Disclaimer: Surprise! I still don't own anything here except the plot line!! YAY! Now go read! QUICKLY!

A/N: Just a quick little note to say I'm sorry for taking so long to update. I could take this time to now spout endless excuses, but most of them would be made up. So I'll just say, sorry! School's almost over for me and then I'll be able to write more frequently. Thanks for your reviews: they are the sole reason this story continues!! You guys are my heroes!

A quick thanks to: MissXeli, luccamajere26, lucca_259 (oh, the obnoxious narrator! we need to work on that!!!!! lol), LaurylPixLira (haha, my group-author name--check it out sometime!), Imania (here's more, so that means I won't perish! haha, I survived! YAY!), Rowan Seven and anyone else who read but was too lazy to review. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Now back to the story!!

Chapter Seven: Root Cellars, Back-Stabbing and Endless Link Stories

When Glenn awakened he was in a dark, musty room. The room was cold, hard, uneven cement and when he reached an arm out he discovered a small bowl of water had been left in front of him. There was also a pile of scratchy hay. Glenn made a face when he came into contact with it. It was probably dirty and musty and full of fleas. He pushed the offending straw away and tasted the water apprehensively. It tasted clean enough, so he swallowed it quickly in an attempt to wash away his raging headache.

When he stood up cautiously, Glenn was amazed to realize that he wasn't chained up. As far as he could tell, there were no bars, but he had to be in a dungeon cell...right? That was where evil villains always locked people up! Glenn took a few more steps and tripped over a stack of glass jars. He grabbed frantically at the air and something wooden tumbled down on top of him. It wasn't a board, but...a rocking chair? No, it couldn't be a chair. No one kept rocking chairs in their dungeons. He threw it off of him and heard something else crash on the other side of the cell. A pile of musty books slid across the floor and knocked into Glenn's feet. Glenn clamored to his feet unsteadily and wandered right into some kind of shelf. He caught the cardboard box that slid off--it was full of light-weight sphere shaped objects. By accident he dropped one and it shattered.

What was this place? Glenn tripped over something and lay sprawled across the cold stone. Letting loose a few loud expletives, he rolled over into the hay and closed his eyes. The hay might have fleas, but it was a hell of a lot safer than the rest of this dungeon.

Above him, Magus and Ganondorf were having a heated conversation. "You put him where?!" Magus demanded.

Ganondorf tapped the wooden planks on the lawn fondly. "Right in here. I already told you that."

"This is ridiculous! You put our hostage--our captive knight--in a root cellar!! A ROOT CELLAR!!"

"I don't understand what the problem is," Ganondorf said sulkily. "He can't escape down there."

They paused in time to hear a few more loud crashes and the sound of Glenn cursing furiously.

"As much as I dearly love to hear his screams of pain, it's embarrassing that you've locked our hostage up in--not a dungeon, oh no, that would be too evil--but a root cellar! A root cellar for Christ's sake..."

Ganondorf smacked the wooden planks, "KEEP QUIET DOWN THERE!!" Smirking, he turned to Magus, "you were saying...?"

Magus threw his hands up in disgust, "I was saying: can't you even do one SIMPLE task right?!?!"

"He's locked up, isn't he? What more do you want from me?! You...you're always picking on me! Ever since...since that dark day we met! I just don't know if I can handle this...relationship anymore. It's just too stressful!" Ganondorf pretended to suddenly be very interested in the top of the cellar.

Magus groaned and rolled his eyes. "You've got big tears in your eyes and yet you call yourself EVIL?!?"

Ganondorf opened his mouth to speak, made a watery gurgle type noise and then promptly shut it again. Obviously he didn't trust himself to speak.

"Oh, this is pathetic! Listen, why don't you just get back to me once you've gotten control of yourself? Oh, help me, Lord of Evil!! Teach this stupid villain to be evil! His inability to perform any truly evil acts is painful! HELP ME!" Magus fell to his knees for a moment.

Ganondorf sniffed loudly and turned to look at him. "I...I didn't know you were r-re-religious," he managed, trying very hard not to cry.

