Moons were not supposed to do that. Definitely not. Moons didn't have faces. Moons didn't glare at people. Moons didn't leave their orbit.

That was the only thing Nicky could think of as he raced through Clock Town with Willen and Tatl hot on his heels, having revived him a few minutes ago.

"Nicky, wait!" Willen yelled, rushing right behind him. "Where are you going? We don't even know where we are!"

"We're running through East Clock Town!" shouted Tatl. "We're coming up on North!"

Currently, the trio were hightailing it down an alleyway that led into another plaza, this one filled with all manner of shops. Two jugglers were throwing balls and telling jokes in the center of the plaza, next to a tall post of uncertain purpose. There were signs on several buildings reading things like "Milk Bar", "Mayoral Office", "Stock Pot Inn", and the like.

"Nicky, come baaaaaack!" Willen shouted.

For one moment, Nicky stopped and looked around. This didn't last long, though, as almost immediately, he was heading inside the Mayor's office.

Nicky was planning on asking why the hell the moon was out of its orbit. Ever since he had first seen the thing hovering in the sky and descending at an agonizingly slow pace, it had been all he could think about. He never got the chance, though, because the moment he entered the office and passed by the receptionist, who directed him to the door on the left, he saw a bunch of people arguing with each other.

"Mayor Dotour, most of the citizens have already fled Clock Town! The Carnival of Time simply must be cancelled! We must evacuate all of the remaining citizens!"

"The Carnival has to go on! Tradition dictates that every year, we celebrate the Carnival, and why should this year be any different because of a scary-looking chunk of rock?!"

The belligerents in the office were two man who were drastically different. One was a tall, lean, clean-shaven young man wearing silvery plate armor and a plumed helmet which shadowed his eyes; the other was a short, plump, mustachioed old man wearing a blue coat and tiger-striped pants. Both seemed extremely angry at one another and were shouting loudly while the apparent mayor, a scrawny little man in a loud red and blue outfit and a strange blue hairstyle, cowered in a tall armchair, occasionally mumbling responses to their furious shouts.

By the looks of it, this argument was going nowhere. This went on for a few minutes, until Nicky couldn't take it anymore.

"E-excuse me!" he blurted out. The quarrelling trio stopped their argument to stare at the scrawny, blonde boy.

"Uh, what is it, my boy?" the Mayor asked, using the moment of silence to speak a little louder.

"I j-just came here, and I want to know..." Nicky's hand shot up, finger pointing skyward. "Why is the moon so low in the sky!?" he shouted. "And why does it have a face!?"

The Mayor sighed. "We would love to know that too, kid," he answered.

"At any rate, it's certain that the moon is going to crash directly into Clock Town. We need to evacuate the town before that happens," the man wearing the armor -probably a guard- pointed out.

The man in the blue coat snorted. "I'm telling you, it just looks larger! So what if it isn't smiling like it normally does? There's no way something that big can deviate from its gravitational orbit around Earth and go crashing into the planet!"

"That's exactly what's going to happen!" And without even a minute, chaos reigned in the Mayor's office again.

Nicky groaned. Unbeknownst to him, though, Willen and Tatl were sneaking up behind him, wanting to make sure he wouldn't run away but at the same time wondering what this fight was all about.

"You know Mutoh is speaking nonsense, right, Mayor Dotour?" the guard asked. "Him and his carpenters are so wrapped up in tradition that they can't recognize impending danger when they see it!"

"I, er," Mayor Dotour stuttered.

Mutoh, the old man, spat on the floor. "You just had to bring this argument to city hall, didn't you, Viscen?" he asked. "Just talk to Madame Aroma instead! She'll slap some sense into you, you coward."

"L-Let's not bring my wife into this..." the Mayor mumbled.

The argument between Viscen and Mutoh just went on without any sign that it would end soon.

"Uh... Nicky, we should leave now. We're not getting anything out of these guys," Willen said in a low voice.

Nicky jumped and whirled around to see the Deku and Tatl right behind him. "What the-!? When did you get here?!"

"We were following you all this time! Now c'mon, we can't waste our time here," Tatl said. "We've got to find Skull Kid and get that flute thing!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going..." With that, the trio left the office, without even being noticed.

"So... where should we start looking?" Willen asked as the group stepped out into the sunlight.

Nicky shrugged. "You used to hang out with that creep, right, Tatl?" he asked. "Where did you two go?"

