Chapter 4: Shining Light; Slogging through the Marshland
Search for the Deku Princess Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "File Select" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Termina Field" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 1 (Second Half) and 2 (First Half).
"Marsh Land" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 2 (Second Half) and 3 (First Half).
"Magic Hag's House" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).
"Woods of Mystery" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 4 (First & Second Halves).
At long last a ray of hope dawns on the once darkness infested horizon. Link and his new companion Tatl regain his formerly human form, thanks to the efforts of princess Zelda's Ocarina of Time and the strange talents of the Happy Mask Salesman; a gift given to him from his near-forgotten ally waiting for him in Hyrule.
However... not without a meeting with one of the godlike figures once mentioned to him, not only by the formerly deceased Great Deku Tree, but by princess Zelda as well. Her mistaken 'Goddess of Time'.
The Sorcerer of the Divine Divide.
Said to have caused the Continental Divide itself with the War of Ancients in pre-recorded history, he now oversees the Three Golden Goddesses' duties as a penance. After introducing himself to the former Hero of Time he does just as the youth intends and turns back time as far as he is able; three days' worth. With these three days on his belt Link agrees to take on the Sorcerer's incredible demand; to save the doomed land of Termina and its people from the horrific incoming destruction of the rapidly descending moon high above them.
Although the Hero of Time was strong in his own era here in the land of Termina, and especially against the great and terrifying power of Majora's Mask, he is merely but a single footsoldier in the great struggle he has chosen to undertake. With only but a single lead he has been given by Tatl's little brother Tael, he and his new partner set off to search for the first of his leads.
'Swamp'.
Scene 1
DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY
-72 Hours Remain-
"Stop right there! Have you some errand in the swamp?!"
Link's eyes widened in sudden surprise and he had to swing his blonde-haired head up to catch the man that towered over him.
A Terminian soldier by the looks of things.
Even they look similar to the ones we have in Hyrule, he ruminated on silently.
"It is dangerous outside of these walls, so I cannot allow a child to-"
His words, spoken with such passion, were already interrupted by the discovery of something atop the former Kokiri's back; the grinning Link traced his gaze and knew exactly of which he was staring at.
His re-forged Kokiri Sword.
"... A sword...?"
His whisper, so surprised, could only make the grinning Link exchange a fully confident look with the hovering and frowning-faced Tatl.
"My apologies sir...," the nameless Soldier began again, re-straightening his stature as he did. "It was wrong of me to treat you like a child," he claimed. "The southern swamp at Woodfall lies this way. Please be careful in your travels."
"You hear that Tatl? Sir, he said."
The hovering Tatl, seemingly annoyed with his ego-stroking, merely frowned as she kept nearby.
"I guess they all realise who they're talkin' to." The young Hylian shot out with, folding his small arms as he grinned in a shut-eyed smirk.
"Don't let it go to your head."
"Hah...," the listening Link shot back, one of his eyes shutting in his widened grin as he unfolded his arms to rest them behind his green-capped head. As she took off forward, presumably to march on, the grinning Link followed dutifully behind. "You'll learn eventually...," he singsonged over as he marched on behind her through the large wooden trunk ahead. "Just like everyone else did." The overconfident youth at last finished his response, re-raising his blonde-haired head to eye the guardian fairy.
His grin very quickly dropped however when he saw her flying from his line of sight.
"H-Hey, wait up." He called, unfolding his arms from the back of his head in an attempt to hurry his pace.
Surprisingly, when he eventually caught up to her, he found her hovering over what appeared to be a tree at the end of the southern road. He stepped around one of Termina Field's many Deku Flowers and turned his oceanic-eyed gaze forward to trace her vision.
She appeared to be staring down at a crude drawing on the tree.
Link's small nose turned up at it though he made certain not to give voice to his rude thoughts.
"I remember this...," Tatl murmured out, a strange kind of tonal shift in her voice that the listening Link managed to recognise. "Tael and I drew this with the Skull Kid when we first met him."
The frowning-faced Link raised an eyebrow over at her before re-setting his narrow-eyed frown forward to examine the drawing more. As Tatl had excellently elucidated it indeed was a drawing of what seemed to be the Skull Kid himself and two much smaller little dots; seemingly the guardian fairies, Tatl and Tael.
"He... told us that he had been fighting with his friends at the time," Tatl explained very softly, a kind of melancholic tone in her soprano. "And that... they had left him all alone..."
