The Legend of Zelda: The Fall of Hyrule ✔️

XVIII

"Hey! Wake up!" Link yelled, kicking the side of Ganondorf's stomach as a way of awakening the Gerudo leader.

Ganondorf let out a small cry of pain, before slowly arising from the hot, dry grounds of the beginning of Death Mountain. He looked around for the source of the pain in his right side, angrily pushing himself to his feet once he saw Link standing there.

The Gerudo man lunged his fist at the Hylian man's stomach, but luckily Link dodged the attack before it could plummet his stomach area. He furrowed his eyebrows at Ganondorf, taking a step back before unfolding the map he had kept stuffed in one of the many pouches he carried.

"What's the place called again? Zora's Hideout?" Link mumbled, examining the map and pinpointing the location.

"No. It's called Zora's-" Ganondorf began to speak in an unamused tone, before Link loudly shushed him.

"Domain, I got it now," he said, examining the map again and letting out a long groan when he discovered the length between Death Mountain and Zora's Domain.

It was such a long journey - they had to exit Kakariko Village first, and then make their way out of the large land that was known as the Eldin Province of Hyrule. Zora's Domain was located near Lake Hylia, which was apart of the Lanayru Province of Hyrule. That's also where Castle Town and the palace were located, in that same province. Lake Hylia and Zora's Domain were not far from the palace, but it was still a long distance, anyway. Luckily, they had their horses from the Gerudo Village, so it wouldn't be too troubling of a ride to reach Zora's Domain.

"It's going to take so long to get there," Link grumbled to himself, but Ganondorf was listening anyway since he had nothing better to do.

"Yeah, but we have to get there," Ganondorf said sternly. "You don't want Hyrule to collapse, do you?"

"No, I would never wish ill will to this land..." Link mumbled as a reply, shaking his head and smoothing out the map a bit. "It's just...I barely got a wink of sleep last night; I'm sure you didn't get much either. I'm probably going to fall asleep on my horse and fall off."

"You won't," Ganondorf said. "And who knows how long it'll take? It may look far on that map, but on horse it's probably further than you think."

Silence passed between the two for about ten seconds, with Link just staring blankly at the old map and thinking very deeply about the fate of Hyrule. All sorts of possible outcomes - good and bad - began to race through his already troubled mind. The silence ended when Link blinked a few times, shaking his head and then looking back up at Ganondorf.

"Yeah, probably," he muttered. "Sorry for spacing out. Let's just get back to Kakariko and get our horses. The sooner we leave the better."

Ganondorf mumbled a 'mhm' as a reply, following the shorter man as they left the border of Death Mountain and reentered the run down and abandoned village of Kakariko.

The Gerudo man looked at the building that Farona was most likely in, and then he tapped Link's shoulder. Link looked over at his traveling companion, glancing at Farona's house when Ganondorf pointed to it.

"Maybe she'll have some food," Ganondorf whispered. "I mean, we'll need food on our journey to Zora's Domain."

Link bit his lip as he thought about it for a moment, nodding momentarily at Ganondorf's suggestion.

The two knocked on the door of Farona's house, expecting to hear her footsteps approaching the wooden structure and opening it up for them to enter the building. But, that never happened, and Link immediately assumed that Farona wasn't even home anymore.