FicWad

It took an hour or two, but as promised, the Gorons showed up. Link and I planned on staying to help the Gorons, but they told us that they would take care of it. We wouldn’t have been much help anyway, since we couldn’t lift most of the rocks ourselves.
So, Link and I left the Zora Fountain and followed the small Zora River stream back out to Hyrule Field. We untied our horses and made our way to Lake Hylia, which Link had never actually seen before. Seven years ago, I went by myself to try and find Princess Ruto who was actually buried in the ground by two scarecrows who thought she was a radish.
As we rode, the sun was rising for the new day to begin. My stomach growled as my eyes were heavy. I was used to the feeling however, and Link seemed to be as well. It had been a long journey for us both, but we knew we were far from being done. We just had to push forward.
When we got to the lake, I was petrified. The lake only had a tiny bit of water left. A small stream was coming from the Gerudo Valley’s river, which also fed off the Zora River. It was depressing to look at. The land itself was depressing. The grass was brown and dry and the garden where the scarecrows used to be was completely bare.
On a ledge in front of us was a house, which was most likely the house of the scientist that the Great Fairy told me about. It was tall and had an unsafe looking platform at the top which looked warped and poorly built. The house looked old with mold growing down the side. It leaned to the side a bit, which frightened me. It looked like the house would collapse in the lake.
“That’s where Ruto is, apparently,” I said.
“Are you sure?” Link said. “This house seems rather…unsafe. No one should be living in there.”
“I just heard this from the Great Fairy,” I said and I looked back at Lux and motioned him to jump off Lightning. I began to dismount my horse and said, “It wouldn’t hurt to look. I mean, it might be a couple hours and then the river might begin to flow again. I’m afraid that there will be a shock from all the water and a flood here.”
“…again?” Link said and he sighed.
“Yes, it will happen again. However, the last time the flood happened was because of my ocarina playing, so I bet a lot of shit went wrong. This time, we have a little more control.”
Link dismounted his horse and shook his head. “Whatever happens, I know it won’t be good. Therefore, for now, you and I need to stay together.”
I nodded and we just looked at each other for a second. Then I began to walk towards the lakeside house. With Lux at my feet, Staryu floating above, and Link and Coffee Bean behind me, we entered the lakeside home.
The building was dark inside. The only light was a serene blue that came from several aquariums and test tubes filled with fish and plants. The place even smelled alright and there was a small scent of salt water in the air. There were lab desks and notebooks, but no one in sight. To the left of us was a spiral staircase however, so I assumed that there were people up on the second floor.
“Hello?” I asked and waited to hear any sort of response.
“Oh, yes,” I heard a raspy, older sounding voice say from the second floor. “I will be down soon.”
After about five seconds, I saw figures coming down the stairs. One was a short, disgusting looking guy. His jaw seemed a little loose and he was missing tons of teeth. Behind him was a tall Zora and once it reach the first floor, I recognized it in an instant.
“Princess Ruto?” Link said and she looked at both of us. She was taller now and skinnier. She had the body of a female, but with fins added, since she was a Zora. She stood proud and smiled at both of us.
“Ashley and Link, is it?” she said and looked at Link. “Why Link…you’ve grown into a very handsome man. I guess it’s expected, seeing as how you were as a boy.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Link said and he winked.
“Yeah…he’s quite the guy,” I mumbled.
“And I can see you still haven’t lost that harsh tongue of yours,” Ruto said, but she smiled, so I took it as a compliment.
“You’ve grown yourself,” I said back. “Anyway, I was asked to find you by your father.”
“He’s alive?” she gasped and it seemed that she had tears welling in her eyes. “I thought the whole domain was dead. Ever since Ganondorf came and-“
I noticed that she began to get upset, so I said, “You can spare the details. We’ve already seen the domain. We’ll just need your help to thaw it.”
“What do you need me to do?” she asked.
We need to kill you, I thought and was about to say it, but I decided that probably wasn’t a good idea. “I don’t know yet,” I lied and smiled. “I just feel you will be a vital key to helping us.”
“I will do anything for my kingdom,” Princess Ruto said and that’s when I realized that she really had grown up. She used to be a spoiled brat, but now she was rather mature.
