Link's sleep was plagued once more by the same nightmare that so terribly tossed him from his sleep the previous night. The dream would start again – more running, the feeling of being tired and cold and wet and afraid – and he'd pull himself out of it, somehow. It made for poor sleep, and eventually he decided it was more trouble than it was worth and began his day a little early. Again.
Rather than finding something to do with his hands to pass the time or to give his mind a break as he had done with Sebasto, he turned to planning the next step of Zelda's journey through Hyrule.
Honestly, he had no idea if she wanted to move on to the next place, but he needed to do something and figured she could always tell him no if she wanted to stick around a while longer. He brushed and fed the horses, mapped out the best route to Hateno village, and briefly left the village to find a Korok leaf.
On his return, the sun finally over the horizon, he began breakfast: a hearty mushroom omelet big enough for two. Once Zelda woke, they ate and he told her of his plan. She looked pensive at the idea and even questioned him on the state of their horses. After assuring her that they'd be taken care of by Rozel (expenses paid for, of course), he'd eventually return to take them both back to the nearest stable.
To his surprise, she was hesitant about leaving the horses. When he suggested that they could attach another raft to theirs and bring the horses along, she agreed that it would be better if they didn't do that. That was less surprising.
He waited by the raft, the Korok leaf sitting in his lap as Zelda returned to their room to fetch her few personal belongings and say her farewells to those that were awake. The ordeal lasted nearly an hour, pushing them closer to a noon departure than Link would've liked. With Calamity Ganon gone, he had no expectation of the skeletal monsters that plagued the night rising to fight them, but that didn't mean that night travel was now free of danger.
Finally, she boarded the raft and he began the task of fanning the sail until they rounded past Soka point and continued northeast to Loshlo Harbor. It was time consuming and, near the end, exhausting. Even with his intensive travels, the task still left his arms sore. It was possible that the lack of sleep was affecting his stamina, but he decided not to let his mind wander in that direction. He didn't like the implications of that effect.
"Perhaps we should camp here?" Zelda suggested as they walked away from the shore.
Link shook his head in response. The sun still had some ways to go before it touched the other side, and Hateno village wasn't too far from where they were already. Besides, he'd prefer it if he could get her to a place with a roof and a sense of security, otherwise he'd get even less sleep than the previous two nights.
"Hi, can you help me? I seem to be lost," someone asked as they neared the first split in the road.
Link froze and instinctively grabbed Zelda's hand. He was grateful it was on instinct as she had already started towards the lone woman and might've been out of immediate reach had he not done it so soon. She turned to him with a surprised and puzzled look, glancing from their hands and then to him. He gave a small, stiff shake of his head, hoping she'd understand without his say so as not to alert the stranger.
With the same kind of movement, she answered him with a nod and took one step back, not enough to arouse any suspicion.
The stranger took a few more steps towards them and asked, "Do you have a map I can borrow? I just need a little help…"
To keep her from getting too close to the Princess, Link met the woman halfway, his right hand itching to reach for the sword strapped to his back. He knew where this would go, but on the off chance it was just someone he could help…
"…in taking revenge on Master Kohga!"
Yeah, that made sense.
He pulled the Master Sword from his sheath and arched it in a downward strike. It hit the woman who, in a poof of smoke, showed her true colors. Another puff of smoke and she disappeared, and Link's eyes darted about to find the next location, his legs bent and ready to propel him forward at a moment's notice.
There! Nearly halfway between him and the Princess and about five feet north, he saw the light shining and ran over, his sword already drawn back and ready for the next strike- it connected! The Yiga fell back, tumbling a few feet and falling through the brush. When Link moved over to finish the job, smoke filled his vision, and his first thought was, a feint! and turned to rush over to Zelda where, just behind here, the yellow light grew until the foot soldier reappeared, wielding her sickle. He opened his mouth to warn her.
But nothing came.
His voice stuck in his throat, refusing to surface, gagged him. The memory of the desert flashed in his mind, Zelda having fallen, the Yiga clansmen surrounding her and him just barely able to make in time to save her.
He watched in slow motion as he charged towards the two of them, watching as the foot soldier grabbed Zelda from behind – one arm coming around the shoulder and reaching around to hold the other and the hand holding the sickle coming to hook around her neck.
I'm going too slow, he feared. I'm not going to make it.
But just as he watched everything happen in slow motion, he watched as Zelda's hand began to shine, then glow, and then he could feel it radiating out. It pushed him back, but more importantly, it pushed the combatant back as well, dropping the sickle at Zelda's feet.
