Thanks to everyone for all of your encouragement! Here is chapter two.
"And so then Louise took her paw, moved the knight into position, and meowed twice. It was like saying checkmate in Siamese or something."
"Link, the fact that you lost chess to a cat is bizarre and disturbing," Shad proclaimed. "Furthermore, Louise is not a Siamese cat. She is a Persian cat." With this, Shad returned to his book, which he had been reading for the majority of the morning. He sat at the empty bar with Link, who couldn't seem to stop talking.
"My apologies."
Somebody entered through the front door and slammed it shut behind them, rattling the bottles on the shelves.
"That man's more trouble than he's worth!" yelled the new arrival—Telma.
"Do tell," Shad deadpanned, turning a page in his book.
"That old Renado sent me a letter!" she complained, not stopping in her march across the room. "He was wondering whether I'd be interested in visiting! That damned tease!" And with this, Telma strode upstairs, kicking over a chair on her way. Another door slammed somewhere on the second story.
"She's out of control," Shad said in a monotone, turning another page.
"What does Renado want with Telma?" Link wondered aloud. "I swear that's the third time he's written to her this month."
"I don't need a reason to think about that," Shad answered. "Let's leave Telma's business to Telma."
"Well said. What's this book about, anyway?" And with this, Link swiped Shad's book away. The scholar looked rather stricken.
"Hey! Give that back!"
Link hopped out of his seat and held the book out of Shad's reach, flipping through the pages as he did so.
"Ahh—I see—it's about the Oacca." And with that, Link tossed the book back at Shad. His toss was poorly aimed, however, and it smacked Shad in the face. Both the scholar and the book went tumbling off of the barstool and landed on the floor.
"Whoops. Sorry, Shad." With a laugh, Link helped Shad to his feet.
"You're a piece of work," Shad mumbled.
"Have I ever told you about the time I visited the Oacca?"
"I know that you've certainly bragged about it," Shad answered.
"You know, if you ever want to visit the Oocca, I can take you," Link offered.
"Well, I'll have to practice speaking the sky language, if that's the case. And of course, there's always the issue of Oacca currency. Not to mention the topic of culture—"
"For what it's worth," Link cut in, "I appeared out of nowhere, broke all of their pots, robbed them of their ancient treasures, grabbed the Oacca by the legs and used them as a means of transport across various chasms… and they still worshipped me as a hero in the end. They're an easy-going culture. Etiquette won't be an issue here."
Shad adjusted his glasses and returned to his page. "Yes, well, we wouldn't want to have a complete lack of manners, would we?"
"Guess not," Link sighed. "Say, speaking of completely lacking manners, have you seen Ashei this morning?"
"Not since she and I delivered that letter. I think she's been up in her room all morning."
"I should talk to her," Link muttered, rubbing his chin. With a decisive nod, he hopped off of the bar stool and began the trek up to Ashei's room.
The upstairs boarding rooms had been built in the past six months. Ever since Hyrule had been saved, Castle Town had become something of a tourist attraction. Telma's Bar had been remodeled into Telma's Inn, and an upstairs had been put in place. The second floor consisted of ten brand new boarding rooms to accommodate travelers. Room number two was shared by Link and Shad. Room four, which was directly next door, belonged to Ashei. Room ten, which was situated on the end, belonged to Auru, who hoped only to stay as far away from the three troublemaking teens as possible.
Telma was in room one, which was set away from the other nine rooms. It was a bit bigger than the other rooms and was always locked. Link and Ashei had had plans to sneak in for awhile now, although they had yet to act on these plans.
When Link approached Ashei's door, he knocked lightly.
"Come in."
He entered slowly. It was around noon, so the room was fairly bright. Ashei was sitting cross-legged on the floor, polishing a series of knives.
She glanced up. "Oh. It's you."
"I really appreciate what you did this morning," Link said, straight and to the point. He took a seat on the bed behind Ashei.
"Do you?" She finished polishing one knife and set it to the side, beginning to polish another.
"I do."
"Shad told you, yeah?"
"He did."
"That little devil. I told him to keep quiet."
"Why?"
"Because it's not his story to tell. He's a gossip, that Shad." She set her polishing cloth aside and scraped at something on the blade with her nail.
"Why are you polishing knives?"
"So that they'll be cleaner."
Link nodded. "Very well, though that's not what I meant."
Ashei muttered something unintelligible.
"What was that?" Link asked.
"Nothing."
