Knock knock knock.

"Yes?"

"What're you doing?"

"Whittling."

Ashei's brow furrowed as she stared at the wooden surface of the door leading to Link's dormitory.

"Whittling," she repeated. "You're whittling."

A few footsteps sounded from inside and then the door swung open, revealing Link's smiling face.

"See?" he said. "Look." He held forth a carving of a… what was that?

"What…?"

"It's a dragon."

"It's terrible," Ashei remarked. She stared at Link in alarm. "You need to get outside. Now." She pushed Link aside and strode into the room, looking around in an apparent search for something. Her eyes lit up when she found it.

"Aha!" she exclaimed, approaching a few pegs on the wall. One of Rusl's handmade swords, sheltered by a leather scabbard, rested upon the pegs. Ashei took it down delicately and held it forward. "How long has it been since you used this?" she asked.

Link stared at her intently. "What are you suggesting?" he asked, already disliking where this was going.

"I'm suggesting that you get outside, yeah? Last time you left town was when Shad broke his leg—"

"—Please don't talk about that—"

"—And that was a full week and a half ago. You obviously have a severe case of cabin fever. You need to get out into the world again. And the best way to do that is with a good brawl."

Link was hesitant in his answer. "Ashei… I don't know that I want—"

"You need it," Ashei continued. "Let's go out into Hyrule Field. There are all sorts of bulblins there. They're great for a fight."

"I don't want to kill anyone," Link persisted. "Please, Ashei—"

"We'll be careful," Ashei continued. She was almost begging. "Come on, Link, you're the Hero of Light! Start acting like it!"

"But I haven't finished my dragon!" Link continued, still trying to talk Ashei out of the task.

"Have mercy on the dragon and don't do anything else to it!"

"Is that a slight on my talents?" asked Link with a smirk.

Ashei rolled her eyes. "Believe me. You're about as artistic as a…" she pondered for a moment. "…Well, a crotchety old Goron. Your talents lie with the blade." She held the sword forward with the handle facing Link. His hand hovered above it for a second.

He bit his lip in hesitation. "…And you promise we won't kill anyone?" he clarified.

"I promise," Ashei answered.

Link gave a small nod and then grasped the hilt of the sword. He pulled it from its sheath and held it in front of him, swinging it lightly.

He broke out into a smile.

"I'd forgotten how good this feels," he mused. His smiled widened. "Okay. Let's do it." He gave Ashei a look that she knew meant business. "Hyrule Field it is."

Knock knock knock.

"Come in."

Ilia entered the makeshift infirmary slowly. Shad lay in the bed near the window, gazing out at the bustling city below. When he heard the door open he looked up, caught sight of Ilia, and smiled.

"It was awfully nice of Telma to lend this room to you," Ilia said, shutting the door behind her.

"Yes, it was," Shad agreed. "I suppose I couldn't take any more of Link. The fellow reaches a certain point where he becomes quite unbearable—usually after a few days of boredom. He was up all night whittling. I finally convinced Telma to either kick him out or move me. Well… you know how she adores Link."

"He and Ashei went out," Ilia said.

Shad looked confused. "Out where?"

Ilia shrugged. "Outside? Link said they were going to fight."

Shad bolted upright in shock. "Fighting each other?!" he cried before wincing in pain and collapsing back onto his pillows.

Ilia giggled. "No," she said. "Fighting the bu... the bilbins... no, the bulbills…?"

"The bulblins?" Shad corrected, breaking out into a smile.

"Yeah," Ilia said quietly. "Uh, those." She paused. "Anyway, I came in to ask if you wanted anything to drink. I made coffee downstairs, but I can also make tea if you want. Or if you're hungry, there're biscuits and some weird meat that might be a little out of date…"

Shad smiled. "Tea would be nice, thanks," he said. "And would you mind if… well, could you get my field journal? I left the blasted thing downstairs again and I'm afraid it might end up in the wrong hands if I don't rescue it."

"The wrong hands meaning… Link and Ashei?"

"Meaning Link and Ashei… drunk."

The weather was perfect for fighting, Link decided. It was cool enough to layer on armor without melting, but warm enough that the joints wouldn't go stiff from the cold. bulblins flocked the distant end of Hyrule Field, riding on wild boars as they protected their camp from potential raids.

"Just so you know," Link said, tugging on Epona's reigns, "the old girl and I are a little rusty. I haven't fought in months. Like… since I fought… you know, him."

