Linkle wanted to wait for her brother when she made it across the gap to the pirate ship, but she didn't have time. Dozens of other Hylians had made it over from the other ship as well, and despite the looming threat of the gigantic octopus monster, the Hylians and the Blins continued their battle.

The Hyrulean ship and the second pirate ship were both pulled underneath the water, dragged into the whirlpool by the Giant Octorok's colossal tentacles. The pirate ship Linkle was on now, however, managed to escape, continuing to sail northwest. Linkle had no idea where the Blin pirates were heading, but that didn't matter. She and the other Hylians simply needed to defeat the pirates and take control of the ship. From there, they could decide where to go next.

So, as soon as Linkle was aboard the enemy ship, she went back to hacking down Miniblins. The tiny monsters fell easily enough, but she knew they weren't the real threat. The one Bigblin that had invaded the Hyrulean ship had been a massive challenge to fight. Now there were three of them. One had retreated to the upper level where the ship's steering wheel was located, but the other two were still on deck. The one with the giant bone club crushed any Hylians who got too close, while the one with the anchor at the end of the rope swung it at any Hylians who were too busy fighting Miniblins to notice until it was too late.

I've gotta kill the one with the anchor first.

Something she'd learned from the stone-footed Bigblin was that her crossbow bolts were not enough to bring down the large creatures. The Master Sword, however, seemed to be more than enough. She had to get up close.

The problem was, as soon as she drew the Master Sword, all eyes were on Linkle. The Bigblin with the anchor weapon swung it in a circle around himself while advancing on Linkle, preventing her from getting any sort of opening. While the Bigblin approached her, several Miniblins came towards her from the other side, and she was forced to fight them off while backing away from the spinning anchor.

However, she had an idea. She'd just used her hookshot to swing from ship to ship a moment ago, so the item was still on her mind. Keeping an eye on the wooden structures that were a part of the sails, Linkle waited until the Bigblin stepped into the right position. Moving quickly, she pulled her hookshot back out and shot it into the beam above the Bigblin's head. Pressing the button to reel herself in, the hookshot pulled her into the air above the swinging anchor.

The Bigblin roared when it realized what was happening. It attempted to toss the anchor at Linkle, but it missed.

Linkle released the hookshot when she was almost directly above the Bigblin. She attempted to stab it in the head as she fell past it, but the monster had enough sense to move to the side at the last moment. However, Linkle managed to land on her feet. She spun around and slashed at the back of the monster's leg before it had a chance to turn around. The Master Sword easily sliced the monster's leg clean off, causing the Bigblin to wail in pain as it fell over. She didn't want to give it a chance to get back up, so she quickly leapt over to the monster's head and drove her sword down into its neck.

"That was easier the second time around," she commented as she pulled her sword free from the monster's corpse.

"Hero!"

Linkle wasn't sure who'd shouted it, but she turned towards the sound of the voice. When she did, she caught sight of a barrel hurtling through the air, coming directly towards her. However, she did not have enough time to react. The barrel crashed into her head. Whether or not there was anything in it, she felt like she'd just been hit by a ton of bricks. It knocked her down onto the deck where she lay for a moment, dazed and in pain.

After a few seconds, Linkle managed to get her head back together. As she did, she opened her eyes and looked up towards the sky, only to see the foot of a Bigblin coming down upon her. With as much effort as she could muster, she rolled to the side, dodging out of the way just before the Bigblin stomped against the wooden deck. She landed on her stomach and tried to lift herself up, but before she could, she felt a large hand gripping her entire head in its palm. The hand lifted her head up, then shoved it down hard against the deck. It then did so again, and again. After having her head slammed against the floor for the third time, Linkle abruptly lost consciousness.

When Linkle awakened, she wasn't actually sure she was truly awake. All she could see was darkness. She tried to remember what had happened, but her head was pounding, and everything was fuzzy.

She tried to move, but realized she couldn't. She could feel she was lying on her back, but her arms and legs were bound in some way. As much as she tugged at her bonds, she could not move her limbs. Upon realizing her situation, she involuntarily yelped in fear, only to realize a cloth had been stuffed in her mouth, muffling her voice.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!

