MAJORA: How It Really Happened!
By Galaxy Girl
CHAPTER NINE: SNOWHEAD MOUNTAIN HIGH
(David's POV)
When the mysterious song had faded away, the three of us were once again standing in the middle of North Clock Town two days earlier, not in the best mood.
"WHY... WHY?!" Erik let out with a tremendous groan. "WHY must he make it so DIFFICULT?!"
I shook my head, a deep scowl upon my face, and sighed. "This is why I HATE people who won't return their books on time... This is what we get for being so lenient with the little brat! Now he thinks he can get away with ANYTHING!" I thought I saw Erik preparing to punch me as I finished. At this point, I think I was the only one who really cared about the missing book anymore.
But as the manager, that was my JOB!
Kelli burst into an angry squeak. "Well... here we go again! Where do you think we'll have to chase him this time?"
Erik glanced at her and shrugged. "Dunno..."
There was only a brief, noisy moment (what with all the other residents of Clock Town carrying on in the background) of melancholic silence before I spoke.
"We need to think like Link would," I announced, getting a good idea. "If you were an evil little boy trying to make our lives miserable, where would you go?"
"Somewhere dangerous," Erik suggested.
"Right..."
"Somewhere far-away," Erik suggested again.
"Yep..."
"Somewhere we'd never want to go for any other reason," he concluded.
Our pondering was interrupted by Kelli, who had just noticed something.
"MY HAIR!" she squealed happily, spinning around and giggling as her "luxurious" green leaves spun around her wooden body. "OH, BOYS, LOOK! MY HAIR'S GROWN BACK!"
"That's great, Kelli!" Erik smiled enthusiastically. And I nodded my approval, too. At least things would be easier now that she wasn't on a vicious rampage.
"Oh, my beautiful hair, I missed you so much!" Kelli cooed, throwing some leaves over her shoulder and stroking them lovingly.
"When Link reset time, everything that happened the last... I mean... everything that happened tomorrow was reset as well," I explained, hoping that I had the gist of it right.
"Think Koume and Kotake's counterspell reset too?" Erik gulped nervously.
"I sure hope not..." I sighed.
"But hey... Look, I've still got that bottle of Dr. Deku's that the princess gave me," Kelli exclaimed, holding up the bottle. It was shiny green glass sealed with a wooden cork.
"That's strange," Erik murmured.
"I wonder how whoever it is decides what we keep and what we lose when time resets?" I asked to no one in particular.
"I never thought I'd have to hear someone asking that question," Kelli sighed.
At that second, there came a high pitched squealing from behind her. Her form went rigid and she knew only too well who the person speeding this way to tackle her was.
"OH GREAT DANCING FATES, COULD IT BE?! A FOREST FAIR-" was all that Tingle got out.
Kelli whipped around, pulled back her wooden arm and then threw it forward with a great SMASH and a cry of "MACE!" She shattered the bottle of Dr. Deku's Leaf Restoring Formula right in the scary little man's face.
He dropped to the ground unconscious, and the three of us stood there for a moment while Kelli regained her breath.
"Problem taken care of," she said proudly.
"I suppose we should be grateful for that," I admitted.
"And by the way, Link will be heading for the mountains next," Kelli said casually.
"Wait, WHAT?" Erik stammered, not as casually. "And what makes you say that?"
"Remember six days ago wh-... er... two days from now, when Skullkid goes up on the roof of the Clock Tower with that bitch Tatl's brother?" she asked, sounding very proud of herself.
"... yeah?" Erik and I both queried.
"He said, 'Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. The four who are there, bring them here.'"
The conversation had come back to me. "Oh YEAAAAH!" I whispered. "Yeah, that's right! Good thinking, Kelli!"
"The four who?" asked Erik.
"I dunno," I shrugged. "But we should head to the mountains as quickly as possible. That way we'll head that little cretin off and get him to change us back in time for us to get out of here before the Carnival. AND the Big Kablooie."
"But where ARE the mountains?" asked Kelli. "Remember, we don't have a map of anywhere but Clock Town anymore!"
"But didn't Erik grab his from his pocket when he was a human?" I asked.
"Nah, it went back when time reset. And the mountains are that way," Erik said casually, pointing to the north and out of the town entrance just to our right.
Kelli and I stared at him. "How did you know that?" I asked.
"The sign says so," he said as though it were obvious.
"Erik, that sign is in Goronese!" Kelli said nervously. "How come you can read it?"
"He's a Goron, dummy!" I told her.
"Don't call me a dummy! That shouldn't have any affect on whether or not he can read!" Kelli argued, hopping up and down. "What if it's the curse coming back?!"
"You're so paranoid! I can't believe how sensitive you're being!"
"IF YOU EVEN TRY TO-"
"Guys, I've ALWAYS known how to read Goronese," Erik interrupted calmly.
We both glanced at him.
"Half the books in the library are written in Goronese. I've known how to read it since I was a kid," he reminded us.
There was a pause.
"Oh," Kelli and I said quietly.
"Sorry, David..." she murmured.
"Yeah, me too... we really shouldn't fight."
It was the frustration of yet another miss that had caused us to lose our temper. We hugged, out of friendship. She made me feel itchy. My scales slimed her outfit.
"Er... hey?" Erik mumbled.
"What? We're busy," Kelli told him.
"Hate to break up the loving moment, but Link's headed out that way," Erik said calmly, pointing at the northern exit that led towards the mountain road.
And there he was, the little brat who was the cause of all of this. He looked like up until he'd heard Erik say that, he'd been trying to tiptoe very casually out of town.
The three of us turned to him and gave him morbid smiles.
He gave us a tiny, "Meep." And then he tried to run.
"FORMATION C28, EXECUTE!" I screamed at the top of my gills.
With perfect military discipline, Kelli leaped up and into Erik's arms. He did a single spin and pulled her back behind him, chucking her with all his might at the escaping kid.
She collided with Link's head seconds later, sending them both flat on their backs on the ground in front of the doorway.
Link didn't even have time to wonder what had hit him before I was on top of him, squeezing him by the throat with my slippery scales. Kelli clung to his legs and Erik stood over both of us like some kind of a security guard, just waiting for him to try anything.
"ULP!" Link choked in a distorted voice as I strangled him. "HEY GUYS, IT'S B-BEEN A WHILE!"
"Tomorrow, actually," I said coolly, giving him a dark smile.
"Linky, Linky, Linky..." Kelli clucked, shaking her head. "You just keep making this harder and harder for yourself, now don't you?"
He didn't answer, but he looked terrified.
"Well, what's your excuse for ditching us THIS time?" Erik threatened.
"AAAAIRRR!"
"David, he can't breathe!" Kelli shouted.
"Oh, sorry," I said quickly, releasing him.
I held him by the collar and let him breathe for a moment before he turned back to his normal color and finally said, "If you three would stop following me like stalkers, maybe I'd be more willing to do you the favor!"
