AN: And an update for this story.
Blue eyes slowly blinked themselves open, the owner of them slowly awakening. He withheld the desire to stretch out his arms, took in the bed around him.
Cia was wrapped in his arms, held against his side with her head on his chest. She had a content smile on her face, one that he preferred to her lustful smirks or dark grins. Proxi was nearby, he could catch a glimpse the fairy laying down in his hat. He glanced to what passed for a clock in the Temple of Souls. He was amazed he had managed to sleep for so long. It was rare to get so many hours to rest at all now.
If it wasn't Cia's aggressive flirting, said flirting leading to arguments with Proxi, keeping him up at all hours it was whatever scheme Lana had in mind or had already blown up in her face. The other Guardian of Time had her own mischievous streak to go with her infatuation, when she was present was more than capable of keeping him up at nearly all hours. If it was neither of those two, it was the chaos of four versions of the Hero of Time more than capable of taking away what little sleep he could manage.
And that was ignoring the regular orders he would need to read through from not only Impa but he had a fair number from General Onox as well. His promotion during the war had seemed to stick and he would need to travel to Hyrule Castle sooner rather than later to speak with both Generals in person.
It was not a day he was looking forward to. Onox had been absent from Hyrule for the majority of the war, had returned in time with his army to help them finish off the last remnants of Ganon's dark forces spread over the lands but hadn't been part of the battles that had been waged across times itself. Cia wouldn't admit to it but most of the commanders figured she had been responsible for his absence, sent him to an unknown point in time to further weaken Hyrule against her invasion. Regardless of why it had happened, Impa still held his absence from the battlefield against the General and he would likely be stuck serving as a mediator to whatever argument the two would get into during the meeting.
Privately, he was already dreading it. Onox would probably go for his giant hammer at one point or another and Impa would respond in kind with one of her weapons. Hopefully not her giant blade. He could only hope that the Sheikah didn't set the entire room on fire or unleash a flood. Those meetings were becoming less about strategy and more like when Lana thought Cia pushed him too much and got involved with her book or summoning gate or when Cia thought Lana was getting too close to him and brought out her mace.
In other words, complete disasters he would be responsible for cleaning up.
It was his lot in life he guessed, stuck between two people far more powerful than him. Or just two moderately crazy people.
He managed to wiggle his way out of bed at least, offering up a few pillows as a decent enough substitute for Cia to grab onto in lieu of him. He spared a glance to where Proxi had made herself comfortable in his hat and gave up on getting to wear it until she decided it was time to wake up.
Hopefully it would be soon. He really liked that hat.
He could only, once again, ask himself what exactly he had gotten himself into since the war that spanned across time had ended in Hyrule's victory.
He wandered down the halls of the Temple of Souls with that thought in mind.
Away from the latest Hero of Legend, a blue haired sorceress had an idea.
She had somehow roped the Princess, Impa, and Red into heading off with her.
To where? Only she could possibly know.
"Where are we going? Are we there yet? What about now?" Red also kept up a constant stream of questions from where he swung between the sorceress and the princess, the red eyed Sheikah keeping a watchful eye out for any threats however slim the chances were for such a thing.
A rather formidable warrior resided within this area of Death Mountain. Well, he was at least rumored to since the great battles that swept over all of Hyrule, had exploded throughout time itself as the battlefield.
"It's super-hot here!" Red partially walked and partially swung between Lana and Zelda, a wide smile on his face as he looked back and forth, side to side, and everywhere in between.
His eyes were a bit too focused to be "taking in the sights" as he said.
"We're going to go meet a friend of mine!" Lana tried to keep herself chipper despite how nothing had really gone to plan since she had gotten to Castle Town. Her partially, half-made, rather poorly thought out plan was still a very much work-in-progress.
'Hylia I hope he's home. I totally don't have a plan if he isn't!' Lana was therefore screaming internally even as she smiled down at Red, did the same for Zelda. 'I really, really, really hope he's home!'
She kept a smile pasted on her face despite her ever-growing internal panic. As long as she kept smiling, no one would suspect that she had no idea what she was doing. She was pretty sure she had been successful so far. Not even the princess had caught onto her yet.
