Chapter 9: To Hebra
Note: Thanks to everyone who's given the story a review, a follow, or a favorite! I'm trying to respond to reviews, but my account seems to be having some issues. I'll figure it out; I greatly appreciate hearing what you have to say! Enjoy the chapter, and I hope you have a great start to your week! ( :
The New Serenne Stable was still a startling sight to Link. Building a stable on the edge of a cliff – multiple cliffs – had always seemed like a bad idea to him, especially in a region known for heavy, icy winters. He was relieved that, as of yet, it was solely a place for boarding horses and travelers. No training, no other livestock. The last thing a man needed was to be breaking in a rough yearling colt only to get thrown over the edge of the cliff.
But this time the stable was startling for an entirely different reason. The grass of the sweeping plains north of the stable was streaked with white, and as Link passed closer to some of the painted grass it seemed to shimmer, and the soil beneath it glittered as if it was snow touched by sunlight. The sight of it made his heart clench tightly, dread turning it to a heavy brick inside of his chest. He knew at once that he didn't want to have anything to do with whatever this was.
His brow furrowed as he drew closer to the stable and spotted a familiar Sheikah man gazing out across the painted grass, a donkey in tow laden with traveling supplies. He swallowed thickly and dismounted, patting Ember's shoulder – whether to reassure the horse or himself he couldn't tell.
"Cado," he called, and the Sheikah turned at once, his features brightening beneath his stern white beard.
"Ah, Link!" Cado smiled warmly. "I'd heard that you and Princess Zelda went missing. I'm thrilled to see you alive and well! But where's Princess Zelda? The two of you… generally travel together, do you not?"
Link bit back a sigh. "We… we know she's alive, but we don't know where," he explained. "I'm… investigating." He decided not to share where he was going. Best not to have two Sheikah mother-hens clucking at him.
"So she's still missing," Cado murmured, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "You may want to speak with Lady Impa, then. She's investigating these things here – geoglyphs, we've taken to calling them. There's many of them that appeared all across Hyrule, and Impa believes they're crucial for our search for Princess Zelda. She's out there right now – you can see her balloon."
He pointed out across the plain, and Link could see the bulbous upside-down teardrop shape peeking just over a short rise. His brow furrowed; it was shocking that Impa would leave Kakariko Village at all, let alone to travel so far. She was positively ancient by now; he doubted she had left her pile of cushions in her Kakariko manor in all the time since he'd awakened from the Shrine of Resurrection. That she had been willing to leave to chase after these geoglyphs… it did nothing to quell the rising sense of dread within him.
Link swallowed again. "Maybe another time," he said tightly, swinging back into the saddle. "I've got a lead on Zelda; I need to pursue that."
Cado looked confused. "Well… by all means, of course, but… you should at least let Impa know you're alive! She's been worried sick – not literally, fortunately, but nonetheless…"
Link exhaled through his teeth. "I'll do that," he said grimly. "Thanks, Cado. It's good to see you."
He winced at the callousness in his tone even as he spurred Ember onward out towards Impa's balloon. It wasn't the Sheikah man's fault that he had such a bad feeling about this… geoglyph. But besides the dread, Link felt growing frustration as well; Zelda was in Hebra as they spoke, and he had to get to her. Find her, just as she had asked him to. And ask her why she had left – why she hadn't spoken to him at all. Ask her what he had done to drive her away.
His hand closed on nothing. Zelda fell into the abyss, still reaching for help that would never come – help that was forever too late.
He pushed the memory aside, his gut twinging painfully, refocusing. Impa was a distraction, and one that he didn't know he could afford. Not when Zelda was out in a blizzard.
Link noticed Impa's familiar, shrunken silhouette not far from the balloon, easily recognizable from the large, wide-brimmed hat on her head that was at least half her size.
"What a surprise it is to see you here after all this time, Link," Impa murmured without turning, her ancient voice a rasp.
Link slipped off of Ember's back, giving the horse a pat and leading him by the reins closer to the Sheikah Elder. "Cado said… I should let you know I'm not dead," he said awkwardly, and Impa turned around, her sharp eyes scanning him closely. They lingered on his arm, though all that was visible was his hand.
