Festari hadn't been kidding about this place being a dangerous bog area, Link had to admit. There were bog holes everywhere, and Link would be swimming instead of walking if it wasn't for the bog flippers. Even Sidon had to watch his steps the deeper they went, and Link made sure to follow in his footsteps exactly – except for the times when Sidon's foot penetrated the leaf and mud floor with an audible splash and a stumble, which was Link's cue to avoid that particular spot.

The good news was, Sidon was able to pick up a footpath that was invisible to Link, but indicated a lot of use to Sidon's more experienced eye. The Vaatians were definitely here in some capacity, or at least someone visited here often. That was already information they could deliver to the authorities, which meant their side-trip was a success so far.

No actual sign of the Vaatians or anyone else, though, beside a couple of ants Link had spotted briefly at one point before they got swallowed by the mist. The two of them had stopped talking to each other half an hour ago as a precaution, and Link was as far behind from Sidon as he could be while still reliably seeing his back and being able to see any hand signals from him. Link was beginning to feel a familiar pressure in his lungs and stomach as a premonition of enemies being nearby, and he could only hope Sidon felt the same or was otherwise prepared for anything. Link's gut feeling wasn't absolutely accurate, but it had warned him plenty of times before so he was inclined to trust it and stay alert for any signs of trouble.

Speaking of alertness, Sidon stopped and lifted a palm up so Link knew to do the same. It was unfortunate that it also let any potential enemies know Sidon was being tailed – at least if they were smart enough to put two and two together – but that couldn't be helped, as it was necessary for them to have basic communication somehow.

Back to the actual situation. Why had Sidon stopped? Link couldn't see anything from his position-

Huh?

Link squinted at Sidon presumably rummaging his bag, and then something shiny was pulled out for Sidon to stare at.

A small, shiny object...

A kinstone, maybe? He didn't think Sidon had anything else that shone like that. But in Link's experience kinstones only shone like that when the matching piece was-

Link's blood ran cold.

Someone with the matching kinstone was nearby. Someone Sidon hadn't spotted yet – and wouldn't if he kept staring at his palm in confusion – and someone Link couldn't see even though he looked, because he could barely see Sidon and certainly not anything ahead of him.

Probably an ambush.

He needed to warn Sidon, but how? Sidon didn't know to look back to catch any signs from him – that was a cute little flaw in their plan that Link hoped to never make again.

He couldn't run up to Sidon to tell him either, as that would ruin their escape plan where he had a head start. He was too slow anyway.

If he shouted, he would give their location away if the enemy somehow wasn't aware of their presence yet. It would also potentially attract more enemies if the hideout was nearby instead of this just being a small ambush. He wasn't sure he could shout anyway now that he was painfully aware there was an audience.

Hylia damn it! Think, Link, think!

Maybe he could throw-

No, wait!

He grabbed his bow and a regular arrow, took a quick aim, and fired near Sidon's left foot.

Sidon jumped to the side, visibly startled, and the kinstone dropped from his grasp and disappeared into the bog like a shooting star into the ocean. Good riddance, because the Vaatians could have potentially used it to track them. Sidon's right hand was going for his spear until he presumably noted the direction the quickly sinking arrow's fletching was pointing at, and then finally looked in Link's direction.

'RUN', Link signed, or at least used their agreed upon gesture for it. He put his bow away and half turned, waiting to see Sidon do as suggested before even thinking about running himself.

And that was when he saw something peculiar: a bunch of creatures, presumably some kind of insects, appeared from the mist slightly ahead and to the left of Sidon.

Shit!

But at least Sidon started running at the same moment, so Link had to stomp down his urge to watch whether he was captured or got away, and instead turn tail as well and just trust Sidon to yell if something happened.

Running with the bog flippers really sucked as they were unwieldy, heavy, and were a different shape than Link's usual shoes, but he was apparently capable of doing it at least, probably thanks to all the practice he had gotten in during the last few days. He wasn't going fast, but any distance he could cross without Sidon having to carry him was a small victory, because it preserved Sidon's energy and his initial starting speed was much better this way.

Still, it took no time at all for Sidon to run to his side and scoop him up.

"What's chasing us?" Sidon yelled at him while Link tried to arrange himself to be as little of a burden as possible and also be able to look behind them. Too bad he wouldn't be able to use his bow as well, as he still needed his hands to hold onto Sidon – he couldn't climb on his shoulders or anything while Sidon was running and his own feet were burdened by the flippers.

"Ants! Vaatians riding them!"

And that was the bizarre truth. They were being chased by half a dozen of ant riding Vaatians, and the ants were the size of ponies in Link's estimation. They were also easily keeping up with Sidon and were likely to catch up with them soon if nothing stopped them or slowed them down. The Vaatians were mostly carrying weapons, but one was fumbling with a scroll, which was bad news.

