Link helped Auren to her feet, coughing from the smoke that burned his lungs and his eyes. The young Gerudo had abrasions on her right cheek and shoulder from where she had hit the ground, and a red mark on her left cheek from when King Bulbin had punched her, but she seemed otherwise all right. She was all right for the moment, anyway. After a few more minutes, neither one of them would be fine.
The Gerudo was terrified, and clung to his arm with a tight grip after he helped her up. She was shaking, and it was a wonder that he wasn't as well. Tears started from her eyes, but it was hard for him to tell if it was from the smoke, or from fear. His own eyes were watering and it made it hard to see, but he put a hand on hers reassuringly. "I'll get us out of here." he told her, the sentence followed by a cough, his lungs burning from the smoke. Even though he told her that, he had no idea how. While he could use his bombs, he wasn't sure if bringing them out into the middle of a fire was a good idea. Barnes had warned him about that.
There was a scream that almost sounded human, and he saw the terrified blue boar stomping its feet and slowly backing up, unsure where to go in order to get away from the flames. The animal was trapped in here with them and left to die. King Bulbin didn't even care about his mount, and saw it as a tool to get him around and not a living creature. An idea began to form in Link's head, and he grabbed Auren by the hand, tugging the coughing Gerudo towards the boar.
The animal squealed when they got close, giving rasping snorts that were its version of coughs. He tried to take a step towards it but it swung the tusks on its large head at him, too terrified to understand that the human was trying to help it. The Bulbins probably did not treat their boars well, so the animal had no idea what kindness was. At least King Bulbin wasn't kind to it.
There was a groaning sound and one of the stall dividers near the back fell over in a shower of cinders. There was no time, and he had to try to use this boar to escape. Knowing that the song could soothe horses, he began to sing Epona's song to the frightened boar, carefully reaching out to to it. The boar continued to breathe heavily, but it was still as he gently placed his hand on its head, and its red eyes fixed on him when he touched it. There was intelligence in those eyes, and curiosity; the boar was listening to the song.
Still singing while fighting the urge to cough, he climbed onto the oddly-shaped saddle, motioning to Auren to come up behind him. Eventually he had to stop to cough, but the boar was now docile even though it was standing in the middle of a burning building.
"Magic…" the Gerudo said in awe, climbing up behind him and wrapping her long arms around his waist.
He wasn't about to disagree with her, but now was not the time to talk about magical songs. The boars that the Bulbins had rode into their camp did not dodge obstacles as they ran, and went through high fences and even an archer's roost. The animals were strong and used to ramming things with their heads and tusks, and that was he was hoping would happen here. Otherwise, they were going to die.
Auren's arms tightened around his middle, and he could feel that she was still trembling in fear. As brave as she was in battle, facing death by being trapped in a burning building was too much for her. There was a crack as one of the beams from the ceiling fell down behind them, and she made a small sound, tensing up. The boar did not respond, still spellbound by the song. He kicked his heels into the pig's sides and cried out with a "Hya!"
The spell on the boar was broken, and it squealed in fear at the fire and the strange creatures on its back demanding that it move forward. It charged with a sound that was half-growl, half grunt and held its head low, not slowed by the wooden plank gate that was chained shut ahead of it. It raised its tusks as it hit the gate, rending it apart as it rammed through. The chain and the lock remained behind, and the two humans and the pig went straight through the wood of the gate itself.
Link tried to rein the animal in, but it was enraged by either the fire or by them, and it continued to charge blindly forward at a gallop while huffing deep grunting breaths. He held on to the peak of the saddle while Auren held on to him, and as their wild ride continued he discovered something unfortunate about the saddle he was sitting in: it was designed for King Bulbin, and not a human. Every rough bounce of the boar as it ran mashed his testicles, and the unwanted joyride was painful. He grit his teeth and kept pulling on the reins, until finally the pig slowed to a walk some distance from the stable. Breathing hard, he keeled over in the saddle with a wince.
"Are you wounded?" Auren asked, concerned. Her grip around him loosened and she patted at his back kindly. "Do you need help?"
He shook his head, not sure he could explain properly. Or if it would be proper to explain, for that matter. The boar stopped and he awkwardly slid out of the saddle, leaning forward with his hands on his knees. He stood like that for a moment, finding that this was one pain that was much harder to will away than previous ones. "That saddle was not made for human men…" he managed.
"What? But you rode in it fine." She did not seem to understand. Not bothering to use words to describe it, he gestured at the area between his legs while still wincing painfully. Her eyes widened and from her expression, he was sure her face had flushed with color. She put a hand to her red-painted mouth and gave an awkward little laugh. "I guess I can't help you there. At least the king didn't hurt you with that big axe."
Link straightened, finally recovering. It was ridiculous how much something as simple as that hurt. His voice was still a bit strained when he spoke. "I can take some solace in that fact. Thanks for your concern, but I'll be fine." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Are you all right? You were frightened."
"I've never been that frightened before. I'm ashamed." She moved forward on the saddle to sit in it more properly. "Anything I can fight, I'm not afraid of. I can't fight a burning building."
"Hey, it's okay. I was scared too." He reached up to pat her kindly on the knee. "Don't worry-"
Before he could say anything else, there was a loud crash behind them. He turned to see that the boar hadn't taken them in a straight line, but had curved around in half of a loop, and they were on the back side of the burning stable. The building was collapsing in on itself with a groan and a flurry of embers. A wave of rolling heat created as it fell hit them even from as far back as they were, yet a chill went down his spine. They could have died in there, and it would have been a horrible death.
There was a distant wail coming from near the stable, and at first he wasn't sure what he had heard, until he placed the high-pitched voice. "Midna…" he said, and then took off at a run towards the burning building. His feet kicked up sand as he ran, which was hard to run on. He ignored how difficult it was to move on the sand, he ignored how his groin still had a dull ache, and focused only on finding his friend. She had never made a sound like that before, and he was afraid that she was injured. Or worse, that she had gone into the burning building to look for him, only to have it collapse on her.
He saw her then, hovering as close as she dared to the intense heat of the burning rubble that was the stable. She faced the flames, her front illuminated by their ruddy glow, and her face was contorted in grief as she stared at what was left of the building. Link called out to her, realizing that she thought that he was in the building when it collapsed. "Midna! I'm over here!"
The Twili turned her helmeted head to face him, the look of pain replaced by one of surprise. The expression only remained for a second, and then her face returned to one close to tears. She shot towards him, tackling him in the chest with a cry.
He didn't expect that. While he had seen her weep two days ago, she was having something of an existential crisis at the time, the weight of everything they had been doing finally crashing down on her. She had a nervous breakdown, according to her. This was different. She gripped the front of his tunic and buried her face in it, not behaving like the strong, snarky woman he had become fond of. "I thought you died in there." she croaked, her voice muffled. "I thought you were gone."
Link put his arms around his friend, understanding how she felt. He had been in tears himself when she was dying, not sure how he would continue on without Midna. It was clear the felt the same way when she believed he was dead. The two of them had undeniably became close, forming a unique relationship based off of the unique mission they had to save both their worlds.
She lifted her head and turned it, pointing with a small hand to the two other people standing nearby in the midst of Shadow Beast corpses. "I...I had to protect them. I couldn't get to you because I had to protect Hida and Auru so the Shadow Beasts wouldn't get them. She's hurt so they couldn't run away."
He looked over at the pair, who were no worse off than Midna. Auru's face was drained, and he looked bereft of both strength and emotion. His wife had an arm around his shoulders, supported by him as she stood on one leg, the other bloody and wounded. Hida had a hand to her face, but he could see her shoulders shaking from where he stood. Neither one of them noticed him standing there, too caught up in their own grief. Midna thought that she had lost her friend, but the couple thought that they had lost their only child. If Auren didn't come over soon, he would go over to tell them that she was fine.
"It's all right now. The two of us escaped on King Bulbin's boar, and we're fine." He splayed a hand across her small shoulders, patting her gently. "You did good. They're safe because you did the right thing."
"I didn't get your back this time." Midna said, resting her face against his green tunic again. "I'm a filthy liar. I didn't do what I said I would."
"That was a difficult decision to make, and I don't blame you for choosing them over me." When she made a small weepy sound, he looked down at her. "Hey. It's fine now. Still...it's all right to cry, fool."
The Twili gave a tearful-sounding laugh even though her face was dry, and didn't move. He had taken what she had told him while dying and turned it around. That statement told her that they both felt the same way about their close friendship, and that he understood how she was feeling.
There was a thudding sound as Auren rode up on the boar. "Oh no, what happened? Is anyone hurt?"
Hida quickly raised her face to stare at her daughter, smears of tear-streaked kohl on her cheeks. "Auren?" She gasped, and beckoned with a hand to her daughter, calling her over. "Auren! Vehvi!"