Linkle began to panic, thrashing against her bonds and trying to scream, but she could do nothing. She'd been captured. Her memory was still fuzzy, but she remembered she'd been battling Miniblins and Bigblins on their ship. She knew what Blins did to their captives. She had to escape at all costs.

Her next thoughts were of her brother. Had he made it onto the Blin ship with her? Had he been captured as well?

Will I be able to save him? Will he be able to save me?

They always did that for each other. Whenever one of them was in trouble, the other would always come through and save them, no matter what. Linkle had never felt like she needed saving more than at that very moment.

Please, brother. Please, Farore. Hylia. Nayru, Din, anybody.

Linkle tried struggling against her bonds again. She could feel the ropes digging into her wrists and ankles. She tried to scream, but her voice still only came out as muffled moans.

After some time, she heard footsteps. Linkle's thrashing ceased, and she froze completely. She broke into a cold sweat, terrified of what might happen next.

As the footsteps got closer, she could hear one set of slow, heavy footsteps, as well as the pitter-patter of several sets of smaller, lighter feet. She could also hear an obnoxious symphony of those odd noises Miniblins made, but Linkle could find no humor in them at the moment.

Linkle flinched when she heard a voice. One of the monsters spoke in a language she couldn't understand. Its voice was slow and almost animal-like, reminding her of a dog mixed with a cow. She could tell it must have been a Bigblin speaking. As soon as it did, all of the Miniblins ceased their noises. The Bigblin stepped closer to Linkle, its heavy footsteps thudding against the wooden floor.

"I won't hurt you," the monster said, speaking slowly and deliberately in Hylian. However, he did not sound friendly. "I want to. You killed my friends. But they want the Hero alive."

Linkle was surprised, but also confused. She had so many questions, yet when she tried to ask them, she could only whimper against the gag. She tried to pull against her bonds again, hoping to do anything to signal that she wanted the monsters to release her, or to at least remove the gag to let her speak.

"No," the Bigblin told her. "We take no chances with you. You stay tied up until we get to shore." The monster said no more after that. His footsteps retreated away from Linkle, followed by those of his Miniblin minions, leaving Linkle alone in the dark once again.

Linkle wasn't sure how long she'd been tied up below deck on the Blin pirate ship. It could have been hours or days. She'd passed out several times from a combination of pain and a lack of food and water, but it never felt like she'd been sleeping when she woke up.

The fear and confusion faded somewhat over time, but never entirely. She was relieved the Blins were not planning to kill her, torture her, or worse, but the Bigblin's words still weighed on her. The monster was intending to pass her off to someone else. She figured it had something to do with the Sheikah who had attacked her in Faron, but she still didn't know much about who they were or what they wanted. They apparently wanted her alive, but that gave her little comfort.

Linkle's body stiffened again the next time she heard footsteps approaching. The monsters did not speak, except in their guttural language. After a moment, Linkle felt herself rising into the air as the monsters lifted the table or whatever wooden object she was tied to. She tried to shake her head and make noises of complaint, but the Blins ignored her and carried her off.

After a short while, Linkle could feel they were ascending a staircase. When she felt the wind blowing and heard the sound of seagull calls, she realized she'd been brought back up on deck. After spending so much time deep within the ship, the fresh air was nice, but she could not appreciate it much given the circumstances.

Before long, Linkle could feel they were descending once more, but she had not been brought back inside the ship. She could tell they were still outside.

Are we docked? Are they bringing me back on land?

"This is the one?"

Linkle flinched. She heard an unmistakably human voice speaking in Hylian. The monsters lowered her once again as they came to a stop. Hoping to get a chance to communicate with the human, Linkle began shaking her head and attempting to speak through her gag, but the human did not come to help her.

"This is the Hero," came the voice of the Bigblin.

"And you're sure of this?" the man asked.

"She had the Master Sword," another Bigblin with a slightly different voice said. "Here it is, along with her other things."

There was a ruffling sound as someone looked through what must have been a sack holding Linkle's equipment.

"I see," the man said. "Has she been harmed?"

"We had to knock her out," the first Bigblin replied.

"I mean after you'd taken her prisoner."

"No."

