Eggs.
Link's door was shut and the kitchen was downstairs, yet since his room was the closest he could clearly smell frying eggs. The smell roused him from a dark, dreamless sleep, and he opened his eyes to stare at the wall. He mostly had been sleeping on his right side, since every other way was uncomfortable, but that meant that he woke up facing the wall here in Kakariko.
"I smell eggs." he said, stiffly rolling onto his back and sitting up. One day he wouldn't be sore. If he was lucky, it would be before he turned nineteen.
"I do too." When he turned his head towards her, he saw that Midna was seated next to the window on the writing desk, legs crossed and book in hand. It was a cover he didn't recognize, so she probably had helped herself to more books from the Sanctuary. "I'm imagining toasted bread with butter to go with it." She shut her book and leaned her head back, groaning. "With hot black tea and maybe gooseberries and cream, and I need to stop this line of thought before I upset myself too much."
"Let's eat that meal once you're human again and have a normal stomach." he said, standing. As stiff as he was, he did feel better than the day before. Then again that could be due to sleeping in a bed versus on the ground. "Or you know, many meals since you'll need to eat like anyone else. What would you want to have, more than anything else?"
She set the book aside. "Oh...I don't know. I know what my favorite food is, but after not eating for almost two months straight, even just a piece of cheese is appealing." The Twili smiled in a distracted way, thinking about the things she enjoyed to eat, and put a small hand to her mouth. "I suppose...a strawberry tart. I like sweets."
He laughed at that. "Of course you do. You're one of the girliest girls I've ever met, yet at the same time I've heard you swear like a sailor. You're one in a million, Midna."
"Being one in the million doesn't get me a stomach that can currently eat a strawberry tart." She looked him up and down. "You still look awful. I haven't seen you without a shirt for days."
"Yeah, Ilia had quite the reaction too. Did you know that she just barged in here last night without permission?" He scratched at his hair. Yes, a bath was in order. "Although, that and her fussing over me are a bit more like how she used to be. She's pretty close to her old self. The only thing she's missing is memories of me. Of us."
"She wasn't being clingy again, was she? I was busy talking to Renado for a long time last night." The Twili floated up into the air to look at his bruises better.
"No. That was the anxious, broken Ilia. Now we have normal, strong Ilia...without any Link in her head." He gave a short sigh. "But she'll get there eventually, and I still have plenty to do at the moment. She did say a lot of things that a friend would say, and wasn't acting like a young woman trying to be cute to get my attention." Yet she had done some things that made him think that how she felt about him hadn't changed too much.
"That's good to know. Let me guess, she yelled at you over your injuries for being reckless, or not telling her, or something?" The Twili traced the diagonal bruise on his back with a small finger. She was the third woman to do that. Was it really that appealing to touch? "That's what I'd be doing to you, if I had just found out."
"Yeah, I was lectured about hiding things. I insisted that I was fine, but then I realized she wasn't just talking about my injures." He looked over his shoulder at Midna. "I admitted to her the same things that Ashei was telling me I should consider. That I'm not alone, and I have friends. I need them to get through this without breaking my brain any more than it is...so Ilia and I talked about that. And by talk, I mean rambled on and she patted me on the back and told me we'd talk more about it today."
She held up one finger. "Ah-ah-ah! It isn't rambling if it makes you feel better. That's called catharsis." The imp circled around him again to examine the wound above his knee. "Speaking of feeling better, how are your stitches doing?"
"Itchy and sore. At least the one on my knee is." He bent his knees a little, looking at the stitches. "It feels like it may be tugging a little less when I do this, which is good since I can't exactly ride a horse with my legs straight." At least so far he hadn't felt too uncomfortable while riding.
"What about the ones up here?" She moved to hover next to his left hip. "Let's take a look."
"Uh. I think I can only show you the top part of them without showing you something else." What did she expect him to do, drop his drawers?
Midna rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you good boy. I've seen it all already."
"That doesn't mean I want to show you again!" He knew he was red in the face, which was not helping the situation.
"Fine, I tell you what. I'll turn around and you take a look, all right? I'll even shut my eyes." She patiently turned her back to him without waiting for him to answer.
He glared at her back, annoyed at both her teasing and his own self for being such a prude. "Look, I know it's stupid...but this is one of those things that really bothers me, all right?" He grabbed the pillow off the bed, deciding to use it to cover himself so she could still see the stitches.
"I'm going to guess that's because everyone in Ordon is prim and proper, don't let boys and girls get too close while dancing, and probably have sex with the lights out. Or maybe it's because you don't have public bathhouses." She snickered. "Maybe all of those are correct. As nice as you say the people of Ordon are, they're fairly uptight and backwards. How close were my guesses?"
"The answers to your guesses go as follows: no, yes, I have no idea, and most likely. They might be backwards, but they're good people." He pulled his underwear down around his ankles and covered himself with the pillow. "I've found a compromise. You can look."
Midna turned around and went over to the long rent that was torn from the top part of his hip down towards where the other wound was. The Twili appeared confused when looking at him, and at first he thought that it was due to the fact that he was hiding his genitals behind a pillow. When she lifted up the Fused Shadows to examine him more closely with both eyes, he looked down at his own hip.
He had healed. It wasn't as if there was no sign of an injury was there at all; the skin had turned white and slightly raised where the wound had been. Yet there were no scabs, no inflammation, not even any bruising.
"How the heck did you heal up so fast?" Midna asked, peering at his hip with both eyes. "Link, you know that injuries like that can't heal in a week, right?"
"I'm well aware. It healed because Courage decided it was going to help me out." He smirked, knowing what her reaction would be. "Go ahead and get angry about how my magic doesn't follow the rules again."
She sighed and rested the helmet on her head so the stone covered her left eye again. "It is a little frustrating, you know. Especially since you could have used it to do to something about your broken rib. Not to mention your bruises don't seem to be affected much. It's only the two wounds on your leg, which is kind of dumb."
"I think it didn't do much for my rib because I wasn't hurt all that long before Renado healed me, and also I was willing to put up with the pain in order to get to Darbus." He shook his head. "But when I got these injuries, I was worried about how I'd be able to fight or ride a horse with them. I felt that I needed to be healed in order to do that well and didn't have the weeks to wait around, so Courage stepped up to help. I wasn't too worried about the bruises, so I think those are healing normally."
"Yeah, whatever. Farore's power is stupid and I'm tired of its weird double-standards." She turned around again. "Pull your undies up and get started for the day. Your stomach is making noise from the smell of those eggs, and I don't want to hear it anymore."
Once he was decent he began to shave, she and sat in her usual spot nearby and told him about what she had observed the refugees doing. Once they were safe, they began to behave normally. Many of them went to sleep right after eating, but there were a few reunions that were unexpected. There were a brother and a sister that had been in the group together for days and never realized it, and another refugee had found that his cousin and his family had come to Kakariko a few days before. That wasn't to say that there were no tears other than Shelly, but for the most part people were adjusting quickly.
Then she moved on to talk about Renado. "He was more than willing to talk to me." she was saying as she watched Link splash water on his face. "He did mention before that he and Olive live separately, but he never said why. Olive's a witch that runs a potion shop in Castle Town, or was. She wanted Luda to become a witch like her, which is typical. Men become shamans, women become witches. Eldin had pointed out to Renado that Luda had the same healing gift as her father, and she would never be able to use it while brewing bogus love potions."
"So they moved apart, and since Kakariko's so small, Olive moved to Castle Town?" Link asked.
"Yep." She swung her little legs as she spoke. "The two of them argued about Luda, and apparently Olive was already something of a strict parent, so it didn't take long for things to fall apart. Just because they don't live together doesn't mean that Renado doesn't love his wife. He's not sure how she feels about him anymore since she was the one who left them." Midna sighed. "He had spent the past day trying to comfort poor Luda, while also trying to comfort the poor refugees that were starting to show up. The poor guy didn't have time for himself, which he admitted was not good for him. He told me that he's been very upset with no way to vent."
"Please don't tell me the poor guy was crying." For some reason, that idea bothered him. Not only because Renado was his friend and he didn't want the man to suffer, but also since the shaman was the person everyone else turned to for comfort and advice.
"The poor guy was not crying. He isn't you, you know." She rolled her eyes at him when his stomach made a noise. "Hurry up and go eat already."
As much as he wanted to do that, he knew that a bath was in order, especially after what Ilia had said the night before. He pulled on the blue leggings and white shirt that Ilia had made him, and left Midna to her reading. Since he went out the back from the stairs on the second floor, there wasn't much activity there other than Telma hanging out some laundry, which was mostly linens. She didn't notice him, and he didn't say anything to get her to notice him. Talking to Telma always got him sidetracked, and he wanted to eat some fried eggs, dammit.
The same young Goron was sitting in the attendant's booth near the top of the cliff, but this time he looked sullen. He gave Link a brief look and then pouted and turned away. From how the boy was behaving, he must have gotten a lecture from somebody. Considering how the boy had behaved the first time he came up here to bathe, the young Goron probably deserved it. Glad he didn't have to talk to the snotty child again, Link walked over the bridge and into the rooftop bath.
There was a set of clothing in one of the square shelves, with a familiar pair of brown shoes and a folded set of spectacles. Shad. Now that there were more people in Kakariko, that meant more people were going to use the bath. He hoped that it was limited to the people in the Eld Inn and it didn't turn into a true public bathhouse. Sleeping next to the men and women he rescued from Castle Town was fine. Bathing with them was not. At least Shad was a friend, and even though he was still feeling a little squeamish about being seen nude by someone else, he told himself it would be fine if it was another guy.
