The sounds of yelling and the clashing of steel against steel grew distant in Link's awareness, drowned out by his own screaming as a searing pain lanced up his side, setting all his nerves on fire.

"Here, kid, drink this," a voice from somewhere up by his head said, and a bottle was pressed to his lips. A burning that couldn't quite match the injury in his side washed down his throat and he choked and sputtered, the liquid dribbling out of the corner of his mouth and running down the side of his face.

"Set him down here!" someone else, an elder-sounding woman, commanded, and he was jostled around some more as his rescuers moved him where they'd been instructed. Rough canvas scratched at the back of his head as he was laid down, and a pair of skilled hands began to prod at his side. He yelled a wordless protest.

"You're lucky, boy," the woman said, and Link's mind reeled, tried to process that past the pain that was drowning out almost everything else, making his entire side from his hip to his shoulder burn to blind him and take the breath from his chest. Lucky? With this pain? He'd hate to see unlucky.

"It didn't hit anything vital." The woman's hands pulled back, leaving the arrow shaft that had lodged itself just below his ribs still embedded. "Alicia, Brothelus, hold him down. Latèmi, bring that whiskey here, and my needle and thread."

A few moments later, more of the foul, burning liquid was forced down his throat, and like before, he coughed it up messily, yearning for the cool relief of a medicine potion instead.

Link's awareness past the wound grew dimmer; he barely registered when hands pinned his arms down firmly. A sharp, hoarse scream worked its way past his throat as the arrow shaft moved; the arrowhead tore through muscle and skin, forced out the other side. He thrashed, tried to pull away from the weight holding him down, keeping him from curling up against the pain as he was moved again, turned on his side, and the arrow forced the rest of the way through.

"Latèmi, where is that needle and thread?" the woman snapped. "Let's get this boy stitched up."


The morning air was damp against his skin as he pulled back the tent flap, lingering there as he watched the sun beginning to rise in the East, one hand held lightly to his side. There was still a constant dull ache, and again he wished for access to the medicines from his homeland, but nothing like that existed this far East of Hyrule, this far away from the woods where the source of magic thrived.

"I think I distinctly recall telling my patient to stay in bed," a voice scolded behind him.

Link glanced over his shoulder back into the medical tent, looking at the short old woman whose eyes were gentle despite the stern set of her mouth. He smiled. "The patient wanted to watch the sunrise," he protested quietly, glancing back outside.

The medicine woman chuckled, moving up next to him. "It certainly is a pretty enough sunrise, isn't it?" She looked up at him. "This is the first one these people out here have seen as free men."

One ear twitched as he looked down at her, blinking in surprise. "We won?" At the smile on the woman's face, Link closed his eyes, relief unknotting muscles that he hadn't realized were tense. "Good."

"You shouldn't act so surprised," she admonished, moving away to fuss around with clean dressings back in the tent. "These men would never have had the courage to stand up for their freedom if you hadn't come along."

Link smiled faintly. "The one thing I won't give up on is courage," he said, more to himself than to the medicine woman.

She clucked her tongue. "Well, you're a rare one, then. We owe you. So where will you go from here, young hero?" Her eyes never left him as he returned to his bed roll and settled down, holding his wounded side. "You'd certainly have a place here, if you wanted."

"I know," he said, going quiet as he contemplated. He was far from the magics of Hyrule, and more vulnerable to death. And something deep inside him, the part of him that was sensitive to the climates of evil and the winds of destiny, told him he was needed in Hyrule.

Maybe it iwas/i time to go home. He'd been gone from Hyrule for seventeen years, traveling for longer. Epona was getting old, and he didn't like the idea of her passing on so far from the ranch where she was born and grew up into such a noble horse. He himself didn't like the idea of dying so far from home, either.

"I think maybe it's time I go home," he said, laying back down. "Have you ever heard of Hyrule?"

"Can't say that I have," the woman replied, checking on another patient that was in far worse condition than Link

"It's far to the West," Link said. "We have medicines there that could heal this wound in an instant. What I wouldn't give for one right now."

The woman laughed. "Hurts like hell now, doesn't it? I told you to stay laying down," she scolded. "So tell me about these medicines. They sound like magic."

Link smiled. "They are magic," he said. "Magic thrives in Hyrule, because of the Kokiri Forest, the source of it. I used to live there, when I was a kid. Until I found out I was really Hylian and left the forest. I wonder sometimes how my old friends are doing. I've been away a long time."

"We always end up going back home," the woman said, settling down by him with fresh bandages. "How long has it been, boy?"

At twenty-nine, Link was far from a boy, but compared to the positively ancient woman tending the injured, he was still a child, so he let her name for him pass. "Seventeen years. Nineteen since I left home. Spent a couple years exploring Hyrule. We have a beautiful lake called Lake Hylia in the southwestern region. Clearest water you've ever seen, fed by the Zora River."

"It sounds like a lovely place. No wonder you miss it." She looked at him. "But you can't get back there while you're injured. You're to stay with us another two weeks. I could let you go at five days, but you'd be coughing up blood, as the saying goes."

Link sighed. "I'll stick around the two weeks," he assured her. "No point in pushing myself that hard if I want to get there in one piece."

"Good lad," the woman said. "Now, lay down, get some rest. Hyrule will still be waiting for you in two weeks time."

Her words brought a bad feeling settling over him, like it was possible it might not be true, like any delay would be disastrous for his home country. It was the same feeling of dread that he'd had when he and Mido saw the forest withering with the Deku Tree as Gohma had attacked. Something was very, very wrong back home.

He just hoped he could get there in time.