Snowshoes turned out to be strange flat ovals made of woven leather thongs, stretched between wooden hoops that tied to the bottom of their boots. They had gotten up before the sun, ate and made their preparations before any of Brent's men came out of their rooms. Link assumed that they had been up late drinking, since most of them used to be soldiers, and soldiers that were not on duty tended to behave a certain way.
Ashei helped him suit himself for the trek: warmer leggings to wear over his regular ones, socks, a scarf and a thick doublet to wear over his green tunic, all made of gray or brown wool. She also gave him thick leather gloves lined with fur, and a heavy black fur cape that had to have come from a bear. He wore the cape over his cloak, and the maker of the cape had designed it for somebody who wore a sword on their back, so there was a gap for the Master Sword and his shield. He crammed his long green hat over his ears again and put his hood up, feeling rather warm inside the lodge but knowing he'd appreciate it once he had started walking for a while. He had no idea who the warm clothing belonged to, but he decided he didn't want to know. For all he knew, it could have been Max.
Ashei herself wore heavier black wool leggings and knee-high fur boots, leaving her greaves behind. She still wore her breastplate and her leather and metal gauntlets, but she had a set of white furs to wear over them. They were what looked like a long fur poncho made of diamond-shaped segments of fur that came down to her knees, a pair of white fur mitts, and a fur hooded mask that covered her entire head, modeled after some kind of animal that he couldn't identify.
She also had a pair of waxed slats of wood that she slung over her shoulder instead of her bow. He had a bow if they needed one, but he had no idea what the long pieces of wood were for. "What are those supposed to be?" he asked.
"They're skis, and they're for getting down hills fast. You put them on your feet and slide down the snow on them." She made a motion with one of her mittened hands to mimic something descending at an angle. "We'll need to go downhill at some point, since the Queen's Keep is on the other side of this big mountain we're on."
"Any chance you have another pair for me?" He had no idea how to use the things, but he didn't like the idea of her sliding down the snow in a hurry while leaving him behind to trudge downhill.
She shook her head, her black hair done up neatly in a braid on the back of her head. "Any other ones here are too long for you to carry, short stuff." When he scowled at her over that remark, she smirked. "You can probably slide down on your shield instead. It's not too different than a sled."
He wasn't sure that was such a good idea, but wasn't going to argue.
Brent came out into the main room of the lodge where they were, looking even shaggier in the morning, and watched them finish their preparations. "Ashei." he said after a moment. "I should warn you: Yetis have been seen in the area. One even came to town yesterday, asking for medicine. It's the usual one though, Saddlehead. He was here a week ago to trade for some food supplies, so if he's around, his tribe probably is close too. The snow might have displaced them. They probably don't mean any harm, but try to be respectful and avoid their dens."
Ashei nodded in response, understanding everything her father had said. Link however did not. Yetis? Dens? He had no idea what they were talking about, and he hoped he didn't find out. As it was, Saddlehead was a strange name for a creature.
The big man yawned. "There, I warned you. I'm going back to bed."
"Hold up." Link said. "I know I mentioned my horse, but would your men be willing to take care of her when they take care of Spirit? She's in the stall to the left of him."
Brent scratched at his shaggy black hair. "Epona, right? I remember. You said she was the horse you escaped from Kasuto on. Since that's the case, I'll go take care of her myself."
He felt grateful that the leader of the little town of Mido and its warrior clan was offering to do the work himself. "Thank you. It means a lot that you yourself will do it."
Brent smiled, flashing his white teeth in the dark forest of his beard. "That's not just your horse, lad. That's Gwyn's horse. I sure as hell am going to take good care of her."
It wasn't much longer before they were on their way through the sleeping town, its cedar buildings lit at their tops by the light of the rising sun. Ashei led him west out of town, white fur mask on her head, snowshoes tied to their boots. He had been skeptical how the strange flat nets would make them walk in the snow better, but then he realized how they worked once they went along the side of the road where there were no prints from men or horses; he did not sink into the snow very far. Looking at the prints in the middle of the road, the snow would have been nearly up to his knees, but instead he barely sunk in farther than the thickness of the snowshoes. He wasn't walking through the snow but on top of it, like a water strider on a pond.
The snow was falling lighter than last night, but it still fell steadily from the gray clouds wreathing the peak that they would be climbing. The morning sun behind them made the world look orange, and he was reminded of of the orange-brown color of the Twilight. As they left the village of Mido behind them, they entered a golden-lit world of blowing crystalline snow.
Link couldn't see too far ahead up the road, the snow making visibility poor, but Ashei seemed to know where she was going. "How far is it to walk there?" he asked, wondering how long they'd be walking in these half-blind conditions.
Her fur hood turned towards him slightly, and he could see the glint of her eyes through the holes in the mask. "Without snow? A little over half a day. With snow? It depends. We should get there before dark, unless we run into problems."
"Problems?" He had to ask. "Do you mean we have to fight something out there? Those Yeti things your father mentioned?"
"No, they shouldn't bother us." The fur hood and mask made it so he couldn't see her expression, and all he had to go off of was her tone of voice. With Ashei, that meant it was hard for him to figure out how she was feeling at all. "The thing that I'm worried about is avalanches and fallen trees. This snow is wet and heavy since the ground wasn't frozen, so the wet layer under the snow can cause it to slide down the mountains." She paused, perhaps to catch her breath. Walking uphill did take some energy. "What's worse is we can't see too far ahead or up the mountain, and this road runs through a saddleback valley between two peaks for half of the trip, meaning we'll be surrounded by mountains at one point."
He did not like the sound of that. It would be both ironic and sad if he didn't die to Ganondorf, but instead died due to tons of snow on top of him. He shivered in a way that was not caused by the cold, and tried to think of something else. "There was something I was wondering." he said, coming to walk a bit closer to her side. "Your father mentioned that a Yeti came into town asking for medicine. Are they a smarter kind of monster? Can they speak our language, like Lizalfos can?"
Ashei's strange white mask kept looking ahead. "They speak the same language we do, with a few minor differences. I don't think they're actually monsters, but a tribe of people that are similar to humans. They have bodies like ours, but much larger and covered in fur. Sometimes they like to wear clothing and jewelry, and sometimes they don't. Yetis have their own culture, religion and magic. I guess they can be considered monsters if you compare them to say, Bulbins...but not so much when you compare them to something like Bokoblins. Bokos don't have morals or a creed, but Yetis do. They can be territorial though, in the same way that the Zoras were before they became civilized. If we run into any, let me do most of the talking. I understand their culture."
