Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda Series or its characters. I also do not own "Beauty and the Beast", "Les Miserables", or any other musical or piece of music mentioned in this story. This story is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Hello, everyone! Thank you again for your continued support! As always, please leave a review! I'd love to hear what you think! Enjoy chapter 12! ~Opal
Chapter 12: Lake Hylia
We rode our horses through the field, the approaching sunset making the sky look like it was on fire. We must have been in town longer than I thought…We came to the edge of the field and came up to the hole leading to Lake Hylia. I turned to Sally, who was a little befuddled. "So, do we grab what we can and jump?" She asked.
"You can do that…" I said as I grabbed a few of my things off of Epona's saddle. "Or you can do what I'm doing." I took out my communication orb and pressed a button on it, aiming it at my belongings. My bags, sleeping bag, and my tent shrunk to the size of coins.
She looked at me with awe. "How the heck did you do that?"
"What?" I questioned. "You've never seen magic before?" I chuckled softly.
"I guess not…" She smirked as I pocketed my pint-sized items. "It's really cool!"
I held my communication orb in front of her. She looked at me with uncertainty. "Hold it." I told her. She took it in her hands. I pointed to the place to press on the orb. "That'll shrink your items."
She pointed the orb at her items and pressed the button. Her belongings shrunk and her face lit up, a big smile covering her face. "That's awesome…just awesome!"
"I know. It is." I smiled proudly.
She laughed. "You're acting like it's nothing? Do I smell pride?" She gave me a sprightly smile.
"What? Pshh! No!" I said jokingly. She put her items into her pocket.
We both looked down the hole. "You ready?" She asked.
"If you are." I replied. She said a prayer, drawing an imaginary cross across her shoulders and down from head to toe. I chortled. "You'll be fine!"
She looked at me again, a little unsure of the validity in my comment.
I sighed, stretching my arms over my head and then putting them down and rolling my shoulders. "I'm jumping on the count of three!" I shouted. "One…two…"
"Okay!" She yelled. "I'm coming!"
I turned to her. "We're going to hit water, so remember to take a deep breath." I instructed.
"Okay." She said, stepping gingerly to the edge. She hesitated.
I bumped into her, pushing her forward. "Whoops! I'm sorry!" I laughed as she fell, screaming at the top of her lungs. I jumped, yelling more out of excitement than fear.
With a splash she was in the water. Milliseconds later I crashed into the water as well. She surfaced before me and then I came up. She looked at me angrily while treading water, droplets dripping from her hair. "That wasn't funny!" She gritted her teeth.
I grinned. "Yes it was!"
She rolled her eyes and whirled herself around to get a full view of the lake, the water around us glistening in the evening sunlight that was barely peeking over the ridge. "Wow!" She exclaimed in a whisper, her mouth agape in awe.
"Pretty cool, huh?" I said as she slowly nodded.
"It's amazing!" She said excitedly.
"That's why I like it so much." I looked around at the surroundings as well, and then up at the sky. The moon was already visible, along with some stars that were faint. We swam to shore and stood up, taking our shrunken bags out of our pockets and preparing to set up camp while there was still daylight. I took out my communication orb and pressed the button once more while aiming it at our objects, enlarging our items back to normal size. We worked together to set up a tent and a fire pit out of rocks and dirt. When those were finished I grabbed my water canteen out of a bag and took a drink from it. I tightened the cap once again and turned to Sally. "I'm going to get some firewood." I set the water canteen down.
"Okay." Her eyes met mine. "…Would you like some help?"
"No. I'm okay." I responded, walking away. I knew that some of the trees nearby would provide sufficient wood for the campfire. I walked over to a tree and started snapping off some branches. I then moved on to the next tree, and the next, and the next, doing the same thing until I had a large bundle in my arms. As I walked the short distance back to the campsite my stomach groaned. Guess I'm hungry… I came back and set the bundle in the small fire pit.
Sally grabbed some flint out of a bag and helped start the fire. We sat by it for a minute, completely silent. My stomach growled again, this time much louder. Sally laughed. "Is your stomach talking to you?"
"Hmmm?" I said while looking in her direction, acting like I hadn't noticed. I scratched my head. "I guess so…"
"Well, what sounds good for dinner?" She grabbed the bag of food supplies and started digging through it. Before I could respond she spoke up again. "Oh! I know! And we don't even have to cook it!" She took out a bag that held a piece of raw meat and snickered. "You do prefer it this way, no?"
"Hahaha…Very funny…" I said sarcastically.
"Okay. What's your idea?" She inquired.
She handed me the bag and I began to look through it. I took out the meat and some corn. "We can cook both of these."
"Sounds good." She said.
I took out a small iron cage with a long stick at one end to cook with. I put the meat inside and began to cook it over the fire, holding onto the end with one hand. Sally put some water into a small pot and put it on top of a metal stand that was also over the fire. She carefully dropped the ears of corn into the pot and watched them boil. When the meat and corn were finished cooking we ate and chatted. By the time we had finished eating it was completely dark outside, the campfire being the only source of light, casting a glow on each of our faces.
