Darunia: Disclaimer! Selphie Louise does not own the Legend of Zelda or any of its characters. They are the property of Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo.

Tingle: The characters she does own are Selphie, Iggy, and Jiji. The characters of Kage, Yugi, Mable, and Raven belong to Kearra. The character Ravick is the property of Selphie's friend, Patrick.

Chapter 15

Iggy sat in the kitchen, staring into the fire. It flickered occasionally as wind howled down the chimney. The light was low, and shadows danced across his face. He fingered a small object in his hand and considered his options. None of them were particularly pleasant. It was clear he had lost Jiji this evening. She'd run away just as he was about to pose the biggest question he could ever ask her. That made him think she obviously had "no" in mind for the answer, and he couldn't think of one reason she would say it otherwise.

Iggy stood up. There was no reason to stay here. This was Jiji's house. He'd built it for her. He wouldn't be able to live with her- and only barely with himself- after this anyway. Disappearing into the bedroom, he gathered a few of his things- change of clothes, bow and arrow, his favorite weapon, his sword- and threw on an overcoat. The ring sat on the table. He walked over to it and picked it up, examining it silently for a moment. This is what he would have used to represent his feelings for her. He would have, but she had run away before he could even ask. And since he was leaving, there was no sense in keeping it.

He crossed to the fire and glanced at the gold band once more. He lifted his hand-.

The door slammed open, revealing Kage, rain soaked in his kimono, outlined in the doorframe. "Iggy!" he exclaimed when he saw Iggy by the fire.

"Kage, what are you doing here?" Iggy asked bewilderedly as Kage strode over quickly. Kage grabbed his hand and pulled the ring away. "Hey! What are you doing!"

"Saving you from making a bad mistake," Kage answered, holding the ring up in front of Iggy and then slamming it on the table. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I would get rid of the one thing that would remind me of Jiji when I leave," Iggy answered, remembering his wretchedness. "Jiji doesn't want to marry me."

"Oh, please. She doesn't even know you want to marry her," Kage said.

"I don't see how she couldn't know," Iggy responded. "I was just about to ask her when she told me not to talk anymore and left. I made it pretty clear what I was going to do, I thought."

"No, Iggy. You happen to be a victim of poor choice of words," Kage explained calmly. "Jiji had no clue you were about to propose to her."

Iggy took a moment to process that. "She… didn't? …Wait a minute, how do you know this?" he asked suddenly.

"Because she showed up at my house an hour or so ago, soaking wet and weeping," Kage said. "She ran to our house and told us what happened. Fortunately for you, we knew that she had it wrong."

"Well, if she didn't think I was proposing, then what did she think I was doing?" Iggy posed.

"Exactly the opposite," Kage replied. Iggy stared at him perplexedly. "She thinks you were trying to break up with her."

"What!" Iggy exclaimed. "How could she have thought that?"

"Well, when you consider the way you've been behaving since you chickened out, and your unfortunate choice of words, all of which she shared with us, I can really see why she thought that."

Iggy took a deep breath, eyes widening. "I've gotta go tell her the truth!" he cried out.

"Well, that is why I came and got you," Kage said. "Come on." He turned and walked out the door. Iggy was about to follow, but he remembered the ring and took a moment to find the box and place them both inside his pocket.

"All right! Let's go-!" he exclaimed as he stepped out the door and tripped, falling face-first into the mud. "Jeez, can't I get a break?" he griped, sitting up. An object moved beneath his chin and hovered about an inch from his flesh, and Iggy stiffened. He stared at the sword that was pointed at his throat and followed the blade to the hilt. Though he recognized the type of sword before his gaze reached its owner, he was still shocked to see the assassin.

"Hello, Ignatius." Iggy stared up at the bright eyes behind the GIT hood, the orbs that were losing their life and would be perfectly soulless in a few more years, and resisted a shudder as it struck him that he might have looked like that by now. The blade moved closer to his neck.

"…Hello, sir. I probably know your name, however, I can't recognize you behind your hood. Perhaps if you removed it-." The blade pressed against his flesh and Iggy quieted. "I see you're well-learned in all the provisions ordained by the masters."

"I won't risk being made the target of an assassination like you have," the tyro replied. "Either by revealing my identity… or by failing in my mission."

"I see. Good luck with that," Iggy replied. He glanced down at the object he had tripped over and spotted Kage beside him, a small bump on the back of his head. "I guess you couldn't have any sympathy for my friend here?"

"Mercy is for the weak like you," the trainee spat.

"If you say so," Iggy said, hand moving slowly toward his belt. "Before you earn your A, can I ask how you guys found out I was still alive?"

"We have our ways." Iggy stiffened when he realized someone was behind him. There was the sound of sinew stretching and he knew they had drawn an arrow.

"So I'm not even considered high enough on the scale to be a single-tyro target?" Iggy asked. "That's insulting."

"You won't have to feel that way for long," the one behind him said.

Iggy's hand found what it was looking for. "No… I guess not…" Rain fell on them for a moment as they sat silently. There was a sudden flash of brightness as lightning struck nearby, blinding them momentarily. One of the Garo cried out and they both had to shield their eyes. When the light faded, Iggy was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd he go?" asked the one with the sword. He gasped suddenly as a blade was pressed against his neck.

