Chapter 25

Ravi thought he would sleep in, that the fatigue of travel would catch up to him now that he had a soft bed, clean nightclothes, and a legion of forest spirits patrolling the boundaries of the homestead. But he woke early and crept downstairs in his stockings while the house was still gray. Link's bedroom door was locked, and faint snoring bled through the panels.

There's nothing I can ever do to thank him.

He rolled up his sleeves and lit the fire in the hearth. He brought in an armful of wood from the pile out back—it would need replenishing. The cut logs would need to be split today. He drew water from the well and set the kettle on to boil, and dug through jars until he found enough rice for breakfast. There weren't any other fresh ingredients in the house—only flour and sugar and spices. Link kept all his food in his pouch.

While the rice was simmering, Ravi tucked the Zora knife into his boot, slipped outside, and took off running through the dewy grass. As he neared the road, he glimpsed a light dancing through the grass, sweeping back and forth, marking the edge of the boundary. He tumbled to a stop like he had run up against a fence. The road waited one long stride beyond him.

Gazing both ways down and up the hill, Ravi saw no sign of the Yiga, or keese, or any other traveler. He leaned forward. The cliff was so close. He could sprint a hundred yards, hurl the knife into the sea, and be done with it. But his toes remained frozen in the wet grass.

I shouldn't throw it away. I should give the knife back. Maybe he could convince Link to visit Zora's Domain. Maybe I could borrow the Purah Pad while he's asleep. But if Link caught him, wouldn't that be worse?

Just do it now. He glanced back at the house, at the drapes pulled shut across Link's bedroom window. What if Link was peeking through the slit, wondering what Ravi was doing? He peered at the red-leafed trees in the grove just down the hill. Maybe he could bury the knife in the earth. But what if the Yiga were masked as trees? What if they were waiting for him to slip outside the boundary?

"Tee hee!" A green korok popped out of the grass at Ravi's feet. "Do you want us to go with you? Mr. Hero said to keep you safe. Bandits won't see you when we're around." The korok thrust its stick like a sword.

Ravi stepped backward, giving the spirit a stiff smile. "I'm just looking." He turned on his heel and ran down the hill to the pond. Korok lights danced around the rim of the cliff, encircling the pond and its forest.

Guardians, he told himself, not guards.

Ravi scrambled up a tree and stole four bird eggs for breakfast, then returned to the house. He was turning the eggs over in the pan when Link came staggering downstairs.

He yawned and stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment in a daze. Barefoot, tangled hair, dark circles under his eyes. Then his gaze drifted over the two bowls of rice on the table, and his eyes lit up.

Ravi slid the eggs onto the rice. "If you want something fancier, you'll have to give me ingredients."

They sat on either side of the table and ate in silence, as they did most mornings on the road.

Ravi's leg bounced under the table. "What are we training today? I saw some targets out back."

Link's face fell in dread. "No training today. I'm taking the day off. Maybe a couple days." He yawned and glanced longingly up the stairs toward his bedroom.

"What do you want me to do?"

The swordsman touched his hip, reaching for his pouch, and glanced down as he found his hip empty. He yawned again, opened a book and ripped a blank page from the front, then began writing with a pencil. "I told you before, I'm going to have to leave you while I travel alone."

Ravi frowned.

"As you get stronger," Link said, "I'll be able to take you with me. I've been considering a training regime for you, and these are some chores and tasks to keep you busy while I'm away."

He slid the paper across the table, and Ravi glanced at the list while Link read it aloud.

"First thing in the morning, condition your body. I'll assign new exercises each week, increasing them as you progress. You'll spend one to two hours training, then you'll do household chores and tend to the horses. Aurora and Sadee will need to be exercised daily, since they're stabled. I don't want them to get fat."

"Can I move beyond the boundary?" Ravi asked.

"Yes. The koroks will go with you, but their magic will weaken if you go five miles from the house. Their magic renders you invisible to anything or anyone who doesn't have a pure heart."

"A pure heart?"

