A/N: FINALLY. Rewrite of the current-to-the-previous-draft-chapter is done. O_o And just in time to go off to college with limited time/internet to write. Yaaaaaaay... Nah. These charries are too persistent to totally kill the writing initiative, haha. Just...yeah. Time WILL be limited. Fo' sho'. Juuust warning you.
Chap 7 IS in the works, though, have no fear! We'll see how soon into school I can pick it up. Will probably be a while because there is a TON of AWESOMENESS hitting the fan in the next chap. x3P After a slow start. ^^; But for now-enjoy chap 6! ^^
Chapter 6: Differe
Her little legs shook with exhaustion and effort as she stumbled after the adult shape before her, pulled onward by a large but gentle hand locked around her own. She wanted to cry, wanted to call out for her mother, but her protector had made it very clear that she couldn't make a sound. After all, noise told the horrible flame-shadow monsters where they were, and Kelly wanted to stay as far away from them as possible.
Her rescuer was helping her to do that. Darkness enveloped them as they darted through the night, away from the village. The farther from the inferno they drew, the brighter the gibbous moon's light shone on them, illuminating a welcome path into the forest. Those horrid sounds died into whispers and then silence as the undergrowth thickened.
Kelly wasn't sure how long they had been running before she felt the sense of security that her protector gave her starting to fade. They were so far into the woods now that the moonlight barely lit the ground before her small feet, and the pair was forced to walk or risk being tripped.
In another instant, and only for that instant, her sight vanished. The next moment, she regained it to see that she was all alone on a narrow, winding path. There was no sight of her former guardian, not even a footprint or shivering branch to show where he had gone. Fear leapt up her throat at the foreboding air pressing down on her, threatening to strangle her if she did not release the emotion. No matter how she tried, though, she could force no more sound than a whimper past the lump in her throat.
A flash of beady orange eyes and a hairy, segmented body encouraged her scream to emerge.
Tanya's scream echoed in her mind as her body instinctively shuddered and snapped to life, kicking and thrashing against her bindings. Her heart raced with terror and hopelessness, certain she would never escape the nightmare that threatened her.
A sharp voice cut through the haze of exhaustion blanketing her senses. Blinking her wide, dilated eyes, the girl stilled her struggles and simply took in her surroundings.
Her "bindings", she realized sheepishly, had been the sheets, which had apparently twisted around her sometime during the night. Following the arm connected to the soft hand resting on her shoulder, Tanya met Impaz's expressionless mahogany eyes. The Shekiah said nothing, merely retracted her hand once certain the girl wouldn't return to her previous state of panic. As she stepped back from the bed, Tanya let her eyes move to the rest of the room, which was the same as she remembered it from last night except for a few significant exceptions.
First off were the odd silky threads scattered along the floor by her bed. Dark stains dotted the floorboards, and though she hadn't been able to see if they were already there last night due to her tunnel vision, she was certain they weren't old.
And Link lay on the floor across the room from her, covered in a few extra blankets with his head pillowed on a bedroll.
Upon realizing what these exceptions meant, Tanya gulped down the returning sense of terror. 'So it wasn't all a dream.'
One blue eye flicked open, as if he had already been conscious for some time. A moment later he pulled his legs under him and sat up, running a hand through his messy hair absently. Tanya couldn't keep her wide eyes from flicking to his bare chest. She shouldn't have been surprised, considering his previously-demonstrated strength and agility, but the muscle tone he sported would have made most guys she knew envious.
'If only they knew how much of a secretive jerk he can be,' she admonished herself, deliberately turning her gaze away from the hero.
"What's wrong?" Link questioned. His voice made it sound like a general question of concern instead of one directed at her—for which she was thankful.
When Tanya didn't say anything, Impaz ventured, "She's just a little confused."
The girl gulped, the blurred memories of the previous night returning to her. She wrapped her arms around herself and drew her knees up, feeling tears threatening her composure.
'I hate spiders.'
"I—I thought the s-spider was still here."
Link blinked, letting his hand fall into his lap, and looked out the window. "It's gone, now."
He made a move to get up, but Impaz's expression hardened. A wave of her hand, and he was pushed back down before he could so much as get to his knees. Tanya assumed she had used magic, and almost chuckled at the expression of mixed annoyance and chastisement on Link's face.
"I think not," the sage warned. "You fell flat on your face after saving damsel-in-distress over here. You are most certainly not well enough to leave this room after five hours' sleep."
