Hello! I was bored again, so here you go. I decided that most of what happens in these little stories will be part of a larger overall narrative. Nothing too fancy.
Daruk had decided that Gerudo Desert was much, much worse than Death Mountain.
Gone were the piles and piles of delectable rocks.
Gone was the music of bubbling lava.
Gone were the nights spent under the shadow of the mountain…
He shook his head. Best not to take that train of thought any further than there. But the place was still awful. The desert was bare as far as the eye could see except for an oasis (Kara Kara Bazaar, Urbosa had informed him) and the pale walls of Gerudo Town that looked like they rose out of the sand.
Worst of all, there was NO WAY to tell the path from the rest of the sand! All sand looks the same! They could've put some markers or something.
Daruk drug his feet as he hiked after Urbosa, who of course strode confidently like she owned the place.
She kinda did.
Gorons aren't used to walking. They CAN walk -they have legs after all, what else do you use them for?- but they're not the best at it. He was huffing and puffing in the thick, sweltering heat. Yet ANOTHER thing different from his home. Daruk was immune to the heat of the volcano, but even then, it was a sort of thin heat. This heat sat on the back of your neck and stayed there.
He focused on the swinging of Urbosa's red hair in front of him. It moved at a very methodical pace as she walked. Back and forth and back and forth.
The two were actually on a mission personally assigned by Princess Zelda, not to brag or anything. The other champions had been sent on similar missions, but noticeably 'Zelda's appointed knight' or whatever mouthful title he had, was never given a mission. It must be boring, following her around all the time. Daruk liked Zelda, but she talked a lot about ancient technology and hypotheses. She might as well have been speaking another language for Daruk.
They were searching for more of the shrines. Some were buried underground, and some were on the surface. Technically, Urbosa had been assigned to this task, but she had asked to bring Daruk with her, with the explanation that he could travel through the sandstorms that almost always raged in the desert.
"But what about Revali?" Daruk had asked. They were sitting around the table in the dining hall. "He can fly over them and stuff."
Mipha had coughed quietly. Revali and Urbosa had locked eyes and were apparently having a mental contest to see who would look away first.
"Well, Daruk, Rito village is naturally very cold," Urbosa's voice was as flat as ever, but she never took her eyes off of Revali. "While your home on Death mountain has a similar heat to the desert. So it is my assumption that you will handle the climate better. Am I correct?"
Urbosa didn't usually use big words unless she was mad. "U-uh, yeah! Don't worry! I'm Mr. Resilient! You can count on me!"
Daruk was regretting his decision now. But in his defense, it's a little hard to say no to Urbosa. She was almost the unofficial leader of the Champions. She was the most levelheaded of the bunch, unlike Revali or Daruk, and she never let her emotions cloud her judgement, unlike Mipha.
Suddenly the Gerudo stopped in her tracks. Daruk admittedly wasn't paying that much attention, and it was only when he looked up that he stopped himself from slamming into her. She glanced back at him. Gerudo were naturally very tall, but Daruk towered over her. She was unfazed by this and gestured at her map.
"There's a shrine just outside the entrance. It's always been there, but I never thought much of it." She pointed to an X on her map. "And near the sandseal races, there's a sort of platform that we don't know what to do with, but it certainly looks like Sheikah technology." She scratched another X on the parchment with a sharpened piece of wood. The X was just to the south of the town.
"Are there any others that you know about?" Daruk asked.
She pointed to the northeast. What looked like a wall of sand barred their view in the distance. "I'm not sure, but scattered throughout the desert are statues of swordsmen. I've tried to follow them, but they lead in there. The sandstorm does die down at night, but…" She smirked back at him. "We are on a time limit."
"So we're going into the sandstorm." He said, scratching his head.
The Gerudo nodded plainly.
"And there's no way I can talk you out of it."
She nodded and chuckled. "You sound like Link. Toughen up, Goron! Let's go!"
An hour later, they were riding on top of Vah Naboris' back. There was a platform in front of the two humps. The head and neck were extended in front of them as they moved slowly in the direction of the sandstorm. Each step lurched Daruk's stomach, so he sat on the ground, clutching the rope that secured him to the Divine Beast.
Urbosa had the rope around her waist. She stood in front of him, most of her confidence lost as the beast tripped over something and she had to scramble to keep it upright. The faint screeching noises told him it was probably a camp of monsters. She got Naboris level again, and some of the intensity in her shoulders visibly disappeared. They were on a set course for the sandstorm. All they had to do was see where the shrine was and then mark it on the map. Unfortunately, Urbosa had no clue where it was.
