It's an easy walk from Vah Naborus to the obelisk with maps to the next set of trials. One is most likely the Molduking in the East Barrens, and Link guesses that one of them is some kind of race, as all the other trials have had one of those.
The last one is at the Yiga hideout. Link frowns at the map for far too long. When she asks what he thinks, which she must admit is a silly question, he clenches his jaw, shakes his head, and then covers his worries with a grin. "Want to watch me defeat a Molduking?"
She doesn't really, but she does want to see it and get some pictures. He offers her his sand boots, which she slips on under her skirt, and they glide as far as they can toward the stretch of ruins in the desert below, trudging the rest of the way through the sand. After about ten minutes, they make it to a massive rock outcropping, jutting from the desert.
Link helps her climb it, and once on top, they have a view of the ruins. Shockingly enough, they aren't alone on the outcropping. There's a woman next to a camp fire, who gasps and spins around at their approach. Link stiffens a bit, at first making Zelda think the woman is a Yiga in disguise, but then he nods and says in a quiet voice, "Traysi."
The woman narrows her eyes and answers in her own harsh whisper, "What are you doing out here? Who are you?"
"We're here for the Molduking, like you are probably."
Zelda asks, "Do you two know each other?" and they both shush her. She's not sure why they're whispering.
"We've met," he answers, but it's odd for Link to meet someone and them not to remember him. It's odd he didn't answer the question about who they are.
But it all makes sense when he explains, "She writes the Rumor Mill."
Zelda has never heard of that before, but she has enough experience with similar publications that she recognizes its kind anyway. And now Link's hesitancy makes sense. He's trying to preserve what little privacy they've tried to maintain.
Traysi brightens, "Oh, are you a fan?"
He shrugs and adjusts his arm guard, pretending he's not anxious around the rumor monger. It seems to fool Traysi, but Zelda can see the hesitancy in the way he hold his shoulders. "Sure. It's informative, yeah."
She looks smug. "No stealing my scoop," she warns. "Everyone's going to hear about the Molduking from the Rumor Mill. Not from whatever rag you're running."
Link holds up his hands in surrender.
A movement draws Zelda's attention, and she turns. For a moment, she can't tell what she's looking at. The sun is behind it, and it seems as if a great, bulbous column hovers suspended over the sand. But then it starts to fall. It hits the sand, then shudders and buries itself. It takes off at incredible speed, it's wake visible on the sand's surface. It comes closer, then veers off and away to the far edge of the ruins. There, where it's no longer backlit, it leaps once again into the air. It's so massive that Zelda clasps her hands over her mouth. Her eyes are wide, and yet they can't take in the whole beast at once.
How did it throw its bulk so far out of the sand?
When it submerges once more, Link lets out a low whistle. "That's a big one."
Now she understands why they're keeping their voices low.
Traysi turns to them, looking as smug as if she raised the beast from an egg herself. "It's three hundred feet long!"
That... seems inaccurate, and the inaccuracy is enough to shake Zelda out of her shock. When the beast surfaces again, she's ready with the slate. She gets a couple good images and several useless ones that she deletes immediately. She takes a seat on the rocky ground, and is relieved that the sand boots allow her to sit cross-legged.
Link pulls out a couple hydromelons, cutting open the tops and handing one to her so she can drink from it like a very wide cup while she sketches the creature's anatomy in a journal and attempts to get more detailed images of its tail and back legs. Its coloring differs from its smaller relatives. It's paler, as if it's been in hibernation hidden from the sun. Its belly is a mottled red. The ribs between its top fins are wider, bulkier.
Traysi huffs, annoyed that they're also there to learn about the Molduking. She takes a seat on the other side of the outcropping to take her own notes. She keeps shooting dirty looks at them, sticking her nose in the air and sighing loud enough for them to hear.
Aside from that, the quiet is almost nice. Just the wind and the distant swish of the Molduking moving around. Link seems content to sit in companionable silence and drink his hydromelon.
"How do you think its sensory systems compare to those of the Molduga?" she asks, keeping her voice low and close. "I wonder if it still uses a combination of hearing and pressure receptors. In which case, with its larger organs, its senses are likely far more acute."
"You want to run some tests?" he teases, reaching out a hand for the slate.
