Hours had passed since the trio had come to the conclusion of who owned two of the three parts of the Triforce. Since then, they had been listening to Farona speak about the heroes and their stories. Although Link and Ganondorf had learned much about those stories earlier, it was very helpful to hear what Farona knew. She actually knew twice as much about the heroes and their stories compared to the Hyrule Historia they had read in the library in Castle Town.

"So, the Hero of Time collected the three Spiritual Stones. They were called he Kokiri's Emerald, the Goron's Ruby, and the Zora's sapphire. By the names, they all had their respective colors of green, red, and blue. They represented the three goddesses, you know. Farore, the Goddess of Courage. Din, the Goddess of Power. And Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom. Those were their stones in a way, and they also were the ones who watched over the Triforce. They were the ones who left the Triforce in the hands of three chosen ones when they departed this world long ago," Farona explained. Link and Ganondorf didn't get to learn much about the Spiritual Stones - they only knew the fact that they were apart of the keys to opening the Sacred Realm.

"The Hero of Time was only a boy when he collected those stones, though. After some misfortune at the castle, the princess, whom was coincidentally named Zelda, gave him the Ocarina of Time while making her escape. Nobody knows what happened next after that moment. But, we know that the hero made his way to the Temple of Time and used the keys to open the Sacred Realm. Those keys were the Ocarina of Time, the three Spiritual Stones, and the Song of Time. The plan was to let the hero enter the Sacred Realm and pull the Master Sword from its pedestal. When he did that, he was sent to the Six Sages realm and was put in a magical sleep for seven years. Yes, the plan was to await until the hero was older and more eligible to save the world. At the same time, the evil man, Ganondorf, entered the Sacred Realm and stole the Triforce of Power," Farona said, standing up after she had finished talking and began to grab the now empty bowls.

"I'm going to go and wash these. You guys stay here for a moment," she informed, turning her heel and walking back into the kitchen.

"Spiritual Stones..." Link mumbled when Farona had disappeared completely behind the walls of the kitchen. "Do you think they're still around?"

"If they are, my guess is that they're with the Royal Family," Ganondorf muttered, looking down at his feet and patiently awaiting Farona's return.

Link blinked, then looked down at his own feet and began to spot out every speck of dirt he could find on his brown boots. He was very bored, it was evident. Normally, he wouldn't find any interest in spotting out dirt.

The Hylian man began to think about everything Farona had said, remembering almost every little detail from her stories. She told them of the Hero of the Sky and currently was telling the tale of the Hero of Time, as you know. Sure, the information was very interesting to Link and maybe some of it could help them in their quest. But at the moment, there was still no way to find the man with the Triforce of Courage.

Link had an unsettling feeling that Zelda was going to try and take in the person with Courage and Wisdom and take their parts of the Triforce. After all, anybody knew that if you obtained all three parts of the golden triangle, you could wish for anything you wanted. A good and pure heart would wish for something good, while an evil shrouded heart would most likely wish for hell upon earth. That's obviously not what Link and the others wanted.

That's the reason why Link and Ganondorf needed to find the bearer of the Triforce of Courage. To protect him and Ganondorf from Zelda's plans. But when that did happen, what would happen next? Would they have to cower forever until Zelda finally fell? Link didn't exactly think that part through.

"I'm back," Farona announced, waving her hand up a bit and sitting back down. She looked outside on of the tinted windows of the building and sighed.

"It's dark out now. The sun is gone," Farona mumbled, then stood back up. "You're allowed to stay the night if you want to. This building was once an inn."

Link and Ganondorf gladly agreed to her offer, following the girl upstairs and being lead to their own individual bedrooms.

Ganondorf entered his room and didn't bother to bid any good nights to anybody, shutting the door a bit harshly when he had entered.

Farona stifled a laugh and showed Link to his room. When they made it there in about two seconds prior to before, Link opened the door and cringed a bit.

Just a few days ago Link had slept in luxury in the castle. Hell, even when he was a trainee there were nicer sleeping arrangements for everyone. But what was he expecting? This place was obviously abandoned and hadn't been properly taken care of in years.

