They left the Great Plateau early that afternoon after descending the tower.
Riding out was a much more pleasant experience than riding in had been; Zelda was happy and smiling and brimming with excitement. She continued to repeat herself regarding the view Link had shown her atop the tower and how much more she could see from there—Link was sure this had been the fourth time she had recounted this story to the poor girl—and it took a while before Robbie could redirect the conversation to the subject of the shrines and their mysteries.
The redirection worked wonders, Zelda theorized the entire trip to Digdogg bridge about what might happen if they placed the slate into the pedestals that sat at the entrances. Due to their time constraints, Purah and Robbie made the difficult decision to instead tell them that they would note down the locations and return at later dates or else they'd never return back to the castle.
It was hard for Zelda seeing as she was currently overflowing with energy and shaking like a child in a sweets shop, but she relented and they rode out of the Great Plateau, completely forgetting about their stop to the Temple of Time and riding out of the outpost, full speed ahead towards the Gerudo Canyon.
Arriving at the only entrance to the Canyon was fine, no more than two hours on horseback for the entire group, but they were forced to stop just before the centre island.
Zelda had never seen a Hinox before. The Stalnox in the lockup of the castle, she'd seen plenty of times due to her own curiosities (despite orders and guards trying to keep her away), but this was a living, breathing version of the creature, resting quietly in a deep sleep.
Ever the expert in reckless monster fighting, Link dismounted Epona and approached the hinox with a cool confidence she didn't get to see often. He simply strolled up to the sleeping giant and, before it could wake, he shot it in its closed eye with a bomb arrow.
He alternated between sword and bow for nearly fifteen minutes, knocking the hinox to the ground, then swinging his Master Sword with powerful strikes, then returning to the bow and expertly running in confusing patterns before shooting at the hinox in the eye again until finally, it fell with a loud thud and moved no more.
Captain Reinhartd was the first to ride onto the island with Epona's reins attached to his own. "You could have let us fight it." He frowned.
Right, Link isn't supposed to be fighting anymore since the Naryu's Day Ball. That's what his personal guard was for now.
"You're no fun." Link pouted and turned away as he started looking through the weapons tied to the hinox's neck. "I can't get rusty."
"I insist you let us fight it."
Zelda looked over at Dame Caya. She seemed highly apprehensive at the suggestion that she be thrown at the hinox instead, but Dame Caya kept quiet on the matter.
"Let's get a move on!" Purah shouted as Link was about to climb the hinox's dead corpse.
He froze and looked down at them, then sighed and let himself slide back to the group.
Passing the hinox corpse and catching the smell of its innards nearly sent Zelda's stomach hurling out her mouth. It reeked of death, mold, the worst excrement she'd ever smelled while passing the stables one evening, and dare she say, her father after accidentally consuming a few slices of cheese.
Link and his friend were the first ones to dismount a while after the hinox' corpse had disappeared behind them on the path. "We'll rest for a few minutes before continuing."
Zelda shot Link and the captain a look of confusion before looking at Dame Caya. She shrugged, seemingly in just as much confusion as she was.
"Dame Caya, I understand you've never traveled this far south, correct?" Link asked the female guard.
"I've never, Sir." she shook her head and said curtly. "The Colosseum is the furthest I've ever gone."
"Right, so take what I'm about to tell you as a lesson," Link pointed to the Gerudo Canyon. "A leisure ride through the canyon takes seven hours, if we gallop through, we can reduce it to five, but we will not be stopping until we reach the Canyon Stables." His finger followed the winding path of the map.
"May I ask why?" She asked Captain Reinhartd.
"The Canyon is well known for having monsters and cliff slides, but there has always been a strong presence of Yiga Clansmen in the area thanks to the numerous hiding places the cliffs offer." He told her.