"We should have tossed her into the sea and been done with it," the second Bigblin said.

"Even a beast as simple as you should know how counterproductive that would be," the human said with unhidden disdain in his voice.

One of the Bigblins growled. "Watch what you say, tiny one. Insult me again and you will feel pain."

"Yes, by all means, attack me. That will do wonders for your race's sterling reputation."

There was a stomping sound. "You want to die?" the same Bigblin said angrily.

"Do you even know what I said?"

"I know it was an insult."

"And you know your orders. Lay a hand on me, and it will be your head."

"That–"

"Enough." The other Bigblin interrupted, likely to prevent his companion from mauling the human to death. "We've given you your prize. Take the Hero and go."

"What of your other prisoners?" the human asked.

"What of them?"

"They are not to be your spoils, monster. Make landfall somewhere further up the coast and send a ransom letter to Hateno. Do not harm them, and you shall be paid well for their safe return."

One of the Bigblins snorted. "Fine. Now begone with you."

Linkle heard the shuffling of many pairs of feet. The Bigblins stomped away back up the wooden ramp they had climbed down on, along with the Miniblins following them. When Linkle felt herself being lifted up again, she tried her luck once more, screaming into the gag and shaking her head.

"Kanojo no sokubaku o hodokubekidesu ka?" came the voice of a woman who had not spoken before. Linkle could tell she was speaking Sheikah, but she couldn't understand a word of it.

"Īe, kochira no kata ga yoidesu," the man replied.

The wooden device Linkle was tied to was then loaded into the back of a wagon of some sort. With as many footsteps as she heard and the number of hands she felt checking her restraints, it was clear there were many more people taking her than just the two she'd heard talking. She could hear chains being attached to the wooden platform she was restrained to, followed by the sound of what must have been the door of the wagon being shut. Linkle tried in vain to thrash about or communicate the whole time, but she was completely ignored.

There was more chatting in Sheikah, and then the wagon lurched forward, beginning to move. Linkle, no closer to escape, lay in the back, having no idea what would come next.

I've got to find a way out of this…

"Halt."

Linkle perked up at the sound of Hylian being spoken again. She'd once again lost track of time while bound, gagged, and blindfolded, and she had no idea where she'd been dropped off by the Blins, so she was still unclear on her location. However, if a new Hylian had appeared to tell them to stop, perhaps there was a chance she would be rescued from her current predicament.

"Good morning to you, sir."

Linkle almost couldn't tell it was the Sheikah man who was talking. He spoke in such a different tone that he sounded almost like a completely different person.

"What brings you to Loshlo today?"

"And with such an armed escort?"

Loshlo?

Linkle was surprised. Loshlo was located along the coast of Necluda. Somehow, she'd ended up very close to her own home.

We must have been stopped by some sort of border guard.

"Prisoner transport," the Sheikah replied, followed by the sound of two taps against the side of the wagon.

"All of you for one prisoner?" one of the guards asked skeptically.

"It's a high priority prisoner. Very dangerous criminal, you see. We are taking her straight to the dungeons of Hyrule Castle," the Sheikah explained.

"Mhmm." There was a pause, accompanied by the sound of paper ruffling. "By the gods," the guard said. "She's done all this?"

What?

The Sheikah must have provided the guard with fake documents claiming Linkle had committed many heinous crimes.

You bastards. When I get out of here, I'll kill you!

Linkle tried to rock the wooden bench she was chained to from side to side. To her surprise, she succeeded somewhat. There was just enough leeway for her to slam the edge of the bench against the wall of the wagon.

"Ah!" the guard yelped in surprise.

"What did I say? Very dangerous," the Sheikah quickly replied, playing off the sound Linkle made as the ravings of a mad criminal.

"Yes. Well. Your papers appear to be in order, so move along." A few stamping sounds followed, which were probably the guards marking the Sheikah's fraudulent documents.

"Thank you, sir. Have a good day," the Sheikah said graciously. "Come on, everyone. Let's get a move on."

The wagon began to move again. Linkle screamed against the gag and slammed the bench against the wall once more.

Someone banged on the outside of the wagon in return. "Keep it down in there," came a voice. "This journey can get a lot more unpleasant for you. Believe me."

