Chapter 8
"The Great Faerie, Nicknames, and issues with body images"
"I like it, but if it would be easier for the two of you to lift me then me to pull the two of you up," Arli said eying the cliff.
"I get the feeling that it'd require us to throw you, though," I said, following suit.
Link turned to me, "I think we could manage."
"So long as you can get me to about there," Arli said pointing about five feet short of the top, "I think I could climb the rest of the way, It looks there are plenty of places to put my hands and feet. Also when the two of you come one may want to grab the others ankles, it looks higher than you described the bridge."
The cliff was a sheer drop from a small mesa, and a tall climb up for three ten year olds. If each stood on the others shoulders, we would stand just about two feet taller than the top of the cliff, but that made us around sixteen feet tall. We'd be able to have Arli reach just under ten feet up, leaving him to climb about five feet then I'd have to stand on Link's shoulders and he'd have to grab my ankles for Arlimand to pull us up so we could climb the stairs that lead to the very top of Death Mountain.
"Well," Link said, "The best we can do is try."
"We can, but..." I hesitated.
"Hey, I'm strong enough to pull myself up from there and I'm sure I can pull both of you up, I'm willing to give it a try," Arli said shrugging, "besides, how else will we know what is up there?"
"True enough," Link said.
I still hesitated.
"Come on" Arli said looking at me, "the longer we wait, the less sure we will be."
Link and I knelt on the ground and laced together our fingers, and prepped our hands for each of Arli's feet. He stepped into them, putting a hand against the wall to stabilize himself. Mentally, we counted to three and tossed him into the air. At the peak of his flight, he found hand holds allowing him to stop his descent. Slowly, he made his way up losing footing only twice, causing me to shriek, and pulled himself on top of the mesa.
'So who's going to be on whose shoulders?' I heard in Arlimand's voice in my head, apparently he believed more in this new-found ability than he had let on.
'I will!' I thought.
'No! Me!' Link thought back.
And so the argument ensued.
"Fine!" I yelled, "Rochambeau!"
"Fine!" Link retorted, holding out his fist.
I held out mine.
"Ro-cham-beau!" we yelled in unison.
I held out scissors, he held out rock.
"DAMN IT!" I yelled.
"So, can you even lift me?" Link taunted.
"Yes," I stated firmly and angrily.
"Oh? You? Little miss pampered princess' cousin?"
"Screw you."
"I bet it's because I was going easy on you that you beat me in arm wrestling."
"I'll prove it!" I said, and made a running jump at the wall.
I caught two foot holds and a hand hold and proceeded to prove my strength. Little bastard didn't believe I was as strong as I was, so I was going to show him up. I caught onto another hand hold, then another, found new foot holds, then more, and before I knew it, I was on top of the mesa.
"SEE?" I yelled down at him, "I'm stronger than you think!"
Link raspberried up at me and proceeded to attempt to climb the cliff himself. Needless to say, he failed. Looking down at this, I had to laugh at his pitiful attempts to imitate me. I could feel Arlimand standing behind me giving me an amazed stare.
"All right, well how do we get Link up here now?" he said.
"Well, you could always lower me over and I could help pull him up," I suggested.
"No way in hell!" Link yelled up at us, "You are NOT dragging me up like some kind of toy!"
"DO YOU HAVE A BETTER SUGGESTION?" I yelled as loud as I could.
"Well, I could swing the two of you sideways, pulling you up and over," Arli suggested.
"I refuse to be thrown around," I said.
"JUST HELP ME UP!" Link yelled.
"Do you want to hit your head again because we didn't think it through?" Arli shouted back.
'I'll shut up,' came Link's thoughts.
"So if we just pull him up and over we increase his chance of injuring one of you, but it would take less energy," Arli reasoned, "On the other hand, if we swing you two, there is less chance of injury, so long as you don't let go, but it takes more energy. What do you think?" He asked me.
"I'm pretty winded from climbing, really," I said, "it took more energy than you'd think."
"Well, I will be exerting most of the force, all you would have to do would be to hold on to him," Arli said, "is Link able to climb this? I don't have any idea how to help him climb without rope of some kind, You?"
"I could always have him by the wrist if worst comes to worst," I said, shrugging.
"I don't like the sound of this!" Link called.
"Do either of you have a length of rope?" Arli asked.
I shrugged again, "Not me."
"I've got some rope," Link called, "I'll send it up with Navi."
The small Faerie struggled to fly with the rope up to the top of the Mesa.
"Link!" She strained, "This is heavy! What is it /bmade/b of?"
"It's just wool rope," Link called, "It's just sturdy! You can manage!"
Navi muttered something I assumed was an insult, but I decided against my first impulse, and didn't say anything about it.