"They block anyone with allegiances to Ganon. That's how the magic of the Lost Woods works: it's the essence of the Goddess herself, repelling the darkness. A similar magic dwells in the Master Sword. The koroks are guardians and caretakers of that magic." He smiled. "But they're small. It takes a great number of koroks to pool their magic together and create my boundary. I've been enlisting them as I find them in the wild. They've been traveling to Akkala in pairs for safety, but they keep getting separated." Link tapped the list. "One of your jobs will be to find and reunite koroks. In your spare time."

Ravi read the next item on the list. "'Cooking with Rhondson.'"

"She's agreed to give you lessons twice a week. Don't take her spice measurements literally. The Gerudo have iron stomachs. I'd like to taste what you cook."

"This next one just says 'lessons.'"

Link pointed to the stack of books. "A warrior trains his body and his mind. Start by reading these."

Ravi glanced at the titles: A History of Hyrule, Botanicals of the Plains and Forest, King Rhoam's Principles of War, and Princess Ruto and the Fairy Prince.

"That last one is a novel," Link said. "I enjoyed it. Plenty of action."

"What's a novel?"

"It's a story that isn't real, but it's fun to read. This one is historical fiction—it probably didn't happen, but it could have."

The last item on Ravi's list read, 'Ten hours per week: Hudson Construction Company.'

"This afternoon, I'll introduce you to Hudson," Link said. "He's agreed to take you on as an apprentice."

"As a carpenter?"

"Not exactly." Link's eyes lit up. "They're experimenting with Zonai devices that fell from the sky. You'll work with him to develop new Zonai ensembles for me. I loved the Destroyer, and I want to see what else you'll come up with."

The first flush of excitement rose in Ravi's belly, but it faded as he reached the bottom of the list. "You didn't write 'weapons training' on here."

"Add it. We'll fit it in."

"When?" Ravi's chest tightened.

The swordsman's eyes flared wide as he remembered something. He pulled the paper back and added 'elixirs and tonics' to the page. "I'll need about ten per week. No, make that fifteen. Our journey was fun, but I need to make up for lost time. Every day I delay, Ganon's power strengthens. I probably won't be sleeping much." He pushed a small notebook across the table, filled with loose pages and notes. "Here are my recipes. You'll have to hunt down most of the critters yourself. There's a bug net around here somewhere."

He stood and began rummaging in several trunks under the stairs. "And laundry." He pulled out a stained tunic and tossed it to Ravi. "Write that down. I'll be sending home my laundry. You'll have to do a wash every few days." He grabbed a bug net and straightened suddenly, banging the back of his head on the stairs. "Will you organize this? Maybe tomorrow?"

Ravi's face dropped.

Rubbing his skull, Link extricated himself from the trunks. "Every first day of the week, you can take the day off, after you care for the animals. Life isn't all about work."

Some of the tension loosened from Ravi's chest. Just when I thought I was taking advantage of him. "How will I know when you're coming… back?" He almost said 'home.'

"I'll give you an estimate each time I leave." Link went to a wooden chest sitting beside the door, which was decorated with korok paint. Green leaves sprouted from the corners. "The koroks built this. It's a transfer vessel. Anything you put inside will go straight to my inventory. It goes both ways. I'll be able to send you messages, dirty dishes, laundry. Eventually, I'll send you weapons to sharpen and armor to clean. We'll get there."

Ravi dried his sweaty palms on his pant legs.

"Sidon was right. Again." Link's face brightened, and he stood straighter, loosening his shoulders like he'd taken off a heavy backpack. "This will be immensely helpful. My productivity will double if you can take care of these things for me."

"Does that mean we can face Karta?"

Link thought for a moment. "I'll be honest with you: he's low on my priority list right now. I need to awaken the sixth sage, find the Master Sword, and learn what happened to Zelda. She might be trapped somewhere, waiting for me, while I chase down bandits and fireflies. On my last quest, I could hear her voice. She spoke to me. But I don't sense her now. It worries me." He frowned into himself, then shook his head and met Ravi's eyes. "But I promise you, we will find Karta."

