Paya kneeled in front of a squat stone frog, slowly sweeping the dirt from its offering bowl with a practiced and reverent motion. Every day after her lunch she performed the same sequence of events: Emerging from the house that she shared with her grandmother, she descended the front steps; greeted Dorian, the guard on duty; cleaned the row of statues; and ended the ritual by placing an apple at the foot of each statue. She was deep in a meditative reverie when the stillness was broken by a SHOUT! She whirled around to discover the source of the noise, and spied two figures at the top of the hill leading to the shrine that overlooked the village. The first person was waving an arm for help while struggling to prevent the second from slumping completely to the ground.
Dorian started running up the road as the whisk broom slipped from Paya's grasp. Doors slammed open across the village and heads popped out to watch the procession. A voice called from a shop, "Lady Impa! Take him to Lady Impa's house!" Him? A man, then, perhaps a trader ambushed on the way through the mountains. According to recent rumors, attacks from both monsters and the Yiga Clan had been becoming more frequent on the roads in the area.
Paya shifted nervously from one foot to the other as she waited for the people to come closer. She wanted to help, but didn't want to get in the way. Now she could see the two villagers carrying a body between them, his arms slung over the guards' necks and his feet scraping the ground. As they made their way down the road, Paya could make out more details. The man was wearing standard traveler's gear, filthy all over with clumps of mud, splashes of blood, and singed patches. Her eyes were drawn immediately to one clean spot: a lock of golden hair fell over his face like a shimmering, sun-struck waterfall. His eyes were obscured by that hair, but she didn't need to see them to know that they were a bright piercing blue, a blue that could see into her soul, because Paya had seen them before. She had seen him before. It was Master Link, the recently awakened hero of Hyrule.
She turned and ran up the stairs, heart pounding painfully in her chest, calling over her shoulder, "Please, follow me! Bring him in here! Toward the back of the house!" The nervousness that had begun to rise in her stomach evaporated under the shock of seeing him injured. She opened the doors through the house on the way to the washroom, which was a spacious area large enough to fit laundry facilities as well as a bathing area. Paya moved to the corner, where a large pot of warm water hunkered over a small fire pit, and stoked the fire. While she was occupied, the men placed Link down on the table that was usually reserved for folding laundry and began removing his clothing.
"Thank you for offering your home to us," Cado said, unbuckling a strap that held together what remained of the adventurer's shirt. "It was a stroke of good luck that I was passing by the shrine at the right time. He materialized right on top of one of my escaped cucoos just as I was about to catch it! Frightened the poor bird half to death!" Link groaned as if apologizing for his bad timing. Cado continued, "Don't worry, lad, you couldn't have known that my prized, most favorite clucky-love was on your landing pad." That groan was the first noise he had made since coming into the village, and it attracted Paya's attention. Her head turned almost of its own accord to the scene at the table, and the more she took in, the more she knew she couldn't stay in the room.
"P-Please excuse me! I will let you work in privacy." She made a beeline for the door. "The water will be hot shortly and there's washcloths and soap in the cupboards...I'll be back with bandages and medicine!" Once she was on the other side of the door, Paya stopped to think. A vision of spilled blood, open wounds, and bruises blooming across the skin she had seen moments before engulfed her mind. How badly was Master Link hurt? Was it an emergency? Should she get Grandmother?
She cracked the door open just wide enough to speak through. "E-excuse me again, but could you tell me, how bad is it? Should I fetch anybody else? Let me know what you need and I'll be right back."
"So far so good, Mistress Paya!" came Dorian's voice over the low sound of moaning and the intermittent splashing of water. "Nothing major, possible broken ankle, assorted lacerations and minor burns about the body..." was his succinct reply.
Impa sat on her customary stack of pillows, her ancient eyes fixed alertly on Paya as she came into the main room of the house. "Grandmother, I don't know how much you heard, but it's M-master Li-Link in there." She took a deep breath and shuddered as she let it out. "I don't know how he got hurt, but he's stable, and the guards are fixing him up. I just need to fetch some bandages and ointment, and, and..." Her voice failed as she looked down at her empty hands.
