Chapter 4

Eyes wary and feeling the beginning of exhaustion, Link turned to check on Simon. It'd been slow going for the past few hours in this fighting heavy temple. The smaller rooms Link had been able to mostly take care of himself, but the battle sands left no place to hide and Simon had no choice but to fight. The final melee in the battle sands had been difficult, but both Hylian and Goron still lived - a rather impressive feat.

"That should have been the last of it, should we go check the door?" Duran asked, acting as a brace for Simon who had begun limping again. The once strong magic presence from the Goron was nearly nonexistent, drained from the constant battles.

Link held up a hand in signal to wait, "There should be something to signify-"

A loud screech was his only warning, but it was enough. His shield was up and ready, just in time to be hit by a giant vulture like bird. The force was enough to throw Link off his feet and slam him to the ground. The bird scrambled on top of him and Link struggled to get out from underneath, difficult with both arms caught beneath his shield and attempting to keep it between his face and the monster.

Duran came to his rescue, big enough to physically pick up the bird. He held it above his head, seemingly uncaring of its struggles and turned to look at Simon, who gave a brief nod. As Link regained his feet, Duran threw the bird into the wall and Simon was on top of it, stabbing repeatedly with his sword, which was lighter than Link's own. To Link's experienced eye, it took more stabs than it should have to finally kill the monster.

As the monster burst into smoke, the sound signifying the unlocking of a door echoed and Link chucked, "Like I said, there should be something to signify the temple's last monster was killed."

Simon tried to smile, but grimaced and collapsed against the wall. "Just in time too, think I'm done."

"Let's get a move on then," Duran grumbled. Harsh words, but the concern was clear in them. He offered an arm for support, wrapping it around Simon's waist and using his height to lift and carry the Hylian. Simon made a face, but was too exhausted to argue.

Ignoring his own strange twinges that represented pain, Link followed them, not sure if he was happy to never have needed to rely on someone like that or disappointed no one was ever there to carry him.

Approaching the door Link slowed, allowing the two players to try the way out. A small gift, but one Simon took advantage of, not even hesitating before trying it. Duran let out a breath of relief as the door opened and showed the outside world.

"Memorable, but I'm grateful it finished without death," Simon said as Duran carefully maneuvered them out the door. He nodded to Link, then nudged Duran who had stopped outside the door. "I'm thinking that healer's stall upkept by the Elite Guild, it's outside West entrance, right?"

"East," Duran corrected, but didn't move further away from the temple to allow the transfer.

Link paused, having planned to walk far enough out to transfer directly to Darin's shop again. He raised an eyebrow, asking silently if something was wrong.

The Goron looked conflicted, then determined. "First, thank you. All joking aside," and there had been more than a couple light hearted statements meant to keep them moving inside the temple, "your fast response meant a lot to us. And secondly," Duran took a slow breath, gathering the words carefully, "I'm not sure if you need to write a report on this, but when we first started the temple the monsters were normal. Difficult, but not unexpectedly so. I don't know when it switched, but whatever went wrong was while we were in the temple."

Link accepted the statement at face value, not willing to argue the complexity of coding and why that might not be as true as Duran thought. "It'll go into my report, thank you for notifying me." Another stock reply, but one he planned to follow through on.

Duran gave Link his own nod of respect and thanks, then turned and carefully walked them out of range. Watching them leave, Link gave a soft smile. The two really had held up admirably in the temple. Remembering the comment about the Elites, Link pulled up their game profiles and made sure to leave a personal comment on both their pages. It didn't really mean anything, but Link wasn't unaware of his own reputation. Whether they wanted it or not, they'd likely have gamers involved in the temple running bothering them about how it was to fight beside the great Link. It was the only recognition he could give the two.

Rather than directly transferring, Duran's comment had Link summoning Epona, his horse, instead. The temple was fairly close to town and wouldn't take long to ride in, giving Link the time to write up both reports and just take in everything that had happened today. A little more hectic a day than he preferred, and he still wasn't sure what to think about the meeting with Princess Zelda. It was a topic he shied away from, feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment stirred up by it. The Princess had a very strong presence and it wasn't one Link was used to interacting with; he only really interacted with gamers who often turned to humor to lighten the atmosphere.

Trying to push away the negative emotions, Link spurred on Epona and lost himself in the sensations of the game for the rest of the ride as he wrote the required report. The sun's rays as they neared the horizon. The wind ruffling his hair. The call from birds and trees whistling. The strong of Epona as she galloped.

Slowing to a stop outside the city's gate, Link dismounted and patted Epona on the shoulder before dismissing her. It took only a second and then he transferred directly to Darin's shop, not wanting to deal with the markets this late in the day. He gave a sheepish smile to a very tired looking Darin who jumped to awareness at his sudden arrival.