"It's mostly wolves and moblins, but you can sometimes find bokoblins on horseback. The last time I came through here on my own, I encountered two Yiga Blademasters and I did not have a good time." Link recounted. "It has always been a rule that we do not rest inside the Canyon until we reach a safe point; too many opportunities for an ambush."
Next to the large map of the region was the report from Commander Cassian from the Central Hyrule Garrison, a map more focused with labeled forests, villages and outposts with marks of elevations in the canyons. Numerous areas had been marked with red ink with some Xs dotting the area, small circles in different colors, and one black circle on the Digdogg suspension bridge.
"The Hinox was the worst of what we should see on the route, but take care to rest before we get back on the road. We should reach the stable just before nightfall, so the temperature isn't an obstacle at the moment."
While it was hot at the moment, Link was right. The sun was starting its steady descent in the horizon and, being in the canyon, they'd lose light faster than everyone else thanks to the high walls of stone.
"Keep an eye out for any boulders rolling down and do not hesitate to call them out if you hear something, they're quite common." Captain Reinhartd warned Dame Caya.
Zelda remembered the stray boulders that occasionally came rolling down the tops of the walls, but it was further confusing when the boulders would be gone when they'd pass through the area again later.
Did the monsters find a way to roll them back up to set them up again? The idea that the beasts who seemed mindless actually had intelligence was fascinating, but it would likely be a passing thought in her mind to think about late at night.
"Princess, are you ready to head back on the road?" Impa asked as she packed up her supplies.
Zelda nodded. She placed her foot into Robbie's joined hands and let him give her a lift into her saddle.
"Shall we?" she asked with a smile.
Link rushed to put the maps back into his satchel and mounted Epona as everyone else mounted their own rides.
"Dame Caya, if you believe we should stop, pass the idea by Captain Reinhartd and we shall follow your directive." Link said, firm and confident in his tone. "Let's get a move on before darkness befalls us."
"You're so poetic Link." Barnabus joked with a chuckle.
Link ignored the comment with a roll of the eyes and guided Epona along into a canter.
Zelda resigned herself to cantering as best she could. She wasn't a natural like Link, but she had had many lessons over the last few years and could now sit a canter decently well, even if it was a bit tiring.
"Hoods up," Captain Reinhartd ordered. "Impa, ride closer to Link."
Impa, Purah, and Zelda rode identical white horses—or, well, nearly identical. Zelda's horse Storm was pure white, but Impa and Purah's horses had small black spots on their fetlocks. However, with a bit of flour and at speed, such a detail would be impossible to see from a distance.
The sound of their horses' feet clicked in ominous echoes up the walls of the canyon, reverberating for much longer than seemed natural. Every so often a few pebbles would come raining down amidst tiny cascades of dust, making their own soft clamor as they descended. Each time, the guards and Link tensed, glaring up at the rock in expectation, but the worst sound of all was the wind.
The passage of air through the narrow pass made a strange mixture of whistles and soft roars which met their ears in unfriendly beats like notes in some forgotten song. Each time they stopped and came again, Zelda imagined they were actually the manic laughs of the cultists who had broken away from the Sheikah tribe, and each time her fears proved baseless, but she kept imagining them, and her horse kept giving off soft snorts of fear as well.
Despite their misgivings, eventually they made it to the stable, unmolested by anything more than a few birds which had mutually decided Purah's hood was the best place to build a nest and had to fight over it.
Zelda heard the stables before she could see the large tent. Soft echoes of a flute and a violin traveled around the corners of the canyon and before anyone else could go forward, Zelda urged her horse faster and the group soon sped to the stables where they were greeted by the stable hands with smiles.
The sun was almost set, but darkness was quickly filling the canyon. The light of the campfires and torches were a welcome sight; a moment of safe rest she would happily accept with open arms.
"All of you go get your sleep." Link called out to the group as he gathered the reins one by one with the help of one of the gentlemen.
There were no complaints from the captain, the sheikah assistants or Dame Caya. All nodded, thanked him and approached the inner desk of the stable to book their sleeping arrangements.
