The weather took a turn for the worst as they made their way to Castle Town. It was a few days journey, and the sky overhead rumbled with an intensity Aria hadn't seen before. It was like a large beast's roar. Link frowned at the clouds above them, dark and intimidating. Out of habit, she asked if a sand storm was approaching and he'd laughed a little, shaking his head.
"No. We don't get sandstorms in Hyrule. This is an actual storm, a bad one by the looks of it. We need to find shelter before it gets dark."
"Wait, so it's just a bit of rain?"
"That," he pointed to an extremely large dark cloud amongst the cloud-filled sky ", isn't going to be a ilittle/i rain. That's going to be a windy torrent that'll soak you to the bone. I wouldn't suggest riding out in a storm like this, even if it were an emergency."
"Oh, so I suppose we should find a village then."
Link nodded and urged them onwards at a quicker pace- not willing to be caught by the storm before they reached shelter.
Bad luck.
They did reach the nearest town, but not before the rain hit them. The town stable was nearly full, and they'd had to dry off, groom, feed, and water their own horses before they trudged to the local inn. It was dark when they reached the inn, it's sign barely visible by a lit lantern. Sullenly they opened the door. Everyone in the inn stopped and stared as Link stepped in first, followed by Aria. They pulled their hoods down, basking in the warmth of the inn. Nervous, Aria followed Link to the bar where he asked for two rooms. She could feel several pairs of eyes burning on the back of her head.
The bartender looked them over slowly, eyes lingering on their ears, before offering them the two rooms. It was much cheaper than the boarding at Kakariko's Tavern from when she was there with the Gerudo. She didn't doubt that Hylians raised their prices around the red-headed women due to their prejudice. Their price included one plate of dinner- whatever was being cooked that night, and one plate of breakfast the next morning for each of them. No tough goat jerky for dinner that night.
They sat down at a table near the fireplace, having hung their cloaks to dry. Talk slowly returned to the room as the other temporary inhabitants of the inn, seemed to ignore them. Aria couldn't shake the feeling that someone was staring at them still. Link noticed as well, laying a calloused hand on her shoulder a few moments before a waitress brought over their food. It was a thick creamy soup, potatoes and pieces of steaming meat mixed in some spices and herbs.
The two of them hardly talked as they slowly ate their food, enjoying the warmth of the fire and casually looking around for the person who was staring them down. Several people had left by the time they were halfway through either the lumpy soup. Exasperated, Aria made to stand. Link grabbed her arm and a soft hand landed on her shoulder, guiding her back into her seat as a stranger joined their table. This stranger still wore their cloak. They didn't speak for a while, Aria could feel their eyes tracing all of her and Link's features slowly, and she felt not unlike an experiment being studied by a scientist. Link broke the silence first,
"Who are you?"
His voice was drowned out by the rumbling thunder overhead, the chandeliers shaking. The figure turned to him slowly, taking their sweet time.
"A friend."
"A friend of whom?" Aria asked trying to get straight to the point.
"Yours."
"Well, Friend, what news do you have for us tonight?" Link beamed, ignoring the annoyed look Aria gave him.
"News from the River Zoras, they have a major infestation of Octoroks. They're paying good money, but very few are brave enough to fight the rock spitting beasts."
"Octoroks? What are those?" Aria asked, trying to imagine the intimidatingly large, rock spitting beasts. Were the rocks explosive? Were the beasts larger than a horse? Maybe they had scales?
"They are amphibious round creatures. Odd tentacles instead of legs, with round mouths and large soul-less eyes. They spit rocks at those passing by and when you get too close the hide under the water where you can't hit them. A menace."
"Aren't the Zora a water people? Can't they just kill the beasts underwater?"
"They blend too well, and hide in the smallest of coves and places in the river. How do you not know this?"
"She's never been near the river or Lake Hylia. We have a very small, friendly lake that goes through Ordon" Link butted in, putting a hand on Aria's shoulder.
"Ahh, then perhaps you should leave it to some more experienced warrior." The man stood up, grasping his cloak to him. "It is time I took my leave. I bid you a good night, warriors." He gave a slight bow and left through the front door.
"Well, that was odd, but hey do you want to go try to reduce the infestation. I know you want to get home, but you've hardly seen Hyrule and.." Link was like an energized bunny, his blue eyes sparkling in the candlelight. Aria groaned inwardly, before reluctantly nodding. She supposed it couldn't hurt to allow Link this diversion from their determine path. Certainly, after all of this he would return to Ordon and continue on with the small town life.
"Well, if we're going to be going to river tomorrow, we should get some sleep." Aria stretched, and went upstairs to the bedroom she'd rented. It was small, with a single bed, a dresser, and a trunk to hold all her things. She peeled the wet clothes off of her, hanging them off the side of the dresser to dry, and wiggled under the sheets. It took a while to warm them up, but once they were she passed out.
