Chapter 73 time! Whew, can't believe it's been just over a year since started this story! Thanks everyone for your support!
The next day after the situation with Gonaeti's pregnancy, Link and Nemisa were out in town for a walk. Aviel herself was still sick so she was restring at the palace. As the two of them went on their way, many of the Gerudo women greeted their king and he politely returned the greetings. Some were all too eager to give him a hug or a simple kiss on the cheek. One particular busty Gerudo gave him a big hug that buried his face into her cleavage.
"Look at you," grinned Nemisa in amusement at the exasperated look on Link's face after that last greeting, "I still remember you used to be so nervous about greeting your people, but now it's just a second nature to you, my love."
"Heh, I think that's because I'm not seeing them as just my people, I'm seeing them as my friends and acquaintances." chuckled Link.
"Yes, honestly I wish more leaders were like you and Lady Nabooru." Nemisa nodded, taking Link's hand and squeezing it.
She then noticed Link's gaze kept going towards one direction, and she saw he was looking in the distance at Sarami's medical clinic.
"You still worried about Dr. Sarami?" Nemisa asked, getting the hint.
"Yeah, especially after what she told us about the other day with that patient of her's." Link said, "She's putting a lot of pressure on herself because of it."
"How about we go check in on her then?" Nemisa proposed, and the two headed off to the clinic.
After being refereed by the receptionist, they went into Sarami's personal study, where she was laying back on her chair looking exhausted. There were numerous books laying around her desk and some notes everywhere.
Sarami stretched her arms upwards and yawned out, "Oh Link-sweetie, Nemisa, it's so good to see you two... I was just looking through a few books..."
"Just a few...?" Nemisa asked, looking over at the stacks of books around them.
"So what are these for?" Link asked, taking a book to look at.
"I asked Nabs if I could borrow some of the ancient literature that you all collected at the Hall of Knowledge to see if I could find anything that could help Gonaeti with her condition." sighed Sarami, taking off her glasses to clean them, "I ended up pulling another all-nighter and barely found anything."
"Hey come on, don't push yourself like that." Link said worriedly, as he put his hands on Sarami's shoulders and started rubbing them down, "Need me to relieve some of that tension?"
"Ooh!" the doctor blushed lightly and moaned out a little from his hand movements, "T-Thank you, I suppose I have been working myself too hard... but I can't stop worrying for Gonaeti and her child, and I'm running out of options..."
"If there's nothing in these books, do you have any other idea of where to go for help?" Nemisa asked.
"Well..." Sarami pondered on that, as she looked to an old book on her desk called 'Beginner's Guide to Alchemy Arts Vol 1'. The doctor stared at it and thought to herself.
"I suppose I could go ask my mentor Granny Truttlo..." Sarami answered.
"Granny?" Link's eyes lit up, "You mean the lady that runs the Kakariko Potion shop?"
"Yes, if anyone in Hyrule would know what to do, it would be her." Sarami nodded.
"Well okay, but how do we get out of Kakariko Village?" Link pondered, "That place is under protection by the Hyrule knights, even the road from Death Mountain requires getting past a guard gate, so we can't just use the warp point at Goron City..."
"Well... there is one way." Nemisa said as an idea occurred to her.
"Aaaand we're here, Kakariko Village! Everyone off!"
Link, Sarami, Nemisa and a few other Gerudo all stepped off a carriage being driven by another Gerudo wearing a leather helmet with goggles as well as a blue scarf. It was night by the time they all arrived there, and very few people in the village were out for the evening. The carriage was typically used by single Gerudo girls to go husband-hunting or just to conceive children and it just so happened to be the night she did her trip.
"You were right Nemisa, there's no guards anywhere tonight." Link said looking around. He was clad in his green tunic again so as not to attract attention. Nemisa and Sarami had also swapped their Gerudo outfits for traveler's clothing.
"Kakariko... this place brings back a lot of painful memories..." Nemisa whispered with a sigh, recalling this where she was reunited with Jayde after her enslavement, and learned the horrible truth about him.
"Are you sure about coming along with us Nemisa?" Sarami asked with concern, "You told us before about what happened to you."
