A big thanks to Kinnix Wolf for your review! I'm so ridiculously happy after reading your review, it seriously made my week, possibly even year! It's really wonderful to hear you think so highly of this story, and I really really appreciate all of your wonderful, rambling words! ^_^
Also: Welcome to ffnet! ...Even though you've probably been on this site for a while. But your account is kinda sorta new. :-)

Now onwards to the next chapter!

Chapter 21

The Garden

When Hibiscus woke up, it was to the smell of fresh fruit. The scent of oranges had filled the air, and as she sat up, the silk sheets still clinging to her shoulders, she spotted several plates of small, bright orange fruits on the table. Byrne had already started to dig in, so she didn't waste any time in joining him.

"When did this get here?" she asked as she sat down on the sofa next to her friend, grabbing a plate of fruit for herself.

"Don't know," Byrne said around a mouthful of breakfast. "It was here when I woke up."

"These people are like ninjas!"

There was a moment of silence before Hibiscus realized Byrne had stopped eating and was staring at her.

"What?"

"Hibiscus..." the man began hesitantly. There was an uncertainty in his eyes, and Hibiscus got the feeling he needed to ask her something very important. Then the urgent expression on his face was forced away, and she watched as he shook his head. "Never mind."

She frowned. "Ok..."

Byrne went back to his breakfast, but Hibiscus watched him out of the corner of her eyes and noticed that every so often that uncertainty returned.

"We need to explore this place without Thimis around," Byrne said finally, sounding as though he had given such a simple decision a lot of thought.

"How are we going to manage that? We can't even get out of this room."

"I don't know."

Her shoulders slumped when she saw the expectant look on his face. "You want me to come up with a plan, don't you?" she asked dully. She rolled her eyes when he nodded. "Fine. Well, once the hard part of getting out of here is accomplished, I think we should start with the library. It's the only place we have a chance of getting into. At the very least we can figure out what this place is all about from there. Probably. ...Hopefully."

"Ok."

"We just need to figure out what to do about the guards." She scowled when she caught the excited glint in Byrne's eyes. "We can't attack them! We have no idea what's going on here, and right now I think we should keep our presence on the down low. We need to be more subtle."

"Fine," Byrne said, though he sounded disappointed.

"Ok... so here's what we'll do. Thimis is supposed to show us the garden today, so let's see what information we can get from him first. He doesn't seem to want the queen to know we're here, so I think we should find out why."

Byrne's face scrunched up as he considered this plan. "Sounds boring. While you do that, I'll see how much exploring I can get done on my own."

"But-"

"We both know that, out of the both of us, you're better with being diplomatic."

Hibiscus sunk into the pillows of the sofa. "That's true... We're doomed."

"Pretty much."

The doors to their room swung open, putting an end to their plotting. Thimis slipped inside, looking as cheerful as ever, but Hibiscus was quick to spot a large bruise coloring the right side of his face.

"What happened to you?" Hibiscus exclaimed as she leaped to her feet.

"...Whatever do you mean?" Thimis asked warmly. He was wearing the same robe he had been in the other day, and his red hair looked as if it could greatly benefit from a comb.

Byrne rose from his seat to stand beside Hibiscus, arms crossed over his broad chest as he nodded towards Thimis' face.

"Oh, this!" Thimis laughed. "Had a bit of a run in with a wall, I'm afraid. Though I'm sure if you were to ask the wall, I had it coming."

"Um..." Hibiscus quickly decided to let it go, figuring that she was just going to have to get used to being confused around the young man.

"Come, my guests! We shall away! To the garden!" Thimis turned sharply, his long robe following after him almost lazily. "Oh!" He stopped and turned again, considering them as they pulled on their boots. "You probably want to take baths first, no? This way!"

So they were led down more hallways, and past more of the uninterested strangers in their long robes, until they reached a small, unassuming door that, after Thimis knocked on and then opened, revealed a large room with several steaming pools sunken into the floor.

"Here's the women's bath. This way to the men's!"

Hibiscus watched with a growing sense of alarm as Byrne left her behind. Looking around, she noticed that several of the surrounding strangers that they had passed were watching them now. As her eyes met with theirs, they quickly walked on in hurried strides. She watched them go, chewing on her lip as the strangers disappeared around a corner. Soon she was alone in the hallway, but the fact that the people here were only acting at being disinterested in her and Byrne made her feel even more uneasy. The same paranoia from last night, of someone watching her, began to creep its way back. Turning sharply, she matched the strangers' hurried strides and walked into the bath room, letting the door close behind her with a relieved sigh. There was no one else in there, and it was easy to feel safe as the thick clouds of warm steam rushed to surround her.