"Not sure where all the hours went," Link admitted, glancing out the window at the darkening sky. "I hope you didn't keep the shop closed the entire time."

"I had some business stuff to take care of," Darin said, dismissing the concern. "Are the players okay? My brother knows some people they could talk to if needed. Actually, I should prop-"

"Darin, Darin, it's fine," Link spoke over the Hylian shopkeeper, trying to calm him. "We had to finish clearing the temple, but they both survived and should be fine. A nasty leg injury but-"

This time, Darin cut him off, "Should I call Mehado in to heal them? He shouldn't be too busy, it would do him good actually."

Link couldn't help it, he laughed. Stressful day and a ride full of worried thoughts and the release was wonderful. "They transferred to the Healer's Stall, the one by the East Entrance. Probably already good as new, so there's no reason to call your brother."

Darin's nose twitched in distaste, "The one run by the Elite's?"

Link didn't bother to reply to the age old rivalry contained in that statement, coming forward to lean against the counter instead, "Do you have a chair back there I could borrow for a bit? It's been a long day."

"Only if you promise to stay until you finish explaining this time," Darin muttered as he disappeared into the back, returning a moment later with a chair he waved Link to.

Link took it gratefully. It would have been nice if the AI hadn't been so thorough in Link's own design to copycat players. He could do without the enforced need to sleep, though according to the Great Deku tree that was simply the system getting overloaded and needing time to sort through all the recorded data. A flaw they hoped to weed out in future Links. "You'll have to remind me where I left off this morning. I barely remember stopping in here."

Darin leaned against the counter, "Well, first you were talking about a cracked lantern and then you were summoned by Princess Zelda wherein she wanted a direct report from you. Then, you were summoned to save a couple gamers stuck in over their heads." Waving his arms wide, Darin encouraged a response, "Feel free to fill in any of that. Oh! And if you were wondering, no one from the Adventurer's Guild has ever heard of background items cracking like your lantern did. A sword, yes, but lantern? Never."

"It sounds like a lot, but honestly…" Link shrugged, not sure, with everything said and done, what to really say about todays events. He was still struggling to process it himself.

"Perhaps we should fill your items in the meanwhile?" Darin said, crossing his arms and clearly making no move.

Moving to stand, Link withheld a smirk as Darin sighed and waved him back down, heading over to the corner counter himself. Link took the time to pull together what he wanted to say. "Well, I still have nothing further on the lantern, Princess Zelda was rather intimidating and didn't really tell me anything, and the two players encountered a bugged temple and actually handled themselves rather well. Impressive actually. Anything else?"

"Just take the items," Darin grumbled, handing over a nicely bundled bag of items. Upon Link's touch, it disappeared from the game and was counted in his inventory, allowing Link to relax in a way he hadn't all week. Having a full inventory was safety in a way townies couldn't understand.

Eye sharp on Link, noting the release of tension from shoulders, Darin gave an innocent smile, "Actually, I just remembered, Mahado and Shara should be here any minute for dinner. Would you like to stay and catch up with friends?"

"You were planning to ambush me?" Link questioned, words prickly but relishing in the content feeling he got from the news.

"Considering how the day has gone so far, I figured having a healer on hand and someone strong enough to hold you down couldn't hurt," Darin said unrepentantly. He had retaken his place leaning against the counters, hands casually bracing him to either side. Link took a minute to take in his friend. The simple, if high quality outfit. The wrinkles and untucked undershirt peaking out from underneath the carefully buttoned vest. The unruly blond hair and hint of bags under blue eyes.

Perhaps having dinner with friends wouldn't hurt, the reports he planned to slog through could wait until the morning. "It depends on how long it takes them to arrive," Link teased lightly, knowing the second he seemed willing a high priority message would be sent from Darin for his brother. And sure enough, Link watched Darin's eyes unfocus, staring intensely off over Link's left shoulder for a couple seconds before a smug smirk showed Darin's returned attention.

"I'm betting it won't be long now," Darin tried to say indifferently. He shuffled a little in place, failing to keep a smirk off his face.

A knock sounded from the front door.

"You are terrible," Link said, rolling his eyes and a smile on his own face.

"Yeah, yeah," Darin waved it all away as he went to open the door, letting in a Sheikah and Gerudo.

The Sheikah was his twin brother, Mehado, and carried the classic traits of the Sheikah with his red eyes and silver hair long enough to be kept in a braid. The only similarity between the brothers was their ridiculous fondness of wide belt sashes. Currently, he was wearing a bright green and blue one that looked at odd with his grey, form tight outfit. Mehado opened his arms wide with a call of "Brother!" and wrapped Darin in a tight hug.

