Zelda and I sat in the Temple for a while after meeting with the Sheikah Elders. We had talked a little after the rather ominous declaration from the head monk, but he hadn't been forthcoming with much after his statement. He only alluded to the fact that we should return to the Temple after we had succeeded in the other two Trials. They had kept it short, leaving us back in the Temple's main chapel.
"So," I said in a half whisper. We were in a temple to deities we now knew were very real after all. Have to be respectful. "What should we do next?" Zelda leaned over next to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
"I don't know. I thought we would learn…I don't know what, but at least something. What we're fighting, how to fight it, anything. Instead, we know that I'm Hylia, which we already knew, that you can use your magic motorcycle, which we already knew, and that we have to do the Trial things, which we also already knew." At this point, Zelda was practically twitching in her seat, wringing her hands together.
"Hey," I said, grabbing her hands before she rubbed the skin off. "We knew this was a maybe. There was no guarantee we were going to learn anything here, but it was worth a shot. Now we've done it, we tried, and we have to move on. There's no point in thinking about things we can't change. Let's focus on what we can do." Zelda sighed and plopped her head back on my shoulder.
"You're right, of course you're right. I'm just frustrated. We've really gotten nowhere for months. We have a goal now, but what does beating some trials have to do with fighting evil? We're swinging in the dark with no idea if there's even anything to hit."
"We'll figure it out. After all, we've done this before. I bet there were a few times we had no clue what we were doing. For now, let's just head to the Farore Fountain. Hunter and Shade should be there by now. Maybe they found something new." I wasn't super confident in my ability to calm Zelda down, but it seemed to work.
"Okay, good idea." When she didn't move, I looked down at her as she stared at the massive statues of the Goddesses. She caught my eye briefly before looking back to the statues, cheeks just barely tinted pink. "In a minute." So we sat there, looking up at the Goddesses, wondering what in Hyrule they had planned for us.
Everyone thinks having a motorcycle is awesome. This powerful machine, nothing but two wheels and a precarious balancing act keeping you from being smeared across a quarter-mile of pavement. The thing they don't tell you is that, unlike your traditional boring car, there's no windshield. Which means the wind is going to take every opportunity to punch you in the face. It's exhausting.
Zelda and I drove up to the address Hunter had texted us, stepped off the Master Cycle, and just about fell over.
"Oh gosh, my legs…" I groaned.
"How do you walk? And why is everything spinning?" Zelda sat down on the curb, head in her hands and legs splayed out in front of her. I would have been more appreciative of the long, denim-clad limbs, but I was too busy pulling my helmet off my head and taking deep breaths of unobstructed air.
Once we had straightened ourselves out and were able to walk in a straight line, we found the room Sheik and Hunter were staying in, gave the two occupants the short version of our day, and promptly collapsed onto one of the beds. I ended up face first in a pillow and I'm pretty sure Zelda was half slumped on top of me, but I was so utterly drained I couldn't bring myself to care. I fell asleep within a minute of laying down.
I woke up at about midnight to find Hunter asleep on the other bed, Sheik laying on the couch messing with his phone, and Zelda curled up against my side, sleeping peacefully. It was obvious she was out cold, but it still looked peaceful. I pushed myself somewhat upright against the headboard, careful not to disturb Zelda's rest.
"Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakes," Sheik said, looking up from his phone. "Hungry?" At my nod, he chucked me a bag of Darmitos he had probably pilfered from a vending machine somewhere. Zelda snuggled closer to my leg. "So, did you hear anything Dad said earlier?"
"Honestly, I fell asleep so quickly, I had no clue Hunter even said anything." Sheik chuckled.
"That's kind of the way it seemed. Basically, we found the guardians of the fountain, a nice Zora couple that definitely didn't want to kill us for poking around the fountain. Had a nice chat with them, sorted out our differences, put away our knives. We're cool now, but damn, those fins can be really sharp. Remind me never to piss off Mikau. Anyways, we told them you two would be here tomorrow and/or today. They want to talk to you a bit before you head down into the abyss."
"Did they mention anything about what was down there?" I asked. Zelda stirred at my side before reaching into the bag and snagging a chip. Pretty sure she was still asleep though. She munched on the chip for a second before snuggling back into my leg.
"Nope," Sheik continued, completely ignoring Zelda's activity. "They didn't mention anything. So either they're keeping it under wraps, or they have no clue. My money's on the second one."
"Guess we'll find out." Zelda stirred awake at my side again, blinking blearily.
"Whuz happ'nin'? Why's it taste like chips?" It was hopelessly adorable.
"Don't worry about it Zel. Just go back to sleep." That seemed to be a good enough answer for barely awake Zelda, who did exactly that, wrapping her arms around my leg slightly as well.
"Aww, you two are cute," Sheik so helpfully offered from the couch. I glared at him in annoyance, but he couldn't seem to care less. "Should probably get some sleep. You've got a big day of crawling through underground labyrinths ahead and I have so many video games to get to. Going to be exhausting for both of us. G'night!" Oh, how I wanted to kick his ass. But that would probably require getting up, and I didn't want to disturb Zelda. After all, we wouldn't want that. Not when she's holding my leg lightly and pressing her torso against my calf and oh gosh shut up brain.
At that moment, I knew it would take me a while to fall back asleep.
