M.S.K: Boy! Why! I'm so busy nowadays. Well, frankly I've been having trouble updating this yesterday. Well, now here it is. Sorry for the long wait. This chapter is before Hoshimi meets Ganon. Apparently, I haven't had much to say for now, because many things were holding me up from my writing.

Navi: Hey! Don't forget that you were ill for a few days and you have been coughing non-stop.

M.S.K: Yes, thanks Navi. So, why won't you do the disclaimer?

Navi: Of course! Kaoru doesn't own a single thing about Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. It rightfully belongs to the creators and storytellers of Nintendo. She only owns her protagonist and her secondary characters.

M.S.K: Thank you very much! Now, on with the story!

Chapter 7: Seaweed Jungle Problems

Shadow Link and Hoshimi have been swimming for quite a long while once they've entered the Forbidden Seaweed Jungle, where Ganondorf is currently living.

In a few minutes, Hoshimi began to shiver a bit. "Oh. . ." The deeper they swim into the jungle, the colder the water is getting. It almost feels like she is swimming in a sea that's up in the far north, where it is all cold as ice.

Shadow Link then wrapped his arms around her to keep her warm. Once he did so, he and she continue the rest of the way. "There, there. Now, let's keep going, shall we?"

Although she finds this shadowy mer-hylian boy strange, she continued onward with him. She is still trying to wonder whether or not, Ganondorf will help her fulfill her need.

After swimming through the dark waters for a moment, Hoshimi saw some sand on the sea bed shifting around. Then out came the flesh eating polyps that Red mentioned! They're ready to make an attack while gnashing their dagger-like jaws! As they do, the princess didn't even bear to show a sign of fear.

Then, Shadow used his dark magic to scare those sharp-toothed creatures off, making them crawl back below the surface of the seabed. When that's done, he smirked at Hoshimi. "That should do it. They usually do that every time when I'm around. Believe me, Princess. You can never teach a sea polyp."

Hoshimi didn't say anything but looked at him oddly. "Never mind that. Just call me Hoshimi, if you please." She thought to herself.

Then, they continued to swim onwards.

As for her siblings, they are now at the entrance of the jungle since they have been following her and Shadow.

"Well, here it is. But, I got a really bad feeling about this, Green." Said Red, nervously.

"I've never been into this part of the sea, before. It does look as perilous as what Father told us." Said Zelda.

Link observed the thick seaweed grove carefully to see if there isn't any sign of danger. But, it seemed that the first start of the pathway looks fine. "There's no sign of life around here, so it should be safe enough to cross and catch up to them. But we should be on the look out for any vicious creatures, so it's best to see them before they see us."

"You know, I agree with you, Green. For once." Said Blue while shrugging a little.

"Then, let's get going." Said Vio.

"But, why?" Red whined.

"Must you criticize his strategy?" He asked him back.

Well, with that, they all entered the dangerous seaweed grove! As they swam deeper into the jungle, they are experiencing the same thing Hoshimi have. They're now reaching the deepest part of the jungle and the water has gotten terribly cold in temperature. But, they continued swimming to keep up with their sister.

While swimming with his brothers and sister, Red happens to notice some skeletal carcasses of earlier mer-hylians who have been into the jungle before they do. At first, he felt an urge to squirm with fright after seeing them on the seabed. He is right. Many mer-hylians either got lost here or have been here for hunting and never came back alive. But, he must keep himself focused on bravery since he's known to be a charming hero with his brothers. So he continued swimming with his eyes staying straight ahead.

Then it wasn't too long before he said softly. "Hey, guys. I don't think I can take this any longer. This place is giving me the creeps!"

"Ssssh!" Vio shushed him. "Quiet! You don't want any of those blood-thirsty monsters to hear us!"

"Well, it does!" He whispered back again.

"Zip it, Red!" Blue shouted in his whispers. "What do you fear? You know, you're not supposed to be a scaredy catfish. That's something a hero shouldn't be doing."

