Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda series do not, repeat, not belong to me. They rightfully belong to Miyamoto. (May he continue to make excellent games for the rest of his days.) What does belong to me are Cleo, Finn, Syrilla and Okam (sorta).

Meteroi also belongs to me.

Chapter 7

The monster tried to ram Cleo off the raft but she jumped out of the way. It slammed itself down on the raft, splintering it to pieces. Cleo hopped from raft to raft as it chased her and destroyed each one. She quickly rejuvenated the broken rafts and their torches so she wouldn't run out of platforms. Unable to see anything, she used the Will-o-Wisp to summon fireflies and light a torch. But Beezlabulb absorbed it quickly and shot a beam at her. She ducked in time. Jack pointed out that it had gotten even bigger after the absorption, giving Cleo an idea. She ran across the rafts and kept lighting the torches one by one and Beezlabulb kept eating the light. Then it got so big and heavy that its wings could no longer lift it and it fell into the water on its back, just floating there. Cleo hopped onto it and began stabbing the abdomen, then back onto the raft when the fly deflated and recovered. She had to repeat the process one more time before finishing it.

It thrashed around in pain before it sunk down into the water, then a huge bubble formed on the surface. With a big burst, something glowing rose from the bubble and floated over to her. It was an amber with engravings of flies. Cleo held it in her hand.

She got the Firefly Swarm. The glow of inspiration lights the way towards rebirth!

... ...Father... may I ask you something?

Of course my son, what is it are you asking?

In the woods, I saw... ...a strange tree...

...A tree?

When I was near it... I could feel... a chill... It is as though I was gripped with fear...

... ...

Do you know something of it?

...Come with me... It is time I told you the tale of a great battle I once had a long time ago...

They all rowed back to Lunai Bay with good news of the vanquished monster, carrying the essence as proof. Everyone celebrated at Flowebb's. "You did it, both of ya!" he cheered, clapping Cleo on the back. "With our problem gone, the fish will be coming back in a day or two!"

"It was nothing," Cleo said with a grin.

"You will always be welcomed in Lunai. Should you feel the need to relax, you're free to come and fish anytime."

"That sounds pleasant," said Jack.

"Well I might not have the time, but I'll try and help out with the tables tonight," Cleo offered.

"Can you wait tables?" Jack asked.

"How hard can it be?" Turned out it was much harder than she'd thought. Sure she was good at keeping track of people's orders, but the time management was difficult all by herself. She had to create her shadow to double the process, yet after a couple of hours, she was quite tired. But her exhaustion was the least of her problems when a certain someone came in.

"There ye are, lassie!" shouted a mechanical toned voice.

Cleo let out a squeak of surprise and turned toward the source. "Oh no!" It was Scervo. "Uh, you're not allowed in here!"

"Says who?"

"Well, you're a robot. I mean, you can't eat can you?"

"I'm not here for the grub, I'm here for yer Skribal Sword!"

Cleo groaned. "What's your beef anyway?"

"Uh, yes exactly!" agreed Jack. "What kind of beef could you possibly trade for the Skribal Sword." Scervo guffawed at him.

Cleo face palmed. "That's not what I meant!"

"Yer spirit mate be a fool!"

"Listen, first off, Jack isn't a fool, and second, I don't want any more trouble from you!"

"Trouble always comes!" He pulled out his electric sword and sliced a table standing between them in half.

"This man is delusional!" exclaimed Jack.

The people started running out the door in a panic as Scervo marched toward Cleo. Flowebb ran forward and stood in his way. "Cleo, go to the back door!" Then he turned back to Scervo. "Please, I must ask you to lea-AAAAAAAHHH!" The robot had grabbed him and, with amazing strength, tossed him over the counter, shattering several bottles.

"Flowebb!" Cleo didn't have time to aid him. She and Jack ran as fast as they could while she pushed tables over to block Scervo's prowl. They raced around into the kitchen and through the door leading outside, grabbing a tablecloth to hide themselves under on the way out and went into the crowd. The pirate came out shortly afterwards and started raging when he realized he had lost her. "That was close." She walked slowly so as to not draw attention. "I hope Flowebb is okay."

"I am sure he will be fine. He is pretty tough, I can tell."

"Let's get back to Midna and Okam."

They arrived back at the Palace of Twilight where Midna awaited them at the front door. "There you two are. I was beginning to worry for you."

"Yeah sorry about that. I was busy with a little side task," Cleo admitted.

"Well I'm glad to know that you're helping people out. But don't let yourself get distracted by these little things. Just keep your focus on the major task at hand. Remember, by gathering all of the Essences of Light, will you be able to help everyone."