After sticking his boots and clothing into one of the shelves, he went about the business of getting clean, being careful to not aggravate the wound on his leg. He still felt sore as he moved around, but it did feel less so now that it had been a week since the Arbiter's Grounds. After not seeing himself in the mirror for days, he was unsure if his bruises were getting better, but they must have been.
He was in the middle of an absent thought about one of the books he had read while at the Gerudo fortress when a flurry of black and white feathers slowly descended from the cliff not too far above, passing over both his head and the divider and landing near the large tub on the other side. That was not a duck flapping its way down into the bath; it was a cucco. He had to laugh at the sight of it, and heard two other male voices laugh as well. He finished rinsing his hair and stood, looking up towards the cliff where the bird had come from. There were a number of gnarled hickory trees up there, and he could see brown and black hens that were scratching for bugs beneath the trees. He didn't remember there being much on the east side of the canyon wall, but perhaps there was a farm or houses up there he didn't know about.
He came around the divider to see a human, a Goron and a rooster in the large tiled tub. Shad and Laron were grinning at the bantam cock, which was paddling around on top of the bath much like a duck, its tail feathers rising out of the water like a fin. "All right, I wasn't imagining things. That was a cucco that flew in here." Link said.
"I heard they like to swim sometimes, but I ain't heard about them liking hot-" Laron stopped when he saw Link and his bruises. That was the second time he got a reaction like that. "What the heck happened to you?"
He sighed and stepped into the tub, taking care to not get too close to the rooster. "Let's see...I got hit on the back with a giant sword from an angry lich, I got knocked about thirty feet down onto the sand from an angry and undead dragon, and then I almost got eaten by a hungry Lanmola. Which was also angry once my friend shot it in the eye."
"I get what an undead is, and I know what a dragon is...but what's a lich? And a Lanmola?" Laron wouldn't know what those would be, being an honest Goron with a job and a family that never left Eldin.
"A lich is a warlock or sorcerer that becomes powerful through undeath." Shad told him. "A Lanmola is a giant centipede that lives in the Gerudo Desert, and it isn't picky about what it eats as long it's made of meat...like poor Link here." He splashed a bit of water at the cucco, which paddled a bit too close. "Shoo." As funny as it was to see the bird go into the bath, being naked near a rooster could present some problems if the animal was mean, which male cuccos generally were.
The rooster opened his beak and began a long and low cry, opening his wings aggressively at the young man that had attempted to make it move away from him. Not waiting to see if poor Shad would get pecked, Link waded over and quickly shot his hand out to grab the cucco around its neck, and hauled it out of the water. The rooster struggled and kicked his legs with an angry squawk, but he couldn't reach the human with his claws. Link hurled the bird back up onto the tiles of the floor near the divider with an underhanded throw, causing the cucco to scramble to its feet and angrily rush at him. He spread his arms wide and shouted at it in response. "Ha! Go! Get!" The rooster's wet feet skidded on the floor and it scuttled away, deciding that maybe it didn't want to harass this particular human.
"I think I'm going to ask Telma to make that one into a pie." Shad grumbled from where he sat in the water.
"I would have thrown it over the wall, but it can't fly with those wet feathers." As mean as the rooster had been, he didn't want to kill it. He sat down, thinking that maybe cucco pot pie would be a good idea, if he could make suggestions to Telma. "If they weren't so tasty, we wouldn't keep them." he told Laron.
"I was gonna guess that's why you humans keep mean animals around." Laron did not seem as nervous about the cucco as Shad was. "Did the boy at the top give you any trouble when you came in?"
"No, and a matter of fact he didn't say a thing to me." Thankfully.
"Good. He was gonna charge Shad, and I know he ain't supposed to. I told him that I'd let his dads know, and if his dads know that means no olivine as punishment." The Goron grinned. "Taking away a boy's dessert will always make him behave. Although I think part of him listening to me was from what happened earlier. After I told him to fess up, he admitted that he tried to charge this pregnant lady that was coming up, and there was this other smaller lady that threatened to give him a thumping if he didn't let them in."
Link laughed, realizing who exactly had threatened the young Goron. "I think I know who that was. Small woman, light hair, green eyes?"
"He didn't say anything about her eyes, but yeah...short, light-colored hair. You know her?" Laron asked.
"That's my best friend, Ilia. She's a bit over-protective of others at times, and even though she made that threat she never would actually hit a child." He smiled and rested his arms on the side of the tub behind him. "It makes me happy that she stepped up to take care of Shelly like that, but I honestly wouldn't expect any less from her."
"Does she remember much yet? She seemed quite helpless when I saw her in Castle Town with the Zora." Shad wouldn't have seen her since then, so he had no idea how the young woman was doing.
"She remembers almost everything except me. There's a reason for that, but I don't want to get into it right now. What I do want to do is ask Laron something." He turned to the Goron. "I know the bath attendant knows what a pregnant human looks like, but does Hagar have any idea? Because that woman was in my group, and I didn't notice her until we were almost to Kakariko."
Laron shook his head and sighed. "I don't think Hagar would notice if I was pregnant, let alone a human. For all I know, that rockhead thinks human males can have babies too. I'm sorry about that, Link. I would've noticed, but I was busy figuring out the food with Petyr and Hanson, and wasn't the guy doing the head counts. I would've made sure she was comfortable on the way there. We had a rickshaw at the depot that she could have ridden in, and one of the merchants could have pulled it."
He sighed as he thought of what could have been, of how poor Shelly could have been in better shape on the journey. "Thank you, I don't doubt you would have done what you could. I'm not really angry at Hagar over his ignorance, just a bit frustrated."
"It isn't surprising, though. Many humans don't understand Goron reproduction, so it would go to figure that some Gorons wouldn't understand human reproduction." The young scholar looked down at his hands. "I believe I am turning into a raisin as we speak, and I'm getting quite hungry. It's been nice chatting with you gentlemen." Shad climbed out of the bath and took a few steps past Link, and then the wet slaps of his bare feet stopped as he hesitated. "Uh, Link? Will you please move the cucco again?"
Not too much later, he was finally eating eggs. Eggs, fried bread, black current jam and a spicy pork sausage that the Gorons brought from who knows where. Renado had said that they had continued to take food from the houses, but what he had not mentioned was that the Gorons had began to range out to look in nearby villages for other supplies. It was Ilia's idea, the young woman having patiently explained to the Gorons the kind of nutrition children need.
"They understood completely, especially Liggs and Coron." she said as she sat between Link and Shad as the two men ate. Ashei sat not too far away, doing the same. "They're both fathers, and know that Goron children need a varied diet too, even if it all seems like rocks to us. Anyway, I gave them a list of the kinds of things we needed around here: fruits other than apples, vegetables other than potatoes and onions, preserved meats since we didn't have the means to feed and slaughter live animals, and yeast for bread. That last one was hard to explain."
"I'm glad you did. If I don't get my bread and meat, I get crabby." Ashei said, who was eating with only slightly less gusto than Link was.
"You were born crabby." Shad commented.
"Still looking for that black eye, yeah?" It was said in her usual calm tone of voice, but she smirked at him from across the long table. Then her eyes fell on Link, who had shoved an entire fried egg into his mouth and immediately reached for the platter that had more eggs and sausage on it. "You're eating more already?"
"Mmf." he said in response, depositing two more eggs and another sausage on his plate.
The female warrior gave him an amused look at that response. "You did kill seventeen Bulbins on the way here, but that was two days ago. You normally don't eat like this."
"Link always eats like this when he comes here." Ilia said with a smile. "I'm going to guess it has just as much to do with refueling after fights as it does with having a nice hot meal."
He nodded emphatically until he was able to swallow the egg in his mouth. "That's right. When I'm on the road, I eat things like bread and apples, so I've been more than happy to eat plenty of whatever Barnes and Ilia have made here."
"Good. You should eat more. You're skinny." This time Ashei didn't even look at him, but she was smirking ever so slightly.
"I am not skinny." he said defensively. Why did people think that? Slender did not mean skinny.
She raised her brown eyes to look him up and down from across the table and shrugged. "I'll admit you have some muscle, now that I've seen you in that shirt." She was referring to the white sleeveless shirt Ilia had made him. "But you're still as thin as a beanpole. And short."
"You know, Ashei...as much as I like you, I also really hate your guts." Link grumbled, starting on his next sausage.
That made the warrior chuckle breathily. "I think I can survive your hatred, short stuff. And look at your friend next to you, she's just a little thing too. Do they barely eat in Ordon, or is everybody tiny?"
Shad unsuccessfully tried to hide a smile, and then decided to change the subject when he saw Ilia's expression of annoyance. "You said that you needed to speak to the two of us, Link?"
"Yeah, actually." He glanced around, making sure that none of the children were nearby. It appeared that the four of them were the only people in the inn right now other than Shelly, who was resting upstairs. "You know how we failed to go through the Mirror of Twilight, right? It was shattered? Well Zant shattered it not only to keep us from the Twilight Realm, but probably to prevent any other Twili from coming here."
"Right, so Midna can't get help, and you can't get the things you need to get to Ganondorf. It doesn't explain why the army attacked Castle Town right after you got there." Ashei said.
