Sorry for another wait; this time, I had so much stuff to do I had to stop work on this chapter entirely until I finished some of my other tasks. And, sadly, the next chapter will probably take a while, too.
PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Day 1 – 6:35 PM
Heading for Ikana Graveyard
The quartet of Link, Tatl, Homura, and Miyako headed for their next destination. Link pulled his newly-upgraded 'Gilded Sword' out, admiring the way it reflected the twilight glow. Thanks to Tatl and Homura working together to cast a Haste spell encompassing the smithing brothers' workshop, the two-day upgrading process had been hurried along to a few hours' time, without the knowledge of those inside. The silver blade had a golden diamond-like pattern running up the blade on either side of the weapon, with a bit of golden alloy set into the hilt as well. It looked really fancy, and the bit of magical energy inherent in Goron Gold toughened the blade and slightly enhanced its magical-damage output and physical sharpness. …The 'Stone Mask' Link had acquired from that strange lone guard, thanks to the Lens of Truth, was a nice addition to his arsenal too, he supposed.
As they entered the graveyard, walking amongst the headstones was a man with a hunched-over shuffling posture and… less-than-ideal facial features.
"Hello!" he said. "I am Dampe, the gravekeeper who watches over this graveyard. My face is frightening, but I am not a bad person! All the graves here belong to the family members of the King of Ikana Castle, a place that lies beyond the mountains. Even nowadays, the ghosts come out at night. It is a frightening graveyard."
Curious, the kids moved deeper into the graveyard, as the Sun continued to set. Towards the back of the graveyard was a structure with a door in the side of it, a mass of magical flame overtop, and an archway that was blocked by a massive skeleton of some sort, an officer's hat of some kind perch atop the skull. Set into a flat gravestone beside the skeleton were the words 'Ye who would awaken me, battle me and I will extinguish the furious flame'. Link pulled out his enchanted ocarina and played the Sonata of Awakening, and the spell-song's magic flowed into the skeleton, which abruptly came to life, eyes glowing orange as it tore apart the stone arch over it as it stood up.
The huge skeleton began retreating up the path, and the group gave chase, only to be stopped by a wall of conjured fire that sprang up in their way, as a pair of human-sized versions of the big skeleton. Link fired an arrow at the giant one's leg, making him trip and stunning him, while Miyako's hammer and Homura's crossbow made short work of the little ones. The fire wall came down, and Link charged at the giant skeleton. The massive enemy tried to crush Link with a downward swing of its huge claws, only for the boy to roll to the side and then counter with a sword-slash to the wrists. Link then jumped onto and ran up the skeletal foe's stunned arms, and dealt a punishing combo to its ribcage, the last blow sending the creature hurtling backward into the pass' rock wall. As it slumped to the ground and Link approached with weapon drawn, the skeleton raised its hands forward in surrender.
"Wait!" it said. "It is my loss! Sheathe your weapon… Come with me, please."
The huge skeleton-beast walked back toward where he had been 'resting', ushering the kids to climb up onto the structure, so that they were at eye level with him.
"I commanded the army of Ikana Kingdom atop the hill" he said. "I am called Skull Keeta. Since being shamed by loss in a battle within my kingdom… I have waited here for one to come and awaken my soul. Young swordsman with an enchanted blade, who has awakened and deftly defeated me… I shall rely on you to fulfill my request. I ask you to take my soul, which resides in the fiercely burning flame, and convey my words to my men, who, even in death, remain loyal to me. Tell them the war has ended… Then I shall be able to drift quietly into sleep…"
He turned to look at the treasure chest surrounded by flames, and then back to Link, whom he saluted.
"May I take leave, sir?" he asked.
After a few seconds, Link returned the salute and nodded.
"Thank you…"
The Skull Keeta then collapsed into a pile of bones, his spirit passing on. Behind where he'd been, the flames surrounding the treasure chest went out. The trio hopped across the gap and opened the chest, pulling out a downsized version of the rather complex bone-themed hat that the Keeta had been wearing. Link put it on the turned to the girls.