But, Red continued to whimper. "But. . . But. . . I want to go home!"

Then, all of a sudden, his cry accidentally awoke a horde of giant sea kraits!

"Oh! Great!" Blue yelled once he saw the creatures. "Nice going, Red!"

Then, one began to lunge at Zelda! "Ah!"

Luckily, before it can reach her, Link quickly sliced the creature in half with his sword!

As the creature fell in pieces, he announced. "Come on, everybody! Get ready to cover up!"

So! Everyone used their sword techniques and magic to defeat those meat eating kraits, one by one, until the very last one was in pieces!

Once the fight was over, everyone sighed in relief! None of them are hurt, gratefully.

Link sighed. "Whew! You gave us quite a scare with that scream, Red."

"Sorry." He said to them.

"No worries." Said Vio. "All we got to do now is to keep up with Hoshimi and Shadow."

But, Blue is still suspecting things. "But, we got to be more careful! Ganondorf's hideout can still be guarded by many more of those critters! We have to be on our guard. Especially you, Red!"

Red begin to back up a wall of seaweed and tried explaining to his brother. "But, you know I can't help it, Blue! Yes! I'm a childish prince at various times of circumstance and a lot of people want a change in me. But, as you can see, I am what I am, you know!"

Then, something bit him on the shoulder a bit, causing him to yelp! "Yeowch!" He looked on what's on his shoulder. A sea-piranha! "Gyaah! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" He squirmed as he swam around and around in panic, practically embarrassing his fellow brothers and sister.

"Oh! For Din's sake!" Blue sighed. Then, with one swipe of his hand, he plucked the toothy fish off, slapped it on a rock, and smashed it upon the rock with his magic mallet! As it dissolved into fish mush with rock debris, he growled. "Yeah! Just like that! That's what I'll do with those things! From now on, don't go around picking up any of these small eating frenzy carnivores!" He hates sea-piranha as much as Red does.

Red swam up to his brother with tears in his eyes again. "Oh! Thank you! You saved me, my blue hero!"

"No! Not again, with that face, those eyes, and all of that mushy stuff! You're creeping me out!" The ocean colored-tailed boy squirmed, trying to pry the clinging Red one off his arm.

Suddenly, there was a growl! Everyone looked about at their surroundings and they found not one or two, but many more sea-piranha in each direction! They are all forming up in one big circle around them, blocking their chances to escape and find their sister. Not to mention going under or over them.

"This isn't good. They're everywhere." Said Link, seeing that these fish are already gnashing their chops.

"How are we going to get to Hoshimi now?" Asked Red, quivering while holding his sword.

"I got an idea!" Link announced. "Zelda! Get behind us!"

"Okay." She answered.

"Good. Now, everyone! Let's do a diamond formation around her and when I give the signal, we'll do a spin attack, together while she does her part! Plan?"

"Plan!" The three agreed in unison!

So, they got themselves together in the formation, just as Link spoke of. As soon as they're assembled, Zelda began to have her powers ready.

All of the sea-piranha start their attack! But, at Link's signal, the Four Princes quickly do a spin formation around Zelda to protect her as they all sliced them up before they can lay their jaws on them! While they're doing their sword job, the pink-tailed princess used Din's Fire to burn up a few to give her brothers a hand.

As soon as the piranha are gone, another situation of trouble was avoided, thanks to the clever Royal Children! Well, they should all thank Link for that, because everything they did is part of his maneuver strategy, of course.

"Phew!" They all sighed.

"I don't think I can take anymore of this! Those things could have turned us all into mincemeat!" Red whined at first.

"Are we still on track of where we can still be more nearer towards Ganondorf's lair than farther?" Zelda asked Link.

Well, Link looked around and about to see if they're still on the same path they're taking in order to keep up with Hoshimi. But, it seemed that they've already got themselves during the past critter fight. They're now in the middle of one part of the Seaweed Jungle, where they might not be able to find the path again. "Oh no." He mumbled.

Blue asked him. "What's wrong?"

