fleets: I miss sleep :(
Chapter 6: On the Other Side of the World
Listen carefully.
No, you are no longer in the world you knew. You are in the far future. I am sorry. I know you didn't want to believe it, but it is the truth.
There isn't much time. We need your help, and if you do not succeed, then this world will surely die. The scene you just saw of the terrible flood is what will happen if you fail. Your task is to find Skull Kid and to return to your rightful era with the Ocarina of Time, but…
… in the event that you cannot reach Skull Kid in time, you will have to find another person. His name is Vaati, the Sorcerer of Winds.
Let me explain better, but before I do so remember this:
He is not to be trusted.
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Link scrunched his brows together as he stared hard at the words written on the worksheet. It was weird: he could read everything perfectly, and he could read it even at times when he didn't want to read anything. His eyes took in the words, and they read them.
It was with almost everything in this future world. He could do things innately as though his body just knew how to do things. He knew what cell phones were, knew how to read and even write the strange characters that were nothing like Hylian. He didn't know how he knew that he was in the United States of America, that he needed dollars for currency, and that horses as a means of transportation was outdated. Heck, he even knew what to do with screw drivers and bobby pins. If he knew that trick before, he wouldn't have had to use keys in dungeons.
All the knowledge he needed to survive in this world was somehow in his head when he had accidentally arrived with Skull Kid. The melody Skull Kid had played on the Ocarina of Time had sent them to the future where Hyrule had disappeared into myth. The overwhelming information he had suddenly gained had stunned him longer than it had stunned Skull Kid, and the two had become separated when the imp had run away.
The plea for help had come in the form of dreams at night; fragmented images of a magnificent floating palace, six maidens, and an ancient magic that would flood the world in an attempt to stop a powerful evil. At first he had dismissed it as a nightmare of sorts, but it had been far too real for that. The goddess Farore had appeared and had told him what he had to do to save the world from the spell that would sink the continents.
He had been given the responsibility.
If only that jackass Vaati would realize who he was. Things would be so much easier. There wasn't much time…
Well, maybe. He didn't know too much about the sorcerer who had tried to take over the world – Vaati was from a time much older than the era he had come from, and he had only heard vague stories about Hyrule's dark times when it had been assaulted by Vaati's failed attempts to take over it. The way Farore had described him… the goddess had looked disgusted and ashamed when speaking about him, like he was some vile demon. If Vaati recognized his true identity, would he have the sense to help Link save the world from apocalypse, or be stupid and try to kill him? The sorcerer seemed to have some sense about him, so Link hoped he wouldn't do anything rash, but at times it seemed as though Link's mere presence caused Vaati to have a temper. Like he reminded him of someone unpleasant.
And in a future where the knowledge of magic had all but died, who would be able to stop a power crazed sorcerer who was – from what Farore described – hell bent on taking over the world?
"Link, you're writing with your eyes closed again."
Link opened his eyes and saw what his hand had been doing while his mind had been wandering. His pencil had begun to work on the exercises on the worksheet, but he could tell that he had spelled words wrong again. This is so weird! He could read stuff, but he couldn't write stuff. Opal stared at his worksheet.
"Well, I don't know much about English, and I'm not the best person to ask, but I can tell you at least this much: writing with your eyes closed isn't going to help you… well… write."
Link looked around. They were at the language resource center for quiet study, and the teaching assistant was currently helping someone at the far side of the room. Not wanting to bother asking for help, he turned to the physics wiz sitting next to him. "What am I doing wrong?"
"Don't be stupid. Start with looking at what you're writing."
"But I can't seem to write when I'm looking at what I'm doing."
Opal arched her brows. "That's weird." She leaned over and took a better look at what Link had written. "Hmmm. You seem to be writing by going through what words sound like. They're mostly, no offense, elementary school mistakes. Like right here – you spelled 'historically' as 'historicalee' with two e's instead of a y."
Everything Opal had said went right over Link's head. "I don't get it."
"Dang, this is going to take a while," the girl shook her head. "How are you doing in other subjects?"
"Terrible." Link slumped down in his seat. Why did the people in the future care so much about education? He thought he could do perfectly well in society with the simple knowledge of self-defense and a specialty like wrangling to make a living.
Opal grinned. "Do you need help in physics by any chance?"
The blond nodded grudgingly.
The girl slapped him on the back, suddenly cheerful. She quickly put away her English work. "All right! I'm the best person to ask about physics. Since I'm bored stiff doing English and you need help in physics anyways, I'll be nice and help you out. It's a win-win deal."
