The sky was clear and blue, not a cloud in sight. The noon sun hung high overhead, making the snowdrifts around them glitter. They'd left Rito Village behind hours ago, and little patches of brown packed ice had grown into piles of fresh white snow that completely covered the ground. Their boots crunched through a few inches of it with each step.
'Have you been this way before' Link signed, squinting against the blinding snow gleam.
"Rarely," Farrow said. "There's a lady up at the stables with blonde hair, but it's covered by her cap so often that she doesn't need as many visits from me as others do. And a man with blonde hair usually buys as many bottles as I'm willing to part with so he can do it himself. Last time I was up here was almost a year ago." Farrow had been surprised to find two adults with blonde hair. They said that being so far north meant fewer monsters bothered them. Still, they liked the extra safety the hair dye offered.
As she spoke Farrow caught sight of some chillshrooms clustered near the base of a graying spruce. "Hold on, I wanna gather some of these. They might be useful later, or we could sell them."
Once she'd collected a handful of the fungi and stashed them in her bag, she turned just in time to take a snowball to the face.
She sputtered and wiped away the snow to see Link's startled look changing to one of amusement, then he broke into that wheezy laugh. Farrow guessed he meant to get her in the back of the head, but she'd turned too soon. Farrow dropped her pack and knelt. Link stopped laughing.
"It's on," she said, grinning and raising her snowball and feigning a throw. Link jerked, realizing too late she'd faked him out, and took a snowball to the shoulder. He grinned.
Soon they were sprinting back and forth across the snow, pelting each other with snowballs that eventually devolved into scoops of snow thrown vaguely in the other's direction. It reminded Farrow of games of mudball on the beach with her friends. But with less sand in her mouth.
Link was something else though. All of his throws seemed to meet their mark no matter how she tumbled or dodged. It almost seemed like he could tell what she would do before she could do it. That made sense, she supposed, he was a soldier with years of training and the hero of time. Even if he couldn't remember it.
She didn't find herself frustrated though. After all, she could now boast she'd hit the hero of time in the face with a snowball in single combat.
((0))
Farrow shivered, hunched over her map and wishing for a warm fire. The joy the snow had brought hours earlier had frozen over and died. She missed the warm ocean air of Lurelin Village. Her breath ghosted the air between her and the map, and fat snowflakes danced across the waxed parchment. She shook them off only for more to take their place moments later.
They were still headed the right way, but the snow had picked up, forcing them to slow down. Farrow did not want them wandering off the path in a blizzard. If that happened, they would likely die before the storm broke.
Link nudged her. She looked up from the map. He pointed up, and into the distance, his eyes squinted against the snow. Farrow peered into the haze. The sky was lost behind the gray flurry of snow. For a few heartbeats, she couldn't see what Link was trying to point out, then the wind changed and a dim vertical glow warmed one part of the haze.
"A tower?" she asked.
'If I can climb it the map might show us where the labyrinth is.' Link's hands shook in the cold. His cheeks and the tips of his ears had grown red in the frigid air. The rubies that dangled at the ends of his braids glowed with magic as they struggled to warm him.
There was some risk leaving the path to get to the tower, but if Link could get the map it wouldn't be an issue.
"Okay. Let's get it." Farrow followed Link as he trudged through the snow, eyes locked on the dim orange light.
Looming shapes materialized out of the haze as they went, but they were the decaying remains of homes and farms. A corner of a home made of rotting cedar was all that was left standing of someone's livelihood. The wood had been blackened by fire, sometime long ago. Now a spruce tree sprouted in the floor of what might have been the entryway. She had to step over some collapsed fencing. More and more the corpses of homes fell behind them.
Link stopped and put a hand on his sword. Farrow drew her bow, needing no further hint. She nocked an arrow and tried to detect what had Link on edge. The snow muffled the sound around them, and the low moan of the wind covered the rest.
Farrow couldn't see anything ahead, where Link was looking. She checked the way they had come. Their footprints were already vanishing, and the ruins around them created dark shadows in the haze, but nothing moved.
Her heart hammered in her ears, and after what felt like ages Link shook his head and took his hand from his sword.
Farrow returned her arrow to her quiver. "What was it?"
'Not sure,' Link signed. 'Thought I heard something. It was either the snow playing tricks, or it moved on.'
Farrow wasn't reassured by the idea of something wandering these tundra ruins with them. She'd heard rumors of frozen corpses that walked the tundra at night, looking for warm bodies to cling to and steal their warmth. But those were just stories, she reminded herself.
The ground rose into a hill and the glow in the haze solidified into the winding metal of a Sheikah tower. When they reached the base Farrow raised her hands toward the glowing center of the tower, wishing for warmth. But despite the fire-like glow it seemed to be as cold as the air around it. The falling snow gleamed orange near the tower, making it look like it was raining embers.
Link eyed the metal mesh warily. 'This will be cold.' He reached for the grating.
"Wait," Farrow stripped off her gloves despite her finger's cries of pain. "Trade with me. Mine will cover your whole hand." Link's gloves left his fingertips exposed. She assumed it was designed to make it easier to use a bow and arrow, but in this case it would be more of a hindrance. Link would have a hard time getting his glider out if he fell from the tower because he couldn't feel his hands.
Link hesitated, then nodded. His gloves were a little loose on her, and her's a bit tight on him, but it worked. Link hoisted himself up with a grunt and began the climb.
