Chapter Twenty-Five
Several minutes later they had scaled the western side of the gorge entrance and were heading to the Massharte Ruins, the sun beating on their backs.
"We should have thought to brought cover," Miyako observed, turning around and walking backwards as she shielded her eyes from the sun. "We'll be fainting from heat soon enough, I'd guess."
"Nay, not if we have fresh water," Lance objected, stopping to crouch down and touch the dusty earth. "That is, if I've not lost all my potentia last night. We'll see, I s'ppose."
"Your potentia? Is that ancient Kreyan?" Link asked dubiously, wiping a bead of sweat away with a gloved hand.
"Aye, for power or might," the sailor replied, standing up and dusting off his hands on his pants. "Though in regard to magic. If it drops too low, then ye must drink Magic Restorative." Link nodded; there was a familiar subject. "I've not had to call on me powers for the longest time, but... last night was no mean feat, so it wasn't." The three of them continued walking west.
'What I wouldn't give for Epona now,' Link thought wistfully, wondering how his horse was getting along back at Hyrule Castle's stables. The chains would fly by like nothing on the back of his wild mare. But if wishes were fishes, there'd be no room in the river for water, the blonde thought, smiling slightly.
As the day progressed, however, his mind kept returning to that wish. The sun began to lower in front of them, but the ruins were still not in sight.
"We should have been there by now," murmured the Hero of time to himself. His two friends were wordless, almost stoic in their silence. He wiped his forehead with an arm and stopped walking. "Perhaps this isn't where the Massharte Ruins are?"
"No, they lie west of Phoenix Pass," Miyako said faintly, sitting down immediately. "I think... think we should take... a breather. I'm quite tired."
"Aye," Lance replied weakly, falling to his knees. " 'Tain't the walking, 'tis the heat, so 'tis..." Link was momentarily nonplussed; why were they tired of the heat, but not him?
"Can you call water, Lance?" The sailor was almost asleep. "Lance!"
"Huh? Oh, aye... I may try..." With a slightly trembling hand the dark-blue- haired Kreyan brushed his fingertips against the ground and several cracks appear. A mediocre amount of water bubbled forth, looking pitiful among the chains of dusty plains. Link stooped down and soaked his hat in the water briefly, then pressed it to Lance's head.
"I think you've both got heat exhaustion. We'll have to stop for the night." Although concerned for his friends, he was disappointed to be losing so much time. He turned away to attend to Miyako.
"Mmm hmm..." Lance removed his shirt slowly, almost sluggishly, then tossed it aside and lay back. "I think a quick forty winks would do me a world of good, aye..."
"If you're really a Fire element, I didn't think the heat would bother you," Link stated off-handedly, sitting down next to her and wiping her face with his damp hat. Her skin was hot and dry to the touch. She tried to shake her head, then stopped and put her hand to her temple, as though dizzy.
"It... it doesn't work like that, silly, it's... just having... an affinity... with an element... I'd not survive.... a drop into an erupting volcano... now, would... I?"
"Are you all right?" He peered into her face intently. "This doesn't seem like heat exhaustion a'tall."
"I'm very tired and my head aches, so it does," she replied almost apathetically. Link took a quick glance back at Lance and saw that the sailor was fast asleep, breathing normally. Part of his side was getting wet from the water still trickling out of the ground, but no doubt it was for his benefit.
"I think you should lie down," he suggested sternly, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her down to the ground. Link stood up and looked at the setting sun. It seemed to hang just above the horizon, eager to stay and torture his two friends with its radiance. "Looks like we've lost the rest of the day."
It was before midnight when Lance woke up, as though fighting his way back to life. Link watched him from the other side of the small fire he'd manage to get going. The sailor groaned and rubbed his back with both hands, cringing.
"Aye, 'tis a burn, lousy sun," he muttered. "We're lucky to be let off so easily, so we are." The dark-blue-haired Kreyan tapped the ground several times and the trickle of water became heavier. "Thirsty, matey?"