The frowning Link re-rose a straw-haired eyebrow as if in scrutiny before shaking his head of any doubts.
It would make sense, he thought.
If this was the same Skull Kid he once met within the Kokiri Forest's Lost Woods then he'd be very prone to confrontation indeed.
"What was it about?" He chose to press her with, his questioning eyebrow shooting back up as he did.
"He never said," Tatl responded in a simple shake of her small milk-shaded body. "We didn't want to risk him running off so we didn't press him about it."
Link nodded his head in quiet agreement, a frown upon his expression. "I get that."
"I guess it was because he was always playing tricks on people, so nobody wanted to spend any time with him," Tatl continued on ever wisely. "But...," she began again, a noticeable wince within her voice as she spoke. "To do what he did just because of that..."
The former Hero of Time swivelled his eyes up to match his new guardian fairy's words, narrowing in recognition.
A lot of this still doesn't add up, he thought silently.
How could the Happy Mask Salesman get himself ambushed like that if he were so dangerous?
Maybe it's just a matter of carelessness.
Even the greatest warrior can easily be taken by surprise.
"And once he got that mask's power..."
Link's breathing, although remained light and controlled, found itself in rhythm with the worried-sounding Tatl.
She's not used to any of this, he surmised quietly.
Best to keep moving.
"Come on!" He called over his shoulder as he took off forward toward the swamps, his worn Kokiri boots pattering on behind him.
–
2
"Tingle, Tingle, Kooloo Limpah!"
The standing Link couldn't help but cringe, averting his eyes in any direction but Tingle's. The floating Tatl similarly had flew on ahead to the swamps' main area, almost as if to leave her charge behind.
"Here you go Mr. Fairy!" The jumpsuit-sporting man exclaimed excitably as he handed forth the Southern Swamp's map. Although grateful Link couldn't help but twitch his fingers as he took the fine piece of cartography from the Terminian, a kind of zig-zag smile strewn across his face.
"T-Thanks Tingle..." The young Hylian laughed nervously reaching back to place it within his inventory.
"Would you like to go to the Latté tonigh-?"
"N-No that's okay...!" Link managed to interrupt the puzzled-faced man, laughing anxiously as he backed away slowly in the direction his guardian fairy flew. "I'm pretty busy but thanks anyway." He called over before swinging around and running.
He ran as fast as he could.
Although he felt badly for treating the poor unsociable outcast the guilt very quickly faded when he realised he'd be travelling through time anyway, his horrid actions effectively erased from existence.
"Got our map?"
Tatl's business-like voice made him rise both his eyebrows out of his thought before blinking and reaching back for it. Pulling it out, he grinned up at her victoriously.
"Hell yeah."
"You should take him up on that offer you know," the milk-shaded fairy began, a knowing and insulting grin in her voice. Link's brow dropped heavily and he watched her in a comical glare indeed. "I mean when was the last time you got a date?"
"I'll have you know I could have had a princess back in my country!" He exclaimed over at her, thrusting a small finger at her, his ego effectively bruised by her subtle taunts.
However he soon realised his brash mistake when she took notice of his words.
Tatl swung around and stared back at him, seemingly surprised. "A princess?"
The normally confident Hero of Time found his courage shaken and, with a nervous smile dotted on him, lowered his eyesight from hers. His extended hand soon found its strength weaken as well.
"Y-Yeah..."
"But aren't you ten, eleven? Maybe twelve years of age?"
Huge mistake, he thought.
Never listen to pride.
"Uh... w-what can I say?" He chuckled nervously, re-raising his hands to rest behind his head once more as he marched on to join her. His not-so-subtle attempt to sound natural and back-pedal on his words did not go unnoticed by the watching Tatl. "I guess I'm just irresistible."
"Hmph," the frowning Tatl shot back, a raise of her nose behind her dim light. "Fat chance."
"Hoot-hoot! This is a rare sight!"
"Gagh!"
The suddenly startled Hero of Time, could only lean backward in a comical expression; his left leg rose up and his hands similarly had rested across his front as if to defend himself with in a rather awkward manner indeed. There, sitting on similarly-shaped statue ahead, appeared to be a large owl that overlooked the pair of heroes. The barely standing Link could only wince at his oddly cowardly reaction.
