The Pirate and the Hero
By: Wordsworth 13
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Zelda
Chapter 3: Struggle & Strife
Tetra lay on the sand wondering where her friend was, and sat up. A few grains of sand fell out of her hair. A rustling came from a small cluster of bushes behind her and she turned around to see Link pushing his way through them. "Any luck?"
"Nope." He stated flatly sitting down on a rock. His venture to find food had been literally fruitless. All he'd gotten was a few spiders in his hair, which he promptly brushed out. He moaned pitifully. "Come on," Tetra said "you're the guy with a thousand pockets; surely you must have something in that stupid outfit of yours that we can eat!"
"Well, maybe…" Link said, ignoring the comment about his fashion sense and fishing around in one of his front pockets, and pulling out a small purple bag made to look like a strange face. He reached into the spoils bag and pulled out a large drop of something green, somewhere between solid and liquid. "You like chu jelly?"
"Do we have anything other than chu jelly?" she asked condescendingly
"No" Link said with some confusion in his voice
"Then I like chu jelly." She replied. Link pulled out another glob of the green substance of uncertain consistency and handed it to Tetra, taking a bite out of his own. It tasted like apple preserve.
Tetra turned to the green garbed hero and asked "Where do you think we are?
"No clue." He replied, pulling his sea chart from his back pocket, which was basically used to carry maps, and Link sure had a hell had a lot of them. He traced his finger around the map "We could be anywhere around Gale Isle…" He said uncertainly.
The pirates meanwhile were staring off the port bow, to the north. "Are ya sure?" Niko asked worriedly "Yup." Gonzo replied "That'd be definitely where they went, the storm must've taken 'em that way!" Niko looked over the rolling waters glinting in the evening sun "Are ya sure?" he asked again
"Yup,"
"Sure?"
"Yup,"
"Sure?" Niko asked desperately.
"Yes!" Gonzo exclaimed, sick of being asked the same question for over fifteen minutes now, and bluntly it was a surprise to all that his patience lasted that long. Niko just gulped as he looked over the rolling blood red sea.
The day was growing weary, and Link was just licking the remaining jelly from his hands. Tetra was just looking at him with a patronizing expression. He looked over into the distance and his eyes widened. "Link, what're you staring at?" Tetra asked
"K-…K-…" He managed to stutter. Tetra's face twisted into a look of befuddlement. "Kargaroc!" He finally screamed, grabbing her vest and pulling the two them to the ground just as the black bird with its decorative, flowing golden tail feathers swooped over head with its talons reared to snatch one of them away, letting out an unusually fearsome screech. Tetra looked up at the bird that was double the species' normal size "Whoa! That thing's huge!" She cried out. Link jumped to his feet and pulled hid decoratively crafted Hero's Bow from his tunic, as well as a single arrow. He pulled it into the bow as the bird turned around from its failed swoop. He narrowed his eyes as the bird began flying towards him at full velocity. "Link!" Tetra screamed as the beast rushed at him. It was then that Link let go of his bow string. The arrow hurtled through the air and came into contact with the Kargaroc. It went into the monster's throat and it fell from the air. As it landed head first on the ground there came the unpleasant sound of the creature's neck breaking, at which Tetra winced. The corpse quickly dissolved into a violet haze and left behind a single golden feather. Link picked it up and slipped it into his spoils bag.
"I thought you already traded a bunch of those to that guy on Dragonroost." Tetra said, gesturing towards the feather. "Yeah," Link replied "but I've been collecting them to make a pillow."
"A Pillow?" Tetra questioned
"Well yeah," he came back cheerfully, but then his face turned slightly more serious "I do have to sleep on a crate you know."
"No you don't," she retorted wittily "you can sleep on the floorboards if you like."
"Ha, ha," Link came sarcastically, and then looked to the dense dark foliage to his right. "Well as long as we're here we may as well try and explore, see if we can figure out where we are."
"But weren't you out there exploring a couple of hours ago?"
"Nah, I was just checking for food, I didn't really take notice of anything."
"Okay," Tetra said, turning and walking briskly off to into the see green mass of plants.
"Hey! Wait up!" Link yelled, chasing after her.
