Chapter Twenty: Village of the Blue Maiden: Part Three

Link almost burst out laughing at the sight of Patience holding her own against Shadow Link while Hope looked about ready to sink to her knees in relief that her youngest sister was fine.

"You want a fight?" Patience was taunting the dark-clad man, apparently enjoying every minute of it. She waved her fire rod threateningly at Shadow Link, a small ember bursting from it to burn down the last of the grass in the area that hadn't turned to ash yet. "Come on, I'm ready!"

Shadow Link's eyes narrowed in a glare at the youngest sister as he sidestepped to avoid the flames. "Just wait," he said, almost hissing like a snake as he threw a Force Gem at Patience. She was immediately distracted and ran to grab it, cuing Link and Hope to go by her side with their swords out.

However, Shadow Link wasn't interested in playing any dirty tricks at the moment. With a cold smirk, he disappeared into the Dark World once more.

"Let's go catch up to Faith," Hope said, and she turned around to head off in the direction that red-clad sister.

"There's no need--HEY!"

"Thank God you're okay!" Faith blinked and looked questioningly at Patience and Link as Hope hugged her.

"Well, yeah," Faith said, pulling away. "Your reaction is confirming that I missed something, like I thought."

"A hunch?" Link asked, his tone almost casual.

Faith gave him a crooked smile and shook her head. "Actually, no, not really. I had found one of the members of the Seeker's Guild -- surprise, surprise, he was dressed in red -- and a Moon Pearl from this creepy mage guy." She tapped the orb that was wrapped in a makeshift pouch that was attached to the side of her belt.

"The mage just gave you it?" Patience asked. When Faith nodded, the youngest rolled her eyes. "It's a giant gem! I certainly wouldn't have just given it away!"

"Well, the mage did thank us for freeing Vaati," Faith said dryly. Continuing on, she said, "Anyway, I wandered around toward the northeast section of the village and spotted another member of the Seeker's Guild, so I thought I would find Hope around somewhere. But there was a lot of people because there seemed to be a commotion, and I caught a glimpse of you two," she pointed at Link and Hope, "running down this way. I had to fight through the crowd to catch up."

"You didn't miss much," Patience said with a nonchalant shrug. "Shadow Link just attacked me, but I fended him off with my fire rod."

Faith's expression turned horrified, her eyes wide. "He what…?"

"He came after me first," Hope said, with a glance and smile at Link. "Link showed up and helped me just in time."

"Y-you two are okay, though?" Faith asked, glancing back and forth between her sisters.

"Yeah, we're fine," Patience responded, her head tilted to the side slightly like a confused puppy at Faith's stuttering.

The middle sister sighed, and muttered, "I'm sorry…"

"For what?" Hope asked, her voice gentle as she put her arms around Faith's shoulders. "It's not your fault Shadow Link showed up."

"I should have known…" Link frowned as his ears caught Faith's words.

"How?" he asked, ignoring the questions about her so-called hunches eating away at his mind. "There is no way that you could have known. Don't blame yourself."

Faith shook her head after seeming a bit startled at Link's words, and murmured once more, "I still should have known…"

"Well, you didn't, and that's okay," Hope said briskly after an awkward silence had begun to creep over the quartet. "Let's move on. Did the Seeker's Guild member that you found have any clues?"

Link was actually pleased to see Faith roll her eyes at the question; at least her sarcastic self seemed to be back.

"Beautiful," Faith said.

"It is, isn't it?" Patience grinned, her eyes apparently back on her Fire Rod.

"Not that, you dork," Faith said with a huff. "I meant 'beautiful,' as in that was the idiotic clue that the Seeker's Guild member told me. He ranted about how he thought it was part of some mage's spell or something."

Hope chuckled. "I thought mine was bad," she said. "All I got was 'protect.'"

"I got 'the six,'" Link added dryly.

Patience frowned. "Why did you three get easy ones to remember?" she asked. "I got something about being tied to the town…!"

