Chapter 47

Shadow

Zelda's PoV

I look over to my shoulder to see Shadow slowly padding along before stopping every few seconds and looking back toward his master's home. It appears he's unsure whether to come along or not. I slow Starlett to a walk as I think, wondering if agreeing to take him was the right decision. If the wolf is this hesitant about leaving, I worry about how Lawrence is handling this. The man did shed quite a few tears as he said his goodbyes. But I know he was serious about giving his wolf to us, as hard as it must have been.

I must have some sort of look on my face, because Link stops Epona in front of me and asks what I'm thinking about.

"I just keep recalling the sight of the two of them back there. I keep hearing that sad howl over and over in my head. He's hardly following us back there."

Link looks down the hill behind me before answering. "I think he just needs a moment."

"Was it right to take him?"

"I think Lawrence meant everything he said to you before we left."

We continue along and eventually Shadow comes sprinting past us up the grassy road. He turns around and pads back to us with his tongue lolling out, tail wagging. When he nears my horse, Starlett snorts and stomps her hooves. I soothe her as Shadow takes the hint and backs off.

"Hey, it's alright. He's not going to bother you." I say, rubbing her neck. I know without a doubt that it's true. He hasn't made a single move toward our horses since he first showed up and stayed with us a few days ago.

The five of us continue along and at the top of the mountain we've been ascending, a single tree sits growing out of a small pond of water. Up in the branches is one of the coolest treehouses I've seen yet. Once again I'm taken off guard as Shadow plunges into the water, rolling over and jumping around. No matter how many moments I see him act like a regular, domestic dog, I can't stop finding it interesting. I don't know how wild wolves usually act, but I'm sure it's absolutely nothing like he does. While we were at Lawrence's house, I asked him if he and his wife ever had other dogs around the house. He said no, which certainly dumbfounded me more.

We dismount our horses and I stretch my arms above my head as I look up at the treehouse.

"I'm going up there."

"Alright." Link answers as he digs through one of his saddlebags for something.

I climb the stairs swooping around the tree and open up the door. Inside there is a table across the small room, a few hooks connected to the right and left walls and a thick, old rug in the center of the floor. I look up and see there is a large window taking up half the roof. I can see right up to the blue sky through two split off sections of tree trunk just above it. The two other windows in here are covered by leaf print curtains. All in allit'sa nice little treehouse. I wonder how many people have stopped here over the years for a rest.

I walk outside and back down the stairs. Shadow jogs over to me before shaking the water from his fur, spraying me with a billion little droplets. I gasp before I laugh at his lopsided canine grin, bending down to pet him.

"You seem a lot cheerier, buddy." I say rubbing his ears like I've learned he likes. Shadow makes the most content face I've ever seen an animal make.

"Hey Zel, you hungry?" Link calls over to me.

"Yeah. I'm starving."

"I'll be back in a bit. I'm craving some good heron stir-fry."

My mouth waters at the mention of that. "Looking forward to it." I tell him with a grin.

I wander around the area as Link walks off with his bow in hunter mode. When I get across the mountainside we're on, my jaw drops as I realize where we are. I guess I really was in my head, as I totally didn't notice the huge, white rock pillars risingup from Skull Lake. I walk along the edge of the outcropping that surrounds the natural phenomenon gazing down. Shadow follows along with me sniffing along the ground. I wonder just what he might be smelling that I can't.

"Wish we could stand at the top of the tallest pillar. Wouldn't that be cool?" I say stopping and staring up at it. I notice something shining up there and squint in the sun. "No way...Shadow, I think there's a goddess shrine way up there!"

A get a bark in response as I point excitedly. I'm not expecting an answer and it makes me giggle. I sit down with my legs hanging off the mountainside and lean back on my hands. Shadow lays next to me with his head on his paws. I pet him as we relax, that content feeling coming over me.

"I'm so glad you decided to join us. To be honest, I think I needed another set of ears to listen to my rambles." I joke after a while.

"Getting tired of me?" Link says and I jump, not expecting his answer. I look over my shoulder to see him with his signature smirk.

"Of course not. It's just nice to have another companion is all. You weren't gone long."

