A:N: (Sorry it's taken so long) Sacrilegious? You've never tracked a
keaton, have you? You don't kill them! Well, whatever. There will be part
in this that will be fairly hard to read; I got the idea from an old
sixteenth-century book, in which they evidently didn't have editors. If
that gets too difficult, just let me know; I'm going to get either beaming
reviews or ravings and lost fans from that... Get out your fly paper and
mask, because we're about to go on a hunt! I like the fact that I'm getting
some more action review-wise, and if there's anything at all that bothers
you or delights you, tell me about it! I've said it before, but it's
criticism that makes a good author! And, Dan, when it comes to my
characters and their traits/habits- ALL of them- and the situations they
get into, my main sources are the game, and the reality. (A tip for you
aspiring authors and others:) If you do anything in the arts and wish to go
beyond what you see around you, you must study what IS around you! ~
It was around three-thirty when they ate. Too late for lunch, and too early for dinner; but unless you eat at regular times each day, that doesn't really matter. And it didn't- not for them, who seemed to have eaten absolutely nothing for months.
They chose out several different delicacies (greedily), and sat down rapidly at a large rectangular table in the party section of the near-empty restaurant. I don't know how to describe it, really. Half the table was loud and rude and noisy- there were pieces of fried cucco, grains of seasoned rice, and vegetables flying everywhere so that one could not tell what were scraps and what were not; and the other half, though they slurped their soup occasionally or ate things a bit too eagerly, was quieter and more conserved; nearly enough to pass for a king's court.
I bet rupees to rhinestones that you can decide who was on which side.
Link, who sat at a head of the table, had eaten several helpings of cucco when he found he was rather thirsty. I strode, feeling somewhat pleased that they liked our cooking, down a short hall into the kitchen to the icebox and opened the lid, the cold mist washing over my face.
"What do you want?" I asked, peering over the brown glass bottles and reading the homemade labels. He craned his neck to look at me.
"I dunno... What do you have?" I squinted at a label for a minute.
"We've got water, apple cider, some grape stuff, apricot and peach nectar, strawberry soda, ginger ale, root beer... and something pink." He furrowed his brow.
"I have no idea what any of that stuff is... well, besides water. I suppose they don't have it out on the sea." He shrugged. "I'll take the cider stuff, I guess."
His friends piped up once he made his decision out of the foreign menagerie of beverages.
"May I try the- what is it... strawberry?" Medli said, delicately picking at her green beans with her fork.
"I'll just have water, please." Makar said. He wasn't eating anything the others were, so I had given him a small carrot to nibble on. He, although he had no idea what it was, was enjoying it; it must've been the same with the others, since they didn't know the names of things and would have to ask for it using general terminology such as 'stuff', 'junk' and 'that thing with the sauce that I really like'.
Komali gave some thought, stirring the vegetables around in what remained his soup, before he decided. "How about the pink stuff?"
When there were no more orders from the table, I returned with all the bottles, including some label-less pink stuff for myself- I was curious, having never seen it before (it tasted somewhat like pomegranate). Our eyes turned for a moment to the pirates' side of the table. Apparently, their side had had only one roll, and all seven of them wanted it. It was very comical to watch; Nudge and Mako were coming up with theoretical reasons that they should get it ("You had the last helping of the salty stuff!"), Zuko was rambling on in gibberish; and Senza, Gonzo, Niko, and Tetra were all yelling and bumping each other with their elbows. They all had one hand on the roll in the center. Tetra smirked, looked from side to side, and with her free hand, grabbed a butter knife. She brought the flat of this down, hard, on the top hand (Gonzo's), which drew back as the owner cursed in pain. She repeated this several more times- luckily, hers had been the first to grab the little baguette- and finally, with groans from her crew, she took her prize and bit into it.
Chewing leisurely, her ice blue eyes wandered to us. We stared. "What are you looking at?" she growled around her mouthful. I blinked several times.
"Erm...Nothing. Tetra, do you want anything to drink?" I asked, shaking my head slightly. She swallowed.
"I heard the choices- nothing sounds good, really." She smacked Niko's hand as he attempted grabbing the bread while she was distracted- she did this without a glance in his direction, as if she were blind like Aunt Saigon.
"Well, I've got milk and stuff in the kitchen." I continued. She shrugged.
"Not the kind of stuff I like." Link prodded me with the cold lid of his cider bottle, and I grabbed it absently and wrenched it open. I did the same for everyone else, noting that I should eventually teach them to open their own bottles. When I handed it back to him, he took a tentative sort of sip- and found he liked it very much.
"Well, what do you like? I can't have you dying of thirst." She just smirked and took another bite of bread, and I got a strange feeling. "Er... I don't sell alcohol to minors." To my surprise, she broke out laughing, holding her hand over her mouth to keep from spraying crumbs across the table.
She swallowed again- between laughs- and smiled in my direction, resting her chin in her free hand and swatting away the very determined Niko with the other. "I thought Link told you that we were 'eccentric' pirates." She said. "I don't like it myself, so I only let these guys have grog when I'm in an exceptional mood."
"Which is never," grumbled Senza.
