Link follows some directions to try and find Urbosa's resting place. He doesn't encounter the occult as much as a cult that wants him dead.
Link had tried to eavesdrop at the bazaar to find out where people went to pay respects to Urbosa. Then, with no small amount of optimism, he set out across the sand.
There was a Yiga on the road out traveling to either collect information, or collect Link's head. She'd heard Link had been by recently. It was hard not to hear about that given how much confusion he spread about the place. Kilton was less conspicuous than Link. When this particular Yiga was traveling, they realized Link had given up on all pretense of normality. Exhibit A was the outlandish outfit he was wearing. The knight helmet didn't match the strange shirt or trousers with glowing plates.
Now, you might ask why the Yiga knew it was Link even from a distance. It was the trying to surf uphill that gave Link away. Link spotted the traveler from a distance and changed course slightly to head towards this Yiga. Ms. Yiga, in her mind, ran through different witty things to say before killing him. Mostly, the chaotic thought processes in her head were similar to a soloist with stage fright. Some coherent thought did go through this particular Yiga's head after a moment.
Ohmygoshhe'scoming! Oh, I know, I'll say 'I'll return you to the ground from whence you crawled,' or 'Die again, idiotface!' Oh, what am I thinking, that isn't a proper line for a good assassination. I know, I'll ask him if he's tired of fighting and offer to fix that or...
These thoughts were interrupted by a cheerful, "Hi!" After that greeting, Link started to walk past the person.
The flustered Yiga flubbed her line. "Hey, you heard a ghost story?" She immediately was kicking herself even before Link raised an eyebrow.
"Ghost story?"
"Yeah, wanna hear a ghost story? It's about, ummm..." She kicked herself for yet another line being utterly butchered.
"I know there's ghosts about me. They're helping!"
The Yiga momentarily forgot where she was going. "...Come again?"
Link was being completely sincere. He was wondering how she knew this. "I have ghosts! How did you know?"
"Are you trying to freak me out? It isn't going to work, um, I'll tell you a ghost story! You!" The Yiga groaned to herself as Link tilted his head again. "Wait, that didn't sound right. I'm going to just kill you now, and tell everyone I said something cool."" She adopted the ninja attack pose and transformed. Link nodded to no one in particular, at least, not anyone the Yiga could see.
Link didn't take his hands off his hips but watched as an invisible force latched onto the Yiga's leg. She screamed as she felt teeth digging into her ankle. She kicked back before the unseen assailant dragged her backwards. She tried to stand but a four legged furry thing slammed onto her back and pinned her.
"I told you, ghosts helping."
She escaped in a puff of smoke with the feeling that maybe, just maybe, they should consider packing up and moving to another country.
Link, and Link, looked at the hanging flags above them and knew they had messed up with the directions. North and South had not changed much in the verbal lexicon even after thousands of years. It could have been they flat out misheard when eavesdropping. It was equally likely that a malicious party had deliberately pointed them in the wrong direction earlier. It was a disappointment after having used up nearly all their cooling and warming foods to get here. Link had tied the ice rod to the other Link's back and thanked Farore he didn't have Epona. The grassland was a much better place to be a horse.
Link turned to the wolf. "I guess we should just leave. Picking a fight with the Yiga is just asking for it, huh Scruples?"
The wolf nodded in agreement and both Links turned to look elsewhere and find the tower for a proper region map. They walked in silence while scanning the horizon. Both of them stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. Link could not read minds but somehow, the Link wearing armor and the wolf knew they were thinking the same thing.
"Ya know... It has been a while since I set something on fire..."
The wolf smirked.
Barta pretended she wasn't working on the bars the moment she heard someone coming. She was surprised to see, not red and black, but the dark grey of Sheikah clothes on a Hylian. She motioned him over and hissed, "Hey, what are you doing here? This is the hideout of those Yiga thieves who stole the Thunder Helm." It would not do to have more people get caught. One stupid idiot getting captured by Yiga was more than enough for one week. Also, the cell was pretty tiny. "If they spot you, they'll call their friends for sure. There's no way you can take them all on. If only there were some way of distracting them... but I don't know how."