...
The next morning, the group was greeted by Chief Urbosa of the Gerudo arriving just after sunrise, just like she'd said in her letter.
And thus, they set their plan in motion.
While Link would take his friend up the cliff to claim the tower in the wastelands, the Gerudo Matriarch would take the remainder of the group through the desert as she had much more experience with pregnant women traversing the desert. Many Gerudo merchants and warriors returned to the village to give birth at various stages of pregnancy—but there was also the occasional hylian who needed refuge. The Gerudo were well-practiced in addressing such needs, and the chieftain knew exactly how to care for Zelda. It was a plan Link had discussed with Zelda before sending off a letter to the older woman, and they had both agreed it would be for the best.
As expected, Urbosa had responded with fierce enthusiasm. Unfortunately, she could not bring a force of warriors farther north than the stable—such an action would violate a treaty older than Zelda's great-great-grandmother—but she had agreed to meet them there alone. Link had agreed to this, as Urbosa was practically an army unto herself. There was an…alternate solution she pitched between laughs when they had a private moment, but Link had declined. He didn't think he could stand wearing slip-ons for more than a few hours in the desert.
"Chief Urbosa, I leave them in your care." Link bowed his head before leaving a short kiss on Zelda's cheek and running off to the wall with his friend in tow.
Zelda looked at Robbie with a raised brow. "You're not following?"
The male Sheikah shook his head. "Afraid not. There are moblins up there and I'm no fighter."
"Robbie's gonna come and wait at Kara Kara Bazaar with me." Purah said, gathering her things. Link had already run off with the slate, and by the time any of them realized it, he was already scaling the canyon wall.
"Miss Purah, you are more than welcome to join us in Gerudo Town." Lady Urbosa smiled.
Purah laughed and pointed back to him. "Robbie's going to be all alone by himself, I'm sure the tower will take longer than we think to reach." She told them. "They need to figure out how to get up there, it's in the middle of a lake thing."
"Lake…thing?" Zelda asked.
She and Robbie shrugged. "It's filled with this vicious black liquid that pulls you right in if you go in it. We nearly lost Cherry the day we came to see it." he explained.
Zelda gapped at them. "You nearly lost her?! How?"
"If any part of you goes in, it becomes difficult to get out of it; think like really good glue." Purah told her. "Cherry put her foot in, and while trying to get out, nearly tripped and fell in."
Zelda laughed nervously at the thought of Link seeing a lake of thick black liquid. "I do hope he doesn't decide to take a dip…" The catapult incident from yesterday wasn't restoring her faith in his maturity today, she was half expecting to receive bad news from the captain regarding Link taking a dip into a suspicious looking lake.
"I'm sure he knows better." Urbosa attempted to reassure them.
"Uh huh." Zelda looked at the wall where Link had been. "You didn't see yesterday morning's stunt."
Urbosa stared for a moment, clearly wondering if she should ask what that was supposed to mean, but decided against it. She would surely hear about it later.
"Ladies, perhaps change into these clothes. You'll be far more comfortable." Urbosa smiled as she lifted two sets of brightly coloured clothes in her hands. "Leave the boys to do their business." She pointed over to the cliffside where Link was already halfway up the wall with his friend a few steps behind. They were shouting to each other and clearly trying to make it some sort of race.
It was nearly midday when Link and Barnabus reached the tower.
It was indeed sitting in the middle of a quarry with a lake surrounding its base.
A lake was an oversimplified description of what they were looking at.
It was a deep pit full of a strange black viscous liquid, bubbling thickly and ominously.
Before the two men had even reached the quarry, they had needed to plug their noses from the stench of something burning and rotten flesh. it was strange, they couldn't see rotten flesh, but they were sure there was some somewhere.
"So how do we climb it?" Barnabus was the first to approach the liquid, kneeling and lowering his face—nose still blocked—and stared at the bubbles.
