After camping out for the night, Link and Linkle continued their way along the road heading west. They passed through Fort Hateno in the late morning and were able to trade for some supplies. When the road began curving north, Linkle suggested cutting directly through the Ash Swamp. However, Link managed to talk her out of it, saying that their horse would not handle the terrain very well. That much was true, but he was more concerned with the monsters that Linkle had no doubt hoped to find in the swamp. Even though he had agreed to become an adventurer with her against his better judgment, his priority was still just to keep them alive.

It was around noon when Lake Siela came into view. The road had curved back to the west some time ago, so Link and his sister felt more like they were making progress. They still had to turn south at the next crossroads, but hopefully they'd be able to reach the town of Twins by sundown.

"We shoulda gone through Ash Swamp," Linkle complained for the hundredth time, sitting back to back with her brother atop their horse. "There are probably so many cool monsters there. Gekkos, Snappers, Hiploops, Warts, Degu Toads…"

"I'm not fighting anything I'm not getting paid to fight. Unless it's trying to kill us," Link said, repeating the lecture he kept having to give her. "Besides, I already told you it woulda taken longer to go that way on horseback. We've only got so much daylight left. You wanna go kill some Deku Toads, you do it on your own time."

"Degu Toads," Linkle corrected him. "They're amphibians, not plants."

"What the hell's a Degu?"

"It's a Sheikah word. It means big."

"So they're just called 'big toads?' That's dumb."

"You're dumb."

"Very clever, Sister. You think-" Link stopped talking when he heard a branch snapping from somewhere amongst the trees by the side of the road.

What was that?

"What is it?" Linkle asked.

"...Dunno," Link replied. "Ever since that cemetary, I've felt like we're being watched."

"You think we're being followed by ReDeads?" Linkle asked. "I mean, it's not exactly bright out today, but even with all these clouds, I don't think they can come out again until sundown."

"I don't think it's ReDeads. Those things are too slow to follow anything anyway."

"Then what?"

Link shrugged. "Dunno. Just keep an eye out, would ya? Never know what we'll run into out here."

A little further down the road, Link could see something moving towards them. He was wary for a moment, but after getting closer, he could see it was a carriage being pulled by a giant green Orhat beetle. "Hey, looks like we're gonna pass by some Deku merchants," he said.

Linkle turned around in the saddle to look up front. "Oh, goodie! Maybe we can trade for some better food. The bread we got at Fort Hateno is already rock hard, and these mushrooms are so tasteless. I want some meat."

"We can ask what they're selling when we pass them," Link suggested.

They rode for another minute, watching the carriage grow larger as they got closer to it. There was a dapper-looking Business Scrub sitting at the front of the wagon holding the Orhat's reins. Link tried waving to him.

Linkle giggled. "Scrubs always crack me up," she said. "Look at his little leaf mustache! It's so cute."

The Deku Scrub was stroking the leaf-stache sprouting from his snout with long, thin, wooden fingers. His body was bulb-shaped, which gave him the appearance of being fat, even though Link was pretty sure plant people couldn't get fat.

What did he do? Eat too much sunlight?

"Maybe he-"

"Look out!" Linkle suddenly pressed a hand on Link's shoulder for leverage, lifting herself up to point into the sky.

"Ow! Hey!" Link complained.

The Deku Scrub seemed to hear Linkle's cry and looked upwards, so Link did as well. Up in the sky was a gigantic Kargaroc swooping down towards the Deku wagon. The monstrous bird was the biggest Link had ever seen. Most Kargarocs were only a bit bigger than normal birds of prey, but this one was larger than he was. It landed atop the covered wagon with a thud, slamming into it hard enough to tip the right wheels off the ground for a moment. Squawking angrily, the Kargaroc began tearing at the cart with its beak and talons. The driver started to panic, and two more little Scrubs hopped out of the back of the cart, clearly no more prepared to deal with the enormous bird than the driver was.

Link chuckled. They'd encountered much worse monsters before, so this would be easy by comparison. Not to mention these Business Scrubs would surely reward them handsomely. "Draw your crossbow, Sister. It's time to get paid."

"And save these guys," Linkle reminded him, hopping off of the horse.

"Hey, you've been wanting another 'quest' since we killed that Moblin," Link pointed out, drawing his sword and shield as he joined his sister on the ground. "Let's not let this opportunity go to waste."

The Kargaroc let out another loud squawk. It had broken through the roof of the covered wagon and was now picking at some food inside of it. The Deku Scrubs outside the wagon began angrily trumpeting at it with their little wooden snouts. One of them spit out a Deku nut, hitting the bird monster in the side. It squawked unhappily and flapped its wings, lifting itself into the air. Before it could swoop down at the Scrub, Linkle shot a bolt at it, piercing one of its wings.

"Don't worry, little guys!" she shouted to the Deku. "We're here to help!"

Although injured by Linkle, the Kargaroc had already chosen its target. It went for the Scrub that had shot at it first, swooping down and attempting to grasp him in its talons. The Scrub squeaked in surprise and leapt to the side. The bird monster landed next to him and tried to peck him, jamming its beak into the ground several times.

"He's landed. I'm going in," Link said, readying his weapon. "Don't shoot me," he reminded his sister.

"No promises," Linkle said as she aimed her crossbow again.

Link ignored his sister's casual death threat and charged at the monster. The Kargaroc lifted off of the ground and flew at the Deku Scrub again, landing on him this time. Just before it brought its beak down, a bolt flew over Link's shoulder, hitting the monster in the back. It squawked in pain, rearing back. Seizing the opportunity, Link ran right up to it and bashed its head with his shield. It fell over, its gigantic body hitting the ground with a thud. Link wasted no time in delivering the finishing blow, stabbing downwards with his sword.

"Ha! This one was mine, Sister!" he called back to Linkle, wiping the blood from his weapon.

"Pfft. It woulda died from my shot anyway," Linkle argued, walking up to him with her crossbow resting against her shoulder.

"Anything we wanna scavenge from this thing?" Link asked, immediately thinking of how to maximize the profits from this encounter.

"I think fletchers will buy their feathers," his sister replied. "And alchemists will buy the golden ones from its tail. The rest is just good meat."

"Wish we could take the whole thing, then," Link said. To his side, he heard a squeak and looked down. Two of the Deku Scrubs were standing there, these ones no more than three feet tall, their arms and legs concealed by a cloak of leaves cascading down their bodies. The Scrub from the front of the cart climbed down to come meet them too. He stood a bit taller, about four and a half feet, with most of his bark-skinned body bare aside from his leaf-stache and the leaves on his head.

Communicating with Deku Scrubs was always an odd affair. Although most Scrubs understood Hylian as well as any other Hyrulean could, they did not have the mouths and vocal cords humans did. Instead, they could only speak by making noise with their little wooden snouts, which sounded like a trumpet or a woodwind instrument. Similarly, while most Hyruleans interacted with Deku merchants often enough to understand their dialect, humans could not really replicate the sounds they made. This resulted in both parties speaking to one another in their own language.

The head Business Scrub removed the cap he wore atop his head and bowed respectfully, trumpeting in gratitude.

