Chapter 23: Forgotten Union; One Last Errand
Tryst of the Scorned Lovers Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best" - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.
"The Four Giants' Theme" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 1 (First Half)
"#4 - Clocktown" - Theophany (Time's End ~ Disc 2). Scene 2 (First & Second Halves), 3 (First & Second Halves) and 4 (First & Second Halves).
"Tatl & Tael" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 6 (Second Half).
In an incredible deluge of mystery and forgotten legends, Link and Tatl manage to uncover information not just about the once powerful tribe of people that created Majora's Mask, the forgotten ones, but of themselves as well.
Drawn all across the walls of Stone Tower and Rockvale are portends to the future. Crude child-like etchings not just of earlier events, such as the Skull Kid, but of future ones as well; Link's horror and puzzlement can only broaden as he finds drawings of himself as an adult youth but with oddly different markings and differences around him.
Face-paint, silver hair and a dark-like terrible strength that would make even Hyrule's formerly-ruined king Ganondorf tremble; a power that Gomess herself called, 'the Fierce Deity'.
"That shadow that stalks under you... that is your link to the name... 'Akuma'."
In the words of the last Garo, Yoshiyuki Miyazaki, it would seem that connections between not just the devil second side of himself, Kage Narumono collide, but with the forgotten ones' legends of this 'Fierce Deity' and the names 'Oni' and 'Akuma' as well. According to the last agents of the forgotten ones, Link's destiny is but a mere double helix. One in which he will, without failure, give in to the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai; the chaotic Aegir and magical energy residing within the holy Triforce itself.
While he nearly loses himself to his despair, having lost the missing Navi, – the Great Deku Tree's last remaining trump card against the Shinzui – he takes heart in himself after utilising his own powers with the 'Giant's Mask'. Once a forgotten piece of equipment that enlarges and enriches the size and strength of one wearing, it but at great cost of massive use of Aegir, stamina and life-force itself.
Although the Hero of Time is near completely spent from the clash with Twinmold, the very battle itself takes root in his heart; having won the extremely challenging engagement not with the Shinzui's power but his own gives him the confidence and free will with which to change his very destiny, once said to be a mere double helix by the remaining forgotten ones. In great spite to his original intention in finding Navi, once long-thought to be the source of his strength to chase away the Shinzui, he has at long last found something more valuable even than her.
He has found... hope.
Scene 1
The blue-haired boy gasped as he ran in the opposite direction of North Clock Town, fear triggering the perspiration that had filled his body.
Can't believe I got mugged, he thought.
Me of all people.
Anything can happen when you look like this though, he added silently, his run devolving into a simple walk as he looked down at his new form.
Having attempted to make his way to North Clock Town's recently-restored Great Fairy for advice after being afflicted by a nearby masked Skull Kid, the young man had gotten assaulted and mugged by a prancing man.
I know who he is, the boy thought, jogging down South Clock Town's light bridge leading up to North and West Clock Town.
A bald man normally skulking around the northern borders of Clock Town.
"Wish I knew his name though... maybe Sanford can help me."
With that thought carrying him on, he turned himself into West Clock Town's main entryway, his destination; the Curiosity Shop.
"It's already 9:30," he thought, his much smaller legs pounding the pavement. "He should still be setting things up..."
As he entered into the darkened streets of West Clock Town he stepped by the shadows to avoid talking to the nearby walking Bomber.
Last thing I want to do is get recognised, he thought.
Even by the town's kids.
Because if the kids see me... then so will Anju eventually.
Unused to his new child-like form, the youth managed to lose his footing and tripped as he attempted to climb up the dirt-like pathway ahead, gasping as he did.
"What the...? Kafei...?"
He turned his messy-haired head up to widen his ruby-red eyes up at the man's voice and, sure enough, there he stood at the Curiosity Shop's entrance; Heath Sanford. Dressed in his tell-tale tiger-striped vest and blue plaids, he looked more suited to fishing than selling goods.
Just as the listening Kafei remembered as well, he wore a pair of sunglasses, almost as if to conceal his own identity as Curiosity Shop manager.
"What in the name of-? Why-?" Heath began, shaking his half-bald head of hair as he did, chuckling as he stepped forward to issue a hand forward.
Kafei, of course, took it gladly; he grunted as he was pulled back up and he rubbed himself down of all the dust that had grown on his person as a result of his fall.
"Come on...," Heath started again, eyes narrowing as they scanned their surroundings suspiciously. He gestured for the boy to follow him as he did, walking backward toward his place of business. "Better indoors than out at this rate."
Needing no further motivation Kafei, of course, followed.
Just as with the other three before it, the party's surroundings were filled with a milky kind of air and bubbles that looked somewhat familiar.
They were in a resting place of the last Terminian giant.
"Well, we've helped all of you now," Tatl began, a light sigh of exertion present in her tone as she finished her next sentence. "That's all we can do."
MOAN-MOAN...
"C-A-L-L U-S... that's what they're saying."
Tatl's quick-eared translation did little to ease the hard-eyed expression on the listening Link; he stood on the platform offered to them, arms folded.
"Okay... we understand," the little guardian fairy nodded her small bulbous form in response. The giant watched over from his perch in the clouds, huge arms at his sides. "So, now... you'll help us out in exchange! We'll call you from the Clock Tower, so we need you to do something about the Skull Kid! We can't stop him by ourselves!"
