A/N: Well what do we have here? Another update and it's been less than a month since the last one. Robin here, and I guess I might be getting good at this. Anyway, if you think that this chapter is going to be of lower quality because it took less time, don't worry, I put as much effort into it as I could, and even more time of each day to write it out and revise it. This chapter was a lot of fun to write, but it was also extremely difficult to plan out and a pain in the ass to revise. Shout out to JamesYorke and his story A Fish out of Water, his work is what really inspired me to continue working on this, so you should go give his story a read because it's a wonderful Breath of the Wild novelisation. I hope you enjoy the fourth chapter of Unexpected Heroes. Follow and favourite this story if you like it. Please review to give some good criticism and feedback, it would truly help improve this story.

Chapter 4

Flying was certainly fun, or gliding if that was what you wanted to call it, except for when Phillip looked down and saw how far down the ground was. His heart froze in his chest and he choked on a scream that threatened to overtake him. He began to shudder in fear and in turn his paraglider trembled, which caused him to lose altitude faster than his partner that was trailing behind him.

"Phil! Look up, Phillip!" Tori called over the howling wind. Her cries only fell on ears deafened by the roaring of blood pumping in his eardrums.

They had made such good progress over the last three hours due to a strong westerly wind blowing them east, though their arms and shoulders screamed with the built-up pain from climbing down the tower and flying over half a week's worth of foot travel all in one day. She had volunteered to guide them along the road, knowing that it would sooth Phillip's fear of heights, to which he had yet to admit but she knew that he was probably thanking her silently. Her partner first looked down when they had passed over a river that was the halfway point between the Great Plateau and a pair of twin mountain peaks in the distance.

"Hey, jackass!" she tried again to get his attention, but to no avail. She then swooped down next to him to match his descent. "Don't make me do this, asshole!"

Again, no answer.

"Fuck it, I want you to live," Victoria murmured to herself before giving a kick to Phillip's side. "Snap out of it, you bastard. I need you here, not in that head of yours!"

The sudden pain in his side made him scream out in total terror, but it did its job to get him to look up at the Gerudo woman whose face displayed a mixture of concern, anger, the brink of tears. Seeing the utter terror in Phillip's deep-blue eyes as they stared back at her own was a sight that Victoria would never forget for as long as she lived. She had to get him back on the ground safely before a fatal accident could occur.

"C'mon, Phillip, we're landing now. Keep your eyes on me and only me, nothing else. Look wherever on me that you want, just keep looking at me and following me," she instructed, failing to sound stern.

The young swordsman nodded lightly, taking her orders to heart as he followed her steady descent. His mind focused on the small of her back, right below the breastplate that protected her upper body, for a solid part that was not moving and hid the view of the distant ground. He did not even notice how far that they had gone like this until they were only a few metres from the ground and Tori called it to his attention.

"Brace yourself! We're almost there!" she called back to him. It would be an understatement to say that he felt relieved when took his first, albeit shaky, step onto solid earth.

"No need to go any farther today. We can camp here tonight and I'll go unlock that tower tomorrow," she said softly.

He looked up from the ground cautiously to see another tower piercing the sky a couple kilometres down the road. And when he looked beyond the tower, he could see the faint, orange glow of deactivated shrines on the distant twin mountains. "I can go with you too. It would dangerous to go alone," he tried to muster up all the strength he had.

"It's dangerous to go alone, so I should take you? Not a chance, Lucky Buck," his partner scoffed sternly as she began to take the camping equipment out of the bag. "Cut the Cucco shit, you're afraid of heights and it's because of what happen when we were climbin' up the plateau. And it's my fault." Despite her front, Phillip could still see through to the emotions she was trying to hide.

"Aye, you are right, I'm deathly afraid of heights and it is a very new development, but you need to stop blaming yourself. Not only because it will hinder us, but also because I sure as hell don't blame you for what happened, it was an accident waiting to happen," he answered sombrely. Deep down though, he knew that he would be the one holding her back if he tried to climb the tower with her.

"Anyway, you should save up your courage for when we go to clear the shrines on those mountains later this week," Tori chirped in her usual upbeat tone.

He shivered at the thought of being up that high again, "Maybe you're right. Either which way, I have a meal to prepare because I want early lights out tonight." Taking that as his cue, he to collect kindling for the campfire.