Titan and Aria trudged through the scorching desert, no water in sight, no oasis nearby, no cacti or shrubs. It was a complete wasteland, the desert cracked and dry, the land hard beneath her feet. She looked to the sky, not a single cloud in sight, the sky itself so bright that she couldn't see any color in it. Everything just seemed an odd glowing white. Small bright yellow particles floated in the air around her. Where was she?
In a flash of light,a bright being swirled before her- not unlike a giant snake. It tilted its head side to side, studying her.
*You can not save him in your current state*
Save him? Save who? Link?
*You must seek aid from the Great Fairy*
Who? Where?
*Seek her in the Cave of Ordeals in the Gerudo Desert when you are ready*
Ready? When would she be ready? What qualified for her being 'ready'?
*You are not ready yet. Learn. Grow. Fight. Remember mercy*
The figure disappeared and suddenly she was engulfed in flames, not unlike the volcanic insides of Mount Doom. Falling deeper into the lava, it shifted into water and instead of burning, she was drowning. Aria choked, bubbles flying out of her mouth, stealing precious air. She burst through the water and then she was free falling, Odd large birds surrounded her, diving through the clouds in the sky. They were brightly colored, bills large for their bodies, almost as if they could spoon buckets of water from the waters she had fallen from.
When she finally did land, it was once more in a completely barren desert. Her bare feet touched the ground, and it reached into her like the will of the vines when she first came to the Gerudo Desert. Life and plant life burst from the ground beneath her bare feet, reaching towards the scorching sun as though it had been hiding in darkness for so long and was trying to reach the sun itself.
Aria fell and an array of wildflowers burst from the grass. Where her hand touched, grew a small stream of water to feed the plant life. It all seemed too easy.
A darkness came over the land, thunder clouds rolling through the sky blocking out the sun. The plants withered before the darkness and the stream turned red with blood. The sky burst with fire and a dark beast rose before it, crazed golden and red eyes staring at her. Drool dripped from its mighty jaws, melting all that it touched.
It lunged for her.
Aria awoke in a panic, clutching the blanket to her chest. She rolled to her side, glancing out the window. It was still raining, it was still dark out. The rain pattered against the roof, leaving large streaks of water on the window as lightning flashed in the distance. Sighing, she laid her head back down on the feathery pillow and went back to sleep, ignoring the scratchy feeling in her throat.
The next morning she woke to the right side of her nose swollen and stuffed. Her body ached, her throat was more a little scratchy and moving, even to lift her head off the pillow hurt. A knock at the door was what woke her up.
"Come in." It hurt to speak.
Link slowly opened the door, bringing in a plate of steaming food and stopped short when he saw the feverish glint in Aria's eyes and the uncontrolled shivering.
"Heh. Guess I should get you some soup instead." He set the food on the side table and walked over to her. Aria flinched when he reached his hand out to her and instantly regretted it, her body protesting in the form of a phlegmy cough. He pulled out a small cloth from one of the dresser drawers and passed it to her, before checking her forehead.
"Yep. A fever. Must be thanks to the weather. You'll adjust soon, until then we'll just save the octorok hunting for later." He helped her settle back down in the bed, plumping her pillow a bit before leaving with the food he'd just brought up. Aria shuddered slightly, curling in on herself as best she could. It just wasn't hot enough.
Link came back upstairs several minutes later carrying a steaming bowl of something Aria could only assume was supposed to be soup or something of the sort. Link helped prop her up on the pillows so she could sit up. He nestled the bowl in a bunch of blankets so it wasn't a precarious balancing act to not spill anything.
"Eat, but slowly. Small sips, small bites." He handed her the spoon.
Aria took a bite.
Her stomach growled with ravenous hunger as she swallowed that first time. The second spoonful came much quicker than that first one, and the third one was even faster. Link grabbed the spoon from her hand and she whine pitifully.
"That isn't slow. I know you're hungry, but if you eat like that you're just going to make yourself sicker."
Aria stared at him with sad green eyes. He hesitantly gave her the spoon back. Slowly, despite her urges, Aria sipped on the soup. It was painful waiting several moments between each sip- sips that weren't even spoonfuls or a mouthful. Link watched over her for a good quarter hour before he took the bowl from her, tucked her in and told her to get some rest.
Sleep didn't come easily. When Aria did get some sleep, it was in short spurts and she always woke up shivering. Link had come in once or twice to help her eat and to offer her more blankets. He'd already paid for two more days of room and board for her. The storm outside her window had yet to cease.