Thank Din Malon or Saria ain't here to see this, he thought.
When he re-adjusted himself to stand tall once more he rose his straw-haired eyebrows in recognition when he drank in the sight of the considerably-sized creature before him. A single name entered his mind when he identified it.
But that's impossible, the youth thought to himself.
The last time I saw Rauru was in...
"You are a child of the fairies are you not?" The deep bass of the bird-like animal echoed out forward as it spun its head around in a manner the watching Link remembered. "What is wrong?" He pressed, curious. "I realise creatures such as myself are not supposed to talk but..."
"K-Kaepora...?"
"Hrm...?" The owl frowned, tilting its large brown head at him in unsure curiosity. "Of whom do you speak?"
Tatl, similarly inquisitive from the word he spoke, swung her light down to watch him silently. Link, half-disappointed and half-relieved, merely shook his blonde-haired head before re-facing him, a smile returning to his young complexion.
"N-No-one...," he lied, rubbing the back of his head in a fit of nervousness at his small oversight. "Sorry for interrupting you."
"Think nothing of it... I'm just curious what you both are doing in this evil-infested swamp," the nameless fowl spoke on, a frown in the tone of his deep bass. "If you dare not venture any further... then I shalt not pass any judgement," he claimed on. "It is better that you retreat from this horrid place until you are better equipped to deal with the horrors that have been visited here."
Something inside the listening Hero of Time's senses piqued up, almost immediately as he spoke, as if lighting a dormant fire within him. He slowly folded his arms and his sociable smile grew into a confident smirk, his head tilting as he re-opened his mouth to respond.
"Sounds like fun," he posed forward and rather boldly after his earlier sudden scare. "Sure those warnin's aren't just for the swamp's wildlife?"
The nameless owl, seemingly completely perplexed by the youth's brash overconfident nature, could only stare back at him in wordless silence. He turned his brown-shaded head to exchange his expression with the floating Tatl, as if for some kind of reasonable explanation.
"Hey don't look at me," she merely waved him off with a light shake of her small frame. "I'm only with him out of necessity."
Her words, although mildly insulting and drawing a briefly annoyed glare from the listening young Hylian, made the watching double of Kaepora chuckle.
"Regardless...," the Light Sage's double laughed very softly in response before his smile morphed into his usual frown. "This swamp and its people have lost their guardian deity," he explained dutifully. "Sadly, as it would also appear with this marshland, all hope has gone with him."
The listening Link soon lost his grin in favour of a brow-furrowing frown. The words were enough to leave him pondering silently.
'Guardian deity', he thought.
Would these 'guardian deities' be Termina's form of Hyrule's Sainted Three?
He wondered on.
"If you have the courage, and the power of Aegir to press on, then I and this swamp shalt give you our blessing," the owl continued, a new smile dawning on his feathery complexion. "These stone statues, as the one beneath me...," he pointed out, lowering his head to elicit the watching Link to lower his own gaze. Sure enough he sat atop the similarly-shaped statue of what appeared to be himself. "These will help you on your quest to free this land of infection. Whenever you feel yourself weak and wanting... be sure to make use of them."
Link's frown, very quickly switching into his seemingly usual overconfident smirk, upturned to match the brash and brazen he took when responding.
"'Preciate it."
"Blimey! Where is he?! That spoiled kid of mine is off playin' hooky again! A man his age has business searching for bloody fairies!"
The listening Link, ever as quiet as a mouse, could only gain an oddly knowing grin as he stood before the large man ahead of him, his right hand placed very boldly across his right hip while his left just hung in place. It was only when the goggles-wearing man ahead double-took below that he noticed the amused-faced Link standing below the desk he sat behind.
"O-Oh!" He exclaimed, surprised as sure. "Ahem... w-welcome!" He smiled down at the youth; a nervous, zig-zag kind of smile deigning his similarly gruff exterior.
He wore clothes that seemed to suit the average Hylian, or Terminian even, for one living in such a sweltering climate; a small brown leather vest hung on his front, the rest of his hairy chest and lower stomach areas both visible. A pair of goggles rested upon his round-shaped head to match the bomber-like hat he wore, effectively covering a good portion of his skull. His muscled tone also went very well with the bushy arm hair and hairy facial hair he carried.
"H-How long have you been standing there...?" The nameless tourist guide questioned, his awkward smile driving him on. Link chose to exchange a knowing and cheeky grin with the frowning and hovering Tatl on his top-left before turning back to re-face the man above him.