"Six of them! At least one mage!" he told Sidon. "We're gonna need cover or a good place to fight! Soon!"

"Damn it!"

Link couldn't agree more. He tried to scout their surroundings for anything helpful, but it was all mist and looming gigantic trees.

The mage Vaatian had gotten the scroll open and was pointing a finger at them.

"Spell incoming!" Link shouted, and smacked Sidon's left shoulder when a fluttering bunch of something green was shot their way. Sidon dodged to the left as indicated and narrowly avoided what looked like sharp and glittering leaves. Or mostly avoided anyway, judging from the wince and grunt from Sidon the moment the leaves flew past – some of them must have landed a hit.

And then Link saw Sidon's bag fly behind them, its strap sliced in half and fluttering in the wind before the entire thing landed on the wet ground with a tragic splat. Their map was still peeking from underneath the flap, a cruel reminder that they were in deep, deep trouble now.

The ants, however, came to a screeching halt to inspect the object, to the visible displeasure of their Vaatian riders. For a second Link dared to feel relief, despite knowing better than that. Then, predictably enough, the mage disregarded the problem at hand and instead of trying to get their ant's attention they opened another scroll. A long vine emerged from their palm and whipped towards the two of them.

Link had about a second to think, but unlike in the hero museum, this time he had just the right tool for the job: with the speed of an expert warrior he drew his newly purchased dagger from his belt and threw it at the vine just as it made to loop around Sidon's head tail. The vine was sliced and popped out of existence in green smoke while Link's dagger disappeared into the swamp.

Too bad about the dagger, but at least it had served its purpose in Link's moment of need.

Then, as if there wasn't enough going on, Link's vision was overtaken by a mental image: a tree with mushrooms at the bottom and an approaching fox and a resulting hole in the trunk.

His kinstone's gift.

He felt a pull in his chest into its direction.

"Turn right!"

"What? Why?"

"Turn right!"

Sidon asked no more questions and simply trusted Link. Hylia bless him.

The halted Vaatians were about to be left far enough behind them to disappear into the mist when Link saw one of them pick the bag up, so it was only a matter of moments before they'd give chase again.

Hopefully those moments were going to be enough.

"Link, it's swampy!"

Sidon's speed was slowing down as his feet kept puncturing holes into the unexpected watery spots in the bog terrain. Zora feet or not, even he couldn't walk on actual thinly covered water.

"Keep going!"

Sidon grunted an affirmative, but his head kept swiveling from side to side as he took in his path and then-

"Let's swim!"

Sidon stopped for just long enough to grab Link and switch his position into piggyback style, during which Link thought he saw menacing silhouettes in the mist behind them. Then Sidon plunged to the side, where the swamp indeed had a mostly hidden bog hole that Link absolutely wouldn't have been able to recognize as one on his own.

Their speed quadrupled.

They would make it. Hopefully. If the bog hole was a big one and didn't take them too much off their course.

For a couple of glorious minutes they swam at the speed of a literal Zora. Until…

"Link, I'll dive jump."

Wait-!

Link barely had the time to gasp in a small breath of air and close his mouth before he was already underwater. He had nowhere near enough air for long bouts of diving, but he had just enough that he could hold it in while clutching onto Sidon for dear life while Sidon touched the shallow bog's bottom and shot back up. Link's breath escaped him a moment before they breached the surface, and he had a coughing fit as they sailed through the air. Sidon didn't seem to have enough momentum for his usual theatrics, so they simply jumped out of the water, landed on somewhat steady swamp land, and hit the ground running.

Link's lungs burned from the few droplets of gross tasting bog water he had inhaled and he had to resort to pointing a finger towards the direction they needed to go while he coughed said lungs out.

But finally he saw the looming shadow of a tree, and then the bunch of mushrooms.

Almost there!

He waved his finger towards the mushrooms, and Sidon obeyed. The mist clung particularly thickly to the mushrooms, but once they made it there...

"There's a cave in there!" Sidon yelled, sounding surprised.

Link pointed furiously towards it. Sidon probably didn't remember the brief explanation of Link's kinstone vision, and Link rather wanted to catch his breath in what he was hoping to be a safe place before explaining anything.

He didn't know what to expect of the tree cave, but since it was a luck magic gift, he had high hopes it at least wouldn't be dangerous. The Vaatians probably didn't know about it either, so hiding there would buy the two of them time to recuperate and they would potentially have an easily defensible bottleneck situation in the event that they were found.

Sidon ran up to the cave and stopped. It was way too small for him to fit through while standing upright.

Link tapped Sidon's shoulders urgently and was dropped down.

'Let's go!' he signed, and ducked his way into the cave. Sidon had to almost crawl to fit through, but fit he did and soon after they were in the safety of the cavern.

At long last.