KAFEI ( @clocktowncourage )
The world has been captured in a kaleidoscope of motion and sound. There’s a scream, not human or goron, maybe not living or dead. The tent falls. So many feet are in motion, armor clinks, women shout. He’s grabbing and pushing sturdy canvas, then there’s a shock of fresh air and a sudden view of the camp. He’s scrambling upright, snatching a tent pole. There’s a huge goron who must be Link, fending off attackers. Now the goron is slamming into the ground, and if Kafei hadn’t rammed the tent pole at the ground for balance, he would have fallen with the soldiers. There’s a sudden challenge; he has to catch the sturdy leather bag. It was a gift. Shouldn’t have taken it to another universe. The goron’s voice, Link’s voice, shouts for him to Go! Now!
Kafei catches the bag and runs. There’s a chilling vertigo in his gut. Every sound of danger around him is very real. If any of the soldiers catch him and have deadly intent, he just isn’t a match for them, his life will go out like a candle in rain. Running with a tent pole is a risk in of itself, but any weapon is better than none. Kafei knows that his knife is in his bag, too, provided he can get to it. The soldiers found it in his boot, and he saw them put it with the rest of his things. He still has rope around his wrists. Couldn’t the knife, the rope, and the tent pole be used to make a spear? His mind crunches through the creative challenge of how to actually make a useful spear with a knife and a tent pole and some rope, something sturdy that wouldn’t just fall apart. As if he’ll have time to stop and create it any moment now. But what else is he supposed to focus on? His fate is nearly out of his hands. His mind is having a hard time letting him contemplate that.
When danger doesn’t come crashing down on him in one, two, three, four, five heartbeats, he glances back once, a wounded glare for enemies who did him wrong. There’s no one immediately behind him, but he can’t say for sure that he isn’t being chased or that he’s become unimportant to the Gerudo. He doesn’t look back again, and he pulls his thoughts from spear construction. He isn’t feeling winded at the moment, but he knows he’s no runner. He’s had enough shady run-ins with Clock Town guards to know that a survival sprint is going to wear him out tremendously once the action settles down. He doesn’t know how far he has to go before it will be safe to be worn out tremendously, or if he can expect to make it to a safe point like that on adrenaline. He’s used to working alone, and the urge to immediately find a hiding place overpowers any impulse to try and regroup with Link (though he wouldn’t complain if Link followed him). He sees a tangle of scrub and rocks off in the distance, and he makes for it, still sprinting for his survival. He has no idea if this first patch of cover available will be any good as a hiding place. But he does know that once he stops running, he’ll finally have some time to make that spear, and the environment will work in his favor if it comes to a fight. Link was right. It’s best for him to come back to Anju with the pendant, himself.
Kafei’s story about the ghost goron will add a mythical complication to the gerudos’ attempts to properly make sense of Darmani’s appearance. But one of the soldiers will listen to the others debate with quiet skepticism. She wasn’t close enough to catch Kafei before he got away, but she did see him look back as he was escaping. And his energy just didn’t quite match the degree of bewilderment and drama that the others describe about the way he told the story.
It was something about his eyes.
Darmani has been locked away for far too long. He’s practically bursting with energy, prepared to fight for however long Link needs him. And for now, Link just needs long enough for Kafei to escape. Once his friend is out of sight, he knows the Gerudo are no match for his speed, and he can simply roll away to safety.
The two of them slip back into a rhythm he thought long lost, communicating their attacks perfectly, unsure where one of their minds ends and the other begins. A punch here, a kick there. The more Gerudo swarmed around them, the more energized they became.
When Link sees Kafei disappear into the trees, he gives him a few more moments to make himself scarce. Then as one, he and Darmani curl up tightly and pound the ground once more, even harder. The Gerudo stumble, and he wastes no time in shooting away from the camp at top speed, rolling end over end, trusting an innate sense to steer him.
He knows they’ll be on their tail, but they should have a decent head start. Now to just find Kafei...
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