New Disclaimer: I also don't own anything from Lampchop. Anybody remember that show?
Krista: I am so sorry for not updating! Thanks to everyone and anyone who read and reviewed the last chapter. Here's the long-overdue chapter eleven.
Chapter Eleven: Hyrule Castle: Part Two
"Well, that was fun," Link said sarcastically after the group defeated the enemy soldiers. Faith thought he was serious.
"Yeah, it was," she agreed.
"At least you got a heart container," Hope pointed out to Link. Patience was skipping ahead, happy that they got a force gem worth 300 Force. The four walked into an empty outdoor area right in front of the castle entrance. Patience was walking around exploring on her own around the left side of the castle entrance. Link noticed something sticking out of a bush on the right.
"I wonder what that is." He went over toward the object. Hope followed him when she knew she was able to keep an eye on Patience at the same time.
"It better be something to help us open this door," Faith said, while kicking the castle's door. The object happened to be a lever and, after Link pulled it, opened the door.
"Come on, Patience," Hope called. "Link got the door open!" She followed Faith inside, but Link waited for Patience.
"Hang on!" the youngest called out from behind a tree on the left. "I'm trying to pull a lev--got it!" Right after she successfully yanked the lever, Patience appeared from behind the tree. Looking around, she seemed disappointed. "I thought force gems would fall out of the sky if I pulled it."
"It was probably a decoy. The other one opened the door," Link explained. "Come on, your sisters are already inside." Patience was about to catch up to him, but out of thin air, two guards appeared and started going for her.
"AHH!" Patience started wildly swinging her sword. "Link, kill them!" she ordered while pulling her shield in front of her. Link rolled his eyes and pulled out his sword on Patience's attackers.
While Link and Patience were killing the guards outside, Faith and Hope were fighting two guards in the entrance hall of the castle. The hall was basically one room with stairs separating the lower part of the room and a higher walkway leading to doorways on each side of the room. On the lower part, there was also a doorway to the right. When they defeated their enemies, Hope turned to Faith.
"Are Patience and Link still outside?" she asked.
"They'll catch up," Faith said. "In the meantime, let's go see what's in here!" She ran into the lower right doorway. Hope glanced at the main entrance door, then ran after Faith.
"If you stayed calm and didn't swing your sword around like a maniac, then you'll probably be able to battle more efficiently," Link told Patience as they walked into the castle.
"If I don't swing my sword, how am I supposed to hit anything?" Patience asked. She swung her weapon as a practice run and accidentally broke a pot that was against the wall.
Link shook his head and sighed. "No, that's not what -- Where are your sisters?"
"Maybe they went up the stairs!" Patience suggested, dashing up said stairs. Link followed and found her staring at a locked door. "I don't think they went in there," she said.
"Well, obviously!" Link exclaimed. "It's locked!" Patience glared at him.
"I can see that!" She noticed the doorway at the end of the left walkway. "C'mon, let's check in here!" With that, she bolted toward it.
"Patience, wait!" Link yelled, but she was already gone. He groaned and muttered, "Goddesses, help me," and ran after her.
"I can't believe all we had to do was push the block and we get 100 force gems," Hope commented. She and Faith walked back into the main hall.
"Patience will be happy," Faith said. "Are they still outside?" she asked when they didn't see them in the hall. Hope checked from the main entrance and shook her head.
"Faith, they're not there!" she exclaimed, then she noticed the stairs. "Maybe they thought we went on the top walkway."
"Hope, I'm worried," Faith admitted. Her older sister smiled at her.
"Don't be," Hope said. "Link's with Patience, so I'm sure nothing's going to happen to her." Faith stared at her older sister.
"Are you crazy?!" she asked. "I'm not worried about what'll happen to Patience! I'm worried about what she'll do to Link and this place!"
Hope looked puzzled. "What? Why?" Faith gaped at her in disbelief.
"Did you forget that there's a fire rod in this castle?"
Hope was quiet for a minute. "Oh God, we gotta find them!" She ran up the stairs, Faith right at her heels. Looking left and right of the locked door, Hope turned to Faith. "Which way?"
"Let's try right," Faith answered, leading the way. They emerged onto an outdoor wall. Walking along, the two picked up a few small red force gems and went into a guardhouse by its back door.
"Bow and arrows!" Faith grabbed her favorite weapon from the pedestal in the upper right-hand corner of the room. "You can have the bombs," she told Hope and pointed to the bomb bag across the room. Hope took her new weapon and looked toward the front door of the guardhouse.
"Well, that's stupid!" she commented. "Who builds a chasm right in front of the door?" Faith peered through the door and got caught by Hope before she fell in the hole.
"What's that black thingy all the way down on that walkway?" she asked.