Link remained silent as he had done before, his eyes narrowing and brow furrowing in what appeared to be concentration. Even as the last giant moaned its reply to them, he still couldn't seem to work it out; he swung a glance Tatl's way and rose a blonde eyebrow as he did, his exposed ponytail of blonde hair whipping with him as he did.
"T-Their voices, they sound so... sad...," Tatl murmured out, hovering her form a little closer before re-opening her mouth. "Don't you want to help us?!"
MOAN-MOAN...
A bright light filled the area and engulfed the very area in which the heroes stood in, drowning them only in the last giant's words.
"F-O-R-G-I-V-E Y-O-U-R F-R-I-E-N-D... forgive our friend? What do you mean? What friend?!"
–
2
DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY
-65 Hours Remain-
"So, tell me again...," Tatl started, a sigh evident in her soprano. "Why are we just waiting here again?"
Link re-opened one of his shut eyes and rose them up to face her, his form folded-armed and leaning softly against the outside of the Stock Pot Inn entrance.
"It's-" He began, turning his brief frown down on a watch issued to him by the governmental Terminian authority, as if to assure the time before re-facing her. "1:45 now..."
"Uh huh?"
"And what happens in the Stock Pot Inn between 1:50 and 4:00pm on the First Day?"
Tatl could only blink, legitimately unsure and taken aback.
"U-Um... Anju delivers lunch to her mother in law...?"
He couldn't help but tilt his newly-gained capped head to the side and chuckled. "Yeah...," he answered in an accepting nod. "That's one of the things that happens... but not the one I'm lookin' for."
She rolled her eyes, sighing a second time in frustration. "Fine, what happens between 1:50 and 4:00pm?"
His grin widened a little as he nodded his head in the direction of the door next to him; the entrance itself. As he opened it up via the doorknob, Tatl poked her form through with him.
"Yep, quiet as a library...," Link began, a grin re-growing on his young complexion as he beheld the inside of the Stock Pot Inn's reception. "Just like I remember."
"Okay but this still doesn't-"
He rose up a finger to silence her softly, grinning on as he did.
"Have faith, my friend," he answered on, a bold tone evident in his tenor. "We're time travellers... after all."
SHHHHIIIIING...
The sound of a transformative mask shone outward as the light itself overtook his form until, soon, only the large figure of Darmani the Third remained.
"What...? What does this-"
"Ah-ah-ah," the grinning Link reiterated with a second raise of his finger, this time a chunky and rocky one. "Faith."
Just as he finished his sentence, the frowning Anju at last returned from her endeavour, as fruitless as the last time she had embarked it appeared.
"Ah... welcome... to the Stock Pot Inn."
Having noticed his lumbering but friendly-smiling form nearby, Anju's eyes briefly widened before they shut as she bowed forward in respect, as a service to a customer.
"Um... would you be... wanting... to stay the night, perhaps...?" She ventured to ask, a kind of unsure look present in her eye; it was something the grinning Link saw and knew to take advantage of. He nodded.
"Yep! That's me-goro! Link-goro!" He spoke. Even within his Darmani form, his tenor having been deepened significantly, he took measures to deepen it even further as if he were impersonating someone else.
Tatl could only watch him in curiosity, an eyebrow rising up as she did.
"Oh! Thank the Four...," Anju gasped out, joining her hands together as she bowed forward a second time, perhaps this time in gratitude and relief. "You must be the Goron checking in today... let's see... 'Link-goro'...?"
"You betcha!" Link shot back, his grin ever present on his face. It was only when he failed to add his subject's habit of adding suffixes to his sentence however that he briefly winced before re-opening his mouth. "Uh, goro!"
Anju laughed, tucking a lock of her auburn hair back as she did. "Sorry to have kept you with the inquisition Mr. Goron... ah I mean... Mr. Link-goro! Welcome to the Stock Pot Inn!" She smiled. "Your room is the 'Knife Chamber' on the second floor...," she began again, reaching down into the front desk's openings beneath her, presumably for the key. "Here's your room key sir." The young woman finished, raising up the small apparatus and hovering it toward him. As he pried it from her fingers he grinned down at it in light examination.
Simple enough, he thought.
Just like I remember.
"Please... relax." Anju ended the conversation with a third bow, seemingly the norm for the service she provided.
As the door opened next to them, however, the grinning Link swung his head to its direction and the look on his face only widened. He offered Anju a final nod before walking off toward the staircase and standing behind cover, presumably to remove the Goron's Mask from himself.
SHHHIIIING...
POD-POD-POD-POD
'Rounding back from the corner he stood at, Link folded his arms in his light grin as he watched and listened to the resident postman slowly approach the reception desk.
"Right on time..." He murmured out in his light grin.
"Link how is this helping in-?"
Just as before, he offered Tatl a raise of his left index finger. She rolled her eyes in a frustrated sigh.
"Ah! W-What is... what is this?!"
Anju's sudden exclamation only made the watching postman crease the frown on his face; clearly perplexed and slightly annoyed by her shock.
"It's today's mail!" He offered with a nod, gesturing toward the piece of paper hidden within its envelope hanging in his grip. "Take it, please!"
"N-No, wait!" Anju called out again, lowering her hands to rest at her centre. "This letter... w-where did-?"
The postman drooped his eyes, his patience wearing thin. "The postbox."
It was Anju's turn to appear frustrated; she groaned and rolled her eyes in response before re-opening her mouth. "T-That's not what I mean!" She gasped out desperately. "From the postbox where?!"
