Chapter 3

"Mindset of a Warrior"

Grudgingly getting back on my feet, I ran up to Talon. I didn't want to spend much time in here, so, naturally, I slipped once. As luck would have it, I finally managed to start shoving him, to try to get him awake. This was not an easy task; he was sleeping like the dead, and snoring like a chainsaw besides. Plus, my boots didn't have any form of traction. Link was running around, being no help, trying to get, what he called, a 'cuckoo' to wake Talon up with.

"Get over here you stupid bird!" he was yelling at a chicken.

"HEY, LINK!" I yelled, "You're not going to get very far! Help me get Talon awake!"

"Easier said than done, huh?" He yelled back.

"Bet your ass!"

"What does that mean?"

"Oh, never mind."

Wiping the sweat off his forehead and leaving the bird to run off on its own, Link walked back in my direction. He was breathing heavy as he stood beside me, using his own techniques to wake the lazy bastard up. I guess sprinting was hard work in boots. Reminder never to sprint, then.

So we shook Talon, dropped him on his side, and I slapped him until my hand hurt, to no effect much to my chagrin. Both of us were getting tired of being in the rancid-smelling barn when the chicken next to his ear, crowed like a rooster and woke him up.

"What?" he snorted in surprise, "I'm up!"

"Finally," I snapped, wiping beads of sweat off my face, "could I buy some milk from you?"

He looked at me like I was speaking gibberish.

"Look, buddy, I have dirt in my mouth, I'm tired, and I don't have all day to play games. Now, are you going to sell me some or do I have to drink water?"

He sat there in complete silence for a while with his eyelids drooping. Not that I was surprised; he was an older man with balding black hair. He was fat, lazy and smelled like he hadn't bathed in three months. I surmised this was because he was around chickens all the time. He remained silent and staring with half-closed eyes at me, when a sound finally escaped his lips.

He snored.

"AAAGH," I yelled and whacked him upside the head, "We're not going to get anywhere with this hopeless, washed-up old man!"

Talon fell over upon impact, but didn't wake up, infuriating me even more. I could feel my face go bright red, and I looked at Link, he was grinning in amusement. I fumed, but the look in his eyes made me calm down. I knew there was another way to get the dirt out of my mouth, but I didn't care. I was still mad at Talon, and I didn't care who knew it.

"Let's go see Ingo, then, maybe he'll have some time to help us," Link said, chuckling.

"Yeah, let's hope he's not as washed-up as Talon is," I fumed, and smacked Talon again for good measure, he still didn't wake up.

We walked out, walked about seven paces, and entered the barn. And sure enough, Ingo was working, but pretty much doing nothing. He was grumbling to himself about how life wasn't fair, and throwing things around.

Ingo was about five foot seven, had balding black hair, a big nose, was gangly, and slightly overweight, the obvious pudge around his middle. I couldn't really tell the colour of his eyes under his eyebrows, but I assumed they were black. In one of his big hands, he had a pitchfork, and in the other he had a bucket, and he was swinging them around wildly, being very careful to hit everything but the animals and swearing profusely.

"Yeah, yeah. Life's a bitch and then you die. Can you help us?" I snapped.

"What do you want?" Ingo yelled.

I glared at him, and he froze in his tracks.

"If looks could kill…" Link whispered in my ear, his moist, hot breath giving me goosebumps along my spine.

"Let me make this simple, since you seem to have as limited brain capacity as Talon: We. Would. Like. Some. Help." I said slowly, still glaring.

"Yes, I got that. What do you want my help for?" he said sharply, glaring at me as if I'd just stuck him with a pin.

"We'd like to buy some milk, please," Link said politely, trying to calm Ingo down.

Failing miserably, but I had to give him credit for trying anyway. I, on the other hand, wasn't quite so courteous.

"Go talk to Talon, I'm much too busy," Ingo said just as sharply to Link.

"Screw you, then, you big-nosed good for nothing," I muttered as we left, and visibly bit my thumb at him.

Ingo just stared at us as we walked out, acting as if we didn't just infuriate anyone. As if we didn't have a care in the world. Which we didn't yet, but still, to do what we'd just done, you'd be either very brave, very powerful, or VERY stupid. I bet we were a mixture of the first and third.

"Now what?" I said as we left the Ranch, "my mouth still tastes like dirt!"

We walked over to the brook, and Link dragged a bottle through the water. He held it in his palm and examined it, probably looking for fish or mould. He sat down to examine it, so I followed suit and took my boots off again. I washed the droppings off in the river and Link made a face. I didn't give him any sign of caring, and took my socks out of my bag,. Well, they weren't dry yet, so I didn't bother with them, and kept my boots off.

"Heat this up and drink it," he said, "Unless, of course, you want to get sick."

"Okay," I said, "but heat it up on what?"

He paused, "okay, just drink it. I'll get you an orange."

I swished the water around in my mouth and spat. Then, I realised just how sweet the water was. I drank the water quickly, and I noticed how it was cooler and better tasting than any water I'd ever had before. I looked at the bottle of water as if it was the purest thing I'd ever seen. It quite possibly was. I tried to hand the bottle back to Link, but he refused it. He said I could have it and I put the cork in it. I put it in my bag, hoping like hell it wouldn't leak.

"Let's go to Kakariko," I said, "Maybe they have oranges there."

"They do," Link said as we started walking towards a big mountain, "I bought one there a while ago."

