Yo! I'm back again with the installment of Chapter One, people! I told you that this wasn't going to stall like Rebuilding the Alma Road.
AuthorNote!!: For all of you who will complain early on, I would like to mention that in this fic Sheik and Zelda are two different people!! The situation surrounding them will be explained later on in the story. And yes, I know Link's mind suddenly gained knowledge that he shouldn't have…Blame it on Rauru. The old fart likes to tinker too much…
VtS: She just doesn't want to deal with a child minded teenager.
CL: I'd run while I could if I were you…
VtS: (gulps) Running, Ma'am!
For people who aren't sharp enough to catch on...
'Talk.' = Kadena's thoughts
"Talk." = Link's thoughts
Disclaimer: Does a novel have a disclaimer on the title page of every chapter? Of course bloody not!! Go back to the Prologue if you're looking for a disclaimer!
-=Start Transmission=-
-Link
"Do you understand, Link?"
The blonde Hylian nodded towards the other male.
"Yes. I understand."
"Good. To save the forest girl, you need another skill… Head to Kakariko Village!" the red eyed blonde ordered.
Link turned his back on the shorter male and made his way into the first room of the temple.
Only to catch sight of one of the most scantily clad women he had ever seen…
"Great Goddesses…"
/ I /
She stretched like a cat as she opened her eyes with a yawn.
"Aw man…what a weird dream…" she mumbled to herself as she sat up completely.
"Great Goddesses…" a voice breathed from off to the side, drawing the rest of her mind to the present.
As she turned towards the voice, the girl quickly jumped to her feet.
Looking upon the speaker, her eyes opened wide in shock. There was no possible way she was seeing what she was currently viewing.
The same young man she had seen sleeping in her dream, now stood in a shocked state with an embarrassed blush across his cheeks.
She quickly glanced at her surroundings. The interior of the room she was in was not the semi-cozy living room she had fallen asleep in. Walls of cold, gray stone rose to a near towering height to where she supposed they met the ceiling in the darkness above her head.
"Aw, heck no… This is not where I think it is, is it!?" she questioned midair.
Turning her gaze back to squint at the Link look-alike, she noticed his lecherous gaze.
Her face turning an angry and embarrassed red, she balled her hands into tight fists.
"Alright! Whose sick idea of a joke is this!? And who are you?! I know good and freakin' well that you're not the Hero of Time!"
/ I /
Despite his best efforts, Link couldn't seem to pull his eyes off of the female in front of him.
She was a petite young woman that would probably have stood to his shoulders. Her waist length hair was a light brown that shone with glints of red and gold, though at the moment it appeared as if she had just woken up. By her face she appeared to be several years younger than him, but the rest of her form spoke otherwise. Her form was shapely while being neither overly large nor appearing undernourished. However, he would never have noticed had it not been for her garments, or a lack thereof. The lightly tanned tunic she wore clung to her small yet well-formed bosom and easily revealed the curves of her waist while leaving her freckled shoulders bare. Her trousers were short to the point that they hardly covered any of her pale legs at all!
"Hey! Would you stop gawking at me look enough to answer my question!?"
Snapped from his reverie by the girl's high voice, he turned his gaze to her eyes. They were a ringed mix of earth brown and rupee green, but at the moment it seemed that the green of her eyes outshone the rest with a wicked glare that would stop a wild beast in its tracks. While the look inspired a bit of fear in his mind, it was quickly suppressed.
"I know not of what you speak, m'lady, but I can assure that I am Link, the Hero of Time." He spoke as he adverted his eyes out of respect.
He heard a growl come from her throat.
"Fine! Since you wanna play stupid, I'm leaving then!" she shouted as she stormed out of the temple.
The blonde Hylian raced after her in a panic. If things had changed for the worse in the seven years he had been asleep, then he was sure that the young woman would need not travel by herself.
/ I /
"Holy crap!! A zombie!?"
The shriek was all that Link needed to find which direction the brown haired girl had gone.
Upon exiting the temple courtyard, he was met with a horrid sight.
The prosperous city that once stood was now nothing more than a decaying ghost town. There were no people to travel the streets as they went about their daily business. Buildings that once stood clean and lively, were now in disrepair and had fallen in upon themselves.
