"So uh, gentlemen…" The first people Rowark went to with the news were his friends from his unit. Or old unit now. The four of them huddled around the young man in the mess hall where he found them. Miro Miro recognized two of them the previous night outside the barracks: the short stockier man who could not stand straight and the skinny, curly haired man who called Rowark "Hero boy". The other two were large, tall, and beefy, and smelled really bad… "I just got knighted! I'm going to be a knight!"
First, their faces burst wide open in happiness. Then, they erupted with a cheer in unison, "EEEYY!"
"That's me boy!" belched the the big one with the dark black beard.
"What happened? I saw you run off with the volunteer squad, and then what?" asked the skinny soldier.
"Well," the way Rowark retold the story felt vague. It was like he was avoiding the details, using many types of unspecified verbiage, and completely left out the part where he rescued the girl. "And then I got woken up this morning, and I got knighted! And the best part is, I got a red rupee right out of Sir Triss' pay to celebrate! So whadya say guys? Who wants to get day drunk at Tinkle's Tavern?"
His offer was met with umms and mumbles from his friends. Their lack of enthusiasm brought down the mood instantly.
"Oy, I got a better idea!" said the short stockier one, "Let's take him 'you-know-where' and give him the knight's special!"
"HEEEY! That is a better idea!" they said amidst laughter.
The giant one with the small stubble and gross looking dirt all over his skin laughed the hardest, "Alrighty old mate, you're gonna be in for a surprise!"
Miro Miro knew Rowark looked uncomfortable with the new plan, but he still surrendered to his friends' whims as they blindfolded him with a white piece of cloth and and led him out of the barracks, and into the busy streets of Hyrule Castle City. She followed behind him, but only from up high, safe from the reach of below.
For whatever reason, the spaces between roads felt more crowded than yesterday. Five men on their day off skipped and pushed through the slow traffic of industry, past wagons and carts, and past tradesmen of all kinds carrying raw materials. Miro Miro could not see any smiles on the peasants' faces, but she observed a sort of contentment from them. Windows were wide open to receive the summer sun into the homes. No matter what window she spied through, there was a busy parent running around with work to be done.
She had almost lost sight of Rowark! The dense, crowded street hid the men too well. Curses, if only they were dressed like the other soldiers too! Then, Miro Miro spotted golden hair and a white blindfold! One of the big portly ones with the curly hair led the way. He had an aura that seemed to steer pedestrians away from him. Miro Miro could guess why from the way they plugged their noses. The other four men followed behind him unphased by the smell.
They continued walking towards the sun for several blocks and finally stopped him when they made a left turn. In front of them was a tall circular spire, almost six, maybe seven stories tall even, and wider than any tree Miro Miro had ever seen before. In front of the spire was a small, public square with quite the diverse motley of people.
Closest to the spire's gigantic doors were four gerudo, two dressed to seductively through the streets and attract the lonely men from the streets, the other two stood stalwartly like guards, clad in metal pieces of armor and armed with a long spear with a long, curved spear head. Their eyes stared across to the center of the public square, where a herald, who was a young Hylian with curly blonde hair, rallied a dozen or so people around him as they marched in circles, chanting with each step.
Rowark let out a long sigh, "Let me guess. There's an angry mob chanting 'death to the witches', which must mean we are at the Desert Oasis." He removed the blindfold and scowled, "You pigs! You guys are absolute pigs!"
"Oh, don't be that mad," said the skinny, tall one with the scraggly facial hair as he pushed Rowark towards the entrance, "If we are to celebrate, then let us do it the only way appropriate for a knight!"
"Besides," his shorter, stockier friend chimed in chuckle, "these rupees came right out of Sir Triss' pay. It won't be a good day until I get me a woman."
"But," Rowark gulped under the pressure of his friends' eyes, "I wanted to use that to treat ourselves at a tavern."
The one with the unkempt, black hair and bushy beard answered right back with a voice that seemed appropriate for a man with a heftier shape, "Oy, that's why we brought you here! You can get drunk here AND you can have a woman in your arms. It's like that one saying, you know? Killing two moblins with one arrow!" His strong, meaty hand patted Rowark on the back with a force that almost knocked the breath out of his lungs.
"Besides, we ain't ever seen you with a woman either!" Everyone simultaneously shot a dirty glance at the short, stocky guard. Miro Miro saw Rowark's face turn dark red. "What?" the controversial one said, "you guys talk about it all the time too. Rowark here needs to learn how to be a man. Because once you're a knight, you're gonna have all the money but none of the time! This is as good a time as any to learn to properly sheathe a woman!"
Miro Miro felt an instant cringe of disgust when the man uttered the word "sheathe". Despite the fact that the word had originated in the city, its usage and popularity and spread even to the deepest parts of the forest. Even Miro Miro knew the grotesque word to describe "bump-bump". The children knew what the act was and why it was done, and thanks to the abundance of wildlife in the forest, they also witnessed bump-bump between animals frequently. She had given countless talks to Kokiri about how the act of bump-bump was strictly forbidden, for the detestable act would cause the Kokiri to lose their innocence, and then they would age and die like a normal Hylian would. The threat of death was enough to scare any child into behaving.