"It looks silly" Homura said bluntly. "But it's also enchanted. Maybe the littler ones will think you're him and listen to you."
They jumped down and headed back into the graveyard. Within a minute, the Sun finished setting. Soon, the Skull Keeta's undead men began to crawl out from beneath the earth, skeletons wearing the tattered remains of old armor. The girls hid themselves as Link donned the Skull Captain's Hat, walking amongst the ghost soldiers as they guarded the area, heading for a trio marching in formation around a large gravestone. As Link approached, one of them turned to face him.
"Huh? Aah! Captain, sir!-! Excuse me, sir! Everyone, give the Captain your full attention!"
He and the other two Stalchildren saluted.
"We haven't seen you in some time, sir!" the Stalchild continued. "As per your orders, sir, we've been guarding these graves closely. We have all been expecting your next order, sir. What shall we do?"
"…Open it" Link commanded.
"Open it, sir? …Yes, sir! Alright, boys! Heave-ho!"
The three Stalchildren shoved the gravestone aside, revealing a hole that dropped into an underground chamber. They leapt in, and Link followed them. Underground, Link hopped across a few platforms and hurried through a doorway, and in the next room he was attacked by a pack of dark-magic-construct bats. As they all dive-bombed him, though, he unleashed a Spin Attack that sliced them all apart in one go. A chest appeared containing a sizable amount of rupees, but the doorway ahead remained barred. Noticing a trio of unlit torches, Link used Fire Arrows to light them, and the doorway was unbarred. As he entered the next room, he saw a large, bronze-armored status wielding a huge ax standing in the center of the room. As he drew close, the 'statue' woke up and attacked, and Link rolled back to avoid being vertically bisected by the ax-blade.
Mini-Boss – IRON KNUCKLE
Link charged forward, leaping over a swing of the axe and landing a few heavy blows on the Iron Knuckle's heavy armor, damaging it but not breaking through. The boy used his shield to block a kick that sent him skidding back, and then hopped to the side to dodge another axe blow, countering with a thrusting stab that hit a joint between the armor's plates. He slid behind the armored enemy and struck another joint, and the bulky armor came detached and fell to the floor. The Iron Knuckle swung its axe in a wide arc, and Link barely ducked under it in time. While the foe was still unbalanced from its heavy swing, Link got in close and unleashed a flurry of slashing blows on its now-unarmored torso, finishing with a stab through the heart. The Iron Knuckle roared out and then collapsed.
The curtain at the back of the room rose up, revealing a large tombstone with an inscription in it, shrouded in blue mist.
"Are you the one who freed my soul?" a voice asked.
A ghost appeared in front of the tombstone, wearing green robes, carrying a conductor's baton, and even the ethereal detail-blurring nature of his current spectral form couldn't hide the righteous red moustache he bore.
"I am the composer called Flat" he introduced himself. "I served the Ikana royal family. The songs connected to the royal family that remain here were all composed by my brother and I. Oh… Sharp, my dear brother… He sold his soul and was the one who sealed me in here… You who do not fear the dead, learn well the song that is inscribed behind me… And if you ever meet my brother, I'd like you to inform him… the thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears; the thunder that shakes the earth is my anger! This song… will cleanse his cursed, black soul…"
Link walked up to the tombstone, reading the note progression that he quickly recognized from his previous adventure. Pulling out his ocarina, he played the tune inscribed there, and the spell-song of the Song of Storms blew away the cursed mist surrounding him. With tune in mind, he left to return to the surface. He and the girls would return to the ranch for the night, and first thing tomorrow they would set out for their next major task.