"What is tied to the town?" Hope asked.

"And which town?" Link added. "This one?"

"I guess so." Patience just shrugged. "The Seeker's Guild dude just said that it, whatever 'it' is, was tied to this town…"

Link blinked, then shrugged himself. "Well, I suppose we should go back to the guild leader and tell him these clues…"

"Hey, before we go, there was a bomb bag in one of the doors over there," Patience spoke up, pointing to an orange-roofed building with four entrances. "Just in case anyone wants it…"

Hope chose to take the bomb bag, and the group set off to return to the northwest part of the village. The quartet had been given a wide berth as they walked back toward the Seeker's Guild hideout; apparently the tale of the shadow person had spread quickly throughout the village. In fact, those citizens who were still waiting in line for the Seeker's Guild turned away from the quartet, allowing the four an easy entrance into the secret door.

"Most perplexing," the guild leader mused, pacing back and forth in front of the quartet. The four had taken seats at the table where a small lunch had been spread. Link and Hope watched the leader, a bit anxious and annoyed at his pacing, while Patience snuck some food off the table. Faith just looked bored.

"What is?" the middle sister snapped. "It's like a fill-in-the-blank. Protect the six beautiful what that are tied to this village?"

The leader glared at her. "I suppose you four have ideas as to the answer?"

"What is your village called?" Faith asked back.

"Village of the Blue Maid--" Realization dawned on the leader's face.

"Bingo," Faith muttered sarcastically under her breath. She ignored Hope's stern look that had been meant to reprimand the middle sister.

"The maidens, of course!" The guild leader's fingers snapped. "It's so simple!" He turned to the four. "Your powers of deduction are truly magnificent! We'll continue to use your findings in our investigation.

"And, as thanks, I'd like to give you something." The leader walked over to one of his cupboards and, before the other three could blink, Patience was by the leader's side.

"I can take it," she said eagerly. She blinked and backed up to the rest of the quartet, however, when she saw what it was. "On second thought, since I'm already holding my Fire Rod, you can give that to Link."

"A shovel…" The young man glared at Patience, whom pretended to not notice his stare, as the four wandered back toward the central area of the village. "What made you think that I wanted to carry this thing?"

"Suck it up and be a man, will ya?" Faith said, a crooked grin playing on her lips. "You really would make one of us ladies lug that thing around? I already have the Moon Pearl, Hope has her bombs… You already look ridiculous enough with three women wearing similar clothes as yours following you. Why not add a shovel in for good measure?"

"I'm sure you'll be able to ditch it somewhere," Hope said.

"Ha!" Patience glanced at the three from a few paces ahead of them, beaming an amused grin. "Did you intend to say that pun?"

Hope rolled her eyes once she understood what she had said. "No, I didn't," she said with an embarrassed shake of her head. "Anyway, as I was saying, the guild leader mentioned the house of pots in the southeastern village, right? There must be something worthwhile hidden around there somewhere."

With a sigh, Link followed the girls down toward the southeast part of the village, and the quartet quickly found the house of pots. Not so quickly did Link dig up a pathway, muttering and growling to himself so much that not even Patience dared to bother him while he was holding the heavy shovel. However, she did laugh when Link almost fell through a pit that he uncovered.

"Are you alright?" Hope asked down the hole after the young man had disappeared.

"Yeah, yeah…!" came the irritated reply after some grumbling about 'stupid shovels.' "You three going to come join me?"

The three girls followed at Link's generous invitation, using the ladder to help them. The quartet quickly got through the short underground area without much difficulty, emerging back into the sunlight in the opposite side of the area behind some hedges. Due to Patience's sudden giggling, Faith allowed her Moon Pearl to dissipate and reveal another portal to the Dark World, which the quartet took immediately.

"Hey, you found this secret world too?" a young girl greeted the four as soon as they appeared in the Dark World. "You'll like it here! It's so much fun with no grown-ups telling us what to do."

