The Legend of Fairies.
Quick Note – In the previous chapter, I mentioned where every Fairy Tail member is going to be at in Hyrule and I've decided to go with the locations I came up with. Erza will be in the Forest Temple, Wendy in the Fire Temple, Carla in Lon Lon Ranch, Gray in the Frozen Cavern and Lucy in the Water Temple.
There was one last thing I want to mention before we head into the chapter and that is the incarnation of monster talking. Here is the incarnation of what monsters are going to say for the rest of the chapters.
"Monster Talking."
Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Seven: The Forest Temple.
"Link, are you sure this is a temple?" Natsu questioned with a raised eyebrow, as he stared at the Forest Temple. "It looks like a haunted mansion."
What Natsu said was true, the Forest Temple had the appearance of a haunted mansion instead of a temple, which the haunted mansion makes perfectly sense because of one reason and one reason only. It was built in a dark forest and became abandoned.
Due to the temple being built years ago when Hyrule was created by the three goddesses, it was old and falling apart, but still having strong structure to keep the temple from collapsing. Semi-tall, white columns had numerous cracks on it and the walls were filled with vines that stretched all the way to the roof. Vegetation had taken over the temple, which made the temple become alive like the forest, and numerous monsters had made the said temple into a haunted place. For the finishing touch, the temple was very dark and eerie quiet.
"I agree with Natsu, Link." Happy said in agreement, also raising an eyebrow from staring at the Forest Temple. "It does look like a haunted mansion instead of a temple."
"Don't judge the temple because of its looks, boys." Link chided, even though she agreed with Natsu's and Happy's logic about the Forest Temple being a haunted mansion. "While the outside does look like a haunted mansion, the inside will be like a temple. It will have puzzles we need to solve; traps we need to avoid and monsters we need to slay, including the boss of the temple. We cannot avoid letting our guard down when we are in there. You might never know what will happen to you if you drop your guard. You two got it?"
"Got it." Natsu and Happy said with a nod of their heads.
"Perfect. Without further ado, let's get going."
Natsu, Link and Happy had just walked a couple of spaces when they were confronted by two wolfs, but these wolfs looked different than normal wolfs. For instance, they were standing on two legs instead of four, had shaggy grey and black fur, two sharp bone claws on each paw, a cartoonish wolf-like faces and glowing yellow eyes.
The pair of wolfs were currently snarling and baring their teeth at Natsu, Happy and Link, causing the group to sweat drop from the 'warm welcome' they received before Natsu and Link pulled out their weapons and engaged them. Happy summoned his wings and flew up high in the air to avoid getting attack by the wolfs. But as he did so, he notice a small chest on top of a tree and decided to open it, which revealed a small key.
'It looks like we're going have to look for these keys if we want to progress further in the temple.' Happy thought, landing on the tree and putting the small key in his green bag. 'I'll keep the key in my bag for now.'
"Link, how do you defeat these wolfs?" Natsu yelled, blocking a series of attacks by the wolf he was facing with his sword before sending a thrust attack at the wolf's chest. But to his dismay, the wolf avoided the attack and began circling him like a person in a cage.
"Attack them in the back! That's their weak point!" Link exclaimed, deflecting a series of attacks by the wolf she was facing with her shield before smashing the said shield in the wolf's face, causing the animal to become stun. Link quickly went around the stun wolf to face its back, walked backwards a bit to create room before doing a powerful jump attack that instantly killed the wolf and making it release a high-pitch howl before exploding into dust.
"Got it!" Natsu exclaimed, quickly forming a plan to get behind the wolf and attack the weak point. Once he had one, he rushed towards the wolf and used his left hand to shoot a small wave of fire, causing the wolf to let out a scared whimper from seeing the fire. Natsu took advantage of the wolf being scared by running around and thrusting his blade in the wolf's back, causing the animal to let out a howl of pain. The wolf struggled a bit to get the sword out of its back, but Natsu bonked the wolf on the head, which send it to the ground, and forcefully stepped on the wolf's neck, instantly killing it and making it explode into dust.
'Seriously, what is up with the monsters exploding into dust?' Natsu thought, blinking his eyes a few times and wonder why the monsters explode into dust. 'I'll have to ask Link about it.'
"Well, that was a bit intense." Link said, putting her weapons away and walking towards Natsu, who was brought back to present by her voice. "Been seven years since I last fought one of those monsters."
"What were those things, Link?" Happy asked, flying back down when the wolfs were defeated and landed on Link's head. "They looked different than normal wolfs." Natsu also wonder what those wolfs were.
"They are Wolfos." Link replied, resisting the urge to hug Happy. "Wolf-like beasts that appeared in the forest long ago. They like dark places and attack anyone who would go near them."
"You think we're going to meet more of them in the temple?"
"I don't know, Happy. Each temple we're going to be facing will have different monsters in it, so we would just have to be prepared for what we're about to face."
Happy didn't like the idea of not knowing what monsters he, Natsu and Link have to face but didn't voice it out and just nodded, even though Link didn't see it.
"Now that those wolfs are out of the way, did you find anything useful on top of those trees, Happy?" Natsu asked, putting his sword away. "Like a map or something?"
"I found a key." Happy replied, pulling out the key he found out of his green bag and showing it to Natsu and Link.
"Well, at least that's useful." Link stated, earning an odd look from Natsu. "What? It's true."
"Whatever you say, Link." Natsu said, shaking his head a bit. "Shouldn't we be heading inside the temple?"
Happy and Link nodded their heads and the group walked over to a wooden door that leads inside the temple. Once they walked through it, they found themselves standing in a dark, slightly wide but narrow hallway that was made of stone and filled with cobwebs and vines, which were on the ceiling. There was also a wooden door at the end of the hallway, which wasn't lock for some reason.