Linkle stopped. She wasn't sure how serious the threat was, but even with how furious she was, she knew she was not in a good position to fight. She couldn't get out of this the way she wished she could.

What would Link do?

Her eyes opened wide beneath her blindfold, tearing up.

Link.

Was her brother still being held prisoner aboard the Blin pirate ship? Would they release him as promised? Was he even alive?

Stop. Stop. He is alive.

She couldn't allow herself to dwell on such bad thoughts at the moment. She needed her brother to be alive. She would find him again.

I just need to get out of this first…

As had been the case on the pirate ship, it was difficult for Linkle to get a sense of how much time had passed while she was in the prison wagon. She knew they'd traveled through Loshlo, but she felt like they'd been moving for long enough that they must have moved past the town by now. The Sheikah traveling with her outside of the wagon remained disturbingly silent for the majority of the time, and the few times Linkle heard them talking, they'd spoken in the Sheikah tongue, which she barely knew a word of.

Linkle wondered where they were taking her. They'd claimed they were taking her to the Hyrule Castle dungeons, but that could have easily been a lie, and it made no sense to her anyway.

Regardless of where they were or where they were going, Linkle was constantly listening. If she couldn't brute force her way out, she had to play it smart. She knew Link would tell her to focus on her situation and wait for the right opportunity, so that's what she was going to do.

Her first chance came what must have been a long time after they'd left Loshlo. The guards transporting her, who up until that point had kept talking to a minimum, suddenly started shouting in Sheikah. Linkle couldn't understand what they were saying, but she could tell there was some urgency in their voices.

What? What is it? Are we under attack?

She next heard a noise that sounded like a mix between a pig squeal and some sort of roar. Whatever was outside, it must have been attacking Linkle's guards, as one of them cried in pain. The monster noises became more frequent, as if one or two more had appeared.

Soon after the fighting began, something rammed against the side of the wagon, enough to tilt it a bit.

This could be it.

As she'd done before in Loshlo, Linkle began wrestling with her bonds. Forcing the bench to tilt on its side, she slammed it against the wall. Then she did it again, and again.

With another squealing roar, a monster rammed the wagon again. Linkle had been throwing herself to the side at the time, causing the wagon to nearly tip over, but it wasn't quite enough.

Come on, come on…

Several more Sheikah cried out in pain, as if they were being mauled to death, but Linkle ignored them. She was entirely focused on escaping. If there were any Sheikah left once she was free of her bonds, she would want to kill them anyway.

As she continued to slam the bench she was tied to against the wall, the pain began building. Every time she hit the wall, the force and the vibrations shooting through her felt like they would break her bones, but she kept at it, hoping to time it just right.

After a third failed attempt, she finally succeeded on the fourth. One of the monsters rammed against the wagon, much harder than the previous times, just as Linkle was rocking the bench to the side. When she hit the wall, the entire wagon tipped onto its side, throwing Linkle and the bench to the ground.

Linkle cried in pain, muffled by the gag. However, as she moved her limbs, she suddenly realized she was less restricted than before. The bench she'd been tied to had shattered from the force of the fall. Ropes were still tied to her wrists and ankles, but she had more than enough slack to move around.

The first thing she did was pull off the blindfold. Even in the back of a windowless wagon, the light was blinding when her vision finally returned to her. She didn't mind, however. Not being trapped in the dark anymore came as an enormous relief.

Next came the gag. There was a cloth tied around her head and covering her mouth. She quickly untied it, then grabbed the other cloth that had been stuffed into her mouth and pulled it out.

"Fuckers." Her first word upon regaining her ability to speak came out weakly. Her throat was dry as it had been some time since she'd last had any water. Nonetheless, it was another welcome relief. Lastly, she untied the ropes around her wrists and ankles, revealing rings of reddened skin beneath them.

Linkle moved to stand up, but was immediately greeted by pain. Her whole body felt sore. She suspected a few bones had been fractured in the crash that had freed her.

It doesn't matter. I just need to get out of here.

Although the wagon had been turned on its side, the door was still shut. Luckily, the door frame seemed to have been damaged, although Linkle still had to throw all her weight against it twice to knock it open. It hurt like hell, but she could finally see the light of day again.