"Drop your weapon," Iggy ordered from behind him. The Garo was hesitant, but when Iggy pressed harder he dropped the sword. There was silence for another moment. Rain made a soft tinkling sound as it landed on the metal of the blade. The trainee with the bow and arrow watched silently for a moment before speaking up.

"Well? Aren't you going to kill him?" he asked.

"I'm waiting until I'm in a position where you wouldn't be able to kill me immediately after," Iggy replied nonchalantly.

"And how would that be?" There was another bright flash of lightning, again blinding the tyro. When he looked again, Iggy was holding a bow, knocked with an arrow, in addition to the sword. In his left hand were both the sword and the bow while the arrow was drawn back with his right. "How did you-?"

"Next time someone is sent to assassinate me, I want to be a higher test level," Iggy smirked. "Not that I want anyone else coming after my life, and that can be easily avoided if you lower your weapon, return to the encampment, and lie to the masters, telling them that I have been slain."

"Now why would I do that?" the archer asked.

"Because I don't want to kill you," Iggy said. "That's one reason I left your people. And you don't have to die, especially if you don't want to fail."

"This assignment won't go uncompleted," said the one next to Iggy.

"You've no room to talk, so just shut up for now," Iggy said, pressing the blade even harder against his neck. Iggy looked back at the archer. "You don't have a lot of options here. If you rush me, I'll let go of my arrow and I will kill you, and you can't hit me with your arrow without killing your friend first. Moreover, even with your grade on the line, I don't think you're willing to do that."

Iggy couldn't see this, since he was behind the sword tyro, but the trainee held his hand out ever so slightly and held up one finger. The archer gave a slight nod. A second later, the tyro in Iggy's arms went limp and the one across from him cried out and dropped his bow as Iggy's arrow struck him in the shoulder.

Iggy let the sword tyro fall to the ground and knelt down to check his pulse. It definitely was gone. Iggy pulled the arrow out of his chest and closed the eyes that were more lifeless than they would ever have been had be become a true Garo.

He stood again and crossed to the bow trainee, who was pressing his hand to the wound in his shoulder. When he noticed Iggy standing over him, the tyro pulled his hand away from his wound. "It's alright to feel pain, you know," Iggy said. "It is not alright to kill your own partner for the purpose of passing your field test, especially when you're going to fail anyway."

"That's what you think!" the trainee cried as he quickly pulled a dagger out with his good hand. Iggy was quick enough to use his own sword to disarm the trainee and then made a quick slice across his stomach. The tyro cried out, falling back onto the ground in pain. Iggy held his sword to the tyro's neck.

"I will kill you," he said coldly. "If not for coming after me, then for your own friend that you killed without blinking an eye."

"You think I feel no remorse in killing my only friend?" the tyro posed. Iggy eased a bit when he heard the kid's voice. It was plain to hear he was crying, and that the voice was not so tough anymore. He was afraid he was going to die. Iggy realized that his quick slice across the stomach might have been a bit deeper than he intended. "Please… just don't kill me."

Iggy's eyes widened as he heard the voice again and realized he did, in fact, know this tyro. He knelt down next to the kid and reached toward him. The adolescent pulled away slightly, but Iggy took hold of his hood anyway and pulled it back. "Just as I thought…" he said. It was not, in fact, a boy, as he'd first assumed. It was a girl, a girl with short black hair, pallid skin, and eyes that matched Jiji's right eye. "Aryn," he said softly.

The little girl, Jiji's baby sister, was crying. He hadn't noticed before that she was smaller than most tyros at this level. Obviously she'd been as skilled as Jiji and managed to skip a grade or two, for Aryn could only be eleven by now and most of those in her level were fifteen and sixteen. She held her arms across her middle, curled into a fetal position. "I… I just wanted to bring honor back to my house," she wept. "After Jiji left…"

"It's okay," Iggy said, softly. "I understand."

"I didn't want to be a Garo either," she sobbed. "But everyone mocked Mom and Dad. If I could become a Garo at an early age, everyone would realize they hadn't been bad parents."

"Shush," Iggy whispered. "You don't have to explain yourself to me." Aryn nodded slightly, but continued to cry. Iggy noticed hers were the only tears falling, as the rain had stopped.

"Am I going to die…?" she asked hoarsely. Iggy pursed his lips and was about to answer when he heard a voice behind him.

"You might be able to live," Kage said. Iggy looked back to see the former Sheikan deity holding his hand to the back of his head. "But we'll have to bandage and treat that wound."

She looked pleadingly to Iggy. "Please. I don't want to die."

"Don't worry," he replied. He turned to Kage. "We haven't got any medicines right now. We ran out and haven't gotten the chance to go to town and get anymore," he said.

"We've gotta get her to my house then," Kage said. Iggy nodded his head and kneeled next to Aryn, lifting her into his arms. He turned around and saw Kage already in his dragon form. When he was up on his back, his friend took off and flew back toward the forest.