The group made their way towards the wooden door on the other side, but when they reached the middle of the hallway, a rustle noise can be heard in the ceiling, along with the sound of clinking. The group became tense by this but didn't had time to figure out what the sound was when something suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and block the group's way. The something turned out to be a giant spider. It had a white, skull-shape body with two empty eyes at the top and an upside-down, V-shape nose. It also had red glowing eyes and two sharp pincers. It was connected to the ceiling with a single thread.
"Holy shit! That's a big spider!" Natsu exclaimed, staring at the big spider with wide eyes.
"It's scary!" Happy yelled, hiding behind Natsu's head. "Link, what is it?!"
"That's a Big Skulltula! Their stomach is their weak point!" Link exclaimed, pulling out the Master Sword and went to engage the big spider. It took less than a minute for the Big Skulltula to get killed by Link, who had to wait until the spider turn around to expose its weak point so that she could attack it. When the monster exploded into dust, Natsu and Happy were very confused from how easily it was to kill a very weak monster.
"Wait, that's it?" Natsu and Happy asked at the same time. "That's how you kill that spider? By just waiting until it turns around and expose its stomach?"
"Well, that's how I killed them when I was a kid." Link said with a bit of defense in her voice. "I couldn't use Deku Nuts to penetrate its tough body, and my sword was just a small dagger. There was no way it could pierce the Big Skulltula's body."
"Why not use the Hookshot, Link?" Happy suggested. "It has a pointed tip that can pierce anything such as the branch you aimed at. It would be a perfect weapon to kill those Big Skulltulas until you can find an appropriate weapon to use like a bow."
Link's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates when Happy suggested the idea of using the Hookshot to kill the Big Skulltula and immediately felt like an idiot. She didn't even realize that she had a weapon to pierce through objects and now that she does have a weapon, she didn't use it but her sword instead.
"L-let's just move on." Link said in a small, slight timid voice, turning around and began walking towards the wooden door at the end of the hallway. Natsu and Happy followed her.
The group were now standing in the main room of the Forest Temple, which consisted of a large room with multiple doors and raised platforms with stone railings and stairs leading up to the doors. Like the hallway and the entrance of the Forest Temple, the room was filled with vegetation. In the middle of the room was a four-way, square-shape, stone fence with four lighted torches of different colors, which were orange, blue, green-yellow and purple, and an elevator in the center. There was also a red carpet surrounding the stone fence.
"It looks like the boss of the temple might be in the basement," Link stated after taking a moment to look around the main room. "We'll have to take that elevator in the center if we want to confront it, but before we can do that, we need to find the boss key for the boss door."
"Why do we need to search for the key when we can just use my fire magic to open the boss door, Link?" Natsu asked, tilting his head to the side. "My magic can burn anything, including locks."
"Yeah, what Natsu said was true, Link. His magic can burn anything, including locks." Happy agreed with his foster father. "We just head towards the elevator, go down to the basement, go the boss door and burn the lock off to face the boss of the temple. It will be very fast, and we won't have to spend all our time exploring the place. We'll be out of here in just a few minutes and not only we'll get rid of the curse that looms over the forest and the temple, but we can also save Saria so that she can awaken as a Sage. What do you say, Link? Are you in with the plan?"
Link was completely silent as she thought about Happy's plan and Natsu's suggestion of using his fire magic to burn the boss door lock. She had to admit that the plan, along with Natsu's suggestion, was a pure stroke of genius and she was tempting to agree with it so that she can save Saria, but there was a flaw with the plan. A flaw that made a dreaded feeling appear in Link's stomach. It was the lighted torches and the elevator.
'I don't want to turn down the plan because I want to do it the normal way, but I don't want to do the plan because this is way too easy.' Link thought with an inner frown. 'I mean, why are the torches lighted instead of blackening out? Why reveal the elevator so early in the temple instead near the end? And why fight the boss without the dungeon item? I have a feeling that the lighted torches are more than just flames, but just to be sure, I'll go along with the plan.'
"Yeah, I'm in, Happy." Link finally said, getting rid of her thoughts and putting on a bright smile on her face. "Let's go with your plan." Link's agreement caused bright smiles to appear on Natsu's and Happy's face.
"So, what are we waiting for?" Natsu asked, feeling extremely giddy of facing the boss of the temple. "Let's go!"
The group started to make their way towards the elevator in the center of the room, but when they reach the edge of the stairs, a whooshing sound can be heard in the room, causing the group to stop in their tracks and listen carefully. They became tense when the whooshing grew louder and just when Natsu and Link were about to reach for their swords, the whooshing sound immediately ceased but something shocking came next.
The colorful flames extinguished, and the elevator was starting to sink downwards.
"NO!" Natsu shouted, getting out of his tense state and darting towards the elevator. "Don't sink downwards, elevator! We need you to take us down to the basement!"
"Natsu, wait!" Link exclaimed, also getting out of his tense state and hurrying after Natsu. "It might be a-" Link didn't get a chance to finish her sentence when Natsu was suddenly sent flying backwards and crashing into her, causing the two of them to collapse on the floor and let out groans of pain.
"Natsu! Link! Are you okay?!" Happy yelled, flying over to the down Natsu and Link, not noticing the elevator had stop sinking downwards and was now in the ground.
"W-we're fine, Happy." Natsu replied, shaking his head to clear the dizziness and slowly sat up into a sitting position. Link copied the same actions as Natsu but moved to the side so that she can sit next to him. "But I want to know what hit me."
"You didn't see anything that hit you, Natsu?" Link asked, turning towards Natsu with a frown on her face.