Letting his inner thoughts win, Link almost hesitated to ask. "Do you think it tastes the way it smells?"
"Only one way to find out." The captain smiled.
Link stood a few feet behind him. "What do you think it is?"
His friend shrugged. Barnabus sat on the dirt and stuck his hand into the mire and yelped. His reaction was immediate, trying to pull his arm out but the liquid stuck around his arm.
Link moved in immediately, pulling on his friend hard and freeing him from the liquid.
They both stared at the captain's hand; the sticky black liquid was still stuck to him, but it seemed almost as if he would need to scrub it off with the best cleaner in the land.
"No swimming across then."
"No shit Barns, let me just dive in!" I wish we still had that catapult, this would be so much easier. The wind blew powerfully in his face, and he just knew at that moment he wouldn't be able to stand at the top of the quarry to glide into the tower.
It would take them a few hours to reach Gerudo Town, but it felt as though the walk went on forever. Walking the semi-solid sandstone path to Kara Kara was the easiest part of the trek.
Once they left Robbie to go rest in the inn, the five girls backtracked to the large oasis in the middle of the bazaar after Urbosa had caught the princess staring at it as though she hadn't seen water in weeks.
"Yes, we can have a dip before continuing on." Urbosa smiled and squeezed Zelda's shoulder affectionately.
"Oh thank you!" Zelda turned and hugged her before speeding up her pace to the edge of the water.
...
"So tell me, how is your husband treating you? That boy isn't causing you problems, is he?" Urbosa asked as they sank into the water and appreciated the cool temperature in such a hot place. They both wore their Gerudo silks, which would use the water to cool them once they left the sanctuary of the oasis. Urbosa leaned back on her elbows and turned her face to the sun, savoring it.
Zelda shielded her eyes from the wind blowing. "Link isn't my husband, we're still unmarried." Despite the cold water, she couldn't help but blush bright red. Maybe she could call it a sunburn if accused.
Urbosa shrugged it with a smile. "Here, he is your husband. We don't play the game of bonded and married. It's one or the other for us."
Husband… I like that. She couldn't help but smile at the idea of properly wedding Link. "I didn't know."
Urbosa looked at her knowingly. "I can see that." The Gerudo chief looked at the two sheikah and the female guard with interest. Purah and Impa, she knew well enough, but she had only ever seen the female guard in the castle as part of her security team. "How long will you be here?" she asked.
Zelda looked at the guard for a moment, the question in her eyes. the guard shrugged and brushed it off with a wave of the hand.
"It doesn't seem as though we need to make haste, so how long do you wish us to stay?" Zelda asked with a smile.
"Oh Little Bird, I will always wish for you to stay as long as your heart desires," Urbosa said with a small smile. It faded as something like worry entered her emerald green eyes. "However, there's something I need you to look at in Naboris." Urbosa started. "When I use her on trial runs, she seems to be hesitating on my orders."
Urbosa watched as Purah straightened and leaned closer with clear interest. "Hesitating, you say?"
"Yes, I'll give my order to strike and Vah Naboris will hesitate for a moment and discharge a strange purple bolt."
"Well, she's discharging lightning, so it might just be a connection issue." Impa suggested.
"My lightning is not purple, mine is more of a blue-green tint, and she has only recently started doing this."
"How recent?"
Urbosa hummed. "Perhaps one month?"
Purah and Zelda glanced at each other. Had anything significant happened around that time? Zelda couldn't think of anything which would have affected the divine beast, not unless it was simply giddy to learn about a rather scandalous love affair between a castle maid and a rancher who came to deliver milk from time to time.
Had it been Astor's presence at the ball a month ago that had caused this shift in behaviour? It was the only outlier they could think of, and with the terrifying reminder that he could alter a group of guardians, it stayed at the back of Zelda's mind, but could he really be so strong as to alter an entire Divine Beast?
