(( art is © and the story is © me. Legend of Zelda franchise is © Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo ))

He didn’t even wait for the second one to fall as he scrambled from his hiding place and over to the camp. Not that it mattered; it was a strange thing about defeated monsters such as bulblins. Upon their deaths, they always disappeared in black, sickly puffs of smoke. No Gerudo, no humanoid visitor to the desert, in fact no normal creature ever did this upon dying. It always intrigued Haciel, though he doubted he would ever find an answer, as not even his knowledgable grandmother knew.

His first priority was to check his surroundings. Moldorms and other less “intelligent” beasts (not that bulblin were incredibly bright), seemed to always choose the wrong times when to appear. Thankfully, he didn’t detect any nearby, though he still kept his guard up nonetheless.

He then checked on the girl. He had seen blood on her, and could only assume that she had been injured. Sure enough, there were cuts, scrapes, and other wounds over several parts of her body. They were shallow, however, and not immediately life-threatening; he could see her breathing as well, with no sign of ragged or quick breaths that could indicate internal damage, fever, or any other cause for shortness of breath. “She’s not bleeding out, that’s good at least. I will have to clean those wounds to prevent infection, but this isn’t the place to do it. I’ll take her somewhere safe that a Moldorm at least can’t get to.”

Deciding to relax a little, he went about with his last priority: scavenging. Bulblins seldom carried much that was useful to Haciel other than the occasional rupee and bundle of arrows, but it never hurt to see what they were in possession of. Sure enough, the satchels left behind carried a small handful of rupees, though their quivers held plenty of arrows to restock with, more than making up for the two he used on them. “Good, I was beginning to run low; now I can keep hunting for a while longer, or at least keep more monsters at bay.

When he scrounged through the tent, however, he found something far more useful than he had predicted Bulblins would ever carry. While most inside was just refuse, a rolled up scroll he found showed a map. Growing up with only knowledge of the immediate area of his village, he had nothing to guide him other than his grandma’s instructions that Hyrule was to the very south. But now, while he couldn’t read a single word labelled on the map, he was confident that what he held displayed all the land of Hyrule. He hoped the girl would wake soon so she could at least advise him somewhat, if there was hopefully not too much of a language barrier.

“Well, I don’t think there’s anything else I can scavenge from this place. I’ll get the girl and take her to a safe-” A feral snort caught his attention. He had the bow fully drawn and aimed in the direction before he even knew what had made the sound. Tied to a post that Haciel was convinced it could destroy with minimal effort, if it wasn’t dumber than its bulblin riders, was a large riding boar.