He considered this as they walked in silence for a while. Something in-between monsters and human meant something like the Gorons or the Zoras. Those two races were considered monsters once, but their intelligence and ways of life were close enough to that of humans, and so they were instead thought of as separate races of people. If Mido was here in these mountains, it could be possible that Yetis and humans would continue to make contact, and perhaps with time Hyrule would have another intelligent race among its peoples.
Hyrule was large too, parts of it only partially mapped and many places unknown. There were lands that humans hadn't lived in, or at least not for centuries. The Snow Peaks were one of them, although deeper into the mountains was harsh enough that humans did not want to venture in. He wondered how many more races were out there, waiting to make contact with Hylians.
Many. said the Master Sword. This land that Hylia gave to her people was already the home of many others.
That was something history hadn't mentioned. Wait, does that mean Hylia took over the land from those other races?
Negative. Humans were only one such race that lived here among many others, and some tribes were far stronger than them. There was much fighting and danger, and Hylia feared for her people's safety. She moved her people to a safe location in order for them to not die out. After many generations, the land that would become Hyrule became empty and lacked the dangers that threatened the Hylians. It was then Her Grace sent them back to live here in peace.
Some peace it's been. Link thought at the sword. We have wars almost every century, like clockwork.
No civilization is perfect. the Master Sword said succinctly.
He considered the sword, its wealth of knowledge and how wise it was. It appeared to be a perfect, beautiful sword, that unlike other blades did not take damage from use, but he knew that it was quite old. The sword had mentioned something it did over three thousand years ago, and it was possible that it was even older. It had to be, in order to have information about the world before Hyrule was a kingdom.
Affirmative. As long as the goddess is to be protected, I am eternal.
Link briefly wondered why Hylia herself would need to be protected, but his thoughts were interrupted by a loud cracking sound coming from up the snowy road. A portion of a tree fell onto the road ahead of them, the heavy snow covering its branches effectively calving the hardy maple in two.
Ashei stared at it through the eye holes of her mask, and it was difficult to tell if she was alarmed or not. "Keep your eyes and ears open." she said. "I'd rather not have a tree land on your head." She walked around the fallen branches and led him on.
They walked for hours, and his impression of the snow being pretty started to sour. He was now convinced that snow was really damn cold, and was getting sick of walking in it, even if the snowshoes made it easier. Despite the scarf he had over his face, the tip of his nose was cold. His fingers and toes weren't faring much better, and he kept flexing them to try to get any feeling out of them. The most frustrating thing about it all was that irregardless of his cold extremities, he was sweating. The fur and wool he wore was excellent at trapping his body heat, and his body was currently generating a lot of heat from walking uphill for hours, giving him the strange sensation of being both hot and cold at the same time.
Feeling somewhat grumpy, he looked over at Ashei and wondered if she was experiencing the same thing. She didn't look at him, most likely not having any peripheral vision in her white mask. Instead she walked on, following the flags on poles that marked where the road was, placed in a similar fashion as the ones that marked the road in the Gerudo desert.
They walked for miles across a distance that would have taken them no time on horses if the weather had been normal. As they walked, the snow began to let up, gradually becoming a few flakes blowing their way from the dark clouds in the distance. The sun shone, reflecting off the snow brightly. Squinting in that light, he suddenly understood why her mask only had two eye holes to peer out of.
She tilted her head back to look at the clear blue sky above. "That's not good." she said.
"Why?" he asked. "Didn't you want the snow to stop? Your little town is buried in it."
"I'm fine with the snow stopping, but if the sun comes out it will melt more snow. That will increase the chance of avalanches." Ashei turned towards Link, but addressed the Twili riding within his shadows. "Midna? Is it possible for you to protect us if anything happens?"
Midna appeared on the far side of Link and shrugged. "I probably can, yeah. I've protected Link pretty well so far, and it wouldn't be much more of an effort to protect you too. Although I don't know what I'm looking for if there happens to be an avalanche. There's no snow in the Twilight Realm, not where I live anyway. Is it just snow that falls down the mountain?"
Ashei paused again before answering. "It usually looks like the top layer of snow is moving first when they start, and sometimes it looks like a fast-moving cloud of snow. If you see that, warn us, move us, whatever you can do. We…" She panted briefly. "We can't outrun it." It may have been his imagination, but there was a nervous edge to her voice when she said that.
"Right. I'll keep you two safe." Midna wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "I don't like it out here. I'm going back to the shadows inside his clothes where it's warm. Don't worry, I'll still be able to see from there." She then vanished and melded with his torso.
The female warrior looked over at him, and he could see her eyes through the holes in the mask again. "She's inside your clothes? Isn't that close and personal...and kind of inappropriate?"
He sighed, agreeing with Ashei but not voicing how he felt about the subject out loud. "It's fine. She used to hide in the shadow I cast on the ground, but decided to move closer once the Gorons started knocking me down Death Mountain. It doesn't really matter, I guess. She can hitch a ride in whatever shadows she prefers."
"Yeah, but doesn't it feel weird?"
"I can't feel her, you know. She's just a shadow, and shadows can't physically touch anything." He suddenly felt a jab in his chest, as if somebody poked him in the sternum with a finger. Link gasped and put a hand to his chest in surprise.
"So sure of that, are you?" Midna sounded amused, her voice coming from all around him, as if she was in every shadow on his body at the moment. "You don't feel anything because I'm polite about it. I can make myself an obnoxious passenger, so no complaints." He felt a gentle tug on the necklace he wore beneath his clothes, and then nothing else.
Great. Not only was she up near his skin sometimes, but she could actually touch him if she wanted to. The idea disturbed him even more now, but he still didn't say anything. He didn't want her prodding him in uncomfortable places in an effort to be funny. He could see Ashei still looking at him. "Let's not talk about it."
The road stopped being a gradual curve and turned into a switchback as it climbed the mountainside. Link was able to see his breath steam through his scarf as he walked and puffed with the effort. Not only was he not used to moving in the snow, he was also not used to the higher elevation. He noticed that Ashei was breathing more heavily since they had been walking uphill for a while, but not as much as he was. He wanted to stop to rest, but at the same time he felt that he had the endurance to push on, if his climb up Death Mountain was something to compare to. He continued to slog uphill, figuring that the faster they got to the keep, the better.
