(Quadrant Gamma; idea by Cubed)
The attacks were coming more and more often. A band of thieves was going from town to town, terrorizing the citizens and stealing whatever they could use. Riverton, Fish Town, Norville, Sutherford, and Flourville had already been hit. Romani feared that Clock Town – or, even worse, her family’s ranch – was next.
In and of themselves, thieves wouldn’t have been such a threat. But somehow, these thieves could use magic. Local sheriffs and their deputies seemed powerless to stop them. Where will they stop, Romani wondered. Where are the Giants during all this?
Of course, deep down, the young Romani knew that the Giants wouldn’t do anything about a band of thieves. But the thieves weren’t all that was strange. In recent weeks, there had been a series of natural disasters, and they were getting worse. There had been a number of avalanches in the mountains. Rivers were flooding. She’d heard that the ocean water was getting too cold for even the Zora. And, only last week, there had been a meteor shower that had gone on for days. Romani’s sister, Cremia, told her that eight people in Clock Town had been killed. What was happening to the world?
When would it end?
Giants, where are you?
Zelda sat in her chambers, meditating. So much had happened to her recently. Fortunately, since she and Nabooru had been returned to normal a few weeks ago*, she’d had some time to relax and reflect.
*(How did Zelda and Nabooru return to normal after the events of “Defender of the People?” Find out in “De-Minnishing Returns,” Coming Soon!)
She focused her attention inward, searching for guidance. She usually prayed nightly, but rarely felt any response from the Goddesses. This time, however, was different. She felt a great presence surround her, and was then enveloped by a blue light so bright that she had to close her eyes –
When Zelda opened her eyes, she was no longer kneeling on the floor of her chambers, but rather, she was on a vast blue plain. In the distance, she saw five mountains – pillars, almost – rising out of the ground. The sky was the same shade of blue as the ground…
No. Looking closely, Zelda could tell that the sky wasn’t sky at all. It seemed impossible, but there it was: Taking up the entirety of her vision, the sky was actually a face. Those mountains were fingers! She was sitting in the palm of a hand the size of Hyrule Field!
Then the face spoke.
Zelda fully expected her eardrums (if not her entire head) to explode from the sound, but all she actually heard was a calm voice projected inside her head.
Do you know who I am, my child?
Zelda was startled, but of course she knew. “Yes, my Goddess,” she replied, kneeling in supplication. “You are Nayru, Goddess of Wisdom.”
Very good, child. In this, and all that you do, you prove why you bear the Triforce of Wisdom.
Zelda blushed at the compliment. She chanced another look at Nayru’s sky-filling face, and saw that the Goddess bore a maternal smile.
I have a task for you, my child. A prayer for help from another realm has reached our ears. However, our power is limited in this other realm. So we have selected you to act on our behalf.
Zelda had served the Goddesses her entire life. She would do whatever was asked of her.
You have little time. You must select three others. We will take you to this other realm when you are needed. You will not fail us. Our faith is in you, Zelda.
Zelda felt enormous warmth flow through her, the warmth that could only come from the love of one of the Goddesses, and then there was that blue light again –
She was back in her chambers. She had so many questions – what exactly was this task? Why was time so critical? What was this other realm?
But no answers came. Nevertheless, she would heed the Goddesses’ call. Plus, she did have the Triforce of Wisdom for a reason. She figured that if she was answering a prayer for help, then perhaps she was going to defend this other realm. If that was the case, then she knew the first person she would want at her side.
She got up and headed straight for Impa’s chambers.
The heat in the Gerudo Fortress was intolerable. Zelda fanned herself, trying to cool off. Her dress was soaked through with sweat. If Impa, on the other hand, was uncomfortable, she certainly didn’t show it. Zelda had always envied Impa in that regard – she was always so strong. That’s why Zelda had asked her to help her with this task from the Goddesses. Impa had accepted, as Zelda had known she would. She had always been there for Zelda. In many ways, she had even been a mother to her.
Now the two had come to the Gerudo Fortress to ask Nabooru to help as well. Zelda had gotten rather close to Nabooru during their shared plight as giantesses, and now considered her a close friend. She knew that Nabooru, like Impa, would be a great help to her on this mission.
“If you’re so hot, then take off that dress,” Nabooru said, smirking, from her large chair. “We’re all girls here.”
Zelda, mildly embarrassed, looked to Impa, who merely rolled her eyes. Impa could easily lose patience with others when she was on a mission. Making the decision for herself, Zelda began to remove her dress, revealing her equally drenched slip underneath.
Nabooru chuckled, obviously amused by Zelda’s shame. Living in the desert, the Gerudo all dressed in skimpy clothing by necessity, so they were all used to being somewhat exposed. “Now, about this ‘mission’ of yours,” she said, returning to the subject.
“Yes,” Zelda said, stepping out of her dress. “The Goddess Nayru spoke to me during prayer, and told me that I and three others must serve the Goddesses on a mission of mercy.”
“And you’re asking me? Color me surprised.” It was true that Nabooru didn’t exactly have a reputation as the most responsible of the sages. But having gotten to know her, Zelda knew better.
“Don’t be. You’ve served Hyrule and the Goddesses well in your position as Sage of Spirit over these past seven years.” Impa said, finally speaking up. Zelda smiled at her old friend, then at Nabooru to reassure her.
Nabooru shrugged. “Why not? If I can be leader of the Gerudo, this should be a piece of cake.” She stood up and stretched. “So, where to next, chief?”
“I was planning to find Link next, as our fourth.”
Nabooru raised her hands to her face in mock adoration. “Ooh, yes. He’d be just dreamy for this.”
Suddenly Zelda bore a look of shocked embarrassment. “No! I mean, I just thought he’d…”
Impa came to her rescue. “He is the Hero of Time, after all. And he has defended Hyrule and Zelda herself on countless occasions.”
“Thank you, Impa,” Zelda said. “I don’t need an ulterior motive to see Link…”
“Though I don’t really think he’s right for you,” Impa said, interrupting her.
Zelda was speechless. As she stammered for words, Nabooru laughed heartily and even Impa was smirking. Zelda let out an annoyed breath. “Okay, you two. I’m going to get you both back for that one!”
All three of them laughed at this. “All right,” Zelda said at last. “Time to find Link.”
But before any of them could move, a blue glow surrounded them. In an instant, they were gone.
The Clock Town market was bustling, as usual. Romani usually avoided coming to town for this reason. She didn’t like the crowds. She was too used to the open air of her family’s ranch. So, under normal circumstances, she let Cremia do their shopping while she stayed at the ranch.
But she was running low on arrows. While Cremia was Romani’s better at many things, from tending livestock to cooking, she knew absolutely nothing about archery. Romani had learned from experience that if she sent Cremia into town to get her arrows, she could come back with anything from a crossbow arrow to a dart set.