"We didn't didn't hang around here at the town," Tatl commented. She looked around the eastern plaza, making absolutely certain not to look into the sky. "I do know a place we can go, though!"

Willen looked up. "You do?"

Tatl nodded seriously... then, to Willen's chagrin, broke out into giggles, flipping over in midair. "Gaaa-hahaha!" she snorted. "I can't take you seriously when you look and sound so stupid!"

"I swear, when I get back to normal, I'm going to put you in a glass jar," Willen muttered. "But enough with the jokes. You said you knew where we should go."

Tatl sobered up, and nodded, pointing northwest. "That way is Clock Town's Great Faerie Fountain. The Great Faerie who lives there is probably the most magical being in Clock Town." She grinned. "She's got magic practically oozing off her. If anyone can find Skull Kid, it's her."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Willen said. "The sooner we meet this faerie, the sooner I'll be back to my human form." Tatl nodded and flew away in the direction she had pointed, her odd companions trotting behind as fast as they could to keep up with her.

The north area of the town had buildings than the East area. It was a grassy place, a large park of sorts, with what looked like an entrance to a cave on the far side of the park. If it weren't for the moon looming overhead, it would have been quite peaceful.

"Wow... this place is really pretty," said Nicky.

"It sure is," Willen added "I'm not surprised this is where the Fountain is located." He looked around, and spotted the cave entrance. "Is that where the Great Faerie is?"

Tatl nodded. "Yep. Her Faerie Fountain is right through there."

"Great." And without saying anything else, Willen ran towards the Faerie Fountain, Nicky and Tatl following him.

One could say that the three of them were surprised, if not a bit disappointed, when they arrived there.

Why? Because there was no Great Faerie in the fountain.

Willen paced into the dark cavern quietly, to avoid possibly frightening or offending the Faerie. As he did, the cavern lit up with a soft, bluish light, revealing a tile floor and a large pool of warm water in the middle, surrounded by Greek columns. Orbs of orange light were floating around the fountain, and on closer inspection, they appeared to be faeries, just like Tatl. However, there was no faerie that could even remotely be called "Great" in sight.

"This is weird..." Nicky breathed. "Where's the Great Faerie?"

Tatl flew closer to the other faeries... "Um..." The yellow faerie flew around one, staring at it from all angles, then shuddered- the thing was barely conscious, floating limply in midair with nothing more than magic. "Oh. Oh, jeez. I guess these things... ARE the Great Faerie."

"W-wha!?" Nicky stared at the orange faeries. "How? Isn't she one being?"

To answer Nicky's question, the swarm of faeries spoke in unison.

"Please help me, young ones. Part of my essence was torn away by the masked Skull Kid."

The response of Nicky, Tatl, and Willen came all at once.

"SKULL KID did this!?"

"Yes," the faeries said. "He appeared in this fountain and attacked me, and tore my essence to shreds. The Stray Faerie created by this missing piece is somewhere in Clock Town. Without it, I am powerless. Please, help me."

"How much trouble will this Skull Kid bring to us?" Willen complained, kicking at the ground despondently. "Well, if we want to have some help from the Great Faerie, we'll need to find that fragment of hers... let's hope it's still in the town."

Nicky nodded. "How hard can it be? It's a floating orange light. Can't be too many of those."

"Good luck. Please, hurry," said the Great Faerie, her voice echoing through the fountain quietly as the trio exited.

Once they were back in the park of North Clock Town, they began formulating a plan of action.

"Think we should stick together or split up?" Nicky asked.

"In my opinion, we should split up. We'll find that stray faerie a lot faster," said Willen. "Tatl, how many areas of Clock Town are there?"

Tatl thought about it. "Uhh... There's West, East, South, and North. Plus the Laundry Pool connected to South, but that place is boooooring."

"I'll take South, then," Willen decided. "Nicky, you check East, and Tatl, look through West."

Each one of them headed to one area of Clock Town, as they agreed.

For a floating orange light, Willen was having trouble locating the darn thing. No matter where he looked in South Clock Town, there was no sign of the Stray Faerie. He asked the carpenters, who told him to stop bothering them when they were working. He asked the people playing in the square, who laughed at him because many had never seen a Deku scrub before. He even asked a dog in the hopes that magically it would talk and answer him. All it did was chase after him and bite him.