Leaning over one of the pools, she dipped a hand into the water. It was just as warm as the steam, but not hot like she had been expecting. With a shrug she slipped out of her clothes and into the water, leaving the discarded garments in a pile on the floor. The heat relaxed muscles she hadn't even realized were tense, and for a while she let herself just float around in the water, sighing contentedly. Then her floating brought her head crashing against the wall of the bath at the other side, so she quickly pulled herself upright and kept her feet against the smooth floor.

There were several parts of the bath wall just above the water that jutted out slightly, forming small pockets. Peering inside one of these pockets Hibiscus found some large towels and bars of what she could only guess were supposed to be soap. They were in the general shape of a bar of soap, but there was no scent to them whatsoever and had a strange, lime green color to them. Realizing that Byrne might not be wasting as much time as her and could be done and waiting for her already, she quickly scrubbed herself clean and then climbed out, draping one of the large towels around her as she tiptoed back to her clothes and tried not to slip on the polished floor.

The steam swirled around her in graceful spirals as she backtracked, walking around the entire pool before finally arriving at where she had left them. The bundle of clothes sat underneath a cloud of warm mist, and as she waved it away her eyes narrowed in annoyance. The clothes at her feet were not the ones she had left behind. Her outfit had somehow transformed itself from her practical farming clothes to the same long robe and short pants that everyone else inside the temple wore. A frustrated twitch began to work its way into her eyebrow as she lifted the dark blue cloth and held it up in front of her. Lying underneath them was a pair of sandals with elaborate looking straps.

"Where's my clothes?" she shouted into the empty room. "Lousy, stupid... ninjas!" Still grumbling she pulled the robe over her head before letting its hem fall to the ground. It was a perfect fit, and so were the pants, making Hibiscus wonder how they had guessed at her size so accurately. She angrily stuck her feet into the sandals and then spent a few good minutes trying to work out how to do up the straps. Eventually she gave up and, plucking at imaginary loose strings on her long sleeves, stomped over to the door and gave it a solid kick with one of her bare feet. Now with her toes throbbing painfully, she stepped back out into the hallway and left the warm steam behind.

Thimis' smiling face was there to great her, and Byrne was lurking behind him in a robe that matched Hibiscus' exactly. He didn't look too happy either.

"Ready to see the garden?" Thimis asked excitedly. He didn't wait for a response before gliding away, down the hallway.

"Where's our real clothes?" Hibiscus asked Byrne as she fell in step beside him.

"No idea," Byrne grunted back, glaring at Thimis' back. "He said they're being washed."

"...But they didn't need washing."

"These people are neat freaks."

"No kidding." Her annoyed twitch began to return when she recognized the obvious sound of shoes hitting the floor every time Byrne took a step. "How'd you figure out the stupid sandals!?" she hissed at him.

"Wasn't that hard," Byrne said with a shrug.

Hibiscus threw him a suspicious glare, but he simply shrugged again, and Hibiscus dropped the matter with a resigned sigh.

Thimis swung around a corner, calling over his shoulder as he went, "Here we are!"

Hibiscus rounded the same corner, and found her eyes instantly assaulted with colors other than the grey stone of the walls. Green! Green was everywhere, gathered in the many plants that lay just beyond a set of wide, open doors. Large trees and groups of bushes, all sprinkled with the natural reds and blues and yellows of fruits, were clustered together in disorganized groupings. A brown and black dirt path cut through the neatly trimmed grass and wound all about the area, leading to each cluster of plant in a haphazard, meandering way. The entire room had somehow sunken lower into the underground cavern than the rest of the temple, and as Thimis stepped primly down a short flight of stairs to the grass below, Hibiscus and Byrne stood in the doorway, gazing out and over the garden. There was a sound of trickling water somewhere behind a hedge of trees and bushes, and between the leaves she could just make out a clear blue stream inching across the ground.

"Check that out," Byrne grunted, a large hand rising to point at the domed, marble ceiling above their heads.

Hibiscus followed his finger, only to be blinded by an incredibly bright light source. It held the same color and warmth as a sun, and as she shaded her eyes against the brightness she thought she could see the swirls and flares that a real star might have.

"Must be an artificial sun of some kind," she said as she gave up on trying to see more details.

"Artificial?" Thimis repeated uncertainly, though whether he was uncertain about the meaning of the word or something else entirely she didn't bother to guess. Then he let out one of his smooth, melodic laughs. "I suppose it is, in a way!"