So here she was, right in the middle of Market Square, her bow tied behind her back. She wanted to get her arrows and get out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, her lack of familiarity with the market made this impossible. She wandered back and forth, hoping to find the shop and wishing she had a better memory. After about a half hour of wandering – I wish I could remember where this darn shop is! – and three men “accidentally” bumping into her, the red-haired beauty was ready to scream.
So she was rather surprised when she heard a scream, but coming from someone else. Turning in the direction of the sound, she saw a masked man brandishing a knife before a wealthy-looking woman. Behind him were four other men, each involved in a similar act of robbery.
The bandits! Romani’s first instinct was to run away, yet she found herself frozen with fear.
She saw a large burly man, one of Clock Town’s construction workers, approach the bandits, cracking his knuckles. “Get out of here and there won’t be any trouble,” he said to the much smaller bandit.
“We’re not afraid of trouble,” the thief said, calmly. Faster than Romani could see, his arm moved in a blur towards the man. The man stood still for a moment, then blood began to seep from beneath his shirt, and he collapsed.
This panicked the crowd further, sending everyone running away. Romani, fearful of being trampled, ducked inside a building.
Did they just kill him? That poor man? She was on the verge of crying.
A middle-aged man’s head poked from behind the shop’s counter. “Wha… what’s goin’ on out there?”
“Thieves,” was all that Romani could say. Her words came out in a whisper. She looked around the shop and noted that, ironically, she had finally found the arrow smith.
“Heavens help us,” said a woman’s voice from beneath the counter. Romani crawled around the counter, and saw that, along with the man, there was a woman – his wife – with her arms around two young children. The man, the owner of the shop, was weakly holding a bow and arrow in his arms, obviously not ready to use it, if need be.
“Maybe the sheriff can help,” Romani offered meekly. She glanced out the front window, and saw that lawmen were, in fact, arriving on the scene.
But then something unexpected happened. The lawmen, their horses, and everyone on the street began to fall asleep! But how…? Then Romani remembered how the bandits were known for using magic – in this case, they put everyone on the street to sleep. That way they could rob everyone with no resistance at all.
Romani was terrified. It was only a matter of time before they thought to look in the shops. There was nothing to do but wait.
Or was there?
People had always said she was the feistier of the Romani Ranch sisters. She may have been afraid, but she wasn’t about to just sit around and wait for these bandits to come rob her, or worse.
After taking some arrows from the store’s supply (the manager of the shop was too frightened to stop her), she carefully crept up the stairs that were behind the counter. The second floor of the shop was the family’s house. Stealing a glimpse out the bedroom window, she saw the thieves below. She’d never had to shoot someone before, but then, her life had never been so threatened before, either. She drew back on her bow, and let an arrow fly.
It hit one of them square in the chest. With a muffled cry, he fell to the ground. This failed to escape his comrades’ notice, however, and they looked in the direction the arrow had come from. Romani gasped and ducked, but she knew that they’d seen her. She looked out the window again and saw that they were heading for her. They were no longer in a position where she could hit them.
She sunk down, leaning her back against the wall beneath the window. She tried to aim at the bedroom door, for when the thieves burst in, but her hands were shaking too much. She was doomed. Where was the help she’d prayed for?
Suddenly she heard a rumbling outside. She chanced another look outside, and was stupefied.
It was definitely not what she’d expected.
The blue glow faded, releasing Zelda, Impa, and Nabooru from its hold. Zelda’s vision began to clear, and she immediately realized that they were no longer in Hyrule. “This must be the other realm of which Nayru spoke,” she said. But even as she spoke, she was realizing something that was even more apparent:
The three of them were hundreds of feet tall.
They were at the edges of a city which – were they not towering above it – would have been rather large. It looked like (to its residents, at least) it was larger than Hyrule Castle Town. The buildings also looked peculiar… Most of them were at least two stories tall, with many three or four stories high. In Hyrule, few buildings other than the castle itself were more than one story tall. Was this land more technologically advanced than Hyrule? It was quite an intriguing idea, and Zelda looked forward to what she might learn from this land.
In the time it took Zelda to realize all this (the Triforce of Wisdom, after all, did make her remarkably insightful), Nabooru and Impa were still taking in the obvious.
“Oh, spit,” Nabooru groaned. “Not again!” Zelda knew that Nabooru felt that being a giantess once was more than enough. Especially since last time, Ganon had forced her to do such horrible things.
Nabooru was clearly reliving her past experience, and Zelda wanted to console her. But before she could act, Impa stopped her. “Look,” she said, pointing at a street. Then Zelda heard what Impa’s sensitive ears had already picked up: Screaming.
“There’s something bad going on over there,” Zelda explained to Nabooru who, with her round ears, probably couldn’t hear what she and Impa had. “We should see what we can do to help.”
“Are you crazy?” Nabooru asked. “If we go in there, we’re liable to do more harm than good! Have you forgotten what happened last time? That wasn’t a very pleasant experience, especially for the residents of Hyrule Castle Town and Kakariko Village!”
Zelda placed a hand on Nabooru’s arm. “I understand your feelings. That experience was a painful one for both of us. But I believe that this is why the Goddesses have sent us here – to protect those they cannot.” She fixed Nabooru with a pleading look. “Besides, there is clearly no one else of our stature here, so there is no danger of us wrestling this city to the ground.”
Nabooru still clearly had reservations, but then she sighed in reservation. “Fine.” Then she glanced down and smirked. “But don’t you think you’re a little underdressed for the occasion?”
Zelda looked down to see what she was talking about, and realized that she still wore only her slip. “Oh, this is embarrassing,” she said, putting her hands to her face.
“Come,” Impa said, still focused on their mission. She led the way into the city.
As they all stepped over the wall surrounding the city, Nabooru said, “Isn’t it a little weird that we wound up here before we had time to collect all four of us?”
“It is surprising,” Zelda admitted. “But the Goddesses work in mysterious ways. I suspect that we will learn the reason soon enough.”
They turned a corner, and Impa stopped. Zelda saw that they could go no further: The street was covered with prone bodies.
Nabooru gasped. “We’re too late…”
Zelda suspected otherwise, however. She closed her eyes and reached out with her magic. After a moment, she had her answer.
“No, Nabooru. They are all merely asleep.”
“A wonder they have been able to sleep through all your prattle,” Impa said to the two of them.
Zelda ignored Impa’s well-meaning jab. “Their slumber is magically induced. Give me a moment.” She closed her eyes again, this time to summon her strength.
“Rise,” she said at last. Her voice carried magical power, and even Nabooru and Impa felt their skin tingle at the single word. In seconds, nearly everyone on the street began to stir. In another few seconds, they were standing.