No, it didn't make sense to her. The sorcerer would need to be immensely powerful, and he would need the knowledge on how to control the beasts who seemed to only answer to their chosen champions.
"Let me see it now if it isn't too much if a hassle."
...
"You said purple lightning right?" Zelda asked for clarifications as she unscrewed the panel to one of the lower terminals of Vah Naboris.
Purple lightning intrigued her greatly. Back when there were numerous monster hordes and Lady Urbosa had just taken the helm of the Divine Beast, it had utilised her lightning, but simply amplified hundred fold. Brilliant teals and blues had been shot from the beast, but it made no sense for it to be turning purple.
"It was strange the first few times," Urbosa recounted. She wasn't particularly interested in the mechanical aspects, but she stood by Zelda with her sword at her waist and ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. "But then it started firing it consistently, and sometimes without my order."
Purah grumbled under her breath as she stuck her head into the terminal with a small light. "You should have told us sooner. It could have been a sign of a major malfunction." Her voice echoed from inside the parts.
"My apologies, I will be sure to report it sooner next time."
Zelda backed away from the terminal and let Purah get a better angle inside. She sat against a nearby pillar and let herself rest a moment.
"Your Royal Highness, are you alright?" The female guard kneeled next to her.
Impa stood quietly near the entrances, looking for any incoming keese. Their first few minutes aboard the Beast had been calm before a number of electric keese began to arrive one by one. Troublesome things, annoying them immediately after felling one.
"Mhm, I'm fine." while her words were confident, Zelda was growing increasingly pale and gave the impression of a bed-ridden sick patient.
"What's wrong?" Impa walked over, sheathing her short blade.
"It's the smell up here." Zelda scrunched her nose. "It smells bad." She nearly gagged.
Urbosa shared a glance with Impa before smelling the air. "Everything seems fine to me."
"I can't smell anything odd," Impa added.
"You're an idiot," Purah pulled her head out of the terminal and smacked her sister's shoulder. "You wouldn't be able to smell shit even if you tried." She returned to the terminal and stuck her head back in, placing her small light between her teeth.
The swearing caught Zelda and Impa off guard.
"Are you alright?" Impa shot back at her sister, clearly off put by the reaction.
"I'm fine!" She shouted from within the terminal.
"Doubtful." Impa mouthed quietly to Zelda, earning a giggle. "I'll ask her later." She told Zelda with a wink.
Zelda nodded, but struggled not to gag loudly. Her colour didn't seem to return and she seemed to almost go grey.
"Little Bird, tell me what's wrong, you said the smell?" Urbosa kneeled next to the princess on the ground. Her hand came up to her forehead, but her hand then dropped as though there was nothing wrong.
"It smells awful," Zelda complained and tried to plug her nose. "It smells like burnt meat and hinox insides."
"Did you say Hinox insides?" Urbosa asked.
Zelda nodded. "Link had to fight one earlier, it was atrocious." she complained. "But it smells similar, but not the same."
"That's not good then." Urbosa stood up and looked around the main compartment of the Divine Beast. So many pillars and areas to hide, pillars that could be turned at her command to reach other areas, but nothing seemed odd. Her own Alpha nose didn't pick up on any strange smells apart from the dustiness in the air that she was so used to.
Impa looked between them for a long moment, seemingly unsure of what to do. As a beta, she couldn't sense the things they could, but she'd heard that Zelda's sense of smell could increase exponentially during pregnancy.
"What are your thoughts on the situation, My Lady?"
Urbosa continued to look around. "I want to do a sweep of the beast."
"A sweep?"
"Yes. I want us safe and without worries."
Zelda stood up abruptly and approached Urbosa with guilt in her face. "Please, if you have no other reason to worry, you need not bother yourselves."
"Nonsense, I want to."
"Please, you had no worries before I said anything. It's just my pregnancy messing with my senses, believe me please." Zelda argued back, pleading.
"Nothing will change my mind. Lady Impa, will you assist me?"