"Thank you for this advice Princess Midna," Jack responded cordially. "We will keep these words of wisdom in mind."

Midna smiled at him. "My, your friend is quite polite isn't he," she commended.

"Where's Okam?" Cleo asked.

"He's in the library, studying. Let's go and meet him."

Okam was pouring over a scroll when they came in. He looked over his shoulder, closed the scroll and turned to them. "Ah, I see you're back. Did you get the essence?" Cleo walked forward and showed him the Firefly Swarm. "Excellent! For a kid, you're doing pretty well."

"Thanks. Although, one of those giant insects had already gotten it before I could reach it, so I had to take the essence from it."

"Veran's army is undoubtedly determined to claim the essences," Midna stated with concern. "Of course it's nearly impossible to even know where to look for them when they appear only briefly every hour of twilight. Sometimes I wonder how Veran knows where they are?"

"The scroll, maybe?" Cleo guessed. "I mean, is there a copy of it?"

"Impossible, there's only one in existence," Okam claimed.

"Are you sure? Then how did Veran know?" Jack asked.

Okam shrugged. "Beats the heck outta me." Cleo was silent for a moment. "Something on your mind, Cleo?"

"...No, nothing."

"Well anyway. I know where the next one is. It is called the Star Formation, found in the Nebula Observatory. It's been long abandoned and also cut off thanks to a damaged bridge. I already sent workers there to repair it. There's a tunnel through the mountains that will lead you to the observatory, otherwise you would have to take a hike over them and that can take months."

"Well, thank you Okam. We shall take that path," said Jack.

"I'll escort you to the next warp."

The pair appeared at a large quarry dug deep in the base of the mountains. They went over to the edge and looked down. They could already see giant bugs there. "Perhaps they are looking for the next essence," Jack suggested.

Cleo took a closer look, she could see them gathering gems. "That, and collecting resources."

"There are people here!" Jack exclaimed in surprise. Cleo looked around until she could see a Twili-looking Goron chained in energy shackles. One of the bugs shoved him. There were other ones too, digging into the rock and carrying the gems to the cart which were then dragged away by rino-beetles.

"I wonder where the carpenters are? I hope they weren't captured. We'd never be able to cross that bridge."

"If they have, the enemy will never cross that bridge either. I am sure that when it is complete, they will swarm into the observatory."

"Oh, not cool!"

"The temperature has nothing to do with it."

Cleo rolled her eyes. "Let's just find a way into the tunnel."

They snuck their way down into the quarry, ducking low on the small cliffs so as not to be seen. Then they darted from cart to cart, trying to spot the tunnel entrance. "There it is," she whispered. It was guarded by two rino-beetles. "Now how to get past them."

"Move it, you worthless lump of rock!" Cleo turned around and could see the first Twili-Goron she'd seen previously being shoved roughly again.

"I'm moving as fast as I can!" he complained. He looked weak and exhausted, no doubt he'd been working non-stop for hours. He tried to get up, but was shoved again.

"Move faster then!"

"How can I work when you keep knocking me to the ground!"

"How dare you talk back to me!" The beetle then started beating him as he curled up to defend himself. "I'll teach you some respect!"

Cleo glared at the scene. Her hands were clawing the ground so hard her fingers started stinging, yet she hardly noticed. Her teeth were clenched and bared in a growl. "Cleo, I know this is upsetting, but you must not-" Cleo shot up from her crouch and charged in a scream of rage. Jack grunted. "Perfect!"

She jumped up on top of the beetle's back and stabbed down into a weak point she was able to spot. The insect fell over with its legs twitching, electricity sparkling. The Twili-Goron looked up at her standing before him, breathing hard. "Serves him right!"

"Cleo, we must go now!" Jack called out urgently. She looked around her and saw the rino-beetles swarming after witnessing one of their own killed. "Hurry!"

Cleo turned to the rock man and cut the energy cuffs with her sword. "C'mon!" He didn't hesitate in obeying and rolled alongside her to the nearest cart. They all hopped in, he pulled the brake lever to loosen the wheels and they began rolling into the tunnel (they hit and killed one of the beetle guards on the way). She felt the whoosh of cold air as the cart sped up, glowing crystals rushed past. "What's your name, sir?"

"I'm Meteroi, of the Mortrams. Thank you for earlier."

"My name's Cleo and this is Jack. We need to get to the Nebula Observatory."

"Whatever for? I thought it was shut down." Cleo explained about the Essences of Light and the Skribal Sword. "I see... Well in that case I'd better give this to you." He reached into a pouch at his hip and pulled out a rune. "I found this in the quarry." The symbol read "Mars".

They heard the increasing sound of scuttling and looked behind them. They could see the army finally catching up, crawling fast on six legs.