"No, I didn't. I was right there to stop the elevator from sinking downwards when something sent me flying. There was nothing in my way. Who could've sent me flying back?"
"We happened!"
The group froze when they heard four high-pitch voices and looked over to see four floating figures on top of the blacked-out torches, each of them wearing an evil grin on their faces. The figures were small, yet large enough to come up to Natsu's and Link's height, and their looks caused the group to become tense. Said looks consisted of black arms and pitch-black faces with glowing eyes. The figures wore cloaked outfits that was the same color as the colorful flames and they were carrying a small torch in their hand, which said torches were lighted with the extinguished colorful flames.
"Who are you all?" Link demanded, quickly standing up and pulling out the Master Sword. Natsu also copied Link's actions but he lighted his left hand on fire to produce light.
"We are the Poe Sisters! Haunted spirits of the Forest Temple!" The figures, known as the Poe Sisters, exclaimed in unison. "And our job is to make sure you three don't reach the boss of this temple!"
"Well, hate to burst your bubble, ghosts," Natsu said in a mocking tone, causing the Poe Sisters to become angry from what they were called. "But me and my friends here have a job to do, and that job requires terminating the boss of this temple. You will do us a favor by going back to those torches and light them up again so that we can use the elevator." Instead of doing what they were told, the Poe Sisters let out high-pitch cackles, making Natsu angry. "What's so funny?!"
"Because of what you just said, human! Why should we do what you requested?" The Poe Sisters asked with sneers on their faces. "We do not take orders from filthy humans. But don't worry, we will go back to our places after we play a game."
"A game?" The group asked, becoming tense from hearing the word 'game.'
"Yes, a game. It's called Poe Hunting." The Poe Sisters explained. "It's really a simple game and easy to explain. All you have to do is just go around the temple and look for us. Once you found us, you have to kill us."
"That's it? That's the game?" The group asked in confusion. "Just look for you four and kill you?"
"Only killing us will restore the torches and rise the elevator back up. If you can't find and kill us, no getting to the boss of the temple and you won't be able to awaken the Sage."
The group turned to look at each other, not liking the option of going around the temple and look for the Poes. They were on a mission to save Saria, not play a game. But if they had any chance of saving Saria, they had no choice but to do what the Poe Sisters says: By playing the Poe Hunting game.
"Alright, we'll play your game." The group said, turning to look at the Poe Sisters.
"Perfect!" The Poe Sisters exclaimed with wide grins. "So, here's how the Poe Hunting game works, humans. We four are going to split up and be in different corners of the Forest Temple. Once we are there, we will be waiting for you three to come to us. Don't worry about us moving to a different spot, you have our word that we won't leave the said spot or the temple. However, there will be a problem when you find us: You can't attack us if you don't have the dungeon item. Only the item will help you defeat us and the boss of this temple. Do you understand the game?"
The group nodded their heads, understanding what they have to do.
"Alright, but before we start the game, we have something that you three might be interested in. It involves with a human that just appeared out of thin air."
That statement got the group's attention, particularly Natsu. Could the Poe Sisters be talking about one of his friends? If so, he was going to force the Poe Sisters to reveal who the person is and go save that person.
"Who is this person you four have?" Link demanded.
"What makes you think we're going to tell you?" The Poe Sisters asked snidely.
"You will tell us who this person is, or we'll use necessary force to get the answer out of you." Natsu replied, taking a bold step forward.
"If I were you, human, I wouldn't take another step forward. Just because we're not going to say anything, doesn't mean you're going to threaten us. You will soon meet this human near the end of the temple. For now, let the Poe Hunting game begin!"
Before the group can do anything to stop them, the Poe Sisters floated up into the air and flew in different directions, letting out high-pitch cackles as they flew, and because they had torches with the colorful flames, it caused the room to become very dark with barely any light to see.
"COME BACK HERE, YOU COWARDS!" Natsu roared with rage and anger, surrounding himself in an orange aura and looked ready to demolish the place down with Dragon Roar attacks. Seeing that Natsu was about to go on a rampage, Link quickly put the Master Sword away and ran over to wrapped her arms around him, causing the Dragon Slayer to calm down somewhat. "Link, let me go right now!"
"Natsu, calm down!" Link yelled with authority in her voice, tightening her hold on Natsu. "I understand you're very angry that the Poe Sisters didn't tell you where your friend is, but you need to calm down! Acting like this and going on a rampage could cause the temple to fall on us!" Link's voice change from authority to softness. "We will find this friend of yours in the temple, Natsu. You have my word, but would it help the situation by destroying the temple?"
Natsu felt his anger and rage replaced with sorrow and ashamed, making him hung his head. He had done it again. He was about to become reckless and destroy the Forest Temple, all because the Poe Sisters refused to tell him about the location of one of his friends. Didn't Natsu swore to himself that he was going to stop acting childish and start acting like an adult? He did, but instead of doing he was supposed to do, which was starting to act like an adult, he was still acting like a child, just rushing into things without a plan and letting anger consumed him. He was no better than a naïve toddler who doesn't know the words 'mature' or 'manners.'
'No matter how hard I tried, I will never act like an adult.' Natsu thought with sadness. 'Despite what Link says about me, I am a disappointment.'
"Natsu? Natsu, you there?" Link's question brought Natsu back to the present and he looked to see a worried look on Link's face. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just lost to my thoughts, Link." Natsu replied, giving a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "And to answer your question, it wouldn't do any good by destroying the Forest Temple." Natsu's eyes gain a harden and steel look that made his obsidian eyes glow a bit. "But once I find one of the Poe Sisters, I will utterly destroy and burn them until they are nothing left."
Natsu's statement caused Link and a silent Happy to gulp a bit fearfully. They almost feel pity for the Poe Sisters. Almost.