Auren put her hand to her mouth and uttered a single word in her native tongue, "Vama…" The young woman dismounted quickly, running over to her parents while babbling in the same language. The pair wrapped their arms around her, and a tearful but relieved exchange in Gerudo went on between the three of them.
Link stood silently while watching this very personal moment, still holding Midna close, and wondered how painful it would have been to lose your child. He knew how much it hurt to lose his parents, and losing his mother was still quite painful when he thought about it. Having a child die while you're helpless to do anything had to be one of the worst feelings a person could experience, he decided.
"Don't wander off like that again." Midna said quietly to him, her face turned to watch the family. "Don't leave me alone."
The pain in her voice and choice of words stung. She was so alone before finding him, and he knew it. "Don't worry," he said quietly, doing his best to keep his own emotions under control. It wouldn't do for him to be crying like everyone else. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise we'll be together so we can see the end of this."
"What in the world is happening here? Who died?" Sumati asked as she rode up on Epona with her axe on her back, holding the reins to Auru's blood roan. There was no sign of Hida's horse.
"Me and Auren." Link said, looking over at her. "They thought we were in that burning building when it collapsed."
The short Gerudo's face looked somber. "Then your reactions are reasonable. Did you need me to leave?"
"No." said Hida. "It's fine now. I look like hell, but…" she shrugged and let Auren go, and the young woman came to stand at her side. The Gerudo leader gestured towards him. "Link, come here."
Midna reluctantly pulled back to hover a bit away from him. "Go ahead. I think I'm okay now."
He nodded and walked over to the chief. "Is your leg all right? It doesn't look like you can walk."
"I'll be fine once Ranna catches my horse. Put me on a horse and it doesn't matter if I can walk or not." Hida motioned him to move closer. "No, come here. Right here."
He stepped up to her, expecting that perhaps she needed him to support her while Auru left to do something. It was a strange request, since Auren was right here to help if needed. "Uh, sure. Did you need-" he began, but then blinked in surprise as the Chief of the Gerudo put her free arm around him, pulling him into an embrace. "Oh."
"You saved my vehvi." Oh, so "vehvi" meant "daughter" in Gerudo. Then "vama" must mean "mother". He really should try to learn more of the language while was here. "She told me what you did, and how you showed no fear as you found a way to escape." Hida's voice was quiet and close to his ear. "You saved Auren, and you saved Sumati." She pressed her lips to his cheek, and pulled back with a smile. "What an amazing man you are. We are so fortunate that fate has brought you to us."
"Technically, I brought him to you." said Auru with a faint smile, having recovered and now back to his usual sense of humor. "But seriously, thank you for saving my daughter. After the way you used your family's song to control the boar, and the thing you did with the Master Sword to prevent Sumati from being transformed, I'm going to have a lot of questions for you."
"They're probably the same questions I've been asking myself. I have no idea how I did those things, only that I needed to do them." He shrugged. "We can talk about it later. I need to figure out where King Bulbin went. With any luck I'll catch him, or at least get Auren's horse back."
"You're out of luck. The big one rode north ahead of what was left of his army. Either he's in the Arbiter's Grounds by now, or in line to get away through that portal." Sumati said. "I'm heading back up there to cut off some more green heads in a minute, but I needed to get Auru his horse." The short-haired Gerudo twisted around in the saddle to face a rider that came up with two horses. "Speaking of…"
The woman was Rennie's sister, and she held the reins of Hida's horse in her hand. He recognized the unique aqua and green tack on the stallion, the leather decorated with fringes of colorful yarn. "Finally caught him. The idiot thought he could chase after Tija's mare." Ranna said. Rennie and Ranna. Cute.
"There's no time for romance on the battlefield. Too bad horses don't understand that." Hida limped her way over to the horse, aided by her husband. She stopped with a frown, facing north towards the Arbiter's Grounds. A rider was rapidly approaching, shouting something, but the woman was too far away to be understood.
"Hero! Hero!" she cried once she was closer. The Gerudo wore her hair in a pinned-up braid, and carried a two-handed sword on her back. "More Shadow Beasts! You must come to the portal! Our warriors are attempting to fight them without getting too close, but I don't know how long they can manage." She gave a meaningful glance at Sumati.
"Take your horse back." Sumati dismounted, ignoring the look the tall Gerudo gave her. "You have work to do, and I know better than to try to fight those things again. Besides, I should help Hida get to the city to get patched up. Her oaf of a husband can't lift her up anymore." She handed over the reins to Link when he walked up.
"I'd like to see you lift a grown Gerudo woman when you're fifty-nine years old." Auru said, crossing his arms.
"When I'm fifty-nine, I'll be able to throw you all the way to Lake Hylia from here, old man." the subchief said with a grin.
Link mounted up while this banter went on, and he shifted a bit in the saddle. His own saddle was far more comfortable than the nightmare he had to sit on just a bit ago. "We have more work to do, Midna. Let's go."
She smiled, but it was subdued. While she said that she was all right, it seemed like she was still a bit shaken. "Right." The Twili blurred and merged with his shadows. He wasn't sure why she wanted to do that instead of sitting in front of him, and then his answer came when she quietly spoke in his ears. "I'm still feeling a little needy. Let me do something familiar like this, all right? Indulge me."
He chuckled and patted his chest. "It's fine." He turned Epona towards the nameless warrior with the braid, ready to go.
"Wait." Auren said, coming to the mare's side. "Take me with you."
His mouth opened as he started on a more insulting reprimand like he had given Sumati earlier, but then he reconsidered what he would say. She wanted to help, not be in his way, he could see that. Link shook his head, staring down at her disapprovingly. "Auren, come on. I already told you-"
"Don't tell me to stay here. Ever since I decided to stick with you through this battle, I've had the most excitement I've ever had in my life. Where you go, interesting times follow." She reached up to put a hand on his knee, just as he had done to her a few moments ago. "If you don't bring me with, I'll run after your horse." It was not a joke, he could see that. She actually would chase him in order to fight alongside him.
"All right, but on one condition: you stay on Epona no matter what. If things look too dangerous for you, I want you to ride to safety." He held out his hand and slipped his foot out of the stirrup so she could mount. "Promise me."
Her grin of excitement was as bright as the sun. "I promise." Auren took his hand, and with his help hauled herself up and behind him. She put her long arms around his waist. "Let's go."
Epona seemed far more relaxed now that Link was on her back, even though she was carrying more than twice the weight she was used to. Then again, Sumati was so bulky, it was possible that both he and Auren combined were fairly close in weight to the subchief. The mare did seem like she was tiring, awake far longer than she was used to, unlike the Gerudo horses she had been running alongside. This poor horse; she was his only tie to his father, and he had been abusing her ever since he rescued her in Kakariko. His father's spirit was probably furious in the afterlife over how his foolish son had been treating the last horse he had raised.
Just as he was when Auren was in front, he was acutely aware of how close she was when she sat behind him. Her grip had started at his waist but moved up and around his ribs due to her height, and it strangely felt like being hugged from behind. He had held on with only one arm, and assumed that she would be strong enough to not slide off while doing the same, but she used both, her torso up against the shield on his back, which had to be cold.
She leaned forward to speak into his ear about the very subject he was thinking of. "I thought it would be warm back here, but there's this damn piece of steel between you and me." She gave a small laugh. "This is what I get for not wearing an extra layer tonight." That was fair. She was still wearing the same red blouse that had left the middle of her torso bare, and even though she was wearing a cotton cloak, it was not ideal clothing for the cold desert night. "Link?"
He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder, and saw the amber eyes close to his own, framed by her dark red hair. The golden makeup around them sparkled in the moonlight. If he wasn't on his way to kill a bunch of Shadow Beasts, he would have thought more about how her pretty face was close to his own. "Yeah?"
"You need to promise me something too. My mother and Sumati both got to sit and have tea with you, and talk for a long time." She smiled. "I want that too. All the women my age only are interested in finding husbands or having children. I want somebody to talk to that isn't obsessed with that. Promise me you'll have tea and a chat with me."
He gave a short laugh. "Are you asking me out?" he teased, facing forward again while steering the cantering horse towards the glowing portal in the distance.
She have a little dismissive snort. The sound reminded him of Midna. "If that's what makes you happy, then sure. Yeah. I'm asking you out. Only I'm asking Midna out too, because I want to talk to you both."
"Oh, now we have to compete for her, Link." Midna's voice piped up, sounding amused. She sounded like she was doing better. "I'm going to win her affections first, trust me. Your lukewarm personality doesn't hold a candle to mine."
The three of them laughed, and Link looked over his shoulder at the Gerudo again. "Fine. It's a date. A double-date, I guess? I promise."
She grinned and shifted so she sat up straight behind him, and gave his chest a little pat. He wasn't sure if that pat was for him or for Midna, who Auren knew hid on his body. Either way, it didn't seem like she was actively pursuing him or griping about the fact that she wasn't allowed to like the other women. Much like Sumati, she simply found him interesting and wanted to be his friend, as well as Midna's. It was nice that a few Gerudo were like that.
