"This place looks an awful lot nicer now that you're not half-crazy and chasing down a bunch of Bulbins." Midna said, still riding in the shadows of his body. There was no need for her to do that anymore, but it didn't seem too uncomfortable after spending time with her that way. He could hear her speak a lot easier, and she could even speak to him without others hearing.
"It probably looks a lot different when it's not all zooming by." This time, Epona was moving at a trot, Link not wanting to push the horse too hard after the past few days. He had a particular route he wanted to take, and a particular place he wanted to go. The fact that it was his birthday made it seem appropriate. He didn't tell Midna of his plans, not wanting to discuss it.
The plains were mostly thin red soil covered with yellow grasses and scrub, and the flat land suddenly met with the jagged volcanic rocks of the foot of Death Mountain, the great volcano rearing out of the earth like a monolith. The farther north or west one traveled, the more green and more populated it became. Or at least, that's how it once was. When Link was a boy, there were a number of smaller towns and villages through Eldin, but that changed with the magic law. Many of the soldiers or Sheikah who abandoned the king had families in these towns, and they took them and left for elsewhere. There were still a number of farms and ranches left, but Eldin these days was a sparsely-populated region, especially the north plains.
They passed a few of these ruins on the road as they went east. They were ghost towns, abandoned and forgotten. "These ruins don't look old like some of the other ones." Midna commented. "This wasn't because of the Bulbins, was it?"
"No. It was because of the magic law. Magic has always been in Hyrule, and trying to ban it was like trying to ban air. People abandoned the king and his kingdom, although I don't know where they went." Not all of the towns were abandoned peacefully, either. He knew that first hand.
Some vultures were squawking just off the road, fighting over something that they crowded around. There were a few scattered pieces of bloody cloth nearby, and whatever it was the vultures were eating was not very large. "I think that's one of the Bulbins I killed." Link said.
"Probably. We buried those soldiers at the gatehouse, but I don't think we need to bury these. They don't deserve it." Midna's tone was full of distaste, even though she wasn't personally affected by the Bulbins. Link wasn't sure he agreed with her. The Bulbins were people and shouldn't be left to scavengers in death, but he had no way to bury bodies, and had no desire to.
This time, he could see the Twilight far more easily in the distance, the flat land and lack of trees not obstructing his view. It was a strange dark smudge edged in amber to the north, not too far above the horizon. The Twilight stretched from the north and all the way to the east, where Hyrule Castle and Castle Town lay. They were too far away to see the tall castle, but were able to see the mountainous region to the north where volcanic lands met with the gray stone near Zora's Domain.
"That's an awful lot of Twilight. It's even bigger than what covered Eldin, and we only have one Light Spirit left." It was a lot for only one Light Spirit to handle, and he wasn't sure if Lanayru would be able to lift the darkness from what was probably half of Hyrule.
"The Twilight started to the west, so a lot of that has been in it the longest. It spreads gradually, you know." It wasn't surprising that she knew where the Twilight came from. Midna knew a lot of details she wasn't sharing with him, "The Twilight has probably been here for weeks."
"Weeks..." Link looked at the amber smudge that marred the blue sky of Eldin. She had said she was transformed for weeks, nearly a month. Zant had taken over Midna's home, cursed her, and then went to invade Hyrule when no one else stood up to him. The people of Hyrule had been living as spirits for weeks. Were they alive, then? Renado mentioned that the children had eaten before Eldin lifted the Twilight, but it seemed strange. Most didn't seem aware of the Twilight. It was almost as if Link could see it, but others could not. Renado noticed it, but Renado turned out to have magic. It might be something only magic users could sense.
"Yeah, I think. Like I said, it's hard to tell how much time has passed when you don't eat or sleep. The days kind of blur together. Although…" her voice took on a musing tone to it. "It does seem like the areas without Twilight have a clearer day/night cycle. The time of day doesn't seem different within the Twilight. Which is strange, considering my home isn't like that."
"Is that another little nugget of information about you, I detect?" He was interested in learning about her, even if she didn't want to share many details. Link was beginning to like Midna, and he wished he could understand more about his unlikely friend. "One day, I'll learn about your home."
She laughed then, a light little sound in his ears. "Maybe. I can share a little about myself, though. Here's something: my favorite color is blue. I was familiar with the color from home, but the blues here are so different." Her voice grew quiet, awed. "The color of the sky here is so beautiful. I had no idea that a color like that could exist, until I saw Hyrule without the Twilight." Midna's voice had a warmth to it, like she was smiling. "Your eye are blue, too. Nobody has blue eyes where I come from, so I think it's pretty cool." She gave a little chuckle. "That might be why I'm willing to put up with your craziness."
That comment made him laugh. "I'm not sure how to take that, so thanks, I think? And by the way...my favorite color is blue, too." Yet another thing they had in common. "I think it's time to speed up so we can get where I want to go for the night." He turned Epona off the road heading east, following an overgrown road heading north.
"Didn't Gor Liggs say that there was a Goron outpost just outside of Castle Town? This isn't the way." She likely didn't know the local geography well, but she had heard him mention that they were headed east.
"We're not staying there."
"Why?" She sounded confused. "There doesn't seem to be much of anything in this part of Eldin."
"I want to go home." he said simply.
"Oh." Midna said, subdued. "I understand."
It was a bit surreal to ride Epona up the road as an adult, the same road he had fled with his mother five and a half years ago when he was still a child. While the slightly rolling plains looked familiar with their wildflowers and patches of poplars and pines, there were no specific landmarks he could recall. The afternoon wore on and he urged Epona into a canter to make better time. He still wanted daylight once he had gotten there.
After another hour, they reached the ruins of yet another small town, surrounded by abandoned farms and ranches. The fences of the overgrown fields still held after five years, but there were no crops to be seen. One side of the town had a small lake, ringed with trees. Link slowed Epona to a walk, and went down what was once the main street of the village. Unlike the other towns they had come across, this one was not simply abandoned; while some buildings still stood, most of them were burnt husks, or piles of blackened rubble. The layout of the town was familiar to him, but the charred remains of the buildings were not. It was shocking to see, but at the same time he felt a strange kind of detachment.
"This was Kasuto." Link said as they went by an abandoned well. It possibly still had water in it, but he didn't want to check. "I moved here with my parents when I was six years old."
"And you left when you were twelve. I remember you saying that. You were here for six years. That's a third of your life." Her voice was quieter, and she had no snarky commentary or jokes while in the ruined town. "From what you've said, today is your birthday. This isn't what I expected you to do today."
"It's not like turning into a wolf on my birthday is any better, Midna. It still hurts when it happens." The golden power did protect him, but it did not do it in the kindest of ways.
"Speaking of hurt, are you okay? This place is depressing." She was concerned for him again. That's what friends did, after all. "Although...Link?"
