The hardest part of the whole school attack wasn't explaining what happened. I mean, that wasn't all that easy anyways, but it was trivial to convincing everyone that they couldn't. Tell. Anyone.
Not only for the sake of our quest either. I couldn't begin to imagine what the media would do if they found out there was basically a terrorist hostage incident at a school in the suburbs of the biggest metropolis in the country, and that the whole incident was due to a pissed off demon and resolved by two eighteen-year-olds.
I'd never be left alone again, and that was just in my neighborhood.
Eventually, Zelda and I (with a few half-veiled threats) managed to convince everyone who had been there to never breath a word of the incident to anyone else. And I made sure to specify that no, they couldn't tell their best friend. No, they couldn't talk about it with people who had been here. As far as I was concerned, they were never to bring up the incident ever again. Finally finished, I had a few minutes to sit with Shade, Zelda, and Midna against the wall of the school while everyone milled around outside.
"Well, that should keep them from talking for a few weeks," I said with a sigh. Midna laughed.
"Maybe if you're lucky. If I know this school, you'll never be able to walk these halls again without being swarmed by people who want to meet the school idol." I groaned half-heartedly, knowing she was right, eliciting laughter from the other three.
"Um, Link?" I glanced up, staring at the girl who was standing in front of me. "I just wanted to thank you for saving all of us. I thought you were really brave, fighting that guy in the gym. I was wondering if you might want to hang out sometime?" Her voice lifted hopefully at the end of her question. I just kept staring at her for a moment before answering.
"I'm kind of busy with a lot of stuff right now."
The girl flushed slightly, and her smile dropped just a fraction. "Oh, that's fine. Here, if you change your mind, that's my number." She handed me a scrap of paper with a few numbers written on it and the name 'Mara'. "Thanks again," she said before walking away. As soon as she wasn't looking, I rolled my eyes and crumpled the paper into a ball.
Zelda leaned over to speak quietly. "That was one of the girls I knocked out in the cafeteria. I saw them all watching by the door of the gym while we were fighting. I don't think your fan club is getting any smaller." I thought I detected a note of bitterness in her voice at the mention of the horde of girls I wanted absolutely nothing to do with, and I suddenly realized this was the perfect opportunity to deal with the whole thing.
"Want to put the whole mess to rest?" I asked Zelda, giving her a conspiratorial grin. She looked cautious but nodded. Together, we walked over to a nearby table and jumped up on top of it. "Yo!" I yelled, quickly getting everyone's attention. I waited for a few moments to let conversations die out and get everyone's eyes on me before speaking, raising my voice to make sure everyone could hear me.
"Alright everyone, it's come to my attention that there are some rumors going around about me. Some of them say I'm dating Zelda." I gestured at Zelda who gave a small wave. "Some of them say I'm not dating anyone and am free for the taking." I saw a few eyes light up in the crowd. "Some of you seem to think that no matter what my dating status is, I'm willing to sleep with you if you let me know you want me. I want to give you a definitive answer and make sure there are no mistakes." I paused for a moment to let it sink in.
"This is Zelda Harkinian." I stopped and quickly spun to Zelda, grabbing her and kissing her fiercely on the lips. I felt Zelda jolt in surprise in my arms and heard a collective gasp rise from the crowd watching us. After a moment, I released Zelda, who stared at me with shock on her face, and turned back to the crowd, who were waiting on my next word. "And I love her with everything I have. I look forward to being in love with her for the rest of my life. And none of you can do anything about that. If you have any hopes or thoughts of being with me in any way other than as a friend, I'll encourage you to throw those ideas away right now. My choice is made, and that's the end of it. Whatever you're planning to try and lure me away from her, stop it. It's irritating, annoying, and obnoxious. And most importantly, it's not going to work. Got it? Good." I took a step to jump off the table when another thought came to me. "Oh yeah, and to any guys looking at my girlfriend, just remember. I'm the one with the sword, and I think I've proven I know how to use it. It's in your best interests not to try anything. And yes, you can tell all your friends about this." With that I did a quick flip off the table, just for show, and walked back to where Shade and Midna were, watching them fall over themselves with laughter.
"Oh my gods, you should have seen their faces," Shade said between gasping breaths. He tried to say something else but fell apart laughing instead. Midna spoke up for him.
"I think I saw a girl start crying at the back!" She took a few shuddering breaths. "How fucking stupid is that?!"
