Chapter Four: We're Off To See the Princess!

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Chapter Four

The inside of the Temple of Time was very…big. Its serenity and peacefulness reminded Link of the Great Deku Tree. Except for the fact that there was this weird music with creepy sounding guys singing in very low voices.

"Where is that music coming from?" Saria whispered nervously in Link's ear. He shrugged and followed Nabooru up to a large black slab of marble. An engraving on the stone read, "Ye who holds the three stones, place them here and play the song." (Or something like that…what did it say again?) The four of them just stared at it.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Saria asked. Everyone shrugged.

"Will you people quit shrugging?" Saria yelled. Her voice echoed around the temple eerily.

"We only shrugged once," Nabooru said.

"Link shrugged twice," Saria accused.

"Well Link's an idiot," the Gerudo muttered.

"Hey! Who says I'm an idiot?" Link demanded.

"Me," Nabooru said.

"APPLESAUCE!" yelled Malon in a very, very loud voice. Saria's echo was nothing compared to her. Everyone gave her a weird look.

"You guys make no sense," Nabooru told her companions, "Why am I even bothering with you?"

"Because I have this," Link took out the Ring and waved it around. The light bounced off of it into their eyes.

"Will you put that thing away?" Saria asked, squinting her eyes. Link was about to drop it back into his pocket, when Nabooru's hand reached out and snatched it away at the speed of light. The Gerudo dangled it in front of her face, seeming hypnotized.

"Hey! Give that back!" Link tried to snatch it away, but she was much taller than he was.

"Ooh, I see…" Nabooru said in a hushed and excited voice, "I see the pretty colors…the light…my PRECIOUS!"

There was an awkward silence. Nabooru grinned sheepishly and gave the Ring back to Link, who put it safely in his pocket.

"What was that all about?" Malon asked in confusion.

"Instinct," Nabooru explained. Suddenly, there was a loud scraping sound. It was coming from the wall in front of the stone with the inscription.

"AH! THE APOCALYPSE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Malon screamed in a panic, making a break for the door. She promptly tripped over Nabooru's outstretched leg and lay on the floor, motionless.

"One down, two to go," Nabooru muttered evilly to herself. Her attention turned back to the opening wall. It was open wide enough for four people to fit through.

Suddenly, the wall stopped moving. Link and Saria had intelligently decided not to make a break for it. Instead, they settled for hiding behind Nabooru.

"You guys are such cowards," she teased. Out of nowhere, an old man squeezed himself (even though it was open very wide) out of the door that had been created. He was very…horizontally overachieving, and he was wearing a long orange robe with some kind of floor rug over it. He also appeared to have no hands. All in all, he didn't look very dangerous to a young Gerudo thief.

"Who are you?" she asked quizzically.

"Who am I? WHO AM I? I think the question is who are YOU?" the old man bellowed.

"Um…right," Nabooru said slowly, "I'm Nabooru. These two…" she pulled Saria and Link out from behind her and plopped them unceremoniously on the floor, "Are Saria and Link. And that's Malon out cold on the floor. Now will you tell us who you are?"

"Maybe yes…and maybe no," the old man said evasively.

"JUST TELL US GOSH DARNIT!" Nabooru screamed, politely refraining from using harsh language in front of the children.

"I will after you get me some food," the man stated, "I'm hungry. I only ate like five whole minutes ago!"

"Like you need any more food!" Nabooru retorted. But she tossed him a piece of bread, pulled out from her invisible pockets, nonetheless. He chowed it down in three seconds flat, then burped loudly.

"Okay, now I can tell you who I am," he said, "My name is Rauru. What are you doing in my temple?"

"Your temple?" Saria cut in. Rauru gave her an icy look.

"Yes, my temple," he said.

"We're here because we felt like it," Nabooru interrupted, "But now we're going to the castle. Come on guys," she said to the two Koriki, "Someone grab Malon and let's get out of here." Link and Saria sprang into action and sprinted to the door, but they ignored Malon. Sighing, Nabooru slung the unconscious farm girl over her shoulder and said to Rauru, "Ciao."

"Wait!" Rauru yelled, "I want to come!"

"No you don't," Nabooru assured him.

"Yes I do!" the old man insisted, "I'm bored! Living in a temple is so boring! Plus all I have to eat is bread. Please let me come with you! I won't be a hassle!"

There was a silence. Saria looked at Link, who looked at Nabooru, who looked at Rauru and sighed again.

"Okay, you can come," she finally gave in, "As long as you don't eat too much."

"YAY!" Rauru cheered, jumping up and down like a kid. The floor shook. Nabooru had a "What have I gotten myself into?" look on her face. Saria promptly fell on the ground, and Link just stood there, feeling hopeless.