"Yeah?" He didn't answer her first question, a bit distracted. He was looking at a particular building that he remembered being a bakery. The owner used to give Link and the other children sticky buns sometimes. He could imagine the man standing there now, and felt a small twinge of that strange fear he felt before in Kakariko, but then it was gone.
"You said that you think you were the only one who survived this place. If that's true, where are the bodies?"
She had a point. He expected to see bones, but there was nothing. There weren't even dead animals in the pastures of the ranches. Did the Hylian army bury everyone afterwards? Were people captured? Even though he hoped that they had, the army did not take prisoners, not from Kasuto. Terrible images from the past came unbidden to his mind, and he shut his eyes for a moment, and forced them away. He had come here for a reason, and it wasn't to traumatize himself. "I don't know. Maybe some other people escaped, and came back to bury the others."
"Yeah, maybe." Midna did not sound so sure. It was odd, but there had to be a reasonable explanation.
Link pointed at the shell of a house, only a few charred pieces of timber sticking up from a cobble base, skeletal and bare. "The old Sheikah man that lived there used his magic to make ice to keep people's food cold. It lasted longer that way. Sometimes he would make snowballs for the kids to play with." He lowered his hand and looked at the remnants of the home. It was barely recognizable. "That's how the people here used magic. They would use it for practical things, not for fighting. Magic's a tool, after all. It's only as dangerous as people want it to be." And yet, they all died due to their abilities, as harmless as they were.
Midna did not respond. This probably was uncomfortable for her, to see his big secret laid bare, but he needed to come here. He had to confront the thing that had haunted him through his teenage years, now that he was an adult. These burnt shells of houses with their overgrown yards and empty pastures were slowly returning to nature, changing over time. By coming here, he had the feeling that something in himself had changed as well. He wasn't the frightened boy anymore, but he needed a physical representation of that to remind himself.
Link stopped Epona in front of a particular building, and looked at it, trying to sort out how he felt. For now, he still felt that strange detachment, like he was stumbling through someone else's dream. He was here, but still it still did not feel real. The house was burnt like many of the others, but only partially. Much of it was stone, and it held together better. The barn with the fenced pasture behind it seemed to be intact. Wordlessly, he dismounted Epona and walked towards the house.
"Was this your home?" Midna asked.
"Yes." He walked up the two steps to stand into the doorway, and put a hand to the charred frame. "Yes it was." He was touching it, this was real. Why did he feel nothing, then? Link walked into the ruins of the building, stepping around the charred beams that had once held up the roof. It was a three-room home, but the room that used to be his was completely buried by the collapsed roof. He made his way to the fireplace and hearth, and bent to pick up a half-melted metal pot, its surface coated in white ash.
"When you said you wanted to come here, I thought you'd get emotional. Not that I think you cry all the time or anything, but this is some seriously sad stuff. First I hear about what happened, and then...we're here." Her voice did sound sad, even though this was not her home that she was standing in. Midna was capable of empathy, when she was herself. Whenever there wasn't dark magic influencing her words.
"I admit, I thought I'd be too." He tossed the ruined pot on the ground with a clunk. "I spent the past five years shedding tears for this place, trying to get over what had happened. After years of nightmares, of anger, of everything...I come here and I feel nothing. Maybe I'm over it."
"Is that why you wanted to come here? To see if you were over it?" Her voice had a tone of incredulity to it. She couldn't believe that he would want to come here, after everything.
"Yeah. It's my birthday, and I'm eighteen. I'm an adult, and I need to approach this lousy part of my life as an adult would." Link pawed through some of the rubble, but things were destroyed to the point where they weren't recognizable anymore. "I thought that maybe coming here would have a kind of finality to it. That I could think 'this is all over'. Instead, I'm looking around and all I can think is 'This happened a long time ago.'"
"I don't know the workings of the mind, but I don't know if that was the best idea. This place hurt you for years."
"Yeah." It did, and it's what fueled his terrible anger. Not just his short temper, but the frightening anger that allowed him to fight with incredible skill and stamina. "I know this place is why I'm messed up. I can't change, though. That's why I'm trying to get over it. Do you get why I want to try?"
"Yeah. I understand." Midna said kindly. "I don't know if it's how I'd do things, but I think we're still different in a lot of ways." She watched from his shadows, so he was unable to see her face. The subtle changes in her voice were all he had to go off of.
Link stepped into the ruins of his parents' bedroom, the room that survived the fire the best. The bed was still charred and collapsed, but still had remnants of a blanket on it, and the bedside table was still there, if blackened. He pulled open the drawer, which opened with only a small amount of difficulty, the wood slightly warped from fire and rain. Inside were a few of his mother's things; a ruined ivory comb, the half-charred pieces of silk handkerchiefs, and a stone jewelry box shaped like a horse head. He picked it up and lifted the lid to find that most of its contents had melted together into a mass of gold and silver, but to one side was a single amulet on a half-melted chain. Miraculously, the amulet had survived.
"This…" He touched the pendant gently with one finger, memories coming back to him. "This was my grandmother's." Link tugged on the amulet and the chain snapped, and he held it in his open palm to look at it. It was of a crescent moon with the Sheikah eye on it, a symmetrical eye with three eyelashes on top and a single teardrop on the bottom. "I remember her wearing it when I was little. My mother must have inherited it." He had found something that belonged to one of his parents, even though he hadn't expected to. Not only that, but it was something from his Sheikah heritage, a bloodline that tied him to the royal family in a different way.
He pocketed the amulet, putting it safely in one of his back pouches, and looked around what used to be his house. "This place is too much of a mess to sleep in. Let's see how the barn is."
He returned to Epona, and took her by the reins to lead her up what used to be the path to the barn, which was now full of weeds. The barn itself was still standing and in good condition, although there were no signs of the horses and cows that his family once had. They doubtless were taken by the army, either to return to the king, or as personal spoils. The pasture itself still seemed to be fenced in, so he brought Epona through the gate and took off her tack so she could roll in the tall grass and graze. There still was the pond in the pasture, so there was a place for her to drink. He wondered if she would remember this place at all, or if it was too different. This was were Epona was born.
Link left the mare alone and went around to the back side of his destroyed home, to where he knew their garden was. Strangely enough, a trowel and a watering can still leaned up against the foundation of the house, both surviving the fire. He picked up the trowel and looked at the garden, trying to remember. Most of the plants hadn't survived the winters here, but a few did. There were some oversized turnips that he decided to leave alone, and some curling vines from the pumpkin plants that likely reseeded themselves every year. Part of the reason why Link hated pumpkin was because his mother served the stuff way too often when he was a child.
He knelt in the dirt and dug around the base of plants with oval-shaped leaves that were bright green and healthy, and found what he was hoping for. The potatoes weren't huge, at least the ones he had managed to find weren't, but they were still potatoes. If he could find food here in Kasuto, he could save his supplies from Kakariko for the morning. He hadn't brought a huge amount of food with him, planning on buying things somewhere. He would likely keep having the problem of not knowing where his next meal would come from.