They pressed on only for a bit longer before Midna spoke up. "Hey, Ashei? I think Link's going to collapse if you don't let him rest. It really sounds like he can't catch his breath, and his heart has been beating pretty fast for a while now."
The young woman stopped and turned towards Link, who was visibly breathing hard. "You should have said something." she said in a disapproving tone.
"'m fine." he mumbled in between heavy breaths. "I...I can do this…"
"Don't be stubborn, fool." Midna chided. "I know your body and its limits by now, and I think you should stop and drink some water."
"I agree." The white fur hood faintly nodded. "We should stop to eat anyway." She scanned the area, looking around for an appropriate place to stop, and pointed at a group of pines off the road a ways ahead. "There. You can walk that far without keeling over, right?"
He didn't answer, but followed her to the stand of trees and waited until she found an appropriate place to sit: a fallen pine, its dead branches propped up on a spruce nearby, leaning at about a thirty degree angle. While there were a bunch of dead branches higher on the tree, the part that stuck up out of the snow was bare.
"Sit." Ashei commanded, waving at the trunk with a fur mitten.
He obeyed and sat, and pulled down the scarf from his face to try to catch his breath. She watched him as he sat there huffing for a moment, and then she reached under her fur coat and pulled out their waterskin, which she insisted on keeping close to her body so it wouldn't freeze. "Drink." she ordered, handing him the water. He was far thirstier than he thought, and she actually told him to stop once he had gulped some down. "Don't drink it all now. We're not stopping for a lot of pee breaks on the way there."
Even though he wanted to drink more, she did have a point. He also was not fond of the idea of exposing himself to the cold air in order to relieve himself, so he handed back the waterskin. "Sorry." He was still trying to catch his breath, but he wasn't breathing as hard as he was a moment ago. "I normally can walk or even run for a long distance, but something about the snow is slowing me down."
Ashei removed her mask, revealing that she had been sweating beneath it. "It isn't the snow, it's the air. It's far thinner up here, so your lungs need to breathe more of it." She took a drink of water while Link considered this.
"Huh...I found out not too long ago that air has pressure and weight just like water does, so I guess the higher up you go, the less air there is. I'm tired because I can't breathe as much air as I'm used to." He watched her as she drank, and noticed that she was not having as much water as he did. "What about you? Are you fine because you grew up here?"
She nodded and capped the waterskin, stowing it back beneath her winter clothes. "My body is used to it, and since I grew up with it, I have a lot of strength and stamina when I'm down in Hyrule." The warrior smiled just a bit. "That doesn't mean I'm not tired right now, though." She sighed and settled on the lower part of the log, situated a little below his knees, and began to pull out food. "Let's try to get some of that strength back. I can't have you falling over part way there."
They ate cold venison and bread as they rested. They higher part of the mountain was at his back, so Link could see how far they had come. Far in the distance were a few wisps of smoke rising over a hillside, a sign that they had come quite a ways from Mido. Beyond was the blue and gray stone of Zora's Domain, and to the right was a smear of green that was the fields of Hyrule. It was quite the view, and he'd probably enjoy it more if getting here wasn't so difficult.
"It's very pretty up here." he said after they had finished eating. He finally felt as if he had caught his breath. "You know, in spite of all the horrible things that happened, I still feel lucky. I've been able to see things that most people will never see. I was at the bottom of Lake Hylia, inside an active volcano, I traveled through the desert, found the ruins of the Temple of Time and the old Castle Town, and now I'm up in the mountains." He smiled, thinking of all he was saying. "I wanted to go see the world once I grew up, but never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that I'd accomplish so much. It makes me wonder what will be left for me once I reach my goal and get Hyrule and the Twilight Realm back to the way they should be."
Ashei stood and brushed the snow off her backside. "Ilia?"
He nodded in agreement. "Ilia. I don't know if I can go back to herding goats, but I know I can go back to Ilia."
She smiled in response to that. His friend wanted him to be happy in the end nearly as much as he did. "If you've rested enough, we should keep going." The woman pulled her fur mittens back on. "You look so much better, so I think you'll be fine."
He stood and prepared himself for another long hike, still feeling a bit tired. The horrible joke that the Master Sword told him yesterday came to his mind for some reason, and he almost laughed at it again. Instead he decided to try one that was equally awful. "Snow doubt about it."
Ashei blinked and raised her eyebrows at him, but did not laugh. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"
"Hey, I've been walking up a mountain in the snow all day. I'm tired and low on funny material right now." He certainly wasn't being funny for Ashei. Her reaction was more or less what he expected, but he had at least thought Midna would give him a pity laugh.
"Well…" Ashei said. "...it was ice of you to try."
The two of them exchanged a look and then burst out laughing at their puns. He grinned at her, feeling appreciative of her joke. "I'll try to do better next time and not flake out on you."
"Oh dear gods, can you two shut up and get moving?" Midna complained. The fact that she had blasphemed was just as funny as her complaint about their puns.
The other woman laughed and put her fur mask back on her head. "It sounds like somebody doesn't have a sense of humor." she said in a sing-song voice.
Link pulled his scarf back on and wrapped it around his face. "I think she finds our jokes rather chilling." The two of them laughed and continued on up the mountain while Midna grumbled under her breath.
The switchback trail turned into a saddleback trail, heading straight between two tall peaks wreathed in clouds, the road itself cut through stone. Link found himself short of breath again, but he figured that Midna would call him out if he grew too tired again. He raised his eyes to look at the two mountains, or perhaps one great mountain that had its peak split in two. The taller peak to their left had a series of craggy cliffs that staggered like steps, starting about halfway down the mountain and going all the way to the road. The formation was not natural, and whatever hands carved the cliffs had likely also carved the path for the road. There were openings here and there with a round stone positioned in front of them, some pushed aside to reveal caverns. Others were partially obscured by piles of snow. He assumed that they were dwellings of some kind, but he had no idea what would want to live up here.
Ashei pointed at the caves dotting the cliff side. "Yeti dens. These ones here have been abandoned for a long time, so we likely won't run into…" She fell silent as a bit of snow tumbled down onto the dens from above, and her head moved to look up at the staggered cliffs. Link followed her gaze to look, and saw that the trickle of snow suddenly became a deluge, tons of white powder pouring over the sheer edge near the peak to land on the first carved cliff, and then pour down the next with even more snow.
