FicWad

Chapter 4
The Castle Town


We left the area where the Great Deku Tree had lived and just died. I couldn’t believe he was gone. He was an idol to all of these children, even Link but I think Link was too concerned with helping me mourn than mourning himself. It was pretty dark out, so we decided to crash at his place for the night. There was no reason to go to the castle. The Princess was probably asleep, anyway.
I decided to bathe, or at least partially bathe, under the waterfall that was by the shop. No one was out, anyway, but I still kept my clothes on. My clothes needed washed because it still had guts and egg junk on it. I had no soap because it didn’t exist back then, but I just wanted to at least wash away the dirty feeling.
I took off my boots and dipped in the pool of water. Since it was dark, it was also cold so I hesitated a lot before getting in. I took off my hat before dipping my head in the water. Surprisingly, Max was not in my hat. He and Navi were really upset after the Great Deku Tree had passed and I think they went out together to just talk for a second.
I desperately wanted shampoo and conditioner for my hair, but I knew I would never find any, so I just put random mud in my hair and lathered it. The mud probably didn’t do anything for my hair, but it still felt rather nice. My hair did feel smoother, though.
I didn’t know that someone was watching me and all, but I heard someone in the bushes. It made me angry so I shouted, “Alright you perv, you can come out of the bushes now.”
The bushes still moved around, but no one came out.
“I’m not mad at you or anything,” I said, “I just don’t like to be stared at, especially when I’m trying to wash myself…sort of.”
There was still rustling in the bushes, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. I got out of the water and went towards the bush. It was in front of Saria’s house, so I didn’t bother putting my boots back on. The grass felt soft on my feet which were really sore from being inside the Great Deku Tree.
“Hello,” I said. “Who’s there. It’s okay to come out. I won’t hurt you.”
I got close to the bush and a zigzagged tail popped out. It was yellow, a rather bright yellow at that. It was wiggling around and I made the mistake of grabbing it.
Why was that a mistake, you might ask. Well, the next thing I knew was a jolt of electricity went through my body. For some reason, it didn’t hurt too much. I mean, it didn’t even hurt a little bit, but I felt it.
I pulled this tail out of the bushes and a whole body came out. It just kept releasing electricity out of these red, circle pouches on its cheeks. It was saying something every time it released the jolts, but it definitely wasn’t in English.
“C’mon little guy,” I said, “quit shocking me, you’re going to wake people up.”
“Ash, what is that?” I heard Link shout. I looked over and he was standing outside of his tree house.
“I don’t know, but this thing keeps shocking me,” I said. “Weird thing is though, it’s not hurting me at all.”
Link climbed down the ladder. He was wearing these light green, footsie pajamas and a floppy hat similar to his casual one, but with a fuzzy ball on the end of it.
Link got over to me and I looked up and down at him and said, “You’re not serious, right?”
“About what?” he asked.
“Your pajamas are stupid, dude,” I said, “but I’m sure I’m not the first one to tell you that.”
“Saria said they were cute…” Link said and he trailed off.
The poor little creature I was holding was panting and its jolt of electricity started to get weaker. Not only could I tell by feeling the jolts, but I could tell by how much light the electricity was producing. It dimmed even more as it went on.
“Wow, let me hold it,” Link said.
“First, let’s go inside of your house, I don’t want this thing to get away.”
I decided to leave my boots by the waterfall and climbed up the ladder to Link’s home. I was good enough at the whole ladder climbing thing to now climb with one hand, seeing as the creature I had was still hanging by its tail.
We entered Link’s home. Despite getting up to see what I was doing, Link’s bed was freshly made. He seemed to be a fairly tidy person and I hated tidy people. But, it made me smile when I looked over at his couch thing, which he put a big cushion on and made me a place to sleep. He even gave me one of his pillows and a stuffed ball with wings which must have been his “fairy” when he didn’t have one.
“Alright, let me hold this thing now,” Link said.
I handed him the thing and he held it by it’s underarms, looking at it square in the face. The thing was still angry, so it shot out electricity and Link, like a missile, shot back and hit the wall above his couch. Luckily for him, he landed on the big, fluffy cushion.
I quickly grabbed the little thing and held it. I stared into it’s all black eyes and it blinked. It decided to shock me again, but I didn’t fly back or anything. I thought it was odd, especially since I had previously taken a dip in water and nothing was hurting.
The thing got tired I guess and it put it’s ears down. I could see the look of defeat in its eyes so I sat down on my couch cushion, where Link laid unconscious. I laid the thing down and it went straight to sleep by the stuffed fairy. I tried to wake Link up, but he wouldn’t budge so I was forced to sleep on the couch with him and the thing, whatever it was.