Once she was outside, the sounds of the battle became even more clear. Linkle could also see what the Sheikah were fighting. Apparently, they had stumbled upon a herd of Helmasaurs. The monsters were large, saurian creatures with spiky, metallic plates covering their skulls. Linkle had seen them many times in Necluda before, but she had never seen any this large. Each of them was almost the size of the wagon. Their usual attack pattern was to charge in a straight line, ramming everything in its path. While this manner of attack was predictable, their armored front sides made fighting a Helmasaur quite difficult regardless, and the Sheikah were evidently struggling with it.

Linkle would have loved to slay the monsters under normal circumstances, but even she recognized she was in no condition to fight.

You get a pass today, monsters. Just make sure you kill these bastards, okay?

Staying low and keeping close to the overturned wagon, Linkle tried to avoid being spotted. She wasn't quite sure what her escape route would be yet, but before she could leave, she needed to collect her belongings. She was not going to let those bastards keep the Master Sword, the Pegasus Boots, the Ocarina of Wind, her hookshot, or anything else that belonged to her.

Her equipment hadn't been with her in the back of the wagon, which meant it was either being kept in the front of the wagon or one of the guards was holding it. She hoped it was the former, because she did not feel like fighting an armed Sheikah warrior for her stuff at the moment.

The horses that had been pulling the wagon were long gone. And, with the wagon turned over on its side, there was no easy way inside the front compartment now. Linkle had to climb onto the top of the wagon to reach the door, which was extremely difficult given how much pain she was already in.

However, once she was able to look down into the wagon's front compartment, she could see a conspicuous brown burlap sack. She grabbed the sack and pulled it out, then opened it to check its contents. Everything was there.

Perfect. Time to go.

"Oi! Kanojo o tomete!"

Linkle flinched. Two of the Sheikah on the ground had noticed her. One of them lifted his arm and tossed a knife in her direction.

"Shit. Whoa!" Linkle managed to dodge the knife, but in doing so, she fell off of the wagon. She hit the ground with a thud. "Owwww," she groaned as she picked herself back up. She still had the sack of her belongings, which was lucky, because she assumed she had a fight on her hands now.

The two Sheikah seemed to be arguing now. The one who had thrown the knife was being berated by the other one, who seemed incredibly angry. However, their argument did not last long. A pair of Helmasaurs charged at them head-on, and they had to dive to the ground to get out of the way.

Alright, maybe I should just…

Linkle looked over the apparent battlefield in search of a way to escape unnoticed. However, there wasn't one. They had been traveling along a road through an open field right beside a cliff. Any direction she could go, the Sheikah would spot her.

Unless…

Limping from her injuries, Linkle made her way over to the cliff's edge and peered over it. There was a lake below, but more importantly, the cliff may have been climbable. That gave her a possible means of escape.

However, as she was considering the best way down, she heard the squealing roar of a Helmasaur. She turned around, but it was too late. The iron-faced monster charged at her, and in her condition, she was not fast enough to get out of the way. The saurian creature rammed right into her, knocking her over the cliff.

Linkle felt the fear grip her, but she was too weak to scream. Thinking quickly as she fell, she reached into the sack of her belongings and rummaged through it, pulling out her hookshot. She desperately fired it off towards the cliff. She managed to snag something when she was more than halfway to the ground. However, the force of the sudden stop pulled her arm out of its socket. That was when she found the energy to scream.

Immediately after, the hook end of the hookshot came loose. Linkle fell the rest of the way down, plummeting into the lake below.

Linkle found herself lying on the shore. She may have swam there, or she may have simply floated there. She really couldn't remember. She was in pain, hungry, and dehydrated, and her mind was rather foggy. She'd managed to hold onto the sack containing her belongings. She counted that - along with the fact that she was alive at all - as a victory.

Being somewhat more conscious now, Linkle sat on the water's edge and examined her surroundings. At first, she was worried she was trapped somewhere deep in the wilderness, but then, she realized the area looked rather familiar.

"This is… Lake Jarrah." This was not some place she had never been before. Linkle had swam, fished, and even bathed in this exact lake many, many times since childhood. She wasn't lost in the wilderness at all. She was a short walk away from her own home.