However, Tori had other plans, as she stopped him with a hug from behind, "Not so fast, Lucky Buck. It has been one hell of a day for the both of us, we're in need for a special Gerudo dish to end it on a high note. You may be an amazing cook, no doubt about it, but you stand no chance against the old family campfire recipe that has been passed down the Wilt family for generations!" A glint in her eye told that there was something more to what she had planned, and it worried Phillip for what was about to happen.

After building a sufficient fire with a supplementary stock of fuel to cook dinner, the young swordsman went about the normal duties of building camp, such as setting up defences, securing fresh water, repairing equipment, and doing laundry. Every once in a while, he would check in from his laborious tasks to see what sort of concoction Tori was preparing that could be so amazing.

By dusk, the chilly weather of mid-Autumn had set in and Phillip was ready to jump into his bedroll next to the fire for the night. With all the chores finished, Tori served two strange dishes that were comprised of her rice from her stash and hot peppers that they had picked on the Great Plateau.

"Dishes up! The Wilt family special rice and curry, spicy edition! Don't worry though, it's not as spicy as I usually make it so it won't destroy your taste buds," the Gerudo warrior called out in triumph.

Just turning in the direction of the kitchen filled his nostrils with the tantalising scent of numerous spices wafting through the air. "It certainly smells amazing, so it must be good," Phillip complemented while picking his own bowl.

"Well it is the only dish I can make without burning it to crisps."

The last statement made him nervous, but it was too late as he put the first spoon full of the rice and curry into his hungry maw, instantly regretting taking on so much at one time as it felt like his mouth filled with fire. He rushed to find his water skin the moment he finished the single spoon full, only to find that it did not help in the least bit. Despite the burning sensation in his mouth, the flavour of the dish managed to reach his taste buds and whispered the truth of the meal. At the hint of such an intoxicating flavour, he could not stop himself from finishing the rest of the dish, ignoring how unaccustomed he was to the level of spiciness.

How could something so painful also be so delicious? He thought to himself as he downed the last portion. Looking up from the empty bowl, he took notice of Tori laughing out of control at how the spicy meal caused his cheeks to become extremely flushed along with profuse sweating.

"It gets everyone on their first try!" she managed to say between fits of laughter. "I can tell you liked it, but no more. Any more and you would hurt yourself with the reaction you just displayed!" But she proceeded to serve herself a second helping of the divine hellfire of a dish.

Giving a glare in return, Phillip moved on to clean up the kitchen and his mess kit before it got any darker. "Hey, Victoria?" he addressed his partner while she finished her meal.

"Stick with callin' me Tori," she answered between bites.

Noting that for later use, "Thank you for everything that you've done for me, not just today, but with this whole journey and leaving your old life to follow me on my crazy quest. I know that we are nowhere near being done, but looking back now, I don't think I could have made it this far without you to watch my back and to keep me company." He did not have any ulterior motive for giving such high regards to her, it was something that he had wanted to get off his chest for a while.

She stood up to wash her mess kit before answering, "If you're going to kiss up to me that much, you might as well get over so you can give me a good and proper one," she joked, hiding a nervous blush.

"I'm not trying to get anything from you, I just want to let you know that you are the closest to a friend that is more than just a fellow soldier training for the reconquest of Hyrule. We may have known each other for about a week, but I feel I can trust you with my life, and I'm glad to get to spend who knows how long this journey will take with you," he spoke honestly as he finished scrubbing his bowl.

"You are such a dork, you know?" the golden-eyed warrior chuckled. "But you're my dork partner, so you can get away with it." She then caught Phillip off guard by ruffling his crimson hair into a mess. "I trust you with my life too, so don't go throwin' it away or you will have hell to pay."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he attempted to try and fix the mess.

His partner smirked at achievement before finishing up her chores. The vibrant gold in her eyes struck him once more, reminding him of the first time that he saw her, and he still saw her as being beautiful beyond compare. He did not have a shred of belief in fate, it was full of shit and only those that feared freedom to control their future believed in it, but he did believe that he had extremely good luck to have met such an amazing person to join his journey. I just hope that I don't let her down or lose this trust, he thought as he mindlessly wandered back to the campfire.

"Lights out Lucky Buck. Saving the world requires a good night's worth of sleep." The striking woman gave a flirtatious wink before slipping into her bedroll.

I definitely am a lucky bastard, he thought before his head hit his pillow.