"Calm down," Nabooru said to Rauru as they walked out of the temple and back into the market town. If people hadn't been staring before, they sure were staring now. Two green kids with fairies, a fat old man in a fancy robe, and a dodgy-looking Gerudo with an unconscious kid slung over her shoulders were not exactly the types of things you see everyday in the market. It didn't help that Saria screamed loudly whenever she saw a dog, and Rauru completely cleaned out the "free samples" display.

"Honestly!" Nabooru said as they trudged away from the market and up to the castle, "Are me and Link the only ones who know how to behave in public civilization?"

"Uh…yeah, pretty much," Rauru answered, exchanging a "what have I done wrong?" glance with Saria, who shrugged, saw a dog, and shrieked again.

At long last, they reached the castle. Link walked up to a guard at the sealed shut gate and asked politely, "Can we get by?"

The guard shook his head, burped loudly, and pretended to cut his own head off with his hand.

"Okay…I'll take that as a no…" Link turned to Nabooru and whispered, "Now what?" She grabbed Rauru's arm and shoved him in front of the guard.

"Hey Rauru," Nabooru said, "Are you hungry?"

Rauru nodded slowly.

"Doesn't that guard look pretty tasty?" she continued. Rauru looked at the guard and nodded energetically. The terrified guard promptly pressed a button and the gate slid open. They walked through it calmly, with Nabooru dragging Rauru away from his meal. How she was doing that while carrying Malon is beyond me.

"If the other guards catch you, they'll throw you out!" the guard warned, "You'll have to sneak in to Zelda's courtyard!"

"You're a cannibal! Gross!" Saria said to Rauru, as they spotted two guards on the path ahead.

"Okay, we're going to sneak by them," Link said in a whisper, "Let's go up that slope." They obediently followed him up the slope.

"HEY!" Rauru yelled, "I'm getting grass stains on my fancy robe!"

"Shut up!" Nabooru hissed as all the guards turned to look at them.

"Hi," Link said nervously.

Minutes later, they were standing outside the gate again.

"Okay, this time, if you talk, you die," Nabooru warned as they began the process all over again.

They got all the way to the moat when Malon woke up and yelled, "THE ANSWER IS GEORGE WASHINGTON!"

"Who's George Washington, anyways?" Saria wondered aloud as they started through the gate yet again. Nabooru had duct-taped Malon and Rauru's mouths shut with some duct-tape from her invisible pockets.

At long last, they made it past the moat to a stack of crates.

"Now what?" Saria asked.

"You push the crates over there and they make a bridge, and then you crawl through that hole!" Navi said. Nabooru looked doubtfully at the hole in the wall that was their destination.

"I'm not sure Rauru can fit in that hole," she said skeptically, "Ew…wait. That sounded wrong. What I meant to say is that I don't think Rauru can come with us."

"I don't think you can either," Saria pointed out, "Your pants are huge." Nabooru glared at her.

"Are you insulting my awesome pants?" she asked.

"No!" Saria said quickly.

"Good, because watch this…" Nabooru took out her sword and stuck the tip lightly into each pant leg. Immediately, they deflated and looked like normal pants, "See? Now I can come too!"

Rauru said something that sounded like "mmthe mmthks tmmo", but that was because his mouth was still duct-taped shut. Everyone ignored him, anyways. They pushed the crates as instructed by Navi.

"Malon, stay here and guard Rauru," Link said to Malon as Saria and Nabooru climbed up on the crates, "I don't trust either of you, but you're expendable. Just don't…blow up the world or anything, okay?" Malon nodded obediently. Still a bit suspicious, Link followed the girls into the courtyard.

Imagine their surprise to discover that it, too, was filled with guards.

"I have an idea…" Nabooru said slowly, "We can send someone out to distract all the guards, so then we won't have to sneak past them again. But who could we use as bait?"

Everyone looked at Navi.

"What?" she asked, "I'm too small to be bait…right?" Link shook his head, grinning.

"HEYLOOKLISTENHEYLOOKLISTEN!" Navi flittered around the agitated guards as the fellowship ran swiftly by with no trouble at all.

"HAHA YOU LOSERS YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!" Navi teased, "HEYLOOKLISTENWATCHOUT—AAAAAAAAH!" One of the guards had smartened up and gotten a butterfly net. The other guards cheered and dumped her in a cage.

"HEY!" Navi yelled.

Meanwhile, the fellowship had, at long last, reached the courtyard.

End Chapter Four

Wow, that was a really…weird chapter.

Keatonzeldagirl