Ilia X Ralis chapter, written by Klyn Farseer


Sense and Sensations

For one moment of clear though Ralis was sure that he felt warm. He wasn't sure when he was in terms of date and time, only that he seemed to need sleep. The warmth though, was frightening to the young Zora prince. Normally his people were... well, not cold but certainly not warm. More in tune with their surroundings, being about the same temperature as the usually temperate climate of their domain.

So being warm was a very bad thing.

His skin felt dry and cracked as he began to move, crunching as the muscles in his arm bunched up. If the warmth from before had worried him, then the state of his skin would surely be enough for him to panic, if only he had the energy to.

Taking a few deep breaths to gather himself he raised an eyelids, which he noticed were not cracked like the rest of his skin. He didn't have much time to ponder though as his eyelids immediately attempted to rebel and shut themselves. They had already retreated halfway to the bottom of his eyes when he was able to control them again, and he forced them open abruptly.

His head swam in pain as his brain was overloaded with stimuli it hadn't received in however long he'd been out. Finally images started to make sense, and he gradually brought his attention to the various pieces of environment around him. There seemed to be a lot of wood and stone, which could only mean he was either among Gorons or Hylians.

His back seemed to be resting against something stiff and solid, while his head was resting on something more comfortable. Inclining his head fractionally to the left allowed him to take a glimpse of a long slab of wood, polished slightly but with a few of blotches of staining. The various glass works on the table were odd, and the way they reflected the dim candle light hurt his head a little more.

He looked straight up now, intent on analyzing the ceiling when his line of sight was interrupted by a face.

Ralis risked blinking a few times to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. The mouth of the decidedly Hylian face was certainly moving, but no noise seemed to be coming out. After that observation though, he also noticed other people around him, all which seemed to be making noise.

Had he gone deaf? He wasn't sure, but he did feel a sweet, cold rag drenched in beautiful water touching his forehead, and he arched his back to move into it. The cold washed over him and his mind filled with images of the most prevelant waterfalls in his homeland.

Still unsure of whether he'd gone deaf or not Ralis decided to try and say his best 'thank-you' in Hylian, but he had no idea whether he'd been successful. The green eyed face above him widened itself slightly, and Ralis felt some corner of his mind wishing that he understood their body language more. He'd need to make sure he...


The next time that Ralis woke up was a very surreal experience for him. He felt glad that he could hear, but it took him several moments to remember why he felt glad about that. Right, he'd gone deaf before. And this time he couldn't feel anything.

Had he been of a clearer state of mind he may have tried smelling, but as it was the curiosity of such a thing was beyond him. Instead he found himself wondering over this new numbness even as he listened to the sound of wood scraping against wood lightly beneath him.

Deciding to try and figure out where he was now he once again slowly opened his eyes, a task which was sped up slightly by the sound of a horse crying out in fear.

Moving his head without feeling it was a disturbing sensation, but he stomached it and managed to survey his surroundings. The face from before was over to the side of the small room they were in, which he now recognized as belonging to a young Hylian female. Below his feet, again he had to fight the oddness of the situation as he saw himself without feeling himself, he viewed an expanse of green.

Above him was a tarp, and the retreating background led him to believe he was in a wagon of some kind, he'd seen them occasionally as traders would visit the Domain. Alarms went off in his head when he saw a dancing redness at the edge of his vision, but when he turned to look it had gone already.

Confused, Ralis moved his eyes toward the face of the young woman, and he was relieved to see that she too had witnessed the sudden burst of light. "A-are you the one?" He was able to say, his voice sounding weak even in his tired ears.

The woman cocked her head to the side and Ralis wondered briefly what that meant. "What?" she asked in a voice that sounded familiar to him, as though he'd heard it in a dream once.

"D-did you?" Was all he managed to stutter in halted Hylian before he collapsed yet again.


When Ralis awoke again his back was partially sinking into a fabric and the first thing he noticed was that he was feeling much cooler again. When he realized this he also realized that he was able to feel again.

His body was sore, but Ralis took that as simply another good sign. Really, after losing senses a little unpleasantness was hardly something to feel bad about.

When his eyes started receiving information he found a different face looking at him this time, a younger one with darker fur on its head. "H-hello," the once proud Zora prince cringed inwardly. At no point should he have been so weak as to barely be able to sound out words, whether in his native tongue or not.

The person who seemed to be ministering to him currently took no note of the internal self condemning thoughts. "You've awoken," the child said, stating the obvious. Or maybe the word meant something else? It was hard to tell with Hylian, even at the best of times. "I'll bring some water and food for you. You have reached safety now."


Rehabilitation, Ralis decided, was a particularly unenjoyable experience once one got over the simple joy of being able to move once again. Twice he had collapsed on short walks throughout the small and abandoned village, though to be fair there was very little moisture in the air in The Kakariko Village.

For a few days he only saw the faces of a few of the village's children, as well as the shaman who had been the one that had brought about the change in his condition.

When he had asked the visitors what had happened to him, they all answered with the same declination of knowledge. Apparently none of the native inhabitants had been involved at all in his rescue, and he had only been brought to the town as it was the only nearby with the capability to treat his people.

"What of the one who brought me here?" He asked one day to the small blond boy as the child walked by him. There were certain circumstances in which very formal showings of gratitude were required, and the saving of the life of the heir to the Zora throne was one of them. Even if he hadn't been the Prince himself he would still have been obligated to show respect for a person or family acting for the safety of the throne.

