Kafei's New Mask

Chapter 14

Link sighed, bringing a hot cup of broth to his lips. His breath blew the rising heat across the cup, making a wisp of clear smoke fissile into the air. He took a big gulp, feeling the warm liquid rush down his throat. It mad him feel the sensation of warmth, but his body still felt cold. Not because of the fact he was sitting outside in the snow, but because the loss of a close friend was still fresh in his heart.

"Link..." Navi said quietly, sitting on his shoulder, "It's...gonna be ok."

Link nodded, and set his cup on the ground. "I know. It just hurts ok?"

Navi lifted off of his shoulder. "Link, she was just-"

Link turned around swiftly to face her, "Navi, Tatl was my friend for a very long time! She was with me the entire time I was here! She helped me!"

Slightly taken aback, Navi huffed and asked him, "And I wasn't? When you defeated Ganon, I was there! I stayed with you through that entire journey! Don't you love me, Link?"

"Oh..." Link frowned. "Navi I didn't mean..."

"I think you did! You seem so sad that she's gone! I don't think you were this upset when I left you!"

Link turned around, not wanting to look at Navi. "You wouldn't know. You weren't there." Before Navi could say anything, Link clenched his fists and started again, "The whole reason I even came to this world and met Tatl was for you! I was searching for you when I met the skullkid, and was placed under a horrible curse! Do you know how bad it felt to be in such a horrible situation and not have my best friend beside me? Well then I met Tatl. And yes, at first, she was not very nice to me, but she turned out to be ok. She became my friend."

Navi took a long time to respond. When she finally did, her voice was small and cracked. "Best...friend?"

Suddenly a loud shriek was heard. Link was so surprised that he jumped, knocking over the cup he had laid in front of him. The shriek had come from inside the closest building, and had come from Kafei. Actually glad that something had happened to break his argument with Navi, Link ran to see what was wrong with Kafei.

He pushed the large, Goron sized door open and stepped inside, slipping every few steps because of the snow clumped to his boots. "Kafei! Are you alright?" Link asked as he entered the room where the Goron doctor had been taking care of him.

Kafei was curled up in pain on his bed, clutching his chest and trembling. He breathed heavily, but managed to get a dark, "No..." out.

"What happened!" Link ran over to his friend and touched his shoulder, receiving an immediate gasp from Kafei. "Ack I'm sorry!" Link looked over to the doctor for an explanation instead.

"Oooh. The little Termian's body is too frail for my methods it seems. I am sorry. It seems I have broken a few more of his ribs on accident." He scratched his head guiltily.

Link's faith sank into his stomach. Now that Kafei was hurt even worse, it would be longer before they could get on with their journey. By then, Katal could hurt more people, and become even stronger. "What are we going to do now?"

"Well..uh," Navi started, "We could take him back to Clock Town. I mean...it's not like the seal is here anymore anyway."

As much as Link didn't want to hear her voice right then, she was right. But it was the question of how they were going to get Kafei there safely was what had Link baffled. "Kafei...is there any way you can activate your chest plate again? It could keep you healed until we can get you to a doctor uh..." Link almost jumped, turning to look at Kafei and seeing that he was staring right at him. He had stopped trembling, but had a strained look on his face.

"I can...attempt." Kafei moved slightly, and winced. He waited a few seconds, took a deep breath and began trembling again, this time because he was trying to activate his mask. It shone slightly, then died down. Kafei let out all the air in his lungs.

"Maybe he's too hurt..." Navi stated.

Kafei's eye twitched, and he held his breath again. This time, his efforts payed off, and the decorated armor appeared on his chest. Kafei sighed, or rather belted air out of his chest as his pain immediately faded. Though he was temporarily healed, he wobbled when he tried to get up. He felt very weak and completely out of energy. "I think I'll be ok for now." He straightened his body as much as he could and rested a hand on his chest.

Link smiled comfortingly at him. "You will be alright Kafei. We'll get you fixed up and then come back."

"That probably isn't necessary," Navi jumped into the conversation, "We have no idea where Tatl and Katal took the seal...or where they are even. But they're not here anymore."

Link sighed. "Oh she's right..."