"Well, it is certainly a relief to have you back, and all in one piece – more or less," she noted, meeting his gaze. "But our dear Princess Zelda is not with you, I see… as I expected."
Link frowned. "You expected us to be separated?" he asked quizzically.
"When you and the Princess disappeared, something else happened all across Hyrule," Impa said, raising a shaking, withered hand to gesture out at the geoglyph. "Huge pictures appeared out of nowhere, images that sprawled across fields and hills. Cado and I are traveling from region to region in hopes of seeing and documenting them all."
"You… left Kakariko for the first time in decades to go sightseeing?" Link asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Impa…"
"I know my limits, dear boy," Impa said sternly. "My time is short, yes. But you are spiritually attuned, as I am, as the Princess is – can you not feel the significance of this location?"
"I feel a deep sense of foreboding," Link admitted, glancing around uneasily.
Impa nodded. "I read something in the village's old literature – a passage about what the ancients called Dragon's Tears. A very rare occurrence, since dragons… well, they do not feel or think, as we do. But they have been known to weep, and where their tears fall the landscape is changed."
Link glanced up at the sky. Dinraal, Naydra, Farosh… and the Light Dragon. "You think that a dragon cried when Zelda and I disappeared?" he said quietly, feeling a peculiar ache in his chest at the thought. Something as mighty and majestic as a dragon, weeping… it seemed incredibly sad.
"I do think that is what happened," Impa nodded solemnly. "I feel that there is a connection between your disappearance and the tears shed by a dragon. Which dragon, of course, is unclear… from the color of the images, I thought of lightning, so my guess is Farosh."
Link swallowed, remembering his initial thoughts about the geoglyph. Like light glancing off of snow… "There's a fourth dragon," he said, turning his gaze back to the sky. Unfamiliar shapes of sky islands cast strange shadows, but he couldn't see the long shape of a dragon anywhere. "When I woke up after the Upheaval, I was on a sky island with an ancient Temple of Time – older than the one we know of, on the Great Plateau. I saw a dragon in the distance. A spirit told me that it was a sort of… guardian, for the Temple of Time. He called it the 'Light Dragon,' but didn't give it a name."
Impa's eyes were wide as saucers when he glanced down at her again. "Spiritually attuned, indeed," she said with a choked laugh. "Link, I am even more convinced – we must investigate these geoglyphs. I feel certain they hold many answers for us."
Link felt as though his insides had shriveled at the thought. "No," he protested, harsher than he intended. "That's fine for you and Cado. But Zelda is in Hebra, right now. She told me to find her, and that's what I'm going to do."
"You're certain she's in Hebra?" Impa asked coolly.
Link fought not to squirm under the intensity of her glare. "Yes," he insisted stubbornly.
Impa's expression didn't change. "Then go to Hebra, and see for yourself," she said. Her eyes glinted dangerously, though her voice was calm. "And if she is not there, return to me. I will be waiting, Link."
She turned around, gazing out at the geoglyph once more. Link reached a hand out, lips parted as if to say something – it was clear as day that she was upset with his choice, disappointed even. Why? I know where Zelda is. I have an actual physical, tangible reason to go to Hebra. There's no reason to put her at risk by chasing pictures across the kingdom.
Link sighed quietly, swinging up onto Ember's back. The black horse whickered, and Link guided him away. "I'll… see you later, Impa," he called over his shoulder. She didn't respond.
The next two days of travel passed without incident. Wind whipped across the plains, sending blades of grass whistling and rattling against each other. It was cold, but not unbearably so, although he could see in the west the mass of dark gray clouds over Hebra – the dreaded cold snap that had cut off the Rito from the rest of Hyrule.
What hope do I have of making it through? The Rito are built for cold weather. If it's too much for even them to handle, then…
Then it's too much for Zelda, as well. I must get her out of there.
