LS: *skipping around the house as Saria's Song plays in the background* YYYYAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!! I got a review!!!!! And in record time!!!!! =D =D =D
Lena: 0.o?
Talli: *video taping the whole thing* heheheh!
LS: Thank you SO much for the review, Master Frodo Baggins! I love your ficcie! *starts skipping around the house some more*
Talli: Y'know, since you were all prepared for flames and everything, I really wasn't expecting you to act like this on your first review…
LS: ^_______________________^
Talli: This is something you don't see often from a Sheikah…
LS: *in a singsong voice* Still don't own Legend of Zelda! Don't sue me!
Talli: *smacks forehead* Did you and Lena switch personalities or something?
Lena: -_-
Talli: Yep…
2 A Day and a Half in the Life of Pirates
"What? You want to come with us?!" Tetra asked, clearly surprised. The pirates had sailed their ship to the dock, and now they were all at the beach. Link nodded with a determined look. "Are you serious?! We're pirates! You know…PIRATES! The terror of the seas! What do we get from bringing some whiny little kid along with us?" The boy opened his mouth to answer, but Tetra spoke first. "I'll tell you what: a HEADACHE! Besides, we have nothing to do with this." Link clenched his fists. He would save his sister no matter what, and this bossy little pirate would not stand between him and his sister's freedom.
"And how do you figure that?" the birdman from before asked. He just suddenly appeared, and had apparently been eavesdropping for a while.
"Hey, hey, HEY!" One of the pirates exclaimed. "What do ya' think your doing, butting into other people's conversations, yeah?"
"Sorry, but just let me speak. If you hadn't come to this peaceful, little island-" He looked at Link and asked his name.
"Link," he answered.
"Pleased to meet you -Link's sister would never have been kidnapped by that monstrous bird." The pirate captain looked down at the sand guiltily. She had never thought of that.
"But, why did it take Aryll? Tetra was standing right there!" Link questioned, and Tetra shot him an evil glare. "Sorry."
"As my work involves the postal service, I do a lot of traveling among the various islands, and I hear a few rumors. I have heard that young girls with long ears have been getting kidnapped. Long ears, like your Miss Fearsome Pirate," he explained. "It's possible that the bird took Link's sister, thinking she was you."
"Well, we still can't help," Tetra stated rudely. "We don't even know where that stupid bird is!"
"But, what about getting your revenge on that bird!" Link shouted angrily. "What about my sister?"
"Don't worry, Link, we'll get to her somehow. I also happen to know where that bird makes its nest. At an island far north of here, on the towers of the Forsaken Fortress." All of the pirates stepped back and their eyes grew wide in fear.
"The F-Forsaken Fortress?! But isn't that where-"
"I take it you've heard of the place." The birdman turned around and his wings appeared. "I wish you luck in finding your sister, Link." With that, he flew off leaving the pirates speechless.
"Fine, kid. We'll take you along, but only if you can find something to defend yourself with," Tetra demanded. "Don't you have a shield or anything like that? You can't go to a place like the Forsaken Fortress and not be able to defend yourself!" A grin spread across Link's face and he raced back to his house, leaving the pirates stunned once again.
When he entered his house, he found his grandmother standing next to the ladder leading to the second story, with a look of worry on her face.
"Link, what happened? Where's Aryll?" she asked. "I heard a loud scream, and the bird…" Link, walked up to the ladder, and solemnly climbed up to the second floor, but quickly climbed back down as if there was ten monsters up there. The shield hanging on the wall was missing!
When Link set his feet back on the ground, he walked over to his grandma. If the shield had gone missing, he would never be able to get to the Forsaken Fortress, and his sister…"No! I can't think like that!" he thought.
It was then he noticed. His grandma was holding something in her arms.
"Link, were you looking for this?" she turned around and showed the shield she was holding. "Take it with you." Link bit his bottom lip and slung the shield, the same shield he once thought he was lucky to never have to use, over his back.
"I know about what happened to Aryll. What kind of monster could take such a sweet, innocent child?" Link felt a tear trail down his cheek.
"I'm going to rescue her, Grandma. I will do whatever it takes."
Senza raised his arms up high over the head and brought them down again to ring the gong aboard the ship. The gong, from one of the previous 'trips' as Tetra put it, signaled the start of their travels. They were finally off to the Forsaken Fortress.
