Once again, the spot on the map is an obelisk that gives them three more maps. Even though they can see the obelisk from the city, they have to circle a lake of lava, so it takes most of the morning to get there. Zelda spends the time brainstorming new exercises for Yunobo. It's actually refreshing to get away from the Divine Beast for a time. It's nice to look around and see greenery in the distance.
She hasn't done much hiking lately, so that's less nice. Her legs burn and her lungs burn.
She catches five more lizards, much to Link's annoyance. "In twenty years, you're going to have a hut out here," he says, "just made out of lizards. You'll have some creepy, weird hat and sunken eyes, and you'll never go outside. And I'll come visit you and your lizard children, and you'll give me some quest about finding lost lizards or getting food for the lizards or something."
"What nonsense," she says, tucking the lizard into her satchel.
He reaches a hand back to her, helping her up an incline. "Hyrule is full of eccentric people who've taken it a step too far. This is how it starts."
"At least you'll visit me in my lizard hut."
"Only if you offer good rewards for your lizard quests."
"Fireproof elixirs. So many fireproof elixirs."
The time alone helps Yunobo. His mastery over Vah Rudania has improved. Slightly. He still can't keep the Divine Beast level, but at least she's no longer sliding down the side of the volcano. Now she places each foot surely. She still leans to one side or the other, but it doesn't feel as if she's in danger of falling over.
Zelda won't admit that she worries the Divine Beast will roll onto her back and, like a turtle, be unable to rise. Zelda pictures the beast's feet waving in the air. She pictures the Gorons trying to make a lever long enough to flip her, but eventually giving up. She pictures having to tunnel to the main control unit to turn off the beast.
So Zelda is very glad to see these improvements, however minor. She showers Yunobo with praise, with reassurances that the great Lord Daruk himself had difficulty mastering the Divine Beast. Vah Rudania might very well be the most complicated beast to control!
Yunobo is relieved. He's ready to continue their training and get even better.
Link frowns and says nothing, which is almost worse than if he would just spit out whatever is bothering him. It's amazing that he can be at his most judgemental when he says the least.
They practice getting a feel for the roll and tilt of the floor from inside. Yunobo can see where they're going from the great lizard's back, but standing by her head doesn't give him enough of a sense of how much and how quickly the floor slants when Rudania's legs move up an incline. To practice, they're not walking except to shift the beast's legs back and forth, rocking her enough to tilt the floor. He opens the windows so they can see, and she has all the debris moved to the other side.
Zelda supposes that if they use Vah Rudania to transport anything, they will have to strap down their cargo, as the floor tilting at an angle is a given. However, with practice, she has faith that Yunobo can keep it to a minimum. Or at least know the extend of the slant.
It feels like they're making progress. Not much. But progress.
Yunobo takes a step back just as the floor is swaying, and he trips. He windmills his arms to catch himself. And suddenly the Divine Beast leans. It's as if one of her legs has given out.
The floor shifts beneath her feet, and—just like Yunobo—she throws out her arms for balance, and for a moment, she's got it. But the floor keeps tilting, and Link shouts, "Stop!" And then she's sliding. She slips to her butt, and then she's flat on her back, rolling onto her side and scrambling for purchase. But there isn't any. The walls, and now the floor, are unclimbable, and she won't stop until she comes up against a wall turned floor, which should happen in a couple seconds. At least all the scaffolding isn't going to fall on her.
She looks down and chokes, because instead of a wall and a bruising halt, she's headed for a window. Below her is only lava. She's headed straight into the mouth of the volcano.
Link is screaming. She tries to roll. If she can manage another few feet to the left—
She grabs for the window's edge as it brushes past her fingers. The floor is gone.
A snag at her wrist, and she jerks hard to a stop, pain jolting through her shoulder. She hangs. She looks up. And Link's hanging too, one hand grabbing the window edge, one hand locked around hers.
