Chapter 7

Link struggled to keep breathing as they trekked up Death Mountain. Night had fallen, the only light being the fire burning what Link could only guess to be lava resting on the surface.

"Ow!" Zelda exclaimed, claws appearing in Link's back.

"This is the only time I'll say it, but I'd rather you walk under me," Link said, the second time fire had singed her fur. He stopped walking to give her a chance to jump down.

"No complaints from me," Zelda said, taking a second before dropping beside Link.

He looked down at her as she walked under him, holding the pouch in her mouth. Quickly he added, "Just, uhm, keep your eyes forward please."

Zelda let out a meow of laughter before saying through the pouch, "I promise."

Link let out a sound as fire pierced his hide. Flicking his tail at it, he said, "Okay, let's find this Hera." As they walked, Link doing his best to avoid the fire raining down on them, he asked, "Is our Death Mountain a volcano?"

"Yeah, it just hasn't erupted since we took up residence at the base of it," Zelda said, her voice muffled by the pouch.

"And the Gorons live on it?" Link asked, more in the realization their home could be quickly destroyed.

"They eat rocks and take lava baths, they like the heat," Zelda pointed out.

Link flinched as an ember landed on his head, getting him to stop and shake his head.

"Are you okay?"

Link looked down to see Zelda looking up at him from between his front hooves. "Yeah. Just counting our blessings that it's just a sprinkle of fire instead of a downpour." He looked up and continued forward, noticing Zelda keeping herself safe under him.

"I feel like a coward hiding under you like this," Zelda grumbled.

"It's not cowardice," Link said, following the path upwards on a steep incline that looked to have recently hardened from the lava's escape down. "I've just got a thicker hide than you do." Keeping an eye on where he placed his hooves, they made the trek upwards. The mountain feeling even more void of life compared to the charred forest below them.

"Hey! Is that a building?" Zelda asked, getting Link to look up.

Along the path they walked, above them was what looked to be a structure made of the igneous rock plentiful on the mountain. From this angle it was hard to make out if it was man made or natural, as it grew up the mountain along the side, but Link thought he could make out a door on a flat edge of the structure. They made their way up to the door, and took a moment's refuge under the small awning made out of rock. Link threw a glance down at the cougar between his hooves before raising up a hoof to bang against the door.

"I knew some monster would try and make it up here in that break," a male voice said, muffled on the other side of the door.

Guessing if he could hear Hera, the man would be able to hear them, Link called out, "Excuse us, Mr. Hera!? We were told by Charlo you might be able to help us!"

The door opened a crack with a metal screech sounding in the air, the barrel of a small stick pointed at them from under a man's head visible. The man's large bushy eyebrows rose high, revealing his eyes as he took in the two standing on his doorstep. "A horse and a cat?" he mumbled to himself. "But how in this world?"

A pain on Link's haunches turned him back to the fire raining down, noticing the fire grew heavier. Swatting the ember with his tail, he turned back to the man on the other side of the cracked open door and asked, "Is there any way we could come in? The fire's starting to come down more."

"Yes, yes, one moment," Hera said, disappearing from sight. The door was pulled open with the edge of the door scrapping the foundation. The old man standing just below Link's eye level appeared, holding a type of wand that looked hollow in his hand as he offered them inside.

"Thank you," Zelda offered, walking in front of Link into the structure.

Link carefully stepped in, worried of his large body as he kept his head low. He looked around the entry room, surprised to see what seemed like a sitting room. Chairs surrounded a low table in front of an unlit fireplace with a doorway leading beyond what he could see.

Hera pushed the door closed with a screech before turning to his two guests, holding the strange wand in both hands. "You said Charlo send you?" he asked. Shaking his head, his graying brown hair moving to reveal his long ears as he quickly said, "Where are my manors? Name's Hera."

"Zelda and this is Link." Zelda sat the pouch in front of her before throwing a glance up at Link before returning her gaze to the older man. "Your older brother told us you were working on a way to return people back to human? At least it seems like you've come up with a way to do so."

"Charlo? He's my younger brother," Hera corrected as he walked over to the chairs. Throwing a look towards them as he sat down his wand, barrel up, against a chair as he asked, "Can I get you two something to drink?"

"You have water?" Zelda asked.