"If you have an attitude like that," Tetra yawned. "I, personally, like coffee."
I stared. Link rolled his eyes. "It's better than rum and gunpowder, I suppose. Tetra, you should try some of this cider stuff. It's really good!"
"That's because it's fresh." I blushed. "I can get you some coffee, if you want. I've got cream, sugar and some mocha stuff."
"What in Din's name is mocha?" Tetra said, pushing the last of her bread between her lips. Niko groaned and sat down. She smirked slightly at his disappointment.
"Chocolate. Do you have chocolate on the Great Sea?" She looked at me funny and shook her head. I continued. "It's a sort of brown candy that's really... well, sweet."
"Hmm. Whatever... I'll try it." I went and got her some, and she enjoyed it immensely.
~*~
Upon looking at the bill, I realized that even something as profitable as a Keaton hunt wouldn't even pay off half of what they owed, even with the free refills and numerous other discounts I'd given them. Obviously, I did not tell them this.
Evening fell gently on the Spilled Goblet and all of its lands. I occupied myself throughout the afternoon by helping with the cooking, and Medli offered to assist me. I proceeded in teaching her the uses of herbs magical and non-magical, and she willingly learned and put it to use as she helped me out.
Meanwhile, the others lounged about upstairs in the library, and whenever I gave myself a break, I would check on them. Usually when I did this, I was bombarded with questions about the Keaton hunt, especially closer to evening. Half of them had no idea what a Keaton was, much less how to hunt them.
"It's a large, yellow fox," I recall myself saying. "With three tails and long, black-tipped ears. And he's very clever."
"Sounds weird to me. Won't it try to hurt us?" Komali asked. He was stretched out leisurely on one of the scarlet couches, with one of his feathered wings spread out so that he could straighten his plumage.
"No. In fact the only reason you'd need a sword is in the matter of summoning it. And I think Link could do that quite well." Link raised one of his slightly singed eyebrows.
"And why's that?" He said, blowing one of his bangs from his eyes in a bored sort of way as he plunked into an easy chair.
"Well, you're really agile..." I wasn't sure how to explain it all- it would be particularly difficult to tell him that he had to cut down seven plants- that moved, no less. He seemed to have experience in such things, though, so I didn't bother to brief him on this yet.
He yawned and shrugged. "Whatever you say. D'you mind if I conk out for a while?"
"No, you're fine." I reassured him. He was snoring before I was finished speaking.
"You'll never be able to wake him up," Tetra said, not looking up at us over what she was reading. It was a book I'd never been interested in, Your Voyage. It was a boring volume about finance issues in ventures at sea. She got to a sentence in the middle of the first page and wrinkled up her nose. "Payment from the Royal Navy? Are they mad?" Throwing it to a coffee table, she grabbed up another book, this one a copy of the Odyssey. She read it a bit, flipped through it, and smiled. "Now this is a book! Wars, magic, and a one-eyed monster!"
Medli covered her mouth and giggled. Tetra began to read, and didn't stop until about an hour later, when Link had awakened and browsed the books himself. What he found in that series of shelves was a book I had never seen before. It had symbols etched in peeling gold leaf on the front, including three triangles forming a triangle, and it was in a tattered red binding; very old, if I'm any judge.
"What's that?" Medli asked, squinting at the cover. "It's in Valoo's tongue... It says 'LZ'." How she understood that, I have no clue, but I was overwhelmed with curiosity.
"What in Din's name is that supposed to mean?" asked Tetra, dog- earing the page before she slammed the Odyssey shut. Link opened the book, and sat down on the couch so we could see. There was a painting on the page, of the goddesses, with arms outspread, floating in a void of darkness around a tiny blue dot. Things were written around this drawing, in symbols both blue and black.
"What does it say?" asked Makar, peering over the back of the couch. Medli scooted closer to Link and squinted.
"It is difficult... The person writing in blue has much better handwriting than the one in black, but most of the words are misspelled..." She paused a moment, then began to read the blue lettering:
"Longe ageo, our lande of Hyrule wass vut a voide of blackness, over whicth the Goddesses Of Light came acrost in ther nightly flyings. Upone seeing this horride Black Hole, Nayru, the Great Goddess Of Wisdomm, the onne of a senceitve heart, cry bue a single teare; thus creating Love, Ordere, and Wisdomm, the foundation offe Hyrule."
"This is really hard," laughed Medli, keeping her place on the page with one of her fingers.
"Keep reading," said Link, Tetra, Komali, Makar, and I, in chorus.
"Farore, the Great Goddess Of Courage, thene singeth her sweet songe towe the Earth, and life sprung from it; the birdes to the aire, the Zora fishe to the Watere, the Gorons to the Earth, the Kokiri to the Forest, the Gerudo to the Desert, and the Noble Hylians and the Sheikah to the rich fieldes and plains of the Valleye.
"Din, the Great Goddess Of Powere, then laughed gaily at her sisteres, and strengthe spread through every onne of the Peoples of Hyrule. And alle wass goode and welle."
"Zora fish?" Komali mused.
"Kokiri?" Makar questioned.
"Gorons, Gerudo?" Medli said. "This is quite a strange book, Link."