"No, I drank before you woke up," replied the Hero of Time, watching Lance rub a damp hand up his back, sighing with relief.
"We shoulda drank more water afore we left," stated Lance. " 'Tis always a good idea to have plenty of fluids in ye afore traveling distances in the sun." He jerked his head towards Miyako, who was still sleeping. "How be yer girl?"
"She's fine—" Link stopped and scrutinized Lance's face carefully. The sailor kept a cheerfully neutral face. "You bastard," he said after a moment, trying to resist a smile and failing entirely.
"So I may be, but I didnae mistake the look on your face when you were a'tending to her, so I didn't. It mayn't be love, but it's something, so it is."
"There is something about her," Link admitted, keeping his eyes on Miyako. Two could play at the trick he'd played much earlier that day. "She's not a callous feminist, which would be unbearable, but she's independent enough."
"What ye said earlier, about her not needing to be rescued... Is that what you're lookin' for, then? Why ye declined Zelda's hand?"
"...I /think/ so, but... I don't know. Zelda is wonderful, but... sometimes..." He shrugged, unable to explain how he felt. "A fine friend, and I may have felt something for her, but... now, I'm just not sure about anything anymore." The Hero of Time looked at Lance strangely, as though seeing him for the first time. "What are you so interested in how we felt about each other? I was always sure that you liked her yourself, despite your claims." This statement seemed to throw Lance off his guard.
"Me? Oh, no! Ye've got it all wrong, matey! Sure, and she's pretty and all, but there are other women that wouldn't be half so tough as her. She's strong, but a guy as myself likes to know where he stands with his woman, so I do." Lance touched his forehead without thinking about it. "I've a mind to go back to Shenalah, in the South Seas, so I have. Their women are fine and so is their food. I'm not a cruel man, I'd not have complete control of my girl, but I do like to feel more protective of than protected by a girl, I do."
"I don't feel protected by Miyako," Link replied quizzically. "Not a'tall."
"No, 'course not, matey, but if there's something about her ye like, then by all means go with it. 'Tisn't wise to keep waiting and waiting, thinking ye might still have amorous feelins for Zelda. Do you, though? Would ye regret it if ya gave her up good and well?"
"I already have," the blonde replied slowly. "I mean, I still think about her, you can't turn something like deep affection off so easily, but I don't think I'll be regretting it for the rest of my life. But thinking about her loving me, it..." Link sighed and his voice trailed off.
"Makes ye feel guilty, eh?" Lance finished, shrugging. The Hero of Time nodded unhappily. "...If you've well and truly put Zelda out of yer mind, then you've no reason to be guilty. Feel no shame in staying true to yer feelings, aye. I regret not staying in Shenalah; I met a girl there, sweet as honey and a voice like music, but I left with me father to go to Mellifluous Bay. I regret leavin' her; she had a barbarous father, so she did, but I think about her often. I know I'm a'goin' to go back and get her. Once you've done something like that, Link, 'tis best to pray over it and put it behind you. Won't help you to agonize over it for the rest of your life."
"What you say is true," Link replied hesitantly, removing his gauntlets and massaging his wrists, "but I don't think I love her. Miyako, I mean."
"No, matey, of course not. Not yet, at any rate, but you've been mourning over Zelda so much, it stands to reason why you've not got any feelins for Miyako. There's only room for one girl in a man's heart, and you're trying to fit in two. And correct me if'n I'm wrong, but I think you've been trying to compare them, see which one you'd be happier with." Link started at that, wishing it wasn't so, but Lance was completely on the mark. "I think you two would be fine together, that's what I think. 'Tis good luck to marry within an amiticia fatalis."
"Marry?" Link raised a skeptical eyebrow at his friend. Lance laughed, embarrassed, and held out his hands pleadingly.
