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, Jiji, and Aryn. The characters of Kage, Yugi, Mable, and Raven belong to Kearra. The character Ravick is the property of Selphie's friend, Patrick.
Chapter 21
Iggy, Selphie, and Kage were sitting on the couch and armchairs. They all looked up when they heard Jiji come down the stairs. "How is she?" Iggy asked quickly.
"Not great…" Jiji answered at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm not surprised…" Kage said. "Not with what the lakeside professor said. Link warped him over here a couple hours before you returned."
"Was it that bad?" Iggy asked nervously.
"We couldn't stop the bleeding," Selphie said, all standing and making their way across the living room. "We thought maybe he had something that could help since the potion wasn't cutting it."
"And what did he say?" Iggy asked, pausing at the bottom of the stairs.
Selphie didn't respond, but Kage looked over at Jiji. "…Hemophilia," she said softly. Iggy's eyes widened.
"Then… wait, she's gonna make it, isn't she?" Iggy asked.
"Unless we find an alternate way of stopping the bleeding…" Kage said.
"But, can't you use your powers?" Iggy asked. Kage shook his head, mumbling that he had tried already. They all glanced over at Jiji.
"…We should make sure she's not alone… if nothing else…" she said.
"Should we tell her?" Selphie asked. They glanced between each other.
"I think… only if she asks us," Jiji said. They nodded, and the four ascended the staircase to the guest bedroom. Aryn was on her side, arms wrapped around her stomach. "You feeling okay?" Jiji asked, kneeling next to her sister.
Aryn shook her head slightly. "I can barely feel my limbs… and I feel cold," she whispered. She looked paler than she usually was.
"That's a sign of massive blood loss…" Selphie said.
"…Am I gonna die?" Aryn asked. The four glanced between each other again.
"…We think so, Aryn," Jiji replied. Tears trickled out of the girl's eyes. Jiji watched her nervously for a moment, but nodded.
"I'm okay…" she rasped. "I mean… now that I know… it's a little easier…" Jiji put her arms around her sister. "At least I don't have to die with Iggy's murder on my conscience…" Jiji gave Aryn's hand a little squeeze. "I wish my field assignment went as well as yours," she said. Jiji gave a small laugh. "You got to leave the Garo, made great new friends, and you and Iggy are together now." Jiji glanced back at her friends.
"Well, two out of three isn't bad," Jiji said. "I'm sure you could count Kage and Selphie as friends after the way they took care of you." They smiled at Aryn.
"What about the leaving the Garo?" Aryn asked.
"Well, if you did live, would you go back to the Garo?" Jiji asked.
"Heck no," Aryn stuck out her tongue, and Jiji snickered slightly.
"Well, then," Jiji said. "I shall make it official."
"…Can you do that?"
"Of course I can. All you have to do is renounce the Garo in front of three or more witnesses and have someone else pronounce you not a Garo," Jiji explained, lying of course.
"I renounce the Garo then," Aryn said.
"Selphie, have you witnessed this renouncement of the Garo?" Jiji asked Selphie.
"I have," Selphie replied.
"Kage, have you witnessed this renouncement of the Garo?" Jiji asked Kage.
"I have," Kage replied.
"Iggy, have you witnessed this renouncement of the Garo?" Jiji asked Iggy.
"I have," Iggy replied.
"Then by the power vested in me, I, Jiji, officially pronounce you, Aryn, to be not a Garo anymore," Jiji proclaimed.
"And that's it?" Aryn asked.
"That's it. You are not a Garo any longer," Jiji smiled at her sister.
"Good," Aryn said. Jiji laughed softly. "So… are you two really gonna get married?"
Jiji smirked slightly, "Now where did you hear that?"
"Well are you?" Aryn asked.
Jiji looked back at Iggy again and they shared a smile. "Yeah, yeah we are," she said.
"…I wish I could see it," Aryn whispered.
