Krista: Thank you people for the reviews! This story is getting more than I thought it would. Get ready because in this chapter everyone meets Tingle! (cue the freaky horror music.)

Chapter Five: Lake Hylia: Part Three

Once they calmed Patience down, Link, Hope and Faith got her to set fire to the stumps that were blocking a big rock. Link and Faith lifted it out of the way and Hope went down to scout if there were any enemies. When she yelled that there weren't any, the others went down into the cave. Climbing a ladder, they saw a switch. Link hit it, making a bridge so they could cross to the other side. Patience waited beside the switch while the other three started to go on the bridge. When they were all on, she hit the switch, making the bridge disappear, and her sisters and Link fall to the ground. Laughing like a maniac, Patience hit the switch again, ran across, and grabbed the little red force gem in the treasure chest that was there. Faith wanted to strangle her little sister, but Hope stopped her. After a while, they stopped on a ledge in front of a river, with trees on both sides of them.

"That was an annoyingly long intro," Faith complained.

"I almost fell asleep," Hope said.

"You mean we can talk now?" Patience asked, removing the duct tape from her mouth that kept her from speaking.

"Yes, finally," Link muttered the answer. He looked at the river. "Guess it's time for a swim."

"Are you sure there isn't another way to go?" Faith asked, peering into the water.

"It's just a little river, Faith," Hope said, trying to comfort her sister.

"Is something wrong?" Link looked at the sisters, apparently confused.

"Faith's scared of water," Patience told him.

"I am not!" her older sister cried defensively. "I just don't like swimming!"

"Don't worry, Faith," Link said, "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Uhhh...sure..." Faith raised her eyebrows, wondering why the heck he would say something like that. It must be the hero-gene in his DNA. She sighed. "Let's just get this over with!"

"CANNONBALL!" Patience yelled as she jumped into the river. Hope went next, and splashed Patience for getting her wet. Link was waiting for Faith to go in next, but she was too interested watching her sisters trying to drown one another. Finally, he pushed her in. She was a bit mad when she resurfaced.

With a gasp and a shake of her fist, she yelled, "Link, you &#$!" Her sisters stopped playing and stared, amused and amazed at that beeping sound that had emerged from their sister's mouth. Meanwhile, Link just smirked, jumped and splashed all three of them. Faith swam over and held him under. When she let go, he came up choking and glared at her. Faith glared right back.

"Serves you right!" she told him.

"Hey," Hope hissed at her 14-year-old sister, knowing full-well what Faith had been trying to call Link," this is supposed to be E rated!"

"Screw the rating!" Patience looked at Faith eagerly. "Call him that again! The beeping sound was funny!"

"Patience!" Hope tried to scold them, but she may as well been talking to a force gem. One was too stubborn, and the other was way too hyper to listen. The four swam under a bridge and onto this little strip of land. Faith and Patience lifted the boulder that was in there way, to find a middle-aged man in a green outfit stuck under it. He stared at Link, who started to back away slowly.

His eyes wide in amazement, the man gasped. "Those clothes...that hat...you must be a fairy, come to help Tingle in his time of need!" The short man did a little...er...'dance.' Link was about to say that he wasn't a fairy, when Tingle started ranting about how force gem collecting was the latest thing and that they were now in competition to collect them.

"Don't follow me!" he told them. They were wondering why they would want to. "Kooloo-Limpah!" After saying these strange words, a giant red balloon inflated from the pack on his back and he floated out from underneath the bridge. The four just stood where they were, blinking, and wondering about what just happened. Finally, Hope spoke:

"Alright, that guy seriously needs a psychiatrist!" They all jumped back in the river and were swimming towards a set of stairs on the side of a cliff right next to a huge waterfall.

"Amen to that!" Faith agreed.

"Where did he get off thinking that I was a fairy?" Link asked.

"He said it had something to do with your clothes," Patience answered. They were walking up the stairs now. Hope and Faith were slightly faster and a little ahead of them.

"I've never seen a fairy wearing a green tunic!" Link said.

"Let alone a hat," Patience pointed out. When those two reached the top, they were gasping slightly for breath. The other two were waiting for them.

"What took you guys so long?" Hope asked.

"You two aren't fazed about how tiring these stairs are?" Patience asked right back.

"Believe me, this is nothing compared to all the stairs in our high school," the eldest sister answered.

"Yeah." Faith nodded her head. "You walk, like, a mile going to and from classes." They all entered the cave that was there and jumped out of the cannon. Link and Faith went to the top right away, while Hope, with her sharp eyes, saw a treasure chest and landed on the little ledge to get it. After taking the small purple force gem, she jumped back up with Link and Faith, shaking slightly from the height. Patience, however, kept using the cannon to try to get a big green, floating force gem. Of course, she kept missing. Finally, Link couldn't wait anymore.

"Oh, for the love of Nayru!" he yelled, startling Hope and causing Faith to raise an eyebrow at him. Link jumped back down and caught the floating gem on the way. Patience was glaring at him when he reached the bottom.

"We have the gem! Can we go now?" Link asked. Patience stuck her tongue out, pushed him out of the way, and used the cannon to catch up with her sisters. When Link came up, they all went outside onto a tiny ledge that was sticking out of the cliff. Hope slashed the plants and revealed a switch. She pressed it and force gems rained down on top of the cliff. Patience let out a squeal.

"Come on!" she said. "Let's get them before they disappear!" The four were about to go through the other entrance to the cave, when they heard a "Wow!" from across the waterfall. Tingle was floating towards the force gems. Patience panicked.

"Ack! He's gonna take the gems!" And before one could say "Kooloo-Limpah," Patience was at the top of the cliff with her fire rod out in front. Tingle seemed to be oblivious to her and kept coming.

"DIE, BALLOON-BOY!" she screamed and shot a fireball. He must've been blind and deaf too, because he didn't bother to move. The fireball caused the balloon to burst, sending Tingle tumbling down the waterfall. Hope went wide-eyed, Link couldn't help but start laughing, and Faith was watching eagerly to see if Tingle was drowning. Patience looked down at them and gave them a "I'm-so-good" grin.

"Well," she said," guess that takes care of him!"

"Yeah," Faith said, smirking," too bad you didn't grab the force gems before they disappeared, though." Patience's smile wiped off her face. She looked down at the spot where the gems used to be and, sure enough, they were gone.

Krista: OMG, I wanna end the Lake Hylia section already! You know what, if I averaged about four chapters to each section, there'd be about 96 chapters in this story, excluding the first and last few chapters. Maybe some of you guys don't care or are happy about that, but I'm getting sick of the same sections. But I'll keep at it as long as you people give me encouraging reviews! Happy Veteran's Day!