Epona was rolling, kicking her feet in the air when he went into the pasture, and ignored him as he got Colin's gift from the saddlebag. It didn't take very long for him to catch two sunfish that were larger than his hand, since the fish in the pond seemed ravenous. With nobody fishing them out, their population had bloomed. He did spot a large snapping turtle sitting half-submerged in the weeds at the edge of the pond, but he left it alone. Having some red meat would be good, but he didn't want to go through the trouble of killing and cleaning the turtle. The fish was plenty.
He still had that strange disconnect from everything as he went around gathering things for dinner, and while he was building a fire to cook them. It didn't hurt to come here, even if it hurt to talk about. There were terrible memories of this place, of images that frightened him to this day, but they seemed like they were of someplace else. This Kasuto, this ruined town in the middle of the Eldin plains, was no longer his Kasuto. Ordon was his home, and Ordon was where he felt he belonged. He chatted with Midna as he cooked and ate the fish and potatoes, telling her of the people in the town and things in the area. Her responses were kind but short. She still did not feel that him coming here was a good idea.
He cleaned his single pan with water from the pond, and used the old watering can near the house to douse his fire. While he could sit around by the fire at night, he actually had woken up at a reasonable time this morning. Now that it was sunset, he was better off going to bed once it got dark so he could wake up early again. He pushed open the large rolling door of the barn and looked inside, in the fading light of the sun. There were stalls for animals and straw scattered on the floor, and a collection of tools, but not much else. It was the best place to rest, and this way he had a place to put Epona. After collecting her tack and bringing it into the barn, he sang the horse's name, and she trotted over to him obediently.
Once they were in the barn with Epona, he slid the door shut again. Midna appeared out of his shadow for the first time since that morning, and looked around the dimly-lit barn, the orange light of sunset coming from a large open window above the door. "It's not exactly luxurious, but I'm not the one sleeping here." She turned to Link. "Is this another one of those places that is crawling with undead?"
"No, there never was anything like that here. The Hyrulian Civil War was fought mostly in Central Hyrule. The part of it that was fought between the Gorons and Zoras was farther north. Eldin itself was more or less left out of things." He walked over to Epona, who had picked a stall all on her own. "This was a safe place, which was why so many people settled here." He stared at the dirty wooden floor of the barn. "...whole lot of good it did them."
"You sure you're okay?" Midna moved over to where he stopped with Epona's blanket in his hands. "I know we've only known each other about a week, but you seem like a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve."
"I think I'm fine. I haven't had a meltdown, which is what I expected." He put the blanket on the horse. "Thanks for worrying about me, though."
"You know, you worry about being emotional, but I don't think it's a bad thing." She followed him as he went to a few bales of straw that had sat for six years, unused. "I mean not to sound corny, but you're a guy with a lot of heart. I could see how much you love those kids, and you worried about the Gorons even though you had nothing to do with them. The look on your face when you found those dead miners, I would have thought that you knew them."
He cut the cords on a bale with his sword, and started to scatter straw in a pile. "I've always been that way, I guess. Yeah, I have that anger problem, but I'm just as likely to laugh about something than get mad about it. I never was somebody to hide how I feel about things." He kicked at the straw, arranging it into a makeshift bed. "It know this will sound strange, but I noticed something. When I smile at people, they seem to like me a lot. Look at Renado and Barnes. I barely know those guys, but Renado was willing to share his secret with me, and Barnes gave me free bombs." He frowned, standing next to the pile of straw. "I know that I saved them from the Twilight and the Shadow Beasts, but that can't be the only reason. They seemed like they genuinely liked me."
"Link, that's called charisma, and you have tons of it." Was he charismatic? He never thought himself to be that way before. Friendly, yes. Charismatic? Not so much. "You've made friends with pretty much everyone we've met, including the leader of the Gorons and a bunch of monkeys. And hey, you even made friends with me, and I'm a snarky bitch who hates everything."
He had to laugh at that. "I wouldn't say you're that bad. But thanks." He considered simply removing this weapons and sleeping in his armor, but that probably would mean a bad night's sleep. There were no Bulbin patrols out this way, so he unpinned his cloak and started to remove his gear. Maybe once he found some more rupees, he could buy a proper bedroll and blanket. It wasn't as if he had planned for this trip to save Hyrule.
Midna moved to sit on a dusty barrel nearby, and materialized a book in her hands. It was the one on history. After his mention of the civil war, she probably wanted to learn more. "You go ahead and get yourself comfortable. I finally have something to read, so I'm going to do that." She sighed and hugged the book to her small body. "This was a really nice surprise. I didn't expect you to do something like that for me."
"Why not? It probably sucks to sit around and watch me sleep. I'm boring enough when I'm awake, so it's probably so much worse in the middle of the night." When she laughed, he gave a small smile.
"I have been kind of rotten to you, and I know we've had our arguments, but for the most part you've been nice to me." Midna lowered the book and looked at the cover. "Thank you."
He had set his gear in a pile and wrapped himself in his cloak, planning on sleeping that while wearing his linen shirt, leggings and boots. "It's really no big deal." He lay down on his impromptu bed, and while it was a bit scratchy, it was softer than sleeping on the ground. "Enjoy your book. I'm going to sleep. I should wake pretty early again tomorrow."
Link woke far earlier than planned. Midna shook him awake, and when he made a sleepy sound at her, she put a shadowy finger to her lips. "Don't speak too loudly." she said quietly. "We have a problem. Get up and put your stuff on."
He sat up, alarmed. The moon shone through the open window next to the loft of the barn, but he had no idea what time it was. "How long have I been sleeping?" he asked in an equally quiet voice.
"A few hours. Epona's awake too. Get your gear and let's hurry and leave." There was an urgency to her voice. Whatever the problem was, she wanted to run instead of confronting it. That was concerning. Midna didn't seem like the type of person to run from a fight.
"What's happening outside?" He stood and pulled his chain shirt on. "Bulbins?"
"No, Link. I think you might have gotten a little of your history wrong, because there are undead outside."
He stared at her dumbly. Undead? In Kasuto? "No, that can't be right." Midna floated up and put a hand to his mouth to quiet him and then cupped her other hand to her pointed ear. He listened as she instructed, and he could hear the sounds of something moving outside through the grass and weeds. Not the movement of one thing, but many things, all around the barn. He turned his head to look at the door, and remembered that Stalfos were as strong as a man, if not stronger. Whatever was out there, it could possibly open the door to the barn.
"I don't understand." He hurried to get his equipment on. "There were no battles fought here." As soon as he said it, he knew that he was wrong. There was a battle fought here, a one-sided battle where the Hyrule army won. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach when he realized why there was undead outside. "It's the people. That's why there weren't any bodies."