"No need to thank us," Linkle said, smiling immodestly. "We were just doing our job."

"Speaking of," Link said, holding out his hand. "We would appreciate a little compensation, if you don't mind." Linkle elbowed him. "What? You said it yourself, this is our job now."

"This wasn't a formal quest," she complained. "We were just helping someone in danger."

"They're Deku Scrubs," Link argued. "Rupees are practically their Patron. They'd never accept a service without giving payment."

The Business Scrub raised a thin wooden finger and nodded his head, or rather his whole head-body, trumpeting in agreement. He waved to the two smaller Scrubs and told them to go get something out of the wagon. They did so, coming back with a sack of rupees and a barrel of salted meat. Linkle was practically drooling at the sight of the barrel's contents.

"That reward's looking a little better now, eh?" Link said with a chuckle.

The Business Scrub told Linkle to take as much as she could carry. She nodded and began scooping slabs of it into her arms. The Scrub then reached into the sack of rupees and pulled out a handful.

Link smiled. "Your generosity is much appreciated," he said as he took the money that was handed to him. Linkle ran back to the horse to shove her reward into her bag. Link pocketed his reward for now and turned to look at the corpse of the Kargaroc. "Our horse probably can't carry that whole thing," he said to the Business Scrub. "We're taking the feathers, but you can have the rest if you want." The Scrub trumpeted in agreement.

Link and Linkle used their swords to pluck just about every useful feather they could off of the monster's corpse, collecting them in a sack. The Scrubs then loaded the defeathered bird into their wagon while Link took the sack of feathers and slung it over the horse's back. As he did, Linkle walked over to the giant Orhat beetle that the wagon was hitched to.

"These things are fuckin' weird," Link said, coming up behind her. "I'll take a horse over a giant bug any day."

"They're so cool, though!" Linkle replied, reaching out to pat the beetle's green exoskeleton. "I wanna ride one. Or hunt one. I've heard Orhats can grow to be taller than the trees."

Link snorted. "Bullshit. If they're that big, how come we don't see 'em poking up over the top of the forests?"

Linkle shrugged. "Maybe they need to live, like, a thousand years to get that big."

"What kind of bug lives for a thousand years?"

"I don't know! It just sounded cool."

As Linkle pet the giant bug, the Business Scrub asked them if they were ready to depart.

"Mind if my sister tries riding your beetle first?" Link asked.

Linkle gasped. "Can I?"

The Scrub shrugged, but said it was okay. He climbed up into the driver's seat and grabbed the reins, ready to get back to his travels.

"Yay!" Linkle cheered, clapping her hands excitedly.

"Alright, ya little idiot. Get on up there." Link cupped his hands together and let his sister place her foot on them, then lifted her up so she could climb on top of the Orhat. It moved its creepy insect legs a little, but it otherwise didn't react to her presence.

"Woohoo!" Linkle shouted happily. She scooted forward and grabbed onto the curved, forked, horn-like appendage above the beetle's head. "I'm the queen of the bugs!"

"Sure, sure." Link turned to the Business Scrub. "You can get moving. She'll jump off when she's ready," he told him.

The Scrub trumpeted out a response and saluted him, then cracked the reins. The Orhat began to move, pulling the wagon forward.

"Whoa!" Linkle cried, her body suddenly jerked back by the motion. Once she got the hang of it, she laughed joyfully once more. "This is amazing!"

"Great." Link walked back to the horse and climbed atop it. "Good luck getting down from there," he said, nudging the horse enough to make it walk slowly.

"What? Oi! Get back here!" Linkle stood up on the beetle's back, stumbling a bit as the motion caused her to lose her balance. Then, she bent her knees and leapt off to the side. She tried to roll as she hit the ground, and ended up on her back. "Ow…" she whined. Link saw the two Scrubs in the back of the wagon laughing as they pulled away.

Keeping the horse walking slowly, Link watched over his shoulder until Linkle stood up. He chuckled to himself and considered speeding up, but decided they had wasted too much time already. "Get a move on, Elle! We haven't got all day!"

"Son of a-" Linkle took off at a full sprint, coming straight for him. Link thought she might try to stab him, but when she caught up, she simply leapt up onto the horse behind him. "You can be a real prat, d'you know that?" she said, out of breath.

"What? I let you ride the giant bug like you wanted." Link spurred the horse along, picking up speed. "But hey, you can write that down in your diary as our second official quest," he said. "First the Moblin, now the Kargaroc. The Legend of Linkle grows ever greater."

"I guess," Linkle responded. "It would've been cooler if it'd been something more dangerous than a big ol' bird, though."

"Whaddya want, a freakin' dragon?"

"Gods, yes!" Linkle answered immediately. "And yet you wouldn't let me climb Mount Lanayru to fight that ice dragon."

"Fine. You can kill the next dragon we see," Link said, hoping to never hear about another dragon coming down from the Outer Continent in their lifetime. He wondered how that one had even gotten there, and why. It must have flown over Akkala and the rest of Lanayru to reach that mountain.

I'll never understand monsters.

"Hey, why do Deku Scrubs care about rupees so much?" Linkle asked curiously after a moment.

"Same reason I do," Link replied.

"Yeah, but like, why do so many of them become merchants? They're literally tree people. I woulda thought they'd be more like the Kokiri. You know, worshipping nature and stuff."

Link considered that for a moment. "It's probably a lot easier for them to save money in the first place," he said. "They eat sunlight and they burrow into the ground to sleep. Think how many rupees we'd save if we never had to pay for food and lodging."

"Yeah, but they're missing out. Eating food is fun," Linkle replied before tearing into a piece of salted pork.


After their encounter with the Kargaroc, the siblings continued along the road without incident for a while. Eventually, they came to the crossroads they'd been heading towards, with one road turning north and the other turning south.

"Wait!" Linkle shouted all of a sudden.

Link pulled on the horse's reins, causing Arion to rear back as they came to a halt. "What?" Link asked, his head darting back and forth in search of danger.

"Lemme see the map," Linkle said.

"What? Why? The sign's right there." Link pointed to the crossroads signs. The one pointing left read 'The Twins,' the one pointing right read 'Old Kakariko,' and the one pointing back the way they'd come read 'Fort Hateno.'

"Just gimme," Linkle insisted.

"Fine." Link handed her the map. She took it and hopped down off of the horse, so Link followed her. "What is it?" he asked.

His sister glanced up at the mountains in the distance to the north. "Why aren't we going that way?" she asked, tracing her finger north up the road on the map.

"Because that's the wrong way, you twit."

"But why? It'll take longer to go south. We'll just have to go north again after cutting through the Dueling Peaks, right?" Linkle argued. "If we go up around the Pillars of Levia and through Old Kakariko, we could save, like, a whole day of travel."

"You can't get there through Kakariko," Link said.

"All roads lead to Hyrule."

"Not when the road ends. Here, look." Link stepped up next to his sister and put his finger on the map. "If we went that way, we'd end up at Sahasra Slope, and then we'd be stuck."

