Sorry it took a while, but I finally got the next chapter done!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 7: Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly

The heroes woke up to find themselves inside a grotesque place: Jabu-Jabu's Belly. Blotchy flesh was covering the walls, floor and ceiling, sphincters that worked as doors, and connective tissue in hallways. Not to mention the horrible smell and the sounds of gurgling noises echoing all over the place, as if Jabu-Jabu's digestion has already started.

"Guys, are you okay?" Navi asked.

"Yeah…" Link replied as he and everyone else got up. There was some silence until Luigi broke it:

"…We just got eaten by a fish, didn't we?"

"We did." Mario nodded before groaning at the smell, "Ugh, it smells like rotten fish in here!"

"Well, at least we can find Princess Ruto somewhere in here." Peach shrugged.

"So we better hurry and find her before she gets digested!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Or worse, we get digested!"

The heroes nodded and were immediately confronted by Octoroks and Shabooms up ahead. Luigi took care of the Octoroks by electrocuting them with his thunder powers while Link slashed through the Shabooms, still needing to process the fact that mere bubbles tried to attack him.

After that, Link shot the uvula at the ceiling to unlock the sphincter… er, I mean, the door up ahead and they went through it. At the other side, they went forward and met little jellyfish creatures called Biri, and since they were heading right for them, on instinct, Link slashes one of them. He defeated it, but at the cost of getting electrocuted in the process.

"Oh… that's gotta hurt." Toad winced as Yoshi tossed an egg at the other Biri.

"Those were Biri." Navi informed. "Try to attack them directly, and you'll get electrocuted."

"You okay, Link?" Peach asked while healing him.

"I'm fine… Just peachy…" Link groaned, until he realized what he just said in front of Peach. "Oh… and pun not intended." he spoke nervously, making Peach giggle.

Once Link was fully healed, the group continued on, entering another door up ahead, and at the other side… they found a certain young Zora girl minding her own business. They assumed that was Princess Ruto so they went up to her, catching her attention as she turned to them with a somewhat cold expression on her face.

"You! Who are you?!" she asked in a harsh tone. "I am Ruto, Princess of the Zoras." the heroes told her their names. "What weird names… What are you doing here?"

"Well, your father asked us to come here to save you." Link replied.

"What?! I'd never ask anyone to do such a thing!"

"What are you talking about? You were the one who sent a letter in a bottle telling where you were, so that's why we came here!" Mario interrogated.

"Letter in a bottle? I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Rude…" Mario thought with an annoyed expression.

"But Ruto, your father is worried about you!" Peach interfered. "He even refused to talk to us at first because of that!"

"I don't care!" Ruto shot back. "Anyway, I can't go home right now. And you all… Get out of here! Understand?!" she turns back and walks a few steps ahead… and then she falls into a hole. "Ooooh noooooo!" the heroes sweatdropped at this.

"Well, that was rude." Toad remarked. "Until she fell in that hole and went all damsel in distress…"

"While I also fit into that category, I don't get in distress that easily!" Peach stated.

"Let's just go get her…" Link sighed as they all hopped down into the hole Ruto fell through to meet up with the bratty Zora Princess again.

"Ugh, are you all still hanging around here? I told you to go away!" she scolded.

"Hey, now." Yoshi puts his hands up, trying to reason with her. "At least tell us if you're alright, since that was one heck of a fall right there."

"I'm OK. I've been going inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly since I was little, but…"

"Wait, so she LIKES being swallowed by this fish guardian?!" the heroes thought as Ruto continued her story:

"Lord Jabu-Jabu is very strange today… There are electrified jellyfish and strange holes around… On top of that, my precious stone and star were…" the heroes' eyes perked up at the mention of stone and star. Could she be talking about the Spiritual Stone of Water and the third Platinum Star? "But…that's none of your business! Anyway… You! Go home now! Understand?!"

"We are not leaving until you are safe." Peach shook her head, hardening her tone. "It's too dangerous to stay here alone with all those creatures roaming about. You even mentioned about those dangers yourself!"

"You're that worried about me? Then I will give you the honor of carrying me!"

"…What?" Link blinked in bewilderment. The Mario cast also had the same bewildered reaction.

"Carrying me! I'm not moving until you carry me! However…I won't leave until I find the things I'm looking for. You'd better believe me!" she then sits on the floor.

"Oh dear Hylia… you can't be serious…" Link muttered as he picked up Ruto and holding her above his head. "Wait, 'Hylia'? Where did that word come from? I don't even know what a 'Hylia' is!" he thought before taking off with the Mario cast together to the nearby door.

When they finally made it back to the room where they first met Ruto, they went to the door up ahead, taking them to a series of trippy-looking hallways. The Mario cast fought off the Tailpasaran, since Link was busy holding Princess Ruto, and made their way to the end of one of the hallways.

