Wang: All hail Scrub Lord!

Shadow: …What are you doing?

Wang: All hail Scrub Lord!

Static: Just let him be.

Wang: All hail Scrub Lord!

Shadow: But—

Time Stop: We don't own a thing, as usual.

Wang: All hail Scrub Lord!

Chapter 2: One thing leads to another

She flew through the tunnel. At first it was a terrifying free fall, but eventually it evened out enough for her to catch her footing. She ran and skipped and jumped down the rest of the tunnel which slowly became a large cave. She stopped at the mouth of the cave stood still. All around her stood tall, pale trees. A low mist hung in the sky. And while there should have still been light out, it looked to her more like the sun had set for the day.

"Where did he go?" Nadai whispered. Her voice died just outside of her lips, the mist and fog smothering it.

She pulled out her Fairy Flute. She brought it to her lips and played Saria's Song. She waited a moment. She played the song again. A nervous panic filled her eyes; the song wasn't working. After playing for a third time she put the flute away. Some sort of magic kept her from Saria. Was it the same one that got Link?

Perhaps for the first time since leaving the desert, she felt alone. No Link for her. No Navi to guide her. She couldn't even contact Saria. She was alone. She shuddered, then grimaced.

"Since when did I get so scared from loneliness?" She sat down.

From her new angle she could see an arrow in the dirt pointing straight into the forest. It was clean cut, and made that day.

"Link?" She whispered.

Her mind raced a mile a minute. If Link had made that arrow, maybe he wasn't taken here. Maybe he had fallen through the hole suddenly, or decided that Navi could be down in the hole and went to investigate. Maybe when he made it out of the cave he took a look around and made an arrow to find his way back if he got lost. Or maybe someone or something did take him and those arrows were for more unfortunate victims.

Nadai shook her head and yawned. Some sort of magic was in these woods. It drained her energy, it caused her to feel sluggish and sleepy. She put weight on her legs but they already were asleep. Before she could protest her eyes closed and her head hit the ground.

He opened his eyes. He lay on the ground face first to the grass. He breathed in and blinked. Then it came to him. He had gotten lost? No, he had fallen asleep on his way back to the cave. Some sort of magic spell. Link shook his head and got up on his hands and knees. There was a familiar sound behind him and he whipped his head around.

There stood a skull kid, hunched over something that had made that sound. The skull kid laughed and giggled and repeated the sound. Two fairies flew alongside his head. One was clothed in an unusual purple while the other was in a more traditional creamy-white. Link got to his feet, resting his hand on his sword.

"Give me back my Ocarina." He said, his voice hoarse. The skull kid stopped moving and giggling. "Give me back my Ocarina." Link repeated stronger.

"He's up!"

"The magic wore off!"

"What do we do?"

Link ignored the fairies and kept his attention on the skull kid. The skull kid turned to look at him, holding the Fairy Ocarina in one hand. He wore a strange purple mask with bright yellow eyes. He turned his head slightly.

"Why?"

"Because it isn't yours." Link refrained his anger. "Now give it back."

The skull kid looked at both of his fairies. "I don't feel like it."

Link drew his sword. "Last chance before I take it from you."

"Skull Kid!"

"Just give it to him!"

"Show him whose boss!"

The skull kid laughed. "I'd actually like to see you try."

Link stepped forward and thrusted in a blink of an eye. While his body wasn't anywhere near the physical capabilities of his adult self, he could still move and hit hard. To his surprise the skull kid shot backwards and went into midair. Link stared at him, his mouth slightly open.

"What? Is that all you can do?" The floating skull kid mocked.

In the instant Link charged forward the kid flew backwards. What Link had thought would be an easy fight suddenly turned into a very un-merry chase through the strange woods. Not even a few seconds into the chase and Link realized the truth of the matter. He wouldn't be able to catch the skull kid, not unless he ran out of energy to fly. At his current speed, he was too slow. His only hope was to out-endurance the thief and take him on then. But as the chase went slowly uphill, and went longer and longer, Link began to worry that there might not be an end to this skull kids magical reservoirs.

In between the trees he spotted a clearing up ahead. The skull kid moved fast and disappeared into a hole halfway up a giant tree. Link kept up the pace. Several stumps stood in the clearing. Link hardly paused to notice their clean cuts as he propelled himself from one stump to the next. The hole in the tree was taller than he could reach without the added height of the stumps.