Nearly everyone. The three Hyrulians noticed a few still lying in the street, and these few were definitely not sleeping.
Zelda took charge. “You must clear the streets. We will explain when this crisis has been averted.” In a moment, the street was empty of the tiny citizens.
“Wow. You’ve got to teach me that trick,” Nabooru said.
“Sure. How many years can you spare?” Zelda replied. Nabooru merely harrumphed in response.
Impa had already gone ahead. She was crouched, studying something when the other two caught up to her.
“Impa, what is it?”
Impa made room for the others, and they saw that she was examining a masked man. He was lying on the ground, a bloody sword at his side, and an arrow was buried in his chest. Next to him was a young woman, dead from a stomach wound obviously caused by the masked man’s sword.
Now that they had a better chance to examine someone from this land, Zelda concluded that she, Impa, and Nabooru were about the same size as she and Nabooru had been the last time. That is, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 feet tall.
“Guess we found out who’s behind all this,” Nabooru said, in reference to the masked man.
“But Impa,” Zelda said, “where did this arrow come from? Everyone we’ve seen was obviously subdued.”
Impa took a moment to examine the scene. “My guess is that he was shot by someone in the second floor of that building,” she said, pointing to a shop.
At that same instant, a scream erupted from that very shop.
Impa reacted first. She sprang forward and ripped the roof itself off the building. Inside, a young red-haired woman sat quaking in the corner of the room as three more masked men approached her. Impa’s display had obviously unnerved them, however, as they stood frozen with fear.
“Stand down!” Impa commanded, and the three men obediently dropped their weapons.
Zelda and Nabooru now approached. “Do not be afraid, madam,” Zelda said. “You are safe now.”
Romani was still terrified. She’d sat, helpless, while the bandits entered the shop and slaughtered the poor family down below. Now, just as they were about to do the same to her, one of the giants she’d seen outside had ripped open the roof and saved her. Then two more came, and one of them told her she was safe.
Was this the answer to her prayers? She had wondered where the giants were, but she wasn’t expecting this. First of all, there were only three of them. Second, other than the fact that one of them had round ears, they looked like giant Terminians, not like the Giants.
The blonde giantess spoke again. Romani noticed that she was shorter than the other two giantesses. “I am Zelda, princess of a land called Hyrule.” She gestured to the tallest, the one with silver hair. “This is Impa, my attendant and closest friend. And this,” pointing to the round-eared red-haired giantess, “is Nabooru, leader of a group of people known as the Gerudo. What is your name?”
After a moment, Romani gathered her wits and answered.
Zelda continued. “Romani, we have been sent to this land… What is your land called?”
“T-Termina,” Romani stammered.
“We have been sent to Termina in answer to a prayer for help. She gestured to the bow next to Romani. “Was it you that fell that man in the street?”
Romani looked down at her bow, which she’d been too frightened to use once the thieves had entered the shop. “Y-yes… They’re bandits.”
Zelda nodded solemnly. “That was very brave.”
Suddenly Romani felt a surge of courage. “I have prayed for help over the past few weeks. Termina has been plagued by many problems recently, one of which was these thieves. There are four Giants who protect Termina, but they have not been seen for some time. Are you here in answer to my prayers?”
The three giantesses looked to one another, and then Zelda answered. “Yes, Romani. It would seem so.”
So Romani’s prayers had been answered! She knew that things would turn around now for Termina.
But then a blue glow surrounded her, catching her completely off guard. She suddenly began expanding, her body rapidly filling the room. After a moment, the floor could no longer support her weight and it collapsed. She was glad that the shop owner’s family was already dead, as they surely would have been crushed beneath her. She had no such feelings toward the bandits, however, and as she stood from the crumbling structure she made sure that the thieves met an end under her boot.
Her growth finally stopped when she was the same height as the other three giantesses. She was awestruck by her size. “Oh my,” she gasped. “I’m huge!”
“Not just that,” Nabooru said, putting her arm around Romani’s shoulder, “It looks like you’re our fourth.”
Far from Clock Town, a sorceress reclined lazily in her large chair. She felt something in the back of her mind, for the second time in several minutes. She used her magic to seek out the source of her feeling, and discovered that the bandits that she’d endowed with magical ability had been killed. This alone was not great cause for concern. The thieves figured into her plans at a very minor level, serving only to spread terror and chaos.
However, it was surprising that they had been killed. The magic that she had given them should have been more than enough to combat the “technology” that Termina had long ago embraced over magic. Who could have killed them? Was there another in Termina with magical ability to rival her own?
She knew it was not the Great Fairies. They were far too weak; even their combined magic could not rival her own. Who, then?
She did not know, but she would find out. And then she, Zayorin, daughter to the late wizard Majora, would crush them.
With the help of some of the residents of Clock Town, Zelda and the others found the mayor’s office. Zelda explained to the tiny fellow that they were there to help, and that they would get to the bottom of the string of misfortune Termina had been experiencing. They then quickly left the town, lest they inadvertently cause any harm.
In their haste to leave, though they never realized it, they did in fact cause a fair amount of damage: Romani stepped squarely atop a street vendor’s cart, instantly crushing the vendor, his wife, and six of his patrons. Zelda’s foot landed too close to horse, startling it into a run; it trampled two children and threw its rider. A jewel fell off Nabooru’s earring and slammed through a house’s roof, pinning a young child; minutes later, as her parents worked to free her, the house collapsed, killing all three. The giantesses were too large to notice the consequences of their simple walk across town.
They left the town, once again easily stepping over the stone wall. “This wall was three times taller than I was when I came into town this morning,” Romani said.
Zelda smiled at the wonder in Romani’s voice. “Yes, it certainly does take some getting used to.”
“You said you had come into town this morning,” Impa said. “Then you aren’t from Clock Town?”
“No. My family has a ranch about an hour’s walk from Clock Town. We can all go there. There’s enough room for all of us, and we’ll have a little more privacy than if we stayed here in Termina field. And it shouldn’t take us long to get their, either.”
“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Zelda said. She was glad to see that Romani was acting less nervous. She sensed that, in the days ahead, they would all need to have confidence in themselves.
Within a few minutes, Romani had led them to the Romani Ranch. “You were right about there being enough room,” Nabooru said, sitting down and leaning against a hill.
As they were making themselves comfortable, there was movement from inside the house. “Oh no,” Romani said. “I forgot about –”
A young woman emerged from the house. Zelda though she looked a lot like Romani. “Romani, what took you so…” She trailed off as she saw the four of them.
“Uh… This is my sister Cremia,” Romani offered. “Cremia, this is Zelda, Impa, and Nabooru.”
