It felt like it had been a long, long time since Link had seen so many stars. He leaned against Epona, blanket wrapped around them both in a paltry attempt to keep most of the chill of night off of them. A sand dune towered above them, and Link hoped it would hold out until morning at least. He made sure to stay within its shadow, but not close enough to become eclipsed in the shifting sand.
He prodded the small fire a little more with his scimitar and a huff. He took off his cap and let his hair down. The sand was still warm beneath him. If he strained his ears he could hear... something. Was he paranoid, or were there others traversing this harsh land? He stood, climbing to the top of the dune and watching the dim blue horizon.
He could see the glimmering lights that were Hyrule still, and a shadow or two that must have been oases. Joining in as a thick, black streak was the ridge that was the line between sky and land: the barren rocks that surrounded the desert and formed a barrier between Hyrule and its neighbors, as if anyone was willing to traverse the desert to get to them.
He looked at the stars, seeing if he could remember which one lead him to Hyrule. If he kept it at his back, then he would find his home surely enough. He couldn't find it among the multitude of stars, with the silver rivers scattered between them. He should've kept that goddess-forsaken chart.
Link went back to his fire, "A fool's journey... Malon was right." He looked at the stars once more, "I don't know if you can hear me... Or if you're there... But..." He sighed and tended to the fire more, "Never mind." He bitterly laughed, "It doesn't matter if you're there or not. It's just me, anyways, eh?"
The flames danced and flickered in silence. Link knew it wasn't just him, but... He looked at his left hand, and gently undid the glove to get a better look at his birthmark. "Not just me, and yet you're all silent for now." They had answered him once, but had yet to do so again. He sullenly put the glove back on, "Only emergencies, huh?" He curled up, stuffed his hair back into his cap, and rested his head with a mumbled prayer.
Something brushed his hand. Link raised his head and blinked in wonder at the fairy perched on his hand. He gently brought it closer, "Hello, little friend, what brings you to the desert?" It jingled. Link's mouth twitched into a weary smile, "Looks like you and I are both lost." It flew off, and Link let it go. He pointed back towards Hyrule solemnly, intending for it to go back somewhere it belonged.
Instead it floated out to the desert.
Link scrambled to his feet, "Hey!" The fairy kept going, and he ran after it, "H-HEY!" The empty air stirred into wind that blasted past Link. The sand shifted and gave under his feet, trying to trip him or bury his foot in their dunes, but he knew how to keep his stride despite the issue. He was carried on unbidden. His hand reached for the small glowing orb with wings, "Hyrule's the other way!" It darted this way and that, oblivious to what Link was trying to say.
All there was in that moment was the sky. A green hat trailing in the meager wind of flight. Sweat curling down a brow while expired air left lungs to welcome in the chill of midnight. Hands that dug into sparkling dunes to climb over them, following a trail of ethereal dust. Crossed arms shielding a face from the clouds of sand thrown into it from a reckless slide down. For a moment, Link felt timeless. He tumbled and rolled and chased after his guide, and it was like he was chasing a star. Always in front of him but just out of reach.
Finally exhausted by his chase, Link couldn't follow the fairy any more. He collapsed to his knees and heaved for air. His head swiveled around him, trying to see if he could find Epona. Nothing. He slumped back forward, brushing aside his bangs and coughing. She was a smart horse, and her home was still in sight. She could find her way back, right?
"Damn..." Link's voice was hoarse and his fingers dug into sand, "Damn..." He kept slipping lower, letting himself sink into the loose and shifty ground. He tried to think about what to do next but his head spun too much. He should've at least brought a flask of water with him.
He laughed, and a few tears slipped over, "A fool's journey... and it finally ends... here."
Link knelt over the sand in silence. He was tired, and all of tomorrow looked like pointless wandering. Epona would head back before Link could find her, and Malon would see that her promise wasn't kept. Link's finger traced listless designs in the sand.
Something breathed down his neck, and he looked back to see Epona. He turned around and rubbed her muzzle, "Oh no... No you weren't supposed to follow me..." He Pressed his face against hers, "You weren't supposed to follow me."