"We're already out of range." Link answered.

"What do you mean?" He asked him again.

"When we were fighting those flesh eaters, we got ourselves out of range. By all means, we strayed from the path we're supposed to be taking during the battle."

"Oh dear!" Said Zelda.

"We won't be able to catch up to them at this rate!" Red exclaimed also.

"Indeed. After knowing everything about its dangers, we never knew that this jungle can be very confusing. It's almost like we were wandering through a maze and we got ourselves bamboozled by certain surprises emerging from every direction. In the end, they all made us let our guard down and get easily distracted, causing us to take the wrong road afterwards."

Blue wasn't too surprised to see that his violet garbed brother have figured out why they're now lost. "Now, you're telling us?"

"What are we going to do in order to get back to process, Vio?" Asked Red.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." He answered him.

While everyone is thinking, Zelda happened to feel a tug on her tail! "Oh!" She looked behind at what's pulling her into a thick grove of kelp! A group of Sea Mublins! "Link! Everyone!" She cried.

They all turned and gasped when they saw the Sea Mublins trying pulling their sister into the kelp they're hiding from! Zelda is also struggling to swim out of the grip of their grubby, clawed hands!

"Gah! Sea Mublins!" Cried Red swimming towards Blue.

"Of course they're Sea Mublins, you sea-deku nut head!" He shouted while pushing him off his chest.

"Help her! Help her!" Said Link before the two can get into another argument.

Without wasting a second or two, he and his brothers got together to rescue their sister.

As the brothers were battling the Sea Mublins on a tug-of-war with their sister, she tried slapping them on the head with her hands. "Let go of my tail!" She demanded. While she's continuing her slapping, the Triforce mark on her hand glowed brightly!

Blinded by the shining light from the back of her hand, the Sea Mublins flinched, removed their hands off of her tail and hastily swam back into the kelp grove!

The Royal Quadruplets and the Princess are surprised at what happened.

But, Red boasted. "Aha! I knew it all along! I knew it! Yes, I do! I knew they're scared of the Triforce!"

"You already knew?" Asked Link and Blue, for they have never seen their brother boasting out that way before.

Vio asked Zelda. "Are you all right? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"Well, only a bit." She answered, gesturing to the two thin scratch marks above her fins. "Their claws were pretty sharp."

"Oh." He pulled out a handkerchief from inside the sleeve of his tunic and wrapped it gently around the spot on her tail to heal. "You can still swim with it, right?"

Zelda moved it a bit and answered. "Yes. Thank you."

After going through another trial of struggling through thick kelp fronds and almost getting caught by the flesh-eating polyps, Link, Zelda, and their brothers are now in near exhaustion.

"Where. . . Are we. . . Right now?" Blue huffed.

"I believe. . . We're getting close. . ." Said Link

"Everyone's tired." Vio stated. "We need to rest a bit before we can go on."

Red agreed. "That's just what I need. The pace is killing me and I'm already worn out."

"But, we can't just sit here!" His blue-garbed brother protested.

"Vio is right, Blue." Said Zelda. "We've been swimming through this jungle for quite a long while, trying to keep up with Hoshimi and it's bigger than what we imagined. We also keep running into creatures that only think of us as food."

"I say we should get out of this place! I'm now sick over it!" He shouted again. "If Hoshimi wants to become shark bait, herself, then so be it!"

"Blue! Don't think of it that way!" Link replied aggressively. "After being lectured by father, she just couldn't cope with the stress and frustration she's having right now. That's why I want all of us to stay touch with her in the first place and for once, please! You got to stick to it!"

But, Blue just yelled. "Bah! Don't bother me with another one of those stupid ideas of yours! If I were to be the first prince in this brothel of siblings, then I won't be having an algae colored hat for brains!"

"Blue! Don't say that! You don't really mean it! Besides, Green does make a great leader and if he's the eldest, then perhaps, it wouldn't matter to you!" Red cried.

"Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, Red!" He snorted. "It does matter! If Hoshimi were to have any sense, then she will be forgetting everything she knew about that Prince Shimmering Link or whatever he is!"

"Blue. . . .!" The Second Prince whined, feeling an urge to cry again.

"All right! Enough of this brash ranting!" Zelda exclaimed. "This is getting nowhere, right now!"

"Exactly." Agreed Vio. "The longer it is, the more time we're wasting. We need to keep up with our younger sister."

But, he still yelled out. "If she wants to become a pawn of that loathsome sea wizard by now, then fine! It's not like I care!" He said before pounding on to something that felt like it's made of stone.

Then, everyone can feel the stony surface shaking a bit. They all flinched and tried to stay alert.

"Now what?" Blue asked. "Why did the sea floor moved just now?"

"Um, guys. . ." Said Red, nervously. "This isn't the sea floor. . ."

Then, what looked like the seabed just now began to rose up below them! On top of it were a few tendrils emerging too!

"Oh no." Said Vio as he held Zelda close to him.

"Everyone, what we're sitting on is not the sea bed!" Link warned them.

They all moved away and saw what it is! The Giant Abalone!

"Gyah! There it is! There it is!" Red cried frightfully!

"That's a colossal abalone I've ever seen!" Blue exclaimed. "Not to mention the only one."

All of a sudden, the creature began to launch its tendrils towards them in order to grab them!

Just in time, they all dodged the first two tendrils and got ready to fight!

They manage to fight off most of its tendrils with their weapons and magic. But, it seemed that the creature wanted meat more than anything else as it continued to shoot out at them! It must have never eaten for a long, long while! The Abalone shot out a tendril towards Vio, grabbing him by his tail and start pulling him towards its mouth!

"Gah!" He cried, dropping his sword as he is pulled over towards the colossal creature!

"Vio!" His siblings cried as they notice him getting caught by the monster!

The Abalone clamped its fleshy mouth over the Prince's tail, holding him down on the sea bed! Then, it's planning to drag him into its mouth slowly so it can consume him whole later on!

Vio desperately struggled upon the sand to try and get free! But, it seemed that it's too difficult! "You. . . beast of a mollusk!" He cursed as he grunted.

Green, Blue, Red, and Zelda quickly swam over to help him out! But, before they can reach it, the monstrous creature swung a tendril to drive them away, sending them flying through the water and landing on a few kelp fronds!

Everyone moaned at the pain they got at first, but they're okay as they are slowly getting themselves up.

"Vio!" Zelda cried for she's seeing that he's still struggling to get out of the mollusk's grasp. But, none of his movements were fast enough!

"We've been trying to harm it with all of our swords' strength but, Its shell! It's like armor!" Link spoke. "It seemed that the swords aren't capable enough to penetrate it!"

Red yelped. "Oh no! He's going to get eaten for sure! We won't be the Four Princes of Hylia again!"

"Yes we will!" Blue roared. "I'll just crush him with all of the might I have!" He pulled out his magic mallet and start to charge at the Abalone. "All right you big, fat, giant snail head!"

The Abalone made a questioned roar at him as if he's referring to it.

"Yes! You!" He answered its question. "Time to get squashed!"

"No! Blue! No!" Link cried out as he grabbed his brother by his left arm!

"Let go of me, Green!" He protested, trying to pry his arm away. "I'm not going to let this creep of a mollusk get away just by wanting to eat our brother, whole! So, back off!"

"Blue! Think about it!" The First Prince cried out again. "If you try and bash that thing, you'll hurt Vio in the process!"

"It's true, you know!" Zelda added. "The resulting shock waves from the mallet's strike can also rumble through any other object that's over a few miles away from its target!"

"Then what do you all think we should do?" He asked with exaggeration! "How are we going to get him out if we can't figure out this creature's weakness!"

"Guys!" Vio yelled out. "Don't worry about me! Just go and keep a good watch on Hoshimi!"

