The rain was not going to let up soon - this was obvious.

Running through the rain, or even walking, for extended periods were not fun - nor were they good for one's health. Well, maybe for Zora it would be fine. But for two Hylians, it was a sure way to get sick.

Zelda, ever patient, was resting against a rock face, one set just beside the roots of a large tree. Where she was, she was partially protected from the rain. If he knew how to, he'd have made a surer shelter for her, but he didn't, so he couldn't. But Link was growing restless, so he took to training.

It was what he always turned to when he had spare time or energy. This probably wasn't the right moment. They had things to do, other things to think about. But this, at least, helped him to clear his head, helped him to focus when he needed to.

He went through his drills without needing to think, so it freed up his mind for other things. Those other things, of course, being in the surrounding environment. Swinging the Master Sword was something as easy as breathing to him. It was fighting, killing monsters, and taking lives that was exhausting.

Though he did drills, his focus was on what was happening around him. He was ever vigilant for threats and for his charge - the princess - who so loved to disappear on him.

"I doubt this will let up anytime soon," the princess noted. There was a pause - he did not respond, for there was no need to. He only continued his drills, maneuvering through the movements with ease, though not without effort. "Your path seems to mirror your father's. You've dedicated yourself to becoming a knight, as well."

Yes, this was true. His father was chivalrous, honorable, and strong. He grew up with those ideals instilled in him - or perhaps it was with him since birth? He couldn't know for sure. Still, it was true that he was very much like his father in almost all regards.

His father was a model soldier, and an incredible knight.

Anything different about Link - anything that would naturally have been born of him - was pushed down and away, so that he might be exactly as his father was.

So, he was silent.

So, he was chivalrous, honorable, and strong.

"Your commitment to the training necessary to fulfill your goal is really quite admirable," Zelda continued, and then paused, as though wanting him to respond. But how could he do that? He needed to focus, and what was there to say?

He was committed to fulfilling his goal, and when it came to his training, he was told always to bow in respect to the princess, to serve the royal family dutifully. He knew not how to speak to her, other than that he should not. As a regular knight, he would never have addressed the princess - or even the king - other than to thank them. Vocally, there was no other protocol.

Still, he was more than a bit curious because why would he be the center of her attention? What had he done to warrant being spoken to in such high regard? He was only meant to serve her, to protect her and aid her however possible.

He lowered the Master Sword before him, then glanced sidelong towards her.

"I see now," she said slowly, "why you would be the chosen one." She smiled briefly, though it was melancholic, and it faded away as her brows furrowed together and she turned away, conflicted. "What if... One day..."

She was hesitant, and now, he lowered the blade and turned to face her.

"...One day, you realized you weren't meant to be a fighter. Yet the only thing people ever said was that you were born into a family of the royal guard, and so matter what you thought, you had to become a knight."

Ah.

He knew what she was doing.

"If that was the only thing that you were ever told, I wonder, then... would you have chosen a different path?"

He didn't know. He couldn't know.

So long as he had these circumstances, in every life he'd do the same.

...Right?

Fighting was what he was good at. He knew that from a young age. He had the instincts required of it, certainly, and a natural inclination for their noble cause. All of that, and he had a heart true enough for the Master Sword to choose him, to allow him to wield it. What accounted for his heart, then? Surely not his blood, no?

There was no way to know for sure.

He wanted to comfort her, but... he didn't know how.

Not when he didn't know the answer, himself.

—

"Link," I called gently when recognition returned to his eyes and his consciousness seemed to resettle onto his body as though it had been a physical weight to bear. He blinked once and then again, and gradually the fogginess lifted away from his eyes and his features softened. One more slow blink and then he was turning his head to look down at me, and he smiled in a way that seemed rather instinctual for as easy as it reached his lips.

We'd scrambled up this hill to gain a better bearing of where we were, and what our surroundings were. It was shaping up to be a perfectly clear night, so visibility was good - and it'd be a shame to sleep through it. It was a beautiful night, really.

When we scrambled up the hill, we'd anticipated only on figuring a path from here, maybe finding a pretty spot to eat. What we hadn't anticipated was to stumble right into another... memory of his.

Goodness, that was still so strange to say. And yet, it was the truth. We'd come up here and as I gasped out at the sight of it all, the splendor and beauty of Hyrule in the evening air, Link had stilled completely, losing himself wholly in his mind.