Cue the awkward silence, thought Link. He glanced around Ashei's small room. She decorated quite modestly. Both the walls and the floor were constructed from the same dark wooden panels—this was the case for all of the rooms. There were two tiny windows overlooking the streets below. The furniture consisted of one cot, a nightstand, a dresser, and a writing desk. Over in the corner was the door leading to the adjacent bathroom.
This was the case for all of the rooms, with the exception of Link's and Shad's, which had double the furniture. Ashei had many different weapons hanging on various hooks around the room. She had a fur pelt slung over the bed that she used as a blanket at night. And the most interesting feature—and Link's favorite—was a block of wood with two enormous antlers protruding from it. This she hung on the wall. She took great pride in those antlers.
When about five or six uncomfortable seconds had passed, Link decided to speak up.
"Telma's been getting weird letters from Renado," he said casually. Ashei froze in mid-polish and then turned around.
"What?"
"Telma. You know how she's been getting all sorts of letters in the mail? Well, she got another one this morning. It was from Renado. I'm led to believe that they've all been from Renado."
Ashei's brow furrowed. "That's… odd. Renado's that old shaman, right? From Kakariko? I thought he didn't want anything to do with Telma."
"Well, it doesn't sound that way to me."
"Maybe we should ask her what's going on…"
"Shad said we should leave the topic alone," Link said. "She deserves her privacy."
"Hah. Nope, we're finding those letters, and we're reading them."
"What? So we're just going to… just going to ransack her room? Go through Telma's stuff?"
"You betcha."
"But… but ew! There's Telma stuff in that room. Telma girl stuff." Link shuddered. "Ashei, what if she has, like, underwear in there? What if we walk in and Telma's got her pantyhose just slung all over the place?"
"Oh, please. You say it like Telma has the decency to even own a pair of pantyhose. Besides," Ashei added as an afterthought, "I have underwear in this room. I mean, not slung all over the place, but it's still in here. And I'm a girl."
"Yes, but you—well, you look—at least you're—"
"I'm what?"
"Never mind."
Attractive, Link had wanted to say, but had stopped himself before he could get punched.
"Anyway," he resumed, trying to regain his bearings, "I don't like the idea of going through Telma's room. It's a complete invasion of her privacy, and she's been so good to us. She doesn't deserve that. She should be able to trust us."
Ashei crossed her arms. "Listen, I'm a knight, even if I'm a self-declared knight. Which makes me a law-enforcer. Which means that I'm allowed to go through my friend's stuff if it's for her own good, yeah?"
"But I know Renado," Link persisted. "I know him. He's a good guy. I would trust him with my life. Unless we have a really good reason to believe that Telma's actually in some type of danger—which I doubt one-hundred percent—then we have to give him the benefit of the doubt. What you're suggesting… well, it's foolhardy."
Ashei was getting worked up again. "Foolhardy? Well, if that's how it is, then fine!"
"Ashei, that's not what I mean!"
"Then tell me what you mean!"
"I just think you're jumping to conclusions! You're not really thinking things through! It's like you're not taking it seriously or something!"
Ashei stabbed the knife she had been polishing into the floorboards and stood up. "Link of Ordon, I might have my faults, but don't you think for one second that I don't take the safety of my friends seriously!" And with that, she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
The door swung open several seconds later and she marched back in, grabbing Link by the collar.
"This is my room," she grumbled, and she pushed Link into the hall, slamming the door in his face.
"But we were just starting to get along!" Link wailed into the wood, before sighing heavily and shaking his head.
A loud meow sounded at his feet. He glanced down to see Louise eyeing him sternly.
"I still haven't forgiven you for that chess game," he said with a snarl.
…
When Link returned downstairs, Shad was having a fierce debate with the postman.
"For the last time," cried Shad in exasperation, "the insignia on your hat does not resemble a giant chinchilla! It is representative of a Belgian hare! Now good day, Sir!" And with this, Shad returned to the bar. The postman looked rather taken aback. When he caught sight of Link, he grinned.
"Ah! Mr. Link! A delivery for you! It is from Mr. Rusl of Ordon Village, in response to the letter that was delivered this morning!"
"Already?" answered Link. "I'm impressed. That was quite… quick." He ripped the parcel open excitedly and read Rusl's message.
"Well?" said Shad once the postman had left. "What does it say?"
"Rusl says Ilia would be happy to join him on his next trip to Castle Town. He says they'll come by in a week or so. He also wants me to let Telma know that… Oh, Goddesses." He crumpled the letter up quickly and stuffed it into his pocket.