It took a week to get past the Dueling Peaks, as the new map piece from the tower called the twin mountains, but it was worth spending the extra time, not that they were really on a specific time limit. The next day was not even spent climbing the tower to get the map, but rather it was used to hunting down Lizalfos that would harass them any time Victoria attempted to clear the tower. Eventually, the two adventurers tracked down their harassers and ended up slaughtering a small warband of the lizard monsters that were hoarding a depot of foodstuffs that appeared to be intended to supply an army of monsters. A manifest written in primitive Hylian script revealed the stocked quantities and transport destinations that must have been monster outposts.

Lest to say more, the manifest was a jackpot of information that even surprised Victoria on how organised the marauders of Hyrule were. They then took the supplies they needed and all other documents as evidence for future reference before setting the whole base and depot ablaze. The arson of the fort prevented such a bountiful reserve of provisions from reaching the hands of their enemies as well as it sent a threatening message to them, that Hyrule was not to be messed with.

On the next morning, Victoria swiftly climbed the tower without hindrance, activated the waypoint, and returned safely with an updated map to share. Having completed that task, the two adventurers travelled on to the Dueling Peaks so they could find the shrines waited to be cleared. The first shrine was an easy thirty metres climb up the cliff and was simple enough to clear with two minds devising solutions in coordination, so they were able to retrieve their spirit orbs from the Sheikah monk in an hour. However, the other two shrines were such a hassle that they nearly gave up before they found an old mountain goat trail the led them to the summit, albeit scraped up bruised by the treacherous path.

The difficulty of getting to those shrines was nothing in comparison to the infuriating mystery that was the twin shrines. They were almost identical in their contents, and both had vague signs that alluded to how one shrine needed the other to be completed and vice versa. It was a mystery that would aggravate the two adventures and have them jumping between the two peaks investigating for clues for three days. By luck, Phillip discovered an application on the slate that captured an exact replica of the scene that he pointed the 'camera' at and pressed the button on the screen. Shortly after the discovery, they were able to piece together that they could take pictures of the orb arrangements on the floor of each shrine so they can arrange the same pattern in the other, which cleared both shrines.

After mustering all the strength that he could, Phillip joined Tori in the quicker method of using their paragliders to get down into the river canyon between the peaks. To their surprise, they were met by a caravan of traders heading to the Dueling Peaks settlement on the other side of the canyon who gladly let them tag along. Two traders in particular took interest in the adventurers by competing to sell their wares.

"Don't listen to this woman, she's a thief! She's always stealing my customers and she must have stolen my secret mode of transportation because she is always popping up wherever I go to trade!" a dark-skinned, big-nosed man with a giant, beetle shaped pack complained to Phillip. "Beedle's wares are the best in the country, you should buy from me, not this thief!"

A pale skinned, red-haired girl, who wore clothing fit for vagabond more than a merchant, scoffed at the man's remarks from where she walked beside Tori. "I have never met this man before we joined this caravan, he must have met one of my many sisters because we all look alike. And I, Anna the merchant, am not a thief, a liberator of unclaimed goods sometimes, but I am a true merchant that offers the best wares for both good quality and fair prices," the slender woman rebuked her verbal attacker. In just a short time, Phillip had figured Anna out to be a whimsical and playful woman that cared deeply about her gold and quality trade, but he could tell she was hiding an ulterior motive behind her travels with a certain companion when she spoke of them.

Their bickering over the prospective customers had gone on since the day before with no change in the dialogue of their insults or advertisements for wares. But whenever they got in these fights, Anna's companion, a young man with green hair and blue armour named Alm, would join the two adventurers to get them away from the merchants.

Alm was about seventeen and was traveling with Anna to find his way home after getting lost during a fight with a great dragon. He often looked depressed when he was alone, but when he was working with the rest of the caravan, he was always kind and ready to take on his share of the workload. The boy also showed great skill with a sword in the few times he picked up sparring with Phillip and Victoria, though he could never gain the upper hand against either of them. As a surprise to the two, such a young kid carried what he claimed to be a legendary sword named 'Falchion.'

"You both have bigger fish to fry than some squabbling merchants, with trying to save the world and all," the young man led them to catch up with the moving caravan and passed to the front. "We're better suited for scouting ahead and guarding the caravan anyway."

"What about the rear, shouldn't at least one of us defend it?" Phillip asked as he eyed the two arguing merchants that were somehow keeping pace.