"Yeah, I didn't tell you why that army was there. Zant assembled that army for Ganondorf, so he could have revenge against the Hylians for imprisoning him in the Twilight Realm. It happening right after I got there could have just been coincidence." At least he hoped so, and that Ganondorf wasn't spying on him somehow. It would be terrifying if the Gerudo could not only see what he was up to, but if he also intentionally took Castle Town just to harass Link. He briefly glanced to his right to see what Ilia's reaction was to everything, but she didn't seem nervous. She was thinking over what he said. "In any case, even though Zant was able to break the mirror, he was only able to break it into four pieces, and the biggest one is still at the Arbiter's Grounds. Ganondorf took the other three and hid them somewhere."
"Now you need to go hunting for these things? Lovely." Ashei said, taking a sip of her tea. "Do you have any idea where they are?"
"Actually, yes. I spoke to the Sages, and they can sense something with a lot of magical power from far away, and because of that they can tell where it is. One is over in Faron in the same place I got the Master Sword, one is on one of the floating islands above Lake Hylia, and one is in the Snow Peaks in a keep there." He looked at Shad. "Auru said you might have some information about a race that lived on floating islands. And Ashei would know where the keep is." He fixed his blue eyes on the other warrior. "I plan on going to the Snow Peaks first. I'll need you to guide me to where I need to go."
Shad looked thoughtful and remained quiet, but Ashei lowered her mug and stared at Link. "Excuse me? A keep in the mountains?"
"An abandoned Hyrulean keep in the mountains, on the side of one of the more eastern ones. That's what the Sage that has the power to sense the mirror fragments told me." He watched her reaction, and realized that there was something that made her uncomfortable about his request.
Her eyes were conflicted for a moment, and then she raised them to look at him. Her expression became calm and knightly again. "I know what you're talking about. We'll need to speak to my father, but after that I can take you there. When did you want to leave?"
"Tomorrow morning." he said. "I have no idea how to get to the mountains, only that they border the northwest side of Upper Lanayru. Have you rested enough to go?"
The warrior's light, near-mocking tone returned, and she raised her mug to her mouth for another drink of tea. "Have you? Ilia told me me that you're still pretty banged up from your time in the desert." Of course she would have.
"Traitor." he said while frowning at the petite blonde sitting to his right.
Ilia crossed her arms stubbornly. Apparently she didn't want to let the matter drop, and had only stopped talking about it last night because he was moody. "I wanted to ask her if she knew anything about it. You certainly weren't going to tell me any details."
"What's to tell? I fell down and later got chewed on by a big bug." And he was healing, so it was really not a big deal.
Her green eyes were flinty. "You never said it was a big bug. You also never said why you fell thirty feet to land on your back, either."
"Well what the hell am I supposed to do, come here to inform you every time I stub my toe? I'm going to get hurt, Ilia. I don't always need to tell you or anyone else." He found himself losing his temper quickly, with Ilia of all people.
"Oh, this is fun." Ashei said, propping her chin up on her hand while watching the argument.
Ilia ignored her, although there was ever the slightest change in her expression that indicated she didn't like Ashei's commentary. "I understand you're going to get hurt...but I'd like to know about it and not just stumble upon it like I did yesterday. I was shocked to see you that way."
"Yeah, well I was shocked that you waltzed into my room without asking permission. You're lucky you didn't come by ten seconds sooner, or you would have caught me without my pants on too." He waved a hand up towards the direction of his room, beginning to gesticulate in his anger. "When somebody says 'yes' when you knock on a door, it does not mean 'come in'!"
Her voice raised in volume. "I needed to tell you what I had remembered, and felt it couldn't wait until morning, okay?! You were the one who wanted to know when I remembered things, so I came over to tell you!" She turned her head away from him and the rest of the group to stare at the wall, her voice growing quiet. "And as your friend, I was happy to see you. You know I don't have anyone else I can relate to here at Kakariko."
Link had opened his mouth to hotly retort, but then his anger deflated. "I know. It isn't fair to you that I brought you here with only two men and four children as company, but this was the safest place I could think of. If I had taken only Ralis here and left you in Castle Town, you'd be a Shadow Beast by now." His stomach soured at that thought, the eggs churning within him. "If you want, when I have to go to Faron, I'll take you back to Ordon. You remember the people there so you're fine to go home."
"I don't want to go home until I can remember you." Ilia said quietly, her eyes lowered to stare at the table. She stood, stepping back over the bench. "I have some work to do." The young woman walked around the bench and left the inn through the front door without another word. He watched her go, now feeling like a fool. Of course she was worried about him being hurt, and he was the idiot for trying to keep it from her and everyone else.
Ashei still sat there with her chin rested on the heel of her hand, fingers curled next to her face. "So tell me, how long have you two been married?"
"Oh, shut up." Link muttered.
"Yes, please...come in." Renado held open his whitewashed door to admit Link into his single-floor adobe-and-wood home. The shaman had been more than willing to offer Link some help when asked, even though he had no idea what the hero actually wanted.
"Thanks." He stepped inside and looked around. All he could think of as he looked around was that it was a home. There were pieces of furniture made of pale hickory with upholstery in orange and white geometric patterns, shelves full of books, and a hallway leading back to the rest of the house. There was notably a collection of watercolor paintings on the plaster walls; some were done by a skilled artist, and some where quite obviously done by a child. "Luda sure improved as an artist over the last few years, huh?"
That got a chuckle out of Renado, which was a good sound to hear. Link had not heard his friend laugh since before going to the desert. The tall man seemed to be doing better today, although he had been remaining in his home. He was not wearing his shaman's robe today, and instead wore brown leggings and a dark green shirt in the same style that Link was currently wearing. Ilia had likely gotten the idea for the clothing from seeing Renado wear it all the time. "The ones by an adult were done by my wife. Luda wanted to learn to paint like her mother…" his dark brown eyes grew distant, and then he shook his head. "In any case, what can I help you with?"
"I have stitches that need to be removed, if you're able to do that kind of thing."
The shaman raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Of course I can...but may I ask why you have stitches? You did not have them when you left here, did you?"
"No. Did Midna tell you about what we did in the desert?" he asked, following as Renado led him to the front part of the main room, which doubled as a makeshift doctor's office. There were shelves stocked with supplies of medicines and tinctures, dried herbs and clean bandages, and even a few chirurgeon's tools. A simple wooden bench sat in the middle of the area.
"Not much, only that you were unable to accomplish your goal and needed to return to Hyrule. Much of what we spoke of last night was about Castle Town and the refugees...as well as myself and my daughter." He gestured to the bench. "Please sit down, and explain for me why you are injured yet again."
"You're not going to lecture me, are you?" Link asked, having a seat.
Renado pulled up a stool to sit nearby. "It depends on what you were doing." Something about the man's tone made him realize that yes, he was going to get lectured again.
"All right, this will take a bit of explaining. We had to fight our way through the Arbiter's Grounds. We had two other people with us; Auru, the head scholar for Hyrule Castle, and his Gerudo daughter Auren. He fights with pistols and she fights with a bow, and neither they or Midna were equipped to handle all the undead in the place." He met Renado's eyes, his face grim. "They were many of the people gathered up by the military in the magic purge, imprisoned there to die. They turned into zombies and angry spirits. I used the Master Sword to put them to rest, even though there were hundreds."
Renado was horrified by the information. "That is where they sent the people they captured? How terrible. Only a truly mad king would decide to do such a thing."
"Just another reason to hate King Bert. Anyway, destroying the undead wore me out, so did using my sacred power...this thing." He held up his left hand. "I don't suppose Eldin told you what it was?"
"No, but then again I did not ask. You had mentioned you have a power given to the hero that protects you, so that was more than enough of an explanation for me." The shaman reached out to put a few fingers on the back of Link's hand and on the mark of the Triforce there. "I can sense that it has great magical power."
"That's because it's the Triforce of Courage. It's bonded to my soul, Wisdom's bonded to Zelda's, and Power is bonded to Ganondorf's...who is still alive, by the way." He knew he'd have to explain that fact to certain people, even if he wanted to keep it hidden. "Courage has the power to protect me, but also to give me extra strength if I need it. I used it some while in the Arbiter's Grounds, and that just added to how tired I was."
"Father?" Luda's voice came from the hallway, and the two men turned to see the girl standing there, with Midna hovering behind her. "Link's here?" The girl's face was dull and her eyes empty and distant...just as many of the refugees had been after escaping Castle Town. She stared at him blankly.
"Hello, Luda." he said with a smile, knowing how terrible the girl must feel at the moment. Having her mother transformed into a monster was about the same as the woman dying. "How are you feeling?"
"I have a fever that father cannot help with." That statement could have had a double-meaning. Renado no doubt had been trying to comfort his only child, but was unable to. The look on Midna's face as she hovered behind the girl showed that the Twili knew that what Luda said was a lie.
"You don't have a fever. You're upset because of your mother." It was blunt, especially directed towards a ten-year-old girl, but she should know that he knew the truth. He could feel Renado's angry glare on him, but he ignored the man's reaction.
The girl's eyes looked frightened, her numb shock fading away. "How...Link, how do you know? Not even my friends know."
"I was at Castle Town when it fell. I did my best to try to evacuate everyone, but the people in charge there didn't want to listen to me, and I could only get a little bit of help from some soldiers and watchmen. It was only about thirty of us, trying to get thousands of people out. In the end, I don't know what I could have done, given those odds...it happened so fast." He watched her as she stared at him, a mixture of grief and anger on her face. "But I'm still the hero, and I failed the people of Hyrule. I couldn't save them, even though I tried. If you want to be angry at somebody, be mad at me. I'm the only person that you can hold responsible for what happened to your mother."