All of Link's friends stood on the beach, waving good-bye at their friend and shouting out calls of good luck. Link, on the ship, waved sadly, yet happily at the same time, at all of them, until he saw someone. He ran to the very edge of the stern and looked towards his house. The little, old woman was standing outside his house, looking towards the ocean and the ship. Link waved slowly just as Outset Island became dark on the horizon. He was off to save his sister.
"How much longer is this going to last? Do you have an estimate?" Tetra said smartly. Link narrowed his eyes at the captain of the ship. He wasn't going to let her insult him the entire way to the Forsaken Fortress. But then again, she was his only ticket there. "Look, kid. You could always turn back now. We can still turn around. And besides, I can tell you're just gonna get more sentimental from here on out." The gong rang one more time, and the boy gave his home one last look.
"I'm not giving up that easily, Tetra. I won't rest until Aryll is safe."
"Good, because with the work you get to do until we get there, you won't be able to rest," she replied. "If you want a ride to that cursed island, you going to work for it. Niko will tell you what to do." A tiny man in a red striped shirt walked up to Tetra and Link.
"And, who's the kid?" Link asked, only to receive a very hard punch from the microscopic pirate.
"I am NOT a kid! I'm probably at least ten years older than you! And, I'm your superior for the rest of the trip." Link gaped at Tetra with the famed 'you've-got-to-be-kidding' look.
"Short stuff here is Niko?" Our hero (*bursts out laughing* And I thought I didn't have a sense of humor!) got another punch in the arm.
"Yep, and unless you do what I tell ya', we can always maroon you on one of these islands. There's plenty out here to choose from. Now, follow me for your first job." Link hesitantly followed behind the midget, and heard Tetra shout to her crew.
"Senza! Get the catapult ready! We might need it to get into the Fortress." Senza's eyes grew wide. He knew that this girl meant business this time. "Niko! Link! Since you two swabbies are still up here, you can carry the gong under." The pirate taking the gong down, Senza, snickered. That thing was almost heavy as an ox, and not a small one. "Gonzo! Turn this ship towards Diamond Steppe Island! We're going to take the Fortress from the south!"
Link mused her last order. If they were going to go to go to Diamond Steppe Island, they would be going west, against they wind. That means it would take forever just to get to that little bit of land!
"Why are we going there first? Wouldn't it be faster to go straight to the Forsaken Fortress?" he questioned. Senza and Niko stopped what they were doing, and cringed at Link's words. Questioning the orders of the ship's captain wasn't the most brilliant thing in the world to do.
"Because, if we head straight for the Fortress, we'll be against the wind the entire way, but if we go west and then north, the wind will be at least half with us," she explained. The two pirates let out a sigh of relief. It definitely could have been worse. "If you ever somehow gain the ability to change the direction of the wind, then feel free to question whatever I say." Link snorted. Like that would ever happen. "Now, I believe that Niko needs some help. That gong looks a little heavy." Niko was indeed having troubles. Only his feet and hands could be seen from behind the gong, and it looked like he was dancing with it across the deck. Link rushed over and caught him and the giant instrument before they both went tumbling off the edge of the ship.
Now Link sat on the deck with his back to the mast, thoroughly exhausted. He never knew it could be so hard to do just 'little' jobs for pirates. Then again, the people of Outset mostly stayed on the island and fished for trading and for food. And fishing really wasn't that hard. Niko had Link working so hard that he thought his hands would fall off. If he saw another barnacle ever again, he thought he might die.
The boy in green glanced up at the sky, where a single black cloud was drifting across the endless mess of stars. A black cloud? That couldn't be good. Black clouds meant a storm, and that was the blackest cloud he had ever seen.
Link stopped to think for a second. He could go tell Tetra, but he couldn't get into her room. Nudge, another pirate, made sure of that. Gonzo kept on telling him to go bug Niko, and he was pretty sure the rest of the crew couldn't get into Tetra's room either. There was only one last choice.
Hurriedly, he climbed up the ladder to the crow's nest, only to find that the look out, Zuko, was fast asleep.
"Sleeping like a baby, are we?" Link said quietly. "GET UP!" Zuko was suddenly catapulted into the air by his own surprise, but still half-asleep.
"Wha' 'appened?" he asked, rubbing his half-opened eyes.
"I was just wondering, should we worry about those clouds? They are storm clouds, right?" Zuko looked through his telescope at the single cloud, and shrugged it off like it was nothing.