"That would be a good thing," I said, stopping to let him lead this time.

"How do you know the way?" Link said, catching up to me.

I pointed toward the mountain, indicating that it was the only road that didn't either lead to Lake Hylia or Hyrule Castle Towne. Link shrugged and we continued on with him in front. The road was long to Kakariko, but I knew we could make it. After all, I was still barefoot. Walking now wasn't such a pain as there weren't as many field mice, but the grasshoppers. Oh my God, the grasshoppers. There were thousands more since we were near water. Eventually, they got to be in such great numbers that they stopped frightening me. Link would occasionally have to swat at the air in front of him as the flies were greater in number around here, too.

The brook turned into a river the closer we got to Kakariko, and soon it swept rapidly under a bridge that stretched between a road to Hyrule Castle Towne and a road to Kakariko Village. About a hundred feet from the bridge was the northward stairs to Kakariko that were both steep in their height, and steep in their slope up the mountain.

The steep made no problems for Link, but it gave me hell as I stumbled and tripped and ran short on breath climbing them. A short reprieve was a patch of ground that lead to a north-eastern sloping flight of stairs, and that's the last reprieve I got for about fifty yards.

I slumped down on the ground near the entrance gates to Kakariko and waited until my heartbeat returned to normal. Link waited patiently by a wall, not saying anything, but his breathing seemed slightly laboured. Once my own breathing regained normalcy, too, I stood up and followed Link into Kakariko.

"Welcome back, Link," said the Village guard at the gate, "And who are you?"

He lowered his spear to block my entrance. Link kept walking, he didn't notice the problems that were rising behind him. He was allowed into Kakariko, and I wasn't? That wasn't fair!

"I'm Hylia, and I'm with him," I replied, straining against his spear that he used to keep me out and pointing to Link's back.

"Really? I thought the princesses relatives weren't allowed outside the castle." He said coldly.

"What?" I nearly yelled.

He was acting as if the whole of Hyrule didn't know that I'd lived by myself so I wouldn't have to deal with castle life. Or, so I'd said. I was too infuriated to realize that he'd given my story merit. I was too livid to notice that he'd said I was Zelda's cousin. I'd made that up, but he said it was true. And, now, it was.

"I…Thought…The…Royal…Family…Was…Not…Allowed…Outside…The… Castle" he said slowly.

"I heard you the first time, but I live by myself. Zelda and my Uncle don't mind. Now, if you will, let me pass!" I said with an air of self-importance, pretending to pick my ear disdainfully.

"Hylia, what's holding you up?" Link called, turning to face me.

"Help! I'm stuck!" I yelled after him, waving my arms up and down to get his attention.

Navi flew up to me to see what was the problem, and I accidentally hit her while waving my arms. I snickered to myself as she started hitting me in the head and yelling at me. Not that I was listening, of course. I didn't care what little-miss-annoying had to say.

Link ran back up and told the guard that I was with him, and that I was telling the truth.

After ten minutes of arguing and yelling, we were on our way through the village. I was grumbling about how that guard was an asshole, and how he should get thrown back a couple of ranks. Perhaps down to social guard, or time guard, anything but village protection guard.

"How did he know you were Princess Zelda's cousin?" Link asked.

"The whole of Hyrule knows," I said, fuming, "It's kind of hard not to get noticed when you go to live on your own at eight, especially as royalty."

"Maybe this'll cheer you up," Link said, pulling out an orange from his backpack.

I smiled, and thought 'how sweet of him. Maybe he's not as stupid as I thought.'

"Thanks a million," I said.

"Any time," He replied, smiling back at me.

Navi popped out of Link's hat after hiding there during the fight. I put the orange in my pack along with the bottle and the orange hit the bottle with a small sound, and I almost panicked. If the bottle broke, Link would surely wring my neck. Or, that is, I would have panicked, but Navi began to annoy me again.

"Quit flirting, you two," She said, "We've still got to go see Darunia, remember?"

"What's with that look?" Link asked.

"Nothing," I said, hiding the fact I wanted to kill Navi, "I just don't like being patronized."

Giving Navi a pointed look, we walked up a flight of more stairs. Link was trying not to laugh.

'Yeah, yeah, I'm a real riot aren't I? I'm upset, get over it,' I thought.

"Get over what?" Link asked without looking at me.

My utter surprise cast aside my anger and threw me into a stunned, motionless silence until Link stopped walking and turned to me. Since I'd stopped mid-stride, I put my foot down to make a point.

"I didn't SAY anything," I said, "I thought the words 'get over it' but I didn't SAY them."

Link's look at me changed. It did a back flip from slight amusement to a dumbfounded, stunned expression.

"Okay, that's frightening. I swear I heard you say it," his words came out slowly and rigidly.

His whole body shook in a shiver as I shook my head.

We finished climbing the stairs on the left side of Kakariko, and took the next ones that lead east, heading up to the entrance of Death Mountain in complete silence. I could just feel that both of us were far too dumbfounded to breathe properly, much less speak.

The guard near the Death Mountain gate had a Keaton mask on, and was giggling like a school-girl. Mind you, all the guards are men. Though, by his laugh, you wouldn't have known it. Not even this slapped me from my frightened state.

"Thanks Mr. Hero," the guard said, "My little boy will love the mask."

Neither of us spoke. Neither of us blinked. We just continued up to the mountain.