"My stomach was impatient. Hope pigeon is acceptable. I wasn't lucky enough to find a heron nearby."

"It's acceptable." I say, then giggle as that word brings up a certain memory of the day we started traveling together. I smile recalling us taking turns changing out of our wet clothes in that old cabin after getting caught in that rainstorm. So much has changed since then, both between us and otherwise. I'm not the same person I was back then and honestly, I'm glad for that personal growth.

I stand up and we walk back over to our things. Link already has our portable cooking pot set up and warming. I chop up the potatoes, carrots, and fresh hyrule herb we keep a small stock of as he prepares the pigeon and adds it to the pot first. We follow the instructions from my Zora's Domain cookbook for a similar recipe and create a thick gravy to add.

"I really enjoy cooking with you." I tell him.

"Same. Sharing every meal is one of my favorite benefits of having you with me every day."

"I think I'm rubbing off on you with my vocabulary. You occasionally sound much more sophisticated when you speak."

"Ouch. Is that to mean you used to think I was illiterate?"

"Nah. I'm just messing with you." I say leaning over and kissing his cheek as I stir our lunch around. Link wraps his arm around my waist and puts his hand on my cheek before kissing me. I rest the wooden spoon in the pot before us and wrap my arms around him.

"You're my favorite person in the world, Link." I say when we break.

"You're mine too, Zel."

Our next kiss is interrupted by Shadow rubbing his head against ours. He licks my cheek and we both laugh.

"Guess someone's jealous." I say, turning and hugging his big head and giving him an audible smooch between his ears. We share our meal, which is more delicious than I'm hoping, before I give the cooled down pot to Shadow, who licks it sparkling clean.

xxx

Link's PoV

While I sit in the grass Zelda takes the Sheikah Slate out of her backpack before holding it up before her. She tells me to smile so I do and then hear the resounding click that sounds upon taking a photograph. Shadow comes over from the pond beneath the treehouse and sits in front of me. But for once, it's not Zelda's attention he appears to want as he stares at me with his tongue lolled out. As I give him some petting Zelda asks me to give him a hug, still pointing the back of the slate my way. I oblige to her command and another click later she giggles and turns the screen my way.

"Shadow is so cute and goddess, you are so handsome!" She exclaims smiling ear to ear, blinking her big viridian eyes at me. I gaze at my own face with our wolf's next to it.

"Coming from Hyrule's most gorgeous woman." I respond and she crosses the few feet between us on her hands and knees before kissing my lips.

"You know, if any other guy said that to me I would deny it. But you make me feel that pretty." She says sitting back.

"Good." I say taking the slate from her hands and holding it up. "Smile."

Zelda gives me grin and I snap one of her. Her golden locks, which rest loose over her shoulders at the current moment, seem to glow around her face bringing out the green in her eyes. It makes for a nice natural special effect when I take the picture. I press 'save' and the screen changes back to 'capture' mode again before I hand it back.

"Ooh! I should get a shot of Skull Lake from up here." Zelda says standing up and jogging off in that direction without waiting for me. Shadow chases after her, passing her up and running a circle around her before padding along by her side. I lay back in the grass and starethe clear blue sky of white fluffy clouds. A flock of seagulls appear in the sky thirty feet above me then, coming up from the ocean and I bite my cheek hoping none of them decide to take a well aimed shit on me. I let out a breath when they pass by and beyond to my left instead before I get up.

It's quite a walk before I catch up with Zelda as she has decided to walk around the perimeter of the lake for her photograph. I take my time walking over, checking out our surroundings. Past the grassy hill we're currently on the landscape takes a dramatic change. Up here the ground turns more rock than grass and further north leads to more barren area. When I'm able to see her again, Zelda's standing precariously close to the cliffside as she holds the slate out for her next photo. A second later she brings her arms back in, nods to herself and speaks aloud. "There we go Shadow. I finally got a photo that shows everything!" She says before backing up and kneeling down to show him. The wolf bumps the slate with his nose and her face changes to a comical expression as she scrambles not to drop it.

"Be careful! I don't want to drop this into the lake!" She exclaims.