"One cloud? I thought it was gonna be something more along the lines of 'the sky is falling!' Wait…why did you say those clouds?" Link pointed down, and Zuko's telescope followed.
"WHAT THE-! Miss Tetra! Miss Tetra!"
"She's in her room, Zuko!" Gonzo shouted as he gave the wheel a quick turn.
"Gonzo! Go get her! We've got a storm to the southeast and it's coming this way fast!"
"What? I can't hear you!" Zuko repeated what he said. "Still can't hear! Try shouting louder!"
"STORM TO THE SOUTHEAST! GET THE CAPTAIN!" both Link and Zuko screamed. Gonzo chuckled a little and turned around, thinking it was just a little 'pirates who cried wolf' thing, but his eyes grew wide in fear as he saw the storm heading directly for the ship, with a large cyclone at the very lead
"…Ol' Cyclos is on the move…" If that storm was coming from the southeast, then that meant it had come by Outset. A storm had actually hit Outset. The impossible suddenly became very much possible.
"Gonzo! Try and steer this ship as far away from that cyclone as possible!" Tetra appeared on deck, apparently very flustered and not in a good mood. "And, after this is over, get your hearing checked! I could hear Zuko from below deck!" Link climbed down the ladder and sneakily walked over to the door to go under, where it was safe, but was stopped. "I don't think so, Link. You're staying up here with the rest of us! All hands on deck!" He groaned and stayed put, preferring to stay alive until his sister was back on Outset.
"Gonzo! What are you doing?!" Tetra yelled. "Turn away from the cyclone!"
"It won't turn! The rudder's stuck!"
"WHAT?!" Suddenly, everyone aboard the ship was thrown to the side. Two enormous monsters that could only be described by the spinning blades on their heads had rammed into the side of the ship like they were trying to push them towards the cyclone.
"Tetra! Seahats!" Zuko yelled over the sound of the rain that had begun falling.
"I KNOW! Senza! Get rid of them!"
"Aye, aye!" Senza loaded only one cannonball into the cannons, but that was all he needed. With that one shot, both Seahats fell to the ocean water and literally popped out of existence with the accompanying sound of a deflating party-balloon. "Too easy," he said proudly.
"Nuttin' to be proud of, Senza!" Niko shouted. "There's more!"
"Bring it on! How many more cannonballs do we have?"
"Thirty!" Mako yelled as he dried his glasses, only to get them wet again.
"Ignore the Seahats! We'll need those cannonballs to get into the Forsaken Fortress! Just get over here and help with the rudder! Link! Niko! Hoist the sails! You'd better help too, Gonzo!" Link moaned at the thought of more backbreaking work, and was literally dragged up the ladder by Gonzo. (Starting to sound familiar?)]
Tetra began to bark orders at all of the pirates as the winds picked up. Link, Niko, and Gonzo were tying the sails up, when suddenly a great wave slammed into the side of the ship.
"Miss Tetra! If the winds get any stronger, it'll rip the mast right outta the ship!" Niko shouted over the howling winds.
"Don't say that! You'll curse us like that!" Almost immediately, the winds did get stronger, and another wave crashed against the starboard side. In the force of the impact, Niko's hold on the mast broke, and he went falling to the sea.
"Niko!" Link yelled. He slid down the mast, grabbed a rope from the cabin wall, and ran towards the port side where Niko was. The boy tied the rope around his feet, and tied the other end to the boat's railings.
"MAN OVERBOARD!" Mako exclaimed. The captain shot a look to her right, and gasped when she saw Link falling off the ship.
"LINK!" Tetra ran over to where he just jumped off, and pulled desperately on the rope. "Would you guys forget about that rudder and help me with this!" The rest of the crew looked at her with dumbfounded expressions, shrugged, and raced over to play tug-o-war with the sea. In just a few good tugs, Link and Niko came up from under the water. Link was holding onto the rope tightly with one hand and still had the ropes tied tightly at his heels, and holding Niko like a rag doll with the other.
They both flopped on the deck, Link breathing hard and shivering like a scared, timid puppy, and Niko, hardly breathing at all. Nudge just lifted Niko to his feet, gave him a good hard slap on the back, and water and a green plant poured out of Niko's mouth.
"Seaweed. Gets 'em every time. Choke on this stuff, and it'll send ya' straight to Davy Jones' locker," he explained.
"W-what happened?" Niko asked.
