Just Like Old Times: A Legend of Zelda AU

Something Seems Fishy

Wow, Zelda was really loopy today. What was it that Sheik was trying to tell me? Zelda's emotions are connected to her magic? It was probably my fault then.

At the edge of the Zora Domain, I surveyed the area. There was a large wooded area obscuring the entrance for those who had never been or didn't know what they were looking for. Further into the area was a gate on one side of the river, with a person sitting down.

"Hello!" he said.

We were all a little shocked. Sheik replied, "Hello to you, too. What are you doing in these parts?"

"I'm selling magic beans, but nobody would by it in Hyrule Market. They didn't think they'd actually work."

We looked at each other. He was just munching away at the beans. Maybe that's why no one was buying them. He was just eating them like they were jellybeans.

I walked up to him. "How much are they? It's always good to have some magic on hand."

He replied, "The first one is free, and the next one is 10 rupees. Are you interested in purchasing some?"

"Yeah," I replied. He fished a few of the beans out of his bag while I fished a few rupees out of my magic bag. They could be a total hoax, but they could also work. I didn't want to take the chance of finding myself in a tight spot without a way out. And if these things really worked, we might have to come back and buy some more.

We exchanged, and I got 3 beans. I carefully tucked the beans into a pouch and strung it to my belt. I looked back at Zelda and Sheik, who were looking at me like I was crazy. I shrugged, and we began to walk away. The salesman bid us goodbye and we headed into the Zora's Domain.

It was full of water, as one might expect. There was a calm, peaceful air about the place. It was obviously taking some of the stress off of Zelda, as her magic wasn't misfiring as much. We got to the place we thought the entrance would be, but we didn't see anything.

I looked at Sheik. "What are we supposed to do?"

He shrugged. "I can sense that the Great Fairy is near, but my magic isn't powerful enough to find her."

We looked at Zelda. She put her hands up defensively. "Wait, me? Why do you think I'll know where it is?"

"Well," I began, "I can't use magic, and the Great Fairy herself said you were one of the most powerful in the realm right now."

"Yeah, but how will I know when I've found it?"

Sheik shrugged. Zelda looked a bit frustrated, so her magic responded accordingly. I noticed that I had begun flopping around on the floor. I was now a fish. How did that work?

Zelda gasped and quickly scooped me up. "Oh, no. Link! What did I do to him?"

"Your magic misfired. It happens often when you first get magic. Oh, and uh, he's a fish now if you couldn't tell."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I know he's a fish. But I thought magic misfires could only do small things."

"Well, apparently not."

To turn their attention back to me, I flopped around in Zelda's hands a little. It was getting hard to breathe, ya know with gills and all. Sheik clawed through my bag to find something to fill with water. He found a bottle, which he promptly filled, and Zelda gently plunked me into the water.

"Okay, we gotta figure out how to fix this," Sheik said. "Any ideas?"

"I bet the Great Fairy could help us," she said.

Being a fish was weird. In the Zora Domain, the water sounded normal to people, but to fish me, I could hear the voice of the river. It pointed me downstream and whispered that the Great Fairy was down that way. I swum around viciously in the bottle, and Sheik must've noticed.

"What's going on with Link?"

"I'm not so sure. Maybe he needs to be in the river?"

"Go ahead, try it."

Zelda emptied the bottle, and I quickly swam upstream, the way the river had told me to. They were not expecting that and had to rush to keep me in their sights. At the head of the river, a cave was off to the side.

Sheik scooped me back up in the bottle. "Thanks Link! My magic sense tells me she's in there." He motioned to Zelda. "Let's go."