Now for the PEOPLE!
la generala: Ah don't worry about Link being a sexist. We'll be getting into that multiple times throughout the story. And yes, I love vega's personality too. :D
fleets: Yesss, yessssss, you see my evil intentions. BWAHAHA! But don't worry too much about that, I'm just really putting that in for comic relief.
LadyZayriah: Yup, Link's human again... but he's still wearing that gnarly collar Zelda put on him, so who knows how long it'll last! ... Hehe, I like that word... Gnarly.
darthritter86: From what I understand, it's my pacing you're talking about. And if it's not that, then I don't have the slightest clue as to what you're talking about. Yes, my pacing is for, the most part, all over the place, but it's not the worst. If you think my pacing's whack, then don't read of LE Modessit, Jr.'s stuff. He'll skip years sometimes and only give you the slightest hints until you learn how long exactly it's been like ten chapters later. I read a lot of his work, so that's probably where I get it from... I'll try to tame my pacing a bit, but I'm perfectly fine with it and it doesn't seem to bother anyone else, so it'll be a little tough.
Finally I'm able to update! I'm sorry it's late but FFN was giving me a little trouble yesterday. But I won't keep you waiting, here you go. It's kind of short but the whole chapter was forced writin so...
Vega was awake even before the witch marched into the room angrily. Maybe it was Malon protesting Zelda going to wake him, or maybe it was the witch's lingering negative emotions that insisted on plaguing him even his dreams. Worst of all, it was only the middle of the day!
"Wake up, dear cousin." Zelda said it so sweetly but he could sense the bitterness behind it. He didn't even need to share emotions with her to know it.
"Cousins are we?" He growled and as he grudgingly sat up. "I wonder about that, Ducky."
He received an icy glare from the witch, which he gladly returned.
"Whoa… that hair is amazing…" Malon whispered. That caught both Zelda's and Vega's attention. "I didn't know people could have silver hair…"
They can't… Zelda thought with a frown. "He's very ashamed of it," she said quickly, ignoring the tinge of anger and annoyance from the star. "Could you be so kind as not to tell anyone?"
Malon glanced at the witch as if she had forgotten the girl had been there at all. Then she snapped back into reality and nodded anxiously saying, "Yes, of course!" She glanced back at Vega and then said, "You shouldn't be ashamed, though… I think that hair is very lovely…"
The star just smiled a smile that looked pleasant enough, but was really thinking "Oh what I would do to get away from this wench…" This wench being Zelda, of course. He had nothing against the farm girl… except her idiocy…
"Malon, could you give me and cousin a moment?" Zelda asked sweetly.
The auburn haired girl nodded and left. Zelda closed the door in that slow, creepy fashion that normally resulted in one of those scary confrontations. Vega recalled one of his sisters doing that frequently when he caused her trouble. However, Zelda was not his sister. She was a little unskilled, brat who wouldn't be trying any magic on him anytime soon.
"We're leaving as soon as you can get your boots on and your hood up." She spat.
"Psh, and what do you plan on doing, Ducky? You know I won't be granting any wishes." He said, just as bad temperedly.
"We have to go to the castle. It's a long ways off, you might change your mind." She said.
His back was turned on her as he laced up his boots, but he forked an eyebrow anyway. "I doubt that highly but seeing as I have no choice…" he grumbled.
He could sense her satisfaction. Finishing up his first boot, he glanced back at her. He always considered himself a gentleman… so why did he want to wipe that smug little grin off of her face? Grunting, he laced up his second boot, tucked his hair into the back of his shirt and then flipped the hood on over his head.
Still, he wasn't going to be letting her get the last laugh.
"So, tell me Ducky… Did they think you were bonking your little pet back there?" he asked with a grin.
It took her a second to get his drift but when she did, oh, did her face get red. She said nothing, but he could feel her embarrassment and he relished it… which embarrassed her more and caused her to speed up her pace.
I'm not sure who's worse, him or Link! She thought.
The Council had assembled. Its members and guests sat at the large, rounded table in the conference hall. Ganondorf felt an immense sense of satisfaction sitting in the seat of the king. Someday soon, at the next council meeting, it would truly be his seat. Still, he hid his smile and looked somberly at the Council. Everyone was present:
Carolus, a thin, horse faced man who handled the affairs of the Lanaryu province; Anya, she was the only woman in the council and quite attractive - she had no doubt used her charms to get so high up to become the one who handled the Eldin province; Jerrick, the short yet rough looking man who was in charge of the smaller Ordana province; Eugen, blond and childlike in appearance and ever the optimist who had the Faron province in his hands; Reku, a Zora woman he'd never met before, simply there as a representative of her race; Damodara, a Goron, there much for the same purposes as his Zora counterpart; Odran, the scar faced and disciplined man was the captain of the guard, stood on one side of Ganondorf; and then there was Quinn, the redheaded Royal Wizard standing on the other side of him, who obviously didn't like him - the feeling was mutual.
All were silent, waiting for him to speak. Ganondorf decided to let the suspense die. "As most of you know, the King is dying, and he has yet to establish a successor. And that is why we are here today. The king has appointed me to represent him in choosing his successor, it is just up to us to decide who that is going to be."
Anya, her hand cradling her jaw in a bored fashion, let herself voice the question on everyone's mind. "How do you plan on doing that, Lord Dragmire?"
"The only fair way I can possibly think of, dear Anya of Eldin," he starts, "Careful deliberation and then a vote."
"And how long would that take?" asked Carolus.
In any other situation, we could take as long as we please… however, I do not think the king has long for this world." Ganondorf says grimly.