"FAVOR?! FAVOR!?" I roared. "YOU CALL CHANGING US BACK FROM THE CURSE THAT YOU GOT US INTO A FAVOR?! I OUGHTA SQUEEZE YOU UNTIL YOU POP, YOU SWOLLEN LITTLE ZIT!"
"Whoa, David, lay off," Erik said, tapping me on the shoulder.
"I-I didn't curse you!"
"IF YOU'D TURNED IN YOUR LIBRARY BOOK ON TIME WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE LOOKING FOR YOU!"
"David, calm down!" Kelli yelled. "People are starting to stare at us."
"I AM CALM!" I screamed ironically.
Link wet his pants. "All right, all right, I'm sorry!" he let out in terror. "C-come on... L-l-let me go and I'll play that song..."
"Really?" Erik asked.
"Yes, really!"
"The RIGHT song? The Song of Healing?!" Kelli added in.
"Good thinking, Kel," Erik said, patting her on the head.
"Yes, the RIGHT song! The Song of Healing!" Link swore. "I promise, I'll play it for you! Just please, don't hurt me!"
"All right... now, be a good little boy," I began to say, as I began to release him.
I didn't get any further than that.
All of a sudden, a splitting pain went screaming through my skull, shattering my voice into a loud yelp of surprise.
I dropped Link and plummeted forward, face planting just to his side. I clutched the top of my head with two hands and screamed as the same pain hit my back and shoulders.
"FIENDS!" an unfamiliar voice screamed.
The next thing I heard was Erik's deep Goron grunt as he went flying and landed not far from me, wincing and clutching at his chest. A shrill, mutated howl followed and Kelli slammed against the walls of the town and then back into the grass.
"What the HELL-" I began as I sat up, only to be knocked down again.
"FIENDS! MONSTERS! PICKING ON A LITTLE BOY!" our assailant cried. It was one of the Termanian Clock Town guards, waving his spear over his head like he had just used it to beat three cursed Hylians into submission.
"YES, YOU TERRIBLE, WRETCHED CREATURES!" a high-pitched voice like the sound of a ringing bell added in.
"Tatl, what are you DOING?!" Link gasped out, staring around at the three of us.
"Link, you poor boy! Are you all right?!" Tatl cried out in a fairly obvious acting voice. She fluttered over to him and pretended to examine him with the utmost concern.
"WHY YOU LITTLE...!" I heard Kelli shriek as she launched herself at Tatl. The guard knocked her away with his spear as easily as though she had been a baseball.
"HEATHENS! HOW DARE YOU BREAK TERMANIAN CLOCK TOWN SECTOR CODE #2342, BEATING AN INNOCENT CHILD TO THE POINT OF PANTS URNIATION WITHIN CITY LIMITS!?" the guard cried. "OUT! OUT OF THIS CITY, YOU MONSTERS!"
So THAT'S what had happened! When we caught Link on his way out, Tatl had raced to the guard to tell on us!
"Now wait a minute, sir!" Erik had begun to argue, but it was too late. Two more guards had arrived and picked him up by the shoulders, throwing him out of the North Gate.
"He's lying, we weren't!" I yelled, only to suffer the same fate.
When I opened my eyes again after the thump, I was in Termina Field, nearly on top of Erik, who looked dazed.
Three seconds later, our third party member came flying out of the North Gate, landing in a neat pile on top of we other two.
"AND DON'T EVER COME BACK, YOU PEDOPHILES!" the three guards screamed.
"Ugh... David, you okay?" Erik asked a moment later.
"ARGH! THAT LITTLE MONSTER!" I burst out. "How DARE he get US kicked out of the town because he's too selfish to do us a favor?!"
"Favor?" Kelli questioned from her face-down position on my shoulder, remembering my earlier rant.
"So, you're all right?" Erik repeated to me.
"As good as I could possibly be right now."
"Then could you please get off of me?" he snapped.
I rolled off of him, sending Kelli into a heap next to me.
"This can't get any worse," she moaned. "We're lost, we have no money, we have no map, we have no idea if the curse is going to come back or not, we've been kicked out of Clock Town... and on top of that, we only have two more days until the moon crashes and kills us all!"
"At least you've got your hair back," Erik pointed out cheerily.
"So WHAT?! That won't help us now!" she shot back. "I don't see how this could possibly get any worse!"
A noise that only a creature made out of Jello could make sounded from just to the side of our heads.
"... I was wrong."
"SHLURRRRP!"
"AAAAAAIEEEEEE!"
Several hours later, evicted from Clock Town and with no other real clues as to where we could get started walking, the three of us were trudging on endlessly towards the towering silver and blue mountain ranges of Snowhead to the north.
We had dropped down into a deep valley just before the foothills of the mountains, where great rock formations that looked like mushrooms towered over our heads and ankle-deep, powdery snow had dusted itself.
"So, what's the plan, o great and fearless leader?" sighed Kelli.
"I figure we'll head into the mountains and wait... somewhere where we'll know we'll see Link when he finally comes," I explained.
"What if he doesn't come?" asked Erik.
"We... die as the moon explodes the earth into a big giant fireball," I explained again.
"Were you trying to be reassuring again?" he asked.
"Yeah... I guess. Why?"
"Because you did a very, VERY bad job!" both he and Kelli yelled.
"Well... at least there'll be Gorons up there," I sighed.
"That's a good thing?" asked Erik glumly.
"Yes. Maybe they can help us. And maybe they'll let us stay in their city if you're one of them," I offered.
"Maybe they'll throw me out for being an outsider," Erik snapped back.
"They wouldn't do that. Gorons are big on brotherhood. Remember when Big Brother Darunia came down to read at the library?" Kelli giggled.
"He ate three books," Erik said, his face dark like he could remember it. "Then he chewed on six more, spit them out and put them back in the wrong place on the shelf."
"Well, he's a nice guy, at least. Let's hope the Goron leader in Termina is the same," I said hopefully.
We were walking as quickly as we could for a few reasons. We wanted to hurry and get to Snowhead before Link showed up. We wanted to get somewhere with civilization before it got dark and all of the monsters came out.
And to top it all off, I was getting very, very cold.
The boots leftover from my human body seemed to do their job... at least, a little bit. The fact that my skin was naturally wet and that my body was skinny and streamlined didn't do well to keep me warm as the temperature steadily dropped the further we went into the mountains.
By the time we reached the top of a small pass that lead up into the foothills, I was shivering.
To our extreme pleasure (that was sarcasm), it was blocked off by thick chunks of ice and the path over the top was sealed by heavy-looking icicles.
"David, you okay?" asked Kelli with concern when she saw me sneezing.
"F-fine," I murmured.
"You don't look so good. You're not as shiny as you were in town and on the field," Erik pointed out.