"No... no, it's fine." Nemisa shook her head, "I've put that behind me. Besides, I've sworn to protect my king and husband, as well as you Dr. Sarami."
"Atta girl." Link grinned, giving her a kiss on the cheek, "Let's get going then."
"Aww.. the king is so sweet with his fiances!" squealed one of the Gerudo who came with them.
"Does he do that with you too, Dr. Sarami?" asked one of the others.
"Ehhh.. heh heh..." Sarami blushed heavily, "We're not really together or anything... I'm much too old for him..."
"Aw, but I think you two would be cute together!" said one of the girls.
"Yeha, go ask him out while you're out here!" said another Gerudo.
"U-Um..." Sarami stammered.
"Would you girls just go find husbands of your own already?" Nemisa shouted in annoyance.
"Kyaa! Nemisa's angry again!" exclaimed one of the girls as they all ran off.
"Fufufu, I suppose some things never change." Sarami giggled as the three walked through town, which only aggravated Nemisa more.
As they went down the road, a few villagers saw Sarami and Nemisa as Gerudo, but didn't pay them much mind as it was typical for them to show up on nights like this. The people rarely bothered to report or harass them for being there these days as long as they didn't make trouble for the village.
At one point the group walked past a restaurant and Nemisa stopped and stared at it. It was the sushi restaurant she had reunited with Jayde at all that time ago, and in that moment, thought about a certain waitress that the manipulative slave trader had taken away that night... But she knew she couldn't think about that anymore, and continued along with Link and Sarami.
Soon enough they arrived at the Kakariko Potion Shop near the back of town. Sarami stood there and stared the door; she hadn't been there, or seen her mentor Granny Truttlo since she left all that time ago...
Flashback - fourteen years ago
"Ugh... what happened...?"
A twenty-three year old Sarami put a hand to her head, realizing she was laying back on a soft, warm bed, a huge contrast from the cold muddy dirt she was on when she collapsed. She looked down at her stomach and saw with surprise the stab wounds she inflicted on herself were bandaged up. She flinched a bit from the pain, but took that moment to look around and see she was in some kind of house. There was a shelf containing multiple books lining the walls, as well as bottles full of liquids.
"Where am I...?" Sarami asked herself, she was about to get up to check, but the pain shot through her again and she fell back against the bed, "Yeowch!"
"Oh, you're awake. You recovered quicker then I thought you would." said an old voice. She turned to see an older woman shuffling into the room. She had a long pointed nose, pale skin and a pointy chin. Her hair was balding a bit, and she wore a red and yellow-striped poncho. By her side was some kind of small yellow cat-like animal with black stripes.
"Uh... who are you? What do you want with me?!" Sarami said, instinctively grabbing at where she usually kept her knife only to see it was gone.
"I took that thing away so you wouldn't hurt yourself with it any more." the old woman said, "Now lay back and let me take another look at you."
"But-" Sarami was cut of by the old woman showing a surprising amount of strength, pushing her back down to lay on the bed. The old woman started undressing Sarami's wounds, making her flinch, "Yeow! Watch it you old hag! That really hu-"
The old woman just shot Sarami a look to shut her up, and went back to looking over the wounds. The cat jumped up onto the bed and sat down to watch.
"So foolish of you to do this, if you were trying to kill yourself, you would be better off plunging that knife into your chest rather then your stomach." the old woman said.
Sarami was a bit baffled about someone giving her the best methods on how to kill herself, but spoke up, "Um sorry... who are you exactly?"
"My name is Truttlo, I run the Kakariko Potion Shop here, most folks just call me Granny these days though." she said, then gestured to her cat, "And this is my little one Chester."
"Oh hi there little cutie!" Sarami said about to pet the cat, until it hissed and swiped it's claw at her. She instinctively jerked her hand back, and looked away from it, "H-He doesn't like other people does he?"
"Heh heh heh, he just needs to take some getting used to you." chuckled Granny as she saw to Sarami's wounds, "And as for you, you're healing pretty well."
"Thanks, uh... so you're a doctor then?" Sarami asked tilting her head, "I don't get it, why did you save me?"
"Do I need a reason to?" Granny Truttlo asked raising an eyebrow.