"Oh, I am. I'm a very pious evil mage," Magus explained almost kindly. "Can you just hang on a minute? I want to finish this...er, prayer." He then began to mutter under his breath frantically. Ganondorf nodded understandingly and surreptitiously wiped his eyes. Suddenly, a strong wind began to blow and Magus's hair seemed to stand straight on end.

Petrified with fright, Ganondorf began trembling furiously. He couldn't seem to move his feet to run away. A mass of bruised-looking clouds formed above his head. They then began to spout purplish lightening and Magus yelled the last word of his "prayer". Of course, it wasn't really a prayer at all, but rather, a huge evil spell that lifted Ganondorf into the air, carried him along a ways, slammed him into the castle wall and then dropped him.

Magus smoothed down his hair and stood up. There was a splashing sound as the unconscious Ganondorf tumbled into the moat. "Oh, what a shame," Magus remarked calmly and quickly placed a few spells around the root cellar door to keep Glenn from escaping. "Now to find a proper dungeon," he mused and made his way across the drawbridge, pausing briefly to glance at the rapidly sinking Ganondorf. "Shame this moat doesn't come with alligators. Stupid Ganny--he couldn't do anything right." He sighed. "I almost feel sorry for him...It's terribly tragic that he had to die today. I mean, think about all the times before when he could have died and he didn't! If there's one thing I hate, it's the meaningless resurrection of so-called evil villains." Then, to himself, Magus muttered, "I'm sure he'd thank me if he could." And laughing crazily, he dashed into the castle, his mind already back on finding a dungeon.

***

It was about this same time that Zelda decided to check on Link. He'd been up there since early in the morning and now the sun was beginning to set. She found Link apparently deep in conversation with the thick wooden door.

"--when I rescued her she was eternally grateful and pledged to love me forever, of course. But who wouldn't? I mean, with these good looks, what girl wouldn't swoon to see me climbing up to the tower and saving her life? Ha! Ha! Oh, I am so incredible! Where was I? Oh yes, so she pledged to love me forever and the evil villain was at last defeated. I told her I would have to think about her love proposal, because, you know, there were a lot of other beautiful princesses and they all proposed to me, so why should I vow myself to her on the spur of the moment like that? But I'm taken now, so don't go getting any crazy ideas about throwing yourself at my feet, dear. Ha! Ha! Well, it was then that we started heading back towards the castle. I was leading, of course, when suddenly this gigantic monster popped up in front of us! Not that I was scared, but Zelda screamed loud enough to wake the dead--"

"Ahem!" Zelda cried, loudly clearing her throat. Link blushed, his voice trailing off. "How long have you had that poor girl barricaded in there?"

"Oh...um...well, that is...er...not long, Zelda...dear..."

"I want the truth, Link, dear."

"Erm...12 and a half hours. But we're having an absolutely splendid time! Aren't we, Lucca?"

"Lucca? Are you all right in there?" Zelda called, pushing Link aside. "Twelve and a half hours, indeed! Do you need anything? Hello?"

"Oh, the door's locked...she didn't want me coming in before she'd finished spring cleaning."

"Indeed. Well, I am so sorry if my cleaning wasn't sufficient for her! Honestly Link--guests don't normally do spring cleaning in other people's castles!" Zelda said rather icily.

"Oh, but...well..."

"She's probably fallen asleep," Zelda sighed, pounding half-heartedly on the door.

"She's probably paying rapt attention and doesn't appreciate you interrupting the flow of the story! Now I'll never get back on track!"

"Oh, and that would be a shame, now wouldn't it?!"

Link kicked nervously at the ground. "Sorry, Zelda. I just...got so excited that someone wanted to hear one of my stories. I mean, of course everyone likes hearing my stories, but, you know...you've already heard them all, and..."

Zelda shook her head, starting to smile now. "Well, I thought I knew them all, but I don't exactly remember this one, although you claim I was there. But if this is the story I'm thinking of, I think it was quite the other way around! I believe you were the one who promised to love me forever. And weren't you the one who screamed?" She laughed and started walking away.

