Disclaimer: I don't own the Legend of Zelda series.
Chapter 3: Clock Town Part 2/The Observatory
All five bombers were gasping for air in the northern part of Clock Town. If Link could move his face at all, he'd smirk at their leader, Jim. Jim lifted his head and gave Link a small smile. "Not bad. For a Deku Scrub..." Jim sighed. "If only you were a human, then we could officially let you into the Bombers. Eh... I dunno, whaddya think guys?"
"No way!" all four bombers cried out in unison. "No Scrubs Allowed!" Jim put his hands on his hips, then shook his head. "Guess not..." The Bomber Leader turned to Link and his fairy. "Once, we let some kid, who wasn't human, join our gang. And man, did we ever regret it..." Tatl started to glow a faint shade of red. "This kid," she began. "Was this kid made out of wood?"
Jim nodded.
"Did he have weird looking clothes?"
Another nod.
"And was he wearing a weird mask that had two orange eyes that pierced your soul?"
He shuddered, then nodded. "You know him?"
Tatl was burning bright red. "All too well..."
Jim shrugged. "He's pretty popular around here. The bad kind, that is. Anyways... sorry that we can't let you in." He held up a finger. "But, I will teach you the code, like I promised." Then, he put on a very serious face. "But I'm only gonna tell you once, got it?!" Link nodded. Jim snapped his fingers, then all the bombers turned around, in order from Bomber One to Bomber Five. Link and Tatl froze when they saw the code for the hideout.
"The code is 12345! Think you can remember it?" Tatl mentally facepalmed. "Yes, we can." Jim pointed to East Clock Town. "Our hideout is in the Eastern part of town. Just look for the Bomber with a yellow bandanna. Got it?" Link nodded, then took off with his fairy following behind him.
"If you wanna pass through here, you gotta give me the secret code."
Tatl flew in front of Link's face. "12345"
The boy twitched nervously. "Um... that's correct. I really hope Jim is okay with a scrub entering our hideout." The boy stepped out of the way and allowed Link to pass. "There's a lot of cool stuff down there where the astronomer is," the boy called out to Link before he disappeared. "Oh, and... um... The Bomber's Secret Society of Justice forever." Link nodded his head and entered into the underground tunnel.
The inside of the tunnel was very... dark. Fortunately, Tatl's glow was able to give off enough light to see. Link looked at the fairy who was flying ahead of him. Tatl turned around and almost lost her concentration when she saw that the boy's orange eyes were focused directly on her. "Y'know, that's REALLY creepy!" Link kept staring at her, to the point where she got very uncomfortable. "W-what? What is it?" Link lifted his nub of a hand and pointed all around the room, then pointed directly at her.
"You... want me to light up the room?" Link nodded. Tatl turned slightly red. "This is as bright as I can handle! If I were to go any brighter, I could end up blinding myself! Besides, for that to happen, I'd have to be really... well... embarrassed."
"Embarrassed?" he thought to himself. He had no idea how he was gonna be able to do that. Wait a second...
{Flashback}
Tatl gave him a confused look. "...W-why are you looking at me like that?" The fairy turned slightly pink. "Is there something on my face? In my teeth?"
{End of unnecessarily short Flashback}
So... what he needed to do was keep staring at her until she gets nervous enough to think that something's wrong with her, which will embarrass her. It was just crazy enough to work. Link put his hand nubs over his eyes and rubbed them furiously. Tatl looked at him like something was really wrong with him. Link took his hands off of his eyes then stared her down.
Tatl was wondering exactly what the hell he was doing. And what's worse, he wouldn't stop staring at her. Half a minute passed. Then a minute. Then two. Then three. Tatl started to turn a very light shade of pink and was glowing brighter than she was a few minutes ago. She finally opened her mouth to say something. "Wh... what are you... l-looking at?" Link didn't even blink. He just kept staring at her. She turned a brighter shade of pink and was glowing even brighter. "Y-you're... you're really making me... uncomfortable, D-Deku Boy..."