"W-Well it's just... I'm a Gerudo; a warrior and a thief... ...I suppose." Sarami said somewhat distantly, "Why would you help someone like me after I tried to kill myself like that?"
"Like I answered a second ago, I'm a doctor." Granny said as the cat went back to her side, "Now lay back down and get some more rest..."
Sarami nodded and got herself comfortable, she found her injuries didn't feel as bad as before Granny treated them, she yawned out a bit and drifted off back to sleep...
Time went on, and eventually Sarami's wounds healed. She was rather impressed at how skilled of a doctor Granny was, and how nice she was to someone like her.
One day Granny was examining Sarami's wounds, she glanced up to see the Gerudo was petting Chester lightly, the cat purring lightly as it nuzzled her hand.
"Chester's taken to you quite nicely it seems." Granny said with a small smile.
"He's so precious, sometimes I wake up and he's sleeping right next to me!" Sarami giggled as Chester rubbed his head harder against Sarami's hand to make her scratch the right spot behind his ear.
"He's a better judge of character then you thought." Granny chuckled, "Well I think you're fine now, you can go ahead and get yourself up, but take it easy."
"Thank you..." Sarami whispered in a somewhat sad tone, as she moved her hand down and tickled Chester's chin.
Granny looked at her curiously, "What's the matter?"
"I still don't understand why you treated me... you know the reputation my people have right? We're little more then thieves and killers... for all you knew I could have hurt you as soon as I was well enough..."
Granny's expression softened and she smiled lightly, patting Sarami's hand.
"Well you see, I know a gentleman who works over at the Lakeside Laboratory over at Lake Hylia, he was my mentor." Granny said, "And he once told me 'a true doctor doesn't pick and choose their patients, if someone's sick or injured, then you should take care of them without regrets'."
"Even if someone tried to hurt you?" Sarami asked.
"That's correct. If anything, knowing I made you well enough to do that would make me proud of my work on you!" Granny chucked.
"That's kind of odd... but you really are a kind person." Sarami said with a gentle smile.
"Besides, you say you're part of a group of thieves and killers, but you seem nothing like that." Granny said looking to Chester, "So what are you going to do now? You mentioned before you were exiled from Gerudo Valley by the king for some reason."
"I'm not sure," Sarami sighed, "I have trouble holding a job, and people don't like Gerudo very much for obvious reasons..."
"Hm, well in that case, how about you work for me at my shop here?" Granny said, "I could use a young whippersnapper around here to do some light lifting and errands around town."
"Oh, I don't want to make any more trouble for you..." Sarami said.
"Heh heh heh, no trouble at all. If it makes you feel better, you can consider it payment for your treatment." Granny said.
"Oh.. I'll take that then, thank you!" Sarami said smiling.
End flashback
"So this doctor is the one who taught you what you know?" Nemisa asked Saarmi.
"Yes, she's known here in Kakariko Village as a miracle doctor." Sarami nodded, "If anyone can help me with Gonaeti's condition, it would be her."
Sarami paused hesitantly, took a deep breath and reached out to knock on the potion shop door. There was silence as she, Link and Nemisa all waited, until they heard an unknown voice call out from inside.
"Just a minute! Just a minute!"
It was then the door opened, and Link took the lead, peering through the door...
"Hi, we're here to see Gra-"
Only to see a large fully-grown tiger staring right at the three of them. Everyone stood still as the tiger just sat there, licking it's chops.
"Uh..." Link said sweatdropping, wondering if he should pull out his sword or not.
That's when the tiger looked at Sarami, who stared back. After a brief second, the tiger then suddenly lunged at the doctor.
"SARAMI!" Link and Nemisa both shouted, about to attack the tiger, but instead stopped when they saw what the tiger was actually doing.
The tiger was affectionately nuzzling Sarami and licking her, and the doctor was giggling as she had her hands up, rubbing the tiger's fur.
"It's so good to see you again Chester! You've grown so big and strong!" Sarami said cheerfully.
"This thing's a Chester?!" Nemisa said with her jaw dropped.
'Oh right, I forgot the doctor here owned a pet tiger.' Link thought, recalling his time in the dark future when the tiger was about the same size as it was now.