"Not long." He answered.
"Phew... good to know," the man gasped out in relief, his inelegant apprehension swiftly evolving into well-natured cheer. "You a new face around here are ya?"
"It would appear so!" Link shot the man a light widening of his grin as he leaned his head to his side, a lightly sociable shrug as he did so. "Name's Link."
"William!" The man smiled amiably, reaching down with one of his great meat hooks to shake hands with. "Call me Will!"
The young Hylian obliged, his grin softening ever so slightly.
"So! Are you here for the Pictograph Bonanza?"
At last the little Hero of Time found his smarmy smirk dissolving into an unsure frown; he blinked back curiously as it dotted his expression.
"Pictograph... Bonanza?"
"Oh! Do ya not have one?" The large man pressed him, seemingly surprised. Link, exchanging another look with the similarly clueless Tatl, could only shake his head having never even heard of the device in question. "We're havin' a special right now with the contest going on at the moment so...," the large man began as he bent over lightly as if to retrieve something from under the desk. With a light grunt of effort he smiled once more as he stood back up to place a cube-like object on the table. "Here!"
He pushed the little box-shaped oddity toward the surprised youth. The frowning Link, his curiosity truly piqued, could only widen his eyes and raise his thin eyebrows as he reached forward to take the little creation. He held it up to eyes and blinked down it, baffled and bewildered by the mirror-like lens that reflected his own image back at him.
"Try it out!" The man insisted affably.
Just as the man claimed it appeared to be some kind of miraculous apparatus that could, remarkably, take still-life images and store them.
CLICK
"Woah..." The wide-eyed Link whispered, his eyes widening down into the analogue and digital display of the pictograph box; sure enough, as it had clicked earlier in his execution, an image of the hovering Tatl rested within.
Interestingly, however, it would appear that the photos taken were colourless; indeed, a vista of sheer black and white greeted him.
He tried to click the button again and unfortunately seemed to find it stuck. He turned to eye the chuckling swamp tour guide and the man shook his head.
"Calm yer boots son," he laughed good-heartedly. "Y'can only store one picture at a time."
His eyebrows rose in quiet realisation as he turned down to eye the marvellous piece of camerawork. "Ohhh..."
"That said, in this contest, it's no holds barred!" William pointed out in a healthy wide smile. "Make sure you get a good 'un... and when ya do, toss it right in fer me ta have a look-see!"
Link's curious and marvelled frown very quickly upturned into his usual sociable grin. "Thanks, will do," he chortled, storing the small picto box back into his large and yet mobile inventory behind him. "Is this the way to the boat service?" He asked as he wandered toward the visibly open stall to his right, his grin soon morphing to a simple smile.
"It... would be...," the nervously chuckling William smiled back in his own way before continuing. "But uh... there's been an issue with the owners and operators of that service."
Link blinked and swung his straw-haired head 'round and, just as the man had informed him on, the hardwood stall appeared to be empty and devoid of any staff, unlike its nearby brethren.
"Well...," Link tutted out of annoyance, his frown twitching as he did. "Deku Sticks," he muttered; a fairly tame variant of one of his many irritated exclamations. His eyebrows soon rose back up as he swung his head back 'round to face the man. "Any idea when-?"
"We ain't sure... sorry." William responded, a kind of understanding and dejected smile upon his face.
"Hrm...," the quiet Link touted out a brow-furrowed frown as he turned his mouth up in thought. "Guess it's up to us then, huh." He finished, this time with an eager grin as he 'rounded it on the hovering and deadpan-expressed Tatl. Her similarly emotionless soprano gave the listening Link full warning of her loss of patience with him.
"Oh joy."
–
3
"Is there a reason you're so insufferably careless and cocky?"
The former Kokiri swung his Kokiri Sword as a Deku Baba lunged for him as he passed it; an absent-minded kind of quality enthused his actions. He turned his light grin on the hovering and following Tatl, as if to answer her annoyed query.
"Well... I am the-"
"Yeah, Hero of Time," Tatl interrupted him with, a roll of her eyes spicing the sigh that escaped her lips. "Okay so you turned back time, big whoop."
"Know anybody else that can do that?" He countered, raising a straw-haired eyebrow upwards as he stepped around past the Mini Baba.