He passed through the Snowfield Stable and was relieved to find that, just as Lester said, Zelda's palomino mare, Memory, was boarded there. The gentle-spirited creature whinnied a greeting as he neared, and he led Ember nearer, dismounting to offer both horses a cube of sugar from the treat pouch at his belt. Ember gobbled his up eagerly; Memory took her time, her unique green gaze thoughtful, looking over Link's shoulder. She seemed confused, and nudged his shoulder with her nose.
"Yeah, I miss her too," he murmured, rubbing the mare's silky brow. Ember flapped his lips at Link's hand, searching for another sugar cube. Link gave them both one more before continuing down the road into Hebra.
The storm swept over them on the third day of travel. The wind hit first, whistling between mountain peaks and whipping over the plains and hillsides, a deep rushing sound. Link pulled up the hood of his cloak and tightly wrapped his mouth and nose in the scarf before pulling on his gloves. Ember's ears twitched back uncertainly, but he followed Link's commands to press onward, wind tearing at mane and tail and clothes. The wind blew little icy flecks of snow towards them well before the blizzard reached them, pinpricks of cold on his face above the scarf.
The storm only thickened from there. The temperature dropped rapidly, drifting snow no longer melting on Ember's thick coat or Link's clothes. The blowing snow, first only a few scattered flakes, began gathering in piles along the road and up against boulders and tree trunks. When the fiercest winds blew, loose snow lifted up from the ground and swirled together with the snow falling heavily from above, entirely obscuring the path before them. Before long Ember was wading through tall drifts born from weeks of winds and snowfall, lifting his feet up high with each step. The sky above became darker and darker, obscuring the sun until Link lost all sense of the usual passage of time.
He'd traveled this road many times before. He knew the dips and rises, the craggy little crests and the shallow canyon right before the Rito Stable. But the massive drifts of snow had a way of obscuring the familiar, burying everything under white mounds with their own canyons carved out by the wind – the wind that stirred up the freshest layer of snow and whipped it into a blinding icy veil that turned everything into a howling vortex of dizzying white. Link felt a growing sense that this had been a mistake, just like Purah warned.
Ember stopped walking, the drifts too high for him to manage. Link dismounted with a grunt, fumbling with his gloved hands at the back of the saddle for the shovel he'd packed. He'd meant to use it for digging shelter if need be, but it would serve just as well for clearing the road. Hopefully I'm still on the road, he thought grimly, scooping out a shovelful of snow.
He dug down until his shovel struck something solid – ice, he noticed bitterly. He chipped away at that until he reached something significantly darker than the snow, and eagerly cleared away a decent patch of it.
Paving stone… and a frozen hoofprint…
He exhaled deeply in relief, his breath warming his nose and cheeks for a brief moment. He sat back on his heels. So we're still on the road – good. It's sloping upwards – hard to tell with these drifts. I… I think I know where we are, though; we should come across Tabantha ruins soon.
Rubbing his hands fervently together to bring some warmth back to them, he took up the shovel again and started digging their path onward. Ember didn't follow for a while, although admittedly Link was making fairly slow progress; instead the little horse scraped the snow with a hoof on the side of the road until a few small, frozen strands of grass emerged. Then he cropped them up, chewed for a moment, and snorted as if in disgust before trotting after Link.
Silly beast, Link thought with a breathless chuckle, heaving up another shovelful of snow as Ember headbutted him for the umpteenth time, demanding a treat. Link paused a moment to fish a cube of alfalfa hay from the pouch at his belt, spilling a couple onto the ground thanks to the clumsiness of his gloves. Ember crunched them all up eagerly.
"As long as it keeps you around," Link said in amusement, and Ember's ears twitched towards him.
He kept working to clear the path. The first several feet wouldn't have been a problem if Ember was taller, but past that, even a full-sized warhorse would have struggled, Link was certain. Goddesses above – it's got to be ten feet or more!
"Wish I was taller," he panted, scooping out another pile of snow. His undershirt felt hot and damp against his skin, and he dreaded how cold it would make him feel once he was no longer exerting himself so thoroughly. He was beginning to struggle to reach the top of the drifts, even with the added reach of a shovel, and debated leaving it and trying to make a tunnel. With his next shovelful, the top of the drift collapsed on top of him. Ember whickered from behind, tossing his bushy mane as if in amusement. Link brushed the snow from his shoulders and head, shivering. "It's n-not like you could do much b-better, you know."