Later that night, I felt Link moving around. His face was all distressed, but he was still asleep. He must’ve been having a bad dream. I watched him as his nightmare kept going. It must have been intense to because I could see all his muscles getting tense. I didn’t know what to do, so I shook him and tried to get him to wake up.
Link awoke in a cold sweat.
“Oh, thank God that was just a dream,” Link said quietly.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I just had a nightmare is all,” he said.
“What was it about?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you were here to wake me up.” Link smiled and laid back down. I laid back down, too. The creature was still asleep between me and Link. I petted it’s pointy, yellow ears. It was rather furry and bizarre looking.
I decided not to rile my brain up about what it was because if I lingered on the thought too long, I would never be able to return to sleep.
I would just wait until morning to figure out what it was.

That morning I woke up and saw Link packing a bag, the creature was smelling my head for some reason, and the fairies were swimming in a cup of coffee, or at least that’s what the liquid looked like it was.
I sat up and the creature sat on my lap. Link turned around and smiled. “Good morning,” he said. “I hope the couch was comfortable enough for you. I found you a cushion so you wouldn’t have to sleep on the wood.”
“It was fine, thanks,” I said.
I wasn’t sure what to do. I could bet that Hyrule didn’t know a thing about dental hygiene, so I didn’t need to brush my teeth. I hadn’t been hungry since I got to this dump, so I didn’t need to eat breakfast or anything. I felt awkward in Link’s house, though. I felt awkward that we both slept on the same thing and I felt awkward that he was the first thing I saw that morning.
I decided to go out and get some fresh air for a bit and the creature followed me. I climbed down the ladder, but the creature just tilted its head and said something like this: “Pika.”
“Pika?” I said. “Like Topeka?”
The creature looked dumbfounded and shook it’s head. I held out my hands and said, “C’mon, I’ll catch you.”
The thing jumped into my arms. It was rather light and very cuddly. As I walked on, the thing went from my arms to my shoulder and sat there. It kept looking around rapidly and sometimes climbed on my head to see things better. Once we got to the pool of water, I put on my boots and put back on my floppy hat. The creature leapt off my shoulder and started to eat the grass.
“You’re really cute,” I said, petting it as it ate. I started to scratch behind it’s pointy yellow ears and it cooed, “Pikachu.” Its foot started to move, too, like a dog’s would when you got their sweet spot on their bellies.
“Can I ask you some questions?” I said.
“Pika,” it said and it smiled.
“Alright then. Are you a girl?”
“Pikachu,” it said in a deep voice and it shook its head.
“So you’re a boy?”
“Pikachu!” it shouted in delight.
“Are you from around here?”
The thing shook his head no.
“Well, do you have a name?”
He shook his head again.
“Would you like me to give you a name?”
“Pik-Pikachu!” he said and he nodded.
“How about Lemon.”
He shrugged his shoulders and I read his mind
“Yeah, that’s not that creative I suppose. How about Pineapple?”
This things face said no.
“Percy?”
Nope.
“Uh, Lime?”
Nope.
“Squash?”
The face I got from him was a face of total disgust.
“Cheese?”
Nope.
“Milo?”
No.
“Lux?”
He started to nod and smile.
“Lux it is then,” I said. I thought he would like that one. It means light in Latin, but it has that sting to it, lik electricity does.
We made our way back to Link’s home. I was looking down at Lux who was walking beside me at my feet. He smiled. It seemed he was really happy to be with me, which I was extremely happy with. I still wasn’t sure what he was, but he was awful cute. His yellow fur shined in the light of the morning sun as we made our way towards Link’s home.
Before I looked ahead of me, I saw a foot tapping furiously on the ground. I looked up and there was Mido. He looked angry, which I understood, but I didn’t want to deal with anything at that moment. I was still a bit tired from being woken up the previous night before so I could be grumpy.
“Ash, get out of my forest,” Mido said.
“Well, the Great Deku Tree told me and Link to leave anyway, so let me just get him and we’ll be on our way,” I said. I put my hand on the first step of the ladder and Mido grabbed my wrist.
“The Great Deku Tree is now dead!” Mido said. “I knew you would cause trouble, just like that green guy did when he walked in. I saw you talking to him. You both planned on killing the Great Deku Tree, didn’t you?”
“No,” I said. He was glaring at me. His eyes would not leave mine.”