Ashei gave a sassy smile. "Don't worry," she promised, mounting her black steed in a swift, single move. "I'll protect you." She drew her sword and tossed it into the air, letting it flip and then catching it again by the handle.

Link admired her for a second. She looked capable, which was his favorite thing about her. Her armor glinted in the sunlight. As usual, she was ready to take on the world. She was at home here. This was the kind of thing Ashei had been built for.

Fighting.

Link left his sword in its scabbard and instead turned to his bow, another thing which he had neglected for many months now. He readied an arrow and then held the bow to the side as Ashei propelled her horse forward. Link guided Epona forward, enjoying the feeling of the wind against his face as Epona continued to speed up. He caught up to Ashei and rode side-by-side with her.

Ashei was grinning.

"Ready?!" she called over the wind.

"Yeah," Link answered.

"CHARGE!"

The two went rocketing forward as the horses responded to the command. They raced over the crest of a hill, leaping over small stone walls as the bulblin camp drew closer. The small, goblin-like bandits glanced up in terror as the raid caught them by surprise.

Ashei was ruthless as she rode through the camp, leaping over tents and campfires. She took the blade of her sword and used it to cut a roasting pig from the branch that suspended it over a fire. The half-cooked pig tumbled into the cinders and snuffed out the fire completely.

Ashei cut hammocks down, dumping resting bandits onto the ground. She pulled a tablecloth from a set table, sending pots and pans flying in all directions. The young woman flew through the camp gleefully, wreaking havoc upon her opponents as if she were throwing them a party.

Link was the one who had to deal with the consequences. All hell broke loose as the bandits rushed to their boars, readying fiery arrows and aiming them in Link's direction. He returned the favor, aiming arrows at the legs of the boars in the hopes of promoting their collapse.

A few bulblins charged in his direction and Link rushed to meet them, halting at the last second and slicing the saddle from the pig with his sword. The bandits and the saddle slid from the hog's back and landed on the ground with a thud.

Figuring that this was a pretty solid tactic, Link continued to slice the saddles and the bridles until several bulblins had been forcibly dismounted from their steeds.

Most of all Link was careful to aim poorly enough that nobody—including himself—was seriously injured. This was purely for the thrill of the fight, not for the sake of killing. This, Ashei had promised.

But would she hold true to that promise?

Two cups of coffee. A tin of biscuits. A cut of meat. Napkins. Forks. A few flowers from Telma's hanging plant—hopefully, she wouldn't notice. All balanced on a single wooden tray.

Lastly, Ilia nabbed Shad's field journal from the corner of the room. She slid it onto the tray and then began the perilous journey upstairs, nudging the upstairs door open with her toe. She cantered down the corridor, turning to push Shad's door open with her backside. She entered the room backwards, glanced over her shoulder, and grinned.

"I'm back," she said. Shad grinned at her absurd entrance. Figuring that it might make him feel better, Ilia continued backpedaling toward his bed.

"Watch out for—"

Ilia screamed as she stumbled over a rogue stack of books and fell over. The tray went flying out of her arms and landed a ways away, spilling coffee and biscuits all over the place.

"Sorry!" she cried, scrambling to recover the lost articles. "That's my fault, I was trying to be—Oh…."

Ilia turned to Shad in horror. His eyes were wide.

"My book…" he whispered. "Get my book!"

Ilia grabbed the book, flipping through the coffee-sodden pages in terror.

"Shad—Farore, Shad, I'm so, so sorry…." She continued glancing over the pages. Several of the pages had become illegible. She took a few shaky breaths, poring over the ruined documents.

And then she began to cry.

The fight wore on late into the afternoon. Ashei had seemingly limitless energy, whereas Link was beginning to tire out. The bandits had called for reinforcements, something that neither Hylian nor Human had foreseen. Ashei had been pretty excited when the back-up bandits charged in to make the fight a little more interesting.

And as much as Link liked a good fight—he did, he really did—he really was rusty and it had been too long since he had fought. He had become a little weaker. A bit of his strength had gone away, along with his drive.

Which was why it was no surprise when a bulblin rode up behind him and clubbed him from the side.

Link went flying off of Epona and landed face-down in the dirt, pain shooting through his body. He would have stood instantly but as soon as he tried his vision blurred and he collapsed again.

