Krista: Here are the next couple of chapters containing the fourth level of the game, "The Coast." Thank you to Evanescent Radiance, Epson, S-C-R-U-Bunnies, Neko-Mitsuko, and Miorochi for the positive reviews for my last four chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter Sixteen: The Coast: Part One

Faith muttered curses under her breath as she scanned their surroundings with the help of the sun, ignoring Hope's disapproving glances for what fell out of Faith's mouth. Hope went to high school too; she should know where Faith had picked up the interesting words.

Of course it had to be a beach. The wind gently waved off of the water's surface as the sea curled in and out upon the sand in the small distance. Oh, Faith was looking forward to this part of the adventure, that's for sure. In fact, she was looking forward to it so much that she wanted to thank the Blue Maiden for bringing them here by drowning her.

Faith sighed, chiding herself for the morbid thought as she shifted slightly atop a boulder in a vain attempt to get more comfortable. After all, there must be some reason why the stupid fairy didn't bring the whole group straight to the Eastern Temple after Hyrule Castle. The young teenager tried to remember this particular part of the game to recall some important aspect of it, but she couldn't quite put her finger on anything specific. In fact, Faith hardly believed that the coast had anything to offer them.

With another discontent sigh, she figured that having pointless parts in the adventure was part of being a hero.

Speaking of hero... Faith glanced back with slightly-furrowed brows at Link, with Patience not too far away, still sleeping among the taller grasses.

"Can we wake them up yet?" she asked Hope. "We're wasting daylight."

"No," Hope said more quietly than Faith had spoken, her tone indicating that this had not been the first time Faith had asked that question. "They're both exhausted. Let them sleep."

The eldest sister watched Faith groan slightly and bury her head in her knees. Hope knew that Faith was doing her best to remain patient. However, Faith never had much luck when it came to that particular trait. Instead, Faith had always been an early-riser, ready to tackle anything in the day, and was usually the first one to start yawning whenever dusk started coming. The wait must be bothering the heck out of her.

Seeing all the water that the group would most likely have to swim through probably wasn't helping, either.

Hope returned to keeping a look-out, both for monsters, potential friends, and the Blue Maiden as Faith returned to glaring at the sea a bit ahead of them. Hope was actually worried about the Maiden, as she believed that the fairy hadn't been around since last night. Hope wished that the Blue Maiden hadn't gotten into trouble again...

She heard a rustle in the woods beyond Link and Patience behind her, and she turned at the same time as Faith hopped off the boulder with her hand on her sword's hilt. The two waited as the rustling grew louder, and Hope's heart jumped at noticing Faith ready to leap in front of Link and Patience to attack whatever the thing was. The eldest went shoulder-to-shoulder with her younger sister and the two glanced at each other as if to say, I'm ready.

An 'Oof!' was heard, and from the woods tripped a man dressed in green with a backpack on. Hope stared as Faith's jaw dropped. It couldn't be...

"Ah, hello again!" Tingle said cheerfully. He then began to ramble about how nice it was to see them and how much luck he had collecting Force Gems. Hope grabbed Faith's arm from pulling out her sword; she was worried that her younger sister would behead the annoying man.

Because of all the noise, Patience stirred and sleepily sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Hi, Hope, Faith, Tingle," she said groggily with an unsteady smile. She suddenly frowned. "I had a really bad dream. It was--" Her eyes suddenly focused on Tingle and she leapt up, running behind Faith in a panic. "AHH, IT WASN'T A DREAM!"

That shout caused Link to finally wake up. His reaction to seeing Tingle in front of them was a mixture of all the girls'. He jumped to his feet in a startle, his hand instinctively reaching for his sword, but his eyes looked to the girls' faces only to find that the same question was etched on every visage.

Tingle had, fortunately for him, continued to speak animatedly and had missed everything that the group in front of him had just said and done. "...Be sure to read any of the 'Tingle Times' if you happen to see them! Oh, my, look at the time. I must be off, collecting more Gems! Don't follow me!"

Like before, he said his strange words "Kooloo-Limpah!" and a balloon emerged from his pack, enabling him to float away. Patience stared after him, horrified.

"B-but I...and he...He fell...A-and there was a waterfall...That must be it!" The other three were snapped out of their disbelieving trances at Patience snapping her fingers. Accusingly, she pointed in the direction that Tingle floated off. "That must be the ghost of Tingle, coming back to haunt us!"

Hope rolled her eyes at her youngest sister's explanation. "He looked solid enough," she said. "That pack of his is probably full of balloons waiting to inflate.

"Besides," she added uncertainly, "did you really want to kill him and have that guilt on your conscience?"

Patience raised an eyebrow, a smile playing on her lips. "Guilt?" she echoed. "What is this 'guilt' you speak of?"

Hope sighed while Faith snickered. Link just shook his head and motioned for the girls to follow him as he started down the coast. He swore that he heard Faith mutter, "Finally!"

"In all honesty, the guy scares me," Link admitted. "He's, what, thirty-something years old? And he dresses up to pretend he's a fairy so he can meet the real thing? And then he thinks I'm some sort of fairy and keeps staring at me...!"

