Aria was astounded by the size of Hyrule's Castle Town. Outside she'd known it would be large, but she didn't realize quite how huge it was until they'd entered the guarded gates. They weren't the same guards that had denied the gerudos entry- at least she didn't think they were? The guards all seemed to look the same, rather lanky in build and their heads covered by the helmets leaving little to no features for the woman to recognize.

The trip there had been uneventful, except for Aria having to discard the saddle Link had given to her. Poor Titan had gotten quite a few saddle sores from the ill-fitted thing and had become reluctant to even let it near his back. Eventually Aria had just tied all the pack in a way that made a vague rectangle shape on the stallion's back- evening out the load.

The two headed through town, having left their horses in the temporary care of the stables outside- there were a few pens set up for horses, and they'd requested the two stick together. The marketplace was a lot bigger than the one the gerudos held. There was a large variety of foods and miscellaneous items at the stalls, that Link didn't have the heart to drag her away. As far as he was concerned, they had time to spare. It just meant more time in her presence. Something, he was sure, he would sorely miss when she was back with her family.

Aria ended up getting a few things, a few bangles, a new belt, and leather arm guards for when she used the bow and arrow. She loved the intricate designs on the leather, something that Link had to explain to her. He told her the story of the Triforce and how it came around, what each symbol and stone meant. It was a rather interesting version, and although it didn't link up to all that the gerudo had told her, it also made some sense as to see both sides of the same coin. She also bought a new set of wraps for binding her chest, her old ones very well used. Link eventually tugged her away from the merchant stalls after a good time.

"Come on that package won't wait forever"

"What's in the package that's so important?"

"It's a surprise."

"Surprise like a fairy in a bottle or more like a chu in your pb&j sandwich surprise?"

"You don't put chus in your sandwiches, maybe chu jelly but not chus themselves."

"Exactly."

"Actually I think the chu would die upon seeing someone come at it with a fork."

"Link that's not the poi-"

" No, No, No. You started this conversation."

"Wait a grass-hacking second, you didn't tell me what's so important about this package."

"Oh would you look at that we're already here!"

"Link!"

"Too late. Let's get the package!"

Aria huffed, following the slightly more obnoxious blond into the store. It was a nice looking shop, most of the items hanging on the back shelf where the manager was, standing erect and twiddling their thumbs, probably a nervous habit of theirs.

"Hello! I'm here from a package from kakariko village. Name is under Link."

"Ah yes, the sa-" Link coughed and motioned towards Aria next to him.

"Oh! Of course, of course! My apologies. Your package is right here." The man behind the counter lifted a large box into the counter. Link handed him a bag of money telling him to keep the change. He hefted it on his shoulder as if it hardly weighed 10 pounds.

When had Link become so… muscled? Why hadn't she noticed in the few months they had been traveling together? at Link some of it made sense. He was cute. Heck, he was extremely handsome and funny, friendly… but he was her friend and that wasn't a line she wanted to cross with him. Maybe being with Micah had just been an unconscious distraction from all of the odd feelings for Link? A flash of red crossed her mind. Or him. The night with Micah hadn't quelled that particular desire. It had let out a bit of stress. That must have been what Nabs was talking about when they went to Kakariko. A stress relief. On the other hand, thinking back on the time spent with Micah, why had she just downright agreed to having sex with him? Sure, it had been a long time but that couldn't nearly be all of it. She almost regretted it now though. Even stressed, it wasn't something she could see herself normally doing often. It didn't mean she didn't enjoy it- she just couldn't see herself doing it as frequently as the other Gerudo. She had been exceptionally bold that night. Maybe it was the joy of not being sick anymore, or finding someone that challenged her training, either way it had been a -she supposed- a lapse In judgment. In the end, Micah would understand a one time fling. He'd probably known they wouldn't see each other again afterwards. However, Link… she had a feeling if she had tried anything with him it wouldn't have ended the same way. She would rather have lost control of her powers and burnt an entire forest down than take advantage of Link and hurt him in that way.

Link lead her through the marketplace and back towards the stable. She supposed it was time to get back on the road.

