Impa covered the ground at a fast clip, looking back occasionally to see Nabooru close behind. A few times the Gerudo commander flashed her a smile, as if to say, "Yes, I can keep up with you!"

Impa did not object much to the commander's company. She and her spy network had established that Nabooru was trustworthy as much as Ganondorf was untrustworthy. Impa worried more about Zelda and the company she was forced to keep. If she had not been so shaken up over the behavior of her own soldiers, she might have objected more to Zelda's bargain. And though she wanted to stay close to Zelda's side, they had to split up if they wanted to reach their allies before the King's soldiers did.

Noting with satisfaction Nabooru's catlike maneuvering over the rough terrain surrounding the river headwaters, Impa hoped the landscape would also serve to give them more time. As controllers of one of Hyrule's most precious resources, the Zora could be incredibly stubborn. They knew all they had to do was shut off the flow of the river, and even the King could be at their mercy. Of course, they were bound by Nayru to do this only in the gravest of situations, as it would cause her temple under the lake to stagnate. But they had been unpredictable in the past.

Finally they reached the river falls, and Impa turned to Nabooru. "I'm supposed to blindfold you so that you don't know how to get through the entrance of Zora's Domain. But I don't have time to guide you over every stone. I trust you much more than your brother, so I'll have to just ask you to follow me."

"I'm honored," Nabooru replied, though in a tone of voice that suggested she had to force herself from laughing. "Lead on."

Impa brought her fingers to her lips and whistled a short tune. Nabooru raised her eyebrows but said nothing. After a few moments the waterfall slowed to a trickle, then stopped entirely. Impa leaped up into the small hidden entryway, and Nabooru followed close behind.

After a few sharp turns in damp, dripping caves, the pair entered a large cavern filled with crystal clear water. Every Zora present stopped what they were doing and stared at the strange pair, and one of the guards stepped in front of them. "I know you, Lady Impa, as an emissary of the Royal Family," he said as he held up one hand. "But who is your companion?"

"I am Nabooru, second-in-command and guardian of the Spirit Temple," she said before Impa could speak.

The guard considered for a bit, then said, "Zora's Domain welcomes the keeper of the desert temple."

"Probably would have let me in before our King," Nabooru commented to Impa as they moved forward. "The Zora take the maintenance of the Water Temple very seriously."

Impa had only been to Zora's Domain a few times before, and back then it had been under the rule of its King. He had passed away a few years ago and left the kingdom to his young daughter, Ruto. The Zora Queen, slightly younger than Zelda, Ruto sat in her father's place with her legs crossed, leaning back, totally at ease. As Impa and Nabooru entered, she perked up. "Lady Impa and...Guardian Nabooru, is it? What brings you to my domain?"

"Your Highness, Queen Zora...I have very little time, so I will get straight to the point. Another emissary from His Majesty, the Hyrulean King, is on his way here even now. I must request that you refuse him any aid."

Ruto's face scrunched up in puzzlement. "What for? Aren't you his emissary too? And why do you have a Gerudo with you? The last emissary that came in here asked us to block off the flow of the river under their bridge. Wouldn't even say why. I told him not to be stupid, we can't just disrupt the flow of Nayru's veins without a damned good reason."

Nabooru gave Impa a startled look, and Impa shook her head. "I cannot speak for any that came before me, Queen Ruto. The King's orders have been strange of late, and have put both myself and the Princess Zelda in danger."

"Really? Why on earth would he do that?" Ruto demanded, looking much more interested. "Has something happened in the Royal Family?"

"Your Highness, would that I knew. Even I cannot speak to the-"

"Let's cut to the chase. Queen Ruto, the Hyrulean King attacked the Gerudo Fortress right after we left." Impa shot Nabooru an angry look, but she ignored her. "The Gerudo King and Princess Zelda are journeying to Death Mountian as we speak, to hold audience with the Goron Patriarch."

"Really?" Ruto actually stood. "The Hyrulean Princess and the Gerudo King? Is such a thing even allowed? The last I heard, the two families were at the brink of war."

"Your Highness, as much as it shames me, the Hyrulean King has kept his intentions secret even from me. You know that the Princess objects to war in any form, and-"

"But to ally with the Gerudo King! Such a thing is quite unheard of!" Ruto leapt down to meet them. "Let us journey to Death Mountain together. I must hear more!"

"I cannot possibly sanction such a thing," Impa said sternly. "Death Mountain is not a suitable place for any Zora, much less its precious monarch. There is no way."

"But, hear me out-"

"Queen Ruto, we need you here," Nabooru cut in. "If the King's soldiers see you are gone, they will suspect something is up."

