Chapter 10: On the Road Again
Zelda rode beside Purah through Hyrule Field. Impa and Robbie had been riding ahead of them, while Link kept his place behind the princess. During the silence, she was able to remember her night.
For once, she hadn't been plagued by realistic visions, haunting nightmares, or omens of death. She wasn't sure if it'd had to do with the knight standing guard outside her door, or if it was a sign of an evolution in herself.
When they'd first gotten back to the room, she'd given Link permission to sweep her room while she quickly tried to throw her mess into a corner. She watched as he stuck his head out her study window, looking over the barracks and the Guardians, before bolting it shut and returning to the hallway, satisfied that there was no one in her rooms.
Of course, it didn't take Zelda long to realize that she wasn't going to be able to sleep, and she slowly opened the door into the hallway. Link had stared at her, as he often did, and raised his brow.
"What are you doing out here?" he'd asked.
She'd pulled on her robe before joining him and tugged it tightly against her. "I'm sneaking out, of course," she mused. He chuckled, and she leaned against the wall beside him. "Would you like some company?"
"You should sleep."
"So should you, but you're not."
He snorted. "You'll never let me live that one down, will you?"
Nudging him, Zelda smiled. "Not until I see you get seven hours someday."
His own smile was tight, his eyes focused on the wall in front of him. "When was the last time you saw Zora's Domain?"
She had to think about it and realized that the last time she'd been was with her mother. "Many years. I was a child. What about you? You know the Zora Champion as well, right?"
Nodding slowly, he'd thought about the Zora Princess. "We've met on several occasions. We first met when I was very young. The next time I saw her, I had the Master Sword."
"I must have met her when I was young, but I don't remember her. What's she like?"
"She's reserved, shy, and a bit quiet, but she's also quite brave. She's a healer, but she also has a lot of skill with her trident, so she holds her own well. She's a good person. Her brother, Sidon, is a bit… wild. He loves people. You'll see a lot of him while we're there."
"Were you close with them? You speak very highly of them."
Link had shrugged, but Zelda noticed how he kept his eyes from hers. "As close as you can be with anyone you don't see very often."
When Link finally did look at her, his eyes swept over her in her loose, flowy night robe in an almost too obvious way, and Zelda found herself turning red under his gaze. He turned away, red himself. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow, Princess. You really should try to rest."
As Zelda sat on Storm, she snapped herself from her memories of last night and tried to figure out what Purah was saying to her.
"I'm so sorry, Purah, I believe I tuned out for a moment," she admitted.
Her friend narrowed her eyes, not in anger, but as if she were trying to figure her out. "That's alright, Princess. Were you daydreaming of something good?"
"I was just… thinking. I'm very sorry."
"Don't be sorry, Princess. I was talking about the Sheikah Slate. You have to take some images of the Divine Beast for me. Have you taken anything yet?"
Zelda undid the Slate from her belt and handed it to Purah. "I took one of the castle."
Purah powered on the image-taker and slid her finger over the side. The still-life image of the castle that Zelda had taken appeared in front of her. Gasping, Purah gaped at the image. "How did you get such an incredible view of the castle, Princess?"
Zelda swallowed hard and shrugged. "I just… did."
"I've been to the Temple of Time often, and there is no way to see this much of the castle from there. Where did you really go?"
"I swear to you, Purah, I was at the Temple of Time. I stood in a window and took the image from where I stood." She bit her lip and hoped her partial truth was good enough. She could see that Robbie and Impa were listening, from their slowed speed and their halted conversation.
Purah spun around, looking between the castle and the Temple of Time. "That just can't be." She turned the slate over in her hands, as if it held some mysterious powers.
"We weren't on the ground floor," Zelda admitted, "But we were there."
Purah didn't look like she completely believed her, but she dropped the subject and continued looking at the Slate, gasping once again. "Princess! How close to the battle were you?"
"What?" Zelda asked curiously.
Turning the Slate to show Zelda, she was surprised to see up-close images of Link as he fended off Moblins and Bokoblins during their attempted raid.
"I didn't take those. I was using the Slate to see closer."
"Then you took them by accident. Still, these are incredible! Great job, Link! That's a lot of Bokoblins you fought."
He stayed silent as Zelda took the Slate back. Impa slowed down further until she rode right alongside the princess. "Purah, sister, would you ride with Robbie for a moment?"
She waited until her older sibling had gone before turning to Zelda. "You've nearly recruited the final Champion, Princess. There's the ceremony and the accompanying ball, and then you're back to your prayers, aren't you?"
"For all the good they do," she muttered.
Impa shook her head and motioned behind her to Link. "You might as well ride beside me instead of eavesdropping, Hero." Link did as he was told but kept his eyes on the surrounding area after he'd been caught listening too closely.
"The Goddesses have not abandoned you; I've said this before. Have you had more dreams?"
Zelda shifted uncomfortably, her eyes darting to Link. "A few." She remembered the Hero of Time and how similar he was to her Link. "How did you know all those things about them, Impa?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "I was there."
"Fine, don't tell me."
"The Sheikah are a strongly rooted people, Princess. When stories pass into legend, we still tell them. The Queen's closest advisor was a Sheikah named Impa as well." She smiled and turned to Link. His eyes were wide as he stared at her. "Ah, you do know what I'm talking about then, yes?"