And now, several (awkward) minutes later, he had returned. He returned to his senses gently, and he greeted me with that smile of his, and I set my hand on his arm gently, as though the slight movement and simple touch might alarm him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm ok," he responded, and I nodded, accepting it for now.

No, actually. I wouldn't accept that answer, not when it was so obvious there was something keeping him from actually being alright. "Was it a good memory?"

"Good? Maybe, if only 'cause I got to remember it," he considered. "But no, not really."

"What was it?" Then, realizing that might be considered prying, I backpedaled. "Don't tell me if you don't want to, of course. I don't mean to invade your privacy, I just-"

"You're curious," he cut in, and I nodded slowly. "And I can see that you're worried about me too!"

At that, he beamed so brilliantly it had my shying away embarrassedly, and I crossed my arms over my chest - though I had no idea what I thought it would accomplish, other than just looking like I was throwing a tantrum, especially as he put his hands on his hips with an ease of movement that came with knowing that you were right.

And he was right. He knew he was.

"No need to say it if you know it's true," I muttered. "You should know better than to tease someone like that. Or did they not teach you that in knight school?"

"Oh, ha, ha," he said dryly. "Knight school, huh?

"Well, whatever," I responded. "What do I look like, a scholar? I don't know what it was called."

"You seem to study up on plenty of stories of Hyrule's past," he reminded me, turning on his heel and finally looking out at what we'd come up here for.

I stood at his side as he looked out at the horizon and just as I let my own hands fall to my sides, he crossed his own over his chest and his eyes clouded over with recollection - recollection of the memory he'd just regained, no doubt.

"We were getting out of the rain," he told me. "We found a nice little spot tucked away by this hill, where the princess could rest beneath the branches of a tree."

"Were you with all the Champions? Or was it just you and Princess Zelda?"

"Just us," he told me. "I don't mind the rain, never did, so I was doing drills out in it while she watched. Or maybe she was just watching the rain come down, I don't know." At that, he cursed, glancing away briefly. "I just recovered that memory and somehow, somehow it's still so fuzzy..."

"You wouldn't remember details you weren't focusing on at the time," I reminded him. "So many of life's details are lost that way. If you don't focus on it, it becomes background noise and no matter how hard you try, if you hadn't paid attention at the time, it's lost."

"That sucks," he hissed. "Dammit, this sucks."

"I can't imagine," I sympathized. "To not just forget what happened leading to the Calamity, but to forget what made you who you are... I'm so sorry this is happening to you, Link."

"It's not your fault," he told me, looking at me, now, all that stunning moonlight filtering through his cerulean eyes prettily, seeming to illuminate them from within, somehow. "And there you go, being worried for me again."

"Oh, shut up," I said, rolling my eyes and prying my gaze from his own. As my own focus returned to the environment, so did his own, though for a moment his eyes did linger and a mischievous sort of smile remained on his lips. "Doing drills in the rain, though... Seems like a much easier memory to regain than the last one, no?"

"True," Link said, considering my words. "Seeing myself die was hard."

The ease with which he admitted he'd died once before shocked me, even now, and I shook my head. "No, really?"

"Really," he said, chuckling a little just as I did. "If you can bring yourself to believe it, anyway. But at any rate, she was saying something about not wanting to do what's expected of you. Going against what people want from you, what they think you were meant to do..."

"So for her, ruling Hyrule?"

"And making use of her dormant powers," he added. "It was that power exactly that we were traveling around trying to get out of her, but the first time it worked was when I fell in battle. As I lost consciousness, I remember seeing this golden light and she warded off all the monsters that were nearby. It bought her just enough time to get someone to bring me to safety."

"Incredible," I breathed out. "You were the catalyst, then."

"I guess so."

"She must have cared for you a great deal, Link."

"I... I guess so," he said once more.

"I can't imagine being under that kind of pressure to perform, and being part of the royal family, too... I guess lots of people go through similar struggles in their own lives, though."

"Like you."

"Huh?"

"You," Link repeated, looking at me directly once more, and I met his eyes readily. "You defied your family and all expectations of you. You did what you wanted, not what others wanted."

"I suppose..."

"Zelda's still fighting Ganon now, holding him off," Link told me. "Buying others the chance to live, to get to live as they like - something she never got to do."

