There's a great deal to do before the second trial, which includes stringing ropes across the canyon and lowering the score board and a gong down a cliff. Luckily the carpenters already have the seating in place on a flat stretch up the side of the cliff, but Zelda still needs to oversee setting up the lanterns and a netting over the stands to protect from wildly shot arrows.
Zelda and Link still haven't found time to enter any of the new shrines that have arisen, but Zelda assumes, since the wait for the dragon won't start until nightfall, that they'll finish their preparations by midday, then have some time for the shrine on the other side of the canyon.
She is mistaken.
Around mid-morning, Misa attempts to lower a whole cart of snacks and caffeinated tea into the canyon. If people are sitting around all night waiting for a dragon to appear at some undetermined point, then that sounds like a business opportunity that Misa will not let go to waste. Three Rito carry the cart down, holding it in their talons and they descend. Someone doesn't move at the same speed or their hold slips. Whatever the reason, the cart tips. Large tins of apple hand pies fall onto the seating, ripping straight through the benches, leaving behind two large holes and a cloud of splinters. The seating must be repaired, and everyone is shouting and everything is covered in tea.
And that's the start of it. As more and more Rito arrive, it becomes clear that they are throwing together a festival of sorts. Someone has pan pipes and someone has a drum. Someone sets up a little stage for a shadow play. They bring firecrackers and a ring toss game and and picnic baskets and cushions on which they recline. They all need Zelda to tell them where to set up.
When everything is ready for the trial, it's an hour before sunset.
Zelda brushes off her hands and turns to Link, who just shakes his head before she can even ask. He looks up at the orange glow of the shrine. "We couldn't finish and get back before everyone arrives. And I don't really want to rush it."
She sighs. "I'm sorry. We'll find time soon."
He rubs the back of his neck, darting looks at her from the corner of his eye. "Unless you want to...go over...and, I don't know, sit around for a while?"
"Sit around for a while?"
His cheeks turn pink. He's still not really looking at her.
A smile blooms slowly over her face, her eyes dancing with mirth.
He's so cute that she can't help but laugh and pop up on her toes to whisper in his ear, "But could we get back before everyone arrives? I don't want to feel rushed."
Even as his face turns a darker shade of red, he turns his head to give her an unamused look that quickly shifts into fierce intention. Her own cheeks turn pink, and she sucks in a breath, realizing that his lips are only an inch away, and her chest is pressed against his arm, and her arm is draped over his chest from where she's bracing herself on his shoulder. His lips part to say something low and enticing that will surely have her following him to wherever he suggests and staying there for far too long and—
From three different directions, three wild berries bounce off the sides of his head. He blinks, and his heated look is gone, replaced with befuddlement, then resignation. Zelda drops back onto her heels. She puts space between them, so she can duck her head and cover a laugh.
He says, "Well, never mind then," and she openly laughs. He reaches out with two fingers to give a flirty tug on the side of her belt, then turns and goes to greet Mazli, who's just arrived.
She grins to herself as she finds something else that needs doing. There's always something that needs doing.
#
Fifty feet in the air, a rope strung with banner-like flags in white and yellow and gold stretches across the canyon. Fifty feet directly above that is another string of flags. They make a kind of square in the air. The starting line. Once the tip of the dragon's tail has crossed the starting line, a cymbal will sound and the Rito can take off from their own starting line directly below on the canyon floor.
The contestants will chase the dragon and with a bow and arrow and shoot the dragon to loosen a scale (5 points), a shard of claw (10 points) or a shard of horn (20 points). They may take multiple shots if their arrow misses the dragon completely. However, once they have struck the dragon, their resulting score is final. They must gather their prize and come to the scoring platform.
No Rito may cross the finish line marked again by two strings of flags hanging in the air a mile down the canyon. But any shot at the dragon that lands past the finish line will be honored as long as the shot was taken in-bounds and the tip of the dragon's tail has not yet crossed over the finish line.
The canyon as the sun sets reminds her of the party in Tarrey Town. No one has any idea when the dragon will arrive and the trial will begin, so they keep one eye to the north and entertain themselves while they wait. After all, it's not like they can possibly miss a big fire dragon flying overhead. Down on the canyon floor, the contestants wait, separate from the festivities, coiled and anxious behind the starting line. Several of them start facing forward, as if ready to pounce, their heads craned to see over their shoulders, waiting for the dragon. Soon they shift, turning their backs to the party to face where the dragon will appear. One by one, they take a seat on the ground. Around midnight, Mazli asks, "Will someone kick me when you see it?" and lies down to take a nap. Zelda sends down tea to keep them awake and warm.