Ravi picked at a knot in the table. He withheld a sigh. Unless he finds you.

Link picked up his dirty bowl and carried it to the washbasin. "We'll go down to the market after dishes. I'll ask Hudson to build you an ice box like the one in Tulin's house. You can meet Fyson. We can ask him to teach you fletching. You've seen how I burn through arrows."

Ravi carried his dishes to the basin and picked up the water bucket. "No chance of getting bored."

Link reached under the counter and pulled out a jar of soap flakes and a stiff brush. He grinned. "Not a chance."

Three weeks passed in the house on the ridge above the ocean. Ravi settled in like he'd always been there, running laps up and down the road each morning, with Cherry at his heels. Riding Sadee and Aurora down to the beach to gather crabs for Link. Swimming out to the black rocks, venturing farther each day.

The villagers in Tarrey Town never asked about his past. Rhondson spread the story that Ravi was an orphan Link picked up on his travels, and about once a week, a basket of bread or a crock of soup showed up on the road. He sent most of the gifts to Link. That man's stomach was vaster than the Depths, and Ravi spent a good chunk of each day cooking and cleaning up. His hands grew dry and cracked from dishwater. But if that's what it took.

He wasn't lonely. He repeated it to himself at night in the empty house, with the blankets tucked up to his chin, staring at the silhouette of the waxing moon through his curtains. Link had warned him about the work, and the solitude. But Ravi began talking openly to the horses. He fed Cherry scraps and bones and made a bed for her in the tack room.

Ravi was practicing at the range behind the paddock when Link came back from his second excursion. It was a hot, windless evening. Crickets chirped in the long grass. Sticky sweat trickled between Ravi's shoulder blades and collected under his arm guard. He fitted another arrow to his string, drew smoothly, and aimed for a painting of Karta, which he'd tacked to the round target. His eyes narrowed, and he released. The arrow sank into Karta's forehead, burying into the target halfway up the shaft. He nodded, satisfied.

Strings of blue light knit together before the shrine on top of the hill. Link's glider snapped out and as he floated the short distance to the range, Ravi lowered his bow. He bit back a smile, keeping his expression cool, but his shoulders sank in relief.

Link was a dichotomy of travel. Mosquito bikes dotted his neck atop a deep red sunburn. He wore his black tunic that repelled gloom and a new, matching pair of baggy pants. He squinted, shading his eyes against the orange light. "I found the Spirit Temple," he said.

"Was it in the sky?"

"It was both—in the sky, then in the Depths."

"Who was the sage?" Ravi asked.

Link's eyes twinkled. "It was a unique battle. My fight with Kohga prepared me for it—I had a strategy in my pocket."

"You fought a construct?"

"On a construct." Eyes shining, Link flashed his fifth ring. "Her name is Mineru."

Ravi's eyes flew wide. "Show me!"

Link's stomach growled, and he rubbed his belly. "Later. First, I want to hear what you've been up to." He glanced at Ravi's target, at the arrow embedded in Karta's forehead. The side of his mouth twisted up in a grin. "You're the artist: the one who painted my portrait for the Yiga." He curled his fingers atop his head like horns.

Ravi marched to his target and gripped his arrows, pulling them from the straw with a rough jerk. Quiver full, he returned to Link.

"It looks like it's getting too easy." Link glanced at the drawing of Karta, peppered with holes. He pulled a new bow from his pouch. "This is a soldier bow. See if you can string it."

The boy hooked the string, wedged the tip of the bow between his feet and shins, and pushed down on the opposite end. His arm shook as he pulled the string up to the second tip; he exhaled, pushed one last time, and hooked the loop.

"Good," Link said. "It's yours."

"How heavy is it?" Ravi asked.

"Forty-five pounds."

"How heavy is yours?"