"You really don't want to go back home?" Hope asked, disbelief evident in her tone.

"Maybe their parents aren't as nice as ours," Faith mumbled. Hope shot her a withering look, but the young girl apparently hadn't heard the middle sister's words.

"Well," the child said hesitantly, "there is one girl who keeps crying. She's in the orange-roofed house over there. Maybe you can figure out what's wrong with her."

Taking the girl's advice (and partly for lack of anything better to do), Link led the way to the particular house, noting the four entrances that all led to the same room and big, animated green Force Gems, which Patience hunted down enthusiastically and successfully powered up their swords. The young man looked around and eventually spotted a red-haired girl crying softly on the other side of a tall table, a door in the side of the wall taunting the quartet to come and find the entrance.

"Patience, want to play with your Fire Rod?" Faith asked needlessly, going back outside. Her younger sister followed with a bounce in her step, and Link and Hope heard her maniacal laughter before they had fully caught up. As soon as Patience finished burning the small stumps that had been in the way, Faith crept up the alley in between the orange-roofed house and its next door neighbor until she found the door that led the four to the red-head.

"Hey," Hope said softly to the girl, startling the red-head enough to pause in her weeping. The eldest sister smiled gently. "What's wrong? We can help."

With a sniffle, the red-head answered, "My… boyfriend and I had a fight."

"Dump him."

"Faith!"

Link blinked at Faith's devilish grin that she wore in response to Patience's reprimand. He wasn't surprised at Faith's reaction, but her younger sister's; it was a bit odd hearing Patience be the one to scold instead of Hope--

"She's can't dump him if he's hot," Patience said with a scoff. Faith rolled her eyes, while Link couldn't help but be a bit amused.

He turned back to the red-head and said, "Ignore those two. Please continue."

"It was my fault for being so stubborn," the girl said, defending her boyfriend. "A-and now… I don't know if I'll ever see him again!" She immediately burst out into tears once more.

"Hey, cut the waterworks!" Faith said. "Look, us four are going to travel back to our world… There anything you want us to give to this guy of yours?"

The red-head quieted, thoughtful for a moment, before frantically searching through her pockets and producing a slightly-wrinkled letter. "Please, take this to him!"

"Don't worry," Hope said soothingly, taking the letter and folding it carefully into her own pocket, "you'll see him again. We promise."

"Why can't we just bring her with us?" Patience asked as the four exited the house. Hope and Link glanced at each other, wondering why they didn't think of it.

"I don't think the portals will allow them to," Faith said, yet her voice was slightly uncertain. "We're the ones with the magic swords… I thought only we would be able to go back and forth through the portals…" She shrugged, apparently allowing the thought to fly from her mind. Patience, however, took that as an acceptable answer and was the first to return to the Light World after waving to the girl who had initially greeted the four.

Once the quartet were back in the Light World, they went to a small clearing south of the portal before going through the underground to get back on the other side of the hedges. In that small clearing, they uncovered some switches and were rewarded with another Moon Pearl when the switches were pressed.

"How can these things keep falling from the sky?" Patience asked as Faith put the pearl in her makeshift pouch. "I mean, who's up there tossing down Force Gems and shiny pearls? Is it a sport to them? 'Let's see how many people I can bonk on the head today!'"

"Are you really complaining?" Faith asked with amusement as they descended back into the underground.

"Well…" Patience trailed off, keeping her mind on climbing ladders before fully responding as the group re-emerged into the sunlight. "I guess not… Only when whoever it is tosses down monsters! Link!"

"Hm?" The young man glanced back at Patience and Faith, amusement at their conversation evident in his blue eyes, from walking a few steps ahead with Hope.

"This is your world," Patience said accusingly. "Explain this to me."

Link blinked before sending Hope a mock-glare for her chuckle at him suddenly being dragged into the conversation. "Maybe these are a few effects of having the Four Swords…?"

