This is where the plot holes open up faster than Will Parry opens windows into other worlds (Guess who read His Dark Materials this week? ^ - ^ V ). If you see one, let me know. I try to do my best, but it's a little difficult… The plot isn't exactly progressing, but it will, believe me…
Scroll III:
Morning
~~~
Romani fell asleep on the way back to Hyrule Field, so Link hoisted her up onto Epona. They returned to the camp just as the sun came up. Cremia was worried about delivering the milk before it spoiled, so she and Romani were off as soon as her little sister awoke.
Link waved to Romani as they pulled toward the castle. "Romani will keep Grasshopper's secret!!!" Romani called.
"What secret?" Ralph came up and propped his elbows on the Skull Kid's hat. Link looked away. "Link, what…?"
Link ignored him. "Skull Kid… you won't tell anyone either?"
The Skull Kid shook his head. "Nuh-uh."
"What's going-?" Ralph began, then understanding crossed his face. "Link… do you like someone?"
"Wha-wha-what?" Link stammered, turning red. "No!"
"Reeeeeeeally…" Ralph looked at Link closely. "Then why are you blushing?"
"Yeah, y' know what?" Navi flew up and alighted on Ralph's shoulder. "When we first parted with Zelda that one time, you looked real disappointed."
"What-I-th-th-" Link was turning crimson. True, he did sort of like Zelda, but, "That's not it!"
"Really? Wow," Ralph looked at Hyrule Castle. "Then I'd at least think you'd pick someone better-looking than Cremia. Not that I have anything against her, but-"
"THAT'S NOT IT!!!!" Link yelled, and turned away. "It's not about Zelda or Cremia. It's something else."
"Oh. So no girls, huh?" Ralph looked disappointed.
"Nuh-uh."
"Oh… 'kay," Ralph shrugged. "Anyways, I'd better wake Nayru and Din up. We've gotta go back, remember?"
"Oh, yeah!" The Skull Kid pounded his hand with his fist. "We gotta go too. See ya!"
Tatl and Tael were already up, so the three set off for Kokiri Forest, the only way to get back to Termina from Hyrule.
Ralph walked over to Nayru, and shook her gently.
"Ugh…" she groaned, and her fist flailed out and connected with Ralph's cheek.
"OW!!!" he howled.
"Yaaah!!" Din sat up all of a sudden, causing Ralph to leap back.
"Quit… scaring… me!!" Ralph snapped. "We've gotta go back to Labrynna and Holodrum, guys!"
"Uhhhh… 'kay," the two Oracles nodded, and they got up.
"Hey," Ralph turned to Link as the three made their way towards Hyrule Castle, "Tell me what that secret was someday, all right?"
"Uh… yeah," Link nodded. Ralph saluted him and set off after the girls.
"Hey!" Navi said into Link's ear, making him jump all of the sudden. "You won't tell him, will you?"
Link shook his head. "No, Navi. How could I? He wouldn't understand."
~~~
"Waaaahh!" Nabooru stretched her arms. "I slept like a rock. How about you guys?"
"You slept like a rock because you sleep through everything." Darunia replied.
"What do you mean?" Nabooru turned around to face the Fire Sage.
"We all woke up in the middle of the night," Impa replied.
"Why?"
"Because of Saria. She was screaming bloody murder!" Ruto said, looking in the direction of the bedrooms. Saria was still asleep.
"Why the-" Nabooru asked. "Was she attacked?"
"No, it was a nightmare," Rauru responded.
"Then why didn't you wake me up?!" Nabooru yelled. "Is the kid okay?"
"She'll be all right," Zelda came into the room, "She's just tired."
"By the way," Ruto turned to Zelda, "What did you two talk about when you went outside? When she came in, she was crying and wouldn't say anything to us."
"We… we didn't talk about anything."
The Sages turned as Saria came into the room. "Zelda… Zelda just asked me what was wrong. I told her about my dream…"
"It's okay," Darunia nodded. "You don't have to tell us anything else."
"But why don't I believe you?" Nabooru scratched the bridge of her nose.
WHACK!!
Darunia and Impa proceeded to hit Nabooru on the head again.
"WHADJA DO THAT FOR?!?" Nabooru yelled. She and Darunia instantly got into a fight.
"Saria, will you be all right?" Rauru asked.