"Yeah, but I like it, sort of," he smiled and shrugged.
Tetra shook her head. "Noble Hylians? This is a bit archaic, don't 'cha think?"
"It's weird. I mean, honestly. The Sheikah? But I've never heard this story about the gods before." I said, and the others nodded. Link tapped Medli on the shoulder, and she continued.
"Buut, soone the Peoples begane twoe war against each othere, and the Goddesses realized that theyy woulde neede to appoint Heroes to rescue the Land frome sertain destructione. So they sett to worke.
"The Hero of Nayru was twe bee of Royal Blood, and gentil. She woulde give advicee to the othere Heroes, fore as long ase She lived, and longere, ande onlye the Destined woulde receive Her hearte.
"The Hero of Din was thee leader of theme all, and Nobil Blood would flow in hiis veins. He would controle the Land with a hande of Brute Strengthe, and there woulde be noone who coulde ougt-fighte him.
"Farore, hovever, spent morr time onn her Hero, and Hers waas to bee the Greateset of all. He would be offe the humbleste blood, but his Hearte was to be the Bravest and moste Determinede thinge e'r created. And he woulde allways bee fulle of Youth, and his Name would never be rememberede longe, thoughe He did the Greatest thingse.
"Din grew jealouss of Her sisteres' Creations, and in herr furye, spilt a tankared ofe Wine into Her Hero's blood, fillinge hise mind withe thingse of Evil and Mischief. She thene spilt a drope of winne intoo the blood ofe eacch of Her sisters' Heroes. This gavee Nayru's Hero the Weaknness of Dispare. The Hero of Farore waas cursed with Temptation. This is the wayye ite woulde bee foor the Rest Of Time."
"Okay, that's just scary." Tetra said, swallowing hard. Link's eyes had gone foggy again.
"Link. Stop that!" I said. He did that a bit too often for comfort. He blinked.
"What? What am I doing?" He said. I rolled my eyes, and was about to ask Medli to continue, when barking echoed up the stairwell, and Aunt Saigon called to us.
"Anni, it's getting dark enough to hunt! Gather up your friends, and grab the flypaper on the way down."
"Yes, Sai-sai!" I called back down, everyone beside me in the room looking quite confused.
"Flypaper...?" Tetra inquired, eyebrows raised.
"I'll explain later." I said, taking three large rolls of flypaper from Saigon's desk. We ran down the stairs and found Auntie there, her poncho on, and Daystar beside her; both were ready to go outside.
"I have the mask, Anni; you needn't worry about that." Auntie said, patting her backpack. I nodded. She smiled back and returned to the kitchen to pack supper. She could do quite a lot without seeing, and sometimes it was unbelievable. Daystar looked up at Link and growled under his breath, but Link patted his head absently.
"Umm... Link?" I said. "He doesn't like that... He's... well, he's that friend I told you about- Daystar- and he used to be human not that long ago." The dog growled louder as I said this, and Link withdrew his hand quickly. Daystar gave me a burning glare.
"Nice to meet you, Daystar," Link said cheerily (or at least tried to make it cheery). The ruddy little dog rolled his eyes. "You needn't worry about the Chichimara; I have intentions of killing him..." he looked into my eyes for a moment and added: "Someday, anyway." Daystar stared at me like I was crazy as Link retreated to go joke with Komali.
"Well, it wasn't like I encouraged him, Day." I assured him with an indignant tone. Medli's hand brushed me for my attention, and I turned to look down into her orange eyes.
"I believe it's time to go, now," Medli said, gesturing with both her hand and her chin towards the door, where Saigon stood with a picnic basket.
And so it was. We set out on foot and walked for about an hour before we came upon the Keaton's dwelling place, a clearing in the dark, shadowy forest bathed in moonlight. Everything, even the motes in the air, seemed to be made of sparkling silver, and in the center of the clearing grew seven small shrubs; their long leaves dripped with dew, though the sun had barely set.
"Anni, did you explain the hunt to your friends?" Saigon asked, unpacking an old wooden mask. I felt sheepish and shook my head.
"Not really," I admitted.
"No worries, child. I shall," she reassured me, staring blindly into space as she dusted off the saffron yellow mask. "Link, you are the Swordsman, and you wear this mask as you summon the creature," As she explained this, she held it out for him to take. He looked it over for a moment, brow furrowed, and seemed a bit engrossed with the design; with the yellow curve of its face interrupted by the jutting out of its nose and ears. There were two small dark slits for eyes.
"Will I be able to see through this thing?" he asked, flipping it over.
"You'll never know until you try it on." Saigon said, so Link pulled it on. Tetra snorted behind a hand.
"I guess I'll be all right," came Link's voice from behind the mask, somewhat muffled. "What else?"
"Pirate girl, could you spare your sword?" Auntie said. Tetra shrugged.
"D'pends. Why do you need it?" she said, almost protectively. I had noticed since I'd met her that her left hand rarely left the scabbard at her side.