"Anyway," Natsu said, losing the harden and steel look in his eyes. "Since our plan to take on the boss of the temple has been shot down, we need to come up with a new plan."
"A new plan? Natsu, we already have a new plan to begin with. Which is explore the temple and look for the Poe Sisters, including the dungeon item." Happy stated, a bit incredulously of Natsu's thinking. Why come up with a plan when they already have a plan to begin with?
"I know that, Happy, but I just want to come up with a plan in case we three get separated. You never know when something will suddenly come out and grab you."
"It's a great idea, Natsu, but I doubt any monster would grab us." Link stated, feeling confident that nothing would separate the group from each other. "However, that doesn't mean we're going to ignore that idea. If we do get separated, we just need to remain calm and backtrack a few steps to a room we would meet up. Would that work for you, Natsu?"
"That works." Natsu agreed, nodding his head. Happy also agreed with the plan and nodded his head, too.
Link smiled at the responses before she became serious. "Alright, if that's everything, let's get started on exploring this place." Hearing this, Natsu and Happy became serious and nodded their heads once again.
The first thing the group did after they agreed with Link's plan was looking around the main room to see if they can find the map of the temple. Without it, they wouldn't be able to find the dungeon item or the person the Poe Sisters were talking about, but to their disappointment, they didn't find it. It was only until the end of search that Link had pointed out some important items, like the map they were looking for, are in different locations in temple and when Natsu asked why she didn't point that out earlier, she became embarrassed and didn't say anything.
"Well, since we wasted a bit of time from looking for a map that's in a different location," Natsu said with a bit of annoyance in his voice, giving a pointed look towards Link, who became further embarrassed. "I supposed we better check out one of the doors in the main room."
"Agreed," Happy seconded, also having annoyance in his voice. "But which door should we pick?"
"Well, the door in the upper-right corner is shut tight by metal bars, the door on second level and on the right side behind railings is something I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to go through," Natsu began listing off the doors he saw during the search for the map of the temple. "And I'm not sure if there's another door in the upper-left corner since there's a blue block blocking the way. Which means the only doors we can go through is the one that's on the opposite side where we came in and the one that has a lock on it."
"Wait, did you say a blue block was in the upper-left corner, Natsu?" Link asked once Natsu finished listing off the doors, her embarrassment vanishing.
"I did, Link. Why do you ask?"
"I think I can make it disappeared." Link's reply caused Natsu and Happy to become surprised and a bit doubtful. How can Link make the blue block Natsu saw disappeared?
"Really? How?" Happy asked, still feeling doubtful.
Link didn't answer to Happy's question but just smiled and pulled out her ocarina, causing Happy to drop his jaw in total bafflement. He couldn't believe an instrument of all things can make the blue block disappeared, which made him wonder if Link hit her head when she was a kid.
Natsu's reaction from seeing the instrument, however, was the opposite of Happy's reaction. His obsidian eyes lit up in understanding and his doubts washed away. "Your magic ocarina! It can make the blue block vanished!" He had learned what caused the Redead at Castle Town to freeze during the group's visit at Kakariko Village.
"Exactly," Link replied with a nod, her smile growing. "I've seen the blue block before when I got the Hookshot in Kakariko Village but didn't know how to make it vanish. Luckily, Navi explained what the block was and how to make it vanish. All I have to do is play the correct song."
"Prove it," Happy challenged rudely.
"Happy! Don't be rude!" Natsu scolded his best friend.
"It's fine, Natsu, no need to defend me," Link calmly assured the pink-hair man, unfazed by Happy's rudeness and doubts. She has a history of people doubting her when she was a little kid and she can think off three people in her mind: Mido, Darunia and Ruto. Mido will never change his doubts about her, not that she cared since she isn't friends with him, but both Darunia and Ruto had gotten rid of their doubts when she cleared Dodongo's Cavern and gotten Zora's Sapphire from Jabu-Jabu, which caused two different races in Hyrule to become friends with the Heroine of Time.
Natsu was outraged by Link's dismissal. How "No need? He insulted you and your magic, Link!"
"And I'm about to erase Happy's doubts, Natsu," Link countered with a bit of sternness in her voice. "Words won't convinced people since they are ignorant, self-centered and having trouble to accept facts or statements, but actions will. Wasn't it you who told me about that when we were in the Temple of Time? When I asked how you were not surprised at my doubts?"
Before a rather surprised and shock Natsu had a chance to reply to Link's question, the said person made her way towards the blue block with Happy flying closely behind her. Natsu couldn't believe Link used his own words against him, but after quickly thinking for a moment, he realized she was right. Link had the right to use his own words against him because Happy was doubting the Heroine of Time and the only way to wash away doubts was to show the action. Showing action was the only way to convince people that they are telling the truth, otherwise the said people won't believe it.
'Not that I don't blame Link for Happy doubting her, but did she really have to use my own words against me?' Natsu thought with a small scowl on his face. He felt like a child being reprimanded by his mother, not that he ever had one since he had no memories of her, and he didn't like it. It reminded him the times Erza scolded him for doing something stupid. 'She could've just said using action to convinced people instead of saying the words I said when we were in the Temple of Time, but what's done is done. Can't change the past.' With a sigh, Natsu walked over to where Link and Happy were, the duo standing in front of something.
The something was actually the blue block Natsu saw. It was large enough to pass over both Natsu's and Link's height, something that made them a bit frustrated, and it had maze-like markings on it with a circle in the middle.
"So, this block was the same one you saw when you got the Hookshot, Link?" Happy curiously asked, tilting his head. The block didn't seem anything special, but appearances can be deceiving.