"Uh-huh…" Saria nodded.
Impa, Ruto, Rauru, and Saria looked at one another, looked at the other two in the fight, ("Trust a Gerudo to be so insensitive!!!" "What the hell does that mean!?" "You just don't know when to shut up, do you?!" "I didn't mean anything and you know it!! Pull that sword out of your ass, old man!!" "WHY YOU-!!!!" ) and left the room.
~~~
Back at Termina… In the Southern Swamp, to be precise…
"Aaahhh… man," the Skull Kid flopped on his back and clicked his shoes together. "I'm so bored!!"
"Well, at least you're not deciding to go steal stuff again," Tatl said, flying in his face. The Skull Kid swung a lazy hand, trying to get her to move.
"No, but thanks for the suggestion." He sat up. "Anything's better than-huh?"
He looked up and sniffed.
Tatl and Tael also looked around.
"Do you guys smell smoke or is it just me?" Tatl asked.
"Yeah, but…" Tael flew high in the sky and looked to the north. "It's coming from… Clock Town?!"
"Eh?!" Tatl and the Skull Kid looked up. The Skull Kid swung his legs once, twice, bounced up, and sped off towards Clock Town.
"Eeshus, I hate it when he does that," Tatl moaned, and she and her brother chased him as fast as their wings could fly. "It's probably nothing. If it's something small he's in sooooo much trouble."
~~~
As it turned out, the fire the Skull Kid smelled wasn't exactly small, as Tatl thought. Someone had let a pair of Fire Lizalfos run wild in the town. However, upon seeing the Skull Kid run past him, the South Clock Town guard stopped the forest kid, angry.
"What do you think you're doing?" he snapped.
"Um-I-well…" the Skull Kid looked around. "What's going on?"
"Don't play dumb," the guard replied, "You let those monsters in here as some kinda trick, didn't you?"
"No, I was in the Swamp," the Skull Kid admitted, tracing the pattern on the cobblestone with his foot.
"Before that?!"
"Visiting friends in Hyrule. Since yesterday. Sir," He added quickly.
The guard glared at him for a moment. "You're sure?"
"Positive. Ask Link."
The guard scratched his head. "'Link'? Well, don't I feel dumb. Uh… get going."
"Thank you!" The Skull Kid did as he was told and scampered off to East Clock Town.
"Uh… I meant get out of town," the guard blinked.
Tatl chased after the Skull Kid.
"Um… sorry for the inconvenience," Tael apologized.
"Tael!" Tatl called. Tael quickly flew eastward.
~~~
In East Clock Town, they were shocked-but kind of expecting-to find that the area was deserted-or until they reached the upper section, near the Bomber's entrance to the astronomy. The first thing the Skull Kid saw was the circle of fire, and it had two people trapped inside it. The next thing he noticed was-
"Well, there's one of the Lizalfos," Tatl said offhandedly.
As she claimed, one Fire Lizalfos was circling the fiery circle, occasionally breathing fire in it to keep it burning.
The Skull Kid gasped. "But look who is inside it!"
The fairies squinted and saw Din and Nayru, standing back to back, each trying to destroy the fire.
"Din!" Tael cried, "Nayru!?"
"Odd…" Tatl looked around, "I don't see Ralph anywhere. He's never away from Nayru."
The Skull Kid cracked his knuckles. "Well, if he ain't here, then I'll have to do something."
"Dummy!!" Tatl yelled. "What can you do?"
"You'd be surprised." Her friend remarked.
As the two fairies watched, the Skull Kid climbed onto the Milk Bar roof. Once he thought he saw Din look his way and nudge Nayru, but he was busy looking for… something.
"Yeay!" he cheered as he held something up.
"Dummy!!" Tatl repeated. "Link'll kill you!!"
"Where'd you get that?" Tael asked.
"Link gave it to me," the Skull Kid said, "And Tatl… shut up. Why'd he give it to me if not to defend myself?"
"Gave it to you?" Tatl raised an eyebrow.
The Skull Kid chose to ignore her, took a deep breath, and yelled:
"Hey!! Ugly!!"
Even over the roar of the fire, the Lizalfos heard him and looked up. He stopped adding fire to the ring, and eventually the flames subsided, allowing Din and Nayru to sneak away.