In one of the doors, there were Stingers roaming about. Link then placed Ruto down and fought off the Stingers. After they were defeated, a treasure chest appeared that contained the Boomerang. They exited the room and went into a different hallway, where there was a sealed door.

There was a peculiar-looking button in front of the door, so Link decided to place Ruto on it and went through the door while the Mario cast stayed behind to watch over the Zora Princess. On the other side, Link encountered a massive parasitic tentacle, so he used his boomerang to get rid of it to make a treasure chest appear in the middle of the room, which contained the Dungeon Map.

But when he came back to the others… Ruto wasn't looking so happy:

"How inconsiderate! How could you leave me behind?! If you're a man, act like one! Take responsibility!" she sits down again. Link lets out an annoyed groan before picking her up again.

"I swear… if she keeps nagging… I'm going to scream…" Link thought.

The parasitic tentacle Link just took care off seemed to allow the heroes to gain access to another door, where there were dozens of Shabooms on the other side. They disposed of them quickly, causing another chest to appear, which contained the Compass.

Later…

After getting rid of two more parasitic tentacles, the heroes soon got to a certain room where they spotted a shiny blue stone shaped like the Zora symbol and a platinum-colored star resting on top of a large round platform. At this moment, Ruto begin to squirm on top of Link as she squeals:

"That's it! Those're what I've been looking for! Throw me up there! Onto the platform!"

Link did just that and Ruto picks up the stone and the star (and the text that pops up when Ruto gets the Zora's Sapphire always gets me).

"Oh, my goodness! I finally found…my mother's stone and star…" Ruto said. "I got very upset when Lord Jabu-Jabu swallowed them… While I was feeding him, he suddenly swallowed me! I was so surprised, I dropped them inside… But now that I've found them, I don't need to be in here anymore! So take me home right now!"

"Oh, finally we can get out of this place…" Luigi sighed in relief.

…When all of a sudden, the platform shook, startling Ruto, before it took off to the opening at the ceiling with her!

"Keeeyaaaah! What is this?! An octopus?!" she shrieked.

"Ruto! What's going on?!" Peach called out to her.

"I'm having a bad feeling about this…" Navi trailed.

Just then, the platform lowers back down, but on Ruto's place… was a gigantic Octorok!

"What the heck?!" Toad flinched.

"Big Octo!" Navi exclaimed.

The Big Octo then jumps down the platform and begins to chase after the heroes.

"Gah! Stay back!" Link panicked, tossing his boomerang at it, causing it to get stunned in place. "Huh?"

Navi flies to the Big Octo's back and sees a peculiar green spot at it, giving her an idea:

"Link! Try to get around the Big Octo and strike its back!"

"Got it! Hurry, guys!"

The only way to get to the Big Octo's back was to circle around it. But when they were about to reach its back, the Big Octo's stunned status wore off and resumed moving.

"It's moving again!" Yoshi warned.

"No! Hold still!" Link tossed his boomerang at the Big Octo to stun it again.

With that, the heroes reached its back and striked it with all their might. The Big Octo cries in pain before melting away.

"That takes care of it." Link said.

"I wonder what happened to Ruto?" Peach wondered.

"And the objects she took with her… Could those be the ones we're looking for?" Mario guessed.

"Only one way to find out." Navi said. "Let's keep moving!"

They went up the platform and walked around, continuing their search for Princess Ruto. They went through some more rooms and put a box on a switch in the process to go deeper inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, taking out some Stingers and Biri in the process.

Soon, they got into a wide room, perfect for a Boss Battle as you all expect, and they started to hear noises of electricity. They looked around for the source, bracing themselves, and found out that it belonged to not just one, but from lots of large jellyfish creatures in front of them.

Then, they watched the jellies attach themselves to… a horrific and gigantic parasitic anemone, with its tentacles connecting to the room's ceiling. That was the Bio-electric Anemone: Barinade.

"Okay, that thing is UGLY with a capital… everything!" Toad exclaimed.

"Then let's destroy this freak of nature!" Link declared, taking out his boomerang.

The little hero tosses the boomerang at the tentacles attaching themselves to the ceiling in order to prevent Barinade for further draining the poor fish deity's life energy while also avoiding its electric attacks, where it evolves shooting electricity from its detached tentacles.

After all the tentacles were detached, Barinade goes into a fury and moves around the room while releasing the jellyfish that were attached to its main body, making them spin around it.

"Dang, it's so hard to hit it with all these jellyfish spinning around it rapidly!" Link growled, trying to aim his boomerang precisely.

"Looks like he might need some help." Mario said to his gang. "Good thing we can also use a boomerang with these!" he takes out some Boomerang Flowers.

