The of Final Fantasy IV

}::By Chronic Guardian::{

Chapter 4: Interlude I + What Links Us Together

"Did you see that?" Cecil asked his friends, hoping for a confirmation that the entire five ships of the Red Wings air fleet had just been obliterated. It did seem somewhat difficult to swallow given that they were supposed to be the world's premier military power.

"It would seem that the bards of Damcyan have improved considerably in the arts of war," Cindle, the Summoner of the Mist Dragon observed. "They will make powerful allies for our plight."

"I don't care how powerful they are, I'm still gonna tell that spoony bard off for stealin' my Anna away from me!" Tellah, a sage that had joined them on their way from Kaipo, declared. "I'm her father and that's that! None of this romancing nonsense."

"At least the attack wasn't successful," Rydia, Cindle's daughter, mused. The girl seemed rather matter of fact in her analysis. "That's one more crystal the enemy doesn't control."

"The enemy..." Cecil echoed sadly. There was little denying it now: Baron was out to steal the crystals and they had no qualms about resorting to slaughter to achieve this goal. In the back of his mind he wondered if Kain was having any success. After they had not destroyed the Village of Mist, they had drawn out a plan for testing their situation; Kain would return to Baron, reporting Cecil missing in action, and protect Rosa while Cecil went to warn the nations of the possible threat. Of course, discovering Rosa in Kaipo was a bit of a tip off that something had gone awry, but Cecil was resolved in his mission and would not let his friend down.

"Welllll?" Tellah demanded, glaring through his spectacles at the rest of the group in annoyance. "We goin' in or what?"

"I don't know, perhaps we ought to pitch a tent. We went through some rather trying ordeals in those caves." Cindle's mock serious tone was enough to drive the sage over the edge.

"If you chowderheads ain't gonna git then I'm goin' in on my own!"

After watching Tellah valiantly march off at an astounding two pixels per second, the party leisurely arose and followed after him. It took perhaps a quarter minute before they were again in step.

"Say Tellah..." Cecil began cautiously. They were ribbing the poor man an awful lot lately so the following question would require all the tact he could muster. "Why is it that when we level up our physical strength increases but when you level up it goes down?"

"Because I'm old! Alright? Why don't you go grind till level ninety-nine and tell me how you feel then, hmm?"

"But... shouldn't you be level fifty or something then?" Rydia pushed on, apparently oblivious to the older man's flagging ego. "I mean... you did do all that training to become a sage and all, right?"

"Why do ya ask all this? Up till now virtually no one was curious as to how any of this worked! I mean, my next door neighbor probably couldn't care less about me setting off to take my daughter back, certainly not enough to lend a hand, and suddenly all you yahoos show up in a storm of questions expecting the world to make sense!"

"Because strange things have been happening," Cindle answered him. "Because people are showing up and asking us questions we have never thought of before that are altering the course that might have destroyed our lives. That is why we ask."

"Melodramatic, much?" Tellah grumbled, keeping his gaze on the towering palace of Damcyan. "Why ask when the answers aren't there? I'm trying to remember stuff all the time but it just don't come."

"I hope that reality proves otherwise," Cecil said resolutely. "We must hurry to obtain the sand ruby before Rosa's condition turns for the worse."

"Y'know, boy," the sage's tone had gone a shade softer, "you may be a dense ol' lump, but you've got good intentions. I sure hope that works out for the best."

"It should," Cecil replied. "I've only one path to be forced along, I can only pray that it is the right one."

Although, after his previous encounters with the black-coated man and the bald boy he had to wonder if destiny was truly so passive. It was a frightening thought, that his choices actually meant something, that he could actually change the course of his story; but there was a slight bit of comfort to be found in the notion. If he could choose wrong, it implied that another option that was right existed. Or at least, that was how it seemed in his mind.

Newly aware as he was, all this talk of free will was still very befuddling.

}::{

I glared intently at the shrinking remains of the golden Skulltulla before triumphantly retrieving the token it had dropped. The hunt for the elusive creature had taken me far from my original path but I felt it was an acceptable loss given all the great loot I got from the family in Kakariko village when I turned in the tokens.

Now... for getting back... I realized that I really had no idea where in the cave I had gotten myself.

"Hello?"

I froze. The only semi-sentient life I ever encountered while in dungeons were boss monsters. Well... with one or two exceptions. But even then, they stayed put. Anything moving towards me that talked while inside a dungeon usually was hostile and powerful.

