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‘Alright place you Rupee’s in the center boys!’ Commanded Legend as he cockily threw a satchel of his own into the centre of the campsite.
Pulling out his own pouch Wars skeptically eyed Legend, ‘What have you got in mind?’
‘Oh, just a friendly wager.’ Sky doubted that this wager would be anything but friendly given Legend’s track record, but regardless he sighed and relented, throwing his own small pouch into the growing pile.
Once everyone had put something in, Legend smiled wryly. ‘Now that we’ve all agreed to wager, welcome to the game!’
Well if the prospect of suddenly wagering money was worrying enough, this surely was as…well…Legend was never this cheerful.
‘What game? All I see are my Rupee’s being stolen.’ Grumbled Warrior, already lifting a hand to massage a growing headache.
Legend just smiled, ‘Well that would be your fault for wagering so much, my poor dear Captain!’
‘Why you little-’
Sky sighed as he could feel an upcoming argument, Four’s progressively souring face clearly showing that he thought the same.
Thankfully, Twi came to the rescue as he reached over and put Wars in a headlock. ‘Now Legend, would you mind telling us why we are sacrificing our Rupees?’ His eyes had a partially dangerous glint to them, Sky guess that spending a lot of time worrying about what Wild was gonna spend a crazy amount of money on was slowly getting to him.
‘Glad you asked my dog smelling friend!’
‘Hey-’
‘Now I’m sure that we are all aware of the bizarre and strange,’ a quite murmur of agreement rounded around the campsite as Sky found himself also joining in with the chorus, ‘well I wanted to do a wager as to who has seen the craziest, winner take all!’
Warrior gasped, blabbering over his words. ‘I put all of my Rupees in there!’
‘Oh, my how confident you are Captain.’
‘I swear I’m gonna kill you.’
‘Well unfortunately for you, any violence to a participant leads to disqualification. So sorry Cap but it looks like I shall live, oh so sorry.’
Warrior shook as Twilights hold on him changed from something friendly to holding back a live bull, good thing Twi was a Ranch hand. Warrior however wasn’t the only one who was protesting, as Four also started to protest and Time was looking progressively disappointed.
Sky felt as if he needed to say something, he didn’t doubt that if he left it for any longer, they would be at each other’s throats with, probably Wild, someone holding a bokohead on a stick. ‘Well I suppose that’s fine, but why not just ask Legend?’
‘Well this makes them more dramatic, cause there’s something on the line!’
At this point he was wholeheartedly convinced that Legend had been hanging out with Ravio too much. Fortunately, that got them to settle down, if by a little. Legend smiled, sitting down on his log and throwing one leg over the other as he eagerly leaned forward.
‘Alright lads, who’s going first?’
Wind perked up, looking rather confused, ‘Shouldn’t you start Legend?’
‘Thank you for offering Wind, what you got us?’
It appeared that Legend wasn’t going to be listening to anyone today as Wind sighed, donning that constipated look he got every time he got lost in thought. ‘Well I do remember this one thing that happened while I was sailing back to outset that was pretty creepy.’
‘Well what happened Sailor, don’t keep us in suspense!’
Said Sailor glared at Legend as he continued. ‘Well I was sailing back one day when I saw a doll in the water.’
Hyrule frowned, ‘a doll?’
‘Yeah, pretty creepy. But there I was, sailing back home, bones weary from the long travel over the seas. I was pretty tired, but you need to stay alert on a boat y’know, doesn’t do to well to get caught off guard.’ Wind paused, standing from his seat and placing his foot on it, leaning forward with the inviting eyes of a storyteller. ‘Now I saw something floating in the distance that somewhat looked like a person bobbing up and down, so I thought they may be in trouble.’
Sky could feel the anticipation growing within the heroes, no matter what anyone said, Wind was certainly their best storyteller. Wars had stopped trying to kill Legend to give the sailor his attention, and Twi’s grip had slacked, Four ad stopped polishing his sword and even Legend was leaning forward, enticed.
‘-So I sailed forward, I was really worried cause the Great Sea is really dangerous, but when I got closer it was a doll. I was so confused, cause it was like a full body mannequin and none of the shops on nearby islands even had dolls, much less the further out ones didn’t have whole body dolls.’ He leaned forward, casting shadowed eyes around at everyone. ‘It’s eyes where so creepy! They were hollow looking and stared into your soul, I swear!’
Sky could feel a slight unnerve rustle his soul, as the story took an uneasy turn, if Wind’s haunted look was anything to go by. Across from him Hyrule grabbed onto Legend arm, looking quite disturbed and mumbling something to himself that Legend nodded along to.