The postman furrowed his brow at her, as if in suspicion before briefly wandering his eyes away from hers as he answered. "From the postbox... somewhere."
"Argh!" Anju exclaimed, her soft featured quickly turning into an annoyed scowl. "That's not what I mean!"
The postman didn't seem to notice or, if he did he kept it to himself, and instead merely left the letter on the desk before facing her and saluting before turning to leave.
Seemingly the signifying gesture for his profession.
Anju let out a soft sigh of frustration and sadness through her nose as she watched him leave, rejoining her hands together. Link couldn't help but chuckle as he shook his head, his arms folded as he leant against the wall in likewise watching.
"Okay but how's that going to-?"
Link grinned in the hovering and curious Tatl's direction, reaching back presumably for another mask to wear. "Watch."
With that he donned 'Kafei's Mask'; a piece of face-wear given to him by Clock Town's Madame Aroma in his search for the missing young man. As he began to approach the desk she widened her eyes once more and shot her hands up to her mouth, almost as if to block the incoming gasp of shock, perhaps in witnessing the very mask itself.
"Y-You're also looking for Kafei? I-I have a request!"
As always, Link chose to smirk confidently beneath the mask he wore, placing a small hand to rest upon his hips as he listened on in respectful silence.
"Kafei... I have a clue... that will help you find him," she spoke before bowing, presumably one final time. "Tonight at 11:30, please come to our kitchen... we'll talk then."
–
3
NIGHT OF THE FIRST DAY
-54 Hours Remain-
"I still don't see what this is gonna help with when it comes to the missing Kafei..."
Tatl's exhausted sigh adorned the similarly tired tone her voice's words took. Only the sound of nearby bugs crawling, the far-off clock turning and a nearby wok boiling away echoed around them; the sounds of a busy but quiet inn late at night. Link leant his form against kitchen's table in the centre of the room in a folded-armed state, a light grin on his face as he did.
"I mean he's been missing for goddess knows how long... there's no feasible way that we can-"
"Faith, Tatl."
Almost as quickly as he politely and softly interrupted her did the frowning Anju step slowly into the room. As Link cast a quick glance at the turning clock in the kitchen he couldn't help but grin lightly.
She was half an hour late.
Seemed to be a thing with her, he thought.
"Not that it matters that much at least."
"I am sorry to trouble you so late at night... but it's about him... Kafei."
As she greeted him, seemingly somehow a subtle response to his silent-voiced thoughts, he nodded in reply. A light smile graced his own complexion as he stared on back at her, taking his form off the table behind him as he placed a hand upon his hip; an old habit.
"The letter I received... it was-"
"From him... right?"
This time, the bold-voiced sentence he spoke was filled with a confident-faced smirk; something that lightly surprised the watching Anju. She smiled wanly as she slowly recovered from the light surprise he gifted her with.
"Odd... isn't it? Getting a letter from a missing person...," she chuckled good-naturedly, briefly closing her eyes as she tilted her auburn-haired head before soon re-opening them as she re-straightened its position. "But there's absolutely no mistaking it's from him!"
Somewhat able to understand her suspicions and concern for her missing fiancé, Link could only smile and nod in response; a likewise weakened smile that told her all she needed to know.
"A-Anyway...," Anju began again, reaching back into her dress, presumably for some kind of item. "Here is my request... please... take this."
Sure enough, as she hovered it out to him, it was a letter.
"W-When he receives this... when my Kafei gets this...," she began again, her voice breaking as her hands shook. "Y-You should b-be able to meet with him!"
The standing youth could only smile back in response, a kind of saddened look in his cerulean-shaded eye as he reached forward to take the letter.
"Of course I'll deliver it for you," he answered in his understanding tenor. "I'll letcha know how he's doing." He finished, this time in his usual happy-go-lucky grin as he pocketed the letter in a final nod.
"T-Thank you...," Anju gasped out, bowing once again as if in gratitude. She clumsily wiped away at her tear-stricken face as she continued. "Thank you s-so much..."
DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY
-51 Hours Remain-
"Very sweet of you... but what next I wonder?"
As the grinning-faced Link leant his small form against the Laundry Pool's signpost and bell, resting his right elbow across its long and thin wooden handle, his other hand resting upon his hip. He placed his right leg similarly in a twisted relaxed state, hanging over his standing left.
"Have faith young one...," the mischievous-faced youth answered, briefly eyeing her as the sound of the nearby postman began to approach. "Have faith..."
As the postman made his final jog forward and reached the bell itself, he cast the standing Link a curious glance, eyebrow raised. Link winked back at him cheekily, grinning on as he did.
"'Sup?"
DRUNG-RUNG-RUNG-RUNG...
Opting instead to ring the nearby bell, the postman turned his suspicious-eyed stare toward the slow-opening door. Link traced his own gaze only to find the form of what appeared to be a small child, perhaps around his own physical age, pop out from inside the door. The standing Hylian's smile soon upturned into a satisfied-looking smirk; he re-opened his mouth to whisper his next words, answered only by his surprised-faced guardian fairy.
"Bingo."
"Oh...!"
Even as they spoke the frowning postman, dutiful as ever, resumed his light jog to cross the distance. As he stepped onto the hard-surfaced bridge ahead to meet the fox-masked boy ahead, so too did the mysterious child step forward to meet him.
"You have mail!"