Luda took a few steps forward, tears standing in her eyes. "You're supposed to be the hero! You were going to save Hyrule, but now this happened!"
"I know." If he hadn't already gone through and processed what had happened, he probably would be in tears like Luda right now.
"How could you let that happen?" she demanded, pressing the heel of her hand against her eye as if she could stem the sudden flow of tears somehow.
"Because I'm only human, like you...and I can make mistakes. And I regret the mistakes I made at Castle Town. I'm sorry." Link said softly. He turned towards her on the bench and held his arms out to her. "Come here."
Luda produced a tearful whine as she ran across the room and flung herself into his arms, and completely broke down. Even though she was larger than the other children, he pulled her into his lap in order to hold her close as she cried. If there was something he knew he was decent at, it was comforting and caring for children. And perhaps at comforting adults, if his interactions with Ilia since she came to Kakariko were any indication.
He looked over at Renado's face, expecting the man to be angry about the situation; after all, Luda was now crying. Instead what Link saw there was relief. "She has been unable to cry so far." Renado said quietly. "She has been in shock."
"I could see that. A lot of people that I brought here were like that after Castle Town. I have friends who lost family there too, and their reactions were similar." He shook his head, remembering the dull shock that was mixed with raw terror and horrible despair in the Hylians that stood outside of Castle Town that night. "I did what I could for them. I knew that they needed to see the hero, to know that he was there to help them, even though I couldn't help thousands more. And for a while, it was fine...until I lost it too. You were right. I didn't listen to you, and when I was supposed to be helping those people, I wound up crying face-down in a field while being afraid of everything that was happening."
"He didn't even listen to me when I tried to talk to him, either." Midna floated closer, having been quiet through everything so far. She clasped her hands in front of her uncomfortably. "It was like he didn't even notice I was there. I felt helpless, not able to do anything for him."
"It's all right, Midna. You were trying. I know I was kind of an idiot at the time, but I did notice you." He smiled at her. "You and Ashei got through to me eventually, and I'm doing much better now." His smile faded. "But I'm still not one hundred percent. I'm still terrified, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it."
"We'll get there. Baby steps, right?" The Twili reached out and smoothed back Luda's hair, just how she did with him. The girl was crying as truly upset children do, oblivious to what the adults around her were saying, wrapped up in her own emotions. "I came here this morning to meet her, since I know she saw us when there was still Twilight over Kakariko. She knows that you were turned into a wolf, and now so does Renado."
"It was strange to hear, but now what happened makes far more sense to me. You had said that you were protected while in the Twilight, but not how. I now realize that it was your piece of the Triforce, and that it changed your form in order to do so." Renado said. "I had sensed that something was in the Sanctuary when the statue of Eldin moved, but I was too busy trying to calm both the children and Barnes at the time. Luda had mentioned she saw a pair of guardian spirits, and I did not understand what she actually saw."
"I hoped that I could make her feel better, but you did in two minutes what I've been trying to do for hours." Midna smirked. "Which figures; you're good with kids."
"I agree. You will be a good father, one day." Renado turned his attention to Link and folded his hands in his lap. "Please continue with what you were saying about the desert. I know that my daughter is in tears, but this is part of a necessary process."
"Right. After I wore myself out using my magical abilities and the Master Sword in order to kill all the undead, including a lich that Auru accidentally freed, we ran into Zant. He revived a giant dragon skeleton, and I used even more power from myself and the Master Sword to take care of that. It knocked me down dozens of feet from a ledge, and I landed on my back and my gear. I think I would have had broken bones if I hadn't mostly landed on my shield. After Midna and I figured out to turn it back into a normal pile of bones, we went to the Mirror of Twilight, which was what she used to come into our world. Zant had escaped through it, and shattered it."
"That's why we're back. We have to find those pieces of mirror. We also need to figure out how to stop Ganondorf, since he's the guy who really is behind everything. Everything was done so he could have revenge on the Hylians for the war here hundreds of years ago." Midna came to sit on the bench next to Link. "He spent two hundred and fifty years in the Twilight Realm, and he got angrier and stronger the entire time. There are some truly dark and evil places there, so it's not surprising."
"In any case, after finding all of that out, we went back to Gerudo City and got attacked by a Lanmola on the way. After everything that happened, something else had to go after me." He laughed, and the sound made Luda stop sniffling and raise her face to look at him. "It tried to eat me. Something chewed on me again, so I have more bruises. It also has a venomous bite, and I almost died from it. The Gerudo saved my life, but I needed stitches on my left leg, where my armor couldn't protect me."
"That is quite the story. Is one of the things you're afraid of Ganondorf?" Renado had hit the nail on the head. Again. Damn the man.
"He's the big one, yeah. I'm not just afraid of him killing me, I'm afraid for the people I'll leave behind...like you two." But mostly Ilia. The idea of her having to live in a Hyrule ruled by Ganondorf terrified him just as much as his own death.
"You're scared?" Luda asked, no longer crying.
"Of course I'm scared. I've been scared the entire time I've been going around doing things. Sometimes I can forget about it for a little while, but in the end I'm like anyone else." He looked down at her, although she had turned her head to face her father. "Are you feeling better?"
Luda's brown eyes were red from crying, but they were also distant as she thought about what he asked. "I don't know. I feel very tired, but I think I will be all right." She sighed and patted at Link's chest with one hand. "It's strange how you made me feel better, out of everyone. I did not expect that."
"I'm going to guess I give good hugs." Even for myself, he thought, recalling the night before. He probably would explain that to Ilia a bit better later.
"I know I am not a little girl anymore, but being hugged like this makes me feel safe. You are very warm." It was very close to what Ilia had said. "As nice as that is, I had heard something about stitches." She slid off of Link's lap and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe at her eyes and nose. "Are you going to help him, father?"
"Yes, he asked me to remove stitches from his leg. Did you want to watch?" The shaman smiled at his daughter and her enthusiasm. Now that Luda seemed to be doing better, so did Renado. Much of the man's stress was due to his daughter alone.
"I have yet to see that. Are they catgut or silk stitches?" she asked, knowing more about the subject than Link did.
"What they are is in an unfortunate place, and I can't really show them without having my pants around my knees. I had some problems with that earlier when Midna wanted to check on them." He turned to Renado. "I don't suppose you have something I can cover myself with?"
The shaman had indeed removed the stitches and wondered how Link had healed so quickly, but since he didn't get a straight answer out of the young hero, he gave up pursuing the matter. Renado also checked on the other wound, and determined that it was healing just fine, and said that it was likely that it would be knit up in a little over a week, which was Nadi's prediction.
Midna remained there when Link left, saying that she would prefer to talk to Luda some more. He had been unsure if Midna actually liked children or not, due to her reactions to Talo, Malo and Beth. She seemed to like Luda, and appeared perfectly fine with Colin, so perhaps it depended on the child. He knew that he himself had a hard time being patient with Jaggle's sons.
He decided to wander around Kakariko to see how people were doing. Without the green outfit or Master Sword, most people didn't even give him a single glance. He was just another Hylian that had come to Kakariko last night, although after being out for a bit, a few of the more observant people began to identify him.
"I know it's you." a voice said from the covered porch of a small red-painted house. He turned to see the middle-aged woman that had escaped Castle Town without shoes, deftly peeling a turnip with a paring knife. Her white-streaked hair had been wild and unkempt before, since there were no combs for the refugees to use on the way to Kakariko, but now it was neatly held back in a tight twist as she worked to prepare vegetables for something.
"Oh, hey. Lady without shoes. Hi." He looked at her feet, and saw that she had gotten a pair of sandals from somewhere. "It looks like you have shoes now."
"Yeah, lucky for me there was a cobbler's shop here. He mostly made boots for miners, but there were some ladies' shoes there too." She did not stop working as she spoke to him and cut the turnip into pieces, which fell into a large bowl that sat on the porch in front of the low stool she sat on. There was a second bowl for the peelings, and by the look of things she had been at it for a while. "How is Shelly? I felt awful seeing a poor young thing like her all alone."
"She's resting. Renado the shaman says that she needs rest, and since she's about six months pregnant I'm going to guess that she's really worn out." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, looking out at the houses lower on the cliff, where there was plenty of activity. Kakariko was alive again. "A friend of mine has been keeping an eye on her, and told me that Shelly's husband was a soldier." Ilia had told him a bit about Shelly, that not only was her husband in the army, but also the ill-fitting cloak she had wore on the way to Kakariko wasn't his and belonged to a neighbor.
"Then we both know what happened to him. Both of my boys were soldiers too. The youngest was probably about your age, and both of them were in the Second Infantry." She dropped the last pieces of the sliced turnip into the bowl, and turned to pick up another from a nearby crate. "My little brother made it here, though. I was surprised to see him, but of course he was one of Commander Petyr's men. If anyone could have made it out, it was them."
"Petyr was the only officer that listened to me when I told them that they needed to evacuate, and even then he could only get a few of his men. I'm sorry if I couldn't convince anyone else." He watched her as she peeled the skin off the turnip with the skill of someone who has cooked every day of their life for decades.
"Don't blame yourself uh...Lenny? Linny?" She frowned, not quite remembering his name. Most of these people didn't even know his name, only that he was the hero.