He landed in the hole and rushed forward. He failed to notice the gaping hole right below him. He looked up, expecting the skull kid above him but saw only the dim light of the opening. He turned his head below and drew his sword. It was pitch black. He couldn't even see his sword, much less what was ahead of him.

All too suddenly he hit something hard. More specifically he hit water. He plunged underneath and almost breathed in water in surprise. He pushed himself off the floor and rocketed to the surface where he breathed in deep. He reached about and his sword touched something. Swimming to it he grabbed hold of the edge of the pool and he got up and sat on it.

"Where the hell am I?"

"You are a frustrating person."

Lights came on and blinded Link. When he could see he saw the skull kid floating in between two bright torches.

"No one has made it this far. I should commend you."

"What do we do?"

"What's next?"

The skull kid jerked his head to the side, as if listening to something. "I see. You could be dangerous." He spoke to himself.

"What are you talking about?" Link stood up. "I'm right here."

"Yes, yes you are." The skull kid clapped his hands. "The last unfortunate soul to fight against me was a little deku scrub. A little knight trying to protect the princess. You remind me of that scrub."

"I'm not a scrub!"

"Are you sure?" The mask began to glow. "Are you sure?"

Link crumpled over in pain. He felt his very bones crack and shift in his body. He began to shrink in size. His bones popped and snapped and he screamed out in pain. He clawed at his skin as it hardened into solid wood. He reached out for his sword but found that his hands had shrunk to little knobby ends. He looked down at the water as the pain began to stop.

He had been turned into a scrub!

"Are you sure you aren't a scrub?" The skull kid laughed. "You look like one to me!"

Link brought his knobby hands to his face, and met a hole which dominated where his nose and mouth once were. "Turn me back!" He shouted. His voice was higher pitched. How the hell did he just speak?

"This suits you much better." The skull kid began floating backwards. "Enjoy your new life, scrub!"

The skull kid flew backwards and around a bend. One of his fairies, the purple clad one, laughed and followed right behind him. The cream colored fairy hesitated before inching closer to Link.

"What did he do?"

Link found that he had fallen onto his butt, and picked himself back up again. "He made me change my shape. How the hell did he do that?" He walked slowly around the pool of water to the torches. "What kind of black magic did he use for that? Not even Gannondorf could do something like that."

"Oh, what did he do?" The fairy spoke again.

"I mean, yeah, he could change his body into a demon pig monster but he didn't change myself or Nadai. Is this skull kid even stronger in magic than Gannondorf? Is that even possible?"

Link looked up at the fairy, noticing her for the first time. He shot out with his stubby arm and grabbed her, bringing her close to his eyes. "You were with the skull kid, right? Why stay?"

"I – I – I – I – I – I –"

"I'm not really in the mood for niceties. Where is that skull kid?"

"Like I should know!" The fairy broke free of Link's weak grip. "I wasn't exactly watching where he was going, now was I?"

"Fair." Link looked ahead to the tunnel. "Then where would he be?"

"I don't know. Probably in Clock Town. He likes to be on top of the tower."

"What tower? Clock Town?"

"Yeah. Clock Town. Center of Termina." The fairy shook her head. "Didn't you know that?"

Link stared at the ground. He was in Termina. Could Navi be here? It would make sense if she was. Not that it made sense that she was gone, but that didn't matter.

"Have you seen a fairy? Someone from Hyrule?"

"Uh, no I haven't."

Link sighed. "Fine. Top of the tower. Alright."

He ran into the tunnel. The cream colored ball of light followed him. "Hey!"

He slowed down as he came to a bright pink flower. "What?"

"Listen, can I go with you?"

If Link had eyebrows to raise he would have raised them in surprise. "Go with me?"

"Yeah."

"Why would I want that? I want my own body back, and having you around won't help me."

"But what if I vouch for you?" Link turned to look at her. "I mean it. What if I talk to Skull Kid and tell him to turn you back to normal?"

"I highly doubt that talking to him will do much."

"But I'm his friend!"

"And he left you here all alone." Link pointed out.

"Th-that doesn't matter."

"Uh, it does." Link looked ahead and found himself in front of a gap, with the tunnel continuing on the other side. "How can he be your friend if he leaves you like that?"

