I really enjoyed writing this chapter; lots of action and lots of snappy dialogue. I hope you guys enjoy it as well! Don't worry; I promise we'll eventually get into some really good plot. :)
The thief's cold voice sent a shiver down Link's spine, and his neck was now searing pain at the cut the person made. They said it so deep and hoarse there was still no way of identifying the person in question.
"Drop the sword," they repeated, "and I won't have to kill you."
Link gulped. "No."
The thief was so shocked at this answer that they bounced back in surprise. "Wh-what did you just say to me?"
"I said, no," Link stated, growing more confident with his words. "I managed to pull up the sword. You failed to. I'm stronger. You're weak."
Wrong thing to say. "You –" they hissed. "You'll pay for that!" With a resounding smack! on Link's face, he toppled over, surprised at how such a small person could punch quite a force.
"Ow," he muttered, massaging his temple.
"Gimme the sword!" the thief screeched.
"No!"
"Agh!"
They pinned Link down to the ground and started to wrestle with him for the sword. "You are making things extremely difficult right now!" they spat. "If you let go now, I can spare you a lot of bloodshed."
"I won't let cowards like you think you can threaten me! I am a defender of the people, and I swear on my life that I will protect Skyloft and all of its contents from dirty scum like you!"
"Why, you insolent child!" the thief barked. Still managing to keep one hand on Link and the sword, they whipped out a decidedly bigger sword than the measly dagger they had used initially to threaten him.
"Uhh," Link gulped, silenced by the fortitude of the cutlass.
"It would be so easy to run this through your stomach," the thief said, "but I'll give you one last chance. Give me the sword. Now."
And in a thin, raspy voice due to the pressure the thief was putting on his stomach, Link managed to say one word: "No."
The thief screamed like a banshee. "GIVE ME THE SWORD!"
Catching them off guard, Link smacked up his leg and kicked the thief right in the groin. They whelped in pain and stumbled back, clutching onto their stomach.
"M-men," they stuttered. "Thinking they can just do that, and they've won the fight."
Link, regaining his composure, stepped over to the crouching wounded and kneeled down. "Let's see the coward for who you really are!" he laughed maniacally. With one swift motion, he snatched away the scarf the thief had been wearing as a mask. It was his turn to jump back in surprise.
"Y-you're a girl!" he stammered. He wanted to say something else, but his mouth went parched. She was, in a word, beautiful. In another word, gorgeous. Her golden hair was wrapped neatly in a ponytail sitting atop her head, and her blue eyes were strikingly fierce. Her mouth and cheeks were rosy compared to her creamy complexion, and all Link could do was stop and stare at her. How was he supposed to fight her now when she looked like that? Stupid hormones…
"Good observation!" she spat back. "It only takes a genius to recognize a girl, you know!" Standing back up, while a bit wobbly, she readied her cutlass.
"I believe we were in the middle of you giving me back that sword when you became so rudely chauvinistic," she sneered.
"I don't think that's quite how I remember it!" Link snapped back, and the fight was on. The girl lunged towards him and sliced her sword, but Link's reflexes were quicker. He lunged out with the unsheathed sword and parried back.
"You're good," the girl admitted. "You practice?"
"All the time," Link smirked. "So one day, I can become a knight to defend people from thugs like you."
"Aww, isn't that cute," she cooed. "Trying to be the hero of the day. So sweet. Not even a knight yet."
Link snarled back, blushing profusely from the remark and swinging at her for saying it.
"What?" she demanded. "I'm only getting back for all those snide comments you said to me. Just making things balanced, am I right?"
Link slashed his sword diagonally, and the girl blocked him with just as quick reflexes. "Why can't my crew be as good as you?" she sighed wistfully. She lunged forward to try to attack him in the stomach, but Link dodged out of her way.
"There are more of you?" he asked incredulously. "Oh, come on."
"Yeah, but I'm the only smart one," she scoffed. She swung back at him in rapid succession, but Link continued to dodge her attacks. Finally, it got to the point where she had backed him up against a wall. "So," she said. "Looks like we've come to this." She held her cutlass by the blade and the handle and pinned him against the wall with it.
"I-I'm not done yet," Link heaved, growing out of breath from the battle.
"I swear to Nayru, this is your final chance. Give me the sword or else."
Link swallowed a dry gulp and leaned in close to the girl's face. "No matter what you do, I will always be here to stop you. No matter what you do, I will hold onto this sword with my life. Even if you have to pry it from my cold, dead hands."
