A/n: Hey guys, thank you all so much for reviewing. And here's a quick and apologetic announcement, I forgot to add some pretty important information in the last chapter, when the girls were talking about Naomi and her pirate deal. You might want to go back and just read through the new stuff, because it's going to come into play in the next few chapters. Sorry, I was planning on adding it, and then completely forgot.
FanficLover- don't worry, I love it when people review. I was just in awe at how many reviews this story actually got, I've never gotten this many.
Luthoen- I'm glad you could understand what is going to happen. I'd rather some parts be obvious than un-comprehendible. And yeah, I am trying to leave some mystery to be figured out later. I'm hoping this story will fit together like a puzzle, and I'm hoping that it's fun to read that way.
Well enough of my jabber. Here's then next chapter, I hope it is amusing.
Chapter 15: The Drunken Happening and the Longest Night
"As we said." Naomi continued to Amy. "You and Link just have that random trust issue for no apparent reason. Sure, you two got off on the wrong foot, but what keeps you guys hating each other now?" Amy was quiet.
"I…" She began, but then drifted momentarily into thought. "He's a jerk to me!"
"No he's not. You're just too sensitive." Aura stated bluntly. Amy became even more defensive.
"Yeah, well you know, you don't have too many redeeming qualities yourself." She replied a bit irritably. Aura looked down, a bit ashamed.
"We all have issues." Naomi said matter-of-factly, "but we're talking about you at the moment ." Amy sighed heavily.
"Alright, so maybe I have been a little hard on him."
"That's an understatement." Aura said, becoming her blunt self again. Amy rolled her eyes.
"I'll… um… I'll go talk to him after we put these sheets on our beds." Amy looked over to the bare mattresses and piles of sheets.
"We can do that later." Naomi shrugged her shoulders. Amy shook her head in reply.
"No… I don't want to talk to him now." Amy grunted. She was still turning over her thoughts, trying to decide why he really did get on her nerves so much. Something about it didn't quite add up, even to her.
Link was almost finished with the remedy. He didn't really feel the pain anymore, but the dizziness seemed to be getting increasingly worse. However, he felt giddier than he had ever felt before, considering he had never actual felt giddy before. Navi flew out of his hat, causing him to wince at the quickly moving light.
"Navi." He slurred his words, the little fairy became a blur of light to him. "Whoa Navi, slow down."
"I'm not moving Link… you don't look so good."
"What are you talking about, I feel fine." He burped.
"I better go tell the beast boy in there that you might be a while." Said a yellow blurry light. It flew up the moving stairs. He suddenly heard footsteps coming down, if only they would stop moving so he could see who it was.
"Link?" A beautiful woman was suddenly close to him, and he was in drunken awe of the gorgeous brown locks encircling the heavenly face. "Link? What's going on? Are you… Ugh!" The loud noise was familiar to him; it was Amy! She had smelled the alcohol on his breath. "I can't believe the nerve of you!"
"You're really pretty when you're angry…" Link couldn't help but say. It seemed that his common sense had been put to rest for the night. This comment only made Amy angrier in a very confused manner. Her face became contorted in bewilderment.
"You're drunk!"
"Then you're really pretty when I'm drunk…" The next thing he knew, he felt a sharp pain slash across his face.
"You jerk!" Amy screamed. "And to think, I was going to apologize for being mean to you!" She then turned and stormed up the still moving stairs.
"Where are you going?" He called after her. Amy yelled again as she turned to go into her room. Naomi and Aura sat speechless. The little pirate was the first to conjure up enough courage to talk.
"So… how did it go?"
"He's drunk!!!" Amy exclaimed as she slammed her face into a pillow. She felt incredibly embarrassed and did not want them to see her blushing. Naomi and Aura exchanged a worried glance as they rushed from the room to help the drunken Hylian.
Naomi was the first to reach him, Link did seem to be altered.
"What did you drink?" Naomi grabbed the bottle from his hands.
"Your remedy." Link replied slowly, his words were still a little slurred. Aura smirked.
"That does seem to be your concoction thing." Naomi glared at her.
"It had no alcohol in it." She sniffed the bottle. "This, however, is wine… but if that's the case, then where is my…" Before she could finish, something most unexpected happened. The grandmother came running out of her room, happily waving her arms.