Left alone with nothing to do for hours, Aria wiggled on the bed for a bit, slept for a bit, and then successfully reached one of her sacks without leaving the warmth of the bed. It was the sack with seeds of all sorts. She didn't have a label or anything for each seed, so she had no idea which seed turned into what plant. Aria rolled the seeds around in her hands, studying each one- memorizing their texture, their sizes and shapes. Each one was uniquely different, though some of them were from the same species of plant. She could convince some of the seeds to grow. They grew rather easily, the moisture in the air a perfect environment for them to bloom and flower. Convincing them to return into seed form, to sink back into themselves and reverse the effect had been harder and when she was through she was left exhausted. It helped her pass out, to a point where she could ignore the phlegm tickling her throat.
The next day she felt even more miserable, waking up to the tickling sensation in her throat that sent her into a wild coughing fit. Her diaphragm aching so much that a the strongest cough, she was forced to find a bucket and empty the contents of her stomach in it. Forcefully, Aria tried to slow her breathing, swallowing back coughs and mucus as best she could. Carefully she laid back down in bed, propping her head up as high as possible.
Aria hardly saw Link for that entire week. She supposed he was busy helping out people, or doing some adventure or another without her. What she did know was that her room and meals were already paid for and he did come by each day, though she often wasn't awake for it she knew he came by due to the little notes and trinkets he left for her. Every once in awhile she caught him leaving, but didn't have the energy to speak. She hadn't felt this weak in a long time, perhaps she could even say it was similar to her first day of training under Koume and Kotake. There were more nightmares every night. Even sick she couldn't get the rest she needed from what she was beginning to question- if her dreams were really visions or just fears twisted and illusioned from sleep and sickness.
Sometimes they weren't so bad. Sometimes she was just lost in the desert, no Titan to help lead her onwards. Sometimes a Poe with a lantern would lead her around for a good while before it grinned, swirled in the air, and left her stranded, lost in the desert. Other times she would be swept up in a desert storm, her body disappearing in the sands. Then there were times where she would lose control of her magic and it would swallow her in a large variety of ways- darkness being one of the most common. She would wake up, gasping for breath those nights- the void sending shivers down her spine.
It was a good while before the sickness began to ease up. The first thing she did was have a bath drawn and soaked in the tub for a good while before dressing and going down stairs for food. Link grinned at her from at the bar.
"Feeling better?"
"Quite a bit." Aria's voice was still thick and deeper than her natural voice.
"Still got a bit of a cold, but you think you're ready to head on to our next adventure?"
"Adventure?" Aria's head swam in a confused fog for a moment.
"Yeah, don't you remember saying you wanted to go to the river? It's still pretty infested, but I've helped a bit with dwindling down the octorok population, so it shouldn't be too hard for a tough girl like yourself." The blonde hylian winked playfully swatting her on the arm. She gave a weak smile in return.
"Yeah, let's exercise the rest of this cold off. Shouldn't be too hard."
It was.
Aria was clumsy. Her hands couldn't seem to hold her staff well, as if she'd forgotten all her lessons in less than a week. The octoroks had no qualms with taking advantage of this as they shot the painful rocks the scooped up from the river-bed. Any time she got close to them, they would dive back into the water and swim a little ways farther, odd mouths filled with more rocks to pelt her with. Link seemed to enjoy playing around, using a tree limb to hit the rocks shot in his direction. Sometimes he'd hit them and the rocks would go flying into the river bed, other times he'd get a lucky shot and it'd hit one of the octoroks. The force of such a blow seemed to make the brightly colored beasts dizzy and they'd be too distracted to see the man in green running up to it, until it was too late and his sword had already plunged into it's slimey head.
She tried the same tactic with her staff, but with very little luck- by the time they moved away from the river she could feel her sides aching with the welts that the octoroks had left.
"Here, let me see." Link carefully lifted her shirt, hissing slightly when he saw the large red spots littered across her sides. Some of them were openly bleeding, others were just barely visible.
"I think the octoroks won that one." He gently brushed his finger down her side, raising cuccoo-bumps on Aria's arms.
"Yeah, well they had an advantage."
"Hey, we'll work on it. I met a few of the Zoras downstream. They're a nice bunch- really quick in the water. They're also great with spears- so they might be able to help you train with that thing." He motioned towards her staff. It was a gift from Ilia, made by Rusl, to help her defend herself. It was made from the strong wood of the trees in Ordon Woods. The wood was glossy from it's stain finish and dark. The ends were wrapped in engraved metal- the flat part showing the ordon goat symbol, to remind her of the people she'd left in the forest.
"Maybe tomorrow, when I'm not like this." She motioned towards the raised welts on her skin that had hardly gone down. Link nodded in agreement. They rested under the tree for a while before going after the octoroks once more. The beasts were beginning become fearful of the warriors and less and less were willing to pop out of the water and attack when the man in green came into sight.
By the time they returned to town, the sun was already setting. They fed and groomed their mounts before heading to the inn. Food was the last thing on Aria's mind, but she suffered to eat some before heading to her room and passing out- not bothering to crawl under the covers.
*Find the Cave of Ordeals*