“Get out of my forest,” he repeated. “Link is not leaving, he can’t. The Great Deku Tree would never put one of his children in danger. You’re going to kill Link, too. I honestly don’t see anything special about him, but the Great Deku Tree thought he was special, so I have to protect him now.”
“Let go of me,” I said.
“No,” Mido snapped.
“You’re just going to have to trust me on this. I did not kill the Deku Tree, nor will I kill Link. That green guy is named Ganondorf Dragmire. He laid a curse on the Deku Tree and me and Link busted our butts to try and save him. You might not believe me, but I have a job to do and so does Link. You’re not the boss of us, even if you think you are. Now let go of me and get out of my way.”
“No,” Mido said again.
Mido suddenly took out a knife and put it to my throat. He then said, “Do as I say and you will be fine. I don’t care about Hyrule, you can help that green man and take it out, but you will not get my forest.”
This kid then pressed the blade further on my throat and said, “Prepare to die, my friend.”
Suddenly, Lux used his electricity on Mido. Mido fell over from the pain and Lux jumped on him, yelling at him. Link came out to see the commotion and jumped off the platform of his home.
Mido broke some sink when the blade of his knife was on my neck. Link saw it and then looked at Mido. Mido was pinned on the ground by Lux with his knife beside his palm. Link walked forward and kneeled so he could talk to Mido.
“I know that this girl pushed her blade to your throat,” Link said, “but you were acting like a five year old not letting us pass anyway. Ash never broke the skin on your neck, but you did on hers, which tells me that you were planning on killing her. I have to leave with her now, but if we do come back, you better not lay a hand on her, you disgusting kid.”
Link stood up and Lux jumped off of Mido. Link shouted for Navi and Max and they flew down to us.
“Let’s get on our way,” Link said, smiling.
“Sounds good,” I said. I touched my neck which was barely bleeding. I really could’ve been dead, but Lux saved me. I looked down at the little guy who was walking beside me.
It was then that I realized that he would be my partner until the end.

We were on a bridge between the fields of Hyrule and the forest. It was scary for me to leave the forest, but I had to go outside of the forest at some point to help its fate. However, it was probably even scarier for Link seeing as the Kokiri thought that if they left the forest, they would get sick and die.
We stood at the bridge for a bit and Link looked out towards the woods. They were called the Lost Woods or something, but I hadn’t really explored it yet. I was just waiting for Link to be ready to leave these woods. After all, he had lived there his whole life.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Link said, “I just can’t believe I’m leaving, you know?”
“Yeah, it must seem pretty wild.”
“Or scary…”
I sighed and looked out. “We have to leave sometime.”
“Yeah, I know.” Link paused for a few seconds and then he looked at me. “I’m ready to go.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“As sure as I’ll ever be.” He smiled and we started to walk away.
“Link, Ashley, wait,” a voice said. I turned around and saw Saria standing there. “Ashley, I’m going to give you and Link something, but I want to say a few words to Link before he leaves.”
“Well sure, you can say what you want to,” I said.
Saria grabbed Link’s hand and took him over to the edge of the bridge. I waited for a couple minutes and they talked. Link and Saria hugged and she handed him two things. They both looked like potatoes.
Saria left with a tear or two in her eye and Link looked at me and handed me the potatoes.
“Yum, food,” I said, even though I thought it was weird to give someone potatoes as a parting gift.
“No, these are ocarinas,” Link said. “Saria must have made them for us both. She loves to play them. She’s played on ever since I could remember.”
“Wow,” I said and a blew into the tip of it. It produced a horrible sounding note.
“We’ll work on your playing later,” Link said, “let’s get out of here now.”
Link quickly left and I followed. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what. So, to keep myself from bothering him any further, I decided to not say anything. I knew we probably had a big adventure ahead of us and I didn’t want to stress him anymore than I had been.
When we passed through the log that led us to Hyrule, the morning sun shown right as soon as we reached the other side. It must have been scary for Link to see the sun because in the forest, you could barely see the sun through all the trees above you. We walked a bit forward because there was a path of trees beside us and, at the end of this path, there was a bright, open field.
“Wow,” I said. It was beautiful. There were hardly any trees and this wall that I really wanted to climb on, just to look over some things. I walked a bit further, mesmerized by the view. Even at home I had never seen anything that beautiful.
“Well, we better keep going,” Link said. “I would sure like to see the princess as soon as we can.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I said. I came back to earth and started to walk with Link.