Link pulled a giant bow Zonai bow from his pouch. It was incredibly ornate, constructed of neither wood nor metal. Link adopted a stance, fitted an arrow, and drew in a breath as he pulled the string to his ear. He exhaled and released. The string slapped his sleeve viciously, and the target swallowed the arrow. "Eighty pounds."

"Why do you twist your hand when you draw?" Ravi pointed to Link's right hand, still on the bowstring, with the palm facing outward.

Link gave Ravi an embarrassed half-smile. "That's a bad habit. Don't copy me."

"Why don't you fix it?"

The swordsman scratched the back of his head. "It makes me think of my sister." He tucked the bow into his pouch and headed for the well. Cupping water from the bucket, he splashed his face and fanned his black tunic away from his chest.

"You had a sister?"

The warmth vanished from his eyes, but he nodded. "She was close to your age—about ten—when she started drawing her bowstring this way. She was trying to be different." He dipped a handkerchief in the water and wrung it lightly, then wrapped it around his neck. "I told her to draw proper, like Father. It was the last conversation I had with her."

He turned toward the house.

"What happened?" Ravi asked.

Link stopped.

"Do you remember?"

"I remember." He gazed out at the ocean. "Zelda revived it. She didn't know this memory would be… she was trying to help. My sister died. There was a fever outbreak in Castle Town when I was fifteen. It took both of them—my sister and my mother—on the same day."

Link drew further away. He slipped into the house.

Ravi hurried after him, catching up to Link in the central room. The swordsman sat on a stool at the table, frozen halfway through unwinding the leather straps around his calves. His eyes fixed on nothing, on the past. But he glanced up at the click of the latch as Ravi shut the door.

"You would have liked her," he said. "My sister was always getting into trouble, climbing chimneys, catching wasps and releasing them on our neighbor. She was always muddy. My mother stopped patching her dresses, so she stole my clothes and tore those up instead."

"What was her name?"

Link's face twisted. "Aryll." He smiled to himself and finished unwinding the leather strap, then started on the next one. "I felt I had to be extra responsible to make up for her." Folding both straps together, he placed them on the table. "After they were gone, my father stopped talking. He didn't say a word for two months. Didn't cry. He fell during the battle for Castle Town, defending their graves. I loved him very much."

Link stood. He went to the hearth and stoked the fire into a quick blaze. As he stood, his stomach growled. He glanced around the kitchen, then lifted the lid on the flour pot. "Do you want to try a new recipe? Have you ever tried cheese?" He drew a round, yellow brick from his pouch and extended it for Ravi to smell.

The boy sniffed. "It's salty."

Link set it on the counter and drew branch after branch of tomatoes from his pouch. "It's called 'pizza,'" he said. "The sauce has to simmer for an hour, so I've only made it once before, but I want to celebrate. I… we found the last temple. Your help saved me three days, at least."

Ravi slipped on an apron. He began chopping tomatoes while Link mixed dough in a wooden bowl. He talked about the dragon island in the sky, and getting struck by lightning, and an owl mask pointing his way into the Depths.

What kind of adventures will be left for me? Ravi wondered. Link was taking all the good ones for himself. But maybe it was best to be a normal sort of hero.

A week ago, the last time Link was home, Ravi had woken up to a scream. He picked the lock on the swordsman's door to find him tangled in his sheets, clutching a knife, deep in a nightmare. He had pressed the pressure points in Link's temples, and the swordsman relaxed enough for Ravi to pry the knife from his fingers. Link had never asked where the knife was, but when Ravi checked the hiding place under the pot, it was gone.

Link turned the dough out on the counter and began kneading, working the ball in smooth, even strokes. "My mother taught me how to cook, because I asked. I was a better daughter than Aryll." He chuckled. "She said if I was going to eat so much, I had to help cook it. We baked together and donated most of it. She was always giving to anyone who asked. She didn't know how to say 'no.'" He rolled the dough into a ball, dusted it with flour, and laid a cloth over it to rise. "That's how she brought home the illness. She took a pot of soup to a sick family. Two days later, she was dead."

