Krista: Yay, I'm back! I know, took awhile, I apologize. But I do other stuff than write fanfiction, so it's not like I was just lazy (that's only part of the reason). Thanks to everyone who reviewed, including a couple of my best friends Mishyness and Bla. Anyway, here's chapter ten.

Chapter Ten: Hyrule Castle: Part One

"Ahhh, the sun!" Patience rejoiced, dancing around in circles.

"It feels so good to be out of that cave," Hope said. Faith, however, was shielding her eyes against the sun.

"Actually, I think I like the dark better," she remarked. Link was looking around, apparently confused.

"Any of you guys know why we're in front of Hyrule Castle?" he asked.

"I do." Kaepora Gaebora had flown down on top of a wooden structure that seemed made for him.

"Grrrr..." Link turned around to see Hope and Patience holding Faith back. The middle sister had her fists clenched and looked like she was about to hit someone.

"Hurry up and talk to the owl, will ya?" Hope told Link.

"Yeah!" Patience agreed. "Before she breaks our grip!" After about fifteen minutes, Kaepora Gaebora took a breath from talking and left. Link turned to see Faith taking on both Hope and Patience in a practice sword fight.

"The owl finally stop talking?" Faith asked with a small scowl.

"Yes," Link answered. "Why do you hate him?"

"I don't know. He just rubs me the wrong way!"

"What'd he say?" Hope asked.

"He said there's a maiden trapped in the castle." Link waited for the girls to respond. When they didn't, he added, "That's basically it."

"It took him fifteen minutes to say THAT?" Patience exclaimed. "What'd he do, say each syllable five times slower?!"

"Knock it off, Patience!" Hope said. "Let's just go save the maiden all right?" The rest nodded their agreement and went closer to the castle. Then they ran and hid in some bushes when two guards at the top of the side towers threw bombs at them.

"Alright." Link turned to the girls. "We need a plan--wait, where's Hope?" Faith and Patience pointed behind him. In the area between the side towers and in front of the closed castle gate was Hope. The other three went into the clearing to watch her better.

"Hey boys!" Hope yelled to the guards. "Want to see how well you aim? I bet you guys couldn't hit the broad side of this castle if it was two feet in front of you!"

"Is she crazy?!" Link was about to get her out of there, but her sisters held them back.

"Chill dude," Patience said. "Hope always knows what she's doing."

"Most of the time she does, anyway." Link glared at Faith for her comment. The guards were throwing bomb after bomb at Hope, who was doing various dance steps while dodging them. Finally she got tired of it and caught two bombs. She threw them to the sides of the towers to burn all the grass. Then she used the next two to make the guards disappear in smoke. In other words, she destroyed them.

"FORCE GEMS!" Patience ran around where the grass used to be to the collect the small blue gems. When she went to the left side of the left tower, Link and her sisters heard her scream. Running to where they last saw her, they found a small staircase leading to an underground passageway. They went down the stairs and saw Patience sitting on the ground, rubbing her head.

"Patience, are you okay?!" Hope ran toward her youngest sister, her eyes shining with worry.

"I can't believe you missed those stairs!" Faith said, shaking her head as if disgraced.

"You would too if you were walking backwards to collect gems!" Patience retorted.

"...I'm not even going to ask why you were walking backwards," Faith stated.

"I'm actually curious about the answer to that," Link spoke up. Patience smiled at him.

"I like to do things differently," she said.

"...I see." Link cleared his throat. "Well, at least you found out where to go next." Patience stuck her tongue out at Faith.

"See? Not everything I do is stupid!"

"That's up for debate," Faith muttered. The quartet made their way through the underground passage and ended up on the top of the right side tower. After hitting the crystal switch to open the castle gate, Link, Faith, and Patience jumped off and landed to the side of the tower. Hope didn't.

"C'mon, Hope!" Patience told her. "It's not that far!"

"Yes it is!" the oldest sister argued.

"Let me guess, she's scared of heights," Link said.

"Bingo," Faith answered. Then she looked at Hope. "Hey, you remember those stupid bus evacuation drills they make us do in school? Pretend it's one of those!"

"Yeah," Patience agreed. "Just sit down and slide off!"

"If worse comes to worse, I'll catch you!" Link shouted to Hope. Faith raised an eyebrow at him.

"Is she supposed to be comforted by that?" she asked. Link glared at her. To Hope, she said, "Just come down and get it over with!" Hope nodded a little and tried the sitting and sliding method. Link caught her as he said he would. Hope gave out one of the biggest sighs of relief one would ever hear.

"Thanks," she said. "Come on, let's get going." The four walked into the now open castle gate...only to get locked into an area with about two dozen enemy soldiers.

"Just perfect," muttered Link. Faith, Hope, and Patience got out their swords and shields as Link did the same. Then they watched the enemy soldiers march up and down the area for about ten minutes.

"Do they even notice us?" Faith asked, sounding a bit aggravated.

"YO!" Patience yelled. All the soldiers turned and started to surround them. Patience smiled sheepishly. "They do now."

Link and Hope glared at her before getting locked in the fight. Faith, on the other hand, gave an evil grin before jumping in the fray.

Krista: Done! I know, not much happens in this chapter. It's just basically to introduce the next level. R&R please!