Epona snorted. Link chuckled, and looked around once more. A vast, empty desert surrounded them, and Link finally registered the rocky walls behind him. They were most assuredly lost. Following the stone could get them to Hyrule, and probably to home, but both of those were the long way of doing things. Link smiled- an ironic little smile that was just a mask. He leaned into Epona's mane. A fool's journey. A dream. That's all this was. Finding the last bit of power for the Master Sword was an excuse. He just wanted to go home, and he never could.
Something gently landed on his shoulder. Then his head. His arms. Back. Anywhere. Tiny bells filled his ears. Link pulled away to see even more fairies had come, this time landing on him and trying to tell him something, apparently.
He giggled, "W-what? What in the name of Din are you all doing here?" He saw bits of his tunic getting tugged- too faint to feel. He rose, the fairies drifting onward in a small thrall of light. They bobbed, beckoned.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be here!" He laughed. One particularly feisty fairy zoomed up to him, jingling like a whole chorus of bells. It grabbed one of his bangs and pulled hard enough for Link to barely feel it. He absently grabbed Epona's reins and moved forward, "Alright, alright..." The fairies whizzed onward, continuing to urge Link to follow them. They darted into a crack in the rock.
Link's hand ran over the groove, hesitant. The lights were getting dimmer. He looked at Epona, gave her a gentle pat. He whispered, "Stay here, I'll be back." It was cramped between the walls of stone, but Link could tread through it well enough. His hands bumped over the undulating, sand blasted rock, occasionally pulling back when he thought there was something harmful. He couldn't see where his feet were, but he trusted that he could find places to put them easily enough.
His boots were starting to get wet, and he slipped. His fingers painfully dragged against the rock, and Link sighed when he didn't topple forward helplessly. He paused to catch his breath and listen. Water gurgled at his feet. He bent down and blindly held out his hand. Cold, wet. "A spring?" Link squinted at his feet in the dim light.
Wait. Light. He looked a little more forward, seeing that, yes, the water was carrying light from somewhere. Too far or too faint to make a difference right now. He raised his head and pressed forward. He tried to ignore the water eventually sinking into his boots. If anything he welcomed it, since he could head back and fill up any empty flasks.
He blinked a little when the passage opened up to a spring. The water was bathed in the light of a cloud of fairies that bobbed with no audible rhythm or song. Link pulled himself from his narrow entrance and walked forward. He held out his hands with a gentle smile, and soon several fairies were trying to ardently converse with him in a tiny, joyful melody.
"I-I don't understand you!" He giggled. The fairies got even louder, and the rapid tempo slowed down as if they were trying to enunciate every syllable. Link shook his head, laughing harder, "Please, I don't speak your kind's language!"
"They certainly understand yours."
Link blinked and looked up. A woman was sitting on the edge of the rock-hewn basin. She looked vaguely familiar with her iridescent and translucent features, her blank and sculpture-like eyes, but he couldn't quite find out why. Despite the fact she looked like crystal, she wore scraps and scarves woven from a rough cloth. A pair of wings unfurled and Link finally realized he was in the presence of another Great Fairy. She smiled, "It's been a very long time since we were here."
Link was speechless, and his hands dropped to let the fairies fly elsewhere. "T-the... Fairy... in the desert-"
"Yes, I am real." She stopped him. She held out one hand to hold a fairy, listening to it while continuing, "This place has just been out of use for a long, long time."
"W-we all thought it was a legend! A trick! A rumor!" Link stammered.
"Yes, this place is quite out of reach..." The Great Fairy sighed. "A half day's journey into the desert that no Hylian is willing to take, and six for Gerudo to cross this vast and empty land." She chuckled, and let her small companion go, "I suppose I am a Great Fairy of nothing. Out of reach of two worlds."
Link felt a twinge of sympathy. He then nodded and turned around, "A journey I should continue-"
"Why do you think I came out?" The Great Fairy giggled.
Link turned back. She was holding out her hand, "Link, I came to help you."
He looked at her hand cautiously, "What do you mean?"
"I will take you back home, Link." She said, "I can bring you to the Gerudo's fortress for a day- one dawn till the next -and I can bring you back."
Link looked back towards the tunnel, "Epona, too?"
