Noisy. That was one way to describe this moment. Annoying. That was definitely another way to do it. But the one that fit most? Stressful. This temple had been nothing but stressful. Moving blocks while underwater was hard enough. Then coming up to the two girls bickering about something else again that he knew Ruto probably started or it came from Zelda suggesting that the other princess do something since she was already adept to water. That, of course, was followed by the stupid notion of "I'm a princess, why would I need to do that?" and that would lead to more fussing from Zelda.
He eventually gave up on getting any assistance from either of them and continued solo, he was more than used to it considering but since they weren't helping they were basically just in the way. They had their moments though. Ruto telling him the trick to change the water levels in the temple and Zelda being a quick shot with the arrows since Link took the hookshot back. That and she took care of the ocarina playing for changing said water levels. It was just...the constant bickering that he wanted to stop. It only stopped when they came to a room with a couple tektites that things got silent for a moment, a minor flash to a situation not too long ago got the swordsman to defeat them quickly.
"Damsel in distress..." the zoran called in a singsong voice.
"You say that but at least I didn't have to personally ask to get saved by him, right? Who did that, I wonder..." she made a mock thinking pose, quickly shifting her eyes in the other girl's direction.
"I did not! Daddy did! But I didn't mind because Link carried me the entire time..." she smirked. Zelda did nothing but shrug it off.
"You probably demanded that he do it. And since he was younger, that had to have been a pain. But it seems like you grew up into an even bigger one." she countered, causing the other to narrow her eyes. They continued like this until the swordsman stopped suddenly. They didn't see his quick burst of frustration, him holding his hands in front of him, not making a fist but looking as if he were about to claw something. Before they knew it, both their mouths were covered by a gloved hand each, a sharp glare from the owner. Ruto went to mumble something and the glare was narrowed on her, shutting her up effectively.
Although Zelda figured something like this would happen, she was distracted by her automatic observations. For one thing, he'd never gotten mad enough at her to look at her that way so that was a new face to see. And him being soaked made it a double-edged blade. It made him look a bit more menacing but on the other hand it made it...something she would rather not admit to herself right then. That fact plus she'd finally noticed that he was wearing earrings almost the same shade as his eyes seeing as both glistened in the dim light and they contrasted off the dirty blonde wet hair to make it even more noticeable.
She finally snapped herself out of it, blinking a couple times then grabbing onto his wrist to pull it away but he just held firm. That's when she frowned at him, grabbed his arm with both hands and attempted to move it away again. He let up on her side, allowing her to remove his hand as she mumbled a small "bleh" once it was fully away. A couple seconds later, he let go of Ruto's to turn away from them and pinch the bridge of his nose. This was stupid...this was so stupid...
"Link-" the zoran princess was cut off by a shush. He was turned halfway back with a finger by his mouth, quickly turning back forward and away from them. Her second attempt to talk leading to that exact same reaction.
"No talking unless necessary or just no talking to him I'm guessing." he nodded and continued on, glad that it was actually a quiet corridor that he'd stop them in. Maybe, just maybe he'd actually get a bit of peace in this clearly non-peaceful place. Then he sighed. There was no way the goddesses would be that kind...
They were at what they thought was the bottom floor since they entered the temple, the water dropped to a level where it was seemingly gone and he led them down a corridor that seemed like a dead end. It was when Zelda noticed cracks in the floor, she reached into Link's sidebag, grabbed a bomb and placed one down, pulling him away and shooing the other girl out of the blast radius. More water, joyful... Not even hesitating, he dove into the water headfirst, sticking to the ceiling of the underground tunnel and avoiding the clam-like monsters snapping at them from a distance. They came into a room with a switch, so of course, they pressed it just to see that it raised the water level slightly and revealed a hidden hookshot target. Also to be revealed were two more tektites but just as Link pulled out the item for the target, the duo were felled by a couple of arrows. Looking to her, she didn't meet his gaze but simply replied with: "Let us know when you're ready." he nodded, aiming with one arm first then grabbing onto Zelda, seeing as he'd actually already planned for Ruto to latch on this time and got them all across fluently. Once they got around the target, they came across a problem.
"How exactly does this even work?" Ruto questioned as they all looked at the switch beyond the gate.
"Arrows would normally work but the grating is too small for that in this case..." she tapped her foot in a manner to focus although something hissing was breaking it. "What is that?" she looked up to see the warrior holding a bomb nonchalantly as the wick burned down and her eyes widened. She pulled the zoran away as the male placed the bomb down and was quick to join them. The blast set off the switch, raising the gate but proving to do nothing more than that so they went to leave the room. As they resurfaced on the other side of the tunnel she gave him a blank stare. Why he always did things like that, she'd never understand...then again, what she'd done a moment ago hadn't been any different. Someone here was a bad influence...