The portal glowing against the dark backdrop of the Arbiter's Grounds grew closer, and the Bulbin shantytown was left behind. They passed through some worn stone pillars that jutted up from the sand like fangs in a monster's jaw. Slain Bulbins and the occasional dead boar littered the sands as they rode, the Gerudo being thorough in their extermination of Zant's forces. Soon the occasional dark form lay among the dead, which was a worrisome sign that the Gerudo had fought some Shadow Beasts. With any luck, none of them had been transformed. He grimly rode on, his eyes searching for any sign of the warriors Ranna had told him to rescue.
He spotted them not even a minute later. A group of about twenty Gerudo were mounted on their large horses, clustered together as they fired their bows at approaching Shadow Beasts that dropped one by one from the nearby portal, the purple runes on their chests glowing in the night. The two groups were about evenly matched in numbers, but the Gerudo were in trouble. He reined in his mare and practically jumped off the saddle, landing in the sand in a half-crouch. "Stay with Epona!" he told Auren, and then he drew the Master Sword and began running towards the group of Gerudo.
"Fall back!" he shouted breathlessly as he ran, only now realizing how tired his body was. He ignored it for the moment and waved his right arm at them, motioning for them to leave. "Don't fight them!"
About a dozen faces turned his way, and most of the women immediately backed up or turned their horses around when they saw him approach. One of the women in the front that had turned her head to look at him did not back up immediately, and that was a mistake. A group of four Shadow Beasts swarmed her horse, pulling the screaming animal down to the sand. The Gerudo cried out and dropped her bow, attempting to draw her sword, but another Shadow Beast clamped its long-fingered hands down around her neck.
His run turned into a sprint as he tried to get there in time, the Master Sword beginning to glow as he came closer. He was not fast enough. Blackness spread out along the Gerudo's olive-brown skin, creeping up her face and down her half-bare torso, and she began to scream in horror. The screams turned to ones of agony as she writhed and twisted, her limbs elongating while purple runes shot through her rapidly-blackening body, her body itself growing larger and absorbing her clothing. A flat metal mask formed in front of her face, curved and sculpted similar to the stone masks of the other Shadow Beasts, and her screams strangled and stopped. The transformed Gerudo shook herself off like a wet dog, then let out a bellowing howl and loped towards her former comrades.
Link was there then, putting himself between the Gerudo and the new Shadow Beast. Courage glowed on his hand and the Master Sword blazed with silvery light, but nothing happened. He had no idea how he had stopped Sumati's transformation, and what had happened there wasn't happening here. The former Gerudo stopped going for the women behind him and focused on the Hylian, her magical instructions telling her to go for his race first. He dodged a long swing of her fist, feeling dread grow in his gut. He couldn't help her. He didn't know how.
"You have to kill her, Link!" Midna cried as she materialized next to him to engage a different Shadow Beast. "It's too late. There's nothing you can do."
He pushed down his emotions, knowing that this woman had fought beside him, that she most likely had children. His body reacted innately, using muscle memory while he did his best to steel himself and ignore his heavy heart. The Hylian sidestepped swiftly, drawing the Gerudo Shadow Beast into an over-extended lunge, just as he had many times before. And just as he had done many times before, he stepped forward with a thrust and ran his blade through her chest.
There were cries of dismay from the Gerudo behind him, but he couldn't pay attention to them now. More Shadow Beasts were upon him, and he couldn't be Link, the man who had just killed a former comrade. He had to be the Hero of Hyrule, the only one who couldn't be transformed into one of Zant's monsters. He pulled the Master Sword free from chest of the dying former Gerudo and threw himself into the dance of combat, and did what he was born to do, the reason he existed.
Midna fought next to him, using the curved sword that the dying Shadow Beast had tried to draw before she was transformed. Neither one of them spoke as they killed the monsters one by one, trying to keep up with the flood coming from the portal. A Shadow Beast came up behind Midna and raised its fist up above its head to bring them down in a heavy blow, but it staggered and fell once a flaming arrow embedded itself in its chest.
"Midna!" Auren called from where she sat on Epona. "The portal!" There was a whistling sound as she fired another arrow into one of the Shadow Beasts near the Twili.
The sorceress used the opportunity given to her to shoot up into the air in a mass of dark orbs and towards the portal. He couldn't see her actually do it, too busy with dodging another Shadow Beast before running it through, but he saw a flash of aqua color at the edge of his vision as she captured the portal. Another arrow flew past him and into something at his back that he couldn't see, Auren doing her best to help from a distance. The arrow came close and normally he would have been angry at an archer for firing so close to him, but he trusted her. After seeing how good she was with a bow, he knew she would never hit him.
Midna re-appeared next to him, holding the bloodied sword in her hair. "Link, there's…" she paused, hesitant to say.
"What? How many more?"
"About a dozen, but that's not it. There's a leader under the portal." She did not fight, only dodged with a distracted expression. What she had seen bothered her.
"There's a Bulbin commander there? Or wait...is Zant there?!" He hoped not. Zant would easily transform all of these Gerudo, Auren included. Even though he only had known her a day, his heart couldn't handle that thought.
"No. It's a Shadow Beast." The imp dodged another attack and began to fight again, slicing the monster's throat open. "It's a special one."
He wasn't sure what she meant by that. There had been multiple races transformed into Shadow Beasts, and while they were all uniquely different, none of them were particularly special. They all had the same enhanced strength and mindless aggression. There was no time to ask about it, and he knew he'd see what she was talking about in a minute.
Link shifted the fight across the sand, leaving a trail of black bodies behind him, his sword glowing white. He still hadn't bothered to get out his shield, which didn't matter when fighting Shadow Beasts. Auren felled one to his right, and then he heard an unfamiliar voice as he faced what appeared to be the last one.
"It'sss you…" it rasped, but it wasn't coming from the Shadow Beast in front of him. It came from near Midna. He couldn't risk looking, and repeated the same footwork to draw his final enemy into a lunge. He had just killed this final dark monster when the voice spoke again, only a few seconds having passed since it first said something.
"Why do you resssissst?" it said, its voice deep and sibilant. The voice sounded male and human, but as if it was coming from a mouth of the wrong shape. When he turned to look, a Shadow Beast stood before Midna. Unlike the others, it was not hunched over on all fours, but stood with its legs slightly bent, its long arms at its sides. This Shadow Beast did not have a curved stone mask; its was a circle of shining steel, with accents of carved stone jutting out behind it like spokes on a wheel. The purple runes on it glowed brightly, and a purple gem was embedded in the skin of its chest. It actually wore clothing, a dark mantle over its shoulders that was the same black as its skin.
He could see why this one was unique. It was a human Shadow Beast, but it was speaking. It was sentient. Midna stared at it silently, blade held in her hair, not moving from where she hovered.
"Our Lady of Shadowsss…" it implored, holding out one of its long hands towards her. "Join usss. We would welcome you."
Midna's stare was stony. "No. You should know why I won't."
The former Twlii tilted its masked head to the side. "Becaussse you ran? Do you fear usss? What a shame." It raised its hand, purple and black energy forming around it, similar to the spell Zant had hit them with. "You were ssso lovely, Lady of Shadowsss. Too bad!" The Shadow Beast hurled the ball of purple-runed magic at her.
Without thinking of what he was doing, Link jumped in front of Midna and swung his sword in a quick backhand as the spell flew at him. Instead of being hit by the spell, it reflected off the Master Sword, sent back at its caster like a stone being hit by a stick. Crackling dark energy surrounded the Shadow Beast and it arched its back in pain, its hands extended in front of it like claws. It collapsed, falling onto its back, but it still moved. The spell may have been meant to kill Midna, but it wasn't fatal to its caster.
Link reversed his sword in his hands and leaped into the air, coming down on the chest of the sentient Shadow Beast. The Master Sword impaled it next to the purple gem in its torso, and the monster cried out, its limbs quivering. Then it went limp and disappeared into black squares, its body returning to the Twilight Realm.
He stood and turned to the Twili. "Please tell me what that was all about. Our Lady of Shadows? Just who are you, Midna?"
She shook her head and turned her back to him, floating towards the group of Gerudo nearby. She was refusing to tell him, as frustrating as that was. He frowned at her as she went, knowing that something important had just happened, but he had no clue exactly what. The Master Sword in his hand seared away the blood, and he looked at the blade, which was still glowing. How did he know to knock the magic back like that?
I put the instructions into your mind, Master. It was something that your predecessor learned to do, and I felt it was relevant in this situation. Was that acceptable? I did it when you faced the Bulbin King and you had no objections.