"I can transport Epona, too." The Great Fairy nodded, "And all you need to do is the next dawn you must be outside of the fortress and on your way to Hyrule; by the grace of the goddesses I will bring you back in time to end your journey."
Link stored forward and grabbed her hand, "Alright."
It felt like the flap of a hawk's wing. Sudden, powerful, and a rush of air. Link didn't know how it happened but he was atop Epona now, his makeshift cloak carefully resting on his shoulders. "You truly are magical..." Link murmured in the early morning light as he arranged the cloth over his features. He raised his head to the adobe wall in front of him. Din, it was so long ago and not very long at all when he was resting within it. He lowered his head when he saw a guard making her rounds.
He spurred Epona onward without a word. These women could very well kill him. He knew that from years training with them. So far they had nothing to prove that they weren't willing to disobey Ganondorf. Link felt his hands tighten on the reins- what if Ganondorf was still here?
"Goddess of the Sands..." He swore under his breath. He closed his eyes, trying to see if he had any idea what to do next.
"You there, what brings you here?!"
Link kept his gaze lowered, and shrugged.
"Words, boy." A spear entered his line of sight, "Or I will have to personally escort you out."
Link cleared his throat, and changed the pitch as best as he could, "I just want shelter. I have my own water, and I can share it, if you wish. A few flasks for staying here until the next dawn."
He dared to look up a little. Just who was this interrogating him? Did she know who he was? He had to bite back a laugh: it was Aveil.
Her amber eyes were narrowed, processing the idea of a little more water and a stranger who kept to himself. Then again it was HIMself. Link had seen few men who were treated with a modicum of respect besides himself and Ganondorf. Actually none besides himself and Ganondorf. He was an exception because he was raised by them and Ganondorf's treatment had obvious reasons.
Aveil leaned back and held her spear straight, "Well then, I suppose we can let you sleep in the stone of our prison." She raised her hand with a yell to open the gate. Link was about to have Epona go forward before Aveil yanked the reins from him, "YOU aren't controlling this mare."
Link nodded solemnly. He noticed at the edge of his sight the other Gerudo women scornfully gossiping. Aveil started taking off water flasks, "You should pay upfront, eh?" Link nodded again, knowing yielding to her price was better than being found out.
He noticed other companions in the crowd: Elaheh (she had always had a knack for taking care of the sick and injured and was humorless, but kind), Azar (full of fire and a fierce warrior), Kohinoor (an elderly woman who Link fondly remembered weaving tapestries and telling stories), Laleh (a free spirited lass who was always riled up about something and had laughter come to her as second nature), Mahtab (another quiet girl who preferred scouting into the lonely desert), Shohreh (a mother of several girls who could shoot a bullseye and split it twice more who had given Link quite a few lessons in archery), and so many others that he wanted to rush onto and hold and never let go.
"You're very lucky," another girl- oh of course it was Gulshan, inseparable from Aveil with her cropped hair and squared face, "His Lordship has left. He set out for Hyrule six days ago, and surely he must be getting close now. I bet he would be back already with victory if it weren't for a... rascal making off with one of our few star charts and a horse. I doubt you'd be given even consideration if he was here."
Link felt a chilled wind. Ganondorf was gone. Off to Hyrule. He bowed his head and hoped that Zelda could hold out for him. It was a small gesture of consolidation, but Link felt a thrum that was bound to be what he was looking for. Something reverberating in his bones and through the Master Sword on his back. Or maybe he was scared witless.
"You must be dumb." Gulshan snapped, "You haven't said a single word."
Link had to bite back a sarcastic quip. He was not here as a friend, he had to remember that.
Aveil walked off with her arms filled with sloshing flasks, "Saran will be pleased with the water, at least."
Link couldn't stop himself before the name forced itself from his lips, "Saran?!" Thank Din she was alive. She was surely alive, and apparently unpunished if they talked about her that way. He now covered his mouth with his right hand, horrified he had let himself speak, but his left was digging into Epona's mane with relief to match the smile behind his hand.
Gulshan walked around and squatted, trying to look at Link's face. Link looked away and pulled up the cloth. When more and more women crowded around him, he made the blanket a cocoon. His hands trembled. Someone grabbed him and yanked him off, but Link held onto the blanket for dear life.