The two stared into each other's eyes for a spell, and Link could feel his legs starting to turn into jelly. Man, her eyes were pretty.
"It's a shame," she tsked. "You're cute, too." With that, she mustered all her force and punched Link to the ground. His head slammed down on the cold concrete, and it started to throb painfully. He tried to focus on the girl, he really did, but the lights around him were fading away. Maybe if he just closed his eyes, he could regain his energy. His muscles went limp, and the sword was snatched from his clutching fingers.
"Checkmate," was the last word he remembered hearing.
Tetra skipped out of the statue laughing her head off. She'd done it! She got the Master Sword! No squirrely kid could get in her way! She held her head high to the sky and whooped as loud as she could. Five long years of research and preparation, and she had finally got the sword of legends. Goddesses, she was good.
She hummed a bit of the Ballad of the Goddess as she gracefully skipped down the stairs. What the heck, nothing could stop her now! She was on top of the world! The most powerful person! She had the Hylian Shield and the Master Sword! All she needed now were the Golden Gauntlets, and she'd finally have all three gifts the Golden Goddesses presented the Fierce Deity with. With them, she could storm that foul man out of her castle once and for all.
Skipping down the stairs seemed to go by in a flash, even with the stair's sheer immensity. Soon, she was on her way back to the ship, and she used her hookshot to latch onto a tree on top of the waterfall. It sent her whizzing back up, and she climbed on board her ship. She nearly dropped the Master Sword.
"Where. Is. My. Crew?" she screeched. A feeble body came trembling out from behind the mast.
"T-T-T-Tetra?" the measly body of Niko stammered.
"Yes, what is it?" she snapped.
"Erm, the rest of the crew are still out pilfering. I-I don't know when they'll be back – pleasedon'tharmmeIdidn'tdoanything!" he moaned.
"Shut up!" she spat. "They left you in charge? You're a disgrace, rookie." She rolled her eyes and jumped back down from the ship. "I'm going to go find them!" she called. "I suppose I have no other option but to leave you in charge, so don't do anything stupid, alright?"
"Y-yes, Tetra!"
Landing safely back on the ground, it didn't take long for her to find the rest of her missing crew. All she had to do was listen for the sounds of idiots, and she found them quite easily. They were quite literally pigging out on a farm that had a bunch of squealing pigs running around, scared for their little bacon lives.
"Oy!" she called out. "What in Din's name are you doing?"
"Miss Tetra!" Gonzo said. "I'm glad you made it! We need help wrangling up these piglets! Vicious animals, they are!"
Tetra rolled her eyes and let out a huge groan. "Gonzo, we are not bringing live pigs onto my ship! They will tear everything apart!"
"Who said anything about bringing live pigs on, Tetra?" Nudge said with a smile, holding up a small, limp pig.
"Oh – oh that's disgusting!" she retched. "Fine! We keep all the ones that you buffoons have already slaughtered, but we leave the rest alone, got that?"
"Oh, fine," Gonzo huffed.
Tetra looked around. "Where are the others?" she inquired.
"Well, Zuko's on the roof keeping an eye out," a dark shadow waved from up on top of the house, "and Mako and Senza are inside, raiding the pantries."
"Raiding the what?" Tetra boomed. "I swear, you men have no decency for women! I should leave you all here for the vile things you do!"
"Miss Tetra, pantries! Pan-tries!"
"…Oh."
Awkward silence. "Well, I better make sure they aren't doing anything stupid in there," Tetra determined. She quickly shuffled in there. She rolled her eyes when she saw the rest of her crew standing in front of the pantry, holding a Santa Claus-esque bag.
"Ah, Tetra!" Senza said. "Good, we need another hand! We don't have enough people to carry all this food!" He gestured towards Mako, who was filled up to his glasses with assorted food.
"You – We're going to starve these people if we take all their food away! We've already killed their pigs, what more terror are we going to inflict? For Farore's sake, we aren't barbarians!"
"But, Tetra!" Senza moaned. "They have pound cake!"
"Leave the food," Tetra groaned. "We have enough on board as it is."
Senza and Mako let out a collective "aww" as they placed the food back where it belonged. Out of the corner of her eye, Tetra noticed a flash of orange and stopped her two crewmates.
"Wait!" she cried. "We need fruit. To counteract the scurvy." She surveyed the fruit pile the owners had. "Take all the oranges, leave two apples."
With a grin, Senza and Mako began quickly stuffing the fruit into the bag Senza was carrying. "I knew you'd come around, Tetra!" Mako said, adjusting his glasses.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
A bump upstairs made Tetra jump. "Did you guys make sure the people living here were asleep?" she asked warily.
