Tears rolled down my face all the way home.
As I pulled up into the driveway, I saw Zelda sitting on the front step, clearly waiting for me. She stood up as I left my car and approached the door. She opened her mouth, probably to ask how it went, but didn't get any noise out. I suppose my distraught face and slight shake of my head was enough.
I went up to my room and laid down on the bed, not caring that Zelda had followed me up and was sitting on my desk chair, before letting myself fall apart. It's not easy to make me cry, but this got the better of me. I couldn't help but curl up and sob into my arms. After a while, I felt Zelda's hand rest on my back. She didn't say anything, didn't offer any words of comfort, just sat and offered her silent support. It meant more than I could say, and I let myself continue to cry until I fell blissfully asleep.
Even with only about a week of school left, it didn't take long for the whole school to learn that Hyrule High's "perfect couple" had fallen apart. Rumors swirled about the exact nature of the breakup and a number of girls approached me trying their luck with the infamous Link, but they were turned away by either my friends, foremost being Zelda and Shade, or with my own flat rejections.
The one thing I made sure of was that our friends understood that they shouldn't pick sides. Not that they could have, since missions to save the world weren't exactly the kind of thing I wanted everyone weighing in on, but I still tried to make sure they didn't shun Cremia because of me. I think Cremia probably did the same thing, since, even though she was hurt beyond belief, she still didn't have a malicious bone in her body.
The last week of school and finals passed, and suddenly school was over. I had done it. Though I was still hurting, emotionally and physically from my continued training, I couldn't help but be happy that I had survived the seemingly eternal torment that was high school.
Our big graduation event took place on the Sunday after school ended. Our graduating class was about 200, so we fortunately didn't have to listen to too many long speeches before we all got our diplomas, each of us tramping up to the stage in our long robes to get our papers, shake the headmaster's hand, have a quick photo taken, and get down so the next person could be called. It was a nice feeling, but there was too much ceremony for my liking.
Just as Vatti was going up the steps (how the hell did that lazy ass graduate?), every hair on my body stood on end, right before a massive shaking started. I vaguely notice that Vatti had fallen off the stairs and was sorely rubbing his butt. Serves him right, pompous jerk. After a nervous moment, the rumbling calmed down, leaving nothing but a bunch of shaken up parents. I made eye contact with Zelda across the room briefly, both of us knowing the sudden quake signified something much more dangerous.
We were running out of time.
The ceremony went on, but I couldn't focus; even when they asked all the graduates to come to the stage for a group picture, I was zoning out. Thank goodness Zelda and Sheik were there to shove me into position so I wasn't standing there with a vacant expression on my face.
Thankfully, the ceremony ended, and the string of friends and well-wishers kept me occupied. The celebratory party that was thrown at our house did an even better job. Zelda never seemed far from me, and we frequently made eye contact, but I honestly couldn't tell if we were doing it on purpose or by accident. I saw Cremia a few times as well, but we both subtly kept our distance. Of course, some of her closer friends were considerably less subtle, but you can't win them all. Sheik, Shade, and I tried to keep the noise down and the alcohol away, which we at least partially managed to do. Thankfully, it was a warm night and the party largely stayed outside and let Hunter sleep. Besides, there's nothing like partying on a Sunday night knowing you have all the time in the world to sleep in the next day.
By the time everyone had left, it was well past two in the morning, and after a half-hearted attempt to clean up and walking Zelda home, both of us dead on our feet, I stumbled up the stairs and fell asleep. But not before ensuring my alarm for the next morning was turned off.
I didn't know exactly what time I woke up the next morning to the sound of my phone ringing, but I knew it was far too early. I groggily rolled over to see Zelda's blurry face on my phone. Knowing I wasn't going to be able to ignore this, I answered, doing my best to keep under the covers as much as possible.
"Mhuzup?" I muttered into the speaker. Conversations when running on not enough sleep are not my forte.
"Link? Are you still in bed?" Zelda asked, seemingly incredulous. I grunted out some noise of assent, hoping she would let me go back to sleep. I vaguely heard Zelda sigh with a huff. "Get up and get over here, fast. I think that earthquake last night triggered something with the fountain. You need to see it, there's some sort of…shield or barrier around it."
This caught my attention and I catapulted out of bed and strode into my bathroom. "Give me ten minutes," I said hurriedly, already stripping out of my clothes.
"Good. And Link…" I paused my mad struggling with my boxers to hear her better. "Bring your sword." She hung up, leaving me still for half a moment before finishing removing my clothes.
I didn't so much shower as got wet, soapy, un-soapy, and un-wet really fast. In four minutes, I was downstairs, blowing past a surprised Hunter and Sheik, grabbing a bagel, and sprinting out the door to Zelda's house, strapping my sword across my back as best I could with one hand while sprinting.
True to my word, I was knocking on Zelda's door eight minutes after I had gotten up. As I waited for her to come to the door, I looked towards the fountain in Nayru Park. Like Zelda had said, there was some sort of barely visible barrier around the fountain, about fifteen yards in diameter. It strained the eyes to focus on it, like it was reluctantly visible. I was relieved when Zelda opened the door and distracted me from my staring contest with the fountain's barrier.
As soon as she opened the door, her eyes squinted in confusion as she looked me up and down. "What are you wearing?" she asked. I wasn't quite sure what she meant until I looked down.
In my frantic desire to get out the door, I hadn't paid much attention to what I put on. I was wearing a faded, old but durable pair of jeans tucked into one of the thickest pair of boots I owned, a pair I usually reserved for days I helped Cremia out at Lon Lon Ranch. Over that, I had a somewhat loose green short-sleeved shirt over a lightweight long sleeve. Over my hands, I had a pair of leather-ish fingerless gloves that I thought might be Shade's. I could also feel my longish hair, which I had neglected to cut in the past few weeks, tied back so it was out of my face. The funny thing was, instead of feeling awkward or out of place, what I was wearing felt right, natural even.