Link's back touched the ground first, then his head, tumbling back and over himself to face the ground and land on his knees, sliding back. He wasted no time in the opening Zelda's power afforded him. He rushed to the Yiga member, raised his sword and –
"WAIT! Zelda screamed. And he stopped. The Master Sword was held over his head, nearly pointed straight up at the sky.
He didn't look back to Zelda, his eyes trained on the attacker who, now that he had time to really think on it, was laying on the ground… with their hand raised up defensively. Though it was Zelda who told him to stop, an order he obeyed, the sight of the woman on the ground froze him. This was not the behavior he was accustomed to. It always went the same way: a stranger asking for help, making a strange comment, and then fighting him until they forfeited the battle to him.
This was different. She wasn't leaving.
He heard Zelda's footsteps as she ran up, not to him but to the woman that had nearly killed her. Slowly, he lowered but did not sheathe the sword. He waited, waiting for the other shoe to drop. A ruse, a trick, something.
Instead, he watched as Zelda kneeled next to the woman and talked with her. He watched, unable to do anything else. He felt distant, and everything Zelda said sounded muffled. (A side effect from the blast?) After a minute of whatever it was she said, the woman on the ground raised a hand and removed the Yiga clan mask.
White hair. Brown eyes. Female but obviously different than the persona taken when acting as a stranger. This woman was Sheikah, not surprising as he knew of the clan's origin, but seeing the woman on the ground crying surprised him unlike anything else. She held onto Zelda, saying something that he couldn't hear at first but was slowly able to come to.
"…forgive me, please. Oh Goddesses, please forgive me," she begged. By now, Zelda had pulled the Sheikah woman onto her lap, smoothing down her hair and whispering acceptances of each apology the woman gave.
The setting sun should've placed a limit on how long the two were able to sit there uninterrupted, but Link was unable to find it in himself to tell them anything, much less to wrap up something that… that he never imagined was possible.
When Zelda looked up at him and it gave him the opportunity to sign, "What happened?" She silently mouthed, "Later."
Eventually, they got the woman to calm down – a harder task than it seemed either of them expected – and walked the final stretch to Hateno Village. Though Link still held an inkling of suspicion towards the woman he had recently fought against, Zelda's power still seemed to be active enough to protect her and he was able to run ahead and take out any monsters ahead of them.
Once at the gate of the village, the woman broke off from them, insisting that she shouldn't trouble them any further and that she should go her own way. It assuaged a bit of the suspicion that Link still held for her, but Zelda was more insistent that the woman stay with them. In the end, the woman went to the inn in Hateno, and Link guided Zelda back to his place.
She made a few comments he only half heard about the fact he owned a house and joked how it was "very him" to put up that sign in front of his house. His mind still reeled with the events of the past hour that even the thought of responding wasn't in the realm of possibility. He took a seat at the table downstairs and she took the other, folding her hands into her lap and looking around the room as if she would find the words to explain what happened in his ceiling and walls.
"I felt a darkness within her," she began after a while, "similar to the darkness in Calamity Ganon and his presence in the Guardians and the monsters of Hyrule. If I'm reading into this correctly, Calamity Ganon may have used a similar but subtler influence over some in the Sheikah clan. After all, it would make more sense than a large percentage of Sheikah would abandon their duties without warning."
He nodded. In that light, it did make sense, and it would work with why Zelda's power was able to put the woman in that state. It suddenly made him grateful that the Yiga clan had the tendency to disappear when the fight no longer favored them, rather than fighting to the death. He knew from his memories he had already killed one Yiga clan member and that it was likely that in his past he had killed others, but he didn't treat it lightly.
"I know you might hate this idea, but I saw how few of the Sheikah remain when I watched over you. If I could cleanse others, they could rebuild. That being said, Ganon's influence should be waning. Do you think it's possible the Yiga will come to their sense on their own over time?" she asked, to which he answered with an honest shrug. "I will ask Ora in the morning."
Ora. The woman must've told the Princess her name while he had been scouting ahead.
"The Yiga clan isn't just those who left Kakariko village. Some were born into it," Link signed. "Do you think they'd join just as easily?"
Zelda thought on it for a moment, cupping her chin with her hand as she thought. "It's worth a shot, is it not? The Yiga clan was born out of resentment towards the crown, and now we know that it might also have been influenced by Ganon himself."
Link tapped one hand's fingers on the table, trying to think over and plan how that might work. They couldn't just stroll up to their hideout and attempt to cleanse all of them. He was barely able to protect Zelda from one, much less one after the other in their own territory. Perhaps he could scout it out first, see if some of them were willing to come with him – to test her theory that some might be able to shake themselves loose. But for the time being, there were more pressing concerns.