Inch by painstaking inch, he carved his way through the drifts, Ember trailing along behind. At long last they reached the top of the hill, and beyond it, the drifts were far shorter, much easier to manage. Shivering violently by now, his warm clothes serving now only to trap his sweat against his skin where it all too effectively cooled him down, Link climbed back into Ember's saddle. He sent the shaggy horse onwards, struggling to scan through the blowing snow for any sign of the Tabantha ruins. Good enough place to stop for the night, I hope, he thought, eager for rest.
He dismounted every couple of minutes with his shovel in hand, digging down to dirt and cobblestones to verify that they were in fact still on the road. The mountainside sloped gently downward and then began to flatten out. Link scanned the piles of snow all around them for any of the half-intact roofs or ancient charred timbers of Tabantha Village, realizing grimly as he searched that this storm was likely strong enough to blow over or cave in what remained of the ruins.
He spotted a dark post jutting up from the snow at an angle and led Ember towards it, his hands numb blocks of ice around the reins. Dismounting, he limped the final yards towards it and yelped in surprise when his feet suddenly sank far deeper into the snow than he was expecting, and he fell sideways, off balance. Link managed to catch himself on the post, realizing as he did so that it had once been the support for a roof. There must be some walls of this still intact, then, if the wind managed to push such a deep drift up against it.
Ember made a low grumbling sound, his ears twitching one back, one forward. Link clambered out from the drift, grunting as he banged his knee against some buried piece of wood or stone, and retrieved his shovel once more. "Should make a good enough s-support for a shelter, if enough is intact," he mumbled, thrusting the shovel into the snow.
The movement as he worked helped to warm him; as long as he kept himself in motion, his sweat wasn't quite as chilling. Maybe I shouldn't stop for the night, he thought, only half-joking to himself.
The shovel struck something solid, and Link scraped away the snow around it. Can't be the floorboards already.
It looked to be a metal panel from the roof, he realized grimly. So I was right – this snow is heavy enough that it's caving in the roofs.
He pulled the panel fully out of the snow, and his heart gave a sudden painful lurch. "Goddesses, no," he gasped, feeling at once somehow colder. There was a three-toed foot emerging from the snow, half-buried under more debris from the roof. A red band wrapped around the ankle with a green band above it, making it clear that this was no lizalfos.
Link swallowed thickly, breathing hard, acutely aware that he was alone in a blizzard that had proved fatal for a Rito. Ember whickered uneasily, scraping the ground with a hoof. Link looked back down at the frozen foot, his heart pounding fast in his chest.
I… I need to know.
Much more carefully now with his shovel, he started prying up more pieces of the roof that had collapsed, shoveled out more and more of the snow, broke apart ice with suspicious dark spots frozen within it. As he started uncovering more of the body, he felt a growing tightness in his throat but forced himself to continue, praying that his suspicions would be proven wrong. It's dark enough out that I can't actually tell the color. And there are plenty of dark-feathered Rito. It couldn't be him.
…Goddesses, please don't let it be him!
The Rito wore the typical leather armor of their people, along with a thick white scarf and pauldrons. Link's heart clenched tightly as he gingerly pried up a wooden beam from above the face, and then he sank to his knees, the breath driven from his lungs. "No," he whispered shakily, unable to tear his eyes away. "Kass…"
Even with the darkness, the Rito bard's facial markings and large black beak were unmistakable. There was something that might even have been his accordion case strapped to his belt. Link stared numbly, his mouth dry, his eyes burning painfully in the cold. Oh, Goddesses… my friend…
Ember snorted impatiently, a nervous whinny whistling from his nostrils as he pranced anxiously in place, ears twitching.
"Give me a moment," Link snapped at the horse, unable to keep a tremor from his voice, before his mind caught up to him and he could hear Lester's warning. Mustangs are clever, spirited – good instincts on 'em. He'll look after you just as much as you look after him.