"So, the Four Sword is helping us…?" Faith asked to clarify, mirth also evident in her tone.

"That doesn't explain the monsters," Patience said.

"The monsters are to help us get stronger," Hope responded confidently. Link gave her a grateful look for answering, seeing as Patience lapsed into another thoughtful silence at the reply.

It didn't last too long.

"What the heck does the boyfriend look like?" she suddenly piped up as the group got to the middle part of the village.

"I think it was the guy who was missing his house," Faith said, looking around. Patience stared at her with a delicately raised eyebrow.

"…Her boyfriend is a guy who lost his house?" She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, he's a keeper…!"

"It was probably due to the same thing that made the kids disappear," Link said.

"Oh, so the kids disappear along with one random house?"

"I don't know," Link said exasperatedly, shaking his head. Before Patience could respond, he spotted a forlorn young man standing around an empty lot. "He looks like he fit's the description."

"What a mess," the man was muttering to himself as the quartet caught up to him. "My girlfriend gone, my house vanished…"

"We have a letter from your girlfriend," Faith interrupted, effectively startling the boy. It only took him a moment to take the sight of the four in before taking the letter from Hope with a nod of thanks. He scanned it quickly, sighing in relief as he finished reading the letter.

"Thank the Goddesses that she's okay," he murmured to himself. Looking up at Link and the sisters, he said, "She was taken by a dark force after being attacked by a tornado… That sounds crazy…" He glanced around at the lack of children, at the strange mage that walked by before shaking his head. "You four got this letter from her, right? Can you rescue her? Please, help us!"

"What if we said no?" Faith asked. She smirked as she almost dodged Hope's elbow from ramming her ribs and looked back at the boy. "Of course we'll help, I was just asking…! You wouldn't happen to have anything that could help us with this rescue, would you?"

Hope opened her mouth to reprimand Faith ("We're not mercenaries who fight for money!") but the young man was already fishing through his pockets and soon produced a bright blue and yellow feather.

"Here, this is all I have," he said. "My sweetheart gave it to me for good luck. You'll feel like a bird as you jump around as light as a… well, a feather."

Faith took the feather, handling it with care. "Thank you," she said genuinely, her fingers gently caressing the soft hairs. "I know it will come in handy."

"Seeing as your hunches are always right, I know it will too," Link said dryly. Nodding to the other man, he thanked him as the quartet moved on. Faith didn't reply to Link as she seemingly tried to figure out where to put the feather before settling on sticking it in her hair behind her ear. "So, do your hunches tell us where to go now?"

"Give me a minute," the middle sister mumbled, glancing around the area while avoiding Link's eyes. "Let's try the long house over there." Link just shrugged as Faith began to lead the way to the blue-roofed house.

"I was in there before," Hope said conversationally. "There's a giant chasm in the middle of the floor."

"Great architects they got in Hyrule, eh?" Patience said as the quartet entered, peering down into the chasm before Hope yanked her backwards by her tunic. A high table was to their left, bordering the gap on one side while the wall bordered the gap's right. Across the chasm was a pile of large wine barrels, effectively blocking the back part of the house where a solitary mage could be seen flipping through a book with an irritated air as the pages ruffled and whistled violently in the air by the fingers shoving them by.

Link blinked as a sudden breeze tugged gently on his hat, and he let a crooked smile appear on his face as he saw Faith's delighted expression as she leaped -- flew -- across the chasm due to the mysterious powers of the feather.

"I wanna try!"

"Tough," Faith said to Patience. "I don't want to try tossing the feather back over to you; it may fall into the gap."

"Are you trying to go see that mage?" Hope asked, glancing over to said mage, whom apparently was too absorbed grumbling at his book to notice the four yet. After Faith nodded confirmation, the eldest asked, "Do you think you can jump over those barrels?"