-SCENE BREAK-
Day 2 – 08:45 Hours
Great Bay – Beach
The group walked along the sandy coast, occasionally pausing to quickly kill the little barnacle-like monsters that emerged and tried to impede their progress. The sea was murky and contaminated; Tatl claimed it was induced by dark magic, and that it was probably coming from the temple a little ways out to sea.
"Look at those seagulls" Homura pointed. "What is that they're circling?"
A flock of gulls were indeed circling over something bluish-white about 100 feet out. Tatl flew over to investigate, and after a few seconds she made a beeline back to the others.
"It's a Zora!" she exclaimed. "He's hurt bad! He needs help!"
Homura and Miyako ran over (Link watched as the bottoms of their feet glowed faintly with energy as they ran across the surface of the water) to the injured Zora, lifting him out and carrying him to the shore. A fish-skeleton guitar was slung across his back, and a dagger stained with blood was strapped to his waist. He had multiple deep stab wounds in his chest and back, and it seemed he had lost a great deal of blood. They laid him out on the dry sand.
"Is there a-anything we can do?" Miyako asked.
Homura shook her head. "Madoka and Sayaka are the ones with healing magic."
Link walked over to the Zora and knelt down. "Who are you?" he asked. "How did this happen to you?"
"My…" the young fish-man took a ragged gasp, straining to talk. "My name is Mikau… guitarist of the Zora band, the… Indigo-gos… We were supposed to… perform at the carnival soon… O-Our vocalist, Lulu… she and I are… close… She laid her eggs recently, but… the Gerudo Pirates egg-napped them. Lulu lost her voice because of… her despair over that, and I… w-went out to rescue our children. But… I failed. They defeated me, did… this to me… I can't go on… I couldn't save Lulu's children… I'm going to die… with that failure staining my spirit… Please… If you can, find some way… to save our eggs… and heal my soul…"
He coughed out blood, his body already beginning to shut down. Link somberly pulled out the Ocarina of Time and played the Song of Healing. Mikau's eyes went wide as the spell-song's music moved through him. Then, an expression of peace and understanding formed on his face as his body faded away into motes of light. In his place was a mask of his face, resting at Link's feet. Mikau's ghost appeared nearby.
"Please save our eggs…" he said. "I'm counting on you kids…"
As Mikau's ghost then faded away, Link looked at the mask for a few seconds before then putting it on. A flash of light enveloped him, and when it faded he had been transformed. He now looked almost exactly like Mikau, as a young-adult male Zora wearing a green cloth/skirt, with Link's usual boots & gloves, and a green head-tail, along with two large, sharp, green & yellow fins sticking out of his forearms. He moved around a little, getting used to his new body. Before long, he discovered the ability to detach and launch his forearm-finds as magically-guided, bladed boomerang-like weapons, as well as the power to conjure a rotating barrier of electrical magic around his body. And of course, as the Zora were powerful swimmers and amphibious, he would be able to swim with great speed without worrying about oxygen while in this form.
"The Gerudo Pirates' base is to the north, I think" Tatl said. "Let's get moving."
-SCENE BREAK-
Day 2 – 09:10 Hours
Gerudo Lagoon
Perched atop the cliffs, the trio (and Tatl) looked down at what was in store for them. Three boats circled the lagoon's outer edge, each manned by a Geduro Pirate. There were no immediately-visible entrances to the fortress above the water, but under the water to the north a gate was visible, and on the western edge of the area on a small patch of ground above the water there was a heavy switch. They made their way along the cliff-top until they were right over the switch, and waited until there was a gap in the guards' patrols. Homura froze time, grabbed Link and chakra-ran down the wall to the switch. She quickly unfroze time, allowing Link to take his Goron form and pound the switch, removing the bars that blocked the underwater entrance, and then return to his normal form; she picked him back up, refroze time, and moved back up to rejoin Miyako. The trio lay on their bellies at the edge of the drop, heads poking out to look out over the area.
"Well that's okay and all," Miyako said, "b-but how are we gonna get in there? I mean, Link c-can breathe underwater and move fast with his Zora form, but what about me and H- Homura-san?"
