Epona finally finds a foe that she cannot handle.

Link does not like the depths.

So this was the depths. Link had scattered a bunch of brightblooms the moment they arrived. Yunobo and Rauru were, as it turned out, an excellent tag team for friendship despite being unable to interact with each other. Yunobo provided a reassuring presence while Rauru scouted ahead. The three sage avatars kept monsters away for them. Yunobo took note of Link's twitching sword arm and the way his eyes were flicking back and forth. The Goron approached, avoiding sudden moves to avoid spooking the Hylian. "Hey, Link?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Fine. Just great. Not letting the Gloom get to me here."

Yunobo processed the levels of voice inflection in that interaction. This required intervention. "Let me give you a hug?"

Even if Link had never been on the receiving end of the crushing pressure of brotherly love in this life, he'd hav paused anyway. Something about the rib-cracking gesture engraved caution on the soul in his past lives even if it had been chock full of camaraderie. The darkness of the depths weighed on his judgement.

Link accepted. "Yeah, I'll take that hug, Yunobo."

Rauru returned in time to witness this exchange. He swore he saw a heart or two get taken off Link's life bar and one of the bracelets on Rauru's corporeal arm cracked. Link looked so much more relaxed after the hug that the ghost practically cheered.

Link wanted to say 'thank you' but was preoccupied by the need to wheeze. Link reinflated his lungs then finally spotted Rauru. "Oh, hey, Rauru's back! Hey, are those more spirits with you?"

"Yes, I don't think we will run into people from ancient times, but these one might have been from a hundred years ago? They didn't hold on well, and they were a bit lost down here..." Yunobo scratched his head while the people who could see the smaller poes looked at them.

"Well, they can come with us! Hey buddy, it's all right. I know it's scary down here but you can follow me..." Link's hand brushed a ghost. Rauru and Link jumped when it absorbed into Link's hand. Link's sudden movement spooked Yunobo too.

"What?! What is it, Link?" Yunobo asked.

"Um, It's fine!" Link said. Yunobo's look of flat disbelief made him talk, "I think I just picked up another spirit to tag along? I.. uh, kind of absorbed it?"

"Are you possessed? Do you feel any different?" Rauru asked in total hypocrisy.

Link held out his hands and gently, somehow, plucked the ghost off of him. Link cradled the poe like one would a kitten. It sat there in contentment. "Huh... it feels happy?" Link listened, hard. Yunobo and Rauru leaned in. Rauru heard a whisper as did Link. "She don't like being lost down here... I think she's from the castle. Like, a hundred years ago?"

"She should have been able to find a Bargainer by now to send her off. I couldn't get that much words out of her. Remember that statue back at Lookout Landing that you tried to sell me to? We should collect these spirits if we can."

Rauru, Yunobo, and Link looked at the closed off room that the monster previously known as 'Not Zelda' had gone into. Link snarled at the out of reach Phantom, pulled out his Purah Pad, and started flicking through menus.

Yunobo said, "Hey, shouldn't we go trigger the switches to get in there? It shouldn't be too long. You are good at figuring your way around."

"It's RIGHT THERE. Just give me a couple minutes and that wall won't be a problem."

Yunobo took a step back, "Wait a moment before you do anything drastic!"

Link tapped his toes and cooked some food in the open air as Yunobo checked the environment.

Yunobo nodded. "Thanks for waiting! Yep, that's load bearing. Not only that, it's as solid as you would expect. You would need a lot of force to breach that wall. As someone whose entire community is built on Death Mountain, please don't."

"But what if I...?"

"Don't." Yunobo said in an uncharacteristically cold manner. The full force of an occupational health and safety administration was held in that single word. Link obeyed.

The rest of the Fire Temple, Link did everything conventionally. He followed the track on minecarts. He only blew up the things begging to be exploded after Yunobo approved. He used straightforward battle tactics on the Marbled Gohma in a further attempt to avoid causing a volcano eruption.

In stark contrast to Link's environment, Epona trotted across the snow. Recalling her Hylian's penchant for disguises, Epona made an effort to avoid Yiga attention. She managed to dirty her coat with charcoal and ashes. It would not fool any stablehand. It would not fool any person with half a brain at closer than ten meters. It would, however, fool a Yiga. Out here in the snow, Epona sought out the Great Fairy. After a brief one sided discussion, Epona convinced the Fairy to do her stinking job already before coming back to look for a meal at the stable. The staff provided some food for the Steed that Tramples the Darkness.

And wouldn't you know it, there was Penn asking about Zelda's horse companion. Penn decided not to leave when he saw Epona as there was no escaping her. Penn prepared more ink and waited.

Epona galloped out to find her friend. It didn't take long to find Aurora in the tundra. Aurora warned Epona about the Gleeok and Epona had heard of it at the stable, but still wasn't prepared for the sheer size of the thing flying around. Epona made a mental note to come back with Link if she ever needed that thing dead. Sneaking away from the territory with Aurora made Epona pray fervently to Malanya. (At least if she died, Link would pay the bail for the horsey afterlife to Malanya. Probably would pay for Aurora too.) Epona realized if they caught the thing's attention, it could not be led back to the stable. No one there would survive fighting that Gleeok.

Thanks again for all these lovely reviews. It's fun to read about them although I probably should avoid the online personality test rabbit hole. I'm not sure why those are so addicting. You people give me a lot of ideas too.