"What would you do if I did the same thing?" Shade asked Midna, who was trying to get a hold of herself. She thought for a second before leaning over and whispering something in his ear. I couldn't hear what it was, but my twin's eyes immediately went wide, and he tried to push himself off the ground. Key word: tried. Almost immediately, he groaned in pain and slumped back against the wall.
Midna giggled. "I knew you wouldn't be able to get up." Shade just gave her a sneaky smile.
"Oh, we'll still do that. You can't resist my charms for long. I think we proved that extensively." Midna rolled her eyes.
"We both know there's only one part of you I can't resist, and it's not your charms." I immediately wanted to wash my ears out with acid.
"Oh gosh, guys, TMI. Did not need to hear that," I muttered as I sat back down next to my brother, who promptly punched me in the arm. I couldn't help but notice that he winced just from that small movement alone. "Try not to push yourself too hard," I said sarcastically. He just muttered for me to go do nasty things to myself.
A minute later, I saw Zelda walking towards us, annoyance written on her face. She dropped down next to me with a sigh. "You know," she said. "As much as I appreciate you doing that, two things. One, please tell me first before you go to profess your love for me in public. I didn't need that surprise today. Second, while you may have solved your problem, now all your adorers have decided to live vicariously through me and have been pestering me for the last five minutes about every single aspect of our relationship." I immediately felt guilty, and I could tell it showed. "I finally had to scare them off with magic to get them to stop bothering me. So, before you do something so incredibly sweet again…" She trailed off, pressing a soft kiss to my cheek. "Just make sure you have an escape plan. Because next time, I'm just going to save myself the trouble and blast someone." I nodded in assent.
"Sounds like a plan. Does that mean I can do this again, as long as I tell you about it beforehand?" My girlfriend rolled her eyes at me and kissed me again. Worth it.
We sat there for a few more minutes before I saw Vaati coming over to us. I hesitantly stood to meet him, not sure what his deal was. On one hand, he did help me beat Moroth. On the other, years upon years of rivalry didn't just disappear. He stared at me evenly for a moment.
"I just wanted to say you don't owe me anything. I helped you out, but as far as I'm concerned, you did the same for me. I get where you're coming from. And," he paused a moment, seemingly conflicted with himself. "I have to admit, that was some good advice you gave me. So we're even."
I was surprised by his amicability. "Does this mean we're cool?" I asked. He looked at me again for a moment.
"We're not friends. But yeah, we're cool." A quick nod from both of us and he walked away, disappearing into the slowly thinning crowd. I leaned against the wall with a sigh.
"That was weird." I heard a sound of assent from my brother. Suddenly, my eyes caught Cremia standing at the edge of her group of friends. "I'll be right back," I said quickly, walking towards my ex before I could stop myself. She saw me coming, eyes widening slightly, before motioning to meet me a little way away. I followed her to a nearby tree where we stood next to each other in an awkward silence for a minute.
"I'm sorry you had to hear my outburst," I said finally. "I wasn't thinking of you in the crowd, just all the girls that wouldn't stop throwing themselves at me." I saw Cremia shake her head out of the corner of my eye.
"I know." She didn't say anything for a moment. "I'm just sorry for what I said in the school earlier. It didn't feel like me, not really, but those feelings came from me. Some dark part of myself. And it tears me up to see how stupid I was. I should have seen your courage for what it was, what it is." She stopped again before giving a hollow chuckle. "In the end, I lost you. Of all the stupid things I've done, that takes the cake. And now I have to see you with the love of your life and know that she could have been me."
"This is probably the wrong thing to say, but I think it always would have been Zelda," I said quietly, not sure how Cremia would take what I was going to say. "She's not just the love of my life, she's the love of all of them. I get flashes of my past lives sometimes. Images, sounds…feelings. I haven't always ended up with her, but she's always had my heart. I know that much. But I think this is the best for all of us. Zelda's meant for me, and I'm meant for her. But I think you're meant for someone too, Cremia. I don't know who he is or when you'll find him, but I can tell you that he's going to be perfect for you. You certainly deserve as much, if not for putting up with me, then for putting up with Shade and Sheik." I looked over to Cremia, who had a strange combination of emotions on her face. We looked at each other for a moment before she stepped towards me and wrapped her arms around me. A moment later, I was returning her hug, knowing this would be the last time I would hold her like this. "I'll always be grateful that I got to be with you Cremia."