Impa bounded, ready with her short sword and kunai in her hands. "Yes, Lady Urbosa."
There was nothing Zelda could do to stop them from going off together; they jumped from the bridge and made their way to separate rooms of the Divine Beast, weapons in hand.
Zelda sat against one of the support columns, tired and wishing she could do more. Purah was still neck deep in the controls and Dame Caya was walking around, practicing her sword strikes casually.
I wish Link was here, she lamented.
She knew he'd gotten the first tower and he was likely on the way to grabbing the second over in the Highlands. Upon her arrival in Kara Kara she had briefly noticed the tower's light change to blue but she had disregarded to pretty quickly upon the heavenly sight of the oasis.
Now she was seated alone, listening to Purah's angry mumblings echoed by the metal, and the sounds of air swishing around a blade.
Zelda's stomach gurgled uncomfortably. The stench still hadn't left the area and it was only getting worse.
She was beginning to contemplate crawling to the edge of the platforms of Vah Naboris and emptying the contents of her stomach. Her sense of smell had only gotten stronger is the last few weeks and it was as though if something existed, she had to smell it to the most microscopic notes possible.
She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths to calm the heat rising in her stomach, but found it helped very little.
The gurgling continued and Zelda groaned. "Calm down," she patted her stomach. Heartburn had been rearing its ugly head the last few days, making random moments of the day uselessly difficult, so she did as the midwives had instructed.
Breath in and out and try to forget about the thing making her ill, but the sounds continued until finally, Zelda registered that they were not coming from her despite her sudden waves of nausea.
The sounds were coming from her left.
As quickly as she turned her head, an arrow flew by, lodging itself into the head of a bokoblin.
How did it get up here?
Zelda watched frozen as clouds of black-purple smoke erupted around the belly of Vah Naboris, conjuring black and silver bokoblins, floating skulls with red eyes that seemed to almost cackle at her, and hoards of electric keese.
"I don't want you anywhere near the silver variety of anything. I don't even want you near the weak ones. " Link had told her a long time before after she'd asked about the colours of monsters.
The silver variety were the strongest apart from the rare exceptions of gold-coloured monsters. The silvers were sturdier, far smarter and much stronger combatants than the regular red ones she saw so often in fields.
She gulped thickly, standing and backing away from the ramps as her guard and Purah flanked her and took focus on the monsters around them.
"Princess, please do not worry about us." Purah told her with an air of seriousness about her.
The more Zelda stared at the monsters, the more her eyes caught a certain curiosity.
Emanating from the monsters in what looked like small sparks were strings of purple lightning.
"Purah, you don't have fighting experience." Zelda said, voice shaking.
There was hesitation before Purah answered. "I know enough to defend you."
Zelda appreciated the confidence in her ability, but even she knew that Purah's fighting ability bordered barely passing marks in martial arts and close combat knives. She was far better suited to the support of warfare with her destructive machines, not offensive or defensive combat.
Urbosa, where's Urbosa ? She looked around frantically, eyes scanning haphazardly around the area for the Gerudo Chief.
A silver Moblin was being fought by Urbosa and Impa, throwing around a large club in arcs around itself to keep them at bay.
"Why must we fight more monsters?" Baarnabus complained.
"Why are the monsters what you're complaining about?" Link looked bewildered at his friend. "I have to glide over an endless pit and climb the damn thing!"
True to Robbie's report, there was indeed a tower that rose out of a seemingly bottomless pit. Now if the pit hadn't been so large, it'd have been fine; Link had already braved unescapable pits this morning, but now this pit was probably even bigger than Gerudo Town in its entirety.
The road leading up to the tower was even worse.
Throughout the entire path, all they could see were encampments of silver and black monsters, mainly bokoblins and moblins but Link knew better than to assume there was just what he could see.
Link sat by a few stray barrels and crates at the base of the giant hill and studied what he could see.