Coming back into the main room, it was a doorway blocked off by a red block, similar to one they'd seen earlier. It could be pushed but it'd take a bit of work. He took a bracing stance, then began to push against the stone only to be surprised that this time was a bit easier. Looking to his side, he found Zelda pushing as well. Well, at least she was helping, that alone cause a bit of a smile to make it's way onto his face as he continued on.
"You could..." a small pant, "be helping y'know..." Zelda called back to Ruto. The Zoran scoffed.
"I don't do labor."
"Then marriage wouldn't work for you..." before the zoran could question that, the block suddenly dropped, the two hylians falling soon after with their current source of balance gone. Coughing out a bit of water as they came back up, the princess soon sighed, looking up at the other royal. "Come on or we'll leave you." another splash and the three continued along the way. They came up to a couple more tekites across the way, both being taken down quickly with marksman skill. She then sighed. 'Is this place just crawling with those things or what...'
"What's this? Another switch?" the fish female questioned, shrugging it off and hitting at it. A timer rang off, the swordsman quickly noting the pillar of water rising in the middle of the room. Connecting things quickly, he hopped on top of it and jumped to the other side. By the time he turned around, both girls were on the other side, one befuddled and one surprised.
"Should we come over there?" the hylian princess questioned. He shook his head and waved them off, heading through the door and leaving them alone.
"Hey..."
"What is it?"
"Am I really that annoying?"
"..." it was then Zelda looked Ruto in the face. "I don't know where that came from or if you actually want me to answer you seriously..." the fish female sighed.
"It's just that...he seems not to be bothered by you but he's always running away from me. I just want to know if it was if I was annoying or not..."
"Hmm..." she placed a finger to her chin in actual thought. What was a way she could put this that wouldn't have the girl even more upset at her. "I wouldn't say you're annoying as much as over bearing. Not gonna lie, you're spoiled, and as such you tend to act childish and demand the things you want without seeing if that's what someone else wants. Since Link has to focus most of the time, that ends up causing some problems..."
"Hmph! Well then, what about you!" she huffed, folding her arms. "What's the big thing that makes you so fine to be around?"
"I don't know..." she looked down, tapping her foot once again to try and focus more. She didn't know the answer so what could she even say to it... "I considered myself a burden after the first real task with him. He had to carry me at instances and protect me at others. I felt I was just slowing him down." she laughed lightly. "I suppose at that point I was comparable to you. But since I got sick of putting him in more danger than needed, I thought about what I was good at and the great fairies began teaching me spells so now I help out as best I can whether it's shooting things from a distance, with or without magic, or actually taking on things myself. I figured it was the least I could do with him helping me like this. He does more than he's paid for all in all."
"I see..." the zoran herself looked down in thought. "So it's because you try to help and do things for yourself?"
"Huh? I...I guess. I do try not to rely on him too much...although sometimes it can't be helped..." she moved her arms to a folded position, sighing to herself. That last image is what Link came out to. His head tilted as to why both of them were looking down with their arms folded. He would never ever understand what girls were doing when he wasn't there. Using the slingshot, he fired a round at the switch, startling Ruto, which startled Zelda. He made his way back across with small smile on his face and signaled them to follow along for the rest of this temple. He found a key, there had to be somewhere to use it...
.-+Z.e.L.d.A+-.
Circles, circles, circles. That's all this temple seemed to lead them in. Backtracking to the point where it became annoying. But with that, Zelda got some practice on her warping spell. She found it worked by leaving a point somewhere and it would take her back to the point she left it. Seeing as they ended up going back to the main room so many times, she left it there and made it the continual warp point. The first time she used it though, it resulted in her leaving Ruto accidentally because the girl was refusing to cooperate and them having to go back and find her. Although, both hylians did get a bit of amusement out of that, they were thoroughly yelled at when they got back to her almost leading to Link carrying her if Zelda hadn't fussed about it. By this time, they'd gotten four keys and had two left. Once they found the higher door on the top floor needed unlocking as well, they went through only to find something of a waterfall with descending platforms.
"This is strange..." the brunette commented. "How does this even work?"
"It looks like there's a room over there..." she took a step forward to squint but found there was no good footing to support her, causing her to slip down before she knew it. More to her surprise, she stopped falling as quickly as she'd started, the other princess holding onto her wrist.
"Can you make it back like this?" she tried placing her feet against the wall but the moist air from the waterfall slicked the walls and made it useless. Zelda was already losing her ground, seeing as she dropped to her knees the moment she saw the other go over and the other girl's rocking wasn't helping at all. "Link! Link...?" she looked over at him, wondering why his downward stare was so...curious... "What are you doing?" Once he turned to her with a smile and reached down to her, she knew it was no good. "Let go!"