"If Link wasn't such an idiot, you'd be asking that question to whatever it is at the bottom of the sea by now. Now, LOOK ALIVE, PEOPLE! We've still got a cyclone between us and the Fortress!" With that, everyone, but Link and Niko, jumped to attention and went back to loosening the rudders.
"Y-you saved me?"
"Yeah, I guess so," was all that Link could say. He couldn't figure out what in the world had possessed him to jump off a boat into a raging storm to save someone who wasn't exactly the nicest person around.
"Why?"
"I dunno. I kinda did it for no reason at all."
"Link?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm proud to…have you as my…as my underling!" Link grinned and nodded. Yep, he would never understand pirates. He looked up to see the cyclone just a little ways from the ship. It seemed to be racing the ship. Suddenly, in the very center of the vortex, Link saw a flash a red. The red figure looked strangely like a giant frog riding on a pick cloud. The boy shook his head, expecting it to just be some hallucination caused by the cold weather and the salty water, and when he opened his eyes, the entire cyclone was gone.
"What were ya' staring at, Link?" Niko inquired.
"Nothing, at least, now it's nothing."
A day later, after passing by Needle Rock, two different reefs, and a strange island with what looked like a giant sea shell sitting high on its shores that the pirates ignored completely, they towers of the Forsaken Fortress could finally be seen on the horizon.
Talli: What the?! You changed like the entire boat trip!
LS: So?
Talli: What happened to the boat ride? What about the jumpy thingy! What the ropes and all that?! And what about the Spoils Bag! And you said there would be a pirate vs. pirate thingy!
LS: Well, I absolutely hate that stupid swabbie test, so I did this instead! I like this better anyway, and, in case you haven't noticed, I've been setting the story up for that storm the entire time!
Talli: *re-reads story* Ohhhhhhhhh! So that's the storm everyone was talking about! Okay!
LS: The Spoils bag will show up next chappie, and I thought about doing this Pirates vs. Pirates thing in this chapter when they go past the two reef (Three and Four-Eye Reefs) because of all the bad pirates there, but Tetra would like that.
Tetra: Yeah! Who would waste cannonballs on such a stupid thing?
Senza: *hides cannonball and chuckles nervously*
Lena: So, as always, review if you're brave enough, and give some constructive criticism, peoples! Too short, too long, too rushed, too drawn out, too many spelling errors (curse this darn computer and its faulty spell check!), too many grammatical errors, too much dialogue, too-
LS: LENA! Please, stop. If you give them too many ideas, their constructive criticism may turn into flames, and I can only stand a certain temperature of the flames. Most flames I can stand, but…
Lena: Well, you could always put it in a bottle, like those blue flames in the Ice Cavern, and then [insert your own evil plans for the use of flames here]
Everyone else: O.O
LS: Oooooooooooookay. Next time on Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker! *giggles* I always wanted to do that!
Next Time: The Truly Forsaken Fortress
Link carefully walked up to the final door, being careful not to alarm the Bokoblin he knew was there. They he saw it lying on the ground, right in front of him! It was his sword! He let out a quiet, happy cheer, and something rose up behind him with a deathly metal sound. And how right he was. Spikes rose up from the floor just inches behind him and the monster's ears perked up.
"Oh, shoot." The beast trotted across and blocked the way between Link and his weapon. Realizing the situation was just like those when he had to turn off the searchlights, Link strapped his shield on his right arm and waited for it to attack. After the Bokoblin finally got into position, it swung its gigantic sword, but only for it to bounce right off Link's shield and go flying off the tower.
The creature cried out frantically and hopped to the edge, looking down at the ocean below, but didn't find its own sword. Link, seeing the perfect opportunity, gave him a little push in the right direction as he called it later, and watched mischievously as the monster awkwardly fell after its sword.
"Have a nice trip! See ya' next fall!" Link called out as the Bokoblin finally hit the water with a loud splash. The bar holding the door closed lifted, and the last door was unlocked. "No spoils this time, I guess, but I'm not complaining!" (Yes, he's talking about goodies from the baddies, not giving away everything about a game! Wait, goodies from the baddies? 0_o)
Link picked up his sword and opened the door…
LS: The incredible unoriginality that is Link's last bit of dialogue in this preview…(ßIs this even a word?) Oh, well! (I say that a lot…) I forgot what else I was going to say and I probably won't remember it 'til next year (2005!!!), so, uh, 'til next time! *walks away, with hands stuffed in pockets, whistling the 'Song of Storms' and hoping for another snow day.*