Her inevitably fruitless silence in response to his words made his grin return and, this time, in much greater force.
"Didn't think so." The young Hylian grinned, an infuriatingly smug quality spicing his grin and the tone in which his words were spoken with.
"Urgh! I hate you!"
With that the little guardian fairy, frustrated and defeated, turned her light to her front as she flew off as if to gain as much distance and space between the pair as she could.
"Ah, hey, c'mon!" Link threw over in a laughing grin, shrugging as if in some kind of half-victory. He shook his straw-haired head in his own sign of silent defeat however, his confident grin ever plastered across his face, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand while his right rested across his similarly small hip. "Why you gotta suck all the fun out of it...?" He murmured out in his shaking-headed smirk.
He rose his weapons to rest on his back as he usually did before picking up the pace to follow the little flying pixie.
"Ah! Welcome, welcome!"
All of Link's danger senses almost immediately tensed up and, as a result, so did he; when he caught the sound of the old woman's voice before him his fingers itched once more for the familiar steel of the Kokiri Sword. A face he never expected to see again, not at least for another seven years, sat ahead of him.
Kotake of the Gerudo's Dragmire dynasty.
"What's wrong, boy?" The old woman questioned him, raising a bushy eyebrow up at him in curiosity. "You look like you've seen a ghost! Ho-ho-ho!" She exclaimed into laughter, raising up her small left hand as she did.
Link's brow furrowed firmly as he examined her; she looked the same. Even right down to her robes and the big beautiful sapphire lodged in her forehead.
So why didn't she recognise him?
He couldn't help but think to the Twinrova sisters' last words to him in the alternate ruined future he had come from.
"We'll come back to haunt you!"
Their voices, once so distant and far-off, sounded all the closer now that he had very suddenly and painfully walked into plain view of her.
"Hey, this is our lead," Tatl huffed down at him from the air above the old woman. "Be a little more respectful."
"I like you!" Kotake claimed, turning her enthused grin on the hovering guardian fairy. "A youngster with respect for their elderly! What's your name little lamb?"
"I'm glad you noticed," the hanging little pixie smirked behind her light, clearly revelling in the treatment she received. "It's Tatl, miss overseer."
As the two shook hands in some odd sight of light meeting flesh the frowning-faced Link rolled his oceanic-eyed gaze in a comically annoyed expression of his own before very swiftly re-narrowing them forward in suspicion.
Is this an act, he thought.
Does she recognise me anyway and is staying quiet?
No... wait...
His recollection at last served him well; memories of doubled copies of people he had met in Hyrule appeared to be scattered around Termina.
It would appear this person was Kotake's Terminian counterpart.
His senses, at last, began to rest after having since walked in the potion shop.
"And what is your name young man?"
At seemingly being addressed the frowning Link rose both his eyebrows and his head, half-surprised.
"U-Um...," he murmured out, unused to being so startled. "It's... Link."
It felt odd to introduce himself to someone that, by all rights, should already know who he was.
But he supposed it was a hazard anyway of the ancient art of time-travelling.
"And so well-equipped!" The old woman smiled over at him, as if in reply to some kind of question he asked her. He found himself narrowing a single eye at her in scrutiny, his fingers very lightly grazing the hilt of his re-forged Kokiri Sword. "I certainly hope your parents made the right choice in sending you out like this!"
He couldn't help but twitch his quiet frown as he listened.
"They... wouldn't know," he answered rather tepidly in deep-seated contrast. "I've never met them before."
"Oh...," Kotake murmured out, blinking back as if in some sort of unknown curiosity. Finally, however, realisation sunk in and she widened her eyes at him. "Oh!" She exclaimed, wincing as she soon came to comprehend the boy's subtle play on words. "Oh I'm... very sorry, I didn't mean any off-"
"It's... fine," Link laughed off, shaking his head back at her in response. Although nervous he managed to cover up his embarrassment and, otherwise melancholic disposition, behind a wall of bravado. "I've been on my own for pretty much all my life." He added, his awkward smile very quickly blossoming into another of his overconfident grins.
Except I haven't been, have I, he added on silently.
If it wasn't for the Great Deku Tree and Saria... I probably would never have seen the light of day.
Tatl, though enraptured for the previous portion of the conversation, very soon fell into her rolling-eyed exasperation; a common reaction to his brash and brazen youthfulness.