He washed his hands and dried them on a towel. "Zelda never met my family. A few years ago, we picked through Castle Town until we found the ruins of my family's house. In those ruins, I remembered my family. It was… bittersweet. Zelda apologized profusely. But I'm glad I remember." He lifted his eyes to Ravi. "How are you doing?"

Ravi swept the last of the tomatoes into a pot, then hooked the pot over the fire. "Can I bring Cherry inside?"

Link frowned, eyebrows knitting.

Ravi hugged his arms. "It's really quiet when you're gone. I'm busy. I'm not bored. But I've never been alone before. Even with the Yiga. Someone was always there." He squeezed his arms tight to his chest.

"How is your hang time?" Link asked.

Ravi kicked off his boots and thundered upstairs. Link followed him, and in the exercise room, Ravi jumped and caught the rungs of the ladder suspended from the ceiling. He performed four pull-ups, then hung from the bar. Seconds turned into a minute. A second minute passed. His palms burned. His arms weakened; it felt like his shoulders were stretching from their sockets.

Link pulled a giant korok leaf from his pouch.

Ravi winced. He braced his core, and Link swung the leaf. The gust of wind broke Ravi's hold, and he fell, landing on his seat.

"Three minutes." Link tucked the leaf away. "Good progress. But you'll need—"

"Five, I know. To earn a glider." Ravi rolled his shoulders and jumped to his feet. "The tomatoes are burning." He ran for the stairs.

"I'll think about Cherry," Link said.

Ravi paused with his hand on the railing. He nodded and hurried downstairs.

The pizza emerged from the brick oven, cheese sizzling, edges slightly charred black. Ravi wondered what he'd done to deserve the aroma. Link brought the pizza up to the second floor. They spread a blanket on the roof and sat cross-legged, devouring the pizza under a canopy of stars.

A cool breeze swept up from the ocean, and they reached simultaneously for the last slice, bumping fingers, grinning.

"You can have it," Link said.

"You did all the work."

Link shrugged and took the last piece. "When I was in the Depths, in a different zone, I found something. Scared me out of my boots. I ran over to pick a bomb flower, and two red eyes appeared out of the darkness, floating in a simmering aura of gloom. A lynel." His eyes snapped up to Ravi, sharp, hungry. Like a wolf sensing prey. "I wanted to kill it. Twice the size of a silver lynel, armored, gloom-infested. Now that's a challenge." He swallowed the last bite of pizza and licked his lips.

"Why didn't you?"

"For a beast like that, I need the Master Sword."

"You have all five rings now." Ravi gestured to Link's right hand. "You can go for it."

Link frowned. He cradled his right hand in his lap, and his left hand snuck over it, hiding his rings.

Crossing his ankles, Ravi leaned back on his elbows. He tilted his head, gazing up at the stars. "I never thought I'd see them again. There are so many. Where do they all come from?"

Link laid back on the blanket, cradling his head in his hands. "Zelda said they're our prayers to Goddess Hylia, that she tacks them up in the sky to remind us she hasn't forgotten. Half of those prayers are probably from Zelda, the same plea, over and over. But the goddess answered, at last. I told Zelda she would. The princess likes to worry." He stretched his elbows wide.

"What's the first thing you'll do when the war is over?" Ravi asked.

"Take a hot bath. Then I'll sleep for a week." Link smiled. "I slept for three days after the battle with Calamity Ganon. Zelda sealed him away. Then she floated down from the sky and asked me if I remembered her. I never got to answer. She collapsed. I caught her, then I collapsed." He grinned. "I woke up first, covered in bandages, in Kakariko Village, and sat beside her bed until she opened her eyes. She had a smile like the sun." He bit his lip.

Ravi groaned. He sat up and clasped his knees. "You need to stop this. It's disgusting. Stop telling me and Sidon what you think of her and tell her yourself."

Link's smile vanished.

"You're courage incarnate. Brace up and talk to her."

The swordsman sat up. He bent his knees and clutched his elbows. "I'm not sure I want to be a king."

