4 Swords: Shadowed Truth ch20

Chapter 20: You're Idiots, Aren't You?

It is around noon of the day after Green and Vaati met up with Shadow and Vio on Death Mountain. The four boys have made their way off of the active volcano and are currently in Hyrule Field. Though their pace is slow as they're pushing themselves when each boy is either wounded, exhausted or both, they should reach Lake Hylia soon.

~several hours later~

The group of four reaches Lake Hylia without much incident, though Shadow has several more bruises from Octoroks. He seems to be the only one of the four other than Vaati who has trouble dodging them, though Vaati is only being hit because he's too injured to move quickly. All four boys look very exhausted, but they stubbornly continue anyway. They are now standing on a ridge overlooking the lake, looking out over the water towards an island shrouded in a thick fog.

"(Green) Whew... We made it. And there's the island we saw..."

"(Vio) That mist isn't natural; it can't be. The weather is much too clear for fog."

"(Shadow) *grins devilishly* What did you expect? For it to be easy?"

Green laughs weakly and Vio has a small smile on his face.

"(Vio) Of course not. What fun would that be?"

"(Green) It's only easy when we go the wrong way, after all! Heheh!"

"(Vaati) ...Hihi... True..."

The four boys head for the lake shore, all of them exhausted but too stubborn to realize they really need to stop and rest. They end up passing out about halfway there, luckily being picked up by a small group of Zora warriors on patrol. The four boys are taken to see the King of the Zoras when they come to. He doesn't actually meet with them, however, as they are brought to talk with one of his daughters instead after seeing him freaking out and carrying on about his "precious Ruto." The distraught king is so upset he doesn't even seem to notice them. An escort begins leading them to their new destination, answering some of their questions along the way.

"(Shadow) What the...? What's with Mister Panic Attack over there? Aren't kings supposed to be, well, royal?"

"(Zora warrior) Princess Ruto has gone missing, zora. He dotes on her quite a bit, you see, so he is very worried about her safety right now. Please forgive him for being so unprofessional."

"(Green) Princess... Ruto?"

Green blanches, looking scared.

"I'll beat you in a duel one day, and then you'll HAVE to marry me! I'll be the first "Ruto" to get her guy, just you wait!"

"(Vio) What's wrong, Green? Your face turned really pale all of a sudden. Are you alright?"

"(Green) I don't want to talk about it..."

"(Vaati) ..."

'Hmm... I can faintly recall hearing a legend with the name "Ruto" in it before. It's not very clear, though. I wish I could remember more about my past, being like this is so frustrating.'

"(Shadow) You know this "Ruto" person, don't you?"

"(Green) I said I don't want to talk about it..."

Green looks depressed so Shadow drops the subject. The four boys continue on through Zora's Domain in a companionable silence until they reach a small cottage and their escort motions for them to stop.

"(Zora warrior) We've arrived, zora. Wait just a moment."

He knocks on the door.

"(Zora warrior) Princess Rutela, I have brought the group of four that was found during my patrol earlier to see you, zora. You see, your father--"

A feminine "I'm used to it by now, but that doesn't mean I have to like it" sigh is clearly heard from behind the door.

"(female Zora's voice) My father is very worried about my elder sister Ruto and is in no condition to see anyone, zora. I know about that already. After all, I am the one who helped her sneak out in the first place... I will speak with them now. You may return to your post. Come in, zora."

Rutela opens the door for the four boys and they all go inside, Green hesitating a bit at the doorway and entering last. Rutela's gaze travels over the four of them, eventually staying on Vio.

"(Rutela) Oh, if it isn't Link! It has been quite a while, has it not? I see you still have that habit of befriending the strangest of folk as well, zora. Would you mind introducing me to your friends? And what happened to your eyes? I remember them being blue the last time I saw you, but unless I am mistaken, yours eyes have turned purple, zora... ^.^; "

Green sweat drops, Shadow's eyes widen and Vio actually looks confused for once. Vaati, on the other hand, seems quite amused by this.

"(Vaati) Hihi..."

'She thinks Vio is Green!'

"(Vio) Huh?"

Green steps forward, getting Rutela's attention.

"(Green) Rutela, I'm Link. Well, the Link you know, anyway. I go by the name Green now."

She stares at the half-Hylian, half-dragon boy for a moment, then sighs.

"(Rutela) I believe some explanations are in order, zora."

~a few hours later~

"(Rutela) Wow. You four have been through quite a bit, zora. Is that everything?"

"(Green) Yep, that's it."

"(Rutela) You four... You're idiots, aren't you, zora?"

Everyone but Green stares at Rutela as if she's suddenly grown two heads.

"(Vio & Shadow) HUH???"

"(Rutela) Like our warriors. You push yourselves far past what is healthy and willingly enter into very dangerous situations without hesitation, zora. In my eyes, someone fitting that description is an idiot. My sister Ruto is one of those I consider such as well. I do not mean this as an insult, it is simply that such a lifestyle does not seem very wise, zora."

"(Vio) Oh. That makes sense."

"(Shadow) So you call brave people idiots? That's really weird... Hey Green, how come you didn't seem surprised?"

"(Green) Rutela's always been like this. She's called me an idiot plenty of times."

Shadow grins in triumph, catching Green's slip-up.

"(Shadow) So you have met these Zora princesses before!"

Green pales again, frantically searching for a way to get Shadow to stop pressing for information. The nervous young hero comes up blank, simply repeating what he said earlier.

"(Green) I said I don't want to talk about it!!"

"(Shadow) Sheesh! I get it, I get it! No need to yell at me!"

The red-eyed boy shakes his head, puzzled by Green's odd behavior.

"(Shadow) Anyway, what's with you today, Green? You act like this Ruto person wants to marry you or something!"