"I'm just cold, that's all," I assured them.
"It is? Funny, I can't tell," Erik shrugged.
"You're a Goron, you're supposed to be temperature resistant!" I shot back.
"I can't feel it either," shrugged Kelli.
"I don't think scrubs can feel temperature in their bodies, since they're made out of wood," Erik explained, studying our ice block predicament and scratching his chin. "But your leaves are shriveling up, Kelli."
She held up a handful of her leafy hair. Sure enough, it was turning from bright green to a dead, autumnal sort of yellowish orange. "Great... and I threw away that bottle of Dr. Deku's."
"L-let's just hurry up and get up there, can we?" I sneezed again. "I could use a nice warm fire."
"What are we going to do about all this ice?" asked Kelli, waving her hands around. "I don't suppose one of you has an axe or a blowtorch?"
"F-FORMATION C28! EXECUTE!" I called out just before I sneezed again.
Without so much as a word, Erik scooped her up and threw her, flailing and screaming, at the big icicle up above the chunks. It and she went plummeting down, shattering the large ice pieces into fragments and clearing our path.
Kelli was not happy.
"Remind me again..." she said in a dangerous voice as she pulled herself out of a her-shaped snowdrift, "When did we think of these formations?"
"Back in Kakariko, when we were human," Erik reminded her.
"Well, was there ALWAYS going to be a formation where Erik THREW me at something?"
"Yeah. David and I made it up," Erik smiled wickedly.
The path up into the first little area (which a nearby sign called "Mountain Village" was rocky and filled with snow-covered trees. It looked like a nice old-fashioned Christmas card... when you discounted the three of us walking along, making a lot of noise.
The sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and we knew that it would be dark pretty soon. It just kept getting colder and colder.
"Hang in there, David!" Kelli cheered me on, pushing on my legs to keep me walking. "We're almost there! Someone will let us stay with them until it gets warm again in the morning!"
"I don't think he's gonna make it that long!" Erik warned, keeping one arm over my shoulder.
"What makes you say that?" Kelli gasped in terror.
"He hasn't issued an order to either of us in almost an hour!" Erik said, his voice panicked.
"Oh great Nayru... David! David! Speak to me, David!" Kelli cried.
I didn't want to speak. I didn't feel like I could open my mouth. I felt like I had been dumped, soaking wet, out of a nice warm bath and into a freezing cold lake. The cold was cutting into my fish-like body over every inch of me, and my tunic and boots were no help anymore as my body had made them damp as well. I was walking along with the others, shivering until I thought my eyes would fall out, taking small steps for fear that my feet would snap off.
"SO... C-COLD..." I mumbled between clenched fangs.
"Jeez, he's turning into a fish stick!" Erik cursed, shaking his arm off of my shoulder. He could feel how cold I was.
"Erik, we have to stop!" Kelli burst out. "We shouldn't have come this far!"
"We can't stop! It's starting to snow now, and it'll only get colder the darker it gets! He'll freeze to death if we stop now!" Erik scolded her.
"C-CAN'T... M-MOVE..." I mumbled again.
"You'd better keep moving!" Erik warned. "Keep your blood flowing!"
"Look, there's the village up ahead!" Kelli cried, hopping up and down excitedly.
Some village. There was only one house that we could see, and the rest of the village consisted of high cliffs and paths that led to other areas of the Snowhead Mountains. A frozen river with a wooden bridge over it flowed across the place, and a large road sign was pointing the way to various landmarks in the center.
"There's only one house here!" Erik sighed. "I really hope they're home!"
He took a few steps ahead before stopping, realizing that neither Kelli nor I were following him. "Come on, hurry up!"
"He won't move!" Kelli squeaked.
I swear, it had felt like my limbs had frozen. I couldn't take another step.
"Oh DIN!" Erik cursed, racing back and staring at me like he didn't know what to do.
"SHRY!" I let out from between my teeth.
Kelli was hopping around like a mad woman out of the corner of my eye. "Whadda we do, Erik?! Whadda we do?!"
Erik made a brave face, reached down, and plucked me out of my place in the snow, throwing me over his shoulder like a big frozen log. I could now see all the way down the pass the way we came, but I was still too cold to move and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy and sleepy.
"Hurry, go up and knock on the door!" Erik told Kelli.
Luckily, the lights in the house were on, and smoke was rising up out of the chimney. I heard rustling noises as Kelli hopped up the steps, jumped up, and beat on the door as hard as she could with both hands.
"Hang on pal, we're almost there," Erik told me from behind me.
"TRN M RND S CN S DR!" I muttered back.
"What?"
"TRN... ME... ROUND... S... CAN... SEE... DR!" I enunciated between frozen lips.
"Oh."
He set me down the way one would a statue, and turned me so I could see that we were standing in front of the steps of the house. I was watching just in time to see the door open and a bright lamplight throw its shadow across the darkness of dusk that had settled in the village around us.
A skinny man with black hair and smiling eyes opened the door, glanced around, scowled, and prepared to shut the door. "Stupid Gorons and their stupid ding-dong doorbell ditch..."
"We're down here!" Kelli yelled.
The man turned and glanced down. He blinked a few times at the strange party at his door. "What the... hey, what the heck are a Deku and a Zora doing all the way up here?! 'R you guys nuts?!"
"I'm sorry to bother you sir," Erik cut in diplomatically, "But we need help! We're lost and we need somewhere to stay for the night!"
The man blinked again. "Goron man, this is a blacksmith shop, not an inn."
"Please! It's an emergency!" Kelli squealed pleadingly. "Our friend's really cold! We need somewhere where he can get warm!"
The man glanced from Kelli to Erik back to me. I tried my best to give him a little wave with the few fingers I had that would still move. I managed to make a groaning "PLS SR T MNS LT T S!" sound.
The man finally let out a little sigh and pushed the door open. "Get 'im inside. Hurry up, before you let all the warm air out!"
The man's shop- a blacksmith shop, like he had said, was pretty small, with most of the room inside taken up by two huge stoves, one of which was frozen over. The other one was fairly small and glowing brightly. A large, plush couch was set behind the counter, and a little dog bed on the floor.
To my great disappointment, it wasn't too terribly much warmer inside the house than it was outside.
"I am Zabora, the great blacksmith of Snowhead," the man who'd let us in said, bowing suavely.
"Erik, Kelli's the Deku and David is the Popsicle," Erik explained, nodding his head.
"And that's Gabora," Zabora added, motioning vaguely to the corner.
"Where?" asked Kelli.
It was then that a tremendous giant of a man in an iron mask, chained to the wall, holding a huge hammer let out a horrible "GGGRRRRRNNN!" and rattled his chains.
Kelli and Erik let out terrified shrieks and leapt away, as I would have done if Erik hadn't been holding me.
"GRRRRRNNNN!" Gabora grunted again, waving his hammer threateningly.
"WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT THING!?" Kelli screamed.
"Don't be rude, Gabora!" Zabora cried angrily, chucking a small paperweight at the giant. It bounced off of his metal helmet, and the giant let out a whiny little noise and flopped down to the floor to pout. "Don't be afraid of him. He's just my assistant."
Gabora glanced up, looking hurt. I think. It was hard to tell through the mask. He crumpled up into a little ball and rocked back and forth, sucking his thumb.
Zabora clapped his hands and motioned to another couch on our side of the counter. "Now then! Set your friend down there, and we'll get him nice and warmed up."
"Beg your pardon, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in.
"Yes?"
"Wouldn't it make more sense if you turned on the big stove to heat the house?" she murmured.
"Can't. It's frozen shut!" Zabora pointed out, kicking the thing angrily with one foot and throwing up his hand.
"How disgustingly ironic," she sighed.
"I know, it is, ain't it? I've never been out of business during the winter before!" Zabora snapped, glaring at the stove like it had hurt him personally. "But great GIANTS, it's COLD this winter... It hasn't been this cold for a long time! What with all the blizzards blowing in from the Snowhead Temple..."
"Snowhead Temple?" Erik mumbled.
"Yeah, it's some big Goron thingy up the pass a little ways," Zabora said, waving an impatient hand. "Ever since the moon started getting bigger, it's been below freezing every day! It seems like winter will never come! Even the Gorons are getting upset about it, and they're so thick they can hardly feel the cold! Know what I mean, kid?" he glanced at Erik.
"Yeah... even I was starting to get cold..." Erik sighed.
"Beg your pardon again, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in again.
"Yes?"
"How are we going to warm up David if your stove is broken?" she asked.
I thought it was a very good question. Erik had propped me up against the couch. It felt a little warmer, but my limbs were still stiff and beginning to get sore.
Zabora paused for a moment. "Good question."
I let out a deep groan that everybody could hear.
"Now, now, don't get upset!" Zabora said. "There's loads of hot springs hidden in caves around here. You know where one is, right?"
"We're from out of town," Erik explained.
"Ah... well anyway, hot springs. The Gorons know where they all are. If you could find one of them and grab some hot water, I could make him a little bath... But honestly, I dunno what you were thinking taking him up here in the first place."
"Hot springs... Gorons..." Erik murmured, nodding his head.
"Only..."
"Only what?" Kelli asked.
Zabora gave a little shrug. "I haven't seen too many Gorons around lately. Like I said, this cold snap is affecting even them. All the ones I have seen when I go out to cut firewood..."
"What about them?" Erik interrupted.
"They're frozen solid," Zabora admitted, shrugging a bit.
Erik and Kelli both gulped.
"The rest of them are staying in their village... they're afraid the same thing'll happen to them," he explained. "But if you could find a live one around, I'm sure they'd tell you where the springs are."
There was a tense moment of silence, interrupted only by Gabora giving a deep snort from over in the corner, where he was upset.
"David's too cold to go on, Erik," Kelli said quietly.
"But if we can't go on, we'll never catch up with Link... and we're doomed," Erik added, with a grim expression.
Another tense moment of silence.
"Wow... this is awkward!" Zabora commented.
Erik's wide Goron face was twisted in thought. Finally, he spoke.
"I'll go."
"Huh?" Kelli asked.
"I'll go out and find a Goron and ask them about the hot spring," Erik said again, nodding bravely.
"Erik are you nuts?! What if you freeze out there too?!" Kelli gasped. "We have to stay together!"
"What's the alternative? YOU go? Your leaves are already falling off, and if you go out there you'll freeze even quicker," Erik said logically.
"DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THAT THING!" Kelli hissed, motioning at Gabora.
"Relax, Kel. If he attacks you, just have David protect you."
"David's frozen!"
"Then use him as a weapon."
I grumbled fiercely.
"AHEM. He can hear you," Zabora warned.
"What's he gonna do, make me cold?" Kelli scoffed.
"Not him. Gabora," Zabora said calmly.
Kelli let out a little shriek and stepped away from where Gabora was standing up, not looking happy.
"SORRY, BIG GUY!" she giggled nervously.
"I guess I'm going out then," Erik told Zabora.
"Erik, no. Can't we just wait until morning?" Kelli asked nervously, now ignoring the big palooka in the corner.
"We don't have time to wait! And if David doesn't warm up, he could be in serious trouble!" Erik muttered darkly. "I'll go to the hot spring and get some hot water, then make it back here."
"But what if something happens to you?" Kelli whispered anxiously.
"Then... Get you and David back down to the flatlands," he said quietly. "Forget about me. Find Link and go back to Hyrule."
"Erik, no way!" Kelli interjected. "We can't take the chance of any of us not coming back!"
"We don't have a choice... I have to go. David agrees with me, don't you, David?" Erik said, glancing over his shoulder at me.
I couldn't nod, but I recognized the look in his eyes. It was one that he had when he was determined and nothing could stop him. It was the same look he'd given me countless time since we were kids together, anytime I'd tried to assign him to a role in a game that he didn't like.
My best friend was risking his life to make sure I'd be okay.
"HMMH," I murmured.
Erik let out a deep sigh. "Well, that settles it... I'm going."
"Hey, you be careful now, y'hear?" Zabora said, shaking a finger at him. "There's a lot of open water pits around here still, and if you don't keep moving you'll sink into the snow and freeze!"
"Got ya," Erik nodded officially, giving a salute.
"Erik... you be careful!" Kelli cried, throwing herself around his leg in an embrace.
"I will be."
Silence.
"Kelli, let go."
"Don't get hurt!" she ordered.
"I won't! Just let go!"
Reluctantly, she released him.
He trudged towards the door, his eyebrows sunken into a determined glare over his big, black eyes. He gave me a look before he put his hand on the doorknob.
"David," he said quietly.
"HMMHHHMMMH!" I murmured.
With that, the library's page-turned-Goron opened the door, took a step outside, slammed the door shut and was gone.
Kelli ran to the window and watched him walk away. I would have done the same, if I could move. Big sappy tears were in her orange eyes, and she turned to me, saying with a nervous tone in her voice, "I hope he'll be all right..."
I moved my eyes up and down to nod.
There was a tense silence.
"So!" Zabora said cheerily, clapping his hands after he had thrown another huge log on the stove that was gradually warming me up. "Who's up for a game of poker?"
~~~~~~~~~
More trouble for our three heroes... Kicked out of Clock Town, lost in the mountains, and now, it's up to Erik to race against three separately ticking clocks! Link is on his way north, David is on his way to the big fish tank in the sky (well... maybe), and the moon is on its way to turn Termina into shrapnel, and everything is on his shoulders now! Next time- the Snowhead Temple!