It occurred to him that there was very likely a reason that Ember was acting so unsettled, when he hadn't seemed particularly bothered earlier on. Trembling from the cold, Link realized that he could barely feel his hands and feet at all; his sweat had turned almost to ice against his skin, and his clothes were wet from the inside and the outside.
I… I need to keep moving. Find some real shelter – a cave, something I can use to get out of the storm, build a fire, undress and dry off my clothes… And if I don't find that, then I need to try and make it all the way to Rito Village, and pray that they're holding on there.
He didn't know what had killed Kass – the cold, the collapse, or both. Wincing, he fumbled with the knife at his belt, carefully sawing through the frozen straps holding the accordion case in place before scooping it up and wading through the snow back to Ember's side. He pushed it into one of the saddle bags, praying quietly that Kass's family would be alive, that he would be able to return it to them.
Ember nudged his arm rather forcefully, and Link rubbed his nose. "Sorry," he murmured, his heart tugging painfully. He swallowed, glancing back at the roof support standing askew out of the snow, a temporary and entirely unworthy grave marker. He blinked several times. "Y-you're right – we need to move on."
He didn't return to the saddle, instead walking at Ember's head, holding the reins just under the horse's chin. Keep moving. Keep moving.
He could feel a deep weariness coming over him as they traveled through the storm, weights behind his eyes threatening to drag him into a sleep he wouldn't awaken from. His scarf was damp from the moisture in his breath, doing little now to warm the air he sucked into his lungs. Each gulp of air felt like breathing in ice that sent a deep ache through his chest. Wind whipped snowflakes mercilessly across his eyes and brow and the bridge of his nose, eager to try and freeze him solid. Just like Kass, came the thought, and it was enough to spur him onwards.
Keep moving. Keep moving.
His hair stung when it blew in his face. Strands were clumped and frozen together, coated in a fine layer of frost where they had escaped his hood. Unmanageable, Zelda had called it with a fond chuckle, and his heart tugged violently at the thought of her, at the thought of Kass, at the deep fear within him that she had met a similar fate.
Keep moving. Keep moving.
The wind carried with it strange sounds – truly otherworldly. Echoing howls drifted through the storm towards him, too screechy to be wolves. Occasional gusts cleared some of the way before him; he caught glimpses of a looming cliff wall at his right, coated in ice and snow. With thoughts as numb as his skin he drifted towards the canyon wall, scanning for a patch of darkness deeper than the usual shadows of the cliff that would reveal the location of a cave. The howls seemed to grow in strength as he continued down, he noted dimly.
His heart jolted, first in hope and then despair, when he spotted the rugged opening of a cave in the cliffside, from which the howling emanated. Link scowled bitterly. Monsters in there. Of course.
He led Ember closer nonetheless, despite the horse's initial resistance, ears trained on the sounds coming from the cave. Only when he reached the cave mouth did he let go of the reins, hoping that Ember knew enough by now to stay close by. He limped into the shadows, pain shooting up his numbed legs with each step on his frozen feet. The immediate respite from the wind outweighed the risks of walking into a monster den, Link thought, swaying in the suddenly motionless air.
He slid his sword from its sheath and crept further into the darkness, as quietly as he could manage. A soft whicker sounded from behind, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Ember peering after him, a silhouette against the storm beyond.
"I'll come back," Link mumbled. "Just have to clear this out first."
Another whooping howl echoed through the cave and Link went still, squinting into the shadows. As his eyes slowly adjusted he could see large, hairy shapes climbing around on the roof of the cave some distance further, could hear the scratch of their claws against the stone. Horriblins, he realized, his lip curling in disgust. Aptly called.
Quietly, carefully he bent down and slid his gloved fingers along the bottom of the cave. His hand closed around a rock, and he hurled it as hard as he could in the direction of the nearest hairy mass. It collided with a deep thud and the horriblin screeched in shock, tumbling from its perch. Link rushed towards it, blindly thrusting his sword forward. The horriblin made a strangled, gargling sound, and groaned as he withdrew his blade. Link could just barely see the second horriblin drop to the ground and lumber towards him; trying to guess what its limbs were doing he slashed a wide line in front of himself and heard the monster's pained yelp. He followed through with a fierce lunge, feeling his blade sink deep into flesh.