She's not sure she is ready. Not ready to end her observations (which will surely end shortly after Link engages the beast). Not ready to let Link throw himself into such obvious danger.
But when will she ever be ready for either of those?
She hands him the slate, and Link pushes himself to standing. "Any way I could get my boots back too?"
Traysi shows far too much interest in Link as he changes pants, and (much to her own dismay) Zelda ends up glaring at her until Traysi feigns innocence. What? She wasn't doing anything. Zelda's the weird one.
Link pulls Zelda in to kiss her, and when he pulls back, his smile is blinding enough to dry up her fears.
"Be safe," she whispers.
He uses Revali's gale (much to Traysi's spluttering annoyance), and glides out to a column a fair distance away. He throws a bomb onto the sand and it rolls for perhaps a half second before the Molduking changes course.
"What is he doing?" Traysi hisses.
"He's a monster hunter. He's going to take care of the Molduking."
"What?! No! This is my scoop!"
The Molduking launches itself into the sky and swallows the bomb whole. When the bomb goes off, its deep howl of pain rolls over them like thunder. The beast crashes to the sand, and Link is on it, whaling on it as if it were a talis that wronged him. As the beast begins to wriggle, working it's way back into the sand, the sky flashes with lightning and the beast cries out again. Link runs to the nearest column, his arms pumping, sand flying up behind him. But the beast has righted itself. It shudders under the sand and takes off. Too quickly.
Link is half way up the column when the Molduking slams into it, and Link goes flying into the air. Hurled like a rag doll. Launched like a cannon. He flies unnaturally hard, and lands just as hard as expected.
Zelda screams. She's on her feet. His body hits the sand and tumbles. The Molduking charges toward him, throwing up sand to obscure her view. His body seems to glow green for a moment.
She has to get to Link. Get to Link, warp away. Get to Link, warp away. She pops out her paraglider.
The rind of her hydromelon has rolled from her lap. It falls off the rock. Bounces against the sand.
The Molduking skids to a stop in its flight toward Link, and changes course
For a split second, Zelda is weak and cold with relief. She can get to him. She can reach him.
Until she realizes the Molduking is now headed straight for her.
Traysi curses and scurries backwards, backing against a higher outcropping behind them, bracing against the rock.
But Zelda holds her ground.
Let the beast come. She's faced worse. She tucks the paraglider away and slips her bow from her back. The beast hurt Link, and if the only way to him is through the monster, then she'll go through the monster.
She's going to kill the Molduking.
The power of the Goddess builds in her chest, expanding outward, swelling so much it's hard to swallow. The power rolls down her arms. She feels as if her eyes are glowing, as if her hair is lifting. She pulls back her bow and aims for the wave of sand rushing toward her. Gold light curls down the arrow like the swirling, misty power from the Sheikah relics.
When the monster surfaces, snapping the hydromelon out of the air, Zelda's arrow rips through its side below its front arm. The arrow hits so hard that the monster is blown backwards. It hits so hard that a golden boom of power rips out from the impact, whipping back her hair, throwing a wae of sand at the rock. The Molduking crashes through four stone columns and hits the sand so hard that there's a second boom, a rumble through the ground. Electricity dances over its body, rolling and rolling like a thunderstorm. It twitches and groans.
Zelda may have used a shock arrow. She's not sure.
She draws another one, ready to hit it again, when suddenly there's a change to the timbre of its moans, suddenly it jerks as if squirming away from something. And there's Link, back on his feet beside the creature, beating a great thunder blade against the creature's belly. A final burst of lightning, and the creature's back arches, its spine curling like a bow, high into the air. It vanishes in a puff of smoke, and treasures from the beast's belly rain down onto the sand.
Traysi is shouting, "You killed it!" And Zelda is popping open her paraglider and throwing herself towards Link. The power of the Goddess propels her through the air.
She hits the ground hard and stumbles the last few yards, scurrying through the sand to reach him as he rushes towards her and shouts, "Are you okay?! You screamed. It was coming for you."
They crash against each other. He grabs her by the elbows to steady her but pulls away as if he's scared to touch her. She takes his face in her hands to check him for damage. "I thought you were dead! Are you alright?!"