By Galaxy Girl
CHAPTER NINE: SNOWHEAD MOUNTAIN HIGH
(David's POV)
When the mysterious song had faded away, the three of us were once again standing in the middle of North Clock Town two days earlier, not in the best mood.
"WHY... WHY?!" Erik let out with a tremendous groan. "WHY must he make it so DIFFICULT?!"
I shook my head, a deep scowl upon my face, and sighed. "This is why I HATE people who won't return their books on time... This is what we get for being so lenient with the little brat! Now he thinks he can get away with ANYTHING!" I thought I saw Erik preparing to punch me as I finished. At this point, I think I was the only one who really cared about the missing book anymore.
But as the manager, that was my JOB!
Kelli burst into an angry squeak. "Well... here we go again! Where do you think we'll have to chase him this time?"
Erik glanced at her and shrugged. "Dunno..."
There was only a brief, noisy moment (what with all the other residents of Clock Town carrying on in the background) of melancholic silence before I spoke.
"We need to think like Link would," I announced, getting a good idea. "If you were an evil little boy trying to make our lives miserable, where would you go?"
"Somewhere dangerous," Erik suggested.
"Right..."
"Somewhere far-away," Erik suggested again.
"Yep..."
"Somewhere we'd never want to go for any other reason," he concluded.
Our pondering was interrupted by Kelli, who had just noticed something.
"MY HAIR!" she squealed happily, spinning around and giggling as her "luxurious" green leaves spun around her wooden body. "OH, BOYS, LOOK! MY HAIR'S GROWN BACK!"
"That's great, Kelli!" Erik smiled enthusiastically. And I nodded my approval, too. At least things would be easier now that she wasn't on a vicious rampage.
"Oh, my beautiful hair, I missed you so much!" Kelli cooed, throwing some leaves over her shoulder and stroking them lovingly.
"When Link reset time, everything that happened the last... I mean... everything that happened tomorrow was reset as well," I explained, hoping that I had the gist of it right.
"Think Koume and Kotake's counterspell reset too?" Erik gulped nervously.
"I sure hope not..." I sighed.
"But hey... Look, I've still got that bottle of Dr. Deku's that the princess gave me," Kelli exclaimed, holding up the bottle. It was shiny green glass sealed with a wooden cork.
"That's strange," Erik murmured.
"I wonder how whoever it is decides what we keep and what we lose when time resets?" I asked to no one in particular.
"I never thought I'd have to hear someone asking that question," Kelli sighed.
At that second, there came a high pitched squealing from behind her. Her form went rigid and she knew only too well who the person speeding this way to tackle her was.
"OH GREAT DANCING FATES, COULD IT BE?! A FOREST FAIR-" was all that Tingle got out.
Kelli whipped around, pulled back her wooden arm and then threw it forward with a great SMASH and a cry of "MACE!" She shattered the bottle of Dr. Deku's Leaf Restoring Formula right in the scary little man's face.
He dropped to the ground unconscious, and the three of us stood there for a moment while Kelli regained her breath.
"Problem taken care of," she said proudly.
"I suppose we should be grateful for that," I admitted.
"And by the way, Link will be heading for the mountains next," Kelli said casually.
"Wait, WHAT?" Erik stammered, not as casually. "And what makes you say that?"
"Remember six days ago wh-... er... two days from now, when Skullkid goes up on the roof of the Clock Tower with that bitch Tatl's brother?" she asked, sounding very proud of herself.
"... yeah?" Erik and I both queried.
"He said, 'Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. The four who are there, bring them here.'"
The conversation had come back to me. "Oh YEAAAAH!" I whispered. "Yeah, that's right! Good thinking, Kelli!"
"The four who?" asked Erik.
"I dunno," I shrugged. "But we should head to the mountains as quickly as possible. That way we'll head that little cretin off and get him to change us back in time for us to get out of here before the Carnival. AND the Big Kablooie."
"But where ARE the mountains?" asked Kelli. "Remember, we don't have a map of anywhere but Clock Town anymore!"
"But didn't Erik grab his from his pocket when he was a human?" I asked.
"Nah, it went back when time reset. And the mountains are that way," Erik said casually, pointing to the north and out of the town entrance just to our right.
Kelli and I stared at him. "How did you know that?" I asked.
"The sign says so," he said as though it were obvious.
"Erik, that sign is in Goronese!" Kelli said nervously. "How come you can read it?"
"He's a Goron, dummy!" I told her.
"Don't call me a dummy! That shouldn't have any affect on whether or not he can read!" Kelli argued, hopping up and down. "What if it's the curse coming back?!"
"You're so paranoid! I can't believe how sensitive you're being!"
"IF YOU EVEN TRY TO-"
"Guys, I've ALWAYS known how to read Goronese," Erik interrupted calmly.
We both glanced at him.
"Half the books in the library are written in Goronese. I've known how to read it since I was a kid," he reminded us.
There was a pause.
"Oh," Kelli and I said quietly.
"Sorry, David..." she murmured.
"Yeah, me too... we really shouldn't fight."
It was the frustration of yet another miss that had caused us to lose our temper. We hugged, out of friendship. She made me feel itchy. My scales slimed her outfit.
"Er... hey?" Erik mumbled.
"What? We're busy," Kelli told him.
"Hate to break up the loving moment, but Link's headed out that way," Erik said calmly, pointing at the northern exit that led towards the mountain road.
And there he was, the little brat who was the cause of all of this. He looked like up until he'd heard Erik say that, he'd been trying to tiptoe very casually out of town.
The three of us turned to him and gave him morbid smiles.
He gave us a tiny, "Meep." And then he tried to run.
"FORMATION C28, EXECUTE!" I screamed at the top of my gills.
With perfect military discipline, Kelli leaped up and into Erik's arms. He did a single spin and pulled her back behind him, chucking her with all his might at the escaping kid.
She collided with Link's head seconds later, sending them both flat on their backs on the ground in front of the doorway.
Link didn't even have time to wonder what had hit him before I was on top of him, squeezing him by the throat with my slippery scales. Kelli clung to his legs and Erik stood over both of us like some kind of a security guard, just waiting for him to try anything.
"ULP!" Link choked in a distorted voice as I strangled him. "HEY GUYS, IT'S B-BEEN A WHILE!"
"Tomorrow, actually," I said coolly, giving him a dark smile.
"Linky, Linky, Linky..." Kelli clucked, shaking her head. "You just keep making this harder and harder for yourself, now don't you?"
He didn't answer, but he looked terrified.
"Well, what's your excuse for ditching us THIS time?" Erik threatened.
"AAAAIRRR!"
"David, he can't breathe!" Kelli shouted.
"Oh, sorry," I said quickly, releasing him.
I held him by the collar and let him breathe for a moment before he turned back to his normal color and finally said, "If you three would stop following me like stalkers, maybe I'd be more willing to do you the favor!"