"Yeah!! You, the pyromaniac!!"
The Skull Kid took a giant leap off the Milk Bar roof, and hovered in the air for awhile. As he fell, he threw the item with all the little might he had.
The Ice Arrow connected with its target, hitting the Lizalfos right between the eyes.
"That was USELESS!!!" someone behind the Skull Kid yelled.
"Whaddaya mean!?" The Skull Kid turned to face Din, who stood over him, irritated.
"Ice has no effect whatsoever on fire, remember?" she reminded him.
"Tried to tell you," Tatl lied.
"Wha-bu-bu-but…" the Skull Kid stammered.
GROOOAR!!!!
The Lizalfos sprang up, having fallen down from shock, and pulled the Ice Arrow from its forehead.
"Uh…" they all blinked.
"Time to resort to Plan B, right?" Tatl smiled.
"Plan… B?" Nayru asked.
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!" Tael, Tatl, and the Skull Kid said simultaneously, and took off back to South Clock Town. The Lizalfos roared and leapt after them.
"That's… Plan… B?" Din asked.
Nayru giggled.
~~~
The lady stopped to get her bearings for a moment, and looked around.
'Hmmmmm…' she said to herself, 'If this map is right, then Clock Town should be nearby-'
GROOOOAR!!!
She heard a far-off roaring, and looked up.
"What in the name of Din was that?" she heard one of her guards say.
"We should hurry," the lady replied, "Let's get going."
"Yes, your Highness!"
~~~
Skull Kid and the fairies ran like an injured and angry Fire Lizalfos was after them-well, which it was. They were fast, but so was the fiery lizard. And the fact that it kept breathing fire at them didn't help much at all.. Before long, the trio found themselves trapped in North Clock Town, surrounded by fire.
'Crap!' Tatl thought, "This can't be good this can't be good this can't be good!!'
The Lizalfos crept in slowly and let out a menacing roar. But the roar was quickly turned into a shriek of pain and then cut off altogether as something went through the back of its head, completely impaling the monster. It glared at its former prey, lashed its claws out weakly, and fell. Behind the body, calmly pulling his sword from the back of the head was-
"Ralph!" Tael cried. "There you are!"
Tatl waved, but stopped when she saw the Skull Kid's face. Aside from Link, Zelda, the Sages, and the two oracles, Ralph was one of the only grown-ups the Skull Kid trusted. So what was with the almost dirty look?
"Umm…" Tatl just nodded. "Thanks a lot. We thought we were goners."
"'S okay," Ralph nodded. "Have you seen Nayru?"
"Last we saw, she was in East Clock Town with Din," Tael offered.
Tatl glared at the Skull Kid. "Aren't you gonna say something?" she snapped.
"Big sister!!" Tael scolded his sister for the first time he remembered.
Tatl looked at him in shock. So did the Skull Kid.
"Craaaaaaaaap!!!!!" they heard someone yell.
Din came running as fast as she could toward them. "Did you forget about the other one?!" she yelled.
"Din!!" Ralph yelled. "Where's Nayru?"
Din stopped and shrugged. "Thought she found you."
"What?! Skull Kid told me he saw her with you." Ralph gave an exasperated sigh and ran off.
"Thanks for leaving us alone!!" Din called as she backed into the corner with the Skull Kid, Tatl, and Tael, about to be fried by the Fire Lizalfos.
"Any more hidden weapons that you can use?" Din asked the Skull Kid.
The Lizalfos didn't leave time for an answer. It took a deep breath, ready to fry them all. Din screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the end…
A flash of metal appeared near the Lizalfos's neck, and continued in a horizontal direction, completely decapitating the monster. The head, its tongue lolling out of its mouth, rolled towards Din, who kicked it away in disgust.
"Who was that…?" Tael flew up to see what had happened. "Oh!"
Standing behind the slain monster was a guard in tacky orange armor. By the entrance to Termina Field were two more of the same armored guards. Standing between them was a woman wearing an extremely odd and seemingly out-of-date outfit. But then again, maybe the reason the outfit seemed out of date was because it was out of date-by about four hundred years.
"Woah," Din blinked. "Ralph's so gonna have a fit when he sees this."
Din, Tatl, Tael, and the Skull Kid gaped at the woman. And Queen Ambi tried to meet their gazes as best as she could.