"To summon the Keaton, Link must cut down all seven of those shrubs, and it would be much easier for him if he had a sword." Tetra nodded slowly at my great Aunt, and, reluctantly, handed Link the curved weapon. Link backed up several steps and swung the sword several times, just to get a feel for it. Saigon heard this and smiled. "Anni, you are to take Medli and Tetra and hide in the brush behind the clearing. Oh, and don't forget the flypaper," She paused. "You might want to tell them what they're doing, as well." I nodded, and led the two rather confused girls to the other side of the clearing.
"So, what's the deal?" Tetra asked as I handed her a sheet of flypaper.
"Well, y'see, once Link summons the Keaton, we need to sneak up behind him and wrap up each of his tails with flypaper. Then, we just pull it off, and we have some of his hair."
"Won't that hurt him?" Medli, asked sympathetically.
"A little. But his fur'll grow back." Medli frowned, not wanting to harm anything, but Tetra smirked. I supposed this was right up her alley.
"Why do we need his hair anyway?" The pirate asked, warming her hands absently. Her eyes were so blue that they seemed to glow in the dark.
"It was a seasoning in half the stuff you ate for lunch and it was one of the primary ingredients in the revival potion I gave Link."
Tetra looked a little sick.
Our eyes turned to the center of the clearing as Link stepped out of the trees, hesitantly, as if he felt rather stupid. He paused a moment. Then, with a short birdlike cry, he sliced three of the helpless shrubs. I saw a jolt roll up his spine as the other four plants began to sort of shuffle off in opposite directions. He panicked, and swung the sword almost at random, and leaves fell left and right at his feet. One remained, shuffling along, and had only a second to pause before Link had cut it to shreds. He panted a moment, and a whitish dust began to gather where the center of the plants had been.
The yellow Keaton fox appeared, its tails waving luxuriously. "Hee, hee, ho, child. If you are attempting to fool me, it is impossible," it smirked. I had to hold back Tetra, who was eager and ready with her flypaper. "We Keatons can recognize our own by the sheen of our tails."
"So I see," Link replied. The Keaton eyed him.
"You are a good child..." It continued thoughtfully. "Let me put you to a test."
"What sort of test?" asked Link suspiciously.
"A test over your own life. I wish to see how observant you really are..." it drawled on. The movement of the tails was menacing to Tetra.
"Why can't we go already?" she hissed through her teeth.
"Because it'll hear us. We'll wait until Link answers a question, and sneak out while he's talking," I hissed back.
"But I know Link, and he's NOT observant," she insisted.
"You never know..." I murmured.
"Answer me this," it breathed. "What is Tetra's most prized possession?"
"Oh, come on," muttered Tetra.
Link smiled. "That's easy. It's that necklace her mother gave her; the Triforce of Wisdom!"
Tetra looked somewhat impressed as we crawled up behind the Keaton. I told the others to wait until Link spoke again before we unrolled the flypaper and revealed the adhesive, while wondering to myself what a Triforce was.
"That is correct," it moaned, almost disappointed. "How about this? What did Beedle give you after 30 stamps on your membership card?"
"A silver membership and a literally complimentary coupon." Link said, shuffling his feet. I had a feeling that he was looking at us from his side of the Keaton. "I mean, I brought it in, and he said that I was great. A picker-upper, but not a real discount on my part." I almost snickered. We prepared our flypaper, and were about to grab the Keaton's tails when the Keaton asked his next question, and his tails flicked away from us.
"Correct," it said again. "What color was your mother's hair?" It sounded desperate.
"How's he supposed to remember that?" Medli whispered. The Keaton's ear flicked back and then foreward again.
Link was taken aback. "My... Mother? She's dead..."
"Only since you were two. You should remember this." It prompted. Link shivered.
"Umm... Yellow, I suppose...." The Keaton opened his mouth to speak, and Tetra grabbed the middle tail in her flypaper and yanked. Medli and I followed soon after, and the Keaton Fox shrieked and leapt into the air. It transformed back into white dust and disappeared, leaving the flypaper full of yellow and black hair.
"Thanks, guys," said Link, rubbing the back of his head. "That thing was beginning to freak me out."
"It's a stalker. It's always around," Tetra mumbled, looking back and forth and feigning paranoia. Link laughed.
~*~
We ate supper by campfire, and returned late that night, spending half an hour getting everyone associated in rooms of the inn. Most of the rooms had bunk beds, and this worked to our convenience because most of them had preferences with who they were with. Link, Komali, and Makar were the easiest, of course, choosing a cerulean decorated room with a wide window at the side. Tetra, however, insisted on being with Medli, whilst Gonzo and several other pirates felt they needed to be in her room to "protect her". I finally kicked all of the pirates into two rooms and took Medli and Tetra to mine.
My room was basically just another inn room without a number on the door. It had bunk beds and a trundle, but I had to clear off a lot of my junk for someone to sleep in either.
"I really like how you've decorated this place, Anni," Medli said, helping me clear parchment and scraps of material off of the trundle bed. This embarrassed me somewhat. The walls were decorated in maroon wallpaper which was almost completely plastered with parchment. Most of these were school notes, which as frequently as not fell onto the floor never to be found again; thus making the place cluttered. The rest of what remained on the wall were drawings I had done; some of them diagrams of things such as cucco skeletons that I had done in my leisure, and others my conceptions on the Boulviddarian heroes. I had a pen that Saigon had given me recently on my twelfth birthday that would draw in any color you told it to, and this was very helpful to me. It meant no more tedious switching of inkwells, and had been used in most of these doodles.