With some help from Zelda, Romani explained the situation to Cremia. Thankfully, Cremia managed to keep from fainting.
“We thank you for your hospitality,” Zelda said to the miniscule Terminian.
“Well… certainly,” Cremia nervously replied. “Um, does everyone from Hyrule dress so skimpily?”
Zelda turned bright red. Nabooru’s clothing was so revealing due to living in the desert, and Impa dressed that way so she could move more acrobatically. But Zelda was only dressed like a tramp because her dress had made her too hot in the Gerudo Fortress.
“Not normally,” she said, sighing. Nabooru’s laugh echoed off the hills.
Zelda was alone in a field. It was just like when Nayru had spoken to her earlier. She wondered if the goddess was contacting her again.
“My goddess?”
Yes, she heard. However, she could tell that this wasn’t Nayru.
A colossal figure emerged on the horizon. Like Nayru, this figure was female, but unlike the goddess of Wisdom, this figure was a dark purple. The figure kept walking toward Zelda, until its massive form filled Zelda’s field of vision.
“You’re not Nayru! How dare you masquerade as one of the Goddesses?”
The figure did not answer. Instead, it raised its foot miles into the air and laughed. The horrible sound was all Zelda heard as a foot hundreds of times her size came down on her.
Impa awoke seconds before Zelda did. She quickly moved over to her, careful not to wake Nabooru and Romani. By the time Impa got to her, Zelda had already sat up and was breathing heavily, tears forming.
Impa’s mother’s instincts told her that Zelda had experienced more than just a bad dream. She placed a hand on Zelda’s shoulder to steady her. “What did you see?”
Zelda took a moment to regain her composure. “It was… It was horrible. Someone… very powerful. Very evil.”
Impa frowned. “Do you believe we are meant to fight them?”
Zelda’s lip quivered. “I think we were sent here to destroy this evil. But it is so powerful…”
Impa held Zelda close to her. “Shh. We will find a way.” She and Zelda stayed that way for a few minutes. When Impa could tell that Zelda was calming down, she spoke again. “As long as I breathe, I shall see that you are safe. Now rest. We will explain this to the others in the morning.”
Zelda wiped her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Impa smiled at her. “Rest, my child.” She kissed Zelda on the forehead and moved back to where she’d been sleeping.
Impa listened to Zelda’s breathing slow down. It took Impa herself much longer to fall back asleep. She kept thinking about the promise she’d made Zelda, that she would keep her safe.
She wondered if she would be able to keep that promise.
The next morning, Romani showed them to a large lake where they would be able to bathe. As they settled into the water, Zelda explained her vision to the others.
“So,” Nabooru said. “We’re gonna fight someone so evil and powerful that they scare you. We’re supposed to do this… how?”
Impa answered for Zelda. “We will know that once we know more about the threat itself.” She turned to Romani. “You said that Termina has been experiencing an unusual degree of natural disasters. We should investigate. Do you have any suggestions?”
Romani thought for a moment. “Our best bet would probably be to split into two pairs. One should check out the avalanches that have been going on up in the mountains, and the other should check out why the ocean has been getting so cold.”
“A reasonable course of action,” Impa agreed. “Can you tell us any more about these problems?”
Romani began to fill them in on everything she’d heard. Little did they know, however, that as they planned, someone else heard every word…
Jakir was Clock Town's resident ladies’ man. Of course, some called him a stalker and pointed out that he’d never actually had a girlfriend, but why sweat the small stuff? He was on his way to visit Cremia, the taller, leggier, and bustier of the Ranch sisters. Of course, in this case, “visit” meant to climb into a tree and peek into her window as she changed. But, again, why sweat the small stuff?
However, when he heard voices – lady voices – by the lake, he decided it was worth a detour to check it out. When he saw four 500-foot women bathing in the lake, he was surprised.
But more than surprised, he was pleased. Hey, this was four gigantic women! The fact that they were so freakishly huge (why they were so large wasn’t a question that entered Jakir’s mind) only meant that he could see everything clearly without using his pocket telescope.
But he couldn’t afford to be seen. Once, Tammi, a hot brunette in Clock Town, had caught him spying on her, and she beat the daylights out of him. Jakir could only imagine what these women would do if they caught him. He spotted the giant pile of their clothes, and saw an opportunity. He snuck over to the pile and dove in. Sticking his head out, he admired the breathtaking view.
He finally noticed that one of these giant hotties was Romani, Cremia’s younger sister. Maybe he needed to reevaluate who the taller, leggier, and bustier Ranch sister was…
As he let his eyes follow Romani’s sensational curves, he heard a tremendous splash. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the tan, silver-haired girl – the one with the huge rack – was getting out of the lake.
And coming straight for the clothes pile! Jakir tried desperately to get out, but his struggle only got him even more tangled. Then he felt himself being lifted into the air, along with an article of clothing large enough to be a circus tent. He was certain that he was about to be discovered, but he noticed that his woman’s red eyes weren’t looking at him, they were looking at the other giantesses. She was saying something about herself and “Nabooru” doing something, but Jakir was so happy that he was safe that he wasn’t paying attention (not that he’d paid attention to anything else they’d said so far).
The silver-haired woman got dressed, never noticing Jakir amongst her clothes. He chuckled to himself as he made himself comfortable. As it turned out, he was snugly pressed against one half of the pair of assets he’d been admiring. This was easily the greatest moment in Jakir’s career as a pervert. If I die now, he thought to himself, I’d die a happy man.
Of course, when somebody says that, they don't mean it literally. But fate was determined to call his bluff. As Impa and Nabooru (bound for the mountains) split up from Zelda and Romani (bound for the ocean), Impa hugged Zelda goodbye and wished her strength.
She didn’t realize that, by hugging Zelda, she had inadvertently flattened a pervert into her breast, smooshing him to death. Later on, when she would see the stain that was all that was left of Jakir, she would wonder where it came from.
But, since Jakir never saw it coming, he did, in fact, die happy.
After about an hour of walking, Impa and Nabooru had made it to the mountains. Nabooru shivered and hugged herself. "Brr. Mountains are a little chilly for a desert girl like me."
"You'll be fine," Impa replied. Nabooru grunted in annoyance. Impa continued, paying no attention to Nabooru's discomfort. "Romani said the Goron lived here. We should find them and ask about the disturbances."
"Yeah, yeah." Nabooru said. Impa was so militaristic - like she couldn't understand the value of a good conversation. She wished she'd been paired with Zelda or Romani.
Oh well, whatever. The sooner they got to the bottom of this, the sooner they could get home. Nabooru was worried about the Gerudo. She hoped her people were doing okay without her.