"What are you two doing? I swear I-huh?" she was pulled up at a quick speed and swung around to be at Link's back. Blinking she noted the brunette's uneasy stare as she was held in a one armed embrace. In her own defense, anywhere she's personally jumped from had not been this steep but this man, of course he'd go for it... He jostled Ruto to make sure she had a good hold on him, considering he had a good one on the other girl. Once feeling that she'd clasped on, he went back a couple steps, had a running start then leaped. They were both tempted to scream when they felt a thud, his feet planting against the wall as he'd started a bit of a surf down the wall, aiming for the lower platform. Losing speed would be the only problem when they got there- eh, it'll be fine... When they got to the destination however, he tapped his foot against the edge of the platform in an attempt to recover, since he'd missed the initial landing point by a bit. This however caused him to trip, sending Ruto rolling first, then himself and Zelda. For a moment, they all just lay face up on the platform until Ruto sat up. "What is wrong with you?! Why would you do that? She called me dangerous, in that case, what are you?" The other two stared at her before they both went into a round of silent giggles. The more she glared at them, the funnier it seemed. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, nothing, you're right. He's insane then but every time he does something like this, we always come out fine, it's no big deal really." she sat up, getting the last of the giggles out. "I'm almost completely used to it. Every time I get used to a drop, he sends a bigger one at me. But I suppose he did one like this before on the mountain but it really wasn't as steep as this."
"You guys really are crazy..." it was then that he sat up, grinning and then stretching a bit. Looking towards the waterfall, he signaled it was time to actually be serious. "Well, if it's anything, I can probably swim up this. It'll take a bit but that way you only have to worry about her." he blinked and glanced at her. "What?" he shook his head. It wasn't his fault that help from her was alarming.
"Someone's coming along..." Zelda called in a singsong tone and the other girl frowned, leaving the blonde still confused. He would never understand it... "Where do you want me to hold on?" he looked down in thought for a moment and then crouched a bit. She held on around his neck, positioning her arms where she wouldn't choke him when it yanked them up. He then took aim for the furthest one he could reach and fired off, signaling Ruto to start swimming as well. It was a bit of a hassle getting onto the platform in time before it descended too far away but eventually he got it done. Ruto had gotten up there before them but was a bit tired out from swimming upstream. "Come on Ruto, Link's already heading into the next room." she held out her hand, which the other took up, standing quickly but walking slowly. It was then that they went to a room that was annoying to say the least. A waste of arrows and continuously moving things up and down and hookshotting from here to there.
The warrior had gone through the door and the hylian female was behind him. When the zoran went to pass though, something deflected her, sending her a couple steps back and slamming the door closed, bars trapping them in. Both of them turned suddenly, Zelda reacting off whatever barrier that was and Link to the other girl's yelling from the door. He sighed with a slight roll of his eyes but she stared skeptically. Whatever did that didn't want Ruto in here...
This room was incredible to say the least. It was nothing but endless mist and fog as far as the eye could see. Aside from that, there was the doorway they came in, one a little across the way and in the middle of both was an island with a dead tree. The walked around slowly, their footsteps sloshing the water around. Zelda continued to frown. This place was filled with an odd spell, she could just feel the magic but what it was planned to do, she'd never know. Walking across to the other door, she touched the bars, sliding her hands down it slowly before sighing.
"This is stupid...we're trapped and there's nothing here..."
"Are you sure about that?" the princess froze. Why was she hearing herself? And more importantly, why was her voice behind her? She whipped around to face nothing other than herself with pale skin, black attire and asphalt shaded hair. But what stood out the most was the scarlet eyes. "Hiya!" Zelda stepped back as far as she could but considering she was already at the door, it wasn't much. Hearing the sound of metal, she could conclude on one thing though: apparently, she was in danger.
Hearing Zelda speak double had set him off as it were. He had been looking at the tree in the room but once he'd gotten a good look in her direction, he could tell that wasn't good. He took all of three steps before he felt a point at his own back. Considering there was a double of the princess, this could only be one thing...
"Where are you going? Your fight's with me, Link." a low hiss from the blonde. Just great, this is really what he needed. Already at a disadvantage but it wasn't his fault this time. These two just materialized from thin air, how could that have possibly been a fair fight to begin with? The princess looked over from her predicament, noting that the male also had a doppelganger but it was when it spoke that she just simply stared. That voice...
In response to the blade at his back, he took a step forward and spun, shield bashing the weapon away while pulling out his own in a quick fluent motion. The question wasn't what they had to do, it was more so what was the gimmick of this. People don't just have doubles for no apparent reason. Both Link's walked in a slow circle, neither of them willing to strike first and just waiting for the other to slip up in some way and if he were to judge on his own mannerisms, that wouldn't happen any time soon, to his dismay so things with them were at a current standstill. Zelda on the other hand...
"What do you want?" the princess demanded, glaring down her mirror image. It did nothing but smile at her with a bit of sass put to the expression.