"Link."
"Right. I'm Betsy. Not Bess like that damn queen; Betsy. Don't blame yourself, blame General Scot. He's a piece of garbage. Kip had some inside information and told me that Scot was hoping to step up and take over." Ah, so that's who her brother was. He could see the resemblance now, even though Kip had a quiet voice and Betsy didn't. "See, he thought that Princess Zelda was going to commit a coup to take power from Bonkers Bert." She began to slice the turnip, shaking her head slightly while not looking away from what she was doing. "That would've been nice if it happened. But anyway Scot was going to counter-coup. Hole everybody up in their homes and take over the castle. Only then that big yellow thing appeared and nobody could get into the castle, so poor Scotty Boy couldn't commit treason."
That was more or less what Link had assumed Scot was doing, after speaking to the man. It confirmed what he had guessed, although now he wanted to speak to Kip about it if given the chance. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you happen to escape without shoes?"
Betsy stopped in the middle of what she was doing and set down the turnip and knife on the bowl of peelings. "You see this?" The woman held up her right hand, and there was a scar in the flesh between her thumb and the bones of the palm of her hand. She tapped it with a finger. "My husband did that. Took a knife from me just like the one I'm using right now when we were arguing, and did that. And he did other things. He used to be a normal man, but after he lost family to the purge he changed."
She picked up the vegetable and paring knife and resumed working as if she hadn't casually admitted the abuse. "The day we escaped, I argued with him and I didn't want to stick around to see what his temper would do this time. I ran out as I was, no cloak, no shoes...nothing but the dress I'm wearing. Then suddenly there were people on the streets and the bells were ringing, and a young woman on a horse was yelling at me to hurry to the east gate." She threw the sliced turnip into the bowl with a quick, angry motion. "I'll cry over my boys being turned into monsters. I'm not going to cry about my husband."
The story hurt to hear. Not only had Betsy lost everything just like everyone else, but her life back in Castle Town was not a happy one to begin with. Not sure what else to say, he stepped up to put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right now?"
She looked up at him, not exactly surprised at his sympathy, but not comforted by it either. Her tone and mannerisms as she worked did not change. "I'm alive, and I have Kip. It's as close as all right I can be. Other people aren't all right, and can't even work to feed themselves. That's why I'm helping the soldiers make food. Which if you'll excuse me, I need to get through these turnips before Hayes brings me more." The woman turned to the nearby crate and took another turnip in hand.
"All right. Thanks for helping." It felt pathetic and empty to say, but he honestly had no idea what else to do.
Betsy shrugged. "Thanks for doing what nobody else could have done."
Link left her there, distracted as he wandered. Of course not everyone's life was rosy; he was a prime example of that. Still, it bothered him hearing what Betsy had told him. He could deal with his own pain, but learning about the pain of others made him feel somehow wrong to know about it without being able to do anything. He continued to think his gloomy thoughts as he wandered around town without any destination in mind.
Many people were working along with the Gorons to move belongings, cook food, care for children, feed the dogs and cats of Kakariko, and help one another get settled into their new home. Except it wasn't home to them; it was where they slept. Their home was gone, and while many of the people he spoke to were grateful, a few were pessimistic. It only added to his glum mood, and eventually he wandered up the path to the top of the cliff and away from the town altogether.
It was midday, and the Eldin sun of midsummer was hot. He undid the top two buttons of the shirt Ilia had made for him and walked past the sheep pasture and farms, and towards the apple orchard farther south. Even if Ilia wasn't there yet, it was someplace with shade. He felt foolish about the argument he had with her earlier, since he knew that she was right. It was stupid of him to try to hide things and he knew it. Yet he didn't want to trouble people, especially with so many other serious things going on.
It turned out that she was already there, sitting beneath one of the dark-barked apple trees in its dappled shade with her back leaning up against its trunk. A basket with something wrapped in a towel lay next to her, and she sat reading with a book on her lap. To his surprise, she was not wearing the Kakariko-style clothing he had seen her in a few hours before, but wore a sky blue dress instead. She didn't wear dresses that often anymore, only for festivals. It was unusual to see her wear one, although he wasn't about to complain at how much of her bare legs this one was showing. It was far less conservative than the ones she wore on Ordon.
"You didn't change your clothes to try to impress me, did you?" he asked as he stepped up to her.
Ilia jumped slightly, not hearing him approach until he said something. She looked up at him and smiled, and now that he was closer he was quite aware of how the sleeveless dress was cut to hug her curves. That paired with her beautiful smile and features made his heart pound in a way that surprised him. He had spent a lot of time with Ilia by now, so why was he reacting like that? It was just a dress.
"I don't need to do much to impress you. All I need to do is cook you a meal." Her smile turned into a smirk. "I'm convinced your entire life revolves around your stomach."
"Well, damn. You have me all figured out." He sat down next to her on the grass and crossed his legs. "But really, why did you change?"
"Colin spilled milk on me. I didn't want to smell like old milk, so I had to go clean my other outfit." She looked down at the dress and its slightly flared skirt. "I made this over the past few days and I figured I'd wear it. When I'm stressed, I sew. I know it's not quite what women wear in Ordon, but Renado told me that this is the typical dress that young ladies in this town wear." She tugged the hem down to just above her knee. "You don't think it's too short, do you?"
"Ilia, I'm going to be honest with you. If a woman shows some leg, I'm not going to complain one bit." Especially if it's your legs.
She turned a little pink that comment, unsure if it was actually a joke or not. Maybe he went a little too far with that. "My father would. I know he wouldn't be happy with me wearing something above the knee like this."
"No offense, but to hell with what Bo thinks. You look lovely wearing Kakariko style, and you can make your own decisions about the clothes you want to wear. You've don't need to live under your father's thumb. You've grown up." Boy, had she grown up. He did his best to not seem excited about the way she was dressed.
"You know my father's name." She marked the place in her book with a scrap of paper and set it aside. "When you say things like that, I can tell you're from Ordon like me. I'm still really frustrated I can't remember you."
"You and me both, but it's fine. You remember everything else about your life, and we're still friends." He sighed and leaned his back against the trunk of the apple tree. "And on that note, I'm sorry about arguing with you earlier. I know you were worried, but...it's a habit of mine to avoid making people worry about me. Since I was the only Hylian in Ordon, I spent my time there trying to make myself as invisible as possible."
"That sounds lonely." she said.
He gave a short, humorless laugh. "A bit. I still had people I cared about, so I wasn't entirely alone."
"But now you are, aren't you? After last night, I could tell. Even though you're surrounded by people you can count on, you still feel alone because you need specific people like me or Colin." Dammit. He had rambled about how he needed the people important to him in order to function...and wasn't that what being lonely was?
"I haven't been here five minutes and you're already picking at my brain." He felt her place her hand on top of his, and he rested the back of his head against the trunk while staring up at the branches above. "Yeah, I'm a little lonely. You can worry about me if you want, but this is all temporary."
"So when this is all done, we'll go back to Ordon?" She didn't move her hand. He didn't want her to.
"Go back?" What would they do? Ordon was a place of safety, but now nowhere felt safe. If he succeeded in everything he needed to do, as impossible as it seemed, he wasn't sure what life for him would be. He wasn't sure if he would be allowed to go live his life with Hyrule being a mess. "I want to go home, but I don't know when. There are so many things that have gone wrong, and I need to figure out a way to fix them."
Her hand was warm on his. "I understand that, but me and the children will be unhappy if you're still out here doing things." He would be unhappy too. What was he going to do, if he even lived through all of this? See Midna home. That's all he knew.
"Please Ilia, let's not talk about this right now. I just had a lady who walked here without shoes tell me that she doesn't miss her husband now that he's turned into a Shadow Beast, because he was abusive. And right before that I visited Luda and held her on my lap while she cried about her mother." He rubbed at his face, weary from thinking about it. "It would be nice if I could sit in somebody's lap and cry instead."
"I'm afraid my lap isn't big enough." she said, patting his hand and rising to her knees so she could reach the basket. That gave him a nice view of the back of her thighs as she bent over to grab it. Yes, he was really enjoying this dress. "I'm sorry to make you sad. I want the time you spend here to be happy. Here." She sat back down and put the basket between them. "Let's eat and talk about things that aren't depressing."
"If you can think of a subject that isn't fluffy small talk about the weather, then sure." He peered at the basket as she lifted the cloth and spread it out on the grass. A hot meal would have been nice, but having time alone with Ilia was also nice.
"Well aren't you cheerful?" Ilia softly sighed. "I understand that everything that's been happening has been upsetting, but we need to try to act normal."
"I'm trying, really I am. It's just you weren't at Castle Town-"
"Ah!" she pointed her finger in his face with the loud exclamation, which caused him to blink in surprise. "No! You will not be negative while we're eating. I know full well what happened, and we'll talk about it in a bit and all the thoughts you've been carrying around in that gloomy blonde head of yours." She returned to what she was doing. "And you will not be negative because I stole us an apple tart and we should be happy about that. I'm sure Telma thought one of the children did it...or maybe Ashei."
"I was about to ask why Ashei, but I get why. She really isn't that bad of a person, you know." He watched as his friend pulled out slices of bread, a small pot of pale jam, and something wrapped in paper that was presumably meat. "She teases a lot, and sometimes I feel she goes a little too far...but she's a good woman."
"She behaves like a man." Ilia muttered, and then raised her green eyes to look at him. "Oh, um. But not like you. You're still the most unique person I've ever met."