"Maybe he has the hots for you," Patience said quite casually, slashing up dropped coconuts and scattered patches of grass for her own quest for Force Gems.

Link whipped out his own sword. "Never say that again!" Patience just laughed at his so-called threat, and whooped when she spotted a switch under a spot of grass. Pressing it, the group waited for something to happen.

"Maybe it was a dud," Hope said as Patience pouted. No sooner had the words left her mouth than a giant bomb fell from the sky, a countdown ticking away in the middle of it.

"RUN FOR IT!" Patience was going to dash farther down the beach, but Faith caught her collar.

"Into the cave behind the bomb!" the middle sister shouted. Patience didn't need to be told twice, with the rest following her. A massive explosion was heard outside the cave, rattling the walls and ceiling, scattering rocks and dirt around the place.

Hope leaned against the wall, her hand over her heart. "Well...that was fun," she said sarcastically.

"BOMBS!"

With Patience's outburst, the rest jumped, ready to take cover again. However, Patience was just waving to them from further inside the cave. "Hey, guys, there are enough bomb bags for each of us."

Link blinked, amazed at how enthusiastic she seemed just now, but followed Hope and Faith to claim one of the bags. He saw that Hope was eyeing the walls around them, and her eyes spotted a prominent crack in the northern wall. With a warning motion to the others, Hope lit a bomb's fuse near the crack and it exploded to reveal another room.

"Yay!" Patience dashed over to the two treasure chests in the room, followed closely by Faith, who took one of the chests, ignoring Patience's protests over her getting a Force Gem as well. Link glanced around the other end of the cave and saw another crack similar to the one Hope had seen before. Taking a chance, he lit one of his own bombs, and the revealed hole brought the four out into the clearing where the giant bomb had attacked them.

"I wonder where that bomb came from..." Hope idly said as the quartet made their way to the water's edge.

Faith scoffed. "The shadow guy is probably lurking around here...Doesn't he like giant bombs?"

"I have no idea," Link said. "I never took the time to find out the likes and dislikes of my evil twin."

Faith didn't retort to his sarcasm, for she was busy holding up her shield to reflect a projectile that a strange, water creature spit out at her. There was a small island in the middle of the water close to the attacking creature; she could easily kill it with her sword if she swam out to the island.

Too bad she wasn't going to do that.

Patience, on the other hand, didn't like getting assaulted by random shots that were from a monster's mouth. With a rare battle cry, the youngest jumped into the sea, almost losing her sword in the process. She quickly regained herself, however, and swam like an eager dolphin to the island, slashing the closest monster to make it disappear. Hope and Faith just glanced at each other, both of them surprised at Patience's action but willing to believe that it was her love for swimming that gave her the courage.

Suddenly, a sharp nut went zooming by their heads, killing another water monster, and they turned to find Link aiming another nut with a new slingshot at a second monster. To the older girls' questioning gazes, he jerked his head in a gesture behind him.

"I found it in there," he said, killing the last monster, and Hope and Faith noticed a cave just by the water's edge. "There's another one in there, too--"

"Put your shields up!" Patience, dripping wet, ran behind Hope as they complied with her message. Sand and a few rocks attacked their shields.

Faith glared down at Patience. "...What blew up?"

The youngest gave her a sheepish smile. "I accidentally lit a bomb as I tried to open a treasure chest..." Faith stared at her, unable to comprehend how her little sister did that. "But there's good news too!" Patience said. "The rest of them are really wet from swimming, so I can't make them randomly blow up anymore!"

Faith blinked at Patience's obvious pride behind that statement. "I vote that Patience gets the other slingshot," she said.

"I agree," Link said dryly, although a bit amused at these antics. Before he could blink, his slingshot was swiped out of his hands. With a sigh, he left the girls as Patience inspected her new 'toy' and grabbed the other slingshot from inside the aforementioned cave.

The quartet traveled further down the coast, the quiet being interrupted randomly by the banter between Faith and Patience whenever the latter splashed the former. Hope and Link made sure to stay behind the two to make sure they didn't kill one another and to otherwise pretend they didn't notice the flying water and empty threats. After a little while, the four spotted a red-roofed house with a fence blocking off the other side of the pathway.

"I see a back door," Hope reported. "It leads right to the path that we want to keep going."

"I'm sure they folks here won't mind if we just pass through," Link said, going up to knock on the door.

"Yeah..." Faith agreed wryly, "I'm sure they're used to strangers doing this." She glanced around the outside and added, "I'll be waiting out here," before going off around the house.

Link blinked at her departure, but shrugged to Hope as a thin, middle-aged man answered the door.

"Yes?" the man said, looking confused at the three.

And why shouldn't he? Link thought with amusement. Three random strangers dressed in the same manner except for colors just knocked on his door...We must seem pretty odd...

"Hello, sorry to bother you," Hope said with a gentle smile. "We were just curious if we could pass through your house to get to the other side of the path."