"Who do you mean?" The young boy asked in response. "Link's the one that made sure you got across the plain safe, but Ilia's the one that took care of you before that, and even that um..." The boy's face changed color to a light red, an act which the Zora equated with flaking of arm scales. "Lady," the boy apparently decided, "Was the one with the wagon and that gave you a place to stay before."

The Zora's felt his arm fins waver. Three people had individually taken it upon themselves to take care of him, without organized effort. Such a thing was very rare, not only for the properties of the number but also the sheer improbability of kindness.

"Whichever one is nearest," the Zora said hesitantly. He wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to make an extra trip around the town, and it would be best anyway to thank them one at a time.

The boy shrugged, "Illia's the only one still in town, over there in the hut closest to the cemetery. She's... lost her memory though, of everything that happened before about a month ago though, so be careful with what you say."


For the first time that he saw her Ralis was finally able to actually look over his savior, and he was surprised to note how different she looked from most Hylians he'd met. Her build was different than that of the wives of the merchants he had seen, and her hair especially spoke of a very different background.

"Hello," she spoke to him warmly, and Ralis felt something stir in him. The voice... sounded safe, even if the tone sounded unsure.

Ralis gave a bow as deep as was considered proper among his people. "I wished to see the one to who I owe my life," Well, one of the three anyway.

She cocked her head to the side again, and her lips seemed to pull together. "Owe your life?"

He nodded seriously, "The efforts that you made on behalf of the crown were very... admirable. Should there be anything that can be done for you and it is within the capabilities of the Zora people, it shall be done."

The redness crossed her face again, and Ralis felt that stir in his stomach again. It wasn't possible, was it? "You mean, like a life-debt? If you owe anything like that, it shouldn't be to me. Link, the boy in green, he's the one that saved you. And myself."

"You are not doing yourself justice," Ralis pointed out evenly, trying to steer the conversation to the side for a moment so he could examine his feelings. His Mother had often told him tales... But to a Hylian? It had happened before among his people, even among the royal line...

The woman continued to look uncomfortable. "All I did was sit around while everyone else did the work."

Ralis shook his head, a gesture he'd picked up from the shortest of the children in the village. "Nonsense. Even if all you did was sit by me, at the very least you risked your life on my behalf in crossing the plain."

The woman still didn't seem to believe him, but at the moment all that Ralis could think of was that, and he wasn't promising anything, but it did seem... possible... that he might enjoy trying to convince this woman that he owed his life to her.


"I'm worried," Ilia confided in him one day as he visited her in the hut.

"About what?" Ralis asked, genuinely confused. The monsters in the area were maintaining their normal order, giving them no reason to expect them to be either massing forces or finding a way to avoid their defenses. "We're safe here."

Ilia sighed discontentedly, "I know."

Ralis was shocked to see that the eyes of his human companion had started to produce water. Had he done something to upset her?

"What's wrong?" The Ordonian youth gave no show of having heard him, so he tried again. "Tell me? Please?"

Ralis felt a tingle run through him as he saw her start to speak, and almost missed what she said. The fact that she was starting to tell him her thoughts, her fears... Surely Mother would agree that it was momentous!

"It's so dangerous outside of the village," she said simply, leaving him to puzzle his way through the statement.

"If it's protection you're worried about, then I'm sure that the Zora could provide it once we get word to them of my presence."

She smiled at him, and he felt the tingle again. In the weeks he'd been at Kakariko Village, he'd found that he enjoyed that facial expression the most of all. "That's very sweet of you," she remarked kindly. "But it's not me that I'm worried about."

Ralis cocked his head as he'd seen her do so many times when his customs confused her. "What is it then?" he tried to ask patiently. If he could get her to accept his help, that would be sufficient grounds for him to begin sending gifts, granted when he'd returned to the throne and could utilize the correct resources.

"I'm worried about Link," she said, and Ralis felt a sudden sense of dread in his stomach, though he didn't know why the flips had gone. All he had to do was find a way to help Link, and he'd repay both debts and begin to make more progress with Ilia.

"The boy who participated in my safe arrival here?" he asked to be conversational, something that Hylians seemed to value deeply.

"Yes," she said nodding, and her face turned red. The new feeling in Ralis' stomach intensified. "I... don't want him hurt."

The words seemed to hold special meaning for the woman, beyond the obvious. Why would anyone want a friend hurt? Ralis made sure to smile himself as he said so, to take away any insult that the girl might feel at his words.

"Oh," Ilia said, and the blush seemed to deepen. "Well... Ralis, can I tell you something that you can never, ever, tell anyone else?"

Hope seemed to shine through the darkness of his very confused stomach. A secret, so secret and dear to Ilia that she dared not risk him telling a living soul!

"You have my word as Prince of the Zora that I will take it to my grave," he said boldly. Confidence, he had been told, tended to draw support from those around you.

"Thank you," the woman whispered, and then looked around to check for listeners. "I... I think that I may love him. Whenever I see him, I feel so glad that he's safe, and he makes my heart..."

What else she said Ralis was unsure. It took a great deal of effort to remain standing there, and listening to her was simply too much.


"Link," the Zora boy said calmly as the Hero walked toward him. His debt to the boy would be absolved today. Then he could go on hating the fool in peace.

The smile that the young man sent him only served to strengthen his anger. How dare he... "Ralis. It's good to see that you're doing better!"