"We should sleep," he signed. Hesitantly, she agreed and let him lead her upstairs. "I'll sleep downstairs."
She looked from the bed to him, the wheels in her mind obvious even from his perspective. Hesitantly, she agreed and bid him goodnight. He was thankful she didn't argue with him, and from how she accepted, he knew that she understood arguing with him wouldn't work.
He returned to the first floor and began to craft a makeshift bed beside the stairs. He gathered blankets and his Snowquill jacket from his pack, laying the blankets out on the floor and balling up the jacket into a ball to use as a pillow. Stripping his armor and outer layers to just his undershirt and pants, he laid down on his sleeping arrangement. It took him a moment to get situated on the hardwood floor, but it was undeniably more comfortable than his campfire rests out in the wild.
Link closed his eyes, listening to the rustling of the trees outside and the gurgling of the creek to guide him to sleep.
Air. His lungs burn, demanding air, but when he breaks the surface for a breath, he swallows a mouthful of water. The water is too fast – too much. His arms flail in the water as he struggles to stay afloat, much less swim to shore. He pushes himself up again, this time able to take a real breath of air, but not enough to call out for help.
The current pulls him under momentarily and he flails for purchase in the moving water once more. His breath is running out- it's running out- out-
Air! He tries to breathe it in but finds himself coughing out the water and wasting precious time as he continues to bounce on the river's current, the strength threatening to pull him under again at a moment's notice.
His arms are getting too tired, his entire body too stiff in the cold water to keep fighting even though he has to.
Once more, his head dips below the surface. Up! He needs to get back up! When he finally resurfaces again, a sound louder than the river's current catches his ears: the sound of the waterfall.
His body feels the surge of panic anew and it gives his tired arms and legs just enough energy to try and make it to the shore again. He has to- he has to-
Suddenly, he doesn't feel the pressure of his kicks in the water any more. He feels like he's slipping, the shore still no closer than before as suddenly the earth and water slip out from below him and he's falling- no, being pushed down by the falling water above him, pushing him down, down into the lake below.
Needles pin his back on the water's surface , and he sinks like a stone. Blackness swarms his vision momentarily and when he comes to, the water in his lungs is already too painful. He pushes himself up. He has to do it again. He has to.
The water is too much. It's too heavy.
He has to.
The surface is too far. He's too tired.
He has to.
His lungs burn. They swell and they burn with the water and-
For the third night in a row, Link woke up in a panic- this time gasping for breath and covered in sweat, his clothes to sticking to his skin uncomfortably. He pressed his hand to his chest, feeling like he was still drowning, like the water was still there. He forced himself to take a deep breath, to prove to himself that he was able to breathe. It worked for the most part. His chest still felt constricted or like his lungs were only able to be half full, but it eased the nightmare-fueled panic partially.
The bare windows didn't shine any light into the room, the sky still dark. He wondered how long he had actually slept, but when he went to reach for the Sheikah Slate, the device that he had become accustomed to hanging on his hip, he remembered he had given it to the Princess. It didn't matter. He laid back down, intent on sleeping more even if it meant returning to the nightmare. He couldn't keep avoiding rest out of fear of his own mind when he needed to be in his best possible condition, especially considering that the future might hold seeking out Yiga members.
The sleep then after wasn't great, but it was more than he had gotten the night before. To his luck, the nightmare didn't visit him quite so vividly, coming in pieces. But it all felt so real. He couldn't shake the feeling as he woke up.
Next to his temporary quarters was Zelda, sitting on the floor with her back up against the wall and the Sheikah Slate in her hands, flipping through and studying the pictures she had taken of the inside of the Shrine.
"Good morning," she said. He looked up, realizing he had been staring. She looked pleasant towards him. Happy, even. Comfortable. He shifted, pulling the top blanket up to hide his sleeping form. "I believe this is the first time I've ever woken up before you."
He had a feeling she meant more than the time that he's remembered spending with her, and it wouldn't surprise him to know that his forgotten self used to have a similar habit. But despite the sleep his body still desired, he pushed himself up and got ready for the day, leaving the bed materials on the floor.
Zelda left him to change without his asking, and he changed into simple clothes, no armor. He didn't expect Zelda to want to venture back out of the safety of the village… though the reminder of the woman, Ora, back at the inn briefly made him reconsider his preparation for the day. In the end, he settled on the Champion's tunic and Hylian trousers, even pulling on the Hylian hood though keeping it pulled back. The tunic, though without the conventional look of armor, provided a great deal of resistance in battle, more so after he had the Great Fairies enhance it. His only qualm about it was the fact it was the same outfit he had fought in the fight against Calamity Ganon, but that didn't change the fact it was his only piece of clothing that at least looked like he wasn't preparing for a fight.