His head bobbed up and down. This time, Zelda was the one who felt left out until it all clicked together, and she stared at her appointed knight. "You have visions of the past as well?" He nodded again.
Impa smiled. "I told you that you had more in common than you thought. But now, Princess, Hero, this is where we leave you. We'll return with my best people before the ceremony. Best of luck."
Purah spun her horse around and reached for Zelda, taking her hand. "We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise you."
Robbie nodded from behind her. "We won't rest until we get the Yiga off of you, Princess. They won't remain hidden for long."
As the two group's paths diverged, Zelda felt relieved for the time alone with Link. She had so many questions.
"Who do you see in your dreams, Link? Or, visions, as Impa called them."
"I see many things," he said simply. She wanted to ask him more, but she could see that his shoulders had tensed, and he'd grown distant. It wasn't a conversation he wanted to have.
She wanted to curse Impa for creating an awkwardness in the air just before leaving. The ride was long, and now, silent. They stopped to eat, though the only talking they did was about the food. When they resumed their place on the road, it wasn't for several more hours that Link finally spoke to her again.
When he turned to her, she was staking images of the world around her using the Sheikah Slate, while writing in her journal. She looked oddly comfortable for someone whose horse and she had a mutual dislike of each other.
"I know I'm not great company today," Link said to her. "I don't actually like having those visions. They're mostly about death, so I prefer not to talk about them. There is no point in dwelling on a distant past."
"I understand," Zelda said, looking up. "I have seen some things I'd rather wished I didn't. I've also seen some incredible things, too."
Link sighed. "I haven't seen enough." He could tell they were about to fall back into their uncomfortable silence. Trying to keep their conversation going, he reached for the next thought on his mind. "Impa mentioned a Champion's ball? Did I hear that correctly? I wasn't told anything about it."
Zelda gave him a skeptical look before realizing he was serious. "How has no one told you? You're a Champion." He shrugged, and she continued. "It's the night of the ceremony to honor Hyrule's new Champions before we all set out to prepare for the Calamity."
"Isn't that time-consuming?"
"It might be our last time before the Calamity to have a good time with any family or friends."
Link tapped his fingers on his leg. "What if you have none, or your friends are all Champions?"
She looked at him, unsure if he was being serious or not. He grinned, but she couldn't see past it either way. "Well, if that's the case, you have to spend time with them still before they are wrapped up in their work."
"You think Revali will show up?"
With a chuckle, Zelda genuinely wondered that herself. "I'm not sure. We barely met, and I haven't seen him since. I wonder where he went off to?"
They talked for the remainder of their journey. Zelda fought off sleep for as long as she could, trying to keep Link's company, but eventually it was too much, and her heavy lids shut. She knew Link would take Storm's lead and they would continue through the night and into the early morning when they'd finally reached Zora's Domain.
Link woke the princess at dawn, just before they attempted to pass the winding roads above Zora River. Zelda blinked away sleep as she yawned and tried not to slouch over on her horse again. Link kept her lead while she recovered from her sleep and continued through the narrow path.
Once she was finally awake enough, Zelda took back her reins and followed Link until they reached the path besides Ruto Mountain.
"Wait," she said, quickly dismounting and peering into a small, reflective pool of water. "I'm meeting with royalty. I can't look like I just woke up."
"I'm sure they'll give you a room. You don't have to use a roadside pool of water."
She turned to him and gave him a look that made him grin, but kept his mouth shut further.
Gazing at her reflection, she tried her best to fix her hair. "I was left a note by my father. He asked that I look and dress my best while I'm here. Apparently, there are some tensions with him and the Zora King Dorephan because of Princess Mipha being chosen as the Champion. He wants me to show that we are a strong royal line. Apparently, that means wearing some of my best clothes while we're here." She stopped and sighed. "If I mess this up, there will be no facing him again."
"Myself and my father have been friends with the Zoras here for years. I trust them with my life, and I trust Mipha not to allow her father or any other's to break any trade agreements. Though, watch out, Muzu, the King's advisor, is not the biggest fan of Hylians. He'd be the only one you need to convince. I've even trained with the King's own royal knight, Seggin."
She pinned her hair back and returned to her horse. "You know them well."
"I've spent the most time with Seggin and the other Zora warriors. You'll be safe here."
"Something has happened everywhere we've gone so far," she muttered, moving her hair back again. She didn't enjoy being the skeptical one, but she had the feeling that she would be right, and this wouldn't be an easy trip once again.
A/N: OH MY GOD I JUST FOUND THE HORIZONTAL LINE BUTTON! I write in Word and then import the file so I have never seen it. From now on, instead of that awkward "/" that I use, I'm putting a horizontal line! I'm legitimately pumped! Anyway, short chapter, but I needed one to segue into the next chapter, which would probably have been too long if I combined them. So, alas, nothing too terribly exciting, but necessary.
It took about 19 game hours to get from the castle to the domain, plus I had to keep warping my horse over the roadblocks and then it was almost killed in a thorn covered cave that was on fire. Lesson? Don't try to bring your horse to Zora's Domain.