"Well, that's not very nice. We're here because of you, ya know. You could at least be a bit more friendly." she laughed, it trailing abruptly to a sigh.
"You say that but friendly people don't trap others against doors. Mind moving?"
"Oh, sure." she stepped away, shrugging it off with a small smile. "You could've just asked in the first place, ya know. Just wanted to scare you really. I don't like fighting really but that dummy over there..." she looked towards the dark Link and rolled her eyes. The two males were just glaring at each other over a bit of distance, neither budging to lose ground. "Couple of idiots..."
"Oh shut up." the shaded Link called over. "At least I'm actually doing the thing that we're supposed to do, over there being lazy for who knows what reason."
"No. That's just you being stupid again!" she replied back with a sneer. Such an odd expression to see on her own face. This had to be in one of the top awkward moments of her life, hands down. And somehow this whole thing was stretching her attention span thin. Her mind was racing on things in and out of battle but one thing was imminent. She knew very well that the voices were the same because her and her double sounded exactly the same so the voice from his had to be his...
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation but you-" she made a pointed stare at the dark male. He simply raised a brow to her. "Yes you. It's odd but, do me a favor." his red eyes flicked from his original to her.
"What?"
"Say 'damn it Zelda'." his face scrunched up. Why would she want something that stupid? He closed his eyes for a moment was about to say it until he had to dodge back seeing as Link had gone to attack him. "Link!" He ignored her, attacking his shadow self just to have the blows matched. Low swing for low swing, side sweep for side sweep. The princess frowned. "You pick now of all times, seriously!"
"Well, this sucks. I guess since they've finally started I have to be serious, huh?" she turned back around to see her shaded self brandished with a bow and arrow and it was trained right on her. Before her bearings could be collected, she was fired at and the thwang of the bow being the last thing her mind registered before she fell back.
Sapphire eyes glanced her way, also catching onto that sound. She hadn't been pierced and yet, she hadn't gotten up. She laid on the ground, panting a bit. It was hastily thrown out but why had that barrier drained her like that? The dark male let out an impressed whistle.
"You actually used magic in here. Good job on that one." he was in a current lock of blades with the blonde so he was allowed some commentary. She sat up, finally, noticing the other her made a greater distance between them. Shaking it off she stood almost shakily and pulled out her own bow and arrow. So this is how it was, huh? Weapons only. "I see you get it. But you must have some mastery to even be able to do that in here. I guess that calls for a bit of respect. Unlike this guy." he grinned wider, pushing against the steel of the other with his own, the black blade nearing sparks with the pristine silver. Drawing an arrow out of her quiver, she got in a stance. 'It's not impossible though...just hard to do...sounds like an ace in the hole to me...'
Another thwang and she dodged quickly to the left, a dark wooded arrow flying past her and hitting the doorway. Looking to the source, she frowned. This would be hard. Projectiles could either be easy or hard to dodge depending on how you did them. And with her range of intellect, who knew what that girl would do. They both were trained in on each other, much to how Link and his shadow was moments before. Breaking the streak though, the dark Zelda fired to the side, confusing the original immensely until she followed trail. The sound of metal scratching metal sounded as the warrior blocked it with his shield and the sword with his own.
"Tch. That's foul play."
"Who said we play nice?" Great. So it wasn't one-on-one. They were apparently playing teams and aiming for the fighter of the pair. Two could play at this game. Link dodged back, standing almost directly between both the females, eyes focused on his own issue as the shadow female drew another arrow. Only to be shot at while reaching for it. It grazed her side, she'd only been able to move away from it so much. "Now who's playing dirty?"
"I don't know what you mean..." she already had another projectile ready and was targeted dead at her. As long as she was this way, the other couldn't attack Link while he was busy and although that evened the odds, they still weren't getting anywhere.
"Hey Princess..." she blinked looking back over to the two males to see one wasn't there. Where? Where? "You're wide open you know." Turning to her right, she saw him but moreso his blade and another slid in front of her at the last second, and with a yell the blonde was able to shove him back. Reacting off sound alone, she shot down the arrow she knew was headed at them. "You're getting really annoying. But as with any pest-" as the swordsman did a stab, the dim duplicate jumped high, landing on the flat of the blade to their surprise, "-you have to be eliminated!" he was about to stab downward if it wasn't for the arrow nicking his cheek, knocking him off balance and he teetered off the sword. "Damn it..."
"So that was you!" the brunette frowned at the blonde. He huffed. Now is not the time for this. Now is definitely not the time for this.
"What's this you're going on about? I forgot you asked me to say it but you just wanted to know if it was his voice you heard?" the shadow Link questioned a bit irritable. First she nearly takes off his face and then he answered her odd request by accident and now she's yelling at the blonde for no good reason. "Are you okay over there? Sure something's not loose?"