Their horses looked up from the small round pen they had been grazing in. Titan trotted over snorting enthusiastically. Link lifted the package and let the stallion sniffle it.

"So it's a large package for the horse, huh?"

Link grinned at her teasing. He rubbed Titan's forelock before handing the heavy package to Aria.

"Open it."

"Don't we need to deliver it to someone?"

"Delivery is complete. Open it."

Suspicious, Aria slowly opened the package. It was a saddle, gorgeous with a red saddle pad and trimming. It was clearly made to last.

"Happy Birthday."

"Wha- but it's no-"

"Yeah I know it's not your birthday, but you've been with us for a good while and I just…"

"Us?"

"Ordon, Kakariko, all the time we spent with the Gorons… It's a collaboration effort from all of us, and it's something we knew you would be needing."

"When did you find the time?"

"When you were sick. Titan sure is particular about who touches him. He still almost kicked me when I was getting his measurements. He's a good steed. I wouldn't mind having another one like him around. I'm sure Epona would be up to the task if you ever decide to breed him."

"Wow. I just… Wow. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You're very welcome! It's been great traveling with you. I kinda wish it could've lasted longer, but I'm sure your family misses you. Just, ya know- should you ever want to visit, or you need a place to stay. Ordon is always open to you."

"Thanks."

"Come on, I bet we can reach the canyon before dusk."

"Oh! Right, of course." Aria blushed and tacked up Titan, who looked all the more proud of a horse with the red furred saddle pad, the red tassels, and the symbol of the triforce gleaming gold in the sunlight right on his chest. It reminded her of the gerudo. Mostly the red of their hair…and one particular Gerudo. Gosh she missed them.

It wasn't like she was trying to replace them, or him, it was just… She didn't know for sure anymore. Would she miss Link as much as she missed her sisters in arms? It's not like she could bring bhim with her. He belonged in Ordon.

"Hey. We'll get you home soon. I promise." Link placed a hand on her shoulder, reading wrong into her expression. Still, Aria smiled and nodded, giving the blond a one armed hug.

With that they took off. The saddle was a perfect fit for the bay stallion. The horse didn't protest, and the fur pad was soft to the touch, easing any strain the saddle could possibly have on the stallion's back. They cantered a good amount of the way, the grass easy on the horses' hooves. The sun had just begun to lower in the sky when they came upon the edges of the plateau that signified they were getting closer towards the gerudo territory.

"HEYYY!"

The froze and turned ever so slightly.

It was blindingly white, rather fast, and had a very irritating voice. They had a large red banner on their back, and Link relaxed. Aria took some time before she understood what the banner meant.

The postman huffed, jogging in place before pulling out a package.

"To a Miss Aria! From a Micah Zora!"

"Oh.. um thank you."

"Of course! Well, gotta run, more letters to deliver."

"Huh. We've hardly been gone two days."

"Well, guess we'll find out when you open it."

Aria untied the bow, catching a small note that tried to flutter away in the wind.

i Heard you talking about magic with Link, Hopefully this fits. It'll amp your base magic ~ Micah

P.s. It goes under the wraps. /i

"Huh. So it helps my magic? Awesome."

"Let's see if it fits!"

Aria raised an eyebrow at Link, smirking.

"Oh. I'm so sorry!" The hylian blushed, the tips of his ears turning red, before he dismounted and turned away.

Aria let out a soft sigh, dismounting. She set her dark cloak on Titan's saddle, before feeling a spark of dark magic. She grasped the spark in the shadows at her feet and pulled it up around her- encasing herself in a box of shadows- difficult to see through. In the privacy of the shadow, she quickly undressed and redressed this time with the blue gift from Micah on- and her new binding wraps over it. It.. it didn't look bad at all. In fact it looked great with the wraps over it- better than if she'd put a shirt on it. Over it she strapped on her belt, which now had blue leather straps attached to it. It took even more effort getting the shadows to dispers. Of all the magic she'd done, shadow and darkness tended to be the most clingy- desperate for any attention.