Link blinked. "Er…"
"Come on, you can think of it as doing me a favor because I don't want to sit here and do this literature crap," Opal hissed.
"Ok."
"Great! Are you ready? I'm going to give you a lecture that goes beyond what those muppets who call themselves teachers teach you poor souls. Grab a pencil – you're going to be writing."
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When school ended, Gale found Link and Opal speaking quite heatedly to each other. By his locker.
Can't they do this elsewhere and not in front of my locker? When Gale walked closer, he could hear bits and pieces of their conversation.
"Look, Zelda's really busy with her work and I'm not sure she would like being bothered by someone who doesn't even know what kinetic energy is."
"I'm willing to learn! I would really like to meet this person, Opal."
"Everything I tried to teach you went over your head today, and you were as interested in physics as a cat is to water. She's dealing with much more advanced topics – you're not up to that level yet."
"Well, I… I want to know more about her newest discovery."
"You know, telling you about the zeron was a bad idea. The only reason she told me was because she wanted to know what I thought about it. It's still confidential."
"Why can't I see her?"
"Do you have a crush on her or something?"
"…no."
"You're blushing."
"That's not the point. I'm just interested in the new discovery because I think it has something to do with me."
"You're not one of her stalkers are you?"
"He's a stalker. I can vouch for that." Gale walked up and the two suddenly stopped talking. "Can you two take this somewhere else so I can get my stuff? Thanks."
Opal stepped to the side, but Link remained where he was. He stopped Gale with his hand. "Wait. Listen."
Gale made a face and was considering shoving him to the side, but then he remembered how Link had been able to twist his arm and throw him to the floor when Gale had tried to punch him. He was not going to risk being humiliated in front of half the school, so he stood and waited sourly.
Link took a deep breath. "Do you know if Zelda's met a boy with an ocarina?"
The girl remained quiet for some time. Finally, she turned her heel and crossed her arms over her chest, upset by something. "It's always Zelda who ends up getting everything. Fame, money, looks… everything!" She sneered. "Why would I know anything about Zelda anyway? We're not even that close. We talk only because I'm better than her at physics and she needs my opinions."
Gale snorted. "Someone's jealous."
"I'm not jealous! Just because she goes to college and gets these huge grant offers, she thinks she's the next Nobel Prize winner. I can do better."
"And yet here you are almost failing high school and getting no grant offers."
Opal glared. "It's not like you're doing any better." Then, in an instant, her shoulders slumped and she gave a defeated sigh. Turning to Link, she nodded with some difficulty. "All right, I admit I'm jealous. The zeron is an ocarina that belongs to some boy who Zelda picked up off the streets. Seriously, if it weren't for him she wouldn't have gotten that ridiculous grant offer."
Link grabbed Gale's arm excitedly. "That's him! We found him Gale, we found Skull Kid!"
"I said don't touch me."
Opal blinked. "Oh, you were looking for him?"
"Yes, he was," Gale muttered resentfully.
The girl tapped her chin as though in thought before she smiled wickedly. "Well in that case, I assume you're related to the kid somehow?"
Link nodded, though somewhat hesitantly.
The wicked grin grew wider. "Zelda just might lose custody over him," Opal mused. She practically cackled. "What an unfortunate delay this will cause her research, huh?"
"You're a bitch."
"Oh come on, Gale. I just gained an incentive to let you visit my frienemy, Zelda Sterling. I can convince her to meet you guys, no matter how pathetic you are with physics," she smiled sweetly.
"I actually have no interest whatsoever in meeting Zelda," Gale said. It was a big fat lie, of course. He didn't want to encounter anything that would give Link more evidence that his crackpot claims were right, but at the same time he was interested in Skull Kid. From what Opal had said, the kid who had stopped him with his ocarina was key to a new scientific theory. What made him so important to catch enough interest to grant full funding, and why did Link know him? What did Link and Skull Kid have to do with zerons, whatever those were?
But even if he was interested, he didn't want anything to do with Link. Gale had a feeling that if he tagged along with Link to retrieve more information on Skull Kid, he was going to sink even further to a point of no return with Link's crazy stories.
"You don't really have a choice, Gale, because Link doesn't have an email address and I'm just going to have to give her yours instead. What was it again?"
Gale frowned.
"She's very pretty," Opal snickered.
"demoneye921 on Gmail."
