Chapter Twelve: The Second Giant

Link stopped a good bowshot away from the beast, tense, waiting, but the monster did not move again. Instead, it seemed to melt away, dissipating into thin air, until all that remained….

He took off his Goron mask and ran across the final stretch, snatching the mask from the ground, half-afraid that it would melt too, and the monster would re-form and attack once more…. But the mask was solid in his hands, unbroken and undamaged, rather ugly, stained black and yellow and red, with curving horns and a sharp snout….

He gasped as the blue light rose up from nowhere, surrounding him in an instant; he had forgotten what this had all been about, honestly…but now….

He closed his eyes against the glare; when he opened them again, he was in his Hylian form, clutching the ugly mask, standing on top of something quite high, like a mountain, and he saw other mountain peaks surrounding him…it was all quite distant and vague, though, all of it drowned in a bluish haze…. And then, from the mists, a familiar-looking creature emerged, silently acknowledged him, and Link felt its gratitude, its joy….

And then it started to back away.

"Wait!" Tatl cried—she was not affected by the mists that made Link so calm and peaceful, so accepting, so complacent—"Wait! Don't go yet! Please—What are all of you?"

The Giant paused, its mouth opening, moving very slowly. It said:

"Gu…ua…a…a…ar…rd…di…i…ia…a…a…an…s…."

"Guardians?" Tatl repeated, bemused. "No—wait!"

But the Giant was gone.

The blue light surrounded them again….

Link opened his eyes and found himself, not in the room where the beast had been, but all the way at the bottom of the mountain, in the valley where the smith's cabin lay…. He watched in fascination as, before his eyes, the air grew steadily warmer, the ice and snow melted, the stream began to flow once more, and grass and flowers sprang up from the bare, brown soil, every tree laden with bright green buds that unfurled luxuriously, as if stretching after a long nap….

In seconds, where once there had been deepest winter, there was now vibrant spring.

Link breathed in the fresh air, which smelled like rich earth and rain, and sighed, collapsing shakily on the plush grass. He closed his eyes and breathed in the smell of the new grass, resting for a few minutes, worn out from his ordeal, even though he could not sleep…. Tatl was worried at first, but then she understood, and decided to perch at the end of a blade of grass like a butterfly, slowly fanning her wings, as relieved and relaxed as he was.

After a long time, Tatl's wings sprang up, and Link's head turned toward a distant sound…. "Gorons," Tatl guessed, "but I don't…I don't think they're in trouble…."

No, of course they weren't…they were celebrating. Link closed his eyes again, smiling faintly. And they should…they'd be happy now, at least until…until the….

"Link," said Tatl gently, and he sighed heavily, pushing himself reluctantly to his feet; she did not need to say it, she was right, the moon would fall in less than forty-eight hours, and then these people would have nothing at all to celebrate…there would be none of them left….

He did not know where to go next; he thought, maybe, of going to the ocean, seeing what needed to be done…. But before he could take a single step a flood of Gorons poured into the valley, rolling joyfully about, reveling in the spring…and they were heading for Snowhead, calling Darmani's name….

"Don't let them get that far, it's still not safe," Tatl said urgently, and Link nodded and slipped on the Goron mask once more, finding it odd how familiar he was in this body now, after only a few hours of wearing it. He rolled forward, overtaking most of the Gorons, stopping when he was at the front of the party—

"Ohhh!" they cried, halting in their tracks. "Darmani! There you are!"

"You did it!" giggled Darmani's little nephew, who had been rolling along beside his father, who looked a bit shaky but otherwise just fine. "I knew you could do it, Darmi!"

"You've saved us!" agreed the Elder, taking his hand and shaking it hard. "You're our hero, Darmani!"

Cries of agreement echoed through the valley as the Gorons added in their own praise and thanks; Link felt awkward and did not know what to do, but no one seemed to care that he could not talk, or that he was uncomfortable with their attentions; they started back toward the village, asking Darmani how he'd done it, if he'd sit in the place of honor for the feast, if he'd stay for the races they were holding the very next day…. They did not care that he didn't answer, didn't seem to need an answer…. He followed them shyly through the village and into the Shrine, where they sat him at the head of an enormous table beside the Elder and his son and brought out plates and plates of food, strange food that he did not recognize, but, in his current body, smelled delicious….

Then the table was full; the Gorons, almost a hundred of them, crowded all around it, tearing into the food, and it was like the Deku's celebration all over again—Link was beleaguered with questions and requests, praised, admired, toasted, promised medals and honors and holidays in his name, even proposed to by several Goron ladies…. He did not know what to do, but then it occurred to him, finally, that this was not for him, but for Darmani, who had wanted this so badly when he lived, who was living through Link now…. he decided to sit back and try to enjoy it, for Darmani's sake, and forget, for a little while, who he really was.

After a long time, the Gorons grew full and sleepy and tipsy enough to gossip amongst themselves; this was something that Link had missed out on with the Dekus, as he had left too early, and something that he fully enjoyed. Not for the gossip itself, usually, for he was never involved in, or concerned with, the day-to-day drama of the towns and villages he passed through, but for a taste of what life in that place was like, a glimpse into the mentalities of the people, and, sometimes, a useful bit of information….

He listened to snatches of this conversation, snatches of that one…. The Elder's son was asleep under the table, snoring loudly, but Link tried to block him out as best as he could. After awhile, he started to listen to the Elder's conversations only; the Elder had not drank anything, and he talked about serious matters, though he remained quite cheerful all the same.

"—high demand for Powder Kegs in Clock Town, now we can deliver more—" he was saying happily.

"Clock Town? Really? But why would they need Powder Kegs there? A massive explosion like that—"

"Well, they are building something for the festival, aren't they?"

"Or are they going to launch it at the moon?"

"No, no, that would never work, the pieces would kill us all…."

"That's not it anyway—they want the Powder Kegs to clear a few blocked roads. Our road was blocked until just a little while ago, though we did not know it—and apparently other places are the same, Ikana Canyon is almost completely inaccessible, and Great Bay is littered with debris, and the ranch—"

At this Link sat bolt upright; Tatl stirred anxiously in his hat.

"—the ranch is blocked by an enormous boulder—"

"But wasn't Kormori supposed to sell Powder Kegs to the townspeople weeks ago?"

"I received a letter from him before the road was blocked—he lost all but three, and he's trying to sell them for a ridiculous price to anyone that doesn't have a license—enough to pay for all of them, I think—"

"That fool…of course no one will buy it…."

"They can't, although I think the Mayor is trying to raise some money and haggle him down—"

Link waited for someone to mention the license again, but no one did; Tatl nudged him after a minute, whispering in his ear, "Link—that store—remember?"

He nodded, rising to his feet; a few people noticed and asked him where he was going, but most of them left him alone. He tried to act natural, slipping into a nearby room, waiting for them to forget about him before he made his escape. As he waited, his eyes fell on a piece of paper.

"Link, don't be an idiot," Tatl said impatiently, but Link, for Darmani's sake, not his, was already writing the note:

Brother,

There's something still left for me to do—I'm going to try and help some other people in Termina if I can. Don't expect me back for a few days. Tell the little one I'm sorry I can't come to the races.

Darmani

Yes, that would do…they would not notice, then, that Darmani had disappeared, that he was lying at the base of Snowhead Mountain, that he was dead….

He set the note where he knew someone would find it, then snuck past the Gorons, slipping out into the night.