"Yes, Happy, this is the same block I saw before." Link replied, walking forward a bit to be near the blue block and raised her ocarina near her lips. "And I'm going to make it vanished by playing the correct song for it." With that, Link raised the ocarina to her lips, closed her eyes and began playing music. The song sounded ancient and old, like it hasn't been played for many years and just recently starting to come out in the open.
As Link continued to play the song with her ocarina, Natsu's and Happy's attention was focused on the blue block, waiting for it to disappeared. For a moment, they thought the song wasn't going to work, but it was proven false when a sudden pillar of blue light came out of the block, small at first before growing larger to engulf the whole thing. And then, when Link reached the end of the song and pulled the ocarina away from her lips, the blue pillar of light, along with the blue block, vanished to reveal a door behind it.
"Holy Mavis!" Natsu and Happy exclaimed at the same time, staring at the spot where the blue block originally was with wide eyes. "It worked! The song worked!"
"Well, I told you guys I can make the blue block disappeared," Link said, turning around to face Natsu and Happy with a triumph look in her bright blue eyes. She wasn't going to act smug and haughty like Mido and Ruto – the former being smug and the latter being haughty – but she was going to show her own attitude of being triumphant and confident.
"And you were right about that, Link, you made the blue block disappeared." Natsu said, feeling a grin spreading across his face.
"Okay, after seeing the blue block vanished, I'm now convinced Link was telling the truth," Happy said after being silent for a moment. "I'm sorry for doubting you."
"It's okay, Happy, we all doubt one another and the only way to convinced people is to show action."
"Alright, enough with the doubting, guys, it's getting a bit old and tiring." Natsu said with a bit of impatience and annoyance in his voice. If he hears the word 'doubt' again, he was going to lose his mind. "Let's get started of exploring this place. We have wasted a bit of time and I want to find my friend."
"Okay, then let's come up with another plan, Natsu, this one being a good one," Link said, losing the smile on her face and becoming serious. "Since there are two doors in the main room we can go through, let's split up in two groups. Me and Navi will go through the door on the opposite side where we came in, while you and Happy go through this door."
For some reason, Natsu didn't like the idea of Link going by herself in the temple. There was many traps, puzzles and monsters that awaits them, and they don't even have the dungeon map. What if she gets lost? What if she gets hurt by a monster? What if she dies? That last what if caused Natsu to pale. No, there was no way in hell the group was splitting up. They were going to stick together.
"No, I don't like the idea of splitting up, Link," Natsu said, shaking his head to get rid of the dark thought of Link getting killed. "Let's just stick together and go through the opposite door before moving to this door we found."
"Why, Natsu? It would save us the trouble of exploring the two upper-corner rooms since they could be connected." Happy stated, wondering why Natsu didn't approve the plan of splitting up. "Plus, if we explore the rooms, there might be a good chance we might find the dungeon item early or the human the Poe Sisters were talking about."
"Happy's right, Natsu," Link agreed, giving the Exceed a nod of gratitude before turning to face Natsu. "Splitting up is the best idea because not only we search every room, but there might be a chance we find your friend. I don't understand why you don't want to split up into two groups."
"Because we don't have the dungeon map of this place and we could get lost or separated. Not to mention, this place is filled with traps, puzzles and monsters. There might be a chance we could get injured or die."
"We'll be fine, Natsu, as long as we have our weapons beside us."
"Are you even listening to me?!" Natsu was starting to become exaggerated by Link's dismissal.
"I am, Natsu! I just don't understand what the big deal is!" Link was now starting to shout at Natsu. What was his problem? Why was he so determined to not make the group split up? Was it because he thought of her as a weak person or was it something else? She was hoping for the latter because she was not a weak person.
"I'm scared to lose you, Link!" Natsu revealed, placing both of his hands on Link's shoulders and stared deeply into beautiful, purest sapphire-blue eyes that were filled with shocked and surprised. "I don't want you to die by a monster or a trap in this place. I have already lost my friends because of that dragon in my world, I'm not going to lose another friend, especially someone I'm starting to care about." Natsu's voice became softer and had a tinge of pleading in it. "I know you want to split up into two groups, Link, but I don't like it when you're by yourself. Can we please just stick together?"
"Natsu…" Link said, still staring at Natsu in shocked and surprised, unsure of what to say next from hearing his confession. What can she even say? That confession was probably the most emotional one she had ever heard in her life, even though it wasn't the romantic one she was hoping for, and what made it more emotional was the fact Natsu cared about her, which caused the blonde-hair woman to smile softly and shred a few tears. She can feel Navi's small form shaking a bit inside her hat and Link can tell the fairy was affected of the confession.
Link wasn't the only one shredding tears because of that emotional confession. Happy was releasing waves of tears down his face with snot combining with the tears. He knew Natsu and Link had an affection for each other, despite them being denial about it, but he had no idea the affection was large enough to the point Natsu doesn't want Link to go by herself in the temple. It proves that Natsu was changing from a kid to an adult.
'I can't believe how mature and serious Natsu is becoming and it's making me very proud of him,' Happy thought, as he continued to cry tears of joy from how his Natsu was finally growing up to be an adult. If anyone else from Fairy Tail learned that Natsu was growing up, they would've been deeply shocked at first before becoming proud of him. Elfman would even that Natsu was a real man. 'If he keeps this up, he might become S-Class when we get back to our world.'
"Okay, Natsu, you win," Link said after a few minutes of crying, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve. It took Happy a bit longer to stop crying until Natsu can hear Link again. "We won't split up in the temple or the other ones, we'll just stick together as a group."
"Thank you, Link, that means a lot to me," Natsu said with a smile on his face. "Normally, I would prefer splitting up because it'd be easy to search the temple and look for the Poe Sisters, but I'm concerned that we could get lost since the temple is deep in the forest."