For extremely cautious and slightly skeptical Zoras, Mozan and Trila were actually pretty nice. Of course, you had to get past their whole "going to kill you if you look at them the wrong way" demeanor, but they were cool, really. They didn't seem to believe that I was the Hero until I walked through the barrier surrounding the fountain like it was made of tissue paper, at which point they seemed to accept that I was the real thing. Before that though, it was anyone's game.
Of course, they didn't much like the idea of Zelda going into the Trial with me either, something about how it wasn't right and not the way it was intended, but Zelda let loose a few sparks from the Fire Rod she was carrying and shut them up pretty quickly about that too. It also helped that I had already dragged her through the barrier, cutting the Zoras off from attempting to stop her. Eventually, they seemed to give up and stood a little way away, leaving Hunter and Sheik to see us off.
"I'd say not to get yourselves into too much trouble," Hunter said from the other side of the barrier, "but I know you're both overconfident and likely capable of facing anything you find down there. Just remember there's no shame in coming back up if you need to resupply or if you get hurt. Nothing will be accomplished if you make a mistake here and die." Hunter was serious, and rightly so. There could be anything down there, and not even the Trila, who's family had been the guardians of the fountains for as long as she could remember, knew what might be waiting. Sheik, on the other hand, either didn't grasp the severity of the situation or just didn't care.
"Yep, have fun guys! If you find any more creepy bugs, try to catch one so I can show Romani when we get back. I bet she'd love it. Oh, and no making out just because you're alone. Weird tunnels aren't romantic. Break a leg! Or don't actually, that would suck. What a weird expression…" Sheik trailed off and ambled away, barely avoiding walking straight into the barrier. Zelda and I looked back to Hunter, who shrugged, gave us one last "good luck", and took a few steps away. Leaving the two of us free to approach the large basin.
"Ready for this?" I asked as I pushed the notch on the fountain, revealing another circular staircase leading down into the unknown depths.
"Does whether I am or not change anything?" Zelda was standing on the wide lip of the fountain with her hip cocked to the side, leaning on the Fire Rod like it was a fancy cane.
"Not really," I said as I adjusted my sword and shield on my back. "More of a common courtesy thing anyways." Zelda snorted and rolled her eyes, a faint smile playing along her lips. She hopped down into the bowl of the fountain and started down the steps.
"Somehow I don't think whatever horrible monsters we find down here will care about courtesy. Try the sword next time." I shook my head.
"Obviously I'm not going to ask the monsters if they'd prefer a peaceful talk. That'd be dumb…" I said as I pulled my sword from my back, holding it ready to face whatever test awaited us.
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*REALLY LOUD CREAKING* Shit.
So much for sneakiness.
So. Guys. It's been a while. I understand if you're annoyed, but-*urk*
SAND SEAL. WHY YOU SHOOT ME WITH CROSSBOW?!
All joking aside, I'm really sorry this took so long. I haven't had the inspiration I needed to write something good, and even now I'm not sure this hits that mark. The good news though is that I already have the entire Farore fountain dungeon planned out. Which means all I have to do is describe it, which, in theory, is easy. I make no promises, but it shouldn't take that long to write. But it is a big dungeon, so we'll have to see.
Now, my faithful (and hopefully not violent) readers, it's time for 'Answering Reviews with Aro,' the part of the note where Aro answers your reviews. Shadow, I know. Very sorry. Thanks, I guess. And for that, I'm going to say maybe. Not this round of dungeons, but I'll keep that suggestion in mind for the future. Only problem is when we get stuck on a boss, we can try again. Link...not so much. James, thanks for dropping in again. Foopuff, thank you, as always, for your enthusiasm. I needed more deities, and I think Jabu Jabu counts, so I threw him in there. To be fair, that would basically be my version of a spotlight too. So janky. I understand the need to quote things all too well, and I'm very glad that you think my jokes are worth quoting. Brings a burst of feeling to this cold, dead heart of mine. Not going to put the Ocarina in this, too game specific. I don't want to just reuse stuff from the games. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, but it has no place here. Foopuff the Second, glad you like how I incorporated Zelda's lineage. We might run into Felia in the future, but I don't know yet. I'll have you know I laughed so hard when I thought of a boss' title being 'Shit Ton of Evil.' Absolutely hilarious. Maya, indeed they were. Glad you caught that. Sand Seal, I know, I know, Link and Zelda are cute, I take too long to write stuff. I really doubt you're kidding, what with this crossbow bolt in my stomach. DarkLink, glad you like it, because it's certainly not going to change. Master Cycle, yes! Navi though...no, sorry. She just doesn't have a place here. Not as I currently see the story at least. Ultimate, thanks! Hope you like this one too. Sand Seal for the second time, you need to find something else to do. I'm glad you like this story, but I'm not sure its good enough to read six times. But thanks for the kick in the pants I needed to write more. As for Link calling Zelda his 'princess'...hey, that's a good idea. I guess we'll see...
Hot damn, that was a lot. Okay, so you've got your chapter now, everyone happy? I hope so, because it is now time for me to hide under a rock for another month and do nothing. Nah, just kidding. I am starting school again soon though, which will either allow me more time for writing or less, depending on how much I work. We shall see! Until then.
-Aro