"Whoa. That was cool. I mean, you look great! That shadow thing was really awesome though!"

"T-Thanks." Aria rubbed the back of her head, her legs shaking slightly.

"Sure takes a lot out of you though."

"I don't…" She took a few moments to get a hold of herself. "I don't normally work with shadow magic. It's really clingy and difficult to control."

"Ahh. Well. It was amazing, and you look amazing. Let's get to the bridge and make camp."

"Yeah. That's probably for the best."

Setting up for the night right across from the bridge, they noticed it had a few more ropes added and even a few planks on one side.

"Looks like repairs are finally under way, but I don't see how you're going to get across."

"Well.. you.. your horse jumps it."

"Titan? He jumped that? Is that how you… fell?"

"Yeah. I know we can jump it though. I think we took the jump too early, and he was just so tired. I know we can do it tomorrow."

Titan rubbed his head against Aria's arm, as if knowing exactly what they were talking about. The stallion knew they were close to home. They'd make it this time.

The rest of their night passed by silently. Hardly anyone came to this side of Hyrule, except for the workers, and their tent was set up on the other side- however they managed that, Aria hadn't a clue. It was quite a few hours before the sun rose. Aria nudged Link awake.

"Hey. I'm gonna head home. You should too- it'll be too hot soon."

Link nodded, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Aria had finished tacking Titan, and the stallion was more than eager to take off. If there was one thing she wouldn't miss, it would be being mistaken for a Hylian.

"See you again some day, blondie" Aria grinned, kissing Link quick before she hopped on Titan's back and they took off like a rocket. Link was in a slight daze for a few moments, pressing his fingers to his lips, before he realized what she was doing. He stood up to see the bay and blue-black blur rush past him and then leap into the air right at the edge of the bridge's base. He let loose a breath he hadn't even realized he was holding in when he saw they actually made it across safely.

"Yeah.. soon I hope."

The desert didn't take long to heat up- and hour or two at best, and Aria forced Titan to slow down and take it easy. The stallion knew exactly where they were headed, and she knew if she allowed him to- the bay horse would run his heart out- to the point of breaking just to get home. She was excited too, but she didn't forget that it took at least two days of riding to reach the small desert town that they called home.

It must've been some time since there had been people at the oasis last. It looked practically untouched by humans, the pool quite a bit smaller than last she'd seen. It seemed like the land was taking a toll- and it was leaning towards the winter. The oasis should have been overflowing- touching the base of the trees. Such a harsh summer it must've been.

Aria dismounted, and ran her hand through the water, pulling on the depths of the oasis. It… it was connected to something, something larger and rushing beneath the sands- deeper beneath the sands. Aria closed her eyes, focusing on the pull of the magic, letting her mind flow into it like the water. She undressed and waded into the water, eyes closed. Taking a deep breath, she dove down. It didn't seem very far- the only minor issue being that she was running out of air- which was fixed by manipulating the element of water and it's connection with air. She took a quick gulp of air before reaching the bottom, where she could feel the rushing of water.

The water wasn't trickling out, but trickling in? She pressed her hand against the thin crack. There was a river? There was a river beneath the oasis! It must've been very old, untouched for years! She couldn't see the sparks- eyes closed now, but she could feel them, and she grabbed the one that felt like earth and willed it to crumble, to disintegrate to sand. It did so, and then she was overcome by a sudden rush of water bubbling in her direction.

She gasped for air as she surfaced, the water now licking at the base of the tree. Titan snorted, relaxed at her sudden appearance. She re-dressed, ignoring how her clothes stuck to her and hopped on Titan's back, not before refilling her canteen and letting the stallion get a good drink in.

The desert sun easily dried her clothes as she journey towards the village. It took three days to reach the entrance of the village. The guards weren't posted, and there seemed to be a huge commotion in the center of the town- towards the arenas.

"Alright! Are all entrants signed up?"

Aria dismounted and strode to the front of the crowd, a hush falling amongst them. She knew how they were. The tournament was supposed to be a private event. As far as they were concerned she had snuck in and they would play it off until the end, where it would matter the most.