"Child, don't fret. I'm so proud of you." Grandmother's voice was like a warm hug, soothing her frazzled nerves and setting her thoughts back on track. "You're doing exactly what needs to be done. When you're finished getting the guards their things, why don't you clean your room and get it ready for Master Link to recuperate in?"
"Of course, Grandmother. That's a wonderful idea." The words came out automatically, as she focused more on the task at hand rather than give any attention to the vaguely terrifying idea of setting up her room for male occupancy.
Paya retrieved some jars of medicine and rolls of gauze bandages from a closet and made sure her eyes remained fixed on the floor when she returned to the washroom and handed them over to the guard. She wasn't sure why she felt so nervous whenever she got near Master Link. She wasn't particularly squeamish about blood, so she dismissed her feelings as just being fearful for his safety. After all, he was the hero who had been resurrected to vanquish the Calamity, and if he died again, he certainly couldn't do his job. After making sure that the men had all the supplies they needed, Paya then moved upstairs with fresh linens to prepare her room and bed for Link's recovery.
Time inched forward. The number of times Paya had crossed the room in front of the washroom door was beyond measure, and Impa was attempting to distract her from wearing a groove in the floor by engaging her in a conversation about what tea to drink when the door finally slid open, revealing the two guards with the conscious and cleaned swordsman propped up between them. "Here he is, fresh from an ill-timed fight with a Lynel!" A loud gasp from Paya brought all eyes in the room to her. With a brief shake of his head, watching the young woman shrink into the corner, Dorian continued, "and with your permission, Lady Impa, we will get him settled at the inn." He ended with a slight bow in Impa's direction.
Impa practically proclaimed, "Don't bother carting him across the village! Master Link is welcome to recuperate in our home. Paya has already arranged her room for his stay. Please, young hero, make yourself comfortable, although I am afraid that you will have to navigate a staircase."
Link gave the old woman a watery smile and thanked her for her generosity.
The guards began to move him to the stairs, but Link protested. "Let me try it myself first." The guards stepped back respectfully, but when Link took his first step his leg buckled and he collapsed in a painful, embarrassed heap. The guards scooped him up wordlessly and carried him to bed while Paya followed behind.
Up in the bedroom, Dorian turned to Paya and launched into an explanation of the adventurer's treatment. "We were most concerned with stopping Master Link's bleeding and covering his burns, which I am confident we accomplished. However, his ankle needs more attention, but we need to get back to-"
"Finding my lost cucoos!" Cado interjected with a note of panic in his voice.
"Guard duty." Dorian continued, giving his fellow guard a stern look. "Are you able to care for him on your own, or would you like me to send Lasli over to help?"
Lasli? A sudden feeling of protectiveness for the wounded hero caught at Paya with unexpected ferocity. She considered the young woman who worked in the village's clothing store to be a close friend, but at the moment, she was overcome with rivalry. She told me right after Master Link first came to town that he was just her type! I don't think I want her anywhere near him while he recovers! The uncharitable thought unnerved her, and she forced her feelings down into a tiny imaginary ball in the back of her consciousness, hoping none of what just passed through her mind expressed itself on her face.
Making sure she was composed enough to speak clearly, she answered, "Thank you two so much for your help. Grandmother and I are so glad you found and aided him." She glanced at Link, who was lying limply in the bed, either unaware or uncaring that they were talking about him without including him in the conversation, and clasped her hands together below her chin. "I think...I think I'll be able to wrap up the rest of his injuries by myself." She furrowed her brow. "I am well trained in first aid," she added, as if to convince herself as well as the men in the room.
"Of course. We will take our leave then. Heal quickly, young man." She heard them tramp down the stairs and offer their goodbyes to Impa as she walked across the room.
OK Paya, she said to herself, mentally steeling herself for the task ahead. Time to show some initiative! Spread that salve! Bandage him up! Give him an elixir!
Her pep talk was all for naught. She was so nervous she dropped a roll of bandages when she caught Link's gaze while stepping to the bedside.
"How-how are you feeling, M-master..." She trailed off, suddenly unable to move the words out of her mouth.