"We can just go down the slope and get back on the road here," she said, moving her finger along the map. "Easy. We don't need the road. It's not like we got a wagon or anything."

Link considered it. Linkle was stubborn, but she had a point. They could spend the night in Kakariko, then head down Sahasra Slope and spend the next night in Goponga or some smaller Lanayru town that was less out of the way. It was feasible, and it could save them a bit of time, as his sister had said. Link certainly agreed it would be better to get to the capital sooner rather than later. He hated the wilds, and once they arrived in the largest city in the world, he'd probably be able to convince his sister to let them stay there for a few days before beginning their new life as official 'adventurers.'

"You may be onto something there, Elle," he admitted, which made her face light up with pride. "How's your Sheikah?" he asked, knowing barely any of the language spoken in Kakariko.

Linkle stared at him for a second. "Uhhh… Konnichiwa?"

"Brilliant," Link said sarcastically. "Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out once we get there." He climbed back onto the horse, then held out his hand to help Linkle up as well. "Let's get going."

So, instead of turning left at the fork, they turned right and headed north.

"Hey, why's it called Old Kakariko anyway?" Link asked after a few minutes of riding.

"There's a New Kakariko in the Eldin Foothills," Linkle replied. "That's where the Shadow Temple is."

"I know that. But I thought that one came first."

"Nah," Linkle said, shaking her head. "Old Kakariko came first, but it was abandoned a long time ago after a monster raid. But then the Hero of Twilight came in and single-handedly defeated the entire clan of Bulblins that had taken over, so the Sheikah were able to come back and rebuild." As usual, she sounded very excited when she talked about the Hero of Twilight.

"He fought an entire clan by himself?" Link repeated skeptically. "Nobody can do that."

"It's true!" Linkle insisted. "He did it all to retrieve a gift his girlfriend gave him," she said dreamily, as if it were the most romantic thing she'd ever heard.

"Ha! What a sucker," Link said. He felt his sister slam her fist down onto the shield on his back.

"Ow!" she complained.

While they were riding north, the weather suddenly took a turn for the worse. Even though it was not yet sundown, the clouds were completely overcast, and it began to rain.

"Ah, fuck." Link tilted his head up towards the sky when he felt the raindrops. "This is just what we need."

"Should we set up camp somewhere to get out of the rain?" Linkle suggested.

"If it gets bad, maybe," Link replied. "Let's get across the bridge at least. We might find a cave or something at the base of the Pillars."

However, when they approached the Kakariko Bridge, they found it guarded. A small canopy had been set up by the side of the road, providing cover for a long wooden table. One guard stood at the edge of the canopy and kept an eye on the road while the others lounged around eating and drinking at the table. When the one keeping watch spotted Link and Linkle, she signaled to the others. The six of them quickly picked up their weapons and lined up in front of the bridge, blocking the path. There were four men and two women among them, and all of them wore leather armor and carried either hatchets or claymores.

"Halt!" one of the guards shouted - a thin, wiry man clutching a hatchet in his right hand.

Link slowed the horse down to a stop, staying at a safe distance. "Yeah? What is it?" he called down to them.

"Where do you think you're going?" one of the women asked. She was taller than the rest of them, and she limply held onto a claymore that she had dragged across the ground to get there.

"Where do you think?" Linkle replied. "Kakariko."

"You want to cross the bridge, it's fifty rupees per person," another man said. He was tall and muscular, and he wore a halfhelm, which made him the most armored of the group.

Link narrowed his eyes. "Fifty per person? The fuck kinda toll is that?"

"The kind you'll pay, or you won't cross." It was the second woman who spoke this time. She was the shortest of the six, and her voice was higher-pitched than you'd expect from someone holding an axe.

"That's clearly a ripoff," Linkle said softly from behind her brother. "You wanna find some other way across the lake?"

"Unless you happen to be carrying a boat I don't know about, I doubt we've got any other choice, especially if we wanna bring our horse," Link replied.

"Can we hurry this up?" said the guard with the ridiculous mustache. "I'm gettin' soaked out here, ya know."

"Yeah, we haven't got all day." The youngest of the guards looked to be only a bit older than Link, which he found strange.

What kind of guard patrol is this?

Then he realized something. All six of the guards had blonde or brown hair. Not a single one of them had the distinctive white hair or red eyes of the Sheikah. "What are a bunch of Hylians doing guarding a Sheikah bridge anyway?" Link asked.

"None of your business!" the mustachioed guard shouted. "Just pay up!"

"Can I shoot that guy?" Linkle asked.

"No, don't," Link said with some urgency, suddenly serious. "They're bandits," he whispered to his sister.

"...So why can't I shoot them?" Linkle whispered back.

"There's too many of 'em," Link replied. He didn't want to mention it, but the fact that these bandits were just people also made him hesitant to fight them. He and his sister had killed several monsters at this point, but killing people didn't feel like the same thing.

Maybe we should just go back - head for the Twins like we'd planned to before.

"Oh, this is taking too bloody long," the bandit in the halfhelm said irritably. "Come on, let's collect our tolls." He and his companions raised their weapons and walked forward, advancing on them.

Fuck. What now?

Link tried to think. He considered just charging through them at full speed. None of them carried spears, so it might work - but one good hit from one of those hatchets and Arion would be losing a leg. He decided to turn the horse around, so he pulled on its reins, ready to set off running. However, as soon as he was facing the other way, he saw six more of them had come up from behind, blocking their escape down the road.

"Elle," Link drew his sword in a panic. "Shoot them," he said, abandoning his earlier reservations.

"Right." Linkle sounded as scared as he was, but she readied her crossbow anyway.

"Get them!" one of the bandits shouted, and the rest began screaming their battlecries.

With his free hand, Link tugged on the horse's reins to turn it to the side. They took off running away from the road before the bandits could surround them. However, just a short distance into the grassy field, the ground turned to mud. The horse stumbled and fell, flinging Link and his sister down to the ground.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Link scrambled through the mud and pulled himself to his feet. Thinking quickly, he grabbed his rupee pouch from the horse and tossed it as hard as he could towards the bandits, hoping they'd stop if they got what they wanted. Four of them went for the pouch and began shoving each other to get to it, but the rest kept running through the mud towards them.

"Dammit," Link muttered. Sword and shield in hand, he stepped in front of his sister. The bandits were nearly upon them as Linkle got up and aimed her crossbow.

This can't be how it ends.

"Loose!" Link shouted. Linkle complied and let loose a bolt. It hit the wiry man right between the eyes, and he fell to the ground, presumably dead. "Another!" Link shouted.

"I'm trying!" Linkle sounded desperate. Link glanced over his shoulder and saw she was struggling to load another bolt. The mud on her hands was affecting her dexterity, and the fear was obviously getting to her.

Link growled as he stared down the rest of the bandits, raising his shield.

Guess I have no choice.

All of a sudden, a cloud of smoke appeared between them and the bandits. Everyone stopped in confusion for a moment, and then there was a scream. Someone had appeared from out of the smoke, driving a knife through the throat of the closest bandit. Before anyone had a chance to react, the knife wielder spun around and stabbed another bandit with a second knife he held in his other hand.