Rowark sighed with defeat, "Is this what you guys really want?" The overwhelming positive response to that question quashed any visible signs of resistance in Rowark's face. Miro Miro's heart could feel his sadness.
Rowark hung his head as his friends laughed and made crude jokes and patted him on the back, guiding the bright red, reluctant guest of honor into the doors of the tower. His eyes turned back once more to glance at the fairy, and his face silently apologized to her for caving into peer pressure.
Aside from the fact that she had no interest in seeing what bump-bump between people actually looked like, Miro Miro felt like she had better things to do, like finding a lost Kokiri. Feeling left out, she decided to wait in the middle of the street corner for Rowark to finish his "business". If she was going to wait, she could keep herself busy and scan the area for Topah, or any Kokiri for that matter. And this time, she wouldn't get lost!
The streets seemed to stretch on forever. Multiple tall minarets poked their heads into the skies in the distance. It was hard to believe so many people could live in one city! Below her, two rivers full of people, men, women, children, merchants, their horse drawn carts, and soldiers, swiftly collided into each other at this intersection. As she floated above the traffic, she instead paid special attention to the landmarks and the general overlay of the city. At least these buildings weren't going anywhere any time soon.
"Hey don't stay up there!" Miro Miro could recognize the sound of a fairy's voice easily! Though the voice sounded like the fairy was very displeased, "Get down here!"
Miro Miro spotted the fairy with the brown aura floating by in an alleyway and made no time in expressing her excitement, "Hi! Pleased to meet you, I'm Miro Miro!"
The fairy looked at her sideways, "Are you stupid?"
Her blood instantly boiled, "Hey! That's not very nice!" For the first time since she entered Hyrule Castle City, she did not feel scared. Anger replaced that feeling as quickly as the blink of an eye. But of all the forest creatures she could have possibly encountered in the city, why did it have to be the rudest fairy in all of Hyrule?
"Well, are you trying to get yourself killed?" the fairy's question froze Miro Miro in place. She was at a loss for words to answer the rhetorical question. "What, now you don't you remember me?"
"Oh!" it clicked in her mind, "You're from the shop!"
"Yeah that's right."
"But how did you get free?"
"Follow me," with a flap of a wing, the fairy zipped into the dark alleyway. Miro Miro didn't hesitate to follow, but when she reached the shadow, the foul stench, weighing heavily in the darkness between the buildings, overcame her senses.
"PHEW!" she yelped. While it was hard for a fairy to visibly show a facial expression, Miro Miro could clearly tell that the other fairy was displeased, but silence was most important in their situation. She got the message. After all, this did not seem like the kind of place to attract attention.
The fairy comfortably used thought speech to communicate his answer silently through the filthy atmosphere, "Some kid showed up right after that guy chased you out! It was like, fate, or something. Anyways, kid shows up and then frees us all and then goes running off into the night. So we've been tailing him ever since we've been free."
Miro Miro whispered back to him, "So where is he?"
"Wait, don't you know how to use thought speech?"
"I, uh, Father never gave us the ability."
"Wait, what? What kind of fairy are you?"
"I'm from the Lost Woods, okay, and I've had a hard enough time adjusting to this city! So just," she wanted to expel everything right then and there, but then she withheld herself. No. Whatever its name was, it did not deserve her rage and frustration.
"Okay, sheesh, I get it, okay?"
"What about you? Where are you from?"
"From the city, born and raised. My fairy mother is rotting somewhere in the sewers beneath the streets."
"Um, what's a sewer?"
"Let us just pray you never have to find out."
A low, tense moan erupted from somewhere beneath her. It definitely sounded like a redead! "EEP!" Miro Miro squeaked out. And then she rushed to the stranger's side.
The long sigh of disappointment and displeasure escaped from Miro Miro's new… acquaintance. It began descending towards the ground, where the hungry, the diseased, and the dead gathered, away from the public eye. They were forgotten, left to rot away until death decided it was time. It was almost hard to believe that the walls along the alleyway, shoddy shacks stacked on top of each other, were part of the same buildings that had a presentable facade facing the main roads.
Why? In the Kokiri Forest, everything was there for the taking. If a Kokiri was hungry, the Great Deku Tree provided food. If a Kokiri needed a place to sleep, the Great Deku Tree provided shelter. If a Kokiri was in danger, the Great Deku Tree provided protection. In this destitute place, to whom could these forgotten souls pray?
"What's your name?" she hesitantly broke the dead silence.
"I am called Tandremil, you can call me Tandry. And I identify as he. You?"
"Oh um," Miro Miro was caught off guard by the gender identification. In the Kokiri Forest, fairy companions were always called mothers, so everyone thought all fairies identified by she. Thankfully, Miro Miro caught on quickly, "I am Miro Miro. I identify as she." The silent air grabbed the sound and snuffed it with the smell of mold.