"Ha, you saw the bow and sword Anna was carrying, she can certainly hold her own in a fight. She's even kicked my ass in half of the sparring matches that we have fought," Alm chuckled confidently. "Beedle isn't that bad himself either when it comes to defending himself."

The trio continued in silence, keeping their eyes on the ridgeline and the river parallel to the road for signs of ambush. Phillip knew that an attack was coming, there were monsters watching them from behind boulders and the occasional lizard-like creature could be seen scurrying on the banks of the far side of the river. It was a matter of time before the ambush was sprung, and he could see Victoria, Alm, and a few of the more experienced merchants tightening their grips on their weapons. Unlike the previous major battles that he had fought in Hyrule, he could not tell the exact numbers of the waiting assailants, but he could tell they were smart enough to strategize a flank on the river side.

"Do you have any plans for what's about to go down, Lucky Buck, because I have a few ideas," Tori whispered to her partner without taking her eyes off the river.

Seeing the direction in which some of the hiding monsters were shirking in, he could tell that the main attack was going to come head on when they reached the mouth of the canyon. He took a quick count of the armed merchants that he had at his command before unveiling his strategy, "Alm, send the archers to Anna to defend our rear and give us ranged support. Then you and Tori will take a dozen merchants to defend the riverside flank while the remaining twenty will stay with me to face the brunt of the attack. Understood?"

"Aye, understood!" the two listeners nodded in agreement.

"We need the unarmed merchants to keep the caravan moving forward until the attack comes, just so the enemy doesn't get suspicious," Tori added.

"Keep defence formations tight, you don't want any stragglers getting behind your lines," He inserted before breaking their semi-huddle.

Alm and Tori went their ways throughout the caravan, spreading the word and selecting the conscripts for each front of the coming battle. Phillip could see it in the faces of the militias that joined him in the lead and the manner that they gripped their weapons with experienced hands: the people that remained in Hyrule were a hardened society, forged by wild and harsh nature of their land. Phillip was an experienced fighter as an individual, but when it came to leading a regiment, he had better skill with firmly disciplined soldiers than a assortment of militiamen.

This will have to do for now, but it's more than likely that they have an extremely overwhelming force if they are willing to take on a group of our size, he thought to himself. I probably should have kept Victoria with me to watch my back, but I need someone to watch over Alm and see how he leads. He hadn't explained that idea to her at all, but by the look on her face he knew that she understood Phillip's reasoning for not having her by his side.

"Ye seem like the experienced soldier, eh?" voiced the elder head trader that accompanied Phillip. "What be yer orders, capt'n?"

He surveyed the assorted equipment and formulated a simple strategy, "Those of us with shields will form two ranks of shield walls to blockade the narrow path, and you four with polearms shall guard our flanks from the river. When I call for a switch, the second rank shall replace the first, giving the first a reprieve before the next switch. Understood?"

"Aye, captain!" the unit assented in their various nonuniformed dialects.

Even as the irregulars moved into an acceptable version of his planned formation, he still did not count on the manoeuvre working for long considering that they lacked the weeks of drilling a professional army would have. He unslung the liberated kite shield from his back onto his left forearm and drew his wakizashi, which he knew would be more controllable one-handed than the lengthy katana.

"So, do ambushes like this occur frequently in Hyrule," he asked as he joined next to old trader in the first trader.

"Aye, they do," the old man answered. He may have been old, but his eyes were sharply focused on watching the river and the canyon mouth. "Hyrule is jus' too vast an' the number o' monsters have grown too much for the Sheikah an' Hylian army to suppress ev'ry pocket o' the beasts. If all o' you in exile would return, the settlements an' cities could keep better garrisons to keep things safer."

Phillip laughed shyly. The leadership of the exiles in Holodrum would never return unless they were certain they could take the power of the kingdom for themselves. It was obvious that those who remained in Hyrule had just as little knowledge of what was going on with the exiles as the refugees had of what was going on in Hyrule. "Yeah, if only they would," he said, preparing for the assault that would happen at any moment.

"Look, captain! The river!" one of the irregulars drew his attention to several dozen Lizalfos that were crossing the river in the direction of Victoria and Alm's unit.

He could see that the two commanders were manoeuvring their troops as quickly as possible to respond to the oncoming attackers. What worried Phillip more was the overwhelming wave of Bokoblins and Moblins that rounded the corner into the canyon, he couldn't begin to count how many there were.

"Ah hell," he muttered, raising his shield and wakizashi. "Brace yourselves!"