There was some silence and Link said, “What have you guys been studying?”
“Ooh, you want to know?” the creepy old scientist said. “We’ve been studying the lake monster.”
“The lake monster?” I said. It sounded like a conspiracy thing to me. Back at home, a lot of people went crazy after this creature named Big Foot and then there was a Loch Ness monster.
“Yes,” the scientist said. “This monster is responsible for the lack of water in Lake Hylia. At least, it is according to my studies.”
“Well, what about that flood seven years ago?” I asked.
“That’s only a myth,” the scientist said and chuckled. “You’re a silly girl.”
Only in Hyrule does a sea monster make more sense than a flood, I thought. But, that also meant that I wouldn’t be blamed for that flood, so I felt a bit more relaxed.
“I don’t think the monster exists,” Link said bluntly.
The scientist gasped and looked at Link like he was completely stupid. “It does exist. I have the evidence!”
“Whether you have the evidence or not doesn’t matter,” I said. “Link and I need to get the water back in the lake and figure out how to thaw the Zora’s Domain. Where is the monster at?”
“Ruto and I believe that the monster is in the Water Temple, which is under the water that is left in the lake,” the scientist said. “To get under there, you will need a certain suit and certain boots.”
“Actually, we have those,” Link said and pulled out a suit and a pair of boots out of nowhere.
“Excellent,” Ruto said. “Professor, you should go up to the watch tower and look out for the monster. I will get Ashley and Link ready to battle the lake monster.”
“Great,” the scientist said and he walked towards the stairs and started to slowly walk up them.
“So, I see you have the boots and the suit,” Ruto said. “Before we go to the Water Temple, we should try them out in this pool here. You know, just so you two get the hang of it.”
She stood there and smiled and Link and I looked at each other. “Uh,” I said, “that means we’ll need to change. So…can we go into separate rooms or something?”
“Oh, well…” Ruto said and she began to think. “I know! I’ll turn around and you two face away from each other. It looks like you both have under clothes on, anyway, so that seems safe, right?” And, without getting an approval from us, she turned around.
I looked at Link who held out another suit and a pair of boots for me. I gave him a nervous look and he just shrugged and began to take his shirt off. We did have white undershirts on underneath our tunics, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it was still rather…intense, I suppose.
It was awkward getting undressed in front of each other, though we were still clothed. But, we were both still awkward around each other since we kissed a day or so ago. Even though I avoided looking at him, I still glanced up to see him and he did the same for our eyes met once or twice and I swore, when that happened, a bolt of anxiety went through my body.
After we were done, we just awkwardly smiled at each other and I said, “We’re ready now.”
“Okay,” Ruto said with a smile, “but where are those fairies you two always had?”
“They’re in our hats,” Link said. “They tend to sleep quite a lot.”
“Good, because they can’t go with us to the Water Temple,” Ruto said. “Neither can any of those Pokemon, except for the Staryu above you two. Since it’s a water Pokemon, it can dwell under water. Anyway, follow me.” Then Princess Ruto dove into the pool of water at the back of the lab.
I took one step forward and almost fell on my face as Link was able to walk with those stupid boots. “Jeez,” I mumbled as I tried my hardest to keep up with Link, but it was difficult. He turned around before he dove in to check on me, I assumed.
“Are you alright?” Link asked.
“Never been better,” I said sarcastically.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be much easier to walk in the water.” Link then put on a warm smile, like he enjoyed watching me struggle to move. He giggled a little, which I assumed was because he wanted to tease me and my skinny legs.
I was able to reach it to the pool without breaking my ankles, so that was a plus. The only thing I was nervous about was jumping into the pool, seeing as I first wasn’t sure if I could breathe underwater and I wasn’t sure if I could get the boots off underwater if there was a problem. Link had no problem jumping in and, after a couple of seconds; I jumped in myself, seeing as he had no issues.
I began to float down to the pool floor and could barely see. The water irritated my eyes for a second, but after a while I was able to see clearly. I could see Link and Ruto clearly at the bottom. I took a huge breath as I drifted and it felt like I was breathing in a lung full of air. The suit must have been able to help whoever wore it breathe, like the Goron tunic helped anyone withstand high temperatures.