"I don't need your sarcasm. I get enough from your original." she shot back. At least she got her answer. Now was the time to get rid of these guys and even though she was yelling at him, she'd need his full cooperation. "Hey..." she whispered, standing back to back with him. "I need you to follow me exactly on what I'm doing. I need you to take care of me, okay?" he raised a brow although she couldn't see it. What? Then again, it couldn't be that hard to figure out. He gave her a small grunt and she nudged the back of his feet. Glancing back, he noticed she was waiting for his stare to make sure he was paying attention. Fine. He'd follow. Knowing her, she probably had something figured out already.
Both shadows circled the originals, the originals not making a move until the male shadow charged for Zelda. Sliding her heel into Link's left, they spun in that direction and changed the opponents. Deflecting the blow and doing a shield bash to knock him back, the two spun again, Zelda firing three arrows in a diagonal line from her bow. First shot hitting the right thigh, second landing in the gut and the third aimed straight for the heart with a fireball heading over for extra measure. It was effective to say the least and that's when it clicked. 'So that's what she meant...' The dark Zelda fired off a few rounds, Link taking a sprint towards her and blocking any correct shot with his hylian shield. There was no time for her to get away so with a leap and a downward slash, she was ended as well. Both the bodies filtered away into plumes of smoke, the room clearing and morphing to the view of a normal room and the bars lifted from the doorways.
Ignoring the water that stayed as everything else disappeared, she sat down in the ankle deep liquid, catching her breath as the hylian checked her for a second then headed into the next room. There was a large chest there and he stared at it a bit annoyed. This had better not be a key or his swore he'd actually yell. Opening it up he found...a hookshot. His brow furrowed as he picked it up but then blinked as he noticed the weight difference. This one was heavier and a bit bulkier. That could only mean that this one had more chain, and therefore shot further. Didn't seem too bad, he reasoned to himself and headed back out to the princess. When he saw her, she was still sitting on the floor, her breathing fine now but she still looked a bit tired. Walking up to her, he held his hand out. She looked up and took it gingerly, standing a bit slower than usual. He tilted his head to her and she gave a weak laugh.
"Just a bit tired. With the room like that, magic drained more than it should have but I got rid of him and that's what counts, right? I probably need a little rest...or a potion if you have one." he nodded, sliding off his bag and pulling out a green one and handing it to her. This one was also bad to deal with. Although it wasn't bitter like the red one, it had a putrid smell although it had almost no taste. She figured not to waste her time asking where he always got these from. Then again, she might not have even wanted to know. She had one of those feeling that it was one of those bits of knowledge that made a huge difference. 'Ignorance is bliss sometimes...' is what she told herself as she downed a bit of it. To her surprise, it's like her magic cache was refilled almost instantly. "What is this?"
He waved the air and shook his head.
"It's not nothing. This actually helps greatly! You left me one before but you weren't around for me to ask you..." her curiosity with it made him crack a smile but he shook his head and pat hers. He was going to walk past her but then stopped. He placed the normal hookshot in her hand and showed her the new one. She blinked as she looked down at the contraption she'd only used once. Well, he was giving it to her now so she might as well try using it for herself.
They stepped out of the room only to find no one was there. Where was Ruto? Link sighed. She couldn't just sit there for a few minutes? They really didn't need this right now but finding her could be something they did along the way. Turning to go back into the room, she was about to question him but just sighed and decided to follow him anyway. When it came to temples, for some reason he knew his stuff so going with it just seems like the best thing to do. Back in the place where he got the longshot, tapped her and did a motion mimicking the use of the ocarina and she gave it to him. He thought back to the song he'd learned around the time he'd gotten the original hookshot. It was similar to the song that seemed to play in the temple they got the current sword he was wielding from he also noted but ignored that and played the melody. The blue block in the floor disintegrated, leading to some place below. He looked down and before she could stop him, he'd already jumped down. She looked down to see him rolling. A moment later, he was standing normally and signaling her to get down there.
"How many jumps are you gonna do today?" that caused him to grin as he folded his arms. "You gonna catch me or what?" he sighed, unfolded his arms and held them out. She let out a sigh herself as she sat on the ledge. She scolded herself in her head. She trusted him way too much to be able to do stupid things like this but ah well... She pushed off, dropping fast the moment the small tunnel was no longer surrounding her. She positioned herself flat, landing securely in his grasp and she'd have looked directly at him if the sound of rushing water hadn't caught her attention first. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was a river..."
He turned them around towards what she was hearing. It did in fact look like one but the start of it was the platform they were standing on. There were no doors around so...that must be the only way out. Leave it to them to be stuck here...
"I see whirlpools...doesn't take a genius to figure out that's bad. How bout we go swimming?" he shrugged, her moving along with his arms since he hadn't been placed down yet. Sitting down at the water's edge, he placed her beside him and she swung her feet over to be in the water. They looked to each other and then slid themselves in.
.-+Z.e.L.d.A+-.