Tetra climbed up into the top bunk of the bed, threw down a load of parchment, lay back with her head cradled in her arms and, without even bothering to kick off her sandals, fell asleep. Medli's eyes rolled upward, and we both laughed.
It was around three-thirty when they ate. Too late for lunch, and too early for dinner; but unless you eat at regular times each day, that doesn't really matter. And it didn't- not for them, who seemed to have eaten absolutely nothing for months.
They chose out several different delicacies (greedily), and sat down rapidly at a large rectangular table in the party section of the near-empty restaurant. I don't know how to describe it, really. Half the table was loud and rude and noisy- there were pieces of fried cucco, grains of seasoned rice, and vegetables flying everywhere so that one could not tell what were scraps and what were not; and the other half, though they slurped their soup occasionally or ate things a bit too eagerly, was quieter and more conserved; nearly enough to pass for a king's court.
I bet rupees to rhinestones that you can decide who was on which side.
Link, who sat at a head of the table, had eaten several helpings of cucco when he found he was rather thirsty. I strode, feeling somewhat pleased that they liked our cooking, down a short hall into the kitchen to the icebox and opened the lid, the cold mist washing over my face.
"What do you want?" I asked, peering over the brown glass bottles and reading the homemade labels. He craned his neck to look at me.
"I dunno... What do you have?" I squinted at a label for a minute.
"We've got water, apple cider, some grape stuff, apricot and peach nectar, strawberry soda, ginger ale, root beer... and something pink." He furrowed his brow.
"I have no idea what any of that stuff is... well, besides water. I suppose they don't have it out on the sea." He shrugged. "I'll take the cider stuff, I guess."
His friends piped up once he made his decision out of the foreign menagerie of beverages.
"May I try the- what is it... strawberry?" Medli said, delicately picking at her green beans with her fork.
"I'll just have water, please." Makar said. He wasn't eating anything the others were, so I had given him a small carrot to nibble on. He, although he had no idea what it was, was enjoying it; it must've been the same with the others, since they didn't know the names of things and would have to ask for it using general terminology such as 'stuff', 'junk' and 'that thing with the sauce that I really like'.
Komali gave some thought, stirring the vegetables around in what remained his soup, before he decided. "How about the pink stuff?"
When there were no more orders from the table, I returned with all the bottles, including some label-less pink stuff for myself- I was curious, having never seen it before (it tasted somewhat like pomegranate). Our eyes turned for a moment to the pirates' side of the table. Apparently, their side had had only one roll, and all seven of them wanted it. It was very comical to watch; Nudge and Mako were coming up with theoretical reasons that they should get it ("You had the last helping of the salty stuff!"), Zuko was rambling on in gibberish; and Senza, Gonzo, Niko, and Tetra were all yelling and bumping each other with their elbows. They all had one hand on the roll in the center. Tetra smirked, looked from side to side, and with her free hand, grabbed a butter knife. She brought the flat of this down, hard, on the top hand (Gonzo's), which drew back as the owner cursed in pain. She repeated this several more times- luckily, hers had been the first to grab the little baguette- and finally, with groans from her crew, she took her prize and bit into it.
Chewing leisurely, her ice blue eyes wandered to us. We stared. "What are you looking at?" she growled around her mouthful. I blinked several times.
"Erm...Nothing. Tetra, do you want anything to drink?" I asked, shaking my head slightly. She swallowed.
"I heard the choices- nothing sounds good, really." She smacked Niko's hand as he attempted grabbing the bread while she was distracted- she did this without a glance in his direction, as if she were blind like Aunt Saigon.
"Well, I've got milk and stuff in the kitchen." I continued. She shrugged.
"Not the kind of stuff I like." Link prodded me with the cold lid of his cider bottle, and I grabbed it absently and wrenched it open. I did the same for everyone else, noting that I should eventually teach them to open their own bottles. When I handed it back to him, he took a tentative sort of sip- and found he liked it very much.
"Well, what do you like? I can't have you dying of thirst." She just smirked and took another bite of bread, and I got a strange feeling. "Er... I don't sell alcohol to minors." To my surprise, she broke out laughing, holding her hand over her mouth to keep from spraying crumbs across the table.
She swallowed again- between laughs- and smiled in my direction, resting her chin in her free hand and swatting away the very determined Niko with the other. "I thought Link told you that we were 'eccentric' pirates." She said. "I don't like it myself, so I only let these guys have grog when I'm in an exceptional mood."
"Which is never," grumbled Senza.
"If you have an attitude like that," Tetra yawned. "I, personally, like coffee."
I stared. Link rolled his eyes. "It's better than rum and gunpowder, I suppose. Tetra, you should try some of this cider stuff. It's really good!"
"That's because it's fresh." I blushed. "I can get you some coffee, if you want. I've got cream, sugar and some mocha stuff."
"What in Din's name is mocha?" Tetra said, pushing the last of her bread between her lips. Niko groaned and sat down. She smirked slightly at his disappointment.