He carefully runs his hands down her arms, which glow and twitch as if she was the one who was electrocuted. "You're glowing. Zel, did you make that explosion?"
Instead of answering, she checks over his neck and shoulders and chest in desperation. He winces when she reaches his sides, already a deep purple on the left. "You're hurt!"
"It's just my ribs. Nothing a fairy tonic can't handle. Zelda, what did you do?"
The power of the Goddess sloughs off her, so when she presses her hand to his ribs, his skin glows instantly. He sucks in a breath, then grabs her hand with his own as if steadying himself. She closes her eyes and sinks into the feeling, the reassurance that he's alright, he's going to be alright, even as the image of him flying through the air plays again and again across her closed eyelids. She can hear the sound of him hitting the sand in her memories, even though there's no way she actually heard it. She thought he was dead. She was sure he was dead.
He's breathing easier when she checks him again. The bruising is gone, and his side is the right shape again. Her hands are back on his face, checking his eyes, which still look dismayed bordering. She doesn't care.
"What did you hit it with?" he asks.
"A shock arrow."
"A shock—What?!"
"A shock arrow powered by the Goddess."
"That—Zelda!"
"Yes, fine! I disrupted your trial. I don't care. It threw you! I thought you were dead!"
"If you'd finished it off, the shrine might not have popped up."
"You don't know that. I finished off some of the guardians in Zora's Domain. And what if it had finished you off? Would the shrine have popped up then?"
"You shouldn't have got its attention. What if it had thrown you?"
"Don't lecture me on what's dangerous."
"Don't put yourself in danger for no reason."
"No reason!"
"Yeah, It was just a big sand monster. Your Goddess powers were overkill."
"It hurt you!"
"I'm fine! I have five fairies on me and Mipha's Grace and—"
"Mipha's Grace?!"
Taken aback by the sudden, renewed strength of her glowing, he blinks and then realizes his mistake. "I…shouldn't have told you that."
"It killed you!" She grabs her hair, glowing so brightly now that Link winces. "It killed you! I can't believe you let it kill you!"
"Whoa, I didn't let it kill me."
She holds her head with both hands, shaking too badly now to answer.
"Zelda, it's my job to kill monsters. It's what I'm good at."
"You just died!"
"Fine. You can just go kill the rest of the monsters since you're so good at it."
"And you can go get yourself killed, since you're so good at that."
She glares at him, her fear and anger and the power of the Goddess rolling through her body, thrashing for release. She wants to shove him. She wants to scream at him.
"Is angry kissing a thing?" he asks. "Because that could be a thing."
She grabs the leather strap of his baldric in a fist and yanks him to her. She wants him to feel her anger, wants him to taste it, wants the boiling emotions to burn from her mouth into his and sear down his throat to his heart.
It's not him she's mad at. Not really. She's mad at the monster, and the monster is gone, and now her anger is directionless, pouring off her in an oppressive haze of magic.
She kisses him, all heat and force, her mouth too wide over his and her head tilted too far back. Her fingers dig into his waist, pulling him so tight against her that all the buckles on his belts bite into her skin, so tight that her hand is trapped where it's wrapped around his baldric between them, her hand all hard knuckles and sharp nails digging into her sternum. She pulls back only enough to breathe hotly against his mouth. "It threw you, and I saw you land, and it was coming for you again, and I couldn't…I couldn't control…"
"You screamed," he says. "When I close my eyes, I hear you scream. I see it coming for you. It's like the Calamity is coming for you. I had to get to you."
She tugs him down for another kiss.
He wraps his arms more fully around her, more of an embrace than the clutching grasp she has on him. She tries to let her muscles relax, to let some of the power drip off her into the sand.
"Mipha's Grace," she mutters.
"It's useful."
"Don't tell me that."
The struggling sound of someone running on sand eases them apart, although only so far as they can both face Traysi and not be crushed against each other. Traysi huffs up to them, doubles over to plant her hands on her knees, and catches her breath. "That...was amazing! Who are you? What did you shoot at it? How often have you done this?" She pulls out her little notebook and straightens herself. "Let me have an exclusive interview. I'll make you famous. Monster hunter couple defeats Molduking in epic, magic battle in the desert!"