"We have to get by," Patience piped up from Link's other side. Beaming proudly, she said, "We're on an important mission to save the world!"

Thank the goddesses she's a cute kid... Link noticed the smile the older man had gained at Patience's words, and the teenager idly wondered if Patience did that on purpose or if she was just being herself. The gentleman looked as if he were about to comply with their request, if only to humor Patience's claim, but he quickly sobered up.

"I'm sorry, kids," he said, sounding sincere. "However..." He glanced behind him, and Link caught the sight of a rather large woman looking as if smoke was about to come out of her ears. "My wife refuses to budge...Another young man just asked to do the same, and...she rambled on about private property and now she won't move from the path."

Link blinked at the explanation. "Uhh...Oh-kay...Thanks anyway, sir..."

"That was strange," Hope murmured as the gentleman shut the door.

"Let's catch up to Faith," Patience said, dashing around the house. "I bet she knew the fat lady was there!"

Link nodded, having a funny feeling about that as well. How did Faith know that they wouldn't have been able to go through the house? She must have had an idea of what would have happened; otherwise, why didn't she join them to ask for permission?

Sure enough, the other three found a couple of cave entrances with Faith leaning against the fence posts beside the furthest one. She gave the others a crooked-smile. "Wouldn't let you through, huh?" she asked.

Link narrowed his eyes. "You knew that would happen," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "How...?"

Faith shrugged, but a twinkle in her eyes indicated otherwise. "Just a hunch..."

"You took the treasure!" Patience glared at Faith as the youngest returned from the first cave, effectively saving her older sister from Link's additional questions.

"Well, duh," Faith responded, following Link and Hope into the other cave. "I wasn't just going to leave it there. There was a possibility of the people letting you walk through their house, you know."

The cave didn't have much except a line of four pots resting against each side wall before a rather-large chasm.

"Has anyone ever wondered where all these random pots come from?" Patience said over the sound of the pots shattering with the groups' swords.

"Nope," Faith answered carelessly, inspecting the eight switches that the same number of pots revealed. She didn't notice Patience stick her tongue out at her behind her back. "I may be going off on a limb here, but I'm going to guess that one side will allow us to cross the chasm and the other...won't."

"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock." Hope glanced at the switches and added, "Or the four correct switches could all be random..."

"That's sixteen possibilities," Link said. "I suppose it could also only be one correct switch..."

Patience's brows furrowed as she stared at the other three. "Can't we just go with the easiest answer?" she asked pleadingly. "Why are you all thinking so much? It hurts my head..." She motioned to the others, ignoring their chuckles at her comments, to join her on one side to step on the switches in unison. The instant all four switches were pressed, a stone bridge materialized across the chasm.

"What about the other set?"

Hope glanced back at Patience as she was about to follow Link and Faith across the bridge. "It's probably just a decoy, or a trap. Enemies may show up."

"But it can't hurt to try, right?" Patience smiled, trying to appear cute.

The youngest had a feeling that it wouldn't have worked on Faith, for the older sister rolled her eyes. However, to Patience's surprise, Faith was the first one off the bridge to stand on a switch.

"It could hurt if enemies show up," was all she said as she awaited the others to join her on the switches.

"That's what you're here for," Patience responded quite cheerfully as the other two came and the four switches were pressed. Instead of enemies or any other kind of trap activating, though, a big green Force Gem fell from the heavens, allowing Patience to claim it.

Finally crossing the bridge, the quartet entered a forked area in the cave. Hope and Faith opened the three available pathways, and Link was able to get a few small blue Force Gems when he inspected the left pathway. He returned to the middle ground and went to the right pathway, knowing that Hope went that way alone as her sisters had gone north.

"Link, we need you over here!" Patience's voice greeted him over a low wall that separated the room. Faith gestured to three switches by her feet.

Link rolled his eyes in good-humor as he turned around to go the other way, and said sarcastically, "Of course the way I choose doesn't need me..."

Hope giggled at his tone as he emerged in the correct part of the room. With the switches all activated, a new bridge formed so Hope could join the rest of them and they were soon out of the cave.

"I think I'd rather be in the cave than see his face," Faith said the second the quartet stepped into the sunlight once more.

A devious grin appeared on Shadow Link's face as he looked at Faith. "You know you missed me."

"Like I miss my geometry class," Faith retorted in disgust. Link dashed at his dark counterpart, and Patience was ready with her sword when Shadow Link tried to avoid Link. After a small scuffle, a big green Force Gem was surrendered to the quartet and Shadow Link disappeared once again.

"He must have been the one who got the woman protective of her property," Hope murmured as she watched the dark mass run away.

Patience glanced at Faith. "...He has the same face as Link."

Her older sister raised an eyebrow. "Yeah...? What about it?"

"You said you'd rather be in the cave than see his face," Patience reminded her. "So...Wouldn't Link's face count?"

Faith blinked, wondering how her sister caught that, and noticed that a dryly-amused Link seemed to be waiting for a response as well. They should have known that all she would do was smile, roll her eyes, and say, "Let's continue on, shall we...?"