"You'll free her," I said, ignoring the sudden ball of lead in my stomach. "And I'll do everything I can to help you do that."

Link smiled warmly at me. "Thank you, (Y/n). Now, come on. I smell treasure nearby!"

I couldn't help but roll my eyes again as he took my arm and led me along, back down the hill and back towards the horses. He didn't make it easy to be upset for long - even if I had no idea why I was suddenly so upset in the first place.

—

We made good progress that evening. Onward into the twilight we went, and as the moon rose higher and higher in the sky, we continued to ride. As the earth cooled beneath the thundering hooves of our charges, and the shadows lengthened, we pressed onward.

Down a lonely dirt road we traveled in the general direction of Central Hyrule. With each step taken, I found my trepidation rising, because was this really as good an idea as Link had thought? I wasn't  sure what was waiting for us there, and as we drew nearer and nearer to it, I wasn't sure if I wanted to see.

Link's growing anxiety was answer enough for me, honestly. I knew there would be Guardians, or whatever-else-have-you of Ganon's goons, but surely it wasn't as bad as I was thinking, right? Well, that's what I had thought, but with Link acting as he was now, and that was more guarded, more defensive, and a bit more... on edge, I realized that I was wrong.

I just wouldn't realize how wrong I was until we got there - and I was dreading doing that.

It was hard to keep my mind off of it, especially considering we were only heading for Central Hyrule because of what I had said. If I had said nothing, we'd have skirted around it entirely on our way to the land of the Rito. But now, we were heading right for it.

Great.

If nothing else, if I got nothing else from this, I could only hope that we would be alright. Guardians were no joke, right? That was becoming increasingly clear. So now it was becoming almost too much to ask, it seemed, for us to get out with our lives and honestly, I-

"(Y/n)," Link called, and I snapped back into focus.

"Hm?"

"Ease up here," he instructed, and I did as told. When I pulled back on her reins, Sky did so willingly, though I did hear Epona snort distastefully. But when my horse's ears suddenly perked up, every hair on the back of my neck stood on end, because something was wrong.

And if Link hadn't been here - if I had been traveling alone and so foolishly got lost in my thoughts - I'd have run right into the danger headfirst and unknowingly.

Dear Hylia, I'm an idiot.

Deciding to chastise myself further later, I looked ahead, towards the danger. Just ahead of us stood the brilliant rush of the Hylia River, and the road we'd been traveling on led us right to it, and specifically, to the Proxim Bridge. As soon as we'd cross this river, we'd find ourselves in Hyrule Field, its most vast and most storied.

It was the site of countless battles, of plenty of bloodshed, but countless rituals and ceremonies, too. Hyrule Field was a wonderful dedication from the goddesses themselves, a wonderful present that at once time in our history, Hylians had used frequently, making the most of that most precious gift.

Just across this bridge, near-endless ruins awaited us. Untouched and undisturbed, they stood as they did a century ago - lifeless and devoid of all that had granted them life once before. We'd be standing as the only living forms - perhaps the first to set foot there in a century. Hylia, even animals steered clear of the area, as though knowing of the dangers that waited for them there. Guardians, so I heard, did not hunt anything that was not of the sentient races - so only the Hylians, Rito, Gerudo, Zora, and Goron were targeted.

Namely, perhaps... only those races that had tried banding together to halt the Calamity a century ago were still targeted, as punishment for the actions of their ancestors.

But standing between us and the bridge stood a band of monsters. They'd appeared to have made camp just beside the bridge and like trolls, they were now guarding it. In the dark, their red skin was easy to spot, but we were able to slip away into the shadows easily. We dismounted, left the horses nearby, then approached through the tall grass that grew several feet from the road on either side.

The monsters had made a small fire, and were making what smelled like some sort of awful concoction of rotted meat for a stew.

"Disgusting," Link muttered.

"I know," I agreed. "Blocking the bridge like this... travelers to Central Hyrule are few, but for many, their source of income comes from what they collect here, or what goods they can cart across..."

"Oh," Link said, almost shyly. "Yeah, exactly. That's what I meant."

Cluing into what he really meant, I nearly laughed aloud if not for the risk of the monsters overhearing. Instead, I shook my head incredulously and sent a cheeky smile his way. "Hungry, are you?"

"Maybe a little," he admitted.