"No!" exclaimed Ashei with a tone of panic and fear in her voice that he had not heard before. Even though she had said they couldn't outrun the falling snow, she started running back the way they came, and he had no choice but to follow. It became clear that not only running in snowshoes was difficult, but that outrunning an avalanche was impossible by anything alive, as the wave of snow moved down the mountain at an incredible speed with a roar.
Suddenly the two of them were swept up by Midna's hair, pressed together while surrounded by orange, and then roughly tossed into a dark cavern in a quick, disorienting moment. Then the Twili was in there with them, holding the large hand made of hair over the entrance, audibly straining with the effort of preventing snow from spilling in as a loud rumbling shook the cavern. The light faded from the entrance and they lay in darkness, Ashei sprawled across Link's waist in a tangle of swords, snowshoes and skis. As abruptly as it started, the rumbling stopped.
"Are you two all right?" Midna asked, her aqua runes the only light in the darkness. She was still in the same spot, holding her hair against the weight of snow, probably afraid to move.
"I think so, but I landed on Link." Ashei said, sounding a bit confused by everything that had happened in only a matter of seconds.
"I'm fine." he said, despite landing on the hard stone floor on his rear end. "You saved us, Midna." he said as he grabbed at Ashei and helped her sit up so she could get off of him.
The runes on her ears moved as she turned her head towards them, although it was hard to tell if she was still holding the entryway closed with the Fused Shadows. "Hey, I said I'd keep you safe. I promised I'll protect you, and that's what I'm going to do." The runes on her arms moved as she raised her hands up in a shrug. "Although I don't know what to do now." She turned her head towards the blocked entrance, and moved back ever so slightly. "It seems like the snow is packed pretty good, so none is going to come in."
"That's something at least." he said, feeling a bit nervous about being trapped in a cavern. He tried not to let on and keep his voice calm.
"You can't see at all, can you?" Midna asked, moving closer to the two of them. "I honestly can't tell how dark it is for you."
Link shook his head, knowing she could see it in complete darkness. "It's pitch black in here. Hang on, I still have my lantern with me." He was glad he decided to bring it along, since he was unsure if there would be any lights in the keep. He removed his warm gloves and fumbled in the dark until he took the lantern off his belt and found the matches in his pack. There was a flare of brightness as he struck a match on the side of its wooden box, and he lit their only light, illuminating the room with a limited yellow glow that cast wavering shadows.
He took the lantern in hand and stood up, looking around the cavern with Ashei. The walls were completely and unnaturally smooth, and there were little nooks and shelves formed directly into them. A few tattered hides and skins lay on the floor, as did a few pots and broken baskets. There were no signs of any Yetis being in the den recently. "
"If this is some kind of cave, maybe it comes out somewhere." he said, and he turned to walk towards the darkness of the back of the den. After only about twenty steps he came to a dead end, which was a small hallway ending in two rooms, all perfectly formed in the rock.
"We're trapped now, aren't we?" Ashei's voice was nervous as it came from behind her mask.
Link walked back to her with his lantern and shook his head. "No, we'll figure something out." He moved past the others and went to the round doorway. The snow in it was so tightly packed, it felt like a sheet of ice when he put his hand to it. The compacted snow blocking the doorway had the imprints of the large hand she had formed out of her magical hair, and if the situation wasn't so grim he would have laughed about it. "It's squished together pretty good, but we do have weapons that we can use to chip away at it. Maybe we can dig our way out."
"We can't try that." Ashei said. "There's so much snow outside the door that the light can't get through, meaning that there's way too much for us to tunnel through safely." Her voice wavered a little as she spoke. She was afraid. "If we tried, either the snow would rush into the room, or would collapse on top of us if we made a tunnel."
He felt a flutter of panic in his chest at the idea of being crushed under tons of snow, unable to breathe or move. Panicking about it wouldn't solve anything, so he took a deep breath and focused on keeping Ashei calm. She seemed far more upset about the situation than him. "Well then, we have another option: Midna." He took a few steps towards the imp, and the dark form glowing with runes became lit by the lantern, revealing her features. "You can teleport us out of here, right? I know there isn't a portal outside, but I know you're able to teleport around without one sometimes. You've done it before."
The Twili considered it, looking thoughtful. "Maybe. I might be able to teleport my own self without too much trouble, but you two are a different story. When I teleported us from Hyrule Castle to Ordon, it was because I was moving from one ley nexus to another. There's not a lot of magical flow in this place, so I can't tap into the extra magical energy I'd need." She saw the nervous look on his face and smiled. "But hey, I know I can get myself out there. That leaves me with two options when I get outside: try to dig you out, or leave to get help."
He looked over at Ashei, who was still wearing her mask, so he was unable to read her expression. If she actually was afraid, then the sooner they got out of here, the better. "Try to dig us out yourself." he told Midna. "I think you'd be able to move the snow far better than any group of warriors could, and that way we wouldn't have to wait for help to arrive." He remembered how she had complained about the cold before. "Will you be all right in the cold?"
"I should be fine. And if not, I can always come back in here to warm up in your shadows for a bit. If this place is big enough for Yetis to hole up and breathe, then it should be fine for two humans to sit in for a while." She moved to hover in the air in front of Ashei. "You'll be all right, okay? Link's with you." She reached down and took one of the warrior's fur-clad hands in her two small ones. "I don't abandon my friends. I'll rescue you, and everything will be fine."
Ashei didn't respond, so Midna clicked her tongue sadly and patted the mask, since she couldn't pat the young woman's cheek. Then the Twili disappeared in a flurry of dark squares, the staccato tune of her teleportation spell playing in Link's ears.
Just as he had when he and Auren were trapped in the burning stable, he pushed down his fear and maintained a steady, calm manner. He set the lantern down on one of the nearby ledges that was molded into the wall. "Well, now all we need to do is wait. I've seen Midna move around giant rocks. She'll get this sorted out soon enough." He waited for Ashei to say something in response, but she remained silent. She didn't even move. "Are you all right?" he asked.
She didn't say anything, but after a few seconds faintly shook her head. Link came to stand next to her. "I know you're frightened, but Midna will come through for us." he said softly. "She always has for me."