Sidestepping them, Shara's golden eyes narrowed in on Link, still sitting in his chair by the counter. Her chosen outfit likely reflected what they were called away from, the light leather armor flexible enough for practicing and a simple meal. Cutting off whatever she planned to say, Link stood and gestured towards her short cropped maroon hair, "New hairstyle?"

"Not that new," Shara said, a hand went up and ruffled it a little. "Got tired of it coming out of its tie, figured a change wouldn't hurt. Which," her voice turned cutting, "you would know if you bothered to ever visit."

Link smiled, "Work, you know?" And they did. For all the grumpy acts after long abstences, they did know and would let it go soon enough. Rather than being hurt and annoyed, Link always thrived under the mild attacks. They cared enough to be hurt he hadn't seen them.

And like that, Shara let it go, "Always work," She waved her hand as if to wipe it all away, and looked over her shoulder at the two brothers. "Are we planning to eat anytime soon?"

The two brothers turned, making an odd sight together with Mehado half a head taller and the complete lack of similar features. It was rare for anyone to keep genetic relations in game, as once sorted into their race, they were schooled in race specific settings and tended to form families during such. The twins never explained why they held onto each other, and Link never pried as much as he might have wished. It seemed too personal.

"Oh, you know, just catching up with each other," Mehado said gamely, relaxed.

Shara shot a look over to Link, "We all had lunch together just yesterday. This is what happens when you leave us alone, they get all weird."

"And there's the hint to get a move on," Darin said loudly, walking past and leading the way to the back and his living quarters.

"Me asking to eat wasn't the hint?" Shara complained, following at Darin's heels.

Link watched the scene with amusement, and looked up at Mehado, a little less than a head taller than him, when he stopped beside him.

"We've missed you Link," Mehado said easily, putting an arm around Link's shoulders and directing them towards the back. "Try and remember to save a bit of time for us every now and then."

"I do try," Link admitted, "Just the past couple of months have been much busier than anticipated or even wanted. There's been… problems." It was as close as he was going to get to the topic tonight.

Mehado picked up on his relunctance and shrugged, "Then we'll make the most of the present then."

The meal was warm and light hearted, helping to unwind Link in ways he hadn't realized he needed. He missed his friends, in a way that made him think sometimes that the Great Deku Tree and the AIs had spent a little too much time writing his code.

The meal slowly wound down, and Link was considering excusing himself, when Shara leaned forward and directed a question to Darin, "So, ever planning to get back into the field?"

It was an unexpected question. No one had ever asked Darin why he pulled back from the temples. It had been a gradual process, and it was clear he rather more enjoyed the trading side. Darin, rather than being offended, gave the question a bit of thought, "I had thought about it, to be honest. But when? Between the shop, identification, and acting as a mentor for new fighters, who has the time?"

"You mentor new fighters?" Link asked, being the first he heard of such.

Darin blushed, but his lips quirked up a bit, "Well, I got a lot of townsies who were interested, but didn't know how to get into to it and so I would, you know, push them a little. Help set them up with others interested, give them a couple easy temples to try it out on, listened when they came back all excited."

"He also seems to think it perfectly alright to call me whenever one of them comes back with a scratch," Mehado dryly cut in. The Sheikah was an amazing healer, which wasn't surprising when you considered he was part of the Adventurer's Guild. They didn't just run the temples, they deliberately sought out the hardest and oldest temples.

"You've only yourself to blame," Shara pointed out, "You're the one who answers when he calls." In comparison, Shara was a fighter that focused on fast, hard hits. She had a couple spells for backup, but with a partner in Mehado she rarely needed them.

Link stood, stretching a little and holding back a yawn. "Well, far be it from me to get in the middle of this. I think it's time to go."

This led to a round of goodbyes and hugs, which Link melted into each one gratefully. Shara went last with a fast hard one, as was her wont, and pulled back to say, "If you've the time, you should stop by the Adventurer's Guild tomorrow. We've got a new member I think you'd like to meet."

Interest raised, Link nodded, "I'll see what I can do." It'd also give him a chance to inquire about bugs and issues they've run into.

Shara nodded and patted his shoulder, finally letting him go. As they returned to the table, Link headed back through the shop and out into the empty market. Here or there a night shop had its lights on and as Link passed, he could hear the happy chatter drifting out. A brisk wind stole away the warmth, and the easy meal he had just shared already felt like a fading memory. He wished he could ignore the sinking feeling, present ever since finishing the temple with Simon and Duran, but it was impossible to do so. Something big was on the way, and he wanted to be a part of stopping it. He had to be a part of it. No one else, except maybe Zelda, even seemed aware something was coming.

His resolve, rather than make the night bleaker, seemed to make it brighter. His steps rang with a confindent tone, rather than slinking along, as he headed back towards the center of town and the tree.

Something was coming, but he was going to stop it.