"I'll join." Her voice muffled by her cloak.

"Ahh, a stranger! You cannot enter without a horse."

"I have a horse." She pointed towards Titan. There were a few whispers in the crowd, the tenseness growing.

"I don't know where you got that horse, stranger, but if you lose… you may just lose it and your life." Nabooru growled softly, just enough that Aria and anyone nearby could hear her, recognizing Titan by the crescent on his head.

"Alright! Now that we have all our contestants! Let the tournament begin! First challenge! Horseback archery!"

Shoot, well she hadn't had much practice with her bow as of late, but when she gripped the sturdy wood- it was like all those lessons came back in a blink of the eyes, the familiar weapon bending to her will. It took a good while to go through all the entrants, and she was the last one to go- she mounted Titan and magicked her hood to stay over her head. She didn't know why she was hiding her identity, but it just seemed like the thing to do. She didn't want them to stop the tournament on her behalf, although she sorely missed the lot of them.

Titan huffed impatiently as they trotted a few laps, before Nabooru gave the signal. They were off, flying by the targets like the wind- she breathed in, breathed out- shot. It was as if time slowed each time she did this- her memory serving her graciously.

"Perfect score!" Aria grinned. They'd been going so fast! She was only one of a few that had a perfect score, but that wasn't the only thing that would make the tournament winner.

Obstacle courses- both for human and horse.

Javelin toss.

Swordplay.

Staff skills.

Last, but not least, hand to hand combat.

Each one of these she practically flew through. It helped, that she knew most of the women that she faced off- knew how they moved, was taught how they fought. Aria realized very quickly in most of these fights she had the advantage of being trained other techniques.

It came down the hand to hand combat.

Faruin stood in the corner from her, pacing. She could tell her friend had grown in the past months. She had several new scars marring her features, but surely she was the same Faruin? They met in the center and bowed to each other, green eyes meeting gold. For a moment Faruin's eyes widened, but quickly narrowed- as if Aria's presence provoked her. Aria saw it coming, and quickly caught Faruin's hand that had struck forward- trying to rip off her hood.

"You'll have to try harder than that."

"By the time I'm done with you, you'll wished you'd never come here, or found that horse."

"I doubt it."

Faruin yelled, and lunged after her. Aria side-stepped her attack with ease, blocking the whirling kicks and punches that came next. Faruin had absolutely improved since she'd last seen her. There was a lot more force in those strikes- and Aria knew she wasn't holding back.

Aria blocked the rapid attacks for a good while, before giving into her urge to end the fight as quickly and as painlessly as possible. She caught Faruin's wrist, and before the gerudo could sweep her feet out from under her, Aria had her pinned to the ground with her knee- Faruin's wrist twisting painfully behind her back, while the gerudo's other hand

"Yield."

"Never!"

"Yield."

"You'll have to kill me first."

"Enough! Faruin, you've lost. The stranger has won hand to hand combat." Nabooru intervened, and Aria instantly let go of Faruin's wrist, jumping out of the way as Faruin stood up- trying once more to grab her hood.

"Stranger, you've reached the semi-finals. Faruin, you also have reached the semi-finals. The semi-finals allow magic, and any weapon you personally own. You have 30 minutes to rest and prepare."

Aria nodded and strode off in the direction of Titan, who had trotted a ways off when a few of the gerudo had tried to grab him while Aria was busy. Amazing, how the stallion knew this was his home, but still refused to let the other gerudos take him away from Aria while she was incognito.

She didn't eat much, but she did stretch out her muscles and re-wrap her hands. She tossed her shoulder pauldrons into her packs. She knew Aviel and Nabooru would be on their guard. Speaking of her friends, she still hadn't seeing their King since she'd arrived. Wouldn't he have been the one to allow her to compete? Maybe they were setting up a grand entrance for him?

Thirty minutes went by rather quickly when you were preparing for one of the hardest battles in your life. Hood up, she joined the crowd.