The chill breeze was a sinister reminder of the sun's absence. The flow of air felt like the only sign of life in this graveyard. The two flew underneath a walkway that ran alongside the outside of the second floor. It was more like a place for people to throw away their trash, and the walkway helped the looters search through the rubbish faster. And just when she did not think she see anything more horrifying, she spotted a teenage girl sitting against the wall and cradling a baby, who, upon closer inspection, had been deceased for quite some time, the greenish gray color of the skin being the indicator. The girl almost had a lifeless expression on her face, but her malnourished torso rose and collapsed with every defiant breath.
"Stop!" Miro Miro protested, "We have to help her!" As soon as she said that, a question entered her head. How? What could Miro Miro, a stranger to the dangerous city, do to keep a poor girl from starving? Fairies were not exactly strong enough to carry objects heavier than an apple, and just because the girl was fed today did not mean she would be fed tomorrow.
"Shh! We can't do anything about her," said Tandry like he had passed by this situation a thousand times. Sullenly and reluctantly, Miro Miro continued following him. With each breath of the smelly atmosphere, she regretted following the fairy. Between following this complete stranger through a small part of Hyrule Castle City that reeked of death and watching perverted men and Gerudos have bump-bump, the latter choice was becoming the more preferable choice.
Tandry had descended to about Hylian height and began weaving through rubbish piles as tall as a Hylian stood. The starving men, women, and children digging through the garbage for scraps to eat paid no mind to the fairies passing by. A woman's cry almost jolted Miro Miro upright, but like the rest of the alley's residents, Miro Miro learned to keep her mouth shut. The cry echoed through the alleys, but it seemingly came from nowhere and went nowhere. The heavy weight of apathy reeked as badly as the rotting corpses Miro Miro just passed.
There was an end to the alleyway, but from Miro Miro's position, it looked like a small, thin ray of light far in the distance. She wanted nothing more than to fly away from the cold, clammy, alleyway into the warmth of the sunlight. But now more than ever she was curious as to what the other fairy was attempting to see or do.
"Alright, here we are. In here," he instructed Miro Miro as he dove into a small bucket sitting on top of a pile of filth. "The kid is just up ahead, but he's dangerous, though. So don't go near him."
"Why not?"
"He'll sell us if he sees us."
"I don't know what that means!"
"Be quiet!" Tandry peered over the bucket lip. "We are wanted for our blood."
Hushing into a terrified whisper, Miro Miro asked, "Wh-why?"
"Because our blood can bring back the dead." The solemn conclusion had solidly formed in her mind before Tandry had a chance to finish his thought, "And because of that, we are hunted like animals." No, Hylians couldn't be that evil, right?
Miro Miro shuddered at the thought. If she was caught, she would be put in those little jars. She peered over as well to see what was her acquaintance was looking at.
Up ahead, she could see a group of kids and a Zola, who towered over all of them, gathered around something. Then she noticed that they were all armed with clubs. All except one, a boy maybe tens years of age. From the great distance between her and the child, she could barely see any details of his face.
But she felt something familiar. It pounded through her heart and resonated throughout her light energy. She had to get a closer look.
As she drifted closer to what seemed like a fight. The kids were gathered around two people. A terrifying Zola stood proudly above the rest in the center. He wore a vest like the other kids, so they were friends? A dark haired child stood opposite a Zola, and he was armed with a fierce looking sword.
Even the Tandry's calls could not snap Miro Miro out of it, "Hey! What are you doing? Get back here!"
The boy turned his head and noticed her approach. Even though she was too far to distinguish his eyes, a terrifyingly chill coursed her body. They had made eye contact, that was for sure. The boy wore a cream colored tunic and ragged brown trousers to cover his thin frame. How was he able to carry such a big sword?
"Oh no, she's trying to get herself killed!" the voice pounded in Miro Miro's head, but it would not deter her. She was too drawn to this sentiment of familiarity. "Oh no, it's too late. I can't help her, She's dead..."
Miro Miro could not figure out why he was so familiar. Was it Topah? She began to picture Topah in her mind. She searched through every fragment of her memory for any image of what he may have looked like. But in her mind, all she could put together was a muddled silhouette of a boy. He may have worn the traditional, Green Kokiri tunic and the pointed Kokiri hat, or he may not have. She felt ashamed for forgetting the face of the child she was assigned to protect.
What she could remember were his likes and dislikes. She remembered a happy boy, a Kokiri who had a resting smile on his face all the time. He had a lot of energy and liked running around the village. She could remember that he liked running around the village naked, but she strained trying to remember any physical features on that naked body. She remembered setting up playdates with other Kokiri, being a mediator for arguments, and sharing stories of the Hero of Time with an audience of Topah and his friends. At the very least, she could remember his name.
A clang rang through the alley. The nails on the Zola's mace connected with the metal blade of the sword and knocked the weapon onto the ground. Oh no! thought Miro Miro as the Zola picked up the boy by his throat and lifted him off the ground.