"Chocolate. Do you have chocolate on the Great Sea?" She looked at me funny and shook her head. I continued. "It's a sort of brown candy that's really... well, sweet."
"Hmm. Whatever... I'll try it." I went and got her some, and she enjoyed it immensely.
~*~
Upon looking at the bill, I realized that even something as profitable as a Keaton hunt wouldn't even pay off half of what they owed, even with the free refills and numerous other discounts I'd given them. Obviously, I did not tell them this.
Evening fell gently on the Spilled Goblet and all of its lands. I occupied myself throughout the afternoon by helping with the cooking, and Medli offered to assist me. I proceeded in teaching her the uses of herbs magical and non-magical, and she willingly learned and put it to use as she helped me out.
Meanwhile, the others lounged about upstairs in the library, and whenever I gave myself a break, I would check on them. Usually when I did this, I was bombarded with questions about the Keaton hunt, especially closer to evening. Half of them had no idea what a Keaton was, much less how to hunt them.
"It's a large, yellow fox," I recall myself saying. "With three tails and long, black-tipped ears. And he's very clever."
"Sounds weird to me. Won't it try to hurt us?" Komali asked. He was stretched out leisurely on one of the scarlet couches, with one of his feathered wings spread out so that he could straighten his plumage.
"No. In fact the only reason you'd need a sword is in the matter of summoning it. And I think Link could do that quite well." Link raised one of his slightly singed eyebrows.
"And why's that?" He said, blowing one of his bangs from his eyes in a bored sort of way as he plunked into an easy chair.
"Well, you're really agile..." I wasn't sure how to explain it all- it would be particularly difficult to tell him that he had to cut down seven plants- that moved, no less. He seemed to have experience in such things, though, so I didn't bother to brief him on this yet.
He yawned and shrugged. "Whatever you say. D'you mind if I conk out for a while?"
"No, you're fine." I reassured him. He was snoring before I was finished speaking.
"You'll never be able to wake him up," Tetra said, not looking up at us over what she was reading. It was a book I'd never been interested in, Your Voyage. It was a boring volume about finance issues in ventures at sea. She got to a sentence in the middle of the first page and wrinkled up her nose. "Payment from the Royal Navy? Are they mad?" Throwing it to a coffee table, she grabbed up another book, this one a copy of the Odyssey. She read it a bit, flipped through it, and smiled. "Now this is a book! Wars, magic, and a one-eyed monster!"
Medli covered her mouth and giggled. Tetra began to read, and didn't stop until about an hour later, when Link had awakened and browsed the books himself. What he found in that series of shelves was a book I had never seen before. It had symbols etched in peeling gold leaf on the front, including three triangles forming a triangle, and it was in a tattered red binding; very old, if I'm any judge.
"What's that?" Medli asked, squinting at the cover. "It's in Valoo's tongue... It says 'LZ'." How she understood that, I have no clue, but I was overwhelmed with curiosity.
"What in Din's name is that supposed to mean?" asked Tetra, dog- earing the page before she slammed the Odyssey shut. Link opened the book, and sat down on the couch so we could see. There was a painting on the page, of the goddesses, with arms outspread, floating in a void of darkness around a tiny blue dot. Things were written around this drawing, in symbols both blue and black.
"What does it say?" asked Makar, peering over the back of the couch. Medli scooted closer to Link and squinted.
"It is difficult... The person writing in blue has much better handwriting than the one in black, but most of the words are misspelled..." She paused a moment, then began to read the blue lettering:
"Longe ageo, our lande of Hyrule wass vut a voide of blackness, over whicth the Goddesses Of Light came acrost in ther nightly flyings. Upone seeing this horride Black Hole, Nayru, the Great Goddess Of Wisdomm, the onne of a senceitve heart, cry bue a single teare; thus creating Love, Ordere, and Wisdomm, the foundation offe Hyrule."
"This is really hard," laughed Medli, keeping her place on the page with one of her fingers.
"Keep reading," said Link, Tetra, Komali, Makar, and I, in chorus.
"Farore, the Great Goddess Of Courage, thene singeth her sweet songe towe the Earth, and life sprung from it; the birdes to the aire, the Zora fishe to the Watere, the Gorons to the Earth, the Kokiri to the Forest, the Gerudo to the Desert, and the Noble Hylians and the Sheikah to the rich fieldes and plains of the Valleye.
"Din, the Great Goddess Of Powere, then laughed gaily at her sisteres, and strengthe spread through every onne of the Peoples of Hyrule. And alle wass goode and welle."
"Zora fish?" Komali mused.
"Kokiri?" Makar questioned.
"Gorons, Gerudo?" Medli said. "This is quite a strange book, Link."
"Yeah, but I like it, sort of," he smiled and shrugged.
Tetra shook her head. "Noble Hylians? This is a bit archaic, don't 'cha think?"
"It's weird. I mean, honestly. The Sheikah? But I've never heard this story about the gods before." I said, and the others nodded. Link tapped Medli on the shoulder, and she continued.
"Buut, soone the Peoples begane twoe war against each othere, and the Goddesses realized that theyy woulde neede to appoint Heroes to rescue the Land frome sertain destructione. So they sett to worke.