"Ahhh, a familiar adventurer eh?" Kotake called out, her own grin soon re-growing on her wizened old face. "Your timing is impeccable!"
The standing Link very quickly lost his confident grin in favour of an unsure zig-zag frown, hesitant and reluctant.
"Y-Yeah...?" He chose to press her carefully, eyebrow raising up.
"I have this problem, you see..."
–
4
"I didn't expect this."
"Didn't expect what?"
Link's casual smile was the crux to the curiously-raised eyebrow on his face as he marched on through the light-green plains of the Woods of Mystery, just opposite of the Magic Hags' Potion Shop. Even as he sauntered so nonchalantly he tossed and caught the glass bottle of Red Potion that Kotake gave him in a vertical fashion, seemingly and somehow uncaring of all things.
"Well... this," Tatl responded in a curious frown as the pair of heroes stepped through into one of the many wooden trunks located throughout. Darkness, at first persisted, before eventually the sun's rays shone down on them as they re-emerged from within. "After she pressed you about your family I didn't see you taking this on, y'know," she continued on, raising a similarly curious eyebrow of her own. "To help her sister?"
Although the small guardian fairy, in her own subtle little way, attempted to put her own small strain on him he merely laughed her off, shaking his blonde-haired head back at her in response.
"You really don't know who you're dealin' with, do ya," he grinned smugly, his oceanic eyes briefly shutting as he marched on, effortlessly catching the fragile bottle of Red Potion as he did. The listening Tatl, hardly impressed, could only cast her unamused frown back down at him. "Well, I'll teach ya Tatl!" He exclaimed this time, re-opening his eyes as he swiped at the air; a final catch of the glass bottle that hung almost eternally in the air. "But it'll cost you." He added very quietly, his toothy grin successfully conveying the well-natured tone he intended to communicate.
The little guardian fairy merely rolled her eyes at him, exasperated and tired. "Shut up." She merely uttered out, hovering toward the next exit. Link could only chuckle in light victory before following.
He would have laughed in response; a quiet little sign of victory, but his eyes widened back open when a little mammal dropped down in front of him, surprising not only him but the normally calm-seated Tatl.
It was only when he realised the form before him was merely a little monkey of all things; his senses soon settled into a little grin, shaking his head down at the curious small form.
Damn thing near scared the hell out of me, he thought on.
"F-Follow me!"
Link's aquatic eyes widened and, in a mixture of sheer surprise and shock, could only stand locked to the grassy plain-land almost as if he were unable to move from the incredible discovery.
"D-Did that thing just-?"
"Get moving!"
When he clocked Tatl fly off furiously after the suddenly-running little monkey Link grimaced strongly before breaking out into a similarly abrupt sprint.
"Is there a reason we're running?!" The wide-eyed Link exclaimed out with as he attempted, almost in vain, to follow the surprisingly quick little mammal; as it came toward one of the many forest thick trunks it veered off very abruptly toward the opposite direction and Link rolled his eyes in growing frustration as it did.
Now I know how Navi used to feel when following me, he thought to himself.
"Zagreb!"
The surprised-faced Link could only swing his straw-haired head in the direction of the strange little voice that echoed alongside the sudden swishing sound it gave off; a small turtle, perhaps around the size of himself, began to twist at an incredible speed before shooting off toward him.
Thank Din I'm quick, he thought.
"In the name of the Sainted Three is that?!"
"A Snapper!" Tatl called over her shoulder in response, her soprano telling and annoyed as she burst off with speed to follow the little monkey in a worried frenzy. "Just keep running!"
And keep running he did.
Eventually, after running through what felt like countless trunks of hardwood, the two heroes managed to come out on the other side successful in their dogged pursuit. Spent from the unannounced marathon, Link could only expel gasps of effort as he drooped the upper half of his body to rest his small hands upon his similarly small knees.
"Damn... monkey...," he gasped out. "Next time... gimme a...," he tried out, eyes shut. "Warning..."
"Ow-ow-yeow!"
An old woman's voice, so eerily familiar, managed to make him raise his head out of his fatigue. Suitably surprised once more however he narrowed his sea-shaded eyes at the sight that lay before him; what looked to be the Terminian counterpart to his old foe from Hyrule.
The ruby-sporting Koume lay on the ground, dressed in similar wear to her twin sister back in the Magic Hags' Potion Shop.