"But, Vio! You're the best brother in our family!" Red cried, with tears floating out of his eyes! "If. . . . If you are gone, oh! What will we do. . ?" But, before he can do anymore crying, he happened to notice a bit of something about the Abalone. He saw a few holes on top of its shell. "Aha! That's it!" He quickly wiped his tears, and swam off to another grove of seaweed, nearby. He had himself an idea!

"Oh! Red! What are you doing now?" Blue asked again.

"I know just what to do!" He called out to him.

Inside the seaweed grove, Red found something perfect for his plan! There's a group of dark violet sea urchins on one part of the seafloor. He smirked once he saw them. "Yes! Just what I need!" He said proudly to himself. So, he cut himself a thick frond of seaweed, and gathered up enough sea urchins before heading back to where the Abalone is.

Once he got there, he began to drop one sea urchin into each hole of the monster's shell!

Just when it looks like it was all over for Vio, he began to notice that the Giant Abalone, itself is beginning to twitch in a certain way! It's about to pull itself upward a bit as it continued to twitch! "Huh? What's happening?" He asked.

Blue wondered about his brother. "What is he doing?"

"I don't know for sure, but somehow what he's doing is irritating the monster already! He's doing something to it with some. . . small animals." Said Link.

Red continued dropping sea urchins into the monster's shell! "Hah! Here you are! Eat this instead! A nice meal of poison sea urchins! Take that, you over-grown scallop!"

When he heard the words of those small creatures he used, Link was surprised. "Ah! So that's what you're doing!"

The giant monster is starting roar out in pain as it picked itself upward again!

Seeing that Vio is perfectly unharmed, Red quickly tossed the frond of seaweed aside and swam over with haste to retrieve him. "Ah! Vio!" He made it to him and got him up to swim back to the others. "Come on!"

"Well done, Red!" He said, congratulating him!

As soon as they're settled back together with the other three, Red warned them. "Stand back everybody!"

As they did, what they're seeing is right now, the sea urchins inside the Abalone's shell are really giving it a hard time! It began to twitch wildly in pain!

Link smiled as he watched the mollusk's reaction. "Yes! Yes! It's working! The poison from the urchins' quills are infecting the creature's flesh inside its shell!"

As soon as the poison is spreading through its fleshy body completely, the Giant Abalone began to topple itself over on its back and started to fall off from the rocky ledge it's standing on! Then it fell to its death, down, down, down to the bottom of the black abyss of the sea!

Now, that the monster is gone, Red proudly dusted his hands. "There! That will teach him!"

"Oh! Red!" Zelda began to compliment him. "You are about to cry for when Vio's life is about to approach certain death, you just used quick thinking and saved him!"

Link nodded. "Yeah! You defeated that Giant Abalone with nothing but a batch of sea urchins! Way to go, Red!"

"I beg to differ!" Blue snorted for he could have done something if Red were to keep on crying.

"Thank you, Red." Vio said, smiling warmly. "If it weren't for you, I'll be fish food."

"Aw, it was nothing." Red answered to his siblings while blushing and rubbing the back of his head.

Then, Link spotted two figures swimming from looking through a ruined patch of seaweed. "Ah! There they are!" He just spotted Hoshimi and Shadow Link! They're finally back on track! "Everyone! There's no time to celebrate just yet! We still need to keep up with our sister!"

"Yes!" Everyone agreed and continued to head on to Ganondorf's lair!

M.S.K: I hope you like the battle scene so far. But, things are going to be more intense in the next chapter. It's what I'm going to be really working on now. Again, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Do feel free to leave a review or a comment. See you next time!

Vio: So, you were sick and that's why you are a little slow with this chapter?

M.S.K: That's one of the things. I've been coughing a lot, lately.

Vio: How serious was it?

M.S.K: Well, it's not exactly too serious, really. But, I don't know where it's from. I've tried everything to cure it. Medicine such as cough syrup, tablets, and drinking up as much water as I can get. But then, I've finally got rid of it thanks to the strongest medicine I was offered with. It does have an awful taste, but it sure did the trick.

Vio: I see. . .