"Forgive me for wishful thinkin', ger fada. I feel like her brother, so I do; there's more'n one reason why I've not tried to court Miyako myself."
There came a small noise from where the girl in question was sleeping, and Miyako sat up, pulling a face at the tightness in her muscles.
"Oof, I feel like I've come back from the dead, I do. What time is it?" She glanced up at the inky sky.
"It's probably around midnight now," Link answered. Lance stood up and stretched. He gave a sly look to the nineteen-year-old, who rolled his eyes in reply.
"I'm off to find a place to relieve myself. I'll be back in a few minutes, aye." As soon as he'd disappeared into the darkness, Link turned his attention to Miyako. No time like the present, he thought.
"How are you feeling?"
"Sore, tired, and thirsty." She dipped her hand into the small freshet spurting from the ground and brought it to her mouth. "And you?"
"I'm fine. Wasn't me who fainted from the heat." He grinned as he said it, knowing it would get her goat, so to speak. It did. She turned on him, her eyes narrowed with irritation.
"Faint? /Faint/? I didn't /faint/, I fell asleep. There's quite a difference between the two," she sniffed indignantly, glaring at him. "And I suppose you're such a tough he-man, then?"
"No, not really," he replied, giving her a winsome smile. He enjoyed the effect it had on her, changing her irritability to sheepish surprise. "I'd not spend the rest of my life defending my ego. I'm quite happy being ordinary."
"Ordinary, not likely," she replied, running her hands through her hair to straighten it out. "A Hero of Time is nothing short of /extra/ordinary." He doffed his cap politely.
"Thank you, ma'am," he acknowledged, still smiling. She stared at him for a moment, then smiled back.
"I was wrong, then, perhaps you do have a sense of humor."
"Only if the situation calls for it."
"And this is such?"
"Sitting alone in the dark with a pretty girl? Perhaps, but it would call for other senses... and actions." To his delight she laughed instead of becoming angry or embarrassed.
"So bold you are, but not half so bold to do half of what you say," she retorted good-naturedly. Miyako studied him for a moment, her head cocked to one side. "You're not half bad, though."
"Not half bad? I always assumed I was 'awfully handsome,' " he replied, pretending to be hurt. She shrugged, still smiling.
"...Lance has been gone for a while, hasn't he?"
"Yes..." The idea that Lance might be gone for a long amount of time was very attractive... and very convenient. Link tried not to think about... well... no, he shouldn't even think the word. 'How have I to manage to stay like this for so long,' he thought to himself. He was beginning to burn again, that was the only way he could describe it, like being burned alive slowly but pleasantly.
"I think he's trying to play matchmaker," she stated suddenly. He was glad for the distraction.
"Indubitably," Link replied, imitating a regal accent. Miyako laughed again, shaking her head.
"You're incorrigible, Link," she chuckled, rubbing the side of her arm thoughtfully. "Silly Lance, he's always got some crazy notion in his head."
'That hurt,' Link thought, then winced inwardly. Matchmaking them, a crazy notion? He felt crushed already; perhaps Lance was wrong in all aspects, then—
"But sometimes, they work out for the better after all," she added, nodding her head toward the returning figure. His heart soared; silly phrase, he thought, but that was what it felt like. Lance had been right; once he made peace with not choosing Zelda, he felt free. "That was quite a while you were gone, ger fada."
"So it was, I was afraid of what I might return to," he replied good- naturedly, grinning from ear to ear.
"Lance, you're incorrigible," she chided, blushing.
"Is that your new word?" Link asked, raising his eyebrows at her. She thought about that for several moments, then smiled.
"Indubitably."
------------------------------------------
My left wrist is all fracked up from typing too much. I really like how Part Two's going, but unfortunately, I'll have to take a loooong break from the computer, so I'll try to update whenever possible, but mostly, I'll just be clutching my wrist in pain. -_- This isn't the first time; gods above, I'll have carpal tunnel syndrome by the time I gradute.