"WOOHOOO!!!" the old woman exclaimed. "I've never felt so alive in my life! Anju actually made something good! I can't believe it, and I feel GREAT!" Anju's mother ran about the room, exiting up the stairs, Anju frantically followed her.
"Mother," She called. "You need to sit back down… I'm never feeding you again! Mother!"
Aura and Naomi exchanged baffled expressions as they looked from the frantic Anju to the bottle Naomi held.
"Well, at least now you know my remedy worked… just on the wrong person." Naomi sighed as Aura waved her hand in front of Link's eyes. He attempted to catch it, but had no luck in doing so.
"No joke." Naomi and Aura glanced over at the drunken Link.
"It's a good thing I also know how to sober people up… Pira--p, people! In my family have a tendency to drink, so, yeah…"
"Nice save." Aura joked. Naomi shrugged.
"He's drunk." She then went back to the kitchen. Link looked at Aura as she slowly became a blurry mass. Then there was darkness, the last thing he heard was a scream of disgust from Aura.
"He threw up!" She yelled.
A pungent odor awoke him. He jolted out of his delirium, opening his eyes to see all three girls staring at him. Even Amy had come down. Her cheeks had a slight blush, making Link wonder if she had always had blushed cheeks when she didn't wear a scowl on her face. He didn't have much time to ponder that, as her face resumed the scowl when she realized he was looking at her.
"What happened?" Link asked as he sat back down. Naomi sighed.
"You drank the wrong bottle. I was able to get you sober with this remedy, but unfortunately you are still going to have a hangover in the morning. Don't worry though, I'll fix you up something for that too."
"Is there anything you don't have a remedy for?" Navi squeaked as she swirled around his head. Link was glad that she wasn't moving so fast anymore.
"Toe fungus." Naomi's voice rang out as she walked into the kitchen. The group cringed at the thought. An awkward silence followed as Naomi finished pouring a mixture for the hangover into a bottle.
"Keep this by your bed. That way there won't be any more confusion." Naomi walked back into the room, and handed Link the bottle.
"Well, I'd better get to sleep…" Aura said through a yawn. They hadn't realized how late it was. Naomi nodded.
"Yes, we'll all do better after a good night's sleep." She concurred, following Aura upstairs. Link sat for moment and rubbed his temples. Amy's boot began to slid across the floor, bringing his attention back to her. There was a look of concern in her face, Link grinned.
His look of amusement made Amy sneer and shake her head as she slowly turned to go back up the stairs.
"You were worried about me…" Link said, wondering if he may still be under the affects of the alcohol; he had never really had any before, there had never been enough time in a day.
Navi flew from Link to Amy, something she would do whenever he wished to speak with someone. Amy stiffened, turning rigidly.
"Yeah…" She started. "But that's only because you know how to get my stone back. Sure, I wasn't too worried about it for a few days, because of the cave and the beast and the fangs…" Amy stopped imitating the scary fangs when she realized Link was still watching her. Her eyes darted back and forth as she remained awkwardly silent for a moment.
"But now I'm back on track!" She exclaimed, trying to convince herself more than Link. She remembered how much faith her mother and Mrs. Cassidy, the dragon tamer, had in her, but Amy never felt that much faith in herself. Her attention focused back to Link, he still stared at her with that grin on his face. "I'm going to find that stone now… and then I'm going to leave." Amy quickly turned to go to her room, before there could be another awkward silence.
Navi flew back to Link, hovering around his head as he got up to go back to his room, where Arian was hiding beneath the covers incase a curious Naomi thought to check in on him. None who left the lobby noticed the curious eyes watching them through the window.
The guard rolled his peering eyes as he sat back down. He had arrived only ten minutes before. Though he had not seen Devoren and his company leave, he knew that the great evil was now in Termina, thanks to another ancient device of his. The guard rubbed his chin, a look of disgust hung across his face.
"Great, a drunkard has the Black Sword." He said to himself, pulling out the device to once again stare at it in disbelief. Another deep blue glow had joined the red, signifying Devoren's imminence. He sighed.
"And now that bastard is here. I'm going to have to get that thing back now, before he does." The guard glanced up at the windows. A hope crawled into his mind. If that man, Link, goes to sleep, it's possible that he will take off the sword. Thereby allowing someone else to take it. However if he slept with it on, then he risks being trapped by Link and his company. The guard tried to remember the number of people he had seen with him.