The further we walked, the more we got to see. The field opened up to us a whole new look of things. I had never seen a field like this and Link had never seen anything beyond the forest. It was amazing to the both of us, but we had to keep walking. I was sure there would be plenty of time later to explore the vast world of Hyrule.
We came to a draw bridge which was down.
“This must be the castle,” Navi said. “We should find the princess soon.”
Link and I walked over the bridge and into the square. It was called the market place because it was extremely busy and also because there were various shops. I thought of buying some clothes to replace the stupid tunic, but as I looked at the clothes that the women were wearing, I decided that my tunic was just fine.
Link decided to split up for a little while. Link was in a weird mood so I didn’t want to mess with him. He just needed some alone time because whatever Saria told him must have really beat him up.
I walked around a bit and found a potion shop. There was only one shop in Kokiri so I needed to see what other types of shops were around. There might have been something really important that Link and I had been missing out on.
I went to a potion shop that was the closest shop to the entrance, but I had to leave Lux outside since he was an animal of some sort. Inside there was a rather young, cute guy mending the store. When he saw me, he shouted, “Hello, my dear. Could I interest you in some potions?”
Behind him on shelves, there were bottles and they each had different things in them. Some were liquid and others were solid items. There was a green and red liquid, a jar with a fairy in it, a jar with a blue flame in it, and then there was the guy’s cute face.
“So, I see you were interested in what you were looking at,” the boy said.
“Well yes, I guess you could say that,” I said, trying to be all cute. I leaned on the counter and the boy said, “Well, the green and red potions here might be what you need.”
The boy turned around and reach for both of the potions. He sat the potions on the counter, jerking his head to move the hair away from his face. I always had things for guys with long hair and all I could say was that this guy was my dream man.
“What do these potions do, may I ask?” I said.
“The red one refills you life,” the boy said, “so your heart will be energetic and maybe feel in love with something. The green refills your magic so you can keep casting those magic love spells, like the one you casted on me.”
“I casted no such thing,” I said all cute.
“Well, you must have magical eyes because when I looked in them, my heart flew.”
“Oh, you’re too kind,” I said.
“Well, would you like to buy these? I’ll include the bottles for no extra price.”
“Yes, I would.” I pulled out some rupees that I had gotten while in the Deku Tree and paid for the bottles. The boy counted the rupees, but handed a blue one back.
“How about I pay you and then you come on a date with me tonight?” he said.
I died a little on the inside, but I had to say no. Link and I had a mission to do and I couldn’t just stop for a silly little boy.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I really can’t,” I said. “I would explain to you what is going on, but I was told to tell no one.”
The boy became a bit sad, but I said this: “I will still be around to see you. Just because I have an adventure doesn’t mean that I can’t see you ever.”
“Alright,” the boy said happily. “I will wait for you, my love.”
The boy put his hand on mine and smiled at me.
“Before you go, my princess, could you please tell me your name?” the boy asked.
“My name is Ashley,” I said.
“Well, my name is Matthew. I will never forget your name, but if I don’t see you enough, your beautiful face might escape from my mind.”
“I will be back, Matthew, so don’t worry,” I said. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, then took my bottles and left, waving rather flirtingly to Matthew as I walked out the door.
I put the bottles away, had Lux get on my shoulder, and continued to look around. I decided to go to the shooting range. They said, if someone broke their record, that person would get a prize so I walked in. This would definitely kill some time, anyway.
I walked in to find a rather big, ugly dude at the counter.
“Aren’t you a little young to be in here?” he asked.
“Well, can I try this with a slingshot?” I said to him and he nodded. I sat some rupees on the table and went to the counter ahead where one had to stand to shoot at the targets.
“Alright girlie, here we go,” the man said and I heard a ring.
This game, unfortunately, was rather easy so I knocked out all of the rupees, which were the targets. Once I hit the last one right on, the rupee burst into shiny, little pieces.
“Congrats, girlie,” the man yelled. “You won our greatest prize!”
The man handed me a bigger pouch, so I could hold more seeds. I unwrapped the one I had around my waist and replaced it with the bigger one.
“Thank you,” I said and I left.
I walked out and saw a girl who was singing. This girl was actually pretty good at singing, so I walked up to her and listened. She opened her eyes after she sang the ending note of her song and said, “Oh, you must be a child from the forest! I love your clothes.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“I saw a boy dressed up just like you. Are you guys siblings, or better yet, are you married?”
“Well, no, we’re, um, friends, I guess.”
“Well, this guy seemed sort of upset though. Did you make him angry.”
“No, he’s just irritated.”
“Well, my name’s Malon. Do you know the Lon Lon ranch?”