Link looked like he wanted to argue, but resorted instead to pressing his lips together in a thin line and glaring at Impaz. The Shekiah simply crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, no emotion seeping past her stoic mask.
It took a moment for Tanya's memory-tormented mind to register Impaz's exact meaning and the implications that had. When she did, she stared at Link and queried, "You…killed it?"
He met her gaze, his blue eyes dropping the glare for a more neutral expression—the one she recognized as his impenetrable, piercing mask. After some hesitation, he replied, "Of course."
"And cleaned out the poison it injected," Impaz added, vaguely waving a hand for emphasis.
Tanya's eyes widened again. 'He—he…what?' She glanced from the silk and stains on the floor to Link and back, slowly coming to a conclusion. 'He…did…' The girl closed her eyes, head bowed slightly and one hand coming up to lightly grasp her pendant. "Thank you," she whispered.
She didn't look up as the door quietly opened and closed; that had to be Impaz, because no audible footsteps had preceded it. In the silence, she concentrated on steeling herself for the conversation sure to follow now that she and Link were alone.
"You…saved my life," she murmured, opening her eyes to peek at Link's expression.
He was staring at her intensely, his eyes shimmering as if conflicting emotions were threatening to break the mask. "Of course," he repeated.
Tanya bit her lip, picking at the blanket draped over her knees. "You didn't have to," she observed. 'But I'm glad you did,' she added silently. Her body tingled unpleasantly where she could remember the spider rubbing against her skin; she defiantly stifled a shudder.
Shrugging, he explained, "It's my job to protect anybody in Hyrule who's coming under attack. That person just happened to be you."
"But why all the trouble over me?" Tanya questioned with a hint of petulance. How could he be so…casual about it? "One person you randomly pass by, help out, and never see again I could understand. But me… I believe that's the third time now you've done more than normal to keep me from harm." She met his eyes with a half-pleading, half-demanding expression. "Why?"
Link immediately looked away, the muscles in his jaw visibly tight. "It's my job," he insisted tersely, a hint of bitterness on his tongue.
'Would you please stop repeating yourself? I get it already! That's not helping your cause any.' Tanya rested crossed arms on her knees, narrowing her eyes and frowning at the object of her frustrations. He was going to do anything to avoid that topic, wasn't he? Well, he couldn't get away with it forever; either he got over whatever it was that held him back, or they went around in circles like a cat chasing a mouse and forgot about their enemy until it blindsided them.
"There's a difference between doing your job, and going beyond the call of duty," she pointed out in a low growl.
Glancing over at her, briefly, he retorted, "The call of duty is relative to the task at hand."
"So you're saying I'm just an assigned task?" she demanded disbelievingly. "Then I'm apparently a pretty significant one, too, by the way you're acting. But let me tell you something, Mr. Important Hero—" Emphasized with a stabbing finger in his direction, her voice a half-growl. "—I'm not just some "task" that needs completing in order to move on to the next quest. I'm a person, too, and I'm not exactly roses and rainbows about being in the dark on what the hell task I'm supposed to be to you."
Link swiftly stood, surprising her with the feral grace in that one fluid motion. The ice in his eyes negated her observation, however. "Then maybe you should figure out who you are first before coming to me!"
Silence filled the room. Tanya simply stared at him, mouth slightly agape in shock as his words sank in. He quickly broke off their connected gazes, leaning down to pick up the blanket and pillow he'd been using. She was still frozen as he strode across the small room with a wolfish pace and yanked open the door.
He suddenly halted, though, as if coming against an invisible wall; Impaz stood in the doorway, a hand on one hip and the faintest trace of disapproval in her eyes. One eyebrow twitched upward the slightest bit as her gaze swept the space between Link and Tanya; the latter avoided her eyes while the former simply stared back in stoic defiance.
After a moment, she cleared her throat to break the silence. "Ralon has kindly prepared us breakfast." Eyeing Link's state of undress and Tanya's disheveled appearance, she added, "You should probably fix yourselves up before coming downstairs, however."
Tanya couldn't see Link's expression from where she was, but Impaz's stern glare at him was enough. After a few moments' stand-off, the Shekiah gave a barely-noticeable nod and stepped aside. In an instant, the hero vanished around the corner toward his room; his door didn't quite slam when he shut it.
Impaz exhaled quietly—what Tanya guessed was as close to a sigh as she got—and stepped into the room. Turning her attention to Tanya, she said, "I put a new change of clothes for you on that table." She gestured toward the window and said table.
The girl ducked her head, wrapping the pendant's chain around her fingers restlessly. "Impaz? Why does he have to be so frustrating sometimes?"