Eventually, with a heavy heart and a sore leg from where the dog had bitten him, Willen limped towards the Laundry Pool, a little walled garden with a bench and a large pool for people to wash their laundry in.

Just imagine the surprise he had when he saw an orange sphere of light, just like the other ones at the Faerie Fountain, floating at the opposite end of the pool above the water. It was murmuring incoherent words, just hovering there like a ghost or something. Willen was about to jump over to grab the Stray Faerie, but stopped right at the edge of the pool and frowned. He was not a high jumper as a Deku Scrub, and he was sure that, with his current form, he wouldn't be able to swim if he fell in the water.

"Um... how do I get over there...?" Willen looked at the water and tried to do calculations in his head, but failed. The simple fact of it all was that he was far too short to jump up and reach the Stray Faerie.

"C'mon! Of all places, you had to choose to float right over a pool of water!" he yelled. There wasn't any response from the faerie, and people passing by looked at the Deku strangely.

"...You know what? Screw it... I'm trying it." Willen took a few steps back, and ran as fast as he could in the faerie's direction. He tried to jump as high as he could, but he couldn't reach it. He fell down, and...

...BOING!

With a squeaky yelp, Willen rocketed back upwards.

Whatever happened there, it allowed Willen to reach the Stray Faerie. He grabbed the orange faerie on his way down, and he was about to fall to the water again, but the moment he touched the surface, he bounced again. This kept happening, propelling him further each time, until he reached the other side of the pool.

"...what the?" he said to nobody in particular. He stared at his feet, then the Faerie in his hand.

"Thank you," the Faerie whispered. "Please... my body... return it to the Faerie Fountain in North Clock Town, so I may be whole again."

And with that, Willen rushed back to the Faerie Fountain.

As was to be expected, Nicky was having no luck finding the Stray Faerie in East Clock Town. He was searching in every nook and cranny, talking to people, even looking in trash cans. However, although the Stray Faerie was nowhere to be found, Nicky had found several strange, hexagonal gems lying around, colored green and blue and red, and decided to keep them in his coat pocket with the intent of asking what they were.

"Hello? Stray Faerie? Are you in here?" he called into a trash can. Of course, nobody answered, and Nicky sighed as he closed the can. "Darn..." Despondently, he entered the building that the can was in front of, not noticing the sign next to its door that read "Stock Pot Inn".

Inside the dully-colored, tidy lobby of the building, Nicky saw two people standing at the reception desk. One was a man with a long, pointy mustache, wearing a red and blue coat with a ruff. The other was a young, red-haired woman, wearing simple clothes, standing behind the reception desk. Strangely, both of them had long, pointed ears, like an elf's, and it suddenly occurred to Nicky that from what he'd seen, everyone in Clock Town did, even the Happy Mask Salesman.

"And will that be all for today, Mr. Gorman?" the woman asked.

"Yes, ma'am. That'll do." The man, apparently named Gorman, nodded and took a room key from the woman, before departing for the rooms, which were beyond a door on the left.

Nicky stepped up to the woman's desk. "Um, excuse me?" he asked.

"Yes? How can I help you?" The woman looked at Nicky.

"Um," Nicky started, "I'm looking for a faerie. She's about this big-" He cupped his hands to roughly the size of Tatl, to demonstrate. "-and she glows orange. Have you seen a faerie like that?"

"Uh... Sorry, but I haven't seen any faerie around here," she answered, giving a bit of a weird look to Nicky.

Nicky's face fell. "Aw..." he sighed. "Well... can you tell me what these are?" From his coat pocket, the blonde and pink-haired boy pulled out two of the gems he had found, a red and a blue one.

The woman looked down at the gems, then up at Nicky. "I don't want to sound rude but... you really don't know what these are?"

Nicky shook his head. "No, sorry... I'm not from around here."

"Well, these are called Rupees. We use them as currency around here and, depending on the color, their value differs." The woman pointed to the green one. "Green Rupees are worth one Rupee, and blue ones are five. Red Rupees are worth twenty. There are also purple, silver, and orange Rupees, which are worth fifty, one hundred, and two hundred, but they're not common."

"Okay. Thank you." Nicky nodded.

"Any time, dear." The woman smiled. "My name is Anju. Would you like to reserve a room here? We have one open chamber."

"Well, we don't have anywhere to stay for the night..." Nicky thought to himself. "How much to rent a room?"