The middle sister hesitated, staring at the imposing pile for a few moments in silence. "No," Faith eventually answered as her head turned toward the table. "But I can jump over this!"

With a hop, she did as she promised and jumped over the high table (cuing Patience to ask why she didn't just do that in the first place) before wandering casually toward the back to apparently talk to the mage. Link shifted in his spot as he waited with the other two sisters.

"So," he said as casually as he could manage, "has Faith always been good at thinking of solutions?"

"What do you mean?" Hope looked at him quizzically.

"He's talking about her 'hunches,'" Patience said, complete with air quotes hovering around the word.

"Oh," Hope muttered, then looked back up at Link with an amused twinkle in her blue eyes. "Are you complaining that she often has an idea of what to do next?"

"No," Link said in a carefully neutral tone. "…More like suspicious."

"You don't trust us?"

Link had to look away from Patience's wide, imploring 'puppy-dog' eyes as she asked that. "As much as I can trust you," he said honestly. "I mean… If you were in my shoes--"

"My toes would have a lot of wiggle room."

The young man mock-glared at Patience, but carried on as if she didn't interrupt. "If you were in the same situation as I was when pulling out the Four Sword and three strangers suddenly appeared like you three did… Well, would you trust those strangers right away?"

"I highly doubt that I would ever be in the same situation as you are now," Hope said with a weak smile, "but I can understand what you're saying…

"You'll have to learn to trust us fully soon, though," the eldest added, a wise air around her. "I don't think we'll be able to save your world without trust…"

"As for Faith's hunches," Patience said, glancing up at Hope, "it's a long story."

"One that Faith would be the best teller for, I think," Hope said. "I wouldn't know where to begin it…" Link just nodded slowly, doing his best to understand these sisters as his eyes caught sight of Faith coming back over the high table.

"Would any of you object to me learning magic from this?" the middle sister asked deviously, waving a somewhat battered book.

"Yes," Hope said. "You have a sword; isn't that enough? Are we supposed to do something else with the book?"

"Deliver it to the mage-in-training."

"First we were heroes, then secret agents," Patience said as the four exited the blue-roofed house. "Now we're, like, mail carriers! What gives?!"

"Any idea where this mage-in-training is?" Link asked the sisters, making sure he was directing the question at all three of them as opposed to just Faith and her hunches.

"Well, we still have a Moon Gem!" Before anyone could correct her, Patience took Hope's hand and started walking in a random direction. "Time to find another tickling spot!"

Eventually, the pair did start giggling, and Faith released the Moon Pearl to create another portal snuggled in between the long house and another house that were in the central area. Emerging into the Dark World, the four almost immediately spotted a young girl in mage-like robes. As they walked closer to her, they were bewildered and amused at seeing a miniature house with wings fluttering around her head.

"I think someone's looking for that," Patience said to the young mage, pointing to the flying house.

The girl's head snapped to them, her eyes wide. "…You mean this is someone's house?! Oh, snap! I thought I just conjured it up out of nowhere!"

"And we have your book as well," Faith said, handing the tome over to the girl. "Your teacher wasn't very happy about you losing it…"

The girl rolled her eyes as she took the book back gratefully. "That old grump is never happy, but thanks for returning it to me!" Flipping through the pages, the mage seemed to find what she was looking for and spoke a few words in an unrecognizable language. Once her chant was over, the mini house disappeared with a POOF!

"There we go!" the girl said proudly. "I'm pretty sure that the house is in its rightful place now. Thanks again for bringing me my book!"

"That was probably the quickest time we ever spent in the Dark World," Link said as the quartet returned to the Light World.

"It was kind of nice," Hope mused. "I had hoped that being in this village would be relaxing, but…"

"It was far from relaxing," Faith finished for her. Link silently agreed as he led the way toward the house in the central area that had been returned (at full size, too).

"Let's just make sure that everything is all right in here," the young man said as he knocked on the door.