Boxes, metal containers, barrels, bomb barrels—Link could work with that.
He put away his bomb arrow and pulled out a fire arrow instead, nocking it and leaving the hidden safety of the giant crate with Barnabus copying his movements with a few bomb arrows in his own.
Far from the first encampment but within view of the first bomb barrel, he aimed high into the sky, lining up his aim and pulled hard before releasing the arrow. He watched it fly through the air before landing at the base of the barrel.
The barrel exploded fiery shrapnel into every direction, spewing flammable liquid around a wide radius. Monster after monster were coated into flames, shrieking and waving their arms around frantically.
Link was happy to see some fall into the pit in their confusion, while some began to recover from the attack.
As a moblin patted most of its flames off its body. it turned and spotted them. Before it could begin to make its way down the path, Barnabus released his arrow and watched it land on the moblin, more flames spewing in every direction.
Though the silver moblin seemed to slowly recover, the fires didn't seem to kill it too quickly.
"An ice arrow should do the trick." Link told him, pulling the blue tipped arrow out of his quiver.
The Captain nodded and shot the arrow, landing it precisely and freezing the moblin in place before it finally fell. "I hope there aren't any lynels up there."
Link turned and stared blankly at his friend. "You better not have jinxed that or I'll be feeding you to it."
...
No more than three hours but many arrows later, they began to scale the cliffside once again, but with ladders and platforms already set up? They weren't about to engage in close combat in such a small area where either might fall and roll into the bottomless pit of fog and smoke.
They quietly bypassed the platforms and finally reached the top where they ran behind another crate and readied themselves to continue combatting the lingering moblins and lizalfos. One by one, they fell to the flying bomb and electric arrows shot by the two friends until they heard a deafening roar echo through the area.
Link glared at the captain before looking behind them where the roar had come from and spotted the large muscular body of a lynel above the cliff, quite a distance from them.
"You're lynel food today." Link grumbled out before strapping the bow to his back and dashing to a new hiding place. He had caught a glance at the large weapon on its back and he had no doubt it would come for them next, but he had no way of knowing if it had a bow or not.
If it did, his hiding place would be for nought; Lynels were excellent archers with incredible distance.
As carefully as he could, he climbed up the road, using the nearby boxes as shelter, he surveyed the area. He hadn't seen arrows fly yet, so he was fairly convinced this Lynel did not own a bow, but he wouldn't cross it off completely.
From his spot, he smiled.
Red Lynel, perfect.
Link got his bow ready and nocked a few electric arrows, held the bow on his hand and climbed the box before jumping forward. As time seemed to slow around him, he pulled the string far back and released before landing on his feet.
While the arrows landed, Link continued to pull arrow after arrow from his quiver.
Ice, fire, bomb, back to ice again, a relentless barrage that disallowed any possible counter from his opponent. With every shot contacting the lynel, Link noticed a slight red discharge of electricity, much like the keese or electric chuchu did before a zap, but the strikes never came.
With a carefully shot bomb arrow landing to its head, the Lynel fell as though it had never stood a chance to begin with.
Link stared as it remained slumped on the ground dead. Its body continued to discharge the small zaps of electricity, but Link didn't feel the static in the air as he usually did.
Something was odd about this lynel.
"I don't remember the reports indicating any lynels up here." Barnabus said, trying to catch his breath as he came up the hill to join Link.
"That's because it didn't." Link stated, pulling out the maps from his pocket. The two men looked at the report and only saw the markings for moblins, bokoblins and lizalfos, but none for lynel.
"What do you want to do?"
Link looked out at the desert. "We get this tower, and we get out. I need to talk to Urbosa." He looked down the pit and gulped. It was dizzying with the way there was no end to the drop. He picked up a nearby rock and dropped it down the hole, watching until it soundlessly vanished into the fog.
"Let's get to it then, it'll be dark in a few hours."