"Twenty rupees for a night," said Anju.

Nicky nodded. "Right..." He fished in his pocket again, and brought out two more red Rupees. "This should cover it, right?" he asked, taking back the blue Rupee and laying the three red ones out on the counter.

"So you're staying for three nights? Alright, then." Anju picked up the three rupees and stowed them away behind the counter. "Could you give your name?"

"I'm Nicky, and I'll be staying with my brother Willen and a faerie named Tatl."

"Alright." Anju wrote down each name on what looked like the Inn's guest book. "Is that all?"

"Yes, thanks." The chubby boy let a small smile cross his face. He left the Inn and sighed. He'd had no luck in finding the Stray Faerie, but at least they now had somewhere they could sleep.

Unlike Nicky and Willen, Tatl gave up pretty quickly. She was already back at the Great Faerie Fountain after roughly five minutes of cursorily glancing around West Clock Town, complaining loudly.

"Of all the times you could actually be helpful instead of just floating around looking all creepy," she whined to the shattered Faerie, "you had to go and get smashed to bits by the Skull Kid."

There was no response from the faerie fragments. They just kept floating over the fountain like a swarm.

A few minutes later, steps could be heard from the fountain entrance, Tatl looked back and saw Nicky arriving. Almost immediately, the white faerie rushed towards him, getting in his face.

"Did you find the Stray?!" she asked fervently. "Please tell me you found the Stray!"

"No," Nicky answered, sounding a bit disappointed. Just after he came in, though, they saw another person running inside. It was too short to be human, and... it had a glowing orb floating around it. A glowing, orange orb.

"Willen!" Nicky's green eyes brightened. "You found it!"

"It was hard to find this Faerie, so I hope she can be of some help." Willen got closer to the swarm of faeries and, at the same moment, the stray one joined the rest of them. They began to swirl around in a spiral, slowly growing closer and closer together, until BANG! With a flash of light and the sound of a thunderclap, Willen, Nicky, and Tatl were thrown backwards.

The only thing that could be heard was a loud laugh after that. The light faded away, and instead of the swarm of shattered faeries, the Great Faerie was floating there... and she was, in a word, terrifying. She was wearing clothes made of plant matter just like Tatl, only much more revealing, showing the Deku and the human things they didn't exactly want to see. Her eyes were disturbingly wide, and her mouth seemed to be stretched in a permanent smile. She had bright red hair tied into three long ponytails.

Nicky had a terrified look on his face, and it would be the same for Willen, if he was was able to show any expression. Tatl only looked a bit annoyed.

"Thank you so much for your kindness!" the Great Faerie said. "I am forever indebted to you all."

After a few moments of silence, Nicky was able to say something "You're... you're welcome, I g-guess."

The Faerie let out a piercing laugh. "And of course, I should reward both of you boys! I hereby grant you both the power to use magic!"

She extended her arms to the trio's direction, as if to offer something, and without any other warning, Nicky and Willen started floating in the air.

"Waah!" Nicky flipped over in midair, frightened by this sudden event. "What's happening?!"

Fortunately for them, that didn't last for too long. Soon enough, they were back on solid ground.

"I feel... buzzy." Willen shook his head. "Like there's something new in me."

"Well, miss Great Faerie over there just imbued magic power inside of you two," Tatl pointed out. "I suppose it would feel weird."

"True," Nicky said.

The Faerie laughed again. "Now, go, children! Use your new gift wisely, and stop the Skull Kid as best you can!"

As the trio left the fountain, Nicky and Willen were hoping that they'd never have to go in there again.

"So... what now?" Willen asked.

"We found the Faerie and got some magic power, but now we need to find the Skull Kid," Nicky said.

"Hold up!" interrupted Tatl, flying between them. "What's so important about that ocarina thing that you guys are so eager to get it?"

"It's kind of a family heirloom," Willen tried explaining. "And, besides, didn't that salesman say we needed it to turn me back?"

"Hmm... you have a good point. Welp!" Tatl cracked her knuckles. "Let's hunt down the Skull Kid."

When the trio came to the opposite end of North Clock Town from the Faerie Fountain, they were confronted by a balloon. This wouldn't be so unusual, if the balloon weren't a) bright purple, and b) painted to have the Skull Kid's mask on it.

