bit of-a eavesdropping yesterday. She was-a telling Samus
and-a Nana that she wished-a you would-a ask her!"
Link still looked horrified. "No, I-I couldn't. What if she.turned me down?
I don't think I could take that kind of rejection!"
"Oh, come-a on, Link!" Mario shouted. "Pull-a yourself-a together! You have-
a saved her-a life a million times! How-a could she-a refuse?!"
The hero of time rolled his eyes. "Oh, and I suppose you've asked Peach for
a date before?" he asked sarcastically.
"Sure-a I have, stupido!" he answered, much to Link's surprise. "She only-a
turned me down-a once, out of the six-a times I ask. She-a had another
event that -a she had to attend-a. Trust-a me, Zelda will not-a refuse!"
And with that, the pudgy plumber hobbled off, leaving Link to ponder his
words.
He was suddenly brought back to earth when Zelda accidentally smashed the
gym door in his face.
"Oof!"
Zelda turned, red-faced. "Oh, I'm sorry Link, I didn't see you!" She
pulled him out from the closed door. He noticed she had dirt marks all over
her face.
"Zel, what happened?" he asked.
"Oh, Pichu and Pikachu gave me a bit of trouble," she grunted. "It's all
right, though. Those little rats are so annoying! Well, I gotta go. I'm
helping Peach and Nana with lunch. Bye."
She left , and he stared after her, considering what Mario had told him.
