Medicine

Three days after my mom was wounded, I already noticed the tell tale signs of an infection. Her stubborn nature, which she passed along to me, was all that kept her going sometimes. Seeing her struggle and suffer broke my heart in so many ways. It was all I thought about during training and guard duty. I needed medicine, or even one of those mystical fairies that supposedly healed all your wounds. Either one was nearly impossible and dangerous to retrieve. I built up the courage, begged Rayne to stay behind and take my shift on guard duty, and once she agreed I snuck out of the valley when the sun set.

The problem with procuring medicine was that the herbs and mixtures were stored in a guarded building that was connected to the mender's home. The mender was an herbalist that visited people who were sick and gave them the right potion to make them better. Gerudo possessed limited knowledge of the healing power of plants, but I knew enough to figure out what I needed. Or I just grabbed and ran with what I could carry.

I reached Hyrule in the dead hour of night, the time when all the night creatures were returning home, but the creatures of the day were not yet awake. This meant the drawbridge was up, but we had our ways in. The building I needed was back an alley on the west end of town. I climbed a tree, crawled across the limb that grew across the moat, and nearly fell as I reached for the protective wall around the village. Thankfully, I did not fall in the moat, and pulled myself over onto the roof of the closest home. Rooftops were easiest to sneak along, and kept me out of view of the wandering Hylian guards. I carefully climbed down to the ground once I reached the mender's home so that I wouldn't alert anyone to my arrival. There were two guards outside, forming a perimeter, and at least one inside. All around the back of the house were gardens growing common plants for mixes. I needed a distraction. I used the oldest trick in the book: I picked up a rock and threw it down the alley. I actually disturbed a dog, so it started barking which caused a ruckus. One of the two guards left to check the noise. If you're still wondering why the place was heavily guarded, yes we've tried taking medicine before, and Hylians are selfish.

With one guard missing, the window on the side of the house was abandoned, so I rushed over and slipped inside. The next thing to figure out was the location of the guard inside. I hid in the shadows and listened intently. I could hear his armor clank as he moved, and determined he roamed the room I needed to enter. I quietly opened the door to the storage room for the medicine, and waited. This drew the guard's attention, so he walked out. I slipped inside while he investigated the other rooms. I hurriedly searched the bottles filled to the brim. Each one was labeled, in Hylian, with the plants used in their mixing. Reading Hylian was still tough for me, and it was pitch black. Fragments of moon light came in the two windows on opposite sides of the room. I took bottles off the shelf, walked over to the window, and then put them back. I repeated this, until I found the one I needed. I grabbed two others just to have on hand for later.

"Who's there?!"

I jumped, bumped into a bottle on a shelf that was level with me, and of course it crashed. The guards from outside barged in through the door. I darted out the window, hopefully before they got a good look at me. The distinctive Gerudo features made escaping without being identified difficult.

"Thief!"

Oh, no! I hope I don't get caught...