Easy enough, Link thought, releasing a quiet sigh. He shivered violently, feeling again the chill of his sweat-dampened clothes against his skin. He returned to Ember at the mouth of the cave while the horriblins expired from their wounds and unfastened the bundles of kindling attached to the back of the saddle. He winced – he didn't have enough here for a full night's fire. I thought I'd be able to harvest firewood on the road.
There were plenty of trees in Hebra and Tabantha. But the blizzard was thick enough that he worried he wouldn't be able to find the cave again if he left to try and find some.
I know what canyon this is. If I stay close to it, I'll get to Rito Village. But I don't recall there being many trees along the bottom of the cliff, and if I wander too far away from the cliff, then I'll reach Tanagar Canyon. He grimaced. And at that point I'm more likely to just tumble off the edge of that and die than to find firewood and bring it back.
"I'll just have to burn through it all and try to dry off my clothes," he murmured, rubbing Ember's nose. The little horse nudged the pouch of treats at Link's belt, and quickly he fished out a few dried-out slices of apple.
Josha's fire-fruit ended up setting the kindling ablaze in a few seconds flat when he set it up several yards away from the mouth of the cave. Link fed it carefully with the small twigs he'd brought, warily keeping an eye on his supply as the fire's warmth began slowly to spread, making his hands and face tingle painfully as feeling returned. Once he deemed it warm enough he peeled his layers away, cringing in the freezing air all around him, his teeth chattering violently as his skin prickled, too cold. He arranged his innermost layers closest to the fire; he needed them to dry more than anything else. Then he waited, rubbing feeling back into his hands and feet and holding them near enough the flames to feel uncomfortably hot, feeding the fire until he had gone through perhaps half of his supply and then letting the embers die down before patting experimentally at his clothes.
Not perfect, he thought uneasily, finding damp spots under the arms and down the middle of the back. But his gloves, scarf, and stockings were completely dry. It'll have to be good enough. I can't burn through all of my wood just yet.
Reinvigorated, at least to some degree, he pulled his clothes back on and wrapped his cloak tightly across his shoulders, followed by the scarf around his mouth and nose.
Ember was waiting just inside the cave, out of the wind. Link bundled up the remaining kindling and buckled it to the back of the saddle before once more taking the reins and leading Ember onward along the side of the canyon. He grit his teeth as the winds engulfed him once more, biting painfully at the exposed skin of his face, piercing through his clothes to chill his skin beneath. He shivered, his eyes stinging now from fatigue as well as the cold.
He didn't know how long they traveled. At some point, it seemed, morning came; the darkness beneath the clouds was just a little bit less, though the fierce winds and blowing clouds of snow continued. And some time after that, he spotted a distant yellow glow, small, perhaps the size of a lantern. Encouraged, his hands and feet well past refrozen by this point, he changed direction, leading Ember towards the light instead of continuing in the direction he hoped was the road. If someone's got a real shelter…!
The hulking shape of a stable materialized out of the swirling snowflakes. Link sagged in relief, forcing himself faster. The Rito stable – of course! Thank the Goddesses!
And from the lanternlight it seemed that someone, at least, was still managing it despite the weather. Or perhaps they were stranded just like the Rito. The stable manager's counter was boarded up, the doors on either side closed. One was padlocked shut. The lantern hung above the door that wasn't locked, swaying gently in the wind, casting dancing orange lights across the snow that had drifted up against the door since the last time it was opened.
Link led Ember close to the unlocked door and knocked loudly.
There was a sudden clacking of talons on wood, and after some struggling and muttered curses from inside the door swung open, revealing the white-feathered Rito Link had seen at Lookout Landing.
"Oh – a traveler," the Rito said, looking down at Link through his thick goggles. "Er… this isn't really a… you know this isn't a stable anymore, right?"
Link frowned, glancing back up at the towering, unmistakable horsehead shape of the roof. "It's… not?"
The Rito bent down, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "It used to be, until Traysi cheated the previous owner out of it," he whispered dramatically. "Now it's headquarters for the Lucky Clover Gazette, run by Traysi and her sisters. And me."