The bulblin who had forced Link's dismount now approached the crumpled body, flipping Link with his foot so he was facing the sky. The bandit leapt on top of Link's body and pinned him to the ground.

"How dare you?!" the bulblin spat through the cowl around his chin. "How dare you and this girl come and raid our camp? When we are not prepared, when we are at rest?!" The bandit narrowed his beady yellow eyes. "Say your prayers, Hylian." And with that, the bulblin pulled out a small knife; he lunged—

A blur crossed Link's line of vision, knocking the bulblin from Link's chest. Link glanced over in shock at Ashei, who had taken the bandit by surprise and who now had him cornered between the ground and her readied arrow.

"Don't you dare!" she cried, absolutely livid. "He hasn't fought unfairly and you haven't got the right to kill him!"

The bandit growled and then knocked her bow out of line. He scampered to his feet and lunged at her with his knife. In turn, Ashei pulled out a sword; the knife caught and she pushed the bandit over once more. She threw herself in his direction, sword out, aiming for his heart—

"STOP!" Link shouted, his voice cracking. Ashei and the bandit froze. Link struggled to his feet stumbled over to the quarreling pair. "Don't kill him!" he begged. He started Ashei straight in the eyes. "You promised. You promised we wouldn't kill anyone. I—" he stopped when he realized that the battle had slowed. Everyone had stopped dead, watching Link and listening to what he had to say.

Even Ashei was taken aback. "You what?"

"I don't want to hurt any more of them. I hurt them enough during the… during the Dark Days."

The bandit stared at Link in fear. Link looked back at the bandit and smiled. "You've built a magnificent fortress," he said, referring to the camp. "I once took down an entire camp in the middle of the desert. I have no intentions of doing it again—believe me." He turned back to Ashei. "Come on. Let's go."

Ashei gave a brief nod and then they went to mount their horses once more.

"I guess it did get boring after awhile," Ashei muttered under her breath.

"Wait!" the bandit's voice sounded from behind them. Link pivoted around on his heel, grasping Epona's reigns tightly.

"What?"

"A debt is owed to Mister…"

"Link," Link clarified.

"Mister Link, you have done me a great service," the bandit said.

A bandit standing nearby spoke up. "Mister Link has spared Mildred's life," he explained.

Link stared in confusion. "Who's Mildred?" he asked.

"I am Mildred," the bandit answered.

Link's eyes widened in shock. "You're a girl bulblin?!" he cried, absolutely stunned. He turned to Ashei. "There are girl bulblins?!" he repeated.

The bandit looked fairly amused. "Yes," he—no, she—answered. "I am female, and I am indebted to you with my life. I must repay you—"

"This oughtta be good," Ashei muttered under her breath.

"—must repay you with servitude."

Ashei broke out into a fit of silent laughter.

"Oh, that really won't be necessary," Link promised.

"But it is necessary," Mildred countered. "I must be your personal servant until I am allowed to go free."

Now Link looked seriously uncomfortable. "And when will that be?"

"I can go free once I have in turn saved your life… Master Link."

Link stared at Mildred in discomfort. Then he turned to Ashei, who was still dying of laughter. Then, he turned back to the bulblin.

"And what if I say no?" he asked.

"I will be regarded as highly dishonorable," Mildred explained. "Then I will be punished and shamed for being considered weak."

"Well, this is just great," Link harrumphed, wondering what he had just gotten himself into. He was literally making deals with bulblins—bulblins—he had slaughtered countless of their kind during the Dark Days and now one owed him its worthless life.

Great.

"Get on the horse," Link finally grumbled, wondering how he would ever explain to Telma that he was housing a bulblin bandit in the bar. Mildred mounted Epona behind Link and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"I hope you'll forgive me for trying to kill you," Mildred begged.

"Yeah, yeah," Link muttered, turning to face Ashei one last time before leaving. She glanced at the two on the horse and wiggled her eyebrows in a terribly suggestive manner.

"I hate you," Link said very clearly, and Ashei just smirked before taking off for Castle Town with Link and Mildred in tow.

"Are you sure you're not upset about your book?" Ilia asked, sitting at the foot of the bed as Shad attempted to decipher the soiled pages.

Shad sighed in exasperation and placed his journal on the nightstand. "Forget about the damn book," he finally said. "It's important but I would hate to see you fret over it."

"But that's your life's work…" Ilia mourned.