As the smoke cleared, everyone got a better look at the mysterious newcomer. Judging by his red eyes, he was a Sheikah. His hair was also the traditional Sheikah white, although it was flecked with streaks of ashen gray, giving him a somewhat unkempt appearance. Beyond that, it was difficult to tell much else about his appearance since he was dressed in a dark and concealing garb, including a mask that covered the lower half of his face.

"Kill that son of a bitch!" the tall woman shouted. One of the bandits swung a hatchet at the Sheikah. He dodged out of the way and stabbed the bandit through the wrist. The bandit screamed in pain as the Sheikah grabbed him and spun him around. The ninja then sliced the man's throat and shoved him into the crowd that was charging at him.

"What the hell's going on?" Linkle asked as she finished loading her crossbow.

"No fucking clue. Just shoot everyone but the Sheikah!" Link ordered, not moving from his position.

"Right!" Linkle took aim and loosed another bolt. It hit the man with the mustache in the back and he fell to the ground. "I knew I'd get to shoot that guy," Linkle mumbled.

As the Sheikah ninja continued to fight off the bandits, the big man in the halfhelm came up behind him and attempted to grab him in a bear hug. But as he did, the Sheikah disappeared in another puff of dark smoke. He reappeared on the other side of the bandit mob, holding up three long, needle-like spikes between his fingers. In rapid succession, he threw the needles at three different bandits, hitting the short woman in the back of the neck, another bandit in the eye, and a third in the chest. The one he hit in the chest wasn't quite dead, so he rushed forward to finish him off with a knife blow. Once he did, the tall woman and the young man moved in on him.

While the others were fighting, the man in the halfhelm and another bandit gave up on the Sheikah and resumed charging at Link and Linkle. Link had been terrified before when it was twelve-on-two, but two-on-two gave them much better odds. As the big man stepped up and swung his claymore downwards, Link raised his shield to block it. He was successful, but the force of the blow caused Link to stumble backwards.

The other bandit tried to come at Link from the side, but he noticed Linkle aiming at him. When she pulled the trigger, he managed to block the bolt with the flat of his axe. He smiled menacingly and advanced on her, so she discarded her crossbow and drew her shortsword.

Further down the field, the tall woman swung her claymore at the Sheikah. He managed to duck underneath it, but before he could counterattack, the woman shifted her balance and rammed him with her shoulder. He was knocked to the ground, sliding through the mud. The young man tried to chop at him with his axe, but the ninja rolled out of the way, hopped to his feet, and kicked the bandit in the face. The tall woman let loose a battlecry, charging at him with her giant blade raised, but this time, the Sheikah did not duck under it. Instead, he leapt backwards and tossed both of his knives at her. One hit her in the stomach and the other in the heart. She screamed and fell to her knees, then slumped over dead.

Link stayed on the defensive against the bandit in the halfhelm. Whenever he could, he would block the man's blows with his shield or dodge out of the way. The bandit was getting angrier and angrier and paying less and less attention to how he was stepping. Link just bided his time, waiting for the slipup he knew was coming.

Any second now…

Then it happened. The bandit took a hasty step forward in order to swing his weapon at Link, but he lost his balance, his foot sliding forward in the mud, forcing him to fall to one knee.

Now!

Link wasted no time. Before the bandit could regain his bearings, Link shoved his sword through the man's neck where his helmet and his armor didn't protect him. He had a brief moment to contemplate what he'd just done, but his sister was still in danger. He kicked the dead man in the chest to knock the body over and free his sword, then spun around to help Linkle. However, he only managed to catch the very end of her fight with the other bandit.

After nimbly dodging a blow, Linkle charged when she saw an opening, stabbing the man in the side. As he screamed in pain, she swung her blade upwards and slashed his face. He fell to the ground, and she finished him off with two more stabs to the heart. Her mercilessness was almost as shocking to Link as his own had been, but when she stood back up, panting and covered in blood, he could see in her eyes that she was mortified.

The siblings turned their attention back to the Sheikah. He stood amongst a field of corpses, watching the young bandit flee back towards the bridge. For a moment, Link thought the ninja might mean to spare him, either for his youth or for his willingness to back away from the fight. However, after retrieving his knives from the bandit woman's corpse, he pulled his disappearing trick again, reappearing right in front of the fleeing bandit.

"No! Please!" the bandit cried, holding up his hands and backing away. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. The Sheikah stepped forward, grabbed the bandit by the collar, and drove a knife through his heart.

Link and Linkle watched from a distance. Even though the Sheikah had ostensibly saved their lives, he was clearly dangerous, and Link wasn't certain whether or not he would be hostile to them. He felt his sister come up behind him and clutch his tunic. "What are we gonna do about him?"

"I don't know," Link replied. Having cleaned and sheathed his knife, the ninja was now staring at them from across the muddy field. Link decided he might as well express some gratitude. Hopefully that would be all he wanted. "You have our thanks!" Link shouted over the sound of the pouring rain, raising his hand to wave at the Sheikah. "We'd have been killed if not for you!"

The ninja did not answer. And, just as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone, disappearing in another puff of smoke. Link stepped into a battle-ready stance, expecting the ninja to reappear close to them, but he did not. "Where did he go?" he asked. "Do you see him?"

"No," Linkle replied, standing back to back with him and aiming her crossbow. "I think he's gone."

The siblings lowered their weapons in confusion. "That was… lucky, I guess," Link said.

"Perhaps Hylia sent him to save us," his sister suggested.

"Or maybe he's the one who's been following us since the cemetery," Link replied. "I told you we were being watched."

"Why would a Sheikah be following us?" Linkle asked. "And if he was spying on us, why would he save us?"

Link shrugged. "No idea. Let's just get moving and try to find some shelter."

Their horse had gotten up and wandered further into the field during the fight, so Linkle went to retrieve it as Link gathered up the rupees he'd thrown at the bandits earlier, plus any they happened to have on them. Stealing from the dead didn't bother him in this case.

They were gonna rob and kill us. Well, now they're dead, and I'm the one robbing them.

He considered gathering up some of the bandits' weapons as well, but neither he nor his sister liked axes or claymores, and their horse was already carrying more than it should be anyway. So, they left the rest behind and walked their horse back to the road.

"The bandits had this tent set up," Linkle pointed out when they returned to the Kakariko Bridge. "You wanna wait out the rain here?"

Link considered it. "No. There might be more of those bandits, and I don't want to be here when they get back. Let's just keep going."


With the bandits defeated and the mysterious Sheikah having vanished, the siblings continued north after crossing the Kakariko Bridge. On the other side, they rode a little further until Linkle spotted a cave in the cliffside off the side of the road.

Link was the first to enter the cave, with Linkle following behind him, pulling the horse by its reins. "I hope this cave isn't too deep," Link said. "I don't want this to be some monster's lair. And there's no way there's any wood outside that's dry enough to make a torch." As he spoke, several tiny eyes opened above them. "Oh, bloody hell," Link said. A swarm of Keese suddenly flew down at him. Link drew his sword and began slashing at them wildly. Linkle chuckled at her brother's misfortune, but then some of the tiny bat-like monsters flew at her, so she drew her blade and began fighting them off as well.