Green and Rutela both sweat drop and she quickly changes the subject.

"(Rutela) I'd like to know more about your purple-skinned friend here, zora. How did you meet him?"

Everyone looks towards Vaati. He's asleep, having dozed off while no one was paying much attention to him. The Links sweat drop and Rutela smiles gently.

"(Rutela) Your friend there seems to be quite tired, zora."

"(Green) Yeah. I get the feeling he's been through much more than what little he's told us and we've seen."

'And I'm pretty sure that a lot of what he went through was to help me... But why?'

Vio looks a bit distracted, his attention shifting away from the conversation and into his own thoughts.

'Vaati... Just who are you? Why is Gufuu inside your body, and why do you seem to know a lot more than you let on? You act so much older than you seem to be most of the time, yet when you're asleep you look just like a small child. All I can really tell for sure is that you're dangerous. Really dangerous. Something about you just screams "threatening"... Except for when you're asleep. It's so strange; almost as if you're two people, or from another time entirely--'

Vio's violet-tinted eyes widen slightly as the facts he's gathered click into place.

'Wait. Gufuu is ancient. Judging from what the legends say, he's been around for at least a couple thousand years. In contrast, Vaati can't be much older than us, if even. In spite of this, Gufuu seemed to be perfectly at home inside Vaati's body. He was completely in tune with him and his powers, and they even share the same title. Maybe... Vaati is from the past? But then what about Gufuu? It just doesn't make sense. I'm missing something important, I can feel it. Once I have some time alone, I'll do some serious research with my book. We need to find out as much about this situation as possible, especially about these two magic users; Vaati and Veran. I should also see what I can find out about that strange boy that looks like Shadow, too...'

"(Shadow) ...io. Hey, Vio."

"(Vio) ..."

"(Shadow) HYRULE TO VIO!"

"(Vio) Ah!! *startled*"

"(Shadow) Finally! I've been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes!"

The two boys are alone in the room. Vio looks around curiously, still a bit dazed.

"(Vio) Where did everyone go?"

"(Shadow) That Rutela girl went off somewhere to handle running Zora's Domain in place of her father after offering us a guesthouse to stay in. Green already went on ahead with our stuff. He was carrying the purple brat over his shoulder like it was nothing, too... Either Vaati's ridiculously light or Green's a bit more dragon than he seems. Come on, let's go catch up with them."

The gray-clad boy shakes his head and adjusts his hat, looking like all he wants right now is to take a nice, long nap. He extends a hand to help Vio out of the chair he's sitting in and his purple-clad friend takes it, pulling himself up.

"(Vio) Thanks. Sorry about that, by the way. I was just... thinking."

Shadow laughs and rolls his eyes.

"(Shadow) Just be glad it was me here and not Blue. He probably would've whacked you with that hammer of his, yelling all the while."

"(Vio) Yeah. And I can just imagine what he'd say, too."

Vio raises his voice to take on an annoyed, aggressive tone and drops to a slightly lower pitch, imitating the Blue Link perfectly.

"(Vio mimicking Blue's voice) Of course you were thinking; you're always thinking! I bet if we left you alone with your book for just one second, you'd never stop! Get your head out of the clouds and into the fight, bookworm!"

Shadow bursts out laughing at Vio's perfect Blue impression as the pair leaves the cottage and begins heading towards the guesthouse they've been given use of.

"(Shadow) Yeah, that's Blue all right, one hundred percent! You're really good at that, Vio."

"(Vio) Well, our voices all sound similar in the first place, so it's easy. The only one of us whose voice I can't mimick very well is Red."

"(Shadow) Because of the high pitch?"

Vio nods.

"(Vio) I think so... Hey, Shadow. I've noticed that you never refer to Red as a he. Why?"

"(Shadow) Neither do you, you know. It's because I don't think Red's a he in the first place."

"(Vio) So you figured it out, too?"

"(Shadow) Yeah. And now that it seems like we're actually seperate people somehow, it makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?"

"(Vio) Of course it does. There have been plenty of moments where Red's acted more like a girl than a boy, especially that time we were fighting Gufuu at Sky-Tall Tower."
"(Shadow) Huh?"

"(Vio) Oh yeah, you weren't with us for that part."

'While we were fighting Gufuu, Shadow was heading for the Dark Mirror; to break it. Even though he knew full well what would happen to him if the Dark Mirror was gone. And I had no idea, none at all...'

Shadow's voice breaks Vio out of his depressing thoughts as the gray-clad boy asks him a question.
"(Shadow) So what happened that had Red acting girly anyway?"

"(Vio) Gufuu grabbed Red and Blue with some of his tentacles and basically tied them together. Blue freaked out, yelling "What the?!" at the top of his lungs, and Red squealed "Nooo~!" like a teenaged girl. It was probably just my imagination, but I could've sworn I saw a little heart floating around, too."

"(Shadow) Seriously?"

"(Vio) Yes."

Shadow laughs.

"(Shadow) Ahahahaha! That's hilarious! I'm sorry I missed it! Hey, what were you and Green doing then?"

"(Vio) Gufuu had Green by his arms and legs, spread-eagled in mid-air."

"(Shadow) And what about you, Vio?"

"(Vio) Well..."

"(Shadow) Come on, tell me already!"

Vio sweat drops.

"(Vio) Well... I, uh... When I went to help the others one of Gufuu's tentacles wrapped around my ankle. He had me hanging upside down before I could even blink. It's embarrassing."

"(Shadow) Well, sounds like he had all four of ya beat at that point, so you shouldn't be ashamed of it. No one's perfect, right?"

"(Vio) Yeah. Oh, is that cottage over there where we're staying?"

"(Shadow) I think so. Let's go in; I need a nap..."

The two boys go inside the cottage, headed for a much-needed rest.