After a while of searching, though, Nabooru was wondering if they'd ever find any Goron. "Are we sure these are even the right mountains?" she asked for the third time. Impa ignored her, as usual. Nabooru muttered to herself. "All the Goron I know like it hot, is all I'm saying."
She began lightly kicking a boulder along with her as they walked, to occupy herself. After a few minutes, Impa finally noticed. "What are you doing?" she demanded.
"Just messing around with this boulder. What's your-"
"Stop!"
Nabooru was surprised by Impa's sudden vehemence. She lowered her foot to the ground. Then, to her further surprise, the boulder uncurled.
Well, what do you know. She'd been kicking a curled up Goron. He lay on the ground, his hand on his head, moaning "I'm so dizzy" in a deep voice.
Impa crossed her arms and looked at Nabooru sternly. Nabooru grinned nervously, suddenly feeling very hot despite the snow all around them. "Hey, I found a Goron," was all she could think of saying.
It took Zelda and Romani almost an hour to reach the ocean. Zelda stuck her toes into the water and immediately pulled them out. Romani had been right. Despite the fact that it was Spring, the water was nearly freezing.
Romani pulled off her boots and then slipped out of her dress. "This way I'll have something warm and dry to put on when we're done," she explained. "Guess I don't need to worry about anyone stealing my clothes, huh?"
Zelda nodded absently, but was intrigued at what Romani was now wearing. In Hyrule, Hylians like Zelda wore a slip under their dress as an undergarment. But Romani's undergarments were considerably more revealing. "Romani," she asked. "What are you wearing?"
Romani looked at her in confusion, then down at herself. "A bra and panties," she finally answered.
"Fascinating," mused Zelda, "that even the underclothes between our worlds are different. And yet, some things are so similar. You, for example, bear an incredible resemblance to a woman I know in Hyrule named Malon."
"That is strange," Romani agreed. "I think it'll hurt my head if I think about it too much, though. I'm not quite as philosophical as yourself."
Zelda smiled. "Very well then. On with our mission."
They stepped into the ocean, flinching at how frigid it was. "We'll have to swim a bit of a ways before we get to the Zora's territory, I think." Zelda nodded and followed Romani.
After swimming for some time, they began nearing the shore again. They emerged from the water, shivering and holding each other for warmth. Before them lay a large Zora community, gathered on the shore in front of the entrance to their cave. The Zora began panicking as the giantesses emerged, but Zelda and Romani managed to dispel their fears quickly with an explanation.
Zelda and Romani knelt to be less imposing to the Zora. Zelda asked, "How much more can you tell us about the drop in temperature?"
The Zora leader replied, "It's been happening steadily for weeks now. But there's more to it." Zelda raised her eyebrows in interest, and he continued. "Some of our fish-hunters have not been returning. Those hunters that have returned have spoken of a sharp drop in the number of fish they've seen, as if there is a new predator lurking in the ocean."
Zelda considered this with a furrowed brow. "Romani, I think I may have a theory."
Romani's face lit up. "Great! Let's hear it!"
But before Zelda could say anything, she felt something slimy on her ankle. The next thing she knew, she was under water.
Impa and Nabooru had learned a lot from the Goron they found. The avalanches had been going on for weeks, with greater and greater frequency. But, more importantly, they learned that all of the avalanches seemed to originate from the tallest mountain in the Goron's territory.
So, of course, that's where they were headed. Climbing it proved to be a challenge for even the 500-foot giantesses, so they'd been at it for a while. Nabooru stopped to rest. "Time for a break, don't you think?"
Impa continued climbing. "We can rest at the top."
Nabooru scowled at Impa. "You know, we can't all be a superwoman like you. Maybe you wouldn't mind making concessions for us mere mortals every now and then?"
"It wouldn't do you any harm to be more diligent," Impa countered. "If there's one thing the Sheikah are taught, it's to always be on guard."
At that moment, a hand burst out of the mountainside and grabbed Impa's throat. The top of the mountain exploded as its occupant revealed itself - an enormous, white-furred ape. Well, enormous by normal standards. The ape probably only measured about 400 feet.
Even so, it still looked strong. Nabooru reached for her dagger to help Impa, but Impa held up her hand for Nabooru to stop, then pointed down below. The mountaintop exploding had triggered a monster avalanche, and Impa was telling Nabooru to save the Goron down below.
Trusting that Impa could handle herself against the snow monster, Nabooru turned and ran down the mountain as fast as she could. Not being used to maneuvering on snow, she quickly slipped and began sliding down. She was soon able to right herself and began running again, which is when she saw her chance.
The Goron lived in a valley at the foot of the mountains. If Nabooru could wedge herself between two of the mountains, she'd be able to block the cascading snow and rocks from reaching the Goron.
She saw below her a Goron rolling toward the valley, but she knew he wouldn't make it in time. She somersaulted forward, scooped him up, and continued racing to the valley. She made it there with only seconds to spare. Quickly wedging herself between two mountains, she felt the snow hit her back with blinding intensity. She bit her lip against the pain, and closed her eyes as she felt stinging tears forming. After a moment that felt like eternity, she felt the pressure at her back let up. She turned around and saw that the snow had frozen again.
"Phew." She wiped her brow with the back of her hand. She looked up towards the top of the mountain, and saw Impa pulling her dagger out of the body of the fallen monster. Impa nodded to Nabooru as she began climbing down.
Nabooru turned around to look at the Goron community. Sure, her back was so numb that it felt like she'd never have any sensation from it again, but she was glad she could help save all these Goron.
Then she remembered the Goron she'd scooped up on the mountain. When the snow hit her back, she must have dropped him. Oh no! She got down to her hands and knees, franticly searching for him.
Right about then, she felt a tickle. She stopped her search and, with a sly grin, reached into her cleavage to pull out the Goron. "Getting pretty frisky for the first date, aren't you?"
"You- you saved my life," he stammered. "I could kiss you!"
Nabooru grinned widely at that. "Oh, allow me, big boy." She then laid the biggest, sloppiest kiss he'd ever gotten on him. "Speechless, huh? Glad to see I haven't lost my touch."
At that moment Impa arrived. Nabooru set the Goron down and stood up to pat Impa on the shoulder. "Looks like we took care of this. Where to now, chief?"
Impa was about to say something, but then went ashen. Nabooru followed Impa's gaze to see what had freaked her out. She looked into the sky, and felt the blood drain from her face.
It had happened too fast for Romani to see. One second, Zelda was talking, and the next, she was gone in a huge splash. She couldn't figure out what happened, until she saw a tentacle coming straight for her.
She tried to run away, but it got hold of her ankle and yanked her back. She fell forward, aware that she'd likely just flattened some of the Zora. Right now, though, she was more concerned about saving herself. She clawed at the beach, but the sand slipped through her fingers and she was dragged into the ocean just as Zelda had been.
