Chapter 10
Enlisting
Link awoke the next day on a couch in an unlit room. Judging by the light shining through the two windows, it was nearly afternoon. Link looked across to see Gandor sleeping comfortably in a sofa as well.
At first he was a little dizzy when he stood up. Link proceeded to the door on the other side of the room after stretching his legs. The doorway led to the main room in Telma's pub. She waved at him as Link entered.
"Feeling alright? Is your friend still sleeping?" Telma asked, sliding Link a glass of water.
"Yeah, I feel alright… I don't really remember what happened last night after you gave us each a drink," Link admitted.
Telma nodded. "I suppose this is normal. I didn't really consider that you being from the forest, you've literally never drank anything that isn't water. Not to worry though, I didn't give you anything that should make you sick."
Link took a sip of his water. "Does alcohol normally do this?" Link asked. This was not the first time someone had mentioned this substance, something illegal to children.
"Everyone handles their liquor differently, but many men will have poor judgment when they are drunk and make stupid decisions. Some blackout, some vomit everywhere, some make a mess. Some will do all three," Telma said, explaining the concept of intoxication to Link. "But it's as I said lad, you and your friend didn't do anything stupid. You chatted on into the night and I gave you a free dinner. Then around midnight when I was closing up, you had nowhere to go, and I could see you were useless, so I wasn't going to put you onto the streets with no bed. And don't worry; I brought your horses in."
"Wow, thank you so much," Link said surprised. "I had no idea. I'm sorry we crashed here, it was not polite for us to do that after you displayed so much kindness," Link apologized frantically.
"Boy, don't worry about it. Even if it did burden me, I had no one to blame but myself for letting you drink. It was my fault you were in no condition to go. And besides, it's not like I mind the odd favour here and there," Telma reassured Link.
Link took the next half hour to bring Gandor up to speed and tend to their horses before thanking Telma once again and heading back out into the town. They felt they could not ask any more of her.
Their next destination was to find the recruitment office. Link and Gandor made their way to the castle, and arrived around noon. They tied up their horses and headed for the main gates.
The two boys approached the soldiers posted at the entrance to Hyrule Castle. The guards looked down at Link and Gandor curiously as they made their way to the door.
"And what business might you two have here at Hyrule Castle?" the guard on the left asked, his voice somewhat booming.
Link spoke first. "We would like to know where we can enlist in the Hyrulian Military. Are we in the right place?"
The guards each raised an eyebrow before looking at each other. The one on the right spoke next.
"Aye, it's this way. You kids serious? Can't say we have recruits like you very often."
"Is there a minimum age requirement?" Gandor asked.
"No," the guard on the left replied, "But there is a loyalty requirement."
The calmer guard on the right continued. "Don't worry about him. And your requirements will be sorted out soon enough." He unlatched the door and pressed it ajar. "Beyond this gate is the main entrance to the Castle. Follow the path straight until you are in the main chamber. There is a desk visible when you are inside. Stick to your course and don't be causing trouble in the castle."
Link and Gandor nodded as the guards allowed them through.
The entrance to the castle was much larger now that it was fully visible. Beyond the gates was a grand courtyard with a magnificent fountain with a stone bird statue atop the perch in the middle. Sticking to their instructions, Link and Gandor followed the cobblestone path around fountain and into the central chamber.
The first thing Link noticed was the large golden chandelier that hung several feet above the deep red carpets that extended from wall to wall. The walls were decorated with several gold engravings, some of them appearing to be some kind of folklore being told.
There were several people going about their business, be them soldiers, politicians, their assistants following briskly. In the far left corner was a desk with a large sign above bearing Hylian text. It was heavily implied this was where Link and Gandor were to enlist.
"Afternoon," the desk tenant greeted them. He was a slender man with blonde hair and pointy ears. "You boys here for what I hope you're hear for?"
"Aye," Link answered. "We'd like to enlist in the Hyrulian Military."
The recruiting officer nodded. "Both of you I assume?" He produced two forms and slid them forward. "Are you familiar with the signup procedure? It's pretty simple. First step is to fill out these forms with your basic information. Then you set up an interview to go over some more details and make sure everything checks out. Luckily for you boys, you picked a good time to come in. We can do your interview immediately following your application and have this all sorted out today"
Link and Gandor stared blankly at the forms. "We can't read and write this dialect of Hylian," Link explained.
The man raised an eyebrow "Then I guess we'll have a few questions for you. No worry, you will do your interview now, and the officer can fill out your form for you. Is now ok?"
Link and Gandor nodded and the man signaled to a soldier across the room. "You're going to follow this man to where the interviews are held. He will fill you in if you have any questions. Best of luck," he said as the soldier arrived.
The soldier gestured to follow as he headed to a door on the west side of the room. Link and Gandor proceeded to follow him through a hallway.