The silver Moblin that led the pack suddenly collapsed with blood spurting from where an arrow had nailed it straight in the eye. Phillip took a quick glance to see Anna standing on a wagon with the other archers fitting a new arrow onto her silver bow. This death did nothing to stop the unstoppable tide as it slammed into the shield wall blocking the path.

He pushed back on his first attacker with his shield and slashed in a downward strike, getting a gurgling crunch in response. Looking to find the next, he blocked an overhead club swing and struck an undefended belly before cutting outward and cleaving a third Bokoblin to add to the bloody mess. In the blink of an eye, he withdrew his sword and parried a sword strike meant for his compatriot, but an arrow finished the monster off. He could care less; his mind was focused in dodging the next attack and striking back.

It had been discovered before at the battle for the supply depot, but he felt stronger than ever since he had used those spirit orbs at the shrine of Hylia, and that extra time spent on the plateau was paying off. This new style of fighting with a shield severely limited his movement comparatively, but the boosted strength from the spirit orbs made it possible to block heftier blows and deal heavier strikes.

"Switch!" he called over the din of combat after what seemed like an eternity, but probably only twenty minutes. The entire first rank, minus the adventurer, managed to retreat behind the second shield wall as it pushed back the confused enemy and trampled over the Bokoblins that were tripped by the renewed push. If they were regular soldiers that wore hobnailed boots, this tactic could have proven lethal to the enemy, but the recovering first rank substituted by finishing off the victims.

The many years of fighting experience in the merchants almost proved to be as effective as heavily drilled discipline in regular soldiers, but after nearly an hour, the strength in the untrained merchants waned significantly. They were all soaked with blood, both their own and that of the numerous dead monsters that littered the canyon floor and river shallows, that began to sap their strength even quicker as the cooling temperatures of evening encroached them. By this point, Anna had long since run out of arrows and had joined the fray next to Phillip as a quick and mobile combatant, almost similar to himself.

His physical reserves of energy felt like it was slowly draining, but his mind was even further fatigued by the constant calculations of the battle's tide along with the over-extended watch he kept on the militias under his command. 'Who was tiring out? How long since the last switch? Were his flank defences holding up?' were all the questions that flowed in and out of his brain, even when he was distracted by foes more powerful than others.

To Phillip's surprise, the formation had lasted past the first hour with only minor injuries inflicted on his allies, but as the first rank began to retreat on the fifth switch, an eager Moblin charged forward and smashed the skull of the old merchant with a sickening crack of an overhead club-swing and a spray of the crimson gore. A quick glance away kept the adventurer from being too shocked by the gruesome death, but it caught the attention of his allies and the monsters excited by the first Hylian casualty.

"Hold firm, soldiers! Victory is in sight!" He called to reign in their morale, but it was too late. A young man took a pike thrust to his abdomen and a middle-aged woman caught a sword swipe to the throat, both collapsed to the dirt in bloody messes but snapped the stupor of the other militias.

Reforming the formation was a lost cause as the battle shifted into a full out brawl with no distinct battle lines. Phillip abandoned his shield in favour of his more flexible and deadly duel-wielding fighting style to become a flurry of death and chaos to the diminishing enemy force. Surprisingly, Anna joined in his flurry of blades in a unique manner, slipping across his blindside to strike an enemy or parry a blow. It was almost like she was an extension of his fighting style or a defence system on his back, showing how close in proximity she moved with Phillip.

Wave after wave flooded against their fragmented ranks, but their depleted strength could not push them back as they continued to surrender ground. As he slashed and hacked his way across the frontline with his shadow in a whirlwind of blades and blood, he could see the number of their enemies dwindling but there was no end to their fervour and battle rage. All that he could do was fight until the monsters were all slain and hope his allies survived to the end. These thoughts began to fade into a distant corner of Philip's mind as they were changed for primal instincts of any field of battle. The number of the monsters that fell beneath his blade grew beyond count, but did little to dissuade the next Bokoblin or Moblin that tried to challenge him. His ferociousness and that of his shadow cleaved a path directly into the body of the enemy force, boosting the morale of the Hylians with the sight of such a powerful fighter as their ally.