There was a deep rumble overhead as some snow moved, or perhaps a second avalanche happened. Ashe made a small strangled sound and wrapped her arms around herself. Concerned, he reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, and as soon as he touched her she began to speak frantically. "It's too much! It's going to crush us!" The woman pawed at her head covering, tearing it from her shoulders and throwing it at the floor along with her mittens and gauntlets, as if hurling the items would somehow throw away her fear. Her face was contorted in terror, her bangs and loose fringes of dark hair stuck to her sweating forehead, and she breathed rapidly.
The look on her face gave Link pause. He had not seen Ashei afraid of anything, not even when she told him she felt that way about Zant's army. Even when they evacuated Castle Town, she was in control of herself. This was someone who rode calmly and effectively into battle, the classic example of a noble knight. This was a woman who deterred potential suitors by beating them in a fistfight, but now she looked like a terrified girl, standing next to him while pressing her tightly clenched fists against her cheeks.
There was another rumble as more snow moved, likely from whatever Midna was doing outside. Ashei gave a terrified shriek and covered her face with her hands. He couldn't stand to watch his friend be terrified anymore, so he reached out to her. "Come here." he said, pulling her close and putting his arms around her. She immediately buried her face in his shoulder, snaking her arms up under his cloak and clutching at the back of his woolen doublet.
He wasn't sure what to say, wanting her to not be terrified, but unsure of what could possibly help her. Midna had helped him get over his terror when he fought the undead, but that was a different situation. He was able to fight off his fear, a tangible thing that he could slash with his sword and destroy. Ashei's fear was something far more complex and irrational, a fear of something that normally would have a small chance of happening to her, but now that it had she was filled with such terror that her body and mind shut down.
Sword? he asked. Is there a phobia for avalanches?
Affirmative, Master. It is called Nivisphobia, and you are correct in your assessment of Ashei. She does appear to suffer from it. It is advised that you attempt to keep her calm so she will not hyperventilate. Doing so could cause her to faint, as well as use more of the limited amount of breathable oxygen within this Yeti den.
He didn't know what oxygen was, but considering the sword's words it was probably in the air. He had discovered his own new phobia when swimming through Lake Hylia, and asked Midna to distract him. Now he needed to do the same thing here. Link concentrated on his friend, who trembled in his arms while clinging to him like a frightened child clinging to a parent.
There was a more distant rumble, and he could feel her grip on his clothes tighten as they tugged on him. "Ashei, I'm pretty sure we're safe in here. Midna wouldn't have left us here if it wasn't." She shook her head slightly, not raising it from his shoulder. His assurances of safety didn't mean anything, so he tried a different tack. "I have a phobia, too. Well, two phobias. The first was the fear of open water, which I discovered while swimming through Lake Hylia with Ralis." She didn't say anything, so he soldiered on. "The second one is spiders. I'm terrified of them."
Ashei raised her face but didn't look at him, her cheek inches from his. "Spiders?" she whispered, unable to find her voice.
"Spiders." he confirmed. "They have way too many legs, sometimes they're hairy, and have these nasty faces with those little feeler things in front of their mouths." He shivered thinking of it, which she noticed because her hold on him tightened momentarily. "I'm not crazy about bugs either, but spiders are the worst. When I had to get the first piece of the Fused Shadows, there were these huge webs in the woods. I was lucky I didn't run into the spiders that made them, because I probably would have freaked out."
There was another shudder as snow moved, and a distant crunching sound. She put her face back onto his shoulder and began breathing hard again. Well, at least he managed to distract her for a minute. He tried to think of something else to talk to her about, and by some poor fortune his lantern went out at that moment. Ashei gave a low moan that ended in a sob. The darkness made it worse for her, somehow. Even his fear of spiders wasn't like this. He usually just yelled and squished them and moved on.
He realized that she was crying. Not openly sobbing, but she still sounded like she was in tears. He gently patted her back, which meant he patted the back of her armor and she wouldn't feel it anyway. "Hey, I'm here with you. Shh. It's okay." What could he do to distract her? He felt he was terrible at helping her so far.
"Link…" she said in a strained voice after a moment.
"Yeah?" He was glad she spoke, because his stupid brain wasn't working and he still was unsure of what to talk to her about, other than babble. It didn't seem to help him when Midna had babbled at him about Keatons or whatever.
She gave a quivering sigh. "I already told you that I'm not into hugs."
"Yes, I do recall you saying that."
"Then why...am I hugging you?" Even in her fear, her voice had a slight jesting edge to it.
He couldn't help but laugh at that. Ashei didn't seem to be big on physical contact, but he was the polar opposite, now that he thought of it. He was always touching people, just like Midna did. "Because I'm a hugger, big time. I hug my friends, I hug children, I hug dogs, I even hug Midna. It's just what I do, I guess." He paused. "Did you want me to let you go? If you're uncomfortable I can stop."
"No." Ashei said quietly. "This situation is an exception." She gave a little sniffle, and he was glad he was unable to see her cry.
"All right. I guess I can continue doing what I'm good at." he said. That gave him a thought. "Did you want to try singing to pass the time?" Before she could answer there was the sound of more moving snow, and the strange grinding, crunching sound was closer. What the heck was Midna doing out there?
Her grip tightened at the sound and he could feel her tremble. "No." she said miserably in a low voice.
That had seemed like a good thing to keep her occupied, but he supposed it was hard to sing when your throat is tight with fear. He wanted to distract her, so he offered to do something he normally would not offer. "Would you like me to sing to you instead?" He figured it would at least give her something to listen to.
She didn't respond at first, but then gave a delayed "Yes.".
"All right, songs. Let me think. I think we've gone through both of our musical libraries, so I don't know of anything new. Oh! I remember one. I learned it from my mother, and she learned it from my grandmother. It's kind of long, but I doubt you know it." He paused, sifting through his memories for the words in a language he didn't know. Even if she didn't understand the words, he knew that it would distract her, which was what he wanted. As long as she heard him singing and was able to focus on it, that was all that mattered.
Link began to sing. The words were in Old Hylian, from a Hyrule long gone, the song possibly older than the ruins dotting its fields. The song was in a minor key with a sad sweetness to it, with extended stanzas coming back to the same refrain, which had the only lyrics he vaguely knew the meaning of. His tenor voice moved through the notes easily, bouncing off the walls and echoing it back to them, making it mix in strange way that made the song sound all the more melancholy.
