A/n: Sorry it took so long, but last month seemed to fly by. Well, there are a lot of plot twists in this chapter, lol, hence the title, but it should all be resolved in the next chapter which is going to be very fun to write, and with spring break coming up in a few weeks, there should be more time to write it! Thank you all for reviewing and please continue to do so, your input is highly valued (and we feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know this is your fav. Zelda story Lutheon, you get a smiley : ) ! )
And well, jella-courage, I really don't know where Aura's character came from…lol…
Here's the next chapter, we hope its up to par! (I wanted to use the word par… heh…heh…)
Chapter 20: More Complications
Naomi sat rigidly in her chair. The Zora's scampered about, preparing the fish feast, as Lulu and her children entered their dining hall. Naomi quickly rose to receive her greeting from them and inquire as to Mikau's health. It was discovered that Lucian had actually left his lab to come see the boy well, and Mikau Jr. certainly did look healthy again.
"Dear, where have you been?" Lulu exclaimed as she took Naomi in her arms. Aura and Damien were greatly impressed with her popularity among the Zoras. Arian, however, dumbly stirred his food.
The Zora and Naomi continued to catch-up on their current status of being.
"My that is a beautiful dress, Naomi." Lulu said noting the Zoran garb attained by the fishy friends of Hyrule. Naomi laughed uncomfortably.
"Thank you." She blushed and the two sat down to commence eating. Gangor, in the meantime and much to Arian's relief, slipped away from the table to bring them all more refreshments. During this period in time, a most irate Zoran pulled him aside.
"Is that Naomi?" He asked in harsh whisper, looking precariously at their dinner table. Gangor smiled gaily.
"Sure is." he replied without a thought.
"Have you told the pirates yet?" Gangor wrinkled his nose.
"No, of course not. It doesn't sound like Naomi wants to be a part of them anymore." The irate Zora grew even angrier.
"Do you have any idea what this means?" He almost shouted, but he kept quiet so as not to disturb the dining party. Gangor looked at him stupidly and shook his head, making his fellow Zora sigh heavily. "If we don't turn her in to the pirates it could mean another war." Gangor shook his head.
"Turn her in? Like what, a prisoner? Naomi should not be treated like that." He retorted.
"Well we have no choice."
"We?" Gangor asked nervously as he noticed eyes peering at him from a darkened cave. The irate Zora signaled to his friends and in one swift motion they ran from the darkness, grabbing Gangor to stash him in the pantry.
"Sorry friend, but we can't risk another war like that breaking out. We must think of our people first." He whispered to Gangor as they knocked him out and locked the door.
Link had just walked out the entrance of West Clocktown. Immediately, he ran over to the fountains and checked if Amy had somehow drowned in one of them. Shrugging, he continued down the stone pathway to the beach. After dodging the sand things (Link could never really remember the names to those stupid things, and neither could Navi), he looked up to the walls guarding Great Bay and was greeted with a surprise.
"Hey look! It's Link!" Tatl said, as cheerful as ever. Her words fell on deaf ears though, for Amy was fast asleep, hanging by her belt, and her pants, on one of the iron spikes protruding from the top of the wall.
"Wow! What great guiding skills!" Navi said in an attempt to be sarcastic.
"Hey! For your information, we didn't have a horse like some people always do. Amy tried to climb the wall, slipped, and got caught!" Tatl huffed. "And since mister prince charming here took so long to come, she fell asleep-- hanging on a fence! How can you fall asleep when you have a wedgie the size of a Goron's butt, I ask you?" Link, on the other hand, found this very amusing.
"She… she's stuck!" He said, holding back the urge to laugh insanely.
Therefore, Amy awoke to the sound of loud shouts. She was startled, remembering what position she was in, and then noticed Link rolling on the ground. Thinking he was fighting for his life with some unseen attacker, Amy struggled to get down off of the wall.
"Hold on!" She cried. With a loud snap, her belt broke along with part of her undergarments and pants and she fell to the ground clumsily. Scrambling over to Link, Amy grasped his shoulders.
"Link! Link! What's happening? What's wrong?" she cried, trying to drive away the invisible attacker. She continued to look in vain for the assailant, until she realized that Link was, in fact, not yelling at all.