"Aiee!" Nicky jumped into Willen's arms at the sight. Thanks to his current form though, Nicky's weight was way too much for Willen, who collapsed with a squeaky yelp.

"Ow! Watch it!" Willen glared.

"Sorry" Nicky apologised, helping Willen stand back up. "It's just... why the heck is that mask painted on that balloon?!"

"I'm gonna pop it," Willen said, glowering.

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Tatl asked. "Your head is about three feet off the ground right now, if that."

Willen raised a finger, preparing to speak, then fell silent. "...Good point. Uh... I'll just..."

The Deku started pacing in a small circle, trying to figure a way he could do it, but nothing came to his mind.

"Aaagh! Why can't i think of any way to pop that damned balloon?!" he yelled. While yelling, he ended up spitting something out of his Deku snout. A bubble, to be more exact. Willen stared, dumbfounded, as the bubble flew towards the ground, and when it popped, it actually made a bright flash and a loud bang, leaving a small dent in the ground in its wake.

"Whoa." The transformed boy blinked, before angling his snout towards the balloon. He willed another bubble to come forth, and it whizzed through the air once free of Willen's snout, causing the balloon to explode with a loud POP! Its string fell forlornly to the ground.

Nicky blew a sigh of relief. "Whew. That thing was really creeping me out..."

"HEY!"

A much-more-real threat was suddenly approaching Nicky and Willen- the owner of the balloon, a small boy with a huge forehead and a red bandanna on his head. He looked pretty mad that Willen had popped his balloon.

"Ooh, dear." Willen sighed. "Don't tell me that balloon belonged to this kid."

"It looks like it," replied Tatl.

In a matter of seconds, the boy was right besides them, and Willen had already started talking.

"Sorry, okay? But... that balloon was pretty unsettling with that freaky mask painting, why would someone even want that?"

"Target practice," the boy said, as though it were obvious. "I need to practice for when the Skull Kid shows his ugly mug around Clock Town again, so I can pummel him with this!" He dug into his pocket, and held up...

"A... pea shooter?" Nicky raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, but I don't really think a pea shooter is going to do much against someone with really powerful dark magic."

"Well, who asked your opinion?!" the boy yelled. "Anyway... you did something that I was trying to since morning. If only you weren't a Deku..."

"What's that got to do with it, huh?" Willen said angrily.

"Guys, guys, don't fight!" Nicky intervened, getting between them and pushing the two of them away from one another.

"You!" Tatl flew into the boy's face. "You know the Skull Kid, right?"

"Uh, yeah... Aren't you one of those annoying faeries that's always with him? Where'd he go?" the boy demanded.

"That's something we're trying to figure out too, you blockhead!" Tatl hit herself in the forehead. "Look, do you have any way of figuring out where Skull Kid might be, or even if he's in Clock Town?"

The boy lapsed into a sulky silence. "Well... I do know a place... But you can't tell anyone how to get there, okay? Ever," he said after a little while. "I mean it! It's top secret."

"And why you can't tell it?" Willen questioned. "Is it that important?"

"Mmhm. I promised I'd never let anyone damage Shikashi's pride and joy." The boy curled his hands into fist, and stared into Willen's eyes. "Come with me!"

He ran off in the direction of East Clock Town at full tilt, the Deku, human, and faerie dashing to catch up.

They were led to an alleyway near the Mayor's office, in front of which another kid was standing.

"Jim, who are these guys? A Deku, a faerie, and a fat guy?" the kid asked.

"A what?" Willen asked. They were probably referring to Nicky- his somewhat chubby figure tended to invite those sorts of remarks from the less kindly. The Deku couldn't help but laugh a bit at the kids. "You shouldn't say something so nasty," he admonished.

"Well, I brought these guys here because they're also searching for that Skull Kid," Jim said with a shrug. "C'mon, let us through, we gotta go see Shikashi."

"You sure?" the kid asked, warily eyeing Nicky. "I don't trust the... uh, pink-haired one... He's probably gonna get eaten by the Skulltula."

"The what-!?" Nicky spluttered.

"Skulltula. It's a monster- a big spider with a skull mark on its back," the kid explained. "There's one that made a nest in there."

"Will it attack us?" Willen said warily.

"Not if you don't bother it." The kid shrugged and stepped aside. "Be careful down there, and watch out for the Skulltula."