Quickly shaking himself free of his shock, the Hylian sprinted into the town square. Several figures were in various poses of stillness, each one carrying the familiar stench of rotting flesh.
"Navi, what are those things?"
The small light blue faerie emerged from under his long green cap.
"Those are Redeads, Link! Be careful or they'll paralyze and drain the life from your body!"
A small sense of dread emerged from his heart as he scanned the area for the pale girl he had seen only moments before. His sharp eagle eyes catch sight of the pale young woman near the south entrance to the city, slowly backing away from a small group of the decaying Redeads.
Letting the instincts he honed, as a child, take over, the blonde warrior drew the Master Sword and charged for the undead figures ahead.
/ I /
She couldn't believe the mess she had gotten herself into! First the Link wannabe and now she was being cornered by things that looked like corpses!
Keeping her distance from the moaning figures, she could feel a horrible sense of dread form in her chest that threatened to take her breath away.
'I don't wanna die like this!'
Suddenly, a battle cry rang through the air that was quickly followed by a flash of steel that cut one of the zombie monsters in half. The same Link look-alike from before came running through the small crowd with sword in hand.
"Let's go!" he ordered with urgency as he grabbed her hand.
Before she could protest, she was being pulled along behind him. The redeads were soon out of sight as they neared the drawbridge. Spotting the guard station door near the exit of the castle, Link threw open the door and entered, hastily slamming it shut the moment she was through the thresh hold.
The brown haired girl leaned back against the door, concentrating on getting her breath back.
"Are you alright?"
She looked up at her savior, her face flushed from the spontaneous dash.
"Y-Yeah. What were those things? Zombies?" she gasped between breaths.
A small ball of light that she hadn't noticed before landed on the warrior's shoulder.
"Those were Redeads. They're undead creatures that can paralyze a person with their moaning. After that, they suck the life force from your body and make you a Redead as well."
"Oh. Why didn't I remember that?" the female youth spoke under her breath to herself.
Link looked at the girl. "Did you say something?"
"I asked if I could have my hand back."
The blonde Hylian looked away with a blush as he released her smaller hand from his own.
"My apologies…" he mumbled softly.
"It's okay. But where are we now?"
The room was no longer one that Link was familiar with. The once ghost loving guard had been replaced by a strange figure with a Decu Stick sitting upon a bed dressed in white with a single glowing red eye glowering from the depths of a purple shawl. Torches lined the walls of the dark room while some of the clay pots from his youth still remained. Above the one eyed creature's head were two cages, each containing a Poe spirit. He also noticed that a shield and three long spears graced the left wall of the room.
As the Hylian approached the creature to address it, a scraggly voice that sounded like that of an old man emerged from the darkness of the shawl.
"Oh…you are quite an energetic young man. You're brave and handsome, too."
The warrior kept a passive face as he opened his mouth to introduce himself.
A small chuckle drifted from the cloaked figure.
"Your name is Link, isn't it?"
The girl watched Link's face take on a slightly surprised look, causing the figure to chuckle again.
"Don't be surprised. I can read people's minds."
The cloaked creature's voice then took on a wistful, yet clearly sarcastic tone.
"If I looked as good as you, I could run a different kind of business…" A chuckle soon followed once again.
'That chuckle is grating on my nerves…but just what kind of a shop is this guy running?' The girl thought to herself.
As if to answer her question, the figure spoke up one again.
"My shop is the only Ghost Shop in Hyrule. Because of the great Ganondorf, it is a fine time for a business like this…" it trailed off into another chuckle before continuing, "Oh… I can only hope the world get even worse!"
'Alright, if you can read my mind, jerk… Then tell this so-called Link what a Poe is…'
The figure leaned in towards the Hylian a bit as he started to speak again.
"The ghosts, called Poes, are spirits of concentrated hatred that appear in the fields and graveyard. They hate the world! Young man, if you and your lovely friend there catch a Poe, I will pay a lot of money for it…" another grating chuckle ended the creature's sentence.
"Right. If we catch one, we'll come and let you investigate our Poe, Ghost Collector." Link spoke as he walked back towards the door.