"Whoo!" Linkle cheered after the surviving Keese flew out of the cave. It was a minor victory, but slaying any monsters was enough for her to celebrate. She then crouched down to examine the Keese that lay on the ground. "Alchemists want the wings and the eyes," she explained, tossing them into a sack. "The eyes especially, if we managed to avoid slicing up any of them."

"I've never been one to say no to a few extra rupees," Link said, helping her gather their spoils.

Once the Keese nuisance had been cleared up, the two of them slumped down against the wall near the entrance of the cave. It was still pouring pretty hard outside, so it felt nice to be someplace dry.

"He was impressive," Linkle said after a moment, clearly having been musing about something.

"The Sheikah?" Link guessed.

Linkle lowered her eyelids. "Who else would I mean? One of the bandits?"

"Fair enough," Link replied. "Sure. I suppose he was."

"Remember how you said the Hero of Twilight couldn't have taken on an entire Bulblin clan on his own?" Linkle asked. "Well, that guy sure took on a whole lot of bandits on his own."

Link rolled his eyes. "Do you even know what a clan is? It's not a dozen. It could be hundreds. Besides, that ninja was clearly pulling off some kinda shadow magic to warp around like that. Could the Hero of Twilight do that?"

"Well, not on his own. I don't think he could do any magic," Linkle replied. "But he could still warp around with the help of the Twilight Princess."

Link was confused. "Princess Zelda was with him when he fought the Bulblins? What for?"

"Not that Twilight Princess. I mean the real one. The Twili one, Princess Midna. She traveled with the Hero of Twilight for most of his quest to defeat the Usurper King." It was typical of Linkle to get so passionate when talking about the Heroes, especially the Hero of Twilight. He was her favorite by far. Link felt as though he could recount the man's entire life from start to finish just from the stories Linkle always told about him.

"Well, if he had help from the Twilight Princess, he didn't really do it on his own, did he?" Link pointed out.

"Okay, fine. So he didn't technically do it all on his own," his sister conceded. "But just the two of them versus an entire clan? Still impressive."

Link grunted in agreement. He didn't really care about it all that much. He just enjoyed annoying his sister. Bored with it for now, he looked out into the rain. It was difficult to tell how late in the day it was. According to his original plan, they should've been able to reach the Twins by nightfall. Getting to Old Kakariko would take a little longer, and with the delays from the Kargaroc, the bandits, and this rain, it could be midnight by the time they reached the city. He really didn't want to spend another night out in the wilds. His sister, on the other hand, seemed to be loving it. She was smiling contentedly to herself as she leaned up against the cave wall, polishing her sword while staring out into the rain.

How does she do it?

Off in the distance, Link saw some rustling in the bushes. He instinctively moved his hand to the hilt of his weapon, but he did not draw it yet. "I'll bet that Sheikah is still watching us," he said.

Linkle shrugged. "Let him. We've got nothin' to hide."

Link said nothing more on the matter, but he kept watch for the rest of the time they spent in the cave.

It had probably been about an hour by the time the rain finally died down. In that time, the siblings did little more than discuss their plans for the rest of the journey and enjoy a nice lunch, partaking in some of their reward from helping the Deku merchants. When they left the cave, it was still cloudy, and Link could tell sundown was not far away.

"It will be past nightfall by the time we reach Kakariko," Link stated as they climbed atop their horse. "But I'd rather ride a little into the night than sleep outdoors again."

Linkle scoffed. "We're adventurers now, Brother. You're gonna have to get used to it."

"Not if I can help it." Link kicked his boots against Arion's sides, urging the horse to speed up.

The road from there to Old Kakariko ran through a small canyon between the Pillars of Levia and Bonooru's Stand. It seemed like a route that would be prone to ambushes, but Link hoped it was close enough to the Sheikah capital that bandits and monsters wouldn't dare settle in the area. Although they noticed a few more Kargarocs flying overhead and some Tektites skittering along the canyon walls, they managed to ride without incident for quite some time.

It was dark out when Link began to wonder about the small stone statues he kept seeing by the side of the road. They were only a few feet high, bore the Sheikah eye symbol, and were often found in groups, lined up side by side. "What the hell are those things, anyway?" Link asked, gesturing vaguely in the direction of some nearby stones. "They look like they're staring at us. It's creeping me out."

"They're Gossip Stones!" Linkle said cheerily. "They say the stones can see and speak, and when no one is around, they gossip about the people who pass by them."

"How does anyone know they do that if they only do it when no one is around?" Link asked.

"Um… I dunno. Maybe people hear them talking when they're out of sight," Linkle replied, sounding as if she'd never stopped to ask herself that before.

"Then how do they know they're not just hearing people talking?" Link asked. "It's more likely than stones talking, you know."

"Hey, if Talus can talk, so can Gossip Stones!" his sister insisted.

"Can Talus talk?" Link knew little of the stone golem monsters known as 'Talus,' although he'd seen their miniature varieties, referred to as 'Pebblits,' stumbling around in the rockier regions of Necluda. The rocks they consisted of were arranged in a vaguely humanoid shape, but they lacked anything resembling mouths, or even heads.

"Probably. I'll have to ask when I get the chance to hunt one." Linkle was always a little too excited by the prospect of getting to kill a new kind of monster. "Did you know the Talus in other provinces are made of different kinds of rock? Like in Eldin, they're made of lava rocks, and they're so hot, it burns just to stand near them! And in Hebra, they-"

"Shh!" Link hushed his sister. Not because she was about to go off on one of her monster tangents, but because he heard something. "Did you hear that?" he asked quietly.

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard whispering."

Linkle gasped excitedly. "It's the Gossip Stones!" She glanced around at the many stone statues in the surrounding area, trying to find the ones that were gossiping about them.

"It's not the fucking stones, Elle!" Link didn't stop the horse, but he slowed their pace as he looked around. They had to be close to Kakariko at this point. Just a little further and they'd be safe from any more bandits or monsters that might be prowling around in the dark.

However, it was only a little further down the road when a cloud of smoke appeared a few yards in front of them. Link pulled hard on the horse's reins. "Elle. Crossbow," he ordered.

"On it!" A sound from behind him told Link his sister had a bolt loaded. However, when the smoke cleared, they saw a familiar figure. Standing in the middle of the road was the Sheikah ninja who had come to their aid against the bandits earlier. Link thought it might be a different person at first, but he recognized the distinctive ashen gray streaks in the man's white hair.

"Oh. It's you," Link said. He was relieved for a moment, but he knew better than to relax around a stranger who could kill eight people single handedly. "Thanks again for your help back there." The Sheikah did not reply. He simply stood there glaring at them, his red eyes glowing in the dark.

"What's your name?" Linkle called out to him.

