Zelda hummed to herself as she turned the Shiekah slate over in her hands. It had become a habit of hers to inspect it during the down times in her travels. She glanced up at the hillside as the cool breeze ruffled the green grass of Hyrule Field. She smiled as she thought of how much the sight reminded her of the ocean near Zora's domain. It had been quite a while since she was last there, and she recalled how beautiful the city was, and how friendly its people were. She glanced to her left to her companion who had stayed behind with her as the others had gone off to gather some supplies. Mipha had a distant look on her face as she seemed to also be watching the field ripple in the wind. Zelda smiled and assumed the same thoughts about Mipha's home were passing through the Zora princess' mind as well.
Breaking the silence, Zelda said, "It reminds me of the ocean near your home."
Mipha turned to her and smiled, "That's just what I was thinking, your majesty."
She considered Mipha her friend, though sometimes the young Zora seemed distant. Zelda had been surrounded for years by either men ordered to protect her by her father, or Urbosa, who often annoyingly treated Zelda like a little girl. It was nice to have someone her age who was in a similar situation to herself to sometimes chat with. She just wished she and the Zora Princess were a little closer. Mipha always seemed nervous around her, and thus they never really got beyond superficial conversation. And given how busy they had been traveling for the better part of two months, the female bonding she had always wanted never happened. Zelda wondered if that moment was a good time to change that.
"Mipha, would you mind telling me a little bit about your home?" Zelda asked.
Mipha craned her head a bit and looked briefly surprised at the new topic of interest from the Hylian Princess. "What would you like to know?"
Zelda put the Shiekah slate down and crossed her legs, "Oh I don't know, what was your childhood like? Was your father as protective of you as mine is of me?"
Mipha chuckled and replied, "Protective might be putting it lightly. When I was younger, my father didn't let me out of his sight for six whole months at one point. It was only because I snuck away one day that I got any reprieve, and then he sent a whole Zoran regiment out to find me." Zelda nodded and could identify all too well. Mipha continued, "I can't be too hard on him though. Mother had just passed away at that point, and Sidon and I were all he had left."
Mipha's tone had taken a somber turn. Zelda looked up into the sky and said, "My father was the same way after my mother died. The thing is, he's still smothering me with protection. He assigned me my own 'personal royal knight escort,' and sent the entire contingent of champions with me on this trip."
Mipha was quiet for a moment and Zelda looked over to her. It seemed as if Mipha was trying to say something to her but was holding herself back. Zelda, hoping to continue their talk, encouraged her to continue, "What is it, Mipha? You know you can talk to me whenever you want. I feel like we have so much in common and want to be better acquainted with my only real girlfriend."
Mipha smiled, "Well, I just have never been sure how to bring this up. Um, I didn't sneak away when I was younger by myself."
Zelda smiled knowingly and said teasingly, "Oh! Did you sneak out with someone? Was it a boy?"
The Hylian Princess got the reaction she wanted as the Zoran Princess' face turned almost as red as the rest of her body, "A-as a matter of fact it was. You see, your father, in an effort to deepen the relationship between Zora's Domain and Hyrule, began sending a contingent of Hylian ambassadors to the Domain to hold talks about trade and military cooperation. Along with the ambassadors they sent some of the best Hylian knights. One of those knights brought his son with him…"
"Ah yes," Zelda said, "I do recall that period vaguely. Father has told me how much the relations between us improved during those talks." Zelda's face then formed into a sly grin. "So you snuck away with a young Hylian boy, huh? How scandalous."
Mipha nodded, "Y-yes, you see, the knight that brought his son was the head of your father's royal guard. The boy was…"
"LINK!?" Zelda yelped as she suddenly realized.
"What about, Link," a third voice unexpectedly intruded on the two young women's conversation and startled them both.
"Oh, Revali," Zelda breathed, "you're back."
"I sure am, and with all of this firewood I collected, it seems to me that I should come upon a conversation about how incredible I am, not that undeserving 'knight' of yours," Revali sneered and literally performed air quotes when sarcastically referring to Link as a knight.
The bird began to stack up the firewood as if nothing had happened as Zelda turned back to Mipha who was glaring angrily at the pompous Rito warrior. Suddenly Mipha's standoffish attitude toward Revali the last few months made a little more sense. The Zoran princess stood up and began to quickly stomp off toward the nearby tree line.
"Revali," Zelda said as she stood up to follow, "maybe for the sake of group morale you should take it a little easier on Link?"
Revali huffed and said something she didn't quite understand leaving her to simply sigh and being jogging toward where Mipha had stomped off to. She found her friend a few dozen yards away storming back and forth and cursing quietly to herself in anger.
