I was woken up the next morning when the door opened and something was thrown on top of me.
"Hurry up and change. The prince wants to see you on the surface."
Muttering about stupid fish people with no manners, I sat up and looked at what had been thrown on me. It was a plain, off-white shirt and a pair of brown pants. They looked a little big for me, but I wasn't going to complain. As I changed I noticed that the right sleeve had several small holes. It took me a moment to realize where the holes had come from. Sometimes when Aren landed on my arm his claws would poke holes in my sleeve. The holes were in the same pattern as his claws. Was this Daltus's shirt? It looked big enough to fit him, and the Zoras didn't wear clothes like this. A bit of red started creeping into my cheeks. The prince had given me some of his own clothes. I wondered how many clothes he had. Then I remembered I had only seen him wearing three or four different outfits. My blush deepened. I didn't know what to think about Daltus giving me one of his few sets of clothing.
When my face was no longer hot I started heading to the surface. When I entered King Zora's room, though, I remembered Ruto's message. Had Daltus already told him? If not I probably should.
"Um, your Highness?" I said.
"Yes?" he said as he looked at me.
"Um, your daughter Ruto wanted me to tell you she said hello."
King Zora perked up. "My darling Ruto? She's alive?"
"Yes, your Highness. She's the Sage of Water."
"Wonderful! Fantastic! My darling Ruto, alive! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!"
"You're welcome." I said before going up to the surface and leaving the monarch to burble happily about how his daughter was alive.
Daltus was standing by the lake, Aren perched on his arm. The prince smiled when he saw me.
"Good morning. I see I managed to beat you up for once."
"Yep." I walked over and stroked Aren's head. The crow gave me a look as if to ask, "where were you?" I rolled my eyes and gave him a piece of fish. Once he had snatched that up Aren hopped onto my arm, allowing Daltus to write a reply to the message he already held in his hand. When Aren had been sent off Daltus and I stood and talked for a while. It was nice, being able to just talk about nothing in particular instead of the mess we were up to our eyebrows in. I should have known it wouldn't last, though.
"Could you face Gannondorf tomorrow?" Daltus asked suddenly.
"W-wait, what?" I sputtered, thrown off by the abrupt change in topic.
"Could you face Gannondorf tomorrow?" he repeated.
"I think, maybe. I don't know. Why?"
The prince looked out across the river and Hyrule Field beyond it. "We don't have much more time. Every day we have less chance of succeeding. I'm beginning to believe we're down to hours now. I wish we had more time, but we don't."
I was quiet a moment, thinking. Were we really that short on time? Couldn't I get another day, at least? Deep down, though, I knew we had no time. Waiting until tomorrow was already a huge risk. Besides, putting it off wouldn't make it any better.
"I'll be ready tomorrow." I said softly.
Daltus nodded. "Then tomorrow we face Gannondorf."
Something about the way he said that made me do a double take. "What do you mean by 'we'?"
"I'm going with you." he said, "Without the Triforce of Wisdom there, there's no hope. Besides, if you fail then I'm dead no matter where I am. I'd rather meet death head-on than in hiding."
I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him that there was still hope even if I died and that if that happened he needed to find another hero. I wanted him to be safe. Most of all, I didn't want him to see me die. But I didn't argue. I just nodded.
"Then tomorrow we win or die." the prince said quietly before leaving.
I continued to stand there for a long while, staring off into the distance, before heading down to begin preparations for tomorrow's battle.
Yeah, it's kind of a short chapter. Don't worry, the next one will make up for it. Length-wise, anyways.