As he sang, he heard the odd crunching sound grow closer, but he didn't stop. He knew that Ashei had lifted her face from his shoulder and was listening. It gradually grew brighter in the room, as blue-tinged light began to filter through the packed snow in the doorway. In that light he saw Ashei staring at him, inches from his face, a look of quiet awe and rapt attention on her face. She was no longer trembling, and she was instead entranced by his song.
The song ended and it was suddenly very quiet in the cavern. Even though he had sang in front of Ashei multiple times by now, the closeness of her while he was singing made him feel somewhat uncomfortable. While she was encased in plate armor, he was not; since she had her arms around him the entire time, she could likely feel his song. The idea that somebody would be close enough to feel the vibrations in his body as he sang made his face flush. It was fine when they were in the dark, but once he had been able to see it had become far too intimate.
Ashei stepped back from him, noticing his discomfort, but her eyes were still wide and awed from listening. "That…" She smiled ever so faintly, her fear forgotten. "That is an amazing song. I have no idea what it means, but you have to teach me that one."
At that point a large gray-skinned fist punched through the packed snow, spilling light into the cave. A pair of gray hands fringed with white fur pushed some of the snow out of the way, and then a large hairy face peeked through the hole. Big brown eyes fixed on them, and the beast smiled with large fangs jutting up from his lower jaw. "Hello in there, humans. I heard singing. I guess that means you're all right?"
The Yeti was named Yeto. He was humanoid and at least eight feet tall, had a long flat tail like a beaver, and was covered in a thick layer of curly white fur that made a repeating diamond pattern on his chest and tail, very much like the pattern on Ashei's coat. He was also wearing a worn saddle on his head as a hat, the stirrups hanging down on either side of his head. Link could see why Brent had referred to him as "Saddlehead".
Yeto explained to them how he came to rescue them. The Yeti had come up the mountain and saw Midna attempting to move snow, and asked what she was doing. When Midna had explained that her friends were trapped under an avalanche in one of the old dens, the Yeti had set down the fishing tackle he had been carrying and offered to help.
He told Midna that moving the snow that way would just make more snow fall from above, and his people had a safer way: it was far better to use spells to tunnel through it. He had started to show her, forcing the snow outward and compressing it into a shiny tunnel of ice, when the two of them heard Link singing.
"Once I heard that song, I knew exactly where you were." Yeto said. "I aimed my tunnel right towards that sound and got to you two in no time." The massive Yeti led them out of the abandoned den through a half-oval of smooth blue ice, thick and sturdy. Link touched at the walls of the tunnel that the Yeti had magicked, and realized that the den they were trapped in was also formed in the stone the same way. He also realized that the tunnel was long, and with that amount of snow it would have taken hours for Midna to dig them out.
The outside around the start of the tunnel was a wall formed of ice, far taller and wider than the tunnel was, formed to shore up any additional snow that fell. Midna waited for them, shivering as snow began to fall again. It felt far colder than before, although that may have been due to them sitting inside the warmer den for a while.
Ashei took deep breaths once she stepped outside, looking relieved. Link decided he wouldn't tell anyone about her panic or her fear. If he had reacted to something to something that way, he wouldn't want people knowing about it, so he doubted Ashei would either.
"It's gotten colder out here." said Midna. "You two were in there for less than an hour, but these clouds came in and started dropping snow, and the sun went away. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go warm up." She blurred and shot herself at Link to hide in his shadows, and he gasped at the feeling of cold against the skin of his chest and belly. Even in shadow form, she was physically cold to the touch.
"Midna! You're freezing!" He grabbed at his chest. "Do you really have to go right up against my skin like that?"
"Of course I do." Her voice came from his chest. "This is where you're the warmest. I tried to hide in your hood, and then in my usual spot between your tunic and armor, but they were too cold."
Yeto pointed at Link's chest with a thick gray finger. "Is she hiding in your clothing somehow?"
"She merges with my shadows in order to hide away, but lately she feels the need to be a little too close, and we will have a discussion about this at some point, Midna." he said indignantly, clutching at the front of his warm doublet.
"What's your problem?" She either didn't see what the issue was, or didn't care. It was hard to tell with Midna, sometimes. "You said it was fine earlier." When he started to reply she cut him off impatiently. "Quit your complaining or I'll make this unpleasant. I know you're ticklish."
That shut him up.
"What brings a pair of humans and a little shadow being this high up into the mountains?" Yeto asked. "Your kind usually stay down near your village."
Ashei smoothed her hair back, preparing to put her warm hood back on. "We were on our way to the Queen's Keep on an important errand."
"Isn't that interesting? I was heading back there myself." said the Yeti. "My wife is there right now, although she still may be asleep." He considered the two humans, his brown eyes thoughtful. Whatever he was thinking about, he came to some conclusion and gave a small nod. "She hasn't been feeling well, so I went to get some medicine at your town to help her sleep. I figured after she woke up, I'd cook some nice fish to give her some energy."
Yeto walked from the tunnel he had made and back to the far side of the road, where he had lay down his tackle. It was a simple fishing pole with a bone hook on the end of its neatly-wound line, and next to it was a large red-scaled fish. He picked up the rod and the fish, and held up his catch to show them. "Reekfish, from Zora's Fountain. The oil of their scales smells really strong, but the flesh is very fatty and nourishing. I think if she eats some, she'll feel better." He nodded his large saddle-clad head towards the road heading west. "Come on humans, let's go there together."
They fell into step with the Yeti, who slowed his strides so they could keep up. Brent had said that any local Yeti would most likely not cause any trouble, and this particular one seemed friendly enough. Link still decided to Ashei do most of the talking, since he had no idea what kinds of things would offend a Yeti.
"May I ask a question?" Ashei was polite and formal. It was also muffled since she had put her hood back on.
"Yes, you may." said Yeto.
"Why are you and your wife in the keep? Don't you have a den with your tribe?" It didn't seem like the questions were offensive, but perhaps it was best to be polite before asking any personal questions. She knew something about Yeti culture, and he didn't.