Yeah, it's fine. Thanks. He considered asking the sword some questions, but he heard the sound of somebody weeping and turned his head to look. A Gerudo was kneeling next to the body of the transformed warrior, sniffling. A few others had dismounted and were gathered around her and the fallen Shadow Beast, and Midna hovered nearby quietly.
Link walked over and knelt down next to the crying woman, who raised her face. "Hero…?" She reached out to grab his right hand, grasping it in both of hers. "Hero, please. You saved Sumati. Save my sister."
Could he do that? He had saved Sumati, and even though he was tired, he knew that he had the ability in him. Courage began to glow on his hand again, and there were murmurs from the gathered Gerudo. He focused on the Master Sword, not entirely sure what he was doing.
It is impossible, Master. We do not currently have the power to return a fully transformed person to their original form, the sword said. You may not realize it, but when you saved Sumati, you used much of the power of Courage. It is no different than when you were transformed into a wolf in the Twilight, but this time you actively cast the spell. You must wait to use that power again, and I must rest to regain some of my own power. I apologize.
Are you sure we can't do something? Maybe if I rest for a bit… He wasn't sure it would work now, even though he wanted it to. This woman had died because he couldn't get there in time.
You cannot save a dead woman, Master. The sword's artificial voice was cold and devoid of emotion.
Link raised his eyes to look at the hopeful woman, who waited while clutching his hand in hers. "I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do, not for the dead."
The Gerudo's lip quivered, and she let go of his hand to put her own up to her face as she broke down into sobs. The sound wrenched his heart; he didn't know this woman, but after seeing the transformation, he understood her pain. He gently reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her even though he felt helpless. It was all he could do to keep his own tears at bay.
The Master Sword grew dim, and after a minute he sheathed it while staring at the dark corpse, listening to the sounds of the dead woman's sister weeping. "What was her name?" he asked quietly.
"Setskie." one of the nearby warriors said.
He put his left hand over the dead woman's long, blackened fingers, Courage glowing softly with his desire to help, even though he knew he could do nothing. "I'm sorry, Setskie. I'll make things right. The man who caused this will die." Link stood, withdrawing his hand from the weeping woman's shoulder, and turned to walk away. The Gerudo silently parted for him, giving him respectful space. He needed to get out of here; if he stayed, he knew he would wind up in tears.
Link pulled up his hood as he walked, hoping to hide his face from the Gerudo. The battle was a success, but something about watching a single woman being transformed in to a Shadow Beast unsettled him and filled him with guilt. All the others he had killed were like her, terrified and in pain in their last moments before they lost themselves and became monsters. And he killed them. He had to kill them.
He wished he was with Ilia, not in this cold desert with the faint touch of dawn on the horizon. Not surrounded by bodies, many of which he had killed by himself. Not with the transformed body of Setskie behind him, her sister in tears at her side. He wished he was with Ilia so he could pull her into a hug just like she had done to him, and bury his face in her neck and cry. He wished for something he could not have, and could not realistically hope for, because what he was doing was far too important for him to stop to worry about himself. He had to swallow it all and keep going.
Renado was right. He was an emotional disaster waiting to happen.
"Are you all right?" Auren asked as she brought Epona up to meet him. He had hidden his face in his hood as best he could, since he knew that people could read his emotions easily just by looking at his face. She was still able to see him regardless of the hood.
"No. I want to cry." he said truthfully. "I could have saved her, I know I could have."
Negative. As I said before, it was impossible. Do not blame yourself.
The sword's words were no comfort to him. It didn't matter whether it was impossible or not. What had happened here made him acutely aware of the guilt that his discussion with Ilia had touched upon. He couldn't think of it. What he needed was to rest, to get away from this place and shut his eyes and not feel anything for a few blessed hours.
"A warrior's guilt. It happens in battles, and I imagine it even happens to heroes with indescribable magic." Auren held her hand out to him. "Come on. Let me get you away from here."
He took it and was pulled up behind her. When he wrapped his arms around her waist, he leaned forward and rested his face on her shoulder, feeling tired and miserable. "Our date with Midna will have to wait. Sorry." he said, his voice muffled.
Auren didn't laugh at the attempt at a joke, and put her hand on one of his where it sat on her stomach. "I can make you tea, but you don't have to talk. I know somewhere quiet where you can be away from everyone else and sort through your thoughts." She nudged Epona into a walk. "I'll help you care for your poor horse, too. I can't sing to save my life, but I do know how to clean all the sand and dust from a coat."
"Thank you." He was so tired. Now that the sun was beginning to rise and they were making their way south back to the city, passing countless Bulbin corpses, he realized how hard he had fought. "I'm glad I met you. I needed a friend out here." He felt her pat his hand, but she didn't say anything.
They rode in silence for a while, and he sat behind her while resting his head on her shoulder, just above where she had slung her near-empty quiver and bow. She said that he should sort through his thoughts, but he didn't want to. He didn't want to think. Right now it was enough to be close to another human being, somebody who didn't mind how moody and stupid he was being.
"Is he all right?" a voice asked to his left, the soft sound of a horse's hooves on the sand near her. Sumati.
"He blames himself for something he had no control over. I think this was his first battle." Auren said.
"It was, and Link's like that." Midna's voice came from the horse to the left. He hadn't wondered where she went, and it was another thing to throw onto the pile of guilt. Gods, he needed to sleep so his mind would stop being so damned stupid. "How are you doing, buddy? Hanging in there?"
"I hate everything and I'm hungry." he said, not moving his head. He was glad that they were moving at a walk, so he wasn't jostled so much. He needed to hold onto somebody else, to rest his head just like this. He hadn't known Auren for very long, but her warmth was comforting.
"Crying?" she asked.
"No." he said, turning his face to look at her from the depths of his hood. She was seated in the saddle in front of Sumati on a dark Gerudo horse. "I'm getting better about that. How are you doing?" He didn't state the specifics behind that question, not in front of the other two women. She would not have wanted to talk about the sentient Shadow Beast that had called her by a title he hadn't known about before.
"I'm all right. We can talk about that later." She sighed when she made eye contact. "Sad eyes again. You could break a lot of hearts with those sad eyes."
"Midna, I swear, if I have to hear you talk about my looks one more time…" he began.
"I'm talking about how your express your emotions, not your looks." The Twili crossed her arms. "You don't have to get grumpy about it. Or maybe you do. You are Link, after all."
"Huh, yeah. Sad eyes. Makes me want to pat him on the head." Sumati leaned forward to peer at his face. "You look awfully young with only your face showing like that. How old are you?"
He shut his eyes at the comment and now didn't look at anyone. Sad eyes indeed. Let's see you talk about sad eyes if they're closed. "Eighteen."
The subchief gave her typical short laugh. "Ha! A kid. No wonder you're not handling your first battle well."
"Eighteen? I thought you were as old as I am." Auren said. Since he had his ear rested on her shoulder instead of his face, he could hear her voice reverberate through her body. "I'm twenty-two, and I quite honestly thought you were over twenty by the way you spoke." If she was twenty-two and Auru was fifty-nine then Auru was...was starting his personal life rather late. He was too tired to do math. "Not that eighteen is really young. Some of us Gerudo have children at that age, or even at seventeen. Ranna started at eighteen, and now she has two girls."
"You can't talk, youngling. You still have some growing up to do." Sumati gave a short grunt. "You and I are in charge for now, since Hida's getting stitched up. The medicine to numb the pain has a negative effect on her, and she can't tell her ass from a hole in the ground." She gave one of her short laughs, amused by her own joke. "Anyway, we only lost three, including Setskie. That's pretty damn good compared to what we estimate is about five hundred enemies. Not counting the Shadow Beasts that Link and Midna took care of."
"I know he wasn't counting, but the two of us took care of about seventy Shadow Beasts. He did most of the work like he always does when he fights, but I'd say I took care of nearly thirty on my own." Midna said.
He made a small sound and turned his head to bury his face in the archer's back, feeling his eyes burn with unshed tears. About forty Shadow Beasts. Forty innocents. He was trying not to think about it, and Midna had to bring it up.
"You need to take that poor man somewhere away from everyone else." The bravado was gone from Sumati's voice, and she sounded sympathetic. "I suggest Hida's old house, if the Bulbins haven't turned it into a pig stable. We plan on putting a lot of warriors in the palace since it doesn't seem like they trashed the place, so he can't be there."
"I planned on taking him to the house. I also plan on sleeping there so he has some company." She didn't ask him if he wanted that, but it was fine. He wouldn't mind sleeping near either of these women.
"Oh? Are you finally working on becoming a mother?" Her tone was sly, so there was no way of telling if she was serious or not without looking at her face. Link kept his own face down, especially after that comment. He still had his arms around Auren's middle, and didn't need to think of what Sumati suggested.