"Well, that's very simple," Ruto said as if talking to a child. "We just don't let them in."

"Wouldn't that make them more suspicious?" Impa asked.

Ruto snorted. "We've shut them out before. We don't have to give a reason."

"We don't know how Darunia will react," Impa explained. "If he helps the King, or tells him he was visited by others, he will get suspicious if you don't speak to him."

Pouting, Ruto said, "Some princesses get all the fun. Very well, Lady Impa, I will stay here. And what would you have me do? If I give him a flat refusal, that will tip him off as well."

"Refuse him. But do not explain why," Impa told her.

"Oh, and how would I do that? That seems like the strangest behavior to me-"

"Act like you don't care," Nabooru said with an impish smile. "It's not really any of your business, and you don't feel like dealing with it. Feel free to be as impetuous as you like."

"Oh very well," Ruto said with a snort. But I expect all the details when this is over, do you understand? Come right back here, and don't omit a single thing."

Even hotter than the desert at noon. Ganondorf could feel his skin slowly cooking inside his armor, as he struggled to keep up with the woman in front of him. She too suffered from the heat, as he could see her hair sticking to the sides of her face and dark stains spreading across her body. Yet she either benefited from having lighter clothing, or the Goron tunic worked as well as the legends said.

Both felt the ground rumble beneath them. Death Mountain often experienced small eruptions, its flues tended to by the Gorons to keep the mountain from exploding in violent fury. He kept his eyes open for small missiles flung from the summit, not knowing that its greatest danger could not be seen at all.

The smell struck him full force in the nostrils, nearly knocking him over. A sizzling sting of brimstone, then nothing. He stood rubbling his nose for a few moments, then continued on as before. Ganondorf looked up in surprise to see Zelda sprinting off even faster than before. She turned around suddenly and yelled back at him, "Hurry up!"

"I'm going as fast as I can without falling over," he grumbled, missing her urgent tone.

"The air you're in, it's poison. Get out of there!"

"You mean the brimstone smell? It's gone."

"It kills your sense of smell! Get out of there now!"

He considered for a few moments, then decided she had nothing to gain by deceiving him. He forced his heavy body faster, scrambling over the sharp rocks.

"How do we know when we're out of it?" he asked as he caught up to her.

"We don't. Keep moving!"

Ganondorf opened his mouth to silence her, but could not manage anything other than ragged breaths. His body seemed to grow heavier and heavier, and he stumbled over stones he should have been able to see.

Vaguely he could sense Zelda by his side. "You don't have bad air in the desert caves?"

"Yes, but...would go back...the way I came. Not possible here," he managed between heavy breaths. "How..." He raised his head and stared blankly around him, a fog forming inside his head.

He felt a slight pressure on one arm. "Let me guide you."

He shook his head, unsure why he was disagreeing, other than it was Zelda commanding him to do something. "I'll manage."

"It's this way." He felt a sharp tug on his arm and followed it without thinking. Sparks danced before his eyes.

"Tired. Rest," he muttered, after an amount of time he could not discern. He attempted to sit down and got a sharp slap across the face.

"Get up! You're going to die if you stop here." Who was yelling at him? It had to be Nabooru. Only Nabooru would do something so stupid as to slap him. Still, she must have a good reason.

"No need...Nabooru. Coming." He struggled to his feet, obediently following the insistent tugging. "Where...we going?"

"Just follow me."

As the fog began to lift, the first thing he comprehended was the slow plodding steps of his own feet down a gradual slope. He raised his head, and saw Zelda leading him down a rocky hillside like a disgruntled parent with a toddler in tow.

He ripped his hand away. "What are you doing?"

She stopped at looked up at him for a few moments without answering. "Your eyes are clearing. Good. You nearly keeled over back there."

Ganondorf frowned down at her, then turned back toward the way they came. They were quite a long distance down, on the far side of the mountain closer to the forest than Kakariko. "The bad air...it lasted that long?" He turned and squinted down at Zelda. "Why didn't it affect you?"

"I'm smaller, I need less air," she said simply. "Plus it was part of the Shekiah training Impa gave me, learning how to breathe in bad air."

"You said that smelly stuff was poison."

"Yes, but there's more than one kind of bad air. The poison was a warning, that there was more of it."

Ganondorf raised one eyebrow. "And you didn't leave me there? You wouldn't have to worry about sharing your kingdom."

Zelda scoffed. "No, but I'd have to worry about an angry Nabooru, and the entire Gerudo tribe demanding to know what their King and sole man."

Ganondorf turned his attention to the trail. "I suppose we'd better get back to the Sand Temple...hopefully Nabooru and Impa fared better than we did."