Midna's shadowy face looked horrified. She hadn't lived here, but the idea of it was terrible and it seemed to upset her nearly as much as it did him. The town's residents were murdered, and then their souls became restless, left to wander. "I don't know where they were hiding. We would have seen something."
There had been a number of places where the undead could have hidden from the sun in the daytime, enough for the hundreds of souls who used to live in Kasuto to hole up and then come out at night. The idea both brought back the strange anxiety that he had felt before, and filled him with fear for things that could not die. Things that used to be his friends and neighbors. As he buckled on his baldric, he noticed his hands were shaking a bit. A shadowy hand settled on his.
"You'll be okay. We need to concentrate on getting out of here." Midna was right. He could sort out how he felt about things after they had put miles between themselves and Kasuto.
"Go look outside and see what's happening. I'll get Epona." He picked up his cloak and shook the straw off of it to prepare to put it back on. In that quiet moment where he pinned his cloak on, he could hear the shuffling sound of the undead outside. Could he fight them? He might have to, although he had no idea how effective a sword would be against them. There was supposedly a legendary sword somewhere in Hyrule that could destroy any dark thing, but he didn't have that.
Epona was rolling her eyes and tossing her head when he came to her, and he very softly hummed the song to try to soothe the frightened horse. He was frightened himself, and he hoped that she didn't pick up on it. She let him saddle her, willing to let him take her from this place.
Midna moved to hover right next to him so she could continue to speak quietly. "I think they know we're here. There's a lot out there. Most of them are down by the road by your old house, but there's a bunch that are circling the barn, and at least a dozen standing in front of the door."
Link's mouth went dry. How could he fight through a dozen of things that were already dead? "What kind of undead are they?"
"The ones right outside are zombies. I don't think they can open the door, so they're just waiting there. There are ghosts of people out near the road and the other buildings, but there's a few bigger ghosts that are carrying lanterns." The smaller ghosts weren't concerning, but the larger ones were. Ghosts that became strong enough to carry a lantern could attack and harm the living, and since they were ghosts very little could hurt them. Midna looked anxious, likely just as frightened as he and Epona were. "I don't know what I can do, but I'll go along with whatever plan you have." She expected him to come up with the plan. He had in the past, but this time his own racing heart was distracting him, and thinking was difficult.
"Yeah, a plan…" He lead Epona to the middle of the barn and stared at the door, thinking. Once the horse's shod hooves started clopping on the wooden floorboards of the barn, something started to bang on the door in response to the noise. Midna jumped, startled by the sound, and then turned to him, her one eye unsure. She was relying on him. He had to get them safely out. If he could tap into his anger, he could fight his way through them, but the fear and anxiety in his gut were far too strong for him to feel anything else. "They know we're here for sure." he said, mounting Epona. He no longer had any fire arrows. The quivers that Midna had stored away only having regular arrows, so that idea was out. Barnes had mentioned exploding arrows, but those weren't ready yet.
Explosions? He reached to where he had the bomb bag on his belt. Would he be able to throw them far enough away so they wouldn't hurt Epona? He made the horse back up just in case, a difficult task due to her frightened state. She didn't want to move from the door, she wanted to leave.
"What are you thinking?" Midna asked.
"I'm going to use some of these new bombs that Barnes made me. It's the only thing I have that I know can stop undead. It's hard for them to move around if they're in pieces." Thinking of them more as monsters and less like people seemed to be helping. He opened the bomb bag just enough to pull out a single dark-colored bomb, its fuse sticking out of the top like a white worm. "I'm going to tell you when, and you'll open the barn door. Then I want you to hurry back here and sit behind me on Epona, facing back. After I blow a hole in them, we're going to ride through and not stop to fight unless we have to. I'll handle the front, and you'll handle the rear. Try to make sure none of them get Epona. If she goes down, we're dead."
"That's a lot more reasonable than some of your other ideas in the past." Midna took a deep breath. "All right. We're going to get out of here." She flew over to the door and set her hair around the handle, brave despite the thumping on the other side of the door, and nodded at him. "Ready."
He wasn't, but they had to do it. Only more would gather outside if they waited, and the number of undead pounding on the barn was increasing, now that others had noticed that there were living inside. They might not make it to sunrise. He gritted his teeth and did his best to swallow his fear. "Do it."
Midna hauled the door back on its track, letting in the pale light of the moon, which lit the withered figures waiting outside from behind. As soon as it was open, she darted back in a mass of shadow, and outside there were many glowing red eyes on him and his horse. Upon seeing him, the group raised their voices in a chorus of inhuman shrieks. The sound made him freeze in terror, bomb held in his hand, trembling. He had no idea that they would scream like that, and it was the most terrifying thing he had ever heard, even more terrifying than the sounds of riders chasing him from this place when he was a boy. His brain shut down and panicked animal instinct took over, wanting to run but with nowhere to go.
"Link!" Midna shook his shoulders from behind. "Throw it!"
Her touch and her voice cut through the terror, and he was able to focus on what he was doing. He yanked the fuse with his teeth since his right hand was still holding the reins, and hurled the bomb straight at the pack of zombies that were starting to shuffle into the barn. A few seconds passed, and there was an explosion, bits of the open doorway going flying as well as bits of cloth and bone. There was the smell of gunpowder and the stink of decay, and as he drew his sword he saw that many of them had simply blown up, all clustered around the bomb when it went off.
He kicked his heels into Epona and drove her through the hole he made in the shuffling undead, but saw more ahead on the path to the road. They shrieked at him as he approached, and Epona panted in fear, her breath coming in short snorts through her nose. He almost froze again, the screams making his heart pound and his breathing quicken, but he had to get through. He steered Epona around the group as best he could, slashing at them with his sword. A head came off a zombie, but it continued to chase them. The zombie was wearing a Sheikah robe.
The undead were half-decayed, not fully skeletal like the ones in Central Hyrule, and not carrying weapons either. Most of them wandered aimlessly, but when they sensed life they turned towards the horse and rider and would shriek terribly. The sound drove him to such terror that his chest hurt, and he clenched his jaw as he dodged Epona around the screaming undead. Some were wearing clothes that were familiar, and he tried not to dwell on it. Others were not large, since no one of any age could escape the purge of the town. Midna made a strangled sound behind him when she saw that even children were slaughtered and remained as restless souls.
There were ghosts as well. Some stood flickering in what was left of their homes, looking confused. Others repeated their last moments, dying to the swords of unseen enemies. Some simply stood around and wept, trapped as they were forever. The ones that he needed to avoid were the kinds with lanterns, which had a name that he couldn't remember. Those spirits could pull him from his horse if they wanted to. The sight of the ghosts added to his fear and anxiety, and he could actually recognize a few of their faces. Tears stung his eyes as he steered Epona through the street as best he could, but the horse wasn't listening to him very well. Despite how well she was trained the mare was terrified, and was doing her best to get away regardless of what the human on her back wanted. The best he could do was manage to turn her south, to get her to escape from the way they came.