I felt my feet hit the bottom of the water and saw Link to my right. Ruto was in front of us both.
“Can you hear me?” she asked. Her voice was muffled by the water, but I could understand what she was saying. “As you have probably noticed, you can breathe under here. That will help you tremendously today. I will be in charge of helping you find and kill the monster in the lake.”
But you’ll die in the process, I thought and tried to picture a way that she would die. I didn’t want to kill her, but if it came to that, I guess one of us would have to do it. I was looking around while she went on about something and something terrible caught my eye.
“What the hell is that thing?” I asked and I pointed at what looked like a living shark behind a cage.
“Oh, that’s Jaws, the shark,” Ruto said. “We used him to try and fish out the lake monster, but he just ate a bunch of people.”
“People?” I shouted. “He ate people?”
“Well, yeah,” Ruto said with a tone I had heard her use seven years ago, “he’s a shark. Anyway, most of the people he ate were some of Ganondorf’s minions, so no harm done, really.”
“If he eats thing, I would stand close to him,” Link said.
“Oh, I ride him all the time, Link,” Ruto said. “There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.”
Unfortunately for Ruto, they must have forgotten to feed Jaws the shark, because he immediately opened his huge mouth and grabbed her arm. He jerked it around and was able to pull her through the bars and Link and I got to watch a shark eat. Blood filled the water as I lost the little bit of food that was left in my stomach. Link pulled off my boots and then pulled off his and we began to float back to the surface.
I grasped the ledge and pulled myself up to the lab floor. Link tossed the boots over to the side and got out of the water. Though he didn’t puke, he looked extremely disgusted. I laid on the floor and looked at the ceiling.
“What the hell just happened?” I asked Link and he looked down at me; his face extremely pale.
“I couldn’t tell you,” he said and I noticed that his knees were wobbly. He collapsed on the ground besides me which caused Lux and Coffee Bean to come to our sides.
“Well, on the bright side,” I said, “at least she’s dead now. All we need to do is find that Waterstone and reawaken her.”
“I wouldn’t mind her dying a little differently, though,” Link said. “What the hell was she thinking?”
“She obviously wasn’t. Or she put too much trust in a pet shark.”
I stood up after a while and looked at the pool. Chunks of flesh and chunks of my puke was just beginning to make its way up to the surface and I had to look away as soon as I could. I didn’t want to puke again and lose the rest of my food.
“Okay, so I’m thinking that we need to now is go down into that temple that those two were talking about,” Link said and he picked up the boots and handed me my pair.
“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” I said and I looked down at Lux and Coffee Bean. “You guys need to stay here, alright? Link and I have some business to take care of. Staryu, you’ll need to come with us.”
Staryu nodded…at least it looked like he did and started to follow us out of the lab. I held the door open for it and we made our way back outside. That’s when we realized that it was raining.
“This isn’t good,” I said and sighed as I became soak and wet.
We both walked to the lake and my boots made it extremely difficult. Since the lake was almost completely dry, we had to walk on basically mud, which was wet from the rain. Therefore, my boots sunk deep into the mud and were hard to get out of the mud. It made it even more difficult with the iron on the bottom of them.
However, I was able to get my feet out of the mud and make it to the water, which was in the middle. There was an island type deal in the middle of the lake, but I noticed that, underneath the water, there was an entrance of some sort. Link and I started to float down to the floor of the lake and Staryu swam with us. The entrance, oddly enough, was already open, so we just waltzed in without any problems.
Inside, the temple was completely full of water. I took off my boots to swim to the top and Link followed. Once we got to the surface, we saw the temple. It was big and beautiful. There was more to the temple than we could know for the bottom of it was filled with water. Thankfully, the top was completely free for Link and I.
“So, I wonder where this ‘monster’ is,” Link said and I just shrugged. It was then that Staryu took off.
“Hey, wait!” I shouted, but it was too late. Staryu wouldn’t listen. I quickly grabbed Link’s wrist and jumped over to a platform that seemed to be a big, tall building. There were a couple doors, but I just needed to get to Staryu. It was taking off towards a door that we would be unable to reach so, before it was out of my reach, I jumped up and grabbed the small ring around one of its legs. Link held on to my ankle as we soared in the air with Staryu.