"What? What was it?"
"All I'll say," Link uttered, "is that I do not need to know exactly what Telma wrote in her letter to Rusl."
Shad shrugged. "Fair enough." And he returned to his book. Link rolled his eyes.
"I'm going to burn that book," he declared. Shad looked offended.
"What? Why?" He clutched the book to his chest defensively.
"Because I need a crowbar just to pry you from it. Listen, I'm bored. There's no one else to talk to."
"Sure there is."
"No. Ashei's mad at me, Telma's hiding in her room, and Auru… where the hell is Auru?"
"Auru's out in town," Shad said, turning a page and pushing his glasses higher up onto his nose. "Go bother him."
Link accepted this like it was a challenge, and in only a few minutes he had gotten his hat and his wallet from his room and had set off for town.
When Link walked through Castle Town, he turned a lot of heads. For one thing, Zant's invasion had prompted a dark period in Hyrule's history that the locals called the "dark days." The wound was still fresh, making Link's deeds quite famous. He was, to say the least, fairly well known.
Furthermore, Link kept up the heroic image very easily. Energetic and effortlessly handsome, Link was quite popular with the younger women. Even if a girl didn't recognize him as the hero, she was still bound to stare.
And lastly, Link wore the same green tunic that he had worn during his journey through Hyrule. The trademark hat was the most famous thing about him.
So, all in all, a visit through town was less of a leisurely activity and more of an adventure. (In his own defense, he didn't get a lot of adventures nowadays, so the Castle Town escapades were almost kind of fun.)
When Link broke out onto the southern thoroughfare, several people surrounding him started to clap. One thanked him for his deeds. He just nodded and tried to be humble. As much pride as he took in his adventures, he didn't like thinking about them too often. Then he would start thinking of Midna, which upset him, and Zant, which terrified him, and lastly he would think of Ganondorf and all of that blood, blood everywhere….
He shook his head free of the thoughts and continued walking down the street, merging into a crowd of people flooding towards the central square. Tourists with pictoboxes were taking snapshots of everything they saw, even the insignificant things that Link had seen a million times.
The central square came into view. Hyrule Castle was up ahead, looking as brilliant as ever. And not too far away, caught in a conversation with two Hyrulean soldiers, was Auru. Link approached him merrily.
"Hello, Auru!" he greeted cheerily, giving the old man a friendly whack on the back. Auru cried aloud.
"Master Link, how good to see you…" he lied grimly. He was obviously not in the mood for Link's antics.
"And you, my friend," Link answered.
"You're… energetic," Auru grumbled.
"Yeah, well, nobody back at Telma's wanted me around."
"I can't imagine why."
Link was slightly hurt by this but wasn't deterred from conversation at all. He had always been a relatively quiet person until Ashei smashed his comfort zone to pieces. Now he was quite the social butterfly.
"Excuse me, Mr. Auru? We have duties to attend to, and if our conversation is done here…"
Auru glanced back at the soldiers. "What? Oh, yes… You're free to go."
The soldiers bowed quickly and retreated.
"Why do they bow to you?" Link asked.
"Because I'm considered part of the Royal Family," Auru answered simply. "Zelda is my second cousin. I tutored her as a child."
"Are you the one who convinced her to live a life of solitude?"
"I may have had something to do with it. I taught her about many political tactics. She happened to like that one. I think it had something to do in part with the dark days. I think part of her choice has to do with the fear of sharing power."
"Good," said Link. "Because if you can talk her into it, then you can talk her out of it. Put in a good word for me next time you see her, why don't you?"
"Master Link, I'm afraid that would be highly inappropriate."
"Hey, a man's got to do what a man's got to do." And with that, Link started to ramble. Auru stopped paying attention completely, and only tuned back in when something interesting caught his ear.
"Wait, what was that?"
"Telma's been getting letters. Weird letters. From Renado. They're confusing everybody."
"Why did nobody tell me this?" Auru asked.
"Well, it wasn't interesting until today. Why?"
Auru looked suddenly alarmed. "Because I know what it means. And it's not good."
I extend my thanks to the website Rabbit Empire, which helped me to distinguish between the giant chinchilla and the Belgian hare. Where would I be without you?
I have a lot of ideas for future chapters. I know this one was slower and kind of lacked a punch line, but do not fear! I will make up for that soon enough.
…Or at least I'll try.
Review? :)