After current swimming, back tracking, block puzzles and more backtracking and more of the three things again, they came to a lone door right past a row of spikes. Grabbing a key, they went to open it. It took them long enough to even be able to open this door, it must at least be something decent behind it. Apparently not because all it seemed to be was an extremely odd swimming challenge and a room full of annoying tektites. Although she ended up being rewarded with the knowledge of Link's apparent swimming prowess. Oddly enough, she hadn't really caught glimpse of him doing it in this temple full of water until now, her only other chance led to her being unconscious of course...
Even after straining himself with that he went on and pushed one of the larger types of marble slabs in the next room. She found herself frowning, wondering yet again how he manages to do these things and if it was becoming too much on the man considering he was doing all this work above and under water wearing those heavy looking boots to boot. Hopefully they could find rest sooner or later, most likely in the form of the Castle, Kakiriko's Inn or maybe even Lon Lon's Ranch but she'd have to warn Malon to take it easy on him.
He'd returned with one of the larger keys, which was a clear signal of the trail coming to an end, great news to her as they then worried about where that went. Half an hour of pointless wandering (and to their puzzlement, still no Ruto) they found it to go in what was actually one of the highest points in the whole temple, if not actually it. Actually getting to the room though, the swordsman looked to her warily. Judging by the spikes across the upsloped floor, they'd have to sprint it. Sure, they've had to run from time to time but sprinting was another thing and whether she could do it or not would be a problem. Noticing his stare, she waved her hand towards him.
"I'll be fine. At least I believe so." she smiled up at him but that did nothing for his mood. Sighing, he stared at the three contraptions for a moment, lined himself against the wall and ran up when the pattern gave to okay for it. He made it up there just fine, now it was just for her. She'd noted what he noted. The timing and speed and such. She placed her foot on part of the incline, just to find it was steeper than Link had made it look. 'Then again, he makes everything look easy...' She took a deep breath, murmuring "okay" to no one in particular but made to run up the hill. She had made it mostly until she found that she needed more speed and her body was still a bit too tired to give her the energy she needed. To both of their dismay, she began to slid down the incline and toward on of the deadly metal barbs. With a quick idea that was a surprise to her, she hopped, landing on the flat top of the otherwise dangerous floor roamer. She looked up to see a mixture of things on his face. Confusion. Relief. Curiosity and just a bit of amusement. "See, told you I'd be fine."
He didn't know whether to nod at her or just shake his head but all in all, he was relieved that nothing had gone too wrong with letting her do things on her own. Considering that not only 1) his clients had never asked him to go temple diving and 2) he was dealing with the safety of a royal, the whole 'let her handle herself' process was a little worrying. After the first temple, he'd been more lenient with it and the more she asked the help, the more he learned to be fine with but it was obstacles like this that got him on edge. Working in the other temples seemed to have done her some good though, watching him probably helped as well. Although he watched on as she was now riding the second spike out of a set of three. The other wasn't too far and the question was more if she was going to continue the run up the slope or hopscotch it across. And judging by the way she was staring at the other set of moving spikes, hopscotch it was. After the scare she'd practically reached him with ease.
"Well, this is it." she forwarded to the door in front of them, trying to get proper control of her breathing. "Ready?" He nodded, as usual. She wondered idly if he ever cared what the challenge was but she quickly pushed that to the back of her mind as he unlocked the door, walking into what could be considered an odd room.
It had -wouldn't you guess it- spikes lining the wall and there was water in the middle of the room situated around four pillars. This was the only door to this place but nothing was inside... They proceeded into the room, looking around as they needed to assess things. She looked around the walls as he hopped unto one of the closer platforms. Suddenly, she heard a sloshing noise coming from around them but the echoes of the room seemed to be messing up the location. What she saw when she turned around made her face pale considerably.
"Link! Behind you!" he turned to see what had the girl frightened. It was an almost clear, gel like tentacle with something like a nucleus inside it and it was already prepared for an attack. He ran and rolled to the edge of the platform, quickly hopping over to where the princess was from the launched jump as it slammed down it's attack. Although he didn't get hurt from the attack, he didn't fully get away as the end of the gel creature managed to latch onto his ankle and pull him under. The princess went wide eyed but snapped out of it and leapt into action. Waving a hand towards the air above her, a ball of green colored light appeared and she dove into the liquid, making her first priority to locate the swordsman.
She didn't count on that being hard to do though. Although it looked like water, it was thicker in some odd fashion and keeping her eyes open proved to be a problem so she found herself squinting while trying her best to swim downward. She wasn't that far from him, her slight inability to see had tricked her for a moment but she didn't need much to get this done thankfully. All she'd done was brush fingertips with the other and before he knew it, they were back on the higher parts of the room and out of the water.
