It wasn't much of a journey, from the beach to kakariko. Luckily for us, it was relatively late into the night and most of the people were asleep. If we didn't take this opportunity, we'd have to wait until the next day. The village steps were all so familiar, they had once been the gateway to a welcome community of friends, human and goron. But now, I knew that the humans living here would kill me on sight. When we reached the top of the steps, we noticed the city was just about completely empty, except for the guards watching the gate to the death mountain trail, One male, and one female.
Human armor was odd. The helmet they were wearing completely obscured their face. How did they tell each other apart? The female variant was the same problem. But that wierd helmet gave me an idea. Sylvia and I traced the perimeter of the village until we were on the opposite side of the gate from the village entrance. We hid on top of a building and waited. And just as I had hoped, not too long after did 2 more guards, dressed the same way, began making their way from the village steps to the gate. "You're being relieved. You can head home now." The taller of the 2 guards said. "Thank god. I can't wait to get some sleep." The female guard said with a yawn. The two groups of two swapped positions, and together, the two relieved guards began making their way home.
Sylvia and I retraced the village perimeter and tracked them out of the village. Once they were adequately far from the village gates, Sylvia and I ambushed them. They had left their weapons at the gate, so they weren't much of a threat, but they managed to get one or two punches in on both of us. Once they were unconscious, we stripped them of their armor, and Sylvia and I dressed ourselves in it. With the helmet obscuring our faces, we hoped the guards now watching the gate would let us pass.
We made our way back up the village steps for the second time tonight. "Halt!" One of the guards shouted. They both readied themselves, spears outstretched. "Relax, it's just us again." I told them. "What? What are you doing back here?" He didn't seem to suspect much. That was good. Now I just had to think of something to tell them that would make them let us past. "We were chasing some gorons from the gate back up the trail, and we think we dropped our canteens somewhere up there. Could you let us look for them?" Sylvia broke my train of thought. Clever girl, I thought. That's why I fell in love with her.
The guards exchanged looks, before opening the gate for us. "Don't be too long up there." They said. Sylvia and I nervously passed them and started our way up the mountain. Once we were out of earshot of the village, we removed the awkward human armor and continued walking. "You know they're going to come up here with another war party when we don't come back, right?" Sylvia asked me. "We just have to form an army of our own before that happens." But could we? Could we convince the gorons to mount an attack with us before the guards find out what we did to their allies?
It was quite a walk, all the way to the top of death mountain. Twice did we have to stop and rest before continuing our journey. But soon enough, we reached the gates of the goron city. We made our way into the cavern, and noticed the gorons didn't have a sentry on duty. Everyone was asleep in their own cave. That was fine. As long as the goron leader, Darunia, was awake. Goron City was a mazelike place, it took us a while to find our way to the lowest level of the cave, but we managed to locate Darunia's chamber. However, Darunia had his own private sentry on duty at the time.
"Halt!" He said, blocking the path to Darunia's chamber. "I am Demetrius of the zora race, and this is Sylvia, we wish to speak to Darunia immediately." The goron sentry retreated into Darunia's chamber himself, and within a few seconds, re-emerged. Darunia does not wish to be spoken to right now. "What? But this is important, we don't have much time! He's got to understand!" I'm sorry, but Darunia doesn't want to-"
"Important, you say?" A deep voice echoed through my ears. Darunia emerged from his chamber and pushed his sentry aside. "What kind of news is important enough for a zora to have to share with the goron leader so late at night?" Darunia was a large man, his voice loud and proud. "Excuse me, Darunia, but we have some news regarding our race's current situation to discuss with you." Darunia turned away and scratched his chin briefly." Come in, come in." He guided us into his chamber, while the sentry returned to his post outside.
"Sit." He told us. There were multiple brown rugs on the floor, sewn with intricate goron designs. Sylvia and I sat down next to each other. "This had better be important." He said. "I assure you, it is." I replied. "As you know, our two races have been receiving the blunt of human prejudice ever since Ganon took control." Darunia chuckled, then regained his composure. "Don't remind me. We've been getting a break lately." He said. "I, for one, believe this madness has gone on long enough. That is why I sit before you now. If you are prepared to fight with us, I wish to offer you my strength, as well as that of the remaining zoras. I believe our combined forces could be enough to drive the humans out of our territory, and intimidate them into ceasing their senseless fighting."
Darunia let out a long sigh. "You realise, boy, the seriousness of this proposal, correct?" "I do. Our king has been murdered, and I wish to end this war before the entire zora race is next." Another sigh came from Darunia's mouth. For a minute, there was nothing but silence, but I could tell Darunia was thinking. "This is not the kind of decision to be made in an instant. Allow me to sleep on it. Until then, I can arrange for you a room to stay the night here in Goron City." The three of us stood back up. "That would be great." I said. Darunia clapped his hands together. "Isaac! Come out here!" From a room branching from Darunia's emerged another goron, probably Darunia's advisor. "Yes, my lord?" "These two are Demetrius and Sylvia. They will be staying the night here. Arrange them a room, bedding, and food at once." Isaac walked over to us and guided us out. "Right this way, please" He said, motioning to follow him.
Our rooms was on the third level. The room was warm, and the food was nice. I had forgotten just how long it had been since I last ate a full meal. I had been exhausted since we first came back to this world from the Temple of Light, but only now, as I was finally relaxing for the first time all day, did I notice. I crawled into the goron bed, and let sleep come, knowing tomorrow, I would have Darunia's answer.