"Well, can we worry about that later? I don't want to find out if this chest plate can only hold for a short period of time." Kafei said, rather annoyed. He wasn't looking forward to having to take the chest plate off at all.

"Yeah...right, sorry." Link walked past him to gather his belongings." Let's get going.

The gorons wanted to say their thanks to the now smaller group before they left. "Thank you for saving us. Saving us again, Link! Also thanks to you." The elder goron nodded at Kafei. "May good health be in your future, bruddah." They all stood outside the leader's house in the falling snow.

Kafei nodded nervously. "Thank you."

"Please be safe!" Link addressed the gorons. "Katal isn't here anymore, so hopefully you won't have any more problems...hopefully." He whispered the last word again to himself. There was no telling what Katal and his new sidekick would do.

The travelers began their journey back to Clocktown again, first making their way out of the mountain area. Navi flew above Kafei and Link's head excitedly. "Hey, let's look on the bright side! We wont be cold anymore!"

"How are you feeling, Kafei?" Link looked back at Kafei who was treading behind him.

Kafei had been staring intently at the ground. Link's words brought him out of his daze. "Hm. I'm feeling alright. For now at least. Well...this chest plate seems to be working just fine. It hasn't given out yet. I guess...it can withstand being activated for a while."

Link smiled. "That's great! Maybe you can just keep it on all the time. Then we wouldn't have to worry about you getting hurt all the time!" He chuckled lightly.

"Hey! I don't get hurt that often!" Kafei was able to crack a smile. Just a small one.

The tro had made it out of the mountains, the trip not being too terribly long. The sun was beginning to set, but they were close enough to Clocktown that there was no need for them to camp for the night. Their spirits were beginning to rise despite the chain of bad events they had been experiencing. Though it was a setback that they needed to even go back to Clocktown so soon, it was homey for them.

Whoosh! Link jumped back in surprise as an arrow whizzed past his head. Kafei put his hands out in front of him to prevent his friend from bumping into him.

"Link! What are you doing!" Kafei yelled, having not seen the arrow.

Link steadied himself and unsheathed his sword quickly. "Did you not just see that arrow come at us?" Link yelled, scanning his surroundings for the attacker.

"No! Are you going crazy! Link, we have to-" Woosh again! This time, the arrow almost hit Kafei. Having his mask already activated, Kafei bulled out this blades, ready to fight. "Uwagh you're right!"

Link and Kafei hit their backs together, not knowing where the arrows were coming from. There were only two of them, but this way they could see what was coming at them from two different angles. "Show yourself!" Link yelled out into the air. Navi hovered above both their heads.

The sound of a horse's neigh was heard suddenly, and Kafei and Link almost did not react in time. "Look out!" Navi yelped. From their left, a direction neither of them were facing, a horse jumped at them. Just in time, they leaped out of the way so the horse could pass. It's rider reached into the air and snatched Navi who had not moved quick enough. She gave out a scared scream as the horse stopped in it's tracks to turn around and run the other way.

The rider's face could not be seen, he was wearing a hood and a scarf that covered everything but his eyes. Those eyes shot down at Link for a split second, and the rider's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Though not wasting any time, he commanded his horse to run and sped off, taking Navi with him.

"No, Navi!" Link reached out to the empty air, like he could grab the horse and drag it back. He scrambled to his feet and ran a few steps. "Stop!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Kafei picked himself off the ground and steadied himself. "What just happened..." He rubbed at the back of his head.

"Navi was captured!" Link grabbed Kafei's arm and drug him a few feet. "Come on, we have to help her!"

Kafei dug his heels into the ground, more of a surprise reaction to being grabbed than anything. He hesitantly looked towards clocktown. 'No, Navi is more important right now!' He thought to himself. He nodded at Link, and the both ran off in the direction of the horse. "We won't be able to catch it!" Kafei exclaimed.

"I know!" Link choked. "But at least we can find where he's going!" 'I can't loose another friend!' Link thought back to their fight earlier. 'Oh Navi, I'm so sorry, please hang in there!'

FFFFFFFFFFF-! I'm so sorry I haven't updated! I started college a few months ago. Hnnn but that's not really an excuse because I derp around all the time on the internet. ;D Haha sorreh! But I haven't given up on ANY of my fics I promise 3 Please review thank you! ^w^