I don't know if you've ever had to try and sleep with the knowledge that, magic circle of protection or no, there was some kind of scary monster not far away from you. I have, and let me tell you, I did not get a lot of sleep that night. My mind raced with what could possibly have been out there. None of the options were particularly good, and in my most terrified moments, I even wondered if it was Ganon himself in the forest. Sure, it sounded crazy, but so did having friendly chats about the various Heroes from across the ages with a sword spirit who knew them all.
When the sun had risen, and I realized there was no way I was getting any more sleep, I carefully exited my tent. No matter how much I looked around at the thick outcropping of trees, I couldn't see hide nor hair of whatever had made that awful ruckuss that day before. Still, that was no reason to be careless. Using every secret of stealth I'd learned in basic training, I exited the circle and set up the computer with the Master Sword, but made sure to lower the volume. "Fi, you there?" I asked.
"Yes," was their immediate reply. "You do not appear to have received a full night of sleep. Would it be prudent to make yourself some of the 'coffee' you told me about yesterday? From available data, it should increase your wakefulness by 54%." I tried not to interpret that as Fi telling my I looked like crap, so I set up my campfire coffee set-up before moving back by the Master Sword while I waited.
My eyes were darting everywhere still, and I began with, "So…" trying to seem as casual and not-scared as I could. Don't ask me why I wanted to avoid seeming scared to the immortal being with the pretty voice, because I don't have an answer for you. "About that monster, from the last night. What is it? And is it still around?" If I'm being honest, I can't deny that a tinge of my fear may have been made evident in my voice at that point.
"I cannot be completely sure," Fi started, sounding as though they hadn't really noticed my fear. "But I am 97% certain that, for the last twenty years, the area around this grove of trees have become the lair of a Gohma Queen." That news stunned me so much I couldn't say anything before Fi continued by saying, "As for its current whereabouts, I cannot be certain. It has never centered this clearing, likely due to the sacred enchantments laid in the pedestal, but there has never been a Sheikah here for her to eat, so I cannot be sure she won't enter the grove if she senses your presence."
This was just great news all around, I realized sarcastically. While a Gohma Queen was nowhere near as bad as some of the things I'd considered, they weren't exactly things I wanted to see either. Solid information on them was scarce, as they were so dangerous and so rare that no zoologist had ever managed to capture one for captivity, and the eggs recovered from nests never matured past a larve stage, for reasons no one had been able to discover. Still, from what Fi said, staying in the grove and being quiet would be best, and I was pretty happy with that...for now. But some of what I had to do next would require me to stray afar a bit, something at the time I resolved to figure out when the time came.
As a first step, I dug through my packs and dug out a wireless headset and connected it to the computer. "This way," I told Fi as I started preparing my coffee properly once the water was boiled, "We can talk without alerting the Queen, and it has a range large enough for me to do work while talking to you." That problem taken care of, I had a light breakfast with my coffee, and then it was time for my task of the day.
I'd taken measurements, and I'd taken samples, so that meant the time had come for more in-depth investigation. That sounded cool, but in practice it just meant careful removing vegetation and soil from the site wherever it wouldn't disturb the integrity of the ruins, in hopes of uncovering more details. It would be a slow, long process, and I'd need to talk to Fi while doing it because I doubted I'd be able to stay interested otherwise. Once I communicated that to Fi, as I began on the edge of the ruins facing my campsite, they started the conversation. "Have you ever been romantically involved with another person?"
The question came out, like most of Fi's questions, with nothing to it other than was actually being asked. But while it may have been a straight forward, uncomplicated question to Fi, for me it was shocking and surprising enough that I actually choked a little on the breath I'd just taken. Suddenly blushing, I tried laughing it off a little. "Well, uh, yeah? Here and there?" Fi didn't respond to that, so I decided I might as well just plow forward. "Well, while I was being trained, I kind of hit it off with a Sheikah girl a year older than me, but then drama messed that up, and I haven't heard from her since." I didn't tell Fi that her name had been Pusha, she'd smelled like strawberries even after working out all day, and that thinking about her made my heart hurt.
Brushing those thoughts aside, I continued, "Well, when I was studying in university, I dated a Gerudo for a few years. She was nice, but a bit intense." Of course, part of her intensity had been while I'd stayed with Rae for so long. Things with her had never been boring. Plus, having a buff girlfriend two feet taller than me? It was a bit of an ego boost at the time. "Once we broke up, there were a few flings here and there, but nothing serious. Since I got my job, I haven't really had the time or inclination to give it another try." Having just given Fi a brief overview of my romantic history, I tentatively asked them, "So, why'd you ask?"
"I was merely wishing to inquire further regarding your history. From my experience observing mortals, romantic relationships are a large part of their short lives. I apologize if the question was not one you were wanting to answer." Fi's answer made me think more about how weird romance must be to them. They're this agender, incorporeal being who's existed longer than Hyrule has, so of course they notice the ritualistic coupling people do over time. Did she think it was weird that I liked girls? Or was that a common thing back in the day? Rather than digging further into that, Fi suddenly changed the subject. "What do you know of the Sealing War?"