The fairy was silent. Link shook his head and looked about. There wasn't a bridge across the gap. He could see a floor below, but he doubted that the skull kid would have went down there. And even if he did, he didn't know if he could even fall down that far with this body of his.

"Y-You can use the flower!" The fairy spat out.

"What?"

"Deku Scrubs use that flower to float between places. I've seen them do it before."

Link looked at his feet and at the flower. "This thing?"

"Yeah."

"I can't use this I'm not a scrub."

"Yes, you are." The fairy got in his face. "So you might as well use it."

Link narrowed his eyes. "And how am I supposed to even get inside this flower?"

The fairy rammed herself into his face. He stepped back, surprised by the force that she put on him. In doing so, his feet fit perfectly into the flower's small opening. It sucked him in.

"Gah!" Link shouted. He pushed with his legs with as much strength as his deku body could give him. He shot back out into the air and landed on the flower. "What the hell was that!"

"That flower coats Deku Scrubs with a special pollen. It allows them to float in the air for a short period of time before it floats away. The pollen, I mean." The fairy crossed her arms over her chest. "You can use that to float to the other side of this gap."

Link narrowed his eyes. "Why help me?"

"Cause I want to see Skull Kid! And you might be the fastest way to get there. Well, you might be the only person who wants to see him."

"Not the only one." He amended. "You want to see him to."

"Yeah…"

"Alright. You can come with until I get my body back." He sighed. "And then you can go back to Skull Kid, or whatever his name is."

"His name is Skull Kid!"

"That's it?" Link sat at the edge of the flower and put his feet in. "Usually skull kids have their own name. Like Percy, or Dolores."

He was sucked into the flower. He felt the pollen collect on his wooden body and on his clothes. When he felt that he was fully coated he pushed as hard as he could with his wooden legs. He shot high into the air, and hung there for a moment. Unsure of what to do, he waved his arms and legs, and he moved slowly but surely through the air.

"There you go!" The fairy was beside him.

He could make out the ground below him. There was a gradual dip in his descent and he slowed above the other ledge. It seemed all at once that the remaining pollen left him, and he fell. He landed on his feet. To his surprise, while he didn't land in his customary roll he didn't take any pain.

He entered the next tunnel, the fairy following him. All was dark. Soon enough he came back into the light. It was a large cavern, with another bottomless pit. Here and there were small islands dotted with the flowers. On the other side of the cavern was the exit via another tunnel.

"Hey."

Link turned to the fairy. "What?"

"My name's Tatl." The cream colored fairy said.

"Link." The deku nodded his head.

The fairy nodded. "Link…Thanks for taking me with you."

"Come on, let's keep moving."

The former Hylian dropped into the first flower, waited a moment, and shot into the air.

Her eyes snapped open. Where was she? She bound to her feet. Right, the tunnel, and then the sleepiness. "Link!" Nadai whispered. She glanced back down at the arrow. Without a second thought, she ran in the direction of the arrow.

Every so often she would spot an arrow, or a sign of Link's passage. While the former Kokiri was adept at travel and in hiding his passage from others, that was not the first thing in his mind. Bent blades of grass and footprints through the mud were easy enough for Nadai to spot. That included the spot where Link had fallen asleep.

She stopped. Someone else was here too. She studied the markings on the ground. There was a fight? With who? Against who? Then Link's tracks headed away from the arrows. He was running towards something, or away from something.

She followed his tracks once again uphill. The trail weaved in and out of trees, heading deeper and deeper into the strange woods. Then she spotted the clearing. The tracks ended there.

"Damn!" She looked about and found the opening in the trunk.

She leapt up and pushed off a stump. In one massive push she made it to the opening. She peered inside and found an endless hole into the darkness. Without a second thought she flung herself into the pit. She fell endlessly, until the darkness brightened. She plopped into water and surfaced quickly. She pulled herself ashore and found herself in a strange place.

"There's only one way to go now." She looked at the tunnel ahead. "Link must've gone this way." She drew her daggers and headed into the mystery of what lay ahead.

Wang: …Scrub Lord isn't as cool as I thought he would be.

Shadow: What did you expect? A god?

Wang: I dunno, something a little more grand and a little less fuzzy.

Static: How is the Scrub Lord fuzzy?

Wang: He just is, okay?

Static: Oh-Kay.

Time Stop: Please Review!