He was actually laughing, very loudly, and crying from laughing so hard. Shocked, Amy scooted back uncomfortably, and then irritated, she violently shoved him away.
"Yeah, yeah." She said, trying to hide her embarrassment as she pulled her pants together as best she could. "You can get up now you pompous hero." She growled. Link wiped his eyes.
"Of all the things I would've expected… you, being stuck, has got to be at the very bottom of the list."
"Why?" Amy snarled, her blood began to boil from his unintentional insults. "What else did you think happened?" Link looked off into the ocean and breathed deeply.
"I don't know. Maybe that you were eaten by a dadongo, drowned in the fountain, were kidnapped by brutes." Link was looking at the fence she was caught on and shaking his head.
"Yeah, those expectations make me seem so much better. Who would drown in a fountain?" Amy snapped. Link glanced at her over his shoulder.
"Hey, I'm here to help you. I probably wouldn't have come back at all if it hadn't been for Naomi. You aren't even important to the group, I mean, you're looking for your stone, which we know Sakon has. Why don't you just leave and look for him?" Amy was still and fell completely silent, her blood continued to boil in her veins.
Link's odd mean streak went on, and even Navi noticed the strangeness in him, she floated over to Tatl flying above Amy's fuming head.
"Are you too weak to handle a little thief? This group doesn't need any more weaknesses, which seems to be all that you contribute." Link stopped, shook his head and then donned his normal personality. Amy's red eyes became the intense color of blood as her anger shrouded her logical sense.
"Well," Link said in a dazed manner. "I guess we should get going back now--" He began to pull out his ocarina when he suddenly felt the full weight of Amy on his back and her legs wrap around his waist. "-OW!" He screamed as he fell into the wall with Amy clawing at his face.
"How dare you! I've never heard anything so rude in my life! No one has ever frustrated me as much as you!" She screamed. Link tried to pull her hands from him.
"Ow, I- I'm sorry. Ah! No! Not the ears!" Amy didn't hear his pleas and continued to tweak his pointed ears as Link tried to pound Amy into the side of the wall. Instead he stumbled, and he found himself wrestling Amy off of him as they rolled down a shallow incline into a small pond. The fairies were completely silent as they watched, and when the splash resounded, Navi had one thing to say.
"Wow…" She and Tatl then quickly flew to see if they were okay.
Amy was the first to surface. Her eyes were now dulled, and if one squinted, steam could be seen rising from her head. Her fury was certainly cooled and she now pulled herself out of the pond. Link stood, the water being only waist deep on him. He rubbed his ears, to make sure Amy hadn't torn them off, and then slowly trudged to the grass.
"Right." He sighed, his lower-left eye lid began to twitch. "Let's not mention this to anyone." Amy nodded as she rung out her hair.
"Yeah… good plan…" Link began digging through his pockets, a worried expression fell across his face. Without a word he turned and dove back into the water, Amy watched curiously as his fragmented form began to dig through the dirt at the bottom of the little pool.
"What is he doing?" Navi asked as she and Tatl floated over Amy. She shrugged as Link came back up holding what appeared to be a large blob of dirt.
"Link? What is that thing?" Tatl squeaked as Navi shuddered.
"I think that's his ocarina…" She whispered as Link tried to play it. Amy grimaced when he put his mouth to it and tried to blow out a tune, but all the instrument did was spray water and bubble out remnants of the pond's floor. Link rinsed out his mouth and silently stared in disbelief.
"Um… so do you have to sing the song of soaring now?" Amy asked with a pathetic laugh. Link, his mouth wide agape, turned to gaze at Amy with an empty expression.
"I'm guessing that's a no…" Tatl answered for him after a long silence.
"Well what do we do now?!" Navi squeaked as she began flying back and forth.
"The only other way to get over that wall is with a horse… Hey Link! Call Epona!" Tatl cried with excitement. Link, his eye beginning to twitch again, held up his unplayable ocarina, and the fairies shuddered.
"Well, unless you know someone who can sing Epona's song, we're stuck here." Navi sighed. Link turned to Amy.