"Yeah, people would get paranoid because of that, Natsu, and I'm quite glad you pointed it out. It completely slipped my mind." Link stated, impressed with Natsu's logic before a frown appeared on her face. "But I don't understand why you don't want to split up into two groups. What was the worst that could've happened?"
(Time-Skip)
As it turned out, sticking together as a group was actually the best plan instead of splitting up because there had been a couple of tough enemies to fight against, particularly Blue Bubbles and Stalfos. The Blue Bubble's appearance was a flying skull with small, devil wings and surrounded in blue fire. Natsu had tried to eat the fire so that Link can deal some blows on it, but Navi quickly pointed out the said fire was cursed, causing the pink-hair man to back up. There are many things he can eat but eating cursed fire and his own fire is not what he can eat.
The only way to kill Blue Bubbles is to get rid of their flames by either using a shield or a Deku Nut, which Link used the former since the skull monster was charging right at her.
The Stalfo's appearance was, as Link said before, skeleton monsters. They wore no clothing, except a pair of armor shoulder-blades, a worn-out blue skirt with a brown belt and blue boots. Their main weapons were a dagger sword and a large, round shield. These enemies were the toughest to beat because they're not only once soldiers of Hyrule but intelligent and skilled. However, Natsu and Link are quick leaners when it comes to fighting and it didn't take them long to figure out the Stalfo's movements, even though they had gotten a few cuts and bruises during the fight.
The group was currently resting in a maze-like room on the second floor after pushing two blocks around and defeating a couple of Blue Bubbles. They had managed to acquire two more small keys – one was in a well that had to be drained since it was filled with water and the other was in a room with two Stalfos Link and Natsu had to defeat – and the dungeon map of the temple, which was used to locate the four corners the Poe Sisters were talking about.
However, when they were exploring the temple on the first floor, the group didn't find the human the Poe Sisters were talking about, which caused them to become extremely worried. It could either be the human was near the dungeon item or by one of the Poe Sisters. The group was hoping for the former since they don't want to fight one of the Poe Sisters when they're near the human. The worst case is that the Poe Sisters could be lying about the human and Natsu made a vow to send the ghosts send to hell if they're lying about his friend being in the temple.
"You just had to ask what's the worst that could've happened, Link," Happy stated with a bit of anger in his voice. He was laying on his back and staring at the ceiling.
"You were right, Natsu," Link said, ignoring Happy and lightly panting a bit from fighting monsters. Not to mention, she was starting to feel tired from how late it was. She was sitting on the ground and leaning against the wall with her legs in front of her, her sword and shield next to her.
"About?" Natsu asked, turning to look at Link. He wasn't panting lightly like Link since Dragon Slayers have a ton of stamina and endurance, but he was starting to feel tired. He was sitting cross-leg on the floor and keeping an eye out for enemies, his hand on the handle of his sword.
"About sticking together. If I went through the opposite door in the main room we came in, I probably would've gotten killed by the two Stalfos."
"I didn't like the idea of you going by yourself, Link, and I'm glad I trusted my instinct. I would've been devastated if you gotten killed." Natsu really meant that; he would be devastated if Link gotten killed.
'He really does care about me,' Link thought, turning her head towards the side to hide the blush and the happy smile on her face. 'I've never had another person cared about me when the Great Deku Tree died.' Her face became very sad when she thought of the old tree that had raised her. He was like a grandfather to her and had always protected her when she was bullied by Mido's gang.
The thought of the little children she grew up with made the very sad look on Link's face become sadder than before as she began to wonder. What happened to them for the last seven years after Ganondorf took the Triforce of Power? Were they safe and sound or were they already dead to begin with from the monsters that infested the forest? She was hoping the Kokiri's are safe because she couldn't bear to see the little children dead.
After a few more moments of resting, the group decided to move on and explore the second floor of the temple. They used another small key to unlock a door, leaving them with one more key to use, and walked through it to come across a twisted corridor with a red carpet that leads to another room at the end of the corridor.
"Okay, I'm going to vomit from being in this…corridor," Natsu stated, his face turning a shade of green from looking at the corridor. He knew he was going to vomit the moment they start walking in the corridor.
"Oh, please hold it in, Natsu," Link pleaded, trying not to imagine Natsu vomiting on the ground or near her. "I don't want to smell like vomit."
"I'll try my best to hold it in, Link, but make no promises."
And so, the group began journey through the twisted corridor, getting a bit dizzy as they walked. It was like walking into a spinning room. Natsu's already green face became greener and greener that puts the color grass to shame, which means he was on the verge of releasing the vomit he's desperately, yet unpleasantly, holding in. But to Link's and a dizzy Happy's great relief, they made it at the end of the corridor and Natsu's face return to its normal slight tan color.
"I'M ALIVE!" Natsu roared very loudly in the corridor, startling Link, Navi and Happy so much they jump a foot in the air.
"Holy Din, Natsu! Are you trying to give us a heart attack?!" Link shrieked, trying to calm down her beating heart from the sudden roar. That sounded like a dragon. 'Oh, wait, Natsu is a Dragon Slayer, so it would make sense a dragon would not only teach him that type of magic but passed on traits to sound exactly like one.'
"Sorry, Link, I was just glad to get out of that twisted corridor. Dragon Slayers tend to get motion sickness from being on transportation vehicles or anything that moves and before you say this corridor wasn't even moving, it was still enough to make me get sick."
"For some reason, Natsu, I can't argue more after you said motion sickness." Link gave Natsu a look of sympathy and pity. "I'm sorry you had to endured that for the rest of your life."