"You're so predictable." The girl scribbled the address down on a piece of paper and stuffed it in her pocket. "I'll let Zelda know you two want to see her. I assume she'll email you later."
Link nodded, and asked Gale to pay attention to his messages. The blond couldn't believe his luck that he had been able to find Skull Kid along with Zelda.
He had not expected to hear Zelda's name in this day and age, but at the same time, he wasn't surprised.
When disaster was about to strike, the three chosen had a tendency to appear momentarily in history like a summer mirage…
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show details November 6 (2 hours ago)
magicprincess to me
I heard you and your friend wanted to speak to me? Opal told me this had something to do with Skull Kid, and that I don't have to worry about you being a stalker. Do you want to meet at the Starbucks near Griffin Street at 1:00 this Saturday?
Best,
Zelda Sterling
Gale read the message and held his head in his hands. Seriously? "Magicprincess?" This girl sounded a lot more spoiled than he'd taken her for; maybe Opal actually had a good reason not to like her so much. Either that or Zelda was a girly girl. Or both.
"Yo Petrov!"
Link poked his head from his room. "What?"
"Zelda wants to meet up at 1 this Saturday."
"Yeah sure. Tell her I'll go. And you're coming too."
Gale growled, not really in the mood to argue. He quickly typed back a reply.
To: magicprincess
Yeah we'll be there.
-Gale
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Zelda scrutinized the two teens that had walked into Starbucks. She was pretty sure the two were Gale Engst and Link Petrov from the way both of them craned their necks around the place as though they were looking for someone. She didn't know which one of them stood out more: one of the boys had silver hair, red eyes, and a dark crescent scar above his cheekbone like someone from a vampire movie, and his almost permanent scowl was half hidden by the bangs he had draped over his right eye. He stood with an oddly proud slouch, and he guardedly carried his longboard under the crook of his arm.
The other boy looked like some poor country kid – there was an aura of innocence or 'goodness' around him, and Zelda was sure he was popular with all the neighborhood moms and old ladies, along with the girls who were into the cute type instead of bad boys. But that was based on facial features alone. He dressed like a rebellious teen with a sleeveless, green denim trench coat and fingerless black gloves, and she would bet twenty dollars that he carried oddities in those huge pockets. She couldn't put a finger on it. He seemed… what's a good word? Quirky, perhaps? Like he didn't fit in here, and not in the loser reject sense but actually, actually didn't belong here. Like an alien.
She watched the skater say something to the blond, and then walk over to order a coffee while his friend continued to look left and right to find Zelda. They have to be one of the weirdest pairs I've ever seen. The girl reached into her bag and carefully felt around for her can of pepper spray, just in case. Then again, Skull Kid was pretty weird, too, and they know him.
Zelda raised her hand slightly when the blond looked her way, and his face lit up in a smile when they made eye contact. It was then she choked up a bit; when she looked into his eyes she felt a subliminal itch. It was almost like déjà vu, where she felt this wasn't the first time she was meeting this person.
"Hi, my name is Link. Link Petrov." The teen held out his hand and she shook it tentatively.
"Zelda Sterling."
He took a seat across from her and the two sat somewhat awkwardly for a few minutes. He's not much of a talker, Zelda thought, waiting politely since he was the one who had requested to talk to her in the first place. Just when she was about to stand up and leave in annoyance from Link's behavior, the silver haired skater came up and boldly took her hand.
"You must be Ms. Sterling. I'm Gale Engst," he smiled suavely, sitting between her and Link and sliding the coffee cup on the table. Zelda quickly withdrew her hand and gave him a tight-lipped frown.
"Yes. Opal mentioned you wanted to speak to me about Skull Kid." She kept her tone as business-like as possible. Gale pretended to take offense.
"Link wanted to talk to you about Skull Kid. I, on the other hand, just wanted to see if you were as pretty as your name."
"I heard about you. You're that loser who breaks as many hearts as he gets detentions in school."
"Touché. But I'm flattered that word of me has reached your ears."
Zelda turned to Link sternly. "Did you have something important to say, or am I free to leave?"
"Sorry," Link scratched his head. "I was thinking of where to begin."
"You said you know Skull Kid?" Zelda prompted.
"Yes."
"How?"
"He's my cousin's sister's brother-in-law's son."
Gale almost spit out the coffee he had been drinking. He stood up to excuse himself momentarily to recover from a sudden bout of violent coughing. Fucking liar. Link, meanwhile, sat there with a complete poker face and Zelda glanced over at Gale's reaction.