Her eyes softened at the pain in Tanya's voice. She carefully sat on the mattress beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders. After a few moments' thinking, the warrior said, "Let me tell you something about Link. It's been a while since he's had to focus on anything other than fighting. So I think you're being as frustrating and confusing to him as he is to you."
Tanya frowned at that, perplexed. "I'm being frustrating?" she repeated disbelievingly.
The woman offered her a mysterious smile and patted her shoulder. "I think you'll find there's more to Link than first meets the eye. But you have to be patient, alright?"
When Tanya didn't answer, Impaz squeezed her shoulder sympathetically and stood. "I'm sorry, Tanya." After another few moments of silence, the Shekiah silently left and closed the door behind her.
Sighing, the girl hung her head and tangled her fingers in her hair, yanking her braid free to let the loose strands cover her face. Her entire body tensed with the uncontainable emotion burning through her, fixing a draconic snarl on her lips.
'Damn heroes are never like they're supposed to be, are they?'
Finding nothing else in the room to unleash her frustration on, her fist connected with the pillow next to her.
By the time Tanya regained some limited control of her anger and changed, Link had already beat her downstairs. He was nursing a mug of Lon Lon milk and refused to glance up at her prowling down the stairs. Impaz turned from a window in the south wall, arms crossed and expression smooth as stone, as Tanya approached. No one spoke for a while; she surveyed the table in the silence, finding it three places already set and plates of fresh eggs and bread on the table.
"Go ahead, Tanya. We won't start on the serious conversation until you have some food in you," Impaz urged, a hint of a smile tugging at her mask.
A shy and slightly-embarrassed smile passing over her face, Tanya obeyed, seating herself across from Link and scooping a generous heap of scrambled eggs onto her plate. The Shekiah stepped up to the table and sat at Tanya's left as the girl dug in with a hearty appetite. She tried to ignore Link's eyes on her, but no matter how much she focused on the food she could still feel his piercing gaze.
At last, Link broke the silence. "You said the Twilight's moved closer, Impaz?"
Tanya paused as her fork touched the plate again, looking up at the woman questioningly but dreading the answer. Impaz exhaled slowly and nodded, eyes fixed on a point in the middle of the table. "Yes. I estimate we have two days until it overtakes the ranch. I'm also fairly certain those Shadow Beasts are following us, as well as a good number of Bulbins."
Tanya dared a quick look over at Link, his words from their first encounter whispering through her mind. He only glanced up and met her eyes for a moment before going back to nursing his mug. '"Following us"…?' She mentally shook herself. 'No. They're just…moving the Twilight further west and south. It's the logical thing to do. Right?
'So why do I get a bad feeling about this?'
"So what's the plan?"
Both Link and Tanya looked up at Midna's voice, finding the shadow imp floating just above the middle of the table with arms crossed. Tanya gaped at her, slightly shocked at the ethereal manifestation, while Link answered. "We keep moving." Propping his chair back on two legs, he explained, "I figure as long as we can reach Kokiri Forest before the Curtain, we'll be safe. We can recoup in the village and use the Lost Doors to sneak out through Kakariko. If we're lucky, we can protect Faron, too."
Feeling a little lost, Tanya frowned and turned her gaze on Link. "Are you sure we can outrun it?"
The hero dropped his chair back onto all fours and stood, draining his mug. "If we ride hard, yes."
"We're not starting now, Link. It's too late in the day," Impaz said icily.
Tanya glanced between Impaz and Link in bewilderment as they stared each other down, not sure exactly what was going on. She met Midna's eyes as the silence drew out unbearably long; the imp merely shrugged, as confused as Tanya.
At last Link exhaled heavily and conceded, "Alright. We'll spend the night, and be on the way to Zora River by dawn. The Deku Tree can hold off the Twilight with Faron's help, but it doesn't do us any good if the Curtain catches up to us first or the Beasts capture Faron."
Before anyone could argue, the hero stalked away from the table and through the door to the outside.
—
Link flopped back into the haystack with a sigh, rubbing a hand over his face wearily. The wolf inside him was pacing, demanding to be released, but he had neither the where nor the how to do so. He wondered if it was feeding off the chaotic emotions moving with the force of a whirlpool inside him, restless because he was agitated.
"Dammit, Kel. Why don't you remember?" he growled, eyes tightly shut with a white-knuckled fist pressed to his forehead.
'Because she was too young when she left,' his conscience answered with a sigh.