"It's okay, no need to feel sorry for me."
"Yeah, everyone feels pity for Natsu when he has motion sickness," Happy pointed out. "The only way to cure Natsu's motion sickness is to either knock him out or use a spell."
"The first idea doesn't sound pleasant," Link said with a frown on her face. How is knocking someone out a good thing to cure motion sickness? No, the second idea was much better than the first one.
"Well, it's the only option we have to cure Natsu's motion sickness, Link, since we don't have Wendy with us."
"Who's Wendy?"
"We'll explained about her later, Link," Natsu said, getting serious. "Right now, let's continued exploring this place." Without waiting for the others, he walked inside the next room, which made him paused. The room was completely bare of anything, but that wasn't what made Natsu paused. It was the fact the room seemed to be…twisted as well, like the 'floor' he was standing on was not the real floor but merely the wall and if the 'floor' was the wall, then the other 'wall' was the real floor.
Needless to say, Natsu was very confused.
"Okay, this is the most confusing temple I've ever been in," Natsu muttered to himself. "Whoever created this temple must've wanted the people who explored this place to get confused and frustrated at the same time." Because he was muttering to himself, Natsu didn't notice a shadow looming over him, but Happy and Link, who had entered the room with the former flying beside the latter, did and it was they who alerted Natsu.
"NATSU, WATCH OUT! ABOVE YOU!" Link and Happy screamed at same time, causing Natsu to quickly act on instinct and jump onto a raised platform in the middle of the room, just in time to avoid the shadow that dropped down where the pink-hair man had been standing a moment ago.
The shadow revealed itself to be a Wallmaster, which was a large, dead-looking hand with sharp nails and deep brown-purple skin. The sight of it caused Happy to freeze in horror because he had never seen something so horrifying in his life, except Natsu and Link, the latter drawing out the Master Sword and killing the Wallmaster in just a few moments. Like all monsters, it exploded into dust. Happy released a sigh of great relief when the monster exploded into dust and flew over to Link's shoulder to sit on.
"Well, that monster was charming," Natsu stated dryly, staring at the spot the monster was killed before jumping back to where Link and Happy were. "What was it?"
"A Wallmaster," Navi explained, coming out of Link's hat and flying near her head. "They come from dark places and would hang on the ceiling." When Navi said that piece of information, the group's eyes widen and they quickly looked up to see if there were more Wallmasters but they didn't see any, much to their relief, though they did notice a large, blue and yellow chest. "If they grab you, they won't harm you but take you back to the entrance of the temple."
"Better make sure we avoid them if we come across another room like this," Link said after processing the information in her head. "Although we have to come back to get that chest. It looks important."
"I was thinking the same thing as well, Link," Natsu seconded, sending a look at the blue and yellow chest. "And I think the only way to get to the chest is by shooting that silver eye switch back in the maze-like room." When the group had been resting, Natsu had noticed a silver eye switch above the lock door and wondered if it was connected to the next room. "But since we don't have anything to shoot at it, let's keep exploring. Happy, can you hand me the last small key so that I can unlock this door?"
"Here you go," Happy said, handing the key to Natsu, who went over to unlock the door that leads into the room. The room wasn't special at all, just having two sets of downward stairs and three paintings. The group noticed the first two paintings were filled with nothing when they were walking down the first flight of stairs, but when they looked at the third painting, however, they saw something that made Natsu's blood boil in anger.
It was one of the Poe Sisters the group was looking for. This was Joelle, the orange and the youngest of the Poe Sisters.
"Well, looks like you three made it after all," The Joelle said with a bit of snide in her voice. "I was wondering when you were going to show up."
"YOU!" Natsu roared, glaring angrily at the Poe. "You coward! I've been looking all over for your little ass! And now that I found you, you're going to answer my questions!"
"I ain't saying nothing, human, even if you burn my painting. And have you forgotten what me and my other sisters said in the main room? You can't kill us without the dungeon item."
"Then where is the item?" Link demanded, sending a fierce look at the Poe.
"It's in the next room after you walk down the stairs."
The group was surprised, yet very suspicious, of the Poe's answer. What if she was lying and the next room was a trap?
"How do we know you're telling us the truth?" Happy asked, glaring at the Poe.
"You just have to find out for yourself. You can either believe me or not." Joelle replied with a sinister grin on her face. "But since you three made it this far in a decent amount of time, I will tell you all a fact about my oldest sister, Meg, which is the purple one. When you're facing against her, she will summon three clones of herself and the only way to defeat her is to attack the one who spins in a circle. If you don't attack the real one fast enough, all of them will charge at you with their torches."
The group stared, not sure what to think of that information. Was it another lie? Or was it the truth?
"Once again, you just have to find out for yourself." Joelle let out the same high-pitch crackle before disappearing from the painting.
"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed from seeing the action the Poe did. "Come back!"
"Relax, human, I'm in one of the other paintings," Joelle called out from behind the group, instantly startling them and causing them to whirled around. She snickered at the looks on their faces. "We gave you our word that we won't move to a different location in the temple, but we didn't say we would move around in paintings. You're all going have to deal with it." Joelle let out another crackle before disappearing in the painting once again.
The group was silent as they stared blankly at the painting before they turned around and walked down the stairs, their minds thinking about what the Poe said. What was she playing at? Why had she given away the eldest Poe Sister's battle strategy? Did she hate her elder sister? The group wasn't going to ask the Poe that since it was a personal question, despite the fact the Poe wasn't even a human.
In the end, the group had decided on one thing: That conversation with the Poe Sister was very weird.
The group entered the next room of the temple, which consisted of a circular room with a hole in the middle. The missing piece for the hole was floating above them. The moment they entered the room, the door was lock behind a pair of metal bars and a Stalfo's appeared on the opposite side of the room.