It would be dark by the time they reached either the bazaar or the town, but if they could reach one, then getting to the other would be just fine. They hadn't been told about any sandstorms but the chilly desert at night was nothing to scoff at.
Link walked up to the highest point of the hill and readied his paraglider, muttering silent prayers to the Goddesses.
You can do this, you'll be fine. He repeated to himself. There was nothing exciting about jumping over a giant abyss to simply go put a slate into a pedestal for a piece of map.
But alas, it was his job and his alone.
"If I die, tell Zelda I love her!" Link shouted before running off the cliff with his paraglider, out over the open hole of the neverending pit below.
His eyes were glued to the chasm below. So much fog, and the tower seemed to stretch for miles without the resting platforms below. He could only spot a very few near the top.
I can't miss any part of the tower or I'm a dead man.
"Right! I'll tell your girlfriend I love her then!" he heard Barnabus shout back at him.
"I'll kick your ass!"
"Have to get back to murder me first!"
If worries for Zelda weren't enough for him to brave the pit of doom, then maybe bloodthirst and a murderous vengeance might. That always seemed to work wonders.
After five full minutes of nerve-wracking gliding, he finally reached the tower just before the first platform. He clung to the ower for a few moments, thankful that he hadn't fumbled his grip and fallen to his death.
Scaling the tower was perhaps the most nerve wracking part of the evening. Thanks to the heat, Link's hands were soaked with sweat, dripping so badly that he feared he might lose his grip and slip. If he slipped, there would be no coming back from such a fall unless there was something down there and a way to get out.
No, a fall where he couldn't see the bottom of the hole and the fumes of the fog smelled similar to mold and dust? Link didn't count that fall being particularly good for him, even with a paraglider in hand.
He climbed, muttering silent prayers to himself as he rose higher and higher before coming up to the platform, pulled himself hastily and lay on the floor, grateful and catching his breath for a few minutes.
He stood up and approached the edge on all fours and looked over and down into the pit.
Maybe he wouldn't personally tell Zelda about this ascension…
He slipped away from the edge and grabbed the slate and inserted it into the pedestal, watching the tower create the drop of suspicious blue liquid—Link wondered what might happen if he had a taste—and watched it fall onto the glass screen of the slate, glowing and updating the map of the area.
"Right, that's done." Link smiled and slipped the slate back onto his belt and looked out towards the desert. Oh I can see Gerudo Town from here! He looked out into the miles of endless sand and to Vah Naboris who sat a ways away from the town.
The mighty camel-like beast sat in the sands, glowing blue. It really was a magnificent beast, and his feelings towards the beasts were much better than the guardians despite having similar origins.
He could see why Zelda, Purah and Robbie were so in love with the beasts, they were majestic, they were giant works of art and they were amazingly destructive.
The destruction was an entirely different thought process for him; he couldn't stop thinking back to the guardians in the Temple. It had taken him so long just to get through a few and one had nearly done him in with a single strike.
He couldn't imagine the damage that a Divine Beast would do if it turned against them like the guardians had.
Link shivered at the thought of having to fight one of those gargantuan creations.
He stared at Vah Naboris, still trying to ignore the chill in his veins. What if they did turn on them? What would they do? Did Purah have some sort of kill-switch to turn them off?
And, as quickly as it had happened, it vanished. The blue light seemed to almost flicker on and off, then to a red, then back to blue.
Link rubbed his eyes and stared at the beast.
Solid blue. No flickering.
What if it turned against us? Link felt as though it wasn't something he wanted to think about right now. The cold travelled from his veins to his head, causing him to wonder if he might faint atop the Sheikah Tower.
It's just the wind. It's time to head back. He turned his back to the desert and faced the cliffs and pulled out his paraglider, ready to fly back.
He looked over his shoulder at Vah Naboris, looking at the solid blue light.
It's just my imagination. He concluded before clearing his head and jumping and releasing his paraglider in the direction of the captain waiting for him in the shade.