"Ghosts are following!" Midna said from behind him. He knew which ones she was talking about. There was a crackling sound as she used her magic, but as she did so he knew it would be futile. Shadow magic would not harm anything that came from darkness itself. "No good, I can't slow them!"
Epona approached the well and a lit lantern rose up out of it as they drew close, the angry spirit bearing it materializing with a different kind of shriek. The horse reared up and neighed in terror, and Link held onto the saddle feeling the same fear. Epona bolted then, no longer following his orders, and the horse ran at a hard gallop through the rest of the town, trampling screaming undead as she went. The screams from beneath the hooves of the horse were even more terrifying than the ones that came from the ones that stood nearby. They were being trampled, but they would not die. The people of Kasuto had become things that could not die.
They left the screams behind, Epona flying down the road, and Link clung to her back and let her simply run. He needed to get away from the screams, the decayed faces, the familiar clothes and familiar ghosts. His sword was held in his left hand with a white-knuckle grip, his mind overwhelmed by everything in the town, and his body following its urge to flee.
He didn't know how far they rode before Epona slowed on her own, down to a walk and then to a stop. It couldn't have been long because he was still trembling, his heart still thudding in his chest. Link sat on Epona and breathed heavy breaths that were on the verge of sobs, and he realized then that there were tears on his face.
"I shouldn't have come here." he mumbled to Midna, who was clinging to his cloak behind him. "You were right."
She came to float beside him, but didn't say anything. She probably couldn't think of anything comforting to say to him while he was in this panicked state.
"When we saw no bodies, I had hoped that there were prisoners. I thought that maybe some of them were in a prison somewhere, but still alive. Or maybe there was forgiveness for the families…" He looked at the sword held in his shaking hand. "No. That damn Adelbert…" he said the name with such malice that rage joined with the terrible anxiety that gripped him. "I'd kill him. I want to kill him!"
"Link…" Midna began, putting her hands on his arm, but he continued, bitter and angry.
"They're stuck like this, and I can't help them. I'm the only one who got away, who lived through it all, and I can't do a damn thing." He gritted his teeth, his blue eyes full of fury. "I want to kill him, and I can't!" Link hung his head, rage replaced with grief and frustration. "I can't." All his roiling emotions crashed down on him at once and he let out a bitter, ugly sob. He thought that he could get over things, that seeing the town would help him move on, but he was wrong. Deep down he was still that frightened boy that ran away, and all that visiting Kasuto had done was remind him of that. He shouldn't have come here.
"Link." Midna said again, tugging on his arm. "We can't stay here."
He didn't respond, still shaking, still horrified, still a frightened child. He shouldn't have come here.
The little shadow creature let go of his arm and moved directly in front of him, putting her hands on the sides of his face. She lifted it to force him to look at her. "Link." She said carefully. "I know it hurts, and I'm not dismissing your feelings, but we need to keep moving. Those ghosts with the lanterns are still chasing us, and they're getting a lot closer now that we've stopped."
His breath caught in his throat, and he swallowed hard, blinking away tears. She stared at him with her single red-on-yellow eye, her dark facial features difficult to see despite the light of the moon. She was right. There was nothing to do about the lantern ghosts but run. He nodded, and she released his face. Link sheathed his sword and wiped at his face with the back of his hand. He shouldn't have come here, but he couldn't sit around and feel sorry for himself. There had been enough of that kind of thing in the past five years of his life, and now he finally had a home in Ordon. He pushed Epona into a canter and continued south and away from Kasuto.
Eventually his trembling stopped, and his breathing became more even. Midna didn't say anything to him as they rode by the light of the moon, quiet after she had rejoined with his shadows. He didn't want to talk anyway, not trusting himself to talk about what happened without another meltdown. He hadn't wanted her to see him that way, but in the end she did, and she didn't judge him for it. All she had done was step up to take charge when his own mind was no longer working correctly. He could trust her. Midna seemed untrustworthy at first, and although the events in the mines and on the western Eldin plains had brought him closer to her, this night solidified it. They could trust one another completely.
They joined the main road that ran south through the plains, and turned right and west. Epona was tired, only having slept a few hours just like Link, but she continued to run like he wanted. He turned to look in the saddle, and saw no lights following them. They had finally lost the ghosts, who probably were heading back to Kasuto by now.
The sky was growing lighter as he reached the Goron outpost, a collection of stone and metal buildings and warehouses. It seemed to be more of a storage depot, a place for merchants coming to and from Castle Town to pick up or drop off wares, mostly food from the farms near Kakariko, or ores from Death Mountain. It was ringed by poplars that were planted by the Gorons around the back end of the buildings, a small stand of trees to shelter things from the wind of the plains. There was a series of long log fences set down near watering troughs, a hitching place for dodongos and mules, and the occasional horse like Epona. Link rode up on his exhausted mare to an early riser, a Goron who was tending to a domesticated dodongo.
"Excuse me." he said to the Goron, who was tying down packs of goods to the humped back of the dodongo. Domesticated dodongos looked very little like the ones he had fought in the mines, and were built far more like a rhinoceros than a gecko.
"Oh, hey there. You're coming from the east. What were you doing riding out there in the middle of the night?" The Goron was incredibly informal, and put his hands on his hips when he looked up at the mounted Hylian.
"I made a mistake." Link told him. "I visited Kasuto." He was so tired that he didn't want to lie to these Gorons. He'd tell them the bare minimum and hopefully find someplace where he and Epona could sleep.
"Kasuto?" The Goron put a large hand to his forehead in surprise. "What are you, crazy? Everybody knows that place is haunted. No treasure hunters should try going there." He had gotten the wrong idea about Link, which was fine. There were a number of abandoned towns and villages in Eldin, so people seeking treasure in them probably were common.
"If I had known that, I wouldn't have done it. Can you tell me where I can find Hagar?" He felt terribly weary, not only from the lack of sleep, but from the terror and emotions of escaping Kasuto.
"Hop off that horse and give it a drink, and then go inside that big building there, with the stairs." The Goron pointed helpfully. "He ought to be awake, since he's an early riser."
"Thank you." He dismounted and tethered Epona at the open spot next to the dodongo, and she lowered her mouth to the watering trough. The poor horse had been sweating when they escaped Kasuto, and it wasn't from the effort of running. Now she only wanted a drink, and didn't care about the gray-green dodongo that turned its head to sniff at her. Domesticated dodongos were technically still predators, but were as threatening to a horse as a dog or a human.
Link made his way into the open doorway of the building, Goron buildings not bothering with doors. The building was fairly simple on the inside, with a pair of stone slabs that counted as Goron beds, a clay hearth, a bookshelf and desk both full of papers and ledgers, and a stone table and benches. Seated at the table were two Gorons, eating breakfast and holding cups of some kind of hot liquid. One of the Gorons, who had thick pale muttonchops that merged with the mane of hair on top of his pointed head, stopped raising a handful of calcite to his mouth to stare at Link.