All the battles and skirmishes that he had fought in Hyrule were obviously nothing in comparison to the sheer scale of violence, bloodshed, and ferocity that surrounded and engaged the young swordsman. The sight of hundreds of monster corpses would have brought the taste of bile to anyone's mouth if not vomit itself, but it only dredged up the memories of being a soldier for Phillip. Bodies of monsters became replaced with the twisted, mangled, bloody corpses of Hylian and Holodrum rebels numbering almost in the thousands as he picked his way across the smouldering battlefield. Black, soulless eyes became replaced with the blue or brown coloured ones of his countrymen as he clashed with them endlessly. The narrow canyon path transformed into a vast battlefield occupied with the rage of a waning battle that all seemed so reminiscent of a nightmarish reality that lingered in the mind of the swordsman.

Blood dripped down the curved blade of his katana and mixed with the rain that fell from the overcast sky filled with smoke and a sickening metallic taste. So much blood tarnished the family sword that he still could not wash all the stains seven years after the rebellion that disenfranchised him from the cause he fought so hard for. He was a marked man to all of those that lived in Holodrum, the government labelled him a human weapon to be saved for later use, his teacher called him a ronin after his discharge, and his family whispered of how he no longer belonged in the family of noble knights.

He sank to his knees, surrounded by the carnage of that day's battle as the images from his memory faded and the rainy, overcast sky dissipated to be replaced by the clear setting sun in the west. There was no strength left in his muscles to move away from the scene of horror he caused, nor the voice to call for help from his allies. All he wanted to do was forget like he did before and not have to live with the memories of his past. He would have cried with the return of such dreadful memories, yet he was filled with self-hate and despair for the events long since passed.

A pale, blood-stained pair of arms wrapped themselves around Phillip's shoulders and chest, drawing his drifting mind back into reality. They pulled him closer to the warm body of a woman with red hair that brushed against his blood-spattered face. "Dread not the events of the past, young hero," her soothing voice washed away his feelings of wretchedness. "You may have been forced into terrible acts long ago, but all has been forgiven by Hylia and the Divine Dragon, Naga. You must accept that what is in the past is in the past and learn to forgive yourself if you are to face the future and fight for a cause we all need you to lead. It is not something fated for you, but I believe you are just the hero that I have looking for to save all the worlds."

The words that Anna spoke almost made no sense, however, they were able to root Phillip back to the reality that surrounded him and Anna who continued to hold onto him. It was obvious that the battle had been a victory with merchants going about treating wounds, sorting the spoils of war, and preparing a funeral pyre for the fallen. He managed a weak chuckle when he thought of how considerate monsters were to dissolve and turn into ether after a short time, leaving less of a mess to clean up.

As he took in more of what was going on around him, he caught sight of Victoria standing by a wagon as she treated a laceration on Alm's forehead. The Gerudo warrior was glaring daggers at the red-haired woman that was holding onto her partner and caring for him rather than herself attending the matter. I have to make sure she's alright, he thought to himself, but he could not find the strength to lift himself off the ground.

His struggling immediately caught the attention of the warrior merchant, "Thank the gods, you've calmed down. Come on, Phil, we need to get cleaned up, these clothes are ruined." Anna practically dragged him back to her carriage before proceeding to strip off both of their top layers without his permission, not that she left room for argument. When she pulled off his chainmail he felt relief flood into his burdened shoulders along with some mobility.

"I think you can do the rest. I'll treat you to some discounted clothing afterwards," Anna ruffled his hair before moving to the river to strip down to her undergarments, not a care in the world for who saw her.

"Y-you didn't have to do this for me," he managed through a blush as he undressed to his smallclothes to join in washing his own blood-stained skin in the cold river water.

She chuckled with her usual impetuous nature, easing the stressful air of the interaction. "Of course I had to, I couldn't leave the hero I've been looking for out there in such a state. Plus, seeing Tori's reaction was priceless. Those Gerudo women are so dominating, they hate seeing their possessions in the hands of another woman."

It took a second for Phillip to realize what she was obviously implying about the two adventurers' relationship. "I'm not her po-" a devious grin from Anna cut him off. He conceded the argument and continued thoroughly to cleanse the filthy cracks between his fingers. "You mentioned it earlier and just now, but what do you mean by me being the hero that you have been looking for?"

"Ah, now that is the real question to ask," she replied. The buxom yet well-toned woman moved away from the shoreline to her wagon once more, ignoring all the gawks she received from all the male merchants. He followed her to get the answer he was asking for, only to have a bundle of dark green clothing and boots thrown into his face. "Here, found these relics a while back, apparently, they once belonged to a hero that fought the monsters of twilight, and I will gladly sell them to you at the friend discount of two thousand rupees," she smiled with the eagerness for a profit.