The Hylian raised a hand and whispered, "What 'distracting' mean?" He pulled out a scythe and handed it to her with the handle-first.
"Um, huh? You know, keeping their attention off you. Not being seen? I don't know, I'm not a stealthy person!"
"What does 'stealthy' mean? Sorry, I am not good with language." Barta realized this might be part of why the Hylian ended up here. She waited for a while after he snuck off to give him a chance to get out before she dismantled the bars and left too. Once she was out, she ran for home and didn't look back until she wrangled a seal.
As she was surfing with the seal, the scent of smoke got her attention. She turned around and saw a column of black wafting up from the canyon she'd left behind.
A smile spread across her face until she remembered the Thunder Helm was still in there somewhere.
Link was humming as he pushed open the secret door with Magnesis. Now he didn't have to backtrack to escape before setting off the fire and bomb arrow heads that he'd strategically placed through the hideout. The two rune bombs were tucked in their corners and ready to start the chaos. He'd even set it so the one set an initial warning blast with lots of smoke. The warning would be necessary before the second bomb gutted the main hall with a beautiful conflagration. The wolf's tail was wagging.
"Hey! Who the heck are you!" Link's mind stopped translating momentarily as he was thinking of strategy at the moment. This was a minor setback. Kohga goggled at the Sheikah Slate that Link had a finger poised over. Link's attention was grabbed by Kohga pointing at him and declaring, "IT'S YOU!" This startled Link enough to press the trigger for the first bomb. The stone walls muffled the sound and the smoke would take a little bit of time to reach this doorway.
"You're that Link guy! You impersonated Lord Ganon all those years ago!"
Link was counting to two-hundred before pressing the second trigger. "Impersonated?"
"You had the utter gall to deceive us and take advantage of a poor, innocent, assassin who gave your their potion!"
Link said, "Sorry, I don't know those words," but Kohga wasn't listening. He was monologuing.
"What luck! my scouts are out in the field looking high and low, but you just wander in to my hideout!"
"Could you please say that again?"
"Oh, excuse me. I haven't introduced myself yet. I am the leader of the Yiga Clan!" Link and the wolf both stared at Kohga finishing the introduction dance. Link tapped the slate to activate the second bomb rune. It didn't make the properly loud kaboom that it should have since the walls muffled it, but there was a quiet 'kawhoooom' and an outpouring of smoke.
Kohga did notice that. "... the only! MASTER KOHGA! Now pre-whatisthatHEY! What's that smoke from? Did you do that? YOU JERK!"
The wolf didn't even bother moving from his spot for this battle. He felt sorry for this Yiga until he remembered what Link's diary said about Dorian. That let him sit back and watch the short entertainment. After the battle was complete, he and Link had no clue what the strange helmet was for. It felt important and so was put in the inventory.
Below is the text of a letter sent two days after Link left Epona at the stable for this trip. The handwriting in places is smudged and the letters tend to run together in spots. If you looked at it, you would get the impression of an excited writer who couldn't even wait for the ink to dry before folding it up to mail out.
Dear Dmitri,
You are not going to believe this. I know you have worked with horses for a long time, as have I, but this is unprecedented in the history of horses. I think that strange foreigner, Link, has the smartest horse in the world. WE NEED TO HIRE THIS GUY.
So Beedle left a cooking pot unattended last night and the stand for it broke and sent it crashing down. The embers got all scattered and no one noticed right away but the flames started to spread towards where the horses were. It was chaotic while some people were calming the horses that got spooked and some guys were trying to keep the flames away from the tent.
I kid you not, Epona doesn't even blink. (That's Link's horse, in case you haven't met her.) She goes right up to the fire and starts kicking dirt on it. The fire didn't bother her one little bit and she knew exactly how to put it out.
I have NEVER seen anything like it before. I hardly believe it, and I saw the whole thing. Beedle swears this horse understands everything people say better than Link does. Anyways, Goddesses willing, I'll get Link's training secrets.
Rudi
He was wrong about Epona understanding conversation better than Link, but not by much.
Notes: Someone drew a picture of this story and wow it is amazing. Should I be worried talented people like whoever cascadefreewill is on Tumblr drew this?