"A-Ah! You there, boy!"
His fatigue seemingly forgotten about fairly quickly Link rose a curious eyebrow up into his forehead as he stared down at the fallen form.
Even after his initial meeting Kotake he was still on edge in dealing with Twinrova.
I'm probably just being overly cautious, he thought.
"Y-You wouldn't have happened to have seen a child around here would you?"
Her question, so obvious, could only make the listening Link grin very lightly as he exchanged a wordless silent look with the rolling-eyed form of Tatl next to him.
"Not you!" She snapped at him angrily. "An opportunistic little brat dressed in leafy clothing... and the most peculiar kind of mask."
Koume's words had at last managed to gain his full attention; he lost his lightly-amused grin and swung his surprised-faced frown down on her, listening intently.
"I-I was just busy, minding my own business, picking mushrooms here," she gasped in a saddened frown. "When... bam!" She exclaimed suddenly, smashing one of her free thin fists down on the leafy ground below, as if for effect. "The little punk ambushed me!"
For all I know this incarnation of Koume and Kotake are both fairly honourable, the frowning Link ruminated on silently.
So why is it so hard to shift the guilty satisfaction I feel on seeing this?
I guess it's only natural.
"That pesky Skull Kid!" She hissed out angrily, her eyes narrowing as she cursed. Link's brow furrowed, recognising the name of his foe. "Did he think an old hag wouldn't recognise him with that absurd mask on?!"
Although he wanted to warn her, just in case she planned on retaliating for her assault, he chose to stave himself off to listen further.
"I realise I'm probably requesting too much when I ask you this," she began, a similarly unsure tone filling her voice as she spoke. "But do you possibly have anything that provi-?"
Link merely interrupted the old woman's speech with a wordless grin as he reached into his clothing to pull out the glass bottle of Red Potion that Kotake previously gave to him. He extended it forward and tilted his grinning head back at her; a silent offer for the fallen old woman. She widened her eyes over at it, suitably impressed, and even sniffed at the air surrounding it as if entranced by its intoxicating scent.
"Ah! That colour!" She exclaimed, eyes widening before swiftly narrowing in scrutiny. "That smell...," she murmured out before she reached forward. With shocking speed in her dexterity she managed to swipe the treasured glass bottle from his grip, eliciting a raised-eyebrow grin from the watching youth. "It's definitely Kotake's!" She hissed out, eyes widening down at the life-gifting concoction in her grip. She reached down and, with her finger and thumb, pried open the bottle's wooden stopper before swiftly rising the bottle up and effectively downing its contents.
Link could only watch in a certain state of amusement as the old woman glugged and near-choke on the beverage. When it seemed that she had finished she let out an exclaiming sigh and, with it, a cloud of hot-crimson followed through it; a sign that the powerful broth had done its work.
"Ooh! Feel the energy flow!" She exclaimed, reaching up into the air as she, seemingly, regained her stature. "Koume is revived!"
The old witch narrowed her eyes as she began to form Aegir within her two-handed grip and, like magic, a broom of all things suddenly appeared to cart her form. The lightly-grinning Link swiped at the air as the glass bottle came flying over at him from the sheer force of the woman's blow of Quintessence.
"You saved me!" Koume exclaimed, turning her grey-haired head 'round to face him as she rested atop her hovering broom. "Whether it was Kotake that sent you I won't ask...," she spoke, shaking her head as she did. "But I appreciate it regardless!"
"Just doin' what's right," Link at last spoke, breaking his silence with a shut-eyed grin; as he rose his hands to rest behind his green-capped head in a rather carefree manner, the watching Tatl found her own eyes swiftly rolling as befitting her earlier frustrations with him. "I'm sort of cleanin' up the place after that Skull Kid." He admitted, re-opening his eyes as he closed his mouth to his confident smirk.
"Oh, is that so?" Koume pressed curiously before chuckling on. "Well, either way, it was very nice of you," she smiled this time as she floated on amiably before him, her side facing him. "I'm the Southern Swamp tour guide you see and, if ever you find yourself in our neck of the woods again, please don't hesitate to come by!"
With that the old hag turned and laughed, seemingly almost maniacally, as she swivelled 'round to suddenly fly off with surprising speed indeed. Link turned similarly to watch her go and cupped both hands to the two sides of his mouth, as if to amplify his response.
"I'll be there! Wait for me!"