Then... he winked.
Tatl instantly turned pink and covered her eyes as she glowed brighter than the sun. Link grabbed her and ran forward, skipping on the water, jumping from platform to platform. A minute passed and Link was able to see something in the distance, other than Tatl's pink glow. It looked like... fire. Link, Tatl still in his hand, skipped across the water and twirled just as he was about to land. He stuck the landing, narrowly missing the water, and sat down next to the torch.
A few minutes later, Tatl's glow died down and she slowly turned back to her original color. She uncovered her eyes and took a look around. Next to her, was her partner, eyes closed, leaning against a torch. In front of her, was infinite darkness, with a pool of water that ran through it. To her other side, she saw what looked like a pathway. She flew up to Link, ready to chew him out for what he did to her, but he was already fast asleep. Tatl sighed and sat down on a ledge fairly close to him. Pretty soon, she was asleep too.
Night of
The First Day:
-60 Hours Remain-
Link's eyes shot open at the sudden noise. He bolted to his feet and ran towards the entryway he had seen earlier. Unfortunately, a Skultulla dropped down and attacked him the one time he let his guard down. Link let out a scream and fell on his back. Tatl yawned and stood on her tiny feet, wondering what woke her up. She saw her partner sprawled out on the floor with a very hungry Skultulla looming over him. She mentally facepalmed and flew up to the giant spider.
"Hey! Listen to me, bub! Unless you want a face full of fist, you're gonna back off of this Deku until I'm done with him! Then, you can eat him. Understood?!" The Skultulla let out a low pitched laugh and swatted Tatl away. Then, he continued to descend upon Link; oozing at the mouth. A second later, Tatl flew back up to him. "HEY! I don't think you heard me! You ain't getting this kid until I'm finished with him! Capiche?!" The spider ignored the fairy's threats, despite the fact that Tatl was burning red.
"This is the LAST time I'm warning you, bub! I'll rip off ALL of your limbs and feed them to you while you lay facedown in a pool of your own monster blood!" The Skultulla grew weary of the fairy's constant threats, so he did anything a logical monster would do. Eat her. He opened up his mouth, exposing his fangs, and drew closer and closer to Tatl. Before she could react, the spider let out a shriek, then fell to the floor; sliced in half.
Tatl looked past the monster's corpse and saw Link, on his feet, with the spider's blood on the tip of his hat. Tatl gave him a confused look. "Did you... slice him in half... with your hat?" Link nodded. Tatl crossed her arms. "Well, you're just full of surprises, now aren't you?" Link ignored the possible insult and kept going.
Link climbed up the ladder and ran into the tunnel in front of him. He heard lighthearted music again, but this time it was more hypnotizing than foreboding. Nothing could prepare the two from the mixture of colors that barfed into their faces as they entered the... observatory? Link walked up the winding ramp until he reached the top, where an old man, easily around seventy or so, was looking through a telescope. Link walked up to the man and tugged on his robe.
The astronomer turned away from his device and stared at Link coldly for a few seconds, then put on a happy face. "Well, well... a strange looking child has decided to join me today... are you a new friend of the Bombers gang?" Link slowly nodded his head, uncertain if he was a pedophile or just a plain creep. The astronomer put his hand on his chin. "Ah... yes... your manners appear to be much better than those of your mischievous friend the other day."
Tatl turned red again. "Skull Kid?! Is there ANYBODY he hasn't messed with?!" The astronomer chuckled at the fairy's temper. "The ill-mannered troublemaker threatened to break my instruments... he said he would steal my Moon's Tear. But, being the old man I am, there was nothing I could do to stop him." The astronomer sighed. "Even now, he's probably causing trouble around Clock Town..." The old man pointed to his telescope. "I've gotten a good view of him if you'd like to take a look yourself..."
Link stepped up to the telescope and peered in. He took a good look around Termina Field. Certainly, it was a big place, but not as big as Hyrule Field. Link looked around and saw a few... familiar faces. Upon further inspection, he saw a man dancing atop a pillar. He recognized this man as one of the people he had freed from the curse of the Gold Skultullas back in Hyrule. Link turned the telescope to the left and found another one in a patch of grass, mimicking his brother.