The young woman glanced back at the figure with the purple shawl with a partial glare before the blonde warrior opened the door for her. Quickly slipping through, she waited for him to shut the door behind himself before speaking.
"Creepy guy…"
"I find it hard to believe that pitiful creature used to be a castle guard." He spoke almost wistfully as he began walking towards the drawbridge.
She followed him only to stop at the edge of the broken drawbridge. A chilled wind that she had ignored before blew strongly, sending chill bumps up her arms and legs. Casting her gaze at the Hylian already on the other side, she placed both her hands on her hips.
"Do you really think I'm gonna cross that with this wind blowing?"
Link turned back to her, a humorous smile upon his lips. She reminded him of a certain tomboyish Zora princess in that particular pose...
"It's not deep enough that you have to swim across."
He watched a frown over take her face.
"I'm gonna freeze in this wind if I get in the water!"
Without a word, the blue-eyed warrior removed his shield and scabbard and set them aside on the ground.
She raised a brow at this.
Silently, he trudged back across to the bewildered female and in the blink of an eye, righted himself with the strange lass upon his shoulder.
"What the frig do you think yer doin'!" she screeched from her newfound position.
Ignoring the painful ringing in his ear left in the aftermath of her outburst, the Hylian began trekking back across the water. Within a few steps, he became suddenly aware of her shapely rear.
"Ye Goddesses, those strange trousers of hers leave little to the imagination…"
"Ya better not be lookin' at my butt, ya pointy eared bully!"
Realizing where his thoughts had wandered to, Link was fortunate that he did not have to face the girl at this awkward moment, lest she see the redness of his cheeks.
Halting midway across, he replied, his voice dripping with obvious sarcasm, "I'm attempting to keep you from getting wet, m'lady. Or would you rather I set you down now?"
Taking quick notice of their current position, she wisely bit back her next retort as she realized that control over the situation lay not in her hands, but rather in those of her sarcastic yet chivalrous "knight".
"No…" she mumbled quietly.
"I thought not." He spoke, a smirk coming to his lips as he continued to the other side.
After emerging from the moat and setting the young woman down, the warrior removed his green tunic and threw it to her.
"And just what do you expect me to do with this?" she asked, holding it against her much smaller frame.
The blue-eyed Hylian gave her a sideways glance as he deftly slipped his sword and shield back into place.
"Put it on."
"What for?"
"You did comment that you would get cold in this wind, did you not?"
"Oh… Yeah. That's right."
As Link turned on his heel and began to walk eastward, he urged her, "Quickly now. We need to arrive at Kakariko Village before nightfall."
"Why are we going there?" she questioned, frantically struggling with the large tunic as she raced to catch up with him.
'Sheik must have already talked to him…Since I'm not suppose to know, I guess I'll just have to play stupid for now…'
"There's something I have to find there." Link replied as he spotted the bridge across Zora River in the distance.
'Hookshot…'
"Oh? And what is that?"
"I don't know yet."
"Goddesses, this girl asks so many questions…"
He looked down at her now somewhat modest form.
"And we need to find new clothes for you."
She glared at him defensively.
"And just what's wrong with the clothes I already have?" she questioned, a threat underlining her voice.
Not heeding the threat present in her voice, he nonchalantly replied, "They make you look worse than a cheap tavern whore."
"DO WHAT?!"
The Hylian warrior paused his stride as he reached the wooden bridge and turned to her with a slightly puzzled expression.
"I did not say that you do anything."
Without warning, the girl's anger evaporated and was replaced with bubbling laughter.
Surprised by her odd behavior, he could only shake his head in bemusement and begin walking again.
"Hey! Wait for me!"
-=End Transmission=-
Alright, kiddies! How was that torture session? Good? Bad? Great? Horrible? Okay then! Be a bunch of sweeties and leave me some loveable little reviews so I'll know how I'm doing!
CL: If it's horrible, be constructive! Flames and other reviews that are considered to be in the "Stupid and/or Meaningless" category will be gathered to fuel the fire for BZ's hot tub and sauna.
VtS: Come back and join us again for the next chapter to Of Pointy Ears and Strange Girls!