"Hey Urbosa!" Daruk said, raising his voice to be heard over the moan of Naboris.
She sat down next to him, keeping a keen eye on the direction they were headed. "Yes, Daruk?"
"As much as it hurts me to admit," he said overdramatically, placing a huge hand over his forehead in a mock swoon. She snorted. "Revali can travel a lot faster than me. And he does just fine in the heat. C'mon, man, my brain's not made up entirely of rocks. Why didn't you take him instead?"
The small smirk on her face disappeared as quickly as a piece of meat thrown into a pack of wolves. She looked away from him at the sand for a moment. "Well, for one thing, he's a real son of a Bokoblin."
"Well," Daruk chuckled. "That's putting it bluntly."
"Honesty is the best policy," she said, shrugging.
"You're not still mad about the incident with Mipha, are you? That was, like, the one time he apologized."
"We just don't get along, Daruk."
"Well, why give up convenience for a feud that makes no sense whatsoever? Do you two have some sort of ancient grudge?"
"It's for many reasons." She looked back at him and smiled slightly. "But you and I get along just fine, don't we?"
He shrugged. "That's my job, after all."
She frowned. "What?"
"I'm big and oafish and loveable. That's why I was chosen."
She was silent.
"The king and princess agreed that putting a bunch of people together from all over Hyrule would cause some drama. And instead of choosing the best warrior, they chose me. Although, don't get me wrong, I am good a smashing stuff," he added halfheartedly. "I guess they figured having a blindly loyal and friendly Goron who could solve arguments would fix that problem." He plastered a grin on his face. "I sure did a good job of that, didn't I?"
"Daruk, I didn't know…" She shook her head. "None of us meant for you to feel like that." She paused. "Not even Revali."
They both went silent for a while. Daruk stared at the sand dunes, how they would appear to rear up towards Naboris before shrinking back towards the ground. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he almost didn't see the approaching wall of sand until the full sound hit him.
He leaped to his feet, which is no easy task for a Goron. The sandstorm was taller than Naboris by far, and even as he stood the camel moaned as if bracing itself for impact.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Daruk yelled.
"Probably!" she shouted back, her voice ringing clear over the howling of the storm. Death Mountain's frequent earthquakes were loud, but they were nothing like this. The deep rumble was almost familiar, but this storm sounded very convincingly like it was screeching in pain. Urbosa was arranging herself against a pole. She climbed partway up with surprising dexterity. "Brace yourself!"
They entered the storm. It was like nothing Daruk had ever dealt with in his life. Sand blew from every direction, beating on him viciously even as he put up his barrier. The air was a deep foggy yellow color, and the ground could scarcely be seen.
He stumbled as the wind tried its hardest to push him off. He looked back for Urbosa, only to find her missing from her post. Daruk didn't get scared by much- y'know, not to brag or anything- but when he saw the barren pole, a deep sickening fear settled in his stomach. "Urbosa!' he called desperately to the wind.
There was no response. He glanced around. Her rope was still wound around a nearby column. There was no time to think. He struggled against the sand as he made his way over to the rope. It was dangling over the edge into the murkiness below them. He couldn't see the end of it, but he had to hope. As he grabbed the rope and started to drag it up, he felt a tug and a swing on it, like a fish biting the hook. He yanked on it, pulling it closer with all the strength he could muster. After the most stressful twenty minutes of his life, he could see a shape on the end of it.
Urbosa was swinging back and forth on the end of the rope. As he watched, she gave a harsh swing towards the shoulder of the divine beast. She braced herself against the stone and began to walk towards him on the wall. Her clothes swung around like they were part of the wind.
Daruk snapped out of his fascination to start tugging on the rope again. He couldn't tell if he was helping, but she didn't fall, so he would assume so. When she was about two feet away, he reached out and pulled her up by the arm.
"Are you okay?" He said, his voice cracking like rocks in an earthquake. "What happened?"
"I'm fine," she replied. "I was trying to find the statues."
"Did you see any?"
She frowned briefly for a reason he didn't understand before continuing. "No. It's all the same."
He started to say something, but while he was mid-word, Naboris lurched beneath them. It gave a huge moan and Daruk started to slide backwards.
Urbosa grabbed his arm and stood close to his side, but notably not touching him when she didn't have to. "Jump!" she yelled, before charging to the edge, tugging him behind her.
For half a second, the sand tore into them as they fell. Then red magic surrounded them. Daruk felt Urbosa's grip on his arm tighten as they plummeted.
He wondered how safe they would be just as they hit the ground and everything went black.