Link focused his telescope on the Clock Tower, seeing a figure on top of it. Doubting that it was another on of the 'brothers,' he zoomed in and saw none other than the Skull Kid himself, dancing atop the tower, mocking him. The Skull Kid looked up into the sky and Link followed his gaze. That was the first time he noticed the Moon. That damn Moon. Link nearly fell over backwards after he saw that haunting face. Tatl slightly chuckled to himself.
"What did you see, Link?" She wedged herself between Link and the telescope to try and get a look. "Big bad Chu Chu give you a sca-BWOSHIT!" Tatl flew right into Link's hat to try and forget about what she just saw. "Th-that Moon... it had a face..." Link looked back into the telescope just in time to see something fall from the Moon's eye. It crashed right outside of the observatory. And BOY, was it loud! Link focused the telescope back on the Skull Kid who was... mooning him. Link facepalmed. "Real original," he thought to himself.
Link darted to the door next to him and opened it. He picked up the foreign object that fell from the sky and put it in his pouch. He knew exactly what he needed to do, now.
"Hey! Buddy! I thought I said for you to scram!" Link rolled his eyes at the comment made by the angry Deku. "I got something I want to offer to you in exchange for your flower." The Deku raised an eyebrow. "An offer, eh? Alright, fine, lemme hear it."
Link reached into his pouch and pulled out the strange object he found earlier. The Deku took one look at it and freaked out. "Th-that's a moon tear! Those are EXTREMELY rare! I've... uh... been looking to get my hands on it for my lady friend." The Deku attempted to swipe the tear away from the tiny scrub, but Link was a step ahead and held it away. "Unh-unh-unh! The flower..."
"F-Fine! Take the flower! Here's the deed!" The Deku reached into his bag and literally threw the deed to the flower at Link, then swiped the tear from his hand. "A pleasure doing business with you," the Deku called out before launching into the air. Tatl flew out of Link's hat and stopped the Deku as he was about to fly away.
"Can I ask you something before you leave?" The Deku nodded. "Yeah, sure. What is it?"
"How is it that I can't understand what my partner is saying but I can understand you perfectly?"
The Deku lifted his finger, without dropping the bag he was holding. "That's actually a common problem with most Dekus, especially scrubs, where people can't even understand them. But I think I have just the thing." The Deku threw two of his bags high into the air, dug out something from his third bag and caught both of the other bags without missing a beat. "Here ya go. Just give this to your friend and he'll be talking in no-time."
The Deku handed Tatl an acorn. She gave him an annoyed look. "You're kidding... right?" The Deku shook his head. "Nope. Just have your friend chow down on this. Goodbye!" And with that, the Deku flew off. Tatl was really annoyed, but decided to go along with it, thinking that it wouldn't hurt to at least try.
Before Link could react, Tatl threw the acorn into his mouth, then kicked his jaw into the air to make sure he swallowed. Link fell onto the ground, coughing fiercely. He shot a nasty look at Tatl. "What the hell was that for?!" Tatl just stared at him, dumbfounded. "I can't believe it worked... you can talk... and I can understand you."
Link blinked once. Then twice. Then a third time. "So, you can understand me now?" Tatl shrugged. "Well, you got that distortion in your voice, so I can't understand EXACTLY what you're saying... but still, yeah. Now I can." Link stood up. "So, now what do we do?" Tatl looked up at the Clock Tower. "Well, since we got nothing to do, we can wait on top of that tower until it opens on the night of the Final Day."
Link remained silent for the longest time. "You're joking, right?"
"No, I am not."
He let out a sigh. "Alright, let's go." Link hopped into the Deku Flower and boosted all the way up to the balcony of the tower, where he would sit until the day came for him to confront the Skull Kid.
Tatl shrugged. "Oh, come on, how bad could it be?"