Disclaimer: I don't own Zelda, but my ideas are mine


Triangle 9 - I Just Want a Working Vacation.

The sky was blue, the birds chirped happily, and even a wannabe' kokkiri like me can tell that the green grass of the plains sang joyfully with life. If I'm really going to call this a working vacation then I should have my fishing rod out right now.

Yet I had to deal with this bunny-dropping stupid...

I turn to the messenger. "What do they want now? We're not even to the forest yet"

"Her Great Majesty, Princess Lillian, would seek attendance with you Sir Kokkiri"

I lived my life blissfully without real contact with fops up until two weeks ago, and now… now it seemed they just kept popping up. And how in all of Faroe's green earth did this messenger keep his frills clean while trekking through the mud and dust of Hyrule Field?

"She would see you immediately Sir" messenger man insisted

Of course I just reject him and of course he plays dumb.

"...Excuse me, sir?"

I shake my head and annunciate my denial very slowly– so that he won't be able to play the 'ignorant' card with me again.

"I don't... do – do you quite understand? Her Royal Highness... that is to say the Grand Jewel of Termina Herself... the Benevolent Lady of White... Her Esteemed Crystal Flower of House Terrin herself would –"

"Like to see me?" Man, that was a lot of titles. I'd heard a lot of titles in my travels. Heck, I had a lot of titles, but wow.

"Well yes, she would see you immediately."

"I see."

"Wonderful! Then..." the man perfectly aligned his clothing... in joy?

"So no." I finish

"What?"

"I understand," slow annunciation time, again. "And no."

I dip my canteen into the river. I don't think this was the best place to stop. It's true that breaking camp near a river is convenient but we were practically atop the bank now.

There was no way for other animals to get at the cove and this was a prime drinking spot for all sorts of things – they were asking for trouble. But does anyone listen to me? Noooo, I'm just the forest guide. I'm not the plains guide.

"Sir. Sir, if I may say so, I don't think you quite understand what it is you are missing out on. Have you heard of Her Highness?"

"A little. Good things. I know that she's amazing and pretty." I wave dismissively hoping that he will, well, dismiss.

"Ah. But have you seen her? Have you laid eyes upon her likeness?"

"Is there a point?" I'm going to fish, I decide suddenly. I'm just going to carry on and fish, because he obviously intends to bore me into agreement – and I won't let him.

"Sir, if you had but laid eyes upon her portrait you would sing a very different tune indeed."

"Look. Let me tell you something." What a load of bull. Because she was pretty, I was supposed to care? "I've met princesses before. I met the princess of the Zora Kingdom – here on the Hyrule side – and do you know what she did as she saw me?" It had been almost surreal not to be immediately glomped by her, at the time. Well, she'd never met me before the reset.

"Pray tell?"

"She told me to wrap myself in a blue breathing cloth – she didn't even have the nicety to have it sown into something I could wear! – and sent me to fetch her lost guardsman at the bottom of a giant underwater whirlpool."

"She did?!"

Navi echoed in with the guard. Why? This sort of thing shouldn't surprise her.

I mean, this was Ruto we were talking about. By Nayru, is that girl a brat when you first meet her. As she got to know you, she mellowed out drastically. She was a nice person in fact – because she was an upfront character. But at first? Woah.

And I spent about a year all together looking for her wherever I could.

In that time, it was amazing how much trouble I got into. Quest, quest, quest.

Do I have a sign on my head or something?

And I never got any leads on Navi that were worth anything – although that's what people promised.

Half were ignorant and the other half were liars

Curse them all.

"I met Princess Zelda too, and Princess Lillian's handmaidens – they all wanted something. Now I may get paid but that's not the point." Being at this Lillian's beck and call wasn't in the contract – I made sure to get Navi to make sure that it wasn't.

"Sir. However..."

"Oh you don't get it!" I will educate this fop, I decide, and he will leave because he will be enlightened. "Do you – Do you know what a rose is?"

"Well of course."

"Right. You love them huh?"

"They are... well who doesn't like a good rose Sir?"

"Do you know what we do with it in Kokkiri Forest? When the stupid thing springs up in our garden we pluck it and chuck it out! It's a weed! Dig it out and plant a potato or some other vegetable – they have flowers too!"

"But that's absurd... I have never heard such a thing as a man weeding a perfectly good rose from his garden."

"Why the shrub would I keep a rose! It has thorns! It will prick you! Who wants that in their garden? If you play tag and you take a fall it'll cut you up and then someone's going to start crying, and the whole day is ruined." Mido was especially prone to crying – not because he was in pain or anything. He was actually quite tough. But getting me in trouble and Saria's attention at the same time was like pollen to a bee, for him. "You can eat a potato. It makes life easier. Roses? They are pretty, sure, but painful." I sigh. It's something I've pondered before. "Princesses are like that too. They are pretty, but with thorns. Well I've had enough of thorns – and my fill of pretty. So tell her to go find someone else to talk to."

There is an open-mouthed silence. A fop-gaping silence.

And of course it's interrupted.

"Dude can I, like, cut in on this convo for a sec'?" A Zora passerby greets and the fop messenger is momentarily startled – he looks to his own canteen wearily.

What? The Zora are clean. Did he think they weren't in the river?

They just swim quietly so they don't scare your fish away – not that we're even fishing.

Even though I really want to.

It's Maiku. Not Termina's Maiku – he's dead. He's the Maiku on the Hyrule side. Some people were mirrored and some were not. Many were here but completely different.

Maiku was the guardsman I had helped save on Ruto's insistence, and he had a burning desire to bring the rush of true speed swimming to the other races of the world through something he calls 'surfing'. "You have my package?"