'Oh Hylia. She has no idea what she's doing.' Zelda kept a smile on her face, didn't let it waver when Red glanced between her and Lana. She wanted to scream out loud but settled for a bout of internal screaming instead. 'She's going to lead us right into the volcano! This takes us straight to the volcano! She's going to kill us all!'
"That's great Lana! Who are we going to go see?" Zelda would try to pry out something approaching an answer. Just for Red's sake. She was doing her panic internally. She didn't need to trouble Red. He was just a child after all. Calling Lana out outright would only prove problematic, lead him to panic.
"Oh just a friend!" Lana made sure to make her voice extra chipper, smiled down at Red when he looked towards her. "He's a real great guy! He just likes it hot so we've got to go up the mountain!"
"That's great to hear." Zelda smiled and laughed. "When are we going to get to meet him?"
"Soon! Definitely soon!" Lana laughed. She looked to Red. "Are you excited to meet him too? I'm super-duper super excited to meet him! We'll definitely see him soon! Definitely! He may be just ahead waiting for us too!"
'Please let him be up ahead!' Neither Lana nor Zelda knew they shared the same thought in that moment.
Red only continued to smile and swing between the two.
'These two are hilarious.' He had read their faces, seen the internal screaming going on through their eyes. He shared a glance with Impa and laughed at just how bad the two were at hiding exactly how panicked they were the further they went up Death Mountain.
'I should do this more often.'
Impa came to a halt up ahead, her red eyes narrowed as she reached for the giant blade on her back with one hand.
A growl and flash of fire was all the warning she had before she was in front of the princess, her massive weapon held at the ready to defend or attack. The princess was the same, her rapier materializing in her free hand as she commanded her power to shine forth from the blade.
"What brings you to my domain sorceress?" Volga, the fearsome Dragon Knight had appeared before them. His dark eyes drifted from the white haired Sheikah to the blond princess and finally to the blue haired sorceress they had been following up the mountain. He growled. Lana. Cia. They were one and the same to him. Both were sorceresses that sought him out only to bring him headaches. "What does that blasted sorceress want from me now? I have no time for your games or any of your pointless schemes to gain the warrior's affection."
"I-I'm actually here to talk to you on my own!" Lana stepped forward, forced herself to keep smiling. "I need to call in a favor so…I'm calling it in!" She earned an unamused stare from the Dragon Knight. He eventually nodded and Lana seemed to deflate as her stress left her, nearly dropped to the ash covered ground beneath her. "Oh thank Hylia!" She shot upright, glanced to Red. "I-I mean, just like I told you! He's a great friend who's always willing to help!"
He glanced to the last member of the group.
"Hey Link." He actually smiled, offered a wave with the armored hand not holding his pike.
'He can do that?' Impa lowered her massive blade when it seemed the Dragon Knight posed no threat to the party. 'I honestly thought he couldn't.' She rose a pale eyebrow. 'Not as many fangs as I thought. I'm a little disappointed.' She would deny it but, at points, she had doodled how monstrous she had expected Volga's smile to be. Full of fangs and guts and other things she expected of the Dragon Knight's diet. Whole flocks of sheep and herds of cattle were also in some. 'No one must ever know.'
She resolved to burn those papers. As soon as possible she would burn them all.
'Yes. They never even existed.'
"Hi Volga!" Red offered a cheerful wave. "Can we fight?"
"I thought you would never ask." Volga grinned as he struck the end of his spear against the ground, unleashed a small burst of flames across the ground. "Let our battle begin!"
"Yeah!" Link already had his sword in one hand, a shield in another, and an excited smile rapidly spread across his face. "To the death!"
"I like the way you think Link!" Volga charged just as Link did the same.
"WAIT A SECOND!" A translucent barrier burst to life in the space between them before either of their weapons could meet. Both seemed to deflate as the blue haired sorceress stomped forward, all traces of her previous nervousness and hesitation gone. Now she was a Guardian of Time, a powerful sorceress with few equals, one who watched over the timeline since the beginning, had received such a task from the Goddess Hylia herself. She grabbed Red by the ear and did the same to Volga. "You two have done this before, haven't you?"
