[center][color=darkgreen][h3]Linkle[/h3][/color]
[color=darkgreen][b] Level 3[/b][/color] - (13/30) -1 + 2

[color=darkgreen][b]Location:[/b][/color] Peach's Castle – Out Front, Moatside
[color=darkgreen][b]Word Count: 757[/b][/color][/center]

[@Delta44][@Lugubrious]
[hr]

It didn't take long for Linkle to get bored of this situation. She tried to be upbeat about this, but it just didn't feel right. She remembered, back when she was younger, her grandmother had knitted her a wonderful green hat and she'd worn it proudly around the village until two of the older boys had snatched it off her head and tossed it back and forth to one another as she ran around trying to get it back. Crying. This was reminding her an awful lot of that. Sure Junpei was still doing his level best to kill them, but she felt bad for him.

She tried to take her mind off it, and how embarrassed she was going to be when everyone came back out of that castle to see them doing this, but there really wasn't much to do. She tried counting the aches in her body from that solid hit. She got a good look at herself in the the moat, touching her new ears in surprise and unsuccessfully trying to wash the red streaks that had flowed out of them due to their clipping from her hair with the cool water. She even tried to come up with a new idea, maybe a way to handle this where the three of them still came out looking kind of cool, but before she could figure something out the Master appeared.

It wasn't the worst thing that could have walked out of there, but she still felt her face redden as he announced how he'd been wondering where they gotten off to, and all she could do was sheepishly point to Junpei and look away. Linkle still breathed a sigh of relief as the green energy called up by the Master, like the essence of Farore herself, finished what Minako had started. She watched in the reflection of the water as a pair of white blobs, limp like dead fish and seemingly caught in the updraft of the green energy, where lifted up from the inside of her hood and delicately attached themselves to the plateaus of her new ears. There was a flash along the place they joined and suddenly they were complete again. She bounced a few times, just to make sure everything was in working order again, and smiled as she watched them bob up and down.  All right, she was ready for round two!

Before they could get to that, though, the Master had another revelation to give them. Apparently when they'd been away Kirby had taught everyone a new trick. That made sense. Tora using it had just felt so natural she hadn't questioned it, especially with that big dragon Bowser around to occupy her thoughts. She watched, grinning with anticipation, as Minako tried it out. The grin only turned to a grown as the hearts she made cracked, shattered, and exploded one after another. She turned back to the Master who was getting ready to jump in himself, but held up her hands. "Don't trouble yourself, Master. If I've got nothing else it's a stalwart heart." She nodded, mostly to herself, and clenched her hands into fists before shouting, "Leader, hold on, I'll be right over!" to the opposite bank and taking off at a dead sprint across the bridge.

When she approached Minako Junpei was nearly to the shoreline. She skidded to a stop in front of her, looking down at him struggling in the water. Then she brought her hands up the middle of her chest, her fingers just barely brushing against her keepsake compass, and concentrated. She tried to think of hearts, picture hearts, [i]feel[/i] hearts, but nothing was happening as she tried to force it out. This was harder than it looked. Normally it was the other way around. Then, as she concentrated, her mind drifted back to that old hat. There was a glow, a glow that at first looked like it was coming from the compass itself, and out from her chest materialized a glowing, crystal pink heart that she lifted proudly above her head. "Da da da daaaaaa!" she called to herself, just like when she was a kid playing hero games. 

She regarded it curiously. She wondered if she could use this to heal people? Before she could get to far down that line of thought Junpei reached the shoreline. She smiled down at him, taking the heart in her hands. "Told ya we'd save you!" she shouted, then wound back and pitched the thing right at his face.