Farrow watched him until the snow blurred him into a dark shape in the haze. Then he was lost. She didn't envy him, it was a tough climb and the wind would only get worse as he got higher.
She was checking the stores in her pack for something to do, when a sense of unease tickled at the back of her neck. She looked down the hill they'd come. She could make out figures in the flurry. And they moved.
Farrow abandoned the pack and tucked herself close to the tower. She drew her bow. As the figures shuffled closer Farrow made out a moblin and a bokoblin. The moblin raised its head to sniff the air as they shambled up the hill.
Biting back a swear, Farrow nocked and arrow. The moblin had a spear, and the bokoblin a short sword. Not a good matchup against her bow and arrow, and she had no way to signal Link. The spear gave that moblin too much reach. If it got close enough she would be in big trouble.
She'd have to shoot them both before they got close enough to see her. She drew and aimed for the moblin. She needed to hit its eye, otherwise the arrow wouldn't penetrate far enough for a single shot to kill it, and odds were that as soon as she fired they would know where she was.
They were more than halfway up the hill now. She slowed her breathing and focused on the moblin's right eye. The lurching gait of the creature and the gusting wind were going to make this shot impossible. She crushed the thought.
The moblin stepped, stepped, paused to sniff–Farrow let the arrow fly.
It sank into the monster's eye socket and it collapsed. Wisps of malice were ripped away by the wind as the body dissolved. The bokoblin shrieked in surprise.
As Farrow was drawing her next arrow, she caught sight of the horn the bokoblin pulled from its belt. Her heart jumped at the ice water flooding her veins. Farrow shot again, but not before the bokoblin got off a blast of the horn. Her arrow pierced its chest, cutting off the trumpet.
Around her, the grunts and shrieks of bokoblins rose up, getting closer. She couldn't see any of them yet, but she could tell they'd already surrounded her and there were a lot of them. She spun, trying to figure out where they would come from, and how many there were. She wasn't going to be able to fight them all with only a bow and dagger.
The deep ringing of the tower washed over her and the glow flared blue.
Four bokoblins cleared the snow haze and sprinted up the hill. Farrow slung her bow over her shoulder so the string was across her chest and threw herself at the tower. The cold metal burned her finger tips, but she barely registered it. She hauled herself up to the first platform and drew her bow again.
Link had finished activating the tower, which meant he would be coming back down soon oblivious to the waiting monsters. She wouldn't leave him to an ambush.
She aimed her arrow at one of the bokoblins shrieking up at her, and saw its own drawn bow just in time to duck. The bokoblin's arrow whizzed past and clattered into the wall behind her, bouncing off her back as it landed.
The railing of the platform had a small gap near the top. Farrow used that window to aim through. Two of the monsters had bows, the other two had swords. She fired at the nearest bokoblin, one with a bow, and It fell with a snarl and malice smoked from its body.
Farrow was drawing again when she heard the familiar snap of fabric. She looked up in time to see Link, falling with his sword drawn, directly onto one of the bokoblins. Link brought his sword down on the monster as he landed. The force of the blade cracking against it's skull and it exploded into a cloud of malice.
Stomping down her astonishment, Farrow aimed and fired at the bokoblin aiming its bow at Link. It pierced through it and it fell before it could fire.
The last bokoblin howled and charged at Link. Link sidestepped its overhead swing and slashed. The monster dissolved as Link shuffled back away from the malice. Farrow scanned the area, waiting for more enemies to come charging up the hill. She wanted to be able to pick them off before they got too close to Link. But nothing more came from the storm.
Link turned in a circle, his eyes darting across the area. He opened his mouth and frustration sharpened his already tense expression. His sword stayed in his hand at his side.
Farrow realized he wasn't looking for more enemies, he was looking for her.
"I'm here," Farrow called and stood. She slung her bow and started clambering down the tower. When she reached the base Link was there to meet her.
He sheathed his sword. 'Are you alright?' he signed. His eyes darted up and down her.
"I'm fine," Farrow said. "Not a scratch on me." She narrowed her eyes. "What made you think falling with a sword was a good idea though."
A sheepish smile stole the worry from his face. 'I heard the horn and it seemed like the fastest option.'
"You could have impaled yourself," she deadpanned. He shrugged.
Farrow sighed. The adrenaline seemed to leave her all at once, and the cold swept in again. "Come on, let's see that map. I want to get out of this as soon as possible."
Link activated the Sheikah slate and they peered down at the newest map. It showed them at the tower, and ridges and crests that made up the Hebra mountains. North was the stables, beyond that an open snowy tundra, and then just east… "That has to be the labyrinth," Farrow said.
Tucked up against the northern canyon edge was an enormous diamond shaped structure. The map showed it with dark zigzagging lines within that looked exactly like a maze. "That'll be a day's travel from the stable. Maybe two."
Farrow eyed the stable. "We're still hours away from the stable, and I don't want to camp in this. We should keep going."
Link grimaced, but nodded and returned the slate to his hip.
AN: Thanks for reading! If you have the time to leave a review I'd probably smile about it! Btw, if you want more of this story now, I have more chapters posted on AO3 while I'm working on catching this site up to new chapters. Fanfiction won't let me put a link here, but its got the same name on AO3 so it should be easy to find.