Several minutes later they had scaled the western side of the gorge entrance and were heading to the Massharte Ruins, the sun beating on their backs.
"We should have thought to brought cover," Miyako observed, turning around and walking backwards as she shielded her eyes from the sun. "We'll be fainting from heat soon enough, I'd guess."
"Nay, not if we have fresh water," Lance objected, stopping to crouch down and touch the dusty earth. "That is, if I've not lost all my potentia last night. We'll see, I s'ppose."
"Your potentia? Is that ancient Kreyan?" Link asked dubiously, wiping a bead of sweat away with a gloved hand.
"Aye, for power or might," the sailor replied, standing up and dusting off his hands on his pants. "Though in regard to magic. If it drops too low, then ye must drink Magic Restorative." Link nodded; there was a familiar subject. "I've not had to call on me powers for the longest time, but... last night was no mean feat, so it wasn't." The three of them continued walking west.
'What I wouldn't give for Epona now,' Link thought wistfully, wondering how his horse was getting along back at Hyrule Castle's stables. The chains would fly by like nothing on the back of his wild mare. But if wishes were fishes, there'd be no room in the river for water, the blonde thought, smiling slightly.
As the day progressed, however, his mind kept returning to that wish. The sun began to lower in front of them, but the ruins were still not in sight.
"We should have been there by now," murmured the Hero of time to himself. His two friends were wordless, almost stoic in their silence. He wiped his forehead with an arm and stopped walking. "Perhaps this isn't where the Massharte Ruins are?"
"No, they lie west of Phoenix Pass," Miyako said faintly, sitting down immediately. "I think... think we should take... a breather. I'm quite tired."
"Aye," Lance replied weakly, falling to his knees. " 'Tain't the walking, 'tis the heat, so 'tis..." Link was momentarily nonplussed; why were they tired of the heat, but not him?
"Can you call water, Lance?" The sailor was almost asleep. "Lance!"
"Huh? Oh, aye... I may try..." With a slightly trembling hand the dark-blue- haired Kreyan brushed his fingertips against the ground and several cracks appear. A mediocre amount of water bubbled forth, looking pitiful among the chains of dusty plains. Link stooped down and soaked his hat in the water briefly, then pressed it to Lance's head.
"I think you've both got heat exhaustion. We'll have to stop for the night." Although concerned for his friends, he was disappointed to be losing so much time. He turned away to attend to Miyako.
"Mmm hmm..." Lance removed his shirt slowly, almost sluggishly, then tossed it aside and lay back. "I think a quick forty winks would do me a world of good, aye..."
"If you're really a Fire element, I didn't think the heat would bother you," Link stated off-handedly, sitting down next to her and wiping her face with his damp hat. Her skin was hot and dry to the touch. She tried to shake her head, then stopped and put her hand to her temple, as though dizzy.
"It... it doesn't work like that, silly, it's... just having... an affinity... with an element... I'd not survive.... a drop into an erupting volcano... now, would... I?"
"Are you all right?" He peered into her face intently. "This doesn't seem like heat exhaustion a'tall."
"I'm very tired and my head aches, so it does," she replied almost apathetically. Link took a quick glance back at Lance and saw that the sailor was fast asleep, breathing normally. Part of his side was getting wet from the water still trickling out of the ground, but no doubt it was for his benefit.
"I think you should lie down," he suggested sternly, putting a hand on her shoulder and pushing her down to the ground. Link stood up and looked at the setting sun. It seemed to hang just above the horizon, eager to stay and torture his two friends with its radiance. "Looks like we've lost the rest of the day."
It was before midnight when Lance woke up, as though fighting his way back to life. Link watched him from the other side of the small fire he'd manage to get going. The sailor groaned and rubbed his back with both hands, cringing.
"Aye, 'tis a burn, lousy sun," he muttered. "We're lucky to be let off so easily, so we are." The dark-blue-haired Kreyan tapped the ground several times and the trickle of water became heavier. "Thirsty, matey?"