Just as the postman spoke, a business-like tone in his light baritone, the blue-haired boy in the Keaton Mask merely stared back up at him and outstretched his left hand to take the letter from his similarly outstretched grip. As the watching Link witnessed the deed he couldn't help but run his thumb across his nose, as if in some form of satisfaction, a grin on his face.
"And so... do we."
–
4
As he stepped up the staircase laid before him, two in number, he found himself ascending circularly. Something the little Hylian noted to himself when he made the final approach to his right; the Keaton masked form of Kafei stood staring back at him.
This must be the back of the Curiosity Shop, the narrow-eyed Link thought.
"Green hat... green clothes...," Kafei began, his voice a surprising and off-putting deep baritone; something that did not suit the child-like form he inhabited. "Anju wrote about you in her letter... it looks to us as if you're looking for 'Kafei'."
Link shot the young boy a grin, raising up a blonde eyebrow as he did. "Who else?" He batted back, tilting his newly-gained hatted head to the side as he did, almost as if in full confidence. "Can you tell me who you are?"
At first, the blue-haired boy swung his fox-masked face 'round as if in searching, before soon turning back to face the grinning-faced youth. "Can you... keep a secret?"
"Do Keese scream in the woods?"
The watching masked boy could only blink behind the mask he wore before he chuckled into what sounded to be a smile; the first sign of cheer that the heroes noticed in their meeting.
"Anju trusted you...," he began again, nodding. "And I shall also trust you."
Surprising the watching Tatl, sure enough, he rose his small hand up to pull off the Keaton Mask to reveal his face.
It wasn't anything special but nice-looking enough for a young boy; similar looking to the watching Link. His ruby-red eyed gaze watched his own cerulean-shaded one suspiciously, almost as if for some form or sign of lying.
"I am Kafei." He at last introduced himself with, his brow furrowing concernedly as he spoke.
Although the grinning Link re-opened his mouth to respond to him with, normally in his usually-sociable fashion, the frowning-voiced Tatl beat him to the punch.
"The Kafei we're looking for is a man; an adult," she clarified, looking him up and down as she did. "When I look at you, I just see a child."
Perhaps annoyed by her tone, or the words in which she utilised in her sentence with, Kafei's frown twitched in irritation.
"Yes...," he lightly nodded. "I was turned into this by an odd boy, like you or I, wearing a mask."
Link's grin very quickly lowered and he slowly swung his head up to exchange a thoughtful frown with the listening Tatl; they both nodded, their suspicions set on the Skull Kid.
"But don't get me wrong..."
The pair swirled their heads back to their new contact, curious.
"I'm not hiding because I look this way...," the man-speaking-boy claimed, an irritated frown upon his otherwise mature-enough expression as he gestured toward his new body with what seemed to be disgust. "When he turned me into this, I sought counsel from Clock Town's Great Fairy at her shrine near the North Gate..." He finished in his hardening frown, re-raising his blue-haired head as he did.
Unwilling to restore his grin to his face quite yet, the frowning-faced Link rose up an eyebrow in curiosity as he listened respectfully.
"A man... skulking 'round the gate for travellers... was waiting for me," Kafei spoke, narrowing his fiery-red eyes in the inflection of his sentence; a signature of disgust and anger. "He managed to overpower me... I'm sad to say," he admitted, not without a degree of remorse and humiliation, twitching in his frown as he lowered his eyes. "And stole the one thing I can't buy back."
"Your pride?"
Tatl's knife-like soprano did its job; the listening Kafei shut his eyes and held his tongue back from shouting back in anger. Link couldn't help but wincing next to her.
Damn Tatl, he thought.
You can be savage as hell when you wanna be.
"A wedding ceremony mask that we in Termina use to get married." He spoke again, re-opening his eyes to face the pair. Link's head tilted as he frowned in curiosity, his memory going back to the odd tales of men and women joining hands together in his homeland of Hyrule.
Sure enough it matched up only they used rings.
Weird, he thought.
Maybe it's different for every continent and country?
"Well... you're just careless," Tatl spoke again, yanking the cringing Link directly out of his silent-voiced ruminations. "You're just like my partner."
This time the former Kokiri himself felt the stinging blow of her lacerating words; something he registered with an annoyed glance in her direction.
"I was so happy before all of this...," Kafei began again, a forlorn tone taking hold on his sorrowful baritone. "But that's exactly why this happened," he added, snapping his eyes open once more. "It's my own fault that, that degenerate got the chance to take advantage of me like that."
"I hear that," the grinning Link nodded. "Could be a lot worse th-"
"Oh my. I pity you."
Tatl's second interruption was enough to make the blinking Link expel an annoyed breath of air through his nose before briefly eyeing her in irritation.
"I know Anju is worried...," Kafei sighed, shutting his eyes as if in embarrassment, lowering his ocean-haired head as he did. "But I can't go out yet; I made a promise to her that I'd bring back my wedding mask... and see her..." He whispered, his eyes closed as if in further melancholy.
At last, however, he seemed to regain his morale and re-opened his eyes as he re-rose his head up to face the youth.
"Here... this pendant... give it to her for me."
As he spoke, he outstretched his left hand forward, bringing out what appeared to be an odd-looking necklace. The frowning Link plucked its hanging rope from the newly-masked Kafei, tilting his blonde-haired head at it as he did.
Didn't seem too important, he thought.
Then again...
This may be something from their childhood. Who knows?
Only they do for sure.
He back-pocketed the Pendant of Memories and flashed the masked Kafei a grin and an affirmative nod as he did.