Hera let out a laugh as he walked over to the doorway. "I'll take that as a yes," he offered. Over his shoulder as he disappeared into the next room he called, "Make yourselves comfortable."

Zelda picked up the pouch and walked over to the center of the room. She sat the pouch on the table before jumping into the chair across from the one holding his wand.

Link carefully walked around the chairs, laying down in the empty space that was behind her chair with his head resting beside her. Eyeing the wand in the other chair he asked, "What do you think that is?"

Zelda looked down at him before following his line of sight. "I'd guess a weapon of some sorts," Zelda offered, uncertainty in her voice. She looked back at him and added, "We know he's some sort of wizard."

"I prefer inventor," Hera, offered, walking back into the room. Link looked over his shoulder to see the old man carrying two bowls. The man leaned down and placed one bowl in front of Link before sitting the other on the table in front of Zelda.

Link looked down into the bowl, happily surprised to see the clear liquid. He quickly dropped his head into it, drinking as fast as he could.

"Actual water," Zelda let out, jumping out of the chair so she could lean against the table and drink.

"How?" Link asked, glancing up long enough to see the man sitting down in the chair with the wand in his hands. He felt the water run down his chin and drip off of him back into the bowl and the floor around it.

"Get yourself hydrated and I'll explain," Hera offered, a smile above his brown beard.

In no time Link's tongue found the bottom of the bowl empty. He looked up at the man, noticing him wiping the wand with a rag, and asked, "Is there any way I could have some more?"

"Me too, please," Zelda added, looking up from her bowl as she licked around her lips to catch any dripping from her fur.

"Of course." Hera rose to his feet, resting the wand and rag across from Zelda on the short table. He picked up the two bowls and disappeared into the adjacent room.

"I never thought water could taste so good," Zelda admitted, throwing a look back at Link. He gave her a nod just as the old man returned, their bowls filled once again with the clear liquid.

Hera sat back down in his chair, leaving the wand on the table as he said, "To stifle your curiosity, I created a way to pump up the water from the river and filter it to return it back to drinkable."

"What do you use to filter it?" Zelda asked after a fresh sip of her drink. "Sand or-"

"Charcoal," Hera interrupted.

"I would very much like to see your process," Zelda said, sitting down on her floor so her head rested just beside the water bowl. "Also I would like to apologies for imposing on you."

"No apologies necessary," Hera said, waving her words away. "I don't get much company willing to try the climb up here and when I do it's normally monsters." He put his hands in his lap and asked, "Could you tell me how you two were transformed into mythical creatures?"

"Mythical?" Link echoed, throwing a glance down at himself.

"We should start from the beginning," Zelda said, throwing a look at Link. She held herself straight, wrapping her tail around her paws and stared straight at Hera. "We're not from this world. We came from a country named Hyrule through a portal. When we arrived here we were already transformed from our human bodies to these, but to us they're not mythical. Horses," she pointed a paw to Link, "are quite common and pumas and most cat breads are all over the known kingdoms. But that's why we're here. The Darknut that rules over you is after us, sending his dragon to our world to show his power. We need to stop him, but we can't in these bodies. We were told you were working on a way to reverse it and, looking at you, it seems to have worked."

"Admittedly it wasn't an easy process," Hera admitted, eyeing the two as he rubbed the back of his head. "I know the basics of how to turn someone from a Kirkebi back human and I've been working on streamlining the process but it hasn't been tested yet. The last one brave enough for me to test on only just reverted from being a hyu a few days ago."

"I'm willing to try," Zelda declared.

Hera studied her a moment before dropping his hand to his lap with a sigh. "When you're ready, I'll take you into my workshop." He leaned forward and picked the wand and rag up, resting the wand on his lap to clean it again.

"What is that?" Link asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Oh this," Hera asked, holding up the wand. "I'm still working on a good name for the thing but right now I've settled on an arquebus. It uses sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter to shoot small arrows made of metal." Sitting it back in his lap he offered, "Later I could show you how it works, if you'd like."

"Please." Link lowered his head to take another sip, his thirst finally quenched.

"How's my younger brother doing?" Hera asked to keep conversation going. "You said he sent you here."