"Almost lost the Sheikah Slate there." I comment and she jumps, startled by my words.

"No kidding. I just got the best picture too." She says before showing me.

"Great shot. We know quite a few people would enjoy seeing this."

"It's so cool you can see the shape from up here. I thought that sounded crazy but it's true!" Zelda says looking down into Skull Lake. "Ooh..You know what would be fun? Floating all the way down there with our paragliders."

I raise my eyebrows at her upon hearing that.

"I want to be surprised you would dare such a jump, but I'm not. You're a lot braver than you were when we first met."

"Thanks. And that's because paragliding feels like flying, not falling." Zelda says, gazing down at the lake again.

"I think our horses will be fine for a few hours if you're serious about it. We can leave them over by the tree house at the top of the hill." I say pointing behind us.

"They'll be safe there?" She asks with concern.

"I'm sure they will. They'll have shelter if it rains, though I don't think it's going to."

"Alright. Let's go get our paragliders!"

We bring our stuff up into the tree house before we head back over to the cliff. We decide to walk to the other side of the lake, since on the side with the tree house we would need to avoid the taller of the two giant pillars in the center. This way gives us a much clearer path to descend.

Our wolf sits watching us as we stand there getting ready. Zelda looks at him over her shoulder.

"Shadow, will you wait for us here?" She asks. He barks in response before rubbing his muzzle against her leg.

Knowing how far down the drop is below us, I feela little bit of trepidation. When I look at Zelda she gives me a grin and a thumbs up. I recall how she was too afraid to jump off Hylia Bridge when we went swimming there, but now as we stand over a two hundred foot drop she seems fearless. I have to wonder if she's always had an inner daredevil side, as looking down I'm honestly kinda unsure about doing this.

But there's no way I'm going to cucco out in front of her.

Zelda insists we count to three before jumping together, so she starts off the countdown. At the end she cheers "Jump!" and then we both run forward and take the leap.

Zelda screams a little before our paragliders almost simultaneously catch air and dramatically reduce our descent. I'm so busy watching her that I forget to be afraid, or to be ready for the jerking motion that my hands slip right off the handles. Thank Hylia that our paragliders are also equipped with straps that serve as body holsters...though the lake below probably would also have saved my life just now.

"You good there?" Zelda calls to me.

"Yeah. You?"

"I'm amazing! This is better than I thought it'd be!"

"Same."

It takes us a long time to near the bottom. When we are about fifty feet from the water I tell Zelda to try to steer her glider toward the rock land around the lake.

"What if I can't make it? I'm probably going to land in the water."

"You can do it." I tell her giving her two thumbs up.

"Okay."

As she makes it to solid ground I'm not paying attention to my landing and I come up a few feet short and plunge into the water. Zelda laughs as she unhooks herself from her glider. She reaches her hand to help me out and I take it, laughing myself.

"Too worried about me making it dry and safe?"

"Kind of." I say as I stand there soaking wet.

"That was so exhilarating! I think my new favorite thing to do is paraglide."

"It's definitely up there on my list. You know, it's hard to believe you used to be so afraid of heights. You didn't even hesitate jumping."

"I guess I got over it." She says with a shrug.

"I'm glad you did."

We fold up our gliders and attach them to our weapon belts. "It's a long walk back."

"I knew what I was getting myself into. I just hope we get back before dark." Zelda says looking wary.

"Don't worry. I'm with you." I tell her putting my hand on her shoulder and she nods, the anxiety leaving her face.

We leave the canyon of Skull Lake and make our way through the tunnel of waist high grass. Halfway along I see something moving toward up ahead and draw my sword from my back. But a moment later I sheath it when I see what's actually coming. Zelda lets out a gasp as she sees Shadow bounding toward us. He slows runs a large circle around us before stopping and sitting down.

"I didn't expect that you would follow us down here! And get here so quick!" Zelda exclaims, talking to the wolf.

"Honestly Zel, I'm not shocked thathefollowed us down here. This wolf seriously likes you. I might have some competition." I joke.

"You should watch out. He's also so sweet and adorable."