Auren's tone was pained. "Can't I make male friends? People were like this when Shad visited a few years ago. We became friends and everybody thought something else was going on." He could feel her shift as she turned to look at Sumati. "You know him, right? He was my father's apprentice and his replacement at Hyrule Castle. He came here to study some things and meet the Sages."
"Oh yes, I did hear about that. Handsome and as bright as the sun itself. Not exactly a warrior, but people were still falling over themselves trying to court him." Sumati gave a chuckle. "If your mother hadn't told everyone to keep their paws off of him, we'd have a repeat with poor Link here."
"I think Hida's my new best friend for doing that." he said after not talking for a while. "I don't plan on becoming a father on this trip to the desert while I'm busy saving two worlds, and I swear she's the only woman here who realizes that. Uh, other than you three."
"You never directly told me, but I had figured it out." Auren said, patting the hand he had on her waist again. "That's another reason I'm going to stay in that house with you. If I'm in there, nobody will dare try to compete, even though the four of us know nothing is going on."
"People already think you've claimed him because you wanted to fight at his side." the other Gerudo said.
"Good. Let them think that. Maybe then they'll leave him alone." The young woman gave a short laugh. "The truth is so obvious, and I know they'd feel the same way if their minds weren't preoccupied with how he looks. Anybody would want to fight next to this guy. Watching him is amazing."
Sumati made a grumbling sound. "I hate to admit it, but I think he's better than me, and he's just a little pup too. Don't you go around telling anyone that, Link. I have an image to keep."
"You ladies are too kind." He raised his face to look around, and saw the Bulbin structures surrounding them, bodies littering the sand. "If the horses aren't too tired, can we pick up the pace? I'm hungry."
Only a few minutes later they passed through the north gate of the city. Even though he was tired, the conversation the four of them had on the way back helped soothe Link's mood, and he was feeling more like himself when they rode past the tall dark stone building that was most likely the palace. Quite a bit of activity was happening at the foot of the stairs of the place, women coming and going, and standing in groups discussing things. A few of them waved at their group with smiles as the four of them passed.
"We have our home back now." Sumati said. "It's full of dead Bulbins and there's pig shit everywhere, but the city has returned to us Gerudo. My tribe can live here now."
"Once we clean it up, anyway." Auren reined in. "I know the two of us are supposed to be in charge, but do you mind if I take the horses into the stable and then get Link and Midna settled?"
"Not one bit. I know you haven't recovered from your scouting and hard ride earlier today. Yesterday?" Sumati squinted at the rising sun as she dismounted. "Whichever. I want you to get some rest too. I already worked out a chain of command to get things organized here. You might have noticed there's a lot of women working."
She was right. In the flagstone plaza leading up to the palace, there was organized activity. Two carts were parked there with boars attached to them instead of horses, the large pigs calmly eating piles of some kind of feed. They had their saddles removed, and weren't as angry as King Bulbin's mount was. A group of Gerudo were hauling Bulbin bodies to the carts and throwing them in, preparing to take them from the city to presumably bury them. Another group of women was going through a pile of Bulbin weaponry, cataloging what was there while examining it. In a place cleared of the dead farther towards the center of the city, a large fire burned, and a group of red-haired women were cooking something there. The smell of roasting pork wafted their way.
"We're eating the boars?" Auren asked as she dismounted.
The shorter Gerudo shrugged her broad shoulders. "Just the dead ones. We haven't decided what to do with the others. Maybe keep the well-behaved ones, maybe bring them back to Holodrum and let them go there." She handed the reins over to the other woman. "We'll talk later around sunset. I'm going to check in with your mother. Go take care of our guests." She took a few steps over to Link, who had also dismounted from Epona. "I need to talk to you." she said quietly, no traces of her usual attitude.
The Gerudo tugged down his hood to look him in the eye. "Let's see that face. There. Link, I don't understand your power. I don't know how or where you got that magic sword of yours, and I don't know what the hell that thing in your hand is. All I know is that you saved me from becoming one of those dark beasts. No one has raised their voice at me like that before, and you were absolutely right to do so. I have no doubt that you would have killed me to prevent others from suffering the same fate." She smiled and put one of her large hands on his shoulder. "Thank you. My tribe still has their chief, and my daughters still have their mother." He had no idea that she was a parent. It was hard to picture, but then again all Gerudo had an obligation to breed, even Sumati.
"I'm glad you understand. I would have felt guilty about killing you, just like I do about Setskie. I still would have done it. I would kill Midna if she became a threat to others for any reason, which was a discussion the two of us already had." He looked into her red eyes with a determined expression. "You understand how serious I am about what I need to do. I hope the rest of your people will understand, too."
"They already do. I have heard your name and title come out of the mouths of many warriors over the past few hours." Sumati put her hand to the side of his face and smiled warmly. This woman would be his friend until her dying breath, he could see it. "They've seen past your pretty face and know how you fight and why." She patted his cheek. "Now go take care of your Epona. She worked just as hard as the rest of us tonight." The muscular woman stepped back and turned without another word, walking back towards the palace.
Link smiled and watched her as she walked away, and then turned to Auren. "Let's go find a stable."
After leading the thirsty horses to one of the many fountains that ran constantly in the city, Auren brought them to the southwest part of the city. The stable they went to was a long whitewashed building with ocher whorls painted on the outside in a repeating pattern, and it still smelled a bit of pigs. Inside there were Gerudo working to both clean stalls and to care for horses. He passed a thick-muscled Gerudo warrior that wore the brown and blue of Sumati's tribe, and the woman had a black eye and a few bruises on her olive-skinned body. Link knew exactly why she had those, and he looked her in the eye as he passed. The woman lowered her head in shame and gave him a bow, looking regretful.
Maybe he didn't need to have words with the two of them after all. Sumati really had taken care of it.
"Now that she's seen you fight, she probably fears you more than Sumati." Auren said once the three of them were out of earshot. She knew what the woman and her comrade had tried to do.
"I don't want anyone here to be afraid of me. I've had some of that back home, and I hate it." He brought Epona into a clean stall, which looked like someone had just scattered straw on its floor. It looked like the Gerudo were systemically going down the line and cleaning all of them. "I was hoping that if I was surrounded by warriors, it wouldn't happen."
"None of the other warriors have a legitimate reason to be afraid of you." Midna said, floating up and off the horse that Sumati had ridden. The tack it wore was unfamiliar; it did not belong to either Sumati or Auren. "That fear will go away with time, and she'll probably respect you just like the others."
He didn't have much to say to that, and he began removing Epona's saddle, humming to her. The exhausted mare lowered her head sleepily, her ears tilted towards him as she listened. As tired as she was, the horse still wanted the same treatment as always. He got her to lift her head for a moment when he brought an apple out of the pack he had in his saddlebags. Epona would never refuse a treat.
"That song is magic." Auren said from on the other side of the wooden divider, where she was caring for the black horse, a mare. "You sang it to the boar when it was panicking and out of control, and it suddenly sat still so we could ride it. It ignored its instincts because of your song."
He stopped humming, considering it. The way he had calmed that boar was the same as he had calmed Erol's two horses. The only difference was the horses were bred by his father and already knew the song, whereas the boar was simply a domesticated pig that had no reason to respond to singing. "My father taught me that song, and he was the one who trained Epona to respond to it. I used to think that I was good with animals, but I learned not that long ago that the song is actually magic. It's been passed down in my family for generations, having been written by one of my ancestors. It was a song from a dying woman to the young daughter she knew she would leave behind. I guess love can create powerful magic."
He fished out another apple and reached around the divider with it in his hand, offering it to her. He felt her fingers on his as she took it from him. "Is this for me or this horse?" she asked.
"The horse. I have pears for us."
"Pears?!" Her head appeared around the divider as she leaned out to look at him eagerly, her braids swinging. "I love pears! Link, I could kiss you." Now the reason Auru told him to buy the pears was far more obvious. It wasn't that other Gerudo would like them, it was that the man knew his daughter loved them.
"Get in line, sweetheart. There's a queue." He grinned at her, finally feeling like his old self again. Maybe he was learning to become more resilient, just like Midna.
"Oh, don't flatter yourself." Midna said, coming to stand on the stall door next to Link and putting her tiny hands on her hips. "Nobody wants to kiss that clever mouth of yours."
"Speak for yourself. I'd kiss his feet if it meant he'd bring me pears." The Gerudo returned to the horse to give it the apple and finish cleaning it up. She was done first and came around to watch Link as he examined Epona's legs and hooves. "Pears?" she asked. Her expression and tone reminded him of a dog begging for scraps.
He chuckled, fixing his eyes on her face as he lowered his sleepy horse's hoof. Link went back into his pack and pulled out two yellow-green pears. "Fine, but don't blame me if this spoils your dinner. Breakfast. Whatever." He handed one over, and Auren took it from him with a small girlish sound of delight. At times he was acutely aware that he was surrounded by women, but other times he forgot that these tall warriors were female. Whenever one of them did something feminine, it caught him by surprise. He found himself smiling at her reaction.
