Chapter 5

"Medical Officer, Hylia. Enter, Arlimand"

"Oh, my dear, you're awake," said Danita, "You're in Goron City. You're friend here carried you most of the way here. I shall have to have a talk with Robertran. He knocked you both off the cliff."

Link just stared at her. He, as I said, is not the brightest crayon in the box. He didn't say anything, and got up. He turned to me and sniffed, I'm guessing he liked peppermint tea.

"Do you want some?" I asked, waving the tea under his nose.

He nodded, his eyes dull and blurry. Poor kid.

Just then, the newly-fixed door to the room slammed open, cracked, and a very pissed off Darunia came in. He hugged Danita, got a rock, ate it, and left without a single word. Danita followed quickly behind.

"Oh wow," Link said stupidly, "He sure is mad! Wonder why?"

"Well, I don't think my 'talents' taken from the Gerudo helped much." Arlimand said sheepishly.

"What would these i'talents'/i be?" Link asked dully suspiciously.

I pretended to slap Link, "What do you think?"

"For demonstration, would these be yours?" he asked, holding out three green rupees and a blue one.

I could only stare as I felt something move in my backpack, and realized what it was. Navi had been in Link's hat at the time of his fall, and was too scared to leave his hat, so now I had the annoying fairy in my backpack. I let her out and apologized.

"I - How - bTHOSE ARE MINE!/b" I said insulted, but at least he didn't take my purple one.

"As I said for demonstration purposes only," he said dumping them back into my knapsack.

I quickly tightened up my knapsack and put it back on my shoulders. I began to have some suspicions about this guy, myself.

"Well, we'd better get going," Link said, weakly.

"No, you lie down, I will help Hylia if she needs it," he said rather insistently.

"WHAT? Not fair! I'm the one Zelda sent to save Hyrule" He cried.

He then covered his mouth quickly and muttered something that sounded like "Oh, shit, that should have been a secret," but I couldn't tell with his hand in the way.

"What?" I said, actually wondering.

He shook his head to indicate that he couldn't tell me and looked around.

"Save Hyrule, eh?" I said.

"Save it from whom?" Arlimand asked as if he thought he may have all ready known.

Link shook his head again.

"C'mon, spill the beans!" I said.

"Spill what?" Link asked, an expression of thorough confusion playing with his face.

"It means tell us," Arlimand said, seeming surprised he knew what it meant.

Link sighed, "Zelda left me in charge of saving Hyrule from Ganondorf, leader of the Gerudos."

Arlimand sighed as well.

"I knew he was up to something. Is there any way I can help?"

Link thought about it, and gave me a pointed look.

"Well, I, for one, have a problem with him near my stuff," I said, pointedly.

"So long as he doesn't take it," Link trailed off.

"I'm right here. I would have pick-pocketed you, Link, but you had a major head injury. I didn't want to cause more trauma. Plus, there is the deterrent of that sword," Arlimand said defensively.

"But you cut-pursed a girl?" I defended.

"She has a point," Link said.

"I told you, I did it for demonstration, and it was either her or another Goron, and their kind, I recently found, don't have pockets..."

I snickered. That meant that he'd pulled off some poor sucker's loincloth.

"That may be why Darunia is more upset than he would be," Arlimand finished.

Link tried to stand again. Arlimand gently pushed him back down.

"I may not agree with Arli's pick-pocketing..."

"Hey!" he interrupted.

"But I agree with him that you need to lay down." I finished.

Link looked around the room and cocked an eyebrow.

"Great and all, but, where would I lie down?"

I looked around, too. Gorons don't use beds! I smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand. I'd forgotten about that.

"Here, to show you that you can trust me," he said, pulling some blankets out of a knapsack of his own, and lay them on the ground "also, I don't like Ganondork, and I want to do anything I can to help put a stop to his plans," he finished.

Link and I turned to him in surprise and gratification at the same time, and Link walked to where Arlimand had lay the blankets. I repressed a giggle at Arlimand calling the leader of the Gerudo "Ganondork" but Link had no clue what Arli'd said.

"Thank you, Arlimand," Link said and lied down on them.

"No problem," he replied

I chose a chair to sit in; I didn't think we'd be going anywhere today. I rested my head against the back of the chair and held the peppermint tea in my lap. Now that my eyes were closed, I realized just how tired I really was. Maybe sleeping would be a good idea. We could always save Hyrule tomorrow.

"Maybe rest would be a good thing?" I mused.

I heard Link mumble in approval and Arlimand's feet walk toward the chair on the other side of the room.

"Yeah but if you guys were sent by Zelda, you guys will have to talk to Darunia if you are looking for what I think you're looking for."

I mumbled a sound of approval at Arlimand, and was too tired to do much more. I'd agree comprehensibly later.

When I awoke, I found Link sleeping comfortably on the blankets Arlimand had left for him, but no Arlimand. My thoughts ran along the lines of "!" again as I panickedly searched the room for him. No sign of Arlimand anywhere. With panic striking my mind like a giant hammer, I ran to my knapsack. I opened it to find that I still had my fifty-eight rupees and bottle of three drops of water. Confused, I woke Link up.

"Arlimand's gone!" I said, "Check your stuff!"

"Gee thanks!" Arlimand said, his voice coming from behind me as he set down a tray of food on the table.

I turned my head so fast when he spoke that my neck popped relievingly.

"Ah-Arlimand!" Link and I said in surprised unison.

"Hi there. I only left five minutes ago to grab some breakfast for us," he said, sitting down.

Link and I stared in amazement.

"What time is it?" Link asked.

"What day is it?" I said.

"It's about eight in the morning, we were only asleep for a night," He said, shrugging.

"How can you tell in these caves?"

