Sesshoumaru slammed his sword against the Lynel's own Crusher. Link has been busy building a trustworthy reputation with the Gerudo by picking up odd jobs. Just last week they went hunting Moldugas across the Gerudo Desert because a worried wife needed its guts that apparently hold strong medicinal value to help her husband strange illness. Since it could be used by them in the future, Sesshoumaru had dragged Link to kill as many Moldugas as possible.
Now they were busy picking up Wildberries to help a little girl start up her garden in a cold, empty lot within the city. This also would hopefully stop the woman polluting its water source by throwing her Hydromelon wastes into the water. Link also had picked up on an odd quest from this creepy Hylian man running around the city's outer wall.
The only reason he insisted on taking up the quest was because of the promised boots. Sesshoumaru had questioned his sanity on the matter of the boots but when he heard the unique effect of the boots upon usage through the desert, he had promptly helped Link. Link had been loaned the Snow Boots to help him look for the fabled Eight Heroine in the Gerudo Highlands.
But upon scouting the frozen land, Sesshoumaru discovered many forgotten treasure chests half buried under the snow. However, with treasure chests comes its unknowing guardian; monsters. Thus he was currently busy sparring against a Silver Lynel. Link meanwhile hid nearby, keeping an eye out on Snow Octorocs or Ice Lizalfos.
Link sighed as Sesshoumaru continue to prolong the battle. He knew why Sesshoumaru have restless, going around killing as many enemies as they entered his sight; Kagome has yet to wake up. The first few days after their battle with Thunderblight Ganon, Kagome was trapped in a state of waking terror before finally succumbing into a coma. Though at the beginning she was the most capable of their group, it has come to light that she's also the weakest in battle.
Kagome was far from useless. She can hold her ground for sure against greater odds, but it does not change the fact that after each fight, she carried the most wound on her body. Luckily her skill with healing meant that little could scar her but it still stings whenever he caught sight of white nicks and lines on her body. Thus after the battle against Ganon's piece, it has proven that they will need to get even stronger before face the beast that bring Calamity to Hyrule.
Kagome's purification ability is powerful and if by Sesshoumaru's standard, the most powerful of her people. But when compared to Zelda's Demigoddess ability, it was nothing. And even Zelda's goddess blood could not destroy or hold Ganon fully at bay for a hundred years, which was a testament to the potency of her holy power; Kagome's own ability would not stand a chance.
What was a mortal's gift compared to that of a God?
Link's own sword, forged from steels and stones given by the Goddess Hylia millenniums ago, could only seal Ganon in its best condition. Ganon's an evil that could contest against the Three Goddesses as well as the Golden Goddess. No matter how many time he's been slayed, his curse held strong. Even now, ages since his last mortal reincarnation, he haunts the very land he cursed.
His hatred and malice cannot be compared to common beasts.
The Lynel's weak roar of defiance as its life fade away woke Link from his deep thinking. He looked at Sesshoumaru who simply stared at the sky as Naydra made her way across the faded grey of the highland, the Lynel dead and mauled at his feet. Even from behind, Link can feel the restless air that the large male carries. The battle with Thunderblight Ganon and their effect on Kagome left a bitter taste on Sesshoumaru's tongue and it shows.
He has been seeking stronger and stronger enemies, seeking to strengthen himself against the best of Ganon's beasts. His mind whirling, drawing up strategies and plans for facing Ganon. Already before their departure into the land of Gerudo, Riju received news of unrest at Hyrule's Castle as well as its surrounding land from Gerudo travellers and her allies; the monsters growing restless and more aggressive, evolution amongst their ranks becomes more and more frequent. Worse of all, the movements of the corrupted Guardians growing more and more calculated, controlled, rather than its mindless lumbering that haunted the land and fields for the past one hundred years.
Some that had moved to farther lands had begun to move towards once direction; Hyrule Field and beyond that, Castle Town.
Link can tell; the final war is coming.
With the last of the Divine Beasts conquered and returned to its original post, Ganon's collecting his strength. The same strength that brought Hyrule to its knee one hundred years ago, could three travellers break past the heightened security?
Link blinked as Sesshoumaru strapped the Double Helix on his back and turned lightly to glance at him. Link picked up the signal for moving and he quickly chased after Sesshoumaru as they continued their trek. It was the weekend when the two return to Gerudo Town with his loot. They sold most of the weaker weapons to a second hand store where Kagome had gotten the first weapon in this world that Sesshoumaru had ever used.
Link had handed the frozen image of the Eight Heroine to Bozai the Creep, and when he asked in a fake girlish voice if the man would be willing to part with the Snow Boots as well, he gained another 'quest' to find the missing stone sword that the statue should be holding but luckily while Sesshoumaru duke it out with the Silver Lynel, Link discovered the stone sword and had taken a picture out of curiosity. When he simply showed the picture to Bozai, the man became flustered before finally revealing his true intention.
But Link, feeling disgusted and having had enough of the man, shot him down before the date request finish coming out, "Not a chance,"
Bozai deflated, "Oh...you could at least let me finish..."