"Sorry, we're not open for business yet." the Goron said, shoving the stone into his mouth and crunching it with his flat teeth. The sound was somehow horrible and triggering, and Link hoped that he didn't need to hear many Gorons eat in the future. Hearing other humans eat certainly didn't bother him. Then again, his nerves were frayed and his mind tired.
"I'm not here to trade. I'm here because Gor Liggs told me I could safely rest at this outpost, and there would be a place for me to keep my horse." He waited for a response, but the first Goron who spoke continued to eat. The second Goron, who had yellow markings painted on his tan skin with a yellow loincloth to match, looked at Link with his big dark blue eyes full of sympathy.
"Hagar," the second Goron said to his companion. "look at this poor guy. He looks horrible."
The Goron identified as Hagar grumbled something through a mouthful of rocks, but it was hard to understand him.
"Did you ride all night to get here?" the second Goron asked Link. "There's gotta be somewhere else you could've stayed instead of doing that." Despite his thick-mouthed Goron dialect, the Goron seemed to be a lot brighter than he sounded, and already guessed correctly that Link had ridden through the night.
"I tried to stop somewhere, but the place I stopped was Kasuto. I had no idea it was haunted." Link rubbed at his face wearily. "It did not go well."
"Kasuto?" the second Goron mimicked the Goron that Link had met outside, putting his hand to his forehead in surprise. "C'mon, Hagar. If Liggs says he's good to stay here, then he oughta stay here. He's exhausted, you can see it."
Hagar took a swig of whatever hot beverage he was drinking. Link assumed it was something that would kill a Hylian if they tried it. "You're right. I'm not gonna go against Liggs." He turned on the bench to face Link. "If Liggs says you can rest here, then you're gonna rest here. I don't know who you are, but a friend of Liggs is a friend of mine." It would seem that news of what he had done on Death Mountain hadn't reached these Gorons yet. To them, he was just another Hylian. "Normally our facilities are for Goron merchants, but we offer some space to humans too. We've got a stable for horses and mules with some feed, and there's some cots in that stable if you don't mind sleeping by your horse."
"At this point I'd sleep in the mud." He felt like laying down to sleep where he was, in the doorway of somebody else's home.
That comment made Hagar grin, a wide, flat-toothed smile. "No need for that, we've got you covered. Kasuto, huh? I'm sorry about that, but at least you made it out alive. You'll be safe here. If you need human food, we usually have Hylian goods coming in on their way to Castle Town." He frowned. "Actually we've got too much of them. None of my guys are coming from or going into Castle Town for some reason, and our goods are piling up. Something weird is happening there."
Hagar couldn't see the Twilight that covered Castle Town, even though it had glowed amber in the dark western sky as Link rode towards the outpost. It was something that only people with magical ability could see, and Hagar was an ordinary Goron. He had no way of knowing that the people who entered the Twilight were trapped within it.
"Yeah, and there were some Hylians that left days ago, but most of 'em stayed in the city." added the other Goron. "Not too many ran off, but something scared those people. It don't make a lick of sense." It did to Link. Even with the magic purge, there were likely still Hylians around with magical ability that could see the Twilight. They likely had fled while Eldin was also covered in Twilight.
"But that ain't your problem, unless you're going into Castle Town. Then I'd say don't." He turned to his companion. "Will you take him out back? I've gotta start on the paperwork as soon as I'm done eating breakfast."
The Goron with the yellow markings stood and gave Hagar a smile. "Sure thing, but you better not eat the good rocks while I'm gone. I'll give you a black eye if you do that." The two of them seemed to be good friends, and not just co-workers. "All right, human. Let's get you squared away."
Link returned to Epona and led her to where the Goron waited, and then followed him to the right side of the buildings and towards a long wooden building.
"You look pretty young for somebody out on their own." The Goron said. Luda had told him that she thought he was sixteen, but here he was eighteen now despite how young he looked. Eighteen, and had just spent his birthday going through one of the worst days of his life. One of them, since those days were starting to pile up now that the Twilight had invaded. "What's your name?" the Goron asked.
"Link." If these Gorons didn't know he was the hero, that was fine. The way they treated him up in Goron City was a little bit embarrassing, so to be treated like a normal person was nice. "I'm not that young, I'm actually eighteen. That's an adult for Hylians." He had no idea how old adulthood was for a Goron, but it was probably different.
"I'm Laron, Hagar's partner. If you say you're an adult, I believe you. A guy wouldn't be out riding with a sword and a bow like that unless he knew how to use 'em, and those ain't toys for kids. Not to be nosy, but what were you doing in Kasuto? You said you tried to stop there to rest?" He led Link into the open doorway of the wooden stable, a long building with stalls on either side. The rising sun shone light through the slatted windows on the side.
"I know, it seems dumb, but I promise I wasn't out trying to scavenge for stuff like other people." He brought Epona into the stall at the far end of the stable, where Laron took him. The horse seemed visibly relieved to be in a normal stable again, even an unfamiliar one. "I got there a bit before sunset and found it was empty, so I took Epona and went to spend the night in a barn. I woke in the middle of the night to the sounds of undead surrounding us. They were pounding on the door. If I didn't have bombs, I wouldn't have gotten out alive." It was more or less the truth, but with many details missing. Which was almost like a lie, in its own way. He didn't like having to do that, but he couldn't explain everything he did to everyone.
Laron laughed and clapped Link hard on the shoulder jovially, causing him to stumble from the Goron's strength. "Nothing like a good bomb to fix problems, am I right?"
Link gave him a weak smile. "If it's all right, I'd really like to get some sleep."
"Oh yeah, no problem. Them's feed bags over there, barrels of water there, and any of these cots here are good for you to use. If you got any more questions, you can find me or Hagar." He gave a wave as he turned, and walked out the stable.
Link sighed and looked at Epona, who was drowsing while standing, which was what she was doing when he came to get her from where he had tethered her out front. He stepped into the stall and went about removing her tack, and then cleaning up her body and legs with handfuls of straw. At least the Gorons had prepared the stalls with clean straw already, so that was one less thing for him to do. He didn't hum the song but actually sang it to her, feeling guilty for how he'd treated her once again.
"I didn't know that song had words." Midna said in his ears, still hiding within the shadows of his clothing.
He had forgotten about Midna, since she had been so quiet. He turned a little red at having her hear him sing. Why was that embarrassing? He was sobbing in front of her a few hours ago, which was a lot more personal than singing a song in front of her. He ought to get over feeling awkward about other people hearing his singing voice. It wasn't that he was bad at singing, he certainly could carry a tune. It felt strange having other people listen, though. "It's a song passed down through my family, a children's song. I don't usually sing the whole thing to her, but she's had a rough night."
