Once Taryn had left the stable, he had fled towards his barrack, hoping not to be noticed by anyone who knew him, as he was sure his face was still more than a little red. On his way, he came dangerously close to colliding with a Hylian knight, a crossbowman, and a rather confused Gerudo. But he managed to reach he wooden building without incident and hurry inside.

One of his recent roommates, a Castle Town native just a year or two older than him named Cambrion, noticed his expression and commented, "You look like you just ran into a Gerudo raiding party. What happened?"

Still nervous, Taryn turned to his new companion and replied, "Actually, that's not too far off. But it wasn't a whole party, it was just one of them. One of our trainers."

"The young-ish one?" Cambrion inquired, to which Taryn nodded. "Good grief," the older lad continued, "what did she do to you?"

Starting to get over the surge of adrenaline that had been pumping through him, Taryn answered, "Other than putting her hand on my stomach at training and then talking to me in the stable, nothing…yet."

Cambrion's eyes widened in disbelief. "You're scared of her because of that?" he asked, incredulous.

"Not scared," Taryn responded. "I don't know what I'm feeling. It's just really unclear right now. But I've never felt like this before."

And right then, Cambrion knew what was going on. "Sounds like this is your first time being star-struck," he explained.

Taryn had heard that phrase before, and knew what it meant. But he quickly shook his head and insisted, "No, no, it can't be that." But, in all reality, he hadn't the slightest idea what he was feeling. For all he or anyone else knew, he could have been star-struck.

And the thought of that made him feel all the more nervous.

The next day, he stood on the sword training field, alongside several of his fellow recruits, Cambrion included, and a few other assorted soldiers, and across from a group of knights, which included Eryc, as well as the Hero of Time himself. The trainees were being paired off with instructors for the day, and, as usual, Taryn found himself hoping to be partnered with Eryc.

He didn't expect, however, to be paired with the famous green-clad warrior. Which made it pleasantly surprising when he was. His eyes went wide as the older Hylian strode over to him. Eryc had once spoken to him of receiving training from the legendary Hero. But Taryn never thought that he would have the opportunity to train with him. It was, of course, all Taryn could do to keep himself focused on his swordplay.

It turned out that Link, the Hero of Time, was perhaps the most forgiving trainer in Hyrule's history. He went easier on Taryn than even Eryc had. Of course, he pulled the blows of his wooden training sword so that his young trainee wouldn't be hurt, a fact which Taryn appreciated no matter who was doing it. In fact, the Hero's gentle hints and easygoing manner reminded him of his older brother. Though Taryn did have a bit of a learning curve against a new, left-handed opponent. But Link made it easy for him to get the hang of it.

It was at the end of one sparring session when Taryn noticed something quite strange. "Shouldn't you have your Triforce piece on your hand?" he asked.

The Hero briefly looked at his left hand, which conspicuously lacked a Triforce symbol. Then he shrugged. "It's nothing," he replied. "Ganon managed to remove my piece of the Triforce from me. But thankfully, it went into someone else." As he said this, he jerked his head to indicate Eryc's sparring partner, a tall, round-eared young man who bore a striking resemblance to the Hero. Taryn could see the Triforce symbol giving off a faint glow on this stranger's hand.

"Who is he?" he asked at length.

"His name's Brian," replied the Hero. "He helped rescue me from Ganon."

That made Taryn's eyes go wide. That must have been the foreigner the queen had brought in to help rescue the Hero of Time. He must have been staying to help fight the war against the King of Evil. And, to look at him spar with Eryc, it appeared as though he was also still learning how to use a sword.

Taryn shrugged, before starting his next sparring session. Some things were bound to be weird like that.

"Oh look," Azeru teased Evei, "There's your boyfriend getting trained by the Hero of Time!"

Evei was rather difficult to embarrass. But, in this instance, her copper-colored face developed a pinkish tinge as Azeru, Asya, Kiru, and Nysa started laughing. The captain had told them all of her conversation with Evei the day before in the stable, and, needless to say, it had become their favorite subject to talk about.

Evei's embarrassment was increased marginally when Kiru joked, "Hey, he doesn't look half bad. Maybe a little young, but still old enough. You should ask him out sometime."

Finally, the young archer decided to dampen their mood. "If he'll even let me get anywhere close to him," she replied. "You should've seen him at archery training today. Every time I went near him to correct something, he adjusted his stance immediately, I guess so there wouldn't be any point to it. Besides, there isn't any place out to go. But Azeru, tell me, what's the Hero-of-Something-Other-Than-Time like?" That was the nickname the five of them had come up with for the new bearer of the Triforce of Courage, the young blonde man whom Evei had encountered in the Fortress all those days ago.

Azeru shrugged. "Pretty smart," she replied. "He's a fair strategist. He's the one, apparently, who came up with the idea for a group of horse archers. Still learning how to fight, though, but he's an alright person. I'm pretty sure Queen Zelda's got her eye on him too. And the Hero of Time has pretty much become his best friend. Oh, and his name's Brian."

All four of the other Gerudo nodded in acknowledgement. Then Asya broke in: "But Evei, I think you were trying to change the subject. Whatcha think about this Taryn kid?"

Evei put her palm to her forehead. She supposed this was going to continue for some time.