Her grip slips. Just a fraction. But enough. They have just a split second, just enough for horror to wash across Link's face. "Zel—"
And she's free.
The lava rushes towards her, the heat pressing at her face, and it's so hot and so bright that she squeezes her eyes closed, and the heat snatches away her tears. She's going to die. She's going to die. The rushing fall snatches away her scream.
The impact feels as if it comes from the side, and then she's numb all over, and she's not breathing. It feels like she's hit something much harder than lava, and the pressure on her chest is so heavy it's like a physical weight, and suddenly she's so so so cold, as if lava's too hot to understand.
She opens her eyes to the clear blue sky of the Spirit Realm.
She's flat on her back on some sort of stone ground, and there's a cold wind and birdsong. Did she die? Did she just die? Iced panic rips up from her stomach to her throat. Before it can tear loose in a scream, it's clogged by the weight pressing against her chest.
She looks down just as Link looks up, and his face is so ferocious that she doesn't know if the emotion that clenches her insides is terror or lust. She's shaking so hard that she's certain it's residual terror. His eyes are wild—fierce and dangerous like a beast poised to consume her. He's breathing hard and sweating and he tightens the arm around her waist, pulling her closer, pulling his weight more fully on top of her with an intention that makes her dizzy. He pulls the slate from her hand, tossing it aside, and threads his fingers hard and secure through hers, pinning her arm near her head, holding her tight to the stone.
Did they warp? Did he catch her?
It may be heightened emotion twisted into lust, but that's still lust.
Link drops his head to her sternum and pants, his breath hot and damp through her thin shirt, and Zelda has to drop her head back, stare at the sky, and breathe before she presses her thigh even tighter to his hip. She's hot all over and shaking all over, and her free hand is fisted so tight in Link's hair that it must be painful.
She stares at the sky and says, "I feel into the lava."
He says nothing. His whole frame surges with every breath, his shoulders expanding and contracting, his chest heaving against her own with every gasp.
She...really likes that.
Very much.
"Goddess," she breathes. She needs to calm down, but there's no possible way she can calm down after that.
"I'll kill him," he growls. And, yes, she disapproves of that, but at the moment a much larger part of her squirms at the roughness of his voice, rocks toward the protectiveness in his tone. And that part of her moans.
He misinterprets her embarrassing noise as criticism. "He's done. He put you at risk. He doesn't have control over Rudania. We'll find a different champion."
"It was an accident," she says between pants. "He's probably already beating himself up more than you ever could." And besides all that, Yunobo's presence is completely unwelcome in her thoughts at the moment. Link shouldn't eviscerate him, but also she's a bit angry with the Goron herself, and she doesn't appreciate feeling the need to defend him. "Can we not talk about it right now, please?"
He looks up at her. She can just see it out of her peripheral vision, because she keeps her eyes on the sky. His voice softens as he says, "Fine. Later." Then he lowers his head again and squeezes her tighter.
Her mind flies in a thousand different directions anticipating how he'll press his lips to her collar bone through her shirt, how he'll drag himself up, sliding against her just a few delicious inches to press his lips against her neck, how his fingers will tighten in hers.
"AHEM."
It's not a throat clearing. It's a person saying ahem. "Ex-cuse me! What do you think you're doing?"
Link looks up, then groans and pulls away, sitting back on his haunches. Zelda doesn't care for that at all, and just stays flat on her back. She nearly died. And now Link's not even celebrating her alive state. She's allowed to not move for a minute.
Link lifts a hand in an annoyed wave toward the woman standing on the other side of a ring of wild flowers. "Yeah, we're fine, thanks," he calls.
The woman's scowl only deepens, her fists tight against her hips. "The flowers are weeping!"
Zelda blinks at her. Very slowly, she sits up.
"We didn't touch the flowers," Link calls, then mutters a few uncharitable things under his breath. He reaches past Zelda for the slate and tells her, "I didn't look where we were going. I just...figured anywhere..."
"It's fine."