"No, I drank before you woke up," replied the Hero of Time, watching Lance rub a damp hand up his back, sighing with relief.
"We shoulda drank more water afore we left," stated Lance. " 'Tis always a good idea to have plenty of fluids in ye afore traveling distances in the sun." He jerked his head towards Miyako, who was still sleeping. "How be yer girl?"
"She's fine—" Link stopped and scrutinized Lance's face carefully. The sailor kept a cheerfully neutral face. "You bastard," he said after a moment, trying to resist a smile and failing entirely.
"So I may be, but I didnae mistake the look on your face when you were a'tending to her, so I didn't. It mayn't be love, but it's something, so it is."
"There is something about her," Link admitted, keeping his eyes on Miyako. Two could play at the trick he'd played much earlier that day. "She's not a callous feminist, which would be unbearable, but she's independent enough."
"What ye said earlier, about her not needing to be rescued... Is that what you're lookin' for, then? Why ye declined Zelda's hand?"
"...I /think/ so, but... I don't know. Zelda is wonderful, but... sometimes..." He shrugged, unable to explain how he felt. "A fine friend, and I may have felt something for her, but... now, I'm just not sure about anything anymore." The Hero of Time looked at Lance strangely, as though seeing him for the first time. "What are you so interested in how we felt about each other? I was always sure that you liked her yourself, despite your claims." This statement seemed to throw Lance off his guard.
"Me? Oh, no! Ye've got it all wrong, matey! Sure, and she's pretty and all, but there are other women that wouldn't be half so tough as her. She's strong, but a guy as myself likes to know where he stands with his woman, so I do." Lance touched his forehead without thinking about it. "I've a mind to go back to Shenalah, in the South Seas, so I have. Their women are fine and so is their food. I'm not a cruel man, I'd not have complete control of my girl, but I do like to feel more protective of than protected by a girl, I do."
"I don't feel protected by Miyako," Link replied quizzically. "Not a'tall."
"No, 'course not, matey, but if there's something about her ye like, then by all means go with it. 'Tisn't wise to keep waiting and waiting, thinking ye might still have amorous feelins for Zelda. Do you, though? Would ye regret it if ya gave her up good and well?"
"I already have," the blonde replied slowly. "I mean, I still think about her, you can't turn something like deep affection off so easily, but I don't think I'll be regretting it for the rest of my life. But thinking about her loving me, it..." Link sighed and his voice trailed off.
"Makes ye feel guilty, eh?" Lance finished, shrugging. The Hero of Time nodded unhappily. "...If you've well and truly put Zelda out of yer mind, then you've no reason to be guilty. Feel no shame in staying true to yer feelings, aye. I regret not staying in Shenalah; I met a girl there, sweet as honey and a voice like music, but I left with me father to go to Mellifluous Bay. I regret leavin' her; she had a barbarous father, so she did, but I think about her often. I know I'm a'goin' to go back and get her. Once you've done something like that, Link, 'tis best to pray over it and put it behind you. Won't help you to agonize over it for the rest of your life."
"What you say is true," Link replied hesitantly, removing his gauntlets and massaging his wrists, "but I don't think I love her. Miyako, I mean."
"No, matey, of course not. Not yet, at any rate, but you've been mourning over Zelda so much, it stands to reason why you've not got any feelins for Miyako. There's only room for one girl in a man's heart, and you're trying to fit in two. And correct me if'n I'm wrong, but I think you've been trying to compare them, see which one you'd be happier with." Link started at that, wishing it wasn't so, but Lance was completely on the mark. "I think you two would be fine together, that's what I think. 'Tis good luck to marry within an amiticia fatalis."
"Marry?" Link raised a skeptical eyebrow at his friend. Lance laughed, embarrassed, and held out his hands pleadingly.