She bit into the pear and continued to look at him with her lovely amber eyes. It was the same look that she had given him earlier when she had kept staring at him, forgetting her manners. He ignored it, holding his pear in his teeth as he finished checking his horse's legs. Auren continued to watch him, and he was aware that she wasn't watching him work, but was looking at his face. She said that she only wanted his friendship, but some of her actions said otherwise.
"You have nice, healthy teeth." she said, chewing.
He raised his head to stare at her from where he had bent over next to the mare, and took the pear out of his mouth. "What am I, a horse?" That jesting comment made her look away awkwardly. What was a joke and what wasn't? She certainly had a good sense of humor, but some of the things she said could have been interpreted as subtext. He took a bite of the pear and stood up straight, considering her. "How am I going to take this new friendship seriously if you appraise me like a horse? Do I really look that exotic to you?"
She raised her eyes and opened her mouth slightly, and then smiled when she finally picked up on his jesting tone. "To be fair, you are an exotic breed. I guess I can't help it. I must be into blondes."
"If that's the case I'll dye my hair red like yours. Then there will be one less reason for you to stare." He put on the waterskin that he had left in the saddlebags, and made his way out of the stall, finishing up his pear.
"Don't you dare!" It had to be a joke, since he was joking, but her tone was very convincing. "Even if you did that, you'd still have those nice blue eyes. You can't change the color of your eyes, and that blue is such a rare thing to see here in the desert."
Link snapped his fingers. "Darn. You got me." He took one last bite from the end of his pear and threw the core into Epona's stall, knowing the mare would find it and eat it eventually. "Pears are well and good, but I think I need something more substantial." He offered Auren his arm. "Would you like to go have a meal with a blue-eyed rascal?"
The Gerudo grinned and linked her arm in his, and the two of them began to walk out of the stable. Bantering with Auren had improved his mood considerably. He genuinely liked the woman and enjoyed her company.
Midna sighed behind them once they began walking. "What about me? I remember when the two of us used to joke around like that…" her tone was overly-dramatic.
"Come along, Miss Jealous." Link said over his shoulder. "I'm hungry."
"And what, listen to the two of you get flirty with one another some more?" This sounded like more of a legitimate complaint, but the Twili followed the two of them out of the stable anyway.
Because of the portal, the Bulbins had a considerable stockpile of food in the city, much of it stolen produce from Central Hyrule. They also had flour, corn meal, rice, beans and even dried fish, beef and venison. They looked and acted like brutes when they fought, but the Bulbins themselves were a race of people who ate very much like humans did. Not only that, but the insides of the buildings were not turned into pig boarding like Sumati suggested. The Bulbins fortunate enough to live in the buildings in the city maintained their homes. It suggested that they had come from towns or cities themselves somewhere in Holodrum, before their king had led them east. If that was the case, something must have happened out west. A civilized race wouldn't up and leave their home to invade elsewhere unless they had a good reason.
After a meal of spiced pork and rice, Auren led Link and Midna to a whitewashed home in the west half of town, down one of the narrow side-streets. Most of the streets in Gerudo City were narrow, wide enough to admit a horse or a cart, but still narrow enough that the buildings would cast shade on the stones of the street.
"Is this it?" Midna asked as Auren walked up to a door.
"This is it. It used to be my mother's house before she became chief, and now it's mine." She pushed open the door and stepped inside. Link followed her, but Midna stayed out in the morning light, where things were already becoming hot.
"You two go ahead. I don't need to sleep, so I'm going to help the warriors take care of the dead bodies in town before they sit in the sun too long. I can carry a lot if I need to." She shook one of her small black fingers at them. "Now, I want you two to behave. If I come back and find anything indecent, there will be trouble." Their banter had begun to include her as well, and the three of them had joked through the meal and the walk to Auren's house.
"Yes, ma'am." Link said. "We'll probably be asleep when you come back."
"Have fun throwing around corpses!" Auren gave her a wave goodbye.
Midna laughed, and shot off in a shadowy blur, leaving the two of them standing in the entryway of Auren's home. The Gerudo shut the door and then looked down at the floor near their feet. He followed her gaze and saw that there were three pairs of small boots placed neatly on a mat near the door.
"Come to think of it, some of them were barefoot. We really did catch them by surprise." she said.
"If they hadn't killed people and tried to kill me, I'd feel bad about it." He frowned. "This is a war. There's no place for pity or guilt here."
The Gerudo removed her cloak and hung it from a peg near the door. "Does that mean you feel better about earlier?"
Link removed his cloak and hung it near hers. "No. I had a discussion with a friend of mine not too long ago about the things I was doing, and she was upset by the fact that I had killed so many Shadow Beasts and Bulbins. She tried to lecture me about it, but realized that I wasn't happy about it either. I don't think how I feel will change." He followed her into the main room of the home, which had been kept tidy. "After watching someone get transformed it made me feel worse."
"You did look like you were about to cry when you said so. I had heard that men have a harder time controlling their emotions, so I wasn't going to say anything."
"Not necessarily all men. Just me." He reached out and picked up a small jade wolf that sat on a shelf against the wall that was full of curios. A green wolf, how appropriate. "I've been trying to keep my chin up, though. There have been a lot of people that have had it bad, and if I'm going to be a hero I need to be somebody they can look to for hope." He set down the jade figurine. "I guess you were a bit on the mark when you guessed I was lonely. It's a bit weird to have to pretend I'm something I'm not all the time, and as a result distance myself from everyone."
"You can be yourself around me. Tell me about your magic sword or the glowing triangles on your hand. Or don't. You don't have to tell me anything and we can continue to joke around with one another." The Gerudo was methodically picking up belongings left by the Bulbins and throwing them in a corner, gradually moving across the room. "We both have secrets, I'm sure."
"They're not exactly secrets, Auren. It's more like I don't tell anyone so they won't worry." He watched her as she tossed things across the room. Much of them were spare arrows and blankets, but there were a few articles of clothing and even a small book that was written in an unfamiliar language that was not Gerudo. "Did you want me to help with that?"
"How are you going to tell what belongs to me and what belongs to the Bulbins?" She turned and put her hands on her hips, looking down at him. "If they're not secrets, tell me something."
"Uh…" They had been secrets to keep from Ilia and the people of Ordon, and up until recently from Telma and her friends. Now there was no reason for him to hide things, not from this good-natured young woman from a different land. "All right. Here's something I haven't told anyone, and only Zelda and Midna know about. There was a magical field that covered the land when Zant invaded, magnifying his magic and making it easier for him to take over."
"The Twilight." Auren said, sitting down on the couch now that it was empty of Bulbin things. "I never saw it, but my parents could."
"Then I don't need to explain that part." He tugged his left glove off and held up his hand for her to see. "This mark on my hand isn't just a mark. It's the Triforce of Courage. Do you know what that is?"
Her orange eyes widened, and she stared at the triangles on the back of his hand. "I know about the Triforce. My father made sure to teach me and my mother a lot of what he knows, although we're not supposed to tell the other Gerudo about it. You're carrying the Master Sword, which is the sword for the hero of the Hylians and nobody else."
"Then you understand." He made a fist and Courage began to glow softly. After earlier, he was beginning to understand how to actively use it. "The Twilight turned all sentient things into spirits, trapped in a life that they weren't really living. You included. Courage prevented that from happening to me. In fact, when I was first pulled into the Twilight by a Shadow Beast, it tried to transform me." He relaxed, and Courage winked out. "The Triforce was able to turn me into something else, a reflection of my soul, or of my core personality. It turned me into a wolf. When I went through Hyrule lifting the Twilight, I did it as a beast, not a person."
Auren blinked at him, took a deep breath and blew it out. "Wow. Okay. That's...um." She gave a little laugh. "I can understand why you don't tell anyone about that. It's a bit much." She held up her long-fingered hands in front of her in a reassuring gesture. "Don't worry, I believe you. After watching you fight with the Master Sword and meeting Midna, I have no reason to doubt anything you say." She dropped her hands into her lap and looked up at him. "I don't think any of my secrets are as mind-blowing as that one." Her face darkened in a flush. "Well, it depends on who you talk to."
Link decided he was done standing in all of his gear and began to remove it, setting it on the other chair in the room. "You don't have to tell me anything. Secrets are secret for a reason. Everyone has something they don't want to talk about." He gave a sour grunt as he set his bow down next to his shield. "Even me. There are some things that I don't want to talk about, and haven't told anyone."
"Right." The Gerudo watched him as he unbuckled his quiver, and stood up to do the same. "I can sleep on the couch." she said after she had removed her bow and arrows. "Provided the bed isn't full of fleas brought in by the Bulbins, you can sleep there."