"Umm." He rubs his eyebrow and frowns down at the slate. "We should take a minute before we head back to the bridge. Can't warp straight to Rudania, or we might fall right back in the damned...Or maybe we should head back to Goron City. Let Yunobo find us." He's developed a stressed line between his eyebrows. She can't drag her eyes from it. She wants to soothe it under her thumb. She wants to soothe it with the flat of her tongue. Sit up on her knees and take his face in her hands and lick him. He'd taste of rock salt. Then she'd twist and pin him to the ground.
There is something very wrong with her.
"But where to go now? Somewhere not on fire. Somewhere with no monsters. Another tower? Maybe...no, too cold..."
"You're babbling."
"I'm thinking out loud!" he yells. "Decisions are hard!" His eyes are wide with delayed panic.
She snorts. The snort catches in her chest and bounces around until a hysterical giggle bubbles up. The laugh is painful, and she clutches at her ribs as it gains momentum. She doubles over and laughs.
Link is frozen, his eyes wide. His gaze bounces from her to the slate and back. He has no clue what to do, and no clue what to make of her. He's reached the edge of his attractive decisiveness.
It's hilarious.
She crumples to the side, laughing. There's hair in her face! And it would be her luck to survive a hundred years locked in battle with Ganon only to die falling into lava because a Goron slipped! And of all the places Link could have warped, he picked somewhere where there's a woman shouting about flowers (which she's doing again)! And she's seriously considering jumping Link right here, right now! And he's trying to calm himself down by thinking out loud!
He's desperately searching the slate now, his eyes scanning in a blind panic, his fingers darting around as he searches, searches. She plucks the slate from his hands. Her laugh has turned silent, too strangled to make noise, as she finds a shrine and pushes herself up and into Link's lap, wrapping her arm around his neck. He grabs her waist and the slate on instinct, and she warps them to Akakla overlooking Tarrey Town. There she plants a kiss to the crease on Link's sweaty forehead. She lets her lips compress against his skin. She makes a wet, smacking sound upon releasing him, and she topples off him to cackle about it and the startled look on his face.
#
She does eventually stop laughing, but she does not stop shaking. She steps down from the shrine to lie in the grass. There's grass against her skin and a cool wind, and instead of the heat pressing in on her from every direction, it now comes only from the sun.
After a long time, Link comes down to sit beside her. She's not ready to look at him yet. For the most part, she has herself back under control, but she's not ready to talk about it.
"I know you're going to want to go back up there, so I'm not even going to bother suggesting you stay behind." Link pauses.
Zelda says nothing.
"So I have an idea," he continues. "What if we made a harness for you, and we could tie you to the main control pannel. I learned about it in Lurian Village. They tie themselves to the masts of their ships if they get stuck out on the ocean when a storm pops up. It won't get in your way at all."
"Will you be wearing a harness as well?" she asks.
"I—If it makes you agree to do it, yes."
If her eyes weren't closed, she would roll them.
"Or we could wait," he says. "Let Yunobo practice. You've done your part, and now it's up to him to practice. When he's got it, then you can come up without needing to be attached to anything."
"What?" She sits up to face him. "No! I'm the expert. I've done this before. This is the whole reason I'm here. If it's just him up there, he'll never get anything accomplished. Especially since I'm sure he's terrified now."
"He'd be less terrified if we aren't there."
"No. We both know he'll be doubting himself now. The best thing for his moral is if we get right back up there tomorrow. Otherwise, we're going to have a serious Yunobo problem."
Link frowns and looks away in embarrassment.
"And besides that," she says, "who's going to decide when he's 'got it?' You? You'll never think he's good enough."
"What? Of course, I will. I'm not that mean. He'll get it."
"He'll get it enough for you to trust him with my life?"
He opens his mouth, but then words fail him. "Well...He...Eventually!...Maybe."
She sighs. "Link."
He flops back onto the grass and groans.
