Chapter 13: Vast Land of Kiasha

By nightfall of the same day they had started traveling together, the two boys had managed to exit from the canyon. After traveling through a narrow crevasse in the side of the canyon wall, Link found himself looking at the widest expanse of grassland he had ever seen. Even Hyrule field, which was so large that it would take you an entire day and night to cross it if you didn't stop, was dwarfed in comparison to the fields of Kiasha. Now Link was truly glad that Kitsu was guiding him, because without the mysterious young man to show him the way he would have been completely lost. Since the sun was already setting when they reached the eastern end of the canyon, the two set up camp just outside the tunnel.

After their conversation in the morning, Kitsu had returned to his usual silent self for the remainder of the day. On rare occasions he would break the silence, usually just to make sure Link and Epona were still okay and didn't need to rest before going on. Link, who was very used to traveling by now, rarely needed to stop by sometimes feigned being more tired than he really was because that would mean Kitsu and Macha would have to stop also. While Link admired the other's ability to travel almost an entire day without stopping, he frequently thought that Kitsu was pushing himself much too hard in order to avoid disappointing others.

At Kitsu's suggestion, they took turns keeping watch during the night. Link was unfamiliar with the area and didn't want to be caught off guard, so he agreed. It was more of a safeguard than anything else, since Kitsu claimed that he had crossed the field many times alone without any misfortune, but the youth also admitted that strange things occurring in the wildernesses of Kiasha were not unheard of, and grudgingly confided in Link that he also felt much safer with somebody standing watch. The night passed without mishap, with Link taking the first and third shifts and Kitsu taking the second. When Link pointed out that there was no reason they couldn't just make two shifts, the other countered by stating that two shifts would make each individual shift too long for the watch to stay awake, while four shifts would make the sleep each one of them received less restful. When Link asked why he had to be the one to do two shifts, Kitsu pointed out that Link could rest while riding, something that Kitsu couldn't do since he was leading the way. Kitsu eventually won both arguments, leaving Link to stand guard.

The next morning they began the journey across the field. Link quickly got lost as the rocky spires of the canyon faded out of sight behind them, and Kitsu admitted that even he didn't have any exact idea of where they were, but reassured Link that as long as they headed in an eastward direction they would run into a river that they could follow south to the next village. He had a similar method for returning to the canyon, although it took an extra day due to the fact that it involved following the river north until they reached the ridge in the north, which they could then follow back to the crevasse. Kitsu's method turned out to be sound, as they reached the river several hours after noon on the first day. They continued south until sunset, when they set up camp again. They used some fishing gear Kitsu had brought along to catch something for them to eat, then just sat for a while looking out at the great sea of grass beyond the river from the top of a bluff. As the sun slowly set, Kitsu began to appear to be increasingly nervous. When the sun was only a sliver above the horizon, Kitsu finally worked up the courage to talk about what had been bothering him.

"Link," he said as they sat in silence, "Why did you hold back when you were fighting me?" Link looked up from the river to meet Kitsu's gaze in the dim light of the setting sun.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Back at the village, when you fought against Ritsuki, I was watching you closely. You were just about perfect. I saw it again when you were practicing alone. Whenever you had a blade in your hand, I could see how skilled and practiced you were." He glanced down at the river, watching the current for a moment before continuing. "But two days ago, when you accepted my challenge, it was different. You never fought with all of your strength, and you never came at me if there was a chance that you could have accidentally hurt me."

"What are you talking about?" Link inquired. "You beat me easily in that fight. I don't see how going after you with the edge of my blade would have changed anything."

Kitsu fell silent, staring out at the emerging stars. "I gave that fight everything I had and more," he confessed after what seemed like an eternity. "It took every trick I've ever learned to keep myself from losing, and I know deep inside myself that if you hadn't held yourself back, I would have certainly lost."

"Didn't you get what you wanted, though?" Link wondered. "You ended up coming with me anyway, so does it matter how that fight turned out?"

"It does matter!" Kitsu shouted. "It matters because I want to know what you saw in me that made you think that I was weaker than you." This time it was Links turn to look away into the river.

"I'm sorry," he replied. "It just seemed like something within me was telling me that it would be wrong to put you at any risk of being hurt. I'm sorry if I offended you somehow."

"It's not that, it's…" Kitsu's voice trailed off as he looked into the waters below. For some amount of time, possibly as small as a couple of minutes or as long as several hours, neither of them said anything. In the sky above, the stars appeared one by one, sparkling like fireflies on a summer night.

"Hey, Link?" Kitsu said, breaking the seeming eternity of silence.

"Yeah?"

"When we first met, on that morning, you mistook me for some girl you knew back in Hyrule. Am I really that effeminate-looking?"

"No, it's just…" Link searched for the right words to explain with. "She sometimes would disguise herself as a boy, and your armor strangely resembles her disguise."

"What was she like?" Kitsu asked. "Was she your girlfriend?"

"What? No, it was just…" Link sighed as he organized his thoughts. "She's the princess of Hyrule, and I'm just, well, nobody really. We met because circumstances forced us to work together, but she's probably already forgotten about me— or she will by the time I find my way back." Remembering something else, he continued, "Besides, I already have a fiancé, sort of."

"I see," Kitsu remarked. "Did your parents arrange a marriage for you?"

"No, it was another thing where circumstances took control of things. I suppose you could say that she arranged it, since I needed something from her, and my mind was too preoccupied to make sure I knew what all of the things she was talking about meant. She's a princess too, so it's likely that she'll have to arrange something else when I don't show up for a while."

"So you don't really have anybody waiting for you at home?"

"Well, there's one girl I grew up with who was always really nice to me, but we'll never be anything more than friends. It's better that way anyway, because I wasn't very popular with the other kids I grew up knowing when I left my home." He flopped back so that his head was resting in the grass behind him. "Maybe it might be a good thing that I won't be able to return home fore a while, after all. Things were a bit chaotic before I left, and a few years without me around might do them all a bit of good. What about you?"

"What about me?" Kitsu replied, surprised.

"Well, have you ever had anybody special?"

"Not really," the boy answered. "For the most part I never stayed in one place long enough to make friends, except for Duun Sedoro. Even there, I'm away most of the time or just off by myself, so nobody in the village really knows much about me. It's easier for me to move around if I don't have emotional attachments to people or places."

"I think it would be really lonely, living like that?"

"Isn't it lonelier the other way?" Kitsu wondered. "I've lived my entire life without friends, and it makes it easier for me. You're much the same way."

"Me?"

"Well, you're not going on and on right now about how much you miss your home right now, so I'm guessing that you were a bit of a loner or outcast growing up. Other than that one girl, people tended to ignore you, and after a few years you decided that you didn't need them, either. As for your home, I would guess that it wasn't so much a home as it was a place for you to live, and it could have been anywhere in the world as long as it served as a roof over your head. Now tell me, how much of that was I right on?"

"Just about all of it," Link said, amazed by the degree of accuracy with which the usually silent boy had depicted Link's life before he had begun his travels.

"See? Right now, you're able to worry about helping a village you hadn't even heard of a week ago because you don't have anything to tie you down anywhere," Kitsu explained. "Likewise, you can give this task everything you've got because there are few people who would miss you as a person when you finally meet your match."

For another period of time that seemed like an eternity, the two lay back on the grass, watching the stars in endless solitude. As the moon roses higher in the night sky, Link noticed that Kitsu had fallen asleep. As he carried the warrior back to the encampment, Link wondered what kind of life the boy had lived up until now, and realized that he really knew nothing about his guide.