Every now and then, the crowd bursts into a cheer for the contestants, and the contestants turn and wave their gratitude. Yes, yes. We're still waiting. Amali's girls still have their AMALI signs, which they pull out ever so often when they run to the edge of the cliff and cheer. Right now, Cree and Genli are standing in the wrong places so it says MAALI. Zelda's glad to see that several of the Rito join in the Amali cheering. After all, she's tied for second with Harth.
If the crowd wasn't as actively joyful as they are, Zelda would die of embarrassment given how poorly this event is timed.
Link keeps looking around, and for a while it seems as if he's much more excited to see the dragon tonight than when he chased the dragon himself. But then she realizes he keeps looking in the wrong direction. The dragon should come from the north. Link keeps checking south and behind them to the west. She frowns a him, and he whispers, "Where is Kass?"
"Look!" Everyone spins, looks up. A red glow writes through the air, rolling through the canyon. Everyone scrambles to the stands, the shadow puppet show abandoned half-way through a story, the music cutting off half-way through a song. Amali's girls are all out of order again, and too excited to organize the chant they've been practicing.
Down at the starting line, the contestants snatch up their bows and jump to their places. They roll their shoulders and stretch their wings, trying to settle their hearts and wake up and focus. Nav wipes the sweating tips of her wings on her pants. Amali slips a necklace from her shirt again, kisses the blue feather there, then tucks it away. Teba clenches and unclenches his hold on his bow, his wings stretched before him, poised for lift-off. Harth adjusts the set of his quiver against his lower back.
The dragon glides overhead, lighting the canyon in a red glow.
The starting gong sounds.
All hell breaks loose.
The pack is tight, as they shoot forward, scramble upward. With every mighty beat of wings, they bump one another and throw currents of wind and dust in each other's faces, knocking one another off course. There's a mad scramble to draft—to ride in someone else's slipstream, dragging them back while exerting the least possible amount of energy. Teba swerves down and the side, pulling into a barrel roll down around the dragon's tail, throwing Rufflu off his back, only to have his maneuver thrown off when he pulls in his wings and drops like a stone to avoid a fireball. The dragon's tail snaps and Harth swoops to avoid it as Fyson soars over it, hits an updraft, and then dives, coming out a full body length in front of Harth. Verla grabs a spike on the dragon's tail as it whips past, he clutches it, riding it like a wild horse, then uses the momentum to propel himself forward. He does it again, grabbing a spike on the first curve of the dragon's serpentine length, but he's falling behind. Several are fall behind. Teba, Harth, Fyson, and Rufflu are in a pack at the front, swirling around one another so no one can use the drafts to their advantage, so if anyone manages to pass anyone else, some third party swoops in for revenge. No one takes the lead for more than a split second. And then their pack blows apart with another rain of fireballs.
The crowd is whistling, roaring, gasping with every near miss and every moment of absurd acrobatics.
Amali repeats her low altitude strategy, gaining ground quickly since she doesn't have to waste time rising to the dragon's height. She avoids the other contestants, but she's at risk of the fireballs that rain down on her. To keep watch for them, she once again flies on her back. She gives a single great beat of her wings when she needs another burst of speed, but otherwise, she keeps her wings tucked tight to her sides so she looks almost like an arrow herself. She reminds Zelda of a swimmer in backstroke.
The pack at the front reaches the dragon's head as the dragon quickly approaches the finish line, as the racing portion of the competition comes swiftly to an end. Those that have fallen behind pull out their bows, aiming for the back claws and missing, firing again and again, and arrows rain down from every direction. The dragon lights in three spots towards the back, and it seems one might be on a claw. The loosened parts fly off and several Rito peel away.
Rufflu pulls back from the pack first, lining up a shot for the dragon's horn, at which point Fyson barrels into him and they both tumble through the air for a long moment, one of their wings striking Teba, disrupting his shot, but only briefly as he swerves, twists, readjusts, and fires. A ball of light bursts from the dragon's horn. Amali is out well ahead of the dragon, and puts on a burst of speed and shoots upward, coming up far too close to the dragon's face and far too close to the finish line. She looses an arrow, then swerves before she sees his horns light, swerves before the dragon can ram through her. She nearly runs into Harth, who has slowed by the dragon's head, lining up his shot, but he has to roll to the side to avoid Amali and then re-align himself. He shoots as the dragon's head crosses the finish line, and has to throw out his wings and back-pedal so he doesn't cross the line himself.
