Breath of the Wild: Link and Friends

Chapter 35

Elijah was not happy to feel the heat increase as they headed towards the desert the next morning. Unfortunately, it seemed as if he'd just have to deal with it.
Elyza was leading the way, confirmed by Zalie as she soon recognized where they were.
The 5 of them came to a bunch of bridges stretching to a bunch of islands kind of like in the Rito Village, but Elijah could see something fat and red sleeping in the middle of the series of bridges. Hmm. It looked like a Hinox. Great.
"Hey, there's a Hinox up there. I think," Elijah said.
"Ok, well, let's ride an island in and get off the horses and go take care of it then," Link said.
They all nodded and rode across the first bridge and dismounted. Everyone pulled out their weapons and crossed the next island. The Hinox was sleeping. But it would wake soon.
Link motioned for Elyza and Kenton to shoot at it, pointing at his eye. They nodded. Link snuck across with Zalie and Elijah.
Two arrows flew and struck the Hinox, causing it to wake. It sat up and stood, opening its one large eye. It looked around, and spotted Elyza and Kenton. It started to walk towards them, having not seen the other three. Link waved for the rest to attack and they charged at it.
Link got there first, him and his magic sword striking the legs, cashing the Hinox to stop advancing and look at Link. It hesitated a moment seeing them all and it allowed Zalie and Elijah to attack it.
Elijah slashed with his Flameblade a couple times before he accidentally hit the metal plate on the thing's leg.
The blade cracked and broke. He stared at it, but that made it so he didn't notice what the Hinox was doing.
Elijah looked back at the Hinox as it jumped into the air like it was going to sit. The problem was, Elijah was right under it.
Suddenly, Link was there next to him, a red sphere around him. He grabbed Elijah's arm as the Hinox fell back down.
It hit the shield and shoved it away—Link and Elijah with it—and it flashed but stayed up. Elijah thought he saw a ghostly Goron appear in front of them.
Either way, Link and Elijah were thrown away, rolling. It wasn't comfortable and there would be bruises but he wasn't dead, so that was a plus.
Link stood back up, that glowing shield disappearing. "Might want to stay back, Elijah." And then he pulled his blade back out and started at the Hinox that was sitting on the ground now, holding its hands to its eye.
Elijah basically stood back and watched the others kill the beast.
Zalie ended up with the final blow, shoving her spear into the Hinox's stomach. Unfortunately, her weapon broke too and she only pulled out part of the spear. Her curse was audible.
Elyza and Kenton walked over the bridge to join them, while Link walked over to the corpse and cut off its...necklace? Yep. A rope with weapons on it. A broadsword, a halberd and a bow. He dragged it over to them.
"We conveniently have new weapons for you two," Link said. "And Elyza can have a brand new bow too."
"Cool," Elyza said. She dropped her old one and picked up the shiny, new gold one.
"That's a Royal bow, Elyza," Kenton added. She nodded. "Actually, I think all of that is royal stuff."
Zalie picked up the Royal halberd and Elijah picked up the broadsword. It was well balanced and strong. He would miss the warmth of his Flameblade though.
"Alrighty, let's get going again," Link said.
They walked back to get their horses and mounted them and trotted onward. Once they crossed all the bridges the scenery changed dramatically.
Instead of bright green grass, and trees, with the occasional river and lake, it was barren tan rocks with towering cliff sides all the around.
It was dusty, and the only plants were sad little dehydrated shrubs that looked brittle. It felt much hotter already, and no clouds were in sight. With how dusty it was, rain would not be a common occurrence around here.
The cliffs around them were more like stacked plateaus. They went up a ways, flattened then shot straight up again.
This would be just a fantastic area. Yay.
Elijah shook his head. There had better be some good food around here. Or he would leave right now.
The day went by slowly. Link had to do a shrine, and then he left them for over an hour to go get the tower for the area. The rest of them had to melt in the heat because there wasn't much shade in the noonday sun. Elijah made some meat skewers but he didn't have a pot to make anything better than that.
While they waited, Elijah did notice that there were a bunch of structures built along the walls of the canyon. Thin walkways, and ramps. Odd. Elijah would have gone up there to see but he was tired. Heat exhaustion or something.
After what felt like forever, Link finally came back and they continued on their way.