"Boy, who are you?! Answer me!" Gulshan demanded, "We know that voice!"
The blanket was finally ripped from Link's hands, and Link felt every golden eye upon him. His shoulders raised, his arms wrapped themselves around him. Someone pulled off his cap, and his hair fell out and piled on his shoulders. He heard his name reverberating through the crowd, over and over like ripples.
And then suddenly one arm was upon his shoulders. Another set wrapped around his waist. More and more hands and arms wrapped themselves around him, his name being uttered with sighs of relief. Link was surrounded by the embrace of a family that had missed him just as much as he had missed it.
He screwed up his features, trying to smile, but soon he was sobbing, too. "I missed you." He managed to say. A chorus replied:
"We missed you more!"
"Our little arrow came back like a boomerang!"
"You are safe, Link!"
"Goddess of the Sands, you came back to us at the most opportune time!"
Link finally got over his numbness and scooped up anyone he could into his arms and tried to lift them. His laughter mingled with others enjoying his fruitless effort to lift the young women, who were chastising Link in forgetting he was never the best in feats of strength. He knelt and hugged the old, wizened women who kept saying they had thought him dead or a deserter or permanently exiled, he kissed the ladies who he had grown up with, and somehow it broke out into a dance where everyone joined in and crowed with delight at how the little leever had wandered back into their home.
The sun was rising and Link began answering questions, telling his tales with flourishing hands and fluctuating voices. About the beauty of Hyrule, the sights he had seen, the wonders. His journey now felt like a vacation that had just had a few bumps in the road as he watched the young girls nod with wide eyes and open mouths at such simple Hylian concepts like Lake Hylia ("That much water?! Just there?! You're burying our heads in the sand!") and the forest ("Palm trees?" "No, no! Much bigger and so much more different and instead of large, shady leaves they have branches that twist like wind! And you can climb them effortlessly!") and the grandeur of Hyrule Castle ("Hmph, so ostentatious." "Well don't you know Hylians have a brain the size of a peahat? They need to overcompensate so they can dupe countries into thinking they're great!"- this exchange was met with much laughter).
By the time Link had finished all the stories he had wanted to (he wasn't going to tell a soul about the horrors he had seen, or the real reason he was here) the sun was high in the sky. He answered the straggling questions that were left- about the princess ("no more pretty than any of you lovely ladies are- if anything you're far more beautiful!"), whether or not Lake Hylia was real ("It is! I have a scale to prove it!" the scale was displayed with much "ooh"ing and "ahhh"ing), if Link had really traveled through the whole country, ("A good deal of it, but perhaps I still have places to go.") and other small and trivial things.
The young ones scampered off to gossip about the tall- and yet true -tales they had heard, leaving Link surrounded by his own generation. He doodled in the ground about customs he had discovered, stories he had heard, frightening feats of courage and strength and faith he had accomplished.
Link sat back around mid afternoon, realizing he had been putting off something very important.
"Aveil, where's Saran?" He asked.
"In the temple." Aveil said, "She's been praying for Lord Ganondorf's success."
Link felt his expression droop. He swallowed, then asked, "What is he doing?"
Aveil shrugged, "He says he's going to take Hyrule and its riches by force. Specifically he said he was out for the Triforce, but you and I know that's only a child's tale, something not to be coveted." While Aveil rambled on about how Ganondorf had spurred on much of the tribe to move out and stage a coup against Hyrule, all in the intention of getting something better than this dreary desert life, Link felt his heart flutter.
He stood, and Aveil fell quiet. "Link, are you well?" She asked. She then smirked, "Oh, I get it, you haven't drank much, have you? Did you find saltwater? Water that tasted like the water you can find at the flats a day's journey from here? You know, where we get our salt to preserve our meat?"
Link shook his head, and smiled, "No, no. I-I should just... Find Saran. I haven't seen her yet."
As he walked off, he heard Aveil call after him, "Come now! Saran can wait, little arrow!"
Link ignored her, and opened the doors to the temple he had started this whole journey in.
nothin like coming home and being welcomed back after a heap of grade A BS