Link turned rather embarrassedly back towards the door. "Great lady, Zelda is. You can see how we tease each other." He lowered his voice, confidentially, "she likes to feel sometimes like I was the scared one. Boosts her self-esteem, you know. Now then, where was I...?"

Walking downstairs, Zelda couldn't stop laughing. She had a feeling Lucca was either asleep or had escaped, but at least Link was happy. Also, she couldn't stop imagining herself going down on bended knee before Link or screaming so loudly. But the memory of him doing both this things was quite clear in her mind. She went into the kitchen for a quiet drink--although she did love Link, it was a welcome relief to not have to worry about him for just one day.

***

The sun set, shining its brilliant golden rays in through the stained glass windows of the Hyrule palace. The light poured into all the windows of Ganondorf's castle, filling all the normally dim rooms with a clean brightness. Well, all except one room and with this, Magus was quite pleased. The dungeon was suitably dank, dark and well, evil. It was also still dark in the root cellar, but Glenn had finally fell into a fitful slumber.

Meanwhile, the rays touched all the way into the back of a cave deep in the forest. Marle's hair turned a bright shade of newly spun gold, while Crono's took on the appearance of fire. Despite the beauty, the three friends were deeply troubled. While they had been finally reunited with Marle, now Glenn was missing. Navi was untroubled by this as long as she was allowed to rest in Crono's hair. Marle had given up sulking about this and was worried as the others. They moved through the woods, their cries echoing around them in the fading light. But Glenn did not appear.

"Maybe he went back to the castle," Lucca suggested, when she paused to catch her breath.

"But...that's where Peter Pan is!" Crono cried, looking almost frightened. "Lucca just narrowly escaped from his clutches--Glenn wouldn't go back there!"

"Oh, shut up about Peter Pan already," Marle snapped. "He's not real!"

"I saw him! Lucca and I did, didn't we?"

"Oh, Crono," Lucca sighed heavily. "His name is Link."

"You believed his lies?! Link! Yeah right!"

"Well, since Link captured Lucca, maybe he captured Glenn, too," Marle suggested, ignoring Crono's remarks.

While Crono nodded excitedly, Lucca shook her head dismissively. "He didn't capture me. That was all Crono's idea. He invited me in. I went willingly. Jeez! But someone else might've captured Glenn..."

"Who? Who else is there around here?" Marle asked, looking hard at Crono.

Crono shrugged and opened his mouth to speak, but Marle cut him off. "No, not you, stupid. I'm talking to Navi," she said snobbishly. Crono shrugged again; he was hating this new ex-girlfriend/boyfriend thing more all the time. Just because she had broken up with him didn't mean Marle could act like such a b--

"Well, there's this evil villain type around here. His name is Ganondorf," Navi said, interrupting Crono's thoughts just in time to keep this story PG.

"Ganondorf," Lucca echoed, walking again. "Let's go, guys. Navi--come out of Crono's hair. You have to lead us to him!"

Grumbling, Navi did as she was told and the group took off sprinting through the darkening forest, following the little yellow light that flew ahead of them, taking sharp turns and complaining the whole way. Crono was strongly tempted to sing that song about following the second star to the right just from the sight, but he restrained himself since otherwise Marle would probably never speak to him again.

***

And so it was that another day in Hyrule had come to pass. In the upstairs tower of the castle, Link sat with his back to the door, his voice still droning on, while Zelda finished her drink and went to bed. In the forest, Navi led the three heroes towards Ganondorf's castle, where Glenn slept on in the root cellar and Magus feasted on a thoroughly evil meal as he planned his next move. Things were finally going his way...or so he thought. Beneath the dark waters of the moat, something moved.

A/N: Thanks again guys. Don't forget to leave a review! If you have any questions or suggestions, you can put them in them in a review or drop me a line at CronoCat04@yahoo.com I love to get mail!! heehee, thankx guys, until next time! ~CronoCat =^_^=