Phillip choked at the staggering price, but nodded in agreement for the much-needed apparel. "Thanks, Anna," he examined the assortment of clothes. A few minutes later, he was dressed in a two-layered, forest green tunic, a wolf-fur lined, grey trousers, hardened leather vambrace-gloves, sturdy boots, and a pointed green cap. Anna had insisted that he wore the cap, even though it had a strong wolf smell like the rest of the outfit. Green was not really his colour, but the outfit surprisingly fit him, so he could not complain about what he was given.

"Now to answer your question," Anna addressed him, now wearing an exact replica of her vagabond get-up from before. "The world that you know and live in is just one in a million mortal out-realms that have been caught in the middle of an eternal conflict between the Heavens and the Hells, the forces of Light and Dark, the gods and devils, or whatever you wish to call them," she paused to let that sink in but refused to let him interject.

"One hundred years ago, that conflict escalated for the worse and broke out into the out-realms, spreading the influence and minions of the demon lords to important worlds like Hyrule. So, my sisters and I have been tasked by Hylia, Naga, and Tyrael to seek out Nephalem, immensely strong beings, that could be the key to tipping the scales of the war."

It was a lot to take in, and hardly believable to someone as secular as the swordsman, "If they are all real, then why have they failed to come and defeat Ganon? And why have these dark forces failed to do whatever they desire with our world if this has been going on for the last hundred years?" His disbelief was not unwarranted, and he meant it as a challenge to see what her response would be.

However, Anna seemed ready for his challenge. "Well, all the forces of light, including Hylia, were recalled back to the Heavens to concentrate their power. Beside Zelda containing Ganon all this time, the delay of our plunge into darkness was set back by a band of heroes almost seventeen years ago," she took a moment to pick up her broadsword and wipe it clean with a spare rag.

"So, you think I'm one of these Nephalem that can turn that can turn the tide in a heavenly conflict that happens to be eternal? Not that I believe any of this bullshit," he derided her claims. He did not mean to be rude, but what she was saying was pretty outlandish.

She merely shrugged as she fastened her equipment belt and sheathed her cleaned broadsword. "It doesn't matter now whether you believe or not, but you will once we defeat Ganon. We have a lot of work to do, a long way to travel, and a lot of gold to make!" Anna nodded in agreement with herself, then leered over at the now dressed Phillip. "You truly fit the image of a hero, just don't forget to clean your chainmail and slip it between the layers of the tunic."

Phillip was honestly not surprised that Anna wanted to join his quest to save to save Hyrule, but the least she could have done was ask first. "I get a new companion, once again without my consent?" he asked rhetorically. He checked the time on his Sheikah slate, it was just after seven, and slipped it onto his belt along with his blades and the magic satchel.

"Alm too," the merchant woman added. "He says that he's following me to find his home, but he knows just as well as I do that the home he is trying to get back to, or at least the time, no longer exists." She let that morbid fact settle before gesturing for the swordsman to follow. "Let's go, the troops need some leadership right about now."

Nodding in agreement, he trailed behind her to the road-turned-battlefield littered with hundreds of disintegrating monster corpses. The old merchant's second in command informed him that six merchants were killed between both fronts, and that it was a surprisingly low number considering the numbers of the enemy force. They would hold funerals for the fallen once they were finished scouring the battlefield and cleaning themselves. Tomorrow, they would send letters back to their families via Rito mail and return their fair portion of the profits when the caravan returned home a few months later.

Phillip could tell by the pained look on the visage of the new leader that he lost good friends that day, but knew that the survivors would have been drawn closer together to support each other. He had no doubt that such a hardy people like the Hylians could rough out the worst that was thrown at them.

Soon enough, Victoria made her way to the side of her partner and checked every bit of him for any wounds that could have been hiding. "You had me so worried with the way you were just sitting out there. Are you alright? What were you talking about with Anna over by the river? Why were you so underdressed?" the concerned Gerudo warrior overwhelmed him with a flurry of questions.

He raised a hand to stop her rampage of inquiries, "I'm fine, a bit sore and mentally exhausted, but fine all the same. And I'll tell you what we were talking about later, it was pretty weird, or she can tell you herself since she and Alm are going to be joining us on our quest to save Hyrule."