"I'm sure it goes without saying, but...," Kafei began, shaking his fox-masked head as he did. "I need you to keep all of this a secret from everyone within these borders."
As before, the grinning-faced Hero of Time merely circled his index finger and thumb together into an 'OK' gesture, winking on as he did.
"The man that stole my wedding mask..."
Kafei's next sentence managed to make the listening youth drop his grin in favour of a curious frown. Sure enough, as he looked back up, the look on the blue-haired boy's face was one of assurance; a hardened desire filled with the motivation for revenge.
Link didn't quite fully understand it, even after his earlier adventures, but could at least recognise it when he saw it.
"He comes here... to this place to sell his stolen goods," Kafei claimed, gesturing toward the back storeroom they currently resided within. "He'll come back here...," he whispered this time, his voice growing quiet in his hard-eyed glare. "I know it."
The listening Link exchanged another unsure glance with the similarly silent Tatl.
"And when he does...," he began again, casting his ruby-red gaze toward a peephole on his right, up by a crate. "I'll be there to take it back."
"Nah."
Kafei couldn't help but furrow his brow in curiosity as he turned his head back to face his new ally. Link merely extended his newly-gained grin and nodded, outstretching a hand to be diagonally shaken as if in brotherhood.
"We'll be there to take it back." He corrected the young man's sentence. Kafei blinked once before he shook his head in a grin of his own, perhaps contagious, before leaning forward to youth's hand in his own.
"Okay, so I'm getting some of your thinking now..."
Tatl's words carried the young pair off toward East Clock Town, leaving a lingeringly-amused grin on the listening Link's face as he stepped up the staircase close-by to the shooting gallery.
"Obviously you've paid enough attention during these cycles to accurately predict what these people will do, but...," she began again, leaving him to raise an eyebrow, as if in curiosity. "I don't know what your end-game is here? Like, what's your goal?"
As things started to wind down toward 4:00pm, and on the Second Day at that, the comings and goings began to settle down even in the business sector of the city. Link found it rather easy to step through the quiet hubbub of East Clock Town; he cast the hovering Tatl a grinning-faced glance as he stepped past the centre of the area, and by the two crates hanging on each side, both hands resting under the belt in which he used to keep his tunic up.
"I mean what would you wanna do, Tatl?" He effectively batted her the question back, briefly eyeing her as they approached the Stock Pot Inn's main entrance. "Keep 'em split up... or...?"
As the door opened and shut behind them quietly, the standing Anju nodded her auburn-haired head up at them in noticing. Link similarly nodded forward in a gesture of respect before removing his hands from his belt and stepping forward to meet with the young woman.
"Oh... did you... meet him...?" She asked, her hands joined together in her centre. The tone of her mezzo-soprano suggested a disappointed and dreary one; something that the watching Link was glad to break.
He shot her the overconfident grin he had become known for before reaching back into his inventory and pulling out the Pendant of Memories he had received from Kafei mere minutes earlier.
"Ah!"
In a shocked and wide-eyed gasp Anju shot both hands to her open mouth, almost as if to quell down her surprise.
"I-It's from Kafei!" She nodded, reaching forward. She shakily fingered the necklace as if it were a newborn baby and smiled weakly, her lower lip quivering as she used her free hand to wipe away a tear at her right eye. "Th-th-thank you...," she gasped out, near unable to finish her sentence. A shuddering laugh escaped her as she brought the pendant to her chest, veritably embracing it as if it were Kafei himself. "So much!"
Satisfied with the reaction he received, Link nodded one final time before widening his grin and saluting her dutifully with his left hand.
–
5
"Now... you can't tell me that wasn't what you were lookin' for, surely?"
Having used the Song of Soaring to warp their way back to Ikana Canyon's dreary depths, the two heroes continued their discussion as they climbed back down the mountain, killing nearby Octoroks as they did. In meeting with the Curiosity Shop owner earlier in the day, a man by the name of 'Heath Sanford', they managed to receive the Keaton Mask and even delivered a parcel for Kafei's mother; Clock Town's coincidental city manager and wife to the town's 'Mayor Dotour'.
"Yeah; I'm happy with what I got," the grinning Link answered his guardian fairy, hopping across the frozen Octoroks and back onto the hardwood bridge resting across the rushing river of Ikana. "The 'thank you' was nice, I admit...," he began again as the pair started to climb up Ikana Canyon's last sight, a light shrug in his mannerisms as he grinned. "Even if I saw it coming." He finished, this time in a lightly victorious chuckle.
Tatl rolled her eyes in irritation; seemingly a normal response to the youth's tomfoolery.
It was only when the two caught the sight of a blue-haired fringe poking out of the trio of huge bricks laying at the end of the clearing that they dropped their sociability and narrowed their eyes.
This was it, the standing Link thought, his grin slowly re-growing on his face.
"Yeah... I think that's him." Tatl murmured out, somehow reading his very inward thoughts. He nodded his blonde-haired head in agreement before stepping ahead to continue his march forward, turning 'round the bricks to meet with the cerulean-shaded boy.
Sure enough, it was him; Kafei.
He must have followed Sakon all the way here, the grinning Link thought.
"I found him, green hat boy...," the hard-eyed Kafei began, eyes narrowed as he spoke. "He's using this place...," he started, nodding his blue-haired head toward the noticeably-large rock lodged into what seemed to be a cave behind the blonde youth. Link swung his head over his shoulder briefly to narrow his own eyes at it, watching and curious. "It's his safe house by the looks of things; he uses it to store all of his stolen goods."