The hero held his breath for a moment, then slowly—painstakingly—released it in increments. His hand followed the exhalation down, until it rested in a loose fist atop his thigh. The built-up anxiety and guilt only backed off slightly, but it was enough to pull him from the brink.
With another sigh, Link leaned back into the hay, resting an arm over his face. He hadn't come that close to losing control in a while; too many memories better left forgotten were starting to surface. Concentrating on his breathing again, he began to systematically push the images and emotions back into the recesses from whence they had come.
Some time later, a sudden spike in the stable's quiet atmosphere snapped him from his meditative state. Propping himself up on his elbows, the boy quickly sorted through the constant environmental noise of shuffling equine hooves and anxious huffing until he found the cause for his startle reflex. Disguised under the other sounds were human footfalls.
"Hey, easy there; settle down, guys," Tanya's now-familiar voice soothed the animals.
Link exhaled quietly. 'Of course she would try to find me, wouldn't she?' His brow furrowed with some confusion as her footsteps moved to the far end of the barn—away from his hiding place and toward the joint tack- and-feed room. 'What's she up to?'
Curious, he quietly shifted position to his knees and then his stomach. Stretched out to the edge of the loft now, he carefully peered over the edge and down onto the center aisle. Tanya wasn't immediately within sight, but he could hear her moving around in the equipment room. A few seconds later, she emerged carrying a twine-wrapped square of tightly-packed straw. Her longbow and quiver were slung over opposite shoulders.
'She's going to practice?' he wondered with some astonishment. A small smile curved his lips. 'That girl sure is full of surprises, isn't she?'
As soon as she had left the barn, the hero got to his feet and headed for the ladder leading to ground-level. It was about time he tested her archery prowess.
—
Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the target, a growl of irritation growing in her throat as she nocked another arrow. The previous arrow's blaze-orange fletching taunted her from its final resting place just low of her makeshift bull's-eye. Taking a deep breath, Tanya sighted down the shaft and smoothly drew back her hand so it sat anchored against her cheek, then released the projectile.
Less than a moment later, the thunk as it nestled in the center of the packed straw rewarded her patience. Exhaling with some degree of relief, she drew another arrow from the quiver over her shoulder.
"Are you alright?"
The girl almost visibly flinched at the sudden intrusion on her concentration. Scowling, she briefly cast a narrow-eyed glance at Link before nocking the projectile in her hand. The familiar motion of pulling back the drawstring focused her mind and steadied her hand; shortly after, the arrow joined its fellows in the straw bed. "How do you think I am?"
She had another arrow nocked, drawn, and fired in the time it took him to answer. "Frustrated, by the looks of things."
'Gee, what tipped you off?' Tanya lowered her longbow to turn a full glare on Link. "Y'think?"
He cleared his throat self-consciously, then gestured at her target. "You're shooting very well."
The girl merely grunted acknowledgement—that had been a deliberate change of topic—and drew her last arrow from her quiver. She could hear his boot scuff the dirt as she raised her bow and pulled back the string. After releasing its load, she let her hands slowly fall to her sides. "I…wanted to brush up a little before we head out again," she admitted with some hesitance, plucking at the bowstring.
One of his eyebrows rose skeptically, but when he spoke it was with amused condescension. "You think something's going to happen?"
'Damn his cocky self-assurance.' Sighing more in exasperation than anxiety, she explained, "I do worry. The Twilight's really close, and those monsters…" She shook her head, walking away from him to retrieve her arrows. "We can't underestimate them."
"Hmm…" Tanya was halfway through pulling the third arrow from the hay bale before he spoke again. "Well, if you're unsure of your preparedness…how about a little challenge?"
She paused to look over her shoulder at Link, now holding a strung bow of his own. Blinking a few times, the girl also realized he had a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder, exactly as she did. 'How did I miss that before?' Suspicious, Tanya questioned, "What's the catch?"
"Catch?" he asked in a tone of amusement tinged by some confusion.
She rolled her eyes at the smirk she could see threatening his normally stoic expression. "Yeah. The catch: the "however"; the "unless"; the "only if". Under what conditions?"
The smirk grew into a full grin that eerily reminded her of Midna. "That target. Thirty paces. Only the center ring counts. First to miss loses."
Despite herself, Tanya felt a smirk crossing her face. 'Piece of cake.'
"You're on."
After retrieving her last arrow, Tanya followed Link away from the target, counting her steps under her breath. At the required distance she stopped and turned to lock her eyes on the distant not-bale of hay. She quietly sucked in a suddenly-nervous breath, telling herself the distance wasn't any farther than she had practiced at before.