“I’m new here, so no.”
“Well, it’s this beautiful ranch right in the middle of Hyrule field. We have horses, cows, and chickens, but my favorite is the horses.”
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“Well, my father went into the gates of the castle this morning, but as you can see, the sun is setting. He has this terrible habit of dozing off. I’m afraid he’s asleep and all.”
“I, uh, have to enter the castle anyway, so I could look out for him. What does he look like?”
“He’s rather chubby and has a big, round nose. He’s wearing overalls.”
“Is his name Mario?” I asked.
“No silly, his name’s Talon. What kind of name is Mario?”
“I’m not sure, a pretty dumb one, I guess.”
“Ooh, what’s that cutie pie?” Malon asked. She was looking at my feet and pointed at Lux.
“This is my, uh, shrew, Lux,” I said faintly.
“He is so cute! Where can I get one?”
“They’re extremely rare. Just look in bushes and you might find one.”
“Alright!”
“Now, I’m going to go and find your father after I find my friend, so wait here, or at least wait around here, and I’ll bring him here to you.”
“Alright, but I need to give you this egg.”
Malon handed me an egg, oddly enough and said, “Since you technically can’t get into the castle until the morning, I want you to have this. I’ve been taking really good care of this egg, so it should hatch in the morning. My father only wakes up to the sound of a chicken, so you will need to find a place to at least crash for the night.”
“Do you have somewhere to go for the night?” I asked Malon. I didn’t just want to leave her by herself, especially in a town at night.
“Oh yeah, I can stay somewhere tonight,” Malon said. “I’m friends with a woman here. This isn’t the first time my father has fallen asleep in the castle.”
“Alright, well I will see you tomorrow. Thank you for the egg.”
“You’re welcome!” Malon said and she waved childishly and went somewhere.
I had to find Link before it became dark. I didn’t know what to do or where Link was, but I walked around everywhere. Once it officially became nighttime, I had searched everywhere and still had no success.
I wondered if Link had gone outside of the town and out to the field, so I went back to the entrance. The draw bridge was up, however, so I sat down with my back towards the draw bridge. I was so tired and just wanted to find that kid.
“Link, where the hell are you?” I shouted to the sky.
“I’m over here!” I heard a voice shout. I then heard something banging on the other side of the draw bridge.
“Link?” I said.
“This is him, now hurry, I have skeletons all over me!” he yelled.
“Skeletons?” I asked. “What the heck do you mean by skeletons?”
“These things just started to dig out from under the ground! Now get that draw bridge down and get me away from these things!”
“Well, I don’t know if I can do that exactly.”
“Hey, try to see if Lux can do something,” Navi shouted.
I looked down at Lux who had something in his mouth.
“Spit that out,” I whispered and Lux spit out Max. “Now Lux, can you climb up walls?”
“Pika?” he said.
“Up there, climb the wall and save Link and Navi.”
“Pikachu,” Lux seemed to say with determination. He looked up the wall and then looked at his surroundings. He suddenly jumped on a tree and then a roof. Lux was on the edge of the wall surrounding the castle town, probably trying to find the lever to pull the thing.
It wasn’t too long when the draw bridge started to go down. Link and Navi rushed in and I took out my sword and started to cut down the skeletons. They burst into dust and didn’t come back. After you took down three of them, though, three more decided to dig itself up.
“Why won’t these things just rest?” I said aloud.
Link and I were back to back, surrounded by these damn skeletons. They just kept coming and coming for, after awhile, they decided that more than three should come out and fight us.
“So, what should we do now?” I asked.
“I don’t really know what we should do,” Link said, “but I’m getting really tired right now. I’ve been out here for awhile and now that you showed up, everything is even worse.”
Where’s Lux? I thought.
I was scared Lux had gotten caught or lost up on that wall. I didn’t want to lose him. But, my reader, I should’ve been the one worried about getting caught because soon the soldiers of Hyrule’s Royal Family came down to see why their draw bridge was down.
They quickly destroyed the skeletons around us.
“Well, thank you!” I said excitedly.
“By order of the King of Hyrule, you two are now under arrest,” a soldier said. He grabbed my arm and I shouted, “Hey, what the hell’s wrong with you?”
“Sergeant Harold, please remove the weapons from these two?” the head soldier asked. “Put them in cell 26. We’ll later discuss whether these two should be killed or tortured for their crimes.”
“I’d rather be killed,” I said.
“Soldier, shut this dame up,” the head guy said again.
Then, I felt something big hit the back of my head and all I remember was passing out.