"Mipha," Zelda said gently as she approached her, "are you okay? You know how Revali is…"
"That dumb bird brain knows nothing about Link," Mipha yelled and pointed in Revali's direction, her typically soft tone gone and replaced with an anger that was new to Zelda as she realized she had never seen this strong of an emotional outburst from the Zoran Princess. "I watched Link slay a rampaging Lynel single handedly. He's saved my life on more than one occasion. The most Revali has done is learn to fly, and that makes sense since he has wings!"
Zelda was a bit taken aback wasn't exactly sure how to approach the venting Zora at that point, but she could tell that the stress of their mission was even beginning to get to the ever calm and composed Mipha. After a moment of silence, she took the chance to change the subject away from Revali's rude behavior. "So, you've known Link for a while then?"
Mipha, having calmed down significantly, nodded, "He visited quite often back then. And when the Hylian ambassadors stayed for an extended period, so too did he and his father. We practically grew up together. Over the years he's continued visiting us on and off."
"I never knew. He never mentioned it before," Zelda said as the two of them began to walk back to the campsite.
"He's so quiet and distant now," Mipha said, "I'm almost worried I've done something to upset him."
Zelda shook her head, "No, I don't think that's true. He barely talked to me before you guys joined up with us either. I think he's just taken the weight of his duties very seriously. He has a lot on his mind."
Mipha looked at the ground, "We used to talk to each other about things like that."
All of a sudden, a violent gale of wind whipped up around the two princesses. Dust and grass obstructed their view, and Zelda had to shield her eyes to prevent the particles from getting in them. A strong pulse threw the two of them back. Zelda landed on her rear while Mipha skillfully adjusted and was able to maintain her balance. The two gawked as a hole seemed to open in the air in front of them. The gale of wind grew stronger as the hole grew bigger until a body finally flew out of the hole and landed several yards away from the astonished girls, skidding to a stop. Almost as immediately as the body stopped moving, a blood curdling scream erupted from it, and it was then that the girls noticed the blood poring from where an arm used to be on what they could now tell was the body of a young man.
"Oh, my goddess!" Mipha breathed as she immediately sprung into action, bolting toward the body at what Zelda thought was extremely impressive speed given her relatively short legs. Zelda picked herself off the ground and followed quickly behind.
It seemed like slow motion to Zelda as she watched Mipha reach the injured young man and turned him over. And then Zelda stopped as she saw Mipha's face contort into one of what she could only describe as confused hysteria. Mipha began to scream hysterically and her hands immediately grew the brightest blue Zelda had ever seen them glow as she held them against the injured upper torso of the young man.
"No no no no no no no!" Mipha was weeping and shaking and trying to heal the young man. Her hands flickered as she shook while she sobbed.
Time seemed to resume normally as Zelda finally reached Mipha to try to calm her down when she too saw the face of the severely injured person. "Oh goddess, Link! No!"
His face was battered and bruised, as was the rest of his body. And the most obvious injury was the still bleeding chunk taken out of his upper torso. As best as Zelda could tell, most of his shoulder and part of his ribcage had been completely incinerated. She could see inside his chest cavity, and his face was turning a sickeningly pale gray. He was bleeding out quickly.
Tears began to stream down Zelda's face as Mipha continued to try to heal the mortal wound. She couldn't think. She felt numb and her hearing was muffled except for the sound of the blood pumping through her own head. Mipha was barely keeping it together, and it didn't seem her healing powers were making any progress on the massive wound of her longtime friend.
"Oh, goddess why!? Link why!? W-what happened!?" Mipha wailed.
"M-Mipha?" Link suddenly weakly sputtered.
"Y-yes," she choked out through her sobs, "hold still while I heal this."
Zelda saw Link groggily look down to his wound and saw a look of sorrow on his face, but she also saw a look of acceptance. Link gently took one of Mipha's hands.
"S-stop," she said and tried to pull back unsuccessfully, "I-I need both hands for this."
"You know it's not going to work, Mipha," Link said calmly, causing Mipha's sobs to grow louder. Link coughed up blood onto the grass, "look, I have to tell you something. I-it worked. Whatever Zelda did worked. G-Ganon…he knows our plan. He knows about the divine beasts. You can't use them…monsters…inside."
"Link," Mipha moaned through her continued sobs, "please let me heal you!"
Link then looked up into Mipha's eyes and attempted to lift his hand to her face, "Mipha, you…." And then his arm fell, and his body went limp. His eyes went vacant. Zelda went woozy as she realized her knight was dead. The only sound she could hear were the hysterical wails of her friend and her own uncontrollable sobs as she embraced Mipha and held her tight.