While carefully using a trowel to dig out a fern that was a bit too close to the masonry of the ruins for my taste, a raised by off hand enough that Fi should have been able to see it and wiggled it in what I'd hoped was a universal sign of 'eh, so-so'. "Well, remember that I'm someone who liked to study the Heroes, so a Heroless conflict was a bit boring for me. From what I can remember from my freshman history class, it began about a hundred years after Ganon had killed the Hero of Time. His oppression over Hyrule grew worse, and one by one he drove out the other races, like the Gerudo and the Gorons. Finally, the Hylians and Sheikah had had enough, and worked tirelessly to fight against his army. Eventually, they drove him into the Dark World, and seven sages sealed him inside."
It was one of those things full of dates to memorize, big battles, key political figures. Maybe I was just a bad student for history, but it was all dull as all get-out. That's part of why I specialized in studying the Heroes, since so much of it wasn't known, it was a mystery for us to uncover. Fi made a sound of agreement. "I was not present for the conflict, so I believe that to have been fairly accurate. However, Ganon was not completely sealed. There were still rips in the dimensional fabric, where one could pass between Hyrule and Ganon's Dark World. None were large enough for Ganon to pass through, and even if one had been, he was enchanted, unable to escape the Dark World thanks to the Sages efforts.
"But even in his monstrous form, Ganon was cunning. He used agents to spread word through to Hyrule, rekindling stories of the Triforce, and making sure everyone knew it was in the Dark World, while leaving out the fact that it was in the possession of Ganon." This was starting to ring a bell, and I started to realize where they were going with this. "Eventually, Ganon was able to place Agahnim, a dark sorcerer, close to the King of Hyrule. A coup was started, and Ganon almost executed his escape back to the world he'd been banished from. However, he was stopped by-"
"The Hero of Two Worlds!" I shouted, unable to help myself. Still, Fi didn't seem to upset by the interruption, and let me continue with what I knew. "He's actually probably the second-most well known Hero. He helped make sure Ganon stayed sealed by traveling between Hyrule and the Dark World, but he's also got other myths associated with him as well. Stories about the Wind Fish, or a Hylian hero appearing in Labyrnna and Holodrum, are usually attributed by scholars to the Hero of Two Worlds." Of course, all of that was pretty much all they knew about him. Despite being more recent by far than the Hero of Time, for example, many of the records were lost in political upheaval, and what details did exist were so colored by propaganda and alteration that the whole period felt muddy to study. "What can you tell me about him?"
I was about halfway through the perimeter of the ruins at that point, still looking over my shoulder and keeping an ear open from the headset to make sure I didn't become Gohma chow. I'd also been pretty lucky in my task, with much of the vegetation clinging so lightly to the stones that removing it hadn't been an issue at all. "He was descended from a family of knights, ones who served the Royal Family," Fi began. "He was not, as he thought at the time, a descendant of the Hero of Time, as in that timeline he did not have any children before his death." That hadn't been the first time Fi had mentioned something about timelines, but I didn't interrupt her to ask for more details. "His parents died when he was a baby, and he was raised by his kindly uncle. I attribute that influence for his most unique feature. As I said yesterday, many of my Master's incarnations have been humble, but this one in particular was much moreso. He hated people calling him a hero, and part of why he left Hyrule in the aftermath of his victory was to escape the fame that had accumulated for him."
Carefully dislodging what I had just realized was the seed of a Deku Baba, still young enough that it hadn't become dangerous, I commented on what Fi had just said, "That might be why we don't have as much information about him," I speculated. "If he just saved the day then left, it would have been pretty easy for other people to manipulate public perception of him without him being able to stop them." As a Sheikah, rudimentary knowledge of PR was basically required, especially after how many times throughout their history people had tried to have my people exterminated.
I guess Fi didn't have anything to say about that, because they just continued where they'd left off. "All that incarnation of my master wanted was for people to be safe, and to live a life with people he cared about. When, after slaying Ganon, he touched the Triforce, he never even considered using it for personal gain. Instead, he brought back all who had been killed through Agahnim and Ganon's machinations, including his uncle." Then, seemingly done with that train of thought, Fi idly added, "He also was quite stoic. For many of my master's incarnations, someone will refer to them as 'adorable' or 'silly' several times a week. But whether it was a conscious choice, or merely how he naturally presented himself, that incarnation was too closed off for people to think that of him. Instead, he just seemed to be a modest, serious, kind boy."
Finishing up my job for the day by reaching where I'd started, I was exhausted. My arms and back aching, I started making myself dinner, and considered something. The more Fi told me about their masters, the more they stopped becoming mythical beings. When Fi shared their experiences with me, it meant more and more I thought of the Heroes as just...people. Or one person. It was complicated. But either way, the Hero of Two Worlds was a kid. What was it like for him, going through all that hardship, all that strife? After putting everything back in order before bed, the question lingered in my head, and that night I dreamed of a young man with hair dyed a bright pink, wearing green, sword in hand, staring at a golden pyramid, his heart full of terror at the place he'd suddenly woken up to.