"Right here bra'. By the way I happen to agree with little-big-man's statement"

One of the many nicknames he made for me.

I will say this – he shares Termina-Maiku's creativity.

"Princesses are, generally speaking, a major pain in the rear ya' know – and I would know, ya? Tis' a burden of love to attend one."

"The money has nothing to do with it?" I ask, honestly curious. I mean, I'd always thought people like him and Impa and such were paid like, their own weight in gold, because they just do so many different things for their princesses.

"Well a bro's gotta eat, don't he?"

I unwrap the package. The contents, as expected, are drenched. Fine. A good sword and scabbard – ah, it comes free with just the right amount of resistance – a good blade will not care how wet or hot or cold it is.

"A superb weapon." It was Maiku's partner, Marno – coloured purple where his comrade was green. He was the serious of the bunch and the more fearsome for it. He could do things with that long spear of his that could impress anyone. If they both were here, where was the princess?

"Ah, worry not bro. We took sick-leave to deliver this. Her royal screechiness accompanies us not"

I don't even try to hide my relief. "How've you guys been?"

"The same." Marno's a guy of few words. That he hadn't ended it in one syllable is impressive. But his partner...

"Princess only got eaten once this week." He fluffs himself up, practically, with pride. "Really makin' some progress bro I tell ya'. Made it half way out Jabu Jabu before we even found her. I've been tellin' anyone that'll listen. I got like... I got like some serious teacherly pride thing goin' or something, ya know? It just tears me up."

I can only half-listen – absorbed in this blade as I am. I needed something to replace the Gilded Sword for now so I sent a message to the Gorons. I needed it delivered quickly so I asked the Zora's for help.

Of course all this wasn't cheap.

This sword... Just like the biggoron sword it was plain but functional. It was just like I asked but it was... it was...

"Poor fit." Marno observes.

Agreed. The balance is perfect and that's a very solid blade but it feels like wearing a shoe that is two sizes too large.

You can use it just fine, but running a race in it is not advised.

"They do excellent work, but perhaps you'd be better off coming to us if not the Hylians. We do delicate work well and our cooling process is superb. We find our own ways around the heat issue."

It's the most Marno's ever said to me at one time. I suppose its courtesy to a fellow warrior.

"No. I need it solid." You just can't stick a Zora blade into a charging dragon. "Extremely solid. All sorts of trouble come up when –"

A loud, piercing howl met my senses and was soon joined by others of it's like

Well, speak of the Evil.

As I dash towards the wagons I reflect on this. It didn't need to be this way – they had asked for this when they set camp right in the biggest water hole of Hyrule Field.

The South Wolfos Clan didn't need much of a reason to get into a fight, and we had just cut off their water supply.

I scale supply crates and perch atop a wooden wagon, to get a bead on the situation.

People would die this day.

That was way too many Wolfos to be handled safely. Even one would be too much for these troops judging from what I'd seen.

They could not match the ferocity of the Southern Plains Wolfos.

My bow is in my hands, the first arrow knocked.

"Link. Wait."

It's Marno. Does he intend to hurl his spear? "You would only obstruct them."

And what – pray tell...

Oh.

Just... wow.

The wolfos descend directly to their deaths.

"This... is called 'war'." Marno said. "Know you of it?"

"Not... this is..." I knew what war was, of course. It was an often talked of topic in future Hyrule. It was usually talked on favourably, in fact, by drunk veterans in the pubs.

Things like 'even war would be better than this life' or 'this isn't a war – with wars you could fight back'.

The wolfos charge and hurl themselves, snarling and massive but they met with a line of very stocky, very armored men with very large spears – three to a wolfos – and take them down easy-as-you please without a fuss.

One spear goes right, the other left, and one straight at the heart. They don't even thrust the poles most of the time– they just keep adjusting their aim to their target and the wolfs sort of skewers itself if it tries to lunge. The idea, I think, was to take advantage of the impatience Wolfos all have.

I drank the sight in like a glass of water.

Marno considered the battlefield. "Lightly armored, mounted scouts report the direction of the attack and then the armored troops meet the charge. Wolfos are indeed strong – but they lack true higher intelligence and all fight the same way."

"I've never seen them taken down this quickly. What power."

"In the forest, I imagine that you don't have war. It is an adult invention after all – and one that we frequently wish to uninvent. It is formalized power, with all the strengths and weaknesses of the Swarm in spring."

A Swarm? It's a Zora reference. That's deep.

There are human screams to answer the Wolfos howls. They may be all manner of messed up, but the Wolfos thrashed even with the heart pierced and in their death-thrashing bashed in helmets and breastplates.

I take aim and –

Ow! Din, that hurts! What's going on – I can't even move due to the sudden sharpness of the sensation - my body just freezes up. I fall with the pain. Adrenaline pumps and time seems to crawl, as it always seems to when you just are forced to be aware - quite rudely - that you're utterly screwed. What the blazes hit me?! Where's Navi? What's going – oh.

Sunnova scrub, I think it's the Alpha. And it looks like it's in the process of ripping my sword arm off.

The moment of 'oh-crap' passes and we go tumbling through the roof of the caravan.


A/N:

Next time, of course, is the action scene.

A bit rough but that's how it is, because it's a side-project.

Yet I think I update it faster than my main project - but then the chapters are shorter (well, the Triangles are shorter)

There isn't an actual POV change in the next triangle. I stopped it here simply to build suspense. It's not just about the current readers - I hope that future readers (who will be able to see what happens immediately) will also feel more suspense because separation by chapters does give a sharper sense of division. Having the moment at the end of a chapter just accents the moment, I think. The only way to find out for sure, though, is to try it out.