Link left the house, partially expecting to have seen her waiting by the door, and was concerned that she had left to visit Ora without him. He sprinted over the bridge, meaning to run the entire way to the inn, but he came to a grinding halt with his boots dragging a dust cloud behind him when he heard Zelda's voice-
"Your farm looks pristine! How often do you have trouble with runoff from rain when cultivating on a slope?"
There she was, talking with Nack. He looked perplexed at the newcomer with her questions, but didn't seem particularly put off by it. Link managed to reach her side just as Nack was beginning to talk about how it sometimes results in a loss of crop in really wet seasons, but if they know ahead of time that there might be a strong rainfall, they try their best to set up strategic dams to protect the crops, with the help of the Bolson Construction company.
"Link! Is this nice girl your friend?" Nack asked. Link nodded. "She's a real peach. What did you say your name was?"
Link felt a chill rise in him at the question. He wondered when he'd be used to the fact the Princess would have to introduce herself. He studied Nack's face carefully as Zelda dropped her own name, watching as it slackened into shock, then to confusion, and lastly to joy. He smiled and took her hand into both of his, shaking it vigorously.
"By all things that are right and holy- Goddesses! The Princess!"
"You seem… fairly accepting of my identity," Zelda pointed out. She looked stiff and awkward at the response, and that was when Link realized that she had only revealed her identity to someone on her own once, that the rest of Lurelin village was brought up to speed by Rozel.
"I mean, myth was it that you were holding Calamity Ganon back and we've gotten reports that it's gone! And the monsters we fight off near the village aren't returning! High heavens, I almost can't believe it's you… but it's you! You look just like how the royal family was said to be, that indeed," Nack rambled. When he turned to Link, the shock seemed to renew. "That must mean you're Link! I mean, you're really Link- the Hero!"
At this point, Nack's voice had grown loud and incredulous enough to attack a small crowd: the children, the mid-day gossipers, and even a few travelers. Link wished he had kept his hood up, feeling the stares bore into him. Like in Lurelin, he hadn't exactly kept his identity a secret, mostly due to the fact he always felt like he was stumbling around in the larger than life shoes of his past, but at the same time, he didn't purposefully hide the Master Sword or lie when people asked him.
But this? He wished the attention stayed with the Princess and not leaked over onto him.
In response to Nack's reveal, he nodded just to confirm that the man's thoughts were true, but once that was done, he watched as Nack dropped to his knee not a second later. He heard a shuffle from behind him and saw the other villagers – aside from the children – take a knee in a circle around him. They kept their eyes towards the ground, leaving him unable to tell them to get up. Looking up, he saw that the commotion had drawn people from their houses.
Then, one person whose name Link found that he couldn't remember, an older woman who had opted to stand with her head bowed rather than kneel, said, "You've done Hateno village a great service twice over, Hero. You led the charge against the Guardians, keeping them from breaching the fort, and saved our home one hundred years ago, and today, you have saved us from the Calamity once and for all."
The charge narrowly misses him, singeing his pants as he hits the burned grass with his shoulder, rolling over and-
"No," he signed. "You owe me nothing. I-"
-he charges the eye of the Guardian, striking it true before one of its limbs hit him, throwing him back. It knocks the wind from him twice, once on impact and the second when his back hit a tree that stopped him from going any further. But it-
"We wouldn't be here if not for your actions," a man said. Link knew his face, but couldn't seem to place the name. "And yours, Princess, in saving him too."
-hurts. He had heard a snap. Him or the tree, he can't tell. Through the clang of steel and the blasts from the Guardians, Link hears his name called through. The pain fades – briefly – and he ran to her, seeing her being faced down by the turned machine. He strikes it down and pulls her, and begins to race her to the fort once more when the pain returned – sharp and agonizing. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to breathe, it-
-hurt to breathe. It was too real. He couldn't shake it this time. He couldn't even hide it. He fell to his hands and knees and instantly felt the Princess's presence next to him, her hand on his shoulder. She kneeled and leaned as best she could to face him, but he wouldn't look her in the eye, not as he snatched the Sheikah Slate from her hip and clicked to travel to whatever he blindly selected.
It felt like a wash of cool water over him and, just before he left entirely, he saw her eyes: big, green, and scared.