"FAVOR?! FAVOR!?" I roared. "YOU CALL CHANGING US BACK FROM THE CURSE THAT YOU GOT US INTO A FAVOR?! I OUGHTA SQUEEZE YOU UNTIL YOU POP, YOU SWOLLEN LITTLE ZIT!"
"Whoa, David, lay off," Erik said, tapping me on the shoulder.
"I-I didn't curse you!"
"IF YOU'D TURNED IN YOUR LIBRARY BOOK ON TIME WE WOULDN'T EVEN BE LOOKING FOR YOU!"
"David, calm down!" Kelli yelled. "People are starting to stare at us."
"I AM CALM!" I screamed ironically.
Link wet his pants. "All right, all right, I'm sorry!" he let out in terror. "C-come on... L-l-let me go and I'll play that song..."
"Really?" Erik asked.
"Yes, really!"
"The RIGHT song? The Song of Healing?!" Kelli added in.
"Good thinking, Kel," Erik said, patting her on the head.
"Yes, the RIGHT song! The Song of Healing!" Link swore. "I promise, I'll play it for you! Just please, don't hurt me!"
"All right... now, be a good little boy," I began to say, as I began to release him.
I didn't get any further than that.
All of a sudden, a splitting pain went screaming through my skull, shattering my voice into a loud yelp of surprise.
I dropped Link and plummeted forward, face planting just to his side. I clutched the top of my head with two hands and screamed as the same pain hit my back and shoulders.
"FIENDS!" an unfamiliar voice screamed.
The next thing I heard was Erik's deep Goron grunt as he went flying and landed not far from me, wincing and clutching at his chest. A shrill, mutated howl followed and Kelli slammed against the walls of the town and then back into the grass.
"What the HELL-" I began as I sat up, only to be knocked down again.
"FIENDS! MONSTERS! PICKING ON A LITTLE BOY!" our assailant cried. It was one of the Termanian Clock Town guards, waving his spear over his head like he had just used it to beat three cursed Hylians into submission.
"YES, YOU TERRIBLE, WRETCHED CREATURES!" a high-pitched voice like the sound of a ringing bell added in.
"Tatl, what are you DOING?!" Link gasped out, staring around at the three of us.
"Link, you poor boy! Are you all right?!" Tatl cried out in a fairly obvious acting voice. She fluttered over to him and pretended to examine him with the utmost concern.
"WHY YOU LITTLE...!" I heard Kelli shriek as she launched herself at Tatl. The guard knocked her away with his spear as easily as though she had been a baseball.
"HEATHENS! HOW DARE YOU BREAK TERMANIAN CLOCK TOWN SECTOR CODE #2342, BEATING AN INNOCENT CHILD TO THE POINT OF PANTS URNIATION WITHIN CITY LIMITS!?" the guard cried. "OUT! OUT OF THIS CITY, YOU MONSTERS!"
So THAT'S what had happened! When we caught Link on his way out, Tatl had raced to the guard to tell on us!
"Now wait a minute, sir!" Erik had begun to argue, but it was too late. Two more guards had arrived and picked him up by the shoulders, throwing him out of the North Gate.
"He's lying, we weren't!" I yelled, only to suffer the same fate.
When I opened my eyes again after the thump, I was in Termina Field, nearly on top of Erik, who looked dazed.
Three seconds later, our third party member came flying out of the North Gate, landing in a neat pile on top of we other two.
"AND DON'T EVER COME BACK, YOU PEDOPHILES!" the three guards screamed.
"Ugh... David, you okay?" Erik asked a moment later.
"ARGH! THAT LITTLE MONSTER!" I burst out. "How DARE he get US kicked out of the town because he's too selfish to do us a favor?!"
"Favor?" Kelli questioned from her face-down position on my shoulder, remembering my earlier rant.
"So, you're all right?" Erik repeated to me.
"As good as I could possibly be right now."
"Then could you please get off of me?" he snapped.
I rolled off of him, sending Kelli into a heap next to me.
"This can't get any worse," she moaned. "We're lost, we have no money, we have no map, we have no idea if the curse is going to come back or not, we've been kicked out of Clock Town... and on top of that, we only have two more days until the moon crashes and kills us all!"
"At least you've got your hair back," Erik pointed out cheerily.
"So WHAT?! That won't help us now!" she shot back. "I don't see how this could possibly get any worse!"
A noise that only a creature made out of Jello could make sounded from just to the side of our heads.
"... I was wrong."
"SHLURRRRP!"
"AAAAAAIEEEEEE!"
Several hours later, evicted from Clock Town and with no other real clues as to where we could get started walking, the three of us were trudging on endlessly towards the towering silver and blue mountain ranges of Snowhead to the north.
We had dropped down into a deep valley just before the foothills of the mountains, where great rock formations that looked like mushrooms towered over our heads and ankle-deep, powdery snow had dusted itself.
"So, what's the plan, o great and fearless leader?" sighed Kelli.
"I figure we'll head into the mountains and wait... somewhere where we'll know we'll see Link when he finally comes," I explained.
"What if he doesn't come?" asked Erik.
"We... die as the moon explodes the earth into a big giant fireball," I explained again.
"Were you trying to be reassuring again?" he asked.
"Yeah... I guess. Why?"
"Because you did a very, VERY bad job!" both he and Kelli yelled.
"Well... at least there'll be Gorons up there," I sighed.
"That's a good thing?" asked Erik glumly.
"Yes. Maybe they can help us. And maybe they'll let us stay in their city if you're one of them," I offered.
"Maybe they'll throw me out for being an outsider," Erik snapped back.
"They wouldn't do that. Gorons are big on brotherhood. Remember when Big Brother Darunia came down to read at the library?" Kelli giggled.
"He ate three books," Erik said, his face dark like he could remember it. "Then he chewed on six more, spit them out and put them back in the wrong place on the shelf."
"Well, he's a nice guy, at least. Let's hope the Goron leader in Termina is the same," I said hopefully.
We were walking as quickly as we could for a few reasons. We wanted to hurry and get to Snowhead before Link showed up. We wanted to get somewhere with civilization before it got dark and all of the monsters came out.
And to top it all off, I was getting very, very cold.
The boots leftover from my human body seemed to do their job... at least, a little bit. The fact that my skin was naturally wet and that my body was skinny and streamlined didn't do well to keep me warm as the temperature steadily dropped the further we went into the mountains.
By the time we reached the top of a small pass that lead up into the foothills, I was shivering.
To our extreme pleasure (that was sarcasm), it was blocked off by thick chunks of ice and the path over the top was sealed by heavy-looking icicles.
"David, you okay?" asked Kelli with concern when she saw me sneezing.
"F-fine," I murmured.
"You don't look so good. You're not as shiny as you were in town and on the field," Erik pointed out.
"I'm just cold, that's all," I assured them.