"Oh, nice!" Luigi exclaimed as he, Peach and Toad took each a Boomerang Flower and absorbed it along with Mario, turning into their Boomerang forms, where they gained attires similar to the one the Boomerang Bros wear, but in their respective colors.

With Link, he kept tossing his boomerang at Barinade, but the jellyfish were blocking it. And if things couldn't get any worse, Barinade aims one of its tentacles at him in an attempt to shoot electricity at him.

That is, until four different-colored boomerangs suddenly came in. Three of them, being the blue, pink, and red ones, missed, but the fourth one, the green one, managed to hit Barinade's body, causing it to sink to the ground and the jellyfish stopped spinning and were now just standing in place.

"Yes! I got it!" Boomerang Luigi cheered.

"Great job, bro!" Boomerang Mario praised. "You sure have the eyes of an eagle!"

"You guys also have boomerangs?!" Link asked in surprise, seeing Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad in their Boomerang forms.

"Only with this Power-Up, which as you just saw, grants us the ability to toss boomerangs." Boomerang Mario explained.

"Cool! Wait, why didn't Yoshi get one as well?"

"Yoshi can only use different kinds of Power-Ups than us."

"Most of them involves me eating different fruits." Yoshi added.

"Oh, okay." Link said.

"Hey, Link!" Navi called out. "Now you can get rid of these jellyfish!"

With that, Link and the others got rid of all the jellyfish, made it easier thanks to the Boomerang Mario cast tossing boomerangs at some of them. Once all the jellyfish were gone, Barinade gets up from the ground and hovers around the room while trying to shoot electricity at the heroes, but they avoided its attacks.

During that, Link and the Boomerang Mario cast toss their boomerangs at Barinade, making it cry in pain (do parasites cry in pain?) and fall back on the ground. They all delivered their final blows on Barinade's body, with Link finishing it off by stabbing it right into the middle.

However, just because Barinade was defeated doesn't mean its death wouldn't be that disturbing: as soon as it was hit by the final strike, its entire body, tentacles included, began to develop disgusting-looking ulcers, before exploding into green goo, leaving chunks of flesh on the floor. And to make things ever more disgusting, some of the flesh chunks fell on the Boomerang Mario cast, causing their Power-Up to wear off. Sure, it's quite a funny way to force them out of their Boomerang forms, but still…

"Ew…" Toad grimaced, shaking the green goo off of himself. "Gross!"

"Aw, that was my favorite dress!" Peach complained, seeing that her dress had stains of green goo all over it.

"Well, I'm just glad this is done with…" Mario said. "Geez, we really need to find a place to wash this goo off!"

"Ugh, about TIME!" a voice said as they turned around and saw Ruto into the blue light that would take them out of this dungeon.

"Oh god no…" the heroes thought with annoyed looks as they stepped into the blue light.

"You… You're late! What took you so long? You're useless! I was just lonely, that's all… Just a little!"

The light then activates, taking all of them out of Jabu-Jabu's Belly… and the heroes suddenly found themselves standing on top of a random giant branch somewhere in Zora's Fountain.

"What the-… How did we end up here?" Link wondered before turning his head… only to get a face full of Ruto. "W-WHOA!" he yelled in startle, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the water below. The Mario cast, in concern, leapt into the water after Link, ironically getting rid of the green goo they were covered with in the process.

Link surfaced along with the Mario cast and saw Ruto swimming up to them, but she was mostly going towards Link. Did he just saw her blushing a little when she approached him?

"You! You looked cool… Cooler than I thought you would, anyway…" she smiled. "The others… Just a little!"

"A little?!" the Mario cast thought, a bit offended by Ruto's comment.

"Well, anyway, you all saved me, so I guess I'll reward you. What do you wish? Just tell me…"

"I, um…" Link replied, blushing a little since Ruto was really close to his face. "Do you think you could hand me and my friends that Spiritual Stone and Platinum Star? We really need those…"

"Oh, you mean the Spiritual Stone of Water, Zora's Sapphire, and the Platinum Star, don't you? My mother gave them to me and said I should give the Sapphire only to the man who will be my husband, while I keep the Platinum Star. You may call those two the Zora Engagement Rings! The stone for the husband, and the star for the wife! But I guess I'll give both to you!"

Ruto then swims off, heading back to Zora's Domain, but not before handing Link and the Mario cast the Zora's Sapphire and the third Platinum Star. Now they've got all Spiritual Stones and Platinum Stars! Time to warn Princess Zelda about this!

Soon, they ended up finding another Fairy Fountain, where the Great Fairy they met grants Link Farore's Wind, a teleportation spell. Knowing already their destination, Link uses this spell to teleport them directly to Hyrule Field, right in front of the drawbridge.

But little do they know, that all the elements they saw in their prophetic dream that brought all of them together in the first place, would soon come to reality…

To be continued…

We're getting closer to the seven year time skip! Until then! Please review!