"As soon as these guys are taken care of," I said to him, facing our targets once more, "we'll eat. Ok?"

"Ooh, I like this," he said, hunkering down next to me and nudging my shoulder with his own. "Taking over their camp and all... how devious, (Y/n)."

"It's hardly devious," I argued. "But, whatever. What's your plan?"

"Well," he replied, thinking it over. "Um... I don't have one."

I nearly snorted. "Great."

"You have one, then?"

"Not really," I said. "It would be easiest to do what we always do, wouldn't it?"

"For muscle memory's sake, sure," he said, thoughtfully considering that I was still in training. "But," he continued, "there's more to fighting than just blindly running in."

"Right," I said, thinking it over for myself. "Strategy, and such."

"Mm-hm," he confirmed. "So, ideas?"

I looked around, then noticed the crests of the Hills of Baumer still looming above us. A long range of hills stretched far back along this road, shaping it and seemingly playing with the land's geography. And here, they abruptly ended to make way for the Hylia River - there was a stark contrast with the rest of the hills' appearance. While the hills we'd already passed were lush with grass and trees and teeming with life, the hill facing the river featured a stark drop and muddy trails ground into the dirt, indicative of past landfalls, perhaps, lingering evidence of lots of rainfall pushing the trees and logs down the hill and to the water below.

As it was, the monsters were standing in perfect position for something to roll right over them. Though as for what that something could be, I was drawing a blank. Would it be wise to chop down a tree? Maybe find some boulders? But no, those would be too loud and too slow.

But maybe...

Maybe we could shield surf down? Did Link know how to do that? I did, at any rate, and with the way he was able to do practically everything, it probably wouldn't be too much trouble to ask him to try, at least.

No, there has to be a surer way...

"The hill," I said aloud, gesturing towards it with a movement of my head. Link glanced that way, then nodded and returned his attention to the monsters.

"Paying attention to your surroundings," Link said. "Good work. The environment can provide lots of ways to aid you during a fight, or at least to hinder your enemies. What are you thinking?"

"We could roll something down," I suggested. "Crush them, somehow. I just don't know what we'd use. If there's not a log or boulders up there, I guess we could chop a tree down, but I think it'd be too noisy. I'd rather not cut down a tree if I don't have to, anyway."

"I agree," he said. "And great thinking, really. Now it's my time to help out, and reveal one of the little tricks I have up my sleeve that I haven't shown you yet."

"Does it involve you making a fool of yourself somehow?"

"Hopefully not," he said, turning around and heading towards the hill. I followed closely, and when we were situated at the top, settled into crouches and plotting, seeming in that moment less like a hero and his partner and more like a pair of gargoyles about to alight and take something down, he took his slate out.

When its screen lit up, he peered down at it, having to blink a couple of times to get used to how bright it was. I leaned close, letting my eyes get used to it gradually before leaning even closer.

"I've got more in this little bag of tricks than you might have realized," he said, and I could just hear the smile in his voice. Goodness, excitement bubbled up in my own stomach and I waited eagerly to see what he would do. With the slate in one hand, he navigated through it, and soon, he held out the other hand palm-up.

Thinking it's what he wanted, I reached into my pack and retrieved a pouch. I opened it and dropped a few dried berries into his palm, and he laughed. "Not quite what I was going for," he said, shooting me a smile before lifting his hand to his mouth to drop all the berries in.

"Oh," I said embarrassedly. "Well, whenever you hold your hand like that, you-"

As he chewed, he pressed a button on the slate, and into his now (re)emptied palm, tendrils of blue light began to materialize. They seemed to stem from thin air and began to circle his palm, growing thicker and more plentiful before branching upwards. Gradually, they began to make a strange, corporeal sphere, and as the tendrils of light intensified in light and brightness, I had the urge to look away, but I was far too curious to do so for even a single moment.

So, blinking through my now watery eyes, I watched as the tendrils grew closer, closer, and closer, a pure orb of light in his palm before it all dissipated and left in his hand was...

"Ta-da," Link said proudly. "It's a bomb!"

I scrambled back without even thinking, looking for a fuse even as I looked for cover. Only... Link didn't look concerned. He only watched my movements with a thinly-veiled sense of amusement.

And tucked away in his gaze was some concern, too.

So at least that was nice to see.