"Chester! Get down off her! Down!" said a young voice, followed by the clapping of hands, as a young woman came out to great everyone, "Oh, I'm so sorry! Don't worry, Chester's totally harmless! I usually have him in the back room when guests arrive, but I was cleaning a few things..."
"Oh no it's okay," Sarami said, "Me and Chester go way back."
"Really? So does that mean you know Granny Truttlo? Well come on in!" the girl said, ushering the three inside the shop.
"Oh, so you're Granny's gerudo apprentice she mentioned!" the girl said as the four of them sat around a table after she had given them some tea, "My name is Ehia, I've been an apprentice of her myself since five years ago!"
"A pleasure to meet you, Ehia. This is Nemisa, and this fine young man is..." she paused a bit looking at Link, contemplating about the idea of introducing the king to someone in Kakariko Village, before just saying, "This is our friend Link, he's from the forest."
"Pleased to meet you." Link said nodding his head.
"Link...?" Ehia said in deep thought, when her eyes widened, "Oh, I know you!"
"Did Granny mention me too...?" Link asked, confused of the idea that Granny would have mentioned him, considering he only knew her from back when he was a kid, as he took a sip of his tea.
"Yes, you're the new Gerudo King! I didn't think I'd actually get to meet you in person!" Ehia said, causing Link and Nemisa to both spew their tea into the air like fountains.
"What?!" Nemisa gasped out, slamming her palm on the table, "Where the hell did you hear about that?!"
"It's pretty big news in Hyrule Market Town." Ehia said, "Someone in Hyrule Castle overheard the Hylian Parliament talk about it and leaked it to journalists, and they started spreading the word out to everyone!"
"Ugh... wasn't expecting that." Nemisa said slapping her forehead.
"I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing in regards to our meeting with the Parliament." Link groaned.
"Oh I'm sure things will be fine, Nabs isn't going to allow anything to get in the way of what you two have done to get us this far!" Sarami said cheerfully as Chester was laying his head on her leg.
"That giant beast is acting just like a cat..." Nemisa said sweatdropping.
"Better then him trying to eat us." Link said with a sweatdrop as well.
Sarami then cleared her throat and looked directly to Ehia, "Listen, the reason we came here is to speak with Granny, where is she at this time?"
Ehia paused and looked down a little awkwardly, her hands squeezed the tea cup she was holding, confusing everyone.
"She... she left the village a while ago..." Ehia said.
"Huh?!" Sarami gasped, "What do you mean?! How long?!"
"She met with some people and went off with them, leaving the shop to me, and saying she'd return someday..." she gulped a bit, "But two years have passed and she hasn't returned."
Sarami looked down at Chester, who was now laying on the floor with a sad look in his eyes.
"That's strange. Wonder where she'd go that would take that long?" Link pondered to himself as he thought about the travels he went on during his seven year joruney.
"I hate to suggest this, but are you sure she's even alive?" Nemisa asked worriedly.
That was when Sarami loudly slammed her hand down on the table and glared at Nemisa with an unreadable expression in her glasses, "Don't even say something like that Nemisa!"
Chester quickly got up and growled angerly at Nemisa with fury in his eyes and his back hair and tail standing on end.
"Sorry, sorry! That just blurted out!" Nemisa exclaimed defensively.
"Well actually, I did just recently get a letter from her in the mail," Ehia took out a letter from a drawer and handed it to the group, "And it's definitely Granny's handwriting, so I know she's alright."
"Probably should have mentioned that sooner." Link pointed out, now looking over to Nemisa putting Chester in a headlock as he was biting at her head.
Sarami went and read over the letter, but nothing seemed to be too off about it. All it said was about how Granny was on an important trip and she'd be fine, apologized again for leaving the shop to Ehia, and asked that she continue to care for Chester in her absence as well.
"Granny taught me enough that I've gotten a pretty good reputation around here as the replacement village doctor, and I've been taking on extra staff to help keep it going, but I still worry for her." Ehia said, "Especially after what happened to her a while back..."
Everyone looked in confusion at Ehia's words, and that was when she realized what she had just blurted out.
"What are you talking abo-?"