"Really," she stated, not entirely convinced. Link nodded. "Can you describe him to me? I have to make sure you're telling me the truth."
"Um…" Link looked back at Gale for help, since he was the only one out of the two of them who had actually encountered Skull Kid. Gale blinked.
"Huh?"
"What did Skull Kid look like?" Link mouthed desperately. He watched Gale shake his head, hoping he would be cooperative just this once. Finally, after a torturous wait, Gale decided to help him out for reasons unknown.
"Small brat. Around ten. He's got reddish hair, yellowish eyes, and is tan."
Thank god. Link chuckled weakly under the skeptical gaze of Zelda. "Sorry. I haven't seen him in a while so I didn't know how to describe him."
"Of course." Zelda's eyebrows were high arches.
"Gale's my cousin."
"I'm getting more coffee," Gale announced, and abruptly left the table in a foul mood. Zelda sighed.
"I think I may have wasted your time today, Link," she began. She was considering leaving again when she heard Link whisper hoarsely.
"… I have to find him."
The blond looked at her with such intensity that Zelda began to feel guilty. His face was like a puppy's that had been kicked to the streets; so sad and hopeless. After all, didn't she herself maybe kidnap Skull Kid? She hadn't really tried to find out who his relatives were, and maybe he really was Link's cousin's sister's… whatever it was? And there was another thing about his expression that got to her: his blue eyes told her he knew her longer than this quick meeting at Starbucks one Saturday in November.
Again, that déjà vu feeling…
Zelda pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry. I would let you meet Skull Kid if I could, but I can't."
"But why? I'm really related to him."
Zelda looked at the ceiling. "That's not the problem. The problem is, he's not in New Jersey anymore. Well, he's not in the United States anymore."
Link turned the same shade as Gale.
"And what I mean by not in the United States… well… he's on the other side of the world right now."
After several tries, Link managed to find his voice. "Wh-what do you mean?"
Zelda bit her lip. "What I mean, Link, is that Skull Kid is currently in Japan."
fleets: I TOLD you this story was going to be crazy. Good luck, Link, Vaati... i mean Gale. The author has decided to put you through random crap once again, and it's only going to get worse. XD
Since many of you were wondering about Link's lock picking skills:
There's an answer to this that will (hopefully) make you all go "oooohhh." Because believe me I know in the games he definitely does NOT know how to pick locks and even breaks keys once he uses them (the klutz). For uber careful readers, there's a hint in the car breaking scene in the last chapter that has the reason for why I decided to make Link a lock picker (but I'd be really surprised if anyone gets this. The easiest thing to do will be to wait it out for the lightbulb moment in the future chapters). ;)
Shadow Blues: Yes! I luff Dugal, but unfortunately he won't be making an official appearance until a couple of more chapters in the future :(
Pffft, math. Sometimes I question if I really need to know sinx is opposite over hypotenuse. blearrrgh.
Death-Note-Zelda-Kitty: Link's not so goody goody in this one XP
Reily96: No, he's not. But he's still got that innocent face XD. YES DUGAL! But sadly he won't be really appearing until much later :(
drydrydesert: Aw, thank you. I'll try to keep up the standard. :)
Astral S. Kepeire: I wonder if you can tell how much I'm enjoying looking up brand names of things just for the sake of putting it into the story :P
Midna Hytwilian: I always wondered why the people in the games just let Link break their stuff. O.o;
The mystery continues...
Oh no! Feel better! :(
101: Link wonders the same thing lol. After all, Gale is pretty much Vaati (but don't tell him I said that). Hmmm, Opal's gotten a more important role than I'd first intended. :)
Don't be sorry! In fact, writers (at least me, anyways) love long reviews! :D
Go for it. I'll be on the lookout.
I don't know about Dark Link. He might be... but I'll have to think about it. At the moment, I'm not sure where and how I'll be able to include him. :/
Darkwind: It'll make sense once I get to a certain scene...
marium: They're up to something, all right. And poor Gale is upset because he's out of the loop XD
Peka The Corsair: Lol, Zelda breaks the trend (about time, too!). Don't worry, Link wonders the same thing. XD
Bishieluver01: Hmmm, but executive consultants are usually company hotshots who get tons of money, and they're one of the key advisors in making a company run (*whispers* don't worry, I won't tell him you called him a front desk secretary XD). He IS pish posh though lol. Ya hear that Dugal?
Dugal: That's simply trivial for me, dear.