"I asked one of the Gorons, don't ask me how they know, they just do."

"Good enough," Link said as he stood up to grab one of the pieces of bread that Arlimand brought.

I was hesitant to get anything, since the Gorons are a rock-eating people. My hesitancy must have shown.

"Don't worry" Arlimand said, "I brought the food with me, I just went out to heat it up."

Link looked at him stupidly, "But there's a wood stove right here..."

"It's easier to heat it up over the bubbling magma than it is to keep it from burning in the fire,"

It was my turn to look at Arlimand stupidly. Keep it from burning in the fire? Had he never heard of a stovetop? I began to be less suspicious of Arlimand, and began to more wonder about him. Even if he was an uneducated Gerudo slave, surely they had him cook his own meals on a stove? Why in the world would he use magma to cook food? I continued to stare at Arlimand stupidly, even as he looked at me.

"Just try it, it's good," he said grabbing some of the bread and began to eat.

Cautiously I stood up and grabbed some of the warm bread. It wasn't hot, it was just... warm. How did he manage to just warm it up? Shouldn't it have burned to a crisp? Shouldn't HE have burned to a crisp? I guess I must have looked as curious as I felt.

"I never learned how to cook over a stove, they always gave me food cold, but there were hot springs nearby that I learned to heat it up over. I figured that with magma the food had to be a lot higher and stay in for a lot less time," he said shrugging to me as if it explained everything. "anyway, hurry and eat we need to talk to Darunia".

I munched on some bread, one of the pieces of cheese, and one of the eggs he'd cooked. Link hungrily ate two pieces of cheese and half of the loaf of bread.

"Hylia, you asked me yesterday how I escaped," Arlimand said, "Well, to tell you the truth I didn't escape exactly, I got turned around. You see after working for this family for a few years they began to trust me more, because every night the daughter would try to hide a couple of rupees under a makeshift pillow I had," he paused to take a bite of egg, "To tell the truth, I think she liked me. But, then again, there weren't very many slaves her age. Anyway, every morning I would give them to her mother, saying I had found them. Eventually they trusted me to move more freely around the valley, they sent me to sell crops and buy some supplies. Keep in mind, not all the Gerudo are completely dishonest;" he took another piece of bread. "Some of them farm, some sell goods. Then they needed some fruit. Normally, they would go buy it themselves, but they trusted me enough to go to The Castle Towne to buy it, but on my way I got turned around because of a silhouette that turned out to be a ranch. So, I just kept walking and wound up here."

"Well then, that explains a lot" I said, "but it doesn't explain why you want to help Link... I thought the Gerudo hated Hylians?"

"I'm not Hylian!" Link protested, "I'm a Kokiri!"

"Well, yeah, but not all of them like Ganondorf either, they just don't want to change the way they have been doing things for hundreds of years." He said pushing his plate aside, "In fact many think he is a power-hungry monster, but they wouldn't whisper it in a crowd."

I turned to Link and he shrugged.

"So, why *do* you want to help me?" Asked Link.

"And how did you get past the guard at Death Mountain gate?" I mused loudly.

"Well, I absolutely hate our "leader" and I feel like I'm supposed to. To get past the guard told him I had to get through and he laughed at me."

"He does that," Link interrupted.

"I noticed," He laughed, "Anyway he told me that it was too dangerous, so I challenged him to a fight. He laughed again, so I tripped him and climbed over the fence."

I had to laugh. Just the image of this kid tripping that soldier was so comical that I had no hope of repressing my amusement. Even Link's eyes danced and sparkled with humor. His smile lit up his whole face and his grin made him look even younger than he was.

"I take it that made him very happy," I said sarcastically.

"Yeah," he laughed, "you guys done? If so, we should get to Darunia."

"I'm done," I said, pushing the rest of my bread away.

"But you've hardly eaten!" Link said, "But I'm done, too."

Link pushed his plate away, put it on mine, grabbed both up, and set them in the sink.

"From what I have heard, Darunia has locked himself in his throne room and won't unlock the door until a royal messenger gets here, so unless you guys can convince him you are royal messengers, we may run into some problems." Arlimand informed us.

I laughed, "Can't you just break his door down?" I indicated the door to the Inn room.

"Yeah, I could," he laughed "If the door wasn't stone."

"Oh," Link said, snickering, "That makes it hard I guess."

I laughed. Link didn't notice, but he'd just made a pun. Or, at least, I thought he did.

"No pun intended," he observed, smiling.

"Alright. So, any ideas? Do you guys have any documents talking about your connection?"

Link shrugged, "No, but I do have this..." he pulled out an Ocarina.

He put the Ocarina to his lips and began to play. I recognised the tune from my memories of life in the castle. It was my cousin's lullaby, the one Impa, her guardian, would play for her every night. The tune had always put me to sleep, too, and with Link's rendition playing, I began to get drowsy. He played until I was asleep. I knew I was asleep because, the next thing I knew, I was in a dark room, unable to move. I felt like I was waiting for something, waiting and shaking. Shaking more and more, I realised that I was rocking. Someone was rocking me! They were trying to wake me up! When I came to, it was Link standing over me again.

"What was that all about?" He asked, "You just keeled over!"

Arlimand chuckled, "I'm just glad I'm not the only one."

I yawned and rubbed my eye, "That was Zelda's Lullaby. It puts me straight to sleep."

Link cocked an eyebrow at me.

"It works on me, too," I explained.

"And, apparently, Arlimand, too," he replied.

"Oh shut up!" He replied, sounding unsure "anyway, if that will work we need to get to Darunia."

Link helped me stand up, and I offered to help Arlimand up, but he was all ready on his feet and at the door. He nodded his head at us to hurry as we headed to the front desk.