'But you hadn't been shooting against the Hero of Time, either,' a voice muttered in the back of her mind.
"Ladies first," said hero offered non-chalantly.
Tanya barely graced him with a piercing glare before flicking her eyes back to the target and raising her bow to the ready. Steadying herself with a breath, she knocked the arrow still in her hand and sighted.
'Just like home, just like home, just like home—'
The arrow hit just right of center, still in the middle ring.
She controlled her exhale with a will, refusing to watch as Link smoothly knocked his own arrow. A second later, it punctured the hay with an inaudible fwump an inch or two to the inside of her arrow.
Frowning, and pushing down all her roiling emotions—dislike and frustration the most prevalent among them—Tanya brought her bow level with the target again.
Five minutes and two nearly-empty quivers later, Tanya was having more trouble than she would admit controlling that frustration. Link had matched her shot for shot—or should she say she had matched him. The next shot she was almost careless about lining up; it arced slightly low and right, dangerously close to the edge of the center ring.
Grinding her teeth with mounting irritation—mostly at herself—Tanya finally spared a glance at Link as he more carefully aimed. Somehow the first thought she had was how unusually close they were standing…for archery, anyway. If she were to stretch her arms over her head and out at just the slightest angle…
'I think I've been hanging around Midna too much…' she thought unrepentantly, resisting the urge to grin wickedly.
Before she could act on the impulse, however, he had released the arrow, punching the target at slightly left of center. After taking her next shot—much more carefully than the last one—she waited until Link was intently focusing on his aim. Then, feigning a yawn, she not quite threw her arms out to the side—"inadvertently" striking Link's arm just as he was releasing the bowstring.
Considering she had technically cheated, Tanya couldn't help the thrill of satisfaction that ran through her when the afflicted arrow landed on the far right edge of the hay bale.
'Serves him right for being all secretive and overprotective and high-and-mighty!'
"What was that for?" the other archer demanded incredulously.
"What was what?" she returned innocently, not daring to look at him. She just might burst into laughter if she did.
There was a moment spent in silence where Tanya swore she could feel his death-glare. Then Link sighed; she got the distinct impression he was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at her. "Nevermind," he muttered, stalking away to gather up his arrows.
Was it just her, or was there a note of amusement behind the bitterness?
"What?" she demanded playfully, following him back to the target as he knelt to pull his arrows from the hay. "If you're looking for an apology, I'm sorry. I didn't realize… What?"
Link was shaking his head, but when he looked over his shoulder at her there was a small smile on his face.
'An honest-to-God smile!' she repeated to herself disbelievingly.
Apparently her reaction was hilarious, because the smile became a laugh. When he had stopped, he pushed himself upright and said, "It was probably for the better I missed that shot, anyway, or we would have been out here until it was too dark to see and still without a definitive winner."
Caught off-guard, Tanya found herself returning his smile with an amused smirk. "Guess I'm really not that bad a shot, hm?" she teased, plucking her bowstring.
He unstrung his bow before replying. "I suppose not. You could probably outshoot the younger Gerudo right now…" The half-smirk, half-smile reemerged. "…at least at stationary targets."
She pouted at the back-handed compliment and started unstringing her own bow as an excuse to hide her expression. "Gee, thanks for that," she muttered to herself.
"Hey…"
Tanya almost jumped at the feel of his hand on her shoulder; she quickly turned her head to look at him, startled and mentally cursing the fact she had forgotten how sharp his hearing was. At her reaction, he quickly snatched his hand back, eyes hooded and cast downward—avoiding looking at her.
She blinked. His mood swings were starting to unnerve her.
"I'm…sorry. About this morning." His hand unconsciously moved to rub the back of his neck, and he angled his gaze more to the side. "I…don't exactly think before I speak, sometimes. And I know you were hurt by that. So…I'm sorry."
Not quite comprehending what he was saying for a few moments, Tanya simply stared at him. As soon as his meaning sank in, she looked down and rubbed her thumb along the smooth wood of her bow. "I…guess I should apologize, too. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."
Link's hand suddenly appeared in her vision. She looked up quickly, gauging his expression and the hand that looked suspiciously like a peace offering. From what she could see, there was only sincerity in the gesture.
"Truce?"
It wouldn't get her any answers to her questions. But at least the trip to Kokiri Forest wouldn't be nearly so awkward…
With a small nod to herself, Tanya firmly clasped Link's hand and gave it a strong shake. "Truce."