Sarami was cut off by the loud banging of the door, and Ehia got up to answer it. As soon as she got the door open, as a group of four travelers, along with some Kakariko villagers came in carrying three men with them. Just from looking at the three, it was clear they had all been badly injured.
"Don't worry, Dr. Ehia is great at treatment, she was trained by the miracle doctor Granny Truttlo!" one of the villagers assured the travelers as they brought the injured men in.
"What's going on here? What happened to them?" Ehia asked.
"Please doctor, you have to help our friends!" shouted one of the travelers, "We were going through Hyrule Field and suddenly we got ambushed by Lizafos!"
"Oh no, that's terrible!" Ehia said, gesturing over to some patient beds, "Get them onto the beds over here, but take it easy with them!"
With the three patients laying on the beds, Ehia checked over their injuries, "These wounds are really bad, how did this happen?"
"The monsters waited until we were resting, and they just ambushed and overwhelmed us!" sighed one of the travelers.
"We fought and eventually struck them down, but our friends here took the worst of it." said a lady warrior.
"I'll see what I can do, but I'm kinda short-handed tonight, so I'll need time." Ehia said.
"Excuse me!" spoke up a voice, everyone turned to see Dr. Sarami standing alongside Link, Nemisa and Chester, "May I lend a hand to you Dr. Ehia?"
"Okay, that'd help a lot!" Ehia nodded.
"Hey wait a minute!" said one of the travelers, pointing his finger out at Sarami, "Isn't she a Gerudo?"
"Hey, you're right." said another, "What are they doing here?"
"We have our reasons, but please let me see to the injured!" Sarami said, she approached one of the injured men, but one of the travelers stepped out in front of her.
"Hang on, how exactly can we trust you with our friend?" the traveler said accusingly, "How do we know you're not going to poison him or something?!"
"Hey, how dare you say that!" Nemisa shouted, "She just wants to help!"
"Hmph, after what we've been told about them and what happened with the war, I wouldn't trust em to bring home the groceries without gutting someone open on the way back!" grumbled another traveler.
"And they served that demon king Ganondorf, how can anyone trust loathsome people like that?!" nodded the other one.
Sarami gulped a bit and looked down, recalling her teenage years as a thief, and her serving Ganondorf. Even as late as when she was working for Granny she'd occasionally get in trouble and wind up getting the people angry and mistrusting with her...
"Hey now, that's a bit harsh buddy! They aren't all like that!" said one of the villagers to the travelers in Sarami's defense, but they still continued.
"They shouldn't even be here because of that banishment law! If you ask me, we outta report these Gerudo to the knights, get them all arrested and beheaded!" said one of the travelers.
"Why I outta, you want to start something?!" Nemisa shouted, going into a fighting position alongside a growling Chester, who saw Nemisa defending his old friend and the two were now willing to fight together.
But that was when Link put a hand to his fiance's shoulder to make her calm down.
"Just a second." Link said walking up to the traveler, "Listen, she's a fine doctor, one that I would trust my life to, just please let her help your friends."
"Why should we? Our friends are suffering, and we don't want her making them any worse!" the traveler shouted angerly with small tears in his eyes, "How can we possibly trust that fatass bitc-"
That was when Link simply brought up his fist and decked the traveler, sending him tumbling across the floor. The traveler sat up in shock as he rubbed his cheek.
"Hey, don't that in here!" Ehia scolded Link, too busy to get involved at that moment.
"Listen you, your friends are suffering, do you want them to succumb to their injuries instead?!" Link exclaimed in fury.
"I..." the traveler stammered in shock, before looking over to his friends in pain, before hanging his head down, "N-no..."
Sarami walked up to the traveler and knelled down to him, "Please," she spoke, looking to him eye-to-eye, "Let me help save them. My people must have caused you some pain in the past, but please trust me, if not for yourself, but for the sake of your friends."
The traveler paused as Sarami stared at him, not even flinching or blinking, before he nodded slightly. With that, Sarami stood up and went over to the patients, with Link and Nemisa joining her to help her in any way she could. Eventually the villagers and travelers joined in helping them with whatever Sarami and Ehia needed.