"Penn, who's that?" called a woman's voice from within, and a moment later an older woman with dark brown hair, wearing a very thick coat, appeared in the door. Her eyes widened when she saw Link. "A traveler? Please, come in! Penn, you didn't invite him in? Really?"
"I thought we were busy," Penn said uncomfortably. "Besides, he's got a horse. We can't help with that!"
"I'm not just going to l-leave my horse out here, either," Link added, fighting to speak through his numbed lips. "Sorry, I… I'll just keep going."
"In this weather?" the woman exclaimed incredulously. "Nonsense! Galli's still hanging around – hey, Galli!" She looked back over her shoulder. "Galli!"
"Yeah, what?" a grumpy voice grumbled, and a man still wearing a stable manager's hat trudged into view. His expression brightened at once when he saw Ember. "Please tell me you're going to have me take care of that pony."
Link bristled at that – Ember was a horse, not a pony – but the woman smiled sweetly. "It's your lucky day, Galli," she grinned. She turned back to Link. "He'll get your horse situated; don't worry."
"Okay," Link said, handing over the reins.
Galli smiled broadly. "Aww, what a sweet little guy," he gushed. Ember snorted.
"He'll knock you over if he comes up with a r-reason," Link warned, disgruntled. But he gratefully followed Penn and the Hylian woman into the stable's main building, feeling the sudden rush of warm air as almost a physical blow after the deadly cold outside. He pulled the scarf down from his face, deeply breathing in the warmer air to his frost-coated lungs, and looked around.
It looked nothing like a stable anymore. A divider had been set up in the middle, cutting it into two rooms. The main room was organized, but filled to the brim with papers tacked to the wall and stacked on tables.
"The Lucky Clover Gazette, huh?" he murmured, remembering that Purah had mentioned it at some point before he left. He stripped off his gloves and rubbed his hands fervently together, eager to get feeling back into them.
The Hylian woman elbowed Penn sharply in the gut. "That's right, and I bought it from Galli after we came to a mutually beneficial agreement," she said sternly, glaring up at the bird. "Stop telling people I cheated him!"
Penn rubbed his stomach, muttering something under his breath. Link raised an eyebrow.
"There can't be many people coming out here," he noted.
"No, there's not," the woman sighed. She held out her hand. "Sorry – I'm Traysi. Formerly of the Rumor Mill, now of the Lucky Clover Gazette. When the cold snap hit, the stable here lost out on a lot of business, as I'm sure you can imagine. And I needed a place to set up. So I bought it from Galli with the agreement that he could stay and look after any horses, if travelers did still manage to make it out here. And that…" She scratched the back of her neck. "That might've been a mistake. Not the letting Galli stay part, but the setting up shop here in the first place. You're the first person here since we bought the place. If not for Penn, we wouldn't be able to get any supplies at all."
"Glad to hear you appreciate me," Penn said with a chuckle.
"Of course I do," Traysi laughed. "So much so that I'd like you to brew up some warm safflina tea in the back. This guy looks like he's had quite the time of it."
"Sure," Penn sighed, walking through the door to the back half of the stable.
Once the door closed, Traysi's smile dropped abruptly, replaced by a much more concerned expression. "So… I guess you found out about the sighting of Princess Zelda, Link."
He frowned. "You know me? I… don't think we've met."
"I've seen you around," she shrugged. "I used to hang out a lot at the stables. Good places to get word about goings-on, as it turns out. Every once in a while I saw you come by and help with the training, or the breeding, or cleaning tack, even mucking out stalls… you sure like horses, don't you?"
Link shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "You sent word that Zelda was seen somewhere around here?"
Traysi's expression fell. "One of the Rito children said that, yes. I might've discounted it, as it's from a kid, but the kids here… they've really shouldered a lot of responsibility in the past month. I don't think they'd joke about something like this."
Link swallowed at the grief in her tone. "Tell me," he prompted quietly.