"So we'll find what you're lookin' for... in there, huh," the standing Link spoke, furrowing his brow in light concentration, his smirk widening as if in satisfaction. "Great!"
"His name is-"
"Sakon."
This time the watching Kafei could only widen his eyes in shock, legitimately surprised by the youth's intimate knowledge.
"How...?" He asked, furrowing his own brow as if to quickly work out. "Green hat boy... I need to ask you."
"Link," the former Kokiri answered him, tilting his head as he re-faced him in his grin. "Name's Link."
"'Link'...," Kafei corrected himself with, narrowing only a single eye as he spoke. "How do you know of all of this...?" He questioned, half-suspiciously. The listening Hero of Time could only widen his eyes, realising his mistake.
I guess I could always rewind time back at this rate, he thought.
"But this is the last cycle that I wanna use..."
"It took me serious connections with a good friend of mine to even get this man's name, let alone the location of where he stays...," Kafei continued on, tilting his own head as he spoke. "How in the name of the Four Giants could you-"
The youth rose up his hands to rest behind his head in a carefree manner, flashing his usual grin as he responded. "I've been around; I've seen that loser prancin' 'round here so I figured he stayed close-by," he claimed, resting his left boot in between his other one. "It ain't hard to work out really."
"Hrm... yes... I suppose it is," Kafei agreed with hesitantly, tilting his head again as he did, almost as if to gauge the youth's boldness. "Anyway... I followed him here after he sold what he could to Heath but not after he got fleeced something awful," the young man grinned this time; a look of self-satisfaction upon his countenance. "He didn't like it."
Link chuckled, lowering his arms to fold them as he tilted his head. "I'll bet."
"At any rate... I believe my best course of action is sit and wait here," Kafei claimed, his grin soon vanishing in place of a simple frown, casting his frowning-eyed glance toward the rock-door waiting to their sides. "I imagine he'll eventually return here... and when he does..."
"Our best course of action."
Kafei turned his curious-eyed frown 'round on the grinning-faced Link. "Hm?"
The blonde-haired youth swung his head back 'round to face him and nodded. "Our best," he clarified in his nod, raising up his hand as if to be shaken a second time. Kafei couldn't help but smirk lowly, shaking his head as if in light amusement. "We're gonna crush that loser together."
"Thank you...," Kafei began in his grin, reaching forward to shake the youth's hand. "Link."
NIGHT OF THE FINAL DAY
-11 Hours Remain-
Having spent their time merely waiting behind the trio of stones sitting by the doorway, Link had found himself bored fairly quickly and by 7:00pm had nearly managed to unveil the hiding three purely through his own impatience.
"Shh! Stop; wait!"
It was only when Kafei's hushed whispering echoed out next to him that he widened his sea-shaded eyes and lowered his form to hide his body from view.
Sure enough, as he poked his eyes above the bricks, there he was; the prancing little man came dancing forward, his bald-headed skull turning to look as if for any prying eyes. Seemingly finding none he approached the large rock-door and knocked it an unspecific number of times. Kafei narrowed his ruby-red eyes from his perch in watching, almost as if waiting for his chance.
When Sakon found himself prancing into his own little hideaway it was time; the glaring-faced Kafei shot forward like an arrow from a bow, leaving the blinking Link sputtering and surprised.
"W-Wait! Too fast; hey!"
In spite of his protests, Link's new companion found himself rushing ahead; something with which he could identify with.
Even if it annoyed him.
He groaned as he gave chase to pursue the two.
–
6
When inside he looked around only to find numerous crates and vases being stored around the room he entered; seemingly the lobby itself. Other than that, however, the area was barren.
"Quick; come on!"
Link nodded in swift agreement, jogging forward to follow the flying little guardian fairy. "Yeah."
VWIP-DROOM
As the door vertically boomed shut behind him, so too did the iron bars surrounding the hardwood door, blocking their exit.
"Ah!"
As Tatl pinged her bright milky white, the pair of heroes clocked what got her so piqued; sitting ahead of them in their surroundings appeared to be an odd kind of chute and a mask hidden within its long glass casing. Sure enough, it was a mask golden in colour, just as Kafei had earlier described.
It was the Sun's Mask.
Perhaps overcome with the desire to regain it, the wide-eyed Kafei leapt forward as if to grasp at it. Realising that there was a small blue switch sitting just in front it, however, the wide-eyed Link extended a hand to catch the similarly-aged boy with.
"No, wait!"
CLICK
In a single movement the group had managed to trip a switch that was about to be their downfall; when Kafei stepped upon it so too did the room fill with the powerful sound of sirens knocking against the walls that they stood within.
"Now I've done it!" The red-eyed boy gasped out in his relatively deep baritone, grimacing as he did
Sure enough, as he spoke, the Sun's Mask began to slowly move forward on what looked like a conveyor belt behind the glass tube.
CLICK
As Kafei inevitably rushed off the switch toward the open door to his right it clicked a second time and, as it did, so too did the door drop back down in response.
"D-Damn!" He gasped out again, swinging his head 'round to look at the cause of his fast-growing panic. "S-Step on that switch!"
Although the standing Link attempted to re-open his mouth to respond nicely enough, the defensive Tatl pinged her milky light a second time as she spoke over him.
"How dare you order us around!"
"It looks as if it's a setup where the door shuts if pressure's not applied to the-"
"On it."