Reaching for my bow I quickly reconsidered and drew my long hookshot instead. I needed to conserve ammunition, particularly since this cave seemed low on pots to crack open for additional supplies. Aiming the device with one hand, I reached into my pouch of deku nuts with the other. Although deku nuts are usually next to worthless, I figured they were worth a shot. After all, anything in my inventory was usually there to solve some puzzle or another.

A group of people rounding the corner came into view.

"Hey, its just another person!" one of them, a girl with green hair, exclaimed.

One of her companions, a knight in black armor, shook his head, "Careful, he could be a monster."

"What? No, he's clearly a person."

"That doesn't mean anything."

They did not have long ears like proper Hylians, but they at least seemed reluctant to attack. Grunting in reply, I holstered the hookshot and walked closer to facilitate conversation.

"He doesn't seem hostile to me," the third member, a woman of great resemblance to the girl, spoke up in what appeared to be my defense.

Giving her an appreciative nod, I then fixed the knight with the intent look that I gave to anyone when I needed them to know the current situation.

"Is something wrong, sir?"

For the first time, silently staring was not getting the point across. I tried again, throwing in some hand gestures and nods. The knight still gazed blankly back at me.

"I guess he can't talk," the girl concluded, coming to my side for a closer look. She was around the size of Princess Ruto when I had first encountered her, and nearly as presumptuous. "Think he can help us?"

"I suppose we've one more slot in our party, if our guide would just come out of hiding."

One more slot? What did that have to do with it? If it was a matter of the effective maneuverability of a group then they were already dealing in false logistics; my effective group size topped off at two members maximum, usually with me carrying the other member.

"Speaking of the guide, any idea which way we're supposed to be going?" The woman looked over her shoulder, as if expecting the mentioned guide to make himself visible upon command. "We can't just go stumbling around into every corner of this cave. We've got to focus on our goal if we're going to reach that sand ruby, having a party made up of limited use mages and all. Especially if we run into another group of flan."

Flan... it was probably some monster. Having never spoken of monsters myself I didn't really have much use for naming them; other than the Golden Skulltullas, of course. There was likely some official source that made it all clear but that was, like speaking, by no means necessary for my adventures.

"We'll make it through," the knight assured his companions. "I may be the only one able to deal substantial damage on a regular basis but now that we've another sword arm we should be just fine."

"Look, just because physical combat is useful does not make it necessary or the dominant component in our party." The woman seemed rather riled by the man's statement. I had to side with him though, magic was only good for escaping dungeons and lighting numerous torches at once.

Tilting my head in a "let's go" sort of way, I moved out of the cave's corner and examined the two paths ahead of me. If only I had picked up a dungeon map earlier it would've been so much easier...

"Hold on, where are you going?" The girl grabbed my arm.

Off to do something heroic or fun, that's where I'm going. I was beginning to doubt that these people could read my thoughts, another sign I wasn't in Hyrule anymore.

"Perhaps things would be easier if you'd just talk to us a little more," the knight suggested, coming to the girl's side as he tried to reason with me.

I snorted. Reason is what one uses to solve puzzles, not conversations.

"Maybe you'd best just follow us," the knight continued on. "If we all stick together, we should make it in and out just fine. Right, Edward?"

"Edward's still hiding off screen like a chicken," the green haired girl reminded him. "If you ask me, we should have just let him stay and sort things out with Tellah."

The woman of the group shook her head. "But Rydia, only Royals of Damcyan are allowed in the cave. Without Edward, we couldn't enter."

"Not like they'd be able to stop us..." Rydia answered flatly.

"Rydia!"

"...you're right, that's mean. But we need the sand ruby for Rosa! How could they stop us with a reason like that?"

"It matters not," the knight said, following his own advice and moving on down the path. I liked that attitude, it wasn't very often that I could count on someone else to be competent. If I let Princess Zelda choose like that, she'd probably just get herself captured.

"Why? Because rules are rules and that's that?" Rydia asked, coming up beside him. "If that were true, my village would be destroyed right now. The rules are bending."

I grunted. Obviously they weren't used to ability based progressive exploration, the rules for where you could and couldn't go were changing all the time. How did they expect to get anything done if their world didn't expand?

Still, they were decent walkers. I had to admit, walking was the basis for all quest taking, particularly when it included crossing the Hylian plains. It could really test one's patience though; I hadn't wasted any time procuring a horse the moment I was old enough to ride.

They were quiet enough for the rest of the trek down into the depths of the cavern. It was nice though; even if this place didn't have people who could read your mind, it had a pleasantly surprising lack of hazards in its dungeons (although the monsters did show up out of nowhere).

We next stopped at the rim of a sinking dip that took up the majority of the present chamber. I narrowed my eyes: it was the perfect set up for a boss monster. With much of the room sloping in towards a sandy pit, however, my mobility would be limited; double that when taking all my traveling companions into account.