The dusty road was annoying and the horses kept kicking up dust and sand. Elijah had to put his nose and mouth in his shirt so he didn't have to keep breathing it in. He just wished they weren't heading to the desert right now. He really didn't want to have to walk through anything that resembled a sandstorm. Elijah hated the feeling of sand in his shoes and just everywhere. The Gerudo must have it rough to live there.
Elijah fell back next to Zalie and Kenton.
"Hey Zalie, what's Gerudo Town like?" Elijah asked.
"It's nice. It's cooler inside town than out—which is a little odd—but they have a bunch of palm trees and troughs of water. It's actually quite pretty. I like it, but you won't be able to go inside, Eli. They don't allow men. While I was there, a group of boys tried to get in, once in broad daylight and the other at night. It didn't work either time," Zalie said. "They got spotted almost immediately and were thrown out quite literally. Gerudo women are really tall and strong. Their warriors are formidable and proud. They'd never let any man in. Makes me a little worried for Link."
"Ok, well, what's this about the Kar kar bizarre or whatever?" Elijah asked.
"The Kara Kara Bazaar," Zalie corrected, "is an oasis. It pretty close to the stable and is a waypoint and inn for travelers. Mostly men because they can't go into town. Anyway, they have a bunch of vendors and stuff. It has shade."
"Alright. Now. What food do they have?"
Zalie smiled. "Well, some fruits they have are voltfruit, and hydromelon. Um...some dishes they have...cream soup or something. Stuff like that. They're delicious."
"Fantastic. That'll be the best part of this trip," Elijah said.
"I think they have a cooking class in town somewhere. 'Course, you won't be able to go to that," Zalie added.
Elijah scowled. "That's a dumb rule."
"It's cultural, Eli. They don't have any men. At all. Imagine if you'd never ever seen a woman. Would you really trust them? No. They probably are fueled by the fact that men try to sneak into town creepily because it's a town full of women. It's not really personal," Zalie explained.
"Do you think you can explain that I just want to learn how to make their food?" Elijah asked.
Zalie gave a sad smiled. "I could try, but it wouldn't work. They're stubborn."
Elijah sighed. This trip was basically a waste. For him anyway.
"It just means some guy time, Elijah. The girls will have their time and we'll have ours," Kenton said.
"Yeah. We can go into town, and you guys can hang out at the Bazaar," Zalie said.
"Maybe I can get someone in the Bazaar to teach me their food," Elijah said, sighing again. He sped up back to where he had been.
They continued on for a while more before they came to a road block. That block only got bigger when boulders came crashing down off the cliffs.
Luckily, none of them were too close and no one was hurt.
Link dismounted and walked over to the boulders, glancing upward. He pushed on the rocks but it barely moved at all.
"Um, how do we move that? We can't leave the horses here," Elyza said.
"I'm not sure," Link replied. He climbed to the other side of the road block. "Huh."
"What?" Zalie asked.
Link didn't answer. But the rocks started to move, and easily. Soon the path was clear. Link was holding his Sheikah Slate and the boulder—apparently metal—was in mid air. It moved out of the way and was dropped to the ground.
"All clear," Link called. He came back over and mounted Ellis and started riding.
The others shook their heads but followed.
Elijah saw more of those weird structures along the canyon walls and this time he could see a few bokoblins along them. But they didn't see the traveling group and so they passed right by.
They rode for maybe 30 more minutes before they reached the stable they had been shooting for. It was in the shadow of the canyon and was much cooler because of that. It must have been 100 degrees.(F)
Elyza took the horses and checked them in while Elijah wandered a little farther down the road under some arches. And then he saw the desert.
It was full of dunes and sand of course and Elijah could see what was probably the Bazaar and Gerudo Town, but that wasn't what drew his eye.
No, what drew his eye was the enormous sandstorm and the Beast inside it.
Elijah could see it walk around but he couldn't see all of it, because it was obscured in the storm. But it was enormous like all the other Divine Beasts and appeared to be a camel. Its long legs would probably be a problem when Link needed to get into it.
All he could think was that he was glad it wasn't him that had to go in there.
Elijah turned around and away from the hot desert and walked back to the stable. His friends and family were standing off to the side, so he joined them.
"...we going into the desert now?" Zalie asked. "Should we wait?"
"No. We should go to the Bazaar at least," Link said.
"Yeah, well, let's not get to close quite yet," Elijah jumped in. "I found the Divine Beast."
They all looked at him, so he waved for them to follow and he led them back to where he had been and pointed at the giant sandstorm and the marching camel.
"Aw, Hylia, have fun with that Link," Kenton said, squinting at the Beast.