Having gotten both 'precious and rare' boots, Link quickly left the shoeless man. As a he passed by the Gerudo guards, they both give him thumbs up for dealing with the creep. They already had it with the way the man kept looking, leering at them and running around endlessly in front of them like running itself was running out of trend.
It's not endearing him to them at all and they have no sympathy for that creepy Hylian man...
As Link climbed up the steps to Riju's room, his heart almost dropped when he saw Kagome sitting on the sofa at the end of Riju's bed, drinking something cold. He dropped everything in his arms and ran straight for the girl; hugging her while Kagome almost choked trying to balance between drinking, being surprised at Link's action and returning the warm hug.
Kagome coughed, "Link?!"
She was about to say more than his name when she heard his silent sobs. She froze before guilt bloomed in her chest. She knew that she had worried him...and perhaps Sesshoumaru if what Riju have been telling her was true. Who knew Sesshoumaru being worried equal a safer desert to travel through and sudden increase of Molduga guts in the medicine market?
Link voice broke through her thoughts like stone in still water, "When did you wake up?"
She sighed, "Four days ago but by then you guys already left,"
Link pulled back before scowling that fierce warrior's scowl at her, "You need mental training,"
She sighed, "Don't I know it," She then shrugged, "I mean, it took me a while to get used to monster bloodlust and all...but I didn't expect for that...scream to..." She shivered. Link worriedly threw the discarded shawl by her side over her shoulders. She smiled, "Thanks...but...at least we now know what to expect when Zelda came out,"
Link flinched. He had thought about it when Sesshoumaru settled down at night and he found himself alone with his thoughts of what comes next. He had thought about what mental state the Princess will be when she's finally away from Ganon. Kagome's state of being worry him and he was ill prepared for it. He's not even well equipped to deal with his own survivor's guilt, how should he handle the Princess's own survivor's guilt?
Urbosa, in her great wisdom, had spoken her piece regarding her thoughts on that sudden battle one hundred years ago. She does not place blame on either him or the Princess for failing. In fact, none of their fallen comrades had blamed him or her. If anything, they bolster his need to be stronger and worry for the Princess trapped with the greater, meaner part of Ganon.
Though logically he knew all this, mentally and emotionally it was much harder to settle.
As if aware of the turmoil her words placed him in, Kagome placed her hand on his shaking fists, changing his focus from inside to her; "Link...we will be there with you. She will need you, more than ever. The greater battle, I belief, come after. In the moment, when we all are more concerned in surviving the fight, it is easy to ignore the scar that will come after. But when all things settle, that is when that scar will be all the more clearer,"
Link nodded, "I understand..." Moving his body, taking down the external enemy was easy. But the greater battle lies within. How does one fights oneself?
Kagome sighed, "I know that I need a greater strength than the one I wield now. I will need to fully purify myself. That means we will have to delay rushing Hyrule Castle,"
Link nodded, "Sesshoumaru seems to have the same idea. He has been looking for stronger and stronger enemies to fight. He has also been prolonging each fight. I...I hate seeing him like that..." He turned shaking gaze to Kagome, "Sesshoumaru has always been the strongest, even he when was rendered sick and almost crippled by the Calamity's effect on his person. But when you fell, when you became...unresponsive...it was like he was breaking at the seams..."
Kagome didn't know about this side of Sesshoumaru so she simply listened as Link half report and half ranted, "I know he appear strong. I was almost fooled but...he was quieter but that silence...it was the kind of silence I only felt when danger is near. It was unsettling. He didn't show, Kagome, not like us. He stayed firm and stoic through the whole process of taking you here. He acted almost like he always did...."
Link breathed heavily at the memories of the past week, "But there is something...something feral in the way he moves, in the way he fight. Feral and dark, I could taste the wildness barely restrained from him. At one point, I'm even sure that there's madness in his gaze. But that is not what frightens me..."
Kagome's frown became more pronounced, "You're afraid for him..."
"Yes,"
Kagome pondered on the matter even long after Link took his leave. She knew something between her and Sesshoumaru had changed. She had dared to hope that he had only begun to see her as a friend; something she knew was nigh impossible. Though he had treated her kinder since their first deadly encounter with each other, he had not been any more different than their early days together.
Though throughout the journey Sesshoumaru had been behaving like a drill sergeant, pushing them to train and teaching some survival technique that jogged Link's faded memories. He was their back bone in this lengthy adventure, a teacher of sort to both her and Link. Then the Lost Wood happened...
They changed...all three of them, and it was more than physical...
Kagome knew that the road home has gotten even harder, what her changed appearance and the cutting that Sesshoumaru did to rescue her soul. Yet she found herself more accepting of the change than she thought she would.
Link had grown more confident in himself but at the same time all the more emotionally fragile, especially when he think of what will come 'After'. He speaks much less, smiling less and more brooding when left alone.
Sesshoumaru on the other hand...his change was much more complicated than theirs. For one, he has another entity in his head space. She sometimes caught him talking quietly and knew that it wasn't like Sesshoumaru to be talking to himself, so that only mean that he's talking to the Fierce Deity sharing his body. His ferocity in battle seemed less about winning the fight but more about enjoying it. She had even caught him grinning with bloodlust once or twice.
It seemed that she needed to watch Sesshoumaru...closely...