Still searching for something to pull herself free, Romani grabbed a large rock on the shore. It came out of the ground in her grasp, not affording her any leverage.
The tentacle turned her around, and she saw the monster that had her and Zelda captive. It was a huge blue one-eyed octopus, and Romani noticed the water near its mouth freeze and float to the surface. As the monster pulled Romani towards its mouth, she could tell that it meant to freeze her and Zelda to death.
Unfortunately for the creature, she still held the rock in her hand. She swung it up and stabbed into the monster's eye. The tentacles holding herself and Zelda immediately loosened, allowing them to put a small distance between themselves and the blinded monster. That's when Zelda blasted at the creature with a beam of magical energy. As soon as the beam hit the creature, it froze and shattered.
They crawled onto the beach, hugging each other to prevent hypothermia. "Th-thank you," Zelda said. "You gave me enough time to create that spell."
"D-don't mention it." Romani smiled. "You really gave th-that monster a taste of its own medicine, didn't you?"
Zelda looked embarrassed. "It seemed like an appropriate punishm…"
When Zelda trailed off, Romani looked up to see what had spooked her. To her horror, she saw a huge asteroid in the sky. From its trajectory, it looked like it was headed straight for Clock Town.
Zayorin smiled. It had at first been enormously frustrating that these four girls had destroyed the monsters she'd created to poison the land. These girls, masquerading as replacements for the Four Giants. The Giants hadn't been able to save themselves from Zayorin, so why would these girls have any better luck?
So let them destroy her monsters. If the asteroid and following meteor shower didn't take care of them, then Zayorin herself would.
Hara was a simple farmer. He worked hard, was good to others, and life in turn was good to him. After a long day of work, as he was heading back to his house (his young daughter was waving to him from the porch, and in the window he noticed his wife getting dinner ready), it suddenly got a lot dimmer.
That’s odd, he thought. The almanac didn’t say anything about an eclipse today… Turning around, he looked to the sky.
He fell to his knees. An asteroid was zooming straight toward Clock Town! The image made him remember the moon floating perilously close to Termina, all those years ago. Somehow, that crisis had been averted. But this asteroid was coming so fast… was there any hope?
His eyes wet with fear and sorrow for those in Clock Town, Hara prayed for them. Looking back at his house, he also prayed for the safety of his family. His life was nothing compared to theirs.
Those were his last thoughts as a forty-foot long bare foot slammed down on him. It all happened too fast, but had he known that the foot narrowly missed his house, and his family was indeed safe, he would have been happy.
Zelda barely saw the house in time to overstep it. She hoped that no one had been in front of it (despite the slight squish she was sure she’d felt), but she couldn’t really worry about that now.
She was following Romani as the two raced, desperate to beat the asteroid to Clock Town. Fortunately, much of the land between the Zora’s cave and Clock Town was farmland, so they didn’t have to worry about crushing too many unlucky bystanders in the meantime. They hadn’t even had time to go back and retrieve Romani’s dress. Zelda felt a twinge of embarrassment for her new friend, but they both new that Romani’s shame was irrelevant compared to what would happen to Clock Town – and all its tiny residents – if they were too late.
The closer the asteroid got, the more Zelda could tell it was no normal asteroid. This asteroid was far larger than normal, at least if the couple asteroids that had crashed in Hyrule over the last few decades were any indication. In addition, though it was hard to tell thanks to the superheated air surrounding it, it looked like the asteroid bore a face. Zelda thought back to Link’s stories about his adventure in Termina, and how the moon had had a face.
Of course, according to Link, that moon hadn’t even been real. It was a construct created by Majora, an evil wizard who had been trapped in a mask. Could this asteroid be Majora’s doing? As soon as Zelda had the thought, she discounted it. Link had soundly defeated Majora years ago.
Then, who was responsible? Zelda knew that the evil she had sensed earlier, the same evil that had spawned the sea monster she and Romani had just faced, was behind it. If only there were a way to find its source…
None of that matters right now, she reminded herself. Take care of Clock Town first.
Five minutes, four flattened Terminians, and one crunched house later, they reached Clock Town. As soon as they reached the city wall, Romani leaped several blocks into town. Zelda winced as Romani landed on several Terminians and a house collapsed from the massive shake her landing caused, but she realized that it was almost unavoidable.
Still, maybe something could be done to make the streets more easily traversable. She focused all her energy inward, searching herself for the right words. After a moment, she looked back at the town and said, in a raised voice, “Clear the streets!”
She hoped it would work. While she’d been confident the day before, waking a block of sleeping magic victims, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to affect a whole town. But at least the streets near her were clearing. She stepped over the wall and hastened to catch up to Romani. Glancing skyward, her breath caught in her throat.
The moment was here.
Impa ran, Nabooru trailing several paces behind her. It had been nearly 15 minutes since she first spotted the asteroid, and it was nothing short of miraculous that it hadn’t reached earth yet.
Had they been of normal stature, Impa could easily have reached her destination by stepping into a shadow in the mountains and stepping out of one in Clock Town – one of the many abilities the Goddesses granted her as Sage of Shadows. However, being over 500 feet tall – Actually, Impa corrected herself, assuming that Zelda and Romani are approximately 500 feet tall, I am probably closer to 550 – had its disadvantages. Namely, there weren’t very many shadows large enough for the giantess.
So they’d had to run. Having performed a quick assessment of the situation, it was obvious to Impa that the only way they could hope to make it in time was if they ran in a perfectly straight line towards Clock Town. Unfortunately, a small village lay between the Goron’s snowy mountain and Clock Town.
The tiny people of Kendrick never knew what hit them as Impa’s enormous boots tore through their streets, crashing through buildings and grinding unfortunate men, women, and children into paste. Seconds after Impa left the village, the entire pitiful process was repeated as Nabooru was forced to cut another swath of destruction. Impa was sorry her friend had to do this, knowing that Nabooru still felt guilt from the last time she’d been turned into a giantess, but she knew that Nabooru understood there was no other way. The Sheikah gave a silent prayer out of respect for the dozens of poor souls whose remains no doubt still clung to the bottom of her feet. She also prayed that their deaths were not in vain, and that they would be able to save the thousands who lived in Clock Town.
Reaching Clock Town a few minutes later, Impa was relieved to see that Zelda and Romani had already arrived. Then she felt the asteroid’s heat and suddenly feared she was too late.
Zayorin’s laugh echoed in her chambers. Once she had gotten over her initial frustration that these new “Four Giantesses” had destroyed her monsters and thieves, she’d realized that they presented the perfect opportunity to show the pitiful locals how powerful their new master was. She’d already considered the possibility that she had disposed of the Giants too quietly – the populace didn’t even know that they were dead, after all – but now she had the chance to kill these replacements while also demonstrating her power. She could already taste the fear it would produce – fear that would make her stronger, more powerful…
She laughed again. The world was practically hers already.