Tori glanced in shock at the now smug Anna who was pilfering the wallets and quivers left behind by the monsters. She grimaced briefly, then embraced her partner in a tight hug, "At least you are alright," she chuckled softly, "As long as you are intent on saving the world, I don't think we will ever stop having these close encounters with death."

"Not a chance of stopping that now," he returned the embrace. Looking to the side, Phillip could see that Anna had lost her smug grin and had moved on to checking on Alm.

The rest of the night was mostly a blur, between the sombre event of burning the funeral pyres and setting up a hasty campsite. They barely scrounged up a basic meal to fill everyone before setting up a guard shift and passing out from the day's built up exhaustion. Tori had made sure to keep a distance between their sleeping spot and Anna's, but Phillip did not think much of it, he just wanted to sleep.

They stayed the next night at the inn of the Dueling Peaks settlement, a quaint town over a bridge on the river and it had its own shrine, which Phillip and Victoria showed their new companions as they easily completed it and retrieved their spirit orbs. On the day after that, the new group of adventurers resupplied their gear in the satchel and went their separate way from the caravan, heading north towards Kakariko city.

As the band of adventurers passed under another torii into the heart of the city, Phillip could only say that he was shocked by the stark difference between this urban epicentre and the rest of the rural countryside. He had probably seen a couple hundred people between the two settlements and dozens of farms that he had passed since entering Hyrule, but this valley city was probably large enough to boast thousands of residents. Through their walk to the city centre, most of the people they saw were of the Sheikah tribe, sporting white hair and tanned skin, but there was a small number of Hylians and other races that they noticed in pockets. Though the hubbub of the trading market gave a sense of familiarity to all of them, as the conduct of trade never seemed to differ in any major way anywhere one could find the gathering of people with excess goods.

However, the city centre that the four arrived at was pretty basic, with the main avenue passing between a shrine to Hylia and an oriental styled palace complex, both complete with more torii gates guarding the entrances. However, the palace had an additional pair of shinobi flanking both sides of the stairwell that lead up to the doors.

It did not take long for the guards to notice the band of foreigners that stuck out like a sore thumb. "Hey, you there," the one on the right called out. "Those are Sheikah slates that you have there on your belts?"

Victoria and Phillip both instinctively looked down at their slates then back at the guards and nodded silently.

"Well, don't just stand there, c'mon in, the elder has been expecting someone with a Sheikah slate. Well, I guess she didn't really specify if it was just one or not, so you all should just come along," the shinobi fumbled about his orders. He then gestured for the adventurers to go up the stairs.

"We shouldn't turn down such a warm welcome, let's go!" Alm naively took the lead up the steps, but the group followed after him warily.

The doors creaked open after a hard push by Alm to reveal a dimly lit room that automatically gave off a traditional feel with its throne-room-like interior design. In one corner of the room was a glowing orange sphere that seemed out of place for the room, but what won the attention of all the new occupants of the entry hall was an ancient woman kneeling on a pillow on the dais. It was obvious that age had shrunken her from her height of youth, and, paired with weathered, wrinkled skin, her guise betrayed that she was probably the oldest person alive.

"Oh, what a surprise!" the old woman remarked in a hoarse voice as she raised her head from a resting position. "You are definitely not who I was expecting to arrive, but I think you will have to do. I can't be too picky in desperate times like these. But I have to say, the princess sure is scheming an awful lot for being trapped with Ganon. Yes, you all look to be perfect for finishing the mission that we failed in completing oh so long ago."

"Excuse me, ma'am," Phillip interjected, halting a few metres before the dais with his companions, "but would you happen to be the great Sheikah warrior, Impa?"

She chuckled heartily for an old woman at his address, "Aye, that would be me, the Guardian of Princess Zelda, Impa of the Sheikah."

A/N: Yeah, I know that was a dirty cliff-hanger, but it felt like a good point to leave it at. So was that a whole lot of information to take in? Yes, yes it was. Did this just become a crossover? Well, I had already planned on this since the beginning, but I guess the answer is yes. However, the major crossover points aren't really that important until much, much later on. There are two franchises so far that have become part of the crossover, and if you can't tell what at least one of them is, what the hell have you been doing as a Nintendo fan. Either which way, thank you for sticking with me thus far, please don't forget to favourite and follow if you like this fanfiction. Leave reviews for what you would like to see improve in the story or just how you felt about it. Until next time, stay Unexpected! Chapter five is underway!