Well, what do you know? Here's another chapter! Just go ahead and read it and i'll explain further in the end's author notes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ South Clock Town ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In between the multitude, there was I, walking towards the Clock Tower thoughtfully. I stared to the ground while walking. I was going to the Clock Tower to get a deal done. The deal consisted in getting an ancient sword to that creepy mask salesman. Now, with the sword in my possession, everything pointed that my days in Termina were just about to end by every step I made.

It seemed so simple, just give him the sword and he'll take me back home. But a part of my head told me that it couldn't be that simple…

The large wooden doors of the Clock Tower were open once again by me. There was he, the Happy Mask Salesman just standing there in the middle of the room like he was waiting anxiously for my arrival.

"Oh… you… Were you able to find the Four Sword in the graveyard?" He calmly said with is characteristic grin wide on his face.

I nodded firmly.

As soon as I ended my action, he grabbed me by my shoulders and shook me repetitively. "Oh! Oh! Ohhh!" He looked truly amused. "You got it! You got it! You got it! You got it?" He was making uproar.

"Yeh Yeh, I got it!" I nearly shouted and took his arms off from my shoulders.

He calmed a little bit, but his unnerving smile was bigger than never before. He extended his hand in front of me. "Then please, give it to me…"

I got out my endless pouch and got the so called Four Sword out from it and extended my hand in front of him showing it. The sword was in a bad state because of the passing of time. The blade was rusty and fragile, and its hilt lacked brightness of the gold that was made of.

When he saw its bad state, he shot opened his eyes and practically snatched it from my hands. He stared at it some moments in disbelief. "No… this cannot be…"

What? Was he expecting it to be all shiny and stuff?

(Background: Happy Mask Salesman Theme)

He suddenly burst into a nervous wreck, putting his both hands on his head, tossing the sword into the floor. "NO, NO NO NO! It's useless now!"

"Hey! Calm down!"

"Calm down? Don't you get it? The power of light has left the sword! Now something terrible will happen!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"The seal will be broken and the evil one will arise!" He shouted in my face.

"Okay, calm down and tell me what's the matter with the sword" I confusedly frowned.

He exhaled deeply and calmed down, then grabbed the Four Sword from the floor. "The sword was like this when you found it?..."

"Yeah, I found it in that same state. What do you mean that the power of light has left the sword?"

"The Light Power is what grants the sword the power to repel evil… but now, lacks it… I never thought that that the pass of the time on the sword could end up doing such thing… now is useless for my purposes…"

I gaped. I didn't cared about his purposes with it, but I did care about my own. "But you'll still help me get back home won't you?"

He looked at me and shook his head disappointed. "I'm afraid that cannot" My eyes widened and suddenly felt a crude cold pass through my feet and my forehead; the feeling you get when something bad has gotten bigger and serious to unimaginable extents. "The power of light also granted it the power to travel between worlds. I'm afraid that our goals are not destined to be accomplished…"

Destiny? Bullshit! There has to be a way… I put a hand on my chin and wondered for outer possibilities and something came up. "There's any way to restore the power of light to the sword?" I crossed my hands in front of my chest.

He threw a quick glance at me only to continue to stare back at the Four Sword with an eyebrow raised. "Good point… "He then looked at the end of the hilt of the sword, where a transparent and colorless circular crystal was. He brought it upon his eye and looked at me trough it. I just stared at him confused. What's he doing?

"Now that I think about it, yes, there may be a solution…" He then grinned at my face sighting through the sword's crystal in a way that showed that an idea has popped inside of his head. "If we want to restore the power of light to the sword, we'll have to give what granted it the power of light in first place…"

"And what is that?"

"The elements." He handed me the sword again, and I put it inside of my endless pouch again.

I raised an eyebrow curiously. "Explain yourself."

"The elements are the physical embodiments of the four natural elements: Earth, Wind, Water and Fire on pure, crystalline form. Because of them, the sword was commonly called the Elemental Sword or Four Sword because those four elements were infused on it…"

""Were"…so the power of light is absent because the elements have left the sword, am I right?"

"I'm glad that you are getting my point. I have another request to you…"

I knew where he was getting at…

"What."

"You see… the elements are scattered around Termina, each of them in certain compass direction; The Earth element is at the snowy northern mountains, the Wind element is somewhere at the southern swamp. The Water element is somewhere hidden within a temple far away from the western shore. And finally, the Fire element is occult inside of a big tower at the dry canyon of the east."

"To simplify the things; you want me to get these elements?" I asked with my arms still crossed around my chest.

"I see that you are smarter than you seem…Do you accept my request?"