"Sorry the room's are bad," Farona mumbled. "I think you know by now that Kakariko is basically abandoned."

"It's fine," Link said with a smile, entering his room and getting ready to shut the door. He didn't though after he saw the look in Farona's eyes that told him that she still wanted to talk. Keeping his hand on the rusty handle, Link stared straight ahead at Farona.

"You know," she started, "my father told me about the heroes. He knew what they looked like. Do you want me to describe their appearances for you?"

Link nodded.

"I quote, 'clad in a green tunic with a strange green hat. Blondish or chestnut colored hair and blue eyes.' That's what my father told me once when he was here, and ever since I saw you...you've matched the description perfectly," Farona mumbled, a strange look appearing on her face. Link couldn't really tell what she was trying to say, but he did know that the sudden quietness after her little speech made his stomach feel uncomfortable.

"Oh, that's weird," Link answered numbly, not really knowing how else to respond. "Coincidence, probably."

"Yeah," she said with a small nod.

Link swallowed whatever nervousness was stuck in his throat and forced a smile. "Goodnight."

Farona smiled. "Goodnight."

The Hylian man shut the door, making sure to lock it just in case. The lock didn't work that well, but Link thought it would be okay just for this one night.

--

Link was the first one to awaken the next morning, he discovered that once he exited his room. With his chain mail, sword, and shield equipped on him, he made his way down the stairs of the building and decided to just look around the place. Since nobody but himself was awake.

He wandered around the small downstairs area, discovering different rooms and recognizing them. This indeed looked like an inn based off of the placement and specific types of rooms Link had found. Farona wasn't lying, but Link never thought that in the first place.

Thinking about Farona again led Link back to their odd conversation last night. She had mentioned he fit the description of the heroes in the legends perfectly, according to her father, who Link assumed was deceased.

It was weird for Link to hear all of that, and he couldn't help but agree with Farona's words. By the way she had described it, his appearance fit the description perfectly.

Link sat down at the table they had all sat at the day before, tapping his fingers in a random rhythm he had just conjured up. Using his pinkie finger to initiate the next part of the rhythm.

This continued for a few minutes, while Link also stared down at his brown boots with bored eyes and no expression. Eventually, though, Ganondorf waltzed down the stairs and Farona followed shortly after.

"Good morning," Link greeted them a bit awkwardly, watching the two sit down in their own chairs at the table.

"Link, shouldn't we leave today?" Ganondorf suddenly asked.

Link stared at the Gerudo for a few seconds, processing what he had just said and registering it into his brain. "Yeah, sure."

Farona gave them a dumbfounded look, then shook her head and flashed a small smile at the two. "I recommend you search in other places of Hyrule for what you're looking for. Whoever holds the Triforce of Courage...they could be literally anywhere in this vast land."

Link and Ganondorf nodded in unison. "Yeah," they said at the same time.

"How about you guys go to Death Mountain?" Farona suggested. "It's not far from here, really. You just have to follow a trail that leads to the foot of the mountain...then you have to climb it."

"Let's do that, then," Ganondorf agreed. "I don't know where else to go, so let's just go to this Death Mountain place."

"Mhm," Farona mumbled with nod. "I also heard that the leader of the Goron tribe is very knowledgeable. Maybe he knows something?"

Link and Ganondorf just nodded as a reply once again, pushing their chairs back and arising from their seats. Farona blinked once, before initiating in the same action and leading them towards the front door.

"Do you need anything to eat?" Farona asked. "I'll gladly make something for you guys."

"I think we'll be okay," Link informed, looking at Ganondorf to make sure he had nothing else to say. The Gerudo looked as if he was about to protest, but slowly closed his mouth and nodded.

"Thank you for everything you've done, though. We greatly appreciate all of it," Ganondorf thanked her.

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Farona mumbled, pushing a stray strand of her blonde hair out of her eyes.