"Why don't we just bring Vah Rudania down the mountain?" she says. "It'll be messy bringing her down, but we can manage it. We'll have to do it eventually. And then if I fall, I won't fall into a volcano. It'll just be fifty feet." Fifty-four feet, seven and a half inches. But who's counting?
"High enough that you'll still die when you hit the ground, but low enough where I won't have time to catch you."
"Then why don't I just hold onto the slate at all times in case I need to warp? It was a fluke anyway that you were holding it."
He makes a face like his cooking came out too bitter.
"I'll be very careful about my environment. Stand clear of windows. And Yunbo understands the stakes now, and he'll be extra careful as well. It will be fine."
"You're willing to risk falling again?"
"I..." She sighs and lies back against the grass. The sky above them is light blue and cloudless. "It wasn't like this last time. Even with Daruk's control issues, no one was ever injured. No one ever thought I'd be unsafe on a Divine Beast."
"Now you won't find a person who does think they're safe. They've been a menace for a century. Everyone's scared of them."
"And I don't want to be like that," she says. She rolls to turn to him. "Are you scared of them? You've seen them at their worst. You have few memories of them before they fell into the Calamity's possession. Are you scared of them too?"
He thinks a moment, staring up at the sky. "No. I'm not scared of them. They're dangerous, but they're useful. Like a sword. I'm just scared your enthusiasm is blinding you." He looks over at her. "If you don't know how to handle a sword, it's all fun and games until you cut yourself."
"Alright. Then let's be rational about this." She sits up and flips her hair back over her shoulder. "Approaching the situation with a clearly thought-out plan is a necessary safety measure, and it will alleviate Yunobo's guilt and get us back to a decent working relationship. So! Like learning to use a weapon, we must identify the dangers. In this case: falling. We can limit falls from happening in the first place by being aware of our surroundings and using your lifeline idea. But we should also have a set procedure about what to do in the event of a fall happening. Now, you're not worried about yourself falling. Why is that?"
"Because I can just—" His eyes lose focus. For a moment she thinks he's stumbled into another trial, or he's having a memory. But then he pushes himself up to face her and says, "I have an idea."
"Oh?"
"We're going to get you a paraglider."
#
When they warp back to the Bridge of Eldin, Yunobo is waiting for them. He's hoppin back and forth, shifting his weight between his feet and muttering, "Oh no, oh no, oh no."
He's doing this from atop Vah Rudania's head.
Zelda startles at the sight of him. The Divine Beast is looming over the shrine, it's head lowered for Yunobo to get a good look. "How did—"
"You guys!" He leaps off the Divine Beast and lands, wrapped in Daruk's protection before them. His landing blows a wave of dust in their direction, and Zelda cringes back, raising an arm to cover her eyes. Then she's knocked off her feet, swept into a bone crushing embrace. "I saw you warp, but I was still so worried! Are you okay? Are you hurt? I'm so so so so so sorry!"
"We're quite alright," she says, but it comes out strangled, because her face is smooshed against a boulder.
Yunobo sets them both back on their feet and gives them an appraising, anxious look.
"I'm sorry to have worried you," she says, resting her hand on his giant one, which now covers her shoulder. "We spent some time coming up with some safety procedures for when we return tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes, of course."
If she's honest about it, it will be terrifying to step back onto Vah Rudania, and she's not certain she can do it without having a panic attack. That would be terrible for Yunobo. Perhaps her desire not to hurt him, her need to keep it together will get her through.
She turns to look up at the Divine Beast. "You got her down the mountain!"
"Yeah. I mean, I don't know how bad she was tipping, because I just kind of..." He rubs the back of his neck. "I just ran. Without thinking. I knew you'd come here, and I knew I had to get here as fast as I could, goro."
Link surprises her by saying, "You've been over thinking it."
"I guess so?"
"Well!" Zelda says. "This is tremendous progress! And now we'll be able to practice on ground with a shallower grade." She gets out the slate to find the best place to put her for the night.