Link pulled his green tunic over his head. "How reassuring. Where's this flea-filled bed?" He had set the Master Sword on the chair, still attached to his baldric. He had planned on bringing it next to his bed again.
"In the back." She watched as he took off his chain shirt. "You ran around wearing all that heavy stuff, and still were doing backflips?"
"The chain isn't actually steel. I don't know what it's made of, to be honest. It's still heavy, but not as heavy as it could be." It was true. A chain shirt normally wore about thirty to forty pounds, but this one weighed half that. It didn't stop the rest of his gear from being heavy, though.
"Still, you must be fairly strong." she said. "Are you sleeping in that padded shirt? You're going to be warm."
"Do you think it's appropriate for me to be shirtless in a woman's home with her?" He thought of how Ilia had reacted, and wanted to prevent that reaction in Auren.
She gave a short sigh and shook her head. "It's going to get hot in here midday. Look, I think I can handle it, if you're worried about me drooling like the other women would." Auren furtively glanced at the door, and then at him again. "Fine, you get one of my secrets. I've seen a man with no clothes on. Trust me, you not wearing a shirt isn't going to faze me." That meant that Auren probably took a trip to Lakeside for a liason with one of the men there. It didn't seem like the kind of thing to keep to herself, considering how open Gerudo culture was about the subject.
It had to be something else, something she wasn't supposed to do. Something that she was intentionally keeping from the others, or perhaps her parents. Now he was convinced, and also weirdly intrigued, but he wasn't going to directly ask. "I don't understand why that's something you have to keep hidden." He pulled the linen shirt off over his head and tossed it on the chair.
Auren pressed her red-painted lips into a flat line, mulling something over. She did that instead of reacting to his bare chest the way she did to his smile, which was fine by him. "Come with me. I'll tell you while Midna's still out. You can't tell anyone else, though."
She led him through a kitchen area and to a back room, which had three beds crammed into it. "This is more beds than I left here, and fewer dressers. What did those damn Bulbins do with my clothes?"
"I guess we both get a bed?" He picked up one of the pillows to examine at it, and it smelled like a different creature's sweat. "Ugh, or not. I'll sleep on the floor."
"Relax, I have other pillows and linens." She went to the bed along the back wall, the room dimly lit by the light filtering through the carved wooden lattice in the window. Gerudo did not use glass. "It was Shad." she said bluntly. "He was the man I was talking about."
"Wait, what?" They were just talking about the Bulbins sweating in the beds. The about-face caught him off guard. "Shad? You mean the Hyrule Castle librarian? Blue eyes, brown hair, glasses...that Shad?"
Auren raised her eyebrows at him. "You know who he is?"
"He's a friend of mine, and he helped get me to Princess Zelda when it was important." He wasn't going into detail beyond that. The story of his curse could wait until tomorrow.
"Of course he'd be a friend of yours. Now that makes me telling you a bit weirder." She shook her head, mostly to herself. "No, I got into it so I'll keep going. I'll tell you why it's a secret. I slept with Shad when he was here four years ago. I wasn't planning to." Auren tugged the sheets off the bed. "I was supposed to bring him to East Oasis so he could look at the Colossus, and we were going to stay with the commanders since that building is technically a barracks and has extra rooms and beds. Keela had brought her children down to Lakeside to visit her husband, and Dai couldn't stay because two of her kids had fevers. That left us alone."
The Gerudo threw the dirty linens and blanket on the third bed, and leaned down to sniff at the mattress. It was probably fine, because she went into the room's single closet and retrieved spare bedclothes. "We probably wouldn't have done much of anything if we hadn't started to drink Dai's alcohol. Gods, can that man drink a lot."
"I noticed." He started pulling off the sheets from the bed, following her lead. "He can certainly drink me under the table."
"Me too, although I didn't realize it when we started. We were being foolish stealing booze as it was, and being even more foolish by getting drunk." Auren paused, hugging the clean pillow to her chest. "I think that's why he started talking about the real reason why he came to the desert. It wasn't to study our ruins, or to meet the Sages. That's what my father told my mother and I. No, he was one of the Hylians that had lost family to that terrible law that your idiot king made. Shad came here to find out what happened to them." Her amber eyes were distant. "He cried when he told me about it, probably because he was drunk. They died at the Arbiter's Grounds, just like so many others. Most likely their spirits haunt the place, like the others executed there."
Link stared at her. Shad had told him that he had lost his father and grandparents to the magic purge, but he had told a lie, saying he never found out whether his grandparents survived. Not only had he found out one of Auren's secrets, he had also found out one of Shad's.
"I didn't want him to cry, so I tried to cheer him up. Then things happened." She raised her eyes to meet his. "You can't tell anyone. My father would be furious and think I took advantage of his apprentice. My mother would be furious that I chose a man and only bedded him once without trying to get pregnant. Except neither one of us took advantage of one another, and neither one of us is interested in something beyond friendship. Sometimes something unexpected like that can happen between two people, they go on with their lives afterwards, and it never happens again. I don't think my parents would understand that idea."
"I can see why you don't want anyone to know." He took some of the clean linens from her and busied himself with fixing the bed he planned on sleeping in. With any luck, the Bulbins didn't have lice. "I'm not going to tell anyone, and I won't bring it up with Shad either. I think he would feel uncomfortable if I told him I knew about it."
"Thanks." She began throwing the used linens from his bed onto the ones from hers. "You know, people will think that we're doing the same thing. Midna's out there right now instead of being with you as usual."
"Let them. At this point, I don't care." He really didn't, and didn't get flustered at the idea like he usually would have. It was as if he was getting used to the Gerudo's attitudes about sex. He sat on the bed and removed his boots. "There's only so many times that I can say that I'm here to go to the Arbiter's Grounds and I'm not interested in finding a woman. I don't have time for that kind of thing, for crying out loud. Most of my people have been transformed into monsters for Zant's army. I have more important things to worry about." If he did have time, he would have been with Ilia at this very moment. He lay back and folded his hands on his stomach, staring at the ceiling with a little smile. "It's also very hard to find women attractive when they're so aggressive about it, even if quite a few of your people are beautiful. It's probably something you don't understand, growing up here."
She came to stand next to his bed, crossed her arms and looked down at him. "No, I get it. My people take advantage of the kind of men that don't care about somebody's personality. You aren't that kind of guy, though." Auren pointed around his collarbone. "What are these marks? It looks like something bit you."
"Something did. A giant plant." It had been two and a half weeks, but those particular bruises seemed slower to heal and now had turned yellow. There were still faint ring marks from the chain mail where it had been pressed into his skin.
Auren laughed. "You need to tell me about that tomorrow, before we go to the Arbiter's Grounds."
He raised an eyebrow. "We?"
"My father is going with you, right? Normally my mother would go with to protect him from anything in there, but she's injured. I plan on going in her stead so he stays safe." The Gerudo turned and began to walk from the room. "You simply can't get rid of me, Hero of Hyrule. You're doomed to have me in your shadow whenever you're in my desert." She gave him a smirk at the doorway before stepping out of the room.
It was fine by him that she came along. She could certainly handle herself, even if she was a bit too bold in a fight. Link lay there, eyes absently staring at the ceiling as he thought about what he needed to do tomorrow. Maybe he'd have to set some rules and make sure both Auru and Auren kept a distance from whatever he and Midna were doing in the Arbiter's Grounds. Whatever he and Midna would be doing sounded like it would include ghosts, which was not a pleasant thought. You can't harm a ghost.
Negative. I can in fact harm ghosts and malignant spirits.
That's right, the Master Sword was a sacred weapon that was damaging to anything dark or evil. He could actually damage ghosts, unlike when Midna attempted to hit the ones that chased them from Kasuto. Auru had mentioned that other things had been imprisoned there, so there could be the angry spirits of monsters in that place as well. No wonder the Gerudo avoided it.
He heard the door open and shut, and Midna's voice calling out. He opened his mouth to respond, but Auren did first. "I'm here, he's in the back." she said from another room nearby. There was another room off the kitchen area that went somewhere, so she probably went there for privacy.
"Oh, there you are." Midna's voice said, now closer. "You have plumbing in your city too?"
"We do, but no hot water." The Gerudo said something he couldn't hear, and the Twili laughed. He found his eyes closing as he half-listened to the conversation, feeling sleepy.
"Faster than you think. I can pick up and carry a lot of weight with my magic. I admit your people weren't thrilled about seeing shadow magic at first, but once I was able to move a dozen bodies at once without a cart, they got over it." Midna paused. "Were you two behaving yourself like good kids while I was gone?"
"Absolutely not. We had wild, passionate sex the entire time you were out working." This time the two women laughed together. Link's eyes flew open and he felt his face go a little warm. It was a joke, but sometimes jokes like that were a bit too much. The way they laughed about it made it worse.
"Careful with those jokes, Auren. He's a bit of a prude, and he turns as red as your hair whenever I try to make jokes. He's a good, good boy. Not that there isn't another side of him, like any man." Come on, Midna! Didn't she realize that he could hear her?