"Well, we'd better still be friends," she said, pulling away from me with a small smile on her face. "I can't imagine what Romani would do if Sheik never came over to play with her again." I couldn't help but laugh.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." My laughter trailed off as Cremia leaned forward and lightly kissed my cheek.
"Bye Link," she whispered before turning and walking away.
"Bye."
Zelda found me a little while later, sitting in the same tree Cremia and I had been standing under. I had wanted to get away from everyone for a while and relax for the first time since that afternoon. I didn't know what time it was, but I could see the sun starting to set through the leaves. Zelda looked around for a moment before spying me in the branches.
"That's where you went," she said. "Everyone else's gone home. Shade and Midna were the last ones and they just left." I nodded, keeping my eyes on the sun through the tree's leaves, back against the tree trunk and legs hanging freely to either side of the branch I was perched on. I heard the ground rumble slightly and glanced down to see Zelda perched on a rising pillar of dirt. She smiled prettily as she perched herself on the same branch as me.
"You could have climbed up you know," I said jokingly.
Zelda just smiled more. "I know, but why should I when I can magic my way up? Way easier." I scoffed.
"Of course, forgive me, your Grace. How foolish of me to suggest you stoop to the same level as the mortals you choose to live among. Wouldn't want you to dirty your holy hands." Zelda laughed and smacked me on the arm. "Careful," I warned. "One wrong move and you'll have to find yourself a new hero, your Immaculateness."
"Maybe I should," she joked, her own shorter legs kicking at mine. "I hadn't realized this one would be so impertinent."
I shot her a smirk. "You love me." Zelda's eyes softened, and she leaned forward.
"Yeah…" Her voice faded away as she kissed me. We sat there for a while, intermittently watching the sun drop towards the horizon and exchanging soft kisses. After a while of just sitting in silence, Zelda suddenly started laughing. I looked at her questioningly.
"I just realized we're literally acting out that old teasing song," she said, still giggling. I looked at her confused, not getting it. "The one about sitting in a tree, kissing?" she clarified, and I immediately realized what she meant. I also immediately jumped out of the tree, rolling on the grass to lessen my impact.
"I refuse to play a part in this! I will not let that song apply to me!" I screamed as I ran away, hearing Zelda laugh uproariously behind me.
"Link, it's not that bad!" she yelled after me.
"Yeah it is! And I will not have any part in it!" I ran to my car, Zelda trailing behind me, still laughing. I couldn't help but smile at the sound.
That night, Zelda and I were cuddled up on my couch, watching the same Labrynnian cooking show we had turned on before. It fit a good niche of being funny and entertaining to watch while also being easily tuned out. Shade was over at Midna's house, likely doing unspeakable things, and Sheik and Hunter were still at the Castle. I had called Hunter earlier to tell him about what happened, but he hadn't been all that concerned. On one hand, it was nice to be trusted to deal with situations like that, but at the same time, I had a feeling like he maybe should be more concerned that his nephews had almost died.
After a while, Zelda turned the TV off and we sat there, enjoying each other's quiet company. Somehow, my head ended up in her lap as she ran her fingers through my hair, talking about the most ridiculous things.
"What do you think we do next?" she asked at some point. I quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, I'm fine with staying right here, but if you wanted to go upstairs…" Zelda looked at me quizzically for a moment before she understood what I mean, followed quickly by a light smack on the head.
"Not like that. I meant with the quest. We don't really have anything to go of off for our next step. And I'm not really a fan of waiting for trouble to come find us."
"I know, me either. Maybe we text Felia tomorrow, see if she has any ideas. Maybe she and the Sheikah have some clue. Hell, we don't even know where Ruin is hiding out."
"Yeah, good point. I'll give her a call tomorrow morning. Until then, I need to get home." I reluctantly sat up, letting Zelda stand from the couch.
"Not going to stay with your awesome boyfriend?" I asked, but Zelda shook her head.
"No, my dad's home now, and I want to see him while I can. Plus, I don't want to introduce you to him until I know you're not going to end up dead in a week."
I feigned hurt, lifting an affronted hand to my chest. "Me, die? Who would deal such a thoughtless blow to this beautiful world? We both know I am the light of the world, after all." Zelda laughed, looping her arms around my shoulder and looking up at me with those beautiful blue eyes.
"I'm not sure about the world, but you're the light of my life. But I'm not sharing, so I guess the rest of Hyrule is going to have to find another light." I dropped down to meet her lips with my own.
"I'm okay with that," I muttered, before my girlfriend returned my lips to hers.