"Sheik," the ashen-haired man replied, an obvious hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." Despite having lived relatively close to Kakariko, Link had not spoken with very many Sheikah in his life. However, something he'd picked up over the years was that the Sheikah highly valued their privacy. Any time a Sheikah was asked their name by a person they did not wish to give it to, they would simply reply 'Sheik.' It was like a universal alias that they all used, and a way to tell people to quit prying into their affairs.

"Well then, 'Sheik.' As I've said, thank you for your assistance. We'll just be on our-"

"Shut up!" the ninja shouted angrily, speaking Hylian with a slight Sheikah accent.

Link flinched in surprise at the sudden outburst, wondering if he was about to be attacked.

"Get off the horse. Now!" The Sheikah drew both his knives and held them at the ready. Although he was still several yards away from them, Link knew he was capable of closing the gap instantaneously.

"What should we do?" Linkle asked. "Want me to shoot him?"

"Are you an idiot? No!" Unless she could take him by surprise somehow, Link didn't think his sister could even hit the Sheikah ninja. He considered pulling on the horse's reins and taking off back down the road the way they'd come, but Sheik could easily catch up with them, and he certainly wasn't the type to be shy about using those knives. "Alright," Link replied, complying with the demand and climbing down from the horse. "No need for weapons. Whatever this is, we can talk it out."

"You too!" the Sheikah yelled at Linkle. "And drop the crossbow!"

Link and his sister made eye contact. He silently begged her to follow his lead. She sighed in disapproval, but climbed down from the horse and placed her crossbow on the ground.

"We're only travelers. On our way to the capital," Link called out to the Sheikah. "We had nothing to do with those bandits back there. If we were trespassing, we didn't know." He held his hands up disarmingly, but he tried to make sure he could draw his weapons quickly if he needed to. He wasn't confident he could beat the man in a fight, but he was prepared to try if it came to that.

The Sheikah shouted something in his own language, which Link could not understand. However, before he had a chance to respond, more clouds of smoke appeared on either side of them. Four more Sheikah dressed in the same garb as Sheik came out of the smoke. Two of them tackled Link to the ground, and the other two did the same to Linkle.

"Hey! Get your hands off me!" Linkle shouted as she was pinned to the ground.

"Stop! This is all a big misunderstanding!" Link cried out. "We were only trying to-" While one of the ninjas pressed Link's arms against his back, the other stuffed a rag into his mouth and pulled a sack over his head. He struggled as he felt them remove his sword and shield from his back before tying his hands together by the wrists. Any complaints he had came out as muffled cries.

The next few minutes were a blur. He heard the ninjas speaking to each other in the Sheikah tongue again. They pulled him to his feet and held his arms tightly as they forced him to move forward. Then he heard the same sound he heard whenever the Sheikah teleported, accompanied by the queasiest sensation he'd ever felt. He hoped he didn't have to vomit with the rag stuffed in his mouth. When the feeling stopped, his kidnappers forced him to keep moving.

A few moments later, Link felt himself being shoved into a wooden chair. His hands were untied, then retied to the chair, along with his ankles. When the sack was pulled off of his head, he could see a masked figure sitting across from him.

This figure was dressed differently than the other Sheikah. This one's outfit was sleeveless, dark blue, and with yellow patterns across it. White cloth wrappings covered the figure's lower arms, and long orange feathers dangled from the left side of a similarly colored belt. A black cape with yellow trim was slung over one shoulder, covering the right half of their body. Most notably, rather than a ninja mask that covered the lower half of the figure's face, they wore a large white porcelain mask that covered it fully. There was a pattern painted on the mask that was exactly the same as the Sheikah symbols on the Gossip Stones, except the pattern was blood red with a yellow eye in the center. There were no eye holes in the mask, but there were slits around the yellow eye that the wearer must have been able to see through.

Sheik stepped up beside the masked figure and pulled the rag out of Link's mouth.

Link coughed and cleared his throat. "Who are you? What do you want?" he asked frantically. He looked to his left and to his right. The Sheikah must have warped somewhere with him, because they were in some sort of dungeon now, and he swore they'd been outside on the road only minutes earlier. The two ninjas who had abducted him were standing off to the sides, but he didn't see Linkle in the room. "Where's my sister?"

"Shut up!" Sheik shouted. "We'll be asking the questions, understand?"

"But I didn't do anything!" Link complained. "I told you, we-" He stopped talking when the ashen-haired Sheikah brandished a knife, only to sheathe it again a moment later when Link fell silent.

"Who are you, and where do you come from?" A muffled feminine voice came from behind the porcelain mask that was staring Link in the face.

He blinked. He'd been expecting the ninja to be the one to ask him the questions, and he still had no idea what to make of this mysterious masked figure.

"Answer the question," Sheik demanded.

"My name is Link. I'm a blacksmith's apprentice from Hateno," Link answered, deciding it was safer to tell the truth. The masked figure regarded him for a moment. Link shivered. He felt a strange sensation in his head, as if looking into the gigantic eye on that mask was giving him a slight headache.

"Why are you and your sister here?" the masked Sheikah asked.

Link was almost embarrassed to answer. "My sister wants to be an adventurer," he admitted. "We heard there'd be a lot of work for adventurers soon with some war coming up or something, and the capital was supposed to be the best place to go for it."

"Tch." Sheik made a sound of disapproval, but said nothing.

The masked Sheikah kept staring at Link. He winced, feeling that uncomfortable sensation in his head once again.

"What were you doing in the graveyard last night?" she asked.

Link felt a shiver pass through him.

So they really were watching us back there?

"Hunting monsters," Link answered. "It wasn't for a contract or anything. My sister just wanted the practice."

"What did you see?" the masked Sheikah asked.

"What did I see?" Link repeated the question in confusion. "Some ReDeads. And a Floormaster, I think."

His answer seemed to have upset Sheik. The ashen-haired man narrowed his eyes into a suspicious glare, then turned to the masked Sheikah, but still said nothing.

The masked Sheikah leaned in closer. Link groaned and shut his eyes, the aching pain in his head suddenly becoming unbearable.

"You are certain that is what you saw?" the masked figure asked.

"Yes! Yes! There wasn't anything else there! I swear!" Link said frantically. He was terrified that they thought he was lying for some reason, and that they might harm him for it.

The masked Sheikah kept staring at him for a moment, then said a word in her language.

"What?" Link asked. The ninjas standing off to the sides came over and began untying the rope that bound his wrists to the chair. Link breathed a sigh of relief.

Thank the gods, they're letting me go.

However, they did not untie his ankles. The masked woman reached out and grabbed Link's left hand, then held it up to her mask like she was examining the back of it. Then she did the same with his other hand. Link was confused by her actions, and he wondered what she was looking for.

Perhaps she had me confused with a wanted criminal? Someone with a tattoo or a wound on his hand?

After releasing Link's hands, the masked woman leaned back. The ninjas standing behind Link grabbed his arms and forced them back against the chair, then tied them down again.

"Oh, come on!" Link complained.

The masked woman turned to the ashen-haired ninja and said something to him in the Sheikah tongue. He did not seem happy with it, and replied in an angry tone. She remained calm and explained something to him. He clearly did not agree, but he held his tongue this time, reluctantly bowing his head. Then she stood up and waved her hand. She and Sheik walked towards the exit. One of the other ninjas joined them while the other pulled the sack over Link's head again.