"The Hero of Nayru was twe bee of Royal Blood, and gentil. She woulde give advicee to the othere Heroes, fore as long ase She lived, and longere, ande onlye the Destined woulde receive Her hearte.
"The Hero of Din was thee leader of theme all, and Nobil Blood would flow in hiis veins. He would controle the Land with a hande of Brute Strengthe, and there woulde be noone who coulde ougt-fighte him.
"Farore, hovever, spent morr time onn her Hero, and Hers waas to bee the Greateset of all. He would be offe the humbleste blood, but his Hearte was to be the Bravest and moste Determinede thinge e'r created. And he woulde allways bee fulle of Youth, and his Name would never be rememberede longe, thoughe He did the Greatest thingse.
"Din grew jealouss of Her sisteres' Creations, and in herr furye, spilt a tankared ofe Wine into Her Hero's blood, fillinge hise mind withe thingse of Evil and Mischief. She thene spilt a drope of winne intoo the blood ofe eacch of Her sisters' Heroes. This gavee Nayru's Hero the Weaknness of Dispare. The Hero of Farore waas cursed with Temptation. This is the wayye ite woulde bee foor the Rest Of Time."
"Okay, that's just scary." Tetra said, swallowing hard. Link's eyes had gone foggy again.
"Link. Stop that!" I said. He did that a bit too often for comfort. He blinked.
"What? What am I doing?" He said. I rolled my eyes, and was about to ask Medli to continue, when barking echoed up the stairwell, and Aunt Saigon called to us.
"Anni, it's getting dark enough to hunt! Gather up your friends, and grab the flypaper on the way down."
"Yes, Sai-sai!" I called back down, everyone beside me in the room looking quite confused.
"Flypaper...?" Tetra inquired, eyebrows raised.
"I'll explain later." I said, taking three large rolls of flypaper from Saigon's desk. We ran down the stairs and found Auntie there, her poncho on, and Daystar beside her; both were ready to go outside.
"I have the mask, Anni; you needn't worry about that." Auntie said, patting her backpack. I nodded. She smiled back and returned to the kitchen to pack supper. She could do quite a lot without seeing, and sometimes it was unbelievable. Daystar looked up at Link and growled under his breath, but Link patted his head absently.
"Umm... Link?" I said. "He doesn't like that... He's... well, he's that friend I told you about- Daystar- and he used to be human not that long ago." The dog growled louder as I said this, and Link withdrew his hand quickly. Daystar gave me a burning glare.
"Nice to meet you, Daystar," Link said cheerily (or at least tried to make it cheery). The ruddy little dog rolled his eyes. "You needn't worry about the Chichimara; I have intentions of killing him..." he looked into my eyes for a moment and added: "Someday, anyway." Daystar stared at me like I was crazy as Link retreated to go joke with Komali.
"Well, it wasn't like I encouraged him, Day." I assured him with an indignant tone. Medli's hand brushed me for my attention, and I turned to look down into her orange eyes.
"I believe it's time to go, now," Medli said, gesturing with both her hand and her chin towards the door, where Saigon stood with a picnic basket.
And so it was. We set out on foot and walked for about an hour before we came upon the Keaton's dwelling place, a clearing in the dark, shadowy forest bathed in moonlight. Everything, even the motes in the air, seemed to be made of sparkling silver, and in the center of the clearing grew seven small shrubs; their long leaves dripped with dew, though the sun had barely set.
"Anni, did you explain the hunt to your friends?" Saigon asked, unpacking an old wooden mask. I felt sheepish and shook my head.
"Not really," I admitted.
"No worries, child. I shall," she reassured me, staring blindly into space as she dusted off the saffron yellow mask. "Link, you are the Swordsman, and you wear this mask as you summon the creature," As she explained this, she held it out for him to take. He looked it over for a moment, brow furrowed, and seemed a bit engrossed with the design; with the yellow curve of its face interrupted by the jutting out of its nose and ears. There were two small dark slits for eyes.
"Will I be able to see through this thing?" he asked, flipping it over.
"You'll never know until you try it on." Saigon said, so Link pulled it on. Tetra snorted behind a hand.
"I guess I'll be all right," came Link's voice from behind the mask, somewhat muffled. "What else?"
"Pirate girl, could you spare your sword?" Auntie said. Tetra shrugged.
"D'pends. Why do you need it?" she said, almost protectively. I had noticed since I'd met her that her left hand rarely left the scabbard at her side.
"To summon the Keaton, Link must cut down all seven of those shrubs, and it would be much easier for him if he had a sword." Tetra nodded slowly at my great Aunt, and, reluctantly, handed Link the curved weapon. Link backed up several steps and swung the sword several times, just to get a feel for it. Saigon heard this and smiled. "Anni, you are to take Medli and Tetra and hide in the brush behind the clearing. Oh, and don't forget the flypaper," She paused. "You might want to tell them what they're doing, as well." I nodded, and led the two rather confused girls to the other side of the clearing.
"So, what's the deal?" Tetra asked as I handed her a sheet of flypaper.
