A Quiet Moment

"I swear the two of you share a brain cell, and it's the only one you have," Zelda grumbled in annoyance. 

The disaster twins were, predictably, being a complete disaster again. They had argued so loudly over whether to hunt the boar or the deer that both of their potential targets had run off. Then Odie was loudly declaring their wish to fight a Goron—again—and Arson kept threatening them with more and more gory fates. Then, they tried to race each other and ended up both spurring their horses one too many times and getting de-horsed quite abruptly.

Okay, frankly, that was funny. But it was annoying, too, because they were definitely holding up the mission with their bickering and antics. 

"Why are you like this?" she asked, rolling her eyes as they got back on their horses.

"'Cause they let us be," Odie said with a grin. "The people in our village never really cared that much what we got up to, so long as Arson was watching out for me." 

They were coming up on the stable, and Zelda was already looking forward to a bath and some rest. Listening to these two bicker was exhausting. Why did she sign up for this again? Oh, right, princess, protect Hyrule, that nonsense. 

The problem only presented itself once they were at the stable and on the ground, trying to decide how many rooms to buy.

"One's cheaper," Odie said with a shrug. "And Arson and I can sleep on the ground or something."

"Well, that's ridiculous," Zelda protested, ignoring Arson's Speak for yourself! as he puffed up a bit, offended. "We all need the rest. We should all have beds, and getting three rooms is the best way."

"Uh, problem," Arson said, tapping his toes as he looked around. "You get a room on your own, someone might think it's shady. We're a bunch of kids." He rolled his shoulders. "We're all small, and Odie said they'd sleep on the ground—"

"Share a bed with a boy—" Zelda burst out in shock.

Arson rolled his eyes. He was too tired for this. "Three kids getting a room on their own is going to look shady," he repeated. "And you didn't want to be found out, right? Having enough for one each is a good hint that we've got access to a lot of money."

"Oh. But…" Zelda looked between the two teenagers. "I'm not sure about sharing a bed." 

"Hey, I'm not that big," Odie protested, but it was with a grin and a sly poke to Zelda's ribs. 

Zelda laughed, settling down a bit. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. And Arson was right, it would look really weird if three kids bought separate rooms. Or even two, since Odie and Arson didn't seem to care that much about personal space when it came to each other. Yeah, what was with that? 

Later, as they settled into their room, cross-legged on the bed, she asked. "So, are you two…uh…" She struggled to find the words. "You're very close," she went with instead. "And touchy."

"Odie's just really touchy," Arson said with a shrug, tucking into his bowl of stew with glee. He loved himself some good food. 

"We're cousins," Odie said, and the look on Zelda's face said that their response answered her question. "We grew up together, and Arson's only a couple months older than me, so we've always been together." They shrugged and poked at a potato, scooping it up and dropping it into Arson's bowl.

"Oh, I see. I don't think…I have cousins," Zelda said quietly. "I have Impa. We've… Well, she's kinda my guard, but we're friends too." And Impa would kill her when she found out that the princess had snuck off on her own. At least she wasn't completely alone.

"That sounds boring," Arson said, fishing out a carrot to drop into Odie's bowl. "Who'd you play with, then? When you were a kid?"

"We're still kids," Zelda snarked with a grin, watching the secondary exchange, potatoes for carrots. 

"You know what I mean."

"Uh… Well…" She wasn't watching the cousins anymore, more interested in studying her bowl of stew. She…didn't really have anyone to play with when she was younger. Not that she'd had much time to play at all. "Mother played with me a lot." 

"Not Impa?" Odie asked.

Zelda shook her head. "Sometimes. Not often. She was usually busy training." She sighed a bit, then decided that smiling was better. "But we did study together a lot. She's a lot calmer than you two, so we had a better time reading together or playing chess."

That kind of life sounded rather sad to Arson and Odie, who were both rather rambunctious, even if Arson had calmed a bit as he got older. Zelda had been alone a lot, it seemed, and the way that she was often rather annoyed or confused by the interactions between Arson and Odie made Arson wonder if she'd ever really had anyone to be herself around other than her own mother. If she'd spent a lot of time alone. 

"Chess, though? That sounds boring," Odie said quietly before stuffing some food into their face. They had too much energy for chess, though they did know how to play it. "Arson plays. He's good, too."

"Am not. Father always beats me," Arson protested, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well, he's been playing for, like, 30 years and is the reigning champion. You're just learning." It was silly to Odie how Arson compared himself to his father, whether it was chess or sword fighting. Arson was very talented, especially when it came to sword fighting, and it wasn't like any of the other kids could claim to have done what their cousin had: fighting enemies in the pitch black with only a voice as a guide. 

Arson shrugged. He didn't see it that way. 

"Perhaps we can play one day," Zelda said instead, smiling kindly at the boy. "I'm not terribly good, either, so don't worry about that." It would be nice to have a calm moment between them. 

Like now. This was a nice, calm moment, but it felt like the calm before the storm. The 'pass'—which they had learned was, in fact, a steep hill leading to a bridge instead—was ahead, and from there they had to tackle the dangers of Death Mountain. Zelda doubted the bokoblins of Eldin were as tame as the ones they had encountered in the wheat field, so feeding them would likely not be productive. 

"I'm scared," she admitted, lips tipping down a bit as she retrieved the last piece of potato in her bowl. "What if…"

"We can't think about 'what if'," Arson said, jaw set as he looked stubbornly at Zelda. "If I had paused to think 'what if', you two could have died. Something's coming, and we have to stop it. That's what Farore said." They didn't have time for doubts. 

"Still. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do," she said, shaking her head and frowning. "What if I can't win?"

"Then we will find a way to get the stone anyway. We have to have them." And that was the end of the story for Arson. 

Unfortunately, his conviction did little to quell Zelda's fears.

"Hey," he said, leaning forward to poke her knee with the handle of his spoon. "It'll be okay. I know it's the right thing, and we've got all the goddesses watching out for us, right?" 

Zelda's smile was weak but still there. "We don't have a choice, do we?"

"No," Odie stated, just as confident as always. "We'll find a way to get the other two stones, and we'll keep whatever bad thing it is from happening. Like you said: there's no other choice."