The kid stepped aside for the trio to enter the alleyway, which led down into an underground sewer of sorts, perhaps connected to the Clocktower. It was pretty dark, so if not for Tatl's light, they would probably be blind in there.

"Wow, it's dark..." Nicky shivered. "I do not want to meet that Skulltula."

"It won't help you if you keep thinking about it," Willen pointed out. "You heard the kids, just don't bother it and we'll be fine."

"O-okay..." The blond and pink-haired boy hugged himself tight. "I'm just scared..."

Something made a rustling sound overhead. The three froze in place as they heard it.

"... Well... I guess we're going to see the Skulltula VERY soon." Tatl gulped...

And it was upon them. From a crevice in the dark, dank roof, it descended, stark white in the darkness. Nicky and Willen shrieked, toppling over into the foul, stagnant sewer water with two loud splashes. As fast as possible, Nicky dragged himself out of the water, Willen holding onto his back since he couldn't swim in his current form. Once they were out of the water, they ran away as fast as they could, Tatl flying behind and all three screaming. When they stopped, they had made it quite some distance from the Skulltula, and were now standing in front of a ladder that led up to a ledge in the wall, which was blocked by another of the purple balloons with the Skull Kid's mask painted on.

"There's another one?" Willen asked. "And it's in our way. I guess I'll have to pop this one too..."

Willen breathed in, and fired another Deku Bubble out of his snout in the balloon's direction. The moment it hit the balloon, both exploded, and since they were in a closed space, the explosion sounded a lot louder; Nicky and Tatl had to cover their ears, and Willen reflexively covered the place where his ears would be if he were still human.

"L-let's go up," Nicky said, still shaken-up from the Skulltula encounter.

The other two nodded in response and climbed up the ladder.

The change in surroundings was quite sudden. From the dark, cold, humid, foul-smelling ambience of the sewers, the three found themselves entering into a really bright and colorful place, where images of various stars moved on the walls and the ground itself was full of colors.

"Whoaaaa." Tatl was whizzing around, staring at everything. "Pretty..." There was an uncharacteristically dopey grin on her face.

There was a spiral staircase leading upwards and, since there was nowhere else to go, they headed up (after Willen thumped Tatl on the back of the head to get her to snap out of her stupor).

The room up there was a lot cleaner, contrary to downstairs, which was full of crates. In the center, there was a giant telescope, and an old man wearing a blue hat and robe was looking through it.

"Hmm... Three days, perhaps... Oh dear..." the man muttered to himself, adjusting it. Upon registering the noise of the trio entering, he turned around and smiled. "Oh, hello there! Visitors?"

"Kind of," Nicky answered. "Um... we're searching for someone, and some kids said this would be a good place to start looking."

"Hmm... Well, this telescope might do the trick." The astronomer patted his telescope. "It has some pretty powerful magnification, so you should be able to find whoever you're looking for. Go on, give it a look."

"Alright. Thank you, Mister... Shikashi?" Nicky thanked him, assuming the name of the man was the one that those kids mentioned. He bent down to look into the telescope and almost at the same second jumped back: the telescope was aimed right at the moon's face, which was still contorted into a hideous, teeth-grinding scowl. "Yipe!"

"What happened?" Willen asked, suddenly on the alert and narrowing his eyes at the telescope.

"N-nothing..." stammered Nicky. "I just... g-got a close-up look at the moon. Sorry." He sighed, and looked back into the telescope, taking care to swivel it so that it wasn't displaying the moon. For a minute or two, Nicky roamed the streets of Clock Town from the telescope, searching intently for the Skull Kid but not finding him. He was about to give up, resetting the telescope to look at the moon, when something on top of the clock tower caught his eye. He adjusted the magnification to get a closer look...

It was the Skull Kid. He was standing at the very top of the clock tower, doing a strange dance that involved a lot of jumping up and down and pulling his arms in towards him, like he was willing the moon to come down closer. There was a faint, distant rumbling sound, and...

No.

No.

Impossible. It couldn't be. Nicky stared into the lens, and gaped. The moon had very visibly come closer to the ground, and continued to do so as the Skull Kid continued his disturbing dance.

"Skull Kid!" he screamed, leaping back and accidentally bowling Tatl over. "The Skull Kid is calling down the moon! I saw it!"

"Wait, what?! Let me see it!" Willen yelled, getting at the tip of his feet to look through the telescope. He saw exactly what Nicky told them, and jumped back in surprise. "Holy- you're not lying! But... how is he doing that?! More importantly, why!?"