"Well, y'see, once Link summons the Keaton, we need to sneak up behind him and wrap up each of his tails with flypaper. Then, we just pull it off, and we have some of his hair."
"Won't that hurt him?" Medli, asked sympathetically.
"A little. But his fur'll grow back." Medli frowned, not wanting to harm anything, but Tetra smirked. I supposed this was right up her alley.
"Why do we need his hair anyway?" The pirate asked, warming her hands absently. Her eyes were so blue that they seemed to glow in the dark.
"It was a seasoning in half the stuff you ate for lunch and it was one of the primary ingredients in the revival potion I gave Link."
Tetra looked a little sick.
Our eyes turned to the center of the clearing as Link stepped out of the trees, hesitantly, as if he felt rather stupid. He paused a moment. Then, with a short birdlike cry, he sliced three of the helpless shrubs. I saw a jolt roll up his spine as the other four plants began to sort of shuffle off in opposite directions. He panicked, and swung the sword almost at random, and leaves fell left and right at his feet. One remained, shuffling along, and had only a second to pause before Link had cut it to shreds. He panted a moment, and a whitish dust began to gather where the center of the plants had been.
The yellow Keaton fox appeared, its tails waving luxuriously. "Hee, hee, ho, child. If you are attempting to fool me, it is impossible," it smirked. I had to hold back Tetra, who was eager and ready with her flypaper. "We Keatons can recognize our own by the sheen of our tails."
"So I see," Link replied. The Keaton eyed him.
"You are a good child..." It continued thoughtfully. "Let me put you to a test."
"What sort of test?" asked Link suspiciously.
"A test over your own life. I wish to see how observant you really are..." it drawled on. The movement of the tails was menacing to Tetra.
"Why can't we go already?" she hissed through her teeth.
"Because it'll hear us. We'll wait until Link answers a question, and sneak out while he's talking," I hissed back.
"But I know Link, and he's NOT observant," she insisted.
"You never know..." I murmured.
"Answer me this," it breathed. "What is Tetra's most prized possession?"
"Oh, come on," muttered Tetra.
Link smiled. "That's easy. It's that necklace her mother gave her; the Triforce of Wisdom!"
Tetra looked somewhat impressed as we crawled up behind the Keaton. I told the others to wait until Link spoke again before we unrolled the flypaper and revealed the adhesive, while wondering to myself what a Triforce was.
"That is correct," it moaned, almost disappointed. "How about this? What did Beedle give you after 30 stamps on your membership card?"
"A silver membership and a literally complimentary coupon." Link said, shuffling his feet. I had a feeling that he was looking at us from his side of the Keaton. "I mean, I brought it in, and he said that I was great. A picker-upper, but not a real discount on my part." I almost snickered. We prepared our flypaper, and were about to grab the Keaton's tails when the Keaton asked his next question, and his tails flicked away from us.
"Correct," it said again. "What color was your mother's hair?" It sounded desperate.
"How's he supposed to remember that?" Medli whispered. The Keaton's ear flicked back and then foreward again.
Link was taken aback. "My... Mother? She's dead..."
"Only since you were two. You should remember this." It prompted. Link shivered.
"Umm... Yellow, I suppose...." The Keaton opened his mouth to speak, and Tetra grabbed the middle tail in her flypaper and yanked. Medli and I followed soon after, and the Keaton Fox shrieked and leapt into the air. It transformed back into white dust and disappeared, leaving the flypaper full of yellow and black hair.
"Thanks, guys," said Link, rubbing the back of his head. "That thing was beginning to freak me out."
"It's a stalker. It's always around," Tetra mumbled, looking back and forth and feigning paranoia. Link laughed.
~*~
We ate supper by campfire, and returned late that night, spending half an hour getting everyone associated in rooms of the inn. Most of the rooms had bunk beds, and this worked to our convenience because most of them had preferences with who they were with. Link, Komali, and Makar were the easiest, of course, choosing a cerulean decorated room with a wide window at the side. Tetra, however, insisted on being with Medli, whilst Gonzo and several other pirates felt they needed to be in her room to "protect her". I finally kicked all of the pirates into two rooms and took Medli and Tetra to mine.
My room was basically just another inn room without a number on the door. It had bunk beds and a trundle, but I had to clear off a lot of my junk for someone to sleep in either.
"I really like how you've decorated this place, Anni," Medli said, helping me clear parchment and scraps of material off of the trundle bed. This embarrassed me somewhat. The walls were decorated in maroon wallpaper which was almost completely plastered with parchment. Most of these were school notes, which as frequently as not fell onto the floor never to be found again; thus making the place cluttered. The rest of what remained on the wall were drawings I had done; some of them diagrams of things such as cucco skeletons that I had done in my leisure, and others my conceptions on the Boulviddarian heroes. I had a pen that Saigon had given me recently on my twelfth birthday that would draw in any color you told it to, and this was very helpful to me. It meant no more tedious switching of inkwells, and had been used in most of these doodles.
Tetra climbed up into the top bunk of the bed, threw down a load of parchment, lay back with her head cradled in her arms and, without even bothering to kick off her sandals, fell asleep. Medli's eyes rolled upward, and we both laughed.