I sat by the fire and watched it as Sally took out her journal that she writes music in. She took out a feather pen and unscrewed the cap of a small jar of ink, placing it on the ground near her to use. She dipped the pen in and began writing, so engrossed with the page that she didn't look up for much of anything. She was so engrossed in fact, that she didn't notice me move over next to her to look at the music she was writing. "G minor…" I said. "So it's a sad song?"
She looked at me, surprised how I figured that out just by looking at the key signature. "Yes." She answered as she looked at me. "So…" She smiled. "You know more about music than you admitted?"
"What?" I scoffed. "Nah, it was just a lucky guess." I laced my hands together and put them behind my head.
"Right…" She elongated the word. She dipped her pen once more into the ink and continued writing as I looked over her shoulder at the paper again. She looked at me again. "What?"
"Nothing." I answered. "I'm just watching…"
The corners of her mouth turned up into a small smile. "Marcus used to say that all the time."
"He did, did he?" I asked.
"Yes. He used to watch me write music a lot when we were younger. Sometimes we'd even write music together." She paused. "Only, after he told me 'I'm just watching,' he'd correct me on how to write the music just to tease me." She chuckled. "It didn't matter if I was doing it right or not, he'd always poke at me."
"That's funny." I said with a pleasant smile.
"Yeah…" She lowered her eyes. Obviously she wasn't as happy. My smile faded in reaction. She then looked at the fire. "I always figured it was because he liked me, but he'd never admit it." She dipped her pen into the ink again and continued to write.
I felt bad about reminding her of him. We were quiet again. She was once again focused on the music. I took the moment of silence to think about everything she had done for me. I felt like I still needed to thank her. "Sally?" I spoke up.
"Yeah?" She turned her head to face me.
"I just wanted to thank you for all of your help when I was injured. I really appreciate it." I reddened, my shyness dominating again.
She beamed, a little bit of melancholy in her eyes. "You're welcome."
"I'm so sorry about your loss." I looked at her earnestly. "I can't imagine the pain you're feeling."
"Thank you." She looked at me, and then back at the fire. "…I'll be okay." She paused, looking up at the sky. "I just…I feel like I will be more at ease once the monster is dealt with."
"That's understandable." I said. "This monster needs to be stopped before it can harm anyone else."
She nodded. "Yes, which is why we're working together to stop it."
"Yep." I replied.
It was getting late, so we both grabbed sleeping bags and went into the tent. She laid her sleeping bag on the left side of the tent, and I laid mine on the right side; staying as far away from each other as possible. "Goodnight." She said as she laid her head down.
"Goodnight." I said back to her, laying the left side of my head on the pillow.
As I slept, I found myself thrust into a terrible dream. Sally and I were at the City in the Sky. We found the monster up there and it nearly killed us both. It then picked me up and threw me over the edge, roaring as I fell through the sky. What was most disturbing was as I fell, I saw it eat Sally. I screamed at the top of my lungs, but not just in the dream. WHAM! I felt something hit me really hard and I finally woke up, lantern light filling the darkness of the tent. Sally was standing over me, holding an iron frying pan like a sword. Sally's eye was twitching and I moaned, rubbing my head where she had assaulted me. "Really now?" She huffed. "Screaming at the top of your lungs; completely disregarding the fact that some people like to sleep?"
I continued to rub my head. "That really hurt!"
She sighed. "Why were you screaming, anyway?"
"I had a bad dream." I sat up as she sat on her knees near me. "The monster we are after ate you and attacked me."
She looked puzzled. "It ate me?" She blinked twice and shuddered. "That's really weird…"
"It's a dream." I shrugged. "No one said it had to make sense."
"True." She said, "You have a point…" She looked at the frying pan and then back at me. "I…"
"Hmmm?" I hummed, my eyes drooped from tiredness.
"I'm sorry about…you know…" Her eyes cast to the side. "Hitting you with that pan…" She pointed to the pan.
"No worries." I said as I took out my communication orb. "4am…" I mumbled sleepily.
"Really?" She asked. I nodded. "Wow…" She said while her mouth opened wide for a yawn.
"We'll have to get up in a couple of hours to make a good headway." I said as I lay back down. "I'll try not to scream in my sleep this time." We both laughed. She went back to her sleeping bag and shut off the lantern, lying down with her face away from me.
I fell asleep for maybe an hour, but then I couldn't sleep anymore. I woke up and rubbed my face, noticing that the early morning sunrise was brightening up the inside of the tent. It was still fairly dark, but now I could actually see what was around me. I looked over in Sally's direction and as I did, she tossed in her sleep, her face in my line of sight now. I looked at her and smiled, thinking about how pretty her face is. She mumbled and buried her face into her pillow, exhaling through her nose. Suddenly she opened her eyes. "Why are you looking at me?"
"Huh?" I blushed. "What do you mean? I was not looking at you…"
"You're sure about that?" She said questioningly.
"Ummm…yeah…I wasn't…" I said, turning my face away from her to hide my crimson lie.
She chuckled. "We might as well get up now since we'll have to soon." She sat up.
"Alright." I stood up and began rolling up my sleeping bag. She did the same.