"Ah! We've made it!" a blond man with a small harp emerged behind us and walked purposefully towards the center of the chamber. Although the harp did remind me of Sheik, he didn't look nearly as capable. I could only assume he was the aforementioned Edward. "I'll retrieve the sand ruby from the Antlion's nest and then we can be on our way!"

I cried out in alarm and reached out to stop the man before he ran headlong into the arena.

"What was that?" he asked over his shoulder as he neared the center.

Facepalming as a jointed leg emerged from the sandy floor and smacked the man over the head, I began forming a plan of attack. Like most boss monsters, I expected it to cower behind some invincible status before leaving itself vulnerable after an attack. This made it all the more surprising when the creature scuttled out of its burrow in front of the now dazed Edward.

That would work; after all, I wasn't above all out assault mode. Starting things off with a leaping down strike, I landed a solid blow on the monster's head.

The sharp retort of an insectoid leg in my gut confirmed that this wasn't going to be as easy as I had hoped.

"Hang on!" the green haired girl called out from behind me. "We'll handle this! Fire!"

Flames spluttered into the boss monster's face, soliciting an indignant hiss and another reactionary swing that clipped me across my right arm and left me sprawled on the sandy floor.

"Oops..."

Rydia's mother groaned. "Rydia, you need to wait until after he gets out of range. The monster's reflexes don't change, only the proximity of the attack relative to your allies."

I looked up in time to see a very confused expression on Rydia's face before Cecil affirmed her understanding for her and proceeded to drag me and Edward out of range.

"Right then, stand back!"

With a flourish, the woman waved her hands, muttered a few words, and flicked her wrist towards the Antlion.

It took me about fifteen seconds before I figured out something was supposed to have happened.

"...Mom?"

Stepping back from the still angrily chittering creature, the woman promptly seethed and thrust her foot against a rock.

"What's wrong?"

"...I ran out of MP."

The significance of the statement was almost completely lost on me. Of course, most statements were. My mind had sort of gone numb to them after hearing Navi's dumbed down instructions for over a week… or a month. Ironically, my grasp on time seemed to slip once I got my hands on the Ocarina. Unless things were spelled out clear and simple, they weren't worth understanding.

What I did understand was that this monster attacked at close range and our other options were quickly running out. So, I went with the obvious answer: bowmanship.

Drawing my handy short bow and a few arrows, I fired on the monster from my currently out of reach position.

The creature flailed and gnashed its mandibles, but otherwise remained stationary.

A number of shots later, it finally turned tail and burrowed back into the sand, leaving behind a smooth, milky red orb. Considering that the only thing boss monsters were supposed to drop were heart containers, I was rather bewildered at the non-crystalline object now lying on the sandy floor of the cavern.

"The sand ruby!" Cecil exclaimed, picking up the item and shoving it into his pocket. "Let's get back to Kaipo and cure Rosa!"

"Who's Rosa?" Edward asked, momentarily reviving his relevance by asking a question I was interested in.

Rydia smiled slyly, "She's Cecil's—"

"Significant other," her mother finished. "She's got desert fever. But thanks to this traveler… what did you say your name was?"

I stared back and lowered my eyebrows as I concentrated on the question. These people didn't understand mindspeak, so I would actually have to use my vocal chords this time.

"…Hrrruaaaht!" I uttered uncertainly. It was one of the few sounds I had mastered other than "Hut", "huh", "hah", and "aahh".

"Oookay then… we'll just call you Tingle," Rydia said slowly, seeming to pull the name out of mid-air.

I grunted in dismay. What kind of a name was Tingle?

It was at that moment that I remembered the use of an otherwise fairly useless item in my inventory: The magic of Farore's Wind; a not-so-fail-safe escape from any dungeon. I felt idiotic for not remembering it earlier, but getting out of there was far more beneficial than conserving my pride as a dungeon navigating adventurer.

"So Tingle, do you want to come help—?"

Rydia's statement was cut off by my casting animation as I summoned up the power to carry me beyond the hopeless depths of my wanderings and back to my main quest. All things considered, it's a power I should use more often.

Anyway, the blinding light of extreme travel blocked out whatever else happened that day. I returned once to see if I could complete the sidequest but by then the whole cave was gone. Whatever had brought us together, I was unable to discover it, even to this day. But that's alright, the links of my life are disjointed anyway.

A/N: Much better this time around! We even got some FF IV character development in. This Chapter's character was the main character from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a man/boy often known by his default name of Link but in reality is nameable by the player. He doesn't talk much, but he sure likes his adventuring.