Giving her eyes a reprieve from staring at the light, she directed them downwards, to the stone steps, and then stepped down them to the prickling blades of grass.

"This place is incredible!" she exclaimed, wriggling her toes into the fresh dirt. A breeze brushed through her loose hair, feeling colder than it was against her damp locks. For a moment she remembered about the Wind Waker, and her promise to practice with it, only to realize she didn't have it with her. "It's probably still in the train somewhere... Well, I'll get it when we get back."

"I'm glad you think so!" Thimis said, and he sounded genuinely pleased by this. "This place is the pride of the temple. We work very hard to keep it looking like this. Please," he said as he gestured around, "feel free to explore and sample some of the crops."

Byrne instantly went wandering off, cutting across the lawn and disappearing behind some trees, and Hibiscus remembered their plan. Quickly she ran to catch up to Thimis, who was already walking down the dirt path.

"Hey, Thimis! Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Not at all, dear lady! But in return, I get to ask you something!"

"Sounds fair. So..." She really wanted to ask him right away about his mysterious queen, but she decided she would have to work her way to that. "Is your specialty botany?"

Thimis laughed. "Not quite. My main talent lies with genetics."

Hibiscus paused. "...Genetics? Gosh, so Professor Sturgeon was right again..." she muttered to herself. But now she had a thread of conversation to take advantage of, and if she had learned anything from Sturgeon it was that scientists loved to talk about what they researched. "So what sort of work are you doing with genetics?"

Thimis gave a thoughtful hum before stopping underneath a potato-apple tree. He turned to face her, a genuine smile on his face. "It's my turn to ask a question," he said before continuing to walk.

"Oh... right, sorry. Ok, shoot."

"You have come a long way to find this Link fellow. He must be important to you?"

"Well, yeah. Him and Byrne are pretty much the only family I've ever known. Well, besides Sera and Orca and Beth..." she paused to consider this. "Yeah, Beth, too. And Impal, of course. I visit them when I'm in school, since that's in the city."

She continued to ramble on about her family and friends, somehow bringing her monologue's topic to be about Sera's infamous cooking. All the while she could hear herself going on and on as if she weren't really connected to herself. "Goddesses, shut up now, please shut up. He already thinks you're an idiot, don't make it worse!" she thought to herself, and yet her mouth continued to prattle on.

Thimis, meanwhile, had stopped walking and was staring at her as if she had suddenly grown two heads.

"Oh goddesses, it's too late! You've made it worse! Stop talking! What am I even saying right now? He obviously doesn't care about Sera's honey bread!"

As if finally registering what her brain was telling it, her mouth suddenly clamped shut in the middle of describing the many alterations to the simple recipe that was Sera's bread, all of which had ended in failure.

Thimis continued to stare at her, and the urge to find the creek and jump in it instantly sprang into her mind.

"And..." Thimis began cautiously, sounding almost afraid to say anything else for fear of starting her on another rant. "Your father is... Link!" He clapped his hands together once, clearly pleased with himself for figuring this out from her disconnected explanation of her personal life. "That makes sense now!"

Hibiscus felt only a little relieved. On the one hand, his opinion of her hadn't changed at all, because he had been too preoccupied with figuring out who Link was to her. On the other hand, his opinion of her hadn't changed at all, because he hadn't been paying attention to her. Feeling irked, she nodded slowly. "Yeah. Um... what makes sense?"

For a while Thimis didn't say anything, his expression faraway as he began to walk again. Hibiscus had to walk briskly to match his long strides, but she didn't really mind the exercise. They just walked along the path together, side by side, and as the seconds continued to tick away Hibiscus began to wonder if maybe he wasn't going to answer at all. For a short moment she felt annoyed about that, but the smell of the earth and plants around her shooed the feeling away quickly. It was a beautiful garden, and she realized that she wouldn't mind just walking through it with Thimis at her side. But then he suddenly stopped and bent down so he was closer to her level. They were underneath the shade of a tall tree, and the small river was closer now, its water flowing lazily from a stone fountain near the room's far wall. His small, black eyes peered into her dark brown ones, and Hibiscus became suddenly aware of how little space lay between them. She stared into his narrow eyes, but could find no hint as to what he was going to say next.

"This may seem too forward of a question..." Thimis began quietly, and Hibiscus felt her cheeks heating up.

His face was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and it wouldn't take much for either of them to close the distance between them.

"What?" Hibiscus whispered.