Nothing happened the next day, other than Shade coming home and us hanging out for a while. Zelda decided to spend the day with her father and Midna was reportedly busy too. Not that that was a problem. We were both completely capable of entertaining ourselves without our respective girlfriends.
True to her word, Zelda had called Felia, but she didn't have any more of an idea than we did. She promised to look into options and get back to us though.
That night, I was lying in bed, flipping through my phone when I heard an odd noise from the backyard. Sort of a muffled thump followed by someone walking around. They were trying to be quiet, but with no other noise and my heightened senses, I could tell they were there. I peeked out my window, trying to see who was out there. At first, I couldn't see anything, but when the moon poked out of the sparse clouds, I could see a number of hunched over, shuffling shapes walking across the yard. And they didn't look human.
I snuck downstairs to get a closer look and heard a thud of something hitting the back door. Looking through the window, I saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring back at me. Whatever I was looking at immediately let out a rather wet sounding growl before smacking the door again. I could also see the rest of the shuffling monsters turn towards the house and start to move towards it.
Cursing up a storm, I ran back up to my room and pulled out the Master Sword, tossing the sheath on the bed. I swiped the Hylian Shield from where it was leaning against the wall and charged back downstairs, running out the front door and circling around the back. Just as I had hoped, all the creatures were crowded around the door, trying to get in, leaving them wide open from the back. I immediately went to work, tearing them apart.
To my absolute delight, I realized quickly that these weren't just any monsters, but undead ones. Rotten, foul smelling, shambling, the whole deal. Only instead of cutting off their head, I could only kill them by stabbing the Master Sword through their chests, destroying the source of whatever dark magic kept them animated. And let me tell you, there's nothing more disgusting than a zombie still coming after you with an arm and half its head gone. Luckily, the monsters were slow and clumsy. So while killing them completely was a bit of a chore, incapacitating them was not. A few deft swings and their legs were gone, leaving them to try to drag themselves after me. After that, it was just a matter of finishing them off and watching them crumble to ash.
Shade had apparently heard me slaughtering the horde and came down to see what was going on. He had a disgusted look on his face as I went around stabbing zombies in either their chest or their back.
"That's just nasty," he said once I was finished. I hurriedly brushed a bit of monster ash off my shirt. The stuff was gross and got everywhere.
"Yeah, you're telling me. What the hell though? Why would there be zombies in our back yard?"
"Well, assuming that this isn't some freak chance, I'd say your big bad is trying to get rid of you discreetly. Which probably means-"
"Oh shit, Zelda," I realized, booking it towards the street and her house.
Turned out I was right. As I rounded the corner, I could see more zombies around Zelda's house. A few were at the door, fruitlessly banging on it, but others had started to scale the house and were almost in reach of Zelda's window. Acting instinctively and with a shout, I swung the Master Sword at the creatures clawing at my girlfriend's window. Just like it had when I fought Moroth the first time, blue energy flew out of the blade, arcing through the night to cut the climber in half. It let out a dying gurgle before it fell into two pieces and tumbled from the house. Seeing that all the others were still a ways from the window, I went to work slaughtering any still on ground level.
As I gutted another of the creatures, cutting him in half from head to toe, I heard a shrill scream and saw a bright light from the corner of my vision. I turned and saw Zelda with her head and arm out her window, open palm towards the climbing zombies. Well, what was left of them, at least. Within a minute, I had reduced the few remaining monsters to ash and Zelda was coming out the front door.
"What in the fuck was that?" she asked immediately, looking me over for any wounds. Luckily, I had managed to avoid getting hurt at all.
"No idea, I heard them outside my house and dealt with them before figuring that you might have some here too," I said quickly. "I didn't see any others on my way over here though, so I think they were just targeting us." Zelda nodded, and I could see the gears of her mind turning.
"The enemy's getting restless. Apparently, we've proven ourselves to be enough of a threat to warrant some attention."
Zelda and I talked for a few more minutes before she went back inside, and I walked back to my house. I did my best to hide my sword from any prying eyes, not wanting to get the cops called on me by someone who saw a lunatic with a sword running around in the middle of the night. Fortunately, I made it home no problem. Just as I dropped back down onto my bed, my phone buzzed. Checking it, I immediately answered when I saw it was Zelda.
"What is it? Are you alright?" I asked hurriedly, ready to run back over to her if something was wrong.
"I'm fine, but Felia just texted me, saying the castle had an incident. She needs us to head over there first thing in the morning. She said she might have a clue to what we have to do next."