"The castle is divided into four main sections. The south where you entered often serves as multipurpose, such as where you just enlisted. The east section is used as a hub for all government and politics in the kingdom. Heads of state will gather to discuss affairs here.
"The north part of the castle is where the Royal Family resides. Soldiers very rarely go to this area. Only in the case of emergency or when a member of the Royal Family itself calls you there. No high-ranking military official has authority to send you there, only royalty. The west domain of the castle contains all military related business. Training grounds, classrooms, quarters for soldiers, a room for graduation ceremonies. Obviously this is where you will spend the bulk of your time. It doesn't hurt to know your way around the other areas of the castle when you can, in case of emergency."
The soldier continued to lead them through a series of hallways before stopping outside a door.
"This next set of rooms is used for interviews before enlistment. The two of you will be interviewed individually. Do not mistake this for a test in which you must pass in order to be accepted. The purpose is to make certain you are trustworthy people and whatnot. You may proceed inside and someone will be in shortly," the soldier explained.
Link and Gandor split ways and each headed into different rooms. The door fell shut behind Link as he stepped into a room with a single window along the back wall being the primary source of light, a table with two chairs in the middle. Link took a seat and for the first time considered that his background might come off as suspicious.
It was a couple minutes before someone entered. Another man, with a similar uniform. He sat opposite of Link and extended his arm. "Lieutenant Dakota. I was told you cannot fill out your application form?"
Link nodded and shook the man's hand. "I was taught to read and write in a different dialect, but the spoken language has few differences."
"Alright well I'll give you the rundown," the lieutenant began. "We can't just let anyone who walks into the castle join the military. Security-wise that's pretty risky. We just need to make sure you're not someone dangerous to the Royal Military. Other than that, there aren't really any prerequisites required. So we'll begin with the form. What is your name?"
"My name is Link," Link provided.
"Surname?" Dakota asked.
"Uhm," Link thought about it. "I was only given one name. Never met my parents either, so I couldn't ask them."
The lieutenant raised an eyebrow. "Then I guess we better deal with the elephant in the room. Where are you from lad?"
"The Kokiri Forest," Link answered.
Dakota looked confused. "And where is that?" he asked.
"Well I'm pretty new to Hyrule, but if you had a map I could probably show you. Mine is pretty messy," Link explained.
"This suggests we will require some kind of background check. Moving on, how old are you? I will need your date of birth."
"I'm 16. I'm not sure if your calendar is the same as where I come from. But I do recall it's in about twenty days from now," Link answered.
"How the hell do you remember that?" Dakota asked. "Nevermind that question," he waved it up and did the math in his head. "April 13th. I'll fill in your height and weight later. That's all the form work. Now I just have a couple of questions for you. First of all, what made you want to join the military?"
"I'm new to this land. I have no employment or real goal for where to go next. And the people in Hyrule have been good to me, so I feel like I should pay them back somehow. This is really the only way I know how," Link came up with.
"Yeah, yeah ok. And what are your long term plans?" Dakota asked.
Link shrugged. "You know as well as I do."
"Right. And are you able to handle combat and danger if presented?"
Link shrugged again. "I wouldn't be here if I couldn't do that."
The lieutenant thought for a moment while filling out the rest of the form.
"Everything checks out once that background check clears. I've signed the acceptance. After we sort out where you come from, the rest of this meeting is to determine what accommodations you will need. You are entitled to your basic gear and uniform, a horse, several offered classes which may benefit you."
Dakota stood up and walked to the drawer at the back of the room. He removed a scroll and returned to the table before unrolling it in front of Link to reveal a map. He handed Link a pen and a cup of ink and pointed to the castle on the map.
"This is where we are now. I want you to draw the path you took since leaving the forest to get here. Work backwards if you need to."
Link nodded and studied the map before dipping the point and making his first path from what he recognized to be Clock Town to Hyrule Castle Town. After calculating directions, he continued to estimate his path back to Romani Ranch. From there he wasn't entirely sure how to show where the he first came to Hyrule Field from. There were no caves on the map from where he believed he had been. He finished by drawing an arrow to the general area where the cave was, which was the edge of a mountain range labeled in Hylian.
Dakota raised an eyebrow. "You emerged from that rock?"
"Well," Link said, dipping the pen again, "That's where I first stepped into Hyrule. If I were to guess where that cave led…." Link continued the path over the mountains to the forest that lay on the opposite side of the mountain range. "This is probably the forest I came from."
Dakota thought about it. "I did not know any people lived there. Not only is that land not part of our kingdom, but Hyrule has no relations whatsoever with that land." The lieutenant scribbled something onto the form. "I'm going to arrange for you to meet with someone on a separate occasion to inform them in more detail of where you come from. For government purposes. In the meantime," he stood and extended his hand. "Consider yourself accepted into the Hyrulian Military."