"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?" Link cried, frantically tugging against his restraints. "Don't leave me here! Where's my sister?! Hey!" He heard the cell door creak shut and footsteps fading away, and then there was silence.


Think. Think. Think.

Link was breathing heavily. He wasn't sure how long he'd been there, but it felt like an hour, and he still had no idea why the Sheikah had abducted him and his sister in the first place. With no hint as to when he might be allowed to leave, Link was getting desperate.

I have to get out of here.

He tugged against his restraints, but the rope was tied too tight.

I can do this. The chair's made of wood. I just have to break it.

It was difficult to do while all his limbs were tied, but Link began rocking the chair back and forth, trying to tip himself over. After five or six tries, he managed to get it just past the tipping point. He crashed to the ground, crushing his right arm in the process. "Augh, fuck!" he cried. The chair was still all in one piece, and he was no closer to freeing himself, but now he was on the floor.

I don't know why I thought that would work.

He wanted to look around the room to see if there was anything sharp he could try to push himself over to, but he still had a sack over his head preventing him from seeing anything.

Come on. Linkle's still out there. Think. What else can I do?

He had an idea. Still tugging at his restraints, Link tried to roll the chair over. If he could get his knees on the ground, he might be able to crawl over to the wall and smash the chair against it enough to get something loose.

Okay. One, two, three…

He threw his body into it and successfully rolled over. He felt immediate relief as he was no longer crushing his arm, but now his knees and forehead were pressed against the floor and his body was in a very uncomfortable position. Still, he shifted his weight back so he could lift his head up. On his knees, he could just barely swivel himself little by little to move across the ground.

I'm a fucking genius.

After moving a few feet, he lost his balance and fell forward, smacking his head against the floor again. "Ow!"

I'm a fucking idiot.

He managed to lift himself up again and kept heading for the wall. It took forever, but he eventually felt himself hitting something solid that he assumed was the wall of the dungeon. Now that he was there, he just had to smash the chair against it. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not find a way to throw himself with any significant force while still tied up. He merely tapped the side of the chair harmlessly against the wall over and over.

Okay. This is stupid. What else can I do?

Link decided he had to get the bag off of his head. If he could see the room, maybe he could come up with a better plan. Still only able to crawl on his knees, he pressed his head against the wall and tried to scuffle away. As he'd hoped, he managed to catch the sack against the wall, and before long, he felt it fall away. He breathed a sigh of relief, just now realizing how much harder it was to breathe with that thing covering his face.

With his vision returned to him, he took stock of the room. There wasn't much to see. The walls were blank. There were no windows. His only source of light was a torch outside of his cell. There were no seats other than the chair he was tied to and the other chair that the masked woman had been sitting in.

Maybe if I can get over to the bars, I can find something sharp to rub the rope against.

But before he could attempt any other method of escape, Link heard footsteps coming towards him. He struggled against his bonds, hoping to miraculously break free at the last second, but he could not. The ashen-haired ninja appeared behind the bars. Link froze. "Uh… I can explain."

Sheik shook his head and muttered something in his own language as he opened the door. Then, as he walked towards Link, he drew one of his knives.

"Wait! Wait, wait, no!" Link panicked, assuming the man meant to kill him. He tried to shuffle away, but he quickly lost his balance.

"Hold still, you fucking idiot!" The ninja demanded as he approached. With his knife, he cut the ropes keeping Link tied to the chair.

Link was relieved to be alive as he crawled away from the chair and sat up against the wall. "Thank you," he said. He watched as the ninja grabbed the sack off of the ground. "What are you doing?" Link asked in confusion.

"By Karasu, will you shut up?" It was difficult to tell how old the ashen-haired Sheikah was. He was definitely older than Link, but from what could be seen of his face and from his impolite manner of speaking, Link assumed he was still fairly young, maybe in his early twenties at most. His voice seemed a bit too raspy for someone that age, but Link assumed that was because he was always shouting so angrily all the time.

"Can't we do without that?" Link asked, eying the bag unhappily.

"Too bad," Sheik replied tersely as he slipped the bag back over Link's head.

Link's hands were free now as Sheik led him away, but Link did not try to fight back. "Are you taking me back outside?" he asked. "And where's my sister?" The ninja simply growled in annoyance, then shoved him in the back to force him towards the exit.

Just as before, Link spent a few minutes not being able to see as his captor led him someplace else. There was no teleportation this time. Instead, he was led down many hallways and up several flights of stairs. The whole time, he only heard footsteps, doors opening and closing, and some words exchanged in Sheikah. At some point, Link realized he was no longer walking on stone, and was instead walking on a wooden floor. The sounds were less echoey too, so they must have left the dungeon at some point.

At the end of his forced march, he was shoved to his knees again. For a split second, he once again feared that Sheik meant to kill him. But then, the sack was pulled off of his head one last time. He found himself kneeling in front of a table that was very low to the ground. Across from him sat a middle-aged Sheikah woman wearing a fine purple and black kimono with a white Sheikah eye symbol on the front of it. Her white hair was tied neatly in a bun and her lips were painted as red as her eyes. Standing behind her was the masked Sheikah. Link looked around the room and saw guards dressed in bizarre-looking armor holding strangely-shaped spears standing by the walls. But then he looked to his right and finally realized his sister was kneeling at the table right beside him.

"Elle!" he said in surprise and relief, more than glad to see she was okay after all.

"Link!" his sister seemed similarly relieved. She quickly leaned over and hugged him. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Link confirmed.

"I am glad you are both well," the woman kneeling on the other side of the table said. Her accent was a bit thicker than the others they'd heard so far. "I apologize if my daughter and her subordinates were unnecessarily rough with you at any point during your brief detainment." She looked over her shoulder at the masked woman. "That will be all, Shiho. You may leave us now."

"Yes, Mother." The masked woman bowed her head, then turned to leave. Sheik and another ninja left with her.

"Care for some tea?" the woman in the kimono asked. Some serving girls entered through a sliding door on the side wall. They placed cups in front of her and the siblings, then poured each of them some tea. Link was suspicious at first, fearing poison. However, the Sheikah woman's tea had been poured from the same kettle, and if these people were going to kill them, they would've done it by now. Linkle, of course, didn't seem to consider any of this and immediately took a sip.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the Sheikah woman said. "I am Impa Sadashi, Shogun of the Sheikah Clan.

Link opened his eyes wide in surprise. Linkle spit out her tea. "Elle!" Link complained. The last thing he wanted to do now was offend the head of one of the most influential families in the kingdom.

Knowing how nobles are, she'll probably have us back in the dungeons just for that.

Sadashi did not seem to mind, however. Smiling patiently, she waved over one of the serving girls who came and wiped up the mess. Another servant refilled Linkle's teacup.

"I am told you are named Link and Linkle, and you are from Hateno," the shogun continued.

"That's right, your… Impa-sama," Link replied awkwardly, unsure of how he was supposed to address Sheikah nobility. "Why did you kidnap us?"