"Maybe I could… use a time-based spell to make air bubbles around our heads?" Homura suggested, her tone making it clear she was grasping at straws.
"Maybe I could help."
The new voice made the three others jump in surprise, as they turned to see the new addition who had snuck in and was now laying next to Miyako without them having noticed his arrival. He had spiky brown hair and a predominantly-black and -red outfit.
"Yo" the boy said.
"S-Sora" Miyako breathed out, hand to her heart. "You scared the heck out of us."
"Sorry" the Kingdom Key's chosen wielder said sheepishly. "I got here a little while ago, and the lady at the ranch explained everything to me, so here I am. What's going on right now? What do we need to get to that's inside this pirate fortress?"
"There's a race of amphibious people called the Zora who live on this world" Homura replied. "These pirates have kidnapped some of their eggs. We found this out from a father-to-be of the eggs who tried to get them back but the pirates mortally wounded him; he gave Link the ability to take Zora form, and then died. The lone unlocked entrance to the fortress is underwater, so I suppose that means that Link & Tatl are going in without us…"
"I could go with them" Sora replied. "I have a water-optimized transformation, a mer-boy. I used it all the time back in the world of Atlantica; I recently learned how to tap into it at will rather than Donald's enchantment triggering it automatically. Link & I will use our water forms to get in there, and if we find any above-water entrances for you girls we'll unlock 'em for you."
"…Very well. Be careful, and try to stay hidden for as long as possible; if they find out you're in there, they'll raise the alarm, and getting in and out will become far more difficult."
-Break-
Link and Sora emerged from the water, carefully making their way past spike-covered mines as they crawled up onto the platform, returning to their normal forms. They headed upstairs, shoving a few barrels out of the way, and Sora used a Strike Raid to hit a switch across the way, opening a gate in the water below and revealing the next path. The two boys leapt into the water, assuming their aquatic forms, and swam on. They sped through the next channel, slipping past mines and a vortex, and reached a ladder at the end, shifting their normal forms and climbing up. In the next little room, they hit a switch to create a water geyser which they rode up into the next room. They climbed up a ladder to reach a telescope, looking out on the courtyard below that was crawling with guards. Turning around, Link used a few arrows to take out a pair of spiked mines hanging from the ceiling, and then another to hit a switch that unlocked a door below. The duo jumped down and headed through.
They came out onto a catwalk that circled around over the lagoon; thankfully, none of the guards in the boats below looked up. As they followed along the catwalk, Homura and Miyako leapt down to join them, and they passed through the next doorway. Tatl cast a guidance spell, which pointed to a doorway high up in the courtyard, across the narrow wooden bridge that was being patrolled by a pirate guard. Link put on his Stone Mask and made his way for the central ladder, invisible to the Gerudo patrolling around him, while Sora, Miyako, and Homura made their way up the walls and around the area. As they neared the target door, Sora cast a Sleepra spell on the bridge-patrolling pirate, and Link hopped over her dozing form as he & the others regrouped at and went through the door.
Inside, they came upon a small barred window overlooking a room below, where a Gerudo Pirate was speaking to another one who was seated on a 'throne' (a red sofa).
"Did you find the rest of the eggs?" the pirate leader asked.
"…N-No" the underling replied. "B-But… that's beca-"
"What are you trying to pull here?-! If people here we lost the treasure we stole, we'll be a laughingstock!"
"Yes, b-but Mistress Aveil… The sea is strangely murky where we were attacked by the serpents…"
"Silence! That's why the Zoras can't send for any help! Now that the eggs are gone, the Zoras should be frantically searching for them. If we don't hurry, the Zoras will get to them before we do! We have four eggs here now. Now go find the other three before those sea serpents eat them!"