‘I was creeped out a little so I decided to keep moving on, but then further up I saw another one, and another one, and another one, till dolls started appearing all through out the water. At this time, I entered an especially foggy area to I could just hear the dolls clunking against the side of my ship.’ Warriors gasped, now holding onto Twi who just looked at him. ‘Now that’s creepy right? This is creepier. Because as I was sailing through I heard this bang and then a scraping sound, and then when I turned around…there was one of the dolls! BOO!’
Sky jumped, eyes wide, hand on heart as Hyrule screeched, ‘AHHHHHHHHHHHH!’
Warrior quickly joined him, being startled by Hyrule, ‘AHHHHHHHHH!’
‘QUIET!’ Boomed Time, as Winds face slowly turned red from trying to hold in his laughter, tears springing to his eyes. Sky drooped his hand down his face, breathing deeply to calm his racing heart as he saw Four next to him make some sort of straggling noise.
‘WIND! WHAT THE HELL!’ Shouted Warriors as he ferociously gripped onto Twilight who somehow looked just a bit startled, oh how Sky envied his stoutness right now.
‘What? Just thought I’d add some-‘ he started shaking his hands violently, ‘spark!’
‘You certainly sparked something alright…’ Muttered Legend, as he gently pat Hyrule’s arm and slowly pried his arms off him. ‘Alright anyone else?’
Warrior shrugged, ‘I once went to a mansion where there were pictures of me everywhere.’
Legend rolled his eyes, ‘Oh wow, a mansion to boost your ego, fantastic.’
‘I’ve experienced something similar actually…’ Wild, who for most of the time sat quietly beside Time, peeped.
‘Really?’ Asked Sky, it was true that Winds doll story was scary but there was just something eery about someone you don’t know having pictures of you, he could speak from experience.
‘Yeah, there was this locked house in Hateno, and the locals there said that it was haunted…’
Sky’s ears twitched as he faintly heard Twi mumble, ‘oh no, not this story again…’
‘So, one of the girls who lived there was feeling quite frightened and paid me to go inside and look around.’
‘Was she cute?’ Sky leaned over and flicked Wars in the ear, before gesturing for Wild to go on. He gave Sky a small appreciated nod and continued on.
‘So, wanting to put her at ease I agreed and headed inside. The house itself was normal, nothing haunted about it, but to be thorough I said the night.’
‘You stayed the night in a haunted house?’ Wind said, eyes wide as he sat crisscrossed on his log, head slightly titled in confusion.
‘Yup, wasn’t anything scary in there either, so when morning came, I went to leave. But as I was leaving, I noticed that the door was locked. Which shouldn’t be the case as I left the door open.’
‘Why leave the door open?’ Asked Sky, surely leaving the door open was a sure way of inviting uninvited guests.
‘Well if there was a ghost in there I wasn’t going to stay around!’
Time rose an eyebrow, ‘Why not just shoot it with a bow?’
‘Shoot it with a bow? Huh never thought about that… anyway… the door was locked, so I decided to look for a window.’
Hyrule nodded, ‘A viable exit.’
‘But it was then I realised that there were no windows, so I started to check all the doors, and I found one I hadn’t gone into before.’
‘Oh spooky~’ Comment Four, wiggling his fingers at the group which cause a few chuckles.
‘Well it was a bit creepy, but I could barely see so I pulled out one of my fire swords. When I did however there was just a bunch of pictures all around or me going through the house…even pictures of me sleeping.’
‘That is quite creepy, but not exactly bizarre…’ Said Legend, waving off the story and looking rather bored.
‘Hey! It really creeped me out okay? Have you ever been stalked Lagend?’
‘Actually yes, but that’s a story for another day.’
Sky stared at him rather confused, ‘Hold up what?’
‘Anyway! Who’s next?’ Asked Legend, waving his hand in a subtle sigh to let it go, and Sky was going to respect his wishes cause they all had things they’d rather not talk about.
Four sighed, resting both of his hands behind his head. ‘I don’t really have much of a story creepy wise, but I was once visited by the ghost of a previous King who told me to go to his tomb so I could dig up his corpse and find a Kinestone piece.’
Wind’s eyes bulged, ‘You dug up a dead guy!’
‘Well not without his permission.’
‘What the fuck Four.’
‘Wind, language!’ Gasped Sky, pointedly staring at the small sailor as he just gave him a cheeky smile.
‘”What the fuck Four” is right.’
‘Legend!’ Before he had a chance to go into mama cucco mode, Time clears his throat.
‘I have something that happened during my travels that was a bit weird.’
‘Oh, surprise us Old man!’ Encouraged Warriors, giving him a clap on the back. He smiled wryly and gave a small chuckle, running one hand through his hair…yet another habit all the Links had picked up.