She focused her thoughts on the asteroid and saw it in her mind. It was seconds away from impacting. Two of the giants had apparently arrived, the two fair-skinned ones. Even they were afraid – the amount of fear coming off such huge beings… it made Zayorin’s mouth water. She licked her lips, eagerly anticipating what was about to happen –
The asteroid never touched ground.
At the very last second, the two other giants arrived! The four of them linked their arms to form and caught it! How dare they! That asteroid was almost as big as any one of them!
No!!! Zayorin slammed her fist into the arm of her chair, shattering it. She’d been so close! She’d kill them! She’d…
She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. There was no way she would reach her goals if she didn’t control herself. She had planned for such an unlikely eventuality. She waved her hand, and in her mind’s eye she saw a group of meteors maneuvering together before streaking down to the planet below, which just happened to be Termina. They would reach Clock Town in under a minute, which would undoubtedly be nowhere near enough time for the giants to recuperate from this most recent harrowing ordeal.
Confident that this plan would be the last she need execute, Zayorin smiled once again and watched the proceedings with interest.
Zelda and the other three giantesses breathed a sigh of relief in unison. The goddesses truly must have been on their side. There was no other explanation for Impa and Nabooru’s nick-of-time arrival.
They had come right before the asteroid had, giving them less than a second to get into a good position to stop it. Zelda and Impa stood across from one another, each holding the other’s upper arms. Nabooru and Romani did likewise, and the four pairs of arms formed an “X” between them. That they managed to catch it was truly a miracle.
But just as Zelda was about to bring up the question of what to do with it – they certainly couldn’t hold it like that all day, the thing was darned heavy! – it simply faded away.
“That’s weird,” Romani said. “That’s just like what happened to that moon years ago.”
Zelda knew this already, thanks to Link having told her the story. More than once, actually – never let it be said that Link was one to engage in false modesty. Still, it reminded Zelda of the questions she’d been thinking about before. In particular, who was behind this?
These thoughts were interrupted when Romani shouted, “Look!” Zelda’s gaze followed Romani’s outstretched finger, but couldn’t tell what she was pointing to.
“Meteors,” Impa whispered. “Impressive, Romani. I can barely make them out.”
“Good eyesight comes in handy with archery,” Romani explained.
“I think I can see them now,” Zelda said.
“Me too,” chimed Nabooru. “And it looks like they’re heading here. What are we gonna do about this?”
“There’s no way we could stop so many meteors,” Romani said frantically.
“You would think not,” said Impa, who looked at Zelda knowingly. Zelda smiled at her attendant, knowing that they had gotten the same idea.
“Since I possess the Triforce of Wisdom, Nayru is my patron goddess,” Zelda calmly explained. “Consequently, Nayru’s Love has always a fairly easy spell for me.” She reached up and crystals began to spread out from her hand. Within moments, all of Clock Town was covered with the magic shielding.
And not a moment too soon. Seconds later, meteors began pelting harmlessly off the structure. In a moment, it was over. Zelda smiled reassuringly at her companions. “Nothing to worry about.”
Immediately, however, a rumbling belied her words. The houses and shops of Clock Town wobbled unsteadily, and the quake even threatened to knock the giantesses off their feet. As they braced against each other for support, Zelda recognized the rumbling for what it truly was: A scream.
“Noo!!!” The words seemed to come from all around them. ”How wrong you are, little girl!”
Zelda turned and knew what to expect. A colossal figure emerged on the horizon.
It was just like her dream.
Zayorin had decided it was time to finish this. And, while it might be easier to create monsters or asteroids to take care of her business, the old adage was sometimes true: If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Besides, this was a surefire way to incite the fear she fed on.
She strode confidently toward Clock Town (making sure to completely crush a small town named Kendrick along the way), watching with amusement as each of her footfalls created what looked to be quite a quake for the insect-sized citizens of Termina. Her powerful frame instilled fear even in the four “Giantesses,” none of whom now stood past Zayorin’s knees.
She raised her leg and rested her foot atop the magical crystal that surrounded the town. While it must have been quite impressive a few seconds earlier, protecting the town from her barrage of meteors, it immediately began to crack beneath her immeasurable strength.
And soon, so would those four pests.
Well, it wasn’t exactly like in Zelda’s dream. For starters, instead of being impossibly huge, this woman was “only” two thousand feet, give or take. And, instead of a vaguely female purple figure, this person, while possessing a mild purple glow, was a flesh-and-blood woman. Emphasis on the flesh, Zelda amended, as the leviathan’s skin-tight bodice left little of her voluptuous figure to the imagination: long, bare legs emerged from knee-high boots (the heels of which must have been at least 100 feet high!), and bosoms that would have been awe-inspiring on even a normal-sized woman threatened to burst free from what little containment her suit offered. Zelda noted that, were it not for the sorceress’s harsh, angular features, she would have been quite beautiful.
The final difference from her dream was that, before her foot squashed Zelda, it would have to break through Nayru’s Love. This last thought filled Zelda with hope, until she saw the cracks emanating from the bloody sole of the behemoth’s boot.
She’d never seen anything break through Nayru’s Love. She’d never heard of anything so powerful… Not even Ganon could manage that! Fear flooded her, forcing her mind to freeze up. She tried to motivate her formidable intellect, but could barely form coherent thoughts.
Then the world seemed to dim around her. At first she thought it was her imagination, but then it happened again. Oh, goddess! Am I now going blind, on top of everything else?
Do not fear, my child.
Zelda started. Nayru was speaking to her! “My Goddess –”
Do not fear.
At first Zelda could not understand. Then the world seemed to dim again, but this time she noticed that sorceress’s purple glow spiked slightly each time Zelda noticed the world dimming. Come to think of it, it wasn’t so much that the world was getting dimmer as she felt like she was being drained.
Do not fear… Suddenly the wheels in Zelda’s mind began turning in high gear, as if to compensate for her momentary stupor. It was so obvious! This sorceress was feeding on their fear! They had to somehow cut off her supply…
However, as Zelda heard the tiny screams coming from all over Clock Town, she knew that this wouldn’t be easy. Unless…
“She’s feeding on our fear!” Having come up with a plan, she could already feel hers slipping away.
“Maybe it’s time she went on a diet,” Nabooru quipped.
“If she is feeding on fear,” Impa asked, gesturing to the townsfolk, “what can we do? There is clearly enough here to last a lifetime.”
“If fear strengthens her, then I’m betting we can weaken her.”
“Weaken her? How?”