Faruin was up first. She certainly didn't make it look easy. She must have been training with Aveil though, or Aveil was going easy on her, because they moved like dances across the sand arena. Like two felines, they twisted and turned, punches thrown, kicks landing. Aveil won, but Faruin was still allowed onto the next round. This was where two gerudos grabbed her shoulders.

"You're not allowed to see the battle with Nabooru, that would be cheating." Aria nodded.

"Of course. I will be by my horse, when my turn comes." The gerudo seemed rather shocked that she was so complacent, but said nothing else- instead returning to their positions watching the fight. There was certainly a lot of noise coming from the direction of the arena. Aria looked up a few times, mostly when the crowd gasped or loudly cheered.

She knew it was over when the two gerudo from before came for her.

First was Aveil. Aveil had a few scrapes and cuts on her shoulder, but didn't look too bad.

"Long time no see."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but if you think you can win this, you're dead wrong. Mostly dead." Aveil growled as she made the first move. Aria dodged to the side, but Aveil was obviously expecting it- going through with the rest of her punch, turning in to it. Aria hissed softly as it made contact with her side. Instead she grabbed a staff that was on the ground, spun it, and motioned for Aveil to come at her.

Aveil grabbed another staff laying on the ground and struck again.

"Who are you?"

"A friend."

"You- i huff/i don't look like a friend."

"Oh? Maybe you should look closer."

"Maybe… I… Will!" Aveil pushed forward, trying to slam the staff in Aria's face, but Aria was ready for the attack, blocking with one end, leaning backwards, while slamming the bottom end into the back of Aveil's knee. Aveil yelped and crumpled to the ground. Before she could get the chance to get back up, the end of the staff was pressed slightly into her neck.

"End." Aria pulled her staff away and offered her hand to help Aveil up. Aveil looked between her hand and the hooded face, eyes flickering between the two before she reluctantly allowed Aria to help her to the feet. The crowd was dead silent.

It was a while before Nabooru spoke.

"Stranger. You have defeated General Aveil. You are clearly a great fighter, but you are no match for me. Do you yield, and we may spare your life."

"I do not yield. I will fight you. I will fight the strongest you have to give me."

"So be it."

Nabooru jumped into the arena. Aria was given no time to think as a spear came straight for her head. She rolled forward to dodge it, turning on her heel just in time to catch the bladed end with a staff. The staff- one of the training ones- splintered and Arira tossed it forward as she moved to avoid the blade piercing her.

Nabooru was relentless. She was fierce, and she was angry. Aria kicked off weighted shoes as quickly as possible, rolling out of the way of another attack. At least now she had a chance. The sand was hot against her feet, burning even.

"Anything goes?"

"Everything goes."

"As you wish." Aria darted out of the way, and behind her a trail of fire burst from the sand. Nabooru shouted, jerking away from the fire.

"What.. who? Who are you?!"

"You'll find out soon."

"Damn you…" Nabooru rubbed what Aria could only assume was sand, from her eyes before lunging back at her opponent. Aria ducked, grabbing the wood of the spear and gave a burst of power to its spark. The wood twisted, turning green, the metal blade of the spear falling uselessly to the ground.

Nabooru rushed forward, landing a punch on Aria's gut. So she was going hand to hand now? Aria was fine with that. Aria did her best to block and return the punches where she could. Nabooru was very tight and controlled in her fury- and her openings were easy to spot, it was just very difficult to hit them in such close combat, especially with how quick Nabooru was throwing her punches.

Still, Aria got the upperhand after a while- both sweating and panting. Nabooru's anger was fading, and with it- the force of her punches. They'd been fighting for a good hour or two, and it was wearing on them. Aria got a good knock on Nabooru's head and the older woman stumbled. It was just enough for Aria to press forward her attack and bring Nabooru to her knees.

"End it."

"What? It's over already."

"I mean. End me. You've won. Finish it."

"Shut up, don't be stupid."

"You've won- don't gloat about it."

"I haven't won. These were the semi-finals right? Where's the final fight?"

"Gone. You won."

"Gone. Gone?" Aria pulled her cloak off, ignoring the collective gasp.

"Where is your strongest fighter? Where is Ganondorf?"