There's a frantic barrage of shots from Fyson and Rufflo, who have fallen back and down, now desperate to get off a shot. They both miss and miss and miss and then Rufflo's arrow strikes home, missing the horn and hitting a common scale. He swears so loud Zelda can hear it from the stands over the shouting of the crowd. Fyson learns from Rufflo's mistake and pulls a quick U-turn, flying at the dragon's oncoming claw as if he intends to ram it. He shoots, the dragon's claw lights, bashes against Fyson's side, sending him into a spin, and then the dragon crosses the finish line with another boom of the gong. Fyson catches himself before he crashes, then adjusts his trajectory to retrieve his shard of claw, unhurried and possibly injured.
The dragon continues on his path, steadily heading down the canyon. Zelda wonders if he even noticed their presence.
The contestants trickle in, cheers rising in waves as each new contestant arrives. They arrange themselves in a line and present their offerings one by one with as much flare as they possibly can given their exhaustion. Mazli, Nav, Rufflo, and Huck have dragon scales. Fyson and Verla have shards of claw. Harth, Amali, and Teba hold shards of horn.
"The standings after the first two trials." Zelda announces in her clear, carrying voice, talking over each new wave of enthusiasm from the crowd. "In first place is Teba with 45 points. Tied for second place are Amali and Harth with 38 points. In fourth place is Verla with 23 points." The front runners have clearly pulled ahead of the rest. Poor Mazli only has five points. There's no way he can possibly win. He does not seem concerned.
Zelda sighs as the crowds shifts back into celebration mode. The music picks back up, while someone rolls out a barrel of rice wine to much cheering. They'll party into the night and then camp out in the canyon before heading home tomorrow.
This tournament isn't going so badly.
Zelda turns ask Link to dance or see if he wants to head back to the Village and pass out from exhaustion, but he's once again frowning up at the cliff behind them. He adjusts his wrist guards, like he does when he's about to throw himself into a new challenge.
No dancing then.
"What are you planning?" she asks. She keeps her voice hushed.
"We have a break tomorrow, right?"
"For the Rito to reach the race course in Herba, yes." The final trial is a race down the Herba mountains—hairpin turns and icy slopes and sharp winds. They tried and failed to find another location closer to the village, so now, even though the Rito can fly, it will take some time for the contestants and spectators to travel there. Also, it's just assumed that most of the Rito will be hung over tomorrow.
Link nods to himself. "I need to finish the shrines," he says. "If you don't want to do them with me, that's fine, but I need to do them. I'm sorry."
"What? Now? Link, it's four in the morning."
"Yeah." He pushes back his bangs. "You should sleep. There are so many people here, I'm sure you'll be safe. You can get a ride with someone back to town tomorrow. Or I can check in with you after I'm done with the first shrine. Or the second."
She takes hold of his elbows to stop his fidgeting. "I meant you. It's four in the morning, and you need to sleep."
He shakes his head. "I need to get this done."
"But why?"
He clenches his jaw, his eyes locked on something over her shoulder. She turns to see Teba and his wife sharing a quiet moment, their faces bowed towards each other, their beaks brushing. They're smiling, their son Tulin tucked between them in her arms. Fyson's mother is pruning the feathers on his side, checking for lasting damage from the dragon's claw and fussing over him. He seems softer with his mother—at least when he doesn't know anyone is watching. And then there's Amali, gathering up her tired children. She shifts Cree, who is sound asleep tucked into a sling against her chest and she adjusts Notts's wings, which are wrapped around her neck as the girl dozes off on her back. Kheel rubs her eyes and puts up half a protest about not wanting to go to bed as Amali takes her by the wing tip and guides the whole group of them off to the side to tuck them under one big blanket.
She looks back and shares a look with Link.
She's not entirely sure what he's planning, because what she thinks he's up to doesn't make any sense. But she takes out the slate and wraps an arm around his shoulders, and off they go.
#
"Of course, they're wind themed," she says.
The first shrine has a cannon and a jet of air that will let her shoot a bomb at a breakable wall. She takes care of the wall herself, then hands him the slate and pulls out her sleeping roll (may the Goddess smile on Hetsu). She could fly across a bottomless pit. If she wanted to. But she's tired. She's a little concerned about how tired Link is and his ability to fly across bottomless pit, but she hides it well. He kisses her cheek, pops out his paraglider and takes off.
