"Can you? If we get you to him, is that it, will you win?"

"Maybe. But risky, very risky. Thing is, I need to claim the Master Sword. Created by Goddess Hylia a long long time ago, magically designed specifically to defeat Ganon. But it will kill me if I'm not strong enough first, so I have to find shrines, complete their challenges, and gather spirit orbs. Hylia has been using up the spirit orbs to make me stronger. I know it sounds crazy, but it's what I've been doing for the last... While. Also, the Divine Beasts, how do I even start to explain those...?"

"Why will the sword kill you? And what are any of those other things?"

"It's part of the magic, I think? That only a mighty hero shall wield this blade? I know the Deku Tree told me so, and I don't think he's lying. Uh. Shrines are those." She points. "The ancients made them and a few of them are still sleeping in them even though they're dead? And they make me do these elaborate tests before they'll give me the orb thingies. The divine beasts are... Giant mechanical weapons? That were meant to fight Ganon, but Ganon turned them into monsters instead. Sort of."

"I probably can't help with the divine beasts, then. Does it even make sense for me to try to help with Ganon now? If I end up needing your help to get close to him, maybe you should be as ready as you're going to be in case I can't do it and we can't get away."

"You know, I'm used to sort of doing whatever seems right at the time and it's never been that much of a problem before, but you have a good point. I don't think Ganon actually knows about you right now, thank Hylia. Well, either that or he doesn't think you're a threat. Anyway, it'll probably be a while until I feel prepared for the final battle... I'm not afraid - well, I am but that won't stop me - It's only that I probably have one chance. If something goes wrong..."

"If something goes wrong, do things get worse than they have been since he first showed up?"

"Almost definitely. I think he'd kill me, kill the princess, finish exterminating everything in Hyrule and then continue on to the rest of the world."

"Why hasn't he done that yet?"

"I don't really understand it, but the royal family has divine ancestry. Princess Zelda did... Something. She and Ganon are stuck in the castle together, stopped, but she can't keep it forever."

"So there's a deadline."

"Yeah, it's worrying. But I didn't get the impression it was a deadline of like a few months? I pray to Hylia sometimes, and ask her to warn me if time is getting short. She hasn't warned me yet."

"Then maybe you should finish preparing and I should spend that time learning how to survive dealing with monsters I can't kill, and then you find me when you're ready?"

"That'll work. Though, where you gonna go? Hyrule is a big place, could be tricky to find you again if I don't know where you're hanging out."

"I don't know. Where should I go? I don't know Hyrule well at all."

"That sort of depends on what you want to do and see? There's a lot of Hyrule out there... Most of it can be kind of dangerous. The monsters. Sometimes bandits too."

"First priority is to be able to get through central Hyrule. Which probably means learning a lot of new skills, but I don't know what skills or whether it matters where I am, or if instead I should be focused on stockpiling elixirs or something. And secondly I should pay Kass back for saving my life at some point."

"Kass! He's cool! The mysterious wandering bard - it's kind of a romantic notion, isn't it? I bet he sees lots of interesting things."

"I bet! So if you don't have any better ideas maybe we should set a date to meet back here?"

"I can check all the major towns in a day because they all have shrines. The Sheilah Slate lets me teleport to shrines. So we could also set a date for you to be by the shrine in one of the major towns, it'd let you explore more."

"Sounds good. I don't know enough to pick a date, how long do you think it should be?"

"The day of a new moon is easy to remember. Maybe two or three moons from now? I guess you don't want to travel with me. Fair enough, I get into trouble a lot."

"Would it be better if I did? I was assuming I'd slow you down a lot, at least at first, but I wouldn't mind."

"You might slow me down some but I also think your death magic will be, like, really extremely useful against monsters. We can go through places faster, probably. I don't have death magic, you don't know the lay of the land, it just seems like a good combo for us to travel together. Also, teaching you how to do stuff makes sure you don't die and also like me a bit better, yeah? If it turns out we can't stand each other we just separate next time you're somewhere safe, no big deal."

"That sounds good, yeah. Where are we going next?"