"…I wish you could too," Jiji replied. Aryn smiled at her and inhaled sharply, closing her eyes in pain. Jiji squeezed her hand, but Aryn's eyes didn't open. She put two fingers to her neck and fortunately found a pulse. She stood up and turned to her friends. "We cannot let her die," she said.
"Jiji, we have no idea how to help her or stop the bleeding," Selphie said.
"The professor even tried stitching the wound closed," Kage added. "It just didn't work."
"I don't care. We have to save her," Jiji said.
"But how?" Iggy asked.
"…I don't know…" Jiji said pensively. She lowered her head in thought. Something on Kage's hand caught her eye. There was a large bandage. "Kage… what did you do to your hand?" she asked.
"This?" Kage asked, holding up his hand. "Oh, well first I cut my finger chopping cloves and then I burned it on the pan. Selphie was making fun of me, calling me the Bay Dragon."
"The Bay Dragon?" Jiji asked.
"Yeah, you've probably heard that fairy tale," Selphie said. "That's the one where the dragon was attacking the Great Bay Gerudo, so their leader chopped off its head."
"Oh, yeah! And the head grew back again and again, multiplying until there were eight, right?" Iggy picked up. "And she finally thought to use hot metal plates to chop off the heads so the flesh would burn and not be able to grow back."
"But the long necks and heads lived on under the sea and became the eight deep pythons," he and Selphie both finished.
"I remember that, it was classic," Iggy finished. Jiji's eyes were wide. "Jiji, what's the matter?"
"We're going to make Aryn into a Bay Dragon," Jiji said. They stared at her in shock. "Oh, I'm not cutting off her head! I meant, why don't we use a hot piece of metal to burn her wound closed?" she asked.
"You know, that just might work," Kage said, heading out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen.
"Jiji, you might just save Aryn afterall," Iggy said, firing a fire arrow into the fireplace.
"We can only hope," Jiji replied. Kage returned a few seconds later with several iron utensils from the kitchen. "We'll have to get those nice and hot, and quickly so we can do it while she's still asleep." They nodded and Iggy and Kage went to work heating the tools. "Selphie, can you get me a washbasin to clean her wound before we do this?" Jiji asked.
"Absolutely," Selphie said, hurrying down the stairs. Jiji pulled back the quilts over her sister and revealed the blood-soaked bandages. Then, very carefully, she removed those bandages to reveal her sister's bloodstained torso, stomach wound still bleeding. She realized suddenly that she'd had a wound very similar to this when she and Iggy left the Garo. Selphie returned a few seconds later with the washbasin. "Here you go," she said.
"Thank you," Jiji replied as the two cleaned the wound.
"We're all ready," Iggy announced from the fireplace.
"Good, bring them over, one by one," Jiji said. Iggy picked one up and walked over. Jiji took it, hand trembling slightly.
"…Would you like me to do it, Jiji?" Selphie offered after a moment.
"No," Jiji shook her head. "No, I can do it." She leaned over her sister and slowly touched the metal to her skin. Aryn gasped in her sleep and started to contort her body, but Iggy and Selphie held her in place. Jiji almost didn't want to continue but pressed the iron against the little girl again. Each time, through each piece of metal Aryn squirmed, but Jiji pressed on. And each time she pressed on, the flesh burned and the wound closed.
When Jiji had reached the end of the wound, it bled no more. They spread a healing salve over it and bandaged it once more, feeding her a potion the professor had given them to help her produce more blood, but they were confident their mission was a success. Aryn continued to sleep as they left the room.
"I think she's going to make it," Kage said.
"I think so too," Jiji agreed. She and Iggy went to sleep on the couch about half an hour later, and Kage and Selphie watched Aryn through the day and night, though they took turns sleeping.
None of the former Garo woke until the next morning, at which point, the youngest of the three had regained the color in her cheeks and an appetite in her stomach. Her wound had not reopened. The Bay Dragon would live.