"You did too." she said. "Things didn't work out as you planned, but you had no way of knowing."
Link didn't say anything, and gave Epona some feed. While the horse had grazed the previous day, she seemed hungry, and put her nose in the bag right away. He was horrible to the poor horse, this horse that he shared a bond with. After I'm done Epona, you're getting nothing but green fields and all the carrots you can eat, he thought.
"You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened at Kasuto." Midna said once he was removing his things, preparing to sleep. He froze in the act of setting down his shield. "Not just now, but what happened five years ago." He still didn't answer her and resumed removing his baldric, and she appeared next to him in the shadows of the stable. "I can tell you feel guilty."
He shook his head in denial, but he knew she was right. He did feel guilty for being the one who survived, out of everyone who was important, he was the only one who made it. He was the only one who still lived. It could have been due to him being the hero, he had the mark on his hand when he escaped Kasuto, but he had no way of knowing if destiny was involved in some way. Whatever the reason was, it was unfair and unjust.
"I can see how you feel just by looking at you. You can shake your head, but I know you feel terrible." She took one of his unresisting hands in both of hers, and gave it a kindly pat. "What happened is not your fault. You're not wrong for being the one who survived."
Link stared at her, mouth slightly agape. His guilt was the wrong thing for him to feel, and he wasn't feeling the grief he should. He should feel grief for the people he lost, but when he thought of them he was numb, feeling nothing. Instead he had this guilt that was directed at himself, at the fact that he ran away and had left them all behind to die. Except he hadn't done that, he knew that he didn't. He ran, but it wasn't to abandon the others. It was because his parents wanted him to live, their only son.
If he wasn't so emotionally exhausted, he would have wept again. He gave a shuddering sigh. "I know." he said weakly. "You're right. I'm still messed up, though."
Midna let go of his hand and watched him as he took off his chain mail and boots. He lay down on the cot, wrapping himself in his cloak. "You needed to hear that. I know you're messed up, but it's easy to see why. There's some stuff you need to work through, and I know I can't help with that. What I can tell you is that you aren't wrong to be here today." She came to hover next to him and gently patted his hair, just as she had done once he had rescued Colin. "One day, we'll figure out how to help the souls of that town. For now, we have other things to worry about, and you need to rest. Shut your eyes, Link."
He let out another sigh, but closed his eyes. He drifted off to sleep immediately, so exhausted, and as he did so he could still feel her small hand gently touching his head.
Midna was sitting along the wall of the stable with a book in her hands when he opened his eyes again. When he stirred, she looked up from the history book at him. "Oh, are you waking up? You can sleep a bit more. The Twilight isn't going anywhere." That was different than her attitude a few days ago, when she was trying to push him along.
"I'm hungry." He sat up and ran a hand through his thick hair. "I need to eat, and then get ready to go."
She closed the book and set it on her little legs, which were stretched out in front of her as she sat on the floor of the stable. "Are you fine to go do that? Did you rest enough? You only slept a few hours before I woke you in Kasuto, and then only a few hours again here."
He stretched with a grunt. "It wasn't the most ideal night of sleep, but it'll do for now. I'm better than I was, and I'll be even better once I eat." He pulled his boots on and glanced up at her as he bent over, from beneath his brows. "Thanks. For earlier."
The book on her lap dissolved into black squares as it vanished. "You don't have to thank me every time I'm worried about you. You're an important guy, you know? If I'm going to be your partner, then I need to make sure you're doing okay." Midna shook her head and watched as he pulled his chain mail on. "Besides...yesterday broke my heart. It was one thing to hear you tell that story to Renado, but a completely different thing to actually go there. The scary zombie thing didn't help either."
It broke her heart? It was a sad story when he thought about it, but she had seemed indifferent about him up until now. Now she knew what had happened to him, or most of it. He didn't want pity from her, but she wasn't pitying him. Midna was different than Renado and Luda. She was trying to understand him, and then be there for him until he got through things himself. Yet another thing had drawn the two of them closer, and he considered talking to her about it. Instead he fell into his usual habits. "From the sound of things, I'd think you're starting to like me."
She gave a little snort. "Yeah, I don't know how that happened. It's almost as if the wolf I found on the floor of a dungeon turned out to be a really good guy."
That made him smile. Things had been difficult so far, but he got through them because of Midna. He was glad to have her along. "I'm going to see about buying some breakfast. Did you want to come with me, or wait here?"
"I think I'll wait here with Epona. I doubt anybody's coming in the stables, if nobody's able to leave Castle Town." A different book appeared in her hands. "I'll be here when you get back."
Epona was laying on the floor and sleeping, so Link left her alone and walked out of the stable. He had counted out his rupees, and should have enough to both buy a bit of food and pay the Gorons to care for Epona while he was gone. If it cost more, he could always try using some of his clout, although the Gorons at this outpost didn't know he was the hero.
There were far more Gorons and dodongos at the outpost now that it was late morning. A caravan had come here, although from where he didn't know. They would have had to travel through the night, although they seemed to be equipped for it. The merchants all carried clubs at their waists, and each wore a whistle around his neck. The whistle was probably so they could communicate down the long pack train without shouting at one another.
He approached one of the merchants with a friendly smile. "Hey there. Can I ask where you guys came from?"
The Goron turned to him, and then smiled back politely. "Sure. We just got in from the long way around, come up from Faron with Ordonian produce, although we've lost some of our stock because of the extra days of travel. Central Hyrule's a mess, so we had to stick to the northern edge of the Faron forest instead of staying on the road, and then turned north when we got to the Siela River. And then we went east and had to go along the back side of Death Mountain to avoid trouble." The Goron looked him up and down. "Are you a buyer? You're a guy with a sword so I'm going to guess probably not."
"No, but if you're willing to sell me some of your food I'd appreciate it. There's not much here for a Hylian to eat."
"Oh yeah. You don't eat rocks, that's right." The Goron gestured at the nearest dodongo. "Let's talk business."
He managed to buy a cup of oats, a couple of pears, and some goat butter. It didn't cost him that much, only ten rupees, so that didn't dig into his wallet too deeply. He thanked the merchant and went to one of the fire pits he had seen while walking from the stables. There was wood stacked not too far away beneath a canvas tarp, so he was able to make himself a small fire to cook a hot meal of oatmeal and pears, made thick with butter. After cleaning his lone pot and single spoon, he went searching for Hagar.
While he saw Laron walking among the merchants, he had a clipboard in his hand and was discussing something with two other Gorons, and the three of them were waving their hands around and shouting at one another. It didn't seem to be a mean-spirited argument, but one related to business, and he decided to leave him alone. When Link poked his head into the home that doubled as an office at the front of the station, he saw the table was now covered with papers and brown filing folders, and Hagar was sitting at it. Hagar held a large square pencil in his beefy fingers, and he was quickly writing something in the rounded Goron runes at the bottom of an invoice.