"It is? Funny, I can't tell," Erik shrugged.
"You're a Goron, you're supposed to be temperature resistant!" I shot back.
"I can't feel it either," shrugged Kelli.
"I don't think scrubs can feel temperature in their bodies, since they're made out of wood," Erik explained, studying our ice block predicament and scratching his chin. "But your leaves are shriveling up, Kelli."
She held up a handful of her leafy hair. Sure enough, it was turning from bright green to a dead, autumnal sort of yellowish orange. "Great... and I threw away that bottle of Dr. Deku's."
"L-let's just hurry up and get up there, can we?" I sneezed again. "I could use a nice warm fire."
"What are we going to do about all this ice?" asked Kelli, waving her hands around. "I don't suppose one of you has an axe or a blowtorch?"
"F-FORMATION C28! EXECUTE!" I called out just before I sneezed again.
Without so much as a word, Erik scooped her up and threw her, flailing and screaming, at the big icicle up above the chunks. It and she went plummeting down, shattering the large ice pieces into fragments and clearing our path.
Kelli was not happy.
"Remind me again..." she said in a dangerous voice as she pulled herself out of a her-shaped snowdrift, "When did we think of these formations?"
"Back in Kakariko, when we were human," Erik reminded her.
"Well, was there ALWAYS going to be a formation where Erik THREW me at something?"
"Yeah. David and I made it up," Erik smiled wickedly.
The path up into the first little area (which a nearby sign called "Mountain Village" was rocky and filled with snow-covered trees. It looked like a nice old-fashioned Christmas card... when you discounted the three of us walking along, making a lot of noise.
The sun was beginning to sink in the sky, and we knew that it would be dark pretty soon. It just kept getting colder and colder.
"Hang in there, David!" Kelli cheered me on, pushing on my legs to keep me walking. "We're almost there! Someone will let us stay with them until it gets warm again in the morning!"
"I don't think he's gonna make it that long!" Erik warned, keeping one arm over my shoulder.
"What makes you say that?" Kelli gasped in terror.
"He hasn't issued an order to either of us in almost an hour!" Erik said, his voice panicked.
"Oh great Nayru... David! David! Speak to me, David!" Kelli cried.
I didn't want to speak. I didn't feel like I could open my mouth. I felt like I had been dumped, soaking wet, out of a nice warm bath and into a freezing cold lake. The cold was cutting into my fish-like body over every inch of me, and my tunic and boots were no help anymore as my body had made them damp as well. I was walking along with the others, shivering until I thought my eyes would fall out, taking small steps for fear that my feet would snap off.
"SO... C-COLD..." I mumbled between clenched fangs.
"Jeez, he's turning into a fish stick!" Erik cursed, shaking his arm off of my shoulder. He could feel how cold I was.
"Erik, we have to stop!" Kelli burst out. "We shouldn't have come this far!"
"We can't stop! It's starting to snow now, and it'll only get colder the darker it gets! He'll freeze to death if we stop now!" Erik scolded her.
"C-CAN'T... M-MOVE..." I mumbled again.
"You'd better keep moving!" Erik warned. "Keep your blood flowing!"
"Look, there's the village up ahead!" Kelli cried, hopping up and down excitedly.
Some village. There was only one house that we could see, and the rest of the village consisted of high cliffs and paths that led to other areas of the Snowhead Mountains. A frozen river with a wooden bridge over it flowed across the place, and a large road sign was pointing the way to various landmarks in the center.
"There's only one house here!" Erik sighed. "I really hope they're home!"
He took a few steps ahead before stopping, realizing that neither Kelli nor I were following him. "Come on, hurry up!"
"He won't move!" Kelli squeaked.
I swear, it had felt like my limbs had frozen. I couldn't take another step.
"Oh DIN!" Erik cursed, racing back and staring at me like he didn't know what to do.
"SHRY!" I let out from between my teeth.
Kelli was hopping around like a mad woman out of the corner of my eye. "Whadda we do, Erik?! Whadda we do?!"
Erik made a brave face, reached down, and plucked me out of my place in the snow, throwing me over his shoulder like a big frozen log. I could now see all the way down the pass the way we came, but I was still too cold to move and I could feel my eyelids growing heavy and sleepy.
"Hurry, go up and knock on the door!" Erik told Kelli.
Luckily, the lights in the house were on, and smoke was rising up out of the chimney. I heard rustling noises as Kelli hopped up the steps, jumped up, and beat on the door as hard as she could with both hands.
"Hang on pal, we're almost there," Erik told me from behind me.
"TRN M RND S CN S DR!" I muttered back.
"What?"
"TRN... ME... ROUND... S... CAN... SEE... DR!" I enunciated between frozen lips.
"Oh."
He set me down the way one would a statue, and turned me so I could see that we were standing in front of the steps of the house. I was watching just in time to see the door open and a bright lamplight throw its shadow across the darkness of dusk that had settled in the village around us.
A skinny man with black hair and smiling eyes opened the door, glanced around, scowled, and prepared to shut the door. "Stupid Gorons and their stupid ding-dong doorbell ditch..."
"We're down here!" Kelli yelled.
The man turned and glanced down. He blinked a few times at the strange party at his door. "What the... hey, what the heck are a Deku and a Zora doing all the way up here?! 'R you guys nuts?!"
"I'm sorry to bother you sir," Erik cut in diplomatically, "But we need help! We're lost and we need somewhere to stay for the night!"
The man blinked again. "Goron man, this is a blacksmith shop, not an inn."
"Please! It's an emergency!" Kelli squealed pleadingly. "Our friend's really cold! We need somewhere where he can get warm!"
The man glanced from Kelli to Erik back to me. I tried my best to give him a little wave with the few fingers I had that would still move. I managed to make a groaning "PLS SR T MNS LT T S!" sound.
The man finally let out a little sigh and pushed the door open. "Get 'im inside. Hurry up, before you let all the warm air out!"
The man's shop- a blacksmith shop, like he had said, was pretty small, with most of the room inside taken up by two huge stoves, one of which was frozen over. The other one was fairly small and glowing brightly. A large, plush couch was set behind the counter, and a little dog bed on the floor.
To my great disappointment, it wasn't too terribly much warmer inside the house than it was outside.
"I am Zabora, the great blacksmith of Snowhead," the man who'd let us in said, bowing suavely.
"Erik, Kelli's the Deku and David is the Popsicle," Erik explained, nodding his head.
"And that's Gabora," Zabora added, motioning vaguely to the corner.
"Where?" asked Kelli.
It was then that a tremendous giant of a man in an iron mask, chained to the wall, holding a huge hammer let out a horrible "GGGRRRRRNNN!" and rattled his chains.
Kelli and Erik let out terrified shrieks and leapt away, as I would have done if Erik hadn't been holding me.