"…Yes, ma'am…"
As the lesser pirate began to leave…
"Wait!-! …The Zora eggs are the only clue we have about that dragon cloud floating over the bay… If what that strange, masked imp says is true… and if we can get our hands on the treasure that lies within the temple in that cloud…"
"Then we can spend the rest of our days living in luxury!" the now-giddy underling finished.
"So get a move on and find them! Now!-!"
"There's a treasure chest in there" Sora whispered as he pointed to the object in the middle of the room, with two guards flanking it.
"How do we get those women to clear out?" Miyako asked.
"There's how" Link replied as he pointed to a wasps' nest hanging from the ceiling over the pirate group. He readied an arrow and shot the part of the nest attaching it to the ceiling. The nest crashed to the floor, and a horde of angry giant wasps emerged. Aveil and her guards ran screaming from the room as the massive insects pursued them.
Tatl's guidance spell led them back out into the courtyard; they leapt down to the right and entered the door into Aveil's 'office', which was now vacant. They hurried over to the treasure chest and opened it, revealing a gold-plated object composed of a gripping handle attached to a hooked object of some sort, with a subspace-stored chain connecting the two. Link grinned.
"Awesome! A Hookshot! I remember this thing!"
"What's it do?" Sora asked.
"Hey, there's a Zora egg in this tank!" Miyako called out.
Sure enough, the nearby fish tank had a soft-shelled spherical object, white with blue markings, about the size of an adult's fist, sitting in it. Link used his Hookshot on the wooden board hanging over the tank in order to drop in, donning the Zora Mask as he entered the water. The egg didn't look very healthy, but a quick Cure spell from Sora fixed that. Homura pulled a good-sized empty tank out of her subspace storage and then filled it with some of the office tank's water; the egg was placed in the new tank, which was then placed back in Homura's storage dimension.
The group exited Aveil's office, heading back out into the courtyard. They went south, and Link used his Hookshot to cross a gap and move up onto a higher platform. They continued moving to the southeast corner, and entered a door there. The next room had a maze of barrels patrolled by a lone guard; a Sleep spell from Sora took her out of the picture, and the group hurried into the next room. As they walked across the room, Sora suddenly conjured his Keyblade and spun to block a falling strike from a Gerudo Pirate who'd been hiding on the ceiling; he then countered with a strike with the flat of his blade, and then the pirate was sent flying into a wall by a blow from Miyako's hammer, slumping to the ground out cold. The next room had another fish-tank with another Zora egg, which was carefully retrieved and put into the subspace-stored tank with the first one. They then exited out to the west.
Led by Tatl, they carefully used the Stone Mask, Homura's time-stop power, Sleep spells, the Hookshot, and ninja-leaps to make their way to the northwest corner of the courtyard, entering the higher-up doorway there. The room had a T-shaped main portion with a patrolling guard who was quickly and quietly incapacitated by Sora; the group then took the left path to another room. As they moved through the next empty room, another Pirate Warrior leapt down from the ceiling. While she was still in the air, Homura froze time, pointed her palm at the falling pirate, and charged up a powerful burst of raw offensive magic. She fired it, unfroze time, and watched as the surprised pirate took the blast head-on, being sent flying in an arc to crash against the far wall, unconscious. The group moved on through the next door.
The next room held the third Zora egg, this one guarded by a school of skeleton-fish. Link took his Zora form and jumped in, using his Electric Barrier to quickly dispose of the hostile fish, and then retrieved the third egg, placing it with the other two in Homura's subspace. The nearby exit led back into the courtyard, and the group cautiously made their way to the northeast upper level, a stun-spell being used on the lone guard outside the door there. The door they needed to get to was in the opposite corner of the room, and three guards patrolled below. Homura gestured everyone to grab hold of her, and then froze time. Carefully, without letting go, they all moved past the frozen guards and to the other door, passing through and only unfreezing time once the door was closed.