"You have to admit Shad isn't like that either, or Renado or Rusl. You can't assign a personality to either sex, you know. The Gerudo kept doing that while I was in their desert, and I started to get real sick of their generalizations." He began to help himself to what turned out to be cold ham. The meal reminded him a bit of the one he had with Agitha Artho, when he first revealed to someone who his family was.
"Tell me about the Gerudo? I read a little about them in the library, but the books written by Hylians are not very nice. They aren't really cruel thieves, right?" She smeared what looked like pear jam on a piece of bread and took a bite of it.
"They're not. They're people just like us. Most of them are warriors, although I think that's due to their low numbers more than personal choice. It's hard to make an army to defend your home when you only have about two thousand people." It was a thought that occurred to him later. He had seen quite a few Gerudo that weren't warriors around Hida's fortress, but nearly every able-bodied woman was walking around with a weapon.
"They're very tall." he continued. "Which is a given, compared to you and me. But these ladies are all somewhere between six and seven feet tall. They really are all women too, and men are forbidden from entering their desert for some reason. I don't understand the reasoning behind that one, because Gerudo men are born very rarely and they need to breed with men from Hyrule."
"Ah, that explains something. The one book I read said that they kidnap men and um...do things to them in order to have babies. That didn't seem quite right for an entire race to be that way, but I guess there's a small grain of truth in it." She pulled out two mugs that she had wrapped in cloth to prevent them from clinking together, and began to pour whatever was in the jug into them.
Grains? "Oh, that's right!" He set down his food and reached to the back of his neck to undo the clasp of his necklace. "I have something for you."
She watched him curiously. "It isn't that necklace you were wearing last night, is it? It's pretty, but I'm sure that it belongs to you."
"No, that's my grandmother's pendant. The thing for you is something I put on the necklace to carry it here." He removed the wire from around his neck and there was the faint clinking of the small glass bottle as it rattled against the Sheikah pendant. He has been unsure of how he was going to carry it, not having any pouches or pockets on his current clothes, but the small bottle itself had two loops of glass on either side of it to form tiny handles, and he was able to thread the wire through one of those. "I brought something back for you."
"You really did?" She seemed pleased at the idea. Did she think he wouldn't bring her something? "What did you bring me from the desert?"
"The desert." he said with a faint smile, placing the little perfume bottle into her hand.
Ilia touched the small bottle that sat in the palm of her hand with one finger. "Oh, this is a pretty bottle. Wait…" She held it up between her thumb and index finger to look through the glass at the contents inside. "It's full of sand." She blinked when she remembered something, and then began to laugh. "You said you would bring me sand!"
Link grinned at her, pleased at her response. "Did you think I was kidding?"
"I thought it was a joke!" Ilia continued to laugh, clutching the little bottle in her hand. He had to laugh too, at the absurdity of it all. He had gone that far for a joke simply because he loved to hear her laugh. "And it still is, isn't it? You brought me sand from a different land all for a joke." She got to her knees and scooted a bit closer to throw her arms around his neck in pure, girlish glee. That was not the response he expected, but he wasn't about to stop her. "You were right. You really are a very strange man."
"If anything, I'm honest." So said the liar. "If it means I'm going to get affection from pretty girls, then I'll continue to be as strange as I can be."
She sat back on her heels with a laugh. "You flirt. Are you like this with other girls, or just me?"
"Nah, it's other women too. It started with you, though. You were my only female friend. I was friends with two other women in the desert that flirted back and forth with me, and sometimes with each other." He smiled, remembering how much fun it was when he was together with Auren and Midna. "Not all the Gerudo were like that, though. Some of them weren't flirting when they'd say things like that." Link reached behind his head to put his necklace back on. "I mean, I understood why. But it's kind of jarring when an attractive woman walks up to you and asks you to go behind some buildings for some fun."
Ilia's hand flew to her mouth and she turned red. "No...they really asked you that?"
"One woman did after I had only been in Gerudo lands for about two hours. If Renado hadn't warned me about how desperate the Gerudo are to reproduce, I probably would have been shocked like you are right now." Not that he wasn't uncomfortable when that guard had suggested it. He tucked the pendant back into his shirt and picked up the slice of bread and jam he had been eating. "I had to break some hearts and turn down their offers. I had proposals of marriage and offers to simply be a father." He didn't need to tell her that the same woman had asked for either of those things.
"If there are only two thousand of them, I guess I can understand why." She carefully tucked the bottle full of sand into the basket and also resumed eating. "They must be able to find and marry men, right?"
"Right. Most of the women there were older than I was, married, and had children. The ones that were interested in me were closer to our age." He took a drink of whatever it was she had brought. Cool blackberry tea, as it turned out. "And not to sound like I'm full of myself, but after seeing the young men in the town that was near the Gerudo border, I can't blame them for going after me."
"I'm going to guess it was a town full of real winners, huh?"
He rolled his eyes and gave a derisive snort. "When I was there, they acted like I was a threat to them. I got the stink-eye the entire time I was there, because they assumed I was there for the same thing they were. They acted like I was their competition, all because I was a warrior on a horse, which are two things that the Gerudo find attractive in guys. After talking to the Gerudo, I guess most of the young men in Lakeside aren't really looking for wives or even relationships, and are only there to find a tall woman to sit on their faces."
Ilia frowned, confused by that joke. "I don't get it. Why would they want that?" Oh. Oh, Ilia.
He almost let slip another joke about showing her sometime, but he reined himself in before his mouth ran ahead of his brain again. It was bad enough he let that first one slip. Something was wrong with him to make a joke like that, especially with Ilia. Forget the blue dress, his mind was clearly in the gutter and didn't need any help. "It was a joke, and I'm sorry for making it since you're a good girl from Ordon. Let's say it's something sexual in nature and leave it at that."
Her mind processed what he just said, and her eyes suddenly stared blankly as either she figured it out, or assumed something else. She lowered her eyes and turned red. Dammit. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable like that. Why did he say that? Now she was going to think he was something he wasn't. No...now she was going to think what he really was. He groaned and leaned forward to rest his face in one of his hands, half-eaten bread held in the other. "Gods, I'm an idiot."
"You already apologized. Don't beat yourself up about it." she said. "I'm not offended."
"No but you're uncomfortable, and now I'm uncomfortable by extension." He moved his fingers slightly to peer through them, but all he could see was her knees. "I'm an idiot who sometimes talks without a filter, and I need to learn how to stop myself. I can't blurt out every goofy thought in my brain."
"Relax. I'm not a queen who rules your thoughts, and decides what you can or can't think." Except she did reign in his mind and had no idea. He hadn't thought of her much while in the desert, but after his admission to Auren about his feelings, he had thought of Ilia frequently again.
"You talk. I'm going to shut up and eat." And just so she wouldn't argue, he stuffed the second half of the slice of bread into his mouth.
"All right, I'll talk. I'm glad that you went to see Luda. I had tried talking to Renado since I could see that he was upset. I know the man well enough now to tell when he's hiding something." Great. Did that mean she could tell when he was hiding things too? "I heard you and somebody else talking to him outside my door last night. She sounded like a friend of his, so I was glad that he had somebody he could talk to."
That meant that Ilia had heard Midna. He wasn't sure if he was ready to introduce them to one another yet, since the idea of him constantly being near another woman might bother Ilia. He was unsure if she was the jealous type. She paused to eat a bit before continuing. "I understood why he didn't want to talk. He's the town shaman. People go to him for comfort and and advice, not the other way around. As much as he's been taking care of me, I don't think very many people take care of him."
Link nodded in response, but continued to be quiet. He ate some ham in the meantime. Just let her talk. If she did the talking, he wouldn't make a fool out of himself.
"I knew why he was upset, and that Luda didn't really have a fever. That was a lame excuse that worked on the children, but not me. A shaman would have the medicine to handle a fever." She adjusted the way she sat on the grass and folded her bare legs next to her. "Days ago, he told me that his wife runs a potion shop in Castle Town. Luda suddenly wouldn't come outside right after the first refugees came here with the news that the people of the city had been turned into Shadow Beasts. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. I felt pretty helpless. He has done his best to help me with my memory and the how I sometimes faint or panic, and has been nothing but kind. I want to do something for him, but I don't know what. Luda too." Her voice became small. "It hurts to see them like that."
"I know. I feel the same way." He decided this was a subject he could talk about. "That's why I went over there this morning. I told Luda that I did my best to get everyone out of Castle Town, but even then I could only save about seven hundred people. I said that if she wanted to blame anyone, she should blame me. I would be fine if she was angry at me."
"Is that why she cried? She was angry at you?"
He unfolded his legs and lay back on the grass, feeling gloomy about the whole exchange. "She was. She needed to be angry at someone. People who are suffering usually do. She yelled at me, asking me how I could let that happen if I'm the hero. I didn't have any good answer other than I'm just another person, like her, and I apologized. Then she was able to cry, and Renado said she hadn't been able to. She needed to tear me down to feel better, but it's...whatever. It's fine."
Ilia sighed and tugged on one of his feet slightly. "Come on, no moping until after you eat this tart with me."
He stared at the gently waving branches above as they moved in the clifftop breeze. "Are you trying to take care of me again?"
"I am absolutely taking care of you, the biggest kid of all. Now come sit up and eat some of this before I eat it all myself." He knew it wasn't an empty threat, either. She absolutely would sit there and eat something meant for them both if he decided to lay around and sulk.
