Chapter Fifteen: Just the Beginning

A sigh escaped Hope's lips as she sat a bit uncomfortably on a fairly-rough boulder by the sea. The surf seemed gentle, though, glittering under the stars in the sky, and the sounds of the crashing waves soothed her. Her blue eyes turned to glance toward Faith and Patience both sleeping on the grassy beginnings of the woods nearby. The eldest sister gave a concerned sigh at seeing a frown on Faith's face, the middle sister's brows furrowed slightly from her dreams. Despite not saying a word, it was obvious that Faith had not been happy at the idea of traveling through the sea and coast to get to the Eastern Temple. However, Hope smiled as she saw Patience all curled up next to Faith, the cut she had gotten on her arm from the battle atop Hyrule Castle healing nicely, thanks to the Blue Maiden.

A flicker of light at the corner of her eye made Hope look toward the east and saw the Blue Maiden in the form of a fairy seemingly speaking fervently with Link. Since she could not make out what the two were saying, Hope turned her eyes back to the sea, figuring that it was about the next maiden stuck in the Eastern Temple.

Or maybe he's trying to explain that he had no idea why the legendary Four Sword made his so-called counterparts female...

A star shot down from the sky, its tail of light beaming through the darkness as it fell beyond the sea's horizon. Hope's mind buzzed with everything that had happened that day, from the time her sisters and she woke up in tunics to seeing the monster atop Hyrule Castle explode with the final slash of Link's sword to watching in awe as the captive Blue Maiden emerged from her crystal prison. Had this all happened in one day? Perhaps a night had passed while they were all in that stupid cave...

Soft jingles reached the young woman's ear, and Hope turned slightly to see the Blue Maiden fly off into the night. Link watched the fairy go, his sharp eyes eventually moving up to look at the tip of the Eastern Temple in the distance. Hope wondered for an instant why the Blue Maiden could not just teleport the four to the temple; if the fairy had been able to send them to the edge of the shore from the castle, why not the temple?

The thought of the fairy intentionally making the group trudge through more evil to get to the temple on their own flew out of Hope's mind as she looked at Link. He seemed to be troubled, and she had noticed that it had begun after Faith called the energy-throwing monster "Phantom Ganon." Hope had recalled the beast in the game, and wondered if she had the same questions as Link. Like him, she also did not know the whole answer behind this mystery; she had only gotten as far in the game as she got when playing with her sisters before they got transported to this world.

Vaati was the name of the demon that was supposed to be behind all the troubles Hyrule was seeing now. Why did he use a puppet of another villain to guard the first maiden?

"Hope?" Lost in her own thoughts, the eldest sister had failed to notice Link approach. "I'm surprised to see you still awake."

She gave him a tight smile. "I was just thinking about today," she said. "Where did the Blue Maiden go?"

"She wants to try to find the easiest route to the Eastern Temple for us," he responded, leaning against the boulder next to Hope. "She has a feeling, though, that there are going to be troubles between here and the temple, and would like us to help solve them."

Hope just nodded to the explanation, and her eyes wandered back to her sisters. Patience twitched, muttered something about the "Evil Balloon-Boy," and shifted closer to Faith. The older girl stayed still as stone as her sister huddled against her, excluding the small flutter of her eyelids. Hope idly wondered if Faith was still awake.

A chuckle from beside her caused Hope to turn away from her sisters. She looked up and noticed that Link was actually watching Faith and Patience as well.

"They're exhausted, aren't they?" he asked needlessly. "Patience just conked right out as soon as she laid down." Hope just gave a small smile to Link's comment before she felt him nudge her arm.

"You must be tired as well," he said. "Why don't you go to sleep?"

The young woman didn't argue and hopped off of the boulder to go join her sisters. However, she realized that Link wasn't following and turned back around to him.

"What about you?" she asked. "Aren't you going to sleep?"

The young man nodded. "I will," he said. "I'm just going to keep watch for a while longer."

"Don't stay up too late." The three girls were not the only ones who were tired, Hope noticed. Dark circles were starting to form under the young man's eyes. A realization just struck Hope: this was just the beginning of the adventure.

"I won't, Mother." Link grinned at Hope, a twinkle in his eye. She playfully stuck her tongue out at him as she began to settle down on the ground on the other side of Patience. "G'night, Hope."

She smiled. "Good night, Link."

Krista: I know there's not much humor in this chapter, but I wanted to do something to develop the characters a bit more. I was thinking of doing a "break" chapter in between the main levels of the game. Who knows, though; I may just skip it once or twice. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed these chapters, and, again, review at your leisure. I'd love to hear questions, critique on my writing, ideas, anything you guys have in mind.