"Oh, that's not fair!" Natsu exclaimed, taking his sword out and got into a fighting stance. "It can walk in the air, but we can't?!"
"You can complain later, Natsu! Let's defeat it!" Link yelled, quickly taking out her sword and shield and went to engage the Stalfo's with Natsu. They made sure to avoid fighting near the hole since they didn't want to fall in it. Who knows what would happen if they fell in the hole?
It took a bit longer than intended to kill the Stalfo's since it keeps moving towards the hole in the room, which was starting to get on Natsu's and Link's nerves, but Natsu managed to finish it off by delivering a very powerful kick to the shield that sent the skeleton monster flying backwards before crashing into the wall, instantly shattering it into pieces and turning into dust.
"Finally, it's dead," Natsu huffed as he put his sword away a bit forcefully than he liked. "That was the longest fight with a Stalfos ever and it keep moving towards the hole in the room."
"Yeah, it was annoying," Link agreed with a scowl on her face, putting her weapons away. "All those times we could've killed the thing vanished when it kept moving towards the hole. Honestly, sometimes I wonder-" She was cut off when the group heard a rumbling sound, causing them to look up to see the floating platform shaking a bit before dropping down where the hole is, fitting in perfectly.
Not long after the floating platform dropped down on the hole, two Stalfos appeared from the ground, leering sinisterly at the group.
"Are you kidding me?! More of them?!" Natsu shouted, growing frustrated from seeing two more Stalfos.
"Well, at least you two don't have worry about fighting near the hole," Happy pointed out, hoping the information would cool Natsu and Link off since they were starting to get cranky from the previous fight. It worked, but not enough to vanish the looks on their faces.
And so, Natsu and Link pulled out their respective weapons and engaged the two Stalfos, this time attacking them with aggression and force that made the skeleton monsters raised their shields to defend themselves. Although the shields were strong enough to deflect sword attacks, it wasn't enough for Natsu to use his Dragon Slayer magic, despite Link's protests of not using the magic. The only attack he used was a [Fire Dragon's Iron Fist]. It made sense to use this attack because it was a basic Dragon Slayer move, not one of most advanced Dragon Slayer moves that can bring the most destruction.
It took Natsu less than a minute to defeat the two Stalfos with his Dragon Slayer magic; Link had decided to step back and let him handle two skeleton monsters, just so he can release the frustration he had inside him when the group met the Poe Sister. When the last Stalfo's was defeated and exploded into dust, Natsu waited for a few moments to see if another Stalfo's was about to appear and when nothing happened, he released a heavy sigh.
"Thank Fiore!" Natsu exclaimed, putting his sword away for hopefully the last time. "If I meet one more Stalfos, I'm going to-" He was cut off when a light whooshing sound filled the room, causing the group to turn towards the center of the room where a large chest appeared.
"A chest?" Happy asked, staring at the large chest with a confused look.
"Could it contain the dungeon item?" Natsu asked, hoping the dungeon item is in this chest so that the group can go hunt for the Poe Sisters.
"Only one way to find out," Link replied, walking over to the large chest and opened it. Once she looked inside of it, a wide grin appeared on her face. "Now, that iswhat I need!"
"What?" Natsu and Happy asked at the same time. "What is it?"
Link reached inside the chest and pulled out the dungeon item of the Forest Temple, which is the Fairy Bow, an adult version of the Fairy Slingshot she had when she was a kid.
"Oh, cool! A bow!" Natsu said with a grin on his face, as he walked over to Link and looked at the bow. "That's useful to have."
"Of course. With this, I can now use arrows to attack monsters from long distances instead of getting closed to them. This will provide excellent cover fire."
"Do you even know how to use a bow, Link?" Happy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Not that I'm trying to be rude or anything, but I am curious since you don't seem the person to use a bow."
"I used to shoot things with a slingshot as a kid, Happy, so I can improvise of using a bow. I just need to practice a bit."
Silenced reigned over the group as they stared at the Fairy Bow in Link's hands. It may look like a wooden bow to anyone else, but it was special to Link because she never wielded one before. Well, that and the fact it came from the forest.
It was then Natsu realized something important, something he should've realized the moment Link show him and Happy the bow. The group had the dungeon item and if they had the item, then they have the means to kill the Poe Sisters and find the human they're looking for.
"Hey, since we have the dungeon item, guys, do you know what this means?" Natsu suddenly asked with a rather sadistic smirk on his face, breaking the silence and getting Link's and Happy's attention. "It's time to officially start the Poe Hunting game."
Link and Happy were scared at the sadistic smirk on Natsu's face at first, but after thinking about Natsu's last sentence and the Poe Sister's words they met in the previous room, they quickly understood and grew similar smirks on their faces like Natsu.
It was time to hunt some Poe's.
Before anyone can say about me not writing the group killing two of the Poe Sisters, there is a reason why I didn't write it. The reason why I didn't write the group killing two of the Poe Sisters is because I hadn't thought of this chapter very well. There were just so many ideas I had, yet I didn't like them because it seemed too much to write, and whenever I write something, I don't like how I wrote it, so I had to delete it and come up with another sentence to write.
So, in short words, this chapter was not thought out well. But a chapter is a chapter, and this chapter is something for you all to enjoy. And I also want to say sorry for the lack of chapter updates.
Also, if you guys are wondering why I'm calling Erza a human, the group doesn't know which person is the temple, so they just referring the person as a human.
The next chapter will be a new one because I'm not going to write another part chapter of the Forest Temple. In my mind, writing two part chapters is enough.
Write a review if you like this story and enjoy the chapter.
Next Chapter: Hunting Poe's.