Destined to Fight (GhiraLink)

Missing

It had been five hours since Link found Zelda, and no one had moved an inch.

​​​​​​​Zelda was still unconscious, though Groose had taken the time to fix her hair and clean her nosebleed. Everyone was exhausted and afraid from the night before. If anything, Link felt worse than them. The haunting image of those masked, reanimated corpses haunted him every time he closed his eyes, leaving him with a sickening fear that they would return, that he would see the bodies of various people that he remembered dying over the course of his life, with their rotting bodies. Their bloody, tattered hair. Cawlin with his organs hanging out... He hadn't slept a wink.

Sure, Link has seen death before, but they were monsters that had been willing to die. They weren't people that had lives, had families, people that Link could have interacted with at some point in his life. Human death was different. The images he would see served as a reminder that he could have just as easily been just like them, with missing limbs and stab wounds.

And, just as Link thought it would, the energy he had spent on fighting and running came back to bite him in the ass. Even after eating a meal that would normally be adequate, he felt weak and shaky. This coupled with lack of sleep left him unwilling to move for the next three hundred years.

Link sighed and let himself slump against the demon that had decided to sit behind him a while ago. He didn't care how the position could be taken; he was exhausted and didn't want to put any more energy into sitting up.

Almost as soon as he put any sort of weight on him, Ghirahim's head fell forward, his face burying itself in Link's hair. But it wasn't in an affectionate way, it was in a way that made Link wonder if he just died.

"Ghirahim," he whispered, nudging the demon.

Ghirahim didn't respond, but he could hear him breathing, the sound muffled by his hair.

Link tilted his head upward slightly, allowing a subtle frown to form on his face, but he decided to let Ghirahim sleep. It wasn't as if either of them were going to move anytime soon.

Almost unwillingly, he closed his eyes, the darkness pulling him in. Those people returned, paralyzing him with their hollow eyes and agonized screeches, but he couldn't pull himself out of that death trap again. He was too exhausted.

When Link awoke, Ghirahim was dragging him across the sand by the collar of his tunic. Ghirahim seemed to enjoy that too much, so several other people had to pry Ghirahim's fingers off to get Link loose. Then, the poor hero was forced to stay several feet ahead while Ghirahim and Zelda stayed behind to talk in private.

Feeling somewhat rejected, he decided to join up with Groose, who was talking with a Sheikah man that called himself Mal, a childhood nickname.

Within four hours, the grass simply disappeared as the group finally reached the edge of the Lanayru Desert and were now nearing Eldin Volcano, the ground now covered with layers upon layers of rock and dust that had built up over the years. The sky became orange with the glow of lava reflecting off the clouds and making the place appear to be some sort of Hell. Soon, they came across what little could be seen of the path that was to guide travelers to the Eldin dragon's home, but that was quickly covered by another layer of rock.

While Link had been in the back most of the way there, he gradually took the lead as Sheikah that didn't know where to go fell behind him. Zelda had somehow wind up right beside him, appearing out of place as she silently walked with him among the rocks and pools of lava. Link noticed that her hair had been cut so that it only reached her shoulders, perhaps saving her from some of the heat. Neither of them talked to each other, not for a while.