Noble by Nature

Chapter 22

'It's so much worse than we thought,' Reeza said.
They were standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the first part of Gerudo Canyon. It was still full of shadows as the sun slowly rose above the horizon, but they could clearly see that the entire road was crawling with monsters.
'How are we ever going to get past those?' Laine muttered. She was looking down with wide eyes, her face pale in the early morning.
They had spent the night on a flat part of the cliff, shut in by taller ones on either side and looking out over Gerudo Canyon on one end and Taobab Grasslands on the other.
Link had had a most miserable night. It was desolate up here, and there was hardly any shelter from the cold winds blowing over them. They hadn't been able to build a fire, and they had little more than their sleeping bags to keep them warm.
Reeza and Laine had shared theirs, providing them both with some extra body warmth. Link hadn't really felt comfortable to do the same. They had offered, but it just felt weird. Besides, he had been tossing and turning most of the night anyway, and didn't want to wake them.
Thoughts of Zelda kept plaguing his mind. He wished he could have gone with her, more than anything. He hated not knowing how she was doing.
He hated it even more with the ever present thoughts of their baby girl, and how that must be affecting her. If only he could offer her some comfort.
But instead they were both alone, dealing with their own problems and having to find a way to reach their destination.
He had no doubt in his mind that she was having difficulties as well, considering just how immense this sudden rise of monsters was. Not knowing what was going on with the princess made him go crazy with worries.
     So in the end Link had watched the moon glide along the horizon, shivering in his sleeping bag, and barely closed an eye.
     'We'll find a way,' he said gruffly, rolling his head to stretch his stiff neck.
     'Can we go over?' Reeza asked, looking up to the cliffs to their left.
     'It would take days,' he answered. 'They're too high.'
     'But we can do it,' Laine said stubbornly. 'It might be preferable over having to fight that horde down there.'
     'I can't climb that much,' Link said through gritted teeth. It was yet another of his worries that had kept him up last night. 'If I have an attack in the middle of a climb I'll fall. There is no way to prevent that.'
     Reeza and Laine looked at him, the former with a sympathetic grimace, the latter with a concentrated frown.
     'There's the walkways,' Laine suggested, pointing them out on the cliffs. 'They go along most of the canyon right? If we can get down to those we could use them as our road.'
     Reeza nodded enthusiastically, patting her friend on the back.
     Link frowned at the wooden structures clinging to the rockface. They were built high above the valley floor, and would provide a relatively straightforward way to traverse the canyon. Even if they were guarded by monsters, they wouldn't be able to fight more than two abreast.
     'If we climb to that lower level,' he said, pointing down, 'it might be worth a try.'
     Laine and Reeza nodded solemnly, shouldering their heavy packs. Before he had even so much as a chance to say anything more, they each turned to face the rocks and started climbing down.
     Link raised his eyebrows, but folded out his paraglider and sailed down smoothly, touching down only shortly before the Gerudo.
     'Well, that was easy enough,' Reeza said with a smirk, confidently walking over to the edge.
     Link could hardly do more than shrug. He had to admit though, these women kept surprising him.
They were now standing directly above the wooden walkway, which looked rather wobbly and brittle up close.
     'This could be leading nowhere,' Link said with a serious look at both women. 'Or it could be so heavily guarded that we can't get through. Which means we would have to go all the way back and find some other way.'
     Both Laine and Reeza nodded, for once without any of them grinning or joking.
     'We're with you, Link,' Reeza said. She patted his shoulder solemnly. 'Let's go.' She carefully looked over the edge, then jumped off.
     Link's heart shot up into his throat when he saw her fall, but then her feet landed on the wood. It creaked under her weight, but held.
     Laine looked at him and grinned. 'You can't say she isn't committed.' Then she too jumped off the cliff and onto the walkway.
     Link just sighed, feeling like he might regret this decision, but there was no way left now but to follow them.