Chapter 10

Link awoke early the next morning, only to find Din still asleep well past noon. She woke up late, groggy and grumbling. While Link was concerned about where she had been, he respected her privacy, and didn't ask.

It wasn't long before they met with Bipin to say their goodbyes, and Din surprised both Link and the farmer by presenting him with a pouch filled with over a thousand Rupees.

"Din! how did... where did..." His eyes went wide. "Where in the name of Din did this money come from?!?"

The Oracle shot him a dark look, then handed the pouch to Bipin. "Here, for you, and your family."

The old farmer simply stood there, stunned. "Din... I, I don't know what to say..."He shook his head. "Without this... my wife and I would have been finanically ruined. Thank you so much..."

Din waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it, just go back to Labyrinia, and take care of that wife of yours."

Bipin embraced them both, then said. "Goodbye, my friends! And good luck on your journey!"

As they walked away, Link was about to say something, when Din blurted. "Not a word. We'll talk about this after we leave town."

Link nodded, and soon they approached the toll bridge across the river, where the cranky old guard waited.

"Sorry folks, the bridge is closed to all outsiders." He told them, blocking their path. "No exceptions!"

"Are you sure no exceptions?" Din said coyly, presenting him with a bag of a thousand rupees.

The guards eyes lit up at the sight of the money. "That's an exception I'll take." He turned a crank, and lowered the bridge for the pair. As they began to cross, the guard suddenly spoke up. "Hey, weren't you the dancer at the tavern last night? Great performance, me and my friends just loved it!"

All of the color drained from Link's face, and The Oracle turned a deep shade of red, as they made their way out of Saria town.

---

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

Link's voice exploded after they were well outside of town. His eyes burned with a passionate anger, and his hands were shaking with fury. "How could you do that to yourself?!? Dance if front of a bunch of lowlifes like that?!?"

"I'm a Dancer, Link. It's my job." She crossed her arms over her chest, annoyed. "And I'm twenty years old, I hardly need you to look out for me!I can take care of myself!"

"It's not about that, Din!" Link replied, in a slightly calmer voice. "It's just seeing you degrade yourself like that..."

"What do they care if I degrade myself?" Din asked, the anger rising in her voice. "I hear what they say about me... the names they call me... 'hussy'... 'tramp'... and why? Because I'm half Gerudo!" She looked away from Link. "We don't dance because we're sultry... we dance because it's our culture... it's how we express ourselves!" Tears welled up in her eyes. "But Hylians and their stupid bigotry make us out to be horrible! Why should they care about what I do!?"

Link went over, and put his hand on her shoulder. "Well... I care."

Din spun around to face him, tears streaming down her face. "Oh, Link! I'm so sorry, I-"

"Don't worry about it." He replied warmly, pulling her into an embrace. "And don't worry about what people think, either. Just be who you are."

Pulling away, Din stared deep into his eyes, and saw the warmth and concern there. Her lips slowly began to approached his...

...when a thrown ball and chain barely missed their heads, and buried itself in a nearby tree.

It took only seconds, before both of them had their weapons out, and were facing the direction the ball and chain had come from. They found themselves facing a guma- a large, minotaur-like creature- and a patrol of Tin Suits who were following him.

"They must have snuck up on us during our 'moment'." Link said with a smirk.

"Wanna make them pay for that?" Din replied, raising her scimitars.

"By all means." Link agreed.

The two of them dove at the monsters, and Link immediately decapitated one of the Tin Suits. Din rolled around behind another one, and killed it with a back slice. Link then dove at the Gooma, and the creature tried to smash him with it's ball and chain. But he blocked the blow with his shield, and sliced at it's ankles. The Guma howled in agony, and charged forward, knocking the Hero down. Before he could get back up, the Tin Suits swarmed over him, stabbing him with their sharp blades.

"Link!" Din shrieked. She suddenly dove forward, and double-slashed the already damaged Guma with her scimitars, cutting it in half right down the middle. It died with s painful scream, and the two halves of it's body fell in two different directions.

Suddenly, The Hero leaped back to his feet. "You freaks aren't getting me without a fight!" Pulling up his sword again, Link cut them all down with a deadly spin attack, then fell to his knees.

"LINK!" Din shrieked. Seeing there were no more enemies, she came running up to him. "Are you all right?"

"I'll be fine" He rasped out."just a flesh wound." But from the blood streaming out of his wounds, she could see he was lying.

"No, you're hurt!" Din exclaimed. "We have to get you back to Saria... we can get a doctor there."

"Caught me by surprise." Link groaned. "So sorry..."

"Even the best Hero gets caught off guard." She replied, as she helped him up. "Now come on, lets get going."

"You're not going anywhere." A voice bellowed. Din turned to see a swarm of Goriyas at the top of the ravine, their razor sharp boomerangs aimed at the two of them. Leading them was a doomknocker. "I'd put the scimitars down if I were you... you might be able to fight us off, Oracle, but I don't the hero is in any condition to do so."

Seeing the monster was right, Din set Link back down, pulled out her Twin blades, and dropped them on the ground. Rather than see Link be hurt further, she surrendered.

---

Shadow Link was walking down a hallway, when a Moblin messenger ran up, and kneeled before him.

"A Doomknocker in North Hyurle report in." The monster grunted. "He say he catch Hero and Oracle."

"What!?!" Shadow Link exclaimed in shock. "I can't believe it! This is excellent news!" A dark smile spread across the Shadow's face. "Have him Delivered to Mirodo Palace, and have our team exploring the palace... deal with them."

The moblin nodded. "We also found Shiekah village in South Hyrule.... spy inside village tipped darknuts off."

"Excellent!I knew the Ache spy we had disguise itself as a Shekiah would come in handy!" Shadow Link laughed. "Tell our spy to keep itself hidden, I will assemble a strike force to attack the village at once!"

The moblin bowed and left, and shadow Link turned to watch the sun set over death mountain.