Zelda closes her eyes. A while later, there's another boom of a bomb, and then a while after that Link is back and she's groggily following him up out of the shrine and then warping to the next one at the bottom of the flight range.
They're in a room with a single switch, and a fan. Predictably, when he shoots the switch with an arrow, it activates a column of wind. He lifts a brow and she follows him up to a huge, cavern-like space with nothing but black emptiness bellow them. In the center is a rotating tower of switches and doorways, and she can spot a complicated series of fans and wind currents dotted around the room, hovering in mid-air.
No, thank you.
She kisses Link's cheek, pats his chest, and heads back down to the entrance, where she snuggles up in her sleep roll and dozes off for several hours. She wakes briefly when he slips into her sleeping roll with her and pulls her close until she's on top of him.
"What time is it?" she mumbles.
"Almost ten." He sounds tired.
"Sleep a while."
"Just resting my eyes a minute."
She snuggles deeper against his chest.
He wakes her up promptly at noon, at which point they're both looking more alert. They head to the finial shrine, which is the best shrine ever.
She has to get a rolling ball through all the complicated movable parts of a tower, using all the slate's runes with precise timing. She clambers up a ladder and chases a ball down a ramp, sweeping metal plates into place and leaping on switches and freezing levers into place. After one failed attempt where she loses the ball into the bottomless pit below, she places Link on the switch and instructs him to stay there while she leaps off the tower after the next ball and sets up some crynis pillars.
And then it's time for Windblight Ganon. Link wrinkles his nose and sticks out his tongue, to show his distaste, and Zelda giggles and he smiles, although it still looks tired. They warp to Rito Village, which is empty as almost everyone has headed up to Herba for the final trial. They spend quite a while scaling the pillar to reach Vah Medoh, and Zelda's immensely relieved that the trial doesn't take over his mind until he's firmly on his feet at the top of the pillar.
His eyes are vacant, his expression lax, as she takes her place before him, holding his forearms to support him and waiting for him to return. The cold wind tugs at his hair, but there's no reaction in his face. It's eerie and disturbing, and she's relieved that she can be here for him, to watch over him when he can't protect himself.
The light notes of an accordion trickle in on the wind, and a smile tugs at her lips that Link did it. Against all logic, he found Kass right where he excepted to find him.
Link comes to with a gasp and a shudder, and suddenly he's gripping her arms and she's holding his weight.
"It's alright," she says. "You're back."
He blinks, then turns towards the music. He squeezes her arm once in thanks, then walks under Vah Medoh's legs to the other side of the pillar with a purpose.
"Oh," Kass says, his song stuttering to a stop. "I didn't hear you—"
Link interrupts, "I'm the chosen hero, and I need your help."
Zelda's mouth falls open in shock. He has never admitted to that, not to anyone who didn't already know, and definitely not using those words.
Kass pulls back, taken by surprise. "I...yes, I suspected as much. I...have a song I'd like to—"
"Save it. Right now you have a different song you need to sing, and you need to sing it in Herba."
Kass' feathers are puffed. "I don't understand."
"Did you know Amali is competing to be the next Rito Champion? Because she is. No one thought she could do it, and she has to do it while she wrangles five kids by herself. This is the last trial, and even though she's doing great, it's eating her up inside that you're not there. It's holding her back. You need to get there for the last trial and show her you're rooting for her."
"I..." Kass bows his head. "My task is not yet complete. I made a vow to my teacher to aid the chosen hero."
"Didn't you also make a vow to your wife?"
Kass says nothing.
"You want to help me?" Link says. "Take the song about Revali you're about to sing for me, and sing it for her. Sing her a love song. Sing her a song about winning a tournament. Lead the audience in some cheers. I don't care. Just get there." He turns to Zelda and holds out a hand for the slate, which she fumbles into his hands. He pulls up the map and makes a mark where the Rito are gathering before the race, showing it to Kass. "Zelda's going to take you here. You go join your family. When the race is over, you can sing me your song. Deal?" Before Kass can agree to this deal, Link turns to Zelda and says, "Take him there, then come right back the the shrine in the village to get me. I think that's the safest plan."
She looks up into his face, all determination and hard lines. It just barely masks the big softie he is underneath. "I thought you were rooting for Teba."