‘Haha, I’m afraid it’s not too exciting, just the fact that around my Hyrule you can find cows in all sorts of places…’
‘How so?’ Asked Legend, raising an eyebrow.
‘I couldn’t tell you how many I found in a hole or in a massive fish deities’ belly. I even managed to get one in my old house that when I played a song she would give me free milk.’
‘That actually sounds pretty helpful, having your own cow.’ Four said, a thoughtful look on his face.
‘Yeah, I thought so too. So now I own a farm.’
Twilight stared at him, eyebrows furrowed, ‘That’s not the real reason you own a farm, right?’
His only response was a chuckle of which didn’t really tell anything, the same kind of chuckle he had when he told them he had fought the moon…Sky’s was starting to feel as if there was some truth to his stories.
‘Can’t say I’ve seen anything like that, but I did once kill a spider boss at the end of a temple, only for it to split into a thousand spider babies and a giant eye.’ Twilight shrugged, ignoring the ‘what the fuck’ look Warriors was giving him.
‘Alright Twilight, you are currently in the lead!’ Said Legend, bring back his commentator voice.
‘Hey what about my story!’ Exclaimed Wind, lifting a fist in presumable outrage.
Legend laughed, ‘Because I asked for strange and weird stories, not creepy. Right then,’ he clapped his hands together, rubbing them furiously, ‘My turn.’
Hyrule meekly smiled, clapping quietly, ‘Alright then tell us what you’ve got Legend.’
‘I once had to travel through time, go through lands plagued with turbulent weather, faced harsh monsters…’
‘Get on with it!’ Shouted Wars, yet again earning another flick to the ear and a glare from Time.
‘…So that I could tell an old man a joke.’
Silence came over the campsite as no one was quite sure how to react. To Sky that seemed very excessive for a joke…then again, he had to go about collecting gratitude crystals for a man turned monster, but even then, it was more fruitful than that.
‘Is that it?’ Asked Wind, looking rather disappointed and Legend scoffed.
‘I was told it was something important and life threatening, and it was to tell a dude a dumb joke, a bit weird if you ask me.’ A somewhat somber sigh left most of the Links mouth, thorough disappointed, and Sky couldn’t help but admit that he was a bit underwhelmed as well.
‘Well okay then! What about you Hyrule, Sky? Do either of you have a good story?’ Exclaimed Legend, grumpily sitting back down on his log.
Hyrule shyly raised one hand, ‘I have a story that’s like Winds.’
‘More dolls?’ Asked Wild, perking up his head from his slate.
‘Yup. Well it’s more like I’d find random dolls that looked just like me all over the place.’
Twilight shuddered, ‘Oh that’s creepy…’
Hyrule nodded and continued on, ‘Yeah, I’d find them in monster filled caves, temples, I found one nailed to a stick in a random field once…but it was really strange and I never found who was doing them.’
Sky couldn’t help but agree, he could imagine finding random finding eerily similar doll versions around even Skyloft would be creepy, no matter how cheery the town was. Hell, Zelda had made a small joke doll of him in a green suit and he absolutely hated it since it looked so creepy.
‘Alright with that Legend, I’d say that Hyrule overtakes me and is now in the lead.’ Twilight smiled, slightly putting on a voice which got Legend to smile a little.
‘Alright Sky, your turn. Lucky Last!’
‘Hmmm, let me think…’ He had seen the bizarre and strange, Ghirahim being one of the top things on that list, so what would be the craziest…or the most entertaining. ‘I know! Bird Groose.’
‘…Excuse me, bird Groose?’ Questioned Four, raising one eyebrow.
Sky nodded, ‘Yup, sounds weird right? Well it started by Groose barging into my room back when I was at the knight’s academy. He burst in claiming that I had stuck feathers on is body.’
‘Well did you?’ Asked Wind, and Sky chuckled, waving a hand.
‘Nope. We later found out that he drank some contaminated water which caused feathers to go over night.’ Sky could feel a bright smile coming back from the memory, ‘We had spent the whole day having to pull the feathers out and our loftwings were quite freaked out and wouldn’t leave Groose along for a week.’
Silence fell around the campsite as Sky’s laughs slowly silenced, nervousness settled in his stomach as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Just as he thought about apologising, Legend stood, moved towards the pile of Rupees and proceed to pick them up and dump them into Sky’s lap.
‘Congratulation Sky on winning because that was just really weird. Here’s your prize!’
‘I…thanks?’ The heroes chuckled and Sky nervously chuckled. He meant to say something funny, but at least he got his Rupee’s back…maybe with the extra he could buy something for his sweet Zelda…and maybe Groose as well for helping him win this.