"Of course!" Senza said happily. "We knocked out the wife and children and tied them upstairs, and we killed the husband!"
"You WHAT?" Tetra screeched. "I told you, we were on a strictly no-killing spree! Oh, my Nayru, I've let you idiots kill an innocent man!" She clenched together her fists and bit down on her lip. She whipped around to stare down Senza and Mako. "We're going. Now." She flashed an index finger out at the door while her other hand covered her face.
"Yes, Tetra," the murmured.
They all shuffled back to the ship in dead silence. Getting the pigs up on top of the waterfall proved to be a bit of a challenge, but thankfully, the strength of the hookshots was strong enough to support the weight of a large man and a large pig. "Go figure," Tetra had mumbled.
When they were all on board the ship once more, Tetra stopped in realization. "Wait," she said. "I'm forgetting something."
"Yeah, Miss Tetra!" Gonzo perked up. "Something about you seemed odd, but I couldn't put my finger on it!"
She gingerly put a finger to her neck. "My scarf!" she yelped. "My mother's scarf!"
"Quick!" Gonzo commanded. "Everyone search the ship!"
"No," Tetra said.
"But, Miss Tetra!" Gonzo whined. "You love that scarf."
"I know, I know! But I think I might have an idea where it is. I will only be gone for literally five seconds. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is allowed to leave the ship. Got that?"
"Yes, Tetra."
"Good." Swinging her arm around her head, Farore's Wind picked up and swooped her away.
"What now?" Nudge asked.
"Start counting, I guess," Mako said.
"I'm not dead, you guys!" Niko cried gleefully. "Tetra didn't kill me!"
When Link regained consciousness, his head was in serious pain. He so hoped it wasn't a concussion. By now, the girl seemed long gone, and the sword went with her. He groaned; he let her go. It was all his fault. He steadily got back up and massaged his neck. When he looked at his hand, he nearly gagged at the sight of all the blood staining his gloves. Who knew such a measly cut could produce that much blood?
He wiped some of it off with his shirt sleeve, so it was a bit better. Still, he was feeling woozy at the thought, so he hugged the wall to regain his balance. That's when he noticed a small, red scarf on the floor. He wobbled over to it and picked it up, scrutinizing every detail. The word Hylia was sewn into it with gold stitching. An ornate Triforce was stitched next to the name. Link's eyebrows scrunched up. Wasn't that Triforce with wings the mark of the Royal Family? So that thief managed to raid the castle, too! Well, the scarf must have been important to her, so Link grew a sly smile on his face. If he held onto this, she would eventually come back looking for it, right? Then he could get his revenge. But he needed to be ready.
He ran out of the Goddess Statue as fast as his legs would go. Although a bit of a waste of time, he wanted to be ready in his knight's outfit, as it served more protection than the measly garb he wore right now. Along the way, some Keese tried to attack him, but he wildly slashed his sword back at them, and they were no bother to him at all. Somehow he managed to go all the way across town to the Knight's Academy, and he stormed in, rushing to his dorm. He slammed open his dresser and whipped on his uniform. Adjusting the brim of his cap, he smirked into his dresser mirror, and ran back out. And of course, that's when he had to show up.
Mido.
"What are you doing here?" he sneered. "Aren't you supposed to be at home with your little granny?"
"None of your business, Mido," Link huffed. "Why are you here?"
"None of your business," he snapped back, sticking out a tongue.
"Yeah, well, I don't have time for you," Link said, rolling his eyes. He was about to make a break for it when Mido stopped.
"Hey, Mr. High-and-Mighty? Where do you think you're going? Dressed up like that? What, are you going to go beat up some Keese or something stupid?" He laughed loudly at the thought, and Link was about ready to sock him upside the head.
"Leave me alone, Mido!" he growled.
Mido continued to laugh until he noticed the huge blood stain on Link's neck. "Haha, dude, the Keese totally slaughtered you! What a wimp!"
"I don't have time for you, Mido!" Link snapped, rushing out of the building.
"H-hey! Get back here, I'm not done with you! Come back and fight me like a real man!"
Link ignored him and continued his journey back to the Goddess Statue. It didn't seem like Mido was ready to give up though. He was running as fast as he could to catch up to Link.
"I know what this is!" Mido yelled, but panting as he did. "You're going to go meet up with Ilia!"
"Wha- No, I'm not!" Link said, breathlessly as well.
"Ilia would never like you, Link! She wants a real man, like me!"