"Excuse me," interrupted Shikashi. "You say someone is bringing the moon down? How is that even possible?"

The boy, Deku, and faerie just shrugged.

"Whatever's going on, we need to find the Skull Kid, and get him to stop it," Tatl said.

Shikashi frowned. "The Skull Kid? I've never seen a more ill-behaved child anywhere. He used to ransack this place whenever he visited with Jim's gang... always tossing things around and threatening to break my instruments..." The aged astronomer began to mutter angrily to himself.

"Anyway, we know where he is now. Mister Shikashi, how can we reach the top of the tower?" Willen asked.

"Well..." Shikashi pursed his lips and stroked his beard. "Normally, there's no way up to the top. The only accessible part of the tower is the clockworks at ground level. However, the Carnival of Time is upon us soon, and the Festival Tower is being built to provide townsfolk a way up to the top of the tower to view the night sky on the evening of the Carnival."

Tatl's eyes widened. "The Carnival!? It's finally Carnival time? Sweet faerie dust..." She began muttering to herself, moving her hands through the air like she was calculating with an abacus. "If the Skull Kid took us out of Termina through the clock tower, then that means..."

"... Please tell me this is a coincidence," she said, after a few minutes of silent calculation and looking through the telescope. "The Carnival is going to start in three days... which is about the same amount of time we have until the moon crashes into Termina and crushes us all like Tektites."

"What!" both Nicky and Willen yelled. "We- We can't wait that long! Isn't there any other way to climb the tower?!"

"None that I know of." Shikashi shrugged. "I'm certain you three will figure something out, though!" He smiled, and looked through the telescope. "Three days is enough time to formulate a... what the...?"

"What happened?" Tatl asked.

"This is... Very unusual," Shikashi mumbled. "I think it would be better if you see it for yourselves."

He stepped away for Willen to take a look, and the little Deku stepped up to the telescope. Looking through the lens, he saw the Skull Kid continuing his weird, hopping dance, pulling the moon closer and closer to the ground... but what was that thing glimmering in the moon's eye? Was the moon... crying?

It ended up falling from the moon's eye, as if it was an actual tear. The weird thing, though, is that the light reflecting from it became slightly stronger with each moment, as if it was getting closer and closer... a second later, Willen realized that, yes, it was coming closer.

BANG!

A huge crash outside rocked the foundations of the observatory, causing Shikashi, Nicky, and Willen to lose their balance, and Tatl to panic.

"What was that!?" she screeched, royally freaked out.

"I wish I knew!" Willen replied. "Maybe it was an earthquake? Though, there was a crashing sound too.."

Nicky shivered. "I... I'm gonna go outside to check," he said shakily.

He did what he said he would do, and once he'd stepped outside, he saw a crater marring the grass outside the building, just next to the white picket fence that closed the observatory grounds off from the rest of Termina. Taking a closer look, Nicky saw in the middle a blue rock with the shape of a teardrop.

"Whoa... What is this?" Nicky knelt down and picked up the blue stone, turning it around in his hand. The morning sun caused the teardrop-shaped stone to glimmer in its bright light. Curious to know more, Nicky returned inside, where he showed his finding off.

"This is what hit us," he said, displaying it for Shikashi, Willen, and Tatl to see. "Do any of you know what it is?"

"Just as I thought," mused Shikashi. "That rock you're holding is called a Moon's Tear."

"A Moon's Tear..?" The chubby blond boy whistled. "How did it form?"

"It originally began as magma inside the moon, which somehow crystallized due to extreme pressure, and likely ended up escaping the moon through its "eye"." Shikashi shrugged. "The moon is a mysterious thing."

"Well, let's be glad this tear landed besides the observatory and not the building itself," Tatl pointed out. "I don't want to know what would happen if it did." She flittered closer to the Moon's Tear and grinned widely. "How much is this thing worth?"

The trio bade goodbye to Shikashi soon after that, and went back on their trek through the sewers once more. Unfortunately, they forgot about the sewer's arachnid resident, and as such, five more minutes saw all three hastily rushing out of the alleyway that led into the sewers from Clock Town proper, screaming their heads off.

"We're never going back down there again!" panted Tatl once they'd reached a sufficient distance from the Skulltula.

"Agreed!" chorused the Deku and human.