“With hope. We’ve just got to give these townsfolk some.” She took Impa’s hand in one of her own. “Please trust me.” With no alternatives, the four held hands as Zelda closed her eyes. They all felt energy coursing through their bodies as they lent each other strength.
Then it happened.
Zelda hadn’t been entirely sure it would work, but it was now obvious that it had. She could tell because she was shrinking. The world grew around her until she bottomed out at 75 feet.
Beside her, the similarly-shrunk Impa and Nabooru were visibly confused. “What the spit is this about?” demanded the Gerudo. Impa was about to voice her own concern, but she stopped in her tracks when they all heard a gasp fill the sky.
They looked up, and up, and up, to see Romani filling the sky, about the same size as the evil sorceress. Her 200-foot long bare feet were on either side of them (as well as on top of an unfortunate section of North Clock Town), giving the Hyrulians a rough idea of how they had looked only seconds ago to the Terminians.
Zelda called up to her gargantuan friend. “Romani! We’ll clear the area, you take care of her! The people’s faith is in you!”
Impa leaned close to Zelda. “I am the most experienced fighter. I should be fighting her.”
“The people here know and trust Romani. We can’t defeat the sorceress through strength – we need to replace the fear around here with hope!”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Nabooru replied uncertainly.
To say that Zayorin was shocked would have been as much of an understatement as saying she was big. One of the girls, the redhead, had somehow grown to match her size! Apparently the others had managed to sacrifice their size for this one’s benefit.
Her shock was quickly replaced with bemusement. They thought she could be defeated through size alone? Time to show them how wrong they were. She raised her hand to fire lightning at her foe, but was once again caught by surprise when the redhead hit her square in the chin with a roundhouse.
Zayorin’s face swung to the side, following the impact. She felt no pain, and was about to laugh at the girl’s feeble attempt when a barely audible cheer went up amongst the insects in Clock Town. They were cheering this girl!
If they were cheering, then that meant they were less afraid.
Zayorin barely had time to realize that she was in trouble before she was dealt a nasty uppercut.
Uh oh.
Don’t squirm don’t squirm don’t squirm, Nabooru thought fearfully as she rushed to the Romani Ranch, cradling 11 townsfolk in her hands. She, Zelda, and Impa had agreed that the ranch would be a safe place to keep the Terminians. Unfortunately, it took five times longer for them to get there than it had yesterday, but it was better than nothing.
Reaching the ranch, she knelt and placed them on the grass. While their new smaller size meant they didn’t need to be as careful when dealing with the Terminians, it also meant they couldn’t carry as many, so she’d been forced to get creative. She opened her mouth, and carefully spat three wet and nervous people into her palm. Putting them down, she reached into her cleavage and pulled out eight lucky passengers. I did only put eight in here, didn’t I? She gave herself a quick pat-down and was satisfied that that was all.
She got up and started the run back to Clock Town. It was hard not to notice the fight going on just outside the town. Well, calling it a fight wasn’t quite accurate. It was really more of a beat-down, with Romani delivering the goods all over that sorceress’s sorry face. With each thundering punch, the sorceress seemed to get weaker and the crowd’s cheers became louder.
Nabooru passed Zelda on the way and smiled to her. When she noticed that Zelda was only carrying people in her hands and her mouth, the smile became a grin. Sure, Zelda may have come up with the plan to save the day, but Nabooru was the one with the chest that seated eight.
Suddenly a massive quake made Nabooru loose her footing. Good thing I wasn’t carrying anyone, she thought. She looked up and saw that Romani standing triumphant over the fallen sorceress, whose purple glow was long gone.
“But… I am Zayorin,” she said, weakly. “I must claim vengeance in the name of my father…” With this, she began quickly shrinking. “The wizard… Majora…”
“Sorry, honey,” Romani said, lifting her foot over the rapidly diminishing sorceress. “But don’t worry. You’ll be seeing him soon enough.” With this, she slammed her foot down on Zayorin, who by then had dwindled to a measly 150 feet.
Nabooru shuddered at the sight. Zayorin had still been twice as tall as Nabooru, and yet Romani had stomped her flat with one foot. Glad I’m on her good side.
She turned around and started back for the ranch. With the battle complete, the residents of Clock Town could return home.
Zelda, Impa, and Nabooru spent the rest of the day helping transport the Terminians back, as well as seeing what they could do to help with rebuilding. Romani had stayed away, fearful that if she tried to help at her size, she’d only make matters worse.
It had been happening so gradually that none of them noticed, but by evening they had shrunk down to their normal heights.
“I think this means we’re on our way home,” Zelda said. While things hadn’t turned out quite how she would have liked, they had still destroyed a powerful evil (Majora’s daughter, no less! Link would love to hear this story.), and there was something to be said for that.
“I was hoping we’d get the chance to say goodbye to Romani,” Nabooru said. Zelda empathized. There was just something about going through an experience like this that brought you closer to someone.
“You’ll get your chance,” came a voice from above.
Romani looked down at them from outside the town walls, standing at about 200 feet tall.
“Romani!” Zelda exclaimed. “Does this mean you’re shrinking, too?”
Romani grinned. “Not quite.” With as little effort as it took her to blink, she quickly grew to 600 feet.
They were speechless. “Astounding,” was all Impa managed to say after a moment.
Romani knelt down to be closer to her tiny friends. How ironic. When I first met them, these three were the giants. Now, my little finger is bigger than all of them put together.
Zelda’s brow was furrowed in a familiar expression of curiosity. “How?”
Romani shrugged her massive shoulders. “Not sure. But I kind of have the feeling that I’m supposed to be gathering the new group of Giants.” She flashed them a gigantic smile. “Care to stick around a while?”
Zelda’s expression turned bittersweet. “Thank you, Romani, but I’m afraid that Hyrule needs us. Fortunately, we leave Termina in capable hands.”
Romani’s eyes moistened at the compliment. “Termina owes its thanks to the three of you. I hope we’ll meet again someday.”
Zelda nodded, and a blue glow began to surround the three Hyrulians. “Oh!” Romani remembered, “Tell Link I said hi!”
They were gone in that moment. Romani hoped they had heard her.
She stood up and looked herself over. Yesterday morning, she would hardly have guessed that she’d end up a protector of the planet. She chuckled as she realized that she still hadn’t put her dress back on. Maybe she wouldn’t. She grinned at the thought. At least she was wearing more than the old Giants ever did.
She turned her attention to Clock Town. It was a mess. Keeping Termina safe would be a hard task. But she didn’t have to do it alone. There were supposed to be four of them, after all. And she already had an idea who she wanted to recruit first.
She began walking, her long, powerful legs taking her toward the Romani Ranch.
“Oh, Cremia…”
END