"Would... you like... a lemon?" A large yellow fruit was suddenly stuck right underneath her nose as Thimis held one out to her.

"Oh, uh... no thanks. I don't actually care much for lemons." The young girl couldn't help but feel just the slightest bit disappointed.

"Confound it all, floored again!" Thimis straightened and tossed the fruit away from them.

Hibiscus was startled at first, but the sight of the tall, skinny man throwing fruit around in such a calm area struck her as funny so suddenly that she couldn't quite hold in her laughter.

"You are from Hyrule, correct?" Thimis asked as he sat down underneath the tree, ignoring her laughter as one who doesn't understand what there is to laugh at, and has decided ignoring the entire situation is the best course of action.

"Yeah," Hibiscus answered breathlessly, joining him on the grass. "Hey now, that was way more questions than one!"

"So it was. You get two, then."

"What exactly are you researching?" Hibiscus repeated her old question, wishing her heart would stop beating so fast.

"Hmm..." Thimis leaned his back against the tree and peered up at it. "That's a complicated question. When I get you cleared to enter the library you can read about it as much as you like. I highly recommend the history section. I think you'd enjoy it."

"Sure. And how's that going? The clearance, I mean."

"Slowly, just like everything else bureaucratic. I think once you do go there, you'll find it most illuminating! Especially the history books!" He let out a small laugh at that last remark, as if he had just said something clever.

Hibiscus rolled her eyes. Keeping this guy on track was a chore of itself. "And... is it the Gerudo that's slowing things down for you?"

Thimis looked at her sharply and then grinned. "How would they do that? Outsiders aren't allowed to wander, so they couldn't possibly be making trouble for you."

"You keep saying that, but we're here, and I noticed that you never actually say the Gerudo aren't here, just that they shouldn't be."

"You're very fussy about language aren't you?"

"I just-"

"No, that's good! Very good, actually! But it's my turn to ask something! The person you're looking for, your father, what made you think he would be here?"

"Because," Hibiscus muttered, "where ever there's trouble, Dad's probably in there somewhere, too."

"So he is a mischief maker then?"

"No... he just gets caught up in stuff a lot."

"Sounds like rotten luck to me." He gazed up at the sun and then back down at her. Before the conversation could continue, Hibiscus suddenly found yet another fruit being shoved under her nose. "Strawberry?"

"I...guess?" Hibiscus took the large, red berry from the strange man and bit into it. It wasn't nearly as juicy as the ones in Hyrule, and the flavor was more bitter than what she was used to. She felt robbed of the experience of having a real strawberry, and, staring down at it miserably, wondered if the second bite would be better.

Thimis quickly snatched the fruit from her before she could decide.

"Hey!"

"I should be going, there's much I have to do today," Thimis said in a rush, eyeing the half-eaten strawberry as if it were a prized jewel. "I'll return later to bring you back to your room, so please enjoy the garden until then."

Hibiscus opened her mouth to protest the loss of her snack, but Thimis was already standing.

"I still have some stuff I want to ask you!"

"I'm sure most of your questions would be answered at the library!" Thimis said cheerfully, and Hibiscus began to wonder just how lazy this man was. Thimis began to stride off, her strawberry still in hand, but after taking just a few steps he stopped and peered at her over his shoulder with his always-smiling eyes. "By the way... I hope you find your father soon. Though it sounds like it wouldn't hurt him to stay out of trouble sometimes."

"Yeah, try telling him that," Hibiscus replied with amusement.

"Perhaps, when you see him again, you should suggest he move more often, to avoid trouble."

Hibiscus shrugged. "Dad doesn't care much for traveling."

Thimis tilted his head. "So he doesn't move at all? He sounds very much like a wall, don't you think?"

"Uh..."

"Until later, Rosy!"

"Yeah... bye."

Hibiscus watched him leave with a confused frown. He disappeared back around the corner of the hallway, and the last thing she saw of him was the side of his face that held his awful looking bruise.

Byrne quickly joined her, bursting out from between two thick bushes, their leaves and twigs sticking to his hair, and Hibiscus got the feeling he had probably been watching her the entire time. "Find out anything?"

"Not really, he..." she paused with a frown. "He..." Hibiscus breathed in sharply. "He had a run in with a wall."

"Yeah, so?"

She gripped her friend's arm tightly as she recalled her strange conversations with Thimis.

"He sounds very much like a wall, don't you think?"

"Though I'm sure if you were to ask the wall, I had it coming."

"Come on," she whispered. "I've got an idea." It was high time for some unguided exploration of the temple.

Thanks for reading!