The supine patient twitched his hand, attempting an all-encompassing gesture, which Paya immediately followed through with her eyes. She then felt heat rise in her cheeks as Link spoke up. "Well, my skin is shredded and burned all over my body, my ankle is beginning to puff up like an Octorok, it hurts when I breathe deeply-" He demonstrated this, then suddenly winced as pain radiated through his ribs. He groaned and continued, more slowly, "last but not least, I've got a pounding headache. It looks like you've brought up some elixirs. Do you have anything that's good for pain?"
"Oh, of course, Master Link! I'm so sorry I didn't think of it immediately." She blushed brighter with shame. How could she be so thoughtless, asking him how he felt? As if she didn't know he had to have been suffering as they spoke.
She turned to the box of elixirs she had brought to her room earlier and began rummaging around for something useful. In her embarrassment, she let forth a running commentary of her thoughts. It seemed she could not trust her tongue to know when to stop and start speaking. "Let's see here, this one is for fever, this is for chills, there's a whole row of defensive elixirs...those look quite old...ah, here's something that should help!" Paya held up a small bottle of sparkling pink liquid. "A fairy tonic! This is an old family recipe; it speeds healing and it relieves pain as well, though it might make you a bit sleepy, but you probably need a rest, oh, now I'm just blabbing on, I'm sorry..."
Link waited patiently while Paya muttered and clinked by the table. His shallow breathing slowed as he relaxed in the bed, trying to take his mind off the pain by looking around the room. It was spacious and airy, with furniture scattered around its edges. A sprig of plum tree blossomed in a vase on a writing desk at the foot of the bed. And what was that book left open on the desk?
"There's only one bottle of this, so after I've helped you here, I need to go catch some fairies...or get someone else to do it." Paya looked pensive, eyes unfocusing slightly as she thought about her plan for the rest of the day. Maybe if she concentrated on something else, anything else, she could distract herself from the hero on the bed. Her bed. A man was lying in her bed. Battered and bruised, to be sure, but there he was, real as the day was long and waiting for her-
-waiting-
-for her to give him the medicine!
Paya came back to reality with an alarmed squeak, and she rushed over to the bedside with the bottle, a jar of salve, and more bandages.
"Here, drink this. Do you need help sitting up? You probably can't drink laying flat on your back." She tried to offer a hand to grab, then realized her arms were still full of supplies. "Oh dear. Hang on. Let me just-" and she dumped her things on an empty spot on the bed, hoping desperately that none of it landed on his legs, and offered her hand again. She knew her face was once again flaming, but Link did not mention her eternal awkwardness. They moved him carefully into a sitting position, and Link quickly quaffed the elixir. New life seemed to flow through his body and he sat up straighter with ease. "Wow, this stuff is amazing! I feel so much better already!"
"I am so pleased to hear you say that, because now I have to examine your ankle to see if it's broken."
Link flashed her a loopy grin, catching Paya off guard and nearly making her fumble the jar of salve she was now clutching to her chest with all her strength. "Do your worst, O wise healer. I can't feel a thing!"
Paya returned his smile with a small nod. "I'll be as gentle as I can. You might think you can't feel anything right now, but you'll probably change your mind when I'm searching for broken bones." She sat down on the bed and scooted over to his feet.
It took all the courage she had to lift Link's injured right leg and roll the hem of his pants up to his knee. This wasn't the first time she had been so close to a person who wasn't her grandmother, and she had previous experience with patching up fellow villagers' wounds, so she couldn't understand why she felt like this was a completely novel situation...
She quietly released a long, slow breath, and began to examine Link's leg. There was an abrasion, or maybe a burn, on his knee and a deep cut on his upper calf, both neatly wrapped in translucent gauze. Faded scars from a lifetime ago were scattered across his flesh. His skin was not quite dark enough to be called tan, but there was enough contrast to highlight the dusting of golden leg hair running up and down his leg. Her gaze ran up from his shapely calf, past his bandaged knee, and settled on his thigh. She wondered if the rest of his body hair was that same radiant color. His trousers were soft and worn, and they draped smoothly over the musculature of his upper leg. It registered dimly in the back of Paya's mind that her breathing was getting shallower and her pulse was speeding up. She admonished herself again when she belatedly realized that she was staring at the wrong end of his leg. Try to keep it professional, Paya! Master Link is seriously injured, and he's probably wondering why you're not doing anything yet again! She turned her attention back to his ankle, which she noted was swollen enough to conceal the bone structure beneath, and the surrounding skin was mottled with purple and blue bruises.