He exchanged a quick glance with her before staring back at the strange beast. He wouldn't let that happen again, he knew that much. If it hadn't been for Zelda, he'd have probably drowned, being yanked down by something you couldn't see for more than on reason was bad enough but that liquid just seemed to choke the air out of you faster than any normal water. The nucleus of the being had transferred itself up the jelly arm and float by him in an odd manner and considering you can't hurt water with a sword, that seemed to be the liable action for getting rid of this thing so on deductions alone he attacked it and was rewarded by a small pained yelp as it quickly fled back to the water. Obviously that wasn't good...they'd have to keep the...thing out of there. He reached back, lightly grasping the longshot and looking for where the creature had fled to.
The creature surfaced again but across the room. Looking at it warily for a moment, he suddenly go an idea. This one was longer than the other one so it should work... he fired the longshot, aimed for the nucleus and was rewarded with it coming clear or of the gel that was the rest out it's body. Striking it as many times as he could, it eventually bounced away and back to it's body. Once back into it, it reacted crossly, multiple limbs flailing around and striking at the swordsman. He dodged as effectively as possible, only able to tell one was coming crashing down by the slow arch before a quick slam down. He was able to hook it once more and attack it again. It screeched angrily as it bounded back into the liquid, striking at him once more.
Although he was able to dodge the same attacks as before because they were easily telegraphed, he wasn't expecting the sweeping blow to come behind the previous attacks, which meant it was heading for the both of him. The warrior went to block Zelda from the brunt of the blow, the princess throwing up a barrier as anything in the front was shoved to the back, including herself as the forcefield collided with with the spikes behind. It was when she saw a string of red blending with the gel that her heart jumped.
She turned her head slowly to meet the form of her protector fitted between two of the hazards against the wall, head down and unmoving. The royal blue held spots of muddied purples now. She was frozen in place and her hearing seemed to block out. Even the creature still writhing about hadn't bothered her, she was just focused on the only other thing, person, in the room. Where had he gotten stabbed? How many times and how bad was it? It seemed to be a lot of blood and he hadn't reacted yet. He couldn't be...that...could he? The tingling in her bag seemed to finally reach her along with the sloshing of Morpha. Blinking, she opened her bag and the fairy flew out. She'd forgotten all about having that with her. It circled around the warrior a few times and the princess stared as the wounds visibly healed immediately and he seemed to move a bit with a low cough.
"L...Link?" he lifted his head slightly, looking at her in response. His eyes were dark at the moment but at least he was responsive. And that's when something in her switched. Turning her view from him to the aquatic mass, she frowned. "You are sitting the rest of this out..." His eyes widened instantly and he made to move from his trappings just to be trapped by the transfer of her barrier from her to him. She looked to his longshot, then to her own hookshot. It wasn't as long but it should still work for what she had in mind.
The first thing she did was go to a different part of the room, trying to ignore the magic pulses of Link pushing at the blue wall he was currently trapped in. Moving out of the way of attacks weren't a problem, she proved it just earlier that day with dodging those arrows as well as she did. Once the creature made the mistake of revealing itself too close to her, she chose that time to attack. Hooking it with the point of the hookshot, she swung around quickly with a yell and slammed it into the very same spikes on the wall that was meant to capture them.
The creature squirmed and screeched against it's new holding but that didn't matter to Zelda at this moment. Since it was stuck there, she dropped the hookshot for now and held both hands in front of her, heat and energy gathering quickly. The squeals intensified as she cast a large Din's Fire on the core of the beast alone. It let an outcry of pain before shriveling up and bursting, no longer an obstacle for them. The rest of its body, the liquid, formed a pillar to the ceiling, reducing itself to a mere drop and ending itself as well. It wasn't too long before that familiar blue portal came into view but that wasn't her prerogative at this moment. Walking back across the room and shattering the barrier holding the in shock swordsman in place, she squat down in front of him, not looking pleased in the least.
"If you weren't hurt right now, I'd have slapped you..." Glancing down at where his wounds would have been, she remembered something. "Oh, right. The fairy healed you...that settles it." Hauling her hand back, she hit him square in the chest with an angered fist. He looked up at her in shock and confusion. "Realized that slapping isn't quite my style. Anyway, are you stupid?" he blinked at her, brows furrowing slightly. "Don't give me that face. What would've happened if I hadn't had that fairy? You're always doing that! Throwing yourself in ridiculous danger to stop me from being hurt. You just-" she found herself with clenching fists and scowling, bearing her teeth in fury. This guy...this stupid guy...
Link was more than surprised when she suddenly sat back, resting her forehead on her knees and clutching her pant legs tightly. Easing himself from being wedged between the stone daggers, he stared at her for a moment. There's that ball again. Knowing better than to do what he did last time because she was furious as apposed to being abashed before, he wondered what to do. This girl...just as helpful as she was confusing, he didn't know what to make of her at this moment. He could tell that the anger was covering something more but he wasn't going to bother it. What to do though? That was a hard question to answer.