"I'm really a downer today, aren't I?" He sat up. "When I'm not making lewd jokes, anyway."
She raised one of her thin eyebrows at him, and plunked a spoon into his hand. She certainly had filched a lot of things from the Eld Inn's kitchen. "And after we finish eating this, you can tell me why you're so different after coming back from the desert. But for now, shut up and eat. It's probably still warm."
"Still warm?" That brightened his mood some. "Is that why we have spoons for a tart?"
She smiled prettily, and he knew his heart wasn't beating faster only from his mind being in the gutter. "Yes. It was hot when I took it, and I wasn't sitting here all that long before you showed up."
He knew that Telma's cooking was delicious, but he hadn't known that her baking was as well. Desserts weren't something he pictured as pub fare, but he imagined that if she served tarts like this, people would come for them just as much as they would for her cooking. It wasn't long before it was gone, and the two of them were putting the leavings of their meal back into the basket.
"All right, Mr. Gloomy. What happened in the desert that made you change? You weren't like this before." She came to sit next to his outstretched legs while facing him, smoothing out the blue dress over her own.
"No. I think I did change...but it was a bunch of things, not just one event. I'd say that what happened in Castle Town was a big contributing factor." He frowned, shaking his head. "But...I think it's because I'm more scared than I used to be. I told you that I was attacked by a giant bug that chewed on me some. I got some stitches from that. Here." he said as he tapped his left knee. "And here" He put a hand to his left hip.
"You have stitches too?" She tiled her head to the side while looking at him and sighed in slight exasperation. "Link...what else were you keeping from me?"
He took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye. "All right. I know the big thing that changed me. The Lanmola bite was venomous, and I was already weak from other things I had done that night. I almost died. I'm different now because I'm afraid of dying, and leaving you and the others behind."
She stared at him, and began to visibly tremble as she took a few quick, rapid breaths. Oh no. Not this. What did he say this time? He expected her to simply black out, or perhaps start tearfully rambling. What she did instead was clutch at her head and wailed like a frightened child.
"No, please don't. Ilia, please." Link leaned forward to grab at her wrists, fighting hard against the panic that was threatening to take hold of him. "Ilia. Look at me. You're fine."
"Don't...don't go." She was in tears, practically sobbing. It was the worst attack he had seen since the first one in the stable. How could she be worse now? She was supposed to be getting better!
He gave up trying to fight off his own emotions this time and felt his eyes fill with tears, not caring if she saw anymore. She didn't need him to be strong, she needed him to simply be there. "I'm here, Ilia. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere." He put his hands to the sides of her face. "You're going to be all right. Please, look at me."
Ilia stopped staring blankly, and moved her green eyes ever so slightly to focus them on his. A tear coursed down her cheek and she opened her mouth, and a hesitant sound came out as she actually saw him, and recognized who she was looking at. "Don't leave me!" she begged, and then her eyes shut and she went limp.
Link barely caught her as she slumped over onto his legs. "I won't leave!" He shook her. "Ilia!" She didn't respond, and continued to lay there limply in a faint. What did he do? They were alone up here, far enough away from the town that nobody would hear them. Nobody would come, and he felt completely helpless.
Unsure of what else to do, he reached his arms out and pulled her onto his lap just as he had done with Luda earlier. Renado and Coron had lay her out on her back to make her more comfortable, but he didn't want to do that here. He wanted to hold onto her and be the stupid emotional crybaby he knew he was, and wait for her to wake up.
"I won't leave you." he mumbled at her tearfully, not sure if she could hear him or not. He had been able to hear some things while he had been barely conscious, so perhaps she would. Or not. She had mentioned that when she had these fainting spells, it was like she had lost time entirely, and could remember nothing. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what I said that did it. I don't know why I do this to you."
It had to be him mentioning being hurt and nearly dying. So far, everything that had triggered her had something to do with what happened at the spring. The first time she had seen Epona, she had cried and fainted. When she heard him sing Epona's song, she panicked. When he talked about taking a trip, much like the trip he was supposed to take that day in Ordon, she had an episode as well. Her own near-death by being shot at the spring had caused this, and he had no idea how to help her get past it.
"This is why I wanted to stay away from you, even though it kills me." he rambled, not sure why he was talking to her even though she couldn't hear him or respond. "I can't stand being away from you, and yet I don't know if I'll do or say something that makes this happen." If he was rational and not being emotional, he would have patiently waited. He was not rational, and so he kissed her forehead and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "I'm not going anywhere. Even when my mission makes me leave you here, I'll always come back. I'll be here for you, even if you never remember me."
Time passed, and he wasn't sure how much. It felt like ages as he sat there holding her miserably, listening to her slow breathing, unsure of what else to do. He sat there and he thought about what had happened. Even though the triggers made sense at first glance, they weren't completely logical. For every thing that had triggered an episode, the same thing had been said or occurred around her and she didn't respond negatively at all. It had to do with what happened at the spring, but it was inconsistent.
He didn't realize that she was awake until she spoke. "I'm supposed to hold you on my lap. You're doing it wrong, Link."
The sound of her voice made him raise his head and look down at her. "I'm sorry. I'm a big screw-up." He wasn't sure if it was a joke or if he was being sincere.
"You're not a screw-up. Are you worried because you said or did something that made me faint?" She sounded so nonchalant about it, like she wasn't bothered at all. How could she not be bothered by what had just happened? When he didn't answer, she shifted a bit and looked up at him. "You were crying." It was not a question, and she did not seem surprised. Then again he had admitted to being a crybaby last night.
"I panicked. I'm still a bit freaked out, since it wasn't all that long ago you fainted." At least he thought so. He let her go, knowing that it wasn't appropriate to still hold her like that now that she was awake. "I admit I didn't know what to do, so I picked you up and talked to you. I thought maybe you would notice that somebody was with you and wake up."
Ilia climbed off and sat next to him on the grass, in the same place she had been when she had her attack. She touched at her cheek. "Oh...I was crying for this one too. I'm going to guess it was a bad one." She looked at his face, and her expression was sympathetic. "I could have stayed there with you a bit longer if you're upset."
"I didn't want to seem inappropriate-" He stopped when she held up a hand to silence him.
"Why are you worried about that? I mean yes, my father and the others from Ordon would be appalled, but I don't care." She wiped the tears from her face, but she was smiling. "There isn't a soul up here anyway. Nobody is going to see me sitting on your lap."
"You're being awfully dismissive of everything." He bent his knees and wrapped his arms around them. "I was seriously upset about what happened to you, and you're like 'oh no, don't worry, I'll sit on you if you're sad'. Never mind that you just had the worst panic attack I've seen you have since the stable. No, this could be worse than the one in the stable." Even though that one was much longer, she was still awake for it. This one felt worse to him, probably due to him having come to terms with his feelings for her.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to dismiss you or your reaction. It's just that I can't remember any of it. Because of that I'm not afraid of it happening anymore." She leaned forward to put a hand on his arm. "Are you okay now? I know I made a joke about sitting on laps, but if you need to hold onto me and ramble like you did last night, I'm fine with it."
That made him smile just a bit. He absolutely wanted to hold onto her, but he shook his head. There was no reason for him to start being clingy. "No, it's all right. I know it's probably weird for you, seeing me act different like this. This is part of what I've been keeping from you so you won't worry. Too late for that, I guess. I was busy worrying about you anyway, so turn about is fair play." He patted the hand she had on his arm. "I'll be fine. Let's continue with our conversation, okay?"
"Okay. I remember you saying that you had stitches from being bit by a big bug, and what happened in Castle Town is a big contributor to how you've been acting since you came here last night." She stood up and went back next to the trunk of the apple tree, smoothing her skirt down beneath her as she sat. "If you have any idea what made me react like that, just leave that detail out."
He couldn't, but he could make it seem like nothing. "Sure, I guess. Although no promises I won't panic if you faint again." Link ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Let's see...I got attacked by the Lanmola and it bit me-"
"No, come here before talking." Ilia interrupted him. He didn't understand since he wasn't sitting all that far away from her, but then he saw her pat at her outstretched legs with a smile.
"Uh, I'm not sitting on your lap." That's what she was implying, right? He had expected to eat a meal with her and chat, and nothing had progressed like he thought it would. As a matter of fact, that was a sentence he never thought he'd say to her.
She laughed at him. "No, of course not. But I did say that if you wanted to put your head on my knees when I didn't have something full of pins on my lap, you could." When he hesitated, she raised an eyebrow. "You said you're not a little boy, but you've been behaving like a hurt kid since you came back. Now come here."
"You're mothering me again." Which was what she had been doing without asking her to, and what she was doing before they even left Ordon. The night before they were attacked, she brought him dinner, one of the many times she brought him dinner. As nice as it was to have somebody do things for him, it wasn't necessarily what he wanted from her. Yet, what she was doing right now was closer to what he actually wanted.
"That's because I know you don't have a mother anymore." She didn't remember it, but she still knew. It wasn't hard for her to figure out, and it wasn't exactly a secret back in Ordon.
"That's not true. Uli became my new mother."
Ilia smiled gently at him from where she sat, her back against the trunk of the tree. "Uli's not here. I am."