"Thanks." Link rolled his eyes.
"Well, let's go. I want to visit Gerudo Town again," Zalie said. She walked forward and climbed down onto the sand. She looked at them and waved for them to join.
Elijah shrugged. He had his stuff with him. He climbed down and dropped onto the sand, sighing. Hopefully he could avoid too much sand in his boots.
Kenton came down and then Link. Elyza was last and then they started walking to the Bazaar, Zalie practically skipping. Kenton looked back at Elijah, grinning. He rolled his eyes. Kenton needed to tell Zalie about that crush of his. It was weird to watch. Not that Elijah really wanted Kenton anywhere near his cousin in that way.
As they walked, Elijah saw what was definitely a Gerudo because she was really tall, and didn't look Hylian. She was dressed like she could have been a merchant. Link approached her.
The woman stopped and eyed them all. "Hmmmm...you look like your everyday travelers, but how can I be sure?" She eyed them again. "Don't tell anyone...but I'm no merchant. I'm a Gerudo Town soldier in disguise. Ever heard of the Yiga Clan? They're a group of thieving bandits who have caused all sorts of trouble back in town. I got a tip that some of them go incognito as travelers to ambush the unwary. That's why I'm dressed as a simple merchant. My mission is to blend in and stay on guard in case they strike. They were bold enough to to strike at Gerudo Town, so I wouldn't be shocked if they struck at travelers, too..." The woman kept walking.
"Well, that was downright scary," Zalie said.
"Remember that Yiga we saw back near Kakariko, Link?" Elyza asked.
He nodded. "Everyone try to be aware. I wouldn't be surprised if the Clan knew you guys were my companions. Who knows what they could do? Keep your weapons on you."
They all nodded and Elijah kept a hand on his broadsword hilt. Just in case.
Eventually, they made it to the Bazaar. Link stopped a moment, and stared before his eyes glazed over. Another memory. Hopefully it wouldn't be a traumatizing one for him. Not that anything really shook Link.
They waited for Link to come back and he did after a few minutes.
"So..." Elyza prompted.
"I saved Zelda from two Yiga Clan who were going to kill her," Link said. "I wonder why she was by herself. She shouldn't have been." He saw quiet a minute. "Zelda must have been trying to get away from me. Maybe this is where she starts trusting me."
Elyza nodded encouragingly. Link stood and walked over to the oasis, and a guard who was standing there. Or at least he tried.
The now familiar but different cry of the Divine Beast came. They got a better view of it then. Lightning struck the ground a few times—which was odd because there weren't any clouds—and the "feet" glowed a dark purple and the rest glowed the contaminated magenta. Lightning continued to strike around it.
Awesome. But in a scary way.
Link looked away from it. He walked up to the guard.
"Sav'otta!" she said. That was not Hylian. "This is Kara Kara Bazaar. Gerudo Town is still a fair distance Southwest from here. If you're headed there, you should consider resting a bit. Though, you ARE a voe...even if you make it to town, you won't be able to get in...All the same, the Divine Beast is kicking up a storm right now so I don't recommend going to Gerudo Town."
"Divine Beast?" Link asked.
"You don't know about Divine Beast Vah Naboris? Supposedly, it is the guardian deity for the Gerudo people, but it started acting up a while back," the Gerudo woman said. "There's nothing we can do to stop it, either...it's protected by a fierce sandstorm and intense lightning. Though it hasn't yet, it could easily head toward Gerudo Town or this oasis. I do my best to keep an eye on it from here."
"Gerudo town?" Link asked.
"Gerudo Town is to the southwest. It the biggest town in the area! It's famous for trade and also for staying active and vibrant all night long. However, there is a law forbidding voe—males—from entering the city," she explained.
Link nodded. "Thank you."
"Hah. I don't need any thanks. This is my job after all," the woman said. "You know, the desert is hot during the day and cold at night. It'll take the energy out of you in no time. If you plan to head out into the desert, make sure you're prepared."
Link nodded and the group left her. Zalie and Kenton went into the building that was probably the inn to get them beds and Elijah went to look at the vendors. What could he make with those fruits...
The group turned in early that night, partially to get out of the desert as it started to turn cold. Elijah had gotten some of the fruits and had simmered them. It was delicious and tangy but also sweet. Elijah planned to have someone teach him some dishes tomorrow. The girls were going to go to town.
The only one who didn't really know what to do was Link. He sat outside and watched the Divine Beast.