She waved him over to the nearest table, pulling out a chair for him. She rubbed a weary hand over her face. "It's… pretty bad," she said solemnly. "The adults all went out into the storm to try and gather up food… maybe a week or so ago – that's when they ran out of storage. Some have been back. Not all of them."
Link exhaled heavily, a weight settling across his chest as he thought of Kass' accordion, tucked in one of Ember's saddlebags. "Yeah," he murmured. "I… I believe it."
"It's horrible conditions for flying, Penn tells me," Traysi sighed. "Snow so thick you don't know if you're about to crash headfirst into a mountainside. Winds strong enough to throw you all over the place. Even the cold… it's almost more than they can manage. Honestly, Link, I'm surprised you made it here in as good of condition as you are."
Link chuckled drily. "I tried to be careful," he said. "I'm sure I'll have a cold for a month once I leave."
Traysi grimaced. "Maybe you should go to the hot springs on Death Mountain next, then," she suggested. "That'll work wonders for any chills you hang on to. But I hear they're having problems up there, too, so… maybe not."
"You've been getting supplies, though, you said," Link pressed. "Have you… been able to help the Rito at all?"
"When I say 'supplies,' I mean just as much food as Penn can carry while still flying safe," Traysi admitted. "It's enough for me and my sisters and Penn and Galli. We've been skimping a bit lately, and Penn takes our extras to the kids in the village. So… we're trying. But it's really not enough. It would take wagonloads of food in order for the Rito to be truly safe. And… you've seen the conditions of the roads…"
Link nodded slowly, his heart tight. "No wagon could get through that," he said, thinking of the drifts twice his height.
"But, anyway," Traysi sighed, leaning her head against her hand propped up by her elbow on the table. "You probably don't know, but I'm pretty good friends with Purah. She asked what the news was, through Penn, of course, and the news is, one of the village kids says he saw Princess Zelda up on Hebra Mountain."
He, Link thought. Tulin, then.
"No idea what in the world our Princess is doing up there in the middle of the worst blizzard Hyrule's seen in – in centuries, I'd wager – but that's what he said."
"I'll go talk to him, then," Link said, pushing to his feet. "And we can load up Ember with as much food as he can carry."
"That's part of the problem, though," Traysi protested dismally. "The bridge to Rito Village collapsed under the weight of the snow. It's broken. Only a Rito can get in and out of the city itself right now."
Link stared at her in horrified astonishment. The Rito knew better than anyone how to build weather resistant structures. That a bridge of their making had broken from the snow was a stark testament to the gravity of their situation.
How long until the rest of their buildings collapse?
He swallowed. "I'll figure something out," he said grimly. "I'm a decent climber, and Pura gave me a paraglider – if there's wind –"
"If there's wind, it'll blow you into a mountainside!" Traysi pointed out indignantly. "What, are you crazy? Rito get blown away in this! What do you think will happen to you?"
Link set his jaw. "I'll think of something," he insisted.
Traysi crossed her arms. "Stubborn," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. "Look, at least rest for the day. Your face is all flushed, you're dripping wet from the snow pile you walked in with you, and I think you're shivering, although you're doing a damn good job of trying to hide it. You're no good to anyone – not the Rito, not Princess Zelda – if you catch pneumonia." Her voice softened. "I'll pin up a couple sheets for privacy and roll out some blankets here in the main room. Stay at least one day, and then we'll see about 'figuring something out.'"
Link pressed his lips firmly together, his heart prickling restlessly at the thought of doing nothing for the rest of the day, but he couldn't fault her reasoning. He nodded reluctantly, and Traysi got to her feet.
"Penn!" she called out, opening the door to the back room. "How's the tea coming along?"
"Almost done," Penn said intently. "I can't see the bottom of the mugs anymore."
Traysi dashed into the room. "Penn! You over-steeped it! Tea isn't supposed to be that opaque!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know?"
Link listened absently to their banter, closing his eyes tiredly. He fought back a shiver – Traysi was right; he was cold, and he knew that if he allowed himself to dwell on the fact, he would realize that he didn't feel very good at all.
But in his mind's eye all he could see was Zelda, standing on a mountain peak surrounded by swirling snow and driving winds.
I have to get to her.