"Maybe it's a switch," Hope answered. "Try hitting it with an arrow." Faith obliged and her arrow connected with the crystal switch, making a bridge over the chasm so they could go through the front door. The two sisters walked out along the ledge and noticed a little courtyard next to them. Faith jumped down and looked up at Hope, who was still on the ledge.
"Come on, Hope!" she called up. "It's not that far!"
"Why are there so many jumps?" Hope complained. Her younger sister put her hands on her hips.
"Look, if I had to swim, you can drop down!" she said. "There are a few levels where we have to swim for a good amount of them. And why weren't you complaining when we had to shoot out of those cannons?"
The eldest paused for a moment to answer. "Well, I suppose going up is different from jumping down..."
Faith sighed. "Look, if you don't come down, I'm stranded!"
"Why would you be stranded?" Hope asked.
"Because you have the bombs!" Faith yelled. "Now get down here!" Hope swallowed and, after a few minutes delay, dropped down and landed on her feet. "See, was that so hard?" Faith asked.
"Almost as hard as swimming." Hope smiled while Faith glared at her.
"I wonder how you're going to be in the Realm of the Heavens level," Faith said as she took a small red and a big green force gem from a couple of treasure chests.
"Why do you say that?" Hope and Faith hid behind part of a fence to avoid getting hit with a bomb blast. Faith answered as they walked into the new opening of the castle wall.
"Because that level is on clouds." The new room had two cannons on either side of it. Hope waited as Faith went to the right cannon and used it to reach the alcove that contained a key. Jumping down, Faith handed the key to Hope, knowing she herself would probably lose it.
"Well, during that level, I'll just cling to my brave little sister," Hope said sweetly as they took the other cannon all the way to the top. As they emerged back on top of the castle's outside wall, Faith gave Hope a response.
"Like heck you are!" she scoffed and they walked back toward the main hall.
Meanwhile, somewhere on the left side of the castle...
"This is the song that doesn't end, 'cause it goes on and on my friend! Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was. And they'll continue singing it forever just because. This is the song that doesn't end, 'cause it goes on and on my fri--"
"Patience, will you please stop singing that?!" Patience looked at Link strangely.
"You don't like Lampchop's songs?" she asked.
"Who, or what, the heck is Lampchop?" he asked, sounded exasperated, then shook his head. "Don't answer; I don't want to listen to an explanation." The two stopped walking along the outdoor walkway and found a guardhouse without a front door.
"Look it, Link!" Patience ran over to a low wall on the right next to the guardhouse. The wall was low enough to look over, but not climb over. "There are force gems over there!"
"Too bad we can't get to them," Link said. "They're behind a guardhouse with no way to get in."
"I see the back door from here," Patience mentioned, then walked around to the front. "Alright, we're gonna try ramming a front door into this thing! Ya ready Link?"
"No," he said firmly. "There's probably something else that makes a front door appear." Otherwise, it'd be pretty stupid to have a guardhouse at all!
He noticed on the left side of the guardhouse there were three blocks, but one was not connected to the other two. If it worked in the cave...he thought and pushed the lone block next to the others. Patience, who had resorted to trying to cut a way into the guardhouse with her sword, fell into it as the front door appeared. Link heard her startled cry from the outside change into a delightful scream when he stepped in after her.
"Yay, my fire rod came back to me!" She started hugging it and danced around the room. Suddenly, she stopped. "Who should I test this out on?"
"Not me!" Link exclaimed hastily. "Go outside and play with it after you get the force gems."
"You're actually giving me permission to play with it?" Patience's eyes widened.
"Uh, well..."
"Awesome!" and she was gone. Link shook his head, then slightly jumped when he saw a good-sized flame go soaring past the back door. Looking around, he found a bow and arrows and took them for himself.Then he noticed a few treasure chests on the ground. Not daring to go outside while she was using her fire rod, Link called out to Patience instead.
"Hey, there are a couple of treasure chests in here! You want to--" Patience was there and opening a chest before Link finished the sentence. She squealed when she got a big green force gem, but just handed Link the blue bracelet.
"You can have that," she said disappointedly. "Ooo, switches!" She stepped on one of the switches and motioned for Link to do the same with the other one.
Instead, he crossed his arms across his chest. "What if a couple of guards show up because we pressed them?"
Patience mimicked the way he was standing and retorted, "And what if it drops the key to that locked door we passed?" About a second after they pressed the switches, she cried out, "FORCE GEM!" and ran out through the front door. Link followed and saw her pick up a big blue gem. He looked around and sighed.
"Guess there's nothing else here," he said. "Let's go back the other way and find your sisters."
"Okay!" Patience grinned and pulled her fire rod back out. She jumped when Link yelled at her.
"Don't you dare play with that thing near me!"
Krista: Well, there it is. I had fun making them separate into two groups! Please R&R! Bye!