"…maybe." Red winced when Lana pulled on his ear harder. "Ok. Ok. We, I mean the me from before do this all the time! But the big me does the same! He started fighting him first! We were just following what he was doing!"
"And how many times has he done this? Why am I just now being told about this?" Lana pulled on Volga's ear. "Well Dragon Knight? How many times have you fought those two?"
"OW! How are you this strong?" Volga's words were born from a mixture of astonishment at Lana's strength and growing pain as she tugged on his ear. He had no idea how she even did it when he was wearing a helmet. "OW!" She pulled harder. "OK, OK, just let go already."
"I want answers from both of you starting now!" Lana released both, planted her hands on her hips. She looked to Volga. "How many times have you fought the Hero of Time?" At his look of confusion, she clarified. "The smaller one! Sometimes he wears masks!"
"I don't know…I lost track after around twenty, twenty-five." The Dragon Knight growled as he rubbed at his red ear. "How did you do that?" He still seemed confused about what exactly had just happened.
'How did she even hurt me? By pulling on my ear no less! I'm a dragon by Din!'
"And Link? How many times have you fought him?"
"Definitely over fifty. It may even be getting close to a hundred by now. We fight a lot, sometimes two or three times a day. He's got anger issues to work out or something." Volga finally stopped rubbing at his ear. "Wait…I have an ear?" He checked the other side of his head and found the same, this one in a substantially less amount of pain. "How have I never noticed this before?"
"That doesn't matter right now." Lana dragged a hand up, pointed between the two. "Once I find the other three, we are going to sit down and talk about all this fighting you do! It's not healthy! And it's dangerous! And you could hurt Link! Or mess up his face! Not that I'm shallow like that but scars on his face don't make him more handsome!"
She paused.
"Would they?" She envisioned Link in such a manner.
The Hero chosen by the Goddess valiantly standing over his defeated foe despite his injuries, his tunic destroyed but his body unbroken by the savage clash between Hylian and dragon. The battle would have been fierce, would have been indecisive at numerous points, but he would overpower his opponent in the end. Either through brawn or brain he would claim victory over his mighty foe. Then he would turn to her, would hunger for a battle of a different kind, would approach her with his blue eyes burning with passion. She would be powerless to resist him, would let him wrap those powerful arms around her, would stare into his eyes, and then…
And then…and then…
Her face turned bright red.
"Is she okay?" Volga stared at the bright red sorceress that had gone silent.
"No idea." Red gave a shrug. "She may be thinking that adult stuff her and Cia do sometimes…She actually looks a lot like the Princess does sometimes too. She gets a lot redder though."
"Don't do anymore fighting without me around!" She made her decision. "You need a referee! And I'll be there for Link if he needs help!"
Volga could just offer a nod, not wanting his recently discovered ears to be victims of her pinching once more. He didn't know the blue haired sorceress had such strength to her rather slight frame.
'Do I have hair too? What does it even feel like? Probably all fuzzy and…whatever not scales feel like.' His recent discovery of having ears also lead him down a new train of thought.
Red nodded because he was plotting his revenge.
'Not even Saria gets to pull on my ears like that. I'll make you pay Lana! Do you hear me, I'll make you pay!' His vengeance now sworn, Red kept rubbing at his red ear. 'Goddesses, this really hurts. Like really bad.'
"Good!" Lana nodded at her solution to the definite problem of Link getting hurt. That was her definitely her main and only concern. In no way did she have any ulterior motives. She was merely concerned about the Hero. She surely wasn't doing this just for a chance to see him sweaty and shirtless.
That wasn't a reason at all. Didn't even factor into her thoughts at all.
"Now, I need a favor!" Lana grabbed Volga, lead him further up the pass. The Dragon Knight seemed confused that she could pull him along so easily, hide the two behind a boulder. "Where do you think Link's at?"
"The child or the old one?" Volga could guess even if humans mostly looked alike to him. Those two were more prominent, stuck out more than most. Before he answered anything, he wanted a confirmation from the sorceress.
"The Hero of Time!" Lana whisper-shouted.
"The old one then." Volga brought an armored hand up to his chin. "I would guess a milk bar. He enjoys a particular one in Castle Town."
"Great! You can tell us!"
AN: Nothing to say here.
Peace.