As night began taking over the sky, you and Link set out on your mission. Sneaking carefully, the two of you made your way down and away from your temporary headquarters to begin climbing your way towards the Bokoblin camp. It was a long climb that was out of your way, but it would let you and Link quietly climb the side of a cliff until it wrapped around to the campsite. Then you could make your way upwards to strike. Link gave you a pat on the back, reassuring you of his faith in your abilities, then jumped up onto the cliffside that began forming a few hundred feet from your goal. You took a deep breath and shook your limbs out in an effort to calm yourself. As a wave of confidence washed through your body, you tightened the wrist straps on your climbing gloves and hopped up onto the rockface.

Instantly, you could feel your muscles starting to strain. The slope of the cliffside was a little outward, making it much harder for you to keep your grip, but you grit your teeth and carried on.

After about ten minutes of shuffling from foothold to foothold, you noticed Link waving to you. He had found a ledge on the wall that was large enough for the two of you to stand on and was awaiting your arrival. You slowly made your way down and dropped to your feet.

Wiping the sweat from your face, you looked at Link and said, "I didn't fall, but I am tired as hell."

"Well," Link signed, "Not falling is a great first step so nice work."

"So how much farther from the camp are we," you asked between long, deep breaths.

"Just below it, actually. I scoped this place out earlier and found this incredibly convenient ledge for us to take a breather on, so I thought it would help us out. It's really the only reason I considered this approach. I wouldn't want you to be exhausted from climbing and then immediately have to start fighting."

"How kind," you responded sarcastically. "You knew I was too much of a lazy fuck to be able to make the whole trip at once, huh?"

"I didn't say that. It's what I meant, but I didn't say it," Link signed, chuckling.

"Oh, shut up, dick," you said, mounting yourself back onto the wall. "We ready or not?"

Link gestured "after you" before joining you on your climb.

When you reached the top, the two of you peaked your heads over the side just enough to get a look at the campsite in front of you. Not much had changed since the last time you saw it, except it seemed that some of the Bokoblins had fallen asleep after the partying from earlier. A pair of them were loitering near the side of the cliff.

Signaling for you to get ready, Link whistled and the two of you dropped back behind the rockface.

The two Bokoblins turned towards the sound of Link's whistle and began carefully making their way over. Link looked at you and signed to follow his move.

Nodding, you readied yourself for some action.

Link knocked on the rock you two were hanging from, causing the two monsters to lean down and glance over the edge. As they did, Link pulled himself up, grabbed one Bokoblin by the necklace, and pulled him over the edge, letting him sail into the pit below.

You quickly copied Link's actions with the remaining foe and watched as his body bounced off of the rocks below.

The two of you pulled yourselves onto solid ground and took position behind two separate rocks about ten feet away from one another.

The rock was just big enough to cover you while crouching, and was situated just outside the camp, giving you and Link a good tactical position.

"Tower," Link signed to you before taking his bow off of his back.

You pulled your brown and yellow wooden bow around your arm and over your head, looking around for the guard tower Link was referencing. As you grabbed an arrow from its quiver and readied it, you spotted it sitting on the other side of the camp. A Bokoblin bowman was standing on top, dutifully keeping watch of the surrounding area. A couple others were on lookout at the bottom, as well as another patrolling near the entrance.

Link signaled for you to take out the archer as well as the Bokoblin on patrol, stating that he'd fire on your mark.

You nodded in response and pulled back on your bowstring.

Quickly, you peaked from your location, took aim, and loosed your arrow, hitting the watchman square in the forehead.

As he stumbled backwards and fell from the top of the tower, Link quickly let loose two arrows in rapid succession, each of which found their mark in the chests of the remaining two Bokoblins on watch.

Link's archery skills were unmatched, and yours hardly compared to his. This was evident as you struggled to ready your second arrow in the small window of time you had to do so.

As you finally got your arrow to rest on your bow, you readied for your second shot as the Bokoblin pacing near the entrance turned around and spotted the mess you two had made. As he reached for his side to grab his signal horn, your arrow zipped into his side, causing him to let out a loud wail, but not killing him.

"Fuck," you said quietly to yourself as you nervously tried to grab a third arrow.

The monster dropped his horn and fell to his knees as he tried hastily to recover it, but another arrow quickly found itself lodged in his skull. This one had come from Link's bow, and although it had hit its target quickly, it wasn't quick enough for you two to avoid being discovered. As the remaining Bokoblins began sniffing around, desperately searching for their unseen foes, Link pulled an item the size of a softball from his rucksack. He took a peak over his rock, signed for you to take cover, and tossed it over into the bonfire at the center of the camp.

As you pulled your head between your knees and covered your ears, a large boom rang out from the other side of the rock. Like had thrown a black powder bomb into the camp's fire, causing a massive explosion to erupt and kill several Bokoblins while injuring and disorienting most of the others. The sound of the boom left your ears ringing and your hearing limited for a moment.

With your cover fully blown, you and Link took advantage of the confusion and hopped out of your hiding places. You drew your sword and approached a Bokoblin who was stumbling around trying to regain his bearings after the explosion dazed him. You sliced his leg, causing him to drop to the ground, and brought your sword down onto his head, splitting it almost in half. You braced yourself with your foot against the fiend's back and pushed hard to dislodge your weapon. Once it was freed, you turned around to see that you were being challenged by a fully-armored Bokoblin with a shield and a short sword. He didn't seem very content with letting you take out some of the easier targets like you planned, and he began charging you.