I bite my lip thinking better than responding to her offhanded compliment. I'm not sure what to think about being called adorable, as nobody I've ever met has called me that, but I know now that I don't really like it. Bringing it up would only make her tease me with the word, so it's better I keep my mouth shut.

Xxx

It's quite the hike once we get back out into the Akkala Grasslands. Once we are on flat land again we stop for a break. Zelda takes a chug from her water bottle before handing it over to me. She pulls two apples from her backpack and tosses one my way. I don't get the chance to catch it before Shadow leaps forward and snatches it out of the air as if it's a ball.

"Guess that one's his." Zelda says laughing as our wolf chomps it and swallows in just a few chews.

We sit down and share the last of the deer jerky we bought yesterday from a traveling merchant. We have to defend that from our new companion as well, who tries to snatch it from our hands until Zelda firmly tells him to lie down. She rewards him with a small piece when he instantly obeys.

"I've never had even had a dog and now I have a wolf. My family would definitely freak if I wrote them saying "Guess what? I have a pet wolf now."

"If we showed up in Kakariko without warning anyone, they'd likely kill him on sight."

"Good thing everyone will be learning about him long before we return. I'm gonna write while we rest." Zelda says, pulling her writing materials from her backpack.

"Now?"

"Why not? Here. Perfect time for you to write Aryll as well."

I take the paper and pen she's holding out to me with a sigh. "I already wrote her a letter this week, you know."

"So what? You can never write too many letters to friends and family. Besides, you have plenty of new stuff to say."

"Alright..."

I sit there for a while thinking about what to say. I always have a hard time writing letters, much unlike Zelda who seems to scribble on forever with almost every letter she transcribes.

Dear bratty little sister, I won another archery contest. The first place prize was another bow, which I gave to Zelda since hers got broken. We have a new companion on the road. His name is Shadow and he walks on four paws and he saved Zelda's life. You'd probably run from him. We just jumped off the cliff at Skull Lake with our paragliders. That was scaredy cat Zelda's idea. Well, I guess I can't call her that, she's much braver than when I met her. When are you leaving for Rito Village?

"Done." I say, tossing the paper and pen beside me and laying back in the grass, arms behind my head.

"Already? Did you even write anything?"

"Yep."

Zelda picks up my letter and reads it. Her brows lower and she shakes her head before speaking.

"You suck at writing letters. You left out all of the details. You didn't even say Shadow is a wolf or how my bow got broken."

"I'm not really a writer Zel. Feel free to add whatever you'd like to it."

"No wonder Aryll said you're hopeless."

"Just at letters. I'm spectacular at everything else."

Zelda laughs dryly before continuing to write. "Not everything."

xxx

By the time we get back up the mountain above Skull Lake, it's late evening and sun has almost disappeared on the horizon. We're both exhausted as we check on our horses before climbing up the steps and entering the treehouse.

Zelda points out the hooks on the walls that will work perfectly for hanging hammocks. We work together putting one up before changing into our night clothes. Zelda crawls in after me and we lay there looking up at the sky through the window stretched across the ceiling. Zelda brings up a random fact as I stare at the moon.

"I saved Shadow the other day outside Tarrey town."

"Looks like your debt is repaid."

"Yes. But, I've yet to repay yours." She says, looking at me, the moonlight lighting up her face.

I shake my head and take her hand. "You've saved me many times, many ways since I met you. You've overpaid me back, Zel."

"I'm glad." She replies softly and I can feel the warmth of her smile on me even though I can't fully make out the features of her face in the dark.

A few minutes later I notice something up among the clouds that takes me by surprise.

"Dinrall is up there flying tonight."

"Really?! Where?"

"He's right up by Hylia's Harp."

"Oh! I see him!" She says pointing excitedly.

"Hopefully we'll get to see him closer someday. I hear he flies low through the Tabantha region."

"I hope so."

We watch until the dragon disappears from view then get comfortable again in the hammock. Like I'm expecting, Zelda falls asleep first. She mumbles something loud and unintelligible and I wonder what she's dreaming. I lay there with her in my arms for a long time, gazing up at the night sky until I eventually drift off myself.