"GRRRRRNNNN!" Gabora grunted again, waving his hammer threateningly.
"WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT THING!?" Kelli screamed.
"Don't be rude, Gabora!" Zabora cried angrily, chucking a small paperweight at the giant. It bounced off of his metal helmet, and the giant let out a whiny little noise and flopped down to the floor to pout. "Don't be afraid of him. He's just my assistant."
Gabora glanced up, looking hurt. I think. It was hard to tell through the mask. He crumpled up into a little ball and rocked back and forth, sucking his thumb.
Zabora clapped his hands and motioned to another couch on our side of the counter. "Now then! Set your friend down there, and we'll get him nice and warmed up."
"Beg your pardon, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in.
"Yes?"
"Wouldn't it make more sense if you turned on the big stove to heat the house?" she murmured.
"Can't. It's frozen shut!" Zabora pointed out, kicking the thing angrily with one foot and throwing up his hand.
"How disgustingly ironic," she sighed.
"I know, it is, ain't it? I've never been out of business during the winter before!" Zabora snapped, glaring at the stove like it had hurt him personally. "But great GIANTS, it's COLD this winter... It hasn't been this cold for a long time! What with all the blizzards blowing in from the Snowhead Temple..."
"Snowhead Temple?" Erik mumbled.
"Yeah, it's some big Goron thingy up the pass a little ways," Zabora said, waving an impatient hand. "Ever since the moon started getting bigger, it's been below freezing every day! It seems like winter will never come! Even the Gorons are getting upset about it, and they're so thick they can hardly feel the cold! Know what I mean, kid?" he glanced at Erik.
"Yeah... even I was starting to get cold..." Erik sighed.
"Beg your pardon again, Mr. Zabora," Kelli cut in again.
"Yes?"
"How are we going to warm up David if your stove is broken?" she asked.
I thought it was a very good question. Erik had propped me up against the couch. It felt a little warmer, but my limbs were still stiff and beginning to get sore.
Zabora paused for a moment. "Good question."
I let out a deep groan that everybody could hear.
"Now, now, don't get upset!" Zabora said. "There's loads of hot springs hidden in caves around here. You know where one is, right?"
"We're from out of town," Erik explained.
"Ah... well anyway, hot springs. The Gorons know where they all are. If you could find one of them and grab some hot water, I could make him a little bath... But honestly, I dunno what you were thinking taking him up here in the first place."
"Hot springs... Gorons..." Erik murmured, nodding his head.
"Only..."
"Only what?" Kelli asked.
Zabora gave a little shrug. "I haven't seen too many Gorons around lately. Like I said, this cold snap is affecting even them. All the ones I have seen when I go out to cut firewood..."
"What about them?" Erik interrupted.
"They're frozen solid," Zabora admitted, shrugging a bit.
Erik and Kelli both gulped.
"The rest of them are staying in their village... they're afraid the same thing'll happen to them," he explained. "But if you could find a live one around, I'm sure they'd tell you where the springs are."
There was a tense moment of silence, interrupted only by Gabora giving a deep snort from over in the corner, where he was upset.
"David's too cold to go on, Erik," Kelli said quietly.
"But if we can't go on, we'll never catch up with Link... and we're doomed," Erik added, with a grim expression.
Another tense moment of silence.
"Wow... this is awkward!" Zabora commented.
Erik's wide Goron face was twisted in thought. Finally, he spoke.
"I'll go."
"Huh?" Kelli asked.
"I'll go out and find a Goron and ask them about the hot spring," Erik said again, nodding bravely.
"Erik are you nuts?! What if you freeze out there too?!" Kelli gasped. "We have to stay together!"
"What's the alternative? YOU go? Your leaves are already falling off, and if you go out there you'll freeze even quicker," Erik said logically.
"DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THAT THING!" Kelli hissed, motioning at Gabora.
"Relax, Kel. If he attacks you, just have David protect you."
"David's frozen!"
"Then use him as a weapon."
I grumbled fiercely.
"AHEM. He can hear you," Zabora warned.
"What's he gonna do, make me cold?" Kelli scoffed.
"Not him. Gabora," Zabora said calmly.
Kelli let out a little shriek and stepped away from where Gabora was standing up, not looking happy.
"SORRY, BIG GUY!" she giggled nervously.
"I guess I'm going out then," Erik told Zabora.
"Erik, no. Can't we just wait until morning?" Kelli asked nervously, now ignoring the big palooka in the corner.
"We don't have time to wait! And if David doesn't warm up, he could be in serious trouble!" Erik muttered darkly. "I'll go to the hot spring and get some hot water, then make it back here."
"But what if something happens to you?" Kelli whispered anxiously.
"Then... Get you and David back down to the flatlands," he said quietly. "Forget about me. Find Link and go back to Hyrule."
"Erik, no way!" Kelli interjected. "We can't take the chance of any of us not coming back!"
"We don't have a choice... I have to go. David agrees with me, don't you, David?" Erik said, glancing over his shoulder at me.
I couldn't nod, but I recognized the look in his eyes. It was one that he had when he was determined and nothing could stop him. It was the same look he'd given me countless time since we were kids together, anytime I'd tried to assign him to a role in a game that he didn't like.
My best friend was risking his life to make sure I'd be okay.
"HMMH," I murmured.
Erik let out a deep sigh. "Well, that settles it... I'm going."
"Hey, you be careful now, y'hear?" Zabora said, shaking a finger at him. "There's a lot of open water pits around here still, and if you don't keep moving you'll sink into the snow and freeze!"
"Got ya," Erik nodded officially, giving a salute.
"Erik... you be careful!" Kelli cried, throwing herself around his leg in an embrace.
"I will be."
Silence.
"Kelli, let go."
"Don't get hurt!" she ordered.
"I won't! Just let go!"
Reluctantly, she released him.
He trudged towards the door, his eyebrows sunken into a determined glare over his big, black eyes. He gave me a look before he put his hand on the doorknob.
"David," he said quietly.
"HMMHHHMMMH!" I murmured.
With that, the library's page-turned-Goron opened the door, took a step outside, slammed the door shut and was gone.
Kelli ran to the window and watched him walk away. I would have done the same, if I could move. Big sappy tears were in her orange eyes, and she turned to me, saying with a nervous tone in her voice, "I hope he'll be all right..."
I moved my eyes up and down to nod.
There was a tense silence.
"So!" Zabora said cheerily, clapping his hands after he had thrown another huge log on the stove that was gradually warming me up. "Who's up for a game of poker?"
~~~~~~~~~
More trouble for our three heroes... Kicked out of Clock Town, lost in the mountains, and now, it's up to Erik to race against three separately ticking clocks! Link is on his way north, David is on his way to the big fish tank in the sky (well... maybe), and the moon is on its way to turn Termina into shrapnel, and everything is on his shoulders now! Next time- the Snowhead Temple!