"Have you heard me sing?" Link shook his head. "Exactly…" A despairing silence fell upon them until the a rare occasion occurred in which Tatl contrived an ingenious idea.
"Romani! She knows how to call Epona!" She squeaked, Link seemed to perk up.
"Yes, and she's just around the corner on Milk Road!" Link muttered, Navi twirled around his head.
"Let's just hope her song will be able to reach Hyrule." A nodded agreement settled their plans as they stood to begin walking to Romani Ranch.
During said journey to find their singer, three boats pulled up to dock outside of Zora Hall, where Naomi, Aura, Arian, and Damien were feasting with their Zoran company. The long wooden vessels bearing the pirate's motif lurched as their passengers departed.
"What have you called us here for?" Aveil, the pirate leader, growled at their Zoran greeters. The blue man shuddered.
"The girl, she is here." He said pitifully. Aveil seemed pleased.
"Ah, thank-you." She laughed. "Will you call her to us?"
"I-I don't think she wants to go with you…" He whimpered.
"What?" The pirates hissed. Aveil continued to speak. "Then she must be forced to come with us. One does not simply abandon her pirate heritage, she must be punished for this." A scornful agreement swept through her pirate companions. "Now tell us, where is she?"
Arian stirred his-- whatever it was that was sitting on his plate. He grimaced as he saw a fish eye float to the top. Naomi seemed to be used to this cuisine, as did Damien, but he and Aura shared a dislike of its scent and appearance. The fishy stench was overpowering of every other odor present, but no one else seemed to mind.
So Arian tried to take his mind from the smell that seemed to be burning in his nose, and found himself listening to the curious patter of feet with his acute ears. He sat alert in his chair, searching the room for the scurrying Zoras, but none were to be seen.
"Excuse me." He stood from the table, intrigued by the sound. Naomi stopped her light conversation with Lulu to watch as he left the table, but it seemed normal enough and conversation resumed.
Arian followed the sound into a hallway and continued hunting it up to the balcony above the dining room. It was a very strange sound indeed. Neither the sound of Zoran feet nor the dropping of water which was common in this place.
The sound stopped and he searched the room. It was then that he noticed two yellow eyes peering at him from above. Without any time to react, he felt himself shoved from the balcony onto the dining table below, gathering the attention of the diners.
"Arian!" Naomi squeaked, quickly coming to his aide as ropes fell from the ceiling, pirates swinging down around them. Aura and Damien gasped as they pulled out their weapons in a quick reflex, battling against the new enemy.
"What? Aveil?" Naomi gasped as she made eye contact with the pirate leader.
"That's right Naomi… So sorry for crashing your party, but we found it terribly rude of you to leave us so… abruptly." She jammed her sword into the table by Naomi. "What is that you are wearing? Are you too ashamed of your pirate heritage?" Aveil asked in a growl as she ripped the front of Naomi's dress. She shrieked as she brought her arms up to keep it from falling.
"Naomi!" Aura shouted in response to her shriek.
"Get off of her!" Arian grabbed Aveil's hands, not wishing to harm a lady. Unfortunately that was his first mistake as Aveil twisted from his grip and knocked him to the floor.
"You are coming with us." She said to Naomi.
"No." With one arm holding up her dress, she pulled out her staff, ordering it to extend to full length. Though she was far clumsier at wielding the staff with just one hand, she was able to knock Aveil back, giving her time to run to Arian.
"Quick, lets get out of here." She said as she tried to get him up. He stumbled, dizzy from being knocked in the head.
"No you don't!" Aveil shouted as two other pirates wrapped ropes around Naomi, another took her staff. "Take her and her new toy to the boat." She said referring to the staff. Naomi struggled against the ropes but then found it all in vain when the two pirates picked her up and dragged her into their waiting boats. Aura and Damien continued fighting against two foes who suddenly disappeared in one great leap just after Naomi was taken away.
"You take care of Arian, I'll go after Naomi." Damien ordered, running toward the exit, but he was too late. By the time he reached the dock, they had already turned around and where far out to sea, heading back to their fortress.
A/n: so was it good? Please R&R!