Kate startled awake, frantically pulling the blanket away from her face. “I’m sorry,” she stammered, “I-I’ll move—”
The woman put a finger to her lips. “Quiet,” she said kindly. “I am a friend. My name is Impa.”
Kate gasped. “You speak Hylian!”
Impa chuckled. “I’m a Sheikah, of course I do.”
Kate was elated. “I haven’t been able to speak to anyone all day! Nobody else here speaks—well, at least not very well. It’s hard to understand them with the accent.”
“I’m sure.” Impa stood and held out her hand. “Come with me. There’s someone you should meet.”
Kate rubbed her eyes, considered her options, and accepted the offered hand.
Impa pulled her to her feet and lead her through the winding streets. Kate was too exhausted and hungry to keep track of where they were going. She was starting to get a headache.
She hoped that... he... was alright.
The smell of food caught her attention. She barely noticed that Impa was guiding her to a small table, didn’t even register that she’d been taken indoors.
Kate jumped in her seat. That was the voice of a man! Her head swiveled and she saw the Gerudo Chief—by the Three he was huge!—entering through a side door. Oh no... If the rumors were true, then—!
“Would you like something to eat?” he asked, keeping his distance. “Impa tells me you haven’t eaten at all since you arrived this morning.”
Kate blinked. He spoke Hylian. He didn’t even have an accent. This Gerudo Chief spoke her language like a native!
He smiled, and she realized that in her half-asleep stupor, she’d said at least part of that out loud. “Hylian is my mother tongue,” he said. “Or, more accurately, my father tongue.” He motioned a servant into the room and they set a hearty—but not lavish—platter of food in front of her.
“Sarqso,” he corrected gently, his accent impeccable. He waved the servant away and motioned to the food. “Please.”
Kate was too tired and starving to resist on the grounds of politeness.
The Chief sat at another small table and took a slow swig out of large sapphire-studded goblet. He set the golden cup down and turned it a little. “What do you know about the young man who brought you here?”
Kate nearly choked on her food. “Wha—Nothing, why?” Did he know? Was he going to kill her? “I-I don’t know anything. I don’t even know his name.” Because he’d claimed to not have one.
“I-I don’t know, why? I told you, I don’t know anything!”
Kate moved to get up from her seat—this wasn’t safe at all! She needed to get out of here—but Impa held her in place.
“Relax, Kate,” said Impa. “We mean neither you nor him any harm. Just the opposite, in fact.”
Could she trust them? How did Impa know her name?
The Chief’s face softened. “When I was about six years old,” he said, “my parents were killed by a bomb that was planted in our home. My mother served as the Oracle of Din in the Temple of the Golden Three.”
Kate gasped. “Wait, the—the Oracle? The Oracle of Din, the—the one who was assassinated?” She had no memory of the event itself—she would have barely been born at the time—but she’d learned all about the tragedy while in school. “But—but they had two Hylian boys! Neither of them were Gerudo, or else—”
“Or else the baby would have been brought here and made Chief immediately and been waited on hand and foot and grown into a spoiled tyrant, yes, my mother was very familiar with our customs.” He exhaled tiredly. “From the day I was born she dyed my hair so no one would know what I was. I didn’t even know what I was until Impa found me.”
“You mean when you found me,” Impa corrected. “You sought sanctuary at the temple of Hylia where I served as an attendant.”
“And you dragged me out of that temple, through a maze of back alleyways, and into the desert. You saved my life and brought me here.” He took a deep breath. “Kate,” he said, and again she wondered how they knew her name, “I—” He coughed, hazel eyes beginning to glisten. “I have long believed that my baby brother also, somehow, survived the bombing. I know it’s silly. I know it sounds like grief talking, but... I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that he’s alive. And based on what Impa’s told me, I believe that he may have been the one who brought you here today. So, I’ll ask you again: is he in trouble?”
Kate thought of the tiny, strapping young man who had entered her life so suddenly, turned it completely upside down, and left her in this strange place. One burning question consumed her sleep-deprived brain and leaped from her tongue: “What’s his name?”
The Chief’s eyes flicked to Impa, as if in question, then back to Kate’s. “He never told you?”
Flustered, Kate tried to backpedal. “Maybe he did,” she shot back, “and I’m just testing you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I haven’t seen him since he was a baby. He could very well have been raised with a different name.”
“He wasn’t raised with any name!” she blurted. “I mean—” She huffed and slumped over. Her and her big mouth. “That’s what he told me,” she mumbled, “that he, ‘didn’t deserve a name’—”
The Chief jumped to his feet. “What?”
“That’s what he told me! He said someone sent him to assassinate me—I don’t know why, I’m just an ordinary girl, it’s not like I’m someone of importance—but he couldn’t go through with it and so the only way to save both our skins was to drag me all the way out here and ditch me!”
The Chief began to pace. “They know,” he muttered. “They must know who he is, that’s why they—”
The Chief stopped and stared at her, his face tense with panic. “His name is Link. And even as a baby, he could hear the music of the Oracles.”
Kate stared right back, stunned. Legends and myths and fairy tales ran through her head. “You mean, he’s...?”
“Oh by Hylia, he’s... he’s a Hero. That explains everything!” She stood, swaying from the blood rush.
“Sit down and eat,” said Impa, pressing Kate back onto the chair. Impa held eye contact with the Chief. “The best thing either of you can do for him right now is take care of yourselves and get some sleep. My kin tell me that he’s safe; he met a traveler in the desert who’s been keeping him alive.”
“A traveler?” asked the Chief.
Impa’s eyes turned sharp. “I’ll brief you in the morning.”
The Chief grumbled at that, then looked at Kate. “Are you going to wait here, or would you rather—”
“I’m not going to wait here, are you nuts‽ Eh, sorry. I’m just—Yes, I want to go with you!”
The Chief smirked. “Left quite the impression, did he?”
Kate blushed and adjusted her hair.
He chuckled. “Very well, I’ll make sure we’re packed for two. Goodnight, Kate. And thank you.”
Kate razzed. “I haven’t done anything. And how do you guys know my name, anyway?”
“I saw you two at the city gate this morning,” said Impa.
“Oh. Right.” Kate picked at her plate. “Well, thank you for the food. And for letting me go with you.”
“You brought my baby brother to me, as if back from the dead,” said the Chief. “This is hardly adequate to repay such a debt.”
Kate threw her hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything! He was the one who dragged me all the way out here!” She paused. “To try and save me.” She glanced up at him. “Anyway, thank you. Goodnight.”