There is a burst of whispering among the table but it dies down quickly. However, the silence does not remain as Jerrick says, "You make it sound so easy, Lord Dragmire. This is a room full of politicians; you know as well as I do that everyone would jump at the chance to become the next monarch of Hyrule."
"I already mentioned deliberations-"
Eugen cuts off Ganon then, saying, "And with deliberations, I'm sure we'll be able to choose the perfect successor! You need to look on the brighter side of things!"
"An' he needs to look at reality…" mutters Odran from the side to himself.
"Royal Wizard, Quinn," Reku calls, "Have you been able to figure out what ails the king?"
The redhead fidgets with his staff and says, "The best physicians in Hyrule, my colleagues and myself have all looked at the king and we have not been able to figure out what is wrong with him." He briefly gives a suspicious glance to Ganondorf before saying, "However, I do have a theory… but I cannot confirm it yet."
"Can we at least here some of your theory?" Damodara asked. Though, the way he had said it, it was more of a command than a question.
"There could be treachery…" the wizard started, but before any outrages could be voiced, he quickly added, "But I have nothing to prove it with."
Ganondorf paid no mind to it. It was not the time to think of that wizard's scheming. He would deal with him later. As for now, he had to continue his show.
"As interesting as this is, the reasons for the king's illness can be discussed after this meeting. I insist we start on the deliberations." Said the Gerudo calmly.
Everyone nodded and muttered their agreements, but the dark man already knew this was going to be a difficult few days…
They had taken off, Malon telling them that she would say goodbye to her father and Ingo for them. Link honestly didn't care about that; he was more focused on the fact that Zelda was acting weird. Well, that girl always acted weird, but from the one day he knew her, she was acting stranger than usual. She'd look back at him, get red in the face and scowl, then look straight ahead. And whenever she did this, the star, Vega, grinned in satisfaction. Confused, he finally couldn't resist asking,
"Vega, did you say anything to her?" he asked.
The hooded pseudo-ranger merely said, "I just reminded her of events earlier this morning."
Link said nothing, not really understanding what the star was saying.
"So how far is this castle, of yours?" Vega asked the page.
"Pretty far. I'm sorry to say, but you'll probably be stuck with her emotions for a while…"
The star grunted and looked around, wishing he could be asleep. Grass, grass, an occasional tree or rock… more grass. He didn't think he'd ever seen this much nothing in his life. Farther off there was a mountain, maybe even a volcano. He couldn't really tell since it was so far away. He scrunched his nose, not realizing how big Hyrule was. From the skies it always looked so small… but now that he was traversing it…
"Not as easy as it looks, eh?" Zelda sneered from ahead.
The star decided not to grace her snide comment with an answer. Rather, he began to think about how Hyrule looked from above. He had observed it a few times, so he could recall some of its geography… but not all of it.
Zelda sensed the star's irritation and concealed her own little evil smile.
"Do either of you have a map I can look at?" the star finally asked.
"And why would you need that, oh great star being?" Zelda asked bitterly.
"Oh, give him a break you crazy woman." Link told her. He reached into his bag and pulled out a map, handing it to Vega. The star quickly took it and whipped it open, looking over it. Link couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. He was sharing emotions with a woman, that was bad enough, but that woman also seemed to be perpetually moody. All that anger going on between couldn't be good for them.
Meanwhile, Vega was just trying to find a quicker way to get to the castle. The faster he could get there, the faster he could find an actual master of magic and get them to lift the stupid witch's curse. He looked over the route they were presumably going through, and saw that they were wrong.
"You people must be daft, we're going the long way." He snapped at them.
"Hm?" Link looked over the star's shoulder at the map. "Oh yeah… I suppose there is a shorter way, but it's more dangerous."
"What are you two talking about?" Zelda said as she squeezed herself in between the two men to get a look at the map.
"This," Vega says, pointing to a forested area in between their location and Castle Town, "is what we're talking about, Ducky."
"A forest?" Zelda asked. She forked and eyebrow and then looked up at Link, "Why are you leading us around it? Why can't we just go through it?"
"The girl's sensible at last!" Vega agrees. For once, the two aren't feeling shared anger.
The page just gave the two a confused look. "Can either of you two read? Those woods are called The Lost Woods for a reason."
"Oh phooey!" The witch scoffed. "It's just a name. It is not like we'll really get lost."
"Well, there's the name and what lives in there too." Link adds, "I can understand why Vega doesn't know what's in it, but even a country bum like you should know of the stories."
Irritation flashed through the star from Zelda. In turn a surge of irritation flashed through him to her because he didn't want to be irritated. Those two irritations combined turned to a shared anger… again.
"Listen," Zelda said as she marched up to Link. "It's just a silly forest. No matter what stories they have, it'll be faster and we'll save the king faster! Isn't that important to you!?" she repeatedly jabbed her finger in his chest as she spoke. "Don't make me put you back on a leash!" she threatened.
The page's eyes narrowed and he finally gave in, but not without a fight. "Fine, have it your way! If you get killed in there that's fine by me! At least I might be able to survive!"
I have to say, my favorite part o fthis chapter was Ganondorf's segment. You know, I just created the character yesterday, just for the hell of it, and Quinn is already one of my favorites. I don't have many red haired people that aren't bitches... maybe that's why I like him. :B
Also, living in America sucks sometimes. Why? Because we're so caught up in racism. You can't use this word for that kinda people you can't that word for that kind of people... It's so bad, I'm too paranoid to call Ganondorf black because I'm afraid someone's going to chew me out for it. D:
So yeah... short chapter... Sorry. Not much going on too... so sorry...