The two bid Farona their goodbyes, exiting the small and run down inn afterwards. Link made sure that the first thing they did was get extra supplies and such for their trek up Death Mountain. Although neither of them had even seen the mountain, they suspected that since it was a mountain, it would take some effort to climb it. And they would need supplies for that - extra potions, rupees, maybe some small foods, like cheese, and even weapons to use.

Luckily, even though Kakariko was almost completely abandoned, aside from Farona, there happened to be a small shop nearby. There, Link used the spare rupees he had in his rupee pouch and purchased a few of the things mentioned before. He still had his bow and quiver from two days earlier, so Link also purchased a couple arrows to use. Just in case they run into monsters or anything related to that on their way up the mountain.

When that was done, they followed the trail that lead to the start of the mountain. The entrance was not like anything they were expecting, though. There were a few rocks that looked climbable, but those stacks of rocks didn't reach high enough to get onto the actually mountain. They could climb all those rocks and only get halfway up the large wall that prevented anything from entering. Luckily, there was a grate or ladder of some sort hanging limply from the edge of the mountain, which would allow access.

Link and Ganondorf jumped on the usable rocks, eventually reaching the final one. The Hylian looked up at the limp ladder, debating whether or not he should even try and climb it. It didn't look very sturdy, and Link didn't want to fall and break something, or even worse, die.

"Hm, do you think this'll break?" Link asked, looking over at Ganondorf with a questioning look.

The Gerudo simply shrugged his shoulders, staring up at the weak-looking ladder himself.

"I'm sure you could climb it, but I certainly can't," Ganondorf mentioned, looking up at the blue skies above.

Today was once again another beautiful day in Hyrule; the skies were crystal clear and the clouds were puffier as they rolled across those skies. If you were in Hyrule Field or anywhere else that had greenery or normal weather, you'd hear birds chirping and other peaceful sounds. But since this was Death Mountain and the temperature was almost as scorching as the Gerudo Desert, there were no bird chirps. The only sounds you could hear were rocks falling and rolling on the hard grounds, or even rocks from the volcano ahead erupting from the mountain and crashing to the ground.

Link heaved a sigh, looking back up at the ladder and shaking his head. "I'll try and get up there, and then I'll pull you up."

Ganondorf nodded, watching as Link jumped as high as he could.

Link managed to grasp one end of the ladder, which somehow sustained even though he was yanking harshly on it. Reaching his other hand out, he grabbed the other side of the ladder and began to lift his feet up. His feet touched the small bars of the ladder, and thus he began to climb it.

Somehow, the ladder sustained itself during that entire time, and Link eventually made it to the top of the wall. He wiped his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief, relishing in his accomplishment after having so many doubts before.

"Hey, I'm still down here," Ganondorf hollered up to Link, causing the Hylian to turn around and nod.

"Oh, right," Link murmured to himself, walking back over to the edge and laying himself down on the ground. Dropping his arm down, he opened his hand and waited.

Ganondorf grabbed his hand, and Link began to hoist him upwards. It was way harder than Link had expected though.

"Goddesses...you're heavier than I thought..." Link breathed, using all his strength to pull the heavier man up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ganondorf grumbled.

"I'll just say it - you're heavy, okay?" Link mumbled, letting out a random battle cry and pulling Ganondorf up onto the mountain.

Ganondorf stood up and brushed any dust off of himself, then looked forwards at the mountains ahead.

Link stood up eventually, rubbing his sprained arms and shoulders. "We have to find the leader of the Goron tribe, right?"

"Yup," Ganondorf muttered. "That's the plan."

And so, their next journey to find the Goron tribe's leader began.

--

A/N: I mentioned it in the last chapter but I gotta start updating more frequently. Lol sorry if this chapter sucked. This story must be really boring because only two people read it lmao.

I'm not going to quit this book though. I'll just finish it soon, but I doubt it'll be as popular as most Zelda fanfiction on here. Idk what I'm doing wrong but I must be doing something wrong to only have two people reading this.

Or maybe I have some silent readers who won't say a word or vote. Pls come out of the shadows if you're one of them.

bye now.

-Katy