Politely yet firmly interrupting him, Link dashed forward to press his weight upon the switch that Kafei left so suddenly. Sure enough, as expected, the door rose up again.
CLICK-VWIP
As Link nodded in the hovering Tatl's direction she rolled her eyes and complied regardless by turning to follow the inevitably-running form of Kafei. When he stepped into the newly-opened room, he swung his gaze around and, sure enough, there just appeared to be large stones in the way; a puzzle, much as he had half-expected.
Unfortunately, however, his tension grew as the Sun's Mask very slowly slipped out of his grasp.
"It looks as if we'll have to ply our way through this blasted security system he has installed!" Kafei growled out, eyes narrowing at the slow-travelling Sun's Mask. "Damn you Sakon!"
Without another word he reached ahead and took one of the stones before pushing it forward, grunting with the effort as he did.
CLICK-VWIP
"Go!" Kafei ordered over his shoulder, eyes widened. The hovering Tatl left him with an annoyed glance in his direction, not without her own form of impatience.
"I don't like him...," she began as she levitated back into the standing Link's view. "But do we even have a choice here? Should we help him?"
"Of course we should," Link batted back, nodding his head upwards in a grin as he turned to jog toward the newly-opened door on their left. "It's the right thing to do."
Tatl couldn't help but drop the hostile mood she had managed to nurse over angrily in the past couple of hours, and it soon melted into a kind of infected happy-go-lucky melancholic smile as she watched her partner walk toward the room's Deku Baba and click his fingers.
CLICK
FRRRR
SQUEAL
In a terrified scream the poor little plant was burned to a cinder, leaving only a single Deku Nut behind in its agonising wake.
VWIP
"It's okay, go," the grinning-faced Link nodded his blonde-haired head upward at the following little guardian fairy as he stepped toward the locked door ahead of himself. "I'm-a wait here and see how long he takes to unlock the door for me." He cracked his joke with, folding his small arms as he leaned against the very door he spoke of.
Tatl, of course, rolled her eyes before turning in her flight path to follow the worried-faced Kafei.
As he stepped through his eyes narrowed suspiciously, darting around in quick search only to find numerous switches all waiting for him and shaded different colours; some gold, red but only one blue.
"Where is it...?" He murmured out frantically, a drop of sweat falling from his fringe as he spoke. He was careful to avoid the red-shaded switches and touched a few golden ones.
Sure enough, they appeared to slow down the conveyor belt considerably, allowing the distressed youth some much-required time to settle his nerves.
CLICK-VWIP
In a comical near-fall, Link's widened eyes predicted the gasp that escaped his lips as the door behind him swiftly opened before leaving him to drop. Thankfully however, thanks to his quick acrobatics, he arched his body backward into an awesome back-flip that saw him careering toward the two Deku Baba remaining in the next room.
SMASH-SMASH
SQUEAL
VWIP
Sure enough, as the Deku Baba were both killed, so too did the next door rise up in response; a pattern that the three heroes attempted to exploit.
"Shit..."
In his scowling and muttering curse came the twitching-eyed grimace that accompanied it; as Kafei stepped through the door he found a lot more stones in his way this time. Resting ahead appeared to be a genuine puzzle as opposed to the earlier ones.
For all I know the blue switch is under any of these stones, he thought.
"For all I know a red one could be for Four Giants' sake."
In pushing the stone closest to the door down one space, he prayed to the Four Giants and whatever deities may exist otherwise to help as he stepped forward on the next switch.
CLICK
VRRRR...
"N-No!"
"Calm down!" Tatl exclaimed over his shoulder, ever watchful and objective. "It'll be nearby, just keep moving!"
"Y-Yeah..." Kafei nodded in swift agreement, gulping down a load of saliva growing in his throat as if in a hectic calm.
He pushed forward the next block and, sure enough, a switch awaited it.
CLICK
VR-R-R-R-R...
This time the conveyor belt moved much more slowly. Kafei could nearly drop to his knees in relief.
"See?!" Tatl called out with, an odd kind of relieved smile of her own evident in her soprano. "I told you!"
"I've never been more thankful to be wrong..." He gasped out, shaking his head in a low-held chuckle.
"Come on, keep moving!" She ordered. "We're not out of the woods yet!"
Realising she was right, again, he stepped forward and grunted as he pushed the last block ahead.
CLICK
VWIP
Link swung his grinning-faced head in the newly-opened doorway before stepping through. Almost immediately a grey-furred form shot up from the ground, somehow able to camouflage itself within the tiles beneath.
AWOOOOOOO
It could only be a Wolfos.
"Come on Sakon...," Link chuckled, shaking his head in his overconfident grin. "At least give me a challenge..."
Almost as if angry in having its honour sullied and insulted, the Wolfos growled as it crossed the distance in a frenzied attempt to assault its provocateur.
SWISH-SLASH
In a pair of wild and impassioned swings of its claws, it saw its very form circling the other way; unfortunately for it, however, the grinning-faced Link's own form began to shimmer and fade.
A tell-tale sign of the after-image technique.
Re-appearing high into the sky, Link's grin carried him plunging downward, both hands gripped on the hilt of his Gilded Sword.
SLICE-SQUELCH
AWOOOOOOOO
VWIP
In a powerful series of victories the trio of heroes managed to open the way to the final chamber; as the last two doors opened, Link grinned as he sheathed his weapons and jogged forward to catch up with the running Kafei. Perhaps frantically and hurriedly, Kafei desperately leapt himself to the last switch in the room; a blue room. Opposite appeared to be a second one, also blue.