Link stared at her and realized that he was being foolish, and this time his foolishness was getting in the way of what he wanted. The woman that he loved was offering to listen to him talk while touching him, and he was being an idiot and accusing her of mothering him. He got to his feet and took the few steps to come stand at her side, wondering to himself if he was feeling more foolish for being hesitant, or for what he was about to do. He could feel that his face was warm as he lay down on his back in the grass next to her, and he wondered if he looked awkward as he pillowed his head on her legs just above her knees. After all, having your head on somebody's lap was quite intimate...and he didn't want to appear as if he was enjoying it too much.
He could practically hear Midna telling him he was an idiot.
"The monster that bit me did injure me enough that I needed stitches, but that's not all. Lanmolas are giant centipedes, and like any other centipede they're venomous." He glanced up at her to make sure she wasn't about to have another attack, but she was listening to him. And his head was on her legs. Surreal. "Luckily for me, the Gerudo are prepared for that kind of thing. The desert is full of dangerous animals, so they had the right kind of medicine. They took me back to one of their fortresses to take care of me and get me patched up."
"It sounds like you were very lucky, then." She had no idea, but this time he wasn't going to tell her how he had nearly died.
He stared at the gently-waving leaves above. "Yeah, one of many times. I think the worst part of the entire thing was the medicine itself. Well, two medicines. First I slept for two days straight because it turned out they got the dose wrong, and then I started seeing strange things from the second medicine, like an extra person in the room that wasn't actually there, and horrible faces on the ceiling above my bed."
He shivered a little at that memory, and how he had actually called out to his mother for help. She must have noticed because her hand went to his hair, since she had figured out that he found it comforting. He had figured it was because Midna had started to do that to him, but that wasn't it. Now that he thought about it, his mother used to do that to him when he was a little boy whenever he was hurt or frightened. More than ten years later and it still had the same effect on him. He sighed and continued.
"You said you've seen me fight, and I know that some of the things I do are reckless. So far, it's mostly worked out. That's not to say I haven't gotten hurt, but I haven't gotten hurt badly. The Lanmola attack and the fights that happened right before it hurt me pretty badly, and it made me realize that just because I'm the hero, it doesn't mean I'm going to come out of things all right. I can fail." The apple leaves above grew distant, and he was no longer looking at them as he remembered being completely useless and unable to defend himself.
"Anybody can make a mistake, so don't beat yourself up about it." The way she was touching his head was a mixture of comforting and distracting, and she didn't seem to notice how it made him stare at her lips and wonder if he should give up pretending and sit up and kiss her. She wanted to mother him, but he wanted other things. "Was that the only thing that made you change?"
Link took a deep breath and then told her of what happened in the desert. He knew that the way that he and Midna had nearly died at Lanayru's spring was the start of it all, but that was something he wasn't ready to tell her about yet. He told her about the two drunk women tried to break into his room and how angry and disgusted he was. He described his first actual battle to help the Gerudo take back their city, and his remorse for the amount of Shadow Beasts he had to kill. There was a retelling of the fight with King Bulbin in the stable and how he and Auren escaped due to his quick thinking, but that was a harrowing experience as well, even though he had outwardly behaved calmly.
Then there was the Arbiter's Grounds and his fear of the undead. He couldn't tell her about Kasuto but fearing the undead was not an unreasonable fear, and he did at least mention he ran into some before and it absolutely terrified him. He told her of how he eventually tapped into his anger in order to do what he needed to, and of the fight with the lich, the fight with the bone dragon, and his encounter with the Sages and the broken Mirror of Twilight. There was no mention of Midna in any of his story, but he did mention Ganondorf, and how the man terrified him.
Castle Town was the next big one; the army of Shadow Beasts outside, the golden barrier Ganondorf had made around the castle, the way that General Scot had taken over and was not listening to reason, and the way that the Shadow Beasts created an earthquake with their own bodies in order to topple the strong walls of Castle Town. His failure there was even stronger, because he had a physical representation of what his failure was. He had seen people transformed, he had seen the refugees and their shock and despair, and he never stood a chance in the first place.
Ilia listened quietly, occasionally asking something or saying something supportive, but for the most part she only wanted to hear what it was that could make him return to Kakariko a changed man. His nervous breakdown made sense, as did his behavior towards her last night.
"I haven't told anyone about this...only Ashei heard me admit how scared I am." He lay with his eyes half-closed, feeling drained after telling Ilia everything. "I know what I need to do next, but if another wrench gets thrown into the works I don't know if I'll be able to handle it."
"I think you will. You handled all of those things fine so far, even if you think you handled them badly." She had sat there with her hand on the top of his head for most of his story, but the fact that she had kept that contact was soothing. "I don't think either one of us were ready to grow up yet, and you've had to handle things that would have been difficult for somebody twice your age. It's all right if you're scared, or if you get moody. Those are normal reactions to some really frightening stuff."
He shut his eyes, feeling comfortable now. "You're right, but I know how I should be, and I keep trying to be that. Ashei told me not to expect any more than who I am, but nobody else in the world can be what I am." That last statement must have sounded miserable because she combed his hair with her fingers again. "At least I'm not alone, or otherwise this would have been so much worse. I have friends, far more friends than I had in Ordon." His voice grew quiet as he spoke; he was beginning to feel sleepy.
"You're not alone. I know that you can't always be with your friends and the people you care about, but at least you can come back to us." She was warm, and between her soft voice and soft hands, he was beginning to drift off.
"Good. That's why I need you around. But you know that." It probably wouldn't hurt to fall asleep here. Not much was happening today anyway.
She made a small, pleased sound. "It's nice to be needed. Or wanted."
He made a sleepy sound that could have been interpreted in any number of ways. "Yeah." He knew that he needed his other friends, and Rusl and Uli, and of course Midna, but they weren't Ilia. Ilia, the woman he both wanted and needed. "All I want is to come back to you." He wasn't sure if his last thought was actually spoken out loud or not, but if it was out loud, she didn't reply.
The sun was lower when he woke, and he was momentarily confused. Where was he again? He looked around and had the strange vantage point of seeing Ilia's face and torso from below, and then he remembered why they were here. The blonde woman was also asleep, slightly slumped over, and instead of having her hand on his head, she had settled the other one on his collarbone. It was the most she had ever touched him, the two of them having slept as they were for a while. He sighed contentedly and shut his eyes again, happy with what he had in this moment. It felt like he had a long blink but had to be at least an hour later when he opened his eyes again, to see a man's grinning face staring down at him in the late afternoon light.
"They say a picture is worth a thousand words." Shad said. "I and I do believe that this picture is worth an entire library."
Link felt Ilia startle awake, and he scowled up at Shad. "Then take a pictograph and get lost."
The scholar laughed at that, and then smirked at Ilia. "When you said that you were going to 'hang out with Link for a bit', I honestly did not expect you to be gone five hours. I now can see why."
"Five hours…?" Her hands flew to her mouth, and her face turned pink. "What time is it?"
"Too late, I guess." Link grumbled, sitting up. Well that was not how he thought he'd end this. Maybe since her mind was almost back to normal and she was more than willing to touch him, he could have carried things a bit further. Stupid Shad.
"Ah, more like thirteen after five." Shad said, looking at his small silver pocketwatch. "But yes, too late. I've already seen how adorable you are."
"Oh, no! Dinner!" Ilia frantically scrambled to her feet and looked around for where she had left her book.
"Relax, my dear. Telma has it handled. From what Barnes has told me, you've been working your tail off ever since you came to Kakariko. You very well deserved some time spent up here reading and…" The librarian gestured at Link. "...whatever else you were doing."
Ilia reached out to clutch at one of Shad's hands, her face still pink. She seemed even more embarrassed than Link was. "Please don't tell anyone, especially Ashei." she begged. "I don't know her too well and she seems kind of...rude. I don't need grief from her just because I was trying to comfort my friend. That's all it was, okay? I was reading, and he was telling me about what's troubling him, and he fell asleep."
"I won't tell anyone, this time." Shad gently patted Ilia on the head. "What I saw was innocent, and I do know that Link's been having a rough time lately." He put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "However...I believe the next time you decide to steal a tart from Telma, you should steal one for me as well. Just in case you happen to you know...do anything you don't want Ashei to know about."
She scowled at him. "That's blackmail."
The auburn-haired man grinned again. "I believe it's technically extortion, but close enough. Look at it this way: Telma thinks Ashei stole that apple tart earlier. She'll probably blame her again next time."
"Look, I'll steal you sweets if it comes down to it." Link said, picking up the basket. "Just don't give Ashei a reason to pick on Ilia. She doesn't like it."
"I don't care who burgles the goods, only that the deed is done. If you two are finished cuddling, I believe we should head back down to the inn. I imagine the children are done eating already." He smiled lightly at them, still amused by the situation, and turned to walk towards the road that ran along the cliff.
Ilia glared at the man's back as he went, clutching her book to her chest. "Why couldn't it have been Coron who found us? Of course it had to be somebody like Shad." She sighed and moved to stand in front of Link, placing a hand gently on his arm. "Are you feeling any better?"
"Some. Talking to you helped me sort some things out." He smiled at her. "Thanks for listening."
"No problem." She softly chuckled. "Thanks for 'cuddling'." While she was laughing, her expression was a bit coy. He had gotten used to that look and what it meant.
He was suddenly aware of how close she was standing to him, and even though he couldn't talk to her about everything he felt he should soon, he opened his mouth to make a half-joke about coming back up here for a repeat performance soon...maybe just to look at the stars later. Then Shad's voice called out to them to hurry up, and Link felt like picking the man up and hurling him down the cliff.