"Excuse me." Link said after a moment. It didn't appear that the Goron had heard him come to stand in the doorway.
Hagar twisted in his seat to look at him. "Oh hey there. Feeling any better?"
"Yeah, thanks. I have some business to do in and around Castle Town, and I don't want to board my horse there. Stables in the city cost a fortune." Again, not exactly a lie. These half-truths were getting easier to say, even if he didn't like them.
"Ain't that the truth! I get where you're going with this. You want us to look after that horse of yours? Laron told me about her, she's a pretty thing. Haven't seen a horse that looked like that in about ten years now, back when there was this nobleman that bred 'em. You'd see knights riding those palominos." It was strange to hear Hagar talk about Link's father in such an offhand way, without realizing that he was speaking to the man's son. "How long do you expect to be gone?"
"Only a few days, but I'm not sure. Something is wrong in Castle Town, and I intend to take care of it." The Twilight shouldn't take too long to lift, since he could run swiftly as a wolf. If he ran straight through Castle Town and out the west side, he could get to Lake Hylia today.
"You? No offense, but you're a little guy for a Hylian. What's one guy like you gonna do with that sword?" It was offensive, but Hagar seemed to be a rather blunt Goron. Laron was far kinder, so the two balanced each other out.
"Don't judge me by my appearance." Link said evenly. "I did a bunch of things in order to come here, and I plan to do more after I leave. You do know what's been happening elsewhere in Hyrule, right?"
"I mean, I heard that there were problems in some places…" Hagar trailed off. He now looked a bit uncomfortable for misjudging Link.
"It's everywhere. I just came from Kakariko, and Death Mountain. Do you know what's happened there? Death Mountain had the big iron mine invaded by Bulbins, and they had to seal off the mine with Darbus inside. Do you know what happened in Kakariko? All the Hylians were taken away, leaving only two regular humans and five children, surrounded by Shadow Beasts. That's just in Eldin." He didn't feel the need to point out that he was the one who took care of those things. "Those problems were solved by people who had the guts to go help. Darbus is back in charge and the mine is fine, and Kakariko is free even if most of the people are gone. I came from those places, and saw it myself." He wasn't angry or offended, but he was not smiling, and he stopped leaning on the door frame to stand up straight. "If you want to know what one guy can do with a sword, my answer is: what I can. Now please, I would like to board my horse so I can go do that."
It was something that he had mentioned to Midna, how he noticed that people responded to him in certain ways. This was another way that he could get people on his side, by speaking to them directly with a certain amount of intensity. He wasn't smiling or acting friendly, but the Goron was listening intently and not arguing. Was it really due to charisma?
Hagar rubbed at a hairy cheek. "Yeah, you've got a point. Didn't mean to doubt you like that. We'll take your horse for now, but it'll cost you. Fifty rupees up front, and what you owe later depends on when you come back. I know Liggs said you could stay for free, but a big horse like yours is gonna eat a bunch of feed, and we have upkeep."
"It's fine." He counted out the rupees, and dropped them into Hagar's open hand. "If I don't return for Epona in a week, can you please take her to Renado the Shaman in Kakariko? I'll be good to pay you what I owe you, but sometimes the things I need to go and do take longer than I expect." He'd be good to pay him if he managed to find some rupees. He'd figure out that problem when he came to it.
The Goron closed his beefy hand on the glass coins. "What kind of dangerous stuff are you getting into?"
"Things I need to do." There was no reason to clarify. "Oh, and if there is food sitting here that isn't going anywhere, can you send some to Kakariko? There's only seven people, but most of them are kids and they need to eat well since they're growing. They could use some produce."
"No problem. Just had a bunch come in from Ordon that ain't going nowhere." Hagar scratched at his cheek again. "Good luck, uh...what was your name, again?"
"Link."
"Huh, Link. That's familiar." The Goron put the rupees in his hand into a pouch on his belt. "Anyway, good luck, Link."
He left the outpost behind, a bit unhappy about leaving Epona again, but with little choice in the matter. She would be safe from the Twilight here, and he had some wolf business to take care of. This would be the last time he transformed into a wolf, if it was the last of the Twilight. He wasn't exactly unhappy about that.
"You talked yourself up some in there. That doesn't seem to be in character for you." Midna said from somewhere near his chest.
"I don't want to seem like a big tough guy with a sword, but Gorons admire strength." Not that Hagar thought that he was a big tough guy. He had very clearly doubted that a young man of a shorter stature could accomplish anything in regards to the invasion. If only he knew.
"Right, and that's how your hurt your ribs."
Link laughed for the first time since Kasuto. "It's not just physical strength, it's mental strength too. Gorons respect confidence. Not that I'm completely confident in my abilities." He rubbed at the back of his neck, reflecting on the past week. "Everything that's happened seems real surreal, you know? But if I can be that traveling swordsman that says he's going to do something, and then actually goes and does it, maybe it'll inspire others to step up and try to do the same."
"You do sound confident." Her tone sounded a bit amused. "I don't doubt you, though. We'll make our way to the last Spirit's Spring and completely banish the Twilight from the light world."
"Yeah." he said in agreement. "This last step should be simple, after everything we've accomplished. Although I still feel like one man with a sword who got extremely lucky."
"Oh? Are you a man? You're awfully young." He wasn't sure if her teasing was from what Laron said earlier, or the fact that he really was pretty young.
"I am awfully young, but I had to grow up in a hurry. I still felt like a kid when I left Ordon, but now I feel different." He smiled and looked up at the blue sky above Eldin. "Besides, I did just turn eighteen yesterday. That is technically an adult."
"Oh yes, I forgot to mention it since we were distracted yesterday. Happy birthday."
"Thanks." He looked at the smear of amber and brown twilight that hovered over the town, so close. They would be coming to it soon, probably in a couple of hours. "Did you get me a birthday gift?"
There was a sound coming from where she was hidden that sounded like the snapping of fingers. He had no idea how she did that, but then again he had no idea how she was speaking to him in the first place. "Darn, I forgot to wrap it."
"I won't be offended, I promise. What did you get me?" He now enjoyed banter with Midna. It had taken on a different meaning now that they were friends.
"The title of Hero."
Link laughed again. It felt good to laugh, after yesterday. "That's not a very thoughtful gift, but I'll accept it all the same."
Author's Note: Some people might remember there was a town named Kasuto in ruins in Breath of the Wild, but the name is actually from The Adventure of Link. Kasuto was the only town from that game that didn't get its name re-used for a sage in Ocarina of Time, and it was also a town that was abandoned and infested with ghosts. Since a lot of what happens in Twilight Princess mirrors or ties in with Ocarina of Time, it seemed like the best name for the town.
I hope people aren't getting sick of weepy Link. He isn't like this for most of the story, it's just the poor guy is going through a lot.