"Don't worry," Shad said. "I'm only nineteen. I've got a lot of life left in me."

Ilia eyed the cast on his leg. "Sure doesn't look like it," she mumbled.

"I've put a lot of work into my research," Shad continued. "I picked up where my father left off. It's his dream, anyway, not mine."

Ilia caught Shad's eye. "Why do you do it, then?" she asked.

"I owe it to him," Shad answered. "I don't want to let him down…"

"You said they died of illness?" Ilia asked.

"Yeah," Shad answered. "A plague went around almost ten years ago. It wiped out a lot of Castle Town."

"I—I never knew that," Ilia stammered.

"It never reached farther than Hyrule Proper," Shad explained. "It's what killed a lot of people, though. Both of Princess Zelda's parents, Auru's wife, my parents, and countless others were killed. And it wasn't just the Hylians and humans, either. It killed off the Zora king, several Goron elders… it was a powerful virus. Nobody could protect themselves against it no matter how hard they tried. You see, it all has to do with the pathogens…." Shad then launched into a long conversation describing viruses that made absolutely no sense to Ilia.

"You should be a doctor," Ilia joked when he had finally finished. "You seem very passionate about the subject."

"Well," Shad said, fidgeting and turning red, "I always thought I might like to be a medic, yes. I find the topic of science fascinating. But I feel like I would be doing my father ill to abandon his dream… he likes history, you see, and so I feel obligated to be passionate on the subject as well. That's why it's so important to me, the research. Because I feel like… like I need to finish what he started. I don't want to fail him." Shad turned to look back out the small window. He had started tearing up as he spoke.

"I'm sorry," Ilia repeated.

Shad gave a watery smile. "It's just a book."

"What I mean to say is that I'm sorry you feel that way. You know," she mused, "my mother liked sewing. She liked needlepoint and poetry and she was always practicing discipline, manners, handwriting… but I don't feel the need to be like her, even if she's dead. I like being outside. I like riding and I like nature. I like adventure and art and horses." She took Shad's hand and squeezed it. "You don't have to live your father's life if it's not what you want, just like I don't have to live my mother's."

Shad shook his head. "I'm afraid you don't understand," he said. "You and I come from very different families and we value very different things. You'll come to find that many people around here—Auru, Ashei, me, even Princess Zelda—we're always careful not to disappoint people. We want to achieve something worth achieving because we want to be appreciated."

Ilia pulled her hand away. "Well, I believe that you've only got one life, and so you should live it the way you want. Because once you die, it's over. Heck, once you grow up, it's over. Because you run out of time and options and once you're old you lose all your ambition."

"You've been inflicted with the teenage spark of rebellion," Shad observed.

"You're a teenager, too!" Ilia argued. "Don't tell me you've never felt rebellious!"

"Haven't I told you already?!" he countered. "Yes, sometimes I wish I led a different life. Yes, I would rather be a scientist than a historian. But it's like I said—people like me, we can't just be whatever we want! And neither can you!"

"People can be whatever they want, no matter their age, gender, or their parents!" Ilia decided. "Just look at Ashei! She's a knight, and she's a girl!"

"And do you think she always wanted that?" asked Shad, speaking quietly through gritted teeth. "We don't choose our own fate! Our fate chooses us. We can't fight it, there's no such thing as following dreams! We do what we have learned to do and have been instructed to do. So what if I'd like to be a doctor? My fate ordained that I would be a historian, as my father was before me, and his father was before him. I was given no choice."

Ilia stared at Shad coldly. "Well I don't believe in fate," she said. She turned on her heel to march out of the room.

"Thank you," Shad said quietly. Ilia paused and glanced over her shoulder. "For the food, I mean. Even if you spilled it everywhere. It was a nice gesture."

Ilia rolled her eyes and left. But as she shut the door behind her, a smile formed on her face.

Shad may have been stubborn, but he was far too civil to ever really argue with.

Besides, she'd convince him to follow his dreams. She didn't care if it took the rest of her life. She liked him far too much.

THIS UPDATE. It is so incredibly overdue, please forgive me. I've been so, so busy ever since I got back from Scotland, and I didn't realize how much time had passed since chapter 6.

Next chapter: It is the last night in Telma's Bar before Telma returns. Link and the gang decide to throw a wild house party, which leads to a drunk kissing game that could lead to some very awkward situations… Let's just say, Link might never forgive himself for this one.