We were a bit heavy, so once we reach the other side, Staryu floated us back down. It made some noises and pointed at a door. It wanted us to go in there for some reason, so I rushed towards the door without giving Link a rest. Inside of this door was a long, slanted hallway that had these razor like objects going back and forth. They stayed at the same pace so I watched them carefully.
“When I say go, we need to run up this hill and not stop,” I said to Link who said something, but I shouted go and grabbed his wrist. I pulled him up this hill and got all the way to the top just before one of the razors shot back. If I didn’t give Link a final tug, his ankles would have been cut off. Staryu just met us at the top.
“Are you insane?” Link asked, breathing rather hard. “You could have killed us both!”
“There’s no time to explain that,” I said smartly. “C’mon, the Waterstone might be in this room.”
The door was huge, so I knew something was kept in there. We opened the door and found a big pool and, in the middle, an object that was shining brightly.
“There we go,” I said and started to walk forward, but Link grabbed me.
“Ash,” he said, “what about that lake monster. That water looks pretty peculiar.”
“It’s just a stupid conspiracy, Link,” I said. “We had those all the time back at home. We both know that I caused the lake to run dry because of that flood. I mean, c’mon. I thought you would be a bit smarter than that.”
“Well, suit yourself,” Link said and he let me go. “If you get in any kind of trouble though, don’t expect me to come save you.”
“After all the times I’ve saved your ass?” I snapped back and continued to walk. “Like Volvagia and that junk?”
“Um, that was your fault,” Link said.
“Well, whatever,” I snapped back and started to jump from pillar to pillar to get to the middle of the pool, where the object was. “Oh hey, it’s the Waterstone,” I said to Link and reach down to pick it up. “Isn’t that convenient?”
Link didn’t say anything back. I picked up the stone and looked at it. It was pretty. I then looked back up at Link to show him my treasure when I saw a terrified look on his face. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked and I turned around to see a long tube of water and, right at the tip, was a giant, veiny eyeball, looking right at me.
“What the fuck are you?” I said, but it didn’t want to talk, if it even could talk. It grabbed me and I dropped the stone. It swung me around and then I felt my body being thrown. I landed on the ground right in front of Link who helped me up as quickly as he could. I was this thing’s main target, but Link pushed me out of the way.
This monster grabbed Link and I saw its body morph around his figure. It slammed him straight into the wall. I could see Link through the monster’s body, which was water. His eyes were closed and his face scrunched in pain. I didn’t know what to do. I held out my hand and sent out a bolt of electricity. The blue lightning shot through the lake monster, but also got to Link. Link shouted in pain as the lake monster let go of him and sunk back into the pool. I saw the Waterstone go with it.
“Link, are you alright?” I asked him quickly and ran to his side.
“Sure,” he said and he kissed me. “C’mon, we need to get this guy.”
We both stood up at the same time and unsheathed our swords. With some cool move that happened, our blades met each other’s blade and we rushed to the edge of the pool. The monster began to come from the water again and its eye was going up and down inside its body. I had an idea, so I took out my hookshot and aimed it at the eyeball. It came right out of the body and was exposed, so Link and I attacked it with our swords. It was a quick and slippery bastard, so we chased it.
The eyeball went right back to its body and the water demon began to swing around, trying to grab either Link or I. I watched the monster intensely and saw that the Waterstone was going up and down the body of the monster. Staryu was floating around above the monster. I stood still and let the monster grab me and concentrated on its body. I kicked the eye out of the way when it came towards me and reach to grab the stone when it got close. I grabbed it and was soon thrown across the room.
“Staryu!” I shouted and it came to me. I put the stone on its star body and a bright light appeared. I stood up to see Staryu transformed and Princess Ruto. Thankfully, Ruto had all of her limbs.
“Starmie, use Thunder,” Ruto shouted and tons of lightning came from Starmie’s body. The lightning created a bright light that blinded me.
After that, I honestly don’t know what happened. I blacked out and the sound of dripping water filled my ears…