Shaking ourselves out of our thoughts, Zelda and I stepped back into the house. I half noticed Zelda was dressed much more normally, wearing a light pair of skinny jeans and a blouse-shirt thing.
"Why are you dressed like that? I expected you to show up in whatever you could find, but you look like you actually wore something practical." She looked me up and down again. Was that…admiration? Appreciation? Not the point.
"Honestly, I wasn't paying attention to what I put on." Zelda looked at me in disbelief but dropped the subject. "Have you checked out the fountain yet?" I asked.
"No, I wanted to wait for you to get here. I only noticed right before I called you, and I've been up since 8." At my inquisitive look, she added "It's about 11:30 now."
"Want to go take a look then?" She nodded, put some shoes on and we went outside. Fortunately, I didn't see anyone else as we walked across the street to the fountain. Explaining why I was carrying a sword might be a bit tricky.
We stopped just short of the barrier encircling the fountain. I grabbed a stick off the ground and poked at the barrier, surprised when the wood went through it with no problem. I looked at Zelda, shrugged, and poked it with my finger before she could stop me.
Fortunately, I didn't explode, just felt a bit tingly. Zelda made some sort of squawking noise before she noticed I was fine. Taking a deep breath, I pushed more of my hand, arm, and finally my body through the barrier. Inside the barrier, the air had the same unnatural stillness Zelda and I had felt there weeks ago. I turned around to see Zelda looking at me apprehensively.
"Seems alright. It's like a persistent dead zone."
"Interesting," I heard Zelda say, her voice slightly distorted, presumably by the barrier. She reached out to touch the barrier, but quickly removed her hand with a hiss of pain.
"What?" I asked, concerned.
"I don't know. I got that feeling like when your leg falls asleep, but really intense. I couldn't push through the barrier either." Confused, I walked back and forth across the transparent wall a few times, but I didn't feel anything like what she was describing and could walk through just fine.
" It must be recognizing you as the Hero, letting only you through," Zelda said, clearly thinking hard, but also disappointed. An idea came to me and I held out my hand.
"Here, take my hand, let's see if this works."
I slowly walked through the shield again, going slowly. Zelda tensed as our grasped hands approached the shimmering barrier, but slowly relaxed when first her hand, then her arm, and the rest of her passed through with no problem. She breathed a sigh of relief when she was entirely on the fountain side, before realizing she was still holding my hand. She seemed to get flustered and…was that a blush? She quickly removed her hand from mine and moved towards the fountain, which was still bubbling merrily, despite the unnerving stillness.
As we approached the fountain, I felt the now familiar twinging in my left hand. I looked down to see the symbol of the Triforce shining on the surface of the glove. As we continued to approach the fountain, I could see the symbol becoming more and more distinct.
Finally reaching the fountain basin, Zelda pointed out a matching glowing Triforce on the central pillar of the fountain. With no other clue as to what to do, I stepped into the water and pressed my left hand against the glowing emblem on the pillar. A loud humming pierced the still air before the water coming out of the fountain stopped, leaving the basin to quickly drain, revealing the entire basin to be covered in what looked like blue glass, except it worked more like a mirror, reflecting everything in a bluish hue.
My attention was quickly drawn to a portion of the basin that lowered slightly with a loud thud before lowering itself more to form stairs going down. Torches lit the new stairs intermittently, leaving enough light to ensure the steps were mostly visible.
Zelda, who had climbed in to stand next to me, peered down the passage, probably trying to see further down, but the curve of the stairs blocked her view. We both shrank back as something that sounded suspiciously like skittering echoed up the gloomy tunnel. Zelda and I looked at each other with matching faces of consternation.
"Well," Zelda said apprehensively. "Shall we?"
This was probably going to suck.
Well, holy moly guys, looks like there is an actual plot to this after all. 'Does this mean we can get over this boring relationship crap and get to some fighting?' I hear you asking. Yes, yes it does. It's finally dungeon time. So that'll be a few chapters, and then we get some more good stuff. Fun fun, can't wait.
Speaking of fun toys, got a new computer today. Say what you will, Microsoft knows how to make a sweet computer-tablet-thing. Ideally, this will allow me to do more writing than ever, giving you guys more story to read! Great news all around!
Reviewers, ready for your special treatment? Shadowlord, I really want to be pissed at you, but that's the sort of thing I would do, so I really can't be too mad. Ultimate, I appreciate your enthusiasm. Yes, you certainly are. As far as the villain goes...you know, I'm pretty sure my house is bugged now because of you. You're going to have to wait to see just like everyone else. Nightwing, as much as I want to argue with you, you're not wrong. But he's better off without her, as you and pretty much everyone else already knows (Ultimate most of all). Maya, glad it made you laugh. Men, in case you didn't know, are generally idiots. (I'm assuming you're a girl from your username and such. If I am incorrect, then this is something you already know.) Guest,...thanks, I guess. Next time, please use an actual name and say something of worth.
And here's your PSA for all you would be reviewers. If you're not a member on this site, sign up. It takes two minutes, and lets you post reviews really easily and even lets you get emails any time your favorite stories are updated *ahem ahem this story ahem ahem*. If you aren't sold on that and still want to leave a review, please put in a name of some sort so I can actually reply to you. Don't want to be an ass, but I like what we have going here and I don't want to ruin it. So sign up and review away.
With that out of the way, I'm going to get to the next chapters. There'll be two or three of our duo in the dungeon and then we'll get some exciting newness. If that sounds familiar, that's because its the same lie I've been feeding you for a few chapters now! Oops, not supposed to say that! Enjoy and review!
-Aro