"Klein, are we there yet?" Groose whined, his feet sore.
"This is the fifth time you've asked, and the answer is still no. We're in the middle of a jungle, a wooden encampment surrounded by Kikwis at the bottom of a canyon should be a pretty fair sign that we are there."
A silence washed over the group.
"…Are we there yet?"
Klein stopped in his tiny Kikwi tracks and turned around. He brushed past Link and Ghirahim, then leapt up onto Groose. He grasped Groose's collar and pulled himself up, bringing the two face to face. "The encampment is at the bottom of this ravine, hidden away from our enemies. That's a long way down. If you want to jump, soldier, then be my guest, but I'm taking the way that doesn't end with a mess on my grounds. So what'll it be?"
Groose thought for a moment, then removed the Kikwi from his collar by snatching it by the scruff of its neck. He set Klein down, then turned to Link.
"May I see your sailcloth?"
Link was surprised by the request, and reached into his back pocket, removing the sailcloth. Though reluctant to hand over one of the few bonds he had to a time when he wasn't frolicking around this forsaken world, fighting monsters and saving the general populace, he found the strength to rest the cloth in Groose's outstretched hands. Groose nodded, then proceeded to jump off the side of the cliff.
"That man has balls of steel." Klein said, looking over the cliff.
"Did somebody say… balls?"
"Oh, that's right. You two, meet my comrade, Duke." Klein gestured towards the two heroes left. "Duke, this is Ghirahim. This is Link. You two will be following him back to the base. I'm going to run a status check on the surrounding area, and check in with the outpost squads. Duke, lead the way. I'll be seeing you two later." And with that, Klein waddled off into the dense forest. Link was rather baffled as to how a creature of his rather short stature could hold himself in such high regard, but he shrugged it off. It was probably just a Kikwi thing.
"Get your pansy asses over here. We're going down." Duke ushered the two heroes over to him, and proceeded down the worn path.
Groose rocketed towards the small wooden encampment below him. He prepared the sailcloth in his hands. Slowly, the sounds of the base below him faded into his ears as he rapidly approached the ground. However, the sounds were not the organized calls or shouts one would expect from the stature Klein held his base of. Instead, misaligned screams and panicked cries for help rang out below him.
Groose released the sailcloth behind him, gently drifting down to the surface. As soon as he landed, a surge of Kikwis bolted out of a wooden shack as it went up in flames. Groose surveyed the area for any immediate sign of danger, but found no source to this chaos. As another Kikwi group ran past, Groose plucked one out of the crowd, lifting him up as his tiny feet continued to speed in circles.
"Hey, calm down. It'll be alright, I need some answers, can you help? Can you help me? Please? Hey, listen, calm, that's good." Groose said tenderly, ushering the Kikwi down to a level of consciousness. Groose set him on the ground and asked him, "So what's going on here?"
The Kikwi calmed him nerves and looked up. "Well, we were in the middle of a normal day, and then there was a loud bang, and then there were people, and, no, wait, no, Kikwis, the Kikwis, we were running and then the loud blast came, and then we looked, and, wait, I looked, and there were all these flames everywhere and then I looked up, and I saw a big monster thing, and it was huge, and I think it made the fires, and it had a shiny thing, it was a triangle, and I saw it, and, and, and…"
The tiny Kikwi had worked itself up into a hyperventilation, so Groose let it run wild again, chasing its brethren for the safety it held in numbers. Groose gathered from the description that the large beast holding the shiny triangle could be none other than a rather large orchestra triangle player, or maybe a monster or something. Groose hoped it wasn't a monster. He wanted an autograph.
"Duke, how much farther until we reach the base of the ravine?" Link asked, slowly skirting along the edge of the of the canyon. Link was tiring quickly, as the hot sun beat down on them. His stamina gauge only had eight sections, after all.
"We'll get there when we get there, quit your bitchin'." Duke screamed from lower down the ravine's rocky wall. Link and Duke continually made their way down as Ghirahim floated next to Link. Levatation was a useful power. Ghirahim had spent years mastering the art of dark magic, and it was only now being put to fruitful use.
"Is this safe?" Link asked.
Duke stopped, looked back, and simply shrugged. "Well, we normally have a squad for climbing safety. But C.E.N.A. has the day off."
"C.E.N.A.?" Link inquired.
"Yes, the Corps of Expanse Navigation Assurance. The very best. Not a single group has been hit with a falling rock with C.E.N.A. there. They stop the rocks dead in their tracks, sometimes with their bare hands. If I didn't know any better, I'd sa-"
"Look out!" Ghirahim interrupted. Link looked up to see a large boulder falling down towards them.
"Shit!" Link screamed. Akin to his second nature, Link brought his hands up to his mouth to whistle. However, his Loftwing wouldn't be able to get here quick enough to save him, and Link didn't have his sailcloth because…
"Damn that buffoon…" Link thought to himself as he watched the rock drop closer and closer.
"Wait. I got this." Ghirahim said. With a snap of his fingers, a large, glowing barrier appeared above Link, stopping the boulder and shattering it to bits. The shield went down, pelting Link with nothing but pebble-sized derbis.
"Ghirahim, that was-"
"Wait, I already know. Fabulous?"
Link, quick to turn on his withstanding beliefs, quickly rebuttled. "No, what I was going to say was… uncalled for. I could've saved myself, I didn't need you stepping in like that. Stop getting in my way."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot you don't want to trust me. Well, if you're going to be so stubborn, I guess I might as well go see what Groose is up to." Ghirahim quickly scanned the area in his mind, magically detecting Groose's whereabouts. In a puff of diamonds, he was gone.
Link felt that deep down, he was simply doing what was best for business. But in reality, could the Demon Lord actually be free of his contraints? Maybe he was here to help…
Link quickly pushed away those thoughts. Thoughts like those were dangerous. Those were the thoughts that would cause Link to end up with a sword through his back.
"Hello. Mistress, how might you be doing on this ever-so-fine day?"
"I detect an unknown entity, none of which I have encountered the likes of prior to my sealing. Reveal your identity."
"Well well, if you aren't just a pleasant little sword spirit. I hope you don't mind, but I'll be borrowing you for… oh, per se, a plan's worth of time."
"My data indicates that the joke is indeed on you. Only the chosen hero of the Goddesses may wield the Master Sword in their hands."
"I don't really have hands. I guess I'm just sort of a robe with extensions."
"There is a 100% chance I totally know what you're talking about. What are we? What do we even call these things? They aren't really arms, they're just kind of implied to be appendages or something, and the author doesn't even know what to call them, it's really confu- wait. You don't have hands?"
"No, they're just implied."
"Well shit."
In a quick gesture, the sword was removed from its pedastal, and summoned forth into the mysterious villain's robes. It disappeared within them. The mysterious robed figure knew precisely what he would be doing in a short amount of time. With a dead air filling the temple, the villain disappeared into nothing.
A single voice croaked throughout the temple. "Welcome to my temple… Wait, where'd that sword thing go?"