"Thank you" Arli said, taking the rope, as Navi fell to the stones at his feet, "Now, lets tie one end to your belt, and the other to me so if needed you can grab him and I can pull both of you up. What do you think?" he asked me.
"Good idea. Can we tie him to the fence afterwards?" I said, still upset about the Rochambeau.
"What did she say?" Link shouted up to us
"I think we should take this one step at a time," Arli chuckled, tying one end around his waist.
He handed the other end to me, and, once again to prove Link that I am more than just a pampered cousin to the princess, I looped the rope around the small fence to our right, one bit around my belt, and climbed head-first down the cliff face. It was harder this way, because I had to push myself upward with my hands and hang onto things by my feet, but I managed to get to Link and tie the rope around his waist.
"Hold on tight," I said reluctantly.
"Okay then, Skulltulla."
"I hate you."
"I know."
'Ready,' I thought, and Arlimand began to pull on the rope.
Despite the passing urge, I held on tight to Link's wrists and didn't let him drop.
"Don't you dare drop me, Skulltulla," Link warned.
"Call me that again and I will drop you," I retorted.
We sat on top of the Mesa, panting like dogs, and stretching our joints. Link sat rubbing his head where he'd smacked it.
"That really hurt, Skulltulla," he said.
"Oh, it was my fault? You're the one who flinched!"
"Link, that probably won't be the last time you hit it," Arlimand said, pointing to the path ahead of us where boulders were falling from the sort-of erupting volcano.
"Just for this occasion," I said, pulling Link's sword off his back and unsheathing it, "I hereby dub thee Sir Accident Prone."
Arlimand chuckled, "Fitting."
Link just looked astonished as he put his sheathed sword on his back. He stuck his tongue out at us. Arlimand shrugged and it showed off his arm muscles considerably. As Arli lowered his hands, a particularly large boulder landed not ten feet from us, causing Link and Arli to jump, and me to shriek.
"Methinks we should go," I said quickly, and the others merely nodded.
Arlimand pulled out his shield and looked at it, "I don't know if it will hold up against the boulders, but it's better than nothing," he said shifting his gaze to us.
"C'mon then, guys" I said, and huddled underneath the large shield Arlimand held in the air.
Link begrudgingly huddled beneath the shield on Arli's other side, and we sprinted as fast as the slowest of us could go to escape the rain of massive boulders. I hate to admit it, but I was the slowest, but, of course, I had the shortest legs. Link tripped and stumbled, but didn't fall all the way, thus reinforcing the dubbing "Accident Prone". Several boulders landed squarely on the shield, but Arli didn't so much as flinch. I knew the boy was strong for a fellow ten year old, but I had no idea just how strong until this very point in time.
"I see more boulders up ahead! Get a bomb ready, Link" Arli said.
"A bomb? Are you nuts?"
"What are you scheming?" I yelled over the roar of the volcanic explosion.
"Well we need to get through those boulders, if we are to keep going!"
"If we wait, we'll die, if we blow those things up, WE'LL DIE!" I yelled.
"Can't we go around...?" Navi whined.
"There is a sheer cliff on one side and a sheer drop on the other side! There is no way around!" Arli replied
"I'm not going to blow it up!" Link protested, "Can we climb it?"
"And die by crushing boulders?" I screamed.
"If you keep fighting here," Navi screamed just as loudly, "We'll die by crushing boulders anyway!"
"Or I'll die by crashing into them! THINK OF SOMETHING!" Link said.
Just then, an image of Arlimand ramming the shield into the boulders popped into my head, and I could almost feel the grin radiating off of him.
"Oh HELL no!" I told him.
"Grab on or get left in the dust" he called pulling the shield down in front of him.
A raindrop hit me in the nose, and I didn't get even time to look up at the sky as Arlimand took off, racing shield-first towards the boulders. Link and I booked it after him and...
CRASH
Arlimand broke through two boulders at once with the now-crumpled shield, and stood beneath a ledge with a huge grin on his face.
"Well, how was that?" He asked cockily as Link and I hid beneath the ledge.
"Better than your previous idea, but it was still stupid," I replied.
"It was cool, but I agree with Skulltulla," Link panted.
"Well the boulders aren't falling here, but it's starting to rain. There is a cave there we can duck into," Arli commented pointing to an opening on our left.
As if on cue, I sneezed.
"I'm cold anyway, let's go," Link said, nodding.
The cave wasn't much warmer, but at least we weren't iwet/i and cold. Besides, there were torches here to give us light and some warmth. At the back end of the cave, there was a small pool lit by six torches, and on the ground was a gold-plated carving of the Sacred Triangles, the Triforce. The symbol of the Royal Family. That meant one thing.
'This is a Great Faerie's Fountain', I thought in awe.
'Whose?' Arli's voice spoke in my mind.