"That's your own fault for falling in love with a princess." Ravi gathered up the greasy towels.

"I think I could be a king with her," he murmured. "I feel like I'm right where I should be, at her side. Like we've been together before, a very long time ago."

"Then you don't have to worry whether she'll reject you."

Link massaged his right arm, rubbing the line where his black skin merged into the tan. "What if I defeat Ganon and my arm falls off? It doesn't belong to me. I'm borrowing it from King Rauru. Once Ganon's gone, Rauru's spirit will probably move on. What will happen to my arm, then?"

"You think Zelda won't love you if you have one arm?" Ravi asked.

Link's face twisted with pain. "It's my sword arm. I can't defend her… I can't fight as well… with my left arm. How would I hold a shield? I wouldn't blame her." His voice dropped. "I'm not a prince. Or a king. You said girls like scars, but I have so many." His shoulders scrunched as he curled into himself. He looked years younger—like a boy, in that moment, not much older than Ravi. "I don't want to defeat Ganon," he muttered. "It's going to be a gloom battle, and gloom hurts. It burns in my bones, like nothing I've felt before."

Ravi gestured to Link. "Give me the Purah Pad."

The swordsman hesitated.

"Pull up those pictures," Ravi said, and Link opened his photo album.

Ravi swiped through the pictures of Zelda, giving the hero time to gaze at each one. "Look at these angles," he said. "She let you take them—Zelda wanted you to take them. She's smiling, see? In every single one."

Link brought the screen closer to his face. As he swiped through the pictures again, he frowned deeply.

"She took pictures of you, too." Ravi swiped backwards. He stopped on a photo of Link, holding a torch, gazing up at an ancient stone mural.

"I don't know." Link scratched his hair, but a glimmer of hope sparked in his eyes. "I did find something in the well under my old house. Zelda has a hideaway down there. I found my hair tie beside her diary."

He pulled a small silver jewelry box from his pouch. It looked over a hundred years old. He thumbed open the lid, revealing his worn, blue hair tie.

"What were you doing in her secret hideaway?" Ravi raised his eyebrow.

The hero smiled, sly, and tucked the box away.

"There you have it." Ravi leaned back on his elbows. "She has a crush on you. But you already know."

Link played with his napkin, twisting the corner.

"She's waiting for you, Link," Ravi said. "Go out and find her."

Warmth spread across Link's face, like a sunrise dawning. He gazed around the rooftop, the hillside below, the ocean, and up at the stars with fresh eyes, like he was seeing them all for the first time. Suddenly, he leaped to his feet. "I'll do it." He clenched his fists.

The hair stood up on Ravi's arms like he was in the presence of a thunderstorm.

"I'll do it," Link declared again to the night, then his gaze whipped down to Ravi. "I'll defeat Ganon. I won't collapse. I'll break her free and I'll kiss her." He covered his mouth, shocked at his own words. "Or talk to her first, and ask if I can kiss her. Or maybe take her on a date. Even if I have one arm." A wild grin split his face. "I'm going to find the Master Sword. It'll be a long journey, but I feel the sword calling to me. I'm strong enough. It's time."

Ravi stood with him, heart beating light and fast.

Link met his eyes, firm with an unshakable decision. "Once I pull the sword, the battle will begin. The final push to the end. Are you still with me?"

Ravi's legs trembled. He felt like he was back in the Yiga hideout, watching his mother vanish through the door. He drew himself up tall. "I am."

The swordsman left the next morning at dawn. Ravi stood on the porch, hugging his arms against the morning chill, as Link stepped into the pink light, weapons clinking on his back. He filled his lungs with the fresh air, like taking a breath before plunging into water, then touched the Purah Pad.

Ravi returned to the house. He kneeled in front of the goddess statue, clasped his hands, and pinned a prayer up in the stars.

Note: You won't want to miss this! My friend drew the scene where Ravi and Link are making pizza... with a few not-so-helpful friends. It's hilarious and super cute. Visit my author website to check it out! The web address is in my profile.