As the Bokoblin ran in your direction, you held your sword vertically in front of you and braced yourself. As he closed in to your location, you stepped out of the way and swept your leg out in front of him. With a mighty crash, your foe tumbled to the ground. You quickly stood over the beast and attempted to thrust your sword through the gaps in his metal armor. Unfortunately, he was quicker, turning himself around and placing his shield in front of your strike. You thrust your sword hard, and it became trapped in your enemy's wooden shield. As you attempted to regain possession of your blade, the beast kicked your leg and brought you to the floor with him. As you hit the dirt, the Bokoblin got up and tried to shake your sword out of his shield. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the creature simply unstrapped the shield from his arm and tossed it to the side. He made his way over and raised his bat for an attack. You deftly retrieved the hatchet you keep strapped to your thigh and tossed dirt into your opponent's eyes. You stood up and took advantage of your enemy's blindness by taking a swing at his head. Unfortunately, his arm was in the way, and your hatchet dug itself into the monster's wrist, nearly severing his hand. You raised your weapon again and took another swing, this time, hitting your mark. You then swung again, and again, and one more time before deciding the creature had had enough and let him slump to the group like a ragdoll.

Looking around, it seemed like the battle was over. Link finished wiping off his sword and then sheathed it.

"All clear," you asked.

"It's all clear over here," Link signed back.

Surveying the area one more time for any signs of life, you saw nothing to worry about. Just scattered bodies: some in pieces, some filled with arrows, and some still burning from the explosion. You finally concluded that you were safe and sheathed your hatchet, retrieved your sword from the monster's wooden shield, and made your way to Link who was getting ready to lower Pikle from his bindings.

As Link held his legs, you began cutting Pikle's restraints with a small knife. Once he was free, you grabbed the top half of his body, and you and Link slowly laid him on the ground. He was filthy and beaten up, unconscious as well, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate medical danger. You and Link constructed a makeshift stretcher out of materials located around the camp to transport your newly acquired friend. As you lifted your newly acquired friend and began making your way to a safer location, you felt a sharp pain coursing through your leg that made it difficult to walk. You did your best to ignore it and tried not to tip over the stretcher.

When you arrived at your previous campsite outside of the Bokoblin's, you two gently lowered Pikle onto the ground and rolled him into a bedroll. The poor man most likely hadn't had a decent rest in over a week, and you hoped that a good night's sleep would let his body heal to a point to where he could at least walk.

After putting Pikle down for a rest, Link began setting up camp for the three of you, and you began work on a fire. As you were carrying some firewood over, your knee buckled, and you fell to the ground.

"You okay," Link signed, looking over his shoulder at you.

"Yeah, yeah. I probably hit my leg or something during the fight. It's no big deal."

"Well, we can take a look once the fire is made, okay? Need to make sure you didn't sprain it or anything."

"It's probably a bruise you worry-wart. Making a big fuss over nothing."

Once things were all set up, you and Link took a seat together. Link scooted close to you and grabbed your leg gently.

"Oh, well that's an issue," Link signed as his face adopted a look of concern.

"What's the verdict, doc?"

Link showed you his hands. They were covered in blood.

"Oh. That's definitely more than a bruise," you said, leaning in for a closer look.

It seemed that sometime during the fight, your leg had been cut, leaving a large gash across your thigh. The blood had begun soaking through your pantleg and was making quite the mess. You must not have noticed your injury due to the adrenaline rush brought on from the fight, but now that things were calmer, you could definitely feel its presence.

"Okay, pull off your pants," Link signed as he reached into his bag for some supplies.

"I'm sorry?"

"I can't treat your wound through your pants, can you please take them off."

"Oh, yeah. Um, sure thing." You loosened your belt and slowly peeled your pants off of your leg. You struggled as the blood around your cut began to dry.

Once your pants were down to your ankles, Link said you were good and began working on patching you up. He opened a bottle of disinfectant and poured it over your leg while wiping the excess blood away with a cloth. You let out a small groan and grabbed Link's shoulder as the disinfectant began working its magic. He gave you a reassuring pat on the side as he proceeded to apply pressure to the wound to halt the bleeding.

"Link?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry I missed back there."

"Don't worry about it. It happens sometimes."

"No but, it was really important. I could have really fucked up the whole mission like that."

"Well, did you fuck up the mission?"

"Kinda…"

"Look, Pikle is fine, I'm still alive, you're still alive. Things could have gone significantly worse. I'm not happy that you got hurt, but that's because I'm worried about you, not because I'm mad at you."

"You're worried about me?"

Link looked up at you. "Of course. You're my partner, you know? Making sure you're safe is important to me. Hell, I wouldn't have even agreed to bring you with me if I didn't care about you, at least a little."

Link wrapped a bandage tightly around your thigh and put his supplies away.

"You all finished down ther-" you began to say, but were interrupted as Link wrapped his arms around you and gave you a squeeze.

"You're fine, okay," Link signed as he pulled away from you. "Your wound looks like it'll be alright, so I'm very glad you're not too hurt. And besides, I owed you a hug from the other night, so there you are. Also, put your pants back on, you fucking weirdo."

You blushed and quickly pulled your pants back up to your waist. You cleared your throat, embarrassed.

Link laughed.

"Not funny, dick."

"It's a little funny."

"…Yeah."

"I'm glad you're fine, though."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." You pulled yourself onto the floor and gently made your way into your bedroll, happy to have a new understanding of your partner.