How the hell did I end up here?

Her memory was a bit hazy, but everything slotted into place after a moment. The Sheikah had carted her through Loshlo. The place at the top of the cliff where they'd been attacked by Helmasaurs must have been Marblod Plain. So, after falling off of the cliff, she had ended up falling into Lake Jarrah.

She'd crossed six provinces, met five sages, rescued a princess, visited both Kakarikos, climbed the Eldin Mountains, visited the City of Hyrule, survived the Blood Moon out in the wilds, traveled through the Lost Woods, and so much more. And, after all of that, her journey had taken her in one big circle, taking her right back to where she'd started. Back home.

Just like Link wanted.

She would have laughed at the irony that she was the one to end up back home instead of him, but she began to worry once again.

No. He's alive. We'll find each other again.

What she needed to focus on now was figuring out what to do next. She'd escaped from the Sheikah, but she didn't know if any of them had survived and would return to hunt her down again. She could go look for Link, but she wasn't sure how to begin. Perhaps more importantly, she was injured beyond belief.

Maybe I should go home and rest for a bit…

Before she stood up, she put a hand on her dislocated shoulder. She'd read enough about field first aid techniques that adventurers sometimes needed to employ while out questing in the wilds. She knew this wouldn't be pleasant, but she closed her eyes, braced herself, and popped the bone back into place. She screamed again, loud enough to cause the birds perched in the nearby trees to scatter into the air.

She couldn't bring herself to move for a few minutes after that, but eventually, she climbed to her feet. It took considerable effort, but she began the walk back to her old family home.

Seeing her house again was almost surreal. Linkle couldn't actually remember how long it had been since she'd last been there. Her journey felt as if it had been simultaneously a week long and a year long.

When she reached the door, Linkle saw the door frame was busted, as if it had been kicked in. That did not surprise her. She and her brother had abandoned their home on a whim of hers. They had not sold or leased the property to anyone; they had simply up and left. Someone must have come by at some point and ransacked the place while they were gone. Luckily, she and her brother did not own many possessions of much value, and any they did own had been brought with them. Any bandits who had come by had probably taken what was left of their food stores and then left.

Linkle felt a strong pang of nostalgia when she stepped through the doorway. She'd spent fifteen years of her life in this little house. It was more than big enough for her and Link, but it had been rather cramped back when her parents and her other siblings had lived there, too. Still, it had always been warm and cozy, even if staying in one place had never been what Linkle wanted.

The first thing Linkle did was collapse in one of the chairs by the dining room table, dropping the sack of her belongings on the ground beside her. She would have loved to lie down in her bed, but she was completely out of energy just from walking there, and any place she could get off of her feet was fine as far as she was concerned.

What am I going to do?

Linkle thought to herself. There was much she had to do. She had to find her brother. She had to escape the Sheikah pursuing her. She had to get to the bottom of why the Sheikah were pursuing her. She had to go to the capital to search for the Kokiri knight who possessed the last key. She had to find out what the keys were for. And, of course, she had to slay the demon that threatened the whole kingdom.

Linkle raised an arm experimentally, before letting it drop to her lap due to the pain. Her whole body still ached. In her condition, it would be terribly difficult to do any of the heroic acts she needed to do, let alone all of them.

Is this what being the Hero is like?

She felt useless. She glanced down at the sack of her belongings, from which the Master Sword was sticking out, and her thoughts drifted back to the moment she and her brother had pulled it from the stone.

If I'm even the real Hero…

Linkle shut her eyes tightly, biting back that horrible doubt that had been gnawing at her in the back of her mind ever since that moment. Then, from behind her, she heard a chuckle.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Linkle was too weak to be surprised. Slowly and with great effort, she twisted her position in her chair to get a look behind her.

There stood a well-groomed Hylian man, finely dressed in violet clothing and gold jewelry. On his back, he carried a rather oversized sack. The man stood with his hands clasped together in front of him, smiling at Linkle with an uncannily wide grin, and staring at her with eyes strangely lacking in color. Something about the man seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Do I know you?" Linkle asked with a weak voice, wondering if this man had been squatting in her house while she and Link were gone.