Link shook his hand, concluding the interview. He followed Lieutenant Dakota outside where the soldier who had led him there was waiting. Dakota left and the soldier explained they would wait for the other interview to finish before briefing them.
After a couple more minutes, Gandor and another official came out of the room. Gandor's interviewer nodded before leaving them to the soldier.
"So I see you both made it past the interview. If you'll follow me, I will give you a complete tour of the west portion of the castle," the soldier explained. They began walking and headed into a large room with several tables.
"This is the mess hall. You can come here whenever you need to eat, but there are 3 main meals a day served here. Other than that, you'll just have to eat what's available. Breakfast is at 8 in the morning, lunch at noon, and dinner is served at 5 in the evening. Food is served from that window on the far side of the room," he said, pointing to the entrance to the kitchen.
They continued walking into another hallway until they took a left turn and stepped outside to what appeared to be training grounds.
"This is one of the areas you will do your training in. Within the week you will be put in your platoon, where your leader will run field exercises in places such as this. I won't show you all of the training grounds, but you can reach them all through the corridor we came through to get here," the soldier explained. The 3 of them continued back into the castle.
The final stop appeared to be their quarters. The soldier continued to lead them through several rooms where off-duty soldiers were relaxing. "These are your barracks," the guide said, waving at something of the guards. "Your beds will be on this end," he said, showing the half dozen or so unoccupied beds in the vacant area of the room.
The three of them proceeded to the front desk where they'd first begun.
"Here you can share your information regarding accommodations. That'll be it for me. I'll see you guys in the field." The soldier nodded and left Link and Gandor to the man tending the desk.
"So I see it went well," the guard at the desk said, pulling out a piece of paper. "Just a few things for me to sort out. I'm sure your interviewer told you that you are entitled to a few things," he said, keeping his eyes on the forms. "For your enlistment and basic training, you are required to have a sword, a horse, a uniform, and you will also be required to live on site. I have a list of things you are also allowed to bring, but not necessary. So we'll start with you," he said looking at Gandor. "Obviously we will provide uniforms for both of you. Do you have a sword or a horse?"
Gandor nodded. "I have a horse, but no sword."
The man scribbled away. "Alright, we will fit you for a sword before your first day. As for your horse, we will arrange for caretaking momentarily. And you young man," he said, turning to Link. "Do you have a sword or a horse?"
Link nodded too. "I have both."
The man was silent for a moment while he filled in both forms. "Very good. And will the two of you be moving in tonight or do you need a day to gather your belongings from home?"
Link and Gandor looked at each other. "No, we're basically carrying all we have," Link explained.
"Understood," the man said, continuing to fill in the form. "Then you may bring your horses to the stables at once. I trust you've been shown where everything is. A guard will be sent to your quarters in an hour to brief you on what the next few days will look like. In the meantime, make yourselves at home. The folk around here should be kind enough to help you out if you have any questions."
Link and Gandor nodded before heading outside to their horses. They brought their horses around to the stable and watered them before leaving them once more.
Gandor seemed nervous to Link as they walked in silence. He kept scanning between left and right, as if to see if someone were watching them. Link decided he would wait before asking how his interview had went.
The two of them introduced themselves when they reached the men's quarters. Link had a tough time remembering the handful of names thrown at them. He did retain that 2 others sharing the room with them were also new recruits, and the other 5 men who shared the room ranged from 2nd year to 4th year experience. Link soon learned that the rooms were divided by rank. In his room were those of "private" ranking as he was coming to learn.
As expected, a soldier came up within the hour to brief the new recruits.
"Welcome, new cadets. I am your warrant officer, Lance. Tomorrow will be your first day of Basic Training. You will be assigned to your platoon, and you will meet the captain whom you will be training under for the time being. Roll call won't be until 8 tomorrow, so you can sleep in your first day. You won't need your uniforms yet, but you may or may not need a sword, so bring one. I trust you were shown where the training grounds are located. That is where you will meet. As for you lad," he said, looking at Link, "I have been informed you are not finished with initiation. Someone will need to talk to you before day is over."
Link nodded, recalling how Dakota wanted Link to inform the higher-ups of where he came from.
"Other than that, I welcome you to the Hyrulian Armed Forces," Lance finished.
The Warrant Officer left and Link figured it was time to check on Gandor. He seemed to be sweating at this point.
"Wanna head outside for a minute?" Link asked Gandor.
Gandor nodded and the two of them found somewhere private.
"Well," Link said when they were standing outside on top of a castle wall, alone. "How did your interview go? There's still things you won't tell me about yourself, so I gotta wonder what told them."
"Link," Gandor said. "Maybe it's time I do fill you in, but I can't here. Either way, there's one thing we need to set straight. I can't have you giving them a different story."
"So what is it?" Link asked.
"From this point on," Gandor said, "I'm not a Gerudo."
"You wouldn't tell them that?" Link asked, surprised.
"Nobody knows, Link. I am no longer from the desert."