The Yeti trudged ahead through the snow, and sighed heavily. "I suppose I can tell you. Your village might have found out about us eventually anyway, and we have to talk about something on the way there." That wasn't necessarily true, but perhaps Yeto was rather chatty and didn't like silence. "Yeta and I have left our tribes. She's from Bluebird, and I'm from Snow Fox. Our tribes get along just fine, so that isn't the issue. We Yeti don't make war very often, and mostly keep to our own territories."
Yeto rubbed at the back of his neck a bit awkwardly and continued. "The problem was Yeta's parents did not want me to marry her. They said that she's too small to have my cubs." He grumbled, scowling beneath his comical saddle hat. "My mother tried to tell them that I was just as small as any other cub when I was born, but they wouldn't listen. They see how big I am, and they worry. So...we left. We thought the old human keep was a far better place to live than a den, especially since our tribes wouldn't look for us there, so we moved in. We weren't able to have a proper ceremony, but we decided that we were formally married, and even gave each other the gifts. She gave me a bear pelt that she hunted and cured herself, and I gave her a pretty little piece of black glass that reflected like a mirror."
"Wait, hold up." Link said, not worrying about Yeti etiquette after hearing that. "You found a piece of black glass in the Queen's Keep?"
Yeto looked down at him, surprised. "How did you know that? Yes, I did find it there, and I could see my reflection in it. I figured I could give it to Yeta so she could see how beautiful she is all the time." He raised a shaggy eyebrow. "Do you know what it is? Is it yours?"
Link patted the front of his doublet. "It belongs to my friend the shadow being. It was stolen from her, and we need to get it back."
"Ah, that would explain the black things with stone faces that had it. They must have stolen it from the little shadow being." He smiled down at Link, which was still a warm and friendly expression despite his fangs. "Don't you worry, I killed them all since they attacked me. You won't have to worry about them stealing again." At least he had managed to kill the Shadow Beasts. The idea of a transformed Yeti was intimidating, especially one the size of Yeto.
"This is worrying, Link." Midna said in his ears. "Ganondorf sent Shadow Beasts here, and probably to the two other locations that the Sage mentioned. That means that there are probably more portals that he can use." She spoke a little louder when addressing the Yeti. "Excuse me Yeto, do you mind asking a few questions about this mirror piece?"
"I certainly do not, little shadow creature." It was strange how he kept calling Midna that, even though he had heard her name. "What is it you want to know?"
"You said that Shadow Beasts had the shard. Were they trying to hide it in the keep?" Midna asked.
The Yeti frowned, exposing more of the sharp teeth in his lower jaw as he did so. "Yes, it did seem that way. I would have let them do so and not cared so much if they hadn't attacked me."
"Right. Next question…" the Twili continued with her interrogation. "It's the middle of summer. Did all this snow start right after you found the mirror?"
"Yes, it did. It became cold just like winter, and right after that Yeta became sick. It's a nasty cold too, since she's weak and has a fever. It's unfortunate since strange creatures made of ice started appearing in the keep, and I don't know if she could fight them in her current state." The Yeti's face grew grim. "I assumed that the mirror was cursed somehow, so I hid it. Unfortunately, Yeta found it. I keep trying to find new hiding spots for it, but she keeps finding it again somehow."
He turned his head to look at Link's chest again, speaking to Midna. "If you could take your shard away from my wife, that would be a good thing, and I would be grateful. She claims she doesn't want to lose it because it's my wedding gift to her, but I believe she has other reasons to want it. She seems obsessed with the thing." The Yeti stared ahead at the snowy road, walking in silence for a moment. "I had thought you humans were lucky that I came along...but perhaps I'm the lucky one."
They continued to walk, and Link thought about the massive Yeti beside him. When Ashei had told him that they could speak, he pictured a few basic words with a lot of grunts and growls. After speaking to the beast, he realized that he was very wrong in his assumption. Yes, the pronunciation of some words were altered a bit due to the Yeti's large teeth, but he knew what a song was, had gone fishing, and had a larger vocabulary than half the people in Ordon. He seemed as bright as the average Hylian, maybe even a bit more.
"Hey, Ashei. About how much farther?" he had to ask after walking for a while. He was starting to feel winded again, but it felt like they were getting close to the top.
"Not far." Ashei told him. "Once we stop going uphill, it will go much faster."
"Good." Link panted. "I'm cold, I'm tired, and it would be nice to sit down." He gave her a sidelong glance with a smile. "Besides, it'll be good to get inside a building. We're out in snowman's land here."
She laughed behind her mask. "Then let's keep going, for cold time's sake."
"Ugh, not this again." Midna muttered. Her tone made him grin, and he had no intention of stopping just because she disliked it. In fact that as his incentive to keep going with the puns.
"Ah…" he pointed over at Ashei. "Icy what you did there."
That one got a chuckle out of Yeto too, who turned towards the humans as he walked. "Yes, well...we'd better flurry if we want to get there soon." That one made the three of them laugh, although the fourth member of their group did not appreciate the snow puns in the least.
"I hate you all." Midna groaned dramatically.
They went over the crest of the saddleback between the two peaks, and Link could see the road winding its way down the mountain, following a trail of flags tied to poles. Far in the distance he could see the lights from a building, which he assumed was the keep, but it was hard to tell due to the falling snow.
"It's all downhill from here." Yeto said. "You two know how to get down fast, right? I see the female one has skis, but how will the male one get down?" It was strange that Yeto called them that, because he had heard their names. It probably was one of those cultural differences Ashei had mentioned.
"He's going to ride down on his shield like it's a sled." she told the Yeti, and then she turned towards Link. He could see that her eyes behind the mask were mirthful. "You'll need to steer, so I slope you have enough energy to go down the mountain."
Not missing a beat, he thumped his chest. "Don't worry about me, I'm in peak condition."
There was a sudden sharp jab in his solar plexus. "No more puns!" Midna growled. Oh yes, they would be talking about which shadows she chose to hide in very soon.
The two humans removed their snowshoes, which Ashei tied onto the straps that held her skis. The two long slats of wood strapped onto her feet on the bottom of her boots just like the snowshoes, and after hearing how she mentioned that they were for going down hills, he assumed that they were like the runners of a sleigh. She shuffled until the two skis were pointed down the mountain and then crouched down.
"How am I supposed to ride down on my shield?" he asked her. Maybe since it was her idea, she had done something like it before. He had taken it off of his back and now held it in his hands.
"Sit in it, stand on it, whatever you feel like doing. We're making this up as we go along." Ashei's answer was not very satisfying...or encouraging for that matter.