I brought my hand upon my chin and thought. This would be rather difficult and may take a lot of time… but what troubles me more than anything is that I put my life at such risk… getting the sword was hard enough…

"Why can't you go and get them?" I asked, not moving my hand from its place on my chin.

"Believe me or not, I tried to get the sword by myself. The gravekeeper was stubborn and didn't let me get underneath the graveyard. That's why I hired a wallmaster"

I raised a dark eyebrow confused. (He-hired that thing?)

"The wallmaster held the gravekeeper enough time to let me investigate the underneath cavern, but my way was blocked by a wall"

"Why didn't you use bombs?"

"That passed through my mind, but instead…" He shot open his right eye which was glowing in a blood-red color that sent a chill upon my back. "I used the eyes of truth to peek whatever was behind the wall…" He closed his eye again. "And someone-something was guarding the place…"

"A Darknut." I finished his sentence.

"Exactly. Now, it seems that you were capable to match the undead knight and beat him, am I right?"

I nodded.

"I'm no warrior, so I cannot take such task by myself. But now, you are here, courageous Alex, and our goals share the same methods to be done…"

I looked at the ground with a frown and closed my eyes. "Restore the light power to the Four Sword…" I sighed.

"So, I'm going to ask you again… Do you accept my request?"

I gritted my teeth when I knew that there was no other way around. "Ok"

"I'm glad that we gotten to terms. Hand me your map please."

Without hesitation, I handed him my general map of Termina from my endless pouch. He extended it around, and marked certain places with a red marker. Four circles in each cardinal point, each of them far away from each others. When I looked at the map I suddenly felt like is going to take an eternity to get the four elements. I sighed deeply when I was certain that my home was still far away from my reach, but still was there at the end of the way, which was the only thing that was making me accept this journey.

He handed me the map again and I put it back into my endless pouch.

"Ho, ho, ho! Is it not a simple task?"

"Well, it's not actually,"

"Uh, I almost forgot—"He brought his hand to his huge back pack on its back. "-Here" He threw something to me.

As a reflex, I caught it and the item flew above my hands. And I went somewhat excited to see the new item.

(The Legend Of Zelda Phantom Hourglass OST 63 – Bad Treasure Fanfare.)

My excited grin fell and expressed disappointed when I noticed that the object he threw was nothing more and nothing less than a simple gray bag. It was somewhat heavy, so I opened it but saw that nothing was inside of it.

I looked at him confused. "Umm… what's this now?"

"It's a Mythril bag. Mythril is an insulator material very rare to find. The elements on pure form are very unstable. The bag shall isolate them. You better don't screw around with the elements like they were toys; once you got one, put it immediately inside of the bag."

I put the mythril bag inside of my endless pouch. "Hmm, simple enough!"

I turned to leave the Clock Tower, but the salesman continued talking to me. "-One last thing" I turned to face him again. His face went serious. "You better get the elements as quickly as possible."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Not only for your reasons, but we need the Four Sword being reformed again for the well being of Termina…"

I raised the same eyebrow to the skies. "Huh?"

"… The passing of time is the slowest yet, the securest weapon to put an end to someone's life…"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"…Time doesn't flow the same way in Termina than it does in Hyrule, Alex…just get the elements as quickly as you can."

I tried to find a question that would get me a response to all the confusing thoughts on my head, and found one that may answer most of my doubts. "Why do you want the sword so badly?"

He giggled on an unnerving way and brought his wide grin on his face again. "I'll answer that question once you get me an element, the order doesn't matter, Ho, ho, ho!"

My eyebrow returned to its original place and gave him an annoyed face. "Whatever…" I turned back towards the exit, walked towards it and left the inside of the Clock Tower.

When the wooden doors closed behind me, I grabbed my hair in frustration.

(Damn! I just want to get back home! Is that too much to ask?)

Complete a task just to begin with another more difficult task was something that really bothered me. So many questions without answer; Why he wants the sword? Why I have to get the elements quickly? The time flows differently on Termina than it does in Hyrule? Who's the evil one? What seal?

So many thoughts on my head made me a little dizzy. I put my hand on my forehead.

(I just need a rest to ease myself… yeah, that should do…)

SHORTEST CHAPTAHH EVAAHH!

i know that this one is really short compared with other chapters, but really got to its point clearly.

As you've seen, here is where the main plot of the story unfolds, but that's not all of it, no...

The mask salesman is a closed book with uncountable secrets. Damn, i really like to write the dialogues between him and Alex because of the suspense and the mystery that surrounds them. Why does he want the Four Sword? that is something that we all get to know eventually; something serious is behind all of this. Something BAD.

Please review! *_*

-Matt