NOTE: I have just noticed that the lines denoting scene changes have vanished from all of my chapters. I'll be going back to fix those.

Chapter X

Perennial Blossom

"Right here," Link pointed to a splotch of green, "was where we found the first one."

The hero and the Chime were poring over a map that Link had purchased from a middle-aged cartographer traveling the world. The man was similarly garbed in green and had felt a certain affinity for Link, so he had given Link a substantial discount...which still left Link rupeeless afterward. Regardless, it was a worthwhile investment; where once they had been traveling blind, now they knew where the roads and paths across the country were located.

As useful as it was, though, it unfortunately lacked any indication of where remaining the magic caches might be. They had pointed and suggested and considered well into the afternoon, but they were still no closer to finding the second cache than they had been when they started.

"Ganondorf knew where the first cache was," Link said. "Do you think he could help us find the others?"

Rendis gave him a sharp look. "I would not rely on the Dark One's counsel, if I were you."

"I know," Link said, annoyed, "but we have no idea where to even start looking. Better to have some guidance than to keep wandering aimlessly."

"Be that as it may, any guidance the Dark One gives us will be poisoned. Make no mistake about that. And in any case, how do you propose to ask him? Do you think he will simply materialize from the shadows every time you have a question for him?"

Link didn't have a response to that. "What do you suggest, then?"

"There are clues to the caches' locations hidden around Hyrule. We should search for those."

"And how to you expect us to find those clues?" asked Link, growing increasingly exasperated.

Now Rendis fumbled for an answer. "Luck, perhaps?"

Link groaned and sat down on the ground.

Rendis sat down beside him, still controlling the fox. "We should at least try something. Anything is better than waiting around and doing nothing."

Link plucked at the blades of grass. "What about the cache you already absorbed? The...what was it called again?"

"The Perennial Blossom."

"That. What does it do, anyway?"

Rendis was silent for a moment. "I do not actually know," the Chime said at last. "I can feel it...some kind of power, beating like a heart within me. But if I called upon it now...I do not know what would happen."

"Try, then," Link said.

Rendis turned to face him. "Are you sure that is a good idea? It could be dangerous."

"Look, these magic caches...they must be connected somehow, right? Maybe by using one, we can find the others."

"If you say so," Rendis said doubtfully. Its eyes closed.

Link got up and took a few steps back, giving his companion space. Yet even as he did, he felt a slight tug toward the Chime, as if something was pulling him toward it. He looked down and saw the blades of grass bent toward it. All of existence seemed to be leaning in toward the space where Rendis sat, silent and motionless.

Tiny white flowers burst into bloom all around them, and Link started to feel drowsy.

Just then, Rendis's eyes opened, but the gleam of intelligence that told signified his presence was gone. The fox cried out and started to run away, but within a few moments the flowers had caught up to it and it fell asleep right there.

That was the last thing Link saw before what felt like ice cold water entered through the back of his skull and he collapsed to the ground.

Petals dancing across his vision like snowflakes. The land zooming by beneath him, impossibly fast. A mountain in the distance, wreathed in fire. But he did not go there. Now there were buildings. Doors bolted, windows shuttered. Rain. Men shambling through the streets. But were they men? He felt a chill. Now he was underground. There were catacombs, dark and dismal. A ladder leading up. A graveyard, and looming over it all, a great tomb. A shadow within the tomb...but somewhere, too, a light.

He fled back to his body, and as he did, he caught a glimpse of a sign telling him where he must go.

Link gasped as he awoke, sending the tiny flowers that had covered his body scattering everywhere.

The fox sat by him, Rendis's consciousness back within it. "Are you okay?" Rendis asked.

"Fine," Link panted. He pressed a hand to his forehead and wiped away the sweat that had formed there. "What...what was that?"

"Activating the magic also triggered a vision in my host," said Rendis. "It was worthless to the fox, though, so I possessed you. Briefly. I am sorry for that. What did you see?"

Link took a moment to gather his thoughts. "There is a town," he said, finally. "The second cache is hidden somewhere in there. But there are...there are dead things. Dead things that walk." He swallowed. "The cache is in a tomb, in the town's graveyard. I caught a glimpse of its name. Kakariko Village."

He had heard of Kakariko Village, of course. In spite of its name, it was no mere village; it was a bustling center of trade and seat of the governor of the Eldin Province. Yet if there were dead things walking there...

Evidently, the Chime knew of Kakariko, as well. "There is a dark and bloody history in Kakariko Village," Rendis said. "It sounds as though something has aroused the spirits lingering there."

They consulted their map and found that Kakariko was two days' journey away to the east. The last stretch of the journey would be along the Castle Road, the great stone causeway that linked the kingdom together. The Castle Road was always busy, full of caravans and traders either making their ways back home or on their way to Castle Town to peddle their wares. With any luck, they would be able to find out more about Kakariko Village's condition from one of them.

"Tell me more of how Hyrule has changed," Rendis said as they struck east along the dirt path that would eventually bring them to the Castle Road. "I have a thousand years of history to catch up on, after all." It was a pleasant, sun-dappled stretch that passed over streams and between rolling hills and trees. As they continued further north, though, the path grew muddier and the trees grew barer; Hyrule was blessedly spared from the blizzards that covered its neighboring kingdoms in snow, but winter's touch was felt here all the same.

Link shrugged. "A thousand years is a long time, and it's a big kingdom. I don't even know where to start."

"How about with the king? What is he like? What has he accomplished?"

Link remembered King Velmar's speedy departure from Occidea Town on the night that his father had died. I am a father first and a king second. "King Velmar ascended to the throne a few years before I was born," Link said. "Before that, though, he was a war hero. His father waged many wars during his reign, trying to expand Hyrule's territory. Velmar was a general in the River War, who won glory for his great victory at Eldin Bridge. The Zora clans controlled the waterways in those days, and when the old king tried to claim Zora's Domain for Hyrule, they revolted and started to destroy the great bridges to cut off the Hylian armies from their supply lines. Velmar took command of the garrison stationed at Eldin Bridge, where he waited for the Zora army to arrive before dropping all the rubble from already destroyed Great Bridge of Hylia into the river below, creating an artificial dam and cutting the Zoras off from reinforcements. After that, it was like shooting fish in a barrel." Link paused. "Since he became king, though, there haven't been any wars. Where his father expanded, Velmar only wants to maintain the territory he already holds. The Hylian army deters rebellion from the outer provinces."

Rendis sighed. "Hyrule has seen much war in its time, it is true...but it has always been a land of peaceful people. It is sad to hear that that has changed. What happened to the Zora people, after the war?"

"Some of them still live in Zora's Domain under the king's rule," Link said. "Most fled, though. Where to, no one knows. Some people say they traveled to the oceans, but others say that saltwater is poisonous to them."

"And what of the other tribes? We have already met the Deku Scrubs and the Gerudo, of course. What about the Gorons?"

"They answer to the crown, as do all in Hyrule, but they rule themselves in their mountain cities. They rarely leave." Their ambassador had once accompanied the king to Occidea Town for the New Year Festival in a position of honor, though. Link remembered gaping at the Goron's rock-like skin, but what he remembered most of all were his fierce and proud black eyes, like chips of flint.

"The tribes of Hyrule remain mostly separate, then?"

"Yes." Link nodded. "They do. The Gorons in the mountains, the Gerudo in the desert, the Dekus in the forest, what remain of the Zora in the rivers..."

"And the Hylians everywhere else," Rendis finished. "A kingdom divided." It sighed. "Just as it has always been."