"Q-Quick!"
Link could only chuckle, nodding his head as he hopped forward. "On it."
CLICK-DRUNG
An iron plate hovered out of the conveyor belt as the pair of switches were pressed on, finally allowing the Sun's Mask safe passage.
"At last...!" Kafei called out, pulling the Sun's Mask up and toward the sky as if in victory. He pocketed it however when he realised he was still fighting their fast-descending time. "There's still time!" He exclaimed. "I must get back to town!"
DONG...
As the sound of Clock Town's powerful bell carried down from the south to east, Link rested his back against one of the small tables resting behind him. He folded his small arms as he waited in respectful silence with the sitting form of Anju; sure enough, having received the Pendant of Memories earlier, she decided to wait here for the returning figure of her former lover.
The standing Link couldn't help but wonder how she'd react on seeing him though.
CLICK
Just as he began to grow impatient the door next to them clicked open and, just as they thought, there he was striding in; the firmly-frowning form of Kafei. Anju's slow smile revealed the confidence she had in him. As he slowly approached her in his new and small form, she brought out the sister to his Sun's Mask; a kind of moon-like one, lunar in nature. She stood up from the bed she sat on and lowered herself to kneel down on his level; something that he was thankful for.
"I... I have met you before... haven't I?" She asked him, tilting her auburn-haired head at him half-curiously. Perhaps unable to look back into her own simple blue eyes, he swung his fire-shaded ones away from hers as if in shame. "Stop that..." She chuckled, leaning forward to use a free hand as if to pull his face back toward hers; though he frowned firmly back at her, one that made him look like he were scowling, he chose not to interrupt her. "We made a promise together... don't you remember?"
He rose his smaller right hand to rest on hers, similarly lying softly on his right cheek. "Of course I do," he answered in his hardened frown. "Masks of the sun and of the moon..."
Anju laughed, nodding as she pulled her hand back from his. "Yes!" She spoke enthusiastically. "We were to exchange them on the day of the Carnival of Time..."
"That's today, isn't it," Kafei responded, lowering his eyes as if in shame one last time before he swiftly re-raised them and hovered his right arm forward, almost as if to give further meaning to his next apology. "Anju... I'm sorry I'm so late."
Her smile widened a little and her lower lip quivered before she swiftly shook her head and tossed the Moon's Mask to the hardwood floor beneath her.
"Welcome home."
Needing no further cue, the standing Kafei dropped his frown into a similarly soft smile as he slid forward to wrap his arms around Anju's taller form. Link's satisfied smile carried him through; a happy-go-lucky look in his eye as a result of all of his hard work. Tatl, however, couldn't help but giggle as she watched.
"They're supposed to be lovers, aren't they?" The little guardian fairy asked him, almost as if for some kind of confirmation. Link slid his cerulean orbs 'round to eye her briefly in his smile before he re-faced the front. "They look more like mother and son than man and wife."
The listening Hylian couldn't help but grow his smile into a half-amused smirk as he did.
She had a way of ruining moments like this; something he regarded in a half-sighing silent thought to himself.
"Just when I started thinking about Malon and Zelda too..."
"Let's exchange our promised masks." Anju spoke in her smile as the two pulled apart from one another, reaching down to pick up her fallen Moon's Mask. Kafei nodded in his frown and frowned as he pulled back his recently-regained Sun's Mask before leaning forward into his partner's.
SHHHIIIIING...
In a dazzling flash of white light, only a single mask remained suspended in the air, slowly rotating before the heroes.
"We have exchanged our oaths and have become a couple," Anju claimed, her hands joined with the firmly-frowning Kafei. "You are our witnesses... please... take this mask."
As the newly-formed Couple's Mask very slowly levitated toward them, Link reached out his eager small hands for it, a grin of satisfaction on his face.
"B-But, what about you two?" Tatl sputtered out. "What will you do if-?"
Kafei exchanged his hardened frown with Anju's soft smile and they both nodded before gradually turning back to eye the pair.
"We'll be fine here," he answered her in his positive nod. "You've both done so much to help us and you don't deserve to die for that," he shook his blue-haired head. "Please... take refuge from Clock Town. We'll greet the morning... together."
After pocketing the last mask he had to gain, the grinning-faced Link very slowly and deliberately re-rose his straw-haired head to face the couple.
"Just you two wait there...," he advised in his confident-faced grin. Tatl couldn't help but rise up a curious eyebrow and swung her milk-shaded light down on him. "I'm gonna send that moon rockin' back." He finished, narrowing his right eye at the inflection of his sentence, drawing a pained look from the two adults before him.
They have no idea, he thought.
That this will be the last one.
As he turned to run toward the door Tatl gasped and bulleted forward to catch up with him.
"W-Wait!" She called after him. "We're not going to do this now?!"
"You damn right we are!" The enthusiastically-charged youth called over his shoulder, turning right for the Stock Pot Inn's west second floor door. As he pulled it near off its hinges and pulled on the Bunny Hood, he began to increase his speed.
"Y-You mean-?!"
"Yes!" He interrupted her in his grinning-faced nod, reaching the straw-shaped roof of the Stock Pot Inn. "This is it!" He claimed, his grin widening as he came close to the edge before eventually leaping off, his trajectory headed for South Clock Town. "The last cycle!"