"Sounds good. Pick you up at 7 tomorrow?"
"Sure," she said, hanging up. I fell back onto my bed, closing my eyes.
On one hand, I was worried about the attack on the castle. No way was it a coincidence that there was an attack there at the same time as one on me and Zelda. The whole thing screamed bad news. But on the other, it sounded like we might have a lead on what to do next, something we desperately needed. With hope and anticipation for the coming day, I drifted off to sleep.
What's this, another chapter? You're damn right, another chapter! Because apparently when I don't have school or work and I don't feel like playing video games, I write! Lucky for you guys. Just don't get spoiled. School starts this week, so who know's when the next chapter will come out. It might be soon, it might not, we'll just have to see.
This time around, we get that sweet, sweet PDA, Cremia and Vaati get dealt with (finally), and there's a bit of foreshadowing. Though I'm not sure if it counts as foreshadowing if its just what happens next. Hmmm... Anyways, mostly a filler chapter, but I think that's okay. Got to resolve those hanging plot threads somehow.
On a little bit of a side note, I've been working on a Zelink fluff piece a little now that I have a solid idea of what sort of setting I'll have for it and a few story beats planned. That might be coming out in a few days, depending on how much I feel like working on it. So if that interests you (and I know it certainly does for some of you), either obsessively check my profile or just follow it. Then if I post a new story, you're the first to know. Either works, but if you choose the first, I seriously wonder about you.
On to the reviews (amended because I suck). Sand Seal, (sorry I missed you, it is Twilit Lord's fault) I am alive, but that's a little bit drastic. Glad you liked it, glad the fights were satisfying, and, as usual, the fluff was to your admittedly somewhat low standards. Because at this point, I'm pretty sure just Link and Zelda looking at each ohter would set you off. I tried the coffee shop thing, but ended up with too many ideas spilling over for another story, so I went and wrote that instead. Maybe in the future. Twilit Lord, Vaati is here, I'd like to think of him as that guy you love to hate. He's not really a bad guy, just a teen with a bit of angst and a grudge. And why would you steal my jar, that was a decorative piece! Nightwing, not really. We're going to be working with a set of three coming up here, but I'm not exactly sure what that's going to look like yet. I've got the beginning and end planned, but not the middle yet. So maybe. Kind of. I too have read much worse than what I post, but the little things still bother me. Foopuff, indeed. And you're right, I think that's something sword spirits/demons/whatever they are don't think about. Do they feel it? Do they care? Hard to say. Not sure if you mean my Vaati or just Vaati in general, but sure. And yeah, King Bulblin's pretty cool. Toral the Pizza Guy is my designated 'throw under the bus' guy at this point, and I have no regrets. Not sure why that's your favorite quote, but good for you, bravo, good job. I do my best to make Shade as cool as possible, even though he's destined to take a backseat to Link. As far as the fangirl army, we saw a little more of them here, but I'll eventually get around to a Zelda chapter of her dealing with all of them. I think that'd be really funny. Oracle of Hylia, the next chapter is coming now, stay on top of things here. That's very high praise and I'm touched and honored you think so. Thank you very much and I hope I see you here again. Twilit Lord, no idea what you mean. That doesn't seem relevant at-ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD. (Honestly had no idea what this was until I looked it up. I honestly have no idea what to do with you.)
Not sure I have much else to say here. I'm finally done with the school incident, which has been an unexpected chore to write, so now we get to start moving towards the end. Don't worry, it won't be here for a while yet (oh gosh, so much to write), but we are creeping towards it. I'm thinking maybe, about, possibly another...25 chapters? Like I say, it's going to be a while, but as far a big plot points go, we're moving right along. I had the introductory bit, the Fountain dungeons, the School Incident, the mysterious next bit, and the final fight planned originally. Which is to say I had a rough idea at first, but things have come together pretty well. The next portion will take a while and so will the final fight, plus whatever epilogue I come up with, but we're steadily creeping towards it. Never fear though, I've got lots more ideas (the fluff piece) in the works and I'm sure I'll come up with other stuff too. That said, your encouragement goes a long way towards keeping me motivated. So please leave a review if you have the time and let me know if you're enjoying the story. Tell me when you found the story, what you think of Link and Zelda, if you think Shade and Midna have had sex, what color your hair is, whatever you want! I love reading every review I get and appreciate them so much. So here's to that and the next chapter. Have a good one and don't brush your teeth with nail-polish remover!
~Aro