"Excuse me, but I am a gentleman!" he called out, feeling annoyed.
"Oh. I guess he's awake." She didn't sound embarrassed or guilty, just disappointed.
"I haven't been in here for very long, so yes. We were talking only a few minutes ago." The Gerudo lowered her voice a bit, but he could still faintly hear her. "I want to hear about that other side of him. From the look on your face, it sounds like you have a funny story."
Midna also lowered her voice, but her high-pitched tone carried into the bedroom easily. "I found it amusing, but I think it's too personal for him and the other party involved. If you want to know, ask him yourself."
Auren didn't say anything, or at least he didn't hear her say anything, and a few seconds later Midna floated into the room. "I didn't think me mentioning that you're such a good boy would offend you." she said, coming to sit on the side of his bed.
"It was the laughter that offended me." Link dropped his voice to a whisper. "Thanks for not telling her about drunk me and Ilia."
The imp grinned at him, and continued talking as if he hadn't just thanked her. "You need to grow a thicker skin, buddy." She reached out to pat his shoulder. "Even though I like you just the way you are, I think you still have some growing up to do."
"I'm managing just fine, thanks." He moved his eyes away from the Twili as Auren came back into the room. She had washed the makeup off her face, removed her jewelry, undid her braids and let down her hair. It was the first time he had seen a Gerudo not fixed up in any way. Even the soldiers that had escorted him into the desert wore jewelry and their hair styled.
"What? Do I look that different now?" she asked, carrying her sandals and setting them down next to her bed.
He rolled on his side and propped himself up with his right arm to continue to look at her as he spoke. "A bit. All that makeup you Gerudo wear changes your faces. I'm not sure how to describe it. It's not unattractive, don't get me wrong. But I think I prefer your face and hair how they are right now, because you're naturally very pretty and don't need to fix yourself up to be attractive." He saw her eyes change just slightly, like she was not only flattered but interested in what he was saying. "Uh, not that I'm hitting on you. I'm just saying."
The look Midna gave him was sly, but she didn't say anything. Auren put a hand to her cheek, which was starting to turn purple from being punched, and then quickly recovered. "Oh, dear. If you keep telling me how beautiful I am, I'm going to start falling for you. I'm already halfway there because you brought me pears."
Link lay back down, resting on his back again, and he decided to help her steer away from the awkward moment they just had. He put his hands behind his head. "Too bad for you. There isn't a woman in this room that has a chance with me. The only girl I love is Epona. Sorry, ladies." He gave a small smile when the two of them laughed.
"Of course I'd lose to a horse." Auren said, stretching out on what was probably her actual bed. The headboard was carved with a scene of running horses and stained dark, whereas the bed he was in was simple and smaller. It was probably a child's bed, dragged here from a different house. "For now, anyway." she said with a wink, and then she rolled over to put her back to him.
He shut his eyes and tried to sleep, but as tired as he was, his thoughts kept him from drifting off. Auren's rhythmic breathing came from nearby, the Gerudo not having any problems falling asleep now that she was back in her own home. She also hadn't used magic that reversed a woman's transformation into a Shadow Beast. He gave a small sigh and opened his eyes, a bit frustrated.
"Midna?" he asked quietly, so he wouldn't disturb Auren. "You saw what I did last night, right?"
She was still seated on the edge of the bed, book in her hands. "You'll need to be more specific. You did a lot of things last night."
"I mean with the Master Sword and Sumati's transformation."
"You used Courage and the Master Sword together to banish the curse. Like anything else you've done, I know what you did, but I don't understand how." The Twili didn't look up from her book, and reached out to pat his arm. "We're not going to have another useless discussion on your magic. Just accept that you can do things with sacred magic that nobody else can do."
He didn't want to let it lie, though. "I tried to use that power on Setskie. I hated how I had to kill her, and I wanted to at least give her family a human body to bury. The Master Sword told me that I couldn't because she was already dead. That's not all it said, though. The sword said that both it and me did not have enough power to transform anyone back. Like I was only able to do it to Sumati because she had only barely began transforming." He rolled on his side to look at her. "Do you think I could somehow get that power? I might be the key to turning all the Shadow Beasts into people again."
Midna shut her book, her expression serious. "I honestly don't know. Faron had said to you that it was unable to break your curse, but if you had all four Light Spirits as well as the Triforce, it would have been able to. It's possible that you need help from the whole Triforce, or maybe the Light Spirits, or maybe just you and Zelda together." She looked over her shoulder at him. "But the curse buried in your head and what happened to the Shadow Beasts is different, even if it's the same dark magic. And you were one person, where there are thousands of Shadow Beasts. And...we don't have Zelda right now."
"Is Wisdom gone, then? Zelda's soul inside of you, and she put her magic into you, but I would think if you actually had the Triforce in your body, you'd have the same mark on your hand as me." He reached out and took her small right hand in his, and ran a thumb over the back of it. "It's not there, so it's probably still in her body. Or simply...gone." He didn't like that idea, that now there could be two pieces of the Triforce out there and missing. What if Zant knew about them? "Is there hope for any of this?"
The Master Sword chimed softly from where it lay next to his bed. There is always hope, Master.
"Then what should I do, Sword?" he asked out loud. "What do you know that I don't?"
It didn't reply, laying silent on the floor. The sword had a pure soul in it and was probably incapable of lying, and because of that it had no answers either. He had hoped that either of them had a solution, something that a sorceress would know about magic, or an ancient soul would know about the Triforce. He had nothing. He sighed and let go of Midna's hand, putting the palm of his own on the bed near his face. The mark of Courage stood out on his skin there, mocking him. What good was his power if he couldn't use it to save the people he was meant to?
Midna stood and walked up to his head and knelt down next to it, putting her hand on his hair. "I'm sorry. I can see how this bothers you. Just because we don't have a solution yet doesn't mean there is one. We've done a lot of things together so far. This is something we simply haven't gotten to yet."
He lay there, still frustrated with the problem, with himself, with his inability to do something he knew he could potentially do. Some of the edge of that frustration was taken off by her kindness, by her words and the way she always touched his hair. She had done that more and more over time as they had grown closer, taking care of him when he was too much of an idiot to do it himself.
Link considered his friend and the things she had helped him through, and how her behavior had become increasingly physical. A thought occurred to him then, after spending some time being surrounded by women. Midna at first had seemed like she was so close to him because she was socially awkward, having lived a lonely life before she had met him. It seemed like a reasonable explanation for the way she always put her hands to his face, or touched his hair.
Except it could be something else. They had been through a lot and had grown close, but after a few hours ago when she had wept because she thought he had died, something felt different to him. It could have been his imagination, but perhaps her need to be close, to talk to him all the time, to reach out and touch him wasn't only to help him through things. It could have been for herself. That she had found an intelligent man that she could talk to as a peer, which was her ideal. How did she feel about him? Was it just friendship, and his mind was playing tricks on him?
He decided he didn't want to know. If he looked into it too much and found what he was now suspecting, it might make their relationship strained and awkward. He needed her as much as she needed him, but not in that way.
"I'm sorry I left you alone." he said after that silent train of thought. "It wasn't planned."
"You didn't have a choice in the matter. I know you were trying to kill King Bulbin." She tucked one of his longer pieces of hair behind his ear, an intimate gesture that he tried not to overthink. "I was surprised by how I reacted. You reacted the same way when you thought I was going to die. I think we've become attached at the hip."
He stared at the far wall past her, past the damned Triforce of Courage on his hand, past the niggling thought that she felt differently than him even though she was insisting they felt the same. "We're bound together, Midna. Through this whole thing, through everything we've experienced, we've needed to rely on each other so much that neither one of us can imagine being without the other." He had heard about people who had grown close through battle and trauma, but it really was something else experience that himself.
"Yes." she said, putting a hand to his cheek and giving him a fond smile. "And I'm grateful for you. I never had a friend like you before, and I know I won't ever again. Thanks, for everything." One of the sides of her mouth turned up in a lopsided smile, and she moved her hand to poke the end of his nose with one finger. "And try not to wind up in any more burning buildings, okay?"
He gave a small chuckle. "I'll do my best."
Midna picked up her book with a smile and walked down the bed to sit next to his legs, and leaned her back against them, just above his knees. She opened her book and didn't say anything else, this unique, wonderful friend that he had found in the most unlikely of places, the woman he had hated without understanding her, or understanding himself. Now things were different, and they were looking out for one another. He shut his eyes, finally able to drift off to sleep, and as he did so he felt a warm gratitude for his friend Midna.
Author's Note: Do you remember riding those boars through the desert in Twilight Princess? The first time I did that, I thought "wow, that poor kid is mashing his balls riding that thing".
And thus, his balls are mashed in the novelization too.