The two slowly sauntered through what the thick undergrowth, as the thick trees seemed to develop into a forest, "D'you think there's anything in here?" Tetra enquired, turning to face Link
"Well there's usually a post-box and a Blue Chu-Chu or something." Link replied, though not with total confidence in his theory. Link looked up at the glowing moon as the two of them came to a clearing with bare dead ground. I can tell you the last thing Link expected or wanted was a milky coloured skeletal hand to rip itself from the turf before him.
A Stalfos dragged itself up from the parched earth, the dust running off it. It was basically a skeleton that looked it used to belong to someone who was extremely ugly, which was what was going through Link's head as it stood before him bearing a huge, spiked iron club, but there weren't that many good looking people among the scattered ranks of the world's current population, the only one who came immediately to mind was Tetra. His next thought was: Holy Crap! Why did I think that?
It was this lapse of concentration that allowed the undead abomination to come to a close proximity to our hero and raise its club. Glancing up, his pupils shrinking to dots, Link swung his sword wildly and managed to separate the bottom part of the creature from the top, and so was quickly being chased by a pair of bony legs that were acting like a headless chicken and a screaming ribcage with a skull that looked like it belonged to a chicken. And he himself was screaming. Tetra just shook her head and sighed. "You're pathetic." Link skidded round an imaginary corner in an attempt to lose the two pieces of corpse that were chasing him and spotted a tree limb. Ha, ha! He thought as an idea struck him. He continued running as he reached into his left pocket and felt something cold and spherical. He halted and swiftly turned around, somewhat sending mixed signals to his pursuer, who also halted and tilted its cranium in confusion. Link produced the dark blue bomb he had been gripping from his pocket and the fuse lit itself, don't ask why, they just had a tendency to do that, as he shoved it into the now glaring at him Stalfos' mouth. "Bye." He said gleefully, watching his grappling hook wrap around the tree limb he'd seen earlier. He jumped off the ground and swung forward with all his might, in the process kicking the skeleton's head off.
Now, the thing's ribcage and arms desperately dragging themselves towards its cranium and Link now overlooking the chaos from the high limb just below the canopy, the fuse finally ran out and a small explosion blew the skull to cinders. The other bones merely dissolved into thin violet clouds and the skull vanished into a huge plume of the stuff, leaving behind nought but a few coloured gems, a small red heart shape and a heavy iron club. With the exception of the weapon he gathered the spoils of his victory up, slipping the glinting rupees into a sack with a patch depicting an orange one of the gems, and feeling the heart return what little strength he had lost over the day.
He turned to look at Tetra, who had been watching from the sidelines. Actually she was quite impressed at Link's strategy, usually he would have merely swung his sword blindly, in the hope that the Stalfos would fall apart, but she'd never tell him that. "Impressed?" Link asked her
"Nope." She replied, proving my point.
"Man," Link sighed "I haven't seen this many monsters since Ganon was still around." He propped him self up against a tree and let himself slip to the ground. He groaned with weariness. "You're pathetic." Tetra chimed
"You're not the one fighting off monsters left right and centre!" He retorted from his seat at the wide trunk of the tree. Link sighed and closed his eyes, allowing his body to lollop due to his exhaustion. Then his sensitive, pointed ears pricked up at a familiar sound. "Denneg!" His eyes bolted open and he winced
"Oh, goddesses please no…" he murmured as the cries came again
"Denneg, denneg!" Tetra glanced around and spotted a bush rustling in the corner of her eye
"What the?" Within practically no time a group of small impish creatures with glowing yellow eyes and small tridents. These, Miniblins, were without a doubt the most annoying things in existence, even worse than when you can't get the cellophane off of a DVD box. Tetra drew a small dagger from the scabbard on her belt and began to skilfully place blows to the heart in each creature. It was now Link's turn to watch from the sidelines. The creatures just seemed to keep coming, like they were spawning from something behind the bushes, but then they just stopped. Tetra was thoroughly exhausted, but being as she was didn't show it aside from some slightly shallow breathing. Link pulled himself up from his resting place and said "Well, like you said, let's get going." He had a certain amount of smugness in his tone. He knew Tetra would now be tired out from her battle with the world's most grating voices and that she wouldn't be able to keep up with him. He took great joy in finding any chink in the invincible captain's armour.
