Here's one more long chapter. I intended to make it longer, and get them all the way to the Dodongo's Cavern, but I surprised myself with the end of a paragraph, and found I just couldn't beat it. So, read and review.
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"This sucks," Link said. "What a grouch." The two had climbed up Death Mountain to see Darunia, and Link was annoyed, not only because he failed to get the Goron's Ruby, but also the fact that Zelda's lullaby failed to make him sleep, so it was impossible to make like a ninja, and stealthily take it by force.
"He's not normally like that," Khârna mused. "I have noted, though, that he does like music."
"We tried that already!"
"He wanted something green…"
"What's a green song?!?" Link exclaimed. "The guy must be going senile!" Khârna got rather irritated at this.
"He's not senile," he said bitterly. "You'd be depressed too if your people were dying from lack of food."
"Point taken," Link gave in. "Well, what's green?"
"I don't know, remember, I've lived here all my life," Khârna reminded him. "But, grass, single rupees, trees…"
"That's it! Trees! Let's go to the forest! I bet Saria knows some green songs!" Link said.
"Sara-wha?" Said Khârna stupidly, but Link had already run out, and Khârna, not wanting to miss the action, followed.
Malon walked into the ranch, intending to shout out her father for a while, but she runs into their ranch hand instead.
"Hi, Mr. Ingo!" Malon said brightly. Ingo looked tired, like always. But, he forced a smile, and said,
"How was the delivery?"
"It went fine, I brought a couple of friends there."
"Why wasn't I aware of this? You've never brought friends to the ranch," said Ingo, cranky from lack of sleep.
"I know, I just met them this morning," Malon replied with a smile. Ingo just raised his eyebrows.
"That's nice. Could you give me a hand mucking the stables?" He asked Malon, and she complied.
She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened in town. Why had she hugged a boy? What was she thinking? But that little voice in her head said, "well, it was kind of nice." Her perfectly rational, 10 year old mind yelled back at it, "No it wasn't!" "Well if so," the satanic voice in her head asked, "Why did you do it? You started it." Her mind could think of no rational explanation for this, and so went and pouted in a remote corner of her skull, leaving that voice to think,
"Does he like me?"
"Do I like him?"
"Do I?"
And her rational mind was incapable of answering, the hormones had started their march.
Zelda smiled to herself. Link was really a cutie. She was almost 11, there was no hope for her. Her endocrine system had her firmly in it's grip. She had never had a real friend, except a couple of servant boys and girls, her own age. And Link was definitely better looking than those boys. She picked up a flower, and, with the romanticism that only a young girl or a lovesick older peron can, she started picking off the petals.
"He loves me, he loves me not…"
She wouldn't have been pleased to know that Link wasn't thinking of her at that time. He was more absorbed in finding his way around the lost woods, in the Kokiri forest. He had long since lost Khârna, and they were bumbling around, always managing to find their way back to the entrance. He happened upon a large owl sitting in a tree.
"Hello, Link."
"Umm… Hi?"
"Getting lost, aren't we?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, listen to the sounds. That's all I have to say."
"But wait!" It was no use. The owl flew away. Link grumbled something about noise and the problems it caused him and strained his ear. He heard it. Not well at first, but it got louder, as he approached a certain tunnel. Well, that was something. He continued listening, and continued through the corridors where it was louder, until he came into the sacred forest meadow. He didn't know its name yet, but let's just call it that for the sake of simplicity. He walked in. Khârna came in shortly after him. They walked towards the only visible opening, but bars covered it.
"That's weird," remarked Link.
"Yeah," replied Khârna. "…wait… what's that sound?" They looked behind them. A crazed, drooling wolfos was sneaking up behind them. They drew their weapons. They attacked, but it defended itself. Link had an idea.
"Khârna, I have the shield. Get behind him," he said. Khârna understood and obeyed. Link played the role of a very tasty slice of meat, and he put up his shield as the wolfos lunged. Khârna saw his chance. He pounced on the wolfos, and brought his axe down on the head. To be frank, Khârna's axe wasn't very sharp, and rather than cleanly cleaving the head in two, it exploded, sending shards of bone and brain flying everywhere. The gate opened. Khârna sat down. He was going to be sick.
Links stomach didn't feel so good either. Khârna stood up.
"Sh-should we keep going then?" He asked rather queasily.
"I guess." Link replied, easily as nauseated.
They walked through the meadow, eventually finding a long staircase. They climbed up, and there they saw Saria. Khârna didn't know her, but Link did, and his face showed it. He was beaming, and he promptly ran up and hugged her.
"It's great to see you, Saria." He said. Saria hugged him back and smiled.
"Great to see you too, Link," she said. "Any reason you came back?"
"Yeah, I was wondering if you knew any 'green tunes'" Link said.
"Well, maybe, what's a 'green tune'?" Asked Saria, rather puzzled.
"I'm not sure either," Link said.
"Oh well, who's your friend?" Saria asked, looking rather curious.
"Khârna. I've already gathered that yours is Saria. Pleased to meet you." Khârna said. Saria smiled at him.
"Well, I know you guys don't want to come back here every time you'd like a bit of help, so here's a song. If you play it, you can talk to me." Link quickly took out his ocarina. Khârna sat back and watched.
"Oh, don't you have something to play on?" Saria asked. "Here, take my ocarina. No really, I can make another one."
"…Okay," said Khârna, reluctantly taking the instrument into his hands.
"Now, let's play." Saria said.
Saria proceeded to teach them a really neat little tune, the same one that Link had heard in the Lost Woods. When they could play it, she said,
"If you want to talk to me again, just play this song." Then, almost as an afterthought, she added, "It's always reminded me of the forest. It actually has kind of a green tone…" Suddenly, Link jumped up.
"That's it!" He exclaimed. Khârna understood too. They simultaneously jumped up and ran as fast as they could out of the Forest, leaving behind a very bewildered Saria.
"Men," she said, and proceeded to begin work on another ocarina.
Darunia was very fond of Saria's song. His depression cleared up just like that. Not to mention the dancing that shook the ground they stood on. But then, he thanked them, and told them to go home. Khârna bristled. As far as he was concerned, this was his home.
"But, Darunia, we can help!" He exclaimed. The Goron king smiled at him.
"He's right sir, we're good fighters." Link finished. Darunia frowned. He was rather desperate. Ganondorf would surely interpret a Goron entering Dodongo's cavern as a act of aggression, and if he couldn't get the Goron's ruby by his original plan, he would be likely to take more… shall we say… drastic measures. He sighed in resignation.
"All right," he said. "If you two can open it up and kill everything in there, I would be more than glad to give you the Goron's Ruby. But first," he went over and grabbed a pair of bracelets. "These will enable you to pick up the bomb flowers, unless you can already carry them. Two won't make you any stronger than one, so each of you can have one."
The boys slipped the gold bands around their wrists. Khârna was rather scared at the strength he had. He was as strong as a young Goron without them. Is this what it felt like to be Darunia? Or another full grown Goron? Link was marveling. He was a little stronger than Khârna was without the bracelet, but that strength was something new to him.
They quietly thanked Darunia and left the room. Darunia looked rather concerned. Would they handle that strength well? He consoled himself by knowing that they couldn't do it without the bracelets, and he sat down and thought. He wasn't familiar with the legends of Hylians, but if he were, he would be much more reluctant to give up the spiritual stone of fire. Maybe that was a good thing for our heroes, and then again, maybe it wasn't. Only time will tell.
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Do you like that last paragraph as much as I do? I hope so. Please review!