Another Pirate Warrior was in the next room, but this time there was no catching her off-guard. She lunged at Sora and Link, her twin scimitars clashing with their blades. She then leapt back to dodge a shot from Homura's crossbow, and then used her blades to block a swing of Miyako's hammer, skidding back on her feet from the force of the hit. A hit from Link's boomerang stunned her, and Sora then rushed in and landed a combo of blows with his Keyblade. A handful of ice senbon thrown by Miyako did further damage, and Homura finished it with a magic-charged punch that KO-ed the pirate. The group moved on into the next room, and rescued the last of the fortress' Zora eggs.
"Alright" Link said. "Let's get outta this place."
-SCENE BREAK-
Great Bay Coast
Marine Research Lab
10:35 Hours
"Thank you for letting us keep the eggs safe here, Mister" Link said to the scientist.
"Oh, it's quite alright, my boy" the older man replied. "They'll be safe now, that's my guarantee! But you still have three more to find, you said?"
"Yes" Homura replied. "We have a general idea on where to find them, but…"
"Once we do find 'em we'll bring 'em back here" Sora said.
"Of course, of course. Do hurry, kids; the water's been unusually warm lately, and Zora eggs are rather sensitive to temperature changes. Who knows how long they'll last…?"
-Break-
"Okay" Tatl said. "We need to get to Pinnacle Rock. That's where the sea-serpents dwell. The entrance is underwater, so I'm afraid you girls will have to follow along on the water's surface while following Link and Sora in their aquatic forms. …The other problem is: how are we gonna find where we need to go when the water's so unusually murky?"
"Maybe it's those rocks sticking out of the water?" Sora suggested, pointing out to the rock spires visible a hundred meters or so out.
Miyako created an ice raft and carried everyone out to the zone, over the murky water. Soon, they came across an area of comparatively-clear water, revealing a massive underwater sinkhole. Relatively small holes lined the walls of the sinkhole, and Homura swore she saw a flash of movement in one of them.
"Those have to be the sea serpents' nests" she said. "Which means the Zora eggs are likely down there."
"We'll go down and handle them" Sora replied. "And we'll bring the eggs back up as we find them."
Sora made a magic-powered flipping leap off the ice raft, transforming into his merman form in midair and landing with a splash. Link put on his Zora Mask and followed the older boy down into the sinkhole. As they neared one of the holes, a massive eel-like creature emerged from it, snapping its jaws at the two heroes, who narrowly dodged being eaten and then countered with a Strike Raid and Zora-Link's boomerang fin-blades. The dark creature's head was severed from its body, dropping down into the sinkhole, the body soon sliding out to follow it. Mer-Sora and Zora-Link swam into its nest, and found a Zora egg alive and intact. Link took it and carried it up to the surface, allowing Homura to stow it, and then went back down to help Sora.
Sora and Link repeated this process a few more times, soon rescuing the other two eggs, and everyone hurried back to the Marine Research Lab, depositing the eggs in the massive tank there. As soon as the seven eggs had settled close to each other, they hatched at the same time. Seven tadpoles emerged, swimming up toward the top of the tank, toward a row of metal lines in the far wall's side, and took position along it, curling their tails up to resemble musical notes… and, with the pattern of lines behind them, forming a melody.
"This… This is incredible!" old Dr. Mizumi said. "This sort of thing has never happened before!"
As the others stood back, Link assumed his Zora form and pulled out his ocarina, which had transformed into a replica of Mikau's fishbone guitar. He played the notes displayed, the magic of the spell-song guiding him to play at the correct tempo and rhythm, and then to play the rest of the song. Upon completion, the seven Zora tadpoles swam around in celebration.
"If these Zora were born to play this song…" the old doctor said. "Quickly! You must find the Zora who laid these eggs and play it for her! I will watch over the children; go!"
"Which way to the Zoras?" Sora asked.
"To the south from here; just follow the coast!"