She tried not to flinch when she heard his footsteps close to her. This was his fault anyway, she'd be damned if she started crying now, although she could feel it was coming despite her not wanting it to. It was then that she heard a whistle. That was random. Turning slightly, she saw him with his arm outstretched away from them both, catching the attention of the fairy still in the room. It floated in circle towards the noise, almost shyly coming to rest on his fingertips. He continued the soft note while lowering himself to rest behind her, their backs barely touching. He wiggled his fingers, bouncing the little creature since it was fine with him once again.
And they just sat there for a while. The silence of the room echoing the only noise for what seemed like a long while. Once he felt her shift over, he turned to her as well, wiggling the fairy at her for her to take it. She couldn't help the small smile as the pink puffball bounced along with it's amused twittering. She poked at the fairy lightly before taking it and bringing it close to her.
"Thank you..." her suddenly talking caused him to stop whistling for a moment, the confused look still there. "I was talking to the fairy...but you too I guess..." she playfully nudged him in the back with her elbow before standing. "Come on. I'm fine now, we can go. We've been here long enough..." Dropping down with him soon to follow and leading the fairy back to the jar, they stepped into the portal with their vision going white.
.-+Z.e.L.d.A+-.
"Why am I not surprised..." the hylian female scoffed lightly after she stopped having that floating feeling. She was facing none other than the M.I.A Princess, Ruto.
"Oh shut up..." she rolled her eyes and then looked down to the warrior and his apparently ripped wardrobe. "What happened to him? You got him hurt, didn't you?"
"I did not, he decided to be reckless when that happened!"
"But it was your fault probably!"
"..." she looked off somewhere, pointedly away from Ruto's glare. She then just closed her eyes and sighed. "Remember what we were talking about earlier? Well I'm apparently not as good at defending myself as I am with helping...I still have a long way to go..." It grew deathly silent in that room, the sound of water yet again being the only noise. At this point the zoran was actually beginning to feel bad. The other girl hadn't said another thing or even looked at her since that and reduced herself to just rubbing her arm and looking at the ground.
"W...Will you stop that? He's fine now, isn't he?" she huffed, stomping her foot suddenly. Zelda blinked, head snapping up quickly.
"That was...because of my fairy-"
"Well then, what does that mean?" she put her hands on her hips, still frowning. Zelda opened her mouth to say something but was cut off again. "You may have been the problem but you fixed what happened in the end, whether you tried to or not. So stop being so down on yourself you little idiot..." A blank stare and embarrassed glare were passed between the two and then the brunette began to smile.
"Huh...so you can be nice."
"Don't keep thinking that. You're buying him a new tunic." she huffed, haughty demeanor back in full force since the other was okay.
"Why do that when I can just mend this one." her eyes lowered suggestively. "But that does mean I'll have to get it off him first..." the other female's eyes lowered but it wasn't suggestive in the least.
"You little cheat!"
"I see him shirtless often anyway. I really don't see the big deal about it but the best thing about this one is you won't be there to see it. "
"You little-!"
"Ahem..." they both turned towards the little voice that came from nearly behind her.
"Oh, hey Saria, here again?" Zelda was quick to greet the newly arrived friend in the room.
"Uh...yes...um..." she had a faint blush on her face as she attempted to clear her throat again. "Just so you know, we sages don't have to be present to hear what you're talking about..."
"What?" while Ruto was only confused at what the little one was getting at, Zelda was that and a mixed of things.
"It's...it's like an intercom. You can ignore it or not when people are in this room and this was very hard to ignore...Zelda..."
"Sorry...I was mostly just messing with Ruto. Please ignore most of what you heard..."
"What does it matter?" the zoran asked, attitude slightly reduced but not fully gone. "That just means you were lying."
"Just because I was messing with you doesn't make it any less true, I was just telling her to ignore it."
"So you-"
"Princess Ruto, will you please do what you're supposed to be doing..." the kokiri was exasperated at this point. She may be the eternal child but this girl was giving her a run for her rupees...
"Yeah, yeah, fine...'I am Princess Ruto, the Sage of Water and for getting past this trail I will bestow upon you the Medallion of Water' here." a sphere suddenly appeared, revealing itself to be the royal blue medallion coming to a slow spin and then reducing in size to connect to her bracelet. "Now back to that other matter-"
"No! Will you let her leave? You can go talk to her later, this is not the place for that!"
"Oh, fine! Jeez! Who are you to boss us around anyway?" Zelda laughed as the last thing she heard was the slight arguing of the two girls she'd love to refer to as friends.
A/N: sorry for being in such a rut...oh my god it was terrible...but to make up for it you got 11 pages of goodness XD now to get on with my other stories (I have to ban myself from doodling to get this done so you better appreciate it!)
~Ruru out