'A Great Faerie,' came Link's voice, 'They're the protectors of Hyrule!'
'Okay, I got that much, but can someone explain what they are?' Arli's voice replied.
"It'd be easier to show you," Link said aloud.
"Okay..."
"Cover your ears."
Arlimand and I did as we were told. Link played the melody that makes us sleep, and...
Well, he should have said "cover your eyes".
As Link finished the song and Arlimand and I removed our hands from our ears, a piercing laugh filled the room, and out of the pool emerged a lady with flowing red hair, ruby red lips, eyes as blue as the deepest sapphires, and skin of ivory. Only two things seemed terribly wrong with this picture.
She was at least ten times the proper height of a woman.
-and-
She was naked from head to her calves. The only thing she was wearing was a pair of boots.
"Welcome, warriors and heroes three of Hyrule, Link, Hylia, and Arlimand," she cooed.
'How the hell does she know my name?' Arli's voice sounded.
'I told you; she's a Great Faerie' sounded Link's thoughts as if that explained everything.
I felt too ill to respond. The room was spinning and I felt light headed. Another crazy thing spoke and knew my name. I went over to the corner and sat down, thinking i'crazy naked bitch knows my name!'/i a few times causing Arli to snort in laughter, his hands over his eyes.
As I figured, none of all this bothered the Great Faerie in the slightest, and she gave us each an ability of our own and sent us on our way. Much to my chagrin, she didn't tell any of us what our new abilities were before she disappeared, so that meant we'd have to find out on our own.
"Well that was weird. New abilities?" Arli commented.
"I think the word you're looking for is 'traumatic'," I replied, "Link, never do that again."
"And if you absolutely have to, at least let us leave the fountain first, or at least turn away," Arli said.
"Or fall asleep," I added.
"What the giant owl?" Arli said, stopping just outside the cave entrance.
I stopped short, "What 'what the giant owl'?"
"There is a giant owl perched right outside this cave," Arli commented, pointing, "I think I have seen it watching me in the village once or twice, but I'm not sure."
"Well, you are an observant one," said Kaepora Gaebora, "aren't you, Arlimand?"
Arlimand's eyes went wide and paled and began to shake. He looked like he was going to faint.
'Giant, talking owl k-knows my name,' he said a few times in his mind, 'How does he know my name?'
'Relax, Arli, it's just Kaepora Gaebora, he's been following us,' I thought back.
'Okay, he's been following you but how does he know my name?' He emphasized the thought.
'I said he's been following us not just me and Link,' I emphasized.
"Now if you two are done bickering," the big owl said, "Maybe you can hear what I said?"
I turned to my left to see Arli's head tilt back at the same time the world went black.
"Hylia! Arli!" I heard before everything was black.
I awoke to the sound of cuccoos and someone playing a harmonica. There was a rope around my waist and a weight at my back. I felt disoriented, the bright sunlight hurt my eyes, and my head was heavy. I tried to stand up, but the weight was more than I could lift.
"Whaaaaa...?" I began to ask.
"Relax, you're in Kakariko," said the blurry form of Kaepora Gaebora, "Link tied you and Arlimand together and I carried you three here."
As if on cue, Arlimand let out a small snort.
"We passed out?" I connected the dots.
"Yes, and Link is fetching some water right now for Anju."
"Anju? The lady who cares for Cuccoos?"
Another snort came from Arli.
"That's right," The owl said as I heard approaching footsteps, "Ah, here comes Link now. I'll leave you three to your devices."
And Kaepora Gaebora took off and was gone.
"Hylia!" He said, and put on an extra burst of speed despite the large bucket he was carrying, "I thought that was your voice I was hearing!"
"Link!" I called, genuinely happy to see him, "Come untie me!"
"Coming!"
"And can you get this big lump off me? Maybe wake 'im up?" I asked, indicating Arlimand.
A cheeky grin crossed his face, and all I could think was, 'Oh shit...' And Link dumped the bucket of water over both Arlimand and me, causing Arli to wake with a start and ram his head into the back of mine.
"What? I'm not slacking I swear!," He said, suddenly frightened and looking around quickly.
"Relax, slave, you're tied up," I jeered, rubbing the back of my head.
"Oh," he sighed, "It's you guys. Hylia, if I could I would be glaring at you right now."
"Yeah, but you can't," I taunted.
"Hylia..." Link warned.
"Just untie us, Link," Arli said.
"So we can get going," I added, nodding.
"Fine..." Link said, taking out his sword and cutting through the rope, "Just no killing each other, got it?"
We nodded our heads once in agreement, smacking each other in the back of the head again.
"So, where to next?" Arli asked, rubbing his upper arms where the rope was tied.
"I believe I can answer that" called Kaepora Gaebora as he swooped down.
"Then by all means," Arli let the sentence trail.