They continued through the shades of turquoise and mud brown. It was beginning to get darker in the forest. Since the canopy wasn't thickening Link guessed night was falling. He looked up through the palisade that was the thick cluster of branches and leaves topping the forest, to glimpse a full moon illuminating the night's sky. He had become used to sleepless nights during his journeys as the Hero of Winds, he had learned the hard way that dozing off whilst sailing the King of Red Lions was unacceptable, especially if drowning due to Seahat attacks wasn't on your list of 'Things to do Before I Die'. It seemed that restless night times were something that Tetra had gotten used to as well, babysitting the pirates and the dragging them back to the ship once they were drunk and then making them do all the hard work when they had hangovers the next morning.
Once again, the thick trees gave way to a clearing. It was larger than the one before, and it had a pool of dark blue water that glistened in the moonlight on its left side. Tetra sat down, still striving not to show she was silently thanking the goddesses for the opportunity. Link went to take a closer look at the pool. He saw a small hole in the side of the bank that the water was spilling out of, and he could just make out another one on the other side that was draining the water out at the same rate. There was something strangely familiar about the way it glistened. He dipped an empty bottle had was carrying into it and took at sip.
Tetra was laid against a tree and was merely observing her surroundings, there was essentially nothing of interest or significance and frankly the scenery was rather grim. She looked down and to her right and saw a tiny, withering bulb in the same scorched, slate grey as a dehydrated bomb plant. She held one of the dying leaves in her palm and ran her thumb around the dry, cracking surface in a circular motion, and began wondering what kind of plant it actually was. Then she heard a familiar voice say her name "Tetra," she looked up at Link "this is forest water." He said holding up the bottle
"What's forest water?" she asked, not actually curious, but just trying to point out what he'd said wasn't as important as he made it sound, considering she'd never even heard of the stuff. "It's a kind of water found only at the Forest Haven, it can wake any dying plant grow." He said knowingly, obviously trying to impress her with his encyclopaedic knowledge.
She got up and walked over to him, snatching the bottle "Let me see that." She said examining the contents of what looked more like a glass jar than a bottle. She walked over to the small bulb she had taken a fascination to earlier and uncorked the bottle. "Tetra, what are you doing?" Link asked with a hint of concern in his voice
"Just testing the stuff out," she replied calmly, eager to see the effects of the magical liquid
"But you don't know what that thing is!" he yelled pointing at the bulb. To be honest, Tetra thought he was getting worked up over nothing. "Relax, it's probably just a harmless flower, you worry too much."
"Bu- wait, since when did you care about flowers?"
"I don't but if it's rare it'll fetch a good price from some girly girl."
"Okay, but st-" Link was interrupted by a sharp
"Quiet! Another word on the subject and you'll be doing Niko's job as soon as we're back on board the ship!" from Tetra. This shut Link up, as the thought alone of washing the underpants of any pirate crew, let alone Tetra's was enough to give him nightmares for three weeks.
Tetra turned the still uncorked bottle on its side and allowed the water to drop out, onto the dry bulb, that slowly regained a sharp orangey red colour, and its leaves bloomed into a lush green. Then for a short, it just sat there like a good plant should but then, the bulb quickly, opened up, and an almost familiar looking, huge flower with an olive green stalk and a florescent orange head. It roared. No, that isn't misspelled, you read it correctly. The plant roared. Tetra stepped back in alarm and Link thought; What the? That thing looks like Kalle Demos!He also noted that it was a different clour than the killer plant he'd fought a year ago.It appeared to sniff and then turned to tetra, opening its mouth and revealing its long, camouflage green tongue, and bit down into Tetra's arm. She screamed, wincing from the pain like nothing she'd ever experienced before, as a few drops of crimson blood splashed onto the prickly, yellow grass.
Hooray! Chapter 3 is finally done, nasty cliff hanger there, and I can't even start writing the next chappy until after my holiday! Oh, I'm so cruel! By the way, if any one sees DemonSlayer666, punch him for me. Okay? Thanks. Ciao.