With another sigh bursting from his lungs, he replaced the device in his belt and turned to the wall.
"Well, it's now or never…" The guard trailed off as he began scaling the wall, searching for Link in each of the upstairs windows.
A candle flickered on a table in the dark stone room. Junk was piled beside the walls, along with other precious items.
Gaft had taken the group into a back alley of East Clocktown, it lead down into the town's sewer systems. Once this had been the hideout of a young group of boys, but now they had grown, as had the stone passageways below the observatory. The Night's Army now used the secret passageways of this system that ran throughout the city. Devoren was quite pleased.
"I knew I could trust the wickedness of man." He said to his companion, Vereor. Jabono stood sullenly behind them; the spell still held strongly to him, and he remained oblivious to the impiety of Devoren. Nit silently flew above Devoren. Her dark glow was of neither evil nor good, but obedient.
The skull kid stood in the corner, impishly examining his surroundings. Gaft stood watching him, momentarily, and then joined the other three at the table.
"Let us discuss our own business." Devoren said to Jabono. The old man nodded dumbly. No questions were asked as the skull kid led him back into the sewer passageways. Devoren then turned back to the matter at hand.
"So why are you so interested in my coming?" He asked Gaft. The man laughed.
"The good are unjust, and unwanted. The reign of the righteous is over, it is time for evil to rule. It will be every man for himself, without the weak to hold him back. I just want to make sure that I am one of those who comes out on top."
Devoren smiled. He could see that this man was even more wretched than Sakon, but this man seemed to have a better edge than that of the greedy thief. Sakon had been ignorant, but Gaft knew very well what was going to happen.
Vereor patiently watched Devoren for his choice of action.
"So you wish to survive in the age of villainy?" Devoren asked Gaft, the man slowly nodded a reply. Another malicious grin crossed Devoren's face.
He got out of his chair and drew a chalice out of the various piles bordering the stone walls. Handing it to Vereor, he returned to his seat.
"Let us make him one of us…" Devoren said in a monotone, the grin was still on his face.
Vereor grasped the chalice and held it to his mouth. His eyes turned black, he began wheezing.
The wretched sound echoed about them. Gaft tensed, becoming uncomfortable. A foul smelling substance spilled from Vereor's mouth into the chalice, it was the same black as his eyes. Gaft cringed in disgust while Devoren's expression remained unaltered.
"What is that?" He exclaimed as Vereor wiped his mouth, returning to normal. Devoren took the chalice with the black slime and looked at it casually.
"When my mission is complete, the very earth will be poison. The air will be un-breathable, and no one will be able to satisfy their hunger or thirst, without succumbing to death of its new toxins. In order to survive, you yourself must be of that same poison." Devoren extended the chalice to Gaft. The man choked on the smell. "Drink this, and you will be like one of us."
Gaft stared at the black poison he was to drink. His hand hesitated bringing it to his mouth. The chalice finally reached his lips, the stench caused him to jerk back. Gaft tried again, and again he withdrew.
"I can't." He said with the grimace on his face. Devoren shook his head in reply and rubbed his gloved hands.
"I was so hoping you would choose to rule beneath me, but alas, you shall die."
Gaft's expression hardened, his throat was dry, and his stomach churned. He wanted to throw the poison from him, but he wanted power even more.
Closing his eyes, he swiftly brought the chalice to his mouth, opened, poured, and swallowed as much as he could. His reflex spit most of it out. The chalice dropped to the floor as he brought his hands to his neck, holding them to his throat as though he were choking. Gaft leapt from his chair, it too was pushed to the floor. The wood beat against the stone as he gasped for air, while ceaselessly spitting. Devoren smiled.
Jabono sat with the skull kid near one of the underground aqueducts that fed water to the city. Both seemed a little perturbed by the sudden inhuman cries that reverberated off the stone walls. Jabono's eyes widened in curiosity, but the spell forced him to become apathetic again. Skull kid, on the other hand, shook, as did the little fairy Nit, who bore witness to the horrible transformation.
A/n: Please R&R, sorry this took so long. I'll try to have then next one done sooner. And, yeah, that last part was really gross, but kind of awkwardly amusing in a way... or at least I hope it was...