"Ilia would like you over my dead body, Mido."
"You can't steal Ilia away from me! She loves me, and you know it!"
"I don't have time for you, Mido!" Link growled once more. All the way running back towards the Goddess Statue, Mido continued to pester Link about how Ilia was his woman, and trying to impress her wasn't going to work. When they finally reached the statue, Link had to admit he liked fighting with that girl better than Mido talking his ear off.
"Look, Mido," he groaned. "I am trying to do something for the benefit of Skyloft, so if you have a decent bone in your body, leave me the heck alone!"
"Oh, yeah, so you can have your fancy romantic time with Ilia? Not in a million years, Link. Not in a million years."
Link was about to retort back, but a sudden strong breeze snapped him out of his anger with Mido. It was a green wind that seemed oddly familiar. When the breeze died down, a figure was standing in the middle of it. Link gasped. It had to be that girl!
"Hey!" he yelled at her. "Looking for this?" He held aloft the scarf. The figure paused to stare at him, and Link realized that it was too dark to see anything out here. He groaned. "It's me, the guy you fought earlier. I have your scarf!"
At those words, the person lunged over at him and pinned him down to the ground. "You!" she snapped. Yup, definitely that girl. "You bast–"
"Who is this chick?" Mido asked in amazement.
"You brought back up?" she laughed hysterically. "Oh, this is too funny!"
"He's not back up!" Link snapped. "He's a parasite."
"Whatever he is, all I want is the scarf back!"
"Well, give me back the sword!"
"Over my dead body!"
"I can't even see you girl, but dang you are sexy!"
The girl stopped yelling at Link to glare at the shadow of Mido.
"What did you just call me?" she said with an incredulous laugh.
"Told you he was a parasite," Link muttered.
The girl stood up to confront Mido.
"Don't ever call me that again," she snarled, raising her cutlass.
"I am so attracted to you right now," Mido whispered.
The girl screamed loudly and lunged forward to attack him. Mido dodged out of the way, but he shrieked loudly. "Dang, girl, you're a feisty one!"
"Do you want to die?" she screeched and socked him one right in the kisser. Mido fell lifelessly on the floor, and she turned back to confront Link.
"Give me back my scarf!"
"No!"
"Men!" She obviously was having a rough time that night, because she didn't even put in the effort to toy with Link. She kicked him square in the stomach which knocked the air out of him, and she snatched the scarf out of his hand.
"Oh, look at this!" she moaned. "You got blood on my scarf! Well, at least it's red…"
She raised an arm over her head and twirled it, but Link wasn't ready to give in. "No!" he managed to spit out, and he latched onto her arm. He yelped when another hand grabbed onto his ankle.
"I'm not letting you get away from me, Link!" Mido snarled.
"Let go of me!" the girl demanded. But it was too late. That mysterious wind had picked up and all of a sudden, Link was flying on the breeze of the green gale. He and Mido were screaming their lungs out. The wind dropped them off on top of what seemed to be a large airship. The two boys bounced on the surface of the ship and rolled over like dead bodies. The girl shook Link's hand of her ankle and growled her disgust. She looked around at the ship and nearly died of a heart attack.
"What have you guys done now?" she shrieked. There were explosions heard in the background, and the ship began to wobble.
"Ah, welcome back!" a man's voice said. "Yes, well, it seems we've landed in quite the predicament."
"Predicament?" she screamed. "There are cannonballs shooting at us from below!"
"Er, yes, well it seems that someone saw us running off with the cargo, and they decided to tell someone-"
"They are shooting at my precious ship!" the girl moaned. "Do something!"
"R-right! Everyone, man the cannons!"
The crew shuffled over to the cannons on the sides and started to fire at the people down below. Link managed to stand back up on his feet and started to lunge for her.
"Oh, no you don't!" he bellowed at her.
"You just don't know when to give up, do you?" she snapped. "Gonzo, get rid of this boy for me!"
"As you wish!"
"H-hey!" Mido stammered. "I want to go back down! I'm done with this crazy chick!"
The girl sneered at him. "Sorry, kid, but I'm not sticking around while my precious ship gets blown up." She ran over to the steering wheel, and the airship started to take flight.
"Grandma!" Link moaned. "Aryll! Ilia!"
"Goodnight!" the goon Gonzo finished. With a deafening crack, the dim lights around Link went dark.
So how was it? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Please send me a review and tell me on some things I need to work on; I really want to do better, and I need your guys' help! So please take the time and tell me something to improve on or something, even if it's like, "That sucked." or something. Thank you so much!