"But of course!" the man proclaimed, pulling the straps of his bag off of his arms so he could set it down against the wall. As he did, Linkle noticed several ornate masks depicting strange faces hanging off of the bag. "You know me. We're old friends now."

"...Oh." Linkle blinked. Her mind was still a bit foggy, so perhaps she was blanking on how she knew this man. At the very least, he did not appear hostile, even if she was somewhat concerned that he'd come into her home uninvited. Linkle winced, clutching an arm to her chest where she probably had a broken rib or two. "Sorry. I'm kind of…"

"You do seem to be in quite a predicament." The strange man stepped closer to Linkle. With an apparent disregard for personal space, he leaned forward to examine her. "Would you care to have your wounds healed?"

Linkle still felt somewhat uncomfortable, but she perked up at the offer. "You're a healer?"

"I am many things." The man chuckled, stepping away from her. "But, so long as I am doing a favor for you, Hero, perhaps you'd be so generous as to do a favor for me in return?"

Linkle furrowed her brow.

How did he…?

Looking down, she again noted her belongings spilling out of the sack on the floor, leaving half the Master Sword in plain view.

Oh.

"I… Yes, of course." Helping others in exchange for aid was commonplace for adventurers, so Linkle did not think much of the request. "What do you need?"

"Well…" The strange man walked around to the other end of the dining table, pulling up a chair and taking a seat. He then placed his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers in front of him, grinning widely at Linkle. "I wish to obtain an item of great importance. It is quite powerful, you see. And I need it."

Linkle nearly laughed. She knew just what her brother would think if he heard that.

Sounds like more vaguely-important keys…

"You see, some time ago, I made a deal with the head of the Impa Clan," the man went on.

That got Linkle's attention immediately.

Impa Sadashi? Isn't she the one behind all this? How the hell is this guy involved?

"She required this item's power as well, and since I cannot retrieve it myself, I needed someone else to acquire it for me," the man explained. "So, I told Lady Impa where it was and how to acquire it, and I agreed to let her borrow it long enough to suit her needs. I even gave her daughter an exceptional gift that would greatly aid them in their task. In exchange, Lady Impa agreed to pass the item on to me once her work was complete."

"How to obtain it?" Linkle repeated, fighting soreness in order to lean forward in anticipation. "The keys?" Reaching down into the bag of her belongings, Linkle produced the hookshot. "Like this?"

The strange man's grin never changed, but his eyes fell upon the hookshot meaningfully. "Yes, that is one of the items required to open the way."

"What is it?" Linkle asked excitedly, wincing in pain from her own sudden movements. "Ow. The thing. The powerful item. What is it? I need to know!" The man had a lot to say about this all-important item of his, but he seemed to be purposefully avoiding saying what it actually was.

What's the big secret?!

The man stared at Linkle. His strange eyes gleamed with a sense of desire and purpose. "Perhaps you already know of it. It was used by a predecessor of yours. It can grant one the power of a god."

Linkle gasped, then stifled a painful cough, feeling her broken ribs again.

The Triforce.

The strange man nodded his head, as if he assumed she'd managed to guess it. "Regardless, I now suspect Lady Impa never had any intention of letting anyone else have it. It would be a terrible thing to fall into the wrong hands. As the Hero, may I count on you to prevent this from happening?"

Linkle nodded. Protecting the Triforce was one of her sworn duties as the Hero.

I have to stop Impa…

"Splendid! I can always count on you," the strange man said happily, standing up from his chair. "Now then, I suppose I should get to healing you, yes?" He stepped away from the table and walked over to the piano, taking a seat in front of it.

Linkle blinked. "Wha…?" she started to ask, her mind feeling woozy.

We don't own a piano…

Either someone had moved a piano into her home while she and her brother had been gone, or she was hallucinating. Nevertheless, the sweet melody the man played certainly sounded real enough. Not only that, but it was soothing. The man must have been using the music as a means to channel his healing magic, because Linkle could feel her pain subsiding. An extraordinarily calm feeling washed over her as well. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back. She was exhausted after everything that had happened to her, and before she knew it, she'd drifted off to sleep.