"It's alright, (Y/n)," he said gently. "There's no danger."

I looked at him blankly. "You're holding a bomb."

He lifted the slate in his other hand, bringing my attention back to the slate. "It's controlled remotely. There's no fuse - at least, not an external one. But as soon as I commanded it to, the bomb would explode. This one, I think, should do nicely for what we want. Don't you?"

"Incredible," I said, coming back to his side. I stuck close to his side, closer than before, as though the bomb still would explode randomly, or that he'd set it off in his hand - and if even if they happened, I clung to him as though it would help me somehow avoid the explosion. "Can I...?"

"It's perfectly safe," he said, holding the bomb towards me. I took it in hand, surprised by its relative weightlessness. It wasn't nearly as heavy as I'd been anticipating and yet, I knew somehow deep down that if we needed it to be heavier, it would be. "Once, I rolled one of these right into a monster's camp, and they kicked it around for a while before I detonated it."

That got a laugh out of me, and I marveled at the fact that technology that went into doing this. "Just... it's just incredible," I said, in complete and utter awe. "How did that even...?"

"I don't know," he admitted, laughing a little, himself. "I have absolutely no idea. But I think we can find a way to make this fun." He stood, the bomb in his hand, and reached his free one towards me. "How about a little competition?"

Knowing already what it would be, I nodded and took his hand. He helped me up, and when we were standing beside each other, he squared his shoulders towards the camp below. "Most monsters hit with a single throw wins. How about that?"

"Perfectly fair," I told him. "Winner gets to clean up after breakfast in the morning?"

"Aw, what? No!"

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want to do that!"

"Well, that's why you should aim to win, then!"

"Yeah, but-"

"What's not fair is that I always do it," I argued, only for him to stick his tongue out at me. I gasped dramatically, punching his upper arm lightly.

"What? I get distracted!"

"It's not my fault you always get 'distracted' somehow! And by what, butterflies? But I cook, and have to clean up, too!"

"Yeah, but I... Uh oh."

"Hm? What, uh oh?" Then I saw it. "Uh oh."

The monsters had heard us. Uh oh, indeed.

Well, if we only had one chance to roll before the monsters reached us, I wanted to be the one to do it, so I reached for it, but he was already partway through doing it himself. "Link, wait! I want to go first, I want-"

We fought over it, until at last he let go, and I rolled the bomb, knocking down the line of them that'd started up the hills towards us, brandishing clubs and sticks. I knocked them all over, and I didn't even get to celebrate before Link blew the bomb up, resulting in a huge explosion. And that, I knew ,was the signal that the fight was to begin in earnest.

The monsters cried out in pain and confusion, and as Link dashed down, sword in hand to start taking care of the monsters that hadn't died in the explosion here on the hill, I retrieved my bow from my back. I used the disorientation to cover Link as he went in, and when monsters tried approaching him from behind, I shot them down. My arrow arm wore a line through the air of the same repeated movements of reaching for an arrow at the quiver at my hip, then to nock and drew the arrow back. Again and again, in that pattern, until all the monsters that had come after us were dead, leaving only those that were a bit slower to rise from their slumbers. Deciding to join the fight in earnest, I put my bow away. It had done what I needed it to.

Wanting to work on it, I drew my spear, and Link, looking up towards me, gestured that he was going to toss something. Pausing for a moment, I watched as he took a makeshift shield made of the bark of a tree and used once by a Bokoblin and as though it was weightless, he tossed it to me.

I caught it in my free hand, and as he leapt into the air, using the continual updraft from the small fires the bomb had lit and rising up by paraglider, I too leapt from the crest of the hill. I set the shield below my feet, using the slope to my advantage to build up speed and momentum.

As I passed beneath him, I watched him in one fluid movement put his paraglider away and draw his bow. A single bomb arrow was fired off, and it blew up on impact as it met its mark on Link's target: a barrel full of... oh, great. Because it was right in my direction, I had very little choice but to pass right through the sudden cloud of dust and smoke and horrid fish stench.

Oh, yes.

The barrel had been full of fish the monsters had worked so hard to catch.

And now I reeked of fish.

Hooray.