He felt his anger flare at her unhelpful response. "What? You're making up this dangerous thing for me to try?"
She didn't seem concerned about his obvious anger. "Don't worry about it. If you fall, Midna will pick you back up."
"Maybe." the Twili said flatly, still salty about the puns.
"I'll see you at the bottom." Ashei said, and she pushed herself off the edge of the hill, sliding down on the wooden skis. She took off with speed and moved in a snaking pattern as she slid down the mountain, most likely following the terrain. Link watched her go, and then heard a crackling sound to his right.
Yeto was leaning over with his large hand extended, forming a long oval of ice with his magic on top of the snow. "If you really don't know what you're doing, I'll try to catch you at the bottom." he offered. Then the Yeti got on the slab of ice, standing on it sideways, and slid down the hill in a fashion similar to Ashei.
Left behind and with little choice, Link set down the shield in front of him, the pointed end facing the downhill slope. He considered sitting on it, but figured the handle would jab him in the buttocks and make the ride unpleasant. He decided to put his feet on it sideways like Yeto did, crouching low to hold onto the strap with his left hand. Now all he needed to do was go.
The problem with going was starting; the hill seemed quite steep now that he looked at it again, and he could feel a flutter of anxiety in his stomach. "Okay, Link. You can do this." he muttered to himself. "You've done a lot of other crazy things, and this is considerably less crazy than them. I think." He took a deep breath, steeling himself. Then he didn't move. "Right. It'll be fine."
"Oh, shut up and just go already." Midna said testily, and as he suddenly began to move, he realized with horror that she reached out of his shadows to push him down the slope.
If it seemed like Ashei and Yeto were moving fast, then Link was moving at the speed of light. The snow beneath him sped past, the scenery blurring on either side of him as the wind stung his eyes. The shield began to slowly shift to the left, and it was then he realized that he had no idea how to steer. He had assumed he could use his weight to bank the shield left or right, and leaned back on the shield while attempting to shift his weight more to the right in an attempt to follow the slope. The shield barely moved, and he flew off the edge of the switchback trail and into the air with his fur cloak fluttering behind him.
He landed hard, his teeth clacking together, and continued on the the next bit of trail to helplessly repeat the process. The second landing made his bent knees ache, but thankfully the direction he was going didn't follow the road anymore, and was a straightaway.
The problem was the rapidly approaching trees.
It didn't take very much imagination on his part to figure out what would happen to him if he hit a tree at this speed. He flailed about, trying to shift his weight this way and that, but it accomplished little and he continued to barrel on towards the trees. A dozen crude words and phrases came to mind, but he was too terrified to swear about his situation.
"Ohhh no no NO NO!" was all he could manage to say as he entered the small patch of wood, his voice rising a to a panicked shriek as the trunks zipped past him. By some amazing fortune he came out of them intact, and his mouth spread into a nervous grin as he gave a crazed, giddy whoop. He could see Ashei and Yeto waiting at the bottom, right next to the wall that marked the perimeter of the Queen's Keep. A wall. A thick stone wall.
Oh, shit.
If there was something worse than a tree to smack into, it was that. Not wanting to turn into a red splat on the wall, he tried to dig his hand into the snow to slow himself down, but it did little other than spin him hard to the right and made him continue to sled down sideways. Out of options, he let go of the shield and leaped off. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he bounced in the air, rolling and tumbling painfully across the snow and down the mountain. There was a moment where the world was a disorienting blur, where he couldn't tell which way was up, and he caught rapid alternating glimpses of white snow and gray sky. Then he slowed and came to a stop on his back.
He stared up at the gloomy sky and at the snow gently falling on his face, and let out an involuntarily groan. The ride down, the jumping off hills, the coursing through trees, it all blurred together in his mind and all he could think of at the moment was the pain in his already sore body. He realized that he still wasn't breathing and gasped for breath, coughing a bit.
Midna materialized above him with a concerned look on her face, and she reached down to put her little hands on his shoulders. "Link! Link, are you hurt?"
He blinked and stared at her, his mind catching up to where he was and what had actually just happened. Link coughed again, patting at himself feebly. "No. I don't think so." He slowly sat up and felt a series of stronger pains on his chest, hip and shoulder, and his breath hissed as he inhaled through his gritted teeth. "Okay. Maybe a little...but I'll live."
"I'm sorry I pushed you...I should have held onto you or helped or something." She put her hands on the sides of his face, and they felt cold to the touch. "It happened so fast I wasn't sure what to do."
"It's okay." He realized that he was sitting about twenty feet away from the wall, and his shield had continued on to hit it and land nearby. If he had waited any longer to jump off, he probably would have collided with the wall by rolling into it. A thought occurred to him and he reached over his shoulder to close his hand on the hilt of the Master Sword, and he felt relieved.
You did not lose me. the sword informed him.
Link slowly stood, wincing a bit at how sore he felt, and his eyes moved to watch the woman and the Yeti that were walking towards him. There was no way for him to tell if Ashei was going to make fun of him or not, since she still had her fur mask on.
"Pretty good speed, but you really need to learn how to steer." Yeto said cheerfully, possibly not knowing that humans were not built to bounce their way down a mountain like that.
"I'll take that into consideration." Link said, rotating his painful right shoulder to make sure it still worked. If he returned with even more bruises he...he quite honestly would let Ilia fuss over his injuries and endure whatever lecture she had in store for him. It was nice to have somebody that concerned for his well-being, even if she wanted to mother him. A cold breeze ruffled his hair, and he realized his head was bare. "Oh. Lost my hat."
He had to do an inventory check to make sure nothing else was missing. Bow, quiver with arrows, boomerang, pouches, pack and lantern were all still hanging from his belt and baldric, although one of the glass panes on the lantern was now cracked. All that he was missing was the clawshot and his hat. It wasn't too hard to spot the long green hat in the midst of white hillside, but he needed Midna's assistance to help find the clawshot, which had sunk into the snow.
Once all his belongings were accounted for, he crammed the hat back on his head and tucked his pointed ears up inside of it again. Then he retrieved his shield, and after finding that it had come out of that whole experience with only one small scrape, he put it back up on his baldric where it belonged. "All right." he said, starting to feel like he had recovered from his shield sledding experiment. "Let's go meet Yeta."
