Linkle clapped her hands over her ears and flinched as Bowser bellowed his demands for silence. King Dodango had roared about that loud, each time threatening to tear her ears right off he skull, but even that thing would have been intimidated. Not that she could blame him for reacting like that, after what the courier had done. So that thing he had been pointing around had been some kind of loud, boltless crossbow. She would have to keep an eye on something as cool as that, not that it had done much more than make Bowser mad. 

Another thing he had in common with King Dodongo along with the fire and the roar and, as it happened, the whole royalty thing. She tensed up for a moment as he started stomping his was over to them, but he only wanted to plop down and check on his friend Kirby. Despite how big and scary Bowser was, this made her think that Tora was right: none of these people were bad people.

Kirby stirred at Bowser bequest, and though still weak and injured from whatever had happened to him, the little guy greeted him with a smile that warmed her heart. Then he rolled over and pointed out over the sweeping landscape, and for the first time Linkle really looked at the world she'd landed in.

Oddly enough if felt very familiar. Not that it shared any landmark she recognized from Hyrule, at least not that she could see. It was the way things seemed...messy. One place ended and another just began, as though the entire place had been patched together like a quilt. She'd come across something like this on her trip to Hyrule castle, places that just began as though something in the sky had plopped them down from somewhere else. It had always felt weird.

She stared out at the sickly light of the second sun that floated ominously above the landscape. That light was familiar too, in the same stomach churning way as the landscape, and as she looked at it she couldn't help but wonder whether both landscape had the same cause. That maybe, just maybe, she had stopped to soon and that the real cause of all the problems in Hyrule was the same thing that did this. It made sense. Now that she thought about it things seemed too easy. She had never even confronted whatever great evil had been messing everything up in the first place, or picked up the Master Sword, or any of the things that were supposed to happen besides saving Princess Zelda.

Her quest wasn't over, it was only beginning! Despite the situation the thought exited her.

Tora took the opportunity while everyone was  
Surveying the landscape to take charge and get everyone to introduce themselves. Linkle listened. Death, a creepy name for a creepy guy. Geno, maybe some kind of god given the way her talked about himself? That was the only thing she figured "from above" could mean because it wasn't as though regular people could live in the sky, though she'd never heard of anything called the star road. The kind centurion Agoston and the Fi like woman that had healed Kirby, Blazermate. The mysterious, poetry talking swordman Zer0. A familiar looking women that was only just now stirring introduced herself as Din, something that took Linkle by surprise. For a hot second she wondered if this was [b]the[/b] Din, but then she introduced herself as a dancer. Linkle felt silly for jumping to conclusions. It wasn't as though you had to be a thing just because you were named the same.

"Pleased to meet you everyone," she said as soon was she found a break in the conversation. " I'm-"

[color=ed1c24]"Link!"[/color]

She was nearly bowled over as Din suddenly wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug. Linkle was confused, but luckily for her it didn't take Din long to notice two glaring contradictions of her memory and realize her mistake. Linkle felt bad for her, looking so sad. "-kle." Linkle finished for her, before smiling and holding out her hand. "I'm Linkle, so you were almost right. It's great to someone else from home! You don't have anything to worry about, because I'm an incarnation of the legendary hero! Wait, did you know another me?" She asked, suddenly starstruck. She clapper her hands on Din's shoulders. "That's so cool! What was he like? Oh..."

She noticed that a few members of their party had already started moving toward the castle in the distance, notably Bowser picking up the unconscious Kirby and nestling him into the depths of his hat. She turned back to Din. "We should talk as we walk. Don't want to get left behind, after all." She walked over to where her crossbows were strewn on the ground and snatched them up, slotting both into her boot holsters before starting to make her way down the hill after the others.

She stopped, though, and looked back. Tora had short little legs. She turned back with a concerned lo[u][/u]ok on her face and made her was back up the hill, kneeling down next to the little gut. "Hey Tora?" She asked, pulling down her hood and pointing her thumb at the little back pouch it created. "Want a ride?"

[hr]

Whether the little guy had taken her offer to ride along, Bowser style, in her headwear Linkle followed after the others on the way ton the castle. It was a good first move. Geno had said that a princess lived in that castle, and if things were as dangerous around here as she suspected then there was no way she wasn't in peril. Saving a princess was not only classic, but her duty as hero.

It wasn't long before another face appeared of the woods, a short cat thing asking questions about a missing friend. "Sorry, we all just woke up ourselves. I think Bowser might know more about this than anybody." She said, pointing to the Koopa kings back.

As if in answer Bowser laid out the facts. The world, the light, how Kirby had gotten so hurt, and what he intended to do about it. Besides the pang of guilt she felt at the revelation that they'd been the ones to beat Kirby so badly every single word of his declaration of war got her more and more fired up. "Yes. Yes! Let's get a bunch of heroes together and show that light thing the door!"