"Yes, we ran into the old village of Greenbrier and Charlo gave us as much as the community could spare for our journey," Zelda said, pointing a paw towards the pouch beside her water bowl. Looking up at the man she added, "He might've given them more hope than he should've, proclaiming about us going to fight the Darknut to the village."

"He was never any good at keeping secrets," Hera said, shaking his head with a smile plaster on his face.

Zelda rose to her paws and made sure she had the man's eye as his smile dissipated. "I'm ready. The sooner we get this over the sooner I'll be ready to fight."

"I feel like I'm missing a part of your story," Hera said, putting the rag and arquebus back on the table so he could stand up. Giving them a "follow me," he walked around the sitting room and to the doorway leading deeper into the home.

Link rose to his feet and followed Zelda and Hera down a hall of doors. He stole a glance into each, noticing a type of kitchen, a room smelling oddly of freshly turned dirt, and a room with a strange green glow before they were led into a room with a polished floor. He stopped just at the doorframe, eyeing the floor before carefully putting a hoof on it to test how slippery it might be. Legs strained so he didn't slip on the polished floor, he stepped as lightly as he could into the room as gaslights along the wall lit up the room. Stopping beside a strange looking metal table, Link took in the room. It was split in half by metal walls with windows on both side of a thinner metal door. From what Link could see of the smaller room, the same green glow lighting it instead of gaslights, it looked to be empty except for pipes dripping from the ceiling.

Hera stepped over to a table pushed up against the wall separating the room, pulling a blanket off of it to reveal a panel of switches. He tossed the blanket to the far side of the table where there was a pile of parchments, covering his written work.

"How does it work?" Zelda asked, standing up on her hind paws as she rested her front on the edge of the table he was at.

"I'll seal you in that room," Hera said, pointing a finger to the window in front of him, "and turn on the pumps. It'll pump in a few compounds I've put together and, after a few minutes of exposure, it'll turn you back to your human self."

"No one's died from this, have they?" Link asked, trying to be the voice of reason as worry appeared in his mind.

Hera looked over his shoulder at the horse and shook his head. "Worst I've had is a woman from Walnut getting sick, but that was with the oral version. Most of the time the wrong side effects have been changing people from Kirkebies into monsters but it always wears off. This isn't even permanent," Hera said, motioning to his body. "It's ranged from only lasting a couple of hours to almost lasting a month before the curse forces me back to a Kirkebi."

"We'll take however long it's willing to give us," Zelda said, dropping down to all fours. She stepped to the open door and said, "Tell me when I can enter."

"You can go ahead," Hera said, flicking a couple of switches as machinery out of sight sounded up.

"I love you," Link said quickly, putting a hoof forward. An unexplainable fear filled him as he took in Zelda's mountain lioness body. He could see the lean muscles under her fur he knew her human body possessed.

Zelda looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "I love you, too."

Link kept her eyes for as long as he could before she turned back to the chamber and stepped inside.

"Okay, stand on the mark on the floor, please," Hera said as he flicked one last switch. He stepped over to the doorway and looked in. "Do you remember the pain it felt like when you were transformed?"

Zelda turned around on the mark and nodded her head at the man.

"It's gonna feel that bad returning to human," Hera warned. "I've got a timer set so you don't stay in here too long, but by that time the chemicals should've already done their job. If you've changed your mind, now's the time to say something."

"No, I'm ready," Zelda said.

Link stepped around the table closest to the door to stand in front of the window on the right of the chamber door. Inside the room he could see pipes and machines suspended above Zelda, the green light coming from somewhere in the work above. He looked down to see Zelda standing in the middle of the room, her head held high.

"Okay, give me a moment," Hera said, taking a step back. He pushed shut the door, running his fingers along its edge before nodding to a thought in his head.

Link kept his eyes on Zelda, the only nervousness showing in how she flicked her tail as she stood waiting.

Hera knocked on the glass, getting the girl to look up at him. In a loud voice he projected through the window, "Starting it up."

Zelda gave him a nod before throwing a look over at Link.

The teen watched as green smoked fell from the pipes in the ceiling. Zelda looked up, her face unreadable as the green smoke filled the air in the chamber. Link held his breath as the girl flinched before dropping down into a crouch as the smoke made it down to where she was. She closed her eyes tight only to let out a scream, muffled to Link's ears by the wall separating them.