"Thanks," Link says, "but we'd rather not."
Zelda can't hold still, she flicks the fingers of the hand not wrapped around Link's waist, watching as golden drops of magic sprays from her fingers.
"Don't be ridiculous! People would pay good money to have you come kill monster for them. This could be the start of a whole new career for you."
Zelda steps back on the pretense of collecting the weapons and treasure chests the Molduking swallowed over the centuries. She tries not the think about where the spears and swords must have come from.
"We don't do it for the money," Link says.
"Then why do you do it? For the thrill? Hey," Traysi calls, "what was that arrow you shot it with?"
Any answer Zelda gives is going to be biting and possibly accompanied by a blast of golden light that shoots from her face and lights the reporter on fire, so it's probably for the best that she not speak. She hands Link the swords and spears she's collected, and he sorts through them, tossing a spear back to the ground, and handing her a scimitar that feels a decent weight in her hands. The light of the Goddess twists up the handle into the blade, and she tucks it into her belt before the magic can really take hold of it.
"It was nice seeing you," Link says, giving Traysi a friendly half-smile and herding Zelda towards the shrine that has arisen out of the rock. Maybe he's trying to get her somewhere secluded before she turns into a puddle of magic.
"Wait, you're leaving? You're just leaving? At least tell me your names!"
Link doesn't even turn, he just lifts his free hand in a wave and shouts, "Have a great day!"
#
Zelda may never get over the shrine. She gets so worked up that her fingers twitch and the glow lighting her chest starts to make a high-pitched humming noise and she talks more quickly than she has ever talked before, until Link actually looks frightened. He guides her backwards from the puzzle and has her look him in the eyes until she's calmed down a bit.
But the shrine is amazing. There's a green, glowing device like a pylon that stores electricity, and that electric current can be directed through wires built into the floor and walls, through water and through metal blocks. The electricity powers doors and walkways. Think of how they could use it in elevators or water pumps or heating systems or vehicles of transportation! When the shock of discovery fades, she finds herself completely absorbed. Focusing her roiling emotions on a single task lets the power of the Goddess ease from beneath her skin. Her mind clears.
After his flare of adrenaline and anxiety, Link's voice tightens as he tells her to stay back from the water, and she snaps at him that he has no business telling her to be safe. He relaxes as he sees that she (unlike him) utilizes precaution. She uses the magnesis rune to safely move the conductive metal, keeping everything at a distance, and she takes her time as she works. She writes and babbles at him about ways the electricity might be generated by the pylons, and when she looks up, Link is smiling wistfully at her. It reminds her that she's grumpy with him, and she narrows her eyes and cuts herself off mid-sentence. He died and thinks that's fine. For some unfathomable, enraging reason, her glares just make his smiles more dopey.
He does not get it, and she is going to be mildly angry at him forever.
It's unfortunate, because the shrine is full of wonders, and she would much rather feel awe and glee than whatever Link is making her feel.
They spend far more time in the shrine than they were expecting, because Zelda has to try a dozen things and take copious notes. She must return soon to do more research. How far can the electricity reach through water? Are ice pillars conductors? Can she build her own wires? And most pressing of all: can she reconstruct a pylon?
Then Link says—as if it's not an earth-shattering revelation—that probably all the shrines in the desert are electric themed.
Traysi has given up by the time they return to the surface, and Zelda is back to being her normal self (although slightly more agitated than usual and much more irritated than usual with Link in particular).
Standing in the dry heat of the afternoon, in the peaceful quiet of the desert, he slips an arm around her waist to warp, but pauses before touching the shrine near Gerudo Town. "We make a good team," he says. "Taking out that sand monster."
"Or a terrible team considering how panicked we are over one another. And I'm not doing another one."
"I bet you could take out one of the smaller ones with one shot."
"Only if I tap into the Goddess' powers."
"Yeah." He pauses. "Have you thought about learning to harness it?"
"What?"
"Like, using your powers on command, and not just when you're upset."
She shakes her head. "They aren't my powers. They're the Goddess's."
He frowns like he doesn't believe that. Then nods his acceptance and kisses her forehead before warping them away. Almost as if he understands how terrifying it is to think about what she could do with the power and how epically she could fail.