"A.k.a., let's see if they reward us!" Patience giggled while Hope tried to shush her before the house's owners opened the door.

The quartet were surprised, but pleased, at seeing the girlfriend somehow make it back to the Light World as well to be with her boyfriend. The pair seemed to have made up, resolving to never fight again, and thanked the four profoundly with a fulfilling, early supper. As the four heroes talked with the couple, the boyfriend actually mentioned how their house had an underground segment that led out of the village. Link asked if the four could use it, and was graciously accepted his request.

"That food was really good," Patience said wistfully as she waited for one of Hope's bombs to clear a path for Link, Hope, and herself. Faith, with her special feather, had opted to take a lower route, jumping over small gaps to meet the other three on the other side.

"It was," Link agreed with the same tone over an explosion. With a cheeky grin, he added, "And they did invite us back…"

"And we certainly can't deny their hospitality, can we?" Patience grinned at the young man.

"Of course not," Link said. "It'd be terribly rude of us."

Faith was a bit confused at Hope's chuckling when the other three caught up with her, but she didn't ask; instead, she was just content with knowing that everyone was in better spirits after a good meal, even her own. However, her spirit was soon squashed into a fit of rage when the four emerged back above ground and spotted a dark figure on the outskirts of town.

Before Shadow Link could even taunt the quartet, Faith brandished her sword and entered a fencing match with the enemy, startling him and the other three heroes.

"Missed me that much, eh?" Shadow Link asked cheekily as he parried her attacks. The pair whirled around the area as if doing a special, deadly dance, not allowing either of the other three to join in.

"You attacked my sisters." Faith's whispered words were dripping with venom.

"That's my job, Hon." Shadow Link skillfully dodged her oncoming blow with a wink. He snapped, allowing a few copies of himself to emerge from the shadows to attack the other three. "If you were around, I would have gone straight for you…"

Faith growled, vaguely hearing the sounds of swords clashing (and, out of the corner of her eye, seeing flames eat the grass while chasing a copy of Shadow Link), and jumped over Shadow Link in order to try to do a downward thrust with her sword on his head. He had just barely dodged, but Faith's efforts to puncture his skull was enough to make his copies disappear while his wispy form swirled until he had transformed his tunic into a duplicate of Patience's.

Patience's jaw dropped and she groaned at having to be the one to defeat Shadow Link by herself, but at his taunting gesture, she darted at him with her Fire Rod in one hand and sword in the other. When Shadow Link kept dodging her flames and parrying her sword attacks, the other three stepped into the fight; perhaps they couldn't physically hurt Shadow Link because of his odd magic, but they were certainly able to corral him and block off any other attempts to dodge Patience's attacks.

"Enough!" The big green Force Gem that Shadow Link tossed away from him was enough to make Patience eagerly forget about him. "You know I'll be back…"

The four watched silently as Shadow Link swirled back into the Dark World and run away. A low rumble of thunder sounded in the distance to first break the quiet until cheers could be heard from the village. Glancing behind them, the four caught sight of adults gleefully hugging the children that were reappearing one by one.

"I'm glad they have a happy ending," Hope said, unable to keep a smile off of her face. Patience laughed as she pointed out a few children that didn't look too happy to be squeezed by their parents.

"Faith…?" The middle sister blinked as she turned to Link. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, granting him a crooked smile. "I'm fine. Shadow Link's all talk… Just trying to distract us…"

Link just nodded, unable to have time to respond to her words, for the Blue Maiden in her fairy form flew down to greet the four. "Glad to see that you're alright," he greeted.

"The feeling is mutual," the fairy said, bobbing her head in a nod-like movement. "If you four are up for the task now, I have found the entrance to the Eastern Temple where one of my Sisters is being held."

"We're ready," Link said confidently, his partners waiting for the Blue Maiden to lead the way to the barrier of darkness and to the next Maiden's prison.

Krista: Thank you for reading! Please drop me a review to let me know how I'm doing.