The Chief of the Gerudo

The Travel

She followed Link through the snow, heading gradually downhill, sometimes climbing with their gloved hands. After spending years of climbing and living in extreme conditions, she didn't even break a sweat.

It took them an hour or two to get to Hateno Village. There, she packed up all of her layers into a backpack (she'd brought it along with her) and walked into the general store, bought some food and arrows and afterward, they left. It was different than coming down the mountain. They followed a clear path surrounded by trees. A few times she strayed from the path to pick up mushrooms or apples or acorns laying on the floor. They didn't talk much, Link didn't talk at all. They just marched on.

The woody area, it turned out, was just a patch of land. Then there were grasslands, and then another woody area right in front of Fort Hateno. And then—

"Oh my god," Saiota muttered,

She was looking over a graveyard. Large mechanical creatures laid spread out, spider-like legs in weird positions, all life gone from their circuits. All of them had to have been dead for hundreds of years. They'd been exposed to the elements for all that time, covered in grass and vines, the metal rusted and falling apart.

"What happened here?" She asked, as if Link would know.

It turned out Link did know.

"You know the stories of Calamity Ganon?" He said, explaining, "This was him. He sent all these things to Hateno Village, this Fort was the last line of defense. But the hero and princess of legend, they stopped all of them,"

He said it casually, still walking down the path as if he saw it every day. It was, by far, the most she ever heard him say.

Wow. She couldn't think anything else. The absolute power that could've stopped all these beasts. She glanced at Link, the power that flows through his veins. She shuddered and continued walking.

They didn't walk far before coming across their first stable. Link walked right up and got his horse, apparently she'd been left here for him. That led Saiota to finally realize how the hell was she gonna get a horse. She glanced up at Link, who was currently soothing his horse — a light brown mare with a white mane.

"Hey Link?" She called out to him, he looked up, "I don't exactly have a horse so could you—"

He nodded his head and took off, right then and there. Saiota was shook. In only a minute or two, Link had come back with a horse with a black mane and dark brown hair Saiota grinned and took the horse by his mane, leading him gently to the stable.

"Hey there," She soothed, "you're very handsome," the horse jerked back slightly, but she soothed him back, "I think I'll name you..." she thought for a minute, "Arion,"

She led Arion gently towards the man at the stable, quickly got him a saddle and bridle, and registered him with the stable. Then, she finally mounted him. Arion fought, but she continued to soothe the horse until finally, she could ride him without him jerking.

"You know how to handle a horse?" Link asked as she rode by him.

"I learned it from watching other travelers," She said simply, "This one is my first,"

Link mounted his horse — Epona was her name — and followed after her and Arion. They took off on the road, making their way past through the dueling peaks, two towering mountains that were once one, but had been split in two. A river flowed past them, fish jumping out of the river occasionally. She stared at them while Arion followed the path, grinning wide.

To think that it wasn't too long ago she had never even seen a fish, and for there to be so much green in the land— it seemed unnatural to her, but she supposed all of Hylia must be like this, or at least the areas she's seen. It had its perks, yes, but compared to the desert where she grew up, waking up to reds and oranges streaking across the sky like the most beautiful painting in the world, walking the desert at night to stare into the cosmos, eternity spread across the sands. She missed it all. Other people may see the desert as a dead horrible place, but she saw life and beauty. Then again, they must think the same of these grassy areas they live in.