-SCENE BREAK-
Zora Cape
11:40 Hours
"There it is" Zora-Link pointed to what looked like a giant stone fish-tail sticking up out of the water a few hundred feet offshore. "That must be Zora Hall. That's where we'll find the rest of Mikau's band."
"Y-You'd better go in alone, Link" Miyako said. "And stay in your Zora form. We'll sneak around and w-watch from the shadows."
Zora-Link nodded, and then dove into the water, swimming up to the giant stone fish and into its 'mouth'. He moved purposefully past stage-hands and crew-members, heading for the back section behind the Hall, with the Great Bay Temple – surrounded by a whirling vortex – visible in the distance. A few meters off the water's edge was a tiny island with a pair of palm trees growing from it. Sitting by the edge of the water was a Zora woman in a purple dress, staring sadly out into the sea. She turned back to look, eyes widening as she saw 'Mikau' approaching after days of absence. Zora-Link pulled out his instrument and strummed the melody that the newborn Zoras had taught him. Lulu felt the spell-song coursing through her, and she sang along to the tune, her voice returning to her. Once she was done, she turned to Zora-Link.
"Mikau…" she spoke softly. "That song… Did our children teach it to you? Did you rescue them?"
Suddenly, the nearby small island started moving, flipper-limbs and a head emerging from what was revealed to be the shell of a giant sea turtle. The turtle yawned as it turned to face the duo.
"That was a good, long nap" he said. "I just realized when I opened my eyes: the passing of days is quite quick recently. …Although my eyes were closed in sleep, I still see everything that occurs in this ocean… Proud Zora warrior, I have need of… you… Ah… Transformation magic… Why, it is a bearer of a piece of the legendary Triforce! What brings you to Termina? Ah, but there is no time for explanations after all; the oceans of Great Bay are in need of your help, young warrior."
"M-Mikau?" Lulu asked. "What's going on? What does he mean?"
Zora-Link gave a sad sigh as he removed his mask, and Lulu gasped in shock as what appeared to be her beloved reverted into a little Hylian boy holding a mask of Mikau's face.
"On my way here," Link explained, "I found Mikau. He told me about how the Gerudo Pirates had kidnapped his & your eggs. And then, he gave me the power to take his form; with that, I rescued the eggs. They're hatched and waiting at the Marine Research Institute. But… I'm sorry, Miss Lulu. Mikau died from the wounds the pirates dealt to him."
Lulu collapsed to her knees, eyes wide in grief-stricken horror. "No…" she whispered. "N-No, that…"
"I'm afraid it is true, my dear" the giant turtle said. "Looking back on my memories of my sleep, I can remember sensing Mikau's spirit leave his body. He passed the torch to this young hero, this bearer of the gods' power. …The boy also carries the power of Darmani, a Goron warrior who died not long ago, as well as that of a young Deku who was… Oh my… Link, and friends of Link hiding on the roof, there is not much time. Please, hop onto my back, and I will bring you to the Temple. You must free the Guardian Giant imprisoned there, to stop Majora's Curse from obliterating all of Termina!"
Sora, Miyako, and Homura hopped down, walking over to Link's side.
"Miyako and I lack water-based transformations" Homura said. "Sora and Link will go with you; we will stay here – hold down the fort, and perhaps explain the situation further to Mikau's former bandmates."
"…Very well" the turtle replied. "Bearer of the Triforce of Courage, wielder of the Keyblade, climb aboard, so that I may take you two into the Great Bay Temple."
Link and Sora hopped onto the giant turtle's back, and he began to swim out. As he carried them out into the waters, Link looked back, watching as Miyako comforted the grieving Lulu.
'The Skull Kid's schemes have led to enough suffering and death' Link thought with grim conviction. 'There will be a reckoning…'
-CHAPTER END-
I originally was going to have this chapter and the upcoming Great Bay Temple chapter be one big chapter, but I've already made you guys wait long enough for an update, so I'm splitting it. Next Time: the Great Bay Temple