Ehia looked up from the patient she was working on and smiled warmly, seeing how much resolve to treat people Sarami had and the compassionate words she spoke,
'She really is Granny's student.'
Some time later, Sarami stood up and wiped her brow "There, that's about all I can do. They just need rest at this point."
"Nice work Sarami." grinned Link as he handed her some water to drink.
"Wow, she patched up the two of them in the time it took me to take care of one!" Ehia said in astonishment.
"So, got something to say boys?" Nemisa asked with a smirk, looking over to the travelers, even Chester was grinning smugly.
The travelers all looked a bit down, seeming to be kind of mortified about how they acted earlier, until one of them got down on his hands and knees and bowed his head down.
"Thank you so much..." he sobbed, "...for saving our friends!"
"Please forgive us for how we treated you before." the lady warrior of the group said, kneeling down herself.
The other two looked to each other before bowing and thanking Sarami as well.
"You're a great person... and totally not fat!" said the third one.
"Yeah, in fact you're smoking hot as hell!" said the fourth, only to be bonked by the lady traveler.
"Thank her, don't hit on her!" she shouted.
"Oh it's nothing!" Sarami said, blushing at their compliments, "I just did what's expected of me as a doctor!"
"Come on Sarami, you did more then expected of just a normal doctor." Link grinned, "Plus you are pretty smoking hot."
"O-Oh my Link..." Sarami said blushing and averted her gaze from him.
Nemisa meanwhile just chuckled lightly at the doctor's reaction, recalling how shy she herself was around Link before, and had a feeling some day Sarami might very well be a part of her marriage to her beloved king...
Early the next morning, Link, Sarami and Nemisa were all standing at the carriage back to Gerudo Town, with Ehia and Chester both seeing her off.
"Thank you all again for helping last night, I'm sorry Granny wasn't here to help you with your own situation!" Ehia bowed her head.
"It's fine, I was happy to help you, plus I loved seeing Chester again!" Sarami said smiling, she looked over at Nemisa who was kneeling down to the tiger, and holding out her hand.
"Paw." Nemisa instructed, prompting Chester to then put his paw up onto her hand, "I did it Link!" she said enthusiastically.
Link chuckled before looking to Sarami, "We better leave now before the guards arrive."
"Well I wish you all the best of luck." Ehia said with a bow at the waist, as Chester started sobbing about Sarami and her friends leaving, "And if you do see Granny again, tell her she needs to return to Kakariko Village so everyone can be assured she's safe!"
"I will." nodded Sarami. She gave Chester one last goodbye hug and the three boarded the carriage, and it went off on it's way, with the young doctor and the tiger both waving to it.
Sarami sighed sadly, "What a set back, I can't believe Granny's been gone for so long."
"I wonder just where she could have gone...?" Link said with his arms folded, looking out the carriage window.
"Maybe it has something to do with that thing that happened to her?" Nemsia asked, recalling what Ehia said last night just before the travelers came in.
"I don't know, I wish we could have found out about it, but Ehia kept dodging the question for some reason..." Sarami said.
"Don't worry, we'll figure out what to do." Link said, putting an arm around Sarami to comfort her.
"Thank you..." Sarami whispered with a blush.
As the three of them all sat back to relax, they saw the Gerudo girls who had gone with them last night lazing around the carriage compartment, all of them looking completely zoned out.
"No luck finding any men last night I take it?" Nemisa asked them.
"Is it that obvious...?" groaned one of the girls.
"My close friends make similar faces when they come back from here rejected." Nemisa explained with a smirk.
"Graahh! That's it!" exclaimed one of the girls in a fit, "King Link, you need to give us babies then!"
"What? Just like that?!" Link exclaimed.
"Come on, we can do it on the way back!" said another Gerudo removing her top.
"You're not going to do that in here!" Nemisa shouted.
"Fu-fufufu, you certainly have a way with everyone Link." Sarami giggled as Nemisa was trying to protect him.
"Hey, settle down in there!" the carriage driver shouted, as her transport wobbled back and forth from the banter going on inside.
And that ends the chapter, with Granny gone missing, Sarami is back to square one in helping Gonaeti. Next time, the group go to handle a tense situation and meet an expected encounter, but what challenges will they confront? Find out next week!
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