"This was no kidnapping," Sadashi replied, taking a sip of tea. "Your detainment was nothing more than a simple misunderstanding. My daughter's agents mistook you for someone else, that is all. I merely wanted to apologize before allowing you to continue on your journey."

Link narrowed his eyes, suspicious of that explanation. There was no reason someone in her position would bother apologizing to a couple of random travelers who'd been mistakenly arrested by the city watch. "Well, I'm sure your guards had their reasons," Link said diplomatically. "But if there is nothing else, we really should be going." He placed his hands on the table, preparing to stand up and leave, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

"My daughter also says you two are adventurers," the shogun went on.

Oh no.

Linkle's face lit up. "That's right!" she said proudly. "We're on our way to the capital to help protect the kingdom from the many monsters that ravage our lands!"

Sadashi's red lips curled into a smile. "And the kingdom thanks you for your brave efforts."

Link rolled his eyes. He knew how nobles really felt about adventurers. As far as they were concerned, adventurers were simply mercenaries of a different name. The only reason nobles ever hired them to slay monsters was because they considered adventurers to be more expendable than their own knights and soldiers.

"As it happens, I know of a misfortune that has befallen our sister city in the Eldin Foothills," the shogun continued. "My mother, the Sage of Shadow, would be willing to pay handsomely for your assistance."

Linkle gasped. Clearly the prospect of personally receiving a quest from the head of a noble family on behalf of one of the Nine Sages was exciting to her. "We would be honored to help!"

"Possibly," Link interrupted. "We are headed for Central Hyrule, not Eldin. We may be going that way at some point, but it is not our current destination." Before anything else, Link wanted to establish some sort of permanent residence in the capital so they would not have to live out in the wilds or drift from inn to inn. He also wanted to see if the adventurers in the capital had established any sort of guild. Mercenaries often had codes and defined territories, and they did not take kindly to other mercenaries who did not follow their rules. Link figured professional adventurers were probably the same way.

"Come now, Brother," Linkle said. "There's no reason we can't alter our plans. We were going to the capital to find some quests, but now one has fallen right into our laps!"

Link considered it. It would depend on how long this 'quest' took to complete, but New Kakariko wasn't too far from the capital, so they could still make it there in a few days' time, a week at most. Not to mention, the Impa family probably had a lot of money to spare, so perhaps they would be better off acquiring some extra funds first. That would certainly make it easier to find lodgings in the capital when they eventually made it there.

"Might I ask, what is this 'misfortune' you speak of?" Link asked the shogun.

The Sheikah woman smiled, as if she were proud to have hooked his interest. "There was an archaeological dig near the crypts," she explained. "It seems the digging team accidentally uncovered more than they meant to, and now the tunnels are swarming with undead."

"ReDeads?" Linkle asked. "We're experts at dealing with those!" she lied. Link glared at her, and she gave him a little shrug that said 'What?'

"ReDeads, yes. Among other things," she confirmed. Link did not like the sound of that. "If you are experts at slaying the undead, then it sounds like you are just what my mother needs to quell this foul infestation. With the next Blood Moon on its way, it would be best to banish as many undead as possible before more are risen."

"How many other adventurers have been hired for this quest?" Link asked. If news had managed to travel from one city to another, that meant this problem had to have been around for some time. Surely there had been others who the Impa family had tried to throw at the problem, and Link wanted to know what had happened to them.

"Quite a few," Sadashi admitted openly. "And many undead have been slain already. And yet, they keep coming, and so more adventurers must be hired."

"And what happened to all the previous ones?" Link asked.

"Some have fallen. Others have done what they could, collected their reward, and left."

"So we would still get paid even if we didn't completely eliminate the problem?" Link said, finally finding something to appreciate about this proposition.

"Yes," Sadashi agreed. "Every bit helps."

"But we will save New Kakariko," Linkle declared triumphantly. "You have my word!"

"We shall try," Link corrected.

The shogun let out a haughty laugh - perhaps at Linkle's boldness, or perhaps at the siblings' drastically differing attitudes.

"So how much is the reward, exactly?" Link asked.

"You will have to ask my mother about that," Sadashi replied. "I am told she has been increasing it over time. Will you accept?"

"Yes! Of course we will! It would be our honor!" Linkle agreed excitedly. She turned to her brother with an expectant look on her face, clearly hoping he would not object any further.

Link smiled, enticed by the promise of an ever-increasing reward. "Very well. We accept."

The shogun nodded sagely. "You have my gratitude, brave adventurers." With one hand, she beckoned a servant girl over to the table, who handed her a scroll of paper and an inkbrush. "Allow me to provide you with a letter of introduction. Give this to my mother at the Shadow Temple when you reach our sister city." With smooth, elegant strokes, she wrote several foreign characters across the page that Link could not read. Afterwards, she rolled up the page and closed it with her seal. She then took a second page and began writing again. "And, as a further apology for the inconvenience my daughter's agents have caused you, this letter will allow you a free stay at any inn here in my city, with all amenities provided." When she was finished, she handed both letters to Link. Another servant came over to him, bearing his sword and shield on a cushion, while another presented Linkle with her own weapons. "Here are your belongings. You will find your horse waiting for you at the gate. I bid you goodnight, and may the Goddess guide you on your journey." All three of them stood and bowed, then two guards escorted the siblings out of the room.

It wasn't until they were outside that Link realized they'd been inside a castle, or at least a Sheikah version of a castle. The building was a tall wooden structure atop a stone foundation in the middle of a raised island surrounded by a lake. A set of stairs led them from the castle's entrance down to an open area surrounded by walls. Through the gate was a long wooden bridge with fancy red railings leading them to the city proper. As promised, there was a guard holding their horse's reins waiting for them when they crossed it. The siblings thanked the guard, and he bowed to them before leaving.

After walking a few yards from the bridge, Linkle punched her brother in the shoulder.

"Ow!" he complained.

"Can you believe it?" she asked excitedly. "This is the quest of a lifetime! This is gonna put us on the map! The Shogun of the Sheikah and the Sage of Shadow themselves gave us this quest! We're gonna be famous!"

Link chuckled. "Come on, Elle. Don't get overexcited," he said in a friendly yet cautious tone. "There are lots of other adventurers doing this, too."

"Yeah, but we're the ones who are gonna complete it for real," his sister said confidently. "We were fighting the undead just the other day. Surely this is destiny. The gods wanted us to do this."

Link laughed. Perhaps a god or two had been watching them that night, but he doubted any of them cared enough to arbitrarily decide that they were the chosen ones of anything in particular. But he didn't bother saying anything about that. He was still busy wondering about something the shogun had said. If he had been mistaken for a criminal, why did she not give them any details about him? He and Linkle were adventurers. That's not technically the same as bounty hunters, but surely she would've at least tried to hire them to hunt down this criminal if he were on the loose nearby.

Link shook his head, realizing he was too tired to keep up with his paranoid suspicions. Linkle probably would've turned down a contract like that anyway. "Come on," he said, dropping the subject. "It's the middle of the night and we've been traveling since dawn. Let's find a damn inn already."