"I'm going to put some medicine on your ankle now. This is Ice Chu jelly salve, and it will reduce your swelling." She dipped her fingers into the jar and scooped out a generous blob. Gently she rubbed in the cooling salve, fingers light as a dusting of snow flakes, and felt for any misplaced bones. "I hope I'm not hurting you, Master Link," she whispered. A contented sigh escaped from Link's lips and she felt his muscles relax a little.
"Can you wiggle your toes at all? Try to move your foot up and down for me." She looked down expectantly at the foot in her lap, and nearly choked with suppressed laughter when she heard a cheery "Oh, I toe-tally can!" from beside her. An enthusiastic toe twitch followed shortly after.
"That's a relief. Your ankle isn't broken then." Paya wrapped the ankle with quick efficiency, then placed it on a low stack of pillows.
Link was starting to drift off. The combination of fairy tonic and exhaustion from his battle would ensure that he napped for a few solid hours. Paya quietly stood up and placed the supplies on her vanity. What would the hero want when he awoke? A quick sweep of her room revealed only a water jug and a chamber pot. Oh dear. She would be busy bringing up more things, like his clothes and equipment, which must be down in the washroom. He might be hungry when he woke, what would he like to eat? She'd need to start cooking supper soon, and extra now that they had a guest, if you could call him that. How much did Master Link eat? Probably as much as any of the men in the village, she supposed. He was on the short side but he was solid muscle, as she recalled from the weight of his leg in her lap.
Paya couldn't stop her mind from chasing questions, circling through the same topics while her body acted on another track entirely. She found herself outside with her arms full again and gulped a breath of fresh air. The day had strayed so far from her usual routine, and seeing the late afternoon sun refreshed her mind.
Was it too late for the girls to be out? No, there was Cottla running full tilt down the road.
"Hi hi hi Paya! Koko won't play tag with me and I'm bored!" The little girl skidded to a halt in front of the young woman and looked up at her eagerly.
"Well, Cottla, I can't play with you right now, but instead, would you like to do a fun thing for me for a little bit?"
"Maybe...if it really is fun..." She shrugged and started to dig her toe into the dirt.
"Master Li..li..li..." She couldn't even say his name aloud to a child. "I mean I need some fairies. To cook with." Cottla's eyes grew wide with horror. "I don't mean it like that! Oh, I'm so flustered today! I need a fairy to help me add magic to a potion! It doesn't hurt the fairy!" Cottla relaxed, but a skeptical look remained on her face. "I promise. Can you help me? I bet you are really good at being sneaky. I wonder, can you catch more fairies than Koko? Take your sister, take these nets and bottles," she held out a neatly wrapped package, "and go up to the fairy fountain. I'll be by the cooking pot, so meet me there when you're finished!" Finally convinced, the little girl ran up the hill, shrieking her sister's name. Smiling fondly after her retreating figure, Paya started making her rounds to the shops along the street.
Back at home, Paya went up and down the stairs repeatedly, each time carrying some item that she thought Master Link might need. A larger cup for water. The softest blankets she could find in the closets. A pack of playing cards. A tea set. A bowl of leftover shrine offering apples. As a Sheikah who took her training seriously, she was as quiet as a whisper each time she entered the room. From time to time she glanced at Link's sleeping form, not daring to risk a longer look in case he woke up and caught her. It struck her how noble he looked, even while unconscious. Handsome, too. Oh yes, even with scrapes criss-crossing his face and his hair forming a bird's nest around his head, she was suddenly and irrevocably certain he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her entire life.
But she couldn't spend all afternoon sneaking peeks at the slumbering hero. It was time to cook supper and make the fairy elixir.