Anyway, there was a fight to win. So, I leapt off my shield in the middle of the camp and got right to work. I leapt off the shield and caught it in my free hand, the spear brandished proudly in the other. After I killed the Bokoblin nearest to me, I turned - and Link landed atop the monster I just felled, his sword in hand and killing another that had run towards us. And together, back to back, we fought beneath that beautifully clear sky, in that pale, ghostly blue moonlight.

—

Together, eventually we prevailed.

Together, we purged the area of monsters - even the damned skeletal beasts that crawled up from beneath the dirt.

But as we settled in for a late meal at that very same camp, for even still we did not want to sleep for the love of the road and the love of our company, we realized right away that it was a bad idea.

Link caught onto it first, when his pointed ears tipped upwards just slightly. Concerned by that sudden change, I looked up at him as he looked up towards the sky. And somehow, somehow, he was able to hear the rush of wind that caused clouds to roll in quickly, twisting around each other like serpents in the sky. The wind now carried with it a sickening smell, one coppery and sick.

It smelled of blood. Fresh blood.

The moon, as though covered by a filter, took on a rosier hue, and then one of divine scarlet, scarlet as the sun was gold. This was not the fiery red of sunset, the red that calmed into pinks and lavenders, but the fiery red of magma, the red that could be mistaken for nothing other than blood, fresh from the source.

This was a Blood Moon.

I knew of them - I had heard of them. I had seen them, before. I knew what they did, but had never seen it for myself.

Now would be my chance, because we were still sitting in a camp that had been swarming with monsters only an hour ago.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

"Get ready," Link said, already setting his food aside and standing. "We can't avoid it."

Silently, I rose up too. Silently, I drew my sword. Silently, I stood at Link's side and together we watched as corpses were reanimated and dismangled forms reformed, crafted by black smoke and cinders.

He was right - we couldn't avoid it.

We could only fight on.

—

Chests heaving, sweat dripping, limbs shaky and aching from overuse, we were exhausted - but the fight was over. We had won. It was harder fought this time, with some of those red Bokoblins being lifted into something more, with skin dark blue and weapons more finely crafted. Having nowhere to run, we had to make room. There was no stealth, no catching them off-guard or asleep. We were swarmed, and we fought as hard as possible to make it out with our lives.

And we had.

All the monsters were dead, and we were alright. I was the first to give into my exhaustion, dropping down onto a stump. "Hylia," I breathed out. "Goddesses. That was just..."

"The worst," Link provided. "Yeah, I agree."

He crouched down nearby, his bangs slicked back and his breathing shaky but he seemed alright, physically. Still, I had to ask. "Are you hurt?"

"No," he answered, shaking his head and meeting my gaze surely. In that way, I could tell he was being truthful. But now, of course, I knew the focus was on me. "But you? I saw your shield get pushed into your shoulder. It might bruise."

"I checked already," I told him. "It hasn't bruised yet, but I'll know for sure in the morning. It doesn't hurt too bad now, though."

"Just take it easy, then," he advised simply, solemnly

"You're not hurt," I said, "but you don't seem alright. What's wrong, Link?"

"All our progress," he heaved out, "has just been undone. Every monster we've killed... back now, some of them stronger. Dammit! What is the point if... if this happens?!"

"The point is to try to clear the roads for travelers," I said. "For some time, at least, the roads behind us were safe."

I sat up straighter, offering him a smile that for a moment, he just looked at, as though unable to believe I'd be able to, given what just happened. But I had to remain hopeful - I had to. With such a terrible burden on his shoulders, I had to do all I could to help ease it from his shoulders.

"We just have to keep working hard," I told him surely. "Because people still want to travel across Hyrule, and seeing that some of the monsters can be killed... It shows them that there's hope, just as you showed me that there was hope when you saved me on the beach. So we have to hold onto hope, too. Besides, once Ganon is gone, and that awful curse is lifted, we'll have to go around again anyway to clear them all out for good. Right?"

He chuckled lowly, looking up at me as though he couldn't quite believe me. "Yeah," he agreed. "You're right." He stood, then let out a low whistle. When we heard the horses' responding whinnies, he let out a breath. "So, how about we make some more progress? I'm still not that tired, you know."

"I'm starting to think you're really going to regret this once the sun comes up," I said, accepting it when he held his hand towards me.

"Maybe," he said, shrugging and releasing my hand once I was standing beside him. "But you'll dote on me anyway, right?"

I couldn't stop myself from laughing if I tried. "Whatever you say, hero."