"Yeah, and I don't want you to get him disqualified."
"I'd never!"
He smiles. It's the first one she's seen on him all day, and it's as exhausted as she would expect.
"It just doesn't seem fair," he says, a teasing tone in his voice. "When Fyson loses, he'll get to cry on his mom. Who will Amali cry on?"
Zelda lifts her nose into the air. "No one, because she won't lose. Nothing can stop her now."
He smiles at her, and she turns to Kass. He gives her a terrified look, and when she gets too close, he stumbles back a step, hesitates, then ducks into a low bow. "Your Highness."
She shoves down the discomfort the words bring, and steps forward with a purpose, slipping an arm under his wing and around his back. He fans out his wings to touch her as little as possible. She simply takes the wing over her shoulder and pulls it closer while holding out the slate. "Take hold of this, please." His wing settles gingerly around her, his feathers still puffed with anxiety. When he takes hold of the slate, they warp away.
And into a cave of ice. A few days ago, great columns of ice blocked the entrance, but Link set up a fire and melted enough of them to provide an exit while he cleared the area of monsters. As soon as they land, they can hear the excited chatter of Rito voices. It's another full festival outside with a bonfire and hot beverages and hastily made huts where they'll spend the night. In the morning, most of the crowd will head down to the finish line, where there is seating waiting for them.
There's a sudden, shocked chorus of "Daddy!" and a flurry of pastel feathers as the girls tackle Kass. He barely keeps his feet, sweeping them all into the embrace of his wings. A second later, Amali crashes into them, barrelling into the hug with all the speed she's used over the course of the tournament. This time they do topple over, a cloud of snow puffing around them. She has the whole of her family squeezed tight in her wings, and she's laughing and cooing and crying, and the girls are giggling, and Kass has the softest look on his face. They're a riot of color and squeals, and Zelda smiles to herself as she makes her exit.
She barely gets a breath in when she reforms at the shrine in Rito Village before Link hooks a hand around the back of her neck and hauls her into a kiss. She almost laughs at his enthusiasm, because of course he would take advantage of the empty village and the chance to be close without getting fruit thrown at them. But something about the kiss stops her—the urgency, the pressure, the way it emanates more from his jaw than from his breath. His lips are unyielding. He reaches up to place a hand on her shoulder, as if he's not quite sure what to do with himself. His hands are shaking.
With a sinking feeling, she realizes he might have had reasons other than her safety for sending her warping off to Herba and not paragliding down by herself into a mostly abandoned village. He may have needed a moment alone to collect himself.
"Link?"
He keeps his eyes closed. His brow is furrowed. He shakes his head and kisses her again. It tastes like anguish.
This can't be about confronting Kass. No, this is something else. Something he held in, something he kept bottled up as he lay down the law with his friend. This has to be about Windblight Ganon. Link has been downplaying his dread of the battle for the past week. But why? He beat Windblight Ganon with ease last time. There's something he's not telling her. Something he's keeping to himself because he doesn't think she can handle it.
She soothes her hands over his chest, slides them up to his face, to push him back enough to look at him. "Tell me," she says.
"It's nothing."
"It's not nothing."
He swallows hard and stays silent. His hand is still trembling at the base of her skull.
"I'm here for you," she says, stroking his face. "You can tell me. It'll help."
He takes a deep breath.
"These trials...they give me the equipment that the Champions had."
She blinks. "What?"
"All he had were arrows. Just arrows! He barely had a sword. And he wasn't expecting Windblight Ganon. If I didn't already know what I was in for—"
Comprehension dawns in tandem with horror. "You're reliving their final battles."
He nods in a single jerk. She barely hears him when he says, "They were so unprepared."
He'd seen how Revali died. He'd seen how Daruk, how Mipha died. And, once again, he'd come out alive when they had not.
"Oh, Link."
Her breath comes fast. Her hands are shaking. Is she crying? Oh Goddess, she's crying. She has to keep it together. This isn't about her, it's about him. He gives her so much and asks for so little—he's not even asking for anything now. She has to hold it together for him. Be comforting, be comforting, be comforting.
She throws her arms around him and holds him so tight that it locks the trembling away. He clutches at her back, squeezes her so tight she sees spots. Be comforting, be comforting. He presses his face into her hair so hard that it's like he's trying to hide.
"I'm so sorry," she soothes. "You shouldn't have to go through that."
"It's fine," he says.
He's so full of it. She holds him tighter.