"Forgive me for wishful thinkin', ger fada. I feel like her brother, so I do; there's more'n one reason why I've not tried to court Miyako myself."
There came a small noise from where the girl in question was sleeping, and Miyako sat up, pulling a face at the tightness in her muscles.
"Oof, I feel like I've come back from the dead, I do. What time is it?" She glanced up at the inky sky.
"It's probably around midnight now," Link answered. Lance stood up and stretched. He gave a sly look to the nineteen-year-old, who rolled his eyes in reply.
"I'm off to find a place to relieve myself. I'll be back in a few minutes, aye." As soon as he'd disappeared into the darkness, Link turned his attention to Miyako. No time like the present, he thought.
"How are you feeling?"
"Sore, tired, and thirsty." She dipped her hand into the small freshet spurting from the ground and brought it to her mouth. "And you?"
"I'm fine. Wasn't me who fainted from the heat." He grinned as he said it, knowing it would get her goat, so to speak. It did. She turned on him, her eyes narrowed with irritation.
"Faint? /Faint/? I didn't /faint/, I fell asleep. There's quite a difference between the two," she sniffed indignantly, glaring at him. "And I suppose you're such a tough he-man, then?"
"No, not really," he replied, giving her a winsome smile. He enjoyed the effect it had on her, changing her irritability to sheepish surprise. "I'd not spend the rest of my life defending my ego. I'm quite happy being ordinary."
"Ordinary, not likely," she replied, running her hands through her hair to straighten it out. "A Hero of Time is nothing short of /extra/ordinary." He doffed his cap politely.
"Thank you, ma'am," he acknowledged, still smiling. She stared at him for a moment, then smiled back.
"I was wrong, then, perhaps you do have a sense of humor."
"Only if the situation calls for it."
"And this is such?"
"Sitting alone in the dark with a pretty girl? Perhaps, but it would call for other senses... and actions." To his delight she laughed instead of becoming angry or embarrassed.
"So bold you are, but not half so bold to do half of what you say," she retorted good-naturedly. Miyako studied him for a moment, her head cocked to one side. "You're not half bad, though."
"Not half bad? I always assumed I was 'awfully handsome,' " he replied, pretending to be hurt. She shrugged, still smiling.
"...Lance has been gone for a while, hasn't he?"
"Yes..." The idea that Lance might be gone for a long amount of time was very attractive... and very convenient. Link tried not to think about... well... no, he shouldn't even think the word. 'How have I to manage to stay like this for so long,' he thought to himself. He was beginning to burn again, that was the only way he could describe it, like being burned alive slowly but pleasantly.
"I think he's trying to play matchmaker," she stated suddenly. He was glad for the distraction.
"Indubitably," Link replied, imitating a regal accent. Miyako laughed again, shaking her head.
"You're incorrigible, Link," she chuckled, rubbing the side of her arm thoughtfully. "Silly Lance, he's always got some crazy notion in his head."
'That hurt,' Link thought, then winced inwardly. Matchmaking them, a crazy notion? He felt crushed already; perhaps Lance was wrong in all aspects, then—
"But sometimes, they work out for the better after all," she added, nodding her head toward the returning figure. His heart soared; silly phrase, he thought, but that was what it felt like. Lance had been right; once he made peace with not choosing Zelda, he felt free. "That was quite a while you were gone, ger fada."
"So it was, I was afraid of what I might return to," he replied good- naturedly, grinning from ear to ear.
"Lance, you're incorrigible," she chided, blushing.
"Is that your new word?" Link asked, raising his eyebrows at her. She thought about that for several moments, then smiled.
"Indubitably."
------------------------------------------
My left wrist is all fracked up from typing too much. I really like how Part Two's going, but unfortunately, I'll have to take a loooong break from the computer, so I'll try to update whenever possible, but mostly, I'll just be clutching my wrist in pain. -_- This isn't the first time; gods above, I'll have carpal tunnel syndrome by the time I gradute.